Leveling Gap?

So I've hit a leveling gap on Seona. She's sitting at 32, and I'm actually having a hard time finding quests that aren't red or orange. It's not that critical, I guess, but it's still unfortunate. Questing is by far the most efficient way for me to level up and I'm still desperately trying to hit level 40 so that I may finally interview with the members of the Kingship.

Of course, that's not to say that my quest log isn't full of quests. I have quite a few in there that are green. They're for the Stockades, and a few for Gnomeregan. Both of these are very Alliance-centric instances. In fact, I've only seen Stockades once, on Yrovi, on a wool cloth run. I don't know how difficult it is to find a group for these instances at their level, although I'd be willing to go as DPS or as a healer. I imagine it can't take long to do the instances, especially the Stockades. From what I witnessed on Yrovi, it's a short instance.

I'll need to go in with a very empty bag, though, since I have quests to gather up body parts from various inmates (mostly heads) and other items from the Defias inside. As I understand it, little good gear drops in Stocks, which is just one more reason why I think it might be very hard getting a group together to run it. Maybe I'll try this evening anyway. If it's anything like horde-side on my other server, though, I'll have no luck whatsoever.

I have been smart enough to at least have a few "healing" pieces of gear, mostly stuff with lots of Intellect and Spirit and such on it. Nearly all of it comes from quest rewards, but it's not bad. Verigan's Fist is a nice overall Paladin weapon, so I'll probably keep that on.

I feel a little guilty now about completely shelving Yrovi till I hit 40. Maybe I'll log on this weekend and at least run an instance or do some dailies, like maybe for the Argent Tournament, or for Netherwing. I plan to play them 50/50, but is it possible? Will I lose interest in one or the other? I'm hoping not.

I'm hoping that the roleplay aspect of the Kingship will keep me coming back for more and that being level 40 or 50 or 60 won't be an issue, provided I'm active in the various events and roleplay in general. I'll level quickly, I think, because it's all new. I've never played an alliance character this high before, not once, not even when I rolled my first character.

That's right. This self-proclaimed, die-hard Hordie's first character EVER in the World of Warcraft... was Alliance. A Night Elf, no less (No, not a hunter...). Her name isOpalandra, she's on a normal server, and she's a druid. I can't delete her, even though I long ago stopped playing her. The nostalgia is too great to do that. Still, it's sad that she just sits there, gathering dust. I only have so much time for them all, though, so what do I do. It's every altoholic's difficulty: balancig playtime amongst all your toons. Impossible to do, so many of them fall by the wayside, but I'll try anyway.

I may actually have to get a booklet where I log my playtime anyway. I've noticed that I spend far too much time playing and I think it's going to be an issue when I move into my new place. A house requires time and effort, from basic maintenence, like yard work and daily cleaning, to weekend projects (like modernizing the bathroom/kitchens). Bad time-management FTL.

Ah, well, that's for a whole other post on a whole other day.

P.S. It turns out I should have been in Southshore. Thanks to this lovely page on Wowwiki, I've realized that I've ignored Hillsbrad because when I was there 2-3 levels ago, I was too low, thus getting no quests. Now I'm just at the right level, so I should head back there. Who'd have thunk it.

Engineering Nerf. Again.

WTF Blizzard? Link to Bornakk's post.

Seriously? This was warranted? This was needed? Another damn nerf to my poor, beaten profession that cost me tons of gold and time to level and you developers feel the need to NERF IT AGAIN?!?!

Damn. I haven't dropped a profession in a long time. I really, really don't want to drop engineering, I don't. But you nerf, and you nerf. This wasn't even something that really affected me, actually, but it's the principle of the thing. I don't arena and I hardly PvP, even on a PvP server. Still, it hurts, Blizz. It really does. The last thing engineering needed was another nerf, especially since you haven't added any information at all regarding any compensation the epic goggles will get now that they don't have stealth detection anymore. One has to presume that the stealth detection used some of the itemization points, so what do we get in return?

If it's nothing... I can't even finish this sentence with anything coherent. I'm so pissed, it's not funny. I can't post on the forums, either, due to some moronic error on Blizzard's part, but trust me, I intend to say something on that thread as well, as soon as I can, provided it doesn't get locked.

Fuck.

Edit: I was thinking, maybe, just maybe, about getting engineering for Seona. For fun and laughs and a good time (and a roflcopter). I'm not now. She's going jewelcrafting (maybe she'll actually be able to purchase a bike sometime in the future, unlike Yrovi who will NEVER be able to afford one of those things, ever). I think the only kind of toon I'll level engineering on ever again will be a hunter for the guns/ammo. That's it.

The Lull and Saving the Day

Recently, Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan spoke about how the quest design team goes about doing their job and how they use questing to control the flow of the game and the pace of the players. It was an interesting read and got me thinking about my current problem that I happen to be facing with Mål. You see, I've been leveling him at a pretty decent pace (he just ding'd 34) thanks to the fact that I've really fallen in love with the Retribution Paladin's playstyle and his amazing survivability. In fact, I like it almost as much as my prot warrior. That said, he's currently hanging out in Eastern Kingdoms, having a really hard time questing.

I'm not sure what is making this section of leveling so hard. Could it be the increase in leveling speed that came with 3.0? Or maybe it is just poor quest design left over from Vanillia WoW. It's possible they didn't quite get it right when designing Hillsbrad Foothills and the surrounding area. Or, it could be that this just happens to be a slow level-range anyway and always has been. I just don't remember having this much trouble leveling Yrovi, although that was a very long time ago. Heck, it's probably a combination of all of those.

I have solutions open to me, of course. The simplest is to hop over the big water to Kalimdor and do quests there that fall in my current level-range. There is a problem with that solution, though, and it's kept me from doing it. Desolace. I'd have to quest in Desolace at this stage, and, frankly, that isn't an option. I despise Desolace. I consider it worse than the Barrens at this point, and that's saying something. Granted, I have a mount this time through, but I still refuse. It's grey, ugly, and everything seems to center around those flea-ridden Centaurs. So, no hopping over to Kalimdor (Unless I absolutely must).

I could run instances. Scarlet Monastery, for example. The biggest issue with this solution is the problem of finding groups. It seems like there is no one around my level anymore, at least, not when I have time to run something. It's hilarious how many whispers I get to run something 5 seconds before I'm planning to log off. Still, it's an option and a very viable one if you get the group together. In fact, Mål ran Library and Armory last night, which is what ding'd him to 34 and got him some shoulders to wear when he hits 37. It was an excellent group, too, with a Shammy healer (one Mål has run with before, during a rather... unique 3-manned Shadowfang Keep run... maybe I'll write a little short-story about it on my other blog), a fantastic Pally tank who practically ran us all through with a blazing pace, a frost mage who laid down some mean blizzards, and a rogue with poisoned blades filling in the other DPS slots. You were all awesome! I did get to play hero at one point:

So our tank was great, pulling large groups we aoe'd down, holding aggro like it was nothing and things were going great. We blew through the Library Wing so fast, I couldn't believe it. We decided to hit the Armory as well, especially now that we all had our little red keys, so we jumped down into the bowels of the Monastery to face Herod. On the way, our tank overpulled by a few and our Shammy healer couldn't quite keep up with the heals. I was being a DPS and didn't think to pull back to provide extra healing support, but knowing my pathetic little heals, I proably wouldn't have helped much anyway. So the tank fell, along with our mage. Wipe was looking probable, so I thought fast, laid down a Consecrate, cast Righteous Defense, used my taunt to gather up the remaining four or so mobs (damn adds that like to come into the middle of a brawl) and did all I could to hold aggro while praying to the light that I survived. Healer saw what I was doing and started healing me (which gave me a bit more mana, thank goodness... I have a whole new respect for Prot Pallys and their mana needs), the rogue payed attention and burned down the mobs and I tanked with a vengeance! Needless to say, I helped save us from a total wipe and we continued the instance after a quick drink and rebuffing with no issues. It was freaking awesome to team up with honestly good players in a PuG.

So back to the problem I was talking about up there... leveling in the mid-30's is a drag, yo. You see, it's not that there aren't quests available to me. I have quite a few in my log. But they're red. Bright red. I don't mind doing orange quests, or at least trying them, as I've found that I can do most of them with no problems. As a ret pally, I can take stuff down that I never could have on Yrovi. Of course, having several heals available to me help tons. I have my spells, my statues from jewelcrafting, bandages... plus I wear heavy armor and can put up an aura to help with that, too. Heck, I was taking on raptors for their hearts in Arathi that would occasionally land a crushing blow. I had to bandage up after each fight, but I was doing okay. Nevertheless, the quests are a pain in the behind and more or less undoable if they're red. The added issue of travel through the various zones for all these options is like straw on the back of a camel, and we all know what happens with that.

Still, through all that, and my QQ, I haven't gotten bored. I may find it hard, or occasionaly aggravating, but I keep coming back and that just proves to me that Mål isn't just some passing fad for me (like my rogue, who I haven't touched in a month... maybe I should watch Blind again to get in the rogue-ish mood *wink*). He almost has the making of a Main in him, if I wasn't so into Yrovi. It's possible that by getting to 34 and a learning a new spell, those other quests that were red are orange now. Maybe I can knock a few more out of the way. I'll give him some time to rest up, get blue XP, and I'll come back to him for more. Once I hit level 40, though, I'll have to focus on him a bit to get his gear up to snuff. Replacing everything for plate is going to be interesting, especially since his gear is already showing some age now.

One way or another, I'll push through the Lull of the 30's and hit the 40's and find my groove. Maybe I'll even get to save the day again in the process. ;-)

Add-On Overhaul

Blizzard recently changed the rules a little when it came to add-ons. I don't author add-ons, nor do I understand code or any of that stuff. Lots of people are talking about these changes, though, and I understand some of the basics of what has happened. I also understand that a few authors for some of the popular add-ons have more or less thrown in the towel (Outfitter, for example) while others say they will continue to update, but not to the extent they used to, due to the changes set forth by Blizzard. Some of the changes prohibit authors from asking for donations in the add-ons themselves or for charging for the add-on(*cough*Carbonite*cough*).

I'm honestly not sure how I feel about these changes. I'm able to see both sides. Add-on authors put in a ton of time and energy into their code. On the other hand, their product wouldn't exist at all without Blizzard and World of Warcraft. Can they honestly expect to make any kind of profit due to their "piggy-backing" of Blizzard's product? Or how can Blizzard so firmly and bluntly deny these authors any profit from their work? Work that improves Blizzard's game a great deal, even giving the developers ideas for new, integrated features (like the new Gear Manager which theoretically "replaces" Outfitter). It's a difficult situation.

It's also made me really look at the add-ons I use and which ones I could probably do without (Bejeweled, I'm kinda looking at you...) and which ones I can't live without. I've narrowed the list down to some categories:

• Action Bars (Buttons): I absolutely must have some kind of action bar add-on. The default actionbars included in the Blizzard UI  are clunky and unorganized, showing up all over the place. Plus, I love being able to easily map keybinds. I'll be using Bartender till the day they shut it down, I think.
• Extra Action Bars (Info): I enjoy having the little bars at the top (and/or bottom) to give me information all in one organized area, like my open bag space, my current gold, my durability percentage, my ammo count, etc. There are several out there, but Titan Panels is what I use.
• Threat Meter: Even if I'm not always looking at it at all times, now that I'm getting into high-end content like heroics, I like knowing where my group is in terms of threat and how I'm holding it. Omen ftw.
• Auction House help: I'm currently using the all-knowing, all-powerful Auctioneer. It does it's job really well, keeps all the info I could ever need... maybe too much info. I love Auctioneer, but I'm beginning to wonder if there is a lighter-weight mod out there as an option. I think I'll try AuctionLite for a bit and see if I like it as much. To be honest, I don't use Auctioneer to its fullest because I don't understand half of what it's doing. :/ StdDev? WTF?
• Gear Management: I've been using Outfitter. No more, now, since the author has thrown in the towel, so I'll try Blizzard's default Gear Manager and see if I can live with it. Honestly, the fewer mods I have to update, the better. If it ends up being really bad, I'll search for a new one then. I just think that with the new dual spec option in 3.1, this is going to be an absolute necessity.
• Raid Help: While I haven't started raiding yet, it's on the horizon, almost in reach, and I'll need all the help I can get. That's why I'll keep Deadly Boss Mods. As far as I know, there isn't anything better out there.
• Cast Bars: I used the default casting bars forever and recently got Quartz and can't look back. These are awesome and make my life easier, as they show cooldowns in a bar format which makes more sense to me, as well as a swing timer. Perfect for me, so it stays.
• Combat Text: I've mentioned how I love Mik's Scrolling Combat Text. I honestly don't know how I played this game before using this mod. It tells me when stuff procs and when my health is getting low (or mana, on my alts).
• Inventory Mod: I've been searching for a good bag/inventory mod, and I think I'm settling for ArkInventory as long as I can get it organized the way I want. I tried Bagnon, but it just wasn't a good fit, although it worked as advertised.
• Quest Help: I leveled my first toon to level 50 or so without any quest-related mod. It was slow-going. My first toon? A hunter. Beast Mastery spec no less. I'll never go without some kind of quest help again, even if it means I'm doing everything on ezmode. I don't care. I must have something, anything, to make it easier. Naturally I've been using QuestHelper for ages, but the author has posted that, while he will keep it updated for now, and possibly the future, he won't be adding any new features due to the change in asking for donations and such in the add-on. Due to this change, I'm going to search for a decent equivalent, just in case. I'm currently thinking of going with TomTom and Lightheaded as a start. Of course, Blizzard is implementing a quest tracker in the new 3.1 update that even allows you to use quest items without opening your bags or putting them on an action bar. That's an improvement for me. Maybe in the end, Blizzard finally fixed how you track quests. We'll see.

The other main reason I've begun thinking through all of this is because my current collection of mods use up a ton of memory when I play. At least, I think they do at over 100MB. I'm guessing that mods like QuestHelper and Auctioneer are big culprits here, as they have large libraries that are accessed often. As much as I'm making a "can't live without" list, I'm also thinking about how heavy these mods are, and how much I can trim off just by making a few choices, or going with Blizzard's default UI in certain places. I think the way I'll test all this is by finally getting my laptop dusted off again (MacBook Pro) and install all of the add-ons I think will be "lightweight" and see if it still runs okay. If so, and I like the add-ons, then maybe I'll use them on my iMac as well.

Tank LFG for Reg HoL

I've been running regular Hall of Lightning for the Seal of Pantheon. I think I ran it about 7 times this weekend and only saw the seal drop once, where I promptly lost the roll to a tank-specced Death Knight. He was a really good guy, though, and ran the instance with me about two more times after he had gotten the drop, but no luck for me. In all those runs, I didn't see the sword at all, so we'll just have to keep going. I desperately need that trinket. I think at least one run a day should get it for me eventually, especially if I put together groups where I'm the only tank from now on... The upside? I'm getting really familiar with this instance and can clear it relatively quickly with a decent group. If I ever run this in Heroic, I'll have the mechanics down pat.

Yrovi did reach Honored with the Wyrmrest Accord, with all that running HoL while wearing her tabard, so I got a very nice, new cloak to cheer me up. I'm hoping to get to Revered with them soon for the chest and boots. After that, it's on to working for the Argent Crusade to get the legs. Gotta love items with sockets. :)

I've also been working on Yrovi's engineering skills and have managed to get over 435. I'm so close to the goggles, I can practically see them already. I've already decided which gems I'm going to get for it, so today I'm probably going to check the AH for them and the extra mats I'll need to craft it. A great deal of help came yet again from my guildie, Tyra, while I was crafting. I swear, that Paladin is making sure I get geared if it's the last thing they do.

With all of this happening, I've managed to finally hit the uncrittable minimum for Heroics (535 defense). I'm thinking about trying heroic Utgarde Keep, but we'll see. I wouldn't feel comfortable just yet, just because I need more stamina. I've been so focused on getting uncrittable that I've really lost out on my healthpool (I'm hovering around 20200 or so, thanks to my Sonic Booster). If I'm going to seriously consider getting into Heroics, I'm going to have to increase that. I refuse to be a bad pugger and come unprepared or be a burden to my healer. Be.imba.hu says I can perform well in high-level regular instances (like HoL, for example...) so I'll stick to it for a bit longer. Maybe I'll change it up a little and try Oculus and Pinnacle, too, but not till I get that darn trinket. I desperately need it. Seriously.

Blinky

It's been awhile.

Honestly, I haven't been working on my main the way I should. I feel a bit sheepish. Maybe I'm a little burned out? Or it could be that I often feel like I don't have enough time to run an instance when I log on. Instances are so important right now to get gear in order to get to the defense cap... and I just never seem to have the time to run them. That's just an excuse, though. I should just make the time. *sigh* We'll see what happens. Maybe I'll try running the regular level 80 instances, like Utgarde Pinnacle. The defense cap is less imperative there, and I think there are drops for me, plus I can work on getting Wyrmrest Accord rep.

I suppose the other option is, of course, to buy up a few more items with tons of defense on them, like the saronite boots and bracers. They are my last two greens I need to replace (other than my gun... but I would rather wait to replace that with something I can craft). That may just get me to the first defense cap for heroics... I don't know.

Since I'm feeling so indecisive about Yrovi, I've been logging onto an alt: a Blood Elf mage by the name of Xapha. I had created her ages ago and never got into the groove, I supppose. Now, though, I'm really feeling her... and I LOVE Blink. I don't know why. It isn't that impressive. 20 yards doesn't really do much, and it doesn't have a really cool animation or anything. But I'm addicted to that spell. Every time I'm going somewhere, I blink on every cooldown. Every. Single. Cooldown. It's unhealthy.

Anyway... Xapha is level 21 currently, and I'm running her as Frost, naturally. I think one reason why I had a hard time with her when I first created her, was that I was trying to level Arcane. Not so good. Regardless, I've yet to kill Dar'Kahn or his lieutenants, as I seem to always be on when no one else is around, so I'm currently running around the Hillsbrad Foothills until I can find a group.

Good Gravy...

Gah. I would have logged on last night, but I burned my pinky finger while cooking! D: Boiling gravy sloshed on to my hand, and that made for a very painful evening. My left hand was forced to spend several hours in cold water. Thank you WebMD for telling me what to do/not to do (I would have made it worse with the lotion I had, but was spot on with the water).

I'm just grateful that it wasn't too bad and more or less healed overnight. I'll just make a simple sandwich tonight, and stay away from the kitchen as much as possible. ;)

Maintenance Tuesday today is supposed to bring patch 3.0.9, or as BigRedKitty calls it: "The Patch to Patch the Patch" Patch. Various fan sites have the patch notes listed, although they don't seem to directly affect any of my characters that I'm playing currently. They aren't on WoW's site, though, so I'm taking them with a grain of salt anyway. To see them courtesy of WoWhead, click here. Remember, they aren't on the official site, so they may not be true, but I think it's possible. I guess we'll find out today. :)

IRL: X-Men and PvPOnline, plus Database

Yeah, so, I haven't actually played WoW for the past two days. I came home on Wednesday after listening to the newest Instance podcast with the PvPOnline creator and decided to read the comic. Like, all of it. The whole thing. I didn't stop till bedtime, and I still hadn't completely finished. Regardless, it took up all my WoW time. Last night I came home, helped with dinner, and then watched X-Men and X2 one after the other. Wasn't really in the mood for WoW after that, either.

So. I guess I'll get on tonight and this weekend. I really should get to level 80. I'm so freaking close at this point that it's stupid that I've taken this long (50% through 79). And I know that the guild wants to start raiding and I want to raid with them. And 80 is mandatory for that business. So. I guess I'll get on tonight. And this weekend.

On a side note, I'm going to take at least part of this weekend to fix my media storage situation. I have well over 200 DVDs in my collection, maybe closer to 250, and it is sadly unorganized. I have no idea where some of my movies are. And when I get in the mood for a film, but then can't find it, I go nuts. For example, I know for a fact that I own the Bourne Ultimatum. But I can't find it ANYWHERE. I've looked. So I broke down and just rented it from Blockbuster. By the way, Blockbuster used to be cool. Really cool. 99 cents for an old film for 5 days and no late fees. Yeah, they don't do that anymore. They're back to their old, craptacular ways. Damn that they are the only rental place near my house. One more reason to reorganize my DVD collection. I'm going to use my database software, Delicious Library, to get it all settled and happy. Plus, I just bought something like 5 dvds recently that I need to put in there...

TL;DR: Haven't played; will play tonight and weekend in between organizing my DVD collection. Yeah.