WoW – Page 53 – A Pixel Nomad

Thoughts on Crafting

I know, it’s late into the expansion to be talking about crafting, but it has been weighing on my mind, so here we are.

My favourite type of crafting is when it’s able to be completed independently from adventuring, or at least doesn’t rely too heavily on it. EQ2 did a fantastic job with this, allowing crafters access to higher level areas and abilities due to their crafting level, even if their adventure level was quite far behind.

I like complex crafting (think of Vanguard) and I like the ability to do something else besides beating in the heads of my enemies. Crafting fills that niche – in some games. This isn’t the case with World of Warcraft, and I feel like the past two expansions have been ‘dumbed down’ even further for those of us who enjoy crafting but who may want a break from adventuring.

First, there’s the fact that you no longer have to do any old world content to level up. You can get from 1-800 using just Legion recipes. They’ve obliterated their own content, allowing players to purposely skip it because after all who wants to do old content and farm in old places when there’s a shiny new place out there.

This was also the case in Warlords, and I disliked it back then too. I was sad to see it moving forward.

Legion also added gated content to crafting, something that I absolutely loath. You have to do adventure dungeons (on their easiest setting, but it’s still a dungeon) in order to unlock some recipes, to progress some crafts, and move forward. You are forced to group up, either with friends or using the dungeon finder tool to complete crafting quests.

I’m sure there are lots of people out there who have no issues with this, but me, I have an issue with it. I don’t mind doing crafting quests to grind reputation, or doing adventure quests to unlock things I need for crafting – but please, don’t force me into a dungeon situation when I may not be comfortable with that.

They also recommend you be 110 for the crafting quests, so that means you have to level your adventure stuff up first. I made the mistake of progressing my crafting first and I was unable to do what I needed to do because I wasn’t high enough level. It left me feeling frustrated and defeated.

Not everyone enjoys virtual killing all day long every day. Having options for people like – crafting – is a great way to keep retention on people who may not typically play your sort of game. The crafting community in MMOs is a strong one, and I dislike to see them being overlooked in a lot of games. We don’t all play the same way, and forcing us to is just a bit ignorant (and lazy).

I’m 778 in tailoring, and questing along trying to find the breadcrumbs that I’ve missed over time so that I can unlock more recipes. I still have enchanting to do and since this is a newer character I’m starting over at square one, which isn’t much fun, but I do want to get my crafting up there. Next? Maybe fishing.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Barely Gaming, But Still Gaming

With our big move just looming around the corner, almost moving onto the second trimester of my pregnancy, and watching a toddler who spends more time running around than sitting still, as you can imagine I don’t have a whole lot of extra time on my hands to do any sort of gaming, and when I do find myself with a free moment here and there, I tend to close my eyes and instantly pass out. I have been incredibly tired, plus me and my little guy are just getting over the last of a very annoying cold.

Even though I have barely any time, I do still manage to log into WoW almost every day, even just briefly. I’ve been playing the market, and working on my crafting. Sometimes I manage a little bit of fishing. Now that I have flying in Legion I don’t feel too pressured to do a great deal – though I know I have a ways to go if I want to unlock the new races that are being released. By then maybe my husband will be playing, and I am incredibly excited about that.

I’ve been trying to sell some trading card game pets for a few weeks now with no luck. I know it’s highly unlikely that someone wants to plop down 50-150k on a pet but I keep trying anyway in the hopes that one of those rare collectors will swoop down on it.

I’ve also been selling my tailored goods as I level up that skill. I picked up a bunch of quests I need to do that I wasn’t even aware were available. Sometimes tucking quests away in Suramar is a bad thing Blizzard!

I’ve also been participating in a beta that I can’t talk about for a little while yet, but it has been fun and I’m looking forward to sharing that with readers a little later this month.

It has been a really hectic time, but I’m glad for things. I might be tired, but life is pretty full. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Vrykul Story, Bro

I did it. I managed to kick and claw and pull my way through the 11 story lines of Suramar and I got them completed. The final task I have in order to fly in Legion is finishing the story line in Stormheim – and honestly at this point I’m just glad to be out of Suramar. That zone took forever and while parts of it were interesting I spent a whole lot of time playing fetch for elves which really got old.

So I have a bit more to go and then I’ll be able to fly. This whole process has been so that I could start working on some alts and leveling them up to 110. I want to be able to fly with my characters, it just makes things so much more enjoyable and comfortable.

Last night I was going to start my adventures (New Years Eve) but alas, as soon as 8pm rolled around my eyes started to close. I have been under the weather with a particularly horrible chest infection so I decided to call it an early night and went to bed. Thankfully Llama Bean let me sleep in until 4am instead of getting up at his usual 3am. Now he’s happily eating cheerios and watching some Paw Patrol so I can make this blog post.

Anyway. I’m excited to FINALLY be able to fly. I feel like in comparison to past expansions the faction grind was the easier part of this task, I’ve had the Broken Isle Diplomat for some time now. The armies of Legionfall faction was a pain but not too difficult, and the Suramar zone was the place I spent the most amount of time trying to complete because I never completed it when I was a fresh 110, but skipped on to newer content. Hopefully Stormheim doesn’t take me quite as long.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Closer to Flying in Legion

Thanks to finally getting a major quest chain done, and a few weekly quests, all I really have left in order to fly in Legion is a few points in faction, and quests in two zones. My priest is sitting at a comfortable 894 ilevel, and lately I’ve been playing her in her discipline spec for both heals and DPS. Survivability in the newest zones is much easier this way and mobs are dying without too much trouble.

I’ve also been trying to work on my crafting professions a bit. This character is one I boosted a while back, and is sorely lacking. If you recall, I’m waiting to play my “actual” main until my husband is done with depot so that we can play and explore together. In the meantime though I’m still trying to keep busy while my little one sleeps (and relax a smidge). I am over 700 now in tailoring (finally) but my second profession is enchanting and that one is going much slower. I’m also working on fishing and cooking, two relaxing and fairly simple back up professions. Of course then there’s also pet battles which are some of my favourite ways to spend time in game.

I’m finding that even with my limited time, I am still accomplishing things and there’s just so much content, I love it. I don’t feel pressured in any way, which is a nice change of pace. I’d like to start running old dungeons and raids for transmog pieces, but that will have to wait. Flying is first and foremost on my list. Then leveling my druid and my paladin. Playing WoW these days? What are you up to? Let me know below in comments and as always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Armies of Legionfall Faction Work

I really want to fly in Legion before I level up any more alts. It makes it easier, and a lot more fun. Especially since I’ve already leveled up three times (I realize many people have done this many more times, but this is my personal experience). So I’ve been grinding away on my priest who is the furthest along with the achievements.

One of my hangups has been getting Legionfall Commander – where you need Armies of Legionfall faction. The problem is one huge chunk of this faction comes from a quest where you defeat the legionfall armies. For whatever reason Blizzard has this on a really weird schedule that you have to do on their time and being a solo mother with an active one year old who doesn’t let me game with two hands I have just not been able to meet their schedule until yesterday. The assaults take place maybe once a day, sometimes twice a day really spread out. Never more than that. They occur at odd hours, and the easiest way to see if a legion assault is going on is to check out Wowhead because it’s on their main page. At the time of this post (4:30 PT) the next assault is at 3:30pm – no way could I make that one. Then the following one is 10am tomorrow, again another one I couldn’t make, and 4:30am on Thursday. Nope. It was by pure luck that I happened to make the one yesterday. When the assault goes on you need to go to the zone it’s taking place in, and complete four legion assault world quests. Then you need to do two more smaller quests, and a scenario. you defeat a commander boss, and you get a chunk of faction.

Now you don’t NEED to do this to work on flying, but it’s the difference between 1500+ faction, and whittling away at faction 83 points at a time. It was INCREDIBLY frustrating, and I absolutely dislike this mechanic. Lock things behind time walls all you want but let it be on MY time, and not your own schedule. Or at least make them more frequent!

I am very glad I got it done. Now I just need to keep grinding away at the weekly and daily quests and eventually I’ll get there.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.