Yuletide Loot

Today is Christmas ~ the most 'gamerish' present I got was from Marc who gave me a starter box for Axis & Allies: War at Sea.

We're both a bit burnt-out with regard to collectable games but War at Sea looks like it will be fun with just a little investment, I don't think either of us will dump loads of cash into booster after booster hoping to pull power rares... unlike other collectable games we have indulged in!

From memory Ace Comics in the city have a sale on Boxing Day so I might grab a few boosters if they are cheap, but unless we both think War at Sea is the best thing ever the collection probably won't go much further than this.

It's a good idea for a present - something casual and fun we can have a muck-around with.

Other interesting presents for the gamer-inclined included a Hellboy comic and a book about Tanks. There was other stuff including engraved pens, chocolate, cacti, bonsai, Mighty Boosh and loads of other loot but these are less directly related to gaming and I should remind myself to remain true to the purpose of this blog; to report gaming.

However before I sign off I'll indulge a little further in the world of non-gaming if you'll allow; Emily and I became engaged on Christmas Eve! I have suggested a "Napoleonic" theme for our wedding (perhaps just for the groom's party) although this is still a long way off.

Overall a rather nice haul of goodies for Yuletide 09

(World of Warcraft) Malpheus: Random Dungeon Finder

I haven't updated in a while because despite continued gaming not much *new* has happened. Malpheus has delved into Gnomeregan and Scarlet Monastery since I last wrote, adding more blues to equipment slots.

Gnomeregan was more enjoyable than I remembered. I have a faded memory of grinding it with an understrength party which resulted in slow progress and frustrating wipes - this time it was smooth and fast. I was able to navigate everyone back down to the Alliance rest-stop (after the party took a left turn to follow the breadcumb trail of mobs) and we played with the washing machines for a while. Otherwise the only turbulence was losing our tank and healer to an internet disconnection seconds before the last pull! Fortunately they were back within a few minutes.

Scarlet Monastery was also faster than I remembered, we did Graveyard and Library. Graveyard has always been easymode and Library is a good tutorial for line-of-sight pulls, fleeing mobs and debuffs. After our run and my difficulty keeping the debuffs dispelled from our party I installed Decursive add-on... it's fantastic!

To test Decursive I queued up with the new Dungeon Finder (a feature of the latest patch). To my delight I was able to replay Graveyard over and over, however once I dinged 33 the 'random' dungeon became Library. I don't mind Library although when playing with overenthusiastic strangers who race ahead refusing to wait for mana (me!) and who don't mark anything for focus fire we suffer more party wipes than we should. Where possible I try to apply Mind Flay to anything I see running into the next room, but with the big crowds of mobs and every dps working on a different target it's not possible to catch them all. Nothing new for those of you who remember pick-up groups (or PUGs for the uninitiated) but an unpleasant reminder for me - I haven't played with strangers for a long time!

Still, Dungeon Finder is a much needed feature and it is well designed - far superior than earlier attempts to implement a 'looking for group' tool (we can now choose a party role when signing into the queue). A nice part of the design is that party members are drawn from everyone queued in your battlegroup rather than just your server, increasing the speed that groups can form.

To add to the fun everyone who finishes a run provided by the Random Dungeon Finder gets a supply bag with loot inside! Sadly the random blue it holds doesn't usually have the stats you need - but you can always vendor it. Malpheus ran enough randoms to eventually score some gloves with Sorcerer stats which are very nice.

Tomorrow's scheduled run is postponed due to real life. Sadly there are noises being made that the following week may be off too ~ although only because the date falls between Christmas and New Year's. Hopefully the group will be keen for a run after a week's delay...