This Is Officially a One-Note Blog
Published on May 16, 2005 By MrBadAxe In WoW
GOAL #1: Reach Level 60. COMPLETE.

So Omni is now officially level 60, as of 4:30 a.m. Friday, May 13th. It took a total of 21 days, 5 1/2 hours total playtime to get to that level. Three Weeks out of six months, spent on playing a game. That averages out to about 3 hours a day, doing nothing but play World of Warcraft. And this is an average, mind you; there are days when I played no WoW at all, and some when I played MUCH MORE.

Truly my worst addiction yet; worse than Transport Tycoon, Diablo II, and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri combined.

So why don't I feel guilty?

Maybe It's because I feel like I've made so many new friends. The guild I'm in, Vindictive, doesn't feel like an assortment of powergamers, it feels like just another chat room, where people come and go, get kicked out and reinvited, where friendships are made every hour, every minute. I feel like holding some major gathering, just so I can meet all those crazy bastards in person.

The cities feel different too. The alliance city of Ironforge feels like a shopping mall. A scant few are actually doing "shopping," the rest are just hanging out, looking for something to do. The hangout? I'm not sure what to call the place, but it's between the Auction house and the Bank. (players of WoW will know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.) Most like the Food Court in a shopping mall. You can't go to a mall and NOT go to the food court. Even if you don't buy food, you just can't NOT go there.

If you look at the general chat channel in a major city like Ironforge, you'll notice that it's also a lot like an open bazaar, with everyone either hawking his/her wares or looking to buy. "WTS Mooncloth Robes, PST!" "WTS Glimmering Longsword of the Eagle" "Mithril Spurs, 1g plus attachment!" "Enchantments, +5 to spirit, PST!" "WTB runecloth bag, I have mats!"

So I suppose I don't feel guilty about it because it feels like I'm getting out more. Even thought I'm still sitting in the same chair. In the same room. Next to the same guy I've been rooming with who also plays WoW. Can I rationalize or what?
So I've been spending a lot more time in Ironforge than usual. People usually don't want to sell loot to an automated vendor NPC, "Someone else mght need it." So they put things on the Auction House, which is where people can sell things without having to worry about looking for a buyer; if there is a demand, someone will bid on it. As such, there is a lot of traffic in Ironforge, and because of this people often start groups here to attempt dungeons like Gnomeregan and the Scarlet Monastery.

Currently those dungeons are about all Omni does right now. Sit around Ironforge until something appealing comes up. That's Goal number two:

GOAL #2: Obtain the Vestments of the Devout.

There are nine item sets, one for each character class, that when completed, grant incredible power as well as looking cool. Vestments of the Devout, while not specifically for priests, is most appropriate for them. I could also attempt to collect the Dreadmist Raiment (warlocks) and/or the Magister's Regalia (mage), but collecting Devout is enough work as is. See, there are eight pieces to each set. And each piece has a chance to drop from a boss in one of these dungeons. You can't get them anywhere else. You can't get them from other players, since six of the eight pieces in each set are "bind on pickup" which basically means "you touch it, it's yours." Wanna get rid of it? Sell it to a vendor, toss it in the bank, or destroy it.

So far, Omni has four pieces. Extreeeeemely lucky. I already got the two pieces that are not Bind on Pickup, the Devout Belt and Devout Bracers. A run through upper Blackrock Spire yielded the Devout Mantle, and a trip through Scholomance got me the extremely-rare Devout Crown. The last of these is very hard to get since the boss that drops it, Darkmaster Gandling, has an equal chance to drop eight out of the nine sets' helms (Devout, Magister's, Shadowcraft, Beaststalker, Wildheart, Valor, Lightforge, and Elements). He will only drop one of these. He is the last or second last boss on almost all Scholomance runs.

Of the remaining pieces, three of them are from Stratholme. Maleki the Pallid drops the Devout Sandals. Archivist Galford drops the Devout Gloves. And Baron Rivendare drops the Devout Skirt. The remaining piece, Devout Robe, drops from General Drakkisath in upper Blackrock Spire.

GOAL #3. See the world.

When you start the game, you only see outlines of geological features on your map. You must explore places in order to see features such as towns, caves, mines, ruins, towers, and so on. My third goal is to completely fill in the map.

All of the main cities (Stormwind, Ironforge, Darnassus, Undercity, Orgrimmar, and Thunder Bluff) have already been given. The rest, I must scout out on my own. This includes dangerous neutral territories such as the Plaguelands and Winterspring, as well as areas that are easier to scout, but held by the horde, such as Durotar, Mulgore, and Tirisfal Glades.

Why do I do this? Because Blizzard took a damn long time to craft this world, and I'd be wasting this gift by not using all of it. Kind of like the native americans and buffalo.

GOAL #4: Master all nine professions.

Following the same token as the previous goal, It would be a major bonus to have an Alchemist, an Herbalist, a Blacksmith, a Leatherworker, a Tailor, an Enchanter, a Miner, a Skinner, and an Engineer under my command. I'd never need to rely on other players for important inter-profession jobs. For example, bars of Arcanite metal are needed for many high-level Blacksmithing recipes. But the only way to get Arcanite is to transmute it from Thorium, which only an Alchemist can do. Since players can only have two professions, I'll need to create at least five characters to cover them all. So I suppose goal #5 is...

GOAL #5: Get more 60s.

Once my other characters (Keahrde is closest, at level 32) reach maximum, they can focus fully on their professions.

GOAL #6: Get Omni his epic mount.

Remember the whole deal about Omni's first mount? That was the easy part. The normal mount costs 90 gold (for skill plus the horse itself), becomes available at level 40, and increases movement speed by 60%. The epic mount costs 900 gold, for just a new horse (got the skill already), becomes available at level 60, and increases move speed by 100%. This becomes a sign of the truly devoted as well as granting a major advantage in PVP battles. I just want it because it makes travel that much easier.

GOAL #7: Find a new topic for this blog.

Unattainable, likely. Anyways, I'm off to accomplish the 5 that haven't been done yet and can be done. I might not be able to do it alone. Hmmm...60 priest LF New Topic, PST. (I'm such a gamer geek.)

Comments
on Jul 03, 2005
Excellent observations -- thanx for posting.

on May 15, 2006
I liked this blog. I don't set goals for my characters....now i will....what server are you on? Or did you already post that.
Jenna
a.k.a Jinacide
on May 16, 2006
wow ist the worst mmo ever
and u waste a lot of time playing it
u will understand this after endles runs for ur epic set and more waste of time
on May 16, 2006

I was going to buy WoW, was in the beta and thought it the best traditional MMOG I'd ever played really, was quite fun running around shooting things as a dwarf with my pet spider.. But, I missed out on the initial preorder scramble, then couldn't get a copy, THEN started to hear about all the instance grinding. It was fun when I was able to advance on my own, the point where I'm forced to group is where I get antsy and start to hate a game.

I like to group sometimes, I enjoyed it whenever I got a good group in DDO, but DDO was upfront about it; that's a grouping game, absolutely, and people become good at grouping or they do not progress.

Anyway, hearing about the instance-grinding and their virtual necessity in PvP, as well as the abominable wait-times on many servers.. I couldn't make myself actually buy World of Warcraft. Hell, 90% of the time I think the whole genre can just go to hell.