The hour of the wolf

"Have you ever heard of the hour of the wolf? My father told me about it. It's the time between 3:00 and 4:00 in the morning. You can't sleep, and all you can see is the troubles and the problems and the ways that your life should've gone but didn't. All you can hear is the sound of your own heart." -Susan Ivanova 

Actually the saying is longer and even includes the mention of vodka... which sort of suits me perfectly but I thought I would cut it short.
I've quit my subscription to SW:ToR because I was just so frustrated what became of it. The only reason for me to continue with it would have meant levelling another character to 50 on a PvP server... but I just can't bring myself to go through this again.
Also Guild Wars 2 is looming on the horizon (coming out August 28th), so it was time to part. I did enjoy the 6 months I spent in the Lucas World, it was amazing and just like in WoW I will always treasure the time I spent in this game.
So it's also time to part with this blog which really really helped me in the last couple of months. I will start a new blog for GW2 but this time it will be in German again and I need to protect it from certain "stalkers" I have.
Fear not my friends and guildmates you will receive the new URL once the new blog is up and running.

For everyone else, thanks for reading and good-bye.

Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend - No.2

Last weekend was another beta weekend for GW2, I had to catch up on sleep yesterday so this post is actually a day late... but hey, better late than never. ;)

Unlike the first beta weekend this time the login for me went smoothly, I started playing on Friday around 7:35pm or something. But it was the same during the 7 hour stress test a couple of weeks ago, so not really that much of a big surprise.

During the stress test a couple of guild members had to transfer to an US server because we had a bug that wouldn't let us login. So the first thing I tried was transferring back to Magus falls... which didn't work because the server was full. Picture me not amused, however they upped the maximum of people for servers and on Saturday morning everyone could transfer back. Phew!

I didn't start playing with my Necro on Friday, I actually made a new character, a Charr Elementalist... and just because I was stupid, I forgot about the downscaling, so I could have played my level 11 ele... or stupid Khali could have just tried out a Mesmer or Engineer... but Friday was so not my day, I must have had my head in the clouds or something. So yeah... now I have another Ele. Memo to myself... next beta weekend try a new class!

However playing in the Charr starting area wasn't so bad, I had tried it out during the first beta weekend and I found it quite boring. Wasn't so bad on Friday, even though there were a lot of people around. I did all the quests and exploring on Sunday morning with my Necro and I really liked it. I just don't like the Charr race all that much, I do love the swishy tail and the running animation but that's about it. And I was quite disappointed that the Charr females have male voices... :(

Saturday wasn't my day either, sometimes I'm just stupid or assume too much or maybe I just like to put myself down... whatever doesn't matter. I went exploring with my Necro, because for whatever reason some skill challenges and point of interests in certain areas had been reset, so I had to do/find them again. Awful task, especially some of those in Kessex hills, I must have died 10 times before finishing my task. Picture me not amused!

I also briefly wandered into the new area and died instantly... once again... Khali wasn't a happy camper. So after that I switched onto my human Elementalist and pushed her to level 17 before I was so tired that I had to take a nap, which also meant no WvW for me this beta weekend, maybe next one.. we will see.

After my nap and watching the football game I logged in again, I actually wanted to level my Ele a bit more but got offered to explore the new area with my guildleader and couldn't refuse that offer. And yeah, it was a lot easier doing the zone together, man I need to learn to survive on my own again... or I will end up needing help for each and everything... can't let that happen. Must find my independent Khali who levelled all alone from 1-60 in classic WoW. But it's just sooo much fun playing in a group. ;D

On Sunday I also finally found time to look at the crafting system, not that hard once you get what it's all about and how to do certain things. The only drawback for me was, you need to carry all the mats around in your inventory, SWTOR has a much better solution for that (it's enough to have the materials in your bank).

I still haven't figured out what crafting profession my main character will have once the game is out. Cooking looks nice but so do a few other professions. Need to craft more in the next beta event, that's for sure.

What else.. oh yeah, I did play pvp with my Necro this time... it was fun, a lot of fun, even though I had to play against my guildies... love how annoying my Necro can be with fearing. And the self-healing seems to be equally annoying... loved that. However coming up against a melee is awful... I feel too squishy and I still have to learn so much about my class.

They also changed the skill system around a bit, you needed to buy certain skills before you could buy skills from the next tier. I know some people complained about this, but to me it didn't really matter at least not with the Necro nor with the Ele, I basically bought all the skills I wanted to have before I bought the ones from the higher tear and I didn't have to buy useless ones. So no complains from me on that.

I was also glad to see that the mail system still worked the way it did during the stress test. If you send something to someone, the person will receive it instantly, which is great. During the first beta weekend you had to wait quite some time before you got your mail. That was awful really.

And I think I found a new addiction... colors! I love that colors drop from mobs now, I think I got over 15 different colors with the 3 characters I played this weekend. The only thing that's a bit annoying you can't trade them, once you double click on "identify" the color is bound to your account. And I also don't see why I need to find each color with each character I have. -.- But I LOVE COLORS and I can see myself spending real money for that.

Second addiction is definitely going to be miniatures, which in other words are pets, need to have them ALL! No surprise, I was exactly the same in WoW. I didn't even know they existed until I got sent one by a guildmate. It basically accompanied me the whole weekend. And after trying out if my debit card would work as a credit card (which it did) I bought myself another miniature pack. So yeah, that will definitely be another addiction of mine and I don't care if people will roll their eyes on me for it. ;D

Another thing that also really made me happy was that I finally got some more gear for my Necro, including my awesome looking skull helmet. Doesn't fit with the SailorMoon-skirt but hey... so happy that I didn't have to run around in level 11 gear anymore.

And of course like many others I was quite disappointed that once again you could not play the Sylvari and Asura races. I'm not even sure if they will be playable in any beta events. *sniffles* So whenever I had time, I took screencaps of Sylvari whose appearance I liked.

So yeah, this post isn't as long as the one I wrote after the first beta weekend but it was just as much fun as the first weekend and I want MOAR! MOAR!

Diablo III - Part 2

Right, actually I wanted to post this a lot earlier but somehow I couldn't be bothered to sit down and write something. But as once again the D3 servers are down I have nothing better to do and I'm not tired enough to go to bed.

I can't believe that it's only been 2 1/2 weeks till Diablo III came out, it feels like I've been playing that game for ages and ages.

It's still a lot of fun... however the last couple of days around 7pm I used to see this:

Which definitely is not so much fun anymore. Blizzard really should know better and should DO better.

Nonetheless I still can present this:

Hell mode: Check!

Oh yeah, and of course some things never change...
I'm still a fucking NOOB, that's why I can also present this:

For those who saw my last D3 post... yep, I died again during the Belial fight. This time around 95% and once again, my guildleader defeated him ALONE! Sheesh, I felt really bad, even the day after I kept putting myself down because I'm such a stupid idiot. :(

Here's the proof that he did kill him and that I got the kill achievement all thanks to him.

We are currently on Inferno mode and like most people we basically do nothing but farm gear, which seems to be a fruitless attempt in our case because so far nothing we could use dropped at all. So that leaves us with buying gear from the auction house. And while I don't mind that Inferno mode is so hard, I hate that some champion combos seem to be impossible. :(

And since Inferno mode really takes a lot out of me, I'm glad my guildleader was up for levelling another class, in this case I'm now the melee and he plays a ranged. We are already on Nightmare mode and I dread to think of the fight against Belial again. While he thinks that it's a running gag to tease me about my "legendary" drops... I think me dying on each and every Belial fight is the better running gag. ;D

Bonus screencaps of my demonhunter, left side fresh from the Diablo hell kill and on the right side what she currently looks like:

Diablo III

I know this is supposed to be a SW:Tor blog, but since I'm not starting a new blog for Diablo III I will post some D3 stuff in here. And WTF... why do I even try to explain myself? This is my own blog. xD

Two weeks ago my guildleader fed me a couple of Diablo III beta videos and in the end I couldn't resist and bought the game. Somehow I was sure I would only be playing it for a week or so and then return to SW:ToR. How the hell was I supposed to know that I would be this hooked. It's an amazing game, and I can't remember having that much fun in aaaages.

My progress so far:

 Normal mode: Check!

Nightmare mode: Check!

Yes, it's not that much, my highest character is level 52 but for once I didn't want to rush through a game. I love exploring every area and every dungeon before finishing a quest. 

And I'm glad that my guildleader shares the same philosophy, so I don't have to feel guilty for taking my time and running around while playing together.

We are currently in "act I" on "hell mode"... and my god, it is hard... I shudder to think of "inferno mode", if I even manage to get to inferno mode at all. It's definitely challenging and very very exhausting as I have to be on my guard constantly. One moment of not concentrating and I'm dead. And I'm really getting annoyed with myself for making stupid mistakes and dying over and over again. xD

Talking about dying... I once said I should not praise my guildleader for his style of playing but yesterday morning he once again managed to make my jaw drop. We did Belial on nightmare mode and I died when Belial still had 45% and he downed the boss... ALONE. I was absolutely amazed by that. Honestly doing that at 6 in the morning after over 10 hours of playing was just brilliant in my eyes. I would never be able to keep my level of concentration that high and move around the way he did after that much playing and at that time of the day... I'm not even sure if I would be able to pull that off at all. So yeah, my kudos to him. *grrrr*

I forgot to make a screencap sooner. -.-

And I also died during the Diablo fight on nightmare mode but this time not as n00bish as in the Belial fight:

I definitely need to stop with the vodka/oj or vodka/cherryjuice... can't focus after 2 glasses. ;D

So yeah, I really really like D3, it's great and I can only hope the fun lasts till GW2 is out. And I love that my Battle.net friends list became so big. It's so much fun to play with everyone and get to know my guildies from Icefyre better.

And bonus screencap of my demonhunter:

My boys...

Actually I wanted to write an entry yesterday, but then I had quite some trouble with my Diablo III installation and at 8pm there was a 7 hour stresstest for GW2.

And when I went to bed this morning at 7am, I really didn't feel like sitting down and posting anything. So before I hop off to play some Diablo III today I'm gonna finish this post.

It's nothing big and mostly just for me... but my SW:ToR male characters need some loving in form of an entry. ;)

My dearest Praven, I just love that screencap. I really did quite well when I created him, perfect Sith. ;)

Forcewalking again, or for those who don't know, he's binding another ghost to him.

Ashara ogling Praven while he's meditating.

And Praven finally got her... perfect PUA that he is, he played his game well with her and had it all in one go. 

And I certainly don't want to forget my other Sith, Sidice... love his gear, even though it clashes with his skin color. :D

Probably his best "I don't take any shit from you"-pose!

And yay, Vette is also there... Sidice is also finally making progress with her. It's just a matter of time... eh, affection points I mean. :D

So, that's it for today, I will definitely do a post on all the companion you can romance, I already started it but oh boy, so many links and videos to post. I can't bring myself to finish it. Ah well, one day... soon. 

Hell, yeah! Ugh, hell no!

I haven't posted some PvP stats lately... time to change it. Reason behind it was, last week, I think it was last week or was it this Monday, I played a couple of warzones with Khalindora. And since patch 1.2 I really had a hard time healing more than 300k in a voidstar match (mostly due to the changes of this particular warzone).

So you can imagine my smile after the match ended and I got to see this:

What also really frustrated me was that no matter what I did I couldn't heal so much with Praven my sorc, so I upgraded the mods in his orange gear and changed the enhancement from power+alacrity to crit+surge.

The result was really really satisfying to me:

I even said that I never healed as much with Sha'khali... hm, I seem to have a short memory because looking through my screenshots proved me wrong:

And searching a bit more I found this one... alright, I need to beat nearly 600k healing. Mind you that was done before patch 1.2 and Sha'khali was 50. This will be really tough and I only have 4 more levels left before Praven hits 50.

Social gear part II & Legacy gear

Right, what did I say about if I wanted to waste another 10 hours of my life I would go and check on the Imperial social gear... turns out all of it is the same the only thing that's different is the pilot gear. And when I did my first social gear post, the Republic had no "formal" gear for males, so you get that one too.

However, I thought 3 pictures isn't all that much and then I made the mistake and checked out the Legacy gear. I hate copy&paste, not to mention that Bioware somehow scaled things down and I had to fiddle around with my old template for the set cards.

God, yes, I want that one for my Khalindora... looks like I will have to do some more daily quests.