Update

After going through a family tragedy, I've once again found myself desperately seeking distraction.

If you're interested in reading about that, you may do so here.

I've been getting into Diablo 3 for a few different reasons. First, it's not WoW. I'm so accustomed to everything in WoW, every class, every dungeon, almost every raid, that it has lost its “shiny” appeal. It's no longer the wondrous world of Azeroth of which I could explore every corner. Second, it's there, it's something to do, something new. I received a free copy of it when signing up for the annual commitment so we have had it, mostly un-played, since release. My husband had lost most interest in games prior to this incident, and had only been playing very casually, leaving the game untouched for me to experiment with. Third, it's not entirely unfamiliar to me. The controls are definitely different from WoW, but not so different that I have trouble with them. I'm sure there are more reasons than this, but I just can't come up with anything else right now.

As I had written previously, the game at first did not catch my interest. Without having played the original two Diablos, I was missing the “epic” story-line and its significance, and without that, the game might be considered a bit lackluster. Despite the extreme amount of time Blizzard/Activision worked on it, or perhaps because of this, Diablo's graphics are several years behind most new games. (My husband informed me this is because the graphics engine has been in place for years, outdating the game from the start.) With the settings turned all the way up, it is basically seamless, with no jagged edges or blurring, but it's also missing the feel of a new game, the way that Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning made me feel, astounded by the clarity and colors. Granted, Diablo is supposed to be dark in theme and color, but it still feels like it is missing something. I am, however, rather used to being disappointed with graphics, because I have been playing WoW for so long, and even those unfamiliar with the game would probably recognize its chunky, cartoonish landscapes and characters. I most definitely prefer the “shiny things” in general, though.

I have a few other complaints with Diablo 3. Apparently, according to those who have gotten so far before, there are only 30 original levels: the rest are repeats of the first. Basically, you get to level 30 and do it all over again!?! Add to this the fact that every single character and class has to do the exact same quests, and you have even more monotony than you do in World of Warcraft. At least in WoW you can pick your questing zones and each race has a different starting area. It takes a few characters to make it monotonous. Questing itself is not very fun, but there are unique story-lines that branch out and span across the whole Warcraft world. The mechanics of questing are better in Diablo, this is almost definite, but with so few quests, does that even begin to make up for it? Thankfully, I am not yet at that point, but I have created one of each class (five in total) and have had to do the exact same things just to try to get to level 10. There is a lot of exploring you can do, but this almost makes it worse... you may have a goal for a quest, like finding and entering a specific graveyard, but you may come across several other obstacles along the way. While these are not necessary, someone like me usually cannot pass up the chance to grab more “epic loot.” (I don't even know what the terms are for Diablo, but I'm fairly certain it's not “epic.” I know there is a “rare” class of item, but I'm not sure what that is comparable to in WoW.)

Well, now I'm back to playing World of Warcraft. I've played Diablo for about seven hours the past couple of days and am trying to not get burnt out on it yet, so decided to give my baby orc shaman another spin. It's amusing that heirlooms seem to make me level almost too fast, while in D3 I am trying hard to level faster. I've temporarily sworn off on dungeons on this character, because I am overall so tired of them and I have about five different characters currently in this level range to “share” the dungeon queue with. I can grind dungeons for hours on my baby warrior, switch characters, and get stuck grinding the same ones over again.  Instead of queuing, I'm currently questing, in Stranglethorn Vale, to be precise.

So now I'm off to fall into yet another trap, thinly veiled evil and treachery causing my naive self to succumb.  That poor baby Lashtail Hatchling! I'll come for you someday, if only I can get a group together for it... (Remember how they changed the queue and you can no longer queue for Zandalaris? I'm still upset over that.) So, here goes!...

Righteous

Last night I played Righteous (now level 83) for awhile.  I decided to quest because I didn't want to get "too into it," and make a time commitment by running a dungeon... well, that didn't quite work out, because I ended up playing for about two hours anyway.  While questing in Deepholm, I was reminded that while I still suck at Retribution spec, I don't completely hate it, and on the off-chance that I actually hit my cool-downs appropriately, I can do some decent damage.  I suppose I am finally confident enough with my gear to tank some dungeons, as I don't think I have run any Cataclysm ones yet on that character, despite having crafted the entire Hardened Obsidium set for her before she had even hit level 80.  Waste of gold and time?  Probably.  Isn't it all, though?  Ah, it is a sad place indeed when you add the word "obsidium" to your Blogger Dictionary...
So, now that I've actually linked one of my characters, does this mean I'm about to be flamed or stalked?  Probably not, as, despite my blogger stats, I doubt anyone truly reads this.

And hey, what's a "blog by Veronica" without some ads?  So, here goes:

Oooh, that's pretty sexy.  Unfortunately, I'm not rich enough to buy something like this, but you can certainly click on it for me!

WoW

Watch out, World, I'm going to go play WoW.



My mouse, although sadly I own only the standard edition: RAZER RZ01-00280500-R3M1 Razer Naga Special Edition - Molten

Meh... [cross-posted]

So, yesterday (6/3/12) I got my final alt on my home realm (Malygos) to level 80, and it was completely anticlimactic.  I actually think I enjoy leveling more than anything else, and yet I am also completely bleh-ified by questing and doing dungeons in the "old world" (pre-BC).  Am I finally starting to overcome my years-long addiction to World of Warcraft?  What on Earth do I do now?

My husband is trying to interest me in Diablo 3, hoping that we will be able to play together, as we used to play WoW together, and I've tried, but I am not very into or familiar with the story-line, and to me the gameplay is nothing compared to other MMOs.  I've played for maybe five hours total, and have one "wizard" to level six and one monk to level eight, and have only yet unlocked the 1 key for special abilities, and it is on a cooldown.  So, this means that for the majority of the game and fights, I am madly clicking my mouse keys, which is not only annoying but not very ergonomically pleasing for someone used to engaging both hands.  I understand that many people are frustrated with World of Warcraft, and that it IS old and behind the times, and while the combat system is not as dynamic as the new Guild Wars 2 is supposed to be, it is at least solid and requires some form of coordination (even if that just means using both hands.)  So far, Diablo 3 requires the right hand for everything except for things like opening your inventory and turning on and off enemy health bars... so my left hand, so used to the 1-6, WASD, etc is left poised but unused, abandoned, as it were.

Needless to say, I don't foresee purchasing a second copy of D3 or investing any serious amount of time in it.

Speaking of investing time (ahem, wasting) I spent about 90 hours in my game of Skyrim (with one character) and because my hard drive died on me, my game is gone.  I am still convinced that we can recover the data one way or another, but that is just because I believe I *MUST* as there are some very important documents on there that I foolishly neglected to back up.  I went a little MOD-happy as I decided to start playing Skyrim again (anew) and in doing so have managed to break my copy of Skyrim... we purchased it on Steam and Steam decided that in order to fix it I had to re-download something that took about four hours, and it is still not fixed.

Whew, that was more writing than I've done in about two weeks!  And all, sadly, about something that most people would consider a worthless waste of time.

I don't think that I will find what I seek in Skyrim, I haven't found it yet in D3, and I fear I've lost it in WoW.  I want to purchase Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and TERA and try both of those, but have yet to find a way to fund these purchases.  And no, I don't think I'm ready to solely rely on the "real world" yet.

Intro

This is a blog written by a gamer girl who has played World of Warcraft (WoW) for more than 3 years.
Some may call playing WoW an escape, some may say it is an addiction, and others may say it is a healthy pastime.  Whatever it may be to you, I do it, and I used to do quite a bit of it.  This blog may entail me raging, commiserating, whining, or venting to you, the audience, or, more frequently, to myself.

I have a ton of characters on different realms, but here I'll post the ones I favor most:

On US-Malygos (Alliance):

Anemone (85), Razmina (85), Rowina (85), Kivanya (85), Psykhe (85), Lycanthra, Nocturne (85), Faelune (85), Valauthiel, Righteous

On US-Nordrassil (Horde):

Thalassemia (85), Eosphoria (85), Apotheosis (85), Lothiriel (85), Ephemeral, Katatomic, Nyani, Psykhotique, Masikiwa, Gazmai

As shown, not all of my characters are level 85, but unfortunately most of them are.  I have at least two of every class and have played as a tank on every class on which it is available.

Also, I am the Guild Leader of  on US-Malygos.  The name of my guild is derived of a play on words based on the literary mechanism, "Deus ex machina," replacing machina with the Latin word for nature, so instead of "the god in the machine" I loosely translate the name to be "deity of nature".