Is levelling still 'fun'

So, in my trek around the web, I read this post old-time-raiding from Dacheng. In it he talks about his experiences in a lvl70-group going for Outland-raids. He tells about an easy Karazhan, and actually taking out Maghteridon...with 7/8 people...at level 70.

I recently levelled a warlock through Outlands, and as always I went for the dungeons.  But before I logged in, the tank already pulled boss two, with all the adds...or something like that, I may be over exaggerating, but that is how it felt like.

Also, the recent resurge of Innovations Class-act, also shows that lower level dungeons, are a pushover. You can easily brute-force them, and they don't take that long.

For myself, there is also another factor, especially pre-Cata dungeons, I tanked all of those, and I remember them that way. Which means I actually expect dungeons to go a certain way, but they don't anymore...just pull everything and AoE them down...

After the first try on a dungeon with Lorinthe, I just left them, and actually levelled through quests through Outlands... and although I opted to not take heirlooms on her journey, I grew tired, and heirloomed her out.

She is now 69...and I am actually not looking forward to another 20 levels....

The problem is, which Dacheng also points to, is the amount of differences between back then and now, considering talents, dps and what more. And for me personal, it just seems all very..well..like a choir (is that a correct english expression?).

There is hardly any danger levelling up, so why actually level up I say, it's mostly turning in 20 quests per zone, before outlevelling it.

I actually cannot think about a solution, a possible solution would be to toughen up the mobs, make them all harder to kill (do keep in mind that I levelled Lorinthe w/o heirlooms till 61, so heirlooms are not the sole problem) or maybe give the option for for free levels if you have maxed out alts already.

Fact is, at this moment, I do not like levelling as I used to. There are multiple reasons for that, but the most important for me is the lack of danger, the most dangerous mob while levelling is yourself, do not run of Aldor's Tier.....

Alt Appreciation: Shaman

Continuing the Alt Appreciation started by World of Lae.  This week:  Shamans

Shamans, totem-throwers, master of the elements, and I even levelled two of them to the (then) max level. First up, the one I levelled during the now infamous ICC-summer, in Single Abstract Noun.

Cloudcaller

I may be mistaken, but as far as I recall, this was actually the character with which I first joined Single Abstract Noun. I have no idea what his spec was, but I do know I did some Role Playing with him. Listening to tales of the Loa, visiting a fight-tournament in the STV-arena.

I also remember that during Cataclysm, I actually walked with him from Ogrimmar to his birthplace in Feralas...yes walked... and got horrible stuck when he fell into the chasm between north and south barrens.  The pictures are somewhere on my hard-drive, one of the projects never finished.

But this character is for me how I played in Single Abstract Noun, a little levelling, a little Roleplaying, and a lot of talking...  the catchphrase for the guild was '... the guild where nothing gets done, because everyone is talking'

My second Shaman is alliance, and currently my best geared alt:

Verulani

I have no idea where she came from, it is probably buried somewhere in my blog-history, but she may actually been one of my earliest alts. She is now my enchanter/tailor, supporting Mardah. She is also my best geared alt, and I actually did Heroic Stone MSV with her.

She was one of my characters that started my transmog-sets. Although the set is fairly well know, and often seen, my transmog has some nice oddities mostly not seen in combination with the rest. First is the shield, which actually made me do this transmog. It's a reward from the north-western-plaguelands quest in the alliance city.

Th shoulders are from the bug-bosses in AQ40, this on from the one easiest killed...so hardest to get. Try keeping that one alive...I also have a set for weapon transmogs, shown is the dagger of Julie or something. I also have a big axe, and a hammer.

She was enhancement until she killed the LFR-Deathwing enough times for two of his axes, and then went Elemental. I actually considered making her my main starting Pandaria, but it is a little bit hazy why that didn't happen. And in the months to come, she will probably be played more, while we wait on the next expansion.

Next week, the dark arts...

Finally?

So, yes, after 6 years orso, I finally played Star Trek Online...

I find it amusing, and there seems to be a lot under the surface to handle,

but one thing...

The Romulans are the ST:O panda's?

When you reach (cough) level 10, you need to make a choice to either join the Federation (Blue, read Alliance) or the Klingon (Red, read Horde).

Now I know this takes place after the destruction of Romulus, but still.. Romulans in the Federation or the Klingo Empirem, pfff

And there where some nice characters I encountered, Miral Paris, Naomi De Wilde and D'Tan as head of the romulan resistance or Non Tal Shiar-romulans.  D'Tan is one of Spocks disciples back in the TNG-episodes Reunification..

It does take a lot of time, but I did get the one-more-misson-syndrome...

Alt Appreciation: Rogues

Continuing the Alt Appreciation started by World of Lae.  This week:  Rogues

So..yeah..rogues, I did mentioned I didn't like Holy Power... because I don't like Combo-point actually. And rogues are also in the middle of all the stuff around a boss, so, yeah, not my favourite class to play with, although low-level PvP is fun. I am pretty sure I got some achievements by guarding flag rooms.

My first rogue was a Krid. We where levelling with 5 friends, we all rolled orcs, that all looked the same, and named them Kridek,Kridok,Kridik,Kridek and Kridak..... but that was a long time ago on Ghostlands.

The other two rogue are both from AD, although one is been stationed somehwere else.  Lamars was levelled during wrath, and I actually did a weekly raid with him. Actually, I think I levelled that one when I was in a depression...  depression-rogue...

One of my current farmers is Tiramuria. Happily providing some scribe-functions to my characters. I levvelled her, and put her on sun song...  although she has some timeless stuff now. It's just that I am not really a rogue-person....  well, I always have the pictures:

No more LFR

Sometimes, someone remembers something you said. My Guildleader reminded me last week of something I said before Dragon Soul came out. It was something like: "The moment the raiders stop using LFR, LFR will be horrible"...  and behold...

Now I don't have much experience with LFR in 5.4...  I lasted 10 minutes last night on my shaman (including one wipe) before I left in disgust. I play this game for fun, not to see a lot of cursing and flaming being tossed around. And may Mardah didn't even do ONE LFR since SoO came out...which maybe says it all.

Now the last three tiers, I went LFR-ing with Mardah, it was a decent source for the oh-so handy valour points, and you could get tier-gear to complement your set, or get gear for your offset (which I don't really have). But 5.4 brought us something new, called Flex.

Also the last three tiers, Innovation had a LFR-run on Wednesday, which means a group of around 15 would go together into LFR, making it very do-able, now the wednesday-run is for Flex. And I have no idea how many of my guildmates do LFR on their mains, although I suspect not that many.

Now if what happens with me, also happens with other people, you can see that the amount of people running LFR, will become less. Even worse, the people no longer doing LFR now are the people who are normal raiders. Now I suspect Heroic toons didn't do much LFR after the first week, but the normal raiders still did, but now...

The gear is not the incentive for normal raiders, it is only a low Ilvl-increase, and also, would you really want to see the same bosses a third time this week? So, I, as a normal raider, do not want to to LFR on my main, so I bring my alts, which do less damage...  but at least I go LFR...  maybe.

In normal weeks, I never did that many LFR's, time is limited, and as mentioned before, seeing the same bosses to often is not that fun. So I am not running LFR's every week, and if I do, it is alone, not with a group of 15 guildies. And it seems that is happening more..

The more experienced players do not take their geared mains into LFR anymore using guild groups.

That sentence just said it all.. LFR is becoming less and less appealing for normal raiders due to that fact.

But how to fix that? Well, it seems the direct reason is Flex it seems, but is it?  I think the problem does not lie with flex itself, but with the fact that there are now 3 different raid-lockouts  (Normal and Heroic use the same), and that added with the gear difference is getting to high. Is completing your tier-set with a LFR-item really better, then keeping your normal WF-helm?

I don't really have a solution and luckily I do not have to make those  :), and there seems to be only two options, either remove LFR...or remove Heroic Raids.....wait...what did I just typed???

Actually, why do we have Heroic Raids again?

What I remember from Innovation's Dragon Soul, Heroic was mostly just more damage dealt, added with a few new mechanics. There is a part of me that just thinks, why?  Why not just scrap Heroics, make the normals a little harder, and just have LFR,Flex and Normal.....  and sometimes and activated ability to make the fight harder and get some better loot, don't hit the big red button please....

Alt Appreciation : Priests

Continuing the Alt Appreciation started by World of Lae.  This week:  Priests

..and back on track..barely... today we take a look at Ezrila, the only priest I ever levelled high enough to even mention, and actually (together with warriors) the class I had the most difficulty with getting to level 80 back in Wrath. This probably was due to the low-survavibility, priest do have healing spells, but at low level, their spells used to be 'lacking'...

Now where did the name Ezrila came from. It is a name I used before. The female Bloodelf paladin at level 70 from last post was the first I called that. I am pretty sure some other paladins from me are also called that, although these days I tend to find new names, rather then re-uisng existing alt-names. But Ezrila, named after Ezri Dax... I did tell I was a Star Trek Fan?  Ezri was taken, so I added La...and apparently not many use that name.

I don't know for sure, but I think Ezrila was one of my 'ICC-Summer'-alts in Single Abstract Noun. As far as I remember I levelled her as a Disco-priest. I do know that before the 4th of november 2010 she reached level 80, and was trying to make a ROFL-copter, she is an engineer, so she needs one.

How do I know that specific date, well..  I am (still) playing with a MacBook Pro, and World of Warcraft has a build-in movie-maker in the Mac-version, so I was experimenting with that, and behold:

But this was the end of ICC-summer, and within 2 months after this video, Single Abstract Noun emptied..  and my Alliance-days started in Innovation. Somehwere during Cataclysm, I transferred her over to the Alliance-side, did some DS-LFR with her. And with a twitch, after having so much trouble actually levelling her, she was my third or fourth to reach 90. She now spends most of her days farming ore, although I sometimes take her shadow-ing in an LFR or dungeon....

Next week, it is time for Tiramuria and Lamars, my rouges...rrr...rogues.

Alt Appreciation: Paladins

Continuing the Alt Appreciation started by World of Lae.  This week:  Paladins

Well.. and suddenly I miss a week, so I also have to do Priests somewhere this week, but here are my Paladins...well... most of them.

First of course, my still most played character, Gowron, the Tankadin...  still played sometimes, but mostly for Lore-reasons. As you see above, he has some of the timeless gear, mostly because I am swimming in those.

Here is on of my farmers, literally. Timicin the Holydin...although he is in Retri-gear on this pic...mm..  why did I do that. Timicin is a BS/JC, and I actually made him two years back, because I saw myself healing in MoP....well..that didn't happen. He is now farming ore, making trillium ingots and making gems for Mardah...a lot.

I also used to have a lvl70 Retridin during TBC, but that was on a different account, which I don't have anymore...  but I did find a picture of here, together with Gowron.... yes, I even used two PC's back then.

As a bonus, because I maybe just liked Paladins that much, here are some more alts, running around in 20-30 bracket.