June Already!

A few weeks ago I wrote a nice long post about the City of Heroes Homecoming server and then poof it went, the post didn't save and I just never got around to writing it again. The blog has gotten dusty, I've been really lacking in energy and it has gotten worse recently. And thus after passing out, waking up to the sound of my son running towards me while I had my face planted in the floor, Dire took me to the doctors. Turns out I have a minor heart issue going on. We're not sure what it is, most likely due to me being anemic, we'll know more next week. TMI probably but for years I  took a lot of effort and tried to focus on blogging here-- But stress and life just sucked all my energy to the point where I have not felt much like writing anything. I'd like to pick up and have that focus again, I miss it. If you're still here reading, thank you, as always. *Dusts off the blog as well as herself*

Changing Seasons

Maybe it is the changing of the seasons but I've been feeling like changing things up a bit lately in the play rotation, visiting some games I have been away from for a bit. Sometimes, for me at least, it is so much fun to go and play through those old starting zones and get a real feel for if I want to come back. Sometimes those are the most fun I have these days, leveling up through familiar haunts, it was great with GW2 last month.

Memory Lane (WoW)

Off to Duskwood! Some shots of my travels on the rogue alt, down memory land... sort of. Lots has changed in Azeroth but much still stays the same, in a way. 

Creepy Nights In Norrath

Finally... My valorous wings! I have been trying for YEARS for these things. 

I finally hit 95, the current cap, in EQ2. My new Channeler was the one to hit this milestone. It has been nice starting up on Antonia Bayle, the RP server. I have made some friends within the new guild, which have been great helping me level which has been quite fun to group with people again.

Summer Days

This month is the last month we'll be able to log in and play Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. It will fasde away forever, off into the sunset this summer. Which is sad for me, I do intend to, I still want to say my goodbye! I keep wanting to play but the thought of it going away just makes me not want to get even more attached to the game, so I am putting it off. Which makes me appreciate older games that are still running and updated, such as EQ and WoW. Even though WoW is still such a major influence on the genre and still highly popular.

So in our return, I try to look at things differently. I don't complain so often about the things that bother me but I enjoy the things I like about the game and focus on those. For instance, my son is visiting little Easter eggs in the game while I write this, showing me the game's little special places you can visit and chuckle at. Right now he's visiting an area in the Jade Forest which is a recreation from the movie Up. Little things that make you smile. You can find a whole lot of neat things on this list here.

We (Nelf and I) pre-ordered the expansion. Yes, we want to play with garrisons, new models and just new content in general. We boosted two characters to 90 with our boost. I went with my 75 priest, I've been so lazy with her! I wanted maxed professions, which requires a character over level 60. He went with a fresh and new rogue. We've had fun with them and I've had some decent luck at upgrading gear. LFR is pretty much the same, not much new from the last time we played.

It feels like stepping back into comfortable old shoes in some ways. I have the worst luck with my hunter, who is a beast. I love her, she is so much fun with her shiny epics, a long way from the struggle I had when she was still sporting blues and greens. I just hate long queues which seem to always throw me in the worst group possible. The priest has the best luck. I already have a strong hold on healing again, I just can't not heal. Falling back into it was so easy. Then again blowing away things as DPS is great too, just not the queues.

In being back we've been pretty active, a little leveling of lowbie alts, transmog runs, LFR, faction grinding, exploring, just a lot of stuff to do. Oh, and the isle. Not much has changed there, it is still a nice change of pace when we feel like doing it.  Dire hasn't returned, he looks over and watches me play at times. I think he'd like to return, but he just has so little free time. Diablo 3 is enough to keep him busy when he wants to play something.

I will say this, I do wish the company would set more of an example, stick more to a schedule for content releases. I feel like nothing much has really changed, which feels sad considering this is WoW. It isn't a game I played ten years ago that is still hanging on in maintenance mode. I look over at Wildstar and hope they can keep up with their steady pace, it sure does look inviting. But, we take it or leave it, love it or hate it. I'm glad to be back playing, the new content just seems so far off! That is really my biggest beef these days.

I've been wanting to do more with the Living Story in GW2 but I just haven't felt like playing. The nice thing is that it will be there whenever I am ready to tackle it, which is awesome. I have been playing more Rift, in the events when I can. I just love the look and feel of the game. I love the dimensions, the events and the choice of things to do. I have been trying to play every day for the summer event. I've gotten a few interesting pets, a new cape, some titles.

I also managed to get to Storm Legion content with my alt. Finally! It has been slow going but because I do so many crafting dailys, hunt for events, search for artifacts, dimension decorating and just general things to detour me from strictly leveling. I'm a smidgen from 50, can't wait to hit it again.  I have not felt like playing the main as much, two levels from the cap at that!

Pictures of some of my chars in WoW and Rift. Have a great weekend!

I love the changes in the sky in Rift, especially how you can change them in your personal dimension too!

Climbing.

Tiny and cute!

Scavenger hunt, stopping for a picture!

Summer event questing and corgis!

A dimension I'm working on. 

Fishing!

World event.

I don't have this mount yet, I want it though! Cool thing is you can try it with the hitching post, which many like to throw down in LFR.

Sunwell.

Panda land.

Sparring with the King of Stormwind!

Hit you?!

...... 

...... 

Hanging out in Stormwind

Another alt, heh.

I'm Only Happy When It Rains

Yarrrr!

This week WoW's patch 5.4 has hit. I'm not messing with any of the raids besides LFR, and really I'm not very hyped over that. Just because I have so much going on, not that the raid doesn't look interesting. I've mostly been playing around on the new Timeless Isle. Which I really have some mixed feelings about. As for the new leader of the Horde? I won't spoil it and say who, you can watch it here. I will say, I love this character, I saw it coming! I've also played the Horde heavily over the years, so I may be biased.

Timeless Isle is basically a loot pinata. It is raining loot! Open your bags and head out to catch it. I will say I found way more loot dropping the first day, seems not as heavy since, then again it could be me remembering all the chests (which rarely respawn). My hunter is pretty decked out now, she was in dire need of new gear. I am still trying to fill out several slots on my lock but she is not shabby at all, much better off than the hunter. If you need gear for an alt, the isle is the way to go. Right now it is great, you don't have to wade through so many mobs, you can tag some rares, get some loot, grab some chests, do some daily quests.

My new pet.

The Isle is fun, but it does start to get boring after cycling my main and two alts through it. My lock is looking more and more favorable here also. These mobs are not quite melee friendly, the lock just mows through it all. Feral wasn't fun at all (yay, I gained a feral set with the loot here), hunter wasn't too bad but the pet died quite a lot. The lock just cut through the mobs, those chumps didn't even have a chance, so mostly, if solo, I just use her. The armor is also BOA, which is pretty sweet. The difficulty of the isle is a bit steep for the characters that would mostly benefit; fresh 90's and alts needing gear. When things die down, it won't be so pretty in some areas.

Explore at your own risk!

A lot of the mobs have nasty attacks that can easily kill players in a couple of shots if passed by at the wrong time. Run over a fire path the mob has thrown down, just strolling on your merry way, you might be strolling right back up again. You have to really be on your toes sometimes. Relaxing? Not quite. But all in all I do like the island, I think it is great, though a bit too small for us all.  It does give me something else to do and I am glad I was able to gear up the hunter and fill out the warlock there. That's my 2cp.

Pretty princess scepter... Necro style. 

Still playing GW2, yep. I sort of got hooked again, it is just so relaxing. I wanted to play my paladin up in Vanguard (for my side game, and I will at some point) but until I get a heal, I am really on my toes constantly. It isn't always relaxing as something on the side, especially when I really just want to veg out. Sometimes GW2 takes up rank as the more played game lately. I explore, get xp, craft get xp, and so on. Speaking on crafting, I've worked up several professions, I enjoyed it while getting tons of xp!

Shot in game.

GW2 has some great visuals, plus I like the daily list, gives me a goal. I also like to complete maps, do puzzles and explore. I'm sitting at 67 with my necro, I'm so proud that I am getting closer to the cap! I look forward to the new event heading in, it is all fresh and new to me, so I do hope I can participate. I also look forward to the LFG system being implemented also.

That is it for today, have a great weekend!

Summon that pirate ship!

Don't put me down plz! Yes, the goal is to NOT have some random person attack the bird and cause you to land. Easy way to travel for a quest and some hard to reach areas. Simply attack bird, stop attacking, it will pick you up and fly off.

Proving grounds. I'm not sure if I do or don't like this yet. Seems like after you get the title, sort of boring. No real rewards I know of, besides titles, but I could be wrong.

Just lovely! I can almost breathe in the cool, crisp fall air.

Exploring.

Kiss mah grits. I was a piggy with a curly tail. 

Victory dance, when I hit 65.

I love the ambient weather. At least I get to see rain in a game.... since it never rains here in Houston :X

Dual Classing (WoW)

WoW Insider has a really interesting article up today- WoW 6.0: A case for dual class dual spec. The idea of this post is how dual classing would allow more flexibility for players. I think it is a really great idea! Will we ever see anything like this in WoW? I could see it happen, I really can envision it. Why? I think we need something to make playing fresh again, instead of rolling alts. I have too many alts already, I really don't want to level another new class next expansion. I feel a very strong pull to my monk now, which saddens me to think about my druid (pictured up top) main.

It would really have to have limitations to work. I don't know how a mage tank would work, but changing out for another cloth wearing class would seem to be ideal for the idea of dual classing. Or perhaps if warlocks received a tank spec, that would really flesh out things for this. It would feel very off to be a mage who swaps to a paladin. Or-- we could see a total revamp how armor works depending on which class you work with, which as been a long awaited wish of mine. I have spent so many years as a druid carrying different sets of gear, I've finally quit bothering. However, I think setting limitations on which armor your class wears to affecting which classes you can be would probably be the best bet with how things work now.

This article did get a lot of negative reactions but it really seemed to me a big argument of  "I'm a dps mage I don't want to heal or tank!" Basically reactions sounded to me as an argument, that if they wanted to heal or tank they'd have picked a different class. Fine, don't use it, if you don't want to, nobody will force you. Nobody forces you to play a different class now, why would they then? You might feel lazy? That's on your own shoulders, bud. For me, I'd absolutely love something like this. I adore healing on my druid but the DPS specs never really did it for me. Imagine if I could DPS on my hunter when I wanted to, or maybe use it for daily quests, but it being a mail wearing class, I could swap out and fill in a healing role as a shaman? I'd love that! That would be pretty amazing in my eyes.

I agree with the author, WoW needs something big to keep subscriptions up, to liven things up. Something like this would blow away a measly third spec. Do we really want a new class, jump ship and balance your army of alts? Frankly I'm tired of it. I am close to hitting the cap on my new monk, I also think time spent on it is time I could spend on my main. Then I think about swapping the monk to my main, then I just get fed up and try not to think about it too much. You see, I play alts because I hate the DPS specs on my main, whom I love to heal on. This has been an internal battle with me for years.

Lore? I look at it like this, lore is fine and dandy but something that could help the game flourish, revive old classes instead of flooding us with more, would benefit the game. I play many other games with fantastic lore, that have less restrictions, such as any class/any race combos, it makes me really happy to have restrictions lifted. However, most of these restrictions were lifted too late, those games are deserted. Do we want to hold onto the name of lore in a death grip until it is too late, after all it is all make believe when you come down to it. I want to play a game that is alive, a game that has options, flexibility, that allows me to jump in and support when I can.

There are downsides as well, I'm completely aware of that, but I think it is a very interesting idea to discuss! I'm all for this, then again I am always torn as hell when I play my army of alts. How about you? Would you like to see something like this in WoW? I don't know if we will ever see anything such as this, but it is nice to dream. Check out the article linked above, it is a really great read!

Ding... Again

I've really enjoyed Mists of Pandaria, though I have not yet played a character all the way to level 90. I suppose this has to do with me really enjoying the changes to many of the classes I play, causing me to hop around and play around with many of them instead of focusing on one. This has also changed who I've wanted to work on, some classes being more fun than others, also just wanting a change in general. Most of the time I dread class changes but I really was pleasantly surprised with this expansion.

I thought I'd level the Druid up first, which is a lot of fun, but I'm probably going to work on her secondly. I've been puttering around mostly on my Horde lock and she just hit 85 last night. Demonology is a lot of fun to play with, I've just been plowing through the levels. 80-85 is now so much faster. I leveled through them with my DK before the patch hit, and it is now a blur! I ended up clearing all of Uldum and getting loremaster of Cataclysm then hitting 85 shortly after. I've never finished that zone because I had remembered the Harrison Jones questline being bugged for a while and never tried it again past my first 85. It was nice to finish all that up. Plus, it is my favorite zone in Cataclysm.

I look forward to leveling through MoP with the lock, I really enjoy these zones, the lore, the art and the music. I suppose I should have just stuck it out with my other classes getting them to 90 then worrying about alts, but it's all in fun. I'm enjoying the lock very much and think sometimes it is better to just play what is fun more than worrying about all the rest.

Wings And Things (WoW)

Last week I took a few days off of WoW, thus I'm not level 90 yet. It doesn't help that when I do, I pretty much bounce all over my characters, lol. There have been so many fun and cosmetic changes to the classes. Like my warlock, she's one of my older characters but never gotten past the 40's, she's been hella fun to play with all the changes to the class. Plus, there is a glyph that gives me these awesome wings, pictured above. The glyph is Glyph of Demon Hunting.

Part of last week I played around with my priest, I got her about five levels and it was a blast, she's getting closer to 80, I'll get her to 90 in due time I think. Shadow is really great at the mo'. The past few days I've been on the lock, working on trades with her, trying to catch them up. Plus, with a magic broom, gathering is really easy to work on! Great time as any to catch that up.

I also want to get my highest to 90, the Druid, who is almost 88 right now. My hunter is 86, a lot of fun still. Then there is my DK, who needs to break out of the stable, I've yet to play him through any of the content but I look forward to it. And the little Pandaren monk... Those are just the ones I've been actively wanting to work on. I really need to buckle down and level one to 90, but they all are so fun now.

Hallow's End is here, I completed the achievements in previous years but I'm puttering around with the treat baskets and daily quests with alts, something fun to do. I love seeing the headless horseman flying around, I especially love his gleeful voice, I have it on my phone somewhere as a message tone, lol.

My 'lock in' for the Annual Pass is almost up, I think I will sub again though. I contemplated switching it out for a month or two with Vanguard Saga of Heroes, I could do that still. I try to balance the games though, to some degree. But-I think I need to wait- Tomorrow we get some Halloween goodness in Guild Wars 2! I cannot wait to see what is in store, so that will take up a big chunk of my playtime!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Daily Adventures (Vanguard, EQ2)

In EQ2 I've mainly been dabbling with alts. I am really wishing November would get here so I can play with mercs and the new beastlord class. I enjoy my inquisitor but the thought of playing a new interesting alt has been too tempting. Dire is about 8% from level 90 with his shadowknight! We duo the Shard of Love instance quite often, lots of nice cosmetic goodies in there.

We'll both probably work on alts a good bit, until the expansion. the guild has been very inactive with people logging in, I suppose it's just a summer slump and hope it passes. Maybe GU61 (update) may bring some more interesting things to the table for people to log in and check out, we'll see.

I've been wanting to level my latest EQ alt up but I keep getting sucked into Vanguard instead. I'm actually playing the first character I ever made, when I first tried the game out as a trial. She is a disciple and I enjoy the class a lot. I still want to level my druid and necro up, probably work on them here and there.

I have a hard time picking a class in Vanguard sometimes. Most classes really seem to be slow going, they start to be more fun around level ten. The druid was fun from the start, the necro was full of death, my own death, heh.  I also think the mobs you deal with on the trial island are a bit tougher and more tightly packed together than the original starting areas. I'm a bit tired of the island so I rarely start there. I find the home cities to be more interesting.

So, I've been working on the disciple and it is an enjoyable class. A healer who heals through DPS, sort of. At times I miss my cleric but not so much lately, I might make another on this account, I already have enough alts at the moment though! I want to play one character up and see more of this gorgeous world that is Telon!

I joined the disc in my old guild, took me awhile but I found them. I'm so bad with names, I actually forgot the guild's name and had to look up my cleric to find it. Upon joining back I was told I would need to sign up on the forums or I'd be cut loose. Which I had something to say to that. I mean I hadn't been playing for awhile, what is the big deal with a casual guild?

I decided to not get all huffy as the leader is actually quite nice and promoted me to full member after doing that. It only took a few seconds and I don't know if I'll ever check the site, it has some interesting things but it seems a lot of Rift stuff on the front page, meh! I want to read about Vanguard, since I'm playing it. Afterwards, our guild leader sent me several huge bags for being a member, so I guess it paid off not getting upset about it, those bags are huge and will make playing much easier. Now I don't have to run back to sell as often!

Sometimes it really feels like playing a RPG game, in Vanguard. It is so easy to get lost and caught up in the surroundings and music. The cities are so intricate and detailed, full of so many sights. It's quite lovely. I cannot wait to see some of the holiday stuff, hopefully I'll be high enough to engage some of it!

Safe adventures!
-kaozz