Timed my first 15 this week!
This week had Warlords timewalking as weekly event. The dungeons have started to become quite familiar at this point. The scaling was overtuned in the US at reset, but it was then fixed to be undertuned before I did them. Just seems like a feature that is really hard to get just right?
The affixes were Tyrannical - Raging - Storming. Storming seems to have changed to spawn on players, which makes it very different if there's a lot of ranged players in the group, but not that different if everyone is clumped up. Raging can be bad with big pulls, but dungeons aren't really dense this season so rarely do massive pulls. There's the odd mob that REALLY needs to be soothed (like the Pools named guy before first boss and the drakes in the same dungeon) but it feels less obligatory to have soothers here than in BFA or SL.
Lesson of the week was that they have changed score for m+ this season, which as gone under my radar. It has been mentioned to me that every key level over 10 is worth 2 points more to offset the scaling or something, but I have not been able to discern exactly how the math works. So to get KSM it looks like you wouldnt have to time any 15s at all...
Another point made this week is how badly balanced dps specs seems to be. Tanks seems to be reasonably balanced at the key levels I do, healers less so, but dps specs are so wildly different? No obvious godmodes like in SL, more like some are just really bad. And then they do tuning based on raid performance...
Personal Progress
Keystones
Wutteät did a full set of +5s/+6s again. It was a bit hoary at times, especially Azure Vaults and Nokhud Offensive can be a bit touchy in pugs as some bosses require everyone do contribute instead of pugs hoping someone else will fix the mechanics while they zone out and do rotation. But no runs with leavers!
Esmënet did a set of +5s/+6s too. Managed to deplete the Azure Vaults run, when the tank got knocked off a platform and somehow triggered the adds the whelps activate... That then proceeded to teleport around in the instance to kill him when he spawned, then rest of group waiting before the second to last boss. Then randomly ganked one person while they were running back to the boss... I wonder if they will be able to recreate that bug :D
Gearing
Wutteät could choose between and a weapon and something crappy, so I snap picked so fast I forgot to take a screenshot. The vault iLevel is not very impressive to say the least after they nerfed the early vault so much in the expansion, but Dom isn't getting things that cant be upgraded with valor either so there's that.
Esmënet got a tier pvp chest, while the m+ vault had tier legs. Was a tough choice this time, but pvp pieces still wins. Especially since I am starting to tire of Solo Shuffle, so the amount of weeks I will have left of getting PvP loot in vault is dwindling.
Dragonriding
Besides the world quest races, completed another gold set. Slow going, I am stalling to avoid running out of dragonriding to progress...
Pet Battles
Questline: On the quests "Tamers: Eastern Kingdom" & "Tamers: Kalimdor". [No progress]
# of pets: 511 [+8]
# of level 25 pets: 3
PvP pet battle win/loss: 0-0
Modest pet battles week again, but the pet leveling led me to places where I haven't caught many pets so the quantity rather than the quality got a bump.
Next reset is pet battle week, so need to prio some pet leveling for once.
Professions
Spent most of my profession time working on alchemy since I wanted to recraft the alchemy trinket. Got enough gear this week so I didn't feel the need to rush out a lesser quality upgrade, so this will try to funnel that profession for now. Ore and herbs are not the problem at the moment, but the elemental stuff. Awakened Air most of all.
Mining (Esmënet): 100
Mining Process: 35
Metallurgy: 20
Herbalism (Esmënet): 100
Bountiful Harvests: 40
Botany: 40
Blacksmithing (Serwaswathan): 32
Armorsmithing: 15
Jewelcrafting (Serwaswathan): 33
Setting: 15
Skinning (Wutteät): 100
Tanning: 10
Harvesting: 25
Leatherworking (Wutteät): 58
Leatherworking Discipline: 15
Leather Armor Crafting : 20
Alchemy (Dominator): 65
Phial Mastery: 55
Enchanting (Dominator): 56
Enchantment: 65
Cooking (Dominator): 58
Fishing (Dominator): 100
Tailoring (Navarim): 37
Garmentcrafting: 15
Inscription (Navarim): 25
Achiving: 0.
PvP
This was the week my newfound love for pvp came to an abrupt end. I have already said something about how most actual matches has started to feel the same, and that has not changed. It would be alright if that was the only complaint. But this week I started by winning the first two matches, and then got to 1199 rating, 1 short of being able to upgrade all my pvp stuff. And then I got to meet the exploit tryhards.
Currently there is a thing that if you leave a match, you lose current rating and will not be able to queue for 15 minutes or so. But you will NOT lose MMR. So there's a thing a lot of people do, which is to play until they see they are not gonna win, and then leave the game. And keep doing that until they win, and only complete those matches.
After getting to 1199 I was in two matches I would have gotten at least 3 wins, but people left. Then I had one game where one healer was active for 3 rounds, then afked the last 3. Guess which games I had with that healer. Then I was in another game with a leaver, before I had the JOY of being in a protection paladin game (they get sorted as healers, and only against each other it seems), with the other dps having lots of self heal. Then I had one match where I was the weak link and got picked on for a 0-6 match, which was fair enough. And since I actually finished those games, I lost 300 mmr, and went down hundreds of personal rating afterwards.
The actual rating is not that big a deal (except missing that 1 point that one time), but what it does with time spent on getting a game that provides conquest, honor to earn vault slots and spending energy on playing high intensity WoW only to have a load of people just crash it, since it's the smart thing to do just saps the fun out of it. I spent as much time on getting just those weekly matches in that I did on doing 23 keystones this week.
I've seen Blizzard was aware of this potential problem before release, and did nothing. But it has become so commonplace now they are "fixing" it next reset by making people lose mmr too now for leaving, and threatening bans if repeatedly do it. But will have to see if people just start afking instead or choose some other method to not properly play the game...
So going back to conquest capping in epic bgs and stop doing shuffle seems to be the future if this keeps happening.
Raiding
Esmënet did the second wing of LFR Vault. I have no recollection of anything, besides a spider that gave me a frosty mordor feel. Maybe I am missing out on proper content, and maybe not...
Social Progress
Gearing
23 iLevel Helm upgrade for Dominator from the Vault. No complaints.
Casual Playmates
I missed the casual keys again, but got some timewalking in with friends, which was nice.
Hamsterwheel Playmates
I got a session in with both the ex-HoSG (including Lava) and TH-related people. Groups have become more erratic, with very little going on until a surge in interest the last two days of the reset. When doing content in a group, it's not really strange it gets erratic when the honeymoon part of the expansion wears off, but this seemed kinda early?
An observation about the "casual" and "hamsterwheel" is that the lines are really thin in how I interpret them at this point. In general casual would be that someone logs on a few hours a week and doesn't really think about the game outside those hours. While hamsterwheel is someone that tryhards, plays a lot and is up to date with what they should do and how they should do it. The ex-HoSG group has a few that are in that group, while the TH-related groups like most Curve-aiming guilds I guess falls between the distinctions. Perhaps it's my need to hat people that just likes to think about this. And what the hamsterwheel truly is...
Character Summaries
Dominator [Social Dungeon Tank Progress Character]
Human Paladin [Level 70]
Dom did the usual dragonspear, community feast, accord and mythic plus bits. And timewalking this week. Got a couple of decent upgrades to bring me over 390, but still miles after people that raid.
Also did some dragonriding, professions and pet battles to progress in those areas.
Getting somewhere with the renown has proven to be the biggest hurdle. Except the dragonriding world quests and the profession quests, I never really get around to doing other world content once Accord weekly is done. Part of that is that I am doing something like double the anticipated keys a week, due to playing with the TH-related people that was off the table when I decided on the expansion projects. The world content is gonna be there all expansion though, so there is no hurry.
Character Stats
Guild: House of Small Gods
Main spec: Protection
Talents: BIEAwtJ2KpR8WbGzhz/jy2AP8USaikiodAtIJlWTSiERiEAAAAAAAAAAAAAA0EJJpJQSUSRkElDoEA
Professions: Enchanting 56/100 [-] - Alchemy 65/100 [+19] - Cooking 58/100 [-] - Fishing 100/100.
iLevel/PvP iLevel: 391 [+3] / 405 [-]
m+ Score: 1776 [+201]
Valor spent/earned: 2000/3750 [+750]
Conquest spent/earned: 0/1035 [-]
Solo shuffle rating: -
Raid progress: -
Wutteät [Personal Dungeon Tank Progress Character]
Night Elf Demon Hunter [Level 70]
Did the usual rotation of dragonspear, community cooking, accord, profession quests and m+. Also did Timewalking this week.
Character not exactly pushed, and will get buffed when the class tuning patch comes. Going to save valor and sparks until I start doing +10s, and fill in gear holes.
Still maintaining discipline.
Character Stats
Guild: House of Small Gods
Main spec: Vengeance
Talents: BUkACnvaHJn8GSPD6tpaeczPTBAgIIJRSAEJCQDQ0iEJJJJJJtkISSSokkEAAAAA
Professions: Skinning 100/100 - Leatherworking 58/100 [-] - Fishing 51/100 [+51] - Cooking 1 [+1]
iLevel/PvP iLevel: 383 [+3] / 411 [-]
m+ Score: 1082 [+94]
Valor spent/earned: 0/3750 [+750]
Conquest spent/earned: 590/1370 [-]
Solo shuffle rating: 192 [-] (Vengeance)
Esmënet [Dungeon/PVP DPS Progress Character]
Dark Iron Dwarf Hunter [Level 70]
Same whole open world routine as Dom and Wutte. Set of 5/6s for m+. Conquest capped exclusively through Solo Shuffle, and farmed a boatload of mats while dealing with the exploit situation to actually get something from the games. Also did the new LFR wing. And the timewalking weekly event.
Got the pvp tier chest and bought pvp gloves with conquest which also upped my pve ilevel, but neither the m+ dungeons nor the timewalking box gave me any upgrades. Was a bad loot week besides the vault for all characters...
Character Stats
Guild: House of Small Gods
Main spec: Beast Mastery
Talents: B0PAIlFMjeNhnEouGfV8Ij2uS5ACaJAIEAAAAAAAAAAAaEpIhWEJSiE5AhWCRIJEJJhGJRA
Professions: Herbalism 100/100 [+5] - Mining 100/100 [+10].
iLevel/PVP iLevel: 381 [+3] / 415 [+1]
m+ Score: 978. [+217]
Valor spent/earned: 0/3750 [+750].
Conquest spent/earned: 2500/3000 [+550]
Solo Shuffle rating: 966 [-99]
Raid Progress: 6/8 LFR Vault of the Incarnates. [+3]
Rank log
Esmënet dropped another 2 spots, meaning the influx of active hunters is growing still. Guess there's a lot of hunter alts out there... This should drop Esmënet out of top 100 next week if this keeps going.
Wutteät advanced 2 spots which was a bit surprising since the rating gain was so small. Unlike hunters, I guess VDH is NOT a popular alt to have. Curious if I will start climbing again so fast, while still going so slow...
Dominator also advanced one spot. That's what not having any good tyrannical scores with a depleted 10 as best that turns into a timed 9 as worst in one reset. However, there's a lot of untapped score - SBG especially - so a lot of room to grow later weeks.
Random Weekly Thoughts
Week 6 and people's activity keep dwindling. At least the people that went crazy at release. The people that didn't bother due to the release timing has made guild activity be higher than 0, but it's still a hollow shell of what it was just two-three months ago.
Have started to miss raiding a bit, but not enough to actually apply to any guild yet.
