Yeah, that went great. Had the plan to sub to FFXIV this weekend and then… EVE happened. I’ve not been that active for months. After all we’re moving and there’s other stuff to do. Hopefully this settles down soon because right now I’m losing sleep. Mostly because I’m hyped, but also because there’s so much to do.
It’s Blaugust again and this is post number 6.
Final Fantasy plan averted Read More »
I don’t actually rant a lot about random single mechanics, but this irks me every day when I do dailies in Korthia (in WoW 9.1).
So there’s this NPC, Popo, who is running across a third of the map, in (I think) 3 places a few very easy mobs spawn, then at the final destination a Rare is spawned from a portal. First of all, this whole thing has upsides and downsides. Upside: You see Popo spawn and move on the map, so you know “aha, a Rare at destination X in 1 or 2 minutes”, that’s fine. Just that most of the people (me included) ignore Popo on the way, so there’s always one or two poor souls who kill the mobs on the way, the rest is finishing up what they are doing or simply waiting at the portal. Lazy.
But that’s not the point. The mob that spawns, Wild Worldcracker, has a few boring abilities and one really annoying one. It does some sort of scream that will silence you for a full 20 seconds. And for a few weeks I was thinking “what a stupid mechanic”, you can’t kick it, I think you can knock the mob away or stun to interrupt it, but not 100% sure about the stun. So it’s always a little “am I lucky or will stand there for 20 seconds, doing nothing. Who thinks this is a fun mechanic?”.
At some point I went to Wowhead to look it up. I’m quoting the top-rated comment here:
If you just got CC’ed and can’t cast or attack, you must find a feared reflection of yourself (like the Kul’tharok soul separation mechanic in the Theater of Pain dungeon). The reflection is static (it does not move like the dungeon mechanic). Of course, with a lot of people around the mob on the first days of the patch, it’s harder to see the reflection.
Has this encounter designer EVER done a World Boss in WoW before thinking up something so stupid? For ranged, it’s some sort of amount of people with spell effects and looking for a grey? shade on grey ground in Korthia, maybe it’s doable.
For the melee it’s… a de-facto invisible shade in a huge ball of spell effects and 20-40 people in one ball around the boss. This is not a 20 man raid with coordinated people, this is a rare spawn, not even a world boss. It’s full nuke until it’s dead. Everyone hitting every button that lights up the surrounding.
Since I read this comment I’ve been trying to find my shade. A few days ago I seem to have run into it by chance because my silence was broken after 3s, on all the other occasions since looking for it, I have not seen it a single time. Yes, I do play Melee.
Yes, it’s nitpicking, but it’s the single most stupid thing I’ve seen in Korthia so far.
It’s Blaugust again and this is post number 5.
What were they thinking? Read More »
Some parties in the war are claiming they’ve won World War Bee II, and… it’s complicated.
Goonswarm is (rightfully) claiming they’ve won by not losing. Vily (of TEST) is claiming that the PAPI coalition has won simply by not being the Goonswarm, who were boxed into one constellation for a while. But their defenses didn’t break, and we (PAPI) didn’t manage to win.
That’s why our (BRAVE) (new full, ex-interim) CEO Dunk Dinkle declared that we (PAPI) lost, in a refreshing honesty that wasn’t very common in this war (from all parties). And while I agree with the assessment of the situation, I would have called it an unfavorable stalemate that’s worth abandoning. But I’ve not been involved in the war for quite a while, so I accept that “we lost”.
And this is great. My whole hope for the last year had been that the blue donut would be broken up and we could go back to have fun again. I’ve no love for the goons, but this war in it’s original motivation and with TEST’s plan was simply stupid. It’s not that we (BRAVE) could’ve really said we wouldn’t join, but it still sucked that we lost our space in Catch (and Impass, but I never liked Impass anyway). Querious is nice, but to me there was nothing wrong with Catch.
Anyway. We’re evaccing now because our leadership thinks the goons will come for us soon. I personally think they will go after TEST first and not BRAVE, but we are kinda close and I guess it’s warranted. I hate moving, but this time I was quite better prepared than last time.
The only thing that REALLY sucks is tearing down my PI setup, again. I’m not sure I’ll do this again in this form, but I probably will do it again in some form, but not in the near future.
So maybe there will hopefully be more EVE posts again on this blog in the near future. The war has ended and I prefer losing 10 times over it continuing. Even if the goons are coming for us, it’s not the same war. If you’re interested in what happened in the war, Wilhelm wrote at length about it, every single week. I didn’t read any of those war update posts, not because he’s a goon, but because I was so not into this war that I even stopped reading about it, even there. I’m pretty sure I read about EVE on Wilhelm’s blog before I even started playing in 2013, so that might tell you something.
The next few weeks and months will certainly be very interesting. Alliances leaving coalitions, corps leaving alliances, players leaving corps. People joining their comrades in other alliances, people going to the former enemy. I’m sure we’ll lose some people, as will most of the other alliances. My guess is that Legacy will stop existing in its current form. I’m optimistic though and I’m looking forward to the future, because I’m happy in BRAVE.
It’s Blaugust again and this is post number 4.
As I wrote last Saturday, my free login time has ended and to my (huge) surprise every day I actually wanted to login to FFXIV and play. I don’t even remember when the last time was that I felt this strongly about not being able to play. I think there were times in the last year where I’d rather play than work (how unsurprising) but not really this “I really want to play NOW.”
So there’s a good chance I’ll pull the trigger on Friday, we’ll see.
Oh, and I stumbled over Zepla’s YouTube channel and it’s pretty awesome. Helpful content and the best puns.
It’s Blaugust again and this is post number 3.
Wow, this is an odd feeling Read More »
What I wanted to do: Write a post about our third week of raiding (on the 27th or 28th).
What I didn’t do: write the post.
Anyway, in week 2 we were 8/10 and in week 3 we recleared either 6 or 7 bosses on Sunday, I think it was only 6 because Painsmith was a bit painful that week. But on Tuesday we managed to get Kel’Thuzard down, bringing us to 9/10 Normal. And of course I didn’t write down our rank.
Starting this post on Sunday of week 4, after the raid, we actually downed Sylvanas (can’t say killed because the fight ends at 50%) with our extended ID and I have to say… it was a bit meh actually.
When I watched the tactics videos it looked at least a little epic and/or a lot going on, but we had a first try with getting into P3 already, but wiping quickly. Then a good 2nd try where we wiped at 50.3% (a classic), then we had a bugged try #3 which I won’t count, because she teleported away in Phase 2 and cast Ruin before the bridge was there, so either nobody or nobody except a Hunter could’ve interrupted that. And then we won in try 4 (or 3), which was a bit messy and she did raze the 4th platform but we had enough cooldowns to nuke it. Very anti-climactic. Then our RL got a half-done id and we did Guardian and Fatescribe, then our 2 hours were up already.
I even forgot to take a kill shot. But it was only normal and no one bothered anyway.
Now raider.io says we’re world rank ~10700 or ~10300, no idea how you can have a different rating for “Sylvanas” and “10/10 Normal SoD” (I just noticed I misread the numbers, need to update the other post) and realm ~170. My old guild seems to be 8/10 now, for World ~13200 and realm ~25.
Kinda interested what we will do on Tuesday, if there will be another id for bosses 1-6 or if we will just do Kel’Thuzad, I’m guessing the former.
So we went in, wiped a bit on Kel’Thuzad in the old ID, then cleared bosses 1-5 without any problems and then after the 2h were up officially ended the raid, but everyone who had a few more minutes could stay for Painsmith. Around 13 of 20 did and we killed him again on the second try. Not bad, considering we had like 3-4 people who hadn’t done him as there was quite a bit of achievement spam. First week where we cleared everything I guess, even if in a very weird order. Boss #10, #7, #8, #9, #1-6.
It’s Blaugust again and this is post number 2.
Sanctum of Domination, 4 weeks in Read More »
Blaugust has started, but many people have written extensive Day-1 posts with lists and info, so I’m pointing towards Belghast’s blog post and will continue with the normal stuff.
I was pointed to this Fishing & Cooking guide for TBC Classic and I’ve been doing that for a bit today because my left arm hurts and didn’t want to play “properly” today before the raid
The first 90 minutes in, I got Fishing at 170 and Cooking at 150.
Another 90 minutes in I’m at 225 Fishing and 225 Cooking.
Already been to Gadgetzan (a little earlier than the guide) and finished the Cooking quest, then it’s off to find Nat Pagle’s four quest fish, so now the progress will probably a lot slower, but it’s only 75 each left in Azeroth.
Another 90 minutes in it’s 255 Fishing and 255 Cooking, perfectly timed. Already in Feralas, this should be the final stretch, let’s see if 30 minutes are enough to have a round 5 hours.
And of course it took another 90 minutes to get to 300 Fishing and 290 Cooking, so off to Silithus for Sandworm Meat because I don’t feel like going to the Eastern Plaguelands now.
Too bad, the first 4.5h were kinda relaxing, watching stuff on YouTube, listening to podcasts, and so on and then the “final stretch” was kinda tedious.
It’s Blaugust again and this is post number 1.
Chill professions leveling Read More »
So, my 14 days of FFXIV have come to an end and apparently I miscalculated or missed the starting day because today I can’t login anymore, I thought I still had today 🙁
Anyway, I do plan to subscribe soon[tm], but probably not this weekend, which is a bit of a shame, but I’ll probably use the time to get my TBC Classic Druid to 70, and come back in a week or so.
I am quite happy with all the things I managed to get done in these 14 days, despite flailing wildly at the start and not really knowing what to do, so thanks to the people in Discord and the Novice Network on Omega. It’s fascinating to see the exact names as mentors as 2 years ago, when I started playing. Too bad I didn’t notice when I got booted from my Returner status, I had wanted to say thanks.
In my case I think the free “come back and remember how awesome this game is” has definitely worked, I don’t see any reason not to resubscribe in August.
So, what did I achieve?
Story progess: First of all, I made it to Shadowbringers content. I finished the Stormblood MSQ and then all the Post-Stormblood quests, and then I even did the starting quests in the new city, although I already forgot the name. Did not manage to continue the Hildibrand questline, but finished the Make It Rain seasonal/limited time thing.
Level progress: If only I’d written this down, but I think I did:
First I pushed Bard with Stormblood MSQ, and side quests. Then once I had seen the MSQ roulette dungeons again I healed them, then I also tanked them. In the end I was tanking “Leveling” and “Level 50/..” dungeons and queued for Trials as Dancer.
I think my next “goals” are: Shadowbringers MSQ on Bard, to get to 80, more tanking and getting all to 60 to be able to throw away some gear. Catch up Machinist to Dancer and continue to ignore melee 😛
I really still love the Bard and plan to keep it as my main job, although the opening rotation is a bit nuts. Dancer is also really fun, but a bit lacking. Machinist started really boring at 30, but now at 50 it’s a lot better. Although the gauge mechanic is a bit weird in a dungeon, you kinda struggle to get your resources to full before the first boss because you’re usually only AoEing, which doesn’t build them.
Gear progress: I did a lot of duty roulette, MSQ and Level 50 most days, Leveling and Trial on many days. I have a full (minus 1-2 parts where I had 385, rings/earrings) Level 70 iLvl 400 set for Bard, White Mage, and Warrior now.
Free login campaign was a huge success Read More »
While I’m not actively playing it, I am logging into Guild Wars 2 for the daily rewards quite frequently, which means I have a ton of the things they hand out for that. Not that I was lacking those things back when I was playing actively, it’s always the same stuff after all…
So today I log in and see not one, but two of the blinking twisting animated icons in the bottom right corner.
“Preorder ‘End of Dragons’ and get a free Level 80 boost!”
Hmm, couldn’t you have made it in any way less interesting?
That’s my bank. 1 Level 60 boost, 2x 50, 1x 40, 7x 30, 12x 20. 604 x “grant one level”, that would be 7 more Level 80s on their own. If I combine them in a smart way I could boost 13 characters to Level 80 right now, and the leftovers would be one more Level 34. (then I discovered 109 writs, so that’s another 5 Levels more)
I didn’t have to make this ridiculous calculation, but come on, ArenaNet – could there be ANYTHING less exciting for anyone who has played in the past than a Level 80 boost? Even an ugly mount skin would have been more interesting.
But this wasn’t supposed to be a complete rant and finger pointing. I’m probably over my GW2 days but I am genuinely happy there will be a new expansion, for all the people who still play it. I meant to keep getting back into it, but the other games seem to just be more interesting to me right now (and the last 2-3 years).
If you’ve never played GW2, you should actually try it. Sadly I won’t be able to hand you one of my 13 Level 80 boosts, but you should try leveling in a normal way anyway. At least if you’re like me, who kinda stalled out more on the whole “horizontal progression” thing at the end, that’s why I have 5 Level 80 chars (without much or any boosting), one Level 70 (with quite a bit of boosting), and 1 lowbie.
Currently the day doesn’t seem to have enough hours for all my plans.
First of all there’s TBC Classic, while we’ve started a summer break on our group for now due to people going on vacation, there’s still the Druid/Hunter duo. I got to 68 on the weekend and learned flying, but I’m not really motivated atm as I don’t have any real goals at 70.
Trying to get the dailies done in Retail on my main, that’s 15-30 minutes, and I’m probably not gonna be able to squeeze an M+ in this week, maybe after the raid tomorrow. In any case I’m happy I’m not raiding 3 days per week anymore. 4h + a few minutes before is really nice.
Then there’s the war in EVE which seems to be pumped up again as of the weekend, at least there should be stuff happening in a few days.
But mostly my time is spent in FFXIV atm, although it warned me today that I had only 5 of my 14 days left, but I’ve been a busy bee. Daily MSQ roulette has yielded me the Level 70 Healer set already (after the ranged DPS one), Warrior is nearly 67, Machinist is 51, Dancer is nearly 63, and I got White Mage to 69 today and started handing in crafted mats to the Grand Company again, trading Gil for XP if the stuff is available for cheap. Also I did the intro quest for Gunbreaker but I’m not sure I like the playstyle. I think I’ll stick to Warrior and try to level Paladin and Dark Knight. And I slowly continued on the Level 70 post-Stormblood MSQ.
When I started to play 2 years ago, the release of Shadowbringers was imminent and I didn’t manage to get to 70 before it launched. This time Endwalker is imminent, so I really want to be there at launch, but that means I need to catch up quite a bit. I hope the autumn is long enough that I can do that.
So FFXIV will end in a few days, then I need to decide if I will instantly resub. WoW Retail can be put on the backburner a little, I’m not 100% happy just raidlogging and doing dailies+weeklies, but that’s a plan for a few weeks at least. Classic needs a two level push then I can probably dial that back a bit as well, unless I am renewed in my interest to run dungeons at 70 (and prepare to be able to do Heroics for the Epic Druid Flight Form quest when it is coming). EVE is a wild card atm, day to day maintenance is currently low, but we’ll see how August shapes up…
But yeah, I guess that’s a good problem to have.
I’m usually not one to comment here on anything that’s going on in the outside world, I have other outlets for that.
But when I read the California sues Blizzard thing I became more than a little mad because it doesn’t sound like a single case (which would be bad enough) but more like a general problem there, and probably in the whole industry.
But Blizzard should be ashamed at every level of management, but the higher up, the worse it gets.
As someone said so aptly, it shouldn’t be too hard to not be a sexist asshole, but apparently the low bar is too high.
As I wrote in a comment in Naithin’s blog, I find the phrase “separate the art from the artist” very problematic if you talk about something like a book by one author on the one end of spectrum and a 15 year old game like WoW on the other hand, where hundreds of people were and still are involved.
So for all the people who think just voting with your wallet and unsubscribing right now is the correct way of action, my hat is off to you, I think it’s the best way to proceed.
For those others (like me) who spend like 50% of their spare time in WoW at the moment… I think it’s valid to not sabotage that for yourself and keep playing, after all we should assume that the majority of people working there are decent. And yes, you can call me a hypocrite for that, but currently it’s not simply “one of many games” I play, so unsubscribing to vote with my wallet feels a lot harsher than many things I can imagine in regards to any form of brand loyalty regarding physical goods.
Blizzard and this train wreck Read More »