An Epiphany

I had an epiphany the other night, whilst lying in bed waiting to fall asleep. For the first time in many many months, I realized that I finally understood why I’ve been without motivation to pursue many of my hobbies. I’ll talk about model building, since it relates the best to what I’m trying to explain. This passage from Gunota.info pretty much sums up what I’ve been suffering from:

Do You Have It? AMS –  Advanced Modeling Syndrome;  is a condition that is characterized by a modeler’s obsession or continual pursuit to outdo his own capability & standard, resulting in the inability to complete a model kit. In the worst possible scenario, the modeler can suffer burnout and become incapable of doing any model kit for long periods of time.

The root for causes are many but can be typified by the some of the following examples below;

• adding Metal thrusters, Spikes, Tubing, Grooves covers and also LED lit beam sabers to model kits,
• adding mobility mods and making proportion adjustments,
• surfing the internet for references and research on similar builds before embarking on the project and
• many more.

All these itsy-bitsy things will trip-up a modeler, potentially reducing his/ her production levels to near-zero and leave them in depression, despair and remorse.

 I cleaned up the above a bit, but the gist is clear. And it’s exactly what I’ve been going through. I’ve always had a bad habit of putting off doing stuff, because I always want to be perfectly prepared for the project I’m going to be starting “soon”. First it was that I had to get a compressor and airbrush, then I needed a specific paint, then I ran out of primer, and on and on… Before long, nothing ever got started, and all the while I was planning three or four kits ahead! Pretty dumb now that I think about it. Instead of starting a kit I currently owned, I’d fixate on some new one, and I couldn’t start anything until I purchased the new one. And like clockwork, when the new one came in, I’d lose interest and start fixating on something else. I had this problem with games too. While playing WAR, I’d get soo wrapped up in raising my Renown Rank that I started to dread logging in to play my “required” amount of scenarios instead of just paying attention to my current options and trying to enjoy just playing the game. 

Same deal with my drawing hobby: I’d plan a piece like a poster type illustration, start my  preliminary sketches and never get past that point. I’d plan and sketch and plan, but I would never start the actual piece.

Now that I’ve recognized this mental block of mine, I’ve begun making a concerted effort to actually start and finish a model kit. I’m trying to just sit down every night for a decent chunk of time and get something done. Even if it’s just assembling/sanding one part, so long as some progress is made. I’m really happy about this new state of mind and I hope I’ll be able to show you a completed project before too long. I’m actually looking forward to this. It’s been a while.

I’m back. Now what?

Yes, after many months of inactivity, I return to this blog. However, I am not returning to my previous theme and subject matter.

I burned out. 

After months of hype and excitement, both with Warhammer Online and my blog, I began to hit a wall. It became harder and harder to come up with content, and I was logging in less and less. It became less fun and more work. In hindsight, of course it’s easy to realize that getting buried in WAR and everything related to it was going to burn me out sooner or later. And just like most people, I didn’t see it coming at the time. And eventually, I just stopped logging in and playing, and I stopped writing. There were other factors, of course. My fiance and I just moved to a new apartment, we had a minor car wreck, our wedding date is fast approaching, etc, etc.

So yeah, a bunch of stuff has been happening in a relatively short time, and it is only now that I feel caught up enough to try and start writing again. Since I’m no longer playing WAR, I will be re-orienting this blog towards my other interests, while still including video games. I’ve been getting back into plastic modeling, mainly Gundam models, as well as anime and manga. And of course some PC and console gaming. 

Luckily, my blog name is still relevant to the topics I plan to post about and the name will stay. If you are reading, you have my thanks. And I hope that what I write will still be somewhat interesting to you. I’ll see you next post.

We All Knew It Was Coming

And here it is. Good thing, too. I did hope that Mythic would have come to this conclusion sooner, but I’m glad it happened at all. Nice to now have token rewards for the warcamp rvr quests as well.

Also, I apologize for the recent lack of posts, I’ve been very busy with that demon known as real life and my playtime has suffered as a result. However, I hope to be getting more gaming in these next few weeks. I’ll see you guys in RvR.

My First Dungeon Runs.

Yep, that’s the truth. I had never done any instanced dungeons in WAR until last night. This is mainly because I was unable to settle on a character until the Slayer was released. Now, with Khazgar at 4/5 Annihilator, I felt ready to start doing Sigmar Crypts or Skaven Tunnels. Luckiy, I’m in a guild that is ready to run newbies through dungeons, and we have a good group of players that are now massively overgeared for the instances. This is probably why the runs went so smoothly. The group was composed of myself, another newbie Slayer, our Guild Master was the single tank, with an Engi and two Runepriests. Yes, an all-dwarf group. For some reason our guild is composed of over 75% dwarfs. Go figure.

Anyway, the run went smoothly, we hit Crypts first, with my GM laying out basic strats on vent along the way. We got all the way to Twin Lectors without a hitch, and after the strategy was explained, we went to it. It was surprisingly easy, even with one tank, but as I said, my guildies were overgeared for this run. We downed them without a hitch, and the Sentinel Leathers dropped! My roll karma was strong and I won the chestpiece! I was stoked, and they don’t loot half bad either. At least they aren’t bugged and actually show up on my character, unlike the Annihilator chest.

After this we headed out to the Blowhole Tavern and hit the Tunnels. This was a first for me as well, but it seemed to go by quick. The tank kited the Grey Seer Boss while we ran around like headless chickens beating on the boss. Grey Seer went down like cake and not only did the Sentinel War Shroud head piece drop, but I won that roll as well! I honestly felt kind of bad for the other Slayer in the group, but I’ll pass on both next time til he gets them should they drop.

Doing these runs gave me a better understanding of the Ward System and how one is supposed to start progression through the endgame. I now know exactly when I can start doing Bastion Stair on my next alt, and I’m gonna make a concerted effort to get at least one character through Lost Vale.

Speaking of Bastion Stair, why don’t more players run it? It seems like a pretty doable dungeon, especially considering you can start getting your lesser wards regardless of your Renown Rank. I mean, considering the relative difficulty of getting certain pieces of the Annihilator set, doing BS sounds like a more reliable method.

Cross-server Scenarios, Is Now The Time?

A guildie and I were having a conversation last night while we were on our T3 alts, lamenting the recent lack of scenario pops on our server. I play on Badlands, which is the sixth most active server according to Warheap. We chalked it up to the fact that the Slayer/Choppa wave has mostly progressed to T4, and so, the lower tiers are pretty slow as a result. 

We were brainstorming ways to fix this, and when the subject of cross-server scenarios was brought up, we were at first reluctant to really consider it, but then we realized that in T4 at least, the Zone Domination mechanic makes VP spillover from previous tiers almost insignificant. In my experience, when locking a zone, players are running around in the lakes, capping BO’s and Keeps, or trying to bottle up the opposing realm in their warcamp. When it usually takes less than 2 hours to lock a zone, the VP spillover doesn’t seem so important..

And so, if VP from previous tiers is no longer a significant factor, why not implement cross-server scenarios? This feature worked well for WoW, who at the time was having similar issues with some servers having constant Battleground pops, while others could take hours to get a single game in.

I would support this if they were to implement it. As a player with multiple alts, scenarios can be one of the most efficient ways to get xp and renown when leveling an alt. They are also a welcome break from PvE, especially if the open RvR in your area is slow. However, since most servers can now be considered mature, with a large percentage of their population now in T4, leveling an alt can be an arduous process. This is bad for the game as it makes it difficult for new players to progress quickly through the tiers. When your game is about WAR is everywhere, not being able to get a scenario pop is pretty discouraging, especially if you are a new player.

However, Cross-server scs should only be implemented for Tiers One to Three. Tier Four activity is sufficient to not require this feature on most servers’ T4. So on each server, server pride will still be preserved. Don’t worry, you’ll still be facing your mortal enemies from your rival guilds when warbands are galloping around Praag, trying to capture the zone.

I hope Mythic takes a look at the possibility of implementing this feature, as it would address some concerns with the activity of early tiers, and it would foster a more welcoming and active RvR experience for players new to the game. While they are addressing concerns at endgame, I hope that Mythic does not neglect the early to mid-level experience for it’s players, both old and new.

Ding 40! And Additional Randomness.

I turned 40 on Khazgar finally last weekend, and I still have the same pants =/. Anyway, I got myself a Tellurian Giantsplitter from the Guild Vault and I’m now in the process of figuring out what I need to do from here. I’m evaluating what stats I need to be stacking, as well as trying to figure out what jewelry I need to be slotting. I’m also looking at different build/tactic combos, currently I’m Trollslayer to Rune of Absorption, and Giantslayer to Violent Impacts. My professions are still below 150, so that’s another thing I need to catch up on.

In other news, Order on Badlands had a great zone flip this past weekend. I say great, because of the level of organization that was required to pull it off. Destro was pushing Reikland really hard, but we were able to hold both Keeps and eventually take and hold all the BO’s and lock the zone. We had a little more than three warbands in Reikland, and we were able to hold off several Destro assaults on all the objectives. We did this by posting a scout on the high cliff at Wilhelm’s Fist, and this scout would watch the Destro warcamp and call out the directions that Destro groups would take out of the camp. 

Using this strategy, we were able to coordinate the different warbands to defend or assault the various objectives. Normally with this many players in a zone, warbands just randomly zerg, but this time players listened to the warband leaders and actually followed orders! It was a great experience, with a hefty chunk of renown, influence and medals for finally locking the zone. After the zone lock, we all rode north to Praag and captured the south keep just to spite Destro. I logged off shortly after this, with a great feeling of realm pride and camaraderie with my fellow players. Good job, Order of Badlands, it was a privilege to fight by your side.

And now that I finally got to level 40 on Khaz, guess what I do next? Yup. I rolled another alt. This time a Warrior Priest. Sigh. This altoholism is definitely a chronic condition. Oh, and I’m sorry I haven’t put up the next book review yet. I ran into a snag, namely, I didn’t have access to the book I was reviewing for about a week, Long story. But not quite as long as the review, which I will post soon. That’s it for now ladies and gents, I will see you guys again soon.

Khazgar, Rank 39 and Counting.

Here’s Khaz in Oathgrund’s Watch. Rank 39, wearing 4/5 Annihilator gear, with the 2h Axe from the Frostshard Prison. Someone requested a look at my toon recently, so here he is.

You can click the image for a CLOSER LOOK.