The Grey Priest: Part 2 of The Ironmaiden Challenge

And WOW is it a challenge!  For a while, I seriously considered looking up IronMary in Tarren Mill to see if she needed a roommate.  Hillsbrad is tough on the white armor class.

Sally found some relief from her mana issues with wands, which do actually work to kill mobs at low levels...but death by wanding takes a long time.  As you can possibly imagine, the problem with slow wand kills is that the mobs are respawning behind at a faster rate than they are dying ahead...which can lead to an unpleasant crunchy sound when the mobs meet with poor Sally between them.  And a lot of screaming.  Forsaken screams are hard on the ears.

Sally pulled up stakes and left Yetimus to his wandering.  Ashenvale being the only other Horde leveling area suitable, she wandered over there for a bit.  Problem is, she was out-leveling the quests to the point of getting zero experience for mobs she was still having trouble killing.  Quest experience was still okay for the green quests, but the mobs were too low.

She has good healing capabilities, and doesn't die nearly as often as I thought she would - as long as the mana holds out, she can keep going.  The big challenge is to eke out out the mana droplets, alternating spells and wand.

Her dots (Shadow Word: Pain  and Devouring Plague) are pretty much mana hogs at this point, so she has dropped them from the rotation for now.  She is using Mind Blast at 40 yards for the pull, followed by Holy Fire at 30 yards.  Holy Fire is her most mana-efficient spell at this level, and is especially good because it also has a dot effect.  Unfortunately, it also has a cool-down.  So, depending on her mana level, Sally then either tosses out a Smite or begins wanding.  When the mob starts hitting her, she stops for a quick Renew, then goes back to her wand.  If another mob starts beating on her, she pops open her Bubble after the renew expires.  With this method, she can kill up to three mobs.  Eventually.

I left her napping in the Inn at Grom'Gol last night.  With a hungry baby raptor to feed, she will be waking soon and heading out to the jungle...

Find the rules to The IronMan Challenge here.

The Grey Priest

Sallyogreydy

Psynister has inspired me! He and Vrykerion have come up with their Ironman Challenge and I cannot resist.

Sallyogreydy was born yesterday and is thus far level 13. 

It hasn't been too difficult so far, nor did I expect it to be.  I once leveled a naked belf warlock to level 20 with no deaths, and so I know early levels are not very gear-dependent.  I am a little more concerned about higher levels!

Sally has died twice, once from lag and once from over-confidence with a rare that she later killed, after a brief flirtation with the Spirit Lady at the graveyard.

Her biggest challenge so far is mana, err...lack of mana.  She needs a wand, but a wand is not to be had just yet.  There is one available from a Mulgore quest, but traveling to Mulgore and doing all the pre-quests needed to get it was more than Sally could face.  So she is toughing it out until level 15 when the vendor wands become available.

With a wand, she will not have to make that dreaded decision about what to do with her last drop of mana - Renew, or Smite and hope it crits.

More later...

A Wondrous Post

this from Syrco.