On Pilgrimage and Ratatouilling

Well, H1N1 got me but didn't kill me. So, I got back to WoW to do the Pilgrim event achievements.

I was expecting something a little more elaborate. Instead I spent some time cooking, chasing turkeys (deja vu from Howling Fjord) and .. what else ? Oh yes, travelling around Azeroth to do the city dailies and get my butt into the enemy city tables. 2 days later and a few hours of gameplay later, the achievements are done and I don't feel like a Pilgrim at all.. sigh.


On to a sad moment... what do you do when you log on in the evening, greet the guild and no one of the ten logged replies ?

You /gquit, that's the right answer.

Well I didn't, but tbh, I think I will.



So then I logged on to LOTRO to check it out. It seems very nice. They upgraded the graphics speed and quality, and the cozy look of Bree did touch me. My level 12 Jadena hunter is still around, waiting.

At least I may have something fun to do, instead of running long done dailies and TOC10 with ppl that can't be bothered to say "hi".

On LOTRO giving a free week starting Nov 23

Title says it all. Codemasters informed me that on Nov 23 they will reactivate all LOTRO accounts giving them a free week.

My hunter Jadena has been hibernating for the last year or so, but may now I will subscribe it.

I've been playing AION, now with a lvl 11 cleric, and now I know why it felt like Asian: It's made in Korea. Some guy told me it was actually a game for Koreans, that they adapted for the Western side. The look&feel truly remarks Silkroad or others like it.

Good things:
- The overall graphic detail is better. Better trees, better grass, better buildings.
- The gear graphics is stunning, much much better than WoW.
- New areas to visit. I'm utterly bored with Northrend and Outland.
- There are a enhancements to the character profile, like power shards and self-enchanting.
- The chain talent usage is funny. It's like e.g. you can use conflagrate and Incinerate on the same key. After you press Conflagrate, it turns to Immolate. /castsequence or something similar.


Bad things:
- The movement is not as smooth as Warcraft, although the FPS are the same or better.
- The title thing seems ridiculous: I got a "Raider Hero" title at lvl 10 without raiding.
- The way to level is the same as Warcraft. All quests are "Kill 10 mobs" or "Get 5 drops from mobs" or "Deliver this item to person X" or "Talk to person Z". Utterly boring.
- Cities and populated places are slow, sluggish movement.
- The story is close to that of Warcraft. The good and the evil, the Light and the Dark. Two factions only, instead of a multitude of them.
- No PVP ? I watched some Altdorf duels and that was it.
- The Lore is totally unknown to me, comparing to Tolkien or Azeroth.

Hmmm, I heard about some AION private servers. May be I'll go check it out. It isn't worth to pay a subscription just to play 1-2 days a month, and only to go sightseeing.



Back to WoW.

I was pwned by a lock in AV with 30K HP, 3K SP, etc. My 1K resilience didnt mitigate dmg at all, he 1-2 shotted me. Then I went to check his gear and achievs and become demoralized, he had nearly 10K achievs and a full relentless set.

So... after that, I respecced from Affliction PVE to Destro PVP. Tried a few games. Well, much better. A lot of dmg, a good survivability... except against rogues, when they open on me.

Tried 2v2 skirmishes.. same thing, good against all except.. rogues.

I miss my felguard and Metamorph so much ;( pity it's not bursty enough for 2v2.

On a Mountain of Mounts

Oh yes ! Last night I got the achievement I had been seeking for months.
I now have 101 mounts, a mountain of them.
In the morning I got the turtle after about 1000 salmon catches (so that was inline with the 0.1% drop rate, thank you RNG)
My new blue hawk is beautiful, although I'd like it to be different from the horde ones that can be obtained from the Argent reputation.

Anyway, I'm the only one on my server with this mount, that I know of, and that's rare!



As to PVE progress, I was invited to a friend guild, they are running TOC 10 HC and need a lock, I also have a spot on the best guild of the server, they also need a lock, and are doing the Ulduar Heroic achievements.

Unfortunately, my back has been giving me a lot of trouble the last weeks, and I'm not able to sit for 4 hours straight 3 times per week.

That leaves me with solo tasks, and I've got two in my mind:

1 - Insane in the Membrane . It's doable, it's not less doable than 100 mounts. Also, I dont need anyone to help, no idiots around, I can do it myself. I need gold, that's for sure, and I just spent 16K. But I'll get it back (legally, so to speak ;)

2 - The Exalted. I miss 3 reputations to reach 40 . Unfortunately, if I select the 3 Steamweedle Cartel for that, I'm going to have double trouble if I later decide going for the Membrane, as I'll level them to exalted, back to hated, and back to exalted. Now THAT's insane. An alternative is trying to farm Karazhan for its reputation (stupid me, why didnt I do it in TBC). I can also try Shan'dralar and Ravenholdt. I also have Molten Core to finish, but by soloing 1-2 bosses a week, it'll take years. For AQ40 I also need to kill bosses... same for Hyjal or Black Temple.. that sucks. A slow but not time consuming alternative and a feasible one is doing dailies for the 2 Northrend reputations: Explorer's League and the Frostborn.


Why not go for both LOL, and at the same time level the 2 Northrend reputations.?
He he, lets go for it :)

Last but not least... AION. I'm gonna give it a last try, level it a bit more, but I'm enjoying DDO a lot, and LOTRO is stil waiting so.. that's a good alternative.
And JRRT is always JRRT, can't beat that!

On being smart and the frustration of rolls.. and BARON !

If there is one thing that WarHammer added to the joy of gaming versus the stupidity farming methods of WoW is the rewarding of rare items versus the activity one does, normalized with the role and with the gear. It is way better than rewarding based on RNG rolls.
Two examples of why I agree follow:

Last week I lost a Tarasque blade (for the 2nd time) with a roll 91 to a mage that rolled 99, but did much less dps with the same gear as me on a boss that requires no special mage handling (dispel,cc, etc).

And this week I lost Triumph gloves with a roll 90 to a lock that rolled 97 and did... less than half of my damage on Koralon Heroic, again, a boss where dps go flat out.




Is that rewarding ? No it isn't. One may argue, ok, but that's the only way lower geared ppl will get rewards. Well, fix it. Make it so that when someone rolls and looses, the next roll will be tuned for higher value and guarantees a 3rd drop. Whatever.


Ok, next topic, being smart. Guess what ? I found an AOE spot that gives (for DK or pala farming) up to 900K XP per hour. You've read it right, 900K XP in one hour ! Being a nice chap, I'm gonna tell you where it is. I was there at 70 with Net+Tari but it was a bit hard as there was no plate. Well, I now have Moonprince at 76, Shareth at 76, Morkin at 74, courtesy of Alterac Valley and... the Valgarde gate. Mobs give no loot, but reward imba XP, plus we get help from the guards and they respawn in seconds. Live and learn :P





Last topic... mins ago, I got myself the Deatcharger mount ! Baron Rivendare finally yielded, after 67 runs (probably 75+ but I didnt count the first ones).
1-(1-.01)^67=49%, so I was one of the lucky 49% that get the mount in the first 67 runs... not much luck, but not unlucky either. Thank you RNG.
And the grand total is now 97, 3 mounts to go !!

Four to Go and AION

Piece by piece, we're coming together. 96 mounts, 4 to go.

Yesterday I finally got my first ZG mount, the raptor.
The last days I've been farming both the sea turtle and the baron mount, but RNG decided to help me on this other front.
So sad I gave away 50 argent medallions, and didnt start dailies sooner, I could be owning the 101th mount already.
Anyway, it's a bit of a shame, because the dragonhawk is going to be 280% speed, whilst my violet proto-drake is 310%. Oh well...meanwhile, yesterday I went to help a guildie to get his legendary thunderfury, as he got 10 elementium ores very quickly, and so I got also 2 in BWL, and the head too !



Now that's a lore relevant thing, I've finally delivered Nefarian's head. Together with Hakkar's blood and Onyxia's head, I'm slowly finishing the remaining classic Warcraft quests ! And that also gave me an idea.... why not get Thunderfury myself ? Not that difficult, tbh. I can solo/dualbox Garr and Geddon weekly until the parts drop. Something to do after I get 40th exalted.

WoWwise, nothing else is new, the guild continues to stall, doing Ony/TOC10 and such banalities. No more 25-raids, no more heroic. Bah !



So, to a completely differnt thing. I'm tryin AION ! Got myself a level 10 cleric, with wings and all. The graphics look good, the rest... it's just like WoW, with an asian-martial-arts look and feel.. dunno if I'm gonna stay long. Comparing with LOTRO and it's Tolkien-ish environment, AION can't stand a chance. But i'll give it a month.

In Memoriam

António Sergio, o meu radialista preferido, passou para o outro lado.
Até sempre, obrigado pela 4AD e pela ZTT e por todas as musicas que me fizeram sonhar.

Lista rebelde, sempre , aqui www.pedrolucas.com