Grab Bag of Playing

I'm keeping my Archmage on ice until the next patch so that I can try the Tier 3 Gates of Ekrund. I'm not in the mood to play another character, and Tier 4 is a back and forth keep game, so nothing huge to report. So how about some random screenshots from the ol'screenshot folder? Yeah? Yeah!

This made me laugh entirely too much:


Ooh, pretty trees in Empire Tier 3:


Killed this guy on the way up to an Avelorn warcamp, finally got the unlock for the Moldy Coin Purse. No wonder nearly everyone has this pocket item, yet I've never seen it (it's a high traffic area):


Last but not least, the view from a Keep, as Monolith's Order pushes back Destruction:

State of My Game

Well, I thought I had a screenshot to upload to break my silence, but alas: it seems to have disappeared. I've been quiet because I'm basically running through the same quests on Petroleum as I did on Kipling, which doesn't make for great excitement in blog content. But I'm enjoying playing a healer, and inched my Archmage into Tier 3 this week - with rank 20 came an absolutely fabulous and useful group heal (*stabs stick into ground repeatedly*), and with rank 21 came uh... nothing useful really! But it's nice to be a level higher!

Sitting on the cusp of Tier 2 and 3, I've been trying to decide whether I should concentrate on raising my renown rank another level or so, spend more time in the ORVR lakes (which I tried for the first time, and ended up with less than fun company) or fully explore the lush greens of Avelorn. Or perhaps all of it! The problem is that this month has proved to be busy in real life, so I'm not investing as much time ingame as I'd like.

PS Mythic: your character profiles seem to be broken at the moment.

PPS: good job on the realm mergers, more scenarios make everyone happy.

What Now?

I seem to hit a wall in every game without fail. Back in the day (um, 1997-8), I resorted to ringing the Nintendo hotline because I couldn't work out how to get past the second dungeon in Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (to date, one of the only decent game I've ever completed). I like Warhammer and I've just renewed my subs, so I'm not going to up and quit, but I need to find a solution to the corner I'm stuck in.

Basically:

• Kipling (nearly level 37) seems to be surrounded by quests that are too hard - too many sensitive mobs that respawn too quickly. ORVR is a killer because I'm running on ghetto specs, so until I get my new desktop (post-emigration, but very soon!) I can't join in there. I did complete some quests in the Dwarfland, but I'm reluctant to zone jump too much, in case it makes questing on my alts boring. I could happily ding via grinding Serpent's Passage, it's a brilliant scenario, but it doesn't pop enough to keep me busy.
  

• Icepick does not like RVR. No one seems to heal her, so it's an exercise in frustration. I'm one of those crazy people that likes to run facefirst into a group of the opposing team (quote from /sc "WTF is that chick DOING?"), but it's a shortlived joy if the healing is nonexistent*. Questing is more than easy, especially when Knights can easily solo champions. But when your renown is affected by your level, it makes more sense to keep them as even as possible. And all the fun ORVR is still in Tier 3.
  

• Petroleum wants scenarios. Scenarios refuse to pop. Pop scenarios, pop! Aside from that, I'm loving Archmages. I especially love that one move that's a *zzzzzapp!* lightning bolt from the sky. I'm aiming to play her all the way to Tier 4, so hopefully the scenario popping won't be a massive inconvenience and I can keep moving forward in a fluid motion.
  

So in short, Tier 4 has questing problems, and Tier 1/2 has scenario popping problems. I'm not sure much can be done about the scenarios... maybe try and boost server population? But they could definitely improve the ease of Elfland quests - after Saphery, there just don't seem to be a good distribution of achievable quests. Kadrin Valley onwards has a far superior layout.

*Healing in Tier 4 is amazing. I love you guys.