Archive for November, 2007
Three More Weeks…
Just like Anaktoria said, I’ve been completely swamped lately. I just finished up a 20-page story for one class and I have four handmade books that I have to create for another that are due on Monday, that I’ve yet to start on. I have little doubt that I’ll perform some miracle and get them all whipped out, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not freaking out about it. The funny thing is that finals week doesn’t have me any more worried than a typical week, but two weeks before is driving me crazy.
But that’s not why you guys are here, is it? No, so here’s what’s been happening on the gaming front. I decided that it was finally time to start playing Kanthalos, my druid, again, so I transferred him to the server I spend most of my time on. While financially it might not have been the best decision, I’m glad that he’s finally going to get used again, and I’m having fun with him. Initially I wanted him to go balance (boomkin!) for leveling, but I was struggling quite a bit with that, so I fell back on feral, which is working out like a dream, even with my not-fully-replaced caster gear. I’m not too comfortable tanking yet, but I’ll get the hang of it so I am basically guaranteed a spot in any 5-man that I want. He’s halfway through 62 now, and it probably won’t be more than a month before he’s 70, but as I’ve done it three times (twice in the past two months) I’m not pushing it this time.
As for Tonks and Anaktoria, things have been going great, particularly for Ana. Since hitting 70 about three weeks ago, she has accumulated — 9 epics. She’s the picture you see when you look up the definition of lucky. She’s found a slot to fill in perfectly for our sister guild, and since they are pretty geared out already, she gets any caster gear that drops almost without exception. I’ve gotten two pieces with Tonks, and will likely be adding many more to the list once school is out. While there is a little bit of guild drama going around about too many and not enough people wanting to run Karazhan, it’s sill working out pretty well for most and we feel good about our guild choice.
That’s all I really have for now. I’ll try to get back to you soon with hopefully something more than a diary of my real and game lives, but for now, that’s all I really have time to offer. Don’t lose faith! I’m not going anywhere.
~Kanthalos
Guest Entry
Filed under: Burning Crusade, Crafting, Epic Flying Mount, Gold Farming, Guilds, World of Warcraft | Tags: World of Warcraft
Comments(6) Since Kanthalos is at class and swamped with homework until early December, I figured it was about time for a new blog entry and who better to post it than…Anaktoria! That’s right, the (wo)man, the myth, and the legend right here right now to blog about the woes of Warcraft and the angst of Azeroth.
Anyhoo, on with the entry.
I rejoined the wild World of Warcraft about a month ago after about a 6-9 month break. Since then I’ve went through some interesting changes. As a level 70 mage, I’m left with a few options. I could run Kara for some epics and then attempt to move on to harder and more challenging raids. I could PvP till the cows come home and end up with some nice Gladiator gear, or I could raise my tailoring skill to about a bazillion and craft myself some epic sets. Nevermind the 5,000 gold for an epic flying mount. The point is that currently this seems like a lot more work than play.
It all boils down to gear and gold. You can’t get into a good raiding guild without being geared (and thusly you get gear from being in a good raiding guild), you can’t run some of the harder endgame raids without great gear due to the fact you’ll get crushed like an annoying insect by the bosses, and you can’t run heroics (a slightly easier way to get gear instead of attempting the horror that is a Kara PUG) unless you’re geared enough to attract a strong PUG and survive the run. If you have enough gold, you can just buy yourself some epics, but we’re talking thousands what with the price on mats and labor.
I’m not a big fan of PvP because…well…I’m Alliance. That says enough about our battlegrounds right there. So many decisions, which one is right? Seriously, I’m open to suggestions. My relationship with WoW is of a love-hate nature. I love the game, but I hate how I end up feeling adrift and lost when all of these tedious options arise. Maybe someday an MMO will come along that doesn’t give me these unsavory feelings when I hit the level cap. I certainly hope so.
The season one arena gear becomes purchasable with battleground honor tomorrow. That’s a start. Hit up those EotS, AV and AB double honor weekends and you’ll have some epics in no time. I’ve got my eyes on a staff, and that’ll help. I’ve found a guild that can run Kara well and most of the members are pretty decently geared and that’s another start. You can always farm for money and mats, but that’s another one of the ‘more work than play’ aspects of WoW. Sure, there are great times in WoW, especially when you find a guild full of friendly and helpful people, but sometimes the negatives outweigh the benefits. Then again, I’ve tried other MMOs and they just can’t spark that initial ‘ooh’ factor that World of Warcraft did for me in the very beginning.
So for now I trudge on in the pursuit of epics and leveling alts. I’m sure you’ll hear more from me again, and most likely about WoW. Kanthalos sends his regards, but graduating college > MMOs at the moment. I hope you enjoyed my WoW insight.
~Anaktoria
One Crazy Week
Comments(1)So it’s been six days and change since Anaktoria and I have been married, and things are finally starting to settle down. She’s been able to move most of her stuff into the apartment, and now it’s time for thank you’s and cleaning (and WoW.) I couldn’t have asked for a better wedding, and most of our family members were able to make it, so we were both ecstatic about the whole thing, but things have been a bit crazy lately.
I had more homework than I care to explain due before Wednesday, which I pulled off pretty well. Also, my brother kindly donated his old computer so Anaktoria and I could each play WoW together, though the system has continuously been plagued with one issue or another when it comes to WoW. That said, we made the hour trip to my parents house and picked up my old PC, which is still running pretty well (though there was a collection of a baseball size amount of dust and dust bunnies which needed to be blown out) so we’ve brought that back and are patching it as I’m writing. It seems to be going smoothly so we’ll see how it works. We’re both looking forward to getting back to playing together.
On the WoW front, Ana has been able to join a new guild that she’s enjoying. Working with another guild (the two are partnered for raiding) she was able to clear Karazhan in two nights and gain three epics in the process. While I’m really excited for her, I also realize that she owes me BIG TIME :) I’ve gotten Tonks up to 67 and am trying to decide where to head to next. I just want to get to 70 and start running instances and work towards raiding again.
Well there’s a general update of everything that’s been going on this past week. It’s been absolutely crazy and I’m glad it’s all coming to a close nicely. Ana might start guest posting from time to time also. Have a great weekend everyone!
~Kanthalos
On Raiding
Filed under: Burning Crusade, WoW, World of Warcraft, Wrath of the Lich King |
Comments(0) Now that my fiancee and I are back into WoW, we’re starting to consider our raiding options for the future. Our server, which I’ll leave nameless for now, is not all that advanced in terms of raiding guilds. There are five or six who have even began on Serpentshrine Cavern only twelve or so that have done Gruul and Mag’s Lairs. For now, this is fine. There are a few dozen guilds who have completed at least half of Kara which will be more than enough to get started. Basically, we want to join a guild that has completed Kara and can run through it pretty efficiently, basically so that it isn’t just a wipefest. We’ve still yet to set foot inside the instance, so we probably shouldn’t be so picky, but after nearly nine months of the expansion, there should be enough experience from a handful of guilds (on my server) that this isn’t too much to ask. Once we get through Kara for a few weeks, it might be time to jump into something a little heavier, which leads to a new problem.
As stated, there are very few guilds that are pretty advanced into BC raid content on our server, and those that are are basically set with the crew they have now, which will make it rather difficult to get into and even if we do, becoming an important part of the guild (which is what we ultimately want) might be a bit difficult. This leaves the option of possibly transferring servers if funds become available to do so. This of course is not something that can be done randomly for a popular server. If this does in fact open itself up, we’d basically need to have a guild offering us a spot before we went so we don’t blow $50 (two characters, Tonks and Anaktoria) only to find that the server we’re on is a very well-established server with no place for us.
Even if we do find a good fit in terms of a guild on whichever server that may be, there is still the question of “what’s the point?” The next expansion will probably hit shelves sometime between Q3 of 2008 and Q1 of 2009 which leaves about 10-13 months to raid and gain gear that will soon be deleted in favor of 73 greens. Actually, on a side note, I really hope this isn’t the case. I think that if Blizzard has any sense, they will make the best gear available now last all the way through to level 80 end-game. That way people will feel far less resentment and frustration when they drop they gear that took hundreds of hours to obtain just days into the expansion. Sorry, got a little sidetracked, but it does sort of fit in. The point of raiding is both to obtain gear (primary reason) as well as enjoy the instances and time with guild members (secondary reason.) So those are the “points” of raiding, and as for the gear lasting longer with the next expansion, if that happens, I will be much more likely to take raiding quite seriously and pay to transfer our characters to a new server (unless we find ourselves attached to a guild here.)
So there it is. I’m really torn right now about whether I want to focus more on the guild or on the gear, as our guild pre-BC was a lot of fun and we enjoyed the company, but didn’t advance nearly as far as we would have liked. I hope this doesn’t come off as too selfish, but we also don’t want to invest myself too fully into a guild that isn’t what we’re looking for. Hopefully we can find a healthy balance, and not find ourselves crying come the next expansion as we find ourselves typing “DELETE” once again.
I hope that was at least somewhat coherent.
~Kanthalos
Something Crazy This Way Comes…
As many posts inevitably do, this one started off as a comment to Bildo’s most recent post. He was talking mostly about the soon-to-be released Super Mario Galaxy as well as HG:L. I’ve never been a die-hard Mario fan. I of course enjoyed the first four, and 64 was fun as well as (super) paper mario, I just never really devoted myself to any but the Super Mario World. I think that’s going to change with this one, though. I’m definitely going to pick up a copy of my own as my wii playing is getting a bit stale, and I think the potential for fun is huge with the wiimote. It would be a nice wedding/birthday (one day apart) present *wink wink*. The fiancee still loves her copy of RE4 but I need something else. Speaking of which, Umbrella Chronicles is also quickly approaching, though we aren’t too sure about the whole rail shooter style…
As for HG:L it’s still up for debate whether I’ll get that or not. I don’t know if I’ll be able to balance three games at the same time, especially since the end of the semester is coming to a close faster than I’d like with three major projects (a 20-page story, an 8 page story, and 4 copies of a book that I create with a personal manifesto) on the way. AAAGGGHHHHH *hides in his Wii-and-WoW corner*
~Kanthalos
Post #100
So here it is, post number 100. I’ve been thinking for the past few days about exactly what I wanted to do, but nothing too incredible came to mind, so I figure I’ll give you a little bit of a standard post as well as a bit of something special.
Ok, to preface, I’m really sorry about not posting too much lately. Between my intense desire to play WoW in my free time as well was the fast-approaching wedding (Saturday!) I haven’t really had much time to sit down and write for you guys, so I apologize for that. I assure you that once the wedding is behind us, I’ll be able to devote more time to it. I really enjoy doing it, but you all know how life and gaming can get in the way 
So again, on to something a little more interesting.
Since getting Anaktoria to level 70, I’ve gotten her attuned as well as run a variety of instances, as well as joined a guild that unfortunately, didn’t work out for me, so I’m in the process of finding a new guild for both Anaktoria and Tonks. Yes, this means that I also activated my second account (MY account, that is) and have since gotten Tonks from 61 to 63. As much as I like Anaktoria (frost mage) I really missed playing my warlock and I can’t wait to get her to end-game, especially since I made this haul from 63-70 less than a month ago, so I’m just looking to push through as quickly as possible. I’m still looking forward to patch 2.3, it’s going to be awesome!
Now onto something a little different, and hopefully not too sappy. Basically, I want to thank all of your bloggers and readers out there. Over the past year and a half or so I’ve been immersing myself in all of the blogs and podcasts (including my own blog, obviously) which basically makes up about 75% of the time I spend online, and I enjoy every minute of it. It’s a blast reading what others have to think and how others agree or disagree with them. Most of us are not actually in the industry (whether we want to be or not) as well as a few who are, and the balance of those and the insights both have really open our eyes to thoughts, concepts, problems, and joys of playing the games we love most: MMO’s. I hope you all continue reading, blogging, and podcasting for many months and years to come. Next year is sure to have a plethora of material for us to dig into, so I can’t wait to see what happens!
~Kanthalos
