Online with EVE

Well, I signed up with steam for my 21 day free trial of EVE. And then un-installed steam and used the seperately downloaded client.

It was a 1.1GB download but luckily I live in a city, the same one where my ISP has it's head office, so I generally get decent speeds. Last night, my 8Mb connection was actually running at 9Mb for some reason, so it took me about 26 minutes to get the full game. Not bad at all.
So I used the time to finish off another few levels of Army of Two.

Anyway, I installed the game, tweaked a few things, and logged in. After being guided through the setup process, I was dropped into the middle of the universe in a ship. And a little system-shock style computer guided me through a few of the basics.

Before long, I'd destroyed 3 other ships and mined a little ore. And then My other half came home so that was the end of the nights exploring. In total, I think I moved about 30km from my starting position. I guess it's "One small step for man" in this case.

My first impressions are good. It's a nice looking game, but only after much tweaking of graphics settings. At first I had giant black blobs on my screen where something was wrong with the clipping and shadow effects. But managed to get it sorted with only a couple of attempts.

The UI is a bit daunting at first, but I was expecting that anyway. At one point I lost one of my info screens, and never figured out how to get it back up. (The one that shows me what's nearby).
This was probably the most useful screen, so I was a bit lost without it.

The other good news is that at least 2 of the other Munquis also play EVE, and that would obviously make the whole experience much better. And from what I've read, it's much easier to function as a group, and easier to make profits etc...

I haven't made a decision on the game, after my only minimal amount of play, but things are positive so far. Who knows, if things pan-out maybe there'll be a Munqui Corporation?

Don't worry though WoW fans, I'm not planning on hanging up my hunters bow at any time soon. But it's nice to have a change of scenery now and then. And you couldn't ask for a bigger change than WoW -> EVE.

Watch this space... or that space... or any space for that matter, you just might see a player named Smythy flying through it.

EDIT: BTW Brast, I don't know if it's only happening to me, but every time I try to log onto the Munqui forums my Browser crashes. Never done it before. Any ideas?

EVE-HO!

I've been reading up on alot of the other MMORPG's lately, and the one that's grabbed my attention most is EVE Online.
Yes, it's been in the news alot recently, about political assasination, plots to overthrow major corporations, dirty dealings and scandal. But it's apparently all hapenning in EVE too. ;)

Now I don't believe that I'd be dropped right into that whole mess of things from the word go. It obviously takes months, if not years, of practice to become that involved.
But it did open my eyes to the concept of the game. And that appeals to me.

It seems to mirror life in alot of ways, and I could happily see myself as a rogue mercenary cruising through the universe taking out anyone for the right amount of money.
Or as a 'transporter' who moves 'goods' around without asking too many questions.

I know there's a free trial of the game available, and I'm considering downloading it and giving it a go.

I may report back from the far reaches of space in my next post. (or Not)

Long Time No-See

Well hello there, long time no-see.

It's been a while since I updated my blog. I usually write at work, and I've just been too busy recently.
But since I've got a bit of down-time, here's whats been happening lately;

First off, I got my Drake. It's the red one from Wyrmrest, that costs 1600g.
I had to borrow a little gold to be able while I waited for my AH stuff to sell, so 'Thanks' to Funk for that one.
By the way - I hope you got the cash I mailed you back? Haven't seen you online since.

Secondly, I ran a few old dungeons with some other Munquis. they were both in the Caverns of Time. Black Morass (Opening of the dark portal) and Escape from Durnholde Keep. Both are excellent examples of why some of the old content is much better than the newer stuff.
Sure they are both TBC heroics, but they, and some of the pre-TBC stuff are much better designed and much more fun than the average instance these days.

With some of the old dungeons you felt that you had a quest to accomplish, even if it was destroying the world, or rescuing the leader of the horde, or reaching a pirate ship in the middle of a cave. And the sense of achievement when you complete them is much higher than say Utgarde Keep.
In Utgarde you're basically just grinding through mobs to reach the bosses, with no emotion or feeling, and no real sense of what you're doing it for (other than a drop or an emblem).
Being sent into the Deadmines to put a stop to the threat of the pirates, or into the Stockades to put down an uprising... these things felt more epic than "Ingvar works for Arthas. Go and kill him".
In a way, I think attunements should be brought back in. Yeah it's aggravating if you want someone on your team who isn't attuned, but so what, at least you feel more a part of the storyline. And you've actually earned your place on that raid team.

I'll stop waffling on now... Maybe

Thirdly, I've been grinding money, mainly for my new Drake, and mainly in Sholazar.
Just doing circles of one small corner of that place provides me with enough skins and herbs to keep me going. And I can make hundred's of gold in around an hour. It's also a good area to level my pets up. So my Gorrilla (tank) is now almost 80 too.
It was amazing watching how much better he gets just for the sake of a couple of levels.
When he was the same level as the mobs, he was being hit hard, and I pulled aggro constantly. Now he's only 2 levels higher, he's almost unstoppable and it's much more difficult for me to get hit. Which is perfect for grinding.
With his AoE thunderstomp, it's like having a Pally in my pocket. Send him in, get him to round up all of the mobs in the area, throw him a heal or two, and Volley the shit out of anything near him. When there's 10+ mobs in his range, it takes me at least twice as long to skin them than it does to kill them.
It's a shame that Hunters can't cast 'Thorns', it'd make for a proper mini-pally.

I can't wait until Blizz allows me to switch pets without going to a stable, it'll be so much more useful to have a spare tank in my pocket for the times when something more tactical than a tank-and-spank is called for. Or to switch between my Cat and a Corehound for caster encounters, or maybe a Scorpid for when range is essential.

Arms Race

The Munquis ran their 2nd night of official Naxx raiding last night.
It didn't go well. Hours were spent wiping and rezzing took forever, because some of the players had mis-spent their youth, and not played computer games. (You know who you are).

My DPS was top of the charts... Great. It just concerns me a little that I was waaaaaaay out in front last night.
By the end of the run I'd dealt around 1,200,000 damage more than the next nearest person to me (Grenthal - DPS Warrior). And half a million more to the next person below that.
Yes, some of the other DPS'ers were busy with other tactics, but that's just not right. And we only killed 3 bosses.

I'd bought a new scope for my bow before going. Changing +15 Dmg to +40 Crit, I like that change, and I'll stick with it. And I had an Endless Rage potion, which brought me up to 5102 AP (Buffed).

Alot of the bosses in Naxx seem to be more suited to ranged DPS than Melee. That's a bit unbalanaced too.

In case Blizz asks though. I never said that.

*Ducks the Nerf-Bat*

Definitely Maybe

My hunter managed to pick up his new staff from VH the other day. It was incidental, not planned.
I was just grinding emblems for my Pallies XP boosting shoulders. Got them now.

However, there was an ulterior motive. I actually arranged the group to do a CoT: Stratholme run, for another chance to roll on the drake.
Unfortunately, we were nowhere near quick enough. We actually wiped a couple of times. I'd never done that before in Strat.

So the emblems were helpful but no Drake-roll.
However, for the last few weeks, I've been wearing my Wyrmrest tabard. And didn't realise how close I was to Exalted. I dinged during the VH run.

But now I'm in a quandry. Do I just keep running CoT: Strat for the timed Drake. Which depends heavily on the team I'm with, and how many are rolling on it. Or do I spend 1.6k Gold on the Wyrmrest drake. (I'm about 500g short, so will need to save up anyway).????

Decisions, Decisions. Not sure what to do about this one.

Prot-Power

I made my mind up over the weekend. My Pally will be my next lvl 80.
My Hunter is in lockdown now until Naxx. His only job may be to collect another 14 emblems for some heirloom shoulders for my Pally.

Re-Specced my Healadin to a Tankadin. Did some research, figured out the mechanics. I've been a pally tank plenty of times before, but it seems to have changed quite alot since I last did it.

Spent about 30g on the AH, to replace my Kara epic healing gear with stuff that gives Stam & Strength, and I was off into Northrend.

The result? Suprise.

Yeah, I'm not a noob at the game, and I'm no stranger to Pally mechanics, and my Macro skills help alot. But you can't tell me that I'm supposed to be able to ride into the middle of Skorm with mainly healing gear equipped (even if it was epic). Aggro 12 or more mobs and finish the fight with full mana and almost full health?!?!

I'm not complaining, much. It's going to mean my Pally is much quicker to level than even my Hunter was. And when he gets his heirloom shoulders the +10% xp will boost it even further.

Rested xp meant about 2k per kill. Even keeping to 10 mobs at a time, they'll all die easily within about 30 seconds... that's 20k per group, and 40k per minute.
And those mobs respawn fast.
Even allowing time for repairs (because it's a lot of wear and tear on my armor) that means I could do nothing but grind those mobs for just over an hour, collecting loads of trash, cash and loot, and have gained a level by the end of it.

Did someone say "Nerf"?

House Call

I've been reading Tobolds Blog, as I always do.
And one of the comments on "How to spend Gold in Warcraft" has intrigued me.

It suggests a new profession, linked directly to Player Housing.

I think we would all love Player (or at least Guild) Housing to become a reality, and if it ever does, what will you do with that nice new hovel you probably just paid 100,000 Gold for?

Furnish it, of course.

So what about a new LumberJack / Carpentry profession combo? I think that is a great idea (Credit to the original poster).

And to ensure that the profession doesn't dry-up as soon as everyone has already bought their furniture (like Inscription sort of has). How about a durability rating for the furniture?

Over time / use the furniture degrades and needs to be repaired otherwise it will be un-useable.
So the furniture requires maintenance, and materials, which obviously have to be paid for.
This keeps the Carpenters in business, and provides another gold-sink for Blizz.

And what about the combo of StoneMason / Builder, to build the housing in the first place, with a durability rating on the houses themselves?

Or Mortgage Lender / LoanShark to get you the sort of money you're going to need to pay for all this stuff.
I suppose Blizz could do this via an NPC though, and if you don't make your payments on time, they'll make you Bankrupt and re-possess everything you own. Or maybe that's just too much like real life these days.

Seriously though, there's also a few other profession combos that I could see working within the game:

Inker / Tattooist - Collect Inks, maybe from Herbs, or dust looted from mobs. And then Use them to create Tattoos, which augment the body. Stats boosts etc...

Inker / Dyer - As above, but creates Dyes that allow you to re-color your gear, or even Paint your house with them. I'm guessing that a bottle of Black dye would be very expensive.

PackHorse / Mercenarys - If this gets introduced, I think it should be a profession. The crafter uses weapons and armour to kit out a 'New Recruit' NPC. The better the gear, the better the NPC's stats. This could find a use for all those trash blues and greens that drop from heroics / raids. The Mercenaries can then be 'hired' on the AH. As the crafter, you get the bonus of being able to equip your own Mercs with more gear once they are complete, and they don't have a time limit. (Similar to the Diablo II system).
The NPC's obviously couldn't have too much HP / DPS or it would over-balance things. And, for the non-crafters, a time limit of a week. Then you'd have to 'Hire' another one.

Bear with It

I recently decided to roll a new toon. A Druid.
I've always fancied the class, but never gotten round to actually making one.
The theory of being all the classes rolled into one seems appealing, mainly because it gives flexibility to the guild.
Spec'ing Feral would allow me to focus on DPS, but also provide Tanking for guild runs if needed, by using the same talents, but maybe a change of gear.
And when Dual-Spec finally arrives, I'd be a potential DPS / TANK with the bonus Healer option thrown in.

Druids are the only class that can do this. Pallies are excellent. And I still love them, although I resent the fact that I rolled a dwarf. I don't know why, but that seriously irritates me, and puts me off playing it.
But even With Dual-Spec a Pally can only do 2/3 things, because the talent trees are totally seperate. Ret = DPS, Prot = TANK, Holy = Healer.

Only problem is, it means levelling an entirely new toon from 1-80 and I don't know if I have the patience for it.
My Hunter can't really get any more upgrades from the Emblems of Heroism, but has quite a few spare, and will be getting plenty more from Naxx soon.
With just another 19 of them, I can buy a set of the Heirloom shoulders to give +10% XP, then maybe I'll send them to my Pally, and try and power level him to 80.
Only problem there is, If I buy the Plate ones, they'll only be useable by Pallies and Warriors.
I suppose 40 emblems isn't really too hard to get though, if I wanted another set.

Concerning my Druid... I love the theory, but will it pan-out in practice. I don't know.

Knowing me, I'll proabably get the shoulders, and maybe a weapon, and send them down to my Pally to boost him through to 80.
I can live with ONLY being a Tank and a Healer. If DPS is required, that's what my Hunter is the expert at.

Raidical

We did a guild run of Sartharion last night. All went well, I was 2nd in the DPS meter, but it was a very close thing between Grenthal and Myself, with the number one spot changing places a few times.

We did great, took Sartharion with no drakes up, and only 1 death from a semi-squishy melee. Pretty good for a first attempt... a little too good in fact.

My main concern is how easy it all was. It felt no more difficult than a standard heroic. And out chances of failure were very slim.
Having now run the Arachnid Quarter of Naxx, and the Obsidian Sanctum on 10 men, I can safely say that 10-man raiding isn't what it used to be.

These days it seems to be more of a case of a standard heroic, but with 10 men, instead of 5.

Kara used to be a challenge, with a steep learning curve, whether you knew the boss tactics or not, you had to stay on your toes.
With the raids I've done so far, that's not the case.
Sure, there's a bit of positional tactics going on, and a few techniques. But I haven't seen a wipe yet. Only the occasional squishy going down to a random hit.

The Munquis are investing alot of time into preparing for raiding, and to be honest, I'm not so sure if it's going to be needed. The same team that made the run last night would appear to be able to clear Naxx quite easily, or at least with very minimal wipes.
I think we may be over-thinking the whole Naxx thing.

Should it really be this easy? Or maybe we're all just better than we think?

PUG'ing Hell

The other guildies were all busy yesterday, when I logged on.
So I played with my spec for a bit. And re-tuned my glyphs and macros to match.

Looks like I'm on to a winner with my new build design. (See previosu post).
But any nerfs or changes to the global cooldowns could throw the whole thing out of whack.

Anyway, for a bit of field testing I decided to try a PUG.
Yes, you read that right, a Pick Up Group. Anyone who knows me, has a fair idea that I have a very low opinion of PUG's.
Generally I consider it a better idea to do guild runs, and PUG empty spaces if needed. That way, there's usually only 1 slacker to deal with, and sometimes you can be pleasantly suprised with how good they are. A few of the Munquis themselves were picked up in that way.

So Violet Hold is the daily... great... nice and quick, and a possible chance for my staff too.

Luckily enough, I tend to get picked up quite quickly in the PUGs if I post my Attack Power in the Comments... Funny that.

A Pally, a Warrior, a DK, and a Mage. Excellent, no Druid competition for my staff either.
But that's where the good news ended. The Tank was slow in picking up adds, so they were running around all over the place. Meaning I had to use my pet to off-tank when they charged the healer / mage.
And the Mage had a tendancy to let loose before the tank had even started to tickle them, which made the bad tanking even worse.
The DK was also quite low on the DPS meter, so although he/she wasn't doing anything wrong, we were struggling to clear the mobs before the next portal appeared.

Somehow, we managed to reach the final boss but only with 4 men. The DK had died almost 4 portals ago, but there had been no time to rez him, and he obviously felt it was too much like hard work to just run back in.
So the healer got ALOT of greif and was ordered to rez him when Cyagnosia had already spawned. Dumb Shits.

The healer did as ordered, and the group wiped within about 10 seconds. Amazing!

That not being bad enough, the other 3 imediately started to flame the healer as a "Nuub", and not politely.
I gave them some stick back, and told them to STFU, if they thought they would have got as far without him they were wrong. His healing was more than good enough, considering the lack of control on the adds.

Unsuprisingly, the healer quit the group. At which point, I quit too... Badges or no badges, Staff or No Staff, I'd rather live without them, than spend any more time with dicks like that.

I whispered the Healer to try and re-assure him that his healing had been fine, but got no response.
In fact, the healer hadn't said a single word throughout the entire run, other than a "rdy" at the very start.

It's for all the reasons above that I seriously despise PUG's. That healer was a Pally, and good at his job. But with dick-heads like that greifing healers everytime things go wrong it's no suprise that most people don't like to play healers. And the next time I see that Pally, he'll probably be waving a shield and spamming consecration.

PUG-Off