A Warrior's Journy: Our Little Green Warrior

K, I've been putting off ripping the current leveling experience in WoW for a couple weeks now. I'm gonna, don't worry, but first a little Little Warrior updating. Today we're doing Roxigar of Greymane.

Rox is doing awesome. At 18 he 3-person'd through Ragefire Chasm with an Undead Mage (15) and a Blood Elf Hunter (15). Along the way he picked up a nice pair of wrists that'll last a few levels. I'll get into it later, but he didn't go to RFC earlier because there a) wasn't enough time, and b) not a lot of reason to do it, as far as leveling goes. Both of which equate to a severe lack of people actually wanting to do it at level. Gah!

He also DPS'd through Wailing Caverns with a full party. Was gonna have him go as tank, but a Level 22 Prot Warrior show'd up and we let him take the lead. It was kinda fun to do melee DPS again, even at low level. Rage generation sucks though if you don't start spec'ing into it early. Seriously, the only way to get a decent amount of rage below 20, as a Prot Warrior, is to pull multiple mobs at once. Which is fine, it just feels off, prolly cause I always leveled Warriors as Arms or Fury.

Anyhoo, he got a new turtle shield out of WC, which was really neat, though the other one might be better for Prot. Take either. You gotta hunt the big turtle down, but it's worth it. The mail belt dropped, too. I though the other Warrior was gonna take it, so I passed. He thought I was gonna take it, so he passed. It ended up going to a Warlock for vendor junk. Ouch. Communication people! Comm-un-i-ca-tion.

Both instances are not ones I've done much before. Been run through RFC ages and ages ago. And of course, Friday(1) went through WC at level and solo'd it several times way back when. With the drops in there, and skinning and herbs, it's a great place to farm up some golds. Like VC, though, there's a whole lore behind them with nice lead in quest chains that set up the feel for future quests and lore. They are well worth taking the time to do properly. Don't pay for the run through. Enjoy the experience. Rox has one or two more forays into WC and is ready to head to Shadowfang and, hopefully, make the swim to Deadmines for some Cleefy fun. :)

Rox is also making friends fast. This is where a lot of the game has lost itself. Rant/QQ in a future post as well. But for a new leveling Warrior, my advice would be to hook up with as many people as you can, friend the good ones, and STAY IN TOUCH! One guy and I chatted about the WoW books and various lore for an hour waiting for the group to fill. The social aspect is a big part of the game. You don't have to do it anymore. But do it anyway.

Aside: We're both fans of the alternate WoW reality book series called War of the Ancients. I know, I know. True lore fiends deplore those books, but they were so much fun! Where do you think my little orc's name comes from? :)

Anyhoo...

Things to take away from Rox's experiences this week: Before we started RFC, the mage was pretty certain we'd at least need a healer. The hunter and I were all fired up to go with just the three of us (and it was getting late), so the mage went along with us. We did fine. Don't drink and dungeon. Wha? Yah I was enjoying a small adult beverage. Sheesh! I'm allowed once the kids are tucked away and it helps me relax when tanking. K, so I had two adult beverages and got REALLY relaxed... and face pulled 5 mobs and 2 pats. Wipe. The hunter was suddenly pretty sure we couldn't do it and we needed a healer. And the mage and I are all, naw, we're fine. I owned up to being a dummy, and we proceeded.

Good and bad and great players start to emerge at early levels. As a new Warrior you can watch this develop. If you're completely new, you can watch and learn. Both of these guys were obviously veteran WoW players. The mage may or may not have played a mage before, but he understood how a mage works, what a mage does, and had studied his abilities in that light. He also knew how a tank works and acted accordingly when he saw that I was, at the very least, a competent tank (even while under the influence... ahem).

So he wants to sheep pull a warlock, minion and two melee adds. No problem. He sees that when I grab aggro, I immediately back up and pull the melee out of Thunderclap range of the sheeped Warlock. It may seem obvious to a modern Warrior tank, but many new players aren't going to pick that trick up the first few times. I certainly didn't. I could tell that the mage was going to be a really good, even great mage.

The hunter, on the other hand, was obvious a very skilled player. He also knew the hunter class, at least well enough to use everything a hunter has at that level. But... He would run up and pull before I did. He'd pull mobs off me and pet tank them unncessarily. He'd switch targets mid-fight before the one he was on was down. No problem at all. He was skilled enough to do those things appropriately. But I'll bet he'll still be doing those things 60 levels from now, when it is never, ever appropriate. He's a good player. But unless he changes his understanding of how a group works together, he'll never be a great player.

So little warrior, learn to do it right, even if you don't have to.

At the end, the hunter got disco'd and the mage and I finished off the last boss. It was mildly tricky, but he knew what he was doing. It's just the boss and 2 adds. Nothing terribly fancy. He chain sheeped one of the adds and we burned the boss and the other add down. At that point I couldn't even see my health bar. No idea why I was still alive. But he just kept chain sheeping the add, I bandaged a tiny bit, popped Shield Block, and we finish the last add alive. Done.

Shiny new warriors, if you're doing okay and come up against something that's a little tricky, take a good long look at your abilities. There's probably something there, some sequence of abilities, that will work. If you try one thing, and fail, do it a different way. But not just randomly. Think about it. It'll work out.

Thinking things through and knowing what your abilities do is a huge part of playing your class later. For example, I tend to get into the habit of just taking damage and relying on my priority list when tanking in Wrath. Doing these lower level Warriors, with limited abilities, has gotten me using Shield Bash again! Okay, I use it on big Friday when it's absolutely necessary, of course. But if I didn't have to, I just didn't. Bad, Friday!

Get in the habit of using the right ability and the right time, even if it's not strictly necessary. That interrupt will save your booty many, many times. And being a Warrior is all about saving the booty.

-Fri