Not dead… yet

That’s right, I’m still alive (cue Pearl Jam, and stop booing!). The reason for not updating is a legitimate one: I was busy playing WAR. If I want to blog about a game I need to play it, right? No, it wasn’t laziness, honestly! I was just trying to make the most out of the double xp/renown and free play time bonus. It ended yesterday, so looking at the calendar it actually lasted for good 18 days, which is longer than the announced two weeks. I enjoyed it and so did the rest player base, judging by the activity and returning players I see every day. However, the million dollar question is how many of them will resubscribe now that free play is over? Anyway, let me give you a brief rundown of what I spent my game time on since the last blog entry.

Most of the time was spent playing my Warrior Priest. I overshot my initial goal of RR65 and got her to 70 with ease. Respecced a couple of times but have been healing recently with Grace/Salvation, since it would be a shame not to take advantage of the Warlord armor I’ve been rocking. I have to say that as far as healing sets go, this one is probably the best bar 1.3.6 healer Sovereign. Love the extra armor that puts me over 80% armor mitigation. I just wish I had more luck with drops. I ran LV a couple of times, but the WP boots never dropped. So I’m stuck using Annihilator gloves (best healing/survivability stats) and helm (2% disrupt) with 5 Warlord pieces. Even though I’m not wearing the optimal setup of two Darkpromise and five Warlord, I’m pretty happy with the heal power and survivability.

I put my career as a DPS WP on hold for the moment. I’m not going to spec melee until I get a better weapon. Onslaught Sledge is fine for first couple of ranks, but at RR70 I’m ashamed to be seen running around with that, not to mention the dps loss. Three pieces of Tyrant (chest, gloves and helm *drool*) would be a bonus so I wouldn’t have to wear conq, but I can’t see that happening soon.

Since my luck fails me, and neither the LV or the purple bag mace have dropped for me, I’ve been furiously grinding scenarios for the last two renown ranks or so. Ok, maybe not furiously, but I’ve certainly been doing more scenarios than before. I’m noticing that they are a bit more enjoyable than when I was wearing annihilator. If we are getting farmed I distract myself with little minigames, like running headlong into a premade, aoe detaunting and timing how long it takes for them to kill me (usually not long), baiting people too close and punting them into guards, taking objectives and laughing in the face of lone people who come to kill me,… that sort of stuff (if all that fails I just afk at the spawn playing Wargames). Maybe I just learned how to cope with getting farmed, or maybe it’s because better gear has enabled me to mess around like I do.

Either way, I do notice myself being less tolerant of people who spoil scenarios for others. AFKers, tards, soloers, loldps healers (you should only go dps when we have enough healers), you name it. If there’s a realistic chance of us winning a scenarios, i.e. we’re not against a good premade, I’ll be mighty pissed if we lose cause of the player’s incompetence. And you can be sure I’ll let that person know they are a tard and should gtfo. You can call me an elitist, but I tried handing out advice and gently steering players in the right direction. It fails 99% of the time. So why not just vent, which has the same success rate, but the added bonus of making me feel better aswell. If you don’t like it, stop being a tard and always do your best. We might win more and I’ll stop bitching. Win-win.

Unusually for me, I haven’t been playing my alts much. An odd dungeon run with my tanks to help a friend or a short trip to T3 on an alt were most of my excursions to other characters. The alt I played the most was my Marauder on Azgal. I’ve taken part in some ORvR and an Altdorf siege but mostly been staying in LotD, leveling. He’s 37 now and I’m torn about leveling him. I loved playing him so far, but I know from experience that mdps have a hard time in RvR before invader, and Maras aren’t exactly the best mdps to top it off. He’ll probably stay just an alt to log off to when there’s nothing happening on Norn.

I’ve also coaxed a friend into playing WAR. He has a RR49 WL now and we’ve been roaming the lakes with mixed success. Partially because his gear is crap and partially because WP and WL aren’t the best combo. Hopefully this will change with 1.3.6.

In other news; 1.3.6 patch notes are out and I’ll prolly comment on them later in the week. There’s also something about Mythic forums joining the Bioware Network. If you are interested in reading about it, there’s plenty of posts around the blogosphere, so stop poking me.

I also haven’t renewed my sub because I’m taking a break for a week or two, so you can expect the blog to be more active. Honestly. I promise.