Monday Random Thoughts

- I sometimes wonder if I really like the idea of valor upgrades.

- I mean they are nice to have, but they suck to waste valor on them.

- I am at the stage on all my characters, even alts that just hit 90, that I hate using valor on anything less than 553.

- It almost seems like putting perfume on a pig.

- Even if you upgrade an LFR piece is is still a piece of crap.

- I really wish valor gear was back.

- Don't know about you but I would much rather spend valor on a 553 piece than on upgrading a 528 one.

- There is absolutely no competition there.

- Heck, I would rather buy a 553 piece at 2250 valor and then win a better 553 piece the same day than waste 1000 valor to upgrade something I end up replacing that same day.

- It happened to me on one of my hunters yesterday.

- I had won a pair of boots the last time I raided on it, to replace 540 ones.

- Logging on to it for the first time since then I put them on, upgraded them, reenchanted as needed, changed a few gems and did some reforging.

- Then I used the in game finder for a normal group while I went to kill some gulp frogs for stone so I can get my weekly valor.

- Within a short time I get a whisper asking if I want to come to nazgrim.

- I asked normal or heroic, he said normal, I said, okay.

- I really would have wanted to do sha of prided, could you an AoC warforged or the tier chest.

- I have a flex chest so that would be a nice upgrade.

- Or if I could get the freaking legs to drop of the celestial or klaxxi bosses.

- That would work too.

- I have off set pieces for everything, but no tier legs to move pieces around.

- Warforged legs, warforged shoulders, warforged helm and warforged gloves.

- No warfroged chest however, so even if I got legs, I do not have a decent chest for it.

- Either way, back to naz and we killed him no problem and the warforged boots drop.

- Ever win something you wanted and been upset you won it?

- I just spent 1000 valor on the boots I am wearing, I just changed 2 gems, 2 enchants and spent money on reforging.

- I just wasted all that.

- On this character is was no big deal because it was connected to my main collection of characters so getting everything it needed was just a matter of character hopping.

- But what if it were one of my hunters without a network.

- I decided to gem up my horde hunter the other day, only the pieces 553 or better mind you, and it cost me 3K.

- That is not all my pieces, that does not include enchants.

- Sure I can make money, but that sucks wasting it if you are just going to replace it.

- That is why I try to only upgrade things 553 or higher.

- Less chance of them being replaced soon.

- Back to my run, the chest dropped off spoils, I won it, so now I have a normal level chest, only need the tier legs to go with it so I can put on the normal chest in place of the flex tier one and still keep my 4 piece.

- Was having a great run, so when we get to klaxxi I am hoping for the best.

- To be all normal geared or better I would need those legs so I can downgrade my warforged one to put on the 553 chest and keep my 4 piece and a ring, because I still have a flex ring.

- I was hoping one would drop and I would coin the other, was having good luck so far this run.

- No luck this time.

- The group did not even make an attempt on garrosh.

- Either way, good night, except for the fact that I wasted all that valor on something that only lasted me a couple of hours.

- And lets say I won those legs.

- I would have to wait 2 weeks for it to be worth switching out the new chest and legs for the old chest and legs.

- Not to mention having to wait another week so I can put on those boots.

- And all this has me wondering, are upgrades really a good idea, or just a general annoyance.

- I like upgrades, do not get me wrong, but in times like this I just can't help but say I hate them.

- It just sucks to win something that will replace something you just wasted 1000 valor on.

- It sucks even worse that it is an upgrade that I need to wait a week so I can upgrade it before it is actually an upgrade.

- The upgrade system needs some work, not sure what, but it needs some work.

- Maybe a system to transfer the upgrade from one piece to another for half valor cost or for some sum of gold as a gold sink.

- But any way to actually put on my upgrade when I get it would have been nice.

- Hey, I am sure someone loves the upgrade system.

- I am sure someone hates it too.

- So if there are people that like it AND people that dislike it, it will be removed.

- Blizzard could not make up its own mind on anything.

- If some people like it and some people don't they will need to remove it, can't have that, have to try to please everyone or displease everyone.

- They can not listen to the whims of the players.

- Except if it is something everyone dislikes.

- Then it stays.

- Was reading over patch notes and thinking, I was just really starting to like druid healing again.

- So said I am going to have to ditch it again when the new expansion comes out.

- I like having all instants basically.

- I like being able to jump around as a tree while I heal.

- I like that I can move my shrooms wherever I want when I want.

- Now, no instants, 30 second cooldown on moving shrooms, no bloom.

- Can someone say... booooorrrrrriiinnnnngggg.

- Blizzard has a bad, very bad, habit of screwing over healers at the beginning of every single expansion and this next one will be no different.

- Except they are taking screwing healers over to all new heights.

- A jumping thee is probably one of the most iconic things I remember from my early raiding.

- I wanted to be that tree.

- It is why when my druid hit max in wrath I tried my hand at healing because that looked like so much fun.

- It is why I quit druid healing in cataclysm because they removed the tree.

- It is why I decided to give it a try again this expansion because there was a glyph that made me a tree.

- And it is why I will ditch it again next expansion because I will not be able to be the jumping tree any longer.

- People are enjoying something?  We can't have that.

- Lets remove it.

- Blizzards motto.

- Like I was so excited to see marks was going to be a top spec for hunters again.

- To almost ending up in tears just thinking about how they removed every bit of heart the spec might have had.

- What is it now, a 4 button rotation?

- Steady for focus, aimed to bleed, chimea and toss on cooldown.

- Oh yeah, and kill shot when the mob gets low.

- 5 buttons, no procs, no interaction on how the abilities work with each other.

- Just create a one button marco, because there will never need to be anything to react to, and you too can do 100% of your maximum potential as a hunter.

- Seriously blizzard, WTF?

- I am all for easier rotations, look at the player base, they can't even do the ones around now, but this is a bit too much.

- I liked the marks of old, an easy rotation that was hard to pull off perfectly with that split second delay and you lose your buff.

- All when you could not move and shoot.

- That is how rotations should be designed.

- Easy enough that anyone can do it, but rewarding for when people can do it right.

- You could tell a good hunter from a bad one back then.

- Now, with the rotation in a one button macro for 100% potential, you would never be able to tell.

- But they will not let that go live.

- They can not let that go live.

- I would be willing to bet that will not go live.

- I just hope they are testing something and going to add all the stuff they took out back in once they balance it as they add it back.

- I sure hope that is what is happening.

- It is the alpha after all.

- This can't be where marks ends up.

- But I never underestimate blizzard.

- Do you know how many things I have heard people say, don't complain, that will never make it live, and it does?

- Hundreds, easily hundreds.

- So never take for granted the stupidity of blizzard.

- I did some LFRs this weekend, way too many if you ask me.

- My monk needed 4 runestones to get the cloak, did every single boss that could drop one and now I need 2.

- Come on, that is ridiculous, if it were not for the guaranteed ones I would have got none.

- I needed 4 secrets for my mage to move onward and with more bosses to get them from this should not be a problem.

- I did every boss.

- I even queued again if I came in on a partial run so I could get them all.

- That is all 12 ToT bosses and the first 8 siege ones.

- I go into next week needing 2 more.

- I only got the two guaranteed ones?

- You have to be freaking kidding me blizzard, really?

- Now I remember why I stopped trying to get the cloak on alts.

- Now I remember why I stopped doing LFRs.

- It is bad enough I need to deal with wait times, bad people, bad players, toxic behavior, but I also need to deal with horrible drop rates.

- I did all the bosses I could do on two characters and only got the guaranteed ones on them?

- Basically that means I got none.

- Can't count the two I am guaranteed as getting one, because I am supposed to get one.

- However, I have been screwed on that one too plenty of times.

- Someone said put in a ticket, they will give it to you.

- Yeah, maybe in your little world, not mine.

- I once put in a ticket because I did not get one.

- By the time they got back to me the week reset and I got the one I needed and then they responded saying I do not need it, why did I put in a ticket about it, I can get in trouble for putting in false tickets.

- Well, I did need it three days ago when I put in the ticket you moron.

- I did not say it like that, but I sure as hell wanted to.

- I did tell them I did need it when I put in the ticket but I got it after reset.

- I did hint at the fact if they had answered in less than 3 days I would have still needed it then.

- Two weeks ago a friend that was collecting sigils put in a ticket, on my request, because he did not get one on sha of pride, one of the so called guaranteed drop ones.

- He had 10 power and 9 wisdom, that would have finished off that part for him and that was the last boss he could do that week.

- He got a quick response, unlike me.

- His response?

- It did drop one for you, a sigil of power and being you did not need any more you did not get it.

- My friend said exactly what I would have.

- It was fixed so that you can not get over 10 and if you would get one it would give you the one you need.

- The GM said, sorry, can't help you, it dropped a power, you did not need a power, you will have to wait until next week.

- There is useless, and there is a blizzard GM, less than useless.

- At least someone useless would have tried to help, this guy did not even try and fail, he just said "no soup for you".

- Have I mentioned that the mage circle thing should be instant cast?

- Would love to place it as I am moving from place to place.

- I am starting to get really good with it however.

- Learning the perfect time to drop it, keeping track of it, and all that jazz.

- People still seem to, oddly enough, stack in it for some reason.

- I was considering making a macro that says get off of my lawn.

- I am a gnome after all.

- Circle = lawn.

- Garden gnome.

- Get it.

- Ha ha.

- Okay fine, only I think it is funny.

- I got two complements on that pug I ran.

- One was someone that whispered me saying, "this is an alt, I would love to see what you do on a main, amazing"

- The other was after I said I could use the chest if no one else needed it because I only had a 540.

- Someone whispered me, how the hell can you do those numbers still having some 540 gear.

- Of course I did not lead on that my main was also a hunter.

- So my "alt" was not like most peoples alts.

- It is not like I was playing in a role or class I do not normally play on.

- So I let them have their fun.

- And I did get a smile from the complements.

- By my own standards however I did not even do that well.

- I did have one awesome start on thok and we wiped.

- I was still over 600K when he went into the first transition, still over 500K when he hit the second.

- I think I had a chance, a really outside chance, of breaking 400K on it for the first time ever.

- And not just breaking it, but really going above and beyond it.

- We wiped with 17% left and me still sitting at 458K.

- I would have done it.

- I ended with 316 when we did down it.

- It feels so blah after flirting with 450.

- It is all in the luck of the procs.

- I must have had a 50 in a row explosive shot streak that run.

- Heck, I do not know how long it was, but it seemed to last forever.

- And then when it stopped, it started all over again.

- I don't think I had my serpent sting up for 90% of that attempt because if it was a choice between another explosive or reapplying my sting there really was no choice.

- Screw the sting baby, I am going medieval on this dinos ass.

- I really do think that DPS sometimes seems like 80% luck 10% skill and 10% connection.

- A little bit of skill, a nice fast connection and with some luck you do 450K and without it you do 316K.

- I guess I will be glad is blizzard could get back to skill based rotations instead of luck based one.

- At least if I do poorly I know I can get better with practice.

- But when it comes to luck, I do not know if I did well, or just got lucky.

- How can you learn to be the best you can be when everything revolves around luck?

- Not saying I did not like having explosive shot lit for an entire fight, or what felt like it, I loved it.

- But now no matter how good I do the fight, even if I do everything 100% within my power correctly, I will never see that number.

- Not without luck, or lots more gear.

- And the game should be able skill.

- Not about luck.

- Not about gear.

- And most definitely not about people standing in my gnome mages circle.

- Get off of my lawn.

- Have a great day.