An Embarrassment of Riches

It's been a busy and fun last couple of weeks for anyone that plays Blizzard games!  And all of this has contributed to make it a fine time to return to World of Warcraft - which is course is exactly what they intend.  So I thought I'd share some of the cool things that have recently become available.

Reaper of Souls
Things got kicked off in a big way earlier this month when the Loot 2.0 Patch dropped for Diablo III.  This brought a complete revamping of their loot and difficulty systems, and as of yesterday I believe, the shutting down of the auction houses.  Pretty much everyone I've talked to has agreed that this is absolutely the best thing to happen to the game so far.  It's suddenly returned the fun to finding cool stuff, makes finding cool stuff more likely, and that in turn brings the fun back to the game.  But even better, was that if you pre-ordered, you got an awesome treasure goblin pet in World of Warcraft! This little fella is both creepy and awesome at the same time, and is arguably the noisiest pet in my collection.  Within 30 minutes of him following you around you are either going to love him or absolutely hate him!

Hearthsteed!
Another big event that happened this past week was that after months of alphas and betas, Hearthstone has officially gone live.  I've been playing Hearthstone since the closed alpha, and absolutely love the game.  My secret mage deck is probably still my fave, but I've had good fun and decent luck with many of the heroes.  And to celebrate, once again Blizz is there with the WoW tie in.  Get three wins in either Play mode or Arena mode, and you get another awesome mount - the Hearthsteed.  This mount is as cool as its name is lame, lol.  It's best described as kind of a stone.. arcane.. flying.. horse thing.  I know right? How can you not want that.

Boost to 90!
But the big happening this week was the release of preorders for the Warlords of Draenor expansion.  If you preordered the digital deluxe edition (which I did, natch!) you got this crazy cool mount - the Dread Raven. And you got a matching pet - the Raven Hatchling.  And of course, you got a boost to 90 - one of your existing characters (or even a brand new one) boosted to the current max level in the game.  I absolutely love the new mount and pet.  And with Shimmerblade's tier 2 recolor transmog set, the entire ensemble fits together really nicely.

But the big question that's on everyone's mind that's playing the game right now is of course:

What class do I boost to 90!!?!!

What if I pick a class I don't like?  But if I boost a class that's close to 90, I feel like I wasted my boost!  I've never played mage - maybe that's what I want!  Heheh.. I heard this conversation and variations of it from many folks over the past few days.  I have to admit, I was having the same dilemma myself, until I learned the finer details of the boost program.  See, if you boost a class that is level 60 or above, not only do you get boosted to level 90, but that classes primary crafting professions are also maxed out to 600.  Until I learned that, I was seriously considering boosting a class I'd never played before - maybe shaman, or priest.  But I've had a hunter sitting at level 62 since Wrath was released.  And I know I love that hunter.  I just never got back around to leveling her.  And honestly, I enjoy the early game quite a bit in WoW, so I knew I'd have no problems getting through 1 to 60.  But from about level 70 on, it's more of a slog for me.  So suddenly this was a no brainer. Boost my level 72 hunter to 90, get leatherworking maxed to 600. Now I can make cool gear for my hunter and my rogue, and I have another class at max level that I'm running around having an absolute blast with.

However you decide to choose, there's never been a better time to get back into the game, on a variety of fronts.  And if you do decide to come back to the game, and you got your freshly minted level 90 warlock, but arent' sure what do to with her - there are two resources you absolutely should bookmark now.  The first is this fantastic Level 90 Guide from WoWhead.  It's got everything you need to know about where to go and what to do to start outfitting your toon in something a little better than those gifted greens.  And if you're looking for help on picking those talents, and putting those abilities on your bar and how to work for them, be sure and check out the class guides at Icy Veins.  Each one gives incredibly good information on talent choices and rotations, as well as glyphs, gear, and everything else you want to know to get started with your class.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm swinging off to plunder some pirate booty with my new level 90 Draenei Hunter!

Why are there no tanks?

So this line of thought got kicked off actually a few weeks ago, when I saw this blurb, from the letter from the producer for Final Fantasy XIV - ARR, in response to the question What can they do about the continued lack of tanks in the game?

We review player data every day, and recently there are actually a significant number of players leveling tank classes. When participating in the low level duty roulette, for example, you'll encounter players leveling their tanks and even players that just started a tank class. The number of tanks around level 40 is growing as well, and I believe this number will continue to increase. However, as you all know, there are also a number of players who are simply leveling a tank class because it's easier to queue in the duty finder, so whether or not these players will continue to play as tanks in the long term is still an issue. As things stand now, however, the number of tanks is growing, and I'm sure there are many players who will find tanking to be fun and continue leveling them up, so we're going to keep an eye on how many decide to use their tanks as their main class. If tanks are still in short supply, we would like to consider adding various bonuses such as a specialized mount.

And quite honestly this just flumoxed me.  The need for tanks is so great in Final Fantasy that the producers of the game are considering bribing people to roll up tanks with specialized mounts.  And Final Fantasy XIV certainly isn't alone in this.  WoW has stuck with a strong role combat model (that is, a model that incorporates the oft referred to trinity of tank, dps, and heals) for over a decade, and it still struggles with a lack of tanks in random group play.  And if it's not tanks, then it's healers. And it struck me - we've been doing this for over 20 years.  Why isn't this a solved problem yet?

Exercise & Diet - Terrible Twins

So, by now I'm sure you guys are tired of me posting up exercise posts like I'm some sort of fitness freak.  But the truth is, I'm actually exactly the opposite of a fitness freak.  In fact, I struggle each and every time I have to decide whether or not I'm going to get in a workout for the day or not.  I wish I wasn't that person.  I actually do wish I was the kind of person that just did their daily or tri-weekly workout without a moment's thought - that it was as natural as eating.  I wish I was that person that, while even on vacation or on a business trip they sought out the hotel's weight room and was up at 5:30 am getting in their daily workout.  But no - I'm the person that while on vacation exercise is the furthest thought from my mind.  I'm all.. "Exercise!  Fuck that, I'm on vacation bitches!"  and that's the last thought of exercise that runs through my mind.  Which is why, I suppose, it actually makes it somewhat interesting to write about.

I have though, discovered something.  It's something that most everyone already knows, actually.  But as the great philosopher Morpheus once said.. "There is a difference, Neo, between knowing the path.. and walking the path".  As you probably already know, if you want to get back into some kind of sane human shape, you can't do it with just eating better, or just exercising, alone.  You have to do both.  Believe me I've tried - but exercise all you want, if you ignore your diet, you won't lose any weight.  At least I don't.  And vice versa, even if you successfully clean up your diet, without exercise, you still won't get the heart action you really need.  But the thing that I've discovered, is that one actually directly contributes to your ability to succeed in the other.

Here's what I mean.  I didn't exercise Friday.  Yap - blew it off.  Had a fine morning of leveling my protection warrior in WoW.  But as a result, I additionally felt almost no real motivation to watch my diet throughout the weekend.  So I threw down the beers, had 10,000 calorie pasta dishes on Friday night and Saturday night, and followed up with homemade pizza on Sunday.  Mmmmm.  The thing is, I probably had two weeks worth of normal person calories in three days.  It's a sure fire way back to 230 lbs, to be sure. This morning, despite a huge struggle, I actually somehow found the motivation to get back into the exercise room in front of the kinect and give it a 30 minute workout.  Not much, but it was something.  And the thing is, as I'm lumbering this 210 lb frame through butt-kicks and burpies, I'm thinking.. gawddamn.. this would be a helluva  lot easier if I didn't friggen weigh so much!  See?  One leads to the other.  If you actually can get a little exercise in, suddenly you're a bit more motivated to maybe skip that double package of Dolly Madison Swiss Roles at midnight.

Anyway, I'm writing this this morning to remind me of that motivation later, when I need it.  I dunno if I'll stay on my tri-weekly routine or not, but I need to.  I can't pretend to be even really very good at this, but I keep tellin' myself as long as I continue to try, then it has to be worth something.

Anyhoo.. hope your week shapes up to be a good one.  Peas Out!

Purchasing a Level 90 Boost - Long Overdue

So with this morning's patch, for a brief time, in the in-game store there was a services tab, and on that tab was the option to purchase a level 90 boost for $60.00.  Plenty of people are firing off with opinions on both sides of this, so I figured what the hell, might as well chime in on one side or the other.  So here we go.

Ask and ye shall receive

So apparently the right thing to was to blog about it.  Because just one day after complaining about it yesterday, the 6th and final piece of my transmog set dropped.  And as you probably already guessed, it was the blue rogue tier-2 recolor set from the Burning Crusade dungeons.

I didn't want to set up any of the set until I had all of it, because it clearly is a matched set, and just wouldn't look right without it being complete. And of course, the helm, the Cowl of the Guiltless, was the piece that I didn't have, and I think the cowl makes the set.

Though to be honest, the shots with her without the cowl aren't too shabby either.  The truly observant will notice that I also visited the barber to make her hair match the gear.  Yeah.. I'm that obsessive.

I love the Starlight daggers.  However, I spend much of my time in combat spec, when I'm soloing, and I don't yet have a decent sword.  Next on my list is to find a nice blue glowy sword - so if you have recommendations, I'm happy to hear them.

At least now though, I can stop visiting Black Morass every day, and for that, I am extremely pleased!

Transmog Where Art Thou

One of the "fun"* things I've been doing is trying to gather up a nice set of transmog gear for my rogue.  The gear pieces I want all drop from level 70 dungeons.  Unfortunately, they all mostly only drop from heroic versions of those dungeons, which means you get to make one attempt per day.

I've been working on this for about two weeks now - which I suppose in the grand scheme of things, isn't two bad.  And a few days I got really quite lucky, and got several drops in one day.  So I'm now at the point where I lack exactly one piece - the head piece.  And of course, the boss that drops the head piece is the last boss of Black Morass - which as you may or may not know, is one of the few metered dungeons where you absolutely have to do everything to actually even get to the last boss.  So a minimum of 12 to 15 minutes per run.

After over 15 days of killing this boss, and seeing every other single piece of gear in his loot table drop multiple times, I began to worry that perhaps the table had been changed and he didn't drop it anymore.  So I went over to wowhead to check out the info, and was greeted with hysterical commiseration comments like this:

To all level 90 rogues hoping to get the bloodfang recolor:
This will be the most painful 12-15minutes of your life x how ever many times you have to run it till it drops.
Currently i've invested 18 runs and about 190+ minutes into this dungeon and still have been unfortunate enough not to get it.
Good Luck!
Confirmed drop after 37 runs...... ffs fix the drop rate.

And this:

how is it all the drops have the same % rate but the one item (this one) seems to never drop ... i'm on my 20th run and still this hasn't dropped. i can get those handgrips of assassination just about every time though. 

Ah well. It's good to know it's not just me.  I will of course inundate you with screenshots once I get the full set.  The cowl really does make the set, so I'm not putting any of the other pieces on until it drops.

So.. drop.. already.. >.<

* Fun is in quotes because while I do actually enjoy going out and finding cool looking gear, running this one instance is getting on my last nerve! 

Motivation

I remember now what it was that actually got me going on the last exercise program that lasted for more than 6 weeks.  I was watching this Iron Man competition.  And there were.. these 75 year old guys out there.. doing the friggen IronMan.  And they weren't doing like.. the senior citizens version of the Ironman, they were just doing the straight up normal competition.  And I got off my ass and I started working out, and I stayed with it through the better part of six months.

I fell off that program back in October.  And though I have pretty much every weekend since January told myself "Okay.. let's get back on this" I have so far failed to do so.  This morning I'm saying it again.  And I gotta admit, it's the Olympics that are my motivation.  I mean.. make no mistake, it's not like I have any delusions about Olympic grandeur, but every one of those kids out there is out there because they worked their asses off.  And not just for months -- but for years.  And they're kids.  And you just.. you have to appreciate where they are now. 

So this morning I'm motivated to get back on track with a couple of things.  I'm going to game less.  Not much less, but I'm going to make more room in my day for other things too.  I'm going to blog more.  I'm starting this morning, and my promise is to start putting out more, 15 minute blogs.  Because one of the reason I don't blog as much as I should is that any time I sit down it turns into a 2 hour endeavor, and who has time for that?  So I'm going to write a bit more, excersize a bit more, and try to round out the lifestyle a bit.  And if you're all nodding and smiling in empathy and commiseration and thinking "Yeah.. so we all say.." well I don't blame you one bit, and I'm doing a bit of that myself.  But hey, they way I see it, no matter how many times we quit, we only lose if we stop trying to start. 

Have a great monday!