I had a great time tonight, questing out in the Ghostlands with my father :)

Dad started to play Runescape as a way to chat with my brother and myself (mainly me, I live further away and visit less often), and then recently we got him onto World of Warcraft and he’s been plugging away since Christmas.

Because of my brief foray into raiding, and the fact that he’d be available to play in the evening, I didn’t get a chance to play WITH him, although we got some good chances to chat about the game in general and each time I visit we share some new things.

Now we’re finally getting a chance to play together, because my evening play time isn’t already spoken for (well, I could lie and say I’m not there, but I don’t like to lie).

So tonight Dad and I tackled some quests in Ghostlands. We started in Tranquillien with his little Mage and I put on my Shaman healing gear, and we trodded off together to lay waste to bats and spiders and ghouls.

Dad on Vent, Me on Chat

In order to make this gaming together easier for him, I helped Dad get set up with Ventrilo when I visited last, and we’ve agreed that when we play together, I don’t talk - I type. I can type a lot faster than he can ;) and his 56k internet connection gets super lagged if there’s incoming talking while he’s trying to play. Maybe there’s some configurations I could alter to improve performance but I’ll worry about that later.

For now, it seems to be working pretty well. We went out and finished a couple of the quests that we share in our quest logs - he lead the pace and the direction and the attacks, and I mainly acted as heals or backup DPS if we got some extra mobs.

Once, Knucklerot came upon us when I had Dad looking in his spellbook for Frost Nova - I was able to run away without death but Dad didn’t even see the attack coming. Soooo… I got to rez him, and save him a run back!

It was all kinda neat and fun. This is the first person from my Real Life that I’ve actually played with on this game - not just chatted with because they’re in a completely different part of the game than I am.

I’m looking forward to partying again, very soon :)

Today’s Newbie Mage tip:

Use Frost Nova to freeze meleee mobs in place once they’re physically close to you, so you can back away to cast without interruption. Even if you’re a Fire-spec’d or Arcane-spec’d mage, Frost Nova works the same way and is just as effective.

You can continue to use Rank 1 of Frost Nova and not worry about using higher versions of it when you get the skill - the amount of time frozen never changes, just the amount of damage caused and it causes miniscule damage to begin with. Save the mana, use Rank 1.

Tags: advancing a mage, beginner mage, beginner mage tips, beginner shaman, blood elf mage, fire mage tips, frost nova, ghostlands, how to use frost nova, leveling a mage, lowbie mage tips, mage tips, newbie mage, newbie mage tips, newbie shaman, resto shaman, tranquillien

I just got back from a week’s visit with my parents and older brother, where Brother and I did a whole bunch of business together, Mom and I caught up on the family happenings, and I helped Dad set some playing goals for the time he gets to spend on World of Warcraft (which is mostly on rainy days).

Dad’s got a level 52 Blood Elf Hunter, and because he doesn’t type quickly, he doesn’t socialize much on the game and therefore he’s one of those wandering bumblers who you might think didn’t actually level his character all the way from level 1. But he did, and he’s having fun with it.

He’s started a second character, a Blood Elf Mage, and I found out she was at level 16, which is right where my little Shaman and Pally are sitting at. Cool!

We took some time to look at his Hunter after he asked me to get some advice on it, and after a bit of chatting he visited the Auction House to upgrade some of his gear, not having realized he could use Mail instead of just Leather. Then, he did some fishing in Tarren Mills to get some Raw Sagefish to level his cooking, and headed over to Hammerfall to complete the 225 First Aid quest that then unlocked his First Aid max to 300.

The First Aid quest took him a few tries, and I would imagine with the inherent lag of a 56k connection it was even harder than for the rest of us doing it the first time, but I left him with it and he patiently kept plugging away at it until he was successful.

We had a chat about some skills he could work on improving, specifically the skill of freeze trapping, since he’d never really used his traps very much. I told him some of the tips I’d learned personally while levelling up my Hunter, and shared some that others had shared with me, too.

Then, I turned to his computer, and confirmed that Ventrilo was set up (it was, from a previous visit), and then I got a mic and some earphones and tested it out, and got Mom’s confirmation that it would be okay for Dad to talk to his computer sometimes (she’s normally watching TV), and showed Dad how to use it. I also got a Fonts addon that makes the default fonts much easier to read, even for my 35 year old eyes.

Dad told me on my way to my car as I was leaving to travel the 6hr journey home that he was going to be online “with the thingy going” that night.

We didn’t end up playing together that night, but he was on Vent when I got home, and we got to chat a little bit - him talking on vent and me typing my responses in the game. He left for dinner and had intended to come back, but I was tired from the drive and went to bed early, before he returned.

But in the mean time, I did get my Shammy to where his Mage is sitting. It’ll be fun to play with him when we DO get a chance.

Tags: Addons I Use, cooking, first aid 300, first aid quest, first aid training, fishing, gaming with family, hammerfall, hunter, hunter skills, low level mage, low level shaman, professions, raw sagefish, secondary professions, setting up ventrilo, tarren mills, ventrilo, warcraft on 56k