« Bioshock: Shockingly Disappointing | Home | Have I Mentioned That I Hate Comcast? »
Arena Combat, Cards, and PAX, oh my!
By Cameron Sorden | August 22, 2007
It occurs to me that I’ve been shirking my MMOG discussion duties lately (and getting a lot of flak when I try to review FPS games ::wink::), which is the (alleged) purpose of my blog, so I decided it was time for a rambly MMO-related post… amongst other topics.
As I may have mentioned previously, I’m back playing WoW and hooked hard. My highest level character last time I quit was almost 61 and all he had seen of the Burning Crusade was Thrallmar and the Hellifre Ramparts, so I’m actually pretty entertained now that I’m taking my warrior through the Outland quests. If you haven’t seen it, it’s new to you, as they say. I switched from a Fury Spec to an Arms Spec so the playstyle is a little different. I kind of like having absurd levels of stamina and strength. Not to mention that my current goal is to cap the warrior and do 5v5 arena with my friends who all resubbed at the same time I did.
Given that I’m not much of a raider, I don’t expect to be seeing any phat dungeon loots at the 70 mark, but since I want to do the arena I’m going to need a decent weapon. For that reason, I dropped skinning and picked up blacksmithing. I’m heading for master hammersmith and the sweet purple shine of the epic top-tier crafted hammer (the highest one that doesn’t require raid mats anyway). My decision was kind of ironic in a fate-hates-you sort of way, since I believe that I dropped a blacksmithing skill of 220 last year to take skinning because I wanted extra money. However, I guarantee you that buying the mats to get myself back up to 175 smithing cost at least three times whatever money I made off skinning since then. Anyway, after two days of purchasing mats and farming thorium, I’m sitting pretty at 287 BS. Just about 200 more thorium bars and I should hit the 300 BS mark, after which I can start using those huge piles of fel iron I have taking up space in my bank. God. I wish they had a bridge recipe for Fel Iron in the 285 area.
In addition to playing WoW, I recently picked up a few starters and 10 boosters of the WoW TCG. I’m a little late to the game since they’re approaching their second expansion (Fires of Outland), but I’m hooked hard. I used to be a HUGE magic fan. Anyway, the WoW TCG is remarkably like Magic. I still can’t decide if that was a good choice on their part or not. On the one hand, it feels really familiar to anyone who’s touched Magic before, but on the other, it might not draw many people who still play magic because it will feel like a cheap knock-off. Anyway, the point is that it’s fun. I really like building different class decks and trying out the strategies that used to work in Magic in a new setting. I went out and bought a full booster box of the original set the next day, and I may have to throw down at PAX if I get some time.
Speaking of PAX, that’s where I’ll be for the next five days or so. Sunny Seattle, land of the palm trees, gumdrops, and mermaids. Or rain and coffee. Whatever. The point is that PAX will be awesome. I’m going to be previewing a number of upcoming MMOGs, and I’ve been promised hands-on access to most of them, so I’m quite excited. Since I’m going for Ten Ton Hammer, my write-ups will all be over there (of course), but I’ll be sure to point to them and you can all laugh at my bad writing. I’m actually doubly excited because not only is this my first real convention, but I get front-line access to everything as press! Glee! I am SO going to the concert (mostly for Freezepop).
Topics: Random |
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:45 am
Have fun, bud! And bring me back a Warhammer invite!
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:18 pm
Cameron,
Make sure and bring your decks to PAX. You and me, buddy. Mano-e-orco. Or whatever.
I have a Blue Shaman and a Belfadin that I’m ready to kick ass and take names with.
August 23rd, 2007 at 7:52 am
You had better bring it, Zenke.
It is SO on!