And Now, For Something Completely Different

World of Warcraft is in the doldrums.  Or, as many folks call it, the “Pre-expansion Period.”  We’ve been told by the good folks at Blizzard not to expect any new content for Cataclysm.  The Mists of Pandaria Beta is a happening place right now with cool new toys brought in weekly.  I have seen the wonders of AoE Looting and the new “Fairy Wings” (my term) style of effect for Rezzie’s <a href://Avenging Wrath.  I know that in MoP, Rosie will become a glorious white stag who looks a lot like Harry Potter’s Patronus, and will be able to carry Hubby or any other friend around on her back.  My hunter, Kheylar, will make a fortune creating glyphs for everyone when the game debuts sometime in the next few months.  Plus, she will have the added ability to release a “Murder of Crows” at her enemies as an AoE attack.  As an additional damage boost for boss fights, Kheylar will be able to send out all five of her pet-friends at the boss in an attack called “Stampede.”  Yes, MoP will be fun and different.  It’s just not out yet.  And we’re all bored to death with killing Deathwing now. 

I have been reading the articles on WoW Insider about roleplaying written by the wonderful Anne Stickney.  I always thought that roleplaying was something that only perverts and teenagers did on the Moon Guard Server.  Well, what I have learned is that roleplaying is something that an entire community does together.  You create a character, a back-story for that character, and then you interact with the world around you in character.  If you, for example, are playing a priest, you might go around talking about the light and blessing people when you throw a heal.  If you play a warrior, you might play him or her as an idealist, or someone who is mad at the world, or basically just somebody who wants to hit stuff. 

One of the other basic requirements for roleplaying is to understand a little about the lore of WoW.  Lore is the made up history, society norms, culture, jargon, etc. of a fantasy “world.”  Think about Star Trek.  Star Trek has its own universe made up of the aliens, Starfleet regulations, planets, and history of their reality.  To understand Star Trek, you have to get at least a little bit of their terminology.  While you watch Star Trek, you understand what Captain Kirk means when he says things like, “Beam Me Up” or “Warp Factor 1.”   If Picard goes over to a little computer panel in the wall and says, “Tea—Earl Gray—Hot” you know that he’s talking to a device called a “Replicator” and the cup of tea will instantly materialize for him.  I had to actually put the water on to boil, wait 5 minutes for the tea to steep, and then mix in the Splenda and pour it myself.  Oh, to live in the 24^th Century!

I have rolled toons on roleplaying servers in the past because I have always found the communities to be more mature and helpful for the most part.  They have lower populations than regular servers, so they are peaceful out questing.  I’ve even had a few roleplaying interactions with some folks in towns and thought it was fun.  So, I wanted to go off and give it a real try.

I have created Nykka (pronounced with a long-e sound).  She is a poor goblin rogue, going off to create her own fortune and adventure through the world.  Like most goblins, she loves money.  But, the Cataclysm has left her penniless and broken.  Desperate and starving, she’ll do almost anything to rebuild her fortune.  She’s learned how to hunt animals for their skins to create her own gear, how to pickpocket unsuspecting enemies, and how to use her wits to keep her safe.

She’s completely different from the type of toon I usually play in WoW.  She’s not a caster, nor is she pious and good.  She’s bad.  She’s a thief—a petty criminal.  I have gone to another realm with her so that I can enjoy the challenge of building her up without help.  Hubby’s not going to be there to help quest or support her.  I don’t have any other toons on the realm that will send her gold or make her useful bags, potions, or glyphs.  Nykka is truly on her own, starting from nothing. 

I am so excited to get her out of the goblin starting area where she can interact with others that I can’t see straight.  I want to see how Nykka’s story plays out.  Who knows?  I might drop her the same way I’ve dropped every other rogue I’ve tried to level.  I might get to town and find no roleplaying guilds are recruiting and that people do not want to play with a total stranger.  But, I am excited about the journey—the first time I’ve been really excited and felt creative about something in a few weeks.  That means something to me.  It’s just a stupid video game, yes, but I like that stupid video game and the adventure it lets me go on.

The Altoholics Lament

There’s just not enough time.
There is so many things that I want to accomplish, both in real life and in game. I want to travel. I want to do historical research and finish my two articles I started. I want to finish all the books that I have started writing. I want to clean my house from top to bottom. I want to finish my college education. Okay, that takes money along with time, and I have neither.
I have unfinished projects like that in the game too, but they’re called “alts.” Last night I blew the dust off of my Paladin, Rezina. I had been looking at her achievements on the Armory and discovered to my dismay that my oldest character was only one zone away from the “World Explorer” achievement. So, she and I went swimming in Vashj’ir. I even did the first few quests in the zone so that I could get the seahorse mount and make the time go a little quicker. Playing her was like having a conversation with an old friend. It was comfortable and fun, but I didn’t quite understand her as well as I used to.
After I got the achievement, I took her back home to Orgrimmar and thought about taking her to a dungeon. She’s dual-specced for tanking and healing. Her best gear is her healing set, but I feel more comfortable tanking with her. As I thought more about it, I realized that playing her would mean hours of studying to learn the rotations, and running dungeons over and over for valor points to get both gear sets to where they need to be. In other words, it would take time, which is too valuable a commodity to invest.
I have this goal in the back of my mind, you see. I’d like to have ten toons, all maxed leveled, maxed professions, and geared well. So, if I wanted to, say, take out druid and heal, or take out Rezzie for tanking, or take out my hunter Kheylar and just shoot bad guys, well, I could do it.
Many people do that. Most of them are either college kids, housewives, or retired older folks. Or, they have been playing World of Warcraft since it came out in 2006. They understand the class mechanics and rotations of all ten toons. They invest the time because that’s something that they have.
I have many “baby alts” that are sitting at low levels. I started them because I wanted to try that specific class/race combination. I have enjoyed playing them and hope that someday I can get back to them. My favorite is Toshina, my goblin priest. She’s level 31, and nothing but a ball of green sass and energy. I adore their movement animations. They walk with a bounce in their steps and their ears wiggle. They hop around, looking as if casting is such hard work for their little bodies. But, they get the job done. After all, “Time is money, friend! I got mouths to feed!” (I love it when they say that!)
So little time, so many things I’d like to do with my time. Too many alts to master and play. Common sense tells me that I need to pick two or three toons and focus mainly on them. I’ve learned the hard way that I am not good playing my druid and may never be. Paladins have such complicated mechanics, I don’t know if I will ever master playing Rezina again, and I am afraid to try. So, I will continue to dabble with my babies until I find that one that I am good at and is fun for me. After all, WoW is a game to entertain me in my leisure time—not an all encompassing activity. I have one of those already, and that’s being a mommy.

Toon Experimentation

I have been suffering from indecision regarding which toon is my “main” and who I want to invest the most time and effort in.  Well, that’s not exactly true:  For the past few weeks, most of my free time and effort has been devoted to Kheylar, my Blood Elf Hunter.  I have leveled her to 70 and started working on some old “Burning Crusade” end game content.  Don’t laugh.  I had skipped all of that stuff and went straight to Northrend at level 68 with all of my other toons.  Since I didn’t start playing World of Warcraft until Wrath came out, I never really experienced Shadowmoon Valley, Netherstorm, or the numerous dailies for Shattered Sun rep.  All this has been a pleasant change of pace for me, and with Kheylar’s “Bind on Account” gear the lost XP hasn’t bothered me much.

So that leaves my three level 85s sitting idle.  My druid, Redrosie, had fair gear from the Raid Finder and valor points.  Her heals are still not up to “elite” status, so I’m only invited to the first few bosses when my guild does the Dragon Soul Raid.  Our raid leader keeps recruiting and auditioning new healers to take what used to be my place.  He hasn’t had much luck, though.  They either don’t like being rotated out, they don’t want to do their homework and know the fights, or they aren’t as great a healer as they have portrayed themselves to be.  So, my raid night routine lately has been:

• Log on at least a quarter till 7pm, because that’s when the first invites go out
• Do the first two/three bosses in Dragon Soul, have a great time with my guldies
• Leave group, log off Rosie, and log onto Kheylar
• Play Kheylar and listen to the Raid’s progress (or lack thereof) with this’ week’s new healer through Hubby’s vent on speakers.

I do not think that if I continued working on my healing skills, I’d ever be invited to be a full-time member of the raid group.  And, I am not sure that I want to be.  I know that our Raid Leader is not on a personal vendetta against me.  The group seems to like me as a whole and miss me when I’m not there.  I am invited to every dungeon, LFR, and “Transmog” run that we do.  Tonight, for example, we are running Ulduar for the achievement, and I will be healing.  No, I don’t think I am unwelcome.  I just think that my raid leader lost confidence in my ability to deliver expert heals in the top-notch dungeons.  This has frustrated me as well, and after four months of trying to get better HPS, I think I’ve given up.  As much as I love Rosie, there comes a time when your best is just not “the best” with something, and you have to look at other options.

            Which brings me to my other two 85s, Rezina the Paladin and Naughtia the Warlock?  Rezina was my first toon.  She’s been parked for the better part of a year after she reached 85s.  Tanking the Heroic Dungeons was hard for me to master, and so I gave up on her to devote my time to “growing up” Rosie.  Lately, I respecced and geared her for healing, to see if I could be more effective on her than I am on Rosie.  Paladin healing is very different from the AoE and massive heal-over-time affects that Druids use.  Reading about the art of Pally Healing on forums and blogs is helpful but by no means the best way to learn how to do it.  Random groups are not patient with a “noob” healer, and the only know two Holy Pallies to ask for help.  One is my Raid Leader.  I can just see it now, “Hey, I just took my old tank that was collecting moth balls, and respecced her to heal. . .I know you think I suck healing with my Druid, but maybe you can give me some pointers on how to not suck on the Pally?  That way, I can come to more raids, and maybe roll against you for gear?”  Yeah, I don’t think he’d really welcome that.  My other Holly Pally buddy is on another server, and is a (gasp) Alliance!  Yeah, as much as I’d love to run with her and get her to teach me the ropes, this whole Alliance/Horde War thing won’t let me. 

            That just leaves Naughtia.  Naughtia is my tailor and enchanter.  I leveled her to make money.  She is geared just enough to run heroics, but her DPS is bad.  I’m a little ashamed to take her out, actually.  So, she stands in her pretty white robes (A warlock wearing priestly-looking robes, thank you Transmogging!) and she sews bags for the auction house, and disenchants greens for the materials, and she looks pretty.  That’s about all she’s good for.  

            So, I play “BC” content on a hunter that could do much more, and I have three level 85s going to waste.  It seems strange, I know, but I’m actually enjoying playing the hunter.  I think that as long as I devote my time splitting between several different classes, I will continue to be a mediocre player.  I am becoming a “jack of all trades and master of none.”  I am learning Kheylar gradually.  I will keep practicing my rotation, running dungeons to see how to work with a group, and keep questing.  I would like to see her earn the “Shattered Sun” achievements and title.  There’s no real use for that anymore—it’s just something that I haven’t done in the game yet. 

            I’ll keep you posted on how things go with Kheylar as she grows, and how things go with Rosie and Rezina, too.  I know me.  I know that I will get bored with Kheylar soon and want to, say, take Rosie out to get the highest item level gear possible on her; or take Rezzie out on a dungeon binge with some guildies and decide I like healing with her.  That’s just not this week.  This week has been all about low-stress fun with my hunter.  I’ll try to stick to those three main ones for now.

            But then again, there is my baby-priest, Toshina. . . I sure do like playing a Shadow Priest with her. 

            To be continued. . .

An Open Letter To My Druid

Rosie getting ready for another wipe

To my druid, Miss RedRosie:  You and I have been constant companions for a little more than a year now.  I have watched you grow from a timid little heifer learning how to use your druidic powers into the strong, well-geared healer that you have become.  We have defeated Cho ’gal, Nefarian, Al’Akar, and the mighty Deathwing together.  We never were able to take down Ragnaros, but we sure did let him know that we were there!  We even went back in time to defeat Illidan and the Lich King, just for the experience of it all. 

We’ve explored Azeroth together on your magical wings.  We’ve picked countless stacks of herbs, visited far off lands, and killed thousands of enemies.  But, you and I have hit a brick wall in our relationship. 

It all started with that bitch, Alysrazor.  Strike that—it started with Nefarion, when you were too slow to climb out of the lava trap that he’d set for us and cause us all to die.  Finally, through sheer luck and a lot of coaching from your friends, you managed to get that big behind out of the lava.  The team defeated Nefarion, and we were able to move on to a more dangerous place:  Firelands.  I forgave you then, Rosie, because you seemed to have overcome your slowness.

That’s when we first met Alysrazor and her fire tornados.  Your guildies were depending on you to keep them alive, Rosie.  A dead healer cannot heal.  Even in cat form. with the two stacks of the “wings of fire” buff and using your dash ability, you just couldn’t manage it for a long time.  Soon, your Raid Leader started recruiting healers, and other guild-mates lovingly teased you about your affinity to fire.  Wowcrendor even lampooned this lack of ability in his film, “How to Tell If Your Guild is Bad.” 

The issues continued to the Ragnaros battle.  Your loving guildies would even call out when Ragnaros’s hammer of flames was headed in your direction.  “Rosie, it’s on our side, move!” 

My frustration comes from the fact that I’m smarter than this.  I am not a noob, I am not an idiot.  But, when I raid with you, there is more going on than I can process.  I am looking at health bars, HoT ticks, and trying to watch the fight so I know when to pump out bigger heals.  All these things combined,something  that so many other people do so well, is something that you and I working together just do not do enough to put out high healing numbers  That is why your Raid Leader was forced to replace you on regular Dragon Soul raids.  They no longer have confidence in you.  Neither do I.

You are a great dungeon healer.  You get compliments for the way that you keep the group up in heroics.  You are able to go into the “Raid Finder” version of Dragon Soul and put out good heals.  But, I just don’t think you’re cut out for a regular raid group.  And I want to take a break from you, until I get over my frustration.  It’s not permanent “putting out to pasture” , so don’t go off to Moonglade or Thunder Bluff and settle down with some nice Bull just yet.  It’s just a rethinking period.  Rosie, I just need to figure out why we just can’t get to the next level.  Because, really, you’re such a nice cow.

 

Do You Do The PTR?

I’m up early this morning, downloading the new Public Test Realm patch. I’m a little excited to see some of the changes that WoW 4.3 will bring. Transmoging and Void Storage, not to mention killing that dastardly dragon Deathwing, are all within my sneek-peeking. . . soon as this slow computer loads it up.

Not everyone goes onto the PTR. Some folks worry that it will mess up their game or their computer because it’s not a finished version of the patch. Others simply want to be surprised. These are the same folks who refuse to read articles about movies that say “Spoiler Alert!” Or, they are uncomfortable spending time playing a copy their toon in a test realm when they could be investing the real time in their real toon.

I am a nosey person by nature. I like knowing the inside scoop. It makes me feel included. So, I am tickled to death that I get to hop onto the PTR with my druid.

(Taps foot) Okay, so it is so slow uploading that it is now time for me to get ready for work. This means that I will have to go take my “Sneek-Peek” later this evening when I come home for work. It’s raid night, but I haven’t been included in the Firelands Raids–we have 3 druids and I am the one with the lowest DPS. So, I’m an alternate. It’s okay, It’s my own fault that I’m slow on my buttons, I always have been.

So, I’ll probably be testing out the test realm while the guild does Firelands. That will give me something to look forward to. Come on, work day, hurry up and be over! Oh, how I wish I could get paid for playing World of Warcraft. haha

Some Things That Blizzard Could Learn From RIFT

Kayanna–My Mage/Healer in RIFT

Every MMORPG is similar, but has vast differences as well.  While I decided in the long run that I preferred World of Warcraft to RIFT, there were features in RIFT that I strongly felt were superior.  These features helped lure thousands of players to at least try RIFT.  Blizzard had a documented decrease in subscribers directly after RIFT’s release on March 1, 2011.

 

Okay, this is a short list of obvious and more subtle differences that made RIFT enjoyable to play. 

 

1)  Character Customization and Artwork: Toons do not all look alike.  Not only could skin and hair styles be changed, but facial features, markings, and even height could be altered for the player’s liking.  Dyes could be purchased to color gear in different combinations as well. So if you wanted your rogue to always wear black, no matter what gear dropped, it could be dyed.

 

2)  No more “Cookie Cutter” Specs:  Tanking Rogues?  Priest-Mages?  Mail wearing Druids?  Warriors with pets?  What is this, crazy town?  Nope.  Just a normal day in RIFT. 

 

3)  AOE Looting:  Just killed a mob and have lots of sparklies.  Click on one and watch your bags fill up.  Click, Click, done. 

 

4)  Sense of community:  The RIFTS that the game is based on open up and invaders invade on a frequent basis.  Imagine  it this way–you’re questing through Northern Barrens and suddenly, general chat is filled with calls for help, LFG messages, calls for tanks and heals, etc.  That’s how it works.  The community has to work together to close the rifts–and they get pretty good rewards for doing it.  Imagine also that the Alliance and Horde had to work together. . .and could communicate.  You know how you say derogatory things about a gnome warlock in a battleground ?  What if she understood what you said, and would answer back?  All of this, believe it or not, makes folks more civil and helpful.  Trade Chat Trolls are rare, and people are less likely to yell, “Stupid Noob!” and “Ask a guard” when you ask a question in general chat.

 

Just as important, though, is that the developers actually interact with the players.  The lead developer of Trion actually plays forum games like, “Where in the World” and if you find him and submit a screenshot, you get an in-game title.  I once saw a movie of a RITF in game wedding that turned into a real-life proposal.  The developers were in on it, created a priest and officiated!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzDX6K2sjkI

 

5)  Easter eggs:  RIFT has in-game puzzles and hidden caches of gear that are just there to be discovered.  When you do them, you can receive achievements and titles. 

 

Of course, there are negatives with RIFT that makes WoW superior–if not, I and thousands of my cohorts would have re-subscribed and be running dungeons and slaying dragons right now.  But, all of these (and many, many more) of the unique features of RIFT could go a long way to improving WoW and making it even more enjoyable. 

 

 

 

 

Coming Back to Blogging–and World of Warcraft

Rosie at 85

Hello again! I took a little break from WoW and tried RIFT for the summer. I liked RIFT and found it easy to learn because it was so much like WoW, but. . . it just wasn’t the same. After the 6 month subscription ended, Hubby and I went back to WoW.

It was funny how while playing RIFT, we did not have the desire to spend as much time on the computer. We went places. The house was cleaner. We watched television shows and movies again. We had a life outisde of the our computer “virtual world.”

Then, one day I was playing around on Youtube and found a funny World of Warcraft Video. The video had snipits of the game’s soundtrack. . . Orgimmar’s theme music, to be exact. Hubby and I looked at each other expectantly. That theme music re-ignited our love for the game, and much like Pavlov’s Dogs answering that famous bell, we resubscribed to WoW and returned to our beloved toons.

We joined a new guild where we feel like we finally fit in. We have our chosen raiders leveled up, and three week’s time we have them geared fairly well. We’re having fun with the game again. That is the important thing. It’s fun.

Oh, BTW:  the picture to the left is Rosie the day that she hit 85, three weeks ago.  We’ve finished Bastion of Twilight, Blackwing Decent, and the Gawd-Awful Throne of the Four Winds in the past three weeks, and started on Firelands Trash.  So, my favorite cow looks a little different since she posed for this picture.