MMO

The 15th time’s the charm

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Every time I take a break from writing it takes longer and longer for me to come back. I could have sworn the last time I had posted was sometime in March or April but apparently it was the begging of Febuary…. and now that I’m writing I realize how much I’ve missed writing. It’s actually been so long it took me longer than I care to admit to admit how to insert a picture into a post,  but I digress.

I’ve been playing mostly Guild Wars 2 for the last month or so. I had some friends who were playing and hyped me up to get the expansions and now I’m the proud owner of Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire. Never mind that I’ve never beaten the main story or that the last time I leveled a character to 80 was about 4 years ago.

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I decided to try playing a thief. It’s the only class I haven’t seriously played yet  which is weird because my main character in Guild Wars was an assassin. Actually I have a little head cannon going that somehow my assassin has survived for 200 years and is now in modern Tyria. He’s  old and grey and has a very pointy beard these days but he’s still pretty nimble. I’ve also heard he can  sit in chairs now too,  younger Rave would have been so jealous.

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He looked so spiffy back in the day with that Vabbian armor

I’m surprised how much it has its hooks in me this time around.  I’ve started countless characters over the years and the same pattern emerges. Everything is going great and then there’s one skill or weapon I don’t like or I get an idea for another character and I’m back to square one. As a result I’ve explored the starting zones and the zones next to the starter zones more times than I care to count and that makes leveling brand new characters pretty boring. And yes I am too stubborn to just use my level 80 boost.

It’s a good thing to because I’ve been enjoying leveling and I just hit 50 last night.  In fact I’m almost disappointed I hit the next story chunk so fast, I was really enjoying completing zones that I haven’t been to in a long, long, time. Also that raptor mount really helps a lot so glad I was able to run my Guardian through the first Path of Fire mission.

I’ve been  less focused on completing the zones as quickly as possible and going from heart to heart and waypoint to waypoint. I’ve actually taken time to do events when they appear and follow the multiple stage ones, something I never really did before. It’s been way more fun this way because I’ve gotten to do new things and sometimes it’s led me to some unexpected places like the Forsaken Halls last night.

Right now I’m planning on at least completing the core personal story. I almost feel like if I say I want to beat the expansions too the spell Guild Wars 2 finally has on me will be broken. It’s taken 5 years for this game to click and it’s been a really long time since I’ve had that “wow it’s bed time already” moment with a game.

 

Heading Back to Trove

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I’m back to playing Trove again this week. Sometimes I want a game I can turn my brain off and play and feel like I’m getting somewhere. It fills the same role as Diablo 3 for me, grind a few levels get some new gear while listening to music or something. I also have a group of friends who get together to run the weekly Shadow Towers, which are the closest thing Trove has to challenging content.

Lately I’ve been looking for a game I can play with no sound so I can catch up on some podcasts. Trove is perfect for this as I don’t have the game sounds on anyways because they’re a little repetitive. I think the entire soundtrack consists of 3 songs.

This week I took a break from my main class the Ice Sage and have been playing the Pirate Captain. I’ve had him for a long time and I don’t know why I haven’t played him before. He’s got a really great set of skills with parrot manned turrets, explosive decoys, and a giant cannon the fires molten cannon balls. In my adventures so far I’ve leveled him up past the 5k Power Rank needed to do higher level content with my friends. Also I got a class gem that lets me spawn 2 Parrot Turrets instead of just one. And we al know more turrents are always better.

Trove hasn’t had the sticking factor that it once had for me. Jay has been playing it every day for the last year and a half and I can’t seem to get into it for more than a month or 2 at a time. I used to really like unlocking and playing around with all the classes. When the game first launched there were new classes almost every month. As of late the class releases have slowed dramtically with the last one being released in August of last year.

Trove has been really slow with content updates as well. While there have been some major patches since the release of Mantle of Power, which came out last summer, none of them have added new features to the game and have seemed to just added more stuff to the store. In fact there was one “major update” that was just an improvement to the store UI. Apparently they’ll be adding sub-classes and a few more shadow tower bosses later this year but a release date hasn’t been mentioned yet.

I’m not sure how long I’ll be playing Trove this time around. I could be a few weeks or it could be a few months but right now I’m enjoying my time there.

 

Trove Taketh and Trove Giveth Back

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Once upon a time Trove used to be my main game for a few months. I would play regularly with a group of friends and we had a lot of fun grinding levels and farming the night away. Then the Mantle of Power patch was released and it took away the ability to get classes through game play as well as adding an endless grinding endgame that didn’t add much to the overall game. Even though I had all the classes unlocked, putting classes behind the cash shop didn’t sit with me quite right. Especially since most of the fun I was having in Trove was trying out all of the classes. While my friends cntinued to play I stepped away from the game. Every time they asked me to come back, my answer would always be when classes aren’t only in the cash shop anymore.

Flash forward to Tuesday. Trove’s Snowfest & Get Crafty patch released. It added a whole lot of changes to the game including simplifying the market, expanding player inventory, and the ability to craft classes, costume s, and even premium items. I couldn’t resist, I downloaded the lottery 1 gig game and sat down ready to return to a game that had given me so much fun in the past.

I actually like this new crafting system for classes. Before they initially took it away you would have to farm a certain never of dungeons to fill up a bar that would give you cubits. The cubits were use to buy various items from the non premium store and it included classes.

In the new system, you unlock classes by gathering a bunch of materials and praying to RNGesus that you get some chaos cores from the chaos chests. While it takes longer to unlock every class at least for me it would give you more time to play around with your new class before unlocking another. It also probably has to do with the fact that I actually like collecting materials.

As always players have gripes when it comes to massive overhauls in one patch. Some players feel the crafting cost is too high and others don’t like how the market place has been cut from 5 currencies to 2. But what really has the majority of players up in arms is the changes to chaos chests aka premium lock boxes. Before Tuesday they were tradable and sold for a pretty penny after the patch their now farmable drops that are essential for the new crafting as they have a chance of dropping chaos cores.

Overall I think the game is taking a step in the right direction. Trove seems to be loosing its death grip on it’s players wallets and making things a little easier for new players. I do wonder if this change has to do with the games recent console release. I almost wouldn’t mind starting over on the PS4 once this patch hits over there. Sure it’s a lot of grind but I’m thinking i would be a great game to remote play on the vita. Though from what I’ve experienced so far, Trove isn’t nearly as fun playing alone.

 

The Magnificent Mullet of Eorzea and Other Final Fantasy 14 Things

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Kluwes A’llond 11/03/2016 11:43:25
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Look at it. It’s fantastic. Serious business in the front, raging party in the back. It’s a mullet’s mullet.  It’s glorious, a true character creation masterpiece. It goes with everything, it’s durable, and easy to clean. It doesn’t even clip…that much.It begs the question why did I not have this the whole time.  Unfortunately there’s only room for one sumptuous thing on this Roegadyn’s smug mug so the elegant mustache just had to go.

I played a lot of Final Fantasy 14 this past week and over the weekend. It’s probably the most I’ve played in the last few months I’ve been subbed. Me and Jay have been playing pretty regularly at least getting the dungeon roulette done every night. This weekend I had a lot of time on my hands.

In this past week I’ve gotten my dragoon to 50 and got him spiffy new armor. I have 10 more levels to go until max and I feel like I have too many buttons to press already. Learning the combos has been fun and the animations for the skills look awesome. Let’s be honest here, when your last level 50 threw rocks at things for hours outside of dungeons, having some more buttons is a godsend.  I got my level 50 armor and much to my surprise it really doesn’t look terrible on my large character.All the other dragoons I’ve seen have been stick thin characters. Sure I may not look as sleek but I don’t look like dragoon sausage. Now if only my weapon didn’t look so much like a gardening tool.

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I’ve been trying to help Jay catch up to me in the main scenario which is taking a lot longer than I originally thought. I have to keep finding something else to work on between dungeons while he runs story quests. So I settled on getting my bard up 2 more levels to hit 50 as well. With that came completing the quests for the armor. The other classes had some interesting reasons for getting said armor. Dragoons have to go through 5 trials to prove they are worthy of it, White Mage’s need to get it to wistand the force of the Great one, the Bard’s  boils down to dig up this old man’s clothes and wear them because he deemed you worthy. What an honor. Sadly the hat is not as obnoxious as I thought it’d be but the rest of the set well makes up for it.

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In an effort to clean out some of my uncompleted quests from my journal I finished the level 30 rouge quest. I’ll admit, this was probably a mistake, because the rest of the weekend was spent leveling up my new ninja and thoroughly enjoying it. After playing dragoon, the class feels a bit simpler and with less buttons to manage though I’m sure this will change as I get higher in level.

Finally, I actually installed the expansion and put the key on my account. I’ve had it lying in a drawer for a while now. When I went to open it I actually had to dust it off. I m itching to complete the 2.XX main scenario stuff and get into the expansion which I might go ahead and do if Jay doesn’t catch up soon. Other wise I’m going to end up with yet another level 50 class.

But seriously, this mullet is amazing.

 

 

 

Halloween Hijinks

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Kluwes A'llond 10/24/2016 00:42:48

I love Halloween. It’s one of those holidays that makes me feel like a kid again. Kind of like Christmas but with more candy and monsters. It’s kind of a weird holiday, we pretend to be things we’re not and we send children out to get candy from the neighbors. It’s the only time of the year that people will tell you they bought a pumpkin and that statement isn’t  followed by the words ‘spiced latte’. It’s also during the best part of fall, everything cools down,the leaves look amazing and there’s no snow.

This weekend I did the All Saints Wake event. It’s really easy and takes all of about an hour and a half to get all the seasonal goodies. Goodies that include a snazzy vest, some orchestral rolls, and a minion. The Continental Circus is putting on a Haunted House in Hauke Manor, glad they’re doing something with that place. To make sure the Circus isn’t up to any mischief the Adventure’s Guild sends out an investigator. Of course shenanigans ensue and we’re sent into the haunted house.

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The 4 person dungeon has you doing all sorts of tasks in the haunted house like collecting cookies and throwing smoke bombs at pumpkins. My personal favorites was finding all the magic circles to stand on and finding the code to open the hidden coffer. I liked these because it forced people to actually interact even if it was just calling out some numbers. All of  this while sneaking past monsters and not being turned into pumpkin.I thought that a cooperative dungeon like this would have been frustrating but all 3 runs went smoothly and everyone was really friendly and helpful.

Other than the actual event activities I loved the decorations Gridania and Huake Manor. Pumpkins everywhere!

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Other than completing the event I’ve still been leveling up my Dragoon. He’s up to 47 now, almost there. I’m also still working on ranking up with my Grand Company. I like doing the Grand Company hunting log but I’m so glad The Sunken Temple of Quarn is done with. It took me and Jay a while to understand the mechanics to the first boss there but luckily we had a patient group who didn’t mind teaching us. I’m hoping I can get the Dragoon up to level 50 by the end of the week and continue my way through the main scenario.

 

September Goals in Reveiw

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Wow, I got nothing done this month game wise. Like at all. I’m not surprised thought I knew this was going to be a busy month of things in the outside world. I did do a few things I set out to do this month and decided to drop some all together.

FInal Fantasy 14 Goals

✓ Get Dragoon Soul Crystal: Hey I’m a dragoon now and it’s been a hell of a lot of fun poking mobs with sticks for the past couple levels

Get Monk Soul Crystal: Maybe I’ll come back to this some day but I just wasn’t feeling the game play of the pugilist and I’m guessing it doesn’t change a whole lot for Monk.

✓ Decide between Playing monk or Dragoon: Ladies, Gentlemen, this is the final rose tonight. I choose to give it too..Dragoon. Dragoon will be advancing in levels and hopefully getting into Heavensward one day,.

Complete the 2.XX content and get into Heavensward: Hahahahaha….I’m not even close.

Backlog Goals

Defeat the fourth boss in Furi: I think I’m done with this game, it was a lot of fun while it lasted but I’m just not into it anymore.

Get to the next system in No Man’s Sky: You know, the last time I picked up No Man’s Sky was 3 days after it’s release ad for some reason I still don’t regret the purchase.

Complete Unepic: What started out as a great game with a lot of RPG references turned into a mediocre game with too many RPG references. I’m shelving this one fr now and going back to my list of games on deck.

FFXIV-I Want to Be an Interior Designer

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With the drop of patch 3.4 in Final Fantasy 14 came the addition of apartments and aquariums. Since I still haven’t gotten past the 2.XX content there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot else to be excited by in this patch for the time being. Unfortunately I can’t even do that. While I do have 1 character at 50 I’m nowhere near the Grand Company Rank to be able to purchase an apartment.

Now I understand why this is the way it is. Once again there are a limited amount of these things to go around so might as well make people work to get them so they’re not all gobbled up quickly. To be honest I haven’t ever been that interested in player housing in MMO’s in the past, I guess I just had other things to do. However, I love player housing in single player games, I played a lot of animal crossing as a kid. But it intrigues me now in FFXIV, especially when a lot of craft-able items are pieces of furniture that I previously had no use for. As for aquariums, it gives me even more of an excuse to spend my time fishing, for some reason I love fishing in game. The list of fish that can be placed is kind of small but there’s always room for improvement.

I guess this will give me another thing to work towards while I continue to level my Dragoon to 50. I’m sure it won’t be that bad, I just hope they’re not all gone by the time I can get one. Though from what it sounds like, if I’m reading the patch notes right, there should be plenty to go around.

 

 

 

FFXIV-Another Dragoon is Born

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Kluwes A'llond 09/21/2016 10:27:40
Kluwes A’llond 09/21/2016 10:27:40

I buckled down and actually got the Dragoon Job Crystal this week. Last week I was so excited that my lancer finally hit 30 and I’d be able to move on to the Dragoon life but apparently I hadn’t leveled my Marauder up to 15 yet. Which is weird because I could have sworn  I had every class to at least 15 most of them to 20. So I took up the axe and finished getting all the medals for the Yo-Kai event minions and slowly but surely getting to level 15.

It’s always fun to change job titles. Dragoon just sounds so much better than lancer,and now I can jump around like a mad man. The best part of not being a lancer anymore is that the lancer class story is over. I mean, it wasn’t terrible but compared to some of the other class quests it was a little boring. Just a lot of go show me some courage, courage is super important for a lancer, and this guild is pathetic I’ll give you a real challenge and so on and so forth.

 

The quest to get the Dragoon job crystal doesn’t give me much hope for the Dragoon job quests having a better story. Actually when I completed the quest I was kind of wondering whether i really wanted to be a Dragoon after all. The quest has you gather information about a thief and this thief turns out to a mysterious Black Dragoon who is apparently the best of the best when it comes to Dragooning. I’ not so sure that I want to join an organization who’s best member is a their it seems a little shady….good thing poking monsters with spears is so much fun.

On a side note, Heavensward finally arrived from good ol’ Amazon. It took a little longer than usual but it’s here now. The problem is I want to take the dragoon through it because I feel like a DPS is going to be more fun than a healer to do Main Scenario Quests with. I guess I could always get the last 2 levels on my Bard but I’ve heard not so great things about the job after Wander’s Minuet. Decisions, decisions.

Playing the Waiting Game

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I resubed to Final Fantasy 14 last week and ordered a copy of Heavensward from amazon. It’s a little silly that the physical copy of the game is half the price of the digital version. Lately I’ve been Alas, that’s not the case and here I am a week later still waiting for it to arrive.

It’s not that bad though I’ve decided that as much as I like my white mage, I don’t want to take him through the Main Scenario Quests anymore. Throwing rocks at things over and over with the occasional Aereo thrown in is getting old. So I decided I’d like to play a dps class. Now of course I could just take the time to level my Bard to 50 I wanted to try something new and shiny. So this week I’ve been running around learning how to poke things with a stick as a lancer. I actually got him all the way to 30 bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to go on a quest to be a dragoon when suddenly I’m informed that I have not leveled my marauder up to 15. I have every other class to 15 or higher but I guess I forgot about the marauder.

Instead of taking the time to levels into it I decided to try out the pugilist. I’ve been working my way to level 20 with it and I’m not enjoying it as much as the lancer. Though there is something satisfying to punch things to death and if nothing else I really like the class quest story line a lot more than the lancer’s. But the lancer has such flashy animations and for whatever reason I’ve always been partial to classes who have spears as weapons. Either way I want to take both to 30 and get their respective jobs before I make a decision.

Hopefully in the next few says Heavenward will be arriving  and I can at least put it on my account. The jury is still out on when I’m actually going to play it and who I’m going to take through it.

August Gaming Goals in Review

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I’ve fallen off the blogging horse as of late. I think part of it is I just didn’t feel like playing games all that much the past few weeks. Instead I’ve been doing a lot of reading and spending the last few weeks of summer doing outdoor activities. But I always come back to gaming and I think I’ve taken enough of a break for it to be fresh again. As a result of all this my monthly goals fell a little to the way side this month.

General Gaming Goals

✓ Play No Man’s Sky: I had fun with this game for a few weeks. It was everything I wanted it to be. Turns out it just wasn’t quite as entertaining as I thought it’d be. Still planning on working my way through the galaxy though.

✓ Beat the third boss in Furi: I did this fairly early in the month and I’m still loving the game and it’s art style.

Get two more badges in Pokemon Alpha Sapphire: My Pokemon hype died in the first few weeks of August and I haven’t felt like going back to this game since.

MMO Goals

✓ Use my 5 free days in Final Fantasy 14: I managed to get my White Mage to 50 and my bard to 48 in those five days. I had a lot of fun and ended up re subscribing earlier this week and ordered Heavensward off Amazon. Hoping it gets here soon!

✓ Try out Neverwinter on PS4: Me and Jay put some time into Neverwinter this month. It was a lot better with someone I knew. It chugs along in places on the PS4 and the controls aren’t as nice as FFXIV but the action combat is fun.

 

Backlog Goals

Beat 1 Steam Game: Ya this didn’t happen but there’s always next month.