AM I A BIRD? AM I A PLANE?!

YES!

JUST LOOK HOW AMAZING THIS IS.

The novelty hasn’t worn off yet, I’ve been flying to and from quest givers 2 feet from each other. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Must say a MASSIVE thank you to Martin for helping me do that final bit of the questline. As interesting as it was, it took forever and without him flying me around it would have taken all night. Thanks ❤

We celebrated by starting the fishing artifact achievements… our chaperones watching over our picnic of course.

 

And playing on the toys…

And laughing at this ridiculous bug-out.

Yes, that is him on my sandstone drake. On his mount. LOL.

Anyway, I just wanted to share. More for my benefit as I know most of you have this now… and are probably so over the novelty 😀

So Close, Yet So Far.

Many of you have probably been following my never ending narrative on Twitter about my never ending quest for the never ending Pathfinder achievement.

I still rage quit a lot TBF.

Yep, love flying!

If you remove the questing-for-a-purpose element from questing, it *almost* becomes enjoyable. In some parts of the world. Sometimes.

Loved doing this questline. Credit where credit is due. Etc.

Let’s get this straight from the start:
1. I know, and appreciate, that this was weeks worth of content. Blizz did good.

2. Suramar, for those who like story, is fab. Scenery is beautiful. Zone is well thought out. Movement around the zone, although irritating, is good.

3. I like that I’m not just killing demons all the time.

4. I appreciate catch up mechanics for Alts have been well thought out.

5. I average around 1.5hours of play a day, all being well. I’m not including Mr B in this as he doesn’t do grinds. No way, this is her idiocy, I gave up long ago… I’d rather walk.

6. I understand why gating mechanics are there and they serve a purpose for which, in current content, is needed.

HOWEVER… this grind is too damn long. I decided about a month ago that it was pointless trying to do other stuff I’m desperate to do like fishing for the artifact and pet battling when everything would be quicker and easier with flying. So for the past few weeks I have been focusing entirely on finishing the storylines I missed in questing, and getting the rep I need.

LOOK HOW CLOSE I AM.

It seems though, I’m now gated by Rep.

We are all familiar with a rep grind. In fact, I quite like an old fashioned rep grind. But this isn’t just a pew pew rep grind. This is a You-Can-Only-Earn-A-Certain-Amount-Of-Rep-Per-Day-Because-This-Content-Has-To-Last-A-Patch rep grind. These types of rep grind NEED TO ROLL OVER AND DIE.

Here’s what I reckon. I’m no mathematician, so forgive the rounded numbers:

• Av. 5 WQ / session online = 75-250 rep = average 500-700rep daily (more if I’m lucky with the elite quests!)
• Feed all NPCs = 200-300 rep daily
• Withered training (once or twice weekly, I’m rubbish at it though!!) = 300rep
• Emissary once weekly = 1500
• Kirin Tor quests once weekly (I’m so bad, Mr B has to do them for me, he couldn’t this week though so I missed it) = 1500 rep

Plus odd quests, rewards from missions etc = av. 100 rep daily?

Equals around about 7500 rep per week? IF I get everything done in my limited time. I need 22k rep for the final quest line… it’ll take me nearly A MONTH to do get flying. Baring in mind of course, I have to factor in things like farming the mana, completing the quest lines (which means I don’t then have time to farm the WQ) and doing the Invasion, which without flying takes me usually about 40mins.

See why I’m discouraged?! Maybe the stars will align and I’ll get a nice run of elite WQ or something, but I’m starting to get a big miffed they haven’t removed this rep gating yet.

/growl

Real Life: The Endless Grind

We are struggling. Really struggling with the game of Real Life. 

5.30 alarm. Up. Feed kids. Dress kids. Shower and dress. Drink cold coffee. Travel to minders. Commute to work. Work. Work. More work. Commute home. Feed kids. Bathe kids. Kids to bed. Work more. Eat. Sleep. 

Usually, we try to fit in an hour of WoW between the eating and the sleeping. This depends, at least for me, on how much work I have to do before the next day or whether the kids go to bed on time… but I’m really struggling with the balance. It feels like I’m grinding endlessly.

I should say here that I love my job, but finding a balance between personal persuits and running the house and spending time with the children AND work is challenging. Coupled with an hour commute and the financial stresses of living with a spouse who is self employed… it’s not easy.

So how do I find that perfect balance? I can’t work less because we need the cash. I can’t be at home more with my babies because I need to work. Teaching is 60% paperwork at home so my evenings are counted for. However, I find I work more efficiently if I have an hour to myself. I play more, I get less work done at home, I have to work more and so the grind goes round.

Perhaps I need to shut up and count my blessings that I have these worries in the first place. Then again, perhaps I need to take up a hobby that is less time consuming. 

Of course, this leads neatly on to the fact that WoW is pretty time-commitment heavy. What I love about the DS or minecraft is that you can play for half hour and turn it off without feeling like you ‘have’ to do something or you’ll miss out. Don’t get me wrong: I know they need the model of MUST-HAVE-THE-BEST-GEAR to survive and have longevity, but for casuals it’s exhausting. In fact, I’m not even trying to catch up now, I’m just pootling along enjoying what I want to do. I had a weak moment last week and mentioned in guild I still haven’t got a legendary. Only to be greeted with: “just run LFR!”. Yes, fine, ok I shouldn’t moan or I should do LFR, but the reality is that ONE wing of LFR plus the queue is my whole day’s game time. I don’t want to do that. But I *should* be doing that because a legendary would be cool.

I need more hours in the day please! 

If you’ve made it this far, well done and thanks for listening. Do you also feel the endless grind, or should I just man up?

Spread the love

We try to be positive on these blog posts. We love the game and we love the twitter community and the friends we have made there.

However, I’ve really been struggling with the toxicity of the general community in-game. Time after time, day after day, I find myself fighting against various people and their bubble mentality.

No one ever HELPS anyone any more. Look how hard it was to find a guild that has an active chat and did things together. Trade chat is full of spam and idiots being stupid. People only group so they get the quest done.

What also makes me laugh is when you’re questing in an area collecting XYZ and someone next to you is doing exactly the same thing. Last week I was collecting bear steaks for a quest with another Mage… We worked together killing and looting then without another word, the other mage hearthed and left. I always invite to group, most decline. 

I also always say hi if I join a LFG… very few respond and even fewer say goodbye and the end. It always makes me /sigh a bit -you’ve been through a journey together and haven’t acknowledged the others who made it possible. Possibly akin to going on a team building exercise at work, completing it and leaving without ever saying hello to your colleagues. 

Baffles me. 

What also pees me off are YouTubers making huge amounts of money with huge followings… by BITCHING ABOUT THE GAME. Why play it if all you do is moan?!

All I’m seeing is overwhelming negativity on YouTube… moaning about every aspect of the game and I just can’t get my head around it. I also don’t get why people would want to watch it?! Just stop playing if it annoys you so much and stop cluttering my recommendations with your drivel. I just want to watch some PvP without a negative voice over.
It’s all so self centered. Doing your own stuff for your own gain and only joining if you have to, not because you want to. I get not everyone is social, but manners cost nothing. 

Maybe it’s because younger people are joining the game? Maybe it’s a product of modern society. Maybe people don’t want to play socially or with strangers. I love to meet and chat to new people.

Perhaps we are spoilt being surrounded by lovely btag friends and twitter people, but it does drag you down.

Me being a sad gnome… get it?! 

I’d love to do another community project (we did one in 2014), maybe it’ll make us feel better… any ideas let me know.

In the meantime – be nice, spread happiness and be awesome ❤

In too deep…

I hate caves.

I really REALLY hate caves.

I’ve spent the majority of my evening in caves today. Stupid Highmountain world quests. Stupid mountains. Stupid caves. Stupid quests. Stupid.

I blogged about this before (here) if you’re interested and unfortunately nothing has changed. NO Chromeeh, I don’t care if they – I paraphrase – “pretty much have the same layout and it’s easy when you learn it”… I still hate them. I get in, I get lost, I get stuck then I have to hearth out and fly all the damn way back. Rinse. Repeat.

What’s with the new bottomless caves where there are elites at the bottom and no way out?! Some kind of new “immersive” experience??? HELL NO BLIZZARD. It doesn’t help with your stupid “scrolls of escape” because usually the damn thing I need is one level above me… take me the here instead.

I’m fact, whilst I’m at it… I spent at least ten minutes looking around for the “fevered letter” dude (and aggroing a million murksnout beasties) before remembering IT WASN’T EVEN IN THE DAMN CAVE. Stupid quest. Stupid cave.

I also did the new Karazhan today.  That was good… psychedelic! I quite enjoyed it, considering I hate the original so much… The chessboard experience was particularly cool. 

Still grumpy though. Stupid caves.

Every Day I’m Shufflin’

… shuffling on towards flying. Considering we only get an hour or so a day each on the PC these days, the rep is slowly – but surely – building up towards revered. Another couple of days and I’ll have most of them, providing I keep doing those WQ. Can’t wait, I miss flying. I’m not one to moan about how Blizzard decide to create their game, and I understand why they don’t want flying at launch… I even kinda understand why there’s a stupidly long grind to get it. I also quite enjoy exploring on foot. 

BUT

Nothing beats soaring through the skies. And not having to kill 4 million mobs just to get to an Ancient Mana node. I did get the cool fox mount though…

Not much else to report my end. Just plugging away and getting gear upgrades when I can. 873 now, and only set foot into LFR once – zoned in on the Guldan fight.

– Mr B

I have also been pottering around… WQ here, dungeons there, some professions, some pet battles, some random campaign quests. I have largely avoided Suramar (if you read regularly, you understand our tenuous relationship), but I have managed to complete several storyline quests which gave me some nice AP and profession upgrades.

I’ve also mogged and finally put that zookeeper enchant on my shoulders – only to get an upgrade (I didn’t think I would – it was 880 or something!), so I’m 1000g down. Since when did transmog get so expensive?! It’s like they’ve added a VAT on clothes >.<

I REALLY loved doing this little enchanting questline for Tigrid. You have to help her ‘come alive’ again, by visiting her little cottage (surrounded by yaks in Stormheim, very cute!!) and re-enchanting her items. When you’ve finished, all her books are flying around and the curious crates are poking their tongues out. It’s lovely. She also has some cool stuff for sale. Just sayin’.

What have you all been upto this week? Twitter has been fairly quiet, perhaps the nice weather is forcing people outside?!

First foray into mythics

Firstly… what the HELL has happened to the dungeon system?!

It make all make sense to you guys, but OMG I’m confused.

Anyway, I have a very good friend who has dragged and boosted me kicking and screaming through more expansions than I can count (love you, Rel 🤗) and he very kindly offered to take me to “get some gear”. I have literally no idea what happened in the last two hours, except I went from 814 to 848 ilvl and died a million times. I feel bad for the healers really, they didn’t have a chance. Apparently we did some mythics and a mythic+2 (it was explained but I’m not sure I totally understand – I will Google when recovered!) and handed a quest in to get a nice 890 gear upgrade.

Honestly,  I thought I was starting to get the hang of everything! 

Yes, that’s me. The small turtle.

It’s amazing how one small act of kindness from a friend really changes your gaming experience. If this inspires you to do anything, help someone out today… They may need a friendly face! 

Thanks again, bud! ❤

Mini Update… (Eurovision calls!)

Neither of us have blogged for a few days because we forgot to renew our sub /sadface so we have been spending time together and other boring RL stuff.

Just kidding, love you :*

Anyway, we have an exciting (well, one of us is excited about this and it isn’t me!!!) new blog series which we hope will start tomorrow, featuring Mr B and his newest alt. We are also slowly catching up to Z and Cinder’s Blog Challenge which I’ve been posting periodically. Finally, Mr B is actually in bed (early starts, remember?!) as I write this, so no update from him today… I’ll just put a little then EUROVISION!

So today, I spent a glorious few hours doing exactly what I wanted to. I’ve decided this is the way forward: don’t feel pressured to do the end content stuff as in reality, I’m several months behind and it makes me really stressed trying to do things without really understanding them.

As I write this, stress from a video game? Wut? A whole new blog post I think???

I picked up a few new quests from my Order Hall after handing a couple in. I pottered around Dalaran doing some Mage Quests with Khadgar – those were annoying… in and out of the Order Hall and Violet Hold. Silly mage, making me run everywhere. I also went on a couple of profession quests, bagging a new pet (Ashmaw Cub) and a few new pieces of gear. I also realised I was running dangerously low on Order Resources, so I headed off to do my first few World Quests. If you have any advice which one’s to choose I’d be grateful. I just did the one’s closest to where I was doing my Archaeology quest…?

Lots of writing, sorry! Will see you tomorrow (hopefully) for Mr B’s big – by his standards – reveal.

Enjoy Eurovision 😉

 

Ding!

Day 16, level 110!

I’d just settled down to play, when my first child decided to screech that she wasn’t tired, which woke my second child up. Cue half hour of trying to sort them out… in the end, I brought sprog 1 downstairs and bribed her with TV whilst I finished the last 9% before 110. Excellent parenting skills amirite? 😉

Anyway, I finally did it!

Sorry about the terrible screenshot, I only realised as it was happening!

I then went back to Dalaran and was instantly overwhelmed with all the quests to pick up and stuff I had to do… anyone recommend what to prioritise?!!

Anyway, it’s only a quick post as I still have to put mini-WoW into bed, so goodnight, and happy weekend gaming!

A Jolly Good Time

Day… 14? of resub. I’ll edit that if I find out! Level 108.

Look, funny flying Gnome (note: no magic involved, lag!)

I had such a good time tonight I didn’t even notice the ding. I’ve spent a good few hours (Mr B went to bed early – I have no idea what he’s been doing, sorry!) pottering around Val’sharah. Look how pretty it is!!! I took lots of screenshots.

It was good to see some old faces – Tyrande and Ysera. It was amazing to be somewhere pretty at last (thanks, Twitter for recommending this zone next!) and it was also good to pick up a couple of pets and toys from rares I hadn’t already got. Time flew!

I also spent too much time oggling at this dude and his epic tree-beard:

I wish our PC would handle graphics settings other than “ultra low”, I bet he looks magnificent in HD!

I also finally found a guild that seems nice – I was propositioned by a player named “Jellinator” (made me giggle too), so we will see how that goes. I had a much less lonely time this evening anyway!

Right, I’m off… not that I want to, but I’ve almost finished this zone (*sob*) so I’m going to eek it out a little by pacing myself!

Val’sharah also has the cutest battle pets!!!!

Squee!