Just like last year, I missed posting last Friday due to Thanksgiving taking up most of my time and thoughts. I was going to write a post about the things I'm thankful for, but visiting with family and friends just took too much of my time. As such, in a bit of late celebration of the holiday, that is the post I will write today.
WoW-related things I am thankful for:
I'm thankful for the automatic conversion of base weapon DPS to feral attack power. There was once a time when the only weapons feral druids could use were the ones that were specifically designed for us, which had feral attack power as one of their stats (with lowered base DPS to make up for it; we didn't need that base DPS, after all). This lead to us having one or two (if we were lucky) weapons available to us in every tier of content, weapons which were useless to everyone else. Now that base-DPS automatically converts to feral attack power, a whole new world of weapons has been opened up to us: staves, two-hand maces, polearms (which were added to our repertoire the day the automatic feral attack power conversion was added); we can use any of them that we like, and for that, I am thankful.
I'm thankful for the ability to track multiple things at once. Sure, I might not be as thankful as my hunter breathren, but as someone who once had a well-worn macro which, when activated, would cause me to switch between Find Fish and Find Herbs, so that I could go out and fish in pools while still collecting herbs, I still appreciate this change. My combined efforts made the activity quite profitable, but needing to use the macro to switch between my two tracking abilities was quite tedious. Now, it is no longer necessary, and for that, I am thankful.
I'm thankful for Leader of the Pack, specifically the self-healing aspect of the talent. The feral druid has always been a great soloing class due to the fact that it can heal itself and that its healing spells depend upon a different resource (mana) than the resource it uses to attack (rage/energy). We became even better, however, when Burning Crusade came around we got some passive self-healing in the form of Improved Lead of the Pack, an effect now baked into the main talent itself. The passive self-healing afforded by this talent makes solo-ing as a druid even better because it reduces the frequency with which we need to switch out of our forms and heal ourselves. In fact, I often find that when fighting enemies that don't pose much of a challenge to me, I don't need to shift out to heal at all; Leader of the Pack does it for me, and for that, I am thankful.
I'm thankful for Netherwing. That faction gave me some of my best memories of WoW: some of the best daily quests in the entire game, an island that was beautifully designed, the ability to walk around as a fel orc, and a mount which continues to be my favorite to this very day. That content was a great reward for buying epic flying (as if epic flying itself weren't its own reward), back when 5000 gold was serious money and having epic flying was a real accomplishment. Netherwing is part of the reason the Burning Crusade was my favorite expansion pack to experience, and for that, I am thankful.
I'm thankful for this blog (hey, without WoW, it couldn't have happened). It has helped me discover my love for typing, it has gotten me involved in a great community (the WoW blogging community), it has encouraged me to think about the game in ways I might not have considered before, and by writing these posts, I can continually create something I can be proud of.
I'm thankful for the Shattering. Because old-world Azeroth needed the reboot.
Non-WoW-related things I am thankful for:
I'll spare you the usual things like my family, my friends, my health, etc., and skip right to the things I am thankful for that might be somewhat unique to me.
I am thankful for music. It helps to quiet my ever-active mind, it keeps me focused when I need to do mindless tasks, it helps me work through my emotions from time to time, and it is generally amazing in every way. Listening to music has been one of the few things that has consistently helped me throughout my entire life. Through all of the bad spots, whatever their nature, music could either pull me through or, at the very least, speak to me in a way that validated what I was going through. And through the good times, music has been there to make them even better. Music rocks; that's all there is too it.
I am thankful for the internet. Neo-Luddite that I am, I still can't deny the great things this technology has done for me. The internet puts a wide array of information at my fingertips, information I can access with but a few clicks and empower myself in the way that only information allows me. The internet is a great melting-pot of ideas, which has opened my mind to possibilities that might have never been revealed to me otherwise. The internet makes accessing the music that I love so much even easier by making more of it available to me and giving me more means to listen to it. The internet allows me to stay connected with friends I never get to see face-to-face anymore thanks to social networking sites. The internet made this blog possible. Though it may waste more of my time than I wish it did, the internet has doubtlessly improved my life in many ways, ways far too numerous for me to list here.
I am thankful for the people in my life who put up no façade about who they really are, the people who really do act like themselves in all parts of their life, and the example they serve for me. They inspire me to do the same thing myself, and while it isn't always easy, I'm getting much better at it, with them serving as my inspiration to keep up at it.
I am thankful that this blog is as successful as it is. When I got into blogging, I didn't have big aspirations to become the next big thing in the blogosphere; I just wanted a place where I could write a lot, and perhaps someone would read it. Sometimes I go to the stats tab in Blogger's editor and am amazed at just how many hits my blog gets in a day. The most amazing thing to me is that I got this far on my own merit. I never asked other bloggers to link to me, I never shamelessly advertised myself, and I never asked my friends to read what I wrote. I just started writing without any fanfare, and over the years (year and a half, specifically), people started reading me. Not because I asked them to, not because I tried any devious schemes to draw them in, but because they liked what they saw.
Which brings me to the final thing I am thankful for: you. I am thankful that my blog has readers and that my posts get comments with a fair amount of frequency. Knowing that people read my posts has caused me to be more mindful of their quality, and practicing writing with quality in mind has made my writing better in all parts of my life. But most of all, it makes me happy to know that people enjoy what I write (or else they wouldn't read it, would they?), so to all those people who deemed my posts worth their time, thank you.
Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts
Monday, November 29, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Some miscellaneous advice for Pilgrim's Bounty
A year ago, I posted an advice post with various miscellaneous advice for completing the meta for Pilgrim's Bounty, the holiday we are currently celebrating in WoW. Well, considering it has come around again and hasn't seemed to have changed that much, I would like to post that advice again, for the sake of everyone still going for their Plump Turkey.
-Finish the questline that involves you turning in five of each food to various people outside of the capital cities. It ends with you getting a turkey caller, which you can use every two minutes to summon a turkey which you can kill for a wild turkey. Do this every two minutes while you are out doing other things and you won't need to compete with the people going for The Turkinator when you farm turkeys for Can't Get Enough Turkey, making everyone happier.
-I don't know about your server, but on mine, there are fewer people going for The Turkenator in Trisfall Glades than there are in Elwynn Forest, so try doing a route going around the lake there.
-If you are level 80, you can probably solo Talon King Ikiss for Terokkar Turkey Time as long as you run behind the pillars when he used Arcane Explosion (if you can heal yourself, even this step may not be necessary).
-When searching for rogues for Turkey Lurkey, try going into Dalaran and moving your mouse quickly back and forth over a crowd of people, scanning them. Look at the tool-tip that comes up and you should be able to find your rogues. If all else fails, try going to the starting areas of whatever race you are missing, since there is no level requirement for the achievement.
-Finish the questline that involves you turning in five of each food to various people outside of the capital cities. It ends with you getting a turkey caller, which you can use every two minutes to summon a turkey which you can kill for a wild turkey. Do this every two minutes while you are out doing other things and you won't need to compete with the people going for The Turkinator when you farm turkeys for Can't Get Enough Turkey, making everyone happier.
-I don't know about your server, but on mine, there are fewer people going for The Turkenator in Trisfall Glades than there are in Elwynn Forest, so try doing a route going around the lake there.
-If you are level 80, you can probably solo Talon King Ikiss for Terokkar Turkey Time as long as you run behind the pillars when he used Arcane Explosion (if you can heal yourself, even this step may not be necessary).
-When searching for rogues for Turkey Lurkey, try going into Dalaran and moving your mouse quickly back and forth over a crowd of people, scanning them. Look at the tool-tip that comes up and you should be able to find your rogues. If all else fails, try going to the starting areas of whatever race you are missing, since there is no level requirement for the achievement.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Does the difficulty of What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been justify the reward?
Oh Violet Proto-Drake. The debates I have seen you inspire in the WoW.com comments section have been nothing short of remarkable. And yet to think, had Blizzard simply made you just another 280%-speed mount, we would not have these disagreements. As I come to the end of my long, strange trip, I can't help but wonder, have I really deserved that 310%-speed mount? Of course, being philosophical by nature, I have no choice to but to ponder this question, so here we go.
Let's establish the basics: there are many rewards for your various exploits and adventures in World of Warcraft, but they all fall into two categories: practical and aesthetic. Aethetic rewards include mounts, pets, titles, and other such things that don't actually make gameplay easier or more enjoyable (other than by looking at them.) Practical rewards somehow enhance your gaming experience. Practical rewards are things like gear, which allows you access new content, and certain mounts, like the Traveler's Tundra Mammoth, the usefulness of which I can definitely vouch for. I bring this up because, in the end, practical rewards are the only ones worth getting worked up over. Yes, aesthetic rewards can represent certain achievements (like the title of "the Insane" representing your uncommon dedication to the game), but in the end, assuming the criteria for their acquisition doesn't change significantly, they aren't worth getting worked up over.
So, which category do 310%-speed mounts fall into? Though the difference of speed may seem negligible, the fact is that it is a difference, making them a practical reward for anyone who already has a regular epic flying mount. In fact, that difference of speed isn't as negligible as it seems. Let's say there is a trip that takes you five minutes to make on a 280% speed mount. That same trip will take you a bit over four and a half minutes on a 310% speed mount. What that means is that using a 310%-speed mount instead of a 280%-speed mount makes you around 10% faster, i.e. a significant amount. What all that math means is that 310%-speed mounts are very practical rewards, and definitely worth considering seriously.
So, now that we know it's worth it to consider whether completing What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been justifies owning a 310% speed mount, it's time to ask that question. Let's get one thing straight before we start: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is not as difficult to get as it used to be. I won't go over all of the changes that have been made to the holiday achievements in the interest of saving time, but I'll sum it up by saying that a lot less is based on chance these days, with most of the achievements being based on whether you have enough time to do them, and they don't really take that long to do, either. If other holidays go the way of Love Is in the Air, we won't be able to use the difficulty of the holiday achievements to justify What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been rewarding a 310%-speed mount.
But then again, it never was about the difficulty, was is? Considering that the only other way to get a 310%-speed mount is to be really good at raiding, really good at arena, or really lucky with raid drops, the Violet Proto-Drake was meant to be a way for people who can't raid really well or fight in the arena really well to get a 310% speed mount. So how did Blizzard justify giving such a reward for something that isn't that hard compared to all of the other sources? Dedication. What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is possibly the only thing in WoW that is guaranteed to take about year to earn; there's just no way to get around that. That's why such a great reward can be rewarded for such simple actions.
But is dedication enough? After all, considering how little time the holidays take to complete these days, the only real dedication required is simply participating in the holidays when they come around. One can't deny that School of Hard Knocks is pretty difficult, and Sinister Calling takes quite a bit of luck, but Blizzard could up and change those on us the next time those holidays come around. I suppose the only objective way to determine whether the Violet Proto-Drake is a fair reward is to look at the other ways 310%-speed mounts can be obtained. The raiding mounts require you to fight boss battles in ways that make the battles exceedingly difficult, meaning you need to be really good at raiding and be part of a raid with good coordination. The arena drakes require you to be part of a really good arena team, meaning you need to be good at PvP and your teammates need to be good team players. The Onyxia drake requires you to get really really lucky with your loot and your roll and have the basic skills needed to down Onyxia (.2% drop chance divided by 25 players equal you'll never get it, i.e. .008% chance of getting the drake on any given kill). So, to get a 310%-speed mount, you need to be either really good at the game or really lucky. I suppose the solo-equivalent would be being really dedicated to WoW, so does working on holidays on and off for a year qualify as really dedicated?
Here's the thing about 310%-speed mounts: some people may not see them as a necessity, but they are without a doubt the next step up in mounts. They are as much of a non-necessity as epic flying mounts are a non-necessity: sure, you could get by without them, but your playing experience wouldn't be as enjoyable if you had to. That said, as the fastest mounts in the game, they should without a doubt be difficult to get, just as epic flying used to be difficult to get when 5,000 gold was big money. Still, you could grind a bit each day and get that 5,000 gold without spending too much time each day in game. It would take you a long time, but you'd get it eventually. The Violet Proto-Drake is the same way, except the real-world time you need to spend grinding for it is forcibly stretched out to almost a year. The only difference between how a casual player would go through the holidays and how a dedicated player would go through the holidays is that the dedicated player would get all of the achievements really quickly, while a casual player may need the whole duration of the holiday to earn them. Hell, the only reason I got Fool For Love in only two days was because my schedule was such that I really had nothing else to do, so I spent almost all of my waking hours working on the meta, and I found a really good spot for grinding Lovely Charms. I bring that up because the reason this is even an issue is that dedicated players go through the holidays really quickly and end up feeling cheated, as if Blizzard has made What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been easier just to cater to the casuals.
But here's the thing: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is supposed to cater to the casuals. As I have said, 310% speed mounts are the logical stepping-point after regular epic mounts, and the purpose of What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is to allow casual players to get those mounts. The people who complain that the holidays are too easy are the ones that the raid and arena mounts are intended for. The Violet Proto-Drake is the 310%-speed mount for people who can't spend a lot of time in-game each day, which is why many of the changes that made dedicated players angry were made to the holiday achievements. Making someone spend a whole year on holidays, only to make them wait longer once they have done everything they need to do is decidedly non-casual friendly. Forcing people to run a boss every day in hopes of getting a mount to drop when they could very well be screwed over by RNG is decidedly non-casual friendly. Forcing players to log in every hour because the RNG keeps giving them the same candies is decidedly non-casual friendly.
Point is, the Violet Proto-Drake is supposed to be easy to acquire, which is why it takes so long to do so in real-world time. The various holidays should only take a dedicated player a few days to complete, because that means they would take a casual player longer. If you think about the amount of dedication someone who can only play for an hour a day or so would need to complete these holidays, it's probably similar to the amount of dedication needed to get the raiding drakes. Holidays are just a different game, one that is designed for the casual player; players who blast through the achievements and then complain the holiday is too easy are, to borrow terms from Halo, heroic or legendary players playing on normal mode.
Let's establish the basics: there are many rewards for your various exploits and adventures in World of Warcraft, but they all fall into two categories: practical and aesthetic. Aethetic rewards include mounts, pets, titles, and other such things that don't actually make gameplay easier or more enjoyable (other than by looking at them.) Practical rewards somehow enhance your gaming experience. Practical rewards are things like gear, which allows you access new content, and certain mounts, like the Traveler's Tundra Mammoth, the usefulness of which I can definitely vouch for. I bring this up because, in the end, practical rewards are the only ones worth getting worked up over. Yes, aesthetic rewards can represent certain achievements (like the title of "the Insane" representing your uncommon dedication to the game), but in the end, assuming the criteria for their acquisition doesn't change significantly, they aren't worth getting worked up over.
So, which category do 310%-speed mounts fall into? Though the difference of speed may seem negligible, the fact is that it is a difference, making them a practical reward for anyone who already has a regular epic flying mount. In fact, that difference of speed isn't as negligible as it seems. Let's say there is a trip that takes you five minutes to make on a 280% speed mount. That same trip will take you a bit over four and a half minutes on a 310% speed mount. What that means is that using a 310%-speed mount instead of a 280%-speed mount makes you around 10% faster, i.e. a significant amount. What all that math means is that 310%-speed mounts are very practical rewards, and definitely worth considering seriously.
So, now that we know it's worth it to consider whether completing What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been justifies owning a 310% speed mount, it's time to ask that question. Let's get one thing straight before we start: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is not as difficult to get as it used to be. I won't go over all of the changes that have been made to the holiday achievements in the interest of saving time, but I'll sum it up by saying that a lot less is based on chance these days, with most of the achievements being based on whether you have enough time to do them, and they don't really take that long to do, either. If other holidays go the way of Love Is in the Air, we won't be able to use the difficulty of the holiday achievements to justify What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been rewarding a 310%-speed mount.
But then again, it never was about the difficulty, was is? Considering that the only other way to get a 310%-speed mount is to be really good at raiding, really good at arena, or really lucky with raid drops, the Violet Proto-Drake was meant to be a way for people who can't raid really well or fight in the arena really well to get a 310% speed mount. So how did Blizzard justify giving such a reward for something that isn't that hard compared to all of the other sources? Dedication. What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is possibly the only thing in WoW that is guaranteed to take about year to earn; there's just no way to get around that. That's why such a great reward can be rewarded for such simple actions.
But is dedication enough? After all, considering how little time the holidays take to complete these days, the only real dedication required is simply participating in the holidays when they come around. One can't deny that School of Hard Knocks is pretty difficult, and Sinister Calling takes quite a bit of luck, but Blizzard could up and change those on us the next time those holidays come around. I suppose the only objective way to determine whether the Violet Proto-Drake is a fair reward is to look at the other ways 310%-speed mounts can be obtained. The raiding mounts require you to fight boss battles in ways that make the battles exceedingly difficult, meaning you need to be really good at raiding and be part of a raid with good coordination. The arena drakes require you to be part of a really good arena team, meaning you need to be good at PvP and your teammates need to be good team players. The Onyxia drake requires you to get really really lucky with your loot and your roll and have the basic skills needed to down Onyxia (.2% drop chance divided by 25 players equal you'll never get it, i.e. .008% chance of getting the drake on any given kill). So, to get a 310%-speed mount, you need to be either really good at the game or really lucky. I suppose the solo-equivalent would be being really dedicated to WoW, so does working on holidays on and off for a year qualify as really dedicated?
Here's the thing about 310%-speed mounts: some people may not see them as a necessity, but they are without a doubt the next step up in mounts. They are as much of a non-necessity as epic flying mounts are a non-necessity: sure, you could get by without them, but your playing experience wouldn't be as enjoyable if you had to. That said, as the fastest mounts in the game, they should without a doubt be difficult to get, just as epic flying used to be difficult to get when 5,000 gold was big money. Still, you could grind a bit each day and get that 5,000 gold without spending too much time each day in game. It would take you a long time, but you'd get it eventually. The Violet Proto-Drake is the same way, except the real-world time you need to spend grinding for it is forcibly stretched out to almost a year. The only difference between how a casual player would go through the holidays and how a dedicated player would go through the holidays is that the dedicated player would get all of the achievements really quickly, while a casual player may need the whole duration of the holiday to earn them. Hell, the only reason I got Fool For Love in only two days was because my schedule was such that I really had nothing else to do, so I spent almost all of my waking hours working on the meta, and I found a really good spot for grinding Lovely Charms. I bring that up because the reason this is even an issue is that dedicated players go through the holidays really quickly and end up feeling cheated, as if Blizzard has made What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been easier just to cater to the casuals.
But here's the thing: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is supposed to cater to the casuals. As I have said, 310% speed mounts are the logical stepping-point after regular epic mounts, and the purpose of What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is to allow casual players to get those mounts. The people who complain that the holidays are too easy are the ones that the raid and arena mounts are intended for. The Violet Proto-Drake is the 310%-speed mount for people who can't spend a lot of time in-game each day, which is why many of the changes that made dedicated players angry were made to the holiday achievements. Making someone spend a whole year on holidays, only to make them wait longer once they have done everything they need to do is decidedly non-casual friendly. Forcing people to run a boss every day in hopes of getting a mount to drop when they could very well be screwed over by RNG is decidedly non-casual friendly. Forcing players to log in every hour because the RNG keeps giving them the same candies is decidedly non-casual friendly.
Point is, the Violet Proto-Drake is supposed to be easy to acquire, which is why it takes so long to do so in real-world time. The various holidays should only take a dedicated player a few days to complete, because that means they would take a casual player longer. If you think about the amount of dedication someone who can only play for an hour a day or so would need to complete these holidays, it's probably similar to the amount of dedication needed to get the raiding drakes. Holidays are just a different game, one that is designed for the casual player; players who blast through the achievements and then complain the holiday is too easy are, to borrow terms from Halo, heroic or legendary players playing on normal mode.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Reflections on the soon-to-come end of my long, strange trip
It's almost here. With Fool For Love under my belt, I am about to reach the end of my long, strange trip. Once I earn To Honor Ones Elders, that will be it; the Violet Proto-Drake will be mine, and my year of work (ok, it will likely be a bit under eleven months, but who's counting?) will have finally paid off. I will finally have access to that long coveted 310% speed mount, and my Swift Flight Form will be updated to go that much faster as well. I'm not going to lie; I am absolutely giddy with anticipation.
How I got started on this long, strange trip is it's own story, because for the longest time, I refused to participate in the holidays. Though I didn't reach level 80 until early January back in 2009, I could have certainly started working on the holidays as soon as Hallow's End came after the achievements were first implemented, but I didn't. Why? Because I was afraid to fail. I know that's a silly fear to have about what is essentially solo content, but I didn't want to start the holidays if I knew there was a chance I may not be able to finish them. I also didn't want to divert my focus from leveling my main, so those two factors prevented me form working on Hallow's End and Winter Veil. Even after I hit 80, I didn't want to start on the achievements: the Lunar Festive seemed like too much work, and considering how much of Fool For Love was based on luck back in 2009, I didn't want to risk it knowing that I could be screwed out of the meta with just a bit of bad luck.
What finally got me into the holiday spirit, if you will, was Noblegarden. By the time Noblegarden came around, I was an avid reader of WoW.com (then wowinsider.com), and they came out with a post detailing what one needed to do to complete the Noblegarden achievements. I read through it and thought to myself, "Say, that doesn't seem so difficult." A few days later, I received my first meta. It was then that I realized that my fears about the holiday achievements were unfounded, and I did a complete 180° and resolved to earn the Violet Proto-Drake. That was almost a year ago, and I have formed quite a few memories in the process of attaining that goal.
Children's Week came next, and like many of you, I was worried about not being able to complete School of Hard Knocks. I went into the battlegrounds immediately to get that part of the meta over with quickly, and I fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of a collection of small miracles. I started in Arathi Basin, where I was able to capture the Blacksmith flag without too much effort. I then moved on to Eye of the Storm, where the Alliance and Horde took turns taking the flag from the center without trying to stop each other. Though I had to wait a bit, I was able to complete that criterion during my first battle. I then moved into Alterac Valley, where I fell behind the other people there on my way to the tower. I followed them anyways, hoping some kind-hearted hordie would risk life and limb to helps us get the achievement. So there we were, ten of us in one tower, and one person had already taken the flag. We waited a bit, and then we saw him: a Tauren Warrior with his orphan out. He stood in the doorway for a while to gauge our intentions, and when no one attacked him, he walked in and took the tower for the Horde. Then one of us took it for the Alliance. Then he took it back. Then another one of us took it back. It was a beautiful sight (at least to my care bear eyes; I'm sure dedicated PvP'ers are still horrified that the battlegrounds became a place of cooperation between the two factions that week.), and we all /thanked the warrior before /afk'ing out. I then queued for Warsong Gulch, which I knew would likely be the hardest part of School of Hard Knocks. Indeed, that round would have turned into a round of turtling if that band of hordies hadn't run in to take our flag. We let them pass and then nuked the flag bearer down, and wouldn't you know it, it landed right in front of me. I right clicked it, /afk'ed out, and thanked God it was over. I then completed the rest of the achievements without issue.
The Fire Festival meta didn't take me too long, since I had already interacted with all of the fires the year before. All I needed to do was kill Ahune (I had bad luck with groups the year before, but Blizzard's decision to not update him to level 80 made the process easy for me) and do the other two easy achievements. Brewfest was also pretty easy, and though I had to juggle starting college and doing those dailies every day, I managed the meta without much issue, and even got a Great Brewfest Kodo out of the holiday, as well as some direly needed trinkets for my tank set and healing set. The one difficult thing about the holiday was seeing Violet Proto-Drakes popping up around me and trying to not feel discouraged.
Hallow's End gave me more trouble than I thought it would. That tooth pick stubbornly refused to drop until the last few days of the holiday, so That Sparkling Smile stood incomplete in my achievement panel for quite some time. Sinister Calling also gave me quite a bit of trouble, for the Headless Horsemen didn't seem to want to drop the helm or the pet, but by running the boss every day, I got them both. Winter Veil wasn't too difficult, with the exception of With a Little Helper from My Friends. As a druid, if I shifted into any of my forms, I lost the little helper costume, meaning I couldn't really contribute meaningfully to the fight. After unsuccessfully trying to get honorable kills in Strand of the Ancients, I tried playing defense in Isle of Conquest by killing players with the turrets. That got me about ten kills a battle, and once I finally got fifty, I finally said a tearless goodbye to PvP.
As you can guess by the fact that it only took me two days to get Fool For Love, I didn't find those achievements particularly difficult. Fistful of Love was less than pleasant to do, but at least I confirmed that Troll Rogues and Undead Warriors do indeed exist on my server. What was a bit ironic were that the combos I had the most trouble finding (the previous two, as well as a Night Elf Priest and Orc Shaman) were all characters I either currently have or had in the past. My first character was an Undeed Warrior, my second one was a Troll Rogue, I rolled an Orc Shaman at some point in the past, any one of my current alts is a Night Elf Priest.
So it comes down to this. The Lunar Festival is the last event I will need to participate in in order to get my Violet Proto-Drake, and with the long weekend I have this week, I'll be able to take care of a good chunk of it early on. Still, as giddy as I am that I am finally going to complete this trip, this journey, this long-term goal, I can't help but wonder what will happen now. Will I still participate in the holidays? The reason I participated in them for the last year was the Violet Proto-Drake; once I have that, will I even bother anymore? Will the lure of cool vanity items alone be enough to draw me in? Or will I become like those curmudgeons who comment on WoW.com posts about the holidays by saying that if it doesn't offer gear or emblems, then they aren't interested, and are then immediately voted down? I hope not; even before the achievement system, the holidays were some of my favorite parts of the game. They gave a whimsical diversion form the usual rat race of gold and gear. If they keep evolving as they have in the past to fit the current game design, I'm sure they'll still interest me. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. One can't know the future while still living in the present.
Of course, all of this is assuming that some time in the next three weeks, the Alliance will be able to take Wintergrasp on my realm so that I can talk to Elder Bluewolf, a pretty big assumption to make. If I loose out on this one last meta because of that, I just may ragequit.
How I got started on this long, strange trip is it's own story, because for the longest time, I refused to participate in the holidays. Though I didn't reach level 80 until early January back in 2009, I could have certainly started working on the holidays as soon as Hallow's End came after the achievements were first implemented, but I didn't. Why? Because I was afraid to fail. I know that's a silly fear to have about what is essentially solo content, but I didn't want to start the holidays if I knew there was a chance I may not be able to finish them. I also didn't want to divert my focus from leveling my main, so those two factors prevented me form working on Hallow's End and Winter Veil. Even after I hit 80, I didn't want to start on the achievements: the Lunar Festive seemed like too much work, and considering how much of Fool For Love was based on luck back in 2009, I didn't want to risk it knowing that I could be screwed out of the meta with just a bit of bad luck.
What finally got me into the holiday spirit, if you will, was Noblegarden. By the time Noblegarden came around, I was an avid reader of WoW.com (then wowinsider.com), and they came out with a post detailing what one needed to do to complete the Noblegarden achievements. I read through it and thought to myself, "Say, that doesn't seem so difficult." A few days later, I received my first meta. It was then that I realized that my fears about the holiday achievements were unfounded, and I did a complete 180° and resolved to earn the Violet Proto-Drake. That was almost a year ago, and I have formed quite a few memories in the process of attaining that goal.
Children's Week came next, and like many of you, I was worried about not being able to complete School of Hard Knocks. I went into the battlegrounds immediately to get that part of the meta over with quickly, and I fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of a collection of small miracles. I started in Arathi Basin, where I was able to capture the Blacksmith flag without too much effort. I then moved on to Eye of the Storm, where the Alliance and Horde took turns taking the flag from the center without trying to stop each other. Though I had to wait a bit, I was able to complete that criterion during my first battle. I then moved into Alterac Valley, where I fell behind the other people there on my way to the tower. I followed them anyways, hoping some kind-hearted hordie would risk life and limb to helps us get the achievement. So there we were, ten of us in one tower, and one person had already taken the flag. We waited a bit, and then we saw him: a Tauren Warrior with his orphan out. He stood in the doorway for a while to gauge our intentions, and when no one attacked him, he walked in and took the tower for the Horde. Then one of us took it for the Alliance. Then he took it back. Then another one of us took it back. It was a beautiful sight (at least to my care bear eyes; I'm sure dedicated PvP'ers are still horrified that the battlegrounds became a place of cooperation between the two factions that week.), and we all /thanked the warrior before /afk'ing out. I then queued for Warsong Gulch, which I knew would likely be the hardest part of School of Hard Knocks. Indeed, that round would have turned into a round of turtling if that band of hordies hadn't run in to take our flag. We let them pass and then nuked the flag bearer down, and wouldn't you know it, it landed right in front of me. I right clicked it, /afk'ed out, and thanked God it was over. I then completed the rest of the achievements without issue.
The Fire Festival meta didn't take me too long, since I had already interacted with all of the fires the year before. All I needed to do was kill Ahune (I had bad luck with groups the year before, but Blizzard's decision to not update him to level 80 made the process easy for me) and do the other two easy achievements. Brewfest was also pretty easy, and though I had to juggle starting college and doing those dailies every day, I managed the meta without much issue, and even got a Great Brewfest Kodo out of the holiday, as well as some direly needed trinkets for my tank set and healing set. The one difficult thing about the holiday was seeing Violet Proto-Drakes popping up around me and trying to not feel discouraged.
Hallow's End gave me more trouble than I thought it would. That tooth pick stubbornly refused to drop until the last few days of the holiday, so That Sparkling Smile stood incomplete in my achievement panel for quite some time. Sinister Calling also gave me quite a bit of trouble, for the Headless Horsemen didn't seem to want to drop the helm or the pet, but by running the boss every day, I got them both. Winter Veil wasn't too difficult, with the exception of With a Little Helper from My Friends. As a druid, if I shifted into any of my forms, I lost the little helper costume, meaning I couldn't really contribute meaningfully to the fight. After unsuccessfully trying to get honorable kills in Strand of the Ancients, I tried playing defense in Isle of Conquest by killing players with the turrets. That got me about ten kills a battle, and once I finally got fifty, I finally said a tearless goodbye to PvP.
As you can guess by the fact that it only took me two days to get Fool For Love, I didn't find those achievements particularly difficult. Fistful of Love was less than pleasant to do, but at least I confirmed that Troll Rogues and Undead Warriors do indeed exist on my server. What was a bit ironic were that the combos I had the most trouble finding (the previous two, as well as a Night Elf Priest and Orc Shaman) were all characters I either currently have or had in the past. My first character was an Undeed Warrior, my second one was a Troll Rogue, I rolled an Orc Shaman at some point in the past, any one of my current alts is a Night Elf Priest.
So it comes down to this. The Lunar Festival is the last event I will need to participate in in order to get my Violet Proto-Drake, and with the long weekend I have this week, I'll be able to take care of a good chunk of it early on. Still, as giddy as I am that I am finally going to complete this trip, this journey, this long-term goal, I can't help but wonder what will happen now. Will I still participate in the holidays? The reason I participated in them for the last year was the Violet Proto-Drake; once I have that, will I even bother anymore? Will the lure of cool vanity items alone be enough to draw me in? Or will I become like those curmudgeons who comment on WoW.com posts about the holidays by saying that if it doesn't offer gear or emblems, then they aren't interested, and are then immediately voted down? I hope not; even before the achievement system, the holidays were some of my favorite parts of the game. They gave a whimsical diversion form the usual rat race of gold and gear. If they keep evolving as they have in the past to fit the current game design, I'm sure they'll still interest me. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. One can't know the future while still living in the present.
Of course, all of this is assuming that some time in the next three weeks, the Alliance will be able to take Wintergrasp on my realm so that I can talk to Elder Bluewolf, a pretty big assumption to make. If I loose out on this one last meta because of that, I just may ragequit.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Thanksgiving and historical pessimism: Is it worth it?
I will warn you right now that this post has nothing to do with WoW. I don't intent to put up many posts like this, but this issue has arisen recently as it does every year. When wow.com put up a post talking about Pilgrim's Bounty (I don't remember which one it is), the comments section was ablaze with people eager to bring up the darker side of the history of Thanksgiving, about how the Pilgrims massacred the Native Americans and stole their land in exchange for cheap trinkets due to a misunderstanding between the two groups about the concept of land ownership. I'm sure you've heard it all before from your pessimistic friends and your high school history teachers who like to pretend that they are the only ones willing to tell you the darker side of history, so I won't go into it in detail. The question I pose to you today: are those people who insist on looking at the darker side of Thanksgiving right or wrong?
Let's forget that for a moment and think about the purpose of this holiday. Some people will tell you that the purpose of Thanksgiving is to remember when the Pilgrims and the Native Americans came together in partnership and cooperation, but really, the true purpose of Thanksgiving is to remember the things we are thankful for. That, as well as to stuff ourselves with food and visit with friends and relatives. All of these activities contribute towards one goal; enjoyment. In the end, that is the true purpose of any holiday: enjoying ourselves, giving ourselves a break from the doldrums of day-to-day life.
In this respect, historical Thanksgiving pessimism (HTP, from now on) is quite misguided in that it distracts us from the true purpose of the holiday; enjoying ourselves. After all, the past is the past; no amount of white guilt or moping about history will change what was done to the Native Americans or the fact that those atrocities were necessary for us to get where we are today as a country. From a purely practical standpoint, HTP doesn't benefit anyone.
That said, there's a danger in forgetting about our history. As anyone who studies history will tell you, the one thing that we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history (paraphrased from Hegel). In other words, throughout history, man has repeated the same mistakes he has made before, and much of history is us just repeating mistakes we have made in the past and suffering the consequences from it. With that in mind, HTP does serve the function of forcing us to keep in mind our past mistakes such that we may not repeat them. Even if its purpose is negative, its intent is not.
So, what's the verdict? Even though HTP does prevent us from enjoying the holidays as much as we could, it stems from the necessity of remembering the mistakes of our past so that we do not repeat them in the future. So, the next time someone brings up HTP in conversation, you are completely justified in calling them a pessimist and a party-pooper, but their intentions are still good, even if they don't realize it.
Let's forget that for a moment and think about the purpose of this holiday. Some people will tell you that the purpose of Thanksgiving is to remember when the Pilgrims and the Native Americans came together in partnership and cooperation, but really, the true purpose of Thanksgiving is to remember the things we are thankful for. That, as well as to stuff ourselves with food and visit with friends and relatives. All of these activities contribute towards one goal; enjoyment. In the end, that is the true purpose of any holiday: enjoying ourselves, giving ourselves a break from the doldrums of day-to-day life.
In this respect, historical Thanksgiving pessimism (HTP, from now on) is quite misguided in that it distracts us from the true purpose of the holiday; enjoying ourselves. After all, the past is the past; no amount of white guilt or moping about history will change what was done to the Native Americans or the fact that those atrocities were necessary for us to get where we are today as a country. From a purely practical standpoint, HTP doesn't benefit anyone.
That said, there's a danger in forgetting about our history. As anyone who studies history will tell you, the one thing that we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history (paraphrased from Hegel). In other words, throughout history, man has repeated the same mistakes he has made before, and much of history is us just repeating mistakes we have made in the past and suffering the consequences from it. With that in mind, HTP does serve the function of forcing us to keep in mind our past mistakes such that we may not repeat them. Even if its purpose is negative, its intent is not.
So, what's the verdict? Even though HTP does prevent us from enjoying the holidays as much as we could, it stems from the necessity of remembering the mistakes of our past so that we do not repeat them in the future. So, the next time someone brings up HTP in conversation, you are completely justified in calling them a pessimist and a party-pooper, but their intentions are still good, even if they don't realize it.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Some miscellaneous advice for Pilgrim's Bounty
Pilgrim's Bounty is in full swing now, and since I'm probably not the only one still going for my Plump Turkey, I thought I'd share some advice I've come up with during the event.
-Finish the questline that involves you turning in five of each food to various people outside of the capital cities. It ends with you getting a turkey caller, which you can use every two minutes to summon a turkey which you can kill for a wild turkey. Do this every two minutes while you are out doing other things and you won't need to compete with the people going for The Turkinator when you farm turkeys for Can't Get Enough Turkey, making everyone happier.
-I don't know about your server, but on mine, there are fewer people going for The Turkenator in Trisfall Glades than there are in Elwynn Forest, so try doing a route going around the lake there.
-If you are level 80, you can probably solo Talon King Ikiss for Terokkar Turkey Time as long as you run behind the pillars when he used Arcane Explosion (if you can heal yourself, even this step may not be necessary).
-When searching for rogues for Turkey Lurkey, try going into Dalaran and moving your mouse quickly back and forth over a crowd of people, scanning them. Look at the tool-tip that comes up and you should be able to find your rogues. If all else fails, try going to the starting areas of whatever race you are missing, since there is no level requirement for the achievement.
-Finish the questline that involves you turning in five of each food to various people outside of the capital cities. It ends with you getting a turkey caller, which you can use every two minutes to summon a turkey which you can kill for a wild turkey. Do this every two minutes while you are out doing other things and you won't need to compete with the people going for The Turkinator when you farm turkeys for Can't Get Enough Turkey, making everyone happier.
-I don't know about your server, but on mine, there are fewer people going for The Turkenator in Trisfall Glades than there are in Elwynn Forest, so try doing a route going around the lake there.
-If you are level 80, you can probably solo Talon King Ikiss for Terokkar Turkey Time as long as you run behind the pillars when he used Arcane Explosion (if you can heal yourself, even this step may not be necessary).
-When searching for rogues for Turkey Lurkey, try going into Dalaran and moving your mouse quickly back and forth over a crowd of people, scanning them. Look at the tool-tip that comes up and you should be able to find your rogues. If all else fails, try going to the starting areas of whatever race you are missing, since there is no level requirement for the achievement.
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