Finished! (and started again)

YO! It's TFN with another boring post about how I finished the current content with my main character!

;)

I actually finished a week or so ago, but I just haven't said anything on my blog yet. I'm still processing the experience. The experience was very much like reading a good summertime book. What I mean by that is, it was kind of like when back in grade school when the book mobile would roll around our neighborhood, and I'd stroll in to find a book to read for the week.

Remember book mobiles?



no?

They're awesome little buses that were packed with a small selection of books. My book mobile stopped just a block away from my house. I'd choose two or three good candidates and then stroll back home with some new adventures in my hands. Some of my book choices were good, and some were just meh, but regardless of the quality of the book, you wanted to read it all the way through to the end by the time the book mobile came around the next week so you could load up on some new reading material. Sometimes you'd succeed, and some weeks you'd simply go to the Bookmobile to window shop your next book because you weren't done reading the other books yet.

So my summer book the past month or so would be titled "Friendly Thomas, the Friendly Witchdoctor, in the Marleybone and Aquila Capers!" I guess (I'm suddenly glad that I'm not in charge of writing titles for books.) Next up in the series is "Bad Pedro Pace, Privateer with Penanche, in the Marleybone and Aquila Escapades!" (again, my apologies). Bad Pedro is already level 51 and still getting ready for his new adventures in Marleybone (aka hanging out in Port Regal).

What I liked about Aquila was the lean towards the classic film Clash of the Titans. When the medusa battle came up, I was totally like . . . where's my reflective shield!



Well, being blindfolded and under the effects of a potion that gives me Daredevil like senses is cool too. :)



I loved the whole experience, and I loved seeing all those Myth school monsters come to life in Pirate101 as full fledged actors. Seeing things like that happen make an old Wizard101 fan happy. I can't stress enough how if you consider yourself a Wizard101 fan, you should play Pirate101. There are so many head nods and cross connects that sometimes the game itself feels completely new yet like a solemn tribute to Wizard101 fans.

I'm interested in hearing what you thought of Aquila! Frogfather is asking right now what something you would want to change about your experience, but I generally thought it was a good time, and I full heartedly accept my new found buddy HAWKULES (!!) into my crew. :)

Now I just need to grind out the last two levels of Friendly Thomas's Nautical experience and finish out a few essentials (like getting Zeena as a companion).

Happy Dueling

The Avalon Song (Zafaria Remix by DJ Friendly)!

WAZZZZZZZ UPPPPPPPP?!?!?!

Sorry . . . I'm just excited because for the past few weeks I've been messing around with The Chez's Avalon Song. I emailed him after his song hit the world, and asked if I could remix his tune for fun, and he said YES!

I've now uploaded this remix to my Google Doc site where I keep all my remixes:

The Avalon Song (Zafaria Remix by DJ Friendly)

And, if you don't know what I'm talking about, here's a link to a few posts ago where I talk about the awesomeness that is The Avalon Song. I love the original, obviously, and I think it's really cool (and to be celebrated) whenever anyone in the community expresses themselves creatively like this. *round of applause for The Chez*

Anyway, I hope someone at least enjoys that remix as much as I had fun making it. :) hehe.

Happy Dueling!

Interviews, thanks, and new commercial!

I've been asked by a few other Wizard101/Pirate101 bloggers lately for interviews, and I thought I would share those with you in case you missed them.

1- Interview with Around the Spiral with Edward Lifegem
2- Interview with Housing Manual (formerly A Deadly Pirate)

Thank you both for your questions! We have such a kind and wonderful community. I really appreciate everyone's kindness. Thank you!

Just wanted to say that I've been happily playing Pirate101 and enjoying the heck out of Aquila. I'll be sure to post a follow up to Edward's questions about which world I liked best in the new expansion soon! After last weekend, I'm level 61 now and staring down the Labyrinth. I absolutely cannot wait to take on the Hydra and see what all the fuss is about with my own two eyes. :)

Also just wanted to link to the newest Pirate101 Commercial that's hitting the airwaves officially today (started a bit early last night).



I think it turned out great!

Happy Dueling!

Pet-a-Palooza Raffle Time!

It's Pet-a-Palooza season in Wizard101 where great deals in game meet great fun out of the game, and that means it's also time for a raffle on TFN!

First and foremost, thanks to KingsIsle for all the amazing prizes! We've got 10,000 Crowns codes, 5,000 Crowns codes, and Pet-a-Palooza packs that give the coolest stuff:

Each code will guarantee:
* One Mega Snack Pack
* One Hatching Elixir
* One Energy Elixir for training your pet
* One Random Pet from the list below

Spider Golem
Firewing
Ice Salamander
Black Cat
Lucky Leprechaun
Storm Beetle
Death Scarab
Summer Dragon
Fog Unicorn
Ice Elf
Dark Crow
Myth Leprechaun
Crabling
Snake in a Basket
Fierce Hound

FUN!

All you have to do to enter is use this Rafflecopter widget below and leave me a blog post comment. What to comment about? Simple, you know how our pets compete in Derby racing against each other for awesome fun and tickets? Yeah? What I want to know is what are some other ways you'd like to see your pets compete against each other?

You must have an email address or Facebook to enter, which means if you're under 13, you MUST get mom and dad's approval and assistance before entering. Prizes will be given out within a week of the contest finishing.


a Rafflecopter giveaway



Happy Dueling!

Feeling Overwhelmed? Dude, just game! ;p

Heya! To say I've been ignoring my blog is a total understatement. Sorry about that. I've been feeling overwhelmed I suppose -- actually, this whole past year has been pretty overwhelming in general. You know you've got it bad when you start browsing pages like this instead of pages like this.

But to say I haven't had any time to game would be a total lie. Just to catch you up, I've now dinged 57 in Pirate101 on my Witchdoctor and entered Aquila, and of course, destroying Marleybone's version of the Death Star (or what have you) was extremely satisfying!



My Marleybone experience was super fun, and I loved riding around on my Pennyfarthing mount!



Best . . . mount . . . ever. But to be honest, right now playing Pirate101 for me just feels a bit like HURRY UP AND FINISH THE GAME! I need to get through it once on my own, and it's kind of weighing on me that I haven't been all the way through yet.

I will say that it feels pretty awesome to finally have a new ship though after steering around in that Marleybone Galleon for so long. Bring on the Aquilian ships! I love the design, and I love everything about them. (psst, you really should head over to the official Pirate101 fan sites to see if they're holding contests right now wink wink.)

And, to switch games entirely on you, over in the world of DC Universe Online, my character has hit CR 80, whoa . . . never thought I'd hit CR 80 . . . . I've been busily doing my daily missions trying to earn marks and get new gear. Currently that means splitting my time between Ace Chemicals and Stryker Island performing a couple quests for the steelworks foreman in each location until a grand total of 5 missions is reached for the week, and then you get a pretty challenging instance that awards you an awesome piece of gear and a slew of marks.



I'm looking more and more like a member of Daft Punk.

The past few weeks our static group has been having a heck of a time trying to take down the Judge in this insane Tier 3 instance. Last Sunday we pulled him down to 10 percent life and lost it. It's a frantic encounter that's full of complexity and something that has been a bit of an uber challenge for our group. In every game we've play (aside from Diablo 3), we've always run into one or two encounters that just stonewall the group for a few weeks, this is our wall lately.

ANYWAY, today is the last day of school for our kids, so THIS IS AWESOME! Not to be selfish or anything, but this bodes well for my blog. I would spend an hour and a half in the morning getting my kids off to school and now . . . MORE ME TIME! hehe.

So, hopefully I can blog a bit more here in the near future.

Happy Dueling!

THIS! . . . is EPIC! (Avalon Song)

Just in case you haven't seen this yet from The Chezz:



All the awards! YES! Nicely done, guys!

Happy Dueling

We win! Azteca finished! Ding 90!

TADA!

(insert screenshot of final battle between the Undying Malistaire and his minions and me, uber wife, and two random strangers that were pretty cool)

Why do I not have this screenshot readily available? BECAUSE SILLIES, I WAS ON THE LAPTOP AND NOW I'M ON THE MAIN COMPUTER!

Ok, I'll see if I can dig up a really cool screenshot on our computer. here you go:



Woot! Bailey and I are looking hawt caught there between a fire bridge and a volcano!

So, here's the deal with Azteca, it was pretty epic. Plenty of people have completed it before us, and plenty of people will complete it after us. I really have nothing much to add (strategy-wise) beyond what the amazing community has done with strategy guides and advice already:

Xibalba info from Mercenaries for Hire.
Belloq in Azteca.
Cipactli info.
Ponce de Gibbon strats a plenty.

Mercenaries is always a great place to visit for strats. Yup. What I can tell you is that--it was "uber" fun! What made it most fun of course was that I was playing side-by-side with the "uber wife" Bailey the whole way . . . sure she ditched me with her Storm Wizard and caught up to me AGAIN with her Fire Wizard mid-way through the whole thing, but that's too be expected when I was busy leveling a couple pirates up to 50, right? The important thing here is that we FINISHED! TOGETHER! AND LIKE I SAID . . . it was fun!!

There was a point in time about three-fourths of the way through when I started to go a little nuts on Bailey and started talking in baby talk for a couple hours straight while we were playing, but other than that my sanity is still in check. There was also a moment where everything became centered around yolo:



And during Xibalba we were happily watching Star Wars I and II since it was May the fourth (be with you), so lots of jokes about Yoda and the force were to be had.



Hmmm, what else . . . OH YEAH . . . Gotta say once of my favorite moments was pretending my mount was saying "ow ow ow ow hot hot hot hot ow ow ow ow" as we were running up the lava steps to Xibalba.

. . . and before we knew it it was all Malistaire hates us poof the end!

To be honest, I feel a bit out of the loop as to what to do next with Thomas. I imagine at this point is when I would try to find some gear to replace my Waterworks gear and farm and/or craft the heck out of the top instances in Wizard101, hunting for exactly the right piece of class specific gear.

Suggestions?

I know Bailey is going to craft the Azteca gear for her Fire wizard and will be working on her pets a bit more (as well as working in her new gardening farmhouse), but that's about it for now . . .

Thanks for reading!

Happy dueling!