Too Many Annas

On Cataclysm

Comments Off Written by Anna on December 6, 2010 – 10:13 am

I was going to write a post today about taking your time, enjoying the new content, and remembering to play for yourself.

But then Cynwise wrote it for me. Go read, it’s an excellent reminder.

I survived!

5 Written by Anna on December 1, 2010 – 10:22 am

I have successfully hosted a thanksgiving dinner at my home, complete with both my family and my inlaws. My kitchen passed the “crazy test”, allowing at least 4, if not 5 people to work simultaneously without being in each others’ way, and my double oven – which has been somewhat cantankerous in the past – didn’t even bat an eyelash.

Unfortunately, I was pretty exhausted from guest-wrangling and food-preparing, only to turn around and have to continue with both, while working full time all weekend (Black Friday, I’ve got a bone to pick with you), so I’ve been kind of a waste of space since everyone left on Monday.

Monday night, though, I got to poke around just a little bit at the new world of the Sundering, and as I’d previously kind of expected, it was the changes in the music that really made the game feel “new”.

Which, oddly, is kind of something I’m struggling with on my more established characters – I think just because of all the extreme exhaustion, trying to put voice/words to what THEY went through in the last week is really tough. Not unexpectedly, that struggle has kicked my alt-itis into high gear.

I really want to level some new characters, at least out of the new starting zones – Troll, Forsaken, Gnome – particularly Troll… I have a level 1 Troll Priest named Anzefi, since I couldn’t bear to lose the character completely, so now might be a good time to see the Echo Isles! I’ve also heard really good things about the Undead areas, and they were some of my favorites before, so that should be fun. And I’m considering re-rolling my old warlock too…

I’m really glad I have the second account right now, since that’s where all the level 1 alts will get started – I’m completely out of space on my main account, and don’t really feel much like deleting characters that I’ve had since Vanilla.

Still, the new stuff is really quite gorgeous, and I really like the new music that I’ve gotten to discover – even if that’s just the stuff around Stormwind and the surrounding areas. I especially like the new Stranglethorn soundtrack! (I’m also really glad I have the soundtracks to the previous iterations of WoW, since hearing my old favorites will be harder now.)

I’ve not yet decided if I’m buying Cataclysm for the second account – I probably will eventually, but for now, I’m happy with just the “4.0″ changes on my low level alts, and will enjoy the new content on my high level characters. I’m not sure how leveling will go, but I intend to give it a shot. Aely, Angoleth, and Annie Mae are first up on the list (for obvious reasons), and I’ll probably slowly churn through things on all three of them. My job schedule is so inconsistent right now that I’m not sure how much raiding is going to be in my future, and it will certainly not be a 2 day a week, 25 man raid.

Anyhow, all that aside, starting tomorrow (since I have to go to work shortly), I’ll be really exploring this newly sundered Azeroth.

What/where do I need to make sure I visit, and why?

Leave your recommendations in comments! <3

Murphy’s Law

5 Written by Anna on November 24, 2010 – 1:38 am

“Anything that can happen, will happen, and at the least opportune time.”

Which is, I suppose, my way of saying “Hope y’all enjoy the Sundering”.

Thanks to Blizzard’s choice of timing, the first response to the Sundering happened while I was getting my house ready to have 10 people here on Thursday. There was no time for me to prepare my characters for it, I was offline all of Monday night, working a late shift. All the RP that’s happening tomorrow will happen while I welcome my guests, pick people up from the airport, and try to juggle two ovens and getting 2 pies, 2 casseroles, a lasagna (plus the rest of dinner for 8), and bread made. Thursday is, of course, devoted to celebration. All the stuff that will happen in-game, on forums, and on blogs on Friday will happen while I make brunch with my family and my husband’s family, or while I’m at work juggling a Black Friday sale – repeat for the rest of the weekend.

Basically, I’ll be lucky to get online by Monday evening, and I have no idea what will have happened between now and then.

I have no idea why Aely suddenly and mysteriously went absent while the biggest change to the known world happened around everyone else. She certainly owes both Arrens and the Riders an explanation or three. I have no idea why Angoleth went from actively involved with the elemental defense to AWOL.

This whole first week of RP is lost, and those kinds of responses are hard (if not impossible) to get back. A lot can happen in the first week, and when things are new and drastically different, the RP usually picks up dramatically.

All the various story bits that were planned for right when the Sundering happened now have to wait (and may need explanations as well). My “first impressions” will either be made at an off hour when nobody is online, or in the midst of whatever else starts up this week, trying to catch up and respond to 14 things at once.

The thrill of the response, of everyone figuring things out together, isn’t something I’ll get to take part in, and that makes me kind of sad.

I realize a lot of bored college students will log a TON of hours this week, and bored career people whose businesses are closed on Friday will do the same, and that a lot of the Riders have most or all of this week off, with big plans for RP and in-game events. I know Blizzard has a December 7 deadline. I know the world outside the US doesn’t give a flying f-sharp about some other country’s made-up holiday devoted nearly entirely to food and sunshine-blowing pseudo history. I love my family and my in-laws, and I know that I’ll have a good (if slightly stressful) time with them this week  – something I am very thankful for.

But I’m still disappointed and disconnected from my friends, and even though I know and understand why, it still kinda blows.

(Writing this post means a 1:30am bedtime instead of “just” 1am, so it’s less edited than usual. My apologies for errors and a greater than usual level of whiny. And if it takes me longer than usual to reply to comments… well, I think that’s self-explanatory.)

Reputation Woes

6 Written by Anna on November 8, 2010 – 9:53 am

There are quite a few differences between a character that did their leveling in original WoW, and a character that leveled in Burning Crusade, and still more for a character leveling in Wrath.

I had two characters at level cap in the original game – Angoleth, my hunter, and Aely!Priest. During Burning Crusade, I leveled two new characters to cap – Annorah and Aely!Pally. In Wrath, I added Annie Mae and Annylais (who is 71).

Right now, I want to talk about three of those characters – namely Angoleth, Aelflaed, and Annie Mae.

Annie Mae, as a Wrath leveled Gnome Warrior, was riding a Stormwind Horse at level 35. Meaning she was exalted with Stormwind by then, purely through doing quests in Elwynn Forest, Westfall, Redridge, Darkshire, and Azuremyst, plus The Deadmines and The Stockades, and a few other assorted quests. As a Gnome at level 80, without even finishing her “Gnomeregan Valiant” quests, she is max-rank exalted with Stormwind and nearly exalted with the other four Alliance factions. She would get there easily through finishing the Valiant dailies, but I’m too lazy to do them on multiple characters.

Aely, as a Burning Crusade leveled Human Paladin, has her Crusader title, and was exalted with all five Alliance reputations well before she finished with the five sets of Valiant dailies.

Angoleth, as a Night Elf Hunter and my original main, isn’t even revered with the Alliance reputations, even though she’s finished two of the Valiant daily sets (Darnassus and Exodar). I tallied up the amount of faction rep you get with the various Alliance races for doing all of the Valiant quests, added it in… and she won’t even be exalted with her home faction (Darnassus) when I finish.

Reputation was a different beast back in the day. It was harder to find, slower to earn, and had different weight to it.

You received discounts on your repair bills only after you got to Revered, and those discounts applied to anything purchased with that faction – like epic mounts (which cost 1000 gold back then, which was a lot more gold than it is today). So Angoleth, at level 60, did every low level quest in Elwynn and Dun Morogh, trying to get to Revered with Ironforge and Stormwind (which she eventually did, barely) to help with her raiding repair bills and the cost of ammo. She did the same with Darnassus, getting to Revered to help with her purchase of an Epic Mount (the same reason I started PVPing with her, since back then if you had a Sergeant title, you got an extra 10% discount on mounts).

Which leaves me with a level 80 character who will be buying Champion’s Writs to fill out her faction reputation for… well, probably a long time. And possibly annoying everyone in Alterac Valley as I try to do turn-ins for spillover rep. One of the few benefits to all the PVP I did in the original game (aside from the kind of awesome Grand Marshall’s Crossbow) – I’m already exalted with the Stormpike Guard.

Actually, I think that was the only faction – other than the Hydraxian Waterlords – that I was exalted with when Burning Crusade launched. Go figure.

At least she’s almost honored with the Timbermaw? (Boy did /that/ grind take a long time)

Anyhow, I’m not really sure what else there is to say about it – I can’t change what quests I’ve already done, and I don’t really have any other way of increasing faction rep outside of the Tourney dailies and PVP. I’m certainly not saying that we should go back to how things were; obviously, I’ve benefited from the changes on other characters.

I’m just a little frustrated with how slow it’s going as I try to catch Angoleth up with my other, newer characters.