Matticus

I’m still alive!

My first question after early access weekend was: What year is it?

As usual, I was the first raider on the team to hit max level once early access opened up. It took me 7 hours on the dot, and I cleaned out all of the primary Campaign quests. Levelling as the shadow was great despite everything quick before my dot spells could even kick in. I felt partially useless even running dungeons at level 80 because everything died fast.

After the Priest, I levelled another 5 more characters to 80. There wasn’t much else to do during that period since heroic dungeons weren’t open then. That stacking experience from having alts is great for this.

Real quick impressions (Alts)

• Frost Mage: Frostfire feels fun and visually satisfying but seems to be lacking in firepower. Spellslinger feels a bit clunky. It almost feels like it’s conflicting against itself, and I can’t seem to articulate why.
• Retribution Paladin: Templar is great. Packs a big punch and is also fun. I feel like a justice-dispensing freight train.
• Ele Shaman: Far Seer is the choice for levelling. Shifted to Stormbringer for dungeons, it is a fiesta of Chain Lightning and Earthquakes.
• Dev Evoker: Challenging. Wasn’t the most responsive or fun. I flew off the ledge with a Deep Breath, trying to steer. Can’t seem to corner worth a damn.
• Fur Warrior: Surprisingly enjoyable. Needs a better bind setup on my side. Hurts my fingers after prolonged play.

After I levelled my arsenal of alts, I still had another day of early access and cleaned the map of all side quests. Finished my loremaster achievements (Sojourner).

All in all, it was a great levelling experience. I was pleasantly surprised that there were no server issues during the leveling and questing process. Stormrage did happen to go down for a bit during general release (and somehow, I dodged that by being in a dungeon or something). Unfortunately, the auction house was under immense load and strain during the first week so that made it harder to get professions going or to make gold. Thankfully, it looks like much of that has been resolved and the throttling that was put in place has been lifted.

But aside from that, maybe… just maybe, Blizzard’s starting to get their fastball back.

The Warband feature has been stellar. Alts can farm on quests that offer gear and I can still get the Renown rep from them.

I’ll devote a separate post to the Profession Patron system since it warrants its own discussion.

On the guild side of things, we’ve had a few departures and we thank all the players who have contributed to our squad’s success over the course of Dragonflight. Our roster currently stands at 25 players, and here are our current needs:

• Elemental Shaman
• Shadow Priest
• Warrior DPS
• Havoc Demon Hunter
• Aug Evoker

As always, Mythic and CE experience is greatly valued. If you’re interested, you can learn more about us and apply from our Raider IO page (Look for the recruiting form link).

I don’t know where it went, but my excitement for The War Within has been virtually non-existent.

We’re hours away from the new expansion (early access). I’ve got my shopping all done for levelling (heavy protein build), my routes figured out, and I even hit the gym and did some yoga this morning to start the day.

For reasons I can’t seem to explain, though, I am just not feeling that excited or hyped for it. I’m not sure if that’s a product of having played such a long time or if there aren’t many aspects of the game I’m looking forward to besides the raids. For me, hype levels were often influenced by two factors: Story or Stuff (like systems).

In Wrath, it was Arthas.
In Cataclysm, it was Deathwing.
In Warlords, it was Garrisons (that might’ve been a miss).
In Legion, it was Artifacts and Order Halls.
In Battle for Azeroth, it was Kul’Tiras.
In Shadowlands, it was legendaries and Torghast (Yeah…)

The hype meter was most off the charts heading into Legion. The artifact weapons and the order halls were aspects I anticipated greatly. Battle for Azeroth had all these borrowed power systems (which wasn’t as fun), but we finally got to visit Kul’Tiras, which had been missing forever. As a Warcraft 2 gamer, Kul’Tiras was always a place in the back of my mind that I’d always wanted to visit if I ever got the opportunity to do it. I didn’t feel much hypeness heading into Dragonflight largely because I thought their story concluded nicely at the end of Cataclysm. I feel a similar notion heading into The War Within. Maybe the agency isn’t quite there yet and it might take time for all of it to build up and crescendo into a payoff.

Come to think of it, we’ve visited and pulled upon every story and character beat since Warcraft 2 and Warcraft 3. That might be where my malaise is coming from because we’re entering a new phase in the Warcraft-verse where the lore is now all new since there aren’t many ties remaining to the Warcraft 3 era any longer.

I guess I don’t feel as invested in the story right now. Clearly the solution is to get a Warcraft 4 RTS going now.

In any case, with Xal’atath taking over as the Big Bad Evil Blade for the next arc.

I’m intrigued! As a Priest, she’s always held a special place in my (dark) heart. We’ve had many good conversations over the years. She was always my Jarvis when I was questing and killing bosses.

But hey, the day is finally here, and we’re hours away from early access. My plan is to level my primary Priest first, then Shaman, Paladin, Mage, and Evoker. After that, maybe the rest of my Priests (for cloth cooldowns). Two weeks to get the arsenal of alts up to a readiness level will be plenty of time.

Enjoy the journey!

I missed out on the last few rounds of voting unfortunately, but it was a fun branding exercise. After all the meme names and inside jokes, the team settled on Eclipse as being the new raid going forward. I’m a fan of it. It’s a two-syllable word, and it rolls off the tongue quite well. Besides, some of the world’s top guilds have two-syllable names so they’re in quite good company (like Liquid, Echo, Method, Skyline)!

Apparently, the votes were pretty close. The final round was between Last Pull and Eclipse as the new name going forward.

Naming a guild is actually one of the harder things to do. You don’t want it to be serious, but just the right amount of serious so that your players can be proud of wearing that guild tag. If it’s too much meme (or cringe, as the kids say), you might not be able to attract quality talent and personality. That’s why congratulations to this group of gamers because Eclipse is a great name (and it inspires a pretty simple, straightforward logo design to boot).

As some of you may be aware, I am currently a part of a large Warcraft community called DJ’s and Zeroes to Heroes. We have multiple raid teams at varying degrees of progression. The raid team formerly known as Team Salt is undergoing a rebrand. The team had the opportunity to make suggestions and then – get this – it will be voted upon in a single elimination, best-of-1 bracket. This may well be the most important democratic race this year!

Round 1 has finished, and now let’s see who has survived and advanced to the second round! We’ll start with the top half of the bracket.

Team Benched squares off against round 1 challenger, Team Last Pull. This one’s going to be a tight race, as both names are pretty indicative of the squad in general. I’m a big fan of Team Last Pull in this situation. It really is only fitting that Last Pull would win out by a vote or something. I hope they take that one and move into the Semi’s!

Prediction: Team Last Pull

Team Dumpster Fire would be waiting in the wings for it’s next challenger, and it’s Team Pepper. This one’s not going to be a significant contest. Team Dumpster Fire will easily overtake Team Pepper here just by virtue of what it symbolically represents: An actual dumpster fire. Has this team been a dumpster fire at times? Oh definitely it has felt that way at some points. Will it shake off that reputation? Probably not.

Prediction: Team Dumpster Fire

Now let’s check out the bottom half of the bracket.

Now we have the safe pick of Eclipse against Guild Level Zeroes. Will Eclipse take it? I hope so. It just sounds cooler in comparison. I’m giving Guild Level Zeroes a zero chance of advancing forward.

Prediction: Eclipse

Our final matchup involves… Mankrik’s Wives? Hmm, they might have a chance against Ouroboros. This one could go either way as well. How many wives does Mankrik even have? Will there be enough to overcome and overwhelm Ouroboros?

Prediction: Ouroboros

Only two more rounds left!

Fellas, we have an exciting day today. As some of you may be aware, I am currently a part of a large Warcraft community called DJ’s and Zeroes to Heroes. We have multiple raid teams at varying degrees of progression. The raid team formerly known as Team Salt is undergoing a rebrand. The team had the opportunity to make suggestions and then – get this – it will be voted upon in a single elimination, best-of-1 bracket. This may well be the most important democratic race this year!

Let’s take a look at the selections, shall we?

As we check out the top half of the bracket, we see Team Westfall against Team Last Pull. Below them, Team Pepper squares off against Team Phoenixer. You’ll also notice that there are two names with a bye between Team Benched and Team Dumpster Fire.

My analysis? Westfall is the name for one of the earliest zones in the game where you’re levelling, and it’s full of Defias and this giant tornado. I don’t see Team Westfall making it out of round 1. Team Last Pull is pretty apt, and the raid team formerly known as Salt has had its share of securing its first kills on the last pull of the night. I think it embodies them quite well, but whoever wins this one is going to have to take on a rested Team Benched.

Predictions: Team Last Pull moves on to round 2.

Below them, we have Team Pepper versus Team Phoenixer. For context, we have a raid team in the community that’s called Team Phoenix. I’m not sure who decided to be lazy and suggest Team Phoenixer but it doesn’t appear they were trying hard! Then again, Team Pepper didn’t really have much of a creative spin to it either especially with the previous name of Team Salt! Salt goes together with Pepper, so it stands to reason to change up the name with a close pairing, right? It’s a good thing the winner of this set is going to move on and face Team Dumpster Fire, because that’s my opinion of both of these submitted names!

Predictions: A jump ball here with the edge to Team Pepper.

Let’s scroll on down to the lower half of the bracket!

We have some even more questionable matchups!

Let’s start off with Daddy’s Whelplings against Guild Level Zeroes. I’m not sure what Daddy’s Whelplings are meant to be, but when I see Whelplings, I think of tiny, immature, upstart drakes that are trying their hardest to fly but can’t quite get the velocity for their tiny little wings. Guild Level Zeroes is a mouthful on its own, and it sounds a little cooler. Team Zero might’ve been a more solid suggestion. The winner of this matchup has to tackle Eclipse in the next round.

Predictions: This is a tough one. I think the meme voters will come out in force and give Daddy’s Whelplings the go-ahead vote.

To finish off the first round of voting, we have Ouroboros against Team Salt and Pepper. An Ouroboros is the embodiment of a snake eating its own tail. It represents an endless cycle of death and rebirth, or something. On the other side, you have the ever so creative Team Salt and Pepper! Maybe it represents half of the squad who are showing signs of their age! This one’s a bit tough to predict, but I’m a fan of the Ouroboros. Hopefully it isn’t representative or symbolic of the team wiping and respawning repeatedly.

Predictions: Giving the the W to Ouroboros.

We’ll find out soon what the results will be!