Another week filled with the joys of Outward and World of Warcraft! The two in combination have made this ole Hobbit a very happy Hobbit indeed!
While I’m usually more inclined to have a bit more variety in the gaming schedule; I’ve found these two games in particular have been a great bit of adventure and fun (at least for me).
I can’t express enough just how much this run of World of Warcraft has been for me. It’s been so long since I started a run of the game with a mind set that I just want to play it. I want to play it no matter who else wants to play, or even if anyone else wants to join me. I want to see what I’ve missed, what has changed (for the better or worse), and relive adventures long past of my semi-youth (young adult) state.
I enjoy the more casual aspect that has been added to WoW in the current form. Besides, if I wanted to experience the ‘true’ days of old, I can always visit the ‘Classic’ server and fight it out on longer grinds, older character builds, etc.. In truth, I don’t really have the time to spare for the more hardcore forms of MMOs these days. I suppose, I could ‘make’ time so to speak, but even if I did, scheduling would still likely be an issue for the rest of the gang. (Myself technically included, because it has certainly become an issue numerous times, and it’s one of the reasons, I usually stay outside the realms of MMOs.)
I’m happy with the current state of World of Warcraft by a long shot. I truly believe, you could knock out a character build in a surprising manner of time, if you really wanted too. For example, if you ran through areas you had already done the quests, soaked up the story, etc… you can REALLY move quickly and gain a considerable amount of experience and levels. I believe the current state of WoW allows those of us with a bit more limited schedule to still partake of the joys it has too offer in what time we have allotted to play. And for this Hobbit, that is certainly a good thing.
Concerning Outward, I still stand by the recognition that it has made its way into my favorite game list. The story, combat, adventures, quests, and content are just blended together to make something magical. Qvaid has even admitted that it is now her favorite game. It was an incredible struggle for us both when we first started the game. We persevered and now we know what Outward Definitive Edition truly has to offer. I suspect the game would be a marvelous adventure solo as well, but it truly shines so much more with someone to tag along with in the wonders Aurai has to offer!
Days played: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
Players: Qvaid, Hobbit
Comments: On Monday evening, Qvaid and I logged back into Outward where we left off. Right at the entrance to Caldera from the Calygrey Colosseum. We took a round about manner to get back to New Sirocco and resupply.
While we were in New Sirocco we came to the decision to start the next line of the New Sirocco quest. As it stands right now, we have to wait for our 4th specialized building to complete to progress. We are hopeful that we’ll get a new timer for the quest line once that happens? In truth we are really not sure, although, my understanding is you only have to face off against the Crimson Avatar in the final part of the quest.
I got some samples and I grabbed an item out of my stash. I handed the samples in to Evangline (albeit in a bit of a mistaken manner). I had too many on me, and we likely messed up the rotation for expeditions (aka, wasted samples). For this one, I sent her out to look for Voltaic Vines as I think we will need them for the Alchemy building upgrade.
We headed too Old Sirocco to seek out more samples and bid our time while we wait for the Black Smith building to finish, although we did manage to get the materials needed to start the Alchemist building. It will be some time before either is ready since both are on the first phase.
We managed to clear Old Sirocco completely, and gathered a few samples as well in the process. We had a blast on our adventure (although we’ve certainly cleared the dungeon a few times before, we do tend to skip the final part of it, unless we have to clear it. In this case, we just wanted to complete it all since we are technically waiting on construction to complete).
We did some quick searches for Gep’s blade in Caldera before ultimately returning to New Sirocco for some inventory management, gathering supplies, and resting to prep for the next set of adventures.
Tuesday evening was EPIC! We decided to sleep in New Sirocco a few days to finish up the Black Smith construction. After that, we assisted the citizens of New Sirocco with construction for 7 more days. The upgrade to the City Hall completed within that time frame. We were able to continue the mission to seek out the Crimson Avatar. We gathered supplies, after a brief read on what we should expect. Off to the Crimson Sanctuary we went, ready to face off against one of the hardest bosses in Outward!
Our first attempt went a bit rough, we managed to clear the sanctuary and make it too the Crimson Avatar. On our first attempt we had almost defeated, but alas things took a turn for the worse and ultimately we were defeated. We made another attempt after that, which was far worse in comparison to our first. We decided to crawl back to New Sirocco to resupply and rest up.
Qvaid and I both crafted some potions, foods, etc… and we decided to maintain our first idea to use gear with fire resistance since we knew most of the damage from the Crimson Avatar was fire based.
We had everything ready for our next attempts, but… we decided to head back to the Crimson Sanctuary so we would, um, be ready to fight the Crimson Avatar on Wednesday. And… we arrived… and we decided we had to face off against him THEN!
After a bit of a rough start, we were VICTORIOUS! We had saved New Sirocco from the impending doom of the magma flow controlled by the Crimson Avatar (Old Sirocco Noble)! I pulled the broken staff from the floor and was greeted by the Scarlet Lady. Her idle threats rang somewhat true in my ears. I gathered the Crimson Avatar gear and the broken staff, and we were preparing to head out, but we remembered a door that required the Red Lady’s Dagger to enter previously. We entered the door and I got the stone required to repair the broken staff. As we exited the magically locked room, Qvaid and I decided we’d better call it there for the night, ready to start on Wednesday evening and head back to New Sirocco to celebrate saving the new City and its citizens from the oppression of the Old Sirocco Nobles once and for all!
Wednesday evening, Qvaid and I made it back to New Sirocco to wrap up the quest line. We were informed that we could continue our formal position of head of construction, and received a courier from Rissa (Cierzo) to let us know she was proud of the fine work we had done, and we were free to roam and explore to our hearts continue, or stay in New Sirocco should we choose to do so.
Qvaid and I decided it might be time to do a bit more exploration. Before we packed up and hit the road, we wanted to get the construction in a state that should have the majority of it complete on our return. We already had the Black Smith Weapon Smith upgrade and Alchemist’s Fletcher upgrade under way. We built the Gladiator’s Arena, and let it finish the first cycle by assisting the citizens again with the construction, and sleeping a few days away in New Sirocco.
Once we started the second phase of construction for the Arena, we headed out. We will still have to do the final upgrade for the Arena, but this stands to be the final building and upgrade we’ll need to complete the up and coming City (Course it goes without saying that you can only have 6 specialized building in any case).
We headed into Enmerkar Forest and paid a visit to Berg after camping out in Enmerkar forest on our return. We managed a bit of combat on our way to Berg, visited our home there, stocked up again, and were off to Hallowed Marsh!
In Hallowed Marsh, we decided it was time we made the trek to visit the Friendly Immaculate there. For our trouble finding him, he awarded us the Dreamer Halberd! I happily handed it over to Qvaid, and she’s giving it a bit of a test run before deciding if she ultimately would like to use it over Gep’s Longblade. As we walked out of the Immaculate’s refuge in Hallowed Marsh, we noted it was dark. We decided to head back into the cave for a nice rest and to start the journey of exploration again in the following morning.
“Where is my tent!?” Those were the horrifying words I heard Qvaid say sitting beside me as I placed my Mage’s tent down on Vincent, getting ready to rest and repair for the night. “Did you accidentally place it in your Stash while we were in our home in Berg?” “I don’t think so!?” This can’t be good. Qvaid and I decided to b-line to Monsoon so she could check her stash there and see if she did. In truth, I was hoping she did, because otherwise it mean the tent was either dropped accidentally along the way, or at our previous camp site in Enmerkar Forest!
When we arrived in Monsoon and headed for our home there, Qvaid dove for her stash and started frantically searching for her new and rare tent! Unfortunately, she had not accidentally placed it in her Stash in Berg!?
After quite a bit of panic, we managed to track down the missing tent in Enmerkar Forest where we had camped on our way to Berg. It seems she mistakenly left it behind during our travels. Thank the Gods we were able to find it. It goes without saying that the time spent tracking it down, recovering it, and heading back to Monsoon put a damper on the rest of our adventures for that night. We called it after a brief spell of inventory management in Monsoon as it was already quite late by this point. No worries though, we shall be ready to adventure again as soon as both of our schedules align again!
Days played: Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Players: Aces, Error, Kilen, SoSirius, Hobbit
Comments: On Monday morning, I woke up early enough to get a bit of time in on some questing with my Evoker! I continued moving through quests, soaking up some story, and enjoying what Dragonflight has too offer up until I noted it was time to camp to get ready for the work day to begin. I just so happen to time it relatively well, and wrapped up the final quest with some time to spare, after I got back to an ‘inn’ to get some rest experience. Ultimately, the rest exp doesn’t seem to be quite as important as it was back in the vanilla days of WoW, but still, an exp bonus is an exp bonus is it not!? 🙂
Thursday evening, I got a bit of a late start. Earlier in the day, I was building a Debian Server in a VM, and I needed something to tinker around with installs, services, changes, etc… I decided to make an attempt at a 7 Days to Die Dedicated Server (strictly for testing), on the Debian server with no graphical interface. I was so enthralled by the process that I spent a fair amount of my game time later in the evening toying with that. I did manage to get it running, I logged in from my Desktop, and did a few quests, before logging out and shutting it down for the night.
From the work about, it was on to World of Warcraft. Sadly, no one showed up again this Thursday, so I was solo questing on my Evoker. I completed all of the Waking Shore Tour Quests, and wrapped everything up to the point where it was time to head into the Plains from there. I also took the time to go through a few tid bits of quests Error and I skipped in The Waking Shore on our first play through.
In the Plains, I managed to either complete or prep every quest I got from the first Centaur camp, and I’m ready to travel to the next part of that quest line. I know this because I’ve done it on my priest character with Error.
Error and I have since made new characters to run with Kilen. I’m hopeful those characters might become our ‘main’ characters as I’ve really enjoyed being able to play a Protection Warrior again. Error (my son) settled on a Priest for this run, and Kilen is playing a rogue. We have the start of a very good group. I’m hopeful to get some time on those characters sometime this weekend, but alas we shall have to see how the schedules pan out.
I called it shortly after getting ready to travel to the next area of the Plains.
Friday evening, SoSirius decided to join the World of Warcraft adventures for a bit. SoSirius (Dwarven Paladin), Kilen (Night Elf Druid), and me (Gnome Rogue) all created level 1 characters and started in Exiles Reach.
We managed to finish up the adventures in Exiles Reach and started the trek to The Waking Shores (Dragon Flight). Unfortunately there, Kilen had to bounce unexpectedly, but SoSirius and I continued the adventures. We moved through the quest line until it was a bit later in the evening, and SoSirius had to call it as well. We just camped where we were so we could keep the characters on the same quests and level for now.
I have several characters I’ve done this with trying to fit everyone into the mix and scheduling as they can. I just love to game with everyone as they can, so I don’t mind it at all. At some point, I might end up leveling said characters if they don’t make it back on and/or as they do. For that I’ll just how to see how things pan out.
Saturday was a bit of a lonely session for me. I played my Evoker solo the entirety of the day. I did manage to get through quite a bit of the Dragon Flight quest line, finally restoring the Emerald Oathstone to its former glory. I have a small bit of quests to complete in the Plains before I move on to the next area to assist the Azure Dragon Flight.
Even still, playing and questing alone all day and a good portion of the evening. I had a fantastic time. I read all the quests and took my time going through, soaking up the story for all it was worth. I don’t have the latest expansion for WoW so at some point, I managed to get 70 and max out my Evoker’s levels for now.
I did a few more quests, but ended up calling it a bit earlier. I stayed up far too late into Saturday morning, and the lack of sleep was certainly starting to catch up to me.
On Sunday, Aces, Error, Kilen, and myself were all part of the adventuring party at some point or another.
Error, Kilen, and I started the day out catching our characters up on the Dragonflight Skyriding quest line. Mostly because Kilen had not completed it yet, and we were worried he might not get all the skills he needed for flying.
Once we had that complete, we headed over to the boat in The Waking Shore and went back to Stormwind. Kilen and Error needed to pick up the Guild Talbard. It boosts reputation for doing quests, dungeons, and raids with the guild. The reputation is needed to purchase items from the Guild Vendors. I already had it because the other characters I’ve been playing had earned me the reputation via the Warband situation in WoW.
After everyone was um, Talbarded* we started doing random Classic Outward Dungeons. Aces joined us at some point, and after a couple dungeon runs my son talked him into queuing us up for some PVP runs. Sadly the queue time was fairly insane, so we waited around for a silly amount of time before getting into an Alterac Valley.
I should note that Error and Kilen both made level 70, although their experience gains ended there as they do not have The War Within just yet.
After not playing WoW for some time, and certainly not playing any PVP for a bit longer, you can image how that went for the majority of us. Error ended up having to bounce for family stuff, and I had to step away to eat dinner. When I got finished up with dinner, Error came back, but Aces and Kilen were still in said Alterac Valley. Error waited around for a bit before calling it for the night, Aces and Kilen called it shortly after the Alterac Valley match ended.
I decided to hit the bed a bit early as the weekend had caught up too me, and I was feeling the effects of sleep deprivation fairly good.
In my opinion, it was still a great gaming weekend! It certainly had its lonely moments, but I still had an incredible time moving through the story line, cinematics, quests, and combat during those times where no one was on. I’ve really been enjoying this run quit a bit. There are times when enough of the gang is on to make it at least feel like those times of ole that I missed so much!
On an interesting note, I had plans to get the latest expansion for WoW. I was holding off to see what everyone’s plans were. I was gifted the expansion by a friend on Saturday night / Sunday morning. It was ready to claim when I logged back in on Sunday!
