Summing up the weekend.

I started the weekend off late 40's, at around level 48 and ended up at level 53 Sunday night. There was a lot going on throughout the weekend, but i really dont know what to say about it. actually, i dont know anything meaningful to speak about regarding leveling from 48 to 53. These five levels are actually pretty packed with change, but i dont seem to know how to adress the changes. it could be the case of the mondays. but more likely than not, its just burnout.

But any which way, i am going to try to attempt to write something because i really really want to mention the addition of 3 points of Sheath of Light and 1 point of Crusader Strike. That, and i also have this itching to write at work, since, for some odd reason, Websense is actually letting me blog from work. Score!

So here is how my weekend started. after having ran around tanaris in a big circle and doing all of the ZF quests, i mozied off to Swamp of sorrows for some really easy green quests. i basically killed an alliance guy who thought the forsaken was going to betray the horde. i think it was the group that sided with Varimathras instead of Sylvanas. I am still uncertain of some details in that uprising. no spoilers if you havent already done it.

anyway. killed the human, then went off and did some quests to help the orcs there. killed a bunch of murlocs for an orc that seems pretty angry at the ocean, or ocean creatures in general, and then wondered why we dont see too much of the sea on the eastern coast of lordaeron and the eastern kingdoms. The only coastal contact i've had with this part of the sea was at the following: Briefly in eversong, Hinterlands, briefly in EPL and only during the DK starting area, then there's this gigantic void until you reach swamp of sorrows and then STV. Then i thought about the western coast of kalimdor and thought, the coastal contact i have with that side of the world seems remote, yet tranquil and lush. Lets start with Feralas, a lush green area with a coast and a large island. then desolace wasnt too awesome, but it did have some diving quests, and lots of nagas to kill. further up the coast is the shores of the zoram strand with an instance, as there is no meaningful coastal contact along stontalon mtns. Then, further up is the nightelf level 10-20 area. then, going over the waters, there's Teldressil, Azuremyst, and Bloody myst isle.

What i can take from this is this sheer fact that there's a lot more interaction between the player and the coastal environment on the western side of kalimdor than there is on the eastern side of the eastern kingdoms (Lordaeron, for short). Apart from two quests that has me swimming to small islands in Hinterlands (and short short quests as it is), and one to in STV to kill three captains, there isnt a whole lot going on on the eastern seaboard. i dont know why that should be the case. But what i do know is that this has lead me to view the eastern sea as a large mysterious body of water, a large, mysterious and somehow dead body of water. sure, it has fish, turtles, waves, and the occassional sea monster, but i somehow find it very easy to believe that these sea monsters would rather be in the other oceans. so would i.

i went to swamp of sorrows because, like stv, i've never quested there. but i quickly realized that i really wasnt missing much. i had to collect 10 crab legs that basically took the whole of three passes to complete. that's 10 crablegs from 15 monsterious crabs. and so i cleared them all. once, twice, then three times. thats about 40 crabs killed in order to loot 10 legs. and shadow panther hearts? i killed them all twice over. to get five. yes five hearts. lets not talk about the crocodile claws and crocodile flanks. omg. and just to drive a final nail in the coffin of "omg worst zone ever" there's a giant instance in the middle of the zone, complete with a maze... before you get to the instance itself. thank goodness for LFD, at least you can skip the maze, that's until you realize there's a maze inside the instance, and the isntance is as big as the whole zone, and that if you die... good luck finding the entrance (for me, i've done this instance many times before, so corpse runs arent a problem. but do you feel the pain im feeling? anyone?). and finally, adding a vanity nail into the coffin... i decided to help out a human who was captured by some broken draenei halfbreeds. well you would expect the captive to run AWAY from his captors, correct? well being human, he wasnt too bright, so he walked me right through their camp. what a dumbass. he died about five seconds have he aggro'ed 4 of them. then i died. i really dont know whats dumber: this quest, the escortee, or the designers who actually thought it was a good idea to have the captive path back through the village. /rant

finally, upon outleveling the zone, i decided to move to my favorite zone in the map (and this time with two quests from STV, one to kill 20 trolls and put their skulls on a spike, and another to gather some bottles of rum, plus one quest i got from UC to burn some documents that careless high elves will leave lying around). i ran to Raventusk village and picked up all of the quests. i had to drop some quests, including the dumb failed escort quest mentioned earlier. but i was really glad to have dropped it. anyway, i went up the coast, killed the turtles and found lard's lunch, then went back to turn it in. then i went inland and made a big gigantic circle around the map, and completed every single quest there. i dinged 50 somewhere at around the same time i was killing vile priestess hexx, then went to turn in all the quests and got super close to dinging again. flew to UC and turned in my quest there, took the zep to grom gol and turned in the quest there. flew to booty bay and turned in the quest there. ding. 51. really quick and easy. i went to tanaris to do something else and finish wastewater justice quest. then called it a night as i was super tired. it was saturday night by then. =]

i got a bit lost after hinterlands tho. since i figured hinterlands was probably my favorite zone ever, due to the trees, the hills and many little pockets of camps and things all thoughtfully melting together in one gooey place. gooey goodness, of course. not to mention it has mageweave, mithril nodes, sungrass and purple lotuses galore. so my next option is to enter WPL and do the quests there. as far as it seems, level 58 isnt too far away. im 53, so 5 levels of questing and im out of Azeroth. although STV was a pretty refreshing, there isnt really much to say about content in the "old world". its just one of those things everyone has to go through and try to escape as quickly as possible. sometimes people dont make it through and end up with a level 35 alt somewhere.

as far as instances go, i really havent gotten much of a chance to do any of them to any extent, mainly because they have broken the later ones into artificial pieces that many people decide they should skip straight to the end boss for that "instance". really though, orange mara, purple mara, and pristine waters mara. you cant skip much in orange or purple, but with pristine waters, you can basically skip the goblin, the rock boss and head straight for the farting princess. and after the princess, no one wants to jump down and kill the giant gator. no one. then, upon hitting 51 or 52, i kept getting BRD, and we only had to go into the cave to the right and kill that one "fear" happy boss. there are some groups that ventured further. but seriously, at 52 most of us seemed capable of taking out the whole instance. the content is way too easy. seeing how, at my level, i am only given credit for the first boss in BRD, when we went as far as getting the key to the instance (i think its called the shadowforge key, about 7 bosses in). it feels like whoever divided the level requirements up forgot that all the instances underwent several NERFS. halfassed job blizz. srsly. when i first entered brd at around 51, i was blowing things away. and i was still forgetting to use my new attack, crusader strike. we ended the instance with me using that ability maybe five times. i really think, come cata, that the difficulty be put back to "Normal" with some heroic modes for all of us 85's who would really like to go through old content again. and yes, break up the larger instances. but dont break it up but give us the ability to wander into the next parts of the instances. just break it up and attune it for 85. then for heroic 85, or whatever you want hardmode to be called. orange mara should be a separate instance. BRD should be three different instances. with portals at the beginning for us to select. let us work.

yes, let us work. this is why im ranting about the instances and how they're planned out. actually how they've resulted through series of nerfs. what happened is that, level appropriate four years ago is not level appropriate today. this leads to sloppy play by everyone. i dont even care if i pull aggro any more. i just do. even with vigilence, i pull, and i dont care because i can take the 10 hits before the mob dies (consider outlands and northrend, where 5 hits would have been overkill and i'd be dead, but here, nope) and i still have enough health to "tank" another mob. all the warlocks cast rain of fire. all the mages cast blizzard. all the hunters cast volley and do explosive traps. all the paladins cast consecrate. all the warriors are tanks and do amazing damage. there are no DKs but when there are, im sure i'll see a million square feet of death and decays before its all over. tanks would pull three groups at once. healers never run out of mana, even with the three groups and an accidental fourth group. honestly. a boss fight isnt really a boss fight. its just another mob with a little more health and maybe does a little more damage. that's basically it. everything's really just a laughfest right now. its so sad. that's how its been since ragefire chasm. none of the instances i've been to actually challeged us. everything was a quick jog through to level up. i really didnt get to learn my class as much as i figured i would. i actually learn my class a lot more through "easy" solo content. aparently the status quo has changed, and in order to really learn your class, you have to go solo. this wasnt the case three years ago when i started playing. it shouldnt be the case now, especially when playing solo requires the ability to tap two buttons and knowing which mob is a questmob. really. how dumb can we go? but im sure there's a reason for that. i'll have to theorize on this a little later, as it is just about time to wrap up.

and finally, i've ventured into WPL and did the first two quests there at 53. hopefully, the next five levels will pass by quickly. hopefully, come outlands, i wont be steamrolling through instances like i did before.

for my next post, im gonna talk about the transition from my level 1-49 attack sequence to my new level 50 attack sequence, which includes Crusader strike. its a lolstrike actually, doing pretty crap damage, but its still something "new" to the level 50 paladin.

also up in the near future will be my thoughts on how leveling through instances has been trivialized, and how its creating a lot of bad players. etc, things like that. also will update on enchanting, jc and that little bit of inscription, not to mention cooking, first aid and fishing.... on my pala.

all good stuffs compared to today's drivel. drivel you say? yes. just a bunch of garbage spit out at ya. feel free to reply with comparable garbage in the comments. =]