Catch Up

I feel like I might blog some more. So as a placeholder - and with no discussion - I'll give an update about what's happenened in the past year.

In short, I've kept playing. A lot! The highlights:

• I leveled Alamein to 70. She's done a lot. While leveling she was Restokin spec (moonkin/healer hybrid). On reaching 70 she's mostly alternated between full Resto and various full Balance specs. Recently (within the last month) I've also experimented with a feral tank spec. But if you asked me what Alamein is, I'd say "healer" without question.


• We started a guild, Talon Guard. We grew rapidly, built to raiding Karazhan a bit, and then ran into too much tension between aggressive hardcore raiders and more casual players. We couldn't raid enough to please most and lost most of our members in one week. On the other hand we've kept some of our most mature and fun members and have formed some close friendships.


• I leveled a second toon to 70: Sali, my gnome mage. She just dinged 70 last week, and I'm having a lot of fun with her. She's been Fire spec the whole way, and I'm still enjoying that. She's now venturing into the world of daily quests with the goal of getting her epic flyer. Just last night, she completed the quests to run Sha'tari Skyguard and Ogri'la dailies.


• I've PvP'd a little. Alamein has done a good bit of battlegrounds, especially Alterac Valley -- she's Exalted with the Stormpike Guard. On the other hand she's only run a handful of arena matches, and has yet to spend her first arena points.

So that's what I've been up to. I'll post more later about what I'm doing on a daily basis. But suffice to say, it's now about getting ready for Wrath of the Lich King. I'm excited about the expansion and am hoping to do a lot of things when it arrives. Should be fun!

End of the Great Hold

Lots of different things going on this weekend. We knew this would probably be the last weekend of holding at 39, with some hope that Firegrin would level up 40 with the rest of us. So that meant either battleground, crafting, or alts for the rest of us. For Alamein, I was most interested to get her the [Highlander's Lizardhide Boots] as a battleground reward.

Friday night then was a battleground night for us. I think I did about five battles, at some times with our whole crowd. And, for the first time, I was on a winning team in the BG. It was quite close — I believe the Horde had about 1850 points when we crested 2000 — but fairly solid for that. The first half of the match was pretty balanced, with both sides holding 2 nodes and fighting over a third here or there. The second half saw the Alliance grab that third node, and mount assaults on others. So we spent a lot of time at either 3-1 or 3-2. So that gave us a solid lead that we nicely held on to.

I had a rather good game there, as did quite a few people. I think I spent most of the time near the lumber mill, with one or two others. (I did write down one name, I'll look it up later in the day. But I do remember his "For FRODO!" yells.) Some of the early attacks got up near the mill itself, but most of the second half was fought near the crossroads below. The sight lines from the lumber mill are great, and allow you to see what's going on at the blacksmith and the farm. It's nice when you're able to control the approaches rather than fighting desperate battles at the node itself.

That battle also marked the end of the Great Hold. I had flown to Refuge Point to buy rations, and joined the group there. Wyrmm happened to notice that he'd received a quest there, which he could complete, and those few points pushed him over 40. I've never heard someone so disappointed to ding a level. Seeing Wyrmm jump up pushed Eric over the edge, so he brought Cargarios to 40 on Saturday. Then last night, I took Alamein up to 40. Wyrmm's already at 41. Firegrin is still at 37, so he didn't make it all the way. But at least it's better than the 5-level gap we had before.

Last night I played two more Arathi Basin battles to get my my 20 honor marks for the boots. And these were the complete opposite spectrum; I've never played in such lopsided battles. The Alliance side were normal pick-up groups; I'm not sure if the Horde were a premade team or not but they were definitely much more aware of what they needed to do. It was sad how quickly they were able to bottle the Alliance up at the stables, and before long they were fighting us right in the graveyard of Trollbane Hall. When one team has all five nodes, well, the game finishes very quickly. The second game went even quicker, mostly because I joined in halfway through. I suspect that many of the Alliance had bailed out. It was 3-2 when I joined but complete chaos for the Alliance, and once again we were fighting out of our graveyard. A rather disheartening experience.

Still, I got my last two marks and flew to Refuge Point to buy the boots. Sweet!

The other thing I did on Sunday was pick up the Wild Leatherworking quests. The quests themselves are easy enough, but the hard part is getting materials. I think it comes to 64 thick leather, which is a lot of grinding, not to mention the 22 turtle scales needed. I took Alamein to Dustwallow Marsh last night to hunt for the turtles; it was while grinding them that she dinged 40. She's still short on both scales and leather, so it's going to take a little while.

A fun weekend though, with promises of more to come. I believe a trip to Razorfen Downs is in order...

A tale of two alts

The Great Hold continues. Wyrmm, Cargarios, and Alamein are now standing on level 39. Firegrin is at 36, and only a few bars from 37 if I remember correctly. So the rest of us will continue to hold at 39 for now -- probably through the weekend I would imagine.

Part of the plan was to play a good amount of battleground games. I'd love to get another 10 games for Alamein, so that she can get a nice pair of boots. But last night I was mellow enough that I didn't want to get fired up in PvP. So instead, I played an alt for the evening.

I love rolling other characters, so I have a ton of alts. I have 8 on Shandris alone, and only one of those is Horde. Now, some of those have become redundant in various ways. I had rolled a Draenei shaman, but since Eric's rolled one of those too, I'll probably let her languish. Another is a human paladin who wasn't going anywhere; I've converted her into an auction house alt for now.

Right now there are two alts who I'm spending some time with. Both are female gnomes. The oldest -- actually my first character on Shandris -- is Sali. She's a mage, currently at level 19. I'll admit that I'm not terribly skilled at playing a mage right now. The options are quite a bit different, and I'm not deeply familiar with advantages and disadvantages of all her spells. But still she's a lot of fun. She's an engineer, which makes for a very different crafting experience, with some fun and amusing gear. She is specced for Fire, which is a little less common, but I like the idea of taking a different approach from most. Somehow I've built a whole personality and backstory around her, which leads me to mix in a bit of roleplaying. Nobody else probably sees it or cares, since Shandris isn't an RP realm, but it's still fun for me. She hasn't been questing in quite a while, but I've taken her into Warsong Gulch several times and she's been amusing to play there.

The other alt who I've spent time with is Gazala, my gnomish rogue, currently at level 13. She's an enchanter, which is very different from the usual professions I've engaged in. She has a whole collection of dusts and essences and shards, as several characters have sent her things to disenchant. She's also an herbalist, as a way to make money (and oh yeah, to find Swiftthistle too). I've also built up a backstory for her, so again I have the roleplaying aspect to enjoy.

I spent some time with Gazala last night. I'd forgotten how much fun it is to play a rogue. The ability to stealth around is both useful and fun, and her damage-dealing makes for a real advantage against higher-level mobs. Last night, she soloed Hogger at level 12 without too much trouble. Her first attempt was a failure, mostly because a wandering bear joined in the fight. But the second time she did quite well; it did take a healing potion but with that it wasn't even close. I'm unsure whether she'll stay near Stormwind or quest near Ironforge instead, but either way I think I will put some time into leveling her up.

So Many Characters

Man, I have a lot of characters.

I totally get why you'd want to stick to a primary character, maybe with an alt or two. It's a faster route to higher levels, as well as new content and more impressive items. But frankly that's not enough for me at the moment. I'm more intrigued by exploring the different styles of play that different classes have, and the different looks (and environments) provided by different races.

So I end up with fifteen characters.

Here's the whole list:

Shandris

• Gnome mage
  
• Night elf druid
  
• Human warrior
  
• Draenei shaman
  
• Dwarf warrior
  
• Human paladin
  
• Gnome rogue
  Terenas
  
• Human rogue
  
• Night elf hunter
  Drenden
  
• Undead rogue
  
• Blood elf hunter
  Kul Tiras
  
• Human warlock
  
• Dwarf warrior
  
• Undead mage
  
• Dwarf warrior
  
• Night elf rogue

OK, that's pretty silly, even for me. Some of that's a bit inflated; three or four of the characters were created by Eric and DK when they were trying the game out at my place. And a couple more are destined for quick death -- one dwarf warrior is a naked corpse in the Frostmane Hold at the moment.

But why all the others? In a word, variety. I was curious to try out a wide range of looks and styles. And it's fun that way, too. Sometimes I'm just in a mood to summon demons, while other times I prefer to stab someone in the back. I'm just that way.

Those are my two highest level characters -- the human rogue and warlock, both in their mid-20s. About the time that I got them to where they are, first Eric then DK began to play. For whatever reason, they started characters on Shandris, and so we've been doing most of our playing there.

It is annoying to be spread across four realms. Well, it was intentional with the Horde characters -- not much point in sharing a server with the Alliance characters. But the others came about right around the launch of Burning Crusade, when load queues were long and patches were frequent. When all your characters are low level, there's a major temptation to just log into another realm and start someone new. Now it's an annoyance, and I'm contemplating whether I should move my higher-level characters to another realm.

It's also nice to have shared professions on the same realm. I found this out when my rogue hit 20 and got the recipe for Thistle Tea. Very cool -- until I saw the prices for Swiftthistle. Ouch! She is fairly accomplished at leatherworking (up to about 145 I believe) and isn't rich with maybe 5 gold at the time. So I switched her realm-mate night elf hunter to Herbalism, and quickly worked up to cutting Magebloom and Briarthorn (which sell well enough in their own right, too). And of course, the rogue can send leather armor back to the hunter as well; it's all very convenient and cozy.

I'm sure it won't continue. With Eric and DK on Shandris, that's where the bulk of our attention will focus. My characters on other realms will be either killed (sniff) or maybe condensed into a single alternate realm. And even some of my Shandris toons will be left behind.

But for now, I'm heavily invested in multiple personality disorder. And loving it.