Cataclysm Post-Mortem part 1 (the screencap version)

So, we have a release date for Mists. Finally. I am working on a comprehensive Cat thing, but in the meantime I give you screencaps that pretty much sum things up....

Cat, fun the first time, ridiculously hysterical on occasion. (Yes, this is heroic Porkchop with Koh refusing to die and our dps kiting him around)

And this is Cat the third time you do it. Boring and long and you want it to die, DAMN IT! (and yes, I killed a spirit beast just for that screencap). No options, not a lot of choice, do stuff in the order Blizz wants you to do it, and like it.

And this is Wraith (or an excuse to show off my shiny new blue drake). Go do stuff in any order, level in your choice of at least two zones per leveling range, and prettier mounts.

Oh, and this entire thing was inspired by The Grumpy Elf so go read his thing.

Hiatus....(and a bit of armchair quarterbacking)

So, as you may all have guessed, I'm currently on a bit of a blogging hiatus. I'm still in a WoW been there done that funk, and am basically on a mmo break for the moment. I promise to pick back up once Mists is closer, and will be tweeting when I restart (and I always announce blog posts on Twitter as well, so follow @MelfinatheBlue for blog stuff, and randomness).

I have been logging into lotro every so often, mostly to get the stuff out of my mail if I win a lotto, which is an awesome thing, by the way. It's fun, prompts me to play for a bit, and costs them nothing. For example, in the latest lottos...

Lottery of the Free Peoples Ended 07/06/2012 12:00PM EDT
Syrana Lvl 21 Warden, Elendilmir
Welcome Wagon Lottery Ended 07/06/2012 12:00PM EDT
Lalgileth Lvl 11 Lore-master, Gladden
Lottery of the Free...stuff Ended 07/04/2012 10:53PM EDT
Mirelle Lvl 12 Burglar, Gladden
Caithdein Lvl 23 Captain, Gladden
Welcome Wagon Lottery Ended 07/01/2012 12:00PM EDT
Lyllea Lvl 14 Guardian, Elendilmir
Acarya Lvl 13 Rune-keeper, Gladden
Lalgileth Lvl 11 Lore-master, Gladden

The free stuff lotto was fireworks (I think), and the others give you a bit of cash and food and at least one good item for the character's level. Plus they do special holiday ones, and have been doing mount ones as well. Great idea, imho.

I'm still raiding in WoW, and my guild is recruiting, but that's all I'm doing in game. I can't help but contrast this with the end of Wraith, where I was not so bored so quickly. I think part of the problem is Looking For Raid making all of Dragon Soul so easy to get through, which is good and bad. Good for content accessability, bad for keeping players interested over multiple months. Honestly, if I were Blizz, I'd be frantically pushing Mists out to keep from losing more players.

Oh, and while we're on this how I could do better thing, I would ALWAYS release multiple raids for the last patch of an expansion. This boredom problem's hit for the end of two expansions now, and having more than one raid to play in would help some. I'd kill for another tier 11, with 3 raids and 15ish battles, rather than our current 1 raid and 8 battles. Heck, even ICC's wings were better than this.

And in closing, I HATE DS trash.  I HATE THE STUPID OOZES AND TENTACLES AND PURPLE DRAGONS WITH A FIERY PASSION.  They're boring and heal-intensive. At least ICC trash was fun.

summer doldrums=posting issues

Still here, I guess. I'm kinda in the summer doldrums, between wow's been there done that, my serotonin levels issue, and stuffs. I have been playing lotro on and off. I did just enough of the spring festival to get 4 more maps for the cartographer achieve for Nathyrra, and have decided on a "by end of summer" goal. I want to get all my toons (that's 9 thanks to the character slot sale and my desire to have one of each class) to 20, so I can try skirmishes on all of them. I've got 3 past there already (hunter, minstrel, and captain). I have found it rather interesting how variant skirmishes can be, based on your class and companion. Nathyrra (hunter) dies so much it's not even fun, which gives me another reason to level her via quests (beyond the needing traits). The minstrel may not die much, but I can't be in the dps stance and keep my henchman alive, and I need the henchman. That makes it slow and kinda boring. Dps a bit, heal all the things, rinse, repeat. The captain's probably the most fun. Between her herald (humanoid pet) and the henchwoman healer, all the things die quickly and require much less micromanagement. So I go into skirms on the minstrel to practice healing, and on the captain for fun. Here's a screencap of the minstrel and henchman during a skirm (Trouble in Tuckborough) You can see why I have to heal him a lot, can't you?

And here's some more screencaps, because I can, and also because I don't really have much else to say right now.

Here we see the warden looking over the midgewater marshes. Not pretty, but a well-done landscape, imho.

Here's another view, from the road to the Lonelands. And yup, that's a different toon. That's either my loremaster or runekeeper (I get the two confused), and she got the Sinister title over the holiday because I thought it was a cool title.

 And here's city whose name I can't remember, in Ered Luin. It's the dwarf city in the middle of the map. Gondo something or other.

As far as wow goes, I know there's all sorts of cool stuff coming out of beta. I'm ignoring it so that all the new cool stuff is new and cool when the expansion actually comes out. I am planning to keep Lyllea as my main, and at some point soonish I know my guild will be doing some trial runs of various beta instances so we can get some handle on class changes. What little I've heard, mostly from matticus, indicates that I'll be happy with my new disc stuff.

Actual sort of content! (just not about WoW)

WoW doldrums continue. In fact, I've been in far more of a reading mood than anything else lately, but this is not "the Bibliophile Noob". So, mmo content....

Lotro's doing their spring festival, just in time for summer! It broke 90F here, it's summer, darn it. Anyway, what I've done of it was fairly entertaining, there seems to be much more to do than there was during the Anniversary festival, but that also makes it much more time-consuming. Since I also want to level, this is a bit of a problem. I think I've spent 3-4 hours on it, and I've yet to do anything related to the maze or the horsefields. So, tons of content, yay, loads of travel not as much yay, but between a personal house in the elven neighborhood, a guild house (for most of my toons) in the Shire neighborhood, and hearths/milestones set to Bree, it could be worse. Plus my hunter can just port.

I did have an interesting new experience. My kinship (guild) did an official dungeon run of the Maze in the Great Barrows. Sadly, I have no screencaps of it. It was a very long slog (especially since our minstrel healer bailed on us after the second wipe without a word), and there was a lot of wiping, and we ended up having to reset the level (dungeons in lotro can be set to various levels). We'd started at 35, with a lvl 29 melee dps, me as ranged dps at 32, minstrel at 36ish I think, another melee dps at 37, and our fearless leader's in the 40s or 50s.  We ended up pulling in another captain (our fearless leader's one) in the 50s, but just couldn't down the end bosses without healing. Reset to lvl 25ish and the only one who died was me (I don't have an aggro dump yet, and let's face it, I'm really used to having one in groups).  I am trying to level my minstrel now, so we don't have that problem again, but well, slow. I'm thinking skirmishes, and lots of them. It'll let me practice minstrel healing and the mercenary/pet warrior can do more damage than me.

Also, I leveled farming.

And there was house-buying. I already owned a small house, but I traded up. The only problem I have with lotro's housing (other than one house per server) is that they only create new neighborhoods when the old ones are full. Since there's 3 types of housing (small, deluxe, and guild) and various placements in the neighborhood are often considered more desirable, I couldn't get (any of the 5) addresses I wanted in any Elven neighborhood. But I did find a compromise location, and see, it's still pretty... (the windmill on the left is my addition)

And last, but not least, here's something I discovered and found amusing while leveling farming...

Notice that green vegetable next to the Cauliflower Field entry? Isn't that broccoli? Oh, and I maxed out Expert, got Artisan past the red bar stage, and started the next level (Master?).

And now we return you to WoW

Which I have been playing, I swear. My guild's jumped back into raiding DS with plans to attempt some heroic modes, with a second raid night dedicated to LFR and alts. I should um, actually get a Horde alt to max level then, because all Lyl needs from LFR at this point is a ring (which I'll likely just buy with Valor) and DPS trinkets+ some shadow gear.

I did learn that either LFR has gotten worse, my computer's gotten grumpier, or that I need to weed out addons, because the entire thing was like a slideshow, even with my video options set to low. I'd go from 80 fps to 1-2 during fights, which means that I just spam Prayer of Healing instead of actually healing intelligently.

I also got a new trinket off Deathwing, Heart of Unliving. +286 int, plus what ends up being 780 Spirit with the "Your healing spells grant 78 Spirit for the next 10 sec, stacking up to 10 times." So far uptime has been pretty close to 100%, which makes up for losing the extra intellect on my RF Windward Heart (+406 int plus random heal chance which I never see).

Oooh, and I have fail stories! My fail, mostly. First, I organized and cleaned out my bags a week or so ago. This went well, except for selling my shadow robe. Luckily LFR was kind and I got a robe token.
Second, I completely and totally forgot that I'd won a helm the week before. Seriously, I'd even gemmed and enchanted it, then forgot about it. I've been rocking the wrong helm for at least a week ;).

Third, an LFR fail. We had two tanks, one of which was my raid leader. The other got pissy that my RL was calling things out (which oozes to kill, that sort of thing) and pulled Warmaster Blackhorn and dropped.  So, Anith of Smolderthorn, you've been reported for griefing. You don't like my RL, fine. I don't care if he was being a micro-managing asshat twit (which he wasn't at all, and I wouldn't raid with someone who was), you don't screw over an entire raid because you don't like one person.

That's been my week in WoW. I would say I'll be playing more, but between Diablo 3, LotRO, and my new "get out in social situations at least once a week" thing, I don't know how much time I'll have.

D3, my tweets and my measured responses to them

Just to start with, I want to be very clear. Diablo 3 is a very entertaining and polished game. I've finished Act 1 with a male wizard, and am currently trying other classes before getting back to him. That said, I wish to share my tweets about the game, and then dissect them. Also there's a spoiler for the end of Act 1 at the end, in case you're spoiler-adverse.
In reverse chronological order (and 2 retweeted)....

Tried another class. Barbarian with overpowered axe is ridiculous fun. It's like playing baseball with the undead, with bodies flying!
@Vrykerion Obviously that's the problem! Blizz is trying to power hamster servers with guinea pigs! 
#fakeDiablo3errors: Error 3.14159... The pi may not be a lie, but the servers certainly are. #fakeDiablo3errors: Error (-1)^(1/2). Attempting to access the servers is irrational
strats, not stats. I need more flu meds or less fever, or both.
Error WowDS: You have a raid tonight, stop trying to play D3 and go review stats or something

D3 is a great flu game, or would be if I could get in. I'm going to curl up in bed, watch spoiler warning, and wait till 4:30
Wiz at 11, just reached the bit about the temple and the water and the meteor weapon part 2. Now rest for a while.
Wiz to level 5, not dead yet. Obviously I'm doing something wrong ;)
‏RT from @Vrykerion Blizz, let these be a lesson to you. Stop making sequels to popular franchises! #Diablo3
Yay finally in and playing my new male wiz. Just like I remembered from d2. Having fun, not sure it was worth the frustration though
very glad I didn't give Blizz money for this game now (annual pass)
so, I've now spent 3 times as long trying to get in and play d3 as I did on Cat launch night. 60 min vs 20 min

by the by, think anyone can get into wow right now? Just curious, since connecting to bnet is an issue...
I'd have no problem with this with a new MMO. But a)D3 is not an MMO, and b) Blizz runs the biggest MMO. Epic fail, seriously epic fail.
okay, only other program using the net is chrome with twitter. So, bye twitter for a bit, I leave you in hopes D3 will let me make a toon
You know, I wouldn't be so annoyed with this D3 stuff if it was an actual MMO, instead of a new way to do DRM
okay, the more I stare at the Male wizard face while trying to create him, the more he reminds me of my chemistry lab partner from HS.
and now waiting for Retrieving Hero List... shouldn't take so long since I don't have any yet. Grumble, stupid internet required, grumble
RT from @Shadesogrey Hahahaha, error 37 SAAAADNESS IS ME


Okay, I'm still annoyed about the internet required thing. I do understand that I may have a different perception of the game (based on how I played D2), and that Blizz does see it as a multiplayer game. I think the launch was not Blizz's finest moment, and my tweets reflect that. And yes, the male wizard looks EXACTLY like my AP chemisty lab partner. I applaud the character models, and except for the high heels on the demon hunter female, I think they all look great and realistic. I especially love the barbarian female, and seriously, barbarian with overpowered weapon is insane. Plus, realistic physics models on the bodies. I hit with axe, they go flying off. SO MUCH FUN! The end of Act 1 (final dungeon crawl) reminded me so much of the end of Act 1 in D2 that it wasn't even funny, but it's still darn awesome. I really want to replay D2 now, and I will forever miss "Stay awhile, and listen" man. So far, great game, worth the internet frustration. Not likely to replace wow and lotro, but fun. Pure fun, with loads of shinies.

My top 10 most played games

I know, I know, everyone's excited about D3, the Black Market AH in Mists, and the panda dances. Well, the servers don't come up for 7 hours, and I have Renn Faire flu anyway, so I'm going to talk about something else.

My Top 10 Most Played Games (in terms of enjoyability multiplied by /played)
1) World of Warcraft. Need I say more?
2) Lord of the Rings Online (still playing and enjoying)
3) Elder Scrolls: Oblivion (I played to heck and back, modded the crap out of it, then played it some more)
4)Baldur's Gate 2 (the old Black Isle PC game. God, I loved loved loved this game)
5) Neverwinter Nights (and all the expansions and the expandability of this game is near mind-blowing)
6)Baldur's Gate
7) Icewind Dale
8) Icewind Dale 2
9) Fallout 3
10) Diablo 2

Now, notice that most of the games up there can be moded or altered/expanded? That's part of why I love/loved them so much and kept coming back to them. So, I figured I'd give you a list of mods I'd want if I were replaying them (from what I can remember)

Oblivion: the easiest, since I'm reinstalling it now, and finding the mods I loved. All mods can be found at http://oblivion.nexusmods.com, and signing up for an account there is probably a good idea if you want to play with modded Oblivion, Fallout 3, or Skyrim, since the same account works for all sites on the nexusnetwork. Also, I used as a starting point this post from TwentySidedTale to remind me of stuff.
1)the unofficial patch (also get the Shivering Isles and Unofficial Official Mods patch if you have those)
2)BT mod (cause the original interface annoys me)
3)Oblivion Mod Manager
 Anything beyond this is optional, but you might want to look at Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul. Many people weren't thrilled with Oblivion's autoleveling enemies, and this changes that. Also, mods to add more character optimization options and make stuff prettier is always nice. And last, but not least, FCOM is also one I remember playing with. Right now, I'm going to start with the 3 I listed, and see if I want to add more later.

Baldur's Gate 2: Okay, to be completely honest, I haven't played this in a long time (mostly because my discs are damaged). But here's what I remember modding...
I added classes, more character portraits, gave myself the option to skip the first dungeon, and added companions. All the mods I had came from Sorcerer's net, which still exists (wow, considering I remember downloading stuff on dialup from them over the summer while I was in college, that's a long-lived site)

Neverwinter Nights: okay, I added classes, races, feats, and new campaigns. I don't remember specific ones now, and sadly my installation and saved games went poof when my old laptop failed.

BG1 and the two Icewind Dales: not as much modding. Mostly I remember adding a class or two, and using cheat codes to create a swarm of rabid chickens. Sorcerer's Net would again be my source.

Fallout 3: GreenWorld. Makes the wasteland so much prettier. Also, I got more radio stations. I think if I'd gotten more into this game, I would have modded much, much more.

Diablo 2: I didn't even know there were mods for D2 till very recently. So, never modded it.

I tend to start with a vanilla playing experience, then try mods. It's best to keep in mind that mods can really screw with your game, and their hosted sites can go the way of the dodo, so back stuff up! Anyway, hopefully this gives you a few games to look into if you're not into D3, are bored with WoW, or just want to try a new game. These games are all quite old so you should be able to pick them up cheap (try gog.com)