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Thursday, April 28, 2016

Resisting The Sirens' Song

I've been debating what to do when I finally reach the limit on the LOTRO story and I have to start grinding Turbine Points to pick up another region. In this case, the next region is a biggie, points-wise: The Mines of Moria. I'm very sure I won't be able to grind enough points to purchase the expac before the 9th Anniversary special disappears, so I've come to the conundrum whether to break down and actually purchase some Turbine Points to get this taken care of.

In the meantime, I've been considering that maybe the SWTOR story has advanced far enough that I can jump back into it and not have the urge to stay up all night finishing the story.

And then, on the heels of the Nostralius server shutdown, came this in my e-mail folder:

Just like last time, the timing makes you wonder whether
someone from Blizz is actually reading this blog. Nah....

The thing is, I've done this already. I logged back in for a week and puttered around, but low level BGs were about impossible to get into, and Trade Chat was as bad as ever.* I wasn't about to break my traditional WoW expac methodology and use the instant-L90 boost when I prefer to start at L1 and level all the way up, and seven days is not exactly enough time to level all the way to L90 anyway.

If Warlords of Draenor is as awesome as the e-mail claims, I can wait. By the time my toons got from L1 all the way up to the current expac**, everybody had cleared out of the leveling zones. None of the insane competition for resources worked out well for exploring each new world.

The places that I pause the most and come back to whenever I level are the BC zones. I don't know why, exactly, but the BC zones just fascinate me. Northrend had the occasional hit and miss zone --Boring Tundra, anyone?-- but even Outland's stinker zone Blade's Edge Mountains had plenty of interesting quests and scenery to get lost in. It's a shame that Outland is basically on life support while the devs focus on the new shiny.

Thanks for the offer, Blizz, but I think I'll pass. Now, if you get around to creating a legacy server, I'd be very interested, but I already know the answer to that one.





*I hear people --the mini-Reds among them-- complain about some of the "sellers" on World Chat on LOTRO's Gladden-US server, and I laugh. If they want to see what a really bad MMO chat is like, they need to watch Trade Chat some day.

**If you count Wrath of the Lich King, I've done it four times. I could count my Warlock for a fifth time, but while he made it to Cataclysm's leveling zones he never got to max level. I got too burned out getting creamed in BGs in the Warlock-weak Cata expac.

4 comments:

  1. If it helps, the Mines of Moria are huge and have a lot of content, including some of the best instance clusters the game offers (the reason we started our nostalgia nights in Moria). It is especially fun for dwarf characters to play through, and very fun for lore-enthusiasts. :)

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    1. I can imagine. I've been wanting to look inside for a long time, but I've not had the turbine points (or the level) yet.

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    2. I'd send my TP over if I could (accumulated quite a few over the years as a lifetimer), but the game doesn't let me. :/

      Ah well, enjoy your time in Eregion for now. It's one of my favourite regions - such pretty nature. :)

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    3. I'm in the same boat with SWTOR: I have a ton of Cartel Coins that I rarely dip into, and I'd give them to the mini-Reds if I could.

      Eregion is not what I expected. I suppose I figured it'd be like a dreary February out on the Plains, but instead it is very vibrant. I guess that's the difference between a winter in Europe versus the Midwestern part of the US.

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