With two weeks until Mechagon (the dungeon) opens and we're allowed to face down Mechagon (the boss), I have plenty of time to explore Mechagon (the island). Seriously, they could've put some effort in naming things. It's like smurf village up in this place.
My GOD, the difference in tone between the Nazjatar and here are night and day. For general "feel", the zone is very much like an extension of Stormsong Valley, with rolling green hills and the occasional scrapyard thrown in for flavor. The island itself is littered with densely packed heavy hitting robotic monstrosities, which provide the primary resource you need: "scrap parts". That's right, this island is all about the tinkering… tinkering and FISHING!
The tinkering aspects come in a few flavors:
- there are landscape "projects" that require completion. You feed them resources like spare parts and charged power cells (you can find depleted ones and there's a time gating mechanism that lets you charge one every now and then for scrap) just like wood and steel for the Warfront buildings. Once done, you get access to nifty things like flamethrowers and jump packs.
- There's a robot that assembles things once you've collected the blueprints and parts. All in all, there's several dozen things you can make including "The Mechanocat Laser Pointer", which yields a paintable cat mount (apparently you can spray paint it one of eight colors)
- Statless rings and trinkets can be acquired and customized using a socket system. The "gems" in this case are "punchcards", obtainable by reputation, boss drops, or from the mythic dungeon opening Soon™.
Fishing is generally its own reward, but I was delighted to catch new rares as part of a fishing achievement in various pools and sections of the coastline. There's also a questline that ends with you fishing up a 3-man boss fight. Collecting all the fish will be a thing for me to do over the weekend when I have more time, just like hunting down rare spawns. As it was, I spent less than 2 hours getting to and screwing around in Mechagon, which was more than enough time to do everything that was currently available I could find and explore the island fully.
Afterwards it was time to hit Fishland. The short version is "I did most of the dailies and all the WQ, which got my fishboi to level 3 and unlocked the next part of the campaign and then did all of that." I think my next step is either rep-gated or I have to do more of the War Campaign proper. The only thing of real note is that they managed to make a daily worse than Beachhead. "Jumping Jellies"…it's a "jumping puzzle" using an engine that wasn't designed with jumping puzzles in mind. In this case, you leap onto floating jellyfish which bounce you high into the air and you have to Tokyo drift yourself onto a slightly higher jelly a number of times before you can reach an octopus named "Tickles" floating in a magic bubble well above the area. This. is. hell. If you fail to stick the landing, you fall into an area swarming with naga, because OF COURSE YOU DO. All in all, it took somewhere around a couple dozen tries to get it and I will seriously reconsider it when it comes up next in my daily rotation.
For all my efforts, I'm now "friendly" with both the friendly mechagnomes ("The Rustbolt Resistance") and fishbois ("some unspellable name with too many vowels").
Thursday, June 27, 2019
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Behold! Atlant--Nazjatar!
Spent my somewhat limited playtime on the new island of Nazjatar, a formerly sunken land raised from the depths by Queen NagaMcFace, Azsuna Matata using the Tidestone. Wait a minute.
The tidestone-- one of the "Pillars of the Creation" we used in Legion to seal away fel crap in the Tomb of Sargeras. One of the things holding something at bay, that MAGNI BRONZEBEARD said we couldn't use to help heal Azeroth because it was too important to move. Fortunately, this is explained in a cutscene with Fishface entrusting it to an underling with a dismissive "I trust you not to leave it unguarded like they did." WHARGRRBL. It's like they hired David Benioff and D. B. Weiss of Game of Thrones notoriety to "plot something". UGH.
Crappy writing aside, how's the actual content?
I'm enjoying it-- while hundreds of people poured past me to start the intro quests, I fished up some new beauties (Viper fish and mauve stingers) and was pleasantly surprised to see my fishing increase to 151. A quick search showed all professions increased to a new max rank of 175! Enchanting is going to be painful as all get out, as it usually is, but that's for another day. After a few minutes, I cheerfully trotted along behind the herd and sniped may way into 8.2 proper. Here's the highlights of the new patch and zone:
- After a short questline that takes you to Silithus and Deathwing's former mancave, you get a slot for your necklace, with more slots as you level it up to 70. It's arranged so almost everyone will start off with a "major" slot (requires necklace level 35) and 2 minors as you go. The things you slot in them are general or role-specific MacGuffins you get from doing your favorite activity, be it PvP, Questing, Raids, Grinding Rep, etc. A little something for everybody.
- New currency called "manapearls" that can be used to buy some rep gear, but mostly used to upgrade a new type of armor that starts at i385. As you spend pearls, it increases in ilevel. The first upgrade takes it to i400 and subsequent upgrades are 5 ilievel increments.
- Once a day you pick one of three fishman bodyguards to accompany you while you adventure in the zone. As you complete WQs and dailies with them, they level up, eventually unlocking new abilities. This is a slow grind, as after several WQs and all the dailies I could find, I only got my fishboi to level 2.
- There's a nifty "trading game" that played with some murlocs that have infested your base-- you might enjoy this one. Basically, there's the main murloc who sells one random thing a day (for me yesterday's was a necklace that broke apart into 3 manapearls), but to buy it, you need a bunch of things sold by three other murlocs. Those things require trading other things sold by a different murloc, etc. For example, 120 vegetables bought for 1 gold each may trade for 20 murloc socks, which in turn trade for 5 "ghost lunches", which is part of what you need to buy the necklace. From peeking around, eventually you will get a cape that, when worn, reveals rarer items the murloc will sell, including a mount.
- Aside from the usual WQs and dailies, there's at least one event where Naga Elites will spawn across the map requiring a mass push to kill before "they gain power"
The zone itself has a few flight points, but is utter hell to navigate. The geography is tight, winding, multilevel (not quite Guild Wars 2 bad, but surprisingly complex for WoW) and densely populated with mobs that hit like a truck (think the early days of Tol Barad). It'll be better once flight is unlocked, but for now… I'm getting my mileage out of Greater Invisibility, that's for sure.
Flight requires:
- Pathfinder Part 1 (CHECK!)
- Fully exploring the zone (CHECK!)
- Fully exploring Mechagon (TO DO)
- Getting Revered with both of the new factions (oh, god)
The last bit is going to be several weeks, I think. You start off as Neutral with the fishbois and after yesterday's exploits, I am still solidly in Neutral territory.
I ran out of time to check out Mechagon, but I did finish the starter quest chain which is a neat little bit that happens in a junkyard. At this point, I just need to gather a team of gnomes and start the expedition!
The tidestone-- one of the "Pillars of the Creation" we used in Legion to seal away fel crap in the Tomb of Sargeras. One of the things holding something at bay, that MAGNI BRONZEBEARD said we couldn't use to help heal Azeroth because it was too important to move. Fortunately, this is explained in a cutscene with Fishface entrusting it to an underling with a dismissive "I trust you not to leave it unguarded like they did." WHARGRRBL. It's like they hired David Benioff and D. B. Weiss of Game of Thrones notoriety to "plot something". UGH.
Crappy writing aside, how's the actual content?
I'm enjoying it-- while hundreds of people poured past me to start the intro quests, I fished up some new beauties (Viper fish and mauve stingers) and was pleasantly surprised to see my fishing increase to 151. A quick search showed all professions increased to a new max rank of 175! Enchanting is going to be painful as all get out, as it usually is, but that's for another day. After a few minutes, I cheerfully trotted along behind the herd and sniped may way into 8.2 proper. Here's the highlights of the new patch and zone:
- After a short questline that takes you to Silithus and Deathwing's former mancave, you get a slot for your necklace, with more slots as you level it up to 70. It's arranged so almost everyone will start off with a "major" slot (requires necklace level 35) and 2 minors as you go. The things you slot in them are general or role-specific MacGuffins you get from doing your favorite activity, be it PvP, Questing, Raids, Grinding Rep, etc. A little something for everybody.
- New currency called "manapearls" that can be used to buy some rep gear, but mostly used to upgrade a new type of armor that starts at i385. As you spend pearls, it increases in ilevel. The first upgrade takes it to i400 and subsequent upgrades are 5 ilievel increments.
- Once a day you pick one of three fishman bodyguards to accompany you while you adventure in the zone. As you complete WQs and dailies with them, they level up, eventually unlocking new abilities. This is a slow grind, as after several WQs and all the dailies I could find, I only got my fishboi to level 2.
- There's a nifty "trading game" that played with some murlocs that have infested your base-- you might enjoy this one. Basically, there's the main murloc who sells one random thing a day (for me yesterday's was a necklace that broke apart into 3 manapearls), but to buy it, you need a bunch of things sold by three other murlocs. Those things require trading other things sold by a different murloc, etc. For example, 120 vegetables bought for 1 gold each may trade for 20 murloc socks, which in turn trade for 5 "ghost lunches", which is part of what you need to buy the necklace. From peeking around, eventually you will get a cape that, when worn, reveals rarer items the murloc will sell, including a mount.
- Aside from the usual WQs and dailies, there's at least one event where Naga Elites will spawn across the map requiring a mass push to kill before "they gain power"
The zone itself has a few flight points, but is utter hell to navigate. The geography is tight, winding, multilevel (not quite Guild Wars 2 bad, but surprisingly complex for WoW) and densely populated with mobs that hit like a truck (think the early days of Tol Barad). It'll be better once flight is unlocked, but for now… I'm getting my mileage out of Greater Invisibility, that's for sure.
Flight requires:
- Pathfinder Part 1 (CHECK!)
- Fully exploring the zone (CHECK!)
- Fully exploring Mechagon (TO DO)
- Getting Revered with both of the new factions (oh, god)
The last bit is going to be several weeks, I think. You start off as Neutral with the fishbois and after yesterday's exploits, I am still solidly in Neutral territory.
I ran out of time to check out Mechagon, but I did finish the starter quest chain which is a neat little bit that happens in a junkyard. At this point, I just need to gather a team of gnomes and start the expedition!
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
I've Been Waiting a Long Time for This
With 8.2 dropping by this evening, I'm tickled to note I made most of my goals by my own artificial deadline, notably finishing up the Horde War Campaign and all that razzamatazz. Although Strev didn't quite make it to a level 50 Heart of Azeroth, I'm content with 48.5. I even took the time to do some miscellaneous things… like knocking out ALL of the Midsummer Festival bonfires from WotLK to present. Funny thing-- for over a decade my playtime and midsummer simply didn't overlap. So, by hitting all of the fires all of the expansions past Burning Crusades had to offer, I racked up over 500 event currency and finished another 100 points of achievements. Now…what to do with the "fire bucks" ("blazing blossoms?"-- hell if I know)? There's a number of toys that range from 300-500 each and like 3 pets for 350 each. I imagine I was supposed to do this every year, since the fun bucks disappear at the end of the event and like hell I'm juggling torches for 2 weeks.
Turns out all of the pets can be traded on the AH and sell for 10-20k each. This means that I can let some other enterprising person farm the pets for me and I can just buy them with cash later. So, I spent 500 on a book of matches instead. WORTH IT! After a brief "Playing with Matches" progress indicator, you set yourself on fire and run around out of control in horror for 10 seconds or so arms in the air leaving a blazing trail as you go. Absolutely hilarious. It's a 30 minute cooldown, which is good, otherwise I'd be using this constantly. In retrospect, I could insanely run Anyth, Anythe, Onsunshine, and the rest of the Alt Brigade around for the rest of the toys and pets, but that's a serious pain in the butt and I have a feeling 8.2 will be the focus of my efforts for the next couple of weeks.
Keeping up the "things on fire" theme, I finished up Avengers of Hyjal reputation by defeating Ragnaros for the somethingth time. The 25-man mythic takes less than a half hour to run through just futzing around and yields about 2k worth of gold and prizes, so it's been a "when I happen to remember it" thing. It was the last rep I needed for the expansion that launched in 2010 (and I still hate it for ruining hundreds of classic quests).
As I mentioned, historically WoW and I never play in the summer… which has kept me from the Zookeeper achievement since Pandalanda launched in September 2012. The maligned "Pokémon rip-off" that came with Mists of Pandaria came with scads of achievements, not the least of which is a meta achievement for collecting EVERY SINGLE PET in Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. The funny thing is they made it so some pets are stupidly rare for example, there's the "arctic fox kit" that only spawns in one zone when there's a random active weather event (blizzard), but more annoyingly one pet that only spawns in Winter and one that only spawns in Summer. As in…the actual real world calendar. Since I restarted last fall, I've been waiting for the first day of summer so I can get that damn Qiraji Guardling in Silithus. So the first thing I did when I logged on 6/21 was go Guardling hunting.
This proved slightly more annoying than I thought it would be. Time travelling back to "the time before a giant sword rent the world asunder", I came across the buggers. Unfortunately, my pets were too strong. After the second "whoopsies!", I toned it down to some random midrange pets and tried again. My quarry was of poor quality, but my heart sang jubilant notes as the trap closed. But…where was the fanfare? The achievement? The Zookeeper title? In confusion, I pulled up the achievement to see why it didn't give me credit.
Turns out I was missing a second "one last" creature. One I had completely forgotten about since it had been many years since I actually looked at the full list and had focused only on "the summer pet". "Silithid Hatchling" Ok. Spawns in Silithis-- Yay! I scoured the map. No bugs. Read more. "Only spawns during sandstorms." MOTHER F#$%! The forums told of people who camped for days waiting for a sandstorm. Looks like it's now my turn.
Strev has other things to do. For now, Onsunshine keeps a silent watch from a withered vine overlooking the Noxious Lair in a corner of Silithis. She reports in occasionally, but it's been nothing but clear skies for days.
Turns out all of the pets can be traded on the AH and sell for 10-20k each. This means that I can let some other enterprising person farm the pets for me and I can just buy them with cash later. So, I spent 500 on a book of matches instead. WORTH IT! After a brief "Playing with Matches" progress indicator, you set yourself on fire and run around out of control in horror for 10 seconds or so arms in the air leaving a blazing trail as you go. Absolutely hilarious. It's a 30 minute cooldown, which is good, otherwise I'd be using this constantly. In retrospect, I could insanely run Anyth, Anythe, Onsunshine, and the rest of the Alt Brigade around for the rest of the toys and pets, but that's a serious pain in the butt and I have a feeling 8.2 will be the focus of my efforts for the next couple of weeks.
Keeping up the "things on fire" theme, I finished up Avengers of Hyjal reputation by defeating Ragnaros for the somethingth time. The 25-man mythic takes less than a half hour to run through just futzing around and yields about 2k worth of gold and prizes, so it's been a "when I happen to remember it" thing. It was the last rep I needed for the expansion that launched in 2010 (and I still hate it for ruining hundreds of classic quests).
As I mentioned, historically WoW and I never play in the summer… which has kept me from the Zookeeper achievement since Pandalanda launched in September 2012. The maligned "Pokémon rip-off" that came with Mists of Pandaria came with scads of achievements, not the least of which is a meta achievement for collecting EVERY SINGLE PET in Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. The funny thing is they made it so some pets are stupidly rare for example, there's the "arctic fox kit" that only spawns in one zone when there's a random active weather event (blizzard), but more annoyingly one pet that only spawns in Winter and one that only spawns in Summer. As in…the actual real world calendar. Since I restarted last fall, I've been waiting for the first day of summer so I can get that damn Qiraji Guardling in Silithus. So the first thing I did when I logged on 6/21 was go Guardling hunting.
This proved slightly more annoying than I thought it would be. Time travelling back to "the time before a giant sword rent the world asunder", I came across the buggers. Unfortunately, my pets were too strong. After the second "whoopsies!", I toned it down to some random midrange pets and tried again. My quarry was of poor quality, but my heart sang jubilant notes as the trap closed. But…where was the fanfare? The achievement? The Zookeeper title? In confusion, I pulled up the achievement to see why it didn't give me credit.
Turns out I was missing a second "one last" creature. One I had completely forgotten about since it had been many years since I actually looked at the full list and had focused only on "the summer pet". "Silithid Hatchling" Ok. Spawns in Silithis-- Yay! I scoured the map. No bugs. Read more. "Only spawns during sandstorms." MOTHER F#$%! The forums told of people who camped for days waiting for a sandstorm. Looks like it's now my turn.
Strev has other things to do. For now, Onsunshine keeps a silent watch from a withered vine overlooking the Noxious Lair in a corner of Silithis. She reports in occasionally, but it's been nothing but clear skies for days.
Thursday, June 20, 2019
A Last Minute Flurry of Inactivity
With 8.2 just around the bend, this will mark the first time I've played an entire WoW expansion cycle. Usually I drop out before or just after the first major content patch due to the huge dry spells. So this week has been all about the "oh, god, oh, god-- what do I still need to do?" bits until I remembered that it really doesn't matter.
Strev is close to level 48 on the necklace and would be at the 50-level max if I had not been quarter-assing it for a few months. There's supposed to be a new advancement mechanic for the stupid necklace so it works more like a Legion artifact, where you collect "essences" and unlock what amount to talents for your class, so worst case I should be able to get the last bit without stressing over it.
Anythe (Horde) is sitting around 10k rep shy of Exalted for Honorbound, so I wasn't able to finish the "other side's" 8.1 War Campaign in time, but that's ok. It isn't going anywhere and I'll just finish it up at my leisure once I get to the point of getting tired of whatever the new daily grind will be on Strev.
Acannasta (Void Elf victim of random name-generation) is sitting pretty at around level 43. Last night for funsies I ran her through Westfall and started in on Lakeshire between dungeon runs. Without a doubt she's the most fun I'm having right now. Since her progress is irrelevant in the long run, she will get mothballed when 8.2 drops, so I'm enjoying the ride for now. On a typical run "Canna" is usually second or third on the DPS charts, behind the tank and maybe a DPS. (Tanks at this level have ridiculous AoE and since they try to pull the world usually, they stay in the #1 spot. I'm ok with this.) I took the level 30 talent that give my PW: Shield's target a 3 second speed boost, so I'm usually running "support". In between fights, I'll boost the tank along to make the run go that much faster, off-heal when the "real healer" needs it, drop a shield just before the tank engages, levitate when the dungeon calls for it (Screw you, Gnomeregan). Then there was Scarlet Halls.
I've commented before that run at this level are generally smooth. Operative word: generally. Every now and then, you'll get a new tank who pulls things one at a time (longest Wailing Caverns run since Vanilla there) and the DPS decides to start "helping", then it just gets hilarious, but this… I can only guess it was a new healer without anything on their tray. At first I thought the shaman healer was afk, but they were tagging along, not contributing to DPS… and not seeming to heal either. DPS was never healed and every now and then I'd see a tiny sliver on the health bar indicate something was healing the tank, but by the second Near Death Experience for the tank, I started full-bore healing. As shadow. Kill me. Twice the tank died due to me being silenced or stunned, and I took a death myself and I have no idea if the tank ever knew I was the only reason he wasn't tasting floor much more often. The shaman never said a word-- we just continued like that for another 9 minutes and cleared the place.
Shame on me for replacing Recount with a snazzier DPS meter. I haven't bothered to learn how the thing works yet, so I didn't try to figure out what the shaman was or was not doing. Still we were all new or tried to play hopped up on Ambien once. Hopefully, they'll get the hang of it.
Strev is close to level 48 on the necklace and would be at the 50-level max if I had not been quarter-assing it for a few months. There's supposed to be a new advancement mechanic for the stupid necklace so it works more like a Legion artifact, where you collect "essences" and unlock what amount to talents for your class, so worst case I should be able to get the last bit without stressing over it.
Anythe (Horde) is sitting around 10k rep shy of Exalted for Honorbound, so I wasn't able to finish the "other side's" 8.1 War Campaign in time, but that's ok. It isn't going anywhere and I'll just finish it up at my leisure once I get to the point of getting tired of whatever the new daily grind will be on Strev.
Acannasta (Void Elf victim of random name-generation) is sitting pretty at around level 43. Last night for funsies I ran her through Westfall and started in on Lakeshire between dungeon runs. Without a doubt she's the most fun I'm having right now. Since her progress is irrelevant in the long run, she will get mothballed when 8.2 drops, so I'm enjoying the ride for now. On a typical run "Canna" is usually second or third on the DPS charts, behind the tank and maybe a DPS. (Tanks at this level have ridiculous AoE and since they try to pull the world usually, they stay in the #1 spot. I'm ok with this.) I took the level 30 talent that give my PW: Shield's target a 3 second speed boost, so I'm usually running "support". In between fights, I'll boost the tank along to make the run go that much faster, off-heal when the "real healer" needs it, drop a shield just before the tank engages, levitate when the dungeon calls for it (Screw you, Gnomeregan). Then there was Scarlet Halls.
I've commented before that run at this level are generally smooth. Operative word: generally. Every now and then, you'll get a new tank who pulls things one at a time (longest Wailing Caverns run since Vanilla there) and the DPS decides to start "helping", then it just gets hilarious, but this… I can only guess it was a new healer without anything on their tray. At first I thought the shaman healer was afk, but they were tagging along, not contributing to DPS… and not seeming to heal either. DPS was never healed and every now and then I'd see a tiny sliver on the health bar indicate something was healing the tank, but by the second Near Death Experience for the tank, I started full-bore healing. As shadow. Kill me. Twice the tank died due to me being silenced or stunned, and I took a death myself and I have no idea if the tank ever knew I was the only reason he wasn't tasting floor much more often. The shaman never said a word-- we just continued like that for another 9 minutes and cleared the place.
Shame on me for replacing Recount with a snazzier DPS meter. I haven't bothered to learn how the thing works yet, so I didn't try to figure out what the shaman was or was not doing. Still we were all new or tried to play hopped up on Ambien once. Hopefully, they'll get the hang of it.
Tuesday, June 18, 2019
"Now when you say 'Lifestyle Guild'..."
Because I absolutely hate myself more than anyone else, I decided to level up a Void Elf shadow priest for the sweet, sweet transmog heritage armor set. To PROVE I hate myself, I created her on Moon Guard.
I like RP servers quite a lot; they are my "default" experience because I enjoy the atmosphere, even if I don't often participate. My first characters back in Vanilla originally started playing on Wyrmrest Accord. When I returned in 2010 post-Aion, Strev was only created on Whisperwind because my friends were there.
My previous experience on Moon Guard has been "as long as you turn off trade chat and avoid Goldshire, it is an amazing place for Alliance players." So let's do this. I installed the TRP3 (Total Roleplay 3) addon, mostly so I can read everyone else's extended character descriptions, current moods, etc on mouseover. (This is a really fun thing and I recommend creating a level 1 and just strolling around Stormwind (in particular the mage quarter and cathedral areas just to experience it). For my own part, I simply set a fairly generic description and threw OOC notes of "Player is 18+. I do not ERP ever, thanks." to keep "friendly whispers" at bay.
As with other Allied Races, you start at level 20 and I began chain running classic dungeons. For all of the pain of leveling, I adore running through the classic dungeons with strangers from 20-60. Queue times for DPS is rarely over 10 minutes, most people have heirlooms, and the fight mechanics aren't overwhelming. They are fast, (generally) painless, and smooth experiences.
While in down time between dungeons, I'd read trade chat for "fun". Trade chat is server-specific, so no one uses /general. Mostly it is guild spam and such. Like other servers, you will still get hit with a barrage of guild invites and whispers from recruiters, so I decided to pre-emptively sign up. Reading through the ads, one caught my eye. Something to the effect of "Friendly lifestyle guild with social events, new and returning players, very active, etc." So I chatted up the recruiter. "Hi! May I have a guild invite, please?" And that's where things took an odd turn.
"Just so you are aware we are a lifestyle guild. That means we're BDSM+ and need to make sure that's ok with you before I send an invite."
I blinked. Immediately I had several questions, not the least of which was "what in the hell does the 'plus' mean"? I mean, it takes all kinds. "I'm not really into that sort of thing, personally, but I don't find it offensive at all."
"That's ok. We have social members that don't participate. What kind of social role do you see yourself filling?"
At this point, I realized I was completely out of my element. "Food Catering?"
I never heard back from him again. I think it was for the best.
Shortly thereafter, I was hit with the double whammy from another recruiter.. a whisper and a Guild Invite. It hit all the right notes: the request was funny "Hi! Do you often find yourself falling off cliffs with no one around to laugh at you? (etc)" and I could see they had thousands of points of guild achievements. Thus, I joined "Azeroth, Inc."
Holy. Crap. 40+ people online, people running BGs, Mythics, Legion Transmog runs… all at the same time. Friendly chatting in the game, not relying on Discord.
I'm seriously considering a server transfer for Strev.
I like RP servers quite a lot; they are my "default" experience because I enjoy the atmosphere, even if I don't often participate. My first characters back in Vanilla originally started playing on Wyrmrest Accord. When I returned in 2010 post-Aion, Strev was only created on Whisperwind because my friends were there.
My previous experience on Moon Guard has been "as long as you turn off trade chat and avoid Goldshire, it is an amazing place for Alliance players." So let's do this. I installed the TRP3 (Total Roleplay 3) addon, mostly so I can read everyone else's extended character descriptions, current moods, etc on mouseover. (This is a really fun thing and I recommend creating a level 1 and just strolling around Stormwind (in particular the mage quarter and cathedral areas just to experience it). For my own part, I simply set a fairly generic description and threw OOC notes of "Player is 18+. I do not ERP ever, thanks." to keep "friendly whispers" at bay.
As with other Allied Races, you start at level 20 and I began chain running classic dungeons. For all of the pain of leveling, I adore running through the classic dungeons with strangers from 20-60. Queue times for DPS is rarely over 10 minutes, most people have heirlooms, and the fight mechanics aren't overwhelming. They are fast, (generally) painless, and smooth experiences.
While in down time between dungeons, I'd read trade chat for "fun". Trade chat is server-specific, so no one uses /general. Mostly it is guild spam and such. Like other servers, you will still get hit with a barrage of guild invites and whispers from recruiters, so I decided to pre-emptively sign up. Reading through the ads, one caught my eye. Something to the effect of "Friendly lifestyle guild with social events, new and returning players, very active, etc." So I chatted up the recruiter. "Hi! May I have a guild invite, please?" And that's where things took an odd turn.
"Just so you are aware we are a lifestyle guild. That means we're BDSM+ and need to make sure that's ok with you before I send an invite."
I blinked. Immediately I had several questions, not the least of which was "what in the hell does the 'plus' mean"? I mean, it takes all kinds. "I'm not really into that sort of thing, personally, but I don't find it offensive at all."
"That's ok. We have social members that don't participate. What kind of social role do you see yourself filling?"
At this point, I realized I was completely out of my element. "Food Catering?"
I never heard back from him again. I think it was for the best.
Shortly thereafter, I was hit with the double whammy from another recruiter.. a whisper and a Guild Invite. It hit all the right notes: the request was funny "Hi! Do you often find yourself falling off cliffs with no one around to laugh at you? (etc)" and I could see they had thousands of points of guild achievements. Thus, I joined "Azeroth, Inc."
Holy. Crap. 40+ people online, people running BGs, Mythics, Legion Transmog runs… all at the same time. Friendly chatting in the game, not relying on Discord.
I'm seriously considering a server transfer for Strev.
Friday, June 14, 2019
You are NOW Prepared!
Just a quick little update this glorious Flag Day. After stomping around in Warfront, I wandered back to Argus, knocked out a couple of dailies and unlocked Void Elves. The questline for them was only slightly more involved than the Lightforged Draenei: you have to run around Ghostlands and click a few glowies before running a Scenario that lets you see how the Void Elves come to be. Spoiler: they get touched by the Void.
Afterwards I celebrated on my new purple chicken mount (Voidstrider?) and ran over to the Firelands to do a quick 25-man heroic solo clear. This little distraction netted a couple thousand gold worth of cash and loot and brought me a little closer to exalted with "Avengers of Hyjal".
I'm not really a big "rep" person (only 53 or so exalted factions), but it is the LAST one I need for Cataclysm.
Yes, I realize how it sounds when I say "only 53", but there's well over a hundred now.
Afterwards I celebrated on my new purple chicken mount (Voidstrider?) and ran over to the Firelands to do a quick 25-man heroic solo clear. This little distraction netted a couple thousand gold worth of cash and loot and brought me a little closer to exalted with "Avengers of Hyjal".
I'm not really a big "rep" person (only 53 or so exalted factions), but it is the LAST one I need for Cataclysm.
Yes, I realize how it sounds when I say "only 53", but there's well over a hundred now.
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
You are NOT Prepared!
Well, it turns out there IS a method to the madness when it comes to Argussian rep! The non-kill-a-big-bad dailies give a handful of reputation to the actual faction listed on the quest, Armies of Light (AoL) or Argussian Reach (AR). The kill-a-big-bad dailies give 525 for both factions, regardless of the faction listed on the quest. There's 2 weekly quests to clear a few invasion points and collect drops from elites that give 1k each for both factions. Boo-yah! Using this, I was able to surgically pick off all of the quests that gave AoL reputation and managed to earn ALL I needed to hit exalted with AoL. This gave me an elephant mount, a title, and a cookie-eating grin as I made my way back to Stormwind to begin the quest chain to unlock my missing Allied Races. To my credit, it only took me about two minutes to realize how I screwed this one up.
Turns out you need BOTH factions at Exalted to get both Allied races. AoL by itself only gives the Lightforged Draenei. The Void Elves require AR… and I was still 10k rep short on that one. Typical, really. Still, half a loaf still makes sandwiches, so I started the Glowing Goatgirl unlock chain…and I gotta say, it was a LOT less involved than the others. As in "teleport to the ship you just came from", watch a cut scene, play a single scenario, watch another cut scene, and done. Compare this to Dark Iron Dwarves, which was a fairly long road to ride. Still, I can't complain. Glowing. Space. Goats. Created a Paladin, "just cause", realized I hate playing paladins, and promptly switched back to Strev.
Ran a Darkshore warfront and got a tiny bump to the ilevel (394 now, which is "good enough" for me). Got the necklace to level 46. Called it a night.
Turns out you need BOTH factions at Exalted to get both Allied races. AoL by itself only gives the Lightforged Draenei. The Void Elves require AR… and I was still 10k rep short on that one. Typical, really. Still, half a loaf still makes sandwiches, so I started the Glowing Goatgirl unlock chain…and I gotta say, it was a LOT less involved than the others. As in "teleport to the ship you just came from", watch a cut scene, play a single scenario, watch another cut scene, and done. Compare this to Dark Iron Dwarves, which was a fairly long road to ride. Still, I can't complain. Glowing. Space. Goats. Created a Paladin, "just cause", realized I hate playing paladins, and promptly switched back to Strev.
Ran a Darkshore warfront and got a tiny bump to the ilevel (394 now, which is "good enough" for me). Got the necklace to level 46. Called it a night.
Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Legion Heir's Disease
Back from vacation and time to strap into an MMO-- *spins wheel* Warcraft! It started off innocuously enough, as it so frequently does. "I really should finish up that stupid enchanting rod quest." This took a little mob hunting and Yet Another Visit to Waycrest Manor, but I finished it and… it was worth the effort, I think. Disenchanting greens yields 9-10 dust each, and epics give a crystal and a shard. Eventually it will pay for itself. Eventually.
Then I started thinking "Man, I should unlock the rest of the Allied Races-- what do I still need for that?" It turns out, just Exalted rep with the Armies of Light. Where I last left Legion I was on the low end of "Honored" with both of the Argussian factions, the aforementioned Armies of Light and the Argussian Reach. Argussian Reach lets you purchase the Argus flight whistle at Revered and a few mounts at Exalted, but the dailies on Argus seem to be rather arbitrary as to what gives reputation for which. It may be an "AR" daily, but on completion, you get both flavors of rep. So, I cleared all the dailies on Argus…for multiple days. The most obnoxious part was discovering that in order to open up a chunk of dailies on one of the three sub-zones, I had to run a heroic Legion dungeon. On a related note, I discovered that I can solo a heroic Legion dungeon.
I'm still about 10k rep shy of the AoL and I honestly don’t care about AR now that I have the whistle upgrade. I should be able to finish this completely in another 4-5 days or so, then I can work on the questlines for both the Void Elves and the Lightforged Draenei.
Otherwise, I added another level to the Heart of Azeroth necklace (45!), a few more achievements to the total (Island-related, 35 points), and another dozen mounts to the pile. At some point I'm going to have to bite the bullet and properly grind the Argent Crusade, but I figure if I've waited ten years, another five won't kill me.
Two unexpected delights: I stumbled on a quest series that was added in 8.1 that leads into the Crucible of Shadows and explains where that crown/trident/and other thing came from-- you basically power up an evil artifact (the shadow priest dagger from Legion) until it takes a human form, betrays you, and leaves you at the mercy of N'Zoth. Good times! Then there was Chromie!
I'll begin by saying Chromie was Legion content I was 'kinda aware of', but had never checked out since it was all the way in Wyrmrest. I wish I had done it years ago. Your own level and gear doesn't really matter. You are set to level 112 and ilevel 1000 for the duration of the scenario. I've always loved "time loop"-type time travel plots and this one is FUN. "The Many Deaths of Chromie" takes place in the near future-- you and Chromie witness her future-self dying. She knows this isn't supposed to be "her time", so you both travel back in time to prevent it. Problem is, she's only able to give you 15 minutes to stop 8 assassination attempts coming from all around the zone and from different periods in time. It isn't possible at all at first, but the quest is repeatable and you WILL repeat it lots. Each loop lets you earn reputation with Chromie, which eventually unlock more of her talents (like increased speed, more damage). Once you've "solved" one of the first four assassination attempts and exposed the boss, that boss remains exposed in future loops, greatly cutting down the amount of time required to complete. Each boss drops a shard that opens up portals to the other 4 events (like the Siege of Stratholme, the Well of Eternity, etc). I've been able to get four done in a single run, but the four portals are kicking my butt.
All in all, I'm getting ready for the eventual 8.2 release. I'm looking forward to flight, new content, and a great fishing quest that has you hunting down a couple dozen hidden fish that eventually awards the toy: Hyper-compressed ocean. So psyched!
Then I started thinking "Man, I should unlock the rest of the Allied Races-- what do I still need for that?" It turns out, just Exalted rep with the Armies of Light. Where I last left Legion I was on the low end of "Honored" with both of the Argussian factions, the aforementioned Armies of Light and the Argussian Reach. Argussian Reach lets you purchase the Argus flight whistle at Revered and a few mounts at Exalted, but the dailies on Argus seem to be rather arbitrary as to what gives reputation for which. It may be an "AR" daily, but on completion, you get both flavors of rep. So, I cleared all the dailies on Argus…for multiple days. The most obnoxious part was discovering that in order to open up a chunk of dailies on one of the three sub-zones, I had to run a heroic Legion dungeon. On a related note, I discovered that I can solo a heroic Legion dungeon.
I'm still about 10k rep shy of the AoL and I honestly don’t care about AR now that I have the whistle upgrade. I should be able to finish this completely in another 4-5 days or so, then I can work on the questlines for both the Void Elves and the Lightforged Draenei.
Otherwise, I added another level to the Heart of Azeroth necklace (45!), a few more achievements to the total (Island-related, 35 points), and another dozen mounts to the pile. At some point I'm going to have to bite the bullet and properly grind the Argent Crusade, but I figure if I've waited ten years, another five won't kill me.
Two unexpected delights: I stumbled on a quest series that was added in 8.1 that leads into the Crucible of Shadows and explains where that crown/trident/and other thing came from-- you basically power up an evil artifact (the shadow priest dagger from Legion) until it takes a human form, betrays you, and leaves you at the mercy of N'Zoth. Good times! Then there was Chromie!
I'll begin by saying Chromie was Legion content I was 'kinda aware of', but had never checked out since it was all the way in Wyrmrest. I wish I had done it years ago. Your own level and gear doesn't really matter. You are set to level 112 and ilevel 1000 for the duration of the scenario. I've always loved "time loop"-type time travel plots and this one is FUN. "The Many Deaths of Chromie" takes place in the near future-- you and Chromie witness her future-self dying. She knows this isn't supposed to be "her time", so you both travel back in time to prevent it. Problem is, she's only able to give you 15 minutes to stop 8 assassination attempts coming from all around the zone and from different periods in time. It isn't possible at all at first, but the quest is repeatable and you WILL repeat it lots. Each loop lets you earn reputation with Chromie, which eventually unlock more of her talents (like increased speed, more damage). Once you've "solved" one of the first four assassination attempts and exposed the boss, that boss remains exposed in future loops, greatly cutting down the amount of time required to complete. Each boss drops a shard that opens up portals to the other 4 events (like the Siege of Stratholme, the Well of Eternity, etc). I've been able to get four done in a single run, but the four portals are kicking my butt.
All in all, I'm getting ready for the eventual 8.2 release. I'm looking forward to flight, new content, and a great fishing quest that has you hunting down a couple dozen hidden fish that eventually awards the toy: Hyper-compressed ocean. So psyched!
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