Around The World(s)

Fools!
April fools has come and gone. I always cringe reading my feed because you never know just what you will find, heh. Blizzard had a very silly bunch of patch notes for WoW and an ugly model for female Draenei. Rather weak compared to some games which added actual pranks within the actual game. I admit the Draenei got me for a moment then I remembered the date. The only one I had a chance to really experience was EverQuest. Which spawned illusions in the guild hall on players as they logged in, which was funny. I'm always glad when the day is over, lol. But I did read about some other great pranks.

EverQuest
Still at it with good ol' EQ. Dire and I have been playing regularly. The new Plane of War was released this week. I have been very excited about this zone, as it is for level 100 characters. I suppose it isn't horrible but it is a bit underwhelming, or overwhelming, depending on how you look at it. The named that spawn can drop some of the nicest gear available. The only thing is that you need two groups to take them down. When we play it is late, I think by the time we got into the zone there were five people in the zone, two of them being Dire's boxed characters and one was my own. These mobs hit hard too. The trash respawns quick, so quick people complain that it respawns while they are trying to clear a path to named mobs. I'm not big on the two group deal at this point in the game, especially when so many games offer open tagging, it just feels like such as hassle. But there are chances for some good gear here, this isn't a zone for XP but merely loot and some quests, which I suspect lead to more access to more loot.

Other than that things are going well. I'm working on racking up AA, Dire has been leveling the mage a bit, hitting 98 last night. He's also going to be playing his shadowknight more, which is awesome, one of my favorite characters of his. He seems to enjoy boxing two characters, one always being the bard (100... we're uber fast!), but I can't complain, the bonus buffs from it are so great. For now this is a good game for us to play together, we sort of let LoTRO go for awhile. Why? We got kind of gapped in levels and ended up not playing together as much as we had hoped. My fault for slacking off, lol.

WoW
I still have a few weeks left on WoW. I don't know if I will resub. I mainly play my monk on the Horde for a change of pace and also to hang out with my bud over there in his guild. I decided to work on LFR one groggy morning this week. I managed to get a weapon, boots and head item from the first half of SoO. Things haven't changed one bit since I was last in LFR, the same toxic people spouting nonsense, bragging, berating each other, even one tank not even trying at all, pulling 9k dps. I suppose he had auto attack on at least. I won't complain too much as I really enjoy the ease of getting into LFR. If it truly is removed as a way for players to actually gear, I'll never raid in WoW again. It is all I have the time for, I have way too much else to do IRL, I can't dedicate to a raid schedule. So I overlook a lot for convenience.

The Warlords patch notes for 6.0 are out. It is a massive read. It took me a few hours to go through, back and forth on my phone last night, trying to sink ALL the changes in. Overall a lot looks good on paper but in my heart I  heave a heavy sigh at all the class changes again. Stat squishing will hit then too it looks like, I just wonder what the development team was thinking when they inflated them so badly. It doesn't seem like the changes will be that bad but it just feels like a step in the wrong direction. It just seems so, well, unprofessional. We've had Four expansions over NINE years, such huge inflation! Seriously? Everquest has had TWENTY expansions over FIFTEEN years and never had this issue. As a player I just feel like it is all a big joke, nothing is reliable, nothing is lasting. News flash: I'm not attached to my character's look (model revamp comment on keeping the feel as close as possible to the original) as I was to the mechanics that brought me to the class.

While I sound bitter, I have been enjoying myself despite the things that bother me the most. Nobody else is really playing it with me and I've not pre-ordered the xpac. I was thinking about it but I decided to invest the money in another game. It won't even be here for months and months, plenty of time to wait it out. So maybe I'll wait until closer to the xpac.

Into the sunset... 
Free Realms went off into the sunset this week. I feel sad seeing that happen. I played it since beta and thought it had such potential. In the end it really felt like it was too cash shop heavy. I have a lot of nice memories. Thinking that it is actually gone is weird. I couldn't bother logging in, just feeling a bit jaded about the whole game. I didn't even get a fraction of the lifetime sub utilized, lol. FR you'll be missed. Many children are probably upset. They should head over to Onverse. Probably the most similar game you'll find. Highly recommend it.

TESO
Next week I want to write a bit about the new flashy game we're all playing, or most of us. Yep, another last minute decision. I am taking lots of great pictures, having fun learning my way about. I want to play more to give out some concrete thoughts on things. Busy weekend ahead but expect something at the beginning of the week if you're interested in hearing about my thoughts.

Have a great weekend!

Transmog runs, getting closer to finishing the monks. I think I just need a belt.

April fools! You're a giant chest... or something.

I'm a trap! 

Rallos Zek. He looks like someone who might PvP... haha. (Rallos was always a PvP server)

Waiting on Dire to pull meh some mobs!

Lots of pets and stuff. Can't see the mob, lol.

Just thought this was quite pretty, a newer area in EverQuest. 

A Change of Pace

My first LFR... Awww.

Lots going on! Guild Wars is basically going to be on autopilot, kind of sad to hear that. I mean look at EverQuest, it is still going strong beside the sequel. Guild Wars still has a decent population, whenever I log in, tons of people in the towns and cities. I suppose it doesn't surprise me after the sunset of City of Heroes. Not very impressed. But, I guess at least it is still there... For now.

Neverwinter has some goodies for accounts created before, last weekend or so. For all the trouble with the economy, a seven hour rollback and whatever else, gifts in the mail. I sort of took a break after I've seen how much needs to be checked into with people doing 'stuff they shouldn't', exploiting or utilizing things that were unintended, you know, that stuff. I think I will wait until things settle down, I play so little and when I do, my time is valuable. I don't want the one time I play through the week to be rolled back on me! I'm sure it will smooth out soon.

Dragons Prophet goes into open beta sooooon! Keep your eye on that, housing, dragons, lots of nifty things to look forward to. Oh, and the dragon packs are 20% off now. You can find it all on the website. I did get into closed beta, I just have not had much time to really get into it, I plan on looking more tomorrow.

5.3 hit WoW this week. I am enjoying it. I actually got up off my butt and started gearing up. I hate waiting in queues, like last week, I wanted to buy something with justice. I needed more. I didn't want to wait in the queue so I went as a healer for my first heroic, lol. It went decently. Then I decided to work on the druid as resto, because nobody has a healer with our bunch. You can always use a healer, plus I have loved healing over the years. I really do love to heal. And you know what? It really isn't as painful as I thought it would be. Granted there is a LOT of moving around which bugs the hell out of me. But that is with ANY class/spec. ANNOYING for those of us with wrist problems.

So, yeah, been doing heroics, scenarios, and... LFR. I've never done a looking for raid...raid. I hear how horrid they are but so far they are a bit messy but not something I can't deal with. It isn't exciting as those old classic groups, I don't think anything will be that exciting. But I do enjoy healing and it is fun to be actually doing content that is relevant to the expansion again.

The raids and groups are sometimes silent. The conversation isn't there, it is weird but I cannot complain. Raiding in a pretty quick manner, group formed and ported in automatically, it is like the McDonalds of raiding! Drive through raiding. Burger King style, have it YOUR way, now you can raid and get gear for your OFFSPEC. Raid YOUR way! I like the ease, do it when I have time, so I appreciate the fact it is there. I was saying, recently, I didn't know if I'd ever raid again. If you asked me a week ago I'd have said no. But... I wanted to gear up to help everyone and I'm glad I did. Though now that I have a healer, everyone seems to be off doing their own thing :( Which makes it all kind of, well, feeling rather pointless.

The druid is not very fun to me as balance, she requires a lot of kiting and rooting to kill Pandaria champions, much more demanding than the lock. But it isn't as bad as it once was, now that I have better gear and more of an idea of what I should be doing, lol. I learned root is a wonderful tool, not that I had to use it much in the past, I do now! I like the idea of balance but the execution is lacking.

5.3 brought some changes to the way the the talent Force of Nature works. It is really great. Some may not like it but it is like free heals (as resto) and those stack up. The cooldown was changed, it is not on GCD either and  it has charges. These little trees are nice. They are great with spike damage. As balance they root the mob when they first cast, then do some moderate dps. I like having them, also three charges that build up over twenty seconds. I can't complain, I think these are a great addition to how mechanics of the druid flow.

Oh, new quests, new story, new weekly, new easy epics! Yeah, 5.3 brought in some cool stuff, will be fun to see how it all unfolds. Start the quest in the vale, check your mailbox! Leads to some cool stuff, like a weekly where the mobs have some nifty drops like epic armor that can be made into any class armor or sold to other players, also a nice 24 slot bag! The armor is a reclolor of classic T1, for Death Knights it is a recolor of their starter set, the one you leave newbie land with. Don't forget the 200 valor for the quest, not too bad.

Other than that I was puttering around in Vanguard a bit. I made a Bloodmage, which I absolutely love. I slowed down playing over the last few days but I am enjoying playing when I can. The game hitches with me at times, but I think that is because the game is best run on an SSD. From what I read, the game accesses more local files more so than most MMORPGs. Makes sense, it smooths out once an area has loaded, but that answers a lot of questions I had about performance.

I do wish content would roll out more so for the game. I absolutely love playing the game but end game seems rather narrow. Is it just a game to roll many alts with? I'd like to see SOE stop throwing out so many half baked games and polish what they have. Yes, I said it, I'm not that impressed with some of the newer stuff. I mean if this is how you let some of your current games sit, what makes me think you're going to better with EverQuest Next? If it stutters and wasn't what everyone had hopes, will they stick it on life support too? Don't get me wrong, I am a big SOE fan but it really is a sad story with Vanguard Saga of Heroes. It could be worse, right? I mean at least it isn't going on autopilot, like GW is!

I don't think the flagship will actually be put on life support but it makes you wonder. But look at Free Realms, most of the cool stuff is put in the cash shop, the announcements for activities are basically gone, did their community manager go missing or something? Updates are few and far between. But... I am off topic now.

I enjoy my time in Telon. It is a bit rough sometimes, the beauty of the world is relaxing and the atmosphere is just... different. I feel fully immersed in the fantasy setting when I play. Unlike another game I play, lol. I really feel as if I am out there exploring in a game, for a change. It is a great feeling.

Anyhow, I hope to stop being so slack with posting. I'm still so much busier these days but I have TONS of things in my head, for when I do post. I always WANT to, but actually sitting down and writing is another story. Have a great weekend!

Does that chicken have a... guitar?

Black drake, the twilight I always seem to lose on! 

Just a pretty shot in Duskwood, while doing archeology. 

A sunset.

5.3 quest, do it! You get some nice epic bootz! Unless you have better, great for alts. 

Vol' jin, he brings us a weekly quest! He's one of my favorite Horde leaders. So Awesome to see him in action.

Lookie what we got! Wow Insider has a great article showcasing this item and how to get it- here. 

I FINALLY get the smite illusion, on my druid, lol.

We're so pretty!

Twilight.

Questing, with a vanity pet and a cool illusion. I LOVE illusion items (OMG- ONES THAT DON'T USE COOL DOWNS!!)

Lucky day with the lockbox, got my new Bloodmage a nifty flying mount!

Excuse me, have you seen my clothes? I cannot seem to find them! (Illusion bug, hilarious)

Mah clothes! Got to find mah clothes! I guess we now know what everyone has on under their robes in Telon. They're robes, not kilts >.>

A lovely view.

My little Bloodmage!

Invis! I loooooove it!! I will actually use a ground mount with it, heh.

Monkeying Around

Dire and I, just a couple of 'dookers' hangin' out. 

Lately I've only had time to really play one game, so I've mostly focused on WoW. There is always a lot to do. Different things, different days, which keeps things fun and fresh. I do want to progress in GW2 but I think that will be a slow process for now. I'm not feeling the game is going in exactly the direction I want for a main game but it is fine for something on the side.

In WoW Dire and I do scenarios when we're not too tired, or we run some old content. Scenarios are fantastic for us! He doesn't have much time to play some days so we get instant queues and we've actually gotten some decent gear from them, I got lucky and had some epic legs drop out of the cache. These instances are not too long, some are better than others, not tons of trash to clear through just objectives really. I don't miss the whole trinity thing in these, he does go tank spec which helps out a lot, I throw out candy (health stones) which can help too. I was considering switching my druid to the horde to throw heals when the 'heroic' versions come out, still not sure if I want to or not.

Other than that I've been taming pets, I spent a few hours looking for the giraffe pet in the barrens and got lucky to see it spawn! I think I spent three or four hours searching it, all together. Which is not bad considering how many people are chasing it with CRZ. At times like this I do not care for CRZ, zones become too crowded sometimes and it cam make finding certain pets a nightmare.

I did manage to pop into Free Realms recently. I wanted to check on my monthly rewards and see if anything was new. The website is quite terrible with information regarding events. They really need to keep on the ball. But I'm glad I did log in, I got to participate in the St. Patty's day event getting some sweet swag. I got a neat particle effect clover for my main hand item (adventure clothing), a very nifty shirt with a moving rainbow on it, a leprechaun outfit and a pot of gold to put in one of my houses.

Free realms is a game I always love to go back to. It has had some neat updates, I've not had a chance to mess around much with the new area but I like what I've seen. I also like the farms there, they are similar to those in WoW. I guess you could say WoW copied Free Realms with that idea, lol. Pretty much the same thing. Free Realms is a nice game to get away from everything. There really isn't much competition, just silly things, fun things, do whatever you want, skip it if you don't like it. I do wish it had a little more depth in some areas but there is a lot more than meets the eye with FR. Many collection quests, new content, instances, mini games, all around a lot to do.

That's it for me today, have a great week!

Back to the Black Temple.

Drop my shoulders, you weird, ugly... thing. She did too, finally!

Making a mushroom ring. 

Another transmog outfit and my cute little mountain panda pet. 

Mah giraffe pet. Too dark, I know. I need a new monitor me thinks :(

Farming cloth in Shadow Fang Keep. Love the windows, wish we had housing!

Scarlet Monastery, farming more cloth for tailoring. 

Final Boss, Tempest Keep- Eye. He can be quite annoying sometimes. Dire and I farm him once a week, meh!

It is so nice sometimes to go visit classic zones, even if they have changed too much. I miss the old days, they had something special. Or maybe we ran them so many times they are imprinted in our brains forever. I can see it now, in my eighties, I won't be able to remember my name but I will be able to tell you every detail about SM, DM, and all those classic instances, lol. 

Poking Around

Guild rep maxed, yay!

I haven't really been playing MoP as much as I thought I would, just not feeling so hot with some dental complications, which led to dry socket, lots of pain, lots of meds. I'm starting to get better but I have, yet another (the 5th dentist appointment in two weeks, ugh!), appointment tomorrow, which cuts into my free time. Sometimes I just mess around with Happy Street or another game on my phone instead. Hopefully next week I won't feel so blah! Thus the blog has been a bit neglected and I have had to really push myself on my last few posts.

Enough about me and my woes. I have been mainly playing the Druid through MoP, she has made it to the Valley of The Four Winds, which is a really a lovely zone, I am enjoying this one a lot. I'm also gathering a lot of materials on her and making decent money, she gathers just for profit which is nice, especially when I find golden lotus! Sometimes the balance rotation can be a bit of a snooze fest, I do still enjoy the spec. It is a refreshing change from leveling as feral with the last expansion. Plus, I managed to cap my guild rep with my druid, which finally unlocked the mounts and pets, awesome stuff!!

My son may start up a monk soon, I think he will enjoy the class and the pet battles too, probably tomorrow. He isn't too keen on leveling his 85 shaman for some reason. I suppose he just lost interest in the class. This expansion has been great but at times I find myself pushing through quests, I suppose after playing GW2 it is a bit different and I tire of staying in one place for too long. I do have to say I think the expansioni s really great, I can't complain about much at all this far into it.

Speaking of, I haven't logged into GW2, plan on it this weekend, maybe work on my necro a bit, I've been wanting to play her a little bit lately. I think Dire has caught his alt up with his main, he really loves the warrior. The nice thing is that GW2 isn't going anywhere and my chars will always be there ready to play, without any penalties. Unlike when I log back into EQ2, as a free player, most of my armor pops off into my bags because I cannot wear it unless I pay to unlock or subscribe, sigh. I might have stayed logged in longer if it didn't...

Uber loot (shirt and mount), fun stuff from FR TCG.

I poked into some very, very neglected games this week. Free Realms and EQ2. In Free Realms I am a lifetime member and it is nice to check out what is going on at least once a month. There is a new area with lots of new content, Sunstone Valley, it looks interesting. I will get around to it sooner or later. I picked up my (free) members decks in the TCG and found some really cool loot, a neat green plaid shirt and a snow-blower mount, pretty cute stuff.

We have pandas in -EQ2- too!

EQ2, this is just one game I always miss. It is not much like the first EQ but it still has the pull due to the lore and all that ties them together. There is a lot to do in this game, mercs now for when you just want to solo some tougher stuff, crafting if you want to just do something different, cool housing (I just love housing) and a lot of cool features- like player made dungeons. I got sidetracked with GW2 and leveling another alt in WoW but I have been missing it again. Maybe I'll pick up a sub soon, I eventually want to get back to the cap, two levels to go. I popped on for a bit tonight and grabbed my Facebook rewards mount, which is a very cool cat ride. I still need to claim the other ones on different accounts across EQ and EQ2. There was also the free goblin ticket to grab, nothing good out of that but it is still fun to try and it is free.

Facebook rewards mount /claim this item. 

That is about it for me. Hope everyone is enjoying whatever it is they are playing. Lots of good games out there, seems like there is much more to do these days, fresh content, ideas and holiday events!

Listen...

All aboard, F2P is here... Kind of. 

Did you hear? I sure didn't. Vanguard went F2P yesterday, or rather they launched a F2P build where players can log in free (without a sub) and the cash shop is accessible. I was a bit confused and had to dig around on the forums. I was wondering tonight when I was reading the forums, as I thought we still had a week to go. No real word on the forums or the official site either, unless you dig. But if you want to log in and check out Vanguard SoH F2P it's available. Currently I cannot get back in, not wanting to bother with it so late.

It appears, if you do not have the default UI set up, you cannot access the cash shop, well, unless you do some tweaking, there is a forum post on this. I could not even see it and I only had infomap as an addon. There are some kinks to iron out still and the 'social servers' seemed down or bogged; mail. Most of my armor I could not use, might have to play around on an alt until I do station access this weekend.

However, you can log in and play any class/race (now any CLASS can be ANY race) combo to 20, then you need to sub (there is a bug they are looking into where some are locked under a sub still) or unlock through the market. Characters created before this build are grandfathered in, yay.

The cash shop looks rather robust, from what I hear, I couldn't actually see it. I'll probably need a fresh install of the game, sigh. I plan on poking around later this week and over the weekend if time allows, Dire hits the bit three-oh in a few days and is taking some much needed vacation time, so we'll see.

Is she picking her nose? What?

Speaking of SOE, SOEmote went live as well. Last time I checked voice chat was down, oops. Honestly it looks neat but I couldn't really care about a function like this. Where am I going to put a webcam on my flat screen monitor? Okay, I could somehow rig one up there if I cared but...  I don't. I can see it now- "Your character looks crazy, man!" Crap, could they tell I was picking my nose?  Seriously nobody needs to see my perpetual scowl anyhow, heh. I'm old school, I prefer typing over voice, this is like an overload for me to take in. Way too much. I don't need to hear and see what everyone is thinking. I like it that way.

I'd much rather see development go into actual game-play. Oh stuff like cash shop mini dungeon tickets? No. Have you heard about them yet? If it was a one time purchase for fluff dungeons I'd be all over it, don't try to sell me tickets like you do keys in FREE REALMS!  Step right up!

Me and my cute clockwork beetle, freebie TCG loot. Gloam Invasion area.

Free Realms. Been awhile since I logged in there. FR got some content love, finally. There is now an event, sort of. The glade is under an invasion-  Gloam Invasion. There really isn't any info on the official page but the forums have some tidbits, nothing really directing. If you want to check it out head to the Shrouded Glade. Fun enough event, decent xp. Used a lower level job there, for the xp, 14 and it's been fine so far, 20 is overkill.

There are many mobs out in this open zone that do attack, a first for FR. It felt a bit odd being out in the world with mobs chasing everyone. A nifty change in my opinion, loot goes straight to the character too. Worth a look if you enjoy the game, something new to do, some new loot, a couple of house items and pets I have read.

Trying to 'fly' to the cap... 85 here I come!

Mostly I've been working on my baby DK, in WoW. He's almost 65 now. Trying to hang in there, it's not too bad. Dire has a 77 Shaman I'm trying to catch up to, then we can head to Cata together. Been reading about the expansion and it is looking mighty fine thus far. I'm getting excited. Druids are getting a snazzy new travel form too! So much exciting stuff, looks to be a great expansion with lots of choices of what to do.

I have read that players can ride on the druid, while in this form. Not sure if it is true but very cool if so!

That's it for me, safe adventures!