Well, this evening Ben wanted to do a specific quest in World of Warcraft, so I rebooted the computer back to windows, logged in to Warcraft and discovered the he couldn’t really get enough numbers to do it tonight, so its been moved to another night.

“Sweet,” I thought… Should carry on working on the “Steves Ramblings” web site that is in the works. Fully intending to reboot back to Linux, I thought I’d have a quick dash in Guild Wars and try to finish of one particular quest that was bothering me a little.

Yeah, nothing quick about it at all. Got side tracked. :-) I’m good at that. 3 hours, half a dozen quests and 2 levels later I finally log out and reboot back to Linux. ;-) It was 12:30am when I finally got back into my Linux desktop.

However, that’s not all bad. I not only made another friend, I managed to get my Assassin to level 20 now. That’s only the second character I’ve actually enjoyed enough to stick with right through to twenty. Having said that, Assassins level really quickly anyway. They are very much like the rogues of WoW in that regard. They deal so much damage, they kill stuff really quickly.

Problem is, I’m still not really all that familiar with the class or finding the best build. My A/Mo spends all her time solo because people seem to think Assassins die too easily. Not my little assassin. She kicks butt. Hard part is that running with henchies, my toon ends up having to draw the initial aggro, which means that for the beginning of the fight, she’s got all the aggro. Given the amount of damage she deals, this is not a good thing. ;-) Its really hard for her to lose it once she has it. No useful tank to take it from her.

Still, she’s level 20 now, and aside from having to go back and do one mission I missed in the beginners island area, she’s nearly complete. Time to start farming for some decent daggers for her. Already got my eye on a couple of ones that look relatively easy to get my hands on in the area she’s currently running around in. Killed one of the bosses tonight, but it didn’t drop the blades for me :-( Will have to go back again tomorrow.

But there is a good reason for playing the game a fair bit this weekend.

Participants in the Dragon Festival can join in fun carnival-type games (Whack-A-Worm, anyone?), play new mini-missions and special PvP gameplay, undertake unique quests, and collect Asian-flavored treats such as red bean cakes and rice wine. Ceremonial Dragon Masks will be awarded to those players who are able to collect enough globes filled with the Jade Wind essence that changed Cantha two hundred year ago. The conclusion of the Dragon Festival will be marked with surprises true Canthans won’t want to miss.

Guild Wars Event Press Release

Looking at the pics of the dragon masks, I think this could be a lot of fun to try and get. I still have my pumpkin head, Santa hat and antlers from last year’s events. I’ve missed most of the events this year because I’ve been spending more time playing WoW than GW. :-( But that’s changing. I’m finding myself getting in to GW again. In fact, I’ve been enjoying the past few days so much I’ve stopped my subscription to WoW from recurring again for a while. I think I’m gonna concentrate on GW and just have fun with it. This will please Aaron. I helped him with a quest the other night.

I’m still not used to backing off. I’m still too used to playing my tank and that’s really not very good. I need to get into more of a hit and run mind set when playing my Assassin, but I’m struggling with that right now. The temptation to just stand there and beat the snot out of the enemy is really hard to resist. Problem is, assassins are not tanks. While they have decent armor (70AL for Assassins vs 80AL for Tanks) they still can’t take the big hits that tanks seem to be able to just waltz through. Another issue is that because Assassins are dealing such high damage, they tend to draw aggro. I don’t know if this is because I’ve been playing almost exclusively with henchmen or what, but its starting to become an issue in my playing.

However, including tonight’s 3 hours, I’ve only been playing the Assassin a total of 21 hours now. So I’m still working on it. However, I have to say that getting to level 20 within 20 hours of game time is pretty good. My tank didn’t get there anywhere near that fast. I got lots of skill points now too. :-)

Time to spend a lot of time out there capturing elite skills. Know of at least 3 bosses I intend to capture off immediately too. :-) 2 Assassins and 1 Monk. I especially want to get Flashing Blades. I already killed the boss tonight (trying to get the daggers he sometimes drops but didn’t tonight) but forgot to take a capture signet with me. Oh well. Next time ;-)

Its also time to start considering a guild. Might speak to Aaron and see if the NZ guild he’s in might be worth the effort. Apparently a lot of the AU/NZ guilds are all forming alliances, which is not a bad thing. Simple fact of the matter is I just can’t be bothered starting up another guild myself. Why put in the effort required when the time it’d take up is just more than I can afford to spend anymore?

I do admit that part of the reason I have started playing GW so much again is the whole issue with Devour in WoW. When things went totally sour there, a lot of the fun in the game was just lost. Without a guild in WoW, I’m as good as useless for advancing my toons. Another part of it is that I put so much effort in to Devour that any other guild just won’t really seem like a fit. Worse still, Devour now has people in it I personally cannot stand and refuse to have any association with.

So folks, consider this the notice. I have decided to give up on WoW for a while. Not going to make a fuss about it like last time, but I have already stopped my subscription from renewing. Just no point in playing WoW solo and not in a position to be able to apply for any decent endgame guilds because Kinthiri just doesn’t have the gear he needs for most guilds to accept him.

I am debating whether to try out Titan Quest or not ;-) I have to do that today (Wednesday) or I’ll miss out on the 15% discount. Must be ordered no later than the 28th or I’ll miss the 30th shipping date and have to wait till next week. Problem there is that its really just a modern version of Diablo and I’m not really all that sure I want to start yet another game when I haven’t even finished the Oblivion or Factions PvE story lines yet. :-/

Not to mention the fact that I doubt my computer could really even handle the game given how old it is now.

Actually, sitting here typing this, I think I’ve just settled the debate for myself. I’d really only be buying the game just to have a copy of it. Not really that interested in playing it just yet. Will stick with Oblivion, Guild Wars and Second Life for now. That’s where the majority of my gaming time will be spent. Now if only Second Life released a Linux client ;-)

Okay… I’ve been writing this post far too long. Keep getting sidetracked reading up info about Assassins, looking for decent weapons and so on. Not a good idea. ;-) Gonna end it here and crawl in to bed. Is now nearly 3am and I really should’ve been asleep hours ago. I stopped playing the game just after midnight.

Talk to you later folks.