Fantastic time gaming this week as well. The Thanksgiving Holiday was spent with family at my sister’s house. It was great to see how everyone had been doing, although we keep in touch at least to an extent via other various methods of communication through out the year!
There was plenty of game plays through Outward Definitive Edition with Qvaid and I. The majority of the gang also paid some visits to the various lands of Azeroth in World of Warcraft. At this time a good portion of our game play was spent running through some of the 20th Anniversary events in WoW. But lets be real, the events only last so long (although this one is quite extended), and the other content will be there to start or work through after the 20th Anniversary ends. You have to dedicate some time to it while it is here. 😉 We did still manage to run some dungeons, raids, and even a bit of exploration for some of us.
Ultimately, I’d chalk it up to another amazing week of gaming! Fun with friends and family in games I love to play, and you really can’t ask for more than that!
Game on my friends! Game long and game hard!
Days played: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Players: Qvaid, Hobbit
Comments: On Monday evening, Qvaid and I started out in Levant where we left off. We restocked our supplies, and carried enough potions, teas, and other various materials to make the trek across the desert to Enmerkar Forest.
As we arrived, we were traveling through the trail towards Berg, really unaware of where we wanted or needed to go at this point. We ran across a Soroborean Caravan. It so happened he was heading to Monsoon. We decided to hitch a ride with the Caravan for a spell.
When we arrived in Monsoon, we walked through town visiting the various merchants and restocking some wares we needed, but had left New Sirocco. Mostly foods, potions, and things of that sort. We left Monsoon after a bit of rest, heading towards Chersonese. We traveled through Hallow Marsh with relative ease, fighting whatever decided to give us trouble, and passing anything that left us alone. It wasn’t long before we had made the way to the path to Chersonese.
Upon arrival in Chersonese, we gathered a few ghost eyes, some fish, and noted we had some supplies to make some Pungent Paste. I started a camp fire, deployed the cooking pot, and Qvaid made a a few of the pastes to assist her with some burnt health and stamina. Completely refreshed we decided to pay Cierzo a visit for the first time in an age.
We did some rounds in Cierzo and turned in a ledger we picked up from Levant from another merchant there. Ironically we were struggling to find something to do at this point. We had completed all the main quests, and all that was left was mostly running dungeons we had already done, or very small side quests that didn’t really warrant the amount of travel they typically require.
It was at this point, Qvaid and I started looking into other options. Should we prepare to play another game, or start new characters and choose a different faction to progress through this time around. One idea, I suggested was for us to swap around the first player option. This would allow us, in theory, to play the same characters on a different faction, but the draw back would be our positions on the ‘split screen’ would be different. Qvaid would be at the top of the screen, and I would be at the bottom.
We logged out and gave this a try, although I did have to rebind all my keys for some reason (likely because I was now ‘second player’, and we were off on a ‘new’ adventure in no time. Unfortunately for the both of us, we kept looking at the wrong parts of the screen, and this was really causing us to fumble. I suspect over time we might have adjusted, but we were really struggling, and in some cases it was making us both suffer a bit of 3D sickness. Something about thinking you are about to move one way, and suddenly your not because you are looking at the wrong screen. Needless to say the test failed, and we decided we should probably look into other options.
I opened up Steam and we started pouring through the games I picked up during the last Steam Seasonal Sale, and we noted quite a few games we had available to try. Although, the majority of them, I have not tested running Linux yet, I had checked previously and most (if not all) were ‘supposed’ to work. Several seemed to catch Qvaid’s attention, but the other idea we talked through was starting ‘new’ characters in Outward.
Ultimately after we burned some time looking over the games in Steam, we decided to just start another run of Outward. I think the major selling point for Qvaid was the fact that I offered to spawn in gold ingots, silver, and some gear so it wouldn’t have to be a completely fresh restart. She’s grown quite fond of her Gep’s Longblade after all, and while you can ‘Legacy’ items to new characters, it is generally some time before you are able to recover them from the Legacy Chests.
We put the grind in on the first runs, especially if you consider the first attempt we had and failed. While I don’t particularly like the idea of cheating, I love the game enough that if we keep it to a minimum, I feel like there is still plenty of adventure to be had with our current methods. We are going to pick a different faction for this run, along with some changes to our classes and skill sets in an attempt to correct mistakes we made previously.
We’ve already started the process to prepare these new characters, but time caught up to us so we had to leave off when the process quite unfinished as the night came to a close. We’ll pick back up during our next session, and hopefully with a bit of luck we’ll be off to adventuring again in now time!
Tuesday evening, Qvaid and I still had a bit of prep work concerning the new characters. We made some really good progress travelling around to the point of sheer encumbered as our bags were packed to the top. Even still we managed to accomplish a great deal. Both of us made changes to our desired builds during the attempts to gather all the classes, skills, and things we wanted.
We started by finishing up the start of the game, and earning that tribal favor to save our beloved light house. From there, we were exploring around Chersonese when we came across a Soroborean Caravan traveling to Monsoon. We jumped at the opportunity!
Qvaid picked up a full Warrior Monk class set, and I decided to go with Philospher, although I didn’t get any of the Chakaram abilities. Our end builds should be something of the follow: Qvaid – Warrior Monk (More offensive this time around than defensive), Wild Hunter, and Cabal Hermit (Wind Infuse). I’m going with – Philospher, Rune Sage, Cabal Hermit (Sigil of Wind). Yes, it dawned on me, I took a full on mage build again. This time however, I’m going to be using a board and sword, and have a bit more melee focus. I also have access to the Wind, Fire, and Ice Sigils, so I guess in theory, it’s not too late for me to swap out gear and just be a mage if my idea for the board and sword don’t work out.
We managed to get quite a few skills as we visited each city. Mostly traveling with the Caravans. We ended the night in Berg after picking up our second class, and the Mist Boon (Ethereal based). It was really late by this point, and we decided to call it inside of Berg. If I’m not mistaken, we plan to just travel back to Chersonese on foot, and start the adventure of acquiring our final class tree at the Cabal Hermit!
On Wednesday evening, Qvaid and I sat down for some more adventure in Outward on our new characters. Picking back up from the Cabal Hermit trainer we headed out in search of the one Shell Horror that is supposed to roam the area.
We did manage to find and defeat said Shell Horror. Granted it wasn’t a completely harmless win. We both took hits, and got a bit of corruption here and there from luring out out to our chosen battle ground near the Cabal Hermit totem (tree house).
We explored the area, and managed to head into a dungeon we haven’t explored much, if at all prior. We found a talking skeleton, and helped put him back together, although at some point we couldn’t move forward because there was too much corruption at the alter for him to continue, and I presume we needed to progress a faction quest to do anything at that point, which we haven’t quite decided on which to do yet.
When we left that dungeon, we did note we opened a closed gate, and could at least enter it fairly easily later on to get back to that Skeleton, and maybe progress that quest further later on, should we choose a faction quest that opens it further. My understanding is, some of the faction quests cause you to miss out on other parts of the story line. I believe that particular area might be tied to ‘The Holy Mission’. Even still it was very cool and quite the adventure to do what we could.
On a plus the area we came out so happened to be close to one of the Blue Chamber Collective Clans that doesn’t exactly get along with Cierzo clan members. We cleared that out, looted the Ornate chest in their clan hall, and moved to further exploration and battles in Chersonese.
On Thursday evening, Qvaid and I did play Outward again after the Thanksgiving Holiday came to a close and we got back from visiting family. It’s entirely possible that some of the above might have even happened on Thursday. Unlike most weeks, I didn’t take great notes on what transpired from day to day, and since we are at a new start in the game, some of the events I recall seem to run together, especially considering how all over the place these adventures can be. Rest assured, we had a great time, and are looking forward to continuing the adventures later as scheduling allows!
Days played: Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Players: Aces, Error, DNC, Kilen, Hobbit
Comments: Friday I was off for the holiday, I started the day with Kilen and walked him through quite a few of the Secrets of Azeroth quests. I had recently discovered (more so by accident) that finishing the initial quest from Maru would open a plethora of other quests you can do for the event. It did take a decent amount of time, but we managed to get Kilen caught up to where I was in the quest line, and we even managed to finish the two I had remaining as well.
While, that might seem a bit absurd to some, I have to say there was really no indication that there was anything lingering after said quest. Initially, I mistook the request for a meeting at the entrance to an older dungeon. While I had intended to get back to it, other activities quickly consumed my time, and I almost forgot about it, if I’m being completely honest.
It obviously was not the case, but I’ve been MIA in WoW for quite a long time. This asides from the fact, that even the few times I returned, I didn’t really dedicate a good portion of time to WoW. Our group kind of fell into this cycle where we’d return for an expansion release every so often, but usually only play for something around 1 – 3 months depending on interest. We usually stayed in the guild we were in when we left, and not having a group large enough to move beyond regular dungeons, or the dedication to progress to Heroic or Mythic dungeons, our attention would usually drift off to other games fairly quickly.
We have decided to stay in the same guild we were in on the server of choice, but… In this particular play through, we’ve migrated to a more ‘social’ like aspect of play. This has helped us tremendously in keeping interest! It also helps that we ended up with a base group composition that really helps us get groups quickly. I’m a tank, Error is a priest (healer), and Kilen went with a DPS. Thus we have the start of a solid group. Aces and DNC have a slew of characters to play with knowledge of each class they have in their repertoire, allowing for a great bit of flexibility and even cases where Error, Kilen, or myself could branch out to other classes should the desire ever come.
Back to the Secrets of Azeroth Quests (20th Anniversary) now, we did find out there was yet another quest waiting after that (And several more to be precise). By Friday evening however, we moved to other things once Aces joined us. We were also later joined by DNC, and we hit some dungeons, raids, and another guildie joined us as well, although several of us were calling it a night by that point. I mean to be fair, it was almost 2 AM (3 AM for Kilen).
Saturday, Error showed interest in wanting to catch up on the Secrets of Azeroth quests as well. By this point, I was able to complete the majority of them by sheer memory alone (which I have to say surprised me. LOL). However, I get the desire to get the achievements, soak in some story, and/or at least earn that which can be earned. I helped Error through the quests, while Kilen cheered from the side lines until his evil foosball (football) games started, and he left us to our quest intents for some time.
Eventually (and at a much faster pace), I had Error caught up to us at least as much as we could on Saturday, and after a break here and there, we were all back running dungeons, raids, and other various things, including a quest or two if I recall. Error made level 80 at some point in the process, and we all rejoiced! Kilen and I worked on a bit of gear upgrades in Dornogal, and I finished the night out with a bit of research after calling it a night at close to 1 AM.
On Sunday, I started working through a bit more of the Secrets of Azeroth questline, as I mentioned above, we kept having a new quest open up here and there after everyone was caught up. I helped Error get through a quest we had to halt because he wasn’t 80 and we couldn’t use the Mythic+ teleport to get to an area that would have otherwise required a VERY long bit of work in Shadowlands. Once again, he was caught up, and I walked Kilen through catching up again as well.
By the end of it all, all 3 of us had completed all 4 chapters of work for the 20th Anniversary quests, we had the detective title, and quite a few other achievements to go along with the events.
I want to say at some point Aces joined us for a short skit on Sunday before having to call it for a bit again, but ultimately my son (Error) called it fairly early all things considered, and some of the day was lost to the ending to a fantastic weekend of gaming, albeit even if Sunday turned out to be a bit short.
I ended the evening mostly wasting time watching random YouTube videos, until I called it a bit early myself, although, probably not as early as I should have called it. It is truly amazing how much time you can accidentally waste just watching random videos on the various platforms we have available to us in today’s age.
It is entirely possible, I have some of the days mixed up here, as I didn’t take great notes over the course of the weekend, but I’m piecing it together the best I can from memory and the sleep deprivation of the weekend.
