I want to write a christmas fic. I want to write a trope-tastic completely indulgent fic. I just have absolutely no idea where to start. I feel like I’ve got all the ingredients on the table – a handful of tropes here, a nice stack of christmassy prompts over there and and and… I’m stuck.
I haven’t written anything since April and that was just 1500 words. I am hilariously out of practice, my brain is just doing a “can not compute”.
Seriously I literally do not know where to begin 🙁
None of this is serious I’m just venting.
1) I’m raiding on an alt because I’m playing on a different server. I haven’t had the time, nor the inclination, to do stuff twice so that alt hasn’t done the war campaign, or Nazjatar, doesn’t have reputations or good essences, the heart of Azeroth is still low etc. AND it’s a Demon Hunter which I love (great class!) but compared to the other tank classes for raids it sucks. I feel so damn squishy because I don’t have the Demon Spikes uptime and I feel like I’m missing a cooldown.
2) So obvious answer is to level a better class (paladin perhaps?) and then swap as there’s probably 9 months or so left of BfA including a whole raid tier BUT with the levelling revamp in Shadowlands I don’t want to level anything now. It’s going to be so much faster (apparently/hopefully) and so I’m thoroughly demotivated on that which is annoying me because I want to get set up on this other server. I figured I’d read the beta reports, find out what tank class is doing the best (out of paladin/demon hunter/monk/druid, or I guess death knight but I don’t like that one so much), and then level that one from 9.0 onwards. I’ll probably (definitely) still level Tai first and complete everything but with the New Player+ they talked about in Shadowlands, hopefully whatever main alt I pick I’ll be able to maintain better than I have with all the damn prerequisites in BfA.
3) Warcraft costs money and I’m about to be very poor. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to afford the subscription once it runs out in January, let alone buy Shadowlands right now. So all of the above could be utterly irrelevant. At least I’ll still have Swtor that I can play and my Steam games.
I’ve been eagerly anticipating this game since I first learned about it back in the summer. Literally for the past few weeks I have been googling everyday to read news articles because “dammit it wasn’t out yet and I wanted it so bad!” and I needed something to take the edge off. BUT there was a problem with this because nobody was excited?!? It got even worse when the game came to Steam and I looked in the discussion forums, there were so many spewing hatred for a game that wasn’t out yet.
Now I’m not naive and I do understand that EA has a bad reputation. However for my sins I very much like Star Wars: The Old Republic and I don’t play shooters. I knew of course about the Battlefront controversy, my grasp on dates is shocking but I think it was about the same time as Marvel Heroes, which had a ‘gambling lootbox’ element and people had reportedly spent eye-watering amounts. However that at least was for cosmetics and not power upgrades.
Anyway I find it quite dispiriting that nobody seemed to share my hype. On the other hand the googling everyday meant I learned super quick about the game coming to Steam which was like a dream come true. I have a controller for my PC – a Steam controller, which meant I was having to look for a third-party Xbox type because I heard that Origin didn’t play nice with Steam. So yeah the game being on Steam solved my problems. I preloaded a couple of days ago, this morning I set it to download, it did freeze for a bit but recovered. I connected my Steam account to Origin and then I had to go to uni but it was all ready for me for when I got home.
I have never ever played a game like this. I think the closest would be Crash Bandicoot or perhaps the Star Wars Kinect game that I bought my Xbox 360 in order to play (unfortunately the sensor is shocking so it doesn’t work very well). I read in those articles so many comparisons to other games but it meant nothing to me. So I’m coming at this with completely fresh eyes.
Verdict? I mean build-up aside, that’s why I’m writing this post yeah? To give my initial impressions.
Continue readingAmong the blizzcon benefits there were two beta keys. One for Warcraft 3: Reforged and the other for early access to the new battleground mode in Hearthstone. Now I like free stuff so I downloaded and installed both games. I do own the original Warcraft 3 but I didn’t get on with the main game at all, in fact I got it purely to play a user-created tower defense game made from gems. However I thought the ‘reforged’ part might mean the campaign would be cool – it’s not, at least not for me. In fact I’m struggling to see where the ‘reforged’ aspect comes in because it looks basically the same. Anyway I uninstalled it because it’s really not for me.
Hearthstone battlegrounds on the other hand…
I did play Hearthstone when it first launched. I can’t remember why I quit exactly but I think it was because the games took too long, it was slow and I the whole ‘building a deck’ thing was a mystery to me. When I first reinstalled Hearthstone I ran a normal match (mostly because the game prompted me to) and it was as slow and boring as I remembered.
Hearthstone battlegrounds on the other hand…
The play is a lot faster, in fact sometimes too fast as I’m still thinking. It’s not dependant on any cards you own so you don’t get smashed because you are new and don’t have a deck, all cards come from the tavern. The intro tutorial was too easy as I won and thought I understood, my first real game when I came last proved I didn’t understand anything. I then lost again and again and fed up I quit. But that wasn’t the end of the story! BlizzardWatch did an information post about the new battleground mode and I commented with my disenchantment and got a couple of replies with advice. I figured I would give the game another shot. Verdict? It’s weirdly addictive.
I still haven’t won but I have come in the top 4 a couple of times. I still get smashed pretty much every game BUT I’m not getting smashed every single round anymore, I’m winning some rounds now. I still don’t quite understand what I’m doing wrong (aka why I’m never ever winning) but I’m not losing so badly anymore that it’s demoralising and not any fun.
Weirdly addictive. It’s fast-paced enough that I curse when I lose and instantly want to queue for another one. Each game probably takes at least 15 minutes though, but the gameplay means it doesn’t feel like that. I swear at this point I’m just wanting to obsessively queue to see if I can win just once – just once! I had hopes the last game as I was doing ok but then by the end, there’s so many cards on the board that one lost round = lost game and that’s what happened.
TLDR: Still don’t like Hearthstone (still don’t understand it) and the amount of money for card decks is obscene so no way I want to get into it. But the battlegrounds doesn’t require cards, it’s separate and that does get my thumbs up. Now if only I could just win one game!
I said I was disappointed that there was no new class announced for Shadowlands, that made me think what could they have added?
There are 12 classes. So looking at them (or how I see them anyway):
So what are we missing? Well that depends on what angle we’re approaching the problem. Armor types split 3/2/4/3 with mail being the one trailing the pack. There are 6 tank options, 5 heals, 9 melee and 6 range. More important than the details there is the big question – what are we aesthetically missing? Continue reading
You know given I really did not like season 5 of Warehouse 13 I sure have listened to Claudia’s Garbage ‘When I Grow Up’ song a lot since.
I love music which comes from shows, it’s like a talisman to conjure up warm and fuzzy feelings about stuff I love. So I guess as I love Claudia and I do love the show generally (all three seasons of it haha) then it makes sense.
So no secret I’ve been playing swtor again since they I learned they made medical probes baseline back in the summer. I think I also mentioned at some point…? I had a ton of cartel coins stocked up as I’ve been playing on/off again since launch so I got a couple of the boost to 70 (which was max level until last weeks Onslaught) because not having to worry about being the right level means I can just focus on what I wanted – the story.
As I think I said at the time I was 7/8 on class stories so I boosted a scoundrel smuggler (my missing one) and a mercenary bounty hunter as bounty hunter (powertech though) had been my first character and so it had been years since I had experienced the story and my memory is faded. My intent was to get 8/8 and then see what characters I enjoyed playing the most to then go forward and do the expansion stories as even though it’s been 8 years I’ve never progressed further than the base game. Not because I don’t like the game (I do!) but there’s been a perfect storm of reasons really.
I have now done that! So what was the result?
I’ve been dwelling on the Shadowlands announcement trying to work out what was bothering me about it.
Is is the lack of clarity regarding levelling and the future of the game? Because as I said in my previous post if it’s Classic-BfA choose your poison, then Shadowlands, that’s cool with Shadowlands being the new thing BUT what about when the ninth expansion comes? Will it be Classic-BfA choice, then Shadowlands, then new thing? Isn’t that just restarting the cycle? Also people will be sick of Shadowlands and the levelling curve will be weird.
Is it the lack of clarity regarding levels and what they will do to the ability to solo old content and also what about flying? Because yes they have confirmed we should still be able to do everything we can currently re: farming old raids etc. BUT how exactly will that work? Also I currently can fly everywhere. So if I want to quest in Kul Tiras/Zandalar and level an alt flying around then I can. In Shadowlands when the BfA level range becomes 10-50, what about then? Are they going to take away what I can already do? I see the backlash riots from here.
Is it the lack of concrete information and conflicting statements on levelling? Because I did some quick and dirty math and Ion said that “getting a level every 15 minutes doesn’t feel epic” so I’m assuming they don’t want that BUT they have said levelling will be 60-70% faster and that 10-50 will allow completion of an expansion. The two don’t mesh together very well as using Mists as an example, when that was current it was approx a level per zone, which splitting 40 levels makes for 6.6 levels a zone. It did not take anywhere near 7 hours to do a zone, more like 2-3 which makes for a level every 25 minutes or so? Now I’m not bothered by this I like the whoosh sound, I just want confirmation it will be faster because it takes so long now I’m completely demotivated by it. (also I will not be levelling until Shadowlands).
Or is it simply the feeling of dread about lack of a real key feature?
Shadowlands Editoral on BlizzardWatch
My Response:
You hit the nail on the head with exactly what I was thinking watching the panel last night. I hadn’t expected they would take risks so it wasn’t unexpected I was just disappointed anyway. I felt like they’d missed a big opportunity. This is Warcraft’s big year with the 25th and 15th anniversary. When Vanilla launched it kinda set the blueprint a lot of MMO’s have followed since, I mean up until Wrath – the group-finder, it was a big deal and MMO’s don’t launch without one now. I felt like blizz could have been innovative this year.
I also feel like they aren’t thinking about what happens next. I know it’s ridiculous to talk next next expansion when they just announced the next one yesterday but seriously what happens post-Shadowlands? Will levelling be 1-50 of pre-Shadowlands content, then 50-60 of Shadowlands and then 60-70 of what comes next? Isn’t that just basically just setting the scene for trouble down the road again? Plus what is the levelling curve going to be like? If 1-50 is the length of a single expansion that is much faster than it is currently. Going forward 1-50 and then 50-60 is going to be feel really unbalanced.
Also I do wonder what will happen with allied race heritage armor which currently requires manual levelling up to 110/120. Plus I know it’s just a number but I have spent a lot of time levelling up characters and to have them all wiped down makes me a little sad. I hope there’s at least feats of strength saying that they were once known as 120/110 etc.
Looking on the Shadowlands website there is a * saying that “you can still crush old bosses for transmong if that’s your thing” which phew relief as for me farming old content is a big part of my playtime BUT how? Is the power jump from 50-60 going to be Legion sized? Ensuring we can wreck everything below us. Isn’t that then a problem come next expansion as Ion already said that “feeling like you are levelling up and getting weaker is bad”? I mean power creep is always an issue hence why we’ve had at least two ilevel squishes but this goes with my previous point. When I login on pre-patch at level 50 will everything crush me? Or will I be able to go and solo Dragon Soul and ICC as normal? Those are the lowest of what I farm, I mean obviously I do run Legion stuff too.
I’m not negative btw I’m thinking. I did like a lot of what was said. I LOVED the talk of 4 narrative arcs as my favourite thing is story. Legion class halls were my fondest dream for Warcraft realised, I’m just sad that was a one-expansion only deal but I digress. The tower thing working for solo people is also great. I’m not knocking the expansion so much as just wondering about the future, and also agreeing that I’m not seeing an expansion defining feature. A new race wouldn’t have done the trick imo as we’ve had so many allied races. I think a new class could have worked but I get the balance headache. Personally I would have thought this would have been prime time to announce player housing. That could have supported professions as well by making unique models for things available to crafters. It would also fit the player agency/customising theme they are going with.
Anyway I’m going to shut up but honestly I have to laugh at myself. For half a second when they started talking about all the hundreds of hours of content in the game I thought they were going to bring to life my second fondest dream – heroic world missions. Alas not to be, I don’t think they will ever leverage the immense wealth of content they have, it’ll always be the new shiny zones and then move on.
Edited to Add:
I forgot a couple of things so I’m just going to bolt them on here.
1) is the announcement that the decision Horde players made to choose Saurfang or Sylvanas no longer matters, not even a little nod. Given the ‘player agency’ theme I find this again another missed opportunity because player agency is choice and having choices be meaningful and just having everything wiped away expansion after expansion sucks a little bit. I get new players shouldn’t have to go through everything and that if some people haven’t made a choice then it gets weird. Still I feel like a $variable with yes/no/didn’t choose to influence a line of dialogue wouldn’t have been tough and would have been an unexpected delight.
2) I didn’t explain what I meant by heroic missions. I meant they have phasing on Darkshore for example with max level world quests. It would have so cool to have a $variable test to see if a person’s account had the achievement for completing a zone and if yes that opens up this max level quest hub which continues that zones story a little bit. Alts could redo the zone to refresh memories or not bother. If there were say a dozen of these spread all across the different continents/expansions, each day 1-2 was available. Now the big thing I would have done was to put a cap on grinding. Having a new emissary everyday and letting it stack to three but no more is a good model imo. So people can do more than one a day/stacked three but they don’t get a chance at gear/combat related progression, they get gold or chance at non-combat stuff – not mandatory in other words.
I’ve always wanted this because it would open up Azeroth more rather than just making everyone congregate in the same new zones. Then the new expansion drops and we abandon those for the new ones – rinse and repeat. It’s a big world, we should get to play in all of it.
ETA 2:
I totally forgot to say and want to put somewhere so I can point later if I’m right…
I think the jailer is either Gorak Tul (Drust guy) or it’s whatever spawned him as the silhouette and the blue eyes is really similar. I know we supposedly killed Gorak Tul in Thros when we rescued Jaina hence why it might be his father type deal. Sylvanas has definitely been powered up to be able to do what she did. I mean wasn’t Waycrest all about Gorak Tul finding a way back to Azeroth? So perhaps he needed Sylvanas to break a hole in the world so he could escape The Maw.
Also calling it now, the new zone we get in 8.2 is going to be Dragon Isle. Oh and don’t think I didn’t notice about the 4 covenants, and there being 4 dragonflights – there’s some kind of echo going on there. I just hope it ties into the actual lore of Azeroth being a corrupted baby titan (do we even know how we heal Azeroth yet? I’m presuming we do) and they made too much of the Void vs Sylvanas and also what happened with Vol’jin not to follow up.
I also hope Talia gets to meet her father, as painful as that will be :/
You know if Warehouse season four was erm… not so great then season five? Well thank merlin there was only six episodes.
I never thought I would be one to say “oh what a shame Warehouse 13 got cancelled after season three and on such a cliffhanger too” “but I thought there were five seasons?” “No only three!!”
It’s just the show went off the rails. It always had an outlandish edge but that had been tempered before, there was a magic balance which made it work and that was just gone. I mean sure some stuff was ok, Claudia and Jinksy really but otherwise total train wreck.
Seriously the continuity issues alone. I mean the big thing in the penultimate episode was the compass moving the warehouse. If they could do it like that then pirates wouldn’t have been able to steal a shipment travelling from England and warehouse 12, only half a dozen episodes ago.
Sorry this is a lot more negative than I would like but it’s just like they just tossed in a bunch of new “hey that’s cool” stuff with zero regard for anything that came before. Anyway Warehouse 13 might be over (after the third season with some stealing because Jinksy isn’t dead) BUT
Bering and Wells is forever!
This is my new phone case and (as I have no idea when I’ll ever be able to afford to upgrade again) I’m expecting it to be with me for at least five years, probably longer, my old phone is going on seven now. Yeah I don’t doubt my love.
You know most shows I headcanon my way around plotlines which don’t work for me. I am generally more accepting and don’t just wholesale pretend entire seasons don’t exist. With this I just… the entire thing was just wrong and not in the salvagable kind. Maybe I’ll feel more positive when I rewatch it but really aside from the odd scene here and there of character cool (so not plot) there was just nothing that worked for me.
#anti-warehouse 13 #I really don’t like that tag it makes me sad but it needed to be said #now I’m all caught up