Adventures of Taas

I’ve been back in World of Warcraft now for about two weeks and I’ve put around 20 hours in during that time.  At first I have to admit I was having a little trouble getting in to it but at some point between reading up on end game, talking to Chris about end game and genuinely having fun ploughing through some quests it started to click.

I’ve done level 28 to 35 (I think I might get 36 done tonight if I can avoid too much blogging/greader/twitter/interwebdistractions) and I feel the casual time I’ve put in to the game has given me entertainment in return.  One of the key indicators that I am starting to get back in to the game came today when I spent almost two hours just pursuing some meta game – got enchanting to 225, have made around 300-400 gold working the AH and mining as I level and at one point… wait for it… I even was chatting with some people at the Orgimmar Bank… IN WORLD OF WARCRAFT!  TALKING… TO PEOPLE…

Daggerspine (the server Jim is blamed for landing us on and Chris for keeping us on ) seems to be a little quiet (compared to my Alliance server Medivh) but Orgimmar is pretty hopping during prime time.  The community disappoints me a little (I don’t think there is a server community in WoW that would please me) sometimes when it degrades to pure fuck-tard-ery but all and all they seem to be a good bunch most of the time.

One of my biggest hesitations of playing WoW with the guys in the past was the fact that Daggerspine is a PvP server.  I’ve heard too many horror stories of being ganked and corpse camped for hours to be able to get too excited about a PvP server but I must admit I am starting to warm to the idea of a PvP server.  I don’t think I would go out of my way to play on one in any game but I’m starting to feel comfortable with Daggerspine as a PvP server as my home.

The biggest reason for this comes from an experience I had the other night.  I was in Stranglethorn Vale for the first time (anyone who has ever played on a PvP server go ahead and take a moment to grumble and moan – I’ll wait) and within 30 seconds I was ganked.  Fuck this.  I hate PvP. I’m quiting.  Another 30-60 seconds after that the calvary came running in and a handful of level 80s put the ganker out of his fuck-tard misery.  I grumble, piss and moan but eventually realize I need to realize this is the cost of playing with my friends so I headed off to the north end of SVT where you start questing.

I start doing the animal master quests and within a few minutes I’m seeing high levels of both factions running around in mounts.  I got the distinct impression I was about to be caught in the middle of a warzone and my only option for contributing to this war as a newb was to bend over and end up a corpse.  Luckily the tension between the 80s in the area never spilled over and we all sort of watch each other with a bit of unease.  It was once the dust had settled I realized the tension was very engaging from a gameplay point of view.

So I carried on and about five minutes later I ran in to a level 38 alliance hunter questing and I thought, shit here we go again.  I /bow’d in a lame attempt to not get two shotted and I don’t know if it was that or the guy just wasn’t up for a fight but we ended up questing side by side for quite a bit and aside from one of his multi shots going wild and hitting me (man we stared each other down for like 5 minutes after that I thought for sure he’d get a preemptive jump on me).

Another thing I noticed was that other people questing in the area tended to hang close together.  It felt like everyone was sort of watching each other’s back and it was a really neat sense of community I’ve rarely experienced outside of guilds in World of Warcraft.

So there we go – I still wouldn’t go out of my way to play PvP but I think I’m learning to live with it.

All and all this has been a successful return to WoW so far.  Onward to 40 and beyond!

Earlier this month I threw out a call for help to help me narrow down a PvE game to play this November. The games in question were World of Warcraft and Everquest 2. Both games have expansions coming out this month (WoW’s is now out and EQ2’s comes out in a few days) and I wanted to get back in to one of them (with WAR on the go and working on managing one of the largest and most active guilds in WAR I can’t possibly do both PvE games).

I did get some feedback (thanks guys!) and I actually reactivated my account in both games and got my feet wet and I’ve come to a decision – I’ll be playing World of Warcraft.

Some of you will remember back in the late spring/early summer I was talking about getting a WoW character to 70 before the expansion came out. That never happened because in June I got in to the Warhammer Online beta. Even when I was at my peak enjoyment with WAR I couldn’t help but regret not getting my paladin to 70 in time for the expansion.

World of Warcraft’s end game really intrigues me. I know I know, those of you who’ve played the game to death will be sitting there in your chairs muttering how the game is an item progression and rep grind at the end game but what you ex-WoW fan boys won’t admit to yourself is that for a period of time, and it differs by person – some it was a short time some it was years – is that you really enjoyed that experience and likely pumped 1000+ hours in to it.

As I said in my previous post I’m looking for a big end game PvE MMO to compliment the PvP gameplay of WAR. I’ve raided quite extensively in Everquest 2 and I really LOVE the raiding concept. Talking to people who’ve raided quite a bit in WoW it really seems that the World of Warcraft raid game will really appeal to me and what I’m looking for. The game has a great loot and instance progression that I can’t wait to sink my teeth in to.

So heading back in to WoW I had a bit of a dilemma – I couldn’t stand my paladin any more. I have no problem with the class per say but there is something about Hybrids that drive me nuts. Am I a tank? A Healer? Weaksauce DPS? So I clearly needed a chance of scenery for this go at WoW.

That change of scenery came by way of Chris. About 2-3 years ago he stopped playing on our Alliance server (Medivh) and moved to play Horde on Daggerspine (f u Jim ). I didn’t follow because there was just something about Horde I couldn’t get in to (this was pre blood elves) and I also was playing EQ2 heavily at the time.

So I’ve decided to really change things up and for the first time I’ll be playing not only Horde but on Daggerspine which is a PvP server! PvP servers in PvE games seem entirely pointless to me. In WoW if you want PvP you go to the battlegrounds or arenas. PvP servers are just a breeding ground for ganking (in my opinion). But alas – I want to play with my friends so I’ll go where they go.

So there we go – WoW it is. I’ll be posting updates regularly on the status of my character. He’s now level 8. I decided to go with Warlock which is probably my favourite class in the game likely because of its broad array of utility and the different ways you can play them.

This should be fun… thanks for pushing Chris.