WoW

Finding a new Schedule

stargrace April 25, 2014 0Comment

I know, I haven’t written since the 14th of April which is pretty much unheard of for me. Thank you very much those who expressed concern at my absence. I’m trying to get used to a whole lot of new things all at once and adjusting to a new schedule has been harder than I had thought it would be. Plus my PC was shipped across the country three times and when I finally got it this week I discovered that my video card didn’t make the trip. A new one was ordered and I’m expecting it to arrive either today or Monday. In the meantime that means I still only have my laptop for gaming, and while (as I have already mentioned) it does handle games pretty well, it doesn’t compensate for having a PC.

Things in World of Warcraft have been going well, when I can find some time to play. Yesterday I decided to queue for a few raids in order to finish off the 3k valor I needed for my cloak quest. It just so happened that healers were one of the required classes for an extra goodie bag, and inside mine was a white polar bear mount. That’s the first time I’ve ever gotten anything useful from one of those goodie bags, and I was quite pleased. I did manage to finish off the valor required, and defeated the named I needed – next is PVP which I am really not looking forward to. Alliance has a horrible time with PVP (my personal experience here) and a friend was telling me it took him 16 attempts before he managed to get his updates. Ouch. I was hoping to have my PC set up for the PVP attempts, but if I don’t have it by this weekend I may just do it on the laptop anyway. We’ll see how that goes. I believe after the PVP components comes the 40 trillium and some raid drops. I’m getting closer to completing the cloak, which really pleases me. Then I’ll have to do it all again on my hunter (my 2nd main, the first one being my priest).

WoW has been a great distraction and a wonderful way for me to lose myself for an hour here and there when the weight of the world becomes too much. In the past I would have gotten mad at myself for using games as a temporary escape, but these days I can see the value in it so long as I’m not using it as a permanent way to escape from my problems. With so much turmoil and change in my life, gaming has remained the one constant, and I appreciate that so much. It has done wonders in helping me to keep my sanity.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Eastern Kingdoms Safari

stargrace April 7, 2014 0Comment

I spent a lot of the weekend working on collecting pets, doing pet battles, and collecting more pets. It was a quiet way to get back into World of Warcraft, and I had an absolute blast with it. As you can see by the list above, I’ve almost completed collecting all of the pets available in the Eastern Kingdoms. Right now I am waiting for it to rain in The Cape of Stranglethorn so I can catch a baby ape. That will complete the list. This morning when I logged in I was able to catch a Restless Shadeling, which spawn at 12am server time. The baby ape only spawns when it’s raining. Pets like this are interesting to have but can also cause frustration if you’re a collector trying to catch them all, as it were.

The baby ape will also be my 400th pet. I’m pretty excited about that.

Aside from all of the pet battles I did, I also worked on my new level 90 hunter. I have played a priest pretty exclusively in Pandaria and I wanted a hands off character to play as a “second main”. I decided to go with the hunter, and I am really enjoying it so far. Thankfully I was able to save up 20,000 coins on the Timeless Isle, and upgrade my weapon. Even without the upgrade the hunter was doing quite well. Better than my other 5 level 90 characters at that time at least.

All in all, it has been a relaxing time in WoW. I know there’s a lot of information coming out about Warlords, but I’m patient and I’ll wait to decide what I think about the changes until I can experience them myself.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Pet Battles, Crafting, and Leveling – Oh My!

stargrace February 17, 2014 0Comment

The collection grows. I’m now up to 321 unique pets in my world of warcraft collection. I’ve slowly been working through the overland zones hunting down the ones I’m missing. I managed to get my terrible turnip to 25 which means I don’t have to worry about accidently one shotting lower level pets that I’m trying to capture (he has an attack that basically wounds but doesn’t kill) which is always a big fear of mine.

I’ve gone back to working on some factions – The Anglers and Nate. I want his hat. I also managed to get my warlock to level 90 (finally) making her the fourth. My horde deathknight hit level 72, and I did more thinking about which character I want to level to 90 when pre-orders go live for the next expansion. I am thinking a hunter, but I’d really prefer two characters (one horde, one alliance) so if they open up the ability to pay for a level 90 character I’ll probably take advantage of it. I know, many people are of the opinion that paying for a level 90 is a horrible idea but I’ve already done the leveling game so many times now, and what I enjoy is not having to worry about whether or not I am level 90 in order to play the aspects of the game that I enjoy. No matter how ‘easy’ leveling is, 90 is a large number and can be daunting, especially if you already have multiple characters already there. Playing through the same content (or even playing through different content in the hopes of leveling) can be tedious.

I’ve also been spending some time working on my crafting, trying to earn money (though I ended up spending quite a bit on the warlock, she needed to be able to fly in Pandaria zones) – alts are expensive! I did get her most of the 496 gear she needs but she’s missing a trinket, a weapon, a second ring, those types of things. I do still have an 85 druid that I would love to get to 90, but I’m not sure if I want to play the leveling game once again so soon. I’m sure I’ll make a go at it sooner or later.

There’s still so much for me to do in game. I find it surprising and fantastic. Normally I would have stopped playing by now, having run out of content. I think I’ve finally found a great balance of games to play and things to do at a pace that keeps me interested.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

A Saturday Looking for Raids

stargrace February 9, 2014 0Comment

I finally found some time to play World of Warcraft this weekend, and decided to attempt a few raids with the looking for raid finder. Normally I try to get them done earlier in the week because.. well. My patience tends to wear out, and weekend raids are not really that great. I queued for the first Siege of Orgrimmar raid and knew I was in for trouble. Sha (the final named) took 7 attempts. I’ve never had a raid take that many attempts before. Thankfully I did win an offhand during the four named bosses that was quite an upgrade, but I would still much rather do raids earlier on in the week.

After I decided to try a flex raid for Celestials, and I won a pair of PVP shoes that were an enormous upgrade from the quested 502 ilevel ones I had been wearing. I’m also trying to make a bit of coin, so I put an epic belt for sale and a few robes. I don’t know if they’ll sell, but at least I’m trying.

The rest of my adventures were filled with pet battles. I’m slowly leveling a few more to 25 and working on more achievements. It’s been a pretty relaxing weekend, and I hope everyone else has had a great one too! Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.