Catching up

I haven't posted in a bit, not because I've stopped blogging, but I just haven't had much game time of note recently. Between the mother-in-law being in town and Diablo III launching, I've been busy. I've definatly retired the Shaman for a bit, the damage was just not there, so the fights lasting too long was getting to me. I've been bouncing around between different toons, trying to find one that felt right to me. While I've had alot of fun, it is reminding me of how Vanguard seems to be made for at least a duo. The power of two is WAY stronger then one person alone. Unfortunatly, I'm unable to really devote a solid block of time into trying to find a static group, so the going is slow. I'll start narrowing down what to do soon(by soon I mean after the diablo frenzy has faded). I've joined a guild, they seem like a pretty solid group of people, there is activity online at all times of the day, people are very helpful with advice/low level quest help. If you ask a question, it's usually answered right away, unless they are raiding. While they have a guild hall, it seems more like it's being used as a chest holding recall spot then the center of activity for events. I walked around it once, and it was fairly baren. Well, one of the guildies decided it was time to fix that, and was looking for help crafting some of the high end stuff to make it look more lively. When I first started playing Vanguard, I had some crafters. Playing on the FFA PVP server meant that once you got over LVL 7 adventuring you were open game for player delivered death. My first toon was an armorsmith warrior, and I leveled both as I went, striving to keep my crafting level even with my adventuring level. It soon became apparent that crafting was fairly impossible, people would swing by the crafting stations to see if there was someone to gank. So I started making my crafting alts. Level a toon to 6, then never level again, and use them for crafting. While it was less then awesome knowing that my adventuring toons couldn't craft, it was amazing not having to worry about getting killed while making a crazy expensive piece of gear. Soon I got into the habit of crafting whenever I had game time but none of my friends were online, and that was a large chunk of time. I ended up with almost four max level crafters. So, when the call for help went out to improve the look of the guild hall, I figured I'd help these people that have helped me so much. Boy was I in for a shock. The crafting system of Vanguard is one of the greatest I've ever seen in a game. It is it's own minigame. Unlike most recent games where the "crafting" was really all about harvesting then hitting the "make all" button, Vanguard makes it rewarding in it's own right. Granted, it's about as mind stimulating as Farmville, but it makes a relaxing mini game to handle erratic game time hours, or just to blow a couple of minutes/hours doing something different. I don't really have the desire or time to get into a hardcore end game guild anymore, I have done it in the past and it was amazing. However, now that I have a kid(soon two) I really can't justify spending that much time in a mandatory "must play" atmostphere. Plus, my job dictates that I spend months at a time with no internet, so I would always be a bit behind the power/gear curve, and that's not fine with me. All that aside, I would still enjoy the chance to raid occasionally. Join a raiding guild as a social, help out with lower level problem, crafting stuff to help other out, and maybe occasionally they need another for a run they're doing and I can hop in and kill internet dragons. This seems like a fairly likely game to make that possible. Anyways, off to work for me, I might make a Diablo post or two, or I might just pause this till my time there fades. Either way, have a good one and remember, games are for fun, so refuse to get angry or frustrated at your pixels!