tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46593261227933965702024-03-19T08:48:28.773+00:00Priest with a Cause - A World of Warcraft (Classic) blogOld-school blogging about adventures in WoW (Classic).Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.comBlogger781125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-87931137180521160032024-03-15T15:46:00.000+00:002024-03-15T15:46:46.187+00:00Casual Keystone Master Reflections<p>Last weekend I hit a pretty significant milestone in retail WoW: me and several of my guildies got the Keystone Master achievement for completing a Mythic +15 for the first time.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgChDM19jCpQKLXtv_x-_za6C6SoXsYr5Yib285YYhau3EhESTnApRGSKArT3FvaDrFWuio6L5sfy7GFw0XoDcXk_jNuU9SPE5EOPp6YGsdb51yupH1MEXQrzPbxHIjYTWGdb19SOnsnJzO7bwD_B4GCXXutt6b-2DEB89VH3hn5pOmb9vcVUnG9OcF_h5B/s1920/Keystone%20Master%20achievement.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgChDM19jCpQKLXtv_x-_za6C6SoXsYr5Yib285YYhau3EhESTnApRGSKArT3FvaDrFWuio6L5sfy7GFw0XoDcXk_jNuU9SPE5EOPp6YGsdb51yupH1MEXQrzPbxHIjYTWGdb19SOnsnJzO7bwD_B4GCXXutt6b-2DEB89VH3hn5pOmb9vcVUnG9OcF_h5B/w400-h225/Keystone%20Master%20achievement.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>It was a really nice run as well; we only suffered three deaths in that Black Rook Hold (two of which were people getting squished by boulders) and we finished with almost ten minutes to spare, which is rare for us even on lower keys.</p><p>To more experienced M+ players this probably means nothing, but to me it felt like something that we'd been working towards for a very long time, from our <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2023/02/i-tried-mythic-plus.html">tentative first steps into mythic in season 1</a>, to the <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2023/06/my-continued-adventures-in-mythic-plus.html">growing pains we suffered in season 2</a>. Season 3 has been a bit better in that regard... but I'll write some more about that in a separate post.</p><p>I think I finally figured out the biggest challenge to being successful in M+ as a casual player - and it's that the mode feels designed for people who run twenty keys or more per week.</p><p>There is just so much information to digest and things to learn in a single M+ season: eight different dungeons make for thirty-two boss fights you need to master, at least as many if not more trash mechanics you need to understand, paths to figure out to achieve the correct trash kill percentage, and then multiple affixes on top of that which rotate every week... it's a LOT.</p><p>The problem with being casual, which in our case means running about four dungeons per week, is that several weeks can pass between you seeing the same dungeon twice, and do you really remember every single mechanic from the two or three times you've run it before by the time it comes around again? Of course not!</p><p>We generally try to run four <i>different</i> dungeons every week for the sake of variety (which I think is understandable), but it was kind of eye-opening when this season we decided to run the same dungeon twice in one day. The other week we bricked a Throne of Tides so hard it's not even funny - it must've been a +13 or +14 I think and we spent a full hour or so in there. First we wiped multiple times on Commander Ulthok, and after finally getting him down we did the same thing on Ozumat, to the point that my husband was close to losing it again and kept saying that we were clearly too bad at this game and couldn't do it. This prompted our guildie to fetch his more experienced brother (who had helped us out before) and to stream our next boss attempt to him - and the funny thing is that said brother didn't really have anything to tell us other than to comment that we shouldn't run around like such headless chickens when we got the pure water buff, and yet, just by virtue of having him watch us, we suddenly succeeded on the next attempt, clearly pulling ourselves together out of sheer embarrassment. We then did another Throne of the Tides that same afternoon and it was super smooth, because all the pain points of the previous run were still fresh on our minds. That +15 Black Rook Hold was also preceded by another run of the same dungeon that had been a lot less smooth (though we didn't fail the timer), ensuring that by the time we did the +15 we actually remembered what we were doing.</p><p>I can't help but wonder how we would have done if we had tried Mythic Plus before Dragonflight introduced the concept of having a different set of M+ dungeons every season. I imagine it must have been quite boring to run the exact same dungeons every season, but at least most of what you learned in the process stayed useful throughout the rest of the expansion, instead of you having to learn new bosses and trash mechanics from scratch every major patch. It's weird how that increased dungeon variety is both more interesting and an additional obstacle to more casual participation.<br /></p><p>With that in mind, I'm very curious to see how we will do in season 4. Not only will that take us back to the original Dragonflight dungeons we visited in seasons 1 and 2, but <a href="https://www.wowhead.com/news/dragonflight-season-4-mythic-dungeon-rotation-includes-eight-dragonflight-338043">Blizzard is also going to do a "difficulty squish"</a> that will raise the difficulty of heroic and mythic zero dungeons, with the new M+ starting at what's effectively +10 now. I'm tentatively hopeful that this will put our casual group in a better position for season 4 than we've been in before, as we've at least <i>seen</i> all the original Dragonflight dungeons before (even if we may not remember them that well), and the increased damage output in mythic zero will (hopefully?) make it easier to learn the boss mechanics properly there before having to deal with additional complications like timers and affixes. Currently in low keys, you can be healed through doing a lot of things completely wrong, so you don't really realise just how badly you're doing until you die to those same mechanics on a higher key, but then who wants to pause and review tactics while a timer's ticking? We'll see how it goes.<br /></p>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-74908016383143402412024-03-11T19:18:00.000+00:002024-03-11T19:18:01.349+00:00Is Season of Discovery Becoming Season of Mastery 2?<p>It's been a bit quiet on here for the last two weeks, mostly because I think I may well be done with Season of Discovery. I managed to level my dwarf priest to 30, but since then I haven't really had any particular urge to log in, even if the RP server makes for a nicer environment than the PvE megaserver. I'm not saying that I definitely won't check back on it at some point, but right now I just don't really feel any incentive to do so.</p><p>When Season of Discovery was <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2023/11/im-not-sure-how-to-parse-this-blizzcon.html">first announced at BlizzCon</a>, I was intrigued by how it was being promoted as a season more focused on levelling and exploration, and it did feel like that to me in phase one, but phase two... not so much.</p><p>Exploring and questing in the open world is made unpleasant for most players as the megaservers are too big to sustain the kind of population they have, even with layering, so everyone ends up grinding dungeons instead and then burns out. (I've actually heard Scarlet Monastery being referred to as "the scarlet prison"... that tells you everything you need to know, I think.) You'd think that if the devs wanted the focus to be on open world gameplay being enjoyable, they would've addressed that.<br /></p><p>Yet Blizzard is once again desperate to push everyone into "endgame". I thought the 50% XP buff for levels 1-25 when phase two started was quite reasonable to get people into the same levelling bracket, but they've now increased the XP buff to 100% and made it last all the way to 40. In a way I get why they'd do that, but is your season still about levelling when you're trying that hard to push people past it? Presumably to get into raiding?</p><p>One of the reasons the original Season of Mastery wasn't that interesting to me was that its stated goal was to speed-run people through the levelling process so they could get to raiding and see the old raids in a different light. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, and from everything I heard about it, some of the changes made to the raids in SoM were pretty neat and interesting if you were looking for more challenge out of that content. It just wasn't for me.</p><p>I was really hopeful that SoD would be different, but at this point it doesn't really <i>feel</i> all that different to me, what with the game pushing you to max level at double speed... for what reason other than to raid? It doesn't matter that the current level cap is 40 and that the current raid is Gnomeregan, it's the same concept and makes it feel like Blizzard is just falling into the same old patterns of behaviour again, catering to the exact same crowd and turning everyone else off.<br /></p>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-20158317022833373402024-02-25T22:45:00.002+00:002024-02-26T10:45:43.876+00:00More on Starting Over on Lava Lash<p>This is a follow-up to <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2024/02/starting-over-in-phase-2.html">last week's post</a> about me deciding to try a fresh start in Season of Discovery phase two by re-rolling on the RP-PvE server.</p><p>As mentioned, I got to 20 incredibly quickly due to the XP buff, but with basically no cash to train abilities or do anything else. So I decided that it was time to put on the brakes and take care of business other than levelling for a while, namely by doing some travelling to unlock access to additional flight paths (I hadn't even been to Kalimdor yet), working on my professions, and working the auction house to make some money.</p><p>Fishing turned out to be surprisingly lucrative here, because for some reason there didn't seem to be a lot of active fishermen about - or maybe they are all still busy levelling to 40; I don't know. The point is, I found pools of firefin snapper, oily blackmouth and sagefish everywhere, and while each fish only sold for a few silver, it added up quickly. I think fishing may actually be my highest skill right now.</p><p>I also developed a strange fascination with chests. While I've played dwarf characters before, I don't think I ever got any to a very high level, and they usually had some other form of tracking (ore or herb nodes for gatherers, different types of mobs for hunters) that took priority over using their "treasure finding" racial that highlights chests on the mini map.</p><p>My newest priest on the other hand is a tailor and enchanter, so she doesn't have anything else to pay attention to, and I've been very surprised by just how many chests there are about. I always thought I was pretty good at spotting them with the naked eye, but apparently there've always been a lot more hiding in corners and behind sheds that I never knew about. It's turned me into a proper treasure hunting fiend, as I'll randomly fight my way into buildings or caves just to access a chest at the back.<br /></p><p>When I revisited Ashenvale, I was pleasantly surprised to find that some life had returned to the PvP event, mainly level 40s that had decided to come back for more reputation I guess. The groups tended to be about 80-90% max level characters, with the rest being made up of levellers like me that just happened to pass through the zone. I now have first-hand experience of <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-battle-for-ashenvale-as-horde-on-pve.html">how much easier it is to get rewarded for taking part in this event as Alliance</a>, as I hit friendly with Silverwing Sentinels after only two battles.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp2MkSLsHHU6jqyxDrOnzm4PHwafgGTAkzmWN5ih4JlhYoU-Vqq-_mbS5IwUyKubQMYszg3-hKkKnQ9y2T5Nwqx9lvGjo7yTzI1mostbLYoTo30_CElU96U572qiOGOBuNxtiusp39SaAShqw6hma2KpGKYImWpaf-5I7ofXDplwL3auqCEf_944LcZs8C/s1920/Dwarf%20priest%20Tirr%20in%20Battle%20for%20Ashenvale.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp2MkSLsHHU6jqyxDrOnzm4PHwafgGTAkzmWN5ih4JlhYoU-Vqq-_mbS5IwUyKubQMYszg3-hKkKnQ9y2T5Nwqx9lvGjo7yTzI1mostbLYoTo30_CElU96U572qiOGOBuNxtiusp39SaAShqw6hma2KpGKYImWpaf-5I7ofXDplwL3auqCEf_944LcZs8C/w400-h225/Dwarf%20priest%20Tirr%20in%20Battle%20for%20Ashenvale.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>I also made good progress collecting more of my runes - knowing where to pick them up along the way after already going through the whole process on Horde side in phase one made things a lot simpler. I also found out that Alliance have it significantly easier when it comes to collecting their Meditation buffs, as Meditation on the Light and Elune can be picked up almost right next to each other in Stormwind.<br /></p><p>As one of the priest runes drops from the elite orcs in Redridge, I decided to join a group for the quests there. Even considering that Lava Lash's population is much lower than Wild Growth's, it was crazy busy there that evening, meaning we spent a lot of time just running about without being able to tag anything, so people got to chatting.</p><p>I was surprised to hear from several of my group mates that they had only just started in phase two, and was slightly amused when our ret pally declared that they were both a mythic raider and a streamer in retail. Far be it from me to doubt the truthfulness of that, but that same paladin stood out to me for not casting a single seal all evening... just goes to show again that retail and Classic are two very different games and knowing your way around one doesn't automatically translate into knowing anything at all about the other.</p><p>Not that it mattered either way... we had a good time, and me, the pally and the rogue who had started the group actually stuck together to complete a few additional quests once we were done with the elites, such as collecting pendants from the gnolls and escorting Corporal Keeshan. The whole experience had that good old-fashioned pug feel to it, reminding me of the way I first made friends in WoW nearly twenty years ago.</p><p>I also spotted some familiar guild names in town, and in fact am pretty certain that I even ran into the GM of a guild I used to be friendly with on Hydraxian Waterlords back in 2020. I just wasn't able to 100% confirm it as they were AFK when I encountered them and therefore didn't respond to my emote. It's just fascinating to me how these RP server communities persist over the years and across different versions of the game. This is one of those things I love about Classic and that the megaserver aficionados just don't get I guess.</p><p>That said, I'm feeling surprisingly little pull to get to level 40 and start raiding Gnomeregan now. I'm not super interested in raiding without being part of a group going into it together, and to be honest what I've been hearing about Gnomer isn't helping. I <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2024/01/so-hows-bfd-raid-in-season-of-discovery.html">noted about BFD</a> that while I thought it was fun overall, some of the bosses were kind of bordering on being "too much" for a relaxed Classic raiding experience, and from everything I've read, Gnomeregan is much harder (something that people tend to frame as a good thing, but to me it's not - supposedly it's particularly punishing for healers as well).</p><p>So while I'm having fun for now, I'm still not convinced that Season of Discovery is really "working" for me. I liked the level cap being 25, but it occurs to me that when it was raised, it was essentially like a microcosm of an expansion release... oh, you've been working on learning how endgame works and getting better gear? Forget all of it! Everything is different now! And while that sort of thing generates excitement, it can also be exhausting in a way, even more so on a sped-up schedule. I wonder how many players have already dropped off for similar reasons.<br /></p>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-75711438257253211782024-02-17T23:26:00.000+00:002024-02-17T23:26:46.955+00:00Starting Over in Phase 2<p>I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with/in WoW Classic in the near future, but one thing was clear to me after <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2024/02/sod-phase-2-first-impressions-ennui.html">my last post</a>: that I needed a change of scenery. So I logged into the European RP-PvE server Lava Lash and created a dwarf priest there.</p><p>It's almost silly how relieved I felt almost immediately, spawning into a zone that wasn't stupidly over-crowded. There were other players around, sure, but it wasn't <i>heaving</i>, and that was nice. I actually took note of the presence of other players again instead of constantly feeling surrounded simply being the default. I handed out drive-by buffs again! Remember when at the start of Classic, everyone was like "wow, playing this reminded me of how nice it felt to give and receive drive-by buffs"? You don't get that on mega-servers because even if you <i>wanted</i> to buff everyone you meet, there are just too many gosh-darned people.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2DheCBaoI_2HIVxl9cPxFI8r5-R_LnU-u8yl85aq-_RCERvU6N-XVz6MGqgdcCKVHnJtwopz78YsEL-UMIfQbEz5dXaS5gp3kr0MpSWAZReVTpS57qvcOGjF80XbYZXzKpvqnaG2ST21ClJdlOB2zYSKf0pkcO-r3Par21MW-Ci8RD45Ck-gu9fceIp4a/s1237/Dwarf%20priest%20Tirr%20sighing%20on%20the%20Ironforge%20bridge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="817" data-original-width="1237" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2DheCBaoI_2HIVxl9cPxFI8r5-R_LnU-u8yl85aq-_RCERvU6N-XVz6MGqgdcCKVHnJtwopz78YsEL-UMIfQbEz5dXaS5gp3kr0MpSWAZReVTpS57qvcOGjF80XbYZXzKpvqnaG2ST21ClJdlOB2zYSKf0pkcO-r3Par21MW-Ci8RD45Ck-gu9fceIp4a/w400-h264/Dwarf%20priest%20Tirr%20sighing%20on%20the%20Ironforge%20bridge.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>My casual interactions with others also immediately felt better somehow. It's a bit hard to explain, because it's not as if people on regular PvE servers are <i>unfriendly</i>, but so many interactions there just feel incredibly... business-like, as if everyone's always busy following their personal check-list of things to do, without any interest in the people they are doing it <i>with</i>. On RP-PvE, you get the sense that more players are there for the experience of just existing in that virtual space, and while they have goals too, they tend to pursue them at a more relaxed pace where allowing yourself to be distracted for a bit isn't really a huge problem. I definitely found it noticeable that I saw quite a few higher-level players ambling around lower-level zones for example - presumably they were still doing <i>something</i>, but they weren't obviously chasing the new level cap.</p><p>Realising this honestly made me feel a bit stupid for rolling on the regular PvE mega-server to begin with. I've been through all this before! I <i>know</i> that mega-servers make everything but finding pugs and the auction house worse! I don't know why I thought it was going to be different this time. People just always talk about them like they're the bee's knees but they are <i>not</i>. Anyway, end random mega-server rant.</p><p>It was only while playing on Lava Lash that I noticed some of the changes that Blizzard made to Waylaid Supplies with phase two. They can no longer be turned in without being filled up for example, but you do have the option to just vendor them for one silver now. Also, they are no longer unique, which is nice, but I was surprised to see that you can own up to twelve of them. My first thought was "why would anyone need that many" but I quickly realised that there's method to the madness, as I got about half a dozen of them as drops in Dun Morogh alone, and all before I had the means to actually fill any of them up. That definitely made me feel grateful for the option to stash them away in my bank for later.</p><p>Levelling with the new 1-25 XP buff feels extremely fast, and even with all my casual ambling about, I hit level twenty in less than 14 hours of /played. I'm honestly not sure that's a good thing though, because being put on this levelling fast-track also means that you end up earning a lot less gear and money on the way. I'm still sporting several white/grey pieces at twenty when I'd usually have full greens by that point, and I couldn't even afford all my new spells initially.</p><p>I feel like there's going to be a huge chasm of economic inequality between those who managed to play at the level cap of 25 and do a bunch of quests for gold, and those who start now, because while the former are going to be much richer than anyone would normally be at their level, newly fast-tracked characters are having the exact opposite experience (being poorer than they would normally be at their level). That means that the best way to catch up is to rush to the new level cap, ignoring everything else, and hope that you can start earning gold and <i>truly</i> catching up at that point. This kind of thing is why I've never been a fan of "just make levelling faster" as a solution to anything...</p><p>Anyway, I don't know where things will go from here, whether I'll feel compelled to play this priest more or not. But at least it's been a breath of fresh air.<br /></p>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-122736736727652312024-02-11T01:10:00.001+00:002024-02-11T01:10:16.332+00:00SoD Phase 2: First Impressions & Ennui<p>Season of Discovery's phase two launched Thursday late in the evening in my time zone. I had a quick look at the time to see whether there was enough hype to create login queues again... there was not, though it <i>was</i> insanely busy in Thunder Bluff when I logged in. I needn't have worried about people immediately losing interest in the BFD raid once it was no longer at the level cap, as the "Denizens of Kalimdor!" yells were going out non-stop. They had always been frequent but now they were even more so as people were running it for XP.<br /></p><p>I didn't really try to play properly until the next morning myself. I figured maybe I could avoid the worst of the crowds if I focused on my professions before trying to level, so I went out to buy the expert cooking, first aid and fishing books. However, I then realised that the primary professions still required level 26 to progress beyond 150 skill, even in phase two, so I decided that levelling up at least once should be my main goal for the time being.<br /></p><p>I took my priest to Stonetalon since I had a few quests from there in my log and it's usually a comparatively quiet place - but it wasn't that day. Or rather, it <i>might</i> have been if things were <i>even busier</i> in other zones, but my point is that things were pretty crazy in Stonetalon as well, with everyone fighting to tag mobs as they spawned. I even saw people looking for group for "<a href="https://www.wowhead.com/classic/quest=1089/the-den">The Den</a>" - a group quest which I think I've <i>never </i>completed at level because it's part of a chain that takes you all the way to Ashenvale and nobody wants to go back to Stonetalon to find a group to finish it, but on that day, people were doing even that.</p><p>While things were pretty brutal on Stonetalon Peak, the Charred Vale was the most striking to me, because I always remember my more experienced friend warning me about the place back when I first started playing WoW - that it was densely populated with mobs and could be quite dangerous. That Friday morning, it was <i>barren</i>, and harpies were dying pretty much as soon as they dared to make an appearance. Still, I successfully made it to level 26 and returned to town to work on my professions a bit.</p><p>I came on again later in the early evening, and actually found two guildies online who invited me to do some dungeons with them. We did SFK twice, followed by a partial run of Razorfen Kraul, in which I at least got my Blueleaf Tubers and the goblin escort done. Apparently the place was a popular destination to level as I saw people advertise for "RFK boar farm runs", which sounded very <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAxZVZgpmI0">South Park-esque</a>. Apparently dungeon farming to level is "the meta" even in Season of Discovery, simply because the open world is too full to quest efficiently. There's something kind of sad about that.</p><p>However, already the next day, the biggest wave of power-levellers seemed to have washed over me. I took my hunter (who hit 25 literally the night before phase two released and never did get to go to BFD) on a similar quest circuit around Stonetalon and it was much, <i>much</i> quieter... but in an oddly annoying way because without the hyperspawns triggered by the massive crowds I actually had to run bigger circles around the area to find more of the only slowly respawning quest mobs, while my priest had just had new ones pop up in front of her over and over.<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq4m0FspLIOi4XxraUnrou9t2n1FgD6FJ5vu0vvZxLmCYmxudicHn6E_u-hT4mv3vo1a8Ss2ed6SAYy6bFS2OGI0xMhoI8oyPnoGtFHQkePemCGYcOmIxzJ8JFtgM_VG074YZAVXMxrr0lR4u8tU-AnfalHV6KyUjCrpLJZQy1qUBUnHFAI5FPjxRHPsYT/s1623/Shintroll%20hunting%20sap%20beasts%20on%20Stonetalon%20Peak.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="987" data-original-width="1623" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq4m0FspLIOi4XxraUnrou9t2n1FgD6FJ5vu0vvZxLmCYmxudicHn6E_u-hT4mv3vo1a8Ss2ed6SAYy6bFS2OGI0xMhoI8oyPnoGtFHQkePemCGYcOmIxzJ8JFtgM_VG074YZAVXMxrr0lR4u8tU-AnfalHV6KyUjCrpLJZQy1qUBUnHFAI5FPjxRHPsYT/w400-h244/Shintroll%20hunting%20sap%20beasts%20on%20Stonetalon%20Peak.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>I just needed a little more XP to get her to 26 so I thought I'd do the breadcrumb delivery quest to Thousand Needles. At the Great Lift, a human paladin aggroed my quest NPC while running to the lift, just before I could talk to him , so I did a /shoo emote on her, meaning to indicate that she should just get on the lift so he would run back to his spot and reset. She then decided to turn back and <i>kill</i> both Horde NPCs before I could talk to them, which meant I spent the next ten minutes waiting for them to respawn. In that moment I was kind of glad there's no cross-faction communication in Classic as I definitely would have called her names.</p><p>Meanwhile, my priest was close to 27 after the dungeons from the day before, so I thought I'd pop over to Ashenvale to ding her as well. I was successful, but Ashenvale was another sad sight as I saw the PvP event come on and <i>nobody</i> took part on either faction. I wonder whether anyone will come back to farm more Warsong Gulch rep once the current levelling frenzy is over.</p><p>I haven't checked out the new PvP action in Stranglethorn yet but I'm also kind of scared to. When I was doing the dungeons with guildies, one of them accidentally took the wrong zeppelin and landed in Grom'gol while the Blood Moon event was on. Turns out it's <i>so</i> free-for-all that even the guards hate you, meaning he instantly got ganked by them and was unable to revive and get back onto the zepp. He actually had to switch to a different character entirely to be able to go to the dungeon with us as the one stuck in STV was effectively unusable for the time being.</p><p>Reddit is afire talking about the new event, though I'm not sure I entirely understand what's been happening - something about people getting insane rewards for spam-killing the same characters over and over again at the graveyard since the event was lacking anything to discourage that? I don't know, it doesn't currently sound very fun either way.</p><p>I was wondering whether the release of phase 2 would bring more of my era guildies back to SoD to check out the new stuff, but after three days, only half a dozen people or so have even logged in. The ones who are still active are talking about moving to a new guild in SoD and I can't blame them. I need to think about what I want out of Season of Discovery myself. Right now I'm just getting major deja vu, finding myself feeling lonely on a crowded mega-server <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2019/11/left-behind.html">like I did a couple of months after Classic's launch</a>, though back then I was still carried along for a few more months by the sheer excitement I felt about Vanilla making an official comeback. While SoD does have some interesting new mechanics, it's not enough to make the experience completely different from what I've been doing for the last five years (gosh, has it really been that long - it has), and being on my own all the time just feels unsatisfying.</p><p>I'm even wondering whether I should go and re-roll Alliance on the RP-PvE server - it's only medium pop so that should alleviate some of my stress caused by the crowds, and relocating to Hydraxian Waterlords is what ended up turning Classic around for me back in 2020. Who says that couldn't happen again? However, even if it could, would I even want to go in that deep again? (I went pretty hard for a while once I started raiding in Classic.) I just don't know. I keep looking at SoD and thinking that everything looks so fun on paper, but I just end up feeling slightly jealous of all the people who are so obviously enjoying themselves because <i>something</i> about it just isn't working for me right now.<br /></p>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-4892420905167509102024-02-05T09:04:00.003+00:002024-02-05T09:15:24.099+00:00Casual Seeds of Renewal<p>Dragonflight's Seeds of Renewal patch has been out for a few weeks now, but with my casual involvement in retail, I don't always get to see all the new stuff right away. In general I've really enjoyed the way Blizzard has been releasing these "minor" patches between the major ones though, adding new gameplay and story every so often even when there isn't a new zone or raid to be explored just yet. Seeds of Renewal is another interesting example of that.</p><p>First of all, Dragonriding is now enabled everywhere where you're able to fly, and it's great. Characters don't even need to have been to the Dragon Isles to be able to mount one of the special mounts, though you might still need to have the Dragonflight expansion at least, I'm guessing. Normal/old flying still has its place, but if you're just trying to quickly get from A to B, hopping on your dragon and going super fast definitely feels great.</p><p>They also retooled the dracthyr racial Soar to work like normal Dragonriding instead of an extremely limited version of it, which means that I can now be my own mount and just fly around using my own wings. Again, this feels great! It's not quite as smooth as a druid's flight form, as you get thrown out of "flight mode" the moment you touch ground, so it's happened to me that I kind of clip the edge of a cliff and then fall off because I'm no longer flying... but at least dracythyr always have Glide to save themselves. As there's been talk of giving druids a "Dragonriding mode" for their flight form, I wonder whether that'll also mean that dracthyr will eventually be able to fly the old-fashioned way as well.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTaoyp3BgKlisl8GIJcVWaaEzASKmIn3mo4aOGy0n3PO9v0AUMq6lRamKgjb3L-48CiOGW_uO-iNsRZOfDIrjFG_VVjEHwfhMvfX7zQhu3uWFzS5_k6XCP_CBJn0Vid7mlBt2RnspeL69ofdgFwMNZtX5Y6cZTRDnb9R8vc-JXmDh1LRny9OSS8xbEqBza/s1920/Shindragosa%20soaring%20over%20Valdrakken.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTaoyp3BgKlisl8GIJcVWaaEzASKmIn3mo4aOGy0n3PO9v0AUMq6lRamKgjb3L-48CiOGW_uO-iNsRZOfDIrjFG_VVjEHwfhMvfX7zQhu3uWFzS5_k6XCP_CBJn0Vid7mlBt2RnspeL69ofdgFwMNZtX5Y6cZTRDnb9R8vc-JXmDh1LRny9OSS8xbEqBza/w400-h225/Shindragosa%20soaring%20over%20Valdrakken.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>There's also a new temporary Dragonriding race event, the Outland Cup. With my love of the Burning Crusade, you'd think I would have loved that too, but... eh. I think now that we can just use Dragonriding everywhere, the novelty of being able to do so in the races isn't quite there anymore. Plus each course is quite predictable at this point in that I'll be able to get gold on the normal race easily, but both reverse and advanced are so tightly tuned that it doesn't feel worth re-doing them over and over again just to eke out something better than bronze. I thought it was interesting that they changed the quest related to the event to actually require you to do <i>all </i>courses now instead of just three, while also significantly buffing the reward. This meant that for the first time, I was able to afford all the prizes after completing everything once instead of having to get on alts to earn more currency.</p><p>There's this new thing called the Azerothian Archives, which is a quest chain with some mini games vaguely related to archaeology - the concept that is, not the in-game profession, before anyone gets their hopes up. The quest line was enjoyable enough and I thought it was clever that it included visits to the Forbidden Reach and Zaralek Cavern, presumably in an effort to bring some life back into those mostly abandoned patch zones. As far as I can tell it seemed to work, because I could see that people were actually bumping off rares and picking up chests while they were there.</p><p>The mini games themselves all felt a bit weird though, like they were trying to put a new spin on archaeology by making it more complicated. As someone who quite likes archaeology as it is, I wasn't entirely convinced. I guess the proof will be in the pudding as to whether I'll spend any time on the world quests this unlocks. (So far it's just made me miss normal archaeology enough that I went on a bit of a surveying binge the next day.) There's also a new world event tied to all this, where everyone runs in circles as a giant crowd trying to tap mounds of dirt. Again, a bit weird.<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0m98mF9soPbGM7nTOTEhgb39mgJlirBoc8A-vQaAFjipjZCP2M7eSPEUCuEHIgLx6PsgZ-W5Ja8IFdjMgd4LQ-Dw0_2zuNtOOrrsZ2hxbhdwTNqofGNPAsAXNBxPbIvxUd0NCuQpUQs5sI-dkpt9Ae8AyMOwgOpHfUHLDqM1ljRVj02KTWks6O4386V5k/s1920/Great%20Dig%20world%20event.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0m98mF9soPbGM7nTOTEhgb39mgJlirBoc8A-vQaAFjipjZCP2M7eSPEUCuEHIgLx6PsgZ-W5Ja8IFdjMgd4LQ-Dw0_2zuNtOOrrsZ2hxbhdwTNqofGNPAsAXNBxPbIvxUd0NCuQpUQs5sI-dkpt9Ae8AyMOwgOpHfUHLDqM1ljRVj02KTWks6O4386V5k/w400-h225/Great%20Dig%20world%20event.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>In terms of story content, there are some epilogue quests, such as Vyranoth showing you a cinematic that shows Iridikron being up to no good. The night elves get to build a new home under Amirdrassil called Bel'ameth, and Malfurion comes back from Ardenweald. While I'm happy for him and Tyrande to have some quality time together, it does kind of make it look weird in hindsight that there was such a hubbub around him staying in Ardenweald to balance out Ysera returning to the land of the living, considering that it was only a temporary arrangement for a few patches.<p></p><p>There's also a quest chain to reclaim Gilneas, and while it's a nice enough quest by itself, the contrast between everything the night elves got to make up for the loss of Teldrassil (which only happened two expansions ago) and the way the worgen get Gilenas back after more than thirteen years is pretty stark. Basically, Gilneas has just kind of been taken over by the Scarlet Crusade somewhat randomly - so <i>they</i> could kick the Forsaken out, but we couldn't? Yet in turn the Scarlets are really easy to defeat as well, and it's basically all over before you've killed fifty mobs. And while Bel'ameth is clearly being built up to become a proper city with portals etc., the reclaimed Gilneas is just big and empty except for an innkeeper and a repair guy. A bit of a letdown, comparatively.</p><p>Story-wise, I thought it was kind of funny that my husband commented while we were doing this together that we'd never really seen much of Tess Greymane outside of worgen-specific quests, and then the cut scene had her telling Genn that while it's understandable that he's still mourning Liam and wanted to take Anduin under his wing, <i>he does also have a daughter, you know</i>... burn!</p><p>Also, is it me or did they change Genn's voice actor? I saw others bring this question up online but couldn't find confirmation either way. He definitely sounds <i>very</i> different at least.<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrhnKTy_JGkHI98n-n4Fh_CtZiOV-BMIWgu8YM6p4TDLBRkf0bRp-_Ue00TvPG_fefnTudSMmeU2uWmrRGC_mmQ-IARizfb28ABcGskMQVwIKRl8-9UwOurocIRdmQC0VjQhkvqcUiBI2tnnuqi5OsQH10wb2yLH1KVYLOTsKe-n-lX5B8hA00o0KBWweu/s1920/Genn%20and%20Tess%20Greymane%20after%20the%20liberation%20of%20Gilneas.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrhnKTy_JGkHI98n-n4Fh_CtZiOV-BMIWgu8YM6p4TDLBRkf0bRp-_Ue00TvPG_fefnTudSMmeU2uWmrRGC_mmQ-IARizfb28ABcGskMQVwIKRl8-9UwOurocIRdmQC0VjQhkvqcUiBI2tnnuqi5OsQH10wb2yLH1KVYLOTsKe-n-lX5B8hA00o0KBWweu/w400-h225/Genn%20and%20Tess%20Greymane%20after%20the%20liberation%20of%20Gilneas.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>Finally, this was also the patch that introduced follower dungeons, something I mentioned only briefly in <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2024/01/why-is-retail-dungeon-experience-so.html">my post about retail dungeoneering</a> the other day. I've given at least one of them a try since then, which resulted in my husband getting regaled with a lot of live commentary mixed with delightful squealing and giggling. Honestly, I'd take these NPCs over a pug of real people any day. They're so polite, even waiting for me when I want to hang back to skin. The devs apparently tried to give some of them little quirks too, as I noticed that the resto druid NPC was bouncing around like a maniac throughout my entire run. That and the AI is just generally pretty good - I think I even saw Captain Garrick do a corner pull or two? Though she's not perfect, mind you, as was evidenced by her going off to day-dream during the last boss fight, just kind of standing around for a bit doing nothing while I tanked the boss as dps, until being hit by an AoE effect seemed to spur her back into action. Either way, I can highly recommend this mode. It doesn't give a ton of XP, but for pretty much every other purpose - seeing the dungeon, doing quests, getting loot - it seems far superior to doing normal dungeons with random people. And that's coming from me as someone who's not generally averse to pugs, but as I said previously, the normal dungeon experience in WoW is just too unattractive at this point.<br /></p>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-61164415072726606772024-02-02T22:28:00.004+00:002024-02-02T22:36:22.495+00:00Season of Discovery Phase 2 Preview<p>Season of Discovery's phase two is less than a week away, and Blizzard decided that in spite of the discovery aspect being key to the concept, they didn't want us to go in <i>completely</i> blind. <a href="https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com/en-us/news/24056979/go-inside-season-of-discovery-phase-2">A recent news post on the WoW website goes into quite a bit of detail about what to expect</a>. I won't go into all of it on here, but I did want to highlight a few items that I found interesting.</p><p>The <b>Gnomeregan raid</b> has been confirmed to come with six bosses, which aligns with the number present in the regular dungeon, which means that <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2024/01/so-hows-bfd-raid-in-season-of-discovery.html">unlike in BFD</a>, nobody got eaten I guess. The news post shows some of the new items to look forward to, but the only one that really stood out to me was the <a href="https://www.wowhead.com/classic/item=210741/automatic-crowd-pummeler"><i>Automatic</i> Crowd Pummeler</a>. The <a href="https://www.wowhead.com/classic/item=9449/manual-crowd-pummeler"><i>Manual</i> Crowd Pummeler</a> from the regular Gnomer dungeon is a mace with three charges of an on-use effect, which due to the janky nature of Vanilla's design, is actually the best max-level weapon for feral druids - until the charges are depleted that is, at which point it's time to vendor it and grab another. This means that competitive feral druids need to spend a lot of time farming the Gnomer dungeon, which is... bizarre. The new item has a cooldown but unlimited charges, which should get rid of that meta - though it does make me wonder whether it'll still be the best weapon for ferals at sixty in SoD too.<br /></p><p>There will be some <b>new runes</b>, though as far as I'm aware it hasn't been revealed how many there will be per class. I was surprised to find that I'm kind of hoping it's not twelve again. Finding new runes is fun when you just start out, but because of how powerful they are, it turns into an exercise in "needing" to acquire them all pretty quickly.</p><p>Runes aside, they'll also be introducing some <b>quality of life spells via new spell books dropped from dungeons</b>, such as giving rogues the ability to move combo points and enabling shamans to move their totems. I find it quite interesting how the Classic devs are trying to square the circle in SoD by keeping a certain degree of inconvenience (which was simply part of Vanilla) while also attempting to introduce some quality of life changes without making things <i>too</i> easy and smooth. It's interesting to watch.</p><p>They also revealed more details about the <b>new Stranglethorn PvP event</b>, which will apparently turn the zone into a free-for-all once every three hours (though there is also a way to opt out). Grouping is allowed, but converting to raid will apparently be punished in some way. I'll fully admit that I'm less interested in a PvP event that requires actual PvP in a vanilla setting - then again, the free-for-all nature should make it less one-sided on PvE servers than <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-battle-for-ashenvale-as-horde-on-pve.html">the Ashenvale event has been</a>. I don't know, I might try it once just to see what it's all about, but I tend to quickly get tired of getting killed in open world PvP.</p><p>As an aside, they'll also change the <b>Battle for Ashenvale</b> to simply occur once every three hours to make it more predictable. I guess that'll make it easier to join in, though there was definitely something very vanilla-like about not knowing when the fight was about to happen unless you were already in the zone or got intel from someone else who was.</p><p>In a move that took many by surprise, the news post also announced that they'll be <b>disallowing GDKP runs</b> from phase two onwards - I wonder if they have enough GMs to deal with the whack-a-mole of ban-hammering that's likely to require. I don't have strong feelings on the matter as I've been lucky to always play on servers where GDKPs are not a thing - I just always hear the horror stories about how ubiquitous they're supposed to be on PvP servers ruled by gold buyers. I suppose it's at least going to be fun to watch the various types of drama that are bound to arise from this.</p><p>The news post finished with a paragraph titled "It is Not too Late to Join in Season of Discovery" - presumably a play on the meme of people asking "Is it too late to play [game]/[patch]" five minutes after it's launched. It notes that with the arrival of phase two, they'll <b>increase XP payouts</b> from the BFD raid and from waylaid supplies, and there'll be a general 50% XP buff up to level 25. I'm definitely glad about the buff to BFD experience, as I'd like to see it stay relevant while levelling, but I'm a little more conflicted about the general XP buff. I guess it's one way to battle the FOMO inherent in joining a temporary server like this, but at the same time, SoD is kind of meant to be <i>about</i> levelling, so it still feels a bit odd at the same time.</p><p>In spite of all these exciting news, I'm still not too hyped about phase two myself. Things haven't been working out too great for my era guild's little off-shoot on SoD. Basically people tended to fall into one of two categories: either they casually levelled a character just to see what the runes were all about and then decided they didn't care too much about the BFD raid, or they went all-in and farmed BFD with five alts every lockout. There are much fewer of the latter than of the former, so the ones still interested have increasingly had to look elsewhere to fill their runs and in-guild activity has kind of died down. So I'm not too optimistic that I'll actually get to experience the new content in a guild setting, and while there are pugs aplenty, wading into the giant pool of anonymity that is a mega-server holds a lot less appeal to me, even if I'm curious about the new gameplay.<br /></p>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-91769439983014650012024-01-28T16:21:00.004+00:002024-01-29T08:45:42.912+00:00Why Is the Retail Dungeon Experience so Terrible?<p>I think you can tell from the way that I've been talking about retail WoW for the past few years that I'm actually feeling pretty positive about it nowadays. It's not my <i>favourite</i> MMO, but there are enough things for me to like about it.</p><p>With that said, I hope it's clear that I'm not blindly hating on retail when I say: For all the things it does well, it amazes me how utterly horrible retail's casual dungeon experience is nowadays. (I'm specifically singling out the easier difficulties here because regardless of what you or I think of Mythic+, I think we can all agree that it operates on a different level from regular dungeons at this point, with very different incentives and goals.)</p><p><b>What do I think makes for a <i>good</i> dungeon experience?</b> Well, presumably not everyone will agree with my definition, but personally I'd break it down into four major points:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Exploration: Interesting/unusual environments, mechanics and monsters.</li><li>Gameplay: Taking on tougher enemies than you would usually be able to in the open world. Getting to play with other people and experiencing synergetic group play that allows you to use abilities and skills you don't necessarily get to use in the same way while soloing.</li><li>Rewards: Quests that give you some nice one-time rewards. Bosses that drop loot that's better than what you'd get from a solo mission. Increased XP gains from taking on tougher enemies as a group.</li><li>Socialising: Meeting new people and having a good time hanging out together.</li></ul><p>But yes, I know modern WoW players don't like to stand around and admire the scenery, or to chat while using the dungeon finder. So we're just going to ignore the first and last point. I'll be content if I can tick the gameplay and rewards boxes as described. That's not too much to ask, is it?</p><p>Well, in modern WoW it apparently is, because your gameplay will be jogging after a tank who just runs like hell while spamming AoE abilities (with you occasionally being able to hit a dps button if you manage to stay in range long enough) and your reward is going to be the dungeon completion XP at the end. You want to do quests? Kill bosses? Puh-lease.<br /></p><p>I honestly thought I'd come to accept the ways of retail dungeons by now and that I'd lowered my expectations enough to not be disappointed by every pug, but every time the game lures me into queueing for a random normal or heroic dungeon with some new incentive, I encounter new ways to be let down by the experience.</p><p>For example, while levelling some of my low-level alts through different expansions, I'd pick up quests that asked me to do a specific dungeon and then queue for that. My expectation was pretty much nothing but a quick run of the place, but I still managed to be surprised when it turned out to be a quick run of <i>avoiding</i> most of the dungeon. I know people always hated out-of-the-way bonus bosses and all that, but nowadays literally everything possible gets skipped, even bosses that are right on the main road so to speak. I didn't even <i>know</i> that you could totally ignore the second and third bosses in Underrot and Freehold for example. Now I know, and it meant I got minimal loot and experience out of those dungeons.</p><p>As for the matter of quests, I have a new favourite story illustrating the utter absurdity that is going on right now. It happened to me during Wrath of the Lich King timewalking the other week. I got into an Utgarde Keep on an alt that had never done it before, so I made sure to pick up all the quests at the entrance and off we went. Knowing well that people were impatient, I mounted up and raced back to the quest NPC the moment Ingvar died, but someone immediately initiated a role check to queue for another dungeon. I didn't respond because I just wanted those thirty seconds to hand in my quests. Next thing I knew, I'd been wordlessly kicked from the party, and the timer to get ported out was apparently shortened to only ten seconds or so, so I was booted back to Valdrakken before I could actually reach the NPC. Yes, I got kicked from the group <i>after the dungeon had been completed</i>, because taking thirty seconds to hand in my quest was considered an unacceptable delay. I then had to manually travel back to Northrend and inside Utgarde Keep to hand in, which probably took longer than the entire dungeon run had taken.</p><p>And I'm not attributing that to "people being toxic" or anything like that - okay, I think the kick in that story was kind of mean, but more generally, WoW's design decisions kind of push people into this kind of behaviour. Why would long-time players levelling their 50th alt care about killing bosses for loot drops when they are fully kitted out in heirlooms? Dungeon quests are basically not a thing at max level nowadays (you literally can't get quest credit in M+ dungeons for example), why would anyone think of their group mates having quests to do in a random timewalking dungeon?</p><p>More importantly though, I think there are <b>two major problems</b> with WoW's dungeon system while levelling and playing casually, and these are things I've seen occur in other MMOs as well, to similar results:</p><p><b>1. The game allows characters, especially tanks, to become way too powerful relative to the content</b>, to the point where they can <i>easily</i> solo the dungeon with zero regard for the rest of the group. The group gameplay falls apart at this stage because there isn't really any, all you have is the tank dragging a mob train along with them while sprinting to the end, possibly annoyed by the dps and healers slowing them down. You can't have rewarding group gameplay when players are made to feel like they are just a nuisance to each other.<br /></p><p><b>2. The incentives for random dungeon completion are way out of whack compared to anything else.</b> If you're levelling, the XP bonus for doing a random dungeon will be bigger than everything you get for actually doing inside the dungeon (kills, bosses, quests etc.) put together. At max-level, the problem persists when you have timewalking weeks where you get rewarded with heroic raid-level gear for getting completion credit for five dungeons, never mind what you actually did inside those dungeons. It's all in reaching the end as fast as possible and at all costs, with little to no reward for the actual process (and since the gameplay is shite as per point one, there's no incentive in prolonging the process "for fun" either).</p><p>What you're left with is with a dungeon experience that doesn't reward anyone but those who don't actually care about grouping or gameplay and who just enjoy using the XP hose to level their alts. If you mention this anywhere on a forum or social media, people will come back with comments like "but that's just how it is" or "who cares anyway, the real game is M+", discarding the interests of new, returning and more casual players alike.</p><p>It just baffles me that as someone who used to adore running dungeons when I first got into WoW, and who still enjoys this sort of group content in Classic and SWTOR, I find modern WoW dungeons pretty unbearable when not running with a group of friends. I'll still get lured in every now and then for the sake of the extremely overpowered rewards Blizzard likes to hand out, but every time I am reminded of just how <i>not fun</i> it is nowadays.</p><p>This topic has been sitting in my drafts for a while, but the reason I wanted to actually finish and publish it this week is that the latest patch brought in a feature called <b>follower dungeons</b>, which allows you to run Dragonflight levelling dungeons with a group of NPCs instead of pugs. I haven't tried it yet, but I've seen enough reporting about it to know that it's <i>nothing</i> like running with actual people in the modern game. The NPCs adjust to your pace and the tanking one will even tell you that they're waiting for you to get some mana back if you go OOM. Basically, they're more like dungeons used to be.<br /></p><p>I think this is a net positive for the game and will be welcomed by many, but at the same time I can't help but see it as a tacit admission by Blizzard of what an utter mess they've allowed normal and heroic dungeons to become, a system that is actively hostile to anyone not deeply invested in what little benefit it still provides. Giving everyone but the speed-runners a new mode where they can have a chiller experience does help, but it also kind of looks like regular dungeons are basically being abandoned to being nothing but an XP hose for power levellers. I do wonder whether increased segregation of the player base is really the best long-term answer here.<br /></p>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-24792705165808071232024-01-22T22:00:00.002+00:002024-01-22T23:06:23.097+00:00Alts in Season of Discovery<p>While <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2024/01/sod-phase-2-to-launch-february-8.html">I'm not keen on seeing SoD's first phase come to an end</a>, at least my priest feels like she's in a decent enough position for the next one. I've only run <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2024/01/so-hows-bfd-raid-in-season-of-discovery.html">BFD</a> and taken part in the <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-battle-for-ashenvale-as-horde-on-pve.html">Battle for Ashenvale</a> a few times, but at least I had a chance to see how both work and also got a few pieces of loot in the process. I've maxed out all her professions bar needing a few more skill points in first aid and fishing, and I've collected eleven out of the twelve priest runes (after consulting guides on how to find the ones I was missing). The only one I don't have is the one that requires you to grind a bunch of stuff for the goblin in Ratchet, which I just couldn't be bothered with, especially since it's not granting a spell that's important to me. Maybe I'll get back to that in a later phase when it'll be easier to do.</p><p>My main goal before the arrival of the new phase though is to simply do a few more quests. Since I ran so many dungeons while levelling up, I skipped a whole lot of them on the way, and especially the lower-level ones aren't going to be particularly useful to me once the level cap goes up. It seems like a much better deal to run them for cash rewards right now, in preparation for buying my mount at level 40, plus to cover other expenses. It's never been this easy to make money at level 25 and I want to make the most of that while it lasts.</p><p><b>Hunter</b></p><p>In the meantime, I've also been working on some alts though, mainly to see what their "deal" is in Season of Discovery. Hunters are supposedly extremely overpowered, and they may well be in raids and PvP, but while out questing I haven't really noticed much of a difference to "normal" vanilla hunter levelling. The most unusual thing to me has been being able to use explosive shot in dungeons to do some AoE damage.</p><p>However, mostly I've been questing in the Barrens since she's a skinner/leatherworker, and you can pretty much step out of the Crossroads at any time of day in any direction and find a pile of dead animals to skin. She's currently level 20 after just having finished her business in Wailing Caverns, and I'm hoping that I'll be able to get her to 25 and somewhat "capped out" before the level cap increases, but I'm not necessarily counting on that.<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Kv2NnkYIuNQFXABEuo2580aK8nGj7TgzoGmVm5VubxQl6DS9tTvjEFgK-J7YE3rPuz7jZ7v_NM0Uzoe90bfN_FW6ncQ8k34llaPs8PKft4rqdJsOZS2UxhDsTmkJ9_yGPZPN92xwk_E4UofUZTAFHygMz_QVdLeGDaMhcjuMRuuG8CswEkABASRzKtD4/s1015/Shintroll%20about%20to%20tame%20Raluk.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1015" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Kv2NnkYIuNQFXABEuo2580aK8nGj7TgzoGmVm5VubxQl6DS9tTvjEFgK-J7YE3rPuz7jZ7v_NM0Uzoe90bfN_FW6ncQ8k34llaPs8PKft4rqdJsOZS2UxhDsTmkJ9_yGPZPN92xwk_E4UofUZTAFHygMz_QVdLeGDaMhcjuMRuuG8CswEkABASRzKtD4/w400-h228/Shintroll%20about%20to%20tame%20Raluk.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Interestingly, hunters don't seem to have a special mechanic tied to their runes the way some (most?) other classes do; they just kind of find them out in the world from mob drops and by completing little puzzles. I guess that meshes well with the hunter/tracker archetype. I've got to admit that I was pretty chuffed when I figured out how to earn a rune for helping out the snake charmer in Razor Hill all by myself. My current pet is Raluk the white tiger, a SoD-exclusive that I also (partially) managed to find by myself. There does seem to be a pattern though with all the classes I've tried so far, which is to say that you find three to five runes easily and then it just stops because you have to go deep into enemy territory or otherwise do something in a very specific location to get more.<p></p><p><b>Mage</b></p><p>My undead mage is my tailor/enchanter - for whatever that's worth with her being only level 12 and still in Tirisfal Glades. So far the mage runes haven't particularly impressed me, and like with the hunter I'm largely playing as I would in a normal vanilla environment.</p><p>Mages have an interesting mechanic in the form of those garbled scrolls you may have come across in the world and which require a special new reagent to decipher. I felt a bit cheated though when one gave me a new rune, but the next one just gave me one of those low-level stat scrolls which was worth less than the cost of the reagent I'd spent on it. Not sure that's very fun.</p><p><b>Shaman</b></p><p>Finally, I have an orc shaman who's level 10. Their special class mechanic is that they loot green totems that you have to equip in the relic slot and for which you then have to perform a special task to learn a rune from them, such as taking nature damage ten times. This took me a little while to understand, as I initially didn't realise that I had to equip the thing to make it start counting.</p><p>Like with hunter and mage, I haven't been too impressed with the starter runes I've discovered. The first one you get, which buffs your lightning bolt, is certainly useful, but levelling as elemental was always my least favourite way to play shaman, and the buffed lightning bolt makes it feel like I need to prioritise using it even when I don't like it that much. Hopefully I'll eventually find a rune or two that fit my play style more. I really feel like I lucked out with the priest and having loved all the early runes I got.<br /></p>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-14262073864492862502024-01-14T00:23:00.001+00:002024-01-14T00:24:05.832+00:00SoD Phase 2 To Launch February 8<p>I already mentioned this in <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2024/01/so-hows-bfd-raid-in-season-of-discovery.html">my last post</a>, but I did want to go into a bit more detail about it. In the "<a href="https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com/en-gb/news/24053283/this-week-in-wow-8-january-2024">This Week in WoW</a>" news post from last Monday, Blizzard announced the date on which Season of Discovery is meant to progress into its second phase as a bullet point - pretty low-key if you ask me.</p><p>The three important things to know about the next phase are:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The new level cap will be 40.</li><li>The new dungeon-turned-raid will be Gnomeregan.</li><li>The new PvP event will take place in Stranglethorn.</li></ul><p>The last point isn't officially mentioned in the text, however the article's header art features a human in front of a red-tinted Stranglethorn backdrop, and the same image was also used in the <a href="https://twitter.com/Warcraft/status/1744479407002026362">Twitter announcement</a>. Aggrend also replied to a curious poster who asked whether this was going to be similar to the Ashenvale event by saying that it was going to be "<a href="https://twitter.com/AggrendWoW/status/1744485068083744793">completely different</a>".</p><p>A guildie linked a YouTube video that was talking about this announcement and which had a dedicated segment about how seemingly everyone thinks that this makes phase one way too long, and I'm glad that the most upvoted reply in its comment section basically disagreed with that sentiment, because my own feeling upon hearing about the upcoming release was: <i>what, already?</i></p><p>I'm not blaming Blizzard; I'm sure straddling the line between keeping the no-lifers happy while also making the casuals feel included is not easy. In a way it's funny to me that I'm effectively a casual in this context, considering that I'm heavily invested in MMOs as a hobby in general. It's just that by playing more than one, and by not making Season of Discovery in specific my priority, I'm casual within that ecosystem. Many of my guildies are up to rotating four or five different characters through BFD every week, while I still only have my priest at the level cap.</p><p>And that's why I'm a bit disappointed to hear about phase two already. I've created some alts of my own to check out how other classes play with the SoD changes, but I'm not sure I'll get another one into the raid before the new phase releases. I've enjoyed having everyone be confined to the low levels together, and this is basically a stark reminder that we're getting back to the usual FOMO soon: <i>the next phase is coming - quickly, enjoy the content before it's abandoned!</i></p><p>I mean, BFD drops some great loot, so maybe people will still run it occasionally while levelling up, but it won't be the same. I'm also not sure I have it in me to get super excited about the next phase right now to be honest. I love BFD and was excited to see that turned into a raid, but I'm not nearly as hyped about Gnomer, plus 25-40 is an infamously tedious levelling stretch. Considering how much slower I was to level even my one character to 25 compared to my guildies, every time the level cap goes up, it will get even harder to keep up. It's kind of a reminder that while I've been charmed by Season of Discovery's novelty, this kind of thing doesn't really mesh too well with the way I play WoW nowadays, and there was a reason I returned to era in the first place.<br /></p>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-5540983771013884552024-01-10T21:05:00.002+00:002024-01-10T21:10:04.002+00:00So, How's the BFD Raid in Season of Discovery?<p>Blackfathom Deeps is one of my favourite vanilla dungeons, and one in which I've had many interesting and hilarious adventures. You can read about at least some of them in old posts on here if you check the <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/search/label/blackfathom%20deeps">Blackfathom Deeps tag</a>.</p><p>Naturally, I was both excited and curious to see what Blizzard would do to it in the process of turning it into a raid for Season of Discovery. And I can say right away that I think they did a good job. Obviously they re-tuned things and added a whole bunch of new boss mechanics, but the general look and feel of the place was largely left intact. They just moved some named mobs around to improve the pacing. <br /></p><p>Baron Aquanis for example has become the first boss of the raid for everyone instead of being an underwater summon for Horde only and located later in the instance. In fact, his fight takes place in the room with the stone platforms you have to jump across <i>and</i> you need to jump back and forth on them <i>during the boss fight</i>. It honestly blew my mind the first time I saw that.</p><p>I don't think Blizzard made any changes to those platforms either; players are just so much better at the game nowadays that you can expect them to just make that jump easily. However, I still remember wasting <i>so</i> much time in that room back in the day, just trying to get everyone across and people falling into the water over and over again.</p><p>Anyway, the second boss is a gigantic Ghamoo-ra, which immediately made me wonder what he'd eaten to get so big now. It was only later that I realised that he does indeed appear to have eaten one of the other dungeon bosses, <a href="https://www.wowhead.com/classic/npc=4830/old-serrakis">Old Serra'kis</a>, who does not feature in the raid except as a half-eaten carcass on Ghamoo-ra's little island. Turtle boy also drops variants of Serra'kis old loot table, so yeah... I thought that was a funny little detail.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-tym6FxbLSUycjx-YzkAdUMB5F231Dd9oNwbltNlLNYAxy-kvpIt-e61JnxxfDTdkIT1iNONaAN346Bj8YobLFYQCSNItlsDGdPHU14NdJfTx7l7bcZV6SOX4_RPqnkityWxkW-yauEe5VirJ_oU_fk8wpQfXx3QAtGpE7j2M7x5mEmgUiPUVeaSqJRW1/s1920/Dead%20Ghamoo-ra%20in%20BFD%20raid.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-tym6FxbLSUycjx-YzkAdUMB5F231Dd9oNwbltNlLNYAxy-kvpIt-e61JnxxfDTdkIT1iNONaAN346Bj8YobLFYQCSNItlsDGdPHU14NdJfTx7l7bcZV6SOX4_RPqnkityWxkW-yauEe5VirJ_oU_fk8wpQfXx3QAtGpE7j2M7x5mEmgUiPUVeaSqJRW1/w400-h225/Dead%20Ghamoo-ra%20in%20BFD%20raid.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>Lady Sarevess is still fairly unremarkable, while Gelihast puts a new spin on the problem of "too many murlocs", with several phases of indestructible "shadow murlocs" ambling across the room that you need to dodge or take damage from.</p><p>Lorgus Jett gets to enjoy being upgraded from a quest mob for Horde only to a proper boss (and also appears to be a human shaman?!), while Twilight Lord Kelris has become known as the pug killer. My guild struggled with him too, though I didn't get to see any of that for myself since they had him on farm by the time I hit level 25 on my priest.</p><p>On my first run I asked for explanations and was told that as a healer I basically just had to stack up for most of the fight and drink a <a href="https://www.wowhead.com/classic/item=5634/free-action-potion">Free Action Potion</a> when he enraged (I had been prepared for this). As such, my first time went super smooth, though on a subsequent visit I messed up by drinking a mana potion and putting my FAP on cooldown, causing me to die near the end, but the rest of the group still came through somehow. I wonder if I should look up what's <i>actually</i> supposed to happen in that phase...<br /></p><p>Finally, Aku'mai has had some pizazz added to his poison attacks, but feels almost easy after Kelris.</p><p>He also drops <a href="https://www.wowhead.com/classic/item=211452/perfect-blackfathom-pearl">an item</a> that you can hand in for a piece of gear in Thunder Bluff and that also triggers a new world buff unique to Season of Discovery, called <a href="https://www.wowhead.com/classic/spell=430947/boon-of-blackfathom">Boon of Blackfathom</a> (I think for Alliance the hand-in is in Darnassus). This was pretty cleverly done, as it gives people a reason to hang out in what's usually the faction's least favourite capital in Classic (though I've always loved both Thunder Bluff and Darnassus personally).</p><p>Because there are <i>so</i> many people running the raid, said world buff is also popping almost non-stop, and it's not a bad idea for a levelling character to hang out in town for a bit just to get buffed up for your next session of questing, not least because the boon increases your run speed by 20%.</p><p>It's honestly comical just how many times you'll hear Bashana Runetotem do the yell starting with "Denizens of Kalimdor" during a short session of running errands in town. I always imagine this message being delivered in the same style as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC4Tc7qYmmM">Rhonin's "Citizens of Dalaran!"</a> from Wrath - which makes me glad that there isn't an actual sound cue for it, as otherwise the city would be awash with it non-stop.</p><p>Even without the buff, the spoils from BFD are pretty amazing in general, at least for casters. I don't know if it feels quite as good for melee, since they already had some pretty sweet loot available at various points in the levelling journey in Vanilla. However, for casters their best stat (+spell damage/healing) was practically non-existent outside of endgame, so my level 25 priest having about +50 to damage and healing after two trips to the raid feels absolutely insane. <br /></p><p>So do I like the BFD raid? Hell yeah. I hope I'll get to run it a few more times before phase two drops, which <a href="https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com/en-us/news/24053283/this-week-in-wow-january-8-2024">we now know</a> to be in less than a month. The only thing that kind of gave me pause about it is the difficulty. It's not <i>hard</i> exactly, but... compared to actual vanilla raids, it's closer to Naxx than to any of the others in terms of mechanics, which is weird. Obviously a ten-person group is much easier to organise than a forty-man, and there doesn't seem to be a hard gear barrier to cross, but in terms of how much is going on, this is no Molten Core.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQiGUAtFT7Us58X3BFlr5K63pRk1aZho2pofAn-OLx5ek4nppgQTF2oFfVmZzD6zN6tIUkKS9V21klttDl0vGev5YldP0BHAzmdoTFg5jW54DuoAV-tbW0KeWFmrKNkFnIwyN7NTOvljj2x2D5yGLt7xfJDdZwVKSrnXG2wVXTx8KReBQvotbAo-7-9aTp/s1920/Shadow%20murlocs%20at%20Gelihast%20in%20BFD%20raid.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQiGUAtFT7Us58X3BFlr5K63pRk1aZho2pofAn-OLx5ek4nppgQTF2oFfVmZzD6zN6tIUkKS9V21klttDl0vGev5YldP0BHAzmdoTFg5jW54DuoAV-tbW0KeWFmrKNkFnIwyN7NTOvljj2x2D5yGLt7xfJDdZwVKSrnXG2wVXTx8KReBQvotbAo-7-9aTp/w400-h225/Shadow%20murlocs%20at%20Gelihast%20in%20BFD%20raid.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>I guess that's a good thing, since the modern Classic player base expects more from raids nowadays, but it also makes me a little worried about what the raids in the next phases will be like. I mean, those shadow murlocs on Gelihast were <i>borderline</i> stressing me out already... I feel so old.<br /></p>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-8864305623310745882024-01-07T10:48:00.002+00:002024-01-07T10:55:06.439+00:00The Battle for Ashenvale (as Horde on PvE)<p>I've had a few weeks to casually check out the current endgame in Season of Discovery at this point. One of the major endgame activities is the Battle for Ashenvale PvP event. I'm not a fan of PvP in Classic in general, but I figured this was going to be more like Alterac Valley, something with a heavy PvE focus, so I thought I'd check it out.</p><p>I also quite wanted the wolf mount that you can earn access to. It's 10% slower than a normal mount, only works in Ashenvale and offers no dismount protection whatsoever (so it disappears instantly the moment you take damage from any source), but it looks cool and Ashenvale is big. As a priest with no class abilities to boost my travelling speed, having a way to speed up my journeys from one end of the zone to the other was definitely attractive.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmi0TfO9f-DPv2zMFpBrI7A1IhYeLR_Exgy2jOm2aOyi-hyQcT2y7hN-Zt1YuNBgTMmSmHV8Qn8283HbxjqTdwpJh138IJwdJddqvcS4uL06dqJrs5FILy1MdnSnzzf2giC0gvtvBadVjFHMjQc_dnvS9jd90hGJtwMYjK69n1V8DxMAywVzna1EVGJU4e/s1247/Shintar%20riding%20her%20wolf%20through%20Ashenvale.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="760" data-original-width="1247" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmi0TfO9f-DPv2zMFpBrI7A1IhYeLR_Exgy2jOm2aOyi-hyQcT2y7hN-Zt1YuNBgTMmSmHV8Qn8283HbxjqTdwpJh138IJwdJddqvcS4uL06dqJrs5FILy1MdnSnzzf2giC0gvtvBadVjFHMjQc_dnvS9jd90hGJtwMYjK69n1V8DxMAywVzna1EVGJU4e/w400-h244/Shintar%20riding%20her%20wolf%20through%20Ashenvale.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>The general gist of the PvP event is easy enough to figure out, though I did check out the <a href="https://www.wowhead.com/classic/guide/season-of-discovery/battle-for-ashenvale-world-pvp-event">Wowhead guide</a> after my first time to get clarification on a few points. Basically, there's a percentage counter for both factions at the top of the screen that goes up as people kill mobs and other players. Once it hits 100% for both factions, the battle starts and some special mobs spawn. Each faction gets three lieutenants across the map as well as a general. The latter is immune to damage until the former have been killed, similar to the way the turrets/bunkers add protection for the generals in AV, except there is no way to bypass them. Each of these opponents has raid boss levels of health and takes a while to die even with a full raid of forty players.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghH544RNUoTtN_sLzh6OKvRzfUKnz9ZN5REJXjYVCCNED_ndLIAmm5HfVtUSdJdLhYCVS7E8kTaTkSBqtkTDt26Ax9ymR-OmspIXbF6APHWIMPj2-n3sRDLhDpZLoDPRoFijsgdh4ptrzFZd23SQzYq23KIPruBPpwX6qiFjsemY-6n3bhtZCt1_EwgTVu/s226/Battle%20for%20Ashenvale%20progress%20counter.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="105" data-original-width="226" height="105" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghH544RNUoTtN_sLzh6OKvRzfUKnz9ZN5REJXjYVCCNED_ndLIAmm5HfVtUSdJdLhYCVS7E8kTaTkSBqtkTDt26Ax9ymR-OmspIXbF6APHWIMPj2-n3sRDLhDpZLoDPRoFijsgdh4ptrzFZd23SQzYq23KIPruBPpwX6qiFjsemY-6n3bhtZCt1_EwgTVu/s1600/Battle%20for%20Ashenvale%20progress%20counter.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>Because the objectives are spread out across the map and movement is slow (even with the mounts), realistically people have to split into multiple raids to get everything down in a timely manner and as an individual player, you won't get to see/tag each objective personally, though there are apparently people who try to do just that to maximise their rep gains.<p></p><p>Unfortunately, faction imbalance is a major problem on the PvE server, as Alliance traditionally outnumbers Horde 2:1, and... well, you can tell. On the PvP servers, Blizzard decided to enforce a degree of faction balancing in SoD by temporarily limiting character creation if one faction got too far ahead, but PvE has no such restrictions in place. Which is generally fair, but not so much in an open world PvP event like this.</p><p>Maybe the devs were hoping that it would sort itself out, since participation in anything PvP is obviously fully voluntary on a PvE server, and Horde has traditionally been more eager to jump into this kind of content than Alliance, however my personal experience at least hasn't really borne this out, as I've lost every single battle except for one. What usually happens is pretty much what you'd expect: Horde only gets one or two lieutenants down in the time the Alliance kills all three, so they get to the general first and win.</p><p>The one time I was in a raid that did achieve victory, it was pretty clear why: Most raids are formed at Splintertree Post, which puts them in relative vicinity of two of the three enemy lieutenants as well as the general. However, that leaves the third lieutenant on the other side of the map, beyond the Alliance town of Astranaar, which is a logistical problem.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7DJmVFl0dXYnQw1CdTki5MGq90Mw2yfquLMsscV9s8gjp9bwzrkBkHOS74ml2G5pB6t34Gtoga1NSOYyDiZxXa27N1N5Ra9da3oH5uJghgc-UbZEssvmWFR19jTj6ccyYHS6HZLIuFwJSDzYflcUrB8wIvG9js3qOytVuHcusJtw-QIulsxNlx820cFpn/s1920/Group%20PvP%20in%20Ashenvale.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7DJmVFl0dXYnQw1CdTki5MGq90Mw2yfquLMsscV9s8gjp9bwzrkBkHOS74ml2G5pB6t34Gtoga1NSOYyDiZxXa27N1N5Ra9da3oH5uJghgc-UbZEssvmWFR19jTj6ccyYHS6HZLIuFwJSDzYflcUrB8wIvG9js3qOytVuHcusJtw-QIulsxNlx820cFpn/w400-h225/Group%20PvP%20in%20Ashenvale.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>In the one battle I won, someone formed a strong second raid at Zoram Strand, which took down the lieutenant there and then pivoted to defend the nearby Horde lieutenant. We arrived just in time to prevent him from being killed and absolutely decimated the Alliance raid. This cost them enough time that the people at Splintertree could finish the job there before the Alliance could catch up again, even with their superior numbers. I guess the problem is that this winning strategy requires people to forfeit some personal rewards in favour of the greater good, since the people at Zoram will get less reputation than the ones at Splintertree that get all the other kills, and that's simply not popular.<br /><p></p><p>Even so, I'll admit it's an interesting little twist on open world PvP. We'll see what Blizzard come up with for the second phase.<br /></p>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-75462477984949962972024-01-04T16:42:00.001+00:002024-01-04T16:42:41.961+00:00Thoughts on the Level Squish and Chromie Time, Three Years Later<p>I wasn't planning for this to be my first topic on the blog in the new year, but <a href="https://tagn.wordpress.com/">Wilhelm</a> made an interesting post two days ago that I wanted to bounce off of. It's called "<a href="https://tagn.wordpress.com/2024/01/02/the-shadowlands-era-level-squish-was-a-bad-idea/">The Shadowlands era Level Squish was a Bad Idea</a>" and well... it's right there in the title what it's about. There are a couple of misconceptions in there, seemingly caused by Wilhelm not having played retail in a while himself, but his general point, that he thinks the level squish ultimately wasn't all that, is completely fair. I already responded in a comment, but I wanted to spin my thoughts into a full post here as well.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyNXh4abHexSgfoUnCWNkU6HE5PKN3z-ImzqFurCPUnfkXeR043EcsdIRpcDe_D4za0vesKr0yaO-Ew0Wf3MWGcVV2lmB6NBm5bbyuPHGKRoswnI6qzD2hRW00bZiw0Wo2B0iD0lAE4d2kAHxzMmQHtVv7QGwlfv4sNmH2H7ztY9cGlMHZE-hA9a7T7YmQ/s1436/Bluu%20in%20Hellfire%20with%20a%20Fel%20Reaver%20in%20the%20distance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="923" data-original-width="1436" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyNXh4abHexSgfoUnCWNkU6HE5PKN3z-ImzqFurCPUnfkXeR043EcsdIRpcDe_D4za0vesKr0yaO-Ew0Wf3MWGcVV2lmB6NBm5bbyuPHGKRoswnI6qzD2hRW00bZiw0Wo2B0iD0lAE4d2kAHxzMmQHtVv7QGwlfv4sNmH2H7ztY9cGlMHZE-hA9a7T7YmQ/w400-h258/Bluu%20in%20Hellfire%20with%20a%20Fel%20Reaver%20in%20the%20distance.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>Do I think that the Shadowlands level squish and the introduction of Chromie time were a success? Well, they made me <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2020/10/strange-new-retail-world.html">log back into retail for the first time in many years</a> back in 2020, and I've clearly <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2023/12/retail-wow-me-in-2023.html">had some fun with it since then</a>. Mission success on that front! But of course, it's not that simple.</p><p>From my point of view there were two main reasons for the level squish and the introduction of parallel levelling paths by Blizzard:</p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>The ever-increasing level cap was getting too daunting for new and returning players and they wanted to lower that number. Slashing the overall XP required to earn those levels only does so much after a while.</li><li>Narratively, the levelling experience was increasingly becoming a mess. With all those expansions stacked on top of each other, combined with the constantly decreasing XP requirements to out-level each expansion, players were getting whiplash from how quickly they were supposed to change tracks from one level to the next, and without ever getting a resolution to anything. The hope was that by just allowing people to level in a single expansion, that expansion would be able to present at least a <i>somewhat</i> coherent story.</li></ol><p>I think as far as point one goes, it was definitely a success in the short term at least - though with each new expansion once again adding another ten levels on top, one has to wonder whether the devs have any kind of long-term plan to avoid running into the exact same issue again in another few years.</p><p>The second point is... iffier. As it turns out, they lowered XP requirements so much, that you'll still hit the end of Chromie time before completing even the one expansion of your choice, but at least you have more options in terms of where and how you want to spend your time there. Also, even if the tuning had worked out in such a way that you actually completed<i> all</i> of your chosen expansion's zones before being shunted into the newest content, you still wouldn't really know the resolution to the story as that's usually contained in a raid.</p><p>Oh, and it turns out that WoW's expansions really weren't designed to be parallel levelling paths in terms of narrative. Anything from WoD onward (if not earlier) tends to start with a bombastic intro featuring NPCs you're supposed to know and that hail you as a hero of many campaigns, which doesn't really make any sense if you're only just fresh off Exile's Reach. I wouldn't say it's any <i>worse</i> than the old mess, but I'm not sure it's really any better either.</p><p>Also, one of the most baffling things about Chromie time to me, at the beginning, was the way it just ejected you the minute you hit the required level for the next expansion, with no consideration for what you might have been doing at the time (I talked a bit about that experience in <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2021/05/legion-years-later.html">this post</a>). I don't know how the devs ever thought that was a good way of handling things and I think they got a lot of complaints about it, so the experience has been somewhat smoothed out since then.</p><p>When I last encountered this situation myself, I actually got a quest from Chromie asking me to come back to the normal timeline a level <i>before</i> it would've kicked me out, to encourage you to voluntarily exit Chromie time beforehand. The husband has levelled an alt even more recently, and according to him you don't get kicked out at all anymore now, things just suddenly stop giving XP the moment you ding - which remains a little weird to me but still seems like an improvement.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6u6fgKS16YezP2uZCcfWqCw0y8FFBFMY8OYsDMI6rjbyzXl-GjLZRDHpiFgTtZUdIy2W9PbD3otxFdWlTYMogAvk0tQYU0ONMJycULhLvqPKdwU2zynS7I1NYtJUKPFX_72L9cK3xZeeuSLzPGg_H9WOw7mcZYHw5GgBrK8LrrDRCnXWW9610N05NbVAT/s1920/Chromie%20calling%20Mehg%20to%20the%20future.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6u6fgKS16YezP2uZCcfWqCw0y8FFBFMY8OYsDMI6rjbyzXl-GjLZRDHpiFgTtZUdIy2W9PbD3otxFdWlTYMogAvk0tQYU0ONMJycULhLvqPKdwU2zynS7I1NYtJUKPFX_72L9cK3xZeeuSLzPGg_H9WOw7mcZYHw5GgBrK8LrrDRCnXWW9610N05NbVAT/w400-h225/Chromie%20calling%20Mehg%20to%20the%20future.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>Still, I wish they would just open the whole thing up even more. Specifically, I'd like Chromie time to be open to all levels, including max-level, and it should just be one unified layer where everything scales to your level, instead of having separate ones for each expansion. Fun fact: if you queue for a random dungeon in Chromie time and don't get a group within five minutes, you'll get a pop-up saying "This search is taking a while. Expand your search to dungeons from other expansions?", to which the answer is pretty much always yes. Why not allow people to queue up and play that way to begin with?</p><p>You could argue that this won't help with new players' narrative confusion, but the way I see it, it could hardly make things any worse right now. At least they could continue to explore along whichever path interests them without arbitrarily being shunted off elsewhere at certain levels. (Plus, players being confused/overwhelmed by everything the game throws at them isn't limited to new players and old content anyway. I think it says a lot that <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/11zdhdn/trying_to_login_into_wow_after_you_havent_played/">this meme</a> was the most popular post in the wow subreddit last year according to the community's 2023 <a href="https://www.reddit.com/recap/wow/">recap</a>).</p><p>In general, I think the devs still need to work on granting their players more freedom and being less prescriptive. Obviously it's a game designer's job to impose rules, but they should aim to achieve this by organically leading the player down a path that is fun, not by boxing them in and threatening to smack their fingers every time they dare to stick their nose over the railing. I get that this must be challenging with the WoW community in particular, considering how min-max-focused it can be, meaning players will <i>absolutely</i> do stupid and un-fun things if they turn out to be unexpectedly efficient. But sometimes... people really just want to do something a bit different from the current prescribed path, and why not let them? If someone wanted to level to 70 purely by playing Legion content for example, instead of going through the Dragon Isles for the tenth time in a row, who would be harmed by letting them do that?</p><p>I suspect that internally there is a lot of baggage associated with WoW's old content. The devs currently do try to keep it functional at a minimum level but since it's considered deprecated and not really relevant, only the most egregious issues with it get addressed and even that without any kind of rush. I remember when the husband and I played through Legion for the first time, he got stuck on his class order hall campaign since it required him to get an item that had just been removed in a recent patch, but the quest hadn't been updated to take this into account yet. I think it took several months until he was able to continue that particular quest line. There are countless <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/18kj7iz/legacy_wow_must_seem_hella_confusing_to_people/">minor oddities</a> like that which just get ignored.</p><p>If they started more openly supporting the "legacy" content as something for people to still do at max level, it would probably take away time and resources from actually working on new and fun things (not just for us, but also for them!) and likely open up ten new cans of worms in terms of balance. If everything scaled to max level in terms of gameplay and basic rewards (I'm talking gold rewards and greens, you can keep the best stuff for the current expansion), you might suddenly be dealing with issues like demon hunters being OP in Wintergrasp, Mists of Pandaria dailies being too rewarding compared to the ones in the latest expansion, or WoD's garrisons unbalancing the economy (again). And who wants to deal with any of that?</p><p>Still, I'll keep dreaming. The WoW team has shown a lot of growth in Dragonflight, including a willingness to step away from old paradigms. And I honestly think that the <i>world</i> in WoW is still great. There are so many fun things to do that new players will never even know about. I'm not expecting the game to completely change its stripes and suddenly care more about levelling than about endgame... but there are a lot of improvements that could be made even so.<br /></p>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-75072937807065902752023-12-31T13:31:00.000+00:002023-12-31T13:31:23.731+00:00Classic WoW & Me in 2023<p>Alright, here it is: the by now traditional annual look at my Classic characters and what progress I made with them throughout the past year.</p><p>The first thing to note is that this was the first year of me playing Classic that didn't leave me in a <i>drastically</i> different place at the end of the year compared to where I was at the start of it. I was playing on Classic era at the start of 2023, and I'm still active there at the end of it, even if my activity levels have declined. That bit of stability has honestly been kind of nice, though it also makes me wonder what's in store for next year. I love Classic era for what it is and I do like my guild, but at this point, I also feel ready for something a bit different again. At the moment that's just manifesting in me playing a bit less and spending more time in retail or SWTOR, but let's just say I wouldn't be surprised if 2024 brought with it <i>some</i> kind of change to my play patterns again.<br /></p><p></p><p><b><i>Classic era - Horde</i></b><br /></p><p><b>Shika - Pyrewood Village</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJaKAAwn088zx8iYZRlNH2OD89UK0jfEP9VlB2Frn4TTaVWB_5jTZsJAQQil6uKHr7w_Ww6bkAkEtEiSuVDslaD5GJ2_UBA_cV5QQ8qVTUxKLvdtB5OOc3Qz90Dh-IFKpsgZVpipfJUn3QsjtxDzszMYGskxZkG_ZxKKZi1svbVA3SsQdEHYrZUQroA79H/s1156/Level%2060%20Shika%202023.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1156" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJaKAAwn088zx8iYZRlNH2OD89UK0jfEP9VlB2Frn4TTaVWB_5jTZsJAQQil6uKHr7w_Ww6bkAkEtEiSuVDslaD5GJ2_UBA_cV5QQ8qVTUxKLvdtB5OOc3Qz90Dh-IFKpsgZVpipfJUn3QsjtxDzszMYGskxZkG_ZxKKZi1svbVA3SsQdEHYrZUQroA79H/s320/Level%2060%20Shika%202023.png" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level 60 Hunter</li><li>+7 days played</li></ul><p>My hunter continued to see the most play, just living the endgame life for most of the year: farming materials and joining raids. I even got to spend some time in Naxx (as you can see from all the tier three gear she's sporting in this screenshot), something I hadn't really planned for initially. It just got too time-consuming/clashed with other things eventually.</p><p>Sadly, since I stopped raiding I've been feeling woefully unmotivated to play her, except to keep logging in and crafting/selling Gyrochromatoms and Mithril Casings on the auction house. Hey, <i>someone</i>'s gotta supply those levelling questers!<br /></p><p><b>Shilu - PV</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc_KnWWv6juHsiJCC4OE_4dy5o72k5nPk8966luHasDA9W-pa_QS2Q8bF96Ad3AEZUcs3Z5V9QdLDDgN1d4Hr-D5T7YZ5GATiJ8AiyJE5oOvUFaC0ntiLQ6Zu-PW5NynQ-NZktrugNBb3b_yxY_xbqx_TKmqcIjLhDh1xB04LPn40Z0P7Wmwj1xG_pFsz-/s1156/Level%2060%20Shilu%202023.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1156" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc_KnWWv6juHsiJCC4OE_4dy5o72k5nPk8966luHasDA9W-pa_QS2Q8bF96Ad3AEZUcs3Z5V9QdLDDgN1d4Hr-D5T7YZ5GATiJ8AiyJE5oOvUFaC0ntiLQ6Zu-PW5NynQ-NZktrugNBb3b_yxY_xbqx_TKmqcIjLhDh1xB04LPn40Z0P7Wmwj1xG_pFsz-/s320/Level%2060%20Shilu%202023.png" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level 60 Druid</li><li>+6 days, 8 hours played</li><li>+54 Fishing (maxed out)</li></ul><p>As my second most played character, my druid maxed out her fishing (with me adding another Stranglethorn fishing contest victory to my tally) and spent some time healing in the easier raids, mostly ZG. She actually hit exalted with Zandalar not too long ago.</p><p>She's still sporting her original feral/resto hybrid spec but I'm not sure I used it to tank even a single dungeon this year. I've just not felt <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-socialisers-lot.html">motivated</a> to do so.<br /></p><p><b>Shintau - PV</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZzczyKI8xn0FxMh1hGV_T_zy_qb6yPTntXGPWVTOONeGkXnEecWEZDEn3ORLxo3sj5Std2iZR1IpPbO8r75P1r7CN1GYsnRI_oYjF58c0Etr2g8yGXfO2OKDPJyVe_GrcOQOcHZdAHgJ_uhJ9L5x1PcAifU-QXA4W3FdMLHejjWknziC0LK_iOJHIc6vM/s1156/Level%2053%20Shintau.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1156" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZzczyKI8xn0FxMh1hGV_T_zy_qb6yPTntXGPWVTOONeGkXnEecWEZDEn3ORLxo3sj5Std2iZR1IpPbO8r75P1r7CN1GYsnRI_oYjF58c0Etr2g8yGXfO2OKDPJyVe_GrcOQOcHZdAHgJ_uhJ9L5x1PcAifU-QXA4W3FdMLHejjWknziC0LK_iOJHIc6vM/s320/Level%2053%20Shintau.png" width="320" /></a></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level 53 Shaman (+12)</li><li>+2 days, 21 hours played</li><li>+25 Skinning (maxed out), +33 (Tribal) Leatherworking, +37 Cooking (maxed out), +40 First Aid (maxed out), +18 Fishing (maxed out)<br /></li></ul><p>My first Classic character from back in 2019, I swear this gal is going to be the slowest levelled WoW character ever (in terms of real time passed). How is the still not 60 after all these years?! The current hump to get over is that I really want to do a Sunken Temple quest run, but... effort. I'll get there <i>one</i> day.<br /></p><p><b>Shinny - PV</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyc8YIFWtKDgH2fsoaIntY4c9nHqPwD2Qc2SJ1vlWMJckc-0AI-jVtiBQ4jPRH9qsId4sKcaFNlainylwQ7FUeYMKeufpapK8h6V513rBm5c4XrdTKn_Gb_iy4NiwIzIQRVeg2Kg97QBO__J6TdjrLppNZcwvJCi9EFYTkGnNpIJG8qaKDRFzGsmlIroYB/s1156/Level%2042%20Shinny.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1156" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyc8YIFWtKDgH2fsoaIntY4c9nHqPwD2Qc2SJ1vlWMJckc-0AI-jVtiBQ4jPRH9qsId4sKcaFNlainylwQ7FUeYMKeufpapK8h6V513rBm5c4XrdTKn_Gb_iy4NiwIzIQRVeg2Kg97QBO__J6TdjrLppNZcwvJCi9EFYTkGnNpIJG8qaKDRFzGsmlIroYB/s320/Level%2042%20Shinny.png" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level 44 Mage (+8)</li><li>+1 day, 3 hours played</li><li>+34 Tailoring, +22 Enchanting, +37 Cooking, +1 First Aid, +5 Fishing<br /></li></ul><p>Nothing too exciting to report here. I just made some progress through questing and running a couple of dungeons when the mood struck me. I also got my mount, woo! <br /></p><p><b>Fooba - Mirage Raceway<br /></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1MnLCNcHR8H5uRdg4MjlHQyI60dm-jdQ66Rbug42vN3Gaa3qK99IUvH3koI_ewC82CSe0AlUJTpxGO75vXqacre810FSNXnTTKPtNX_wmC8U42ffUo7CVqLt9TEWrTV3KFZYil-5Hq3Eomz15IEl8micZv2mNPNXSdrB6hOjlznKAiXedPAtrBSFz-I8y/s1156/Level%2026%20Fooba.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1156" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1MnLCNcHR8H5uRdg4MjlHQyI60dm-jdQ66Rbug42vN3Gaa3qK99IUvH3koI_ewC82CSe0AlUJTpxGO75vXqacre810FSNXnTTKPtNX_wmC8U42ffUo7CVqLt9TEWrTV3KFZYil-5Hq3Eomz15IEl8micZv2mNPNXSdrB6hOjlznKAiXedPAtrBSFz-I8y/s320/Level%2026%20Fooba.png" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level 26 Warrior (+10)</li><li>+19 hours played</li><li>+40 Mining, 124 Blacksmithing (changed from Skinning), no change in Cooking, +12 First Aid, +6 Fishing<br /></li></ul>I enjoyed levelling my food bank alt for a while, and even switched one of her primary professions from
skinning to blacksmithing. I also remember having a good time
fury-tanking Wailing Caverns and Shadowfang Keep. But then I just...
stopped.<p><b>Gemba - MR</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ6J-6h5Ot-shGLPxebNyRwy2XdFQgOmib9FQTK-iFW-ZEzLlLPQ_E-gIH7aayyh4Lw85ICFc7r_SUEhvmAA19U4-rwjWsA7RSPzoFKnsk6gELyUIeImWBXFWl0iaCURyWrQlOiFPrX6ZXEuNOP2hyy6SEjaOYTOl6uG2EupASC3kjh9YVMd2vuJxVDn2I/s1156/Level%2023%20Gemba.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1156" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ6J-6h5Ot-shGLPxebNyRwy2XdFQgOmib9FQTK-iFW-ZEzLlLPQ_E-gIH7aayyh4Lw85ICFc7r_SUEhvmAA19U4-rwjWsA7RSPzoFKnsk6gELyUIeImWBXFWl0iaCURyWrQlOiFPrX6ZXEuNOP2hyy6SEjaOYTOl6uG2EupASC3kjh9YVMd2vuJxVDn2I/s320/Level%2023%20Gemba.png" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level 23 Warlock (+4)</li><li>+12 hours played</li><li>+32 Herbalism, +56 Skinning, no change in Cooking, +15 First Aid, +46 Fishing</li></ul><p>My experience on my other bank alt was similar and I did play her a little, but not as much as I had planned. She still hasn't finished either of the quest chains for the succubus/incubus for example, even though I was keen to get to that a year ago.<br /></p><p><b>Tir - Nethergarde Keep</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8XpmiOFomMnHyszSE7uznRufHXrx59OEUfC-v9f_qMMqBIPQ5HTd1mwi42gyvNn4FGDIBfff7pORTjU58xANmsTlQZEoLHPj_eqCB03QwtAnpOxQtEboToHkUdwYg3RIBt_nFpxOwyyfVIEYUYekfKMYb6OvWZu8frS6R4iM5kZRqp10d0YD0Y3Vs6vcQ/s1156/Level%2014%20Tir.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1156" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8XpmiOFomMnHyszSE7uznRufHXrx59OEUfC-v9f_qMMqBIPQ5HTd1mwi42gyvNn4FGDIBfff7pORTjU58xANmsTlQZEoLHPj_eqCB03QwtAnpOxQtEboToHkUdwYg3RIBt_nFpxOwyyfVIEYUYekfKMYb6OvWZu8frS6R4iM5kZRqp10d0YD0Y3Vs6vcQ/s320/Level%2014%20Tir.png" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level 14 Rogue (+5)</li><li>+5 hours played</li><li>+53 Herbalism, +82 Skinning, +1 Cooking, no fishing yet, +50 First Aid</li></ul><p>My little troll rogue just did a few more quests in the Barrens; that's pretty much it.<br /></p><p><b><i>Classic era - Alliance</i></b><br /></p><p>My Alliance characters basically became completely neglected this year and nothing has changed about their stats compared to <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2022/12/classic-wow-me-in-2022.html">last year</a> except for maybe a few minutes of play time here or there from occasional logins to check on something or other. (My hunter and paladin bounce some mails between them occasionally, and sometimes I remember to use my salt shaker cooldown on my hunter for example.)</p><p>The only characters that saw a little bit of action earlier in the year were my warrior and my priest, and the reason for this was that this was when I was at my most involved with the census project on the Classic era Discord, to the point that I also wanted to keep track of the Alliance population, and the best way to get scans (which can only be triggered by clicking about a hundred times at certain intervals) was to simply do a bit of questing every day.<br /></p><p><b>Razorr - PV</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBfmknIlnvwjlKvfhxpVGhYj1LC_MB1m-RBcwVfnigAkbwikoT2WdRoAiOurliE8NdXaEjjlmsKHrgTIvZ0TXyRLax1occQezrccKk91qTDHfeSBwFloIhlNqo-LvgTE9FBkGNoUtUl7fAtRdMP7W8OBG2dEC7Hmx716cK_gajaMdrgQAlkp_L6E15lgpv/s1156/Level%2033%20Razorr.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1156" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBfmknIlnvwjlKvfhxpVGhYj1LC_MB1m-RBcwVfnigAkbwikoT2WdRoAiOurliE8NdXaEjjlmsKHrgTIvZ0TXyRLax1occQezrccKk91qTDHfeSBwFloIhlNqo-LvgTE9FBkGNoUtUl7fAtRdMP7W8OBG2dEC7Hmx716cK_gajaMdrgQAlkp_L6E15lgpv/s320/Level%2033%20Razorr.png" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level 33 Warrior (+3)</li><li>+8 hours played</li><li>+30 Mining, +57 Skinning, +12 Cooking, +46 First Aid, +4 Fishing </li></ul><p>I remember doing some questing in Stranglethorn Vale and I also seem to remember tanking a Razorfen Kraul with her, but I'm worried about my memories of this level range getting muddled with her "BC version". <br /></p><p></p><p><b>Shintar - PV</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ADmrw0fHbMABdEYBvsztg7_LMmk_FIPVf4OWQ34stfGutZdNsp81P-IGF4GTmyUsxHcJEBZrhqLJSRBIpvS4nnio2ryx5rI_uCCutyO9CBA_Xgsxr49gukXQEGidlGbNhRPcmkLmkp8NhnRVvV2c8-JWEMLvhp26yxL7ze4lfnSaZLz8ikSLKSiUgOJP/s1156/Level%2032%20Shintar.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1156" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ADmrw0fHbMABdEYBvsztg7_LMmk_FIPVf4OWQ34stfGutZdNsp81P-IGF4GTmyUsxHcJEBZrhqLJSRBIpvS4nnio2ryx5rI_uCCutyO9CBA_Xgsxr49gukXQEGidlGbNhRPcmkLmkp8NhnRVvV2c8-JWEMLvhp26yxL7ze4lfnSaZLz8ikSLKSiUgOJP/s320/Level%2032%20Shintar.png" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level 32 Priest (+2)</li><li>+7 hours played</li><li>+4 Mining, +31 Engineering, +35 Cooking, +3 First Aid, +12 Fishing</li></ul><p>Based on the robe in the screenshot I must have healed a Gnomer run, and I also have vivid memories of questing in Hillsbrad Foothills. Not much else going on though.<br /></p><p><b>Isa - Gehennas</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSH99kPs2AvxkbeR8319I_jmGk4CKotWPqokvfyo0o1Iry0l7QhAMTlN1Oj6zZ6qHjGv9pItoFA8RdPzb5VPzplTkZR7r0gRtLt__MRqVDT5igbqPLHLFKc90wE-7nFjRwh4_wskziREsRu3QkTZUQ1-17xvwXN-OhCfkqPwduzmW6zu9nNWje4yehtN3_/s1156/Level%2023%20Isa.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1156" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSH99kPs2AvxkbeR8319I_jmGk4CKotWPqokvfyo0o1Iry0l7QhAMTlN1Oj6zZ6qHjGv9pItoFA8RdPzb5VPzplTkZR7r0gRtLt__MRqVDT5igbqPLHLFKc90wE-7nFjRwh4_wskziREsRu3QkTZUQ1-17xvwXN-OhCfkqPwduzmW6zu9nNWje4yehtN3_/s320/Level%2023%20Isa.png" width="320" /></a></div><p><b></b></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level 23 Paladin</li><li><span>1 day, 4 hours played</span></li><li><span>146 Alchemy, 179 Herbalism, 134 Cooking, 105 First Aid, 119 Fishing</span></li></ul><p><span>Different server cluster, but since I did get her past level 20, I thought I should also give a quick shout-out to the little paladin I made on Gehennas. The "<a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2023/05/hunting-rares-for-fun-and-profit.html">empty server experience</a>" was fun for a little while, but to be honest I think I was hoping that things would pick up a bit with the way era was booming at the time, and when that didn't happen I eventually got bored.</span></p><p><span><b><i>Hardcore</i></b></span></p><p><span><b>Lossy - Stitches</b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB42pyhbjM3XqemKNyL4cOV-4pkgIU1mW0c3zmaw_sT70Bi5yAjPgzLfPzIAJeQRWl70moOaev6RRGJsfRlFC9AOGQJrx5B717gEv8firHiaXruoqmcyv8LT0pf7nuF5mtvUcTsOd11FxCzZMVYhMScHZTATZ8CKY2OI-Rwg7iLBBuPovKrl8K8SJhyMIc/s1156/Level%2022%20dead%20Lossy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1156" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB42pyhbjM3XqemKNyL4cOV-4pkgIU1mW0c3zmaw_sT70Bi5yAjPgzLfPzIAJeQRWl70moOaev6RRGJsfRlFC9AOGQJrx5B717gEv8firHiaXruoqmcyv8LT0pf7nuF5mtvUcTsOd11FxCzZMVYhMScHZTATZ8CKY2OI-Rwg7iLBBuPovKrl8K8SJhyMIc/s320/Level%2022%20dead%20Lossy.png" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span>Level 22 Mage (deceased)<br /></span></li><li><span>22 hours played</span></li><li><span>134 Herbalism, 82 Mining, 123 Cooking, 87 First Aid, 91 Fishing </span></li></ul><p><span>My stint in hardcore only lasted for <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2023/09/some-more-experiences-with-hardcore.html">a</a> <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2023/10/hardcore-i-like-caves.html">little</a> <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-death-of-lossy-mage.html">while</a>, but it seems only fair to give a shout-out to Lossy the mage for keeping me busy for almost a day of real time. </span><br /></p><p><b><i>Season of Disovery</i></b></p><p><b>Shintar - Wild Growth</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgNhcWM8QpF557Gn6fyN1tHCa1VGPEtUilURHVOdtpEr-ENmVG7UTjvm74iodlnUjyCRktD2SxxIaIyPTiOfqNmz6CNro_n2XEKxNKht0SA0Ox8RFNu5P0jAZKVmqobKrpzDrO9oV4q706IiHOmBheVCyUTouGTON6x1KiahSMbsnjY9RNeaBRI2mYxq-u/s1156/Level%2025%20Shintar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1156" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgNhcWM8QpF557Gn6fyN1tHCa1VGPEtUilURHVOdtpEr-ENmVG7UTjvm74iodlnUjyCRktD2SxxIaIyPTiOfqNmz6CNro_n2XEKxNKht0SA0Ox8RFNu5P0jAZKVmqobKrpzDrO9oV4q706IiHOmBheVCyUTouGTON6x1KiahSMbsnjY9RNeaBRI2mYxq-u/s320/Level%2025%20Shintar.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level 25 Priest</li><li>1 day, 12 hours played</li><li>140 Alchemy, 150 Herbalism, 150 Cooking, 129 First Aid, 122 Fishing</li></ul><p>Finally, there is of course the new hotness, Season of Discovery. Aside from this priest, I've also created a few more alts there already, but as none of them have even hit level 10 yet, it doesn't feel worth calling them out at this point. I suspect that this might end up being my main Classic focus in 2024 (in one form or another), but only time will tell. Seeing all my era characters again does kind of make me want to play them again too...<br /></p>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-22376976185772088892023-12-29T11:44:00.001+00:002023-12-29T13:11:20.439+00:00Retail WoW & Me in 2023<p>Ever since the release of WoW Classic in 2019, I've been doing an <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2019/12/classic-wow-me-in-2019.html">end-of-year summary</a> at the end of December to track my progress throughout the game, by listing the characters I've been playing and what they've achieved in the last year. This has turned into a very interesting tradition, as a lot can happen in a year and my interests and aspirations have completely changed direction in that time more than once. Without this track record I wouldn't have nearly as clear a picture of that.</p><p>I haven't done the same for retail WoW, except for musing on the progress I'd made after a year <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2021/11/a-year-of-playing-retail.html">back in 2021</a>. As my investment in that side of the game has grown, that has increasingly felt like an oversight, so I've decided to fix that going forward. So without further ado, my retail characters and what they've been up to in the past year... and to some degree since 2021, since I'm not always sure when exactly I did certain things and only have that old post as a reference point right now:<br /></p><p><b>Shindragosa</b></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwdlPRdJ624voI-JYN9Rqj18I7b5g-Cm_eUgqEac0gqNnDIZsA0Ng26rviZ0MWrjO2XNYG_WrFrEkssFhsWR38M6aUUY3nVGs7StIsiRh9YWgx5FzKygnDGlMgj7DaV44xt4iOYaJEjlfurKtNKEK6bSz3FwwIb1hJBb4GyWr71vcEjDZQAWcGLuzdpm5e/s1156/Level%2070%20Shindragosa.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="952" data-original-width="1156" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwdlPRdJ624voI-JYN9Rqj18I7b5g-Cm_eUgqEac0gqNnDIZsA0Ng26rviZ0MWrjO2XNYG_WrFrEkssFhsWR38M6aUUY3nVGs7StIsiRh9YWgx5FzKygnDGlMgj7DaV44xt4iOYaJEjlfurKtNKEK6bSz3FwwIb1hJBb4GyWr71vcEjDZQAWcGLuzdpm5e/w320-h264/Level%2070%20Shindragosa.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></div><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level 70 dracthyr evoker</li><li>14 days, 19 hours /played</li><li>Dragonflight professions: 90 Leatherworking, 100 Skinning, 100 Cooking, 100 Fishing<br /></li><li>Other
professions: 56 Northrend Skinning, 20 Cataclysm Skinning, 31 Draenor
Skinning, 81 Legion Skinning, 7 Kul Tiran Skinning, 15 Draenor Cooking, 66 Classic Fishing, 5 Cataclysm Fishing, 15 Kul Tiran Fishing, 99 Archaeology</li></ul><p>The hero class that's new with the expansion became my main, who'd have thought? Even though their healing isn't as obviously OP compared to other healers the way dps and tanking were for other hero classes when they were first released (at least as far as I'm aware), I've come to enjoy the unique play style... plus to be honest, at the start of Dragonflight, just the idea of being able to go into the expansion with an empty inventory was extremely appealing (as opposed to sorting out my monk's bags and figuring out what to keep and what to throw away after Shadowlands). For how generous retail WoW is with bag space, it also has a weird habit of filling your bags with absolute tons of crap at endgame.</p><p>The fact that her leatherworking is still not maxed out this far into the expansion is a reflection on how the changes to the crafting system haven't really worked for me, even though I initially liked the sound of them, but that could be a whole post of its own really.<br /></p><p><b>Mehg</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEd2Pan8b-nXV7jXhMJ2uMLtwutIRT66DV_5aj5kEsJT9jmlwj-qKooqeXm9bgpmTcQhMoCYwbMbbN1kVlXIDuSVgyjj6CaFMsqHOmHz1JxEDD7bIdg2qD1zqcjVw-KSRfZjYcTSXd50FM11ASSXhh5CjmBeKkv6onK1KlBduCCvRVbTXw-5TP0fxy9hxC/s1156/Level%2070%20Mehg.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="952" data-original-width="1156" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEd2Pan8b-nXV7jXhMJ2uMLtwutIRT66DV_5aj5kEsJT9jmlwj-qKooqeXm9bgpmTcQhMoCYwbMbbN1kVlXIDuSVgyjj6CaFMsqHOmHz1JxEDD7bIdg2qD1zqcjVw-KSRfZjYcTSXd50FM11ASSXhh5CjmBeKkv6onK1KlBduCCvRVbTXw-5TP0fxy9hxC/w320-h264/Level%2070%20Mehg.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level 70 night elf demon hunter<br /></li><li>10 days, 4 hours /played</li><li>Dragonflight professions: 100 Mining, 69 Jewelcrafting, 68 Cooking, 52 Fishing<br /></li><li>Other professions: 16 Classic Mining, 17 Cataclysm Mining, 100 Legion Mining, 150 Shadowlands Mining, 18 Classic Cooking, 31 Legion Cooking, 75 Shadowlands Cooking, 74 Classic Fishing, 70 Legion Fishing, 27 Shadowlands Fishing, 800 Archaeology<br /></li></ul><p>The demon hunter that became <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2021/09/my-first-shadowlands-alt.html">my first max-level alt in Shadowlands</a> is still my main alt, I think because it's a relatively straightforward class to play at a basic level among a sea of overly complex rotations in retail. Earlier in the expansion she felt a bit squishy (regardless of gear), but that improved a lot after one of the most recent patches. She also still has the same transmog because I really like that set from the demon hunter starting experience... I just change the look of her glaives sometimes.<br /></p><p><b>Tilarea</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggaPwpE0zEVFAKDgf_ueJp2Hsa_9WmIVW-46LWg_HUNhPnfMPpk3RQIPx0BaTZrCeFdWDC-MfjbXFIRwy4AQfiTdWfLiaG-m4VlZP_T9dE__caCphd9kxTa66xVSqxG9M6Llt_9421ID1FARsW6pO0gRdpUYTYjm2HZ5mLngmTh27RRZ0gLu_K1lBjV9Sp/s1156/Level%2070%20Tilarea.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1156" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggaPwpE0zEVFAKDgf_ueJp2Hsa_9WmIVW-46LWg_HUNhPnfMPpk3RQIPx0BaTZrCeFdWDC-MfjbXFIRwy4AQfiTdWfLiaG-m4VlZP_T9dE__caCphd9kxTa66xVSqxG9M6Llt_9421ID1FARsW6pO0gRdpUYTYjm2HZ5mLngmTh27RRZ0gLu_K1lBjV9Sp/w320-h266/Level%2070%20Tilarea.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level 70 lightforged draenei priest<br /></li><li>5 days, 10 hours /played</li><li>Dragonflight professions: 64 Tailoring, 64 Enchanting, 16 Cooking, 37 Fishing<br /></li><li>Other professions: 100 Classic Tailoring, 75 Outland Tailoring, 5 Northrend Tailoring, 2 Cataclysm Tailoring, 64 Pandaria Tailoring, 100 Draenor Tailoring, 65 Kul Tiran Tailoring, 100 Shadowlands Tailoring, 96 Classic Enchanting, 26 Outland Enchanting, 25 Northrend Enchanting, 11 Cataclysm Enchanting, 20 Pandaria Enchanting, 25 Draenor Enchanting, 16 Kul Tiran Enchanting, 49 Shadowlands Enchanting, 2 Classic Cooking, 6 Shadowlands Cooking, 15 Outland Fishing, 11 Shadowlands Fishing, 13 Archaeology<br /></li></ul><p>This was the first alt I levelled without any involvement from my husband, simply because I wanted to be a priest again! She's pugged dungeons, <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2022/10/fun-with-retail-pvp.html">done some PvP</a>, worked on her professions and run a fair few old raids for transmog (as you can tell from her sporting the old tier two set). I just still love being a holy priest.<br /></p><p><b>Tharisa</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1tbJ5UCY-F_qrbTUrGLJ10kQl8ic_1U0R_-n6PSBp5oJ_DxPCulcRnX7MHNXOo698QTepTo5zRiRw19Ikacu_9CUofNZWu-m-vKaLu89hGUq7TzqVfVQNC5_LSpEMCzju5CskmV00nYBkkS8WvTYovEntojx86jjfSepL08MAMeJ9-JFJRkh_N7s8LiYr/s1156/Level%2070%20Tharisa.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1156" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1tbJ5UCY-F_qrbTUrGLJ10kQl8ic_1U0R_-n6PSBp5oJ_DxPCulcRnX7MHNXOo698QTepTo5zRiRw19Ikacu_9CUofNZWu-m-vKaLu89hGUq7TzqVfVQNC5_LSpEMCzju5CskmV00nYBkkS8WvTYovEntojx86jjfSepL08MAMeJ9-JFJRkh_N7s8LiYr/s320/Level%2070%20Tharisa.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level 70 human hunter<br /></li><li>2 days, 18 hours /played</li><li>Dragonflight professions: 18 Leatherworking, 100 Skinning, 14 Cooking, 23 Fishing<br /></li><li>Other professions: 119 Classic Leatherworking, 205 Classic Skinning, 70 Northrend Skinning, 5 Cataclysm Skinning, 9 Draenor Skinning, 33 Legion Skinning, 129 Classic Cooking, 37 Archaeology<br /></li></ul><p>Ah, my old human hunter. I eventually levelled her up because I really wanted to have a better understanding of how retail hunter compares to its classic version. It's still a bit weird. I'm currently marksman spec because that has been my go-to for many expansions, but I don't know if it's still the best option for me in retail. I do still like having a pet, and with the new talent tree you can actually opt out of the "petless" marksman talent, but I have no idea how viable that is and haven't been able to find any discussion about it. Not that it matters, considering that I'm not doing any hard content on her, but I guess it would be interesting to know.<br /></p><p><b>Groghue</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEQj5VOijInLTo_ldFfsDaGGEvu7en8hIysx8g7hSvEaiLojGU46GG28gmPj_48IIuTOHrFz2pKKJC3UR2xSpZlFJNqb8vLLPw5CquA2sN0_Rv9MmuaLj9PUwGq-9bLm7k1gnslevwRekBlPwV2vCpV3MwJfzrOPqZ4kuKhrOjMjhurhU3RfliCYzVRvpO/s1156/Level%2070%20Groghue.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1156" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEQj5VOijInLTo_ldFfsDaGGEvu7en8hIysx8g7hSvEaiLojGU46GG28gmPj_48IIuTOHrFz2pKKJC3UR2xSpZlFJNqb8vLLPw5CquA2sN0_Rv9MmuaLj9PUwGq-9bLm7k1gnslevwRekBlPwV2vCpV3MwJfzrOPqZ4kuKhrOjMjhurhU3RfliCYzVRvpO/s320/Level%2070%20Groghue.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level 70 worgen rogue<br /></li><li>1 day, 18 hours /played</li><li>Dragonflight professions: 87 Herbalism, 105 Skinning, 4 Cooking, 35 Fishing<br /></li><li>Other professions: 259 Classic Herbalism, 175 Classic Skinning, 23 Cataclysm Skinning, 21 Classic Fishing, 10 Cataclysm Fishing, 107 Archaeology<br /></li></ul><p>Enter Grogu (silent h, silent e), though she also responds to "rogue" (silent g, silent h). I created her during Shadowlands and actually <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2022/05/random-retail-ramblings.html">made a post about it at the time</a>. Considering how much time I spend running around aimlessly while levelling, I think her /played time goes to show just how fast retail levelling is nowadays. You can also tell from her professions that she's hardly seen anything of the world, having only really quested in the old world and on the Dragon Isles. I guess that's probably fairly typical of the modern retail levelling experience.</p><p>I also learned from levelling her that I'm terrible at playing rogue. Maybe it's just the subtlety spec, but in an interesting contrast to how the class works in Classic, it feels like you need to be hitting some sort of dps cooldown non-stop or you do basically no damage. In one heroic I did, I was struggling to out-dps the healer... <br /></p><p>Oh, and she doesn't have a hump; that's a backpack. It just always looks a bit funny on the character selection screen.<br /></p><p><b>Shinlu</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL8ZdDeBdd85WRxSSPPf6VDrYtuMnsYjaZOoUj8ZeQlJxEazFzJH6yYqS6iqsaBq4In3tnqQsK_CzaCtAXdAFTp4e4rax4N-peKED-GZpOpiyTqlJ3C1nQ3eyp2ofCfMoYhc40wlOMSLXx6AgOETzCeQtUrdNHJCwZOvfObA8WKmAXXkjnKUkFn32ZiGzL/s1156/Level%2061%20Shinlu.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1156" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL8ZdDeBdd85WRxSSPPf6VDrYtuMnsYjaZOoUj8ZeQlJxEazFzJH6yYqS6iqsaBq4In3tnqQsK_CzaCtAXdAFTp4e4rax4N-peKED-GZpOpiyTqlJ3C1nQ3eyp2ofCfMoYhc40wlOMSLXx6AgOETzCeQtUrdNHJCwZOvfObA8WKmAXXkjnKUkFn32ZiGzL/s320/Level%2061%20Shinlu.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level 61 human monk</li><li>22 days, 9 hours /played</li><li>Professions: 50 Outland Leatherworking, 16 Northrend Leatherworking, 150 Kul Tiran Leatherworking, 100 Shadowlands Leatherworking, 14 Classic Skinning, 75 Outland Skinning, 51 Northrend Skinning, 40 Cataclysm Skinning, 80 Legion Skinning, 175 Kul Tiran Skinning, 150 Shadowlands Skinning, 5 Dragonflight Skinning, 300 Classic Cooking, 75 Cataclysm Cooking, 48 Kul Tiran Cooking, 75 Shadowlands Cooking, 300 Classic Fishing, 39 Outland Fishing, 12 Northrend Fishing, 75 Cataclysm Fishing, 16 Pandaria Fishing, 100 Legion Fishing, 175 Kul Tiran Fishing, 200 Shadowlands Fishing, 678 Archaeology<br /></li></ul><p>My old Shadowlands main gained a bit of XP from doing stuff like the <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2023/07/human-heritage.html">human heritage quest chain</a>, but other than that she's mostly been chilling in Stormwind since Dragonflight. I feel a bit bad about it because I do still love her, but the thought of having to sort out her bags (there's probably still a dozen different kinds of anima in there for example) terrifies me.<br /></p><p><b>Shinnins</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_2Zv6uW47IFEcasfgByOUkjCNF3rxTptCwayS4IYyrwhofUnEdck2HWEhw4afCybdxfzCUfiQN39UpJbbYYy_xswKzv1EUXuBuaWgNuY4007GDAn61kbdogjUnxCFdnsejOTgKTmd-6rZQBZzKR1zublLx0gtVUqUZUJGenclHN_FzzTCu_JKwhq9TNN_/s1156/Level%2060%20Shinnins.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1156" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_2Zv6uW47IFEcasfgByOUkjCNF3rxTptCwayS4IYyrwhofUnEdck2HWEhw4afCybdxfzCUfiQN39UpJbbYYy_xswKzv1EUXuBuaWgNuY4007GDAn61kbdogjUnxCFdnsejOTgKTmd-6rZQBZzKR1zublLx0gtVUqUZUJGenclHN_FzzTCu_JKwhq9TNN_/s320/Level%2060%20Shinnins.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level 60 worgen druid<br /></li><li>17 days, 10 hours /played</li><li>Dragonflight professions:</li><li>Professions: 300 Classic Alchemy, 75 Outland Alchemy (Transmutation), 75 Northrend
Alchemy, 75 Cataclysm Alchemy, 75 Pandaria Alchemy, 10 Shadowlands Alchemy, 300 Classic
Herbalism, 75 Outland Herbalism, 75 Northrend Herbalism, 75 Cataclysm
Herbalism, 75 Pandaria Herbalism, 43 Shadowlands Herbalism, 300 Classic Cooking, 75 Outland
Cooking, 75 Northrend Cooking, 75 Cataclysm Cooking, 75 Pandaria Cooking
(with all the different "cooking ways" maxed out too), 12 Shadowlands Cooking, 300 Classic
Fishing, 75 Outland Fishing, 75 Northrend Fishing, 75 Cataclysm Fishing,
75 Pandaria Fishing, 22 Shadowlands Fishing, 608 Archaeology</li></ul><p>My main from my brief flirtation with retail during Mists of Pandaria. <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2021/11/a-year-of-playing-retail.html">Back in 2021</a> I bemoaned that I never even finished all the zones there, but I did actually get the husband to go back with me and do Townlong Steppes and Dread Wastes in Chromie Time. Then I did a little bit of Shadowlands, but I didn't even get to start on my covenant story before Dragonflight came out.<br /></p><p><b>Pishin</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7SMR4mHw0IQBB8DpONlqN3CXYUVRJ5v6S_R3KLa-L3JRC9jdITPLLFawDDfNy6B_jm6GXaeU5RiBJmDVQFRxx8h7HhBSLcLnSpMFIxlEO06adHP9yu4zYLk_lmTpJpojMTET83s7zRbGrwvqJzSQXZWheAbHFar0B6m45v4QAtXbShSEuJ_iJUdlNlNhc/s1156/Level%2060%20Pishin.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1156" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7SMR4mHw0IQBB8DpONlqN3CXYUVRJ5v6S_R3KLa-L3JRC9jdITPLLFawDDfNy6B_jm6GXaeU5RiBJmDVQFRxx8h7HhBSLcLnSpMFIxlEO06adHP9yu4zYLk_lmTpJpojMTET83s7zRbGrwvqJzSQXZWheAbHFar0B6m45v4QAtXbShSEuJ_iJUdlNlNhc/s320/Level%2060%20Pishin.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level 60 pandaren priest<br /></li><li>5 days, 13 hours /played</li><li>Dragonflight professions:</li><li>Professions: 4 Classic Herbalism, 100 Draenor Herbalism, 56 Shadowlands Herbalism, 21 Pandaria Inscription, 100 Draenor Inscription, 64 Shadowlands Inscription, 6 Classic Cooking, 6 Cataclysm Cooking, 105 Draenor Cooking, 17 Shadowlands Cooking, 100 Draenor Fishing, 17 Shadowlands Fishing, 117 Archaeology<br /></li></ul><p>Ah, my "<a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2022/05/pandas-of-draenor.html">piss priest</a>", who levelled through WoD with the husband's monk and then did a bit of Shadowlands endgame. We actually never quite finished all of WoD - maybe once the level cap goes up again, I'll make him do the missing zones with me in Chromie Time, just like I did with the druid.</p><p>Other than that, I've been feeling a bit lost with this character. For a while, I logged her daily to tend her garrison, but eventually I had more resources than I could possibly use and gave up on it. I also levelled her as discipline, and regardless of the many changes Blizzard made to that spec over the years, I've pretty much disliked every single iteration of it. I thought I'd try respeccing to shadow, my original love, but all that nonsense with insanity and tentacles is just totally alien to me as well. It's weird to still love the priest class while not getting along with two of its three specs.<br /></p><p><b>Tidella</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUcideddu31oZsxFNpCz2a2r2WNlwuGrVb9kLe5Mgd1Ha-T2Jwgjr3H-Ltc0nUvYjl01boIO-5ElhOThKAX3DK5v3QnglrLQstfPhvV1S0SNybHnZWAyu0xdJfuxbBMk2kWS53r5hrH1zg-uFey8roQQh1LLcaqvSVi5IhsGwD0WbX85hNUHWBiuGadag7/s1156/Level%2048%20Tidella.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1156" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUcideddu31oZsxFNpCz2a2r2WNlwuGrVb9kLe5Mgd1Ha-T2Jwgjr3H-Ltc0nUvYjl01boIO-5ElhOThKAX3DK5v3QnglrLQstfPhvV1S0SNybHnZWAyu0xdJfuxbBMk2kWS53r5hrH1zg-uFey8roQQh1LLcaqvSVi5IhsGwD0WbX85hNUHWBiuGadag7/s320/Level%2048%20Tidella.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level 48 Kul Tiran shaman<br /></li><li>1 day, 17 hours /played</li><li>Professions: 106 Classic Mining, 3 Cataclysm Mining, 140 Classic Engineering, 3 Cataclysm Engineering, 40 Classic Cooking<br /></li></ul><p>This character was part of a levelling group with guildies, but we stalled out after the issues we ran into with Wrath dungeons described in <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2022/01/retail-bullet-points.html">this post</a>. Since then she's been sitting in that weird limbo where I kind of don't want to play her because I'm still holding on to the idea that we'll pick things up again one day and the reality of having to accept that this probably won't happen.<br /></p><p><b>Violan</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAaaPlW6TRBQgvMgFRknMjlJyATzsS1Jusgr0TuN_PIjvPQp60GIJ6e806zztD8T8sEISLVRhevMx4W8tQsUiymHcfgtP2IyVvPkGjy1eHejV7JEcG_jUn1CjzDbZ5cBWe7-aEcEzZGk-JbpfX0w_sJ8KiXk-DRv2pwnATWRgFX9nK-TO3-a5m6P2lZ_-x/s1156/Level%2046%20Violan.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1156" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAaaPlW6TRBQgvMgFRknMjlJyATzsS1Jusgr0TuN_PIjvPQp60GIJ6e806zztD8T8sEISLVRhevMx4W8tQsUiymHcfgtP2IyVvPkGjy1eHejV7JEcG_jUn1CjzDbZ5cBWe7-aEcEzZGk-JbpfX0w_sJ8KiXk-DRv2pwnATWRgFX9nK-TO3-a5m6P2lZ_-x/s320/Level%2046%20Violan.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level 46 void elf mage<br /></li><li>14 hours /played</li><li>Professions: 8 Classic Herbalism, 61 Legion Herbalism, 2 Classic Skinning, 74 Legion Skinning, 40 Classic Cooking, 8 Legion Fishing, 30 Archaeology<br /></li></ul><p>After unlocking all those allied races, I thought I should actually create some characters using them. I made a void elf mage because it seemed like a good combo and I didn't have a mage yet. She's currently levelling through Legion.<br /></p><p><b>Marquess</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Ohcc-euFs3RVOgBBgXzNGoCZZIucXi33B7CwAl3RgvepDz1Ei7cllbEj5lhUtncA8FE_XOwDYUkBciENLA4e3_PYDBKLVv6EwzX-aZ2pn68GZhy80xasvZB4T0zivBKZI2dy7a4bLEPj7nSdKe-tG465WYYdr0YtRBfD7hoAx5tOANC-fCrL2zS3DN74/s1156/Level%2045%20Marquess.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1156" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Ohcc-euFs3RVOgBBgXzNGoCZZIucXi33B7CwAl3RgvepDz1Ei7cllbEj5lhUtncA8FE_XOwDYUkBciENLA4e3_PYDBKLVv6EwzX-aZ2pn68GZhy80xasvZB4T0zivBKZI2dy7a4bLEPj7nSdKe-tG465WYYdr0YtRBfD7hoAx5tOANC-fCrL2zS3DN74/s320/Level%2045%20Marquess.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level 45 dark iron dwarf death knight<br /></li><li>11 hours /played</li><li>Professions: 139 Kul Tiran Herbalism, 80 Kul Tiran Mining, 15 Kul Tiran Fishing, 28 Archaeology<br /></li></ul><p>Same story for this dark iron death knight - plus I kind of wanted to level a plate-wearer to unlock certain transmog pieces. She's making her way through BfA one chunk of rested XP at a time, but because she's both a miner and a herbalist, she actually gets to do very little questing between all the gathering (which awards absolutely stupid amounts of XP).<br /></p><p><b>Kehnan</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoWZkNQQwG7-Z5SxCyVtvgHWCvQrPIYGl1-RktnwM7iUvN9aRCW-26oJeMSQpge08a7OinoaoNmYgyiTvBZNoIKJdhqAyV2PnPqtOjkh-JJE3TqKKdOxzmKJFuoAMGK-QlO-M-5LeYMZkojf7B1hhSjgabScbNXyE-Y-Je1iLUhZWiw2k5gpDTkyMN_G1n/s1156/Level%2019%20Kehnan.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1156" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoWZkNQQwG7-Z5SxCyVtvgHWCvQrPIYGl1-RktnwM7iUvN9aRCW-26oJeMSQpge08a7OinoaoNmYgyiTvBZNoIKJdhqAyV2PnPqtOjkh-JJE3TqKKdOxzmKJFuoAMGK-QlO-M-5LeYMZkojf7B1hhSjgabScbNXyE-Y-Je1iLUhZWiw2k5gpDTkyMN_G1n/s320/Level%2019%20Kehnan.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level 19 dwarf paladin<br /></li><li>7 hours /played</li><li>Professions: 71 Draenor Blacksmithing, 2 Classic Mining, 3 Draenor Mining<br /></li></ul><p>This was actually my first attempt at getting a plate-wearer levelled up, but I haven't logged into her in so long that, before I did so to get her /played number for this post, she'd been marked as inactive and eligible for the free gear boost. I had this idea for taking another character through WoD while also checking out the state of paladin tanking, but the garrison quickly sapped me of all enthusiasm.<br /></p><p><b>Kara</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVk627cZYHM8Hj45EJ1kLLcxDv-jChzWicSALBdjQYJonAKeOIRZ5r9Tef8IjkM64QrK1mFRudbjWc8k2kbv1aUd5ZYIAoPVaqkWshFxI4JyRa3tev_rwwD8GLyi_pRkdF3WHwmTrtIXyWWSTljve3jfYMrvCo_LV6URF6OJC8rqVDRj4Q8h_w2sGbowJv/s1156/Level%2059%20Kara.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1156" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVk627cZYHM8Hj45EJ1kLLcxDv-jChzWicSALBdjQYJonAKeOIRZ5r9Tef8IjkM64QrK1mFRudbjWc8k2kbv1aUd5ZYIAoPVaqkWshFxI4JyRa3tev_rwwD8GLyi_pRkdF3WHwmTrtIXyWWSTljve3jfYMrvCo_LV6URF6OJC8rqVDRj4Q8h_w2sGbowJv/s320/Level%2059%20Kara.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Level 59 orc warlock<br /></li><li>1 day, 3 hours /played</li><li>Professions: 50 Zandalari Tailoring, 7 Classic Enchanting, 45 Zandalari Enchanting, 26 Zandalrai Cooking, 68 Zandalari Fishing, 80 Archaelogy<br /></li></ul><p>My one Hordie, about whom I've also written a bit <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2023/11/i-started-orc-heritage.html">here</a>. She's currently level-locked at 59 to see the rest of Horde-side BfA without outlevelling it, and also picked up all the different quests to unlock the BfA allied races at the same time. She's got a long way to go, but at least it's something different.<br /></p><p></p>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-80080590915581460642023-12-25T10:01:00.000+00:002023-12-25T10:01:26.738+00:00Level 25 in Season of Discovery<p>So this actually happened before <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2023/12/my-experience-in-amirdrassil-lfr.html">my LFR adventure in retail</a>; I just had the urge to write about that one while it was still fresh on my mind. But yes, I hit level 25 on my priest in Season of Discovery, woo! What an achievement.</p><p>Actually, I'm being kind of sarcastic here, but I do think people overestimate just how quickly the "average" player progresses. Blizzard released <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvS8Z9Ei6lI">a video with some SoD statistics</a> a week ago, and in that they said that only about 10% of the population had hit the level cap after the first week, and less than 2% of characters had cleared the BFD raid. I shared this with my guildies who were already talking about how they were "done" or bored and called them filthy one-percenters.</p><p>My own journey to the level cap involved more dungeons, as I predicted in <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2023/12/discovering-level-25-dungeon-endgame.html">my last post about SoD</a>. I ran Wailing Caverns twice, mostly to finish off all my quests in there, though I got lucky and also won <a href="https://www.wowhead.com/classic/item=6463/deep-fathom-ring">this excellent ring</a> off Mutanus the Devourer in my second run. As a side note, I found it pleasant how easy it was to get all those collection quests done for a change. When Wailing Caverns is just one step along your levelling journey and you want to get everything done in one run, getting enough herbs, ooze and hide drops for everyone is always a pain, but with the dungeon essentially being "endgame" you can get endless runs in which most people will already have done their quests, with way less competition for drops.</p><p>Anyway, what was truly memorable about those WC runs to me was that they were complete opposites in some ways. In my first run I had a warrior tank who was massively overgeared for the place and who was just barrelling from one pack to the next one-stop. I was trying to eat dinner at the same time as healing (don't judge me, I like multi-tasking like that) and I could hardly get a bite in because the guy just <i>never</i> stopped. We were done in less than an hour, and that was with one of the damage dealers being AFK for the entire run, which was another funny thing to be honest. This mage was the last to arrive at the instance and then immediately put me on /follow. I think I saw him cast a fire blast once or twice, presumably so he wouldn't be logged out for inactivity, but that was all he did until the last boss, where he came back just in time to roll need on - and win - the caster ring. I learned from this that the infamous "ledge jump" is in fact so easy that an AFK character on follow will simply walk over the gap without falling, so if you ever do fall down that hole again, know that you're worse than someone auto-running.</p><p>In my second run on the other hand, our tank was completely clueless, didn't talk, randomly went AFK a few times, and otherwise just ran off in seemingly random directions. We ended up doing the right side of the dungeon before the left side (something I hadn't seen done before), and when we returned to the druid at the entrance we realised he wouldn't talk to us because by simply following our tank's errant pathing, we'd completely missed one of the bosses. It took me to take charge and lead the group back to him to actually finish the dungeon (something I was actually quite proud of as I'm not at all good at navigating the maze that is Wailing Caverns either). <br /></p><p>Next I was off to Shadowfang Keep, which had fewer quests but which I knew offered several juicy cloth drops. I got incredibly lucky in that regard as well, as I won everything I could possibly want in only three runs: <a href="https://www.wowhead.com/classic/item=3748/feline-mantle">shoulders</a> on the first run, <a href="https://www.wowhead.com/classic/item=6392/belt-of-arugal">belt</a> on the second and the <a href="https://www.wowhead.com/classic/item=6324/robes-of-arugal">robe</a> on the third. I can't say that it was all well-earned either as I body-pulled and caused deaths in "that room" (you know the one) in two of those three runs.</p><p>Due to my good loot luck I was only level 24 at that point, and there was another wave of competing healers sweeping LFG, so I decided to just earn the rest of my last level via questing. While doing so, I found one more priest rune in Silverpine, which brought me up to a total of four. I didn't catch the actual level 25 ding, but I levelled up after handing in to Kadrak at the Ashenvale border as seen below.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP_oXrgo1yUsSL2oV1ri2jfbNRQAgryGtQg2gxAnO1Pf-G4miPrDQ8ZDP9jBd-GEg95cMOw6mkz5sIwE63fkV6mP2prrrNkMPq2IjRTyNAPS71iCigBiuz_SjHhNfUgXWDUE3P3YQuPxNuR8jNH0Q2VYTJG9NM7KDssOo92tk3JWGPr_4kIarSPRs_xHHZ/s1619/Shintar%20with%20Kadrak%20after%20hitting%20level%2025.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="891" data-original-width="1619" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP_oXrgo1yUsSL2oV1ri2jfbNRQAgryGtQg2gxAnO1Pf-G4miPrDQ8ZDP9jBd-GEg95cMOw6mkz5sIwE63fkV6mP2prrrNkMPq2IjRTyNAPS71iCigBiuz_SjHhNfUgXWDUE3P3YQuPxNuR8jNH0Q2VYTJG9NM7KDssOo92tk3JWGPr_4kIarSPRs_xHHZ/w400-h220/Shintar%20with%20Kadrak%20after%20hitting%20level%2025.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>A funny side effect of the season's timing is that everyone's running around with winter hats because there are very few useful head slots available at this level so you might as well wear the fluffy hat for fun.</i><br /></div><div><p></p><p>What now? Well, I was keen to get into BFD, but with the imminent holidays there weren't enough guildies available, plus I had some family obligations as well, so that adventure will have to wait for another day. <br /></p><p>I had a brief look at the Ashenvale PvP event, which seems to be occurring quite frequently and appears to be quite rewarding, but I don't know if I care enough to make it a focus. I did notice that it seems to involve shared tagging, as when I ran up to an Alliance boss and asked to join the raid group there, I was told they were full, but I was still able to contribute from outside the group and received both loot and kill credit for the boss.</p><p>At some point I'll probably want to look up the runes I'm missing and go hunt them down. There's at least one very powerful healer rune that I'll probably want to get before setting foot into the raid.</p><p>My professions are another thing to work on. While I've been levelling them as I've been going along, I'm only maxed out for my level in herbalism and cooking, so alchemy, first aid and fishing all have some ways to go to be truly useful.<br /></p><p>And of course there is questing - Blizzard made it so that like when you quest at level 60, "unused" experience point rewards get converted into money instead, which means that completing any at-level quest at the cap of 25 rewards at least one gold, which is pretty huge. Again, I don't think I'll make a habit of grinding these, but even just doing a few adds up quite quickly. I can't see many people having issues affording their mount at level forty if they get to spend any time at all playing at the level 25 cap and accumulating quest reward money.<br /></p></div>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-7111894903305555362023-12-20T20:35:00.004+00:002023-12-22T19:18:53.780+00:00My Experience in Amirdrassil LFR<p>As of today, Dragonflight has the (dubious?) honour of being the first WoW expansion since Cataclysm in which I (technically) saw and cleared all the raids while they were current content, even if I only did so in LFR. I say "technically" because, well... we'll get there.</p><p>I had set it as a pre-Christmas goal for myself to do all of Amirdrassil in LFR, and with me being off work already, today seemed a good day to do so in order to secure some boss kill credit for next week's great vault. I decided to putz around planting seeds in the Emerald Dream while waiting in the queue, but pops were so quick as a healer that I never got to finish a full growth cycle between wings.</p><p>Wing one was nothing too special or exciting. The bosses fell over with no great difficulty and despite my usual habit of going in blind, I wasn't too confused about what was going on, except for having no idea what to do with Igira's spears, as DBM telling me "Spear!" was not particularly helpful. I just tried to imitate the people around me in placing them in a loose circle around the boss.</p><p>Wing two initially made me raise an eyebrow as wing one finishes with you killing Smolderon, and then wing two starts with said boss suddenly being back to life and yelling things. Why, Blizzard? I get that LFR isn't the priority when it comes to designing a raid, but surely you have the power to group the bosses together for LFR wings in a way that makes more narrative sense? I just don't get it.</p><p>That aside, this wing was probably my favourite. The Volcoross fight was very atmospheric, with the looming tail coming out of the lava to smash people during the trash already and then being a mechanic during the boss fight as well. Mechanically, I really enjoyed Larodar, Keeper of the Flame, and how it gave healers something slightly different to do by asking us to heal NPCs to trigger certain mechanics. I just thought that was neat.</p><p>I was just thinking about how much I was enjoying myself with everything going so smoothly and the colour palette being unusually easy on the eyes for a raid, when I ran into my first hiccup in wing three, where my group wiped twice on Nymue for reasons not entirely clear to me. If group chat was to be believed, it was because one of the tanks moved one of the tree adds into a bad place (twice). This wasted some time, but ultimately wasn't too bad. I just found myself wondering why we were killing the bosses in this wing in the first place, as they didn't seem like bad guys or even "corrupted" in the way WoW bosses so often are.</p><p>Then it was time for the final wing! Now, I'd learned during Dragonflight's <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2023/01/vault-of-incarnates-lfr.html">previous</a> <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2023/07/aberrus-lfr.html">tiers</a> that the last boss of a raid could be quite a shitshow even in LFR, so I tempered my expectations, but what actually happened still caught me by surprise.</p><p>We started the fight with "T. Swift" (as <a href="https://www.outofmanablog.com/blog">Calcas</a> calls him) and after a bit of skirmishing he flew away. Everyone around me jumped on their dragonriding mount and I followed suit as quickly as I could. I'd heard mention of there being a fight that involved dragonriding and kept muttering "oh no" to myself as I had no idea what I was doing, but I made it to the next platform just fine. Here the cycle repeated, except when the boss flew away again and everyone mounted up to follow, my mount icon remained greyed out. I ran in circles for a few panicked seconds, when I suddenly remembered a reddit post in which I had seen this fight mentioned, where someone had made a comment about needing to run over a feather. Those fiery things that looked evil and like you should definitely <i>not</i> stand on them? Yup, touching one finally unlocked my mount and I raced after the rest of the group as quickly as I could.</p><p>However, I had lost too much valuable time already and suddenly found myself dismounted in mid-air. I could see that I was close, and being a dracthyr, I was hopeful that I'd be able to safely glide down to the platform with the rest of the raid on it, however a painful damage-over-time effect kicked in and killed me before I could land, leading to me plummeting to my death just under the platform.</p><p>The boss died anyway, and I waited a few seconds to see if I would get a revive, but I wasn't sure whether that was even possible with me being dead on the ground underneath. Anyway, no res indicator popped up, so I released and found myself back on the last boss's starting platform, seeing no other option to get off than to talk to the nearby green dragon, however that just took me back to the previous wing, so I had to immediately revert.</p><p>I couldn't think of anything else but to mount my own dragon and try to manually find the platform on which the boss had died, but the map was completely useless and of no help. Someone did a ready check, which I obviously declined, followed by him immediately pulling the boss. Someone else did gripe about that in chat briefly, something along the lines of "dude, WTF do you pull when not everyone's here" but I seemed to be the only one affected so they did just fine without me.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtFTlXtbaUlTS1U1kgzmROrc0lmmbGHLvcxF_DVaqrTQvfPZGGgXsxk87G2Ujyq3wIbdvJ6QtrcBEnwru3q20WJ0ugVQb4WVsL8XvYReCwujlLghTqx-tqQ5Vq3MjJ8o9ZtjlNZnwZeI8EddUl3BhQWGxsvgN0ghD8oFWXaZ4v7zr04a7lxw-qigzCFXsH/s1920/Missing%20the%20Fyrakk%20fight%20due%20to%20being%20dead.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtFTlXtbaUlTS1U1kgzmROrc0lmmbGHLvcxF_DVaqrTQvfPZGGgXsxk87G2Ujyq3wIbdvJ6QtrcBEnwru3q20WJ0ugVQb4WVsL8XvYReCwujlLghTqx-tqQ5Vq3MjJ8o9ZtjlNZnwZeI8EddUl3BhQWGxsvgN0ghD8oFWXaZ4v7zr04a7lxw-qigzCFXsH/w400-h225/Missing%20the%20Fyrakk%20fight%20due%20to%20being%20dead.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>After a bit of flying I was suddenly killed mid-air again and got an achievement for dying to Fyrakk. My body appeared next to the corpse of Mr. Swift (whom I'd been unable to locate until then) and which was sparkling at me tantalisingly. Annnd... that's where I spent the rest of the raid, never even seeing Fyrakk until the raid completion achievement popped up. This is why I said I "technically" saw all the bosses at the start of this post, because in reality I never even saw him. I'm not sure whether I should go back and re-do this wing at some point just to actually see the fight.<p></p><p>I'm glad I've got a blog to spin this into an amusing tale, because otherwise I might've been somewhat annoyed by how that last wing went. The postmaster didn't even send me whatever loot I had on Mr. Swift, and I didn't get loot credit for Fyrakk at all (which is fair but was still a bit annoying as well since I <i>did</i> get the lockout). Once again LFR delivered on an experience that was mostly inoffensive in terms of gameplay but also a terrible way to experience the story. I'm just glad I was able to tick all the raid boxes for an expansion for once, considering how much importance WoW still places on this content above all else.<br /></p>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-62555190441521383872023-12-11T16:01:00.000+00:002023-12-11T16:01:40.834+00:00Discovering the Level 25 Dungeon Endgame<p>I <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2023/12/level-15-in-season-of-discovery.html">last talked about my priest in Season of Discovery</a> in the context of her hitting level 15 after running Ragefire Chasm once and doing some questing in Silverpine Forest. I didn't want to spend too much time questing in the Barrens - I have no particular love or hate for that zone, but solo questing as a priest can be a bit tedious in general. It's not necessarily inefficient - shield, DoT, wand plus being specced into extra wand damage and spirit tap means that you can keep grinding mobs one by one with almost no downtime; it's just not particularly fun (in my opinion anyway).</p><p>At least for me, being a priest is about playing with others and forming a team that's more powerful than the sum of its parts, so I focused on doing the quests in and around the Barrens oases to get all the dungeon quests for Wailing Caverns. I was level 18 and about halfway to 19 by the time I was done with that... those raptor horns, man. Because of how busy it was, I actually found it hard to find many Scytheclaws alive, and a quick check on Wowhead revealed that they share a spawn point with ornery plainstriders, so in the end I just picked a corner with a lot of those birds and went on a killing spree to actually get some raptors to respawn.</p><p>With all the quests sitting ready in my log and my bags freed up as much as they were going to get at this level, I opened the LookingForGroup channel, expecting to find a group quickly, considering how many of them were running at all times. However, as is Sod's law, what I found instead was at least three other healers specifically looking for Wailing Caverns groups. I rolled my eyes at how typical that was, but then spotted a tank looking for dps and a healer for Deadmines instead. And I thought, <i>why not?</i> There are no quests for that on Horde side, but it still drops some nice loot, and it would be something different. So I ended up whispering him for an invite and made my way to the zeppelin tower.</p><p>On the zepp I actually met up with our tank in person, another shaman like I'd had in RFC. I wistfully recalled the launch of Classic and <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2019/08/a-cow-goes-to-westfall.html">how I visited the Deadmines on a Horde character for the first time</a>. I remembered getting there by swimming along the coast and was planning to do so again, but when we arrived in Stranglethorn, the shaman set off straight into the jungle, and my inner urge to trust in and follow the tank kicked in, prompting me to follow. Of course, I then saw him get eaten by raptors within less than a minute, which quickly caused me to swerve back to the coastline, but I hadn't counted on just how many crocolisks were lying in wait there, causing me to die quickly too.</p><p>However, my spirit then appeared at the graveyard in northern Stranglethorn, and I saw the shaman take res sickness and continue north from there. That actually seemed like a pretty clever idea, so I followed his example. He immediately died again as he got eaten by a panther, but his death allowed me to get past without drawing attention myself, and I actually made it into Duskwood without further incident. From there I just followed the road to Westfall and was lucky enough to not encounter Stitches or any other mobs on the road. The shaman followed a couple of minutes behind.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6pSIBmNdQLND4utqZLP6nPWa-yL-4-kdfNn6QBaPztNo9cB9wgnIBHji55Rl0SyZk3vgpXF7FB7NL1t7maNyAxIiHy0TlmXf517vyK-wsKAuPvRPZC4LeU1RWwMJpxVn87CfUPmSHXCAdAEmI9OM2xC7NfKV_3pphPAVfQe_LL7cWiFpn4bUbjf1y1Fif/s1920/Shintar%20waits%20for%20her%20Deadmines%20party%20to%20assemble%20in%20Westfall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6pSIBmNdQLND4utqZLP6nPWa-yL-4-kdfNn6QBaPztNo9cB9wgnIBHji55Rl0SyZk3vgpXF7FB7NL1t7maNyAxIiHy0TlmXf517vyK-wsKAuPvRPZC4LeU1RWwMJpxVn87CfUPmSHXCAdAEmI9OM2xC7NfKV_3pphPAVfQe_LL7cWiFpn4bUbjf1y1Fif/w400-h225/Shintar%20waits%20for%20her%20Deadmines%20party%20to%20assemble%20in%20Westfall.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>It took a little while to fully fill the group and get everyone to Moonbrook as we had no summon available, but eventually we were off, with a group of all melee (our shaman tank was supported by a feral druid, a rogue and a dps warrior). They killed everything incredibly quickly, as they were all above level 20 and pretty well geared already. I thought how interesting that was, considering that on a regular server, people usually try to run dungeons at as low a level as they can get away with, to maximise XP and gear rewards before moving on the next thing.</p><p>Despite a mess-up on the boat that led to a massive over-pull and two people dying, we finished the dungeon in something like forty minutes. Since we were already there, I was happy to just reset and go again, and so was the rest of the group - with the exception of the warrior, who had to go. He was eventually replaced by a hunter... who was in Orgrimmar, so it took something like another half hour until he was actually able to join us in person.</p><p>I tried to make good use of the time at least by doing some herbing and fishing along the coastline. I also learned that the <a href="https://www.wowhead.com/classic/npc=1669/defias-profiteer">Defias Profiteer</a> on the first floor of the Moonbrook inn is happy to trade with Hordies as well, which was handy for bag-clearing between runs.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcBDT3EpE3zsyDhM0W_TnLvSH0fxtq-tBCgmlYVc1q0RQ71rRcvtp2cVCv_EjVd8zHq8c-QtDlWPUCTECM7nuTtSUw7JJkMRTG28OpmGMXrRaTe06754KzcmQHPrzizf-sE11aa5JRnjDil4djgqNhG_NhWV0ZiJb9bXvhfYiNmIT-Ggxv066iVwi1Zhwt/s1920/Shintar%20with%20pug%20in%20the%20Deadmines%20foundry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcBDT3EpE3zsyDhM0W_TnLvSH0fxtq-tBCgmlYVc1q0RQ71rRcvtp2cVCv_EjVd8zHq8c-QtDlWPUCTECM7nuTtSUw7JJkMRTG28OpmGMXrRaTe06754KzcmQHPrzizf-sE11aa5JRnjDil4djgqNhG_NhWV0ZiJb9bXvhfYiNmIT-Ggxv066iVwi1Zhwt/w400-h225/Shintar%20with%20pug%20in%20the%20Deadmines%20foundry.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>We then did the dungeon two more times, which is kind of nuts to me because I usually never chain-run dungeons like that. But it was just going so fast, and it had been such a pain to get there in the first place that it made sense to make the most of it while we were there. I didn't get much XP out of it, probably because of how high-level the damage dealers were, and I only gained about a level from the whole adventure, but I got very lucky with loot, picking up several greens as well as the <a href="https://www.wowhead.com/classic/item=5201/emberstone-staff">Emberstone Staff</a> and the <a href="https://www.wowhead.com/classic/item=5202/corsairs-overshirt">Corsair's Overshirt</a>. Those were huge upgrades and I could immediately feel the difference in my mana regen after I equipped them.<p></p><p>I'm now planning to spend most of the rest of my time levelling to 25 in Wailing Caverns and Shadowfang Keep. I know that's perhaps not exactly in the spirit of making discoveries in the outdoor world, but it <i>is</i> in the spirit of being a healing priest, and I can always do more exploring later, once I hit the current level cap of 25 and have geared up a bit.</p><p>As an aside, when I said goodbye to my group, I did so without any expectation to see any of them again, because I'm such a slow leveller nowadays, everyone else always gets away from me almost immediately. But one of them said "see you soon in BFD" and it hit me that I actually <i>might</i> see them again, because at least for now, they couldn't out-level me any more than they already had. And that was an oddly nice feeling.<br /></p>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-37142454253154212572023-12-05T13:31:00.001+00:002023-12-05T13:34:24.982+00:00Level 15 in Season of Discovery<p>Season of Discovery has been out for less than a week but <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/classicwow/comments/18akcms/does_anybody_have_a_job_on_here/">apparently</a> the no-lifers have already run the BFD raid to death and are bored. I haven't heard any complaints in my guild, but I've certainly seen my share of min-maxers there as well and I've got to admit it makes me a bit anxious. I'd forgotten how quickly the threat of "being left behind" looms when you're playing with people like that, and I'm glad they at least have nowhere else to go past level 25 for now. I hope Blizzard stick to their guns and give this phase time to breathe, without being tempted into raising the level cap too soon just to appease certain loud voices.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkJGdwtKXviQ_jjAL23VhI7dcqsRjWW7qgdN_oRusTynf1CTVDW8n66lS2ckpUnn5yOEzr5sKX1wiCpoBssdJr-cBFwmBoIwvouZYPJO6Ug0rKIL-lwvpGHN1g7GQJv2UtrCgo1oXgQ-66IHmrxhkk9sLLdG8NlNRJPYL_-T-sDUc1GbwSIYMMA5WtCK7o/s1233/Shintar%20fighting%20with%20homunculi%20in%20Tirisfal%20Glades.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1233" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkJGdwtKXviQ_jjAL23VhI7dcqsRjWW7qgdN_oRusTynf1CTVDW8n66lS2ckpUnn5yOEzr5sKX1wiCpoBssdJr-cBFwmBoIwvouZYPJO6Ug0rKIL-lwvpGHN1g7GQJv2UtrCgo1oXgQ-66IHmrxhkk9sLLdG8NlNRJPYL_-T-sDUc1GbwSIYMMA5WtCK7o/w400-h293/Shintar%20fighting%20with%20homunculi%20in%20Tirisfal%20Glades.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>My little undead priest is level 15 so far and probably won't get to 25 for a while as SWTOR is deploying a major patch today. In <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2023/12/kneel-before-me-fellow-priest.html">my last post</a> I talked about how I found my second rune, but I didn't mention what it was: it's called "Homunculi" and conjures three little mini-yous to fight by your side. The spell's cooldown and duration are the same, so you can have them up all the time unless they die. They don't hit particularly hard, but they do apply some very useful debuffs to your enemy and can serve as life-saving distractions in tough situations. Though they also do the opposite sometimes, by running off to attack a random mob by themselves that you didn't actually want to fight. I'm not sure about the logic behind that... either way, it's a fun little spell.</p><p>Around level 12 I left Tirisfal to pick up all the quests for Ragefire Chasm. One of them has a pre-quest in Skull Rock in Durotar. I wrote a bit about just how deadly that place is in the context of the <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2022/10/holy-crap-that-orc-voidwalker-quest.html">orc voidwalker quest</a>, but it's well-known as the deadliest place on Horde side in hardcore mode as well. Still, all the knowledge in the world couldn't have prepared me for what I encountered there in SoD: it was absolute carnage.</p><p>The moment I stepped inside I found the whole floor littered both with dead NPCs and player skeletons. There were both people and hyperspawns everywhere, which led to the bizarre situation of it being both hard to tag things <i>and</i> easy to get overwhelmed by respawns <i>at the same time</i>. An orc shaman threw me a group invite which I immediately accepted; later we were joined by two hunters. I was quite happy to let them do most of the killing and just do some healing. They seemed quite pleased with that and responded with friendly emotes more than once. However, both of the hunters left quietly the moment they'd completed their quests, so then it was just me and the shaman again. At one point I died - no shade on the shaman there, as I said it was weirdly easy to get overwhelmed out of nowhere - but then he just looted his quest item and also dropped group quietly, leaving me to run back to my body by myself. I've got to admit that felt kind of crappy.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyVtbjzeF2xmCPP15nyLhI51sA8Y66Uh_-Ceg-ydTtJSsQnld_bYSyLuRaLzv4Q5hHhGFbe-LU4Xo2RQpe4AuaQv_2QVi8CTjN-NcTUUTiJbPI9bF50wVoDWtOGkVnDW2XkFhdmBAJ2SskejfgbkvM2kT4NFUzJYntVHEBQ2tWT0nhmAMIJSdXuLWk22Ti/s1920/Carnage%20in%20Skull%20Rock.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyVtbjzeF2xmCPP15nyLhI51sA8Y66Uh_-Ceg-ydTtJSsQnld_bYSyLuRaLzv4Q5hHhGFbe-LU4Xo2RQpe4AuaQv_2QVi8CTjN-NcTUUTiJbPI9bF50wVoDWtOGkVnDW2XkFhdmBAJ2SskejfgbkvM2kT4NFUzJYntVHEBQ2tWT0nhmAMIJSdXuLWk22Ti/w400-h225/Carnage%20in%20Skull%20Rock.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>I later joined another group and eventually got my own quest item, plus one of the mobs dropped a third rune for me. All in all, I must have spent about three quarters of an hour in that cave though, which is definitely too long.<p></p><p>On the plus side, getting into a group for RFC was fast and easy after that. When everyone arrived at the instance entrance I asked who was tanking since it wasn't obvious, and it turned out to be a shaman. Funnily enough, my first thought was "ah yes, I guess at low levels shamans can tank too" and only my <i>second</i> thought was "oh wait, in SoD shamans are meant to be legitimate tanks". It was only then that I noticed that they had a buff on them that indicated increased health and threat. Their tanking seemed to involve totems somehow - I'm not sure how it worked, but they did a good enough job with it. We only had one scary moment when we accidentally overpulled and the tank died... however, I managed to survive with something like five hitpoints, so we were able to res up and continue.</p><p>While in Org, I also saw Monty again, the priest who first gave me the Loa buff in Tirisfal Glades, asking for someone to /pray and give him the two buffs again. It felt like proper karma to be able to return his favour so quickly.</p><p>I've now moved on to Silverpine but will probably start working on the Barrens soon, if nothing else to get ready for Wailing Caverns. I haven't found another rune since the one in Skull Rock... but my plan is to just go with the flow until 25, and maybe then look up what I missed.</p><p>I've also been levelling all my professions on the side because that's the kind of thing I always enjoy. I've been surprised by how easy it's been to find herbs; I would've expected every zone to be absolutely picked clean with how busy it's been, but maybe Blizzard just made the respawns really fast in this iteration of the game or herbalism is a less popular profession than it used to be.<br /></p>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-75481127043754527062023-12-02T01:26:00.001+00:002023-12-02T01:32:57.308+00:00Kneel Before Me, Fellow Priest<p>My first day of playing Season of Mastery has been absolutely delightful. The combination of the familiar with strange new things that nobody knows what to do with is definitely a winner. To give an example of what exactly I mean, let me tell you about my experience with priest rune acquisition. This will contain what you could call early gameplay spoilers for undead priests I guess, if that's something you care about, but it all happened before level ten, so...</p><p>As I mentioned in <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2023/12/season-of-discovery-is-here.html">my last post</a>, you get your first rune at level two. As an undead priest, you're told to go to the Deathknell graveyard and kneel there to meditate. This involves doing a /kneel emote there, at which point you gain a four-hour buff called "Meditation on Undeath" with the description: "Your mind is expanded by your meditation, granting you the clarity to learn new spells from Memories found throughout the world." This allows you to use a green item in your bag whose name I don't remember right now but which is what actually grants you the rune.</p><p>I didn't give much thought to when, where or how I was going to find more runes but simply continued to quest as I would normally. However, while killing Scarlets near the Solliden Farmstead, one of them dropped a green item like the one that had taught me the first rune. <i>Aha</i>, I thought, <i>I know this! Another rune for me!</i> However, trying to use the item didn't work, so I double-checked the item description and it said that it required <i>two</i> meditation buffs to use. A conundrum! How was I going to get a second buff? I decided not to worry too much about it just then and once again simply continued as I was, figuring something would end up presenting itself sooner or later.</p><p>While doing a bit of reading up on reddit and forums to see more of other people's first impressions of Season of Mastery, I came upon a post that talked in vague terms about unlocking runes as a druid and how the poster thought that it was very appropriate for their class fantasy. This was the first time that it really hit me that the process for unlocking runes might actually be very different for different classes. I wondered what the devs had decided the priest class fantasy was supposed to be. Was it meditating at a graveyard? Did I have to meditate at other graveyards?</p><p>I tried /kneel-ing at the Brill cemetery the next time I was there and it did nothing. However, I also noticed one or two people in general chat asking for a troll priest, which was an... oddly specific request. Did I need to meditate on other races? That seemed a bit odd and like it would be very punishing later on when the starting zones were no longer heaving with people, plus how would you even mediate on a random troll anyway? I'd buffed a troll shaman earlier and it had done nothing for me.</p><p>As I left town, I walked past another undead priest... and noticed that he did in fact have a second meditation buff on him, called "Meditation on the Loa". Okay, that definitely had something to do with trolls, but how had he got it? I decided to go the direct route and simply whispered him to ask.</p><p>"I got it from a nice chap here," he replied, which made me raise an eyebrow a bit. I was thinking about how exactly to word a potential follow-up question when he threw me a group invite (which I of course accepted) and ran over to me. Was he gonna show me?</p><p>"Kneel" he whispered. I barely hesitated, having only the briefest flashback to 2006 and a male character pretending that my kneeling knight elf was fellating him... but who can you trust if not your fellow priests? I did as instructed, and he did another emote in return that stated that he was saying a prayer for me. And just like that, I'd gained the loa buff and my undead meditation buff had been refreshed to its full four-hour duration as well.</p><p>I immediately learned the new rune that had been waiting in my bag and thanked my fellow priest profusely and excitedly. I imagined him smiling as he simply said "help others" before dropping group. Thanks Monty of Wild Growth-EU! What a lovely little mechanic, and I really loved how it became clear to me slowly and gradually over the course of the play session. Plus it really made me curious how other classes get their runes now... but no, don't tell me. I want to find that out organically too.</p><p>Also, in hindsight the priest trainer totally gave a hint about all this that completely went over my head at the time, as the last paragraph of the quest hand-in for the level two rune says: "As you grow stronger I recommend spending some time with the trolls of the Horde. Though their culture is primitive, the 'loa' they revere have some connection to undeath. They may provide insight into our nature." Guess it's important to read quest text again!<br /></p>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-50678369607714817022023-12-01T11:09:00.004+00:002023-12-01T13:23:00.963+00:00Season of Discovery Is Here!<p>Season of Discovery was scheduled to launch at 9pm in my time zone last night. I'd been planning to be there right as the servers opened, but ended up making it home a bit later than expected. I logged on as soon as I had a chance (which was about fifteen minutes after the official launch time) and was immediately presented with a several-thousand player queue and an estimated wait time of forty minutes. Oh well.</p><p>I kept myself busy doing some other things, so it's not as if I was staring at the queue screen the entire time, but even just taking a look at the estimated wait time every so often showed some pretty wacky numbers. It started at about forty minutes, got down to about twenty, and after about forty minutes of actual waiting it was back up to predicting forty again. At some point, with more than 1.5k players left ahead me, it decided that from now on, it was going to say six minutes forever.</p><p>I think in the end it took me about one and a half hours to get in. I was excited to create an undead priest with my name on the European PvE server and jumped right in. During the flyover intro cinematic, I recognised the flash of another priest casting Penance and immediately got excited by the idea of how overpowered that must be at such a low level.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBOFFBiF25zRFkg9m4R8J4-AdxEjTp-2Dm_WMLS8JNTj-bTRGjzHid2GHeBIYAxUAh8mZVvvjRjefyFb9PdluNQPfCfcl-GmsvLmAQsv8D1ALdD_kHImlYicOZwrSCjIWa27CwaxXAdZN_3ssERSmpxNrkwwhi042_QMSQsfTXRZtvlugUlKjKGN3RCjY1/s774/Low-level%20Shintar%20casting%20Penance.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="774" height="388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBOFFBiF25zRFkg9m4R8J4-AdxEjTp-2Dm_WMLS8JNTj-bTRGjzHid2GHeBIYAxUAh8mZVvvjRjefyFb9PdluNQPfCfcl-GmsvLmAQsv8D1ALdD_kHImlYicOZwrSCjIWa27CwaxXAdZN_3ssERSmpxNrkwwhi042_QMSQsfTXRZtvlugUlKjKGN3RCjY1/w400-h388/Low-level%20Shintar%20casting%20Penance.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>However, I wasn't really going to find out that night, because the launch night crowds were just as bad if not worse <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2023/08/official-hardcore-launch-night-on.html">than they'd been for hardcore</a>, and layers or no layers, it was almost impossible to tag any mobs. I ran around for five to ten minutes, getting credit for about three kills in that time, and then just logged off, deciding to not waste any more time on that but to instead come back the next morning, like I'd done with hardcore.</p><p>This morning, things were indeed better, though still very crowded. There was one quest in particular to kill Rattlecage Skeletons that was still pretty impossible to complete. I saw people trying to form groups for it in general chat, but in my entire time questing in Deathknell I only saw a single (un)living skeleton and even that died too quickly for me to get a tag in with my instant Penance. So I just did everything else and abandoned that particular quest. I gained a bit of bonus exploration XP from a quick detour to Orgrimmar to sign the charter for our guild, so I was still level six by the time I reached Brill, which is about where I'd expect to be.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghtXmAjXKtj-LZr4XmiynWAJZRV29LmIpMkaZ37HrZwwmaOX_a3Z_jFC7VoJPC2zLPRR5veQpZZFr3Mjs9FoPgp0HRkverOAS4rT7E-JFfXykukB5HukvlP-8cEcF3R1nTLXDwD9nS11ZbMh-rFpICwrrSPf9FsM9TpL1JPbWLKooDNmuY7J2TEDGWyWDB/s1010/Level%202%20undead%20priest%20rune%20quest.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="578" data-original-width="1010" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghtXmAjXKtj-LZr4XmiynWAJZRV29LmIpMkaZ37HrZwwmaOX_a3Z_jFC7VoJPC2zLPRR5veQpZZFr3Mjs9FoPgp0HRkverOAS4rT7E-JFfXykukB5HukvlP-8cEcF3R1nTLXDwD9nS11ZbMh-rFpICwrrSPf9FsM9TpL1JPbWLKooDNmuY7J2TEDGWyWDB/w400-h229/Level%202%20undead%20priest%20rune%20quest.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>Everyone gets their first SoD-specific rune (basically an extra ability or talent) for free at level two, with a simple quest instructing you on how the whole system works. As mentioned, priests get Penance which definitely added a punch to my early questing.</p><p>I also suffered my first death very early, at level three, as I unexpectedly found myself mobbed by four spiders in Night Web's Hollow even though there'd been scores of people around a moment before. I just considered myself lucky that this wasn't hardcore. In spite of this I wasn't off to a bad start in general as I'd found two six-slot bags by level four.</p><p>General chat was abuzz with people talking about runes and where to find them. There was one spoilsport who complained about people asking questions and that they should just use Google, but they were rightfully laughed out of general by everyone else. Do you even know what server you rolled on?</p><p>Just from listening to the chatter I gathered that a mysterious new chest that I'd noticed in the cave but couldn't interact with was meant for warlocks, that mages had to do something with melons, that warlocks were also after a "frozen murloc" and that some people were bamboozled by what to do with a bunch of severed heads. I also saw others link mysterious new items, such as scrolls with funny names that supposedly needed decrypting. I wonder what these are for and I'm happy that most of us have no idea right now. Season of Discovery working as intended so far!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyQgtWtaUi_9CdlMcUh_qYxk2c3YVbpKrJ3nXhGgwzl5FawT5dVNy6GpOfiFH3rnZg58_ktqy9TqfauuUtzI4w_UwB9IW2WKGtBNPogafhmyn3B2wd3mjieKfM7LdEf7Ckobs3-W5Et3OQPBQ9SOnZD_UQTe4nPD-0Of6AHJmwxYrq569kKJ7q8JHsnvRr/s1247/Mysterious%20chest%20in%20Night%20Web's%20Hollow.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="774" data-original-width="1247" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyQgtWtaUi_9CdlMcUh_qYxk2c3YVbpKrJ3nXhGgwzl5FawT5dVNy6GpOfiFH3rnZg58_ktqy9TqfauuUtzI4w_UwB9IW2WKGtBNPogafhmyn3B2wd3mjieKfM7LdEf7Ckobs3-W5Et3OQPBQ9SOnZD_UQTe4nPD-0Of6AHJmwxYrq569kKJ7q8JHsnvRr/w400-h248/Mysterious%20chest%20in%20Night%20Web's%20Hollow.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-48644268518556918452023-11-26T00:12:00.002+00:002023-11-26T00:16:27.790+00:00Guardians of the Dream (Casual 10.2 Review)<p>Coming back to retail, one thing I really miss about the old days is the community interactions around newly released content. There's still plenty of WoW content being created, but as far as I can tell it's almost exclusively guides or speculation about the future, such as when and what the next patch will be. I miss the days when everyone would gather around the watering hole in comment sections to share their thoughts about the newest <i>current</i> content for example.</p><p>The reason I'm bringing this up is that patch 10.2 came out a couple of weeks ago and I basically have no idea how it's been received by the wider player base. Now, I've had to do some spoiler-dodging since I don't want to see the end-of-raid cinematic until I can see it in game for myself, which won't happen until the new raid is fully unlocked in LFR, and that's something that won't happen for another couple of weeks. But there's plenty of other stuff people could be talking about, and I haven't really seen it.</p><p>The first thing that really struck <i>me</i> when entering the new Emerald Dream zone for the first time was that there was a loading screen - which isn't really unusual, and we <i>are</i> entering an alternate dimension of sorts, but considering how smoothly all the other Dragonflight zones have been connected until now, it still felt a bit jarring. I guess I would've expected to be able to just fly though the portal seamlessly.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhno355Q5v8gijQYPUfOk5u1O0-UF9uHLHY65QkMMVvfID4pkOvV5EbmVhuqoJ7VoOoCJE-vD73YUNlNxdNE1uLmGQcqdiEwK8oFawa8IiIvSVYGMIWMO5H0kL5TyTLsUFXdVbX0IL3mLnES25f5ODv-ouLsvtKu-sLp8mDIigEq0IjcuMFzXdlp0nD63Mi/s1920/Shindragosa%20in%20front%20of%20Amirdrassil.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhno355Q5v8gijQYPUfOk5u1O0-UF9uHLHY65QkMMVvfID4pkOvV5EbmVhuqoJ7VoOoCJE-vD73YUNlNxdNE1uLmGQcqdiEwK8oFawa8IiIvSVYGMIWMO5H0kL5TyTLsUFXdVbX0IL3mLnES25f5ODv-ouLsvtKu-sLp8mDIigEq0IjcuMFzXdlp0nD63Mi/w400-h225/Shindragosa%20in%20front%20of%20Amirdrassil.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>The zone itself is gorgeous and the predominant shade of green kind of reminds me of <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2022/07/zereth-mortis-at-last.html">Zereth Mortis</a> for some reason, which isn't a bad thing, as I quite liked that zone too. Except instead of being slightly alien and filled with strange tech, the Emerald Dream is flowery and druidic. <br /></p><p>I have slightly mixed feeling about Amirdrassil, the new world tree central to the zone. I thought the story decision to burn down Teldrassil for shock value in BfA was bad, and the night elves kind of "deserve" a new home... but going from planting its seed mere months ago to having a ginormous tree so quickly feels a bit weird and unearned to me. I know magic is a thing in this world and all, but they don't even <i>attempt</i> to give any sort of explanation for it.</p><p>I would also say that the whole story up to the raid is a bit... cheesy? I don't expect particularly deep writing from WoW, but this was somewhat flat even by that standard. I will say that the big battle leading up to the raid had something going for it though. The husband had a good laugh blowing the Horn of Cenarius next to every single NPC to see what they would say, and while he joked about the reinforcements appearing "like the Avengers", I've got to say I appreciated that all those powerful characters actually did show up to help defend an important objective... unlike past expansions, where you'd wonder why e.g. someone like Jaina was a no-show when it came to defending the freaking planet against the Legion.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrCZTwcbETvCUWFyOpxD6jYPskKauxsvbM51kipMHWZFMdTQIXR3hmCRo3fUP63IlWEPd7I4mM45JM0rVdT_7TS3js6LHq-GGSNo3ObyVqQ7l_vuMRpSdDJWBnt2PsnyjdvLsQpiobYdylkdvQZET22fu2u0mFDuc12bqYyWrIz3dUv2xvTKVt8t23w70w/s1920/Alexstrasza%20assembles%20the%20Azeorth%20Avengers.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrCZTwcbETvCUWFyOpxD6jYPskKauxsvbM51kipMHWZFMdTQIXR3hmCRo3fUP63IlWEPd7I4mM45JM0rVdT_7TS3js6LHq-GGSNo3ObyVqQ7l_vuMRpSdDJWBnt2PsnyjdvLsQpiobYdylkdvQZET22fu2u0mFDuc12bqYyWrIz3dUv2xvTKVt8t23w70w/w400-h225/Alexstrasza%20assembles%20the%20Azeorth%20Avengers.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>All that said, I really love the general activities in the zone so far. It's funny because my husband had a peek before we started questing there together, and he commented that the events in it seemed kind of boring to him but he had a hunch that I would like them, and he wasn't wrong. The zone's big public event, called the Superbloom, basically involves following a giant walking tree around while clicking on all kinds of shinies on the ground, with the latter being one of my favourite things to do in any MMO.</p><p>I also love the mechanics of the dream seeds. Again, the husband said he found it boring to just plant a seed and wait three minutes. But you don't have to just stand there, you can always collect more shinies around the plant during that time! I think it's pretty ingenious design to be honest, the way the various sources of dew drops appear the moment the plant starts growing. Also, while you can technically plant and boost a seed to its maximum capacity by yourself, it's quite resource-expensive to do it that way, so casual collaboration is heavily encouraged and pays off handsomely. I could happily fly in circles and contribute to other people's seeds for hours.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUAKwO-qGFpGk1gAYVSV-jQFN1jTac2E4oB4zyu4aXZHZVw6cyEYX5PK6m2GzzYdBzu2UuY0Hjhm3NUIDODB1S5LQi-d2N2bhgUnCIaMsGWAbTQQDEOgm3oH4bmVwmCAsyB2oDTz4lySavxfLp2R_DaknOG1gJYsU_PxwzBXFeiB9QgpeAxqmRefKmVJXq/s1920/Emerald%20Bounty%20plant.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUAKwO-qGFpGk1gAYVSV-jQFN1jTac2E4oB4zyu4aXZHZVw6cyEYX5PK6m2GzzYdBzu2UuY0Hjhm3NUIDODB1S5LQi-d2N2bhgUnCIaMsGWAbTQQDEOgm3oH4bmVwmCAsyB2oDTz4lySavxfLp2R_DaknOG1gJYsU_PxwzBXFeiB9QgpeAxqmRefKmVJXq/w400-h225/Emerald%20Bounty%20plant.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Speaking of flying, fully exploring the new zone unlocked regular flying on the Dragon Isles, and I've got to say it's been nice to have it available as a supplementary mode of transport. I still use my dragonriding mount most of the time because of how much faster it is, but it's handy to also have the regular flying mount on hand for certain occasions where you want to perform a precision landing on a small branch for example, or if you want to quickly hop around short distances between nearby objectives (such as several gathering nodes), for which mounting and working up momentum on your dragon would be overkill.<p></p><p>We're supposed to be getting more content before the next expansion, but this is supposedly the last <i>major</i> patch. I've gotta say there are worse places to spend the better part of the year waiting for the next expansion.<br /></p>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-57160638115397287162023-11-22T21:53:00.003+00:002023-11-22T22:02:44.988+00:00(Vanilla) Classic Class Personalities<p>The other day I was looking at a conversation in my guild's Discord and thinking to myself how <i>these warriors always talk about the same things over and over </i>when it suddenly hit me: <i>All</i> the classes seem to have a very distinctive personality profile when it comes to the people who prefer playing them. I wrote <a href="https://swtorcommando.blogspot.com/2012/11/advanced-class-bias.html">a post like this about SWTOR</a> more than a decade ago, why have I never done this for WoW? Well, let's do it now.</p><p></p><p><b>Druid</b> players live up to their class's hippie image in my opinion, in that they are usually very friendly and easygoing. They play druid because they like that the class is both self-sufficient while soloing and versatile in group content, and they are happy to play whatever role is needed to make things go smoothly. Just don't cause any stress, man.<br /></p><p></p><p><b>Hunters</b> have a reputation for being lazy and stupid, which means hunter players have to be willing to put up with that. In some ways that means the class is a great fit for anyone wanting to take an ultra-casual approach to the game, because if you unexpectedly go AFK, forget to enchant your gear or just generally don't know how to play your class, nobody's going to be surprised. However, if you actually like to min-max and play your class to the best of its capabilities, you won't last long as a hunter main, because you'll never get any buffs and will perpetually be tarred with the "huntard" brush. Dedicated hunter mains therefore stand out for having an outstanding ability to just ignore everyone and not give a damn about anything.<br /></p><p></p><p><b>Mages</b> enjoy that their class brings a lot of unique tricks to the table, and while they're not generally attention-seekers, they do thrive on the way their class's toolkit inherently grants it to them anyway. This can manifest in a number of different ways, from impressing random bystanders with flawless kiting of a dangerous mob to being the one to repeatedly plop down portals after a raid until the very last person has made their way home. The point is, you'll <i>notice</i> a good mage and they enjoy that.<br /></p><p></p><p><b>Paladins</b> are Classic's dreamers. Depending on which spec they choose, they may envision themselves as stalwart protectors, vengeful smiters of evil or as powerful healers... but of course, in Vanilla they can't really truly deliver in <i>any</i> of those roles. Still, they persist in their class fantasy, even as everyone else wonders why they didn't just roll a warrior or priest, and they take solace in the knowledge that their buffs at least guarantee them a raid spot.<br /></p><p></p><p>You don't roll a <b>priest</b> in Vanilla if you're not a team player wanting to play nice with others, so priests are always the caring type... one way or another. However, being a priest also means depending a lot on other people's help, and anyone who's levelled one will have been repeatedly let down in that regard, which means they're also incredibly cynical and jaded. Whenever I wonder what a Classic priest player looks like in real life, I picture <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hide_the_Pain_Harold">Hide the Pain Harold</a>. <br /></p><p></p><p>Contrary to what their class mechanics would make you think, the one thing <b>rogues</b> never do is just fade into the background. They can be naughty or nice, but they are always in your face. In the nice variant, that means constantly wanting to hang out or offering to help out in some way, while the naughty variant can manifest in anything from shit-talking to bullying to ganking. They'll just never shut up and be quiet. <br /></p><p></p><p><b>Shaman</b> mains are Classic's brainiacs and multitaskers. I suppose this comes naturally for a class that has to juggle more than a dozen buffs across four totems, some of which only last for mere seconds and constantly need to be refreshed or moved around. They will often find themselves in roles of responsibility, such as officer or master looter, or they may employ their talents more stealthily by acquiring rare profession recipes that others need or quietly carrying the healing team. You just know that you can always rely on your shamans.<br /></p><p></p><p><b>Warlock</b> mains always give off a vibe of being stuck somewhere between slight annoyance and confusion. All they wanted was to play an evil character who dominates demons and does massive damage, yet debuff limits in raids mean they're forbidden from using their tools to their full potential, while people keep pestering them for health stones and summons as if they're meant to be nice and helpful. It just feels wrong. They're at their happiest when they're allowed to just act insane and burn themselves and their enemies to death with hellfire.<br /></p><p></p><p><b>Warriors</b> are both the best tanks and dps in Classic by a mile, and players who choose to main a warrior usually know this. They pressed the "I win" button at character creation on purpose. Like a monarch dealing with peons, the average warrior has little interest in what "lesser" classes are doing unless <strike>the tax isn't paid on time</strike> they're missing windfury or some other dps buff. They will simply charge ahead, confident in the knowledge that they're the best and certain that everyone else will acknowledge this and follow their lead. They only really enjoy the presence of other warriors, with whom they'll be fiercely competitive on the damage and threat meters.</p><p>What do you think? Does this match your own impressions of people who main these classes? (Anyone can make an alt of any class of course.) Or do you completely disagree? Feel free to let me know in the comments.<br /></p>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-6731566298607923292023-11-19T23:42:00.004+00:002023-11-19T23:45:43.852+00:00I Started an Orc (Heritage)<p>I've been enjoying alt play a lot more in Dragonflight and have a whole bunch of them working on different things. One such alt is my orc warlock Kara. (Yes, apparently you can still get a plain four-letter name in modern WoW sometimes... creating the character on a low-pop server presumably helps.) I originally created her about two years ago because I wanted to see whether Exile's Reach was any different on Horde side compared to Alliance, to which the answer was no, which is why that didn't become a blog post. Then it occurred to me that I'd never seen the Horde-side story of Battle for Azeroth, which was completely different from Alliance side, so going through that content became her next purpose - this is a project that's still in progress.</p><p>The reason I made her an orc is that orcs are the only one of the original Horde races that I never played, mostly because I thought they were too ugly (sorry). Even if the ladies were very buff and all that, I just couldn't get over their weird little pug noses. However, I think it was after watching a video where someone was looking at all of the new character customisations that Blizzard added at some point in Shadowlands that I suddenly went: <i>Wait, it's possible to make an orc now that I might actually enjoy playing?</i> (The answer is yes!) I also made her a warlock because that's a class that never meshed with me in Vanilla, but which seems to have changed <i>a lot</i> in retail, and I just wanted to get an idea of what it was all about now.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi447AG6ae5-XfAaCQem8sQtGrlClI7R3dUQC-FOW69N4PfuEmqqq-0_j7bpZWwJ9uArU5UygoWaNwbA_70gGnVmgpGCnzOlYujFflN2_8ekd64mzS2wUDUtHZCVY__AupVM5fpIegqFR8UAX2gur28ebqa-MbqJRpTJbv2idwbyGpkUt4RYitaHYm_4y2Y/s1920/Kara%20next%20to%20Thrall.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi447AG6ae5-XfAaCQem8sQtGrlClI7R3dUQC-FOW69N4PfuEmqqq-0_j7bpZWwJ9uArU5UygoWaNwbA_70gGnVmgpGCnzOlYujFflN2_8ekd64mzS2wUDUtHZCVY__AupVM5fpIegqFR8UAX2gur28ebqa-MbqJRpTJbv2idwbyGpkUt4RYitaHYm_4y2Y/w400-h225/Kara%20next%20to%20Thrall.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>Recently, when I was <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2023/10/night-elf-heritage.html">doing my research on heritage quest lines</a>, I learned that many people considered the orc heritage chain one of the best ones, if not <i>the</i> best, so I thought getting Kara up to and through that chain might be another interesting thing to do with her.<br /></p><p>And I gotta say, I can see why people like it, which is why I won't go into too many spoilers. It hits all the right buttons by having you go back to nostalgic locations in Durotar and featuring a lot of famous as well as lesser-known orc NPCs. It was interesting to see Thrall and his family again - I had no idea that his older son was almost a teenager (?) now. Based on how excited the lad was while following me around while I did the cooking quest, I can picture a future as a chef for him. Also, it took me until about halfway through the chain to realise that Aggra's voice actress sounded strangely familiar... turns out she's voiced by <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1920701/">Athena Karkanis</a>, aka the voice of the female Jedi consular in SWTOR. <br /></p><p>I liked the bit where you get to choose a clan - I figured that for a warlock, representing the Bleeding Hollow was the most appropriate. My second favourite bit was probably when you return to the Valley of Trials and this dying young orc gives you a side quest to return her bag of cactus apples. For some reason the reaction from the quest giver hit me right in the feels... "No one is supposed to die over these! I just ask all the young orcs to do this! It's supposed to be easy!" Not to mention the flavour text on the reward:</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3WPcLmF-ukLMVzm2DRo97qSRy2WtdJl6dO3pfYeVzIY-cMzG3zIeSEicGoUYxjnmXa8aZmCFXzLRPFd0seCUQGe2w99VO0Mor1Dqk5kLege84gtVebOqpjPyZsDrWOc-Q1kO6llO3GfT5lWxcgTFYlPY3v995_mVIcZYn5fSdAKnY2v-GoXyNKiWJgMgV/s298/Sad%20Cactus%20Apple%20Surprise.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="201" data-original-width="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3WPcLmF-ukLMVzm2DRo97qSRy2WtdJl6dO3pfYeVzIY-cMzG3zIeSEicGoUYxjnmXa8aZmCFXzLRPFd0seCUQGe2w99VO0Mor1Dqk5kLege84gtVebOqpjPyZsDrWOc-Q1kO6llO3GfT5lWxcgTFYlPY3v995_mVIcZYn5fSdAKnY2v-GoXyNKiWJgMgV/s16000/Sad%20Cactus%20Apple%20Surprise.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><p>Anyway, I still personally prefer the human heritage quest line simply because I've created so many human characters over the years. But I really liked this as well despite never having played an orc before, so I can totally see how it might end up being someone's favourite if they always had a thing for orcs in the past.<br /></p>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4659326122793396570.post-19008063724444386322023-11-15T22:55:00.001+00:002023-11-15T23:08:31.856+00:00The State of Classic Era at the End of 2023<p>As I've <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2023/03/watching-era-grow.html">mentioned previously</a>, with Classic era being a "static" MMO, the passage of time is mostly defined by the ebb and flow of the player base, <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2023/08/hardcore-patchocalpyse.html">plus the arrival of the occasional client update that breaks things</a>. We just had another one of those actually, in preparation for the launch of Season of Discovery at the end of the month. For era this has once again meant a bunch of new bugs and minor changes, such as the in-game map suddenly being much smaller (not sure if that one's intentional or not actually), and enemy cast-bars now being visible in the default UI (with a toggle) so you no longer need an add-on just for those.</p><p>Mostly I wanted to talk about how the community is doing, though. I mentioned <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2023/07/a-year-of-playing-on-classic-era.html">back in July</a> that the "hype" around Classic era seemed to have died down but that the population seemed stable. I believe that the last reliable 30-day census I conducted with the census addon showed the Pyrewood cluster having an active population of 7-8k characters. I think that must have been around May or so? As I started to spend somewhat less time in game, my scans became less frequent and less reliable, so I didn't think too much of my scan numbers going down again at the same time.</p><p>The other day someone pointed out to me though that our cluster's official population had dropped from medium back down to low, which made me a bit sad. Mind you, it doesn't feel significantly diminished in game. There are still more people signing up for raids than there is room for, and Org and LFG chat seem reasonably lively at all times. It's just... a little less I guess.</p><p>My initial guess was that hardcore had taken a chunk out of the regular PvE population, seeing how it's a PvE-only mode (I myself <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2023/09/some-more-experiences-with-hardcore.html">gave it a go too</a>, after all), and maybe that was true in the beginning, but we do seem to have entered a slight slump in population for all modes at this point, at least from what I can see on the European servers. Even the ever-popular PvP cluster has been downgraded from "full" to "high" again. The two hardcore servers have also mellowed out since launch. Initially they were both marked as "full", but now Stitches is down to "high" and Nek'rosh even to "medium".</p><p>The reason I'm writing all this down is not to discourage anyone from playing or to give off any "OMG, the game is dying" vibes, but because I'm curious to see how things will develop in the coming weeks. I think that Season of Discovery will be massive, but it will likely cannibalise both era and hardcore at least initially. Again, I'm fully planning to at least check it out, and a few people from my guild are planning to do the same.</p><p>At the same time, I don't expect it to be as much of a rival to the regular servers as Season of Mastery was. After all, that was shortly after mainline Classic had progressed into Burning Crusade, and the number of people who wanted to go backward instead of forward was very small. Also, SoM's sales pitch was something along the lines of "fresh Vanilla servers with some improvements", which I think put it into more direct competition with the "old" era servers. Season of Discovery on the other hand is openly promising a very different experience, which I'm sure will be interesting, but I don't think it'll scratch that Vanilla itch the same way the era or even the hardcore servers do.</p><p>Also, I suspect that we'll see another influx of fresh blood to the Vanilla Classic servers of all persuasions once <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2023/11/musings-on-classic-cataclysm.html">Cata Classic</a> launches early next year, as some of those for whom that is "a step too far" will want to return to their old, familiar haunts in the old world, just like I did myself when BC Classic's end was in sight.</p><p>There are currently no plans for Wrath era servers - much to the disappointment of some. <a href="https://priestwithacause.blogspot.com/2022/04/no-bc-classic-era-servers-come-on-blizz.html">I completely understand how they feel</a>, and there was a period where I wondered whether WotLK's popularity might generate enough of a push for the creation of Wrath era servers despite Blizzard's disinterest in doing the same for BC, but looking at it right now, it seems increasingly unlikely to me. While there are definitely more people posting in favour of era servers than there were for BC, the subject is still flying pretty under the radar compared to other concerns, and it doesn't look like the campaign will reach the kind of critical mass needed to get Blizzard to reconsider.<br /></p>Shintarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com3