SR Sunday 2/18 Mana Tombs

[Bun-Bun]

I've heard people want to do this, so here's your chance. I'll bring Pavis to bang or Hykim to heal as needed.

Hykim is up to level 64 and is rather better geared now, and if she's the sole healer I'll respec Resto before the run.

Edit: I didn't mention a time, but I assumed a normal 10:00 server start. In any case, I can do it tonight (Friday), Saturday, or Sunday as the group consensus demands. It's just a lot easier to get things going if you put a stake in the ground.:)

Edit Mark II: Since we have rampant enthusiasm for making it earlier, let's try for tonight at about 8:00 server time. I'll try to get on earlier, but I'm betting I won't beat that by much, and I've got to run Hykim by a trainer.

[winkle]

I'm up for it. In fact if we can do it sooner (tonight? tomorrow?) I'd be for that.

[Tal]

I've heard people want to do this, so here's your chance. I'll bring Pavis to bang or Hykim to heal as needed.

Hykim is up to level 64 and is rather better geared now, and if she's the sole healer I'll respec Resto before the run.

Would love to be there but must miss the hot Bun action because of work. Smash the place ded folks!

[Ruvanal]

I can go with Taunshu. I am sure that Sabra would like to go with her mage also.

While I am fine with going earlier than Sunday, Sabra will not likely be available for Friday evening. But she may have some other suggested time.

[Sabra]

I've heard people want to do this, so here's your chance. I'll bring Pavis to bang or Hykim to heal as needed.

Hykim is up to level 64 and is rather better geared now, and if she's the sole healer I'll respec Resto before the run.

Edit: I didn't mention a time, but I assumed a normal 10:00 server start. In any case, I can do it tonight (Friday), Saturday, or Sunday as the group consensus demands. It's just a lot easier to get things going if you put a stake in the ground.:)

Me! Me! With LaMage please. I am anxious to see this place. Tonight would be fine too, as Gabe is working till all hours.

[LochnarITB]

As usual, if I'm on, feel free to give Lochnar a call. You already have a mage for this run, and Lochnar is half a level from cap, so I'll probably be working on getting that last half level done. He does have lots of questing to do yet, too, if anyone is looking for a group. He is currently starting in Blade's Edge (wow, so much more to do and almost 70) and still has all the group quests for Nagrand and the quest that was broken in Terokkar.

[SoapBox] Lochnar is almost 70 and just starting Blade's Edge. Blizzard really screwed up the progression in the expansion. I think they could have slowed leveling quite a bit but it seems they have caved in to the rush so many want to make to 70 to see "end game" because we all know that raiding at 70 is the only thing that matters, right? Sigh...:([/SoapBox]

[Tuftears]

It's actually not a bad thing because then you get huge amounts of gold from the quests at level 70.

[Mirajj]

[SoapBox] Lochnar is almost 70 and just starting Blade's Edge. Blizzard really screwed up the progression in the expansion. I think they could have slowed leveling quite a bit but it seems they have caved in to the rush so many want to make to 70 to see "end game" because we all know that raiding at 70 is the only thing that matters, right? Sigh...:([/SoapBox]

I don't feel that Blizz screwed up progression, but rather they did the same thing in the xpack that they did in classic, but folks are looking at it different. Say you start a night elf, then go through all three of the NE zones. Then go over to dwarf land and go through their starter zones. Then pop over to humanland and go through their starter zones. By the time you are done, you will be overlevelled.

Outlands progression should look something like this. Hellfire, Zangarmarsh. Then you start making choices about where you'd like to go. After Zangar you can go Blades Edge or Terrokar. If you go to Blades Edge, you will likely end up questing through to Netherstorm, where you'll get "lost" and hit 70 because there are so many quests. If you go to Terrokar, you will either end up wandering off on a side track to Nagrand for a bit, or heading off to Shadow Moon Valley. If you are savvy, you can even skip parts of this. I went from Hellfire to a little tour in Zangar to Nagrand, because I love the zone and wanted to get away from the crush of people in HFP/Zangar.

Blizzard gave folks a ton of choice in where/how to level in the xp. They did not, however, make it so that you had to explore/quest the entirety of the Outlands to hit 70, much like you did not have to explore the entirety of Azeroth, to ding 60.

There are still tons of things to do at 70. Every quest in the Outlands will still be available to you, so now you start to make money instead of xp. There are still TONS of quests. Despite having hit 70 some time ago, Mirajj is STILL not done with Netherstorm questing (I've got 2-3 groups quests left).

But yes...if you try to "experience it all", you will hit the level cap before you reach the end of content to do so. Seems to me that's more the answer to the "We want more solo/quest stuff to do after we cap!" that (rightfully) plagued Azeroth post-60, than it is something to complain about.

[LochnarITB]

My point was that they allowed leveling to happen too fast. They gave too much xp per quest. It is not about choosing one path or another. That still would have happened. The problem is that a part of the populace rushed to 70, purposely skipping a great deal of content. Those people then put pressure on other players to rush to 70. The pressure is both direct - "you're still in terokkar?" "you're only 63" - or indirect in that end content will be exposed to them, before they wanted, by good meaning, unthinking guild mates and friends gushing over the coolness they are seeing (and "don't listen" is not an answer and can't be done in anything but pure solo isolation). It would have been better to lower experience and slow the leveling, with progressive levels of raiding along the way for those that don't care for solo questing. It just strikes me as a gaming version of "instant gratification" rather than "appreciating what you earn". YMMV.

[edit] strikes me

[edit2] Today was an example of accelerated leveling for Lochnar. I was somewhere near 100k to go to 70. A group of us did Ring of Blood(iirc). Some of us then ran off to finish a couple group quests I had. I mentioed in chat that I would probably ding sometime today. As I was typing it, I looked at the display and saw that I had only 3k to go and that I would ding with the next turnin. I was shocked at how much xp I had received in the Ring of Blood.

[edit3 sigh] I looked