The Warlocks Den - WoW Warlock Discussions

Ok, so you have just hit level 80. Now what ?
First off : Grats, that is very nice.
Second off : now what ?

After reaching level 80, many people will be at a lost. I know i was when i hit level 70 and again at level 80.
Luckily for us, the game has many more rewards and options for us after we hit level 80. Even more so then pre 80 i would dare say.

I will try to give a global description of all the things we can do and try to give proper links to more in depth guides on the seperate subjects guides and discussions that give a lot of added information.

So, in short, what can we do at level 80 ?
Well, a shortlist would be :

General :

- prepare and choose PVE or PVP or both.
- Profession mastering.
- Finishing old stuff.
- Make a lot of money.
- Get that epic flyer.
- Get the fun stuff.
- Achievements.

PVE :

- Soloing a bunch of stuff.
- Dungeons, instances etc.
- Raiding.
- Harassment ( take revenge on all NPC's that killed you before ).

PVP :

- Battlegrounds.
- Arena's.
- harassment ( just a short and selfish fun, dont do it please.. ).

General :


Prepare and choose PVE or PVP or both.

In the early days of WoW ( before patch 3.1 ) everyone would be strongly urged to choose a path. Either you go PVP ( player versus player ) OR you would go PVE ( player versus environment. )
Still, it would be a nice thing to choose, since he more you focus on one side of the game, the better you get at it, and the faster you progress.
But mainly it was a cost issue. If you did both, you would have to respec your talents, and change gear. This would end up costing a LOT of gold. Now, with 3.1 having brought us the dual spec option, this is much less the case.
However, several subsections might still require their own optimal builds. For example PVP battlegrounds may require a different spec then PVP arena. Thus you would still be "cheaper" by choosing what you want.
Also when you keep changing, you may not get as good at it as when you focus, and a lot will depend on time spend.
So making choices will always help.

Profession mastering.

Most likely you will not have all your professions maxed out. You might want to do this now, since they will now start reaping rewards. Chances are your professions will get you some good gear or gear upgrades an give you a chance to make some extra money. Or other bonuses, like food with buffs by cooking and even catching fish. So don’t just level the main professions, but also the secondary. They DO give useful rewards for the less then filthy rich amongst us.

Finishing old stuff.

How ? What ? Why ?
Well, we all know that to move forward, one should set him/herself free of old burdens. But heck, there is more:
Finish all quest in your quest log, and all zones / quest ( higher level ones ) that you have not yet finished. Instead of XP, they will give you extra gold on top of the normal quest rewards. This might give you some better gear then you already have. Work towards achievements, and bring you lot of cash. Which you will undoubtedly need. ( and it feels good to finish those quests you where unable to finish before )

Make a lot of money.

Money is an important part of the next pat of the game. You will need it to better your tradeskills, profession maxing, getting that epic flyer you probably don’t have yet, buy gear upgrades, enchants, gems, scrolls, glyphs, buffs, foods and drinks, pay for repairs etcetera etcetera, and so on, and so on.

You can make money by :
- Standard ah playing.
- Using your professions
- Finishing all quests.
- Do the daily quests.
- Grind.
- More ......

Money making is a trade apart, but the dailies and quests will cover a lot.

Get that epic flyer.

Trust me, and if you don’t, well, try it or ask all those that have one.
You want this baby. 280% flight speed. This will make life MUCH MUCH better. Do you remember getting your first mount ? Then getting the epic ? and then noticing that your first flyer was slow, especially compared to the epic steed?
Well, the epic flyer is like going from walking without a steed (walk speed, not run speed ) directly to your epic land mount. Which is, after all, only a 100% increase on RUN speed. It is AWESOME. get it. It will also make doing quests and gathering for professions and travelling from point a to point b a breeze. Even faster then from flight point to flight point. ( those are a tad fasted, about 300% but you now fly in a straight line. You wont even get a chance to smoke a cigarette while flying from one side of the continent to the other end. And people will have to wait a LOT less for you. ( flying regular travel might take 10 minutes, now you would be there in under 3. Big difference when waiting eh ? )

Get the fun stuff.

This is more to keep busy, do something else keep having fun. Will have no other use then enjoy your characters and thus the game more. Get that haircut, that nice dress / tux. Kill that level 30 elite that kept killing you when you where level 25. etcetera etcetera. Keep some fun going.

Achievements.

Also, mostly a fun stuff thingy. Achievements are things you can "achieve" / do and will be announced when you get them to friends / guild chat etcetera ). Mostly that’s the only reward you get from them. Some will give you some vanity pets ( useless pets, just look fun if you like showing off ) or a title or tabard here and there, and some ( world achievements ) might give you a Violet Proto-Drake. But that’s a world achievement and you will have to finish many of te world events to get that one.
World of Warcraft Europe -> Info -> Basics - > Achievement Tips

PVE :

Soloing a bunch of stuff.

You could start of soloing everything you haven’t completed yet. Including some old school dungeons and instances. Why ? because you can and it might net you some cash. Bt mostly for personal pleasure. ( except for the quests at higher level those you do for cash )
This is the first step in getting better gear, together with crafting / buying. You might skip this one if the gear / group is good enough to start running dungeons. Or if you have enough money to buy all you wish for.

Dungeons, instances etc.

The regular dungeons are for you to get some better gear and experience for the things to come in PvE. See them as practice runs with added gear improvement bonus.
This is the second step in obtaining better gear . Most can also be bought tough, but will be VERY expensive.

Raiding :

Here you start the real progress for PvE in WoW.
You start in the lower dungeons / instances / heroics / raids and work your way up as your gear improves.
You will very likely have to run some instances over and over before the gear you want drops. When all is yours, move one step up.

Remember : Here your actions will not only apply to your own results, but also affect the game play of others. So it will be your duty to be as prepared as possible, have the best possible foods and drinks, damage and such ready. For if you mess up, everyone dies. Everyone will have to spend more time and money to progress. Please keep an eye on that. ( don’t overdo it, but make sure you don’t come in greens, while everyone is in purple and going into a high end raid. Teamwork and Team Thinking are important here. If you don’t want to play your part, don’t do it. It will waste many other peoples evening.)
Also, serious raiding will more often then not demand a large and dedicated input of time from everyone. Set evenings and times for all to be online and play the game together. Tough sometimes guilds and pugs will allow for less stringent demands, often you will either have the time and dedication to raid as much and when with the group, or you don’t. Not often there will be a in between road.

Harassment

( take revenge on all NPC's that killed you before ).
This is again just fun. Back to that elite, enjoy killing him. Over and over again. Revenge can be sweet.

PVP :


Battlegrounds.

Many people coming online and fighting each other, in an effort to be the boss in a territory, kill as many people from opposing faction. Chaos and fun.
Will also net you some nice points to spend on better PvP gear. ( which is different from PvE gear.

Arena's

Here you get to do some close combat. Create a team, or solo, do 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 or 5v5 I believe. Besides a few 2v2 matches i never did much of this. Got wasted way to much, way to fast. Wasn’t my thing during The Burning Crusade, will try again soon.
Rewards : good gear, especially for PvP. the better you get, the higher you rank. This is a real competition, and for the x vs. x;s you can go in with a set team.
Aka you and friends playing together, wasting other teams. Get ranked higher and higher as you get better and receive better gear. Very much gear + skill based. Fast paced. And you can play whenever you and the rest of your small team can and want to. The server will auto match you with similar ranked teams, and sometimes with higher and lower ranked teams. But wins and losses will get you points, and winning from higher ranked will net you more. ( but will be much much harder )

harassment

( just a short and selfish fun, don’t do it please.. ).
You probably heard from it happening, higher level people harassing / ganking the lower levels. Especially on PvP servers. Don’t, its just nasty. But can be fun from time to time.

Links :

Hit cap : About getting + hit to never miss again and general higher dps.
What's the Hit cap Mr. Wolf? - The Warlocks Den Forums

Having trouble with your dps :
Having Problems with your DPS?

Dailies for getting the money coming in and getting Reputations.
Wrath of the Lich King Dailies List! (Index) - The Warlocks Den Forums

Gearing for Naxx : To prepare your gear for the first raiding sessions.
Gearing your Warlock: Getting ready for Naxx edition

Great consumable guide for locks :
Warlock Consumables Guide
I will try and collect some nice links for :
Gear PvP PvE
Dungeons / Raids and bosses.
Enchants, professions, gems, hit caps, optimising dps and game play PvP and PvE as soon as possible.

For now...... Feedback on the storyline please, and some links to add ?

Looking for links and info for ( split by PvP and PvE ) :
Stats : Hit cap, spell power, spell penetration, resilience etcetera.
Gear : Links to the latest up to date gear lists. Pre raid, raid, pre PvP and order to get PvP gear.
Dailies : links to daily guides.
Rep guides : faction + rewards + how-to guides and maybe ordered.

Feedback on the text itself, spelling mistakes, errors in the guide ( did i speak untrue somewhere / made a mistake etcetera )
All feedback is welcomed, positive feedback ( which can be used to improve upon this guide ) is loved and especially sought after.
Trash feedback ( trashing this attempt ) is appreciated IF you do better :P ( and bring it nicely, hehe, I am a delicate flower at times )

Greets
pervy

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teach me :P