Crossroads! Level 12

So I made it to Crossroads at level 12, one of the iconic areas of warcraft in Vanilla.  I have been using Questie and Vanilla Guide addons to assist me questing ingame, as I have never reached this level as a horde before.  And having never really adventured as Horde, i need that little bit of guidance.

Leveling so far has been pretty easy, not that I haven't had my share of deaths along the way.  I have found a big 2 handed mace better than a mace and shield.  Killing something quicker, is better and more efficient than out living it in a fight.  I'm pretty sure I am over-due some warrior training too, and I still haven't allocated my talent points yet!

I might go arms spec for a dozen or so levels, I remember fury taking a few more levels to kick in, and saving money would be better spent on 1 weapon rather than two 1 handed?... we'll see

Plans for 2017, Nostalrius PVE

uatha De Danann was and is a great guild, I have lead a few guilds in my gaming experience.  And one thing I have learned is "No, don't do it".  Even if I wanted to, I do not have the time and resources to be able to setup or maintain one. (however, I would very reluctantly accept an officer role). In all my attempts to re-kindle my love of thegame, one this has been perpetually missing, and that's the community of players who made it, both within the guild and outside it. However, like me, many of the players have moved on.

My aim is to do every dungeon, and explore the Horde world side of WoW. Having spent many years on alliance this will be an interesting and different view of the game I haven't seen yet.

I may raid, I might not, depending on how much time it'll take to get involved in a 40 man raid.  I missed the entire 40 man raiding





World PVP

  Even though im on a PVE server, there's the old school mind-set that PVE is an option, unlike a PVP server where its PVP always. The old honor system & Ranking of reputation etc, im expecting to get involved in some of it.  It was a big thing for me in my early days of warcraft, and like to see it again.   When TBR's was in its early days, we would have weekly PVP events to Crossroads,  Astranaar or Tarren Mill.  Experiencing that world event would bring a little joyful tear to the eye too lol...good times.

Should be able to update later this week, so far I have reach level 11.  And im uncertain what talents to take up first.....

 

Nostalrius / Elysium Weekend review, reflection

Saturday I didn't get online until about 9pm UK time.  I was expecting trouble, server outages, etc and when I finally got on an hour later I joined the que.  2 servers were launched on 17th, both a PVP and a PVE server.   And along with the volume of players eager to get online, Elysium also suffered six DDOS attacks during its launch weekend.   There was a blanket banning of accounts, to find the problem, and later accounts where re-enabled.    Theres one thing here, throughout all of this, was that old feeling of.."i remember all this on Blizzards servers" once upon a time.

I attempted to roll an alliance character on the PVE server, and found myself in every starting area swamped with new characters in a the middle of a mass extinction event of NPC mobs.  I was entertained on chat by all the conversations being had, and could see those players who were obviously new to "Vanilla" and having to learn the hard way...

As time went by, I reflected on all of my Warcraft experience as Alliance, I decide this time, I would re-roll a Horde character; So a Tauren warrior it was.  I had flirted with the ideal of Horde on the live servers, but it was always short term and forgotten about after a week. 

The starting area was crowded, and a lot of players were working together to achieve progress.  There were quite a few guilds posting in chat, recruiting.  After a few hours I decided to reply back to one that spoke to my interests "The Rejects" Social weekly events, and eventual raiding. 

Communication

   One thing I cannot stress enough, and I really cant. Is the level of player communication in global chat, guild chat, local chat....any chat.  And while questing along I couldn't help but read, and sometimes engage in the conversation.  This aspect of the game itself breathes life into the "community" of the game.  This level of passion and enthusiasm for the game draws you in, makes you feel part of "a world" which is breathing.  And yeah... I have missed that, haven't you?

Levelling

If your familiar with Vanilla PVE, then skip this bit.  But if this is your first time, then your about to either struggle or frustrate yourself until you get used to this.  Some short points to make here.

1. You will die, probably several times questing mobs (in groups)
2. Money is tight, so spend wisely.
3. Travel time, and patience, co-operation with others
4. Be aware of your surroundings.
5. Don't die too much or your will break your gear $$

There's nothing quite like watching folk run away from 3-4 mobs trying not to die from an accidental/bad pull.  Having remembered how to pull playing as a tank in old Warcraft, it was good to throw out invitations now and again to complete a kill quest. Quest done?..leave group /thank /bye

Summary

I really enjoyed myself, at one point I found myself in a bad situation of dying 8 times and running back to my corpse many times, before I took up a small group to complete a quest.  Being careful what I choose to spend money on, and setting priorities!  I haven't a clue whether I want a profession or not, BS or Alchemy etc...  but a gathering profession surely is next on my list of to-do's.

There's an observation within the guild that a lot of people are rolling warrior tanks, but im sure after some time these people will change their minds in later levels....

 



Smells like new blood and fresh rain

So after queuing on the opening night of the launch, I was stuck with the dilemma of what character to roll.  After watching a youtube video (linked later) I figured I was either going to go Warrior or Warlock.

The Alliance side was swamped, over 40 people standing in the abbey, and every other race starting area was both amusing, encouraging, and frustrating.  But, remembering my racial traits I decided for a change to roll Tauren.  Within the hour I saw an ad for guild, recruiting, and thought "hell why not"

It was great to see an active chat, folk helping each other out and having conversations!! lol I have not seen that in guild chat for a long time.  Will it last?... we'll just have to see in this new adventure on Elysium/Nostralius 

 

Was there a need to increase character levels?

he problem I felt (in retrospect) after the burning crusade, that level 60 should have been max level and stayed max level.  It took us all an age to get to level 60, yes, and when we got there it was an all other level of achievement to gear up ready for raiding. Just my own thoughts, you might disagree?  But I felt that gear should have then been the focus of levelling up.  Think about it now, and how irrelevant past content now is? great continents abandoned, Shattrath a once booming city now empty like its hit some financial crash..

There was something "special" about end-game and seeing end-game gear on your servers top guilds.  It's not a bad thing to have something to either strive or wish for, (is the world more driven to this entitled achievement like attitude to games?) I know I would never have achieved a 40 man raid group in Molten Core, or Naxx. Those achievements where just out of my reach, so I knew and accepted I would end up with Dire Maul's, Scholomance and dungeon gear etc.  And there ..that right there is a golden gap that could and should, be fattened up!

The main problems I had in Vanilla, was gold; being able to afford to level up my professions, make some money for repairs, and that would have increased my enjoyment of the game.  And expansion's could have resolved that with the increase of more quest lines, rewards and lore while still rewarding...and here's the word I was trying to figure out earlier ..... gratification. What I was wearing, I was grateful for, what I had achieved (no matter how small in comparison), I was grateful for.

rateful, that's what missing for me from the current live version.  Maybe i'm a different kind of game player, I like to struggle.  I like helping out folk that are also struggling, forming relationships with other players, and here's another thing, WTF is that "itch" we call get wanting us to "pop back?"  we think its the game, we think its the content, gear etc etc.  But for me, its really down the community of players you surround yourself with in-game, and the other players you interact with that hooks you.  Have a think about that for a moment....

(ok.. moments gone)..

Every other game (MMO) I have started to play, doesn't have the same feel or environment I want to stay in for long, it looses it's initial appeal of wonder and im looking for some substance, meat to get into.  You know like a heavy bass beat of a drum/bass from a good song (now am I talking s**t?)

Elysium goes live on Saturday, so from here, I will try and catalogue the journey back into the old warcraft. And let you know how I get on...cheers





Nostalrius Kronos Rebirth and others - (Re-post)

 So i heard the news back in April of Nostalrius and Blizzard, and now the pending mystery on whether a Vanilla/Legacy server could or can be created on Blizzards service.  Since my last post on my old blog, back when Mists of Pan' came out, i have struggled to hold onto any interest to the current client and expansions.  Even WoD, i tried and.....lost interest very quickly at level 97.  Which is a shame, i miss the social aspect of my guild. i miss the guild events in well know towns, and "Find Leni" competitions organised by the guild. My guild created it own social events, small parties etc, not provided by Blizzard.  

So what went wrong? As much as i want to play this game again on the live servers, i just cant bring myself to play it more than a week, why?

There are many-a-folk who have vlogged and blogged with great points, all of which are correct and too the point.  And i agree with most of what has been said. Do i disagree with any, sure.  But rather than rehash points made, i will take you on a short journey of my experience logging onto a private  vanilla server...

This time (On Kronos) around i created a human female warrior, (instead of paladin as previously on live), i started in the Abbey area and started questing.  I was surprised at the amount of players in the area, all new players starting over (probably from Nost?). I found it entertaining, and challenging with the grey gear (i even bought some off the vendor), and much harder to do the Defias brotherhood in the Vineyard.  During the defias quest conversation broke out, and i formed a group with a priest. We helped each other out, and progressed out of the starting area together, and made the Inn in Goldshire our home.

At this point i was already hooked into bettering my character, first aid, mining, black smithing, cooking all taken as professions. Questing was hard, with the Murloc fins, and the Gnoll candles, having company was definitely the way to go.

This carried on into Westfall, that requirement to team up, help out and assist people in chat.  You're made to engage with other players, discussions are interesting on General Chat (wtf really?), and sometimes not lol.  Traveling from one place to another takes longer on foot, and theres no mount till level 40, even then if you can afford it?  Here, you aim to think ahead, strive for something, survive..!! and while hitting level 19 i found that i couldn't afford to buy my Dis-arm ability from the warrior trainer! (off mining i go, and off to the Auction House to make some money!).

  Everything is an achievement, a personal achievement, and if working alongside another player, double.  I find none of this aspect in the current live game, and i know the goal posts is set at level 60...it should never have been risen...and maybe later i will explain why i think that, in detail.

So im back, and so are a few of my guild officers and guild mates, playing the original game.

And being decidedly hooked, and enjoying the struggle to find 10g to create a guild tabbard!

Rose tinted

.....well of course its a little rose tinted. It has to be in someway, and im not ashamed to say it.  I love the old game, and its faults. In fact most of its faults are part of its charm.  And if you have never played the original warcraft, prepare yourself for a shock.  Some of its faults will have you throwing a fit of frustration, maybe even laughter, but at least it brought some 'emotion' and i cant say MoP or WoD brought any moments of questing struggle, hardship or achievement.  I used to love sitting down for an hour with my partner, working out a talent build for her fire mage, there was personalisation of your character, sure there where builds for end-game raiding etc but 40 man raiding was not part of my goals in Vanilla. Ever.

"Oh for godsake challenge me"

You will laugh when you read this, im sure you will...

My father plays warcraft, he plays a warrior.  He works abroad, so i have never really had the opportunity to watch him play infront of a computer.  With WoD i managed to sit one weekend as he showed me "this and that" of where he was questing, but when it came to combat, he just mashed the keys from 1 to 5 randomly (like the was drumming his fingers) until everything was dead.  With no care in the world for cooldowns or even the global cooldown.  I was kind of hurt, yea, hurt that the game had come down to a face role of keys required to progress.  I dont think i should even use the word "progress"  gone are rotations, talents, and anything uniquely tactical, or rewarding/gratifying.
Im currently waiting to see what he thinks of Vanilla (Since he missed that bit), time will tell.

5 Days

2-3 hours a night, and i have just turned level 19.  And you'll bet your ass, i have earned it!

Update: 16/12/16

If you haven't heard of Nostalrius you could have missed one of the biggest farewells to a private server, hosted by a community of volunteers who love the game.  Who sole ideal was to recreate and run the original game (without expansions) for the community of player who lost interest in the current version of Warcrafts current live version...

In short, the server was brought down, the community signed a huge petition, the Nostalrius team meet with blizzard in hopes of an official Legacy Server build for players wanting to play the original game....  All hopes looked to Blizz-Con for an announcement....... nothing was said, nothing happened and the tumble-weed ....tumbled down the road along with the legacy server hopes..

After waiting this time for any progress from Blizzard on Legacy Servers, the group seems to have pulled the plug from their seats, and have (what seems to have been) passed its codes to Elysium to re-launch Nostalrius PVP and PVE servers with its loyal community and followers. 

Im already registered, ready to go hunt for some gore-tusk liver pie. 

The are planning on launching a fresh PVE server later in December.

OMG, did i just do that?...

September 2012 was the last time I managed to sign into this account, I have no earthly idea wtf I did, but here we are..back! im glad to say.


I have been posting on a new blog about vanilla servers, here https://nadiastormwarcraft.blogspot.co.uk/  if you have been disillusioned with the Blizzard aggressive expansions, that might catch your interest.


I think I will be going through this blog, and removing old old patch information etc.  Try and tidy things up a little, as some of the blogs are just notes I used for my class, and then we'll have a look see what this blog can be about 2017 onwards..