The levelling-game.

After a long journey, that started way back when Cataclysm was out for a few months, three dwarfs and two gnomes have finally reached their intended goal. Last monday, after a three-hour-run, they took the last hurdle, and took the last two levels. Class Act is now level 85.

Lurche reaching 85, the others followed fast.

The strange part is of course, that Innovation already has the Class Act-Achievement. When Class Act reached 50 orso, my own gnome rogue reached 85,  and others have made the extra bank-slot available long ago, but Class Act is sort of a different thing, having some fun with guilds in lower levels.  The point is to reach level 90 before WoD, which seems possible.....

Reaching level 85 on Lurche, also puts me on the last 5 levels I can get on Argent Dawn. And because Argent Dawn is a full server, there will be no connected realms, so no more character slots for me. Which is a shame, because I wouldn't mind levelling a new character in either Innovation, or Single Abstract Noun. And yes, I still find this somewhat unfair, the fact that some people can have more then 11 characters sending mail and stuff to each others, while others can't.

I know, that when WoD releases, I have another 110 levels to level, but speaking from experience, this is what probably will happen; Mardah (if that remains my raiding character), will be levelled to 100 a.s.a.p. Because they stated that Garrisons will be available at level 90, I will probably get all my Alliance alts there a.s.a.p., but the first month will be focused on Mardah, to get her ready for raiding, so getting reputation and gear and stuff. 

Somewhere three weeks in, I will start levelling one Alliance Character, and one Horde Character for the Lore. That means I will do every quest with them in all zones, so they will probably be enchanters to get stuff for enchanting (So, yes, Gowron). This will not be that fast, as I am still focused on Mardah. After a month or two I will have probably have three level 100's, or very close, and I start to think about which professions I really miss at 100, and I will then level 1 or 2 other characters.

Gowron preparing to slaughter Illidan...again

Now, while the first three characters that levelled had mostly no idea what was where considering quest, with number 4 and 5, I will probably know where to go. That kind of levelling goes fast for me. I just sit down for a day, and tick of the quests, racing around, and if it is a little bit like last time, those will be levelled in a month. So after three months, around the release of patch 6.1 I guess, I will have 5 lvl100's, and I probably do not want to level anything anymore for a month  :).

Because there is only so much different stuff you can do at max level, it will become boring again somewhere...and my addiction starts again.... but I really do not want to level through Old D. so soon, so I make an alt in Innovation to happily run around in lower levels to...oooh..wait.... no slots left, so I have to either level on a different server, and not with my friends!! (the catchphrase for WoD it seems), or delete a character. Yes I can also transfer a character... but that costs cash, which I don't seem to have much of these days :(

Oh...  and from experience, after transferring a character I almost don't play them anymore, because my friends (them again) are not there. There is the rare exception, when I just don't want be in Innovation, and I play somewhere else, but mostly transferred characters sit quietly on a sever, far far away. And yes, I cannot bring myself to delete those..  or any other char I played for a while.

Gowron getting his second OH-Glaive, which he still can't use.

So, I hope Blizzard will actually let go of the cap on characters per server. For players playing this game so long, it really starts to feel like a stupid cap now. And now you are also giving people a free 90, and possible the option to buy lvl90's. Yay, I get a free 90, mmm what should I do with that?

War stories : Return to Ogrimmar

It seemed like a lifetime ago she set foot in the city. She was barely of age when she joined the warriors of the Horde. She remembered it well, her first mission was to the other side of the world, the siege of Zul'Aman. How long was that ago? Three, or four years, and now she was back, but back to what?

She walked through the gate-buildings an looked out over the Valley of Strength. In the middle was a big pile of rubble, still smouldering of the fire it was destroyed by. She didn't remember the bank of Ogrimmar to be that big, so much had changed. She walked on, some of her people where scurrying along, but not many Orcs where around.

She had seen destruction before, and death of course. In the Zul'Aman campaign she didn't see much of the front, but after that, she was stationed at the Wrath Gate. She was their the day Arthas confronted the combined might of The Horde and the Alliance. She was their the day that the Forsaken betrayed The Horde, and she barely survived that ordeal.

Ogrimmar looked like it was completely sacked. The Alliance swarm had not shown much mercy to the Orcs who tried to defend their homes.She already knew what she was going to see, but still she walked through the valley towards the drag, towards her birthplace, towards where her family used to live.

There was some screaming coming from the Valley of Spirits, where the Trolls used to live. She heard reports the Trolls took back their islands a few years ago, and that most of them relocated there,  maybe the heart of The Horde would now be relocated there with her new Warchief. She didn't know if she was still part of The Horde, time would tell. A few Blood Elf guards halted her.

She had met Blood Elfs before, at Zul'Aman. They seemed a little fragile, but where not afraid to lead the battles fought, and now they where here in Ogrimmar, the remnants of the Regent's Army who fought in the rebellion against Garrosh, the deposed war chief. She gave her credentials to the guards.

They where written in the Sindorei-language, which she knew enough off to know what the letters said. This one has not fought for Garrosh, but also not against, she was not here when that all happened. She was on a ship, sailing from Northrend to Kalimdor when the Alliance and the Rebels defeated Garrosh. Why where they still called rebels?

Her batallion was stationed at Wyrmrest Temple after Deathwing assaulted the Dragons. They were there to guard, and to rebuild. She had worked with some dwarves there to secure the surroundings, and then the news came that a new Island was found, and that old wounds where torn open. They all had one more evening of comradery, the Orcs, Dwarves, Trolls, Draenai. Even the Gnomes where having fun, but the next day we all would be enemies again.

The guards let her continue into the Drag. It was completely ravaged and burned out. Everything had to be rebuild. All the houses, all the stores, everything gone. The Alliance really sacked this place. She headed towards the Valley of Honor, one of the places the Alliance didn't breached she heard. Maybe it was better there.

She was not sure if Garrosh was making the right decisions, but he was the Warchief, he should be followed. Like Thrall before him, the Orcs went where their Warchief went, no questions asked. But although Wyrmrest was far from the new Island, rumours started dripping in. The biggest shock was news that the Troll leader was openly revolting against his Warchief, and that both the noble Tauren and the Blood Elves seemed to join Vol'Jin, was this the end of the Horde?

Skirmishes broke out between the different races around Wyrmrest, and she and her kin seemed to be standing alone. One night a big brawl ended with several deaths, and the Horde commanders decided that it was best for the Orcs to leave. She was put on a ship towards Ogrimmar, under command of a Blood Elf Regiment. Or was that as prisoner?

She looked out over the Valley of Honor. It was always crowded there, but now there where tents everywhere. The stench of people packed up to close to each other was overwhelming. Near the gate was a tent where medics where doing their job, while dead orcs where still being taken away. A little bit further, children where playing in the water, while Orc warriors sat around campfires.

She looked back to the gate, a number of Tauren Warriors stood guard, both to keep people out and in. So, this is what her people were now, refugees in their own city.

WoD: Wait..what now?

I have been pointed out that my postwriting was down again...  and there is a simple reason for that, too much information which is actually no infarmation at all.  I have several unfinished posts now, something that has not happened before.

Normally I start writing, and I have a post, now I have several starts (including a RP-story even) but no endings. And I figured out why, every post is connected to each other (well, except the RP- story then). So, lets start with something..  the news that WoD heroics will be more heroic again maybe?  Time for a confession:

I liked the TBC-heroic concept.

Think about it. Before you could run heroics, you had to do the normals. You needed to be revered with the dungeon-faction to actually do the heroic version, which meant you had to run the dungeon several times before doing the heroic version, so everyone who could do it, actually knew what was going on.

Now the whole rep-thing was tiresome, but back then they didn't do in Ilvl-gating. The problem with Ilvl-gating is that you can 'fake' your Ilvl, especially if you are a Plate-user. Every item in your bags which you can equip counts towards your Ilvl, so a 522-coth belt would count higher as a 450-platebelt for a plate-user...  seems odd, but that's how it is.

Maybe they should include the MagT-idea again, no doing heroic dungeons, before you do the normal one, and you have to have a certain Ilv.

And there seems to be another little problem, the length of heroics, Shadow Labs Heroic anyone?

I liked Shadow Lab heroics....  I loathed magister terrace though..

A common thing I read and hear that no one wants that again, because it takes to much time...so, don't do them I would say. This idea that everyone seems to have, that even the most casual player who can only play 2 hours a week should be able to do the same as a hardcore player who plays 20 hours a week is ridiculous.

Oh wait, they actually can...  just not in the same time period. In my opinion normal dungeons and LFR's should be short and quick, for the casuals with not much time. Heroics/Flex etcetera for people with more time. I want more longer BRD-kinda dungeons to explore, which take time to do...

Oh, and I see Mythical dungeons coming, heroics scaled up in a later patch, so we cannot steamroll them.

Sssh... they are listening.

Well, well, well, the NSA is listening into us?  Panic, no, run, stop...STOP

Apart from the fact that this was already known, what did you expect?

I think of myself as a reasonable person who does not go into panic mode easily, so the moment all that snowden-stuff started to pour out, I was like...meh, what did you expect?

And now the snowden-files leaked that the NSA is in World of Warcraft.. so what?

I never really understood all the Rukus about this. The only thing that changed is that there is evidence now, it's like everyone just had their eyes closed for years, and is now starting to see. I don't get that, I already suspected for years that everything on the internet is being watched, and with suspecting, I mean 99% sure.

I can see that it might be a problem...  actually I can't. There is no way I will start to freak out because some dude somewhere in the US, or for that matter the Netherlands knows what I did last saturday on the web  (hint, it was probably killing internet dragons), I have enough other things in my head, so I don't want to start worrying about that, have fun with that knowledge.. as if that guy..or girl...  would remember that...

...and if they did, well, they can't say it, can't they...  and every time I see a news message about the NSA spying on Merkel, or the BBC, be sure that your government either knows about it, or is also spying on the US.

And for the NSA-employees that are assigned to play this World of Warcraft game in search of potential hazards to the United States of America or her Allies, have fun...  and what is your progress by the way... on raids, not on finding terrorists...

WoD: The Loot is dropping differently.

One raid-dungeon should not drop different I-llv stuff all over the place.
-Mardah

That's what I said late august in my post about loot-forged stuff. And now this tweet-stuff came up:
Ghostcrawler on some loot-stuff

Basically what he says is that a piece of loot can drop, lets call it the Sword of Uberness. Now what normally happened before all the forged stuff, that you had 3 versions of it. Every raid-difficulty dropped a slightly different one. But now, Throne of Thunder comes along, and suddenly forged stuff, so the Sword of Uberness now has 5 different forms.

But wait, it gets better, we besiege a flex, and one more form is added, so now we have 6, hurray. Wait, you want more then 6? No problem, just wait till Warlords of Draenor, and, to quote Amelia Pond, now it gets interesting.

About to send a shadow that blots out the sun.

In WoD every piece of gear has chance to get either a special, or a gem-slot, or be forged. Now, I suppose this will not be for LFR, but it will probably be for Normal Raids? So, our Sword of Uberness now has 4 different forms in one difficulty? No wait, it can actually double-proc?  Or Triple??  WHAAAAT.... that means, per difficulty-level, mmm, our nice Sword of Uberness has EIGHT different configurations?

Didn't I wrote that two different Ilvl was already a blast to handle in normal raids? Now you have 2 different Ilvl's in a total of 8 different forms....  and everybody wants the Sword of Headaches  (Sword of Uberness with Gem and a special, and forged).

So, if Normal raids will drop all this, we have an amazing 25 different forms of one and the same weapon? And if Normals will not, it's still 18 different forms...  yeesh...  I am pretty sure no one is going to bid on loot without something extra anymore....

But, good news for Mr Robot, with all these new options, people want to know what is better, more Ilvls, or a gemslot...  or is that Lifestealing actually better?  Can I please have defense back...that seemed simpler.

Musings

Verulani's image after receiving her gift.

So, I got my third legendary last week. My Shaman Alt also got her legendary cloak, and I was not even going for it. It just, sort of happened. And that is probably THE reason I don't really like this Legendary. You just get it, while playing, you don't have to do really strange things.

The only thing that could be hard is the part where you have to fight Wrathion, that was a real problem on Mardah (I eventually did the healing version), but on Verulani, it was a cake-walk. I failed once, remembered that I had a Plethora of spells (totems) that Moonkins do not have, and went to town.

Verulani now has an Ilvl of 540..which actually makes her ready for normals I guess, considering that is the Ilvl for flex. But there's only so many times I can see the same raid in a week, and my baby-warlock is growing up fast, reaching 501 last weekend, after I remembered that I can buy a cheap 522-necklace somewhere. And I started completing the road on my Orc Hunter.

The problem here is for me, that this patch will probably last for another 6 months....  and that will probably mean, I will end with all spots on 90... oh my. What to do...and then the next thing happened, although I was forewarned, it really put me in a mood to think back to the 'old' TBC-raiding days, oh well.

Jorky goes offline, for the last time?
(Jorky is my Real Life brother)

WoD: The Headache Edition

So... yeah, time to travel in time.....

Just in time before saturday :)

Time travel is always interesting, and the idea of different timelines, which WoD seem to be, has been around. For every action you take, another timeline is created where you took another action. So, the number of timelines is infinite.

The big question is always, if you go back in time, and have the chance to kill Hitler, would you? And people use that as an argument that time travel does not exists... well, with time-lines, you can only say, not in this timeline, but in the other. And because there are infinite time-lines, Hitler has been killed an infinite times... aaargh...maths.

Now luckily we have some nice stories about timelines. The whole of the Marvel Comics happens on Earth615.  or 515..it has a number at least, especially pointing towards timelines. We also have Back to the Future and Doctor Who of course. But both those shows are more linear, where an action in the past, has an effect on the future.

And then we have Star Trek, with the original Kirk at least having 47 time-incursions. But their Mirror Universe and their Reboot-Trek actually are different Timelines. Somewhere in the past, someone made a different decision, and another timeline happened. Heck, in the Trek-reboot, someone from the know timeline, actually goes back in time, and is responsible for the new timeline, Garrosh=Nemo (not the fish).

So, in Warlords of Draenor, Garrosh escapes to the past. In my mind wandering yesterday I was speculating if Malchezaar had something to do with that, because he does drop that axe. (After that the little phasing-news of Kara came thru (I have witnesses  :p)). So, tinfoil hat; Malchezaar throws Garrosh in the past, and a few days later the Portal goes red. Garrosh of course, has several years on Draenor then.

We jump in the portal, and go fight this new 'Iron Horde'. This all has no effect on our 'Prime' timeline's past. But now the real headache starts....  what of the other timelines Azeroth? Because Illidan couldn't run to Outlands he may still be alive? Heck, the Alliance may not even exist, because there are no orcs on that Azeroth? So many possibilities, let's steal The Exodar and find out? Does it even exist, or is it completely overrun by undead and Deathwing, because there was no Horde to battle them?

And also interesting is the end.... yes that may be very early.... but we will of course take down the bad guys, but then. Go back to our own Timeline? And what about the other timeline? It's never a good idea to have a constant link between to timelines... bad stuff multiplies with that, literally..

You know, I'll just stick to the line below..and think: Time will tell.

"I always get a headache from time travel." -  Captain Janeway, U.S.S. Voyager