A great many weeks have passed by since these characters felt done. KSM done and not really caring for curve while also having reasonably good gear the carrots were no longer there. So they took a back seat to alts, or simply other stuff when I was on breaks from the game. Lately there was a bit of a resurgence, and I tried to complete the original goals I had set that I just didn't bother much with.
Wutteät
m+ goals:
2000+ ingame dungeon score (KSM, in other words) - Completed!
1330+ RIO as Vengeance - Completed! [Higher rating than s1 postseason]
913+ RIO as Havoc - Progress! [1466 was the preseason score to beat after change]
(And try to organize things myself to get this) [This has mostly been true]
Raid goals:
10/10 Normal Bosses Tanked (unless a tank has been found) - Completed! [tank was found]
Help with heroic until new tank has been found - Completed! [tank was found]
Soft goals:
1 rank 6 Vengeance Legendary - Completed!
1 rank 5 Havoc Legendary - Completed!
Kyrian Renown 80 - Completed!
Able to craft Rank 6 Wrist Legendary Base Item - Completed!
246+ Vengeance iLevel - Completed!
Stats
Covenant: Kyrian (Renown 80) & Night Fae (Renown 80).
Main spec: Vengeance (250 iLevel) [2254.8 score].
Offpsec: Havoc (250 iLevel) [1217.9 score].
Main Secondaries: Versatility (20%) & Haste (25%).
Legos: Scorched Soul Shackles (rank 6), Everburn (rank 6), Collective Anguish (rank 4).
Raid Prog: 5/10 Normal Sancrum, 3/10 LFR Sanctum.
Professions: Leatherworking (max) & Enchanting (max).
After getting KSM done very quick this season, my interest in playing Wutteät dwindled significantly. When I had to play havoc to get vault items for a while, my interest in the game just evaporated. Had a few months where I was on and off and barely logged this character.
Then I started doing 1-2 premades a week with some of the "core" m+ friends; Ulve, Taralei and Caco. To at least try to get to play with some of the same people every week and be sure I get to tank. If I do more than that, I burn out on organizing and the monotony of the dungeon sets in. And the premades takes up too much time and space in the guild if it's constant since there's only enough interested people for one group at a time, so it prevents others from getting a group whenever it happens presently.
This resurgence also meant I could handle playing Havoc if someone else was setting up groups. Just rescind all control of the group and tell tank to pull big without thinking of consequences or mob management like every other dps. Being able to dip into Night Fae helped, as the covenant ability is much better than the Kyrian one. If raid keeps going, I might even take it for a spin.
While I could still use a lot of vault items, and even 2 dungeon drops, I have given up on getting much. Have had 3 options 3 weeks in a row and not really gotten much out of it, but had a long streak of getting upgrades when I did one every other week or so when I was on and off. The gear is fine, but the dps difference on this and the Tournament Realm created was huge. So not raiding was a hurdle this season to be juiced up enough for doing keys everyone else seems to want to do. Even have everything socketed and all the vengeance conduits upgraded to max.
Esmënet
m+ goals:
2000+ ingame dungeon score (KSM, in other words) - Completed!
1229+ rio as BM. - Completed!
Raid goals:
10/10 Heroic bosses killed. - Completed!
Soft goals:
1 rank 6 Beast Mastery Legendary - Completed!
Night Fae Renown 80 - Completed!
246+ Beast Mastery iLevel - Completed!
Stats
Covenant: Night Fae (Renown 80) & Kyrian (Renown 80)
Main Spec: Beast Mastery (250/247 [Domination] iLevel) [2133 score]
Offspecs: Survival (241 iLevel) [170.5 Score] & Marksmanship (243 iLevel) [161.8 Score]
Main Secondaries: Critical Strike (32%) & Haste (25%)
Legos: Cloak of the Master Rylakstalker (rank 6), Tactical Wildfire gear (rank 3), Talisman of Surging Shots (rank 1).
Raid Prog: 10/10 Heroic Sanctum. 10/10 Normal Sanctum. 3/10 LFR Sanctum.
Professions: Alchemy (max) & Engineering (80)
Esmënet felt more like a tool than a character this season. Played to contribute to raid prog with as little friction and effort as possible. Much like after Nyarlotha, the sheer stagnation of playing BM Hunter has set in. I have most items I want, the full heroic raid transmog set and no desire to push m+ score. If I want to take alts to raid I have to play this for KT/Sylv, which can actually be more of a hurdle than asking myself if I want to raid or not.
The only carrots out there is the Sylvanas legendary bow and maxing out the domination shards. Getting 41 more Stygian Embers is not that big a hurdle, but getting the bow is sheer luck when it comes to drops since it can't be an option in the vault. If for whatever reason end up doing more higher than 15 keys again, it could be useful - but I'm not gonna go out of my way to get these things. Technically I am also missing conduits to have stuff at 252, but using research to get sockets presently.
Some highlights
Getting curve on Esmënet, on the last pull of the night (as per). Was more of a relief thing than a happy thing. I was not there for most of the progress, but was there 60-70ish wipes perhaps? So half of Sire pulls, bit unexpected. Not had a repeat kill yet.
Halls 19 was the first 19 I timed in Shadowlands. Bit of a surprise, since Halls for the longest time was on of my worst keys - and have not managed to do a repeat timed 19 in here since.
Timed 19 Wake. Timer was very close. Had this and that mishap, so it was lenient. Have not managed a repeat run since. Tyrannical is still a hurdle on higher keys, since the majority of the guild keeps wanting to make the first boss way harder than it is. Stacking up and do small steps is hard it would seem, just like on last Freehold boss and Rezan of a sort in Atal. One day perhaps...
Also did De Other King's Rest on a 19, but I forgot to take a screenshot.
Motivation thoughts
Some thoughts on the game after having breaks and rethinking game approach:
*I mostly play to play with friendly people that I've had so much contact with during these long covid years. The game is incredibly stale; lacking in basic content and even the hamster wheels they put in are barebones with long patch cycles.
*I just don't have patience for certain types of behaviour. I see myself as mostly calm and can hang with weird people in real life without getting tilted or anything. But some game stuff just grind my gears, and when I point that out to someone and they keep going, I just snap. In old days, this was mostly due to tank rage. Now it's tryharding overdone, and not just in WoW. People wanting to make a competition out of score for a set amount of people and want to smear it in their face constantly if they are on top and never letting it rest. DPS having a tirade of "now we are doing x" during dungeons and hijack it while often not actually contributing shit themselves or take this up beforehand so it can be planned around. Nameshaming constantly, bonus points if they are hardinting themselves. So I have started avoiding more and more people, and this is not going to be sustainable in the long run unless I join a social guild with no aspirations like I was in the last 10 years on Emerald Dream before rejoining Twilight Hope.
*I mostly enjoy tanking and I enjoy organizing to some extent; this combo is also the only way I can sneak in doing what I want in this vast array of social raiding guild wants. But it reaches a limit, and I need to do something in the game that is not whipping people into showing up, cut through on deciding where to go and tank either stuff I am not really comfy doing or boosting. Just pugging or being anonymous in guild groups while dpsing or healing needs to have a fair share to not simply burn out.
*The same applies to raiding. Actually tanking is dull, but not the worst. But the constant noise of people not doing what *they*should be doing, but need to tell you things or constantly ask without being able to block it out gets on my nerves. Especially when it's 4 hours. Doing raid prog is like keys, it can be whatever if I'm on dps, can have music on and just block all the noise and just play and be silly myself is enjoyable. Tanking, being in charge, dealing with the constant noise and doing what someone else wants while they are sometimes even freeriding is not enjoyable. Hence whenever someone wants to push really high keys, often spamming them I'd rather dps instead of tank, in spite of being a tank player. This I should also keep somewhat in mind if the premade groups stagnates.
State of game thoughts
There's a lot of content creators out there right now that proves the good old "there's lies, filthy lies and statistics" out there right now, so I did a short trip to RIO to just have some of my own numbers to look at the dropoff in players in current patch.
This here is my 9.1 Overall rankings and score:
This here is my 9.1.5 Overall rankings and score:
You could say there has been some dropoff in players on both the realm and in the world... :)
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