Back to Maplestory

I wrote about Maplestory before, i’m a fan of 2D online games, the simplicity of these games make them charming, but it does not mean these games can’t offer deep content and systems, Maplestory do that and it does not ask from you the best graphic card, older machine can run the game smoothly.

After writing about the game in April 2018 i didn’t play it much, then i removed it because i was trying other games and being busy with WoW i didn’t have much time for it.

But it’s back now because i made a simple choice, in 2019 i’m not going to play many games, WoW then switch to WoW Classic when Blizzard release it, and Maplestory, that’s it, all my plans to play so many MMOs? forget it, it’s ok to let it go 🎵

Maplestory looks simple but it have so much content and systems it needs some time to understand it all, i searched for guides but the community is writing them and making videos for people who know the game and speak the lingo.

By lingo i mean terms players use that a new player like me have no idea what they mean, so i need to spend so much time trying to understand the game and the community, this is part of the fun … it reminds me of WoW when i started playing it, i was so confused but happy to learn.

Advertisements

While waiting for a new raid

I spent most of my time leveling Durrzam the orc, ignoring everything else, but i thought yesterday i’ll check my main to see what i can do, i did Darkshore battle and i was confused honestly, maybe that’s what non-stop archeology did to my brain! anyway, Blizzard managed to make it feel different than Arathi Highland, i honestly like battle grounds … battle front? i don’t even remember what they’re called!

I killed rares in Arathi highland and got 1 pet and 1 mount, that’s the first mount i get from the zone, hopefully i’ll get more later.

Anyway, i can make Durrzam gain some rested XP while i play my main, i didn’t do much yesterday, i need to catch up, i need to do the current raid because i gave up on LFR, i’ll give it a try again, also i’ll join some island expeditions.

I’m looking forward for the new raid in Zandalar, mostly to watch Method streams for it and watch top players trying to clear Mythic raid.

That’s all, and here is some screenshots.

Between Mulgore and Ferals, there is a mountain lake with a a tauren boat and tent, large space perfect for meeting or RPing or just fishing.

Every time i think i saw everything the game prove me wrong, somewhere in Winterspring, a dwarf put a chair here with Ironforge flag, did he carry the chair from Ironforge to this place? why? and where is he .. or she?

I love the larger map when i click on flightmaster, more space, no more clicking on the wrong flightpoint … i hope.

Desolace, Valley of Bones, what is this thing? a large skeleton with a long trident, prehistoric monstrosity? oversized naga? there is another skeleton on the left of this valley, i wish the game provide something about them, Brann Bronzebeard could have a quest line about these things … come on Blizzard.

More Skeletons, in Tanaris this time, don’t you wish to see the zone before the Tol’vir turned it into dead desert? Blizzard need to make the Bronze dragons work a little here.

From Department of Forgotten NPCs, the so called “high elf” in Blasted land.

I call it the Sneezing Lion, look at it! come on Blizzard, more polygons please for the poor lion.

Glitch made me flying instead of showing the mount, my character was swimming in the air, witchcraft! and perfect zone to do that too … in Drustvar.

Gazelle-ception

CTRL + click on the mount name show you the mount model … try it, yesterday i discovered this new feature.

Durzzam going to Panda land

That was quick, i thought it’ll take much more time, Durrzam is level 80.

• Exploring + archeology in Outland and Northrend, that was the main way to gain XP from 60 to 80.
• Not much mining or collecting herbs, also not much killing mobs.
• I have some new toys and pets from archeology, and one mount.
• Gold earned by AH spent on buying mount and flying skills and some gear upgrade.
• Archeology is a good but slow source for gold.
• I went back to Classic zones for archeology, digsites give same amount of XP, since mobs are grey it is easier to use Classic digsites.
• Now i’m going to Cataclsym zones then Pandaria, which open for me gaining XP by collecting treasure and killing Pandaria rares.

Buying vendor items, that is a good upgrade

At the barber

At the sidebar of this weblog i say “Random thoughts about video games, books, and life” and i wrote a lot about games, one post about books and no post about my life, this one is for the “life” part … since we are at the end of the year i thought i need to write one post about something other than games.

Today i was the the barber shop, i never liked this place, i go there because i have to and since i was 4 years old i go to the same shop because changing the barber is a stressful idea for me, i don’t ask for much, basic stuff and i never ask for anything else, so the barber knows me very well, i go there, say hi and how are you, sit on the chair and talk about life and ask the barber about his life then we stop talking and he keep working.

My experience with the barber was always about me, i never thought about the barber himself, so i always feel i’m wasting time there and i get annoyed by the barber when he try to make a perfect cut.

Many years ago i thought about the barber and why he is trying to do a perfect job, and the conclusion i reached is this: i was inconsiderate and rude!

The barber  wants to be proud of his work, and he want from his clients to appreciate his hard work, it is a simple idea that my younger self never thought of and i thought i’m a polite and kind person but now i know i wasn’t.

Now when i go to the barber i let him do his work, it’s a perfect time to relax and do nothing but some deep thinking while the barber doing his job, when he is done; i take some time to look at the mirror, to make the barber know that i appreciate his work, i thank him and sometimes i ask him to do a little cut here or there.

It took me years to learn this simple lesson, people want to feel appreciated, people want to be proud of their work, it does not hurt to give them few minutes to tell them thank you.

 

Durrzam adventure (screenshots)

Human and Orc dancing together! Ancestors … forgive me!

Somewhere in Ferals there is a spa zone where people having fun around a lake, i thought you can’t reach it without flying, Durzzam proved me wrong.

Out of Vally of Trials, starting a new adventure

Inside goblin inn, questioning life choices

Inside dwarf inn, no one there!

Druzzam is tired, sitting in front of the fire … alone

Mulgore is always beautiful

Riding my camel to the sunset

Taming ghost Saber … i don’t know how this works!

This is an interesting hunter pet, from the days of Classic, in Darkshore there are night elf saber figurines, collecting them may spawn a ghost saber which hunter can tame.

In Silithus, two gnome skeletons with a fresh piece of watermelon!

Only bones i found here

 

 

Durrzam is 60 times storng!

Treasure chest was the way to level 60

As i wrote before, Durrzam the orc is leveling without quests or dungeons, only item quests are allowed, I explored most zones, hunted rares, did a lot of archeology, mining and collecting herbs, played the Auction house game and most importantly: i had fun.

So what exactly i did to level Durrzam? here is a list sorted from things give most XP to things give little XP:

• Killing rares, that is major part of leveling, i try to play when other players are not around to hunt rares.
• Archeology, as soon as i reached level 20 i learned archeology and used it a lot, but it require lots of traveling.
• Mining and Herbalism, in some zones this is the best way to level, going around and around collecting materials.
• Killing mobs, normal mobs don’t give much XP, so i try not to do that a lot, but it’s necessary to kill all kind of mobs to find item quests.
• Pet battle, didn’t do it much, you need to reach level 40 or above and make a team of pets with same level as the zone pets, lot’s of work but different way to gain some XP.
• Treasure chests, they give a good amount of XP, the problem is they are rare.
• Zone exploring, does not give much XP.

Quests i did:

• Preemptive Strike
• Angry Scrubbing Bubbles
• Trail of Filth
• Shadumbra Head
• Blood of the Barrens
• Echoes of Agamaggan
• Muckgill’s Flipper or Something
• Jugkar’s Undoing
• The Lady Necklace
• Journey to Undercity
• Ears are Burning
• Find OOX-09/HL! – Rescue
• Find OOX-17/TN! – Rescue
• Find OOX-22/FE! – Rescue
• An OOX of Your Own, Huge chunk of XP + a pet i didn’t have!
• Deadwood Ritual Totem
• Strange Life Forces
• Diabolical Plans
• Never Again!

That is a lot of item quests, but if you did them all you’ll only get 1.5 levels maybe 2 and you can’t repeat any of them.

That’s it, Now moving to Outland to level from 60 to 70, rares in Outland is true rares, so that will slow me down, but i’ll keep going 🙂

oh .. one last thing, Blizzard lowering the XP needed for each level? that helped a lot, Durrzam reached 53 before that, it took a lot of work and grind, but from 53 to 60 was much much faster.

Next post will  be just screenshots for Durrzam adventure.

Pausing WoW time .. or not

WoW needs more masks!

As i said before i wish to pause WoW time i bought recently, since i bought it in November there no way to refund it, so i thought i’ll try pause it, sent a ticket to Blizzard and they told me they can pause it, just don’t login to the game for 30 days, later i have to send them a ticket to bring back my time, but they’ll give me only 90 days.

This is one time deal, i can’t ask for pausing time again.

While it’s not perfect solution it is better than waiting for Classic while not playing WoW much, i thought 8.1 will have something to pull me back but so far i’m not feeling it, and that’s ok.

Then i watched this video:

Are you happy Taliesin? now i’m reinstalling the game 🙂

I was thinking about playing or not playing WoW in the wrong way, instead of thinking about what i like i’m trying to find something in 8.1 that will pull me back and i can’t find it, what i like could be done at any level, no need for BFA to have fun.

The community have power over everyone, and by “community” here i mean writers and youtubers, i used to watch many videos but stopped doing that with so much complaining about everything, youtube spamming me with videos for channels i will never watch, channels trying to pull viewers with click-bait titles and thumbnails, i felt sick of all that and sick of the game itself.

Now i’m not saying Blizzard did nothing wrong, but there is a difference between someone trying to be critical and someone trying to be a troll to gain the clicks.

Going back to Minecraft and its community gave me different experience, Minecraft is a perfect game for showing off and people do that in Youtube, Minecraft channels have so many viewers and subscribers, and the channels themselves are always positive, it was refreshing to see people enjoying a video game!

I saw the video above suggested in the sidebar of Youtube, yeah i like the idea of new engineering class, let me watch that … and boom .. i’m installing WoW again.

53 Gigabytes?! soon enough WoW will need its own hard drive 😀