Wednesday, July 30, 2014

What I'm up to right now

Sorry for the lack of updates the last couple of days!

I got distracted by Touhou...again...

You know, I swear that half the time I take breaks from writing on this blog it's because Touhou happened.

The games are just so addicting! I'm not so great at it though. I've only been playing for about a year and a half, so I'm still stuck on easy mode! I just recently figured out streaming though, so that's improved me immensely! I can actually beat Toyosatomimi no Miko in easy mode now! I'm so proud of myself!

My favorite characters are Shou Toramaru and Toyosatomimi no Miko. They're pretty much tied for me. I'm thinking about cosplaying one of them, but I'm not sure which one yet. I like Shou's design better, but I really like Miko too, so it's difficult!

Anyway, I'm sure I'll be back to an online game soon, so don't worry. I can't play Touhou all day or my fingers will fall off!

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Observations

So, on FFXIV: ARR, I have four characters, all female:

Miqo'te (Keeper of the Moon) Archer
Roegadyn (Hellsguard) Conjurer
Lalafell (Dunesfolk) Marauder
Hyur (Midlander) Arcanist


I've run into a couple  scenarios of which I would like to comment on:

I am not more likely to join your guild if you:
A) Ask how to get someone as beautiful as me to join your guild.
or
B) Kneel to me.

 Okay, the kneeling one can be taken a couple different ways, but I just found it kind of creepy, honestly. If the person had a role-play name I would have been more okay with it, because RP, but no.

Doing these things are not any more likely to make me join your guild. First of all, I have a tendency to be picky about guilds anyway. Extremely picky! If I don't like the name, or if the guild message doesn't seem right to me, I'm not going to join no matter how nice the person asking me may be. It's just a thing with me. Sorry.

Second of all, I'm a person. Unless you've met me/read this blog, you don't know that I'm actually female. But besides that ever-so-obvious point, there's also this: if a pick-up line wouldn't work on me normally, what in the world makes you think that it would online? Think about it. If you say/do something that would get you an eye-roll in real life, why would it work online? Because anonymity? I don't know about most people, but I'm pretty much the same person online as I am offline. Albeit I say a bit more words online because I have a much easier time formulating my thoughts in writing than I do through speaking.

This is by far not just a thing about FFXIV: ARR. This is just the first time I've encountered it in this game! I've encountered it in far more games. I remember in FlyFF, I often took long hiatuses, many of which were spurred by the fact that I was being stalked in-game. Even if I blocked the person, they somehow always found me and chased me around, spamming me rather explicit innuendo.

Sorry, I'm not in a great mood today. Anything is setting me off today, I swear.

I actually generally don't usually care about this sort of thing, unless it gets really bad, like in the FlyFF case (had a couple run ins like that on Maplestory too). I'm just a bit extra persnickety today.

What I really want to know is, what's with the lack of flirting with my Roegadyn? I only get these things on my Miqo'te and Hyur! WHERE'S THE LOVE FOR THE ROEGADYN?
 I actually think my Roegadyn is one of my nicer looking characters. My Miqo'te is kind of boring, and my Hyur is just so...normal looking! My Lalafell is adorable, but I'm not sure if a melee class is going to be for me, so...

I may use my Fantasia potion to change my Hyur to a Roegadyn. Just sayin'.

My opinion on what brought Toontown down.

As you already probably know if you've been reading my blog for any amount of time, Toontown is an incredibly sensitive subject with me.
I had played the game since its release, when I was about 9 years old.
My original toon was Miss Binky Octomuffin, a tall, electric green rabbit wearing a purple floral top and skirt. She was later deleted due to my obsession with cats, and remade.
My main Toon became renamed Miss Binky Octofish, and she was a tall, sand-colored cat. Her outfit has been through many iterations throughout the years. I have never held onto a character for even a fraction of the amount of times Miss Binky Octofish has been around.
My other primary character was a short black cat wearing a white top and skirt named Nobody. She is another long-existing character of mine.
I played before you could decorate your house, before fishing was actually a thing that you did to earn jellybeans, before racing, golfing, Cog HQs, accessories, doodles, black cats, the Silly Meter, moving fire hydrants and such on the streets, being able to type to other people. I played when they still sent out newsletters and collectible cards through the mail. I'm pretty sure I have a complete collection of the cards and newsletters.

Toontown was shut down on November 19th, 2013.

I think that part of the reason why it all ended up going wrong was because of open-chat: the ability to type to anyone.

Previously, we had to choose from a list of pre-defined phrases. You could buy new phrases and emotions. If you knew someone in real life, you could trade secret-friend codes, and then you could type them. No one else would be able to see what you typed, except for your secret friends. People found ways to trade codes with people they didn't know, but for the most part, it was a good system.

Has anyone ever heard of the experiment in which they placed a 14 year old boy in front of a game concept where they had a limited dictionary, but you could still type to each other? As in, the same system as is now used in many "child friendly" games?
Within a few minutes, the boy had come up with the phrase "I want to stick my long-necked Giraffe up your fluffy white bunny." (http://habitatchronicles.com/2007/03/the-untold-history-of-toontowns-speedchat-or-blockchattm-from-disney-finally-arrives/)

I still don't understand how, after that experiment, anyone thought that "Hey! Maybe we should let people type to each other using a limited-dictionary! Nothing could go wrong!"

Yeah, things did go wrong. Of course, if you give people the chance to talk on a game, they are going to talk. What used to be a perfectly "child friendly" game, turned into a chatroom where people talked about boyfriends/girlfriends, made rather obvious innuendo, and bypassed the filters in order to swear or tell people their age.

Were there some benefits with free-chat? Yes. It made battles such as the VP, CFO, CJ, and CEO much more streamlined, as you could now direct people in a simpler manner. Even bypassing the filter in order to say numbers had its benefits with directing people as to what cog they should hit. But, honestly, that's where the benefits ended.

Did people make friends? Yes. Were there plenty of nice people on the game who didn't abuse the chat system? Of course! But you didn't really notice them. You noticed the people that were abusing it. If I were a mother and my young child wanted to play this game, I would have said no after running around for a bit. It was hailed as "child friendly" even after free-chat went into place. When in actuality it had become a cesspool of worse behavior than I usually see on the other MMOs I play.

I know that the chat-system had its good points. My grandmother made a lot of friends through Toontown, that she still talks to. But for the most part, that wasn't the case, as far as I saw.

Today, I finally got into Toontown Rewritten, and I was disappointed. I was so happy to have gotten in, and I was so happy to be back in the game. It was all just as I remembered it, save for a few things that hadn't yet been implemented. I was disappointed that free-chat was still in the game. I knew it would be, but part of me was really, really disappointed.

I re-created Miss Binky Octofish and went into the game, only to witness things that I didn't really want to see. People getting angry because you defeated a cog that they needed (when they were way down the road where you couldn't see them, and they didn't ask you to wait or anything). People calling non-cats ugly. A whole lot of people getting upset with each other. I was left there thinking "Doesn't anyone here appreciate the fact that we are able to play this game again?" It certainly didn't seem like it. I didn't end up playing for my full three hours because it just started feeling sick to my stomach a bit.

Maybe I am just over-sensitive. Or, rather, I know I'm over-sensitive. It's kind of a thing with me. If someone's upset in the next room my stomach starts churning, even if it has literally nothing to do with me. I don't even have to know the person and I still get sick. I'm like allergic to negative emotions or something, I swear :P

This game is very much beloved by me, and I don't want to see it shut down again. I'm just worried that with free-chat still in place, the game will have harassment issues and will be forced down.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

FFXIV: ARR First Dungeon: Complete!

So, I did it!
This morning I queued in the Duty Finder for Sastasha, and I got through with no problems!

My group was friendly and seemed to know what they were doing.
We had a couple of problems with adds in the last boss fight because from all that I read from guides, those bubbly pits are a whole lot farther away from each other than you expect. It's hard to get to them in time!

Other than that, it was fine!

Monday, July 21, 2014

So nervous!

I've been playing FFXIV: ARR again lately, and I just hit level 15 with my new Archer on the Brynhildr server, Aria Iris.

And I just got that one quest that makes you join the Duty Finder for Sastasha...

Oh goodness, the anxiety I'm getting right now. I've never once done a dungeon in FFXIV since I've only had one other level 15, and I gave up on her when I had to do this quest.

I've looked up guides for Sastasha, so I know a bit of what to do, I guess.
Kill clams when they're open, and you can't do anything when they're closed, but what do I do with the adds that they spawn? I get that they keep spawning until the clams are dead, so do I just ignore the adds for the tank to deal with until the clams are dead, and then work on DPSing the adds down when the clams are closed and I can't hit them anyway?
And then there's colored coral switches. Do we all have to figure out which one is right and press it, or does only one party member do that?
Same with the things you have to deactivate around the final boss? Is it part of my job to take care of that, or is that more of the tank's thing?
And what are these "treasure coffer" things I see on the map that's listed on the guide I'm reading?
How does loot work in this game? Is a Need/Greed/Pass system like WoW? Is it individual loot? Is there any determining who gets what at all?

And how is this going to change once I unlock Bard? I get that I'll have songs I'll have to use to give buffs and stuff, but does my role change much besides that?

And how do I even get Bard? I keep reading different answers. Is it level 15 Conjurer or Pugilist?

I wish I had kept up with the game since the beginning when we were all newbies. That sounds so much less stressful to me. I'm hopping back into this in the middle of everything, when there's plenty of people who know exactly what they're doing.

And I know I shouldn't be feeling anxious. From what I understand, there's very little difference between these and WoW dungeons, but I'm still anxious! I still get anxious going into WoW dungeons as DPS! Healing? No problem. But DPS always makes me anxious for some reason. I can handle healing. For some reason, I'm confident enough in that that I don't feel like I'm going to mess up and ruin the group. DPS gives me that feeling the whole time.
Oh, and one time, I tried tanking in WoW. Protection Warrior Gnome Tank with Pink Pigtails. Even that was less anxiety-inducing than DPS. Weird stuff.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Still playing Tera!

WoD beta isn't working for me. It says "Connecting" for a while before disconnecting me, and I don't have the patience right now to look further into it. Bad week.

So, I'm still happily playing Tera!

This is my lovely little Elin Berserker, Elzabethi. She's level 19 right now.

I've tried Berserker and Archer to level 10, and the rest to at least level 5, and Berserker's the only one I've been able to stick with.
My Archer is about level 15 or so. At the lower levels she was fine, and killing everything easily, but now I'm struggling with her. I expect her to be good at AoEing enemies, and she's just not. The Archer playstyle just isn't meshing with me in this game.
My Berserker I struggled with early on. I nearly died in Fey Forest when you have to kill a bunch of Unicorns. I'm doing a whole lot better with her, and I'm actually enjoying my time playing with her now. I'm killing things easily enough, and I haven't had any HP issues since I got that HP recovery move...vampiric...something, maybe? Learning that I can walk and use my spinny attack has been a great boon as well!

The whole Avatar weapon thing is confusing me. Is this like an endgame weapon, but you get it early on and then never need another weapon? Is it better to wait until endgame to make it? Does it level with you, etc? No clue. At all.
And I'm assuming these Cabochen(?) things are like gems, except they can be removed if you die?
What stats does a Berserker even need? I've seen pretty much no mention of what stats there even are in the game, so I don't know which cabochens would even be useful.

Whoo, newbie days!

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Guess what?

Guess who got their invite to the WoW Warlords of Draenor beta?

Me!

And there's no non-disclosure agreement, which means I can post on here about it!

Now, I just have to be able to log in. I can get as far as the realm selection screen, but then it freezes up at "connecting" before finally disconnecting me.

This will be much more exciting when I can actually jump in and play, but it's still exciting nonetheless!

Monday, July 14, 2014

My characters!

Here they are! I have four!
And ignore my last post about a new character. She's gone already. Replaced!

Elzabethi, level 15 Elin Berserker on Tempest whatever server.

Jennyan, level 4 Elin Ranger on Tempest whatever server.

Shoutiger, level 4High Elf Warrior on the other PvE server that isn't RP.
Elzabelle, level 2 Aman Slayer on the other PvE server that isn't RP.

I can't get into the caster classes at all. I tried Sorcerer/Mystic/Priest, but I just can't get into it. Melee or archery for me in this game, I guess!
Seriously, I could probably spend hours just taking screenshots in Tera.

It's so pretty!

Also, I did remake my Ranger. She's now a Human. The facial shape is more like mine, although the only hair color that fits is still only for Elins, it appears.

Everything that I'm reading that's negative about the game all seem to be things I can totally live with.
Long grinds and repetitive quests? I played FlyFF and Maplestory. I'm good.
No end-game? No problem. I never get to endgame anyway?
Censorship of the Elins/Elins in general. I honestly couldn't care less.
Simple amounts of class abilities? All the better!
Boring combat system? I'm actually finding it quite engaging. I might play a tank. I love the blocking system.

Well, I did it.

I started playing Tera.

I am enjoying it immensely.

These are my two characters on...Tempest Reach, or something like that. I don't know the server names by heart yet.

Cheshire.Smile, level 6 Castanic Ranger.


Elzabethi, level 15 Elin Berserker
I'm actually having a lot of fun with it. My first character I made was a Aman Ranger, and she was super fun. I messed up a bit I think though, so I remade her as a Castanic, although she might be remade again to be Aman again. Or maybe Elin...

As for Elzabethi, I was cycling through all the races because I wanted to make one that looked even slightly like me. Elin was the only one with the right hair color...and I even got the eye color right too!
Couldn't quite pin down my nose though.

Maybe Cheshire.Smile is being remade again to try and match it up better.

You know, she totally is.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Thinking of trying Tera online

I played it for a few hours once, but I couldn't quite get into it. I need something new to play I think. WoW just doesn't seem exciting today, which is a shame. Kind of in-between games right now. I was attempting to get myself into Diablo III or Records of Agarest War Zero today, but those weren't quite catching my interest either.

I'm leaning between Tera, Eden Eternal, Aura Kingdom, or re-downloading Forsaken World.

Or, rather, I'm re-downloading Tera right now, and it's a matter of do I want to play this, or should I patch EE or AK, or should I cancel this download and try FW? Or maybe even Perfect World...

Maybe I'll just take a break from WoW until WoD hits or something. Updated graphics sound nice. I'll need to wait and see how my characters look updated, since so far I'm not liking the female human faces too much. Hopefully there will be a bit more variety. I looked at my SPriest in the Wowhead model viewer, and she didn't look like herself at all, so I'm a little discouraged. I'll end up playing again regardless, but in the meantime, I need pretty graphics.

If I go with Tera I'm going to play either an Elin, High Elf, or maybe Castanic. And then for class either a Berserker, Archer, or maybe a Mystic.
I read that Mystics are the hardest class, but from what I read, it seems like they specialize in buffing and debuffing, and only off-heal? That sounds up my alley.

For those of you who don't know (did I ever even mention this on the blog?), I used to play FlyFF. I quit after becoming frustrated with the leveling speed.  I had a Ranger at about level 74, with a Ringmaster that I also played on another computer next to me.
Anyway, I enjoyed the FS (Full Support) Assist/Ringmaster playstyle immensely, and I've always wanted to play another game that has a similar support style. Healing isn't so much my thing as buffing is. I love watching buffs and making sure that they're applied and such. I can't bring myself to re-download FlyFF though. No no no. Even if I did, are there even enough players on there anymore to re-level a FS? How in the world would I level?

Anyway, continuing on...

If I play EE, I'll definitely be rolling Halfkin again, because my old CheshireSmile was just too cute! Of course, EE allows you to switch classes at any time, so I don't really have to commit to class, but at the same time it's hard to level all of them.
I'd probably actually focus on leveling a Thief this time, because I really want a Martial Artist.

For Aura Kingdom, I'd probably go with Ravager, Bard, or Ranger.

For Forsaken World: Lycan Priest, Kindred Vampire, Dwarf Marksman, or Elf Bard.

Don't know about Perfect World.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Things that Always Scare Me in WoW

Just a list I thought of.
Here's a list of all the things that easily put me on edge when playing WoW, in no particular order.

  • Giant Elite Enemies that the quests tell you to avoid (Fel Reavers, Noxious Glade, Ettins in Redridge, that one area in Zul'Drak, Whale Shark, etc.)
  • Spider Quests (only the spindley ones though!)
  • Dark caves with unnerving music
  • Particularly disturbing quests (entire Death Knight starting zone freaks me out).
I don't know. It just popped into my head because I was doing the Noxious Glade quests. I get so on edge whenever those giant enemies are around.
When I'm in Hellfire Peninsula, I often have to call upon a level 90 to kill a Fel Reaver if its near me because otherwise I won't be able to enjoy playing the game at all. I don't like the feeling of things like that being near me. Freaks. Me. Out.

Other than that, I've been leveling a new Shadow Priest. She's level 42 right now, so I consider that a pretty good run for me.
Still on Tanaris server, the name is Toyosatomimi.

It's the same thing for Guild Wars 2. I play a character that isn't a Shadow Priest, and I never enjoy it as much. When I go back to the Shadow Priest, I think "Why didn't I just play a Shadow Priest to start with?" With Guild Wars 2, it's Necromancers that are like that for me.
Yes, I thought about trying Warlocks, but I can't get into it. I don't know why. Maybe I should try Destruction? The problem for me is pets. In GW2, Necromancers have pets, but you can be entirely viable without them (well, as viable as Necromancers are in that game anyway...).
And the weird thing is that all the classes I like in games tend to freak me out a bit. Necromancer? Ick.

Saturday, July 5, 2014

I have two complaints today

I only have two! I promise!
And none are about WoD, so don't worry about that.
This is more just venting, I promise.

Complaint Number 1!
The level 10 - 24 experience for Shadow Priests.
Having only Mind Flay and Shadow Word: Pain until level 21 is not a pleasant experience.
I don't know how new players could ever stick with a Shadow Priest. Seriously. It's hard enough even when you know it gets better.

Complaint Number 2!
The sheer amount of people in leveling zones.
I know that this has probably quite the dead horse, but I don't usually have any issue at all with connected realms/CRZ. I think it's just because it's at that awkward in-between-expansions time where everyone and their cat is leveling an alt.
My realm, Tanaris, was recently connected to Greymane. Which is fine. Everyone on Greymane seems friendly and everything, and, actually, I rarely run into them.
My problem is that we're also CRZed with Stormrage. I don't have a problem with the people on Stormrage. It's just that I only ever see people from Stormrage, and there's a lot of them.
I'm one of the first people to say that I enjoy leveling more when I see a couple other people around. It's not so lonely. But when there's five or six people all competing for the same resources, it's not quite so much fun. If there's going to be this many people sharing the same quest as me, I think things should at least respawn faster or something.
Westfall. Sometimes it's so busy that there's no Murlocs left to fight to get the second clue for Horatio Lane. Let's not even talk about Kobolds there, since that mine can get pretty bad. And the coyotes for the coyote tails. I ran into a time this morning where even the Harvesters were scarce, let alone whatever the birds you have to kill there are, and the Goretusks. The worst by far there is when you have to spy on some Thugs, and they'll attack you. I haven't quite figured out what gets you tagged for the quest when others don't, because it doesn't seem to be proximity, DPS, or who they point at. It seems like a roulette half the time, and whether you spend a couple minutes trying to get them to tag you, or a half-hour seems totally random. This appears to be able to be fixed by grouping up with the other people trying to get them, but people often just reject group invites, so that's not helpful either.
Redridge was mostly okay, except competing over Tarantulas. That wasn't fun. The rest was fine. I only saw a couple people the entire time.
Duskwood though? Ow. This is my first time questing through Duskwood (trying to do something new, even if it means spiders). I was doing the Ghoulish Effigy quest. Yeah. There's not nearly enough Ghouls for even three people to do that quest, let alone the six of us that were there. It might be better if the ribs were 100% drop, but they weren't, and there were hardly any Ghouls to start with. First couple quests in Duskwood were also pretty bad. There were hardly any Wolves or Spiders to kill because there were about five other people hunting them.
So yeah, I'm all for CRZ and Connected Realms because it is nice to see people, because then I can't get lonely! But, it becomes not so fun to level when there's seven other people competing for the same mobs as you. And it was like that at every quest area, so just switching to a different quest wasn't going to work either.
But Elza! Why don't you just do dungeons for the levels when there's too many people?
Because I only just hit level 24. Pre-Shadowform I would just feel like a liability in dungeons...

I'm really hoping for a better experience at higher levels. You used to always see a ton of people in, say, Elwynn, but the higher you got it seemed like the more the numbers thinned a bit. I hope that's the case here. Dungeons are boring to me :P

As a side, but somewhat related note, is anyone still on their high levels right now? I know these people I'm leveling beside are not newbies since they all have more heirlooms than me.
I don't think I've seen anyone today that wasn't wearing more heirlooms than me...

More important side-note as well!
I'm going to try and post as frequently as I can, but I don't know how often that will be. I'm taking online Full Sail University classes starting on Monday. I'm taking Computer Animation, which is exciting, but I have yet to know how busy I'll be! And obviously schoolwork takes precedence over gaming time. And my pool will be open by then. So I'll be busy swimming too!
Anyone want Animal Crossing updates? I know I'll have time for those, at the very least!
I'm actually thinking of starting up another blog just for my Animal Crossing town because I'm proud of it. My villagers are Klaus, Moe, Croque, Bud, Cube, Eunice, Vesta, and Wendy (holy sheep). Vesta's one of my favorite villagers, but the rest I'm kind of neutral on. My dream town would consist of Tangy, Lolly, Flurry, Tia, Vesta, Bob, Klaus, Erik, Chief, and Rolf. I don't actually like Erik and Klaus, but I share my town with my mom and they're her favorites. She's neutral on every other villager though.

Sorry, I'm in a ramble-y mood today!

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Sorry it's late, but...5LP: Elzabethi level 30

Elzabethi is now level 30! I know, I know, I skipped level 25 because I forgot...


Yeah, yeah, I know I'm wearing cloth gear. The first piece of Intellect Leather I've seen was in the last dungeon I did. Haven't seen any as dungeon drops. And I've been leveling so fast through the dungeons that I haven't had time to really do many actual quests, so gear hasn't been replaced. Trust me, I don't WANT to be wearing these cloth robes.

Equips (oh goodness):

Preened Tribal Warfeathers, Tumultuous Necklace of the Moon, Hann Ibal's Epaulettes, Ancient Bloodmoon Cloak, Robe of Kelris, Paramedic Bracers, Dervish Gloves of the Owl, Vigorous Belt of the Vision, Preened Wildfeather Leggings, Gloaming Band, Sustaining Ring, Gift of the Enigmatic Tree (staff)

Almost everything is dungeon quest rewards, I think, aside from the dungeon freebie packs you get whenever you complete one.
Let's talk about those Paramedic Bracers for a second, okay? Item Level: 9. I've had them since the Worgen starting zone. Somehow no Intellect bracers have dropped and I have yet to receive one from a quest reward. How embarrassing.

And don't worry, I click Greed for cloth gear even if it's an upgrade. I would never take it from someone that is supposed to wear cloth gear. :)

I've had both good groups and bad ones. But no matter what, I can honestly say that I still enjoy healing more. DPS is so stressful! Healing is calming...
I mean, really. If I'm healing a dungeon, I worry about five targets total. Unless I'm a Disc Priest or MW Monk, and even then, you're still only really worrying about five targets. With DPS, I'm paying attention to waaaay more targets, plus all sorts of other things.
Healing is like "HP up? Check. No one's diseased, etc? Check. Buffs up? Check. Mana okay? Check."
With DPS I have to pay attention to making sure I do my rotation alright ("am I working towards Solar or Lunar right now?"), keep track of Starsurge so I make sure I use it when available (as long as I'm not in Eclipse), paying attention to Shooting Stars procs, watching my own health, making sure to apply Moonfire/Sunfire, making sure to apply Faerie Fire on bosses, figuring out when's a good time to use Solar Beam, make sure I keep up with the party, make sure I don't aggro anything by accident, make sure I don't do too much damage so I don't pull aggro.
Healing just seems so simple in comparison.

That said, I am enjoying my Balance Druid, and I don't intend to switch her over to Resto. I can get my healing fix from my Paladin or Priest or something.

I was initially going to try leveling a Warlock, but I'm kind of glad that I didn't. I can't imagine doing everything I'm doing now, but also having a pet to micromanage!

Suddenly, I have a lot more respect for people that DPS in raids and such. I can't even imagine.

Oh, right!

I've been leveling a Balance Druid! She's level 20!
That was the fastest level 20 I've ever done. I blew through the Worgen starting zone with heirlooms, although I always need help with the spidery bits, because they're ALL SPINDELYS.
I did 14-15 with a couple quests in Darkshore, and then after that I started queueing for dungeons while I quested. Got into a couple dungeons with good groups, and the time flew by. Was leveling really quickly, even though I barely had time to quest in-between groups!

So this is my lovely Druid, Elzabethi.

Gear right now:

Preened Tribal War Feathers, Patched Leather Shoulders, Ancient Bloodmoon Cloak, Paramedic Bracers, Serpentis Gloves, Vigorous Belt of Vision, Preened Wildfeather Leggings, Seer's Boots, Medicine Staff of Intellect

Also, is it just a thing that Balance Druids do lower DPS than others? Or is that just me? There was one dungeon where I was doing top DPS, but I also think I was the highest level in there...

It feels like sometimes I don't have time to fire off anything besides Moonfire/Sunfire. And half the time I absolutely dread Lunar Eclipse because it means I won't get time to attack because Starfire takes forever to cast! I do fine when I'm in Solar Eclipse, but Lunar Eclipse is just...ugh. Starsurge is nice though. Does it get better when I get Starfall?

Once I've established which side my eclipses are going first by using Starsurge (which I believe is heading towards Solar by default?)...let's assume it's headed towards Solar Eclipse...I cast Moonfire and then spam Starfire (well, I say spam, but in dungeons it's more like "attempt to cast"). Do this for every enemy until I hit Solar Eclipse. And then for normal enemies it's Sunfire > Wrath spam until I'm out of Eclipse. Then Sunfire > Wrath/Starsurge spam until Lunar. Rinse and repeat.
For bosses I apply both Sunfire and Moonfire and keep them up, and then just use the applicable Eclipsey moves. I try to use Astral Communion before boss fights to be in Eclipse form before it begins, although it doesn't seem to matter much.

Now, as you probably know, I know next to nothing about DPS because all I ever do is heal or quest. Do I worry about Faerie Fire? How do I know it's a good time to interrupt/silence with Solar Beam?

That said, I'm excited for a couple new abilities that I've never used before because I've never gotten past level 30 as a Druid (let alone Balance druid). Starfall for one. It sounds pretty. :)
Euphoria sounds useful. Barkskin sounds incredibly useful. I can't even wait for Flight Form. Celestial Alignment sounds really nice. Mastery: Total Eclipse is exciting.  Wild Mushroom looks adorable.