Ald Demo

Call it a hobby within a hobby if you will, but one of my favorite activities within the MMO landscape is collecting screenshots.  One particular type of screenshot that i love taking is of character names that catch my eye, and not in a good way.  It's more of a pet peeve than anything but i absolutely despise characters with terrible names.  It's an immersion breaking aspect for me, as silly as that may sound to some!

I'm not sure what possesses people to not give a damn about their names but they constantly amaze me with their creativity and more often silliness.  I guess i just don't understand putting so little thought into something they're going to be looking at for the next few years.  I suppose they don't care though, which is a shame in and of itself.

Despite not having played GW2 in over a year now, i amassed quite a collection during that time.  Some of them are actually quite clever, to be honest, while some are down right stupid.  I've posted these numerous times on our community forum but never on here for some reason.  So here they are in all their glory.  Which one's your favorite?

My Frost DK transmog set is very close to completion.  I've been working on it since i hit 90 and only missing the head piece at this point.  Unfortunately Cho'gall, Valiona and Theralion are being stingy with the drops.  While i really dig the dual wield axe look with this set, i'm probably going to go and try to farm myself a Hailstorm for the ultimate cliche Frost DK setup.  I think it'll look amazing so i don't care if it's been done a million times before!  Here's to hoping Malygos is a bit nicer with the RNG.

Well it didn't take me long to completely redo my UI yet again.  This being the 5th time in as many weeks as I've been playing the game.  This time i went with ElvUI, which is an all in one but very configurable to the last frame.  I really dig the unified and clean look it provides while not losing any functionality from my previous setup.  The only remnants of my old UI are Magic Runes and Three Rune Bar to track my diseases. Lots and lots of tinkering to do yet, which is a game within a game for me.

During my leveling process, i fell in love with Mik Scrolling Battle Text.  It uncluttered all my damage numbers and condensed them into one simple frame.  Since i like minimal with less clutter, it was a perfect fit for my UI setup.  That is until i started doing some raids and reassessing my UI needs and layout functionality.

I realized how much i missed seeing damage numbers on top of enemy heads.  This was even more evident on trash pulls and adds.  Being able to see all the mobs i have dots rolling on individually is a lot more visual and intuitive than having them all combined together into one area.  Of course this creates a massive clusterfuck on my screen when there's lots of mobs but i actually seem to prefer it for this specific situation.

The other issue i had was how much i couldn't stand the default floating combat text font.  Not only is it a boring style but looked quite pixelated as well.  Well hurray for Font Damage Changer which let me change the text to any one of the hundred or so fonts i happen to already have for Photoshop projects.  Now my problem lies in actually choosing which one i like more than the next and sticking to it for more than a few hours.

Floydian Normal

Levi Rebrushed

Shogun's Clan

Double Feature

After taking my sweet time, my frost DK finally hit the magical level cap.  I think i get the playstyle and overall requirements of the class to finally get into some more difficult content and, dare i say, raiding.  For now i think i'll run around Timeless Isle and gear up through the chests scattered all over the island.  I hear many deaths are awaiting me as i do that though so we'll see.  I'm rocking pretty much all quest greens so i have no doubts about that.  I also managed to snag a new mount which i'm assuming is the official "dk mount".  Onward to my treasure chests i go.

As I've mentioned previously, i'm a huge fan of desert zones in my MMO's.  It was no secret i couldn't wait to get to Uldum for the first time.  I was curious how WoW implemented and handled my favorite MMO climate.  What came as a surprise once i began questing there was entire Indiana Jones tie in.  It was completely unexpected but i guess I've been living under a rock for nine years.

Since i'm a huge fan of both Indie and deserts, it should be no surprise i loved Uldum.  Loved every second of almost every quest there.  I was bummed to see that the exp range for the zone only covered one level.  I managed to stretch it out to a level and a half by doing everything minus the dungeons.  I'll probably go back and mess with them later.  For now it's off to Pandaland, monkeys, and possibly snakes.  Why'd it have to be snakes?