Updating

Looking at my gaming, not much has changed other than I have more WoW characters at 90 and I'm playing a ton of NCAA 14.  So, I'm just posting here and updating some of the widgets.  Hopefully, I can get in and post more soon.

Is WoW Dying?

I love listening to podcasts.  I listen to podcasts about everything from politics, to TV shows to technology.  And yes, I do listen to WoW podcasts.  However, I dread listening to WoW podcasts for the next week or two.  Why?  WoW lost 1.3 million subscribers.  My response?  Who cares?!!? Oh, but the podcasters will spend hours lamenting the loss or making fun of those who are lamenting.  It just gets old, quickly.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I play my video games for fun.  I've had my ups and downs with WoW.  Right now, things are pretty good with my main, Namaqua, and I like logging in, farming, doing a scenario and dungeon daily and logging out.  I might even run a few 5.0 dailies to finish up some rep grinds. The whole thing takes 45 minutes max.  And I'm having fun.  When I stop having fun, I'll go to other games.

Speaking of other games, I'm playing XCOM, OOTP and NASCAR right now.  (I really need to look into why I play games with all caps.)

One last note, can we PLEASE release 5.3 soon?  I've got Murree at 88 and Vigoda at 85 and would like to level both to 90.  However, after the word came out they were nerfing the xp needed to get from 85 to 90, I can't motivate myself to do it.

Alts

Yes, I've got Namaqua to iLvl 479 and have run all the LFRs through ToES.  Yes, they are entertaining.  However, one thing I've learned in my time in WoW is, I'm not like most players.  Raiding is okay, but healing a leveling dungeon is better.  Shoot, leveling in general is more fun than endgame right now.  Here's my stable of characters at the moment:

Namaqua (Main)- ilvl 479 Elemental Shaman
Bobbylou (Alliance Main)- Druid- Dinged 90 yesterday
Murree- Priest - Level 87
Vigoda- Monk - Level 82
Guyuk- Warrior - Level 30
Kwipke- Hunter - Level 11
Jimmee - Paladin - Level 11

I think my next goal is to level Murree to 90, but since he's all shadow now, I may play Vigoda and Jimmee when I want to heal 5 mans.

Finishing Up 5.1

Okay, I probably won't be finishing much in 5.1 for several weeks into 5.2, but I'm at a good place in WoW right now.  Namaqua has an iLevel of 467 and will likely hit the 470 point some time this week. However, I'm considering delaying it a week as Valor prices in 5.2 are half off and I have a couple of pieces to buy.

I really like the change I made to DPS.  It has made LFR a matter of just me doing my job.  I don't have to worry about tanks doing something dumb or me doing something dumb.  At this point, most of the tanks and healers are over-geared (especially for MV) so it's really just a face roll to the loot.  Well, it would be if the loot would come, but at least I'm getting VP.

Speaking of VP, the places to spend them are slowly opening up.  I'm almost Revered with Shadow-Pan and Klaxi.  I've been alternating them to get them up along with daily working on my farm.  What's the value of being BFF with tillers?  Oh well, they are so much easier as Elemental.  Oh, I forgot to mention, I'm Exalted with the Dominance Offensive. Now there's how dailies should be done.

Lastly, I started leveling my Panda Warrior, Guyuk.  The name is from a Mongul warrior in ancient China.  I really like how the Warrior plays at low levels and it's a perfect alt with double rested xp.  It gives me something to do, along with Vigoda's healing, as a break from end game DPS.

Namaqua is Elemental

Wow, it's been over a month since I posted here.  In any case, over the holidays I was having issues deciding what I really wanted out of WoW.  I had hit Level 90 and was doing end game, primarily by myself.  Yes, I would do a guild run dungeon or scenario, but most of the time I had to move to DPS.  Healing just wasn't something I was doing and didn't fit into my goals.

Well, I'm finishing some dailies to get enough Valor to get the last piece to hop into LFR.  Meanwhile, there's a guild member panicing about running LFR.  They were afraid to heal it, mess up and get yelled at.  I could relate.  A veteran member of the guild stepped in and said, "Relax.  I heal for the raid team, but I still run LFR as DPS.  It's just not worth the stress."  She had a point.  I don't think she ever got through to the scared healer, but it pointed out something to me.  If I'm not going to heal LFR, why am I stressing about getting a set of gear to run dailies, scenarios and LFR and only using my healing set on 5-mans.

So, off to DPS I go with Namaqua.  I've cleared MV on LFR and am working to increase my DPS.  It's a different challenge, but I still like it.  The best part is, dailies are 100 times easier when I don't have to worry about spec and gear changes.

The other little thing to mention here is, I can still heal characters I'm leveling.  Vigoda is now in the low 40s and healing on a Monk is a ton of fun.

DPS?

A thought keeps popping in my mind while playing Namaqua, why am I  not primarily Elemental?  The only time I'm going Resto is to run a random heroic, of which  I've only done one since dinging 90.  The rest of my time I'm in Elemental.  That includes scenarios, leveling and the couple of guild runs.  I would estimate 95% of my post-90 time so far has been doing DPS.

So, let's look at the pros and cons.  One big pro is the amount of time I spend soloing.  The stronger I can make my Elemental spec, the faster I can quest and more DPS I can supply to groups.  I can also then focus on one gear set instead of having to do a little of both.  On the other hand, I really like healing,  especially on the Shaman.  The other thing to note, I swithched to Feral on Bobbylou and have pretty much stopped playing him.  Yes, I leveled him as far as 86, but after I decided Druid healing wasn't for me, the toon lost a lot of it's appeal.

So, while I doubt I'll give up healing yet, it is something to think about.  After all, it's holding me back.  I guess I could go back and level a hunter, warrior or warlock. (Each has crossed my mind.)  I just can't imagine starting over with leveling right now, especially as all DPS.

Namaqua Dings 90!

The story should have some big build up with a flourishing ending.  Rarely does WoW work that way.  I killed a turtle on my way back to turning in a quest and dinged 90 Thursday night.  Only one person in the guild was even online to give me a "grats".  After months of grinding, I'll admit, it was a bit of a let down.

On the other hand, the end game is awesome.  I've run 3 scenarios and loved each.  Short little DPS story bits with a little bit of loot at the end.  Very cool.  I even ran a heroic PUG during a moment of weakness.  The tank died during a long pull and I popped my earth elemental and we eventually got him down.  (Next time I have to make sure the tank doesn't go down.)  Even the dailies aren't as bad as everyone makes them out to be.  I'm also finishing out the Dread Wastes to get some last questing gear. Okay, I'm not high on that zone.  Blue with bugs?  Really?

In other news, I ran a dungeon with Vigoda last night as well and dinged twice to 25 and 26.  Waiting to run him until he has massive rested xp is definitely the way to go.

It looks like the guild is also going through some drama.  One of the guys I really enjoyed chatting with either quit or was gkicked.  I saw the last of his alts go yesterday.  Being not very active, I don't think I'm the one to ask what happened, but you can tell there's some tension over it.  Here's hoping it was a mutual thing, but as quickly as it happened, I tend to doubt it.