tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post5811614966558322624..comments2024-03-27T07:57:48.010-04:00Comments on The Grumpy Elf: Five "Bad" Things Mists Did RightTheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-54054425418883651062014-05-12T09:18:55.440-04:002014-05-12T09:18:55.440-04:00Panda have always been hidden. With the exception...Panda have always been hidden. With the exception of a few, very few, there has been no contact with the rest of the world, so there is little lore in "our" world with them.<br /><br />Everything from now on will involve them. Have to see if they keep writing them up and in or completely ignore them after they were added just like they have every other race they added. My money is on they will ignore them.TheGrumpyElfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-6491086486227958022014-05-10T02:31:00.255-04:002014-05-10T02:31:00.255-04:00Completely agree on lesser charms collection, flyi...Completely agree on lesser charms collection, flying and quests (Isle of Thunder >>> Timeless Isle), but disagree somewhat on pandas.<br /><br />After all the expansion, how pandas fit into lore? Apart from current events, there's a bit of a tie via zandalari, and maybe one or two other, smaller bits. That's it. OK, so, what is their role in current events? Uhm, Taran Zhu spent a lot of time lecturing the Alliance (somewhat less the Horde) on how to do things and the continent suffered from Garrosh's digging and unleashing the evils. No panda did anything useful, no panda heroes, several pandas played sidekick for Vol'jin and that appears to be their ceiling. Ah, yes, the Celestials "judged" Garrosh (if you didn't read Golden's novel yet, I will just quickly say that after Garrosh manages to escape the "trial", the Celestials don't blink an eye and say they feel that "justice has been done", a complete farce even for Golden). A complete and total meh. And how pandas will tie into lore going forward? Well, nohow. There will likely be a token panda guy in whatever is going to be everyone's capital in the new Draenor, but otherwise pandas won't be remembered.<br /><br />Compare to one of the real races like night elves or, heck, even underdeveloped taurens... Even goblins make more sense than pandas, and that would have held even if goblins weren't made into a playable race in Cata. Goblins feel like part of the world, pandas feel like part of a small corner of the world. Like wolvars in Sholazar Basin.<br /><br />The technical side of pandaria - the architecture, the ornaments, the cloud serpents, the items, etc - was fine. As to the lore and pandaria making sense other than for killing a couple of mantids or mogus and making a pretty selfie, well, that's another story...PVP anonhttp://nowhere.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-33110092048325622872014-05-09T07:19:38.678-04:002014-05-09T07:19:38.678-04:00I agree that we should be allowed to get older cha...I agree that we should be allowed to get older charms with them but not sure what more we should be able to buy with them. If they added more, even more so good things, it would start to feel like we "must" grind them. As it is now once you have a nice stash you never feel that way. That is why it is a winner of an idea in my opinion.<br /><br />I am not annoyed with alts being able to fly, but with 18 90s already I would not mind skipping the ground route now and just going faster to objectives.<br /><br />Yeap, it seems that they are going to try and do the timeless island on a larger basis and that is going to suck on a level of sucking like we have never seen before. It is fine design for a content patch that is meant to keep us entertained for a short time. Not as the basis for an entire world for an entire expansion. It sucks trying to get to a rare on one little island as it is, how fun will it be when rares are being called out all over the world and you can get to none of them, ever.TheGrumpyElfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-52529028458947310452014-05-08T21:07:14.881-04:002014-05-08T21:07:14.881-04:00I heartily agree with your assessment of the lesse...I heartily agree with your assessment of the lesser charms, first thing I do on Tuesday is spend them. Wish I could spend them on older bonus rolls though, it would help alts get gear for SoO faster. I wish there were more things to spend them on, right now my huge piles will go forever unexhausted and while I'm glad I don't need to farm them, I get the itch to spend and can't :) I like the idea of valor like that, although I think it would be harder for them to balance spending because of the wildly different prices for some of the pieces. Building up daily cds is awesome, or like dreamcloth for cata, once a week on a few, much better. I waste too much time daily hitting all my crafting cds, because if I don't they go to waste.<br /><br />I also agree with the flying point, I loved being forced to see the world the first time, especially with how gorgeous and well done the landscape was in Pandaria. I did the brewfathers achievement before I had flying and it was awesome to climb the heights and see the amazing vistas (and also get some vertigo and nervousness about possibly falling off that huge mountain in Kun-Lai with the tiny path to the top :) And Cloud Serpents, perfect example of the 'mini-grind' I wish the other reps had, not those god awful 100 rep GL dailies that too over a month to hit exalted. I've never done any of them on alts, except to open specific crafting recipes, they take too long.<br /><br />I'm not as annoyed about alts not being able to fly as some it seems, the questing is linear enough that I'm never far enough from the next quest hub that I feel being unable to fly slows me down terribly. It would be nice to have a way to give alts flying, but for me its not been a hinderance. But to each their own.<br /><br />Your assessment of questing is spot on, I too hope WoD does it like MoP, although I think the daily complaints resulted in Timeless, which sounds more and more like how they plan to do WoD :( God I hope not.<br /><br />As for the Pandarians and Pandaria, I was amazed and blown away at how well they did it. I think the oriental theme was the best choice they could've done. One of the benefits of using real world cultures as a jumping off point is the depth of material to steal. Also, the idiosyncrasies that cultures build up over time seem more 'real' than anything a fantasy author can make up in a couple of months, the contradictions are something authors never get right. It goes back to 'truth is stranger than fiction.' You can't make up real world stuff, it's too weird for anyone/group to ever pull together in a believable fashion. Instead you get most of WoW, which is so bland and generic that it feels throw away, it would've been better for them to use an example human culture (or a blending of 2) for each, it would've given more diversity and interest, being far more memorable.<br /><br />The blood elves and to a lesser extent the Draenai, have the best architecture in the game, and its awesome its completely made up, but it's hard to pull that off well for all of the cultures. Icecrown and the titan stuff are also pretty good.<br /><br />Pandaria was awesome - architecture - awesome traditional oriental, the culture was honor, peace, respect, and drunkenness - pick a few traits of a culture and just caricature it, no need to model every aspect faithfully.Tiessahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03457953872797884709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-36090764569393192372014-05-08T15:59:59.504-04:002014-05-08T15:59:59.504-04:00That would be a nice change. I have tons of them ...That would be a nice change. I have tons of them on all characters too but at least they are only 1 bag slot for me. I had a bank bag full and a normal bag full when they changed lesser charms to currency. lolTheGrumpyElfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-16648897837759857242014-05-08T15:33:27.061-04:002014-05-08T15:33:27.061-04:00I'd like them to turn the Darkmoon Faire token...I'd like them to turn the Darkmoon Faire tokens into currency one of these patches. It'd save me a bag slot.K. Whitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15136299705887104734noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-80214706144302400162014-05-08T12:43:58.399-04:002014-05-08T12:43:58.399-04:00Yes, absolutely, I agree. You should have continu...Yes, absolutely, I agree. You should have continued to be able to do all lesser charm turn in quests. If you wanted to get elders, mogu and seals each week you should be able to get all three by spending 150. Agreed.<br /><br />I had forgot when we learned flight. Thought it was storm peaks so that I why I thought 78 but I swear, I originally typed 77 and went back and changed it thinking I was wrong. I loved when the pass me down book came out. I bought it for all my characters.<br /><br />I did not really have a like or dislike opinion on the pandas. I was worried they might go kiddie with it, but I was surprised at how well they were handled.TheGrumpyElfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-35163106918973688372014-05-08T11:55:36.533-04:002014-05-08T11:55:36.533-04:00I mostly agree with your observations. I think tha...I mostly agree with your observations. I think that the only thing that would have made lesser charms better would have been to allow you to purchase the older greater charms directly, instead of locking them to the latest token.<br /><br />As far as flying goes, I would have preferred the WotLK model over the current one. I would even be fine if you had to get to 90 once without flying (it was 77 in WotLK), but the older expansion allowed you to buy flight for your alts once you hit 80 in patch 3.2.<br /><br />That leads to quests, and I agree completely. My only gripe is that after the first half dozen or so alts get to 90 it all gets stale. I only go to Timeless to for the weekly bosses and my lesser charm farming. Meh.<br /><br />I may be biased on the last two points, but I was looking forward to the Pandaren and Blizz did not disappoint. It was a nice mix and tastefully done. Alan Smitheehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02474488134561764005noreply@blogger.com