Monday Random Thoughts With Some Beta Goodness

- Don't worry, no spoilers.

- But I will say those spoiler videos did rock.

- Love the talador one, but that is all I will say about that.

- On to the beta.

- I am one of those people I think they will never invite back to beta.

- Some might call it complaining, but I call it wanting the game to be better and voicing my opinions.

- Seems blizzard has listened to many of my concerns recently.

- I put in a bug about a quest, where if you lose the quest, disconnect, what have you, that you can not get back to it.

- They added an NPC on the ground now so if you somehow get thrown off the quest or do something stupid like hearth, you can get back to it.

- Nice to see you fix it blizzard.

- I also voiced my concern about professions, multiple times, in reports.

- We saw some recent updates that seem to address those issues.

- Maybe you remember when I mentioned that they raised our stack size by 10 times from 20 to 200 but they also raised what we collected and what we needed to make things 10 times which means we had no net gain thanks to the increased stack size.

- So effectively that 200 stack size worked the same as 20 and it saved us no space.

- Actually, we had less space now because we needed more materials.

- Well they lowered the requirements for many items.

- The lowered the number of things we need for garrison work orders.

- They lowered the amount we collect as well.

- Sure, not enough to be in line with what it was before, but a hell of a lot better than it had been.

- I also made reports over each little item I found in the world that should be in the toy box and was not.

- I found it amazing they added a toy box and somehow did not add nearly half the toys from the new expansion.

- So far every single toy that could not be put in the toy box I put in a ticket about is now capable of being put in the toy box.

- It had been so long since I put in those tickets I was worried they would never do it.

- Still one toy I reported that is not in there.

- But over all it is nice to see they are listening.

- I've put in so many tickets and in recent patches it seems like everything I have suggested has been added.

- Makes me feel as if my input is helping.

- So maybe they will take my input while doing archeology and put it to use as well.

- What input did I put in?

- Archeology without flying sucks.

- I told them to ditch the no flying idea, it adds nothing to immersion and only takes away from the enjoyment of the game to not have it.

- It was the first ticket I put in voicing my major concern with the loss of flying.

- What brought this on?

- I tested archeology this weekend.

- First off, getting from place to place and having to spend that time on flight paths took away from the immersion in the game, it did not add to it.

- I was not doing things, I was just on auto pilot.

- Even if with flying I mount up, face a direction, and put on auto run, it is still me doing it.

- That is me playing.

- Flight paths are not me playing.

- But that was not all.

- There were multiple digs where I could not get the piece at all.

- It was on top of a mountain or something where there was no way to get up there.

- And trust me, I tried everything.

- I tried jumping from other areas, tried flying there with a kite, tried hugging the walls and digging, there was no way to get to the dig without flight.

- So of course that was a bug report, even more so without flight in the game.

- As I encountered more digs that were not only annoying getting to without flying but either impossible to get to or damn close to impossible to get it without flying all my reports started going from archeology bugs to design choice involving the removal of flying.

- I did not over due it.

- Really I didn't.

- I just added a line at the end of every bug in archeology dig sites that I had an issue with that ended with, flying should really be added because archeology without it is very frustrating.

- There are new dig meters on your screen while digging which is nice which show you how many of the 6 you have done.

- Kind of nice to see it visually how many you have left.

- There were a few dig sites this did not show up on, so of course that was a ticket.

- Sadly I could not find a way to put in a shot at no flying on those ones.

- But if I could have I would have.

- But it seemed most of my archeology bug reports are only bug reports because there is no flying in game.

- Otherwise it seemed to work kind of smoothly.

- I also like, but this might be a bug too, that you can discover your items while on a flight path.

- Hey, at least it gives me something to do while on those flight paths.

- Can't use the keystones however while on a flight path.

- So that is why I think discovering them while on a path is a bug.

- If it were intended you would be able to use keystones as well.

- No, I did not report that one, that is what I refer to as a welcome bug and if we are going to be bound to flight paths we should be allowed to do crafting and such on flight paths.

- I wish we could get a concrete answer on flying.

- None of this "maybe we will add it" crap.

- Yes or no.

- Make a decision now blizzard, announce it, stand by it.

- I can support a world without flight if I know we will never have it.

- But if you leave the carrot dangling saying we might get it all I will do is hate every minute I am playing without it because I know we should have it.

- Like archeology.

- If I know we are going to be getting it I will wait until we do until I level it.

- If I know we are not than I will do it like I will do everything else and level it in those first days.

- But if I go through the annoying process of flight path to flight path to flight path and then you add flying later I am going to be pissed.

- So all I ask is that blizzard takes a stand and tells us the truth, now.

- Will we be getting flying or not?

- Either way, I can support them.

- But no knowing I will continue to say what I have been saying.

- They are completely wrong for removing something that has become so standard in game play.

- That would be similar to telling people they can no longer have a computer in their house.

- It is not needed, just like flying in the game, but it is nice to have and we have gotten so used to it that living without it seems wrong.

- Just like flying.

- Back to beta additions.

- While they have fixed a hell of a lot of the things I reported there are some others they have not.

- Flight paths are still slow as sin, or feel it.

- They still take you on the scenic tour instead of sending you directly somewhere.

- There are still some that take you underground while you are flying.

- There are still some that take you through mountains, trees, and other solid items you should not be able to fly through.

- I get a laugh out of flying to ashran from my garrison, there is this huge tree you fly through and I can just hear my character screaming as I fly right into it, and then through it.

- I reported this one a long time ago, but still I have a suicidal mount.

- But I guess if your job was flying back and forth for years with these people covered in armor and with bags weighed down with what can only be hundreds or thousands of pounds and doing nothing else you might want to die too.

- Poor flight path mounts.

- I feel for their miserable repetitive lives.

- Can you just imagine the poor bird that has to carry the 800 pound tauren druid with 4 sets of gear plus 2 sets of PvP gear and 300 mounts, 800 pets, and countless other things?

- Those birds must be on some serious steroids.

- No wonder they are trying to kill themselves by flying into trees and mountains and into the ground.

- I don't blame the birds.

- The worst flight path however is not one that gives me a near death experience or is slow or takes a weird path.

- It is one that stops and goes, dozens of times.

- The fight path from nagrand to frostfire near the slag mines.

- You are flying along all nice and happy, you stop, wait a second, looks like you are about to dismount, then starts up again and picks up speed.

- Then it slows down, you stop, wait a second, looks like you are about to dismount, then starts up again and picks up speed.

- Then it does it again, and again, and again, the entire flight path there.

- Yes, I reported it.

- I really thought I was going to get dismounted my first time on it.

- Not like I would worry, I am a hunter, I just hit disengage before I hit the ground and take no fall damage.

- But I was over horde territory and they, for some odd reason, are not very fond of me.

- Maybe it is my orc skin belt, who knows.

- But I have learned one thing on beta about that disengage trick.

- No matter how good you are at timing, with the lag on beta anything is possible.

- I jumped off a cliff and did the disengage thing.

- Hit it well before I hit the ground hoping to compensate for lag.

- I landed and went splat.

- Then my dead body disengaged and went splat a second time as it threw me further down the mountain.

- I really wish I was recording that and could share it.

- It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

- A dead body disengaging.

- But not nearly as fun as one day playing stormwind chicken.

- When you fly up in the air and let yourself drop and see who will be the last to flinch.

- Best to do this on druids of course but any engineer, hunter, warrior, paladin, well, a few classes, can do it if they are willing.

- A friend who is an engineer was doing it.

- She hit her parachute and I watched as she went splat.

- We were all standing over her laughing on vent.

- She said, I swear I hit my parachute in time.

- Then about 10 seconds after she went splat, the parachute popped.

- It was awesome.

- Either way, was nice to see they made some adjustments to professions and bag space as I suggested multiple times.

- I guess my time on beta was not wasted.

- I really hope they fix all those digs I ran into that you would need flying for.

- Hate having to shuffle up digs just because I ran into one of those.

- Hey, at least we have that ability.

- And for those, like me, that are well past 700 tol'vir solves and still do not have the pet or mount, there is hope once again.

- Just like in mists you can turn in solves for tol'vir crates.

- And if I am going to get the achievement for displaying all pristine ones, and I will,  it will easily mean a few hundred, maybe even over a thousand solves that I can trade in for tol'vir pieces.

- Not like it helped me this expansion.

- Over 1100 mists solves, all turned in for tol'vir crates, still do not have the pet or mount.

- Speaking of not getting mounts, did my onyxia, maly, etc runs this week and no mounts to report.

- Also had the addition of brewfest this week for a chance at my kodo.

- Too bad it is not my kodo yet.

- I must say I love holiday events, even if I do not do them any longer.

- Got my drake many years ago, not sure when, 2010 or 2011 maybe, it was during wrath when I finished it.

- And I will not do it on another character, even just for fun, as long as that one part of the meta still requires you to do the PvP part.

- But I will do holiday bosses for mounts.

- I loved seeing all the people hanging around, the music, the fun atmosphere.

- It reminds you why you play the game, even if you are not actively participating like I am.

- I did not do direbrew on all my characters, but did do it 26 times over the weekend which meant 26 attempts at the kodo.

- It also means no kodo.

- I did manage to get 2 of the BoE weapons and one direbrew remote.

- I remember back in wrath when my main was grinding thorium brotherhood reputation and I so wanted that remote.

- I got it on alts, but never my main.

- Back then the only way to get reputation with them was to turn in items from molten core into them in the grim guzzler.

- So I always needed to ask a friend that had one to get me there.

- Seems my friends are lucky getting things, but not me.

- A friend of mine that went on a couple of runs with me was lucky.

- First run he gets the BoE mace, the dagger, and the ram in the bag.

- Second run he get another BoE mace and the kodo in the bag.

- Want to hear the kicker, he already had both mounts so did not need either of them.

- He said, and I agree, they should have some sell price, like 5 gold even.

- Sucks having to throw them away and type delete.

- We both could understand why they are not tradable but neither of us could understand why they do not have a sell price.

- Sucks having to throw stuff like that away.

- Even if it is useless it feels bad.

- Speaking of throwing stuff away, another one of my wishes were answered.

- Yes, I actually did mention this in things I wanted to see changed to blizzard.

- That junk no one wants and just throws away from blingtron like the paper zeppelin maker and party grenades now have sell prices.

- I hated just throwing them away, which I always did the second I got them.

- They do not sell for much really, but at least now I can get a few copper or silver for it instead of throwing it away.

- Throwing stuff away just seems so wasteful.

- Everything should have at least a one copper sell price.

- But even that can lead to problems sometimes.

- Ever accidentally vendored an heirloom?

- Yeah, I know I did.

- Good thing I noticed it and got it right back, but it is really easy to accidentally sell them.

- A pop up for when you go to sell them would be nice.

- I put in a suggestion about that a couple of years ago when I accidentally sold mine.

- Something like "this is an heirloom item, are you sure you want to sell it".

- Speaking of heirlooms, still none from garrosh.

- Had this one group yesterday that looked promising.

- We kicked ass really early on and just hit a bump in the road and wiped to MCs taking over, but otherwise it was looking entirely doable with this group.

- After that wipe however we never made it out of phase 1.

- Yeah, it got that bad.

- I ended up dropping group when the only other 2 decent DPS dropped.

- Joined a 25 man that had a 500 item level player in the group.

- The raid leader had accidentally invited him it seems as well as accidentally over invited.

- The person was not answering in raid chat, they were making no effort to come to the raid, they did not accept when we tried to summon.

- So when it was a decision to kick someone who do you kick?

- The 500 item level person that somehow managed to lie his way into a group that was asking for 575+ only for a quick kill or the raid leader, who then offered to step out because it was his fault that there were 26 people.

- Excuse me?

- The guy does not have the item level for this.

- Even if we wanted to carry him he has made no effort to head to the raid.

- Even if we wanted to carry him he was not answering in chat when spoke to.

- Even if we wanted to carry him he was not accepting the summon.

- I don't care if the raid leader felt bad and thought he should step out.

- He went through the work of finding all these people and assembling the group.

- Vs a guy that won't even accept a summon.

- He should stay and the 500 should go.

- And the entire raid agreed, we all told him so much.

- But he refused to kick him saying it was his fault the guy got an invite and he should come.

- So people started to drop on general principle, and I did as well.

- Oh well, it would have been a nice quick kill.

- A whole slew of experienced players on alts over 575 should have been a one shot.

- So I had no luck getting an heirloom this weekend on any of my characters.

- Basically because I could not get a kill in.

- The entire weekend was like this when I tried.

- Each group ended the same.

- Some disbanded on trash, some disbanded before the first pull, some disbanded after the first wipe.

- Either way, I could not find one group willing to stay together.

- I guess I am looking forward to 6.0 so I can finally get an heirloom.

- But will I be able to get in groups for it?

- I hope this is not how it goes then.

- I would like to get a whole slew of alts in there and get each of them heirlooms when 6.0 drops.

- I thought of something interesting when it comes to item level.

- I have one hunter that has only one piece of the celestial bosses but has had some luck with 3 off ordos.

- He had the legendary, those 4 pieces, a couple of PvP pieces and some timeless stuff and burdened timeless stuff.

- He is currently at a 559 item level and will hit 560 if I decide to upgrade timeless stuff.

- So basically this is a character that has never stepped into an actual raid.

- No flex, no normal, no heroic, just world bosses and LFR to get the cloak.

- And I am basically over 560 (if I upgraded the timeless stuff).

- So I would say, at this stage in the expansion, people asking for 560 for normal is not really asking for a lot.

- With that said, I have 10 characters that would fit the bill that could do garrosh based on item level alone.

- And another 6 or 7 that have less than 560 but I can easily do the required numbers for normal with.

- So I am hoping, if lucky, to get at least 16 heirlooms when 6.0 drops.

- But that means 15 pugs.

- Can I handle that?

- Can anyone handle that?

- I might just go insane if I have to deal with pugs like I had this weekend.

- Where I wasted countless hours and didn't down anything.

- And that was just to get 1 single kill.

- Now to try and do that 15 times in one week?

- I'd be insane to try.

- But I will.

- So I guess you can call me the insane elf.

- I've been playing around with the 4 piece set on beta.

- Got the 580 heroic set and tested it on the current worst spec.

- Survival has no burst, but with the set they kind of do.

- When you hit with black arrow you automatically proc lock and load.

- Which means when out questing you open with BA and hit 3 ES and basically anything that is not an elite dies, or is damn close to it.

- So that works as some nice burst, but we should not need a tier set to be able to burst.

- Survival still need some sort of burst type cooldown.

- It feels nice to do some steady DPS from start to end, but it would also be nice to have something that hit hard.

- Also reported a bug with the tier set.

- When you do a black arrow and proc the lock and load it does not reset the cooldown of explosive shot like a real lock and load does.

- So to maximize it you have to fire BA while ES is not on cooldown.

- Seems kind of wonky like that.

- Would love to open with ES, do BA and get 3 more ES right away.

- In theory that is how it should work.

- I noticed while doing some dungeons and playing around with it that I found myself waiting on BA to line it up because it was not resetting.

- Just does not feel natural.

- Hope they fix that, and yes I reported it as a bug.

- Well, that's all for now folks.

- Have a great day.