Mistakes I've made

Last month, I pondered how you're supposed to know what class/race combo will be the best in the future when you first create it.

I've made mistakes, or to put it more nicely, not made the best of choices. Choosing a priest without fear ward was one of them.

Lately, I've felt choosing a priest period was a mistake. The very thing I chose it for - to be a healer and play a support role has become the bane of my existence. I can heal, so I have to heal.

Its weird because playing a priest is fun enough sometimes to keep me holding on to it. I almost prefer it to be totally lousy so I could leave her behind without regret. (I'm recalling the player that at the announcement of some paladin changes way-back-when, made an announcement to the guild that this was B.S., promptly deleted all of their characters and quit playing the game altogether. I wonder would they be happy with how paladins are now?)

Other mistakes I've made include:
*rolling on a pvp server
*raiding at the extent I have
*taking up enchanting - utter gold sink
*rolling on a west coast server

So according to this list, I would have been better off playing a non-raiding human warlock on a normal east coast server with mining and herbalism as my profession.

But hindsight is always 20/20.

Flying high

Its done, I'm gold poor but mount rich!

I got my epic flying mount. I didn't feel fast at first because up in the air I didn't have a point of reference. But flying low to the ground, I could feel how much faster I'm moving.

Ironically, I've been spending most of my time in the Old World where I can't even ride it! Also, one of the side perks was to be able to get from one herb to the next faster, but I recently dropped herbalism for another profession.

Ah well, it feels good to have met a big goal and I'm thinking that was more what it was about for me. I don't have that whoosh, zoom feeling I really was expecting but that's okay.

Since I haven't really had the chance to enjoy my new mount, I should reserve this opinion - but I'll go ahead and share it anyway: If you are happy with your ability to get around in the game so far, I wouldn't worry about getting an epic flying mount. If you have 6000g laying around - your ability to make cash isn't an issue, so go for it! But honestly, taking flightpaths anywhere in Outland doesn't take long. Riding your epic ground mount still gets you around fast and you can jump on your regular flying mount to get to those hard-to-reach places just like you could if it were epic, just a bit slower.

Truth in posting

Yesterday, Tobold posted something to incite discussion, saying he held one position when I guess he actually held another.

While I was totally confused by his initial stance, even going so far as to think someone had taken his blog hostage, I fell for the bait. Afterwards, I was relieved to find he didn't really think shadow priests were gimp. I feel silly now for trumpeting the good things about shadow priests, because I can assume he already knew about them. But for anyone has played one before BC, it is common to find yourself justifying your existence to others and yourself. Its like a knee-jerk reaction.

I picked a priest to heal, but unless you stay parked inside instances (I've posted many times on the subject) in reality holy feels gimp while shadow is more overall game friendly.

Whether Tobold was just being a devil's advocate, opinions like those make you want to roll a warlock or a mage and never have to sell your role to anyone. Because it does get tiring. No one would ever ask what role I'm fulfilling in today's group. DPS duh!

As I commented to Tobold, I'll look at his blog with a raised eyebrow from now on. Which is a good thing to do with anything on the internet anyway.

Which reminds me, its almost time for April Fool's Day. Many sites will post something silly that people will believe (remember Wisp as the new race?) and the next day we'll all /facepalm or smugly comment "I knew it was a joke all along!"

Git ta' questin'!

s4dfish found out for me that Horde have a total of 3,221 quests and Alliance have 3,403.

So if you want to do all the quests in the game, you've got your work cut out for you! What are you doing lolly gagging at the auction house for?!? Those murloc eyes must be gathered!

Lot o' quests

As I've mentioned before I've been 70 for a bit now. I managed to hit 70 before setting foot into Shadowmoon Valley.

I think Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Valley have the same level of mobs and quests, but the quests I did in Blade's Edge Mountains led me to Netherstorm and that's where I dinged. At that time I quit questing while I spent most of my time inside instances, getting attuned and raiding Karazhan.

Unless a quest sends me to an area I hadn't uncovered it. I simply haven't done much exploring, because there is always something else I want to do. Currently my main focus is mount money. So now I'm back to doing quests. I was worried that the quests would run out (my log was starting to fill up with heroic/dungeon/group quests), but just this past week I came across two groups of quests I didn't know existed in Netherstorm. One is Kirin'Var Village, the other a group of Ethereals (I don't recall the name). I'm looking forward to going back and finishing up those quests now. Not to mention you get extra gold when you hit 70 (because you can't get xp anymore).

In the back of my mind, I had this crazy idea of trying to complete every single quest available to me (except ones that required raiding objectives). There has even been a suggestion on the official forum to make all available quests show up as exclamation points - even after you've leveled out of them - the big discussion is what color the exclamation points should be, haha! (I say grey - but grey exclamation points mean something else - for the life of me I can't remember what at the moment!)

It would be helpful. Right before the Burning Crusade was released I had gotten bored enough to go to the gnome starter area on my night elf and do some of the quests there - yes even killing rockjaw troggs. I had to walk up to every NPC to see if they had a quest for me. I didn't make it far out of Coldridge Valley before giving up on that venture. Turns out I doubt I could complete every single quest - there are a lot o' quests in this game.

That leads me to wonder, how many quests ARE in WoW?

The Burning Crusade: 2 months later

Well it has almost been 2 months since the release of the Burning Crusade.

3.5 million sold as of March 7 breaking a one month's sales record. I guess to say it was a success is an understatement.

I was one of those 3.5 million and I've happy with my purchase. My vow to stop and smell the felweed was broken as I excitedly ran through the content.

I can't say I've done it all, because there is a lot to do. But only after 2 months, I feel like I can say I've done most of it. I've hit 70. I've gotten a profession to 375. I've hit every instance except heroic modes (which are instances you've already done, on crack) and the higher level 25-mans. I've gone back and helped some late comers through the old instances (Blood Furnace is "old".) I've done quests in every new area. I've picked every new flower. I've killed almost every kind of new beast that was added. I've started new factions, I've hit honored and revered with some.

Those around me are plowing through as well, it isn't odd to see level 70 blood elves and draenei. Horde may have found a new advantage to having paladins, but I can't see what shaman have distinctively brought to raids. I've seen players craft all the new stuff and then replaced it - already - with raid upgrades. I've seen players hit 70 and then hit 70 with an alt, and then hit 70 with another alt. Players are going back to Molten Core, Black Wing Lair and other historic instances, to get revenge as their more powerful selves.

The only thing I haven't done is fly the world on a new sonic gryphon. Which I'm saving up for, but I was thinking after that - then what? More of the same.

I'm not complaining, because I was the one who played through a lot of it faster than I probably should have, but I find it hard to think this will hold me until the next expansion.

If I've been seeming a little down lately. Remember this is a personal blog and I just reflecting here what I've been feeling in real life. And as always it will pass. I'll have fun stuff to report on again soon enough, be in in WoW or some other MMORPG!

I'm not the only one

I came across a blog where the blogger posted this on March 29, 2006 - Why I'm Losing Interest In World of Warcraft and then on March 6, 2007 - World of Warcraft: Canceled today, and here's why

About 6-7 months ago, I mentioned how I lost enthusiasm to raid, yet today I'm still doing it.

I think I need something to take its place. Except for a brief moment after the Burning Crusade was released I've raided every week, several times a week. I'm not even sure I've ever dedicated so much time to one type of thing.

Crazy thing is I'm not even as hardcore as most of the people who raid are.

Raiding allowed me to be able to log on and always have something to do. Either I was raiding or getting ready to raid.

Raiding has become something I do out of habit. Even on night's I decided to take off from the normal place we'd raid, I just end up raiding some other place.

As the link discusses in "When Fun is bad" (a link I've had there since I started this blog and has since had several comments from players experiencing the same thing) what is it about games like this that keep us doing something past the fun of it?

I see I'm not the only one, who after losing interest keeps on playing. Doesn't make me feel better about it, just makes me be more skeptical that this is just a innocent pasttime.

At this very moment

I wish Lord of the Rings Online, or some other game caught my interest. Even with all the stuff to do, WoW just doesn't do it for me sometimes.

At least the weather is getting warmer...maybe I can visit that virtual world called the outside.

Mount money

Once I decided to begin the epic task of saving for an epic flying mount I realized I wasn't as bad off as I thought.

Now I've been playing WoW on and off since release. I have several characters with stuff I've acquired and just never took the time to put up at auction. My mailbox always has something in it I've mailed back and forth between alts because I never took the time to do anything with it. I'm also fairly tight with my gold which is weird considering its virtual money. You'd think I wouldn't hold onto it like I'm saving it for some rainy day. 5g to a beggar? Get a job! 300g for a recipe? No! I can't swing that. 1200g for a Quel'Serrar book (ha! bet you can't give these away now)? Never! Who has that kind of gold lying around?

Well apparently I did. After sending all the gold I had on various characters, selling off many of the raw materials I had saved up for those professions I never got around to leveling all the way to 300 (now 375) I found that I was almost half way. Already without killing a single humanoid or spider. It was like those people who have antiques in their home and never realized they were sitting on a fortune. While I knew I wasn't starting from zero, I had no idea I'd be well on my way to my goal before I had even started!

The hard part will begin soon, since all the gold I had accumulated before hand wasn't the result of grinding, it was just the by-product of doing quests, leveling characters, etc...I came by it "easy". Eventually I'll have all those extra mats sold off and I will have to actively going to grind for cash. And, as I have mentioned before, I hate grinding. I'll have to keep reminding myself why I'm doing it - a fluffy new flying mount awaits!

Another WoW blog to add to the list

I've come across a blog I wanted to share. Big Red Kitty

A blog about a hunter and his big red cat.

Not sure how I hadn't come across that one before now.

He has renewed my interest in obtaining an epic flying mount. (It also encouraged me to change the look of my blog, if you hadn't noticed!)

When it comes to things you can do in this game solo and feel like you've accomplished something - epic mounts come to mind. It seems like alot of players have them but many don't.

On my very first character I didn't even think much about having a regular mount, that is until the friends I sometimes quested with were leaving me in the dust. I finally started saving up (and eventually borrowing some gold) until I was able to get my first mount as a level 42. Borrowing for a regular mount seems so odd now. But it seemed like such a huge amount back then.

The next time around I was prepared (its cheaper to level a clothie who doesn't rely on updated weapons) and able to get my first mount as soon as I dinged 40. It no longer felt like a big deal.

By this time I wanted an epic mount - for the looks mostly. Once again the amount of an epic seemed huge. I tried hard to wait but ended up borrowing gold from friends so I could enjoy riding in style.

An epic mount does change things. Its no longer a pain to get around, you are also able to ride out of harms way easier. And I don't need to mention the advantage it gives you in pvp. Regular mounts in a battleground need not apply.

Then comes the Burning Crusade. I always felt mounts were just a luxury, but with tBC flying mounts became a necessity. At least if you were to do some of the instances that could only be reached by flight. I had first planned to just save up for the epic and forego the regular flying mount. Instead it didn't take me long after I hit 70 to go ahead and purchase one.

An regular flying mount is nice, it changes the scenery, it is cool and I like having one. But I think an epic flying mount will change the game for me just like my first epic ground mount did.

I once again, have friends leaving me in the dust as they start quests while I'm still getting my gryphon off the ground. I found it quicker to just use the regular flight paths, as my own mount feels like riding in a hot air balloon, when really what I want is a airplane to get me from pt. A to pt. B. From what I've seen and heard an epic flying mount is like having your own jet.

And as usual, the amount seems SO HUGE. What's next instant teleports that cost 30,000 gold? But I'd probably gasp at the amount of gold I've spent in this game on all my various characters. Why not save it all up this once and have something to show for it that - for the foreseeable future - beam me up Scotty aside - will last me and won't be outdated because a better flying mount dropped off of Illidan.

So that's my latest goal. I'm looking forward to it, because it is one I can accomplish on my own time at my own pace.

I'm guessing it will take me a month - based on absolutely no data. Do you have an epic mount? How long did it take you to go from 0g to 5200g?