Being Saleh: Longer and Harder

Oh, hi!!

So it's been a long time since my last post, being a dad is one of the cause but I'm kinda jumping between games this past year, most of them are JRPGs, several FFXIV, WOW, and ESO sessions and on some month: not playing anything at all.

But enough all that, today I want to talk about WOW, you know, yes it's still exists :D

As Legion expansion entered it's final chapter as of the release of patch 7.3.5, and the end of the third invasion of the burning crusade: I finally leveled up my paladin, my sixth level 110 toon

The most controversiaI thing in this patch and subject to most debate on online forums is probably the world zone scaling, it basically a guild wars 2 type of character syncing only this time it's the world that leveled up with you instead of you leveled down to match the zone's recommended level. Blizz initially did this for the Legion expansion area but now it's live for all WOW area: So what's this thing did for the players?

Basically it gives freedom for new characters to choose where they want to go to level up, the wow vanilla zone (Eastern Kingdom and Kalimdor) is designed for player level 1-60, the Outland and Northrend is now a level 60-80 zones, Cataclysm and Pandaland is 80-90 zones, while the dreaded Draenor is still a level 90-100 zone. The scaling also means the level 1-100 dungeons are now also scaled to player's level, making them more challenging a.k.a as my lazy self said (without any body part references): longer and harder, making players leveling is now a return to the classic way: questing.

As I read the patch notes I realized this is the thing that I can get behind to, but I still wonder... so I decided to tackle them out, I started a mage, the class that I avoid like a plague, decked him with full heirloom gears, I rolled a goblin which can't leave their initial area until the storyline is completed (btw this is my third goblin) my goal is of course: max level -- with this much handicap

I (finally and blisfully) left lost isle when my mage reached level 20, then I browsed the war board on ogrimmar, the usual route for goblins on this level is aszhara but since I have the quest achievement I decided to go to stonetalon instead, skipping ashenvale (which I completed on my warlock many many years ago). From Stonetalon i continued to Desolace, completed them both, then I hightailed to Feralas, Felwood, and a bit of Winterspring, after I dinged 60 with some help from dungeon quests (they gave decent exp but the dungeon itself is not) I decided to quit... at least for now

So what did I get to level the worst class (for me at least) on the worst looking race from 1 to 60? The leveling process itself is a mixed bag, but remember that those area is from cataclysm era so the story felt a little outdated, I mean I still love them and find the forgotten little bit of the story, like uniting the centaur on desolace is great, but still... it's somewhat off... I can't really put my finger on what's wrong, it just feel... odd, could be because I'm playing a mage though.

But nevertheless i dinged 60 so let's mix things a bit, I have a level 60 pally from... I can't remember actually, on this level I can choose outland or northrend content, and because outland kinda sucks i decided to go to northrend, so Howling Fjord is next and the next thing happened I blew my way to level 75 completing it and lo!! it feels great, but then I made a mistake by choosing Icecrown as my next leveling field, it was exhausting since the quests required you to fly back and forth across those walls, although it feels epic but it was tiring, i dinged 80 without completing it and decided to go to Pandaria instead of Cata zones.

I have all the loremaster title for the xpacs started from cataclysm, so I'm completely familiar with them, my 80 to 90 is spent most in Jade Forest and some Valley of Four Winds, my 90 to 100 is spent on the dreaded Frostfire Ridge and a little bit of Gorgrond, garrison helped out a bit. From this experience I saw that 80 to 100 is faster than my other leveling process, and it's not too bad after all, all the nostalgia is strong within this process.

I also decided that my not-to-feel-good leveling process from 1-60 is because I'm not good with ranged casters :D

So what's the overall conclusion from all this all-new-butsomewhatold leveling process thingie? I honestly don't have one, but I'd like to try again on my all new fresh void elf/zandalari troll toon when Battle for Azeroth rolls in, that might be a proof that this patch is good enough for me.

And yes I dinged max level on my pally, I already told you on the first lines of this post :P

Dual Wield: Normality

Yes, I've been busy with works and games, there are several comeback I want to write about including the f2p conversion of RIFT (which happens like a loooooooong time ago), patch 5.3 of WoW's Escalation (while now 5.4 is hovering above), several old beta like FFXIV (i think I'll write it when I finished OB), and the continuity of Guild Wars 2 short story updates (which I missed like twenty of them, umm no, it was more like six) :D

but for now: I want to talk about the other world, again

No, not this one

I met a couple of my homies several days ago (yes, I still used that term for my non MMO player friends). One of our topic was branching, it was about our childhood friend, a really close one, we used to hang out of our youth until a year ago and then he abruptly disappeared, not really gone, but our contacts have been... disconnected, usually revolves around works and projects until I saw 'uncommon' act from him on his social media account statuses, occasionally leading and deliberately affiliated to some movement and party-like organization, not to mention some hormones....

Not to say on a big day of one of our friend there are no response from him and on his own big day he never said a word while his social media statuses are more vague than ever.

I had my share of youthful angst, hikikomori, and other terms of closing myself from the (real) world, I had my days of game and stuff addictions, but even in that time I never left my 'human terms'. Since gaming was never and won't be a long time accepted as a hobby on my country I'm sill considered a nerd, childish, or just plain weird and the least of them:'not normal', and I accepted that

And there we are, me and my homies (if you don't want to see this term again you can close your eyes and make more appropriate term) :P. Just talk about life and other lives, and we came to "Why he's not here with us?"

I replied: "Let's picture this: It is us, now, on a fancy (cheap) restaurant talking about stuffs, I'm talking with your wife, and playing toy car with your kids, I came onall of your big day, we catch up stories and work plans, and all this while there are no words from him? He deliberately dumped us and cut off all contacts, while there are lots of means when he wants to be here or even join the conversations. And you said I was the weird - not normal closet-basement online gamer?"

Of course he said yes and we get a good laugh together.

So let me tell you: Game doesn't change people, it doesn't make people weird and cut off from the real world, MMO doesn't, broken heart doesn't, politics are :)

Just look at Ellen Kiel, look at what cutthroat politics have done to her, CURSE YOU ANET!!!

A Worgen In Pandaland

This is a post about how I came back to WoW last December, tasting the new atmosphere of the exotic locations and new stories I'm overall sure that Mists Of Pandaria is a major advancement from Cataclysm, but the flaw is still there, and they stay the same.

As I have one character on each faction I decided to level my Alliance Warrior first, as the skill tree resets and I don't have to choose between single minded fury and Titan's grip anymore I decided to change to single handed weapons anyway, the warrior skill tree now gives us banners to buff up party's attack or defense, some change on shouts and I can now select Bladestorm (yay!), plus avatar form which used to be exclusive on dwarves. As a Fury Warrior my skill rotation slightly changed, now I can choose between small rapid attacks or big numbered skills between auto attacks, some mixed up still continue to plague me as I tried to dodge by double clicked my arrow buttons (GW2 syndrome).

FYI, the natives can dodge

The story of Alliance in Pandaria are well written and well presented, the first area (Jade Forest) is a breathtaking scenery and a welcomed departure from Cataclysm claustrophobic feels, everything from the tress, building design, road design (very2 important since you can't fly in Pandaria until max level), imagining climbing the high road until you arrive at the peak and you see a big tower on the horizon and a city on it's base, some kind like that. The story flows steadily until you realized what are you doing and at that time you said oh sh*t and then sh*t happens....

Just remember to flush next time

The PVE battles are somewhat easier, although some monsters have lackeys that has little HP and can be annoying if you don't AOE them immediately, but they add something to the challenge, the regular dungeons are EASY, believe me, having started in the patch 4.1 I expect new dungeons are mirroring them cataclysm dungeons, but they don't, MOP dungeons are easy, and fun, and they have big bunnies and monkeys as bosses, it almost broke my heart defeating them, well we're not actually killing them though :D. The heroics are also EASY, although they required some attention and reflex but it's nothing like the troll dungeons and Jin'do the PUGbreaker (pre-nerf) =))

But as I said before: The flaw stay the same, started with the creation of the pandaren monk, watching the prologue story about how wandering Pandarens decided to help Horde and Alliance is really good, but when you hit Orgrimmar/Stormwind and at the end of the story you're just like "What? Barrens/Elwynn again? travelling through time in Outland and Northrend again? DEATHWING AGAIN???!!!" I know it's unavoidable on level progressing game like WOW but grinding to 90 is... enough to give me an upset stomach =))

I only give the game a try for a week although I subbed for a month, because of my time on GW2 and after that: the unavoidable busy days. so I tried to level my warrior to the max in order to try the new LFR, I was surprised that now valor items are tied to the faction reputation but since dailies limit has been removed i'm free to do them all but still... that takes time, time I didn't have, so I ended my sub without trying the new LFR and said goodbye to lush and beautiful Pandaria, LFR won't go anywhere right? =))