Being reasonable about heirlooms

A long post, in defense of the following: using heirlooms (and not using them), reasonable people making reasonable decisions about how they play their games, a blogger’s right to express opinions about how people should play, and the reader’s right to reject those opinions and play his/her games their own way. Some ranting involved…

I’ve written in the past (both distant and recent) about alternate toons that I’ve played, and in some cases, I’ve mentioned heirlooms that I have or have not used.

Heirlooms are a popular topic around the WoWblogospherenet. Over the past several months, I’ve read many posts about heirlooms, from “heirlooms are cheating/lame/ruining the game” to “I just spent 1100 million emblems and honor thingies buying 2 of every heirloom in the game for Cataclysm.” Each person who knows what they are has an opinion on them; they loathe them, or they feel justified in using them, or they just don’t know what to think, or they think heirlooms are the greatest thing in the world.

I first started really thinking about the issue in March. Gordon (We Fly Spitfires) wrote a post earlier this year about ways to cheat in WoW, and he included BoA gear on his list, specifically mentioning that it gives an unfair advantage at low-levels for PvP (twinking was also included on his list). It was a great post, highlighting several questionable practices that are not only cheating but are dangerous to account security, but I respectfully disagreed with his points about both heirlooms and twinking.

Since then, as I said, I have read the range of discussion about heirlooms. However, today I read a post by Adam (The Noisy Rogue) called Heirlooms or Endgame? that triggered my written response.

Now, I have to say that my post is not Adam’s fault – not by a long shot. His post is about heirlooms, but it’s also about endgame: specifically, how he’d rather play his max-level rogue, but he finds little value in doing so at this point, and how he feels that Blizzard is not ending this expansion very well compared to Burning Crusade.

However, for whatever reason, his post is what prompted me to say my piece about heirlooms. This has been building up within me for a while, and his article was just catalyst for me.

Regarding heirlooms, here’s what he has to say:

I don’t do heirloom items. It’s just not my thing. Maybe if they were a bit more bondage like, but probably not even then. The very idea of taking the same item through 80 different levels is anathema to me. Where is the discovery of new gear, seeing what it looks like when it’s on, seeing if the stats give you something more? There is no need to look at an heirloom items stats, it’s just ticking away as you level up. It’s not boring, it’s more than that. It’s not a game. Heirlooms reduce 80 levels of going up to drudgery. The gear upgrades are the only surprising thing that can happen to you now when you level up, if you know the class that you are levelling well enough that is.

. . .

I am back to levelling my priest. I would prefer to be on my rogue, I really would. But the sad fact is that levelling is more rewarding these days than the end game. That is, unless you deck yourself out in heirlooms. Then you will have cheated yourself out of that part of the game as well.

* * * * *

To me, the issue around heirlooms comes down to how you want to play the game. If you want to get all of your toons to level 80 as fast as possible in order to see what their classes can do (as well as test your mettle in the endgame content), then using heirlooms will benefit you. If you want to take the leveling process at a more leisurely pace, taking what the game gives you, seeking out rewards and completing the objectives to get them, seeing the world and digging into the lore as you go, then heirlooms are probably not for you, because even without heirlooms the leveling process is faster than it has ever been.

If you really want to fill those weapon, shoulder and chest piece slots with new gear as you go, then definitely forego heirlooms. However, assuming that the statement “Heirlooms reduce 80 levels of going up to drudgery” applies to everyone is a huge assumption, and, in my opinion, an errant one. It may apply to him, and that’s totally fine! But it does not apply to me.

* * * * *

My history with heirlooms has varied. Here is part of it.

• Bloodheim (R.I.P.), my first hunter, did not have heirlooms.
• Anacrusa, my first 80, did not have heirlooms. Again, she was my first 80. The elder of the family, so to speak.
• Abenadari, my paladin, did not have heirlooms until she was in her mid-40s or so, at which point I cobbled together enough emblems on Anacrusa to spare for a set of plate BoA shoulders to help with the leveling process. I didn’t like my paladin very much, and I still don’t, but at that point she was on her way to being alchemy-capped, and I needed to level enough to get to 450. Keep in mind, this was quite a while ago, and spare emblems were hard for me to come by at the time.
• Mydnas, my second druid, had the weapon, shoulders and chest from day one. My plan was to level her as resto, and I was scared to death – I had no confidence in my ability to be a healer – so I wanted the best gear possible. I also kept her highly medicated with potions, scrolls, magical little stat foods and anything else she could get her grubby little hands on for buffs. Call it cheating, but it gave me the confidence to try out healing dungeons as I leveled and do a good job with it. So sue me.
• Ghilly, my second hunter, has no heirloom gear, hand-me-down gold, or expensive BoEs. As I’ve mentioned before, he is a character that I am playing for reasons more related to lore, exploration and creativity than level-progression.
• Mushan, my third hunter, is the opposite. I am trying to get him to the level cap at a relatively quick pace, because I want to explore the hunter class capabilities at the level cap before Cataclysm arrives, and because I want to have a max-level alt that I will enjoy leveling from 80 in the expansion. Therefore, he has the chest and shoulders.

* * * * *

The purpose of the above list is to show a few things. First of all, (disregarding the massive Refer-A-Friend XP bonus, which is something I have absolutely no interest in) everyone’s first toon goes heirloom free, so everyone gets to experience that part of the game at least once. Secondly, having heirlooms is not ruining my game experience at all – in fact, it has enriched the experience in almost every case. Thirdly, I’ve made different choices for the toons following Anacrusa, and I’ve chosen to use heirlooms for different reasons on my various toons. With me, it’s not all about the heirlooms, and it’s not all about hating on the heirlooms.

 

Mushan with Tirion, Eastern Plaguelands

Mushan

In the case of Mushan, this is the fastest I have ever leveled a toon – 67 levels in 36 days so far – and so the heirloom gear, which I picked up before level 20, has certainly paid dividends. However, an interesting thing happened on the way to “face-rolling” toward “endgame:” over the course of the past month, I have done quests and seen places that I’ve never done or seen before. Two of these stand out to me, although there are several more:

1. I’ve quested with each toon in EPL before, but never liked it. However, this time I did a lot of questing there, and for the first time ever, I completed all of Tirion Fordring’s Redemption quest line, finishing it after I turned 58 (about halfway to 59, actually). While it wasn’t a spectacular quest chain, it was a huge piece of lore that will certainly be gone in Cataclysm, and I was extremely glad that I found and completed it. I will definitely be going back to do this one on my main very soon.
2. Similarly, in WPL, I had never done the Skeleton Key quest chain. I did most of it on my hunter, and then went back and completed it on my main, getting both that part of the Keymaster achievement and the achievement for Scholomance, an instance I had never set foot in before. I could have eventually looked it all up and done it anyway on my druid, but it was fun to find myself on the way there as part of the normal questing process.

These are not the only things that I’ve done differently than on previous toons, but they are two of the highlights of my experience playing my hunter so far, in spite of the fact that I’m using two BoA pieces.

I like playing/leveling my hunter. I’m getting to see some parts of the world that I’ve never seen before, and some that I’ve enjoyed on previous toons. Some quests are new and fun, some are old favorites, and some are jobs. I’ve run some dungeons, but I’m not missing the world in favor of LFD-leveling. Other than PvP, which I haven’t done at all yet, I don’t feel that I’ve missed out on a whole bunch that Azeroth etc. has to offer during this go-round. I’ve been playing for over three and a half years; I’ve seen a lot, and I’m looking forward to the new world that Cataclysm brings.

 

Lots of non-BoA gear here.

As for Adam’s “heirlooms make getting gear a drudgery” statement: I’ve got two BoA pieces, but that leaves me with over a dozen slots in which to see what kind of gear I can get. There has been plenty of gear excitement along the way as I’ve leveled, and the fact that I’ve gotten some pieces that I didn’t use in those slots does not bother me at all. I’ve gotten to play with bows and scopes and melee weapons, necklaces, rings and trinkets, and every mail slot except for the chest and shoulders. I’ve made almost a dozen pieces with Anacrusa’s leatherworking along the way. Trust me, I’m not missing out on anything at all.

In addition, I am not face-rolling toward endgame with the idea that I’m going to run ICC and “pwn” with my new hunter. The idea is to get to level 80, but it’s September 27th. If Cataclysm comes out in November, there isn’t much time to worry about squeezing as much gear as possible out of the remaining time. I’ve already written about being burned out by ICC anyway – we killed the Lich King months ago, and I’m happy with that. I’m working on other things, and getting enjoyment out of them. I’m working on earning gold, playing with friends, and finishing up achievements on my druid, and on leveling my hunter. I’m stocking up on gem transmutes on my paladin. I’m reading about the new expansion. And I’m doing other things with my life as well.

No, with the death of ICC drawing nigh, I am leveling the hunter for the experience of leveling it and in anticipation of having the complete set of abilities that comes with being level 80. I’m leveling it because it’s fun. I’m leveling it with the intention of taking it into Hyjal and Vash’ir and Deepholm when Cataclysm arrives. I’m leveling it because I want a new character to get some gear for, to gem and enchant it, which is a fun part of the game for me. I’m leveling it to have some adventures with it.

I’m not aiming to get as much ROFL-easy-gear as possible. I’m not trying to build a stud. I’m doing it for the enjoyment.

See, I play this game for fun. I certainly enjoy challenges – I’m attempting to solo stuff that I shouldn’t be soloing (with variable results), learning about the specs and abilities, playing around with pets, etc – but I’m also just enjoying the experience of playing a hunter. I’ve talked with several people who, upon learning I’m leveling a hunter, have said some variation of “ooh, hunters are fun!” That’s what I’m here to do – enjoy the game.

* * * * *

Adults, labels, and disagreeing with other bloggers

I’m an adult, and I don’t necessarily think that I fit into a popular label as far as WoW-players go. Some of the most popular labels that I see include “n00bs,” “facerollers,” “casuals,” “socials,” “hardcore players” (both raiders and PvP-ers), and “M&S.” As an adult, I think of myself as simply a person who enjoys different aspects of the game. There are many of us out there, but we don’t light up the internet like the high and low extremes we see out there.

As adults, we make rational decisions when it comes to game-play, and those decisions can vary from time to time, even for the same person. Sometimes that means devoting yourself to min-maxing and being as skilled as possible for top-end raiding or PvP. At other times it means enjoying the world and/or the leveling process, or concentrating on achievements or the AH game. In our experiences, we run into the highly skilled people, the teeth-gnashing masses, the fun people, the quiet-but-respectful ones, the terrible players, and so on.

What I don’t see is just one type of player out there. Or two types. Not all players are hardcore, or casual, or morons.

There are many different ways to enjoy whichever game(s) you play, because people are different. They have different views and values and real-life conditions that affect their abilities and playing styles. And those who blog about the games they play are most certainly entitled to their opinions. However, whenever a blogger implies that there is only one correct style of play, I have to respectfully disagree.

I feel no guilt about choosing to play parts of the game that I enjoy, and playing them the way that I like, even if someone considers that “lame” or “wrong.” In my opinion, things like heirlooms are not just for M&S and are not a form of cheating, and do not diminish my gaming experience. They are a part of the game that the developer has provided, and I make rational decisions to use or not use them as I please, to get the most out of my experience and reach the goals that I have for each toon. And I think that’s a perfectly valid way to play.

LFG & Oculus… LOL

With the holiday retail season in full swing, I’ll admit that I haven’t used the new LFG very much. There are many in my guild who have been running tons of heroics, but I haven’t had the time or the desire. In fact, including today’s random, I only have six Emblems of Frost on Abenadari, although I have only missed one day with Anacrusa (she has 46), since I’m keen on getting started on my Tier 10 gear, so those two Frosts per day are important. Yes, the paladin has sadly been on the shelf for the most part.

However, tonight I decided that I’d like to get her into a few heroics, since I have the time. I ran Nexus first, and that went fine. Then I got into a group that had had someone quit right after they started, so I got to run the whole thing, and that also went well – I was surprised to find that I was really the only competent damage in there. We had a DK and a mage in the group, with a warrior tank, and the warrior had the second-highest DPS in the group. Since I’m not terribly well geared, it was a good feeling to know that I was doing something right!

Just now, I drew the dreaded Oculus, and while I was not thrilled, I was still game to do it. However, when I got there, there were only two other people in the party. I was lead, so I cued us for more, but then the healer left.

So the mage and I were sitting there, chatting for a few minutes. Finally, I told him I was going to call it. Chances are that, with a dungeon like that where so many people hate it, getting three people to stay would probably be tough. So we called it and left. Now I’m making a small pizza and waiting for the Dungeon Finder cooldown to expire so I can re-cue.

It was kind of a funny experience. I know that my guild has put together full groups and drawn Oculus, and while there were groans, they still completed it. I imagined that there would be more people that would grind it out. However, based on this small sample, it looks like the place is still fraught with issues (even if they’re perceived), despite the nerfs that came with Patch 3.3.

Anyway, the pizza is done and my cooldown is up, so back I go into LFG. Hopefully I won’t get Oculus again, not because I won’t do it, but because my faith in a group staying together is not strong, not strong, my friends!

It’s been a long long time… and the beauty of silence

Not-so-extreme make-over: sweet new title, killer new staff (Fordragon Blades), blue hair, 2 Tier-9 pieces, and a newly designed guild tabard!

So here I am, after about five weeks of inactivity where this blog is concerned, and looking to make up a little bit for it. There have been a few times over the past month where I have told myself I was going to make a contribution, but due to a combination of distraction/exhaustion/indifference, I’ve never actually made it back here.

What have I been up to? For starters, the retail holiday season is in full swing. I’ve been spending a lot of my time at work preparing for the holidays, dealing with busy crowds, opening at midnight for big new releases, etc. Additionally, the added stress comes with me when I’m at home, so I’ve been dealing with that. Retail during the holidays can swallow up your soul if you’re not careful, and each year I try to retain my sanity through it all.

The Druid

Secondly, I have been playing a lot of World of Warcraft. After ten or eleven hours on my feet all day, it feels good to just sit down and enjoy myself for a few hours. I’ve been raiding 10-man Onyxia, Vault of Archavon, and Trial of the Crusader each week, along with our weekly try-and-fail of the Northrend Beasts portion of 10-man Trial of the Grand Crusader. We actually got them down the week before Thanksgiving, but usually we don’t have the combination of firepower and coordination (read: we need five people at around 4k DPS, and we usually have two or three around 4k and two or three at 3.3k… makes it tough when you have approximately 150 seconds to complete each phase before the next boss(es) come(s) out). In addition, I have made it to a few of our guild’s 25-man Onyxia & Trial of the Crusader runs, although I am pretty much done with those for the duration of 2009 because of my work schedule on Friday nights. I have gotten a few pieces of sweet gear, although I still have no trophy gear, and I am still able to be a dependable top-end DPS-er in our guild.

I’ve gotten some nice achievements in the past few weeks as well. I finally started the Argent Tournament dailies, and got my Exalted Champion of Darnassus achievement last week, which comes with the “of Darnassus” title, my new favorite! I have this thing where I enjoy the lore of WoW, with some special interest in the history of druids and the Archdruid, Malfurion Stormrage (I’m really looking forward to the book on him next year). Since he was the first druid, and Darnassus is the capitol night elf city, I have this silly affinity for the new title… oh well, what can I say? Anyway, I also got the Less Is More (10-player) achievement for killing Sartharion with 8 players, Onyxia’s Lair (25-player), Knock On Wood (10-player), Cheese The Freeze (10-player), Shutout! (25-player) and Nerf Gravity Bombs (25-player) from Ulduar, Salt And Pepper (10-player) and Upper Back Pain (10-player) from Call of the Crusade, and some other silly-fun achievements. I didn’t really participate too much in the Pilgrim’s Bounty stuff, because after completing all of the cooking dailies the first day, I realized I didn’t A) have the time, and B) care. I am looking forward to Winter Veil, however. Christmas in WoW. Good stuff.

The Paladin

Finally level 80, rapidly gearing up!

In addition, I spent a significant amount of time leveling my alt, Abenadari, my dranei ret paladin. In about three and a half weeks I got her from 72 to 80, which is ridiculously fast for me leveling-wise. I just started having so much fun with her, and decided that I had changed my mind about her. I had determined a long time ago that Abenadari, who is my alchemist, existed solely for the purpose of supplying my druid with potions and elixirs. Of course, with Wrath of the Lich King, that became flasks for raiding purposes, and so leveling began to happen naturally so that I could farm the herbs I needed for that. I finally got on the horse with that in November, and started to love how invincible she seemed. I could take on multiple level 76-77 mobs at level 72, without losing much health or mana, which was awesome fun! Leveling commenced, and last Wednesday the 25th I dinged 80.

Since Wednesday night, even with the Black Friday chaos and regular raiding on Friday and Saturday on Anacrusa, I still managed to run regular Trial of the Champion a few times, Heroic Violet Hold (3 times) and Drak’Tharon Keep, 10-man Obsidian Sanctum and Vault of Archavon, and would have run a 10-man Naxxramas today, but it didn’t work out. In 5 days my wow-heroes.com gear score has shot up about 1050 points, so I’m pretty happy with that. It’s definitely easier to get the second toon to 80 and get gear for it than it was the first time. My girlfriend wants to take her into Ulduar, but I kind of want to take her into Naxx first. I’m excited to see what she can do in a mostly-Undead instance, and I’d like to get some Naxx gear and Tier-8 stuff before I go to Ulduar and get carried through, or whatever. I like to contribute, and I like to think that I have some talent and can hold my own, so I’m going to sort of do it the proper way. Besides, Naxx is fun, and I almost never go there with the druid anymore because it’s virtually pointless.

One thing that made it easier to level when I got to level 77 or 78 was the ability to start the Knights of the Ebon Blade quests, which lead to the dailies. I did them faithfully, and within 3 days of turning 80 I was revered with them, so I’m already rocking the Arcanum of Torment head enchant. It’s great that you can get XP from dailies. The whole experience was great – reputation, XP and gold – the trifecta, just for doing those quests repeatedly. I’m still wearing the tabard and doing the dailies, because when I get Exalted with Ebon Blade, there’s a pair of (I think) boots that I can buy that will help me out.

Overall, WoW has been a fun diversion from real life. There has been a lot to enjoy over the past month or so from playing, with the only problem being that it can be difficult to get to bed at a decent hour when there’s so much fun to be had!

iMac

As sort of an update to my earlier post about the new iMacs, I had been checking weekly to see if they had any updated shipping info on the 27-inch quad-core equipped iMac, and they finally did a couple of weeks ago. So last Monday I ordered mine. I’m hoping that I receive it by next weekend – it will be fun to set it up with WoW, configure it with the add-ons I need, and test it out in Dalaran and some raids. It’s time for it – everything, from the internet to applications and games, has gotten so much heavier in the three-plus years since I bought this one, and the computer is starting to rebel. It seems like every day it will lock up, requiring a reboot, and I’m looking forward to not having that frustration. I’m also excited to see the amazing graphics, although I’m a little anxious about the 27-inch screen. It’s a full 10 inches bigger than my current iMac, and I’m worried that it’s too big, but it was the only way to get quad-core processing from Apple without paying way more than I wanted to (by getting a Mac Pro). If I play WoW in a window, which I do anyway, I should be able to adjust it for a more comfortable view.

Music

I’ve been listening to a lot of music – it is my constant companion when I’m playing or otherwise occupied on the computer – but I’ve barely been playing my guitars lately. I just feel too tired. Unmotivated. However, the love is still there – I dug out my Strat today and played a song I’ve been working on since the beginning of the year, called Dead Wolves. I played it a few times, very poorly, and let it go after 15 minutes or so – I don’t need to add carpal tunnel to the list of things that stress me out, so maybe I’ll pick it up again tomorrow and jam for 15-20 minutes.

Anyway, I’ve been listening to lots of Christmas music. It helps me stay grounded, as far as the holidays go, since I’m so involved in the commercial side of it all (money! money! sales! sales! etc.). I loved Christmas as a child, loved the decorations and the music and the atmosphere and the smells of the tree and the food. I have fond memories of our family on Christmas Eve, when we had our big dinner and followed with Christmas stories and cookies before bed. I never want to lose the respect for that time of my life and the memories made back then. Christmas music really resonates with me, and that’s one reason why I really enjoy it.

…the beauty of silence

This week was a big week, and sleep was hard to come by. I can never sleep well the night before Black Friday, and this year it was particularly difficult. I was really nervous, because it was the first Black Friday where I wasn’t managing a mall store. I was panicking  - “I didn’t schedule enough people for the morning shift! Oh my God!” It ended up being fine, but before Saturday night’s raid, I had decided that I was going to wear earplugs to bed that night. I went to bed at around 1 am this morning, and all I could think was how amazing the sound of relative silence was! It was so peaceful, and I was so ready to sleep well. And I did. Other than the fact that somebody called my cell phone at 8am today, I slept in until 10am, which is really late for me. It was so… I’ve worn earplugs before, but I’ve never felt so wonderfully grateful for the peace and silence that I experienced last night.

That’s about it for this update. I expect that it will NOT be another five weeks until I write again. To anyone who reads this, I hope that you had a great Thanksgiving, and I wish you the best this holiday season. Thanks for reading my ramblings. Cheers!