ECTmmo.com- MMO Blog: The Adventures of Kaozz...: A Change of Pace

My first LFR... Awww.

Lots going on! Guild Wars is basically going to be on autopilot, kind of sad to hear that. I mean look at EverQuest, it is still going strong beside the sequel. Guild Wars still has a decent population, whenever I log in, tons of people in the towns and cities. I suppose it doesn't surprise me after the sunset of City of Heroes. Not very impressed. But, I guess at least it is still there... For now.

Neverwinter has some goodies for accounts created before, last weekend or so. For all the trouble with the economy, a seven hour rollback and whatever else, gifts in the mail. I sort of took a break after I've seen how much needs to be checked into with people doing 'stuff they shouldn't', exploiting or utilizing things that were unintended, you know, that stuff. I think I will wait until things settle down, I play so little and when I do, my time is valuable. I don't want the one time I play through the week to be rolled back on me! I'm sure it will smooth out soon.

Dragons Prophet goes into open beta sooooon! Keep your eye on that, housing, dragons, lots of nifty things to look forward to. Oh, and the dragon packs are 20% off now. You can find it all on the website. I did get into closed beta, I just have not had much time to really get into it, I plan on looking more tomorrow.

5.3 hit WoW this week. I am enjoying it. I actually got up off my butt and started gearing up. I hate waiting in queues, like last week, I wanted to buy something with justice. I needed more. I didn't want to wait in the queue so I went as a healer for my first heroic, lol. It went decently. Then I decided to work on the druid as resto, because nobody has a healer with our bunch. You can always use a healer, plus I have loved healing over the years. I really do love to heal. And you know what? It really isn't as painful as I thought it would be. Granted there is a LOT of moving around which bugs the hell out of me. But that is with ANY class/spec. ANNOYING for those of us with wrist problems.

So, yeah, been doing heroics, scenarios, and... LFR. I've never done a looking for raid...raid. I hear how horrid they are but so far they are a bit messy but not something I can't deal with. It isn't exciting as those old classic groups, I don't think anything will be that exciting. But I do enjoy healing and it is fun to be actually doing content that is relevant to the expansion again.

The raids and groups are sometimes silent. The conversation isn't there, it is weird but I cannot complain. Raiding in a pretty quick manner, group formed and ported in automatically, it is like the McDonalds of raiding! Drive through raiding. Burger King style, have it YOUR way, now you can raid and get gear for your OFFSPEC. Raid YOUR way! I like the ease, do it when I have time, so I appreciate the fact it is there. I was saying, recently, I didn't know if I'd ever raid again. If you asked me a week ago I'd have said no. But... I wanted to gear up to help everyone and I'm glad I did. Though now that I have a healer, everyone seems to be off doing their own thing :( Which makes it all kind of, well, feeling rather pointless.

The druid is not very fun to me as balance, she requires a lot of kiting and rooting to kill Pandaria champions, much more demanding than the lock. But it isn't as bad as it once was, now that I have better gear and more of an idea of what I should be doing, lol. I learned root is a wonderful tool, not that I had to use it much in the past, I do now! I like the idea of balance but the execution is lacking.

5.3 brought some changes to the way the the talent Force of Nature works. It is really great. Some may not like it but it is like free heals (as resto) and those stack up. The cooldown was changed, it is not on GCD either and it has charges. These little trees are nice. They are great with spike damage. As balance they root the mob when they first cast, then do some moderate dps. I like having them, also three charges that build up over twenty seconds. I can't complain, I think these are a great addition to how mechanics of the druid flow.

Oh, new quests, new story, new weekly, new easy epics! Yeah, 5.3 brought in some cool stuff, will be fun to see how it all unfolds. Start the quest in the vale, check your mailbox! Leads to some cool stuff, like a weekly where the mobs have some nifty drops like epic armor that can be made into any class armor or sold to other players, also a nice 24 slot bag! The armor is a reclolor of classic T1, for Death Knights it is a recolor of their starter set, the one you leave newbie land with. Don't forget the 200 valor for the quest, not too bad.

Other than that I was puttering around in Vanguard a bit. I made a Bloodmage, which I absolutely love. I slowed down playing over the last few days but I am enjoying playing when I can. The game hitches with me at times, but I think that is because the game is best run on an SSD. From what I read, the game accesses more local files more so than most MMORPGs. Makes sense, it smooths out once an area has loaded, but that answers a lot of questions I had about performance.

I do wish content would roll out more so for the game. I absolutely love playing the game but end game seems rather narrow. Is it just a game to roll many alts with? I'd like to see SOE stop throwing out so many half baked games and polish what they have. Yes, I said it, I'm not that impressed with some of the newer stuff. I mean if this is how you let some of your current games sit, what makes me think you're going to better with EverQuest Next? If it stutters and wasn't what everyone had hopes, will they stick it on life support too? Don't get me wrong, I am a big SOE fan but it really is a sad story with Vanguard Saga of Heroes. It could be worse, right? I mean at least it isn't going on autopilot, like GW is!

I don't think the flagship will actually be put on life support but it makes you wonder. But look at Free Realms, most of the cool stuff is put in the cash shop, the announcements for activities are basically gone, did their community manager go missing or something? Updates are few and far between. But... I am off topic now.

I enjoy my time in Telon. It is a bit rough sometimes, the beauty of the world is relaxing and the atmosphere is just... different. I feel fully immersed in the fantasy setting when I play. Unlike another game I play, lol. I really feel as if I am out there exploring in a game, for a change. It is a great feeling.

Anyhow, I hope to stop being so slack with posting. I'm still so much busier these days but I have TONS of things in my head, for when I do post. I always WANT to, but actually sitting down and writing is another story. Have a great weekend!