Friends I am exhausted… mentally, emotionally and physically. I’ve talked about the situation I find myself in, so I am not going to do so this morning. I will however continue to thank everyone for the support I have received from my community. What I am going to talk about is comfort gaming and how when I do make it home I am using World of Warcraft and the leveling game to unwind and attempt to feel normal again even if for only a few moments. After I finished my Horseman grind I picked up a new mission which was to level my Shadow Priest from level 10 to level 50.

I completed this last night, and I am somewhat shocked just how much fun I had playing Shadow Priest. Like for years I have avoided “finger-wigglers” like the plague. My safe space is playing a tank class and in the absence of a tank I tended to play some sort of melee dps. However something shifted at some point in my brain and it probably started with realizing I enjoy the Arcanist/Summoner in FFXIV. This lead me to play the Warlock in World of Warcraft and also realize that I do in fact enjoy it… and that more or less opened the finger-wiggling-floodgates. I am not exactly sure what shifted, but I have begun approaching casters in the way that I think you have to approach them in order to enjoy. Basically you have to realize how squishy you are and make assurances to kill the thing before it actually can damage you.

The only real challenge to my leveling was the constant loot lag experienced in several of the zones. For awhile I have seen these Moonkin bots roaming around in areas around the world. Apparently the Tar Pits in Nazmir is a hotspot, similar to the Murloc camps in Azsuna. I flew over the other day to get a screenshot and there were somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 moonkin running a fixed route and spamming Starfall. When actual players are added to this zone this created a level of loot lag that I had not experienced since the launch of the game back in 2004. This is being blamed on Multiboxers, and I am certain that Multiboxing was in play… but the behavior looked a lot more like automated botting.

This however has been a big enough deal for Blizzard to create a ruling that the input broadcasting software that is used to run multiple characters is a bannable offense. Multiboxing itself is not, which is a bit of a thin line to ride but one that I am happy they are doing so. I have multiboxed in the past, but me doing so meant I was running two accounts windowed on the same machine and just flipping over to a healer every now and then to throw some heals or buffs out. I have used a piece of software called IsBoxer that arranges your windows in such a way as to make this swapping easier. Now I have not done any of this in five or six years but I am thankful that the mere act of multiboxing is not bannable itself. I don’t forsee myself doing it again at any point soon, but I do like knowing I can if I want to. Specifically I used to do so to make farming older raids and such go a bit more smoothly.

I had given up on leveling the Rogue… but here I am with it being the last sub 50 character on my Horde server. As of last night it is sitting at level 48… so I guess I am now leveling it. I will be able to say before the launch of the expansion that I pushed all of my Horde characters to the level cap. Once I finish it… I have no clue what I will latch onto as a mission then. In theory next week I think the pre-launch event starts which will allow me to at least work on farming some gear. I might start down my Alliance list, because I find leveling to be a deeply relaxing experience and I absolutely need that stress relief right now. The post Finishing the Hordies appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.

Friends I am exhausted… mentally, emotionally and physically. I’ve talked about the situation I find myself in, so I am not going to do so this morning. I will however continue to thank everyone for the support I have received from my community. What I am going to talk about is comfort gaming and how when I do make it home I am using World of Warcraft and the leveling game to unwind and attempt to feel normal again even if for only a few moments. After I finished my Horseman grind I picked up a new mission which was to level my Shadow Priest from level 10 to level 50.

I completed this last night, and I am somewhat shocked just how much fun I had playing Shadow Priest. Like for years I have avoided “finger-wigglers” like the plague. My safe space is playing a tank class and in the absence of a tank I tended to play some sort of melee dps. However something shifted at some point in my brain and it probably started with realizing I enjoy the Arcanist/Summoner in FFXIV. This lead me to play the Warlock in World of Warcraft and also realize that I do in fact enjoy it… and that more or less opened the finger-wiggling-floodgates. I am not exactly sure what shifted, but I have begun approaching casters in the way that I think you have to approach them in order to enjoy. Basically you have to realize how squishy you are and make assurances to kill the thing before it actually can damage you.

The only real challenge to my leveling was the constant loot lag experienced in several of the zones. For awhile I have seen these Moonkin bots roaming around in areas around the world. Apparently the Tar Pits in Nazmir is a hotspot, similar to the Murloc camps in Azsuna. I flew over the other day to get a screenshot and there were somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 moonkin running a fixed route and spamming Starfall. When actual players are added to this zone this created a level of loot lag that I had not experienced since the launch of the game back in 2004. This is being blamed on Multiboxers, and I am certain that Multiboxing was in play… but the behavior looked a lot more like automated botting.

This however has been a big enough deal for Blizzard to create a ruling that the input broadcasting software that is used to run multiple characters is a bannable offense. Multiboxing itself is not, which is a bit of a thin line to ride but one that I am happy they are doing so. I have multiboxed in the past, but me doing so meant I was running two accounts windowed on the same machine and just flipping over to a healer every now and then to throw some heals or buffs out. I have used a piece of software called IsBoxer that arranges your windows in such a way as to make this swapping easier. Now I have not done any of this in five or six years but I am thankful that the mere act of multiboxing is not bannable itself. I don’t forsee myself doing it again at any point soon, but I do like knowing I can if I want to. Specifically I used to do so to make farming older raids and such go a bit more smoothly.

I had given up on leveling the Rogue… but here I am with it being the last sub 50 character on my Horde server. As of last night it is sitting at level 48… so I guess I am now leveling it. I will be able to say before the launch of the expansion that I pushed all of my Horde characters to the level cap. Once I finish it… I have no clue what I will latch onto as a mission then. In theory next week I think the pre-launch event starts which will allow me to at least work on farming some gear. I might start down my Alliance list, because I find leveling to be a deeply relaxing experience and I absolutely need that stress relief right now. The post Finishing the Hordies appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.