Thursday, May 30, 2013

Trolls?

          Troll Rebellion. As an alliance player I just can't bring myself to care. The battlegrounds in the Barrens is just not that much fun for me. And being motivated to play is very troublesome for me. I pay to play this game and yet, while I feel no need to unsub, I am hard press to generate the enthusiasm to play. The previous patches had always been exciting time for me. Each patch has always been exciting to me. The interest for this patch was up till release. Since release it has plummeted. It's so low now that I find it hard to log in and play. Even to run my alts.
            As for the 'bad luck' protection. Non-existent as far as I can tell. I have rolled 5 times so far on my main, and nothing but gold so far. So unless it's it gives me something tonight on my 6th coin, I will call foul on the bad luck protection farce. Gearing shouldn't be controlled by RNG. It should be a conscious decision made by the player. Not a random event that is sure to just continually demoralize and piss off the player base. I have friends that are fully gear for PVP already, but can't seem to get the required gear from LFR. They have had over 100 attempts at getting their weapons between bosses and rolls through all the Tier 14 and 15 raids before they got a tier 14 weapon. This has so demoralized them from the PVE environment that they have left their Alliance main to play Horde PVP. They have it fully geared for PVP and is enjoying the game again. I just can't get into PVP and I just can't feel excited about running LFR just to collect the gold bags. I had hoped that things would have changed in 5.3, but I was massively disappointed. And I don't see how they are going to make it any better till maybe the next expansion where I get a new involvement from lore and raids. At least I hope the Alliance lore gets better and motivates me more than the current bare bones Alliance story.
           So what do guys feel about 5.3? I would like to know.
           Tune in next time to hear what I have to say next.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Weekly Character Update

   Airholen the Explorer
       So I completed the the new story line for Alliance in the barrens. Too short. Not very engaging. Lacks any real tie in for me. And the Weekly thing was only interesting in that there are a various ways to collect the resources you need. But the end result was more disappointing than anything else. In fact it such a let down, that I only plan to do the weekly one more time to get the pet and then not going back with Airholen. I had such high hopes that this expansion to be fun, but it has fallen so flat with me that I am not even feeling guilty that I have playing STO more than WoW this week.

   Asmodea
        Did nothing with her. She languishes in the shadow of Airholen's less than motivating adventures.

   Airholen of Baldur's Gate
        He is now level 21. Leveled strictly by doing professions through the gateway option. I love this capability. Nothing else done with him though. Not enough time dedicated to him.

    Zombee, Sisteric and Danic.
         I bought the discounted Lifetime Subscription for STO. Which meant that I had to go collect the new shuttle, new Vice Admiral Ship, new veteran ship, new veteran clothes, new Android bridge officer and new pets. It also increased by bank, Account bank and Inventory size. And it gave all of my toons more bridge officer slots, uniform slots and ship slots. I also was able to retrain my guys skills to get them.

    Zombee
          I completed the Wasteland story line. Picked up the new Duty Officer. And now working on all of the reps that exist. Romulan Rep is now Level 1. Nukara and Omega is only level 0.

   Grell
          Created my first "Romulan" character. He is an alien, same species as Zombee. I have only picked up his first ship, a T'Liss Light Warbird named D'Relix. He also has picked up two bridge officers. I am trying to get him leveled and going through the questline while the rerun is going on. I want to get all of the rewards for him.

Tune in next time to find out what I may talk about next.

Friday, May 24, 2013

Blue Skies and the Troll Rebellion

   So now that I have played it some more, 5.3 just isn't that interesting to me. I lack any motivation to run the Barrens missions  mainly because there is not a reward out there for me to gain that improves my game play  Nor does there seem to be anything to unlock or motivate me to actually do anything there. 5.3 seems to be a complete waste of time for my main character to do. Running LFR's is going to be the only way to advance my character in 5.3. Which was the only way to do it in 5.2. So not much has changed for me game play wise. Which is sad for me, because I had looked forward to the patch and it's new quest line. But they just didn't put anything in it to really make me want to play it. Or spend time in it. Once I finish the LFR's, I will be hoping over to Asmodea, the rogue, and trying to finally level cap her. Then it's working on the Tillers to get all the farm plots open to start that effort of gold making on herbs. And Transmuting of stuff. Which will free Airholen to go back to mineral farming and get the gem market monies and finish learning all of the cuts.

   So now I have to hope that 5.4 will deliver thew goods to make me happy. And just as a wish list, here is what would make me happy if they added it in 5.4...

Turn the Farm into the Personal Housing.
     They could turn the hut into a storage place for Soulbound items like Brewfest Mugs and Tabards would be awesome and get them out of my bank. Even having a place for old Armour sets would be nice.
     Having farm hands doing the profesion work for you would be nice. They could till the land, plant the crops, cook the food, forge the ores, make the gear, cut the gems and mix the potions while you are off adventuring and exploring the land. This could also open things up for further usage by haveing rare items made from rare materials that have to be gotten from the world. Then these rare items take time to make and then you can go and sell them at the AH or use them yourself.
      Having cosmetic things to get to individualize your home. Paint to add color. Paintings to go buy. Furniture to be made or bought. Maybe even having a Koi pond to stare at while relaxing from a hard day of raiding. The possibilities can go on and on.

Give the various pure DPS classes either Healing or Tanking Specs.
        This would open up the number of people for the healing and tanking roles. I think the Rougue could be great avoidance Tanks. And if Beast Masters could tank with their Pets effectively, it would be awesome. Arcane Mages as Healers would really make them stand out. Demonology Warlocks as Tanks would be cool too. Using Demons to aggro things I think would be a good thing. These are just thoughts of where this could go.


What are some Ideas of yours? Let me know.

Tune in next time to see what else I may cover.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

The Darkspear Rebellion and me

    So I started the out going to Lorewalker Cho and doing his quests on Airholen. From Cho, the two new scenarios were ran on quests. After running each one you get a reward. For me, the rewards basically were low level blue items of no consequence.
     In Blood in the snow you are helping the dwarves out in that region between Ironforge and Gnomeregon. The Trolls have setup shop here capture dwarves and sacrificing them to thier gods. You go in and rescue the dwarven scouts and then eventually killing the lead Troll. Because of what you do, the Dwarves, including the Dark Iron Dwarves, join forces under one banner at the behest of King Varian. The Alliance goes stronger. This is purely to tell the story of what is going on at the home front, and that the Alliance are still looking and resolving issues at home even though they have expeditions to the Pandarian Continent.
      The other scenario turns you into a goblin. And you get to experience the tyrannical treatment from the Orcs. You also get to see that Garrosh is still looking to find weapons of mass destruction. The Goblins sass back a bit but end up cowering and running like a cowards. It is telling that the goblins are even considering not supporting Garrosh in the future.
        I also got the quest to head towards Mt Neverrest. But I haven't completed it yet. It will end with getting 516 boots.
        The changes to the Beast Mastery Hunters didn't really seem to effect my DPS meters in Raid. It did give me a 5k lift in Scenarios DPS. Otherwise, it doesn't seem to have done anything to make me want to play my Hunter anymore than I do now.
        My Combat Rogue is now level 87 from the changes. We shall see were else it takes her, but I haven't done anything her in this new patch so I don't know if she is going to get any help from it yet.

Tune in next time to find out what I will talk about next.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Weekly Character Update

     Airholen the Explorer
          I got the Gore Soak Gear finally. So I was able to get to only needing 2 pieces of gear before 5.3 came. But now that it is here, I checked out Ask Mr. Robot to see where I am at now. So I still need Durumu's Baleful Gaze, but it says not to put the extra gem on it. I will do so anyways and probably push crit and haste. It wants me to switch my shoulders out for the Shadow Pan Assault shoulders. I am not Exalted with them yet so that will need some time. I also need to grab the Tigerfang Wrap, the new 600 iLevel Cloak which you get from the Legendary quest. Once I get the metagem I will have to work on this. And I need to get the Saurok Stalker's Gloves. I think I have them already, will have to check the bank tonight. It also wants me to get the Quakestompers from Tortos. So I am back to getting 4 pieces of gear. And now I have a reason to run all the wings of LFR so to maximize my rep grind and valor capping efforts. Hopefully the gem market wont die off by the time I am able to get home and online so that I can make some gold off of my JC skill, for once.

       Asmodea
            I have not done anything with her. I have been waiting for 5.3 to drop so that I can get to 87 and then I will push. She is in the farming valley. I will be focusing on the Tillers with her to get her farm maxed out and start doing the enigma seed farming. That way, Airholen can go back to farming the mineral seeds to get the ore.

       Airholen of Baldur's Gate
             He is now level 20 and has a rental horse. I also have upped his gear. I also completed my first dungeon run and skirmish. Those were lots of fun. And I never even died through the whole thing. I also got my first companion, a Cleric. I had to give her a name, but I didn't know she was going to be a she. She is named Father Thyme. When I can afford to, I will change her name to something more feminine.

      Danic
          My Vulcan Science Officer has finished all of the story lines prior to the release of Legacy of Romulus. Which means that He will now be used to focus on making Dilithium and rep grinding with the Tholians first.

      Zombee
          With Danic caught up, I have had the time to rep grind the Romulan Republic. I also have been focused on getting his crafting skill maxed out so that I can make all of the stuff needed for the grinds. I was able to purchase the account bank so that I can put more mats from the other characters in it to keep him moving forward.

      Sisteric
           As my lone Klingon officer, he has done very little. I should work rep grinding with him, but after doing Zombee, I just am not motivated enough. Hopefully this will not be an issue after I get my first Romulan Officer up and going.

     So that is what has been happening with my characters this week. Tune in next time to get my impressions on WoW 5.3. Maybe even STO too.

Monday, May 20, 2013

Winds of Change

   So tomorrow we get the release of 5.3 in WOW Live. We also get the Legacy of Romulus going live. Are we ready for do downloads at the same time. Sadly, no. My system wouldn't be able to chug through both updates easily. SO I plan to load up WOW and download the patch, do the farm and then logging out. The I will load up STO and install it and then run a character. STO has a limited time event for getting past Lockboxes, right now. And they also have a keys being sold cheaply now. All nice but I don't have the Dilithium to get the keys. So I will work on collecting the lockboxes for the the that will come that I can purchase the keys.
   I also don't plan that anybody but Airholen will be played initially because of the new content in patch for WOW. Airholen does all of that content first, out of all of my characters. And maybe, someday, WOW will decide to allow Altoholics the chance to actually level their Alts. Hopefully, they will do so. Until then, Asmodea and the rest will hang out waiting for the day that the time constraints are lessened. So that I can spend time leveling them and not feel like I am hampering Airholens progression. Giving me time to play my alts would actually increase my enjoyment of the game because I could experience the same content from a different perspective. This fresh look at old content from a different playstyle (Range DPS, Melee DPS, Healer or Tank) and from the different Faction (Alliance or Horde) makes the content seem new and different, yet familiar and knowable. It's a good place to be, I think.
 
  That's all I want to say for now. Later this week I will give my impressions on WOW 5.3 and STO's LoR expansions. But tune in tomorrow to find out what my characters have been doing this past week first.

Friday, May 17, 2013

The Week in WOW

    So the PTR build is now a release candidate. Next Tuesday should be the day that 5.3 drops. It's nice that it's fixes are coming to make alt leveling easier. But I also feel that it's to soon because it hasn't given me enough time to run my alts yet. So I am of mixed emotions about this.
     Pet ability Sting for hunters will have a longer cooldown. Twice as long in fact. So more nerfs for beat masters, and hunters in general. Not sure why this is such an issue.
      Scattershot will not be tied to the DR of the traps. This makes it better for Survivalists. But it still sucks that it has DR at all.
      Eye of the Black Prince will now be able to be added to Reborn weapons. Nice, but there are no reborn weapons for Hunters. And for Combat Rogues, you do have a couple options amongst the Reborns.
      As you would expect, with the release candidate now showing, there isn't a lot of changes to report. After Tuesday we will get our chance to bring the war to Ogrimmar.
      Tune in next time for what I will talk about next.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Weekly Character Update

Airholen the Explorer
        He has all but three pieces of gear for complete optimization, according to Ask Mr. Robot. I need the Ring from Dark Animus, Weapon from Dorumu and boots from any boss....still. I also still need the secrets to continue the Dark Prince Legendary quest. Otherwise, I am farming herbs for Asmodea still. I also went through the guild bank and pulled every non-MoP uncut gem and set it up for sale in the auction house. I will be moving towards cleaning up the guild bank to clear it up, and sell off the stuff that is no longer current or of use. Then I will be moving towards getting more stuff in to sell to get the gold to make the jewelcrafting mounts.I will specifically be looking to convert ores to gem and then sell the raw gems on the market.

Asmodea, Zombee, Sisteric, and Danic
         I have done nothing with them. I haven't had time due to the Beta's that I got involved in.

Airholen of Baldur's Gate
         Leveled to 17 off of profession work done through the Gateway browser program. Also collected nearly 4k Astral Diamonds. Otherwise I have not done anything with this game.

I need to figure out a schedule to rotate through my games to give them all equal time. I enjoy all of these games so I need to plan out my play time with each one to get better involvement with them. And so that I can actually progress in each one.

Tune in next time to find out what I will talk about next.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Open Beta Weekend Fun

       So this past weekend was Open Beta on the STO Tribble server for Legacy of Romulus. Also it was Double Astral Diamond for Open Beta Neverwinter. These two things became my focus for the weekend.
       Neverwinter was easy to keep this up. You can log on to the Gateway for Neverwinter and manage your Professions. This gave me level 17 for my character and collected around 4k of the Astral Diamonds. I didn't need to commit a lot of time to do this. And if I had been more diligent about my Astral Diamond efforts I would have made way more. But STO Open Beta really grabbed my attention.
      Playing a Romulan in STO was way more fun than I thought it would be. And flying a warbird, with it's new Singularity mechanics was all kinds of fun. And the story line is superb. It really does draw you into the events and gives you a reason to do what your are doing. I made a Romulan Tactical Officer. I allied with the Klingons. I ran as many missions as I could and reach Sub-Commander and gained my Tier 3 ship, a Mogai warbird. My uniform options are interesting but not as colorful as the feds. KDF adjustments I liked better than the pure Romulan options. But I did have trouble getting them to wearing all the same. And then if you put girls in skirts, the options were limited to one thing. And not a good look. And makes the boot options limited. So all of my BOF's wear pants.
        So that's what I did this weekend in gaming. Stay tuned to find out what I talk about next.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

The Week in WOW

   So some things have changed to us poor little hunters.
        Revive Pet cast time has been changed from 6 to 4 seconds. Yay! So now when the pet gets killed by those snail on the way to Ji-Kun, it wont take as long to get him back.
        Scatter Shot now shares DR with Freezing Trap and Wyvern Sting. Boo!! So now Scatter Shot is less useful, and combine this with Intimidation being yanked from BM and being put in as the Level 30 Talent (in competition with Silencing Shot) The BM Hunter utility is getting a major nerf. Silencing Shot is going to be the talent of choice at 30.
         Intimidation is replacing Binding Shot for the Level 30 Talent. Binding Shot becomes a Marksman only skill. While this is going to be a good thing for Marksmen as they will will have Scatter Shot  Binding Shot and Silencing Shot to use, BM's and Survivalist's suffer to having Scatter Shot and Silencing Shot as the only possible ways to disrupt caster types. Intimidation is not on par with Silencing Shot in usefulness and Wyvern Sting is not good enough to overcome Serpent Sting as your one Sting. In fact Wyvern Sting is useful in PVP or the Raid environment at all. And useless if you plan on AOEing things. End result is that all Hunters will pick Silencing Shot in almost every case. And Since the Scatter Shot and Wyvern Sting share DR, there is even less reason to use it in those rare cases it might have been good to do.
          Blink Strike being renames Blink Strikes and made passive will not likely increase it's usage.Besides they nerfed it with reducing the range from 40 to 30 yards and change the damage from 600% normal damage to 150% basic attacks. Blink Strikes is a pet ability that really would be good for BM's buffed pets but I like Murder of Crows better. A dot that can't be gotten rid of with a cool graphic is cool. And makes me feel more like a Master of Beast type BM Hunter. Lynx Rush, the other level 75 Talent, is nice and probably better for raids than Blink Strikes.
           Beast Cleave gets a buff in that it does 75% damage instead of 50%. Great for the AOE efforts. And one of the true ray of lights in this round of changes.
           Marksman's Bombardment buffs Multi-shot damage by 60% now, instead of 30% previously. So marksman's get better at AOE again. Which is good, gives them a uniqueness that the Hunter specs are not really known for.
            Exotic Beast also get a major nerf. Instead of the 30% decrease of pet ability cool downs, we now get a 1% reduction of cool down time. So Beast Masters pets are just as effect as Marksman and Survivalist. So what makes BM's different from MM's and Surv's? The lines are blurring again....
            Rogues....rogues are getting nerfs to. Cloak and Dagger will now require you to be in Stealth to use it, and Shadow Dance will not be able to remove this requirement. So who is going to use Cloak and Dagger now? Not Subtlety, I bet. Since it's not going to help them any more in their special abiility, they will probably going to pick Shadowstep or Burst of Speed. For Assassin's and Combat Rogues, this change means nothing.
            Combat Rogues Revealing Strike will last 24 seconds instead of 18 seconds. Which is nice, but does little to change the rotation and importance of the rotation.
            Subtlety's Find Weakness gets nerfed against player dropping the armour baypass to 50% from 70%, but NPC targets get a buff of 100% bypass, up from 70%.

      So that's what interested me in the news. Tune in next time to see what I will talk about.
           

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Weekly Character Update

   Airholen
           So I was able to buy the valor belt from the Shado Pan Assault. That is the last of my valor gear that I need to buy. Now, I just need the weapon from Dorumu, the ring from Dark Animus and the boots that drop from any of the bosses, Nalak and Oondasta. But like usual they have eluded me. I did go up against Nalak and got Tyrannical Boots. So my PvP gear is still building. But it has gotten annoying to keep running the LFR and only get gold. I do have Revered with Shado Pan Assault now.

   Asmodea
            Have adventured very little. In fact I have done very little overall with this character. No progress to report.

    Zombee, Sisteric and Danic
            Outside of doing a couple of Defari missions with Danic, I haven't had time to play STO at all. I have been reading all about it though.

     Airholen
             Yes, this is here a second time on purpose. Neverwinter has gone open Beta. This is the Trickster Rogue I made on the Dragon server in Neverwinter. This game has been fun so far. And so I have been playing it a bit of late. The Character is Level 15 now and I am enjoying the Gateway option of doing my professions through a browser. I am enjoying even the PvP content in this game too so it has gotten more and more of my time as of late. I will do a full write up soon.

That is todays update. Tune in next time to see what I have to say about things.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

The Week in WOW

      So 5.3 became part of the background loading queue. So 5.3 is drawing near. Rho from the Realm Maintenance predicts May 14th. Others I know say May 7th. Me, I think that 14th is more likely but it would really come the week after the Blizz Team do the rounds with the podcast interviews. But we shall see.

       PVP got a buff to the PVP Power. So PVP continues to move towards lowering the wall. But the the wall still exist. And until they make PVP gear and PVE gear interchangeable, they will never be able to get that wall go away.

      Sigil's in the Tier 14 raids will drop more frequently. This will get people moving along the Black Prince's Legendary Quest. But doesn't help with the current content of the Legendary Quest.

      Blizzcon Tickets has sold out. As expected. I am not going due to my family needs. Hopefully in November I will be able to watch the Live Streaming.

      Exodus quits Hard Core Progression Raiding after getting World 8th place and US 3rd place. The Guild says that the level of commitment required to do the the raiding is what killed them. The amount of work needed to complete a raid due to the mechanics of the raid as increased because the raids have become more complex.

       A new quest being referred to as The Old Seer will reveal the new Sha and reward a 502 boots. Maybe I will finally get BIS Boots because I can't seem to get them now.

   Tune in next time and find out what I will talk about next.