Zul’Farrak: The Embrace of Lycan and a Carrot on a Stick

I just finished the entire Zul’Farrak instance. After about 8 runs of this zone, someone finally had the Mallet of Zul’Farrak that summons the final boss, Gahz’rilla. You get the mallet from a tough mob in Hinterlands, and you need a group to get it. Seems like if you go through all the trouble of traveling to the Hinterlands, you should just get the mallet. Not sure I get the game design reasoning for this one.

Anyways, killing Gahz’rilla allowed me to finish a quest, which had the reward of a Carrot on a Stick. It’s a silly trinket that increases your riding speed by a whole 3%. I guess the point is that it stacks with other riding speed eq. So if you collect enough gear, you’re suddenly a speed demon.

My Carrot on a Stick.

I also looted a Embrace of the Lycan from an earlier boss in the zone. It is a sweet little head item you see Scoots wearing in the picture above. Doesn’t it look ridiculous? Perfect for Scoots. Perhaps not the greatest rogue item, but Scoots doesn’t have much blue gear anyways, as I’ve been hoarding up his gold for higher levels.

Embrace of the Lycan.

I also leveled while running the zone. Current level:48.

Razorfen Downs: Arachnid Gloves

Current level: 42.

I was running Razorfen Downs, hoping to get a chance at the Coldrage Dagger. The group fell apart early on. We booted one guy for ninjaing a chest. And then another player had to leave, and that was the end of the run. But, not before we killed Tuten’kash. I had an interesting choice of whether to need or greed the Arachnid Gloves of the Tiger, with their +9 agi, +10 str, and +10 to nature resistance. I was using Huntman’s Gloves of the Monkey, which have +8 to agi and +8 to stam. I’ve been following the guidance that stamina is more important to rogues than strength. But, in the end, I decided the Arachnid gloves were better, so I “needed” and won.

Rootin’ Tootin’ Tuten’kash

 

 

 

 

Scarlet Monastery: The Armory

My boy, Scoots, ran the entire Scarlet Monastery Armory recently. My group was led by a level 51, so it went quickly and smoothly. Something happened at the end that made me want to smack one of my guildmates. She is a level 35 hunter who uses two-handed axes. When we killed the boss, Herod the Scarlet Champion, he dropped the Ravager, a two-handed axe. Now, I selected greed, fully expecting the hunter to select need so she could have this sweet axe in a couple levels. She selected greed! Then went on to complain, “You didn’t tell me to need it.” Needless to say, I won the roll and practically cried when I sold it to a vendor for 1.8 gold. This think looks really sweet too.

Talisman of Arathor

I hit level 38 and purchased a Talisman of Arathor at Refuge Pointe. I love this item, which goes in my trinket slot. I talked about this item in a previous post, but I did not realize how useful it would be. When I combine this with my evasion skill and a healing potion, it’s like giving myself another 1000-1500 hit points.

There aren’t many other trinkets to choose from at Scoots’ level. The cost, 380 honor points and 30 Arathi Basin marks of honor, is pretty easy to get. I probably did that in 12-16 games, but if you’re horde or are a better PvPer than me, you’ll get it even quicker. I highly recommend putting a little work in for this item.

Scoots’ Equipment: Every Girl’s Crazy About a Sharp-Dressed Rogue

Here are a few pieces of Scoots’ equipment as a level 35 rogue.

Weapons:

Since Scoots reached level 30, I’ve been having a difficult time getting him weapons. Particularly daggers. Let’s take a look at what I’m using:

One-Handed Swords

Electrocutioner’s Leg

A rare item that Scoots looted off of the Electrocutioner 6000 in Gnomeregan. It’s not an ideal rogue weapon because it gives no bonus to agility (or any other stats for that matter). But at 22.1 dps, it still is a powerful weapon for swordsmen in the low 30s.

The Electrocutioner 6000

Knightly Longsword of the Monkey

This is a good rogue sword that I purchased off of auction for 2 gold (a very fair price I think). +4 agility and +4 stamina at 20.3 dps.

The Auction House Blues

Why is it that all players in WoW always seem to have better equipment than Scoots? He spends all of his gold at the auction house but still only has three blue items, with the rest your average green. I see players that are level 35 and have all blue equipment. They must get equipped through their guilds or mains or something. I know I’m more of a casual player, and I don’t run many high-level zones. I guess I just have to rely on auction hose or miracle drops, like the wolf-harness I got in Stranglethorn.

I’m pondering, what should my equipment-buying strategy be? It seems a bit silly to spend a lot of gold on a dagger that will be “obselete” in four or five levels. Should I just hoard my gold until high levels? What is a player to do? Don’t you need the next powerful weapon to help kill the next powerful monsters? I guess I’ll just have be patient.

Scoots prowling the Arathi Highlands

After 30+ levels, I’ve finally equipped Scoots with dual one-handed swords. I chose to go with daggers up until now because it made equipping him much easier and cheaper. Besides, I think the stealthing and backstabbing is the funnest part of being a rogue. Now that I have the swords, I use the even more powerful garrote, but it’s not as satisfying as a big, juicy backstab.

Also motivating me to equip swords was landing a rare drop in Gnomeregan. Scoots now has an electrocutioner’s leg.

The sword gives no agility stats, but still allows Scoots a higher DPS than his best daggers.

Current level: 33

Scoots in Stranglethorn Vale

Scoots has been spending most of his time in Gnomeregan and Stranglethorn Vale. Gnomeregan has been frustrating. After several runs, Scoots has never gotten past the first few waves of Dark Iron Dwarves. The dwarves drop these bombs that have area damage effects. They can devaste your group. Someone needs to target the bombs immediately. But, I find it hard to make out the small grey objects (they look like the “rocks” used in the sport of curling). Hopefully, Scoots can hook up with a good tank and healer and we can get past those dark bastards. Scoots also is chompin at the bit for a chance at the big boss, Thermaplugg. He’s gonna stick him good.

Scoots also loves Stranglethorn vale, mainly for the abundance of skinnable wildlife. He has made some gold off of selling leather on the auction house. Scoots can finally handle the Venture Co. geologists. They drop some great loot. He scored a wolffear harness there today.