Alright, let’s go ahead and get the quick hits out of the way. There’s a lot to update the team on (all five of you readers, that is). As I’m writing this, I’m currently auto-running my way from Ashenvale, into Stonetalon, into Desolace. But first, some Venomous Abyss updates since it’s been some time.
- In Death Jesters, we’ve reached Ulatek finally. Phase 1 was the biggest learning sink with four different movement combinations that the team had to get used to based on the spawn of Ulatek and his tail. We did end up seeing phase 3 a few times so that kill should be imminent this week.
- Over in Last Call, we’ve progressed into Coiled Altar. The big nerf that happened last week has been huge, which freed up a whole set of interrupters for us. We were able to get through phase 1 and all of phase 2. Now we’re getting into phase 3 and are at the point where we’ve taken Heroism off of phase 1. Our plan is to save it for that intermission push. Recruiting has been abysmal for us, as free agents have dried up. Every week, 1 or 2 players couldn’t make it to raid. The team’s been fortunate enough that we can pull from DJs or our friends to help us out. Come check us out and apply if you’re looking for a long-term raid to join. It’s definitely been a rough month and has been part of the reason why I’ve been quiet.
The other reason I’ve been quiet is all these other games that’ve come out recently. FF Resonance has been fantastic. It’s a great 40-hour side quest for me to get through, and I hope Square gets more of those types of games made.
How about that World of Warcraft: Forever?
Going into it, I wanted to make a Priest again. At the last second, I pivoted and decided to go with a Mage instead because I wanted some sustainability during the leveling process.
With a name like Mana Kendrick, how could I not? So far, my experience in Forever has been this mixture of fun and frustration. Yes sir, we’re all the way back like it’s 2004 again! The launch was excellent and was one of the smoothest in history. A few doomers were on the DJ Discord, but I kept my uncharacteristic optimism, banking on the fact that, surely, this time Blizzard Engineers learned a lot from their beta experience. Death Jesters has an Alliance presence on the Normal ruleset, and Zeroes to Heroes has been established Horde-side (also on the Normal rule set).
At the moment, I’m level 37 and slowly grinding my way up. The layering out in the world zones have been on and off, in my experience. The first few days, some areas were devoid of people which was glorious for the leveling. Mobs were plentiful. But I guess there were some complaints about the emptiness of certain areas, so that ended up getting tweaked. Now I end up in areas like Stranglethorn Vale trying to take down Crystal Basilisks or those Medicine Men and soldiers by the Colonel Kurzen camps where there are barely any spawns and is saturated by players also trying to get kill credits or quest items. Surely there can be some kind of middle ground area that works here. Whenever I’ve made those remarks, I’ll get dogpiled by the internet going, “What’s the rush” or “Slow down” or “Go back to retail” and so on and so on (and that attitude is a whole other topic of discussion). I’m comfortable with the slow pacing of combat and the lack of shared tagging. But it’s not fun when I try to go after mobs and then get beat to it by someone else (or there are next to no spawns of what I’m looking for). I can’t help it if I just like levelling. Some people prefer to stop, look around, enjoy the sunshine and flowers. It all visually looks stunning, especially the water, but I can appreciate it quickly then move on. If people want to take their time dawling and leveling, I’m all for it. Personally, I want to get to a spot where I can check out the new zones since I’ve levelled through these areas before in the past. So pardon me if I don’t want to read the same book again.
I also saw that they recently buffed dungeon experience, which is nice. As it stands, most dungeon experience seems to be limited to quest rewards. For most players, they’d just go through it once, then move on back to the world. This meant there was little reason to go back unless you were chasing specific item drops. It provides a nice alternative way to level up if the zones you were planning to quest in are overpopulated. I’m pretty sure the experience gain is still less than what it was during vanilla, however.
Quick hits on the new dungeons:
- Hall of Thanes: Great intro dungeon and rivals Ragefire Chasm quite nicely. Was chuckling at the players asking for summons when it’s right inside Ironforge.
- Excavation Site: Wetlands: Felt a bit overtuned when I went in there at 28. Beware the tall grass. The raptors there aren’t stealthed. They’ll spawn after a while of players mving around the tall grass.
- City of Dalaran: It’s weird seeing Dalaran grounded and not floating around. It was fun exploring both the city and the dungeon. It does get faster with repeats. It’s one of the few places with blueprints for the Enchanting and Tailoring camping items, so I’ll need to run this a few more times to get it.
All in all, I’m having a decent time with it and Forever has served as a nice distraction from the retail game. I’m hoping I can get to 60 before Grand Theft Auto 6 comes out. We’ll see if I can get that accomplished!