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

Happy 15th Blogoversary!

I'm a day late on this because of the weekend, but yesterday was the 15th anniversary of the start of this blog.  

 

I've done quite a few retrospectives on this blog's history over the last few years, particularly during Blaugust.  

Here's a pretty good summary that I wrote up about two years ago:  https://wowaltaddiction.blogspot.com/2022/08/blaugust-2022-evolution-of-wow-alt.html

It is pretty unbelievable to think that I've been doing this for so long.  What started as a blog about leveling alts in World of Warcraft now covers many gaming topics.  This will also be my 550th post, which is pretty hard to believe.  

For those of you who read this even occasionally, thank you for sticking with me over the years!

Regular Gaming Update

Right now, I've been playing many different games, but I'm not really focused enough on any of them to have much to report.

In terms of what is coming, we have a late June launch for the new FFXIV expansion, so that will likely be absorbing most of my time from that point forward.  I'm not sure how focused I'll be on getting each job to max level again, but I will at least do all the DOH/DOL jobs and one of each type for the combat jobs.

Following FFXIV, we have the new World of Warcraft expansion in late August.  That should give me plenty of time to complete what I need to on FFXIV before War Within launches.  After that, there will likely be a new Guild Wars 2 expansion somewhere down the line.

Since the last blog update, I've finished the new content patch for Elder Scrolls Online on my Magicka Templar and have done about half of it on my Arcanist.  I've also been working on map completion on my Templar.  Just working my way through it alphabetically.  Because it's at least easy to figure out what comes next that way.

I also started playing Diablo IV and have gotten my Necromancer to level 24.  I'm having a good time with it so far.  It seems unwise to have added another game into the rotation, but what the heck.

In World of Warcraft, I've gotten my alliance hunter to level 60 and have started on the Dragonflight content.  The Shadowlands leveling path seems a bit off.  Doing main story quests works fine until about level 56 or 57.  After that, you're better off switching to dungeon leveling, as the quest xp scaling seems way off.

The plan for the next couple of weeks until FFXIV launches is to gear up my Machinist job in case I decide to level that right away.  I will also do the same thing for my Horde hunter in World of Warcraft since that will likely be the second character I level in War Within.  I may wait for whatever gear catch-up system is coming pre-launch for that piece, though.

That is the update for now.

Cheers,

Joar

And Giving Diablo IV a Shot

I wanted to like Path of Exile; I really did.  I probably didn't give it the shot it deserved, but it was just way too confusing to figure out what I was doing for me, and I felt squishy in the early levels.  I downloaded Diablo Immortal onto my phone recently and had been enjoying that, so I decided to try Diablo IV.  Really, it will be just for a few days until the new ESO content drops.  So far I've been enjoying it.  

World of Warcraft

In World of Warcraft, I finished leveling my MOP Remix warlock to level 70.  The total time played was around 16 hours, which I'm not sure is all that great relative to just leveling normally in retail.  It has been a long time since I've leveled a character from level 1, so I don't have any good recent data on that.  I'm sure it would go faster with my next MOP Remix character, if there is one.  I'm running short on character slots though, so that may not be in the cards.  The MOP Remix character was my 48th character, so I only have two slots left unless they removed that limit at some point while I was off playing other games.  

The MOP Remix character was my 14th character to max level in Dragonflight.  Far short of the 43 that I ended up getting to max level in Battle for Azeroth, but a lot better than the 7 or so that I ended up finishing in Shadowlands.  I may keep working on leveling some of these guys until the new FFXIV expansion comes out, but we'll have to see.  

Once I was done with the Remix, I grabbed a few of the interesting mounts, including two original MOP ones that I wanted - the Heavenly Onyx Cloud Serpent and the Astral Cloud Serpent.  On top of those, I grabbed a Mushan, a Juggernaut, and one other.  It puts me up to 411 mounts now, which seems more than I could ever really appreciate.

ESO

In ESO, I've continued to work on leveling enchanting on my main.  It's at 26 now, so I still have a long way to go, but I'm not in any big hurry with that one.  I also finished creating and upgrading gear for the other two characters I plan to run through Gold Road - my Arcanist and Sorceror.  

When I downloaded Diablo IV, I completely forgot that I had intended to go back and work on weaponsmithing in Guild Wars 2, so I may spend some time trying to do that.

Although, I was honestly doing that so I could create my own Sigils, but now that I've looked at it for Runes, the material cost for Runes and Sigils isn't wildly less than what they sell for on the Trading Post, so not sure why I need to invest the time on that.  It would take a while to pay for itself.

That's the update for now. 

Cheers,

Joar

Trying the MOP Remix

I'll cover this update by game since I've been somewhat active in pretty much everything except FFXIV in the last few weeks:

World of Warcraft

In WoW, I finished up my mage and my evoker, so I now have a character of every class at max level.  I may also try to get an alliance character to max level before the next expansion drops, but we'll see how that goes.

In the meantime, I've been leveling a character using the Mists of Pandaria Remix and having a lot of fun with it.  It's a really cool ARPG-type system that really makes the whole process a lot of fun.  I've finished Jade Forest and am now in the Valley of the Four Winds.  I recently hit level 32, so I feel like I'm making good progress.  I saw something that showed what levels you should be in each zone, but I haven't paid much attention to that.

Elder Scrolls Online

I finished getting provisioning, jewel crafting, and alchemy to level 50, leaving only enchanting undone.  I could spend a lot of money on cp160 glyphs and knock it out quickly, but I'm not in that much of a hurry.  And if I run three characters through the new content, I'll probably end up with plenty of glyphs to deconstruct.   

Guild Wars 2

So I ran my main characters, the Engineer and the Necromancer, through the new content for Guild Wars 2, which was the final piece of the Secrets of the Obscure expansion.  It was a bit underwhelming for the final piece of an expansion.  I haven't tried the meta event in the final zone yet because I haven't seen all the pieces line up to unlock it yet.  

That's the update for now.

Cheers,

Joar

Drifting Aimlessly Between MMO's

It has been longer than I would like since my last blog post - three weeks.  Part of that is because work and school have kept me fairly busy.  The other part is that I'm having trouble finding inspiration in games to try at this point, and most of my usual "Big Four" games that I play are all in a bit of a content drought at the moment, at least for the next month.  The new big content release for Elder Scrolls Online starts in early June, and then Dawntrail drops at the end of June, so everything should be good once we get to that point, but for now, I'm finding it hard to come up with something to engage in.

Here is the update on what I have accomplished.  I finished getting my Warden to max level in Elder Scrolls Online, so I now have a character of each class at max.  I think Templar, Arcanist, and Sorceror will be the ones I continue to play new content with, so I'm working on making gear for them all.  I've also been working on leveling professions on my Templar main, who already had Clothing, Blacksmithing and Woodworking at max level.  Jewelcrafting is getting a bit close. Alchemy is around level 30, and the rest are pretty far behind.  But it is something that I can focus on for the next month.

In World of Warcraft, I finished getting the Dream Wardens to max renown.  I'm also working on leveling my mage and my evoker, the last two classes that I need to get to max to have one of each class at max in WoW, something I didn't manage during Shadowlands.  The mage is sitting at level 66, so not too much longer, and the Evoker is still parked at level 60.

I also went back and did some raids in Final Fantasy to fill some gear gaps on some of my other jobs.  It's hard to get too motivated to do much of that since most of them will be quickly filled with poetics by the time I get to leveling them.  

I also periodically log on to Guild Wars 2 to do random stuff.   I'm still working towards non-original zone completion on my main, so I poke at that occasionally.

Work has been crazy because of a reorganization, and I now have exactly one week left to finish my Master's Degree in Accounting with a focus on Data Analytics. I'm not even sure why I'm doing the Master's Degree at my age, other than I don't have one, and I have thoughts of teaching at some point as I'm getting closer to retiring from my regular work.  In any case, I have two group projects due this coming Sunday to finish things up, so those are taking up quite a bit of my time.

Those are the updates for now,

Cheers!

Joar

Necromancer Done. Only Warden Remains

 I managed to get the Necromancer to level 50, so now only the Warden remains.  He's currently sitting at level 39, so it's not too far to go.  I've also continued to work on the remaining professions on my main.  I've gotten Jewelcrafting up to 45, but Alchemy, Provisioning, and Enchanting are far behind.  Once I finish with leveling, I'll probably just bear down and knock them all out in one go rather than doing a little bit using writs every day.  

The Necromancer was decent all the way through.  The way Blastbones operated changed while I was in the middle of leveling, so that sucked a bit, but I found other stuff that worked for me.

If I had to pick just a couple to play regularly, it would likely be Templar, Arcanist, and Sorc.

I also downloaded LOTRO, although I haven't had much chance to try it yet. I'm barely into the introductory tutorial.  

Finally, in World of Warcraft, I'm continuing to work on Niffem and Dream Warden rep. I'm about 1,000 rep away from having Neffem done, and I just hit 17 renown on Dream Warden, so I'm not super far away on them either.

Finally, we were in the path of totality for the solar eclipse today, so we got ourselves the safety glasses and went down to a local rooftop bar to be social and enjoy the experience.  It was a pretty cool thing to see and experience.  I'd post pictures, but there are hundreds of better photographers than me all over the country who did a much better job than I ever would.  

That's the update for now.

Cheers,

Joar

Elder Scrolls Online Updates

Elder Scrolls Online is where I'm investing most of my playtime.  I finished up the Dragonknight yesterday.  Like the Nightblade before, it is also not my favorite class to play, but it was fine down the stretch.  I did most of the 45-50 stretch by working on main story quests rather than doing strictly dungeon runs, so that actually made it a bit more bearable.

I continue to work on both the Necromancer and the Warden.  The Necromancer is around level 41 and almost done, and the Warden is sitting around level 26. Once I have those two done, I'll finish the remaining professions on my main, and then I need to find something else to bury myself in for a while.

Dawntrail won't be out until late June, so I will likely have at least a month where I need something else to dedicate myself to.  We'll see what that ends up being.

I also maximized all my riding traits on my main in ESO.  I'd just been quietly stopping by the Stablemaster daily as part of doing the writs to level crafting and finally got there.   

I didn't bother even touching the pirate thing in World of Warcraft.  I still log on periodically to do world quests and progress the rep on the last two factions that I have to go to, but there's not much left to do in game.

That's the update 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 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

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

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.