Moonshine Mansion

Blog Posts from Grace on Moonshine Mansion website.

A little bit of everything

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A little bit of everythingHoly cow I can’t believe we’re only 2 weeks into Legion. The first week was a week of leveling and exploring. This past week has been about trying to clear out my quest log more than anything else. The first time leveling in an expansion I like to get the Loremaster achievement, which means by the time I reach the level cap I’m usually pretty close to done with all the quests available. Not so with Legion. I keep half-joking with my friends that there’s some folks at Blizzard laughing their butts off at us because we complained there wasn’t enough to do and now there’s SO MUCH TO DO I don’t even know where to start. I head to an area with the intention of clearing out a quest from my log and suddenly there’s a world quest there too. Or I’m flying somewhere for a world quest and I see a quest hub I missed while I’m flying over. Suramar in particular has two subzones that are gigantic, with pretty extensive quest lines. And I’ve barely scratched the surface of crafting and all its associated quests.A little bit of everything

One thing I have done is dungeons. I’ve done all of the normal mode dungeons now, and a few heroics. There’s surprisingly little difference in tuning between the two modes. I wonder if part of that is the way level scaling works on the normal ones, since you never get the benefit of a couple slightly higher characters in there making the whole thing go easier? All I know is I’m more than happy to queue for heroics now, because the dps queue times are much shorter than for normals. I was all proud of myself for doing all the dungeons, and then I found out there’s 2 more that are reputation gated by Nightfallen rep, plus I haven’t set foot in mythics yet. So there’s plenty more on my list.

A little bit of everything

I have still found the time to do a little bit of work on my army of alts, usually once I’ve finished the emissary quest for the day on the mage and don’t feel up to running dungeons. I’ve unlocked one weapon for my pally and my priest, and have unlocked all 3 weapons and gotten to 108 on my monk. The monk is very fun and flexible, and leveling goes ridiculously fast when you have rested xp. I’ve gotten to heal a few dungeons, and while monk healing is nothing like it used to be back when I picked it up in Pandaria, it is a solid healer with a pretty nice toolkit. I’m still happy that I chose mage as my main, but it is nice to be able to heal again if my friends need a healer to fill in a group.

My goals for the week are to get revered with the Nightfallen, get my 2nd gold artifact trait, and level the monk to 110. I wish I could will myself to slow down a little bit more and savor this time, but this is part of the cycle I enjoy most and part of that enjoyment is the speed with which new upgrades and unlocks are coming in. I’ll just keep doing a little bit of everything and trying my best not to burn myself out.


A little bit of everything

A little bit of everything

by

A little bit of everythingHoly cow I can’t believe we’re only 2 weeks into Legion. The first week was a week of leveling and exploring. This past week has been about trying to clear out my quest log more than anything else. The first time leveling in an expansion I like to get the Loremaster achievement, which means by the time I reach the level cap I’m usually pretty close to done with all the quests available. Not so with Legion. I keep half-joking with my friends that there’s some folks at Blizzard laughing their butts off at us because we complained there wasn’t enough to do and now there’s SO MUCH TO DO I don’t even know where to start. I head to an area with the intention of clearing out a quest from my log and suddenly there’s a world quest there too. Or I’m flying somewhere for a world quest and I see a quest hub I missed while I’m flying over. Suramar in particular has two subzones that are gigantic, with pretty extensive quest lines. And I’ve barely scratched the surface of crafting and all its associated quests.A little bit of everything

One thing I have done is dungeons. I’ve done all of the normal mode dungeons now, and a few heroics. There’s surprisingly little difference in tuning between the two modes. I wonder if part of that is the way level scaling works on the normal ones, since you never get the benefit of a couple slightly higher characters in there making the whole thing go easier? All I know is I’m more than happy to queue for heroics now, because the dps queue times are much shorter than for normals. I was all proud of myself for doing all the dungeons, and then I found out there’s 2 more that are reputation gated by Nightfallen rep, plus I haven’t set foot in mythics yet. So there’s plenty more on my list.

A little bit of everything

I have still found the time to do a little bit of work on my army of alts, usually once I’ve finished the emissary quest for the day on the mage and don’t feel up to running dungeons. I’ve unlocked one weapon for my pally and my priest, and have unlocked all 3 weapons and gotten to 108 on my monk. The monk is very fun and flexible, and leveling goes ridiculously fast when you have rested xp. I’ve gotten to heal a few dungeons, and while monk healing is nothing like it used to be back when I picked it up in Pandaria, it is a solid healer with a pretty nice toolkit. I’m still happy that I chose mage as my main, but it is nice to be able to heal again if my friends need a healer to fill in a group.

My goals for the week are to get revered with the Nightfallen, get my 2nd gold artifact trait, and level the monk to 110. I wish I could will myself to slow down a little bit more and savor this time, but this is part of the cycle I enjoy most and part of that enjoyment is the speed with which new upgrades and unlocks are coming in. I’ll just keep doing a little bit of everything and trying my best not to burn myself out.


A little bit of everything

Book Challenge #99: Piers Anthony’s Xanth Series

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The next item on my reading list is Piers Anthony’s Xanth series. It starts with A Spell for Chameleon, published in 1977. I knew this was a long series, but I had no idea that there are 39 of them, and several more still forthcoming. These books were always staples at my local used book store, but I never picked them up. Something about getting into a long series like that is incredibly daunting.

Luckily after the last book I read for this challenge, this one doesn’t take itself seriously at all and is a light, vaguely pleasant read. Well, most of the time. Spoilers ahead!

Also TW for discussion of a rape trial.

The story follows the (mis)adventures of Bink as he tries to establish a place for himself in the magical realm of Xanth. As an aside, the map of Xanth in the front of the book looks suspiciously like the state of Florida, and is the first clue that this book is going to poke some fun at fantasy tropes. In Xanth, if you can’t demonstrate some form of magical ability by the time you come of age you get exiled out into the mundane world where the rest of us humans supposedly live. Bink is trying to avoid this fate, so he sets out on a quest to discover if he has a power and what that power is.

The story takes a few interesting turns, but unfortunately it lost me fairly early. If you enjoy humor and fantasy you have probably read at least one book by Terry Pratchett. If you haven’t, stop what you’re doing and go grab one. Small Gods is a good one, and in fact is farther up on this reading challenge list. In any case, Terry Pratchett has spoiled me a bit on other fantasy humor, because not only are his novels funny, but they are often packed full of biting British satire so potent that you often laugh to release the explosive pressure of all the snark. That’s the bar that has been set for fantasy humor. Piers Anthony’s humor is funny (sometimes) for its own sake, and lacks the sharp edge that I enjoy from laughing at something that is funny because it is shedding uncomfortable truths.

The main uncomfortable truth laid out in A Spell for Chameleon is that Piers Anthony’s depictions of women are abyssmal. His humorous touches were entertaining most of the time, but when it comes to any interaction between Bink and a female character, human or otherwise, the jokes could have been written by a horny 14 year old boy. I suppose that’s who this series is really aimed towards, since I have several friends who read them when they were young and seemed to have fond memories. Heck, I probably wouldn’t have had much problem with it when I was younger, and that thought makes me deeply uncomfortable. The women in this novel are horrible caricatures of the worst stereotypes of women. The one who seems most like a person, the initial love interest of Bink, Sabrina, gets written off as heartless and traitorous early on because she doesn’t sacrifice her entire life to try to save or to be exiled with Bink. The centaur woman Bink meets is smart and capable in some ways, but her whole reason for existing in the plot is to “temper” the hot headed male centaur and to get “accidentally” groped by the protagonist. That was where the book lost me, 10% in according to my Kindle. After that we get treated to a disgusting sham of a rape trial, a power mad older woman who uses illusions to appear younger, and the pinnacle of the book, Chameleon.

Chameleon is a woman who changes over the cycle of (surprise!) a month. At one peak of her cycle, she is beautiful but completely devoid of intelligence, while at the other end she is very smart but also very ugly. I am not even going to start unpacking that here. But Bink decides that this is exactly the perfect kind of woman for him. Basically this book gave me insight I didn’t want into the mind of Piers Anthony, and probably millions of men like him. Insight like how they think a rape case is as bad for the victim as for the defendant, and that if you know each other ahead of time it couldn’t really have been rape anyway. Insight like thinking women who won’t reshape their lives to suit yours are cold and unworthy, but ones who try to reshape your life to theirs are grasping and evil. And insight like the the assumption that no man could settle for a smart “ugly” woman or even a moderately smart, moderately attractive woman when they could also have a beautiful idiot. Let’s not even mention the fact that beauty plus brains seems to be an impossible combination.

This book did have some genuinely funny moments too. Outside of its treatment of women it was mostly fine. Some other stuff happens in the plot but honestly by the time that happened I was so checked out I couldn’t really tell you. If you like sophomoric humor and gross stereotypes about women, there’s 38 more where this one came from including one charmingly titled “The Color of Her Panties”. For anyone else, you’re better off skipping this series.

TL;DR:

A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony

Rating: 2/5 stars

Verdict: I would have enjoyed this more and probably given 3 or so stars when I was a kid. Now I’m old and cranky and think the way it treats women is supremely gross.


Book Challenge #99: Piers Anthony’s Xanth Series

Chill Excitement

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Legion excitement is still going strong. Last week was busy for me with classes starting and work being stressful, so I was a bit behind my friends on the leveling curve. Then I got to spend all day Saturday playing, and I managed to get myself to 110. The only thing that seems to have changed for me so far is that I’m trying to run dungeons a bit more. Otherwise I’m still doing a ton of quests. In fact, when I hit 110 I had not even started questing in Highmountain yet, so I had that whole zone to do to unlock world quests and get the loremaster and exploration achieves.

This expansion comes with a pretty solid crop of new dungeons. The five that are available while leveling are fairly nice, but the 3 that unlock at 110 really shine. Maw of Souls, Vault of the Wardens, and Black Rook Hold are all incredibly atmospheric places and do some slightly different things with their boss fights.

Chill Excitement

Helya is the best.

My favorite by far is Maw of Souls. Most of the dungeon takes place on what is essentially a ghost ship full of the damned, and when you get out on the deck you can even see the sea rolling around you. The last boss is essentially a sea witch goddess and I love her more than words can say, although I suspect I’ll love her less when I have to fight her on heroic!

Because my friends have all been leveling at different paces I’ll still have to run through those 110 dungeons a few more times as people hit the cap. Instead of dreading it I’m actually looking forward to it. Part of it is that the dungeons are really fun, and part of it is because I’m a DPS and it is way less stressful than healing. The difference in levels hasn’t mattered much at all along the way. We’ve been able to run dungeons with groups ranging from 100 to 110 with no noticeable difficulty, so that’s a huge quality of life change to the game.

The very best thing is that I’m in no hurry. I’m not planning to raid more than completely casually, so there’s no rush for me to get geared or anything. I’ve had some requests to do heroic dungeons, but I’ve been putting them off for a bit because I want to see and enjoy things on normal mode for a bit longer and give the rest of my friends time to get to 110. Overall am feeling a bit weird about this expansion because I am really enjoying myself, but I’m also super relaxed about everything. I’m used to being very manic at launches, trying to do all the things as fast as possible. It feels very strange to be happy and excited about all the new things to do and yet not rushing through everything. Now I just hope that I keep enjoying the game this much as the expansion continues!


Chill Excitement