Of Dice and Dragons

Of Dice and Dragons talks about games and gaming.

First Impressions of WoW: The War Within

Eppu

The newest expansion of World of Warcraft, The War Within, has been out for a few months now. Time for a first impressions post.

Eppu

The environments are really impressive, both visually and geographically (for the lack of a better term). The landscapes look more like they could’ve developed according to natural processes. (Check out, for instance, the Ruptured Lake and the descent into Azj-Kahet from Hallowfall!) And into all that, they’ve squeezed an incredible amount of distinctive questing areas, some above or below others or just down a cliff, hidden behind a hump in the hill, or the like. The flora is imaginative and unusual—we are largely underground, after all.

There are also a lot of fun details. To mention only a few: The tents that look like books are neat, and kinda remind me of the upside down ship houses in Boralus. The masses of candles in the Kobold areas look amazing, as does the darkness effect in e.g. Kriegval’s Rest. The Steam Vent in Dornogal has these heated beds for the Earthen to relax on. Looks very cozy!

WoW TWW Dornogal The Steam Vent

The only zone I don’t care for is Azj-Kahet; it’s too dark overall, even if some areas have really cool and interesting details. (The exception here is the Wildcamp Or’lay area, where the Beneath the Roots quest ends; I really could’ve gone on adventuring there much longer. Fabulous, I love it!)

Most of the music is lovely, nicely varying, and thought-out. On the other hand, almost all of the nerubian characters have too deep voices; they’re incomprehensible. Bad directing leads to wasted voice acting.

This time, Blizzard opted to hoist hero talents on top of the talents introduced in Dragonflight. (With tweaks to the talents, because you have to tweak talents for a new expansion, otherwise the world would implode, right?) That works really well, I think; no need to re-learn absolutely everything. With professions, it’s possible to craft something useful for your toons from the beginning; that’s really nice.

There are lots of creature comforts I wish Blizzard had included years ago. For example, more options to skip certain story quests on alts, the Warband bank and Deposit All button (even if it deposited also all applicable Dragonflight items, so I had to go prune them out afterwards), the Leave-O-Bot at the end of delves, or quartermasters in cities marked on the map. And speaking of maps, the functionality of clicking anywhere on the map and have that point become a tracking caret on your screen (much like it’s been possible for quests).

Also the fact that flight points are opened to alts once one of your toons has discovered them (and reached 80?) is fantastic. As a visual person, I deeply appreciate the difference in the map boot graphics: yellow boot with wings = a discovered flight point, green boot without wings = an undiscovered one.

WoW TWW Flight Points on Map

I LOVE that there now are a few dragonriding mounts that can carry a second character! As Erik doesn’t like dragonriding at all and I love it, when playing together we get to take advantage of the higher speed of dragonriding if I steer and Erik travels as a passenger. 🙂

Delves are a lot of fun, but they could also use some improvement. Like Torghast in Shadowlands, I really love the flexibility of delves—except this time, we do get loot at the end! (Something we wished had been a feature of Dragonflight.) On the other hand, we don’t get many interesting game effects like the anima powers in Torghast. Also, delves are set apart from dungeons and raids in that travel to their location is required and simply queueing (like for follower dungeons, which offer a similar type of flexibility) isn’t possible. Love the Leave-O-Bot, though, plus an easy exit at the end of a dungeon. I also like follower dungeons a lot, they make playing dungeon content easier. They could use some fine tuning, but the concept works.

A random observation to end with: Something about how the story in TWW unfolds reminds me a lot of Battle for Azeroth. Perhaps it has to do with the character-focused approach? Just about every plot point refers to its effects on people, and many quests literally focus on the personal, instead of running around fetching bucket handles or grinding through endlessly respawning faceless enemy mooks. Also, children aren’t entirely forgotten.

Erik

Almost everything I have to say about The War Within is good. This expansion delivered a lot for me to enjoy.

When the new expansion was announced as an underground experience, I was nervous. I’ve never much liked WoW‘s underground zones. I found Deepholm dull and Zaralek Cavern claustrophobic. Still, I was willing to wait and see what the design team would do, and I have been pleasantly surprised. The Ringing Deeps and Hallowfall are both beautiful zones that feel very distinct. You know you’re underground, but they don’t feel dull or oppressive. And when you need fresh air and sky above you, you can always go up to the Isle of Dorn. I don’t care for Azj-Kahet, but three out of four zones is more than enough for me to have a fulfilling game experience.

Within those zones, there is lots of attention to detail in both environment and storytelling to fill out our sense of the new peoples we meet there. The culture of the Earthen is fascinating to explore, as they find their way between the dictates of order and the pull to free will. Our kooky, scrappy, candle-wearing Kobold friends make excellent comic foils to the serious Earthen. The Arathi of Hallowfall introduce fascinating possibilities in the larger lore of WoW. I’m not interested in the Nerubians, but as with the zones, there is more than enough in the rest of the expansion for me to discover and enjoy.

WoW TWW Torchsnarls Cave2

Turning to aspects of gameplay, delves and follower dungeons bring a welcome new range of possibilities to the game for people like us who don’t like to do group content. Delves are short enough to fit a casual play schedule, challenging enough to be a satisfying test of skill, and rewarding enough to be worth doing repeatedly. Follower dungeons make it easy to enjoy dungeon content at the appropriate level without worrying about bad groups and grouchy strangers. Delves, follower dungeons, world quests, and weekly quests offer great flexibility in how to play and advance my characters. This expansions gives players like me more to do than ever before.

The most fundamental mechanical change of the expansion, of course, is the introduction of Warbands. The ability to share everything from renown progress to crafting materials seamlessly across all my characters is liberating and refreshing. Combined with the changes to transmog that let you learn any appearance you pick up, whether the character you’re playing can use it or not, these changes mark a significant shift in Blizzard’s attitude toward players. We finally have an expansion that welcomes me to play as many alts as I feel like without making it feel as though I am missing out on something important.

With all of these positives, the things that I don’t like about the expansion seem minor and unimportant. I don’t like Azj-Kahet and have no interest in the Nerubians. My dislike for the zone is not because it is badly done, though, and I hope that everyone who is into dark spidery stuff has a blast there. It is completely okay for Blizzard to make parts of the game that aren’t for me.

Dornogal feels a bit bland as a capital, less thriving and alive than Valdrakken, less magical than Dalaran, less characterful than Boralus or Zul’dazar. Still, it does have a sense of place and its own kind of beauty. I’d much rather spend an expansion in Dornogal than in Oribos.

Hero talents have turned out to be less interesting than I hoped. On most of my characters, the choice is made for me because of the two options available, one revolves around a talent I don’t use or serves a playstyle I’m not interested in. Few of the individual hero talents feel like they make much of a difference to how I play. On the other hand, I don’t really want a big shake-up to how I play my characters, so on balance, I’m fine with the system.

I find the main story of Smug Floating Shadow Elf Doing Vaguely Evil Stuff to be boring, but the truth is that in every expansion, I’m usually bored by the main story. I find my joy in the small stories we experience along the way, and The War Within has not disappointed with its side stories. From wacky Kobold bedtime stories to sensitive reflections on aging and the loss of treasured memories, this expansion has plenty to offer. Just like Azj-Kahet and the Nerubians, I can completely ignore the Smug Elf, Traumatized Prince, and Angry Ranger Show and still have more than enough to do.

Overall, my reaction to this expansion is: There are things I don’t care for and am not interested in, but there are so many things for me to enjoy that I hardly even notice the rest.

Images: World of Warcraft screencaps

Of Dice and Dragons talks about games and gaming.

Dress Uniform Transmog

Erik

I love the old-time nautical style of the Kul Tirans in World of Warcraft. I like imagining that my Kul Tiran warrior stepped off the pages of the fantasy equivalent of a Patrick O’Brien novel. So, now that the season of holiday parties is coming, it seems like a good time to give her a proper dress uniform transmog. What do you think?

The outfit uses the Sky-Captain’s Formal Coat and a couple of pieces from the Gilnean Noble’s set, which I think go together handsomely. The swords are older models, but they pick up the blue and gold tones of the rest of the outfit and look appropriately cutlass-like. Here’s all the pieces.

Image: World of Warcraft screencap

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Gnome Frost Mage Transmog Tweak

Eppu1 Comment

A lot of the time, the new trading post transmog items are a different, fun take on World of Warcraft gear. They’ve allowed me to tinker with my looks, including this cute version of a Gnome fortune-hunter.

WoW Dragonflight Frost Mage Transmog1

I made it for my frost mage, who in my head canon is very academic and very girly and very neat, ergo the polished, fancy outfit completely at odds with adventuring life. But, hey, she gets to carry a chest bursting with jewels on her back!

WoW Dragonflight Frost Mage Transmog2

The Love Witch’s Boots are rather, uh, extravagant on their own, but fortunately I only need their curly tips and a little of the magenta stripe to shop up from under the Mooncloth Robe hem.

Here is her set in Wowhead’s Dressing Room.

Images: World of Warcraft screencaps

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Role-Playing Around the Campfire

Erik

In table-top role-playing, there are opportunities everywhere to let players role-play their characters and build the narrative of the group. Even the humble act of camping for the night in the wilderness can be rich with openings for some character work. Some players will seize these opportunities for themselves, but sometimes it helps to have the DM nudge the character-building along.

Stopping to camp for the night is usually downtime to be passed over quickly. If wilderness survival is an important part of your campaign, maybe you have everyone scratch a batch of rations off their inventory. The party decides who’s going to keep watch and in what order. You might have some nighttime encounters planned for them, but soon enough it’s time to refresh everyone’s daily powers, heal some hit points, and carry on with the next day’s adventure. But it can also be a low-stakes chance for players to think about and play with their characters, both as individuals and as a party.

If your players don’t naturally take the initiative to role-play, here are some ways you can encourage them.

Set the scene

Filling in the details of the world gives your players something to react to, and that’s equally true if it’s an angry dragon in a crumbling old stone tower or a patch of berry bushes by the side of a little woodland stream. When your party decides to stop for the night, take a moment to fill in the scene around them. Draw in as many sensory details as you can:

“You find a good spot to camp in a small clearing amidst old pine trees. The ground is covered in dry, rust-colored fallen needles that crunch under your feet. The roots of the trees spread across the clearing, making little pockets that each of you can curl up into. At the edge of the woods, you spot some buckberry bushes. You hear small nocturnal critters rustling in the underbrush in the woods, unbothered by big folks like you passing through. The smell of pine pitch is in the air, a sharp topnote over the earthy, mossy scent of the forest underneath. The rays of the setting sun fade from golden to red to purple as you settle in.”

You can encourage players to help fill in scene themselves, if you like. See if anyone wants to check out the area before settling in, and invite them to describe what they would like to find—within reason. Unexpected chests of gold hidden under leaves are probably out of the question (depending on what your campaign is like), but if the druid would like to turn up some edible mushrooms, or the ranger wants to hunt some small game, or the rogue would like to climb a tree and find a comfortable perch in the branches, those can be good things to add to the scene.

A simple but useful way to both build the scene and encourage some role-play is to ask every player: “Your character finds something at this campsite, something perfectly ordinary and normal to find in this environment, but that makes them happy. What do you find?”

Prompt some action

You don’t have to gloss over the business of setting up camp. Ask each player what they’re doing to help make camp for the night. Or maybe prompt them by asking: “Who’s going to make the campfire? Who’s making dinner, and what are you making? Who’s setting up the tents? Who’s fetching water? Who’s taking care of the horses? Everyone tell us how your task goes.”

It can be good to tie the small actions of making camp to the bigger actions of the adventures before. Was there a big fight? Maybe the barbarian is really starting to stink of old sweat and needs a wash. Did the wizard cast a big spell? Maybe channeling all that magical energy was rough on their robes and they need to do a little patching. Was there a lot of riding, hiking, or climbing? Everyone’s sore, someone is getting blisters on their feet or has cuts on their hands from scrambling over rocks—not the sort of thing that costs hit point or needs proper healing, but something to take care of once there’s a chance to sit down.

Ask some backstory questions

The downtime between adventuring days is a good opportunity to give everybody a chance to reflect on their character’s personality and backstory. You can help this along with a few leading questions, like:

  • “As you chew on your trail rations, you daydream about the best meal you ever had. What does your character wish they were eating right now?”
  • “You’ve settled in, and you’ve got time to kill. What’s a funny story your character could tell the group that they haven’t shared before?”
  • “What do you do to entertain yourselves and each other while waiting for sleep?”
  • “Darkness is falling, and you know you need sleep to face the dangers ahead, but what’s keeping your character awake? What are you afraid of or worrying about?”
  • “You fall asleep dreaming about what you’re going to do with your share of the treasure once this quest is over. What comes into your minds?”

Add some complications or events

Even if no big threats are coming the party’s way tonight, little things can still go wrong. You can throw one or two minor annoyances at the party and see how they react. Try something like:

  • The ground is wet from rain and it’s hard to get a fire going.
  • The underbrush is dry and parched, and your fire gets out of control and starts to burn some nearby bushes.
  • The water available nearby is mucky and foul-smelling. It’s safe to drink and wash with, but not pleasant.
  • A small critter is attracted by the smell of your food and tries to get into one character’s pack.
  • A large browsing herbivore comes wandering through your camp in the night, doing no harm but knocking over tents and scattering campfire ashes.
  • A pack of local carnivores goes rushing by in the night chasing some prey. One of them stops and sniffs around the camp, but doesn’t attack.
  • A thunderstorm develops in the night and drenches the party in cold rain.

On the other hand, characters can have interesting reactions to things that are good or neutral. Maybe give them something nice to respond to, like:

  • Even a cursory search around the campsite turns up enough wholesome mushrooms, sweet berries, edible roots, and other wild foods to make a tasty and filling meal for everyone.
  • A curious local critter comes upon your camp and investigates with some amusing but harmless antics like sniffing everyone’s food or hopping up on one character’s shoulder.
  • Strains of haunting music echo faintly through the wilderness. If the party goes looking for the source, it disappears.
  • Ribbons of beautiful aurora light dance in the starlit sky.
  • A thunderstorm passes by the night nearby but not over the party. Peals of thunder shake the air and flashes of light illuminate the night, but no harm comes to the encamped characters.
  • An ethereal spirit appears out of the darkness and comes to the edge of the firelight. After observing the party for a moment, it makes a simple gesture of blessing and vanishes.

You can set these events in motion as soon as the party makes camp, or you can let them play out over the course of the night. A couple of touches like this can help make even an ordinary night in camp memorable.

You may not want to role-play every nighttime camp in as much detail as this. It’s a bit of interstitial downtime to give players a chance to flesh out their characters in between battles and quests, but it can get tiring if you do it all the time.

Also, if you have a particularly threat-wary party (or if you have a habit of interrupting their downtime with danger), it might be a good idea to let everyone know up front that this is a role-playing opportunity, and it’s safe to let their guard down a bit. Otherwise everyone might just spend their time role-playing being very on edge and waiting for the next fight.

Enjoy your next camping scene!

Image: Campfire in NB by Martin Cathrae on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

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An Autumnal Druid Transmog

Erik2 Comments

The beginning of autumn is upon us. Trees are putting on their fall colors as the days grow shorter and the night chill begins to bite. What’s a druid to do but put together an autumn-themed transmog? This includes a few of the beautiful woodsy leafy pieces from the Emerald Dream zone mixed with some other gear.

Here’s a link to the pieces in the set.

Image: World of Warcraft screencap

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A Homebrew Alchemy System for Dungeons & Dragons

Erik

In one of the Dungeons & Dragons games I DM for, there is a player who is very into the idea of gathering herbs and brewing magic potions. The base game as written doesn’t have much in the way of rules for alchemy, so we’ve just been winging it for the better part of a year. That worked, but it wasn’t as satisfying as either of us would like, so I finally sat down and brewed up a set of rules for herb-gathering and alchemy. Here’s what we’re playing with now. Feel free to use this or adapt it, if it seems like it might be a fun addition to your own games.

Alchemy

An alchemical system for Dungeons & Dragons, 5th edition.

Harvesting herbs

To collect herbs, you must be in an environment where wild plants grow. The DM will determine whether there is anything available for you to gather. Specific environments may give you advantage or disadvantage to your roll, at the DM’s discretion. Gathering herbs takes an hour.

Roll a Nature check to see whether you successfully collect herbs and how much. If you have an Herbalism kit and the proficiency to use it, you may add your proficiency bonus to the roll

Once you have harvested an area, whether you successfully gathered herbs there or not, the plants need a month to regrow before you can harvest the same area again (unless they are affected by magic that causes plant growth).

Nature checkHerbs collected
Less than 11None
11 – 151 batch
16 – 202 batches
21 – 253 batches
26 or more4 batches

For each batch of herbs you collect, roll 1d6 to determine what type of herbs you find. (You can also choose to target a specific kind of herbs when you harvest. If you do, you make your harvesting roll at disadvantage, but all herbs you collect are of the kind you want.) Keep track of how many batches of herbs you have of each type.

1d6 rollHerb type
1bark
2berries
3fungi
4leaves
5roots
6seeds

Making potions

To make potions, you must have enough herbs of the right types (1 batch of each type listed on the table below, unless the chart calls for more). Some potions require special ingredients, to be determined by the DM. Each brewing attempt consumes the given amount of herbs and takes one hour.

Roll an Arcana check to attempt to make each potion. If you have proficiency with Alchemist’s supplies, you may add your proficiency bonus to the roll. If you do not have alchemical equipment, you have disadvantage on the check. Whether the check succeeds or fails, the herbs are consumed. The DC for the check depends on the rarity of the potion you are trying to make:

Potion rarityArcana DC
Common10
Uncommon15
Rare20
Very rare25
Legendary30
  • If you succeed on your Arcana check by 4 or less, you make 1 potion of the chosen type.
  • If you succeed on your Arcana check by 5 to 9, you make 1d4 potions of the chosen type.
  • If you succeed on your Arcana check by 10 or more, you make 1d6 potions of the chosen type.

(A DM might also allow a Medicine check in place of an Arcana check, or let proficiency with a Poisoner’s kit apply to the roll, depending on what kind of potions the character is brewing.)

PotionRarityHerbs required
AntitoxinCommonBark, berries, seeds
Oil of EtherealnessRareBark, leaves x3, roots
Oil of SharpnessVery rareFungi x4, leaves x2, roots x2
Oil of SlipperinessUncommonBark, leaves, roots, seeds
Philter of LoveUncommonBerries, fungi, leaves, roots
Potion of Animal FriendshipUncommonBerries, leaves, roots, seeds
Potion of ClairvoyanceRareFungi, leaves x2, roots x2
Potion of ClimbingCommonBark, leaves, roots
Potion of DiminutionRareFungi, leaves x3, roots
Potion of FlyingVery rareBark x2, leaves x4, roots x2
Potion of Gaseous FormRareBark, leaves 2x, roots, seeds
Potion of Giant Strength (Hill)UncommonBark, leaves 2x, roots
Potion of Giant Strength (Stone/Frost)RareBark 2x, leaves 2x, roots
Potion of Giant Strength (Fire)RareBark 2x, leaves 2x, roots
Potion of Giant Strength (Cloud)Very rareBark 3x, leaves 3x, roots
Potion of Giant Strength (Storm)LegendaryBark 4x, leaves 4x, roots, special
Potion of GrowthUncommonBark, leaves 2x, seeds
Potion of HealingCommonBerries, leaves, seeds
Potion of Greater HealingUncommonBerries 2x, leaves, seeds
Potion of Superior HealingRareBerries 2x, leaves, seeds 2x
Potion of Supreme HealingVery rareBerries 3x, leaves 2x, seeds 2x
Potion of HeroismRareBark, berries, leaves, roots, seeds
Potion of InvisibilityVery rareLeaves 3x, roots 2x, seeds
Potion of InvulnerabilityRareBark 2x, leaves, roots, seeds
Potion of Mind ReadingRareFungi, leaves, roots 2x, seeds
Potion of PoisonUncommonFungi 2x, roots, seeds
Potion of ResistanceUncommonBark, berries, roots, seeds
Potion of SpeedVery rareFungi 2x, leaves 2x, roots 2x
Potion of Water BreathingUncommonBark, berries, leaves, roots
Restorative OintmentUncommonBark, berries, seeds 2x
Sovereign GlueLegendaryBark 2x, fungi, leaves 2x, roots 4x, special
Universal SolventLegendaryBerries, fungi 3x, leaves, seeds 2x, roots 2x, special

The table above includes only items listed in the Systems Reference Document released by Wizards of the Coast under Creative Commons. If you want to expand this table to include other potions and items, you can apply the following principles:

Determine how many ingredients the potion requires. The number of ingredients depends on the rarity of the potion.

RarityIngredients
Common3
Uncommon4
Rare5
Very rare6 – 7
Legendary9 plus a special ingredient

Determine which ingredients are needed. The table below gives some general suggestions, but feel free to choose whichever ones feel right for the potion in question.

IngredientFunction
barkprotection, endurance
berrieshealing, strength
fungiharm, power
leavestransformation, deception
rootscreation, discovery
seedsrestoration, growth

Images: Algorithmically generated images made with Night Cafe: alchemist’s workshop, forest, potion bottle

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Night Elf Survival Hunter Transmog Tweak

Eppu

I updated my Night Elf survival hunter’s transmog with a small tweak. I like her scale mail look a lot, but, befitting Dragonflight, I wanted a bit more of a dragon-y look.

Three updates created the biggest change: the headpiece is now mogged to Suffused Coif, the shoulders to Bequeathed Spaulders, and back to Anachronistic Wrap.

WoW Dragonflight Surv Hunter Transmog

While the old chest looked ok, I wanted to tweak the colors ever so slightly and went with Trailblazer’s Scale Vest. That left the boots, which also ever so slightly disagreed with the new pieces, so after dinking around I chose Masterwork Boots. The darker color fits the rest of the new set better, I find.

Here is the set in Wowhead’s Dressing Room.

Image: World of Warcraft screencap

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Dragonflight: A Mid-Expansion Reflection

Erik

We’ve been in Dragonflight for about a year, and we now know that the next World of Warcraft expansion is about a year away, so it seems like a good time to reflect on what we like and don’t like about this expansion.

Erik

I have been very happy with this expansion overall. I enjoy a lot of things about it, and I will be quite content to spend the next year or so in and around the Dragon Isles.

The only thing I really dislike about Dragonflight is dragonriding. I learned how to use the system effectively to get around, and it doesn’t bother me very much any more, but I have never enjoyed it. I find it over-designed and unengaging. It’s nice that, in the right terrain, it gives you a faster way to get from point A to point B, but it doesn’t give me the thrill that it gives a lot of other people. I accept that I am in a small minority with this opinion, and I am happy for everyone else who is enjoying dragonriding, but I’m delighted to be able to go back to the old, regular flying, even if it is slower. The rest of you can zoom and swoop ahead of me as much as you like; I’ll get there when I get there.

I love the Dragon Isles zone design. The artwork of this expansion is beautiful and bold. Every zone has its own identity while also feeling like they belong in the same space together. Having the four main zones in contiguous space, even though separated by cliffs and ridges, is also something I appreciate. The Shadowlands zones were well designed, but the fact that they were all separate from one another at times felt claustrophobic. I don’t much care for Zaralek Caverns, but I can mostly ignore that zone and still have plenty of things to do elsewhere.

I like that this expansion has taken a different approach to quests, dialog, characters, and their stories than we have seen in most of previous WoW. After a year of living with the story of Dragonflight, I think I can put my finger on what makes this expansion different: it is about the nuances of how we respond to trauma. Dragonflight is full of characters living with and reacting to histories of trauma, but different characters respond to that trauma in different ways. I know some players have been frustrated with the Dragonflight story and are annoyed that this expansion is less about Dragons Having Awesome Fights and more about Dragons Having Feelings and Talking, but I really appreciate an expansion that takes seriously the idea that the things we experience can inspire feelings other than rage and reactions other than violence. The last time World of Warcraft tried to engage with the trauma of war and the power of emotions was Mists of Pandaria, which lacked subtlety and came off as shallow and preachy. Dragonflight feels like the Warcraft writers’ room is finally staffed by people who have an adult understanding of life, and I hope that this is a change that sticks.

In terms of systems and gameplay, there has been a lot of good development in Dragonflight. I was a fan of the new talent trees from early on, and my fondness for them has not wavered. Now that I have had some time to play with the new crafting mechanisms, I am mostly happy with them—they sometimes feel overly complicated, but I largely enjoy exploring the new options that the crafting system has opened up. Once I got used to the flightstone/crest gear upgrade system, I’ve found it quite workable, and I really appreciate getting to collect tier sets without having to raid. The proliferation of world quests and events in the open world has sometimes felt bewildering, but for the most part, I appreciate always having something to do.

Eppu

Unlike Erik, I LOVE dragonriding! It’s perhaps my most favorite single thing in Dragonflight. Don’t get me wrong, it was a learning curve, and I still stumble occasionally (especially if my ageing mouse decides to act up). Optimally, I’d like a multi-character dragonriding vehicle (like the Sandstone Drake), so that when we play together I could ride us around and Erik would get the benefit of faster transit without the bother.

WoW Dragonflight Onahran Plains Emerald Bubble

I do agree with Erik about the zone design. It’s an absolutely gorgeous expansion. While Zaralek Cavern is not a favorite zone, per se, I quite like the cave-ish-ness of it, for the lack of a better word. Deepholm was already an impressive, underground-cavern-like-enough space with multiple levels of quest areas and subzones. ZC takes the fully matured terrain design to its logical conclusion with an absolutely, breath-takingly amazing underground space that is somehow at the same time huge enough to allow dragonriding between areas and claustrophobic enough to feel constricting. Hats off to the design team from me!

I also agree with Erik on collecting some tier gear without raiding. I have quite enough on my plate at the moment without that particular time sink.

However. Am I the only one who’s driven to distraction by the [multiple expletives removed] constant resetting of talent trees? Sheesh! While I’m all for tweaking and re-tweaking certain aspects of one’s life to one’s satisfaction, a computer game character’s talents isn’t one of them, and certainly not over and over and over. Perhaps I should just go with the suggested talent builds instead, even if it means losing some individuality.

I still find that the world quest refresh rate doesn’t work for me, and events don’t make up for that lack. Because I’m dealing with a more limited gaming time IRL, the last thing I want is to have to track game events’ start times and schedule my playing accordingly. Bleah.

Another aspect that currently doesn’t work for me—and for exactly the same reason as above—is the writers’ room’s penchant for ending campaign quest chains in a dungeon. Although, it sounds like Blizzard is about to change that radically with the new Follower Dungeons coming soon-ish(?) in patch 10.2.5. (In short, the idea is that players form a dungeon group with 1-4 characters and the game generates NPCs for the remaining slots.) I’m rather looking forward to being able to run a leveling dungeon privately, without risking a random jerk (or two or three) with a Looking For Group run.

The new customization options for druids at the barber shop are great fun.

WoW Dragonflight Druid Moonkin Form Barbershop

What kinds of thoughts do you have on Dragonflight thus far? Chime in!

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A Gem-Studded Transmog for a Jewelcrafter

Erik1 Comment

My Highmountain Tauren hunter is a jewelcrafter, so I’ve given her a transmog with a suitably gem-studded look. The cool colors of the gems are set off against gold and silver metalwork.

Maybe not a very practical set of garb for stealthily prowling the wilderness, but, eh, what’s fantasy for?

Here are the pieces that went into making the set.

Image: World of Warcraft screencap

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