Bopping Around

A couple of events hit me over the last week, at least a couple that I wanted to partake of. GW2 has an event, which is broken up into two areas. The Queens Gauntlet, and Festival of The Four Winds. The festival was okay, I messed about a little. Jumping around gathering crystals, kind of boring but gorgeous scenery. The gauntlet was more fun. I only did it once so far, we resulted with a gold reward. At fist I was asked if I wanted to help with Boom Boom. Boom Boom? Sure! I don't know who that is but it sounds cool. Which I got the idea pretty quickly. Basically teams on each side take down the bosses in a timed event. It was interesting. I'm mostly waiting for the next part of the Living Story to hit. The current event has some cool items but I just haven't felt like doing much for some reason. Maybe later in the week.

Mostly I've been playing Rift. Bouncing around with activities. I managed to snag a cool Hellbug mount, well three dropped. Yay, alts? My cleric is now 44, slowly leveling and catching up with my mage. I seem to enjoy the cleric a bit more currently. 

I have been crafting steadily, slow but steady! I made a sweet dimension with Dream Weaving- Tower Meadow. Which I absolutely love. I decided to decorate it with something I've never tried. I ended up with a lovely tree house. Screenshots below. If you'd like to check it out in game (any character can swap realms on the fly now, by clicking your player portrait, yay!) it is Vanlorian's Tower Meadow dimension on Faeblight. Still a work in progress, I need to put in a bit more stuff to polish it up.

Back to the topic of events, Hooves and Horns or rather, Unicornalia hit the servers last week. I was excited about a unicorn themed event but it seems this is mostly a promotional event, you can't possibly get enough sparkle tokens for the mount even with it extended for a week. What does this mean? Buy lockboxes, ugh. The event started off with the Hooves and Horns boss being bugged to begin with, he only has 30k hp and is around level 40 and did not have any counters (as other event boss mobs do) to higher level players attacking him and killing him instantly. This was fixed but if you are across the map it isn't helping much, he's dead before you get there. The lockboxes don't have anything great for a mid level alt, very much a let down. Just let me buy a unicorn... So the event has me feeling a little sad, no unicorn for me.

One good thing out of the event is that I actually enjoy the PvP daily with it. PvP feels much better than in WoW, actually enjoyable. I have a lot of fun with my cleric. And this is from someone who runs from anything PvP. I feel it isn't so fast paced, or that stuns and incapacitate abilities don't completely destroy me. I might just PvP some for the heck of it, good xp and rewards, may as well for something else to do.

Dire and I are still playing Magic: The Gathering. I am working on a black and white deck, which has been fun. I also have a mono black deck now and black and green (which I started with). So, you can tell I obviously love black, heh. Lots of fun! But, I am a sore loser and yell at his (stupid) blue cards about how cheap and 'cheaty' they are. Is that even a word? But it is all in all good fun. I am still learning and so far I learned I hate mono blue decks (all blue cards). I can imagine black/blue would be devastating. A bruiser deck might be my next! Cool thing is he doesn't get upset when I splurge on boosters, lol. I look forward to playing it with him, I wish I could entice my son to play as he loves Hearthstone, I know he'd like MTG.

I am also poking around in EQ2, because I just always miss it. Classic feeling, it is Norrath (!) and it just always feels like home. Much like Rift it offers a lot to do, so always a very solid choice for someone who likes to bop around doing different things. Instead of picking up a main I decided to roll a new necromancer (my other is on another old account). I wanted to explore the wold I've missed. I might bump her up with a boost later on, but for now the goal was to just re-experience the old world again, there are a lot of great places I do miss! But, more on those adventures later, she's still quite low sitting at level nine.

That's it for today, enjoy the shots of my treehouse!

Building the stairs into the tree, which is scaled up quite largely.

Tree house at first look.

Going up the stairs.

Top of the stairs.

Little home in the boughs!

Back of the tree house, stairs leading to the top.

The VERY top of the tree! I added in some trees to the platform because it felt kind of bare and the branches give it a nice feel.

Another view of the top. Pictures don't do it justice, look in person if you play Rift!

Eye Candy: Festival of The Four Winds (GW2)

Festival of The Four Winds, GW2. Check out Dulfy for the guide and to see what's new. Lots of cool skins and items from past events! So far it looks pretty cool. Lots of pretty scenery. 

The Motley Post

Last week I found myself without a working phone on and off, very irritating. I went though two replacement phones and a new sim card. So far the new one(s) are working, I am so glad. Dire works a lot and that's the way we touch base through the long hours he is gone, also I read all my feeds on the phone and hate when I can't, and my Rift app is something I try to keep tabs with (free stuffz!). It seems the Galazy S4 has a history of sim card errors, I've had mine for six months with no problems though so it was a surprise. Then again my sim card was a few years old, but the new one giving errors with a new phone really threw me for a loop. Having that solved, I feel much better. I don't think there really is a fix for the error, it randomly drops the signal, causes reboots and at times will only work on sending, not receiving (texts and calls). Best bet is to get a replacement. T Mobile was really good/fast with getting everything replaced (phones sent overnight and there in under 24 hours) and all is well in my world, lol. Other than that it is still an amazing phone.

This week finds Dire and me not playing any MMO games together. He's been playing D3 a lot but I haven't picked up another copy because I don't know if he wants to keep playing it. I did want to get 70 and soak up the legendary (anniversary) drop boost, maybe another time I suppose. Plus, I already have so much I'm playing. We miss LoTRO but just after we left the game had another combat revamp. Things are harder now, things don't scale so well to lower levels, the difficulty has been ramped up and in my eyes the game is too old for me to care to learn everything all over again. Catering to a small percentage of players who think the game should be more turned to fully decked out maxed characters isn't going to keep players. Yeah, I'm not happy. I don't see the game doing much further than 2017, when the IP renewal is up. This change, in my eyes, could really hurt the game overall. These changes made us sad.

What we have been playing is Magic The Gathering, the TCG (trading card game). I wasn't really thrilled about playing but when he turned the puppy dog eyes on me I figured I'd at least give it a try to make him happy. Which turns out it is quite fun and I'm not too bad at it. I never saw myself as someone to play these sorts of games but I do like a variety of games and just unhooking from technology to play things face to face. (I'm a champ at UNO!) It is a nice change. We talk, have some laughs, some pouting (on my part), and all around a good time. I found that my time with Hearthstone gave me a solid, basic understanding, more so than other online TCGs. I highly recommend it if you want to learn or get a feel for TCGs. Plus, that's a great game to play if you want to play long distance or you don't have anyone to play regularly with. Go, Hearthstone!

I'm still learning but I'm starting to have a solid handle on it and it turns out to be fun once you find a deck you like. Mine is black and green, which is rather necrotic and restorative. Some of my (black) cards use my life for certain abilities, such as lose two life and draw two cards, and some return (green) life. It is a cool balance and if you play MMO or RPG games, it is neat to have a deck that fits your playstyle. I still want to tailor it out some and also build another deck. I'm glad I gave it a try. Tonight I brought him some boosters on his lunch break as a surprise, since the comic store is closed by the time he gets off, always fun to see him rip into the packs, lol. I just wish we didn't both love the green cards so much! Gah!! I let him have first pick. I'd love to do a black/white set just to do it. But I have a lot to learn and a lot of building to ever do that. Ah, maybe one day.

I has a pet pig! New gem store mini, I had a few extra gems sitting there so I decided to grab him. Who doesn't like bacon!!?

This week I should pick up more with GW2, the Festival of The Four Winds is landing, today actually. The Queen's gauntlet returns (think WoW Brawler's Guild), some cool rewards and the rebuilding of Lion's Arch. I'm pretty excited to have something different to do. I've sort of slacked of over the last week with playing as much.

I have been playing a lot of Rift in my free time. It has been a fun return, I just fell back into it so easily. I don't really hear much about the game these days, a lot of bloggers I follow don't seem to play it anymore unless Trion hands out some free invitation (and always forgets about me >.<). I always like to keep this as one of my games I have as an option to play. A steady on my roster of games I will always play. It has a lot for me to do. I am working a lot on the new Dreamweaver profession, I made my first dimension with it, almost to the point of working on my second. The mobile app can help with ribbons, as it has the scratch cards where you can get free shinies! Awesomeness.

I love working on tradeskills, the daily quests for them are a nice bonus. Plenty to do, to keep me busy and the mentoring down is a great option to still gain xp (decent xp) while you level thoguh things you may have missed. I like to mentor down, do some carnage quests I missed and gather crafting materials. I don't know what it is but I am really having a lot of fun, I think it is because it feels so classic, it has depth when you really start to get things rolling. I'm just messing about on an alt, not in a rush to level. I try to get a level a day if possible, but even if I don't I still enjoy playing.

That's it for today. I hope to share some thoughts about the GW2 event soon. Anyone else play Magic: The Gathering? If so what types of decks do you enjoy? Enjoy the pics. Safe adventures and all that ;)

Brrr! I should of worn a coat!

The first dimension I created with the Dreamweaver profession. Small but cool. 

Rawr!

Air rifts make everything so foggy.

On my way to a fishing hole, I love fishing in Rift... I fished up my own boat, lol. Sunken ships are awesome nodes to find on the map, keep an eye out for them!

Pretty trees. 

Can you tell this is one of my favorite mounts, one of the coolest things in the game. Mechanical horses= awesome. 

Rift tear.

Invasion boss. Love these. So epic!

I love desert zones. LOVE them.

Taking shelter. It's raining rifts.

Laugh For The Day

Playing Diablo with someone way better than me:

                            

My son shared this with me, found it here. Hilarious.

Play Log

I'm really enjoying Guild Wars 2 a lot these days. Last week I finally hit the level cap. It took me so long I still had a birthday buff on my main, which gave a nice boost and I flew through the last few levels. It is interesting being 80. There is plenty to do, I still have many maps to complete. I'm not interested in doing instances really, mostly just more of the same, which is all good. I made my way to the end game zones, The Ruins of Orr, which is a weird place. It looks as if you are in a desert carved into the ocean floor, lacking water. Haunting beauty yet a tad depressing. It is packed with undead and barnacles. I haven't spent too much time there yet, I am sure I will get to know it soon enough.

GW2 is lovely, especially more so with a new computer and a new monitor. It's just a joy to play. I really enjoy the combat and pace of the game. I find myself forgetting that I don't get xp for everything, while playing other MMO games. Sometimes it can be a hard transition. Running feels pretty fast and I don't miss a mount much of the time, which is odd. All in all I am enjoying it more than I ever have.

I'll be working on achievements for now, clearing out maps, making monies, and playing my alts. No rush to do much really, just log in and have fun. That's the best thing about GW2. There isn't a lot of pressure, tons of places to explore, xp for everything you do. You don't stop getting xp at the cap, each 'level' is turned into a skill point. You can max out all your skills (which works like an ability or passive you can swap in and out with others) and/or purchase things with skill points eventually. There is still much to do at the cap, so hitting 80 isn't the end. It doesn't feel a whole lot different, the only thing is that you pretty much have the whole map accessible where you didn't at the lower levels, and of course, gear.

I also got another HoM point through the first Guild Wars, I'd like to get more but I just don't feel like playing through the game on another character. GW is a great game- when you're actually wanting to play it. When you want to play GW2 it can drag on, but at least I gained another point! It is a LOT of work, nothing to scoff at, best for those with established accounts or those that really wish to invest in playing the first. It is time consuming and you really have to be in the mindset for it.

As with a new computer, I always want to see how this or that game looks. I just had to load up Rift. It is spectacular. I often forget what a beautiful game it is. It is gorgeous if you play it with everything turned up, if you don't it can be a bit bland looking. But it is absolutely gorgeous, especially entering rifts, the lighting is just lovely.

Besides Rift looking great, it is a nice change. More of a classic feeling MMO. I can't pinpoint why Rift is sometimes called generic. I understand why, but it really is a neat game far from being generic. Maybe the slower combat? Talent points? I think the soul trees offer a nice flavor and much depth to the game. It offers a lot of standard things you'd expect from an MMO, then it also adds some really interesting things. Jumping puzzles, shinies, housing, and fun crafting (I just love fishing). Things like Instant adventures are awesome, you group up but in a more 'dynamic' setting. I do quite a lot of these, but these days I am trying to quest more and IA less.

I don't much feel like playing my mage these days so I've been playing around with my cleric. My main is two levels from the cap, I should just finish it up. There are some new souls out but none of them really interest me at this time, I doubt I pick it up right now. I'm just playing the cleric mostly as a dps with my healer pet following me. There are some new pet skins, the cleric's are the best looking (IMO). They are gorgeous. Most of the classes get a reskin but the cleric gets some new looking models.

I have also been working on the new Dreamweaver profession. It is interesting, making a lot of house items, I am about to make my first dimension key. There are a lot of new ones with the profession, I can't wait to get a few to try out, I don't know which to pick from. Eventually I'd like to make them all! Like GW2, there is always a lot to do, a lot of choice on what to do when you log in. I like that, keeps me interested.

Dire and Nelf are really having a blast with D3. It is nice to see them playing something together again. Dire hit 70 with his main last week, then Nelf helped him level up his first alt (in like an hour, lol), which he is still learning a lot about the changes with the game, plenty for him to keep busy with. They have asked if I want to play. I do, but I'm not sure if it is a good fit for me. I don't know if I can even keep up with them, lol. With the changes it looks better than ever, more so now it looks like something I could play and enjoy. Nelf plays on my account and has invested a lot of time into it, so I figure eventually I'll just get a new account. Not sure when! I already have FFXIV sitting there, I've not had time to play but I hope to finally hit 20 this week. Why no time? I am very close to 20 and my mount, but I need to do several dungeons and... ugh I didn't feel like it and also I have not had time to sit in a queue and then sit through a dungeon. They take time and so does waiting on the queue. I HAVE to do them in order to progress through the story, to unlock my mount and basically to play through the game as intended. Which I don't like so much. I don't want to group at these levels, why force me? So, we'll see if I can stomach it or not.

That's it for today, enjoy the shots!

My favorite areas in the game are those with the Ascalon setting. I can't get enough of these zones. I love everything about them. I suppose they really remind me of my early days in the first Guild Wars, in pre-searing, Ascalon. Dire and I have a lot of good memories there. 

Traveling around to Orr, a nice sky.

I love any zone that has a forest....

Oink! 

One of my alts, enjoying a costume (and being able to wear it in combat!!).

Under a full moon in the guild hall, with my trusty pets.

Traveling to a new quest area.

Now THAT is a forest!

Death Rift.