Friday, September 28, 2012

Channeling my Inner Zen

                                                      Say hello to Alisuna!

So to give a quick update since the launch of Mists of Pandaria, let me give you a breakdown of the evening. With snacks in tow, Red Bulls awaiting their duty, and a full blown nap prior to 3:00am EST I was supremely ready to jump right into live once MoP became available. With the Mister giving me the rundown of what was needed for me to begin the power grind to 90 on my hunter, I think it's safe to say that nothing prepared me for the unexpected turn of events that went down those first few hours on live.

Truly as a team, me and the Mister are great. Couple that with THOUSANDS of people rushing to get into Pandaria and that left me with a lot of frustration on myself and no view to take down a Horde ship for a quest. I have to give credit where credit is due though; the beginning of the level grind from 85-86 with Logan was amazing as he has the patience of a saint. He kept behind with me to make sure I got the materials needed for quests, was my knight in shining armor when ganking became a heavy handed issue (oh PvP realms how I both love and loathe you) and was excellent at keeping me motivated to keep going. It just wasn't meant to be though. Countless ganks and tagging competitively to get the credit for the quests took its toll on me, and the white flag came up after about 4 hours. I wanted to enjoy the new expansion, but power grinding levels just wasn't in my heart. Plus when your boyfriend is the raid leader of the guild? Well you don't want to hold him back. He's got to get to 90 and then jump into heroics so he can gear up in time for raid in the coming days. So we made a quick change of plans; I told him to keep going because I knew he had it in him to run 24 hours sans sleep to get what he needs accomplished (and sure enough he leveled to 90 in 26 hours I believe. That's my baby <3). In the meantime I was going to fold for a few hours, nap, and then get right back into the game from another angle.

Fast forward to 6 hours later. I was well rested, and wanted to head right back into the game. I figured maybe I'd use this time to try out the new Monk class and get a closer look at the Pandaren. What I expected and what I realized wound up being two completely different things. Diving head first into Pandaria was very simple from the get go as the sleep gave me a few hours to log into a clear area. Then the scenery? The quests? The storyline? Holy shit did it blow me away. Getting into the lore of the zone and the race really gave me a sincere appreciation for the class and in no way was it cheesed. The breadcrumb quests that dig further into the race's lore was very well executed, and I even had moments where it tugged at my heartstrings and made me misty eyed (Shu.... Shu I LOVE YOU. Playing water games with you stands as my favorite quest in this entire game). Then to be given the opportunity to choose MY destiny as Alliance or Horde? I was skeptical about the concept at first, but in the end? I loved it. It really helped me find my allegiance in this game and where I feel "at home". PLUS I GOT TO KICK VARIAN WRYNN'S ASS. I DID. AND IT FELT SO GOOD.

Now to switch into the class of Monks itself? Holy motherfuck. LOVE IT. It's a struggle in the beginning to grasp the concept behind the class, but once you do? They become supernatural in a sense. Now realistically I've died a few times on my Monk, but overall the mechanics of the class were so well thought out, that I fell in love. When it came time to have to hanker down a spec I did something that was both out of character for me, and turned a few heads.... I'm a healing monk.

Here... let me give you a few seconds to process that.
.... Good? Ok.

No really. When it came time to making my selection I looked closely into each talent spec, it's spells and passives, then settled on my conclusion. Once I dinged 15 I got ballsy and decided to queue into a dungeon. First off let me say that as having played melee / ranged throughout my entire career in the game, I thought I broke the game when I saw my queue pop after a minute. Healers.... Y U NO  TELL ME U QUEUE SO FAST?! Then it arrived--- Deadmines. In an all Pandaren PUG (figures) we plowed through the dungeon with the greatest of ease and despite my previous reservations about wanting to keep people alive in a dungeon? I liked it. I liked it a lot. I liked it so much I queued for another one, and then another one. Plus with two heirloom items equipped PLUS the Enlightenment buff Monks receive every ten levels? I'm leveling thrice as fast as expected.

For all that I'm enjoying thus far for the new expansion my uncertainty about the direction I'm going to go in leaves me a little anxious. Prior to launch I had a clear cut plan which I'm still gunning for, but it doesn't excite me as much as playing my Monk does now. It's still very early to tell, but I still intend to max skinning for the guild to have their mats regardless. Dinging 90 on my hunter though just doesn't matter as much to me as I thought. Hmm... we shall see. Until next time though!

Monday, September 24, 2012

Smell You Later Cataclysm!

That--- that feels like an appropriate title to start this post.

So with but only 17 hours left until the live launch of Mists of Pandaria, I took a nostalgic road trip through Cataclysm to give me a clearer sense of what I hope to accomplish.

For myself, this expansion really put me in the thick of things as I leveled not one but TWO (believe me for the altaholic empress, this is a big fuckin' deal) 85 toons, got the chance to see end game content and acquired a metric fuckton of gear to get me through Drunken RBG's (Master Sergeant Alicara here!) as well as Gurthalak for PvE.

In part, one of the biggest things to affect me in both this expansion as well as in real life was... I fell in love with my best friend. With that, I gained two families with a main still in my home guild <Northrend Travel Agency> US-Doomhammer as well as one <Conquest> US-Ner'zhul. Now I get the love of both PvE and PvP freely at my leisure! With that though comes choices.

The first of these being... what the fuck do I plan on doing tonight? Who will I carry in this expansion with me as priority? I had to sit down and think this through. My DK and I---- well we've been two peas in a pod the minute she hit 85. I vividly remember the night into the morning grinding that last level out. It took me to the point of drinking an entire bottle of wine to ding 85, but it was worth it. And with her, I learned how to PvP and Arena recklessly (thank you Xiil) but fell in love with the game and saw Azeroth with new eyes on her. Then comes my hunter who is a newly dinged 85. Heirloom-less like I roll, I expanded my horizons on her and started breaking down the boundaries my fears put up in the first place. On her I grew confidence in dungeons, raids, and even heroics and really sat down to learn the class, gear stat priority, and how to best optimize my damage output to become a valuable resource as both a solo player and in a group setting.

So with that I thought a lot about my frustrations, my excitements, the highs and the lows in both PvE and PvP on each toon and their respected class. After a lot of thinking and deliberation this evening the plan set in stone is that once 3AM hits, I'll log on to my beloved hunter with my beloved and together we're gunna make the grind to 90 as fast as we can. Is this a main change? Yes. Will the DK go into retirement? No----t yet. I made a lot of landmarks on her and have invested so much time and memories on her that she will NEVER get deleted. I think I'm just going to have fun on her. Whore myself for achievements, collaborate some transmog sets on her, RP, get her into a Greyfoo music video (well that's a far fetched one but if he ever needs a Night Elf DK? /wink wink), run some old school raids? All of the above. DK's have a great PvP and Tier set coming up so of course she'll get leveled up to 90 and will run LFR and BGs, she'll just hold a backseat spot while I focus a lot of my energy on my hunter.

What other goals do I hope to memorialize in this coming expansion? Well just a mini bucket list of sorts:

1. Level a Horde side toon to 90. My eyes on the prize? That would be my beautiful Blood Elf Warrior, Alisuna on US-Feathermoon. No rush. Just taking a moment to savor every bit of it. There's an achievement for it too! :)

2. The Pandaren Monk will mark the ONLY alt I make.  This one I am extremely serious about. I make a lot of alts that steer my focus away from what I could be doing. They all end up getting deleted anyway so the next course en route to 90 will be a Pandaren Monk. What faction will she go? Well we shall see, won't we? :)

3. 1,000,000 Gold. That's gunna be a big one. But damnit I want so many mounts and things! I'm going to take my time in this expansion to properly educate myself on working the Auction House and really learn how to utilize my professions to generate a solid source of income.

4. The Beloved. That title; I WANT THAT TITLE. Comes with grinding 77 reputations. It reminds me of one of my favorite bands and with that, I'm gunning for that one.

5. End Game Before The Nerf. This one is going to prove as my most difficult because the short end of it is--- I am not on a raid team. I may just LFR and try to jump in on random raids with guildies on an off night. I really want to see end game content as it is relevant. That's just going to help me build my awareness as a player and maybe one day I'll apply to a raid team. :)

6. Arenas. I WANT THAT. MUST FIND 3'S and 5's PARTNERS. The 2's spot is already occupied by the Mister. That tradition won't break ever. <3

7. A Legendary Drop. Yes! I have strived and strived for one and I've got my eyes set on Thori'dal. I'm making that run for both the bow and also doing a run on the Swift White Hawkstrider.

And this.... this is a long post. I'll see you guys tonight in Pandaria! :)


xoxo,
Ali