Mystic Worlds

I'm No WOW Fanboi

WOW certainly has nothing to fear with regards to Lord of the Rings Online taking any of its market share.  Personally, I think Turbine game producers started smoking crack and doing acid trips many months ago.  Do they never learn?  I get that they want to preserve the lore of LOTR.  But we've already seen that if you want to grab gamers, in addition to those that love the license that you are turning into a game, you have to make some compromises. And you will make them when the numbers don't pan-out.  Sony and its constant re-invention of Star Wars Galaxy is a prime example.  Isn't it better to do that from the onset so you don't have to disrupt players with sweeping redesigns?  Or worse yet, having to just tack things on as an after thought like solo play in DDO?  Come on, do some homework.  You mean to tell me they didn't realize that many players in MMOs sometimes want/need to solo? Duh!

Anyway, all I can do is laugh about the idea of how they've decided to implement a player's ability to be an evil character and PVP.  Introducing PvMP - Player versus Monster-Player, where you can temporarily play a monster in the game and earn Monster Points.  Earn Monster Points.  My mind immediately flashed to an image of Barney - you know that purple dinosaur.   ROTFLLMAO. 

PvMP will only be allowed in certain areas, and of course, it's consensual.  The fact that it's both, is so Care Bear, I don't know why they are bothering.  If they really feel that PVP will be that offensive to their players, then have the balls to make it unavailable.  Have the nuts to take a stand and say, "no PVP," and let the chips fall where they may.

I can't even take these people seriously anymore - AT ALL.  As long as they're not expecting anyone other than die hard LOTR fans to play this game, I suppose all will be well.  Perhaps they're going for a niche crowd that is small but pays the bills.  World of Warcraft has nothing to fear with the release of this game.  I LOVE Lord of the Rings.  I've read the series 2x, have them on audio and have listened to them 3x each, and watched the movies at least 10x each.  I'm no WOW fanboi although I'm still hanging in there.  I AM a LOTR fanboi. However, I won't be playing this lame version of a MMORPG.

Slow Game Week

Short on posts this week because I haven't played.  I was feeling a little bored by WOW then I got busy at work.  Now that I've been logged since last week I'm itching to get in some play-time.  I'd really like to hit 60 before BC. I think there's time if I play 3-4 days during the week or longer hours on the weekend.  Unfortunately, when I want to play I don't have much time.  When I have the time and play too much, I start to get that OMG I'm grinding sensation.

I have to work a few hours this week.  Not sure if I'll do it on Sat or Sun.  Which ever day I don't work, I'm going to try to put in some serious WOW time.

Sergeant Major, Alysianah

I was very happy to see that I'd reached my goal when the Honor Ranks were posted on Tuesday.  It was a brutal run to rank 5 which I realize is nothing to hardcore PVP players.  However, since this was my very first toon where I'd even focused on PVP, I feel very good about my progress.  Since the jury is still out on whether or not I'm going to raid at level 60, I want the PVP gear to enhance my Shadow Priest's damage output.

As soon as I knew that I had made the next rank, I raced over to Olde Town to buy my Silk Cuffs (bracers) with 31 AR, +14 STA and +6 INT.  Not amazing stats but an upgrade from what I was wearing so it's all good.  I'm 2 bars from being Honored in WSG and as much as I detest the thought of doing it this week, I'm going to finish it up.

My Rant on the PVP Forum

My fellow Alliance, I don't know what to say.  This has been the WORST PVP weekend of my toon's life.  I don't if a new crop of people bought toons recently off of E-Bay or they waited until 50 to hit their first BG.  How can people on a PVP server suck so bad??? I drop shadow as soon as I dismount and heal, heal, buff, SW:S and heal some more.  Our flag is not even in the base and yet, five, six people are in our base. Doing what I don't know.  Guarding a flag that isn't there?? When our flag is gone and the opposing flag is our possession?  No one is mid-field.  Few race to meet with the FC and we go down over, and over and over.  Horde 3 - Alliance 0 - all weekend long.  You're almost dead and yet, I see no potions being used.  Not even an 'effn bandage?  While I guzzle down expensive mana potions to keep the heals coming, or take the long trek to buy from the faction vendors.  What's up with that??

But worst of all is the FC who gets bored with hiding.  Who suddenly feels the false call of glory.  Who's sword or blade starts burning a hole in his little sheath, and decides he can come out and engage while carrying the flag.  You see one lone Horde and think, "looky, I can get a kill."  But you don't think about the others that might have been near, and BLAM- SPLAT. We're both dead.  I'm healing clowns through three or more attackers, and somehow few Alliance arrive to help and we're dead.  Several times we had the flag for 10+ mins only to have a dumb-ass FC come out cuz he's getting bored and next thing you know, Horde is all over us and again, we're dead.

Next time I'm in Shadow don't even think about asking me to heal.  If I feel like healing I will, otherwise I'm on D and killing.  I'm tired of running 'round after an idiots for hours on end and we still lose.  Then I end up with zero HKs for my effort.  So I've decided that I'M NOT HEALING YOU ANYMORE IN BGs!!!  If I see winning team doing their thing, I'm all in.  I'll have your back and heal you til I run dry.  But as for the rest of these f*k-tards, they can bandage, drink a heal potion or eat dirt.

*Screams and tears at her hair*

Do You Roll Too Many Toons?

Too Many Alts?
I know that I'm not the kind of player the typically plays alternative toons, commonly called alts.  Never had one in AC1/2 or EQ2.  It took me two years of playing WOW before the first alt arrived.  By that time I was so burned out on playing my Warlock, that I've basically retired her.  I started by rolling a NE Hunter.  This is certainly leveling on easy-mode.  I made it to 46 in no time at all.  I enjoyed my Hunter and probably would have continued playing her except that I was simultaneously doing a Paladin.  Running across the same content in the Contested Territories bore me to no end.  Eventually, I dumped them both and signed off WOW for a few weeks. 

When I came back WOW, I started my Priest and got her to around 32.  Soon afer my return, some online acquaintances started a guild on a different server.  Looking to relive the fun I'd had with them on other games, I abandoned Illidan for Gul'dan.  Although I wasn't enthused over the class, I rolled Hunter simply because it's easy to level.  However, they weren't playing during the same times I could, so the Hunter and the redundant content was abandoned yet again.  I returned to my priest on Illidan and stuck with her and recently reached level 52.  Of course all these toons maxed out their professions before they were abandoned.

So although I don't consider myself an altaholic, perhaps the number of toons and professions tell a different story:

1. Saylah Level 60 Warlock 300 Tailor, Enchanter, Cooking, First Aide and Fishing (Retired)
2. Alysianah Level 52 Priest 300 Herbalism, Alchemy and First Aide (Main)
3. Illianah 46 Hunter 300 Herbalism, Alchemy (Primary Alt - Provides consumables)
4. Illianaah 48 Hunter 300 Herbalism, Alchemy
5. Saaylah 46 Paladin 300 Tailor/Herbalism

I still think my son is worse.  He has 5 level 60 toons.  He's insane.  Why he has two hunters I can't tell ya.  There both alliance so it makes no sense to me.  Then again, I have only 1 toon in T2, he has two in full T2 with epic rings and trinkets and half way on a third.  Guess he knows something I don't. *wink*

BC Priest Talents and Spells Released

I was on the fence about raiding as a Priest.  I wanted to try it out.  However, I was concerned about spec’g out of Shadow.  I’ve spent more time reading the Priest forums, guides and specs of other Priests, than I have of any class I’ve played.  I’ve done a lot of research on how to play this class, because I know it can be a very fragile balance between self-sufficiency versus the needs and desires of others.  What I can say after reviewing the BC stuff is, Shadow Priest FOREVER.

The Holy and Discipline talents are lack-luster at best – and that’s being generous.  I saw nothing to take the sting out of the fact that most guilds will want you spec’d Holy in order to raid.  I saw nothing that will really make your farming or Reputation grinding any easier or more efficient, as a Priest.  So I guess, Blizzard, turned a deaf ear to those concerns.  Ah well, I guess I won’t be seeing any end-game content on this Priest other than perhaps the legacy ones that I’ve already done on my Warlock.  I suppose at 70, I might be able to make my way into the old 40-mans with PUGs or a guild that has them on farm status. 

Lucky for me that I’ve enjoyed PVP on my Priest.  If the changes to the Honor System and BGs are solid, then I still have life left in my WOW game.  If not, then – hmm, I guess I’ll be screwed.  Not having spent enough time to review the talents in detail, I still couldn’t resist playing with a preliminary spec or two.

Discipline 15, Holy 2, Shadow 44 or Discipline 12, Holy 2, Shadow 47

WHERE ARE MY TALENTS??

I don't care about your new T-shirts and hats.  I don't care about your comic contests, at the moment.  Nor am I interested in the Spotlight website.  Stop putting smack on the WOW site and tell me about my freakin' BC Priest talents!!

Back to Leveling

All the rested bonus XP quickly shot me to level 51 once I stopped doing my level 49 WSG.  I could have tried to ride out the BG bracket a little longer and possibly made Rank 5 but it was feeling a little repetitious.  Plus you don't know for sure what it's going to take to secure the rank.  At one XP bar away from level 50 I decided, "screw it," let's roll outta here.
I started out by soloing.  I had three partially completed quests in Blastedlands and one in Azshara.  It didn't take me much time at all to knock them out.  At 50 I headed back to SW to train my new skills and bank some herbs.  I'm going to stay shadow spec until I decided about raiding.  Here's my current spec: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/priest/talents.html?50000200000000020000000000000003502321103511051

I ran two successful PUG ZFs.  The runs weren't perfect, but it was definitely the smoothest 100 Trolls I've ever been a part of.  More on how I feel about PUG healing in the next post.

Boom Shakalaka, Master Sergeant!

I've been doing PVP like a BG-crackbaby.  I never thought I'd find it this much fun.  I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the fact that I can only play WOW in spurts at the moment, and the reduced queue time allows me to pop-in very quickly and play.  The first couple of days after the patch I had horrible lag in WSG and AB, but not anymore.  I've read that others aren't fairing as well.  Guess Illidan gets lag in the dungeons but not in BGs. LOL

I wonder if I would have had as much fun if I'd really given it a shot on other toons.  Not that I hadn't, but the queues combined with twinks and constant losses didn't make for a fun time.  Now I'm playing a wanna be twink, no queues and even if we lose, a chance at getting into a winning group is only seconds away.

Pretty decent loot for the honor.  I purchased the Team Insignia for breaking immobilizing effects and the cloak for AR and STAM.  I skipped the necklace because mine is better.  I'd like to get to Sergeant Major for the bracer but I'm not thinking that will happen.  I'm very close to leveling out of my BG bracket and will probably go back questing, farming and 5-mans.  I need to start collecting some healing gear from the instances.  It's not like I can't go back to BGs if I find myself bored in the future.  However, it does suck that your rank deteriorates.  It's a good thing that Blizzard is going to change the Honor System.

My Favorite Favorites

Posts will be slow over the next couple of weeks.  Things at work are heating up and pressure points are coming to a boil.  In the few spare moments that I have, I’m not in much of a mood to write.  I’ve been jumping into BGs to take out my frustrations on the Horde, reading my favorite gaming blogs and listening to my favorite podcasts.

Now before I call out my favorite favorites, remember that every blog listed on my site is already a favorite and read by me every single week.  I visit you all regularly, often multiple times a week, for my gaming news and adventuring fix.  However, there are a few that I can’t live without reading or hearing, and I wanted to say that my lack of comments is often pure laziness on my part.  *Smile*  I don’t register with sites to leave comments – sorry.  My life is populated with too many login names and passwords of necessity, I can’t stomach more.  So I’ll say it here, how fabulous your content is and that it really makes my week!

My Favorite Favorites – in no particular order

Virgin Worlds Podcast & News
This is hands-down my favorite podcast.  I remember reading Virgin Worlds Blog and feeling like Brent was my first real contact that I’d made out in the MMORPG blogosphere.  I was so honored when he mentioned my blog on his podcast.  I’ve watched his site morph and grow into one of the leading news sites.  He does an amazing job every week.  And now he’s been courted by some big name companies to do some advertising on his podcast.  More power to ya, Brent!  Keep the good stuff coming.

Massively Online Gamer
I love this misfit tard duo.  They crack me up!  Their brand of humor and language may not be for everyone, so let the listener beware.  I love sarcasm and sharp wit, intertwined with a good whine – something these two can deliver on every single week.  And don’t get me started on the, “Punk Rock Princess Runaway,” ‘cuz I’ll be on the floor laughing my ass off.  Keep in mind that I generally play this podcast when I’m about to go to sleep so I have 20Mg of Ambien pumping through my veins.  The one time that I didn’t – week before last, I was like WTF, do they always scream this much?

Relms of Relmstein
Intelligent and thoughtful posts about World of Warcraft and MMORPGs in general.  This is a must read for me every week.  It also helps to keep me grounded and sane by presenting multiple sides to an argument.  Without such balanced reading I'd go completely postal, trying to figure out why Blizzard is trying to ruin my game!  *Smile*

Kinless’ Chronicles
Best of the adventuring blogs.  I feel like I’ve gotten to know Kinless and his merry followers through his posts.  He’s not writing about “games” – the mechnics, news or politics.  It’s about him, his wife and friends having fun in WOW.  It helps to remind me that there is still fun to be had, and that if I want to still play, I need to go find it for myself.

Nerfbat
This is where we get to listen in on what the big boys think about the state of gaming.  It’s interesting to read what professional game developers are thinking.  Not everyone who comments is a game developer but they are ALL very knowledgeable about the genre.  For me, it’s like the NY Sunday Times for MMORPGs.

Heartless Gamer
Nice mix of gaming noteworthy news, thoughts-n-opinions and personal experiences in and out of games.  Not sure where he lives, but his house seems to be battling ants on a regular basis. LOL  It might be time to move.

Tobold’s MMORPG Blog
Tobold provides gaming commentary, WOW journal and interludes into interesting personal happenings.  This is where I can make sure I haven’t missed anything important in WOW, or topics that might have a direct impact on my gaming in general.  This is my State of the Union reading – let’s me know what’s what.

Kill Ten Rats
Their posts are just fun.  No offense if that’s not what they are intending to do.  This is my light reading where I expect to get a laugh or run across obscure pieces of information about games.

So there you have it.  Thank you all for providing such entertaining content.  I’m really bummed when you’re not updated.  You’re always a bright spot in my otherwise hectic little life.