August 2010

The Escape from Durnholde – and Beyond

stargrace August 25, 2010 0Comment

Pictured above, is Perky Pug – a reward for completing heroic dungeons with 100 random people. I want this little cute vanity pet bad. It’s the sweetest little thing I’ve ever seen. With my warlock now at a comfortable 68 I don’t think it’s too far out of reach.

Last night was my first time through the dungeon ‘The Escape from Durnholde‘ – and it was a LOT of fun. You’ve first got to obtain access through a short series of quests in the Caverns of Time. You’re then sent back 7 years to help young Thrall escape Durnholde, and start his journey as ruler. The zone is also where I got the awesome sombrero pictured above. I really wish World of Warcraft had appearance slots.

Afterward I did the zone ‘Opening of the Dark Portal‘ which is a giant 18 step ring event. I was INCREDIBLY thankful for deadly boss mod, which has now become a staple in my WoW mod collection. I don’t know how on earth I ever survived without this particular mod. As a new player experiencing most of these things for the first time it has proven to be invaluable. I have a feeling that had I been using this mod while playing my healer, I may feel differently about the instances I was doing, and able to understand the particulars of the fights a little more.

The warlock picked up some nice upgrades, and I’m really looking forward to hitting 70 which is when I get my first version of seeds of destruction. I plan on getting a 2nd spec then, one is purely AoE damage (ie: instances) and the other will be for soloing or questing where I’m rarely dealing with more then one encounter at a time. Since I already have a level 80 I was also able to purchase the heirloom arctic flying manual, so my little warlock can head to Northrend without having to worry about being able to fly. I’m pretty excited about that.

I’ve queued up for a few dungeons now with the LFD tool – and while it IS longer then having to look on my priest, it’s not horrible at this level. The longest I’ve had to wait is 30 minutes, and I typically spend my time questing in between. I do miss playing the priest some, and I’m looking forward to dipping my toes back into playing her on occasion. I’ve got a 35 druid as well that I’ll eventually level through the ranks.

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

Getting Over My LFD Fears

stargrace August 24, 2010 1Comment

The warlock is 66, and working her way through Burning Crusade. I like this expansion better then the basic game, but less then wrath. I’m eager to hit 68 which is when I’ll be able to head to Wrath areas finally, and since I’ve got a level 80 already I can purchase the heirloom flying manual and fly from the start. After 5+ years I am finally over my fear of WoW PUGs (pick up groups, for those who are not gamers). Just because I’m playing a DPS role doesn’t mean that I’m exactly guilt free. It’s my job to make sure that the healer has a soul stone on them at all times, I also have to watch how much DPS I do so that I don’t gank. I need to make sure I don’t accidentally wipe the group by doing any number of random dumb accidental things. It’s not as involved as a healer or a tank, but I’ve still got things to do.

Now that I’m getting over my fear of running the LFD tool, I think with time I’ll feel more confident playing the healer in instances as well. Having two drastically different classes at level 80 is a nice feeling (even though I’m not 80 yet, it’ll come). When I’m ready for a little excitement I’ll switch back to the healer. Maybe once I learn the zones on a DPS class I’ll feel more confident about doing them on the priest.

Ah yes. Forgot about that EVE post I wanted to do! That’s next on my list..

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

A Different Path

stargrace August 22, 2010 5Comments

It never fails. When I start playing an MMO I typically always role the same types of characters. Healers, or support classes. This would be why I have a plethora of healers on EQ2, EQ, LotRo, and yes, even WoW (80 priest). As it would happen though I learned an important lesson this week. It’s ok NOT to play your ‘usual’ class in a game. When I was playing WoW as my priest I was constantly stressed. I found healing people (mostly people who had no idea what they were doing and were very literally all over the place) difficult, I found myself questioning my ability as a healer because I would take the blame for everyone else’ actions. This is the wrong way to play WoW. If you play this way you will slowly drive yourself crazy (as I found out). It made LFD one of the single most stressful things I’d ever done. This week I decided ‘it’s a game.’ If you’re not having FUN playing a game, and it’s work – why are you playing it?!

I like WoW. I like how casual it can be while I’m playing other games like EVE. I like that I can log in and almost instantly be doing something instead of having to wait around for hours. What I didn’t like, was playing my priest. I decided to start over with a ‘new’ main since I was starting over on a new server already. I have played various characters through to the 20’s before, but had never gotten a warlock past that magical number, even though it was one class that I had the most interest in.

For the past three days I spent almost all of my in game time working on this warlock. She’s now level 61, and I have to admit – I simply love the class. I mean, in that WOW look how FUN the game can be way. It wasn’t WoW’s fault that I wasn’t enjoying my stay. It was all about me playing the wrong class.

I looked up some warlock mods. Necrosis is now my new best friend. I also got deadly boss mod, which I wonder how I survived without. Suddenly the game is not this stressful horrible place that I spend my time but it’s actually FUN. Who would have thought. In order to level the warlock so fast I decided to get a recruit-a-friend account between myself. I paid $20 for the base game and gained 10 days of burning crusade which allowed me to create a blood elf and level through the content quite fast. The benefit of a recruit-a-friend account (aside from the 300% bonus in experience which is simply insane) is that the RAF can ‘grant’ your main veteran account levels. For every 2 levels they gain, they can grant one (so long as the veteran character is not higher level). This works up to level 60. Not only do I have this new warlock that I enjoy very much, but I can level another character to 30 and grant them enough levels to reach 60. I haven’t decided what character I want to do this with yet. I’m thinking shaman or perhaps paladin.

It’s nice to know the game is still fun to me, now that I’m playing the right class.

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!