Kaet: Getting Disgusted
(You can read all of Kaet’s adventures by checking out the series Table of Contents at the end of this post.)
I’ve been spending a lot of time in game the past week but I haven’t exactly been playing. I’ve been checking out rumors and testing pet skills and, in a last-ditch effort to avoid real gameplay, leveling my fishing skill.
The truth is, I feel somewhat burnt out — not burnt out on playing, actually, but burnt out on WoW. I want to play the game — I want to be distracted and have fun — but every time I log in I think of something I should be doing instead (like updating Petopia or posting on this blog). In many ways, having your favorite game as your most serious hobby is not entirely ideal.
But eventually I convinced myself that what I needed was to set everything aside and just play Kaet for a bit. It would be okay if I didn’t blog every single thing she did — just play her, get a level or two, have some fun. So I logged in and started on my next Redridge quest. I only had a few — one green, one yellow, one orange, and two red.
I started with the yellow quest — killing Blackrock orcs — but after I died three times in two minutes I changed my mind and went to finish the green quest, killing spiders and vultures for their meat. On the way I saw a silver mine and headed for it, all excited, but it was surrounded by three green gnolls and suddenly I was dead again. I tried twice more, with similar results. Killed by green gnolls!
Now at this point I’m feeling disgusted and stupid and wondering why I bothered talking myself into playing for fun if playing isn’t fun anyway. But I’m a hunter — I’m supposed to be overpowered — so I must be doing something wrong. Let’s take a look at my setup …
My equipment is piecemeal greens and … greys? Whoops. And some level 9 whites. (I’m level 19 now, remember.) Okay, that could be part of the problem. But I can fix that at the Auction House. What else?
Well, although I was doing fine last week, suddenly my crab can’t hold aggro, especially on enemies only two levels above me. Of course, my crab is three levels below me, so to him they are five levels up. Hmm … Okay, I may have to admit that I can’t keep three crabs leveled while doing a lot of questing and racking up the rest XP. After some painful consideration, I decide to stop leveling Niffis, the white crab. I’ll see if I can keep Frore and Tibri both leveled up with me, but if I can’t I will bite the bullet and concentrate just on Tibri, the red crab.
Also, I forgot to get Claw 3 at level 16 — that’s probably not helping. Nor have I been by a pet trainer to get the next levels of Natural Armor and Great Stamina, nor have I updated my hunter skills for at least three levels. *sigh* Okay, at this point I am willing to label myself an idiot.
So the immediate goal is to get some better equipment and grind on green enemies until my crabs are my level and I can try those orcs again. Oh, and grab Claw 3 and the rest of my skills. It’s not an elaborate plan, but somehow I feel better for having a tangible goal at all. Off I go!
[ ... later ... ]
Okay, this is better. I admit I splurged a little on equipment. Most of it was within my budget, but … I kinda bought a blue bow: Ranger Bow. It was so pretty! And although it was awfully expensive, I feel like it was fate.
See, as I was standing at the mailbox collecting the pants I had just bought, a naked level 25 ran up and silently opened a trade window with me. I was annoyed — until he dropped 31 gold in the window, hit Trade, and then ran off. When I sent him a whisper he explained that he was leaving the server and decided to give all his cash to the next under-20 he saw.
So I didn’t feel too bad spending too much on a weapon after that. *grin* It also helped pay for the excessive number of skills I needed. After that, we went out to give my new self a spin.
I hit level 20 in short order. Tibri is back to tanking very well indeed, even though she’s still only level 18. And my DPS went up by a whopping 56%. Okay, some of that is the blue bow, but more of it is a modicum of attention to my skills and my equipment. And my armor and other stats saw an improvement as well, of course. Now, instead of dying to one or two orcs, we took out four at once! (… and then died to a patrol that snuck up on us.)
I was pleased enough with my progress that I spent way too much of the weekend playing … and ended up at level 24. Now that is the kind of fun I was looking for!
Table of Contents for Series: Kaet
- Introducing: Kaet
- Kaet: Northshire Valley
- Kaet: Goldshire
- Kaet: Level 10!
- Kaet: Taming the Crabs
- Kaet: Finishing Up Elwynn
- Kaet: Westfall
- Kaet: Redridge
- Kaet: Westfall Interlude
- Kaet: Finishing Up Westfall (Mostly)
- Kaet: Back to Redridge
- Kaet: Getting Disgusted
- Kaet: Duskwood
- Kaet: Where the heck am I?
- Kaet: The Post-Brewfest Blues
- Kaet: Eight Levels Later
- Kaet Gets a Pony!
- Kaet: On Hold
- Kaet: Where was I again?
- Kaet: Forced Playtime
- Kaet: Level 60!
- Kaet: Kill Command
- Kaet: A Quick Note From Nagrand
- Kaet: Level 70!
10 Comments
Hehe, I know this logging on to kinda feel bored situation. I always try to level an alt when this happens, but since I’m not the fastest leveler out there, it just draws out more and more and doing the same old quests again doesn’t really help there…
But then usually somethings happens and I forget the laundry I was going to do instead and such ;)
Eh, i know the feeling all too well.
The last time it happened to me, i was like 1 or 2 minutes staring at the character screen wondering which one i would be playing, and then, poof, i clicked exit and gone i went to watch tv.
After i created my Tauren hunter tough, the fun has returned. ^_^
By the way, reached level 10. I know i said i would be getting a raptor and a wolf (the barking one) but i saw Mazzranache when i was going to Thunder Bluff and i decided i would get him. Never seen him before.
So, now i have Mazzranache (i think i got a infant tough, hehe, it barely reaches the Tauren waist) and a wolf that barks.
Wow, talk about your random acts of kindness! Whoever that was, deserves a big hunter hug!
Well, I’m glad that in the end your story didn’t live up to the “Kaet: Getting Disgusted” title! :)
Every now and then I also get a bit out of focus and can’t concentrate on WoW whereas it used to be a nice “escape” from real world problems. But sometimes, those catch up with you. However, for the most part, playing WoW is a fun experience and if I get bored with my current chars, I’ll simply try something new. I’ve had quite a few alts that have long gone, usually in the twenties but more recently a 40ish warlock (that I regretted a while after deleting because it was a nice level in Engineering!), but I don’t feel bad if I start a new character and do some or different quests in same or different way: there’s something good in low level chars that is getting several levels up in a single couple hours session that you loose when playing a high level one when it turns out to a couple sessions per level instead!
I’ve always had a blast playing my hunter but I’ve made a lot of alts just to see what the different classes and races are like. It was in Redridge that I left my human warrior (at the time my second highest character) for many months because all of a sudden he could not take on something one level above him without losing 2/3 of his health. As with you I realized that his gear was pretty bad. Also…I had been levelling him prot. So I used a ton of money from my hunter and bought him the best gear I could find on the AH, had him level his blacksmithing a bit to the point he could make the shining silver breastplate, had my enchanter give him what enchants he could get, and respecced him to arms. I’ve never had a character level so fast. He destroyed Duskwood, often killing 3 mobs one or two levels higher than himself. Now I really enjoy both him and my hunter, but I still on occasion play some lower level alts, especially when my girlfriend gets altitis.
Under-level under-skilled pets make for sad hunting experience against decent enemies…
…and, because I’m an altaholic, I feel your pain and share in your idiocy of logging in to a character, getting frustrated, and then realizing that my equipment is 5 to 10 levels too low for me. Happened most recently with my retribution paladin, and that hurt muches.
Although my main is still running in some level 60 gear, despite being 68. Gotta head out of Nagrand to find a good helmet.
Right, right, I’m rambling. Take whatever time you need to make the game fun again, and thank you muches for posting about Kaet’s adventures. I dig ‘em.
Those Blackrock orcs are a pain, even when having the skills and not being quite as under-geared as Kaet. When doing Ally I often find myself halfway through the Duskwood qs before I finish Redridge. Not a nice area, imo.
And you just have to love those guardian angels, who decide to get a life and make your day :P
My hunter alt only has one pet, An elder mistvale gorilla. I named him Nog, but all my guildies jokingly refer to him as king gong (Gorillas get HUGE when you pop Beastial). Anyway, crabs have very low DPS, can only learn claw for offense, ETC. Their just there to take a huge amount of damage.
Heh, at least you don’t have a full bank of equipment looming over you, waiting for you to level up. I powerleveled my professions, so all my horde characters have bank fulls of equipment, leaving only bag space in the bank for their own professions. Never underpowered, though sometimes overwhelmed by the inherent time required to level up so I can wear the armor and weapons. :)
Are you are a warrior? We have to buy new gear every two or three levels.
Leave a Reply