Back in the game

Wasn’t really as long as I thought it would be… I thought I was done until Cata comes along, but I was wrong 😀

Seems all I needed was a few weeks break from WoW. I tried LOTRO, and although I love the lore and the setting, I didn’t really get on with the gameplay. It just kinda seems like a lesser version of WoW based in middle earth (maybe just because WoW is the only other MMO I’ve played). I might still play it when it goes F2P (which has been delayed in Europe), but I don’t think it will be a WoW replacement.

One thing that playing LOTRO made me realise though is that the reason I got bored of WoW was the way I was playing it. Since I discovered the addon Quest Helper, I always used it and levelling a character then just literally became all about levels. I would just blindly follow QH arrows without reading quests or following any story, I would always be keeping an eye on the rate I was getting XP, always thinking things like “if I go for another hour I can gain a couple more levels”. If I had played it properly then I doubt I would have been burned out so quickly.

So, upon my return I promptly disabled all my addons, then re-enabled only some nice UI ones (xperl, bartender, sexymap, chatter).

I created a new undead warrior on a new server as I have never been past level 6 in the undead starting zone, and never read those quests either.

It honestly feels like a different game again. I’m without heirlooms or any rich alts, I’m having to actually search around for my next objective rather than following the QH arrow, and I’m getting into the story. I’m also going to try to do all the instances at the appropriate level, hopefully most of them as the storyline introduces them (ie. SFK, which I’ve just picked up a few quests for after a chain in Silverpine).

So yeah, I’ve been back about a week now and have been enjoying playing my new warrior. I did the quests leading up to Zalazane’s Fall, but couldn’t go any further as you have to be 75+ to do the rest, but it was fun anyway.

I am considering also doing the odd raid again with my main, but I’ve not yet decided if I really want to. I am getting the urge to go for some achievements again with him, as I had originally planned to, so I might do some now and again. Doubt I’ll have time for Loremaster before Cata, though.

One other thing that I’ve just become interested in this afternoon while reading Gevlon’s blog is soloing instances at the appropriate level. Now I’d already been doing a bit of instance soloing with Kal, but long after he was 80. What I’m thinking now is to roll a new hunter and have a crack at all the instances from Ragefire chasm onwards, solo. I’m thinking of trying to solo them while they are still available in the dungeon finder, which means I would have up to about 5 levels above the last boss to do it. If I decide to do this then I’ll obviously post about my attempts here.

Taking a break

Yep, I’ve decided to take a break from the game for a while, probably until Cata is out… if I do come back at all.

Basically I’ve just become bored with it. I already stopped raiding a couple of months ago and I think since then I’ve tried levelling a couple of alts, doing the same zones and quests that I’ve done many times before, and this time alone as the missus is well and truly WoW-free now. I did stick with levelling a hunter for a few weeks, taking him from 24 to the lofty heights of level 72, but although I did enjoy playing a hunter, I didn’t really enjoy the levelling grind. I got through it by just looking forward to the next zone, almost convincing myself that I did still like the game enough to stay, but as I was questing through Borean Tundra for the 6th time I decided it was time to let it go… at least until there’s something new to do!

I might actually give LOTRO another go since it’s going free-to-play on September 10th. I’ve been reading the books again so it’s looking mighty appealing to me right now.

On that note, in the (slightly edited) words of one Bilbo Baggins:

“I regret to announce that – though 16 months is far too short a time to spend among you – this is the END. I am going. I am leaving NOW. GOOD-BYE!”

/wave

I R Huntard!

While alt-hopping over the last week or so, I finally tried out my level 24 nelf hunter, and have played him over the last couple of days. I am actually starting to really like playing him again, and he’s now at 29.

When I made him over 6 months ago I didn’t really look up much on hunters, I specced randomly into marksmanship and in the twenties found it quite tough going, which may be why I went off of him, thinking that it just wasn’t for me. When I went back to him I asked a couple of friends what they would suggest and the resounding response was “BM!”. I guess this does make sense for levelling.

So I respecced BM and it instantly made a difference.

I’ve been questing in Wetlands and having fun with it, it’s quite a different playstyle to others I’ve played solo.

I even managed to solo half of Stockades so I could kill Kam Deepfury for the quest, at level 29, with no deaths, or even near-deaths! Maybe that’s not such a big deal but, seeing as I’m only a few levels above it and it’s still there in my LFG list, I was quite pleased with myself.

So… hunter it is then 😀 (for now at least…)

Hello… is this thing still on?

It’s been a while since my last post, not too sure what happened there, just kinda lost the motivation to post.

I’ve still been playing a fair bit of WoW, although right now I’m not too sure what to do. In the last few months I’ve gone from raiding 4 nights a week to now not raiding at all (my own choice), and my wife has now decided to take a break from WoW (cancelling her subscription 😦 ).

I’ve levelled a few chars, including my pally to 80. I’ve done a fair bit of the gear grind in heroics, levelled some professions and gained some achievements, but right now I just don’t know what I want to do in the game.

In the last week or two I’ve flitted between alts, a few levels here and there, including finally getting my rogue (2nd ever char) to Outland and level 60, but so far none of them has really grabbed my attention and given me that urge to really play them.

I started working on loremaster with Kal, but again just got bored and gave up after a couple of hours. Also had a brief stint at soloing stuff, did UBRS just for the achievement, but it wasn’t exactly challenging. Had a few goes at the first boss in AQ40, got my furry ass handed to me on a plate (in my defense I went in a little under-prepared). I might give Northrend 5-mans another go as my gear is a fair bit better than my close attempts at UK and VH.

So yeah, that’s it. Need to find something in WoW to get me going again.

I even downloaded LOTRO and signed up for the free trial :). Made me a hobbit guardian who is now level 8. I love LOTR so have always wanted to give it a go. The graphics are really good and just following the storyline and reading the quests properly has made it more interesting for me. So far I’m undecided as to whether I’ll play beyond the trial, but if I do it probably won’t be until they make it free-to-play later this year.

A Shift in Focus

Our refer-a-friend period finally ran out last Sunday. So this means no more triple XP, no more summoning. Our aim was to level 9 pairs of alts (one of each class, apart from DK of course) to 60.

We were so close. So so close.

We had all but my hunter/her warlock at 60. We left those early on Sunday afternoon to go and watch our son play football, they were ready for a run through Blackrock Depths with quests in hand.

We got back, and to our horror found that we were no longer getting triple XP! I thought that the refer-a-friend bonuses ran out at midnight on the final day, but it seems that it runs out at the time of day that the accounts were initially linked. Gah.

So now we have to spend three times as much time getting these two from 50 to 60.

Overall I think we did really well. During the three months my wife levelled a DK to 80, I have a 71 Ret Pally (although only had to get her up 11 levels :)). We also levelled seven pairs of characters to 60, one pair to 61 and one pair to 50. Not only did we do that, but we also leveled at least one of every profession (more than one of most, including multiple gatherers) and most of those are maxed to Outland level (300).

We bought flying for all the chars when they hit 60, have a guild bank with 3 tabs, and we still have about 8k gold (most of this is through the hard work of my better half :)). Our plan is to have enough to give one pair fast flying as soon as possible, probably a herbalist and a miner to make farming a bit quicker.

I would imagine that we should also have enough gold to give Northrend flying to all alts as they get to the point where they can have it. We may get one pair to 80 first so we can buy the tomes for the rest to make NR questing much faster for them.

Playing these alts for the last few months has been a lot of fun, and we’ve both really enjoyed it. But, now they are all sitting nicely (almost) at 60, and at a point where we want to really learn to play all the classes, doing dungeons etc, we have decided to take a little break from them. Maybe we just got a little burned out. We’re not abandoning them though, not at all, just taking a week or two away from playing them, and when we do go back there’s no rush now, no clock to beat, so we can take it at a more leisurely pace.

What we have done now is got right back into playing level 80s. We’ve been giving a lot of love to our mains for the last week or so, getting achievements and focusing on raids.

We’ve two-manned a couple of old raids (Kara and Molten Core so far) and did Gruul’s Lair with some guildies which was loads of fun. I’d never been through any of those, and was quite awestruck when I saw Ragnaros. That’s one pretty badass looking boss! We’ve also been getting some reps up, have done a few runs of Sethekk Halls heroic in the hope for the Raven Lord mount and Magister’s Terrace for the Swift White Hawkstrider.

We’ve been very good about doing our daily random heroic, and I’ve even done most of the children’s week achievements (all but PvP – I’m crap in PvP with Kal).

So, yes, been having lots of level 80 fun, more than I have done in a long long while, even before we made this new account.

We’re also doing really well in ICC, downed professor twice now (one-shotted him on Tuesday), and had a few goes on the blood princes. I also got my excellent new tanking boots, Footpads of Impending Death. These were a major upgrade for me.

Having said that, I do keep getting the urge to get my 54 rogue to Outland (finally!) and play my 37 resto shammy…

Zoom Zoom ZOOOOOM!

 

 

The wife insisted on having a go on my rocket... So I did the gentlemanly thing.

 

I thought this was going to be an awesome mount… but… IT’S WAY MORE AWESOME THAN I COULD EVER HAVE IMAGINED!

Not a Bad Night’s Work

Last night we finally got Professor Putricide down after about 7 attempts!

We did the first few with 3 healers, and we just seemed to have trouble getting the oozes down fast enough, so one of the healers (our shammy) logged onto his hunter instead. That certainly solved that problem! It then took us a few more tries to get everyone doing what they should be… and (in most cases) not doing what they shouldn’t be!

I think there’s also a bit of luck involved in this fight, as on our successful try we managed to get to the phase 3 transition without any oozes up! This meant that DPS could concentrate on the prof straight away. People started to die and we were getting overwhelmed by the slime puddles when he went down, and myself and our MT both had 5 stacks of the debuff so I think we were probably seconds away from a wipe. It was a massive relief when he went down!

To top off that fight, the Unidentifiable Organ dropped, and I won it!

So this week I think we’ll be having a crack at the Crimson Halls.

But the night didn’t stop there… oh no.

Someone in the raid suggested we have a go at Sarth3D… to “relax” after the prof fight. Yeah… nice and relaxing.

We decided on zerging this, which is how we’ve tried (and failed) in the past.

First attempt… as usual too many got hit by lava walls and we wiped with Sarth down to about 400k HP.

Second attempt, this time I think only one person was hit by the wall, and a lot more people survived long enough to get him down! In fact (as the screenshot I posted on our guild site proves) I was the last one left alive, pew pewing away at him while the rest of the raid (aka. the slackers) obviously took the suggestion of relaxing too much to heart :). I’ve been wanting this one for a while, feels good to have finally done it!

Obviously, the Reins of the Black Drake dropped. I didn’t win the roll, but my wife did! Then, for some strange reason, she decided to give it to me! Think she must have been temporarily insane. Anyhow, I made the most of the act of generosity :D.

Kal on his Black Drake

And… I also won the roll for the satchel of spoils.

All-in-all, a good night I think.

Except…

This morning I remembered about my rocket mount! I totally forgot about it last night :(. Will definitely get it tonight. Definitely. *writes “ROCKET MOUNT” on the backs of his hands*

Rocket Mount Out Today!

Yep, finally it’s out (well today, at some point), and I have my refer-a-friend bonus mount reward waiting to be claimed… so hopefully I’ll be whizzing about on this baby shortly after getting home this evening!

Time is running out for those who wish to claim their Zhevra, as the launch of the X-53 Touring Rocket is now scheduled for today, Tuesday, April 27! If you’ve fulfilled all of the Recruit-A-Friend requirements necessary to claim a mount now but choose not to claim the Zhevra, you will be able to claim the X-53 Touring Rocket instead once it launches. Sounds like they’re firing it up for a final test run now….

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/t/12947282901/27-04-recruit-a-friend-mount-update/

Successful Kara Attempt

Although I didn’t solo it :).

Went back to Kara with my wife’s druid (she went boomkin, throwing in heals as needed) and we 2-manned it. Was good to have a run through it before trying more of the bosses solo.

For the opera event we got Oz, which was extremely easy and I’m pretty sure I could solo that without trouble, but no doubt when I do go back on my own I’ll get one of the other ones.

Took a few tries at the chess event to figure it out, after 3 failed attempts we did it by moving the four middle pawns forward, then I took the king all the way over to the warchief and just burned him down, while the missus controlled one of the healers and kept me alive. Once we’d figured out the strategy it was extremely easy.

We did have a little trouble on the last boss. We hadn’t actually looked up his abilities so got worried when knocked Mrs Boomkin down to 1 health a couple of times, weren’t sure what to do then he did his shadow nova while she was too close, so we wiped when he was down to about 7%. A quick read on wowwiki and we were back, this time with much less fail and a tad more win. Not too sure whether I could solo him or not though… would be a tough one I reckon.

Considering we only went in for fun and the achievement, was nice that we also made about 650g (after repairs) in the 2 hours that we were there.

In other news, our guild made some more progress on Professor Putricide last night, managing to get to phase 3 in the last two attempts. We had to do this with only 2 healers as that’s all we had available, and the healing needed in phase 3 overwhelmed us pretty quickly, but it’s encouraging that we can now get to that phase without too much trouble, everyone seems to have the first two phases down now. I’m hoping we have an extra healer available for our next attempt at him, which (fingers crossed) will be on Tuesday.

I Am…. The Keymaster!

Sounds so grand… although not figured out yet what special powers this has bestowed upon me. I’m sure it’s something awesome like I can command all the keys of Azeroth to do my bidding. Must be.

This is just a little update to say that I (kind of accidentally) finished up The Keymaster achievement.

I was going to have another go in Kara, initially a solo attempt again, then my wife said she’d like to come too (which was more than fine by me :D). So I made my way there, and she got her rogue there to open the gate. Then we realised that we might have a little difficulty in getting her druid in seeing as it’s on the same account as her rogue, who we needed to open the gate again.

Anyway, the missus then went to watch some TV instead, and I decided that I would leave Kara for the night and go and obtain the key so we could both go next time.

The quest chain for The Master’s Key is not the quickest ever and requires trips to shadow labs, steamvault, arcatraz and black morass! Not the most difficult to do solo, but still quite lengthy.

Problem was I didn’t have the shadow labs key, so I had to go into Sethekk halls first. Then, while in shadow labs I got to honored with lower city which meant I could go and get the last key for the achievement, the auchenai key.

It was quite late by this point so I didn’t finish up the chain for the Kara key, but at least I got a nice unexpected achievement out of it.