You know the expansion is good when every new zone you head into is “ZOMG TEH BEST ZONE EVAR”. First it was Dragonblight. Then it was Zul’Drak. Now it’s Storm Peaks. Love love love.
A quarter of the way into 79 at the moment… pretty sure I’ll end up hitting 80 tomorrow. Then comes the task of bringing all my pets up to speed– even with the improved pet leveling, the fact that so many of the WotLK quests are “non-kill” quests means that just trying to level a mere two pets up at once has resulted in them all falling behind.
In all honesty, hitting the level cap again is a really weird thing to think about. Leveling and questing has always been my favorite part of the game. Oh I love the raiding and the instances too, no doubt. But there’s a reason why last time when Tawyn hit 70, I would basically log onto her only when it was raid time/heroics time. I was busy working on Lunapike (or other alts) all the rest of the time. These past few weeks have been the first time in a long time where I’ve really been able to revisit my “main” the way I did back when I was first leveling her…. and it has been really nice.
I figure once I do hit 80, I’ll keep questing and aim for the Loremaster of Northrend achievement– it will help level the pets, it’ll bring in the cash, and I love the quests up here so much. I’ll also start getting “geared up”, which is always a really fun process. I may look into moving talent points around– now that the hit cap has been about 99% confirmed by everyone to be 8% this time (rather than 9%), I keep finding myself rather over-hit-capped with 3/3 Focused Aim. On the one hand, that’s pretty acceptable for BM hunters because Focused Aim does not affect your pet’s hit, so being over-capped there will only help. (Remember: More pet hits = more Ferocious Inspiration.) On the other hand, is there a better place I could put those talents, and would I want to? Still gotta do some thinking on that. I do have some guides and the like that I want to write (yes, posts on glyphs and pet talent points are coming).
But you know what I think I’m most excited about? Getting started on Lunapike’s journey to 80 after Tawyn’s is over. So I can once again say I have two max-level hunters ^_^
Just wait until you hit Icecrown!
Best zone ever. 😀
Major Gratz Pike!!
As for post-80 questing!?!? Don’t forget Knights of the Ebon Blade (Ice Crown) and Sons of Hodir (Storm Peaks) rep. 🙂 dailies. (Yep dailies…)
These give you great gear, enchants and other stuff. 🙂
But for you!? You’ll have a loregasm (can i say that!?) with the Ice Crown chain. 😛
When I first hit 80, I was quite a bit over the hit cap with Focused Aim as well. But once I did a few heroics, I noticed a number of the pieces I replaced had no hit on them at all, and even with my two Savage Cobalt Slicers, I’ve dropped quite a bit. So you may want to do like me and just keep the points in Focused Aim until your gear is a little less dynamic and you know you’ll be staying at the hit rating you’re at for a while. Saves on respec costs! 🙂
Keep questing for sure. The quests are amazing in Northrend, and there are two reputations (Ebon Blade and Agent Crusade) in Icecrown which you’ll want to work on anyway, might as well do with with some quests! All of the zones have some great lines, Loremaster is going to just come to you without any effort at all.
@Tchann: I disagree. Storm Pikes > Icecrown.
…err, Storm Peaks.
Wow, that was a Freudian slip if I’ve ever seen one.
=D someone has a cruuuuUUUUuuuush 😉
I went through the same thought process when I hit 80 recently. Kinda weird and kinda not, all at the same time.
I actually hit 80 without even finishing sholozar basin (did BOTH starting zones)
And it’s nice, because being at the level cap means more gold.
My “raid” pet is only 78… because i did all my levelling with my gorilladin… now i have to catch him up before-
*GASP*
TONIGHT AT 7
First naxx raid with the guild
First wipefest of the new XPAC.
AND I HAVE NO FLASKS!
it’s gonna be a rough night
I just hit 68 on my death knight last night, after leaving the game for over a year. Got my first glimpse of Northrend and can’t wait to start questing when I get home tonight.
I’ve been so awed by this XPac compared to BC. Having 2 70 of different factions and classes I’ve decided that my Horde Hunter is definitely going to be my first 80. This on this side seem so much cleaner and smoother with regards to the types of quests and the overall storylines. I have no idea yet what I’ll do at 80, but so far I’m loving every moment in Northrend… Howling Fjord, and Vengeance Landing are by far the most gothic and awesome places I’ve seen so far.
“(Remember: More pet hits = more Ferocious Inspiration.)”
Untrue in the single-roll Attack Table. More hit% means less misses and more normal hits. However, more normal hits is *never* a bad thing.
Just clarifying 🙂
“loregasm” … XD
My deathknight is my first 80 and after completing all quests except for stormpeaks (~80 done) and icecrown (~30 done) and the cash is flowing in. Love those quests: “Speak with X”, /move 5 feet, “Hello X” … You got 13g.
What impresses me most is the fact that the environment actually changes with your quests (suddenly there is a flightmaster, suddenly you have a questhub, where you, 10minutes ago, killed a bunch of mobs). It feels like you are actually changing something. There is a drawback tho, you can’t help other players with “phased” quests.
My favourite zone is still scholo – its the new nagrand. I hate snow.