Let The Powerleveling Begin!

After BC came out, I leveled Aticus to 70. However, my level 60 Mage was just sitting there at the top of my character list, twiddling his thumbs, and looking from side to side as if he was up to something. I've decided to take him out of retirement. My buddy and I now have a set schedule, day by day, to take turns playing him through Outland. Ideally, I want to make him a great Frost Crit / Shatter build using Mind Mastery and Spell Power talents.

Now, let me try to explain how it works. In layman's terms: Freeze them to the ground and hurt them bad with ice spells. Now, how do I do that? Well, the 40/00/21 helps. Mind Mastery increases spell damage by 25% of your Int. Spell Power increases crit damage by 50%. Now, add that with the frost talent Ice Shards for another +100% crit damage. That's 150%. Wow. With the Shatter talent, the crit chance of spells is increased by 50% against frozen targets. What does Ice Lance do? If it crits, it does 3 time the damage. A good crit with Frostbolt will also give out about 3,500 damage with about 1000 spell damage.

PVP anyone? :-P

We'll see what happens but I'll be playing 6 hours a day while my friend will do another 6. He has full rested so it should be going fast. I'd guess 2 weeks.

Burnout

Have you ever experienced a time when you just woke out of bed one morning and decided that you did not want to play a video game anymore? It happens to a lot of casual gamers who are on the threshold of hardcore. Sometimes they just want to go and push themselves towards a goal (ie: Beating an FPS, getting level 40 and a mount, etc) only to find that when they reach that goal, the game is no longer fun to play. This has been labeled "Burnout". That usually subsides after a few days or a week and the person goes back to their normal gaming routine.

There's a few ways to deal with burnout. I find the most handy technique is to get together with some friends or family for dinner. It brings you away from the game and lets your mind rest by not thinking about it for a day. If you were grinding out those levels to get to 40 (or even 1-70), then a good long break will suit you. In this case, then find a TV show you enjoy and buy the DVD Boxset/s. Pick up a good book; one that suits your liking. You'll be amazed how far you can get by reading one good book. Another option is to spend some time volunteering at a local organization or church. Businesses are always looking for an extra hand. Pay a visit to your Park & Rec and ask if they have a list of places you can go volunteer. You can really fill in your normal gaming hours with volunteering hours.

One last solution is to take a break before the burnout happens. This can be done by devoting a few days a week to any of the suggestions listed above. Slowly cutting down your hours is the most effective way to stop the burnout before it hits.

Have you ever experienced a burnout? Share you story in the comments and if you have any other tips, please feel free to leave them as well.