Where have I been?

Besides doing my art homework.

I've been playing Wildstar!

And, I've got to say: really happy with this game.

Up until recently, this game seemed very uninteresting to me. Another game that you have to buy up-front, and then pay a subscription fee. And why bother with that when I could just pay my subscription for FFXIV or DCUO?

Well, I'm glad I finally got the trial working, because I ended up picking up the game and I'm going through my free 30 days, and planning on trying to support myself through buying C.R.E.D.D. with in-game currency to pay for the subscription (may I just say that the C.R.E.D.D. system is genius?).

The combat is very fun and I really have to pay attention to it lest I take a ton of damage. The housing system is amazing and I love my house so very much. More than my DCUO base, even. The customization for housing is simply phenomenal.

So, without further ado, here is my character:

This is Myothi Shyflower, my Aurin Esper and Scientist.

I love her.

I intend to heal at level 50, but until then, I'm running a DPS action set with gear focusing on the Moxie stat. I am currently level 23 and leveling in Whitevale.

I've only been playing this for about a week, so I still don't have any idea what I'm doing, build-wise, but my action set is:
Telekinetic Strike, Mind Burst, Crush, Blade Dance, Concentrated Blades, Mind Over Body, and Geist.

Basically, what I do is start off the battle with one Telekinetic Strike, then get Concentrated Blades going, spam Telekinetic Strike until I have 5 Psi Points, then use Mind Burst. Rinse and repeat. If there's multiple enemies I add Blade Dance in there too. If I'm fighting a particularly tough enemy or lots of enemies I'll send out my Geist. If I need to heal I use Crush to knock the enemy down, and then use Mind Over Body. Pretty simple, but interesting to play. Keeping an eye on my Psi Points helps me stay focused, and I love using Mind Burst and seeing all the damage it does at 5 points.

For Ability Tier points I have 2 in Telekinetic Strike, 3 in Mind Burst, 3 in Concentrated Blade, 3 in Blade Dance, 2 in Mind Over Body, and 1 in Crush.

For AMPs I have up to Armor Pierce III, Assault Power III, Strikethrough III, Critical Hit III, Critical Hit Severity II, Lifesteal II, and Cooldowns II.

Hm...what else...

I have the title The Scholar, so my name is Myothi Shyflower the Scholar. I have a Grinder mount.
I am a Survivalist / Architect. The crafting system is this game isn't interesting me too much though. My house is a Cozy Aurin House and my other plots are Thicket Tier 1, Crafting Kiosk, BBQ Pit, Cute Date Spot, Moonshiner Cabin, and Prospector Plot.

I'm really happy :)

Well then

Well, I was considering playing Wildstar, but I guess not.

Kind of hard to play a game that you get perma-banned for logging into. Or, at least, it looks like a perma-ban considering that it says "NC Account <email> has been permanently blocked."

I'll contact support at some point, but basically it told me that my computer needed to be verified, so I went to my email and put in the verification code, and then it banned me!

But Guild Wars 2 still works.

I'm wondering if maybe I put in my password wrong? But then it wouldn't have gone through and asked for email verification, right?
Or maybe I had to manually type in the verification code rather than copy/pasting it from the email?

I just wanted to try the free trial, but now it seems like way too much effort T_T

EDIT: Yay! I sent in a ticket yesterday, and they got back to me today with a password reset. Thank you thank you :)

Just a Quick Notice

I was doing my daily check of the Puppet Dance Performance translation forums, and I noticed something out of the ordinary today.

There was a guide posted that I am 99% certain is a copy-paste of my Puppet Dance Performance guide that is hosted on this blog.

I feel like now is a good time to say that I do not mind if people post this blog elsewhere so long as a link to this blog is provided as well and/or you at least give me credit in some way.
I spent a whole lot of time writing the guide, in between my classwork and various other stresses, so please at least give me credit for it. A simple "This was originally written by Elza / Jenna of GamerWaltz" will do.

List of Goals for This Year

Because I'm feeling wicked productive today, and lately for this blog as well, I have decided to write down a list of goals for what I would like to accomplish.
These aren't in any particular order.

• Complete all revisions for the Puppet Dance Performance Guide
• Review more MMORPGs because I play a lot of different MMORPGs
• Write a Newbie Guide for Guild Wars 2
• Write a Newbie Guide for DC Universe Online
• Write a Newbie Guide for Maplestory
• Write a Newbie Guide for Elsword
• Write some Pokémon guides
• Write a guide to Hyper Dimensional Neptunia Rebirth 1 (the one that's on Steam)
• Play more FFXIV: ARR
• Maybe invest in a Capture Card to do Let's Plays/Guides/Whatever
• Draw fan-art of something-or-other because I need to practice drawing anyway
• Figure out what format/polycount/etc MikuMikuDance models need to conform to so I can make some because I need to practice 3D modeling anyway
• Make some animations of something-or-other because I need to practice animating anyway
• Keep watching Steam for games I want to play
• Get my boyfriend to write a Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Returns guide because he is amazing at that game
• Get one of my friends to write a guide for any Metroid game because he's amazing at all of them
• Get my friends to write guides in general because they generally surpass me at console games
• Revive my DeviantArt account maybe
• Locate my Paint Tool Sai activation code because I need it on one of my functioning computers because Photoshop and I do not get along very well.
• Defeat my boyfriend at Pokémon because no one's ever beaten him at it and I think I should try.
• Beat Dragon Age: Inquisition, Portal 2, and Dark Souls because I have them and have been too lazy to beat them because my love for console games is not equal to my love of MMOs.
• Beat Mass Effect 3 finally because I'm on Citadel DLC and I haven't left the DLC because I don't want to beat the game because the ending makes me cry every single time :(
• Dress nicer because I feel like I've been lazy in the past year with my outfits. It's time to go shopping on Closet Child again. I've been out of Lolita for too long; it's time to go back.
• Make a team of six level 100 Espurrs on Pokémon and then fight online with them. Because Espurr is my favorite Pokémon and this sounds amazing.

I've given up on focusing. I shall embrace my scatterbrained-ness!

"Initial" Thoughts on Elsword

"Initial" because I've technically played it before, but I didn't understand anything, and I'm actually making an effort to understand now.

First of all, it doesn't seem to me to be Pay to Win because I've done my research, and it would appear that the only thing that is absolutely necessary to buy is a B-Slot and that is only necessary for certain characters (Elemental Masters, for example). I'm still not 100% sure what a B-Slot is, but I know it's important for some characters.

Knockdown is bad, but I haven't quite figured out how to avoid it. I found a list of "User-Created Combos," many of which promise to avoid knockdown, but they feel really difficult to execute. This all reminds me of Soul Calibur and how there are some really powerful combos that you can pull off in practice mode, but when you're actually fighting someone there is no way you'll be able to pull it off under pressure. I don't want to be yelled at by my party if I ever join one, but I also don't think I can pull off half those combos. I can do the infinite combo for Aisha (ZZ cancel with < > and then continue), but even that doesn't seem all that practical. Especially since that doesn't seem all that powerful. XXXholdX felt really powerful, but it knocks down, and I'm supposed to be content with ZZ stop ZZ stop ZZ stop? It feels weird! Regardless, it is all rather confusing and makes me afraid to join a dungeon group. So, soloing for now!

Soloing doesn't feel as painful as it does in some other games. I'm willing to accept the lower exp gains than I would get in a party, and I feel like I'm picking up the character easier on my own. Plus! Less stress! If I lose in a dungeon by myself, I am not putting anyone else out!

That said, I am worried about the Magician 3/4 quest where I have to complete The Suburbs of Wally's Castle on Very Hard mode. I managed to do 1/4 where I had to complete the dungeon on Normal with a score of B or higher, and I did that in one try. Took two runs through to complete 2/4 where I had to defeat a certain number of Phorus, because there weren't enough in the dungeon for one run through. Really worried about 3/4 though? I was barely alive throughout Hard Mode because Bomber Mongs beat me up. William Phoru himself isn't too bad because he can just be kited around and I can teleport away from his attacks, once I kill the Mongs. The problem isn't the final stage, it's the stages before that!

I remember having a lot more trouble with The Suburbs of Wally's Castle when I first played the game as an Eve. I'm glad that I'm not having that much trouble now. I suspect that the difference is that I hadn't played Soul Calibur yet when I first played this game, because Soul Calibur taught me how to do combos like this game.

On to soloing! Maybe someday I'll become really good at it and I'll do guides on how to do them or something! That would be nice, wouldn't it? I haven't died yet, but I know that the dungeons just keep getting harder, so we'll see how far I'll go.

Not certain...

Hooked on Elsword at the moment, which is a good thing, since the fast movements and clicking really helps with my anxiety.

Problem is, I don't know what character I want to focus on (surprise surprise)!

I have an Aisha, Rena, Eve, Ara, and Elesis. I primarily want to solo, I think. Mainly because I'm worried because I read online that knocking things down is really bad to do, but I can't find any combos that don't knock things down. I get why it's bad, I just can't figure out how to avoid it? I might totally be doing something wrong though.

I've been playing my Aisha first, and, for example, she's got a whole bunch of combos that I've been working on memorizing. I read that just mashing Z or X is guaranteed to just knock things down, but even the combos that are combinations of the two seem to. That, and XXX hold X is really powerful. I checked the wiki and looked for the ones that said "without knocking down," but that's mainly Up X and such, which don't seem all that...practical?

But, anyway, I can't decide between Aisha Dimension Witch, Rena Night Watcher, or Ara Asura. I'm not really liking Elesis that much, and as far as I read it seems like Eve is going to require a "B Slot" no matter what class I choose with her, and I don't really want to get a B Slot just yet.

Ah well, I'll stick with my Aisha for now, because I'm quite enjoying her. I'm just worried that I'll make the wrong choice and wish I'd gone for Void Princess instead of Dimension Witch...

Gimme Your MMORPG Recommendations!

I'm in a "try out new MMOs" kind of mood.

Currently downloading La Tale and RIFT, and re-downloading Dragon Nest, Ragnarok II, and Elsword.

But, I want more recommendations! And give reasoning as to why it's a good MMO. I also don't mind going back to games that I have played before since I things can change and such.

PvE MMOs only please. No MOBAs and no PvP-centric games.

MMOs I've played and enjoyed at some point in my life:

World of Warcraft - WoW's group content makes me anxious. Like most other things about it though. Not good experience with the community, however...
Guild Wars 2 - Great fun and love the customization, but I really miss the traditional paradigm of DPS/Healer/Tank. I like healing :(
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn - Super fun, but leveling another class is a pain. Would play this all the time but I don't want to pay for the subscription all the time. Looking for something free-er.
DC Universe Online - Really fun but, again, something a bit more free would be nice. Yes, I know I can technically play for free, but not having the DLCs is a pain.
Maplestory - Community is ick. Love the controls and combat, and the variety of classes.
FlyFF - Nope. Not playing this ever again. Nope nope nope. Grind is not worth it in this case. Liked the armor in this game, but that's abut it.
Mabinogi - Love the concept; hate the controls and graphics.
Dragon Nest - Not really any customization. Fun to play though.
Ragnarok Online II - Doesn't seem to have a very active community. Didn't stick with it long enough to develop an opinion besides that.
Elsword - Not much customization. Fun to play, but confusing at times.
Eden Eternal - The combat feels slow and clumsy. I don't know why, but it does. Very cute game with armor and weapons that I like.
Aura Kingdom - Pretty much the same thing as Eden Eternal, except clumsier feeling.
TERA - Pretty great game, but it absolutely kills my computer. And unlike FFXIV, turning down the graphics doesn't help all that much (and you can't se how gorgeous this game is then).
Toontown Online / Toonown Rewritten - Not always in the mood for this lovely game.
Pirates of the Caribbean Online - Shut down. Not aware of a replacement.
Divina Online - Shut down. Can play in Japanese, but I don't know Japanese.
Lucent Heart - Shut down.
Iris Online - Shut down.

Oh, and please don't say Scarlet Blade because I have so minimal interest for that.

I really like when games try something new as well, whether it be classes or mechanics.

Minimal spiders is preferable. I remember I tried a game once (I can't remember what it was called. I know it was rereleased under a different name, but I don't remember what, or if it still exists), but I couldn't play it because pretty much all the enemies were spiders. Wasn't good for me. The game was such a fun concept too :(

I need a ton of MMOs to keep my attention since I switch between them so frequently...

So give me recommendations!

Oh, and I can give recommendations too! I'm good at that!