A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

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WoW: Dragonflight and How It’s Going

The last time I talked about World of Warcraft’s newest expansion, it had been out for only two weeks. It has now been a little over three months, and all of us are well into a new routine. The next major content patch (10.1) is on the PTR which will introduce the next raid. Perhaps it’s time to check in and see how it’s going given the new features and updated systems.

Raszageth

First, a raid update, which is progressing reasonably well. We have three bosses left on Heroic difficulty with a pretty good strategy to finish Dathea. If we begin extending our lockouts and buckle down (without burning ourselves out) we have an excellent shot of taking down Heroic Raszageth in time for AOTC. If we don’t, the journey was fun; honestly, that’s all that really matters.

Initial Impressions of Dragonflight

Initial Impressions of Dragonflight

The latest World of Warcraft expansion has been out for about two weeks. I have reached the new level cap on at least one character (my raid toon, obviously). As I embark on the first raid of this expansion, let me share my initial impressions of Dragonflight.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I’ve been on a Clint Eastwood kick recently, so I will use the title of one of his best films to break down my initial thoughts.

The Good

I thought about saving “the best for last” but I want you to know all the good things first. The items that fall under “the bad” and “the ugly” are mostly “me things”. You’ll see what I mean if you stick around for that part of this post.

WoW: On the Eve of Dragonflight

Well folks, here we are. We are on the eve of Dragonflight, Blizzard’s 10th World of Warcraft expansion. I have moved all my toons out of Oribos and back to their respective capital city. As we return from saving the afterlife and begin our adventures in the Dragon Isles, let’s do an expansion character recap.

Being the nerd that I am, I have a spreadsheet in Google sheets to track my goals all through the Shadowlands. I began this spreadsheet during Battle for Azeroth but kicked it up a notch during this expansion. Many have already told me that there are addons that will do a lot of this for me. I appreciate the suggestions but I enjoy doing it my way instead. I am going to use that spreadsheet to discuss my Shadowlands progress. You’ve been warned that this post will be a little data-heavy.

WoW: Return from the Shadowlands

Return from the Shadowlands

We are at the end of another expansion. I cannot believe I will soon be entering the 10th expansion of this game. While I have taken a couple of breaks, here and there, I have played through all of the content of each expansion since I started playing back in Vanilla. Not Classic! Classic is not as good as Vanilla on any day. As our heroes return from the Shadowlands, let’s reflect on this ninth expansion.

Keep in mind that, as I am writing this, the pre-patch has not yet launched. However I do not expect the events of the pre-patch to affect my final thoughts of the Shadowlands expansion. In my opinion, the pre-patch is content that is linked to Dragonflight and is, therefore, exempt from this expansion.

RTotD: A Cabin in the Woods

John Wayne Gacy (aka the Killer Clown)

This has nothing to do with Deliverance. The full sentence is that on Super Bowl weekend, I spent 4 nights in a cabin in the woods in Wisconsin with 5 other guys. I’ve known these guys for 13 years but I had never met them face-to-face until Super Bowl weekend.

This post is not to regale you with tales from those 4 nights. The only other context I will give you is that we just played board games and Magic the Gathering (your basic nerd stuff) while drinking. Every. Single. Day.

WoW: State of the Raid (9.1.5)

It’s been a while since I’ve done a “State of the Raid” post. Blizzard is kind of a sore, perhaps even taboo, topic right now. Every time there is more sickening news makes me sad.

I play this game to hang out with the friends. The kind of friends where hanging out in person isn’t convenient because of distance and borders. Raiding has become difficult over the past few months. Some friends have left the game and recruiting new people is difficult.

Progession

Despite these circumstances, we are enduring. Personally I think our goals are shifting to accommodate the reality and current environment of the community. Ahead of the Curve has always been our main objective before the conclusion of a tier. This rut in active players and the obvious adjustment in the difficulty of heroic encounters may be changing that objective.

As much as I hate to let go of achieving Ahead of the Curve, I think it’s best for my sanity. I really don’t want to burn out because this is my social activity. Several of my friends have already reached this point so I don’t want to be the next victim.

We are currently 6/10 in Heroic and our latest attempt on Guardian has me feeling confident we will be 7/10 soon. Depending on the complexity of the next 3 bosses, and the release date of 9.2, we may still have a chance at AOTC.

I’ve Been Slacking

There is so much to do after you hit max level that I’ve had a difficult time leveling my alts. I’m still sitting at just under half of my alts at max (46.6%). I’ll admit the events going on at Activision Blizzard is awful and gives me a lot of mixed feelings which affects my motivation. I won’t quit though, for reasons I’ve expressed before. This time of year is also very busy for me. I’ve got lots of planning, decorating, and Christmas to enjoy.

While Blizzard has not given us a release date for 9.2, my hope is try to get to as close to 100% on all my alts before it hits live servers. That’s probably a stretch goal by now.

Ultimately I hope Blizzard gets their act together and finds a way to bring players back. I really miss all my friends that have left the game.

duke-nukem-sm If zombies attack the world, everyone will run and hide. Except for us gamers, of course. We've been waiting for this all our lives!

 

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