Friday, January 5, 2007

The slow road to the Grandmarshal's Bow, aka Bullseye. And it's not just 60's.

Arcarius has been getting some amount of attention lately.

Yes, I could sign up for the Battlegrounds with Msaker, Orc Warrior, and join guildmates, play connected via Ventrillo, and basically be a big green lure to lull folks into thinking it's just a dumb Orc (in full rare pvp gear, frostbite and the immoveable object in his hands, lots of +health and +stamina enchants) standing there guarding the flag at the lumbermill. That's not the case. There's a bald dead guy whose got you targeted with cold, freezing critical death. Otherwise, it's just little ol' me. Zug Zug! "Come, pink one. Join the party."

More often than not Arcarius waits 15 minutes to join an Arathi Basin game. Relmstein has already pointed out an idea that now that the horde have become sated with gear (instant access to BG's) they're queuing less and that means even longer waits for the alliance. Arcarius waits 20-30 minutes to join an Alterac Valley game. Msaker continues to have instant access.

Arathi Basin, from Horde p.o.v.: Defend everything with a few, constantly harrass the Alliance with the rest. Win.

Arathi Basin, from Alliance p.o.v.: "Oh Noes! If they take the Stables, they'll only have Trollbane Hall's cemetery to camp." If they don't take the Stables then it's just a HK farming fest around it for everyone. Are they choosing not to take the Stables to prolong the game and rack up HK's against an ever changing Alliance group? Maybe. That's how I'd play it. Honor is harder to come by than marks afterall.

I note a lot more coordination going on, occasionally, on the Horde side. I see very little on the Alliance side. One game, seconds before the gate opened, I call out "Group 1 to the mine, group 2 to the bs, group 3 to the lm. lol." I added the "lol" because we were 5 against 15 Horde and we all rode to the mine. Yay! Late comers took the stables. We held the stables. That we manage pretty well, being 15 of us and all. Taking other nodes, aside from the ill-fated ninja steal that hardly ever last a minute, are rare.

Msaker *is* geared up, as Relmstein suggests he should be. The High Warlord's Poleaxe looks incredible though. I must consider getting back in there.

But Arcarius is still running with the Guttbuster, a level 48 Auction House Blue, for crying out loud. It's a decent gun, still, but it's time for an upgrade. That's where the Bullseye comes in. Wait, let me get that right. Bullseye. Better.

I try to play a couple hours of BG's every single night on Arcarius. I manage, in 2 hours, to get, maybe, 1-2k honor. That's 10-20 days play to get that gun. Hmm, that's not too bad. And then I'll work on the rest of my armor set (helm, boots, then shoulders and chest.) The GM Bow is much faster than the GM Gun or Crossbow. Go figure. Same DPS, 1.8 speed vs. 2.8 speed. I like the feel of speed and am going that route. And they tell me the epic weapon will last me longest in the expansion, then the shoulders and helm. Hmm. If it's not too painful maybe the last two pieces will be the epic versions. (Shiney shoulders. 'nuff said.)

Arcarius' new pet, Bluntobject, a white bear recently tamed in Winterspring, and dinging 59 last night, is coming along. He's tough, resilient, and hits for much more DPS than my 58 cat did. I can't explain it. He occasionally out DPSes me! (Damn Guttbuster. But, then again, why do I want his aggro? He's got more health and armor than me!) While I wait for BG's to pop we kill Dragonkin in the Burning Steppes alongside the botters. I don't complain about the bots because I can kill kill-steal from them if I'm fast (their cat charges, but my bullet is faster, and they help me kill it), and I can definitely skin-steal from them (skin it after they've looted). So much black dragonscale now, from my kills and that from the bots, that I can now send 3 stacks of black scales to Droonda so she can craft herself some fighting gear.

But's it not all about the 60's.

Last night I brought Darbanville out, 33 Priest, and she was joined by my wife's Warlock Zauber, level 31. We added Nachweis, level 26 Warlock, and Negar, a Shaman in the guild, level 32, and we tore the demons of Fel Hill outside of Splintertree new ones all over. The Shaman alone, bubbled, takes out Infernals. Zauber, bubbled, can AoE a pack of Felhounds into charred ruin. Those 2 named Demons we've wound up killing 3 times each in two days. It's laughable how hard our little party was hitting stuff. And party health remained fine the whole while thankyouverymuch.

2 comments:

Tauhid Chappell said...

jw, how long will you plan to use bullseye? I mean, once TBC comes out, im sure *possibly* the gun will be replaced by higher bows/guns.

If so, does that mean all that amount of HK's and honor mark grinds will really be worth it knowing TBC is coming out in 2 weeks?

Kinless said...

Check out http://www.aeigelus.com/ where Aeigelus has got some screen shots from the new 5-mans. He's found a pretty cool Legion Blunderbuss with a unique skin.

This Bullseye I'm after literally has Alliance written all over it. Much like the Warrior's Champion/Commander gear has it's faction written all over it.

I guess I'm collecting it like I collected the outfit from the Festival of Ancestors (Chinese New Year).

And seeing that screen shot, that Bullseye is still a better deal. I want to be somewhat prepared.

And I've got TBC pre-ordered. So it'll have to get released, then shipped to me. I think I'll be a week delayed in entering the Outlands. This'll give me something to do. :)