WoW Gold Free Strategics:  

Never Buy WOW Gold Before Comparing Prices and Services Carefully...

Developing a Character into the Later Levels

by Crow

Whether the latest patch has caused you to make a new character or continue an old one, we are all headed to the new level cap. In retrospect, with many beta players having leveled to the previous cap (level 39) for weeks, characters sought new ways, other than leveling, to develop. Item-hording, trade-skilling, and quest selection were heavily mixed into each character's formulation. Read on to see why a maximum level is far from maximum development.

Having spent a great deal of time exploring the world with Xom, my level 39 Undead mage, I've met many different characters. For me, the biggest interest is to see how they are different from other players of that same class. Often it is equipment and trade skills that directly and significantly separate one character from another. Indirectly, when players choose a variety of quests, they are also choosing different ways in which they development (especially multi-part quests).


Understanding your character and knowing the potential equipment available to him, you can direct him down many paths, even while capped at level 39, 45, or whatever the cap may be. My mage, for instance, has 1 bag dedicated to swapping equipment in and out, to create different combinations. With one combination, my character has a high armor class. With another, I have the maximum amount of mana and hit points for battling casters. Lastly, I have an arrangement for grouping, which is based around a very high spirit score.

These ideas are shown as I have directly applied them to my mage (before patch, mind you), but can be applied to any class or race combination.

Skill and Stats

Under the current system, your most difficult choices in distribution of skill points come in the early levels. During the late levels, there is a plethora of excess skill points to go around, and, at the current level max, you can continually earn new skill points, even if you do not gain experience. By excess, of course, I do not mean that all skills are possibly maxed, but that weapons are easily covered and at least 3 trade skills can be mastered.

With my mage, I've chosen to max all stats (previous to patch) and master engineering, tailoring, first aid, and mining. Let us look at supplements that trade skills can provide to a character:

More mana: alchemy, enchanting, and all armor trades.

More hit points: alchemy, enchanting, and all armor trades.

More damage: blacksmithing, engineering (pets, bombs), alchemy, poisoning, and enchanting.

Crowd control: engineering (flash and stun bombs).

Less downtime: alchemy, enchanting, cooking, and survival.

Money: mining, herbalism, skinning, fishing, enchanting, lock picking, and blacksmithing.

Ranged Attack: engineering (bombs, guns).

Pet: engineering (dragon or harvester).

Resurrection: engineering (goblin jumper cables).

Water Breathing: alchemy.

Anti-Magic: alchemy (resistance potions are amazing! Shadow, nature, fire etc..), enchanting, engineering (cloaking device to counter spell).

Anti-Melee: engineering (flash bombs [fear nearby enemies], stun bombs), enchanting, and alchemy.

Stealth: alchemy and engineering.

Lock Picking: lock picking and engineering.

Healing: alchemy, first aid, cooking, and survival.

There are many other ways that skills can supplement your character, but these are a few that are often potential character "needs" or "weaknesses." I matched my mage's needs to the above skills, concentrating on my lack of hit points, tank, and money.

With engineering, tailoring, first-aid, and mining, my character underwent many changes. From engineering, I gained the ability to resurrect teammate, AoE stun, anti-caster cloaking (vs players only), pets, AoE fear, and even some money. First-aid has allowed me to contribute more to groups, avoid downtime when solo, and fight tougher mobs than before. Mining, even at the bronze and iron level, has given me extra money too and provided the necessary ore to raise my engineering skill. Tailoring, though not incredibly useful, has given me the icy cloak (22 AC, +6 resist frost, +5 stamina) and perhaps even more new items when more recipes are released.

I did not have enough excess skill points to pursue alchemy or enchanting. But, after I learn the new tailoring recipes, might consider dropping tailoring for an 800 skill point refund to spend on other trades.


Items and Collecting

Basically, there is a square of needs. The four major points (corners) are high hit-point, high spirit, high damage, and high AC (armor). Your character's equipment will determine how far into each of these needs your equipment can take you.

Though some players settle into a specific "build" or selection of equipment that they prefer. When it comes to mages, many want either all spirit or all intelligence. Others want a mix of the two. Is there a difference? Absolutely.

The mage who picks all spirit will be very valuable in a group, where he will need to keep up with the efficiency of tanks and healers. High spirit mages can cast nearly continuously. However, having high spirit at other times, does not help you.

The solo mage attempting to kill a large, single target that does a lot of damage quickly, is better off to have more AC, stamina, or intelligence than to have more spirit. Why? Because, unless the battle is long, he will not have enough time to allow spirit to regenerate his life or mana and help him survive. Likewise, spirit will not give you very many hit points if you are a caster (140 spirit gives 40 mana per tick and only 14 hit points).

If the mob you are fighting attacks quickly and mostly by melee, using armor that is high in AC will help greatly. If the mob is a caster mob and shoots giant, large spells, hit points (stamina) or more damage are your best choices. If two mages were to fight each other (sleep aside) and resist each other's spells equally, the player with the most hit points or doing the most damage will generally win. AC and spirit have little to do with duels less than 5 minutes.

If you are in a group who is fighting one giant mob, your hit points will not come into question very often (assuming you have a tank). Instead of picking high AC or spirit, your best choice is high mana. In this scenario, the mage will be able to cast more big spells, like blizzard or fireball. However, equipment that adds damage to your spells (or strength for a warrior, etc) won't help the mage too much, as he does not want to do TOO much damage and draw the mob's attention.


Example Equipment Builds

Equipment that you loot and the quests that you choose also greatly affect your character's outcome. Equipment can affect every facet of WoW, whether it is looted from a standard mob or attained from a quest.

Quest items are often superior to drop items. As quest items cannot be traded anymore, this makes choosing your quest a matter of potential consequence. Series quests, which have multiple parts, often have the biggest rewards. Reading websites, asking players, and experimenting is the only way to figure out what equipment is out there.

With the same square of needs, here are the equipment builds that I choose for Xom, my mage:

This first build is my attempt at a more balanced build. This build is not "bad" in any situation, but is perhaps equally "not perfect" for any either. I do use this build often when solo, as it accommodates most of my needs.

The above build is the best for grouping. I can almost cast frost bolt back-to-back throughout the battle and never run out of mana. I do feel fragile with this build though, as I do not have an excessive amount of mana to shield myself with. Nor do I have very many hit points. Still, in a group, high spirit makes a big difference.

The last, and perhaps oddest, of my equipment "builds" is my high AC build. This build, though seemingly mismatched for a mage's purpose, is my favorite. This suit allows me to beat my toughest opponents: fast attacking melee mobs and groups of them. In groups without a tank that can taunt, I often mix in a reasonable amount of AC equipment to lower the danger of a mob who decides to attack me.

New Level Cap

Will a raised level cap make these choices invalid? No. Look at the latest patch as being an opportunity to stay ahead of everyone else when collecting items (either with your new character or while you continue your old one). Inspect players who are higher level and ask about their equipment or read online. Though the cap may be raised to level 45, it is not very far from 39, so you will find yourself quickly in this situation again.

I'm predicting several more pieces of equipment that will add damage to a specific school of magic, ie fire, nature, or frost magic. It will be a lot of fun to collect suits made specifically to raise one magic school and then attempt to optimize the bonus damage by casting all quick spells of that type.

I also expect to see resistances play an even bigger role than they already do. Already, resistances absorb high amounts of damage from their respective counter (fire, frost, nature, etc), but with the right equipment suit, a new understanding of resistances might come. Players might be able to completely devastate certain class match-ups in duels or power level on a caster mob with an attack of that magic type.

Though collecting items through loot, quests, and trade skills might seem trivial, the results of collecting are out there. Having a mix of equipment might make you balanced, but knowing how and on what to focus can give you a significant advantage.

Every class has its options. Warriors are succeeding in different way other than pure strength or pure stamina by using high AC and high spirit gear. Paladins, shaman, and druids are finding many different possible roles they can fulfill through equipment choices. Even rogues are finding new roles in high AC and high stamina builds.

Take a step back, and look at your class again. The level cap doesn't mean character growth has ended, but that it has begun on new levels.

Never Buy WOW Gold Before Comparing Prices and Services Carefully...