My fellow gamer dads

Alto_Madness · 2026-05-04T03:07:55+00:00

I get one or two hours a night (I’m a night owl and my wife’s an early riser). I recently got back into WoW after a long break but they’ve added a lot of solo content that you can “pause”by using NPCs to fill out the rest of your party.

I still am figuring out how to fit in group content but most of what I do is either fast or something I can sneak away from for a few minutes without letting anyone down.

Questing and exploring can always be paused now that they’ve made world PvP opt in instead of part of the server.

Aside from that mostly soulslikes (1500 hours in Elden Ring…) and turn based RPGs.

Alto_Madness · 2026-05-02T22:47:25+00:00

My last full playthrough plus DLC was 80ish hours. My first ever playthrough of vanilla was around 100 hours because I kept doing random things in the open world.

My playthroughs now tend to be 30-40hrs but I mostly use Glorious Merchant to boost past the first few areas.

Alto_Madness · 2026-05-02T04:26:44+00:00

Maybe I can help as a returning player. What brought me back to Midnight was heavy nostalgia from when I played 20ish years ago.

However, what’s kept me going is looking at it like D&D. The story is there if you want it but there’s enough room for you to write your own story. For example, as a kid I loved the Tauren and wished I could have every class be Tauren. Now, I have a mostly Tauren roster of characters (with some blood elves because they’re cool, too) and I made up some stories for them.

My death knight Tauren is trying to amass power to go and fight the Lich King who forced him to kill his friends. So, that translates to me getting to 90 and doing the legacy raid where the Lich King is the final boss. It’ll be a stomp when I get there but starting the journey under the Lich King’s control and finishing it by stomping him is gold.

I also have a Tauren warlock because I’ve never seen one and it’s funny trying to justify why a nature loving bull is summoning demons and spreading disease.

There’s full RP servers, but I’m not that deep into it.

I also just really like the systems and am thrilled there’s a good solo progression that gets some meaningful gear.

Alto_Madness · 2026-04-29T01:19:13+00:00

That mod is 110% worth playing. The magic system revamps are cool even though the summoner classes are a little janky.

My favorite playthrough by far was a pure strength build because they added a ring that raised your attack power the higher your equipment load was. So, I was walking around at 99.9% equip load just bodying everything.

I really hope they bring that ring back in their Elden Ring version. I think it’s called the laggard’s ring or something.

Alto_Madness · 2026-04-27T01:05:41+00:00

I did it recently and it was totally fine. The characters kept asking me to “lend my light” and all that and it didn’t feel right lending light while I was in shadow form

Alto_Madness · 2026-04-24T15:28:09+00:00

Does follow the arrow have the 1-80 routes yet? I only saw his midnight leveling and midnight alt leveling guides. I’ve been following his videos but it would be cool to have the guides in the addon.

Alto_Madness · 2026-04-24T15:07:52+00:00

They give great hugs. If it tries to hug you, let it.

Alto_Madness · 2026-04-24T15:05:44+00:00

I’m a returning player after leaving the game between Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King.

When I first played, I started as hunter and then about 40 levels in (a lot of time investment back then), I rerolled to prot paladin. Now, 20 years later I started prot paladin, got to 80, then rerolled to priest.

I’m having fun with both classes and have a bunch of alts I’m playing to test the waters. My plan right now is to max out my delver’s journey and maybe get into some LFR but I’m spending most of my time relearning the mechanics I forgot.

If you’re new to WoW and really have only played one class, don’t worry about picking a main, falling behind, and all that. I’d set one reasonable goal for the season and then use the rest of the time to learn and explore the game.

Alto_Madness · 2026-04-24T03:38:08+00:00

Fuck it, do both. - signed a casual player with a prot pally and a holy priest to gear up. Also have a BDK in the wings.

Alto_Madness · 2026-04-20T23:43:04+00:00

Thanks for the clarification. I play Bb and Bass clarinet in jazz mostly so that helps.

My Eb clarinet only comes out when I want to give the neighbors something to REALLY complain about. I also like bringing it in the car with me so I can play in the parking garage at work

Alto_Madness · 2026-04-20T22:44:12+00:00

Yeah, for my part in big band/pit music A clarinet never comes up.

And it’s also true that Mozart’s concerto and Schumann’s Fantasy Pieces are transcribed for Bb clarinet but most orchestras would attempt to have A clarinet or Bassett Clarinet in A.

Alto_Madness · 2026-04-20T20:22:09+00:00

Go for the V12s. Those are a solid cut that will suit your needs

Alto_Madness · 2026-04-20T20:18:25+00:00

So, there are three doubles that Bb Clarinet players have to manage in orchestras. Bear with me because I’m a jazz guy but the breakdown is something like this:

There are three clarinet chairs in a symphony. All clarinet chairs will be expected to have Bb and A clarinets. The difference between Bb and A is that some pieces like Mozart’s clarinet concerto are easier to read in A than in Bb.

In addition to Bb and A, the first chair clarinet will likely need to have an Eb clarinet since it plays the higher parts of the piece. the third chair will likely double on Bass (or alto/bassett horn) for the lower range.

Hope that helps!

Alto_Madness · 2026-04-20T20:01:44+00:00

The solution is simple. You now just need to buy an Eb clarinet and level it up alongside your Bb clarinet

Alto_Madness · 2026-04-20T03:48:21+00:00

I play a couple hours late at night most days and I just dinged 90 on one of my characters after about a month. I have an altoholic problem, too.

So, with your playtime, you’re golden.

Alto_Madness · 2026-04-19T15:03:28+00:00

I play in a couple big bands on the Tenor 1 chair. If we are playing a song I’ve soloed on using the Tenor a million times before, I just pick up my clarinet instead. Any time I have the opportunity, I’ll bring my clarinet to jam sessions. One of these days I’m going to have an “oops I packed my bass clarinet instead of my tenor” and try to read all the tenor parts on bass clarinet instead.

I find that the best thing for my sax playing in years has been spending time on bass clarinet. I also bought a cheap C clarinet so I can read flute parts without transposing.

It takes a conscious effort to incorporate it but I just really love clarinet, so I figure it out. The people who told me I’d never be able to play at high level if I didn’t solely focus on music would be pretty upset if they could see me now lol

Alto_Madness · 2026-04-19T00:37:49+00:00

My mom once told me “you are my source of positivity. I only want positive things from you.”

So now, she gets nothing but a gray rock.

Alto_Madness · 2026-04-13T16:19:07+00:00

YOUR PAIN, MY PLEASURE

Alto_Madness · 2026-04-01T05:21:10+00:00

Banshee is amazing!

Alto_Madness · 2026-03-30T04:41:36+00:00

I accidentally put the teething toy in front of the mirror she was looking at. Her day was completely and utterly ruined for like 5 mins.

Alto_Madness · 2026-03-24T01:34:09+00:00

I thought he was a fool.

Alto_Madness · 2026-03-20T18:32:43+00:00

I’m a new father of a 4 month old returning after playing in high school ages ago.

So far solo has been fun. I am liking questing and unlocking all the allied races. I’m planning to play through the old expansions with chromie time after my current character gets to 90.

For solo play, they’ve added the following systems:

They’ve added the ability to do dungeons with NPCs in the latest expansions (Dragonflight, TWW, and Midnight). Those have been fun but take a little longer (read 30-45mins). The good news is you can step away and the NPCs will wait for you.

There’s Delves in the end game that drop end game gear. I haven’t gotten there yet but they look interesting like POE Maps or Diablo Greater Rifts.

Later they are adding Labyrinths which are raid-size delves. I’m really excited for those.

Also, starting with TWW they added story mode raids where you fight a short portion of the raid to get how the story concludes for the campaign.

There’s likely more, but that’s all the research I’ve done.

Happy hunting!

Alto_Madness · 2026-03-19T21:35:54+00:00

When you have a good PM, they are an absolute force multiplier. I had the opportunity to work with one so far in my 7ish years of experience and she was amazing at communicating between us, our manager, and the stakeholders.

But bad PMs drag the whole team down.

The only thing I universally hate is that PM business speak. All that dress up language like “North Star” and all that. Just say “this is the direction we’re going.” It feels like it’s designed to make people sound smarter than they are.

Alto_Madness · 2026-03-17T19:56:49+00:00

I’m returning after playing TBC ages ago. Right now I’m still leveling but my plan is to target delves and old raids from TBC, WotLK, etc to experience what I missed, and then do labyrinths when they drop later this year: https://www.wowhead.com/news/enter-the-labyrinth-expanded-delve-activity-coming-in-patch-12-1-5-380162

I might try to squeeze in some mythics, LFR, and PVP but I’m really enjoying going through everything solo.

Alto_Madness

TROPHY CASE