So, instead of spending more time with my newly minted Level 80 Shaman instead I goosed up my (only?) L72 priest spending another 7k gold buying her Flying, Epic Flyiing, Cold Weather Flying, a mount, and Dual Spec. To make up for this rather large loss of gold, I've started selling off some old mats and materials that will hopefully make the transition easier.
It took me a while to get things settled. But I got my priest a good holy spec and started doing some cleanup...I had completed several quests that I had not turned yet in for example and I did some inventory management. My priest is a Jewelcrafter/Tailor so I'm probably just going to stick with that for now. Both are in the 430 range and it'd be a waste right now to drop either of them when for the most part both should be fine.
So, then I went out and did a little questing, finishing up some old quests in Borean. It's a much better experience doing those quests with an epic flyer...big shock everything went faster and more smoothly. Tried leveling a bit as pure holy...bad bad bad move...so I queued myself up for the random normal dungeon and started completing some of the outstanding quests in borean just for the hell of it.
It didn't take long (maybe 10 minutes) for me to get a group. And there I had my first bad experience. I pop in, they are ahead clearing. Obviously they'd lost their healer. Highest level character is 77, the rest 73, so I figure it'll go well. It's the nexus, so not that bad. So I switch to holy and run to them. About the time I get into range, I see typed 'I'm pulling them all' followed by the DK pulling 3/4th of the mobs around the first boss intentionally with me at 1k mana. Big shock, he dies and we wipe. Then 3 seconds later the group disbands. lol. At least it was over fast enough.
So I re-queue and complete another quest and then get another run. This one goes a lot better, though most of the characters are only 70. I struggled a -little- bit with healing here though no one died until the end where the mage blew his wad in the first few seconds of the fight and got 1 shotted (I'm not taking responsibility for that one lol).
Priest heailng is certainly a bit more varied. But with more options comes a bit more problems with knowing what to cast and when. (which was the point, so it's not a complaint). But my mana pool was being severely constrained and my heals just seemed fairly low compared to the damage being delt at points. Circle of healing is nice, but seemed to grab almost 20% of my mana bar in one cast...ouch.
Still, just that short run netted me about 6 bars of XP in about 30 minutes. And while it was a little more harrowing that the shaman, I had fun with it. And as a plan, leveling through the LFG tool seems very, very viable; with using quests only for having something to do during downtime and for getting rep.
I probably won't be in game tonight...I have other plans (which may or may not get canceled). And Wednesday is probably Avatar night...so I may not be back in the game till Thursday.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Being Sick...
Well, I spent most of this weekend being sick. So instead of doing all of the things I'd planned (including a ton of christmas shopping) I stayed at home and did nothing productive.
Instead I ended up spending most of Sunday playing WOW. Got my shaman to 80, and then spent some quality time getting it ready to do five mans. I decided that the best course of action would be to go Resto and heal. And I also decided to spend some more quality time with the new looking for group system.
I have to say, the LFG system is probably the single most important update to WOW in it's history. It's ability to simply the ability to form groups is a major deal, and it seems to avoid some of the major hangups of the system by automating it. And, by spreading it across many servers, the pool of potentials is much higher. Sure, getting into a crappy group will still happen, but so far it's gone well.
Of course, ever since I created my Shaman a long time ago, I have been Enhancement. And having never played a Resto or healing in a group, I was a bit nervous going into it. I spent a little time looking at the healing gear I'd collected...I'd been planning this for a while and discovered that I did have pretty much a full set of healing gear...minus a pair of shoes. So I bought myself a pair of crappy ilev 200 epic shoes for 180g no less, and then started studying.
I have a confession to make...I don't really know the Shaman Class very well. Though I've played it to 80, I'd never grouped with it and my play with that character was pretty sporadic. I am not up on what gear is good or bad, what enchantments I need, or anything else. Most of my LK rep levels suck, and my character was equipped with a combination of blues and healing greens I'd collected since around L74. My main weapon is a green dagger I got as an item drop no less!
So, doing some reading and some research I've discovered the following:
1. Gear Wise, Resto Shamans like Haste, Spell Power, and Crit in that order. This surprised me, I thought that MP5 would be higher on the list.
2. Resto Shamans do not stick with just Mail Gear...they will sometimes go for leather or cloth.
3. There isn't really a spell rotation that I can tell. Lesser Healing Wave, Riptide, and Chain Heal seem to be the main healing spells.
4. I can -barely- handle normal TOC...barely.
Though I had a lot of fun with it, I'm starting to wonder if Priest would be better suited for healing. Still, Shaman was fun and I had some good luck yesterday with groups so I don't know...
Instead I ended up spending most of Sunday playing WOW. Got my shaman to 80, and then spent some quality time getting it ready to do five mans. I decided that the best course of action would be to go Resto and heal. And I also decided to spend some more quality time with the new looking for group system.
I have to say, the LFG system is probably the single most important update to WOW in it's history. It's ability to simply the ability to form groups is a major deal, and it seems to avoid some of the major hangups of the system by automating it. And, by spreading it across many servers, the pool of potentials is much higher. Sure, getting into a crappy group will still happen, but so far it's gone well.
Of course, ever since I created my Shaman a long time ago, I have been Enhancement. And having never played a Resto or healing in a group, I was a bit nervous going into it. I spent a little time looking at the healing gear I'd collected...I'd been planning this for a while and discovered that I did have pretty much a full set of healing gear...minus a pair of shoes. So I bought myself a pair of crappy ilev 200 epic shoes for 180g no less, and then started studying.
I have a confession to make...I don't really know the Shaman Class very well. Though I've played it to 80, I'd never grouped with it and my play with that character was pretty sporadic. I am not up on what gear is good or bad, what enchantments I need, or anything else. Most of my LK rep levels suck, and my character was equipped with a combination of blues and healing greens I'd collected since around L74. My main weapon is a green dagger I got as an item drop no less!
So, doing some reading and some research I've discovered the following:
1. Gear Wise, Resto Shamans like Haste, Spell Power, and Crit in that order. This surprised me, I thought that MP5 would be higher on the list.
2. Resto Shamans do not stick with just Mail Gear...they will sometimes go for leather or cloth.
3. There isn't really a spell rotation that I can tell. Lesser Healing Wave, Riptide, and Chain Heal seem to be the main healing spells.
4. I can -barely- handle normal TOC...barely.
Though I had a lot of fun with it, I'm starting to wonder if Priest would be better suited for healing. Still, Shaman was fun and I had some good luck yesterday with groups so I don't know...
Monday, December 14, 2009
WOW 3.3
After the break up of Arete I haven't spent much time in WOW. I intended on taking a break, and that's what I've done (for the most part, with the exception of a few 10 mans and a couple of pug 25s which have almost completely dried up at this point). Now I'm wanting to see some of the 3.3 stuff. I'm not to the point where I'm looking for a new raiding guild at this point, but I do want to see the Frozen Thrown and try to keep up gear wise to some degree.
Post raiding guild Arete seems pretty lively, I've noticed...a lot of people online hanging out and doing 5 mans and stuff. I, however, find myself mostly left out of that...those guys know each other pretty well and stick to the same groups. They tried a 10 man last week but I didn't get in, so my options have been pretty limited.
Though I pretty much detest puging, I did use the dungeon finder tool and found it to be pretty good just as advertised. I started doing dailies, entered the queue for the first 5 man, and got in relatively fast (about 15 minutes). Then did the second, and the 3rd in quick order. The experience was pretty good, but I was kinda disappointed in a way with the actual instances which were very short.
I'm not saying that they were bad. In fact, considering their small size they were pretty dense and got right to the heart of the encounters. And the final encounter with the Lich King in the final dungeon was unique and very interesting to say the least. And despite the sparse start, the final dungeon had built up a real sense of dread and actually told a story from start to finish. That I'm pretty impressed with, even if it was pretty basic.
I haven't really paid much attention to 3.3 or read much about it. So I was interested to see the Disenchant Roll. Mage seems little changed (though I hear they changed frost a lot, who knows if it's any good or not. Recount wasn't working for me in a group, so it was hard to tell how bad my skills declined. I felt like I did ok, considering that I really haven't played at all in 6 weeks.
I do think that there should be something of a personal rating system involved with the dungeon finder. Not a global one, but a personal list where you can rate players and if those players are in the queue they are groups with you more often if you rated them higher. But still everything went pretty well so I was happy with it. I'll probably play some more this week to see if I can get into the frozen throne, and do some more pugs. I also went ahead and purchased epic/cold flying for my 76 shaman (now 77)...so I might try pushing him to 80 this week.
We'll see how I'm feeling tonight I guess. I have a 2 hour dentist appointment tomorrow where they are doing the first step of putting in a new crown, and dealing with a deep cavity that needs to be taken care of. That's going to be fun :(
Post raiding guild Arete seems pretty lively, I've noticed...a lot of people online hanging out and doing 5 mans and stuff. I, however, find myself mostly left out of that...those guys know each other pretty well and stick to the same groups. They tried a 10 man last week but I didn't get in, so my options have been pretty limited.
Though I pretty much detest puging, I did use the dungeon finder tool and found it to be pretty good just as advertised. I started doing dailies, entered the queue for the first 5 man, and got in relatively fast (about 15 minutes). Then did the second, and the 3rd in quick order. The experience was pretty good, but I was kinda disappointed in a way with the actual instances which were very short.
I'm not saying that they were bad. In fact, considering their small size they were pretty dense and got right to the heart of the encounters. And the final encounter with the Lich King in the final dungeon was unique and very interesting to say the least. And despite the sparse start, the final dungeon had built up a real sense of dread and actually told a story from start to finish. That I'm pretty impressed with, even if it was pretty basic.
I haven't really paid much attention to 3.3 or read much about it. So I was interested to see the Disenchant Roll. Mage seems little changed (though I hear they changed frost a lot, who knows if it's any good or not. Recount wasn't working for me in a group, so it was hard to tell how bad my skills declined. I felt like I did ok, considering that I really haven't played at all in 6 weeks.
I do think that there should be something of a personal rating system involved with the dungeon finder. Not a global one, but a personal list where you can rate players and if those players are in the queue they are groups with you more often if you rated them higher. But still everything went pretty well so I was happy with it. I'll probably play some more this week to see if I can get into the frozen throne, and do some more pugs. I also went ahead and purchased epic/cold flying for my 76 shaman (now 77)...so I might try pushing him to 80 this week.
We'll see how I'm feeling tonight I guess. I have a 2 hour dentist appointment tomorrow where they are doing the first step of putting in a new crown, and dealing with a deep cavity that needs to be taken care of. That's going to be fun :(
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Assassin's Creed 2
I have a confession to make. I bought Assassin's Creed 2 the day it came out, but I just finished it last night. I have an excuse though. Since I hadn't played the original Assassin's Creed, I bought that as well at a budget price of 9.99 and started with that one first.
I was worried playing the two one after the other might hurt the experience. Especially after I got into AC1 a bit and found it to be one of the most annoyingly repetitive games of all time. Brilliant concept, beautiful visuals, but utterly barren in the long run.
Yet surprisingly AC2 is very similar to the first in game play, yet instead of being boring and repetitive the game feels very fresh and innovative. And that was even after just playing the first one. I think there are two reasons for this. The first is, there is an actual story here instead of a couple of vague short mission briefings like the first. The progression is more linear, but as a result the game play and missions much more varied. It's not just 'save the woman/monk' 9 times, then climb 9 buildings, etc. Sure some are similar, but there is a story woven into the missions that make them much more compelling and the story itself is pretty cool.
The second big change in the game is the main character. In AC, Altair is something of an ass. And a bland ass at that. Enzio, however, is a much more compelling character and a much easier to relate to. His goal, to avenge the death of his family, makes him more than just as assassin. He also grows over the course of the game, which spans at least 12 years, becoming less of a hothead and more of a driven man as the story progresses to its inevitable conclusion.
There are some nitpicks I have with the game. The whole city-building system is half-assed and fucks the game's economy to hell. By the time I finished the game, I had around 780,000 florins with literally nothing to spend it on but bribing officials and hookers. You get so much money from your city that everything else pales in comparison. Who cares about looting a chest for 1k when you get 14k every 20 minutes for free and that new piece of armor costs 27,000. Money is simply too easy to get, and there just isn't enough to spend it on.
Another thing that's kinda annoying, and this is just as true as the first one, is how the main character handles on the run. The game tries too much to assist you, often leading the character to do stupid things had no intention of doing just because you ran close to something and it locked on. This was especially obvious in chases, where weaving through buildings caused you to hit every damned chimney in the area and causing you to do strange jumps that inevitably cause you to jump off buildings instead of up the next wall. At a slower pace it is MUCH easier to manage, but this has less to do with the actual speed and more to do with the character's actions at speed.
I also wasn't entirely convinced at the ending. The Truth, well, was obvious even from the first few clips...too bad there wasn't something more interesting there. I didn't collect all of the feathers either (I got about 45 by the end, less than half). And there are tons of treasures left to collect and a score of optional missions. I'm half tempted to go back just to finish them up, but I'm not sure if there is a real point.
Overall, I'd have to say that AC2 exceeded my expectations and has been one of the best gaming experiences I've had this year. It was a truly fun, though not particularly challenging, game. One that I'll probably play again at some point.
I was worried playing the two one after the other might hurt the experience. Especially after I got into AC1 a bit and found it to be one of the most annoyingly repetitive games of all time. Brilliant concept, beautiful visuals, but utterly barren in the long run.
Yet surprisingly AC2 is very similar to the first in game play, yet instead of being boring and repetitive the game feels very fresh and innovative. And that was even after just playing the first one. I think there are two reasons for this. The first is, there is an actual story here instead of a couple of vague short mission briefings like the first. The progression is more linear, but as a result the game play and missions much more varied. It's not just 'save the woman/monk' 9 times, then climb 9 buildings, etc. Sure some are similar, but there is a story woven into the missions that make them much more compelling and the story itself is pretty cool.
The second big change in the game is the main character. In AC, Altair is something of an ass. And a bland ass at that. Enzio, however, is a much more compelling character and a much easier to relate to. His goal, to avenge the death of his family, makes him more than just as assassin. He also grows over the course of the game, which spans at least 12 years, becoming less of a hothead and more of a driven man as the story progresses to its inevitable conclusion.
There are some nitpicks I have with the game. The whole city-building system is half-assed and fucks the game's economy to hell. By the time I finished the game, I had around 780,000 florins with literally nothing to spend it on but bribing officials and hookers. You get so much money from your city that everything else pales in comparison. Who cares about looting a chest for 1k when you get 14k every 20 minutes for free and that new piece of armor costs 27,000. Money is simply too easy to get, and there just isn't enough to spend it on.
Another thing that's kinda annoying, and this is just as true as the first one, is how the main character handles on the run. The game tries too much to assist you, often leading the character to do stupid things had no intention of doing just because you ran close to something and it locked on. This was especially obvious in chases, where weaving through buildings caused you to hit every damned chimney in the area and causing you to do strange jumps that inevitably cause you to jump off buildings instead of up the next wall. At a slower pace it is MUCH easier to manage, but this has less to do with the actual speed and more to do with the character's actions at speed.
I also wasn't entirely convinced at the ending. The Truth, well, was obvious even from the first few clips...too bad there wasn't something more interesting there. I didn't collect all of the feathers either (I got about 45 by the end, less than half). And there are tons of treasures left to collect and a score of optional missions. I'm half tempted to go back just to finish them up, but I'm not sure if there is a real point.
Overall, I'd have to say that AC2 exceeded my expectations and has been one of the best gaming experiences I've had this year. It was a truly fun, though not particularly challenging, game. One that I'll probably play again at some point.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Star Trek
I've always been a fan of Star Trek all the way back to when I was a kid watching TNG. The idea of a reboot really didn't seem to fit well with Trek--there's just a lot of history there, so I was hesitant about the new film even when reviews said it was good.
I came out of the movie theater really surprised about how good, how fun the movie turned out. I saw it twice in the theater (something I just don't do anymore), and I was eagerly awaiting it's release on blue-ray.
So this week I bought the film, and watched it again. And it holds up to everything I remember about it. Though now that I've seen it 3 times, some of it's faults are starting to appear. Most of them story related.
- Why in the hell is Scotty even in this picture? He's blatant comic relief and the only accomplishment he has is given to him by Future Spock. The scene where he's just running through engineering doing nothing but saying 'i'm givin her all she's got' just goes to show how much they just tried to shoehorn this character into the movie. Checkov, who theoretically shouldn't be there at all (in the original series, he was added later), had a much more substantial role.
- Why the whole drill thing? Why not just dump the 'red matter' onto the planet's surface and be done with it? Oh, I'm sorry, you have to give the good guys SOME chance to actually succeed!
- Still talking about the drill thing. But why is it so easy for Spock to blow up the cable holding the drill in the Jellyfish? You mean no one else thought of that until then?
- Karl Urban just owns the role of McCoy in this picture. He doesn't play him exactly the same, but his performance is spectacular in almost every scene he's in.
- Nero as a villain was something of a waste. There needed to be more of his back story. More of an explanation for why he was so pissed off. The little explanation we get of his motivation shows that he could have been a lot more. But this movie sacrifices all for the sake of the Kirk/Spock dynamic, and Nero and his story is no exception. It's a waste.
- That whole ice planet sequence really reminds me of the Phantom Menace in a not-so-pleasant way. And Kirk just randomly finding Future Spock is eye-rolling.
There are some other things that spring to mind, but many of those are nit-picks. I still like the film, it's a lot of fun. And it is one of the better Star Trek films. And considering that it could have ended up being a LOT worse, I'm pretty happy with it.
I came out of the movie theater really surprised about how good, how fun the movie turned out. I saw it twice in the theater (something I just don't do anymore), and I was eagerly awaiting it's release on blue-ray.
So this week I bought the film, and watched it again. And it holds up to everything I remember about it. Though now that I've seen it 3 times, some of it's faults are starting to appear. Most of them story related.
- Why in the hell is Scotty even in this picture? He's blatant comic relief and the only accomplishment he has is given to him by Future Spock. The scene where he's just running through engineering doing nothing but saying 'i'm givin her all she's got' just goes to show how much they just tried to shoehorn this character into the movie. Checkov, who theoretically shouldn't be there at all (in the original series, he was added later), had a much more substantial role.
- Why the whole drill thing? Why not just dump the 'red matter' onto the planet's surface and be done with it? Oh, I'm sorry, you have to give the good guys SOME chance to actually succeed!
- Still talking about the drill thing. But why is it so easy for Spock to blow up the cable holding the drill in the Jellyfish? You mean no one else thought of that until then?
- Karl Urban just owns the role of McCoy in this picture. He doesn't play him exactly the same, but his performance is spectacular in almost every scene he's in.
- Nero as a villain was something of a waste. There needed to be more of his back story. More of an explanation for why he was so pissed off. The little explanation we get of his motivation shows that he could have been a lot more. But this movie sacrifices all for the sake of the Kirk/Spock dynamic, and Nero and his story is no exception. It's a waste.
- That whole ice planet sequence really reminds me of the Phantom Menace in a not-so-pleasant way. And Kirk just randomly finding Future Spock is eye-rolling.
There are some other things that spring to mind, but many of those are nit-picks. I still like the film, it's a lot of fun. And it is one of the better Star Trek films. And considering that it could have ended up being a LOT worse, I'm pretty happy with it.
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