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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsChoose My Adventure: The birth of Turpen, Gnome Warlock
by Alex Ziebart 
May 22nd 2009 at 2:00AM
The polls are closed and the votes have been tallied. The audience has decided that for this little experiment, I am going to play a Gnome Warlock while I track my misadventures on my profile. As mentioned in the original post, most of the decisions regarding this character's growth will be made by you, our readers. I'll give weekly updates on my progress via the blog here, but so much more will be happening over on my profile. I've already started a photo album which will contain screenshots of my little 'lock as he goes from level 1 to level 80.
I've already rolled the character and I've named him Turpen, in homage to a certain Englishman on the WoW.com team. I've decided to play a male, because... well, I usually play female characters as you can see on my character list. Let's be different this time around! However, dear readers, there is still more for you to decide. There are three polls behind the cut below. Professions and my talent tree.
Update: Turpen has hit level 10, so polls will close at midnight tonight! The next status update will come early next week. For now, let's talk talents over on my blog!
| Blacksmithing | |
|---|---|
| Alchemy | |
| Engineering | |
| Jewelcrafting | |
| Leatherworking | |
| Inscription | |
| Tailoring | |
| Enchanting |
| Mining | |
|---|---|
| Herbalism | |
| Skinning |
| Demonology | |
|---|---|
| Destruction | |
| Affliction |
There were some questions as to why I did the polls the way I did in the original post, putting both class and race up at the same time, with race taking precedence over class. There were a couple reasons for it. One, if class took precedence, I think there was potential there to severely limit the potential outcomes. I didn't want a situation where Druid won, and then Tauren and Night Elf were the only race options. That's pretty lame! I also could have done two posts with individual polls. That would have worked, but it also would have made this thing take multiple days before I even rolled a character. That's not fun for any of us. It would be a waiting game for me, and I'm confident all of you would have gotten bored. So Gnome Warlock it is. Don't worry though! If this thing takes off, we may continue doing it. Perhaps I can sucker a team member into playing a Tauren Shaman once I've hit 80!
Head on over to my WoW.com profile for further discussion! I'm currently looking for Warlock mod recommendations over there!
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 6)
Ozewa May 22nd 2009 3:53AM
1:
The votes for Gnomes did not outnumber the votes for Draenei. but...
2:
Depending on which metric you were using, Draenei Shaman has the highest combination of votes at 3218
where Gnome Warlock got 3097 (close to a 4% difference)
3:
You should definately level destro, it is the most interesting of the three specs. Also the most challenging to play while leveling. By challening, I mean horrendously stupidly weak.
Tailoring/Enchanting is great, and a great money maker until you hit northrend, but Tailor/Herbalism is better, and it will give you a healing spell.
4: Warlocks are an integral part of raids. Enjoy playing your warlock, lord knows I haven't.
Nauscicaa May 22nd 2009 3:58AM
Didn't we vote for a Gnome Shaman? ;)
Too bad you picked the winning race over the winning class, gnomes are so not interesting to watch, even when scraping them from between my Tauren toes they're hardly worth to look at :p
Good luck on levelling and make him Demo spec'd, or affliction if you must, just not destruction, you're a warlock, not a mage!
theRaptor May 22nd 2009 4:15AM
I thought you were talking about the iLevel of the epic craftables. And what do you mean "nothing else benefits the user, for a bonus of 0 itemization points"? You have all the devices. Which aren't PVE focused but maybe that should give you a clue about Blizzards aim for engineering.
That doesn't make engineering "absolutely abhorrent". It makes it "not optimal for PVE". Just like skinning/mining aren't the professions you choose to maximize your PVE abilities.
I really don't like the perks because people feel compelled to min-max them. I liked them better when they just gave you some easy epics that you would eventually replace.
Jazzman May 22nd 2009 6:41AM
I'm afraid I have to agree with the Raptor here. Rilgon and others are confusing the point of the profession. It's not to give you good ilvl gear or unique pve buffs/enchants. This was pretty obvious to me as a new player back in the day. Leatherwrking made my character a bit stronger, alchemy gave me potions to use (now days read beter potions) and engineering gave me crazy and interesting toys. Despite all the passionate debate to and fro and all the years it is exactly the SAME scenario. Some seem to want professions to be just like classes and be a different flavour of the same. That's not clearly the case especially with the crazy cousin of engineering.
Before leatherworking wrist enchants and engineering goggles and everything else guess what people saw as the perks of engineering, thats right repair bots. They gave you no individual advantage and were a welcome but totally superfluous time saving device. I think if your honest and baseline insightful enough youll easily see that engineering has always been about crazy flavour gadgets that add nothing new to the game but let you do existing things in new and sometimes convenient ways.
I think somewhere along the line people have lost the concept of what some professions are about and adopted the old adage of "Every child (profession) has won and each must get a prize".
Nolls74 May 22nd 2009 11:54AM
For the love of god, SHUT UP about engineering.
darf May 22nd 2009 4:15AM
Good luck Alex, I'll be rooting for you! and maybe even stopping in on turpentwo from time to time to see how you're doing.
Scritch May 22nd 2009 4:20AM
I think he needs a mad scientist hair style, in pink.
Stephen May 22nd 2009 4:28AM
Demonology is the single strongest leveling spec, playing a warlock, i would know.
Many class-oriented quests involve learning how to use and acquire pets, which falls under demonology, and soul link is the single best point a warlock will spend in survivability so that he may complete his quests without dieing.
By the Time the warlock Reaches level 50, he will have access to the Felguard talent if he specced into demonology. The Felguard's Intercept ability allows the warlock to deal damage while a foe is unable to counterattack, often killing the foe before he is able to react. Anguish allows the pet to maintain threat and act as a personal tank for the warlock for foes too great to take down in a few blows.
Overall, the demonology tree is a solid choice for any leveling warlock.
Xanwryn May 22nd 2009 5:05AM
Depends. We talking 3.1 here? I haven't levelled a Warlock in a LONG time (back in the 2.4 days heh) and I'd personally like to know what the better levelling spec is now. Back in 2.4 I levelled as Affliction, preferred to drain tank over anything in Demonology, but this was for levelling purposes (preferred Affliction anyways).
Zimbapina May 22nd 2009 4:33AM
Eh... Looks like its gonna be engineering with mining, talk about boring, and unimaginative....
Fung May 22nd 2009 5:09AM
woe is lock, i hadn't considered it since i'm not leveling anymore, but the affliction leveling style might be dead with the recent change to fear. sooo many levels and dailies were dotdot fear and forget, chaining mob after mob until you're worried about corpse despawn and go back to loot your trail of doom.
elfennau May 22nd 2009 5:19AM
Dotdotdotdot(drain or SB, depending), refresh as needed, profit. :)
elfennau May 22nd 2009 5:20AM
And I've got a gnome warlock at 78 right now, affliction the whole way, and its been fantastic for leveling.
Fung May 22nd 2009 6:04PM
yeah, but actually standing around killing mobs one at a time (or even just juggling one while you kill another) isn't sufficiently afflic-ey for me. one on one personal time with the things im killing just isn't for me--i'm a busy man.
i always considered affliction to be like "fist of the north star", where you can calmly assert "you are already dead" and walk away with confidence to do other things.
it's not that afflic isn't _a_ good leveling spec, it's that it's not _the_ good leveling i loved BECAUSE i could chain mobs morning till night with no reason to stop other than to loot. i loved sunwell dailies because i'd be dotting my fourth or fifth mob before the first mob came crawling back to me just in time to die close to me for my looting convenience. hodir dalies were great like that too.
Hoaxs May 22nd 2009 5:11AM
What no Gnome Shammy? :(
I think a good old Gnome needs Engineering/Enchanting with Skinning or Mining. I guessed for tree as i've not played a lock seriosly.
elfennau May 22nd 2009 5:17AM
Mmm affliction. But you should have told us what other professions your other characters have. You should try something new!
artifex May 22nd 2009 5:59AM
BTW if anyone wants to play the antithesis, I've been thinking it's undead rogue.
Can be immune to fear, and can sneak up and bop you on the head.
Futue May 22nd 2009 6:54AM
Lol
"Turpens Log - Entry 308915
/sadpanda
been ganked by that stupid UD rogue.... again!
suspiciously named Atrifex"
artifex May 23rd 2009 5:06AM
Heh, Futue. I'm actually playing a gnome warlock as my main, so you can imagine I spend a lot of time thinking about rogues. And undead. And undead rogues.
BTW, Alex, I will expect you to do the original quest for the epic riding mount, and not just pay the trainer like a wuss. If you like Feat of Strength achievements, the real quest will get you one.
Sinthar May 22nd 2009 6:04AM
hmmm Choose your Adventure eh? KK.......
I choose you to........
..........Get Loremaster Achievement.
Now that should keep you going for a bit.
MUHAHAHAHA