Timeless Exploration and Legendary Frustration
Once I had my sea legs under me, I ventured out to the Timeless Isle. It was an interesting place. I found a couple of chests and upgraded my Ret set a bit. When I left Honors he was still main spec Prot and off spec Ret. While his Prot set was a respectable (for the time) 502, his Ret set was about 480. Oddly enough, despite the layoff, with Timeless gear being 496 there still isn’t much in the way of upgrade his (my? Why am I talking about Honors in 3rd person?) Prot set.
With a little practice and some upgrades I managed to get some of the quests done. I can handle the elite tigers and snakes okay. Most of the time I can handle the panda ghosts in the village alright too. My favorite quest was the one that gave you the waterlogged journal where you read about the adventures of a party that landed on the Timeless Isle. It was a good introduction to the place and I love lore bits like that. I read all 22 pages.
I was curious to see if I would miss the action combat from Wildstar. I really didn’t. Even though there aren't telegraphs on the ground, the mobs on the Timeless Isle do some very telegraph like things. The white tiger elites put a dust cloud down that you need to move (dodge) out of. I did miss the Sprint mechanic at first, but specing into Speed of Light helped a bit.
I did a couple of quests and it didn’t take long to feel comfortable again. I joined up with a group and started killing elites. I followed them around the island and then up over a bridge. We engaged another Elite called Cinderfall. He reminded me why I pined at one point for a ranged character. I died twice to his PBAoE (point blank AoE). After that I hung back and hit him with Judgement and Exorcism. Eventually, the group killed him and then headed on.
Next, everyone jumped over this big chasm. I thought it must be like the mechanic WoW used in Conclave of Winds. I was already on Dodge, my trusty Charger, so I jumped...
...and fell
...and fell
...and fell.
Lucky for me, the bubble wasn’t on cool down so I managed to land and not kill myself (and kick myself once again for not taking Falling Avenger). Apparently, there’s a special cloak you need to make that jump.
When I left WoW all the Legendary quest line gave you was a gem to put into a special weapon. I checked where I was on the progress of the Legendary quest. I had two to do: “A Change of Command” and “The Lion Roars”. Suddenly, like waking up from amnesia, it all came back. One of the reasons I stopped playing was the PVP quest needed for the next stage of the Legendary.
I figured, what they hey and queued for Silvershard mines...
...and lost
...and lost
...and lost.
I settled into a little pattern. Farm a bit, Timeless Isle a bit, queue for battlegrounds, lose battlegrounds. I can only take so much PVP. I don’t enjoy it and I’ve never been great at it.
I guess I could try to cheese the achievement with a Wargames group, but I’m starting over socially and I don’t have the social resources to get that done. Plus, it feels a little cheesy. I suppose I could try to buy my way into a group of elite PVPers, but I don’t know if that would work.
I know I’m not going to say anything that hasn’t already been said 1010 times, but I think it was a poor decision choice to put the PVP part in the chain. If they had to have a PVP part, maybe it would have been better to make it participation. Something like 10 matches and a win counts twice. At least that way you could still grind your way through it (much like how you had to grind your way through the Seals that dropped in Mogu’shan Vaults). While I’d like to complete the chain and see the rest of Wratharion’s story, it doesn’t look like that will happen.
It’s my own fault. I took a year off from WoW, I’m sure if I had stayed, I would have the silly thing by now.
With a little practice and some upgrades I managed to get some of the quests done. I can handle the elite tigers and snakes okay. Most of the time I can handle the panda ghosts in the village alright too. My favorite quest was the one that gave you the waterlogged journal where you read about the adventures of a party that landed on the Timeless Isle. It was a good introduction to the place and I love lore bits like that. I read all 22 pages.
I was curious to see if I would miss the action combat from Wildstar. I really didn’t. Even though there aren't telegraphs on the ground, the mobs on the Timeless Isle do some very telegraph like things. The white tiger elites put a dust cloud down that you need to move (dodge) out of. I did miss the Sprint mechanic at first, but specing into Speed of Light helped a bit.
I did a couple of quests and it didn’t take long to feel comfortable again. I joined up with a group and started killing elites. I followed them around the island and then up over a bridge. We engaged another Elite called Cinderfall. He reminded me why I pined at one point for a ranged character. I died twice to his PBAoE (point blank AoE). After that I hung back and hit him with Judgement and Exorcism. Eventually, the group killed him and then headed on.
Next, everyone jumped over this big chasm. I thought it must be like the mechanic WoW used in Conclave of Winds. I was already on Dodge, my trusty Charger, so I jumped...
...and fell
...and fell
...and fell.
Lucky for me, the bubble wasn’t on cool down so I managed to land and not kill myself (and kick myself once again for not taking Falling Avenger). Apparently, there’s a special cloak you need to make that jump.
When I left WoW all the Legendary quest line gave you was a gem to put into a special weapon. I checked where I was on the progress of the Legendary quest. I had two to do: “A Change of Command” and “The Lion Roars”. Suddenly, like waking up from amnesia, it all came back. One of the reasons I stopped playing was the PVP quest needed for the next stage of the Legendary.
I figured, what they hey and queued for Silvershard mines...
...and lost
...and lost
...and lost.
I settled into a little pattern. Farm a bit, Timeless Isle a bit, queue for battlegrounds, lose battlegrounds. I can only take so much PVP. I don’t enjoy it and I’ve never been great at it.
I guess I could try to cheese the achievement with a Wargames group, but I’m starting over socially and I don’t have the social resources to get that done. Plus, it feels a little cheesy. I suppose I could try to buy my way into a group of elite PVPers, but I don’t know if that would work.
I know I’m not going to say anything that hasn’t already been said 1010 times, but I think it was a poor decision choice to put the PVP part in the chain. If they had to have a PVP part, maybe it would have been better to make it participation. Something like 10 matches and a win counts twice. At least that way you could still grind your way through it (much like how you had to grind your way through the Seals that dropped in Mogu’shan Vaults). While I’d like to complete the chain and see the rest of Wratharion’s story, it doesn’t look like that will happen.
It’s my own fault. I took a year off from WoW, I’m sure if I had stayed, I would have the silly thing by now.
Comments
I was in the same boat as you when I came back to the game in December after a 2 year hiatus. I started over from scratch. I started off by leveling professions to be more self-sufficient and went through LFR to get used to playing again.
Eventually, I geared up and discovered the OpenRaid web site to participate in Flex and Normal mode raids. I met a lot of new people that way.
Ckwan
Blade's Edge
P.S. I am a long time reader of this blog as my main is Prot/Ret Paladin
I'll have to look into Open Raid. I figured I'll need to run SoO as Ret to get the feel of the place before I try to tank it.