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New expansion, new challenges

by Rindis on January 29, 2007 at 9:23 am
Posted In: MMO

I’ve been a bit slow really getting involved in the new BC content. I’ve done some questing in the first zone, and am starting to get somewhere with that. The obligatory new draeni, Aldisha, hit level 12 yesterday and is finally moving on to the second starting area. Merisan, a night elf warrior I’ve had for a while now, looks to be my contribution to the now level 20+ team of new characters that’s forming. I expect she’ll go the same way as Farmishi, that is she’s going to see a nice rise in levels as she helps everyone else get through instances. Considering that most, or all, of these won’t be mains either, she’ll probably keep up with everyone else for a while.

I’m keeping Farmishi on continuing lvl 60 instance duty at the moment. I’m sure there’ll still be runs for a while to come.

Though, the last two were in places that Dunain is still trying to finish up with. We did a Upper Spire run, that only got eight people. However, everyone went in with something from Burning Crusade, and most were over 60. The only death was me, as I tried to lead Drakkisath around. I did, however, get a better idea of how I might do it in the future without getting caught.

Most of us then went off and did a dead-side Strathome run. Actually, we did a 45-minute Baron run, with the idea that the newly-increased firepower would make it easier. Which was correct, we actually got through, and did the run with three minutes to spare, and Blondiewood finally got her Dungeon 2 upgrade.

Last night, though, was our first instance run in BC. Hellfire Citadel is a multi-part instance that you get directed to pretty quickly once in Outland. We went in with Blanc, Dunain, Thermidor, Blondiewood, and Asclepius; the only way to get any more classic Muse would be to replace Asclepius with Brunev or Jariedthe.

The Ramparts, the first part, or wing, of the Citadel is pretty simple with three bosses, there’s one quest going in, and another generated by the final boss. Apparently, everything through the first boss should be doable with 60s in vanilla greens. And I’d say that’s about right, the normal stuff certainly gave us no real trouble. The main part was just getting used to what they could do. The final two bosses (well, three, one’s a pair) were decidedly tough and generated multiple wipes between them. A good plan and group is decidedly needed going in, especially if you’re at about level.

That said, they’re quite doable. The main thing is there’s a lot of wide area of effect going on, and our resistances still aren’t where they probably should be. The last pair is exceptionally nasty since a relatively fast fight changes modes a couple times, and certainly left me struggling to keep up with what was going on. Most of the team got something good from the run. Dunain didn’t, but he did finally get to level 61. We have another three active main 60+s who need to do this, so we’re going to have to plan for that as well as doing the sequel wing, the Blood Furnace.

The video is decidedly more demanding on BC. Zangarmarsh (the second area in Outland) has seriously bogged down Haruhi when I’ve gone there. Oddly, Micca does well there, but Smudge reported that Hellfire Ramparts was really bad for her, when I didn’t have any trouble. Upgrading Micca is fairly straightforward if it comes down to it (though I had hoped for another year before even needing this), Haruhi is another matter. I’m already at the limits of what I can do without replacing most of the system.

└ Tags: MMO, WoW
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As if I weren’t distracted enough…

by Rindis on January 16, 2007 at 11:55 pm
Posted In: MMO

It’s official. Burning Crusade is out. It’s installed on my machine, my account is upgraded, and I have seen the elephant (or at least the other side of the Dark Portal).

It is kind of odd. For the past many months I’ve been able to roam somewhat at will around Azeroth. Partly because I knew my way around, as well as being at the level cap. Now it’s all new, and while at the moment all the normal monsters are slightly below my level, that can’t last long.

And there is the fact that I’m in for the beginning of everything other than the beta. Last time, the game had been out for six months before we hopped on the bandwagon. The initial Alliance area and quests are just flooded.

I’m also slightly gratified that what I’m seeing in quest rewards is right about at the level of my existing equipment. It’s been slowly gathered from higher 5-man instances, and I’d hate to see all of it rendered useless by the first few quests, the way some have made it sound.

└ Tags: MMO, WoW
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You know, I might just be getting the hang of this….

by Rindis on December 18, 2006 at 1:00 pm
Posted In: MMO

Had a BRD and a Scholomance run this past weekend, I did both with Farmishi.

Saturday, was yet another BRD run. Farmishi did her last quest there, Jail Break. Then we went and did the vault. Then we decided to hunt down the Dark Keeper who has the key for the ‘extra’ bit in the vault, who it turned out was enjoying himself in the Grim Guzzler.

We were a little nonplussed to find him buried in the corner and surrounded by patrons, and quite unhappy with us. So… we decided to try approaching him, pulling him out of the corner, and having a few words with him in the storeroom. This is effectively what you do when confronting Ribbly Screwspigot, and only his guards bother to help out.

Well, this guy is a lot more popular. We got all the patrons in the area after us, and… well, it wasn’t pretty. We did take a nice chunk out of the crowd though. We went back in, spotted the fact that the guard had indeed come in, and were in front of the back door now. Grumbly, a little overeager to get a drink for the remaining patrons, hands in his “do one silly thing” card and charges right in front of them. ^_^; Two deaths (me and Grumbly), two rezzes, and back to pondering what to do.

We make another attempt at them, but the social aggro on the patrons is quite large. (Gee, what do you expect: “Fight!”) The bad news, was this time much of the dungeon respawned, and we had to fight our way to the bar again. So we get back, finish off, grab the key, fight back to the vault, and get… a Traveler’s Knapsack. Yeah, all that for a white 14-slot bag. Bag space is good, but I don’t think anyone’s that desperate. (We do seem to have gotten the weakest loot possible.)

We cleared out the guard in the bar pretty easily. Pulled them down to where there was no longer any patrons, and only picked up about three extras.

Other than finding out just what all those warnings in the write-ups about the bar are about, it went very soothly. We had the best Lyceum run ever.

The Emperor was something else again. First he joined in in the last fight before tackling him. Wipe. Then, we’re doing well, everything’s fine, and Blanc suddenly takes about four hits and goes from top-of-form to dead. Wipe. Third time’s the charm, and Blanc got a nice Santa Hat for his troubles. ^_^

Sunday was a Scholomance run. For us, it went very well. For us in Scholomance, that is. Offhand, I recall 3-4 wipes.

What’s interesting is where we didn’t wipe.

We went in with Blanc, Farmishi, Blondiewood, Jariedthe, and Thermidor. So, no priest, and a bit down on DPS from our normal set (since even while fighting undead, Farmishi is just no substitute for Dunain on damage output). There were definite upsides, but I was a little worried going in.

However, we were all really on top of our game last night. We went for Jandice Barov (who, after our last two encounters we try to avoid) because of a quest, and took her down fairly easily. Knowing what to expect definitely helps. We also got Lord Alexi Barov very cleanly on our first try, and he’s someone who’s tied our party in knots before. In fact, the entire final sequence of bosses went very well for us.

Gandling looks kind of silly in a green Santa Hat though. He also was a bit tough. Farmishi was the only person in the party who didn’t get teleported away during the fight.

The runs have been finishing a bit late, so Farmishi is going to need to run around and turn in quests during the week.

└ Tags: MMO, WoW
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And a mighty Ding!

by Rindis on December 12, 2006 at 4:56 pm
Posted In: MMO

A couple of adventures to write about:

Last week, Blizzard released Patch 2.01, which means that they’re officially updating the engine to account for the changes in Burning Crusade. There were some unfortunate side-effects, such as boats that go to places that don’t exist yet. But one of the biggest things for everyone is that the talent trees have changed again. The new talent trees now go up to 41 points for the ‘best’ thing, instead of 31 points (the old ‘best’ is right where it was, the 41-point talent is a all-new ability). This means that a lot of characters will no doubt be less “broad” than they were, spending ten points for their new ability, and loosing 10 out of whatever secondary set that had been developed.

Case in point: Dunain. He’s always been Marksmanship-spec, and now he’s lost some of his Survival and Pet training trees to the new Marksmanship ability (Silencing Shot – I’m not exactly mourning the choice). However, there’s a lot of overall changes to the Hunter talents, Dunain definitely isn’t quite the same as he was before. Overall, I’d say he’s doing a bit more damage than before (at least his critical hits have picked up a bit).

That night we did an impromptu Lower Blackrock Spire run. We started with three, picked up a fourth, and went back to three for the final bit when I went to bed (after doing the final boss – they were going back after the puppies). Still a bit late for me, but a lot of fun. We did well, and while we didn’t get what we specifically wanted, Blanc still got a good item.

This weekend, we did a raid into Upper Blackrock Spire. We’ve only recently gotten a key, so this was completely new for Blanc and I. We also had Grumbly (our guide), Blondiewood, Noxlux, Asclepius, Thermidor and Jariedthe along, as well as a out-of-guild hunter that Grumbly knew (I forget the name).

So, we did most of the Spire with 9 people, and did very well. Sadly, our spare hunter had an earlier bedtime than I did, and we lost him before getting to the end parts. We actually did quite well, and got The Beast. Blanc had a good night: Rend Blackhand dropped a Dungeon 1 piece for him, and The Beast dropped, and Blanc won, Finkle’s Skinner on the first try.

That left us with eight people and General Drakkisath. That did not go so well. Of course, I’m amazed that we got to him with barely any snags at all on our first try, and undermanned. And having a hunter (me) who’s completely unused to kiting doesn’t help. Main judgment is that we need the two extra people for DPS, and then we’ll see.

And in other news, last night I went adventuring with Farmishi and hit level 60 with her! (And immediately spent 60-70 gold on new skills….) The paladin talent tree hasn’t changed much, and since she was never meant to hit the bottom of any one tree (Protection/Holy split), she hasn’t changed much, but a lot of the special effects on spells have changed.

└ Tags: MMO, WoW
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Vacationing in Blackrock Depths

by Rindis on December 4, 2006 at 12:10 pm
Posted In: MMO

Among the other things I did while on vacation was get my computer up, running, and on the broadband. This allowed me to participate in two BRD runs with Farmishi.

It was a little odd, I almost tried to go down the corridor to say something to Smudge off-line at one point, only to realize I wasn’t in the same house as her.

Also, TeamSpeak seems to be acting up. Other people were complaining about not being able to hear Smudge, despite the fact that she was crystal clear for me. And she seemed to be having no problems with people that I couldn’t hear. It’s like everyone is on random relative volume settings to everyone else….

The first run went all the way to the back and got the Emperor. Along the way, we picked off another three Anvilrage Captains (official count: 34, Plans: 0). One death in the Lyceum, otherwise a very clean run (and my first for lighting the torches). If I remember right, we originally went in with three people, and picked up more as they logged in….

The second run didn’t go to the back. But we got lots of other things done (like Bael’Gar). Farmishi is now down to Jail Break for BRD quests. We’ve officially put BRD on ‘farm’ (or was that ‘fram’) status. Sadly, we have quite a bit to farm down there….

└ Tags: MMO, WoW
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