I have made up my mind when Cataclysm comes out I will be race changing Vanifae into a tauren because I think a tauren paladin would be pretty awesome. Also my shields and weapons won’t look all tiny and wimpy. I am really excited about this and can’t wait to do it, should make for a fun new fresh experience come Cataclysm. I will still hang out in Silvermoon though; just on principle because that is my favorite city.
Between Mass Effect 2, school, and a general unreliability to keep my site updated I had lapsed on my updates. But thanks to some encouragement from a fellow guild mate I am back to try and remedy that. I don’t have anything particularly moving to say today but I do have much to talk about. I picked up Mass Effect 2 in January, hard to believe it is already March and Final Fantasy XIII is right around the corner.
Speaking of Mass Effect 2, what an awesome second act for the series. I know some people don’t like some of the elements but I found it amazing. Being able to transfer my character into the second game and continue his story was awesome and hooking up with Tali’Zorah vas Normandy was the icing on the cake. from start to finish it is an awesome ride and the combat system is so much tighter and better than the first game I absolutely love it. My main grips is that I wish there was more armor customization, more conversations between and with quad mates, and deeper friendship paths for all the characters. My enthusiasm is high for Mass Effect 3.
I also started up on Valkyria Chronicles for PS3, which I got over Christmas and I am enjoying it. The story is so-so but the actual game mechanics and the tactical combat is very fun. I should beat it here soon. I am getting Final Fantasy XIII for the PS3 as well, don;t really know much about the game story wise so it will be interesting to go into it blind. I also started playing Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition with some friends from school. It’s really nice to run a game again after so long and it keeps the creative juices flowing.
As far as World of Warcraft is concerned, I was burnt out for awhile but I am getting back into it and working on the Lich King. Interesting fight, I like it, keeps you moving and thinking and is quite the challenge for my guild. I am interested to see new Cataclysm stuff and I am still debating if I want to race change to a Tauren or not just for the fun of it. I also plan to do some writing over Spring Break and try and put some progress on this crappy novel idea I have.
Also despite what my guild mates think I am not an atheist or a scientologist. But I do love me some Asian women. One final note the soundtrack for Mass Effect 2 is awesome.
I am not sure what to make of this EA Mythic + Bioware merger today. I am excited because I think the merge could mean some experienced talent on the Old Republic MMO but I am not sure what this means for WAR, EA Mythic’s MMO title. On the one hand I think losing Mark Jacobs will be a morale blow to that team but I think working with Bioware could really sharpen that product up as well. Bioware usually brings polish and quality to their products and I am excited to see what this new group will do with their established titles and forthcoming products.
Although I never played Dark Ages of Camelot (DAoC) I recognize that the game was rather successful in it’s time and although still kicking and going is in decline as newer products come to the fore. I recognize that Mark Jacobs played a large part in that initial vision for DAoC and should be respected at least for bringing an influential product to the MMO scene. The game was successful and although not World of Warcraft numbers at the time it was an MMO blockbuster as far as subscriptions go and impact on products that followed.
Having beta-tested WAR I was not too surprised that it’s success, relative to World of Warcraft, was not what EA thought it would be. The game never really hooked me and seemed to emulate much of what Blizzard had done without understanding the why it was done. I do think the game has plenty of legs though and I think it brought some really good ideas to the table that I am sure we will see in future products. I hope that the success of WAR did not affect this departure but I suspect it may have played a role.
I wish him the best of luck and I hope this merge brings good things to us in the future.
Link: http://kotaku.com/5302069/ea-combines-mythic-and-bioware-into-a-giant-rpg-robot
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Coming in 3.2 is the Crusaders’ Coliseum which promises to bring another tier of raid difficulty and content to the game. Along with that is the inclusion of a new Heroic raid dungeon system which according to Zarhym which include the Hard Modes of the bosses and the tribute system. It seems that according to the official website raiders will have to unlock the Trial of the Grand Crusader by completing the normal version of the raid dungeon on 10 or 25 versions. Once done they can attempt the Trial but only get a certain number of attempts per week to try and clearing the dungeon with the least amount of attempts used will net higher rewards.
Which means we will 10-man and 25-man normal raid dungeons and 10-man and 25-man Heroic dungeons, giving us 4 completely different lockouts for a given week for a single dungeon. This will be interesting and I am not sure how it will play out but hopefully it works. I am intrigued to see how the achievements will work for these encounters and I can almost assume that any mounts will be given for the Heroic mode of the dungeons only but we shall see.
Hopefully more information will be forthcoming once the PTR goes into full swing.
I love achievements on the Xbox 360 and in World of Warcraft; I am not sure why but they drive me to do things that I normally would not care about. Perhaps it’s just another carrot on a stick but it drives me and it resonates with my gamer instincts to continually achieve especially if I enjoy the game. Last night I finally hit level 60 in Mass Effect, over fifty hours of play time and a third partial play through. But I scored 50 extra nerd points.
I have to wonder if I am just addicted or perhaps wired to continually achieve especially in World of Warcraft, although no where near the top I have a respectable amount at 6500… I don’t play often now, just login to raid but with new content coming I will probably get my dailies going again for extra money and tokens.
I love me some nerd points.
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Well Ulduar is a great place I really like it; finally got to Yogg-Saron last night in the normal version and still stuck on Mimiron in the heroic version. I expect to have Mimiron down soon and hopefully plowing through the General and onto Yoggy in the heroic version soon.
The raid instance is well done and I have main tanked every encounter in there besides Yoggy which I have only seen Phase 2 briefly. But we are pushing Hard Modes as we go and did Heartbreaker in normal and chose Runemaster last in both heroic and normal. Freya +1 and did Flame Leviathan +2 as well.
Overall this instance is well tuned and I like it.
We got Thorim down last nigh and the night before it was Freya on the hit list; so things are trucking along quite well. I am impressed with the Ulduar raid zone and the variety and difficulty of the fights. Mimiron is definitely a challenge and I like the complexity to the fight. This week our challenge is to get past Mimiron and clear all the keepers so we can get down to some business with the General and ol’ Yoggy.
Going to be a fun time.
I should be studying for a Java programming exam but I have some time to kill to talk about my experiences in Ulduar. I will break the overview up into three parts, each section pertaining to a subzone of the raid instance. This only covers the content I have cleared or experienced and should not be taken as gospel but just a collection of my experiences. Breakdown of Part 1 after the break.
Ulduar progression continues unabated for Taurential Reign, just cleared Auriya and Assembly of Iron in Heroic Mode last night. I maintanked both encounters last night, well on the Assembly I was on Steelbreaker and the interrupt duty on Stormcaller Brundir. Fairly easy encounter tanking wise for a paladin just remember to dispell the Fusion Punch if you are not GCD locked. I tended to save a cooldown just for that reducing my threat but hopefully saving myself with a Cleanse. The other thing to watch out for is to move the boss out of the blue rune/void zone, Rune of Power, so he does not get extra damage output.
The Auriya encounter is all about the pull, the tanking part is relatively simple. The most dificult part is to make sure she is turned in a direction that is advantageous to the raid after the fear. If you are fear warded, resist the fear, or break it quickly then this is not an issue and you hould probably just stand there and have the raid run back. If not just use your judgement and base where you face her on where the majority of the raid is feared to. Move her as needed away from the void zones and push out as much damage as possible.
As far as Noblegarden is concerned I really hate this holiday, it encourages camping and doing unfun things. I do like that alot of the items are able to be bought but the camping part and the static nature of the spawns lends the holiday a no-fun feel. Worse then the Love Fool achievement in my opinion and I hope they rehaul this holiday next year and do soemthing better with it or just make it like it was a one day event with no attachment to the meta-achievement
for the mount.
Easily my least favorite holiday.
