I seem to be pulling my inspiration from WoWInsider lately. They had a post that looked back at what were, in the writers opinion the best raid encounters in Cataclysm. As Cataclysm was the first expansion I saw from beginning to end, and properly began raiding in, it’s the first one that I can look back at from a raiding perspective. There are two ways to look at it, from an encounter perspective or from a sentimental perspective. Encounters that are awesome in their own right, might not necessarily have the personal memories, that make an encounter truly special.
Cataclysm Bucket List
I’ve mentioned off hand in a few posts that there’s things that I want to accomplish before Mists hits. However, the germination of this list began not long after I started playing warcraft. I’m not sure whether cata had even been announced (this was February 2010). I plotted in my head a lot of this list and when I told my friend he laughed at me, told me to concentrate on getting one character up to max level first.
Those early days of the game was heady with the possibilities. It was exciting as there was so much new, unexplored areas. My friend had been playing since classic so he knew so much more than me, he had experienced so much more, had completed so much more and was capable of so much more. I wanted to catch up, I wanted to be able to play at something resembling his level as I wanted to play with my friend without him resenting it, I wanted to pull my weight. In essence I wanted the impossible, I wanted those years that I’d not known the game existed. This list was the substitute.
The current endgame
Recently at WoWInsider there was a post talking about the new endgame in Mists which got me thinking. What do I log into game to do? Sure there’s raiding which is where most roads lead to at the endgame but there has to be more than that. Mists is introducing a whole host of new activities and new ways of looking at some old ones. What is there right now?
A playing revelation
We’ve all heard about casual vs hardcore playstyles but I, like many I’d imagine, think that’s too simplistic. I’ve always said that I’m a casual player but I’ve recently had a bit of a revelation about that, which has prompted this post. It’s a bit of a personal post I suppose but I think it does have relevance enough to others, if only to make them think about their own playing preferences.
Thoughts on Diablo 3
This post coming right after the one about not having enough time to play swtor is strange I know. After all adding in another game isn’t exactly going to give me more time. However, I got Diablo 3 for free because of my warcraft annual pass and so I was always going to try it. It didn’t cost me anything so why not? So far I’ve just finished Act 1, I’ve entered the Act 2 area and wandered around some but that’s as far as I’ve got.
Swtor timeout
I haven’t been playing Star Wars: The Old Republic at all. I don’t think I’ve logged on for at least a month, time gets away from you and so I’m not sure how long it’s been exactly. I logged on very briefly to check out the legacy system but I hadn’t played properly for a couple of weeks before that. I still have a subscription to it though and I actually still think it’s a good deal, but I’m not playing – why?
When raids go wrong
We’ve all had those nights where content you should have down cold is kicking your butt. When it happens on consecutive raids, or on successive weeks, or both well guilds have broken up over less. Dealing with raids going wrong without blowing a gasket is a skill and one I’m certainly not going to claim I have mastered. However, there are a few points that I want to make.
Another look at account achievements
The other day Ghostcrawler made a post about account wide achievements. I wrote about these, what I wanted to see, and what I was scared about, just a couple of days after Mists Monday in March. However, this new information, while it’s not concrete as it’s still beta, is a lot more specific than the speculation we had before, and therefore needs looking at again.
Addon Reliance
Been a bit lazy lately with blogging. I ran out of steam and saved up articles and then let it slide. I don’t want to do that and so I’m going to try my best to blog regularly.
I challenge to you name one warcraft player who doesn’t have at least one addon. If you can name one I’ll be surprised, and I’ll also call whoever you named an idiot. A lot of addons are quality of life improvements, some are essential and it’s surprising how quickly you integrate the use of them, and how much you miss them when suddenly they aren’t there.
Mists Beta: First Steps and Protection Paladin
This morning I woke up to a beta invitation. I was expecting one eventually being an annual pass holder but I checked my account through yesterday, when I heard that a wave had gone out, and it wasn’t there so I assumed I’d be waiting till next wave or longer. I knew that emails took a while to come through but I didn’t realise that it took a while to show up on the account as well. Anyway, happy days I’m now in the beta.