Adding Some FFXIV and Guild Wars 2 Activity, Plus an Update on WoW Leveling

I've interrupted my near-constant run of World of Warcraft lately to work on a couple of other things.  First, there's a new content patch for FFXIV, so I've started working through the MSQ on that.  I've gotten through the new dungeon (what the heck was that?), so I think I'm pretty close to being done.  

Then, since there was maintenance on Tuesday, I decided to go ahead and get the new Guild Wars 2 expansion and start working on that.  I've been using my Machinist for the last few expansions, but I think I've decided to return to my Necromancer for this one.  

I have yet to get very far, so it's too early to draw any significant conclusions.  But I should have more play time tomorrow, so I hope to get further along.

In World of Warcraft news, I finished the Paladin and the Shaman that I started afterward.  I leveled the Shaman primarily through Timewalking dungeons, and it was about 2 hours, or 25% faster than the regular questing leveling approach I've been using.  The Shaman was my 6th max level character so far in War Within.  

I also got the hunter pretty much fully geared, so I've switched to doing weekly stuff on the Death Knight to get him geared up.

Things may be slowing down a bit at work, which may give me a bit more play time over the next few weeks, so hopefully I can make more progress across all of these fronts.

Cheers,

Joar

More Leveling Progress

My play time continues to be limited, and as a result, very much focused on World of Warcraft.  I did manage to get both my Druid and my Death Knight to max level.  The Druid took about the same amount of time as the Hunter.  The Death Knight ended up being about an hour faster.  

For the Death Knight, I did go back and start knocking out a lot of the side quests that I had skipped the first time, particularly in Hallowfall, just to get the renown points from most of those.

I've started the Paladin next, and my plan there is to knock out the rest of those side quests, which are now mostly in the final zone.  After that, I'll probably just go back to leveling via Main Story Quests.  Queuing for normal dungeons tends to be too much of a shit show these days and my Brann isn't a high enough level to make leveling via delves as easy as I'd like it to be, making the xp per hour from those lower than just questing.

After the Paladin, I will probably do Shaman next and then Demon Hunter, which will give me all the professions available, although I can't remember the last time I actually leveled all the professions to max.  Note - going back and checking, it appears that Legion was the last time I did it completely, although it looks like I got fairly close in Battle for Azeroth and then got completely distracted by FFXIV.

Finally, in ESO I've continued doing the daily Enchanting Writ whenever I'm actually playing.  I'm probably only 2-3 days away from having it finally to max level.

That's the update for now!

Cheers,

Joar

War Within Updates

As mentioned in early September, my travel schedule with my youngest and a fairly busy work schedule has really limited my game time, so there has been little to report in this space.

I did manage to get my Hunter to level 80, and my Druid is sitting at level 78, so I've made decent progress on the alt front.  I'm continuing to move things along with gearing up my Warlock, although I'm mostly just enjoying doing weekly quests and knocking out increasingly higher-level delves.  I'm not super aggressive with that, either, though.  

I'm continuing to enjoy this expansion so far.  Once the Druid is done, I'll likely start working on the Death Knight next, followed by the Paladin.  

On leveling time, the Hunter was significantly faster than my Warlock, which is not unusual.  I'm still not sure what the quickest leveling path is going to end up looking like.   Delves provide a significant chunk of experience the first time through.  I've also been looking at how follower dungeons impact my xp per hour levels.  

I'm still logging into Elder Scrolls Online every day just to knock out a daily enchanter writ to continue to level up that final job.  I'm now at level 48, so getting close to being done with that.

I haven't looked at the new expansion for Guild Wars 2 yet, although I'd like to get to that eventually.

That's the update for now!

Cheers!

Joar

First Level 80 in War Within

I hit level 80 on my warlock in War Within this week.  His total time to level was 12 hours and 45 minutes.  Obviously not a leveling speed record because of initial congestion, taking time to read quest text and watch cut scenes, and generally not being efficient while enjoying the new content.  However, this was the fastest time ever for the first character leveled to max in a new expansion by quite a lot.  The previous fastest was Dragonflight at 17 hours and 26 minutes, and the previous fastest before that was actually Battle for Azeroth at 20 hours and 27 minutes.

I'm finishing up the campaign quests and then will start working on World Quests and running heroics to gear up for LFR, which started this week. I will likely try some delves as well just to try that gearing path.

Doing the side quests slowed me down, and as it turns out, they weren't needed for Pathfinder, so with my next alt, I will try to stick to the main story quests and throw in a few more delves and dungeons.

I'm continuing to enjoy this expansion so far.  I haven't started leveling any alts yet, and obviously not working on any endgame stuff, but I continue to have fun.  I'll be leveling my hunter next.

In FFXIV, I finished getting the raid weapon on my main.  The queues for daily roulettes have been extremely long, pushing me to switch to playing World of Warcraft more than I otherwise might.  As a result, I've stopped leveling alt jobs, and I probably won't return to that unless I start getting frustrated with WoW.

More Limited Game Time

 My game time has been much more limited lately, so there hasn't been much in the way of updates.  I'm still working on War Within, although I still haven't even hit max level on my main yet, much less started on any alts.  In FFXIV, I'm basically down to running the final boss of the raid each week for the weapon token and have done nothing to level alts there, either.

Two factors have caused this limit. First is my employer, which has historically been highly flexible regarding working from home. Our CEO has decided to mandate three days per week in the office to help improve company culture.  Adding an hour a day commuting for those is 3 fewer hours of playtime per week.  Plus, I played on the side whenever I was on particularly dull or irrelevant Zoom calls.

The 2nd factor has been because of the younger Joarling.  I have posted about his swimming and state championship earlier this year.  He is going into his junior year of high school, meaning college recruiting for him could start this past 15th of June.  While we expected him to get some attention, we were utterly overwhelmed by the number of schools that reached out to him.  We spent a month talking to many different coaches, researching schools, and narrowing down his list. Still, the end result is that he has seven official visits scheduled over the next two months with various universities around the country.

Only one of these visits is near our home, so for the most part, they all involve flying somewhere on Thursday and returning home on Sunday.  This means that for September and October, I'm effectively only working three days per week while spending the rest of the time accompanying him on these visits.  It's also causing him to get very behind on his schoolwork, so I'm also spending most of my time in the evenings helping him get caught up on homework and studying for quizzes and exams.  He goes to an overly demanding school that hasn't so far shown much flexibility in helping him manage this situation.

On the positive side, it's been a lot of fun so far!

(It had been pouring rain not long before this picture was taken, which is why we both look a bit soggy)

That is the update for now.  

Cheers,

Joar

Blaugust 2024: Preparing for War Within and Update on FFXIV

I've made some fairly decent progress in FFXIV recently.  All of my DOH/DOL jobs are now at level 100, so I can mainly focus on leveling and on knocking out the latest set of raid gear on my main.  I finished leveling Samurai and have started on both Paladin and Pictomancer.  The Paladin is at level 93, but not really much progress on the Picto yet.  

In World of Warcraft, I did manage to get my Alliance Druid to level 70 before early access dropped to War Within.  I'm not going to do any spoilers here, but I did manage to play a decent amount of War Within on Friday and got my Warlock to level 73.  A few general comments:

• I did the one initial delve that it has you do as part of the storyline.  That seemed fine, and I'm looking forward to trying more of those.
• I also did my first follower dungeon, which I really liked.  I didn't even have the tank set up to lead the party, so I was setting the pace for the group, which worked fine for me.
• So far, I'm enjoying the story and the content that I've seen to this point.  It's engaging enough that I probably won't spend much time in FFXIV for now.  

My play time for the next few weeks will be very limited. Over the course of September and October, we're doing a whole bunch of official college recruiting visits with the youngest Joarling, which will involve traveling Thursday through Sunday for about seven weeks straight. On top of that, my company has gone from allowing folks to work from home as much as they'd like to mandating a minimum of three days per week in the office, which is taking a big chunk of commute time out of my life.  On the upside, I'll probably be more caught up on the podcasts I like listening to.

That's it for now.  This Blaugust has been slower than usual for me with all the college recruiting prep for the youngest, but I'm hoping to pick up the pace with my posting a bit in September and October.  

Cheers,

Joar

Blaugust 2024: Updates on Warcraft and FFXIV

 In Warcraft, I got yet another character to level 70 using the Radiant Echoes - this time my Alliance Paladin.  That makes my 18th character at max level.  I'm running my Alliance Shadow Priest through the same process next.

After playing the pre-patch for a few weeks now, while I like the concept of warbands generally, especially as a massive altoholic, I'm not a big fan of the log-on screen itself.  I enjoyed having my characters organized by server rather than all together in one big mass.  It cut them up into much more manageable chunks.  Of course, this is from the perspective of someone with 49 different alts, so you're dealing with a much smaller group of characters, it's probably a lot better interface.

In Final Fantasy, I have only played a little since my last update.  I've gotten busy with work and then was out of town over last weekend for a water polo tournament with my youngest.  I have kept current on the new raid, and all I have left gear-wise from that are legs, one more accessory, and the weapon.  Then, I can just focus on leveling until the alliance raid comes out.

All my DOH/DOL jobs are at least level 97 now.  I have two at level 100 - Leatherworking and Goldsmithing, so I can do all my own melding now, which is good. 

Once War Within launches in a couple of weeks, I will take a break from FFXIV for a while. We'll see how long that keeps me engaged. I'll likely focus on that until the first raid tier is done, but we'll see how that goes.

That's the update for now.  I'll try to knock out one more post on Friday!

Cheers,

Joar

Blaugust 2024: Radiant Echoes for Leveling

I'm still primarily playing FFXIV, but I wanted to talk about using Radiant Echoes for leveling because I've tried it for some of my alts that are stuck at level 50.  I didn't try the event when it was first released, so my commentary is entirely based on the more cleaned-up version that's out now.  I've been finding it to be insanely fast for leveling.  It's taking anywhere from 3-6 minutes per level from 50 to 70, meaning you can get that entire stretch done in an hour or two.  

The bad news is that it is incredibly tedious, and you won't be at all geared by the time you get to level 70, but if that's not a big concern for now, it's a reasonable way to try to push a few alts over the finish line.  I have more than a few to go, and while I could theoretically knock them all out before War Within launches, I'm not going to.  While I currently have 17 max-level characters, after dinging 70 on my Alliance Warlock yesterday, I still have 27 alts sitting at level 50, two at level 60 (including an Alliance Paladin that I started working on today), and 3 that are below level 50 (mainly allied race characters that I started but never finished).  But I will probably get a few more knocked out just for fun.  We'll see how many it ends up being.  The Echoes in a zone that involve killing some kind of boss (not the final boss for the zone) seem to give more xp than the other ones, so it seems better to focus on those.

On the FFXIV front, I've been running the new raid regularly and am starting to accumulate a decent amount of gear.  I also have been continuing to level the Samurai, currently at level 98.  Most of my focus over the last couple of days has been making the level 97 crafting and gathering gear for my DOH/DOL jobs.  I'm getting close to finishing the intermediate crafting steps, so I'm probably only about an hour or so remaining to get it all knocked out.  I'll then restart my leveling and see if I can use that gear to get scrip gear once I hit 100.  Otherwise, I'll probably wait and work on the level 100 crafted gear later.

That is the update for now!

Cheers,

Joar

Blaugust 2024: Intro and Updates on FFXIV and World of Warcraft

For those of you who may be reading my blog for the first time because of Blaugust, I figured I'd start with a bit of an introduction.  I've been blogging about video games for over 15 years now.  This blog started as a way to talk about plans that I had for leveling a bunch of alts in World of Warcraft, as well as leveling strategies.  It has eventually expanded to cover quite a few other games I play, but it still tends to focus on casual gameplay and leveling alts.

If you'd like a little bit more detailed history of the blog, there's a pretty decent version that I did for Blaugust back in 2022:  https://wowaltaddiction.blogspot.com/2022/08/blaugust-2022-evolution-of-wow-alt.html

Since the last update, more than two weeks ago, I have been continuing to slog through alt jobs in Dawntrail and working through the new raid.  I finished leveling my Machinist and am sitting at level 96 on my Samurai.  Paladin will be up next.  I've also been working pretty hard on the various DOH / DOL jobs and have them all sitting between 95 and 98 (except Fishing, which is at 94).  So I'm making good progress there.  I continue to just use the Grand Company turn-ins each day for leveling.

I missed one raid cycle of the new raid because of vacation, so I'm a bit behind. I've got a lot of tokens at this point, but it's been pretty spread out, so I haven't really upgraded much gear yet.  

I also finished the Caster, Healer, and Ranged DPS role quests and will knock out the physical dps role quests once I'm done with Samurai.

I'm still mostly enjoying Dawntrail, but I am running out of steam with this expansion. So, I may switch back to World of Warcraft on and off, particularly once the new expansion launches there.

On the World of Warcraft front, I haven't done much other than get the pre-patch up and running. I'm still working on the Alliance Warlock, and if I get the chance, I may try leveling him using Radiant Echoes. He's around level 61.  

Beyond that, I'm still logging on every day to do an enchanting writ in ESO to continue to level that last profession. It's sitting around 44 now, so I'm getting close.

That's it for now.   More soon!

Joar

Dawntrail Progress

Since last week's update, I finished the MSQ for Dawntrail and have unlocked all of the expert dungeons so I can start running expert roulettes on my Summoner.  The level 100 dungeons are challenging but not as hard as I might have expected, given the leveling dungeons.  So far, they just seem like normal expert dungeon fare.

Adding the extra fancy Bahamut summon to the Summoner rotation seems fine.  It obviously takes a lot longer to get through the entire cycle, and I'm not even finishing it on some fights, but it still seems to flow fine.  I'm interested in seeing some of the other jobs, though, and how they compare.

I have also started leveling the Machinist and have that job sitting at level 94.  Despite my thoughts on Viper, I think Samurai will still be up next, followed by Gunbreaker.  Once I get all the roles done, I'll probably do Pictomancer and Viper after that before knocking out the rest of the jobs.

I've also started progressing on the DOH/DOL jobs, which are all at level 91.  So far, I've just been doing GC turn-ins for the xp, but I may look at doing collectible turn-ins either instead or in addition.  It would undoubtedly help me accumulate scrip for max-level gear when I'm ready.

Beyond FFXIV, the only other thing I've been doing is logging in daily to do an enchanting writ in ESO, as I'm still working on leveling that to 50.  I'm currently sitting at 42, so not long to go.

Cheers,

Joar

Early Spoiler-Free Thoughts on Dawntrail

For the last 10 days since early release, I've been mainly playing Dawntrail as time allows.  Despite considering playing on my machinist, I've followed the typical path and leveled my summoner.  I've also been taking it pretty slow.  I'm sitting at level 99 and still have a bit to go on the MSQ.  Looking back, I think with Endwalker, it took me about 2 weeks to finish things up, so I'm probably running slightly ahead of that pace, depending on my playtime over the next couple of days.

Here are my early thoughts:

• I'm not all the way to the end yet, but I've enjoyed the story so far.  I'm far enough along that I think I can see where this is going, but hopefully, I'm surprised.  There have been some good, unexpected surprises and character arcs that have really kept me engaged.
• The music, as always, is fantastic.  
• The dungeons and trials seem a bit overtuned for story content.  I haven't tried a ton yet, but I ended last week completely stuck on the level 99 dungeon.  That seems to be a general consensus among many players I've talked to.  
• There are at least two new areas in this expansion that would make for fantastic player housing, so I hope they consider that. 
• I've started playing with summoner, and the class changes while leveling are incredibly minor. There's a bit more at max level, so I'll have to reflect on that later in a blog post.
• I've been collecting Aether Currents as I go to unlock flying in each zone, and that hasn't been too hard at this point, which I appreciate.

After I finish the MSQ on the summoner, who will almost definitely hit 100 well before being done, the plans next are to knock out role quests for caster dps and healer and then start working on a job of each type to add to that.  That's likely going to mean Machinist, Samurai, and Gunbreaker like it has in the past, but I'm thinking about swapping Samurai for Viper just to try that.

I'll also start working on all the crafting and gathering jobs.  Like previous expansions, I usually just level those gradually by doing daily GC turn-ins.  Those generally give a ton of experience and are a reasonably casual way to level all of those within a few weeks while still working on other stuff.  The only exception to that is fishing, where I tend to level mostly through Ocean Fishing.

In other game news, before Dawntrail dropped, I got my Alliance Hunter to max level in World of Warcraft and started leveling my Alliance Warlock.

In Elder Scrolls Online, I still log on every day just to knock out a quick Enchanting Writ to keep working on leveling that towards 50.  It's my last profession, currently sitting at level 40, so it's not long to go.

That's the update for now!

Cheers,

Joar