Monday, August 10, 2015

Monday Random Thoughts

- I was thinking about names that specs use and it occurred to me that retribution paladins make no sense, name wise.

- Retribution is sort of like revenge.

- Revenge does not really seem like the way of the light.

- What do you think would be a more suitable name for them?

- Did a fun run of BRF this weekend and actually got a heroic tier piece of maidens.

- Amazing that I can finally get a tier piece, off old content, and it still be a sweet upgrade.

- My luck with gear this expansion has been worse than usual.

- There are a lot of things people dislike about warlords but I think one of the reasons I hate this expansion is my luck seems worse than normal with it.

- I am sure I would be enjoying the expansion a lot more if I didn't always feel like I was playing for nothing.

- Winning gear once in a while, or gear you can use more accurately, is very important to enjoying the game.

- Even more so when gear means so much.

- Upgrading from a normal piece to a heroic piece was huge.

- Anyone else think that the stat inflation from one difficulty to the other is way to large?

- Blizzard gets so infatuated with things being major increases that they forgot the simple basics.

- People would be happy with something even if it had 2 agility and 2 of each secondary stat more than the previous tier.

- And upgrade is an upgrade.

- The huge jump from difficulty to difficulty is why we have such out of control stat inflation.

- Even more so with so many different tiers of raiding.

- They need to make the increase from one tier to the next smaller, much much smaller.

- Kill stat inflation and make play be more about what you do and less about what you wear all at the same time.

- Sounds good to be, but I know most people would hate that.

- Blizzard is right even if I hate to agree with it.

- People like seeing substantial upgrades.

- Me, I just like seeing an upgrade, 1 agility or 19 agility makes no difference to me.

- Better is better.

- Anyone watch the Q & A?

- Not a whole lot of Q's there and the A's were kind of just repeating themselves.

- Is this what blizzard thinks a Q & A is?

- Regurgitating what we already knew does not a Q & A make.

- Even more so when we know so little, how can you only repeat the tiny bits we knew already.

- There was only one Q asked that got an A which I would have wanted to see answered.

- And the A was not even a good answer.

- The beginning parts of getting flying will be added at release and they will see about when they will add it later.

- Excuse me?

- I thought blizzard already went through this.

- Don't they learn anything?

- You can not remove flying, and you can not be iffy about when it is going to come.

- None of this "lets see" bull shit.

- I wanted a definitive answer.

- Something like the achievement for flight will be added on release and flight will be added in 7.1.

- That is an answer, what they said is bull shit.

- Sorry, there is no other words for it.

- Will there be content at 110?

- Will there be daily hubs?

- Will there be valor gear?

- Will there be a reason to run dungeons after the first day of release?

- Will scenarios make a return so people that do not want to wait in queue forever can still have some nice quick fun?

- These are the questions that needed answering.

- These are the questions that were not asked.

- Well, what do you expect from a fluff piece.

- They should have never even advertised it as a Q & A, it was false advertising.

- You could have walked up to a homeless guy living in a box and asked him about the next warcraft expansion and probably gotten better answers.

- Surely not accurate ones, but better ones.

- Unless they start answering the real questions that matter I don't think I can get too hyped for the expansion.

- Sure I love we will dabble in a bunch of lore I want to see.

- How long have we asked for something regarding the emerald dream / nightmare?

- How long have we asked for more history on races like the val'kyr and others?

- How long have we wanted more information on the titans?

- There is a hell of a lot to get excited by with the story.

- Yeah I am digging that for sure.

- But bottom line for me has always been and will always be game play.

- I do not care where we play the game, I care what we do when we are there.

- I want to know game play answers.

- I like that Mangi is coming back from a story stand point, but if it means nothing to my game play.

- Lets face it, I do not play warcraft for its story, even if I do really like it and follow it, I play it because I like the game play.

- So game play trumps all else.

- I wanted some game play answers.

- We did not need a discussion on why demon hunters can only be elves.

- We did not need a discussion on what dance they do when they are alone in their office.

- No one cares what dance they do.

- Okay, maybe someone does, there are a lot of weird people out there, but I don't.

- Normally I would have been fine with the "wait and see" approach, but so often lately blizzard has let me down.

- Once bitten twice shy.

- I am no longer willing to wait and see.

- I want clear cut answers, absolutes.

- Not "we'll see"

- So far all I have taken, that matters to me, from the new expansion is that the only class I really enjoy playing is being changed in a way that could potentially ruin it.

- I've dealt with fundamental changes like  how pets work, ammo, happiness, as well as buffing and feeding our pets separately among many others.

- I was fine with it.

- I've dealt with a dead zone for many years even after they said it was gone but it wasn't.

- I was fine with it.

- I've dealt with resources changes from mana to focus.

- I adapted even if I resisted and was fine with it.

- I've dealt with skills being added.

- I was fine with it.

- I've dealt with skills being removed.

- I put up a fight sometimes but was fine with it.

- I've dealt with minor rotation changes and major rotation changes.

- I was fine with it.

- But now I have to deal with being switched to a melee class (in part).

- I am not fine with it.

- The reason I was fine with all the other changes was because I was still a ranged physical damage dealer.

- The concept of what my class was did not change.

- I can not accept survival being changed to melee.

- And I don't even like survival to begin with.

- So I can see how people that like it have to be fuming right now.

- I would have no issue with them adding a forth spec for melee.

- I am just not okay with them changing what is already in game.

- Weird I know, but it is how I feel and you can't help how you feel right?

- Still say the next hero class should have been a ranged / healer class.

- I do however really like the idea that demon hunters only have 2 specs, one for damage dealer and one for tank.

- Perhaps if they can change other classes, as they are with hunters, they can balance things easier, in time.

- So perhaps the hunters are the test subjects.

- Why do we always have to be the guinea pig?

- Need to walk around with placards saying "Save the hunters from inhumane testing".

- If they can get away with turning survival into melee this expansion maybe next expansion arms warriors will become ranged.

- There is some logic to the idea that each class only has one spec of each specific role.

- Sure it takes away choice but it would also be easier to balance.

- And blizzard has been in the practice of removing choice from the game systematically for years.

- So it only makes sense they would do something like this.

- I just thought of a fun post, how would I change all the classes so none had two specs to for the same role.

- One warrior and DK melee spec would need to be changed, one healing priest would not longer heal, things like that.

- I could have a lot of fun with a post like that.

- And piss off a bunch of people at the same time.

- Sound fun. lol

- I do wonder if survival is a test run for them trying to do something like that.

- They would have had to know changing what one spec of the most played class in the game would meet some resistance.

- I am torn on the next expansion.

- I am excited for it knowing it is something new and knowing warlords is over.

- But I am scared for the game I love knowing they could actually screw it up worse than they did with warlords.

- (added this to clear up confusion)  Based on an old comment they made in 2011 I do have hope for legion.

- Blizzard had said their teams rotation.

- If they do that means there is hope.

- Because one thing we would have going for us is that the team that is making legion is the team that made wrath and mists I believe.

- So it is their A team, if there is still one.

- And thank god it is not their B team that is responsible for cataclysm and warlords.

- Makes you wonder if those guys are double agents working for blizzard trying to destroy a great franchise.

- With cataclysm and warlords under their belt that is not something someone would want to put on their resume.

- "I helped design 2 expansions for the very successful world of warcraft franchise."...

- ... "Which one lost around 3 million subs and the other lost almost 5 million subs"

- Not exactly a stellar thing to put on your resume.

- I'd think putting you worked at mcdonalds during those years would be more impressive.

- Back to the topic of only elves being able to be demon hunters.

- It makes sense, why would anyone want any other class to be a demon hunter.

- Demon hunters are elves, there are not ifs, ands or buts about that.

- Outside of the fact that seeing a gnome with two glaives that are both larger than he is would be quite humorous, it really does not fit.

- I hope blizzard does stick to their guns on this one and leaves it so only elves can be demon hunters.

- At least for the first expansion.

- Maybe add more later on.

- But really no need to.

- I would want to see troll paladins before I see any other race being a demon hunter.

- I've wanted a troll paladin forever.

- Because?

- Troll paladins would be cool mon.

- You can't always get what you want.

- But sometimes... you get what you need.

- Right now I need some answers about the expansion that will help me with being excited about it.

- Have a great day.

21 comments:

  1. Haha, I've long since stopped caring about gear since I stopped raiding and the lack of flying doesn't really bother me so the only thing that I'm "subscribing" (Aka gold token) for is to finish the legendary quest chain and get my legendary and the last bit of story. Then I will stop and play FFXIV until Legion comes out.

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    1. Gear always matters, even if you do not raid. Gear makes things easier. Easier is good.

      I have been thinking the same, as soon as I get the legendary done on both sides (just in case there is a difference, I like to see it all) I might leave for FF14 until the expansion comes out.

      Even as a raider being there is no 10 man mythic, there is really no desire for me to press progression. In all honestly, without mythic as an option I am thinking of going LFR only next expansion. Sucks to raid when you know, based on liking smaller groups, that you can never finish it.

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  2. I wonder wether they'll have a similar wall with Heroics like they did with WoD.

    I also wonder why the PG Silver requirement is still in place (even if you make a Custom Group in the Group Finder; note that oddly enough there are no requirements for starting a Mythic Group except for iLevel iirc ), especially as it might be one of the reasons so many subscribers left.

    Think about it: if you don't have access to (LF) heroics, you basically

    - can't do the Legendary chain, which is pretty much the only understandable story of the expac (or my empathy levels for alternate universe orcs and goats from 30-odd years ago is just too low);

    - half the Dungeon Quests (both from the Town Hall and the Lunarfall Inn) will be closed off;

    - several of the high-key Followers will be closed off (notably most are Humans and the only other standard Gnome Follower) aside those coming from the above.

    Considering you can get so easily 650 (PvE) and 670 (PvP/Ashran) gear, it is rather odd to keep this 615-630 content gated by PG Silver, especially because PG's are already a somewhat problematic test for Dungeons (as they a) scale to Gear, while Dungeons don't, in fact Blizz has many times said itself it adds better Gear to solve brick-walling Instances, and b) make you start all over agian in case you 'wipe', which bears no reality to either Dungeons or Raids)

    The more because, again, Mythic does not have this gate (you'd expect PG Gold for it, going by the current system).

    But I guess it's all 'cyclical' to loose half your player base.

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    1. They did not mention anything about a PG requirement for the next expansion as of yet but I can not really see them doing it again.

      The fact they gated dungeons but not LFR made no sense to begin with and PGs only did 2 things, wasted the time of people that it was easy for and frustrated the people that couldn't. So as it worked out, it made no sense to have it at all, in my opinion at least.

      Yes, it is cyclical to go back to 2006 in number in the number of subscribers, it happens every single expansion. (or so they want us to believe)

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    2. I thought with Custom Group in Group Finder, the group of 5 just walk in through the entrance of the dungeon?

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    3. Yeah, you can walk in without PGs. We did that on day one of release, not because people did not have the PG, but because they did not have the 610 to queue for it yet. So we walked from one dungeon to the next and did them all. I think I was the only one over 610 on day one, everyone else was in the 580s so we had to walk in.

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  3. Beating a dead horse here, but if flying isn't in at launch and accessible at 110 via accomplishing a few zones and whatnot, I'm hanging up my spurs. This is a line in the sand.

    They really are obtuse. Why be wishy washy on this one way or the other?

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    1. You are not alone, there are many that stated the same thing. I am surprised with all the subs they lost and the extreme back tacking they needed to do when they announced no flying this expansion, that they would have learned. It seems you can not teach this old dog new tricks because they are making the same mistake again.

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  4. "- One thing we have going for us however is that the team that is making legion is the team that made wrath and mists I believe.

    - So it is their A team, if there is still one.

    - And thank god it is not their B team that is now responsible for cataclysm and warlords."

    Huh? Is this verified? I haven't heard anything like this. Only personnel related news I've heard had to do with them adding staff in the WoD run-up (which allegedly caused issues with trying to integrate new headcount).

    This would certainly be encouraging if true..

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    1. Verified? Absolutely not. I am just taking something I heard them say in an interview a while back and extrapolating it.

      They said that they rotate teams so while one is working on one expansion another is working on the next.

      It is an old statement and I have no idea if that still holds true. But I was trying to be positive saying it would be better if indeed the wrath and mists team was doing it instead of the cata and warlords team.

      Like I said, they did say they rotate the teams, but that statement was made at the beginning of mists when they refereed to the wrath people had worked on it. So I do not know if it still holds true 3 years and many shake ups later.

      Wishful thinking out loud is what that is.

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    2. HA! Yeah, Microsoft used to have that same model for Windows OS's as well. Windows XP made by the team that did Windows 2000 - Windows Vista made by the team that did Windows ME - Windows 7 made by the team that did Windows XP - Windows 8 made by the team that did Windows Vista.

      Anyways... (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/retribution)
      Retribution: punishment for doing something wrong.

      Full Definition of RETRIBUTION
      1 recompense, reward
      2 the dispensing or receiving of reward or punishment especially in the hereafter
      3 something given or exacted in recompense; especially: punishment

      Given those definitions, I think the Paladin spec name is appropriate (think Judge Dread - but only for a few seconds and then... for the LOVE OF GAWD... think of something else quickly). "I am the Law!" ;-)

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    3. Well that explains why windows 8 was the absolute worst they ever released. :P

      I guess using that definition it does fit somewhat. I tied it more to revenge, for the same reason. Getting revenge / retribution for something someone did wrong.

      Now I can not get anthrax's "I am the law" out of my head, thank you very much. lol

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  5. As a long time rogue I think they should change one of the rogue specs to ranged. My personal preference would be for sub to make the switch over to a dagger throwing spec. They already have some of the tools in place with abilities like deadly throw. I suppose the pvp people would be up in arms over it though. That's the difficulty in trying to make radical changes to such an old game. You are bound to seriously piss someone off.

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    1. But as a long time rogue, and I would assume enjoying melee as you are such, how would you feel if the best spec for your class was the ranged spec and you could not play in melee any longer?

      This type of situation is what seems to scare off most hunters with the idea of survival being melee. I, personally, do not mind hunters getting a melee spec, I just believe they should not change what is already in game. If they want hunters to have a melee spec they should add a forth spec.

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    2. I personally wouldn't have an issue, I've switched specs for my raid before on other classes and going from melee to range is less of an adjustment than going healer to range. I think I'm not the norm in this regard since a lot of people are very attached to a specific spec for their class, like that enhancement shaman everyone knows who has stuck with it since it was a 2h spec. I think rogues moving from melee to range wouldn't be such a huge adjustment if I'm operating under the assumption we still use energy and combo points. If they changed us to a ranged mana class with with completely different secondary resource management then I'd imagine it would be a very difficult pill to swallow.

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    3. My personal problem with melee is the movement. I do not mind stand still fights but I hate running around after the tank.

      I did LFR (HM to start the ring quest) this weekend on my rogue and god forbid the tanks ever kept the boss in 1 place for more than 2 seconds. That is why I hate melee and I am really impressed with people that can play melee well. I have not patience for that crap.

      I also thing that is why moving from ranged to melee is also hard. Most people, if they never played melee it can be a huge adjustment for them. Sure melee have the easy life in terms of mechanics compared to ranged, but they are used to moving to having to move for a million different mechanics at ranged has to be an easier adjustment for them I would think.

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  6. I'm really annoyed with the four difficulties (well, three real difficulties and lfr). That's just too much. And that Heroic and Normal are the exact same fights, with just more numbers, it makes for really boring progression if your guild doesn't have the gear to start in heroics.

    I was thinking about the names of specs also recently. They need to change MM to Ranger. If they're hell bent on making it not a hunter, they need to call it something different so that it's not being presented as just a hunter minus most of the things that make hunters awesome.

    New name for ret pallies, holier-than-thou ponces.

    I've also been stuck with pretty bad luck this xpac. well, mostly just this tier. My ally hunter has yet to spend a single DKP, because nothing I want has dropped, or if it did someone else had more dkp than I. The very first time killing heroic HF assault, the crit/multistrike belt dropped, warforged and socketed. A god damn healing shaman took it. From this point forward, I'll never be in a guild without loot council again. At least had it gone to another hunter, or an elemental or enhancement shaman, it would have been benefitting the raid. but a god damn resto shaman... I'm 100% certain I'll never see a crit/multistrike piece WF+socket ever again...

    There's one other hunter in my main guild (there's actually two others, but they're bench-level players), and for the past 4 years or so, we've been constantly competing for the top dps spot, really pushing each other to get better and better. But now he's gotten his 4 set while I've got my no-set, so I just flounder around, doing worthless dps, having to settle for the 4th or 5th spot on the dps meters...

    I guess my point is, yeah, bad luck sucks. I can't remember what post you put this in, but at some point last week you mentioned they need to go back to having at least a couple tier pieces on the world bosses. I hadn't really thought about it much, but I imagine that made me feel a lot better about gearing in MoP, and is a big reason gearing in WoD hurts so much.

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    1. Yeah, I would never raid in a guild that used DKP. My guild uses EPGP and it's pretty much fool proof - none of this hording points crap that seems to happen with DKP. Loot Council is acceptable too as I have raided with a guild that used that and loot was distributed very fairly. They took attendance into consideration as well and that often was the determining factor in many tough decisions.

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    2. Never raided in a guild with DKP but being I rarely even see something to roll on I am sure I could afford to buy HFC and just evict everyone in there.

      I rolled on one piece in the last 3 weeks. Rolled awesome too. A 92. Guess what happened? Lost it to someone rolling a 93. So I can not even win when I have a good roll.

      What makes it worse for me? We have 4 hunters, all trained by me and all, sometimes, capable of beating me. Keeps me on my toes for sure being they are all pretty damn good. So even if stuff drops sometimes if it is a big upgrade for one of them I pass to them because I know half the time I am on my druid. So bad luck + passing on loot = not having any fun this expansion.

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    3. I agree. What I find is that the difficulty of normal, with only normal level gear available to you, would feel very similar to doing heroic, with the numbers tweaked down slightly. But I think most guilds have access to at least some better than normal level gear (heroic previous tier, crafting, AH etc) so it seems easier than it would otherwise.

      They could smooth out the difficulties, balance around a harder 'normal' difficulty, if it weren't for the fixed raid size of 20 players for heroic(mythic). This excludes too many raid guilds from the higher difficulty.

      What my guild is currently struggling with is time, balancing the desire to do normal to flesh out our tier and class trinkets which are powerful enough to be upgrades in heroic, while working on heroic progression. An additional, optional raid night is attended by all heroic raiders because of the gains to be had.

      As for spec names, I'm a biased shaman, but what the hell is 'Enhancement' in today's game? Talk about lack of identity.

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    4. You are right, enhancement does not fit like it used to with totem twisting. Back with that you enhanced the entire group, now, not so much at all. You are just you.

      I think the largest problem with normal is the scaling. It is harder than heroic when down with only 10 people and it is easier than LFR when done with 30.

      I think it should be the other way around, super easy with 10 and harder (with more drops) as you add more people to it. That makes more sense than what they have now. Normal 10 man is deadly.

      When we first did kilrog that first week with our 10 best, as in great players, we were having issues. We figured adding a few more so there would be more DPS up to take care of adds when we were in a vision and we added 6 mediocre players, some maybe even on the edge of bad, and we downed it instantly with no problem.

      How can 10 good players not do it, but 10 good and 6 "okay" at best can do it super easy? Bad bad bad balancing. They need to fix that with raiding more than the difficulty itself.

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