tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65243332785112881292024-03-14T00:21:10.372-05:00Feckless LeaderA World of Warcraft blog that explores enhancement shamanism, gold-making, completionist-leanings, and pet battles, among other things.onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.comBlogger238125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-20814320906847414872016-12-05T14:22:00.001-06:002016-12-05T14:22:29.972-06:00WoW Weekly: Dear Lord, It's Been a While<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/search/label/weekly" style="color: #64a6c0; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">WoW Weekly</a> is a biweekly-ish, self-absorbed look into the things I've been doing inside the game and out. From mount farming and raiding, to music, movies, books and other games.</i></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">Thus ends Feckless Leader's posting drought. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">Man, it's been a while, hasn't it? I knew I'd been neglecting this space for reasons I'll get into shortly, but when I realized it's been over a month since my last post I became extra grateful the spirit chose to move me this morning. Because that's really my MO. Like when writing music, I don't often approach this with discipline, but rather opt to wait around patiently for the muse to drop onto my shoulder, or at best, will the muse to touch down somewhere in the neighborhood. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">While the muse has been at arm's length this whole time, other things have taken precedence. I'm playing a <i>hell</i> of a lot more Legion than I was playing Warlords. But I'm also playing a lot less Legion than I did Mists of Pandaria. That's mostly due to real life business, and partly to do with the fact two other Blizzard games have been demanding my attention. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">Ok, two paragraphs in, seems like the right time to get to the main point of this whole post: have you guys met Mehlody? I don't think you have. I did what 99% of other players did and rolled a demon hunter at the start of the expansion. Then, I put her on the shelf so I could focus on gearing up the enhancement shaman main. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">A few weeks ago, I reached the point with my main where I could start to consider alts. That point for me, mind you, was finding and equipping a second legendary. He's been geared up to the teeth thanks to the guild's weekly raid, so outside of achievements and finishing Karazhan, he's doing all right. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">With Mehlody, I learned that if leveling is your main goal, things go by pretty quickly. As a double-gatherer, I chose to start out in Stormheim and Highmountain due to Fjarnskaggl and Foxflower herbs. Figured it'd be a good way to furnish some of my main's raid supplies, because flasks and potions are expensive, people! I quickly abandoned that idea with the advent of the Blood of Sargeras vendor, since gathering would just slow me down. I finished the main storyline in Stormheim, most of it in Highmountain, and just a snippet in Val'sharah before I dinged 110. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Thanks to the work done by my trusty main Elepheagle, my Flight Master's whistle was instantly delivered and I set off to Suramar. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Prior to last weekend, I was faced with the gearing slog: reach 810 in order to be able to queue for Heroic dungeons. I was well under that, and the prospects of running with the guild's Sunday alt run were unlikely. Thanks to some crafted gear and a couple of lucky world quest upgrades, I was just shy of 810 prior to raid start. I used pull that only a raid leader has and inserted myself into the off-tank position that night. Luckily, we only had one other tank that night, so I had to do it, you know? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">It was rough for me at times---I feel for the healers---but we managed to clear Normal Emerald Nightmare in about 75 minutes. Yes, we were stacked with superstars from our Thursday main raid, but still. I lucked out on gear, and a couple people chuckled when at raid's end I declared that I was ready for Heroic dungeons. I only did run a couple of those between last week's alt run and this week's, but still managed to pull my ilvl up to 830. Special nod to the legendary necklace I pulled from a Highmountain cache last night.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">As for the alt run this week, we only managed to make it through Cenarius, but the loot gods were kind again, granting me over 10 ilvls. I think now I'm technically ready for Mythic dungeons, a prospect that excites me as a tank. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">I'm happy with the amount of time I put in on my main to get him to where he's at, but I'm also surprised at how quickly it felt like I got Mehlody to a respectable point. There's definitely some alt-unfriendly mechanics in this expansion, and I would NOT want to juggle the resource acquisition and order halls for 3+ characters. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I look at Mehlody and feel like she's geared </span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">enough.</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> I can fill in as raid tank if needed, tank any dungeon at this point...what's left? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Roll another alt? What else can I say here...</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>Blizzcon</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Oh yeah. I attended for the fifth time this year. The things I wanted to say were meant for a standalone post, but so much time has passed I'm not sure that'd be relevant. So I'll do it here in shorter form.</span></div>
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<li><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">The biggest thing I noticed this year was how <i>little </i>of the con's focus was on World of Warcraft, and how much was on esports, specifically Overwatch. It is a much different beast than the event I first attended six years ago. That said, the evolution feels natural. It's getting to the point where I feel like I could head to Anaheim for a vacation that just happens to coincide with the con, buy a virtual ticket, and do all the after-hours stuff with friends. Which leads me to...</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">I did a terrible job of connecting with the community this year. This was due in part to the fact our group was staying a little farther off-campus in a house that had all the amenities you could wish for on a vacation, including a large, partially covered outdoor patio with a swimming pool, hot tub, foosball table, pool table, gaming center, dartboard, and bar. </span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">Hodor (Kristian Nairn) can spin. I haven't really given EDM much of a chance, purely personal preference. But it was a lot of fun hearing and seeing live. Songhammer is Songhammer. Consistent fellas, even if the gig is getting a little old. Weird Al was a pleasant surprise, but Foo Fighters still remains as the only Blizzcon concert I saw through completely. A buddy and I opted to try out the Diablo Necromancer because we knew there'd be little to no line and we heard everyone who tested got a commemorative token.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">I had an incredibly awkward experience on the flight home. Ask me about it sometime. </span></span></li>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>Overwatch</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">One inevitable effect from Blizzcon is having the desire to play other Blizzard games, at least for me. I'd sort of cooled on Overwatch during the lead up to Legion. I didn't have too many friends playing and I was busy <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2016/08/wow-weekly-thats-wrap.html" target="_blank">getting all of my toons to level 100</a> in Warcraft. Seeing all of the Overwatch at Blizzcon lulled me back into the game. I've also found more friends to play with in the mean time, which makes the game more enjoyable on multiple levels. I'm not a fan of the shooter genre, but I'm a big fan of this game. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>Heroes of the Storm</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">While I didn't need any extra urging to jump back into Heroes of the Storm post-Blizzcon, the Nexus Challenge makes it extra worthwhile. Though it's <a href="http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/20327397" target="_blank">seemingly a ploy to get Overwatch players to check out Heroes</a>, I and many friends have taken advantage of the promotion. Now that I've played my 30 games I've opted to take it easy and devote non-WoW game time to Overwatch, but you can be sure I'll be making regular appearances in the Nexus.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">After those last two paragraphs I must say, damn, Blizzard makes good games. I like knowing that when life gets too busy for WoW, or even when WoW is no more, I won't have to look far for my gaming entertainment.</span></div>
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onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-18540979170729976392016-10-25T14:51:00.005-05:002016-10-25T14:56:00.384-05:00It's a Small World (of Warcraft)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEnDGlbL-zFoSNabeyEhtV87T906SLURIaXj48wnrPD5dy_Qmn31vUMw9RhzdV0WhV1EInd1Sg3MP9L7XV-w86n6S7nKGKKZ0jW6vYiNF9epEhyNmB2OXGxskzTEZPOIo3nwT1V_1FxNf0/s1600/unnamed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEnDGlbL-zFoSNabeyEhtV87T906SLURIaXj48wnrPD5dy_Qmn31vUMw9RhzdV0WhV1EInd1Sg3MP9L7XV-w86n6S7nKGKKZ0jW6vYiNF9epEhyNmB2OXGxskzTEZPOIo3nwT1V_1FxNf0/s640/unnamed.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Who likes an unrelated header? Yes you do! Yes you do!</td></tr>
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I don't know the best way to frame this, so I'll start with what I'd normally tack on at the end: have you discovered any interesting real-world connections with players you've found in game? I'm not talking about finding someone who's favorite food is also beets, or someone who doesn't enjoy both Star Trek and Star Wars. This is more from a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation" target="_blank">six degrees of separation</a> standpoint.<br />
<br />
I've got two.<br />
<br />
Three years ago I'd just joined the guild I'm currently in, along with a couple of friends. We aimed to have more organized PvE-opportunities and it was proving to be difficult with just the three of us on a server that was better known for its PvP activity. Contrary to the server's motto "<i>where PvE comes to die," </i>we were able to recruit enough people to field a raid.<br />
<br />
One of these recruits had been on the server for a number of years---much longer than I. I'll call him Bobby. One night, several of us were chatting in Mumble and we got to talking about where we were all located. When I said where I was from, Bobby said he knew people from my city. Now, I live in medium-sized city in Wisconsin, and unless you've been here or know someone from here, you've likely never heard of it. So the info was a bit of a surprise. Turns out, he had been playing with some guys I'd known for several years, guys I'd met via the local music scene. Small world, right? It gets weirder.<br />
<br />
Right around the same time that I merged with this guild, I landed a new job. If this detail seems out of place right now, it won't in a minute. The job was open because the previous web manager left for greener pastures (#russ).<br />
<br />
Last June, a group including myself, Bobby, and nine other guild members got together in Colorado for our annual meetup. The topic of Bobby's connection to my city came up again. After a short while, we learned the connection was even weirder: the web manager who I replaced was in fact one of his best friends in-game. She'd actually come on a couple of our early raids when we were short on people.<br />
<br />
Little did I know, on the mornings after those nights, I'd wake up and go to work only to sit in her former chair!<br />
<br />
Now, the second one, this one happening more recently.<br />
<br />
We received an application from an interested member. Given the type of guild we are, we like to get a sense of the person as well as the player, so we ask questions that provide the opportunity to do so. This applicant was pretty involved in the NYC music scene as an educator/mentor/engineer. He volunteered a healthy dose of information about himself, enough for Google to do the rest---it wasn't creepy I swear, he wasn't freaked out.<br />
<br />
But let's back up again. Years ago, I discovered an indie band via a SXSW sampler CD. I heard the one track and went to find more. I made a point to see them any time they made a pass through the Midwest, even if that meant making the two-and-a-half hour drive to Chicago. When you're playing at the bar or club level as a band, you tend to recognize familiar faces in the crowd. By the end of show two, I had struck up a bit of a camaraderie with with their bass player and their drummer. We kept in touch, on and off, well outside of the one-time-per-year we might brush elbows.<br />
<br />
Back to the present: this recruit is a perfect fit for the guild, that's without question. But as a musician myself, I'm more interested in learning a bit more about his professional resume. I stumbled across a video on YouTube of testimonials from his current and former students. About halfway through watching, who do I see on screen? The friggin' bass player from that indie band...he was one of this recruit's former students!<br />
<br />
I almost fell out of my chair.<br />
<br />
It's fun to think these connections are all around us just waiting to be discovered. So, I'll close how I opened: do you have any similar stories?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-56919415636668015692016-09-12T16:47:00.000-05:002016-09-12T16:47:41.210-05:00I Don't Wanna Raid...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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...I just wanna quest in the world all day.<br />
<br />
That's the sentiment going through my head as I gallivant across the Broken Isles seeking the latest World Quest to offer armor, with the aims of slowly boosting my overall ilvl. I'm at point A and can see point B, no problems there. The issue lies with all the little points in between A and B: the side quests, rare mobs, <i>other </i>world quests.<br />
<br />
They <i>call</i> to me. They've called to me since I first stepped foot onto the Broken Isles. And I answered pretty much every single one I ran across. That is, until I hit level 110. Because then, a little switch flipped inside of me, and a new primary goal materialized: <strike>keep having fun</strike> get ready for raiding.<br />
<br />
In order to get ready for raiding, I had to be eligible to earn gear from heroic dungeons. While these can be run with a full group regardless of one's ilvl, a busy real life and sporadic play schedule dictates that I reach the 810 ilvl group finder requirement independently. In order to reach 810 ilvl, I had to do world quests and/or normal dungeons. But in order to do world quests I had to wrap up some Nightfallen questlines.<br />
<br />
Suddenly, there was all this stuff I <i>had</i> to do, and for the first time since I've been raiding, I realized that the stuff I <i>had </i>to do put a little bit of a damper on the amount of fun I was having. A part of me wishes I didn't have to worry about raiding for a few weeks so I could fully experience the game in the way that Legion just begs to be experienced: slowly, erratically, a journey personalized by the choices the player makes or doesn't make.<br />
<br />
Now granted, this urgency to drop everything and focus on gearing is mostly self-imposed. But as a raid officer for the guild, it's understandably expected that I'm in shape for Raid Night One. But for the first time since I started raiding with friends, the feeling of disappointment over having to rush or bypass content is greater than than excitement I have for the first raid.<br />
<br />
Maybe this is partly coming about because I've been afforded much less play time compared to my guild-peers since launch. Is anyone else out there feeling this?onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-72642609651266342732016-08-29T16:15:00.001-05:002016-08-29T16:15:25.495-05:00WoW Weekly: Luke 8 Verse 30<br />
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/search/label/weekly" style="color: #64a6c0; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">WoW Weekly</a> is a biweekly-ish, self-absorbed look into the things I've been doing inside the game and out. From mount farming and raiding, to music, movies, books and other games.</i></div>
<br />
Oooooooooohhh-weeeeee the excitement is palpable, is it not? The fact that we're a half a day away from having our login attempts throttled by DDOS attacks is something that always ushers in the warm fuzzies. At 12:01a Pacific time, I will be sleeping. No time off of work to level this week; what remains of my vacation days is going towards Blizzcon. I entertained waking in the wee hours Tuesday morning to get some time in before work, but again, I'm anticipating the servers will be dealing with a lot of extra crap at first. It's likely that I won't sit down with Legion until the lunch hour on Tuesday---servers allowing.<br />
<br />
It's going to be a busy week. There's band practice, a wedding, other obligations, and a gal out there who likes to see me from time to time. So in preparation I'm hashing out a bit of a schedule and setting some goals for the week.<br />
<br />
<b>Monday</b><br />
That's today. Today I'm just trying to concentrate on work but this post here is Exhibit A in a slew of evidence pointing toward the fact that I'm failing at the concentrating thing. In a perfect world I would've taken a week off but this is America and vacation days are a hot commodity around here. Those lucky enough to <i>have </i>paid vacation tend not to have a lot of it. I'll shut up now.<br />
<br />
I do envy those who were able to bank off some time; to me, it's not about being answerable to the Dev's release schedule. It's about the shared, collective experience we have at an expansion's launch: for a couple of brief weeks, the vast majority of players are engaged in a single activity---leveling up their toons. I saw someone refer to today as this year's first Christmas Eve. Very apt. It's also about putting myself into good status when it comes to raid-readiness. I'd also like to explore the possibility of leveling up an alt concurrently with my main, instead of waiting for a lull.<br />
<br />
In the mean time, I'm <strike>checking out what others are saying here in the 11th hour</strike> totally concentrating on work real good. Qelric has an excellent piece over at MMO Games on <a href="http://www.mmogames.com/gamearticles/world-of-warcraft-legion-leveling-faster-better-stronger/" target="_blank">her impressions of the Legion leveling experience</a>. I didn't think I could get any more excited for Tuesday, but her post brought it up another level.<br />
<br />
<b>Tuesday</b><br />
The holy day. Or demonic, perhaps. After writing that last section and working through my feelings of jealousy, a 5- or 6am alarm clock doesn't seem so crazy. Only trouble is Tuesday is my long day---I work the day job from eight to five and then host an open mic event from six til around midnight. Shaving off a couple of hours of sleep might come back to bite me.<br />
<br />
So the AM playtime call will be made in the moment; I'll for sure get to see something over the lunch hour on Tuesday, and perhaps briefly after work. If the servers are stable, I'm hoping to at least find my artifact weapon and knock out a few quests.<br />
<br />
<b>Wednesday</b><br />
Technically I don't have to be at the day job until noon, but I generally come in between nine and ten. I might milk that this week and get a couple of hours in before work. Following work is band practice, but that should wrap up by 8p, leaving a solid three or four hours open before sleep. I'm hoping to be in the 102-104 range by Wednesday's end.<br />
<br />
<b>Thursday</b><br />
There may be noon-hour shenanigans. If not, I'll still be left with a generous amount of time: Thursday night is traditionally the guild's raid night, so I already have that time blocked off for Warcraft! Then again, I may not play the <i>whole</i> night, as a few weeks into September my Thursday nights will be reclaimed by progression raids. I'm hoping to be somewhere around 105-107 by the end of the night.<br />
<br />
<b>Friday</b><br />
This will be the night where I'm truly prepped. Beer and lazy food items will be on the menu. Probably pizza. Yeah, pizza sounds good. Gonna opt for delivery methinks, a real treat. Taco pizza. Mmmmmm. Probably some nachos as a late-night snack. I hope to be near max level by the night's end---which could stretch into the wee hours of the morning provided I don't have much for plans on Saturday.<br />
<br />
<b>Saturday</b><br />
Planning on a hearty breakfast of sausages, eggs and OJ whenever I roll out of bed, though it'll probably be sometime in the 10 o'clock hour since I start to feel guilty if I sleep later than that. I should probably let my local friends know I'm alive; perhaps I'll head over to <a href="http://twitter.com/kennylogouts" target="_blank">@kennylogouts'</a> house for a LAN party. :D<br />
<br />
I'm hoping to reach max-level at which point I'll concentrate on any remaining profession leveling.<br />
<br />
<b>Sunday</b><br />
My baby sister gets married. Please don't kill the Legion without me.<br />
<br />
<b>Monday</b><br />
Free day, as it's a holiday here. I may be burned out on long play sessions by this point and/or possibly hungover from the night before, so I haven't quite planned this day out. Regardless, I mean to head into next week at max level, so if need be I'll finish that off. But probably not much else.<br />
<br />
How about you? What's your first week of Legion going to look like?<br />
<br />
<br />onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-13231539147703181202016-08-24T10:00:00.000-05:002016-08-24T10:00:01.376-05:00Can I Just Say I'm Stoked for Legion?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm-GHTCok4iAxWPS_ACm5cL7Y4HI16t56asYZwsTKt_QWtV6uEfzNDFv4PH80Cqwrwk8Ec56o6CzrASmkDUI79M-LNj5l1Of63d0GVf53k2kQucUN1yluLohqb_yAc3DIpCTdH_vJZQnoo/s1600/WoWScrnShot_081616_143649.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm-GHTCok4iAxWPS_ACm5cL7Y4HI16t56asYZwsTKt_QWtV6uEfzNDFv4PH80Cqwrwk8Ec56o6CzrASmkDUI79M-LNj5l1Of63d0GVf53k2kQucUN1yluLohqb_yAc3DIpCTdH_vJZQnoo/s640/WoWScrnShot_081616_143649.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
Cause I'm gonna whether you think I should or not.<br />
<br />
<i>I'm stoked for Legion</i>.<br />
<br />
I had to look back to see if I'd noted any sort of excitement during the lead-up to Warlords of Draenor. I'm sure <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2014/07/30-minutes-of-beta.html" target="_blank">it was there</a>, but this seems entirely different, more palpable. Yes, we're hearing the same old lines about how this will be the "best" and most "content-intensive" expansion we've had to date, but this time around not only do I want to believe them, I feel I <i>should</i> believe them.<br />
<br />
But in all honesty, aside from maybe patch 6.2, I don't care if the cycle looks like Warlords. Given Blizzard is promising much more than that is encouraging, but for now I'm cool with surveying the landscape around me own my own time: demons invading, factional losses, political upheaval---some real story.<br />
<br />
The environment just <i>feels</i> like Warcraft again, and it's been perfectly exemplified by demon invasions. If I wasn't in a guild, the isolation of the garrison and the convenience of the self-service ready-to-raid tools might have left me feeling like I was the only real live person playing. And that's perhaps why I reacted in mild surprise when, while waiting on a boat to get to Undercity the other day, a player asked, "Hey, can someone with a dual mount fly me to the invasion point?"<br />
<br />
I looked at the white text above their head with mild curiosity, then realized, "Oh shit! A real, organic quest!" Then I noticed the other dozen-and-a-half players waiting on the boat as well (who all were incidentally doing their best NPC impressions and <i>not </i>acknowledging this player). The game felt alive! I quickly mounted my rocket and sidled over to the player. Later that day, I found 100g in my mailbox. There was no note, and I don't remember the character's name, but I don't care. I'm saying that came from them.<br />
<br />
Granted, Legion isn't quite out yet, so it might be premature to ask how Legion's treating you. But really, based on what you've seen, what do you think so far?<br />
<br />
I can't wait to see the final product on Tuesday.<br />
<br />onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-76153367531452779142016-08-22T11:19:00.001-05:002016-08-22T11:19:22.534-05:00WoW Weekly: That's a Wrap<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The shot above is one I didn't imagine seeing on my own login screen. Prior to this weekend, the top six characters sat at max level, most of them decently geared due to Heroic HFC alt runs and the occasional LFR. So last week when <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-upside-of-legion-xp-nerf.html" target="_blank">it was announced that XP gains for completing invasion stages had been massively nerfed</a>, I abandoned any dreams of having a full roster of max-level characters.<br />
<br />
Then, the weekend came early: I decided to take Friday off from work in order to check off some to-dos that had been on the list for too long. Right before heading out to run errands, I saw some interesting chatter on Twitter indicating that invasion mob XP had been hotfixed in the players' favor: experience from shared non-boss kills would be more rewarding, and there were massive amounts of XP to be had from the various bosses (skulls & named) across the map.<br />
<br />
Long story short, I spent the better part of Friday and Saturday night (my sometimes-idea of the perfect weekend) working on alts 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. Most of these characters were sitting between 90 and 93, though one began this journey at 80 and another at 84. It didn't take much time at all---<i>roughly</i> an hour played-sans-prep per character---to level from 90 to 100. As of right now, players have about a week left before Legion launches and the deluge of XP will cease. Below, I'll describe the method I used.<br />
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Legion Invasion Power-leveling Tips</span></h2>
<div>
In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that I began this journey with a bit of an advantage: gold. Gold made it so that every single one of my characters could be in the best shape possible when it came to XP gains: in addition to being max-rested, they all had full heirlooms and access to the most lucrative leveling potion: <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=128312/elixir-of-the-rapid-mind" target="_blank">Elixir of the Rapid Mind</a>.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: small;">Heirlooms</span></h2>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">You'll need to dust off those old heirlooms for these fights. Ideally, you'll have the helm, shoulder, cloak, chest, legs and ring slots covered. This will give you a +50% bonus to experience gains. You may find additional heirlooms to be an overall power increase for your character, and that's fine---they just don't actually give a bonus to experience. Remember, heirlooms can be upgraded to function up to level 100 through a token purchased from a <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/npc=6566/estelle-gendry" target="_blank">vendor found in Undercity</a>.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: small;">Mandatory Potions</span></h2>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">There are two potions you should have in your possession before you start on this journey; both are relatively simple to get. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">The first, <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=120182/excess-potion-of-accelerated-learning" target="_blank">Excess Potion of Accelerated Learning</a>, can be purchased from your Garrison Quartermaster for 100 Garrison Resources. This provides a 20% boost to experience gains and lasts for an hour. Most players should have a garrison and plenty of resources left over to make this happen. However, I did mention two of my characters started sub-90, meaning they hadn't yet set foot on Draenor. So did I spend the time to establish my garrison once they hit 90? I did. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Here's why: it's easy. I'm not sure it's worth it, as I haven't done the math, but it's easy. Remember, you can <a href="http://blizzardwatch.com/2015/03/23/how-to-get-to-draenor-and-skip-tanaan-jungle-entirely/" target="_blank">completely skip the Tanaan Intro</a> by porting to Gorgrond from the Timeless Isle. Alternatively, a mage port to Warspear and a quick flight to your garrison area will also do the trick. Once there, a half-dozen short quests (about 10 minutes) end with you seeing the construction of your garrison; when it's all over, you'll be left with 105 garrison resources---just enough to buy one potion.* The one catch: you must be level 91 to purchase said potion, so I waited until each character was 91 to set up their garrison.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Most importantly, you need a few </span><a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=128312/elixir-of-the-rapid-mind" target="_blank">Elixirs of the Rapid Mind</a>, but this one's going to cost you. And here you thought all that Warlords gold was for pets and sniping items off the Black Market Auction House! There was a good amount of elixirs on my server's auction house at the start of the weekend; by Sunday night, the supply was but a fraction of the original count, and the price had gone up 50%. These potions will give a 300% boost to experience gains, but the catch is they last a trifling 15 minutes. Across the six characters, I probably purchased just under two-dozen, which amounted to roughly 250,000g. So there <i>is </i>a bit of investment in this method, but I feel no regret and only need to scroll up to the header image for a reminder that I made the right choice. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">*If you are using 300% elixirs in addition to the 20% potion, you should reach level 100 before you need another 20% potion.</span></div>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />Choosing Your Invasion Point</span></h2>
In my opinion, there are four invasion points that are the most attractive to attack, two per faction. For Horde players, these are Azshara and Northern Barrens; for Alliance, it's Dun Morogh and Westfall. It's mainly because they're near faction capital cities: this provides quick travel to invasion sites, and also somewhat guarantees that a large factional force will be present. The latter point is more important on PvP servers, of course, as it means you'll in theory spend less time getting ganked as a lowbie. If you can, ask in general if there's a raid group to join, or start your own. I found it's much easier to become a healer's target when in-group, which can aid in death prevention.<br />
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-size: small;">Invasion Strat & Potion Use</span></h2>
Your first order of business is to <b>survive.</b> Yes, you'll be fighting and tagging stuff, and may have to be wary of the opposing faction, but if you're dead you cannot take advantage of all that XP (aside from phase transitions, which I'll touch on below)! There's nothing like having a 470% XP boost---both pots, heirlooms, rested---only to watch all three Phase 2 bosses die while you're a ghost in the graveyard.<br />
<br />
Secondly, you'll want to tag everything that you can, especially in Phase 1; the bigger mobs tend to give more XP, with the named bosses and skulls found across the map providing the greatest time spent per XP gained. You'll see in Phase 3 that there's a predictable flow to how/when bosses will appear across the map. It's another big reason why I chose the zones I did in the previous section.<br />
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In terms of potion use, I use the 20% when entering the very first invasion of the day, waiting to pop the 300% until just before Phase 1 ends. This way I'm not losing too much potential XP in Phase 1 if the mobs are too scattered or if I'm slow, but still allows me to take advantage of the boost when awarded XP at the phase transition. The potion will be up for all of the Phase 3 zone bosses and will provide bonus XP at the transition to Phase 4. If you do this successfully, you should only need three 300% potions---four at most---on the journey from 90 to 100.<br />
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But I'm getting ahead of myself, because this is where you're going to reset the invasion.<br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-size: small;">Invasion Resets</span></h2>
As we all know, invasions currently rotate on a two hour timer. However, what people may not know is that these invasions can be run as many times in that two hour window as a player wants so long as they don't kill the Phase 4 boss.<br />
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Since the meat of the XP gains are found via killing bosses in Phases 2 and 3, the idea is to spend as much time in those phases while under the influence of XP boosts. If you log your character out after Phase 4 begins, and then log back in, the invasion will reset and most times will start you somewhere in Phase 1---a handful of times it started me out in Phase 2. Granted, you only earn phase change XP and chests the first time through a specific invasion, but you're not in this for gear, and the XP to be had by repeating Phases 2 and 3 in quick succession absolutely dwarfs what you'd see if you simply went around completing fresh invasions. Not to mention travel time is a <i>huge </i>waste of a 15,000g potion that lasts for 15 minutes.<br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-size: small;">General Tips</span></h2>
<u>Live to fight again</u> - can't stress this enough: don't die. There are several graveyards that do not act like a PvP graveyard, i.e., you'll have to run back to your corpse in order to resurrect. And let me tell you, these graveyards are <i>not</i> conveniently placed. In almost every instance this happened to me, the boss I was fighting was long dead once I finally got back to my body, meaning I missed out on roughly 1/3 of a level of XP.<br />
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<u>Re-potting</u> - You should reach level 100 prior to your 20% XP potion running out. However, you'll have to reapply the 300% potion up to three times; like the first application, I've found it best to apply it right before Phase 2; however, if you find yourself in an unusually long Phase 3 and a couple of boss kills might fall outside of the buff window, it might be best to reapply then. That's your call.<br />
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<u>Tagging</u> - You only need to hit a mob once to get its XP; however, don't stray too far away when you're tagging. I learned you can be too far away from a tagged mob in order to benefit from its XP. Again, don't get too zealous as much as you want to practice your rotation. Being alive when that tagged boss falls is the ultimate goal.<br />
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<br />onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-62359619058648199892016-08-16T13:51:00.000-05:002016-08-22T09:21:50.349-05:00The Upside to the Legion XP Nerf<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Update 8.22.16 -</b> As of late last week, mob XP has been hotfixed & players can expect generous amounts of experience for boss mobs, as well as decent amount of XP on non-boss shared kills.<br />
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We've had the official word, even as <a href="https://gamescom.blizzard.com/en-gb/" target="_blank">Blizzard is quite busy this week</a>, but I didn't need to wait for it either because I've seen the proof with my own eyes: experience gained from invasions has been...<i>savagely</i> nerfed (I think I'm finally done with Warlords now). I've all but written the eulogy for my battle-ready alt army. Yesterday, with the help of a full heirloom set and the <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=120182/excess-potion-of-accelerated-learning" target="_blank">+20% XP potion</a> from the garrison, I was able to take my 92ish shaman to 94 by completing three invasions.<br />
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Over lunch today I confirmed rumors I'd seen earlier on Twitter: we're getting a fraction of what we saw yesterday. However, there is now a third invasion present on the map, and the timers appear to be resetting every <i>two</i> hours instead of every four. Below is the very rough math I cobbled together:<br />
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<a href="https://twitter.com/cole_pier">@cole_pier</a> 4hrs give 320k per w/ 2 opps totaling 640k. 2hrs give 192k per w/ 6 opps (in a 4hr period) totaling 1,152,000k. 2/3</div>
— Ross (@elepheagle) <a href="https://twitter.com/elepheagle/status/765611728751038464">August 16, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></center>
These numbers were approximated from a character in their low 90s. If it doesn't make sense, yesterday in a four-hour period you could earn 640k XP for two events; today you can earn nearly double that (1,152,000 XP) in the same four-hour window, but it requires your participation in three times as any invasion events---which means earning the same amount of experience you did yesterday will require more of your time.<br />
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If we assume that each invasion takes 20 minutes to complete and use the numbers above, and if my math doesn't suck, it shows that yesterday we could expect roughly 16k XP/min during invasions. Today, that number is 9.6k XP/min.<br />
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I can understand why: if XP remained the same as it was yesterday, a level 90 player could feasibly see <i>two million</i> XP in that four-hour window; that could mean four to five levels, meaning reaching max level is easily obtainable in an afternoon. Just seems too easy and likely not in line with Blizzard's original intentions.<br />
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<b><u>TL;DR:</u></b> there's a <i>lot</i> more experience on the table to be had, but we'll have to settle for grabbing it in smaller handfuls, as the overall rate of experience given by invasions has been reduced. At least with the two-hour reset timers there won't be as much downtime for players looking to farm and level. I'm curious to see if this trend will continue next week.<br />
<br />onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-69256771630387890222016-08-10T12:16:00.000-05:002016-08-10T12:16:07.989-05:00WoW Weekly: Getting Prepared<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/search/label/weekly" style="color: #64a6c0; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">WoW Weekly</a> is a biweekly-ish, self-absorbed look into the things I've been doing inside the game and out. From mount farming and raiding, to music, movies, books and other games.</i><br />
<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">While there is a <i>lot</i> of stuff I'd like to write about based on what I've experienced in-game during the last 24 hours, I'm going to leave all of that alone until more players have had the chance to experience the new content. Any post here that contains even a semblance of a spoiler will be marked as such---I won't be giving anything away for those who'd rather see it all themselves first. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">This will be a spoiler-free post as it relates to lore. I <i>will</i> write about the Broken Shore and the Demon Hunter starting experience in general terms, so if you'd rather not hear a peep, stop back after you've had some time to play. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I've only spent a couple of hours in game since invasions began and demon hunters became playable, but that time has left me eagerly anticipating the arrival of the full expansion, as well as scrambling to carve out more time in a busy week to sit down with the game. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>The Betrayer and Me</b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">When I stopped home over the noon hour---also, several hours before maintenance was scheduled to conclude---I was surprised to see my Battle.net list showing a couple of friends online. So I logged in, deleted my nameholder mage and went to create a new character. Sure enough, on the screen was a night elf demon hunter. Of course, I'd be of the Blood Elf variety, but this was nonetheless great news. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I'm not surprised the "100 most popular girls names" I googled were snatched up, but I knew I wanted a name that was simple and familiar. I was really trying for a single-syllable name but couldn't settle on anything I liked. Thus, Mehlody came into being (pictured at top). </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I haven't actually finished the demon hunter starting area, but what I've experienced so far has been encouraging. The DH, to me, feels a bit rogue-ish but distinct enough to where it remains appealing. Granted, I haven't yet earned all of my abilities (as far as I know), and I'm curious to learn about the difference between the Havoc and Vengeance specs. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>Broken for Shore</b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I played again for about an hour after work before I had to run off to other obligations. This was enough time to play through the entirety of the Broken Shore scenario and the aftermath that (for Horde players) takes place in and around Orgrimmar, culminating with being sent to fend off one of the invasions that are starting to happen all across Azeroth (well, a handful of predesignated zones).</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">It shouldn't take that long for most players to finish the questline---I was simply taking my time, exploring a little, letting it all sink in. I visited Ravika before setting off to the Broken Shore, which is something you should do for three toys and a sweet transmog that essentially allows you to hide whatever's in your feet slot.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">As for the Broken Shore scenario itself? I think it's likely to go down as one of the best intros we've seen from Blizzard. Players will walk away from this one with a much deeper understanding of the Legion's might and what it could mean for the fate of Azeroth. For me, the Tanaan Invasion that led us onto Draenor was missing something; I don't know exactly what it was missing, but whatever it was, the Broken Shore experience <i>has </i>it. Can't say I've ever been more excited to see where the story is going. I hope this indicates Blizzard will really focus on storytelling and eliciting emotion this expansion. There were moments in this where I could feel my heart pounding, and afterwards I was left in awe.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>What is Next</b><br />For starters, I'm planning to finish up the demon hunter intro after band practice tonight, maybe putz around with some dungeons, LFR, or legacy content (another character to add to the weekly Alysrazor runs). After that's finished, I'll likely hit as many invasions as I can to collect all of the things. I may run each of my level 100s through the Broken Shore scenario. Word is you can skip it once you've completed it for the first time, but unlike the Tanaan invasion, I'm not sure I want to. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I'm looking forward to a lot more Warcraft in my future. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span>onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-69629722322884188342016-07-28T10:42:00.001-05:002016-07-28T10:43:58.446-05:00WoW Weekly: Dormant<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUkyjkrHOFQb0SgtO9_II8leSrKbXjfQTdC77uIyN6lb5O5Q2_-Vm0LvyIefGqoK7Cn2aHWtrSlPPdOPkp9hC4aht262EzNAyuSo0-lupUlUMvuhibGMJt9TSLzTqfA-u6ZPPa8KVmg3ou/s1600/Lines.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: transparent; clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUkyjkrHOFQb0SgtO9_II8leSrKbXjfQTdC77uIyN6lb5O5Q2_-Vm0LvyIefGqoK7Cn2aHWtrSlPPdOPkp9hC4aht262EzNAyuSo0-lupUlUMvuhibGMJt9TSLzTqfA-u6ZPPa8KVmg3ou/s640/Lines.jpg" width="640" /></a><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/search/label/weekly" style="color: #64a6c0; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">WoW Weekly</a> is a biweekly-ish, self-absorbed look into the things I've been doing inside the game and out. From mount farming and raiding, to music, movies, books and other games.</i><br />
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Ch-ch-changes.</i><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">That's what we all saw last Tuesday with the arrival of the Legion pre-patch. How's it been going for you? I had a pretty busy week leading up to the guild's Thursday raid night, so I wasn't able to put in a great deal of time into learning my enhancement shaman's new rotation. Bosses fell in record time, but things still felt a bit off. While the enhancement rotation looks different on the surface---no more totems, no more Maelstrom x 5 Lightning Bolts, no more shocks---the spells we see now have parallels in the old rotation. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Instead of Unleash Elements, I've talented into Frostbrand with the aim to keep the buff up 100% of the time. Instead of keeping Flameshock active, we now maintain the Flametongue buff. The main difference between the old and the new is the concept of "building and spending" abilities. We definitely have a lot more control over Maelstrom accrual, though right now the rate of acquisition seems a bit slow. Currently, I'm noticing a bit more down time in combat compared to the old rotation. I've been told the artifact weapon come Legion will smooth some of this out. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">After spending some time with target dummies, setting up some WeakAuras, and killing a half-dozen raid bosses, the rotation is beginning to feel natural. Phew. For a while I felt like I might have to bid farewell to my main since the Burning Crusade. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>Thanks for All The Resources</b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Now that the lucrativeness of the garrison is all but gone, the call to log in on a daily basis to gather gold has gone quiet. There's still quite a bit I could finish up in Legion, like collecting missing toys, pets, and mounts, but I generally leave a chunk of content unfinished for the inevitable down time that will happen in the new expansion. For example, once the guild had Heroic Archimonde on farm status, I started going after old-world mounts as well as achievements on the Timeless Isle. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>Falling to My Death, Over and Over Again</b><br />This makes no sense, I thought to myself, as I plummeted from the skies over Orgrimmar towards the ground where certain death awaited. I repeated this several dozen times in order to satisfy the requirements for the Feat of Strength <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/achievement=11065/it-all-makes-sense-now" target="_blank">It All Makes Sense Now</a> over the course of my lunch hour earlier this week. Can't say it was fun, but it's done. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>Climbing the Mount(ain) Runs</b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">After landing two mounts I'd been after for some time, as mentioned in my <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2016/06/wow-weekly-farewell-to-ulduar.html" target="_blank">last post</a>, I set my sights on Alysrazor in the Firelands. However, the prospect of setting up six more characters under the new changes feels too daunting at the moment, and for now, I've ceased mount runs until I can get a better handle on my enhancement shaman.<br /><b><br />Making Grandpa Proud</b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">This will probably get the <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/search/label/gaming%20affairs" target="_blank">Gaming Affairs</a> treatment at some point, because I've sunk a <i>lot</i> of time into Stardew Valley over the past month and a half. I was turned on to the title by my step-brother, and at first glance it looked pretty dumb. Never played Harvest Moon or Farmville but that's what Stardew looked like to me. Essentially, you inherit a farm in disrepair from your grandfather, and it's up to you to rejuvenate it. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">While it's very similar to those other games in many aspects from what I'm told, I've had a good time in-game. There's a lot of character depth that took me by surprise, and at times the game highlights some quite serious and deep problems, like corporate business running mom & pop shops out of town, townsfolk struggling with depression and self-image, and soldiers returning from war with PTSD. Admittedly, it's beginning to feel stale, especially as I edge closer to "beating" the game (I'd liken this to earning all of WoW's achievements, but on a much smaller scale). That said, the staleness only began to creep in after I logged more than 70 hours. Normally $15, I nabbed it for a discount during the Steam Summer Sale. It's been a while since I put that much time into WoW over a two-month period, so I'd call it money well-spent.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Check out the title for yourself <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/413150/" target="_blank">on Steam</a>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>Watching Winona Freak Out</b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Netflix Originals, man. They've got a good thing going. I've plowed through Daredevil, Jessica Jones, The Ranch, and Bloodline. With Vikings, Game of Thrones, and the Walking Dead on hiatus I started looking for something new. Which is when I found Stranger Things. It's set in the early 80s in what could be almost any small, rural town in America. I won't spoil anything, but the basic premise is that a boy goes missing, a strange girl with powers shows up and the people involved try to make sense of it all. It has a strikingly nostalgic feel and reminded me of some classics: E.T., Goonies, Stand By Me, and so on. Winona Ryder plays the missing boy's mother, and offers an authentic performance that involves a lot of screaming and yelling. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I binged that in about a week, so I'm back in the running for a new show. Heard quite a bit about some of the other Originals I haven't touched yet (OITNB, House of Cards, etc.)...any thoughts? </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>Getting the Band Back Together</b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Plutoniates/" target="_blank">The group I've been playing with since 2007ish</a> has started to book shows again. We had a couple-year hiatus due to marriages and babies and those sorts of things. Now that things have settled down, families have gotten comfortable with their new routines (/target Child, /cast Silence), we're looking to write, record, and play a show from time to time. </span></span><br />
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onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-40138039283321900652016-06-16T06:53:00.003-05:002016-06-16T06:56:23.836-05:00WoW Weekly: Farewell to Ulduar<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBlkL0zARToWKvvs0p77r3EXnbuXgQJXmlRrOY9H0jou-cz9DPaTJvp04qCJWJvub0_Ye7j5vOYtOF6zEaU7wm1L_f0LUGhCSO10iySXVTd_FjdZ04IRwKTu-o-sf78QXcgjWOA8zM6l7J/s1600/WoWScrnShot_061116_160815.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBlkL0zARToWKvvs0p77r3EXnbuXgQJXmlRrOY9H0jou-cz9DPaTJvp04qCJWJvub0_Ye7j5vOYtOF6zEaU7wm1L_f0LUGhCSO10iySXVTd_FjdZ04IRwKTu-o-sf78QXcgjWOA8zM6l7J/s640/WoWScrnShot_061116_160815.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/search/label/weekly" style="color: #64a6c0; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">WoW Weekly</a> is a biweekly-ish, self-absorbed look into the things I've been doing -- or not doing -- in the game. From auctioneering and pet battling to mount farming and raiding.</i><br />
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It happened the day after my birthday; granted, the fact the <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2016/06/feckless-leaders-warcraft-movie-review.html" target="_blank">Warcraft movie released</a> on my birthday was quite the present, but I was happy to accept Mimiron's Head as a belated gift from the World of Warcraft. The second of six characters scheduled for the week saw it drop. Altogether, I killed Yogg Saron 249 times before the mount drop, with kill number 250 being the lucky one. However, I'm told <a href="https://sivation.wordpress.com/2016/02/23/never-tell-me-the-odds/" target="_blank">that isn't so lucky</a>.<br />
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With the robot head added to the collection, I have all of the rare pre-Cataclysm mounts. After a couple of years of farming Ulduar, it was time to bid farewell and set my sights on a new goal. Ideally, it'd be something pre-MoP so that my stable of characters could attempt the run each week instead of just my strongest character. Instead, I figured I'd head back to Pandaria on my main character to see what sorts of trouble the world bosses and those found on the Isle of Thunder would pose. Besides, I'm still after one of the mounts dropped by the Zandalari Warbringers.<br />
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Galleon and Nalak fell with ease, but I could not dispatch the Sha of Anger quickly enough, meaning when the mind control portion of the fight came, the fight would reset itself. I know it's possible to solo the Sha of Anger, but it may still require a certain class to do so. I made a mental note to revisit the Sha once I've leveled a bit in Legion.<br />
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While heading to Nalak, I recalled the two mounts that drop in the Throne of Thunder, one from Horridon and one from Ji'kun. I was pretty confident I could at least make it through Horridon with my main character (around 730 ilvl) on 10-player mode. And I was right. But there was a rather astonishing aspect to the feat: Horridon dropped the mount!<br />
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Now on a high from seeing a super rare and then a rare mount drop within an hour's time, I decided to get the hell out of the Throne of Thunder for the time being, vowing to return once I had a stable of characters to run through each week. I'm hoping the <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2015/05/legacy-raid-mount-farming-clear-once.html" target="_blank">lockout-sharing trick</a> continues to work in Legion. I opened up my collections pane and navigated to the mounts tab; filtered for "not collected" and "drops". And I saw a mount I <i>swear</i> I'd acquired years ago: Flametalon of Alysrazor. Hrmph.<br />
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So I'll set the hearthstones of seven characters to Aviana's Shrine and return each week until Alysrazor coughs up the mount. Other updates include:<br />
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<b>Swimming in it</b>: Account-wide gold count has eclipsed 1.3 million. The economy for crafted armor/weapons continues to slide. The gem market ebbs and flows, but is on a downward trend. Potion and flasks seem to be selling rather quickly, but for a fraction of the price they sold at months ago. Now that we know the lucrative nature of garrisons will be removed in the Legion pre-patch, which folks are speculating to arrive mid-July, I'm planning to squeeze every last coin from my garrisons while still possible.<br />
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<b>Guild Raids</b>: Refusing to die under the weight of this crippling content lull, the guild continues to raid on Thursday evenings. I'd taken a couple of months off in the early spring, but they forged ahead. When I left, we had two bosses down in Mythic. By the time I returned, they were working on their 5th kill. Sadly, interest began to drop at this point and we regularly find ourselves unable to field a viable group to continue progress. Regardless, we've kept the raid alive by revisiting previous tier Mythics, running guild achievements, and helping friends get their moose mounts.<br />
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<b>Guild Meetup</b>: I'm stoked to attend the 2nd Annual Sapere Aude Guild Meetup next weekend. Some of you may remember we held our first meetup last year in upstate New York, and it was a blast. This year, we're moving across the country to Colorado in order to make it easier on some of our west coast folks. <br />
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<br />onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-69363310783267059912016-06-13T15:06:00.000-05:002016-06-20T16:17:29.665-05:00Feckless Leader's Warcraft Movie Review<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwVd_P-k5l9_0ECnVYoovsKRPBDvHnFIlTh2f0ZOfdzNbXi-lNYJps5CtrTfrLSCgtdLDPqC5RMbMSnN895doNafhGYp8mu7soDQ-nnAWrES96yx9WkTcAPFrf5FA611Qy5rRPvB4peQ2_/s1600/NewLogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwVd_P-k5l9_0ECnVYoovsKRPBDvHnFIlTh2f0ZOfdzNbXi-lNYJps5CtrTfrLSCgtdLDPqC5RMbMSnN895doNafhGYp8mu7soDQ-nnAWrES96yx9WkTcAPFrf5FA611Qy5rRPvB4peQ2_/s640/NewLogo.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">imgs: <a href="http://www.warcraftmovie.com/gallery" target="_blank">Legendary</a></td></tr>
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<i>Note: this review contains some plot [SPOILERS]. If you would like to avoid any mention until you see the film yourself, how about this <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2013/07/world-of-warcraft-will-end-subscriptions.html" target="_blank">older piece I wrote about how World of Warcraft could abandon the subscription model</a>. Also, I've never reviewed a movie before, for fun or otherwise.</i><br />
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Prior to the two showings I went to on Friday, one in 3D and one in standard, I spent an indecent amount of time panning a wide range of critical opinions and held those criticisms fresh in my mind during both viewings. I'll even say I went into the theater a bit nervous at the first viewing, having great hope the movie wouldn't be a disappointment or worse: an embarrassment as a fan of the universe it was based on.<br />
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While definitely not a perfect film, I can state with full confidence that this movie is not this generation's <i>Battlefield Earth</i>, nor will it turn out to be the blockbuster flop of the summer. What plagues this film the most is the fact director Duncan Jones' original cut was shortened by 40 minutes for theatrical release. Perhaps lesser of a plague is that this movie is based on a video game, an inescapable fact that had many of my friends saying the previews "looked cool" while wondering if it was a movie made for them or just fans of the games. This is a movie that players of the game(s) should absolutely love, and also provides a enjoyable experience for folks looking for a fresh, action-packed and visually stunning fantasy film.<br />
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<b>Setting/Cinematography</b></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm1F_hM-APscN3syz12ya4FBriKZrDH2vSxZYH_r28PcWMsaKxG-Gc1E3LvTT8dJloOIgsGwcJv85LG5XeDq3t01trYnOrTTDfs1NTo7231V4DABlMcVbAGjoAfIU74rVrm6bJ7RpaKbgb/s1600/Dal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm1F_hM-APscN3syz12ya4FBriKZrDH2vSxZYH_r28PcWMsaKxG-Gc1E3LvTT8dJloOIgsGwcJv85LG5XeDq3t01trYnOrTTDfs1NTo7231V4DABlMcVbAGjoAfIU74rVrm6bJ7RpaKbgb/s640/Dal.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
This is an absolutely gorgeous movie. If you dug the flick but have not seen it in 3D, go do it! Unless 3D makes you queasy, then don't. For me, it is hands down the best use of 3D I have seen. Most of the time those movies aim to do something gimmicky like stick a plant frond or a lightsaber in your face, but not with <i>Warcraft</i>. Jones' use of the tech seems to focus on adding more depth to each scene. While some of the action suffers from the standard 3D blur effect, the vast majority of the time I'd forgotten I had the glasses on.<br />
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Orc rendering is a thing of beauty, with more attention given to the named orcs in the movie. Even though the CGI orcs who make up the horde are reportedly varied in their makeup and assembly, they still feel like the Uruk-hai from Tolkien's universe, if less mindless. And I'd argue this isn't a bad thing: with a main character sheet so large, introducing more key players like Killogg Deadeye and Grom Hellscream would further muddy the waters (though if you're watching closely both have cameos).<br />
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The various settings throughout Azeroth are keenly representative of their in-game counterparts, from the exterior of Dalaran and the library of Karazhan, to the interior of Stormwind's throne room. While World of Warcraft's art style tends to be over the top and boxy, the architecture fit well within this world and didn't distract from the movie.<br />
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The movie features a healthy dose of magic, which for the most part is rendered believably. There are a couple of shots featuring Khadgar and Medivh that remind me of bad television CGI. A bit cringe-worthy, but I didn't think the largely-CGI film would make it all the way through unblemished.<br />
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<h3>
<b>Characters</b></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI4hwiSoOWl2Pk9OEx3qJkBKST3tXGoLaEuH7AxZgXPdQa15yMiAwUU-Fvm4WDc8ofeSm6yC6ofGpLU0-USlKQEJwbPqtnRmhBrtheSLxdvAUwWst79sBlIp7EvOwLcPMvBygtjkG7ASF-/s1600/Duro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI4hwiSoOWl2Pk9OEx3qJkBKST3tXGoLaEuH7AxZgXPdQa15yMiAwUU-Fvm4WDc8ofeSm6yC6ofGpLU0-USlKQEJwbPqtnRmhBrtheSLxdvAUwWst79sBlIp7EvOwLcPMvBygtjkG7ASF-/s1600/Duro.jpg" /></a></div>
The movie opens with a scene that features a short skirmish between a man and a green-skinned orc, though the shot ends before we can see the aftermath (we're led to assume the man has been smashed into paste). We then cut to Durotan, orc Warchief of the Frostwolf Clan, and his wife Draka in their tent. I thought the juxtaposition between the fearsome orc in the previous scene and the humanity we're shown in Durotan and Draka served well to illustrate to the audience that this was not going to be the average good guys vs. bad guys movie (if it hadn't already been apparent through the trailers).<br />
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Throughout the next quarter of the film as the plot develops, we're introduced to the rest of the movie's major players, a fairly large ensemble: Orgrim Doomhammer, Blackhand, King Llane, Lady Taria, Gul'dan, Garona, Anduin Lothar, Callan Lothar, Khadgar and Medivh, as well as a few ancillary characters who have relatively small yet recurring presences throughout the movie. While this a fraction of the number of characters <i>Lord of the Rings</i> wanted audiences to care about, those movies had the luxury of longer runtimes with the story unfolding over three installments, something the source material for <i>Warcraft</i> could have supported. Character development is a bit hampered due to the constraining length of the film, and as a result there could have been more depth across the board, even if there were no major disappointments.<br />
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Based on trailer footage, I went in skeptical of Dominic Cooper's King Llane and Paula Patton's Garona. I thought the former would be a bad casting choice, and the latter wouldn't provide a convincing performance. I was wrong on both counts. Cooper fits well as the benevolent and wise king of the Alliance, and Patton portrays Garona as a hardened outcast loved by neither the orcs or the humans. There is a particular scene where a dejected Garona asks Durotan if the Frostwolf Clan will accept her among their ranks, and Durotan replies that she is safer with the humans. Even though the movie could have explored its characters further to foster greater audience investment, this was a poignant moment where I really felt for Garona and her status as an outsider to both worlds.<br />
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Durotan, brought to life by Toby Kebbel, gives one of the movie's best performances. To me that feels like saying Andy Serkis' Gollum gave a better performance than Elijah Wood in <i>Lord of the Rings</i>, but it's true in this case. The level of detail Duncan Jones and ILM were able to capture and portray on-screen is absolutely stunning. While there were a few CGI elements that jolted me out of the film, orc rendering was not one of them. In fact, the orcs translate so well that they at times come across as more realistic than the humans. It feels like Jones placed extra emphasis on making the orcs relatable, which is shown particularly in the interactions between Durotan, Draka and Orgrim. As a consequence sometimes their human counterparts come across a bit flat.<br />
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Daniel Wu's Gul'dan serves as a twisted and believable villain, but unlike Rob Kazinsky's Orgrim Doomhammer and Kebbel's Durotan, I cannot find the actor beneath the CGI. Still, Wu provides a solid performance, and fans of the game may be surprised by the scene where Gul'dan engages in some good ol' hand-to-hand combat. I'd always thought he was a decrepit and diseased old orc who could stand only with the aid of a staff. Still, the scene worked.<br />
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Rounding out the human performances were Ben Foster's Medivh and Ben Shnetzer's Khadgar. Foster's approach to Medivh has you wondering (by design) just what the frick he's really up to the whole time (until, of course, you find out exactly what's been going on). Schnetzer brings an earnest portrayal of the bumbling young mage Khadgar, and in one scene provides the most over-the-top and comical game reference for fans familiar with the Warcraft universe.<br />
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The one character portrayal that didn't resonate with me was Clancy Brown's Blackhand. Though it was neat to see how he gets his "black hand" this time around, he feels rather like the hollow, standard lieutenant villain seen in Hollywood movies: a brute, unthinking enforcer blindly following the orders of his deranged boss. I can understand, based on the original lore, why they chose to feature Blackhand instead of someone like Deadeye or Hellscream, but to the casual viewer his inclusion may not seem to serve many purposes other than to have another recognizable evil face on screen. Out of all the named orcs, his CGI rendering was the poorest, which is too bad since just by looking at Brown's looming presence as an actor one might think he'd make a great orc.<br />
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<h3>
<b>Plot</b></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwC69-ZSexV1MxvRum9MUqwJSgiBp5R9mL3mbLzPP-6VgGZKV2cFP9ElfOLku0WIeRRnwYdep2Uxi5ffxpj-Uf12qNDvcgiWP72AgNABhASWDb2sbyMvTthRXwl3Y3Z3ASRPlhswU-rI5p/s1600/plain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwC69-ZSexV1MxvRum9MUqwJSgiBp5R9mL3mbLzPP-6VgGZKV2cFP9ElfOLku0WIeRRnwYdep2Uxi5ffxpj-Uf12qNDvcgiWP72AgNABhASWDb2sbyMvTthRXwl3Y3Z3ASRPlhswU-rI5p/s640/plain.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
Things develop quickly and there aren't many lulls between action scenes. Dialogue tends to be short and to the point, and often serves to move the plot forward at the expense of greater character development. Again, that's part of the consequence of having to shear the movie down to approximately 120 minutes, but also because the source material is so dense and full of nuance.<br />
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Since Jones' approach to the movie sees the conflict through the lens of both the orcs and the humans, there is little time for wasted exposition. Stakes need to be heightened for all characters on both sides of the war in time for the climactic battle. Normally a director would have a good 90 minutes to do this, but with two sides to the conflict this is halved for each, and we're sometimes shown rather hastily what a certain character has to lose in the stakes game. Anduin Lothar's non-game-lore son Callan's presence is an example of this and tells the audience that Lothar has more to lose than a mere battle. It feels simultaneously forced, but necessary: we know our humans fight for Azeroth's salvation, but it can be difficult at times to understand <i>why</i>.<br />
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With the orcs, we're explicitly told that their home world is dying, but aren't shown too much. As a fan of the game, I know exactly what this means and what it looks like, but I can see how a casual viewer might have a hard time conceptualizing how bad things were in order for the orc clans to look for an escape---an escape that involved invading and enslaving a new world. And it isn't until the orcs have arrived on Azeroth that Durotan's Frostwolves begin to realize that wherever Gul'dan's magic goes, death follows. Perhaps this is why the orcs, specifically the Frostwolves, felt like richer characters, since their obstacles for survival became two-fold in that moment: overcome/cooperate with the human resistance and escape the enslavement of Gul'dan's fel magic.<br />
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Fans of the game universe know the essentials of this story, but the lore has been tailored for blockbuster digestion. As I mentioned above, the film features new characters in Callan Lothar and Ladia Taria, the wife to King Llane whose existence we knew of but nothing else. There are also some character deaths that play out quite differently from how they happen in the game lore. The changes do add a greater immediate impact in the film and the fates of several characters are resolved to satisfying ends, even if they differ from the original tale.<br />
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The movie's final few minutes are hopeful in that they hint that this is just the beginning (in fact, the movie is officially titled <i>Warcraft: The Beginning</i> in international markets). This is a bold move. In a greater context where <i>Warcraft: The Middle</i> and <i>Warcraft: The End</i> are sure things, it makes perfect sense. But knowing the fate of those two films rests solely on the success of this one makes the scenes just a tad bittersweet. For a non-seasoned viewer, it isn't the Frodo-tries-to-run-off-without-Sam ending we got with <i>Fellowship of the Rings</i>, but I can imagine it leaves them feeling like a lot is unresolved.<br />
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I attended with two friends whose only connection to the Warcraft universe was that they have friends who are connected. They didn't express any issue with plot discernment or clarity, and rather enjoyed the visual spectacle. However, they'd be hard-pressed to name every character by their head shot. So while the story is fast-paced, the environment rich, and the characters varied and numerous, the characters themselves may not have been provided enough screen time to fully resonate with a general audience.<br />
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<b>Conclusion</b></h3>
At the end of the day, I feel that anyone with a deep love of the Warcraft universe will enjoy this film despite its narrative swiftness and adjustments to lore. It is a visual victory that faithfully brings the world of Azeroth to life, complete with <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/news=253457/all-the-easter-eggs-we-found-in-the-warcraft-movie-spoilers" target="_blank">unobtrusive nods to those who've played the game</a>. For general fans of the fantasy genre, it should be an enjoyable ride, deserving a spot on the shelf next to other solid fantasy movies; not just the shelf for movies based on video games. It's good enough to warrant a sequel (or more). Still, I cannot help but think about what might have been, since when it's all over, the movie is constrained by its own run time: 120 minutes is simply not large enough a canvas for this moment in Warcraft history, and as a result fails to captivate on a grander scale.<br />
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<br />onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-64088589594196706872016-06-03T14:49:00.002-05:002016-06-03T14:53:06.620-05:00Cheating in Overwatch Gets You Noverwatch<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Your throat tightens. You can feel the blood rushing up your neck and into your face. The heat coming off your cheeks makes your eyeballs sting. If anyone could see you they'd be able to tell something is amiss. Your shoulders slump and you sink a little bit in your desk chair, pondering the actions that led to this. You cheated in Overwatch, and have been banned <u>for life</u></i><i>.</i></blockquote>
<i>For real?</i><br />
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Not <i>quite, </i>but pretty damn close. Generally when an account is permanently banned or closed due to whatever reason, all the player has to do is start a new one. In games like Heroes of the Storm or World of Warcraft, this means you'll lose all progress on the banned account, and in Warcraft's case will have to purchase a new game license, but at least you can still play.<br />
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<a href="http://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20743596231" target="_blank">Blizzard's approach to cheating in Overwatch</a> seems a bit more strict, ensuring it's absolutely not worth a player's time, energy, or money to even attempt it. I'm not going to get into the ways one can cheat, as it's all over the web and pretty standard FPS fare. But as far as the bans go, Blizzard appears to be tying them to Hardware ID (HWID), which can have a much greater impact than simply closing the account. Similar to an IP ban where the player's IP address is essentially blacklisted from accessing the servers, the HWID ban sees Blizzard taking a "snapshot" of your computer's configuration and hardware (in addition to other things), then using that information to "re-ban" you if they find you've started a new account. The method they use to accomplish this is something well within their rights, as we agree to it when we accept the Battle.net <a href="http://eu.blizzard.com/en-gb/company/legal/wow_tou.html" target="_blank">Terms of Use</a>.<br />
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The reason I think we're seeing HWID bans this time around is because of a few stories I've read like <a href="https://embed.gyazo.com/13d15613f9321bad43462336678d0830.png" target="_blank">this</a>.<br />
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As you can see, this person purchased the game <i>four different times </i>(*cough* retail value of $240)<i>. </i>They began cheating in <i><b>beta</b></i> (emphasized because I lol'd) and got their first license banned the day after the game's official release. The second license was also banned, though the OP claims they weren't cheating any longer. Then, the third license was banned even after a clean install of Battle.net and Overwatch, once again without cheating. After messing with some technical hardware crap that's way beyond me (aside from using an IP masker) to try to fool what they suspected was an HWID ban, the fourth license was yet again banned. I will concede this individual should be given an <i>A</i> for effort.<br />
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Blizzard does not want cheating in Overwatch, period. Granted, there will always be ways to get around these things with enough know-how, but Blizzard seems to be making sure it'll be difficult and perhaps even costly for offending players---costly enough that it isn't worth trying. Due to the seemingly more stringent approach, which I heartily applaud, I can't help but wonder when we'll start to see this action by Blizzard in response to cheating in their other titles.<br />
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It's disappointing Blizzard has to threaten and carry out such a strong punishment to deter players from cheating. They've got a game with a well-defined set of rules that are meant to effectively provide an equal opportunity for success to all players, yet we have pathetic individuals who need to god-mode themselves in order to feel competitive. They're probably the same kid who had to rock the <a href="http://www.isoaker.com/Armoury/Analysis/1998/CPS1500_images/iS_supersoaker_cps1500_01.jpg" target="_blank">SuperSoaker</a> in the neighborhood <a href="http://www.retroplanet.com/mm5/graphics/00000006/39706_main.jpg" target="_blank">water-pistol</a> fights in order to feel good. It's sad they never grew out of that mentality.<br />
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Answer me this, cheaters: when you've equipped a set of I.W.I.N. elements which leads you to, well, winning, do you then gloat over the losing team, too? Does your victory gained through unfair means really contribute to a feeling of superiority and self-worth? Or is the satisfaction found in the fact that you can actually mod the game and get away with it?<br />
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Perhaps the cheaters out there can petition Blizzard to create an unregulated server where players who want to hack the shit out of the experience can do so. I hear that's been a thing lately. But I suppose that would take the fun out of having an advantage over your opponents. Of course, you can always go with the simpler, safer option.<br />
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<i>Hint: it's the one that requires actual skill and doesn't involve cheating. </i><br />
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<br />onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-84494286017143637082016-05-23T10:55:00.001-05:002016-05-23T10:58:45.200-05:00Thoughts on Talent-Swap Restrictions<div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJxmq-YUveh3pggqva2bHwa4KRpAmbSpm-MI5IhR4ivyGcrahYdIzOso3KsBLWeDuJmgaEDEeAQjYxcqjdRtzgUiW4Li9Q-k_jG3_H8Tta95fmcepHxdLA0SZ4R5Kls9L8v_3Q5w-OxHWP/s1600/ENHtalents.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="522" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJxmq-YUveh3pggqva2bHwa4KRpAmbSpm-MI5IhR4ivyGcrahYdIzOso3KsBLWeDuJmgaEDEeAQjYxcqjdRtzgUiW4Li9Q-k_jG3_H8Tta95fmcepHxdLA0SZ4R5Kls9L8v_3Q5w-OxHWP/s640/ENHtalents.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Legion beta enhancement shaman talents. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">If you haven't already digested the info Watcher shared the other day, you can read his two posts <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/20743706264?page=4#72" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/20743706264?page=7#138" target="_blank">here</a>, though I'll be quoting the meatiest of sections below. I also highly recommend posts by <a href="http://sunniersartofwar.com/blog/2016/05/19/on-talent-restrictions-social-friction-and-cookie-cutter-builds/" target="_blank">Sunnier</a> and <a href="https://alternative-chat.com/2016/05/20/church-of-the-poisoned-mind/" target="_blank">Alternative Chat</a> for further reading and perspectives. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">For those who may not be familiar, in Legion players will only be able switch their character's talents</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;"> if they are in a designated rest area or by using a new scribe-crafted item, </span><a href="http://legion.wowhead.com/spell=226248/wartome-of-the-sharpened-mind" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;" target="_blank">Wartome of the Sharpened Mind</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">---a departure from the ability switch talents whenever out of combat with the use of a low-cost reagent sold by a vendor.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">I'm not angry. I'm not quitting the game, and won't be signing any petitions aimed at changing the developers' minds. I'm fully capable of adapting to change without having to like it. My feathers are ruffled, that's all. And I'll try to explain why, from my perspective as an "</span><a href="http://www.wowhead.com/achievement=10044" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;" target="_blank">Ahead of the Curve</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">" raider.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">Let's begin with a look at some of Watcher's words:</span></span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #00b4ff;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;"><span style="line-height: 23.8px;"><i>Especially with no reagent cost at all now, it can be all too easy to activate AoE talents before larger packs of enemies in a dungeon, and then switch back to single-target talents before a lieutenant or a boss. Or someone might switch to a passive movement-speed talent when traversing an area, and then back to something functional before entering combat. At that point, we're often hardly talking about a meaningful choice at all, but rather a nuisance of extra button-presses or UI navigation before you can use your desired talents.</i></span></span></span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">Prior to this change, talent-swapping on the Legion Beta costed absolutely <i>nothing.</i> Talent-swapping on live throughout the last several years costed <i>next to nothing</i>, whether it was dust, powder, or tomes. Buy a stack of 200 and forget about them until you ran out. I will admit that just because it costed nothing, or next to nothing before doesn't mean it <i>should</i> remain that way forever. That's kind of what change or evolution of the game is all about. </span></span></span></div>
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But I found Watcher's example above odd: people switching out talents between trash packs in dungeons? To gain 10-20% movement speed just to cross an area? The thought never occurred to me. I checked in with one of my friends in Beta and he confirmed that indeed, he had witnessed players swapping talents between trash packs in a dungeon. But that made me wonder, was the lack of a 50 silver cost to switch enough to entice players to switch talents at every chance they could? </div>
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The idea of choosing to play that way really didn't resonate with me at first; I view it as one way to approach the game, but far from mandatory. Then I saw a mirror of it in my own play: if I'm out in the world and I have to travel more than 20 or so yards, I will hop on my flying mount 100% of the time before moving. Basically, if it takes any less time to summon a mount and fly to a location than it would if I simply ran, I'm mounting up. It's not a total parallel as likely the mount button has been hot-keyed and on your bars for some time, but it does demonstrate one way a player can choose to play the game to their style. This mount example, for me, is more about maximizing my active time more than anything. And of course Blizzard has <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2013/02/cooldowns-on-flying-mounts-ghostcrawler.html" target="_blank">never thought about putting restrictions on flying mount use</a>.</div>
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I'd argue that the ability to swap talents outside of combat whenever a players feel like doing so only becomes a nuisance if players feel like it was <i>required</i> in order to play the game. Personally, I'd be more annoyed by the player in my dungeon who's late to each pull because they're changing talents every chance they can. <span style="line-height: 23.8px;">It boggles my mind to think that the devs saw enough of this happening in Alpha/Beta that they've moved to curtail the practice. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent;"><i><span style="color: #00b4ff; font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 23.8px;">We currently plan to give Scribes a recipe to craft a consumable Tome that can be dropped in order to allow all nearby players to retalent freely for a time - particularly useful for group play...</span><span style="color: #00b4ff; font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 23.8px;">But, in terms of the materials required, we're thinking of something that's more aimed at groups, and probably not the sort of thing an individual is likely to carry a stack of and use freely.</span></i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">The Wartome of the Sharpened Mind, which I linked earlier, looks to be the item Watcher referenced here. It functions similarly to the flask cauldrons from yesteryear: they'll benefit the entire group, but at a significantly higher material cost. What Watcher's really saying in the paragraph above: <u><b>level your scribe</b></u>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">While it might not be likely that the average player carries around a stack of these to use freely, the "not-so-average" player still makes up for a good chunk of the overall game population from a numbers standpoint. Perhaps by Blizzard metrics the average player likely won't see Heroic Archimonde die in current content, but you can still bet on seeing thousands and thousands of moose mounts out there.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">I will be one of those not-so-average players who, along with a good number of my raiding guildmates, will be making millionaires out of Azeroth's scribes, ensuring that we have enough Wartomes to cover the week's raid and then some. So to me, it feels like we're simply trading one reagent for another, albeit Legion's version will be much more costly.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">Granted, this may also spur a guild-wide material acquisition spree, which is all right by me.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #00b4ff; font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;"><i>Ultimately, for a choice to be meaningful there has to be some associated cost or trade-off in the process. Do you want to eat your cake, or do you want to save it for another time? If you could do both, that wouldn't be much of a choice. </i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">I just don't like this line of reasoning here, looking through my raiding lens. It doesn't really resonate with how I approach talent-swapping on live. I'm probably just getting hung up on the cake. But at the same time I think the notion that in order for a choice to have meaning there must be an associated cost is something we accept blindly, and I don't think it is something that's 100% applicable. Granted, psychologists and designers will likely take me to school on this one, but hear me out. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">As a raider, above all I want my guild to be successful in its endeavors. Aside from working to understand my rotations, stat priorities, and boss mechanics, I also look to my talent toolkit as it pertains to each fight in order to identify if certain talents will be more beneficial to the encounter, then adjust accordingly. My motivation is personal. It's not to be the best, or top the charts, but to approach each boss as if it is a puzzle and to use the abilities at my character's disposal to counter the boss as best as I can. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">Of course under the changes in Legion, I can and will continue to do this, just at a higher cost. And with the change to talent swaps, Inscription should be highly profitable (for the better part of the expansion, at least) and players will likely be discouraged to swap talents as often as in between every trash pack.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">Raiding for us, on the other hand, won't look too different other than we'll be dropping a Wartome with the Feast before a boss pull. And of course, if for some uncanny reason the raid is Wartomeless, players can always hearth home for the talent-swap. However, we likely won't allow that in raids, as it's really not the best use our limited time together.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="color: #00b4ff; font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">First, what if you could switch talents freely, at any time, including while in combat? </span><span style="color: #00b4ff; font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">Second, what if you could literally never switch talents, short of making a brand new character?</span></i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">The former question is something that I haven't heard many people asking for and something they are undoubtedly <i>not </i>considering given the ability pruning we had last time around; the latter is close to what it looked like in the early days of the game, since respec costs were so high and gold reserves for most players quite low back then. While the talent trees we currently have may not be super exciting to everyone, they do at least offer some situational variance that allows players to respond to some combat environments more effectively. Things may be changing towards utility in Legion on the talent end of things, which is why it makes more sense to me to maintain the sense of freedom we have in talent-swapping currently, and look to other ways to fix the perceived problems with too-frequent swapping or Inscription having not much to offer. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">I'm not sure making it more difficult to change talents all of a sudden adds more meaning to the choice itself; previously, it was meaningful to me because I understood which aspects of my kit worked better and when, the result being the personal satisfaction of playing my character to its full potential. I'm not going to think about making that choice in Legion <i>any more or less</i> than I have up to date. It's still going to be made; I'll just scoff a bit until I get used to the imposed cost.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #00b4ff; font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;"><i>But most other content, whether it's a single quest boss out in the world, or a dungeon that breaks down to a series of sub-1-minute combats, don't offer nearly that much variety. And so you take the AoE talent for the AoE pack, and the single-target talent for the lone boss, to the point that you might as well just have both of them all the time, which might be powerful, but wouldn't be a choice.</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">I really don't think it's as simple of process as Watcher is implying here. Let's imagine: first trash pack in the dungeon gets dies, you go out of combat. T</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">he group is already moving towards the next pack and you want to swap some talents. Open up the talents pane; navigate to the talent(s) you want. Select new talents. Click "Learn." Swap/add any abilities to your action bar (if applicable). Rebuff (if applicable). Catch up to your group who is almost done with the pack you've just swapped for.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">To me, it seems the pace of play in a dungeon naturally discourages this practice. I suspect there are probably scripts or macros out there that can make swapping nearly effortless, but it still</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;"> hearkens back to my admission that I simply don't subscribe to that approach to the game, and if someone else does, so what? Where I stand, changing talents around that frequently for sub-1-minute combats is cumbersome and a waste of time. That's where the cost-benefit sits in my mind. Simply worth it in certain scenarios---like for raid bosses---not so much in others. But how worth is defined is the tricky part, since it varies on an individual level.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">To strip everything away, it seems that Blizzard's ultimate goal was to discourage players from rapid-fire talent swaps. I'll admit, the Wartome and its assumed cost accomplishes this. But on a general level it doesn't make the choice to swap feel more meaningful if it's something that a player is going to do regardless. There's simply a greater, but nowhere near prohibitive extra cost. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">Personally, I would've rather seen them impose a cooldown of some sorts, like a simple 5-minute debuff that prevented talent swaps (reset upon death of course). Perhaps talent-switching could be treated sort of like trinkets: when you change to a new talent, the talent itself will incur a 1-minute cooldown before it can be activated/triggered/beneficial. Or hell, remove the restriction altogether when in a raid group, where talent-swapping will arguably be used with the most frequency. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">Oh well. Part of my annoyance with this change might be a simple shortcoming on my part: failure to grasp, accept, or understand Watcher's reasoning, or it could be something more serious like rose-colored blinders. I'll forge on a head in Legion regardless, though </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.8px;">I wouldn't be sad to see this change reverted. That would enable me to continue approaching each boss encounter like a puzzle unimpeded, without having to be reminded how changing my character's talents is supposed to feel more meaningful now that Blizzard has assigned to it a cost they're comfortable with.</span></div>
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onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-12917783271030087162016-05-16T15:37:00.000-05:002016-05-16T15:37:48.798-05:00WoW Weekly: The Bad Beta Tester<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-QyjYl2n7lKun-rsYZfpFoncsHKzImbXg_WAJwh7TBG0hSo_HDtKBe0Fz8io_HJkyZ-OQ8NXbc7bq-z7iA9t4G8sol1ZfQfEZicDZpgyqeZxsKWJnmiORYV_oaoLhtE1UBKFQCqgXLkJk/s1600/Alpaha.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-QyjYl2n7lKun-rsYZfpFoncsHKzImbXg_WAJwh7TBG0hSo_HDtKBe0Fz8io_HJkyZ-OQ8NXbc7bq-z7iA9t4G8sol1ZfQfEZicDZpgyqeZxsKWJnmiORYV_oaoLhtE1UBKFQCqgXLkJk/s640/Alpaha.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/19993881/legion-alpha-test-information-4-21-2016">img: Blizzard</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
All's still pretty quiet on my end when it comes to Azeroth. Other than making good on my promise from <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2016/05/wow-weekly-954k-and-rising.html">the previous post</a>---my banker is once again gold-capped---I still haven't been doing too much in game. However, that's about to change.<br />
<br />
But before I get to that, let touch on the big news of the (previous) week: the Legion Beta is live! I haven't received an invite, and I'm not disappointed about it in the least. You see, I'm what they refer to in technical circles as a "bad beta tester." I'm pretty sure I got into the Cataclysm beta...pretty sure. But that alone gives an indication as to how much I actually played it. I <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/3767193/sign-up-for-the-world-of-warcraft-annual-pass-and-get-diablo-iii-free-10-21-2011">bought my way</a> into the Mists of Pandaria beta, and I was glad for it: I thought the game looked beautiful and I really, really wanted the early access. I took the opportunity to play through the pandaren starting area a couple of times (something I'd actually already done at the prior year's Blizzcon) and left it at that. I got into the Warlords beta as well, and didn't play much once again. Ho-hum.<br />
<br />
One of the main reasons I don't go all out in Warcraft betas is because I'm really averse to learning story spoilers before the rest of my playmates have the chance to experience them. While I'm as excited as the next guy or gal for new Warcraft content, beta access doesn't fall under the "new content" category for me. Another big reason is the lack of time: I don't find myself in excess, so I have to be discerning about leisure activities. Some folks might point at those two truths and declare that I should not have opted-in to the beta in the first place. To those people, I fart in your general direction.<br />
<br />
Blizzard knows what they're doing; for every tester who's trying to run through walls or fall through the world, there's likely a hundred others who are simply going about their routines, calling attention to bugs if and when they come across them. Both are valuable to Blizzard at the end of the day. So let's allow beta testers to be beta testers in all their varied glory, shall we?<br />
<br />
On to the other stuff:<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Gold-capped...Again</b><br />
It happened last Friday. As my banker collected auction sales and garrison spoils from my level 100s, suddenly he wouldn't take any more currency. I'm currently sitting on 1.1 million gold across the account, which is a drop in the bucket compared to what some folks have made this expansion, but it's a nice chunk to head into Legion with. The economy is continuing to slide with people off-loading excess mats, which in turn is driving down the price and the likelihood of sale for certain craftable goods.<br />
<br />
I'm unsure whether I should take part in a Great Liquidation prior to Legion, or if I should hold on to a cache of profession mats to sell later on once the market's not as flooded. Perhaps I'll consult someone much wiser than I, or perhaps you can leave your informed opinion in the comments!<br />
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<b>Back in the Saddle?</b><br />
If all goes well, I should be making a return to raiding with the guild as early as this week. Regular visitors may remember that in early April I decided to take a break from raiding for the first time in three years...just too much going on outside of the game, and not enough going on in it for me personally. It's weird to think it's only been six weeks, as it feels like it's been a lot longer. I miss the folks I play with and the night we raided together, and with the Warcraft movie, guild meetup, and Legion just around the corner, I felt now would be the perfect time to get back into the swing of things.<br />
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Also, our guild is currently giving out Heroic-Archimonde runs to friends and family of the guild who have interest in the mount but may not raid. If you are reading this, consider yourself a friend of this writer and would like your very own moose, hit me up!<br />
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<b>Gauntlet Slayer Edition</b><br />
Continuing my streak of exploring additional games during the Warcraft content lull, I dove back into <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/258970/">Gauntlet</a> over the weekend. I say "dove back" because I purchased the game when it originally launched and was left quite disappointed. However, since I last logged in, the developer has made a string of improvements to the game, including cosmetic and power items, as well as a more straight-forward and understandable progression. It's a fun little dungeon crawler, and just as it was back in the day, even more fun when played with friends.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Guild Meetup Colorado Edition</b><br />
In just less than a month and a half I'll be heading out to Colorado for the second (potentially annual) <a href="http://edsapereaude.enjin.com/">Sapere Aude</a> guild meetup. <strike>We</strike> I don't have many plans besides hanging, drinking, warming my bones next to a campfire under the night sky, and visiting the Ren Faire on the Saturday of our trip. I'd like to hit a dispensary too just for the experience, but I may not be able to fit that in to due time restraints and lack of guildie interest.<br />
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<br />onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-16134053493490993132016-05-04T13:42:00.000-05:002016-05-04T13:42:04.567-05:00WoW Weekly: 954k and Rising<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaUnaVcC_vqsaFhzxe0rfHSlSkBuM8ZOurLUKEoT1yYpvAwbhcMXxTr6JmLYk1Hg9-Sp2wKYrUL1WeL14Xs16MI244AW2qHOftaLs6PVcPyBYJfY3OQXJNVUPczSjdpnu8M-24R2dCPWo3/s1600/BMAH.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaUnaVcC_vqsaFhzxe0rfHSlSkBuM8ZOurLUKEoT1yYpvAwbhcMXxTr6JmLYk1Hg9-Sp2wKYrUL1WeL14Xs16MI244AW2qHOftaLs6PVcPyBYJfY3OQXJNVUPczSjdpnu8M-24R2dCPWo3/s640/BMAH.jpg" width="640" /></a><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/search/label/weekly" style="color: #64a6c0; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">WoW Weekly</a> is a biweekly-ish, self-absorbed look into the things I've been doing -- or not doing -- in the game. From auctioneering and pet battling to mount farming and raiding.</i><br />
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Not a whole lot has happened since the last <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2016/04/wow-weekly-break-time.html">WoW Weekly update</a>, aside from my bank character's bottom line has continued to increase. This morning's assessment put me at 954,369g. I was just over 700,000g five weeks ago, meaning I've continued to bring in 50,000g per week on average.<br />
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I'm anticipating reaching the gold cap by the end of this week. I feel obligated to remind you (and my ego approves) that <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/search?q=chasing+the+gold+cap">I hit the gold cap once before</a>, prior to <strike>when it was easy</strike> garrisons. Nowadays, a single garrison can net you 10-15k in a week's time, meaning Warlords of Draenor has at minimum enabled players to pay for their subscription costs with gold alone.<br />
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Now that we have an official release for Legion, hand-over-fist gold-making days are numbered. We're looking to August 30th now, but I'm more interested in learning about when the pre-patch will arrive, as I have a feeling that is when we will see the nerfs to garrison gold acquisition. While I'd love the extra month or so, I'm not betting on it. I read an interesting blog post by Joar stating that it's no longer worthwhile to start a new garrison and level it all the way up, based on the cost it takes to do so and the time we have left in Warlords. <a href="http://wowaltaddiction.blogspot.com/2016/04/stop-building-new-garrisons-now.html">Give it a read</a>.<br />
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Other than that, I have not been playing WoW outside gold-hoarding and Ulduar runs. On to the general updates:<br />
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<b>Speaking of Ulduar Runs: </b>My squad of four has been expanded into a squad of six. I had a bit of trouble bringing my 91 arms warrior into the mix, but once I was able to figure the character out, Yogg fell with relative ease. Still no mount though, of course.<br />
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<b>Heroes of the Dorm Storm: </b>I watched a decent portion of the Heroes of the Dorm competition, and all of the Grand Finals matches. It caused a tiny voice inside me to say "Hey go play Ranked Mode!" so I've been doing that. I believe I have a few placement matches remaining before I'm assigned an official rank.<br />
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<b>Rocket League: </b>Two weekends ago, Rocket League was free-to-play on Steam as part of a promotion for their championships. I'd heard a lot of great things about the game, so checking it out was a no-brainer. I also absolutely love soccer. The driving style reminds me of another game I used to play years ago called Rumble Racing. Basically your car has some extra maneuverability in the form of jumping, speed boosting, and when used together, flight. I ended up buying the game when the trial ended (justified, of course, by it being on sale).<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Oh yeah, Blizzcon:</b> I'm going! This makes number five for me and my partner in crime, <a href="http://twitter.com/thronus">@thronus</a>. And awesomely, the good <a href="http://twitter.com/kennylogouts">@kennylogouts</a> will be joining us, meaning a #3WiMigos reunion! We're super stoked to have been fortunate enough to land tickets once again, especially for the year marking the 10th Blizzcon and the 25th anniversary of Blizzard Entertainment. I'm banking on this being a special year. Check out my <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2013/10/feckless-leaders-blizzcon-noob-guide.html">Blizzcon Noob guide</a> for some survival tips!<br />
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<br />onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-70413116224400524442016-04-14T15:00:00.000-05:002016-04-14T16:07:03.974-05:00Feckless Leader's Blizzcon Noob Guide [2016 Update]<div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD1b2i_peo9VB-Si9M1yje6Bsv9FxNmJuqz7kD497klJ-tY0uDPKAhWW81V85ueB4n-sCU40p1DY_akdvcG8oBS4eNav8TMYBqTTEXEPbXJnY1xw_aOnbTyQPNG7crNHzRfABYAxAYowR7/s1600/3WImigos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD1b2i_peo9VB-Si9M1yje6Bsv9FxNmJuqz7kD497klJ-tY0uDPKAhWW81V85ueB4n-sCU40p1DY_akdvcG8oBS4eNav8TMYBqTTEXEPbXJnY1xw_aOnbTyQPNG7crNHzRfABYAxAYowR7/s1600/3WImigos.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The #3WImigos at Blizzcon 2013.</td></tr>
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<i><br /></i>
<i>Blizzcon 2016 is happening, so I've gone ahead and added to this guide, originally published in October 2013. I've had the privilege of attending the last four Blizzcons and this guide is meant to give first-time attendees a jump on what to expect at the convention.</i><br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
Ticketing</span></h2>
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Acquiring tickets to Blizzcon can be a feat in itself. As you can imagine, there are many more people interested in attending than there are tickets available. As a result, the event tends to sell out within minutes. Tickets this year go on sale at 7pm Pacific on Wednesday, April 20th, and will be handled by Universe. A second batch will go on sale at 10am Pacific on Saturday, April 23rd for those who missed out on the first sale. There have been some...issues with Blizzard's chosen ticketing vendor in years prior, but knowing that Universe is owned by Ticketmaster gives me some confidence that this year might go more smoothly. </div>
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<b>Group Effort</b></div>
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The fact that our group was able to secure tickets for each of the last four Blizzcons is part strategy and part luck. Obviously, you'll want to be on the <a href="https://www.universe.com/blizzcon2016" target="_blank">ticket page</a> prior to the start of the sale, hammering the hell out of your F5 key until tickets become available. Each year we had at least two people in our group doing this; what generally happened is once you selected the number of tickets you wanted, you were placed into a queue. If you didn't make it to the front of the line before tickets sold out---tough luck. </div>
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<div>
From <a href="https://blizzcon.com/en-us/news/20089731/blizzcon-2016-ticket-purchasing-guide">Blizzard's ticketing info page</a>, it sounds like this year's sales will be handled a bit differently. In years prior, all one had to do is select the number of tickets they desired before being placed into a queue. It made it so that you could use multiple browsers to request tickets, increasing your odds. We also had several members of our group trying for tickets, with the first who got through being responsible for purchase, and the rest of us reimbursing them. However, that might be trickier this year, given that it appears Universe will require additional info---including credit card details and attendee names---to be entered before you will be placed into a queue. </div>
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<div>
To prepare for technical problems, i.e. server crashes and/or getting kicked from the queue, it might be handy to have all of your info (name, address, credit card info) in an open .txt document for quick copy+paste action. If you're buying multiple tickets, just enter your own name in each attendee field---it'll save time and you have the ability to change this info until July 15th.</div>
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If you miss the Wednesday sale, make sure you're poised to try again on Saturday, April 23rd at 10am Pacific. </div>
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<b>Benefit Dinner</b><br />
There's another option for some folks who aren't lucky enough to land a ticket before they sell out completely: the Children's Hospital of Orange County benefit dinner held the night before the convention. There's an extremely limited amount of tickets available to this event, but their price of $750 can be a bit off-putting. Still, if you have the cash, you may be in the minority when it comes to the amount of money you have to budget for Blizzcon, meaning your shot at scoring one of these might be greater. I actually have no idea, but it is an option if you missed out on the general sales. Plus, it goes towards a great cause. And you get to talk and dine with the Blizzard brass and stuff, in addition to attending the convention. </div>
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Tickets for the benefit dinner go on sale Wednesday, April 27th.</div>
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<b><br />Open Market</b></div>
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Lastly, if you're not able to get tickets through the official avenues, there will always be a number of people who have tickets to resell. These can be a bit more difficult to come by, as there's a high likelihood someone with a Blizzcon ticket is already connected to people who'd be interested in attending. But if you keep your eyes open, or are connected to the right people, you might come across some tickets between now and then.<br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
Purchasing Plane Tickets</span></h2>
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<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/01/best-time-to-book-a-flight_n_4875266.html">A recent-ish study</a> makes the claim that the best time to buy a plane ticket with the goal of the cheapest fare is 54 days before your trip. And if you don't hit that head-on, the best fares can generally be found between 104 to 29 days before the trip. While you can secure your ticket now, historically prices should decrease as we head into the summer months. <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748704062604576105953506930800">Another study</a> suggests that Tuesdays tend to feature lower average rates, while rates tend to climb as it gets later into the week. Nothing here is guaranteed, of course, but these may be good things to keep in mind.<br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
SNA or LAX?</span></h2>
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I flew into LAX the first year, and SNA (John Wayne) the rest. LAX, as you probably know, is a rather large airport and a bit of a hike from Anaheim. I'd only recommend cabbing to the con from there if money isn't an issue. Otherwise, <a href="https://www.supershuttle.com/">SuperShuttle</a> or a similar service is the way to go. Sure, you're sharing a ride, but you can secure a round-trip for roughly $40.<br />
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SNA is a smaller airport, but quite nice and my preferred route of travel. It's about a 15-minute cab ride from the convention center, barring traffic. Depending on when you purchase tickets, flying into SNA may even be the cheaper option. I prefer SNA just because it's less of a hassle getting in and out of it, and also because the extra sleep you'll be afforded on your day of departure will have much value. Trust me.<br />
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<h2>
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Finding a Room</span></b></h2>
Blizzcon's own <a href="https://blizzcon.com/en-us/event-info/attendees/directions">Travel Information post</a> has a lot of really great stuff regarding lodging options in the immediate area surrounding the convention center. If money's not a concern, I highly recommend staying at the Hilton, but a stone's throw from the convention center doors. As an added bonus for those staying at the Hilton, the lobby is a social hot spot each night. For a more affordable option with equal proximity to the convention center, check out the Marriott. Word on the street is some hotels have jacked their prices for the weekend. Plan accordingly.<br />
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For the past few years, our group did something different and went in on a house rental through a service like <a href="http://www.homeaway.com/">HomeAway</a>. With the cost split multiple ways, we each paid the equivalent of the cost of a room for 1-night at the Hilton, but got an <i>entire freakin' house </i>for four nights. Three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a spacious living room, full kitchen (COFFEE MAKER), patio...<i>your own space.</i> Granted, we didn't spend much time there outside of sleeping hours, but we won't do it any other way---we've already got our house booked for this year. If you don't mind a short walk or sharing a cab ride to the convention center, this option should not be overlooked.<br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
Getting Your Badge</span></h2>
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One of the things I've noticed major improvements to over the years is the logistics of badge acquisition. You now have a twelve-hour window to grab your badge on the Thursday before the convention from 9am to 9pm---this is when you want to do it, especially to avoid standing in a badge line on Friday morning when you should really be lining up to get inside the convention center. If you miss Thursday's opportunity, badges can be picked up from 8am on convention days until 10pm, when the convention closes.<br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
Getting Prime Seating</span></h2>
Seating is first-come, first-served. If you want a seat near the main stage for any of the larger events (opening ceremony, reveals, developer panels), it is best to arrive early. Really, there's not a <i>bad</i> seat in the house on account of the video screens strategically placed throughout the halls. The only event where sitting in the back had a disadvantage (significant sound delay) was the closing concert.<br />
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It seems pretty typical for one person from a group to arrive at the convention early and save seats for their party. This might draw sideways glances from some folks, but I can assure you this was a very common practice.<br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
Visit the Booths Early if Swag's Your Thing</span></h2>
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<div>
There are loads of vendor booths at the con (Razer, Nvidia, Sony etc.). At many of these booths, there are contests, prizes, and trinkets to give away. However, it was clear that these companies did not bring enough giveaways for every single con attendee. So if you're looking to maximize your swag, try to hit the booths earlier on Friday.<br />
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The drawback to visiting the booths where there's a prize at stake is the fact you'll be spending a decent amount of time standing in line. Not that you'd regret burning an hour in line, but time flies at the con, for better or worse. Use it wisely.<br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
Mind the Schedule</span></h2>
<div>
There's <i>a lot</i> to do and see. Lore panels, live PvP matches, game testing, the booths, the people---you may not have time for it all---and that's just the stuff going on during the day. There will also be a slew of events put on by fansites during the evening hours. There is <i><u>never</u> </i>a shortage of things to do; in fact, you'll often have to choose one thing over the other as event times often conflict. That's why it's important to mind the schedule.<br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
Bring a Backpack</span></h2>
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My fellow attendee and I were a bit worried about the size of our backpacks in 2011 (<a href="http://www.jansport.com/shop/en/jansport-us/superbreak--t501" target="_blank">traditional Jansport double-strap bags</a>). In fact, I'd brought a smaller sack for the first day that wasn't very useful until I saw they were allowing <i>normal</i>-sized backpacks. Of course, this is where you'll be stuffing all that free swag or items you've purchased, but it's also wise to bring along some water, a snack, and any other items you might need while away from your base. I've never gotten any guff for a plastic water bottle and a box of granola bars. <br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
Autographable Paraphernalia</span></h2>
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Bring a Sharpie and something for Blizzard folk to deface with said Sharpie. I recommend the art book from one of the Warcraft Collector's Editions, or perhaps the newly released Warcraft Chronicles book. A t-shirt works, too. There is a designated area of the con where Blizz folk will be on-hand for autographs throughout the weekend.<br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
Good Shoes</span></h2>
<div>
There will be lots and lots and lots of walking---even if you're staying adjacent to the convention center. While comfortable doesn't always translate into the most stylin', comfort trumps style here. Bring a trusty pair of shoes you know you'll be comfortable in while walking many miles and standing around on hard concrete for hours at a time, and save your fancy shoes for the evenings.<br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
Take Advantage of the Food Trucks</span></h2>
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This is another aspect of the convention that has only continued to improve over the years. During the convention, approximately two-dozen food trucks from the surrounding area will be parked outside in the courtyard from mid-morning until late-night. There's incredible variety to be had, and most importantly, a lot of stuff you simply won't find at home. Well, if you're me anyway. While you do have some options inside the convention center, the food trucks seem to be the most popular option by far, and for good reason.<br />
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<a href="http://www.thevikingtruck.com/home" target="_blank">The Viking Truck</a> is one of our favorites. Check it out.<br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
Talk to the Blizzard People</span> </h2>
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They will be out and about; if they were trying to avoid talking to fans, it'd be real easy for them to do so. One of my favorite memories from 2011 was looking Mike Morhaime in the eyes while shaking his hand, thanking him for the awesome experiences he and his team have created. 2014 was even more memorable. Once again I was able to catch Morhaime's ear for a few minutes, but I also was able to speak one-on-one with Rob Pardo, Greg Street, Corey Stockton, Russel Brower and Johnathan Brown (Zarhym). The highlight was probably a sit-down conversation a fellow #3WImigo and I had with Jason Hayes, Senior Composer at Blizzard. He talked <i>our </i>ears off.<br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
Pace Yourself to Stay Up Late</span></h2>
<div>
I'm a late-to-bed, early-to-rise type of guy when it comes to the con. Note that this might be your <i>only </i>chance at attending the con, at connecting with so many like-minded gamers---don't waste it. I can tell you that a friend who came with me to Blizzcon 2011 regrets going to bed so early. Especially when I texted him a picture of Morhaime and I at 11:45pm on Saturday night. Fortunately for him, he changed his habits and got his photo-op the next year.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
6-2-1 Rule</span></h2>
Bim (<a href="http://twitter.com/shieldspec" target="_blank">@ShieldSpec</a>) on Twitter suggested this nifty tip, one that I hadn't heard of before, but may be familiar to those who are regular con-goers. Simply put: 6 hours of sleep, 2 meals, 1 shower---daily. Easy enough, and helps to ensure you aren't tired, hungry <i>or </i>stinky, which will make for an better con experience overall for you and those around you.<br />
<br />
Full disclosure: I don't normally follow the 6-2-1 rule. In practice mine tends to look like 5-2-1 rule. Seriously though, don't skip out on the shower. Your fellow Blizzcon attendees send their thanks in advance.<br />
<br />
Note: while practicing this rule, it's also not a bad idea to pack a travel-size container of hand sanitizer to have with you at the con.<br />
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
Get Charged</span></h2>
<div>
Portable phone chargers will make your life at the con much better. In 2011, I had a really difficult time finding a good signal, which caused my phone to be on overdrive at all times when I was inside the convention center. So it was either airplane mode or a battery that lasted two hours. Couple that with the copious amounts of pictures you should be taking, your battery will be drained by noon. Don't be like I was the first year, running back to the hotel room in the middle of the day just to plug in the phone. Be prepared. Following my first Blizzcon experience, I picked up a model like <a href="http://www.ebay.com/itm/Portable-External-USB-2600mAh-Battery-Charger-Power-Bank-iPhone-5s-5c-Samsung-S4-/171189813223?pt=US_Cell_Phone_PDA_Batteries&var=&hash=item27dbb53fe7">this</a> for less than $10.<br />
<br />
There was a secure charging station (Verizon I believe) last year, but these tended to be full. Con smarter, bring a charger.<br />
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
Don't Be a Dick</span></h2>
<div>
It's all about respect. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Respect the space you're in. Respect the cosplayers. Respect the event staff. Respect the people standing/seated next to you. Respect the people staying in the room next you. Respect the place where you're staying. Respect the fact you're privileged enough to attend Blizzcon.<br />
<br />
Four years of conventions, and four years of witnessing some pretty dismal behavior by some attendees, from intoxication leading to arrest, to sexual harassment. People disrespecting the environment around then, showing the self-control of an impulsive child free of the supervision of their parents for the first time in their lives.<br />
<br />
Don't be a dick.<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-26231298286301447692016-04-01T10:44:00.000-05:002016-04-01T10:44:15.297-05:00WoW Weekly: Break Time!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/search/label/weekly" style="color: #64a6c0; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">WoW Weekly</a> is a biweekly-ish, self-absorbed look into the things I've been doing -- or not doing -- in the game. From auctioneering and pet battling to mount farming and raiding.</i><br />
<br />
Well, it's finally happened. Made it official by posting on the guild forums: I'll be taking a break from the game until the spark reignites. Well, not the <i>entire</i> game, just the only activity I was actively engaged in outside of garrison chores and weekly Ulduar runs: raiding.<br />
<br />
Last week I decided to sit out for our Heroic/Alt raid just to see how it <i>felt</i> to not raid when no obligations were keeping me from doing so. When raid time rolled around, I felt that familiar tinge---part routine and part desire, unsure of each's weight in the equation---but it didn't last long. There was a small feeling of being left out, but I quickly squashed that, as this choice was mine.<br />
<br />
I've been involved in organized guild raids, whether as leader, planner, or assistant, since the summer of 2013 without taking a break. Even on a 1-night schedule, much time was spent planning, leading and organizing while helping to maintain a guild. It was honestly a <i>lot </i>of fun, but also demanded quite a bit of my time. Now three years later, the raid is an undeniable success and the guild seems a well-oiled machine. Given that, I've been to pay a little more attention to the feeling of burn-out.<br />
<br />
Last fall's life change offered some new perspective as well. When you've got a great deal of the future planned out in your mind's eye and suddenly the RESET button gets hit, it tends to make one pause. I'm grateful to have had my guildies' support during the time, and the option to continue part of the routine I'd known for so long. I'm still working out how much I want my hobbies, like music and gaming, to fit into this uncharted expanse ahead of me. Stepping away, in light of the above, seems the wisest thing to do at this point.<br />
<br />
And if it were only the two things I've listed above, I might stick around a bit longer. But there is a third prong: Warlords of Draenor's lack of appeal to me. I won't even waste the time to go through what I liked and didn't like. The fact is, I <i>wanted </i>to enjoy this game as much as I've enjoyed all of the previous expansions. But I didn't, and nothing's going to change that at this point. My hope is that what drew me to and kept me in Azeroth isn't completely lost. I <i>want </i>to like Legion, too. I'll remain cautiously optimistic for the time being.<br />
<br />
<b>Ulduar Runs Continue</b><br />
My squad of four characters have already been through Ulduar this week and are currently resting until next week's adventure. One byproduct of next week's run will be the acquisition of the legendary mace on my priest, the second character overall to complete the chain.<br />
<br />
<b>Gold Collecting</b><br />
This week's tally saw me eclipsing 700,000g. <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2016/03/wow-weekly-keeping-flame-alive.html" target="_blank">Exactly two weeks ago</a> I reported that I'd eclipsed 600,000g, meaning I've averaged 50,000g per week since then. Again, this is accomplished without stepping foot outside of my garrison. I'm confident I'll see the gold cap well before Legion's launch.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Cheating on WoW</b><br />
I <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2016/03/gaming-affairs-darkest-dungeon.html" target="_blank">dove into the Darkest Dungeon</a> for a while, but the repetition and brutal challenges in that game have led me to put it aside for a while in favor of an MMO I first checked out a few years ago: The Secret World. Look for a Gaming Affairs post on that title soon!<br />
<br />
<br />onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-50701783139730593332016-03-18T10:48:00.000-05:002016-03-18T10:51:17.899-05:00WoW Weekly: Keeping the Flame Alive<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/search/label/weekly" style="color: #64a6c0; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">WoW Weekly</a> is a biweekly-ish, self-absorbed look into the things I've been doing -- or not doing -- in the game. From auctioneering and pet battling to mount farming and raiding.</i><br />
<br />
Here we are again.<br />
<br />
It's starting to look like Siege of Orgrimmar two-point-oh, sitting on nine months of no new content with nary a Legion release date in sight. Our guild has had Heroic Archimonde on farm since the middle of December, and I'd exhausted all content that personally interested me well before then. I'm not saying there's <i>nothing to do. </i>I'm saying that the options currently available to me don't appeal.<br />
<br />
To be honest, I really didn't mind the Siege of Orgrimmar lull. At the time, our guild was in the end stages of a rebuild, and I was happy to use the time to continue recruitment while leveling alts and knocking out old achievements. I spent a <i>lot</i> of time on the Timeless Isle during those months.<br />
<br />
I'm having a hard go at biding the time, this time around, for whatever reason. I've settled into the bi-daily routine of collecting garrison gold, but I wouldn't call it "fun." It's nice to not have to worry about paying for a subscription, but if I think about how the minutes spent in-game translate to real dollars...yeah, let's not go there.<br />
<br />
But then, there's raid night. Where my temporary aversion to this game disappears, and I'm surrounded by a couple dozen of the raddest folks I've ever played with. Good guildies. Keeping the flame alive.<br />
<br />
Ok, enough whining from me. Let's talk things just generally me:<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Mythic Hellfire Citadel</b><br />
The guild group made some serious progress on the Council fight last night. We're handling the earlier stage Reaps much better than we did on our first foray. Phase 3 came relatively consistently, but we've still got a test ahead of us.<br />
<br />
<b>Ironman</b><br />
I've done a little bit of leveling with the monk over on Wyrmrest Accord; had a brush with death when a named mob I had to kill for a quest gave me a surprising amount of trouble. A couple more strikes would've seen <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-adventures-of.html" target="_blank">Flasz joining his brother Glasz</a> in the Annals of Failed Adventurers.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Gold Making</b><br />
I've established a <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2016/02/garrison-gold-making-until-legion.html" target="_blank">fairly consistent pattern of logging in twice per day</a> to knock out garrison missions, once in the morning and once in the evening. Between profession sales and gold collection, I've just eclipsed 600,000g. As a point of reference, on January 27th of this year I was sitting on just over 300,000g. This means I'm more than keeping up with the average of 100,000g per month---and that's <i>after </i>I've paid for a WoW Token!<br />
<br />
<b>Podcast</b><br />
Ooh! Yours truly was featured on <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2016/03/find-me-on-pod.html" target="_blank">The Starting Zone podcast's #WhyIWoW segment</a>. We chat about what got me playing, what keeps me (hint: I already told you in this post), and a myriad of other topics.<br />
<br />
<b>Zarhym</b><br />
One of Blizzard's veteran community managers recently announced he was no longer with Blizzard. A sad day. I met the guy once, and <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2016/03/dear-zarhym.html" target="_blank">wanted to share some words</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>Darkest Dungeon</b><br />
In the WoD lull I'm currently going through, I've revisited my Steam library and pulled out the Darkest Dungeon. If you don't know what that game's all about, <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2016/03/gaming-affairs-darkest-dungeon.html" target="_blank">check out my first impressions</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-43133133325517657992016-03-15T17:45:00.000-05:002016-03-16T09:52:27.948-05:00Gaming Affairs: The Darkest Dungeon<i><a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/search/label/gaming%20affairs" target="_blank">Gaming Affairs</a> happen when Blizzard titles just aren't holding my interest for whatever reason, yet I need to satisfy that gaming itch. In this series, I'll talk about games I play outside of the Blizzard universe.</i><br />
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<h2 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">In Time, You Will Know the Tragic Extent of My Failings...</span></b></h2>
<br />
The Darkest Dungeon by Red Hook Studios is a side-scrolling, dungeon-crawling RPG that has me absolutely encapsulated at the moment. Though I've only spent about eleven hours adventuring, the impression it's left on me has been significant enough that I am abandoning protocol and writing about a non-Blizzard game in this space for the first time since this blog's inception five years ago.<br />
<br />
This isn't your typical dungeon crawler, though it has many of the standard elements: terrifying foes to battle against, a variety of items and trinkets to use on your characters, currency used to upgrade/augment characters, and a progression system. However, this isn't a hack-and-slash game; combat is turn-based, and feels surprisingly fluid---well, as fluid as turn-based combat can be. I think this is due to the variety of classes in the game in addition to the gritty-cartoony art style.<br />
<br />
The core element of the game involves building a party of four characters and sending them into various dungeons in search of gold and family heirlooms---the former used to purchase mission supplies and rest your characters, the latter used to upgrade various buildings/areas around the Hamlet, your base of operations when not in a dungeon. The game informs you right off that your outlook is bleak, which sets a curiously dark and humorous tone. Many of your characters will most definitely perish, you're told, and death is permanent. But, like in Warcraft, it's only a setback.<br />
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<br />
<h2>
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Experiencing the Characters</span></b></h2>
<br />
What really made the experience feel unique was the Darkest Dungeon's approach to characters. Characters are recruited without cost at the Stagecoach, which is one of several areas/buildings in the Hamlet. There are <i>fifteen </i>different classes who can show up at the Stagecoach, with new characters arriving each week (note: weeks in game are measured by mission; i.e. once you embark on a mission, on your return the game will denote a week has passed). I haven't been able to get a full reading on class types, but it seems standard RPG fare: there are tanks, damage-dealers, support/buff classes and healers, though there's quite a bit of nuance given there's 15 classes spanning the four categories I've listed.<br />
<br />
Each character, in addition to their base stats and abilities, has the chance to carry unique "Quirks," which are essentially attributes that can have either positive or negative effects. For instance, a character could feature a 15% damage increase to human enemies as a positive quirk; a negative quirk might see a character's attack speed diminished for the first round of combat. There looks to be over 100 different Quirks, so the possibility for combinations is numerous. Over time, the characters will acquire additional positive and negative Quirks (or replace ones they previously had) based on how well or poorly they perform in dungeons.<br />
<br />
Another character element I found interesting has to do with one of the game's mechanics: Stress Level. In addition to managing your characters' health, you must also manage your character's stress levels. A character's stress is affected by all sorts of things: the simple fact of <i>being </i>in a dungeon, the amount of light in a dungeon, stepping on a trap, interacting improperly with "Curios" (special items) in the dungeon, taking a critical hit, and so on.<br />
<br />
The stress bar starts at 0 and goes up to 200. If a character's stress bar reaches 100, their resolve is tested and they will either gain an affliction (debuff) or become virtuous (buff). Afflictions are interesting as they can cause your character to harm themselves, eschew heals from other party members, or outright refuse your orders. This, as you can imagine, can be detrimental to the party's success. I found myself cursing certain characters when they let stress get the best of them---even if partly my fault---and cheering those who persevered and became virtuous in the face of strong adversity.<br />
<br />
What happens when a character's stress level maxes out? We'll find out.<br />
<br />
Each character class also has a distinct personality which reveals itself through fully voiced chat when traversing the dungeon. It is pretty hilarious listening to your characters having a complete meltdown in the middle of a dungeon run.<br />
<br />
All that said, the characters really bring this game to life: not only are you fighting against the monsters in the dungeons, you're also fighting against the sanity of your own characters. They end up feeling more <i>real.</i> This opens up an avenue for complex decision-making, and as a result there is a feeling of loss when a character dies---even if it's promised to be a relatively regular occurrence. We're so used to playing RPG's where the character's own thoughts, feelings, and motivations are assumed to be unflawed. The Darkest Dungeon turns that idea on its head, and as a result brings a peculiar amount of humanity to its characters.<br />
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<br />
<h2>
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Once Again, You Will Die</span></b></h2>
<br />
Part of me scoffed a bit when the gamed warned me at the outset that I should expect to lose characters. I thought to myself, yeah, the game is probably tuned to be challenging but if I play ultra-conservatively I should be able to make it through unscathed.<br />
<br />
Nope. It's probably a challenge every player issues themselves at the onset, and I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's <i>highly improbable </i>you will finish this game without experiencing loss.<br />
<br />
Screw it, it's impossible.<br />
<br />
The first character I lost was a ranged damage-dealer. She took a couple of nasty crits which not only left her health at dangerously low levels, but it sent her stress over 100. Her resolve failed and she gained the Masochistic affliction, causing her to chip away at <i>her own </i>health points in addition to a handful of other actions that put the party in jeopardy. She soon found herself on Death's Door, which is the game state where the character is essentially one more hit away from death. Due to the turn-based nature of combat I was unable to toss her a heal before she was targeted by the enemy, and she fell.<br />
<br />
Thankfully, the other three party members survived and were able to abandon the quest and flee the dungeon without further loss.<br />
<br />
The next time I lost a character, the impact was much greater. With a group of my four most seasoned adventurers, I stumbled upon a certain monster that will wreak havoc on your party if you're unprepared---though I didn't know this at the time. I watched in absolute horror as my party became overwhelmed. Hit points dwindled and stress levels shot through the roof.<br />
<br />
Suddenly, one of my characters died...from a heart attack. The sheer terror of the encounter maxed their stress level and their body couldn't take it anymore. They keeled right over. A bit amused at what just went down, I nonetheless thought it a good time to make a retreat, which is a command available to players engaged in battle.<br />
<br />
Except, sometimes in the Darkest Dungeon as in life, retreating doesn't work. Instead of watching my characters flee to safety, I watched helplessly as the retreat failed and two more party members succumbed to heart attacks, while the third was finished off by the monster's attacks.<br />
<br />
The entire party of my most seasoned adventurers was dead. And with them all of the gold and items they looted, all of the trinkets I'd equipped them with before sending them into battle, were lost.<br />
<br />
That hurt.<br />
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<br />
<h2>
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Two Sides to the Coin - The Hamlet</span></b></h2>
<br />
Dungeoneering is really half the game---well, more than half, as you'll spend a majority of time in dungeons, but a key component to being successful in said dungeons is the prep phase. The entirety of the prep phase takes place in the Hamlet before a mission.<br />
<br />
The Hamlet features a variety of buildings/areas that serve to help you on your quest to finish the game. The Stagecoach, which I mentioned above, serves as the place where you recruit new characters, increase your overall roster size, and increase the base level of recruited characters (as they initially start at level 0). Both the Abbey and the Tavern are buildings where you can send your characters to relieve stress and be cured of Afflictions they may have acquired during a mission.<br />
<br />
But true to the game's nature, even these simple activities don't always go as planned. For instance, several times after sending a character to the Tavern for a night of drinking they decided to tie one on<i> </i>and refused to leave the bar. Meaning they were unavailable for the next mission.<br />
<br />
In another hilarious turn of events, I sent a character to the Tavern for a visit to the brothel where he contracted syphilis, which ended up giving him a negative Quirk that adversely affected combat prowess.<br />
<br />
The Sanitarium is where you can remove negative Quirks or lock in positive Quirks; however, this costs a significant amount of gold, and seems like an element that's best left alone until the later stages of the game where you're being more strategic about party composition and engaging in more difficult dungeon runs.<br />
<br />
There are also a couple of buildings where you can upgrade your various characters' skills, as well as upgrade their armor and weapons. <br />
<br />
<h2>
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Progression</span></b></h2>
<br />
This game is designed to be a slog. It is supposed to take you a while to master. After the 11 hours I've spent, I have yet to embark on a 2nd-tier mission, opting instead to play it safe by leveling up characters on 1st-tier missions.<br />
<br />
As mentioned above, characters start at level zero and can reach up to Level 6. I'm assuming you'll need a full party of Level 6 characters in order to tackle the game's most difficult challenges. I decided to level up a core set of characters to 3, then send them in to obliterate the 1st-tier missions in an effort to stock up on heirlooms and gold. Problem was, when it was time to embark, all of my Level 3 characters <i>refused the order. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
I scoffed once again. Apparently, the low-level quests were beneath their experience. My own characters weren't listening to me. In truth, it's a neat mechanic that prevents a player from essentially gaming the system. Without it, one could simply re-run early missions until they had max-level characters, and then smash through the rest of the game with relative ease.<br />
<br />
Based on my experience thus far, I can only imagine the completion of this game will take several dozens of hours. And I'm cool with that.<br />
<br />
<h2>
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Conclusion</span></b></h2>
<b><br /></b>
The Darkest Dungeon on its surface may look like your typical turn-based dungeon crawler, but I'd argue it's the development of the characters and the randomness within that set this game apart. Fortune and Despair can strike at a moment's notice and without warning, just like in life. It laughs at the notion that "heroes always win." Heroes don't always win, and there often needs to be sacrifice before triumph. The Darkest Dungeon brings that home, and then some.<br />
<br />
<b>My Recommendation</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
If you hate turn-based combat, you're probably not going to like the Darkest Dungeon. I'm lukewarm on turn-based games, and while things definitely do get repetitive and can seem slow at times, the unpredictability in how the characters might react to any given situation breathes life into this game. I won't say this is a must-have, though you'll probably enjoy it if turn-based is your thing. At minimum, I'd toss it onto your Steam wishlist and wait for that $25 price tag to drop. Definitely worth the $10 I paid for it.<br />
<br />
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<i><br /></i>onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-27654773454446661352016-03-11T11:40:00.000-06:002016-03-11T11:55:47.502-06:00Dear Zarhym<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPVcVfC96Yqw_N9xXYWwnD8OfQ_3vdMFHPzdE35b-kKUwfx4WsprhMhf-Pmm7jfP809vLGb7ZSiWb8qleDVkHc84KBYJDBghka0URki_LQvJMpSpf6LxMPmd95Gn6MwMLOboOuUKU3QLw-/s1600/photo+%25284%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPVcVfC96Yqw_N9xXYWwnD8OfQ_3vdMFHPzdE35b-kKUwfx4WsprhMhf-Pmm7jfP809vLGb7ZSiWb8qleDVkHc84KBYJDBghka0URki_LQvJMpSpf6LxMPmd95Gn6MwMLOboOuUKU3QLw-/s640/photo+%25284%2529.JPG" width="500" /></a></div>
<br />
We had a bit of connection, you and me. You may not have felt it, but I did. You and I, we're around the same age. Some people <a href="https://twitter.com/SpaceBard/status/329655656179191810" target="_blank">think we look alike</a>. Our love of Warcraft is a given, but we also share another passion: percussion. Because of these things, I felt I could relate to you a bit deeper.<br />
<br />
I remember the first time I met you (proof is in the header image). It was during the evening on Thursday, November 7th, 2013. You were chatting with some folks outside of the Hilton in Anaheim on the night before Blizzcon, and my friend pointed you out. By then, I knew who you were and had a basic understanding of your role at Blizzard. My goal was to talk to as many employees as I could, so I headed over.<br />
<br />
I addressed you by your full name---not your CM handle---and you repeated it back to me like you hadn't heard it awhile. Made me chuckle. I gave you one of my business cards that pointed towards this site. Maybe you trashed that card at the end of the night, or maybe you held onto it and peeped this blog once. Either way, I don't care---the fact you made yourself so present and available to the playerbase night after night, con after con, forum post after forum post, made a huge impact.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNRmQcW9z_nNHDXcvZ58PEiKLesdBeD90xBrjZnLkqapHmz1xk11t2NnNfMYlPjsbzHUYz2BuacC3_4Q9nrsfAIGgq5O41pSGz8RABsybphBZwwKaVpCKRwSGHbqN9pC39yEmD8yHDbInU/s1600/blogger-image-538267857.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNRmQcW9z_nNHDXcvZ58PEiKLesdBeD90xBrjZnLkqapHmz1xk11t2NnNfMYlPjsbzHUYz2BuacC3_4Q9nrsfAIGgq5O41pSGz8RABsybphBZwwKaVpCKRwSGHbqN9pC39yEmD8yHDbInU/s320/blogger-image-538267857.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zarhym touches my business card. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
You will be dearly missed.<br />
<br />
You were engaging, witty, and passionate. As players, we could see it and feel it. I can't imagine work as a CM being easy: always on-call, late hours, all while bearing the brunt of perhaps less-than-cordial feedback from an equally...<i>passionate</i>...group of players. In my opinion, you set the standard. A man with your talents, brain-power and experience should have nothing but a bright, promising future ahead of him.<br />
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<br /></div>
<div>
Best of luck to you, <a href="https://twitter.com/talkingcongas" target="_blank">Jonathan Brown</a>.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-56484809878130740752016-03-11T10:47:00.001-06:002016-03-11T10:47:33.434-06:00Find Me on a Pod!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkkC8FFHbRnvaYgxK5_ZQ9ZaPO-tg_hE7iD1-PAz9gG6oHb1Sm9d4PK5dhA2r5kgKydbFvuzySK3qzEwm_ULMaF3GCZl32Qp4eRU_x1fCnRkujIbmnH0noGzA3gdPEBP2WbLzXB5YbnM6r/s1600/TSZ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkkC8FFHbRnvaYgxK5_ZQ9ZaPO-tg_hE7iD1-PAz9gG6oHb1Sm9d4PK5dhA2r5kgKydbFvuzySK3qzEwm_ULMaF3GCZl32Qp4eRU_x1fCnRkujIbmnH0noGzA3gdPEBP2WbLzXB5YbnM6r/s640/TSZ.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">img: <a href="http://thestartingzone.spazbotstudios.com/612-2/" target="_blank">The Starting Zone</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Earlier this year in the middle of January, I sat down to have a talk with <a href="https://twitter.com/AlternativeChat" target="_blank">@AlternativeChat</a> for <a href="http://thestartingzone.spazbotstudios.com/612-2/" target="_blank">The Starting Zone podcast's recurring series entitled #WhyIWoW</a>. This was the week of David Bowie's death as well as the week Diablo Season 5 launched---you'll here a couple of dated references to both events.<br />
<br />
We covered a variety of topics, including how I first got into WoW, the aspects of the game that appeal most to me, and why I've stayed with the game consistently for the past ten years. We also chat about my irrational fear of Chris Metzen. Additionally, contrary to what this interview may lead you to believe, I do know that heirlooms =\= artifacts.<br />
<br />
If you aren't familiar with Alternative Chat and her work, <a href="http://www.alternative-blog.net/" target="_blank">start here</a>. She is an absolutely wonderful woman who is extremely prolific and insightful, both in her writings about World of Warcraft and in general. <a href="http://thestartingzone.spazbotstudios.com/" target="_blank">Visit The Starting Zone's website</a> to hear additional episodes, including more player-centric #WhyIWoW segments. The Starting Zone podcast is a joint effort, and you can find the other host/producer, Mick Montgomery, <a href="https://twitter.com/mickmontgomery" target="_blank">on Twitter</a>.<br />
<br />
Thanks for listening!<br />
<br />onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-91785309810981991732016-02-25T15:13:00.000-06:002016-02-25T15:13:49.063-06:00WoW Weekly: You Snooze, You Lose<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW_0m5tj6IF4p6jBtm4Dg8QHz0PGMnFCEovxkwymOV36Clm2h84AqCFNNjLN5lrrNJmd8RXiH3ee5zK53l36NqjtG5c1eHwi_XwQw43yQCzFeEWSzAD1xIFCm2rHqvBLjRL9bSVyWPKETs/s1600/Raiding1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW_0m5tj6IF4p6jBtm4Dg8QHz0PGMnFCEovxkwymOV36Clm2h84AqCFNNjLN5lrrNJmd8RXiH3ee5zK53l36NqjtG5c1eHwi_XwQw43yQCzFeEWSzAD1xIFCm2rHqvBLjRL9bSVyWPKETs/s640/Raiding1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/search/label/weekly" style="color: #64a6c0; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">WoW Weekly</a> is a biweekly-ish, self-absorbed look into the things I've been doing -- or not doing -- in the game. From auctioneering and pet battling to mount farming and raiding.</i><br />
<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></i>
Welcome to yet another edition of WoW Weekly! Happy spring y'all! At least it's looking unseasonably spring where I am right now on the western shore of Lake Michigan. It's driving the itch to get outside, and it would appear I'll have several months to enjoy the weather before Legion pulls me back inside.<br />
<br />
Anyway, I think the big non-Russ news this week has been the revelation that <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/news=251468/legion-alpha-build-21134-data-updates-spell-changes-garrison-gold-nerfs-fel-core" target="_blank">garrison gold missions will be nerfed</a> come Legion, something that very well could happen with the Legion pre-patch. It's not like the 6.2 nerf that limited the amount of gold missions a player could get across characters; according to Alpha data, this change removes the gold reward entirely and instead grants garrison resources.<br />
<br />
If you're not utilizing your garrison for free gold, I won't go so far as to say you're doing it wrong, but I will offer that you're missing a golden opportunity.* By logging in regularly on a <i>single</i> character to do garrison chores, I've been able to pay for my monthly subscription and then some. The thing is, I have four characters with max level garrisons, which means after paying my subscription <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2016/02/garrison-gold-making-until-legion.html" target="_blank">I'm still pulling in roughly 100,000g per month---just by logging in for 15-30 minutes per day.</a><br />
<br />
Anyway. Outside of garrison chores, there are a handful of other things I've been doing since <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2016/01/wow-weekly-biggun.html" target="_blank">the last mega-update</a>:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>After servers came back online yesterday, Tarlna the Ageless, the final boss I needed to kill while wearing a bird hat, claimed a chunk of land in southern Gorgrond just waiting for me and my guildies to come along and put up a fight. <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/achievement=9838/what-a-strange-interdimensional-trip-its-been" target="_blank">Pepe now comes whenever I call</a>. </li>
<li>Our current raid schedule saw us fighting our first Mythic Hellfire boss, and we vanquished Hellfire Assault rather quickly. We were able to make some good progress on Iron Reaver as well, and I anticipate seeing a kill when we head back in this week.</li>
<li>I earned a Level 3 shipyard on my third of four max-level characters solely for the convenience of having the command table inside my garrison.</li>
<li>You know things are quiet when you can find me traipsing around the Timeless Isle for items required to complete <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/achievement=8728" target="_blank">Going to Need a Bigger Bag</a>. I've collected roughly 75% of the items to date.</li>
<li>Yogg-Saron kills continue each week across four characters using <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2015/05/legacy-raid-mount-farming-clear-once.html" target="_blank">this neat lockout-sharing trick</a>. I am too scared to tally up the total number of attempts I've made thus far. </li>
<li>I haven't been running much <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-adventures-of.html" target="_blank">on my Ironman character</a>---thanks, Overwatch---but I did manage to push him into the 20s so he can now legally enjoy the benefits of a ground mount. </li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">*Yeah, I went there.</span></div>
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onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-73413780182764369492016-02-24T15:51:00.002-06:002016-02-24T15:51:28.172-06:00Garrison Gold-Making Until Legion<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeKfTxFoPlzbRl5HGWKwPgPURWyz-yuvZ_cEn_dX80M8E4M5uiPleffI0dYNZ6r_VuetwAXfUyZcsus_EI2bR5BNc8LGSuLajzOvT9-Pg6Va4iLSPgfNyH-zDN5g1yfOnAxN97I5ZeTOK0/s1600/WoWScrnShot_011615_112254.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeKfTxFoPlzbRl5HGWKwPgPURWyz-yuvZ_cEn_dX80M8E4M5uiPleffI0dYNZ6r_VuetwAXfUyZcsus_EI2bR5BNc8LGSuLajzOvT9-Pg6Va4iLSPgfNyH-zDN5g1yfOnAxN97I5ZeTOK0/s640/WoWScrnShot_011615_112254.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
With the news that <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/news=251468/legion-alpha-build-21134-data-updates-spell-changes-garrison-gold-nerfs-fel-core" target="_blank">garrison gold missions will be nerfed</a> at some point in the nearish future, and given that I haven't been logging in to do much besides garrison chores, I thought it'd be a good time to break down the steps I'm currently taking in order to pull in roughly 100,000g each month.<br />
<br />
The setup I'll outline below isn't perfect, but it works for me. I'm sure there are opportunities I'm overlooking, but the goal here is to put in a little bit of effort for a lot in return. If you've got ideas or tweaks I could employ to make this method more efficient, please leave a comment below!<br />
<br />
<h2>
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Standard Setup - 4 Characters</span></b></h2>
<b>Level 3 Garrison</b> with an emphasis recruiting followers with Treasure Hunter (increased gold rewards) and Scavenger (increased garrison resources). I have at least six followers with Treasure Hunter on each character, and nearly that many with Scavenger.<br />
<br />
<b>Level 3 Shipyard</b> with a good cross-section of ships to counter threats.<br />
<br />
<b>Level 3 Salvage Yard</b> for <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=114120/big-crate-of-salvage#comments" target="_blank">Big Crates of Salvage</a> off of garrison missions. Logging in every day should provide you with roughly two-dozen crates per character per week.<br />
<br />
<b>Level 3 Profession Building</b> to acquire profession materials used to make goods to sell on the auction house.<br />
<br />
<b>Trading Post</b> to exchange garrison resources for profession materials.<br />
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
Garrison Mission Priorities</span></h2>
Based on the setup I'm using, there are certain missions I give priority to when gold missions aren't available---something that will happen if you're regularly completing gold missions across multiple characters.<br />
<br />
<b>Exceptional Items</b> - like <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=128315/medallion-of-the-legion" target="_blank">Medallion of the Legion</a>, <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=128314/frozen-arms-of-a-hero" target="_blank">Frozen Arms of a Hero</a>, <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=128312/elixir-of-the-rapid-mind" target="_blank">Elixir of the Rapid Mind</a>, <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=128311/coalfist-gronnling" target="_blank">the gronnling mount</a>, and <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=127748/cinder-pup" target="_blank">the fire corgi</a>; these are all things that can be sold to other players for a hefty chunk of gold. I actually make several of these priority when they pop, like the Medallion, mount and elixir, since each holds the potential to fetch several thousand gold on the auction house.<br />
<br />
<b>Garrison Resources</b> - nice to have an abundance of these at all times, whether for building/augmenting ships or purchasing profession resources from the trading post. Having a good chunk of followers with Scavenger should ensure you always have a surplus of resources for when you need them.<br />
<br />
<b>Apexis Crystals/Oil </b>- I have these at the same tier because really, your need for these may vary. Having an oil rig on your shipyard will negate the need to collect oil from garrison missions. I will generally go for Apexis Crystals as my third priority because I use them to buy the 3 bonus roll seals each week for use in Hellfire Citadel. Of course, these seals can also be purchased with Honor and garrison resources, but for the love of Azeroth do not buy them with gold!<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Level 100 Missions </b>- once you've exhausted the above, remaining Level 100 missions that grant XP (or follower upgrades) are priority since they have the greatest chance of rewarding a Big Crate of Salvage.<br />
<br />
<b>Follower Upgrades </b>- If you've been running your garrison for a while, most if not all of your followers should be maxed at ilvl 675. Still, these items can be liquidated for gold. Since making gold is the whole point of this exercise, and you'll also be getting a number of follower items from your salvage crates, they deserve their place here as a source of gold.<br />
<br />
<b>Everything Else </b>- clearing out a mission makes room for another, so even if it means sending an ilvl 675 follower on a level 91 mission, do it. Keep all of your followers busy to maintain a steady flow of new missions.<br />
<h2>
<br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">Shipyard Mission Priorities</span></h2>
<b>Gold-Increasing Missions </b>- these are different than the treasure missions rewarding gold and are indicated by the little star icon on your map: they offer a specific bonus to missions completed in that area within a certain time frame. One of these bonuses increases gold rewards by 100%. Knock these out first and pray a gold treasure missions pops up in that area.<br />
<br />
<b>Other Treasure Missions</b> - Complete these to make room for new treasure missions to spawn---hopefully ones rewarding gold.<br />
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
Salvage Yard</span></h2>
If you're knocking out missions daily, you'll acquire roughly two-dozen salvage crates per week on each character, more or less depending on the kindness of RNG. There are lots of valuable goodies in them, including old/current gear, profession mats, and follower upgrades. Each of these can be sold, or at least used to make more gold. I generally vendor all old-worlds gear that doesn't have a transmog value (hint: use <a href="https://www.tradeskillmaster.com/" target="_blank">TradeSkillMaster</a> to easily determine this) and disenchant any Warlords gear. Given the price of enchanting materials on my server and the abundance of garrison resources, it's probably wiser for me at this point to start vendoring <i>all</i> gear. Profession mats get used to make stuff and follower upgrades get vendored. Depending on your take, it's possible to acquire several thousand gold or more per week per character via the Salvage Yard alone.<br />
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">
Professions</span></h2>
<div>
How you can utilize your characters' professions to make gold partly hinges on the health of your server's economy. Being on a server with a larger population has allowed me to continue selling Stage 1 profession items on weekly basis up to the present day. Additionally, bags, enchants, potions and flasks have been consistent sellers on my server. There may be a time, as I'm sure there are current examples, where it's more profitable to sell raw mats instead of crafted goods. That's up to you to determine based on your server. Personally, I pull in about 5-10k per week off of profession items I crafted using mats I purchased with garrison resources. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The key is, you should be getting all of your profession items for free via spending garrison resources at the Trading Post. Of course, wait until the post is visited by the garrison trader who offers your desired item at the lowest cost, which is 4 garrison resources per item. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
There's probably some argument for continuing to utilize max level mines and gardens, but based on the rate I acquire garrison resources which I use to buy flowers and stone, I've decided it simply isn't worth my time. </div>
<br />
<h2>
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Banker</span></b></h2>
This is a bit of a goldmaking 101 tip, but I always recommend having a character posted in an auction house who will act as your banker. Not only does this guy hold all of my gold, but he also gets mailed and posts every sellable item to the auction house. Mainly, this has been crafted items and transmoggables. Though having a designated bank character doesn't make you gold directly, as you could post to the auction house with any character, it does save you time. And you know what the goblins say!<br />
<br />
<h2>
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Don't Spend</span></b></h2>
<div>
I'm going to close this with the no-shit tip: try not to actually <i>spend</i> any gold as you're going through this exercise. Granted, spend your own gold how you see fit, but if you'd rather see your bottom line climb as quickly possible, you're going to want to practice pinching copper. At this stage in the expansion, there isn't a whole lot for your character to spend on anyway.</div>
<div>
<br />
In utilizing this method, I've been able to pay for my WoW subscription each month while netting upwards of 100,000g in profit---without leaving the garrison.</div>
<br />
What are you doing the make gold during the downtime between expansions?<br />
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<br />onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-44674995410834030592016-02-03T09:47:00.002-06:002016-02-03T09:56:38.788-06:00Don't Be These Players: A Self-Centered Player and an Ineffective Leader<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXxE2HLKKNAz1emM8YyzA-4IUVPULHTZTMjkC3nuHSaIrQyKqcddMtmo8nNTN0zoDNUTAwKvkl3pvvQJq1FM-0dNfA9gQeLAlrVngrVE3Wl1juS8Ml-Chzg-ygG7qg9Z_RVeb1lYz9cdYA/s1600/tumblr_ni026fzw9w1u3h6u7o1_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXxE2HLKKNAz1emM8YyzA-4IUVPULHTZTMjkC3nuHSaIrQyKqcddMtmo8nNTN0zoDNUTAwKvkl3pvvQJq1FM-0dNfA9gQeLAlrVngrVE3Wl1juS8Ml-Chzg-ygG7qg9Z_RVeb1lYz9cdYA/s640/tumblr_ni026fzw9w1u3h6u7o1_1280.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">img via <a href="http://screenshotsofdraenor.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Hestiah</a></td></tr>
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<i>Many of us have been That Player at one time or another. From toxic players, oblivious raiders, elitist jerks and beyond, </i><i><a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/search/label/DBTP" target="_blank">Don't Be That Player</a> is a series that looks at different scenarios we've all encountered, and how they might be approached differently. </i><br />
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Today's DBTP involves a personal anecdote which will hopefully serve dual purposes: to grant perspective to both guild leadership and players where ideologies will sometimes clash.<br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Two Players Collide</span></h2>
The guild raid group I ran was working through the final tier of the expansion. On a particular raid night, we found ourselves one player shy of the number we needed to fill a 10-player group. Reluctantly, I turned on Trade Chat and issued our plea. A reply came back from a hunter---we'll call him Ryan. I asked for his ilvl, and it turned out to be quite a bit lower than what we were looking for.<br />
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"How am I supposed to hit that ilvl if I can't even get into the raid?" Ryan shot back.<br />
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<i>Fair point, I suppose. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
I invited Ryan to the group and the night went well. Soon after, he moved his hunter into the guild. A few weeks later, our off-tank left the raid group due to a scheduling conflict. Ryan immediately mentioned his warrior tank, expressing confidence he could fill the role. But shortly after he assumed the tank role, he violated our guild's code of conduct via some unsavory exchanges he had with other players on the official forums. It's something all players pledge to refrain from when they fill out our application.<br />
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OK. First instance, no big deal. All players who apply to the guild must indicate they've read our code of conduct, but mistakes happen. By this time I'd gotten to know Ryan fairly well. We chatted over Bnet on a near-daily basis. But soon after receiving mild admonishment for his forum conduct, his conversational tone shifted and tended to center on his personal dissatisfaction over certain players in our raid. I had the tricky job, as raid leader, to hear out his concerns while reminding him exactly what sort of guild we were. The fact was, things were running smoothly and weren't going to change.<br />
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Raid nights went well, and his complaints continued. For months. Too many months.<br />
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Then, thoughts he shared with me regarding the raid environment manifested into action. We were approaching the fifth boss in the raid one night just an hour into our three hours of allotted time. Ryan was paired up with a back-up tank, as our other regular tank was absence that night. A DPS in the group accidentally pulled some trash and I got a whisper from Ryan along the lines of, <i>Ok, I'm done with tonight. Replace me. </i>I asked him to confirm that he was leaving a scheduled raid early because he was angry about a mis-pull. He left.<br />
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In hindsight, it was at this point where we should've parted ways with Ryan. A truly honest look at our circumstances would've plainly illustrated that our guild wasn't a good fit for him, and he wasn't a good fit for us---even if we was a great player and solid tank.<br />
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It was also around this time Ryan began to hint that his presence in our raid was anything but guaranteed. He simply wouldn't show if he didn't feel like it. He threatened to leave altogether. He claimed that if and when he left, other unsatisfied players would leave too. At this point, I didn't care; I was sick of the games.<br />
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The last straw came not too long after. The topic of the forum post he authored doesn't matter, though it was sure to be a hot-button issue. Soon enough, responses filtered in and Ryan responded to some of his favorite replies, once again in a disrespectful tone we don't want to see from our members.<br />
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After he made a couple of personal attacks towards other players in the thread, another player from our realm posted the following quotation...taken directly from <a href="http://edsapereaude.enjin.com/forum/m/1050452/viewthread/3745308-general-expectations-for-all-members-sapere-aude" target="_blank">the Member Expectations thread on our guild website</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Public Channels</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>We can't tell you how to play, but know that you are representing us when you are out and about. We want to be seen as a positive light on this server. The last thing we want to hear from a fellow player is that they were being harassed by a member of our guild, or something similar.</i></blockquote>
</blockquote>
Ryan's response to that player? That he's aware of our rules, but he couldn't give two shits about them. I knew that meant the end for him.<br />
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"Grats on that forum post! The GM is removing your toons as I write this," I whispered to him while our GM removed his characters.</div>
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"You're joking."<br />
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I wasn't.<br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Two Parties At Fault</span></h2>
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There's a lot going on in this one. On the one hand, you have a player who disregards the fact that he's joined up with a guild that has clear expectations and intentions for its members. A player who has his own ideas about how things should look and run and isn't afraid to voice and act on them---sometimes in destructive ways. </div>
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On the other hand, you have me, a raid leader and guild officer who is seemingly lacking a spine when dealing with a player who, although a friend, is clearly not meeting guild expectations, and in some cases seems to be actively working against them while making raid admin life a living hell.</div>
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Don't be either of these players. </div>
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<h3>
The Self-Centered Player</h3>
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If you're joining up with a guild for any reason, it's up to you to decide if the environment is a good fit. Hopefully you've done a bit of research prior to jumping in. Even then, the player likely won't know whether the guild's a good fit until they join, and only then after spending some time with their fellow players. </div>
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Clearly, Ryan had issues with some of our members, with the way the raid was being run, and with some basic tenets the guild had in place. And I understand the latter, to a degree: we expect a bit more than the norm from our players. We expect that our members treat <i>all players </i>with respect. We strictly prohibit any "-ist" speech. We encourage PvP, but forbid camping (save in certain <i>eye for an eye </i>situations). Essentially, conduct by any member wearing our banner should reflect the guild in a positive light. </div>
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The reality is, these are things our guild clearly outlines during the application process. In fact, that's the point of our application process: that the player gains a clear understanding of what we're all about so they can determine whether or not what we offer is something they'd even want to be a part of. If Ryan was honest with himself, he would have admitted early on that the guild wasn't a good fit for him. But he wanted something from us: a stable raid environment.<br />
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If you find yourself in this position as a player, you've got to be honest with yourself and do the mature thing: leave. </div>
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In Ryan's case, when the guild atmosphere and raid environment weren't to his liking, instead of walking away he tried to <i>change</i> things, which caused a lot of headaches for myself and my fellow officers. More headaches than I should have ever allowed. When all was said and done, two raiders---in-game acquaintances he'd introduced to the guild---left after his removal in a move of solidarity.<br />
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They rejoined us two weeks later. </div>
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<h3>
<b>The Ineffective Leader</b></h3>
<b><br /></b>
Then, there's me.<br />
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There were probably a half dozen times during Ryan's tenure with the guild where I found myself typing up a post in the officer forums seeped with frustration over his attitude towards the guild, the raid, and what we believed in. It wore on me to the point where one night I found myself drafting a post informing my fellow officers that I'd be stepping down from leading raids.<br />
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Thankfully, halfway through that exercise I realized how asinine the prospect was. This was my raid, and a successful one at that. Yet for whatever reason Ryan was able to get under my skin, and made me forget my ultimate obligation as a raid leader: to maintain the strength and health of the team. And how am I supposed to focus on that if I dread each raid night because of what I fear I'll hear from a vocal minority the next morning?<br />
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I failed miserably. In the role of raid leader, as in life, you can't please everyone on the team all of the time. However, you can ensure the overall health of your team. And I was allowing Ryan to taint my view of things despite what I knew to be true.<br />
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As a raid leader or guild officer, you need to be prepared to make the tough decisions. And in my case, it shouldn't have been difficult: we had written expectations for all of our members, expectations Ryan demonstrated time and time again he cared nothing for. This alone should've made the job of his removal from the guild quite easy.<br />
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I didn't give him more chances because he was a tank in our raid---it was because I considered him a friend and allowed him more lenience because of that. You cannot play favorites like I did. The rules the guild has in place must apply to everyone in order for them to have any air of effectiveness. Otherwise, there's no point in having them at all. </div>
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onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524333278511288129.post-49256791414943534222016-01-27T14:13:00.000-06:002016-01-28T09:54:45.986-06:00WoW Weekly: A Bigg'un<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid4JU91WJXR_CvlFYENgcjzlBlojbT7kxMEIcwKKkgRkfsEBWEcdixkHJKlXDzkxxNf0Mu1Plfras0vtKZmQN-V1zCGdxrDJb0tJR9BI5h3KHgQ2wlmg5-3QokbV2k2zWAEJpbEYJw_AQX/s1600/WoWScrnShot_121015_205308.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid4JU91WJXR_CvlFYENgcjzlBlojbT7kxMEIcwKKkgRkfsEBWEcdixkHJKlXDzkxxNf0Mu1Plfras0vtKZmQN-V1zCGdxrDJb0tJR9BI5h3KHgQ2wlmg5-3QokbV2k2zWAEJpbEYJw_AQX/s640/WoWScrnShot_121015_205308.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/search/label/weekly" style="color: #64a6c0; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">WoW Weekly</a> is a biweekly-ish, self-absorbed look into the things I've been doing -- or not doing -- in the game. From auctioneering and pet battling to mount farming and raiding.</i><br />
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This <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/search/label/weekly" target="_blank">WoW Weekly</a> thing used to be somewhat of a weekly thing. And there are good reasons for its lapse, as I see. Some of those reasons will be discussed on <a href="http://thestartingzone.com/" target="_blank">an upcoming podcast</a>. Said podcast is partially responsible for reigniting the drive to return to blogging here more regularly, but I'm not sure how long it will last. Legion may play into that prospect heavily.<br />
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The last <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2015/05/wow-weekly-rediscovering-spark.html" target="_blank">WoW Weekly from May of 2015</a> looked at ways to approach the game outside of current content, since to me that content was lackluster at best. Thankfully, the arrival of Tanaan Jungle with Patch 6.2 was just around the corner. If nothing else, I knew I'd be knocking out the final achievements required for <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/flying" target="_blank">Draenor Pathfinder</a>.</div>
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Let's catch up.</div>
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<b>In late June</b>, prior to a guild meet-up in New York, we killed Blackhand just in time to earn <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/emerald-dream/Elepheagle/achievement#81:a9444" target="_blank">Ahead of the Curve</a>. Then, the meetup saw roughly a dozen members of <a href="http://edsapereaude.enjin.com/#" target="_blank">Sapere Aude</a> converging on a little resort town in <a href="http://imgur.com/a/b2EnD" target="_blank">upstate New York to hang for a weekend</a>. Many, many years ago, my personal goal was to join or start a guild that was tight-knit enough to make something like this happen. Achievement earned. We're in the process of planning 2016's meetup as I write this.</div>
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<b>By August, </b>my play habits hadn't really changed much; truth is, I still had to force myself to log in and had little desire to do so. So August saw some logging in for garrison chores two or three times per week, <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2015/05/legacy-raid-mount-farming-clear-once.html" target="_blank">killing Yogg-Saron with four characters</a> in search of Mimiron's Head, and raiding on Thursday nights.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">En route to Ulduar.</td></tr>
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<b>September </b>turned out to be one of the most surreal months I've had in a long, long time. The guild was working on Normal Archimonde, having already pushed halfway through Heroic. That's not why it was weird though. It got weird when the relationship I'd been in for the past six years dissolved. Would have seen it coming were it not for the blinders I'd equipped, and now, what's done is done. Needless to say it had a bit of an effect on my approach to the game. </div>
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<b>October </b>was a month of personal recovery. I had some soul-searching to do and took refuge in music and friends. That, and I had to find a new place to live. For the first time since I'd started raiding during the Wrath of Lich King, I missed more than one scheduled raid in a month's time. I had internet access within a week of moving, but if my desire to play the game was low prior, it became non-existent. </div>
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The succession plan I had in mind for Legion that involved me handing over the raid-leading reins suddenly got moved up. Thankfully, since we have such great people, the guild continued on, the raid still progressed, and I found myself on the receiving end of a plethora of concern and kind words from the friends I'd made in Azeroth. </div>
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<b>The month of November </b>hailed an event that provided some much-needed entertainment: <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2015/11/my-blizzcon-2015-in-pictures.html" target="_blank">Blizzcon</a>. I welcomed the departure from the Wisconsin climate and the distraction from the familiarity of home. Plus, I got to see and hang out with a bunch of my Blizzard-community friends. Before leaving for Anaheim, I promised the guild I'd be back full-time upon return. I was hoping Blizzcon would reinvigorate my excitement for the game. It did, to an extent, and I've kept my promise to the guild. If there's anything Blizzcon reminds me of, it's the fact that the people I game with are the biggest reason I remain.</div>
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<b>December </b>saw the guild defeating Heroic Archimonde a couple of weeks before Christmas, which was our ultimate goal for the expansion. Since our raids later in the month fell on holidays, we took a break until 2016.<br />
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And that, for the most part, brings us to the present. My play time <i>has </i>ratcheted up; it's nowhere near the consistent levels it was during Mists of Pandaria, but it's a significant change from the last half of 2015. Here's what I've been up to:</div>
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<ul>
<li><b><a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/search/label/chasing%20the%20gold%20cap" target="_blank">Hitting the gold cap (again)</a>:</b> I'm making the slow slog without leaving my garrison by at least logging in for garrison chores on a near-daily basis. I've got four characters with max-level garrisons, two with shipyards also at max-level. I've also got a lower level mule collecting garrison resources to spend at the trading post. Between garrison and shipyard missions, items from crates, and crafted armor and weapons for AH sales, I can easily---<i>easily---</i>pay for my monthly subscription while seeing a significant surplus of gold. I anticipate not paying a dime for Warcraft <i>and </i>hitting the cap before Legion's release. </li>
<li><b>Leveling an alt:</b> With Heroic Archimonde's demise in mid-December, the guild raid was looking at either the prospect of many, many months of Heroic HFC on farm or at switching things up. We've opted for the latter, and are now on a rotating raid schedule that will hop between Heroic farm, Mythic difficulty, and an alt raid night. Hence, I've begun to gear my discipline priest. He's currently around 690 ilvl, but I should have my legendary ring this week unless I'm terribly unlucky with tome drops. </li>
<li><b>The hunt for Mimiron's Head: </b>I've been <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2015/05/legacy-raid-mount-farming-clear-once.html" target="_blank">killing Yogg four times per week</a> for quite some time now and have not had any luck. I'm about to earn the legendary healing mace on a second character, so there's that, I suppose.</li>
<li><b>Guild Ironman: </b>During the downtime between expansions, the guild is running its version of an Ironman contest. My human monk is currently level 16. We decided to roll on Wyrmrest Accord, and I must say I really like the realm so far. I'll be chronicling that journey in a hopefully regular-ish <a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-adventures-of.html" target="_blank">s</a><a href="http://fecklessleader.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-adventures-of.html" target="_blank">eries of posts</a>.</li>
<li><b>Diablo 3 Season 4: </b>With as much fun as I had leveling a monk in Season 3, I knew I'd return for Season 4. This time around I went with a demon hunter which, at first, I didn't think I was going to enjoy. I generally like melee combat. Still, after getting used to the play style I had no issues quickly leveling to 70 and starting the end-game journey. I really like the armor set dungeons this time around. Adds an interesting aspect to play and makes replaying through on a second character much more attractive to me. </li>
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onetwohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00714492925381422700noreply@blogger.com0