World of Warcraft: Oh no we must stop generic bad guy again!

With my Druid at level 70 and Pandaria Remix still in the coming, I was thinking of what to do to fill up a couple weeks in World of Warcraft. Alternative projects and all that. I identified four that might be worth doing between now and The War Within:

1. Leveling my Hunter Gwenders to 70
2. Unlocking all of the allied races I’ve yet to get
3. Earning the heritage armor for the races
4. Getting the Legion class mounts for each class I play
5. Unlocking any customization options for classes or races

Alliance allied races seemed the easiest place to start on that list, as all I had to do is the main quest for each. As I was going through the Lightforged Draenei one, I spent a few minutes respeccing my Druid to a full feral build for some fast cat action. I actually ended up loving this build quite a lot, especially since I could pump out some heals and spells in cat form.

So the good news is that I got all of the Allied races, including the (shudder) Void Elves. The bad news is that because I don’t yet have a level 40 Horde character on this server, I can’t get those five races yet. I’m going to leave that for Pandaria Remix and move on to hunting down other unlocks, like getting the red skin customization option for Draenei.

And piling on even more to do is the new Dark Heart storyline with this patch, which I feel is probably worth doing since it leads into the new expansion.

But do I have even the faintest idea of what’s going on with the storyline? Not a clue. But with World of Warcraft, it always boils down to the same thing: A bad guy is trying to Do The Thing, and we must Stop It before it’s Too Late.

FFXIV: Winnie the Pooh, professional healer

Sliding my way back into FFXIV with an intent of solely pursuing a White Mage — at least for now — means that I need to (a) work out my rustiness and (b) level up my Conjurer to 30, get White Mage, and then do some catch-up leveling to 41 where I can rejoin the main storyline. Since I have just two heals and one cleanse in the 20s, it’s a pretty brainless healing experience.

Happily, level 30 only took a few healing dungeon runs, and then I had my first White Mage. I was hoping for one of those cool white-and-red robes right from the get-go, but nothing doing. I still look like a medieval jester. A jester, I might add, who is healing with a staff that I’ve sardonically named Mr. Goofy Face. This is how you get everyone in the group to take me seriously.

Since I’d ding at least once — if not twice — per dungeon run, I zipped up to level 40 pretty quickly as well. I’m starting to get some better healing tools in my kit, including a regen and a second AOE heal. And now I’m finally able to jump back onto the main story quest… wherever I left off with that. I think we just got Cid’s airship and he’s pretty psyched about it.

The one big drawback of pursuing a White Mage is that the combat is extremely basic and limited. I get a whopping two (2) combat abilities at level 43 — stone for direct damage, and aero for damage-over-time. That’s it. Hit ’em with a dot, spam stone, and let my chocobo help out. It gets the job done, but it’s easily the most boring combat style in any MMO I currently play. Of course, the big upside is instant groups whenever I need one!

I got all excited at doing my level 45 class quest, as it was paying out in multiple pieces of what I assumed would be my first White Mage-looking outfit. And I got all of the pieces except the robe (which I assume is still to come). Unfortunately, it left me with “pants” that are pretty much just underwear and now I feel like I’m Winnie the Pooh.

I haven’t done this in a while, so I looked up how far along I’ve come since starting this character over Christmas. I’m at 66% of the ARR questline and almost 23% of the entire MSQ, which I feel is pretty respectable. Of course, that still means I have over 100 quests to go in the base game alone, so it’s not like this is going to be over tomorrow.

LOTRO: The Old Forest is a BREEze (sorry)

Something that I’ve been giving a lot more thought to is the purpose of my River Hobbit Lore-master. As in, what’s my approach with her? I don’t think I’m angling for a completionist, comb-every-corner-of-the-map run with this character, but I’m also not going to be skipping zones. What I’ve arrived at in my head is that she’s a lazy, do everything, long-term journey-type project. With three characters in the Corsairs of Umbar expansion (and one completely finished with it), there’s no pressure to blast her through the whole game.

Do you ever take a wrong turn and scratch your head trying to figure out how to get from point A to B in LOTRO? That’s me ALL THE TIME. I would pay 5000 LP for a GPS in this game, I swear.

I got a laugh out of heading into the solo dungeon that capped Cardolan’s storyline… only to find out that the first boss was another bog-lurker like my co-worker there. Not that intimidating at all, no.

And that is finally, officially it for Cardolan and Before the Shadow, with all the deeds and quests completed. My Lore-master hit level 32 in the process and is now off to Bree-land for some more deeding before hitting up a brand-new zone.

First stop on the western Bree-land virtue tour is the Barrow Downs, where no fewer than four (4) deeds lurk. As I was killing the skeletons, I noticed that these models sport a single eyeball tucked deep inside there. Creepy! I never noticed that before!

Another interesting detail — these carved stones seem to feature skeletal warriors trying to ward off something while hiding behind a shield? It’s unusual and I’d like to know what this is about.

After that, it was the Old Forest for the three deeds there. I mean, at least there’s a map now, but figuring out the best route to hit all the spots still requires a lot of alt-tabbing to LOTRO Wiki’s maps. It was about 30 minutes to do the huorn slayer deed and another 20 for the two exploration deeds.

Bio Break Mix Tape: Back to the Future the Musical and more!

It’s the start of the week, so why not start it off right with some great tunes? Enjoy your latest Bio Break Mix Tape, a random collection of awesome songs that I’ve discovered lately and want to pass on to you to enjoy too…

World of Warcraft: Taking the side roads to level 70

To pass the (short) time between healing dungeons in World of Warcraft, I pulled together a new healer/nature-looking outfit for my Druid. I like the metal clawed toes, they lend a touch of class.

I’ve also been poking into every crevasse of Stormwind, which is certainly different from its vanilla days. I wouldn’t have put the above picture in that city if I hadn’t found it myself!

At this point I have to ask myself how many characters I really want or need at level 70 to be ready to jump into The War Within. I’m only highly invested in my Death Knight and Druid, although I do have a pretty cool Shaman and Hunter at level 60 that could be nice future options. I’m wondering if Blizzard is going to do a catch-up event after the Pandaria Remix as it’s done in past expansions, which might be helpful to get gear up to par for this fall. As these things go.

Time to check out the May trading post offerings! There weren’t any headlining items I wanted, although I did snap up a cool rise-themed dagger and a shoulder cape. And because I’ve built up such a reservoir of tender, I went ahead and purchased a treasure chest backpack that I’ve been holding frozen for a year now.

As my Druid reached level 70, my thoughts have turned more to side projects — beneficial accomplishments for my entire account that would be worth pursuing. The problem? There’s SO MUCH content in WoW that I need to do my homework to figure out what’s useful to do and what’s just busy work with no point. So that’s next on my list to do.

Elder Scrolls Online: Tree slap fighting

I’ve realized something interesting… to me, at least. And that’s when Elder Scrolls Online’s missions aren’t tied to a specific zone, I have a very hard time caring about them. These prologue quests that I’m trying to wrap up feel like pulling teeth, even though they aren’t that involved in the big scheme of things. I really think it’s just a disconnect between them and a part of the game I care about.

How am I feeling about Gold Road? Pretty psyched, actually. Currently, the plan is to actually buy and play the expansion upon launch, which will be the first time I’ve done that since Morrowind (I think). The spell customization has me very intrigued, and I wouldn’t mind a pair of new companions at this point.

Things running out of portals at me in this game never frighten me that much. I think this is where rejects are flushed into other dimensions.

But then a setback! I hadn’t seen the new Gold Road prologue quest appear in my log, which kind of reminded me that I have to go to the crown store to “buy” these free quests for some reason. And when I got there, I discovered that I had several other prologue quests sitting around. So I went from about five left to do to 10. I just made the pit deeper!

Even if I’m not fully tracking all of these stories, at least they’re bringing me to some scenic places!

After a while, though, I dropped the prologues entirely and deleted all of them from my quest log. They were making me dread logging in, and I knew I would rather get back to doing zone-specific questing and achievements. That took me to Greenshade for the month of May — let’s make the best of it with my new April costume reward! I am quite the fancy lass, I am.

Elder Scrolls Online being very normal and well-adjusted.

Holy crap those May login rewards are bonkers — a free house on day three, 10 total free lootbox crates, 500 seals, and a pig pet! Not too shabby at all.

I like to think that these trees are slap fighting.

LOTRO: CardoDONE my son! Um… mostly!

LOTRO’s anniversary is a festival that I feel is in need of a revamp. While the scavenger cards are awesome and worth doing — at least once — the repeatable quests/activities are underwhelming and generally not worth my time. Plus, this year’s cosmetics and rewards were easy passes for me, so I waved it all away and continued on with my normal quests.

My Lore-master is nearing the end of Cardolan questing, which I may be dragging my feet on because I don’t feel like doing the treasure cache deed afterward. But I will, because I want that pony mount.

Even though she’s just armed with words, books, and a quirky swamp beast, my Lore-master shows no fear even when delving into the deepest parts of Middle-earth. I think she’s growing on my more than my previous LM, to be honest.

It took far longer than it should’ve, but I finally wrapped up Cardolan’s questing and cracked into the remaining deeds. Next up? Probably western Bree-land deeds, then Lone-lands, Yondershire, and North Downs. Eriador really does take forever to fully comb through these days.

And just when you write that you’ve finished all the quests, you end up stumbling upon a lot more. So I guess I’m not done here yet — but I did finish the deed meta and got the amazing mount. It’s all about the extra bags and cosmetics!

As my Minstrel continues to work through Corsairs of Umbar’s Chapter 8, I had to once again post a picture of the city’s market. For all I get annoyed at the layout of this place, it’s undeniable how visually appealing it is — and colorful to boot.

You mess with me, you get my BIRD! I swear, this bird is one of the best characters in this entire expansion, and it never says anything. In other Minstrel news, I got all the way through Book 8.5 of the epic and reached the current end of the game (in terms of solo content). Time to break out my Cappy? Probably!

Bio Break Mix Tape: Letters to Cleo, Beastie Boys, and more!

It’s the start of the week, so why not start it off right with some great tunes? Enjoy your latest Bio Break Mix Tape, a random collection of awesome songs that I’ve discovered lately and want to pass on to you to enjoy too…

World of Warcraft: You can’t take the skies from me

I went away for one week on a total internet/social media/news-free getaway and came back to some pretty odd MMO news — not the least of which is this “World of Warcraft Mists of Pandaria Remix” thing. That took me a bit to get my head around, and my first thought was, “What’s in Blizzard’s water fountains these days, because this company is downright hyperactive.”

But once I grokked what this was about, I actually got a bit excited. It’s a neat idea to offer this alternative leveling journey solely through Mists of Pandaria with new rewards all the way up to the level cap, especially if we’re all a little sick of Dragonflight. And since I’ve never actually played through Mists of Pandaria — seriously, I haven’t — this seems like a good way to spend the summer prepping a new character for The War Within. The only question is… what class?

I swear I am going to get Dragon Isles Pathfinder done this month. I am not too far away from it — just two achievements to go — but it’s been sticking in my craw for a while now. Maybe I’m in the minority of players who prefer normal flying over dragonflight, but I really do miss it and want to be finished with having to use these lizards.

Another aspect to this is that I’m not invested in the Dragonflight expansion as a whole. I had this same issue with Shadowlands when I only sporadically played. I kept getting further and further behind on my character in comparison to all of the updates, rep grinds, questlines, etc. that I actually looked forward to a reset button or similar equivalent. That’s why the Remix thing appeals — it’s not Dragonflight but rather a fresh start of sorts that leads into another fresh start. I’m looking for an “on ramp” back into the game that isn’t going to make me feel swamped.

I probably should start getting used to being underground, considering that much of the upcoming expansion takes place under the crust. I do hope that Blizzard makes good on its promise to avoid a “claustrophobic” feel to The War Within. After all, the skyboxes are one of the art highlights of any zone in this game.

Almost all at once, Dragon Isles Pathfinder was done — and I had my flying horse back again. While dragonflight has its place, I like having the option and prefer the older method to the new (not the least of which is that it’s less stressful in tricky spots). I just hope I don’t have to go through this again in The War Within… but I probably will.

While there’s “stuff” to do on my Death Knight, I feel that I’m in a good place to pause and work on leveling up some of my alts, starting with my Druid. I respecced her to be a healer and plan to run a dungeon or two a day to get her to level 70.

Between runs, I amused myself by flying around to see what I could see. I stumbled upon this gnome sheep farmer who got a bit irate when I blew up his robot ewe.

My wife may be the one WoW player who doesn’t actually own the latest expansion, so she’s been happily slumming in Battle for Azeroth for months now. Every so often she gets me to join her on dungeon runs so that I can plow through packs of lower level mobs for her.

Syp’s gaming goals for May 2024

April 2024 in review

• This was a fine enough, if unpredictable, month of gaming. The only anomaly was a full week that I stepped away from the internet entirely for vacation (and didn’t even mobile game that much, to be honest).
• In LOTRO, I got my high level Minstrel through the core Corsairs of Umbar questlines including all of the Chapter 8 stuff, while my Lore-master did some Spring Festival activities to get a honey goat. I’m mostly at idling speeds in that game right now — a little here and there, but not full throttle.
• World of Warcraft (retail) finally saw me finishing the main Dragonflight storylines so that I could unlock normal flying in the Dragon Isles. Done with that, I started to work on leveling up my Druid to 70 through dungeons.
• I did several prologue quests in Elder Scrolls Online but really wasn’t feeling those, even for the sake of completion.
• Another game I wasn’t fully feeling was SWTOR, where I started a Sith Warrior but quickly ran out of steam in pursuing that. Just not your time, SWTOR.
• Let’s see, what else? I had a great time running a new prosperous Rimworld colony, dabbled in some Sims 4, and finished up the month getting back into Fallout 4.

May 2024 gaming goals

• I really like the idea of committing to a CRPG that I’ve never finished — starting with Fallout 4 — and playing through it until it’s done. That’ll be a multi-month endeavor, but I’m psyched for it, so May’s going to be the month to incorporate that into my regular gaming schedule and see if it’s something I want to keep doing past this month. Heaven knows I have a huge pile of RPGs I’d love to go through start to finish.
• I’m going to go ahead and ditch all of the remainder prologue quests in ESO and spend the month working on Greenshade. Hopefully I’d finish that in time for Gold Road in early June.
• For LOTRO, I have plenty of options but not a lot of drive at the moment. I could keep on with my lowbie Lore-master, work on a new Rune-keeper, or start leveling my Captain through Umbar. I feel a tinge of burnout at the moment, perhaps stemming from that lack of a drive, so I might just keep this a “log in for 15 minutes, dither around, and see where my whims send me.”
• I’m pretty psyched for World of Warcraft’s Pandaria Remix, so I’ve circled that date to jump into this mode with a brand-new Paladin to have fun for a few months. I do think the ship’s sailed on the notion of going into Cataclysm Classic (not the least of which is the fact that I never finished Wrath Classic), so unless I see something intriguing in that version of the game, I’m fine letting it lie.
• I’m also flirting with picking back up my free trial FFXIV character and going through more A Realm Reborn questing as a White Mage.