Dark Iron Dwarves

Dark Iron Dwarf Warlock

One of the items added to World of Warcraft (WoW) with Legion and expanded upon with Battle for Azeroth (BfA) is allied races.  I was never very interested in it when I heard about them with Legion and once I stopped playing I didn't think about them very much.  However, one of the quests you get at level 100 is to visit the Stormwind Embassy and there you get an introduction to the different races.

I have never liked elves and always had a preference to dwarves even before I started playing World of Warcraft. When I completed the quest I realized the one race where I had completed the prerequisite was the Dark Iron Dwarves and I became interested in how it worked.

I took Kanter to the embassy and he was able to get the intro quest for the Dark Iron Dwarves which initially took him to Blackrock Depths, a dungeon where you have to spend a significant amount of time in Vanilla to get the Onyxia key.  I thought the quest was quite enjoyable and about the right length.  I was guess it took me about an hour (I wasn't rushing it at all) but because it was fun, it's difficult to say if it was shorter or longer.  The quests take you to a few different Dwarven areas in keeping with the theme.  At the end you get an achievement, a transmog outfit, a mount, and the ability to create a Dark Iron Dwarf.

For a feature I wasn't interested in, I was quite surprised how much I enjoyed it.  I've now created the character you see above.  The starting area is in Blackrock Depths and, even though much of it is closed off, it is fun to see several areas like the Grim Guzzler zone where everyone is friendly.  I'm not particularly interested in any of the other races other than the Vulpera, which are a Horde fox-like race and I doubt I'll ever invest the time on the Horde side to create one.  However, I'm very glad I spent the time visiting the feature and would recommend it to anyone who has the option.  It might even get me to level my first Warlock.

Leveling alts in World of Warcraft Legion

Warrior Class Hall - Skyhold

I'll be talking about Legion, an expansion that came out more than three and a half years ago (August 2016), so if you don't want to look at World of Warcraft history, feel free to skip this post.  I will, however, be talking about it as someone who is leveling alts with the current bonus experience.

I was frustrated with the World of Warcraft (WoW) Legion expansion when it first came out.  Initially I liked the class hall and the much of the questing but as I was working on reputations, the beginnings of the Illidan questline were fun (particularly when you got to play Illidan as the raid boss) but I didn't like Suramar.  I didn't like having my dwarf be an elf (you wear a disguise most of the time in the area).  I didn't like worry about the stealth mechanism almost all the time (so you didn't lose your disguise and get attacked).  And then, when I was exalted with the faction and I was almost done with the quests you needed to do for the achievement that eventually lead to flying, they put it behind a dungeon and raid wall and I didn't want to do that.  Right about that time I quit the game (and, about that time, I quit blogging).  I never even visited the Argus expansion area that came out later.

However, now, as a solo pass through area on the way to Battle for Azeroth, the expansion is great.  The class halls are all quite different and very well themed to the class (you can see the warrior one above).  I haven't seen them all but the Hunter and Druid class halls are outside areas that you can travel to in the Broken Isles (the region where the expansion takes place) which makes sense for these classes.  In contrast the Warrior, Priest and Mage areas are buildings you visit.  The Mage area requires teleport, a mage only spell, while the Warrior area is viking themed and you use a Thor-like leap to reach the area and get back to Dalaran, the central city hub.

With the 100% bonus experience (including quests, exploration, and gathering) levels go quickly.  Not spending too many hours or using any additional bonus experience except the rested bonus (another 100% but only for the experience when killing mobs, not from the items listed above) I was able to gain the 10 levels for the expansion in about 2 days.  That also pretty much consumed my rested bonus but then I would go to the next character I wanted to level.  This way, over the last two weeks I've leveled three characters through Legion (levels 100 to 110) and have a fourth almost half way there (my Druid started at level 95 so he used up rested experience half way through).

The bonus experience is through April 20th, so if you are reading this when it's current and you've left World of Warcraft and are interested in leveling some characters you have, I'd recommend it.  It goes very fast, I was able to avoid the things I didn't like (Suramar), and there are enough differences between the classes and enough different areas to quest that you don't have to have the same experience.

At this point the characters I originally leveled are rested again and I have started leveling them through Battle for Azeroth.  More about that in future posts.

World of Warcraft Casually, Classic and Retail

Battle for Azeroth

When I started playing World of Warcraft (WoW) Classic, I saw it as a way to start over and enjoy things differently than I did the first time I played through.  What that didn't mean, as I mentioned in my last post, was that creating different characters.  I liked my characters and tried to recreate them as much as possible.  What I was hoping was that I could advance with my guild again and have Kanter, my hunter, be my solo character, and Kantra, my priest, be my dungeon and raid character.  That all fell apart when I realized dungeons weren't practical with the internet issues I was having.  However, I was already subscribed to World of Warcraft and there was this tempting bonus experience only in retail, not in classic.

Blagpuss was talking about how easy isn't a bad thing in MMOs when discussing how he was enjoying that last expansion in Everquest II.  I was feeling the same way as I was able to easily get to max level in World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth with Kanter after putting it off for so long.  The contrast with Classic made it especially enjoyable.

I spend a descent amount of time reading blog posts (see blog roll to the right), many of them about MMOs.  I started reading them before I started this blog and they definitely encouraged me to write and I still enjoy reading them even if I'm not playing.  I've read the criticism of how World of Warcraft ruined MMOs from certain bloggers and I understand what they are saying, but they aren't playing the game I'm playing.

I want to be casual.  I was looking for a free to play game thinking it would be a better match for a casual player but it hasn't happened.  World of Warcraft is an easy solo game.  For a few years I did raiding in Vanilla (not Classic) and Burning Crusade but it was always stressful for me.  What that time did (and it is a lot of time, supposedly almost 152 days of play time just on Kanter according to WoW) was put me in position to be able to play the game on my own terms as long as I'm willing to pay or buy a token.  

World of Warcraft is comfortable for me and, even though they recreate it with every expansion, it still keeps that level of comfort.  They have also added more for the solo player to do. More features like the farm in Mists of Pandaria, more profession related quests, and more little goals that give you incentive to stay around.  Legion was even better for solo players in that there were more class related quests (more about that in one of my coming posts).

I remember people saying that end game was the game but even when I was raiding, I enjoyed the journey more than the destination.  At this point there is so much content in World of Warcraft that I don't need to worry about running out of things to do.  I don't know if it would be that way if I had never played WoW, but, for me, WoW Retail is a great casual game.  WoW Classic is not.

World of Warcraft Classic as a Casual player

My classic toons, much like my first five retail toons

Like I said in my first post, I am using my blog as an exploration of what it's like to be a casual player in a genre (MMORPG) which expects people to spend lots of time in the game.  I'll start with how I got back into World of Warcraft last year and what got me to where I am now.

Even though I hadn't played World of Warcraft (WoW) for more than three years, I was still subject to the hype for WoW Classic.  Blizzard gifted me a free week of retail just before the Classic release (sometime in August 2019) and that was a good enough excuse for me to log back in and see what my guild was up to.  I found out the website no longer worked but the Discord was listed inside the game so I was able to see how they were planning for the release of Classic.  That was enough to get me to subscribe and I had some fun starting the Battle for Azeroth content just as it was approaching the last update.

Classic started well enough.  I waited a few days to miss the rush and leveled my hunter just as I did when retail first went live (including the queues but without the lag).  Before long I started gathering things I couldn't use and so that had me start recreating my other toons since I've always been a hoarder in WoW.

After a while I came up with a plan to level my hunter, Kanter, first and then, level my priest not too far behind so Kanter could provide her gold and equipment and she could heal in dungeons.  That all went well until I took her to the first alliance dungeon, Deadmines.  As a whole, the dungeon went well and we finished it fine but I did not.  I have been having some issues with my internet but I was hoping they wouldn't interfere with grouping.  After three disconnects where the rest of the group did fine (there was a druid who healed when I disconnected) I didn't think I could do it again.

Grouping has always been stressful for me.  I always judge myself harshly and I'm always fearful that I'm not pulling my weight.  In this case, I obviously wasn't.  About this time the World of Warcraft anniversary event started.  Part of the anniversary was a token given you 15% more experience in retail (it didn't work in classic).

I went ahead and made the switch to retail and used the experience buff to finally see the Battle for Azeroth (BfA) content.  More about my experience with BfA and Classic in my next post.

Back for Blapril

Blapril is almost here

Yes, it's been more than three years since my last post.  I pretty much stopped playing MMOs during that time.  I keep thinking I'll find a better casual game than World of Warcraft but I don't think I'm prepared to make the investment in a new game that I've already made in WoW.

That has changed somewhat in the last 6 months.  World of Warcraft classic and the anniversary event inspired me to subscribe again for the event.  The 100% bonus experience offered until April 20th has encouraged me to subscribe again and level several alts that never made it through Legion when I quit.

Still my time is dominated by work and family.  The original idea I had for this blog was to try to find the right MMO that I could enjoy and balance the other things in my life.  It seems the topic still applies.

I will probably target posting twice a week rather than 30 posts.  I'm hoping it'll be a nice way to use my time during the pandemic.

2016 Gaming

Happy New Year!  Time to look back at 2016

I'm not going to go into politics, but I will say that I'm not looking forward to 2017 due to what will be happening in the United States on January 20th.  That said, I found gaming a nice way to spend my free time (I watch very little television and few movies) in 2016 and I expect it to be the same in 2017.

I have been using Raptr to track my game time, but I'm starting to doubt the numbers.  I know my daughters and I had played 'Don't Starve Together' but Raptr showed the same total hours in 2016 as 2017.  When I looked in Steam, it shows 17 hours played total (10 hours in 2016, versus 0 in Raptr), which sounds about right.  I'm not looking for a precise number, so I'll start using both this year.

As has been true for the last few years, World of Warcraft dominated my time.  According to Raptr, I've played for 330 hours as compared to 371 hours in 2015.  Until November and December when my play time slowed down, I do expect I was averaging about an hour a day and that it was about the same last year.  I know this is minimal for other players, but it dominated my play time.

The next four games, I almost exclusively played with my daughters.  I played Minecraft for 24 hours (27 in 2015), Civilization V for 18 hours (only 2 hours in 2015), and Don't Starve Together for 10 hours (7 in 2015).  I also played Defender's Quest for 12 hours (a Tower Defense Game I mentioned before) and although this is a solo game, my daughters enjoyed watching me play, so it was primarily a group activity.  The only other significant games time I had in 2016 was playing Gone Home, which I liked, but I also did it partially because I thought my daughters might enjoy it, and 2 hours of the Walking Dead (again with my daughters).

It might be fun to have tablet, phone and 3DS game time tracked as well, but I don't and they are a pretty separate category so I don't feel any real compulsion.  So, not including those, I had almost exactly an hour a day average gaming (400 hours according to my spreadsheet).  Not much for your typical gamer, but given my limited free time, a pretty significant number.

November and December Gaming - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Factions down and one achievement left for Legion Pathfinder

I haven't been playing a lot over these last two months but I didn't manage to complete the reputation grind (Broken Isles Diplomat) for the Legion Pathfinder achievement that will be required when flying is available.  I also on the same day manage to finish a set of Suramar World Quests that gave me Exalted repution with the Nightfallen, as prerequite for getting the last set of quests for the Suramar quests, the last achievement I need.

So I have done all the solo work but I need to finish the Emerald Nightmare raid to finish the second to last quest line.  I could either try to join my guild raid or run it LFR but neither appeals to me.  Like Ysharros, I'm a little resentful that it requires group content to get flying.  I would also like to get the next Alchemy recipe, but that requires running a dungeon, more group content I'm not particularly interested in doing, so I've stopped doing much of anything.  Logically, if I want to do solo work, I should switch to my priest, Kantra, but it's not really logical and I feel like I should really finish the flying achievement on Kanter first.

The end result is that I'm looking for another MMO to solo in (even though I know in some ways that's not logical).  The Black Desert Online character creator is still amazing and it's on sale for $5 so I've gotten a guest pass from Aywren (who has been inspiring me with her BDO posts), waited the 24 hours (almost) for the game to download, and have already been enjoying the tutorial quests and am already at level 12 in my first day.  My goal is to just do crafting, horse breeding, and house decoration.

I'll write another post later specific about Black Desert Online, but I though I'd mention I decided to go with the $5 package after pondering the $25 package.  I'm not adverse to spending some money in the cash shop but I'd rather choose where to spend the money than having to take what they include in the package.  I'll figure I'll eventually buy some inventory space and strength so I can carry more and might get a pet to help with gathering, but I'll do it later.

The good news is that after not posting for almost two months, I have one post on Black Desert Online and another on 2016 gaming already written in my head.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and I look forward to more gaming in 2017!