tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90157372723438101052024-03-18T02:52:51.486-04:00The Grumpy ElfLet the freakshow begin.TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.comBlogger1508125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-50366537936137554362016-08-29T09:42:00.001-04:002016-08-29T09:42:50.724-04:00Monday Random Thoughts- I really missed posting here.<br />
<br />
- I think I enjoy the friends I have made on the blog as much as the friends I have made in my guild.<br />
<br />
- I don't think I will be posting as often as I used to, but I do intend to drop a small post here and there from now on.<br />
<br />
- "Small" being the swing word word here.<br />
<br />
- Small for me is not the same as small for someone else.<br />
<br />
- I plan to level my hunter first.<br />
<br />
- Marksman.<br />
<br />
- Not because MM will be OP at the start because we get our main artifact abilities first but because MM, to me at least, seems like the best leveling spec.<br />
<br />
- That used to go to BM.<br />
<br />
- But with limited pet survival as it is and the loss of the glyphs that helped with a pet ability to survive, added to the loss of the misdirection glyph, MM just seems better.<br />
<br />
- For those interested here is the MM hunters best choices for a leveling spec.<br />
<br />
- Again, my opinion only, feel free to disagree.<br />
<br />
- Level 15 Talent: Lone Wolf<br />
<br />
- The other two options, while they give you a pet, are not as good as they would be if the pet had any chance at surviving. So you are best off with lone wolf. You have the tools to survive without a pet. If you play correctly, and choose the right talent next.<br />
<br />
- Level 30 Talent: Black Arrow.<br />
<br />
- If you kill a mob fast enough the cooldown resets, even if you don't, you will only 4 seconds without a pet out. And the black arrow pet can survive WAY better than the actual pet. So this is a no brainer.<br />
<br />
- Level 45 Talent: Post Haste.<br />
<br />
- Speed boost. 'Nuff said.<br />
<br />
- Level 60 Talent: Patient Sniper.<br />
<br />
- You can go Explosive Shot if you want to AoE your way though quests and are good with the timing, but Patient Sniper is a set it and forget it ability that you do not have to worry about. I feel the added focus helps and reduced debuff time does not hurt, so it is good to go with.<br />
<br />
- Level 75 Talent: Binding Shot.<br />
<br />
- Since it was added I think Binding Shot was always the best in its row whatever it was against, nothing changes here.<br />
<br />
- Level 90 Talent: Barrage.<br />
<br />
- Even with the recent buff to crows and volley they do not seem worth it. However, for leveling both are viable options. Not kidding. If you want to test one, play with it a little. If not, barrage will do the job. <br />
<br />
- Level 100 Talent: Piecing Shot.<br />
<br />
- Actually I could say "anything not named Sidewinders". Sidewinders is dreadful for leveling as it leaves you with no on demand always there instants and possibly waiting on abilities. Not a good combo if you want to keep leveling at a nice pace. One thing that always made hunters the best leveling class in the game was instants. Without sidewinders you have both arcane and multi and as they generate focus and don't spend it you can fire forever without having to worry about resources. With shared tags now, you want to hit the world, even if someone else is fighting it. And to do so you absolutely NEED arcane and multi.<br />
<br />
- Just a reminder. This setup is not very good for DPS and should not be what you use while in dungeons if you want to contribute your fair share.<br />
<br />
- But for leveling, I think this is the way to go.<br />
<br />
- After I level my hunter I am going to level my druid, a lot sooner than I normally would an alt.<br />
<br />
- I want to get a leg up on it because I know I will not be raiding as a hunter unless something changes in the next 24 hours, or shortly after, balance wise.<br />
<br />
- And I do like druid tanking and druid healing.<br />
<br />
- Not exactly fond of feral, I hate that wait for energy design, it is slow and boring.<br />
<br />
- Partly why I hate the sidewinders MM design too, the wait on proc design is boring and adds nothing to the game, fun wise.<br />
<br />
- Balance is give or take. It is leaps and bounds better and more enjoyable now with that stupid cycle crap, but I am still not really big on playing balance.<br />
<br />
- I've cleared out any left over quests not done from my quest log.<br />
<br />
- I've cleared out all the old mats and things I will not need from my bags.<br />
<br />
- I have a couple of stacks of food and potions and a stack of flasks, which I am 100% sure I will not even use half of.<br />
<br />
- I am guessing the total leveling experience should take no more than 5 flasks at most, maybe 4.<br />
<br />
- BTW, alchemy, mine are 2 hours, so that means 8-10 hours to level.<br />
<br />
- Yes, I plan to level in one sitting.<br />
<br />
- I always do.<br />
<br />
- Well, except for cataclysm where I made the mistake of going to the underwater zone first.<br />
<br />
- By the time I was done I was so dizzy and sick and had to lay down and ending up sleeping for hours.<br />
<br />
- Funny part is, I still came within 5 hours of realm first.<br />
<br />
- Someone dinged realm first and 4 hours and 40 minutes later I dinged max level.<br />
<br />
- That basically means if I had not spelt for 17 hours I would have been realm first by a full 12 hours before anyone else.<br />
<br />
- Wow, my main server has some slow levelers. lol<br />
<br />
- Or at least did for cataclysm. <br />
<br />
- I would not be surprised if they, like myself, did the first zone and needed to take a break.<br />
<br />
- I hope blizzard never does an underwater zone again.<br />
<br />
- Some people love it but I hated it with a passion.<br />
<br />
- Oddly enough, I liked it on my druid.<br />
<br />
- Seal form maybe?<br />
<br />
- Not sure, but it was the only character I did not feel ill on when I went there.<br />
<br />
- What "seems" to be my final count on max levels is as follows.<br />
<br />
- I still have many 90s left behind but I got a fair amount to 100 thanks to invasions.<br />
<br />
- 6 Hunters.<br />
<br />
- 4 Druids.<br />
<br />
- 2 DKs.<br />
<br />
- 2 Priests<br />
<br />
- 2 DHs.<br />
<br />
- 2 Mages. <br />
<br />
- 1 of every other class.<br />
<br />
- I still have a few others are 90 that I did not get around to.<br />
<br />
- Not like it is really a big deal.<br />
<br />
- I do not see me playing many alts with how restrictive being behind on an artifact weapon will be.<br />
<br />
- This will be the most alt unfriendly expansion ever.<br />
<br />
- Unless they do something to massively increase alts leveling of artifacts.<br />
<br />
- Which I believe they will do.<br />
<br />
- Not massively, but some.<br />
<br />
- Hopefully it will be enough to be worst leveling alts.<br />
<br />
- But knowing blizzard, they are always a day late and a dollar short.<br />
<br />
- The will probably give us some awesome alt catch up mechanic 2 months before the next expansion comes out.<br />
<br />
- Gee, thanks for nothing blizzard.<br />
<br />
- Here is to hoping to do something 2 months in and not 2 months before it is over.<br />
<br />
- Cheers.<br />
<br />
- You can do it blizzard. I know you can.<br />
<br />
- Don't let the grumpy one down.<br />
<br />
- Again.<br />
<br />
- So what did you like about warlords?<br />
<br />
- I loved the leveling.<br />
<br />
-Think it was the best it had ever been.<br />
<br />
- So why did I have so few alts before this invasion let me level a ton easy?<br />
<br />
- Because I dreaded what was at 100 for us.<br />
<br />
- So I never even bothered leveling them.<br />
<br />
- These invasions have been fun for alts on servers I did not have much on to begin with.<br />
<br />
- Selling the gear was a great way to make a few bits of coin.<br />
<br />
- On a few low levels I just popped into one or two invasions.<br />
<br />
- Not really for the levels, for the gear to sell for gold.<br />
<br />
- Got enough on those lowbies to get them bags.<br />
<br />
-Which is all I ever really wanted.<br />
<br />
- I like to actually level them, and will some day when I am bored, but at least now I will have some bag space.<br />
<br />
- That is the single most important thing to me in the game.<br />
<br />
- I still say if blizzard really wanted to make money from me, offer more bag slots in the blizzard store.<br />
<br />
- I would buy it for every active player I use.<br />
<br />
- Add five more bag slots on my main?<br />
<br />
- Yes, thank you.<br />
<br />
- Add a second row of bag slots in my bank?<br />
<br />
- Sure thing, thank you.<br />
<br />
- Make my starting bag twice the size?<br />
<br />
- Hell yes, take my money.<br />
<br />
- I am the worlds biggest sucker for bag space.<br />
<br />
- I would gladly spend real money to get more.<br />
<br />
- Back to leveling in Legion.<br />
<br />
- What zone will you do first?<br />
<br />
- Honestly I really do not care for me.<br />
<br />
- Being things scale now all zones are the same in terms of which you "should" do first.<br />
<br />
- And as I always get loremaster on day one doing all the quests I will do so again and do them all.<br />
<br />
- So for me the order really does not matter much.<br />
<br />
- HOWEVER!<br />
<br />
- I will not finish any single zone until I am max level.<br />
<br />
- Why you ask?<br />
<br />
- The end of zone rewards are the best of the bunch, gear wise.<br />
<br />
- The zones, quests and yes rewards from doing said quests scale based on your level.<br />
<br />
- So I am going to save completing the best quests until I am max level.<br />
<br />
- Won't really be a huge boost to power and anything I get will be replaced in a dungeon but it will be something to start off with.<br />
<br />
- And anything to start off with will be good.<br />
<br />
- You know those first day, heck, first week dungeons will be a nightmare to do.<br />
<br />
- New bosses for everyone, new mechanics for them to learn, I see a wipe fest coming on.<br />
<br />
- And god forbid we get a disc priest as our healer.<br />
<br />
- I have never ever even considered kicking someone based on the spec they play, and I would not start a kick, but if one popped up, I would hit yet without even a seconds thought.<br />
<br />
- Disc priests are not healers, they are a support class.<br />
<br />
- Fantastic for raids, actually beyond fantastic for raids.<br />
<br />
- If you have someone that knows what they are doing a disc priest in raids are amazing beyond the meaning of the word amazing.<br />
<br />
- But in a five man, when everything is on their shoulders?<br />
<br />
- Expect a lot of deaths.<br />
<br />
- I have run with some mythic skilled players and they could not hack it.<br />
<br />
- When we over geared them.<br />
<br />
- How do you think most will do at a minimum gear level?<br />
<br />
- Very poorly, to say the least.<br />
<br />
- Word to the wise on how to run with a disc priest on day one.<br />
<br />
- Have them blanket the entire group before the pulls.<br />
<br />
- Let them drink after every pull.<br />
<br />
- Do that and you will be fine.<br />
<br />
- Get one raging chain pulling tank with a disc priest and expect to wipe a lot.<br />
<br />
- Get one go go go damage dealer that pulls for the tank and expect to wipe a lot.<br />
<br />
- Respect the design that disc "can" be awesome if given the time to do so and play it slow and steady, and you will have a smooth run.<br />
<br />
- But you know as well as I do no pug is going to do that.<br />
<br />
- So I expect a lot of disc priests to get kicked.<br />
<br />
- The reason they will give is "bad healer".<br />
<br />
- But the real reason should be "I don't understand how the class works so I would rather kick them than let them drink and get attonement on everyone first."<br />
<br />
- Poor disc has been destroyed, just like so many other classes.<br />
<br />
- I want to give fire mage a shot.<br />
<br />
- I know they fixed a lot.<br />
<br />
- I know if felt smoother.<br />
<br />
- But I am just stuck in the past and remembering the nightmare it was with the luck based proc system.<br />
<br />
- Even if it is not really like that any more.<br />
<br />
- Just the thought of it is a turn off to me.<br />
<br />
- I'll give it a real try this expansion.<br />
<br />
- I mean, if I ever want to play ranged again and do respectable DPS I'll have no choice but to be a fire mage.<br />
<br />
- And I see ranged will be a huge issue next expansion.<br />
<br />
- With so many ranged specs being bottom of the pack and the most played class in the game losing one of its ranged specs and being poor DPS in the other two, I think finding ranged for a raid to be hard.<br />
<br />
- Funny thing is, you know what held my raid team back this expansion mostly?<br />
<br />
- No melee.<br />
<br />
- Nope, not shitting.<br />
<br />
- I would see in trade all the time "looking for ranged, on xxx" but for my guild we would have 15 people, 2 tanks, 3 healers and 10 ranged.<br />
<br />
- Usually 1 lock, 2 mages, 1 boomkin, and 6 hunters.<br />
<br />
- Over all on most bosses it did not hurt at all, but there were a few we needed melee and we had none most of the time.<br />
<br />
- Admittedly we had, had being past tense here, some of the best melee in the world.<br />
<br />
- According to the log sites at least, DPS wise.<br />
<br />
- The #1 warrior, the #3 feral druid, and 4 other really competent players, even if they were not ranking.<br />
<br />
- Another feral, a monk, another warrior and a death knight.<br />
<br />
- But one feral went away to collage, the other had to go heals, the monk got a job that interfered with raid time as did one of the warriors, the other warrior just quit outright and the death knight became a tank because we could not find a replacement.<br />
<br />
- And there you go, one mythic team, dismantled by real life and all our melee gone in one sweep.<br />
<br />
- I am not kidding, we lost all the melee over the course of 1 month, and went from about to step into mythic (we were on heroic archie at the time) to stuck doing heroics for the rest of the expansion.<br />
<br />
-Only made it 4 deep mythic myself.<br />
<br />
- Because we lost our 20 and we could not recruit any more.<br />
<br />
- Oh, we tried, but thanks to flex anyone we recruited thought showing up was "optional".<br />
<br />
- Sorry, if you are a raider showing up is not "optional" even if it is flex.<br />
<br />
- And the ones that did show up were either one of two things, or both.<br />
<br />
- A) dreadful DPS, as in sub 30K over a 720 item level, or B) somehow managed to stand in everything, even things that we did not know where there.<br />
<br />
- I'll be the first to admit melee can be daunting, I hate it myself, but we could not find one single decent melee as a replacement to what we lost.<br />
<br />
- For months we tried and for months we never found one.<br />
<br />
- We never got back to 20 regulars.<br />
<br />
- I miss 10 man mythic.<br />
<br />
- "I used to be a mythic raider, until I took an arrow to the knee"<br />
<br />
- The arrow was 20 man mythic, in case you did not get the idea.<br />
<br />
- I really hope raiding will be better for us next expansion.<br />
<br />
- Either that or I have three options.<br />
<br />
- One being to accept the fact I no longer raid mythic.<br />
<br />
- Or two, change guilds to fill in where I am needed in an already running mythic guild.<br />
<br />
- Or three, recruit like crazy and hope for the best.<br />
<br />
- Option 3 is not really an option however.<br />
<br />
- I no longer have the time, nor the desire, to run multiple runs of the same thing each week to "test" people out.<br />
<br />
- I want to have my cake and eat it too, which probably will not happen.<br />
<br />
- I want to recruit people that are already good raiders to start with.<br />
<br />
- I do not want to teach during progression.<br />
<br />
- That is what the saturday night alt runs are for.<br />
<br />
- Am I wrong for not wanting to start all over again after so many years?<br />
<br />
- Eh, maybe I am just being selfish.<br />
<br />
- But so many years of training people to raid and experiencing some minor successes here and there, has worn me down.<br />
<br />
- I have reached selfish stage.<br />
<br />
- I just want to raid with people that know how to raid.<br />
<br />
- I don't want to teach any more.<br />
<br />
- But who am I kidding, I will end up doing it anyway.<br />
<br />
- As someone once told me, "you can't change who you are"<br />
<br />
- And I am always one that looks at a person and sees the potential of what they can be.<br />
<br />
- So I will go back to teaching them.<br />
<br />
- And I will be grumpy about doing it.<br />
<br />
- But in the end, I will smile when I see them do well.<br />
<br />
- Perhaps, for me, that is the bigger reward than the mythic kills.<br />
<br />
- We do play the game for fun after all.<br />
<br />
- And while kills are fun, helping someone get good enough to enjoy their first kills can be just as satisfying.<br />
<br />
- I have high hopes for Legion.<br />
<br />
- Even if I am worried about a lot of the little things.<br />
<br />
- Did I mention I am still extremely bitter about not getting a beta invite?<br />
<br />
- I wrote some good guides from being on the warlords beta.<br />
<br />
- Those guides were even picked up and used on ask Mr. Robot.<br />
<br />
- I supplied solid feedback, found and reported bugs, and over all did a solid job as both a tester and a reviewer along with my guides.<br />
<br />
- And I did not get a beta invite.<br />
<br />
- Yeah, I am very bitter about that.<br />
<br />
- Blizzard did me wrong.<br />
<br />
- I think on the strength of my guides alone I should have got and invite.<br />
<br />
-I think that was part of the reason I left.<br />
<br />
- I felt slighted.<br />
<br />
- Well, on a happier note, my next post will most like be titled Ding 110.<br />
<br />
- Have fun leveling people, and be sure to explore everywhere.<br />
<br />
- There are wonders to be found in the world of Azeroth.<br />
<br />
- And I expect to enjoy finding all of them. <br />
<br />
- See you on the broken shores.<br />
<br />
- Have an excellent day.TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com356tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-27264916885693881812016-08-28T11:56:00.002-04:002016-08-28T11:56:29.087-04:00The Legion is Coming and I am Ready, How About You?First off, long time no post. I hope everyone that reads here has been well. Sorry for my extended absence, as it was, but I had always said that if I ever really were to quit I would write an I quit post. It does not make sense to do so. I complained here on this blog because I loved the game. If I were truly going to leave that would mean I no longer loved the game, so, why post in a blog about it. <br />
<br />
Either way, I never really left the game. I was still playing, even if only on an extremely limited basis, but my love for the game was lost. Lost so much that while things still bothered me about the game I really did not care enough to take the time out of my day to post about it.<br />
<br />
Now with the "where the hell have you been" out of the way, I'll get right down to my grumpy thoughts on all the current topics I can think of, in as short a way as possible, if that is even possible for me.<br />
<br />
<b>Legion Outlook</b>:<br />
<br />
I won't say that there is not one factor about legion that does not scare the hell out of me in terms of game play, there are actually 3, but over all I am cautiously optimistic about it and believe it has the potential to be freaking fantastic.<br />
<br />
Blizzard has a track record of swinging the pendulum and this expansion will no doubt be one where it is swinging in the better direction, in my opinion at least. The game started out good with the original release and got better with the burning crusade and reached its peak in wrath, where it has been swinging the pendulum ever since.<br />
<br />
Wrath was great, cataclysm sucked so bad I still shiver at the mention of how it destroyed the old world and ripped a gigantic hole in the continuity of the game for absolutely no reason what so ever. Then we had mists which was fantastic from the get go with constant content releases and lots of stuff to do, and it was pretty alt friendly too. The end was a little blah because they left it alone to start working on, believe it or not, warlords, when the pendulum swung back it complete garbage. So much so it even got someone like me that loves to complain about thing to say, this is such garbage it is not even worth taking the time to complain about.<br />
<br />
So if all goes according to blizzards track record, Legion should be just this side of awesome, maybe even with a bit of fantastic on top. I have some high hopes rolling into this one.<br />
<br />
<b>The Three Things That Worry Me</b>:<br />
<br />
I go into this expansion with no class to play. I've been a hunter since I started and I love being a hunter so I will level my hunter first. I will max out my hunters artifact, I will get achievements on my hunter, I will get reputations on my hunter, but I will be doing it just so I do not need to go back later to do it, as I like to complete things, if they ever fix my hunter.<br />
<br />
As it is now the hunter is completely unplayable.<br />
<br />
Beast Mastery has issues with pets not being able to take a hit, and as you can not do any real damage yourself the fact that your pet constantly dies to almost everything in 2 hits means you are doing no damage at all. There doesn't feel like there is enough hunter part of a beast mastery hunter, it is all about the beast, the tissue paper thin dying all the time beast. No thank you. This is supposed to be the soloing spec, the spec here pets can take raid bosses, not die to elites in 2 hits. The spec is broken from a game play perspective until the fix pets at the very least. I, maybe, could live with there being very little "huntering" to do with this spec, if at least the beast mastery part was better.<br />
<br />
Marksman is just flat out unplayable. It is a sit and wait play style now for a class, and spec, that has always been about the rapid fire of abilities. I had to wait 45 seconds for a marking targets proc.... 45.... fucking.... seconds. And this happens all the time. And you know what there is to do between procs? Get up and go make a coffee. Add this annoying luck based proc system to the wait for things to line up system to the god awful 1.5 second global cooldown, and you just crated a borring spec. The sad part if that for leveling I think MM will be the best spec. Just don't take sidewinders, whatever do you. Sidewinders is the best DPS selection, but if you want to ever feel like a hunter should feel, you need that arcane and multi it replaces to allow you to go back to the rapid fire, or as close as you can get to raid fire with that snoozefest 1.5 second global cooldown, type of game play. Too bad not takeing sidewinders gimps your DPS so badly. It was would a good talent if it repleased either arcane or multi, but replacing both, it makes the spec unplayable. At least if you want to actually enjoy it anywhere outside of a raid that is.<br />
<br />
And survival, what needs to be said about this. Hunters only have 2 specs now. Survival is no longer a hunter spec. Hunters are a ranged class, even by blizzards definition, survival is melee, this not a hunter spec. In all seriousness, The game did not need an more melee classes before Legion and then they added an unneeded hero melee class, and they swing a perfectly fine ranged spec to melee to add to an over crowded area where no one wants to play to begin with. They should have added more ranged specs because people want ranged. If anything Outlaw Rogues should have been moved to ranged with their pistols, and maybe Arms Warriors should have been switched to range as weapon masters with throwing stuff. It made no sense to make survival melee. I will admit I played it and I really liked it, and it is pretty easy to max out DPS with it, but with all things considered, if I really wanted to play melee, I would have done so a long time ago. I hate melee, and making my class have a melee spec did nothing to change that. So this spec is not even an option to play. Unless it becomes top DPS spec and i am forced to do so. I really dread the idea of that happening.<br />
<br />
Add to all that, all 3 of the hunter DPS specs are near the bottom of the pack, 20% less than the top of the pack, which makes them a raid liability, to say the least. <br />
<br />
<u>What to play</u>:<br />
<br />
With all that said the first worry of mine is what to play.<br />
<br />
As stated, hunter is not an option. Outside of the fact that early on MM will be godly as it gets all its powerful abilities before the other classes, once everyone catches up, it too will be left in the dust, but those first few weeks should be fun.<br />
<br />
I have tried all specs, doing dungeons raids, invasions, you name it, for every class. I like demonology warlock and it is an option, I guess. I really like shaman healing and melee. Shaman melee was the only melee class I ever really got into, not sure why, but it felt nice playing it again. Rose tinted glasses a bit remembering how much I loved it maybe, but even after playing it I still liked it. It is fast paced, my preferred play style, and it doesn't have that huge gap it used it, but it is still melee, and in a very melee heavy expansion I can't see that really helping any group when they will be in desperate need for more ranged to begin with.<br />
<br />
Over all druid looks to be the way to go. Of all the classes they seem to have gotten beaten by the removal bat the least. Balance is better than it has been in ages. Feral is still wait and burst design which I am not fond of, but it does offer very good numbers which is a nice reward for all that waiting. Druid healers are once again kings of the mobile healing ranks and with the exception of shaman on many fights, will be the best healing option. And bears, my beloved bear the mana sponge. They seem to be in a nice place even if they do need a lot more healing than all the other tanks combined, and I love love love that I actually have more buttons for defense than I used to. Add to that I am now a bear that shoots laser beams. How awesome is that.<br />
<br />
Put it all together and think that I have been main tanking, on a druid, since BRF released. I tanked all our progression kills since then. I guess I am now a druid tank. Not sure I like it, I want to be a hunter, but blizzard does not want me too be one. So not it is not just the guilds need that will make me tank, but it is blizzard itself that will make me tank.<br />
<br />
On the bright side, druids have the BEST artifact weapons in the game. I mean have you seen those awesome bear forms. Yeah, I think I can live with being a bear main and only a bear main for one expansion hoping they fix hunters for the next one.<br />
<br />
<u><br /></u>
<u>Artifact Weapons</u>:<br />
<br />
This is worry #2 because once again blizzard has stopped taking their anti psychotics. They are downright delusional. They say that this will be the most alt friendly expansion ever.<br />
<br />
Lets go over the facts.<br />
<br />
Fact one: They said, paraphrasing of course, "This will be the most alt friendly expansion ever."<br />
<br />
Fact two: They said, their own words paraphrased, that "it should take 3 or 6 months for an active play to max out their artifact weapon."<br />
<br />
These two things mean two completely and different things. One says it will be alt friendly the other said it will make playing alts nearly impossible for most of the player base. Get back on your meds blizzard so you can stop taking out of both sides of your head and get things straight.<br />
<br />
It all depends on what you consider active. I consider active to be 20 hours a week. I consider myself an active player when I am enjoying the game and 20 hours a week seems about right, in my opinion at least.<br />
<br />
Now with that said I would say that puts me in the top 20% of the players in terms of time played each week. Maybe even top 10%, who really knows. If it is going to take me 3 to 6 months to make out one weapon, for one spec, how long do you think it will take the average player? Two years maybe?<br />
<br />
Now how exactly is that alt friendly. I'll tell you, it is not. I expect HUGE changes to artifact progression pretty early in legions cycle, because this is most definitely the least alt friendly addition to the game ever made. 100% no doubt.<br />
<br />
Yeap, the people at blizzard are off their meds if they think this will be the most alt friendly expansion ever. Not with artifact weapons at least. Not by a long shot.<br />
<br />
Now to issue two with the artifact weapons. They give us our weapon so not longer are we stuck behind RNG to choose whether or not we get one. And we power it up by actually playing the game. Oh my god how I love that idea so so so much. No RNG. Being rewarded with power for actually playing the game. Awesome idea blizzard, you had me at hello.<br />
<br />
Then as time went on we see three relic slots on our weapon. What are these for inquiring minds want to know. Real gems do not go in them, relics do. Where do we get these relics? As random drops.<br />
<br />
Mother F-ers. So you took my one RNG to get a good weapon and turned it into three RNG occurrences now. You dirt sucking bottom feeders you. Took an awesome idea that removed the horrible design of allowing "random" to dictate what gear we have out of the game and then added triple the RNG back into it by making us have to get drops to get out item level up. You people are indeed the scum of the earth. What a bait and switch.<br />
<br />
"We removed RNG to add more RNG."<br />
<br />
Screw your blizzard.<br />
<br />
But it does not end there, no, not at all. Those relics all have secondary abilities on them. So not only do you need to get three relics to level up your weapon through nothing but random luck, but now you need to get the right ones. Not just any +50 item level piece will do, you want the +50 that gives your a bonus to one of the abilities you use.<br />
<br />
So you added more RNG to the RNG that you said you were removing from weapons drops by adding artifact weapons.<br />
<br />
You know, I am really getting sick and tired of blizzards double talk. And from the looks of it, having lost close to 70% of its subs last expansion, it looks like many others have as well. No real wonders there.<br />
<br />
The artifact weapons worry me. We still need weapon drops, but now 3 per weapon instead of just one, and the right three to make it even harder, and not having a leveled weapon will make playing alts, or at least getting them into pugs damn near impossible.<br />
<br />
Great idea blizzard, poorly executed. Even before legion is released you can tell this will be the worse addition to the expansion. It will backfire just as garrisons did. People will love it at first and then hate it 6 months down the line when they worked their ass off to level up a weapon and then blizzard does some balancing and that top DPS weapon you worked your ass off for it now sitting on the bottom of the DPS charts and you need to do it all over again for another spec, or worse, another class.<br />
<br />
Artifact weapons are DOA as an idea. They failed before they even started. Adding more RNG than we ever had before and making alts unplayable unless you quit your job.<br />
<br />
<u>The Third Worry</u>:<br />
<br />
Seriously, when I started this post I had three worries in mind and I forgot what the last one was. Perhaps it was not all that important and I was just worried about it for nothing. Maybe when I addressed the pressing matters of classes and artifact weapons option three paled in comparison.<br />
<br />
But I guess I will leave some lesser gripes here.<br />
<br />
Legendary items. Hate them, they will feel mandatory for any player that wants to perform well. They will be luck based and extremely rare at that. Horrible game design blizzard, there is no other word for it.<br />
<br />
Flight. How can they make the same mistake twice in a row. You lost so many people last expansion from this stupidity, so why make the same mistake again. Flight should be included on launch. Sure, make us get an achievement for it, but it should be added on launch. I really hate you for doing this to us again blizzard. More and more I am getting sick and tired of this shit. Maybe next time I leave it will be for good.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Invasions</b>:<br />
<br />
Are you loving these or what?<br />
<br />
I did not level many alts this expansion despite the one really good thing about warlords was the fantastic leveling of it. I just did not want to put myself in the position of feeling I "had to" maximize my garrison on yet another character. It was my decision not to level most of my 90s, I get that, but it was the garrisons that made me not want to level them. So we can share the blame on this one.<br />
<br />
However, I have been leveling like a mad elf these last few weeks. Many of my characters that were sitting at 90 are now 100. A few that were lower are now 100, and of course one horde and one alliance demon hunter are now 100 as well.<br />
<br />
I did a refer a friend and he and I leveled from level 1 to 100 in 4 hours. No shitting. But even more important, I will be getting my emerald hippogryph once he pays for some time. I hope he pays for some time. If he doesn't I will give him the money to pay for some time. I love hippogryphs, can't you tell?<br />
<br />
As I am typing this I have some of my 100s, yes, I actually activated my extra account just for this and leveled all 5 characters I had on it from 85 where they left off to 100, just flying over invasion spots to get the baggie. No real reason to participate in it on a level 100 other than the gear. Invasions are for lowbies to level. There is nothing a 100 can get from them except gear. And you can not buy the gear with shards, so no reason to participate to get more shards.<br />
<br />
Hey, I know I am doing "bad" by just hanging out there, but blame blizzard for poor design. Do not blame me for taking advantage of it.<br />
<br />
Speaking of taking advantage of it, have to love how fast you level. Added a few more hunters to my 100 ranks, 2 more druids, another DK, and will surely have at least 3 more at 100 before it goes away, more if I stop writing this novel and get back to playing.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Shard Tech</b>:<br />
<br />
I am not quite sure how I like the new shard tech so far. It is a great idea to keep areas from getting crowded during rushes and to make lesser visited areas seem fuller, but there are still some bugs that need to be worked out.<br />
<br />
The other day myself and 2 fiends were in a group together, none of us could see the other. We were in a group, but all three of us were on different shards.<br />
<br />
If blizzard wants this to work, and I am sure they do, they need to give this a priority fix. If you are grouped with someone you should always be on the same shard as them. It really is that simple. Fix that and I think this new shard tech will be a winner.<br />
<br />
Still really disliking it for hunting rares and stuff, but blizzard screwed that over a long time ago with this CRZ garbage that really should have never been implemented to begin with.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Level Scaling</b>:<br />
<br />
From what I have seen so far it has been pretty damn awesome. Sure I have seen some abilities that did not scale correctly, but that is bound to happen, lets just hope they continue to adjust them, but over all it has been great.<br />
<br />
I did an invasion with 4 others and all 5 of us were completely different in level. No two even close, and we managed to go around together, fighting the same things, and all contributing our fair share. It was awesome.<br />
<br />
I always said that blizzard is great at taking ideas from other games and making it their own. I liked the scaling down in FF 14 the first time I saw it some time ago and said I would love to see this in warcraft. Well, we now see a better version. Instead of scaling the player down to the lower player, we both retain our own levels and our own skills and play together.<br />
<br />
Well done blizzard. I am really liking that we can play together, for this at least.<br />
<br />
Makes me wonder, will this ever come for the entire world?<br />
<br />
Maybe in WoW 2.0. Coming soon to a gaming console near you. I am sure of it. Why else gut all the specs like that have if they were not trying to port it to a console.<br />
<br />
But it does make me wonder. Why did my hunter lose two thirds of their abilities, but most of my other classes did not lose many, if any, and some even have more buttons than before.<br />
<br />
I think it is all one big conspiracy because hunters were so awesome. They just do not want anyone playing them any more. They were afraid if they did these class halls and left the hunters as awesome as they were they would have taken over all the other class halls and turned everyone into a hunter. The priest hunters, the druid hunters, the dk hunters, yeah yeah, that's the ticket.<br />
<br />
Enjoy release day. Get ready for a great expansion. I am sure it is going to be one, because it has to.TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-81031067841456258192016-03-03T12:56:00.001-05:002016-03-03T12:56:16.628-05:00Alpha News: Black Arrow Now Calls Forth a Skeletal MinionIn hunter news it seems marksman goes some skill changes but the one I found the most interesting, and actually made me smile, was the chance to black arrow. While still not what I personally would have wanted I do see it as a step in the right direction.<br />
<br />
For marksman black arrow is currently a level 15 talent choice and the way it works now is as follows.<br />
<br />
<b>Black Arrow:</b><br />
<i>Fires a Black Arrow at the target, dealing [ 4 + 40% of AP ] Shadow damage over 8 sec and summoning a skeletal minion to taunt it for the duration. Black Arrow's cooldown is reset when you kill an enemy. </i><br />
Marksmanship Hunter - Level 15 Talent. 40 Focus. 40 yd range. Instant.15 sec cooldown.<br />
<br />
What made me smile was the recognition, even if they did not come right now and say as much, that hunters "need" pets, it is part of their Warcraft mythos. So they should at least have the option of having one even if it ends not not being the optimal game play. This shows they might, and I stress the <i>might </i>part of this, have noticed that marksman want pets too.<br />
<br />
With the pet lasting for the duration of black arrow and the cooldown of black arrow resetting on the death of an enemy that means it is quite possible to have your minion up near 100% of the time in a questing environment, depending on the situation.<br />
<br />
While I do want my real pet back, and my stable back, and the pet related abilities like masters call back I do see this as a step in the right direction for marksman that would like to have some sort of pet at their side, even if not all the time.<br />
<br />
There are some suggestions I have with this however, if blizzard ever sees this, which I doubt they will. But maybe someone that has the ear of blizzard could whisper a few sweet nothings into it for me.<br />
<br />
Note: These suggestions might already be the way it is on the alpha, as I am not on the alpha because blizzard does not love me I do not know. But I hope these things are already how it is. <br />
<br />
<b>The skeletal minion must be a beast skeletal.</b><br />
<br />
This is nonnegotiable. This needs to be done if blizzard wants to play the MM spec out this way. I am willing to accept they want to change the entire lore behind the class and take pets away from one spec and move another spec into melee, neither of which make any sense, but if they are going to MM some sort of minion it should at least be a beast.<br />
<br />
Make it like dire beast where it is a beast fit to the zone, or make some glyphs to choose which beast is summoned, be it a skeletal nightsaber, a skeletal worg, a skeletal bear, or what have you. Hunters and beasts have a connection, it is why I say MM should not lose their pet, but if they are going to force our hands the least they can do is let that connection exist past the barrier of death. Let the minion that assists us with black arrow be a beast. Let us have some sort of chance to have a real pet again. A hunter calling some random minion or some nondescript minion would make no sense, but calling upon the spirit of the pet you once roamed the world with makes sense. And is pretty damn sad in a way too. (I still just want my pet back thank you)<br />
<br />
<b>Back it up with other abilities.</b><br />
<br />
There are already a few skill selections that are designed to work better when you have another talent chosen from a previous row. I'd like to see some black arrow action added to some of the other talents. Increasing the time of the DoT, decreasing the cooldown of the ability, making the pet permanent and only resummoned when it dies.<br />
<br />
It would most likely not be optimal, as I mentioned before, but it could be made at least a decent option for those that wish to play with a pet but want to use the MM style of a sharp shooter. We are talking options here. It doesn't need to be the top option, but it sure should be an option nonetheless.<br />
<br />
Bottom line is, it seems nice for blizzard to take notice of myself and many other hunters that are greatly upset with the loss of mans best friend and the destruction of the Warcraft hunter mythos in the name of developing classes. Still not exactly sure how you develop a class by removing a key piece of what makes that class the class it is, namely pets, but I will save that for another post. Lets just be happy MM is getting a pet... of some sort. Here is to hoping it is a skeletal beast. Cheers.TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-73938459371735548872016-03-01T12:24:00.000-05:002016-03-01T12:24:21.216-05:00Random Thoughts - Blade and Soul Edition- Figured I would do my thoughts on Blade and Soul in a random thoughts format.<br />
<br />
- Because only having played it a few hours I do not have enough information to write about.<br />
<br />
- But I do have some thoughts about it thus far.<br />
<br />
- And I am enjoying it enough to write about it.<br />
<br />
- I play a lot of games, or test them for a bit here and there at least to see what I like.<br />
<br />
- I only write about the ones I can see me wanting to play again, and this one I do.<br />
<br />
- I might even play tonight instead of just my normal weekend warrior thing which is how I usually play other games.<br />
<br />
- First lets get the "bad" stuff out of the way.<br />
<br />
- Being I wanted to be a summoner and the only race that can be a summoner is the cutesy race I decided to make mine a female.<br />
<br />
- When creating the character I kept clicking on the "male" option and it would not change.<br />
<br />
- It was after 5 or 6 attempts that I slapped myself upside the head and say "Grumpy, that is the male version".<br />
<br />
- So in terms of choice, a female or a male that looks female, I decided on a female.<br />
<br />
- Hey, if I am going to look female might as well be female right? <br />
<br />
- One problem, I only have a few female names I like to use.<br />
<br />
- I tried one server for new players, taken.<br />
<br />
- Tried the other server for new players, taken.<br />
<br />
- Tried a few other servers, taken, taken, taken.<br />
<br />
- Blah, switch names and tried again on the new servers than some others, all taken.<br />
<br />
- Tired a different spelling, slightly, all taken.<br />
<br />
- Come on now, give me a freaking break.<br />
<br />
- I was at the point I was almost going to say forget it and not even create a character.<br />
<br />
- Seriously, if I can not even get a name I want on any server, why play?<br />
<br />
- Sure a name is not that important over all, but it sure is frustrating when you waste 30 minutes trying to find a freaking name even.<br />
<br />
- Even more so when you are not being picky and you will go on any server with that name and none of the names you want can be used on any server. <br />
<br />
- Still do not understand why no MMO has used my idea yet of last names.<br />
<br />
- So if a dozen people want to be John, they all can.<br />
<br />
- One would be John Smith, another John Jones, and so forth.<br />
<br />
- But names are something silly to complain about in the long run, however if it almost made me say screw it and I really do not care I am sure the people that are really attached to their names would never even sign up for a free game.<br />
<br />
- Being there is no "cash" invested in a free game, they might not make it past character creation if they try a dozen servers and their name is unavailable on all of them.<br />
<br />
- They would have nothing invested in the game, so why even sign up? <br />
<br />
- So the name issue can hurt a free game, but I got around it.<br />
<br />
- I added the word "Lady" to the front of the name and got in no problem.<br />
<br />
- So now I am royalty.<br />
<br />
- Complaint number two is the same complaint I have about every other MMO I think I have ever played, gold sellers.<br />
<br />
- In the grand scheme of things, at least on my server, this is one of the things WoW is so much better than any other game at.<br />
<br />
- And I am talking leaps and bounds better, entire different universe better, amazingly advanced better. <br />
<br />
- I rarely see seller spam.<br />
<br />
- But in this game, being it is both new and free, the pace of gold selling posts is break neck fast.<br />
<br />
- If anyone posts anything in chat your chances of seeing it are slim to none.<br />
<br />
- The screen never stopped moving, it was post after post after post.<br />
<br />
- It is both annoying and very distracting, even more so when trying to learn the game.<br />
<br />
- After I played a little I tuned it out, but starting out when I was trying to see messages from the system as I did things and it was impossible.<br />
<br />
- That really ends the complaints, so to speak.<br />
<br />
- Now to the game so far.<br />
<br />
- It is visually very nice in a slightly cartoonish way.<br />
<br />
- And if you know me you know I actually prefer the cartoonish visuals over the "real life" ones.<br />
<br />
- They lend them selves to standing the test of time a hell of a lot better in my opinion and you can just look at warcraft for an example.<br />
<br />
- I still love their visuals and they are miles away from trying to be realistic.<br />
<br />
- So that bodes well for the game in my opinion.<br />
<br />
- Games that try to hard to look "real" tend to look dated within a couple of years of release whereas the art here is something I can see lasting for a long time.<br />
<br />
- And as the game has been out in other areas for 4 years and still looks good on first impression here, to me, that shows the art stands the test of time.<br />
<br />
- Look at any other "realistic" game from 4 years ago and see how dated their art looks now. <br />
<br />
- I was not a fan of the race that I ended up with, as it was the only race that could be a summoner, because it was the cutesy race.<br />
<br />
- I am not a big fan of that, but after playing it a while I didn't even notice I was playing the "silly" race any more.<br />
<br />
- I forgot I was playing the cutesy race for two reasons really. <br />
<br />
- The game play was so new and interesting to me that I forgot I was playing the "silly" race.<br />
<br />
- The character creator was so great I forgot I was playing the "small" race.<br />
<br />
- While I could not make her as tall as I wanted to it did allow me to make her rather tall for a small race, enough so that the size of the race, at least to me, was no longer an issue.<br />
<br />
- Now the character just seems like the standard humanoid shape and size, maybe of a teenager, but still normal.<br />
<br />
- Or as normal as you can get with cat ears and a big bushy tail.<br />
<br />
- I took the smallest ears I could find, it just so happened the smallest ears came with one of the largest tails.<br />
<br />
- Oddly enough, I've grown quite fond of the tail.<br />
<br />
- The character creation options completely and totally blew me out of the water.<br />
<br />
- I thought I would be stuck playing a small race I did not want to play and not only was I allowed to change it, I was allowed to change it enough that I am happy with it and do not feel "stuck" with something I did not like.<br />
<br />
- In truth the character I am playing does not even look like the race it is intended to be and if it were not for the ears and the tail you would never even notice and I really liked that. <br />
<br />
- Your opinion could surely vary.<br />
<br />
- You might still hate the tail but I say, love the tail, it will grow on you.<br />
<br />
- No pun intended.<br />
<br />
- The main quest line quests are all, so far it seems, voice acted.<br />
<br />
- And while the voice acting is not great, it is fair. <br />
<br />
- You can skip them but I have been listening to them all.<br />
<br />
- The voice actors really can not be the ones to blame for me calling it only a fair performance, that probably is more because of the writing.<br />
<br />
- The story moves along nicely enough but they seemed to have over used the "I'm to scared, you handle this" vehicle to send you on missions.<br />
<br />
- Because of that all the voice acting feels the same, as they are all playing the same character, just with a different skin.<br />
<br />
- I am sure the voice actors could have done better had they had something better to work with than playing the same old song and dance each quest.<br />
<br />
- The other quests are not voice acted, but I am reading them all, as I do my first time playing through a game.<br />
<br />
- It is all standard fare for a game like this really, nothing earth shattering and more importantly nothing different from anything you might have already done hundreds if not thousands of times.<br />
<br />
- Kill four of these, collected six of those, talk to this person at that place.<br />
<br />
- If you played one MMO you have played this one, in terms of the questing it seems.<br />
<br />
- The pace seems fast enough and I've learned from games before to pick up all the quests before you head out somewhere, this game is no different.<br />
<br />
- Collect all the quests before you go into any cave or what not.<br />
<br />
- Speaking of going into caves, there are these swirls between zoning (I am guessing) and they are near seamless.<br />
<br />
- The most it takes is one second, for me, to move from one zone to the next.<br />
<br />
- I jump every time I zone through so my character is stuck in a mid air jump for a second each time I zone.<br />
<br />
- Call it silly, but I bet there are still people that jump going into the raids in WoW, I know I still do.<br />
<br />
- Like there is going to be some guy on the other side to trip you or something.<br />
<br />
- Who the hell knows why I, and many others, still do that.<br />
<br />
- I can tell from watching other players a hell of a lot of people do exactly that, so it is not just me. <br />
<br />
- The weapon (and gear) leveling system is different from anything I have seen before and I really like it thus far.<br />
<br />
- However as an experienced gamer I figured out how to use it before I got the quest to teach me how to use it.<br />
<br />
- This means I have a quest stuck in my quest book that tells me to upgrade a piece of gear.<br />
<br />
- I wish the quest would realize I did it already and let me complete it, I will put in a bug report on this because I believe if you already figured it out you really do not need the tutorial quest on how to do it.<br />
<br />
- You feed special items you get and/or other weapons into your weapon to level it.<br />
<br />
- Every few levels you have to get a specific piece to upgrade it more, but up until that point you can feed anything to it really.<br />
<br />
- It is kind of interesting.<br />
<br />
- Different at least. <br />
<br />
- What I believe, do not quote me on this yet as I just started, is that you will be able to transmog your weapon into the appearance of any weapon you fed to it to upgrade it.<br />
<br />
- If it does indeed work that way I say that is pretty darn cool.<br />
<br />
- The characters you run across are sometimes comical, as it seems they were intended to be, and you can see their thought bubbles, many of which make for a humorous side story all it own.<br />
<br />
- Some give you a little back ground on the character or situation as well, sort of things you might know if you were reading a book, but would never know if you only had the information from the conversation to work with.<br />
<br />
- This adds a little more depth to the characters as I see it. <br />
<br />
- It seems like the game is trying for the "fun" approach to it and even if it does seem a tad bit childish and created for a younger crowd from time to time, I have been liking it.<br />
<br />
- You do not seem to spend too long in any one place, which makes for a nice pace.<br />
<br />
- I did happen to get lucky with the wheel spins in the first major town I went to.<br />
<br />
- Some quest rewards gave me spins at a wheel and the second one I did gave me a full 8 piece set of soul shards (at least I think that is what they were called).<br />
<br />
- It allowed me to equip all 8 giving me the stat boost from those 8 and the 3, 5 and 8 set bonus, right off the bat.<br />
<br />
- So I feel a little on the OP side right now starting out that strong.<br />
<br />
- But as it seems, I don't think I really am.<br />
<br />
- Further spins got me two five piece collections and five three piece collections, meaning even if I was not lucky getting all 8 at once I think they want us to get our first 8 piece here as they gave me so many pieces.<br />
<br />
- I got weapons from spinning for 4 different classes, but not the one I need to feed weapons so I can upgrade her weapons, sadly.<br />
<br />
- Word to the wise however, do not those those other weapons away however, you can still feed them to your own weapon to upgrade it later and you do not even need to unlock them first. <br />
<br />
- At this point I do not know if I will get more spins at the wheel ever again or if I will have to try to get my weapon upgrade piece from somewhere else.<br />
<br />
- (Note, before I posted this I did some research and found that killing that one elite mob over near said wheel drops 5 of those rolls each time and you can kill it as often as you like, so I will get my upgrade that way it seems.)<br />
<br />
- (Will leave the rest of the comments as they were because they were my first impression before I did research and this is about those impressions.)<br />
<br />
- As it seems, I do not think they will make it so I can not upgrade my weapon so I will run across it sooner or later.<br />
<br />
- Basically because you will use that weapon forever really as you upgrade it as you go so I doubt they will leave me with a starting level weapon.<br />
<br />
- I looked all over the " cash shop" and I really could not see anything that I would call pay to win.<br />
<br />
- Pay to boost, maybe.<br />
<br />
- There are experience boosts which last a short time, buff foods which last a short time and are not huge buffs, this 5%, and other stuff of the ilk.<br />
<br />
- There is nothing really powerful that I saw yet.<br />
<br />
- And for experience boosts, it seems like they might be something you could consider if you are leveling a second character but surely not a first.<br />
<br />
- I am already out leveling the quests I am doing and I am not grinding mobs or doing anything to level faster.<br />
<br />
- Not sure if I am happy doing gray quests this soon as I out paced it, but it is what it is, and I will keep doing what I am as I want to see the whole story my first time through. <br />
<br />
- I am just going from quest to quest and only killing the quest mobs or things that attack me otherwise.<br />
<br />
- So leveling will not be a problem and there is absolutely no reason to speed it along, at least as I see it, on your first time through.<br />
<br />
- I say enjoy the leveling, read the quests, get into the story and don't worry about rushing to max level.<br />
<br />
- Speed leveling is for alts.<br />
<br />
- Now to combat and how it feels.<br />
<br />
- Pretty darn awesome thus far in my opinion.<br />
<br />
- As someone that was a key binder to begin with it did not take much getting used to but I think that playing this, at least the entry parts, could really help many wow players that do not bind learn to bind.<br />
<br />
- So I would suggest anyone that wants to learn to key bind, give it a try, it is free and it adds a little at a time to let you get used to it. <br />
<br />
- I love that the left and right mouse do abilities.<br />
<br />
- You have your standard builder and spender there for a summoner and the rest are cooldown based.<br />
<br />
- Not sure if other classes are like this but so far I really like it.<br />
<br />
- It reminds me of a cross between diablo and standard MMOs.<br />
<br />
- I am level 10 and have about a dozen abilities so far.<br />
<br />
- My builder and spender, some damage abilities, some defensive abilities, and some pet abilities.<br />
<br />
- It uses a wide range of default key binds that should actually be very comfortable for many players.<br />
<br />
- I know it was for me but some people will surely need to adjust to using things like Z, X, C and V more often. <br />
<br />
- I greatly dislike the fixed camera angle but being I use a trackball mouse it does make moving a pleasure for me and I quickly realized I did not dislike it at much as I thought I would.<br />
<br />
- You can hit Alt to free move your mouse, which I do often, but sometimes find myself forgetting and go to move my mouse to click on something lit up on my screen and it does not work quite as I intended.<br />
<br />
- It is something you will need to get used to but only a minor annoyance right now for me after playing so many games that have free mouse movement.<br />
<br />
- Looking at the future I do not see rotations in game as being overly complex.<br />
<br />
- With builders and spenders and everything else on a cooldown it seems like your started rotation would be something like 1, build, spend, repeat 3 times, 2, build, spend, repeat 3 times, 1, and so on.<br />
<br />
- Maybe I will be wrong but I am a long way from getting to the point of figuring out how to do max DPS, that is just the initial impression I get.<br />
<br />
- If that is the case, I would be pleasantly surprised and this game would immediately jump up a few spots in my mind as an alternate game to play.<br />
<br />
- I don't want any complexity, or at least not a great deal of it, for a game I might play once in a while.<br />
<br />
- I want mindless fun, and at the moment, that is exactly what the game feels like.<br />
<br />
- Now to my pet.<br />
<br />
- When I first got my pet and they show the cut scene with it looking all sweet and cutesy I momentarily regretted my choice in classes.<br />
<br />
- It seemed, at first, like this was aimed at the 10 year old female gamer.<br />
<br />
- I am a hunter, I just wanted a class with a pet and I get <i>this</i>.<br />
<br />
- But once that passed and I got out in the world and learned to use my cat I can say one thing, she is one hell of a bad ass.<br />
<br />
- She looks all cute and sweet and innocent, but she will claw your eyes out in a second if you mess with her.<br />
<br />
- For a game designed without the holy trinity, meaning no tanks and no healers, fluffy sure as hell can tank with the best of them.<br />
<br />
- I think I've been hit a total of two times since I started playing and one of them was me walking into a mob.<br />
<br />
- Fluffy is not as innocent as she looks, not even close.<br />
<br />
- And you know why she is licking her paws all the time?<br />
<br />
- It is not to clean herself, it is to lick all the blood off them.<br />
<br />
- She has a thirst for blood.<br />
<br />
- I am really liking my summoner, or as I call it, my caster hunter.<br />
<br />
- The game has a lot of the overly sexualized stuff you expect to find in any asian import but not nearly as much as I have seen in others of the same ilk and not so much it was a turn off to playing it, they keep it pretty mild.<br />
<br />
- I get some people like that style, I don't personally, I just want to play a game and kill stuff with my trusty side kick, and this game is giving me that so I am happy with it.<br />
<br />
- So after initial impressions I can say with absolute 100% certainty that will be buying the membership, not sure for how long, but it seems with it from what I have seen thus far.<br />
<br />
- Remember, I am only level 10, so my opinions can surely change as I experience more of the game like dungeons, PvP, grinding, and max level, but for now, it is fun to play and I will play again, for sure.<br />
<br />
- Have a great day. TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com55tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-30348342481552226432016-02-29T09:29:00.001-05:002016-03-01T12:25:20.829-05:00Monday Random Thoughts- Not much of a WoW week even if I did do a fair deal of things.<br />
<br />
- Another year has passed and once more I am left unloved.<br />
<br />
- The love rocket has not found itself added to my collection of mounts I will probably never use but for some reason still compulsively try to attain.<br />
<br />
- I would say I put in a solid 200 attempts this year.<br />
<br />
- More than some years past but much less than others.<br />
<br />
- Mostly because I have the fewest max level characters I've had since wrath.<br />
<br />
- Each expansion I always got more to max, this expansion I got fewer.<br />
<br />
- All because of garrisons.<br />
<br />
- I like them and all, but I hate that leveling means they are waiting for me to build them up.<br />
<br />
- So I just do not level characters any more.<br />
<br />
- Blizzard killed my favorite thing to do in my off time.<br />
<br />
- Leveling.<br />
<br />
- Leveling low levels feel blah now and leveling to max seems almost like a penalty now.<br />
<br />
- So I do not do either really any more.<br />
<br />
- Or I do them, just at a massively reduced rate.<br />
<br />
- But on to the things I still enjoy doing.<br />
<br />
- Like grinding, I like grinding.<br />
<br />
- There is one grind I was putting off until one day when I was bored.<br />
<br />
- This weekend I was really bored, so I figured I would get my saberon claws finally.<br />
<br />
- I was at 600 and needed to get to 5000 for the achievement.<br />
<br />
- Took roughly 3 hours, could have taken a lot less if I rushed it.<br />
<br />
- Quick and easy way to grind is tank pet, legendary ring, artillery strike.<br />
<br />
- Round up a huge pack of saberon, really huge, as many as you can get on you, dismount (must be on ground mount for this to work best), spin, misdirect and barrage them all to your pet.<br />
<br />
- Hit shell on your pet, because you are using a turtle right, they are awesome you know.<br />
<br />
- Hit ring, hit misdirect again, hit artillery strike.<br />
<br />
- If need be hit artillery strike a second time, but remember to misdirect first.<br />
<br />
- Ring will pop and everything will die except maybe 1 or 2 which are easily finished off.<br />
<br />
- I have looted over 200 claws in one pull a few times.<br />
<br />
- Sad part is pulls like this are hard to come by as there are not enough packed tightly together and the one center area I used for each big pull seemed to have the slowest respawn.<br />
<br />
- So I stuck to doing smaller packs of 7-10 most times.<br />
<br />
- Still went by quickly and I got my achievement, and enough claws to purchase both mounts in the process.<br />
<br />
- So now I have the title "of the jungle".<br />
<br />
- I now need to make a character named George so I can be George of the Jungle.<br />
<br />
- How could I resist.<br />
<br />
- Was thinking dwarf warrior.<br />
<br />
- Then considered human warrior as I can make a human look more george-ish.<br />
<br />
- Then I thought a worgen warrior, who I could make look george-ish while in human form but in battle he would get all animal like, fitting the jungle theme.<br />
<br />
- And of course he would have to be a fury warrior so I can be George of the Jungle the furry fury.<br />
<br />
- It is puntastic isn't it?<br />
<br />
- Was thinking maybe a druid too because a bear, which is what I would be, does kind of fit the "of the Jungle" title does it not?<br />
<br />
- Either way I have 50 character so until I decide which one to delete there will be no new geroge's entering this world, dwarf, human or worgen.<br />
<br />
- Raid night was a disaster this week.<br />
<br />
- No one showed.<br />
<br />
- And some of the few people that did show were, shall we say, not the top of the class.<br />
<br />
- So I decided to pug, something I damn near <i>never </i>do with a guild group.<br />
<br />
- Took over 45 minutes to fill, did one pull on Soc and we wiped at 50% and three people dropped.<br />
<br />
- Waited another 20 minutes to fill and we pulled again.<br />
<br />
- This time we had a hunter who had huntard in his name and lived up to it.<br />
<br />
- He had better gear than I, much better, and did half the numbers, but that was no big deal because even at half the numbers it was still more than enough for the fight.<br />
<br />
- His issue was he got targeted by everything and did not know how to move.<br />
<br />
- Let the fire go right through the group instead of going to the side, which we survived because the group as a whole was smart enough to move from him.<br />
<br />
- Then when trying to run from a ghost he put pack on and stunned the entire raid causing an eventual wipe.<br />
<br />
- But that was only second in terms to the warrior who "knew" exactly what went wrong and was glad to tell everyone.<br />
<br />
- Except he did not mention the mistakes by the self titled huntard dropping fire in the wrong place or the fact pack-ed the raid to death.<br />
<br />
- Nope, it was all the tanks fault.<br />
<br />
- Not exactly sure why that is, but the lowest DPS apparently was the "best" player in the raid and he has the fix, have the tanks switch jobs.<br />
<br />
- He ended up leaving the raid, as a couple others, as we waited to refill.<br />
<br />
- The other tank agreed it was a tank issue, in part, and they switched their roles.<br />
<br />
- Next attempt after 20 or so minutes more, we wiped, this time to the tank screwing things up.<br />
<br />
- Yes, it absolutely 100% was the tank and I am near sure he was trolling us because for someone in his gear, with the two healers he bought with him in their gear, there is no way he did not know that trapping the casters was a bad idea.<br />
<br />
- But he trapped all the casters and they went on to, in mere seconds, decimate the entire raid in a matter of seconds.<br />
<br />
- Well, you see something new every day, at least I do.<br />
<br />
- I can not say I have ever seen that happen before and I have probably wiped on that boss 100 times between the original progression on it months ago and all the pugs I was in for it.<br />
<br />
- It seems like it is always adds, sure, but not 12 casters all at once.<br />
<br />
- So then the tank rages that the tank sucks and we wiped because of him and rage quits and the two healers that came with him follow of course.<br />
<br />
- Ah, excuse me?<br />
<br />
- You were the tank in the construct, you wiped us, so you are raging because <i>you </i>suck?<br />
<br />
- Clearly you do see something new every day.<br />
<br />
- I have never seen someone rage quit because <i>they </i>sucked.<br />
<br />
- Either way, by that time we had some guild mates pop on, we bought in a guild tank, a guild healer, and being so many damage dealers left, we just went with a smaller group.<br />
<br />
- We ended up having only a few pugs now, instead of the larger group I was trying with.<br />
<br />
- This allowed me to pick and choose.<br />
<br />
- Had a mythic geared friend as melee who I knew I could trust with interrupts, pugged another mythic geared player 749, and filled it out with a pug tank that said he was on an alt but knew the fights even if he could not do construct.<br />
<br />
- I put my guild tank in construct and then 30 minutes after the last wipe we pulled for our 4th attempt.<br />
<br />
- It was a nice clean kill, as it should be.<br />
<br />
- With mostly all guild and two stellar damage dealing pugs and giving the pug tank the easy job it went down like nothing.<br />
<br />
- In the end, it was mostly guild.<br />
<br />
- In all honestly we would have never downed it without them as we had no melee at the time in guild, so they were absolutely required and I thank them for coming.<br />
<br />
- As much as I hate to say it, some fights as just so much easier with melee, that is one of them.<br />
<br />
- I think we are the only guild in the world that is not looking for ranged, we are dying for quality melee.<br />
<br />
- I see guilds spam in chat all wanting ranged.<br />
<br />
- I never see ranged as the problem, I always have tons of them around.<br />
<br />
- Then again, I seem to be a hunter magnet, they all come to me to ask questions and stay.<br />
<br />
- So we always end up with a lot of hunters or ranged in general as if they switch from a hunter they usually switch to another ranged class.<br />
<br />
- But the moral of this story, I hate pugs and that is why.<br />
<br />
- No, not the wipes, I can deal with the wipes.<br />
<br />
- It is waiting 45 minutes to start a group, it is losing people after each wipe and having to wait again to get more.<br />
<br />
- Despise it.<br />
<br />
- Even on the worst night we should have gotten two or three bosses down.<br />
<br />
- But we only got one and called it a night.<br />
<br />
- It felt like a complete waste of 2 hours of my life.<br />
<br />
- Pugging is just not for me.<br />
<br />
- Not unless the quality of people and players of the game greatly increases.<br />
<br />
- We need the people to not leave after every wipe.<br />
<br />
- And we need players who can play their class.<br />
<br />
- Not much to ask is it?<br />
<br />
- I guess it is a lot to ask, oh well, I will continue to shy away from pugs I guess.<br />
<br />
- But the silver lining, at least for me, was I got to be on my hunter.<br />
<br />
- Did not win anything, but I still would rather be on my hunter.<br />
<br />
- I think I bring more to the group on my hunter, game play wise.<br />
<br />
- I also think I bring more to the group as a raid leader being on my hunter.<br />
<br />
- I see more and can call for more from ranged than from tanking.<br />
<br />
- Some tanks are awesome at raid leading, I am not one of them.<br />
<br />
- Not that I am awesome from ranged either, but I am better than crap when at ranged.<br />
<br />
- After my grinding I decided I needed something new for a bit.<br />
<br />
- Downloaded blade and soul.<br />
<br />
- Was going to list a lot of stuff here about it but this is already getting kind of long so I will save it for a post of its own.<br />
<br />
- Bottom line is thus far I am not feeling as if blade and soul is pay to win, which is nice.<br />
<br />
- And I am enjoying the crap out of it.<br />
<br />
- In the end, isn't that the most important thing?<br />
<br />
- And as you could guess if you know anything about the game, I rolled a summoner.<br />
<br />
- Pet class all the way.<br />
<br />
- Tomorrow I will do a Blade and Soul random thoughts to give some of my opinions about my first few hours of game play.<br />
<br />
- Have a great day.TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-49913302524048706432016-02-23T10:34:00.000-05:002016-02-23T10:34:05.579-05:00Epic Pets? Thanks but No Thanks Blizzard.There was a recent announcement that they would, or could, be adding epic pets next expansion. Currently the highest we can make out pets is rare. There will be new epic pets in the world, presumably the new continent, and new stones you can buy that can make older pets epic.<br />
<br />
I will admit I have not been into pet battles like I used to be. At one point I was top 100 in the world in terms of pets, in terms of pets of quality, and in terms of pets leveled. I was also one of the first (to my knowledge following achievement sites) to get the 5000 pet battle achievements. <br />
<br />
But the sad part, and mostly why I stopped being into it so much, was when my computer died some time back and I lost everything which meant I also lost the data saved for my addons. This meant I lost all the teams I had made. And I had one made for each and every single battle to make going from tamer to tamer so much easier. <br />
<br />
So when I got my new computer I had no teams saved because blizzard in their infinite wisdom by default only allows for one team at a time. I honestly do not know how anyone lives without an addon to have as many teams as they want I understand even less why blizzard has not added that as a standard feature yet. I wish they would add an unlimited team options instead of epic pets, if you ask me at least.<br />
<br />
Because of that I have not been into pet battling that much this expansion. I do have all the new pets, I do have nearly all the pets I own not only rare but leveled, and while I have not taken advantage of getting tons of charms to sock up on stones I have managed to get a nice little pile of them and all the toys, of course. <br />
<br />
So I have earned my pet battle stripes, even if they are a little old and not really put to use much any more. So with that all said I believe that my opinion should hold some weight on the matter. It is not like I was never "into" pet battling. It is not like I have "so much" work to do to catch up as everything is already maxed. It is not like I have no intention to ever pet battle again, I do, and I believe some day I might get back into it as much as I was before.<br />
<br />
With all that said...<br />
<br />
I <u><b>DO NOT</b></u> want to see epic pets added to the game.<br />
<br />
It is only my personal opinion, but it is the opinion of someone that likes the mini game of pet battling. Who has hunted down rare pets. Who has leveled well over 1000 of them to 25 for myself and for friends.<br />
<br />
One of the reasons I like pet battling is because it has an end. I like knowing that I did everything I wanted to. I have everything there is to collect. I like that there is a set ending line. It makes for the perfect mini game. A mini game, as I consider pet battling, should not have "progression" like raiding does. It should not have us level up every expansion or increase gear with every patch. That is why I have liked it so much. Pet battling is what pet battling is. Nothing more.<br />
<br />
Having us have to boost our pets to get them to max once again, by adding an epic version, just makes more work for something I was done with. If my Lurky is rare and 25 than guess what, my Lurky is done and so are the other 999 pets he hangs out with on a daily basis in whatever mansion sized pet house they all exist in that I have never seen and am pretty damn happy I do not have to clean up with all those pets living there.<br />
<br />
I do not like having to level all my characters each expansion, but I do it. There are only so many of them. But there are hundreds, even a thousand (or more for some) pets out there. I do not want to have to gather enough stones to make 1000 pets I worked to make rare into epic now, basically doing the same work I already did a second time. Hell no blizzard, I did all that work already, I do not want to do it again. And if they lose levels when you increase their rarity when they are over a certain level, which they most likely will do, that means I need to also level those hundreds and possibly thousand pets again. Hell no blizzard. I was done, they were 25, leave it be. This is a mini game, this is not the next expansion for them. This is not a regearing up process for them. Pets are what they are, let them be.<br />
<br />
So I will repeat, I <u><b>DO NOT</b></u> want to see epic pets added to the game. Hell no.<br />
<br />
I know I am in the minority here, but I just do not want to have to level all my pets again and I do not want to have to increase the rarity of a thousand pets. It just seems like way to much work for a mini game. Thanks but not thanks blizzard. I'll pass.TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-60960627546159582632016-02-22T10:34:00.001-05:002016-02-23T09:34:37.139-05:00Monday Random Thoughts- Anyone have any love rocket love?<br />
<br />
- Not me.<br />
<br />
- I admit after the first few days of running all my characters through it I've been slacking.<br />
<br />
- Doing all my tanks and healers but rarely all my DPS characters.<br />
<br />
- So I would say I am averaging 7 a day.<br />
<br />
- I did get the heartbreaker toy finally yesterday.<br />
<br />
- So one more for the toy box but my mount collection is not feeling the love rocket love.<br />
<br />
- Joined a nice pug this weekend.<br />
<br />
- We wiped a few times here and there and I had to drop because I had a previous engagement before we downed a boss I really needed, which sucks, but I added the leader to my battle tag so maybe I will run with them again.<br />
<br />
- This is why I like "guild groups" in the group finder.<br />
<br />
- They usually need just a few people and wipes are not a killer.<br />
<br />
- Also it is a lot easier to fill the holes if you are only grabbing a few people than grabbing a full pug.<br />
<br />
- Never took long to replace the one or two that left after a wipe.<br />
<br />
- They were not more progressed than my guild, end heroic, but that works for me.<br />
<br />
- At least now when I am stuck tanking I can join them if they need a DPS, or skip it if they don't.<br />
<br />
- I think they liked me even if I did not get on their voice chat.<br />
<br />
- I would have to download a different voice chat client as I do not have the one they use.<br />
<br />
- I am however proud to announce I got my first weapon drop since the opening weeks of the expansion when I got the normal weapon off brackenspore the first week highmaul opened.<br />
<br />
- That was the last weapon I saw all expansion.<br />
<br />
- Thank god for crafted weapons or I would have surely quit.<br />
<br />
- Or been using a baleful one I guess.<br />
<br />
- They need to ditch RNG in loot.<br />
<br />
- I speak only for myself, but killing the same boss over and over hoping for loot is NOT fun.<br />
<br />
- Never has been, never will be.<br />
<br />
- But, for example, killing the boss to unlock the loot table and collecting a currency to buy what you unlocked would be freaking awesome.<br />
<br />
- Then you would earn your gear.<br />
<br />
- In two ways.<br />
<br />
- One by beating the boss, thus unlocking the ability to buy stuff that drops from it.<br />
<br />
- Two by earning enough currency, whatever that currency might be, to buy stuff you have unlocked.<br />
<br />
- Leaps and bounds better than the luck system.<br />
<br />
- Now mind you the weapon was not the one I wanted off manny, but it was the one of soc which was still an upgrade.<br />
<br />
- Got the chest piece off heroic manny this week, which was nice.<br />
<br />
- But needed to take off a 736 chest piece to put it on.<br />
<br />
- However, that allowed me to put on 725 shoulders instead of my 711 normal tier ones and enjoy the crit that those 725 shoulders had.<br />
<br />
- So going down from 736 to 720 and up from 711 to 725 might seem like a minor loss in stats.<br />
<br />
- But if I told you my critical strike, which is my best stat for me, went up over 4% would you now consider it worth it.<br />
<br />
- I really wanted the heroic archie gloves for my off spot as they have a ton of crit on them but alas no pugs that could kill him for me this week.<br />
<br />
- I have normal tier on those so the heroic archie ones would be a major upgrade in both agility and giving my my best stats at the same time.<br />
<br />
- The only heroic tier I have a chest, head and legs.<br />
<br />
- So I mix and match whatever works best most of the time.<br />
<br />
- I have a bag nearly filled with "off pieces" and possible upgrades.<br />
<br />
- And upgrades that are item level only, so I don't wear them.<br />
<br />
- And trinkets, I have so many trinkets I play around with on a fight to fight basis.<br />
<br />
- Outside of my heroic warfored blademaster I really do not have one perfect second trinket.<br />
<br />
- But in reality, I do not think there is one perfect one.<br />
<br />
- Some work better on some bosses, some work better when doing normal, some work better for dungeons, some work better on demons, you get the idea.<br />
<br />
- I switch my second trinket like I switch my talents, on a fight by fight basis it seems.<br />
<br />
- I wonder, is this good design or just a waste of 8 bag spaces carrying all these trinkets.<br />
<br />
- Or maybe it is just me because I have a horrible time making up my mind.<br />
<br />
- Went back for a fun run of some old content this week with guild.<br />
<br />
- We finally did the last three bosses we never got to on heroic (now mythic) in siege.<br />
<br />
- We brought a bunch of new people who had never done it.<br />
<br />
- Made it more fun.<br />
<br />
- One of the new people, even after being warned got smashed by garrosh in the transition phase.<br />
<br />
- Saw that coming a mile away.<br />
<br />
- He is one of those "horrible at mechanics" guys that signs up for every raid and I have to try to be gentle in declining him.<br />
<br />
- I don't not want to hurt his feelings, he signs up and he shows up.<br />
<br />
- Now we just need to get him to be better.<br />
<br />
- But I had it to about "here" with him.<br />
<br />
- No no, not for that, we did not need him to kill last expansion content.<br />
<br />
- But in the real raid I seem to keep having to call him out.<br />
<br />
- And I try not to do that.<br />
<br />
- I whisper, I make blanket statements explaining an ability to the whole raid so they can listen, and they still mess it up.<br />
<br />
- So I finally got to the point I just called him out "if you keep messing up these mechanics you are going to stop getting invites".<br />
<br />
- I don't think I was being mean.<br />
<br />
- I have whispered him a lot.<br />
<br />
- I have overly explained part of the fight I knew he had issues with before the pull, even if we have been killing these fights for months.<br />
<br />
- I have given him weeks worth of attempts to get better.<br />
<br />
- Doing normal and heroic with him each week.<br />
<br />
- And he still messes things up.<br />
<br />
- Flex or not, some people are just not mean to be raiders.<br />
<br />
- And sure we can carry him through all of normal and even most of heroic without it hurting us but that is not the issue.<br />
<br />
- The issue is if he is going to keep playing that poorly he has no right even being in a raid.<br />
<br />
- Sorry, you do not need to be "good" to be a raider, but you need to at least listen to simple instruction.<br />
<br />
- I say things like "this is not a DPS race, even if you have to stop your DPS, just do the mechanics right" and he still messes up.<br />
<br />
- I am not asking for top players.<br />
<br />
- But I am asking to at least run out of the group when you have doomfire on you.<br />
<br />
- Hell, even if you run the wrong way at least you would be running with it.<br />
<br />
- But no, he stands in the group and do not move and gets eaten alive by the doomfire.<br />
<br />
- After six weeks of killing archie on normal with us (hell no I would not bring him to heroic) he still does not get it.<br />
<br />
- Sure we still kill it without him but it is a matter of principle.<br />
<br />
- So I told him, next time doomfire hits him because he stands still I will remove him from group mid fight.<br />
<br />
- No excuses.<br />
<br />
- Am I being too harsh?<br />
<br />
- I don't think so.<br />
<br />
- I believe that some people are just not raiders.<br />
<br />
- It really is that simple.<br />
<br />
- Enough ranting, more good vibes.<br />
<br />
- May the light of elune bless you and the love rocket join your ranks.<br />
<br />
- Have a great day.TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com36tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-83562614314746821362016-02-17T14:18:00.001-05:002016-02-17T14:18:22.595-05:00Tin Foil Hat: I Don't Know Everything Legion Will Bring, But I Do Know What the Next Expansion Will Be.Warning: This post is 100% speculation and quite possibly 100% bull shit as well. I have no proof of anything I will say here. I am making it up as I go. This is a tin foil hat post. For fun, discussion, or perhaps even prediction that I can reflect back on in two years from now when we find out what the next expansion will be. Have fun with the post, but do not take it too seriously. Even if I do think what I write here is entirely possible, even if insanely unlikely.<br />
<br />
Now for the big reveal. The expansion after World of Warcraft : Legion will be called.... nothing.<br />
<br />
Legion is the last expansion for warcraft. It all ends here and it all ends now. But that does not mean that warcraft is all done for. Legion might be the last expansion of the world of warcraft as we know it, but it will lead directly into World of Warcraft 2.<br />
<br />
That is what I predict the expansion after legion will be. A complete reboot from the start. We all move on to new level 1 characters, if we choose to do so, with the release of WoW 2.<br />
<br />
There are many things that might lead someone wearing their tin foil hat a little to tight to believe this to be true but none larger than the reason that makes the world go 'round, money. The be all end all that motivates companies to do what they can to make more of it.<br />
<br />
I will list a few reasons that <i>might </i>point to legion being the last expansion but I do not think any of the reasons will be as strong as the first one. So on to the list of possible tell tale signs that legion will be the end of the world of warcraft as we know it.<br />
<br />
<b>PS4, XBox and the like</b>:<br />
<br />
They have been trimming down abilities left and right lately all in an effort to make our bars so much simpler. It is not all for the players enjoyment however. Sure having fewer buttons to hit might make some things easier and depending on how they interact could make some things more complex. But the real reason for having fewer abilities is so that it will be easier to port to the many different game stations out there now that seem to live and die with an internet connection.<br />
<br />
While WoW can not be reasonably ported to work for PS4, for example, WoW 2.0, if it is built and designed for it, would be able to perfectly be ported for play on the PS4. By allowing people to play on their game station of choice or their computer they open the doors to many more players than they had ever had. Even when they were at their absolute height back in wrath of 12M+ subs the range of players they reached was never as large as it would be if every person on every major game system could play as well.<br />
<br />
It only makes solid business sense to find an avenue where you can add players. Even more so after the start of a successful movie franchise (hopefully) that introduces the game to millions of players. Many of whom would jump at the chance to play the game with their friends on the PS4 but don't really care to do so on the computer.<br />
<br />
It is all about accessibility and having WoW available through more outlets allows them to get more people into the game and possibility retain people a little easier. Where before it was a choice of playing warcraft or playing on your PS4, now you can play warcraft while on your PS4. It will always be there for you to play so the likelihood of you switching from the game you are currently playing to warcraft would be a lot higher than the likelihood of you turning off your PS4 and getting up and going to your computer instead.<br />
<br />
There is a lot more money to be made and with abilities being trimmed down warcraft is pretty darn close to being capable of being ported. Legion is a test to see if and how things work with fewer abilities. All while WoW 2.0 is being primed in the background, designed for fewer abilities to begin with and coded to be ported to game stations like the PS4 and XBox.<br />
<br />
<b>You Want It, You Got It</b>:<br />
<br />
As many people have already noted about Legion it seems like blizzard is doing a major fan service. People wanted "this" person dead, so we are killing him. People wanted "this" person to return, so we are bringing him back. People wanted Demon Hunters to be a playable class, so have at it. People wanted the emerald dreams, well here it is. People wanted to face Azshara, well here she is. People wanted to wield Ashbringer, go for it and here are a dozen other cool looking versions of it too while you are at it. I could go on and on, but I am sure I do not have to.<br />
<br />
Blizzard is going for broke here. They are throwing everything into the pot, they are leaving nothing on the table. They are trying to give everyone what they wanted, or at least the things they saw posted most about on the forums over the last 12 years.<br />
<br />
It makes one believe that if they are doing this and basically tying up a bunch of outstanding story lines, or at least giving some sort of closure to remove the ideas of what could be a future expansion like Azshara and the dark below, or the emerald dream, or so many other things that they could have made expansions about or used as a background for them being put to rest you have to think, why not leave the loose ends.<br />
<br />
A company looking forward to making more expansions does not tie up all those loose ends they spent years creating so they can have something to build on in the future unless they know, in this incarnation at least, there is no future to save them for any longer.<br />
<br />
The fact they are giving us everything we wanted makes you think, maybe that is because this is the end.<br />
<br />
<b>I Have to Replace My Artifact With What</b>?<br />
<br />
Every expansion is the same. We work our butts off, usually for a year of nothing to do but get better gear from raiding, to get the best gear we can get only to see it replaced with a quest green as soon as the new expansion comes out.<br />
<br />
Warlords was, in my opinion, the first expansion that ever did leveling right in terms of gear progression. I leveled to 100 with my SoO gear on and I even did the proving grounds gold on day one when I hit 100 while still wearing all my gear from SoO. My mists gear worked, for the most part, up until dungeons in warlords. And that is how it should be in my opinion. Even more so when you were in all mythic gear like I was. It did still suck to have to take off the legendary cloak, but at least I did not replace it with some quest green as soon as I stepped into the expansion like what would have happened in most previous expansions.<br />
<br />
I expect legion leveling to be somewhat the same if they learned anything from how awesome the leveling experience was for many, like myself. But what of the expansion after. Sure we might not replace Ashbringer with a quest green. But we will sooner or later need to replace it and it makes you think that this is the ultimate weapon for my class. How do I get better than the ultimate weapon?<br />
<br />
And that is why I think the Artifact weapons show that there will not be an expansion after this one. Even if it is an awesome thing, like the cloak, it is still just some no name but special cloak. It might have been powerful but once you find something more powerful you say good bye to it. How exactly are you going to do that with Artifacts? They are the most powerful weapons in existence. They are not some no name weapon.<br />
<br />
Also these Artifact weapons offer not only power, but massive time investment to level them. They have skilled that we will have become used to. What Beast Mastery hunter, after spending countless hours, days, weeks and maybe even months, leveling up his or her Artifact weapon just so he or she could have a second controllable pet is going to feel right throwing that away from some no name weapon. Even if that no name weapon comes from the first tier of raiding in the next expansion. Even if it comes from the last tier of raiding next expansion. When do you let go of the weapon that is the best weapon for your class that you are ever supposed to have?<br />
<br />
We would lose the time put into it, which if we are correct will not be just a heavy weekend of playing to level. We would lose all the boosts to our abilities we gained from leveling it. We would lose all the power ups we gained from leveling it. We would lose the thing they spent an entire expansion telling us is the greatest weapon we would ever own.<br />
<br />
The Artifact weapons and the power up system they are adding in Legion show that they do not intend for us to ever replace these weapons. So there are three options. 1) dig themselves a really big hole it will be near impossible for them to get out of by the expansion having us drop all that power for what... 2) keep leveling up those same weapons the expansion after with added levels, which will make it harder on new players that join the game because now they would need to level a weapon through 2 expansions instead of only the current one, or, the one we are focused on in this post, 3) they do not intend for us to ever get any weapon after this one because there will be no expansion after this one.<br />
<br />
Three seems to make the most sense. One seems like it is asking for trouble, but quite honestly it does fit blizzard idea of never thinking toward the future. Two seems really unlikely. How would you feel if you joined the game in the expansion after legion and found you needed to level your weapon, which could take months for an active player (blizzards words, not mine) before they can actually catch up to the current expansion. So yeah, three makes the most sense. <br />
<br />
They are giving us our ultimate weapons. They are letting us power them up to ultimate power. They are letting us choose how they look. They are letting us be the "hero" of the game for our one last hurrah. This is it folks. Your paladin will go down in a blaze of glory with Ashbringer in his hand. Your hunter will die fighting with Titanstrike in his hand and two pets at his side. It doesn't get better than this folks and that is because, it doesn't have to. This is the end, this is the last weapon you will ever have, and it has been designed that way. Just think about it.<br />
<br />
<b>The Game is Old</b>:<br />
<br />
And I do not mean that in a bad way. I like that the game has history. It is part of the reason I keep playing, I do not want to leave that history behind. But there is a lot of baggage that comes with age that can not just be forgotten about.<br />
<br />
Lets look from the outside in and see what someone that never played before sees. The stories of only basement dwellers play this game. The stories of people losing their jobs playing this game. Losing their marriages over the game. Or lets say they know all that stuff is just BS, which it really is because I am sure all those things could be said about any popular game and there is someone out there is might be true for and they look at the game as what it truly is. A game with 6 expansion (soon) and over 110 levels (soon).<br />
<br />
Sure it might not take a lot of time to level 110 levels. Sure you can get all the previous expansions for a song if they are on sale and cheap even if they are not. Sure if you buy the most current expansion you can get an instant boost. But to someone <i>new </i>to the game, even if they know all that, it still feels as if you are so so so far behind.<br />
<br />
So lets even forget dragging new people in and them feeling that they are so far behind. When people do join the world is so out of order, thanks to cataclysm mostly, but just because as years passed and things changed a lot of the older stuff doesn't fit right, doesn't work as intended, or just doesn't make sense. You get abilities out of any semblance of order. The story line bounces all over the place, if you are the type that even reads it that is. The leveling pace, because they had to change it for people with alts and heirlooms means even a new person without them still often out levels zones before they finish them.<br />
<br />
Over all the years the past of the game just, well, got destroyed, for lack of a better description. Blizzard knows this. They know the leveling process does not really make the game look <i>good </i>to a new player because they have not concentrated on getting any new players.<br />
<br />
And the reason they are not addressing this is? Who cares, we are starting over again soon. It will be a new game so no basement dweller stigma. It will be a new game so no 110 levels behind for newcomers. It will be a new game so no 6 expansions to buy. it will be a new game so the leveling will be fresh, enjoyable, and in order, as it should be for everyone. It does kind of make sense that a reset would really help this aspect of the game. Doesn't it?<br />
<br />
<b>There are Some Things You Can't Fix</b>:<br />
<br />
I can't remember what I heard this in reference too, but I am sure at one point I heard a dev say that some things can not be fixed. Maybe it was as simple as the beginning bag space issue being locked to 16. Maybe it was about the continuity issue caused by the redesign of cataclysm. But one thing was sure, there was something in game they did not like how it turned out that they can't, or won't spend the time to, fix.<br />
<br />
A complete reset would allow them to fix all the things they did that did not turn out quite as they intended them to be. Those globes in Ulduar, you know the ones that showed all the <i>known </i>world to us. Yeah, it kind of limited where we could expand to with expansions without adding some fancy explanations. Come to think of it, that is what I think the comment I mentioned was in reference too.<br />
<br />
They can easily fix the bag space issues. They can easily fix the world issues. They can easily fix everything they have noticed to be a problem area over the years if they design knowing what the problems are, which after 12 years, they should be pretty clear on what they are.<br />
<br />
Some of these issues are big, most are not, but each and every one of them can be fixed with a complete reboot. And maybe the reason they are not looking to try to fix and of them now means they know they do not have to fix the issues because the issues will be left behind.<br />
<br />
<b>Battle Net Wide Makes Transfer Easy</b>:<br />
<br />
Did you ever notice that they do not make things account wide, they make them battle net wide. If our pets, for example, were account wide than all our warcraft accounts would have it. But if they were battle net wide than all our games would have it, such as warcraft 1 and warcraft 2. Just something to chew on.<br />
<br />
<b>The Future is Mobile</b>:<br />
<br />
Back to design and what warcraft is not capable of but warcraft 2 would be. Mobile games are hugely popular. If anyone says otherwise they are living in the last century, or roughly 12 years ago if you work for the warcraft team.<br />
<br />
I am still not sure why when battle pets were added there was no mobile app that allowed us to play with them while on the road, at work, in school, or basically play with them when there are other things we are supposed to be doing. (not that I advocate playing games on work time, but writing blogs is just fine. wink wink nudge nudge). The reason can only be one of two things, no one at blizzard thought of it or the warcraft engine and how it was designed was not capable of supporting it.<br />
<br />
I am going to go with the game was not capable of supporting it at the time they added them. I don't think it is possible that not even one person that works for blizzard in a high ranking position did not see the HUGE impact having a battle pet mobile app would be. Heck, I could even see them adding a transmog mobile app, so you can change the appearance of your characters while you are sitting on a bus if you wanted to. Or a dungeon crawler app where you take your character, solo, through dungeons designed strictly for the mobile app.<br />
<br />
Remember when I said at the beginning that ending WoW and starting WoW 2.0 would be all about money? Well, the ability to have mobile games where you can attain things that show up in game and the stuff you do in game can show up in the mobile version is a big part of that.<br />
<br />
Once they can have integrated mobile and computer and game stations all accessing the same content, and in this case content you can play anywhere, it opens the possibilities for making a great deal of money.<br />
<br />
The pet battles can allow you to do something like 20 battles and regenerate 5 per hour but if you run out and want more you will need to buy more battles for 2 bucks if you do not want to wait it out. They could add special adventures, for 10 dollars per, that you need to complete on mobile to get a few pet that will show up in all places.<br />
<br />
Maybe the reason there was never a pet battle app is because they could not tie it into the WoW engine, which gives them more reason to make a WoW 2. Why recreate an engine for WoW and invest all that time for only adding thing. Might as well start new all over, which is what they will do and then I will be playing battle pets at work instead of writing this... maybe.<br />
<br />
<b>And the Big Bad of Warcraft Has Always Been Sargeras</b>:<br />
<br />
We do not know where Legion will lead us but one thing we do know for sure for sure and that is Sargeras is supposed to be the end boss of the World of Warcraft. What better time to have him show up than now? They have set the stage for him completely. All he needs to do is step his feet on the soil of azeroth and we will all tremble as we fight the urge to bow before his god like omnipotence.<br />
<br />
A battle between the heroes of Azeroth and the fallen titan can only end in one way. Death and destruction of everything, including the world as we know it. They can easily write the story so that as Sargeras breathes his last breath, the death of a god, as close as we could come to know one, triggers the titans to activate the re-origination button, as was threatened so many times before.<br />
<br />
The world, as we know it, would be destroyed and from the ashes we would arise, with knowledge of what we once were, but no power, in a bed being tended to by a care giver that carted our bodies from the rubble. Or gear destroyed, our abilities diminished and our bodies frail after such a long sleep, we would need to journey, adventure and fight to gain our powers back, our strength back, and our gear back too.<br />
<br />
In this new world there would be new land masses and blizzard could make sure not to let the full world view ever come our way. They could even keep us on the same continent for more than one expansion, only opening up moving further into it as time goes on. They could create new lore, no stories, new histories of the past. All would be new, even if some things might seem familiar.<br />
<br />
What better time to hit the reset button after beating the fallen titan and having the world as we know it reset by the titans? The story just seems ripe to lead us to the new beginning we would need if we want to move into a WoW 2.0 cleanly. They lined it up perfectly, so perfectly in fact that there can't be an expansion after Legion. Sargeras will be dead, and the Azeroth that we know will have died with him.<br />
<br />
So what say you fellow traveler? Do you don your tin foil hat with me and get ready for 2.0 or will there be more of the WoW we know and love first? Will there ever be a WoW 2.0?<br />
<br />
Come on... put on the hat... you know you want to. Speculate. It will be fun, I promise.TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-86876258997664976512016-02-16T09:09:00.002-05:002016-02-16T09:09:16.068-05:00Tuesday Random Thoughts- Random thoughts are a day late because I had off work yesterday, so I played instead of writing.<br />
<br />
- I finished getting my stash in Diablo so I decided to get back to some warcraft.<br />
<br />
- It was a nice break for a month playing less.<br />
<br />
- Made it more enjoyable playing.<br />
<br />
- Breaks are needed and it seems as I get older, and the game gets older, I need more and more breaks to keep the game enjoyable.<br />
<br />
- Hey, whatever floats your boat right?<br />
<br />
- I stayed on really late Sunday night because I was not working Monday.<br />
<br />
- I decided to level archaeology on an alt.<br />
<br />
- Why would I choose to level archaeology on an alt one might ask.<br />
<br />
- Because my hunter is well over 700 tol'vir solves so far and still has not got the bug mount or the claw pet.<br />
<br />
- I figure maybe having another character do it might stir up some luck.<br />
<br />
- I honestly do not see how it is impossible to have over 100 solves of every tol'vir artifact and still not have those two.<br />
<br />
- But it is my luck..<br />
<br />
- So I hung out on voice chat and BSed with whomever was on at the time while I did some digging.<br />
<br />
- I decided on my druid to level archaeology on.<br />
<br />
- Instant flight form means less time mounting up moving from place to place.<br />
<br />
- Not to mention I have the mage tower fully leveled on my druid.<br />
<br />
- So I can use my garrison hearth and my shipyard compass to get back to my garrison and use my mage tower to get to the "far" places.<br />
<br />
- I set up the ports to Nagrand, Frostfire and Spires.<br />
<br />
- With all that and the mole machine to Gorgrond, I was set for hopping around from dig site to dig site.<br />
<br />
- I made it to a little over 600.<br />
<br />
- Which just so happens to be exactly what you need to be able to trade in restored artifacts for tol'vir fragments.<br />
<br />
- What a coincidence huh?<br />
<br />
- Needless to say I planned it like that.<br />
<br />
- I had a total of 60 restored artifacts when I started turning it in.<br />
<br />
- I managed to make 6 common finds and one rare find.<br />
<br />
- Sadly the rare find was a, now useless, BoA ring.<br />
<br />
- But it was not a total waste.<br />
<br />
- I managed to snag three new mounts while doing this.<br />
<br />
- I always said to a guild mate to plays late at night that I was so jealous of him.<br />
<br />
- He always got all the rare mounts, all the rare pets, all the hard to find stuff.<br />
<br />
- All because he was on when everyone else was sleeping.<br />
<br />
- I experienced that myself.<br />
<br />
- When I went to a dig site in Frostfire there was a rare boar there at the dig site.<br />
<br />
- I killed it, got the great greytusk mount.<br />
<br />
- Awesome.<br />
<br />
- So this is what it is like playing late at night.<br />
<br />
- Not even looking for mounts and getting them.<br />
<br />
- I then had a dig site in Shadowmoon, not to long after.<br />
<br />
- And there is the pathrunner just outside of the dig site I landed on.<br />
<br />
- You have got to be kidding me.<br />
<br />
- I kill it and walk away with the swift breezestrider mount.<br />
<br />
- About 30 minutes later while flying through Nagrand, on the way to a dig site mind you, I see luk'hok.<br />
<br />
- I swoop down and kill him and gladly collect my mottled meadowstomper mount.<br />
<br />
- Three mount.<br />
<br />
- Not looking for them.<br />
<br />
- Just because I was on late at night.<br />
<br />
- And this is exactly why I get so jealous sometimes when my friend has every rare mount in the game usually within the first week of release.<br />
<br />
- He said he must see all of them, even poundfist, a few times a week.<br />
<br />
- And now later in the expansion they can sit up for a long time before someone runs into them.<br />
<br />
- He always said "if things like that could be traded everyone in the guild would have them."<br />
<br />
- Which makes me question, should things like that be capable of being traded?<br />
<br />
- I sense a post in that all by itself.<br />
<br />
- I see some definite pluses an minuses to the idea.<br />
<br />
- I did mythic dungeons this weekend.<br />
<br />
- Did raids this weekend my my main and on two different alts.<br />
<br />
- Even did some old raids.<br />
<br />
- Killed the lich king 5 more times with nothing to show for it except 25 minutes wasted.<br />
<br />
- But I had a lot of fun just wasting time.<br />
<br />
- All because I took that time off made it fun.<br />
<br />
- Do you want to hear a funny story before I end this random thoughts?<br />
<br />
- Who am I kidding, of course you do.<br />
<br />
- And even if you don't, here goes.<br />
<br />
- A guild tank, an incredible DK, asks if anyone want in on a mythic.<br />
<br />
- I say yet, another guild hunter says yet and a monk DPS says yes.<br />
<br />
- He asks in guild if any healers are on.<br />
<br />
- He asks in voice chat if any healers are on.<br />
<br />
- We are talking about needing a healer and I offer to switch to a healer, the monk who has healing gear but never healed offers to switch to healer.<br />
<br />
- The tank finally says, we will just pug one.<br />
<br />
- Then someone in voice chat speaks up.<br />
<br />
- "I have a monk that could do it, but his gear sucks."<br />
<br />
- The tank says not to worry, we are a powerful group, we can carry a low healer.<br />
<br />
- We decide on grimrail depot as no one in the group has done that one this week. <br />
<br />
- We zone in and kill the trash, no problems.<br />
<br />
- He kill the first boss, both monks die but otherwise no problems.<br />
<br />
- And then I notice something.<br />
<br />
- The second monk is in DPS spec.<br />
<br />
- I asked, where you trying to heal in your DPS spec.<br />
<br />
- He said "I don't have a healing spec."<br />
<br />
- Excuse me.<br />
<br />
- For 5 minutes we were talking about needing a healer, maybe one of us switching to a healer and then finally saying we would pug a healer when you volunteered.<br />
<br />
- How do you not have a healing spec when you said you would come heal?<br />
<br />
- Either way, I say, lets just continue along, we can do this.<br />
<br />
- "with no healer?" the other hunter exclaims.<br />
<br />
- I said, yes, trust me.<br />
<br />
- We will do it like challenge modes.<br />
<br />
- Huge trash pulls, potions on the trash, and we should have no problems.<br />
<br />
- And we had no problems.<br />
<br />
- We destroyed the place on mythic with no healers.<br />
<br />
- Well, the tank did say we would carry him, so I guess we did.<br />
<br />
- He died a few more times, but no one else did.<br />
<br />
- It was fun and because of it I can say for sure that with 4 decent DPS and one DK tank with their amazing self heals, you do not need a healer for mythic dungeons.<br />
<br />
- Grimrail has to be the most brutal of dungeons and if we could do it with only 3 DPS and a tank basically, then with 4 it would be a breeze for any group.<br />
<br />
- I just thought it was funny someone offering up to come and as healer when they could not heal.<br />
<br />
- Did he really think we would not notice?<br />
<br />
- And he, my friends, is the average warcraft player.<br />
<br />
- Doesn't really have a clue what is going on most of the time.<br />
<br />
- Speaking of not having a clue, in case you did not notice the holiday boss is up.<br />
<br />
- So make sure to get your runs in to try and get the love rocket.<br />
<br />
- I did all my characters yesterday and had no luck.<br />
<br />
- Darn, was hoping my weekend luck with mounts would have continued, but oh well.<br />
<br />
- Good luck with your love rocket.<br />
<br />
- Have a great day.TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-44994735379139646182016-02-13T08:32:00.001-05:002016-02-13T08:32:52.981-05:00I Healed My First Warlords Challenge Mode, and I Liked ItLast expansion I did all the challenge modes on my hunter and I helped other people by either tanking or healing for them on other classes, even if I never completed all of them on either a tank or a healer. This expansion my hunter was my only character I had any challenge mode experience on. Until last night.<br />
<br />
In a spur of the moment sort of thing someone in guild wanted to know if anyone was up for challenge modes. Of course I was. I am always up for things like that. So when all the people that wanted to go raised their proverbial hands we had one tank and four damage dealers.<br />
<br />
Of the four damage dealers I was the only one that had any real healing experience so even if I wanted to go on my hunter I offered to heal. I did warn them I had not healed a single challenge mode this expansion and I am very out of practice when it comes to healing having healed so rarely this expansion at all. But I would be willing to give it a try.<br />
<br />
So we headed to the dungeon of choice, iron docks, as the leader of the group, the only one there with any real challenge mode experience, said that would be the easiest one being we had two complete rookies on DPS and me as a rookie healer.<br />
<br />
The group make up was a tank and healer, of course, with one melee and two ranged. Quite honestly I hate healing melee in a "challenge" type setting because they take more damage no matter how good they are or how hard they try. It is just the nature of the beast. But I was ready to give it the old college try, so to speak.<br />
<br />
We finished the dungeon missing gold by 4 minutes and 19 seconds. Boo. But we could have done gold, really we could have. We had one wipe on trash where just a little too much was pulled. It was early on, we should have reset, but at that point I did not know if I would be capable of healing this so we were still in the "testing" phase. We had to lose about 3 minutes, if I were to guess, due to that wipe.<br />
<br />
So if you wanted to look at it that way we missed gold by one minute and 19 seconds and missing gold became 100% my fault. While the over pull could have been avoided, I could have healed better and kept us from wiping. But the real issue was I did not bring enough food. Toward the end of the dungeon we waited a few seconds here and there for me to naturally regenerate some mana. Easily we lost close to 2 minutes to that happening. Not to mention the two players that died during the run which I needed to spend time reviving and they spent time eating and rebuffing.<br />
<br />
So yes, we really honestly could have done gold. In hindsight I did not need as much mana as I waited for. I never was less than 50%, I was just worried as I did not know how I would handle things so I wanted to be at 100% whenever I had the chance to get back up. I had absolutely zero confidence in my skills. Even if it seemed as if the group was confident in me.<br />
<br />
I would not be surprised if we had come close to realm best time if we had not wiped and I had bought mana food and I did not lose two people I had to revive along the way. My realm does not have great realm first times mind you. I think the next time we are there we could easily cut 10 minutes off the time we did it on. Or at least 5 without that wipe and those 2 deaths along with my waiting on mana, that is for certain. We can do an 18 minute run, no doubt.<br />
<br />
I really loved the idea that my gear did not matter at all. It was scaled down. So the fact I did not have my tier set meant nothing. The fact that I had a couple of 670 pieces on meant nothing. It was all about spell selection and the skill of movement, reaction and planning. I like that it pressed me to do better than I thought I could do being out of practice on a healer. I am extremely happy with silver on my first attempt. I think that is probably the best anyone could wish for when you were in the group I was in with two people that had never stepped into a challenge mode, one person that had not healed one, and the other two that had only done as high as silver before.<br />
<br />
The melee would go from full to 10% it seemed every few pulls, if not every single one of them. But he never died, and he also worked on protecting himself. When he got low like that he stepped off for a second and let me get the heals he needed on him instead of pushing it and possibly dying. I say it was very smart play on his part. He could have stayed in the fight and lasted another 3 or 4 seconds an died, or he could have stepped back, let me heal him and lose those 3 or 4 second but be alive for the next 20 seconds it took to finish the mobs. He made the right choice, lose 4 seconds of DPS up time to gain 20 seconds and not was 10 seconds afterward to revive them. That was the right choice.<br />
<br />
One of the range was a nightmare and I think replacing him and adding another, more raid aware, damage dealer would have really helped. I was forced to heal him as if he were a tank. He was always standing in something. He was always getting hit by every avoidable mechanic, he was wildly pulling more packs and I think he was even the one that was responsible for the over pull early in the run.<br />
<br />
Removing him and getting a better damage dealer in that slot would have done wonders. I would have probably never lost the two people I lost during the run because one person was just taking so much damage demanding my attention to be split nearly 100% of the time. I would have not needed to spend as much mana on the expensive fast heals because I would be able to keep up with the less expensive ones if I was not forced to spam people with heals to keep them alive in situations when they really should not have been taking any damage to begin with. Speaking of mana, I would not have needed to worry about mana if I were not having so much more to heal. All that avoidable damage wastes mana that should never need to be spent. I honestly believe if that one ranged was as good at avoiding stuff as the other was, meaning they only needed minimal upkeep, I could have kept both the tank and the melee up just fine without ever needing mana the entire run. I am sure of that.<br />
<br />
Over all I was proud of how well I did. Of how well the whole group did, yes even the one standing in junk, because we still made silver with tons of time to spare. When it was over I did not think "cool I helped the guild out", even if I did think that as well, but I thought "I had fun healing this, maybe I should make a challenge mode set, this was fun".<br />
<br />
I actually want to heal some more challenge modes now. I was to spam some dungeons and try to collect best in slot challenge mode gear. I want to see how far I can push it. I want to see if I can be a challenge mode gold healer. Unlike last expansion when you could actually over gear challenge modes with gems and such (and I did like that in all honesty) this time around there is none of that. You are really testing your ability and your ability only. Well, yours and the ability of your group too of course.<br />
<br />
I am sure in a poor group I would have not had fun. I am sure if there was a wipe fest I would have not had fun. I am sure that having a tank that knew his class and could help himself which allowed me to help others made it a fun run. So I am not sure I would do these in random groups. But I would gladly heal again for guild and not <i>just </i>to help the guild out, but because I kind of liked it. As long as I have a solid tank to heal behind at least.TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-39580731571375765332016-02-12T12:08:00.001-05:002016-02-12T12:08:14.477-05:00So Many Legendary Items, Only One Real ProblemLegion is just in the alpha stage still but a flurry of new legendary items have been added. Some of them have amazingly powerful while some of them seem borderline useless or completely situational. It would be wrong to assume this is how the legendary items will go live but I still wonder what impact they might have on game play.<br />
<br />
You already see people saying "they will not be mandatory" but anyone that plays the game knows they absolutely will be mandatory, at least for anyone that actually wants to play their character to the best of their ability. Sure you can clear mythic in 700 item level, but if you could get to 730 before you do, who wouldn't? Everyone wants a boost. Especially when they will be extremely powerful as these will be and even more so because anyone can get these, from the most casual of casual players to the most die hard progression raider. So disregard anyone that says "they will not be mandatory", they do not understand how truly mandatory these will be. And that is my own problem with them.<br />
<br />
If you look over a list of some of these legendary items you will see how insanely powerful some of them are. Even if they are toned down some before release you would have to believe they will still be something that will have an effect on raiding. Enough so that people will indeed want them.<br />
<br />
So lets look at the much bigger picture. Whoever gets lucky enough to have them drop will have the advantage in progression. Be it for world first, server first or even being just a normal guild pushing through normal. You can't say that if they are that powerful it they will not help a raid team down bosses. And going for a first, or even just normal kills and making them easier, will be helped a great deal by the power of these items.<br />
<br />
With that in mind, the fact they really will have a huge impact on raids blizzard has two routes they can go. They can either design and balance the raids around people <i>not </i>having the legendary items and the groups that get lucky enough to get them will over power them and make them trivial so fast or they can design the raids around needing the legendary items.<br />
<br />
Which do you think blizzard will choose? Seeing how they handled the cape and the ring I am 100% certain that they will design and balance the raids to require the legendary items. Not only because the have shown a history already with of design with legendary items in mind but because they are not going to do anything to adversely effect the top 0.001% of the game that might be aiming for world first. If they do not design the raids to require the legendary items then whichever guild was lucky enough to snag the most of them while leveling will steamroll their way to world first. So they have to design the raid around the legendary items being needed to down them.<br />
<br />
Now... if the raids are designed around the legendary items being needed to down the content guess what that means? It means they are mandatory for raiding. At least if you want to down stuff before you over gear it by other means of drops, upgrades or what have you.<br />
<br />
That is my one real problem with so many legendary items and them being so damn powerful. Raids will need to be designed around needing them which means we will be forced to farm for them if we want to be the best we can be. But really, even if raids were not designed and balanced around needing them we would still want them to make our characters better, this is true. But there is a huge difference between farming your butt of to try to get an upgrade you <i>want </i>and having to farm your butt off to get an upgrade that you <i>need</i>. I would rather want the legendary than need the legendary.<br />
<br />
But hey, it is just alpha, they might even remove the legendary items all together before they release legion, who knows. But I would not count on it. Blizzard has a habit of swinging the pendulum too far in one direction or another. We went from staying in our garrison all expansion to swinging the other way where we will be out in the world mindlessly killing everything all day every day until we get that ultra rare legendary drop that is mandatory if we want to be considered a "good" raider.<br />
<br />
What do you think of all these legendary items being so powerful? What do you think it will impact?TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-37935647639799140562016-02-11T09:21:00.000-05:002016-02-11T09:21:12.513-05:00If There Were Only One Raid Difficulty...With the four different levels of difficulty in raiding right now from the pure random pug friendly LFR to the highly coordinated group effort of mythic it made me wonder, what is the preferred method level of raiding of people if you could only have one.<br />
<br />
The way I figure it most "raiders" raid two levels or raiding, not really all four. You have your farm raid and your progression raid. For some people they farm LFR and progress through normal, or others they farm normal and progresses through heroic and for yet others they farm heroic to progress through mythic.<br />
<br />
Of course there are those that only do one. I know a great many players that only do LFR. I have some guild members that refuse to step into LFR but as they are not really raiders so they will only do normal. Then there are the people that are "better" than normal, their word, not mine, and refuse to step into any raid that is not heroic. If we are doing a normal run that night they take the night off. All those people only do one level of raiding.<br />
<br />
So while the choice is nice to have with 4 different levels of raiding I would say the majority of raiders, at least the ones I know or have spoken to, only raid 2 of those 4 levels of difficulty on a regular basis at most.<br />
<br />
If I were to ask the question which 2 raid difficulties would you choose the answer would be simple for me personally. My opinions are as follows.<br />
<br />
LFR is not needed. It no longer serves the purpose it was intended for and it should be either fixed or removed from the game. If LFR still offered real tier gear I could see it having a place in the game. If LFR was designed to teach people to be raiders I could see it having a place in the game. If LFR was actively moderated by blizzard to keep it from getting toxic like it does often I could see it having a place in the game. If LFR actually required people to participate and actually try, even if they do poorly, then I could see it having a place in the game.<br />
<br />
The thing is, it does not teach anyone, it does not offer tier gear, it does not have moderators and there are too many people expecting to be carried by others for LFR to continue to exist. It is not needed and should be removed because, we know for a fact, blizzard has no intention of fixing it. So cutting down from 4 raid difficulties to 3 was easy for more. Lose LFR.<br />
<br />
Losing the second difficulty was an easy choice for me as well. Mythic has no place in the game either. Just look at the numbers. LFR has the most people actively playing it in the game and I would choose to remove that, so why in hell would I keep the difficulty that the fewest, by large, are participating in.<br />
<br />
It is not just about the numbers that use it, it is about the format itself. It is a fixed size, something that in this day and age has played itself out, games need to be more dynamic. And if it was going to be a fixed size it should be a fixed size that was more inclusive, like 10 or at max 15. When they decided on 20 man as the base for mythic they effectively told over 95% of the heroic guilds to go screw themselves. Not the smartest move in my opinion. <br />
<br />
Perhaps if mythic were 10 man than it would not be one of the two I would remove. As a matter of fact, I am sure if mythic was 10 man I would have not said to remove it. But as 20 man it does not fit in a dying game where it seems most servers can barely field one or two mythic guilds even if there are hundreds of people on that server that would want to run mythic. Many, like myself, prefer smaller groups even if it historically means harder fights.<br />
<br />
So if I had to choose only 2 to stay it would be normal or heroic.<br />
<br />
Now comes the hard part, if I had to choose only one. Both have their strengths and weaknesses.<br />
<br />
Normal is easy enough that you can take new players along with hurting yourself too much. You can take alts on a normal run no problem. You can make mistakes on a normal run. You can have fun on a normal run once you start to over gear it by ignoring some mechanics, something it usually takes until the next tier that comes out to be capable of doing. And the number one plus on the side of normal is because it is easier it is faster. I am about as sick and tired of log fights as any one elf can be. I enjoy going into normal on my main and blowing things up in record time. Fast fights = fun fights.<br />
<br />
Normal does have its downsides as well. As it is easier you will down stuff faster. Sure depending on your group and the skill of the players in it you can still hit a bump in the road here and there to slow you down. Normal archie took a little bit for us, heck even gorefiend was a bit rough the first week for my guild who never did higher than heroic the previous tier and was geared as such. Neither took us long to down, but that is the point. Even the "brick walls" on normal are not much of a challenge for even the remotely organized group. If all challenges are like this, were you never meet a fight that can take you weeks to down, or 100 wipes to get, I could see it getting boring. Sure no one want to wipe 100 times on every single boss, but having one or two or even three in a raid this side that take you a few weeks, maybe even 40 tries would be nice. It would feel like progression. Normal might be fun, but it can also be too easy for anyone that is willing to put in even a little effort.<br />
<br />
As for heroic, like normal it has its positives and negatives. Some of the positives are the fact that for the vast majority of the player base these are genuinely hard. It is a challenge and it is exciting to beat that challenge. Even for the somewhat better players that might be able to down it in just a few attempts the fact that it is a bigger challenge is more rewarding.<br />
<br />
Another positive is that it teaches the next generation of raiders that mechanics matter, performance matters, personally responsibility matters. When someone can do LFR or even normal and they die on every boss but they still down it they think "oh this is easy". In the heroic world they are removed from the group. Sorry, no dead weight wanted. Even if you can carry someone like that, why do so? They offer no benefit to the group. Heroic, if it were the only difficulty, would mean that a hell of a lot of player would get better. They would be better player over all, or they would not be raiders. That's a fact. Well, unless you pay for a carry, but no matter what they will always happen so forget I said it.<br />
<br />
The main negative of heroic is that I am a grumpy elf. No really. You really can not bring people in after you have been downing bosses that do not know the fight. It is frustrating taking a step back and unlike with normal were you might be able to push through having a few inexperienced players it usually means a wipe in heroic. Call it be being grumpy but I would just say it is me being tired and not liking the idea of doing progression over and over and over in a raid I have already been downing with no problem. This is the biggest draw back of heroic.<br />
<br />
A secondary drawback of heroic is blizzards own fault and that is the scaling of flex. A fight like Killrog with 10 people early on was near impossible unless you had top notch players and they all performed to perfection. But with 20 or even more so with 30 players it was a joke. Blizzard needs to fix heroic so no matter how many you have 10 or 30 it is close to the same fight, difficulty wise.<br />
<br />
So you see whittling down to just one difficulty for me would be hard. But when push comes to shove I would choose heroic as the single raid difficulty. Probably because that is what I like to raid so I am already bias toward it. Someone that only does LFR might say LFR, someone that only want to do mythic might say mythic.<br />
<br />
However, with that all said, I want to add one additional thing.<br />
<br />
I would prefer to say the current normal should be the only difficulty. And that the current normal should add activated hard modes like Ulduar had. So you can turn normal into a heroic type encounter or even a mythic type encounter. Now that would leave everyone with the best of all worlds in my opinion, all the benefits of normal with all the challenge of mythic if you so choose with a 10 to 30 player group.<br />
<br />
Now that would be my real answer. I want to see normal only, but with activated modes to make it harder as you decide it to be. With no 20 person lock, with no issues switching back and forth, just one lock out doing each boss the way you want to do them.<br />
<br />
So if they are left "as is" I choose heroic. But if they want to make raiding better I choose normal with activated hard modes, many of them.<br />
<br />
If you had to choose only one raid difficulty to stay, which would you choose?TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-28302392523924326062016-02-08T10:01:00.000-05:002016-02-08T10:01:02.530-05:00Monday Random Thoughts- I am still playing diablo because I have not achieved the needed achievements yet for the stash.<br />
<br />
- The level 45 solo rift with no set pieces seems to be a larger issue than I had anticipated.<br />
<br />
- I played this weekend trying to assemble the set I wanted to use and got most of the pieces.<br />
<br />
- I could not kill stuff fast enough.<br />
<br />
- Bah humbug.<br />
<br />
- So I either need to grind some better gear for it, grind some paragon level or try another conquest all together.<br />
<br />
- Seeing the one to complete a level 55 with 6 different set seems interesting.<br />
<br />
- Might be easier than a 45 with no set items.<br />
<br />
- The hardest part is assembling all the pieces for 2 more sets as I will need to roll another class.<br />
<br />
- Should not be an issue if you have friends you play with that are already geared.<br />
<br />
- Roll the same class as them.<br />
<br />
- Get rifting.<br />
<br />
- Have them throw you all the tier gear they get that they no longer need.<br />
<br />
- I am going to try the 55 with 6 different sets next weekend.<br />
<br />
- I have only used 2 of the demon hunter ones thus far so have 2 more to try it with.<br />
<br />
- But I have faith I can do it.<br />
<br />
- Did not play much warcraft again this weekend.<br />
<br />
- Not much really to do.<br />
<br />
- Tanked a full run of normal and half heroic.<br />
<br />
- Did not get any hunter time for the third week in a row.<br />
<br />
- I guess that is partly why I have no motivation to play lately.<br />
<br />
- Burn out, boredom, and not being able to play the class I want to play.<br />
<br />
- I am thinking of "buying" a mythic run just to get something to do.<br />
<br />
- I just wonder what would be the sense in "buying" a run when I would be one of the best players in the run.<br />
<br />
- Shouldn't they be paying me.<br />
<br />
- A guild mate has started joining a weekly pug that runs mythic Friday nights.<br />
<br />
- She too is a hunter, and greatly out gears me.<br />
<br />
- She says they all love her because he is always near the top of the charts and she knows the fights and is good at avoiding damage.<br />
<br />
- I train my hunters well.<br />
<br />
- Thank you very much.<br />
<br />
- But I admit she picked 90% of it up on her own.<br />
<br />
- Good players are good player.<br />
<br />
- Thing is, she is a hot commodity because of her quality of play.<br />
<br />
- And in my normal mode / heroic mode guild she is probably 6th or 7th down the line in terms of numbers.<br />
<br />
- Makes me wonder what the issue with my raid team is.<br />
<br />
- If she can down mythic with a pug and be top DPS, how the hell can my guild still be stuck clearing heroic?<br />
<br />
- Oh wait, I know why.<br />
<br />
- That retarded 20 man minimum.<br />
<br />
- Blizzard really needs to remove that and bring 10 man back.<br />
<br />
- It keeps good people that want to progress from being able to.<br />
<br />
- It keeps guild that want to keep playing playing.<br />
<br />
- It helps steam the boredom because we know we can't move forward anywhere.<br />
<br />
- Sure I can pug, but I should not have to.<br />
<br />
- There should be a 10 man version of mythic.<br />
<br />
- Heck, mythic should be flex too for all I care.<br />
<br />
- I do not take this "we need a set number so we can tune it tightly" argument seriously.<br />
<br />
- It is a game, not a sport.<br />
<br />
- Just because the top 0.01% want to compete for world first and want to level playing field should not matter.<br />
<br />
- Every player with aspirations, and ability, to get world first could quit the game right now and it would be like a droplet of water being removed from the ocean.<br />
<br />
- No one would care.<br />
<br />
- The game should not be designed around them.<br />
<br />
- Give guilds, a lot of guilds, guilds much better than mine, the chance to start raiding mythic again by allowing smaller groups.<br />
<br />
- Someone in guild said we should merge with another heroic guild that is stuck and pick the top players and do mythic.<br />
<br />
- I said, if they want to join here they are welcome too.<br />
<br />
- But I do not feel like developing a raid team that works well together and then next expansion comes and we go our separate ways again.<br />
<br />
- I would rather build a team than build something just to pass the time.<br />
<br />
- And more too it, if I were actually serious about mythic I would have switched servers already.<br />
<br />
- We have one guild on my server that is 5/13 mythic.<br />
<br />
- They have been 5/13 mythic for as long as I can recall.<br />
<br />
- The best of the best are all assembled there.<br />
<br />
- They have tried to poach from my guild and many others.<br />
<br />
- But we, they, are all happy where they are.<br />
<br />
- And there is one mythic guild and more than a handful of heroic guilds that would all be raiding mythic instead of all fighting over trying to get a few good players.<br />
<br />
- More so, a few good players that do not exist.<br />
<br />
- They have to do what I do.<br />
<br />
- Create players.<br />
<br />
- Like that hunter that is pugging mythics in her free time.<br />
<br />
- One person in guild that just came back asked me a few weeks ago which is better BM or MM.<br />
<br />
- I said MM.<br />
<br />
- I invited him to come along on a heroic run and see.<br />
<br />
- She, with 10 items higher than me would play BM, I with only one decent trinket and still using the crated weapon would play MM.<br />
<br />
- What the numbers and see what happens.<br />
<br />
- First boss, a AoE fight and me with the single target spec, destroyed.<br />
<br />
- Second fight, single target, destroyed.<br />
<br />
- Third fight, mixed, destroyed.<br />
<br />
- Forth fight, cleave and single, destroyed.<br />
<br />
- Fifth fight, I went down first so of course I destroyed.<br />
<br />
- Before the 6th fight he said, does she beat you on any fights in here.<br />
<br />
- I said no.<br />
<br />
- He said, she must suck.<br />
<br />
- I said, nope, she is actually pretty damn good, playing over 96% on every fight, she is a fantastic player.<br />
<br />
- MM is just better, simple as that.<br />
<br />
- Percentage wise she beat me on some of those fights even if on the meters she could not come close to me on any of them.<br />
<br />
- Don't judge a book my their cover.<br />
<br />
- There is a lot more to doing well that just raw numbers.<br />
<br />
- But when it comes to raw numbers, and considering only them, they are easier to compare.<br />
<br />
- MM is better right now.<br />
<br />
- But you never know what tomorrow will bring.<br />
<br />
- Blizzard loves to change things on a whim don't they.<br />
<br />
- There was a trick we used on the iskar trash, been using it forever, makes the pulls super easy and no one every gets disoriented.<br />
<br />
- Been using it since HFC came out.<br />
<br />
- Guess what?<br />
<br />
- Did not work this week.<br />
<br />
- Why patch a fix to the way we handled trash to avoid a mechanic when there so many things that are actually needed to be fixed in the game.<br />
<br />
- I mean... really.<br />
<br />
- I wonder who decides that it is important to fix the way some guilds cheese trash and it is no important to fix actual issues with fights, or classes, or balance.<br />
<br />
- How about scaling the fights better for smaller groups, it is still horrible.<br />
<br />
- How about fixing the bug that decided to choose me, as the tank, for heartseeker when there were 17 other people alive it could have chosen.<br />
<br />
- I mean... really.<br />
<br />
- We managed, told the off tank to taunt, ran away, came back and taunted back.<br />
<br />
- But don't tell me that is not a bug.<br />
<br />
- I would think fixing that should come before fixing a way people are making trash easier.<br />
<br />
- But no, this is blizzard, no rhyme or reason.<br />
<br />
- Either way, they do what they do, and we still play it.<br />
<br />
- Because even with all the junk we love it.<br />
<br />
- Have a great day.TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-53336756731895606102016-02-03T09:13:00.002-05:002016-02-03T09:13:48.727-05:00How Would You Like to See Legion Unfold?I've been reading a fair deal of fan theories about what will happen in the coming Legion. Some of them, I must admit, have been really good. There are a hell of a lot of really creative people out there in the gaming world and it seems like a few are having some funny with with fantasy of how to tell a good warcraft story.<br />
<br />
If you read this blog even from time to time you might have heard me say that I think it is time we, the heroes of Azeroth had a set back. I've often posted my fan theories mainly because I kind of dig that sort of stuff and I enjoy getting lost in the fantasy a bit with writing. I think as early as when Cataclysm was announced before we really knew anything about it I had my theories of a story line that involved us losing.<br />
<br />
When Warlords was announced I had a very elaborate scenario were we lost in our bid to save this alternate Draenor. It was before we really knew anything about Warlords. I had said a great ending would be if we come to combat the iron horde and the legion invades as we do so. We attempt to save this Draenor from the legion as they open portals all over the world and we fail. The final battle would be us trying to escape alternate Draenor before it exploded and if you won the fight and made it out alive the fight would end with you either in stormwind or orgimmar, depending on your faction of course. If you failed, Draenor blows up with you still on it.<br />
<br />
Seems I was partly right. The end fight was against the legion like I predicted, but of course we won just like we always do. I really have been aching for a set back. I think the game needs it. We, the heroes, are way too strong and keep getting stronger. There was no sense of doom or dread in legion. We knew we would beat everything the iron horde threw at us and later everything the legion threw at us. We need a loss. I have been on and on about it for a long time.<br />
<br />
It seems that I am no longer the only one that thinks that. A lot of these fan theories I have been reading where people making up their own story of what they would like to see all have us suffering loss. Be it with our heroes dies, our cities burning, or just flat out having battles we can not win.<br />
<br />
I think, for me at least, that is why I am really digging a lot of these fan made theories. They jive with something I have been wanting to see for the better part of 6 years now. I want to see us, the heroes, put in our place. We are but mortals yet we take down the high and mighty as if we were an adult trying to beat up a toddler. Super easy and really unfair. We are too strong. We need to be knocked down a few pegs if you ask me. We need to lose.<br />
<br />
Now loss does not need to be actual loss. Like my idea for Draenor at the time. While we "lost" in saving Draenor we did escape with our lives and the lives of a great many others we got off the planet in time. So you could say even in defeat we won, a few battles at least even if not the war.<br />
<br />
For story purposes we can not actually lose. If we lose, we are dead, it is game over. But we can lose in the sense like I mentioned for Draenor. We can lose because we were not able to save the planet but win in the sense we made it out alive and managed to save a great many people in the process. <br />
<br />
I would love to see Legion bring us a story like that. One with some depth to it, something character building, something that shows we do not always win. While I have not quite thought out my story line for how I would like to see it unfold for Legion the way I had Warlords before it, it remains pretty much the same. I want to see us lose. And it seems a great many others have jumped on my bandwagon with that thought in mind in their own fan theories on what they would like to see happen.<br />
<br />
How would you like to see Legion unfold? More of the same with us exerting our dominance over each and every obstacle in our path or maybe seeing some set backs? Perhaps you have some other completely different idea in mind. Maybe you picture the final battle not against the legion but against the titans or the old gods. Do share. What would you like to see?TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-45687751998031154332016-02-01T10:54:00.001-05:002016-02-01T10:54:22.246-05:00Monday Random Thoughts- I had some sad new this weekend about a fellow player.<br />
<br />
- We have all hear stories about people we, or others, have played with that passed on.<br />
<br />
- We have all heard, and in some cases personally experienced, how people get older and their abilities diminish and they play less or can do less.<br />
<br />
- It is part of life, and real life always has an impact on our entertainment.<br />
<br />
- His wife came online last night to let the officers know why we have not seen him all week.<br />
<br />
- She too is a player.<br />
<br />
- He came down with an extremely rare illness.<br />
<br />
- Doctors were able to save his life, but he lost his arm.<br />
<br />
- I saw my eyes are tearing up a little writing about it.<br />
<br />
- Some may say this is only a game, and it is, but the relationships you make while playing it can be very real if you let them be.<br />
<br />
- I've known him since 2008.<br />
<br />
- He was my PvP partner since wrath, a really solid player with a high ranking that always tried to help me get better when I had the itch to try PvP.<br />
<br />
- He was a semi consistent raider.<br />
<br />
- When he was not away for military duty.<br />
<br />
- And more importantly, he has been someone I am glad to call a friend for a long time.<br />
<br />
- While I am saddened to lose my PvP partner and a solid raider I am near heart broken to know that my friend lost so much more.<br />
<br />
- And not just his arm.<br />
<br />
- The game he loved to play he may never be able to play.<br />
<br />
- When he woke up one of the first things he told his wife was to go online and tell us not to kick him from the guild.<br />
<br />
- My god I would never even think of it and if someone even thought for a second of suggesting it I would kick them first.<br />
<br />
- He was, is, family.<br />
<br />
- He is welcome to stay as long as he likes.<br />
<br />
- I just hope that some day he can find something he can do in game that allows him to still have som joy with it.<br />
<br />
- I will gladly help him level next expansion.<br />
<br />
- I might never be able to help him PvP but I am sure I can drag him along for some raiding.<br />
<br />
- He will always remain a member of the guild.<br />
<br />
- He will always remain a friend.<br />
<br />
- And I am just glad he is alive right now.<br />
<br />
- I was thinking what class it might be best for him to play, so he can still play some.<br />
<br />
- Demo warlock or BM hunter make the most sense.<br />
<br />
- Being will have to become a clicker and movement might be an issue having a pet that does solid damage and can tank could make it easier on him.<br />
<br />
- I've one question for the people that read here.<br />
<br />
- Is there a way in game, or with an addon, to add a click to move functionality like they have in diablo?<br />
<br />
- That would make one handed play a lot easier.<br />
<br />
- And maybe it can bring a smile to his face.<br />
<br />
- That would mean a lot to him I am sure.<br />
<br />
- One of the officers said a funny comment that sort of softened the mood when we were all feeling down.<br />
<br />
- They said, "I bet even with 1 arm he would still be a better raider than half the people that sign up for raid night."<br />
<br />
- It is funny because it is true.<br />
<br />
- On to other random thoughts, short and sweet version, as that was really the only thing on my mind right now.<br />
<br />
- Got 1 achievement left on diablo to get my stash.<br />
<br />
- Do the level 45 rift solo with no set pieces.<br />
<br />
- Attempted it with some random stuff and could not even kill anything.<br />
<br />
- Building a set now for a fire build that should do the job.<br />
<br />
- Have 5 pieces of gear thus far with bonus fire damage bringing me close to 100% extra damage from fire abilities.<br />
<br />
- That with my ancient manticore and ancient rucksack for increased sentries, increased sentry damage and increased cluster arrow damage I should be able to do it.<br />
<br />
- But that will have to wait until next weekend as I am a weekend warrior only on diablo.<br />
<br />
- Did manage to hit paragon 600 while doing rifts to upgrade gems.<br />
<br />
- Can't believe my seasonal character has more than twice as many paragon points as my normal one.<br />
<br />
- Funny part is, I think doing the one to do a solo 55 with 6 different sets would be easier at this point.<br />
<br />
- 55 is a breeze now.<br />
<br />
- The hard part would be getting two full sets on another character.<br />
<br />
- Either way, I would have to say the extra stash slot is mine.<br />
<br />
- I am glad because it was the only reason I was actually playing it.<br />
<br />
- As far as wow goes, not much to say there.<br />
<br />
- Random people still stuck at cataclysm time walkers.<br />
<br />
- No surprise there.<br />
<br />
- They kicked one of my guild mates from a random because, get this, he tried to explain how to do the fight after they wiped 3 times because it seemed no one else ever did them before.<br />
<br />
- He got kicked because he knew the fight?<br />
<br />
- Does that make any sense to you because it sure as hell makes no sense to me.<br />
<br />
- I love the idea of someone willing to teach me how to do something I do not know.<br />
<br />
- It is not even remotely reasonable to kick the person that is explaining the fight so you do not wipe again. <br />
<br />
- The only thing worse than a bad player is a stupid player.<br />
<br />
- And even worse was the fact they were bad and stupid based on what my guild mate said.<br />
<br />
- Not willing to listen to how the fights were done.<br />
<br />
- Not even attempting to follow mechanics.<br />
<br />
- And doing dismal numbers, as he said he was over 65% of the DPS on the first boss and over 80% of the DPS on all the trash.<br />
<br />
- It is standardized item level.<br />
<br />
- Sure you can gear for best in slot, but he was just using his normal gear.<br />
<br />
- So they were bad and stupid.<br />
<br />
- Funny part is the cataclysm time walkers are not even half as hard as they were at release.<br />
<br />
- These have to be all new players, because older players learned those fights when they were actually harder.<br />
<br />
- At a 429 item level on day one.<br />
<br />
- It was a nightmare in some groups.<br />
<br />
- I remember the rock boss in deepholm and all of grim bartol as being horrible.<br />
<br />
- The under water one with bad pulls or lack of focused fire and interrupts and CC could be horrible too.<br />
<br />
- In low item levels with lesser skilled players that did not know the fights the cataclysm dungeons were, or could, be really really hard.<br />
<br />
- With a guild group they were awesome.<br />
<br />
- Amazing hearing some of these people saying how hard these are and here I am thinking how super easy they are.<br />
<br />
- All about perception I guess.<br />
<br />
- Well, I guess that is all for now, and please if anyone knows of a click to move addon or something in the game setting that will allow it, please let me know.<br />
<br />
- I would be very grateful.<br />
<br />
- Have a great day.TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-82443732665855706972016-01-28T13:37:00.001-05:002016-01-28T13:37:13.450-05:00What Do You Expect Leveling to Look Like Come Legion?The leveling process now has a lot of issues, some of which I do plan to discuss in this post but I am sure I will be missing out on some of them such as professions and the such, but the over all questions is what do you think leveling will look like next expansion? I'll share my opinion first, because that is what I do here.<br />
<br />
Lets first go over the leveling experience and how is had downgraded, in my opinion, over the past few expansions. <br />
<br />
The complete overhaul of the old world leveling experience in cataclysm messed up the continuity a great deal. This one major redesign of the leveling process is where leveling started to go downhill as I see it.<br />
<br />
Where you used to level from vanilla to BC to wrath, when cataclysm came out you quested from cataclysm, to the far past BC to the not as far past wrath and back to the current time cataclysm. The situation only got worse with the following expansions by making it even even more convoluted of a leveling process when looking at it from a pure story perspective. To a new player there was no flow, no rhyme and reason to the leveling process at all. And there is a reason for that feeling. Blizzard designed it that way, on purpose or by accident because they did not think ahead, I'll let you decide, but either way, it left things feeling off when leveling. When they redesigned the old world leveling for cataclysm for no reason other than to redesign something that only needed updating, not redesigning, it was the first step in a series of steps that further ruined the leveling experience.<br />
<br />
They should have left well enough alone I believe. Let us start in vanilla, as if we are starting in the past and catching up to current times, and let us level though the past to meet everyone else at max level in the here and now.<br />
<br />
One thing cataclysm did have done well, for the most part, however was that the skills people got while leveling still made sense as they got them. Sure low level tanks and healers did seem a little slow to get the key things they needed to do their role to the best of their ability, but it was not exactly horrible, just not great.<br />
<br />
When mists came out they changed a lot of abilities, removed some, added others, and also managed to add modifiers to certain abilities. This had an impact on the leveling process, quite a huge one in some cases.<br />
<br />
When leveling a healer or a tank now you were even more put on the spot. Some classes not getting AoE as a tank until you have been trying to tank dungeons for 20 or so levels already. Some healers not only getting no AoE heal for what felt like an eternity, but not even getting their second heal until they were well into their leveling journey.<br />
<br />
And it was not only the tanks and the healers that felt some discomfort with how the talent changes effected the leveling process, damage dealers did as well. Some classes not getting key abilities which would be the central focus of their entire game play until very late in the game. Or other classes using abilities for a good 10 or more level, like primal strike for shaman, which would otherwise have no place even being considered as something they would use. Or in the case of hunters having two of the specs us a focus generator, namely steady shot, nearly their entire leveling process, only to have it removed as they got close to level cap.<br />
<br />
The entire experience could be confusing and frustrating to someone new and most definitely an issue for those that never look outside of the game for information and have no one in game to lean on asking questions.<br />
<br />
All that was only when mists came out. When warlords came out we had to deal with many other abilities being cut in the great pruning of 2014. Lets forget all the max level players that saw abilities they loved removed but think about what this post is concerning, the leveling process.<br />
<br />
After the pruning of abilities the tank and healer issues I mentioned before got even worse. The damage dealers had to deal with getting abilities that modified spells they had not even learned yet. Sometimes you might even find one spell modified twice before you even got it.<br />
<br />
Each time the abilities are shuffled around and changed or removed or even added, the leveling process takes a beating and with the changes in warlords it has never been more evident. cataclysm might have screwed up the "feel" of leveling to the point I don't think they can ever fix it without a complete reset of the game from level 1 where they put the story line back in the order is should be, but warlords put the second nail in the level coffin in my opinion. The issues that came with mists were not good for leveling, but not as bad as what happened with cataclysm and warlords.<br />
<br />
Now when leveling a fresh character not only do you not have needed abilities as you level, not only do you get modifiers for abilities that you do not even have yet, but you go spurts where you get 3 abilities in 6 levels and then none for the next 10 levels leaving the leveling process completely uneven and presumably less rewarding because a new player is not seeing themselves grow as much as we did back when we got power boosts more often. Even the old style of 1 point that you could put into something as lame as +1% critical strike was more exciting than getting nothing at all, which much of the leveling process is now thanks to pruning.<br />
<br />
But what will happen next expansion. Can it really get worse for the new player leveling a player for the first time. Can it really get even less rewarding.<br />
<br />
With the gaps in ability gain and the feeling that we do not get much more power as we level as it is right now what will it feel like when we have even fewer abilities which will most assuredly translate into even fewer abilities being given to a new player as they level.<br />
<br />
Looking at my favorite class alone, which is only one of, well, all classes getting a hatchet job done to it, I am losing more than half of my abilities. If there are such huge gaps in getting abilities as it stands now what will it look like when there are that many fewer abilities. Will even more classes enter dungeons the first time without even the basic tools they need to fulfill their role. Will we see even more classes having to deal with getting abilities that modify spells they will not even have for another 30 levels.<br />
<br />
I'll be the first to tell you my opinion is that the cataclysm revamp of the old world was a complete waste of time and resources. But I will also say I believe that the leveling process needs to be fixed. I hate suggesting that they allocate resources to fix something old like that, but it needs to be done.<br />
<br />
Why is that you might ask and the answer is simple. If the game never intended to get new players and it was just me, you and the other person leveling alts for the rest of forever, it would make no difference if they fixed the leveling process. We have all been there and done that. It does not matter it is out of order. It does not matter we get out abilities in a screwed up order because we know what is coming later to even it out. But if they want new players to join the game and more importantly new players to fall in love with the game and to get attached to it like I did or you did or that other player did, they need to fix the leveling process.<br />
<br />
The leveling process needs to be more than a mash up of left over parts from expansions past. It needs to have a story that moves in a linear way and not jumping all over time, like the remake of the old world did when cataclysm came out. It needs to give players at least the most basic of the tools they need to accomplish tasks once the game opens up them for them, such as tanks and healers having the needed AoE abilities at level 15 for when dungeons become active. It needs to give abilities in a understandable order and not give you abilities that modify a skill you do not even have yet. And last but not least, it needs to let the player feel that each level is a step forward in power instead of having to wait 2 or 4 or even 10 levels before they get a new ability that makes them feel as if they are getting a little personal progression as they level.<br />
<br />
So what do I think leveling will look like in legion?<br />
<br />
Unless something major changes I think it is going to be downright horrible. The worst it has ever been. I think it will not be something that can keep a new player playing and in the end, for each and every one of us, keeping those new players matter. They might be your next friend, your next raid super star or heck, even just another subscriber paying them which in turn keeps the game running. But they will be none of those things if they get bored because the leveling process does not feel rewarding or fun enough to keep them involved.<br />
<br />
If you ask me, we need to go back to a point system when level and each level lets you assign 1 point into something. Blizzard says they removed it because there is nothing exciting about putting 1 point into +1% critical strike. Maybe they are right. But one thing is for sure. I would rather go 4 levels with adding +1 to four different secondary stats than going 4 levels with absolutely nothing. Which it seems we will be seeing a lot of in legion.<br />
<br />
Just one elf's opinion, what is yours? TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-86960034416655020382016-01-25T12:10:00.002-05:002016-01-25T12:10:48.092-05:00Monday Random Thoughts- Did not play much WoW this past week.<br />
<br />
- Got my archie kill one night in for an upgrade.<br />
<br />
- Killed a few heroic bosses and once again wasted coins for nothing.<br />
<br />
- And that is about it.<br />
<br />
- I could have finished off my ring the week before if I bothered to farm valor.<br />
<br />
- I decided against it.<br />
<br />
- Getting that upgrade each week is the only thing keeping me going at the moment.<br />
<br />
- So I have 3 more weeks before I need another motivator.<br />
<br />
- Like I said, I could have finished it already if I wanted to.<br />
<br />
- But decided I would just do it from kills only for fun.<br />
<br />
- Not like I need it numbers wise.<br />
<br />
- But bigger numbers are always better they say.<br />
<br />
- Speaking of bigger numbers Diablos season 5 started just in time to serve as a nice distraction for the time being for me.<br />
<br />
- And the numbers there seem insane.<br />
<br />
- I am doing more damage than I have ever done in normal.<br />
<br />
- I am gaining more paragon levels than I have ever done in normal.<br />
<br />
- I am getting more legendary items than I ever did in normal.<br />
<br />
- I am pushing faster times than I ever did on normal.<br />
<br />
- I am pushing higher levels than I have ever done on normal.<br />
<br />
- So yeah, lots of big numbers coming out of seasons, at least for me. <br />
<br />
- I never did seasons before, this is my first.<br />
<br />
- Why is that you say?<br />
<br />
- They offered an additional stash slot if you did certain achievements in a season.<br />
<br />
- I am doing it only for the stash space, no other reason really.<br />
<br />
- Bag space is always the #1 thing in any game that actually concerns me and this got me to play the season.<br />
<br />
- Sad part is I am just not skilled enough to get it.<br />
<br />
- At least I do not believe so.<br />
<br />
- Everything that is needed before the conquests parts I believe I can do, but the conquests seem out of my reach.<br />
<br />
- Mastering a dungeon was hard enough, took me like 14 tries.<br />
<br />
- But that is a piece of cake compared to the conquests I need to do 2 of. <br />
<br />
- One of them I can see getting, the loot 50M gold streak, but that is about it.<br />
<br />
- I guess doing the greater rift 45 with no tier pieces is the second most accessible one.<br />
<br />
- But for someone that is A) not very good and B) never really spends enough time playing to pump up big paragons levels, it seems a little out of reach.<br />
<br />
- But hey, I needed something to do so I figured I would try.<br />
<br />
- It is for bag space after all, how could I not try.<br />
<br />
- I love bag space and would do anything for it.<br />
<br />
- You know those free to play games, or pay to win games as some people call them?<br />
<br />
- I might not spend money on them to win, but if they offer increased bag space I will, and do, buy it in a heart beat.<br />
<br />
- It is the single most important piece of any game I play.<br />
<br />
- I stopped playing fallout 4 because I just got tired of the bag space limits.<br />
<br />
- Before I stopped I started using the PC code for unlimited carry weight.<br />
<br />
- But by then I was already gone.<br />
<br />
- I was burnt out on the running back and forth of it. <br />
<br />
- It was nice not having to worry about bag space any more.<br />
<br />
- Maybe I will go back to it some day, I really did enjoy fallout 4 for a change of pace.<br />
<br />
- And if I do go back I do intend to use the limited carry weight code. <br />
<br />
- But I most definitely am not a first person shooter type of gamer.<br />
<br />
- I like story driven games with set progression paths.<br />
<br />
- And the occasional slaughter fest for fun sort of game.<br />
<br />
- Which is where Diablo fits in.<br />
<br />
- I saw people complaining on the forums about bots in Diablo and wondered what they are talking about.<br />
<br />
- I did not even know you could have addons never the less some program to do other things.<br />
<br />
- I am such a noob at diablo it seems. <br />
<br />
- But I figure over all it is a single player game, who the hell cares.<br />
<br />
- They say as long as there are leader boards it is competitive and bots ruin the competition.<br />
<br />
- Ok I guess, if you really want to compete in a single player game that has no actual real objective in it other than just to slaughter things for fun. <br />
<br />
- To each their own.<br />
<br />
- I have never used, nor will I use a bot in diablo, but I did use the unlimited carry code in fallout 4 and if they had one like that is diablo I would use it there too.<br />
<br />
- It is not cheating to do something like that in a single player game.<br />
<br />
-The only person you are cheating is yourself.<br />
<br />
- If you choose to cheat yourself, it is you and you alone that has to deal with the consequences of your cheating.<br />
<br />
- Like the fun of getting stronger as you go and working your way up.<br />
<br />
- If you skip that, you are skipping the entire game.<br />
<br />
- So cheating only cheats yourself out of what otherwise is the entire concept of a game like this.<br />
<br />
- And not to mention, if you get that uptight over leader boards for a single player game, you really need to readjust your priorities.<br />
<br />
- Seeing people rage about cheating in diablo actually made me want to bot.<br />
<br />
- It goes back to the same thing like I say for warcraft.<br />
<br />
- How does my paragon level (gear in wow terms) effect your game play?<br />
<br />
- I'll give you a hint, it doesn't.<br />
<br />
- One person made the perfect response, in my opinion, to someone complaining about bots.<br />
<br />
- He said he has worked so hard to get to paragon 900 already playing 14 hours a day that is he going to quit because he hates seeing people using bots with more.<br />
<br />
- So the OP said the users of such programs should be banned, basically, because they have more paragon levels to him.<br />
<br />
- The guy responded, and this was great, that he believes the OP should be banned because he has to work and can only play at most 4 hours a day so it is unfair to him that the OP should be playing 14 hours a day and getting more levels then him.<br />
<br />
- So being he is playing more than him, and has more paragon levels than him, he should be banned too. <br />
<br />
- It might sound silly, but he is right.<br />
<br />
- The only problem this guy had with someone using a bot was that they had more levels than him, because they are on more often with the program.<br />
<br />
- So the poster replied to the OP that he has the same problem with him playing 14 hours a day when he can't, so he should be banned too.<br />
<br />
- I got a laugh out of it.<br />
<br />
- I can see getting all bent about cheating like that in warcraft.<br />
<br />
- It is an MMO, many items and crafting materials can be traded, it can give someone some sort of advantage.<br />
<br />
- But that thought process does not work for a game like this.<br />
<br />
- There is nothing to be gained by cheating like this except paragon levels.<br />
<br />
- And a person still needs to be skilled, to some extent, to take full advantage of said levels.<br />
<br />
- And again, the only person it effects is them.<br />
<br />
- I made it to greater rift 51 solo so far, that is my max.<br />
<br />
- Have not tried 52 yet, but will next weekend.<br />
<br />
- I am glad I was able to do it.<br />
<br />
- If I cheated I would not have enjoyed it as much.<br />
<br />
- But I am proud of myself for doing it.<br />
<br />
- So the only person losing if I cheated would be me.<br />
<br />
- If I cheated and became extra strong it would have not been such an accomplishment for me.<br />
<br />
- So if I cheated it would only hurt myself. <br />
<br />
- And in the grand scheme of things, I do not want to cheat myself out of the fun of doing it on my own.<br />
<br />
- Well... unless it was an unlimited bag space cheat.<br />
<br />
- I would use that in a heart beat.<br />
<br />
- I will admit that.<br />
<br />
- I love bag space. <br />
<br />
- Have a great day.TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-12967277167143900042016-01-22T12:22:00.001-05:002016-01-22T14:04:53.980-05:00If WoW Is Going to Keep Borrowing From Diablo...Both Warcraft and Diablo are owned by the same company so we could not use the "stealing ideas" line that people like to use so I am going to use "borrow". All ideas belong to the same company and we have seen cross over from one game to the other between many of the blizzard created products. This is not a bad thing, not even in the slightest. Some ideas from one game are just begging to be integrated into the other and blizzard is smart enough to realize that.<br />
<br />
Coming with Legion we see a much larger scale borrowing from Diablo than ever before. Sure we have had some things lifted from Diablo and added to Warcraft recently. The largest one was adding even more randomization to the game. From gear having additional stats, to a gem slot, to even being warforged reminds me of Diablo. It makes one piece of gear come in many different variants. Now as many as Diablo does of course, but still many, for Warcraft standards.<br />
<br />
Another piece of the randomizing borrowed from Diablo are the baleful items. Where they could be randomly warforged and had random stats on it. And there was the added fact you could A) get them as drops or B) buy them when you saved up enough currency, and both would be completely random stats wise. Same as Diablo where you could get say a waist piece as a drop or buy one with blood shards.<br />
<br />
It was pushed even further with the most recent patch when the warforged baleful gear was no longer just 650 of 675 when warforged but it could be anywhere from 650 to 695 in 5 level intervals. But they did not just leave it there, they also made mythic dungeons change from dropping either 685 or warforged at 705 gear to having a span of 685 to 725 in 5 level intervals as well. Add in that those could have a gem slot or third or both or neither on any of those items meant that the amount of different drops could be 72 variants (I believe, you can check my napkin math) for each and every item making it even more like Diablo.<br />
<br />
Next expansion they are pushing it even further with their borrowing from their other franchise. They are adding the transmog wardrobe to the game which is a huge boon to anyone that like to collect things and even more so if they are an avid collect and like to have a large selection for their mogging pleasures. But it does not stop there.<br />
<br />
Random legendary drops, which I will have to write about another day as my thought on those would easily fill a post all on its own, are being added to the game in a very Diablo style. As in they can drop from anywhere. You could kill a boss in a dungeon or an elite mob in the world or a rare mob anywhere you run across it or trash in a raid or even just killing some rats out in the world and it could drop. Just like Diablo where the absolutely most powerful items in the game can be attained from anywhere no matter what level of difficulty you are playing at.<br />
<br />
There is more too. Borrowing the idea of greater rifts come the new design for challenge modes. Instead of you, the players, scaling down to the challenge, the challenge will scale up to you. So as you get stronger you can push the challenge up further. Then just recently we saw they are adding special abilities you can give the mobs in the dungeon to further the difficultly, and presumably up the reward of the challenge. Such things as, all mobs enrage at 30% health increasing damage by 100% and one that has a constant AoE throughout the entire dungeon that does damage the entire time. These, the greater rift challenge modes and the special abilities of mobs to add difficulty, are directly borrowed from Dialbo.<br />
<br />
Then there is one of everyones favorite Diablo things coming to warcraft as well. Treasure goblins that just run away and continue to drop goodies the entire time until they are killed, or they escape, are coming to Warcraft as treasure demons. How they will work yet is still unknown, but the fact they are coming is known. Another straight borrow from Diablo.<br />
<br />
So what is the point of me saying all of this? Well, if WoW is going to keep borrowing from Diablo there are some things I would actually like to see them borrow.<br />
<br />
1) Loot Drops<br />
<br />
In Diablo whenever you kill a boss, an elite, a champion, you always get loot. Admittedly it is garbage 99 out of 100 times, but you always get something. Never do you have to deal with the fact that you need to tier legs so damn bad at nothing you can even roll on ever drops from that boss even after, 5, 10, 15 or 20 kills.<br />
<br />
In Diablo you might not get what you want, but you know you will always get something and there is a chance that you can get something good. Warcraft needs that. We no longer need a loot system with master looter. Everything should be personal loot and every time you kill a boss you should win something from it. Every... single... time.<br />
<br />
Let the warforged be random, let the gem slot be random, let the third stat be random, let getting 2 or even all 3 of them be random, but make sure everyone gets some sort of reward for killing a boss every time they kill it. You should always get at least one item off the loot table that is for you spec.<br />
<br />
They can easily make it so many more pieces drop for each class on the loot list by adding addition rings, necks, back and maybe wrists and waists to each boss. This way there are always at least 5 items that drop for each class and specialization.<br />
<br />
Will some people gear up quickly this way? Yes, just like some people gear up quickly now. Will some people still kill a boss 20 times and not get the piece they want? Yes, just like some people never get what they are going for now.<br />
<br />
So things will still be mostly the same with one major exception. Now if you have killed, for example, Gorefiend 20 times and never even seen your tier token drop and you have even used a coin on most of those kills to no avail, you start to feel disheartened, you start to feel as if you will never get the item but if the boss always guaranteed an item, even if you have gotten a ring 20 times so far, you know for a fact with 100% certainty that you will get something you will keep killing him knowing that sooner or later you will get it because you always get something.<br />
<br />
With all this randomness added to the game, too much in my opinion, Warcraft needs something like that that gives people hope. I've seen more people complain about loot in the game recently than I ever have before, even people that I never heard complain about it before, because they felt like they were running uphill all the time and never getting anything for their effort because of RNG. Having people guaranteed to get something each time they kill a boss, or a named mob in the Diablo case, would really ease the RNG burnout even if it does not gear people up any faster because people will feel at least they are being rewarded for their effort.<br />
<br />
2) Cube<br />
<br />
You can turn a rare into a legendary item in Diablo with the cube. You can reroll the stats on an item with the cube. You can change one set piece into another set piece with the cube. All that and more.<br />
<br />
This would be yet one more thing to ease the pain of RNG that I know I dislike. It would allow people to grind to get something, or have a chance at getting something, that luck just will not allow them to have.<br />
<br />
You could put some random purple with whatever assorted materials they make us gather in the cube and attempt to upgrade it to a legendary if the world drop gods have not been nice to you lately. You can take those bracers that have haste on them when haste is bad for you and attempt to reroll a better stat on them, with the appropriate materials of course. Perhaps with the ring materials you can turn that second tier chest piece you have into the tier leg piece, if luck is on your side, or you might just end up with your third set of tier shoulders.<br />
<br />
Have these materials be a range of things. Stuff that drops from the world, stuff that drops from dungeons, stuff that drops from raids and even stuff that is crafted. Make it all capable of being traded, none of that soulbound bull crap blizzard loves, and it could revitalize the game some as people start grinding materials to try to turn that extra chest piece into a leg piece or change that epic pair of boots they do not need into the legendary one.<br />
<br />
More people would be out in the world killing mobs to get materials to use or sell. They would be gathering, crafting, spamming dungeons, raids, all to get materials to use or sell. It very well could get people out and about and doing more things by giving them a way to over ride the dreadfully horrible RNG of the game. Which is a great idea in my opinion. Anything that takes away some RNG is a good thing, even if, in this case, it still adds another level of RNG in its own right. But at least this way it feels like we have a chance or getting what we want, and that is all people like me want, a feeling like we could get what we want.<br />
<br />
Now while I am on this topic I would like to add one thing I would love to see Diablo borrow from Warcraft.<br />
<br />
1) Loot Lists<br />
<br />
In Warcraft if you are looting for the tier legs you kill gorefiend. Sure you might kill him 20 times and never get them but you know for a fact he does drop them and that is where they come from. In Diablo the loot list for everything is the same. From breaking a vase, to searching a corpse, to opening a chest, to opening a bounty bag, to killing a rat, to killing an elite, to killing a champion, to killing a boss or rift guardian. Anything can drop from anywhere.<br />
<br />
It is kind of nice when you happen to get your best in slot item because you just happen hit some breakable item with your AoE while mowing down mobs but it would be much nicer if you could narrow your scope of what you are looking for.<br />
<br />
Leave it like it is where anything can drop from anywhere, but make at least bosses have certain drops on their loot list, to refine the drop chances just a little to increase your chances. For example, say I am looking for the Dawn weapon so I can cube it and put it on my weapon. I could spend the next 50 hours farming everything known to man to get it, and maybe I will, but it is all random, or I could go for butcher because it is on his loot list as one of the item he is more likely to drop.<br />
<br />
Give every boss a chance to drop, at least, one item from their loot list and increase the chances of an item from the loot list dropping based on the difficulty level. Say 10% at T1 all the way up to 100% chance at least one would drop at T10. So if I wanted to farm Dawn and it was on the butchers drop list I could keep farming him on T10. Even if he had 30 items on his loot list, for example, the chances of getting the one I want are still slim, but at least this way I would have a singular focus on what to kill instead of randomly killing, breaking and opening everything hoping and praying to get the item I need.<br />
<br />
I, personally, would love Diablo if it had a more focused system. And they could even give the elites and champions specific drop lists. Like elites in Act 1 have one drop list, champions in that act another, and each set in each act would have its own drop list. And then rifts would have their own, and greater rifts would have their own. You get the idea. Lots of items means lots of loot lists but it would allow people to focus on killing a certain type of thing. So I could still get my Dawn from anywhere, like breaking a breakable (which is how I got it) or I could farm one specific place to try to increase my chances. So yeah, I think I would like there being loot lists in Diablo just like they have them in Warcraft.<br />
<br />
What do you think?<br />
<br />
What else should Warcraft borrow from Diablo and do you think there is anything Diablo could borrow from Warcraft?TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-45693559176101822722016-01-20T08:48:00.002-05:002016-01-20T12:37:23.265-05:00Why So Much Change in Legion?Change can be a good thing. When there is a system not working, having it redone is not a bad thing. You need to make what isn't working work and the only way to do that is by change. The key to successful change however is that you leave enough that is familiar behind to make adapting to the change an easier transition and that the change is not a change for the sake of shaking thing up only, it has to be something that is needed.<br />
<br />
Blizzard, in recent years, have become the poster boys for "change for the sake of change". Each expansion they change things for no other reason than to shake things up. Some of these changes are good. Some are bad. Some we can argue about for days because they are both good and bad at the same time. But they have made sure that every expansion comes with enough changes to make people, possibly, feel a little overwhelmed by it. Or perhaps even a little put off by it, such as I am with the complete dismantling of hunters and everything they have always been with the next expansion.<br />
<br />
Ghostcrawler has not been with blizzard for a long time now but still to this day he answers many questions about warcraft. Some years back someone asked him what was the number one reason he saw on the exit interviews. The exit interview is that thing they ask people to fill out when they are canceling their subscription in an attempt to find out why. Good companies use these exit interviews to try to make some changes so that the people that are leaving because of those reasons won't leave. He said the number one reason why people quit was change.<br />
<br />
So basically what blizzard needs to make is a change to stop making changes. Sounds odd, but it is a fact. People leave because of changes, it is the number one reason people leave. So perhaps stop changing so many things and keep to adding to the game instead of changing what is already there so much that it alienates the players and makes them feel they have fallen behind and can't catch up because "so much has changed".<br />
<br />
Basically what Ghostcrawler pointed out is what everyone and their mother already knows, you did not need an exit interview to know it, but it is quite telling that change was the number one reason people left even if we knew already that people do not like change, more often than not. They do not like their favorite actor leaving a television series, they do not like their favorite ballplayer signing a contract with another team, and they do not like the class they have been playing to change so drastically they feel like they are stating all over again.<br />
<br />
People can adjust to change, they always have, but they do not like it. Minor changes and adjustments are fine. But when you have been playing a class for 5 or 8 or 10 years and then suddenly it feels as if you know nothing about it and are starting brand new there is something wrong, the change went to far. This is the type of change that scares people off. When you have invested 10 years in something there is an expectation that you know what you are talking about. Changing an ability from instant to cast time, even if people rebelled over it, is acceptable change. Removing a key ability that has been with your class for 10 years and adds to the flavor of the class is not acceptable change.<br />
<br />
Over the years I have seen many players come and go. Many that were main raiders for years that had quit return. These are good players, smart people, could adapt to nearly everything. But even with me and others in the guild willing to help them catch up, willing to answer all their questions, willing to make sure they did not feel lost because of all the changes, they still ended up quitting again because the game changed too much and they did not feel like playing catch up.<br />
<br />
Change, at least sweeping large changes, are bad for the game, bad for sports teams, bad for television shows, bad for your family life, bad for your bowling team, basically bad for everything. Change is not always a good thing, more so when it is change that changes everything. <br />
<br />
So my question is this...<br />
<br />
If change is the #1 reason people quit the game, why is blizzard so intent on pushing more change than we have ever seen before down our throats?<br />
<br />
So do they actually want people to quit or is this some sort of social experiment to see how much crap you can get people to put up with before they do quit?TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com37tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-68996925438346559352016-01-18T10:20:00.002-05:002016-01-18T10:20:23.881-05:00Monday Random Thoughts- For as much as the last week was a good pugging week for me, this one wasn't.<br />
<br />
- After multiple attempts, and failures, to find a heroic archie group, I gave up and just did a normal.<br />
<br />
- Figured what the heck, the only thing I need off archie is the neck but only if it has a gem slot and is warforged.<br />
<br />
- For the outside chance of not only winning it, but it having not one but two rare upgrades, is it really worth putting myself through hell?<br />
<br />
- I think not.<br />
<br />
- If that were all I needed, maybe.<br />
<br />
- I am weird that way.<br />
<br />
- Went looking for gorefiend groups, took forever to find one.<br />
<br />
- And it said, no hunters.<br />
<br />
- Really?<br />
<br />
- All I want to do is roll a coin, why no hunters.<br />
<br />
- No really, why?<br />
<br />
- Hunters are awesome on that fight.<br />
<br />
- Mobile DPS for below, spot on target switching capability for the adds, high powered burst for feast if you save stampede.<br />
<br />
- So I don't get it, but oh well, I will keep looking.<br />
<br />
- Found another group, no hunters.<br />
<br />
- Found a third, no hunters.<br />
<br />
- Was there a memo put out that said do not invite any hunters to pugs any more and I missed it.<br />
<br />
- I had seen one of the archie groups earlier that had that.<br />
<br />
- Another fight it makes no sense to blackball hunters from.<br />
<br />
- Saw a xhul that had that too.<br />
<br />
- I always saw the occasional group not wanting hunters, but there were a lot this weekend.<br />
<br />
- Wonder why that is.<br />
<br />
- If you ask me, and I am not saying this just because I main a hunter, but I would take a hunter of nearly ever other class in nearly every single situation.<br />
<br />
- The are ranged, they are mobile, they are good at target switching, good at handling special mechanics, they are the only ranged class with a taunt, they can kite, they can slow, and being they are both mobile and ranged they can easily avoid more damage that any other class.<br />
<br />
- When it comes to a raid group, hunters are the absolute best class to have "too many" off.<br />
<br />
- I would take a group with 6 hunters over one with 6 warriors, or 6 mages, or 6 rogues or 6 shadow priest, or 6 anything, you get the idea.<br />
<br />
- So if you are going to have "too many" of one class the choice is a no brainer.<br />
<br />
- You go for "too many" hunters.<br />
<br />
- I finally got fed up with seeing no hunters I applied to one that had no hunters listed on it.<br />
<br />
- I said, 786 ring, will do over 100K while making adds first priority, and you do not want me because I am a hunter. Reconsider.<br />
<br />
- I sat in there waiting for 3 minutes and got accepted.<br />
<br />
- Just as they downed gorefiend.<br />
<br />
- I said, thank you for the invite, but I wanted gorefiend, and left.<br />
<br />
- Wish I had thought to do that 20 minutes earlier when I first saw that listing.<br />
<br />
- Oh well, my timing is horrible, but I always knew that.<br />
<br />
- Maybe a lot of the people that lead these pugs had some runs ins with bad hunters and now they shun them.<br />
<br />
- They need to remember they are the #1 played class in the game.<br />
<br />
- They are great soloers.<br />
<br />
- They are great gatherer because of their pets keep mobs busy while they loot.<br />
<br />
- The are the best questing class.<br />
<br />
- And they have more tools that any other class in the game making them, when in the right hands, a very powerful tool.<br />
<br />
- So being there are more hunters, the likelihood or running into a few bad apples is much greater.<br />
<br />
- How many bad rogues have you seen in your pugs?<br />
<br />
- I can tell you how many good ones I have seen, I can count them on one hand, and I pug often.<br />
<br />
- Hunters are played by roughly 6 times as many players are rogues.<br />
<br />
- So of course you will run across more bad hunters.<br />
<br />
- I would say I have seen roughly 20 rogues recently in pugs, 2 were good, the rest sucked.<br />
<br />
- I would say I have seen roughly 100 hunters, about half sucked.<br />
<br />
- So that means I have seen about 50 bad hunters and 18 bad rogues.<br />
<br />
- Does that mean, because I see more of them, hunters on average are worse than rogues?<br />
<br />
- Hell no, look at the math.<br />
<br />
- 90% of the rogues sucked, only 50% of the hunters did.<br />
<br />
- So stop shunning hunters because you see more bad hunters out there.<br />
<br />
- Of course you do, they are the most played class.<br />
<br />
- Doesn't mean they are bad over all.<br />
<br />
- Just that there are more of them.<br />
<br />
- You can't just a book by its cover and you can't judge a player by their class.<br />
<br />
- Speaking of can't judge a book by its cover, one raid leader of a heroic archie I was on really summed it up.<br />
<br />
- We were on voice chat, because he wanted us there.<br />
<br />
- He said, you can't judge someone my AotC, because you can buy it and buy it super cheap on many servers.<br />
<br />
- You can't judge a player by their item level because getting to 720 is super easy.<br />
<br />
- You can't judge a player by their ring any longer because you can buy upgrades.<br />
<br />
- I sort of agree with him on most of that.<br />
<br />
- Except the 720 item level thing.<br />
<br />
- If you have bad luck, getting to 720 is near impossible.<br />
<br />
- You read how much I raid, I just hit that.<br />
<br />
- And I work my butt off to try to get gear, I just don't.<br />
<br />
- So I would say, you can't judge a person by their item level either.<br />
<br />
- My item level is low, my damage done, knowledge and execution of mechanics and damage taken are always near the best.<br />
<br />
- One run I was in saw only someone 739 item level beat me.<br />
<br />
- By 5K.<br />
<br />
- And he funneled boss while I switched to adds and took the least damage myself in the entire raid.<br />
<br />
- Can't judge a book by its cover, that is 100% true.<br />
<br />
- Sad part is, how else do you judge people if not by kills, achievements, item level and the like?<br />
<br />
- I wish there were a better way.<br />
<br />
- Sadly there is not.<br />
<br />
- I've also come to a conclusion that will have me make a blanket statement right here.<br />
<br />
- Mind you, this is only in reference to the people I have seen.<br />
<br />
- Anyone that wears the title "Proven Assailant" purchased it.<br />
<br />
- I always say proving grounds is not about DPS, it is about mechanics, but that is in reference to getting bronze.<br />
<br />
- Going for the proven assailant requires mechanics and DPS.<br />
<br />
- And everyone I have ever had the pleasure to pug with that had that title could not fight their way out of a paper bag.<br />
<br />
- I remember one run on the third boss I think, my pet beat a mage that has gear equal to me in total damage done.<br />
<br />
- And no he did not die early, he lives the whole fight.<br />
<br />
- The issue here is, I am MM and I use the lone wolf talent.<br />
<br />
- That means I have no pet.<br />
<br />
- I have no pet, and my pet beat him in damage done.<br />
<br />
- For those not in the know that means stampede, a 5 minute cooldown that I used only once, did more damage in those few seconds it was there than he did in the entire fight.<br />
<br />
- Some proven assailant he was huh?<br />
<br />
- Lets get to some no raid random thoughts.<br />
<br />
- I was thinking, why can't humans be druids?<br />
<br />
- Worgen are humans.<br />
<br />
- Worgen can be druids.<br />
<br />
- Therefore shouldn't humans be capable of being druids?<br />
<br />
- And don't say the curse allows them to be druids, that is beyond silly.<br />
<br />
- Speaking of things beyond silly, when are rogues going to be available for all races.<br />
<br />
- We already have warriors that way, hunters are joining them, so the only other physical class that has no magical abilities of any sort left is a rogue.<br />
<br />
- There is no reason any race should not be able to be a rogue.<br />
<br />
- Anyone can sneak around with daggers and stab someone in the back.<br />
<br />
- Maybe gnomes would do it better than tauren, but they should still both be able to do it.<br />
<br />
- I can understand why some races can not do some magical things.<br />
<br />
- That makes sense.<br />
<br />
- But the ability to pick up a dagger and stab someone with it needs absolutely no skill.<br />
<br />
- If anything a hunter needs leaps and bounds more skill to create a bond with a create so it would willingly serve him.<br />
<br />
- I can see some races not having that ability, yet all races will soon be able to do that.<br />
<br />
- So all races have the, somewhat, magical ability to talk to animals, but not all of them can pick up daggers and be sneaky?<br />
<br />
- Makes no sense.<br />
<br />
- I rolled a character for season 5 on Diablo.<br />
<br />
- This will be my first seasonal character.<br />
<br />
- I only did it because I read somewhere that will be the only way to get the extra bag space.<br />
<br />
- So I am doing it for bag space.<br />
<br />
- It is amazing what people, like me, will do for more space to collect junk.<br />
<br />
- I hit 70 and am at paragon level 102 now.<br />
<br />
- Highest greater rift is 30 currently.<br />
<br />
- I still have squat for gear, all rare pieces, 2 legendary items and one set piece on.<br />
<br />
- Nice to see my no luck with drops is not confined to warcraft.<br />
<br />
- That was sarcasm in case you missed it.<br />
<br />
- I hate my luck, or lack thereof.<br />
<br />
- I did get 3 potions already.<br />
<br />
- On the main servers I only got 3 potions, ever, over all my characters.<br />
<br />
- Already got three in the season.<br />
<br />
- They must have adjusted how things drop in seasons.<br />
<br />
- And must have adjusted experience gains.<br />
<br />
- Because it might have been a while, but I don't recall getting to paragon level 100 in one sitting.<br />
<br />
- From creation to paragon level 100 took 12 hours over this weekend.<br />
<br />
- Sure a lot of time played, but I am sure nothing even remotely close to what it did originally.<br />
<br />
- There has to be some experience boost going on with the seasons, I am sure of it.<br />
<br />
- I did not cap out my valor this week, Diablo side tracked me this weekend.<br />
<br />
- So I did not max out my ring as I was planning.<br />
<br />
- Oh well, I do not think I am going to rush it this time around.<br />
<br />
- Have to give myself something to do long term.<br />
<br />
- Maybe level some alts and start working on their rings.<br />
<br />
- It is a powerful item worth getting.<br />
<br />
- It is something to think about.<br />
<br />
- But right now, I am at a loss for what to do in game.<br />
<br />
- But I do have good news from the guild front.<br />
<br />
- Not sure what spurred it on but this weekend we had the return of 6 players.<br />
<br />
- Yes, 6 players.<br />
<br />
- Sadly three were tanks and we do not need 3 more tanks, but three were damage dealers and we are in desperate need for damage dealers.<br />
<br />
- What are the odds of having ex raiders return this late in an expansion when the new one is nowhere near close?<br />
<br />
- And then what are the odds of 6 of them coming back over one weekend.<br />
<br />
- Three of those all within 5 minutes of each other.<br />
<br />
- No, I am not kidding.<br />
<br />
- It was awesome to see all these people return.<br />
<br />
- It makes me actually want to run normal again to gear them up.<br />
<br />
- Did a normal run for one returning member and as luck would have it, decked him out in a full 4 piece in one week.<br />
<br />
- Three from normal and one from heroic.<br />
<br />
- Sweetness, don't you think.<br />
<br />
- At least with the returns we will finally have some people on the paladin, priest, warlock token.<br />
<br />
- Our priest healer has been getting all of them as he is the only one in the raid that can use them.<br />
<br />
- Allowed him to get some awesome tier pieces as he gets them all.<br />
<br />
- And it seems they are the only ones that drop.<br />
<br />
- Next expansion they have to lose the classes on tier pieces and just make them so anyone can roll on them.<br />
<br />
- Nothing worse than seeing the 10th tier hands going to someone that hasn't needed them since the first when there are still a dozen people in the raid that do not even have them at all.<br />
<br />
- They need to fix their loot drop system big time for legion.<br />
<br />
- But right now I am not looking forward to the hell that is coming that is making me want to quit.<br />
<br />
- I am looking forward to blowing through some normal runs for fun and to gear up some returning players.<br />
<br />
- I needed this, I needed new life in the game.<br />
<br />
- Returning friends did that.<br />
<br />
- More than any content blizzard could add.<br />
<br />
- It is the people I play with that keep me playing, it is not blizzard.<br />
<br />
- It has not been blizzard since cataclysm.<br />
<br />
- In truth, blizzard should be paying us, we should not be paying them.<br />
<br />
- Because it is us, the players, that keep others playing.<br />
<br />
- If we left, they would leave too.<br />
<br />
- The people, the players, we are the best content blizzard has.<br />
<br />
- We are what keep people playing, keep people engaged.<br />
<br />
- Maybe blizzard should be paying us.<br />
<br />
- Hey blizzard, send me an alpha invite please, thank you.<br />
<br />
- Have a great day.TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-91744283553989590362016-01-14T12:49:00.001-05:002016-01-14T12:49:28.979-05:00Legion: Dread, Doom and GloomThe next expansion is supposed to instill in us, the heroes of Azeroth, a overwhelming feeling of dread. We are to feel covered in a cloud of doom and gloom because at any given moment our world as we know it could be over.<br />
<br />
We do not only fight the forces of the legion once again but we do so on our very doorstep. Not only do we have to face them but we face them while they have control of territory on our very planet. An entire area is under their control. They are bringing in forces, building armies, in their stronghold having taken over a piece of land on our very world.<br />
<br />
We face them not trying to stop a summoning, not trying to repel an invasion, not trying to disrupt them. They have already been summoned, they already have a sizable and seemingly insurmountable invasion force, and we are not on the offense to disrupt them, we are on the defense to keep them from taking even more control of our world.<br />
<br />
The expansion most definitely is set up with that doom and gloom feeling that this is it, we have met our match. This is the last battle we will ever have, the demons of the legion have control of part of our world and are pressing for more and we can not advance on them as we are too busy trying to make sure we do not lose any more real estate to them. We have to stop the advance, we can not let them have more land to build more portals, to summon more demons. There is no going and closing what they already have when we are too busy trying to keep them from building more.<br />
<br />
The set up is perfect. For the first time ever we, the heroes of Azeroth, are on the losing end. This is not the burning crusade were we took the fight to them and we overwhelmed them. This is not wrath where the lich king made the error of toying with us instead of killing us and allowed us to eventually beat him. This is not cataclysm were there was some corrupted dragon that seemed no different than the dozens of other dragons we killed before. This is not mists were we created the threat by bring war to the shores of pandaira and then squashed the threat we created, or when we allowed a tyrannical warmonger to take a seat of power and removed him from it, with ease. This is not warlords were everyone we faced from the iron horde and their associates we could have, lets be honest here, been able taken out solo, any single one of us heroes. Even when warlords ended we faced a bunch of threats that seemed non-menacing, or were threats we had beaten before many years ago with much less experience and not as the heroes we are now, so they were never any real threat.<br />
<br />
Legion bring about something no expansion ever brought with it. A feeling a dread, an air of doom and gloom, knowing that this could very well be it. The end, the last battle, or at least our biggest one to date.<br />
<br />
Perhaps for older players looking at it as it really is, which should be something to be feared, greatly, we don't get that feeling that this treat is any different from all the others we have faced from beating a horrible godzilla knockoff in deathwing to beating, again, archimonde whom we had already beaten when he was stronger (as in didn't just rematerialize) and we were much less experienced and presumably weaker but for a new player this is an excellent jump in point where they get to feel read dread and feel the stifling pressure of the doom and gloom of the situation.<br />
<br />
As I see it, this is the first expansion were we are not on the offense. That alone makes the presentation different, in my opinion at least. We are fighting for our lives, we are on defense, we are in a position we have never had to be in before. <br />
<br />
Do you feel it, the dread, the doom, the gloom, of the coming legion invasion on our very own soil? Do you think this is the best representation of a real threat that blizzard has offered us thus far, at least what we know of it? How do you think the send up seems compared to others? TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-85707841284292260682016-01-12T11:28:00.001-05:002016-01-12T11:28:09.815-05:00How Has the Garrison Gold Influx Affected Your Numbers?The expansion has not ended, not even close to doing so, but when talking about numbers with people the other day when someone complained "I can't make any gold" and we tried to explain how easy it is to make gold this expansion it made me wonder, where is everyone with gold.<br />
<br />
This expansion more than ever before has proved to me that while we all play the same game, we are not all playing the same game.<br />
<br />
What I mean by that is I see the wide range of people in my guild alone, one small sampling of the world we play in. There are people that were always broke that are still always broke. There are people that would have problems with gold that get by just fine now without really trying. There are people that always made gold that now no longer even try because they do not need it. And there are people that used to love making gold that now sleep in a castle built from gold with an ear to ear smile on a daily basis from how they are raking it in hand over fist. And then there are various people in between those examples I gave.<br />
<br />
We said to the person that while the garrisons no longer gives the massive gold influx they did at the start of the expansion they are still constant money making machines. With the right set of buildings you can maximize your intake and even without all the <i>perfect</i> gold making buildings you can still do quite well for yourself.<br />
<br />
Side note: Salvage yard (level 3) for crates. Jewel Crafting building (level 3 with worker) for daily. Bunker/Mill (level 3) do the daily for the weapon upgrade, sell all upgrades. Inn/taven (level 3) for the treasure hunter missions and recruiting treasure hunters. Trading Post (any level really) to trade extra garrison resources for materials. Mine and Garden (level 3 if you wish) to sell mats, not as lucrative any longer, but still something. And then make sure to do any and all missions all the time. Each time you do a mission it allows others to pop up. Think of all gear missions, follower upgrade item missions, etc, as gold missions as all that stuff sells. Remember, gold missions are not just from gold missions, it is from any mission that gives you something you can vendor. And with that, even after it has been heavily nerfed, you could still make upwards of 10K a month even if you only log in a two or three times a week, per character. Does not sound like a lot, but for such little effort, it really is money for nothing.<br />
<br />
When it comes to the types I mentioned I fit into the one were I always made gold and no longer try. Basically because I do not have to. Garrisons have made me lazy using the outline I mentioned above. Not just partly lazy. Completely and totally lazy. I used to make gold the old fashioned way, I earned it, now I just sit around and collect it. Yeap, 100% lazy now and I admit it.<br />
<br />
When I talk about earning gold, for example, in cataclysm I would buy ore for 40 gold or less per stack from the auction house, or farm it if I were in the mood, I would then prospect it all, cut the good gems into whatever sold well and then turned all the others into rings and necks, passed them to my enchanter to disenchant, and then cut and vendor off any remaining gems. <br />
<br />
The enchanting materials sold for a very high number at the start and the crated lesser gems vendored for 9 gold a pop. This basically meant that for each 40 gold I spent I would get, at least, 54 gold in the worst case, which never really happened, and at best around 600 gold. If I spent an hour processing I could easily make upwards of 20K gold on a bad day. <br />
<br />
That is what I mean working for gold, but it could be anything, even something as simple as selling gear you craft or putting up glyphs for sale or potions and flask. You were working for your gold. I used to do things like that all the time when I needed some gold and I made good gold doing it, but now I basically just bounce from garrison to garrison and click on a few things like in a facebook game and collect gold for doing so.<br />
<br />
Note: That no longer works. The medium gems no longer have a market, the enchanting materials don't either. Not to mention they hard nerfed the cut gem vendor prices to near nothing, which was the key to making money with this scheme.<br />
<br />
The thing is, even becoming flat out lazy, and admittedly so, I have more gold than I ever had before. Sure, I could have quadruple the gold I do now if I actively tried to make gold this expansion, but in my mind once you have a couple of million, you really do not need more gold do you?<br />
<br />
But all that is beside the point, as I said, while we all play the same game, we are not playing the same game. Just as I changed, many others have as well. There were people that never had gold that now do, people that used to make decent gold that somehow can't (as mainstays like crafting materials are now worthless over all) and then people that somehow still can not make gold even with the cash machine as their home base in warlords. Why is that so I might ask, and answer at the end, if you will indulge me.<br />
<br />
So I tried to remember what it looked like for me at the end of every expansion I played in gold wise. It is entirely possible I could be remembering some things slightly off but I will try to be as accurate as I can. There are some things I do recall, which help me remember where I was at when the time came.<br />
<br />
At the end of BC. I did not even have a mount, because I did not having riding. I could not afford it. Yeah, don't judge, lol. I was not much of a player back then. Noob would be an understatement. I quit before the end of BC and did not return until wrath was out of a couple of months.<br />
<br />
At the end of wrath. My main was around 40K gold and my bank alt was more than that, my alts had some gold, but not much at all. If my alts had at much as 4K I think that would be over estimating.<br />
<br />
At the end of cataclysm. I think my main was sitting at the 200K range and I had at least 2 alts over 100K. Most of my characters were sitting around roughly 20K-25K with the exception of my least played characters. One I recall spot on, because it spent 10K gold near the end, was my rogue who started the legendary quest line then never really did much after he started it. When he started he had 11K on him, so I spent nearly every cent I had starting it and he was my lowest max level, gold wise. A few max level alts on other servers were sitting at 20K and one was in the 60K range. So over all I would say my average character had at least 20K, if I had to judge looking back. Of course my main and bank alt being the only major outsiders to that average.<br />
<br />
At the end of mists. I had many characters over 100K, multiple hunters, my Dk, my priest, my shaman, my mage, and more. My lesser played characters were not as lucky, my rogue never quite made it back up to far, I am sure he ended mists at 24K because I joked thinking he was the only max level I had who I would not be able to instantly upgrade the entire garrison with, as doing all upgrades would cost 36K. Over all I passed 1M for a single server in mists for the first time. I believe when warlords started, because I spent some cash, I was just shy of 1M on that server, something like 988K. I'd say my average characters had roughly 50K if I played it even once in a while and all my more played characters had at least 80K while the newest max level ones had considerably less. This was also the expansion of the alt for me as I had more max level characters in it than any other.<br />
<br />
Now warlords is not over, but where I stand now, and what started this conversation, was when I said, I noticed that most of my characters, except the newest ones to hit 100, are all sitting at, at least, 160K. I have multiple characters with over 400K sitting on them too. Even my rogue, who never had money and was always behind since he started the dagger quest that almost made him broke, is sitting at 180K just from being one of the earlier characters I got to 100 so he really had a lot of the early garrison income. Even some alts on other servers are over that average 160K mark. Most characters I log into, at most, once per week. So I am not making any effort to make gold and I have been freely spending it too, and I still have more than doubled what I came into the expansion with and we still have 6-8 months to go. I don't know where I will end but I would say it is safe to guess my average max level character will be over 200K by then if I keep up at this rate.<br />
<br />
So lets break this down to average numbers, removing the top (mostly my main and banker) and bottom numbers for the expansion averages. And not even counting BC when I could not even ride around on a mount.<br />
<br />
Wrath: 4K<br />
Cata: 20K<br />
Mists: 50K<br />
Warlords: 200K<br />
<br />
Now I am just one player, so you can not judge from me. But it actually looks somewhat reasonable in terms of increase per expansion. Cata I had 5 times the amount I did in wrath. Mists I had 2 1/2 over cata, but i also had more characters than I ever had before, more than double, so that really works out to 5 times too when you consider I did double the max level characters. And mists to warlords it is 4 times as much. But remember, I am only estimating, I could easily be somewhere around 250K which once again would be 5 times the amount I had in mists.<br />
<br />
So looking at it that way, percentage wise, inflation is not really worse than it has ever been. It is actually pretty steady, for me at least. Albeit I could have made a lot more money if I made an effort to this expansion, but the fact remains, with what I did decide to do, the game steadily advanced at the same pace it always does.<br />
<br />
So looking at it that way, how has the garrison gold influx affected your numbers?<br />
<br />
Are you in a better position, worse position, how has it treated you, and you can't just look at the numbers. Until I thought of it like this I thought I was making bank this expansion but now I see I am just moving at the standard pace I always have been. I am not getting rich, I am just increasing at the same steady rate I always have been.<br />
<br />
I will have to look at it again when the expansion ends and see where I really end at, but inflation doesn't seem as bad now, to me, looking at it this way. It is just steadily increasing at the same rate it always has. So maybe the people who have changed how much they have in terms of gold have changed the way they played and that is why the broke people are still broke even if there is a lot of gold to be made, they did not change. They were never the type that made gold to begin with. So maybe they do have 5 times as much as they used to, but that 5 times as much still does not buy what they wanted just like it did not buy what they wanted before.TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com38tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-23507299032654005732016-01-11T11:51:00.000-05:002016-01-11T11:51:00.694-05:00Monday Random Thoughts- Happy New Years everyone.<br />
<br />
- I have had a lot of stuff I wanted to post about.<br />
<br />
- Just have not had time.<br />
<br />
- Been so busy I have not had time to post.<br />
<br />
- Guess that is a good thing.<br />
<br />
- But as odd as it might sound, I sometimes find playing the game more fun writing about it than actually playing it.<br />
<br />
- So it is good to have a chance to post again.<br />
<br />
- Due to the holidays we did not raid christmas week or new years week.<br />
<br />
- And this last week we attempted a heroic run with some new recruits and me tanking on my 684 warrior and some alts.<br />
<br />
- Between some under geared players and some new players there were a couple of wipes but we got 6 down.<br />
<br />
- I was happy with that.<br />
<br />
- Was just nice to be raiding again after 2 weeks of not raiding.<br />
<br />
- As my hunter has been out of action in guild for a month now.<br />
<br />
- Tanked this week on my warrior, the previous 2 weeks we did not raid, and my druid tanked the heroic and normal archie kills the week before.<br />
<br />
- I figured I would look for some pugging this past weekend.<br />
<br />
- I wanted a gorefiend kill because I am still looking for that tier piece.<br />
<br />
- Joined a group at gorefiend, which is the best right?<br />
<br />
- Waited around 20 minutes to fill, then just before the pull one tank drops.<br />
<br />
- Not sure why.<br />
<br />
- Wait another couple of minutes and others start to drop.<br />
<br />
- We get a second tank again, refill those lost, and someone DCed.<br />
<br />
- While waiting for them to come back two of the 4 healers leave.<br />
<br />
- Not sure why.<br />
<br />
- We start to refill, it has been near 40 minutes now.<br />
<br />
- But the refill never happens.<br />
<br />
- People get frustrated, nearly half the raid leaves, the raid leader says screw it, the group breaks up.<br />
<br />
- Hot damn.<br />
<br />
- This is one of the reasons I hate pugs.<br />
<br />
- I just want to join a group and kill.<br />
<br />
- I see a group on the third boss requiring 710+ for a quick bottom run.<br />
<br />
- I figured 710+ should be a breeze so I will do the other bosses anyway just to get to gorefiend.<br />
<br />
- 3rd boss goes down no problem and 6 people leave group.<br />
<br />
- Seriously, they were just there for that boss?<br />
<br />
- We continue on without getting anyone else, as we had a large group to begin with.<br />
<br />
- We down the forth boss no problem.<br />
<br />
- A couple drop again and the raid leader, seeing us now down to 10, decides to fill for killrog, as everyone knows that fights sucks with fewer people, even if all those fewer people are doing solid numbers.<br />
<br />
- The raid leader refills and assigns vision groups.<br />
<br />
- He puts me in group one.<br />
<br />
- I don't mind being left out, but I love going into visions groups and blowing things up.<br />
<br />
- Nothing better then telling people do not worry about adds when I have a vision buff.<br />
<br />
- I think I can one shot adds up to an 18 member group, sometimes more.<br />
<br />
- One DK really really wanted to be in a visions group.<br />
<br />
- Said if he was not in the first visions group he was dropping group.<br />
<br />
- I was about to offer up my spot when the raid leader said the groups stay as is.<br />
<br />
- And he dropped group.<br />
<br />
- Someone in group said, I thought he was joking.<br />
<br />
- Are people really that obsessive over DPS that they would drop group over not getting into a visions group?<br />
<br />
- I mean I love having the visions, I know I can do a lot with it and take the pressure off the entire group when it comes to adds, but if I was not in visions I would not complain.<br />
<br />
- To each their own right.<br />
<br />
- We downed that boss and the next, gorefiend, no problem, the tier does not drop, my roll gets me the gloves that I do not need.<br />
<br />
- I find another group on killrog, asking 720+, I join it for the two easy kills.<br />
<br />
- I can't loot, as I already killed it, but the tier did not drop anyway so it made no difference, but I roll.<br />
<br />
- I win on my roll.<br />
<br />
- Guess what?<br />
<br />
- The same pair of gloves.<br />
<br />
- Do you know what I got out of my timewalkers cache?<br />
<br />
- The normal version of the gloves.<br />
<br />
- Do you know what I already had in my bags before this started?<br />
<br />
- A 720 version of the gloves.<br />
<br />
- So I had an upgrade 720 pair I had sitting in my bags, a normal version I got in a cache, and 2 heroic versions I rolled and won.<br />
<br />
- Is the game trying to tell me I should be wearing them?<br />
<br />
- You know what the worst part is.<br />
<br />
- I had not won anything on a coin in so so so long.<br />
<br />
- When you see the spinning and the loot pop up you get excited, only to see you won nothing.<br />
<br />
- And then to see it on the same boss twice, I would have thought it would not give me the same piece back to back.<br />
<br />
- I will never get that tier piece will I?<br />
<br />
- And being I just won two rolls I know it will be forever until I win another one again.<br />
<br />
- They really should change winning on a roll.<br />
<br />
- So if you win you choose what you want from the loot list, not random.<br />
<br />
- It is rare enough to win something as is, but to keep winning junk on the few and far between times you win really sucks.<br />
<br />
- I was going to try for another gorefiend but decided against it.<br />
<br />
- It is a glove day, so maybe I should try for Soc tier right?<br />
<br />
- While looking through groups I saw a heroic Archie group that seemed promising.<br />
<br />
- It asked for 720+ and while it looked for AotC like all the others the way it was written seemed like I might have a chance.<br />
<br />
- As I do not have AotC yet I usually do not get invited to such groups.<br />
<br />
- But in in bags item level it 723 and that is what shows.<br />
<br />
- It is also the reason I have upgrade pieces sitting in my bags, to help that item level.<br />
<br />
- Dirty little cheat that I am. :P<br />
<br />
- This is what I wrote.<br />
<br />
- Do not have AotC (3% best attempt). Know fight, know role, 774 ring.<br />
<br />
- I got invited instantly.<br />
<br />
- Holy cow.<br />
<br />
- I usually get instantly declined when I put no AotC.<br />
<br />
- It was a very solid group, we one shot it.<br />
<br />
- I was the only person that had the achievement pop up, which means I am the only one he took a chance on.<br />
<br />
- I appreciate the chance to do what I knew I was able to do.<br />
<br />
- I did well, did not mess up any mechanics, switched to targets as needed, destroyed all the things that came from the banish, tanked the infernal dudes just right, and even rocked the charts while doing it.<br />
<br />
- It goes to show you, sometimes taking a chance on someone is a good thing, I was most definitely a benefit to the group.<br />
<br />
- But sadly more often than not you would find someone that screwed things up when pugging, even if they had AtoC.<br />
<br />
- I guess that is why so many people are against taking people that do not already have the achievement.<br />
<br />
- I think me saying 3% best and having a 774 ring is what sold him.<br />
<br />
- With a 774 ring you know I have at least a boatload of kills under my belt on normal.<br />
<br />
- Dating back to when normal had the 2 mechanics that were removed.<br />
<br />
- I still say normal should have never removed those mechanics.<br />
<br />
- It would make the heroic pugs so much better had they not.<br />
<br />
- I had been in a few archie pugs here and there trying to get my kill and the number of people shooting the entire group was insane.<br />
<br />
- In the group I got the kill in I do not think I saw one thing mishandled.<br />
<br />
- It was not even an over powered group.<br />
<br />
- While I was 5th in damage done at 79K, after me everyone was lower, in the 50-60 range at best.<br />
<br />
- I was beat by a shaman, 110K, another class I do not recall at 98K and two other hunters at 85 and 81 respectively.<br />
<br />
- I checked the other hunters out, of course as I always do.<br />
<br />
- The 81 hunter bested me.<br />
<br />
- He had similar gear and a slightly better weapon and trinket, but I had more gem slots.<br />
<br />
- So I will give him a head to head win there, even if I had more add damage.<br />
<br />
- The 85 however, I would say he should have done considerably more considering what myself and the other hunter did.<br />
<br />
- The group was solid over all, there were a few player that seemed, off, like a 29K hunter and two 30 something players, but like I said, most of the numbers were solid.<br />
<br />
- And most importantly, everyone followed mechanics.<br />
<br />
- I can not stress that enough.<br />
<br />
- Every fight is easier when everyone knows what they are doing.<br />
<br />
- This fight is the prefect example of that.<br />
<br />
- I was in pugs with better numbers and bad mechanics and we never got anywhere.<br />
<br />
- Basics of raiding.<br />
<br />
- Follow mechanics, do your job, do it well, collect loot.<br />
<br />
- Having raided with many different people of many different skill types over the years I can say without a shadow of a doubt that doing mechanics makes a fight easier and doing well makes a fight easier.<br />
<br />
- But doing mechanics and doing well make anything a push over.<br />
<br />
- I wish more pugs were like that.<br />
<br />
- I was just happy to finally get my AotC and that someone gave me the chance.<br />
<br />
- I got my moose, learned it, did not even mount it.<br />
<br />
- Looks more like a reindeer anyway, I will save it to next christmas to ride it.<br />
<br />
- And people do not tell me I am the only one that thinks it looks more like a reindeer than a moose.<br />
<br />
- Not to mention, a reindeer flies, a moose does not.<br />
<br />
- So there you go, it is a reindeer.<br />
<br />
- Have a great day.TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-31694155776891945862016-01-01T07:09:00.002-05:002016-01-01T07:31:21.547-05:00A Moment of Greatness, A Realization of SadnessIn a recent reply to someone that posted here I was reminded of a mythic dungeon pug I did a week or two ago when I had one of those moments where the stars lined up right and I didn't screw it up so I did something pretty cool on my hunter.<br />
<br />
One of the best things about being a hunter is when one of those moments happen. When you get rooted and there is a huge effect about to hit the area you are in and you are quick enough, smart enough, or even lucky enough, to stumble across your masters call to free you and move just in time. Or when you are doing heroic lich king and get picked up and you know death is seconds away but in a desperate last attempt you try to time it so you spin and disengage back on to the platform and stick a perfect landing, alive and well. Or when you are fighting the last surviving member of the klaxxi and you are the last surviving member of your raid and being he will not move from the middle and keep firing projectiles at you, which being you can attack while moving you can avoid, so you solo him from 100% to 0 all by yourself.<br />
<br />
There are a a million and one examples that I could give you that are great hunter moments. Anyone that has played a hunter long enough has managed to have one of their own, or even if you do not play a hunter you have surely seen one of these amazing hunter feats over the years. It is the little things, those special things, those magical moments where knowledge, skill and perhaps even a little bit of luck all seem to meet together and you pull something off that others would think impossible.<br />
<br />
That is what it means to be a hunter, that is the beauty of being a hunter, that is why I love being a hunter. I live for those moments, that one second in the thousands upon thousands I play, where I am the top dog and I did something pretty darn awesome, my own personal moment of greatness, even if only for a fleeting moment, I live for that being a hunter and I love being a hunter and being able to make them happen for me.<br />
<br />
In that mythic I mentioned I had one of those moments of greatness and I would like to share the story because it very well might be the last one of its type I am ever able to share. What I did was something any hunter could have done. I am not tooting my own horn here, it is not a me thing, it is a hunter thing. And truth be told, any hunter could do it and it is the reason why some people play hunters, to have moments like this.<br />
<br />
I entered mythic Auchindoun with a pug and after the first boss it became clear, while we would clear this, it would be mostly on the fact I was pulling high numbers. The tank was not using any cooldowns giving the healer both fits and mana issues left and right, enough that she asked to mana up after every single trash pull. And the damage dealers were poor by mythic standards, but not horrible by any means. We would fight our way through without a doubt, but the pressure was on me to do as much DPS as I could as the other damage dealers were not contributing enough and the faster the boss went down the better chance we had. If it went on too long the healer would go oom and the tank would go down and it would be a wipe.<br />
<br />
We actually did wipe on the first boss because of that exact reason. I did not go balls to the wall with all my cooldowns and we wiped because of it. The healer ran out of mana because of the tank not helping themselves, and we all died a painful death. So I knew that each and every boss would mean I needed to even pre pot and use stampede. Which honestly I was not used to doing. Normally the runs are so fast I can only use stampede it once per run so I use it on the third boss. Sure I could use it on the first and forth in those runs, but I choose to wait for the third. With this group it seemed I would easily have it for every boss, and I would need to use it on every boss.<br />
<br />
And speaking of the third boss, that is when my moment to shine came. The moment when it is all said and done you say, I love being a hunter and feel absolutely fantastic about yourself, your class, the game as a whole, because moments like this are why we play.<br />
<br />
A group of 5 walked up to Azzakel and only the hunter walked out alive, and it was awesome fun.<br />
<br />
We started out good, burst was high on my end as well as the other two DPS, we got him down to around 20% before he took off into the air and the add phase began. I ran to the back to pick up one of the large imps and burn him down fast. In pugs I never trust people to get the far away imp so I make sure to handle it, always. In that short time however the rest of the group imploded. The tank died, due to his lack of using cooldowns on the large felguard, and then the felguard took out the healer and the other two DPS.<br />
<br />
It was only by a matter of luck that he did not come for me before the others. Perhaps because they all stayed in front while I went to the back to kill the large imp back there. I was not on his aggro chart, or at least no more than a blip because I never touched him and I was nowhere near him. Because of this choice to go to the back to get the imp that landed there it was me versus all the adds, alone.<br />
<br />
Time to go into hunter extreme mode. I could do this. Every time something like this happens my mind starts to look at my surroundings. What is around, where is my health at, where is my focus at, what cooldowns do I have. Can I do this. As a hunter you have roughly half a second, not kidding, half a second, to make the decision to go for it or feign death and mass revive the group. After a fast survey I thought I could do this. My hands shook a little bit, but I had I plan and I knew if I could keep it together I could get it.<br />
<br />
I had two large imps left in close proximity to each other, the large felguard, and a whole mess of little imps bouncing around that I would need to handle, as I know that I would need to kite and those little imps would be the death of me. One stun from them getting close and it was all over. Who would have thought they were put on the top priority list for me. Most people would say the large imps were top priority. Not me. I knew exactly how I was going to handle them and they would be no problem what so ever.<br />
<br />
I started to do what it is hunters do but I forgot to mention, I only had a few more seconds before the boss would come back down too and I would have him to deal with as well. But I was at full health, and I had a plan in my head on how to manage this. Now was the hard part, putting that plan into action. It is so easy to make a mistake. For every awesome story I share like this where everything worked out fine there are probably 100 where it didn't. Oddly, even the ones where it didn't were stil fun. Just to try and do it, to know you can, if you do everything right.<br />
<br />
First things first, I fire off a concussive shot on the felguard to slow him down, then fire a few thrill powered aimed shots off at some imps, which thanks to being a fairly decent high item level for this content I was able to one shot them both. That set the stage for what I needed to do. Slowed the big guy who could destroy me and killed two imp where I needed to head.<br />
<br />
I then turn to where the two large imps are, both coming close to starting their cast again, which will destroy me. Item level or not, they hurt. I start running toward them firing a binding shot between the two of them and do a jump shot spinning in the air and hitting the felguard with another concussive shot as he closes on me. I keep a keen eye on the cooldown on concussive. It lasts as long as the cooldown is which means when it is coming off cooldown, I need to make sure I use it again. Then I fire another aimed shot to kill one small imp behind me, as I plan to head there in a second, spin and disengage. I have the talent to give me the speed boost after I disengage, which gives me exactly what I need as the boss is coming down now.<br />
<br />
Now to finish what I started with that binding shot and I figure I have exactly 2 globals to do so as they both started casting again. I fire a chimera shot hitting both large imps and then fire off an glyphed explosive trap knocking both imps back. Back also happens to be away from the binding shot which, thankfully, stuns both imps and interrupts both casts.<br />
<br />
The boss lands and I bolt away firing one aimed at a small imp, still 2 left as I see it, and finishing off one of the large imps while they are stunned. I turn and hit the felguard again with a concussive shot and I am being forced into a corner with a small imp and no focus, so I can not kill it. So instead I trap it. A CCed imp is as good as a dead one right? For this situation it is at least.<br />
<br />
I then turn my attention back to the larger imp and start building focus on it with steady shots, interrupting it as my counter shot is now off cooldown from when I used it when the phase first started. I then finish off the large imp and turn my attention back to the boss. He is at 20% health. I have my mirror trinket off cooldown. I can not kite him and get the most out of it because the mirrors, while doing solid numbers, do not move with the target. I would need to stand him in the mirrors if I want them to work right. I need to face tank it if I want to get the most out of it.<br />
<br />
I kill the last small imp, forgetting about the trapped one completely, keep the concussive rolling on the felguard. And keep running, waiting for my disengage with its speed boost, to come off cooldown. It is what I need to set up the do or die moment of this fight because I need to get some distance so I can stand still with only the boss on me and not both the boss and the felguard.<br />
<br />
I disengage and get as much distance between me and the felguard as I refresh the concussive on it. This would be the last one I hit, I will either kill the boss in those 8 seconds or die. Six seconds for the concussive to wear off, and I was figuring two seconds for the felguard to catch up.<br />
<br />
The time comes, I hit my second potion and my mirror trinket and unload on the boss, screw the felguard, if the boss dies he goes away. I had full focus I was saving for this point, and I let the boss catch me with the trinket, the potion and a face full of aimed shots I let loose. Kill shot, kill shot again and he goes down back to the depths of hell from where he was summoned from.<br />
<br />
/cheer<br />
<br />
God I love being a hunter.<br />
<br />
How can anyone not enjoy the moments like this, the moments where it pays off to be a hunter, to know your toolbox, to be capable of effectively using it. These are the moments every hunter lives for. <br />
<br />
I said to a friend on voice chat after it was done about what I did and then something occurred to me and I followed it up by saying, And this is why I hate the idea of legion and I am not looking forward to it. Nearly all the abilities I used there, and many more that I had in my toolbox that I just didn't need for that specific encounter will all be gone. I will never be able to do something like that again. I will never be able to be a hunter again, a real hunter, like they are supposed to be.<br />
<br />
I went, in that very instant, from feeling as if I had experienced a moment of greatness to the point were it was a realization of sadness.<br />
<br />
The hunter I have played for soon to be 8 years, the one I have practiced on, the one I had worked with just to be able to do things like I just did, we being removed from he game. Never again would I have an experience like that. Never again could I pull victory from the jaws of defeat like I did. Never again would I truly be a hunter, at least not the hunter I've known and loved for so many years.<br />
<br />
I am losing my class, it is gone, removed from the game. Everything I have worked for, everything I have trained for, everything I have learned over the years was all for nothing. I am not exactly sure if I even want to buy legion any more. I am a hunter. I live to do things like this, they are my excitement in the game. The moments things like this happen come few and far between but I know there is always the chance that maybe that next time will come soon. In this random, out in the world with this mob, or in a raid on that boss.<br />
<br />
The hunter I am, the one I have played all these years, looks forward to those moments because he knows those moments could come without notice. I did not walk into that dungeon expecting what happened to happen, but it did, and at any given moment it could.<br />
<br />
It makes me question, once all our abilities are removed, once we are no longer hunters as we know them. Will it even be worth playing? One thing is for sure. The next time something like that happens, I will not be pulling out any surprise ending, I will not be saving the day. I will be dead or feigned because I won't be a hunter any more. At least as it stands how there is no chance for greatness like this in a future that has legion in it, I see none. Not when the hunter I've played all these years is being removed from the game.<br />
<br />
It is a sad turn of events for long term hunters. It really sucks to have everything you have known for all these years stripped away from you leaving you a shell of what you previously were. I don't want legion to come, ever. I want to keep my class as is. Fun and always with a chance for greatness to come when you don't expect it around any given corner.TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015737272343810105.post-38232177844057690312015-12-28T10:14:00.000-05:002015-12-28T10:14:35.489-05:00Monday Random Thoughts- Been doing the holiday quests on anywhere from 6-12 characters a day.<br />
<br />
- Still no minion of grumpus.<br />
<br />
- If ever there were a mount I should have gotten on the first try don't you think this one is it?<br />
<br />
- Should call it minion of grumpy.<br />
<br />
- I did get the scroll toy from the older dailies on the 6th try, so that was nice.<br />
<br />
- I also managed to snag a bunch of the new pets.<br />
<br />
- Took me a bunch of tries to get the first one, then got a second a few snow piles later.<br />
<br />
- Then I spent a little time on my druid flying and looting to snag 3 more.<br />
<br />
- Then on my shaman, who I call my lucky character, I looted one and only one snow pile, it had a pet.<br />
<br />
- Then yesterday on my horde hunter I grabbed a pile it had one.<br />
<br />
- Then grabbed a second pile it had one.<br />
<br />
- Hard to believe it took me over 30 snow piles to get the first one.<br />
<br />
- Seems you are either lucky or you are not lucky.<br />
<br />
- As far as my mount goes, still not lucky.<br />
<br />
- But the game did give me a christmas day gift.<br />
<br />
- My rogue took his weekly trek to the black temple in search of his second warglaive.<br />
<br />
- To my shock I saw orange, was it the one I needed or was it my third main hand.<br />
<br />
- It was, it was what I needed.<br />
<br />
- Ding, achievement, and it was a wonderful chistmas gift for my rogue.<br />
<br />
- I can not wait for BC time walkers again.<br />
<br />
- I am so going to bust out those bad boys.<br />
<br />
- On a whim out of boredom I decided to try for healing proving grounds gold on my shaman.<br />
<br />
- Had never tried on my shaman.<br />
<br />
- Did it on the first try.<br />
<br />
- But I'll admit it got a little hairy in that last round.<br />
<br />
- The DPS really sucks in the proving grounds doesn't it?<br />
<br />
- Takes them forever to down things and they stand in everything.<br />
<br />
- I'd think healing a few 5 mans would teach people that is how the game is played.<br />
<br />
- Congratulations to blizzard for making it really realistic.<br />
<br />
- I hit hero at the end just so they would down things faster.<br />
<br />
- It worked.<br />
<br />
- I was surprised I did it on one try actually.<br />
<br />
- And glad.<br />
<br />
- Being I was not actually "trying" for it, if I had not managed it I doubt I would have given it a second attempt.<br />
<br />
- Being it felt like I had my grove on I felt it was time to challenge myself some.<br />
<br />
- And try the proving grounds on my warlock.<br />
<br />
- After all the horror stories I have heard, even from skilled locks, on how difficult it was on a lock I was a bit nervous.<br />
<br />
- But first things first, I had to level a lock.<br />
<br />
- Warlock was the only class I did not have at 100.<br />
<br />
- It was time to fix that.<br />
<br />
- I did not want to use the "trick" for speed leveling.<br />
<br />
- See, I am weird, I actually like to quest.<br />
<br />
- For the "trick" to speed leveling I'll give you the quick version.<br />
<br />
- Go fly around and do all the bonus objectives.<br />
<br />
- Do not complete them, only get them to near completion.<br />
<br />
- Then after you did as many as you can manage, which in truth you should be able to do all of them, even nagrand, you pop one of those elixirs that increase experience gain by 300%.<br />
<br />
- If you are on rested experience and have the 300% experience thing, you just go and complete all the bonus objectives now.<br />
<br />
- Ding, ding, ding all the way up to 100 nice and fast.<br />
<br />
- But I did not do that, I leveled the old fashion way, by questing.<br />
<br />
- I might do that on one of my level 90 hunters.<br />
<br />
- He is sitting at 588 item level as I recall, and my lock was only 589 when it hit 100, so the gear would be fine for the speed leveling route.<br />
<br />
- I have 3 more hunters in the 580 or so range I might end up doing that with.<br />
<br />
- But my lock needed to work his way up.<br />
<br />
- Not to mention, I wanted to get a feel for the class, and playing it is the best way to do that right.<br />
<br />
- As I said I was 589 when I hit 100.<br />
<br />
- I did cheat a little.<br />
<br />
- I crated myself a weapon and upgraded it some, to 675, because that is easy.<br />
<br />
- I also made one of those level 100 heirloom trinkets.<br />
<br />
- But no other crafted things at all.<br />
<br />
- Just gear I got while leveling.<br />
<br />
- I went into the proving grounds ready for a challenge.<br />
<br />
- I've heard how hard it was on a lock.<br />
<br />
- Bronze was a breeze, I started to feel a little cocky, like silver was going to be easy.<br />
<br />
- I will admit that I had done this on so many characters already.<br />
<br />
- I knew what the rounds were.<br />
<br />
- I knew what skills I would need to handle everything.<br />
<br />
- I was set up with an interrupt for sacrifice.<br />
<br />
- I had my gates where I knew I would need to move.<br />
<br />
- My teleport where I would need to move.<br />
<br />
- I do not think any one person had ever stepped into a proving grounds more prepared than I was.<br />
<br />
- I was dead set on doing this today no matter how long it took me.<br />
<br />
- And from all the reading about it I knew what was in store of me.<br />
<br />
- There was one problem however.<br />
<br />
- When you over prepare to the extent I did, you take all the fun out of it.<br />
<br />
- I blew through silver like it was a joke.<br />
<br />
- Never even came close to missing any round.<br />
<br />
- Did not even need to use my teleport, or my personal transport.<br />
<br />
- I had given advice to so many locks on how to do it, it felt like I had done it already.<br />
<br />
- So there was absolutely zero challenge to it.<br />
<br />
- I one shot it and moved on to gold.<br />
<br />
- I figured if silver was that easy maybe I can do gold.<br />
<br />
- Yeah... right.<br />
<br />
- I got destroyed on gold.<br />
<br />
- Silver was only easy because I over prepared for it.<br />
<br />
- I was so not ready for gold.<br />
<br />
- Not by a long shot.<br />
<br />
- Oh well, I managed silver and I was happy with that.<br />
<br />
- I really was afraid I would fail it at least a few times before I got it.<br />
<br />
- Even as prepared as I was.<br />
<br />
- Now to the gearing up phase.<br />
<br />
- I sent all the baleful gear for cloth I had over to my lock.<br />
<br />
- I sent the 5 empowered apexis fragments over.<br />
<br />
- And I clicked on everything.<br />
<br />
- Did not get much luck with upgrades.<br />
<br />
- Not one worth using the empowered pieces on.<br />
<br />
- So I guess I will hold on to them for now, no use using them on something I know I just want to replace. <br />
<br />
- But enough to get me to a 643 item level.<br />
<br />
- I did all the dungeons, then did all the starter LFRs for stones once I got to that phase.<br />
<br />
- Doing around 26K - 30K in the LFR as destro, was at 659 when I did that, not sure how locks scale, but does that sound good?<br />
<br />
- I think it is okay.<br />
<br />
- Heck, in some pugs I am in, even a heroic archie one I was in this weekend with a 720 minimum item level, there were people doing that, or less.<br />
<br />
- So it has to be okay at least.<br />
<br />
- Can't wait to see what I can do once I get gear.<br />
<br />
- Or at least some gear with mastery.<br />
<br />
- I ended day one at 100 at 665 item level thanks to lucky drops from dungeons and LFR that got my the exact things I needed.<br />
<br />
- And now a lock will enter the mix.<br />
<br />
- I actually had fun playing the lock.<br />
<br />
- Even if I do hate casters.<br />
<br />
- The need to remove that stand still while casting bull crap.<br />
<br />
- It adds nothing to game play at all.<br />
<br />
- It is a general annoyance and nothing more.<br />
<br />
- But one thing that was nice was being on a fresh 100 that was capable of soloing things with ease.<br />
<br />
- When I went to T2 I had none of that land and wait for people when I saw rares.<br />
<br />
- It was land and start pounding away.<br />
<br />
- Even at a low item level nothing could stop me.<br />
<br />
- Perhaps warlock could be my class of choice come legion.<br />
<br />
- We know hunters are out of the question really as they removed the hunter class.<br />
<br />
- So I have to find something else and need a back up in case the make believe fake hunter class doesn't do it for me.<br />
<br />
- Being able to have a tank is awesome.<br />
<br />
- I like questing that way, it is part of the reason I always said hunters were the best questing class.<br />
<br />
- Sic your pet on stuff while you go clicking, collecting and doing what ever you have to.<br />
<br />
- It sure makes doing stuff more fun.<br />
<br />
- At least that is my opinion, I am sure others think differently.<br />
<br />
- Oh, I mentioned earlier a heroic archie I was in this weekend.<br />
<br />
- We did not down it, but oh well, I can not be picky, I do not have AotC so I take what groups I can get.<br />
<br />
- But what got me in this group was I still do not understand why it broke up.<br />
<br />
- First wipe was 48%.<br />
<br />
- Second wipe was 31%.<br />
<br />
- Third wipe was 20%.<br />
<br />
- Forth wipe was 18%.<br />
<br />
- Fifth wipe was 5%.<br />
<br />
- Sixth wipe was 3%.<br />
<br />
- Group broke up.<br />
<br />
- WTF???<br />
<br />
- We were getting there, each attempt was better, each attempt we were removing some of the bad players and were lucky enough to replace them with better ones.<br />
<br />
- I guess I will get my first kill another day.<br />
<br />
- You know what amazes me most?<br />
<br />
- The group had a strict 720 item level requirement.<br />
<br />
- I was, still am, under 720, but with stuff in my bags I am 721 so I did sneak in.<br />
<br />
- So I am guessing either everyone else did the same or people really suck at this game.<br />
<br />
- I was top DPS on every attempt, if you do not count the mage that never switched to adds.<br />
<br />
- He beat me numbers wise, he did not beat me on doing what you are supposed to do.<br />
<br />
- He was 89-90% on boss, every attempt.<br />
<br />
- I think my best attempt I was a 39% on boss, because I spent the whole freaking fights soloing all the adds it felt like.<br />
<br />
- But if I, someone who does not have AotC (which means I suck, right) can do the fight right, never screw up mechanics, top the charts while doing all that, what the hell are the rest of these people doing there.<br />
<br />
- There were people complaining that they do this ever week and never wiped this many times.<br />
<br />
- I want to know who is carrying their 730 item level 30K DPS butt, so they can take me instead.<br />
<br />
- I might actually help the group and not hurt it by making it harder than it needs to be.<br />
<br />
- Everyone in the group had AotC besides me.<br />
<br />
- Why was I the only one, it seemed, switching to adds, following mechanics, and still pulling decent numbers.<br />
<br />
- These people should have been running circles around me.<br />
<br />
- In a way, I was hoping they would.<br />
<br />
- Once, just once, I would like to get a group of equally skilled players in a pug.<br />
<br />
- I would pay to find a group like that, just so I can enjoy myself and not have to feel like I am doing everything on my own.<br />
<br />
- It sucks to feel like that.<br />
<br />
- And this is why I can't see me getting AotC any time soon.<br />
<br />
- Raiding this expansion has been brutal to my guild.<br />
<br />
- We would normally be done with a raid on normal by this time and doing heroics.<br />
<br />
- Now we are not done with normal (heroic) and could not do heroic even if we wanted to (thanks to it being 20 man).<br />
<br />
- Of all the things I hate about warlords, the thing I hate the most is the way they destroyed raiding for the casual guild this expansion.<br />
<br />
- But hey, over all I had a good weekend getting a lot done.<br />
<br />
- Just need to put the bad pug people out of my head.<br />
<br />
- How can so many people that are such bad players all have AotC.<br />
<br />
- Makes me a sad elf.<br />
<br />
- Hope you had a good holiday weekend.<br />
<br />
- Have a great day.TheGrumpyElfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621615711198405365noreply@blogger.com7