It Was Fun While It lasted

Felt fun at least for a while in MoP. I subscribed about a month before Mist just relearning how to play the game after being away from it for so long. Took awhile relearning how to play my class and a few alts just going thru the motions questing and learning new skills that were changed. And I had fun in the process.

Took my time not being in any hurry and paced myself getting my Paladin to 90. And I enjoyed the story of Pandaria as well. I had fun doing some Pet Battles and getting a set of Battle Pets to lvl 25 and capturing allot of rare Battle Pets, yet even that felt like a grind and a huge time sink.

My guild wasn't really active other than a good old friend GM friend and his host of alts as well a few other members logging in here and there but not really that active. But that was OK and didn't really bother me much. I enjoyed playing the game whenever I logged on to play whether anyone else was logged on or not in the guild. I worked at leveling up a few alts I played a bit and overall had fun leveling them up a bit. Yet even that felt like a grind repeating many quests trying to level up those alts even on Max Rest Bonus.

Overall I did enjoyed Cooking and Farming on the farm and even got cooking leveled up to 600 though not in all the Cooking Ways. I spent a bit of time slowly grinding up the Tillers Reps to Best Friends status with almost all of the Tillers and getting half way so far to Exalted. It felt fun most of the time.

At 90 so far I didn't really care to do any of the other dailies or grind nor did I even pay them any attention at all. It all seem like so much to do. I slowly realized I no longer had the heart to try and Tank anything so I didn't even waste the time trying to. I didn't care much for the grind of Reputations either at 90, I consider it all a massive time sink. While leveling the few alts I slowly felt the fun draining out of my play sessions repeating recent quests from different characters and came to the point that I didn't want to do it anymore either leveling them up.

And so it was really just going about doing that last set of Reps to get Best Friend status with the last of the Tillers the Fish person that that right there I realized…. this all no longer really felt fun and I didn't care to continue anymore. I didn't care to grind anymore Reps and I didn't care to make anymore progress in the game on any of my characters. None of it really mattered to me anymore so I just cancelled my subscription which runs out in about 2 weeks. It was probably just a matter of time when it was going to happen.

It was fun while it lasted.

Battle Pets: Not all Rare Battle Pets stats are the same

Being working at leveling up my Battle Pets. Got one Battle Pet to lvl 25 and the other 2 are at lvl 24. One thing I noticed is that not all Rare Battle Pets have the same stats.

I've got a very good track record so far in being able to spot and catch Rare Battle Pets in a Pet Battle. It takes a while to get used to being able to spot a Rare Battle Pet in a group your fighting. Rare Battle Pets have a large combination of Attack and Speed stats, way more than others of the same exact type, as well they often have very good health stats. When caught their stats change slightly and become normalized in some way after getting caught. So I caught 1 Rare Cockroach.

Then I somehow for some odd reason decide to try and catch another. And in the very next Pet Battle I spotted it in the group and caught it. Hmm stats look a little different. Wonder if I can catch another one and see what the stats are like.

And not long after I in a few more Pet Battles I caught another Rare Cockroach. And what do you know this one also has just slightly different stats. Damn Cockroaches are evil, they will outlast us all.

From what I can tell so far in all the Battle Pets I've caught, you can get slightly different stats on Rare Battle Pets of the same unique kind as well different stats of lower quality Battle Pets as well of the same kind. One thing I have done so far is once I catch a higher quality Battle Pet of that type I immediately get rid of any Poor or Common quality of that Pet type. Leaves me room to later catch either a Uncommon or Rare Battle Pet of the same kind and keep my Pet collection a bit tidy.

Ding Ding Dong… 90 finally!

Well I must be one the slowest of players to finally get to lvl 90. I guess I just wasn't in no hurry and just taking my good old time getting there. But it was finally good to get there all the same. So dinged 90 turning in a quest in the swamp area in Townlong Steppes somewhat midway thru the zone.

Leveled on mostly Rest Bonus all the way to 89 and that made it allot easier. But again leveling ran out of Rest Bonus about 60% the way thru lvl 89. Since I was having a good time just questing and going thru the story I just stayed at it and finished leveling the rest of the way as Retribution spec to make it go a bit faster. Trying to level as Protect Spec is painfully slow, though its handy to be able to switch back at times. It's the slowest I can remember of recent any WoW expansions.

As slow as I had leveled unbelievably I'm the very first person in my barely active long time guild to reach lvl 90. Only one other person in my guild a long time friend who's now the GM is active who's somewhere around lvl 88. No one else is really active in my guild at this point in time so even less pressure to really try to do anything much other than relax and do whatever.

While just going about questing closing in on lvl 90 I was doing a series of quests in Townlong Steppes at Fire Camp Osul where all the Pandaria Tauren are camped. While in the North West area of camp where a few Braziers were I just happen to see something sparkling on top of one the Braziers. Actually I thought it was a quest item. And running by I just quickly clicked on the sparkly item and it was a bind item as well, I barely looked at it just picking it up.

So wondering what the achievement and item was I stopped to really look and noticed I had picked up some rare item and it was a 1H Blue Mace. No real tanking stats on it, But I guess its good for dps tanking and well a ilvl 450 1H. So was cool to pick up something usable at least.

I guess the 1H Mace is actually a Torch Stick that's actually lit on fire and glows and lights up the area. Cool!

Slowly moving along

I must be the slowest leveler I know around. Been leveling on 100% rest bonus. Just making it to lvl 89 on my Paladin and again out of rest bonus. Time to bank up some more rest bonus for the long haul to 90. I may make it there sometime this weekend. After all I'm in no hurry to get there other than maybe before Brewfest is over and get a chance to kill the Brewfest Boss a few times.

Mist of Pandaria, Day One

Called in Sick! Somehow I really turned out to be sick as well and spent the day on the couch feeling not so well and playing Mist of Pandaria on my MacBook Pro.

Didn't have any server problems starting play about 2 hrs after game launched. Orgrimmar was a ghost town by that point. Trained up my Pet Battle skills as somehow I was able to learn the kills at the trainer since was in Orgrimmar at that point close by. Then fumbled around playing around with a few of my pets… all 23 of them. I guess I've never been much of a pet collector! But did some of the pet quests and won some pet battles enough to get all my pets to lvl 6. Gotta say… Pet Battles are FUN and allot more fun that I would have thought. And its fun battling your pets with other players in a good spirit of fun pet battling.

After a little while I ditched doing that and found my way to Pandaria. It was chaotic there as I made my way still trying to regain some muscle memory of not having played my Paladin all that much in the last 2 years. As well haven't played all that much in the last month since I've been subscribed again.

Its a beautiful place in Pandaria from what I've seen so far, have no idea if its the only starting zone in the Jade Forest. So far in no hurry to make it to lvl 90. None of my guildies were on for the day and the few that are playing, none were around either. So just made it easier for me to take my time and play. So far made it about 60% the way to lvl 86 and in all lvl 372 gear at this point.

So far it has been fun with minimal bugged quests.

Back from the dead… for now

Been back playing WoW for about a week now after activating a sub for a month. I'll likely give it a month or two and see how it goes checking out the MoP expansion. I'll likely just be playing casually as I already play multiple MMO's so WoW not likely to get all my attention like before in the old days. I just don't play like I did anymore in the old days playing WoW.

Its been about a year and a half to 2 years since have been away from WoW and coming back to WoW its like old times. But honestly I feel like a noob playing again. Just login in for the first time a few days ago I stared at my Paladin UI and I was dumb struck just looking at the UI trying to figure out what all those buttons all did. Even remembering some buttons were custom macro's and couldn't make sense of none of it. I actually had to read over many the buttons and spells to even remember what to use them for lol. Felt like a complete noob! I probably only have figured out how to use maybe 1/3 the buttons on my UI again so far. Slow going it is.

I remember when I used to play my Prot Paladin/Ret without much thinking, now I almost need a guide as well to just remember how to play either. The stuff you forget not having played in close to 2 years.

So over the last few days I just did a few of the new Hyjal and Firelands dailies to get used to going through the motion of playing my character. All those quests were all new to me and was also surprised how empty all the zones were. Over several days and haven't ever seen a single chat in any zone I was in doing dailies. Just different to what I used to remember how it sued to be.  Played with a few my other characters to get reacquainted again just relearning how to play them as well. So far not really in too much of a hurry with new patch changes ahead and everything changing just getting back.

There and Back Again… MoP

That was an awesome Cinematic!

Remind me of why a long time ago I originally fell in love with WoW, it was originally the Adventure and the Journey.

That was a very long time ago and time and taste has changed much since, so has the world changed much in his absence.

There and Back Again, can the old man who grew tired of the old War and Adventure who shed his armor and left it all behind for a quieter life of remote wilderness Fishing return to the life of the living?

Can a man who's broken Holy Spirit dead for so long, really find reason to resurrect again from the dead to adventure in Mystical Lands?