Monday Random Thoughts

- It is weird thinking my next random thought will be about leveling again.

- It took so long to get here and while it is well over due it always feels like you are not ready when it happens.

- Or is that just me?

- I watched blizzcon with the virtual ticket.

- As a warcraft fan I basically feel as if I really over paid for a battle pet.

- Because as a warcraft fan that really is all blizzcon had to offer for me, warcraft information, and there was none.

- I know the expansion is in a few days, but they could have talked about something.

- And no, talking about the stat changes and stuff does not count.

- You can't have a panel talking about the same exact thing you have been talking about for over a year and consider it exciting.

- At least I didn't.

- They could have talked about the upcoming 10 year anniversary.

- They could have hyped up the MC and SS vs TM battleground.

- They could have teased what "might" be coming for 6.1.

- They could have told us what their intention is moving forward in terms of patch speed.

- They could have mentioned if they were still on target for a yearly release or if they changed their mind.

- They could have addressed the extremely high over priced cost of the expansion and what they believe their justification for it is if they really do plan to go yearly.

- There was so much warcraft stuff they could have talked about.

- But they talked about hit and expertise being removed.

- Really?

- The tenth anniversary is around the corner, the expansion is around the corner, and all you can think to talk about was old new from over a year ago.

- So basically I paid for a virtual ticket to get a battle pet.

- The only thing that really had a good warcraft vibe was the Looking for Group video.

- But that was something you would not watch on the live stream anyway.

- It really bought back the feeling of why so many of us love the game.

- It is worth watching.

- It made me miss the old stuff.

- Funny thing I noticed was that they sort of gave themselves away as not having much faith in the game in the video.

- I can only blame that on bad cutting, but you can not put words in peoples mouths.

- When they start talking about the game there is such a light in their eyes, you could see they loved what they were talking about, there is a feeling of they are doing something great.

- From release to BC to Wrath every time you hear someone talking about this they talk with excitement.

- They say thing like this is great, this felt epic, this was fantastic, both blizzard and non blizzard employees.

- But as soon as it moves on to cataclysm, mists and warlords the tone of the people being interviewed changed, they did not feel as excited about what they were talking about.

- This might be fun, this could work out, this should give people the feeling of, things like that.

- They went from when they knew the game was great with is, to when they know the game lost a step or two with should.

- I wonder if it is me just reading too much into the body language and the words the people decided to use, but when you are trying to tell the truth from the hype it is that body language and the words they choose that let you know the truth.

- If you watched it, maybe you caught what I did.

- If you haven't, check it out.

- Not to see that, just to see it.

- It was a great video.

- Reading into it or not.

- Well worth an hour of your time in my opinion.

- It sure did give me a gentle reminder of why I love the game.

- The way they talk about the start up, BC and Wrath, reminds me why I love the game.

- The way they talk about cataclysm, mists and warlords, reminds me why I complain.

- But I complain because I care, so that works out well.

- If I didn't care, I wouldn't complain.

- On to the major announcement of the blizzcon, overwatch.

- Could they have announced anything that could interest me less?

- Does the world really need a first person shooter that looks like a children's movie?

- Don't get me wrong, I loved the incredibles and if you do not see the direct comparison between the video and the incredibles you are either willfully blind or never saw the incredibles.

- I just do not think that a game with a cross between a children's movie art work and anime art work, and more so a first person shooter, is really something I would ever want to play.

- Sure I will try it, if it is free or has a free trial, who am I to say no to free, but I've never liked first person shooters to begin with.

- They have an uphill battle if they want to win me over.

- Do people really like that stuff?

- If so I am so very out of touch with today's generation of gamers.

- I'll stick to my RPG type games that require a brain and leave the mindless first person shooters to people who prefer to just play, not think.

- When I want to just play, not think, I prefer hack and slash like diablo, not first person shooters.

- To each their own, we can't all like the same things right?

- When they were running around in overwatch, and you were not in first person view, it looked like something I might be interested in.

- But they said that only happens out of combat, in combat it goes to first person.

- Oh well, lost me completely there.

- If it stayed further out, like it was when they were running around, I would have been on that like white on rice to try it out, because even if the artwork is insanely childish it still looks good.

- Now I really do not care.

- First person shooters and I do not mix well.

- One thing is one against proved.

- Blizzard really does know how to make videos well.

- Would love to see their art team just make a cartoon series.

- I would love that.

- They do simply amazing work, no question.

- Being I doubt that I will be leveling any more characters in the next two days it looks like my tally for level 90s will end at 21.

- I could have done more, would have done more, but with no end game gearing method outside of raiding I did not feel like adding more characters I would be forced to LFR wtih to the mix.

- If valor gear was still in game and I could gear up with valor gear I probably would have ended the expansion with 30-35 or even 40 90s.

- But with no way to gear characters outside of raiding I had no desire to level more characters.

- This is what I worry most about with warlords.

- There is no way to gear up without raiding.

- Before someone jumps down my throat I will explain that statement.

- To me getting raid ready means normal mode gear, which is what valor gear always was.

- So my bar to what I call "gearing up" to be raid ready means 670 gear, as my mode of raiding drops 680 gear.

- If I am 670, or as close I can can reasonably get to it, on my alts, than I am raid ready.

- So yes, you can get gear in warlords and lots of it.

- Don't get me wrong, just because they removed some stuff does not mean there is nothing.

-  It is just all crap, but it is something.

- There is dungeon gear, challenge mode gear, garrison invasions gear, garrison mission gear, apexis crystal gear, crafted gear, upgraded crafted gear and that is all without even mentioning PvP gear and lesser level raid gear.

- So there are a lot of gearing option.

- If you want to have your alts waking around in garbage gear that is.

- I want a way for my characters to get raid ready without having to raid.

- Looks like if I want 670 gear, I have to raid to get it.

- Which means I can not get alts to the "raid ready" level so if we need it I can switch unless I raid with those alts.

- Just like this expansion was at the end.

- And it stopped me from leveling characters this expansion, and they only removed valor gear at the end.

- What do you think it is going to be like when there is no valor gear at all from the start?

- Yeah, no thank you.

- I do not see this expansion being very alt friendly.

- Or very "average player" friendly either.

- With the cost to garrisons well out of the range of the majority of players, what do you think it will do to people that have alts when they can not even afford it on one character?

- Yeah, a very alt unfriendly expansion is coming people.

- Choose which characters you will level smart, because unless you plan to play and raid 24/7 you will not be gearing up alts in a fun and meaningful way.

- Sure you might be able to get them a couple of 665 pieces and 645 pieces, but that is not exactly raid ready, at least not in my opinion.

- Maybe, just maybe, if they removed the crafted 3 limit on crafted gear and you could get all 665 pieces if you worked hard enough for them, then I would say it was okay.

- I have no issue working for my gear.

- I just do not want to do LFR to get it.

- There is a difference between working for something and banging your head against the wall for something.

- I actually like working for my gear.

- Would love a system were I could craft all 665 gear for my alts even it if took a really long time.

- It would give people a reason to log in every day.

- A subscription MMO needs something like that to work.

- I, of course, plan to level my hunter first, then druid and priest immediately after.

- I will level all my classes of course, at some point.

- At least one of each class and at least one horde side.

- Any horde guilds want an alt hunter that is a fair raider but would only play fill in once in a while?

- Let me know and I will consider it.

- My horde hunter needs a new home, my old guild has died and I do not see it making a comeback. :(

- I want to try out gladiator stance and I want to see both sides of the stories.

- Those are some key things I am looking forward too as far as alts go.

- So I will still have alts, but I do not want a repeat of this expansion.

- Lets take my warrior and give a quick history of his life this expansion.

- I love tanking on my warrior, figure that should be mentioned first.

- But my druid made it to 90 first, as usual, and it was tanking MV and I think into HoF by the time my warrior reached 90.

- I flat out refuse to tank LFR, no thank you, I would rather gargle with a mouth full of broken glass.

- But thanks to valor gear my warrior was not left in the cold.

- I worked reputations, opened the valor gear, worked my ass off to get some pieces, and with some world boss drops, my warrior caught up somewhat.

- If and when I needed a second tank my warrior could fill in.

- But by that time my druid was so well geared so I never really got much play time on my warrior.

- However, my warrior was close to raid ready thanks to valor gear and I did not need to step into LFR to do so, which is as it should be.

- When ToT came out, and you needed raid reputation to buy gear, my warrior started to fall behind in gear.

- My druid and monk were both better geared, so if a tank was needed during ToT I used my druid or monk.

- My warrior fell further behind.

- I did everything in my power to get it gear, but options were limited because valor gear was locked behind a raid reputation and I was not raiding on it.

- So a couple of crafted pieces here and there and some weekly kills on world bosses, and it slowly, oh so slowly, geared up.

- But it never stepped foot into ToT because its gear was so far behind.

- When SoO came out, with no valor gear at all, not even locked behind some reputation, my warrior was put on the "see you next expansion" list.

- I do not want another expansion of that.

- We need valor gear, and it needs to be decent gear that makes you raid ready.

- So valor gear should be 670 gear and it should be added back into the game before release.

- So, now you see why I say there is no way to get raid ready in WoD, and I think that will hurt my desire to play alts.

- And I think it will hurt a lot of other people.

- But there will always be fun to be had, I just need to learn that having fun does not mean gearing all my characters and having them all raid ready.

- Even if that is what is normally fun for me, gearing up all my characters.

- Or I need to get over my problem with tanking for randoms and do the LFR.

- But until blizzard starts making rules and enforcing them in LFR, you will not see me in there, outside of the rare occasion where I have reached near terminal boredom.

- But in terms of my warrior, at least now my warrior tank will have a DPS spec.

- Which is how my druid and my monk were able to gear up and my warrior was not.

- I could DPS in my tank gear as a druid or monk, I couldn't as a warrior.

- Thank you gladiator stance.

- Woot, DPSing in tank gear.

- I am so looking forward to that.

- Now all they need to do is bring back blood DPS and make ret capable of being done with a sword and board and I can play all my characters again.

- Or better yet, just fix the F'N community and start banning the people that make LFR experience unenjoyable for everyone.

- I think I would like that better, a nice community, absolutely would like that option better.

- I did a class run this weekend.

- No, not hunters, druids.

- A SoO run with all druids, nothing but druids.

- The only class run that could have tanks, healers, ranged DPS and melee DPS.

- It was fun.

- Do you know how many people applied to the group even though it said, clear as day, SoO druids only clear.

- One person in the group had an awesome idea.

- Invite someone like a mage that asked to join and wait for him to get there and then we all switch to bear form, circle him, and say... we think you are in the wrong place buddy.

- It would have been so funny.

- We did not manage to full clear it sadly, but we had a hell of a lot of fun.

- At least 3 times someone that got invited asked for a summon.

- Excuse me?

- Class run.

- Since when do druids have a summon?

- Sometimes people just talk out of habit instead of thinking.

- I think that is what it is, out of habit they always ask for a summon.

- I usually do not get into things like that but I was in the mood for some fun.

- I am glad I did it.

- I spent so much time this weekend working on my characters that some fun was needed.

- I need to learn to loosen up and have some more silly fun like that.

- I've just become so jaded of random people it is like I am scared of them.

- I'd rather do nothing than join a pug sometimes.

- But there is some fun to be had on occasion if you are willing to take the risk.

- Even when we started wiping in that all druid group, people kept their spirits up and had fun.

- Not once did anyone say to another person, you suck, your bad, you wiped us, how do you not know these fights, blah blah blah standard pug mentality stuff.

- It restored my faith in the people that play this game, even if just a little.

- I would like to give a shout out to all the druids in that group, you guys rock and made my day.

- Speaking of druids, I decided to go balance on the last druid I leveled.

- It had zero gear so I sent it the BoA staff, a set of timeless gear, did the blasted lands quests, blew a couple of coins on both a celestial kill and an ordos kill, even joined in for a nalak kill, and needless to say won nothing from any of them, but I did manage to get to 519.

- Not bad, from fresh 90 gear to 519.

- Did a couple more ordos, just to practice the rotation to get used to it.

- I must say one thing...

- How the hell can anyone play a class like this?

- Nearly 3 second cast time?

- When can you ever stand still for 3 seconds?

- Even on ordos, which is about as tank and spank as you can get, even having to be moved from the fire now, I could not stand still for more than a few seconds.

- Tanks moving him out of range, need to move.

- Ranged not moving from me and me not noticing it means I get popped up.

- Ranged not moving from me so I move from them.

- Ranged trying to get away from the back but run right into me means I get popped up.

- Me getting the thing on myself means I get popped up.

- All casters should be able to cast on the move, it is annoying playing like that with insane cast times.

- But boy oh boy when I was able to stand still I was blowing things up.

- One fight I only got knocked up once and needed to move, it was on me, and I managed to do 8.7K with no island buffs.

- Most runs, with having to move a little here and there and getting popped p a few times I was ranging between 5.8K and 7.2K.

- So at a 519 item level, having never even once played a max level druid boomkin, and not spending more than 2 minutes on icy veins, I was able to do more DPS than nearly every single person I've seen in an LFR.

- And more than everyone except for two of the druids and the tanks that were in the all druid run.

- The tanks were both super geared, so they were always top 4 with the other 2 good damage dealers.

- Speaking of druid tanking, everything I read and watch has people saying all they feel like is a giant fur ball of health.

- Like that is a bad thing.

- I actually like that idea... some.

- Warrior does seem to way to go next expansion.

- Everyone seems to be saying it.

- But I did not need people to say it to convince me to want to tank on my warrior.

- I just needed gladiator stance.

- I always said, if the game wants me to DPS as a warrior, then make it so I can DPS with a shield.

- So I have to DPS as one now, or else I would be going back on my word.

- So being I can gear for tank and DPS with the same exact gear I can not think of anything else to say outside of every single class needs something like that.

- No need to even have different neck, cloak, trinkets, rings or weapons.

- Just choose the gladiator stance talent and go to town.

- Yeah baby.

- Damn, now I want to level my warrior second.

- I just confused myself.

- Healed a bunch of garrosh kills again this week and the nerf to holy nova sucked.

- But holy nova is still extremely over powered at 90.

- Sure my HPS dropped to about 17K but that is way more than needed for heroic garrosh.

- I imagine someone being more involved than myself and a better player would be getting over 25K in my gear with it.

- I am just having too much fun bouncing around spamming holy nova to care about maximum output right now.

- As long as the boss goes down and I can continue bouncing all over the place with my holy ball of illuminated healing I am happy.

- Too bad holy nova sucks major league at 100.

- I remember doing dungeons on beta and hearing disc priest begging us to slow down and CC and pull one at a time because they had no AoE healing.

- Normals I am talking here, not even heroics.

- One priest sounded as if he was going to break down crying.

- They went on how they healed heroic (now mythic) garrosh on this character but they could not heal a normal mode dungeon on it.

- They were stressed out and you could tell it by their typing.

- And they sure sounded like they knew what they were talking about.

- Of course we worked as a team, our idea was to learn the fights and give feedback at the same time.

- We all left feedback at the end that our poor healer was in tears because a disc priest could not keep up with the AoE damage even when we were single pulling mobs.

- How is holy nova so insanely OP at 90 and so pitifully useless at 100.

- You would think one of these years blizzard would get better at balancing things so they work differently at different levels.

- That would be smarter than using one formula that is supposed to work for every level forever.

- Ten years and they still have not figured this out yet?

- Makes me wonder what the hell they are smoking over there.

- And more so, why are they not sharing.

- Have a great day.