Now what?

As some of you may recall, I managed to pull my dad into Azeroth a little over a year ago. I set him up with a trial account, helped him with some of the basics, and then sent him on his merry way.

He ended up enjoying the game enough to stick with it. Though his playtime is limited to a few hours on the weekends, he still managed to get enough out of playing to continue his subscription.

He solo'd the whole way, with Norf or I occasionally running out to help him through some group quests, especially in Outland. Often that just meant running around behind him and keeping him healed up as he fought some of the bigger bads. Or tanking the ones that would have just killed him too quickly.

He enjoys taking the game at his own pace, and is very tunnel-visioned when he plays. A lot of times I have to call him on the phone when trying to help him out because he's just not watching his chat window. For this reason I didn't even bother inviting him into my guild. I just didn't feel it would add anything to the game for him. (I did discuss it with him at one point, and while he didn't say no, I got the impression he just didn't see why he would want to be part of one.)

Yesterday he logged on and I noticed he'd hit 85. (He was 79 when Cata dropped, so this was the first time he'd hit the cap.) I was halfway through sending him a congratulatory message, when I got a message from him instead. After exchanging greetings he said this:

"I hit level 85. Now what do I do?"

I started to type a response, stopped, started again, stopped again...and then sat there for a couple minutes just thinking about what I could say.

I've never approached the end-game from the perspective of someone who wasn't interested in raiding, or any other forms of multiplayer play. You know...that second M in MMORPG. From the very first time I hit level-cap in BC, group play was my goal.

We have a few uber-casual soloers in my guild, so I posed the question in gchat. Specifically asking for ideas on what someone could do with a max-level character that was perfectly happy playing unguilded and solo.

The first response was "start gearing for dungeons." *headdesk*

A few more minutes of conversation led to the conclusion that none of our uber-casuals were online. Everyone was in the same boat as me...they just didn't approach the game from the right perspective, so they had no clue.

I mean, there is stuff to do solo. Reputation grinds, AH PvP, Achievement hunting. But I had a hard time imagining any of that appealing to my dad. They don't have rewards that are easily quantifiable.

My dad can spend hours and hours and hours playing games that have loose definitions of winning. Civilization, for example, is one of his favorite series of all time. He's been playing since the very first one. But from the start of the game, there's still a quantifiable end-state.

Ultimately I told him to finish questing out Twilight Highlands if he hadn't. Then he could roll a new character and start over to see things from a different perspective. I also told him how to browse his Achievements and that he could pick some of those to go after. And, finally, that it may be an easier conversation to have in person.

I also apologized and said, "There's just not a ton of stuff to do on your own once you hit the level cap."

Oddly appropriate that this morning, Ardol announced his cold-turkey resignation from all things WoW for almost those same reasons. As someone who enjoyed just being on his own while playing the game, he found that the game really stopped offering things for him to do.

It's possible this is the end of my dad's adventures in Azeroth. Which doesn't entirely surprise me. I even told Norf a long time ago that I kind of envisioned my dad playing until he hit the level cap and then calling it good. He's the type of guy that doesn't watch movies twice because he's "already seen it." So I have a hard time envisioning him rerolling (even though he did ask about other classes before). And I just can't think of anything at level cap that will really hold his interest.

Even if this is the end of his WoW days, I can't say it's a bad thing. He certainly enjoyed his time. He enjoyed playing a game "with" me and a lot of the time I was at home we spent talking about the game. And it was nice for me to finally be able to share one of my games with him. I'm the gamer I am today because of all the games he shared with me while I was growing up. So, in a way, the cycle is complete.

Now I just need to wait for my niece to get a little older and I can start corrupting her. Not that I'm going to be alone in that endeavor. She's a total grandpa's girl. I'm sure he's already planted the seed...

Level up!

Holy carp! I got linked by WoW Insider!

<3

...

(Shhh. Don't speak. Just let me have my moment.)

The curtain is set to rise

Tonight's a bit of a big deal for me and my guild. Tonight is our first official guild raid night of Cataclysm. We've been working towards this for a while now. Obviously ever since Cata dropped. But the last 2 or 3 weeks we took it a step further, spending our usual raid nights (Friday/Saturday) grouping up and splitting off into Heroic groups for gear and practice.

Last Sunday we had a 10-man kill of Argaloth (who dropped nothing useful, the jerk) and a couple nights ago a 10-man team went in to give the Bastion of Twilight a shot. I think it was a good learning night (I didn't participate, but listened to the latter half of the run on vent while they went) that ultimately ended without getting Halfus down.

Tonight, though, is the big one. 25-man BWD. The invite has been on the calendar for 2 weeks. As of right now we have 27 Accepted and 13 Tentative. Somehow we're going to have to pare that down to 25.

(Matticus' post today mentioned streaming raids. His is for recruitment purposes, but I may try and set up a stream before our raid so those who don't get to go can still watch if they want to. I still say raids need an "observer" mode.)

Unlike in the past, where we've mostly gone with a "the first 25 to show up get in" method (with the caveat that we need X tanks and Y healers), we'll be doing some gear checks. Not so much who is the most geared, but who put in the effort. Did they gem and enchant everything. Are those gems and enchants appropriate for the class? How's their First Aid skill? Do they have food/flasks/bandages?

During the Heroic runs over the past few weeks, we've also been keeping some notes on how people play. Not necessarily how good they are, but more how they work in a team. Do they help with CC (including refreshing when needed)? Do they interrupt? Do they help throw emergency heals? Do they do any of this without necessarily being reminded to or told when?

To be fair, as a raid leader, it's also a big night for me. We haven't raided as a guild in a long time now. A lot of our newer members (and there are quite a few of them) haven't raided with me at all. I worry about how I'm going to perform in that role and how well I'm going to be received. (Despite the frequent and flowery sentiments to the contrary from my guildies, I still don't think I'm that amazing of a raid lead.)

I'm also woefully unprepared. I took a quick look at a Magmaw guide earlier this morning, but still haven't researched anything else about the instance. Hell...I couldn't even tell you how to get there.

I didn't sleep well last night. Seriously. That's how neurotic I get about these things sometimes.

At the same time, I'm really, really excited. I love to raid. It's the pinnacle experience of an MMO, IMO. And as Captain Lore (as Cheres has named me) I get geeked out because raids are where a lot of the lore happens. It's the reason I got into raiding in BC in the first place.

I'm also excited that, at least for now, we're able to make good on our goal of being a 25-man raid guild. I know it's the less-desirable option right now. But we're in a place where we may be able to pull it off.

So we'll see how things go.

Is (low) leveling really too fast?

To people who frequently read my blog or that I interact with on a somewhat constant basis, it may seem kind of odd that I'm asking that question.

I've stated on more than one occasion that, yes, I feel low leveling is too quick. And up until this past weekend, I wholly believed that.

So what changed?

My Worgen Hunter dinged 40 this weekend. So far he's gone through Gilneas, Westfall, Duskwood, Northern and Southern Stranglethorn and he's started on Dustwallow Marsh. He's specifically abandoned breadcrumbs leading to Redridge and WPL. He has one going to EPL right now that I'm pretty sure will be green, if not grey by the time he's through Dustwallow. I'm sure he'll have picked up another one to somewhere else by then.

(That paragraph is making my spellchecker go nuts.)

So by my best estimates he'll have gone through 7 or 8 zones by the time he heads out to Outland. And if they continue like they have been, each one is going to be fully self-contained and give me enough levels to cleanly move on to the next without worry.

I also haven't hit a single dungeon (which people are complaining completely rockets them past zones).

Let's compare this to the old leveling experience.

I never really quantified it the way I just did above. But I have leveled 5 toons through pre-4.01 Azeroth. And I remember how it felt. The first 2 felt fresh and interesting, but they hit a lot of zones, and there was definite overlap. By the time I got to the third, there were only a couple zones I still hadn't been through. And I feel like if I had picked completely disparate paths, I would have had fewer, if any. Which means I was hitting around 45% of the zones.

There were definite dead zones in leveling where I was scrounging zones for quests of an appropriate level, or just any quests at all. I often spent so much time traveling from end-to-end of/between continents that I definitely felt I was leaving things undone. And I dreaded the 30-45 range when my choices were doing STV again or slagging through a hodge-podge of dreadful zones that included Desolace.

Some amount of dungeoning was almost required.

Leveling got to the point where it felt like a chore and I just wanted to get through it.

Now I already have a mental list of 4 zones I've completely skipped that I want to make sure I see on a future playthrough. And that doesn't include any of pre-40 Kalimdor or the new Elwynn and Dun Morogh.

Blizz is leaving ample content for me to explore on future playthoughs. And I'm actually excited to explore it.

I think I, like a lot a people, got wrapped up in the fact that it was different. I was expecting one thing, even though it was something I didn't actually enjoy, and when I didn't get it I made brash claims about it: it's too easy and too fast.

The old leveling slog through Azeroth felt like a chore. It was undesirable. But it felt like an accomplishment getting through it.

Now the sense of accomplishment is somewhat removed. But in its place?

You know...these new zones...

They're kinda fun.

A simple observation

It's kinda sad when a minor character like Glop has the best voice acting in the game, superior to more important and significant characters like, say, Alexstrasza, Varian, and Sylvanas.

Feral Enchants (4.03)

I have a confession to make, and it's not something I'm entirely proud to admit.

I've been really, really lazy with enchanting my gear so far this expansion.

That's not to say I haven't done it. I have. All my enchantable gear has something on it, but I'm not entirely sure any of them have the best option on there.

Mostly because I haven't really checked to see what all the options are.

As our guild started those early weeks of Cataclysm, we pushed for people to put their BoE greens in the guild bank to get DE'd, or send them directly to an enchanter. We figured we'd have some success with that method, but I don't think we were really prepared for just how successful we'd be. The bank tab we were using to hold the greens kept filling up faster than our enchanters could pull stuff out and DE it. We had 3/4 of a tab filled with materials in no time, and another 1/2 tab filled with enchants.

And so my method for enchanting my gear became to scan that half tab and pick the most useful looking thing I saw for each slot.

Now my guild is ready to start (25-man) raiding. Or at least ready to assemble a raid and see how ready we really are.

Guess it's time to really start paying attention to enchants, eh?

Bear Enchants:
Head (requires Revered with the respective factions)

• Arcanum of the Earthen Ring
  
• Arcanum of the Ramkahen (If you somehow have more rep with Ramkahen than ER, this will serve until you can get your ER rep up.)

Shoulder

• Inscription of the Earth Prince (Scribes only)
  
• Greater/Lesser Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz (Exalted/Honored with Therazane)
  
• Heavy Savage Armor Kit (If you have no Therazane rep you can use this while you quickly work it up.)

Chest

• Greater Stamina
  
• Stamina
  
• Heavy Savage Armor Kit

Back

• Protection

Wrist

• Draconic Embossment - Stamina (Leatherworkers only)
  
• Major Stamina

If you feel you're in a spot where some extra mitigation/avoidance is going to help you more than the Stam, then go

• Draconic Embossment - Agility (Leatherworks only)
  
• Dodge

Hands

• Glove Reinforcements (Seriously)
  
• Heavy Savage Armor Kit

Legs

• Charscale Leg Reinforcements (Leatherworkers only)/Armor (Everyone else)
  
• Twilight Leg Armor

Feet

• Earthen Vitality
  
• Heavy Savage Armor Kit

Weapon

• Windwalk
  
• Mighty Agility

Rings (Enchanters only)

• Greater Stamina
  
• Agility

Cat Enchants:
Head (requires Revered with the respective factions)

• Arcanum of the Ramkahen
  
• Arcanum of the Wildhammer (Alliance)/Dragonmaw (Horde)

Shoulders

• Swiftsteel Inscription (Scribes only)
  
• Greater/Lesser Inscription of Shattered Crystal (Exalted/Honored with Therazane)

Back

• Swordguard Embroidery (Tailors only)
  
• Major Agility
  
• Greater Critical Strike

Chest

• Peerless Stats
  
• Mighty Stats

Wrist

• Draconic Embossment - Agility (Leatherworkers only)
  
• Greater Speed
  
• Greater Critical Strike

Hands

• Mighty Strength
  
• Greater Mastery
  
• Exceptional Strength
  
• Haste

Legs

• Dragonscale Leg Reinforcements (Leatherworkers only)/Armor (Everyone else)
  
• Scorched Leg Armor

Feet

• Assassin's Step
  
• Major Agility

Weapon

• Mighty Agility
  
• Landslide

Rings (Enchanters only)

• Agility

Some Feral Macros

Over the holidays I picked up a Razer Naga. I have a full post coming in regards to how I feel about it, but suffice to say that it's been quite a shift in my play style. Among many other things, it's put me in a position where I'm using macros much more frequently than I used to.

On that note, I figured I could go over some of the macros I use.

Bear Form Macro

#showtooltip Bear Form
/cancelform [noform:1]
/dismount [mounted]
/cast [noform] Bear Form

This macro does 3 things. If I'm in any form except Bear form, I cancel out of it. If I'm mounted, I dismount. Finally, if I'm in caster form (no form) I shift to Bear. Where this macro differs from the standard Bear form button is if I'm already in Bear form, it won't get canceled. It also lets me shift out of flight form into the others when I'm not on the ground, which the game doesn't typically let you do. (Or at least used to not let you do...I don't know if that's true anymore since I always use this.)

I have a similar macro for Cat form. Just change the 1 in the second line to a 3. Then cast Cat Form on the last line.

Power Shift Macro

#showtooltip
/cancelform [modifier:shift]
/cast [form:3] !Cat Form
/cast [form:1] !Bear Form

Powershifting is a powerful mechanic. Any debuffs that impair your movement (or, when 4.06 drops, just those that slow it) can be cleared without losing form. One easy example is the poison the Empyrean Assassins in Vortex Pinnacle apply.) If you're Rage starved and have speced 3/3 into Furor, you can powershift for 10 free Rage.

The PvP applications should be obvious.

I also included a way to shift out of my Cat and Bear forms in this macro since I removed that from the buttons I use for those abilities and it was an occasional annoyance having to cast a spell to get out of form.

Interrupt/Stun Macro

#showtooltip
/cast [form:3] Skull Bash(Cat Form);[form:1,modifier:shift] Bash(Bear Form); [form:1] Skull Bash(Bear Form)

There's two things going on here. The first is that I can bind Skull Bash to the same button and have it work in both Cat and Bear forms. The second is that, when in Bear form, I can hold down shift and cast Bash instead for a quick stun.

I could also add [form:3,modifier:shift] Maim if I wanted to add my Cat form stun to this macro as well. But for now I've been keeping my combo finishers separate.

Cat DPS Macro

#showtooltip
/cast [modifier:shift] Swipe(Cat Form); Shred

As a Cat your main attack is going to be Shred on a single target (often) and Swipe on large mob packs with low health (not so often). With this macro, I can bind both "main" attacks to the same button and just switch by holding the Shift key when fighting packs.

Stampeding Roar Macro

#showtooltip
/cast [form:3] Stampeding Roar(Cat Form)
/cast [form:1] Stampeding Roar(Bear Form)

Pretty basic. Allows me to use the proper Stampeding Roar regardless of form.

Stealth Macro (NElfs only)

#showtooltip
/cast [form:3, modifier:shift] Shadowmeld; [form:3] Prowl; [noform:3] Shadowmeld

With this Macro, I've bound both my stealth abilities to one button. In any form but Cat, I Shadowmeld. In Cat form, I Prowl by default, but Shadowmeld if I use the Shift key.

Taunt Macro

#showtooltip
/cast [modifier:shift] Challenging Roar; Growl

Similar to the Cat DPS Macro above, this one lets me put a frequently used and a lesser used taunt on the same button.

Speedy Travel Macro

#showtooltip
/cast [swimming] Aquatic Form; Travel Form

Another one that's pretty simple. It puts my non-flight travel forms on one button. If I'm in swimmable water, I'll shift into mutant seal form. Otherwise, cheetah.


As time goes on, I'm finding a few of these are less useful than I originally anticipated (I don't need the Skull Bash macro to handle both forms in my current setup). I'm also finding others that would be useful, like combining Rip and Ferocious Bite, or binding my defensive cooldowns (which I haven't done, but really should).