WoW Weekly: Dear Lord, It's Been a While

WoW Weekly 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.

Thus ends Feckless Leader's posting drought. 

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. 

While the muse has been at arm's length this whole time, other things have taken precedence. I'm playing a hell 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. 

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. 

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. 

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. Thanks to the work done by my trusty main Elepheagle, my Flight Master's whistle was instantly delivered and I set off to Suramar. 

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? 

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.

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. 

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. I look at Mehlody and feel like she's geared enough. I can fill in as raid tank if needed, tank any dungeon at this point...what's left? 

Roll another alt? What else can I say here...

Blizzcon

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.

• The biggest thing I noticed this year was how little 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...
• 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. 
• 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.
• I had an incredibly awkward experience on the flight home. Ask me about it sometime.   

Overwatch
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 getting all of my toons to level 100 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. 

Heroes of the Storm

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 seemingly a ploy to get Overwatch players to check out Heroes, 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.

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.

It's a Small World (of Warcraft)

Who likes an unrelated header? Yes you do! Yes you do!

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 six degrees of separation standpoint.

I've got two.

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 "where PvE comes to die," we were able to recruit enough people to field a raid.

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.

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).

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.

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!

Now, the second one, this one happening more recently.

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.

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.

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!

I almost fell out of my chair.

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?

I Don't Wanna Raid...

...I just wanna quest in the world all day.

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, other world quests.

They call 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: keep having fun get ready for raiding.

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.

Suddenly, there was all this stuff I had to do, and for the first time since I've been raiding, I realized that the stuff I had 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.

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.

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?

WoW Weekly: Luke 8 Verse 30

WoW Weekly 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.

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.

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.

Monday
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 have paid vacation tend not to have a lot of it. I'll shut up now.

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.

In the mean time, I'm checking out what others are saying here in the 11th hour totally concentrating on work real good. Qelric has an excellent piece over at MMO Games on her impressions of the Legion leveling experience. I didn't think I could get any more excited for Tuesday, but her post brought it up another level.

Tuesday
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.

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.

Wednesday
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.

Thursday
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 whole 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.

Friday
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.

Saturday
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 @kennylogouts' house for a LAN party. :D

I'm hoping to reach max-level at which point I'll concentrate on any remaining profession leveling.

Sunday
My baby sister gets married. Please don't kill the Legion without me.

Monday
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.

How about you? What's your first week of Legion going to look like?

Can I Just Say I'm Stoked for Legion?

Cause I'm gonna whether you think I should or not.

I'm stoked for Legion.

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 it was there, 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 should believe them.

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.

The environment just feels 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?"

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 not 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.

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?

I can't wait to see the final product on Tuesday.

WoW Weekly: That's a Wrap

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 it was announced that XP gains for completing invasion stages had been massively nerfed, I abandoned any dreams of having a full roster of max-level characters.

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.

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---roughly 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.

Legion Invasion Power-leveling Tips

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: Elixir of the Rapid Mind.

Heirlooms

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 vendor found in Undercity.

Mandatory Potions

There are two potions you should have in your possession before you start on this journey; both are relatively simple to get. 

The first, Excess Potion of Accelerated Learning, 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. 

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 completely skip the Tanaan Intro 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.

Most importantly, you need a few Elixirs of the Rapid Mind, 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 is 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. 

*If you are using 300% elixirs in addition to the 20% potion, you should reach level 100 before you need another 20% potion.

Choosing Your Invasion Point

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.

Invasion Strat & Potion Use

Your first order of business is to survive. 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.

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.

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.

But I'm getting ahead of myself, because this is where you're going to reset the invasion.

Invasion Resets

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.

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 huge waste of a 15,000g potion that lasts for 15 minutes.

General Tips

Live to fight again - 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 not 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.

Re-potting - 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.

Tagging - 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.

The Upside to the Legion XP Nerf

Update 8.22.16 - 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.
--------

We've had the official word, even as Blizzard is quite busy this week, 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...savagely 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 +20% XP potion from the garrison, I was able to take my 92ish shaman to 94 by completing three invasions.

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 two hours instead of every four. Below is the very rough math I cobbled together:

@cole_pier 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

— Ross (@elepheagle) August 16, 2016

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.

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.

I can understand why: if XP remained the same as it was yesterday, a level 90 player could feasibly see two million 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.

TL;DR: there's a lot 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.

WoW Weekly: Getting Prepared

WoW Weekly 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.

While there is a lot 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. 

This will be a spoiler-free post as it relates to lore. I will 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. 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. 

The Betrayer and Me
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. 

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). 

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. 

Broken for Shore
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).

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.

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 has 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.

What is Next
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. 

I'm looking forward to a lot more Warcraft in my future. 

WoW Weekly: Dormant

WoW Weekly 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.

Ch-ch-changes.

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. 

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. 

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. 

Thanks for All The Resources
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. 

Falling to My Death, Over and Over Again
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 It All Makes Sense Now over the course of my lunch hour earlier this week. Can't say it was fun, but it's done. 

Climbing the Mount(ain) Runs
After landing two mounts I'd been after for some time, as mentioned in my last post, 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.

Making Grandpa Proud
This will probably get the Gaming Affairs treatment at some point, because I've sunk a lot 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. 

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.

Check out the title for yourself on Steam.

Watching Winona Freak Out
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. 

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? 

Getting the Band Back Together
The group I've been playing with since 2007ish 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.  

WoW Weekly: Farewell to Ulduar

WoW Weekly 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.

It happened the day after my birthday; granted, the fact the Warcraft movie released 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 that isn't so lucky.

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.

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.

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!

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 lockout-sharing trick 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 swear I'd acquired years ago: Flametalon of Alysrazor. Hrmph.

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:

Swimming in it: 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.

Guild Raids: 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.

Guild Meetup: 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.

Feckless Leader's Warcraft Movie Review

imgs: Legendary

Note: this review contains some plot [SPOILERS]. If you would like to avoid any mention until you see the film yourself, how about this older piece I wrote about how World of Warcraft could abandon the subscription model. Also, I've never reviewed a movie before, for fun or otherwise.

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.

While definitely not a perfect film, I can state with full confidence that this movie is not this generation's Battlefield Earth, 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.

Setting/Cinematography

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 Warcraft. 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.

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).

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.

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.

Characters

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).

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 Lord of the Rings 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 Warcraft 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.

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.

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 Lord of the Rings, 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.

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.

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.

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.

Plot

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.

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 why.

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.

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.

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 Warcraft: The Beginning in international markets). This is a bold move. In a greater context where Warcraft: The Middle and Warcraft: The End 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 Fellowship of the Rings, but I can imagine it leaves them feeling like a lot is unresolved.

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.

Conclusion

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 unobtrusive nods to those who've played the game. 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.