For anyone coming here for the first time via the show notes, there aren’t a ton of NEW posts, but if you’re interested in RP or in story writing, there are a ton of links in the sidebar and in the Story Archive (link at the top of the page).  I still post occasionally (in spurts really), but I can’t promise anything like I used to do. Still, this place is a part of my heart, and you guys are a ton of fun to write with and write for.

<3

Anna

***Thanks for reading this post from Too Many Annas. May the Loot-Fu be with you***

Blast from the Twisted Nether

This is as much an RP decision as anything, since from a logistics standpoint I’m essentially leveling a second plate DPS character, so my farming for flasks and potions is going to overlap. Still, Annie is the character I have been feeling most attached to, of the alts, and I miss having her around for RP.

Of course, you can participate in RP at any level, but it’s easier to hang out with other max level characters if you’re also max level. It also helps with the lore problem (that being that as it currently stands, Annie has a lot of lore knowledge that she hasn’t experienced in game, since that’s the only way to have conversations that touch on lore with other Pandaria level players).

Fortunately I’ll be leveling with rested XP, so she’s already 86 and getting ready to start in the Valley of the Four Winds.

As a side goal, Aely is working her way up in reputation with all the other factions, so that Annie and Angoleth will get the benefit of the commendations. She’s finished Golden Lotus and is a few days from revered with the Shado-Pan. Then probably Operation Shieldwall, and then Klaxxi will be next. I’m doing them one at a time, because I hate dailies. I’ve done my share of them slowly, for gear pieces and such, but it’s still something I look at as a thing to “get out of the way” do I can get on with playing the game I like. LFR fits into that same bin. Maybe it will feel different when I get to doing it as a warrior?

Oh also, I’ve swapped to leveling Annie Mae as Arms instead of Prot, since I wanted to do LFD, and learning to tank in LFD is not something I’m interested in. My DPS is terrible, but so is her gear, so with some well placed upgrades I’ll hopefully not embarrass myself. I may yet switch to Fury, but I’m worried that it will be even more gear dependent than Arms.

***Thanks for reading this post from Too Many Annas. May the Loot-Fu be with you***

Tiniest of (Gnomish) updates

I like raiding, and the raids in Pandaria so far have been interesting. But I am no longer all that interested in the rest of the endgame.

This is OK, because Pandaria is, in a lot of ways, a totally different endgame than has existed before in WoW. It’s been hinting that direction since Wrath, but there’s a new paradigm in place. And I don’t really like it.

I like being able to be done with a character. I like being able to do my farming for mats, do a heroic or two for valor points, and be ready to raid each week. Now, if I want gear that doesn’t drop from a raid, I don’t need valor points, I need valor points and rep. A lot of rep. With one of a great variety of factions.

If I want to do all of my dailies, it takes me 2 hours. I have just about 2 hours of time most nights to do things that aren’t work or housework.

If I were to do all my dailies, I would do nothing, every day, but what I need to get done IRL, and dailies.

World of Dailycraft just isn’t going to be my game if I want to read books, play alts, have hobbies, write blog posts, roleplay, write fic, do pet battles, or do anything else. I like doing all of those things. I don’t like doing the same quests every day. It’s not fun. Give me a tabard, let me run my heroic dungeon for rep, and let me go on to something fun.

I just don’t like dailies. I’ve not liked dailies since I finished my Crusader title. And THAT was optional!

The game has become very high maintenance. I am lucky my raid is casual enough to not care that I haven’t maxed out all my reps so that I have replaced all my heroic gear, because the other option, I’m afraid, is don’t raid. I will not give my life to a video game, and that’s unfortunately what WoW is about right now. As well, it’s expected that I’ll run LFR every week too, since I need those gear upgrades. That’s five hours (at least) of time on top of having enough materials or gold for flasks and food. (LFR, at least, is done with friends, so it’s less of a chore.)

Now, don’t get me wrong, a lot of people love it. There are people who are thrilled that there is just SO MUCH TO DO.

I fell in love with, and have played since 2005, a very different game. I’m pretty good at making my own fun, via RP, and I like not feeling like the game is my job. I like finishing a character, being raid ready, moving on to other characters. I’d really hoped to have my hunter at max level, but if this is what I have to look forward to, I’m not sure I care. I can’t be arsed to do 2 hours of dailies on one character, let alone try to juggle two.

If this is the new paradigm of WoW, I’m afraid it’s probably the beginning of the end for me. Especially as more and more of my friends find other games and other things to do. For now, I’m playing alts, leaving my one endgame character to raid when I can. Maybe that’s where I’ll find my fun, not in doing cool things with my friends at 90, but in leveling up different types of characters. I figure if I don’t like something, I’m not going to force myself to do it.

That, unfortunately, means I’m missing out on a lot of lore. Which is why it’s probably the beginning of the end. If lore is now going to be gated behind weeks of repeated quests, I’m just going to read it off a website. Which makes me sad. I like being part of lore content, having my characters be part of what’s going on. Casual raiding, dungeons, and quests have previously been enough to get that, but Pandaria is different.

The game is changing, and my tastes aren’t changing with it.

***Thanks for reading this post from Too Many Annas. May the Loot-Fu be with you***

Realization

Tarquin has the second part of his series on roleplaying “The Secret Sauce” up at Dorkadia. Another good read.

Navi has a trick to powerlevel a pet to 25 in 8 battles over at The Daily Frostwolf. I still don’t have any pets above 15, but the strategy is one I’ll definitely be keeping in mind.

The Big Butted Bear talks about the paradigm shift that’s happened in WoW, and how he loves it. I don’t know if I love it yet, but I definitely haven’t run out of things to do. Thing is, a lot of those things are repeated things, which are hard for me, but still. I have only one character at 90, and SO MANY CHOICES on what to do next. I can’t decide.

***Thanks for reading this post from Too Many Annas. May the Loot-Fu be with you***

A Few Friday Links

It’s definitely worth a read.

***Thanks for reading this post from Too Many Annas. May the Loot-Fu be with you***

The Secret Sauce of Roleplaying