Tag: WoW

I currently play on 3 servers in World of Warcraft. Argent Dawn (Alliance), Area 52 (Horde), and Dalaran (Alliance). On each one I like to have a “main” even if I drift off to alts over time and as I finish content. I’ve been trying to decide who I want to play where and I think I’ve finally figured it out. Subject to change of course, but for now I’m sitting with:

• Argent Dawn: Priest (holy / shadow)
• Area 52: Paladin (retribution / holy)
• Dalaran: Druid (restoration / feral)

Easy to tell what I like about each spec since they all have a healing and DPS component. How does this equal any change for me? Well, the paladin on Area 52 is a character I boosted when I first purchased Legion. I bought it ages ago when it was first announced, and I’m glad I did. I probably should have held off on boosting a character since I don’t think I even touched the paladin after I boosted her to 100 until recently, but that’s alright. I spent some time doing the shipyard quests and introduced the character to tanaan jungle. Invasions start in a few hours, and I’m hoping to pick up some more gear (at least a better weapon than the 640 I’m currently sporting) from that. I know I’m going to make a demon hunter but I’ll probably hold off in leveling the class because I know it’s just going to be a mad house of everyone else with their demon hunters. I’ll make the character, reserve the name, and then play when things have gotten a bit more quiet (if there’s such thing).

After running around tanaan jungle with the paladin I’m starting to feel a bit more confident about things. I know folks are saying that retribution spec took a bit of a hit with the latest class changes, but I feel that a lot has to do on gear dependency and lets face it my gear is quite lacking. As I upgrade things piece by piece the character gets better. As I learn my rotations and skills things get easier. I’m confident that if I just focus myself on playing the one character and don’t try to take on every class there is, I will enjoy the paladin as much as I enjoy any of my other “main” characters. A huge change for me since I’ve never played a paladin before in any great capacity.

Servers are down now for their three hour maintenance. It’ll be interesting to see how long they’re REALLY down for, and how crammed the servers are when they come back up. What will you be doing first when you log in? Let me know in comments! As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself. <3

 

It’s here, it’s here! It’s almost here..

Demon Hunters, that is.

I spent almost no time this weekend playing games, and it looks like that streak will continue, at least for a short while. 28 weeks into my pregnancy there’s not a whole lot motivating me to sit at my desk, so if I’m going to game I’ll typically set up Steam Link and play from the couch. Even that seemed like a bother this weekend, so I spent it watching the Olympic games and knitting. It wasn’t all bad!

Tomorrow the patch goes live that will bring Demon Hunters to the game. I know I’ll make one even though I always say I won’t. I know it will be crazy busy as everyone and their dogs also make the class. I think it will be fun, and it will be great to see so many people out and about doing beginner things on their characters. I’m excited. I like the positive hype that I’ve seen.

Meanwhile I’m still trying to decide who to play as my “main” for Legion. I’m debating between my priest and my druid. Sure I could (and probably will eventually) end up playing both but for the first foray into a new expansion I really do like to focus. It will probably end up being my priest because most of what I’ve “done” in game has been on that one character. I have ties to her, feel connected. The druid is a newer character for me still with very few achievements under her belt. She hasn’t maxed out archeology, cooking, or fishing. They’re not exactly “important” skills, but it’s the casual fluff that makes me interested in a game and keeps me playing hence the lure of my “most worked on” character.

Will you be making a demon hunter? Going to jump right in or give it a bit of time? Anyone need a holy / shadow alliance priest? Give me a nudge! I’m stargrace#1783 on bnet (speaking of bnet, I’ve been playing the new season of Diablo III, too. So you can find me there! I rebirthed on a witch doctor).

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

Yesterday I decided that I’d  take my level 15 monk and run some LFG dungeons as a healer. I love healing in groups and raids and my character has lots of heirloom so at these levels it’s pretty simple. I don’t expect perfection from any group that I end up in – but it would sure make things a lot easier if people just had some patience. The first dungeon run I did went flawlessly. No problems, everyone followed the tank, smooth as could be. The second dungeon was a different story. We were in Wailing Caverns, and there was myself (monk healer), a tank (paladin), a hunter, rogue, and priest.

The hunter decided to take it upon themselves to tank and they ran every place that the actual tank was not. The actual tank didn’t know his way around the dungeon, so he was backtracking and just running where ever he wanted. Everyone else followed one of these other people but no one followed just one of them so the group was pretty split. I followed the tank.

As a healer this makes for an exceptionally stressful experience. I can’t heal anyone who isn’t in range. If you’re going to run and pull the entire dungeon (especially as a DPS class) and expect me to keep you alive – well, that’s just not going to happen. We managed through most of the dungeon without incident despite the mass pullings in all directions but eventually the hunter pulled one too many and they ended up dying.

I can’t resurrect in combat. My only option is to wait until we’re out of combat, and then cast it. The hunter had no patience for this and decided to leave the instance instead as soon as I told him that I couldn’t rez until after combat had ended. Since everyone kept pulling (and were finally in range) this put me in combat a lot. The tank then decided to run away from the rest of the group while we tried to trail after him and after another failed pull because people just couldn’t work together I decided to cut my losses and left the group.

I don’t like to leave groups, and like I said at the beginning I don’t expect perfection or even “good” game play. I don’t expect a new player to know the dungeons inside and out, and I don’t groan if someone can’t keep up optimal DPS. I will always complain if someone doesn’t have the patience to ensure their survival in a timely fashion. Don’t run away from your healers. It makes things difficult. Try to stick with your tanks. It makes things easier. Those types of tips are things people should keep in mind. If you’re new, unsure, or returning, just speak up. Yes, there are some less-than-kind people out there who may grief you if you speak up, but honestly you’ll find more understanding people than not.

I’ve done a LOT of pick up groups over the years so these types of situations don’t bother me long term and I was back to LFG later in the evening on my druid instead (until the DDoS stuff happened, but that’s a whole other post) where the runs went pretty well. My Dalaran characters are sitting in a comfortable spot. The deathknight is 60, druid is 27, warrior is 14, and monk is 18. I’m really hoping that some folks from Zero Commitment will be into dungeon runs this weekend, even if I have to tank them myself. We’ll see how that goes.

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

Last weekend I decided to join up with friends on Dalaran, and I created four new characters (originally I created one). A human warrior, a human monk, a human deathknight, and a night elf druid. Why so many humans you may ask? Well, that reputation bonus that humans get is something I will always take advantage of if I can. Out of all of the racial bonuses the game offers, it’s the only one that I feel gives a significant advantage. There’s so many factions in game, and every little bit helps.

I created the deathknight so that I could farm lower level instances for transmog gear and sell them, earning myself a bit of coin. Little did I know that a billion other players would also be headed to the DK area. It was absolutely packed! It was so busy that trying to quest was a feat in itself. Thankfully you can tag other people’s mobs and still get credit, but I feel bad doing that because they also get reduced xp with that method. Since most of the experience you gain comes from quests and not from actual kills it’s not such a huge deal, but still something I don’t enjoy taking away from someone else.

Since my DK has lots of heirloom I managed to get almost 60 before leaving the starter zone. I really wish we could just skip that entire place, I’d rather level up some place else. There’s no option to skip it and you can’t leave until it’s done so you’re pretty much stuck there. A quick dungeon run and I should find myself at 60.

I haven’t decided who I’d like to focus on when it comes to this new server. Lets face it, I’m basically just wasting time until the 9th and then until Legion comes out. I’ll probably swap back over to my priest main during those other times, and group up cross-realm (hey, have I mentioned I dislike servers) through bnet. Speaking of, if you’re looking to add me, my bnet is: stargrace#1783 – I play both horde and alliance, and while I may not say a whole lot, I’m always eager to group up with friends!

Almost nothing irks me more than not being able to play with my friends in any particular game on any particular day because we’re all spread out across different servers. I know, servers used to be (and perhaps still are) the ‘norm’ in video games – but honestly, I feel that a better way should be found. Sure, WoW has come leaps and bounds in allowing people to group together by faction so long as they’re on your bnet, and by server cluster, but it’s not enough.

The whole reason this comes up is because I’ve recently started playing on another new server in WoW so I can play with friends (ie: in their guild). I don’t want to have to pay to move my 0lder characters so the only option I really have is to start fresh. I’m currently playing on three servers and I REALLY want to just be playing on one.

It’s not completely unheard of, I mean EVE Online does well with their shard universe and there are a handful of other games out there that will let you transfer (for no cost) between servers at your discretion but older games (EQ, EQ2, I’m looking at you two) require you to stay put unless there are server merges or free transfers.

Of course this is all easy for me to say. I know if it were as simple as developing a new idea to keep people happy then it would probably already be implemented. Plus there’s revenue generated when someone pays to transfer. Still, I can’t help but wish things were a little different, and that when my friends gathered in their respective games I could play with them too without having to start all over once again.