Friday 27 November 2009

They See Me Trollin’, They Hatin’.

Time for a change of pace.  After my recent…  failure to perform, I decided to take a couple of weeks off (just doing daily transmutes and making the various cloths on my tailor).  Well, time’s up.  I’ve decided to dust off one of my sadly-non-dwarven horde-side alts while I get back into the swing of things.  (I’m looking at getting returning to Mingle with 3.3, but that could be anything from a week to a month away yet) 

Some many places to go, quests to complete, alliance to pwn...

So, meet level 40 Troll Rogue, Dinglemouse the first.  Yes, my first named characters were in fact horde-side.  (There’s also an Undead Mage named Kringlenouse, but he’s only level 29, and a level 47 Undead Rogue named Ringleflouse on another server also gathering dust)

The first thing I did, of course, was to visit the barber.  (I think that’s what happens when you revisit a long-retired toon:  you look at it, and go “What the heck was I thinking - that haircut (or hair colour, or skin colour, or tusks) looks awful!”)  The second, of course, was to go pay for riding training.

After that, of course, I had to go kill turkeys.

Yes, they had it coming.  No, I don't want to talk about it.

I’m not sure where I’ll go next – it’s been a long time since I’ve been out in the field on a non-dwarf, and even longer since I’ve done any horde-side quests.  Perhaps this is the “something new” that’ll let me re-kindle my love for the game – or at least, to get me playing again in preparation for 3.3, and an eventual return to raiding on priest Mingle.

But there’s one thing that’s certain:  there’s still life in this old game – it’s the 5 year anniversary of WoW at the moment, and in just under a month it’ll be my personal 4 year anniversary of starting the game.

Now to find the Undercity flightmaster: there’s exploring to be done!

Look out world - I'm back!

/wave

Tuesday 17 November 2009

Nice While It Lasted

To cut a long story short, I failed my trial on Mingle (which I was expecting), and I think a break from raiding might be in order.

Basically, as a priest healer I wasn’t experienced enough for Heroic ToC25 (not as disc, and definitely not as holy).  And I was failing so much at raid-awareness (including little things like concentrating so much on healing my assigned targets that I let myself die – need to remember about Binding Heal!) that I was a liability to the raid.

So I politely said my goodbyes before /gquitting, and got an invite back to the old guild where I think I’ll stay awhile while considering what I want to do next.  (Healing is actually pretty fun, and I might be up to the hardmodes after a lot more practice and experience – it’s just hard to get that near the end of the patch cycle)

It’s tempting to throw it all away and start anew on a new server, and try building up a network of alts like the setup I have on Dath in preparation for Cataclysm. 

For now, though, I think I just need to let my wounded ego mend.

Tuesday 10 November 2009

The Calm Before The… Drizzle?

It’s looking increasingly likely that I’m going to be looking for a replacement for WoW (impossible though it may be to actually find).  Between the fracturing of my old guild, my general apathy about my new guild, and my disinterest in anything except for 25-man raids (and that’s only three nights per week) I think the end of the world (of warcraft) may be approaching for me.

Cataclysm?  If it’s going to be more of the same, it’s more of a damp shower.

It’s actually quite disappointing; for all the increasing polish the game has picked up lately, the increasing reduction in the difficulty level of the new normal mode content (along with the increase in difficulty of the hard modes) has left me increasing dissatisfied with Blizz’s binary approach to raiding in a much more nuanced world.

In TBC, the guild I was in was approaching readiness for Sunwell when the big 3.0 nerf/patch went live.  We actually downed Illidan before the patch, which was something of an accomplishment at the time, and managed to reach Felmyst (although not without much fuss and hard work, along with some strong words from our guild leader on occasion).

Sure, it was hard – I was playing a rogue at the time, and overcoming the Reliquary of Souls would probably be the high-point of my raiding career.  But there were concrete rewards for concrete progression, and it was clearly visible how well you were doing by the gear you’d acquired.

The changes Blizz have made which make it easy to farm for gear that will get a new raider into the latest raids have cut both ways, I think.  While it’s made it easy for new characters to get raiding-ready, it reinforces for more experienced players just how much of a treadmill the game has become over the years, and just how long we’ve been running on that treadmill.

The problem (for me) is that for a player who is moderately skilled (ie, can reach a competent level of HPS/DPS/TPS, can perform the tasks for their particular class and spec reliably, and knows not to stand in the fire) they’re either under-challenged in the normal raiding environment or they have a massive challenge (possibly too much so, especially if you’re carrying anyone) in heroic encounters.

I know that, personally, my skill level is definitely positioned between the two levels; neither fish nor fowl nor good red herring.  I’m aware that Blizz has picked their current raiding difficulty implementation to make the most of limited development resources, but after Wrath and the two content patches so far I’m just burnt out on the choice of too easy or too hard.  (The addition of too much and too little in the Coliseum didn’t help, either)

But you have to bear in mind that WoW has been around for years, and everything gets boring eventually.  It’s probably about time to move on – if it’s not fun now, continuing to play is unlikely to magically make it start becoming fun.

Personally, I’ve tried alts, different classes, and different roles, so there’s only so much more that I could try.  My own aesthetic biases prevented me from trying some classes (draenei and night elves are just…  ewwww, so no shaman or druid), and the logistics of starting over as Horde are equally unappealing (not to mention those aesthetic biases again – why can’t the dark-iron dwarves join them?).

Why so much effort on my part?  Mostly because of the people I played with, who are a pretty groovy bunch (no offence to the young folk reading), and who I’d rather not lose touch with (but, without the game to act as common ground, will).

For now?  Well, I’m paid up until the end of January, so I’ll get to see Icecrown (well, if I pass trial – with my current dissatisfaction, I’m tempted to end the trial early, still undecided), and maybe even kill the Lich King (guild willing).  After that?  Well, Star Trek Online comes out at the start of February doesn’t it?

Tuesday 3 November 2009

Toto, I've A Feeling We're Not In Kansas Any More.

Well, I’m trialing in another raiding guild and…  I miss my old guild.

But...  I don't *want* to choose!

It’s actually odd to discover how much of my enjoyment of raiding can be blamed placed on the people I was raiding with, and just how unsatisfying it can be to find myself playing with a new group of players who, while they’re more competent…  well…  the raiding just isn’t as much fun.

It’s an odd feeling, to be the new guy in a well-established social group, with their in-jokes and expectations, most of which I have no idea about.  Which isn’t to say the new guild isn’t most likely a good bunch of people who are fun to raid with – it’s just that I suspect my interest in raiding may not survive long enough to make the transition.

It’s a pity, as since joining I’ve experienced heroic 25-man Anub, finished 25-man Firefighter, 25-man Knock, Knock, Knock On Wood (although I died early on the successful attempt), and encountered Algalon for the first time (on 25-man, no less).

My experience of being thrown in the deep end as a holy priest has been more frustrating, however.  I’m very much aware of how poorly I’m performing (especially on trial), but so far I’ve had minimal feedback from anyone.  I suspect I’m also underperforming as disc, but it’s hard to tell with only the meters to guide me (and anyone who’s played disc knows how unhelpful they can be).

It doesn’t help my cause that I’m too anxious about the whole new-people thing to ask all that often – I’ve already had a couple of “Well, you should have done that already” moments during raid with boss videos, and another time when I didn’t realise I’d lost the healing channel until we were pulling the first boss of the night…  Way to impressive the healing officer, for sure.

I’m pretty sure I could follow my old guildies who’ve made the jump to Blackrock, but the higher performance bar on that server is something I’m wary of.  The fact it’s a PvP realm is also something I’m holding against it - PvP is something I only want to do when I opt in for it.  Mind you, I can’t afford to server-transfer any characters any time soon due to the fact I’m saving to upgrade my computer with a new cpu and motherboard, which renders such speculation pointless.  (Mmmm, quad-core…)

I really don’t know what I want to do, but suspect I’ll end up following the path of least resistance and continue raiding with newguild until I either, a) get used to them, or b) fail my application (although the latter is my best guess at this stage).  3.3 is slooooowly drawing closer, and after that we’ll be getting that cataclysmic game reset that probably renders the whole problem moot anyway, as the new Star Wars and Trek MMOs will probably be out by then if WoW has failed to hold my attention (which is increasingly likely).

Perhaps I’m just not cut out for modern raiding.  Or perhaps what I thought was satisfaction playing the game was actually due to the company I was keeping?  Time to consider my options.

/wave