Level 80! Ding!

8 Hours into 80 and I know that this expansion is different.

8 hours into level 70 what were you doing? Probably not much of anything, doing a few regular instances, maybe grind some bg's, or work on some bop crafted gear. Possibly working on getting your gear "raid ready" (read: HITCAP). You were not doing heroics. You were not raiding unless you had a hardcore guild outfitted in full t3. Revered was a bit of a grind even for the hardcore. Moving the rep requirement to honored made things a bit easier, but even honored was not automatic with all factions.

I am 8 hours into level 80 and I have a solid epic weapon: Titansteel Destoyer That was crafted BOE none the less. I was already hit capped for raiding when I hit 80 thanks to some decent blue drops. I have already cleared some heroics.(With probably the worst other 2 dps ever. 3 of 4 bosses ended with myself, the tank, and healer dropping the last 100k+ health) Cleared a 25 man raid boss. Speaking of that raid boss, Archevon is EASY, outfitted in my blues and new found titansteel destroyer I easily surpassed the 1600 personal dps needed to beat the enrage timer. My luck with rolls continues to be above average and I am now proud owner of Deadly Gladiator's Dreadplate Chestpiece. WARNING INCOMING VANILLA WOW ANECDOTE:

Getting that chest on my first run in a raid instance reminds of my first run of Scholomance at level 59. first time killing Ras Frostwhisper a super rare epic chest piece drops and I win the roll, saving me months of raiding or grinding mats for robe of the void.

There we have it, 8 hours into 80 and I already have 2 gear pieces that should last for months. My gear is ready to go for dpsing heroics or raids. That is pretty good compared to TBC.

My tank gear has not been going as well as my dps gear, I am still almost 50 defense below the uncritable mark so I have yet to tank a heroic. I am working on a few rep grinds to round out my tanking gear. The new + defense sigal, and rune forge enchant will go a long way into getting me into that tanking role.

I also plan on starting arena's this week with either the doctor or a resto druid that I used to arena with. So expect a Death Knight centered pvp article in the coming week(s)


In response to the Doctor's Random thoughts on everything 80...

I am feeling a bit of what the Doctor and Potts are. Overwhelmed may be the right word. So much to do once you hit 80. For the first half hour I kind of just wandered around aimlessly in the looking for group channel. Did I want to run heroics? Start the pvp grind? Quest for rep? Farm mats for crafted gear? I think for gearing up most efficiently you will want to do a bit of everything. I know that after seeing what a loot pinata the Wintergrasp boss is I will be doing that as often as I can. I would also love to get into a Naxx group or two. Even an extra 20 hours of playtime a week doesn't seem like it would be enough to do EVERYTHING in WotLK. I think one thing leading to this feeling is the fact that blizzard has opened up the game so much more for everyone. When I hit level 70, I knew immediately to start on the pvp grind. I did not play enough to see much more than Karhzan (and that was WAY after it became farm status) So wasting my play time trying to get my gear on par for raiding seemed like a waste. I wasn't going to spend hours grinding rep to make it into a heroic. The path I was going to take out was pretty much laid out for me before I even hit 70. With the way blizzard has made the game accessible to everyone it gives us way more options to choose from. No longer is there a huge starting barrier to 3/4's of the content at 80. As soon as you hit 80 you have a plethora of options and it can leave everyone feeling like they need more time to play.

Have a SAFE and happy new year!