So, um, hi

I've been kind of busy lately, between work and keeping myself distracted with gaming, and time just sort of got away from me. And, well, I won't say anything about being 'back' because it's likely to continue. Personal stuff has been making it hard to really want to write about anything, and honestly, I've just been bouncing between games, leveling baby alts most of the time, which is just not really that interesting. And it's not like a lot of people are reading this blog anyways.



Most of my game time has been on Rift. I reactivated my account and got the new Storm Legion expansion with my tax return, and it's been fun. Way more fun than WoW, I have to admit. I feel like a traitor saying that, but it's true. Blizzard has been making so many changes to everything, especially the classes, that it seems like there's no real challenges any more. On the other hand, Rift's class system hasn't changed much, other than each calling getting a new soul with the expansion. Another difference is the factions. While WoW has been pushing the Horde/Alliance war harder with each patch, the line between factions in Rift has almost disappeared. Defiants and Guardians share chat channels, and can even be in the same guild, and there's a new(ish) "mercenary" option for the warfronts, where a character can be switched to the opposing team when one side has a shortage of players. Personally, I have never been a huge fan of PvP, and while I do battlegrounds in WoW once in a while, it more out of boredom than any desire to smash the other factions faces. So the faction mixing in Rift has been a nice change.

Rift has also added player housing, called dimensions, in the expansion, and it's been a blast. There are so many different areas, and everything is completely free-placement, so anyone can build whatever they want, wherever they want it. And make it all public so other players can come admire their handiwork. I've spent almost as much time checking out other players' and guilds' dimensions than I've spent building my own. The only problem has been that it can get to be rather expensive to acquire some of the furniture and stuff. But that's mostly just a problem for lowbie characters. Since rogue-Kelesaria has hit level 50, money has been a much smaller problem, on my main server at least.

It only took until the first expansion to reach the old level cap...

a rather poor view of Vanyell's current home

Besides Rift, I still do log on WoW once in a while. I have discovered something, while running around with my PvP-obsessed brother (cross-realm grouping with friends has been the only really good thing Blizz has done recently). I've discovered that battleground healing is not only rather fun, I'm actually sort of good at it. Definitely not great, but at least mostly competent. And pet battles are still fun in smaller doses. And I'm trying to make myself level a few more characters, even if there's almost no chance of getting them geared up at all, thanks to the rep-gating for all the valor gear. Jahira actually got most of level 87 through healing BGs with my brother's shaman, and my warlock Rynia has had a few tries along with his feral druid. Unfortunately, I'm sort of a fail 'lock in PvP, so I'm trying to focus on leveling Jahira, so she can start tagging along with sis's Rheugan and a few of our Feathermoon friends. Rajji has also been getting some play time, because I want a second 90 hunter, and want to see more of the game's storyline from the Horde side. So far he's almost halfway through 87, in Kun Lai, which is still one of my favorite zones. Getting xp for pet battles is helping a lot, too.

Lord of the Rings Online has been somewhat neglected lately, but having a year-long subscription to it means that it will be there whenever I do want to play. I have gotten one or two more characters a new store-bought horse with my accumulated points, but I've been slacking on taking screenshots.

I did remember to get Dirken's new friend.

Star Wars: The Old Republic has gone free-to-play recently, and I've been goofing around on that whenever I get the chance. My old laptop can't handle the graphics, so I have to borrow sis's computer, which means I can only play when she's not home, but it gives me a couple hours on my days off. My altaholicism has followed me into that game, and so far I have a Sith sorcerer, Imperial agent/sniper, a Jedi sentinel and consular (who will eventually be going shadow once I get through the beginning zone), a trooper/commando, and a smuggler who is still in the starter zone. I'll probably roll a bounty hunter someday, but I'm not sure about the Sith warrior. I didn't really care for the inquisitor's storyline, and I'm not very impressed with the Imperial side in general. I think I'm just too 'nice' for their sheer ruthlessness. Light points all the way! Also, since it's only been on sis's computer, I don't have any screenshots. :(

That's all I can think of, game-wise. Only other things going on right now is work (blah) and real-life issues that no one would want to hear about. My depression has been up and down, mostly down, but at least I have Feathermeet in July to look forward to. We've already got our plane tickets and everything, so I'll have something to be happy about soon. I don't know when I'll have the time/energy/brain power for another blog post so I'm not gonna make any promises as far as that goes.

/waves

Update time

So, I really don't ever intend to have long spells between posts. I really don't. It just sort of... happens. :\

To attempt to make up for this last one, let me mention that there is currently 2 RP things going on at the moment. One with Jahira, Windstar, and a couple other druids, and another with Max and Arnen. Yes, me and sis are finally getting the poor brothers reunited, hopefully sometime in the next couple days. In the meantime, I've been keeping myself busy in between work shifts.

Firstly, Rift-Kel is up to 47, almost 48. Leveling has been slowed lately, in favor of trying to work on professions, but I'm getting myself back in gear. Not much longer, and I will have my first non-WoW max-level toon. Which of course means I will get to start on the next one. >.> Most likely my lil chloro-mage Vanyell. Or maybe perhaps one of my Guardian characters. Hmm...

In Lord of the Rings Online, I have been tinkering on holiday festival stuff. Mostly doing the holiday quests and collecting festival costumes/housing items/ mounts. My burglar Daeren is my official mount collector, and he got both of the in-game mounts on the first two days of the festival. Then Turbine snuck a new one in halfway through the holiday, so I took him to grab it as soon as I learned about it. The festival is almost over now, and I think I'm a little burned out with it, so I probably will be getting back to normal questing/leveling now. Especially since the newest expansion has already been announced for this fall. Ugh, so much to do...

Finally on to WoW-related stuff. Kel has had her first attempt in the raid finder, and I think it went well. She didn't win any drops, but at least I didn't cause any wipes, and she wasn't last on the dps meter, either. My game did go down to 2fps, occasionally dropping to 1fps, during most of the boss fights (which I was expecting, my computer doesn't like 25-man raids). She is also finally almost done with her Molten Front stuff. Yes, I know, I'm a slacker. >.< She should only need another day, maybe 2, of dailies to recruit her last faction, the Ancients, and then she'll have a shiny new hippogryph.

Oh yea, she's in the Wildfire Riders now, too. It still hasn't sunk in completely, and I'm kind of half expecting them to realize their mistake and boot me out. >.>
(Just kidding. :P I <3 you guys)

Jahira has also been seeing a lot of play time. Not too long ago, I sort of realized how much I love her character, and how much I've missed playing her, so she's kind of taken over #2 priority, as far as gear and things. She is way behind Kel right now, but I've been slowly figuring out how to Boomkin with her. She just recently reached the ilvl required for the new Time heroics, although she really needs a new weapon before I'll feel comfortable taking her in there. Which means that Kal has also been getting some attention as well. I had (sort of) recently switched one of her professions to blacksmithing, and have been wearing out her gryphon's wings farming ore to skill it up. She's still working through Northrend levels, but it's so dead up there (harhar) that she has little competition for ore nodes, and it's going pretty quickly. The biggest problem for now is my attention span. I really don't mind farming, in fact I downright enjoy it, but a few laps around Howling Fjord and I swear my brain tries to shut itself off. :P

My brother has finally convinced me to give the PvP server Arthas another try. I only have 3 characters over there so far, a little forsaken warrior, a human paladin, as well as my blood elf hunter Kerrowyn. She has been so neglected on Feathermoon, with 4 other hunters for competition, I decided to transfer her to Arthas, for a couple reasons. 1- I wanted a hunter on that server, 2- I hoped a new server might get me to play her more, and 3- I figured that if I still neglected her, I wouldn't mind as much since it's not my main server. So far I've got her up 3 or 4 levels since the transfer, and while I've switched my 'lowbie focus' to my pally, I do intend to continue working on Kerro in the near future.

And finally, Max has been getting some infrequent play time as well, and is currently 71. It's amazing what a good motivator it is, just having certain pets planned for a character. It was not hard getting him to 69 for his Beast Mastery talent, so he could go tame his devilsaur Fury (formerly King Mosh). And now I keep thinking about the spirit beasts I want to find for him, which means the sporadic leveling will continue. Oh yea, and there will be Max stories posted soon, as well.

And I think that's enough for this Wall o' Text. Time to crank up my new Lacuna Coil album (which is amazing) and do some leveling. Soon as I figure out which game I feel like playing first. :D
/Waves

Silence...

Not much interesting going on lately. Mostly just goofing around on Rift, with occasional visits to LotRO or WoW. My rogue on Rift is 45 now, only 5 more levels til I can start seeing what the endgame content is like. And, ya know, start on my next alt. >.>

I've had some interesting things going on in my head, RP-wise. Such as Kal getting a new (and rather impressive) scar, and some back-story stuff for a few LotR characters. The only problem is getting everything sorted out enough to write out. There may be some Storytime posts in the future, but I don't want to make any definite promises. Because I have a bad habit of failing them. :(

One interesting (to me, at least) thing I've been doing is taking screenshots. Enjoy!

Some of these animals in Rift just can't get along...










Moonshade Highlands may be the prettiest zone in the game...


Iron Pine Peaks is second (although the constant snowfall makes me lag)...


Kelesaria the rogue got a new buddy, courtesy of the FaeYule holiday event (and lots and lots of dailies)...


The Defiant capitol, Meridian...



My champion Aravann got himself a fancy horse, and I spoiled him with a /mountrearup emote as well...


My hunter Kelvren in Evendim, another gorgeous zone...


Another shot of Evendim...


And I think that's enough for now. :P
Thanksgiving went pretty good for me. Having the whole weekend off, except for coming in to help another department Saturday night (fun and easy compared to what I usually do), helped a lot. Just have to make it through Christmas and New Year's now. It never stops surprising me how rude and impatient people can get during holidays. Angry people in the check-out lines, drivers in the parking lot acting like they're on the friggin' freeway, it's enough to make me want to hide at home until the season is over. I lost track of how many times some driver came within inches (literally!) of hitting me, whenever I'm bringing the shopping carts back inside. Come on, people, aren't holidays supposed to be happy? What's the huge rush for? Geez... /endrant

Anyways, hope all the (few) people that read this had a good Thanksgiving, and have a good (and safe!) rest of the holidays. /Waves

Ah, accomplishment

On one hand, holidays usually mean that work is crazy and everyone is stressed out and cranky. But on the other hand, yay holidays!

Warcraft has been rather neglected lately, while I work on Lord of the Rings holiday stuff, and World Event stuff on Rift. My main character on Rift, Kelesaria the rogue, has been collecting the current event items to trade in for a pretty neat mount. Earlier today, after doing as many dailies as I can stand on my alts (yay for BoA items), her new raptor mount was 'leveled up' enough to use.

Yes, that is supposed to be a raptor. I have no idea what the idea behind the feathers and stuff is, but I still think it looks cool.

Lord of the Rings is having their Harvestmath celebrations, complete with a haunted burrow in the Shire. I have spent so much time inside that place, I don't even get lost anymore. I've been doing dailies on most of my characters there, too, to collect tokens for cosmetic items, as well as getting some pretty horses for several alts. In fact, for my burglar Daeren, I actually got both of the special holiday mounts. And I managed to do it mostly in one day! (That was a lot of tokens.) I haven't taken a lot of screenshots yet, but here's my minstrel Kyrreth, on Silver, and my champion Arrwyn, on Sable, both on the RP server, Laurelin.




I will admit that the festival has been frustrating at times. There are deeds (like achievements in WoW) to use a bunch of items with annoying effects during the holiday, and people have been abusing them left and right, without bothering themselves about whether their victims want their character to randomly faint, or cower in fear, or get mobbed by swarms of bugs/crows. It really isn't a huge deal, but when someone runs up to you without warning, and starts spamming the 'tricks' at you, it gets old really fast. The only reprieve is the fact that the items don't effect people on mounts, so my toons have all been sitting on their horses whenever I have to be around crowds of holiday-frenzied morons.

On WoW, Kel finally got her 'Hallowed' title this year. It only took 2 years for her to get that blasted squashling for her achievement. >.< She got the kitty familiar pet, too, but I couldn't make myself farm the dailies/candy buckets long enough to get her the mini wickerman. :( Oh well, maybe next year...

That's pretty much it for now. Time to make myself get some sleep before I have to face the craziness at work tomorrow. /Waves

Ugh....

Real Life is being a little crazy right now. Work is wearing me out, and now me and sis are getting ready to move out of the house we've been renting with 2 other people, and into an apartment by ourselves. When I have the time (and energy) for gaming, I'm still mostly on Rift. I still come back to tinker on Warcraft every now and then, but it's mostly just been to say hi to people, and tinker around a bit. Like parking Rajji out in Azshara to look for the Evalcharr, the green chimera, who is being very shy so far. Raj has also been doing some dungeons and a bit of questing, and is 82 now. Bearkat is up to 83, and finished Hyjal. I think I'm going to do the World Pillar questlines in Deepholm on him before going out to Uldum. If I do instances with him as well as questing, Uldum might get him all the way to 85, then Twilight Highlands will be easy (and make a lot of money as well).

My cleric on Rift has been a ton of fun. She's almost level 30, and her melee-leveling spec is surprisingly resilient. I've been having fun pvping with her healing spec too, and Monday night, me and a buddy (on his 36 rogue) managed to duo the first instance. FYI, instances in Rift are hard! I actually half-soloed the last boss, because my friend died, so I ran around healing myself and putting DoTs on the boss until he could run back in and help finish him off. It was awesome, and nice to find out that I can manage healing in a new game. I'm still really nervous about trying to tank on my warrior though. :P And yes, my altaholicism has transferred itself over to Rift. Fortunately, the way the classes work, I just need one of each calling, and I can just respec whoever I'm playing however I want, depending on what I feel like doing at the time. Cleric is definitely my favorite, rogue and warrior are fun, but I'm having a hard time getting my mage to 'click'. I do like playing him, I just tend to get bored on him kind of fast. I've taken a few screenshots, which I'll probably post later, with a more detailed post about the game.

And one last thing, my drawing itch has been quiet lately, but I do have a new one of my druid kitties. Jahira and Windstar, in one of their favorite positions -



Aren't they cuuuuute?

And now to try to get myself to bed at a decent time. After one last lap to see if that darn chimera is out. >.>

/Waves

p.s.- My little depression problem has been a bit better lately, but that's something for another post. Later. Maybe.

A very delayed update

Work and games have kept me pretty busy, so this stuff all happened a few days ago. :\ Bad blogger is bad.

I was tinkering on Lord of the Rings Online last week, when my sister announced that she found a lonely-looking wolf digging through some trash in the Hinterlands.




My lil blood elf Kerrowyn decided to come take a look, and she found a new friend -



Later, I can't remember if it was that night or the next day, I was on Rajji while afk'ing to browse Petopia's forums. Rajji still has a pretty small stable, so I was trying to decide on a couple new pets for him, when I found one of the threads on the Amani dragonhawk. I really like 'hawks, even though I don't actually use them very often, so I decided to take a trip to Zul Aman before the patch made it harder to get in. Many deaths and much frustration later, Rajji had two new buddies. Raj got a couple hexing sticks from trash mobs, and used them on some frogs. Mojo hopped into Raj's bags on the second one.



Now I just gotta get Kel in there and find her a Mojo. >.> And level Max so he can go get a blue 'hawk from Sunwell Plateau.

I found another interesting option on Petopia, but I decided my cat collector, Shadepaw, would be the one to hunt this one. She took a trip to northern Stranglethorn and sat around Pogeyan's spawn area for a little over an hour, taking a couple breaks to thin out the local panther population. There were several other people that passed through, either questing or possibly camping him as well, but Shade was the one that finally spotted him. I then discovered that he leaps at you when you start the tame, and that Shade put her trap a little far away. Pogeyan is so big, however, that it caught him anyways.





He is very shiny, and Shade loves him already. His new name is Loki, which is a Norse fire god, which I thought was appropriate for a cat with the title 'the Fire Spirit'.

And the last thing to update on is what I've been doing the last several days. One of my oldest WoW friends had been getting very tired/bored with Warcraft, and had switched over to playing Rift. Well, he talked about it so much on Vent, my resistance didn't really have a chance. Honestly, I've been getting a little bored myself, with getting 3 of my characters to 85 so quick, and the steady grind of dungeons and dailies. The only thing to break the monotony was RP, and even that was starting to get... well, not exactly boring, but really, I can only take so much sitting around while everyone else has conversations and storylines going on all around me. And the (very) few people I actually had any IC contact with have been busy doing other things, like gearing up for raids (which don't even get me started on that right now) and/or leveling alts. So I've been by myself a lot lately, other than some dungeons/battlegrounds with my brother on some baby tauren alts we had made. By myself = lonely = bad, bad depression fits. :(

So anyways, I've started playing Rift. I have a couple characters at level 10+ already, and so far it's been a blast. It's hard to say though, whether this will be a regular thing yet. Everything is still 'new and shiny', rifts are fun (though sometimes annoying when they open up on top of the area you're trying to quest in), warfronts(battlegrounds) are fun, even though the Defiants lose 80-90% of the time. And the game's storylines are awesome. Oh, and Defiants rock. Guardians are just a little too fanantical for me. (Just my opinion, if anyone that plays Guardian reads this, please don't hate me. >.<)

So, if anyone has noticed me missing from Warcraft (which I sort of doubt), Rift is why. I will probably be back eventually, because I still love WoW. I just need a little break. I'll most likely be hopping on now and then to check my toons and play with my brother. Just not very often, for now.

(I hope the last part does not sound like a rant, because it's not supposed to be. And I totally did NOT mean to turn this into a Massive Wall of Text, sorry. :P)