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.

Leveling and leveling... !

This week Rift is still holding out as entertainment. I was considering playing my mage some but the cleric has been so much fun, don't think I'll stop leveling that one just yet. I like the fact that I can change my play style and mix and match builds, keeps things fresh and fun. Tanking is great fun, though sometimes I just want to kill stuff faster, a nice DPS build helps out with that.

I don't always enjoy questing in some of the zones within this game, some are better than others. Once I get past the 20's I'll probably start questing again soon. My cleric is sitting at 26, not too bad as I mainly putter around with the game on the side for the most part. I do like to log in to get my daily reward for being a patron, then I get sucked into playing.



Soon I want to work on housing again. There is a new dimension I'd love to decorate. Since I have been gone there have been LOTS of additions such as walls, doors, stairs and things like windows! Lots of fun with decorating and I also hear dimensions will be getting some love,more of a reason to use them- In the expansion or a later update, I'm very curious as to what this will be. I also read that pets will be getting some utility, sounds good to me! Soon the summer event begins, getting excited about that. I have not participated in it before, I do hope it is fun.

In WoW my monk finally hit 85. I also went back to the Horde with this character. Been doing some old content with one of my buddies there and Dire has been working on his mage on this side. Last night we got to do our first dungeon together with this character. I healed through an instance, which went well. I have put fistweaving on the back burner, while it is fun it isn't viable until 90. It is just such a huge mana drain in these groups, especially when they try to pull whole rooms in all their craptastic glory. So now I mistweave and sometimes I do some damage but I hold back a lot more than I would like. It will change at 90, once I get geared up. But, for now, it is fun to group with Dire in panda land!

This will be my 4th level 90, plus I also have an 86 sitting out there waiting on levels. It does get a bit redundant playing another class [just] to get to the level cap. That is where the game starts, all the fun new content- all at level cap. The lower levels just feel insignificant anymore, just content to blow through to get where it really matters. We're welcome to stop and smell the flowers but in all reality end game is when the game really starts, you can't even play with a farm until you hit panda land. I just want to get it over with. Sometimes I feel that is all I do, leveling and leveling. I need to stop rerolling in games so much, lol.

I might dabble around with some EQ2 this weekend or maybe SWTOR. I want to pop into City of Steam as well, make a new character since the new class and races have been added.  We'll see how it goes.

Dings and Pinatas (WoW, Rift)

I love this transmog set, it is Felheart (T1), with a chest item from the last boss in the Magisters Terrace.

Last week I hit 90 with my Warlock, which was a nice feeling-to have a 90 on both factions. I will probably play my Druid up next, but not for awhile. Mostly I've been doing things with Dire as he hit 90 with his DK as well. We've been blowing through old raids and content for achievements and transmog items, which has been a lot of fun. I think the worst was figuring out Lady Vash, she was annoying when we tried her at 89 but last night we knocked her out quite easily, that and we knew what we were doing this time around.

Some other things would be daily quests, going after Sha raids. I wish there was more of this [open world]  content out there in WoW. It really appeals to me, I suppose it is exactly what appeals to me in games like Rift and GW2. The Isle of the Thunder King seems like it will be more open with things like this, so I look forward to checking it out when the patch hits.

Also, a lot of raids reset today, yay. Another chance at a few transmog items again this week. Reset day is always something I wait for impatiently. I wish older raids had a shorter reset time.

We've been doing a few odd things like scenarios  Some people are friendly, others are not. For the most part I've met a lot of friendly people on this run to 90 on the Horde. I joined a newly formed guild, which was only around level two and now it's made it to level fourteen this week. Lots of nice people and they always ask me to join in on things, which is great. I'm still not sure on the raiding guild my friend asked me to join  due to some real life things.

Besides WoW, I have been popping into Rift. The Carnival of The Ascended is here. At first I ran around looking for the games and such and then I noticed that it is only in the first phase. This year there will only be two phases (I think there were six last year), the next starting on March 7th. Right now you can run around beating on pinatas. These grant around 30 or so glass beads that are currency for the event. That's mostly what I've been doing. I've been mentoring down for them in lower zones because the ones in SL have a massive amount of hitpoints and don't seem to award anything better. The pinatas (and the mobile app scratch off cards) can also award fun cosmetic items and pets.

I've also been gathering beads through the mobile app. I love that thing, I love scratch and win cards for events especially! So that can net me a nice amount of beads when I'm not playing, and some fun cosmetic stuff if I'm lucky. I wish more games had neat stuff like that, little incentives.

Other than that I've been quite lazy but it isn't a big deal. I've been decorating my house and considering buying a bigger dimension for more of an item count. I can already see myself using this item count up pretty quickly. There are not any plans to move it up anytime soon* because it will be something permanent and I know server stability is first priority, the team wants to be sure that something like this wouldn't impact game performance in a harsh way. However, I do hope they do consider it!

That's it for today, hope everyone is having a great week! Safe adventures!

My guild and I messing around in Kara- Opera event. 

Flaming on the hog. I love how destruction spec lights you up!

Chess!

Dire and I queued up for our first scenario together. 

Inside the scenario, it was pretty fun, our dps was horrible, lol. The other member wasn't friendly at all but at least he killed stuff quickly. We got new blue weapons from this one, yay. 

Working on gathering skills out in Durotar. Just seemed like a nice sunny picture to snap. 

Pinata in Rift, before I beat it up. 

Another pinata! They don't do anything but make squeaky balloon sounds, they sound kinda cool. love going after these for beads!