Silkroad Online Forums

So as Cata was released I decided to start a new character, as it has been over a year since I played, so going through the low level stuff again should be fun. Highest I have ever got before on official was around 5X. But that was a hunter and I could never really get a rhythm going when grinding, so I never really liked it that much.

This time I am working on a warrior, and I love it so far, dinged 27 last night, only started late Sunday night so that’s pretty good I suppose. Seems to be a lot more my style of play, I especially like the way that I have attacks that proc, so I actually have to pay attention when playing, which is nice. I am even liking questing at the moment which is strange, as I have never really liked how much walking around is involved in the questing before. I have also been spending my time doing things that I haven’t done before, so I don’t know if they are new quests added as part of cata, or if I just missed them all last time I went through.

One thing I have never really done however is raid, I did a few times on Pservers that I have played, but only when I was at cap. And I was never a main build in the raid. So my question is, at what level should I start thinking about doing some raids. I know there are quest lines that are based in the dungeons, which give rather good loot. But if it takes a while to get a group ready, surely it is more efficient to just spend the time grinding and doing normal quests.

So I was wondering if anybody has any tips or advice for when I get higher and start to raid and at what level should I start. I know as a tank I will be rather important to keeping things together so I would like to have some experience before getting to the high level raids. Then I will be confident in my own ability, plus I worry that if I leave it to late to start I will be lacking in gear, and it will be harder than it should be which wont be a good mix with my lack of knowledge.

I will probably end up getting bored and needing something to break up all the quests. Plus it is always nice to have somebody to talk to when you are playing, even if it is only for an hour or so.

 

I don’t know if it makes a difference but I play EU server Al’Akir.

85

If your thinking about "Raiding" then you would have to wait till 85, however i think what your talking about is doing "Instances/Dungeons".

Me personally? I did Instances pretty much whenever a quest lead me up to them, not only does the quest give you a lot of EXP/Gold and a nice item (generally), but the Instance itself gives you lots of EXP and some nice items.

Besides, it's always fun to learn the Instances, because chances are when you hit 85 you will be raiding, and you will need to know how to Handel yourself in a Raid, and the way to practice is through instances.

Just make sure, if you are starting to do instances, go to wow.curse and download the DBM (Deadly Boss Mods) addon

Hi there.

I've played on al'akir for the better part of 5 years
And.. I've played a hunter for those past 5 years
And, I also play a warrior fulltime now in Cataclysm.


Anyway, yes, a Warrior does acquire you to pay attention all the time. Especially at the current cap (85 as KeyJ told you). We have a massive arsenal of tools available to us. There's like 15-20 cooldowns you can use besides your normal skills and you have to keep track of what's on cooldown whether you're pvping or pveing.

What spec are you? I suggest Fury for lvling. Arms and Fury are quite even and scale with your Strength quite evenly throughout the lvling process. Basically Arms is currently best for PvP, Fury for PvE, and Protection for either, but mostly PvE.

Raiding is indeed like KeyJ said not that important for you until level 85. There are raids available however at 60, 70 and 80 as these were the end-game content level caps in the beginning of the game, and the last 2 expansions. I would suggest lvling to 85 first because you'd outlevel the gear you might get during these raids since every expansion there's a massive Stat-jump on the items that scale with your character to the new level cap so anything you get is rendered useless a few levels into the expansion at the very most.

For tanking tips, I suggest that you do some dungeons. It's rather easy at the lower levels, especially if you pick up the top-right talent in the Protection tree called Blood and Thunder.
If you pick that up, you will want to Charge in, Rend, Thunder Clap (Thunder clap then applies Rend to all targets within range due to the talent), and then a Demoralizing Shout. Just use your main tanking abilities to gain and keep aggro on the mobs after that (Revenge on Proc, Shield Slam (later on), and Heroic Strike for ragedump purposes which give you extra threat). Use Devastate on bosses and spam it even if you reached 3 stacks of Sunder Armor on it, and use Shield Slam and Revenge whenever available. Also keep Thunder Clap and Demo shout up on bosses as this GREATLY reduces the damage they do and it's prio #1. It doesn't really matter what 1hander you use anymore in terms of it's attack speed, especially at lower levels.

You'll get some important cooldowns on the way up, like Shield Block, Shield Wall, Last Stand etc but by the time you get most of these you'll know how to play.

Have a look at some of the big leveling guilds on Al'akir, there are plenty that would like to have you especially now with the Perks which help you in many ways. Extra XP, extra mount speed, etc.

Addons that are a must for you as a tank, are Omen (It's a threat meter, shows in you dynamic bars how high your threat is, and you can see if someone is about to get aggro or something). DBM (Deadly Boss Mods) which gives you timers and warnings on a boss's special abilities.

If you have any questions fire away