Sunday, March 10, 2024

Guild Wars 2 and Elder Scrolls Online Updates

I continue to balance my playing time between Elder Scrolls Online and Guild Wars 2.  I finished running my Reaper through the new Guild Wars 2 content.  What I really need to do next is focus on grabbing the rest of the mastery point abilities I need across all the expansions.  I thought the easiest way to do that was to run various characters back through the story quest, but I really don't think that's the most efficient way of accumulating experience in those zones relative to just doing zone events and things like that.  I might do some of that on alts.  Like right now, dual-wield mace rangers are entertaining to play, although I'm expecting that to get seriously nerfed in the next week or two.  

I need to find one more Central Tyria mastery point, and the Karka Queen thing is probably the easiest thing for me to grab quickly.  

However, even with spending more time on Guild Wars, most of my time continues to be spent in Elder Scrolls Online.  I finished leveling my Magicka Nightblade to 50.  It's not my favorite class I've leveled so far, but it was okay.  My Dragonknight is at level 37, and the Necromancer is at level 31.  I'm going to start working on the Warden next.  I'm thinking about leveling that one as a dungeon healer primarily, so we'll see how that goes.  I haven't been a huge fan of Dragonknight so far, either.  I probably should have leveled him as a tank, but I'm not confident enough in the dungeons yet to do that.

I likely will get back into both FFXIV and World of Warcraft at some point.  Right now, grinding out renown on those last two factions isn't enough of a motivator for me to go back to World of Warcraft, and I'm not sure what I'd do in FFXIV at this point.  

So that is the update for now!  

Cheers!

Joar


Thursday, February 29, 2024

State Champ, Initial Thoughts on New GW2 Content and More ESO

 I'm getting a third post for February in just under the wire.  Thank goodness it's a leap year.  I've been traveling a lot recently, which has cut down on my play and blogging time.  As I've mentioned, my younger two kids are both competitive swimmers.  My middle son swims for his University, Carnegie Mellon, and my youngest swims for his local high school.  I was in Chicago two weeks ago for my middle son's conference championships.  

He finished 7th in his main event, the 50 Free, which was disappointing as he was leading at prelims.  However, on his relays, one of his relays finished 2nd, and two of them finished 3rd, which was a good outcome.  He has qualified for the NCAA National Championships in 4 events - the 50 Free, the 200 Free Relay, the 200 Medley Relay, and the 400 Free Relay.  Those are happening in Greensboro, North Carolina, near the end of March.

Last weekend, my youngest son won the Ohio State Championship in the 50 Free and 200 Medley Relay.  His team also finished 2nd in the 200 Free Relay.  It was a fun weekend, and we're very proud of him.


In gaming news, I ran through the new Guild Wars 2 content on my Machinist.  The story in this expansion continues to be pretty good, although I miss some of our old friends from earlier expansions.  That's one thing that FFXIV does really well.  The events in the zone are a lot of fun, and the storyline is challenging and engaging.  I've also started through it on my Reaper, so we'll see how that goes.  

In Elder Scrolls Online news, I continue to work on leveling those three alts.  My Nightblade is at level 38, the Dragonknight is at level 38, and the Necromancer is at level 24.  I'm continuing to work through Main Story Quests in their Zones and then doing the Daily Dungeon.  I also tried doing the Daily PvP thing to see if the bonus xp from that would be worth doing.  I may try it again, but I did two different battlegrounds and finished last both times, so I got no bonus xp.  I did get a couple of decent pieces of gear, though.

Beyond that, I have yet to play World of Warcraft or FFXIV.

That's the update for this week!  Cheers!

Joar

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Continuing the Alt Leveling Run in Elder Scrolls Online

 For the past week, when I've had some play time, I've mostly continued my run at leveling alts in Elder Scrolls Online.  I got my Sorceror to level 50 and am now working on a Nightblade and a Dragonknight.

As I mentioned last week, I intended to start the Nightblade as a Stamina spec and try doing Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood content along with the Daily Dungeon and PvP stuff to level him.  I think I've decided to switch back to Magblade and go the regular MSQ route for leveling instead.  I just think I'm not a sneaky sneaky style of player.  I much prefer just charging forward and smacking things.  Or at least blooping them from a distance with my spells.



The Dragonknight also seems fun so far.  Right now, the Nightblade is sitting at level 22, and the Dragonknight is at level 13, so I have a way to go on both.  After that, I will do a Necromancer, and then I might try leveling a Warden as a healer just for something different.

I also hopped back into World of Warcraft to continue getting renown on the Niffem guys and the Dream Wardens.  I reached Renown level 18 on the Niffem, which let me snag their mount.  As one of the hundreds of mounts I now have in Warcraft, I'm sure it's fine.

I'm still not really doing anything in either Final Fantasy or Guild Wars 2 these days.  Guild Wars 2 has more content coming out later this month, so that may change, at least for a while.


Monday, February 5, 2024

Playing Mostly Elder Scrolls Online Lately

My intentions of sticking to a once-per-week blog posting schedule were quickly thwarted by some business travel two weeks ago and then a rough week last week getting caught up.  However, we're back this week.  

I came down with the flu this weekend, so my wife has me quarantined in a guest bedroom as our youngest son is coming into high school championship season for swimming,  and me getting him sick at this point would not be well received!  

So I might even get more than one post per week to get at least partially caught up.

In terms of video games, I've beey playing Elder Scrolls Online this week.  That's one of those games that I am always really comfortable with but just don't find myself playing that often.  I've decided, like with most other games that I play, to go ahead and try to get a character of each class to max level.   My original main, which is a Magicka Templar, has been there for quite some time, and I just finished getting a character of the new Arcanist class to max.

I'm now working on a Sorceror and after that, I plan to work on a Nightblade.  The Sorceror is sitting at level 45, so almost done with that one.  I have them spread out pretty well between the various factions, so that will give me different storylines to play.  I've been doing a random dungeon once per day as well because that's huge experience.  Beyond that, I'm just trucking along with the various storylines in different zones.

I'm thinking about having my Nightblade be Thieves Guild / Dark Brotherhood to see if it's possible to level that way.  I'm guessing it's probably not, but it's worth giving a try.  I've also debated setting foot in some of the DLC Dungeons now that my Sorceror is level 45, but will have to see if that's even possible.  I'm not sure if those give higher levels of xp or not.

I haven't really done much of anything in Final Fantasy once I got my Island to level 20.  I've been logging in to World of Warcraft periodically to do Niffem and Dream Warden world quests, but that's about it for there as well.

That's about it for today!

Cheers,

Joar

Thursday, January 18, 2024

New Content In FFXIV and World Of Warcraft

Warning:  There may be spoilers for the new content for both FFXIV and 
World of Warcraft included in this blog post.

I've spent the time that I've had this week primarily working through the new content in both FFXIV and World of Warcraft.  The early part of the week was still spent mostly on Elder Scrolls Online, where I've gotten my Arcanist and Sorceror to level 37.  

FFXIV

I hopped right into the new MSQ for FFXIV as soon as it became available.  The new character introduced was fun, and I like the new female Hrothgar model, but I still miss Zero.  I hope we see her brought back at some point.  It was pretty short and followed the FFXIV model of tugging at the heartstrings at a couple of points, but it did an excellent job of setting up the transition to Dawntrail.

I also knocked out the latest installment of the Hildibrand quest line, which I enjoyed.  It was completely silly and ridiculous, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It was an entertaining end to this particular installment.  My one complaint with the whole questline is that creepy little Lalafel stalking Nashu everywhere.  I'm not sure I noticed it early on in the Hildi chain, but someone pointed out that the little creep is in every cutscene, hiding somewhere and stalking her.

Sort of made me want to go over and nuke the little shit, but that didn't appear to be an option.  I was disappointed that there was no ending group dance scene with the quest chain itself, but I suppose I'll get over that.

Once that was done, it was off to knock out the final stage of my Manderville Relic weapon.  I got a ridiculous dance scene for that, which took a bit of the sting away, but not by much.  


The new weapon looks stylish, so I'm happy with that.  I've not yet completed the final installment of Tataru's quest line, so expect thoughts on that next week.

World of Warcraft

I logged on and did the Gilneas thing.  That was fun, although a bit formulaic.  Go to this area, kill 12 guys, click 6 things.  Now go to this area, kill 12 guys, click 6 things.  Yeah, I get it.  Feels like we're losing a lot of senior leadership across both factions.  

It allowed me to try dragon-riding in the old world, which was absolutely spectacular.  The speed with which I could get from one end of the Eastern Kingdoms to the other was really fun.  I have not done the new Bel'ameth zone yet, so more on that to come.  I'm also very interested in trying the follower dungeons and figuring out how helpful that will be for leveling alts.  

So very early on for me, but it's been fine so far.  It's not exactly a 5-star review, but I'm pretty good with fine now.  

At least for now, I'll be continuing to level alts on ESO and then logging in to knock out those few last bits of content in WoW and FFXIV.  I still have Niffem and Dream Wardens to finish on the Renown front.  Niffem is at 17, and Dream Warden just hit 15, so it's not too far still to go on either.

Cheers,

Joar





Thursday, January 11, 2024

More Elder Scrolls Online Than Normal

I've been playing more Elder Scrolls Online recently than I have in a long time.  After a bit of a burst late last year, I've gotten a little tired of leveling alts in World of Warcraft.  I also realized that Elder Scrolls is the only game I play regularly where I don't have an alt of each class at max level.  So, I've started to work on that.

I have an Arcanist at level 27 and a Sorceror at level 33.  The Sorceror is one that I had already started a long time ago, but I also picked up Arcanist recently.  As the most recently introduced class, it seems a bit overpowered at the moment, so I figured it would be good to level it while that was still the case.  I'm just running home faction main story quests and the daily dungeon queue on the Arcanist.  




For the Sorceror, I went to Vvardenfell and picked up that expansion content, just for something different since that class is the same faction as the Arcanist.  Both are fun to play and have been relatively easy to level.  I'll probably try a stamina-based build with something like Warden next, just for something different.

In Final Fantasy, I'm essentially logging on each day to fill up my workshop queues.  I'm about 3/4 of the way through level 19, so I anticipate having my Island Sanctuary at max level in the next day or two.  There's new content dropping next week, so I will shift some time from ESO to Final Fantasy for a little bit.

In World of Warcraft, I'm working on leveling my mage, who is currently at level 64.  After that, I just have the Evoker to finish up, and I'll have a character of each class at max level, which will be the first time that's happened since Battle for Azeroth.  Beyond that, Joar is basically fully geared, and I'm just working on finishing up Renown with the Niffem guys and the Dream Wardens.

I'll have a decent chunk of play time next week, and then I'm traveling the following week, so my play time will be minimal.

That's it for now.

Cheers,

Joar

Thursday, January 4, 2024

Gaming Goals for 2024

A lot of new content is coming out this year that will keep me busy on the gaming front.  While we don't have specific release dates for most of it, there are definitely going to be a few more content patches in Guild Wars 2, a new minor content patch and a new expansion for FFXIV, several new content patches and a new expansion for World of Warcraft.  I'm also assuming there will be something new for Elder Scrolls Online, but all they've announced so far is a big in-person event in the Netherlands in April for their 10th anniversary.

The first piece coming out is the 6.55 patch for FFXIV, which is expected in the next week or two, followed by the new content patch for Guild Wars 2, scheduled for late February.

In the meantime, I plan to level my various World of Warcraft alts.   I'm also finishing the Niffem and Dream Walker renown on my main.  Once that is done and his gearing is done, I may also work on gearing up the hunter.  

Since leveling alts has gotten a bit tiresome only 10 characters in, I've also decided to level some alts in Elder Scrolls Online.  It's the only game I play regularly where I don't have a character of each class at maximum level, so that seems easy enough to rectify.  I've started with Arcanist to power through that while it still looks overpowered.  After my normal Magicka Templar, I have a Sorceror at level 30, but everyone else is basically just starting out.  

My other commitment for this year is to get closer to posting something once a week on this blog to have more consistency, but we'll see how that goes.  Last year was the highest post total since 2015, so I'm coming around a bit.

That's it for now!

Cheers,

Joar


Saturday, December 30, 2023

2023 Year In Review

My wife and I managed to get a few days away on a cruise this week, so I initially thought this post would probably wait until 2024, but I find myself with a bit of time in the evening, so I figured I'd at least get started on it.

The early part of 2023 started with me splitting time between playing World of Warcraft Dragonflight and still working through Final Fantasy XIV, with time reasonably evenly split in the first few months of the year.  

By March, after getting 6 characters to max level in Dragonflight and working through more renown, I got tired of that again, so I returned to FFXIV and even started picking up some Elder Scrolls Online.  In ESO, the main goal was finishing up Caldwell's gold, which I did by the end of the month.  

In April, I decided it would be fun to knock out a Skyscale in Guild Wars 2, so I also jumped back into that game.  All during this time in ESO and GW2, I was still working on leveling more jobs to max level in FFXIV.  

In May, I started working on World Completion on my main in GW2 and also started working on leveling a character of every class.  I got the World Completion done in June.  I also began working on the new ESO content, Necrom, when it came out and continued with the FFXIV leveling.

In July, I finished leveling every class in Guild Wars 2 to max and unlocking at least one Elite spec on all of them.  Meanwhile, I was down to just 3 jobs to go in FFXIV to have them all maxed out.  

August brought the launch of the new Guild Wars 2 expansion, which took quite a bit of my time as I ran through that content on two of my classes.   By mid-September, though, I ran out of steam again on Guild Wars 2, so I switched back to Final Fantasy XIV for the final push on those last few jobs.  I finally managed to get the Omni-90 done in FFXVI and so switched back to playing World of Warcraft.  

November and December saw me returning to my Island Sanctuary in FFXIV to get caught up on leveling that, continuing to work on leveling alts in World of Warcraft, and trying to knock out those last few Renowns.  

Next week, I'll try to pull together a preview of what's planned for 2024.  

Cheers, 

Joar


Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Thoughts on Amirdrassil LFR and WoW Leveling Update

I managed to run through the last two wings of LFR earlier this week, including the final wing with Tindal and Fyrakk.  As a casual LFR hero, I must say that I'm much happier with this LFR installment than I have been in a long time.  These fights are challenging without being overwhelming.  Fyrakk is the first end-of-expansion boss in a long time where I've come out of the fight NOT saying "I will never do this fight ever again."  For me, LFR should be about getting to see the content and potentially getting some rewards that are basically on par with what you can get from World Quests and other events.  I think they've hit that balance nicely with this last raid.  The fights are challenging and interesting.  You have to understand the mechanics and adapt, so it's not just a face roll, but it's not so difficult that you'll be pounding your head against a wall for hours waiting for 10 stacks of determination.

I did have one odd thing happen this week.  I had a tier piece drop for me, and I had another warlock in the group absolutely beg me for it, saying it was the last one he needed for this 4-piece set bonus.  

I happily gave it to him because I already had 445 gloves in that spot (just a purchase from the Dream Wardens), and I hadn't been to the Catalyst yet to switch the last two pieces to tier pieces.  Is it possible that there are folks out there doing raids and such who aren't aware that you can use the Catalyst to convert any gear to a tier piece?  /shrug

Anyway, this person was thrilled to death that I gave them the tier piece, even though it was way less of a big deal than they probably thought.  So glad I could make someone's day.

Also, the final series of campaign and post-Fyrakk kill quests are beyond sappy (tree pun fully intended).  So ensure you're prepared for overdone attempts to tug at your heartstrings. 

Beyond that, I'm still doing Niffem and Dream Warden world quests on Joar for rep until I get those maxed out.

In leveling news, I did get my Demon Hunter to level 70 using the Timewalking event and anniversary bonuses, and I'm now working on Shadow Priest, who is currently at 69.  After that, I'll be working on the Rogue.  I've always hated leveling rogues since they got rid of the Combat spec, so this will probably be another one where I just try to chain-run dungeons to get it over with.

In Final Fantasy XIV, I've primarily been working on my Island Sanctuary, which is now at level 17.  I unlocked the final area of the cave, got a new set of tools to use in said cave, and also upgraded my Cozy Cabin to something large and ridiculous-looking, which I think is the final upgrade.

I had no activity at all in Guild Wars 2 or ESO this week.

Cheers,

Joar

Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Using the Anniversary Event and Timewalking Dungeons to Level Alts

 As was true with my last update, I'm spending most of my time right now on World of Warcraft, using both the anniversary event XP bonus and the current week of timewalking dungeons to go back and level a few alts that I had sitting at level 50 that never got touched after the end of Battle for Azeroth.  I've used this to get my rogue, monk, and mage to level 60.  I also plan to use the last few days of the event to finish getting my demon hunter and priest to 70.  For those, I'll obviously be using regular dungeons, not the timewalking variety.  After that, I will return to doing normal stuff on my main with off-time focused on leveling the alts again.  

At the end of Battle for Azeroth, I had 43 max-level characters, including one that was a boost with the pre-purchase of Shadowlands.  I only leveled three characters to max in Shadowlands initially before my 18-month-long departure from WoW.  I did three more when I came back near the very end of the expansion.  Currently, I have six max-level characters: 2 that are sitting between 60 and 70 and three that have now been leveled to 60.  That leaves me with 34 level 50s and a level 60 and level 70 boost.

I won't level at anywhere near that pace again, but I may see what progress I can make.  Mainly, if things come around again, offering decent bonuses.

Yikes.

On the FFXIV front, I'm primarily working on my Island Sanctuary.  I've gotten it to level 16 now.  I don't know what level 16 triggered, but by the time I looked up from doing the latest installment of the Tataru questline and opening the new cave section, I was already halfway to level 17.  So that won't be long.  

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Further Progress in World of Warcraft

Last week, I had very little play time because of some work stuff, and then some travel with the Joarlings for swim meets.  I'm back to it this week and have been mainly focused on World of Warcraft.

First, in FFXIV, I've been logging on daily to work on my Island Sanctuary.  I've now gotten it to level 14 and have upgraded all 3 of my Workshops to level 4.  The Island is back running reasonably well on its own, so it's not taking a massive investment of time each day to keep it humming.

Most of my time has been spent in World of Warcraft.  I did end up finishing the Iskaara Tuskarr rep, so I'm now just focused on the Niffem and the new Dream Warden faction.  My Niffem guys are sitting at level 11 and the Dream Warden's are still relatively early.

I also ran both wings of the new raid.  I had a ton of gear drop for me, mostly because there were hardly any casters in my groups.  Lots of hunters, but very few casters.  I found the first two wings to be pretty fun.  The bosses were challenging; you had to pay attention to the mechanics, but they weren't too ridiculous.  I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of it.  

Gear is pretty plentiful, which is excellent for late in an expansion.  I'm not sure I want to spend much time gearing up any alts, but I may take a look at it eventually.

I'm still playing as Destruction, but after looking at the Tier Set bonuses, I may switch back to Demonology, as those seem more fun.

I've also started leveling some alts again.  When I stopped playing Dragonflight, I had stopped on my Demon Hunter, so I'm picking him back up.  He's sitting at level 65 now, so halfway there, although still in Waking Shores.

I've played a bit of Guild Wars 2, doing a chapter or so of LWS4 now and then.

That's it for now.

Cheers,

Joar

Guild Wars 2 and Elder Scrolls Online Updates

I continue to balance my playing time between Elder Scrolls Online and Guild Wars 2.  I finished running my Reaper through the new Guild War...