I went to Auroria once...

But all I got were these lousy screenshots.

     In all seriousness. I was one of the lucky people who was actually able to get into the game shortly after the Auroria launch. Three of my guildies had managed it as well so as soon as I logged in I got invited to a party and told to get over to Solzreed. So off I went by worldgate and gallop to Desireen (since I'd never been there to have the location.) Then I glided onto the guild clipper just offshore, Aelithar landing with a flourish square in the middle of the deck. (I'd never manage to do that again if I tried it.) And off we went. It was a long ship ride north, with plenty of time for chatting and speculation and worries about running into the Kraken or the Oran'thul. I'm not sure which would have been scarier but we avoided both.
     The lag hit just offshore and the clipper and everybody on it started lurching in slow motion. But we eventually made it to land and mounted up to ride. I don't have patron so there was no land dreams for me, but the guildies had some hopes. So we rode around to have a look. It was chaos. We died once to a large group of mobs and again to a massive pvp group. The castles got claimed... but there was no land at all to be had. It all seemed gone in seconds, even with so much of the playerbase unable to even get into the game.
     My husband and best friend ran into the glitch that locked them out and after I logged off for my raid in WoW that night I was unable to get in again either. And there are no roll-backs. The problems didn't really cause me any trouble, but for those people who were pinning their last hope of land on Auroria and couldn't even get into the game... I feel awful for you. I think the entire thing was handled pretty shoddily. There was no way it could have been handled that would have made everybody happy, but it seems like something could have been done better.

     The next day when all was said and done I logged back in. I'd logged off near a shrine in Marcala so I took advantage of being there to do a long exploration ride while it was a little less chaotic. It's a pretty continent with its own eerie music. There are floating motes of ash and lots of large scary undead monsters. The East has three Castles at the moment (Sinister, The Oran'thul, Meowcenaries) and the Arcadian Guard claimed one for the west. None of the Eastern Castles had started going up when I was there, but the Arcadian Guard had already build a nice sturdy looking structure.

     Much sturdier than these ruins I found during the exploration. I was happy to finally find one area of Auroria with some ruins. It seemed to me like it should be full of ruins, but perhaps most of them are in the large part of the continent that's still not open.

     When I'd finished looking around I recalled back to Marianople so Aelithar could go about the more prosaic business of planting and harvesting and running trade packs. No land for me, No Archeum trees, no reason for joining the current pvp insanity that is Auroria. And you know... I'm still having a really good time in this game.

Level 50!

     Today, only partway through questing in Hasla, Aelithar hit level 50. This is a huge thing for me. This is only the second MMO that I've ever leveled a character entirely to cap. It's also the first MMO I've played since Beta. Perhaps it's silly that I get warm fuzzies in addition to a feeling of accomplishment. It's not like it hasn't taken me ages longer than many others after all. Still there he is, my level 50 paladin, fresh and new in his level. He's got a lot left to do. Needs to get to Karkasse to pick up the lower part of the last set of questing armor, needs to figure out what he's doing after that. So many quests handed to me at level 50 that I felt a little overwhelmed and wasn't sure what to do or where to start.
   So I went first with something simple. I wanted more hereafter stones, so I needed raw stone. Went over to Cinderstone and rowed out into the ocean so I could mine the stone along with Starshards to make into jewelry later. A simple thing I didn't have to be max level to do, but it was something simple and relaxing to let me figure out my center. And mining Starshard isn't -that- simple. After all Aelithar doesn't have any breathing tools, so as an elf with the swimming racial he has just enough breath to swim straight down, mine the node, and swim straight back up before drowning. Three nodes got me enough stone for three hereafter stones, enough Starshard for three ingots and burned through a LOT of labor in very short order.
    But he has enough hereafter stones to make me comfortable in heading back to Hasla later and I proved to myself that playing my paladin doesn't end at 50. I don't know if I'll shoot for the ArcheMaster title. I'm not sure I even want all the skillsets at 50. But after much debating I think Aelithar might take a short break from being called a paladin to be an Abolisher while he finishes up the Hasla quests. Why? Because that lets him level Auramancy to 50 on the backs of his Battlerage and Defense sets... and that means that if his guild needs a healer he can be a Templar (Defense, Auramancy, Vitalism) for them. And a Templar's also a pretty awesome thing to be.
     Another interesting thing happened when I hit 50. I noticed the guards started doing this:

     I'd seen them refer to other players by name before but I guess I hadn't paid attention. I thought it was something they did for the Founders and such. But I guess it's for max level characters. And I won't lie... it feels a little good to see it.

Nightmare Tides and things and I'm still here in Droughtlands

     Rift's new expansion dropped today? Yesterday? I've been getting emails about it anyhow but since Daethrys was only level 38 this isn't so exciting for me. Still I couldn't resist logging on to see if there'd been any basic changes that would make a difference for my slowly progressing Huntsman. Not really, though I'd swear there'd been a graphics change. Only I'm not really sure if it was anything the game did or just that I'd barely poked my head in since getting the new computer. What I do know is... wow the new computer lets me play with things turned all the way up and it's gorgeous. It was beautiful on my old machine, it's even better on this one.

     Just look at how pretty Daethrys is. (Have I mentioned I love Kelari men?) I played with my graphics settings some, emptied his bags onto the auction house, and then quested long enough to hit level 39. It wasn't far. Quests and killing things seemed a bit easier. Not sure if there have been changes or just reacquainting myself. Daethrys definitely makes faster work of murder in Rift than Aelithar does in Archeage.

     Archeage definitely hasn't been supplanted. I spent the morning in Erenor(I think that's the name of that world) though Aelithar's reached the rather sloggy grind stage of questing. 47 last night and maybe a quarter of the way to 48 this morning. He's left Windscour Savannah now for Perinoor Ruins which so far is an interestingly creepy sort of zone.

     My goal for myself is that if I can manage it I'd like to hit 50 before Auroria is released. Definitely before Warlords of Draenor if I can. I'm miles behind most people at leveling, I guess I'm slow at it. I don't think of myself that way in WoW where I can slog through things I've done before at a pretty good clip if I put my mind to it. Other MMOs where I'm reading every last quest and exploring things I haven't seen before, well the leveling slows down. I get distracted by random things.
     I love Archeage. This is an MMO that feels almost like it was made for me. It's got so many things I've always wanted in an MMO and even if in Free to Play I can't take part in all of them I love it for that. The PvP end game is not really my favorite thing, but oddly I find that when I'm not drastically outnumbered I'm much less terrible at it than I thought I was. I'm... actually almost having fun with the PvP sometimes. I'm not sure what to think about that. I do know that Rift will be seeing me back  at some point too, but I think it's Archeage that's my second MMO home.

Maybe PvP is okay even if I'm still terrible at it

    Level 44. Very slowly making his way there. The patch dropped in WoW. First new content in over a year so that's taken up a bit of time, but I have still been finding time to sneak into Archeage for a bit every day. Last night I logged onto a War in Rookborne Basin where he's been questing and got killed by a couple of level 50s in very short order. At the shrine there was a whole group of people from OTG and as I started to run back up to die on my quest again one of them whispered me and invited me to run with them.
     Turns out they were running around in a small warband fighting all the reds they could find. All of them were level 50 to Aelithar's 43 at that time, but I managed to stunlock a few enemies and help down them. And it was fun, though I think part of the reason I'm bad at pvp is that I can't help feeling guilty for doing the same thing to people that they've done to me. So I feel bad running with a group and help slaughtering people. Though when big groups showed up to fight us it felt pretty good. There was some dying and some getting lost and falling in rivers, but I had a lot of fun.

     I logged off for real life stuff and logged on a bit later when the war was over and quested to 44 in peacetime before calling it a night. Aelithar keeps taking his mounts into tents and inns and noble's houses. He doesn't see why not. So he and Blackthorn camped last night in a Firran tent inn.

     This morning I logged onto a zone in level four conflict/unrest and did a bit of questing alone anyhow. It was misty and beautiful but reduced the view distance a bit which made me feel both safer and more nervous at the same time. Harder for enemies to see me... but harder for me to see them too. And I have to admit that even knowing I'm going to die, there is something about questing in enemy territory in the mist that appeals to the same part of me that likes horror movies. In the screenshot above Aelithar and Blackthorn both look like they hear something, but it was a false alarm. The hour or so I was on this morning was mostly a good day not to die.

Flying High: Archeage

     Gliding high over Sandeep. I think I technically did this quest a bit wrong, but I don't care. Long glider flights are fun and that is all there is to it. I didn't realize how much I was going to enjoy the glider until I upgraded it and started using it a lot. It's fun. I'm not always very good at it, but it's fun. Flying will never not be fun. (Blizzard take notice. I don't think anybody actually wants flight taken out of WoW no matter what they say on the forums.)
      Aelithar has reached level 43. I think he might have reached 44 today if the Tahyang server hadn't been down so much of yesterday that I didn't get very much done. In fact it was down so long that I finally used the last character slot I'd been sitting on for another independent character on Calleil.

     I knew I'd be wanting a Firran. They and the elves are the races in Archeage I was most interested in playing, so this is Vahyarr. I didn't do much besides make him and level him to 5. I don't know what he'll be yet, just that archery and songcraft are involved. He won't be seeing much, if any leveling or anything until Aelithar is at least level 50, if then, or if Tahyang's down for ages again, but I'm happy to have him. He's cute.
     I don't really like the female Firran at all. Their faces are too childlike for my taste and look creepily like little girl faces stuck on adult Firran bodies. I just can't warm up to them. The male Firran on the other hand look just as they should, like fierce cat people. I like the feline cast to their faces which is very lacking in the females.
   

     Last night when Tahyang was finally behaving the hubby and I gave our Harani some love. Some of that included getting mentored through Palace Cellar and then riding over to Falcorth Plains to get ourselves Snowlions for that handy riding double function so Kiranai can carry Mirzai around while I exercise my google-fu occasionally. And questing, lots of questing. Mirzai is a cultist  so very much a stand in the back, cloth wearing caster which is a very unusual thing for me to be playing. I'm very much enjoying it though, even if I can't decide whether or not I like his new robes. Redheads shouldn't really wear red, I think. But the quest guys missed that memo and didn't make special blue robes for him.

 

     After that, last night and this morning it was back to Aelithar who finished up Sandeep and mystified poor Blackthorn with his dancing. Hey, he needed something to do while his mana regenerated and the flute hadn't cut it. Paladins use a lot of mana I'm discovering. I gave him a mana regenerating passive talent from vitalism and made a new flute this morning to help out but he still drains his mana bar like it's going out of style during anything sustained. Blackthorn's level 30 now, twenty more levels to get him to max and somewhere during the course of that Aelithar needs to make about 500 more gold. That should be a project.

     Finishing Sandeep gave me a surprise when one of the quest givers promptly sent me off through a worldgate to Rookborne Basin. Aelithar's in Haranya, which is I'll admit, a little nerve-wracking. So many red names. The local Firran don't seem to mind an elf paladin at all but those traveling adventurer types keep looking at Aelithar in ways that make him very nervous.

     I'm not very far into it, but the zone is pretty and I like the concept of the questing so far. Hoping to catch it in peace later in the day so questing can be a little less unnerving for a bit. Steadily working his way toward 50, and then I'll have to figure out what to do. If there was land available on Tahyang I'd be ever so tempted to put at least one month of patron in and try to use that time to earn the gold to buy more months with Apex. But without land available it seems like even the labor regeneration wouldn't make it entirely worth it. One of my guildies showed me his manor last night. I have to admit I've got a little bit of house envy. Maybe someday.

Archeage and a little bit of Guild Wars 2

    Aelithar has passed the level 38 hump and made his way safely (for the most part) to level 42 so far. Hellswamp was interesting, pretty yet creepy.

     But he caught a ship bound for better pastures and is now enjoying the wonders of lovely tropical Sandeep.

     Mostly it's been questing though here and there when the labor points build up high enough I feel comfortable there's been a bit of crafting. Mostly more Hereafter Stones.

     Which is what he's industriously working on here. It's no secret that Archeage is a pvp game. I also make no secret of the fact that I am bad at pvp and (probably as a result) don't particularly like it. I still love this game. I'm glad that the pvp doesn't give xp penalties, because one of the other reasons I dislike pvp (aside from being bad at it) is that pvpers for the most part seem to fight like cowards. I've been killed by several level 50s. Two at once even. And people like to wait until a mob's got my health down a good bit and then start something. But the guy today takes the cake. He was only a few levels higher but such a coward.
     Fighting mobs in Sandeep I'd just finished a couple that had Aelithar down to a sliver of health when this fellow attacked him. I fought back some but the result was inevitable. Respawned at the shrine, rebuffed, filled my health bar and then noticed the guy was just up the hill where I'd been fighting the same mob. His health was down to about half when I thought turnabout was fair play and went up to give him a go. Charge off horseback, hit him hard with my shield... out of range... what, where is he? Spin around flailing only to see him running off at top speed down the hill into the safe little no combat zone around the shrine. I couldn't help rolling my eyes.

     Finally got to try the Jury Duty thing once one morning when I logged on quickly after downtime and got a low number in the queue. It was interesting.  I'd wondered what it was like and now I know. Like a true paladin Aelithar thinks evildoers should get the maximum sentence.
     So I'm still loving this game and pvp cowards or not I'm feeling very confident that Aelithar will get to level 50. What he does then I'm not sure. Maybe he'll build a ship.

     Tonight though, a bit late I felt like logging on for something, but warzone didn't sound like fun so I thought Guild Wars 2 (which I bought at half price a while back and semi-abandoned for Archeage) might be good for just a quick session. It is.
     I'm still trying to decide on my Guild Wars 2 main. I made a Sylvari Ranger to start: Tamyrlinn Ferahn but he felt so squishy and it was frustrating. (Probably partly because mobile combat)

     So after 100% map complete in Caledon Forest and the Grove I gave him a little break and rerolled my originally Norn Guardian idea into a Sylvari as well.

     Alystaer Starleaf is definitely growing on me, though the new feature pack's changes for low level characters soured me briefly even before Archeage released. I don't like the changes, don't like the Skills on my map that I apparently just can't do yet when Tamyrlinn could before. I don't like the nagging indicator up top. But I do like Alystaer and he's definitely in the running for main against Tamyrlinn. The plan is to get Alystaer through Caledon as well and then decide who the focus is moving on. But tonight was a nice relaxing play session, which I needed. Did two hearts and an event and then completed the Grove map. 

     I do think it's a good game it was definitely relaxing and enjoyable tonight. But even as a very big noob to GW2 I can't help thinking it was better before they made it noob friendly. Still I'll be poking around in there off and on, and in a few more sessions maybe I'll have picked a main.

I'm slow at leveling

     Aelithar is level 38. I'm slowly getting there in this game, though I feel slow. Aside from the two Harani the hubby and I play sometimes, my friend SprYte and I added a pair of elves on Calleil. But mostly I think what makes me slow is that there are so many things I can keep getting distracted by doing. Some of them help with leveling like the dungeon I ran with three guildies and a random dps we picked up. That was an adventure. We were dps (and in my case rather tanky) things and we'd been hoping to find a healer outside the dungeon. Turns out the only thing we could find was another dps. As a paladin I was the only one with any Vitalism skills at all. So rather than attempting to tank I found myself attempting to heal with a grand total of two healing spells. Thanks to a well coordinated group we did finish Burnt Castle and it was loads of fun.
     I'd only intended for Aelithar to have Silverbirch for a mount. After all in a game where your mount is persistent in the world and has to be carried in your bag, collecting seems silly. But then I found out that the Lilyut Horses you could purchase on Mirage Isle not only ran faster and had melee based attacks, but also could be leveled and upgraded. Needless to say he promptly went to Mirage Isle and spent most of his gold on a foal. Raising it up was simple enough once I realized I needed a carrot and then Blackthorn got most of the way from level five to level ten simply running the longest way from Solzreed back to Cinderstone Moor.

    There is just so much about this game that's done right or at least right for me. Trade packs, farming and mount leveling conspire to keep all the zones busy and alive. (I can't be the only one riding a lot of places the long way to level up my mounts, can I?) Not only that but the world it pretty enough and busy enough to be a place I just want to be. Aelithar has several hereafter stones in his bag, but often as not traveling involves just riding because I'm simply enjoying that.
     Mounts as persistent entities in the world that you can level and gear is something I have always wanted in an MMO. Add in combat abilities for them and  they are something that I easily get attached to and that becomes part of my character's story. Battle pets are a wonderful concept as well though I've done very little to level mine. Aelithar's a paladin so for me his mount is a more important thing than his battle pet. Knights and trusty steeds and all that.
     The mix and match ability of armor and weapons is great for me too. Aelithar's been using a sword since level 20 (the same sword incidentally :P) but one of his guildies offered to make him a weapon if some of the mats were acquired and after some thought and internet research I decided the best thing for his primarily tanky build was a club. He got a new sword from questing the day the club was finished. The dps for the sword is slightly higher but the club is close enough to feel comparable when questing and his heals have at least doubled their output making him feel more like a paladin than ever.  It's great that some classes can function best by mixing armor types and possibly unexpected weapons.
     I love the way classes work as well, though I've got to talk myself out of taking Vitalism on everything. Aelithar had to have it to be a paladin, Mirzai ended up taking it because his hit things in the face partner sometimes needed healing. And Vanydor the elf I'm playing with a friend has taken it because that ended up rounding out his Archery/Shadowplay combination into something called Ranger than I couldn't pass up. I've got enough credits for one more slot, so maybe I can talk the eventual Firran out of being healer-y.
     Someday when more land is available I'd really love to go patron and make a house. I love the houses and the making and decorating them yourself part is another thing that feels great. I also think I might like a boat. A real one that's a bit bigger than the little rowboat he got from a quest.

     Something like the one he's on with his guildies here.

     I really enjoy the combat animations too. They look very dynamic. And if will admit to getting a kick out of this quest where not only were there the usual fantasy game succubi to fight but incubi too. I have very rarely seen incubi in games because they aren't sexy women so it was nice that the sort of sexy (mostly creepy) demons come in both genders for once.
     Overall I'm still loving this game. And Aelithar is 38, which is where Daethrys in Rift and Tirasiel in Aion have both ended up hitting hitching points. But right now I definitely feel like Aelithar's going to move on past and keep working toward 50.

Archeage Love

     It's funny to me to think that when I was first hearing about the MMOs that were on their way Archeage wasn't even on my radar. I saw a lot about Wildstar: wasn't impressed with the idea of it at first but the more I looked at it the more I liked the idea of it. I'd probably have bought it and subbed if finances had allowed. (I later got to try Beta and fell a little in love with it at least at the low level end of the game.) Elders Scrolls Online got a resounding meh in my head. I hadn't played Skyrim (don't worry I've started it now) and other than that most of the screenshots I saw were dark and gritty and a little ugly. Other people's blogs later made me a bit more interested in it, but I still haven't tried it.
Everquest Next: Now that I was thrilled for. Everquest was my first MMO and though I never really got anywhere with it I spent many happy hours playing and loving it. And Landmark. At first I thought this was some part of Everquest Next and later realized it was more complicated Minecraft with much better graphics. I got excited about that too.
     Somewhere amidst all of that... many months late I saw mention of something called Archeage. Meh, I thought, not that interesting and never looked to see what it was. Of all the new MMOs that was the least interesting to me. At least it was until months later when I saw a blog post about it(wish I could remember which one). Okay that didn't look totally uninteresting. More blog posts were read... a website was visited. Suddenly I was very interested. I signed up for beta, I watched youtube videos! (Something that aside from watching raid strats for WoW I almost never do for a game.) I looked at talent calculators. I wanted to play this game. It became -my- game of the new ones coming out. If I'd had $150 I could spare I'd have thrown it at the screen in a heartbeat for access to alpha.
     I read every email I was sent with updates and waited with bated breath for an invite every time a Closed Beta Event was announced. As it turned out I got into Events Three and Four. :) Between those and my time in Open Beta I knew I was going to love the game and also had time to decide that paladin was what I'd want to play. And now that it's live... aside from several hitches and some of the inconveniences that come with being a free to play account... I am in love.
     I've done so much over the last several days. Slacking on my WoW 'responsibilities' except for raiding even because I've just been having so much fun.

Lots of gliding.

     Some illegal farming. I'm not a patron at this point so if I wanted to complete the trade pack quest, the easiest way I could see to do it was to grow chickens on the public farm for the meat and grapes in the wild somewhere. Also some lumber because I wanted to make a shield. Planting things in the wild is definitely a gamble. I had good luck with this patch of grapes, but the two maples also planted there I lost. As I did my second and third batches of grapes and several turkeys. The trick to it seems to be finding an out of the way spot to hide the things. But right now the world is full and every hidden little nook I found was eventually discovered. Still though I lost at least half of the things I planted I did manage to grow enough for two the first two quest trade pack runs.

     Trade packs are definitely slow going without the donkey. I used the carriages whenever I could but Aelithar still spent a lot of time, sprinting and walking down the roads with Silverbirch strolling loyally behind. Still it was oddly fun. And finishing the run from Gweonid to the Crescent Throne awarded a donkey foal. So next time maybe it'll be just a little faster.

     It took me two days where I did very little but farming and hanging around to check on things (and running everywhere the long way to help Silverbirch get xp) to do those runs so very little leveling happened. Yesterday, though after my latest frustration about the turkeys it was back to leveling for the meantime. Aelithar should hit 30 today. 

Archeage Launch

     Archeage launched on my birthday. Wasn't able to get into it until late that night. But finally did manage and stayed up way too late to get Aelithar to level 10 and instated as a paladin before bed.

    The first screenshot I took of him in live now that I've got a keyboard that lets me play with the impressive camera functions in the game. I'm pretty satisfied that he looks very much like his beta self even though I hadn't saved the appearance. And he's a paladin. I'd tried it a bit with Zurrath in the beta and decided I liked the playstyle a bit better than Aelithar's beta Hex Ranger build. Now that I've played it in live as far as level 18 I can safely say that I love being an elf paladin in Archeage too.
     At least I love it when I'm looking at the game and not at this:

     Which is what my free to play queue looks like after five hours today. I honestly wish I could pay for a sub and have been considering trying it for a month, but honestly the queues are frustrating when I'm not paying for it. If I were and still had to wait in line for a long time to get on I'd actually be angry. So for my sake and the game's I think I'll hold off a week or two before I think about subbing.
     In the meantime here are some screenshots of Aelithar doing paladin things.

     Watching the sunset in his first few pieces of plate gear. Found out I'd been missing the option for plate much earlier in the game than I'd thought. Also have already found bunches of quests I'd missed while I was goofing around in the beta.

     Chasing an airship. I love the way the airships look and also love the way Aelithar's elk looks with armor. A truly worthy paladin steed. Couldn't resist picking the white one and after much thought he's been christened Silverbirch because I liked the sound of it better than Aspen.

     I love the animations and the look of this game and this particular screenshot may find it's way onto my desktop as a wallpaper.

     His latest breastplate actually looks like plate armor. It is bigger than he is and bulks him out like wearing hard metal would. He looks like a paladin.

     Bulky shiny reflective breastplate and beautiful lighting.

     And this is what I'm pretending he's doing while I wait to log on. Enjoying a coffee break in the Sandcloud inn.

Archeage Beta

     Where to start. I've been dying to try this game and waiting with bated breath every time they announced a Beta event in hopes I'd get an invite and finally I did. The character customization is great, in fact I'd taken many screenshots of it, and of several other things at the very beginning of my playing... at least I had before I realized the game screenshots aren't bound to print screen but to F9. F9 to F12 on my keyboard don't function in MMOs for whatever reason and the silly game would not let me rebind it. Frustration ensued. And I'm still a little frustrated that my current screenshotting process for ArcheAge involves alt-tabbing to Photoshop. I need a new keyboard. Still once I'd figured out what happened with the screenshots I managed to get several to illustrate this post with.

      I made an Elven Archer novice name Aelithar. Promptly spent several minutes trying to figure out how everything even worked, though once I figured it out it actually wasn't that complicated. The story is interesting, the game world and characters are gorgeous and  before level 10 you get a free racial mount to raise and love and take everywhere with you. I've always wanted a feature like that in an MMO, so I'm feeling pretty sold on it for the mount that follows you in the world.

     He named it Laurel. And they've had many happy adventures together so far. So far Aelithar's reached level 17 and Laurel's close behind. Classes are really interesting too. At the beginning you pick a basis, at five you pick another from the list and at ten the last one and then you find out the name of the class you've cobbled together. Aelithar went with Archery, Witchcraft, Songcraft, so he's a Hex Ranger. It's not bad, though right now I am not seeming to get as much use out of the witchcraft as I'd anticipated. I might be inclined to try a slightly different set up in live.
     After playing with the elves for a bit I had to switch over and try out the one other race I'd really been wanting to play.

     This is Zurrath the Firran, looking extremely dignified. He didn't turn out exactly how I'd meant him too, the graphics settings were turned down when I'd first designed the two of them (before I realized how well my computer handled it and turned them up. But that led to me not seeing exactly where I was putting his scars. Still I think  he turned out a handsome and very manly cat guy. Zurrath was destined to be a paladin. Looking over the options months ago I'd determined I could make the equivalent of a paladin in Archeage, and that It would be Battlerage, Defense, Vitalism. Then I realized the classes actually had names and saw someone mention paladin in world chat. So when I went to pick a second at level 5, I googled it to see what went into the 'official Archage paladin class'. As it turns out I know my paladins, no matter what game they're in. I was 100% right. And Zurrath's now a paladin.

     A manly feline paladin with a giant sabertoothed cat to ride, what could be better. The bundle of silly fur is named Winterwind. Have I mentioned how I love the mount system in this game? They level, you can give them armor, and they follow you around while you fight. I love that so much.

Change of Opinion?

     I'd sort of decided I didn't like Neverwinter. The controls feel weird compared to what I'm used to and I don't like the character models as well as I want to. The lack of ability to 'interact' with my character for screenshots as easily as I do in other MMOs makes it a bit harder for me to get attached to them. But I'd seen a few blog posts on it and in a bit of WoW doldrums I'd been poking around a considerable amount in every other MMO I'm currently poking around in, so I thought... maybe at level 10 you haven't given Neverwinter a very fair shake. So in I went.
     Maybe it was partly the combat in Wildstar, maybe it's just practice but the combat doesn't feel quite as annoying as before, though I do still keep trying to run with the mouse and getting yelled at for not having a target. It's just that drastically distant from the other MMOs I play control wise. I got invocation. That's pretty neat. I leveled a bit more and got a companion! I started opening up features of the game.

     Daily Foundry quests and Daily Dungeons. A cute little puppy companion. Forgotten Realms, which is my favorite D&D setting. And Drazek. He was my very first MMO character and I do like having him again in Neverwinter. I'm enjoying this a bit. The professions feel sort of hard to understand but you can work on them in a browser without even going into the game?! There's a silly little rolling dice game on the side to level your companions?! Okay maybe I do like it a little.
     I tried one foundry quest last night, and atmospheric creepy story one. It was not bad, but not great. I'd have liked a little more of the story somehow... not sure how they'd have done it though. Didn't leave constructive feedback for that reason, just gave them a good rating. Did another today for my daily foundry.

     Wow. I loved it. Maybe part of it was because I know Forgotten Realms so the lore is familiar. I knew what the 'end boss' would be before I got there... but I didn't anticipate how they had set up the final battle. It was awesome. I won't spoiler it here, but  this was part of it.

     The hard to see guy up there 'tanking' is Drazek's Man-at-Arms companion, Randon. The dog in the earlier pictures is his Damaran Shepherd, Kerith. I left a five star rating and a tip for that Foundry quest... and then when I finally talked myself into logging off...clicked on Foundry to see what the editor looked like. I don't understand it at all, but I want to learn. I'd love to translate some of the favorite campaigns I've DMed into it as best I can.
     I've tried the daily dungeon as well. The dungeon was interesting but if I had thought there was a lack of communication in WoW dungeons, I had my eyes opened. Nobody talked. Everybody needed on everything they could. I joined in after the first roll. Combat was more roflstomp than complex but I suspect that changes at higher levels. I wasn't overly impressed or displeased by the dungeons. It's a means to a shiny reward end.
I do have a slightly more favorable review of the game this time.
Things I like: 
Companions. (Though it does seem like I would possible need to shell out real currency for anything better than white quality. :/ Still the system is fun.)
Foundry: OMG I love this idea. I may not do daily dungeons every day or every time I log in, but I do foresee doing the daily Foundry quest fairly often. And providing I can figure out the editor... I'd try writing at least one myself.
Story: (with caveats) At this level the story is very very linear. It's interesting and enjoyable, though unless I wait a bit I'm not sure about replayability.
Invocation: My God loves me and gives me presents. Nice.
Things I'm less impressed with: 
Screenshotting: It's a favorite hobby of mine and Neverwinter definitely lacks versatility in that respect.
Vendors: Holy cow there are so many vendors, one for pretty much everything and right now it's so confusing trying to figure out where to go for what.
No paladins: Seriously? Definitely a core D&D class. Definitely my favorite and just not an option. I won't complain about class variety, they covered the gamut decently well and I didn't expect 20 options or anything. But the fact that I can't be a paladin still rankles. (Even if hunter ranger, my second choice, is amazing and fun)
Overall: For me this -is- a fun game. I love Forgotten Realms and I am definitely finding it inspiring when it comes to maybe helping me break out of my DMing slump as well. There isn't an open world so much as a map you can travel here and there on. The controls feel strange, but overall in a way that works for it. It's like D&D translated as best they could to an MMO. And I am glad to have Drazek back.

The closest to a candid screenshot I can manage.