I'm still around, just been pretty busy with work and things.
Guild Wars 2 is still my main focus, although my sister recently got the Secret World on sale, and I've been tinkering around with a character on there.
*Waves*
It's been fun enough that I think I'm gonna get the game myself, once my tax return stuff is done and I can get myself a new computer. Which hopefully will be in the next couple weeks or so. :D
With Guild Wars, I been able to get a couple character slots, so I have one of each class now. Ranger is still my favorite, though my warrior, guardian, and necromancer have been a blast too. I've finally made an elementalist that I click with, too, after rolling 2-3 that wound up getting deleted. (Apologies for the picture spam >.<)
Blood Legion warrior, Raskur Steelfang
elementalist Ari Flameleaf, with a buddy.
Iron Legion engineer, Bear Stonepaw
Kal Riversong, Norn thief. Yes, of course I rolled Kal over here. ;)
necromancer Vanni Sparlock, with her undead posse
mesmer Jorren Ashkel
guardian Kero Skyblade
Kel and Odin, admiring the view
Kel is still my highest level at 50-something, with Kero next at 32 (I think). Raskur and Vanni are both mid-20s, and everyone else is still in the high teens. Jorren and Bear have been a little neglected lately, but they will be leveled eventually. As far as everyone else, I've just been playing with whoever I feel like at that moment, which usually winds up being Kel or Kero. I think Raskur and Vanni have gotten as high as they are simply because when I do play with them, it's usually for most of the day, so they'll get around 2-4 levels each time. Kal is fun too, and would probably be higher, except thieves can be a little tricky to play compared to rangers and guardians, and I just haven't been 'in the mood' to play her as much. She gets to be spoiled with everyone else's crafting, though, so it's not that bad. ;)
I'm still tinkering around on WoW, too. I haven't been doing as much alt-leveling as I would like to, because work has been leaving me too tired and achy to settle down and concentrate for very long, but I'm still getting a little time on Timeless Isle and pet battling. I think another issue I've been having with Warcraft has been computer related, because I think my graphics card might be starting to go bad, so everything in the game looks horrible and pixelated and glitchy, and it's just sort of depressing to look at. Not to mention that the lag has gotten so bad that I can't even do anything group-related, like LFD or LFR, because spending boss fights with my game completely frozen is not particularly fun. :\ Hopefully, finally getting a new computer will help, and I can try to get back into WoW a bit more. Because I miss my friends. :(
I've been missing Star Wars a bit lately, too, but I had to let my sub run out (and the non-sub restrictions really suck) after some after-holiday work hours got cut, but everything has settled back to normal there, so hopefully I can get back to my babies characters there, too.
Well, that's pretty much all I've been up to lately. With any luck, the next post I make will be from a nice, shiny, new computer. :D
/Waves
The Guild Wars 2 sale was just too much to pass up, so now I have my own account full of characters. And of course, the first one I rolled was a ranger. Sis had said some good things about the Norn area, so Kel Stormbough has been introduced to Tyria. And can I just say.... dang...
help me i kind of made her hot whoops
With Sabre. Because Kel must always have a Sabre.
With Odin.
With Drago the ice drake.
This is Tahnka, and unfortunately I can't ever remember exactly what he is. But look at that face, he's so cute (and deadly).
With Thor.
I may have gone a little crazy with charming things.... >.>
But seriously, I accidentally made a really good-looking character, so I'm not complaining. I also have a very small and unintentional thing with Norse pet names (She also has a fern hound named Freya, but no screenshots of her yet).
Continuing with my altaholicism, I also have a charr warrior, sylvari elementalist, and a human guardian. I'm also planning one or two more. I really want a charr engineer, and also want to try out a mesmer. I had an asura thief, but the character wasn't really working out, so I'm going to reroll a different race later. Apparently asuras fall into the same category with me as gnomes in WoW; they're cute and I like them, I just can't get interested in them enough to actually play one. I might try another asura someday, maybe another ranger since they're so much fun.
Ari Ashleaf, elementalist
Raskur Steelfang, warrior
Kero Skyblade, guardian
So far my warrior has been my second favorite. Mostly because I just love the charr. Kero has been pretty fun as well, although guardians were not exactly like I expected. I was expecting more like a paladin/fighter type class, but she's more like a mix between paladin and water-mage. I'm getting used to it though!
That's it for now, I think. I really should be taking more screenshot with my characters, rather than almost all viewpoint scenery shots. Although I do have a new favorite pic of Kel.
I'm a happy camper right now. I mentioned in my last post that I was looking for Final Fantasy 14? Well, I finally found it! And have been playing it as much as I can get away with ever since.
I've rerolled my characters, just changing their names slightly. Jorren has a different last name, and Kero is now Kerowyn. I also have a new one, a Miqo'te arcanist (future summoner) named Rynna. I've been tinkering here and there on everybody, but Jorren has been my main focus, because pugilists are FUN.
I've also been taking way too many screenshots...
Jorren is working on getting the monk job. He's gotten to level 16 as a pugilist, and I just got level 15 as a lancer earlier today. He's also a level 13 miner. Once I get his level 15 lancer quest done (because I hate to leave things like that incomplete), he'll be back to punching things for a while.
(Why do my characters always have to blink right when I hit the screenshot key?)
Kerowyn is up to level 9 (if I remember correctly). She's going to be a dragoon, eventually, which sounds like a flip-ton of fun. She'll probably be the one I focus on after Jorren is leveled enough to make me happy.
And here's Rynna. She's been my "tinker with when I'm bored" character, and is only level 7 (or maybe 8, I can't remember for sure). The first couple levels were a little rough, and I wasn't sure how much I was going to like the class, but since she got her carbuncle pet, she's been a blast.
The sad news is, this has all been with the free 30 days that came with the game purchase. Once that's done, I'm not sure how much I'm going to be playing. I will probably pick up one month subs whenever I have the extra money, but lately that hasn't been very often. To be completely honest, my computer situation is the only thing keeping me from quitting WoW for this game. The Final Fantasy series has always been my favorite, and lately Warcraft just hasn't been very interesting. Even with the expansion, the only thing I'm getting excited about is the garrisons. The only reason I even still log on is my friends, and since I've stopped RPing (for a lot of personal reasons, but mostly because I don't have the energy/brain power for it anymore), I haven't even been doing anything with them. I miss them, but everyone has RP plots and stories going on, and I'm pretty clueless about all of it, so I couldn't really join in even if I wanted to. Final Fantasy has been different. I don't know anyone in the game, so I'm still lonely, but there's so much to do in game that I don't really notice it much. And, somehow, not knowing anyone makes it less lonely. Like, it's harder to miss people when there is no people to miss, if that makes sense. (Not that I wouldn't be dancing for joy if any of my Warcraft friends started playing Final Fantasy more. I'm not sure anyone has since the beta ended.) I've even noticed that I've been happier at work, after getting some play time in the morning, since I got this game. I'm sure it won't last, and eventually the "new shiny" aspect will wear off, but dammit I'm going to enjoy myself while it lasts.
Just in case anyone is wondering, I don't think I'm going to completely quit WoW, even after I get a new computer and can play Final Fantasy and Star Wars more often. And I am getting the new expansion, at least for my main account, whenever it comes out. I'm just going to be getting game-time cards, like I'm currently doing with my second account, since I can just buy one of those whenever I want to play, and can afford it, instead of the subscription automatically withdrawing every month.
And now, I think that's enough rambling for one post. I've still got over half of my free time with Final Fantasy, so I'll probably be showing off posting more screenshots from that later. Then it'll most likely be back to Star Wars stuff, especially since they're about to have a new expansion. (Which looks like more fun than DudesWarlords of Draenor... :P )
So, I'm currently bouncing between two characters most of the time, while taking short breaks for alts every once in a while. My agent Qurana is still my 'main', and highest-level, character, and I've been playing my Sith warrior Jhorren a lot too. (Mostly because of Jaesa /swoon)
Jhorren is currently plugging along in Tatooine, chasing a certain padawn. And trying to show Vette that not all Sith are complete jerks. ;P I like to believe that he's making progress...
this gave me some major warm fuzzy feelings
As for Qurana, she has just finished Alderaan, and I have a new Favorite Zone (or planet or whatever) Ever. Seriously, the whole entire planet is just so stinkinggorgeous.
and then there are the wild thrantas
Also, Qurana's crew has grown, with her furure husband Vector joining at the end of her class quest. I am sooo happy to have a non-pshycopath nice Light-side companion to run around with now. Seriously, Kaliyo is fun and all, but something is just not right with her head. And, I hate to say it, but she's not a terribly great tank, either. With Vector along as a second DPS, everything dies too fast to hurt much.
taking in some of the sights during their first mission together
I am still tinkering some on Khrysi, my consular, whenever I want a break from those two. I also made a second Jedi knight, on Begeren Colony with Jhorren (and a bunch of other baby alts). This one is a guy, because Kira is seriously awesome but Bioware won't let Rynna romance her. So now An'dra will probably be my focus once I am ready to seriously play the knight's storyline. Rynna will get her turn (with Doc, most likely) later.
taxi-ing across Tython
Well, I believe that's all the interesting stuff for now. There's a double-XP weekend going on right now, so I'm planning on buzzing through the class quests on a couple of my characters, to get through the planets I don't like as much. (Can't wait to get back to Alderaan with Jhorren though :D) Specifically Khrysi, because Nar Shaddaa can get really old pretty fast, when you have 2 or more characters going through it in a short time frame. Plus I just miss her. The consular storyline is pretty darned awesome.
Well, not a whole lot has been going on, other than work and poking at stuff on the interwebs. Which by the way, I may have recently joined the tumblr club. >.> Game-wise, Star Wars: the Old Republic has become my new addiction. The only problem is, my old piece-of-outdated-junk laptop can't play it, so I need to bum sis's desktop whenever she's not home. It cuts down on my playing time, but it is her computer, so I really can't complain. And I get to play enough to keep myself fairly happy. Currently, I have at least one character of every class, both Republic and Imperial side, with a couple extra alts to tinker with the different advanced classes. As a result, my highest level character is only 20, but I'm getting over the 'new shiny' aspect, and have been seriously working on a couple certain ones.
My level 20 is my Sith sorcerer, Tagnesh, who I unfortunately don't have any good screenshots of. I'll fix that the next time I play him, though.
Next highest is my Jedi shadow, Khrysi, at 19 (almost 20!). She's so much fun to play, it makes me wish Tagnesh was an assassin instead, but he's still fun, and I would probably get bored if I was playing two of basically the same exact class all the time. Khrysi has been my favorite so far, the consular story line has been pretty amazing, and I just like republic side a bit better than the Imperials.
Then there's my Jedi sentinel, Rynna. She's almost as much fun as Khrysi, and has the added bonus of having Kira Carsen as a sidekick. ("Eat lightsaber, jerk!" has got to be my favorite line in the game XD ) There's a very small inconvenience with playing her, though... Bioware has given hints that same-gender romance options might be happening in the future, (maybe, eventually...)(and I mean more than the handful of flirts available on the new planet) and I would really love for the bond between Rynna and Kira to actually happen in-game, rather than only in my own head. :P And I have no idea if it would be possible at later levels. *sigh* At least I have plenty of other alts to keep myself busy while I wait and see.
My Imperial agent/sniper, Qurana, is also 19, but her story quest is starting to lose my interest. I'm not sure why, it started out pretty fun, but I think I'm just getting tired of following orders from dull, obey-the-rules-to-the-letter kind of NPCs. Whatever the reason, she's been taking a break while I level Tagnesh and Khrysi. I'm definately getting back to her later, though.
Unfortunately, I haven't gotten many good screenshots of the rest of my alts yet. I've tended to get so much into playing that I forget to take pictures. >.> I will fix that once I start leveling them up. For now, here's a pair of bounty hunters...
....Yes, I made two bounty hunters. Aerren (top) is on the alt server, Begeren Colony, while Drax'o (bottom) is with my main characters on Ebon Hawk. Aerren is a level 13 mercenary, while Drax is going to go powertech, whenever I actually get him through Hutta.
And just for kicks, here's my Sith marauder, Jhorren, holding a bomb. Poor Vette looks a little nervous.
I still log on Rift/WoW every so often, just to tinker around and 'see' my friends, but between boredom and lag, I haven't stayed on very long. I've been thinking of rolling a monk version of Kal, mostly because I've had to let my second account's sub run out, and that's the account warrior!Kal is on, and I miss her. And because monks are fun. I want to replace all of Sunre's heirloom gear first, though, because mailing everything between characters gets tedious. Sun is 82 now and starting on Deepholm, so it probably won't take long, once I can make myself stay on him for another leveling binge.
I had to cancel my Rift sub, too, but with it going free to play soon, I'll be able to play my above-level-20 characters again soon. And I have plenty of baby alts to tinker on until then.
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.
So, I've been playing Tera as much as my computer issues will let me. For anyone that hasn't seen/heard anything about this game, here's a video that someone on my server (Celestial Hills, the only RP server so far) made as a guild advertisement.
I would just like to mention, the music from that is totally stuck in my head, and is driving me slightly crazy from wanting to know what the dang song is. Someday I will get the nerve to ask the guy in-game.
My alt-aholicism has followed me into Tera, and right now I have one of every class. I've tried all the races, but I wound up re-rolling my Elin and Popori, because I just can't seem to 'click' with a character that either looks like a pre-teen little girl, or like a short, round, little animal. So, it's all humans/High Elves/ Castanics for me. Most of my characters are male, as the skimpy anime-style armor on females makes playing them (which would normally be my preference) feel slightly awkward. I don't have too many screenshots of them yet, but here's a few pics of my guys. (And girls.)
The first character I made, Vanyel the High Elf sorcerer, on his horse. Did I mention that the game gives you a quest for a free mount? Total win. I created him on the open beta, and pre-buying the game meant that I got to keep him, instead of starting all over from scratch. He's currently sitting on a back-burner for now, at level 22, while my archer and warrior fight over my attention.
My Castanic archer Tathiel. He's currently level 34, and enjoys 3-shotting mobs on a regular basis. Yes, he is wearing purple leopard-print armor. And he looks pretty darn spiffy in it, too. He is my 'main' character at the moment, although my warrior is starting to take over that title.
My human warrior, Kerowyn, level 32, in one of the many cutscenes that pop up during the storyline quests, and sometimes at the start of boss fights in the instances. The cutscenes are amazing, and for those people that don't care about the lore and/or storylines, you are allowed to cancel them. I almost never do, which has led to some interesting encounters in dungeons.
party member: did we just lose Kero?
me: nope
me: distracted by cutscene >.>
party members: lol
This is my lancer, Dallen, at the start and end of fighting a world boss. If you look at the clock in the bottom right corner, you can see just how long it took to kill it. Lancers are the main tanks in Tera, and they can be nearly impossible to kill, but they make up for that in a total lack of DPS. Now, warriors can tank too, but they are more of an evasion tank (a bit like rogues in WoW), so good tanking with a warrior is difficult, and they aren't allowed to queue as tanks in the dungeon finder. The next patch is supposed to be buffing them some, and hopefully fixing the dungeon queues, though my Kerowyn is most likely always going to be DPS.
Dallen is sort of becoming my 'baby'. Tath and Kero are my main focus right now, but I keep coming back to him every now and then for a bit of questing, and fighting BAM monsters (Tera's version of elites, and believe me, they really are elites). I can solo almost anything on him, (even saved a wipe once by solo'ing the boss until the rest of the party could run back) even if it takes forever to kill it, and questing is just as fun on him as it is on my higher-damage classes. I've only tanked one instance so far, and while it was fun, I wasn't as prepared as I thought, and the result was a couple of deaths for the healer. The group was fine with everything, (PUGs are much more patient and tolerant until you reach the 50+ instances) but I didn't do as well as I would have liked, and I'm a bit nervous about trying again, so he's been stuck at level 26 for a while.
I don't have any screenies of the rest of my 'gang' yet, but just to round out the list:
Caderly is my High Elf priest, currently sitting at level 22,
Karral is my human mystic, at level 16 (I think, haven't logged on him in a while, must fix that...)
Kalenal is my Castanic slayer, at level 18, and likely to be the next DPS character I level up. Slayers are ridiculously fun.
Kerryn is my High Elf berserker, still stuck in the newbie zone at level 8. She's the reincarnation of my attempt at playing a Popori. He got all the way to level 16 before I lost all interest in playing a fat little husky-dog and re-rolled. I'm much happier with Kerryn, and she may give Kalenal some competition over my next level-up project.
And I believe that's it for now. I'll be posting more pics, once I actually remember to take some. >.>
And if anyone wants to know anything more about the game, you can go here.
Going to try to have another WoW post soon-ish as well. Til then, /waves.
