Ding, Level 90!

Ding 90

Not so much WoW time this weekend since we were out of town most of the weekend or out and about. Did manage to get enough playtime in to hit 90 while questing in the Dread Wastes, which is by the way very dready and wasty I suppose. Hopefully more instancing and what not next week. Oh man is it nice to fly again…

Mists of Pandaria, Week One

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Ding, level 88! I know, I’m the fastest leveler ever right? I swear that most people are either at or approaching level 90 but now and hopping on the gear treadmill. Definitely glad that I am not really feeling pressured to rush to the level cap, though being towards the bottom end of your social group’s leveling curve sucks a bit. It was exciting back in the day, running heroics ASAP at the front of the pack, it I just don’t seem to have the time or interest for that sort of play style anymore. Also, I will get there eventually so I don’t really see the point of rushing through everything.

I *gasp* actually got my crap together and started tanking instances the other night, which was interesting considering that the last time I had seriously tanked since what, the end of Burning Crusade? My tanking gear is mostly crap, in fact the vast majority of it was replaced by a half-night of questing. I must say, it was nice not having to wait for a tank in the LFG queue for a half hour.

So anyway, questing: Valley of the Four Winds was a fun zone, the brew quests are a blast. I like the WoW farming mini game, despite thinking that it sounded a bit silly when it was first announced. It’s simple, quick, different, and feeds right into the cooking profession. Currently working on Kun-Lai Summit. I am enjoying the East Asian martial arts aesthetic quite a bit; From peaceful meditation, training montages to trekking up a mountain Everest style. Departing from run-of-the-mill high fantasy archetypes is a breath of fresh air. The lighthearted pseudo-Chinese theme reminds me of Avatar the Last Airbender, which is most definitely not a bad thing in my opinion.

Like all MMO’s, I am curious as to what the general feel for MoP will be 3 to 4 months from now once the most people have settled in at the level cap. That was about the time when Cataclysm attrition has started to hit (for myself included), so I am very interested in seeing what Blizzard had planned to mitigate player loss.

Mists of Pandaria: Day One

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Two miracles happened today when logged into WoW (thus ending my approx 6 month hiatus). One: My user interface didn’t explode and utterly break as expected. Aside from a few errors and missing elements (my holy bar had vanished…), I didn’t have to do much of anything other than download an updated copy of my addons (against my better judgement I used an addon updater because I am lazy). Two: There were no server problems or queues on Proudmoore when I had logged in during prime time on release day. I downloaded the updated last night, logged in when I got home from work this evening, played, logged out when I was done. No queue, no serious lag, no server crashing. I’m not sure if that means anything anymore, but release days have traditionally been somewhat of a nightmare for past expansions.

I am half way through level 85. I did one of the starting dungeons shortly after logging in, leveled in Jade Forest and did the other starting dungeon. Had an absolute blast playing with friends again, which is really what much of the game is about for me; Good times all around. Jade Forest is a gorgeous zone by the way, hard to imagine that a game approaching it’s 8th year can look this good! Not planning on rushing to level 90 to raid as I did with past expansions. I think that I am looking forward to taking my time for once and not rushing through everything to stay on level with everyone else. Also, I don’t think I can really commit to a hardcore or even just a 2 to 3 night a week raid schedule anymore. I would love to raid again with a regular group at some point though.

Totally forgot how to play my paladin which was interesting considering that I was invinited into an instance right off the bat. Yay muscle memory! Also, I may actually go tankadin again this expansion but we’ll see.