The end-of-expansion doldrums

My WoW playing time has dropped off a cliff over the past few weeks. My motivation to gear up any further is mostly gone, though that isn’t anything new. I always feel like that at the end of an expansion when I know quest greens and dungeon blues are about to replace all my purples. There’s nothing wrong with that. I look forward to getting the new gear and starting fresh.

But for some reason this lack of new content just feels worse than previous expansions. I’m guessing this is due to a complete and utter lack of WoW news. I don’t want to say they promised it, but the way devs were talking at BlizzCon certainly implied that Warlords would be out sooner than normal. Now we know this is not the case and the lull in content may even be longer than Cataclysm’s. Dragon Soul lasted about 10 months, and Siege of Orgrimmar is going to have its 10 month birthday on July 10th. Judging by the estimate of a fall release, SoO is going to last a minimum of 12 months. Also, does anyone else feel weird using their Warlords mount and pet 6 months before the expansion actually comes out?

I think the 90 boosts added a little longevity for some people, but not for me really. Like I said earlier, my main goals for the expansion — in short, killing final boss while it was current (just normal) and completing gold challenge modes — are complete, and my motivation to gear either my main or alts is pretty much gone. Now, if I knew there was more PvE content for Mists on the horizon? Then I would definitely have some motivation. Instead I’m just saving my boost for Warlords.

Making normal and heroic SoO cross-realm was a great move by Blizzard. I know plenty of people who were stuck doing flex because of their lack of a regular raid team who are now killing bosses in normal mode. That’s great!

What to do…

I’ve been trying to think of some other things to tick off my WoW bucket list but I’m beginning to run out of ideas. A while ago I went on a mission to farm up all 3 of the Primordial Direhorn mounts (shortly after farming up 9999 bones for that white raptor). That was a pretty profitable venture and it only took me a couple of days to get all 3 mounts.

Transmog farming has kept me somewhat busy too, and I still do it actively on one of my alt hunters, but the hunt has ended on my main. It’s not for a lack of gear to farm, it’s simply due to the fact that I am out of space. Void storage, bank, and inventory (all with 28-slot bags) is chock full of toy items and transmog gear. I’ve managed to free up 10 slots to allow me to actually loot things, but I literally can’t farm anything else without deleting something. I’m not about to delete any toys with the “toybox” interface on the way, and I’ve already cleaned out transmog gear I will probably never use. But I’m not going to delete some of these sets I spent so much time farming. The Black Scourgestalker from Ulduar 10 was my last completed set, and that tapped me out.

Taming rare pets is mostly done on my main hunter. I have all the spirit beasts and any rares I want, but I am still actively collecting some of my favorites on one of my alts.

There’s PvP I suppose, but I hate the barrier to entry with PvP gear. Oh, and I literally do not have the room for another gear set without deleting one of my transmog sets. Which do I get rid of?

You know, that is one thing Blizzard could do that would keep me interested. Release the inventory improvements to the game NOW, before patch 6.0. The toybox alone would free up at least 80-90 slots for me, and I’d be more inclined to farm transmog gear and maybe a competent PvP set. In general, just getting the 6.0 pre-patch out as soon as possible is key to keeping people invested. Normally, these are out 3-4 weeks before an expansion. I’m hoping they can push that out sooner, or at least parts of it.

And beta… for the love of everything, please get this beta out, Blizzard.  I’d love to be in it so I could test the crap out of the hunter class, but even if I’m not, at least there will be something to talk and speculate about. Something to get excited about. No more philosophical blog posts. Give me some hard info!

The other games

I’ve been playing a little of Elder Scrolls Online and having a fun time. This is not a game of the same caliber as WoW, but as an Elder Scrolls fan it’s been worth my time so far. I’m playing it purely for the exploration and story. I don’t care about how fast I level up, I don’t care about having the best gear, I just want to explore Tamriel. What I’ve actually realized is that the game rewards this play style, which is crazy to me. Exploring results in actual character power increases — both through skill points and collection of crafting materials, which seemingly allow you to craft top-tier gear by yourself.

I’m not sure how long it’ll hold my attention, but I’d wager it’ll be for a few months at least. Maybe even longer than SWTOR did? We’ll see. WoW is still my numero uno, but I’ve got to play something to keep me going during this downtime!

Oh, and then there’s Reaper of Souls. What Diablo 3 should have been originally. I am having a tough time splitting my gaming time between RoS and ESO. There’s been many late nights with battletag friends where we keep going “just one more rift” or “just one more set of bounties to see if we can get those shrine gloves.” I’ve only really focused on my Demon Hunter so far. Haven’t touched my Wizard or made a Crusader yet, so the game is just getting started.

Summer time

If there’s one positive thing about having to wait until the fall for Warlords, it’s the fact that I will be enjoying this summer (outside!) a little more than I would be otherwise. I tend to go a little crazy at the beginning of an expansion. I’d rather be doing that while it’s cold and rainy outside instead of warm and sunny.

This blog is still going to be regularly updated in the meantime.  I am sure I’ll have some actual hunter news to talk about soon enough. 🙂 Hang in there.

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