Tobold's Blog
Sunday, August 26, 2012
 
Running dungeons

What I like about roleplaying games in general is the tactical aspect of combat. Obviously there isn't much of that when soloing, which is why I have grown generally bored of kill ten foozles quests. And over the years I felt that raids moved away from being something tactical to being a separate game that was about memorizing sequences and hitting the right button fast enough (which is somewhat ironic given the merger of Blizzard with Activision, publishers of the Guitar Hero series.) Thus the part I'm still interested in is small group dungeons.

So I have been running dungeons on normal with my holy priest since his return to World of Warcraft. Normal for several reasons: To get back into the game, to meet less elitist other players, and because due to the currency conversion next week the justice points I earn in normal dungeons actually have the same value as the valor points from heroic dungeons. I will eventually switch to heroic dungeons, for the greater challenge, better loot, and because the new dungeons are only available in heroic. But for the moment the normal dungeons are a nice way to get back.

Other than that I haven't found really good things to occupy myself with in WoW right now. I tried the daily Firelands quests with my frost mage, who was the only character I had who had done Mount Hyjal quests far enough to unlock the dailies. But I'm not really feeling like doing the same quests for another 9 days to unlock the next step. And the rewards of activities like archeology apparently haven't kept up with the gear inflation from dungeons and raids. In any case it is too late to do anything for rewards this late in the expansion, the main point for all activities now has to be that they have to be fun by themselves. That pretty much only leaves running dungeons for me.

What are the activities in WoW or other MMORPGs which you consider fun by themselves, so that you would do them even if the rewards were bad?

Comments:
For solo play, I'd look at a few things that are available:

* MMO-storylines. Quest chains that are more unique then the standard. Leveling through Ulduar is a homage to Indiana Jones and mocking gnomes. Find the Plants vs. Zombies in-game. See/play the new Darkmoon Faire.

* Related to above, if you haven't started the new races yet that can be fun (goblin/wargen). And running an undead through the new startup gives a view of what may be coming from that faction.

* solo runs of old dungeon/heroic/raid content. It can be fun to see what can be done, and still offers gaming challenge.

That's just off the top of my head. Exploration, toying with other classes can be good. Building outfits for transmog fun can be something to do as well.

Just have fun with it...
 
I love the auction house game. And PvP is always fun for me, if not serious PvP play. The other thing I am doing now is hunting for transmog gear.
 
In WoW, running dungeons has been pretty much it since I stopped raiding.

I also enjoyed questing in the new zones in Cataclysm, but the extremely low difficulty level makes it less fun. Still somewhat fun (I leveled one mage to 85 and several characters to 60-70), but not as good as it could have been. Running missions in The Secret World scratches the same itch, and is tons more fun (with content that is at times very difficult, if you want to try it).

In May I had decided to resub to WoW to level a Monk and play Challenge Dungeons, but TSW has thrown a spanner in that. I may still buy and play it, but I'm not sure if I want to take the time to level a new character to 90.
 
Hmmm, an exact path of what I did since I resubscribed in april of this year:

- Took scroll of res, and got a brand new mage to level 80
- Leveled mage to 85, and geared him up through Dragon Soul LFR gear
- Did all the firelands dailies all the way through with said mage
- Leveled my blood DK from 80 to 85, geared him up to full LFR gear.
- Did pvp with my DK to get full pvp gear and then started arenaing casually, petering out sadly around 1700 rating because me and my friends just currently aren't good or experienced enough in the classes we chose (Or simply didnt have a good combo)
- Ran as many old raids that I could solo or duo on my DK
- Leveled my holy pally from 70 to 85, geared him up to full LFR
- Got a bunch of new mounts on my DK, Paladin, and Druid who was already 85 from the start of cata by grinding old factions in preperation for account wide mounts in 5.0
- Leveled a new rogue from 0-85, almost entirely through PvP, and geared him up in full pvp gear at 85
- Leveled a warlock from 24 to 69.
- Leveled a hunter from 50 to 70 (What I am currently doing)



Anyway, from all that I guess my tastes are rather eclectic, but the number one thing is I find it fun to level characters. And I suppose the least-done thing is actually raid (non-lfr), due to time constraints and the fact that I am in a guild with two friends in the real world with a shared guild bank, and reluctant to leave it since it is convenient.

I would have gotten bored a long time ago if it wasn't for the fact that I did probably half of these things with real world friends. Having someone else can obviously make things you wouldn't otherwise find fun into shared experiences.
 
Soloing old instances. Can be really hard, forces you to look on content from completely new angle, explore storylines, otherwise completely skipped by OMGRUSHCRUSHKILL parties.
 
As long as I am challenged I have fun. Ie. first time kill > loot. If I am not challenged I want an other reward: e.g. loot, mount, gold (not pennies), transmog, help friends, etc.

What I don't like is carrying morons. A moron is someone who, after knowing he made a mistake, repeats the very same mistake. Or someone who doesn't use positive criticism to better themselves. Ie. someone who's being told he did not enchant properly goes to fix it whereas a moron doesn't. For me moron and slacker is the same.

Current challenges: doing DS HC w/o the buff with my guild (soon with new talent system), boosting people mount/achi for gold reaching gold cap, killing Ragnaros HC on alts, getting Can't Hear You Sinestra achievement. Tomorow's challenge will be to relearn my main's class to get ready for sunday farm raid, as well as relearning my rogue (for farming the legendary quest items) and in weekend before main raid another character to do DS HC on to check if all my addons are working.

Completed challenges: completing all Cata raids on HC (some pre-nerf), farming Ragnaros mount, completed all classes to level 85 and mastered almost every spec on them (not till a hardcore raiding degree obviously), and killed Deathwing on normal on 8 of my alts (pre-nerf).
 
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