Close to 50

So I’m closing in on the big 50 – the level cap of the original game. I’ve been doing one duty roulette per day, queuing up for all the dungeons I need and today I spent roughly 2h doing those Hunting log mini-quests I’ve ignored so far. I’m 48 and 3/4 and my next MSQ is due at 49. But I finished the Maelstrom Hunting Log #1 and the Archer Hunting Log #1-#4 today. I got my “10 unique instanced dungeons” achievement, did my first Beast Tribe dailies and in the Maelstrom I’m now a Sergeant Third Class.

So maybe I had a look at 0.5% of the whole game by now 😛 But it’s kinda fun.

Steam had a sale for the Stormblood expansion yesterday, but apparently I can’t use that, having gotten my account through Square Enix directly (because it was free) so I would’ve had to buy the game again (10 EUR) plus the discounted expansion (18 EUR) which would be cheaper than the expansion in the SE store (35 EUR) – and then I probably would’ve had to reroll on the other account anyway. But according to several sites they also run sales from time to time on the SE store. Well, good job, SE – I guess I would’ve bought that without giving it a second thought, raking in a) an expansion purchase and b) continued subscription, so that free copy would’ve already have paid for itself. But no, this needs to be complicated, so I’m not buying anything for now.

PS: I wanted to call this post “So close and yet so far” but apparently I had already used that title. Pretty cool that WordPress showed me.

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FFXIV mini review

Some random thoughts after playing FFXIV for a little over a week:

Many of the MSQs are a bit silly (not in the “haha, funny” sense). I don’t mind the contents per se, it’s better if it’s not “please kill these 10 rats, my children have nothing to eat” all the time – but it’s really a lot of “go there, go back, go there again, go back again” – I am SO grateful that Aetherite Teleport only costs a little money and it’s not a Hearthstone on a 15min cooldown. Argh.

So many dungeons! But they are usually quick and doable, and the wait time so far hasn’t been longer than 20 minutes. Well ok, I had to abandon Titan on the first try (nice feature: people can vote to disband to avoid a penalty) because while it doesn’t seem to be a complicated fight, people died before the first big bang already. I don’t think the healer was really good. I hate to blame it on the healer, but even when I stood in nothing I just died to environmental AoE (after the tank was dead…) Worked flawlessly on the second try 3h later.

Also I’m not sure how happy I am that the dungeons often block progress. Sure, as I wrote it’s often not a big deal – but if I need to do this Duty now, it’s 20 minutes wait + 20 minutes for the dungeon, so I can’t get up for 45 minutes – yes I’m a spoilt solo player these days I guess. Also I can only use the downtime for FATEs and levequests and then I hate it if my Duty pops before I finished one. Meh.

Also there are a lot of phases of “omg, so much to do” and then “omg, I have nothing to do and need to search the map for FATEs every 30s…

I’ve hit 40 today and stopped the MSQ thing for a short bit, going back to do my 40 Bard quest first the next time I play. Also I did my first Duty finder random thing today (forgot the exact name, of course) and it was Ifrit, nice and short. Also I’m kinda curious about a tanking class, but I didn’t enjoy leveling my second class from 1-10, so it will only get worse with every new class? We’ll see.

MMO expansions

Kaylriene and Wilhelm and Bhagpuss wrote about expansions and I wanted to comment on the weekend and forgot. Then I typed a response to Bhagpuss and because it reached epic dimensions (for an answer) I decided to put it here instead.

Hm, I’ve long thought about this topic over the years and I don’t have a definitive opinion.

Back when I was playing WoW as my main (only one with real invested time) I was kinda looking forward to the expansions, but often already a bit wary because they would always change something for the worse. But ok, this could also happen in a major patch, or the new raid tier could be not as fun as the last one – I was hardly ever so fully progressed that I had seen and beaten all the content. I always had the goal to play all alts to max level, etc. (That’s an especially big one.)

But then I started playing other MMOs and I’m not really sure so much changed for me. Sure, I’m coming back to WoW only to check out the latest expansion (since 2014…) and haven’t stayed longer than 3 months since, but still. To me it always feels a little “moving the goal posts” and before I reach the goals I set for myself.. there’s a new expansion and the cycle begins. I am in no way teased by new shinies and I always hated the gear grind (apart from making the stuff I couldn’t do a little easier over time) – but just getting new stuff is zero motivation to me. I wanted to beat the bosses and gear was a means to an end. So in this regard I hated every new raid tier and especially every new expansion where it was: level, attune, farm reps, get gear, etc.pp.

Now I was *really* happy in SWTOR because I came later and could catch up with gear, but then with the latest patch you can get newer and better gear – this has killed every urge to log in recently (but ok, I’ve also wanted to play more WoW and FFXIV…) But yeah, those people having played SWTOR for years have really deserved some new stuff, so it’s ok, really. It just killed some major incentive for me to log in and catch up, that’s life – I did reach a lot of those goals in SWTOR I set myself. And without goals and achievements those games are quite a lot less fun for me.

Also I was always really happy when WoW was near the end of a patch cycle and I ran out of things to do, because then I had time to play other games for a month or three before the next expansion hits. Maybe I *am* a tad overenthusiastic about my main MMO – I don’t play it casually. I sink in every spare minute if there is stuff to do.

So… quite a bunch of words to go rambling in a totally wrong direction, given the three linked blog posts. Sure there are better and worse expansions, but my main problem is the cadence when they are hitting and if they are changing too much stuff. I wouldn’t be playing the game in the first place if it had a lot of stuff that needs to be fixed. Everything should always stay the same, get off my lawn, kids.

PS: Ranking of WoW expansions how I enjoyed them, for no particular reason: TBC > WotLK > MoP > Legion = Cata ~= BfA > WoD. Bit unsure yet where BfA stands.

 

Small update 2019-02-19: Telwyn also chimed in. Also a thing I totally missed talking about: “Vertical progression” expansions that are not moving the goal post (as I defined it), like in Guild Wars 2 or (apparently) EverQuest. I only experienced this in GW2 and I kinda liked it! I do love leveling, but it’s usually the first step in doing anything and a huge motivator, but sometimes not having to update the gear (that’s the step I hate the most) can be awesome. So I guess an expansion that does not increase the level cap once in a while can be a good idea.

Choices are hard

I have the most first worldliest of first world problems, the race/class distribution of my WoW toons.

Right now I’m playing more Alliance (Horde is kind of figured out for the most part already) and while I had a plan, with the Allied Races everything is unclear again. Not sure what I should do.

• Paladin – Dwarf – fine
• Druid – Worgen – fine
• Rogue – Human – fine (but won’t be maxed right now, due to Horde Rogue)
• Demon Hunter – Night Elf – fine, no choice anyway
• Hunter – Dwarf – regretting this a bit, but ok
• Priest – Worgen – fine

Now the problems begin.

• Warrior – Level 101 on wrong server. Shall I transfer?
• Shaman – Level 80 on wrong server. Shall I transfer?
• Warlock – Gnome was planned, but might be a good class for an Allied race
• Mage – got a Level 20 Draenei, not to late to remake as Allied Race
• Monk – kinda uninteresting, but again: Allied Race?
• Death Knight – didn’t plan to, but could make this a Gnome after all…
• I also have a Level 100 boost spare, so should be used for a non-Allied Race char (because of the Heritage Armor)

Lightforged Draenei and Void Elves are out of the picture right now anyway, but Kul Tiran Humans and Dark Iron Dwarves are kinda in reach.

The Allied Races can’t be DKs so I could switch my planned Gnome Warlock to be a DK.

If I chose to transfer my Warrior I could still start a Dark Iron Shaman and choose either Monk or Mage or Warlock for Kul Tiran. Decisions, decisions…

Also apparently I have begun running MC, Onyxia and BWL for transmog stuff again *sigh* Not sure how many runs I’ll need for that damn Paladin T2 Headgear.

No, I didn’t play only FFXIV

No, I didn’t exclusively play FFXIV or forget about the other games.

• The Druid has been 120 for a few days already and I’m grabbing WQs for upgrades and also doing some Emissary quests (and on Rogue and Pally).
• Running out of resources on the Rogue, but meh
• Running the Valentine dungeon daily on as many 110+ toons as I feel like
• Only 2 rare naval Garrison missions left \o/
• Did some profession quests at the Darkmoon Faire

More Eorzea

Oh wow, this game has me caught in its fangs. Didn’t help that I’ve been sick at home for the last two days, not being able to think straight but at least able to hold a mouse.

After running around on foot for a while (Sprint’s cooldown is too long!) I finally got a mount. As you can see I also joined the Maelstrom, fwiw. Was a close call, I nearly pledged my loyalty to Gridania.

Chocobo!

I just hit Level 30, did my Bard job change quest and yay. Leveling would be quite a bit faster if it weren’t for all this travelling because of the MSQ. I kinda ignored it for a bit and shot from 20 to 25, only to take quite a bit longer to catch up. I’ve been sent to the Shroud now for the umpteenth time – I am at one that is classified as Level 27, so not that far behind I guess.

Overall I’m still pretty happy with my choice of class and race – unless I have to wear hotpants again.

Hello Eorzea

Oh wow, that was a little unexpected. I know I had written about how I had wanted to play FF XIV for a while, but I never came around to it. I was in luck though and Gazimoff posted that FF XIV (the base game) was on Twitch Prime, and I had totally not seen it. So I grabbed it on Friday and installed it this morning and so I guess I have a month of play time now.

It’s fun! And pretty. And kinda colourful. A bit heavy on kill quests, but otherwise I had a ton of fun with it today, while stumbling through things. Everything is kinda nicely explained, you just need to memorize everything.

There’s only a very small amount of annoying things:

• the UI for comparing if a new piece of gear is an upgrade is horrible or I’m using it wrong
• running around with horrible hot pants for the last 5? levels because nothing was a real upgrade
• not being sure if I should keep those spiritbound? low-level pieces because I can apparently disenchant? them into materia?
• no mount

But apart from this it’s nice.

I chose a female Miqo’te and started as an Archer. I’m level 16 now and according to the NPCs kind of a VIP already.

Combat is a bit weird, I’m running in circles and kiting stuff. It works quite well though, but it’s just like with a WoW hunter 😛 I think I’m holding off with any other job until I am Level 30.

 

This day was a bit odd though because I also did a few quests in WoW and did the weekly Conquest in SWTOR with my guild. 3 MMOs on a single day is a bit much maybe. Might be a bit hard to juggle 3 MMOs in a month, especially with WoW being really fun and now this new one also trying to grab my attention

Plans for Azeroth

Real life has been a bit busy and weird the last 2 weeks, so I’ve not done much besides playing WoW when I have time and so I forgot to finish that last draft.

I’m still doing my Emissary Quest on both chars every day and finishing the War Campaigns as I unlock the rep steps. Well, actually I just finished the Alliance 8.0 one.

It’s still fun, so I’ll stay for at least another month for now.

I did have a lot of alts on max level after Legion, 7 in total, but only 2 of them Alliance. While I loved the Demon Hunter in Legion I didn’t want to level this class again right now, also because it’s a lot less fitting to Kul Tiras. Legion was perfect. So first of all I dusted off my 61 Dwarf Hunter who had been left in Hellfire Peninsula at the start of Legion (I guess) and been using up the rested XP. He’s at 67 now and has Heirlooms en masse.

But I really wanted to push for another max level character. I had made a Worgen Druid at some point, standing in Gilneas at Level 1. Screenshot, delete, remake as 110 class trial, finally use up the boost. Bam!

This time I tried to stay clear of all the non-main story line quests and just followed the main story. I’m 117 now and finished Drustvar and Tiragarde Sound. Let’s see how this works out in the end, including starting the War Campaign at 118.

Sorry Horde chars, but as long as I stayed unsociable in SWTOR I really like Guild Chat after all and so I need to stick to Alliance for now.

Immediate plans are:

• Get Druid to 120
• Finish the Horde War Campaign
• 3 Garrison rare naval missions and ~100 normal ones
• Unlock the four Allied Races in BfA: Kul Tiran Humans, Zandalari Trolls, Dark Iron Dwarves, Mag’har Orcs – I’ve given up on the 2 Argus ones
• Get Hunter to 90, maybe 100 – then think about whether to upgrade Heirlooms
• Look at LFR this expansion

Not so immediate plans are:

• Maybe push for all Exalted reps on the Rogue, need Honorbound and Zandalar anyway
• Maybe take up Suramar rep grinding again for the Nightborne, but my character with the highest rep (Shaman) is still 110.
• So maybe level Shaman first?

120 again

Oops, this was supposed to be posted on the 29th already.

Yesterday I dinged for the second time, on my Horde Rogue (main of 8 years), as I had leveled both in parallel to take advantage of rested XP. Still took 19h, apparently I’m slow. And also regularly porting back to the garrison to finish those 1000 naval missions ateone point. Still a bit curious where I lost so much time, surely it can’t be reading all the quest text?

Overall I liked the Alliance story/experience a little better. Zuldazar and Vol’dun were great, Nazmir was a bit bleak. But I’ve never been one to enjoy dark sceneries, except when it’s also magical and awesome, like Drustvar.

I’ve also never been a fan of Sylvanas and Blightcaller is horrible anyway, whereas Taelia and Flynn are fun.

Maybe I don’t want to be the bad guy either? In the first few expansions I saw the Horde as not inherently bad, but this time.. meh. Talanji is ok, so helping the Zandalari is cool, but I wonder if I missed any reference back to Zul’Gurub, I’m exalted on that char after all?

Blink and you’ll miss it

So I played a little more WoW after my few days away from home and dinged 120 on Friday, yay. 18h is a bit slow (mostly rested) but apparently I took all the time to smell the roses on the way and didn’t hurry at all. Also I cleared 2 zones completely with side quests instead of moving on quickly.

 

Thanks to my awesome guild who dragged me through a few Timewalking dungeons (and a Mythic0) and told me what to do to get gear, just last evening I was already sitting at iLvl 330 and then after finishing up some stuff I’m now at iLvl 347, finished Timewalking, my first Warfront and the Islands weekly. Right now I’m continuing the War Campaign, gated a bit by 7th Legion rep.

All in all it’s super fun and a nice diversion from SWTOR (where I still log in most days) and the questing flow is really awesome. Also the early gearing path is nearly a little too quick, with World Quests and dungeons and various one time things instantly providing such good gear – but I won’t complain. I put the Rogue a bit on the backburner for now, as I wanted to get one char “done” and experience some early endgame at 120 first.