WoW

Leveling a Goblin and other Impressions #WoW

stargrace December 8, 2010 3Comments

Last night I decided to create a goblin mage (I’ve never played a mage before) and my intentions were to simply mail myself some heirloom gear and then call it a night. However. I very quickly got caught up in the goblin town and quests and before I knew it two hours had passed. It was that good. In fact it was so good I don’t remember the last time I had THAT much fun creating and leveling up a new character in any game. I literally laughed out loud at all of the quests, the hidden jokes and humour that were found within the starting area. I don’t want to give anything away but needless to say if you have not attempted to play a goblin yet, I HIGHLY suggest it. Take your time, enjoy the laughs.

Sitting at a comfortable level 8 it’s true that the beginner experience is quite simple but I don’t even notice how simple it is because I’m having too much fun. If every starter could balance simplicity with humour I think a lot less people would notice the shortcomings of these zones.

Aside from creating my new goblin, I have barely touched cataclysm. My priest (main) is still level 80 (half way through) and I did a few quests in the new underwater zone. Enough to earn me my seahorse mount (LOVE IT) and get some exploring done. Last night I decided to head to Dire Maul to finish off a dungeon achievement rather than battle the mobs of people in any of the new zones. I was incredibly pleased to discover that you still gain guild experience for completing quests you have out leveled, and I was in fact earning faction with my tabard of choice (happens to be Bilgewater Cartel at the moment) for defeating grey encounters. I absolutely love the method Blizzard has taken for guilds to level up, earning experience and faction through numerous methods like – killing a mob. Completing a quest. Battlegrounds. Guild achievements (guild raids, guild groups). These are ideas I wish were implemented in EQ2 where the only way you can level a guild is by grinding writs (crafting or combat), defeating bosses in group instances (or raids), and turning in status items. You don’t have to like WoW at all to be able to appreciate some of the features that they’ve implemented in their game.

I’ve been very pleased with the launch of everything so far. Servers had no down time for Cataclysm. I restarted and it was there. I imagine they will have to be taken down sooner rather than later to fix any other bugs that may have been encountered along the way, but as far as expansion releases go, this one was flawless.

One side point. I am incredibly impressed with how blizzard has seamless instancing. While questing in the newer zones 90% of the time I am actually in a particular instance that represents a point in time and as I progress my quests I move through layers of instances, and am barely EVER aware of it. An example of this: My goblin eventually gets to a point where she must click on a “town in a box” it’s (you guessed it) a box in the middle of the jungle. No one is around. Clicking on it throws her up into the air, through a cloud, and when she lands PRESTO there is an entire town below her feet, including NPC and players. There’s no zoning, no instance screen, nothing to indicate that you are actually passing through to another zone at all, but you must, because that stuff sure wasn’t under your feet a moment before.

It’s an incredibly fantastic way to feel time passing by, the world changing. There are other examples of this seamless zoning in Wrath zones (Icecrown in specific) and every time I encounter it I’m just struck by what an amazing idea it is.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Lets Talk Guild Levels #WoW

stargrace December 7, 2010 1Comment

That’s right, I was one of the (crazy) who stayed up until 3am EST to log into the new World of Warcraft Cataclysm expansion. There wasn’t a whole lot I wanted to do at 3am, but I really enjoyed the over all festive feeling that was spread through the game and amongst friends on twitter. It felt great to be a part of something big. I logged in without any issues after a brief 5 minute wait, created my new druid wargen, as well as my new goblin mage, and relogged back to my main to purchase the new flying skill. Apparently a billion other players had the same idea, and this was the image I was met with.

Many were crying out in frustration as there were obviously a few folks who had decided to purposely hang around after they obtained their skill. Thankfully one kind soul explained a work around. Open your key bindings, go down to targeting, and find the option to interact with a target. Set the key to something simple (I used the minus key on my number pad) and save. Then /target name (whatever the name of your flight trainer may be, the Orgrimmar one started with Maz, which was easy enough). Once you have the target hit the key you bound, and presto, you can interact with the target without having to use the mouse and combat every other player on your server.

What I really want to talk about are guild levels. I decided to start a guild because after spending a few days watching channels I realized the chances of me finding a mature guild that I didn’t want to send back to their mommies after a week was going to be impossible. I’m not interested in raiding I just like to have a quiet place to call home. I do have a few friends who play on the same server (hopefully more, eventually) and honestly I’d rather just be in a guild of me myself and I if I really have to.

A few things I really like that blizzard does. Number one, your guild tabard actually feels like it means something. It’s shown on your guild window, it’s on your calendar, it’s on your web site mechanics. Apparently there is a mount this expansion that will stream your guild image behind you.

Number two, with this expansion came guild levels. There is a daily cap on how much experience your guild can earn in one day which I really like, it keeps guilds in sync. The rewards for leveling a guild actually encourage you to do things – as a guild. You can earn things such as 5% and 10% experience bonus. A 15 minute cool down on your hearth. Mounts. Gear (including heirloom helms and cloaks). 10% reduction in your gear being damaged. Ports to cities. The list goes on and on. These are things I really wish EQ2 had granted as guild rewards instead of unlocking house sizes and mounts.

You now gain faction with your guild – encouragement to actually stick to one and not bounce from place to place. I still need an alliance home some place (if you have a suggestion please don’t hesitate to let me know, the server doesn’t matter to me) but for now Firetree, and Dragons Flight, will be home.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Singing of Sunflowers and Blue Drakes #WoW

stargrace December 5, 2010 1Comment

Some times being unable to sleep has its advantages. Like logging into your game of choice and finishing off those things you never do when you’re typically playing. This was the case for me last night. I decided to queue up as DPS on my priest (my off spec) and while waiting to get in (it’s typically a 10-20 minute wait) I headed off to try and get my singing sunflower pet. A tribute to plants vs. zombies is set up where you can work your way through three increasingly difficult levels and earn yourself some xp, cash, and eventually a neat sunflower pet.

The first round was pretty easy. I’ve got pvz on my ipod and spent many hours combating the evil creatures so I at least knew the basics. The second round introduced some new plants and I didn’t have too many issues although I found it took too long to complete. The second last round was incredibly difficult for me BUT after making two rows of sunflowers right off the bat I had more than enough solar energy to drop as many pumpkin bombs (the win button this round) and other plants as I wanted. Eventually I beat the game and at the same time got into The Oculus (heroic mode).

Typically everyone leaves this instance for whatever reason when they join but personally, I love it. You get a chance at an extra reward at the end from the chest and the zone is pretty simple so long as you stick with your group. I’ve done the zone a lot on both my priest and warlock – this time would be different.

We completed the entire instance without issue and when it was my turn to loot from the chest I was given an extra reward.

The reins to a blue drake.

I had never even known that a blue drake was available in this zone, let alone had ever won it before. I was incredibly happy, being a collector of pets and mounts. Free mounts are the best types. By then it was 3am and I was more than ready to crawl into bed, so I haven’t gotten to see how awesome my priest looks on her new pretty, but I was excited none the less. All in all? A pretty productive late night (early morning) gaming session.

Safe travels and happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Look Ma! I Can Tank! #WoW

stargrace December 4, 2010 0Comment

Last night was my first attempt at the only aspect of WoW that I have ever ever delved into before. Tanking. I created a night elf warrior and happily made my way to level 15 which is when you can start to queue for dungeons. I wanted some experience under my belt. I know you can easily make your way through game having not ever grouped with another person but in order to learn how to tank properly I actually have to group. Goal number one. The first instance I entered was Deadmines – and I should have known better and attempted the zones on my paladin as dps first because they’ve been revamped in layout and design and I haven’t been to the beginner dungeons in a very long time.

I don’t like to say that all of a particular class plays poorly, but dang if I didn’t have not one, but TWO really horrid hunters in group that would randomly pull whatever they wanted from where ever they wanted. Needless to say they died. A lot. I was also level 15 with a level 21 mage in group which made things difficult (ie: aggro control) BUT some how we made it all the way to the end of the instance. I died twice, and I reached level 19.

A word about these levels. I have been playing with a friend who has recruit-a-friend tied to my account for two more weeks. This grants us 300% experience to both quests and kills and the experience is FAR TOO MUCH for beginner players on a new server. Why? Because we fly through content too quickly to gather appropriate gear, or coin in order to afford skills. There’s no time to learn anything because every time we blink, we level. On our veteran characters and server this wouldn’t be a big deal because at least we could outfit ourselves and we’d have coin but coming to a new server and a new faction on new characters? It’s been incredibly annoying. I really wish we could turn this feature off some how, other wise I’m simply reluctant to group with my friend.

I found tanking stressful and not in the good exhilarated type of way but in the O M G we’re all going to DIE type of way. After Deadmines I went back to the paladin, thinking that perhaps tanking is just not for me. I did Shadowfang Keep (which has also changed a fair amount) and for some odd reason when the zone was completed I decided I would give tanking another try.

This time I ended up in Wailing Caverns, with a group who had just lost their tank. We were still near the entrance, and they informed me that the previous tank had been kicked because he was dps spec’d and geared. No problem there, as a typical healer I know how difficult it is to keep up tanks that think they’re dps. The group went surprisingly well. I told everyone from the start that even if it hadn’t been revamped I would probably get incredibly lost in WC because it’s just one of those zones I’ve never been able to memorize the layout to and the maps are confusing. There was one point where we all had to jump across two little gaps and I fell down. Twice. I joked that the third time was the charm and that I was never very good at Mario games. Everyone was very calm and even though WC is an incredibly LONG zone, we finished it, without deaths. I don’t think I did that bad of a job tanking, either. I find WC hard because almost everything casts, and likes to stand as far away from you as possible while they do so.

I dinged level 22 on the paladin, and 20 on the warrior. I was quite pleased that I’d managed to tank without too many issues. While I’m quite used to playing the healer and do so eagerly, tanking has always been a fear of mine. In WoW double as much fear because everything seems to rely on the tank. If I had a steady group of people to play with I know I would enjoy tanking 100% more then I do while attempting random PUGS but since that is not in the plans for me, I’ll just have to make due.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

New Characters from an Old Player #WoW

stargrace December 3, 2010 2Comments

I’ve been playing horde for quite some time now, having abandoned my Alliance and paying to move most of them over to horde faction. With Cataclysm only days away I decided I was in the mood for something new, and picked a new server (Argent Dawn) along with a handful of new characters. I created a gnome priest – and was pleased to see that they have been busy claiming Gnomeregan (I probably spelled that wrong, please don’t hurt me) for themselves once more. You start out as a fresh toxic covered gnome (perhaps this is related to NASA’s Arsenic-feeding bacteria announcement) and are explained some of the history of what has been going on. Before you’re let loose in Azeroth you have to be decontaminated. The lore is pretty interesting although the quests themselves are quite drab and I got bored after level 3. I created a human paladin in the interest of being able to tank, heal, or dps depending on my mood. After hitting level 15 I queued up for a dungeon and found myself in Ragefire chasm where I heard the most amusing thought of the night. The tank (a night elf warrior) mentioned to the group in /say that he had “never been to this dungeon before, I’m used to playing horde.”

Last I checked Ragefire Chasm was smack dab in the middle of Orgimmar (probably also spelled that wrong) which is – you guessed it, a major horde city. I didn’t mention anything to him about this comment but it made me giggle.

After making our way through the dungeon I decided that I really DID want to try my hand at tanking. Any time A mob peeled and started hitting a dps or a healer I would taunt with the paladin (even though I was not technically the tank, they were a little slow picking up the fact that someone else had aggro). I went back to my night elf warrior and leveled her to 15 which is the starter level to begin queuing for dungeons. I like to be good at playing my character, and I’m a little nervous because I’m not sporting any heirloom gear. When it comes right down to it the thought that echoed clearly through my mind is – how bad could I be compared to some of the tanks that I have grouped with. It’s a game, what’s the WORST that could happen. I cause the group to wipe, can’t hold aggro, and they kick me. Well. Big deal. That’s not the end of the world I can just get into another dungeon group.

Figuring out what I want to play has been quite fun. I have a handful of “new” alts at level 15. Having no money at all on the new server is annoying but I’ve been looking for little ways to raise some. I suppose (this idea just came to me and I almost literally smacked my head for having not thought of it sooner) technically I could just make a Death Knight and use that character to farm lower level instances. I guess I know what I’m doing today.

Safe travels, no matter where you find yourself!