Biggs' Zone

A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

Tag: Gaming Page 4 of 28

Trading My Sword for a Lightsaber

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On May 19, 2020

In Gaming, SWTOR, World of Warcraft

This is going to be a surprising announcement for some of you folks. In about a month my WoW subscription is scheduled to renew for six months. After nearly 15 years of consecutively renewing, I’m thinking about letting it lapse. My amazing raid team has completed the final Ahead of the Curve achievement for this expansion. Blizzard’s recent earnings call suggests that the next expansion isn’t due out until quarter four of 2020. So we are at an impasse.

What Are We Going To Do Now?

Anth Resting at the Garrison

We don’t have the numbers (nor the spirit) to attempt the Mythic raids in the current expansion. We’re working on raid achievements for the current content (and even a couple from previous expansion). However that isn’t 3+ months worth of work. I know I have my weekly mount farming and reputation grinding, which are my common end-of-expansion tasks. All of my base alts are at max level, I have a new one that is nearly there. I could probably finish the Rajani and Uldum Accord reputations in a week or two, if I diligently complete the daily quests.

It doesn’t make economical sense to spend $15 a month for 3 months simply to grind four raids and handful of world bosses for mounts with a < 1% drop rate. It’s a lot of monotonous work for very little to gain. So I think Anth is going to hang up his sword a shield and take a little rest in his garrison. He deserves it after saving Azeroth (again) from an olde god (again).

It’s Just Temporary

I pre-ordered Shadowlands so I am, by no means, leaving the game permanently. In fact as soon as the pre-patch goes live, I plan to activate my subscription again. The only uncertainty is the date of the pre-patch. My estimation, which is just a wild ass guess, is somewhere around August or September. Obviously I need something to do to pass the time between the expiration and the pre-patch. So I’m trading my sword in for a lightsaber.

Darth Haruun

My Sith Juggernaut – Darth Haruun

I started playing Star Wars The Old Republic (SWTOR) way back in the beta. I continued playing it for a few months after it went live. I had to turn off my subscription because it wasn’t economical to have both a WoW subscription and SWTOR subscription (it’s always about the $$$). Most of my friends were still playing WoW so that’s the subscription I chose to keep.

I’m basking in the glory that, for the moment, my daughter likes Star Wars. We’ve also been introducing her to video games, including WoW and we thought she would like SWTOR where she can make her own Jedi. She enjoys the fact that she can make a character that looks like Ahsoka. Therefore I’m temporarily returning to SWTOR for a couple of months during the summer.

So rest assured, Azeroth, Anth will pick up his sword and shield again to defend her, again, against the Jailer. Until then I am literally and figuratively “going to the Dark Side”.

/MTFBWY

You don’t know the power of the dark side.

WoW: BfA State of the Raid

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On February 26, 2020

In Gaming, MMORPG, World of Warcraft

I feel like I use to write “State of the Game” or “State of the Raid” posts in the past, however I cannot seem to find one. I prefer “State of the Raid” as a subject because it’s more applicable to me (and my raid friends). It’s also the primary reason I log in every day. However, this post is about more than just our progress in Ny’alotha; it’s also about my progress with all end game activities.

Ny’alotha Raid Progress

Ny’alotha is the final raid of the Battle for Azeroth expansion. We are fighting to save Azeroth from N’Zoth, who has nightmarish plans for the world. In Normal we are consistently 11/12 within a lockout. N’Zoth, even on Normal, is a very challenging boss so we have made the logical choice to start working through Heroic content. The gear, hopefully, will help us to be successful against N’Zoth. We are currently 3/12 in Heroic.

We are also working on completing through Carapace of N’Zoth within a single night so we have more time to focus on Heroic. After the current lock out, however, we will have completed the quest to unlock the skip mechanic. Therefore we will likely focus exclusively on Heroic very soon. Ahead of the Curve is our goal, as always, which awards the Uncorrupted Voidwing, a freaking sweet mount! I’m a little worried though; N’Zoth seems perhaps a little over tuned and/or overly complex. I’m honestly kind of hoping for a nerf, however I have confidence in our raid team (Humpday!!)

Assaults, Visions and Alts

This expansion is one of the weaker ones. Probably not as weak as Warlords of Draenor. Perhaps more on par with Cataclysm. I was interested in the story through the previous patch, in which we faced off with Azshara, a baddie that dates back to Vanilla. Now we are facing off against another old god, who seem to be the antagonists behind all that plagues Azeroth. I don’t find the battle against N’Zoth as epic as it was fighting Azshara. The advantage this expansion has over previous weaker expansion is the non-raid end game activities that are available.

I really like the corruption visual effect

When I’m not raiding, my wife and I are completing Assaults and running Horrific Visions to upgrade our cloaks. We are current as of this post (i.e. Rank 12). The higher the rank we have on our cloaks the more corrupted gear we can have (which improves our survivability and contributes to our raid progress). After cloaks then it’s usually the alts I spend time on. Most things you can solo if you don’t want to group. I find that appealing as I’m not always interested in group activities (unless its with my wife). Granted I’ve only completed up to Rank 5 on an alt; soloing Corrupted Zones or *shudder* Lost Zones is frightening.

The Azerite system is OK. There are times when I feel its tedious to have to go to the Chamber of Heart to active a new trait. Also, getting a new piece of Azerite gear can be a little annoying, especially during raid when you are trying to bust through content to get to your progression point. Having to stop and plug in Azerite traits slows things down, especially if you have to look them up on icy-veins (or similar web sites).

Aside from getting the Ahead of the Curve achievement, I will have to start making my end-of-expansion goal list. Shadowlands is just around the corner.

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!

 

Blizzard Friends and Family

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On December 5, 2019

In Gaming, Geek Culture, World of Warcraft

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Blizzard Entertainment and the 15th anniversary for World of Warcraft. I have been playing video games since the first Nintendo. Of course Internet didn’t exist back then but we managed to still make it a friends and family activity. As technology evolved so did the world of gaming. Consoles added online, multiplayer modes. PC games added multiplayer mode, which initially became popular in First Person Shooters. I spent many nights in college playing multiplayer Half Life.

Then the MMORPG was born. In my youth, an RPG required a few friends, paper, pencils, dice and some incredible imagination. Then Blizzard created World of Warcraft, which was an evolution from their Warcraft series of games (my favorite being Warcraft III). WoW united us all by breaking down borders, cultural and political divides. I realize that last item isn’t always true, but if you find the right kind of people, everyone can agree to leave that topic alone.

Now the world is so different.

Online Friends Are Real Friends

I know I’ve talked about this before. You can have friends you haven’t met in person. Twenty years ago the only friends you had are the ones you met in school or at work. Oftentimes people outside the gaming subculture tend to think having “online friends” seems absurd. How can you be friends with someone you’ve never met face-to-face? Our physical locations cannot limit the things we have in common with people.

A friend of mine (a gaming friend) once said “friends are the family you get to choose”. This is true. I’ve had disagreements with friends just as I do with family. I also get along with my friends just as I do with family. While I have not met all my online friends in person, I have met a few. In fact some have even been to my house and I’ve even had one live with me for a year. I hope to meet more of them one day. Today I am just as good of friends with people I’ve never physically met as I was with friends I had in high school.

Blizzard has created a huge community. Larger than any community I’ve ever known. I’m grateful for the friendships this game has given me.

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!

 

Mount Farming Guide: Pandaria World Bosses

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On September 16, 2019

In Gaming, Guides, MMORPG, World of Warcraft

This is my World of Warcraft Mount Farming Guide for the Pandaria World bosses. There are four world bosses, each have a rare chance of dropping a mount. At the time of this writing we are in patch 8.2 of the Battle for Azeroth expansion. I play Alliance, therefore these instructions are told with Boralus as the starting point. Also at the time of this writing, I don’t have any of the mounts that drop from these bosses, I’m still actively farming each of them.

AddOns and Macros

There is only one AddOn I use, WorldBossTimers. This addon shows a countdown timer on your screen to the next time the mob spawns. It does have its draw backs. If you weren’t there when the boss spawned, it doesn’t have a timer. However, if someone else standing nearby has this addon, and they do have the current timer, they can share it with you. This isn’t a required addon, I typically use it because I often do other things while I wait for the mob to spawn and the timer, and sound effects, help me pay attention. It sucks when you miss it, the respawn timers are typically 15-20 minutes.

The only macro I use is purely informational. It tells me how many times I have killed each boss. It took several years to get the Rivendare Deathcharger mount and the Raven Lord mount and I’ve often wondered how many times I killed each boss. If you want to use this macro, here is the command text:

/run local y=0 local function z(n,i) if GetStatistic(i)~='--' then y=y+GetStatistic(i) end print(n.. GetStatistic(i))end z('Galleon=',6990);z('Sha=',6989); z('Ondasta=',8147);z('Nalak=',8146);print('Total='..y);

Pandaria World Bosses Farming Route

Starting in Boralus, take the portal to Stormwind.

Galleon – Valley of the Four Winds

Mount: Son of Galleon.
Coordinates: 71, 64.

Take the portal to the Jade Forrest located in the Mage Tower in Stormwind. The flight point is immediately to the left of the portal. Take a taxi to Half Hill in the Valley of the Four Winds. After arriving, fly south, just past the Silken Fields to a large brown area on the hillside. There will probably be other people waiting there, assuming he hasn’t spawned by the time you arrive. There is about a 3 second delay before his health starts dropping quickly.

Sha of Anger – Kunlai Summit

Mount: Heavenly Onyx Cloud Serpent.
Coordinates: 54, 63).

Take a taxi to One Keg in Kunlai Summit. After arriving, fly just a little southwest, you should see his crumpled corpse as it usually sticks around for a while after he’s been killed. Several steam geysers will suddenly appear about 15-20 seconds before he spawns, which is your cue to get ready. He also has about a 3 second delay before he begins rapidly losing health.

Oondasta – Isle of Giants

Mount: Cobalt Primordial Direhorn.
Coordinates: 50, 54.

YOU CANNOT FLY TO THIS ISLAND! Well, you can try, but you will fall into the water before you reach the shore. I still suggest taking a taxi to the Isle of Giants. You also cannot fly on this island so you will have to get on a ground mount and follow the foot of the hill to the northeast until you see a path going up. Follow the path up the hill and you will see a large muddy area with dinosaur bones. Dohaman the Best Lord will be cowering in the middle, Oondasta will spawn right behind him. PLEASE NOTE: Oondasta can now be tamed by hunters and a hunter can tame him faster than he can be killed.

Nalak – Isle of Thunder

Mount: Thundering Cobalt Cloud Serpent.
Coordinates: 49, 68.

Take a taxi to Shado-pan Garrison in Townlong Steppes. After you arrive, there is a portal just a little north of the flight point that will take you to the Isle of Thunder. You cannot fly on the Isle of Thunder so you’ll be running to Nalak. You’re basically running north to The Foot of Lei Shen. Keep your eyes peeled on the sky. There is NO DELAY for this mob. Engage Nalak as soon as you see him spawn, he will die very fast!

That’s it for the Pandaria World Bosses. After Nalak you can hearth or continue further into the ruins and enter the Throne of Thunder raid. There are 2 mounts available: Spawn of Horridon and Clutch of Ji’Kun.

You will also make about 110g unless you get some gear drops, which will add to your transmog appearances and also sell for a couple gold.

Happy Hunting!

(Go to Farming Raid Mounts Part 1)

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!

 

Rare Mounts: Crimson Tidestallion

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On July 12, 2019

In Gaming, Guides, MMORPG, World of Warcraft

Crimson TidestallionI know there are several other guides and posts out there that explain how you can get the Crimson Tidestallion. However, none of those web sites explain it with my flair. Before you can do anything, you will need to free Mrrl and escort him back to your faction’s respective base. After doing so you will meet his friends Flrgrrl, Mrrglrlr, Hurlgrl and Grrmrlg. They all sell some very unique and unusual items.

Dress for the Occasion

Mrrl’s secret items can only be available if you’re wearing the right cloak. You need to get the Azsh’ari Stormsurger Cape which you can get from Benthic Cloak. Benthic Cloak’s can come from missions, a random drop or you can purchase it for 5 Prismatic Manapearls. You are not guaranteed to get the Azsh’ari Stormsurger Cape from a Benthic Cloak, it’s one of four, so that’s fun. Once you have the cape then you have to wait until Mrrl is selling the Crimson Tidestallion. WoWHead is pretty good about letting you know what secret items are available to buy. NOTE: You must be wearing the cape to see the items! So don’t sell/disenchant it until you are done with it.

The Trading Game

When the mount is available, the trading game begins. This is one of those classic scenarios where you need to buy something for someone from someone else but they want something first. The best website to help you figure out what you need to buy is to use the Mrrl.io website (because math is hard). In order to buy the mount from Mrrl you need 4 Cultist Pinky Finger, 2 Pulsating Blood Stone and 1 Hungry Herald’s Tentacle Taco. You will spend about 1,796 gold, but that is incredibly cheap compared to the price of other mounts in the game.

Murloco Cave Location

Murloco Cave Location

The item that will prove to be the most tricky is Hungry Herald’s Tentacle Taco. Mrrl and none of his friends sell this item. You can only get this item by rescuing Murloco, which is a rare event in Nazjatar. You can click on the map on the right to enlarge to see the location of Murloco’s cave. Once he’s been rescued, you have 5 minutes to buy from him. If the event is not up on your server you can search in Custom Groups using the LFG tool, simply search for “murloco“. NOTE: Make sure you are in the cave when you join the group, he’s only active for 5 minutes.

That’s it. Once you have those 7 items, and you are wearing the cloak, you can buy the Crimson Tidestallion from Mrrl. Of all the rare mounts available in the game, this one is pretty easy to get.

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!

 

WoW Classic Is A Classic Blunder

By

On July 8, 2019

In Gaming, Soapbox, World of Warcraft

In August Blizzard will deliver on a promise they made at Blizzcon. Live servers of WoW Classic will go online. So many players are eager to get back to basics; and I don’t understand WHY! The only answer I have is nostalgia, but I think even the nostalgic vanilla vets will be quickly reminded how awful questing is. The other group that may be drawn to Classic are all those that began playing WoW during one of the expansions. These people will be among the first to bail and they will come running back to the current game faster than Barry Allen. Ultimately, I think WoW Classic is a classic blunder; I give it 6 months and the numbers will dwindle.

Honestly, I think this is a money grab. I think Blizzard is trying to rekindle their old subscription numbers by luring back old players. They might succeed. Players who cancelled their subscription several years ago will come back to play classic, and perhaps check out the current state of the game. Perhaps some of those players will keep playing the current game.

Its a “classic” business ploy – see what I did there (•_•) ( •_•)>⌐■-■ (⌐■_■)

Oh The Grind, Grind, Grind, Grinding

The first thing everyone will be reminded of quickly is the utter lack of quality-of-life. For example, looting quest items while in a group. For every mob that you kill, the loot belongs to one person, and one person only, including quest items. Therefore the total number of mobs you have to kill, assuming a guaranteed drop, is equal to the number of mobs needed times the number of players in your group. It could literally take an hour to get 10 items for everyone in your group.

Also, to make that grind feel extra special tedious, you will have to RUN …. EVERYWHERE, for 40 levels. You will not be able to use a mount until you reach level 40, and that is assuming you can afford it (which means grinding for cash on top of everything else). So grab a book, bind the auto-run key and … get a few chapters in while you quest in Desolace.

This is just the tip of the ice burg of the missing quality-of-life mechanics in Classic. Here are some additional low quality-of-life items:

  • No group/raid finder (have to use the old LFG channel)
  • REALLY SMALL BAGS
  • HUGE talent trees
  • You have to buy ALL of your spells again
  • You will be broke, all the time
  • Hunters will be destitute because they will have to stock ammo and pet food, again
  • If you’re not in a raiding guild, then you’re not raiding
  • No world quests which means no end game
  • There are no Heroic dungeons/raids
  • Limited Class Selection (no monks, death knights, demon hunters, alliance shaman, horde paladins)
  • NO FLYING
  • Raid sizes are 40 man only (no 10, 25 or Flex)

Lack of End Game Content (for Non-Raiders)

When you reach level 60 you will have nothing to do, especially if you are not raiding. You could traipse around the world and complete every quest you can possibly find. ◉_◉

You could use the LFG channel and grind through dungeons. ̿’̿’\̵͇̿̿\з=( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)=ε/̵͇̿̿/’̿̿ ̿ ̿ ̿ ̿ ̿

Or you could start an alt and do it all over again. (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

Ultimately, your level 60 character will simply collect dust because the only end game content WoW Classic offers is raiding. Oh, and if you thought grinding levels was grueling, raiding in Classic is a whole new level of grinding.

WoW Classic Raiding Will Be A Blunder

If you want to raid in classic you will be forced to join a raiding guild, unless you are lucky and find a frequent raiding group on the LFG channel. Raids in WoW Classic are 40 man only. Raiding will be a daily occurrence if you want to progress. I remember in vanilla there were raid teams meeting 4 hours every night to complete Molten Core. Remember, in Vanilla there are no lock out extensions. You must complete the raid before it resets.

You will need to grind, a lot, to have the consumables and gear. You will need sufficient bag space to hold extra gear because you will need to farm fire resistance armor for Molten Core. For example, if you’re a hunter you will need bag space for ammo, pet food, consumables and fire resistance gear.

Expansion Stop-Gap And Boredom

I think Blizzard is standing up these WoW Classic servers as a stop gap for current players. They don’t want to lose subs because of another lackluster expansion so they are giving players, who are caught up on current content, something to do. I think they are also doing this as a stop gap because the next expansion is probably over a year away and 8.3 will be the final patch for Battle for Azeroth.

Also, for the record, I am a “Vanilla Vet”. I created my first character, a Night Elf Hunter, in vanilla, but I leveled my paladin before they launched Burning Crusade. I am not feeling so nostalgic that I want to grind through it all over again. I did try the open beta and after 2 hours of grueling quests, I uninstalled the game. I might try it again, when I’m really bored, but it won’t be when it launches. In fact it will probably be several months after it launches before I subject myself to that kind of torture.

It Will Never Change

The most baffling thing I’ve heard is that some players are, allegedly, abandoning the current game to exclusively play WoW Classic. I understand if some people think that the current content (while a little weak in story) does feel like a daily grind. However, why would you trade one grind for an even larger grindfest?!? At least in the current game there is some choice and the choices change daily. WoW Classic will never change.

In one year, when we are on the next expansion, WoW Classic will still be exactly the same. When we are two expansions into the future, WoW Classic will still be exactly the same! They can’t change it, or update it, otherwise it can no longer be called “classic WoW”.

If all of that sounds exhilarating to you, then power to ya. I’m quite content with my spoiled quality-of-life World of Warcraft.

/end soapbox

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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