Crossing to the Dark Side, or Morrighan goes all PvP

So its a new year.  I got my state of the blog report and realized I have slacked majorly in the posting department.  I’m not going to make any promises here, because I have other plans this year, but I will try to post more.

Which raises the question of what I will post about.  I’ve tried a few things with the blog recently in terms of guides and a direction for the content.  I might have another idea up my sleeve that I will try to get working, but for now I’m going to focus on just talking about what I am doing in the games I play.  Mostly I play World of Warcraft, but I may occasionally blog about other games.

My quest for PvP success
I’m really starting from the beginning here.  I’ve toyed with PvP before.  In TBC I did a lot of AV to get PvP gear for use in PvE.  I’ve done a little bit of arena almost every expansion, but not every season.  So I do mean a little bit.  I’ve done a few rated battlegrounds.  But this time I’ve decided to stop raiding and try a different part of the game.  And its great.  I find myself enjoying arena in particular.  The change has refreshed WoW for me again.

This season I’ve just taken as a getting started season.  I’ve tried to cap each week.  I’m focusing on my hunter as my main.  She was my main for PvE at the end of Cataclysm and the first toon I levelled.  I’m also very attached to the appearance of the hunter PvP set this season.  I’m mostly trying to learn different ideas and approaches to different combinations.

The problems along the way
My main two problems at the moment are finding a stable team and finding someone who likes PvP enough to do more than just cap.  I prefer 3s, but I don’t seem to be having a lot of luck there.  I do have an awesome 2s partner right now but he can’t talk on raidcall which hampers us a bit.  I really lack experience in RBGs which is a problem only in that at one I point I seemed to be landed with target calling.  I don’t know how to target call.  I’ve read some, but I need to see it in action really.

I am also finding that apart from arena junkies, hunter PvP information is a bit thin on the ground apart from communities that require you to pay to get in.  This sort of makes sense, because PvP is competitive in a way that raid progression is not once you step back from the cutting edge.  But there are some good resources out there for other classes, so I will keep looking. If anyone could recommend any good BM PvP hunters who stream/post videos, I would be grateful.

The other content

As I said, I’m not raiding.  I tend to do LFR, so I can be geared enough to help the guild if needed.  I am still looking for achievements, though I have little time to focus on these.  I am doing some pet battles, though I have largely stopped there until 5.2 arrives.  I do quite a few dailies and am looking to get Exalted with all the factions and get the next 50 mounts.  I will update the mount guide at some point.  I quite like the dailies and the scenarios as sources of Valor and charms.  I have invested in a Brawler’s Guild pass and have been doing a bit of that too when the queues aren’t too long.

Very little content outside of rated PvP actually helps with PvP progress.  You can do normal battlegrounds and these will help somewhat.  I say somewhat because unless you go with some friends, you won’t learn a huge amount about coordinating a battleground without a lot of luck.  The only gameplay aspect I would recommend is Brawler’s Guild, but again there is a limit.  Brawler’s Guild is not easy and will teach you a great deal about survivability and control.  You can’t just stand there as a hunter and hit the target.  You need to move, to kite, to control and these skills will server you in PvP too.  I don’t know if PvP gear will prove to be limiting as I progress up the ranks yet.

Ice Ice Baby

So we finally cleared all of the Hard Mode Flashpoints (Dungeons) in SWTOR.

Yes, it took that long.  Actually, we cleared all but one very quickly.  And then there was Lost Island.  For those of you who remember Shattered Halls, and how hard it was on Heroic back in the day.  Imagine that.  Then double it.  Now you have Lost Island.  It was quite painful.  Most people don’t get past the first boss because if you lack gear he will just nom you.

Maybe not double it.  That might be those rose tinted glasses.  But its at least that hard.

And in one nice feature, if you clear all the HMs, you get a mount (yes Crimsonstar is wearing a Republic dancer costume on his Bounty Hunter):

Things to do before the Mists part

If you’ve been hiding under a rock, Mists of Pandaria will launch on 25 September.  Cheer.  With a deadline now set I find I have a renewed enthusiasm for the game.  This is my to do list for the next two months.

1. Get an transmogrification set for Brynna, Morrighan and Akandra.  I have sets in mind now.
2. Get Brynna’s secondary professions to max level.
3. Get as close to 150 pets on Akandra as I can (when the pets merge I will currently be one pet short of 150).
4. Finish off some achievements so I can focus on new and exciting things in Pandaria (I’m going to be using different characters for these, depending on current progress):
   1. Master of Tol Barad (Morrighan)
   2. My Sack is “Gigantique” (Brynna)
   3. Higher Learning (Akandra)
   4. Get to the Choppa! (Brynna)
   5. Ashenvale Quests (Brynna)
   6. Bloodmyst Isle Quests (Brynna)
   7. Felwood Quests (Brynna)
   8. Ferelas Quests (Brynna)
   9. Stonetalon Mountain Quests (Brynna)
   10. Southern Barrens Quests (Brynna)
   11. Thousand Needles Quests (Brynna)
   12. The Oceanographer (Akandra)
   13. Glory of the Raider (10 player) (Akandra)
   14. Get a Black/Twilight Drake (any)
   15. Glory of the Cataclysm Hero (Akandra)
   16. Glory of the Cataclysm Raider (Akandra)
   17. Glory of the Firelands Raider (Brynna)
   18. Any Archaeology or PvP achievements I can get.
5. See if I can get some more cool hunter pets for Brynna (she only has a few and if I can play BM, I will play BM).

So, just a few things!  Some of these will likely carry into Mists of Pandaria I know.

The Cutting Edge

Did anyone else spot it?  In the latest patch were a couple of new Feats of Strength, all with the name ‘Cutting Edge: XXX’:

• Cutting Edge: Grand Empress Shek’zeer (New) Defeat Grand Empress Shek’zeer in Heart of Fear on Heroic difficulty, with Klaxxi Resonance inactive or disabled.
• Cutting Edge: Sha of Fear (New) Defeat the Sha of Fear in Terrace of Endless Spring on Heroic difficulty, with the Ritual of Purification inactive or disabled.
• Cutting Edge: Will of the Emperor (New) Defeat the Will of the Emperor in Mogu’shan Vaults on Heroic difficulty, with the Dampening Field either inactive or disabled.

What I suspect these are are an indication that the Dragon Soul stacking buff/debuff is here to stay, but that you will recieve recognition if you choose to turn it off.  Albeit in the form of a Feat of Strength, rather than an Achievement.

Can we just hope this stops the endless whining?

What seems to always get lost in the casual/hardcore debate is the time issue.  People aren’t always behind the progress curve in Dragon Soul because they lack skill.  They can be behind the curve because they lack time.  A stacking buff/debuff (however they choose to make it work) makes killing bosses quicker.  It not only makes killing the bosses that are progress for you quicker, it also makes killing bosses that are not progress quicker, giving you more time to spend on the progress bosses.  I don’t raid heroic generally, because I am not willing to put in the time it would take.  I’ve been there, done that.  Instead I would rather spend my time taking part in the other activities the game has to offer.  Thats my choice.

If the haters had their way, I’d be excluded from raiding normal, because why raid normal other than to go on to heroic?  And I wouldn’t get any gear at all from Raid Finder because why do I need it if not to get to heroic?  And, in fact, Raid Finder wouldn’t exist because its too easy anyway and if I can’t kill it on heroic I don’t deserve the chance to see it at all.  Whats important is that some players can prance around the active city in prettier items than anyone else and go ‘haha noob’.  According to the haters.

Prestige
Just yesterday my other half was in a part guild, part pug Hard Mode Flashpoint in SWTOR.  It was one of the more challenging ones.  The healer was a random.  He zoned in.  They inspected him.  His gear was good; better than theirs in fact.  That didn’t stop him being a complete Asshat.  He pulled stuff.  He ran off in the opposite direction to the tank.  He caused wipe after wipe.  He could prance around Fleet in his fancy gear and go ‘haha noob’.  His uber items didn’t make him any less of an Asshat and the butt of numerous jokes as the run went on.  He may have thought he was the best around, but behind the polite words in group chat, people thought he was scum.  So all that cool gear?  It doesn’t give you prestige.  It means nothing.  To anyone who has been playing an MMO for a while, top geared players, just like undergeared players, should be judged on their actions.

Who deserves prestige?  I personally value the theorycrafters, who help us all to be better.  The bloggers and vloggers who help us to think about our games.  The people who spend time posting those tactics we all use.  The people who help others in the game.  If we’re giving respect only to people with the biggest, shiniest shoulderpads, we’re measuring it wrong.

These new Feats fill in the gap perfectly.  If you want a way to measure the very best raiders, it needs to be something that is not exclusive. Like Challenge Mode mogging armor, a Feat of Strength has no value in the game.  Achievement points and gear you use for stats – limiting those is stopping people from being able to play the game to the point of completion (which is the point in playing, no matter how you choose to measure it ).  If people want to epeen, let it be with things that only have epeen value.

Morrighan’s Eternity Vault Crib Sheet

This is written for 8 man Hard Mode because thats all I’ve done!  We ran the whole raid with two tanks (one an off-tank) and two healers.  These tactics would likely be suitable for story mode and 16 man. Nightmare Mode may contain additional mechanics.

For all bosses:

• Don’t loot before the Master Looter. This can cause the loot to bug.

Annihilation Droid XRR-3

• He doesn’t move so turn him away and tank.
• Stay spread out and ranged should keep out of melee range to avoid knockbacks.
• Move out of red circles on the ground.
• When he casts Missile Barrage all run and hide behind the left pillar until it ends (apart from the main tank).
• At 8% he starts casting Missile Barrage endlessly so pop defensive and offensive cooldowns and burn.
• There is a reasonably tight enrage timer.

Gharj

• Lava hurts!
• Tank Gharj at one end of each rock platform facing the edge.
• Have the ranged dps and healers huddle at the other end.
• Every so often Gharj destroys the platform you are standing on. Follow the rock path to the next one.
• After a while adds appear when you change platforms. Don’t dps them until you are on the new platform.

Ancient Pylons

• Split your raid evenly (i.e. a tank, a healer and 2 dps in each group) and get in position by each pylon.
• You need to solve the puzzle to win. You work from bottom to top.
• Have one dps, then the other, click the left console as soon as it is available (they get a debuff hence the swapping).
• When the icon in the middle of the row matches the outer icons, click the Confirmation Console in the middle.
• Both teams must complete a row to proceed to the next one.
• Adds spawn as the fight goes on and become increasingly more difficult. Kill them ASAP.

Infernal Council

• Each player has a mob to kill on their own.
• You cannot help another player or the encounter will reset.  No dps, no heals, nothing.
• Healers take the Assassins.
• Tanks take the Juggernauts.
• DPS take the Marauders. Some have more health than others so assign dps appropriately if needed.
• Stand by your mob ready to start the fight. Some do knockbacks so place your back to something.
• Kill all the mobs within 2 minutes.

Soa the Infernal One

• There ares 5 phases es to this fight – 3 dps phases and 2 platform phases.
• DPS phase 1:
  • Tank him in the middle.
  • Avoid green stuff.
  • Burn to 75% when the first platform phase will start.
• DPS phase 2:
  • Tank him in the middle.
  • People targeted with Lightning Balls should kite them away from the raid before running into them to take the damage.
  • Get people out of mind trap ASAP.
• DPS phase 3:
  • Lightning Balls and Mind Traps as phase 2.
  • Don’t hit the boss at all while his shield is up.
  • Tank kites the boss around under the spinning pillars.  When one drops it stuns the boss for 15 seconds.  All dps should hit him as hard as possible for that time ignoring all other mechanics.
  • You only have a few of these 15 second slots in which to kill him before he enrages.
• Platform phases:
  • Hug up on the outer rim of the main platform and assign a leader.
  • Jump down from platform to platform along the routes listed below to avoid a platform disappearing underneath you.  Most of the jumps are anti-clockwise, but some are off the front or back of a platform.  Look before you leap! [I will add a route once I am confident in it]
  • On each platform is a small pyramid.  DPS it down.
  • Stop on assigned platforms (2 and 6) to AoE heal the group.

Moar Achievements: Midsummer 2012

The Midsummer Festival is one of the easiest of the holiday achievements, but one of the most time consuming.  As a bonus though, you will make at least 500 gold at level 85 doing this achievement.  Its largely unchanged from 2011 other than the fact that Cataclysm Fires and Desecration achievements have been added to the metas.

To get The Flame Keeper/The Flame Warden achievement you need to get the following:

• Ice the Frost Lord – kill Frost Lord Ahune
• Burning Hot Pole Dance – dance around a pole for 60 seconds wearing the completed Midsummer set
• Torch Juggler – Juggle 40 torches in 15 seconds in Dalaran
• King of the Fire Festival – Complete a quest chain that ends with you stealing fires from the opposite faction’s capital cities
• The Fires of Azeroth – Honor all the fires of your own faction in Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor and Outland
• Desecration of the Horde/Alliance – Desecrate all the fires of the opposite faction in Eastern Kingdomes, Kalimdor and Outland

There are no achievements that are not part of the meta, but you can also obtain two pets:

• Ice Chip drops from the bag you get for killing Ahune.
• Midsummer Flame can be brought for 350 Burning Blossoms.  Since you need 415 for the meta, thats a lot of blossoms.  You can get these by completing the daily quests each day and visiting all the Northrend and Cataclysm fires that aren’t a part of the meta.

You will also get bonus achievement points for the achievements that make up The Fires of Azeroth and Desecration of the Horde/Alliance.  They are not listed on the meta but you can’t do the meta without them.

How you do it
Start with these things, which you will do each day:

1. Queue for Frost Lord Ahune from the dungeon finder.  As with all holiday events the queue does not take long and you will get a few bonus Justice Points for your time.  Do this every day until you get the pet and any of the cloaks, or the caster staff if you want them (ilevel 353). [Completed: Ice the Frost Lord]
2. While you wait go to the fire in one of your capital cities.  I would suggest not Stormwind or Orgrimmar.  Pick up all the quests and complete the torch catching and brazier hitting ones so you have access to the daily quests.  Torch catching is much easier in some clear space (you have to follow the shadow on the floor).  Do both dailies every day.

The rest of the achievement is a once only thing:

1. Start with the quest chain.  Go to the Zoram Strand and do the quests and you will be sent back to a capital city.  You can then steal flames from the opposite faction’s capital cities.  Don’t make a special trip – just pick them up as you go around.
   1. Of the Horde cities, I managed to do Undercity (in the courtyard in the Ruins of Lordaeron) and Orgrimmar (in the Valley of Wisdom up high) without even aggroing a guard.  I aggro’d a guard in Thunder Bluff after grabbing the flame, but jumped off the edge (on my Levitating priest).  In Silvermoon you can’t fly so just run.  I ran through to the Court of the Sun and then managed to get out of combat to go and steal the flame.
   2. Of the Alliance cities, Darnassus is the easiest (in the courtyard just inside the entrance from Teldrassil) and you will just be able to swoop in and out.  Exodar is in the Crystal Hall.  You will likely have to run to the fire, die, corpse run and then steal it and stone.  You can stand by the fire without pulling aggro but you have no chance of getting there without doing so. Stormwind is quite hard and you will want to do at a quiet time.  The fire is just outside the entrance to the Stockades in the canals and is right next to several profession trainers and the fishing and cooking daily quest givers.  The Alliance are busy there, but not so busy they won’t stop to kill you.  The Ironforge flame is at the back in the Hall of Explorers.  You should be able to fly to this without aggro if you stay up high and use the flight path slits in the walls. [Completed: King of the Fire Festival]
2. Then visit all the flames and honoring or desecrating them (you do this by completing a quest at the fire). It doesn’t matter when you do Outland or Northrend, but remember that both have a portal to your capital city or to Tanaris so when you are planning a path keep this in mind.  Also remember you can jump around using the portals to the Cataclysm areas and flying from there. I’m not going to write an order up because you might tie it in with other dailies, grinding – I tied it in with doing some Archaeology on one character and farming random herbs on another.  Northrend  and Cataclysm do not count towards the meta and is only required if you want the extra Blossoms for the pet.  You can fly in Azeroth, but you can also make use of flight paths still while you go and do something else. [Completed: The Fires of Azeroth & Desecration of the Horde/Alliance]
3. You’ll need to farm 400 Burning Blossoms and buy the Midsummer clothes set from the vendor (shoulders, chest, feet).  Then put them on and dance at a pole until you get the achievement. [Completed: Burning Hot Pole Dance]
4. Torch Juggler needs to be completed in Dalaran so you need to go there either during your tour around the flames or at the end.  Buy some torches , preferably with some to spare (I managed with 20 which cost 15 Burning Blossoms since I had 5 from the quest) and put them on a hot-key.  Unlike the other torches you can target these.  Target them at your feet and start spamming the key and then your mouse to place the targeting circle.  If you have lag try and face a wall to reduce it some (don’t know if that trick is still needed but it was helpful back when Dalaran was highly populated).  You will probably not manage it at first – keep spamming.  You will start your second 15 second counter with torches in the air this way and then get the achievement.  You can send these torches between characters if you are doing more than one round of this achievement.

Flames it might be hard to find
Most of the flames are fairly obvious when you look at a map.  Remember this achievement has been around for a while so flames tend to be at the older settlements and main settlements.  Just look at your map and you can see where the Alliance and Horde flight points are for a rough guide.  Where theres a goblin town, both flames tend to be there.  The following are those that aren’t as obvious:

• Cape of Strangelthorn – both flames are on the pirate beach just east of Booty Bay
• Westfall – this flame is at Moonbrook
• Burning Steppes – the Horde flame is at Flame Crest
• Eversong Woods – the flame is outside of Falconwing Square
• Northern Stranglethorn – the Alliance flame is at Fort Livingstone
• Swamp of Sorrows – Bogpaddle! Just … don’t …
• Ashenvale – the Alliance flame is now at Forest Song and the Horde flame at Silverwind Refuge
• Darkshore – the Alliance flame is now at Lor’danel
• Southern Barrens – the Alliance flame is at Fort Triumph and the Horde flame at Desolation Hold
• Stonetalon Mountains – Sun Rock Retreat (I think it always has been but there are a lot of Horde flight points here)
• Twilight Highlands – these are at the daily quest hubs of Bloodgulch and Thundermar, not the entry towns.
• Vashj’ir – the flame is at Silver Tide Hollow.

Moar Achievements: Account wide and the promise of a pony

Blizzard has marked several achievements in the beta as account wide by adding a blue tint to the banner at the top of the achievement listing.  Let me clarify this somewhat: all achievements count towards an account achievement total. Some have components that are also account wide.  So Loremaster can be achieved by having different Quest achievements on different toons, but Tabard achievements require one toon to wear all the tabards still.

Below are listings of a few achievements where it might not be clear whether components are account wide or not.

Account wide

• Mount achievements including individual mount achievements for those mounts being made account wide (i.e. Wooly Mammoth, One Hump or Two?)
• The Hemet Nessingwary meta
• The Loremaster and other quest metas
• World Explorer and other exploration metas
• Metas for each Battleground and Battlemaster
• For the Alliance!/Horde!
• Jack of All Trades
• Profession metas
• World Event metas

Not account wide

Remember, this means all toons will get points from it, but the complete achievement has to be done on one character.  I’ve not listed everything, just the ones where I thought there might be a question.

• Achievements for using gear of a certain rarity/ilevel
• Tabard achievements
• Got My Mind On My Money
• The Squirrels series and Pest Control
• Well Read
• Higher Learning
• Achievements to eat and drink certain foods and drinks/certain numbers of foods and drinks
• Achievements for numbers of quests, daily quests and dungeon quests including for each zone
• The Bread Winner
• Exploration achievements
• Achievements to get a total number of Honorable Kills
• Achievements for numbers of points
• That Takes Class/Know Thy Enemy
• Achievements to cook/fish/dig up named things
• Reputation achievements including reputation metas

There were a couple of suprises in there.  The Reputation metas stand out as being a bit harsh, but since a lot of them carry titles I guess I can live with it.  I’ll still have the points – I’ll just have to pick a rep farm toon (probably Morrighan) and farm reps on that toon.  The same for Tabards.

What I am less happy to see is the quest number and honor kill achievements are not tagged as account wide.  This may be just that it hasn’t been done yet.  Because Ghostcrawler said in his blog post:

The other category are achievements that are just brutal to complete on one character (and you’d never want to do for multiples), such as 2500 daily quests or 250K honorable kills. In these cases, the cumulative work of all your characters on those criteria will count.

I will be most put out if this doesn’t happen.  Ghostcrawler promised me an account wide pony and I want it!

What to do in SWTOR at 50

Theres been some posts about what to do in WoW when you’re at the level cap.  I’ve played WoW a long time so I have certain activities I tend to participate in.  However, when I hit the level cap in SWTOR it was a whole different matter.  This is a list of the activities you can take part in – I’ll expand more on them in different posts.

Complete all the Flashpoints on normal
You need to complete some of these on normal before you can do the Hard Modes.  In the case of Kaon Unders Seige and the Lost Island, they drop some reasonable gear and are at least as challenging as some Hard Modes.  You need a group of four (tank, healer, 2x dps) for a Flashpoint.  If the Flashpoint is level appropriate and people aren’t overgeared, you will need all four players.

Daily quests
Another source of good PvE gear is the dailies.  There are dailies on three planets under normal circumstances (not counting any special even dailies).  These are Ilum, Belsavis and Corellia.  Right now, Corellia is the most important one because as well as the Dailies it has a Weekly that awards 6 Black Hole Commendations.  You can buy gear with Daily Commendations, as well as Mods and Schematics.

Complete all the Flashpoints on Hard Mode
I’m working on this at the moment.  This is where the cool gear lives before you get into Operations.  Start with Black Talon.  Don’t worry if you die to the first group (for some reason we seem to) as its the mob most likely to kill you in the whole place.  If you can manage Black Talon keep on working your way through.  There is also a quest to complete all of these that will give you a top level mount.  Remember to pick up the daily and weekly quest from Fleet before you go and do these.

Operations
Operations need 8 or 16 people.  They are the SWTOR equivalent of raids.  I would expect to clear most if not all of the Flashpoints on Hard Mode before I made a start on this.

Warzones
Welcome to PvP.  At the moment there are four Warzones in the game.  You queue for these.  In return you get Valor and Commendations.  The Valor improves your PvP ranking and is needed for certain gear, whilst the Commendations can be used to buy gear. Again there are daily and weekly quests, so pick these up.

Rated Warzones
Not yet in the game.

Space Missions
SWTOR has its own mini-game.  You can play space missions as soon as you get your ship.  Its a rail shooter – you follow a path and complete some objectives.  Ship mods help here so you might want to buy some basic ones.

Complete all of the quests
Good way of making money.  You can also use the planetary commendations to buy Orange items for your Companions.  Don’t worry if they aren’t level appropriate as you can always replace the Mods with ones that are, making the gear good.  The better your Companion, the quicker your Dailies will go.

Crew Skills
There are benefits to maxing your crafting Skills, but maxxing your Skills will cost you money and I suggest you don’t spend a lot on it at low levels and finish it off at max level.  Particularly the Mission skill.  Once done, this can also be a source of cash.  To make anything cool you will need crafting items that drop in Hard Modes and Operations.  These are not bound and can be found on the GTN.  Crew Skills are a good way to make cash on the GTN.  And theres plenty to spend it on!

Legacy
By the time your first toon hits 50 you will have opened your Legacy.  Explore the tabs to see what it offers.  It can cost a lot of money to open up a lot of the Legacy stuff.  You can keep upping your Legacy level by doing many of the things listed above, or by levelling an Alt.

Hunt for Datacrons
These are SWTOR easter eggs.  They are spread across all the worlds and provide a permanent increase to your stats.  In return, they are hard to find (and some are buggy at the moment).  Your Codex records which ones you have found.

A note on gearing
PvE gearing tree:

• Tionese – you get these for Commendations and Crystals you can get via Hard Mode Flashpoints
• Columni – you get these via Commendations from Hard Mode Flashpoint quests
• Rakata – you get these from raiding. You may be able to craft something like this.
• Black Hole – you get these from Commendations from raiding the top tier and Black Hole dailies.  There are no set bonuses on these items.
• Campaign – you get these from raiding the top tier at the moment.

PvP gearing tree:

• Recruit – You get these for cash
• Battlemaster – You get these from Commendations obtained through Warzones
• War Hero – You get these from Commendations obtained through Rated Warzones and Warzone dailies. Some of this gear has a Valor requirement.

When you hit 50, go and look at the Recruit vendor.  Some items will be upgrades, even for PvE, especially where you don’t have an Orange piece of armor.  If you like/don’t mind a bit of PvP, then start farming Battlemaster gear.  Battlemaster gear is better than Tionese gear and hard mode drops.  Its fairly even with Columni.

If you do want to PvP, buy a complete set of Recruit gear to do it.  Bioware are on record saying that Expertise makes a huge difference.  A complete set of recruit gear would certainly be better than a complete set of Columni, according to them.  I’m not sure for higher PvE gear levels.

What am I doing?
Hard Mode Flashpoints and PvP.  I find myself enjoying SWTOR PvP at the moment in particular.  The Flashpoints are a nice counterpoint to WoW Heroics as they have a particular feature that WoW once had, but has no longer – a noticable difficulty scale that you can’t overcome too quickly.  You might be able to complete Hard Mode Black Talon, but you could still have no chance of doing Kaon Under Siege until you radically improve your gear.  In fact, Hard Mode Black Talon is about the same difficulty as Normal Mode Kaon Under Siege and Lost Island.

Dreamscape is recruiting
Dreamscape is an Imperial guild on  the Peragus Mining Facility server.  We are looking for new players.  It doesn’t matter what you want to do right now – you could be levelling, an altaholic, enjoying PvP or just looking for a social place to potter around – we will welcome you.  Our only requirement is that you come prepared, having read up all you can, and watched the video, to be excellent to one another.  We are looking for people who might want to do 8 man Operations (Sunday/Monday nights?), but you certainly don’t have to.  Email me here or whisper Brynna on SWTOR to get an invite.

Newbie Blogger Initiative – WoW blogging guide and how to reuse old posts

For those of you who haven’t spotted it, theres a thing going on on the internets called the Newbie Blogger Initiative and I’ve decided to take part, but in the slackiest way EVER.  A long time ago I wrote these two guides.  I think a third part is still bumping around my draft list somewhere.  But what I’m doing is linking them here so new bloggers can see and read them.  This is a great type of posting – reusing old posts

WoW Blogging Part 1: Getting Started

WoW Blogging Part 2: The Early Days

Account wide achievements are finally here

In the last beta patch Blizzard finally implemented account wide achievements and I was very happy to see they were completely account wide.  So all the achievements I’ve gathered while my priest and my paladin were my mains will soon be found on my hunter, Brynna.  This makes me happy.

Why account wide achievements are a good thing

• If you have changed mains since the achievement system was implemented, you will be able to share all your achievements and (hopefully – GC has said this is the intention but is not guarenteed) their rewards across all of your toons.
• Those achievement mounts that you don’t use on your main because you have something a bit cooler? You will be using them on your alts.
• The guy who says ‘oh I cleared it on heroic on my other toon’ is now going to have to prove that.
• You won’t feel you have to stick with one toon just because they have an insane number of achievement points and you don’t have time to do those again.

Achievements are no guarentee of a good player
There seem to be two main arguements against this change.  The first, seen a lot early on, but less often now, is that you wanted to know what toon a character used for raid achievements.

At first glance this seems valid, but actually, its not.  What the achievement system cannot do is assure you that the player behind the computer got that achievement in the role you want them to fulfil.  If that mage is being played by his little brother today, neither the old nor the new system will tell you that.  If that paladin got the achievement as retribution rather than protection, neither system will tell you that.  This system actually makes no difference whatsoever here.

How account wide achievements might offer us more to do
The second one seems to be that this will result in less to do for people who really like achievements and do them on each alt.  Some people like collecting achievements on multiple toons.  However, I think Ghostcrawler has already mentioned the solution to this very briefly.  Its implied in the name of the feature – ‘account wide achievements’.

For example – you currently have an achievement to level a toon to 85.  Each toon has that achievement and each time you level a toon to 85.  What if, instead, you had an achievement that counted the number of toons leveled to 85?  It might go up to 20 (one of each class on each faction) or just 10 (one of each class) and you get an achievement for every toon, like you do for levels of professions.  Or there might be a set of different achievements – level one toon to 85, level one of each faction to 85, level one of each class to 85, level one of each class to 85 as Alliance, level one of each class to 85 as Horde.  So each time you get an alt to 85 you get an achievement or part of an achievement.  And each time it contributes to the overall score, rather than just being yet another repeat of the same thing.

This opens up a world of possibilities.  There have never been any achievements for primary professions, but in this system you could have those, because everyone could have access to them.  And those people who love achievements and have over 12000 already one one toon and so are stuck to gain more points without significant investment of time and help, they will have a whole new set of achievements they can work on.

What current achievements would you like to see an Account Wide Edition of?