WoW – 85 of 90 – Death March Continues

Status of my WoW death march to 90: My Hunter is at level 85. I finished the Deepholm zone which was quite enjoyable; it was colorful and weird and gigantic (although strangely devoid of pets to tame). I had just started the Twilight Highlands, which the “Altoholic” addon told me was where I should go next, when I hit 85. It’s not as colorful but I love the way the dwarves go on those little raids to retake their little villages. Major props to Blizzard for improving the “look and feel” of their zones with every expansion.

I’m starting to get bored with leveling my Hunter, though, so of course I’ve broken out some alts. I got out my Mage again and leveled him from 60 to 65 in Burning Crusade dungeons. I was slightly worried that BC dungeons would be more difficult and require some work, but I worried needlessly. So far they are pure tank-and-spank just like the classic dungeons. (Compare and contrast with the normal dungeons in WildStar.)

So about these WoW classes. I remain baffled by them, especially in dungeons. At level 65, the tank is still far out-DPSing every other person in the dungeon, and it doesn’t seem to matter whether the tank is a Warrior, Paladin, or Monk. I guess it makes sense that “doing a lot of damage” is the best way to maintain threat, but still, it’s weird. With my Mage, supposedly a glass cannon class, I consider it a great dungeon run if I out-DPS the healer. I’m still holding out hope that down the line the Mage will turn out to be useful in some other way than opening portals. (I’m kidding. I can also interrupt spell casters.) At least nobody yells at me. Basically as long as you don’t hinder progress, nobody cares what you do in the normal dungeons.

You might be wondering why I don’t do dungeons with my Hunter. Mainly it’s because I don’t like to manage pets in group instances, but it’s also because I am so used to killing quest mobs in less than 2 seconds that I honestly have no idea how to use my class in a prolonged boss fight. That’s one reason I like the Mage: You don’t have to worry about some fleeting resource like Focus or Rage.

Oh, one of the neat things about having a level 84 Hunter is getting to solo old endgame content. I needed a bunch of Runecloth for my mage’s tailoring, so I tore through Blackrock Spire and picked up about 10 stacks of it. (Also Worgen and Spider companion pets.) It’s really amusing to watch big groups of mobs falling down dead within seconds. I also saw a Blizzard post about the Molten Core raid, so I jumped into that and ran through it until I died from not paying enough attention. Didn’t seem that tough to me. Don’t see why you Vanilla raiders had to make such a big deal about it. :)