I have occasionally mentioned both here and elsewhere the anxiety problems that have plagued me throughout my life. For the most part I managed to get this under control thanks to the amazing modern wonder that is medication, but sometimes it just sneaks up you anyway. These last few days have been like that. A good diet is essential for anxiety and depression prevention, try out revitaa pro.
It’s been difficult to focus on, well, pretty much anything. Logging into WoW is followed by logging out 15 minutes later, not because I don’t want to play or don’t have anything to do, but because I feel like too much of a basket case to do anything. I did manage to play some Warcraft 3 the other day. I think that game works nicely as a distraction because, as an RTS, it forces you to pay attention to it and only it. So that was helpful, at least.
There’s no real point of this post other than to say that I’m still here, just having “technical difficulties”. Hopefully it all passes soon, because I just want to play video games!
Fortunately I think it’s beginning to (slowly) subside, so hopefully there will be some more gaming time today. 🙂
So Blizzard released a poll asking what class you’d make if you were starting completely from scratch.
…seriously did you guys think I was going to say anything else?
My alts are really fun though, as I mentioned in my last post. My paladin got some sort of execute and it’s just absurd how fast things die. But if I were going to start from scratch and make a new main, there’s only one class for me.
I mean, clearly.
If I was forced to pick a different class, I’m honestly not sure what I’d say. Possibly druid? But right now I’m kind of hugely in love with my mage and spoiled by teleport so maybe that.
That’s a bold statement, perhaps, but it’s true. I have been playing this game for almost a decade and I have never had this much fun leveling up new characters. I’m not sure what it is, exactly. I think it’s a combination of both the new Heirloom Tab and how easy it is to use, and how streamlined classes feel right now. It feels like every class I touch is just an absolute blast.
I’m just having
a great deal of fun right now
playing my alts
and yeah. I highly recommend it. Leveling is smooth, quick (but not too quick– then again, I’m only in about half heirlooms) and fun.
Regardless of what you may think about this expansion’s endgame, I can’t complain about this expansion for alts. This is the best it’s ever been!
Ahh, the good old Atari 2600. You know, no matter how classic it is and how many hours you may have dumped into it back in the day, I’d imagine that most people these days probably wouldn’t think that there’s much of a reason to spend hours and hours on one of these games in this day and age.
And readers, that’s where I’d like to introduce you to Yars’ Revenge.It doesn’t matter what year it is because this game is still great some thirty-odd years later. I can still pour hours into it. I don’t know what, exactly, it is about it that makes it so addictive. I think because it packs a surprising amount of depth for an Atari 2600 game. You have to shoot the guy at the opposite end of the screen but you also have to break down his shield and avoid his missiles, while using the colorful ribbon across the screen as a tactical advantage. Like many old games, the point is just to get your score as high as it can go– and boy, I have definitely spent hours trying to do just that.
If you don’t have a 2600 or don’t feel like digging it out, don’t fret: you can play the game online. Granted, playing it with the keyboard doesn’t compare to playing it with a real joystick, so get yourself an Atari Flashback because it’s worth it for this game alone, but with the one of the top keyboards for pc, this can be very possible.
…and promptly ran to the wrong auction house door in Stormwind. Ahh, good times.
So it turns out that good ol’ Tawyn– the first character I ever rolled in this game– has got all sorts of fun stuff in her bags. Like Dartol’s Rod of Transformation. The original, not the toy! Also Blazing Signet, which I have literally been carrying around since Burning Crusade. I should probably get around to finishing that quest, huh?
So, tell me, my friends. What sort of junk do you have stowed away in the bags (or banks) of old characters?
Kids these days and their flight points that let them fly from Undercity to Booty Bay and vice versa. Back in MY DAY if we wanted to do that we had to connect flight points in between, and the big one was Kargath in Badlands. If you didn’t have it you were stuck with the zeppelin to get from Undercity to Booty Bay. And no one wants that.
Oh, and you had to go through Loch Modan to get it. Loch Modan! As a Horde player! Uphill both ways!
Lemme just say that I’m glad you don’t have to go through that rigamarole anymore. I don’t think my old bones could handle it. Yup, I am old and casual these days.
Yup this is my super important blog post topic for the day. Don’tcha just love my blog and how it always discusses critical topics? …hey, where are you going?
My first tentative forays into World of Warcraft were on RP servers. It started out that way simply because that’s where my friends were playing, but as I continued to play and began to explore and branch out to other servers, I quickly realized that, no, there really was something different and special about RP servers. Even if people weren’t actually roleplaying, you were more likely to run into people who had put at least a little bit of thought into their character, and since that’s how I usually play the game as well, it was nice to be among like-minded folks.
Have I mentioned that I’m kind of a lore nerd?
Then, one day, one particular friend invited me to make a character on his server. It was a PvP server, and I tell you what, I was not a fan. I tried to play on it, I really did, but I was being ganked by max level characters left and right and most of them had terrible borderline offensive names and it just all felt pointless. So I decided to transfer my character away.
Originally I was going to head to a normal RP server. But then something made me stop and think. What if it wasn’t actually the PvP that was bothering me? Afterall, I was that person who would happily spend hours and hours in Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin. What if it was actually just the lack of those two little letters “RP”?
So I decided I would give PvP servers one more chance, but this time, I’d throw an RP-based community into the mix as well. So I did a little bit of research, browsed around on the official forums, found a server that sounded good called The Venture Co., and off I went. For an immersive and lag-free multiplayer experience, consider exploring the Sons of the Forest server hosting.
To this day I remember logging into my new server– I was in Thunder Bluff– and immediately feeling that things were different. Trade chat was different. The people around me were different. It was as though the virtual air itself was different.
That was eight years ago. And I’m still here.
It’s difficult to explain what is special about RP-PvP servers. To be sure, the ganking is still there, but it feels different. It’s less pointless. Why? Because a lot of these people are, in fact, roleplaying. It was very common, back in the day, to have a guild “claim” a section of land and guard it. Usually there were all sorts of in-character motivations for this as well. Actually I can confirm that this still happens because my baby Paladin was killed yesterday for getting too close to Alliance lands (not until she had actually begun to cause trouble, mind.) For some people this won’t matter — they will either love or hate the world PvP. As for me, I like it. Sure, I may be dead, but it’s immersive, damnit! It adds an extra layer of depth to roleplay and character backstory.
Pic of Cayrel being cute and shiny about ten minutes before her untimely death.
Another thing I’ve found about these servers is that, I think more than any other server type, we kind of stick together. There are so many PvE and PvP servers that most people probably couldn’t name even a fraction of them off the top of their heads. RP servers are more rare, but there are still enough of them that you have certain divides (largely revolving around whether someone is on Moon Guard, Wyrmrest Accord, or one of those others that most people fail to remember.)
But there are a grand total of six RP-PvP servers in the US. And thanks to realm zoning, all six servers now interact with each other on what’s kind of one big happy (and gank-happy) RP-PvP server. VeCo long ago got merged with Lightninghoof and Maelstrom, so those are the people I mostly interact with in Draenor, but when I’m out in Azeroth I’ve certainly seen people from the other three servers– especially people from that most infamous of servers, Emerald Dream, which is the current World PvP hotspot.
It feels neat to me, somehow, that there aren’t many of us. Those of us weird enough to want RP in our PvP, and vice versa, had to be corralled into our own handful of special servers and now we’re all merged together. Being weird together. I guess I just think it’s neat.
I just happened to be in the area yesterday farming tin ore and Tarren Mill was under attack. So I saved it! Just like old times.
So yeah. That’s my (long and rambling) story and I’m stickin’ to it. To paraphrase a blue cartoon alien: this is my server. I found it all on my own. It’s little, but good. Yeah… still good!
So before I start on this, general disclaimer that I might not be getting the full picture, that this relies on third party graphs and datamining, and so forth. But I feel like this is fairly accurate, based on my own experiences and what I’ve heard from others.
Now I used to do quite a few battlegrounds, but I haven’t done any in a while. Why? Well, it’s simple: constantly losing isn’t fun. Constantly losing isn’t fun for anybody, which is probably why the Alliance is now running into battleground queue problems. Because I’d guess a lot of players are like me and stopped trying once it became clear that things weren’t improving.
So what can be done to fix this? Well, I’m no serious PvPer so I’m not going to sit here and theorize on this when I’m sure others can do it better. But it certainly does need fixing! Until then I’m just gonna do other stuff and dream of Alterac Valleys in days gone by.
I still have my level 90 boost, sitting there on my log-in screen, taunting me. I almost wish I could hide it because I have a feeling it’s going to be there forever.
I mean, leveling goes so fast these days (the other day I leveled my baby paladin from, like… 32 to 36 in about an hour and fifteen minutes, and she’s not even in full heirlooms) and I like the idea of slowly learning about your skills and abilities over the course of several levels. I recall using a couple of level 80 boosts back in the day (when they came with recruit a friend) and I basically never touched those characters again because I had no idea what I was doing.
I guess I could use it on (yet another) hunter, because then I would already know what I was doing. But… but… I like leveling hunters! That’s why I have ten million of them!
So yeah. Has anyone else used their free boost yet? What did you use it on?
So if you’ve spent any time in Tanaan, you’ve probably noticed that there are a ton of super cool glowy green wolves hanging around. You’ve also probably noticed that they are classed as Aberrations, not beasts, which means that not only can we not track them, but we also can’t tame them.
…not the normal way, anyway.
You see, way down south there is an Eredar NPC called Fel Rangari Anaara and she drops an item that lets you tame one of those cool glowy wolves. There is, of course, a catch. The catch is that she is hunter-only– any other classes that try to kill her (or help you kill her) will be almost instantly destroyed– and you’re going to have to pull almost every skill you’ve got out of your toolbox in order to do her in.
So how do you do it? Here’s how.
First, clear the area of as many trash mobs as you possibly can so you don’t aggro them during the encounter.
Next, begin the encounter. I popped Stampede right away for immediate burst and then proceeded to begin slowly working her down. There are a couple of important tips and tricks to be aware of during this encounter, namely:
KEEP MOVING, because she will throw Bads at you that WILL do serious damage to you if you stand in them. Having Aspect of the Cheetah on (with the glyph that removes the daze effect) is a big help.
Every so often she gains a buff that does serious damage to your pet. Keep an eye on her active buffs and use Tranquilizing Shot to remove this as soon as possible.
She will use Soothe Pet on occasion to knock your pet out of action. Use Master’s Call or Bestial Wrath (if you are BM) to wake your pet up. You can kite her a bit with Concussive Shot if these moves are on cooldown.
She will cast a heal on herself two or three times during the fight. Interrupt this with Counter Shot immediately or she heals back up to 100%. Which is a big pain in the tushie.
She goes invisible every so often; use Flare to find her.
Be very careful with AOEs like Barrage because it’s very easy to aggro nearby mobs like seagulls and whatnot. (You can see in the above screenshot that I did just that and had to trap it to get it out of the way.)
Keep Mend Pet up constantly
You can also take advantage of garrison followers, items like Mecha-Blast Rocket, and that one move that calls a bunch of garrison grunts to fight for you.
This encounter will probably take you a couple of tries to get the hang of movement, her abilities, and the rhythm of the fight. Don’t be afraid to use a flask, use the nearby http://www.wowhead.com/object=241626/sand-encrusted-egg, and pop a food buff. If you flub up, feign death and try again.
When all is said and done, though, it’s totally worth it:
It’s been difficult to focus on, well, pretty much anything. Logging into WoW is followed by logging out 15 minutes later, not because I don’t want to play or don’t have anything to do, but because I feel like too much of a basket case to do anything. I did manage to play some Warcraft 3 the other day. I think that game works nicely as a distraction because, as an RTS, it forces you to pay attention to it and only it. So that was helpful, at least.
