I'm Just Playing With My Dolls Again

Okay, I don't have any dolls, or what adults would call "action figures".

From TheGearPage. And Spaceballs.

But I do have MMO toons. 

I spent a bit of time yesterday visiting some of my old characters, just to check them out for a bit. Such as Dalaak here, my original SWTOR toon.

Hello, big fella.

Or my original LOTRO toon, Aranandor, when he's not lounging around Bree.

There's also my GW2 toon, Mikath...

I still think that the toons and NPCs in GW2 all look
like the Beautiful People, with flawless skin and
impeccable grooming. The beat up outfit notwithstanding.

Or my friendly Vulcan from STO...

And his entire officer corps, too!

And there's also that crazy Dunmer from ESO...

Those loading screens show the actual armor
worn, not the outfit she actually has on. That's one thing
that Retail WoW does better, at least.

But I guess that this wouldn't be a post about MMO toons if it didn't include the instigator of this post, WoW:

Hey, Lady. Long time no see.

Or even longer, really.

Okay, that wasn't the actual version of WoW I was talking about, but this one...

I occasionally go to the loading screen just to see how long it's been since I last logged into Retail. If I see "Gear Update" listed on all of these toons, I know it's been some months, and likely at least one major/minor patch in the interim.

Those are four of my most played toons on Retail --the original Azshandra isn't there-- but given how things progressed in Classic WoW, it just didn't feel quite right. Therefore, I tweaked the composition a bit:

There. That's better.

The gear (and levels, to be honest) are all wrong from my perspective, but I'm not planning on doing anything about that. At least now the names are correct on that Warband.

There are other toons I have from MMOs I no longer play* such as Age of Conan, Rift, or Neverwinter, that would require me to install the games again to simply take a screenshot of the loading screen. And then there are games that no longer exist, such as Wildstar, ArcheAge, or TERA. I do miss Wildstar, but not the other two.

Even though I really have no desire to play some games (or specific toons), it's nice to pull them up on screen every once in a while just to enjoy how they looked, and the memories they recalled.

*Again, I'm surprised that Age of Conan is still hanging on after all these years.

EtA: Corrected grammar.

EtA: And corrected some more grammar. Sheesh.

Cardwyn vs. Nevelanthana

Given that I have a pair of Mages --okay, more than a pair, but I count Deuce as merely an extension of Cardwyn 1.0-- I'm at that point in their respective careers that I'd like to do something that I call...

Who wore it better?

After a certain point, my Mages run through the same gear because, well, you're not always going to get BiS gear all the time while leveling. I mean, if you wanted to you could try to run Shadowfang Keep a lot, but there's absolutely no guarantee you won't outlevel the place by the time you do get into enough runs to pick the keep clean of Mage gear. The same goes for Scarlet Monastery's Library and Cathedral wings; the original Cardwyn needed well over a half dozen runs of SM:Cath to finally obtain the often sought after Whitemane's Chapeau, and since Blizz tweaked leveling in the TBC Classic prepatch to speed up the L30s through to the L50s, you'll shoot right on past the Scarlet Monastery wings before you know it.

I have a definite preference for Frost Mages, especially when questing out in the field, so both Neve and Card have sewed together clothing with spellpower --and frost bonuses-- built in. The frost bonuses tend to show up in crafted gear in the Mageweave and Runecloth clothing, but the Azure Silk pieces do provide a lot of bang for the buck in terms of spellpower.

The first thing that pops into my head
is "Halloween Sexy Pirate costume"...

...and the second thing is
"that sunburn would suck."

Given that the ideal levels for wearing this gear would put you right in the middle of in more temperate and tropical areas, such as Stranglethorn Vale, Hillsbrad Foothills, Thousand Needles, and Arathi Highlands, it kind of makes sense to wear something suited for the weather. And without the robes, a potential enemy could quite easily underestimate who they're dealing with. 

Fiction wise, a clever Mage (or two) could take advantage of that to blend in with the crowd at Menethil Harbor, Booty Bay, or other seaports. While a Warlock could as well, their reliance on demons would kind of make them stand out unless they go to great lengths to hide their "pets".

Does the Warchief need someone to investigate the fire at Shady Rest Inn without causing a stir among the Tauren clans? Send a "traveler" capable of blending in with the surrounding swamp. 

Would the few Alliance soldiers who rebelled against Colonel Kurzan's insane ramblings send a fully armored Paladin to infiltrate Kurzan's camp? Oh HELL no; they'd send someone clothed for the jungle and looks like a "companion" of one of the troops. Someone who'd call down fire and ice in a pinch.

Admittedly, a Rogue or a feral Druid would do the job as well for either situation, but if you want a wielder of the arcane who can blink their way out of trouble or turn an enemy into a block of ice, you send someone who looks. like. this.

***

The other piece of gear Deuce and Neve share at the moment is what I'd describe as a "flex" piece, the Robe of Power. 

It takes some effort to amass the material for the Robe, typically spending an evening farming elementals in Arathi Highlands for the additional materials, but you're rewarded with a robe that is better than that found in Shadowfang Keep or Scarlet Monastery's Library wing, and is the equal of anything found in Uldaman. As it's a bind on pickup piece, you have to be a Tailor to make it for yourself.

The look is totally worth it as well.

The difference in attitude between the two
are pretty striking, even though they're
wearing the same robe. Card has that
earnest look...

...while Neve's is more haughty. 
It's kind of safe to say that most
Queldorei and Sindorei give off that
slightly arrogant look, but that's
strictly outward appearances.

If a Mage or Warlock ever needed a piece of formal wear before presenting themselves before Society, this would be it. While the Robe of Power is, well, a very powerful piece that holds up well until Runecloth gear comes into play, it emanates that "I don't get my hands dirty dealing with the peons" 80s Yuppie attitude. You could look at this robe and think that the wearer is a part of upper class society and not be that far off in your observation. 

You don't have to be from Dalaran or Quel'Thalas to be thought of as a mover and shaker while wearing the Robe of Power. 

***

So... Who really did wear it better?

Eh... Six of one, half dozen of the other. 

Neve's attitude fits more effortlessly into both outfits, but Card just has that Everywoman look about her that you can't help but like. As a Sindorei, Neve has what I'd call a "runner's build", but her attitude does make her stand out in a crowd. She is very much a leader, and it shows. Cardwyn, on the other hand, is someone who is, well, "normal", but also somewhat naive in her outlook. That naivete can be endearing as well.

When I created both toons I had these ideas in my head for what I wanted out of them, and as time has gone on I've been surprised at how well they've been borne out. The one thing I will say is that you can't judge a book by its cover, and certainly these two do fit that in spades.

I'm actually quite curious how these two will compare in higher level gear going forward.

EtA: corrected a grammatical error.

Brig's Big Day*

People know the old joke about how in dog sledding the scenery only changes for the lead dog, right? The impression is that for the other dogs all they see is another dog's butt (plus tail), so only the lead dog sees where they're going.

And to be fair, that impression isn't a wrong one.

When you've got one job in a raid, it's easy to forget there's a lot of other work out there for people to handle. Likewise if you're just a cog in the raider machine, you can forget the "You had ONE job!" nature of being a "regular" raider.

But when the raid lead goes on vacation? Well, I suppose you can just stop the raid for a couple of weeks if it's not a progression raid, but a progression run doesn't simply go on hiatus for a couple of weeks. Or, if you're me, you simply don't stop running Kara for two weeks.

So I accepted the challenge of being raid lead and the sole leader for our Karazhan runs.

***

It has been.... interesting.

I mean, I know the fights**; we have 7-8 regulars on a week in and week out basis, and I still run my bookie routine for Opera. So the technicalities are down --with the exception of setting Master Looter, which for some reason I continue to screw up-- but it's the intangibles that I have issues with.

You know, making sure there's the right amount of chemistry in the raid, or me, Mister Nice Guy, having to be the bad guy and tell people they didn't make the raid because they signed up too late. Or they got bumped because we needed heals or a tank. 

My nervousness of being up front, leading, has evaporated. I know these people and they know me. They believe in me, and they actually freaking defer to me when a decision needs to be made. When the hell does THAT ever happen?

Anyhoo, it does happen, and I'm feeling better and better about this. I can be a raid leader. I can figure this out. I may not figure out everything about an individual raid, like BWL or Naxx, but I know enough that I can work my way through this. And given that nobody is going to ask me to run SSC anytime soon, I've got this.

***

Normally I'd be finished with this post, but I was on Neve the other day, having Hearthed back to Tarren Mill, and I was checking out gear when I got poked by my oldest about how Neve looked on screen. "You should screenshot this," she said. 

"Hmm?" I asked, closing my bags.

Then I noticed how the firelight caught in her staff and her clothing.

And those eyes. Light, the eyes.

It's like the Map Room in Uldaman:
the light has to be captured 'just so'....

Sometimes, the serendipity smacks you in the face with a clue by four.

 

 

*That was how the player who ran the raid logs called our first Kara run with me in charge.

**Except Netherspite, but I have plenty of regulars who know who to put in which beam, so I'm fine.

The Great Equalizer

In the two years since we've been running this blog, ol' Redbeard has started to turn into Greybeard.  Although I'm sure that my family has had something to do with it, streaks of gray can now be seen on the sides of my facial hair, extending up into my sideburns.  Every morning, I peer into the mirror and see evidence of my mortality staring back at me.*  All the crueler, I suppose, in that my toons never seem to age or show any evidence of previous wounds.

A toon's appearance is the great equalizer in WoW.  Until you get on Vent or Mumble, you never know who is actually running the toon.  The players in your pug could be grandparents or tweens, male or female, gay or straight, and unless they make it obvious, you'll be none the wiser.

In a very real sense, this is how it should be.  We can gripe about racial design or (lack) of armor, but in the end, the toon is an idealized artistic version of an arbitrary race in a virtual game.  The toon isn't us; it is merely the vehicle in which we play.

And yet there's so much wrapped up in them.

If you don't think so, I point to the rejoicing at the vanity armor announcement for Patch 4.3.  Or how some people refuse to play certain races and/or classes, based on how they look. 

We invest so much time in these toons, it's only natural that we look at them as an extension of ourselves.  I suppose I'll always look at Q or Neve as Sindorei, Q with his Blood Knight tabard and polearm (evoking the Blood Tempered Ranseur) and Neve with her Kirin Tor tabard** and refusing to wear a helm.  Tom seems to have that Ramkahen tabard permanently stapled onto his chest, and will favor a 2H sword over anything else. 

Even when we aren't really roleplaying, we notice when things just aren't right with our toons.  Whether some gear makes sense or looks halfway decent does matter.  It's kind of hard to take a Dwarf or Gnome tank seriously with the Ulduar horned helm that looks like a giant codpiece.  Or the people who wield a specific weapon because that was what they leveled back in the pre-4.0.1 era when you had to level individual weapon skills.  Or whether your toon prefers to hang around Dal or Shat in the Cataclysm era.

I'll freely admit that one of my toons --Neve-- came out of a long running D&D campaign I was in.  She died in one of those freakish rolls of three '20' results on a d20 in a row, not more than 7-8 sessions after I'd spent all the time and effort to get her into the campaign.***  I'd been thinking about trying out a mage in WoW, so I went with Neve's name, hoping that she'd last a wee bit longer than her D&D counterpart.  In a sense the name was perfect, because I'd played her as a snarky, academically oriented Elf who thought she knew more than she really did, and that overall attitude is what the Blood Elves exude in spades.  At the same time, I don't play on an RP server, so I never really play Neve 'in character'; she's just, well, 'me as Mage'.  But I never forgot where she came from, and that kind of influences my attitude toward her.

Maybe we are all roleplaying, albeit unconsciously. 




*Unlike, say, my knees, which haven't been really right since college.  Yeah, I know, I could lose some weight, but three years of running hurdles in high school haven't exactly been kind to my knees either.

**She's not too proud to use her Illustrious Guild tabard to get rep with her guild, however.

***Our game group had no Wizards or Sorcerers --no magic wielders at all, really-- so I campaigned to take on a second character just so we could have some magic to round out the party.  I don't think I'd have minded her dying so much as the manner in which she bit it: killed by a fellow party member who'd been mind controlled by a Harpy.

Habitually Speaking

Back when I first started playing WoW, I developed a lot of bad habits while leveling. 

My first 45 levels or so, Quintalan was Holy Spec, but since I rarely went into instances at that time all I knew how to do was quest --and kill things-- using my weak Holy Spec capabilities.  To compound the problem, I looked at gear the way I would in my pencil and paper RPGs:  a little bit of Intellect and a little bit of Strength never hurt, and look --something with Agility!  It never occurred to me that maybe I ought to concentrate on one stat and let the other gear fall by the wayside.

After I switched to Ret --at Soul's suggestion-- I developed another set of bad habits.  For example, I'd use tanking abilities in my attacks, which really don't go over well when you get into an instance.  And when leveling, I didn't have a concept of a rotation.  Sure, you could argue that Ret Spec in Wrath didn't have a rotation --and I'd not disagree with you either-- but the basic understanding behind a rotation escaped me.

Oh yeah, I was a noob.  I had my share of "HEY STOOPID!" moments out there in WoW.

It wasn't until I started pugging and got serious about understanding how a Ret Pally works that I finally broke out of these habits.  I tinkered with key bindings and how much you could load onto one button until I realized I needed more granularity than that.  (Such as saving Avenging Wrath for Bosses; you don't need it for trash.  Therefore, don't try to bind it on any of my attacks but leave it on a separate button.) 

Even when 4.0.1 dropped I didn't have moments quite like those first few months of playing WoW, and for that I can thank Tomakan.  He was mired somewhere in the 40s when 4.0.1 was released, and so I had plenty of time to work out how the new Ret rotations ought to work without all the clutter of higher level Ret capabilities.

But now, after having spent time leveling in the Cata zones, I've kind of backslid a bit.  I slack off on my rotations because I can, unless I'm dealing with multiple enemies at once (or an elite).  I've got some nice new skills on both Neve and the Pallys, but I haven't really adjusted my key bindings.*  I know that the Cata instances are harder than Wrath, but I haven't tested the limits of how quickly I can go through my rotation without pulling aggro.

WoW is still a learning process.  Maybe if you work at it hours a day for most days of the week, yeah, you can top out at a high level.  But most of us don't have that amount of spare time.  To get competent at your class, you need to dedicate some time, but nowhere near the levels seen by the elite raiding guilds. 

Unlike my noob experiences, I know what I need to do to get back on track.  I need to get into more Cata instances.

Am I worried about getting into Cata pugs?  Not really.  I like to be prepared, and if I can't be prepared, at least be overpowered.  What's killing me is the time factor.  I don't have the time to set aside two hours to cover a pug right now.  I can run BGs more quickly than what I've discovered via the Cata pugs I've been in, so I end up queuing for them instead.  (When Alterac Valley is looking to be quicker than a Cata pug, you know you've got time issues.)

So for the time being, I'm going to continue to quest and accumulate a punch sheet of things I need to do.  I'll get around to it.  Someday.  Maybe. 


*I instead lust after a Naga Razr, thinking about adding buttons there rather than upset my current balance.

Tanks and Tanks Once More

Who, me?

No thanks.  I only tank in emergencies.

However, I'm thinking about the tanking writer of this blog.  The one who loves his DK Tank and has some old fashioned love for his long suffering Warrior Tank.  The same one who isn't sure what to do with creating a toon to run through low level instances with.

Yeah, I know, he could do a Pally tank, but he has one of those, and he's not thrilled with him.

He already has a Warrior.

So why not be a Big Bear Butt tank?

Okay, I know one reason he'd have issues:  the Night Elf in general.  Aside from that, however, Druid Tanks hold their aggro quite well, thank you very much, and I have to admit I've got a lot of respect for the Druid Tanks I've pugged with.  No, I'm not suggesting he hang out as a Tree --that's not his style-- but a Bear?  Yeah, I can see that.

Hmmm.... What to do.... What to do....

Since I seem to have a copious amount of time on my hands, I've been thinking about the future.  No, not Cataclysm -I'm trying to not think about that too much- but what I intend to do once my main goals of Loremaster and Seeker are achieved.

I guess I should specify that my main goal is to have Quintalan complete Loremaster and Seeker on the Horde side.  Once that's done, I figured I'd slip Quint into semi-retirement, using him to accumulate Emblems for Heirloom items.  (If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.)  He could chill around Dalaran, or hang on a park bench in Silvermoon and harass the newbies all afternoon. 

"Whining about Dar'Khan Drathir, are you?  You young whippersnappers don't know how easy you have it!  Why, back in my day we got ganked 10 times a day in Tarren Mill, and we liked it!"

"Aw, shut up you old Geezer!"

"Come back here or I'll whack you with my cane!  I'll have you know I got this wound fighting alongside Sylvanas Windrunner herself!  Call me Geezer, eh?  STAY OFF MY LAWN!"

But what after that?

Originally, the plan was to transfer and faction change Quint to follow Souldat and Millalyn to Ysera, but since I can't really finish the Horde side Loremaster that way, Quint will have to stay Horde for the time being.  At the current rate I was on with questing, it would have been about early summer before Quint would ding that last quest to capture both achievements.  With my account in a holding pattern until my stuff gets returned, that timeline will slip into mid summer.

My backup plan was to generate a new Alliance toon on Area 52, load the toon with Heirlooms, and ship him/her over to Ysera to begin a new life.  (And start running instances with similarly leveled toons that Soul and Milla would have.)  I was planning on shipping a Paladin over so I could take my lumps as a Holy Spec without the backup of an overgeared tank, but it might be smarter that I ship my Blood Elf Mage over instead.  She's already at L26 and has all but the Heirloom trinkets.  I'd have to find a decent Alliance toon that has her snarky BE attitude, but that might make the most sense.

Once the toon gets shipped over, then what?  Just run LFD?

Part of me wants to go for Loremaster on the Alliance side, just because I can say that I've covered all of my bases.  (Crazy?  Yes.  Insane?  Nah; it's just another challenge.)  Another part of me thinks that it would be smart to get in early on PVP, so that you don't have to learn what the hell you're doing at 80 in the battlegrounds.  Either way, my time spent online ought to fit with within my budget.

Well, I've got plenty of time to stew over my options, although I definitely wish I had less time right now.  My trigger finger is getting plenty itchy.