Once again I largely played World of Warcraft and Elder Scrolls in January.
Elder Scrolls Online
My game time dropped in ESO once I found myself with six level 50 characters. Though there are many places in Tamriel I haven’t played through yet, there’s something about doing so with maximum level characters rather than leveling characters that simply isn’t as fun.
I purchased a character slot for an Argonian I felt I should have, and she’s great, but again, she is treading ground I’ve been over numerous times.
While I was briefly enjoying dungeons, they’ve felt like an empty experience after a bit, once my characters had better armor than they were getting questing. I hoped to get furniture and other recipes in dungeons, but you can never stop to loot even a crate or you’re way behind the crowd. My feeling was they ruined the game for me a bit. All flash, no truly interesting loot.
Now, I’ve just been logging in for the daily rewards each day, not even doing my Main Crafter’s Writs most days.
Even so, I’m super excited about the Next Chapter, the Gold Road.
I had looked at pre-reveal speculation on the next chapter, and Skingrad seemed the most popular choice. My first thought regarding Skingrad was Vampires. Not my favorite thing in any game, let alone Elder Scrolls. Never speak to me about Knights of the Nine.
Even so, look at that picture. Sun drenched adventure. Everything you want in Elder Scrolls is promised by that one painting. I pre-ordered immediately. Here’s part of the map from Oblivion, showing the Gold Road and Skingrad.
Is it possible we will get to visit Kvatch, Anvil and Chorrol as well? I haven’t been so excited about a Chapter since Morrowind and Elsweyr. Goal oriented person that I am, I should have my main character work through as many of the Pact areas and expansion areas as she can by June, so she can go in strong, adventuring along the Gold Road.
World of Warcraft
My time in Hardcore Classic and Modern Era Dragon Isles might be about equal in the last month, again with little Wrath time.
Hardcore’s version of the game where everything matters remains irresistible. My Paladin Main is halfway to level 30. My Paladin Blacksmith is 19 and my Priest who levels with my spouse is just about there too.
My secondary Alchemist who was doing all the low level alchemy crafting, was killed by a Harvester in Westfall last week. Dang. It’s still horrible to lose a character completely. She was a level 13-ish Warrior. I’ve been playing Prot Warrior in the Wrath version of the game, and wanted to do that here too. My usual spec has always been Arms. I was playing her as Arms until she got Revenge, and was busy nattering between the two stances when I got within the Very Long (!) aggro range of a harvester and she couldn’t fight him effectively, and classically tried to run too late and poof.
In her honor I made a character with her name on Blackwater Raiders, so she lives on and can’t be destroyed again.
I also created a character in her place just to hold meats and fish (somebody has to do it). I came up with the name Sophiebear on a whim and loved it so much, I created a live game Pandaran with that name and got her through the Panda starter are in a single night. I really dislike this area, and it often takes a month or more to struggle through. Sophiebear FTW! I love her so much.
Speaking of love, here is my Kul Tiran Druid and my real life little sister queuing up for a few dungeons.
The Trading Post is becoming interesting to me beyond logging in to get the new Mount of the Month. I’ve found myself looking at some of the pets and transmog items.
Since I’ve been killing off and creating new modern era characters left and right, I’ve had some of the lowbies who survive these purges doing Pet Battles, something I never got far in, and I go to the Transmogrifier after every dungeon run to get my character’s “look” back.
Alan Wake 2
Department of games I’m not playing: Alan Wake 2. My son got it for Christmas and I’m sure he’s not afraid of anything in the game, but he and I disagree on what they did to Alan’s face. Aggh. WTF. The new version, with no explanation of his changed visage, looks like he should be in the Last of Us. Axe Man must have got him
Screenshot
Real Alan
The Elder Scrolls Castles
It has apparently been released in the Philippines, but there’s little information on the game. Here, however is a Redditor’s guide that may give you an idea of game play. It looks different than anything else I’ve seen from Bethesda. I like that they are doing so many new and interesting games.
Gaming Goals for February:
ESO get Main through to Aliki’r Desert
Wow “live” continue Shadowlands for most modern characters, level my “Fabulous Five” on Blackwater Raiders through Dragon Isles (Druid, Warlock, Mage, Paladin, Rogue).
Hardcore keep my Paladin main moving along without dying, natch.
Starfield
A short note on Starfield-I did have to uninstall a fair few things to get it to run, and it wasn’t enough. Everything was sluggy. I uninstalled Starfield last week and will try to (gasp) finish something that remains installed, then poof that to make more space. I don’t know how I fill a hard drive so fast.