Weekend tanked away

Oh. My. God.

First of all, noticed just now that I have fought in one thousand battles in World of Tanks. My son, who is a wizard in all things FPS and related - heck, what ever game you get your fingers on! - has 'only' 700 battles under his belt!

That said, I have fought so many only because I have mostly switched to another tank as soon as possible. I have ran most of the lower tier tanks to elite status (except US based ones...) and thus wasted games and experience in vain.

Lesson one (if you ever start in WoT): choose your tank tree by the feel and stick to one or two tanks till you reach your goal. Spread yourself thin only after that.

I was in a good winning streak before last weekend. My win ratio was 54% at 800 battles, but then the in game match maker (MM which is cursed in WoT forums in so many ways) started evening out the odds. I think I was in the winning team in one every ten battles over the long weekend. Which really sucked and hurt, made me cross allover. Thankfully my wife was not at home, so I was able to joke my frustration away with the kids. Thankfully I got over it all by going to see Sherlock Holmes with the kids.

Yea, I liked the movie. Guns, bigger guns and Little Hansel.

The weekend was crowned by the fact that I got into the Clan I applied for. It will take some time to get accustomed to the fact that I can join a group of complete strangers fellow clanners to frag enemies. In a way I'm a bit jealous for the fact that a)I'm so old, b)I have a family to support and c)thus I have not enough time to devote to the game and enter the Clan Wars. Then again, taking into account the fact that the Clan War combats occur every so seldom, I could make the time.

The only thing is actually the fact that I don't have high enough tanks.

I really should concentrate on something. But I like going from a heavy KV-series to agile scouting T-50 to sniping sharpshooter of T-34 to supporting artillery role of Grille and back, so it's kind of difficult to settle down for just one gaming style. I master artillery best, at least according to statistics, but I like the other roles as well.

You know, it can get lonely at the back, too.

Shoot sharp and aim straight!

Weekend in the Rift

Yes, you read right. This weekend was spent mostly in Rift, with slight incursions to our beloved WoW. Just to relax my twitching muscles after intensive Rift sessions I visited Deepholm with my priest, made some business in AH and even levelled Gnomore a bit more (more on that in days to come).

Rift. For me Rift is like WoW in steroids, adding working and good bits and pieces of other games into a coherrent whole. It's a mix of WoW in polish, EQI/II in collectibles, Lotro in graphichs, WAR in public quests and many other pristine and working things from other games. The world and concept is original IP, very intriquing and compelling as whole: there is more lore than you want to conceive, like in all of the others.

And the main thing is to kill and kill some more.

The amount of collectibles (Shinies, whee!) and crafting material makes the world worth exploring, though. I didn't realize how much I had missed the concept of shinies which I was introduced in EQ2 till I came across it here again. It seems that Gnomore fills that concept as well, being extremely compelling and intensive as such, without killing at all.

Rift isn't ground breaking nor innovating anything new: it's just refining the working parts of other games into something new, doing what Blizzard did with WoW. Making something new from the parts used in other games and making it their own.

There. I fear that if I go and pre-order Rift, that will be the end of my WoW career: I cannot compare the games in any reasonable way, except that Rift is new and has so much to explore. Will that love last? I don't know. For the time being Three Stooges are keeping me in WoW, as well as my dedication to level Gnomore at least out of Old Azeroth to flying mount and Outlands.

Till the next Rift beta, I... must... resist...

C out
.

Chain of successes (yawp)

What a weekend in WoW for me. And I survived and feel pretty good about it.

First of all, I missed yet another daily on Friday. As it happens, there was something very strange about my computer during that day, and the darn machine decided to lock up about 25 minutes before the 10 man Onyxia raid was about to start. Panic, desperation and restarting the computer I logged back into the game 15 minutes before the due time, only to find myself again at the wrong swamp... I should have taken the other turn right there, I know.

Thankfully the invites came and summons as well, all the while I was panicking over my UI which was being cranky in addition to the rest of the computer. WTF is going on with my machine?!

Onyxia. Like I responded to Scarybooster in Twitter (as he asked how the Ony10 went), it was fast, furious but that the best part of the run was that I wasn't being carried along. I actually think I carried my weight in the over geared group pretty well, even managed to do over 1.3k dps as protection specced warrior in there. Granted, majority of that came from the AoE damage of Thunderclap and Shockwave, only to be followed by Devastates and Shield Slams. But yes, I enjoyed the run so much I signed in for the one next week (even though I didn't get anything from the broodmother for myself, except the Emblems of Heroism, which I was lacking from my Clutch of Fortification. Which I got right after the run!).

After that run we did a fast guild run, but being what I am and after stressing and anticipating that Ony run (and being relaxed and relieved after it went well) I forget completely what we did. All in all, it was great, I had one fun Friday night with the guildies and got my Holy Grail of a ring.

Saturday went more or less slacking due to rl commitments (my father's birthday, so wasn't really able to login except late). But still I got myself to spend several, curious hours in the game doing this and that. But Sunday of all... We did a guild run hc daily (UK) which went in a breeze and took one hc ToC with the same momentum. The funny thing was the fact that as I was tanking, I thought I was making a mess of the UK: for some reason that totally eluded my mind I just couldn't keep the mobs in me and there were more strays than normally (but yes, my worst fear of that place is gone, and I fully agree with Kadomi: the entry corridor is furious and funny chain pull excercise, provided the rest of the group is up to it!). The reason was simply that our retribution pally had unbelievable dps and he took what mobs he liked, just for the sport! So, because I thought I wasn't performing well, I was kind of amazed to see that the group wanted to go on directly to ToC, and took that as a compliment. Really, it felt great to be part of that team. So I guess I'm the social which Gevlon curses, as I like to belong and feel I'm contributing to the whole instead of basking in my own awesomeness.

Then again, I think that it's not the tank way to bring one's greatness forward. Either you do your job as a tank, or you don't. There is nothing to brag about in being the one taking the blows, anyhow. It's the humble superiority aspect which I've seen in the tanks everywhere: thank you sir, may I have another so I can learn to do it better.

And that's what I like about in our guild: this mentality goes far beyond the tanks and healers. It's all pervasive. Everyone I've been running the instances with have this way of thinking, more or less. I'm doing my job, but if there is anything I can do to do it better, I will try at least.

What I learned this weekend? Running with guildies is a blast, but it's starting to be my comfort zone. But as long as I learn to do my job better, I will do my best to run with them.

Glory and despair (yawp)

Yet another weekend post.

The topic summarized the weekend in WoW for me. And in chronological sequence, even.

Friday was one of the funniest, rewarding and interesting WoW days I remember ever having. First of all, lengthy  Twitter-chats of Thursday about Tanking gear took into realization as I got the few Emblems of Conquest I so severely needed for the Conqueror's Siegebreaker Breastplate, which was a huge improvement to my gear set for now. And for a pretty long time into the future, too. However, the breastplate has so much lower defense than my earlier one, that I'm still struggling with it until I get three more Emblems of Triumph and get my hands on the Clutch of Fortification, another sweet piece to serve me for a long time. Another sweet piece of gear was the Peacekeeper Blade, which will be my beloved friend for some time, too. ToC loot piñata gave all and then some with the emblems!

All this came to be with the guild alt running in ToC hc and normals, and completed the night at around 3 am for me in Gundrak heroic, in which we ran a solid clear run. The best part for me was the fact I was tanking and it worked. Only to remind me on Saturday that it isn't always so, because that ToC was pain and misery for me due to the fact that I found out that I cannot tank multiple bosses at same time. The three bosses we had were the hunter, rogue and the shaman, and for one reason or another the guild party we had just couldn't nail the bosses. Not until Windavell changed to his main and took care of the hunter who was the main culprit of the misery: just couldn't keep him on me while backing off of the rogue's poison. A small issue was noticed later as I couldn't see the difference between our DK's spells and the ground effects of the Black Knight die to my low video settings... might help me later on!

And stupid me: after running the daily on Saturday, I logged off and got lured to watch Watchmen movie with the family... forgetting completely to return the daily quest and thus locking me off from the Sunday's daily...

Oh, well. On Sunday I kept working on the Sons of Hodir reputation, which is quite nice and involving quest chain. Long chain for a change, even though the quests themself do not reward with enough reputation for exalted which is needed for the sweet shoulder enchants. But then again, more dailies in Halls of Lightning and Halls of Stone will provide ample amount of Relic's of Ulduar to shorten the time needed to do daily quests for the Sons.

That's about the weekend.

Overall this weekend taught a lot and proved me again what I wrote earlier about the three different games in one: the gearing game is completely different from the levelling game and surely requires a total paradigm switch from the player to be enjoyable. This can be helped by a helpful and active guild, as guilds tend to allow more in the game experience and thus give the possibility for a newcomer to grow up and learn the tricks of the trade, be the class whatever.

That is, if the guild has the resources, time and will to work out with the newcomers in the gearing part instead of total focus to the raid end of the game.

But what do you think: how much should be expected from the guild in exchange for your entertainment? Should the game be only for your own fun and guilds and other groups be just your playground of fun and laughter?

And how much should the guild be willing to put up with newcomers needing to gear while the guild's focus is in the raiding game?

Mandatory DING post

DING 80!

There. Now that has been done -against my expectations!- the next step is confusing me.

You see, the current situation with Laiskajaakko, Protection Warrior, lv80 is such that the stats do not support heroics in any way: defence 465, armor 18k and hit points 18k. Now the uncrittable defence is 540, so there is a long way to that (ok, maybe not that long, maybe just change the greens to blues... even), and the 'required' or 'expected' hp to begin with is around 22k (which is not too far either, but still seems unattainable).

Lacking in these is a hindrance for my advancement in the end game content, mainly due to the fact that the server is downright top heavy. Well, which server wouldn't be these days, as the levelling is so fast and easy. But the server I'm playing in is very, very top heavy from the player experience, too: being one of the first generation servers, the 'oldest' playerbase comes from the time of launch. Some even preceding that. So the 'normal' content is pretty much skipped and the levelled alts are miraculously ushered through friendly grouping.

This is my paranoid view of the situation.

So what is my plan? To run as much reputation on Wyrmrest, Kirin Tor and others to gain at least reasonably presentable gear, while questing the world away and looking for group to normal instances. In short, gear up to the minimum for tanking: uncrittable and reasonable +stam.

Another thing which caught my eye the other day was a blogpost (which I forgot to bookmark again... or then the idea hit after skipping the post...): people are rather levelling the dps classes instead of the tanking classes because the dps isn't responsible for anything in a group. The tank is responsible of keeping the mobs hitting him like there was no tomorrow, and the healer is responsible for keeping everyone alive - starting from the tank, naturally. But the dps' are free as the birds from these refrains: they just try to deliver as much damage to the mob as possible, complaining about the tank not being able to keep the aggro and healer for not healing them properly. All the while they are not the ones calling the shots nor taking the responsibility of the group advancement.

And now, for the first time I've noticed the lack of tank classes in the game: at the cap. LFM tank and healer seems to be the call in the trade channel. Had I missed them earlier or did they just increase I capped?

Now I will never know...

It sucks to be me

Yeah, that's a rip off from Avenue Q, the home of the song for the exceptionally hilarious WoW video "The Internet is for porn". But it describes my feelings after the weekend and my first PUG in Utgarde Keep.

I suck.

Big time.

I feel responsible for the three (3) wipes on Ingvar the Plunderer and one on Prince Keleseth. The latter was pure neglect on the party's healer's mana (she was all dry...) and a great learning experience on that. But the final boss...

I just sucked.

You see: I have read the event, I know the stages and I have read the strat. It just doesn't click. I can see the STOMP warning, but my brain hits Heroic Strike. I can see the Whirling Axe warning, but my finger works on the Revenge -oh, Sword and Board procced! And BOOM!

Otherwise the weekend was pretty nice. 'More of the same' questing in Northrend is abundant, but there are certain gems in the mix here and there: where as Outlands was exactly more of the same as the Old World, the experience and technological advances can be seen in the quest design. Also, the issue I wrote about earlier with the short storylines showed the other side of the design: to my big surprise the questline starting from Orfus of Kamauga spread across several quests leading to the Pirate camp and finally to the revelation on the existence of the Kvaldir pestering Howling Fjord! And just when I had given up the idea of long and intriguing stories in Northrend.

WotLK can surprise you, now I agree with that. Gold nuggets like helping the sea lions to mate, the pirate miniquests (can't call them anything else) and few others really make the game feel different for a while, until you are slammed in the face with yet another slaughter grind like the Iron Dwarf quests in the northern part of the Howling Fjords.

Laiskajaakko is only 4 quests short of I've Toured the Fjord and is now stuck with quests requiring 2 or 3 players: the 2 player one has already proven to be a bit too much for him to tackle alone, so I'm not taking any guesses with the 3 one, either. With Bishopgeorge's help I'm sure we can tackle both of those. Then I have to find a couple more to complete the achievement... and to be able to move on to Grizzly Hills!

Utgarde Keep proved to be a disappontment otherwise: poor loot, awful looks and dumb mobs. Very much like Hellfire Ramparts for the first time. But Ingvar has more special moves compared to Vazruden, and hits harder, so I just have to overcome my fear of moving and fighting at the same time.

And I have to learn to follow the fight, too.

I will learn.

Howling Fjord by Weekend

Quite a weekend that was: unbeliavably the Three Stooges were logged in daily, waiting for the recruiting officer of the new home for the fools to arrive online. Which happened conveniently on sunday afternoon, after Laiskajaakko had dinged 72, gotten Honored by The Explorer's League and Revered (!) in Valiance Expedition and visited Dragonblight for the first rescue mission.

But let's start from the beginning. On friday the Three Stooges went along and quested for their fullest in the Howling Fjord area, mainly dealing with Vrykul infestation in the area. This kind of grind is/would be boring done alone, so this was the best possible situation: holy trinity doing their best to best the world.

On Saturday I spent most of my time levelling alone. Finally I found the quests people have been talking about, you know, the ones which are different from the typical kill ten foozles grind. To walk around the dark iron dwarves in a body suit was hilarious, as well as the harpoon surfing: really eye candy for the people. But really won the day was the quest in which you guide the hawk and collect the eggs. Granted, it's the typical collect ten dingles, but the twist was something for me who hasn't enjoyed the flight for too long. And of course, the flight mission of Steel Gate Patrol was a joy I did on Sunday, too. Not exactly the best dog fight simulation, but surely worth the daily!

For the evening I spent the time helping the Two Fools to do the same quests, effectively enjoying their gaps and enjoyment. And failures. Though they didn't make it to the Explorers league, yet, even though Bishopgeorge dinged his 71.

On Sunday I spent most of the time trying to return completed quests with Pupunen, whom I desperately want entering the Outlands, soon. I've given up with her on the finesses of levelling, and I'm pushing her up to get her tailoring and enchanting up from the 300 cap they are in. So I mostly flew across the Old World, making about 1.5 levels when the brothers logged in.

And surprisingly, our recruiting officer.

We grouped up, heard some 'truths' about the code of conduct (we're adult, so this should have been cut even shorter... :P) and off we went: from The Order of the Fist to the new guild in two button clicks.

Kind of sad, but exhilariating at the same time.

As we were already at our own questlines, we continued to quests for some hours: I finished the wolf questline, dinged 72 and did the Steel Gate Patrol once again. Way too much fun.

Then I logged in again later to finish the first slaughter mission into the Gjalerbron: the first set of quests which make me feel that the questing is just grinding in different guises. The flight quests and the bombing quests are a breath of fresh air only to be squashed with these slaughter orgies: "kill 18 these, 10 those and yet another 8 of another kind for the good of the people". You are the army around here, kill them yourself... oh, wait, I think I'll do that for the experience, reputation and that nice shiny which I can sell for money...

Which reminds me of the thing that has started to bug me royally: the quest chain rewards. They are the same stuff, time and again, but just with different bonuses. It gets very, very boring after the third breastplate with 1262 armor and different bonuses. Just to pick up the 'right ones' to suit your current spec seems to be the new minigame, and I'm afraid this will not stop in the further areas.

I hope I'm not right. Though it seems I have to switch from the sword to the Valiance Expedition rep mace... I just hate it. There has been just two adequate upgrades to my Honor Hold rep sword for the whole time in Northrend, and now I'm offered a huge improvement as a mace.

How degrading is that, really?

Weekend in games

Whereas in real life people lay back and relax during the weekend, in MMORPG's the characters are the most active during the weekend. The economy must be a bit screwed. The economy of the MMO's reflect this perfectly by going from the low sales in the beginning and mid-week to the high sales of Friday night and Saturday only to succumb into slumber before the new weeks beginning.

Unbelievable, I took the time to sit by the computer during the weekend. The weather was cold, so the 'best' option was to play inside... And so I did.

Which brought me back to the basic questions: why do I play WoW? Sure, there have been changes in the atmosphere lately, as I noticed that people are looking for PUG's to complete achievements in the Old World raid instances. "LFM anyone 60+lv for [insert old world raid instance]" was a common call all the way from early Friday evening till morning (!?) of Sunday. At least for that time it seemed that people were trying to group for the instances: I didn't have the time to commit to 2-3 hours at a time for those foolishness'.

So, why do I play WoW? I've been advocating the grouping and social gaming for the whole time I've blogged, so I should be rejoicing for this change. At the same time I'm cringing with disgust for the total atmosphere of the game community: at least in my server it's appalling. LFM for Achievement this, LF raid guild, recruiting 80lv only... the competitiveness in a game where competition shouldn't be the issue, but co-operation.

I noticed something while I played. Actually several things. WoW is -or actually most MMO's are- extremely time demanding hobby when compared to other hobbies competing with it. For example I'm having my Shorinji Kempo trainings two times a week during the summer, two hours at a time. In addition to that, I'm doing my best to have decent walkies (about 1.5-2 hours at a time) with our dogs at least three times a week (my wife does it even more, so they have their long walkies at least 5-6 times a week, in addition to the normal backyard visits). If I compare this to the time expectation of WoW (or EQ2 which I know of), to be successful in the game both socially and game wise, I'd have to devote at least a couple of hours almost daily to the game, and even more on weekends. That is if I want to make a difference.

And it would be my sole hobby by then, with no time for anything else except mandatory family things.

So I came to the conclusion that WoW isn't much of a casual gaming, at least not in the level I would want it to be.

The second issue is the fun part: is it really fun, amusing and relaxing to beat the pixels? For some it must be, but what I found out is that soloing the content is really more of a burden and strain than relaxing past time. Heck, I enjoy currently more of mowing of our lawn than doing the Hemet Nesingwary missions in the Outlands! Pointless killing of pixel monsters just sucks.

On the other hand, I've called for meaningfull questlines and wondered why the storytelling isn't working. Well, guess what: I think that all the killing and running around is splintering the stories into series' of combats and mayhem, during which you forget the reason why you are killing these foozles (which makes the Nesingwary missions in Old World and Outlands even more absurd...)! I noticed this as I was working on the Loremaster of Kalimdor achievement in Darkshore, and found several very nice questlines which I have done several times earlier but didn't remember the stories at all! And I read the stories!

Then again, the most interesting starter quest line, The Absentminded Prospector, was cut short just as it was beginning to get interesting. This was one of the low level questlines I had never even started, because it's a group quest (suggested players (2)) and remains such till the end in Menethil harbour, where it just... ends in to the thin air. I stayed there to see if the exclamation mark would light up on the questgiver, but no. A great, enticing storytelling tossed out of the window. With animations and all, in the Old World content!

I noticed that I enjoy more of the game and the stories when I'm doing the quests with obscenely overlevelled character rather than experiencing the content at the level it's been designed for. Why? The stories advance faster and it's like the story really develops in front of your eyes. Would you bother with a story after the third wipe? Most probably you'd be so crossed that you'd just snuff the opposition just to revenge the wipes, without any thought to the story itself.

Oh, yes, and the Nesingwary rewards are all mutt for a Warrior. My first instance loots from Hellfire Citadel are still better than the crap those quests offer, except maybe for armour value. Otherwise the quest rewards are aimed for other classes, shaman's seem to be especially remembered.

All for now. I got Laiskajaakko the title of Ambassador for getting 5 exalted reputations (Alliance capitals) and 421/700 in Loremaster of Kalimdor (it's 520 in the Eastern Kingdoms...). So I'm off to 'grind' some more lowbie areas next time.

Browser playing for a change

We are being 'blessed' by a heat wave:the temperature is easily above 25 deg.C, and has been so over the weekend. This naturally has somehow diminished the interest in sitting by the computer and playing time consuming games like WoW.

What I have been playing, though, are pretty simple browser based games like MyBrute and Legends of Zork in addition to the Mafia Wars over at Facebook. Especially the first ones mentioned have been life savers in the way that they require just a few clicks, are fun and recharge till tomorrow.

I've also played some quick games of Pandemic-2, a java based game in which you play the part of a disease, with the sole intention to infect and kill all the people in the world. The curse of Madagascar however prevents me from killing everyone, as that one island is neigh impossible to infect... It just comes too much down to luck, I guess.

In WoW, because that's what you are interested in anyway, I've been doing some nice AH deals. It seems that there are some people who are selling Overcast Belts at outrageously low prices on the server I'm in, and I'm reaping some nice 200g profit from reselling them. Not that I have anything to complain, it just makes my AH game more enjoyable, but only shows how little some people follow the ways of the AH. It also shows how careful and cautious I am, as there are few of the Ulduar Epics readily available at reasonable prices, only waiting for flipping: however, due to my cautiousness I'm not willing to put 3000g into a stuff I might sell for 5000g on Friday. Only because I might get burned with it and the money doesn't exactly grow in trees for the low level people like me.

Next weekend is cold and rainy. We'll see how that goes in the gaming front then.

WoW-less weekend

I've had the first weekend without WoW for a long, long time. In a way I feel a bit uneasy, because I haven't blogged about anything for some time now, especially after the great discussion we had some weeks ago about the current status of roleplaying and my views of perfect game.

But then again, considering we had the lure coursing season start last weekend, I cannot feel bad about it. First of all, our two main dogs won the Finnish Cup 2009 competition (male won, bitch was second), which is an invitation only competition for the last season's best dogs. Secondly, our newcomer who ran her first competition won on Sunday, even though she didn't finish the final trial. What makes these wins even more sweet is the fact that our dogs, all four of them, had a severe case of kennel cough in the beginning of this year, taking three months and as many antibiotic strains to kill. Our male was closer to dying than we even want to think about.

And now they are already in the striking condition even though we think they are just recovering.

I have to add something about WoW to this post, too, because otherwise I'm fooling myself and you, dear readers. I truly believe that this 'hiatus' is going to do some good to my playing whenever the weather doesn't permit lengthy walks in the woods. Then again, if the weathers turn out good, I will be spending even less at the computer: my main obligation is with the family and the dogs, especially now that they have shown to be capable to be trained for the next European Championship later this summer.

Azariel commented my earlier post by asking if it would be viable to limit the speed at which the players advance in the content. I've thought about this for the last week or so, and IMHO there are several things in WoW which have been decreased in effect and lessened in impact to the players: levelling experience is one, the dumbing down the quests is another and most certainly, the effect of rested bonus is another, too. When I first started, I didn't pay any attention to the rested bonus. None at all. In fact, I even wondered why my exp bar was of different color from time to time, until I found about the resting.

Still, the effect of rested bonus, or in fact, the lack of penalty for not resting, is alarmingly low. You can blast through the current content in a few days of /played without paying any attention to the rested bonus. It's a nice bonus if you stay away from the game enough to gain it, but lack of rest doesn't affect the toon at all.

This is a clever thing in a game where the crafting and trade skills are more or less button clicking annoyance. In others, where trade skills can be considered worthy -or at least entertaining- like EQ2 this wouldn't be so clever as the players would be skipping the crafting minigame in search of levels and fame.

The moral of the story: simple small changes in the game's ruleset at any stage will change the whole game in the long run. Just look what has happened to WoW from TBC to WotLK and you'll notice.

Lost week

Yeah, that's not a typo: last week was truly a lost week for me: first a three day work trip which ended up being four days, then the holidays during which the weather was so great I just couldn't sit by the computer.

I did, however, have a nice email conversation with Tipa who directed me to a very intriguing side path from this regular WoW-whining of mine. I'm trekking that path whenever I can, rest assured I'll come up with something about that!

The few minutes I got to be in the game (make that two hours during the whole weekend...) resulted the following notions:
- The price of glyphs is rising again, and for many the price is stabilizing to correspond the cost of materials. Gone are the days of outrageous prices, both high and low.
- I made some decent wins with Nexus Vortexes, which I purchased some weeks ago. I purchased quite a lot of them and due to the fact that the AH deposits are enormous on these emblem vendored goods, I was pretty reluctant to sell them cheap. Now I made some 3-4 times the purchase price with them, and I'm certainly looking for more as soon as there are some for sale.
- 76-80 blues are appearing in very low prices, even though they sell for very nice profits. I'm not objecting, just wondering why people are throwing away all that gold: if there is demand, utilize it, right?
- Made Laiskajaakko Exalted in Darnassus and Exodar: Gnomeregan still waiting and then the main factions in the Old World have been conquered. Which makes me wonder, though: why do the toons who have passed lv60 and gone through the Dark Portal have to grind for their faction's reputation? They surely are world class heroes and should be considered equal to King Varian and other miscreants by that time. Really, which of the Old World heroes do you see fighting the monsters and demons of the Nether? Huh?
- And while going through the Drenai starting areas with my heavily over levelled protection warrior, I noticed that I really enjoy the storylines and stories which are obscured into the quests. I really want to make sure the Blood Elves' portal to Outlands (Sun Portal) isn't opened into Bloodmyst, and that's only because the story is scripted so well into the quests in there!

That's all for now. There have been a couple of very good discussions in the earlier posts, which I urge you all to read -and possibly even comment!- if you have spare time.

Weekend's over

Had a terrific start for a weekend. Already in Thursday I felt like I had a ton of sand in my eyes and a runny nose accompanied with appropriate amount of sneezing. Bless you, thangk yoo, all that stuff. Friday I lived through, even checked my current AH mule only to discover that I'd made over the 2k mark on the new one, hurrah. So now I'm sitting on about 3.5k gold with my ally toons, not counting the guild bank reserves in.

And then was the Saturday morning, with the Twisted Nether Live Podcast. For me it was pretty decent, the show started at 7:30 am, but for certain Brits, Scots and Irish people it was quite an achievement to wake up at 5:30 am on Saturday morning to listen to the show. Won't go to the details, but it was nice. There are some other reports about the hangover, the best IMO being BigBearButt's one. I will attend to the next one, for certain, if I'm around civilized areas then.

Saturday and Sunday I was relaxing. In fact, Saturday went nicely by levelling Pupunen from 42 to 45, all the while trying to get into Western/Eastern Plaguelands: I know, I know, it's 50-60 area, so I did the cooking quest Clamlette Surprise. Which is a great drag in all possible ways. Zesty Clam Meat drops from all giant turtles, though I learned AFTER completing the quest that Nagas in Feralas drop the clams in masses... In fact, I grinded the Giant Eggs needed for the quest in Hinterlands first, bought the 10 Zesty Clam Meats from AH (yea, lazy me) and as I was in Hinterlands I got the drunken griffon rider quest to gather materials for the stiff drink he needs. Which in turn led me to Feralas, where I fulfilled the quests in Feathermoon Stronghold, killing the Nagas in the dozens and trying to get to the level where I could beat the Irofur Bears and Groddock gorillas. Naturally for their intestines, which you cannot collect from everyone of them.

I admit, I got bored at about the time I had dinged 45, and it was already late, so off we went. What I'm especially proud of is the fact that I manged to do three levels higher quests with Pupunen quite easily, pulling level 46 mobs while being 43 and sometimes even dealing with two at a time. Being holy doesn't really suck.

Sunday was dedicated to AH (another 300g profit) and Laiskajaakko. I started the long quest chain from Winterspring -Sister Pamela- from Jessica Redpath, and travelled to Western and Eastern Plaguelands. What a travelling back and forth that is! However, the story in the questline is excellent and I fullheartedly recommend that to all. I didn't quite get to the point of The Battle of Darrowshire, but I'm lookind forward to the raid (!) level finale of the quest line.

Finally both Bishopgeorge and Förgelös came online and we tried a threesome in Hellfire Citadel: Ramparts. Which went a lot smoother than with a full 5 man group, mainly because there were the holy trinity available and all knew exactly what they were doing: prot warrior tanking, rogue DPS'ing and priest healing. Somehow I started to wonder the damage output of the rogue, because he was at almost half of what the protection warrior put out. Granted, there was 3 levels gap in there, but still. 

We cleared the instance to the last two bosses, and called it a night. Not because the mobs were too much or we were overwhelmed, but because we ran out of time. You better respect the wife aggro from time to time, right?

All in all, great weekend. I only just learned that Förgelös had forgotten to train his lovely lv60 skills, so he was really lacking from the skill side instead of gear. What a relief. Next time we own.

I'm neglecting the blog

Yes. It's not intentional, though. Last week was a disaster as whole, starting from a trade fair in Moscow and getting my wallet stolen and ending in a heck of a headache caused from stiff and sore neck and back. Don't ask me why, but it happened again.

Anyhow, they opened a new realm in EU area, Chamber of Aspects. This caused me to transfer some of the extra toons to the new one, leaving only my main toons on both sides on Thunderhorn. Bye Coprah, Feyrex (my oldest son's toon) and Sarvijaakko (my youngest son's toon)! More to come as soon as I get the mailboxes emptied.

The Guild is picking up. It's amazing how much there are people -mature, adult (minded)- on the server, looking for guild. I have already proven my point that there is need for a guild which is more based on having fun while playing rather than aiming for progression. Let's call it a guild for old bores or something. A retirement home... crap, that would have been a good name!

"Retirement Home is recruiting! Join the ever growing ranks of old bores who don't give a *BLEEP* about raiding, progression or gear."

There you go, whoever wants to steal that one.

I'm having doubts about the guild forum site, though. It's very messy, complicated and not easy to handle. If anyone has any suggestions for a ready, free but expandable and working guild site service, all information will be readily accepted. I would like to have a forum, calendar, auto-updating roster and option for Vent. Thank you.

On playing. After I sent the forementioned toons to obli... other server, I launched my Horde mage. First time in ages, only to learn that I cannot play mage anymore. Even though she's frost, she is squishy. And I don't remember the spells anymore. Just to make the disaster even worse, I grouped with a druid and a warrior, whose definition of fun in chat was to spell 'penis' in all different variations and with /lol or /laugh emotes. This clearly shows the fact that the factions aren't any different, but because of the fact that Ally overnumbers Horde, the Alliance seems to have more immature populace. Heck, all my kids wanted to make Horde toons, but then again, I know they know how to behave.

Ran with Laiskajaakko the most of Sunday. Well, couple of hours anyhow, as the headache made everything a collection of pain and misery. Had fun chats with new guildies who were actually old friends (thanks for popping by, Azariel) and completed some quests just for the reputation. Like I have been saying, I'm progressing very, very slowly, so I'm looking forward dinging on the next guild run planned on thursday. Be that Ulda or ST, I don't care. I've quests for both.

I'm also having second thoughts about powering the transferred priest to the cap. Why? Some part of my being is craving for challenge, something not even the (mis)management of the Guild hasn't been able to answer. Something Matticus -who just emailed me his answer to the post which resulted Sydera to write a whole post in Matticus' blog- rubbed on my face. He stated that because the Old World and Outlands (!) instances have been nerfed, the real challenge of the raiding lies within Northrend. What is really the real challenge?

At this point of life it's finding time to play in the first place, let alone plan according to the raid schedule made by others.

Now that is a challenge.

Another weekend

And what a weekend. Played several toons over several hours and... well, achieved nothing worth mentioning. A couple of achievements, some reputation, nice gear. The same, would the bored out veterans say.

But the main thing is that I had fun.

With my Ally priest I healed through Stockades: holy/disc priest with shadow gear managed pretty well in a pug which consisted of pallies who didn't know how to play pally. They refused to heal even themselves and adamantly refused to listen to my oom's and manabreaks. Yea, we wiped just before the achievement and the group disbanded. I got nice blues from the run and one friend to my list to quest with later on. Not bad.

With my Horde mage I set my talents so that I'm aiming for 61 point Frost. Yea, and it shows. It's a killing machine: three levels higher mobs were eaten alive. Constantly. So the questing for this poor mule took a nice turn for a change.

With my Horde main, the druid, I tried and tried the world event, but... I got pwnd so bad I just hearthed him home to Sattrath and he'll be waiting there.

And my 'new' main, Laiskajaakko. I quested a bit for draenai reputation, got a nice chunk of the starter area covered, when I got a call for an Uldaman pug which I had been asking for. I have several quests in there, waiting to be done, so I jumped anxiously into the party. I'm just over the level range, so I cannot use the LFG tool for it, so I had to travel there as the darn summoning stone wouldn't work. Got there to help summoning the other's though.

Only to see how the party leader left the party as soon as he had teleported to the stone. We started to hunt a new priest to heal us and the leadership was tossed from one to another until the original healer came back. And one other toon left. And another came and another left and...

This all took over an hour before we got into the instance. Where it came very clear for me what was the name of the game: I, being the highest toon and protection, would rush into the mobs and kill them, while the others stood at the background and helped at the last moments.

I was getting angry. It's my first time in an instance, and I'm supposed to do all the work.

Well, we cleared one area a a time, I returned a quest here and there and took the follow-ups. And tried to cope with the adds that our warlock and priest aggroed when I was engaged with the mobs. Oh, yes, and we ran out to summon another toon as one left again!

I was so pissed when we found out the first 'boss', the ancient stone golem or something. And that is when the crap hit the fan. I tanked the boss, and took him down, but at the same time the rest of the party aggroed the lot of them and got the priest and shaman (yea) killed. I scored however: I got the nice blue gauntlets, which improved Laiskajaakko's defence a lot.

I was already ready to leave, and we had spent over an hour INSIDE the instance at that point. Not even started, really.

We went through the tunnel areas and finally caused a wipe in the troggs. The warlock aggroed ten more and the group wiped. I was tanking five to seven those elite troggs at the same time without help from the rest. Ok, they had their share of the adds, granted, and they couldn't cope with them either.

I got ressed, acted like an ass and left the group. Got free hearth to the Inn of my choice and honestly speaking I'm going to avoid the ones I remember from that group. The worst ones were the "I have seven lv70s, but I haven't been in here for ages" and "don't you know how to play your toon, noob". Usually combined in one and same sentence. The only one worth mentioning in the group was a super twink rogue who played like a dream. Then again, the elite troggs could take a one outburst of damage from him, whereas I had to work to down them.

Ok. The last pug wasn't fun. But it proved me one thing: we cannot manage Uldaman by ourselves, not yet. Three lv 45's are not prepared for that.

But we will. Oh, yes, we will.

PS. There will be no posts this week. Work becons and it's travelling time. Take care.

Weekend all busy

What a weekend.

Friday came and went, mostly on preparations for the Saturday. Spent majority of the day on a training course for boy/girlscout leaders about plays and games for the kids. During the training I was -in the games, of course- the following:

- a Princess
- a Monster
- a Stone
- a Bat
- a Snake
- a Pirate (HARRR!)

and I was forced to do the following

- hide
- seek
- slide on the floor
- run
- jump
- draw
- sing

and all that in 5 hours including lunch! Honestly speaking, I was finished when I got back home.

On Sunday our dogs had a Lure Coursing competition. Considering the fact that we have been neglecting the long walks in the woods for some time now, the competition went quite well. Our male was third. The points of the finalists were quite high, so I'm very pleased on his performance. I have to write about LC more sometime, as there are some real peculiarities in there. Well, as far as I have heard, the whole dog-kennel-scene is filled with peculiar aspects of human behaviour...

What is really peculiar about the typical lure-coursing competition is in fact the way people handle their dogs. Considering that the dogs run twice a zig-zagging track about 600-1000 m long, they are generally not prepared for the activity. If you think of a human athlete preparing for 800m track, he will be warming up, stretching and concentrating. The dog athletes are generally taken to the track and let loose.

After a race, a human athlete will cool himself down, use some recovery drinks and foods and stretch and relax. Dog athletes, on the other hand, are walked to the car and stuffed in to wait for the next lap.

For us it's somewhat different. Our main concern is that the dogs are fit, well and willing to compete in full in the next competition, too. This means that in competitions we treat them as top athletes: we do a long walk with increasing intensitiy before the lap, and we cool them down with similar walk -decreasing intensity, naturally- after the lap.

This is repeated for the second lap, the finals.

All in all, the day is all walking and jogging with the dogs. We have once had a pedometer with us and it showed after a competition day that we had walked wbout 9.5 km during the day. No wonder we're as finished as the dogs as we return home!

I've seen during this competition season a few dogs lose their interest in the competing. They have been the dogs who have been taken to the track without proper warming up and have been put into the car after the race, without cooling them down. In the next lap they have been stiff, sore and most probably also in some muscle pain from the earlier strain. The most peculiar thing is the fact that the owners of the dog blame the dog for the poor performance, instead of taking the time to evaluate the situation and checking what was done (and what could be done otherwise).

What does this have to do with MMO's? Not much, except that if there is a wipe, it's not necessarily the healer's or the tank's fault. It's always good to start from yourself and change the way you work before launching on others.

Point taken.