Being a part of the Blog Azeroth forums is great and many have decided to try something a bit different, Shared Topics. Someone in the forums will suggest a topic and the results will be many blogs in the WoW community will post their thoughts, answers and experiences of the said topic..

   So let’s start Shared Topic #1
What do you enjoy about your Rogue?

   My Main is a Rogue, being the secret, quiet one of the bunch, helps when I need that extra helping hand, specially when soloing. I get so use to stealthing past baddies on some of the harder quest, while I watch others try their hardest to fight their way up a stair way or through a cave to get to the quest item. Why wouldn’t you love to stealth past the mobs, kill the “quest boss” and move on with your leveling? Lets not stop there, we have poisons to slowly injure or slow down our opponents, back stabs and special skill that on some of the beast, they just never saw it coming. So why do I love playing a Rogue, I’m sneaky.. the complete opposite of me in RL. It’s a get away, a fairy tail, I can be partialy evil with out being Evil.. (boo Horde )

   I would guess many of the reasons I love playing a rogue are many of the same reasons people hate the rogues when they come up against us in PVP or in BGs. Now you see me, now you don’t!

   I’ve been level 60 now for about a week, mostly because I haven’t had the chance for any extended play but one thing I have noticed is my XP slow down. Being fairly new to the game, I was in my low 20’s when patch 2.3 came out, this is the patch that made leveling much quicker, but I forgot, it was only for levels 20-60. Now that I’ve hit 60 I can see just how much of a difference it’s made. There were a couple of Saturdays where I would ding 2 levels in one day, even in my 40’s and 50’s.

   Right now I writing this post from a cabin in the NC Mountains, where my Wife and I are spending the weekend, so that’s another reason I’m still at 60, but it’s a good reason, because remember if momma’s happy, we get to play WoW more jokin..

   I should be back into the swing of things by Tuesday and I’m hoping to hit 62 by Wednesday.. Ok Friday. Have a good Weekend.

   I was thinking last night, What started me on this long and addictive gaming called MMO’s and I began to remember my first MMO. **ScoobyDo dream sequence** The year is 1996, just a year before I had started working at an Internet Provider because after getting my first internet bill of 130.00 I know I had to some how get it for free instead of paying by the hour, yes back then you paid for internet by the hour. I had been messing around with MUD’s (Multi-User Dungeon) but they were only text, I started to hear about a graphical MUD coming out by Sierra On-Line called The Realm. Why not I’ll try it, so I sign up and like World of Warcraft there was a fee to play. This was also the first time I ever used a credit card online and also the first (and only) time my credit card # was stolen (had to be someone at Sierra). I’m not sure how long I played but I do remember on holidays GM’s would just drop items around the world. On easter we found eggs, Christmas there were presents, just like winter vail. Oh and they had player housing also (Hint WoW) you had a chest in your house to store things and (if I remember correctly) you could stand complete suits of armor and prize trophies in your room. Here are a couple other images I found online of the game.

   When hitting 60, it seems the only thing I could think of is getting my faster mount, At about level 50, I figured it was going to be around 600 Gold so I started saving. I would be at about 700G, buy some gear, food and things off the AH, but always kept my gold around 550+. So the day comes, I ding 60, YES time for my mount, Zone home, Fly to SW and make the run to the trainer. All the while broadcasting in guild chat that I had finally hit 60, I’m getting my mount.

   The trainer and I happen to be friends, she works for someone I’ve done some quest for and my rep helped also, so my total for training and the horse come to 595G, yes! I have 598G, I buy my mount and I’m happily on my way, riding around, faster than light (well faster than my other mount I named Light). Once I get tired of riding around, I figure what’s next, I’m 60!! oh yeah, skill training, I visit the rogue trainer and I guess he’s not really my friend, because for some reason he will not train me… What? Skill Training cost gold? I had totally forgotten, you get so use to just going up, clicking on all the training and not thinking that it’s taking your gold as you train.

   Fine, I’ll sell stuff on AH, go to the bank, pull out a ton of junk that’s been sitting in there.. I’m sure you see where this is going.. What? Gold to sell stuff on AH.. HELP!!! After many many laughs at the noob on Guild chat, a fellow guildie loaned me 100G to help me along.. I felt sooo stupid! (specially after writing about how can 70’s not have gold)It hasn’t taken long to remake that 100g but I may wait another week to repay him, I want to get a nice nest egg set before giving it back (which he said I didn’t have to but I will, even if it just goes in the guild bank). I guess this could be counted as Noobie Example #2 (see Noobie Example #1)

   Now that I’m level 60 I’m starting to get to the levels where I can share in some of the things that my guildies do. Sunday afternoon in guild chat, someone says they are going to do a Zul’Gurub run for the fun of it and asked if anyone wanted to join. Still being use to soloing and usually not being high enough level to join the raid groups I passed on it, till I got a few tells asking if I was coming. OK, I think I can avoid the wife for an hour or so

   I’ve never been in a large raid group and when I say large I mean over 5 people lol, At least 13 of us entered all 70 except 2 of us. At first seeing that many people together was a bit confusing, but as I started to watch people, listed to the raid leader on voice chat and watch some more things started to come to me and Bosses started to fall. Being lower level and a noobie, I did make some mistakes, Pull some aggro and die 3 times but it was all a learning process.

   Since most everyone was level 70 all needs went to myself and one other, then everyone else could greed… and let me say the drops were good for a rogue. With a couple hours and a little help from my friends I walked out of Zul’Gurub with [Warblade of the Hakkari] , [Seal of Jin] , [Mandokir’s Sting] , [Arlokk’s Grasp] , [Heart of Hakkar] , [Primal Hakkari Armsplint] , [Primal Hakkari Girdle] , a couple nice rings and with turning in quest got Epic shoulders and bracers. I would have to say it was a good run, I know they don’t ever work out that way but I’m glad it did this one time.. Check me out at the WoW Armory

   It’s the same o’story, you’re about to hit that milestone that is 40, 50 or 60, you can’t wait, you’ll be getting a new mount, better equ and new skills. You work for days grinding and finding those quest you’ve missed and it finally happens, DING! you’re there.. You fly back to town, get your mount or what ever new toy is at that level, find the trainer and see if you get a new skill not just an upgrade to your old ones, hit AH and find those new purples you’ve been eyeing and then… You realize, you’re back at zero.

   These are the times that I start to slow down a bit, you realize you now have to do it all over again, move to a new area, grab 20 yellow !’s and start questing. Seeing those new areas does keep it new and exciting but also not knowing the area and where all the baddies that will kill you are hiding makes for a little slower progression also. BUT, you do have that new gear you just picked up at the AH and need to build your skill in what ever weapon you have. By looking at smaller goals to overcome and not the 10 levels you see still ahead (before you do it again) it will be no time untill you’re at 49, 59 or even looking 70 in the eye

   Being able to look into Outland was great and all but walking around can get a bet hazardous to my health, so it was back to the pre-BC world for 2 more levels. For the last 2 nights I’ve slowly moved closer and closer to level 60. Finishing off a couple quest in Winterspring that gave me over 11K of XP each helped and then some random killing have taken me to level 59 with 33% to go.

   One thing I need to sit down and do is clear out any old quest i’ve done and get rid of any old quest materials I have in my bag. I’ve wondered why I feel like I can’t carry very much, So checking my bag I see I have about 20 slots taken but quest objects, So time for spring cleaning.

   Using ArkInventory Found here you can split your bag into different sections, then with a quick glance of your bag, you know exactly what you have. I’ve split my bags into sections that show just food, soulbound objects, items for trade skills, mounts and then a large open section for what’s left, usually things to sell on AH. With this system, I no longer search each square finding what i’m looking for, I usually know which section to look into and find things fairly easy.

   I know this just became a addon post and not about me hitting 60 but I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.. oh wait.. doesn’t everyone say “don’t go toward the light!”

   If you ever think you’re going to be close to death for a week, make sure your toon is sitting in an Inn. The last 2 weeks have been tough, usually if I’m sick, I can still sit a couple hours in front of the PC and get some leveling or blogging done, but not this time, spending days at a time on the couch and watching BAD TV is what I’ve been doing. Finally Saturday I was able to login to WoW and was happy to see I had parked my toon in an Inn and now had 61K of bonus XP (Woohoo). Saturday I was able to hit level 56 and 57, then Sunday I hit 58.. Woohoo Outland! I couldn’t wait, I took a small tour of Outland or at least Hellfire Peninsula and then before bed last night a few guildies ran me through Hellfire Ramparts and The Blood Furnace. I now am about 80% into level 58, slowly climbing to 60

   When running through Hellfire Ramparts and Blood Furnace, it seemed all the drops were for hunters and not my Rogue, but the XP was great! This being one of the first instances that I actually helped and wasn’t just run through, I learned alot. I learned of some of the skills I need to work on for my rogue, like lock picking to my level (we had to skip a check because I couldn’t open it). Before heading into an instance, if I have time, read a little on what to expect, I didn’t expect the techs to be dropping mines and also that I could disarm them. This led me to dieing a couple times and almost one complete wipe (mines, me being low pulled 2 mobs, it wasn’t pretty). Other things this run helped on was learning how the group works together, from the symbols of who to attack first to just watching what others are doing instead of just yourself (this is huge and a hard thing to learn, it took probably 3/4 of the night till a couple light bulbs came on and I started watching who and what the leader was doing, where others are standing and really keeping an eye on my health and aggro.)

   All in all the run was great, yes at times I looked like a noob (and am!) I did have the group laughing at my noobness but I learned alot with that first grouping, I’m just glad that I’m with a guild that will run you through things like that, help you with your mistakes, explain things to you but still laugh at you. Thanks Guys..

BigRedKitty is one of the few WoW blogs I read and last week they started a video series on Hunters and the do’s and don’t’s. Just be careful, BRK was very sick while making these videos and now the last 2 days, I’ve been sicker than a BigRedKitty. I’m not saying you can catch something off the blog, just wear gloves

Be back when I feel better..

   Like I had mentioned in another post I started an alt to see some of the different game play. One of the things I wondered is if all the leveling guides out there work. I’m not talking how to get gold, or cheats to the game, just step by step questing guides that you see all over the web. Why would anyone want one of these guides? Well being that I’ve just ran through all these lands, read all the quest and killed all I was going to kill, This time around I don’t care what the quest says or want to follow a story line. I just want to learn to play the new class and get my Alt to the highest level he can.

   I figured the best way to test the quest guides was to try one. So a little research and 35.00 later I have the download of a questing guild in my hands (yes, I could have gotten it for free or others for free, but I wanted to test one of the paid for guides) This guide has quest for level 1-20, 20 – 60 and then 60 – 70.

   Opening the 1-20 guide, the author has grouped together quest that can all be done at once, optimizing your time and has even left out some of the quest that are a waste of time. Telling you exact cords and the names of the quest along with a link to more info for the quest insures that if you get lost or have a question, you’ll always have an answer.
So how do the guides work? Well my hunter is at level 20 now and I’ve played a total of 24 hours.. but I will say at least 3-4 hours was me playing around finding that special pet that noone else has, which means I went out of my way and off the beaten path the quest guide was telling me to do. So with almost 1 level per hour, you be the judge, but I feel that it was well worth my money if all I’m wanting to do is level. Again this isn’t for those wanting to get into the story line, you hardly have time to sit, read and think about the quest, it’s bang bang bang, ding next level.

   What are your thoughts on the level guides?