30.12.10

Feeling Behind the Curve

From a game company’s perspective, December is a great time to release a new game, but for those players who have families and jobs, it’s a terrible time.  Between family obligations, travel, work, a pregnant wife and a nasty bout with the stomach flu, I have had virtually no time to dedicate to getting geared enough to begin raiding.

I have typically been able to squeeze in only one heroic attempt on the nights when I have a chance to play, and I’ve had to cut several attempts short due to real life concerns.  It’s been over a week since I was able to queue for heroics, but I only got my first upgrades from them last night. 

This has me feeling a little bit behind the curve in terms of progress.  Some of the more hardcore people in my guild are beginning to organize the first raids, and we’re short on healers.  I would dearly love to be with my guild when they first step foot into the new raid instances, but frankly I don’t think that’s going to happen, which is very disappointing.

So my goal is to maximize my gearing in the minimal amount of time that I have.  To do this I am going to focus on specific dungeons:  Halls of Origination, Blackrock Caverns and Stonecore.  These are the dungeons with both the most drops for Holy Paladins and the most potential Justice Points with 490, 350 and 280, respectively.  Technically Shadowfang Keep has 350, and a couple of great drops as well, but you’ve gotta draw the line somewhere.  Besides, I still have nightmares from the last time I was in that place.

The biggest downside to this strategy is that I will be foregoing the 70 Valor Points for doing the daily heroic.  However, once I get closer to 340 ilvl (currently I’m at 331) I’ll go back to doing the randoms. 

I hope this post is just a little bit of gear QQ, as it’s probably not as bad as I’m making it out to be.  I am on the cusp of becoming Revered with the Earthen Ring, giving me access to [Peacemaker's Breastplate], and as well I should be able to buy [Legguards of the Gentle] using Justice Points after the next heroic run.  So hopefully I’ll be back on track before too long.

How has your gearing been going?  Are you feeling behind the game in terms of gearing?  Is your guild getting antsy about when raiding is going to start?  Have you come up with a strategy to maximize your own gear progression, or are you just taking it day by day?



2 comments:

  1. I hit L80 2 days before Cataclysm released, and went straight on a mad dash to 85. Until I hit 85, I was feeling rather comfortable that I was "keeping pace" just fine, but now that I'm sitting at end-game, I realize that my professions are all over the place, and I'm definitely feeling a bit panicked to have everything up to snuff by next week.

    Fortunately, my commitments at this time are pretty much on my own timetable, so I can afford to spend more time in WoW than I usually would; however, for adults who don't normally take off during December, it's the worst possible time to release a game.

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  2. lol, my professions are a mess. My paladin has 500 Mining and about 140 Jewelcrafting. Needless to say that I haven't spent much time on those. I'm feeling like there is a marathon JC leveling binge in my future which will mean saying goodbye to a large chunk of that lovely expansion gold.

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