114773-9-28-morning-coffee-the-return-from-abroad-edition

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You know, I think yesterday was the first day since headstart I didn't play in the game, and it's certainly the first I didn't post anything here.  But I had a good reason yesterday!  AND I HAVE PICS (as promised, though taking pictures are usually my least favorite part of the Ren Fest)!  First, some food....
 
 
I spent my day at the Ohio Ren Fest with my mother, stepfather, brother, niece, my wife's friend and her husband.  The awesomenes should speak for itself.  This year kind of became my wife's costume update year.  She started out wearing an old steampunk outfit, and I started in my current outfit (I had a lot of things I wasn't wearing anymore; as you get older, you get stuff that doesn't break every year or two).  Shout out to an old WoW guildie of mine, Lilinae, who does custom work, she made my wife's entire first outfit and my shirt, and those things have lasted ages through some impressive wear.  If you'd like her contact information just ask, she does it well and she does it inexpensively.
 
 
I ended up getting some better pants (more billowy and more breathable, so it felt a lot cooler) and a new plume in my hat (I finally broke the old broach clip after some ten years, Ohio Ren Fest makes some quality stuff).  My wife was getting a bit annoyed because this outfit was, as I said, an old steampunk outfit she had used to pull double duty.  She was getting pissed that we kept stepping on her train and I think we pay have popped the stitches on part of her bustle doing that at one point.  So we went all out and got her an entirely new costume.  And my brother, who has been abroad serving in the Navy, also started a new outfit (love the employee photobombing our pic).
 
 
 
 
I know what you're thinking about that last pic.  Anyway, it was a great time!  Next year is a big investment year for me personally.  I'm supposed to get a leather gambeson and warhammer custom designed from two of the higher quality vendors here.  That might total up to 1500 dollars, which might be a little rich even for me.  We also usually go Lovers' Weekend, so we can renew our vows.  We might go multiple times next year, simply because we didn't get to catch any shows getting everyone's shopping done.  The Ren Fest is always a lot of fun, though.  There's your pics, for those who asked. :)
 
Thank God I'm home though, because I'm logging into Wildstar and not coming up for air until later tonight.  I guess I'll make up for my lack of playtime yesterday with a LOT more today.  The Blazing Saddles are going to be putting together a content group at around 7 pm today for anyone interested.  If it's just myself and four more, we'll run adventures, but I'm aiming for the full 20 so we can go around the world on World Bosses and events.  I'll also be on helping anyone in the guild that needs anything, and if no one does, I'll be on Donne moving him forward through Galeras.  Thankfully, I'll have him blitzed up to 50 long before Drop 3 so that when it hits, I can really go all out on the Shadowcaster.  I am going to start at least designing the thing soon (though it might be hard until Donne is a high enough level to place all the plugs we need to place).
 
If I come out of the came, it might be to write another draft for our backstory with more detail.  I think I've got all the feedback I'm going to get on it, and I'll incorporate it into the story as it exists.
 
Anyway, see you all in game!	
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Oh hey!  Found a better one!
 	
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Awesome pics Vic!  I miss Ren Faires - I have to find out when there's one around here now that I live out on the west coast.
 
I didn't hit the forums yesterday either - no reason really, just took a break from them for a day.
 
Today I have a guild officer's meeting and then we're going to go try our hands at the first ever vet mode dungeon run for the Daggers.  Should be interesting.	
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			Them elves are to pale!   It needs a  dark elf :P	
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			Good morning, coffee people! How's the science?Yesterday, I worked all day until 6pm. I normally would have gone home but I got a text from a friend of mine. We went to dinner followed by a karaoke bar until midnight. The trick? There were 15 of us! Getting 15 people inside a Japanese (we had ramen) restaurant without reservation is a nightmare. It was fantastic though and it cost me my voice, probably until Monday.Today is Toric Antevian's turn for no reason in particular. First character that came to mind and I am way too tired to think straight.In WildStar news, absolutely nothing. I log on every few hours, check the CX for AMPs and world BoEs then log out. First sign of a burnout. In spite of all the ideas people brought up, I still do not feel like any of them are worth my time. In fact, I could barely muster the will to post in the morning coffee thread.System critical! Which system? ALL SYSTEMS!	
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			Wondering about in dreams, for reality has a bad foot! So do not give someone a boot for it might hurt them! And blimey that is a cryptic way of saying what my day was like!	
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Wasn't on yesterday as well.  Slept in, then picked up friend who can't drive, gathered the other friends and we hit one of our local gaming stores, I had money, so I bought Citadels, Get Lucky(Card version of Kill Dr. Lucky), and Tales from the Red Dragon Inn #2, as well as the new PH and MM for 5th ed.  We played Citadels for a couple hours, then some Pirate Fluxx, and finished the night at a local Japanese restaurant.  Came home, checked mail, and slept.
 
In wildstar news, I am anxious for the survivalist changes to come in, cause trying to gather zone food items is a paaaaaaaaaaiiiiiinnnnnn.	
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Rocio now has a tiny little baby kit! He's so cute! He looks like Rocio too... Except he has blue hair. Ha gotta have blue hair.
 
His claws are too long to be retracted into his hands all the way so his mom was like "Look at his little claws!"
 
So now his name is Luke Littleclaws!	
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Rocio now has a tiny little baby kit! He's so cute! He looks like Rocio too... Except he has blue hair. Ha gotta have blue hair.
 
His claws are too long to be retracted into his hands all the way so his mom was like "Look at his little claws!"
 
So now his name is Luke Littleclaws!
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			Awesome pics, Vic. Looks like a blast! I'd go just for the food alone haha.	
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What is the gestation period for Aurin?
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Nursery WIP	
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			That's like voyeuring on a couple teens post-procreate, Rocio!	
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Awesome Pic's Vic.
 
However, I am saddened.  The fact these coffee threads have gone from 200 plus replies to less than 20, two days in a row.....I wish this game wasn't dying.  But holy hell, its dying.  Outrageous  PvP ques, more terrible class balancing.....  	
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Awesome Pic's Vic.
 
However, I am saddened.  The fact these coffee threads have gone from 200 plus replies to less than 20, two days in a row.....I wish this game wasn't dying.  But holy hell, its dying.  Outrageous  PvP ques, more terrible class balancing.....  
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Faction? When I queue on Dominion, it's ~5min; on Exile it's ~30min. This is at lvl50.
 
I casually farmed the whole blue set on my 2nd Domi character over a weekend; it felt so easy, I switched to the Exile toon to do the same, or tried to. Gave up on the queues and just went around lowbie zones finishing up path stuff for the cheap amp/ability unlocks. That Exile queue sucks hard, especially when Exile seems to lose more often than not. :mellow:	
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Faction? When I queue on Dominion, it's ~5min; on Exile it's ~30min. This is at lvl50.
 
I casually farmed the whole blue set on my 2nd Domi character over a weekend; it felt so easy, I switched to the Exile toon to do the same, or tried to. Gave up on the queues and just went around lowbie zones finishing up path stuff for the cheap amp/ability unlocks. That Exile queue sucks hard, especially when Exile seems to lose more often than not. :mellow:
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Awesome Pic's Vic.
 
However, I am saddened.  The fact these coffee threads have gone from 200 plus replies to less than 20, two days in a row.....I wish this game wasn't dying.  But holy hell, its dying.  Outrageous  PvP ques, more terrible class balancing.....  
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I wish I could say I found a reason to log in lately, but I haven't.
 
November is a bit far off. There's a lot of things to get in the way. I'm just happy my loves are in an active guild now and can run things with ease when everyone is on.	
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So.
 
Veteran dungeons are HARD.  I honestly cannot fathom trying to queue for those things with PUGs.  The level of skill and coordination needed is so high, it seems like it would be nearly impossible to do them without a group that had played together previously.
 
I just took a guild group into our first ever attempt at veteran STL.  We're all pros at doing the normal mode runs at this point.  The veteran modes seriously raise the challenge bar a lot - it was super fun.
 
We didn't finish, but we learned, and improved.  We only stopped because we were all starting to get tired and making stupid mistakes.  Next time, we'll totally get it down.  And then we'll keep doing it until it feels easy.
 
Then, it's on to the others :)  The vet mode dungeons are going to keep us busy for months mastering them - and then when we do, we'll have people fully ready to up the challenge bar again in GA.
 
I know that might seem like a wierd statement to many of you but the thing that's maybe different about our guild vs. many others is that we purposely take things slow.  We're still doing normal mode runs for our lower level folks, every week.  We're still taking time out to RP.  We still try to put together PvP nights for the people interested.  We do that because doing one thing too much leads to burnout, and worse, creates divisions in our community.  So we do everything, and then that way, we always have new stuff to do.  It's hard - we have to stop ourselves from doing more than one or two runs in an evening, and from scheduling things every day of the week - but we all watch out for each other and you know what, it helps.
 
I love my guild.  We play together, we die together (a lot), we learn together, and eventually, we win together.  I know that going into a dungeon with my guildmates, no one's ever going to complain if I make a stupid mistake and die, and no one's going to quit if we bang our heads against a boss and wipe a few times before we win.
 
Anyway, I feel bad for those of you that logged in today and couldn't find people to play with.  I wish I could give you all great guilds like mine.  But once the server merges happen, maybe it will be easier for everyone that stuck it out to find each other.  I won't blame anyone for taking most of October off of Wildstar if they're burned out on things and feel like their servers are empty, but I hope that most of you will come back and play once the merge happens.  This game is amazing fun to play with friends.  Personally, I'm not sure I'd be able to go back to a lesser MMO if Wildstar folded.  It's raised the bar that much.	
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/snip\
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I'll join that guild when merges happen sound like the guild I've been looking for which has been hard because I don't take chances on guilds that smear /z with a macro before the last one is off screen atleast.. I love the take it slow type, after I learn dynamics and mechanics as a DPS I tend to shift tank and then I feel obliged to run and yell at all the mobs as quickly as my healer allows in other games.. Which would be nice to have a group that doesn't push that style.. Because I like to sniff all the things! 
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These photographs are amazing! It looks like so much fun and I really want a Pretzel now. :P
 
:)	
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Nice pics! :)
 
((er ... the food is so not renaissance. ;) ))	
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You know, I think yesterday was the first day since headstart I didn't play in the game, and it's certainly the first I didn't post anything here.  But I had a good reason yesterday!  AND I HAVE PICS (as promised, though taking pictures are usually my least favorite part of the Ren Fest)!  First, some food....
 
 
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			Those triangular slabs look like "fish and chips" ( see the fries under them ). ;)	
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I ran content today, however we only pulled one person from a pug for one STL.  And we don't PVP because, well, I don't PVP and nobody else in the guild runs them.  So we don't invite any PVPers, nobody organizes them, nobody queues in.  Maybe if I had a proactive PVP officer, things would be different.  As it stands, I barely know enough to tank in PVE instances.
 
However, we're not doing too badly.  Either way, the best way to keep people logging in is to be proactive and make your guild/circle/friend's list a fun place to be.  That's the biggest problem with PUGs.  Everyone's had such bad experiences with people from them that, even if they're a small percentage, problem players have killed the pugs.  These days, it's premade or GTFO, because if one in five PUG players is a prick, you'll have a low percentage of good PUGs.
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Can't say that running regular Stormtalon's Lair wasn't fun. I wish running dungeons and adventures would happen more often. That is what I am craving at the moment and the time in-between such events bores me more and more. I went to bed last night slightly more enthused about this game simply because we ran something, even though there really was nothing worthwhile (for me) to get out of it.
 
@Nephele: Veteran dungeons are difficult but oh so incredibly fun! ...unless you mind the repair bill, haha! I wish I could run content as much as you guys :)
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Chua don't find dungeons that difficult anymore.
Agreed, first time is new and challenging, but once understand Mechanics, becomes routine of proper interrupting.
Last weekend, Chua managed to obtain Immortal while running Kel Voreth Veteran. Something chua not expected.
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			New thread started for today. :) 	
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