maraudon

All posts tagged maraudon

The adventures of Sleepypaw… and friends!

Posted by Peter (Devee) on June 2, 2014
Posted in: Carpe Flux Capacitor, Dungeons and Scenarios, Journal, Monk, Sleepypaw, World of Warcraft. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

scarlet halls

Sleepypaw, my Tushui pandaren monk, joined my friends’ guild, Olio de Oliva. Friday we ran some dungeons, and I had a lot of fun. This is the same group with whom I sometimes play World of Tanks (and blog about at Polygons and Pixels) and Dungeons & Dragons (and blog about at WebPageless). They’re a much more casual guild than Carpe Flux Capacitor, so it was fun to experience the game a bit differently and more like I did when I first started playing.

On my main, I ran each dungeon in Mists of Pandaria once for the story. At max level, I ran them for gear, and the goal was to get through them as fast as possible. With Olio de Oliva, we were just having fun running dungeons. It was nice to enjoy things at a slower pace. I do hope I wasn’t annoying though. I couldn’t help but chime in with additional information or instruction. Some of the players have been playing for a while, but some were quite new.

We ran Scarlet Halls, Scarlet Monastery, Razorfen Kraul, and Maraudon (my least favorite dungeon – ugh). Because we had more than five people online, we rotated. That was also really nice. Don’t get me wrong – I love raiding – but being bale to take a 20-30 minute break in the middle of group play is pretty nice. As we tried to make the groups work for different player rotations, we realized it’d be easier if I could tank as well. I tanked a little as a blood DK back in Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm, but it had definitely been a while. Sleepypaw was 30, so he just gained the ability to dual spec, so I picked up brewmaster. I spent a few minutes reading tooltips and arranging abilities, and then we bounded into a dungeon – Scarlet Monastery. It was confusing, and I was really unsure of myself. I kept asking if I was doing alright, but I seemed to be holding aggro. I had trouble with a couple abilities too. I kept not being at minimum range or not having enough chi. Eventually I think I understood when to use my different abilities.

Doing dungeons with a group of friends made me feel really nostalgic. It was an aspect of the game that I had been missing for a while. It was also pretty exciting tanking. Brewmaster seems like a fun spec. I’m also still enjoying seeing the Alliance side of the game!

 

Patches up to 1.5 – Battlegrounds.

Posted by Peter (Devee) on June 13, 2012
Posted in: PVP, Raiding, Videos, World of Warcraft. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

In Vanilla, Blizzard wasn’t matching patches to story progression yet. Some progressed the story, but many did not. Patch 1.2, Mysteries of Maraudon, brought holidays and the Maraudon dungeon. I was low level at the time, so I don’t know what it was like when it was first released. Next came patch 1.3, Ruins of the Dire Maul, which brought the dungeon and player caps on dungeons. It seems odd now to think that there was a time when there weren’t player limits. The more mind-boggling aspect is that at one point Maraudon and Dire Maul were new and, presumably, people were excited about them. Those dungeons are terrible. Is that just me, or do other people agree?

Patch 1.4, The Call of War, brought the PvP honor system, Children’s Week, the Gurubashi arena, and the elemental invasion. These are all good parts of the game I think (or at least on the right track). However, I still can’t imagine being too excited about this patch. It’s not real, full-fledged content yet.

Patch 1.5, Battlegrounds, brought Warsong Gulch and Alterac Valley. Here’s some actual content finally. However, it’s still only PVP content. Don’t get me wrong; I’m fine with that, but I think the vast majority of players are PVE-oriented. I couldn’t imagine the game without battlegrounds. Yeah, I enjoy some other aspects of the game, but battlegrounds are my favorite. Without them, I never would have reached endgame. I’m sure of it.

The trailer itself is terrible. It seems odd that Blizzard could make such a great trailer for the game itself and then release this. It’s bad. It’s really bad, actually. I would say it looks like a fan made it, except I’ve seen excellent fan videos. This is clearly recorded in-game withsome zoomed to first-person perspective. The camera work is shaky, and most disappointingly, there’s no voice-acting at all. At this stage of the game, Blizzard seems to be promoting mechanics more than the world itself. There’s no sense of getting into character and really making the universe come alive. Maybe it wasn’t needed back then because World of Warcraft already had the most undeniably “alive” world of any game.

Next we’ll see Blizzard gets any better with the Assault on Blackwing Lair.