2010
stargrace 59 Achieved, and Dalaran Visited
I absolutely love this view, it’s the inscription trainer in Dalaran, and the rows upon rows of books just appeals to me on so many levels. Of course in the center is my little (not so little) tauren shaman, who inched her way to level 59 yesterday! One level away from owning her first flying mount, and exploring Outlands in full. I’m pretty excited. Of course this is all part of my ‘I need level 65 so I can craft’ expedition, but it certainly helps that the shaman is fun to play.
Some differences I have noticed. I’ve got a dual spec on her, but tend to stick with the restoration (healer) side of things for convenience. At her level I don’t find the heals very handy. She has three heals, one is a chain heal and two are direct heals. The shaman works a lot like a support class via totems, and another huge issue I have is agro control. When the priest gets agro she has fade, and she’s also got her instant cast shield that she can put up to duck out of instantly being smushed. The shaman on the other hand has no instant cast heals, and no instant cast de-agros (or any at all for that matter) and if she’s got agro the best I can hope for is to heal myself and use my one ‘lose threat’ skill that has a long recast and is only single target. Now, maybe I’m missing something but from forum posts I’ve read this seems to be an issue that a lot of shaman have, not just myself.
I’m not sure if the restoration spec is worth it – when I already have a priest, who can heal “better”. Thoughts? If I’m running an instance and am playing a full blown healer, I’m expecting the priest to do better (although I’ve heard a lot of people using paladins to heal so of course I created one of those too).
I also discovered the most ANNOYING quest ever. No doubt a few of you have run into this one before. It’s the one where you require to be .. milked. I know, doesn’t that sound delightful? As if the traumatic experience of being milked were not enough, in order to get to that stage you have to be poisoned by a giant spider inside of an instance, and NOT cure yourself (or anyone else doing the quest). Then you have to walk back to the npc and turn the quest in while poisoned. Sounds easy? Well. This particular poison causes you to fling spider webs at anyone infected in close range, and root them to the floor. Of course since both Manos and I were doing the quest we spent almost an hour flinging spider webs at one another and sticking the the floor. Taking three steps only to be rooted to the floor again.
Thankfully once you’re outside the dungeon and mounted, the spiderwebs no longer affect you (you get a “you’re mounted!” message) and you can proceed to the npc for milking. *shudders* I’m going to have nightmares about that one for a long time.
I also managed to take the shaman to Dalaran (thank you mage who ported) and bind her to the inn there. I love Dalaran, and I’m sure Shattrah would have been a sight to see too when Burning Crusade was “end game”. There are so many people all over the place both horde and alliance. Channels are bustling and the game just feels so alive. I miss having central locations where people can get together, much like PoK in EQ1. EQ2 lacks this with guild halls taking everyone out of the world and into their own little caves.
I know a lot of people are upset about the newest round of Cataclysm announcements, and the fact that a lot of ‘features’ have been chopped, but I’m going to wait until it actually comes out (such a long wait) before making any judgment calls. There’s still so much time before it goes live that there’s no reason for me to get up in arms quite yet. I was reading over the shaman talent changes and felt my anger rising, only to realize that there’s no reason to get upset because chances are things will go through numerous changes. After playing MMOs for so long it’s something I’ve now come to expect.
Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!
Progress is Progress
I’m trying very hard to get both my shaman and my death knight to level 65 (and hopefully the death knight to level 68 and the shaman one day to 80) so that they can begin working on getting their crafting past their current caps of 375. Yesterday along with Manos, the shaman managed to inch her way past level 56, and hit 57. Scholomance was on the schedule, and I also decided to pick up duel spec for 1,000 gold. I have only ever purchased this before for my priest who can very clearly have a heal line and a dps line. The shaman is much the same way and so I’ve got a restoration (I believe that’s the name of it) spec and also went down enhancement which I believe is what the melee spec is called. I was thinking of going down the elemental (I think that’s it) dps spec which is spell casting, but I thought it may be better to save my mana for when I do actually cast heals, and just go down the melee line. Besides, who doesn’t love the look of duel wielding!
The instances were fun and fairly quick, of course that’s to be expected when you’ve got a level 80 tanking everything for you. I find the shaman a little more complicated than the priest because I’ve got no de-agro, and no emergency ward I can stick up to prevent being attacked. Due to my lower level I’m used to “accidentally” pulling everything in a room, and I’ve had to come up with creative methods of staying alive.
I also completed Dire Maul, and it was my first time through the entire zone (to obtain the King of Dire Maul achievement). I love the story behind it, and it was fun to learn my way around. Hamal (Kasul from Shattered) also joined up in our little WoW guild, so that makes four of us. A priest, Warrior, Mage, and Hunter. Everyone got a lot of levels last night, and I’m pleased as punch that they all seem to be having a good time. Again I’m not sure how long it will last, but as long as they’re having fun for the moment that’s good.
What was everyone else up to this weekend? Explore any new lands? Let me know in comments!
Happy gaming.
Heroic Instances Galore
Yesterday was my first trip to Magister’s Terrace, even though I’m now level 72 and it’s an instance for those at level 70 (burning crusade). I was doing the instance with Manos, warrior from guild (recently had Calreth join the guild as well with a mage, looking forward to that!) and I loved how complex the zone seemed. In EQ2 I’ve never had to look up a guide on a zone, I’ve never really had to learn a script, I could simply heal my way through it and very rarely does anything require me to react any differently (raids are different of course). In WoW I find that if I do not know a particular encounter I am probably going to die. There’s been everything from named exploding after they die (I have nightmares about those ones) to being gravity fluxed into the air and being required to swim around from giant energy balls or else risk being killed. I find WoW instances (at this moment in time) incredibly stressful, because I pride myself on being a good healer and when I don’t know the encounters it takes away from my ability as a healer.
Now, I could try to read up on every single instance and memorize what it is I need to do in each one. Or I could forgo the random dungeons and simply read up on specific ones until I learn them, or – well. Anyone else have suggestions?
Aside from learning the encounters in Magister’s Terrace, I also experienced my first (two) heroic dungeons. Again these were done in a team of two instead of a team of five, and they were burning crusade dungeons not Wrath, so they’re not exactly the most difficult of zones to do – but they were still incredibly fun. I managed to obtain the achievement for the heroic Blood Furnace, as well as the heroic Hellfire Ramparts. It was the first time I saw epic loot drop from a zone that wasn’t a boe world drop, and it was awesome to see how the zones changed compared to their ‘regular’ counterparts.
I did also experience my first Wrath dungeon, I headed to The Nexus and won a few pieces of nice loot including a new ring and an offhand. I’m mid way through level 72, and I’d probably be 80 already if I had any sort of dedication towards leveling just one character. As it is I constantly bounce around and I’m not exactly the quickest leveler. I get bored of quest grinding, which seems to be the best way to level up through the 70’s.
Now that a few more friends have started playing on my server I’m excited about us all leveling up and doing some fun things together. Whether we’ll actually stick with it or not I’m not sure yet, but it’s still incredibly fun in the mean time. Between EVE and WoW (and some EQ2 on the side) I really do have everything I want from an MMO (or two). I have the complexity of EVE and the sci fi factor (even though that factor means little to me personally) and I have the incredibly casual relaxed feeling of WoW – the only thing both games lack that I get from EQ2 is the housing. Which is something I miss dearly.
Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself. I hope everyone has an amazing weekend!
Lets Talk Hobbies
Despite the fact that the majority of this blog is chock full of gaming posts, and the same can be said for my brief blurbs over at NomadicGamer – there are other things that I’m interested in and do (gasp). I decided I’d talk about a new feature that happens to coincide with one of my favorite hobbies, photography. For those who are unaware, for the past year and a half I’ve been uploading a ‘photo a day’ to a small site called ShutterCal. Well, it’s not quite so small any more and I’ve really enjoyed watching it grow. The site is free to use, but they also offer items for sale in their store. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I’m pretty big on supporting the things you enjoy, be it games, photography, reading, or anything else. Just like I have no issue spending a few extra dollars in a video game to show I support the company, I do the same in other real life endeavors. I bought one of the limited ShutterCal pillows when they came out, and I also own a shoebox filled with sets of my pictures that I’ve taken over the months (though I tend to slack on purchasing those ones).
So what does this have to do with my hobbies? Well, there’s another thing I really enjoy aside from photography, which is getting and receiving mail. I know that probably sounds odd but it’s been something I’ve loved all my life. I used to have a lot of penpals growing up and as we evolved into a more online fashion those ‘snail mail’ days seem to have been left behind.
I got involved with PostCrossing, which is a site that promotes sending postcards all over the world. You register your user name and address, and for every postcard you agree to send out (to a random person) you’ll get one back (ideally that’s how it works, some times people will forget to send yours out or they’ll get lost in the mail, it happens). I’ve sent out 8 postcards so far, and gotten 10 back.
ShutterCal has added a new feature where you can pay $2.90 and they will create a postcard out of your chosen picture, and they’ll even mail it for you and that includes the postage. I was incredibly happy to learn about this feature for a number of reasons. Number one, I love to support the small folks, number two, I love photography, three I love postcards and sending things in the mail, and four who wouldn’t want to send personalized postcards of their own pictures? It works as both a promotional tool for ShutterCal and for yourself, and adds a personal touch to each one. $2.90 is cheaper then what it costs me to actually purchase a postcard at the post office and then send it internationally.
I’ve sent my first two purchased cards out (I was a part of the beta, and have just been biding my time to talk about it when it went live) and I am really excited about them getting to their destinations. If this sounds like something you’d be interested in then please by all means head over to PostCrossing or to ShutterCal and get involved.
I hope everyone has an amazing weekend!