To Tanaan and Back

I’ve been playing World of Warcraft almost exclusively.  I’m not sure what it is, but I’m switching between characters like mad leveling them.

I’ve even managed to get a Warrior to Dreanor, something that has been a real slog for me.  What is it about that class which seems so clunky to me, when my son, nephew and sister all love it as their favorite class?

I dragged her to Draenor because she’s my blacksmith and I wanted her to make armor for my Paladin and Death Knight, the next classes I wanted to move through Draenor to level 100.  Now that she’s there and surviving well enough, I’m thinking I’ll let her advance instead.

My Hunter made level 100 a couple of weeks ago.  My strategy with her was to do every quest in each area of Draenor.  By the time I finished Talador, she just needed a box or so in Spires of Arak to level up.   I’m continuing the Spires and will do the dreaded Nagrand when she finishes Spires.  Since she has skinning, all those animals shouldn’t be so arduous.

I used to be a total completionist with my characters and wouldn’t move them on to a new area until they had completed every quest in their current place.  Working through that way also feels like it gives the character more gold and better armor.  I’m going to use that method for everyone else who hits Dreanor.

The Hunter is my first Draenor character who could kill every single elite, Gold or Silver, that she came across.  I do keep wishing she had some sort of stealth, as my daily outings in the Tanaan Jungle are much more challenging.  As her item levels go up, it is a bit easier.

I’m having her work towards Draenor Pathfinder.  I still don’t feel flying is of much interest in Draenor proper, but I would really like to fly in Tanaan.  There seem to be quite a few places that can only be entered one way, with other possible avenues blocked.

Lock ups

I have been having total game lockups, particularly in the Spires of Arak. I have to do a hard reboot, at least once a session.  It is so annoying.  I’m not seeing this with characters in other areas of the world.

Paladins

I said last time Paladins were perfect tanks.  Silly me.  I had two in a row in Burning Crusade level dungeons who were in la la land as far as noticing other players in the dungeon.  One kept pulling huge amounts of mobs and everyone died like five times in a row.  The other just ran ahead of everyone, leaving us in a few dicey situations.

Good Dungeon/Bad Dungeon

Once again the prolific Syp of Biobreak has intriguing thoughts. Today, he talks about what makes a dungeon a good or bad experience for him.  He gloriously has been in dungeons in a wide variety of games.

Although I meant at one time to try out dungeons in many of the games I play, my experiences in Neverwinter and Rift sort of killed that idea.  All of my Pugging/Dungeoneering XP comes from World of Warcraft.  I’ve sent every single class through dungeons of all levels.  Even if I haven’t been playing a particular class for awhile, I can pretty quickly adapt and play through.  I’ve been through most dungeons dozens of times.

With my Wowish background in mind, here is what makes for a good or bad dungeon run.

A Good Run

Everyone plays their role to the best of their abilities.

The dungeon and its challenges are taken in stride, and at a reasonable pace.

People at least say hello.

The Tank stays with the group and tanks.

The Healer heals.

I get some good loot, and I welcome even junky loot I can sell.

Everyone is reasonable about Loot Rolls.

Everyone stays with the dungeon group for the entire run.

The tank is a Paladin!  My favorite tanks.  They never do anything wrong 🙂

A Bad Run

The Tank leaves right away.

The Tank runs ahead of everyone paying no attention to the fate of the rest of the group. 

A person who feels they are all big and bad and damage dealing posts DPS numbers.

Speaking of posting…the people whose add-ons post every move they’ve made and attack they’ve blocked….zzzz…..you’re killin’ me.

Hunters, Monks and Death Knights who grab aggro constantly.  These are the three classes that are guilty almost every time there’s a problem.

One or more people take the time to be ugly to their fellow human beings.  I don’t ever want to know what a vile, hate filled piece of scum anyone is.  I really don’t.

Everyone dies pretty early on because of one of the above and everyone leaves the dungeon.

95% percent of the time if you find you’re the fifth person in a group who belong to the same guild, something bad will happen to you.   When our own guild was running dungeons, I was so aware of this, and tried to make sure the person felt welcomed and that they weren’t going to have a bad experience.

Let the Adventures of 2016 Begin!

2015 was a fine enough year in gaming.  The new year is always the exciting one, so many worlds, so many stories, so much possibility!

Biobreak’s Syp has a nice post plotting out which mmo will be his new virtual home for 2016.  It’s an intriguing idea and way of looking at things.  His choice of Final Fantasy wasn’t a surprise because he’s already said he is burned out by the other choices in other posts.

This led me to think maybe I should try visiting or revisiting some mmos.  Final Fantasy sounds good from what I read because of its dungeons and housing.   There isn’t anything else there that appeals to me though.

I love Elder Scrolls but didn’t like what I saw in the late beta of the world.  Not Tamriel like at all.  I also dislike that the Imperial City is a pvp zone, and, unless I’m reading it wrong, in order to enjoy the crafting game you have to join a crafting guild. And you need to go to the pvp zone to sell your wares.

Maybe I should give Star Trek Online another look.  I loved the space game there, but little else.  It really was like being in space, with your own ship and exploring vast expanses.  Space combat was a hoot.

Star Wars The Old Republic   I eventually got over Wow taking so many guildies away from Galaxies, but, Galaxies was closed down to make room for this sterile mess.   Hard to get over that one.   I’m put off by what I read about the monetization.  Do you really have to purchase emotes with real monies?   Do they really have their little cash registers at the ready to charge you for every small thing?   No wookiees. No Rodians. No Mon Calamari.  No Trandoshans. No Ithorians. No Bothans.  No rare Sullustans.    Just Twi’leks and Zabraks carrying over and bland humanoid variants.   32 Classes…no….4 Jedi Variants, Bounty Hunter, Smuggler, 2 Soldier variants.   It is so hard for me to wrap my head around the blandness of the character design.  The only appeal given these things would be if the stories were excellent and immersive and if we see more worlds and locations from the Star Wars universe than we’ve seen before.

Project Gorgon   I haven’t tried it at all, but it sounds like a wonderful rpg-like game with great doses of wit and humor.  How impressive it is being done by a team of two.  I’ll try it upon release.

Ark: Survival Evolved   It sounds like people are having a blast in this game, but I’m not in the mood for dinosaurs and insta-death.  I find the splintering into private servers rather than a unified world server to be game breaking.  You can’t exactly jump in and try it out, right?

Crowfall   Despite it being a full pvp game, the world seems rich and maybe I can sneak in at release and try it out for a few spectacular deaths before slinking away.

Camelot Unchained  Just announced a deep crafting system in another pvp world where we know I have no chance at even moments of life.  Maybe again, another peek before death and dishonor.

Plenty to Play Already!

World of Warcraft    The new expansion coming out waaay next summer has nonetheless mobilized me to level up characters.  I’m thinking one of each of my favorite classes ready at 100 on the two servers I play on.   The world is huge, and crafting before Draenor is so much fun.  I find each time a character gets to Draenor and gets their very own garrison, I am so happy and proud of them.   I really do love the storylines of Draenor.  For the first time in the game I became immersed in the lore, and became attached to npc characters.  Yrel, Maraad and Thaelin!  How I do love them.

Lord of the Rings Online   Although my main character was left hanging long ago in disappointing Lothlorien, I have her positioned right where she left off and I’m ready to move her though further adventures in Middle Earth.   She’s a Hunter, with the most wonderful bow animations in any game.  I happen to be leveling a Hunter in World of Warcraft at this time as well, and it reminds me of how much I like this class in any world where it is available.

Star Wars Galaxies, Emuland Edition

There was a wonderful article this week at Rock, Paper Shotgun that talked about Galaxies and Everquest emus.   Though they talked with someone from the NGE emu, the article got just right the absolute joy of being able to walk and play and live in a world which had been lost when it officially was shut down.

Before entering the world of Star Wars Galaxies again in April of last year, I pictured many times in my mind bringing up the game world, hearing the music for Coronet (my favorite city) load and just being immersed in a Star Wars universe like no other.  Now here I am, with characters to level, goods to sell, incomparable adventures to be had.

Rift   This ever intriguing world is one I like to log into a couple of times a week at least.  There is something about the music, the world, the crafting, the amazing housing, the Instant Adventures and the huge and varied landscape that draws me in.  It is an exotic world full of treasures.

Everquest 2    My little wizard is poised in the Commonlands (still) awaiting her adventures.  Talk about a deep world full of adventure, stories and treasures.  I know it has much to offer and I just need to stop in a few times a week to swashbuckle my way through the world.  I did purchase the new expansion and so now I have access to all of the expansions.  This may be a game I subscribe to once I am established.

Secret World    This atmospheric puzzler of a game is so well done.  I’ve never seen anything quite like it.  Anytime I’m in the open world, I find myself looking over my shoulder in case something is sneaking up on me.  Time to get back to that door code.

Wildstar   Yikes, this game is so much fun and frenetic.    I see people saying they don’t like the combat, but it’s like anything, you just figure out how it works and do you what you need to to stay alive.  For all of the complaints of World of Warcraft being “cartoony” over the years, forget about it, THIS is a cartoony world.  Love that crazy announcer.    My main character here is a medic, and I need to focus on moving her forward through this sproingy, action packed world.

Guild Wars 2   I didn’t purchase Heart of Thorns because I’ve not gotten far in this game.  I think I have yet to settle on a particular character and class that I like so that I’ll move forward here.  I think I feel it is lacking in story and immersion in the world somehow.  Maybe as I move forward.

As if that weren’t enough….

Fallout Four   I love Fallout 4 so much.  It is a dangerous world, I die like a fly.  My doggie and I continue to explore the Wasteland.   I’m avoiding starting a settlement because I don’t want to be tied down to it until I’ve seen everything.   Silly perhaps, but in a single player game you get to call all the shots.

Steamy  As if I didn’t have Mass Effect 3 and DragonAge Inquisition to adventure through, I was a fish for the Steam sale for the first time ever.

Thanks to my exciting IntPiPomo win  🙂    I have episode one of Life is Strange to try out.

Steam sale wise I scooped up:

Dear Esther (not on sale but long on my acquire list)
Grim Fandango Remastered
Icewind Dale Enhanced Edition
L.A Noire
The Witcher 1,2,3
Broken Age
The Park (Secret World standalone)

Tomb Raider: Rise of the Tomb Raider may be coming out at the end of January, a year before originally predicted.  Snare it, you say.

Even without trying out any new to me mmos, I should be busy busy busy till this time next year.

Happiest Gaming 2016 to you!