Advice to anyone new to WoW

I think that one of my biggest issues with finding a character I enjoy playing is that I unconsciously cut myself off from certain classes/specs.

For example, my first character was a Druid. I thought that a Druid would be the class I would most enjoy because I like cats. That was an incorrect assumption because I can't seem to stick with a Druid for further than level 30 or so. Try as I might, I can't seem to stick with Feral, and Balance has been weird for me since the changes to how the Eclipse bar functions. I can't get into Resto healing, and we'll get into my experiences with tanking later.

My second character was a Warlock. I chose this one on a whim. Also, not really the best choice. I can't seem to stick with a Warlock past level 20. The highest I think was 25 and that was Affliction. Demonology and Destruction appear to be no-goes for me.

My first level 90 was a Windwalker Monk. I made her because Monk was brand-new and I was leveling with my father, who also made a Monk (although he stopped playing his Monk at level 30). For a while, I was the highest level Monk in my guild at the time before I was inevitably distracted and surpassed.

My absolute favorite class to play is Shadow Priest, which was one I never expected. I initially made my first Shadow Priest, Ariadust, to be a Discipline healer, but queues were slow so I switched over to Shadow to level. And I loved it. I only made a new Shadow Priest, Toyosatomimi, because I fell in love with the new human female models, and Toyosatomimi was boosted up to level 90. Toyosatomimi is now my reigning main character.

And time and time again, I find myself enjoying characters that I never expected.

I always thought I would like Arms Warrior best, but I am really enjoying Fury. I always assumed Elemental Shaman was right for me, but I am having more fun than I have in a while leveling an Enhancement Shaman.

And some specs change frequently for me. Last time I played I was really into Arcane Mage, but now I'm not so sure. Maybe it's time to give Frost a chance, since I've been bored of Fire lately too.

And as for Rogues? Well, I've only ever played Subtlety, so it's time to check out Combat and Assassination too.

My advice to new players is this: For some people, choosing a class is easy and they can stick with it and for others the choice takes a long time to find what you love. My advice is to not box yourself in to any specific classes or assume you won't like something. A class will click for you, you just have to find the right one. Mine is Shadow Priest, although I enjoy messing with other classes too, of course.

Oh, and that applies for roles too. Be sure to try healing, DPS, and tanking at some point. You may hate them, but do try them just for the sake of trying.
I quite enjoy healing in groups, dislike DPS in groups, and I don't like to talk about tanking because I am an incapable tank and I feel bad for the groups I tried to tank for. I am so sorry to anyone who had to witness that.

Okay, I've got a plan

First of all, the Neptune guide is temporarily abandoned because it was FAR more work than I anticipated. I'll be taking down the page right after I'm done typing this. It will happen in the future, just that future is not right this second. Sorry :(

Secondly, I'm back to WoW again. I revamped my account so that all names are now Touhou related. Which makes me very happy. I also chose the name specifically so that if someone was to look up the name the first thing that comes up is related to Touhou. This sadly limited my choices, but I like the idea of this better.

I probably should have chosen a different name for my Paladin than Shoutoramaru because that looks dumb, but both Shou and Toramaru did not direct to Touhou as the first result on Google, and Shou is my absolute favorite Touhou character so I wanted to have her included regardless. She will also be my jewelcrafter, of course :)

I also now have all of my necessary heirlooms at their base 1-60 levels (thanks to Toyosatomimi's ability to solo old content fantastically to earn money), which is good enough for now. Goal #2 is to upgrade them all to the 1-90 variant. I don't care about the 90-100 upgrade so much because 1) I don't mind WoD leveling and 2) 3,000 total for upgrades per piece is a bit excessive for me.

This is kind of insane

The sheer amount of people in the newbie zones in WoW is insane. To the point where I feel bad for any new players.

I'm in the Night Elf starting zone trying to do the quest "Vile Touch" where you have the kill Githyiss the Vile. There are about 10 of us waiting here, and dozens of Githyiss corpses. We have to wait for it to spawn and then one out of 10 gets the kill, meanwhile, three more people have arrived and are waiting.

And if I grab it I'll feel like a jerk since I'm in full heirlooms and no one else is wearing any...

I don't know, this seems like one of those situations where CRZ should be turned off.  When there's so many people trying to do a single quest that it becomes intrusive or something. Because I'm sitting here with a whole bunch of people that aren't from my realm or the realm mine is connected to, all waiting for a thing to spawn in a newbie zone. The zones are fine once you get past the level 20 or so areas, but up until then, it's extremely frustrating.

Okay

I'm going to start writing a Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth 1 guide.
But I just want everyone to know that this is not going to be written nearly as quickly as my Puppet Dance Performance guide purely because this game is extraordinarily grind-heavy at times.

But, it's happening regardless, just not quickly.

On to writing!

Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth 1 PC Tips

Finally got around to getting the rest of the DLCs, so I've been playing this again, and I was just thinking of some things that I know now that would have been nice to have known earlier.

So, here's a list!

• Always carry around plenty of Healing items (Grass, Pods, Nep Bull, etc.) just in case Compa gets downed.
• Always carry some Paralaxin. Nothing can mess up a battle more than 2/3 of your party being paralyzed.
• Carry around as many Life Fragments as you can afford. Compa doesn't get a resurrect until a lot later, and you'll die before then, guaranteed.
• Always check outfits and accessories for stat increases. Later on they'll be so minimal that they won't really matter, but early on, every little bit helps. As an example, Vert's Military Dress outfit and Sister accessory both raise her stats a bit. It's certainly not necessary to wear the stat-raising items, but it can sometimes be nice to have the little boost.
• Buy Life Rings. They are so great to have.
•  Always check the Commands > Combo Skills available to each character. They get new ones when leveling up, and most of them are upgrades. Aim for the best result, preferably with all three slots per type filled. Always check the number of hits on each attack, and do your math. For example, Plutia's "Breaker!" Break attack, at first glance appears to be the best due to its 230 Guard Damage, when in fact "Punishment!" is much better because it does 3 hits of 146 damage each, for a total of 438 Guard damage.
• Rush attacks mean that they hit a lot of times, so aim for a lot of hits there, with either Power or Guard Break. Power attacks deal more damage to an enemies HP than Guard, so aim for high Power attacks. Break attacks deal damage to the enemies Guard gauge, so aim for high Guard Break there.
• Be aware of what each character can do. Plutia, Rom, Broccoli, and Compa are all good at healing, for example, but only Rom and Compa can resurrect, and all characters have buffs to provide to the party. For example, IF can do an emergency heal with "Green Nova," and can raise an allies TEC with "Tech Support."
• Make sure that you unlock at least 1 Candidate in your first playthrough, preferably two. The best ones to go through at first, in my opinion, are Ran + Rom, then Nepgear, and then Uni. Reason being that Ran + Rom is a two-for-one and Rom's "Refreshments" ability is extraordinarily useful. Nepgear does pretty great damage (not great Guard Break damage though), while Uni is better at Guard Breaking, it seems like to me.
• Early on, level up against Child Whales in Mechtro Factory (Add Enemies required). They're kind of tedious at first, but good exp. They also drop Holy Whale Balls which can be used to complete the "Challenger" guild quest, which gets you money! Setting up for this is kind of a pain though. First, you need to unlock the Zeca Ruins No. 1 dungeon via a plan, which only requires Dogoo-Man Jelly (available in one of the early dungeons). Then you need to get to the point where you can kill Shampurus easily, including the Buff Shampuru. Then do the Mechtro Factory plan which requires Shampuru Ears, and get the Add Enemies plan which requires a Random Encounters chip (which can drop off of the Buff Shampuru). Generally, killing the Child Whales will require at least one CPU in HDD form to beat quickly and easily. You might also want the Weaken Enemies plan on. Just saying. You need a Mysterious Glowing Object, but I don't remember where you get it...
• If you see an Information pop up in Planeptune under the name Polytan, ignore it until you do the next bullet point here.
• Check the shops frequently, especially the Processors. As soon as you see the Terra processors pop up, you're in luck. Buy three sets of the Terra stuff when you can, and get to a point in the game where you have three CPUs with you that can use HDD. Equip all three with the Terra processors. And make sure you have the Coliseum unlocked. As long as you have the Fairy Fencer F DLC (which is free, by the way) installed, you may see a Polytan event pop up in Planeptune. Normally these things are pretty deadly, but they only do Electric type attacks. Having a full set of Terra processors makes you 100% immune to Electric type attacks, and therefore, the Polytans cannot hurt you. Killing them the first time will unlock a very good processor set for Neptune, and unlock the Polytan DENGEKI Fest Coliseum match. Doing this match over and over will get you a TON of exp. Usually 10+ levels each match pre-level-100.
• Speaking of the one above, get the DLCs as soon as you can. It's under $7 for all of them, and they are really useful. Plutia, Histoire, and Peashy are all very powerful, and having all three content packs gives your more quests, coliseum matches, and allows you to get up to level 999.
• Disk development, Disk development, Disk development! If you have a character that isn't equipped with a Disk, then go make one for them.
• Pick up every item you find in dungeons. Sometimes you'll get a Chip that you can use for Disk development. You've hit the jackpot if you happen to pick up a Crazy Difficult or Can't Grind, because those make you level faster if equipped to a disk!
• Do your Plans, particularly the System ones like Destroy Symbols, and Sneaking Scope. Also, definitely do Coliseum Unlock. System > Battle Plans are also great, like Escape Anywhere, Super EXE Drive, 100% Escape, Negative Status Reduced, Break Damage Limit, and Weaken Enemies. Fortify Enemies is also useful at higher levels.
• Check your Dungeon plans often. It's generally a good idea to unlock any dungeons you can, and do the plans for Add Enemies and Item Change.
• Definitely do Item Dev. > Item plans too, since they let you buy recovery items in the shop, which is vital (particularly the Plan for Life Fragments!). The rest of the Item Dev. Plans are more optional, and you may even want to avoid doing them so you can save MBs for the Candidate plans later...
• Find a party that you like to use. Early on in the game I used Compa, Vert, and Blanc most of the time. I always liked to have Compa in my party for heals. Now, at level 100+, I use Plutia, Rom, and Nepgear, and at endgame Broccoli is always in my team.
• Pay attention to one characters you set as backup party members. If you know you won't be needing to switch, check what abilities they get from their Lily Ranks. Some characters, like IF, give exp bonuses!
• Don't use an EXE Drive until the enemy's guard is broken.
• An enemies guard goes back up a little every time they attack, but quite a bit if their guard was broken. If you're trying to use a specific character's EXE Drive, get the enemy's guard down really low, but don't break it until you are positive the character you want to EXE will get to attack before the enemy does.
• Do anything that lowers the Others shares. They're useless to get the True Ending or for unlocking Candidates, and it will mean less grinding at end-game to get it down.

I'll add more when I think of more.

What My Ideal MMORPG Would Be

Just was thinking about what I'm really looking for in a game, and what I would ideally want in a game. Sadly, I do not think this game exists, but, here we go:

(These are in no particular order. They're just the order I thought of them)

• MMORPG
• PvP balanced separately from PvE
• Lots of variety for PvE content (raids, dungeons, two-player content, solo content, etc.)
• Large-scale PvP, with a focus on defense and teamwork
• Very customizable player housing (doesn't have to be as customizable as Wildstar, because that seems like an unreasonable expectation)
• Farming (of the agricultural variety)
• Lots and lots of classes to pick from
• Interesting crafting, materials gathered from player farm/housing
• Vanity pets (I like cats)
• Vanity outfits (like WoW transmog or FFXIV Glamour, etc.)
• Fast-paced combat that isn't just point and click. Need to utilize more than one ability to succeed
• At the same time, not too many abilities that it becomes overwhelming
• Lots of unique gear
• Graphics that aren't too realistic, and not chibi. Leaning towards anime-style-ish. More cute than gritty.
• Buy to play with vanity cash shop
• Holy trinity advised
• Dungeon finder or equivalent
• Good character customization (aesthetically). No gender-locks or anything like that
• Good character customization (mechanically). Able to mess with stat builds, skill builds, etc.
• Interesting equip customization system. Lots of ways to customize your equipment to suit your needs
• Fantasy setting preferable. Sci-fi or steampunk are also OK

So basically, Hyper Dimension Neptunia + Maplestory + Guild Wars 2 + Wildstar + DC Universe Online. With a bit of Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing thrown in.

Me finding a game to stick with is a hopeless cause :(

That said, if a game exists that miraculously meets all this criteria, do let me know, please! I think the closest I can probably get is GW2, but I hate not being able to play a dedicated healer. 

Playing FFXIV again!

I've been playing FFXIV for the free days this week, and I'm thinking of renewing my subscription for this month.

I've restarted on the Mateus server. Name is still Cardboard Viking.

If you see me, feel free to say hello, just please do not stalk me and bow at me because that's happened to me twice now and it's really creepy. So please don't.

If I was not moving before you approached me, assume I am AFK. If I stop moving after you talk to me, assume I am formulating a response, which can be quite the process for me.

You know how if you see a deer in the road, they kind of freeze up and just stare at you for a second? I do that when approached, so please bare with me. :)