Moonlighting back in WoW :)

Hi,

Yep, I decided to play WoW again. But this time with a very casual approach, and not doing a Master Plan or have any goals etc. So, I decided that I'm going to run follower missions on all 22 of my 100s twice a day. This is to keep the gold flowing (for tokens if I decide I want to play beyond June). On the weekend I open all the salvage crates and vendor all the gear and items I get too. I'll also AH the really good stuff (Champion's Honor went for 14k :)) and get Draenic Dust from GRs and Savage Blood with Primal Spirits to sell on the AH too. That's it though. No chores, no profession stuff, no Shipyards, no Tanaan etc.

Also, I'm leveling a new character on a new realm, just for the fun of it. It's another Priestybrit :)

My new toon

I'm leveling on Garrosh, a nice quiet server. I was leveling on Stromrage, but it was just too crowded for my tastes, and I decided not to try and join the legacy raiding guild. Just get to 100 and then play one character a bit. I haven't decided whether to have a personal guild or not. I probably will, as it's annoying to get all the guild invites. BTW: got her to level 33 this morning.

Most of my time has been spent in Hearthstone this week. I've put Torchlight 2 on the back burner for now. In Hearthstone, Ive been doing my quests, Tavern Brawl (one and done), and playing a lot of Ranked on US and EU. My card pool on US is a lot better (with all adventures bought), but on the EU I only have the first two wings of Naxx completed. I did get to Rank 15 on US with face Hunter, and got to rank 17 on EU with Mid-range Hunter.

EU Mid-range Huner

US Face Hunter

I stalled out on EU at Rank 17, getting a lot of losses and now back to Rank 19. On US, I'm going strong still at Rank 15.

In Music, not a lot to report this week. I'm still uploading CDs, and am still on the letter M. Madness, Madonna, Material Issue, Paul McCartney, Amie Mann, etc.

One thing I did do this week that you might be interested in. I was having trouble with Album Artwork. iTunes wasn't able to get Album Arkwork for about 70 albums. I could find no way to click on the Ablum Art to change it. Well, I got it figured out.

You just right click on any song within the Album. Then click on 'Get Info'. This brings up a pop up box, and one of the tabs is Artwork. Then google the ablum, got to Images, download the right image, and then click on 'Update Artwork' to put in the new Artwork. I'm so happy. I guess I should have just googled it, but oh well, got it figured out.

I also purchased a new Album. I realized that I have Keane's album Hope and Fears, but I didn't have Under the Iron Sea. So I purchased it. Keane is a great band, along the same lines as something like Coldplay, and would highly recommend these two albums:

In beer, I wanted to highlight one beer that is local to the area I live in. In fact, it's got its own section in the Beer book I have. Steam Beer. It's the only entry in that category. Anchor Steam. Gold rush people wanted a lager type beer, but there were no cool caves like in Bavaria to brew it. So, it's a cross of techniques between a Lager and Ale. The name steam beer refers to the heavy carbonation leading to steam sound when a Keg was popped.

Anchor Steam

In fact, we were out for Dinner for Valentine's Day yesterday. I was driving, so could only have one beer, and a I made it an Anchor Steam :)

That's it folks, more next week about my foray back into WoW, how I get on an Ranking in Hearthstone, some more album recommendations, and another featured beer.

Cheers.

Settled on a couple of games

Hi,

Hello there, and welcome to my new blog. Let's talk about gaming first.

I recently purchased a couple of things on Steam, and tried them out for the while. The first was the Rising Tides expansion for Civ Beyond Earth. I came to like Beyond Earth a lot lately, after playing Civ 5 instead for quite a while.

Playing nice with aliens

I won one game easily getting Promised Land victory after clearing out most of my Continent and was now trying a non combat game, even against aliens.

Also, on the recommendation of +Qelric on twitter, I bought Darkest Dungeon. Boy, what a punishing game. I got my first two guys killed on the way to the hamlet. I completed the first quest OK with lots of healing, but then kept failing others and getting my guys killed.

Heading towards another room

So, even though I plonked down some cash on these two games, I'm not actually playing them any more. I'm having more fun with two other games.

The first is Hearthstone. I did play a while ago, but couldn't manage to have fun while I was playing WoW too, because I couldn't put enough time in it. I bought the League of Explorers Adventure, and completed it over the weekend. Most times my regular Priest build would do fine, but sometimes I'd need to build a special deck.

A LoE boss

It was pretty fun. I also tried ranked play in both US and EU, and got to rank 18 in US (with face Hunter), and Rank 20 in EU (with Priest). With the recent news about Standard Mode coming, I've been getting TgT packs with gold.

The other game is Torchlight 2. I did play this a while ago too, but gave it up when I started playing WoW again. It's a great Solo MMO type game. Leveling, questing, gearing etc. Not too hard either. I'm having a lot of fun on my Embermage.

In Ossean Wastes

She finished off Ossean wastes, ground out some more mobs with LAN re-roll play, and is now level 29 and ready to head to the next area.

So, playing Hearthstone and Torchlight 2, and having lots of fun. That's the important thing for me right now.

In Music, I've been uploading more CDs to iTunes. I've done all the Js, Ks, Ls and now I'm on Ms.

Led Zeppelin

For the Js - The Jam, Joe Jackson, James, Janes Addiction etc.
For the Ks - Kate Bush, Keane, Kitchens of Distinction, Kula Shaker etc.
For the Ls - Lightning Seeds, Lemonheads etc.
For the Ms, I've done Madness and an now on Madonna (don't judge :))

My iTunes library

As you can see, I have about 5400 songs now. probably more now because I've uploaded a bit more by now.

As for Beer. I got this great book for Christmas. My wife said it was a sort of last minute standing in line at Barnes and Noble purchase, but is seriously the best thing I got.

Excellent beer book

It was great looking trough to see which ones I'd already had (about 20 I think) and it was great to see my favorite beer listed:

Wadworth's 6X

Ahhh, 6X. I remember this most from when I started work in Swindon after Uni. There was a pub called the Wheatsheaf that had 6X. We went there for the beer a lot, as it was a bit of a dive. It's been my favorite beer ever since.

That's it for this week folks. I'll talk more about my Gaming, Music, and Beer next week. I'll be over at the Hearthstone forums checking out all the anguish over standard mode in the meantime :)

Cheers.

Welcome to Phil's Gaming and More

Hi,

I recently stopped playing World of Warcraft, and having been looking for other games. Gaming is a big part of my life. I also enjoying listening to music, and am currently uploading all my CDs to iTunes. I listen to music a bit at work, at the gym, at lunch, and a lot when on vacation and plane trips etc. So, it's a part of my life too. Another thing that's part of my life is beer. I love me some beer. I got a great beer book for Christmas that I'll share with you on Monday, and talk about beer too.

In this blog, I'll go over games I'm playing, or trying out. I'll also cover music that I'm listening to and stuff about what I'm currently uploading. I'll also cover beer stuff.

I hope you enjoy this blog. I will do a blog post every Monday, starting next Monday.

Cheers.