20130224, dimanche and 20130228, jeudi

A. Finally!  I got the Windwalker monk to level 90 today.  Levels 1 to 85 were fine, but 86 to 90 were a huge discouragement.

B. I've done two monks from 1 to 90 since MoP came out.  From this I can say that

1. Windwalkers and Mistweavers are mostly OK, but I don't care for Brewmaster monks.  
2. The constant references (visual and auditory) to sloppy drinking (tea and beer on the clothes and ground, not in the mouth), belching, vomiting (Stormstout and so on), and other bodily functions are not just declassé, they are just plain disgusting.
3. I like the content of WoW before MoP, but not since.  Compared to MoP, I'm starting to like Outland.

• Pandas are even more disgusting than goblins, both the stupid and gawky males and the death-mask faces and too-cutesy ways of the females.
• Pandaria is my least favourite continent.
• I could not get through Pandaria quests fast enough.
• Pandaria reputation system is a sorry piece of nonsense, easily ten times worse than the Firelands. The number of dailies is just horrific.

C. It's good to fly in Pandaria at last.  Then again, what's the point?

D. For every expansion, the game begins again at the toplevel.  MoP is no exception.  Pluses and minuses:

1. The treadmill of going through Pandaria heroic dungeons is something I'm not looking forward to.  There are 9 heroics, and several of them are extremely tedious.  I have 4 more characters to send through this meat grinder to get 463 armour to allow entry to the LFRs.
2. The LFRs might be worth suffering through the drudgery of the heroic 5-man dungeons.
3. Then again, maybe not.  The LFRs yield the 476 and 483 armour, which is not as good as the reputation based armour, levels 489 and 496.
4. The cost is having to do massive numbers of dailies for the required reputation.
5. Being in a guild that can prosecute 25-character (heroic) raids everyday gets one the best armour, some of it at 509.  That's currently not available to me.
6. So, to do well in MoP, one needs to be in a level 25 guild large enough to field 25 character teams to run heroic raids (not LFR) regularly.  Ah, well, I suppose that was always true.

E. I have 5 level 90 characters now

1. Healer, iLevel 481: Mistweaver monk
2. Healer, iLevel 472: Holy Priest
3. DPS, iLevel 462: Affliction Warlock
4. DPS, iLevel 445: Frost Death Knight
5. DPS, iLevel 440: Windwalker Monk

F. Two more on the way:

1. DPS, iLevel 88, iLevel 423: Balance Druid
2. DPS, iLevel 85, iLevel 387: Fire Mage

G. I'm not looking forward to the 5.2 'patch' since Mistweavers will be getting significant nerfs.

20130216, samedi

1. I bought Guild Wars 2 as a possible replacement for WoW on 20130102.  So far it has been a brutal disappointment.  It's not as fun or as well put together as GW 1.  Worst of all, every time I play it I have flashbacks to the weeks (maybe 3, total) spent trying to enjoy Everquest II.  The horrid way the characters move, the stupid cut scenes for interactions with quest givers, the poverty of the art, and the weakness of the music and foley are all reminders of EQII.  Overall, GW 2 has the rushed look of something thrown together in six months to satisfy an investor, rather than the overall excellence one might expect from six years (2006 to 2012, late) of dev time.

2. My former lead character Chronospanda has Mistweaver armour at average iLevel 481, so I can continue LFRs in patch 5.2.  I have no good expectations here; the nerfs announced for Mistweavers look substantial.  I changed the race of Chronospanda from panda (ecch) to human, and changed the name to Chronosmwone.  That helps a little, but not enough.

3. I've been leveling Chronosmonk (56 to 86 lately) by switching to Mistweaver (still good for leveling) from Windwalker.  As I approach level 90, I've been collecting the Agility laden armour I will need for the conversion back to Windwalker/dps.

4. My holy priest, Kronospriest, has reached average iLevel 472.   Holy priests at level 90 have a small rotation set of heals that give reasonable to good performance in LFRs with next to no requirements of experience before level 90.

5. When I look at my spell bars for my level 36 priest, the intersection is minimal.  The powerful spells the level 90 character uses repeatedly are absent for the 36 priest, and spells in the small toolset the 36 priest has are all too weak to be of much use to the level 90 priest.

6. I leveled Kronospriest first as Discipline, which went slowly.  Then I converted to Shadow, and leveling sped up.  Switching to Holy after reaching level 90 seemed almost effortless

• read noxxic.com for recommendations on Holy Priest
• read a bit more in icy veins
• implemented some of the recommendations
• kept the recommendations in mind when getting new armour
• realigned my spell bars so I can cast easily the 6 or 8 spells a Holy Priest actually uses.

So, after an hour or so of research, I was ready for LFRs.  (Did not say I was the best, but I am seldom if ever the worst.  Yay, noxxic.)  The depth of experience one might get from leveling 1 to 90 was not needed, and may have proved detrimental.

7. I've had similar experiences with Affliction warlock and Fire mage.  Throwing out just about everything from levels 1 to 85 and going with a short rotation meant for level 90 seems pretty rewarding.  I've more or less abandoned my DK since my past experience seems relevant, but just is not successful.  Sigh.