WTH Blizzard! LOL Pandas

LMAO at Pandas! I can't imagine at this point in my MMO career that I can get excited about a Teddy Bear game and Kong Fu Pandas running around in a game. No longer my kind of game in WoW as a previous long time player.

However though you gotta admire Blizzard boldness in marketing at striking back at the coming SW:TOR soon release for a 2 for one deal offering. A 12 month sub to WoW with the next expansion Beta included, free pets and free Diablo III subscription for the deal. 

That to me strikes right back at SW:TOR in Blizzard fearing loosing more current WoW players and to lure old no longer playing veteran WoW players back to WoW. 

At this point in my MMO gaming career I can't get excited much about coming back to play WoW. 

I'm just interested in playing Diablo III not a game with or of Pandas. My gaming taste has changed much since WoW days.

Reactivated my Account & back playing WoW

Well I did quit WoW and actually did delete the blog for several weeks now. But its been really tough to let go of the game and community thats been apart of my life for over 5 years. Thats half a decade of WoW and my life. Its been haunting me since as well. I love my character too much to quite the game forever and just not be able to play when i feel like and blog about my adventures. I'm as part of WoW game history as many of you as well the community and just miss you all too much to stay away.

I still like to be able to log in sometime and play and as well go fishing with my buddy Nat Pagle.

So I reactivated my account today and logged back in to check up on the guild gang. Feels like been gone forever. Since i'm back playing again (WoW players never really die do they?) I decided to reactivate my blog as well. Does anyone ever really quit this addictive game, it haunts you everyday when your away and not even playing the game it haunts you.

I guess I'm back playing again. Did the two people that read my blog for the last 5 years even miss me? Well missed you all so much being away.

MMO's, Gaming and Why I quit playing WoW

I really don't post that often or haven't really been posting that often about opinion and gaming for almost a year now. At least not on this exact blog which I consider to be my backup blog since its mainly been about WoW for the last 5 years. I really didn't have anything in mind to post about or intention to post about today either. I do enjoy trying out and playing other MMO games with moderation because that's one of the reason I do play games to see other worlds, try out other games and have other points of view.

For the weekend and the last few days I've mostly been playing EVE Online to get some things done because that's my main mmo for just about a year now even though I just also started playing some RIFT. I have some game projects I had been working on and just spend most the time working on those in EVE. I regularly cruise the mmo blogosphere and read a variety of opinions on other blogs, some more than others.

Their has been allot of tension in the WoW blogosphere community about players bored with WoW, people leaving WoW for RIFT, WoW players playing other mmo games and the rebound of many those players back to WoW when their gaming honeymoon is over. Earlier as well I was reading a blogpost which lead to reading a blogpost at Larisa's and Gevlon's blog as well as reading all the various comments on both. At that point I just had allot of conflicting thoughts and emotions about other mmo's, game community, why I play games and why I left WoW.

In 5 years of playing WoW I've never ever been a highly opinionated member of the WoW blogging community and thats just fine by me. As well I'm sure never been thought of as such. Usually I've blogged about my game experience in-game or in any other game as I've experienced it and about things that have affected WoW game wise. As well I've always expressed on the blog when its time to quit WoW it will be fast in decision. I will have no need to rant about it like some people often do. I'll just quit, move on and that be the end of it!

So why did I really quit WoW

When someone I know as a player or a blogger quit playing WoW and move on to playing other games that interest them or to do other things Its sad to always see them leave the game you also play. They may have made some difference while they were here. But for me personally I just simply wish them well in whatever they do, real life and whatever game they move on to. I'll still play the same game i enjoy playing, because I play the game for me and not for how you may feel about it. Yet people always wonder why some others are leaving WoW and when they will come back after maybe a month.

Just about one of the few comment I can really agree with to Larisa's blog post was by Nils and Spinks to the post. Its too long to quote them here. While allot of players likes to play mmo's, allot less of those players are really even open minded about playing other games or trying other games for fun or to expand their gaming horizons. One the best things in my opinion that can happen in the mmo industry is for good games to be made that are healthy competition to the ones that are already there to help make them better or spur some form of innovation vs just more of the same always. So I'm not afraid to try other mmo games besides WoW or even quit WoW. In the year I spend away from WoW on total hiatus I realized I can absolutely live without WoW and felt better when I wasn't playing it.

For me, I've been playing WoW since right before Burning Crusade expansion launched which is over 5 years of WoW. That's 5 years of my life daily having been invested in playing WoW which is the longest I've committed to playing any game in my life. I've loved and enjoyed playing WoW and the game is still a great mmo game. Over that time I guess you can say one has matured playing and learning WoW as a mmo. The first few years was an experience playing and learning the game and quite addicting to play and had a great community. As more expansions occurred, years and times changed the in-game the community also changed not for the better but for worst in my opinion. Eventually I also got more burned out on the game just too much WoW and blogging as well about WoW.

Over the years I've taken breaks away from WoW being burned out on the game and time away from blogging about WoW as well. So I took time away from the game to do other things, play other MMO games to find other interest, get different game perspective and broaden my mmo horizons. The more I got burned out the more time I went on game hiatus. A bit after WotLK I got burned out on WoW and just wasn't really enjoying the game. Nor did I like the in-game community of totally rude players I had often deal with and tank dungeons and raids with. With 5 years of WoW and a changing community I just got tired of all of it. And I just easily took a long break from WoW, blogging and the community as a whole.

In the time away from WoW I decided one the things I wanted to do was experience other mmo games and in the future play a variety of games vs just one game. So in 2010 I played STO at launch, enjoyed the game and leveled to the max but wasn't much to do at the time. Cryptic has since improved the game much since. I loved Sci-Fi and space games and wanted to try something much more complicated and complex to wrap my mind around so I picked up playing EVE Online some time after.

I truly enjoyed playing EVE Online and for all its complexity and huge learning curve as a mmo. Being so much different to WoW was a complete plus. I really didn't care if you didn't play EVE, didn't like the game or don't play EVE Online. I enjoyed it so I played it. The point was I enjoyed the damn game. That is why I play the game and any other mmo game to have have a enjoyable time. It was a good distraction from the world of WoW trying out other games.

Over the last year the more I played EVE Online the less I had thought about WoW, the community and blogging about it. And I did realize that. So for most of 2010 I mostly played EVE Online even though I had decided to also try other mmo games to broaden my mmo gaming vs just WoW. Some players are just totally stuck on WoW. Even though I do really like WoW, I'm not simple stuck on WoW either. I'm simply willing to try other games that's of interest to me.

So when Cataclysm launched I bought the game and see how things were. After years playing WoW I still did enjoy the game. So i played through Cataclysm going from 80-85 as that was the main part of the game that was of interest to me. Leveling up alts has always been something I've never been a fan of, its just not my style. But I did level up 4 my other 80's to 85 for Cataclysm all the while in the back of my mind thinking of the game overall and if I wanted to dedicate to keep playing WoW.

After transferring back to an old server 4 characters, leveling up my characters to 85, reflecting on my WoW guild, reflecting on the game community 5 man dungeons and raiding, reflecting on playing EVE Online and my future to that game as well as also reflecting on other new games I wanted to also play. I simply made a decision as to I wasn't going to do. Right around that exact time RIFT appeared out of no where and sounded interesting.

However after 5 years of WoW even though I liked and enjoyed the game I was just DONE! I had no interest continue to play the game for another year. The love affair was over! The love was gone! I can call it whatever I want, I was simply done as the more I played WoW the more I kept thinking I should rather invest that time in EVE Online. I'm far more than just the average WoW player skill wise and in learning. But for me its just time to quit WoW.

I also was going to also try out RIFT as a new game also, so good timing quitting WoW after 2 months of Cataclysm. Some people just won't get that decision as a WoW player walking away from WoW, its no more different that when I had decided to just walk away from WoW to take a break going on hiatus. But in the end I decided this was game over for me. So before I left WoW I sold everything on all my characters and gave away all the gold which was a heck of allot on my account to seal the nail in the coffin of my decision walking away. I would of deleted my characters If i had time to, but the time that i decided to quit and the time my subscription expired was maybe just 24hrs to have thought of it.

In the big debate of things I can give a rats ass if a game or a new game is better than WoW in all the ways one can compare it to WoW. After 5 years of WoW the game i'm just simply done and don't care to continue playing.

There is no coming back to WoW for me. While some players do raise from the dead in WoW this one player aren't coming back! WoW, the in-game community and the WoW blogosphere community has changed allot over the 5 years that I have played WoW. I do still like WoW but I'm going to be honest to say that after 5 years I just know when to call it quits and leave this WoW community. I'll continue to play the other games I play and move on and try any new MMO games I want to play. I'm just not that stuck on WoW that I can't enjoy trying playing other games for fun even as a above average WoW player. I realized before I could live without playing WoW, did so just fine last year and at this point its now permanent.

Everyone decides to leave WoW for their own reasons and it won't be the same reason for everyone. Currently I play 2 games. EVE Online which I very much enjoy that many WoW players won't touch with a ten foot pole and probably is my main mmo and RIFT which recently launched. There are other mmo's on the horizon that I will probably try but make no mistake when i do play a game its for my own reasons and not for anyone else's.

Charging with Wings

Its really odd sometimes the little things you can really like or appreciate that your character can do. I really like that Shield Charge and charging to the enemy.

But its cool to have a range charge on my Rift Warrior which is from the Paladin soul ability to quickly close range. Fist very few times i had used it never noticed anything unusual in the animation since mobs wasn't that far away but the more i used it seems when you charge at close to max range on the target divine wings pops out and you really notice it. Which is rather cool to see. With the short 15 sec cooldown its pretty cool to charge at range aggro a few melee mobs, grab aggro then switch target and charge at range again to that range caster mob and have all the melee mobs come running behind you. I just think its cool and always love seeing the wings pop on charging. Kinda wonder why Blizzard never gave Paladins something like that to close on a range target quickly.

So far i'm enjoying playing my Warrior Tank at lvl 31. Its getting more fun to play as i level up and have more buttons to push than I can seem to get to most of them before its time to push something else or a main ability again.

Busy Rifting, RIFT official launch today

RIFT officially launches it MMO game today and with it the newest and one the most polished new MMO game I can remember hearing of as well as having played in a long time. However I've have been playing in the Head Start launch for about a week now and so far have made it to lvl 28 on my Tank. Having a blast of a time leveling, questing, dungeon, rifting and exploring. Its been a while since I've had so much fun playing a new game.

RIFT as many have mentioned don't really add that much new, mostly borrowing some the best feature and concepts from allot of other MMO's and adding its own game lore and twist on things with their own MMO. And so far I really have enjoyed the story of the game even though I really never usually get all that caught up in geeky lore conversation of things. I've just been enjoying the game world for what it is as designed and the world in which my character exists.

So I've been playing on the Faeblight server a PVE-RP server with a few other bloggers all playing with the great friendly folks from Multiplying.net. I can't say i really know everyone well in our fairly new guild Circle of Trust except mostly the few friendly bloggers. But so far everyone been great, helpful, friendly, respectful, funny and welcoming. And that's rather nice to have a great bunch of folks to journey in a new game with. And so far I've just been having a great time.

I'm playing a tank named none other than well "Ardentdefender". For obvious reasons if you been reading my blog for a while i do enjoy playing the role. I do like to melee and hear stuff slam into my shield and because I'm also good at it as well a role I truly enjoy playing and trying to master. Always have! Anyway I started my primary souls as a Warrior for tanking as a Paladin. I eventually also picked up the soul for Warlord for some the complementing defensive abilities and some the great group buffs it provides in a group. Then also picked up the Void Knight soul to add great anti-caster defensive as well as offensive abilities. I had played back in RIFT Beta all the souls I picked up so it was what I went with for my primary first soul build. Overall I think with all the abilities it fits well for a build all the way to the end. Back in RIFT Beta I primarily played as a Paladin/Reaver/Void Knight and really enjoyed the dots and aoe the Reaver provided and with all its aoe abilities while being a defensive soul.

Playing thru as a Paladin/Warlord/Void Knight though stronger in build defensively felt more mechanical in play and felt more like work to me and allot less fun to me and in my style of play. I played that thru all the way to lvl 20 at least because I really wanted to grow into and get the feel of play style from my own personal experience. I feel its a great soul to have tanking a boss. But it felt less fun leveling, questing generally all while still playing with fairly good tanking souls. So at lvl 20 I bought another "role" or more like a second spec from the trainer which wasn't too expensive. A character can have up to 4 roles with various souls combination which gives a person a whole lot of flexibility of play all in playing just one class. Buying a 3rd role will cost you quite a bit more and a 4th much more expensive.

I completed the Reaver quest and the others to pick up the other souls and then made a 2nd role as a Paladin/Reaver/Void Knight for optional play style while still being able to tank on demand fairly well. So currently have both tanking roles to play with and test and at least learn to master the play styles that also fits my style of play. So for the most part I've normally been playing not my main role but as my second role which for me is also allot more fun to me to play. I'm not sure what I'll make as my 3rd role build but I imagine i probably make a dps warrior of some sort for flexibility in a group.

RIFT does get allot more fun the more you level and going into new zones. Starting out in the starter areas can seem unimpressive and is probably the most underwhelming part of the game experience getting thru lvl 1-6 at least. However in my experience it really don't take you that long to get thru those levels or the very initial starter zone. I tend to call it more the initial tutorial zone. Because to me in my opinion the real starter zone starts for Defiance starts when you get to Freemarch which is around lvl 6 or so and it don't take you long to even get there. At around lvl 8-10 the game starts to ramp up in fun as you encounter Rifts and Invasions.

The game does get progressively more fun the higher level you get to. Zones are quite huge and quests are plenty if not many. You can quest or do rifts to level up or a mix of both. Questing got you down, hey drop questing and go fight back a Major Invasion when one spawns. Try and beat back some Invasions when your just hanging out in a quest area for a little while and a invasion mobs come rolling thru. You just never know when a Invasion is gonna come rolling you way which all of a sudden can change your game play suddenly. Many times i've just been at a NPC area picking up a quest or vendoring stuff and a invasion force incoming. Easy to quit doing that and get into action.

For most of my lvl 20's which have been spend mostly all in Stonefield zone so far and currently at lvl 28, I've just been rifting as much as questing. I've been enjoying the story and lore of the game and doing quests and dungeons. However no matter where I'm heading in the zone I always take the time if any rifts or invasion cross my path to get in on the action and fight the fight. You can get allot of XP just doing rifts. Needless to say I've spend several levels doing nothing but beating back rifts when many are spawned, fighting invasion forces, beating back footholds, tearing open a partial rift and have me my own rift to fight back.

That's allot of fun. Especially when your in a area and a rift tear appear and your the only one seemingly around. What do you do? For me I decide to go have some fun and tear the rift open with my Planar Lure ability and have me a rift with mobs to fight back.

Sometime I've been there alone fighting the rift and it spawns a invasion force before its sealed and that invasion force runs off immediately to wreck havoc across the zone area or heading to a NPC area. Sometime and often someone jumps in on the public grouping and helps out for the fun. But if you do seal the rifts you get allot of nice stuff, gear drops, artifacts, consumable stuff and lots of planarite shards and some rare ones for the effort which all adds up. All the shards adds up to being able to purchase some very nice gear from the planar vendors. That has allowed me to purchase at least 2 Epic pieces, several blue gear just from doing allot of rifting so far which were way better than quest gear.

Biggest issue I've had so far in game is tanking allot of rifts and invasion bosses with a group and no one in group can heal or wants to heal the tank or just no healer around to do so. That has lead to many a times I have died tanking various rifts and invasion forces in a group where no one is around to heal whoever is primarily tanking the invasion forces. That has lead to many a visit to the NPC healer to restore soul vitality which drops 10% on every death which makes you ineffective if it gets to 0. As a result so far would have to say my biggest gold sink is at the NPC healer paying to restore lost vitality which can add up allot if you visit often.

As for profession you get a choice of three professions. I decided not to craft anything or spend any time at it but instead do all gathering with Mining, Foraging and Butchering. That fits my style for being a bit the explorer type and usually roaming all over chasing rifts and gathering stuff that I come across in the process. And so far I'm enjoying doing just that.

So far its just been a fun time leveling up and getting in on the action of questing, rifting, dungeons, exploring for artifacts which leads to fighting invasion forces and footholds wherever I've found them. Artifact finding is a whole mini-game of exploration all of its own and a whole lot of fun. But so far the RIFT has just been running smoothly, rather bug free as I haven't encountered any and rather allot of fun. Only real issue is the daily choke on the server queue that happen at peak login time but that issue has being getting better daily as Trion have added more servers and as the server loads get balanced. So far Trion seem to be working relatively hard and doing a rather impressive job in having a smooth running game, even if they didn't add anything all that new with a new MMO.

RIFT Launch Day

I was a both surprised and amused to see and hear some players had long queues trying to log into some the RIFT servers this afternoon. I had heard some people mention in game chat that they had a hour or longer wait while in game. But I had no idea how long some queues were for some people till when I logged off and read some blogs. Which was right when Trion brought the servers down for a bit of balancing and tweaking.

That's when I saw some people had a few hrs wait in queue. What do you expect on launch day when everyone all trying to log into servers all at same time.

I actually was right there already logged in at 1:00 PM just waiting for the servers to become active. Servers went active, and the moment I clicked to log into specified server there was so many people all trying to log in that I was #466 in queue less than 10 secs after servers went live. Took about 25 mins or so to get thru the queue and log in.

Once logged in got thru creating character and logged into starter zone didn't have any problem after that. Game ran smoothly and relatively lag free after that, at least it did for me. Starter zone was busy but not too bad though getting to Freemarsh zone it was jam packed busy with players. Got my first character to lvl 8 and then logged out and recreated another character mostly to get the character name but ended up leveling the that character up to lvl 7 and back to Freemarsh again.

In between that time Trion had made some in game announcement that they had opened up several new servers which I guess was to try to reduce the queue time for those trying to log on. A bit later then made announcement that they were bringing down for a short period to balance and tweak the servers a bit. That's when I decided to log out early and get me a bite. I log out and took a look at all the server listed and every server all the way down the list was listed as all "Full"and that's probably including all the new servers they added already.

And your wondering why your queue time was so long.

24hr Countdown to RIFT Launch

Obviously RIFT the new MMO game launches tomorrow at 1:00 PM EST for those in head start. So not too long till the long wait is finally over.

Already uninstalled the Beta client and already downloaded the live game client for tomorrows launch.

Really at this point really not allot to say except the few details. Will be joining up with the friendly great group of folks from Multiplying.net who all will be rolling Defiant faction on the Faeblight server a RP-PVE server. Just because starting off in a new MMO playing with a great group of folks to journey with is always much more fun and interesting than going it solo on a random server. So good way to start off in a new game with a friendly great group of folks including one my favorite MMO Gamer Chick and a few other MMO bloggers. Hopefully see some of you all there for the fun.

Well I better go try to get some stuff done today. Be sure hard to get it done tomorrow.

Rift and future MMO plans

Have been playing RIFT beta since Beta 5 event over a month ago after which I made the decision I was going to play the game and pre-ordered the game from Trion. Since I had already ordered the game and knew was going to play at launch didn't really play at all much during the Beta 6 event over a week back, I just played more EVE Online. This past weekend played a little bit for the final RIFT beta event to test out a few souls and classes haven't played before the game launches live on Thursday the 24th.

So had a bit of fun over the weekend trying out a different class build as a Tank, a slightly different one to the main soul as a Paladin/VoidKnight/Reaver build I leveled up during Beta 5. Tried out a Paladin/VoidKnight/Warlord which seemed to work well though took some getting used to after having played the first build.

Also leveled up two different Mages to at least lvl 10 trying out the dps class builds to see what I actually liked for dps. First tried out a Elemental/Stormcaller/Archon and though worked ok didn't quite work all that well for me with the Archon as well as with keeping the pet alive, but played it at least to lvl 10 to see how it played out. In trying to test out another support class for mage dps then made a Warlock/Necromancer/Chloromancer and that seemed to work out well for my style of play especially with the Chloromancer soul for support role. Thus i figured that would work well with the Elemental/Stormcaller as well and with the pet. Overall figured out what I wanted for both and had a fun time for the short amount of time really played overall during the last Beta event.

Currently my main MMO right now is playing EVE Online which have been playing for almost the last year and that's not really going to change much best I can tell for rest of year. RIFT will be the only other MMO on my plate at the moment and looking forward to playing it at launch on Thursday since have already pre-ordered the game and will be playing at head start all the way thru. I'll be playing Defiant of course just because I always play the underdog side. Kinda like always having Horde in WoW and never played Alliance. As well will be playing on a PvE server yet to be determined.

So the only thing left to decide for playing RIFT is which shard (server) to play on. As well as which server the majority of everyone I know that blogs and that will be playing will be playing on. Could be allot of fun to be all on one main server. Really best though to get that decided and figured before the game launch on the 24th. I know I'm highly unlikely to change server I start playing on to start over on another server everyone else is playing on after launch.

Trion hasn't as yet released the names of what the live shards will be. I've heard at least 1-2 days before launch they will release that info. So while it will be fun playing at RIFT launch it can be even more fun playing on the same server with majority of blogging community and friends.

Until then its back to playing EVE Online mostly.

Update:

Seems Multiplying.net will be forming up a community/guild for RIFT launch linked here.

Resurrection: I'm Very Much Alive...

Yet I was always here as I weren't that far away. Actually according to the last post this blog was moved to wordpress according to the last blog post as well. Anyway I've been on a long break from WoW for over 6 months, and really I have really been enjoying the break. So haven't written much about wow either in that time. Have slept well in the last 6 months and no dreaming of playing WoW in my sleep as well.

Thus other than what I knew about the coming expansion of Cataclysm 6 months ago I've stayed completely clear of reading anything about the expansion. Nor have I checked to see if there really is a beta invite in my wow mail account. I've read just about zero and know about next to nothing about the expansion. Thus my perspective is completely fresh without all the overload, obsession and frustration you all been reading and writing about the next expansion. Its good to take a long break sometimes to recharge one capacitor.

So I'm very much alive and really I've only been playing EVE as a good distraction and enjoying it. Other games to play and enjoy besides completely locked into the universe of just playing WoW. Its really good to try other things.

I'm still amazed that I still have over 500 subscribers here though I haven't posted here in months and though my official blog has moved to wordpress. As well I get more daily/monthly hits on this blog than on my same blog at wordpress. Yeah its probably due to all the wow links here probably. Anyway the wordpress blog here is my official mmo blog.

Though I have read a few wow blogs here and there haven't kept up all that much in months reading just enjoying the wow break vs the constant overload of WoW and expansion information everyone else is reading. Thus I have no idea what classes will be like in the new expansion or Paladins as well. I'm Completely clueless. What would you expect from someone being on a complete WoW hiatus.

I guess if you've been missing from WoW for a while your somewhat dead or some form of it. Yet one is truly never dead playing WoW, just somewhat missing. However I'm slowly just starting to read again and be reawakened in Azeroth. Its been a while, and the break has been very good.

Checked the WoW Armory to see if I was still there as well, I guess I am. With as many millions of players that play WoW and amount of names in use, good names may be in short supply according to Rohan in a recent post over at Blessing of Kings for the next expansion. So I was still amazed checking the armory realizing that my actual name is unique in the WoW Armory. That's for almost 5 years now which is quite a long time. And since I checked the Armory today today, I'll know anyone else in the future is a bonafide imposter :)

I'll probably be back to some low casual WoW soon. If I can only remember what my Blizzard battlenet user account information actually is.

Thanks for still stopping by!

Blog: A Few Changes...

Around here on the blog, not really all that much drastic changes. But moving on to playing other MMO's and I'm keeping my blog and its name, the adventures just will change a bit from one MMO to the next. Over the course of 4 years I've grown to like my blog. Its been a bit my companion while I played mostly WoW as well the feedback from readers which I have enjoyed.

These days while I have taken a very long break from WoW I've decided and have moved on to play or try other games. One MMO just don't do it for me anymore to keep game play interesting and fresh as I have interest in playing other games for my own fun and enjoyment as well need for more interesting game play.

WoW will always be there and the great community of bloggers and readers that have supported this blog and many others whenever I decide to return to WoW from time to time whenever that may be. The focus will never be quite the same when I do in play style for many reasons. Its hard to keep up when your not all that focus on a specific game all the time.

Its also too difficult and just not that fun to maintain more than one blogs about MMO games just because the games are different and cater to different readers playing different games as to not offend the readers. So I've decided to just maintain one blog if possible and just make it a general blog on the MMO's I play. If that offend some long time readers, oh well. Much better than having a abandoned blog for all the effort it took to grow over the years and maintain. Plus I like my blog name!!!

I don't really like a flashy blog with too much content thrown at a reader to find anything. I like simplicity in finding things so I'm keeping my blog simple as its always been. Plus I don't want to spend that much time playing around with making changes to a blog either. I rather spend it doing other things or playing games.

Didn't realize how many dead WoW blogs there were until I had to purge quite a few of the dead ones out of my WoW blog list that wasn't updated in the last 4+ months. Was allot! For the most part just changed my blog title, removed quite a bit of links, added some new blogs I been reading for some time on other games I play. I read quite a bit of blogs and most just reflect all the various blogs I actively read in some way.

But not really all that many changes. I kinda like using Wordpress as well but too bad I don't own the name there for AD. But still Ardent Defender, just defending Time, Space, Universe and Mystical Realms in other MMO's other than just WoW. The journey and adventures continues in different and diverse adventures.

Anyway more changes are possible as well as I play around with things.

Blog Note

Change is coming. Many changes are coming to this entire blog.

In Life things eventually change for better or to worse. Azeroth is undergoing change. All thing eventually does. Even our interest in things change. Blogs sometimes eventually do as well.

Story Saga Of a EVE Salvage Job In Screenshots.

Sometimes its more fun just actually playing a game than actually spending time writing about your time actually playing it, which actually takes you away from the time you could actually be spending playing the game. By A MMO Blogger.

Originally Posted on my Other Blog.
The day or game session had started in EVE Online with me just being in the high secure starter area playing around just doing some practice at working on Scanning and Probing space for hidden Spacial Signatures. Was just fun to see what I could find or discover being new to the game on my own and just maybe I could find some Pirate (Rats) hideout and go on some solo mission killing Rats in their hideout in Deadspace. And I actually did find such a hideout spot for Signature as well an Unstable Wormhole leading to another high sec area of space about 11 jumps away in The Forge region.


So just being curious I went investigating the Wormhole first. Info on the Wormhole said it was unstable and lead to a high sec system. So I poked my head into the Wormhole and found a new area with nothing much of interest in the new 0.7 sec system but some Space Stations. So I picked up a bookmark to one of them. Flew back to the Wormhole and went back through to where I had originally encountered it. Decided to go followup on that Pirate location Signature I had found and had bookmarked In discovering things to do that seemed interesting in EVE among lots of other things.


Along the way I got a call from my Corp a member (Josh) that was about to do some lvl 4 missions not too far away in another system asking if I can or know how to Salvage and if I'd like to tag along and do Salvage Ops job with him doing the mission. Sure sounds fun! Let me get my little Destroyer Salvage Ship I name "The Cleaner". I am on my way there as soon as I can.

A few days ago I had decided it was time to leave my NPC Corp as a new EVE Rookie and search a bit to find a new Corp that was a bit ideal fit for me to join with and further grow a bit in learning and understanding EVE more as well as Corporation life and interaction. I didn't do it with haste. I looked in the Corps section on the UI and found some Corps that was recruiting and went over their Bio and such. Some Alliance Corps, some big Corps and some smaller Non Alliance Corp. I had spent some time in review of Corps narrowed the list a bit to just 2 Corps. One Corp was a small relatively new high sec Corp of 8 members (Mostly PvE Missions/Exploration and some minor PvE) and the other was a more established larger Corp existing for a few years that was in an Alliance that operated in both high, low and null sec space (PvE Missions/Mining Industrial Complex stuff and some PvP). Smaller Corp had a lower tax rate as well to consider.

I'm a business man at the core as well in considering all things also. Eventually a few hrs later got an interview with the CEO of the smaller new Corp I had applied to. Lots of questions asked and liked the sound of this new Corp as well having things I had similar interest in. I eventually got accepted and got an invite to my new Corp and moved on just a bit further into the ever more complex universe of EVE Online. So is the start of real Corporate life in EVE. It's a very good thing to get into a good Corp eventually on the road further getting deeper into EVE. So it wasn't hard to make friends a bit. They know I was new, it's not hard to tell of anyone new to EVE.

So later on when Josh asked me if I wanted to come Salvage a mission I was all go on all engines. Up on till that point I was just running some small time Agent starter missions and some Pirates I found around some asteroid somewhere on some mission. Bookmarked the location and went back to salvage the area in my little Amarr Coercer Destroyer fitted Salvage Ship. Mostly I was just picking up a few stuff and some circuits from salvaging and making a few thousand dollars selling them at my the NPC Corp Station I started my life with in EVE. And actually I was really proud of the little money I was being savvy enough to make on my own without having to go Mine Ore in an Asteroid Belt which a lot of new players seem to do. Though you can as well doing that.

I made a few Stargate jumps from where I was and picked up my Amarr Salvage Ship. Fitted with the only thing it had that I really could reasonably afford and invested in at the time was just 2 Salvage I item equipment in slot to do Salvage Ops. Rest of my money I was saving up to possibly get me a Mining Ship a Retriever (About 4 million ISK) to maybe do some mining to earn me some more ISK at a faster rate. With a bigger ship its faster mining capability possibly after I would be finish learning the Skills to do so which would possibly be a few days training time. At the time I was sitting on about 3.6 million ISK. That was my goal and I was working towards it.


So off Salvaging I went with Josh almost done with the mission and all I had to do was clean up the wreckage from his lvl 4 Agent Mission. He eventually left after I got there once I was though the Accelerator gate site. So I was left to eventually just clean things up all alone. This was something new and fun so was high degree and enjoyment just going from ship wreckage retrieving and salvaging ships for item loot. And there was ALLOT of it. It took me a while! I was relatively new at doing Salvaging Ops so there was ALLOT of things I was learning in the process. There are some people who play MMO games that don't enjoy learning things that makes them better games or in the game they play. They want the answers to everything with actually learning it themselves or why X is or could be better than Y for a specific reason or logic.

I actually enjoy learning something on my self to be self reliable yet also learning something or finding things to make me better at doing something. So while actually doing the Salvage Operation from Josh's mission site I was actually learning how to be better at Salvaging and what would be better to even do it faster and with more efficiency.

Lesson Learning: 4 Salvage I equipment on my Salvage Ship would be much better and faster than just having 2 of them equipped currently in my high power slots. Having Tractor Beams would be helpful. I had none. They were too expensive an investment anyway at almost 1 million ISK a piece. Having an Afterburner as well would be extremely helpful to speed up going from wreck to wreck since Salvage Ships move not so fast. I was thinking all this in my mind and kept notes.

Eventually I got the wreck site cleaned up, canned some the loot and eventually make two trips to a local station hauling all the loot since all of it couldn't fit into my Salvage ship. This was a lot of fun the whole process, plus I had more loot than I ever seen as well with tons of recovered Circuits, Drones, Weapons Components and all kind of stuff I never seen. I just dropped all the loot at a system Space Station since didn't know if Josh wanted it. He didn't say. So I just left it all there till later.

Later on Josh logged on and told him I recovered all the wreckage and if he wanted me to send it too him. He laughed! He said It was mine to take and make me some money with it. Ohh! OK! Didn't know man! Cool I was happy about that. Maybe can sell all this stuff and be savvy and make me some more money to up my ISK balance. I was sitting at about 3.6 million what i had managed to make so far but I can use the money from this salvage sale as well.


At that same time a few other Corps members was on and they were about to do some more missions and another member asked if I needed money to make. I said sure. I'm not much for getting a handout in any game but I can go do something to make money if the opportunity is there with effort. So I got invited to a Corp Fleet mission ops with 2 members doing again lvl 4 missions in a 16 jump away star system. Again I was go on all engines. I was happy to tag along and clean up whatever. It was all new to me so it was all interesting anyway and see what a lvl 4 mission actually was. On these Agent Missions it was them infiltrating bunkers killing battle ships, various kinds of ships, lots of drones and such. Basically lots a and lots of red dots to me. All cool!

Most the time I waited outside the Accelerator Gate or jump area into the location (Room) till it was a bit less of a HOT ZONE to avoid any aggro from anything in my Salvage Ship before starting cleaning up. Usually after the entire room was on aggo control and spawn control it was fine to jump in and get to work.

On Room jump in it was a ton of wreckage to get to and clean stuff up. I could say at this point there really is an art to doing Salvaging Ops on a large wreckage field of ships which makes it fast and efficient. I was learning how to do it with some limitations of 1. Lack of Knowledge, which I was learning on the job and 2. With not having the right and correct fitting of equipment on my ship. Learning as I go and getting better at it every stop of the way. At the start of the day I had no idea I'd be in the Salvaging business and would be enjoying it. Who Knew! It was just fun to do and interesting to see.


At times my Corp members was killing stuff and finishing the mission zones faster than I could possibly Salvage the areas. So I was actually slowing them down a bit. They wanted me to go faster if possibly. But I was going as fast as I could possibly go with limitations of knowledge which I was learning as I go and improvising and lack of proper fitted ship Salvage equipment.

I was really moving as fast as I could go, tracking every piece of wreckage and trying to find efficient route from one wreck to another. It eventually helped that later I went and picked up the skill to learn Targeting which improved tracking skills. There are some things you actually have to learn your self doing something which makes you get it that makes you better doing it. And because you actually Get It what ever that "It" is it makes you much better at doing it. I WAS GETTING THIS!


I was learning to be a Salvager doing Salvage Ops! EVE Salvaging 101 was in effect and I was learning it on my own. I was also getting a few valuable pointers from my Corp members as well in how to be more efficient and do things faster. Invaluable Information as well it all was. I find Corp members to be extremely helpful in volunteering information to help you out. Much more so than in any game I've ever played as well.


All in all I was having a lot of fun and really picking up a fortune worth of stuff to me at least. Often it was anywhere from 1-3 Room deeper into the mission site I had to clean up. Meaning after I was finishing cleaning up one Room in the mission I had to can everything in a can since I can't hold it all in my Salvage Ship. I then bookmarked the location of the can for later retrieval when the mission was all over since if you don't do that you wont be able to find the location of the can you left with all the stuff.

After had to use the Accelerator Gate and jump into the next Room and do clean up there. Repeat that if there is a 3rd Room as well in the mission site. So in each Room package a can, bookmark the exact location again for later retrieval. Rinse and repeat that in the next and each Room. In a way as well you have to manage all your bookmark locations for each cans.

Salvaging Operation Logistics & Investment.


When the day had begun I only had 2 Transport Ships those being 2 Sigil both of which I had gotten doing the new player tutorial and career missions. The estimated cost of those two ships which was essentially free on the market was about 1.2-1.4 million both combined. Both of those Industrial Transport Ships was some 19 Stargate jumps away. That can take a while to get to in EVE and a bit slower as well to travel in a transport ship to move one some 19 Stargate jump. As well to try to do so in a roundtrip if I had to actually go and pick it up. Thats a long haul!

So I had to make a choice and an Investment choice as well-being forward thinking. This salvaging loot is valuable! It's NOT worth my time to make a 19 Stargate jump just to pickup one of two Industrial Transport Ships I had. So I made a investment choice to check the local system market I was in and immediately get me a NEW Industrial Transport Ship that was either in the same system or at least 1 system jump away to immediately purchase and pickup. Fortunately I was able to do that in a heavily manufacturing star system looking at the market with the various Space Stations. I purchased a new Industrial Transport Ship and hauler the Bestower for about 660,000 ISK of what I had of savings which was 3.6 million balance. This was an investment in what I called Transport Logistics for my budding business at the moment in Salvaging and Recovery Operations and future operations in any close by systems. What made it nice as well was that the Bestower had much more hauling capacity than my other transport ship the Sigil.

So off I was back to my bookmark locations for can recovery operation to pick them all up and drop all the stuff off to a local Space Station in the current system.


As I did Transport Logistics moving recovery material hauling stuff my Corp members had moved on to doing another lvl 4 missions and had gotten more missions. Some missions was in another system like 1-2 jumps away in local region. So as they went on doing more Agent Missions I was not too far behind when it was safe to enter a mission area room. Many the missions was like to knock out a heavy bunker full with ships. Some was heavy with drones each giving a different type of salvage recovered loot. Drones seem to drop precious compound metal alloys. Those alloys refined through Industrial processing seem to be worth a Fortune!


As I kept salvaging wreck recovered loot and canning them for later pickup eventually over time you begin to notice the difference in the loot and wreckage you were picking up from each wreck. You would see lots of ammo, missiles, rail guns, drones, pirate tags, various components you can fit a ship with, circuit components of various sorts, compound metals and various precious looking compound metals that at the look of them tell you they were very valuable. As well all kind of other stuff. I had no universal idea how valuable or invaluable a lot of the stuff was I retrieved Salvaging. But just glancing at some the stuff I had an idea of sort that much of it was valuable.


After each site cleanup and canning it was more rounds going back to the station where my transport hauler was. Then switching ships to the hauler to go pick up the cans for recovery and transport. Transport Logistics!


My Corp members told me that everything I recovered was all mine and I should haul it all over to Jita and sell it all. Jita wasn't too far away and I could sell it on the market there. I had never been to Jita or even really know what the place was. Jita is a high sec system and seems to be a huge market hub that borders Empire regions. As well seem to be a huge selling hub to unload ALLOT of stuff. So I made my way to one the factory Space Stations there unloaded the Bestower ship into my station container.

Selling Stuff In "Jita"


I ended up hauling 2 full loads on the Bestower over to Jita from all the Salvaging wreckage. This was just one of them. And until I really got to Jita and unloaded all the stuff here into my station item bin I really had not looked over the Salvaged goods entirely to see what I had comprehensively all together. This was ALLOT of stuff to SELL!!!

My character is a Trader by trade. With my current level of skill training I'm only able to sell at most 41 items at a time on the entire market all together. Back in the newbie zone I already had some stuff selling there for trade on the local market in Conaban my home system.

Understanding & Learning the Market System by Observance
So I really couldn't sell all the stuff I had if I had to let it sit on the market in Jita due to selling limitations. So I started to try to figure out the market while at the time putting up a few items for sale. I had not hit my limitation sale orders yet. So I kept putting stuff up for sale. Was no way I can put this much stuff to sell and sell it all.

EVE really had a VERY STEEP learning curve in all aspects of things in all the various things you can do in every region of the game with all the various things you can do. This is much steeper than in any MMO game I have ever played up to this point. So this is just an observance as well.

While playing around in Jita selling stuff at first I couldn't figure out what the green lines meant when I was looking at the market orders for open buy orders already on the market. Through different items I would see a different amount of green lines, different amount of item by orders on different items but had no idea what they all meant and why some items had different amount of them either. I was curious seeing this. At first I ignored it, though curious. But I just kept putting stuff up for sale individually and in stacks of item for sale since I had many stacks of some items for sale as well as looking at item historical sale price. This was just fun to do but I was spending a lot of time doing it as well.

At times I would notice the price the game was given me for the market price of an item seemed to have different setting, one being advance view of an item. I started paying attention to this eventually. Various items I would click on and see what value it gave me often at some regional price and you could see how much below or above regional price it was and you could also change the price which was obvious from before. I started to notice how some the price I was getting was connected in some way to the green highlighted buy orders on the market and this started to make a lot of sense to me and I started figuring things out even more which even made more sense to me as well.

Market Fetch Orders
I'm always quite happy to figure things out on my own. There is some fun to me in doing that or researching things on my own. Just the way I always play each game. But I started connecting the dots on the green highlighted buy orders selling stuff on the market in Jita. But these are the same highlighted text I would see on any system market as well.

Eventually I started selling the items at the price that matched the current buy orders that was in what I termed was a reasonable price range compared to the regional price that wasn't too low. I started noticing all these items I was selling would go the way of "Fetch Orders". Immediate sale matching to a current market system buy order that was in for that station or region. This made me even pay more attention to what I was doing and so I started even paying even more attention to all the buy orders entirely and seeing if the item I was selling to fetch the orders was reasonable and not some low ball figure.

I sold at a reasonable price the salvaged goods. Some the items I had literally sold of millions of ISK. Some others I held the item when I saw the overall value compared to buy order price which was discounted. Others when the overall value of the item was just too low say below estimated maybe 20k or so ISK in value to not make that much a difference that I cared about. I just all out dumped stuff all to just get rid of it entirely and not waste any more time with it. Allot of that stuff was usually ammo and missiles, stuff like that. Time is money too.

To be honest this really took some degree of time as well to do and mostly sell all the stuff. What was left I hauled it down to a regional system to sell in the local market for an upside on the profit margin vs what I could get in Jita.

At the end of it all I looked at that market dumped fire sale and what I made on the Corps Salvaging Operation sale entirely all together.

A whopping 79 million ISK! Thats quite a bit of money and profit for me as a relatively newbie to EVE when my day started with only a balance of 3.6 million ISK which I earned doing starter lvl 1 Agent Missions. Initially selling some items from missions and working to save my ISK balance vs blowing it and spending it all like a lot of new EVE Online noobs looking at the Rookie Chat.

My Corp members wanted to know the next day how the salvaging operation items went for me and if I was able to sell all the stuff and if it was profitable for me to earn some good money. Hell Yeah it was. Though they weren't entirely all that amazed they was still quite impressed that I was able to secure that much profit from salvaging all those missions entirely. Much thanks to my Corp members as well for the whole process.

Looking at it all a thought came to me looking at the overall process entirely. Before I was just a small time part-time newbie learning and salvaging just learning things and doing my lvl 1 Agent Missions on my own. Compare that to being able to do much bigger jobs for fun or with my new Corp is an entirely different league of doing Salvaging Ops playing EVE Online or just generally playing as well.

EVE Online is not the kind of game you can really, overall or entirely play Solo! I like to Solo play just as much as the next person who enjoy Solo play on their own and learn to play by their own wits. EVE may be some fun to play Solo, but overall you're doing it alone and with a lot of limitations of all sorts in the EVE Universe and it's not the kind of place you want to be doing stuff all alone all the time. Your missing out on allot without a good Corp. You want to eventually find a damn good Corp to be useful to and one that can help you along as well furthering your learning in EVE in a good way and not being a leach like some people like to be in various MMO's to their Guilds, Corps, Fleet in other games.

Re-Investment of Salvaging Profit and Capital
I like to thing ahead doing things when possible. So with me new found cash balance I made some Investments and some were for Logistic reasons as well.

Investment was made from all the mental notes I made doing Salvaging Ops in all the things I though would help me do a much better job next time Such things as:

1. Bought 2 new Salvage I item equipment at about 25,000 ISK each for my Salvage Ship which brings me to 4 Salvage I item equipment for high power equipment slots. My Ship has 8 high power equip slots.


2. Bought 4 New Tractor Beam I equipment for about roughly 900,000 ISK each item. To fill the other 4 high power slots.


3. Equipped a new Afterburner I item I had sitting around in a station bin and sump the Booster Shield I item I had equipped for my 1 medium ship power slot.


4. Bought some more 4 pieces of low power slot item equipment I didn't have before to manage my Salvage ship Capacitor Capacity which was over capacity with all the equipment load. As well some new CPU to increase capacity performance and a new power reactor to increase output and boost Capacitor/Power/Shield performance to my ships grid. About 1 million ISK in all for those.

Other major investment. As it related to Transport Logistics I see this as a problem having to go 10+ gate jumps from some far away region with a transport hauler or making a roundtrip of 20+ jumps depending on which system I may have logged into or out of the game in to get to another system which can be anywhere to do logistics moving stuff. With that I put a market buy order for 4 new Amarr Bestower transport haulers that I can eventually stash in a logistically placed route system at a Space Station hub. That would make it easer to get to a close by system to pick up a transport hauler in maybe 5 jumps and not like having to go 20 jumps to pick one up let alone a roundtrip.

As well put in an order for a dozen Amarr Shuttles. Shuttles are FAST and Cheap! Cant carry much except small stuff like Blueprints and Skill Books, little stuff. But very FAST to get to places or logistic places on a route or System Trade hub or a Space Station I may need to get to jump into a Salvage Ship/Transport/Military Ship to get to a system within say 5 jumps or less. Thinking logistically this is a good investment to me to have quite a bit of a small Shuttle fleet of ships. So I placed a buy order for a dozen Amarr Shuttles at 7395 ISK a piece for a block buy order on the market in Amarr System which in at heart of Empire space and likely to get filled soon on oder. That not too far away since my new home system with my Corp is only 3 jumps away if I have to do a transport pickup.

Another Investment was made in a buy order for 3 new Destroyers to make into Salvage Operation Ships. I would need to get orders for equipment fitting on all those new ships as well and later move them to different locations just like my Transport Haulers. Never know when you will lose a Salvage Ship or any other as well for some unknown reason and need to get into another you have available and get back to business. Cost estimated at 1.6 million ISK just for the new ship orders. Fitted equipment cost separate which has been allocated to above in cost.

I'm not yet trained to be able to pilot a Cruiser Ship as yet. The current military ship I've been trained to use are a Frigate of which I use a Predator and a Amarr Coercer Destroyer which I mostly fit to do Salvage mission running. Still have to finish learning Frigate IV which is required to learn Cruiser ship command skill training. Should be finished in like a day since the last few days been learning Learning Skills 5 to accelerate my Skill Training rate which they help to do. So even at a few days of training to go to pilot a Cruiser class ship I went and put in 2 buy orders for 2 new different Cruiser ships. An Omen class Amarr Cruiser at about 3 million and a Amarr class Cruiser a Maller at around 3.3-3.8 million ISK each. Hopefully they get market order filled in a day or two.

In a another followup Salvage mission most recently I lost 2 Salvage Ships fully fitted all in a 12 hrs period of time doing cleaning up lvl 4 & 5 Missions with my Corp. lvl 5 missions are quite hard but wreck quite valuable. In one lvl 5 mission I was asked to clean up with a profit split agreement from the Corp members I was with. The mission area was a bit of a Hot Zone with deadly drones. I zone in and one my Corp member was a bit of range away and I got targeted by a stray drone. Before I could zone out of room to a station or any celestial area or marked spot my ship was blown up and I got podded. No biggie let me go get my other Salvage Ship. I checked my Assets listing. Uhh, its 19 jumps away to get to. I had a Amarr Shuttle in a nearby system 2 jumps away. Got to the Shuttle and made a 19 jump dash to retrieve a Salvage Ship and make the roundtrip. For this very reason of logistics is why I need several Salvage Ships in various route locations so I don't have to make a 38 gate jump in total to get back to mission area. And I don't autopilot in EVE. I manually Stargate jump the entire way!

When my ship had gotten blown up I had forgotten to bookmark the exact area so I could later get back to it and Salvage all the equipment on it which is worth several millions in fitted equipment. That would save me from having to buy several new Salvage equipment, Tractor Beam equipment and a few other items. It wasn't till later I really realize the error of not having a location bookmark to my blown up ship location that I realized how much an error it is not having it. Especially since the Corp members had already completed the mission in the time it took to do 38 Stargate jumps. The mission area was now inaccessible or no longer there after I made 38 jumps roundtrip to get back there. Uhh. Lost ship equipment unrecoverable in cost.

In another mission the next day in a lvl 4 mission again doing Salvage Ops I got aggro from a few drones doing Salvage Ops again and tried to zone out the area quickly to the bookmark location I had which was on the Acceletator Gate I had jumped into the room on. Saves me to having to fly all the way to a space station. But when I tried to zone out of the area when I got aggro from a drone I kept getting cannot zone to area due to celestial phenomenon. Could't figure it out why. Got blown up again lol. Appears thats something you cant do in a mission as well. Hmm good to know that for newt time. Good thing this ship was Insured this time. So I got an insurance payout on this fairly new ship at the Platinum lvl which covered the cost of the ship. But the fitted equipment was more valuable than the ship itself which is uninsurable. Again forgot to bookmark the location again of the blown up ship. And 2 times in a row I couldn't recover blown up ship equipment meaning I had to go to the market to buy new equipment again. Do you realize this is what causes the robust market in EVE to keep moving which people replacing lost ships and equipment all the time and ever constantly.


Who say Salvaging wreck wasn't or could be dangerous business. But it sure is fun. EVE is what you make of it with your own goals to persue to whatever your interest or nature of fun to be. No where in this article piece did I mention I went or was trying to mine an asteroid for Ore to make ISK like a lot of people usually seem to complain about in EVE or got blow up by a Pirate. Don't mean Mining aren't profitable either, it is. And can be in the right ship, places and mining the right Ore. I can enjoy mining, but i'm gonna get me a good damn size ship to do it soon. As well the Corp is looking to do some big mining Ops sometime soon. I may not want to miss that as well. Profit might just be too good to miss. But Salvaging can sure be fun work as well, all depends on what you like and enjoy.

Now in the time it took me to write this piece, several hours. By my estimate knowing how many missions some people run in my Corp I probably lost out on making 20+ million or more ISK. Ouch!

So much for being a newbie in EVE with all its learning and stuff new people complain about. No complaints from me!

I'm probably no longer just a player that blogged about playing WoW. I guess these days i'm just a player that blogs about the various MMO I'm playing and EVE Online happen to be one of them.