Do you know what would be awesome?
A spider-themed WoW expansion.
Yeah, that’s right. Like Azjol-Nerub except THAT’S THE ENTIRE THING, IT’S ALL UNDERGROUND AND NERUBIAN THEMED.
Can you imagine huge bug cities? Awesome tunnels leading from above ground, at various points around Azeroth, to the immense, sprawling world beneath? How amazing and alien it would be and how fun it would be to explore?
Yeah. I want this. Nerubian-themed expansion, Blizzard. LET’S DO IT.
How about you guys?
Althalor likes to collect little pets – probably because he likes animals (he’s a Beast Master, after all) and also because he’s a sensitive sucker for things that were orphaned like he was. Then he shows them off to his best friend Cadyna. Like so. (And then she promptly pretends that she has no idea who he is.)
Cookies to all of you who get the reference in the quote!
This has been a Cop-Out Post brought to you by the fact that I’m going on vacation tomorrow so I’ve been running around getting ready for that. I will be sans-WoW for a week but I plan on still writing lots of posts when I can. See you guys on the other side!
This is a title that you get by successfully doing 30 rounds of Proving Grounds on Endless. I.e., the health of the mobs goes up a little on each round. Forever.
And I’ve been wanting that title bad, so bad. Mostly because I saw it as a personal challenge to see if I can still hunter all these years later. So I practiced and memorized the mobs and figured out when to pop my cooldowns and today it happened. 30 rounds of Endless (I actually went on to get to 37) and I snagged my title.
I AM A HAPPY, HAPPY PIKE.
Once you figure out the pattern it’s not terribly difficult, to be honest – well, no, let me rephrase that. It is difficult. But I feel like with practice YOU can do it too! Anyone want tips? I can always write up a Beast Master’s Guide to Proving Grounds if anyone’s interested. Heck maybe I’ll do it anyway cause why not.
There has been much talk, lately, of the recent sharp decline in WoW subscription numbers and the related idea of content, or lack thereof. Now on the one hand, I feel sort of… not qualified to talk about this because honestly I’m pretty satisfied with this expansion (I wouldn’t be playing and blogging if I wasn’t!) and I’m also enjoying what I’ve seen of Blackrock Foundry so far. However, I started to think a little, and it hit me that something has, indeed, been missing from the game – for me, anyway.
Long ago, when I was new to this game, the prevailing feeling was that there was always something up ahead. Something to aspire to. Something to claw my way towards. First it was a mount. Then it was Ice Barbed Spear from Alterac Valley. Then it was an epic mount. Then it was max level. Then it was instances, and heroics. Then it was Karazhan, glorious Karazhan. By that point there was about a year left in the lifespan of Burning Crusade, and I felt that the impending new expansion was moving towards me much, much too quickly. I still had TONS of raids left to do! Heck, I still had Heroics I hadn’t done! (Shattered Halls, I’m looking at you.) How could I finish it all in just one year?
You see, raids back then were not terribly accessible. It was normal for an average guild to languish in tier four raids for months or even years. Was it frustrating? A little. But what it did do was give me a big ol’ carrot on a stick. And I loved it.
Wrath of the Lich King hit – I never did finish all the TBC raids – and I loved the new expac. I even got in with a progression guild and did all sorts of content when it was new. It was pretty neat. But then I quit. Why? Well, partially because I wanted to play other video games. But also partially, I think, because it was the last raid of the expansion and there was nothing left to chase. There was still a ton of content that I hadn’t touched at the end of TBC. Not so much at the end of WotLK.
This isn’t to say that I don’t like accessible content. I love it, I think they it’s a great idea, and LFR gives someone like me – with a really weird work schedule – a way to see the raids.
But I do sort of wonder if maybe there’s something to be said for a goal that’s just out of reach…
Something that we can continue to aspire to, even eight years later.
I made a paladin recently, because… I don’t know. I wanted to make one. I had some heirlooms so why not.
So I made a paladin.
She.
Has.
FRECKLES.
Is she not THE CUTEST?
Also have you rolled a low-level paladin decked out in heirlooms lately? If so I encourage you to give it a try. It’s absolutely, utterly hilarious and things die in, like, one or two hits. PALADINS. You should try one.
Have you guys seen the movie “Hook” starring Robin “God Bless Him” Williams? In it, Peter Pan has forgotten how to be Peter Pan. The Lost Boys try to re-teach him, but he has forgotten everything he knows. He’s a grown-up, now, not Peter Pan.
But then, one day, it all comes back to him. Rufio (the guy in charge of the Lost Boys) tells him “You are the Pan. You can fly, you can fight, and you can crow!”
That’s a teeny tiny bit how I feel right now. I AM The Pike! I can raid! I can do heroics! And I can… uh… I guess I can crow?
Coming back is really neat. It’s not easy, especially after such a long hiatus. But I’m making progress, and it’s, well… it’s comforting, for lack of a better word. It’s good to be back!
I remember back in the day when the Darkmoon Faire involved going to Goldshire and… … …???… ??????/….. … …I don’t know. Chasing that one kid around I guess? I never really did figure out how the old Darkmoon Faire worked. Heck, after a couple of glances I stopped paying attention to it entirely.
But at some point a few years back Blizzard redid the Darkmoon Faire and it’s absolutely amazing. It actually feels like a fair! And there’s actually fun stuff to do! I go every day and do all my dailies there just because it’s so much fun. (except the new Ring Toss because it’s BS).
I’m not the only one, am I? Who else out there LOVES the Darkmoon Faire?
P.S. The proper way to do the Darkmoon Faire is to do it whilst listening to this song:
I imagine I’m late to the party here, but apparently there is a boss fight in Blackrock Foundry starring Hans and Franz.
And guys. Guys. This fight is the most fun I’ve had in a raid since I don’t even KNOW when. Like, there’s a conveyor belt? And there’s stuff coming down from the ceiling to smash you? And there’s terrible Austrian accents? And you’re running around dodging stuff and trying to keep up but it never gets overly annoying and is just fun the entire time??
I don’t know. I’m having a blast. SO EXCITED FOR RAIDS TO RESET TOMORROW SO I CAN DO IT AGAIN!
I’m one of those long time Final Fantasy players who has played essentially every numbered game in the series – and plenty of the spin-offs, too. Asking me to pick my favorites is going to result in either weird obscure stuff (like FFII. Yes, II. In Japan, not America.) or really divisive stuff (like FFX. HECK YES, FFX!)
And then there’s this little gem of a game:
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Which, for my money, is not only the finest of the FFT/FFTA games, but one of the finest Final Fantasy games period. (It is also largely responsible for the fact that I paid no attention to my college classes Freshman year, but that’s beside the point.)
This is a tactical squad-based RPG, superficially similar to, say, X-Com, except the focus is on the “RPG” bit rather than the “tactical” bit. The result is a cozy, relaxing game to play which revolves around messing with job classes and customizing them to your liking and playstyle. The job system is one of the Final Fantasy series’ biggest draws (to me, anyway), and FFTA hits the glorious bullseye of having a huge number of classes to have fun with, without going overboard and having so many that you can’t fit them all in your clan.
Combine this with extremely addictive “one more turn” styled battles aaaaaaand yeah remember what I said earlier about not paying attention in school? Yep.
Basically this game is just absurdly fun and well-crafted. I know a lot of die-hard FF fans don’t like this game as much as its predecessor, usually because of the idea that FFTA offered a much more simplified story. Me, I’m not playing this stuff for the story. Sorry guys! I’m here because stuff like this exists:
And because in the sequel, stuff like this exists:
Mmm, delicious geekery.
So yeah. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. If you ask me to pick a favorite Final Fantasy game, it might just be this. In fact, I’m pretty sure it is.
Also, that delicious soundtrack.
Mechanostriders.
Yup.
Bar none the best mount in the game, and Horde can’t get a single one. Not as a rare drop (a la the ZG raptor/panther or Kael’thas’ hawkstrider) or anything. Nope. We just do not get mechanostriders.
Why, Blizzard? Why must you torment me so? I recall so many days spent farming the Argent Tournament dailies specifically to get the greatest of all mounts, the glorious Gnomeregan Mechanostrider. And now I never even see it anymore. Guess that’s what I get for being a filthy faction-switcher.
Maybe someday all my dreams will come true. Maybe someday us Hordies will have access to that most glorious of High Tinker Mekkatorque’s inventions, the marvelous, magnificent mechanostrider.
Until then I’ll just sit over here dreaming. /sigh