30 Days In The Hole

To be fair, it’s more to the effect of “30 Days Back In Azeroth.” Miss me? Heck, remember me?

Indeed my friend, I have been back in World of Warcraft for just over a month now (though I was gone away for one week in that span). There is a great deal to discuss in terms of the game, the future, even yours truly as it pertains to the two.  I suppose I will take the easy route and tackle the last one first.

When I stopped playing WoW earlier this year it wasn’t because of the game itself (unlike a clear number of other people based on subscription numbers). I simply didn’t have time for the game. If I didn’t have time…why was I paying for it then? So off I went. I can’t say that I missed the game, but at the same time there were things I missed doing. More importantly there were people I missed talking to. But don’t get me wrong, that wouldn’t be reason enough to bring me back (as awesome as those individuals may be).

So why did I come back? That’s easy. I can play the game for free. Yes, the well-known WoW token. Some individual buys the token in the real world and all I have to do is hand over some gold for a month of play time. That means zero cash comes out of my pocket. I just spend a few hours generating some coin and I’m in the game as long as I want to be. Of course, there was a catch to getting back that myself and Flagsworth (remember that lad as well?) found as we both considered this option: how do we start playing for free without first paying to do so? Oh Blizzard, you have impeccable timing.

Shortly before I was set to go on holidays I got a Facebook notice inviting me back to the game for a free 7-days. Well, problem solved. So back I came and just before I went away at the beginning of August I purchased my first 30-day token. I just picked up my second one Sunday, and since I came back I still have enough for two more months. I do plan to share my means of doing so but that will be at another time.

In game, as of today, flying in Draenor is officially a possibility. Honestly, I’ve never had issue with us not being able to fly at any point during the game. I don’t see why folks have been so adamant over the issue, but when the realms come back online later it won’t matter. It is what it is and those who are excited may rejoice over the issue.

The aggravation I do understand, however, is over the Garrison. Well specifically that every character you send through the portal must do the chain and go down the same tedious path every time roughly until you’ve gotten your Garrison to level 2. There are ways around it, yes, but they aren’t necessarily viable or free of agony. I do wish we could be at the very least come through the portal and choose to take an “x” amount of experience (less than what you would get doing the quest chain) and appear at that moment after the Garrison is complete.

While Blizzard seems to have learned from some of the mistakes of the Garrison, it looks like they aren’t ending any time soon as the new Class Headquarters sound to be very similar if not identical. Time will tell. To be honest, the Legion expansion seems to be a mixed bag. I like the idea of the Demon Hunter, though I have no certainty whether I’ll play the class much (who am I kidding, I have to have one of every class). The artifacts mechanic is also interesting. Particularly for us Feral Druids! Some say the expansion is a bit of everything people want, but does that mean Blizzard shoots the moon in one shot? I hope not because it’s likely that being a bit of everything means not being enough of any one thing in particular (kind of like my play style…which works for me, but not millions of others). I plan to get it either way, but I’m uncertain if it will be at launch. That will depend on the release date as I have a bigger hobby now and it involves some pricey kickstarters coming down the pipe.

I haven’t written in so long because I had nothing to write about. I’ve said before no matter how excited you might be about something, if you aren’t active in it then it’s very hard to completely relate when sharing your thoughts on the matter.  Now I find myself and the Amateur Army deep in the world again, and the interest to write and share my thoughts is definitely there. But I shall provide no timetable. Whenever the mood suits me or there’s a topic worth mentioning then I certainly will. Who knows, others will spur topics for me. I do have a post I plan to start writing today, as the first of the month allows me a launch point to get a clear picture. It’s one I will share at the end of the month, though, and will hopefully provide insight into how to start acquiring your own WoW tokens.

With any luck you’ll be playing for free as well, or perhaps just find a new way to supplement a shopping spree now and again. Either way, so long as I can keep bringing in the tokens I have returned and will be staying. At the very least, I suspect that’s for the rest of 2015. How often I share my ramblings, I cannot say. But when in doubt, rest assured I am always up for a chat in game.

Cheers,
JD

30 Days (April) – The Burning Legion or The Scourge

Absolutely The Scourge.  I can connect with The Scourge.  Not as if I were the walking dead mind you (ok, some mornings).  I mean that I can realize them, their purpose, the threat they possess.  From years of playing Dungeons & Dragons (now Pathfinder, much better btw) I’m pretty familiar with the undead and how they tick.  When it comes to demons, you tend to have to level a fair bit higher to really encounter the good ones.  We didn’t do that very often.

World of Warcraft’s approach is not all that different.  Particularly old WoW wasn’t.  Undead in the Deadmines, Duskwood, and the Plaguelands to name a few places (and excluding the Forsaken from the discussion).  By the time you hit 60, you had more than your share of prominent walking dead.  Heck, you also had Naxx back then to stoke the fire.  Burning Legion?  What’s that?  Then came Outland and it still never felt like The Burning Legion so much as it just felt like Outland and there happened to be demons there.  When Wrath hit, though, it was full on Scourge Invasion and it felt like it.  Most of the expansion felt like you were crawling through the wretched Scourge to get to Arthas in the end.  As I say, I feel The Scourge.  Can’t say that about the Legion in the slightest.

30 Days (April) – Favourite Mount

I’m pretty sure there was a near aneurysm on this one.   Whether or not I actually have a favourite mount is what it boils down to.  A number of my characters do, but can I really elevate one above the rest?  At one point I probably would have selected the Winterspring Frostsaber or the incredibly popular Ashes of Al’ar.  It really is a beautiful mount.  I still love the Hippogryphs, particularly the Flameward version.  I was fortunate the Molten Front started the day after my holidays began that summer as I had plenty of time to do all those dailies.

See what I mean?  There’s plenty to choose from and many more that I haven’t even mentioned.  The good news is I did manage to come to a conclusion, sort of.  It’s in a picture that I’ve brought up more than once.  My favourite mount is the one I gave to others.

30 Days (April) – Favourite Dance

When it comes to the dances, I don’t know.  It’s one of those things in the game that when I see them, I’m often amused.  Actually when I see them I try to find some music and hope it times out perfectly in terms of rhythm.  But it does not mean I go out of my way to do so.  The dances are just…there.  If I had to put one at the top, it might be the Troll Male because I enjoy the Capoeira.  But many of the others are pretty close.  It might be easy to name which one I like the least, I would imagine.  Instead, though, I will  just appreciate all the /dance emotes for what they are and share the full list.

30 Days (April) – Favourite Legendary

Admittedly, I don’t own a single legendary item on any of my characters.  Fangs of the Father appealed to me for Siori, but I’m tormented by flawed pickpocket opportunities, be they caused by someone else or my own accord.  Otherwise, I’ve never bothered to even attempt to obtain one.  It’s odd considering some of them seem interesting enough.  The Mrs. has one half of the Warglaives and we really should work on trying to get the other one because, well really it’s the Warglaives.  No reason is needed.

As you might have guessed from the picture, though, my favourite legendary in the game is Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa’s Rest.  Not because I’ve had anything to do with obtaining one, but because of what it does and how the story goes.  If you’re not familiar with the item, it’s a caster questchain.  The picture above is what you see when you use the fully completed staff and transform into Tarecgosa.  It’s a sight to behold if you’ve never seen it in Stormwind or Orgrimmar.

So what’s the story?  The elements attack Nordrassil and Volcanus attempts to use a bough of the World Tree in order to destroy it.  You get to stop him and return the bough to Kalecgos who attaches the Timeless Isle to it.  The staff is evolved further after Tarecgosa sacrifices herself to stop Arygos from killing Kalcgos.  In the process you become fused with her essence, which Kalecgos stabilizes after he’s named the new leader of the Blue Dragonflight.  At this point he also infuses the staff further and it’s known as the Runestaff of Nordrassil.  After heading into the Firelands, you return to the Blues with Smouldering Essences and the Heart of Fire (from Ragnaros), which the dragons then use to complete the staff and fuse Tarecgosa’s spirit to it.  Hence the final name.

It’s not a historic weapon by any stretch of the imagination, but the story in the quest line is a decent one and ties the player right in with the lore of the game, particularly a very pivotal moment for the Blue Dragonflight.  Add in the visual effect when you use the staff and it’s an impressive enough item to top my legendary list.

30 Days (April) – Best In-Game Cinematic

Not a damn thing even comes close.

30 Days (April) – Favourite Official Trailer

I’m going to give two answers once again today as I’m not 100% certain what defines “official.”  If we’re talking about cinematic trailers, then there is excited like I was for Wrath of the Lich King.  But then there’s “oh #*$&” like I was when we got the Cataclysm trailer.

I was pretty well excited with terror when I saw that for the first time.  Even when the expansion was announced and we got “there can be no peace.  Deathwing…has returned.”  He’s just a monolith of evil.  Now, we’ll ignore how the whole expansion played out in terms of living up to that excitement.  But it was still a pretty sound trailer for Neltharion coming back to the surface of Azeroth.

If we’re going to include the Patch trailers, then it’s a completely different story.  The trailer for 3.1 (Ulduar) that I posted earlier this week is a great one.  But, when it comes to the preview videos for all the patches of WoW, there isn’t one that captures the content or delivers as well as 2.3 did.

I knew nothing about Zul’jin when I came into the game, pretty much right after this patch went live.  But man, this trailer made me want to.  Whoever wrote the dialogue just captured everything so well, and the voice work was phenomenal for it.  Yes, Ulduar is a close second, but I don’t think another patch trailer comes even close.