Tag Archives: WoW

Random Thoughts About 8.3

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A new patch has hit us square in the face like a baseball bat, and I have ThOuGhTs!

  • Okay so I was slightly disappointed at the lack of hunter changes over the course of the 8.3 PTR, but honestly having played Fuhai exclusively since the patch dropped (because fuck doing those dailies more than once a day) hunters didn’t need anything!
  • okay maybe survival does but eh I don’t play that.
  • TENTACLES GALORE. *looks around Vale* oh N’zoth, I love what you’ve done with the place, it looks very homely.
  • Ny’alotha looks like it’s gonna be one of the most fun raids I’ve experienced (bearing in mind I’ve raided since Siege of Orgrimmar on and off, then since Hellfire Citadel regularly), some of these bosses look really interesting! The glorious return of Il’gynoth also makes me happy, he was my favourite boss in Legion.
  • It’s nice to see Uldum and the Vale used again, even if they are now covered in purple junk/large bugs. Can’t help but feel we’ve made Taran Zhu’s life just full of constant disappointment and annoyance since he met us though.
  • “for the love of… we JUST finished rebuilding this place and NOW IT’S COVERED IN TENTACLES. Taoshi, Cho,  pack your bags, we’re leaving. We’re going to Ironforge, nothing happens there except Brewfest.”
  • Speaking of WoW holidays, mein gott it’s almost time for the yearly Love Rocket disappointment.
  • oh let’s be honest, they won’t be.
  • Um excuse me, where is my pandaren heritage armour? Please thanks?
  • Honestly shocked that humans don’t have a set either but humans are boring tbh.
  • Horrific Visions are pretty cool I guess. Can’t wait for Torghast in Shadowlands though, I’m gonna be in there a LOT. Love me some roguelike mechanics, I do.
  • Still forever disappointed that the pandaren intro questline doesn’t conclude with you knocking Anduin on his arse like you did Varian, but I suppose I’ll get over that.
  • IT’S BEEN THREE YEARS I’M NOT OVER IT.

Other Stuff?

I’ve been replaying Disgaea 2 recently. It’s one of those games that came out back in 2006 on the PS2, and upon release I sunk HUNDREDS of hours into it, almost obsessively, then when it got an upgraded rerelease on the PSP three years later, I bought it again and threw hundreds more hours of my life into it. Just sheer amounts of level grinding, reincarnating, level grinding more, felony farming, item upgrading, seeing just how high I can push the damage numbers or my stats.

There’s something about the Disgaea games that really just catch me in the right way. It’s a grindy game and it’s unashamed about it, and it’s a grind I will forever enjoy because each step is rewarding in its own way, as opposed to all the satisfaction coming right at the end.

Also:

Numbers numbers numbers, love me some numbers.

Darling It’s Better Down Where It’s Wetter

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TAKE IT FROM MEEEEEEEEEE

So we’ve been traipsing around Nazjatar and Mechagon since the end of June now, helping fish people, jumping on jellyfish, camping for rare spawns that drop mounts, and other general shenanigans, but what have we learned so far?

TIMELESS ISLE-STYLE CONTENT IS FUN!

The last main content patch of Mists of Pandaria brought the Timeless Isle for us to play with, and honestly if we hadn’t had to spend half a million years there it might have been remembered slightly more fondly. Yet, that was possibly one of the best pieces of content (in a patch that brought us a brilliant raid and the flex raiding mode) in one of the best expansions to date. Freeform, exploratory content, with places to go, things to collect, rares to kill and methods of gearing up not just yourself but alts too. The closest we’ve had to that since is Mechagon and Nazjatar. Argus and Tanaan Jungle were lacking that special something (I think it might be “colours other than fel green”) but these two zones we have now are just so fun to roam around in!

PLATFORMING SUCKS

I hated it in Spires of Arak. I hated it when the Kirin Tor tried to make a game of it. I hate it now in northern Nazjatar. Sorry little jellyfish, but you’re gonna have to fucking stay up there.

PUZZLES DO NOT SUCK

Wow what a wise tweet from a wise man, everyone should go follow him like right now or something.

RAIDING IS FUN

The Eternal Palace is, so far, a bloody fantastic raid. Okay, the Blackwater Behemoth is a bit of a boring dud, and Za’qul is a horribly complicated (but fun!) mess of a fight, but honestly it’s one of the best raids they’ve released! The sound effect for Dribbling Ichor on the Orgozoa fight is absolutely horrifying though. Makes me feel all odd and not in a good way.

Best boss: Lady Ashvane, mainly because it’s satisfying to finally bring her down after she’s plagued us all expansion.
Worst boss: Blackwater Behemoth, because YAWN.
Fishiest boss: Azshara, obvs.
Deja vu boss: Radiance of Azshara. Didn’t we kill you in Legion? Go away!

ROGUES LOOK COOL

Look at how Fujikomine throws those dice! Watch her only get one buff, and the worst possible one!

MM, THE WAY TO GO

Having been a warlock for part of the expansion, I changed mains to my hunter, and I was MM for a while, until having to dance around Bwonsamdi broke my poor little brain and I went BM because EVERYTHING CAST WHEN MOVE. Now I feel comfortable going back to MM in Azshara’s house, and I’m having a whale of a time.

Thanks to having 2 on-use trinkets AND an Azerite ability, I have like 10 buttons I need to press on a regular basis too.

1, 2, 3 and 4 are main rotational abilities, 5 is my Azerite ability, 6 is a trinket, 7 and A4 are defensives, R is my AoE, M5 is a once per fight dealio, A1 and A2 are cooldowns, A3 is another trinket and M4 makes me fly backwards. I use all of these quite a lot.

And they said MM was a 2 button spec. Damn.

DARK IRON DWARVES LOOK HELLA COOL

Fuckin’ look at her!

ALTER MANN

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Last month I turned 33, which in gay years means I’m basically this old:

You sort of hit that the moment you turn 20 though (seriously at the age of 21, way back when, I was asked “don’t you think you’re too old to go gay clubbing now?” by a friend and honestly I’ve never felt more offended), and every year adds a new wrinkle. 33 has brought with it the concern that I will throw my back out every time I sneeze (which I have done twice in the last week and am currently suffering from today. Hayfever was an annoyance in my youth; today flowers are liable to kill me) and grey hairs that I have finally LOCATED and will be DYEING to COVER them UP at the earliest CONVENIENCE.

I’m also trying to convince the boyfriend that when he picks up his glasses from Asda Opticians, he should ask for “my new spectacles” and put the stress on a different syllable every time he says it.

specTAcles!

But this blog isn’t about me griping (actually it can be, it’s my blog and I can write whatever I like), it’s about VIDEO GAMES and let me tell you I have played some VIDEO GAMES recently.

World of Warcraft!

  • Officially ahead of the curve! Bring it on Azshara, you tentacle witch!
  • Speaking of tentacles, Fuhai still has the gift of N’Zoth, because he is our master and he will bring deliverance to all.
  • YRR N’LYETH, SHUUL ANAGG!
  • *clears throat*
  • Honestly I’ve been logging in for raids and little else recently. I still love the game, but I’ve been dipping my toe into other games too recently, like…

Disgaea 5 Complete!

I’ve owned it for two weeks and I’ve sunk so much time into it. I had it on the PS4, traded it in after I finished the story and some of the postgame, and really regretted it because I missed out on SO much stuff. It’s a wonderful game because you can take characters that have stats like this at the start of the game:

And through the use of levelling, stat boosts, subclass mastering and whatnot, give them stats that look more like this:

Yes, those stats are in the TENS OF MILLIONS, and I’m not even halfway to the stat cap (99,999,999 for everything bar HP which can go to 99,999,999,999! NINETY NINE BILLION!). Disgaea takes grinding as a concept and dials it up to 11. You level up characters, you level up your items, you get stronger and stronger and stronger until you overcome the ultimate challenge, Baal (who is the ultimate challenge in like every Disgaea game so this is not a spoiler).

Disgaea 5, of course, turns the Baal fight up to 11 too by not just pitting you against a single Baal, but MULTIPLE of him. It’s ridiculous and I love it. It’s a far cry from Disgaea 1 where he was “just” level 4000 and there was “just” one of him.

Football Manager 2019!

Bolton Wanderers in real life have had a disastrous season, given that they had to forfeit their last game because their playing staff went on strike due to going unpaid for months, the administrators have been called in, the ownership saga is full of messy drama, and they start next season in League One with -12 points. Fantastic!

Bolton Wanderers in Football Manager 2019, as managed by me, are top of the Championship, are in good financial health, and our next game is in the Carabao Cup vs Chelsea, which I will totally not save scum until I get a victory, honest.

Oops my fingers slipped and pressed ALT+F4, sorry about that.

Gosh, these last two games have basically been spreadsheets in colourful formats haven’t they? But what can I say, I love number-crunching games!

THE MIGHTY YOPAAT

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I AM PANDA, HEAR ME ROAR

Actually no, please leave.

Yopaat is the storm personified. Yopaat is power and strength, Yopaat is the fire that burns in the centre of the world and the winds that rage around it. When Yopaat calls on the elements, they OBEY. Except for the times they don’t, but let’s not focus too much on that okay? That was a really tough time for me and I would appreciate you not bringing it up.

YOPAAT.

I AM THE ROAR OF THUNDER
I AM THE CRACKLE OF FLAME
I AM THE TREMBLING OF THE EARTH BENEATH YOUR FEET no not because I’m fat, how very dare you

THE MIGHTY YOPAAT needs not such petty things as “humility” or “depth perception” or “an indoor voice” for I am the master of the elements! (except I totally took the Storm Elemental talent)

EAT MY TOTEM, YOU ABSOLUTE END-PIECE.

You Should Consider Yourself Lucky To Face Me!

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Gilgamesh? Thrillgamesh.

8/8 HC

Check that shiz out! G’huun went g’down, and now we’re g’ahead of the curve! I guess we’ll take alts into Uldir soon, gives me a chance to stretch Lunchi’s legs, get all Misty in this place.

Zoogleboogle

Gumi, proving they love love love their global exclusive characters, recently gave Zargabaath his 7* awakening in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, and he’s gone from being “really good” to “borderline absurd” and I am entirely here for it. Not enough that he’s got extremely powerful support abilities, but he now gets 40% baseline evasion, meaning he can hit 100% incredibly easily, and he gets a fuckin’ chaining move! Octaslash family too, so he plays nice with Reberta, another GLEX character. Just watch Fryevia get an Octaslash move with her 7* awakening, that’d seriously rock.

How mine looks so far and he’s not even max level yet!

Need to kill the Malboro Family, Calcabrina and Shaula trials. Should get on that, really.

Today at work, another colleague recognised the game I was playing on break and we both collectively nerded out over now knowing someone IRL playing this silly mobile game, and that was lovely. Gaming, even mobile gaming, long dismissed as “not real games” by idiots and elitists, bringing people together who would not normally have said anything to each other!

Got Your Number

Fuhai the Hunter is level 118 now. I think. Or she’s incredibly close to it. I think I am levelling her slowly because having done the 120 grind twice relatively quickly, I can’t really face THE SAME grind a third time. Maybe later, maybe later.

And I had such lofty goals of getting loads of characters (and their professions) maxed out early on. Where did that enthusiasm go? I don’t think it’s me not enjoying the game, more thinking “well I have the main and the backup, do I need anyone else? Could I be gearing/perfecting them instead of dicking around on a character I might not play much?” and just deciding it’s not worth it, not just yet. I’m not in the position of “I’ve done EvErYtHiNg and now I have nothing to do!” like some people somehow are, but I am in the mindset of “this time could be spent bettering characters I actually use, or playing Civ 6 or Soul Calibur” and I just stop.

The hunter is mechanically strange to me as well. Ranged, but mobile. As a warlock main who is basically a fixed turret 99% of the time, playing a class that can freecast but move as well feels liberating, but also dangerous. If I get too used to moving when casting as a hunter, I might end up translating that into my warlock gameplay, and interrupt all my fuckin’ casts. Can’t have that, no sir.

*Voldo noises*

Soul Calibur 6 is finally out, which means we all get to play as Mr #FashionGoals himself, Voldo! Our favourite, oh yes indeed.

THIS IS FAR FROM THE STRONGEST OF SWORDS

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Oops sorry, no swords here, but here we do have the finest hat. The best hat. The most… tentacular.

But all these fabulous fedoras, these stunning sombreros, this majestic millinery, these brilliant bowlers, they distract us from the most important thing.

Stealth follower missions are the biggest piles of shit in this entire expansion

Thanks for your time.

Oh, in other news, I’m going to give you some advice on the LFR fight MOTHER.

  • Nominate someone who knows the fight. Make them group leader so they can send raid alerts.
  • Tank in group 1, Other tank in group 5. Healer in each.
  • Send over groups one at a time from one room to the next. Wait until everyone’s healed, send in the next group.
  • Kill the adds.
  • DON’T all run into the second room at once. You’ll die.
  • DON’T keep MOTHER in the first room until it explodes. You’ll die.

Thanks for playing.

Oh, and bounce the ball on Zek’voz. If you don’t, you guessed it, you’ll die.

THEY COME

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The Old Gods are coming! The Old Gods are coming! THOQ FSSH N’ZOTH! ETH’RAZZQI WORG ZZ OU! A̭͍͕̦̠̭̿͌̓̆Q̣͚͎̭̤̣Ě̬̮̙̰̣̻͌V́̅ͮ̍ A̯̯̪̱ͥ̌̓͊̆ͪ̚Q̘̖̰̺͉̪̭͎ͫ̆̄͑͊̎E̜̘̲̱̮̘̯͇ͭ͑͊̎ͥ͒V̜͙̥͇̺̰̰̾͆ A͈̩̼͚̗͓̖͒Q̗̪̻͉ͫ͛͜͝E̴̢̥̲̻͎̦̞̣͐̿ͩ͌ͅV̧̛͓͇̄͡

I mean, probably.

Things I Love In The Prepatch So Far

  • 8.0 Demonology is honestly the best, most fun iteration of Demonology I have ever played! It combines the demon summoning of Legion (but cuts out the boring Demonic Empowerment spam) with the Molten Core gameplay of Mists (but cuts out the stupid Metamorphosis weaving) and honestly, it ends up being something just supremely fun and interesting! Plus, the chance to summon Prince Melchezaar is just lovely. Give me Jaraxxus too and I’ll never change spec again.
  • Sticking on the Warlock front, 8.0 Affliction is actually rather interesting too. Reap Souls has thankfully gone into the bin (sadly so has Soul Flame but we can’t have everything our way), and I enjoy the Deathbolt gameplay so far. Going back to a casted filler rather than a channelled one feels a bit better as well. No more do I feel like a bargain basement Shadow Priest.
  • STORY. MORE STORY. It’s not exactly going the way I’d like it to so far, but I am confident there’ll be some interesting twists and turns. REMEMBER PEOPLE, this is just the prologue to the expansion, there’s a shitload more stuff to come, and I fully expect some of it to be tentacular.
  • I like that Mistweaver Monk has the castable Soothing Mist back, and you can do instant Vivify/Enveloping Mist through it. Makes it a little different to other healers. Plus I love Fistweaving, and a few of their new talents gives that gameplay style a very tidy little boost. Can’t wait to test it out in a raid environment!
  • The anticipation everyone has for the new expansion. It’s so close!

Also I am enjoying levelling this minx up

Things I Hate In The Prepatch So Far

  • Something feels like it’s “missing” from Destruction. Probably the lack of fire-spewing portals from the artifact. I liked those.
  • “Your talents have been reset” nooooooo now I have to look things up!
  • I, like many, many others, am a little miffed at the events that have transpired in the story recently. Still, there’s another week to go, and I suspect the Alliance will get a satisfying retribution. For all the moaning that the Alliance is losing an important racial capital on Kalimdor, it’s important to remember the Horde are losing their only bastion on the Eastern Kingdoms too. Whether or not that is a like-for-like is up to you to decide, but this whole faction conflict does not seem entirely one-sided. Shame it has to be the Horde ACTING, and the Alliance REACTING yet again though.
  • Inxy, the lovely Goblin up there, is currently flying around the WoD zones, levelling via bonus areas and collecting treasures, and rocketing her way to level 100. Kinda wish that was viable in Legion content too. Powerlevel via exploration!
  • Sylvanas’s movie needed a sea shanty like Jaina’s. Yo ho ho and a bottle of plague, that sorta thing.

The Best Things About Legion

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I did the worst yesterday, here’s the best today!

Thal’kiel

Not just ol’ Skelly here, but all the talking weapons we got over Legion have buckets of personality, and I have hopes (slim as they are) that they’re allowed to be chatty when transmogged to in Battle for Azeroth too, even if it’s just their generic battle phrases (like when you use Call Dreadstalkers, Jack Skellington goes “RELEASE THE HOUNDS!”).

Warlocks

Warlocks get the best stuff.

Raiding

Every raid had its standout (in my opinion!) boss. Il’gynoth, Star Augur, Odyn, Maiden of Vigilance, Imonar. The fact we had a decent number of raids compared to Warlords was another triumph, and while I’m a tad bored of fel green, the general aesthetic of each raid this expansion was very strong thematically.

I’ll never get bored of Old God purple though. Just saying.

The Mage Tower

Those challenges were amazingly fun, at least for warlocks. The twins were frustrating without Sacrolash’s Dark Strike, but easy enough after that. The demon worm and his master was a challenging ask, making such an interrupt-heavy fight for a spec that ordinarily has no interrupt! Demonology had Sigryn and her cronies, which was a mechanically demanding fight but by far the most fun of the three.

Also no spec had Agatha, because fuck Agatha.

*hiss*

Cinematics

The cinematics were fantastic this time around, and I am confident they will only get better going forward.

But still, Ysera… *sob*

World Quests

I know, they’re repetitive, grindy, and frustrating for people who just can’t leave a single quest undone, they’re still an amazingly solid addition to the game, and mean that rather than be holed up in our garrisons like we were in Warlords, we’re still, even at this late stage of the expansion, flying around the world actually DOING stuff. Long may they continue.

Trilliax

Filthy, filthy, FILTHY!

Void Elves

Practically topless. Rippling abs! Solid pectorals! And that’s just the girls!

SOMETHING’S NOT QUITE RIGHT

AN ILLUSION! WHAT ARE YOU HIDING?!

The Worst Things About Legion

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Coven of Shivarra

Fuck your RNG bullshit. I used to like shivarra before this boss, but now my succubus shall stay a succubus out of sheer protest.

Ysera

FUCK YOU XAVIUS. YOU DESERVE EVERY DEATH PLAYERS HAVE UNLEASHED UPON YOU. STOMP YOUR FACE INTO THE GROUND UNTIL THERE IS NOTHING LEFT BUT MUSH.

Priests

Their campaign basically amounted to “SAVE US, PALADINS! HELP! WE’RE QUITE USELESS!” which is a bit of a disappointment really.

Warlocks

Warlocks are just too good and cool and awesome, it saps all the fun out of every other lesser class. Warlocks get all the best stuff!

Fishing

Ugh it was too easy to progress to max level, FISHING SHOULD TAKE YEARS yet I went from 700 to 800 in the space of an hour.

Khadgar

“Ah yes, remember that time I asked you for a ludicrous amount of Apexis crystals? Oh what larks we had! Ooh watch out for that Vrykul, he’s looking rather mean! Anyway yes, as I was saying…”

“LEAVE ME ALONE”

Ur’zul

Jesus fucking Christ what the shit.

Gul’dan

Hyped up to be the main villain of Legion, yet we offed him really early on. Still, it feels as good to beat him as it did to beat Xavius. THIS IS FOR VARIAN/YSERA etc.

Demon Hunters

“I’VE SACRIFICED EVERYTHING, WHAT HAVE YOU GIVEN?” oh honey have you seen the amount I cast Life Tap? Plus, you’ve been asleep in a vault for years and years napping. I had to build a garrison with my bare hands, damn you.

Christmas Break is OVER

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Time to get back to the grind in WoW.

(with a little more Civ woven in of course, I mean the expansion is next month, and oh god Dynasty Warriors 9 is out soon too)

TO THE GRIND STONE

Fings Wot I Want

  • A void elf, but that apparently involves getting the last Legion reputation to exalted, and ugh Mac’Aree sucks.

  • That snazzy mage tower appearance for Affliction, but that involves getting a specific legendary and the game seems to want to give me anything BUT that legendary. Even going so far as to not give me ANY affliction-specific legendaries at all, let alone the one I want.
  • To kill Argus the Whateverthefrig on Heroic, but then that’s going to happen sooner or later, we’re making good progress through Antorus the Uncomfortable Seat.
  • To get Affliction to 75. I’m at 73. This is probably the easiest to do, maybe I should get right on that?
  • The Celts in Civ VI wait that’s not WoW-related!
  • Though while I’m on the subject of Civ VI, another African or South American civ would be lovely too.
  • The enthusiasm to level my horde character to come back. She’s level 60, and she’s stalled. Though I’ve been playing the game as a whole less recently, due to a random Civ renaissance in my life.
  • MORE WARLOCKS.

Fings Wot I Don’t Want

  • I… I just… Look, Eonar is an atrocious fight and I hope to hell Blizz never do anything like that again.
  • Norgannon’s Foresight.
  • Another East Asian/European civ, bar Georgia I guess. Give us some underrepresented areas! Wait that’s not WoW-related!
  • To be stuck at 3-set the whole bloody tier.
  • Malfurion.
  • Like, just in general Malfurion, he’s awful.
  • Mages.