A little catch up

     In the month(!) Since I've posted here, Tirasiel has reached level 38, Sadrondir has been promoted to an officer in his Kinship, tons of things have happened in WoW and finally today I got that Archeage Beta Invite I've been hoping for!
     I really can't wait to try it out Thursday, though I'm a teeny bit afraid I may have hyped myself up for it a bit too much and be disappointed as a result. Only time will tell, though. And I have to wait until Thursday for that time to start. I anticipate hours on the character creation screen and as many screenshots as it will let me take, some of which are bound to find their way here.

Leveling in Aion

     Suddenly very aware that his Legion needs him Tirasiel looked at the massive pile of quests in his log, picked the few in Altgard that were nearest to complete and sounded most lucrative and went off to finish them up. When that was done he cleared the rest from the tracker and set off for Morheim, which is where he probably should have been back at level 19.

     It's cold in Morheim and Aion never fails to amaze me with the little emotes that have your character responding to their environment. When he stood still too long Tirasiel rubbed his arms for warmth and blew on his hands and then did little warm ups to keep the blood going. 

    He'd picked up some new and imposing looking armor from quests and coins awarded from quests, but I think one of my favorite parts is the very classy looking legion cape. It's not an actual item, it's just a graphic on your character showing they're part of their legion and I kind of love that.

     I also loved how welcomed and needed I felt when I logged on and everybody seemed shocked to see a Templar and wanted to know where I'd come from. Now if only I can get some real momentum going and churn those quests out to level for them. It felt like slow going today getting from 22 to 24 but I'll try and squeeze in enough time to hit 25 if I can later.

     A better shot of Tirasiel in his fancy new armor, all ready for trouble. He went to the fortress and picked up the quests, trying to be a bit more choosy this time and then headed out to handle some of them, gradually working his way toward the story ones. Hopefully this time more of those will get done and less of the sidetracked distracting ones that keep happening. Combat is fun to watch and fun to do and I'm practicing my abilities and their placement.

     But maybe my favorite thing today was running into an NPC that made me giggle.

     He's a pretty obvious reference, and what makes it even funnier is he gives you a couple of very egotistical quests to try to live up to his greatness. 

     I couldn't resist a few screenshots.

Tirasiel Joins a Legion

     Even though I pop into my side MMOs mostly to play solo it seems, it also does get lonely sometimes. And sometimes I desperately wish I knew somebody to ask questions about things. But with the off and on nature of my play I usually can't bring myself to hunt for a guild or legion or fellowship, even if the lack of one probably contributes to that off and on play. I hadn't looked for one in Aion. Tirasiel was briefly invited into one with about 7 people about half of whom spoke English but after a while I dropped it.
     Then today as Tirasiel was wandering around Pandaemonium, sorting his bags I got recruited. I've been invited to things like the fellowship in LOTRO and nicely given a home in them like Daethrys' guild on Rift but I'd never actually been recruited until today. I got whispered even though my character was below Rebonds' character level requirement, because apparently Templars are in demand. The Brigade General had a lovely little chat for me and gave me a home and requests to level quickly. I might surprise myself and end up focusing on Aion for a while because Tirasiel and his shield are needed!
     It's funny. I'd been debating with myself off and on if I wanted to stick with him as my apparent main because even though I love his character design and have fun playing him it seemed like it would be tough to do anything later on or to do group content. Tanking in MMOs is something I have a love/hate relationship with. I love doing it, I love the feel of being the plate clad hero with the shield at the front of the line holding the monster's attention. I'm also a little terrified of that responsibility I'm so fond of. It's so easy to mess up and things can go bad so quickly if the tank messes up. But the adrenaline is fun, the feel of doing everything in your power to keep the attention on you and off of your more fragile teammates.
     And I'd be lying if I didn't admit that it was at least partly for the love of big plate armor and fancy shields. You can take the 'paladin' out of the game but you can't take it out of the player, I guess. Guess now I really have to work on getting Tirasiel to 65.

Tirasiel gets an apartment

     I'd been meaning to get the last level, I thought, I needed in Aion to get level 20 and get some housing. Turns out when I hit 20 I found out that the housing thing happens at level 21. Luckily when I was looking that up I also found there was a solo instance about Tirasiel's level that sounded interesting. So off he went. 21 halfway through and several pieces of new gear later he finally headed back to Pandaemonium to get his apartment.
     I was so curious about what the housing system would be like. Turns out it's sort of a happy medium between Lord of the Rings Online and Rift. I like it. It's not quite as open to creativity as Rift but Definitely isn't as confined as LOTRO.  The studio you get for free is just that, a studio and it was bare bones and empty of all but the butler and relationship orb when Tirasiel went to check it out. Luckily a few quests award you a table, a cabinet, wallpaper and a plant and then he blew a bit too much Kinah picking up a decent bed, and a shelf, chairs and a picture for the wall. It still looks quite spartan, but it'll improve.

     The view from the front porch is nice.

     The bed seems a little too big for him, but it's got to be more comfortable than loitering on the streets of Pandaemonium all night. There's a 5% increase in the speed the rested XP regenerates when you log out in a studio, I think that's pretty neat.

     A table and chair. If he ever makes any friends he might have to get a second chair.

     Bed, cabinet, and shelf. The studio is surprisingly spacious... and free, which is a nice change from LOTRO. If you want a bigger house later you have to buy it and pay upkeep but the studio apparently is always free, and for now it looks huge and empty so Tirasiel is quite content with just  studio size home. Maybe later if he levels a lot and makes loads of kinah he'll upgrade to something else. In the meantime, though I'm just looking forward to finding more furniture here and there and making it look a bit less bare.

     Another shot on the porch. He picked up a second earring and a necklace in the solo instance and I still can't help being ridiculously thrilled about being able to see them on him in game instead of just as stats icons on his character sheet.

I'm a noob.

     Aion seems to be my game for making really stupid mistakes. Tirasiel has been slowly but steadily questing his way around Basfelt Village, with a few side trips around the zone. Very simple rotation, I'd been thinking, this Templar one. Sure lots of down time, but that's okay, he's a tank, it gets the job done. But then after dying to two successive quests where he got swarmed by groups of mobs and just couldn't take the damage I started to wonder... shouldn't he have an AoE ability or something?
     So since my obelisk is bound to the Great Temple and that's where I popped up when I died I strolled over to the warrior preceptor to have a look see. Picked up a few upgrade abilities... not much... slotted those, flipped over to look at my chains... and that's when I wondered... why don't I have these abilities I was supposed to learn at level ten or anything. Not in my skill list. Check back with the preceptor... he doesn't have them for me... And that was when I looked up at the top and realized there were two little tabs. Templar and Gladiator. It apparently defaults to the Gladiator tab. I switched the Templar one and lo and behold several abilities I should have had ages ago.
     Redoing of the action bar commenced. Still no AoE, though. But the good news is I took him out to hit a quest this morning to try out the new action bars and suddenly he is much less squishy and hits things harder and faster and is far more fun to play. It's amazing what a difference not completely gimping yourself by skipping out on all your spec specific skills makes. Progress should speed up significantly now. And I'm just going to be over here... feeling sheepish... and checking the priest vendor for Malieth. I wonder how many Chanter spells he's missing.

Little Moments of Delight

     Just a minipost of screenshot spam of little things that delighted me in my various games. Saving the thinking post for later.

Aion: 

     I LOVE this hairstyle. Love it. It looks like something I'd design myself and it makes me happy. Also... Tirasiel got an earring as a quest reward. I noticed on the character screen that he's now wearing one! I've never seen this in any other game. It makes me grin.

     I have no idea what this guy is. His name is Mantigar and he makes you kill stuff that is beneath him. That I do know and am amused by.

     Neat ruins in the background, but mostly the Karnif, what a nifty looking critter. I like it. Tirasiel on the other hand killed loads of them.

Rift: 

 

     I love this house. Daethrys couldn't go there because there were loads of Guardians around it who didn't like him, but it was fun to look at from afar.

      Rifts look really cool. This one's all creepy and tentacle-y and Daethrys looks like he's checking to make sure Friend is coming to help out.

     I love weather effects in game. Rift's are beautiful. The color of the air, the sounds that go with them, but best of all, my kirin's scales sparkle like their wet and Daethrys too looks just a bit wet and uncomfortable. I should feel bad for keeping him out in the rain to take screenshots.

Lord of the Rings Online:

     Night sky. I love it and a new mount. Horse of the Jester which Sadrondir has christened Laughter. I love horses, and for all its other minor graphical flaws Lord of the Rings Online has some of the most beautiful ones I have ever seen.

More Aion

     Last night when I meant to pop onto LOTRO for a few quick shots of my housing for a post about housing before popping onto Aion... well I got very distracted and ended up not hitting Aion at all. But this morning I wanted to see what the housing was like in Aion too. What I found was that Tirasiel needs a few more levels before he can find out.

     Since I've been having fun with him and enjoying the music now that I can hear it, I wasn't one to shy away from trying to get a few more. But as I was popping in an out of game for other things I noticed that he'd been wearing this same leather chest since the first area. Well, I thought I should probably go buy him some chain. Guess my brain was stuck in the WoW mindset and I'd actually bought him a chain top from a vendor before I realized there was a plate tab. He could wear the plate and since he's a Templar which I do at least know is the tankiest of tanky things in Aion, plate was probably a good idea. So the chain top got sold and replaced with some plate.

     Well in poking around doing some of the city quests at that point I found the crafter people. Ooo he should probably learn to make stuff. So he took up construction and then armorsmithing, only he couldn't do any armormithing because he needed iron and he couldn't get iron. I knew because I'd tried back in Moslan forest and got that... you can't do this yet message. So he went back and gathered a bunch of fish and things outside Altgard until he could gather iron.

     Mind you, Daeva don't mine, they suck the iron out of the iron with magic and then use it for their own ends. I'm not complaining, looks kinda nifty, doesn't involve toting around a pickaxe. He got lots of iron, went back to do quests, learned some things, gained some skill and then learned a recipe for new plate boots. So after training to make and then making all the components he was all set to make new boots. Only he needed Aether Powder. Back out to Altgard to fly around and suck the powder out of vortexes.

     And after all that he failed at making the boots. And didn't have enough flux to try again. I was sad but decided to pick up a few quests in hope of getting some more. He managed to do that -and- hit level 16 and then not fail at making the boots the next time. In fact he channeled through the first time and made a super nice pair. Only four or five levels until he can check out housing! Which will hopefully be slightly less frustrating than the crafting is.
     Then before I logged off I popped over to say hi to Malieth in his mixed armor. Stared at it and the vendor for a while when I realized -he- could wear cloth, leather, or chain. This time I used google and found out, rather surprisingly (but pleasingly) that Chanters rock the mail gear. So he got some, and did a couple quests before I logged for the night, partly just so I could soak in some Elyos side music.

The post in which I feel like an idiot.

     Aion takes up an insane amount of drive space, though looking at it it isn't very hard to see why. Still I'd loaded it once onto one back drive and then had to reinstall onto another with more room. But when I had gone to patch that hadn't been enough room and it had errored out. After that when I'd been playing I'd just clicked play as soon as it was available and apparently... never actually finished installing the game. I wondered why I kept seeing people comment on Aion's lovely music when I never heard any. I kept wondering how anybody put up with a launcher that was always wanting to install and never finishing.
     So last night for some reason I thought... you know... after that last error you cleared a bunch more space and haven't let it actually sit and run to its heart content since. Yeah. I left it running while I slept and overnight it entirely finished installing. The launcher is no longer obnoxious. And what's more I logged into the game and there are NPC voices and really amazing music. I'm dumb. I've played this game for probably at least 15 hours all told without having it completely installed. I like it even better now and I'd already been fairly sold on the character customization and the wings.

    In playing Aion my original intent had been to make a bunch of characters and figure out what class I actually wanted to level. The first one I made... fairly at random, was a warrior, Tirasiel. I leveled him until he got wings and picked Templar even though I'm scared of tanking stuff I don't understand. Why? Because Templar. How could I not be a Templar? And well because Shields. I freaking love them. But I figured I'd probably move on and make an archer to actually level on. Only the rogue Visiel insisted on staying backstabby and went Assassin so that plan was down the drain but there were still the Elyos guys Malieth and Salafiel I could have picked and the possibility of making somebody else to go archery or something else ranged.
     But when I logged in today what happened instead was that I logged onto Tirasiel and went from level 12 to level 14 in fairly short order while remembering what all my buttons did and enjoying the music I should have had ages ago. Tirasiel might end up being what gets leveled after all just because I got attached to him in the beginning and I can't seem to get over it.

     He left Altgard a bit today and went into the nearby forest to kill some things and marvel at the weird animals and colorful scenery. (Also to look freaking awesome with his shield.) The animations in this game are as good as the character customization, full of movement and grace and life. And now I know from having heard it that the music matches. And I think I like the Asmodeans best. They're like winged dark elves with claws... or they can be anyhow and that pretty much ticks all my little checkboxes right down the line. Tirasiel is probably here to stay.