Monday, November 11, 2013

Monday Random Thoughts

- I'm back after a small break.

- Did ya miss me?

- With blizzcon there is a lot to think about randomly.

- I think out of all the announcements I am looking forward to garrisons most.

- I like how fleshed out it is so far, shows they are really far along with the development of the expansion when one "small" feature is that complete.

- And for a "small" feature it sure does not seem small at all.

- Basically it is like player housing.

- Kind of sad they are doing what they did with the farm and tying it to one expansion however but that does not change the fact I am looking forward to it.

- Getting followers, making them gather, quest, do dungeons, even raid for me.

- Yeah, that sounds like fun.

- I dig mini games like that.

- With my cast of characters I can have a massive amount of the garrisons and that means if I want I could farm materials like crazy.

- I can't wait to try it out.

- Going to miss reforging being they are removing it.

- Now the only thing good that ever came out of cataclysm in terms of effecting game play is gone.

- Don't say transmog, that does not effect game play.

- Unless of course you believe what your gear looks like effects how well you play.

- In that case, to each their own.

- I guess I can actually see how to some people what they look like does help them play.

- Hit and expertise being gone?  Winner.

- What took so freaking long?

- Dodge and parry being gone?  Winner.

- Again, what took so freaking long?

- When they first started to remove stats that were considered uninteresting like attack power, armor penetration, etc, they should have removed hit, expertise, dodge and parry.

- How someone thought that hit was more compelling of a stat than attack power is still beyond me.

- And lets face it, as I've said a million times before, our characters are supposed to be professional killers, so to speak, if they could not hit something the size of a three story building they would have never survived long enough to get to max level.

- Hit had always been a completely useless stat.

- So glad it is gone.

- With hit and expertise gone it does lower the need for reforging however.

- Sure, there are stats we want to stack otherwise.

- Sure, there will be a lot of not the best type of gear we get now because we would prefer something with stats more suitable for us.

- Sure, there will still be haste break points.

- But over all reforging was for getting hit and expertise close, so we did not waste any stats.

- Now, even if mastery is not great for you, it is not a useless stat.

- Unlike hit, where when you were over cap it was useless.

- So maybe the need for reforging left when the need for hit and expertise did.

- Still going to miss it, I loved reforging.

- But I am so extremely happy that I will not have to fiddle about with hit and expertise in its absence.

- Could you just imagine the nightmare that is hit cap without reforging?

- How often has your hunter (or any character) found himself at 12% hit?

- I know without reforging mine would have been there a lot this expansion.

- And all things being equal I would rather have 12% of a crappy stat like mastery than 12% of a useless stat like hit any day.

- I am excited with the changes to armor as well.

- Even if it does mean I now need to roll against elemental shaman and restoration shaman.

- Your gears stats changing with your spec is something I have been suggesting here for years.

- About time they listened.

- My shaman can go back to being enhancement / restoration.

- My paladin can go back to being protection / holy.

- My monk can finally test out healing without needing to get a whole new set of gear for it.

- My death knight and warrior will no longer be DPSing in tank gear, strength plate is strength plate.

- And tier sets, oh my god tier sets.

- My druid just needs to get one four piece set and now I will have the four piece set for all four specs.

- I think I almost shed a tear at how easy life has become for my alts.

- Fewer gem slots, fewer items that can be enchanted, no reforging, some people might call it dumming down, I just call it a blessing.

- My mage has 5 pieces in his bag that are upgrades, but I am not equipping them yet.

- Why?  Because I don't want to do it each time I get a new piece of gear and have to regem, rereforge, reenchant, it is just a hassle.

- All my mage does is the LFR and it already does better than 95% of the people in there, no rush to get that gear on me.

- When I get some more pieces to be worth going through all that crap I will put it all on and do it all at once.

- But as long as nearly everything I might get will be an upgrade, I am not going to waste my time or energy on redoing everything every time I get one single piece on a character I play maybe once or twice a month.

- I waited until I had 8 pieces on my warlock before I did anything with it.

- Waited until I had four pieces on my druid and then only put them all on because I was needed to tank a SoO normal one day.

- Now my druid has a couple more pieces sitting in its bags and I will not put them on until I feel it is needed for a type of content I will be doing.

- If my druid is going to do flex or LFR I will just leave it as is.

- And that is why I can actually get on board with the fewer enchants, fewer gem slots, and no reforging.

- As it is now getting gear sometimes feels like work, not fun.

- Good old ghostcrawler said it well when he said he wanted to make getting gear exciting again.

- Being able to get it and put it on instantly instead of saying, I'll have to wait until after the raid so I can figure out how to reforged for my caps and get the most use out of it is more exciting for sure.

- I think I would like the idea of getting a new piece and putting it right on as is.

- And that is another awesome thing with gear changes.

- Gem slots do not count to itemization as gem slots are not standard.

- Speaking of gem slots, no more meta gems.

- Our good buddy ghostcrawler says that it is because there was never any decisions in them, you use the best one for your class/spec.

- Excuse me?  Isn't that the way with everything in the game GC?

- You use the best stats, the best gear, the best rotation, the best enchants, the best whatever.

- So of course people were just using the best gem for them.

- To say metas were not interesting because people just used the best one you can say that anything in game is not interesting because people just use the best one.

- Bracer enchants are boring because people just use the best one.

- Weapons are boring because people just use the best one.

- Come on GC, you can find a better explanation than that.

- How about you are removing meta gems because they no longer fit with the scheme of things.

- At least that is truthful.

- We do not even need meta requirements any more.

- When requirements like "need three blue gems" was removed you could see that the meta concept had worn out its welcome.

- Speaking of Ghostcrawler, has anyone here ever seen the rocky horror picture show?

- I mean the real show, with people performing along with the moving, people throwing toast and rice and shouting things at the screen?

- Well, if you have never seen it, get your ass out and go see it, it is a great experience, I've seen it over 500 times and it never gets old.

- But that is not the point, if you have seen the rocky horror picture show, as I described you will get the next joke.

- If you haven't, you might still get the next joke.

- As soon as I saw ghostcrawler appear on stage I yelled... "this man has no neck."

- I could not help it.

- Now lets move on to some raiding stuff.

- TOYBOX!!!

- Sorry, just remembered that and could not resist mentioning that awesome addition.

- Excuse me for a moment while I do the happy dance.

- Okay, I am back, lets get on to raiding.

- Flex is becoming the new normal.

- Show me one person that did not see that coming from a mile away and I will show you someone that is not a raider to begin with.

- Normal is becoming the new heroic and it is going to be flexible.

- Okay, now that one got me.  I thought they would just ditch the old normal completely.

- A new level of raiding is being added, not flexible, for 20 players, and that will be the top tier of raiding.

- Now that is something I did see coming.

- No more 10 vs 25 arguments.

- No more trying to design for 2 different versions.

- It opens many more design options to make heroic raiding better than it has ever been.

- World first is one format only.

- For 25 man groups this should not be a problem, for 10 man groups, this could be an issue.

- For my guild it means nothing what so ever.

- With a 25 man team and 3 10 man teams and the addition of flex, the only problem I have is picking the 20 best players for it.

- Actually the only problem I have is finding 20 decent players for it. lol

- But being we are not a world, or even server, first type of group, who cares.

- When the time comes for us to do the new heroic raiding I am sure I can pick 20 people to drag along.

- And more importantly, they can still raid in the normals because they all have different lock outs now.

- I must say I like that.

- And having the flex ability to do a boss you already did but not be awarded loot is another awesome thing.

- Wonder if we will still have coins next expansion, I did not see anything about that.

- I kind of liked the lesser charm approach to extra rolls.

- Now lets get back to that toybox.

- No more will I need to keep my puntable marmot on all my characters.

- Ah, the beauty of more bag space.

- All those island goodies, rare goodies, quest goodies, archeology goodies, all on a shared tab that span over all my characters.

- Me like.

- And heirlooms being on a shared tab as well.

- This means cross realm heirlooms.

- Does this mean I can equip them on all my characters or only one can be using it at a time?

- I need to see if anyone asked that question, would be interesting to gear my army of hunter alts with only one set of heirloom gear.

- And shaman for that matter being gear changes with spec.

- Oh god I love that gear changing with spec.

- Almost as much as I love a tab for all my heirlooms.

- But not quite as much as I love the TOYBOX.

- Yes, TOYBOX needs to be said in all caps at any given moment to put appropriate emphasis on how freaking awesome that is.

- I might need to do a tuesday random thoughts as well to touch on the rest of my thoughts being this is going on long enough for today.

- I have so many other random thoughts about things that are coming.

- As for story, I am not interested in the story of the new expansion at all.

- I'm about as burnt out as I can be with following an orc around for the 3rd expansion in a row.

- They need to find something else to do besides having us run around with orcs all the time.

- Stop putting your obsession into the game, if you really like orcs go look online somewhere and I am sure you can find some orc porn or something to satisfy your orc festish.

- Just stop making them the central selling point of the game each and every expansion.

- At least rotate it to every other expansion.

- So while the story doesn't do anything for me, the expansion looks pretty awesome over all from what they have showed us.

- Lets hope they do the bait and switch and this ends up being not about orcs, but just about orcs to get us there.

- Unless the big baddie at the end is Gul'Dan.

- Then it can be about orcs because he is one cool ass orc.

- The rest of them are just boring, played out, and are generally not all that interesting any longer.

- But Gul'Dan still rocks.

- And in case you did not notice, he already drank the blood whereas the other orcs have not.

- Interesting.  Wouldn't you say?

- I might be sick and tired of yet another expansion centered entirely around the horde, but it looks like a winner so far either way.

- I'll do some more random thoughts tomorrow.

- Have a great day.

36 comments:

  1. Oh finally you returned. I was starting to wonder if you were ok as it's not like you to skip your Monday posts. Sometimes you do a lot of other posts, other times not so many, but mondays is pretty much an every week thing.

    The gear changes I'm pretty much pleased with. I'm not sure I like the addition of more rng, but I've never really cared for gear, so I get what I get is fine by me. Plus first time I killed celestials I won something - ret tier legs. I forgot to change my loot spec, stupid I know but it happens. I still don't have my prot legs as they've refused to drop anything but gold ever since. The changes to gear means that won't happen again so yay for that. It means I can play multiple specs on my alts with ease, hopefully it means alts will be easier to play as they said they wanted to make dungeons mean more again (I refuse to set foot in LFR).

    Raiding changes were the big news. I loved the idea of garrisons and all the ui changes for toybox etc. all cool but man the raiding changes. It ends one of the biggest headaches I face as a raid leader - doing confirms. I hate benching people, I really do. However, it has created a ton more problems. Unlike you we don't have the roster to currently support mystic, so we'll have to double our roster if we want to do heroic next expansion, well mystic but that's like the currently tuned heroic, you know what I mean. My computer probably won't be able to handle it. Aside from my dislike of large groups, my fps plummets in them. How can I tank well if my screen is freezing every few seconds? Most of our progression is on normal, we're not a true heroic guild, but each tier we've managed to push further and further. So if we don't manage to get a group for mystic, we'll lose that ability to strive higher. My fps issues are only going to get worse with the higher system requirements the new models will require. It's likely I'm going to have to consider recruiting to replace myself.

    There's a ton of other headaches as well. They'll be those that whine and want us to rekill bosses they missed, so they get their loot chance. They'll be those that I have to kick for underperforming (which is worse than benching), they'll be the times I have to bench people if we don't have the right mix, not enough healers to support the number of dps. People might push the boundaries and take it less seriously, thinking they can dip and out as it's flex. Now, I'm not a draconian monster, I want people to have fun but I do view raiding as a commitment, a promise to other real life people (not just pixels) and so I turn up and stick it out because we're a team, and to do otherwise is letting them down.

    Maybe I'm overthinking it. Perhaps in practice the changes will work fine and I'm seeing problems where there won't be any. My guild leader is addicted to raiding and he's really upset. I thought for a while he was going to quit but he agreed to stay and see how things work out. They've really screwed over 10 man heroic guilds. Maybe when we finally get connected realms we'll be able to recruit enough to expand, or these changes will kill enough other guilds we'll be able to pick up people.

    When do you think beta will come out? Has to be soon right? Otherwise with no 5.5 Siege will be out for as long as Dragon Soul, and that did not work well for them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are not over thinking it. You are touching on a myriad of things I have lined up for my future post on raiding in 6.0. I have a lot of concerns and worries even with a roster that has 40 or so actual people that want to raid, even if only 20 or so I would consider real raiders. There will be a buttload of issues to deal with.

      As for when I think the beta will come. I was sure they were going to announce it at the end of blzzcon. Seeing all the stuff they showed us, plus what was available for play there, as in all the dungeons and three zones and the detailed and seemingly complete the way they talked about it garrisons, it is close to being ready. More so than anyone expected.

      As for release, May 13th, you read it here first.

      Delete
  2. Welcome back. :)

    Loving almost all of the announced changes / new features.

    Without hard caps there's no real point in reforging, haste breakpoints are really the only thing left and I'm hoping those get somehow minimized in the future to be less important, at least in perception (not sure if that one extra tick of Rejuv will really make or break a boss fight but damned if resto druids don't all seem to think it will). Won't miss it and definitely won't miss the stats that are going away. Also looking forward to the cosmetic 3rd stats if they actually go live with them (they'd be easy to cut without really impacting anything).

    I didn't see the official comment that meta gems are going away, that's actually an area where I did occasionally make changes (I ran with the magic damage reduction tanking gems for a while in Cat and the Int vs Spi healer metas are viable choices in some cases, too) but I agree with your point in general, more often than not people just went with whatever they had on the last piece of gear without really giving it much thought.

    My strong suspicion is that the BoA gear will be useable by anyone at any time, especially since I don't get the impression that you'll be able to have multiples stored... it'll just store one "copy" in the box and any toon will be able to use them at will. Not sure how gems and enchants will factor in, though (thinking more for the new Garrosh weapons vs the older leveling heirlooms, they have gem sockets and will obviously be enchanted with end-game enchants).

    I like the 20-man Mythic raiding and the separate lockout... I think it'll be a transition period for current 10H raids but there's plenty of time and lots of connected realms still to go, plenty of time to figure it out. The one size should also make the fights more balanced in general so there should be less need to 3-heal 25-man fights. Not no need, of course, could happen, but I expect Blizz to be able to tune them a bit better going in without having to balance mechanics across 10- and 25-man raids.

    Regarding tokens, I believe I saw that they like the bonus roll concept so expect that to continue in some capacity. Sounds like they're also considering getting read of JP/HP and solely going with VP/CP although with no indication what they'll be used for, upgrade vendors may or may not return (I'm indifferent either way, I like them well enough but wouldn't miss them) and who knows about buying gear with VP, with primarily multi-spec gear there should in theory be even less need for VP gear than at any other time in the game, ever.

    I have a bit of ... unhappiness at the concept of another Orc-heavy expansion but it doesn't sound like Garrosh will be a central figure once we come into the picture (I believe all of the time travel stuff will happen off-screen, when the expansion patch hits all of that will have already happened and we'll just be facing the prospect of an uncorrupted Iron Horde coming from an unbroken Draenor). I'm not sure how we can avoid an entire expansion of killing Orcs, though, I really was hoping for a Burning Legion central focus to mix things up. Still, plenty of time left and I'm sure there's a lot they haven't communicated yet.

    May 13, huh? I predicted 7 months a few days ago so that would make it... Jun 8. Book it! Beta sometime in late Jan - early Feb.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The cosmetic third stats have me wondering if it going to go completely the diablo way with stats like increased drop rate, gold rate, etc. We did see an unbreakable option and I know diablo does that with their gear. Being both games are made by the same company it seems even more likely.

      So instead of getting different sets for two specs you will have different specs for raiding or grinding. lol

      On my tank I too ran with the crit gem sometimes as a bear tank and monk tank. But they are really a case of right and wrong for most classes / specs. I think GC said it when he first was talking about stats and the crunch.

      Garrosh is just a bridge to the new content but the new content is all orc with some space goat thrown in for spice. It does seem like another orc (thus horde as they are the people that made the horde what it is) expansion. Getting a little tired of the same song and dance every expansion. Follow the orc around is getting played out.

      Beta will be announced in the next 2 weeks would be my guess. I was really sure the way thinks looked at the convention that it would have been announced there. It is ready for beta.

      Delete
    2. I basically already have group/solo specs on my toons so that wouldn't be much of a change for me. I love that the same gear can be used for both (perhaps not entirely optimally but close enough). I am curious how they'll handle enchants and gems between specs, though... maybe allow you to put different gems/enchs on an item that'll change based on your spec? That would make the most sense, I think.

      As for the plot, nothing's to say the Burning Legion won't come swooping in at some point and take over. I don't think we're the only ones who won't be entirely looking forward to an Orc-heavy experience in WoD after spending 9 months sieging Orgrimmar. Still, I'm the first to admit that I barely even notice lore when stuff is current, I just play... it probably won't even occur to me to be annoyed when I play through WoD for the first few times.

      Haven't they traditionally done a friends & family NDA alpha for a couple of months before the beta starts? I recall that happening and usually being communicated while it's happening (not the details, just "we're doing the F&F alpha"). That's part of the reason why I don't think the beta will start for at least a couple of months. We'll see, though! I mean, I nailed the 10 levels thing when most were strongly predicting 5, I'm playing with house money at this point. ;)

      Delete
    3. I wonder about the gems and enchants as well. If I had to make a complete guess it would be one of two things. 1) They do not change at all. Meaning you would still need 2 sets of gear. 2) Main stat gems and enchants change only. So strength would become intellect going from ret to holy. But stamina would stay stam going from prot to holy or ret. And secondary stats would stay the same. Meaning, you "could" use the same gear, but having individual sets would still be best.

      I agree, as long as the play is good the story can be secondary. That is why I said it does not bother me as the game play sounds like it will be good. But just like people get tired doing the same content over and over, fighting orcs over and over will just feel like doing the same content over and over. Lore or not, orcs are stale already. Time to move on.

      They did such an amazing job keeping things under wraps before blizzcon, they can be keeping the alpha under wraps as well. Not to mention, last time they said they would not be doing F&F any longer. So throw that out the window even if they could change their mind.

      Add to that the comment that we will NOT be getting a 5.5 because it would slow down the expansion. 5.5 would be coming out soon, if they kept their pattern up. So if they do not believe they need something soon to hold us over, and their track record for things being faster this time around, I do not see another last tier raid going for 10 months like the last 2. It will be sooner than later. I am sure of it.

      I too nailed the 10 level thing. WAY WAY WAY before they showed the heirlooms from SoO lasted 10 levels.

      It was actually an easy predication. Cataclysm was never meant to be an expansion. That and mists were supposed to be one full story for 10 levels. So they did two small expansions of 5 each and would be going back to 10. Before mists even came out I said "the next expansion will go back to being 10 levels". Cata was filler and it threw everything off. 5 per expansion was never intended. They mistakenly backed themselves into it.

      Delete
    4. I'm with you on the 10 level thing, it seemed obvious to me for ages, too, and I took that 90-100 heirloom thing as confirmation, not new info, but we're in the minority who said it publicly. I think I saw 3 bloggers, total, predict 10 levels... almost all predicted 5 again for various reasons. So as obvious as you think it was, give yourself some credit for noticing, very few did. I'm still patting myself on the back based on my full set of predictions, I did really, really well. ;)

      Well, there's an upside to an Orc-based expansion... hopefully it means no Trolls or bugs. I'd much prefer killing nothing but Orcs than having to deal yet again with Trolls or bugs. I've had more than enough of both.

      You could be right about transforming gems, that would only make sense... but they also talked about making gems more rare and significantly more powerful so they may be revamping the whole gem system entirely. I don't expect my JC will have anywhere close to the 100 or so cuts she has this expansion... under 10 would be much preferred.

      Delete
    5. Maybe a pat on the back is not deserving because of how I came to the conclusion calling cataclysm just a patch they extended into an expansion. But I guess, however I came about it, it was right.

      There can't be trolls as there were none on the planet, but if there is a way for blizzard to squeeze them in, they will. :P

      A friend of mine had an interesting idea for gems and enchants. Being neck, rings, trinkets, will still be spec based, he said only they will have gems and enchants now. So they are gemmed and enchanted spec specific. I guess I could get behind that. Makes some sense. But I do not see them completely dismissing gems from tier pieces, that seems like something that will always have at least one gem slot.

      Delete
    6. Yeah, I had that same thought, make the secondary spec-specific items the ones to take gems and enchants... but I'm not really sure what that gains. They've said that socket bonuses won't be part of the stat budget so I'm trying to think of the point of even having gem sockets. If you have main stat gems, there'll be no choice, if it's an Agi piece, you'll use an Agi gem. Whee? If it's secondary stats in a world without reforging, they'll all have to be pretty close in value for all specs (I'm expecting that major stat differences - crit vs haste for warriors, haste vs mastery for monks) will be going away in favour of more balance, in which case it won't really matter what secondary stat you put in. And it won't be of much/any help with hitting soft breakpoints if they're as significant as they're implying (I'm imagining 1500 of a secondary stat in today's game, as an example)... only being able to tweak in chunks that large won't really help with gear tetris.

      But we'll see, I'm not going to worry about this stuff until actual details start getting out... in late Jan when the beta starts. ;)

      Delete
    7. Gem slots are going to be bonus stats. Like they were originally intended to be.

      Back when they first started appearing they were a bonus. Things were not designed around having gems and enchants on. After time they started designing with the idea that people would have gems and enchants.

      Enter LFR where most didn't, and it was designed as if they did, and now you see part of the reason for the massive under performing people.

      So they are going back to gems being a bonus, a buff if you will, and not designing content with the idea every will have them in.

      This will make LFR better, it will make all raiding better (at the lowest levels) where people might not be gemmed or enchanted. Because those things are pure bonus stats now.

      Like you, I don't see how they are going to make secondary stats interesting. If it is a choice between agility or anything else of equal value, for me I will always take agility.

      But then again, maybe that is their design idea. Not only to simplify, but to overly simplify.

      Delete
  3. Spacegoats get an expansion! That's enough to keep me around. I don't really care about the plot either, but I do kind of like the idea of messing with the different warlords. Did I mention how much I like spacegoats? and a spacegoat hunter front and center in the preview? (well, maybe he was a hunter). I'm pretty sure blizzard made that preview just for me.

    re: raiding. I don't see any way someone who enjoys heroic raiding couldn't be thrilled with the change to mythic. Not having to throw out awesome ideas because they can't tune them for both 10 and 25 will just make the raids so much better. Granted, I do occupy the only alliance 25m on my server, so my view is definitely biased, but I've done plenty of 10m raiding as well, and I just don't care at all about the 10m raiders who feel slighted. The game will be better, the raids will be better, get over it.

    I do, however, feel bad for 10m raid leaders. Because doubling the size will be hard. I don't mean recruiting, I mean dealing with twice as many raiders, and gear and such. Especially now that there will be a lot more people rolling on each individual piece of gear. People who were used to just casually handing out gear, give it to whoever gets the biggest upgrade, etc... I feel bad for those raid leaders.

    Anyhow, i'm excited. I've never leveled a horde toon, and I think I'll use my jump to do that. And then go savage in WoD. Most of my tunes may go savage, if that's a real, viable option. It seems awesome. :)

    ~Delirium

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think most heroic raiders that are complaining (and most heroic raiders are 10 man raiders) are not upset with the design aspect. I am sure they love that. I think they are more upset they now have to recruit more people.

      I can agree. I personally prefer 10 man. easier to manage the people. But for top level raiding, even if I would prefer 10 man I personally think it is an awesome idea.

      Most definitely level a horde one with the free 90. I level on both sides to see the story and I can tell you, the horde side of pandaria is completely different from the alliance one believe it or not. And they get MUCH more story as well. Too bad you can not do the barrens horde side now, that was really good.

      I too think I will make another horde. I do not have as many high level horde as I do alliance.

      Delete
    2. I'm looking at the 20 Mythic raiding this way... it should make things easier for a lot of current 25-man Heroic raids and, as another blogger pointed out, it'll allow them to bring their bench along to Heroic flex runs. Basically, all 20-25 raiders will have a chance to see and execute the strategies that the chosen 20 will implement during the Mythic run. I think it'll be great for 25s in general. For 10s it will be a struggle at first, for sure, but at least it's only 20 and not 25 and they'll get the same benefit from Heroic flex runs, they'll have a chance to test out additional raiders without having to sit core members. Overall, I think it'll work surprisingly well when we look back on it, even if the next 6-12 months might be somewhat painful for some.

      Regarding gear, one thing I haven't seen mentioned is that with master looter being the default loot type for the new Normal/Heroic with personal being a selectable option, I wonder if personal will also be an option for Mythic. I don't expect most Mythic raids would WANT to run that, it'll be sub-optimal, but if loot distribution is an issue for current 10-man raids, personal loot (if available) might be a way to transition in and get comfortable with having to be accountable for the gearing of twice as many players.

      Delete
    3. The new flex heroic (normal) is what 10s will have to use as a testing grounds to build their 20 man mythic team. An active guild leadership should have no problem building up a team. But it will take them a lot of work.

      And for servers like mine with only one real heroic raiding team it will be really hard.

      I don't think mythic will ever be personal. It will keep the old school raid rules it seems, all around. No facts to back that up, but I believe it to be how they want it.

      Delete
    4. Right, that's exactly my point, in today's game a 10-man group looking to move to 25 will have to basically run a 10-man normal run with x recruits and 10-x normal raiders... in WoD, they'll be able to run their usual core 10, plus any recruits... it's a much more inclusive way to recruit and it gives all the core members equal ability to gauge the talents of the recruits and gives the recruits a full slate of regulars to compare themselves against.

      Remember... in 6 or 9 months connected realms will be much more fully formed, if not completely formed. Your experience today will be much different than it would be if you recruiting for WoD closer to its release.

      Yeah, you could be right, but I'm not sure why they wouldn't make it available at that difficulty if they're doing it for the others... probably not a lot of additional coding.

      Delete
    5. I like that people can use the new normal/heroic to recruit for the mythic. It is going to be all about how well the guild officers go about recruiting and testing people.

      I think they want mythic to be "special". Remember those really hard core raiders need to feel special or they will cry all over the forums and then their tears will short circuit the internet and we would have no warcraft. So blizzard is protecting the 99.9% of the player base so the 0.1% can continue to feel special.

      Okay, that was a little overboard joking, but that is the idea. The want it to be different and special to show it is the pinnacle of game play. They do not want it to follow the pattern.

      Delete
    6. I think they just want it to be consistent, if nothing else the world race guilds are all about taking advantage of any minor variance so the more than Blizzard can do to level the playing field, especially between 10s and 25s, I think the better. I haven't seen any feedback from the top raiding guilds about the change (which is a bit odd, you'd think there'd be some interviews floating around by now) but I'm expecting them to be generally pretty happy with the change, BOTH 10s and 25s. Especially if, as it sounds like (I think I read something somewhere), they can get into Mythic on day one of content being released.

      Delete
    7. I've seen a few comments from top guilds, 10s hate it, 25s aren't all that excited for it but can deal with it. At least that is the impression from the comments I have read around.

      I hope, for their sake, to make their play time more meaningful, that if they can do it on day one, it is a lot harder, so it lasts longer for them. Would such to burn through content in one week. Even for them.

      Delete
    8. I've since seen (on Matticus' site, I think) that Mythic won't be available until the 2nd week... not sure if it'll require a Heroic clear first. My week one comment seems to be wrong if Matt is right about that.

      If anything, having only 20-man fights to work with should let Blizzard tune the fights even harder without worrying about screwing 10s that have bad comp... I'm expecting world first races to take longer even if they were available first week.

      Delete
    9. I think the 20M design is going to be awesome for the heroic raiders. I intend to write a post about it. I think it could be the best thing that has ever happened to the game on the end game setting for that 0.1%.

      Delete
  4. wow I feel like you and I watched completely different blizzcons. I came away with the feeling that this was no where near release. the amount of of we havn't thought about that yet or the good Idea we will see if we can include that left me with a pitt in my stomach that I'm going to be stuck in SOO until this time next year :( I really Really hope you are right on this one.

    Also I agree the lore of this expansion is just awful. Its not a Time travel storyline oh no its much worse then that its a time travel alternate dimension story... god help us all. I am however looking forward to the mechanics and new models.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I guess it comes down to what you expect from it. From what I expect it seems near done. Maybe you are looking for more. The garrisons are done, and that has to be the single largest addition, the squish is done, and that has to be the single largest data management issue, and the dungeons and at least 3 of the zones are done. Yeap, to me it is near done already.

      This parallel universe thing opens a million doors for them. They can just keep rolling out "what if" expansions. Not sure I could dig that, but there are a few what ifs I would love to see. In a caverns of time dungeon however. ;)

      Delete
  5. -Yes, we missed you!

    -Garrisons look cool.

    -Hit, Expertise, Dodge, Parry! Goodbye!!!

    -Reforging was cool, but definitely not as necessary since the hit/exp caps are going away.

    -I've had 11% hit I think... not sure I ever hit 12 but 1 point over is a waste...

    -Agree, armor changes seem promising. We've often talked about how there shouldn't be different gear for different specs. Never affected hunters but it was annoying on alts and on raid members who were constantly asked to switch roles.

    -Also agree with fewer gems and enchants, they are unnecessary.

    -Makes me wonder if they're going to keep iLvL upgrades. They didn't talk about it and no one asked.

    -100% behind the new raid changes. Lot of people are bitching about the fixed 20man size, but I think they should go ahead and start looking for another 10man group to combine with. With connected realms, we're all going to be on high pop servers soon anyway, so recruiting should be easier soon. We've got plenty of time to adjust.

    -They did mention we'll have bonus rolls during a Q&A. They just weren't sure how we'd get the coins yet. I just hope the coins are BoA. I have 4700+ lesser charms on my hunter and like 10 or something on my DK...

    -Also not super excited about the story. I don't like the time travel aspect of it. At least the characters back then were cooler.

    -The free lvl 90 is intriguing. Not sure what I'll use that for. I wish they'd let you do it for more than one toon. Maybe one for any class, but others you have to have a max lvl already.

    -Hopefully, the garrisons will reduce my need to lvl profession alts though.

    -I'm not as optimistic as Grumpy about the release date. I'm thinking: Beta starting in Jan or Feb, then release in July or August at the earliest.

    Non-blizzcon stuff:

    -Been leveling my mage more. Got her up to 85, almost 86. 80-85 was super fast.

    -Trying to keep her professions leveled up.

    -Tailoring is challenging because there isn't enough cloth. Had to buy a bunch of frostweave and embersilk. I'm swimming in Netherweave however, so making a bunch of bags now.

    -Also ran into some challenges with enchanting. Went on the AH to buy a bunch of cheap items to DE (after I had stupidly bought a bunch of dust and essences at inflated prices)... I was being lazy and I have the gold so I didn't really think how to do it cheaply.

    -First aid was abandoned after lvl 70... I didn't have enough cloth for tailoring... I'm not going to buy cloth to lvl First aid...

    -And I don't feel like my mage is good for farming cloth. I'd do it on my hunter or even my DK, but I don't feel powerful doing AoE on the mage. Seriously feel like a glass cannon...

    -Once I hit 85, I went on icy-veins and started learning the rotation. Rearranged by bars to make things more consistent. Definitely still a work-in-progress.

    -Bought some 450 ilvl blues that are equip-able at 85 as well. Few thousand gold for faster kills is worth it. Still need to replace 3 heirloom items.

    -Got two 450 items still to equip at 86 (drops from the panda rares).

    -No loot this last week and I'm maxed at 3000vp...

    -Hopefully I'll get something off the world bosses this week.

    -Didn't run LFR for the 2nd week in a row! :) Not missing it at all. I have more fun in dungeons. Scenarios vary; I don't really like some of them (like the monkey island or the build a base ones), whereas others are quick and easy.

    -Finally got Revered with Shaohao, so bought the pet. Have more that 100k coins already for the mount...

    -Further along with Bigger bags, need 24 items I think.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The frostweave and embersilk time was hard on my last one too because you level through those zones WAY to fast to ever get close to getting enough.

      I think I got a total of 26 pieces of embersilk from 80-85. I remember making a joke about "how am I supposed to keep tailoring up with this".

      I have 8 characters sitting at or near 3K valor also. Sure, many I can upgrade 522 stuff, but why waste the valor on something I am gone to replace.

      They should remove the valor cap now that there is nothing to buy with it. This is just beyond stupid.

      I stopped even trying for the bigger bag. At least actively trying. Spending more time on alts instead of killing the same rare 90 times and still got getting the stupid drop. They need to fix this random is random stuff because at a point it is not longer "fun" to try to get it, it is only frustrating when it doesn't drop.

      Delete
    2. I just kill the mobs that I need drops from when doing the kill 20 daily and I kill whatever rares are around during that time. I'm not going to grind it out though.

      Delete
    3. Yeah, the drop rates are horrible on those bonus things.

      Delete
    4. One thing about the Frostweave/Embersilk phases for Tailoring, though... even today, I'm selling those bags at a significant profit even just buying the base mats off the AH. Unlike any other profession in those ranges, you'll actually potentially MAKE gold during the periods where bags get you ticks and do it through through to grey. I don't think any other profession has the potential to profit during any pre-MoP leveling periods.

      Delete
    5. I love hitting the bag phase, they do sell and are worth making.

      Heck, they go for 400g or more on my server. Sometimes as much as 600g. Not bad to make profit on and even better when you were just making them for the skill points.

      Delete
  6. As you missed the monday post, and no other posts came after that connected realm posts , i was starting to get worried. I thought maybe you have gone to blizzcon, so checked again today and there it was.
    -Mixed feeling about expansion
    -love all the newly announced features.
    -Except the mythic raiding thing, couple of ppl in our guild dont wanna go 20man and they prefer 10man so they have decided to go casual and eventually quite. This is a group of players I have been with for 2 years and its been an amazing run ,and I hope we will survive this storm. I can understand the need for the mythic change but it also makes me sad that I will loose some of the players whose company I cherish.
    -On raiding front, sunday was that night , when everything clicks. We 3 shotted galakras heroic , one shotted iron juggernaut heroic, and 12 shotted dark shamans heroic. Three progression kills in 3hours.There never have been a better raiding night for us, everyone was so pumped up and happy. Alas loot gods were not pleased, int leather (de-ed) os plate hc wf shoulders for healer pally, and stupid off pieces here and there nothing interesting like weapons or trinkets.
    -straws- kazzak-eu.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I feel for the 10 mans that want to push progression. I run 10 and 25 and I can tell you one thing, I would not mind pushing with my 10 but I would rather quit than push with my 25. Big groups suck, too much drama, to many personalities, to much waiting for one person or another. 10s are just more enjoyable so I understand their feelings.

      With that said, the change was needed. I might never step into a heroic (mythic) again, but I support the change.

      I, like your friends, just like smaller groups and will be happy to do the new heroic (normal) as my max level content.

      We still have not fished it off. We can only get 12 deep and we are blowing through it at record speed. We are thinking of extending one week, just to finish it, because I do not think we can get 14 in the time we play. So the only way we kill the last boss is by extending.

      Delete
  7. Welcome back!

    We missed you a lot. I was visiting the site daily to see your opinion on Blizzcon. I have read it now and I agree on many points (hit and expertise gone = great, etc).

    My short list of what I see as the most important take-away on WoD and Blizzcon:

    - The lore is screwed up. They did say several times they care first and foremost about the gameplay, and, well, it shows. The time-travel thing is bad (long story, there are several unexplainable conflicts and several retcons already and there will be many more), focusing on orcs again is bad, having Garrosh as a big villain again (not the biggest, but still big, he's going to be a raid boss, too, for example) is terrible. In WOTLK, for example, it was easy to love the game for both the gameplay and the lore. Now, not so much. Ah, well, that's life.

    - I am bothered by the number of actual new systems that they are adding this time. It is way too small. In MOP, we were getting challenge instances, scenarios, pet battles and the farm. All announced at the Blizzcon of that time, we did get more on release. In WOD, the only new thing I can see is garrisons. Plus maaaaybe the new auto-gear arenas for glads, but that's a bit small, if we go that small, we might just as well add things like coins for extra raid drops in MOP... They do expand on the existing features, eg, they add more zones, quests, scenarios, instances, raids, etc, but they don't seem to be adding new ones. This isn't good. They did say though that they have at least one expansion lined up (and presumably already in the works) after WOD, so maybe that's a side effect of their push to deliver more things in shorter time, and the more revolutionary features are coming, just not now.

    - I very like that they are adding their own analog of oQueue. That's LFG on steroids, things like that should be in the game, an addon can never do as good a job at that as a built-in facility. That's a great addition! (If they came up with that by themselves and we'd be getting something we didn't already have in some capacity before, I'd credit that towards the list of new things in the point above, of course.)

    - I like a lot of small new things, like various indicators in the BG map window, new controls for bags, the heirloom stash and the toy stash, etc, but I am not big on garrisons. That's just a minigame, and I think there's a chance this particular minigame will last more on the level of farm than on the level of battle pets. One reason battle pets last a lot more than the farm is that, first, there are hundreds of battle pets, and, second, you have to go get them in the world (and also in instances and raids, and there are different seasons, etc). They did say that we might be getting some of the garrison followers by doing something in the world, but there's the inn, plus I don't think they will ever add as many types of followers as they added pets.

    So, a big letdown in lore, a concern about there being few new features, and an appreciation of the little things. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The lore is "screwed" but I think they also did this so they could screw with the lore. Alternate realities means lore means nothing. So it makes it easier on the writers because they can do anything they want. Lets face it, their writers can convey a decent story but they are not top tier writers, they have no clue about continuity. This allows them to bypass their weakness without fearing the wrath of the fanboys.

      The adding OQ to the game is both good and bad. OQ was fine when only the dedicated players that wanted to do stuff used it. Now that blizzard keeps mentioning in, the bad players are filling the place and it has become more LFR and less LFG of old. Anything that they allow access to the masses to, like OQ now, goes down hill. An in game one will surely be horrible because anyone would have access to it.

      Not trying to sound elitist or anything, but lets face it, a mage pulling 30K in 530 gear has no business in organized group content, not even LFR.

      I am fine with fewer new features as long as those features are good. They are running out of ideas so I would prefer they make the few ideas they have fantastic instead of just trying to add new things for the sake of adding new things.

      Delete
  8. I read all the new features and didn't see a bad one in the bunch. Yay! I can't wait to play it!

    Then I read about the setting and thought, "Orcs? More f'n orcs?"

    It's not bad enough that we've had two xpacs with a definite orc flavor, now we get a third one dedicated to nothing but orcs. Whee!

    Aren't orcs the things you kill at the beginning of your career? Right after sewer rats and kobolds and before you can survive ogres? Then you go on to more fantastical things like demons, dragons, and lichs. But you don't go backwards to orcs. Things become more fantastical, not less.

    I can't see someone walking into a store and going, "No, I don't want to kill dragons, demons, and other cool things in this other game, I want to kill orcs! For two years! And the plot revolves around a minor point of lore from seven years ago? Bonus! I want to fork over oodles of cash to that!"

    Even worse, they take my least favorite part, BC, remove all of the fantastical bits that make it bearable and leave the boring orc bits. How is that progress?

    And no number of trailers with orcs killing things in the snow with lots of new fangled slow motion effects is going to make it look cool. Dragons breathing fire, massive demons laying waste to whole armies, evil necromancers with armies of undead, those are what people want. I know WoW has done those bits, but those were the xpacs people liked and reminisced about - do something cool like that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The orc over kill is really getting to a lot of people, even people that play horde. Not sure what blizzard obsession with orcs is, but they need to get over it and realize that while it might have a place in the game, it should not be the single center of attention every expansion.

      Delete
    2. I've said this before but at least for me, Orcs >>>>> Trolls >> Bugs.

      I'd much rather deal with Orcs than either of those two. I'd like to be done with Trolls, permanently, and I've had more than enough bug factions, too, between AQ, Nerubians, Klaxxi and whatever bugs Cataclysm had (can't think of any off-hand but I'm sure there were some).

      Somewhat off topic, note that two of those are Horde factions... and I think we're all expecting a future expansion (probably not too far down the road, I was hoping it might be THIS one) to feature Undead heavily. Not even sure when Alliance will actually be able to get an expansion where they're the plot focus... you know, a HUMAN bad guy as the big bad for a change. Or maybe the Iron Dwarves! Hell, I'd even take a "Valen is evil" expansion at this point. Who knows, maybe WoD can turn into that one...

      (and if that actually happens, you saw it here first)

      Delete
    3. I think an undead expansion would be kind of cool and is being built up to with what is going on.

      I could dig some more bugs, I could dig a complete titan world sort of thing, love that design. But orcs, it is not like I have anything against them as the focus, but three expansions in a row. That is a bit much.

      Delete