Weekend Update
Another week. Thinking about... things, past and present, has had me feeling down much of the weekend. I'm still trying to shake that off. Getting early voting out of the way is a bit of a relief, though I'm still getting political phone calls. Grrr. And it sounds like my new boss has been hired, starting November 9th or so. Here's hoping for a painless transition.
WoW
Well, as a guild, we're still a bit fragmented, with people all over the place as far as what they're doing. On one end, we have someone coming back from marriage/honeymoon/RL stuff who's still level 85, and a few level 90's who are new (due either to not playing much or bouncing between alts). On the other hand, we have a couple people hitting up challenge modes and raids with people outside the guild.
There's always some degree of tension between the people who want to go faster and those who don't. But, as I was pointing out to our guild leader, we aren't really "behind" for us at this point. MoP is about five weeks old. In Cataclysm, it was around 10-11 weeks (just under three months) before we started raiding, and even then we were only successful against the first couple bosses, Magmaw and Halfus. Back in Wrath, it was more like eight months before we started raiding, though the game and guild both have changed a fair bit since then. We'll just see how things play out.
Personally, I'm just trying to keep ahead of the curve. I don't run a lot of heroics, and haven't even seen all the new ones, but I have been keeping up with valor points and I've started hitting up LFR for Mogu'Shan Vaults. It's good to see the raid fights, though I'm amazed at how much difference there is between LFR and normal in some cases (no that I've seen normal yet, but I can read the abilities). You can basically ignore several major abilities of the early bosses in raid finder that would wipe a normal group if not handled well. And even at that, the second half of the raid, in LFR, is a huge step up as far as awareness necessary, if not coordination.
The new LFR loot system, which only ever gives you drops associated with your current spec (if you're lucky enough to get more than gold), is a mixed blessing. As I categorically refuse to tank for such a random group at this point, I was disappointed to begin with. But I've sort of accepted that it's a way for me to upgrade my DPS set while I gather valor points to get gear for tanking. I'd still rather be able to get pieces for both sets, but I think it'll work okay.
GW2
My Sunday night play was heavily shaded by being in a poor mood to begin with. The frustration associated with jumping puzzles is really not a good addition to that. And the holiday fight with the Mad King, while interesting in some ways, involves a good bit of jump. And hoping you don't miss a platform and die. The fight itself took a long-ass time, though we were 4-manning a 5-person instance. I just wish I didn't spend so much time reviving. I think I only went down once (lethal falling damage aside) over the course of the fight, but I was trying to revive others a lot. I will grant that most of the area abilities are well-telegraphed, so... points there. It was the first fight I'd seen that actually up-leveled characters to 80, which makes me wonder why there isn't more of that.
Between that and slogging through a story mission that I'd failed before when it was bugged, I gained enough experience to roll over into level 71. That's progress, right?
ME3 Multiplayer
I haven't been playing all that much recently, but I try to keep up with the operations. A couple weeks back, the whole multiplayer system was changed/upgraded, adding some new maps, a new enemy faction, some unlockable character options, and the technology to better track progress. That last point means "achievements" and new conditions for the operations that can be rewarded immediately.
So while previous ops were limited mostly to "complete X missions/objectives," they can now include earning X points with certain weapons or kits or whatever. Last week was a matter of completing a number of melee kills in a match. This weekend's was something like 50000 points with an N7 weapon - an odd choice given that it actually excludes anyone who hasn't completed an operation before. The community goals, however, seem to have gone away - they're all personal, for better or worse.
Also, I now hate the Collectors faction more than the Reapers faction. And the blizzard hazard map suuucks for a sniper.
WoW
Well, as a guild, we're still a bit fragmented, with people all over the place as far as what they're doing. On one end, we have someone coming back from marriage/honeymoon/RL stuff who's still level 85, and a few level 90's who are new (due either to not playing much or bouncing between alts). On the other hand, we have a couple people hitting up challenge modes and raids with people outside the guild.
There's always some degree of tension between the people who want to go faster and those who don't. But, as I was pointing out to our guild leader, we aren't really "behind" for us at this point. MoP is about five weeks old. In Cataclysm, it was around 10-11 weeks (just under three months) before we started raiding, and even then we were only successful against the first couple bosses, Magmaw and Halfus. Back in Wrath, it was more like eight months before we started raiding, though the game and guild both have changed a fair bit since then. We'll just see how things play out.
Personally, I'm just trying to keep ahead of the curve. I don't run a lot of heroics, and haven't even seen all the new ones, but I have been keeping up with valor points and I've started hitting up LFR for Mogu'Shan Vaults. It's good to see the raid fights, though I'm amazed at how much difference there is between LFR and normal in some cases (no that I've seen normal yet, but I can read the abilities). You can basically ignore several major abilities of the early bosses in raid finder that would wipe a normal group if not handled well. And even at that, the second half of the raid, in LFR, is a huge step up as far as awareness necessary, if not coordination.
The new LFR loot system, which only ever gives you drops associated with your current spec (if you're lucky enough to get more than gold), is a mixed blessing. As I categorically refuse to tank for such a random group at this point, I was disappointed to begin with. But I've sort of accepted that it's a way for me to upgrade my DPS set while I gather valor points to get gear for tanking. I'd still rather be able to get pieces for both sets, but I think it'll work okay.
GW2
My Sunday night play was heavily shaded by being in a poor mood to begin with. The frustration associated with jumping puzzles is really not a good addition to that. And the holiday fight with the Mad King, while interesting in some ways, involves a good bit of jump. And hoping you don't miss a platform and die. The fight itself took a long-ass time, though we were 4-manning a 5-person instance. I just wish I didn't spend so much time reviving. I think I only went down once (lethal falling damage aside) over the course of the fight, but I was trying to revive others a lot. I will grant that most of the area abilities are well-telegraphed, so... points there. It was the first fight I'd seen that actually up-leveled characters to 80, which makes me wonder why there isn't more of that.
Between that and slogging through a story mission that I'd failed before when it was bugged, I gained enough experience to roll over into level 71. That's progress, right?
ME3 Multiplayer
I haven't been playing all that much recently, but I try to keep up with the operations. A couple weeks back, the whole multiplayer system was changed/upgraded, adding some new maps, a new enemy faction, some unlockable character options, and the technology to better track progress. That last point means "achievements" and new conditions for the operations that can be rewarded immediately.
So while previous ops were limited mostly to "complete X missions/objectives," they can now include earning X points with certain weapons or kits or whatever. Last week was a matter of completing a number of melee kills in a match. This weekend's was something like 50000 points with an N7 weapon - an odd choice given that it actually excludes anyone who hasn't completed an operation before. The community goals, however, seem to have gone away - they're all personal, for better or worse.
Also, I now hate the Collectors faction more than the Reapers faction. And the blizzard hazard map suuucks for a sniper.
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