WoW

Taking in the Changes

stargrace October 14, 2010 0Comment

It was bound to happen sooner or later. The lure of cosmetic gear in the LotRO store was calling my name. With my saved up turbine points yesterday I picked up three new pieces, and placed them in my wardrobe. Pleased that I can share the items across all characters that way, I think it was a good purchase. I love how the prices are incredibly reasonable, I don’t have to debate with myself over spending $10+ for a single outfit (Ahem, EQ2 I’m looking at you).

Lysthia the Minstrel is now level 33, Toargo and I spent some time yesterday completing Tier II skirmishes which are a LOT harder then Tier 1. We gathered a lot of tokens which I used to upgrade a few pieces of gear as well as my protector soldier. I wanted to work on some crafting, but I need to complete a metalsmith quest before I am able to move on to the next tier. Lysthia is my Armourer, able to do prospecting, metalsmithing, and tailoring. My other characters include a tinkerer, woodsman(woman) and historian – this allows me to have one of everything, and it works well. I’m eager to get back to doing regular quests. While skirmishes are a great source of xp if you do them as dailies, they don’t drop enough of the ‘other stuff’ that I enjoy like crafting materials and potions. Not to mention you miss out on the whole adventuring and exploring aspect of the game.

I spent a fair amount of time in WoW trying to get used to 4.0.1. My priest has changed a good amount. Number one, power regen was removed from all gear which meant that a lot of my heal set was now unnecessary. All mana regen gems were changed to spirit, which now controls in combat (and out) regen exclusively it seems. I no longer have a spirit buff, which is not too big of a deal since the stats on every single piece of gear has changed. My DPS 2h staff now only sports stam which I was sad to see, so I’ve switched to the 1h and off hand item full time for both specs. I decided to go discipline once more but I haven’t actually healed any level 80 heroics yet, so I can’t really give my opinion on those changes. I do not like how many justice items are required to purchase heirloom gear. Previously you could purchase shoulders or a bp for 40 emblems, which I had just enough of but neglected to puchase before 4.0.1 – now they are 2100+ justice which is FAR beyond what any other piece of gear costs, including the frost gear. When my emblems transferred to the new type it left me just shy of 600. A far cry from the 2100 required.

The earthquakes that are plaguing Azeroth are neat – but they cause me to have incredible bouts of vertigo. I have to close my eyes or look away until they pass. Having my screen shake up and down is not fun.

I don’t mind change but having to re-learn how to play all of my characters in each spec is daunting. I’ve been concentrating on the priest first because that’s my ‘main’ and the other characters I have will take a back seat. It gives me a headache now just to think of it. I haven’t even logged the paladin or death knight in to see how the changes have affected them, nor the rogue. One step at a time.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Gaming

Yesterday Was Huge

stargrace October 13, 2010 1Comment

I can’t remember the last time I had such an eventful day gaming so I’m going to go through each game one by one and my thoughts on them. The ones I’m playing, of course. Pictured above – my new home in EQ1! Doesn’t it look awesome. I need to purchase more trees for my lot, but so far I’m incredibly happy.

EverQuest (1): House of Thule went live and with it came a level cap increase (90) which of course also means new everything. Player housing was also released, and it’s just great (refer to my video yesterday for details). I spent a good chunk of time playing with my housing, and since I have the collectors edition I also had a lot of neat things to claim, including two paintings for the home, two mounts, and a few mercenary contract items. The down time was painless and I’d say out of all the updates yesterday the smoothest. I spent the morning watching the SOE Ustream event during the down time, and really appreciate the time and effort everyone put into it, especially since some had been at the office since 1am.

EverQuest 2: GU 58 went in yesterday. Some 5 room homes were given balconies which look really dang cool. I find it a little amusing that a 5-room home now has more item space then a T1 guild hall. I was a little put off by the fact that you can now purchase a 200 item expander from the market, as opposed to the 100 item expander (that don’t stack) crafted by players. $12. After playing both EQ2 and LotRO which have fairly elaborate markets, I feel that turbine does a MUCH better job on their price points. I really enjoy the new currency tab but wish it was shared across all characters so that I wouldn’t have to keep putting currency into my shared bank for alts. The new mount tab is also nice – but I still wish we had a quest item tab to clear out even more inventory space. The update had a number of bugs that still had to be worked out, and there was down time this morning for that. I haven’t tired the new zone yet, but new content is always good.

WoW: The game changing update 4.0.1 went in yesterday. The game didn’t come up until 9pm EST and then of course I had to disable every single AddOn I had until they’re updated. I like the changes to talents although it requires me to re-learn every single character I have which is not exactly fun. My single target dps is up on the shadow priest, but down in AoE damage. It felt odd to play her. I’m considering going holy instead of discipline, but I haven’t really decided yet. I went from 21,000 hp to 29,000 hp which was a nice change. I love what they’ve done to the talent window, the UI changes in general are nice looking. The graphic updates are quite nice. Azeroth is being plagued with earthquakes, and it’s giving me incredible bouts of vertigo, but a neat live event for the onset of a cataclysm.

LotRO: While there isn’t a huge patch going in right now – there is an incredible sale where you can purchase some quest packs for 75% off – and what’s more is if you actually quest through these packs you’ll make the turbine points back. Even though I have VIP access until February, I’m going to pick them up because – well, it’s just a fantastic sale and I know I won’t have a VIP account forever. The sale only goes on until midnight tonight, so be sure to take advantage of it. My Minstrel hit level 32 yesterday doing a few skirmishes, and I’m really excited about exploring further.

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

Gaming

Why so Much Emphasis?

stargrace October 9, 2010 4Comments

After reading a number of early morning blog posts left over in my RSS reader from yesterday, I found myself wondering: Why do gamers put so much emphasis in what we and others are playing. Especially others. Why do we even care? Every day I read a post from one or more authors that includes some sort of semi derogatory remark condoning a group of players simply because of how they choose to spend their time. Or, to be more precise, where they choose to spend their time.

There are those who have made up their minds that everyone who plays a free to play game must be a certain ‘class’ of gamer. How dare they actually enjoy ‘the grind’ that comes with a lot of these games. Don’t they know that in the long run they’ll pay more for their “free” game then some people will pay for their monthly subscription?! Then there are the WoW gamers. Don’t even get me started on these people. I have heard everything from how close minded they are to how stupid they must be, simply because of where they choose to spend their time. It’s as though we as gamers have moved into certain categories and stereotypes not based on who we are, but because of where we play.You ask a fellow blogger their game of choice and suddenly your opinion of them shifts slightly.

So I ask again – why does this aspect of a person even matter. Why are we so keen to judge someone based on a persons decision to spend their free time where they wish. I have even heard people go so far as to say they do not like a particular person because they play certain games that they are not fond of. Really? Are we so shallow that we are now making character judgements based on video games?

I simply don’t understand it.

In my opinion it doesn’t matter where you play, so long as you have fun. In fact voicing my opinion about any other ‘type’ of gamer is a moot point because when it comes to how others are spending their time – my opinion doesn’t matter! It’s their time, their money, and what I think of the matter is completely irrelevant. I refuse to classify a person based on whether they’re playing EQ2, EQ, VG, LotRo, WoW, WAR, DDO, Darkfall, Wizard101, Runes of Magic, EVE, Alganon, Fallen Earth, Lineage II, Allods, Champions, STO, Free Realms, Aion, FFXIV, SWG, Guild Wars, AoC, or any other game.

Go play, and enjoy. Don’t like it? Move on and find something you DO enjoy. It’s a game. They’re supposed to be fun. There are SO many games out there and despite what others would say about them all cloning one another there are always unique factors to each and every game – you may be surprised at what you end up playing and enjoying. I implore gamers to make their own decisions about what they like and don’t like, and refuse to be classified into a category of gamer simply because of where they spend their time.

Gaming

They Like Me, They Really Like Me!

stargrace October 4, 2010 1Comment

Once you’ve hit 80 in World of Warcraft, the options on ‘what to do’ seem to decrease significantly. Lets take my priest for example. The only gear upgrades she can obtain now come through raiding. As of yet, I’ve not found a raiding guild nor do I feel confident enough to want to PUG very often. This leaves me with few things to work on. Achievements (which I do enjoy), faction (less enjoyment), PvP, and other small ‘niche’ things. This weekend I decided to spend some time working on factions. I’m currently working on two in particular. One pictured above, the Kalu’ak (walrus like people) and the other would be collecting the seals I need for The Tournament, which is not exactly a faction per say so much as a requirement for me to do a lot of dailies.

Dailies. That’s how the majority of my time in game these days is spent. First there are the cooking and fishing dailies to complete, then the Tournament dailies (three of them so far), bringing my total to five out of 25. There are far too many dailies for me to keep track of so I try to focus on just a few at a time and then once those have been completed I’ll move on to the next ones. It makes obtaining my goals a little slower then I’d like, but it could be worse.

I’m trying to complete some goals before the world of Azeroth changes forever, but it’s a pretty slow process so far.

The rogue hit level 62 and has been leveling through BC quite nicely. While I do enjoy the ‘old world’ zones, it’s nice to be onto something new. Whether or not she’ll make it past level 70 I haven’t decided (that’s currently where I seem to be stuck, as both the DK and shaman have reached the 70’s and progress no further). I just dislike quest grinding an incredible amount.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Gaming

Lets Talk Community (Or Lack Of)

stargrace October 3, 2010 4Comments

Tipa made a good point on a previous point. In most games if you come in as a new player you’re helped. You’re offered suggestions on how to play better, where to go, gear, and gain a general sense of the community. In World of Warcraft, this is not the case. Tipa mentioned that as a new player the community is never more harsh then it is in WoW and she’s exactly right. Why is this the case? What has hardened everyone to become ignorant of a new player? Why are we not acting the same in this game as every other game? Tolerance is at an all time low.

There has been one group in my many many LFD PUG’s that was kind to new players. This was a regular version of Halls of Reflection. Two players (myself included) stated that they had never been there before. As it turned out the two players were the tank, and the healer. People were kind, explaining the encounters. Told me to watch my mana and try not to over extend myself so that I could heal through all of the waves. They told the tank about pulling the single mob (the one who creates replicas of group members) back to the main chamber to avoid his adds. This was the only group I can remember where players were kind to those of us who had not been there before.

However – I also feel that it works both ways. Very rarely do I know someone has never been before. No one speaks in groups any more. If you’ve never been to a dungeon and don’t SAY that you’ve never been and that you may be new, how am I supposed to know to explain the encounters, or to help out. There is such an aura of fear of being ‘new’ that no one is communicating.

The few times that my group does communicate, it’s someone stating that they have to go AFK to do drugs (I hear this so often now I wonder how many times it’s true) or some other nonsense. Do people who do drugs actually have to broadcast it to everyone around them or is this a popularity thing? I have no idea, seeing as I’ve never been involved in that sort of activity. I just find it odd that everyone has to announce to the rest of the world (game) what they’re doing.

The community (or lack of) in WoW is certainly unique to me. I’ve played many games, and if it were not for the handful of friends I have on the Firetree server, I wouldn’t be playing. There’s no way I’d be able to handle the community as it stands now.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Taking in the Changes

Yesterday Was Huge

Why so Much Emphasis?

They Like Me, They Really Like Me!

Lets Talk Community (Or Lack Of)

You Missed

Locked Out (again)

What’s Going on?

EVE September (personal) Economy Update

WoW September (Personal) Economy Update