- I started playing around with a troll hunter on the beta.
- I must say I like the troll redesign better than the night elf one.
- Of course I picked the one with the least disturbing nose.
- I created a fresh 90 there because I wanted to see how the gearing process would flow with lesser gear.
- I can say even with all 500 item level gear it was nice and smooth.
- I wonder how it will be coming straight from 90 with a 435 item level at best.
- I guess that is my next test.
- I'll have to find which character I have with the worst gear.
- Or I will bring over a character that can craft the 450 gear and get the 450 weapon from the scenario.
- I think that is the closest I can get to 435 other than leveling another character.
- But even at a 500 item level the questing flows smooth and is easy.
- And even better is that upgrades come from nearly every quest which always feels nice.
- Did some soloing on my hunter just to see what it would be like.
- Dragon soul is completely capable of being soloed.
- Didn't even break a sweat or need to worry about mechanics, I just blew things up.
- It was a bit too easy if you ask me.
- I do not think they put in the patch they were talking about for spine yet, but it was still easy to solo.
- It was the only fight there that you actually needed to do something and pay attention or you would go flying off but it was still very easy.
- I was surprised quite honestly.
- So I can add that on to my farm list for mounts now.
- I can't get past spine on live.
- But then again I have not tried in a long time but still do not think I can.
- Wanted to see if they put the skip option in for dreamwalker in ICC like they mentioned they would but the ship battle is bugged and I could not get past it.
- The other ship never lands next to you to fight it.
- Did some invasions in my garrison to test them out.
- After stopping by the out house to relieve myself.
- Achievement for doing that is still bugged.
- I find it funny after so many years without a bathroom we now have one and it gives us an achievement for using it.
- After all these years our characters must be ready to explode.
- I think the achievement should be for resisting using it.
- Because if our characters had any say they would go running into there in a heartbeat.
- I like when you sit in there you are looking out of the little moon symbol cut in the door.
- Makes me wonder what it would be like if someone walked by and peeked in.
- Hellllloooo.
- Get out of here.
- I do find it mildly humorous that the out house is outside of our garrison walls.
- Because who wants that in our garrison.
- The out house is literally outside.
- The primal invasion was the hardest of the three that were available to test and I only managed a bronze.
- The shadowmoon (I think that is what it was called) invasion was okay but slightly difficult and I managed a silver.
- The iron horde was the easiest one and I not only managed gold but I destroyed gold.
- You needed 700 victory points to get gold and I managed to get over 1300.
- It seems they have done some adjusting since I first tried them because there was this elite worm thing that one shot me even when I was no where close to in range of it last time and it did not do that this time.
- Also I managed gold on the shadowmoon one the last time I tried in lesser gear.
- For the record I have a 608 item level which is well below even normal dungeon gear.
- This means that these are being tuned for people that are not overly geared.
- Or even geared at all to begin with.
- I think that is a great idea, so people can use it as a method of gearing up.
- When I got the gold I managed to get a pair of 645 shoulders in the baggie.
- That was a huge upgrade.
- Not sure if there will always be some sort of gear, but having it as a possible option for alts is not bad.
- The 645 item level is still suspect however.
- It is between the two LFRs which are 640 and 650 which effectively makes it useless gear.
- They need to drop the LFR gear down to heroic dungeon level and then items like 645 will feel like something special.
- Even if it was an upgrade for me now it still felt like I won but I lost at the same time.
- When you are going to give people something for winning at least make it feel like something worth winning.
- In my opinion at least.
- And quite frankly, winning LFR level gear is like losing.
- The gear you get, if you get lucky enough to get something, should be at normal raid level, at the least.
- I was talking to friends about the LFR item level thing and my belief that LFR should drop gear equal to heroic dungeons.
- They said that would never work because they need to have a higher item level in LFR otherwise people will not do it.
- I said, that is exactly my point.
- Have LFR and dungeons drop the same item level and then let the players decide on which to do.
- If LFR is going to be higher than dungeon level, it should have tier gear and better trinkets.
- But being it does not have tier gear and better trinkets, it is not raiding and not raid gear, so it should be the same item level as dungeon gear.
- And if no one does LFR because they would rather do dungeons then blizzard can learn from that and remove LFR when no one is using it.
- He said, that is exactly why they won't do it.
- If they gave people the option of spamming dungeons to get gear or waiting once a week for LFR and they are both equal item level people would choose dungeons and blizzard would never want to admit their LFR failure by subjecting themselves to that comparison because dungeons would win if they were equal item level.
- I agreed with him, he most definitely did win that one.
- Blizzard will never admit that the LFR is a complete failure.
- But I still have the solution to the LFR problem.
- One I have been saying since they first introduced it and I am surprised that they still have not done it yet.
- Add moderators.
- The LFR is not the problem, never has been, the people in it are the problem.
- Have the LFRs monitored.
- Have slackers and AFKers have their loot stripped form them and kicked from the group.
- Have trolls banned from further using the LFR tool (for a limited time of 2 to 4 weeks for a first offense).
- Basically have someone handing out actual penalties to the people that make the gaming experience for those around them horrible.
- Once word gets out that you could run yourself up a ban for acting like a jackass in LFR people will stop acting like a jackass in LFR.
- It really is that simple.
- And if they do not stop, they will be banned and gone, and it is a win either way.
- That will fix LFR and then, and only then, would it be deserving of a higher item level than dungeons.
- But until that point, I don't think LFR deserves having gear at a higher item level then dungeons.
- Heck, if anything it should have a lower item level than dungeons.
- It is a lesser form of group play, so in theory, it should drop lesser gear.
- LFR dropping higher item level than a heroic dungeon would be like quest rewards being better than heroic raid gear.
- It is just wrong and should not happen.
- I would like to think I use the LFR for what it is intended for, in my case at least.
- I go there to practice and learn.
- Being I have been called in to heal heroics a lot lately I decided to play around with my stats a little on my disc priest.
- I changed to a haste build and queued up for all 4 SoOs to give it a try and to see how it worked.
- I set my mana threshold a slight bit higher than normal knowing that I would burn through mana a bit more with a haste build.
- I set it at 15000 when I usually go with less in my critical strike build.
- I put on a few pieces of gear I managed to snag including my first heroic piece, one I won off the third boss and my shadow helm with hit on it.
- I had no choice, even if I had forever been coming in on thok as the third healer and rolled every time I have never won the helm.
- Heck, I never won anything off thok and I had healed it as a third healer more than a few times.
- So my priest was still wearing a timeless island helm.
- I figured even a 553 with hit would be better than the timeless island helm.
- It got me over 560.
- Yes, I still have some crap pieces, but what do you expect from a character that only ever played fill in.
- And rarely at that.
- I did okay with the haste build and only really ran into mana issues in two situations.
- One was when I needed to use mass dispel a lot like on protectors.
- The other was when the fight went on really long like 8 people doing the last three klaxxi and it was taking forever.
- Otherwise it worked out okay for the most part.
- Still not sure if I like the haste build however.
- Might need a tiny bit more spirit for longer heroic fights.
- But that is why I was doing this in the LFR, to test it out and get a feel for it.
- Any disc priest want to chime in?
- I was pulling between 70K and 90K DPS and between 120K and 170K HPS while topping the healing done (but remember it was LFR so that does not matter as much), depending on the fight of course.
- I need a lot of work, I know.
- With a 560 item level I should easily have another 40K on both those numbers at worst.
- Good thing I am just a fill in healer.
- I am sure, like with everything, if I played it more often I would get better at it.
- Over all while I did not really like the haste build I will give it a try for one week in heroic and see how it goes.
- I am so going to miss reforging.
- Even more so as a healer.
- They seem to have slowed down travel speed on the beta.
- I guess they noticed that the world was too small like I mentioned.
- And no, I do not mean they actually slowed us down, they just made the 100% mount move slower.
- It still shows the same percentage speed, but it now takes a lot longer to get from point A to point B.
- It is just a matter of changing the global move speed on the continent.
- I mentioned it to a friend and he said he feels no difference.
- But he never did what I did, running back to the same spot over and over after a disconnect.
- When I felt like something was wrong I went to do that run again.
- It took twice as long as it did when I was running back over and over that one day.
- Remember how I said you could go from one end of a zone to the other in about a minute in some cases?
- Not so any longer.
- That is how blizzard is going to make the world feel bigger I guess.
- But for the zones that were bigger, like the horde and alliance starting zone and nagrand they now seem massive because of the slower speed.
- And it is even more telling on a flight path.
- It now feels like you are moving in slow motion when on a flight path.
- I can understand wanting us to feel the world is bigger when on foot and slowing down how fast we move on the ground but why did they need to make the flight paths slower also.
- I am going to guess that is a bug.
- How can you have slow flight paths and slow ground travel with the absence of flying.
- There needs to be some give and take and the give would be faster flight paths.
- Still a few wonky flight paths out there that I had to report.
- When will blizzard ever get direct paths right?
- Before I end this I have a few more garrison observations.
- If you have an alt, or alts, with enchanting than the enchanters study is completely useless.
- At least that I have noticed thus far.
- The enchanting study allows you to make enchants for your gear and to disenchant things.
- So if you have an enchanter to make the enchants for you then no need to worry about having one.
- And you will get enough enchanting materials otherwise just from your enchanters journeys.
- And the other thing I have come to the conclusion of is that the salvage yard is mandatory for alts.
- Why do I say that?
- Because you can get gear from follower missions.
- I got a couple of 615 pieces so far.
- Sure they are only normal mode dungeon level but for an alt you rarely play that is still free gear.
- And you can get 630 gear and higher.
- But to do so you need to have followers that can complete the missions for them.
- To get the higher item level gear you need to have higher item level followers.
- Your followers gear higher item level from getting upgrade items.
- You can get upgrade items from only two places I have noticed thus far.
- One is from missions and they are few and far between.
- The other is from opening salvage at the salvage yard, which seems to give you lots of them.
- As in a hell of a lot of them.
- I already got 2 complete 645 armor sets for my followers.
- That means when I get a 3rd up to 645 and their weapons up to 645 I can start doing missions to get my character 645 gear.
- Pretty darn awesome for an alt wouldn't you think?
- Getting gear in between the 2 starting LFRs while never leaving your garrison?
- You will want to get a lot of those upgrade items as fast as possible to get your alts gear.
- So to get your followers item levels up faster you need to have a salvage yard.
- Which means you will get better gear from missions faster if you increase your characters item level faster.
- So that means for alts that you do not do much with, if you want gear, you want a salvage yard.
- It is absolutely mandatory.
- And from looking at things, you might even consider it mandatory for mains as well.
- From the looks of it, if you get your followers to a mythic item level they can get you mythic items.
- So even for a main, while not a dependable way to gear, it might still be a good idea.
- But for an alt, the salvage yard is absolutely mandatory.
- Well, that is all for today.
- Have a great day.
The Queue: “Hope” is the thing with feathers
1 hour ago
How many LFR runs do you think there are a day? How many do you think run concurrently? Eye in the sky is a great idea but who would do it and who would pay for it? I can't see blizz willing to fund staff for that due to the numbers. I wish they would as you are right, the real problem with LFR is the people, but they'd have to stick their hand in their pocket.
ReplyDeleteBesides the people isn't the only problem with LFR. Yes the environment is toxic because of the way people behave but it's worse than that. The queue to get in is quite often insane, especially as this is supposed to be the raid for people with 'less time'. When I did run LFR for my legendary pieces, it took longer than a raid night, so over 3 hours. Probably 1 hour to 90 minutes of that was being in a queue. Yes I could do some other stuff while waiting for the queue to pop but that's kinda not the point.
Another problem with LFR is well, I'm going to sound like an elitist jerk here, but crap players. I'm not talking about those that troll on purpose but just those that don't know how to play, do awful dps, stand in every bad thing there is, can't follow the tactics even when explained etc. Now I know that they need a chance to learn but, and I'm really going to sound bad now, some people just don't seem capable of learning. I had this player in my raid team, they were one of the longest running members and to give them their credit they showed up even when things got rough with the roster, we needed them but they were terrible. I always tried to avoid taking them on progression nights and instead got them in on that boss on a later kill when they could get carried a bit. I'm sure you know the kind of player I mean. The one that always dies to the breath on Malkorok, get's munched by Thok etc. Stock an LFR with too many of these players and it doesn't matter how nice they are, it's going to be frustration central.
You can't exactly moderate or kick for people not being very good. I mean I feel bad for saying it as well when you encounter those people, unless you run into them again and again, which you don't in LFR, then I guess they need to be treated like it's their first time and therefore they have the right to learn and I should be more patient. I guess I can be a real jerk. I do prefer dungeons as 1/5 has greater impact than 1/25, whoever I get grouped with.
I've long advocated that people should have options. I would love if dungeons and LFR were considered equal, that way you could pick your poison. However, your friend is right, LFR would become ghost town which would only make it's other problems worse. Hence why blizz will never do it as LFR is their baby, that they try and make everyone run.
Anyway thanks for saying that about garrisons. I only heard about that yesterday off the WI breakfast topic. Any method that isn't LFR where I can get some progression on my alts makes me happy. So your news is good news for me, even if it makes it mandatory. Now all blizz need to do is keep updating these methods and dungeons with subsequent tiers, so there's a continuous progression. I can only hope.
I understand the huge under taking that it would be for them to monitor the LFRs but this is a company that makes billions, as in with a B, of dollars a year. To have a few people on staff 24/7 to peek in and see how things are going, even more so after wipes when the problems usually start or show their ugly head, would be for the betterment of the game over all.
DeleteI would think a company as large as theirs would be interested in trying to remove things that are actively hurting their game and those players, the disruptive ones more than the slackers, are hurting the game.
With their constant push of raid or die and the LFR being where they want everyone to be that it would be in their best interest to not let the inmate run the asylum.
I am not talking having a moderator in every LFR at any given time but have them pop in and out. Have them banning people from using the random group finder system for a short time. Have them even banning people from full access for repeat offenses maybe. Once the word gets out that they are watching and that you can be banned people will stop being so quick to act like jerks in the LFR. As it stands they know they can do whatever they want, be rude, pull bosses, insult and purposely try to wipe groups or at least make their life hell without any fear of consequence. That is why they do it.
In a game that requires you to buy it and requires you to pay a monthly fee the fear of losing everything you paid for is huge and can keep people in line. Some, or most even. It is a power free to play games do not have. Free to play people just make a new account. Sure you can do that with wow, but this is something you paid for and continue to pay for and you would be less likely to take the chance at losing it.
This is why moderation is needed. Absolutely 100% needed. It would make the game as a whole better all around if the people in it were not allowed to run around doing anything they want and acting any way they want. There needs to be consequences for their actions. Blizzard is just too cheap or too lazy to do anything about it even if they can.
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I agree the wait time is horrible and some times the run time is horrible. But that is in part to people not wanting to run it because of the people in there. If the community in the LFRs were better I would run more often. I might even run on my tanks. But it is the community that keeps me from doing it. Not that it gets to me but because I am an adult and do not have time for this baby bullshit. So the queue time and the run times would be better if the community was better and if the bosses were tuned a little easier. For instance, nothing like the maze on durumu should have ever made it into LFR. Not in a million years.
DeleteCrap players are crap players. You need to tune the runs around those crap players. I did LFR on my priest last night and one fight had me finish at 177K HPS 38% healing done and a shaman at 128K HPS 28 % healing done. The number 3 and 4 healers were tanks and the rest of the healers were under 20K. For SoO 4. It is not like me and the shaman were stealing heals because people were still dying left and right because we did not have enough healing, we barely made it on each fight. Sorry but 20K HPS was not good in MV LFR. But that is the average player. If it is elitist to say you hate those people then I too am an elitist. I hate them as well. But in truth, they are the people that are supposed to be there. Not you and I. The problem is that LFR is tuned around thinking someone like me and that shaman will be there to combine for over 60% of the healing. If it were not for us the group would have never made it.
I would not say kick the people doing 20K but YES kick the people just standing in a corner doing nothing. Or just auto attacking. Or occasionally hitting a button but doing nothing else. I would rather see someone trying their heart out and doing 20K than someone standing in a corner. At least the person doing poorly is trying and they deserve to be there so they can hopefully get better even if they are only doing 20K.
You will not be able to gear your alts up fast that way. But if you have a team of followers that can finish the quests you can get a new piece of gear every week or two for the higher ones and every week or few days for the lower ones.
LOL LFR needs air marshal's I love it! That just makes me think of the scene from brides maids where they are in the plane and Melissa McCarthy is bugging the guy who she thinks is the air marshal. But with WoW characters
DeleteNever saw the movie, but I do think LFR can use some semblance of law and order at times because it is severely lacking. Call them air marshals if you will but as long as they lay the smack down on the people causing problems I would welcome them.
Deletecrap players? LOL, (s)he means me. Must have seen me on my orc hunter when somehow I called every mob within 4 miles. too funny!
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you, you have a great day too, GE!
-roo "the crappiest of the crap players under the sun on 4 continents (when it is not raining)"
Let me guess, you were using barrage as an ability. That seems to pull things in other rooms. lol I keep telling hunters to never use that ability on trash because it is a wipe waiting to happen sometimes.
DeleteBarrage? That is still in the game? Never used that. Traveling with someone or two is a whole of trouble when they are 15 levels below and still have a 60% speed mount. I will gladly always die to keep someone else who is lower from dying. :) but still.... 10 mobs?!? Where TF did they come from.
DeleteI love the low levels dragging mobs from everywhere. It is sometimes funny. I was flying a level 30 something around pandaira and he was pulling mobs from half a zone away. It was funny.
DeleteOut houses have been in the game for awhile. I know since BC. There is on on hellfire penninsula near an alliance scout camp south of the portal. There is also one in Grizzly Hills.
ReplyDeleteSo your characters shouldn't be "that" stopped up.
but, the doors are nailed shut! Even the one underwater in 1000 Needles... wait... it's underwater - know one will ever know if you pee in it!
Delete-roo "swimming with a smile on his face"
There have always been a few here and there. The alliance had one quest where you "used" it for a quest. But outside of that there has never been a usable out house in game that I know of. This is the first one you can actually go in.
DeleteI'll have to check tonight, I really though the one in Grizzly Hills was missing its door.
DeleteI remember Arust from the Warcraft Hunter's Union would apparently always stop in Grizzly Hills before raids to "use" the facilities. In the blog post describing this, Frostheim even said that Arust would loudly narrate what was happening and make many descriptive emotes.
It will be cool however that we can finally sit down in an outhouse. Even if some of them were missing their doors, the most a character could do is stand on the seat and then squat.
you really aren't missing much. it's hot in the summer, smells really bad, and you have BIG flies buzzing around in addition to every other wasp or bee or snake. Winter, you are freezing your butt off. Porta-Potties are like rich people's toilets compare to outhouses - one or two holers.
DeleteLOL, men and their "potty" humor. I'm glad I'm a guy, it's funny.
-roo
Anon, Grumpy's former Guild Leader:
DeleteSo, WoD becomes the Outhouse expansion...
kinda fitting, ya know.
I would say I am starting to warm to the beta but I don't think I am. I think I am just becoming happy it is not crashing every 5 minutes and only every 30 now.
DeleteMaybe they will make crashing part of a new feature. It would surely extend the life of the content.
- Haven't done much in the beta yet
ReplyDelete- I created a lvl 100 pre-made but there was basically no way to do anything. You're kind of stranded in the middle of nowhere...
- I also copied my main hunter over. I just haven't had time to mess with him. Real life has been getting in the way.
- The male night elf run animation at the time was horrible. I hope they've fixed it by now.
- Speaking of soloing, I tried to solo BWD. Omnotron was easy. Magmaw kept one shotting my pet, so I just said screw it.
- Did a Firelands achievement run from OpenRaid and finished my meta. I'm still working on the rep.
- Finished Ogri'la rep finally. So that's 68 exalted now, I think.
- Did a Flex 4 run for the first time. Ran with Bay from FinalBossTV and his chat. We wiped a few times on each boss since some people were undergeared and quite a few (me included) didn't know the fights very well. It was a lot of fun though and I got a couple upgrades (tier shoulders and TED). Only increased by iLvL by 1, but the trinket is much better than the TI one. Also good since AoC sucks in 6.0.
- I've tried soloing Gunship in ICC on live, but could never really figure out how to do it. I guess I need to read some guides because it can supposedly be done.
- I don't need the ICC rep anymore though, so may not mess with it for a while.
- I agree that LFR should be the same gear as Heroic dungeons.
- Now, how to get people to do LFR? Make it 10man - 1 tank, 7 dps, 2 heals. Make it repeatable like heroic dungeons so there is a reason to do it over and over. Clearing a single wing should take no more than 30 minutes. Basically, make it a 10man dungeon not a 25cat-herding disaster that requires overqualified players to make it succeed.
- I'm still uncertain about garrisons. I like the concept, but I don't know that I like the execution.
- Choosing buildings is going to be a problem. Also seems there is a lot of daily crap again. I thought Blizz learned that weeklies are the way to go.
- Oh, I hit 1.5M gold in game... I should buy something... I guess I should get that stupid yak finally...
Oh, forgot to mention...
Delete- Messed with my UI a bit
- Reduced the size of my Bartender bars, moved my chat around, stripped down my unit frames so they take up less space, switched to Skada, and have been messing with TipTac.
- I tried using Grid, but couldn't really figure it out so I'm still using Xperl. What are other people using?
Oh, one last thing (I swear..)
Delete- My hunter transmog got highlighted on Bendak's blog: Hunter Transmog: Shado-Pan Beast Lord
Ok, that's it. I'm done. I promise. ;)
Male night elf run is still dreadful, and that be being kind about it.
DeleteI did BWD as well and had no issues with it. I did it at 100 however and not 90. Well, I actually did have one issue. I killed archie too fast and the doors that let me out of the room never opened so I had to hearth out. lol But mag died in less than 5 seconds, so he never had time to kill my pet.
1 tank, 2 heals and 7 DPS with repeatable looting would get people to do it. I still think the best option is just to make the new raid tiers of LFR into 5 mans and be done with it. People see the content, get the gear, and it will be a better experience for everyone involved.
I am having a problem with large building on alts. They all suck and are all useless really. There are no good choices. The inn seems mandatory if you want the dungeon quests however. Think it is a bad idea to tie that to a building.
Congrats on being featured. I should have sent mine in because mine is awesome. :)
Jaeger sezs "Oh, I hit 1.5M gold in game"
DeleteRoo sezs "I hate you"
and under Roo's breathe - "good job"
Maybe you can send one of your characters over to mug him?
Delete