Mob Sharing: My Opinion

So Watcher posted the following in concerns to mob sharing where someone asked why they do not just make all mobs capable of being shared tags.

There's no question that when spawning or quest objectives are not handled properly on our side, the tap system can create negative and anti-social experiences, wherein seeing players of your own faction nearby becomes a nuisance. We very much want to limit and rectify those situations. The most helpful thing you can do in that regard during beta is to bring to our attention specific quests or areas in which you felt competition for spawns was overly detrimental to your experience. We have a number of ways of fixing those problems, ranging from simply adding additional spawns, to dynamic spawn thresholds that ramp up density as player density increases, to making specific targets open tap.

The main reason we don't embrace a fully open-tap world is that we feel that those mechanics are asocial. To be fair, that is certainly better than antisocial - no question there, and antisocial experiences usually reflect spawning and mechanics that we need to adjust. However, while a world in which everyone runs around damaging things a few times (or however much is needed to qualify for credit) may be one in which you don't feel bad about other players being around, at some point it also makes those players nearly indistinguishable from NPCs or bots with decent AI. You don't need to talk, or ask if someone has room in their group or would like to join yours. You just attack a few times, and then move on.

On the other hand, mob tagging rules inherently reward and encourage social gameplay. Even in solo areas like daily quest hubs in Mists, we'd commonly see transient pickup groups form for the sake of efficiency, and stick together through that hub or maybe even another ("hey, anyone up for Klaxxi after this?"). But once again, it's incumbent upon us to make sure that we avoid situations where that is outweighed by negatives like competing for underspawned quest targets or objects.

Philosophically, for a while now, we've made sure that any time multiple players are sent to kill a single specific target that has a respawn timer (be it named quest boss, world boss, or an event like the Battlefield: Barrens commanders in patch 5.3), the mob is open to credit for all. We're certainly open to extending that treatment where it makes sense, and where it serves to improve the overall experience. But I wouldn't expect a wholesale overhaul of our tap mechanics in the near future.

First I want to mention that what watcher said is his, or bizzards as it may be, opinion.  Nothing more.  There are no facts behind what he stated, there was no exhaustive research done, there were no polls made, there was nothing what so ever to back up his opinion.

So in that same vein I will post my opinion which is no less valid than his.

If all mobs were designed to be shared tags, and loot fixed to represent that so everyone got their share if they participated, I think a no tag environment would actively benefit the community more than watcher and the other blizzard mouth pieces tend to think.  They are entitled to their opinion just as I am entitled to mine.  I am however going to site some examples, just as watcher did, which I believe show that mob sharing works as a social tool, even more so than the tagging system does.

If all mobs were to give individual loot and everyone could hit them people would work together.  I have played games like this and when you have to kill 10 mobs it is so much nicer when you see someone in the area killing to just help them kill.  You get credit and loot, they get credit and loot.

In a most recent example of this I will reference wildstar which uses an individual loot system with shared tags. I would enter a cave and unlike in wow where I take the first mob and someone runs by me to take the second and I run by them to grab the third and forth and they run by me to try and get the fifth, sixth and seventh, and we end up fighting for mobs in wildstar we end up working together.  Not fighting for mobs, we notice that killing them as a team benefits us both and makes it easier and faster on us both.  I can not even imagine how dreadful wildstar would be without a system like this with the super fast respawns and much harder mobs, but I have grown to love the shared tag system there and on some occasions I even hung out in an area for a few minutes waiting for someone else to come by so I could help them as helping them was helping me.

Often if we end up running into each other a few times we end up grouping up, but either way we are working together, in a group or not.  This has lead to conversations and even friendships to form.  This has been what made me meet the people I joined guilds with and the people I made neighbors to my player housing.  Just meeting people even if I was never in a group with them.  And this is without mob tagging.

Watcher seems to think that having mobs with shared tags would make people not want to group but I disagree.  Just visit the timeless island and spend a few minutes there on any server listed as medium or higher.  You will see people asking for rare farming groups, orodos groups, celestial groups.  All groups that you do not need to be in a group to take advantage of.

When it comes to reputation grinds you need to be in a group there so you get a lot of people asking for groups for them.  I also see people asking for frog farming groups for stones as well.  This is because you "have to" be in a group to benefit, meaning to get those stones or to get that reputation.  It is forced grouping which I do not think benefits the game.  You are being forced to group, or even possibly need a group depending on your gear and / or skill.

I would think that anything that ever made people feel they "have to" do it would be something blizzard would want to try to keep the an absolute minimum with all the backlash they had at the start of this expansion with things feeling mandatory because people felt like they "have to" do it.

Those same people you see posting LF rep farm could be posting that for hours.  I was on the island yesterday and did ordos and celetials on four different characters and during that time I saw this person looking for a reputation group.

If you need a group because of gear or skill issues or because you are only a healer and can not kill them on your own or want a group just because you do not like to do it alone, it could very well slow down your game play, not speed it up.  As you can see from this one example, and there are surely hundreds more like it, this person spent the better part of an hour doing nothing but posting in general seeking a group instead of actually playing the game.  Is this really the type of loot system blizzard is supporting? 

If there were shared tags with personal loot that person would be in an area with yungol killing them, getting reputation, and maybe, just maybe, getting an invite because he is right there.  Even if he doesn't and all they do is kill together outside of a group that person actually gets to play the game instead of spamming general for an hour looking for a group.

There are many times, even more so when the island just came out, that I would be farming reputation on the other side of the bridge and someone would ask to join a group with me because they needed help.  I could solo them from the moment of release so I did not need help but I have no problem helping someone so I would invite them.  I never actively looked for a group and would never go grab someone form general that was asking for a group but if someone was there, I would invite them.

A shared tag system (with individual loot) would inspire people to come up there and just start killing with me just like the person that asked for the invite.  But instead they were standing someone else looking for a group.  I was not going to invite them because, as I said, I did not need the help, but if they were there standing next to me and helping me I would shoot them an invite.  There would be a lot more players there participating if there was a shared tag system which would benefit me, as they would go down faster, and benefit them, as they get the help they needed.

Admittedly that is not always a good thing with groups either.  A friend and I were farming frogs for stones when a warrior in low gear came by and helped us kill a few frogs.  He then asked us if he could join, and I invited him.  My friend on vent said, never invite anyone to a group, we do not need him.  He was right, but I figured what the heck, I'm a nice guy that way.

We went on and killed a large pack of frogs and three timeless pieces dropped.  One plate and two cloth.  The warrior hit need on all three.  Maybe he needed the plate one but there is no way he needed the cloth ones on a warrior and even if he did need them for an alt the appropriate thing would have been to ask, do you mind if I need.  We would have said go for it, neither of us needed anything, but it was the principle of the matter, him just needing that infuriated my friend.  My friend said kick him, I said no, maybe he just does not know group etiquette.  I said in party, to explain to him standard group rules, unless you actually need something for the character you are on please hit greed on it.

I think I was polite, it is only fair that if you do not need something you do not hit need on it.  Not to mention, it was our group, which means our rules, even if those were not our rules, those were the standard group rules that exist in all games really.  And I do not believe in the "I need it for gold" argument.  That is completely bull shit, sorry if you are one of the people that use that argument, but you are wrong.  You need gold more than I need the gold because you are greedy and that means a greed roll.

Next pack another bunch of things to roll on drop and he hits need on all of them, including a lockbox, which no one needs, there is no way anyone could "need" a lockbox.  I kick him from group without saying a word and he asks me why.  I explain, in a group setting it is rude to hit need on everything that drops, go find someone else to take advantage of, you will not be taking advantage of me any longer.  This is why it sometimes does not pay to be nice, this is also why tagging is bad, it discourages grouping for fear you might get a warrior like that.

This is one of the reasons that people do not actively like grouping.  That friend, and many others I know, will not group with anyone they do not know for reasons just like that one.  It is not worth the time to invite someone that is a need roll troll.

Shared tags would help with this.  He could help us and we could help him and we would never need to be in a group and no ill will would ever be had from him because we kicked him or from us because we were helping him and he was taking advantage of us.

Then there is the queue case which if I had to guess happened to me so many times I could not even guess how many.  I get a whisper asking "Can I join" or just a unsolicited invite to a group and I have to reply, sorry, in queue.

With the queue system most of the time if I am online I am in queue for something.  This means I can not help you.  With shared tags we can work together but with the tag system you are on your own.  How exactly is the tag system being a social system there?  It is not and that is not just talking about the island, that is talking about leveling too.  I can not tell you the number of times I was waiting on mobs to spawn and someone was looking to form a group and most of the people there would say "sorry, in queue" or just outright decline and now we are all fighting for mobs instead of just killing what we need for the quest and enjoying ourselves.

The tag system is more anti-social in my opinion even if blizzard and watcher do not believe so.  It makes you not want to be in groups.  I am in queue, or I do not want you needing on my stuff, or I want to move at my pace, or I want to go left, or what have you.  I'll just kill my mobs and you kill yours.  Good luck beating me to the tag.  That creates animosity between players.

With a shared system it would not matter if I was in queue or I did not want them needing on my stuff or I wanted to move at my pace or I wanted to go left.  They could either hit what I am hitting or not hit what I am hitting, either way, I am doing what I want, they are doing what they want and both of us are moving along happily with our quest instead of fighting over things.

A shared tag system also creates more of a sense of community because, even if for selfish reasons, you would be more likely to help someone in trouble if you could get something from it.  I can not even begin to tell you the number of times I have been in trouble and someone ran right past me to get one of the same mob I was fighting, or I saw someone in trouble and just moved right past them because if I stopped to help them it would slow me down.

If I, or they, could get credit from the kill, loot from the kill, and the feeling of helping out we have a triple stacked pile of goodness going there.  I get that warm fuzzy feeling of helping my fellow man as well as some shiny loot and credit for my quest completion and guess what, maybe I might even tell the guy/gal lets team up and finish this off.  And if they tell me, sorry I am in queue, it won't make a difference because we can still work together even if we are not grouped together.  How does blizzard not share my opinion on this one that this is a very good thing?  Oh well, everyone is entitled to their opinion.

In the end a shared mob tagging system is long over due in game and I believe it would not hurt the game in any way greater than having a singular tagging system does now.  Sure both ways would have their faults but neither more than the other.

The key to making the shared tag system work however would be an individual loot system. All mobs would have to work like the timeless island rares, that everyone gets to loot them and gets their own loot.  Like if I go and kill bufo solo, or in a group, and get a timeless chest piece someone else might get mail boots and another might get nothing but some coins.  We would each get what was meant for us.  So a shared tag system with individual loot is the way to go.

As I said, I disagree with watcher and I will not call him wrong, but my opinion completely differs from his and is no less valid than his.  Just because he said it does not mean he is right.  It is his, and the company he works for, opinion.  Nothing more.  Mob tagging is not better for the game just because he said so, he just follows the company line saying so as their opinion just as I disagree with him as it is my opinion.

In the end it is blizzards game and as such only their opinion matters.  If they like it, it is here to stay.  If we hold a difference of opinion it is our job, if we choose to accept it, to try and persuade them to change their opinion but based on the way watcher went at this one when blizzard and their employees usually shy away from making such blanket opinions shown on the forums I doubt this is one we would be able to convince them differently on.

So with all that said I too think it is time for the tagging system to go just as the person that started this conversion had said.  It has no place in the game any longer and it seems to create more isolation than it does group play and working together.  At least that is my opinion.  What is yours?

What If: The Faction Divide Without Orcs

It is a relatively known fact that the coming of the Orcs is what created the faction divide.  Not saying there were not some opposition between races before that point because there surely was but it was the coming of the orcs that inspired the rise of the horde and created the azeroth we know it which an orc vs human world with each representing their respective faction.

What if the orcs never came to azeroth?  What do you believe the world would look like and do you believe there still would have been a faction divide?

We hear a lot of hate with the story telling of blizzard being so orc centric now for the third expansion in a row and who can blame them, it is getting tired now, really tired.  But to call it horde favoritism, while correct at face value, is not to look back at the full picture as if this was a world without orcs.  At least in my vision of this what if world would look like without them.

If you think things show horde favoritism now just want until you see what my vision of the world would be without orcs.

Everything said here has absolutely no basis in lore and is just me voicing opinions or making guesses on what I believe might have, or could have, happened if the world never had orcs enter the picture.

The alliance, and particularly their human leadership was pretty much divided before the time of orcs.  It was the invasion that made them combine the seven kingdoms into one under the banner of a human alliance.  It is also that invasion that made them seek out an alliance, if you will, that saw them joining forced with other non human kingdoms.

Without the orcs and by association without the invasion there would have been no reason for the kingdoms of humans to join together and most defiantly no reason for them to join ranks with non humans.

However conflict has a way of happening and it would happen sooner or later.  I could see all the human kingdoms joining together because of it and I could see the dwarves and gnomes joining with the human, it just seems like a natural fit.   So I could see at least that part of the alliance as we know it banding together.  Where I see the difference coming is with the night elves.  I do not see them joining with the humans, dwarves and gnomes.  Not only are the predominantly on another continent but they really do not seem to fit as well with them.

Not to mention that the night elves seem to be more in tune with the tauren and troll races on their own continent.  When push came to shove, in my vision of a world without orcs I could see the alliance being the humans, dwarves and gnomes and the horde being the night elves, tauren and troll.  The tag line would need to be changed to Night Elves vs. Humans.

As time went by and more races were "introduced" that is where we would begin to see a major faction imbalance.  People might say horde favoritism now but do not kid yourself, if we were in a world without orcs it might seem even more so like horde favoritism.

Without the orcs we would not have original faction balance, or would we?  The last race that had not chosen a side are the forsaken.  I can not believe that the human would side with them, even if they were losing a war and I can not believe the night elves would side with them because they would go against their feelings for nature and what is natural and comes from the earth that is embraced by all members of the horde faction, night elf, tauren and troll alike.

So the beginning factions are now broken up as three on each side and the forsaken being left on the outside looking in.  They would just grow to be the main antagonist of the series.  This would allow the game to move forward with a central bad guy "faction" instead of having to label either the alliance (good guys) or the horde (bad guys) as such as it stands currently.

When BC came about the races would have joined different sides, or so I would be lead to believe.  Blood elves might have issue with both the humans and the night elves but I can see them looking to join with someone and as such they would get the padnaren treatment of being allowed to choose which side they want to be with.  Being blood elves held some animosity against their brothers the night elves and some had contempt for the humans it would be a case of them choosing the lesser of two evils.  So blood elves would be allowed to choose the side they wish to fight for.

The draenei however would side with the horde.  It was the night elves that helped them, it was the night elves that became their friends, shares somewhat similar beliefs and made them feel welcome so as such it would be the night elves that they join with.  It would also allow them to be with the tauren which they share more in common with than they do any of the humans, dwarves or gnomes.

Orcs, while we meet them in outland would not be joining any faction as a playable race and if they did they would join one it would be the non playable forsaken as part of the bad guys, which is really where they belong, even more so the outland orcs.

So this basically would now put the horde up one faction as they get the draenei and both factions split the blood elves.

Come wrath it might be best to talk a little bit about classes.  Even if both the tauren and the tolls were shamanistic there would have been no shamans in the original game.  With no orcs in the game that means no shaman even if lore shows that shamanism was almost dead in the orc culture and did exist in both in the tauren and troll culture but because they would not want to give the horde 2 classes that the alliance did not have there would be no shaman in game at all, at least at the start.  That does not mean that there would be no faction specific classes however.  As it stands only the horde would have druids and only the alliance would have paladins.

With the BC expansion horde ended up getting a paladin class in the draenei so for that entire expansion would see the horde with one more class than the alliance had as well as one more race.  And people complain about horde favoritism now, what do you think they would have said then?

Well, something apparently because in my what if vision when wrath came blizzard tried to balance out the class imbalance.  Death knights would be introduced as an alliance only class and not a hero class.  It would start at level 1 like all others and only humans would be able to be death knights.  Now there is balance again.  Alliance had lost their class when they had to share the paladin with the horde through the draenei and now have their class back in the form of the death knight.

With no new races this expansion and blizzard balancing out the class imbalance we move to cataclysm where they introduced worgen and goblin as races and we get to see a hell of a lot more horde favoritism.  Worgen would end up joining the horde instead of the alliance because, once again, it was the night elves that convinced them to join their efforts and not the humans.  The night elves had always been the diplomats among the alliance races and without them they are not really expanding.

In regards to the goblins I doubt human arrogance or prejudices would allow those tiny green devils to beak bread with their people so when they sought out a faction to join it would only make sense they would join the faction that had a diplomatic leadership that would see the advantage of having another race within their fold, even more so one with great inventions like the goblins.

This would now place the horde a whole 3 factions ahead of the alliance and balance between races would be a long forgotten thing.  It was just not going to happen.  The opening up of more races being able to play more classes helped the alliance some as all three of their races could now be death knights, their special class but now 4 races could be druids, the hordes special class.  More races could be the hordes special class than there were alliance races to begin with, if you do not count the blood elves which they both had.

In cataclysm we would also see the introduction of the shaman class because it would be needed for story telling purposes and both sides would get it.

When mists came and the pandaren entered the picture it is hard to say or even guess which way they could go.  I would guess they might end up the same way they did now and be a split faction just like the blood elves were in my what if scenario.  Both sides would gain the monk class, just as they do now.

So all things being said and done, at least in my mind, this is how the factions would look if the orcs never existed as a playable race in warcraft.

Alliance :  Human, Dwarf, Gnome, Pandaren and Blood Elf
Horde : Night Elf, Tauren, Troll, Draenei, Worgen, Goblin, Pandaran and Blood Elf

Alliance Only Class : Death Knight
Horde Only Class : Druid

As you can see, horde would be better off without the orcs.  The perceived favoritism would be much more warranted.  As annoying as it might be to be entering a third orc-centric expansion we have to think, at least in my mind, that it is the orcs that actually keep things balanced.

How do you see the faction divide splitting up the races if not for the orcs?  Or do you think there would be no factions at all and everyone would be one in the same?

Personally the most interesting thing of this what if scenario in my mind is not the absence of the orcs and how the alliance and horde divide would be leaning toward the horde, but the fact that the forsaken would become a non player "bad guy" throughout the entire series.  Now that is a what if story for another day and that could be fun to wonder what would happen if they unleashed their might on all the races.

Heart of the Valorous Active This Weekend. Good or Bad?

Blizzard announced that the heart of the valorous buff will be active from Friday August first at 10 AM PDT until Monday August forth at 9 AM PDT.  It is once again time to stack up on some quick and easy valor so save that epoch stone hand in for a few days if you want to take advantage of it.  And that is really my question here.

A short bit ago when blizzard decided to spring the heart of the valorous on us with no notification at all people complained about it.  Now they give us advanced notice and people complain about it.  Blizzard just can not win.

In both cases I wholeheartedly agree with the people complaining because they are very reasonable complaints and they are valid at the face value for what they are presented as.

When they did not inform the players ahead of time people complained that they wish they had known so they could have waited to take advantage of it.  This is a very fair request.  It would be nice to know when something like this will be added, even if it is just one day in advance.  Anything that effects the way you play the game should be announced.  They don't just drop raid tiers without telling anyone so they should not release a buff like this without telling anyone because it might change how people will play that week.  So yes, I agree with all the complaints.   Blizzard should tell us.

Now they tell us and give us more than ample notice.  They tell us before people started to do their valor capping so that they have more than ample time to adjust their plans for the week.  Like me, I was going to come on and cap one of my hunters quick with some scenarios or however so I can upgrade some new shiny heroic gear and then maybe try and get some runestones with my lock.  Now that I see we are getting the buff this weekend I am not so much in a rush to do that.  I can easily enough just wait until the weekend.

This too however brings a fair deal of complaints that again are quite reasonable.  Just like I said I will change my plans, and I am flexible that way, other people are not taking to kind to being put into the position where they need to make changes, or at least having to make the decision on if they want to make changes.  There have even been people that argued that it ruined their plans and they would have rathered not know.  I can sympathize because I did have my plans for the evening and now I scratched them because of this.

Blizzard just can not win.  Announce it and they have people upset they announced it because they feel they need to change their patterns of play and don't announce it and people complain because they were not told so they did not have the option to change their patterns of play.

Well here I am, the grumpy elf, to offer blizzard some advice on the house.  Free of charge.  No need to even thank me for it.

How about the next time around you just make the valor buff last for the lock out, the entire lock out.  From reset to reset.  That way people can play how they want to play and take advantage of the buff.

And as an added bonus blizzard.  It might even make them play other characters, which means they are in game more maybe finding another class they like, experiencing something that will make them want to come back more often instead of just capping what they feel they "have to" cap in some short window they have.  They will have an entire week to take advantage of it on as many characters as they can.

It will also not alienate those people who complain they do not play on weekends, which is another very fair complaint.  It will allow them to take advantage of it just the same as all the other players of the game.

In the end however it will benefit you, the company, more than anyone else because whether you announce it or not, you will have people upset with you and you have enough mud on your face lately to begin with.  Try not putting more on there on purpose.  Just make the buff last the entire lockout week next time.  That is my advice.

So what do you think, do you think them announcing it is good or bad?

For me right now I think it is kind of bad.  I was going to go home and cap out a few characters tonight and now I feel like there is nothing for me to do because I am going to wait until the weekend.  Would have I been happier if they just surprised us with it?  Maybe, maybe not.  But I know one thing for sure.  If they did not announce it I would be playing warcraft tonight but being they did announce it I will be playing wildstar instead.  Something for them to chew on there I think.

Monday Random Thoughts

- After taking off a couple of weeks from the LFR I decided to take advantage of the end of the buff and do a few with one of my characters.

- Don't worry this will not be a complete MRT about LFR, just a little bit at the start.

- I think people hate hearing about it as much as they hate doing it.

- But its my party and I'll cry if I want to.

- Works out that I hit a bout of LFR burnout at the wrong time, while the buff was active.

- I have a lot of characters that could have taken advantage of it but oh well.

- Ever have a tank be the person that is actively trying to wipe your group?

- I had a run like that.

- Zoned into the last boss of ToT 4 and the boss was pulled instantly by the tank.

- We wiped.

- Now I did not know what was going on but it was basically because we only had one tank.

- Figured I was new to the group so I can not really make any judgements.

- Second time he pulls, the other tank drops as he pulls, so it is only him.

- He tanks the boss in the center of the room.

- People yell, to the pillar.

- This goes on for a while until we die.

- Tank blames the noobs in the group for sucking.

- Someone points out we did not have a second tank.

- Someone points out he tanked the boss in the middle.

- Someone points out he was dying fast because of poor gear and even worse skills.

- He says, all you people are noobs.

- Remember the comment I always say?

- The worst players in your LFR are usually the most vocal.

- Even that one guy doing 800K DPS that keeps talking shit.

- Yes, he too is one of the worse players.

- Being bad is not all about playing bad.

- You can play good and still be a bad player.

- Either way, we wiped 3 more times before we finally got it down.

- Surprisingly, or more like not surprisingly, enough on the first pull we had with 2 tanks and him not being one of them.

- I was going to say screw it, now I remember why I took a 2 week break, and stopped doing them.

- But another LFR popped up and I said I'll give it one more shot.

- Get a group that has 13 people from the same guild.

- None are exceptional players, not even doing "good" by LFR standards, but they are all doing the right thing.

- We blow through the LFR even with lower numbers in what was one of the smoothest runs I have ever had.

- Even if not one of the fastest.

- Goes to show you that you do not need big numbers, you just need people working together as a team.

- I love seeing a guild group like that in an LFR.

- Most of the time, unless they are from the KT server, they are decent people just looking for a fast and easy run as a group.

- And having a group that works together like that really does make the whole run easier.

- It restored my faith that not every LFR is a nightmare.

- Thanks people from that guild.

- Wish I remember the server so I could give you a shout out.

- Thanks to you I went in to the week needing 13 secrets on my lock and leave the week having them all.

- Next step runestones.

- At the pace I play my lock and if they give us the buff another time or not, it could be months before I finish it, but it was nice to see such a huge amount collected in one week.

- Was not looking good at first.

- Did the first 14 bosses and got 8.

- Which means I needed to get 5 from the last 6.

- Odds seem unlikely.

- I got 5 in a row.

- If I really wanted I could have dropped group and then came back for the 1 boss for a chance at a runestone later.

- But I was not feeling that brave.

- I had some decent runs after that starting nightmare thankfully.

- I also have something amazing to report.

- I did a forgotten depths and you know that trash to Meg?

- No one pulled any of it.  Not even one single mobs.

- They did not even kill everything or extra stuff.

- They killed the absolute minimum you needed to kill and everyone walked by it without pulling anyhthing.

- People waited when they saw something walk close until they can walk past it without pulling.

- WHAT???

- No, stop calling me a liar.

- I am telling the truth, it was actually the first time I was ever there were no one pulled anything.

- It brought a tear to my eye.

- I finally finished the brawlers guild achievements.

- I did all the fights a long time ago.

- I got all the small achievements a very long time ago, when it first came out.

- I collected all the cards.

- But I never killed any of the cards.

- That was the only achievement I needed to finish off.

- At my current gear level of 573 on that hunter it was kind of sad how easy it was.

- But honestly I do not mind at all.

- Nothing wrong with some mindless killing from time to time.

- I like that you can over gear most of the bosses there.

- That is good design that allows everyone to do it.

- Sooner or later that is.

- I did die to mingus diggs however.

- I had not looked up any of the fights, I just went at it doing what a hunter does, so I made a mistake on that one and paid for it.

- I looked it up after I died and then did it no problem.

- Now I am happy, I have them all done before they take all of them away.

- Makes me wonder, why did I want to finish achievements I would not even have in a few months?

- Because that is who I am.

- And that is great content design.

- Achievements give you something to do when you are bored.

- It is like a suggestion, hey why don't you go do this.

- The quests from the cards all gave valor.

- That was nice even if I do not need the valor at the moment.

- They also all give a shirt.

- WTF am I going to do with 12 more shirts when I already have no freaking bag space?

- And they all give a winners satchel.

- I got from 500 - 900 gold in each.

- Awesome.

- I wish these things were weekly quests.

- I would go there and kill all of them every single week.

- Makes me wonder.

- I think I have an extra of bear and the fair in my bank.

- I will have to see if I can turn it in now that I did it.

- But I think I might have thrown it away a while ago because I needed bag space.

- Have to remember to check.

- I'll tie a string to my finger to remember.

- I always wondered about that.

- If I forget, what is the string going to do.

- Now I'll wonder why there is a string on my finger.

- Which can easily be answered by the fact I am just weird.

- BRB

- Back

- Did you miss me?

- I bet you did not even notice I was gone.

- Have you seen the new druid cat forms?

- Oh my, oh my god, oh my god.

- They are awesome.

- Have to roll another druid.

- Pick a server, go through all the setting to get it to look exactly how I like it, pick my name, create my character.

- I can not make any more characters.

- :(

- When did I make my 50th.

- Oh, I remember, the hunter I recently got to 80 and locked so maybe I can pick up a herald group.

- I look through my characters and find a DK barely leveled on bronzebeard.

- Say good bye mr troll DK.

- Say hello mr troll druid.

- Troll cat form looks best.

- Just like it looks best now too.

- And just like it has the best flight form.

- Worgen cat forum looks really nice too.

- Night elf one is okay.

- Tauren one is... ~falls asleep~

- Sorry about that, it is just that boring.

- Even with as cool as they look the tauren one still looks really that blah.

- My leather BoA gear is on my other account and I am not going to active it.

- My second set of leather BoA gear is on a monk.

- So, switch it over from the monk or buy a third set.

- I'll buy a third set.

- Decided to do Yogg +0 25 for the mount on my hunter.

- Killed Yogg 4 times.

- 4 times as he died I got turned.

- 4 times it ended up not counting as a kill.

- What am I doing wrong?

- I even looked on the last attempt as I killed him to double check my sanity.

- I was a 68 sanity when he died and I still turned as he died.

- Advice anyone?

- I have to have done something wrong that I am not noticing.

- Something I forgot about maybe?

- I stopped trying for the time being.

- Otherwise I will actually go insane.

- Did the entire run and actually managed to snag a few achievements I did not have yet.

- Mostly because every time I am there I am with someone that wants to do the hard modes so I do them instead.

- Still love that ulduar has so many achievements you can get.

- I still need a bunch and I have run it tons.

- That is how you create content that lasts.

- Why has blizzard gone so far away from the ulduar design for raiding when that was clearly the best design they ever had?

- At the rate I am going I should be able to make the healing mace on my hunter.

- How sad is that?

- Doubt I would be allowed to make it.

- Maces:  The only weapons that are not a hunter weapon.

- One good thing is I have gotten to the point I go through the brain phase without losing any sanity at all.

- It took me all these years before I ever made it through losing 0 sanity

- I had done it only losing 2 before, but never 0.

- They say practice makes perfect, just amazed it took me this long to do it right.

- A friend of mine said let me come with you, then when you kill him there will be someone else there.

- I explained it is easier to solo Yogg +0 than it is to 2 man it.

- Seriously, have you ever tried 2 manning it?

- It is so much harder.

- Near impossible harder I think.

- I have no issues solo.

- Well, except for the recent ones.

- Did some onyxia runs for the mount.

- Nothing.

- 4 hunters and one lock.

- Did some runs through stonecore again for that mount.

- Had not done that in forever.

- Did my full 10 and nothing.

- Seems like it has not changed since when I was doing it all the time.

- I was doing it daily back in cataclysm.

- I had forgot the mounts dropped in normal so I was doing SC and VP on heroic once per day back then.

- I used to call the VP mount the hunter mount.

- Because I was able to solo it as soon as I hit 85.

- Camo past the trash right up to the first boss.

- If you are good at patterns you know the "sweet spot" where you never need to move.

- When tornadoes go in you switch to aspect of the wild and take no damage almost.

- Just stand in one space and kill the boss.

- Love it.

- Absolutely a hunter boss.

- Camo past the second series of trash to the mount boss.

- Avoid crap, use wind, keep boss on pet, rotate FD and deterrence when he tries to hit you, kill boss.

- Not nearly as easy as first boss but not really dreadfully hard either if you do not get hit by breath.

- I got that mount in less than 2 months.

- Stonecore one I was not nearly as lucky with.

- And that one I sure as crap could not solo on heroic as soon as I hit 85.

- Later in the expansion yes, but not at the start like VP.

- I can't believe I went for months doing heroic before I realized they dropped on normal too.

- Someone in guild got one and was not even 85.

- When he mentioned something in guild is when I did that head slap thing.

- I am an idiot, I could have been doing this on normal.

- Stonecore normal was still much harder than VP heroic, but at least I could do it 5 times in a row back then.

- I did it 5 times a day for months and months.

- I gave up a long time ago and occasionally go back and do it.

- On weekends like this when I am just doing things for the hell of doing them.

- Trying to find something interesting to do.

- Killed garrosh twice this week on 2 characters, still none have ever got an heirloom.

- I am completely convinced they do not exist.

- The entire game playing world is working together against me for the longest joke in history.

- How are you guys keeping it a secret from me?

- You probably all have a code that makes it look like you looted one or look like you are wearing one.

- Okay, jokes over, ha ha, you can all stop doing that.

- One guy in my guild says a friend of his has 14 already.

- I can not repeat what I wanted him to tell his friend but I am sure you can guess.

- I just want one weapon.

- I can use it while leveling, go into a dungeon and get a new one when I reach max, and pass it to my next hunter to level.

- Oh well, when 6.0 comes they will be a guaranteed drop if you have never received one.

- So I guess I will be pugging a lot in 6.0.

- Sadly when 6.0 comes I do not know if I will be able to pug mythic, which is currently heroic.

- I like being able to pug heroic and wish we would be able to pug mythic cross server as well.

- I understand why they are making it that you can not pug cross server for mythic.

- I just do not agree with it.

- I would never had gotten anything down in heroic without people from other servers.

- Even with the merge my server is just not that advanced.

- And the few really good guilds there are that are capable of doing heroic are only 8/14 and 10/14.

- And the people in them are complete jack asses to the people that pug.

- One of my guild mates went to a heroic pug this weekend and he said it was a nightmare.

- The raid leader was screaming, not decisive, insulting, and over all a train wreck.

- He said he never appreciated what I do more.

- He said I make raiding easy, I make people feel like they can do anything even when they fail.

- This guy was leading a group of 25 people all with heroic experience and he made every fight sound as if they would be climbing everest and it would be a major achievement.

- He made everything seem harder than it needed to be.

- I like when he compared how I explain a fight to how he did.

- I make even the most difficult fight, one we have never done, sound easy and he said that helps him.

- I explained, different people respond to different things and believe it or not his style might be great for some people.

- One of my two kills this week I was pugged into it.

- The raid leader said what he wanted to do, we wiped 3 times.

- I saw the numbers, offered some suggestions based on the group make up we had, and it took another 3 tries while people got used to the different way and we downed it.

- Not every group is the same, so you can not do the same strategy for every group.

- Might work for easy bosses but from my experience garrosh is still way to hard for most players.

- Funny thing is I would still say that garrosh is easier than LK even with the 30% buff.

- Way the hell easier than LK with the 30% buff.

- You could give LK a 50% buff and garrosh would still be easier.

- I would have preferred the design if they made the bosses harder and added the buffs then making the bosses easier with no buffs.

- Reason being is that I would never bring my lesser characters in on garrosh because I feel everyone needs to be up to snuff whereas if garrosh was a little harder my main still would have downed it, but the buff would have helped me bring my lesser characters later.

- As always, my own opinion, but I support giving the last raid a buff.

- Even more so when we are going to be sitting on the same raid for 6 or 8 or 10 or more months.

- Buffs just makes sense so you can include more people, more alts, and just make it easier over all.

- People like to feel as if they are plowing through things they have done before.

- I've killed garrosh a bunch now on many difficulties and I have never one shot it.

- Okay, I lie, once, but that is it.

- Even with a skilled group that has done it 10 times each at worst someone always makes some mistake and bam you are done.

- So a buff would really be nice.

- So while playing on my lock again I was trying to get back into it.

- Took me a while to find my grove.

- I guess that is the problem with not playing a character often and not being all that well versed in it to begin with.

- I am sitting at 539 on the lock now, was doing around 120K single target at the start and was up to doing 160K single target by the time I was done.

- Just goes to show you that practice really makes a difference.

- I increased my damage by a third just in one day of practice.

- I guess 160K single target is not horrible for a 539 item level.

- Don't know enough about them to comment however.

- But it does make me wonder what the hell this lock I had in a group last week was doing.

- 565 item level with legendary cloak was capping out at 130K and more like 90K on most fights.

- Makes you wonder what the hell they are doing.

- And he is a semi regular raider.

- He is actually what I could call a true casual player.

- He logs in once or twice a week, does a little stuff, get a pug here and there or fills in for the guild run and that is about it.

- Goes to show you that normal mode is not meant for casual players, or better said, normal players because that is what he is, the normal player.

- His numbers are more like flex numbers.

- And even a little low for that too.

- I guess that is why flex will now be normal and normal will now be heroic.

- I have been saying for a long time that normal mode seems more like heroic mode.

- Not because of difficulty so to speak, but because of who I need to bring with me.

- It seems like normal mode is designed to need people that know how to raid.

- I guess that is how it should be, but I never minded bringing others along so they can learn.

- So I am happy they are making flex the new normal.

- Funny part is, even when I do a flex 4 run I am still picky on who I bring.

- Nothing can kill a flex 4 on garrosh faster than only having 2 really high damage dealers and they both get mind contorted.

- I can not tell you the number of wipes I said to myself if only those 2 people do not get MCed we win.

- All because a few poor damage dealers that do not interrupt can really kill a group fast, even on flex.

- Makes you wonder, if that lock I mentioned is the true casual, the model that they want to make normal for, then normal (current flex) is really still too hard for them.

- It is like being between a rock and a hard place.

- Make it much easier and there is nothing to learn from it and make it much harder and you basically push 90% of the people that want to raid out of the raid.

- I do not envy blizzard trying to find the balance so that is it both easy enough and hard enough.

- On that note I am going to get a coffee.

- I need a lot of coffee on mondays.

- Actually, I need a lot of coffee every day.

- Instant human, just add coffee.

- Have a great day.

Blizzard Actually Surprised Me

When Azeroth Choppers aired and as we saw it go on I said no matter who wins that both sides would end up with a mount.  I even went so far that to say if anyone wanted to bet me I would put real money on the table.  There was no way in hell blizzard would release only the winner.  Well, readers, you lost the chance to win money from me.  I was dead wrong and blizzard surprised me.

As you can read here if you log into your warcraft account between now and September 30th you will be flagged to receive the horde bike, for free to which is nice, when Warlords comes out and it will only be usable by horde characters.

Holy crap I did not see that coming.  With the absolute shitstorm that blizzard has been getting themselves into with the upcoming expansion and all the changes they have made from their announcement of Warlords at Blizzcon such as the removal of flight, many changes to garrisons, and the moving of our faction hubs among other things I would have never thought blizzard would, on purpose, create another shitstorm but, once again I have to say it, I was wrong.

Blizzard has managed to surprise me by making what will only be raged about by alliance fans for years to come I am sure.  How they once again got the shaft and get screwed.  As I said, I would have bet they would have given both sides their bike.

In my opinion the best bike won.  The horde bike, while still missing something in my eyes, was leaps and bounds better than the alliance one.  The alliance one was wanting, wanting for some strength in its build, wanting for some direction to its vision, wanting for not looking like an insect of some sort, wanting to just not be, well, bad.

What really is the kicker is that they are making it so only horde can ride it.  I would have never thought in a million years blizzard would so blatantly side with the horde even if many people always say they do to begin with.  Yes, I know that the horde bike won, yes I agree the horde bike should have won, but no I do not think they should only release the horde bike.  It is not good for the image of the game.  It is not good for the millions of players that already scream at any slight they might interpret as such as horde favoritism.  And most of all it is not good for a company that is already burying itself in mountains of bad press.

I must say I am completely in awe of what happened.  I agree that only the horde should have one because the horde won.  I just never thought that blizzard would have the balls to go through with it and I do not believe it is a sound decision to go through with it.  Wow blizzard, just wow.  Thanks for showing you can still surprise me but brace yourself because the backlash will come.

BTW:  I still think they will release the alliance version.  Some time after September 30th when you can no longer claim your free horde mount they will release both available for purchase in the item shop.  That is my new guess.  Like I said, I am surprised there is no alliance bike there and I am still thinking they will release it.  I really can't believe they didn't.

You Can Loot Other Players Currency

This is not so much one of my normal posts but more so a comment and complaint on this one line I saw in a post about the new Ashran PvP area that will be in warlords.  I would love to comment more on Ashran as a whole but being I am not in beta and I can not say anything from experience and only have what I can see and read to go by I really can not pass judgement.  So instead I will just make this post about that one little line.

I hang on that line in the title because everything else, in the forum of words at least, sounds fine even if not perfect.  That line however, that changes everything for me.  I always liked the PvP areas.  I like Tol Barad, I liked Wintergrasp, I missed not having spot like that in mists.  So even as someone that very rarely PvPs I was actually looking forward to at least trying Ashran.

For as much as I don't like PvP sometimes I can say that I really do love a good world PvP skirmish, it is just that they happen so rarely and I think that is why I always loved them.  With all the things they are announcing for Ashran it made it seem as if they were creating a place where they were encouraging world PvP and I can really get behind an idea like that and support it.  Until I read that line.

"You can loot other players currency"

Fuck no!

Sorry blizzard, just lost me there.  I was looking forward to Ashran, was even thinking it might make as a great way to pass some time and get into PvP for the non PvPers of the game because it would be a place we can walk into or out of as we see fit and go into with any size group unlike non rated battle grounds which limit you to a group of five. 

It was a great idea but the second you tell me that someone can steal my currency you lost me.  I will never step foot on Ashran soil and I even more so now than before completely oppose the new capitals being anywhere near this horrible idea of a world PvP area.  I want to be as far away from it as possible.  So far away from it that I can not accidentally walk into it because you might think that me entering it means I support it, and I do not. Move the capitals back to where they were originally intended to be, get us the hell out of that place.

Now I do not know what currency this is talking about.  It could be some sort of Ashran only currency, it could be honor currency, it could be your very own gold currency.  I really do not know.  I really do not care.  If I earned something through whatever means be it some sort of Ashran currency, honor points, or gold, it is mine and I am not going to participate in a zone where it can be stolen from me.

Simply said blizzard, when it comes to others being able to steal anything from me, my response will be fuck no.

Now don't you dare even think about adding this sort of complete bullshit to garrisons and let other people attack mine, disrupt my productions, or steal from me there too.  If you do that, and being garrisons are the only new content next expansion, you lost a customer.  That is not a threat, it is a promise.

The next expansion if chuck full of bad ideas, horrible ideas and then worse ideas, this is really one of the worse ideas.  Do not add this crap to the game.  Give them something for killing us, but do not let them steal from us.  Big difference blizzard and you have been doing this long enough you should know better than to even consider adding this sort of stuff.

So to end this post I need to repeat this again, and you rarely if ever see me use the word, so it should show how I feel about it.

"You can loot other players currency"

Fuck no!

What Do You Do During the Lull?

Once again we flounder in the lull of the end of expansion blues and we are all looking for things to do to keep us busy.  I personally believe that the lull hurts the players who have been around longer than it might others because many of those things you could do you did in the last lull or the lull before it.  For first timers experiencing it it can be a little more acceptable, not saying it is, but it does not tend to hurt them quite as much as those that are experiencing it again.

Myself, I am at a complete loss for things to do in game.  Sure there are many things I have not done that I could do and there are always the forum jerks who would say "have you gotten to 2800 arena, have you completed heroic, do you have every achievement in the game, if you don't then don't say you have nothing to do" but just because there is something I have not done does not mean I want to do it. 

Unlike many of those forum trolls I understand, or would like to believe I do, the people that have only killed garrosh in LFR and say they are done with the game.  If that is the top level they want to play at, then they are done in their mind, and I am completely fine with that.   You do not need to kill garrosh on heroic to say you are done raiding, you do not need to be over 2800 rating in 3s to consider there is nothing left to do, you do not need to have every achievement in the game to say there is nothing worth aiming for.  Each person plays their own way and if you are done doing what you wanted to do, it is fine for you to say there is nothing for you to do.  Don't let the forum jerks get to you, they only say things like to to rile you up.

So many people are running around the shine in circles bored right now.  Many people are sitting staring at their computer saying they have nothing to do.  They are right, even if there are things they have not done as I mentioned, if they do not want to do them there is nothing for them to do. 

Now I might not be the best person to say what are some of the options you can do in game are right now because I chose to play another game or three during this lull but I do have a lot of experience with lulls like this after a few expansions so perhaps I can help push you in a direction that you might never have thought of before.  And do not worry, I am not going to pull the "if you have not killed garrosh on heroic you still have something to do" card.  I do not subscribe to the if I did it you can do it idea, we all play our own game.  Just going to give you a few ideas on what you might want to try to pass your time.  I'll start with what I am doing.

Play Something Else:

It might feel like you are cheating on your main game by playing another one but guess what, it is not.  If you feel you are done with that you want to do in game there is absolutely nothing wrong with trying some other things out.  You can either stop your payments on warcraft and come back later or you can do like I do and keep paying and keep playing, just less than you had before.

I log in to raid, or try to raid if enough people show up, a few nights a week.  I sometimes log in to help someone if they need some help.  I log in once in a while just because I am bored of playing some of those other games and need a taste of home.

You can play other games, there is nothing wrong with that.  Don't be afraid to test something else out.  There are other free to play games out there that somewhat fit the genre that you might be interested in.  Star Wars, Guild Wars 2, Rift, LotRO, and the new entry to the genre, but with a subscription like warcraft, Wildstar.  I played Rift through the last lull and am playing Wildstar through this one.  I actually prefer subscription based games which rift was at the time and wildstar is now, perhaps I will write a post on it some day soon on why I do not play the free to play games.

As much as I like Rift and Wildstar and I could really see myself getting into them neither of them have the refinement that warcraft has.  There is something to be said about a game with 10 years under its belt, it is really smooth when you compare it to everything else.  Those games, in years to come, could be so much better than warcraft, but both of them for as much as I enjoyed them, made me happy to return to wow when I went back.

So go pick up one of those games, maybe pop on stream and download a few cheap games or even free games.  There are games like PoE or Marvel Universe or many others that I play on there that are good for what they are there for, to pass the time and have some fun.

Achievement Hunting:

The newer you are to the game the more attractive of an option this one becomes.  If you are someone like me that went back in wrath and got all the older achievements in the wrath lull there are not many I can get now, but if you are new, there are a ton out there for you.

Not sure what drives me to do it, maybe it is that I like the little toast pop up, maybe I like the sound, or maybe it is just as simple as each achievement is a task, something to do, and I like doing stuff.  Either way, achievement hunting is a valid way to play the game and have some fun.

And my favorite part of achievement hunting is the best raid in the game, not only from a raid standpoint, but from an achievement standpoint, Ulduar.  There are so many achievements to attain there and so many of them you can not get in one visit, they will need multiple visits.  And trying to do some of them solo in 25 man actually will present a problem for some classes and / or people of certain skill levels, which in its own right is fun.

Achievements also have the added benefit of spanning everything, so it can bring you to see other parts of the game you have never looked into.  Maybe you will try raiding for the first time, maybe you will try arena for the first time, maybe you will do dailies hubs you never needed to do to try and get the achievements attached to some of those quests.  Maybe you can experience a little more of the game than you have and perhaps you might find something you like to do that you never thought of before.

Building Reputations:

Guess what, they also give you achievements.  I started to grind reputations before I even know reputations where a thing, so to speak.  I did it because I found I liked doing it.  Reputation grinding is not for everyone and all reputations are different.  Some you need to do raids for, some you need to collect things for, some you need to kill mobs for, some you need to do quests for.  So maybe you might find something that fits your style of game play and you can go for it. 

I have every reputation in the game at exalted except for the three PvP factions.  I like the grind, but that should go without saying for someone who had aldor exalted and after I bought the tabard (and equipped it for the credit toward the achievement of course) I switched to scryer.  Now that was a grind and even if you will call me a sick person because of it, I found it fun.  It gave me something to aim for and it really filled a great deal of time up at the end of an expansion while there was a lull.

Also, even if you seriously over gear older content now it will still be something that will take a fair deal of time.  Factions like Brood of Nozdormu, Hydrazian Waterlords and others will take running raids for months and months on end.  Factions like Ogri'la will take months of dailies as they do not offer many and that is the only way to get reputation.  And most factions in BC have mobs you can kill to get reputation and even if you can one shot them now it will keep you busy for quite some time.

If you are looking for a way to keep busy this will surely be something you can do to keep busy and if you want some of them also have extra bonuses you can get once you max out reputations such as fun trinkets, mounts, or tabards, which if you are doing achievements you will need as well.

Know Your Lore:

Do you want a real challenge?  Well, not so much any more being loremaster was changed, but before loremaster was changed if you tried to get it at the end of wrath loremaster could be quite difficult because there were so many mobs you needed to weaken to do a quest and it was pretty hard to weaken them without killing them.  Back then you needed to do basically every quest to get loremaster so you needed to do those quests.  Thank goodness for down ranked spells.  If you have to ask it is before your time.

There are still a few quests that will be bumps in the road that, oddly enough, being stronger will make harder, even more so without down ranking now, but loremaster can be done without doing even most of the quests any longer.

Have some fun with it this time around.  No rush to get to max level with your friends because you are already max level.  Read the quests, stay on the ground while doing it, and enjoy your super OP nature now that you out level everything.

You have the major advantage of doing them without a real need to do them so you can take your time and really get into the lore of the zones.  Perhaps you might even run across a few quests along the way that you actually enjoy doing.  Quest lines such as the day deathwing came have become famous because they were liked by so many players, maybe you never experienced it and it is about time you do it.  If I could suggest one zone that is worth doing far enough to open a quest it would be uldum for the quest Gnomebliteration. 

It has to be, hand down, my favorite quest in the game.  I even stopped doing the zone on one of my characters at this quest.  I do it, abandon it, do it again.  I never turn it in.  Whenever I am in a bad mood I can go there and do this quest and I am cheered up instantly.  Just make sure to have your sound on because the sound of the gnomes is priceless.  It should be considered a criminal offense that blizzard never made that a daily.

There are many gems to be found and lots of fun to be had while you are learning your lore and completing quests.  Not to mention, some of the best looking gear in the game is quest gear.  In my opinion at least.  It always amazed me how they spend so much time making raid gear and it is so ugly but the quest gear is freaking awesome.  The helboar carving blade has to be one of my favorite weapons in game, it is sleek.

The Grass is Greener:

Only ever played one side of the fence?  Try jumping over and seeing if the grass is really greener on the other side.  To anyone that enjoys the story of the game you are doing yourself a great disservice by not experiencing it on both sides.  While the leveling process does indeed give you a different feel depending on which side you level, it is at the current max level that you can really start to feel it more.

It seems like as time has gone on blizzard has made more and more strides in offering a distinctly different feel to storytelling on each side.  As someone that has played both I can say I see absolutely why people claim horde bias.  Sadly, or maybe not so sadly, one of the most shining examples of this bias was the barrens quest hub and the story the alliance plays a part of and the one the horde does.  Alliance had one lead in quest and then they gather junk for the horde and the horde had an entire quest line that tells a complete story.  If you never got to experience it I am sorry, but use this as an opportunity to level the opposite side so the next time something like this is put in you can see both sides of the story because it is the only way to get the full story.  At least there are still the stories in the wilds from both sides and they are different.

Having a character on both sides opens up more of the game to you as well, not only in story but in land.  Playing as horde there are many areas you will never see, never level in, never even visit, same goes for alliance.  At least now you get to see all of the game, every area, in its full glory.  It is something worth looking into in my opinion.

Fight the Power:

The RNG is the most powerful boss in the game and for some people like me it is a love / hate relationship.  We love to hate each other.  One of the few things I still have to work on in game during lulls is all thanks to the random number generator.  I still do not have the mount from stonecore or from onynia not to mention most raid mounts.

Being we have shared mounts now it makes it a little easier to fight the power.  You can run something like onyxia on multiple characters and not get the mount on all of them.  Oh wait, that was supposed to mean you have better chances to get the mount.  Excuse me if I sound bitter about not getting it, like I said me and the RNG are not exactly on speaking terms.

For as much as I might hate the RNG there is something good about it.  Of course I am using the term good very very loosely.  For as much as I hate RNG, RNG creates content by not giving you what you are looking for.  I might not do it as often as I used to but when I am bored it is not unheard of for me to cycle through characters and do Onyxia over and over this expansion since we have shared mounts.  Sure I never win the drake but I do it on a few characters, mostly the ones it is super easy on such as my many hunters and my warlock.  Not real thinking with a pet tank, just attack and let the pet do what the pet does.  Had a fun run the last time I did it and I actually killed Onyxia before she even finished taking off.  It was fun.  Even if I did not get the mount.

There are many dungeons, and any class can solo any of them now, that drop mounts you can try for and there are quite a few raid mounts.  However for many of the raid mounts you might need to have a certain class and / or skill level to attempt to get the mounts.  Even if you drag along a friend, mount hunting can be very fun even if extremely frustrating at some times.

Dress For Success:

Transmog is really a thing, a big thing for some.  I've never been one that got into it personally because of a few reasons.  One being I am color blind and if I made what looked like a nice set to me it might possible lead to other peoples eyes bleeding when they look at me and I am not really a mean person and I would not want to do that to them.

However, I do like minimalistic gear and for my main at least I went farming for a set I like and have used the same set since I finished it up.  I stuck with basic black, can not go wrong with basic black even if you are color blind.

Last expansion when we hit the lull and after transmog was added to the game I went to one of the many online sites where you can look at armor and I found a few pieces I just had to have.  Pieces that were mail but looked like cloth, which was exactly the look I wanted.  It just so happened that a few of the pieces dropped from the dungeons that were being redesigned so I had double reason to get what I could because it would no longer be available in game.

It took me what felt like one hundred and one tries to get the pants I wanted to drop and it felt like getting one of those super rare mounts I mentioned just before.  I was excited when they finally dropped.  Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy I got my mail pants that look like cloth.  All this from someone that does not even get into transmog.

If you happen to be one of those people that are into it I can surely see how much fun, and frustrating, hunting for mog sets could be.  It is surely a way to make the time pass in the lull for someone that is into it and it could even be a way to pass the time for someone that isn't into it, like it was for me last expansion, and just hates the way that current gear looks.  Take a peek at some of the lower level green sets, they are some of the bet looking sets ever created.

As a fun side note after I made my mog set, the one that looked like regular street clothing but all with the mail label so I could transmog into it, there was a mog contest on our server.  I did not join in the contest, I was just there to support a few members of my guild that were in it, and because my guild donated to the event being organized.  The people that ran it were from another server.  If you are a mog person you know which group I am talking about most likely even if I do not recall their name.  As it turns out, one of the judges saw me and liked my outfit and I actually won a prize that day of 5000 gold just for wearing what looked like street clothing because I hate how mail looks.  So transmog can be profitable too, even without trying.

Be a Goblin:

Speaking of profit you do not need to be a goblin to be thinking about making some cash.  You can sell BoE mog gear that drops that you do not need.  One quick look around and you will see what are the more popular sets and where you can find them.

You can spend your time on the auction house buying and selling, out farming, maybe crafting or flipping.  There are many ways that you can make money in game and maybe if you are not doing anything else right now making some gold surely can not hurt you and everyone likes gold right?

And it is not just being a goblin with the auction house that can make you money, and I do not mean selling your mother like a goblin would, I mean questing.  Yeah, that loremaster thing I mentioned.  Pick the loot that sells for the most and vendor everything.  That along with the quest rewards and looting everything and vendoring most of it and selling what you can sell on the auction house and you can easily make upwards of 50K just doing all the quests. 

Don't believe me?  Start a new character and do every single quest in the game, loot everything, sell the junk and auction off anything even partly decent, make sure you have two gathering professions too.  Sell it all as you go.  When you finish the last quest you will have been 90 for a long time but you will also have max flying, max speed of max flying, max bags even if you paid 3K a piece at the auction house for them for every single slot, even your bank ones, and you will still be sitting at somewhere over 50K gold.

Yes Virgina, there is a lot of gold out there and it is easy to get.  You just have to do something to get it.  Being a goblin does not mean working the auction house only, you can do what you like to make money.

Into trasnmog and know what sells, do that.  Into pet battles and know what pets are best, do that.  Buy green level one pets, turn them blue with a stone, level them to 25, sell them for 50 times what you paid for them.  You made money doing what you have fun doing.  Like running dungeons for fun, just vendor everything, but sell the cloth, really, sell it.  Like PvP, sell 2s carries, a decent player can easily carry someone in 2s to cap.  Use your knowledge and skills in whatever interests you to make gold instead of to argue about it in trade chat.

Raid or Die:

It might be hard to think that some of us have not raided much or at all this expansion, but perhaps if you are one of those people you can either step into it or step up your game a little.  If you are open to giving it a try there are a lot of guilds out there like mine that are more then willing to take someone along that is willing to learn even if they are not a raider or all they ever did was LFR.  Like I said, as long as they are willing to learn.

This lull is a lot worse for raiding than the previous ones because blizzard has done nothing to help the community this time alone in terms of a 30% buff or a 30% nerf like they did in the last two expansions.  And please, do not say valor upgrades, they only help those that helped themselves.  If people were willing to help themselves they would already be raiders.  But when they need a hand to help them get their foot in the door valor upgrades do nothing to make it easier for them.

With the upgrade system if someone needs to be doing 200K they still need to do be doing 200K but with the buff or nerf they only need to be doing 140K, and that opens a lot more doors than the valor upgrade system does to allow more people to experience the content.  I think having no buff or no nerf is a huge mistake on blizzards part.  Just my opinion of course, and yes, I have finished the raid tier already so it is not me asking for help, it is just how I feel.

However, that does not mean you can still not step up your game, if you are willing to try.  Move from doing nothing to doing the LFR, move from the LFR to flex, move from flex to normal or from normal to heroic.

There will always be guilds out there that would be willing to help you learn like my guild.  There will always be guilds out there that are on the same page as you and you can learn together with them.  There are guilds right now recruiting for flex, recruiting for normal and recruiting for heroic.  It is just a matter of finding the fit for you.  It is never too late to start raiding if you want to.  Just find a guild that has decent people in it that will not give you the "this has been out for months how the hell do you not know how to do it" attitude and you might actually even find it enjoyable.

Meet New People and Kill Them:

How about player vs player?  I know for me that is the one area my achievement hunting is lacking as I do not really like PvP.  Remove all forms of CC and I can really dig it but getting feared for 19 seconds and going from 100% to 0 while stuck in the fear is not exactly what I consider fun.  But doing it to someone else, well, that is fun.  It is okay to admit it, we all love screwing someone like that over but we all hate when it happens to us.

There will always be winners and losers and sometimes you are the one kicking the can and other times you are the can.  If you never gave it a try maybe you should try to grab a few people and go into battlegrounds together.  You would be amazed what playing with people can do for the experience.  Not only will you be more likely to win more often as a group, you learn more and even when you lose at least you have other people to complain about it too.  PvP is better with friends.

I personally do it in small doses here and there and I really do not like it that much, unless I am with people as I mentioned, so I do not dabble that much with it but maybe if you give it a shot you might find that it is something you like to do.  If you don't then at least you can say, I tried it and I do not really like it.  Kind of like broccoli when you were a kid and your mother gave it to you and you said, but I do not like it mom and your mother replied, how do you know you do not like it if you never tried it.  I might not really like PvP and it might seem wrong for me to suggest something I do not like, but at least I tried it, maybe you can too.

Kill Fluffy Kill:

Who else besides me has a darkmoon rabbit named fluffy?   If they had a rabbit pet hunters could tame in game I would never use any other pet.  But crazy killer rabbits and their fluffiness aside, pet battles are a whole different breed of freaking awesome.

Even if you are not into pet battles you have to respect the way it was added to the game.  From the moment you step foot on azeroth (at level 5 at least) you can start pet battling.  They went back and added it throughout the entire world.  There are old world dailies, there are horde versions and alliance versions, there are BC dailies, wrath dailies, cataclysm dailies and multiple types of mists dailies.  If blizzard put even 50% of the care and attention to the rest of the game that they gave to pet battles they would still have over 12 million subscribers.  They did such a great job completely integrating it into the entire experience of the game that even if you do not pet battle you have to respect how well done pet battles are.  (Prediction:  Biggest mistake of Warlords is not giving garrisons the pet battle treatment and making it a one and out addition like the farm.  Boo, bad blizzard, bad.)

If you have never tried them they can be closely related to pokeman which you might have tried.  I never had, but I knew the concept.  I kind of expected that pet battles would find their niche but I would have never guessed that I would enjoy it as much as I do.  Sure I have not pet battled or leveled any new pets in months, but that does not mean I do not consider myself a pet battler.

See, that is the beauty with pet battles.  There is no "current tier" you have to beat.  There is no rush to gear up, there is no gear reset, you can play it when you want to play it and outside of remembering which pets work best against which pets when you come back you can pick it up again any time you feel like it after putting it down for a while.

For a mini game there is an incredible amount of depth to it.  There are different rarities, there are different classes, there are different strengths, different weaknesses, all playing off each other.  There are speed based, health based and power based pets.  You can go for balanced, a combo of two or a stacking of one.  There are pets you can get in the world through battles, pets you can get from vendors, from reputation, from achievements, from raids, from dungeons, from pet battles.  You can even PvP pet battles.

It might seem childish to some and perhaps it is, but we are all playing a game and what is wrong with it.  Maybe if you never gave it a shot you can try it.  It is a nice way to pass the time.  Do it while in queue, or do it to level, do it for collecting purposes or do it for battle purposes, but pet battles no matter how you play with them are a very well designed part of the game and quite possibly the best designed addition to the game I have ever seen.

And So Much More:...

There are so many little things you can do in the game during the lull.  Remember for as much as the lull sucks, and it does really suck, it offers us something that we never have at any other point in the game.  A chance to catch up, to try something new, to focus on something we did not have the time for previously, because we are not in the position that we often feel like we have to do something now because it is mandatory to what our main focus of the game is.

You do not have to do those dailies, you do not need to gear up, you do not need to get that raid done, you do not need to conquest cap, you do not need to do anything, that is the beauty of a lull for as much as it sucks.  You do not need to do anything so that means it leaves you open to do anything.  Like I said, I am still playing but what I am doing during the lull is trying out some other stuff, and you know what, I will come back but I am quite enjoying my time at the moment where I do not feel as if I must log into the game to get something done.  I like coming home and not feeling like I need to valor cap, or I need to do dailies, or I even need to log in at all.  For now I am choosing to play some wildstar instead but after writing this I remembered I have a few new pets that I never leveled.  Perhaps I might pop back in game to do that.  With the lull, I have the time, the time to do anything I want.

What If: Blizzard Stopped Trying to Balance PvP

Whether you are into player vs player or you never touch it everyone seems to share the same opinion in some way, that the game is always screwing over one aspect for another aspect.  I would be willing to bet that any player that knows their class can give at least 10 cases where their class was screwed over for a change made to help PvP balance and the same goes the other way.  I am sure any player that likes PvP can say that their class has taken a hit because of something that needed to be done for PvE.

It is not a small task to try and balance both of them so they both work at least kinda sorta well in both aspects of the game.  No matter what your main focus of the game is it is fairly certain that you would agree with the statement that balancing for one always ends up screwing over the other.

If blizzard were ever forced to pick a side it would only make sense that PvE is the side they pick to balance.  After all warcraft is a PvE game.  It is not, has not ever been, and will never be a PvP focused game.

I am sure some would argue that fact but I could easily dismiss their argument with a few simple facts that prove warcraft is a PvE focused game.  Quests offer PvE gear not PvP gear, so quests are PvE content.  World drops, random greens, even white and grey items you get off mobs in the world are all PvE focused.  Dungeons, raids, scenarios, basically any type of group content that does not take place in an arena or battleground is PvE focused and if the game was meant for PvP why would they waste the incredible amount of time it takes to create that type of instanced content if it were not the focus of the game.  And then there are those battlegrounds and arenas. 

If anything that is the nail in the coffin to the argument that warcraft is a PvP game.  If it were a PvP game they would not have went out of their way to remove it from the world and place it somewhere that only the people that wanted to do it would be involved with it.  If the game was meant to be PvP focused they would have added major objectives in the world for PvPers to aim for instead of sticking them away from everyone else in their private little world where they will only fight with others that wish to fight.

So if they were ever going to abandon part of the game in terms of balance and decide to balance for one aspect only it makes sense that it would be PvE that the game gets balanced for.

But wait, there is a bit of a double edged sword here.  While warcraft is a PvE game and that can not be argued, PvP has a much wider player base that PvE.  PvE really does not "matter" until the end game whereas you can PvP from the moment you hit 15 and enjoy it just as much as someone enjoys raiding at max level.  In my opinion, that just makes PvP a much better designed part of the game and I would love to get into that more in a post some day about what PvE can learn from PvP.

In what is outdated information, but all I have to latch on to, I will paraphrase the last solid numbers I heard quoted from a developer.  7% of players participate in organized raiding (including LFR) at least once a week and 30% of players participate in battlegrounds at least once a week.

Now those numbers are old and I am sure the 7% PvE number has went up for various reasons such as the need to raid and raid a lot to get the cloak and blizzard removing any way to gear your character outside of raiding.  This had to push a great deal of people into at least the LFR.  But, and this is completely a guess with no facts to back it up, I would believe that more people still PvP at least once a week than raid at least once a week.

But, what if blizzard stopped trying to balance for both and just focused on one, that one being PvE?

If history shows us anything it is that in PvP people are more likely to reroll to a flavor of the month class.  PvE players seem to get attached to their class and associate themselves with it more and are less likely to change.  Now this does not mean there are no PvPers that feel attached to their classes and there are no PvEer that would not switch at a moments notice because they want to play a stronger class.  But just the over all broad strokes show that PvPers are much more likely to switch to the power class.

So with that said, if the game was not balanced for PvP then the PvPers would just choose whatever class happens to translate best and is the most powerful.  At least that is my opinion of what would happen.  Over the years I have met and known many PvPers that are really into it and they switch classes whenever one is more powerful, heck they have even been known to switch factions, which means most of those serious PvPers I know are now horde.

Looking at those numbers I mentioned earlier we see that more people PvP than PvE over all but that is because the PvE numbers are counted for max level only and the PvP ones are for any level.  PvP content is better content as it spans the entire life of the game.  No doubt about that.  It is also easier to design for because you do not need to do anything beside give people a place to fight.  So while older raids become useless once new ones come out older battlegrounds are still as important to a PvPer at 15 as they are at 90.

So, being we see that PvP is popular at any level we already know, as an absolute fact, that PvPers have no real problem that would keep them from playing when it comes to things not being balanced.  Balance is always created around max level and this means classes at lower levels are never balanced.  If you do not believe me, roll a hunter or a disc priest and enter a low level battleground.  If you want to talk about OP you can talk only after you have done so.  Each of those classes have a wide range of levels where they are so over powered that when you see them you might as well just roll over and play dead because you are going to be dead soon.

This shows us, at least to some small extent, that PvPers are willing to accept certain classes or specs being over powered.  Sure they might complain, but they deal with it.  It is not like you ever hear a PvEer complaining that at level 60 he can not pull his weight in molten core and that mages are too over powered for the raid because at low levels people do not legitimately raid but they do legitimately PvP.  And they do legitimately PvP with all that low level imbalance there.

So we have that prior knowledge that PvPers can deal with mismatched balance because they already do it all the time.  My belief is, and it is only an opinion of course, that at max level it would work the same way.  PvPers would just figure out which classes are the most powerful and if they wanted to win they would switch to that class.  It is really that simple.

I think it would be a bad idea for blizzard to not try and balance both but being they refuse to do it the right way, or at least a decent way (there are many ways that I will go over some day but they won't do them) it would be interesting to see what might happen if they just stopped trying.

I decided to ask what would happen if they stopped balancing for PvP because I believe it would not hurt the game as much as if they stopped balancing for PvE.  In the end they will lose some players but they would lose a hell of a lot more than if they stopped balancing for PvE, and after all, this is a PvE game.

Do you think that the game would be hurt really badly and people would quit in large numbers if they stopped balancing (attempting to) for PvP or do you think like I do, that the PvPers would all just roll the flavor of the month and keep moving along.  What are the possible side effects of just designing balance for only PvE that you can think of?

Monday Random Thoughts

- I have two new cloak wearers.

- One is my third alliance hunter to get the cloak.

- It put him up to a 541 item level.

- He is also on this 13th week since hitting 90 and still has not won a single piece off of the celestial bosses.

- How is that mathematically possible?

- That is 13 kills and 13 rolls and not even a PvP piece.

- No wins in 26 attempts basically means that the "luck" factor plays a huge part to it.

- I find it kind of funny I managed to hit 90, do the entire legendary quest line, and get the legendary cloak before I even won one piece of loot off of a celestial.

- There are two types of bad luck in the game.

- Bad luck and my luck.

- I would not wish my luck on my worst enemy.

- To quote a friend of mine "If I ever quit playing it will probably be because I am sick of never winning anything."

- I agree with him.

- Random loot distribution sucks moose balls.

- And that is being nice about it.

- Worst... design... ever.

- The other new cape recipient was my horde hunter.

- It put my horde hunter up to 564.

- My horde hunter, with the help of pugs that did not need anything so I basically get everything I needed, is lucky enough to have received a fair deal of gear.

- What sucks for my horde hunter is trinkets.

- I am stuck running the shaman trinket and assurance trinket from LFR.

- I have a heroic sigil of rampage in my bags.

- Would you believe an LFR trinket is better than a heroic trinket?

- Reminds me of the good old days of wrath when what the piece was mattered more than the item level.

- I remember wearing my greatness all the way until I got deathbringers will to replace it.

- That is a darkmoon card that lasted the entire expansion.

- I believe darkmoon cards should all be like that.

- Does anyone else beside me love the voice acting for the sha of pride?

- I most like when he says "show me your greatness".

- I always say, I vendored it five years ago, why do you want to see it.

- Hey, I think its funny, don't judge. :P

- Joined a pug this week on my hunter, wanted to see what I could do with the cape.

- I figured I could do over 300K with my eyes closed now.

- Nope, still doing like crap, but I blame that more on managing to get into a crap pug.

- Only downed the first two and then broke up.

- That is with multiple wipes on each.

- In normal.

- I think I need trinkets to really set things up the right way.

- I just can not burst without them and burst is where it is at.

- Every fight I do it starts like this.

- Everyone bursts, I am not even close to the top 10 on burst.

- 1 minute into the fight everyone starts to settle in.

- 2 minutes into the fight I am now top damage done.

- Fight ends and I am top damage done and 100K more than anyone else.

- You know, I like that design, I really do like that design.

- Burst should not be "that" important.

- I used to say this line about a hunter that I always loved.

- When the fight stats I will be doing xx DPS, during the burn phase I will be doing xx DPS, during the downtime I will be doing xx DPS, when the execute phase comes I will be doing xx DPS.  I love being a hunter because What I do is what I do, no high points and no low points, I just do the job I am supposed to do.

- Sure there were always some ebb and flow here and there but basically whatever a hunter was pulling at the start, that is what they where pulling at the end.

- I think that is much better design that doing 2M on the pull and ending at 400K now.

- I can't speak for everything but I know there is nothing I hate more from a damage dealers perspective then seeing those huge numbers and knowing that all I am going to do the entire fight is go down.

- It really ruins the fun of playing the role if you ask me.

- I would not mind the other way around if I started out at 400K and then if I performed absolutely perfectly with a rotation I could end at 2M.

- That makes sense, that would be rewarding someone for doing their rotation well.

- Going from high to low is not rewarding.

- Unless you mean it is rewarding you for having good trinkets, lucky procs and pre potting.

- I am hoping that is one of the things they will fix in warlords.

- They said they were addressing burst issues, and I agree, they need addressing.

- However I know I am sitting on the short end of this argument.

- I am sure more people like hitting 2M on the pull and finishing at 400K because all they do is drop all fight long whereas I would love to start at 400K and do a consistent 400K the entire fight.

- So I will have to sit in the corner on this one because most people do not understand math.

- They would not understand that doing 2M DPS at the start and 400K at the end and doing 400K at the start and 400K at the end are actually the exact same amount of damage done.

- But then again, those are people that "might" raid but never really looked into numbers like weirdos like me do.

- So how would they be expected to know both things are the same from a damage done standpoint.

- I saw something amazing this weekend from a shadow priest.

- It was during a celestial fight.

- They did 480K DPS and were something like 28% of the damage done on the boss.

- I checked their gear.

- They were an instant boosted 90 with all the 483 instant boost gear and 2 timesless island 496 pieces.

- Recount did not show the presence of any of the damage dealing buffs you can get.

- So even if they had the shrine buff that 25% to all secondary stats, which is the best for most classes, it still means 480K is absolutely freaking impossible in that gear.

- It is not mathematically possible.

- At least there was no way I could rationalize it being possible.

- Even if they did their rotation perfectly, even if they got super lucky and crit every single attack, they should not have been able to do over 100K.

- Not in that gear.

- There had to be some sort of bug he figured out.

- And I bet any shadow priest reading this is going to head to timeless island and try to figure out what it was.

- Wish I could give more info to help but I can not.

- But if someone finds it I can expect to see some insane numbers on world of logs soon for shadow priests.

- That is if the bug can be used off the island.

- Would you consider it cheating if you used a bug like that in a raid?

- If that guy could get ten times what you would have expected him to do could you imagine in a raid with a geared and skilled player?

- 5M DPS would not be out of the question.

- Those types of numbers from a few shaow priests in your raid would make any fight trivial.

- So maybe it would be cheating.

- But I can see an argument going the other way.

- As long as you are not "tricking" the system and just using things in game like a buff that "forgets" to leave when you change zones, as far as I see it, it is working as intended until fixed.

- I'll tell you one thing, if there were a bug where I could easily do 5M DPS in a raid I would use it.

- Until it was fixed of course.

- And I don't believe I would be at fault for doing so.

- If you do not want me using it, don't let me use it.

- Simple as that.

- Do not give people the ability to do something and then blame them for doing it.

- Like I said, as long as they are not "tricking" the system into keeping the buff.

- That I would be against.

- But if it is just get a buff and zone in, go for it, kick ass and take names.

- Finally tried the last of the classes in wildstar, the spell slinger.

- I must say I like it.

- Still at low levels at the moment but right now the spell slinger and the warrior seem to be my favorite.

- I did cause a little of a stir on my medic yesterday however.

- Ran into another medic while looking for someone to group with for a group quest.

- While I have soloed some group content on some classes, mostly you need a group for group stuff in wildstar.

- But the medic and my medic went on a path of destruction.

- We killed the group quest mobs with adds and continued on through the zone pulling 5, 6 or 7 mobs at a time and mowing them all down.

- Someone was watching us and then asked in zone if they have buffed medic since beta because they used to hit like a wet noddle.

- Most people said they did boost them, and they do have a simple rotation for DPS as they are more designed for healing.

- But the person said, these two are making medics look OP.

- In my defense I just read what abilities sounded good, worked well in conjunction with each other, and then I just spammed whatever I could.

- Even when solo I was pulling 8 mobs at a time.

- This was at level 15.

- At level 14 more than 2 and I was dead.

- Maybe at level 16 it will be the same.

- Some people just do not understand that at certain points in time certain classes are just more powerful.

- So for one brief moment my medic is a weapon of mass destruction.

- It is like that in all games.

- The most recent paladin I leveled I remember barely being able to kill anything.

- Each battle was a marathon session until I hit level 10, decided in prot, got my avengers shield, and from 10 to about 14 I could one shot 3 mobs at a time with the shield.

- Because of the way numbers work sometimes some classes have moments of being amazingly over powered.

- I guess with my choice of abilities and the way numbers work, 15 is the magic level where I am a super killer.

- Won't last long, wildstar is just too hard to be doing that type of grinding.

- It will get to the point where I am back to one mob at a time and dying sometimes from it.

- But from hearing that one guy talk in zone chat, he seems like he will be rerolling a medic.

- Because he thinks that they are over powered.

- I can't wait for him to find out that they really do seem kind of weak.

- The one good thing that they have going for them over other classes when it comes to the DPS role is that the interaction between their abilities seem to be more straight forward of all the classes.

- I can't wait to try healing in wildstar, or tanking for that matter.

- Healing does seem like it will be harder as everything is an AoE heal.

- Which means you need people smart enough to stand in your heals.

- And you need to be smart enough to put those heals where there will be no enemy telegraphs.

- I do like how taunting works for a tank, at least some of the abilities.

- You taunt 5 mobs in your telegraph to you and all mobs in your telegraph do 25% less damage to anyone that is not you.

- So if they do get an extra shot off on someone else, it will be for less.

- Interesting little tid bit there.

- I am debating on taking advantage of the increased drop rate on things because of the black price.

- Warlock or shaman, that is my choice.

- Shaman has the advantage of being a healer so I get instant queue.

- Warlock I want to get the cloak on to make doing the green fire quest a lot easier.

- So it is a hard choice.

- But I think I need a break from LFR now that I finished up 5 new cloaks in the last 5 weeks.

- LFR can really burn you out.

- Seriously, blizzard needs to add ways to gear up outside of doing LFR.

- At least make LFR level gear available for valor, or better yet justice.

- An option to gear without LFR would really get me playing my alts a hell of a lot more.

- Being forced into raiding is really bad for the game in my opinion.

- I play a hell of a lot less now because there is no way to gear up outside of raiding.

- An alternate method is needed.

- If there was one I would be gearing up all my characters a lot more often and playing wildstar a lot less.

- Removing valor gear is the single one thing that blizzard has done to push me to wildstar.

- If there was something I could get my alts without raiding I would be in warcraft playing.

- But without anything I can do for alts, I am playing another game instead.

- Big mistake blizzard, huge.

- You should have never removed valor gear.

- Have a great day all.