The Pet Hunter Diaries: Raiding With Leashes

Dear Diary,

Hey, it’s me again. Yep, still crazy for vanity pets, and still busting my butt to expand my collection. The hunt continues, and it appears my time in the field has been extended again with the release of World of Warcraft patch 5.1 toward the end of last month. A whole slew of new companions were added, including twelve that drop from certain bosses in classic raids. Well crap, this is obviously shaping up to be yet another time sink, but if this was a Blizzard ploy to get people back into old content, I’D SAY IT’S BLOODY WORKING!

Given my crazy schedule in November, I didn’t get to start until last week. And I’m happy to report that the reported drop rates of “not too bad” are actually just that. I mean, 7 out of 12 for my first run-through of all the four raid dungeons is pretty good, right?

Here’s to luck this week as well when the lockouts reset.

Until next time,

MMOGC

Latest Field Notes and Recently Hunted Pets

Okay, I know I complain (just a little) but I have to admit, doing some of these vanilla raids is actually a lot of fun, especially when I’m soloing everything and feeling INVINCIBLE. Some of the bosses even present a bit of a challenge to do alone because of their mechanics, but I’m generally pleased to add this as yet another activity to mess around in WoW whenever I have time to blow — at least until I get my achievement and Mr. Bigglesworth.

Stitched Pup

That is one ugly puppy! Simple enough to get, though it’s worth noting I had to switch to my Guardian off-spec on my druid to get past Patchwerk in Naxxramas, and since the pets only drop off the end bosses in three wings, most of my time was pretty much spent clearing the dungeon. Dropped by Gluth, and in the end he was the only boss out of the three that dropped his loot.

Corefire Imp

Drops from Magmadar in Molten Core. I guess since the Corehound Pup is already a pet, they needed something else to drop off him. Anyway, he’s cute and very flexible in terms of being a battle pet. In nothing else, he’ll go well with my warlock.

Ashstone Core

Kinda meh about the model on this guy. I mean, he drops off of Golemagg the Incinerator, one of the cooler looking bosses with one of the cooler sounding names in Molten Core, and it’s like…that’s it? It’s just a white, floating piece of rock. Disappointing.

Untamed Hatchling

Getting this little guy was a pain mainly because he drops off Razorgore in Blackwing Lair, and keeping that boss alive during phase 2 while adds were pummeling him was the hardest part doing this solo. The trick was to frequently come out of the mind control to clear adds, and also popping my HoTs (ah, it’s sweet to be a druid) to grab aggro. Took me half an hour just to get the rhythm down, but once I managed it, he was a cinch.

Death Talon Whelpguard

Dropped from Broodlord Lashlayer, who was such a pushover that I spent much more time getting through the damn suppression in those two rooms leading up to him than I actually did fighting. Very pleased that Blizzard decided to add a Drakonid pet.

Chrominius

As his name suggests, he’s a mini version of the boss Chromaggus who drops him. As soon as I saw him, I knew he was going to be one of my favorites — he’s just too cool looking! I seemed to have gotten lucky in Blackwing Lair; first week and I was three for three and done.

Viscidus Globule

Oh be still my heart, it’s yet another horrible blob pet. Terrible luck in Temple of Ahn’Qiraj. Ran the whole thing for the bosses and only came out with this guy. I’d forgotten frost oil or anything I could use to freeze Viscidus too, and being lazy I had to call in my husband the mage to bring the frost spells. He dropped the pet for me, so now I can skip him forevermore.

Rift: My Storm Legion Tour – Dungeons And Raids

Continuing with the write-up of my tour of Rift: Storm Legion during the beta weekend, in this post I’ll focus on what Community Manager James “Elrar” Nichols showed me regarding dungeons and raids. To view the previous part on the world and new zones, see here.

I was told that Storm Legion will launch with seven dungeons and a couple of raids — one 20-man and one 10-man — with another 20-man being added in the first big patch. It’s clear that just because they have a huge expansion coming out soon, this by no means indicates that the Rift team will be slacking on their update schedule. New content will continue rolling in as it has always done, and players won’t have long to wait.

I’ll confess right now that this post will be image-heavy. A lot of the encounters shown to me were still works-in-progress; that and time constraints meant that we didn’t do much fighting beyond Elrar exercising his supermod tour guide powers and insta-killing the bosses so we could check out the beautiful dungeon interiors. Works for me! It won’t do well to spoil the fights for myself at this early stage anyway, so I was happy to follow along, pressing my PrntScn key every two seconds in amazement at the environmental details.

Our first stop: Storm Breaker Protocol, a level 52-56 five-man dungeon. The first thing we did was climb into a mech-like robots, giving us access to a set of cool-sounding abilities like Eradication Pulse and Rocket Salvo. We proceeded to clear trash, and I was told players will also get a chance to fight bosses in these Storm Breaker robots. Elrar confirmed that these kinds of fights are new to Rift; like many of upcoming features we’ll see in Storm Legion, they’re the result of ongoing experimentation with new ideas and implementation of mechanics by the Rift team, ultimately letting the player response guide their decisions.

By the way, I want to mention that the level 60 character provided to me was a Mage, mostly because I told Elrar I was fascinated with what I’ve seen of the new Harbinger soul. In the end, I didn’t actually get much of a chance to experiment with his abilities during the tour, but the good news is the little I did see of his conjured blades and weapons spells confirms my suspicions that this “melee battle mage” soul is as unique as it looks.

The next dungeon we saw was Empyrean Core, a level 58-60 five-man instance intended for players towards the end of the leveling experience. Some stunning bosses and sights in there. Honestly, the following screenshots I took don’t do that place justice, as I lost a lot of the nuances created by the play of light and shadow.

Next, Elrar brought me to the Endless Eclipse, the 20-man raid that will be available about a month after Storm Legion’s launch, where players will eventually get to battle Regulos. Which reminds me, I want to mention that all throughout the tour I was being provided with commentary about the game  world’s history and background information behind all these instances. There’s context in all we’ll get to do in the new expansion, and not for the first or last time, I wished I was more well-versed in Rift lore.

Here’s a few images from that place; as you can see it’s appropriately “deathy” in there. Again, I want to emphasize that it looks so much better in game with all my settings cranked up.

 

Finally, we checked out Frozen Tempest, the 20-man raid that will be available at Storm Legion’s launch. Here, players will get to battle Crucia, the power-hungry dragon goddess who controls the minds of the Storm Legion cult which makes even Regulos shake in his boots.

Got some great pics in there of the two of us getting our butts kicked, because Elrar forgot to turn on his supermod powers of invulnerability. Here he is getting stomped on by a giant harpy (and I was next)!:

Stay tuned for my third and final post in which I will talk about what I saw of the highly anticipated Dimensions feature also known as Rift’s housing system. Believe me when I say it deserves a full post dedicated to it all on its own! Not that everything else I’d seen so far didn’t look fantastic, but Elrar definitely saved the best for last during our tour. And thus, so will I!

Always In Motion Is The Future

Unsurprisingly, with everything that happened this week, today’s Star Wars: The Old Republic update was a recap of their events and features at E3.

• Of course, the “Return” Cinematic Intro was the centerpiece. Last year, the “Hope” trailer had everyone excited about the Trooper, while this year, everyone is talking about the Smuggler. Bah! And they say BioWare gives no love to the Republic.

• A preview trailer of the features we have to look forward to in SWTOR. Quite honestly, I liked that video just much as — if not more — than I did “Return”. It lacks the bells and whistles of a cinematic, but it has something better — actual gameplay footage.

• A trailer for the Operation of Eternity Vault, a raid on the planet of Belsavis. There’s still not enough endgame information for me to make a judgment, but I’m curious. To recapitulate my own thoughts, I used to be a lot more interested in MMO raiding, but not so much anymore since I discovered how quickly I lost interest in the grind and gear progression. Don’t get me wrong — I’ll raid in SWTOR. But to be perfectly honest, unless they do something very different, I can’t see myself being converted in the long run. Don’t worry about me though, there are always going to be other classes to play. My favorite part of an MMO has always been the leveling, the journey, the experience.

• The Tatooine Developer Walkthrough. Sith Sorcerors and Sand People and Krayt Dragons, oh my! And I still can’t get over how damn huge that place is. My sense of exploration is tingling.

SWTOR: Utinni!

I didn’t follow E3 as closely today, playing some catch up with my work instead (on account of all the time I puttered away yesterday, watching all the presentations). I did, however, catch a couple of Star Wars: The Old Republic live streams and features.

One of them was a live demo session hosted by Daniel Erickson from the show floor, answering fan questions and showcasing a Bounty Hunter questing on the planet of Tatooine. The video can be viewed here.

My interest was piqued immediately, for not only is the Bounty Hunter my class of choice, BioWare had also been teasing Tatooine for a couple weeks now and I was really looking forward to seeing it. Everything sort of fled my mind, however, the moment they revealed Blizz the little Jawa companion. Tally another point under the “Reasons to play a Bounty Hunter” column, please!

Oh em gee, will you just look at how cute and cuddly he is. Though, I almost choked to death on my Coke when someone actually asked if he was romance-able (he’s not, thank god). Sorry, but that’s just wrong. Sooo wrong.

They’ve done a wonderful job on the environment; despite the lowered graphic settings for the live stream, everything still looked very beautiful and Tatooine-y. Oh, and massive. Something tells me I’ll be extremely grateful for my speeder “mount” for traveling. Other highlights — a med probe ability that acts similarly to the Rift “soulwalk” when you die, unlimited inventory space for quest items, ability to switch out your companions on the fly for convenience while soloing or grouping, and many other quality-of-life features.

You can’t sell your companions, which was sort of obvious to me, but I still couldn’t help but be amused by Erickson’s answer of no slavery in the Old Republic — if only because it reminded me of how long I’ve personally pondered the ethics of selling, trading, and even sending your bridge officers through the mail like some kind of human chattel in Star Trek Online. Heh.

The other live stream I watched was the short interview on SWTOR raids (which they call “Operations”), as well as the trailer for the Eternity Vault encounter on Belsavis:

You know what it reminded me of? Oddly enough, Episode II. Yep, Attack of the Clones. Battle of Geonosis. The scene where Padme finally professes to Anakin that she truly…deeply…loves him (like, really?) before they and Obi-Wan are hauled off to become creature food, and Mace Windu and his 212-member Jedi strike team have to step in at the nick of time to rescue their asses. The scene where, outnumbered 50 to 1, the Jedi fight to the end in a charlie foxtrot of running feet, flying blaster bolts and flashing lightsabers, utter chaos exploding in every corner of the arena.

In short, Geonosis was a complete gong show and it was the first thing I thought of. Not that that’s a criticism of the above trailer, however. On the contrary. Large-scale battles like that should be messy, they should be chaotic. I thought some of the game footage they showed captured that vibe very well. That said, there were glimpses of what appeared to be boss fights, but also many encounters where the players split up to engage multiple enemies — the latter is what I hope we’ll get to see more of. In any case, I don’t know what else to make of SWTOR raids yet, with still so little to go on.

I did also manage to catch the Nintendo unveiling of the WiiU this afternoon. This year seems to be all about the possibilities for me. The possibility of me actually using a Wii product again for something else other than exercising and work out games if I got the touchscreen controller. The possibility I might actually be drawn into the world of handheld gaming by the Playstation Vita. The possibility I might finally have enough reasons to get a Kinect. All prospects, but nothing really jumped out at me.

My main interest still lies more in MMOs than in consoles or anything, though I’ve enjoyed every minute of the coverage over the last couple of days on games like Skyrim, Batman: Arkham City, Mass Effect 3, Assassin’s Creed Revelations and even Neverwinter.

Rift: Prelude To Riches

Yesterday marked the beginning of Rift’s mini-event which will last until May 9th, heralding the Spoils of War 1.2 patch expected to drop on the 10th. My anticipation levels are officially through the roof as I await the arrival of new features like Appearance Slots, Crafting Rifts, as well as the addition of a new type of event called “slivers” which are entrances into alternate time streams. I plan on checking all that out regardless, but this prelude event is nonetheless a welcome diversion to tide me over, injecting some fresh lore into the world and allowing me an excuse to spend more time on my Cleric and giving me some activities to do in the meantime.

Corrupted coin! I knew it was too good to be true…

There are four new daily quests available; one requires you to gather up coins found around the city, the other three asks you to collect Ancient Golden Dragon Egg Shells that drop from creatures of the fire and earth planes. In other words, nothing really all that special. Okay, so I’m not exactly the biggest fan of dailies, that much is true…but to me, the grind for shells also makes these quests an even bigger pain in the ass than the ones from the first phase of River of Souls.

But the rewards? Oh, dagnabbit, they actually are quite nice. Considering how this thing is only going to be on for a few more days, and completing all the quests took just a little less than an hour and a half, I conceded to myself they are probably worth doing. Yep, these “gifts of burning greed” have decayed my usual sensibilities indeed.

To complete the “Gold Aplenty”, “Heroic Spoils”, and “Hunting for Riches” dailies, I needed to gather 80 shells in all. Collecting the coins already gave me 10, so I struck out into the world and murdered me some planar creatures to get me the rest.

Sticking together...

As a level 50, I hit Shimmersand and found that the best thing to do, if you’re lucky, is to join up with the first raid group you see and go rift hopping across the zone for fire and earth incursions. Traveling with this convoy made up of both Guardians and Defiants ranging from the mid-30s to 50, I was able to get all my shells within 90 minutes, at 4-6 shells at each rift depending on whether or not there are also invasions present. People were very cooperative.

As for my rewards for the first night, I managed to rake in a pile of platinum, a couple ultra rare artifacts, and best of all, a dozen Artisan’s Marks for crafting. Unfortunately, no “Gritty Kitty” companion pet in my plunder…yet. Cross my fingers for another day.

Rift: River Of Souls

Last week, Rift saw the release of Patch 1.1 and the start of their first world event:

* The Endless Court invades Telara! This worldwide event for all present-day Telara zones and level ranges culminates in the opening of the River of Souls raid zone.
* Events and rewards are available for characters of all levels!
* The new World Event UI keeps you up-to-date on current and future event progress. Check it out to see where your server stands in the fight against the Plane of Death.
* Quest starters in Meridian and Sanctum offer currency rewards for special vendors, including limited-time items only available during this event.

For the last few nights, I’ve been participating in it, trying to mix it up a little by questing and fighting Alsbeth’s forces at the same time. At first, I loved it — it brought new lore to the game which is always a welcome addition, the raids were a blast, and most importantly, I appreciated the inclusiveness of the event. There’s something for everyone.

Yet, after the first couple of days, things started to feel like a chore. In Rift’s defense, it’s just a matter of time anything involving doing dailies will start to feel like that for me. I also realize that this is only Phase 1, and things may still be in the process of “ramping up”. Currently, all zones can open death rifts and spawn invasions related to the event. In subsequent phases, however, I’ve heard that things get a little more crazy and interesting — massive incursions and boss attacks on cities, etc. The next phase begins later this week, so I’m looking forward to that.

Still, I must have the most rotten luck or something! Of the four daily quests that are currently active, there’s two that always give me a hard time — “Harbinger of Sorrows” and “Exorcising Evil”. Sealing three death rifts of my own level for the former is more challenging than I expected, though perhaps not surprising since everyone and their mothers are jumping into them as soon as they spawn. My new routine has become questing in one area for about 2 hours in the evening, which is what I would normally do anyway, but now I’m also keeping my eyes peeled for death rifts along the way and crossing my fingers that I’ll hit three before the night is over. Sometimes I get lucky, sometimes not.

For “Exorcising Evil”, the problem of course is finding a death invasion — of any level, really. Last night it took me over an hour of bouncing around Telara to finally find one. Death rifts are usually sealed within minutes of their existence, usually before they have the chance to spawn any invasions at all. A quick patch over the weekend showed that spawn rate of River of Souls rifts, invasions and zone-wide events have increased, but I haven’t noticed a big difference personally. But like I said, I may just be having horrid luck with this.

No matter! So far, I only have two main goals — those who know me shouldn’t be surprised that I have my eye on the vanity pet rewards on the special vendors, and if all goes well I should rack up enough Otherworldly Sourcestones to afford them all, if not by the end of this phase then surely by the end of the entire event. That shadehound is cuuuuuute.

My second goal is to get to level 50! Phase 3 will undoubtedly require players to be of a higher level to participate; I figure it would be nice if I could be a part of that. Seeing as I’m currently sitting at halfway to 45, I think I have an excellent shot!

Rift: One Month Of Cleric-ing Around

I was a little iffy about starting a Cleric at first, as I always get nervous whenever I tackle a healing-capable class for the first time, but I’d underestimated the power and flexibility of the Rift soul system. Now after a full month of playing the game, I realize it was the perfect class for me after all.

My World of Warcraft guildies used to tease me all the time, calling me the “Swiss Army knife of the guild” because my main was a Druid dual-specced feral and resto, and I lugged around about four different sets of armor so I could pretty much fill any DPS, healing or tanking role that was required of me. But I liked that! Sometimes I think it’s my OCD and ADHD clashing together in an epic battle to influence my way of playing. For one thing, I’m not really into alts. I’ve started a couple in Rift, but they’ve barely been touched. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to be able to experiment with all the other classes and their souls one day, but for now I’d much rather focus on a single character and experience everything the game has to offer, including achievements, collections, and higher level content.

At the same time, I enjoy having options and love variety. I like filling multiple roles. Maybe that’s why I always find myself being drawn to the “hybrid” classes. Sometimes, being able to switch from one style of ranged to yet another style of ranged just isn’t enough for me.

What I was delighted to find in my first or second week of playing was just how adaptable the Cleric is. I started off with a solo melee build — Shaman/Druid/Justicar — with survival being my first priority. I wasn’t the best healer, nor did I have the best DPS — but I had just enough of both to crush my enemies and survive a barrage of anything they could throw at me.

Shortly afterward, it became clear to me that since I am always playing with my other half who is a Warrior, I wasn’t going to need that much survival anymore if he could just act as my personal shield. I began crafting a new soul combination for myself, one that focused more on pure damage. The result — Inquisitor/Cabalist. BAM! Suddenly, just like that, I was a caster. This is also the role I tend to use when I’m in dungeon with a healer already in the party, or if I’m in a big group or raid doing rifts.

When my husband started building a new main tank role for instances, I went and bought my third role and started looking into healing. As a tank/healer team, finding groups is never a problem, and the two of us are strong enough to take on elite quests and even major rifts by ourselves. For this, I went Purifier/Sentinel/Warden, which I use mostly for instances but also sometimes too when rifting, if I see a disconcertingly low number of light blue names in the raid frames.

Believe you me, if I only had the platinum to spare right now for a fourth role, I’d be trying my hand at tanking too!

Dammit, I love my Cleric.