The War Within Season 2 Recap

So the season where I actually burned out properly was finally here. I've not played so little during a season since Legion I think. I really liked the goblin theme and the raid, but didn't like the dungeons much and the seasons-within-seasons concept of power progression I outright hated. So WoW has a hard time competing for my gaming time then...

But here is the recap regardless!

I ended up playing tanks the most consistently since getting into groups on hunter and mage was very time consuming. And the DH (Wutteät) I stopped playing the moment it got KSM. Paladin always wins!

Did not play with Aug, not sure how that is possible. They were really bad at the start of the season, but there's always someone that plays one I feel like?

Here is the crux of the reason I haven't played much. After 1,5 weeks of the season due to work, I couldn't attend guild raids in either guild I was in without cutting hours of sleep. So I ended up pugging normal on saturday mornings to "keep up" with the raid rep. And pugging raids isn't fun.

Not really anything useful to take from this entry as a normal raider :D

So the first normal raid we went in blind. And got lost a lot and learned on the fly, so we actually needed a second raid slot to finish it week 1. Was fun to do it that way, missed that since TBC when Fighting Mongooses had a "blind raid" slot.

I was home with a severe cold one wednesday (I think) in april, and while being drugged up and coughing like hell I was invited to doing some 10s on my badly geared hunter, and got carried for a bit. Otherwise I just farmed crests and our saturday runs also turned into crest farms for alts.

The BM did the most keys somehow? I was sure it was the paladin. Must have done a lot on it the first two resets when I did not work, and the a few keys during weekends on the rest never caught up. Really strange regardless.

I think that comp was that one weekend this season where we did some keys both saturday and sunday. Goes to show how little is needed when you don't play a lot :)

DFC had the most annoying and boring mechanics in a WoW dungeon ever, so of course they made it easy to do on m+, never being close to depleting a key there. Did Workshop the most with 24 runs and Cinderbrew the least with 12. Yeah I don't like the tWW dungeons, sue me. :)

My account RIO is 2425 which of course is a joke given how easy this season is and how much borrowed power is back in the game through mini seasons. But then again, I never tried to get any rating. So that's very fine :)

The biggest thing though is the 139 dungeons bit... For comparison, I did 716 dungeons in DF season 2. That's 522 fewer dungeons done when comparing seasons. Eek. Or more than 9 days used on other things than m+.

Elisilla (19 runs, ~14%) and Seardragon (8 runs, ~6%) was top two. I was good and just played with these guys or Epiphany m+ nights for a while, but it all broke down so I was on my own for a long time that diluted the % here.

Goal status

Had some goals at the start of the expansion and season, let's see how that has panned out.

Goals of the season

• Have Rae be in 15%+ of my keys and one of Sear's characters be in 10%+ of my keys at the end of the season. [Failed, narrowly missed out on both.]

• Get KSM on Wutteät. [Piece of cake]

• Get Curve on Mage and/or Hunter. [Failed, fell out of raiding due to scheduling]

• Have one million warband bank gold at the end of the season. [Unsure, not logged on since may so unable to verify - will do when I log on again]

Main Goal

• Get Curve in all raids on the same character. [Failed, did not get Curve season 2]

• Avoid having others rely on me tanking progress keys. [Status (promising): Tanked less than 10 keys in s1 with no rating gains, in season 2 I tanked more but it was alt keys and crest farm rather than progress]

Bonus Goals

• Have one million gold at the end of the expansion. [Status (promising): Over 658 451 gold.]

• Have all "played with" spots on RIO review have a higher % [edit in numbers here when they become available] than in Dragonflight. [Status (grim): Low % on people in first Review, and different ones in second Review.]

• Level Esmë-versions of Mage, Hunter, Paladin, Warlock and Druid to 80. [Status: Completed season 1.]

• Less keys done overall than in Dragonflight. [Status (promising): Several hundred keys less done than the first DF seasons.]

• Get KSM all seasons on the same character. [Stauts (promising): Esmënet and Wutteät have streaks going after 2 seasons.]

This season I also left Epiphany after being in the guild since start of Dragonflight season 2. The guild had some nice people and some annoying like most guilds, but most of the nice people are now gone. Same with the variation in content that was being done when I joined and groups doing different things - and it was accepted. That was also long gone.

So I am back to being a muppet in a big guild, and it's honestly a big relief to be able to be gone for long stretches of time without someone having a fit.

I am going to give season 3 a shot, but not sure how I want to do group content yet. And do a month or two at start, and then take the long break mid season and come back for when achieving everything is free, if they keep all the silly boosts during the season going again.

tWW season 2 #2: m+ streaks still going

I have stopped counting number of resets, so will have to simply say that the season was this long when both Esmënet and Wutteät hit KSM, continuing their ksm streaks.

So what's been going on?

Esmënet (Hunter)

• Got KSM in 39 runs (38 pugs, 1 premade, 3 disbands, 4 depletes). Joining groups was a chore, should have run own key.

• Done another 8 runs after that - got invited to a +10 group that did 4 of them (netting me 4 portals) and then I pugged another 4 7s for crests. For some reason 400 more score made getting into +7s a lot easier... I also had a fever and had been unable to sleep properly for two nights when I did the 10s, so those were not my best m+ performances ever to put it mildly. The power of someone else getting you a spot in a premade...

• Have been slacking with the overworld quests and material farming, so running out of gold. Bad hunter.

• I'm not super into how BM plays this expansion still. At least doing keys is ok this season unlike the horror of the start of season 1.

• Gear is starting to look ok. Was chafing for good trinkets for a while, but lucked out and now have 3 good ones to choose from.

Esmë (Paladin)

• Done 30 keys (16 premade keys, 4 semi-premade keys, 10 pugs, 2 depletes). I randomly got KSM at some point, did not count the number of keys it took. 20ish maybe?

• Done at 3 tier 11 delves per reset since last post, which took some effort. Crestgains still great, but getting really bored with the delves.

• For some reason done overworld stuff for coffer keys, which has helped with gold - actually earned gold since last update.

• Has become the main character for doing premade groups with. Having gone such a long time not tanking hard stuff has made me a lot worse at the game however, so I am happy I have mostly been playing with alts of other people.

• Playing prot pala has been ok - vengeance has been more fun, but having a dispell, lay on hands, BoP, BoS, CR and so on just feels so damn useful.

• Is in a very nice gear position, happy to just get 60 gilded a week and pick half a spark from vault for guaranteed gear progress. Can do 10s without too much pain it's looking like, if the premade wants to.

Wutteät (Demon Hunter)

• Got KSM in 22 runs (5 premades, 1 semi-premade, 16 pugs). Pretty happy with the amount. Also very happy with how vengeance plays at the moment - since pushing meta is now more like pushing wings on prot pala; its a damage boost on top of a survival boost. And can just focus on tanking mob control.

• Done 3 tier 11 delves each reset with some effort, just like on Esmë. Addicted to the crests... Also done overworld stuff for coffer keys, resulting in a net gold income.

• Has maxed out knowledge in Skinning, as the first profession knowledge tree I have maxed out this expansion. Happened some time before easter. Leatherworking still a long way to go before maxed.

• Was the first character to be done with runed crests, thanks to lucky vault and dungeon drops. But horrible vault luck, so got 4 set after being done with runed crests which is somewhat amusing after the fact. Like the hunter and paladin, only need some gilded crests for crafts and a hero track helmet to be done with gear.

Esmëralda (Mage)

• Done 2 normal LoU pugs, one 8/8 and one 6/8. Also done 8 m+ pugs (all pugs), 1 key 4 resets and 4 keys during a mythic dungeon weekly reset.

• Has been outragously luck with gear considering the small amount of stuff I've done on it. Just some flightstones and runed crests away from 658 iLevel.

• Frost still in a good spot playstylewise. But suffering from the fact I have stopped raiding except for pugs on the weekend if I have time; might be played more once the other characters can only get gear upgrades from +10 vaults.

• I am considering the idea of trying to get 2k score on all three magespecs if the season drags on, but I've been considering this since BFA so not holding my breath.

Esmënehr (Warlock)

• Did the overworld Cartel repgrind and various raw gold stuff, to become the biggest earner on the character roster so far. Also does material gathering for tailoring and enchanting.

• Done one 8/8 LoU normal pug and one 7/8. Also a 1/8 raid where I got booted after first boss after a 675 warlock joined for the second normal boss so they no longer wanted my taxi and candy services, for the proper pug experience.

• Not super lucky with gear, but can pick runed crests from vault and craft. Hard stuck on flightstones at the moment for upgrading anything else as raid and overworld content doesn't really give flight stones, so there's a lot of unrealised iLevels going on here.

• Destruction is pretty fun to play, and I've been enjoying just dabbling in a low pressure enviroment. Don't really care where the character ends up gearwise, and done with the rep grind, so it's more of a guilty pleasure project making it more fun that way too.

Random news

• The long awaited cartel chips turned out to be bad luck protection, or a good sales pitch for buying a mythic gallywix boost for all the normies that was hoping for a Jasper. The combination of a really late arrival and underwhelming usefulness makes me think they shouldn't bother.

• The amount of burnout among players must be some kind of record for a season 2, competing with BFA or something. There's been a massive dropoff of people online on my friends list and in guilds, struggling to fill premade m+ groups and raid groups struggling with comp and numbers. After the cartel chips and "lets make you farm even more gilded to keep your bis gear state" patch news, coming back for housing/midnight prepatch release seems to be picking up on planning.

• The patch this reset came out with the only content bugged and most of the rest of the content slated for this release 4+ weeks away. Timegating a .5 patch? Are they planning on pushing back the third raid tier by months or something?

• Player housing will use old reps and professions, time to brush off old retired characters...

tWW season 2 #1: Value of time

Reached the point of nearly 3 full resets of the new season and raid tier, so time for an update...

Esmënet (Hunter)

• Cleared normal LoN in the Exiles social raid 3 times. Also killed the first boss on HC 2 times and Carnage 1 time.

• Have 15 completed m+ pug keys, and 2 disbands. Taken it slow and incremental key level increases as normal for me.

• Have done 13 tier 8 delves.

• Done a smattering of overworld events/quests for gold and some herbing and mining.

• 4-set, 658 crafted weapon and a fair amount of good champion pieces otherwise. Except trinkets and a neck, which is why the overall iLevel isn't very high. Have something like 6 copies of the worst possible delve trinket on champion track, and one of them on heroic track. Bit of a repeat of the first tWW delve season where I just got the same pieces over and over and over. Which made me stop doing delves, and I doubt I will keep up with 4+ delves a week next update on this character...

Esmë (Paladin)

• Done 20ish tier 11 delves, Gallywix on story mode, 2 m+ dungeons as Retribution in Epiphany guild m+ night group and 8 m+ dungeons as Protection in scheduled m+ groups with RaeSea.

• Has 2-set, a 675 crafted weapon and 658 crafted shield as the main highlights gearwise. Neck and cloak currently veteran track, rest champion or hero track. So the most stacked character I have at the moment.

• It's been fun playing with only friends and in a limited capacity again. I also enjoy the Templar hero talents more than the Lightsmith stuff which was very clunky.

Wutteät (Demon Hunter)

• Done 9 tier 11 Delves, Gallywix on Story mode and a single pug m+.

• Crafted a 675 and a 658 Warglaive from Delve crests and put two hero track items in the catalyst for 2/2 set. Not had much luck with gear from the content nor vault, but also small sample size.

• Vengeance seems pretty fun as usual, and playing without addons on the character makes games sounds less annoying so much more zen when playing.

Esmëralda (Mage)

• Pugged the first 3 bosses in LoN Normal, done 2 m+ pug keys and 8 tier 8 Delves.

• Has 4-set and a crafted 658 staff and has a general good spread of champion pieces. Just haven't farmed the crests to spike the overall iLevel.

• Frost seems more fun in dungeons this time around, not sure why. Might be because Frostfire is in the vogue.

• Not really having an aim with the character, but want to have reasonable gear at the end of the season, and keep in the Mage loop. Simply because it's fun to play.

Esmënehr (warlock)

• Done a bunch of undermine world quests, some overworld events and the weekly dungeon quest for rep, gold and tailoring/enchanting materials. Decent raw generation with not much time/effort needed.

• Done all the LFR wings once and the timewalking event last week. Got 2 tier pieces in the vault, but little in the ways of getting gear outside of it. Also did Gallywix in Story Mode for the Enchanted Crest.

• Mostly played Destruction with random talents as I haven't done anything that requires output. Watching Chaos Bolts and the low APM required is nice for the stuff the character is doing.

Content opinions with changed time frames

During the start of the season, I went from having a lot of spare time to having very little outside weekends. So besides the "I want to do what is fun" some amount of "is this content useful for character growth" entered the field. So here's what I prioritizing with limited time:

• 3 tier 11 bountiful delves (1 with bounty) on Esmë the Tank and 1 whatever delve I use the item that summons the Underpin (normally also an 11 bountiful). [Best value crest time in game, despite delves being boring for me]

• A scheduled m+ session on Esmë during the weekend, ideally 4 dungeons. [Weekly highlight]

• A round of herbing/mining of about an hour with an audiobook on. [For the chill part and prevents draining the coffers of gold]

• An LFR wing, all the world quests/dailies and the weekly dungeon rep quest on Esmënehr the Warlock. [Gold generation]

• Some tier 11 bountiful delves on Wutteät, pug m+ on Esmënet and maybe pug some normal raid on something if I have leftover time. For reaching some pve goals in the long run.

Currently I need the better part of a weekend to get all this, so I might have to go back even on this reduced scheduling...