The Ranter

Following the post by Gazimoff and Pewter, I will also give my thoughts about The Annual Pass that I signed up to. I have to admit, I didn’t sign up immediately when they announced it at Blizzcon last year. I was tempted, because everyone knows I’m a sucker for stuff like that (free mounts woot!).  I knew that I was going to play Star Wars, but after talking it over with the husband, we agreed that I could afford playing two mmo’s for a while. When Swtor started though I wasn’t that interested in wow any longer and I felt a bit of buyers  remorse. Was I ever going to really get into WoW again?

Luckily for me, I stopped playing Swtor. Don’t get me wrong, I do love the game; the story is amazing and I love the immersion the game provides. Levelling though is horrible and I just can’t do it on any other alts. In other words: I returned to WoW and I’m actually quite happy running around, levelling new alts all to prepare for mists.

Thinking about it, I do think I would sign up for the pass again. I might still take some little breaks now and again when something new comes out (Guildwars 2, Mass Effect 3, etc) but I somehow always seem to return to WoW. The pro’s about the pass for me are as following:

I love getting into beta’s. It will give me a chance to check out the class changes in the game and see if I’d still like to play my class or if I want to switch it up. I am very curious what the monk class will be like and if it will be worth it to make it my main.

I love it that I can play Diablo 3 when it comes out and I don’t have to go to a shop… I guess that feeds my laziness  and I do like Tyreal’s charcer, even if it has short legs and remind me more of a pony.

Now for the con’s: I am never a fan of long contracts, except perhaps for my marriage. I’m a very fickle person and a game I could love for a few months, could loose it’s shine in a few more. I especially notice this with mmo’s and signing up for a year to WoW was somehow a big step for me. In the end it’s working out alright. I am still enjoying WoW so far.

I’m alright with paying for the things I’m getting; mount, beta, free game, then I see the new features for the Scroll of resurrection….and I’m not quite sure how I feel about this. It’s great that people get a reward that pretty amazing for returning to wow and I am also happy that the person who sends out the scroll gets (yet another) mounts.

Call me selfish and greedy, but where is my reward of being a mostly loyal customer for 7 and a half years now? Ow that was the annual pass? That I had to pay for? Yeah…thanks. Ow wait, you also gave me a free copy of wow, tbc and wrath. That’s great! Ow… I would also have to pay for the subscription for that second account? Never mind then. I am a little bit bitter about it. I’m sure Blizzard could look at all the accounts of long time subscribers, see how many months through all the years they paid for WoW and give them a reward depending on how many months they have paid already. I’d like a spectral tiger please… with a pretty bow around it’s neck. Thank you, Blizzard. (ps. If you team up with your nemesis Bioware and make me a Garrus mount, I will love you forever.)

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Initial Thoughts on Cataclysm

A bit late, but I did manage to squeeze out this post for Blog Azeroth:

1. Disk or Download?
Disk. I’m a collector of the CE’s and this one wasn’t going to be any different. I love this little tradition I made.

2. Did you experience any difficulties? IE: Login servers crashing, late delivery, etc?
The patching was a huge issue. Mostly because my router is really bad. It keeps disconnecting me and the only way I can solve it is by restarting my computer…until I was told there was a better methord *facepalm*

3. What are you doing first? IE: Speed leveling to 85, rolling a new race, completely avoiding the new content, etc?
I’ve rolled a new goblin warlock and I’m playing her from level 1. Taking my time and enjoying all the new things. I also rolled all the new toons I wanted to and when I’m done with my warlock I’ll level them.

4. Mt. Hyjal or Vash’jir?
I’m not sure yet. I’ve heard different opinions and I’m leaning towards Vash’jir. I guess I love to see more about the world of the naga’s.

5. Worgen or Goblin?
Goblin, but I do love the worgen and their Gilneas too. I just  have a weak for goblins.

6. Questing, dungeons or both?
Mostly questing and now and again doing dungeons. I love what they did with the old instances. Except for gnomeregan. I don’t know what it is, but that one still drives me bonkers.

7. What was the first piece of gear you replaced and with what?
None really, considering I’m starting from level 1. I do love the time Blizzard put into naming some simple pieces of gear that goblins get in their starting area.

8. Did you take any time off from work or school?
I work for the mail and considering Christmas is their most hectic time I wasn’t allowed any time off. Because of that I hardly have levelled/played. It’s alright, I knew this was going to happen. Now I just stare at my computer at work and hope it will be replaced by wow on my screen soon.

9. Will you be keeping the same spec and main, or changing to a different toon?
I do love my warlock, but I’ve also started liking my lowbie orc shaman. I don’t think I’ll be switching to my alliance druid any time soon. I’ve just played her too much and I want to stay horde from now on.

10. What’s been your favorite aspect of Cataclysm so far?
That my old world is completely rebuild. It’s familiar yet also unfamiliar. The best thing however is goblins. I’m really loving her emotes and her looks.

 

Loremaster…so close I can taste it. Nom nom nom

I have been incredibly busy lately. I found it hard to log in and actually work on the 2 achievements I really want. Loremaster and grinding rep for the Cenarion Circle and Expedition. I only do it, because I love the titles:

Loremaster Orronil or Orronil, Guardian of Cenarius. *blissful sigh*

The time I was online I started to slowly grind for both and behold, I did achieve something:

And as you can see, I still need to finish around 80 quest in Icecrown.

I did hit exalted with the Cenarion Circle, but no flashy things popped up :< Now I’m trying to grind those damn ears to hand in at the Deta guys and getting my claws on coilfang armaments. Slowly it’s creeping up, but it’s a slow rep grind.

Then there are some other things on my list. With Cata and the whole world-changing, I realised that I do want to hit exalted with certain factions and do more mount runs. I checked my list of reputations and it seems since I’ve played this char almost from the launch of WoW, she’s actually not far off from exalted with most factions. This will be my new list:

• Exalted Zandalar Tribe
• Exalted Wintersaber trainers
• Try to get the Baron’s mount
• Try to get the raptor from ZG
• Try to get the tiger from ZG
• ow and while I’m at it, still trying to get Anzu. Damn bird still hasn’t dropped his reigns

I have decided to put my levelling on hold. I’ll try to level them all when Cata comes out. That way it will be fresh and fun again. I will also have to transfer all my hordies to an all horde server. Call me slightly weird, but I like having servers ordered by faction.

So what about everyone else? Anyone quickly grinding rep or mounts before the world is changed?

Cataclysmic Goals

We still have a few months (at least) to go before Cataclysm will be upon us. Raiding in my guild is kinda slow, so I decided to put some goals up for myself before the new expansion is available.

1. Get all my alts up to 80; I’ve already reserved a nice spot for my fresh puppy rogue. I might even be completely insane and make another druid (Worgen). I still have 4 characters lying around that I really want to level to 80 at the moment though. One is my level 75 priest. She is actually fun to play, but I don’t really like healing on her so much after experiencing druid healing again. Face melting however, totally fun! Perhaps it could also be Northrend. I love levelling in the old world, but as soon as I hit Northrend I get this overall ‘meh’-feeling. Perhaps it’s also because my experience bar isn’t moving as fast as I wish it did after handing in a quest. Then we have my level 20’s; a hunter, a warlock and a shaman. They will get up to 80… hopefully in the next few months. Perhaps it would be best that as soon as I get the ‘meh’-feeling to switch to one of my alts and experience the wonders of Westfall again.
2. Get Anzu on my main druid; I’ve been running Heroic Sethek Halls for weeks now and I’m starting to scream obscenities to Anzu every time he disappoints me, but I will not stop killing him over and over again until I can ride him like a wild pony.
3. Scrap together some more achievements and gold; I know Blizzard will start to charge us money for flying in the old world and it’s time I should start saving for it. I’m also going for the infamous Loremaster title. I must be crazy trying it, but I will hate myself if I don’t even try it. I did read up on how to find all the quests.  I need to install Tom Tom, everyquest (I already have that one), Loremaster and lightheaded.
4. Get my gear up. Right, I’m not a fan of the whole gearscore hype, but it is a good way of seeing how my gear is doing. My resto gear is not too bad, but doing dailies as a resto is an enormous pain in the rear-end. I duel-specced as a boomie again, but the gear I have on there isn’t just that great. It will only take me 110 frost emblems and 270 triumph emblems to get both my sets to a good standard…..urgh..
5. Rep grinding; I have been oogling that fishing rod from the walrusmen for some time now. I could get it if I put in some effort.

All in all it shouldn’t be too hard to get to my goals before Cataclysm comes out. My guess will be that it will be out around November. I wonder how wrong I’ll be.