Gaming – Page 552 – A Pixel Nomad

Ding, 79 – and no, I don’t heal stupid

The Lich King is a scary sounding guy. I love every quest that brings him out to talk to his failed minions – it’s pretty exciting. Almost as exciting as me finally reaching level 79 on my priest, and 50% through. That’s right, I have less then one level to go before I will have my first ever max level world of warcraft character. This may not seem like that big of a deal, but to me it is. I’ve played since release, and never come close to the cap. Of course I’ve also never stuck with the game for more then a month or two at a time before growing bored, so that has certainly played into things as I just started my 3rd consecutive month of playing yesterday.

Now. I did two new (to me) dungeons using the LFD tool last night. One was The Oculus, and the other was Halls of Lightning (not to be confused with the easier Halls of Stone). You will hear this a lot from WoW healers – we don’t heal stupid. That means, if you’re in the Oculus and you stand IN the lightning, expect to die. I’ve noticed that for the majority of named fights there will be some AoE that goes off that you’ll want to avoid – as long as you’re looking at your screen you’ll see it coming so it’s just a matter of moving out of the way. For example in the Oculus (lightning mentioned above) the warlock lived. The paladin and druid died. The warlock being a cloth class already had points against him – but he was smart enough to move OUT of the lightning. Just take a few steps OVER THERE.

One thing I’ve had to come to grips with is that I can’t save everyone. My job is to keep the tank alive first – and everyone else alive second because without a tank we’re going to die anyhow. If people are being smart and managing their aggro (hey, we have threat meters for a reason) and watching where they’re standing, it makes my job a billion times easier.

Halls of Lightning is not an especially hard zone – but fill that group with a bunch of *ahem* people not paying attention to what they’re doing, and suddenly there are deaths all around. The tank never dropped, and neither did I or the mage in group – but the DPS spec’d druid who kept meleeing the dwarves as they whirlwind sure did. So did the DK who pulled before the warrior tank was prepared. Or the druid (again) who walked right up to the named while he was stealthed, not realizing that the named could see him. It’s really easy guys. Just pay attention. Let your tank do their job, and you do yours which is to assist (did you know the F key is the assist button by default?) and dps the mobs and be a little responsible for yourself.

As a healer in a dungeon I come well prepared. I always put out a fish feast for players before we start, I group buff, I use an int scroll if there are no mages around, and I use a guardian and battle elixir to up my spirit and spell power. I come well supplied with mana potions, and I really try to bring my “A” game. When people die I typically blame myself for not being able to save them in time (just a knee jerk reaction) but the more I do instances the more I realize that 90% of the time someone dies it’s because they’re doing something they shouldn’t be. As long as everyone is paying attention and doing their job, I rarely have a death in group.

Now, lets see what 80 brings. I’m very nervous to hit this level, as I’m certainly not geared for it (my GS is 3,000 or so) and I don’t have the faintest idea about anything ‘end game’ – but I do pride myself on being a quick learner, and I expect I can pick it up before too long.

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself.

My Paladin is a Shadowknight

For anyone who has read this blog over the past five years I’ve been writing on it, you’ll be well aware of the fact that I betray my characters in EQ2 – often. In fact I don’t think there is a single character I’ve ever played that I haven’t betrayed at least once, and some of them multiple times. It doesn’t matter what level they are, or how many masters they own, when I start to get the urge to betray I typically go through with it. In fact just two weeks ago I was betraying my warden over to a fury.

I enjoy my ‘quiet time’ in game. That’s not to say that I don’t like talking to others, I do, but there comes a time where I prefer to solo and do my own thing. Sadly, none of my characters were really optimized for that sort of play style – until I created the paladin. With the bonus experience this weekend I managed to gain a bunch of achievements, and on a whim decided that paladin was not really my play style for a solo character. They have fantastic aggro management making them optimal in tanking for groups. They have great heals, both single target and group.

However, shadowknights have a lot of tools available to them for soloing – such as feign death, and evac. I decided that I’d like to make better use of the ‘solo’ tools, and thus began my betrayal. I spent 450 plat on kaborite clusters, made all my new adept3, and spent an hour or two working my way through Neriak doing the simple quests required to move my faction. I’ve played a shadowknight before (though I’ve never had one of my own) so they’re not exactly new to me – and they play a lot like the paladin did. I mentored down, headed to Ruins of Varsoon and quickly farmed myself a few masters and some achievements. It was a nice pleasant quiet night, and I’m looking forward to seeing what other trouble the shadowknight can get into. I know that a lot of people are playing crusaders this expansion for various reasons, but at least while I’m playing by myself it doesn’t matter how many others are playing one since I’m doing my own thing.

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

Vanguard Server Merges

On the 7th (which is the date I’m writing this, even though I’m posting it to the 5th) the four servers in Vanguard will be merging down to two – US and EU. A lot of people saw this coming, and of course when the announcement went out, cries of ‘the sky is falling the sky is falling’ rolled out over the blogsphere. Some suggested that the game simply be shut down, why draw out the inevitable. Others were looking forward to the merges, suggesting that perhaps the population that’s left over would thrive.

While I don’t write about my time in Vanguard nearly as often as I should, I do play on a weekly basis, and have for quite some time. I’m in an active guild, and my army of alts carries over even into that game. There’s quite a lengthly FAQ about the merges posted on the forums, but I wanted to highlight at some specifics. You can find the entire article here.

Guild Names

Each Guild has a separate ID and will not be affected by a move. Two guilds with the same name can exist on the server. Should a guild wish to change their name they can petition Customer Service. (I think that’s the first time I’ve ever seen the ability of guilds with the same name to co-exist on the same server. Typically, someone renames).

Housing

In conjunction with each server merge, housing plot purchase price and current upkeep balance will be returned via mail to the most recently created character on the account owning the house. The building materials required to construct the house as well as the fixtures and items in the house will be returned to the owner via a housing escrow merchant. (This is probably my only ‘issue’ with server merges. I have a great T5 house, on a fantastic plot. Now I’m going to have to re-purchase it, and re-construct it. I had a LOT of things in my home, and now I’m going to have to make sure I have space to remove them all. I’m not quite sure what happens to the chests filled with crafting bits, but I’m not looking forward to this. I hope I can find a plot that was half as good as my last one. On the plus side, perhaps this time around I’ll have active neighbours).

There’s another great FAQ post over on the forums that you’ll want to check out here. They mention a lot of specific questions that players had, the down side to this is the detailed information about guild halls and guilds. Here are some specifics:

Guild Halls

Q: What will happen in a situation where the original ‘owner’ of a guild hall no longer plays the game? There are many guild halls that are currently being maintained by the members of the guild, but the original owner of the plot has moved on from the game and cannot be reached. Can you implement a way for these guild hall plots to be transferred to the current guild leader?

A: There isn’t a way to automate this so the best option would be to contact customer service.

Q: There is a concern that the number of guild halls to be built may exceed the number of plots available. What will SOE do if a guild that had a Qalian (for example) hall prior to the merge, and thus has Qalian materials, finds that there are no Qalian plots left? Will there be a process for guilds to exchange their materials (including the diplomacy item) for that of another continent?

A: You’ll have the opportunity to choose the type you want (diplomacy item). However, you’ll need to re-gather whatever different materials are needed.

Q: In guild halls, will the items be returned to the individual who owns the plot or to the individual who placed the item? How about chests, and the items within chests?

A: The person who placed the items owns them.

Q: What about the trophies? Where will they go? To escrow of the plot owner or the trophy owner? What if the trophy owner is no longer playing?

A: Trophies will go to the trophy owner. If they’re no-longer playing, it will sit in their escrow forever.

Q: Will 6 people still be needed to purchase a guild hall plot? is there any way that this prerequisite can be removed as it will be a challenge for some smaller/casual play guilds to be able to get together six members during the land rush when the server goes live again? Perhaps it would only be removed for anyone who owned a guild hall prior to a certain date?

A: There will be no change to the number of people needed.

I can see some issues arising from this. While I personally will not be affected (as far as I know) there are a lot of players who have guild leaders who have since left the game, or players who have dropped trophies and no longer play. Trophies were a special claim item from purchasing the collectors edition of the game, and are no longer available. They grant members in your guild three types of buffs, one for each sphere.

Personally, I just hope my characters make it through the merge in one piece, and that I can purchase a housing plot at another great location. We’ll just have to wait and see! Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Now That’s What I Call Progress

While Canada celebrated its 143rd birthday on Thursday, this weekend also happens to be Independence Day for the United States, and thus a lot of my friends are around in game – not to mention there are a lot of in-game bonuses going on. EQ2 is having their 2nd ever 100% “true” experience bonus weekend, granting 100% bonus to aa, crafting, and combat. I decided to take advantage of it along with a LOT of others. First up was a few Protectors Realm runs, for cash and manas. This dungeon is from Ruins of Kunak, and it’s old now but still grants experience. We took five people to do the entire zone, the first time through I healed on my mystic, and the second time through I played my troubador. I made about 24 plat each run, and everyone managed to get themselves a few infusions and manas for their gear.

Due to an issue transferring my mystic over to Oasis earlier this week, I had to delete my 39 conj (who was in the midst of betraying to a necromancer) and I decided that this would be the perfect weekend to re-create her. Instead of a fae I decided to roll an iksar, and now she’s sitting happily back at level 39 with a good selection of aa to her name. Experience is turned off so that I can focus on making her ready for battlegrounds, and I have hopes of eventually crafting with her and creating the sage I lack on Oasis.

Over all I’m quite pleased with the progress I made. The 100% bonus runs until the 6th, so there’s still plenty of time to take advantage of it. Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself, I hope everyone has had a fantastic (and safe) weekend!

Finally, I Can Craft Again

I really dislike that WoW has caps on crafting based on your adventure levels. I wouldn’t mind it quite so much if you could choose multiple professions on your one character, but since you can’t that means that any alts who craft will eventually also have to level in order to maintain their crafting. If you happen to be a heavy crafter (as I am) this presents a problem. Even more so if you don’t have heirloom gear and leveling tends to be slow. I have four other characters who craft alongside my priest. The priest does tailoring and enchanting (a typical rout for cloth wearers) and is pretty close to 450 (460 in enchanting due to being a blood elf) in each. I also have an alchemist / herbalist (the Death Knight), a jeweler / inscription (the Shaman), and a skinner / leatherworking (the hunter). Then there’s my low level warlock who does mining / engineering. This craft has barely been leveled so I don’t really count her. The DK and shaman have been at their caps of 375 for quite some time while I attempt to catch up in adventuring in order to raise it. I need 65 in order for that to happen – and in the case of the DK I need 68 so that I can specialize.

Thankfully, it’s not such an impossible task. Burning Crusade dungeons reward a lot of experience, and Manos has been kind enough to run me through them. The Death Knight managed to reach level 65 yesterday, and with the help of a few hundred pygmy (fish) as well as some sarnite bars, I am resting at a comfortable 430 alchemy. I love the potions I can create, and I go through a lot of them. Wrath also introduced some neat items that each craft class can make specific to their own craft, typically for self use only. In the case of the alchemist these were endless potions of mana and health, as well as some really neat trinkets. The tailor makes some neat items to use on her pants, enchanting grants some ring enchants that are self only. I haven’t raised the jeweler / inscription high enough to discover what they make, but I’m excited about it. The shaman is resting at level 61 right now, so that’s four more levels before I can raise her current cap.

Whether or not I’ll level either character past 65 I’ve not yet decided. I tend to wander through each of my characters simply because I’m trying to avoid burnout in a game that leaves little for me to do aside from questing and dungeon running. Unlike EQ2 where I can take a ‘break’ from things by decorating or finding some other small task to do (working on aa, etc) there’s very little for me to do in WoW. I’ve found a few things that hold my interest when I don’t want to do the ‘regular’ grind, like working on harvesting craft items, and doing achievements, but eventually after playing and doing the same thing over and over I need to step away to another game for a short bit. This is the longest I’ve stuck with WoW consecutively, and I think that speaks volumes about how dedicated I am to eventually reaching level 80 on at least one character.

I’ve been taking a little break from the priest since she hit level 77, but once she earns some more rested experience I’m sure I’ll be back at it. Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!