So, I’m behind even on the moderate goal of posting twice a week. It happens. Today I’d like to post a couple of Screenshots from Boralus, the starting city of … Continue reading Postcards from Boralus
Tag: World of Warcraft
Travel Log: to the Broken Isles
I won’t spoil anything story-wise for those of you who haven’t been logging into Legion by now, just giving a few quick impressions.
First of all, of course I didn’t make it to 100 with one of my “normal” characters and had to learn how to play a Retribution Paladin- which isn’t my class at all. Shaman, Druid, Priest- I could live with those. But I boosted a Paladin (rightfully) thinking that I wouldn’t play one through the rest of the game, so here I was, playing Lizah the Paladin for the second time, a boosted character in an MMO I haven’t seriously touched in about 10 years.
Thankfully, there aren’t many abilities to learn. I don’t know if I made a mistake, but my main bar isn’t even full- I placed normal fighting abilities there, with buffs/debuffs populating different action bars. Something feels off, though, as Lizah feels a bit low on the damage dealing side for sporting a damage spec.
As I’ve been absent for quite some time, I don’t know when World of Warcraft became so good in storytelling- I didn’t remember it that way and when I returned, the old zones didn’t feel particularly different. But at least on the way up to Legion lands, it’s great, it’s varied and it’s presented in a way that actually made me want to experience the story- that of Legion as well as what came before.
It took some time, though- 3 hours to reach Stormheim, the zone I decided to start out with. The scenario bugged out once, so I needed to repeat it. Other than that, I visited my class order halls and became very important for the Paladins of Azeroth (don’t they know I boosted?).
Anyhow, it’s beautiful, it’s new, it’s somewhat fun, albeit a bit confusing for someone returning after a long absence, and I’m not only talking about the story. It’s nice being able to do current content with all the others, it’s a feeling I didn’t have in ages. But somehow, I get the feeling that for all that I’m gaining- actually playing the content of the current expansion, that is- I’m also losing out on something else- namely, the experience that comes with playing characters from 1 to 100, and maybe even content droughts. It might actually be that downtime I’d need to close the gap a bit.
I’ll share a couple of screenshots, hopefully without spoilers.
We’re not in Telara anymore
Huh. I finally went to see the invasions, thinking that I could maybe use them to level another character up, as it was said that doing Rifts Invasions was a good way to do so.
I used my level 12 (Feral) Druid to visit my first one. Invasions are basically Rift’s Rifts. Open grouping, open tagging, stages of completion. I mean, it’s nice to see World of Warcraft stepping into this decade- and I don’t mean that in a bad way; it speaks for the game’s engine that it is so versatile.
I don’t know if it’s a good way to level- I gained one level from one Invasion. I guess at level 12 it doesn’t make a lot of a difference to simply questing or going into a dungeon. Maybe it’ll change later on. If I was level 25 and gained one level by one Invasion, it’d be nice.
It took a bit of traveling and I hopped on the wrong boat once. The key-takeaway for me is that i don’t like the Druid right now. It feels as if its four specs are actually narrowing the options to play a Druid.
Scaling the content to your level, though? Stroke of genius, but that warrants an own post.
Plans for august
In august, i’ll slowly phase out the summer break i’m on since the end of june. In real life, we moved houses, but by now we’ve almost settled in. Of course, there’s still stuff to do, but there’s no need to rush and no hectic anymore. There’s not going to be a holiday, either, at least not one that takes weeks, as we’ve already been to China this year and with the recent move, we’re not going to go on vacation now.
So i’ll be playing a bit. I call off the MMO Wanderlust i had, because it took me to weird places. The MMO line-up for the rest of the year is set: Elder Scrolls Online, World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV. I’m not going to say that i won’t play any other MMO, because i probably will, but these should be the major ones, with ESO returning to the front-and-center while FFXIV and WoW will play support roles.
Deadmines 2016
In World of Warcraft, i’ve finally made my way through the Deadmines. It was the one dungeon i simply had to do for nostalgia’s sake, so i put my Discipline Priestess on hold at level 21 to be able to run it.
Although i knew that most early WoW dungeons are 20-30 minute-affairs nowadays, it took me some time to gather the courage to go at it as a healer- normally, i love the support or hybrid role, ideally doing damage by default and helping out with heals/off-tanking if the group is in trouble.
That’s why up until today, the vanilla WoW Druid below level 30 or so is my favorite class i’ve ever played- because the Druid could do it all. Of course, even in early WoW, at some point you had to decide what kind of Druid you wanted to be and the group expected you to hold your role instead of being cat-elf-bear-cat during one run.
The upside? This way, there’s almost no possibility of messing up- instead, you help your teammates if they’re in it over their heads. As a healer, though, i had responsibility and actually, the only way to go was to mess up. Nobody’s going to tell you what a great healer you’ve been if everyone survives- but if one group member goes down, guess what?
The sub strikes back – now what?
Woe is me, i’m falling into a trap again! I was really enjoying the first six months of this year when i played Elder Scrolls Online exclusively. Of course, MMO wanderlust was still a thing, but i kept it under check- until the summer break, that is. Interestingly, actually having even less time to play made me ponder my options more than before. Elder Scrolls Online is a great game, but to be honest, it’s not something you log into for half an hour or so to dabble a bit in and log out after a short time. The story-and-lore-heavy quests take time, which is a good thing. But it also means that you have to devote that time and i’ve found it quite difficult to do in the bright season. I don’t know about your place, but summer in Germany means daylight from about 5 am to 10.30 pm- i know it’s very different in China, where it’s dark at 8/9 pm in the evening (Shanghai area). It’s more “difficult” to lose yourself into a game.
Milestones: 20 in World of Warcraft
After 10 hours /played, i dinged level 20 with my Discipline Priestess in World of Warcraft. I find that to be quite quick while at the same time it doesn’t feel quick. That’s not to say i’m not having fun- i do, unexpectedly much to be honest. Maybe it is the new progression with the new talent system and the avoidance of “button bloat”- you level up, but you don’t get to use talent points or gain a new ability each level. (more…)
Travel Log: Postcards from Westfall
Here i am, having renewed my subscription to World of Warcraft. After some initial struggles, mostly deriving from the fact that i played through Elwynn Forest about 50 times, i found enjoyment in Azeroth. It’s not totally unexpected, as i always loved WoW for the zone design. What was new, however, was the impression that everything seems to be just so in this game. I guess this is going to change in later levels, but right now, there’s always something i can accomplish if i play just another five minutes. Be it traveling to the next location, leveling up, completing a quest or simply check out the crafting trainer. And i haven’t even set foot into one of the many, many dungeons.
World of Warcraft is populated, at least on Argent Dawn (EU)- i’ve not once been very distant to fellow players. The design of the zones is finely crafted up to the details like interiors. I am not in a hurry, as i know i won’t be able to hit whatever the maxlevel right now is (100, i guess?!?) before Legion hits and also because that would suck the fun out of the game. Besides tracking quests, i also track achievements- namely the exploration-type of my current zone and the quest achievement. It’s probably impossible to do everything on one character, but i’d like to check them off in zones i begin.
Of course, having seen Westfall the last time before Cataclysm, the zone isn’t the same anymore. There’s more than a tower above Sentinel Hill, now- but i do feel WoW manages to keep the nostalgia in terms of a zone’s look and feel alive. Once i began following the storyline, i’ve found it to be interesting, as well.
As for Westfall, i didn’t like the zone when i played WoW the first time. It was difficult, quite big and took seemingly forever. Also, at that time there was no group finder, so you’d spend even more time in the zone looking for a group and entering the dungeon (Deadmines). Speaking of which, the “backflash”-quest was a stroke of genius, in my opinion.
I’ve moved on to the Redridge Mountains, now, a zone where i don’t have many memories of, except fighting my way up to that castle billions of times, but i’m having fun and i’m looking forward to re-exploring World of Warcraft.
Summer Walkabout: World of Warcraft
I don’t know what it is about World of Warcraft- with each expansion, i always shoot longing looks in the direction of the genre leader. There’s no need for an expansion- i played World of Warcraft up to level 52 in vanilla times, and that’s the furthest i came along. So WoW offers plenty of content for me without the additional pull of an expansion.
So in the last couple of months, i was looking for reasons to buy Legion and didn’t find any. Sure, there are some nice tidbits like the improved transmog interface aka wardrobe, but i can have that in many other MMOs as well. Ultimately, i couldn’t find anything that gave me enough reason to buy into the latest expansion.
Until 07/06, that is- when Liore asked if she should buy Legion and i went to read that post in search for an answer for my own ponderings. I didn’t find it in the post, but then Isarii came along in the comments.
I just want to grind for hats and mounts, and basically every MMO outside of WoW seems insistent on putting all of those in their cash shop.
Isarii the guilty
And this is it. WoW is a themepark, a combat simulator that lacks housing or many non-combat activities. As far as i know, crafting is ‘useless’, too. But if i want to go for a certain look, mount, title or battle pet, i can do that. And while WoW offers mounts in an item store, it’s not much and can be easily ignored. I know Final Fantasy XIV offers the same thing, but as far as i know it isn’t as varied in that game, costumes are for level 50 characters and everything in that game is tied to the main story questline that involves forced grouping. WoW doesn’t force me into anything except if i wanted something specific and it was hidden away behind a certain type of content.
Another thing WoW had always going for it was the great zone design- i love how Blizzard crafts the landscapes- plus, it’s an open world for the most part.
So, finally finding my reason (read: excuse), i went in again.
Of course i started a new character, a human priestess on Argent Dawn (EU). Somewhere, i read that discipline priests will be healing through damage done, which is a playstyle i like pretty much. Argent Dawn is an RP server, and i think its version of Goldshire is famous for its “special kind” of RP. I found it quite annoying, but it doesn’t matter much as Goldshire gets put behind a new character quite quickly.
As of right now, i don’t have any plans or goals and i didn’t activate my subscription or buy Legion…yet. But i’m already looking into some guides for returning players, i love the zone design (nothing new here) and i’m having fun right now. I’m wondering about what transmog outfits would be nice to have, what places to explore and soon i’ll be wondering about which addons to install.
Summer Walkabout
So our small guild is taking a summer break from guild activities from the end of june to the end of august. May and especially june have shown already that this is a smart decision, as the last couple of events had some last-minute-cancellations already. For the most part it didn’t matter as we were still more than a full group to do our stuff. Yesterday, though, marked the first time i had to cancel on short notice. As i’ve said, i try my best to attend guild events that i set up and yesterday, we wanted to try and form a group for a dungeon. As far as i know, we would’ve been only three people attending anyway, so we probably would have opted to do something different. I knew i had something else to do, but i was confident that (a) that would be wrapped up just before 9 p.m. and (b) our son would be so tired by that time that he’d basically fall asleep as soon as he lay in bed. As it turned out, i was wrong on both accounts- i was home at 9.30 and greeted by a still very happy and awake son. It took him until 10 p.m. to sleep, by 10.15 i was sitting at the pc, too late to start anything really and read the message from another guildie that we’d just cancel the event. While i’m really unhappy that it was me who didn’t show up, the truth is that real life can interfer with my gaming plans, as well.
In the next couple of weeks/months, i’ll be even more busy, as we’re moving house in the end of june, our son has to change kindergarten and we’ll have to do some stuff in our old house. So july’s free time will be occupied by stuff like that (in addition to watching football/soccer, as there is the Euro 2016). My guess is that settling into the new house will keep us busy in august, as well.
Nonetheless, i have gaming-related plans for these two months, if i can get some gaming time in.
Planning ahead
For me personally, the guild’s summer break means i’ll rejoice in a two-month MMO wanderlust, if i want to. Right now, my limited time to play basically leads me to playing Elder Scrolls Online exclusively, which is a great thing as i like the game a lot and always wanted to settle down. On the other hand, the list of games i’d like to play from time to time grew significantly in the last couple of weeks. I have a few goals for ESO, but i’ll be an MMO hopper for the upcoming months. A word on EVE Online: still love it, but i think i’ll take a break for the summer, at least. I’m still a bloody newbie and playing once a week for 30 minutes won’t do much to change that. I’ll need to put EVE on hold until i begin to spend more time gaming again.
Goals for Elder Scrolls Online
Two months might be enough to get my main character from level 37 to 50. That should be around a level a week; there’s actually a chance i might be able to do that. It would be nice to have a character on maxlevel to get into collecting champion points and being able to do DLC content in a more meaningful manner. I feel i outlevel ESO’s zones too quickly- i don’t even have an idea where my ideal quest hub is right now, the quests i’m currently on in Malabal Tor are all green. And that’s just from dungeon delving and exploring Cyrodiil with the guild. This won’t be a problem anymore when One Tamriel gets released, but we’re not there yet.
MMO Wanderlust
Oh boy, do i want to visit places. I’ll probably play some or all of the following games in the next couple of months.
Blade and Soul. I think Blade and Soul can be an excellent game to play in short sessions just for the fun of it. The combat is great, i like the setting, the graphics, the style. I’m really looking forward to playing it some more and probably trying the Soul Fighter, which seems to be quite a fun class. I’ve played some Blade and Soul in the last couple of days and i guess the main thing i need to decide is whether i’d like to move to an international server with new characers as the german one i’m on seems…kind of empty.
The Secret World. TSW is always on my to-do-list. I so hope to see the content this game offers some day. For me, Funcom are the good guys of the genre and i’m happy they seem to have put their financial trouble behind for now. There’s also the museum of the occult coming up, so i’m curious. And it’s the one MMO where our guild might actually meet for an out-of-ESO experience.
Wildstar. The housing is the biggest reason for Wildstar to be on this list. Others are the recent Steam launch and the fact that this MMO is on my personal 8-Ball-endangered-games list. The marketing “effort” Carbine and NCSoft put into their Steam launch didn’t do much in terms of confidence in this game. It’s a shame, actually, as the housing is great, the game does look good, offers a wide array of activities…for me it’s the combat and the bland questing experience that make the game unenjoyable, but i’ll go and visit it anyway.
Lord of the Rings Online. Just like with TSW, i’d like to see the content here- or to be more precise, the landscapes.
World of Warcraft. Yes, i might. But i’ll avoid to sub until i’m level 20 with my newly created disc priest. My main motivation here is, again, landscapes, as Blizzard puts out very beautiful zone designs. I always wanted to see the WotLK zones in particular. This is probably going nowhere, but for now, it is included.
Tera. I might even install this. I have a new PC, the game looks good and the combat is good. Also because of it being featured on Rockpapershotgun yesterday.
Single Player. The backlog is long. I’d like to build a City in Cities: Skylines, a space empire in Stellaris, i’d like to roleplay in Skyrim, The Witcher 3, Mass Effect, shoot others in Overwatch and more.
I know this is way too much for two months- heck, if i focused, i’d probably be able to do most of it in two years. My main focus (besides ESO) will be on Blade&Soul, because my guess is that this will be the game that fits best into available time and playing mood- i think it can be played in shorter sessions, it seems to offer great solo content (that 100-level-thing interests me), it’s fun to play with the great combat, it offers a story i’m interested in and i guess it’s perfectly fine to be played as an alone-together-murder-simulator MMO. Which might just be what i’ll be looking for in the next couple of months.
Party Business 