Thoughts on Undermine and Leveling Update

It has been longer than I would like since I last posted.  There has been a lot going on at work as I've changed roles yet again.  We also took a brief spring break trip to the Florida Keys for 5 days to get some sun and relaxation.

I got started on the Undermine content.  I haven't done any LFR yet, but I did the Gallywix fight in story mode to see all the cut scene stuff.  I'm not a big fan of the whole goblin motif in World of Warcraft, but despite that, I've enjoyed Undermine.  Running around in your car doing chores is a welcome break from the typical grind, so the regular quests in Undermine don't bother me that much.

I like the car, although I wish I could drive it with a bit more precision.  I haven't completed all the side quests in Undermine, but the chains I've done so far have been fun. All the new delves I've done and the new dungeon have also been great.

I've already gotten my two-piece set bonus with the new gear, so that's been helpful so far.  The demonology warlock set bonuses in this expansion haven't wowed me so far, and I don't like them having a weird goblin theme this time, but I'll get over it.

I've also been more focused on knocking out Renown on my main, so I've been taking a break from leveling alts to do more.

On the leveling front, I finished up both the paladin and the shadow priest, so all the characters I originally got to max level in Dragonflight are now done for War Within, WAY ahead of schedule.  Because we had a couple week break from Timewalking dungeons, it was back to regular questing for the shadow priest, so the leveling time for him was back to more in the 6-hour range compared to 3 hours or so.

I've now started on my sole level 60.  A free boosted character from the purchase of some expansion or another.  It's a Kul Tiran druid on my third server.  I've been wondering how much time this will take, especially once I get to the level 50s (there are 26 of them).  The time to get from 60-70 was only an hour, so I'm hoping that means that 50-70 won't be more than 2 hours, if that.  That will give me a pretty decent shot at getting a lot of these done before the end of the year while still staying caught up on things on my main.

What Exactly Is the Point of Professions Now for Casuals?

Since the last update, I have finished getting that Gnome Death Knight to max level and also a Night Elf Druid.  I've also started working on my Dwarf Paladin.  I was initially going to try to level the Paladin as a Healer in the Timewalking dungeons, but I gave up trying to figure out how to get a decent weapon, so we're going to go the normal Ret path.  I'm unsure if Paladins are decent healers this expansion anyway, so it is probably a better choice.  That makes 19 done, with only two left to go of all the characters I got to max level in Dragonflight.  Then, the real slog begins.

One of the questions that keeps popping into my head as I do my regular monthly Darkmoon Faire profession quests for the free levels is that I'm not sure there's a point to professions for the casual player anymore.  I used to routinely get every profession to max level during every expansion, just because there was usually some value in it, and it was generally fun.  Looking back, I think the last time I did it was in Battle for Azeroth, and looking back over my blog posts from back then, I was unsure of the point even then.

In theory, the new system with crafting orders and things like that should make the game feel more interesting and engaging, but those never seem to be all that worthwhile to complete.  If I did want to max them all out, that doesn't seem to be the easiest path to go, but I'm not sure what that will get me if I do.  There were always interesting gadgets and recipes that were worth having before, but now it seems like gear is easier to get other ways, and cosmetics and things like that are available everywhere.  There is so much unique stuff available in the game, nothing really feels unique anymore.  When you have 550 or so mounts, what's the point of one more.

I have seriously considered switching all of my characters to gathering professions just for the extra income that would generate. Still, my concern is mainly that I have recipes and things from back in the day that I would lose if I did that, which I'm not sure I'm willing to give up - the old engineering helicopter mounts, for example.

Also, I don't have any big use for the extra income anyway, so I will likely continue to contemplate and leave things as they are.  

In terms of continued plans, once the Paladin is done, my Human Shadow Priest is the last character on my alliance server that's sitting at level 70.  I have a Druid at level 60 that I think was a boost from some purchased expansion, and then I'll be into a big slug of level 50's.  I'll continue working through this Alliance Server, then switch to my 2nd Horde server.

Cheers,

Joar

All Classes Done

Since the last update, I managed to finish up the monk, warrior, and shadow priest.  With the monk, I didn't do timewalking dungeons at all but instead focused on world quests and doing all the delves in each zone and the story quests.  Leveling time ended up much longer than the regular approach of mixing in timewalking dungeons, clocking in at around 6 hours.

Then, on the warrior, I got lucky with a good group that wanted to keep chain running TW dungeons with big pulls, and ended up doing the whole 70-80 process in just 2 1/2 hours.  

I continued a heavy emphasis on timewalking dungeons with the shadow priest but didn't get as lucky with queues and groups, so it ended up being more like 3 1/2 hours.

I've now started on my Gnome Death Knight, who I'm leveling as unholy, just because I haven't done that in a while.  So far, it's been super fun in dungeons!

All of that has brought me up to 17 total max-level characters with only four to go before I finish the ones that I got to max level in Dragonflight.  After that, I'm coming up to a huge batch of level 50 characters, and it remains to be seen how long those are going to take.

In Guild Wars 2, I've continued working through the Icebrood Saga on my Machinist.  I remember very little of this from when I ran through it the first time, so I am enjoying it quite a bit.  

I'm also coming up on a bunch of travel for the next few months for swim meets and vacations, so my play time may be more limited than usual, at least for the next few months.  The pace of blog updates may suffer as well.

Cheers,

Joar

Warcraft Leveling Progress

I have managed to get 4 more characters to max level since the beginning of the year, bringing my total to 14.  That is despite having no playtime at all last week because of a work trip.  I've finally also hit two classes I haven't really enjoyed leveling for this expansion - my Evoker and my Rogue.  Rogue has been a class I haven't enjoyed leveling since they got rid of the Combat specialization, which, at least for me, made that class much more fun.

I tried Subtlety instead of Outlaw this time, but that didn't help my enjoyment level.  When I get around to my alliance rogue, I'll probably go back to Outlaw.

My played time from 70 to 80 on all of these is in the 4-5 hour range, depending on how many timewalking dungeons I incorporate into the process.

Next will be the monk, warrior, and priest, which will complete my set for every class on the Horde side.  I'll then start working my way through my alliance server.  I only have a handful on the alliance server before I start getting to some of the characters that are sitting at level 50, so that's the point where I should get more data on how much time those are all going to take because there's a pretty big batch of those.

I've been horsing around a little bit in Guild Wars 2 and Elder Scrolls Online, but there is not anything significant at this point.

That's the update for now.

Cheers,

Joar

Gaming Goals for 2024

My last few years of gaming have felt disjointed, hopping around to a lot of different games.  Focusing almost exclusively on leveling alts in World of Warcraft for a solid decade, my recent lack of commitment to a particular game or achieving goals within that game has been a bit unsettling.

For a while, I thought I'd found that new home in FFXIV, and I spent a lot of time getting every single job to the max level over the course of Shadowbringers and Endwalker.  While I can't point to anything in particular, the launch of Dawntrail has significantly curbed my passion for the game.  I've been considering canceling my subscription to that one and moving on, but I may give it one more expansion before making that decision.

That brings me to where I've been lately, which is bouncing around between Guild Wars 2, Elder Scrolls Online, and World of Warcraft.  With the recent announcements about the way new content is going to be released for Elder Scrolls Online, it feels like that game is heading for a sunset period, so I'm also debating whether it's worth investing much more time in it, which would leave me with basically just World of Warcraft and Guild Wars 2.

I'm satisfied with my level of engagement on Guild Wars 2 right now.  I've got two characters that I'm playing actively, and if I hit a wall on both of them, I always have my Ranger that I can go back to.  Or even picking things up with another class.  

On World of Warcraft, I would love to get all of my alts to max level before the end of this year.  As of right now, I've got 12 that I've managed to get to the max level.  I've got 39 more to go.  Nine of those are at level 70, so it wouldn't be too bad.  There is a massive chunk at level 50 left over from my leveling binge during Battle for Azeroth, and then there are 4 or so in the teens that are Allied Race characters that I didn't do anything with.

I have no idea what the leveling time would be from 50 to 80 in the new setup and whether the amount of time involved is feasible.

Last year, I had around 420 total hours of game time.  If I estimated that it would take an average of 6 hours each to get those remaining 9 characters to level 80, and then maybe 9 hours to get the 26 level 50 characters that I have and 10 hours to get the four in the teens done, that's 328 hours, which seems reasonably doable.  Of course, I have no idea if those estimates for the lower-level characters are correct, but I will definitely have better data soon enough.

I'm not ready to call that a goal yet, as there will be shiny new things during the year that take at least some of my attention, primarily new end-game content in both Guild Wars 2 and World of Warcraft.

Since my last update, I managed to get two more characters to max level in World of Warcraft, bringing the total to the above-mentioned twelve, the most recent being another Warlock and then my Evoker.  As of this post, I've started on my Horde mage and have him sitting at level 73.

My game time for the next week or two will be limited.  I'm traveling out of the country for work next week and will have only one day of potential playtime.

That's the update for now!

Cheers,

Joar