Patches, Pets and People Oh My

I had a few things on my mind so I figured I would make a post with a few things in it.  I'll try to keep each mini topic short but you know me so don't hold your breath on that one.

Patch 5.4.8

I was, read that as past tense because it is, very excited for patch 5.4.8.  There is not a great deal of meat to this patch, it is just really there as filler to try and ease the pain of us still having to play the same content.  There were two main points, at least as I see it, that we were expecting in this patch.

One was allowing us to upgrade our gear another 8 item levels which I have touched on.  It is a great thing for the people that don't need it but not really such a great thing for those just playing catch up or not valor capped or having nothing worth spending it on or those that do not even know about upgrading, which those things combined are basically most of the people that play the game.

The other part of the patch, as we were expecting it, was that they were adding a speed up option for the legendary quest line.  I gave up on getting cloaks because I was fed up with the LFR experience but I was thinking of dabbling back into it if they were going to speed up the process substantially because it would in effect greatly limit the time I needed to spend in that hell hole we affectionately refer to as the LFR.

Then I read over at wow insider that our fine feathered friend Rygarius was the bearer of bad news.  The legendary quest catch up would not be part of this patch.  This upset me of course because I was looking forward to finishing off the quest on my monk and mage who are both close to done and starting up another hunter on the line.  Now, blah, who cares.

But there is a second reason to be upset with this not being in the patch.  It means it will be even longer before we get 6.0 and warlords.  What makes me say that?  Well, all just guess work of course, but blizzard would not create a catch up mechanic unless we had more than ample time to finish it with that mechanic in place.

If they did release the catch up then, in theory, the possibility of the next expansion coming was sooner than later.  If they release the catch up mechanic later, that means they are doing it to keep us active.  So the later they release it the more we need to realize that we will be able to finish it and that means we need to wait longer for 6.0 and warlords to follow.  You can read this not being in the patch as 6.0 being even further away now and warlords being even further away now which is a sad turn of events.  This catch up system was supposed to be the last catch up system to hold us over until the expansion.

BTW, my insider, the one that often tips me off to things which I speculate on here before it comes out, so I know his information is solid, told me to expect warlords 16 weeks after the catch up mechanic comes out.  So thinking it was coming out today made me think that in 16 weeks we will get warlords.  So to me, based on the information I know, it not being part of this patch is basically a delay in warlords.

So this patch means nothing for me.  If anything it means warlords is being pushed even further back.  Sure item upgrades are nice, but not needed.  A catch up mechanic is also nice and it is needed.  At least needed for me, if they want to keep me interesting in playing for those 16 weeks after it comes out while we wait an unprecedented time for new content.

The Pet That Keeps Getting Away

In preparation of maybe starting to run LFR again I decided to give ToT part 3 a run again for the first time in months.  I had run this one a lot.  A hell of a lot.  My mage, my monk, my priest and my rogue basically did the majority of their legendary quest line in this one.  It drops secrets and runes and more importantly it drops a pet I want off of primordius.  The quivering blob which teaches you Living Fuild, a pet I want and need for my collection.

I just took at look at my main characters that have ran the LFR the most, and of course ran that wing the most, and combined they have 63 kills of primordius in LFR.  It is also safe to believe that they used a coin most of the time in attempts to get the pet.  As my most played characters I often would use that one as something I always did when capping valor and there have been no real use for those coins for a long time.  So lets say that means 100 attempts on those characters alone.  I have 18 level 90s that can get into, and have done, ToT wing 3.  Even if all of them only did it a few times that adds up.  I know some, like my mage, monk, priest and rogue are at least in the 10 range because they often did that wing while collecting drops, and all the others have to be at least 3 a piece, maybe more.  We are talking I have to be well past 200 attempts when including coin rolls at getting that pet and still no pet.

I was looking forward to the legendary catch up thing, as I just previously mentioned, because I was going to start doing this one wing again on every single character each week, effectively increasing my chances to get the pet and moving along slowly in the legendary quest line.  Now that is not going to happen, and I am still waiting on what can only be considered amazingly horrible luck.

Helping Out For Fun

My alt hunter needed a tiny bit to cap valor at 3K so I figured I would do the epoch stone thing on the island but changed my mind.  Might as well run a couple of dungeons.  It can help some people get through them faster and they can be downright fun.  There is something to be said about going in and mindlessly blowing things up in a complete and total mindless slaughter.  The game needs more group content like that.  For new characters it might be a way to gear up, but for geared characters it is a way to just have some fun.  The game needs a hell of a lot more fun group content.

The first run I get in apparently is headed by a DK tank that has never tanked before, or at least never tanked the one we got into.  It was shado pan monastery.  He pulls that first guy and looks surprised when adds spawn but that is not want gives his newness away, it was the fact that after he kills that one he goes forward to those guys up on the steps that do not need to be killed instead of making a left like everyone does.

No big deal, I slaughter them, we move on.  On each boss we kill someone rolls need on the item that drops.  Freaking awesome, I love it.  Not only am I having some fun killing stuff but I am doing so in a group of people that actually need some things from here.  Not exactly sure why they are not getting whatever they can from the timeless island, but who am I to judge.  Maybe they did and they did not get the right drops and are still missing a few slots.  Either way, it was fun helping them and even more fun knowing they got some gear they needed.

I do another one and get the same instance.  This one has a mildly decent geared lock as well.  Between the lock and I nothing lives for more than a few seconds.  We both seem to come from the same school of thought.   Even with a tank that was barely scratching the surface of 450K life, something we both greatly surpassed as damage dealers, we still let him pull the mobs, we still let him wrap them up, and then we killed them super fast.

It is nice to see there was another damage dealer in a group that thinks like I do.  I am able to solo all these things, have been for a very long time, but when I am in a group the tank pulls.  I am just a tool of destruction and I kill what the tank points at but I always let the tank point because that is his job and this is mine.  It was a fun run and guess what?  Every boss dropped something either the other damage dealer, the tank or the healer needed.  Freaking awesome.  I got to help people out and have fun at the same time.

I like that there is content like that in the game.  Something I could do solo but I can help others out with and they actually get something they need out of it.  I get a feeling of satisfaction for helping and get to have a little fun just killing stuff for a while, what is there not to like about that?