Lets Talk About Cloud Serpents

With the recent announcement that you will no longer need cloud serpent riding to mount cloud serpents and the previously mentioned fact that there would be no flying in warlords, at least at the beginning and possibly longer, I've decided it was time again to talk a little about mounts., cloud serpents in particular this time.

I am not going to delve into the no flying thing as that will easily be a post all on its own but I would like to offer my opinion about the change to cloud serpent riding.  I don't like it.  Not at all.

I see no reason to remove the need for cloud serpent riding and I believe it is a huge mistake and completely unneeded for blizzard to remove it.  I even have three, what I believe, very good reasons why it should not be removed.

Why Cloud Serpent Riding Should Not Be Removed:

1) Earned

It was a very easy grind.  Even on your first character without the reputation gain boost it only took a week to get cloud serpent riding.  Less if you wanted to hunt eggs, which this late in the expansion should be easier to find, even if I have never seen one of them personally.

A guild mate hit 90 a few months ago and had cloud serpents at exalted within 3 hours of going ding.  It is not like it is a hard grind worthy of change because it was so brutal.

Even if getting cloud serpent riding was easy, quick, and actually not all that bad in terms of dailies added to the fact it came with a nice little story of watching your serpent grow, it was earned.  Easy yes, but earned.

What is this obsession with removing things from the game that actually require you to "do something" to get them?  In a way I could see, maybe even understand, if they moved the heroic only mount to normal, to let more people get it, because that is something that needed an upper level of skill from yourself and of course 9 or 24 other people as well.  But that is something that is completely limited.  Limited by your own skill, limited by your luck to get into a group that can do it, limited by the ability of those 9 or 24 other people.  So maybe, just maybe, being you need to depend on others to get it, I can see loosening the requirements to get it.  But something that is easily attained, and done so solo, they should never ever in a million years loosen the requirements to get it.

Cloud serpent riding, for as quick and easy as it was to get, was earned.  Why remove something that is easy to get?  Are people really that lazy?  If so, excuse my language, fuck 'em.  If you can not be bothered to do dailies, quick and easy ones a that, to get the riding skill for something you really want then guess what, you do not really want it and you sure as hell do not deserve it.

2) Lore

The story the quests tell was fun and interesting, it was a different type of riding, a different type of mount, something no one had ever seen before.  Don't you think at least some training should be needed to ride this wild looking noble beasts?  Just look at them fly, they are not exactly what I would call a sooth ride.

Lets not forget that giving it to people gives people one less reason to return later.  I know blizzard really likes to make things and completely forget they exist, but for the players having something to go back for does feel kind of special.  It gives you reasons to visit an old area and gives the area some life.

I am sure anyone that ever did the netherwing grind will remember going there every day to do it.  Or if they did it later, in wrath, cata or mists, they will tell you about going back there every day to do their dailies.  Old stuff is content, old stuff can remain content, old stuff that people want to get keeps them playing and lets admit it, not much old content lives on to be something people want to go back and do so why remove something that people might actually want to go back and do.

Even if it is only one week of dailies that is one week that someone is going back to do something, that is one week they are playing, that is one week of more content for them to do, that is one week of story that they can experience, that is one more week they are getting connected to the lore that is the reason we are allowed to ride these beasts.

Removing the need for the cloud serpent riding is removing the lore, the history, and content that people will always come back to do if they wanted to get that type of riding.  And like I said before, it is not like it is something that is hard or something that needs a group.  You can do it and experience it on your own, whenever you want to.  10 days in a row, or 1 day a month for 10 months.  Removing the need for cloud serpent riding is removing content effectively, and removing all the lore as to why we can ride them.

3) Ugly

Okay, let the flaming begin because I said it.  Cloud serpents are ugly.  Anything, even something as simple as a week long grind that can limit the number of people riding around on these abominations is actually a good thing.

They are too big, they are too ugly, and they move in a way that can, and has, gotten more than a few people sea sick.  With the change come warlords where they said that all flying mounts would be allowed to used on ground, that is reason enough to make sure no one can get these things.  I would not be adverse if they limited cloud serpent riding to pandaria only, or if they changed the grind to be three months of dailies if you wanted to use them.  Anything that can limit these things would be a nice plus to the game.

Big mounts, and the people that ride them and love to sit on quest givers, mail boxes, and other points of interest we might need to interact with are obnoxious, and these things just turn the volume up to eleven on the scale of being obnoxious.

Why would blizzard want to change something that would give people more ability to grief others?  Once again it shows that the people at blizzard do not play this game.  Every day we see them do something that shows a complete and total ignorance of their own game.

These mounts should be limited to the air, not be allowed to be used as ground mounts, and they should keep their gate, even if it is a super easy gate.  Just think logically for a moment.  The lazy person that can not do dailies for a week to get the right to ride it is more likely to be the type of person that will use the mount to grief others with it.  Don't you think keeping it out of their hands would be a good thing for the game?  If they really want to be jerks and grief people with a mount, at least make them earn it.  Like I said, it is not a hard grind, not at all.

How Cloud Serpent Riding Should Have Been Changed:

1) Flying Only

As mentioned, these are one of the types of mounts that should remain flying only because of their huge size.  They are the worst offender of all offenders when it comes to blocking things you might need to interact with.  It is bad enough that they are huge, but they are long, so even if you are not being like the guy that parks his mammoth on the mailbox, you can still effectively block people because your long ass mount is blocking something without your knowledge.

Without a shadow of a doubt this type of mount should never be allowed to used on the ground.  There are dozens of flying mounts that are reasonably sized, relatively attractive, and they can not be used as ground mounts, why allow these things to be used as such.   If I can not "walk" around on ashes, there is no reason anyone should be allowed to walk around on one of these monstrosities.

2) Account Bound:

Even with a quick and easy grind I can see the desire to not do it again.  I did it on 7 characters I believe.  Two jewelcrafters, to get the patterns, my main because my main gets everything to exalted, and four other characters.  None of them did I actually do it for the ability to ride the mount but because they are super quick and easy dailies so they are quick and easy valor and lesser coins which is how most of my characters got their reputation with them.

But beside the fact I got a bunch of characters to exalted, and it was easy, and most where done even before the reputation boost I could get for alts, I can understand the desire not to have to do it again.  Quick and easy or not, many people would love to get something like that on one character and have it shared with all and I agree.

Once you opened cloud serpent riding on one character all your characters should have it.  There is no need to remove it, just make it shared.  Anyone that can not spend one week doing some dailies to ride a mount is super lazy and does not deserve to ride one.  It is really that simple.  It is a game, play it.  If you do not want to play it, don't.  But, I can see it getting annoying having to do it over and over again on all your alts, so sharing it once done on one character does make sense.  How did blizzard not even think of this option and just go straight to the give it to everyone option?  They really do not make a great deal of sense most of the time.

What do you think about the changes to the cloud serpent riding?

Monday Random Thoughts

- I've been thinking of finding a server to move my horde characters too.

- Have a few scattered around and would like to get them collected on one server.

- PvE server, so I can PvP when I choose to.

- US side.

- If you have any suggestions please feel free to speak up.

- I am looking for a server with a decent pug community where things are always going.

- Horde dominated of course.

- Lets get real, if there are 100,000 people on a server which server is better?

- The one with 50,000 alliance and 50,000 horde or the one with 10,000 alliance and 90,000 horde.

- The one with 90,000 horde of course, because there is a more active community that way and more people to do things with and presumably more things going on.

- That is why servers get imbalanced, people just want to play, and it is easy to play when there are more people around, so people want to be on imbalanced servers.

- I do not play horde side often, but all the guilds I am in horde side are effectively dead.

- So when I do want to play I can never really get much done.

- My DK I got to 82 last week I got to 90 this weekend.

- 58 to 90 time, 1 day 2 hours 12 minutes.

- I like when you first hit 90, it seems like there is so much to do.

- All that timeless gear to get ready.

- Doing the scenarios for the 502 boots.

- The one guaranteed 516 heroic deeds scenario.

- Opening up the land fall, because I will need to if I decide to do the cloak quest.

- Opening up the isle of thunder.

- Doing all those solo scenarios and getting a key to stock up on elder charms, not like I need them any longer with timeless gear, but still like to get them.

- Got black price to over 4000 into friendly just from doing those.

- Did they raise reputation gains?  That just seems like a lot so quickly.

- I managed to get myself to a nice even 500 item level on that first day.

- No Celestial love and no Ordos love either.

- I do have 18400 timeless coins already however, so I will be getting a 489 weapon soon.

- The damn 502 blacksmith weapons range from 18K-24K on my server, so screw that.

- I'd pay maybe 3K for a 502 weapon I know I will replace soon, hopefully, but not 18K+.

- Being it takes forever to making them I can not blame the people for selling them for that much, but I can blame the idiots that pay that allowing them to sell for that price.

- Nothing wrong with the person selling it wanting that.

- I want 1K each for my sha crystals again, doesn't mean it will happen.

- I've played every class at various gear levels through the island and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that a DK is the easiest to get by playing around on the timeless island.

- I was doing rolos questline and landed at garnia with three dead people there.

- I said, in say, invite me to your group and I will mass revive you and help you kill it.

- The did, I did, and then I said, just keep it interrupted and it is easy.

- They said, just take off blood so you do not get aggro.

- I said, I am a tank, that is what I do.

- I spanked the ever living hell out of it.

- Interrupted it with my interrupt, with asphyxiate, step back and grip, step back and grasp and then using cooldowns for the few that got through, because none of the others interrupted it.

- No wonder they died, she hits like a train if you do not interrupt that and do not have the DPS to burn it fast.

- Either way, quick and easy kill and my brand new DK when I was the only one that interrupted and even beat 2 of the 3 there in DPS.

- No wonder they died.

- Even at this super low item level I could pull massive amounts.

- Two expansions later and DKs are still a hero class.

- I've got another DK getting close to 90, this made me want to finish that one off as well.

- I had forgot why they are fun to play when you just want to mindlessly slaughter things.

- Even at a lower item level I can get away with a lot.

- A 500 item level hunter, something, the only thing, I am actually good at, could not get away with the stuff my DK can do on timeless island.

- Speaking of hunters, got a few more 3 v 3 arena wins.

- Seem to be playing at roughly a 50% winning percentage.

- This time we had a 494 healer with us, so winning half was actually quite good.

- But the healer was a paladin and holy paladins are to PvP what DKs are to PvE, a hero class.

- One match we faced three fully conquest geared DPS and all three focused the 494 under geared healer.

- The healer kept himself up, we picked them off one at a time, and we won.

- Name one other healing class that could manage that.

- Even with healing in general being OP in PvP and items scaling down to 532 having three, presumably, decent players pounding on you should be able to take anyone out.

- I am going to guess they were not that good.

- Not even guess, I know they must have not been that good.

- Three people should easily have been capable of making sure he never cast a spell.

- Guess it helped that me and the other damage dealer were kind of quick about it in taking them out too.

- I now have 2 conquest pieces and am saving for my weapon.

- When I have enough to buy the weapon I should also have enough earned for the season to allow me to buy it.

- Have to love the PvP gearing system and the catch up system.

- I love being able to move at my own pace and gear as quickly as I wish while catching up.

- Having a 10K+ conquest cap is going to spoil me.

- What happens if I get into PvP and then when new stuff comes I am once again limited to 1000 a week?

- I really hate caps sometimes.

- If I wish to gear up in one day by busting my ass, let me.

- But playing catch up, having that huge conquest cap is great.

- Think I ran into a problem with PvP that might stop me from playing much later on.

- Once you no longer need honor gear there is no reason to run battlegrounds.

- It is not like alliance win, so why do it?

- If you do not need anything from it, do not get the satisfaction of winning, and get to the point where there is nothing to learn from them, what use are battlegrounds?

- Which goes back to the fact you need a group to do anything.

- This game really needs something, anything, that can support the player that does not play with a set group.

- Not everyone can be on the same time as their friends, or wants to look to make new friends every time they want to do something.

- Maybe they just want to play a game for fun at their own pace when they want to.

- God forbid.

- And no, group finder is not an option.

- Group finder gives you alliance groups that somehow manage to lose 10 games in a row.

- Even when half the horde team is comprised of bots.

- Group finder gives you LFR groups where half the players think they are too good to be doing this, so they do nothing and the other half are not good enough to do anything to help, and all of them love to spew their toxic hate at each other making it a nightmare.

- The game needs some sort of substantial way to gear up and keep progressing in a meaningful and enjoyable way either solo or with a group.

- They need to stop forcing people to group for personal progression.

- I mean why should personal progression require a group.

- I am building up "me" so let "me" do it.

- Without groups, no raid gear which means no gear, for the PvEer.

- Without groups, no or slow conquest gear because you never win, for the PvPer.

- No matter what anyone says, more solo ways to progress are needed.

- While some players might play as a group all players play solo.

- Like the expression, all poodles might be dogs but not all dogs are poodles.

- Even if you wanted to say 90% of the player base participated in group content, which you know is outrageously over estimating, it still does not equal the 100% of the player base that plays solo.

- So if everyone plays solo, and you do, don't say you don't, shouldn't they design more for the solo player?

- You should never need to depend on others being able to do their job well to determine if you get gear or not.

- You gearing is about you, not about finding a battleground that can win, or a raid group that can down bosses.

- The PvPer needs a way to get conquest without a group and without subjecting themselves to random battlegrounds.

- The PvEer needs a way to get top level gear without subjecting themselves to LFR or other group finding methods but since they removed valor gear a way like that no longer exists.

- And at that, valor gear was never really all that great.

- No weapon, one ring, one trinket, sometimes missing other pieces.

- PvE needs more solo gearing options and timeless island gear is not a gearing option.

- Unless you want to gear 2 tiers lower than current.

- It is a stepping stone into group content.

- And I want to avoid group content.

- We all should be allowed to skip group content and gear another way.

- Speaking of avoiding group content, I had this wild idea that is quite the opposite.

- I was thinking of bringing my new DK into the LFR and tanking.

- Yes, tanking only.

- Yes, me.

- Surprised?  Well so am I.

- I figured it would be a good way to find material to write about.

- Not like I need any.

- I will back down from that idea.

- But I did think of it all day yesterday, almost even queued up for it.

- I would have started in MV, not SoO like most people seem to do now.

- Need to get my "moves" down.

- Yes, I already have a blood DK at max, two even, but each character is different even when they are the same class.

- Just because I know what to do, I need to find the feel for this char.

- Is it just me or do you feel as if each characters has its own personality?

- And while I might be geared for SoO, item level wise, I am not gemmed, enchanted, reforged, you know, the things you should be.

- That is the problem with LFR they allow people to step right into the newest one and thanks to the instant 90s what you get is even worse than what you had been getting.

- Someone boosts a 90, gets timeless gear and is ready to walk in, heck, I went from 90 to 500 item level so an instant 90 can too.

- The thing is, they are not ready.

- Yet, as dreadful as it all sounds, I really am tempted to try it.

- More so try the lower LFRs.

- Why you ask?

- Because people like me, people that care about how they do and are trying to do it the best they can will more likely be in MV.

- People who do not know how to play and people with instant 90s will jump right into SoO for gear and gear only.

- And maybe now you see why I say we need other gearing options?

- Gear helps, of course, buy skill should always come first and it matters more.

- I tanked an SoO on my warrior, my first time tanking a raid on my warrior since last expansion.

- It has not even stepped into any LFRs and only had a 514 item level.

- It was ungemmed and unenchanted.

- I threw some quick stuff together for it and managed to tank up to jug based on skill and healer skill and ability.

- At jug I ran into the wall where I needed more gear.

- I "could" have managed it, but why make people wipe for me trying to prove something.

- I switched to another tank and we continued.

- But back to my DK and my odd yearning for doing some LFRs.

- I can do the lower ones, work a little toward the cloak, get better groups in easier content, and get a feel for my new 90.

- Or I can go into SoO with a whole slew of ungemmed, unenchanted, unreforged people that will just AFK, or not AFK and do worse than the person that did AFK with auto attacking.

- And I will wipe, and hear people calling each other names, and being blamed for everything because I am the tank and everything is always the tanks fault.

- Even when you run ahead of the group and pull the boss before any tanks are in the room, it is the tanks fault.

- Because your pet dies because it has taunt on, it is the tanks fault.

- Because the healer did not heal you, it is the tanks fault.

- Because you did not win the item you wanted, it is the tank fault.

- So lets spit our venom now and let the tanks know it is all the tanks fault.

- Maybe I am talking myself out of it.

- Actually, I am talking myself into it.

- Because if all "those" people will be in SoO, maybe MV can use some tanks and those people will be more likely to be grateful to be doing it because they care about getting somewhere, be it seeing the content, collecting quick valor, getting quest items, or just hanging out for fun instead of just in it for the gear.

- Yeap, I think I might give MV a try, and work my way up.

- Maybe start getting some gear worth gemming and enchanting.

- Because timeless gear isn't worth it.

- Even if you gave me the gems and enchants for free on general principle I would not use them.

- Timeless gear is throw away gear.

- Unless it is just one or two pieces then it is not worth the materials.

- Did I mention why I need a new horde server?

- My horde server merged with my alliance server.

- What are the odds?

- I'd prefer to have them on their own server.

- One problem, they are all really old characters and they all, well most, have three letter names.

- Where the hell will I ever find where I can transfer them that I will be able to keep three letter names.

- Well, that is the least of my worries.

- Until then I have some hordies that need a new home.

- Rarely played hordies.

- But still, would like them to find a home.

- My hunter still has arrows.

- Have to love I still have hunters around that have arrows.

- Wonder why when they changed stuff from not having a melee weapon when you first log into a hunter you have your melee weapon equip and not your ranged weapon.

- I had that happen on one of the hunters and did not notice it.

- When I logged in, some months back, and cleaned out my bags I sold the weapon in there thinking it was junk.

- When I logged back in to level from 85 to 90 I noticed I had a polearm and no ranged weapon.

- Damn it, sold my weapon and no way to get it back now.

- Blizzard does some stupid stuff sometimes.

- But no worse than me selling my weapon.

- Except my mistake was an honest mistake, their mistake was bad coding.

- Seriously, who did not catch it in the code that it was keeping hunters melee weapon and throwing the ranged one in their bags.

- I still have my, now gray, totem and relics in my bank on a few characters.

- Nothing beats a grey item with a gem in it.

- Ah, memories.

- Oh, I bought a green weapon for a few gold, did the first quest into pandaira and got myself a new weapon.

- So no harm, no foul.

- Glad they made the first quest give a weapon.

- Seems they do something right sometimes.

- Well, now to think about tanking MV, maybe tonight.

- I am a glutton for punishment, don't you think?

- Could be fun, who knows.

- Maybe all the dregs of humanity will be in SoO making their lives and the lives of everyone around them hell and I might have fun.

- For once.

- Doing the solo scenarios on the thunder island I noticed they changed a lot of them.

- How come they spend time updating those, but not other things that need it.

- No, seriously, if you have not done them in a while do them again, you will notice some subtle changes to things.  Range, visuals, functionality.

- Yet things like hunters kill shot error last for entire expansion, but changing the the size and functionality of the bombs you throw at the totems in old content that no one ever complained about anyway is high on their list?

- I sometimes wonder about the people that make the decisions on this game.

- "I think we should make the bombs a little smaller"

- "I think we should make it a set number of bombs instead of a timed thing".

- "Hey guys, how about you stop talking about something that has been old content for a long time now that no one has ever complained about even when it was new and fix something like the hunters kill shot error."

- "Nah, screw hunters, this will be awesome when we are done fixing it."

- "But..."

- "It isn't broken to begin with."

- Have a great day.

An Answer For Muffinus

Someone asked a question on twitter that I am sure many of us have wondered about and muffins replied, as blizzard employees always seem to, but completely ignoring the question and asking their own question.  Remember, completely ignoring the questions asked is blizzards modus operandi.

I liked the question muffinus asked and felt I could offer up what I believe to be a good answer to it so I figured I would make a post about it.  I mean, how could I ever reply on twitter.  140 characters my ass.  I can't even say hello in 140 character nevertheless answer a question of that depth in 140 characters.  Any answer you could squeeze into 140 characters would not serve you or the person asking the question any good.

So what was the question and the answer?

Can I skip the opening hour long intro and hare off into Draenor?
Here's a Q for you, what's the right amount of time for an intro experience before you're left to explore on your own (Muffinus)

The 140 character answer would be this.

No amount of time, just let me get into the action at my own pace.

But if you were to ask me that makes my answer sound selfish and in a small way even a little rude.  This is why twitter can never work for holding a real conversations or getting real idea.  What did muffinus expect from people, for them to give him actual times?  Even if they did give actual times it would never delve into why they think those amounts of times are good.  So any answer, even honest ones, are completely and totally useless.  Unless of course you wanted to waste some time making a blog post, a real venue where you can express your opinion, your reasons for those opinions and have a back and forth that might lead to more than just saying "no amount of time." would because that would never lead to any meaningful conversation other then "suck it up buttercup, it is only an hour".

Now to a full answer.

I like the idea of an introduction area.  I do not like the idea of a death knight starting zone sort of introduction area.  They have this technology that has been used all throughout mists for solo scenarios and that is exactly what the intro should be.  A solo scenario, not some different quest area, not some sent in stone timer that is "and hour long intro".  But a play it out all on your own, at your own pace, mini adventure to lead you into the new expansion.  You have the technology, it would be criminal not to use it for the betterment of the game.

By betterment I mean that having a solo scenario, one with a nice chuck that needs to be done, each person will progress through it at their own pace.  No fighting for mobs or dealing with the frustration of  1000 people trying to do the same thing that apparently was designed so only one person could do it at a time or having to deal with people asking stupid questions in general, which you know will happen.  I bet you hear "how come I can't fly" and other stupid questions like that 100 times before you finish your first quest.  Be it trolls or ignorant people, it makes no difference, the starting zone of a new expansion is always a nightmare, and will be a bigger nightmare than ever for millions of players thanks to connected realms.

When people complained before and they were all on small and medium realms, what do you think it will be like when they are all on full realms on release day?  The expansion is not even in beta yet and its release day is already a complete failure based on that outlook.  I would rather quit then play expansion day on a full realm, it is one of the reasons I played on a small realm to begin with, but blizzard already screwed me out of that.  They decided for me that I was not smart enough to choose where I want to play so they would tell me where to play and that is on a full realm with wait times to log in sometimes.  Gee, thanks blizzard, you are just too good to me giving me things I didn't want and didn't ask for.  Release day will be a nightmare with all servers being full servers and everyone funneled into a death knight starting experience.  No, just no.

But I do believe that an introduction story is the perfect way to ease the flow.  By making it a solo scenario however instead of a starting area you will be leaving it up to the individual to work their way through it.  If I can get through it in 15 minutes, I will be out in the world questing in 15 minutes.  If it takes Bob an hour, bob will be out playing in an hour.  Each person would move through the introduction at their own pace, just like a solo scenario.

Even thinking back to the thunder island ones.  I had characters that it took 6 minutes to do on one character, 13 on another, 25 on yet another and 40 on yet another.  The reason being is different classes all handle things differently and as such will move through at a different pace and my skill level in those characters also effects how quickly I move through them.

So an introduction with a few cut scenes, as it may be, that is a solo scenario, would allow for everyone to move at their own pace and not be bound by an hour long introduction and/or an over stuffed starting area.  They could move fast and skip scenes, move fast but watch scenes, move slow and watch, move slow and skip, move anywhere in between and watch, or skip or watch some and skip some.  They would set their own pace.

Basically, if 1000 people go to enter an area you get an area filled with 1000 people and trust me, I know that no one at blizzard actually players these games so you will have to trust me on this, no one at all likes 1000 people all fighting for the same mobs, or in the case of this expansion, bombing the same power keg on a skip so there were a thousands choppers all hung up in the same place moving along nowhere.

Trust me blizzard, there is no one that enjoys that mayhem, except maybe a troll and you really need to stop catering to trolls, you already let them run rampant in LFR with no consequences to their actions while they poison the community with their toxic behavior.  No need to give them a trapped audience of 1000 people in the starting area.  For once think about what is good for the players and that is a introduction solo scenario.

An introduction solo scenario would allow people to understand what is going on, move at their own pace, not be bogged down by others, and then get out in the world with a few people instead of 1000 all at the same time.

You see, with a solo scenario system and everyone moving at their own pace that means the 1000 people enter the scenario at the same time, not a zone at the same time.  Some will finish is fast, some slow, and everyone else in between.  So people would then be entering the questing area in little groups, not everyone at once.

The 10 people that blew through it in 5 minutes would come out, then the 15 that it took 6 minutes would come out, then the 8 that it took 7 minutes would come out, then the 3 it took 9 minutes would come out, then the 11 it took 10 minutes would come out, you get the idea.  People would enter the area a bit at time, leading to fewer bottle necks for quest mobs, and power kegs.  It would make for a much smoother release and much more player friendly one.

All that, and the solo scenario works as the perfect answer to your question and what I said in 140 characters to begin with.  "No amount of time, just let me get into the action at my own pace."

A few mobs to kills, a video or two to watch (or skip) and a end scenario boss and then let me get on my way.  Don't tell me I have to do an hour long lead in, if I can do it in 5 minutes on my hunter, let me, if it takes me an hour on my mage, so be it.  But it would be me moving at my pace and not being told to wait until the next group gets let out after some timed scripted event like in the death knight starting area.  Just do a cinematic of that for the solo person in the solo scenario and let them skip that if they so choose to.

So what is the right amount of time, no amount of time is right.  Just make the content and let us play it.  Stop trying to make things take a certain amount of time.  We are all different, we all play different, we all have our own skills, abilities, and attention span.  Let us move into the new expansion when we want to, not when you tell us too.

So 5 minutes or 1 hour, any time you tell us, this is how long we need to wait, is too long.  Let us play the game, we pay for it.  Don't tell us we have to do "a one hour introduction".  Give it too us in a solo scenario and let us decide how long it takes to do it.

Now muffinus, your question was answered.  So answer his.  Can we skip it?

I know it is hard for you, you work for blizzard and they must have something in your contract that says every time you give a direct and honest answer you get docked pay, but try being a decent person for once and answer a simple yes or no question with a simple yes or no instead of being a smart ass and answering a question with a question.

For the person that asked, the answer is, No, you can not skip it. 

Blizzard should make it a solo scenario that we play at our own pace.  Anything else would show blizzards contempt for its player base and let everyone know how little they care about their enjoyment of the game.  The technology is there, use it.  It lets us all move at our own pace.  That is your answer muffinus.  Real answers, ones that need details, can not be answered in 140 characters.  So with details, not only did you get your answer but you got my reasoning behind it.  Stop taking how long it will take and start talking about how enjoyable it will be to play.  Hint, playing at your own pace is more fun.

Five "Bad" Things Mists Did Right

There have been a lot of things people have complained about this expansion but there are a few that for the most part, while they might have had some problems, were actually done quite well this expansion.  In my opinion there are the top 5 things that get complained about often that I think mists did right, even if people want to bitch about them.

1) Lesser Charm Collection

When the expansion started and the lesser charms were items in your bags and they did not stack very high I would have been all for complaining about them too right now, if that had never changed that is.  After a few days I had so many stacks of lesser coins I was actually thinking of starting to throw them away but once they were made currency the transition from annoyance to excellent design was complete.

People still complained about them.  Having hundreds or thousands that they would never be able to spend because they were limited to spending 50 (90 at release) per week or because they felt it was something else they needed to grind and complained about how poorly the luck of the roll was with the coins they did get but it is the idea of the collection and spending method of lesser charms was the absolute best addition to the game this expansion as far as functionally goes in my opinion.

I would love to see this method expanded because I think it is great but what makes it so great you might ask and that is what I am writing this to tell you.

For an expansion that was originally marketed as one that should be about choices we had very few this expansion and in fact you could go as far as to say we had none this expansion and you would not be far off.  For an expansion about choices there were very few to be had and lesser charms were one of them.

The word mandatory gets thrown around a lot because this expansion seems to be all about "having" to do this and "having" to do that.  Almost everything ever step of the way had some degree of feeling mandatory to do it, and do it ASAP.  Not lesser charm collection.

About the only thing that limited that feeling was the design for lesser charm collection.  Unlike everything else there was no limit on what you could gain, only on what you could spend.  If you felt like playing a lot that week you could collects hundreds of coins and if you did not feel like playing at all you could spend coins you made from the week you didn't mind collecting them.  The system was limited by what you were allowed to spend each week, not what you were allowed to gain each week.

That is the key to the four letter word, as it has become, called mandatory.  If you were only allowed to get 50 lesser charms per week to trade in then getting those 50 each week felt more so mandatory.  But if you could, like I did, stack up on enough lesser charms in the first few weeks of the expansion that you never needed to worry about them for the rest of the time it was out it completely loses its mandatory requirement.

I have not worried or even cared about lesser coins all expansion.  At least on my main that is.  I never had to worry about running out and collecting 50 lesser coins so I could get my bonus rolls before raid time.  I had enough coins to last forever.  I think I had over 10K lesser charms one month after the expansion came out and that was before they started dropping from mobs, from rares, from pet battles.  Heck, I already had my 5000 pet battle wins before they started dropping from pet battles.  Effectively that meant that for me there was one thing in the game that never felt mandatory on my main and I loved the shit out of having one less thing that felt mandatory.

On alts I was allowed to go the feast or famine route.  Like on some during the barrens quest hub time I would tag along with everyone that would go there on my healing shaman.  Not so much to finish the quest, even if that was the idea, but to collect lesser charms.  I would tag along with a few people here and there and at one point found myself, on a rarely played alt that had never even had a stash of charms was sitting at over 1000 of them.  So I could trade in once a week, build some extra rolls, and if I ever did start playing it, I had a nice stash to work off of for a while.

Lesser charm collection was an amazing change to the currency collection method and I would love to see it expanded and added to everything.  It would greatly lessen the feel of mandatory.  Sure, we might still think getting our bonus rolls are mandatory, and if you do not have a stash of coins you will need to grind for them, but you could get ahead of the game if you wanted to.  So far ahead, like my main, that I never needed to farm for lesser charms this entire expansion.  Not even once did I need to think about it.  Now that is how everything should be designed.  That allows for more choice.  That reduces the feeling of mandatory.  I can't really see how people complained about having 2K coins... how is that a bad thing?  You don't have to grind for them any longer.  That is a good thing people.

Lesser charm collection was the greatest change to currency collection ever added and I would love to see it expanded.  It offers choice, something we usually do not have, and it lessens the feel of mandatory.  Could you just imagine if valor worked that way instead of how it does now?  Where we could collect as much as we damn well please but we only can spend so much each week?

How many times this expansion did I cap valor on a tuesday and then go into the raid already valor capped wish I wasn't "wasting" valor by not being able to collect any?  Dozens, maybe more.  How many times have I started to play an alt and stopped playing it because I was capped and it felt like a waste to keep going because I could not get valor?  Maybe hundreds.

The lesser charms collection, one where you get as many as you want when you want to is a great change and blizzard should roll with it and change everything to a collect and spend method.  Pushing it a little further, wouldn't it be nice if your cloth daily added up.  You forgot to do it for three days so on the forth day you go and make 4 pieces of cloth instead of the one per day because you had 3 days you did not do it saved up?  That would reduce the feeling of mandatory to log in and do it wouldn't it?  It might be different from the lesser charm collection, but it is in the same concept, let us build up things and then spend them when we want to.  Don't limit collection, just limit spending.

2) Flying

I will make a post on the warlords flying in the near future as I have to lot to say about it, as you might expect being I am quite long winded most of the time but this is not about warlords flying, this is about mists flying.

Being we had flying from the start of cataclysm people expected flying from the start of mists and that was not to be.  There was a lot of complaining about it and there still is.  To be honest I am surprised there is not a book like there was near the end of wrath you could send to alts to allow flying at a lower level, but having no flying until max level works.  For as much as people complained and continue to complain about it, it works.

I did not fly in BC until 70, could not fly in wrath until later (78 I think?  don't remember).  We did not need flying from the start.  Leveling and more so seeing the world is so much better on foot even if you hate it every single step of the way.  I think one of the reasons cataclysm sucked so much is because you never really needed to experience any of it.  You just flew over everything.  That is fine and dandy when you are max level and you are just out heading to the raid, or collecting herbs or mining ore but when you are leveling you should need to work your way through a zone, not fly over it.  Opinions might vary of course and listening to people they sure as hell do.

There is something to be said about being on foot however and I think mists did well going back to the no flying until max level approach.  I also like that they added a different type of flying that required you finish a quest line while getting the cloud serpents to exalted.  First off, they did not make the cloud serpents a grind fest.  It was a quick to get to exalted reputation and it was not a golden lotus *shutters*  100 rep per quest 1200 quest adventure.  There were a few quests all offering a fair deal of reputation and it would only take a few days to get to exalted to get that type of flying.

It basically meant that if you wanted it, it was well within the grasp of anyone.  Honestly, I would have liked to see this be how we got flying in Pandaria instead of just playing 2K gold and mounting up.  It makes it more an earned thing, even if earning it was an easy less than 2 week reputation grind, than just spending some pocket change on it.

Either way, no matter what complaint there was about no flying until max level, blizzard did right in not allowing it and they did good in adding a second type of flying that you needed to do something to get.  I really can not side with the complainers on this one or even feel any sympathy for them like I usually do because I can understand the other side of an argument, but on this one I can't, this was something mists did right.

Now if only we could get flying sooner for alts, maybe the first year it was not needed but now with nothing else to do but level alts because we are in a year plus long drought with no new content it is due for hand me down flying in pandaria.  Now is the time for them to do something right with flying again, and make that hand me down book like they did at the end of wrath.

3) Quests, Yes Dailies Too

I'll be the first to say I felt like putting my fist through the monitor a few times just thinking about the quest grind at the beginning of the expansion and I am someone that loves to quest.  Nothing irritated me more than doing 728 (surely an accurate number right) golden lotus dailies each and every day to get reputation at clips so small they were barely noticeable and then even after reaching exalted doing all 728 each day hoping that the end quest would be the crumbling halls which was the only one I needed for the only achievement I was missing under the quests header.  But enough of the complaining about them, as I said, lots of complains about dailies but mists actually did quests and even dailies right as much as we, myself included, complain about some of them.

If you remove the golden lotus tiered questing that felt like it offered no reputation for anything as well as it gated two other reputations and the fact that they locked starting gear behind both reputation and valor (probably the worst decision of the expansion after the 14 month no content decision) questing this expansion was pretty darn fantastic.  It was done better than questing had ever been done before.  Took the best of previous expansion and added to it, took the worse from other expansions and excluded it, and then gave everyone extended options for valor, lesser charms and gold collection at max level.

And all that is just taking about the starting quests.  The stories of the zones where nicely zone centric.  You would have nicely grouped quests that sent you to a single area.  You would get continuation quests that popped up and you did not need to go back just to get it to run back to the same area.  There were more than enough hubs that you could pick and choose which ones you liked and which ones you didn't on subsequent runs through the game leveling characters.  There were a few, but not many, must do quests, and that is part of the reason it was a solid questing design.

At max level there were daily hubs everywhere and there were a nice variety of them, even if it did sometimes seem like the randomizing system was broken when you would need to get goatsneck 5 days in a row, but at least it was entertaining to watch people go flying off the mountain.

The leveling quests were nicely designed and the dailies gave people things to do if they wanted to (and if they were not tied the rep or the only way to get coins at the start they would have never been considered mandatory) but it does not end there.  Their quest design and story telling throughout the entire expansion through the quests went from good at the start to better as it went along.

Landfall offered one hell of a story line from both sides of the coin and anyone that has not done both sides is doing themselves a disservice.  Seriously, go level a horde or alliance alt, the other side, and do them.  The reputation moved along fast enough, the number of quests was reasonable for a daily hub and the story that it told as you did it with incremental side quests was perfect and in a world where doing things multiple times seems kind of useless this one never felt forced if you did it twice, it truly felt like a do it if you wanted to do it endeavor which is absolute questing perfection.

While no other quest additions came to match the landfall experience for well designed questing that does not mean that we were left with no good additions.  The Isle of Thunder added its own questing experience that came along with the opening of the island as people progressed through the quest line at a server wide pace which is a nice touch and something we had not seen in quite a while.  Oddly enough the stating quests seemed more random than the ending quests once you opened it all up.  Seems kind of off that when everything was opened we always basically had the same last few quests every single day.  They should have mixed that up a little more but over all it was good.  And let us not forget the solo scenarios that worked as a story telling vehicle throughout the opening of the island.  I just wish that once you had finished them all that they had a random solo scenario each week you could do for 25 valor and repeat the ones you did, so if you ever wanted to go back and see them there would be a way to.  But over all that quest hub was a plus once again.

The barrens quest hub was more a single weekly with a story telling arc.  Just like landfall if you did not do both sides of this you did yourself a disservice, but sorry if I am the bearer of bad news to some as it has been removed now and you can never see either side of the story again.  The quest line was a nice little hub, longer on the horde side, and told a bit of story.  It showed that blizzard understood that each new quest line or hub did not need to be in "current" content, they could have quests anywhere as long as it forwarded the story, and this did.  Lets not mention that the weekly became an excellent way to get valor if you could find a group to grind out supplies.  At the point I had alts galore parked there with all their supplies in their bag waiting for me to cap my main and then they would all start the week with 300 valor.  Not a bad start to the week.

Then came timeless island, probably the worst questing the expansion had seen so far.  Sure the introduction quests where fine and dandy but after that we were left with one daily, two weekly's and basically nothing else to do but run around the island and kill stuff.  While it was amazingly fun to start, it wore out its welcome fast and shows that blizzard can still fuck up a good thing.  For an expansion that was so well done with quests, outside of the weekly visions of time, this hub offered nothing but boredom on the questing front.

Over all questing, even dailies, were awesome in mists.  Blizzard took everything that could be done right with questing and did it.  They did a few things wrong as well, but over all as much as we complain about the questing and dailies more so, it was not the questing that was bad, it was what blizzard tied to it that made it feel mandatory that made them feel bad.  So when people were complain about the questing they were not actually complaining about the quests, at least I do not think so, they were all done well except for the golden lotus, they were complaining about the mandatory feeling.  The feeling they needed to do it for reputation, the feeling they needed to do it for lesser coins, the feeling they needed to do it for valor or what have you.  The quests were fine, what blizzard tied to them was not.

I want to see a lot more of this sort of quest design in warlords.  Not so much timeless quest design as that was dreadful and the one true down point of questing in mists, but as it seems blizzard seems to be pushing things more in that direction.

Public service announcement for blizzard.   Timeless island was fun for 15 minutes.  Do not make warlords one big timeless island, it will get boring and frustrating really fast.  It is fine for one small island for patch release content, it will not be fun on a world wide scale.  Even more so with no flying and rare spawns that die so fast that unless you are standing on them when they spawn you will never get a hit in.  This is not a replacement for questing.  Look at the starting quest hubs like tillers, anglers, shado-pan, celestials, and the landfall story telling daily arc for how end game questing should be done.  None of this kill 5 rares bull shit.

Mists did questing right from the leveling hubs to the daily hubs to the story telling hubs.  Each and every step of the way there was something to like, again, with the exception of golden lotus and timeless island questing.  Complain as you might about questing, but mists had the best questing of any expansion we have seen thus far.

4 & 5) Pandaria & The Pandaren

If I were to print out every page online I have seen complaining about the oriental theme of pandaria and the cartoonish silly nature of the pandaren I could probably wall paper every single building in manhattan, twice.

I'll be the first to admit I was not into the idea of an expansion with all oriental design or a world with a bunch of king fu pandas running around but unlike every one else I really did not care.  Game play trumps all to me.  Always has and always will.  I can live with things I do not like to some extent as long as they do not go full on stupid and as it seems from the complaints most people believed before the expansion came out that it would go full on stupid.  Even after the expansions release some still say the same.  A day does not go by where someone will not post on some forum somewhere that having an expansion with an oriental setting or filled with pandas has destroyed warcraft.

I am here to respectfully disagree and say that the addition of the culture and race was one of those bad things that blizzard did right.  The way they managed to do it right is by not being heavy handed with anything they did while implementing the culture or the race.

While many people have said, and rightfully so, that the culture on pandaria is clearly one of oriental inspiration they did not go over board with it.  It is not completely covering the entire continent.  There is a great deal of additional culture around that does not follow the idea that the entire expansion is based on an oriental design like most complaints say it is.

The pandarian culture is no more egregiously stealing from oriental culture than the tauren culture steals from the native american culture.  Speaking of the tauren stealing from the native american culture it was interesting to see that their brothers, the yungol, also seem to have a base in the same culture even if the two "brothers" have been separated for an extremely long time.

And that brings me to my point, the oriental backdrop is just there as a backdrop for the race that was added, it is their culture and this is their land.  So while it does seem to be around a lot this expansion it is because this expansion is based on their continent and introducing their race but it is not the only culture we get to see.  There are a lot of designs on pandaria that are in no way shape or form inspired by the oriental culture.  They did not over do it, they did not make an entire expansion based on it, it was just one race and their cites.  Same as all other races have in their cities that were obliviously inspired by their real life counterpart culture in terms of architecture and dress.

As for the pandas themselves it was easy to believe that they would end up being the joke of all jokes.  It was easy to imagine Po the kung fu panda when playing a pandaren monk and thinking of it as silly kids stuff not meant for the more older teen and adult audience that warcraft seems to attract but images aside they ended up being nothing even closely resembling the joke people complained they would be, or still complain they are.

Outside of the over the top death animation, which I love mind you, there is not a great deal silly about the pandaren at all.  They are just like any other race.  In truth, even if people pictured they would be a joke, I can not think of one single occurrence that could even come close to reaching the level of comic relief that goblins often give us, or gnomes often give us, and that is all done on purpose to be funny.

The pandaren never really seem to delve into that area of comic relief and the only one that I came even close to thinking was being used in an effort to get into that role of comic relief was Chen's niece Li Li with her comments when you are leading her around in the valley of the four winds.  But it does not reach the level of silliness that our good old buddy Budd reaches on a daily basis in many expansions, and he is human.

In the end Li Li does not seem like a silly panda, she seems like the average tween to teenage girl.  Just listen to the things she says and then go with your teenage daughter or any young girl and listen to the stuff she says and then tell me that she is not cut from the same cloth that Li Li is.  Li Li is not some silly panda, she is a smart ass teenage girl.

She is normal and so are the pandaren, no different than any other race and most definitely not a joke race.  That distinction still belongs to the gnomes.  In the end, and because they had such a build up that they were meant to be a joke, to be silly, the pandaren are a well rounded (no pun intended) race that comes off no different than any other race and to me that means blizzard did something really right because pulling that off was a huge up hill battle when everyone expected them to be a joke.

So there you go, five "bad" things about mists that blizzard actually got right, no matter who complains about them.

Adventures and Misadventures in PvP

I finally switched my offspec to marksman and put on the PvP gear.  I have enough now for it to be somewhat useful.  While it is not great gear, mostly 496 gear with a couple of 522, 483 and 476 pieces it is a start.  Only missing one trinket and one ring and of course the weapon.

The transformation to PvP is almost complete as I work to fill in those last pieces of gear but we all need to start somewhere.  At least now I could gem and enchant and reforge for PvP and actually work on my PvP binds and get used to them again.

It has been a long time since I played marksman so that would take some getting used to again and it has been an even longer time since I played it in PvP.  But, as I said, we all start somewhere, and might as well start getting some play time on it.

So while I still need a fair deal of PvP gear I decided to do some arenas as it is a much more controlled place to work on setting up my keys so I can get comfortable with them.  I will get back to battlegrounds to fill out those honor pieces while collecting conquest to start getting some 550s.

I thought it would be fun to share some of my successes and failures when it comes to PvP thus far.

My New Bane:

I am at a complete loss when it comes to feral druids and I do not remember it ever being like that when I used to PvP.  Rogues were always my issue, still are to some extent, but I have been getting my ass handed to me by ferals whenever I see them lately.

After having countless one on ones with a feral in battlegrounds and arenas and never once seeing myself get the upper hand of a battle I finally got my revenge on one last night.  Not once but twice.  When all was said and done he won the war taking me out later a few times and won the battleground because, well, he was horde so of course he would win, but at least I finally had my one little moment of victory.

After taking the lumber mill everyone ran away and I was left alone to defend.  As tempted as I was to run with everyone else to keep in the fight I wanted to stay until we got the flag, at least.  I did what I normally do and threw a flare on the flag and an explosive trap in "just the right spot".

Not sure how he managed it but the druid got the jump on me, did not even see him from the flare, did not hear the woosh sound you hear when there is someone stealth around you and he had me on the defensive immediately, as in I was heading off the cliff and I needed to save my life.

A quick turn and disengage and I was back on the ledge and on the druid.  I do not think he expected that at all, most times when you knock someone off the ledge they are gone, but not so with a hunter.  He had a shaman come up behind him, so it was me and him but he had a healer.

A quick glance to the flag and I noticed my explosive trap expired.  So while I was beating on my, trying to control the healer, and basically making it nowhere and idea came to mind.  Trick him into killing himself.  I fired a new explosive at the flag and kited him to the area between the flag and the ledge.  Then positioning myself inward again, I hit deterrence and just turned tail and ran.

The druid did exactly what I was hoping he would do.  He ran straight into the flag to take it but my explosive trap made sure the only thing he would take is a short flight down.  When my deterrence wore off I turned to the shaman, now alone without this druid beating on my and made him regret ever deciding the help the druid in the first place.

The druid did not die from the fall, damn cat form, but he came running right back up as fast as he could.  By the time he got to me the shaman was dead, he was still at around half life and had no healer, and I was feeling awesome about myself for that one moment where I tricked him to throwing himself off the cliff.  I killed him quite easily by lining up an aimed followed by chimera and double kill shot.  I stood victorious for once against a druid, against a druid with a healer.

It would not last long however.  The druid and I met again up there three more times, but not really alone, or mostly alone, like we had been.  He got the better of me every single time.  And a priest in his group really got the better of me.  I managed to trick the druid again.  Put the explosive at my feet and backpedaled over it.  People will always follow you if you are backpedaling, remember that.  He walked right into the trap and went flying again.  I could swear I heard him yell, at least in my mind, but a priest life gripped him back on.  Awesome freaking reaction speed from the priest.  That is something you can not teach, plan or even practice.  That type of reaction is why I am going thought my paces here practicing, so I can get that good.  Props to the priest, nice job.  But why did you have to save a freaking feral druid.  Yeah, he came back and killed me.  Bastard.

My Flag:

Last week, while still only PvE geared doing some battlegrounds with my friends we got into a twin peaks.  Three went to the light house and myself and a healer ran to mines.  When we got to mines there were three horde there.  They all went for the healer, which worked out well being as he is fully PvP geared and I am not.  If they all went after me they could have killed me and then taken out the healer.  Their mistake for ignoring the extremely, as in no geared, under geared hunter.

He managed to keep himself up, I managed to keep pressure off him as best I could with binding, traps, scatter, whatever I could, as I picked off one at a time that was trying to kill him.  Oddly enough, after I killed 2 of them the third one decided to come after me.  Ever heard of too little to late buddy.  With a healer at my back even PvE geared I was able to rip him a new one.

We took the mine and my friend said, lets stay here and try to keep it.  Who am I to complain, he is the experienced PvPer.  Then something odd happened, something that I could not refer to as anything other than one of those old karate movies.

The horde kept coming at us, but they kept coming at us one at a time, sometimes two.  But never once in full force or even with enough to come close to taking us.  They would come up, I would take them out one at a time.  They would always go for the healer first, I would always kill them before they could even put a dent in his armor.

This continued over and over and I wish it had continued more so I could have gotten the achievement for 50 kills and no deaths because I never died.  Heck I do not think I ever dipped before 90% life.  Neither me or the healer.  You would think we were playing an allaince team with as poorly organized as these people where.

No one ever came to mines to help us, we did not need it.  And horde never made a real effort to get it.  But toward the end of the match we were having quite a laugh as people would revive and start running out, see us, and then turn to run along the beach.  It became quite clear that no one on the horde side wanted anything to do with us.  Me and my healer.  My flag, and you can't have it.

Kill The Healer:

Often I hear that.  Be it battlegrounds or be it arena.  Kill the healer.  Well, it is a lot easier said than done, healers are god mode if played well, even more so if played well against someone of my limited PvP skilled and gear.

A few times however I get lucky, where everything seems to fall into place and timing is perfect and I can get the upper hand on a healer.  I have two such stories from arena last night that fit that description.

I was told to go all out on the healer, our healer was going to stay back and the other DPS was going to try and peel for him.  My job was to pressure the healer as much as possible that they could not get in range of the DPS so we could pick off the DPS and healer at the same time.   It is a good strat and one I used to use when I did do arenas.  The idea is to make the healer forget about others and force them to worry about themselves.

One fight, with a holy priest, I think the only one I have seen in PvP arena or battleground, I went in hard, using my spider I land locked them so we could quickly get the distance where they could not heal their team mates that were going after my healer.

I think kept him slowed with concussive so he could not get in range and put on the pressure. Aimed, stampede, crows, fervor, aimed, aimed.  Okay, healer is now successfully only worried about himself.  Now time to take him out mixing control with shots.  Scatter interrupts a heal, steady, silencing shot interrupts a heal, chimera, steady, explosive trap knocks him back to interrupt a heal, aimed, freezing trap interrupts a heal, I know he just called for help because my healer says on voice chat they just left him alone and are heading for me.  Too late, healer is dead.

There is no greater feeling than taking out a healer in PvP nowadays being they are so damn powerful.  At this stage in the game I think when I beat a healer it is more then doing something wrong than it is me doing something right.  But it still feels good.

Another fun healer kill was with a druid healer.  Myself and the other damage dealer went after their healer.  The others went after ours.  Whoever gets their healer dead first wins.  This is what it seems arenas are all about now.  Whoever kills or controls the healer wins.

We did have a lot of fun with this druid however.  Using the pillar in the arena the druid kept trying to LoS us.  But I kept throwing a trap on one side and circling the other.  While the melee would chase him, I would run right into his face.  He would go here, there and everywhere around the pillar but it seemed he was always running into one of us.  At least until he had the bright idea to go cat and run.  Scare beast baby.  Not exactly bound in a very friendly place for me right now being I do not use it often but Alt - and the healer was effectively dead. Stopped his get away dead in its tracks.  And as luck would have it, he was scared directly into both of us who then unloaded together for once and killed him and then, of course, went on to win the match.  Whoever kills the healer first wins, so kill the healer.

I've been having fun with a little PvP here and there lately.  I could post failures, but that is not fun.  Just be aware, there were a lot more failures than there were successes like these.  I am still learning and that is the fun of it all.  At least now there is some new gear for me to aim for.  And wow, I love the conquest catch up system and my 11K cap.  Awesome.

Has Blizzard Bitten Off More Than They Can Chew

With the continued wait for news on the expansion and the outlook being more and more likely that we will suffer well over a year with no content you have to wonder why is it taking so long.

When my source told me that the artwork was holding them up some months ago he and I had a long conversation about how they should have never let that happen.  The new character models should have never been something that were a selling point for the new expansion.  It should have been something we were told would be added as the expansion went on and then added as they were ready.  A few on release, another one or two during the first patch and then more with each patch until they were all added in.

But no, blizzard wanted them as something of a selling point for the expansion.  I can't say I blame them really being the coming expansion offers basically nothing else otherwise.  Sure, some new zones, some new levels, some new skills, and some new raids and dungeons.  But they are already ditching scenarios, which is a huge mistake in my opinion, and everything else outside of new levels is just "patch" material.  The new expansion offers us new character models and garrisons.  That is it, nothing more.

So how exactly are they biting off more than they can chew?  Well, being we are not currently playing the new expansion you have your answer there.  Those two new things they are actually adding could not be fine tuned well enough to meet a reasonable release schedule.

Mists added more to the game and it did not hang them up that long.  Even cataclysm offered a completely redesigned and remade old world that saw the world change, the quests change, the maps change and flight added and it did not take that as long.

Garrisons are a very ambitious endeavor, one I am honestly looking forward too, but it does not seem like they were capable of finishing them off in a reasonable time frame.  Between adding those and remaking the art for the characters we are set waiting for two things that are both throw away things. 

Once the expansion after warlords comes out garrisons will be gone and forgotten, a mistake in my opinion, because once again blizzard does not design to the big picture and will tie them to only one expansion and the other, the art, will look nice when we first see it but roughly 6.3 seconds after we log in and see what our characters look like we won't care any longer.  It will be a case of, oh, that look nice, now lets get to leveling, questing, dailies, dungeons, raids, etc.  It is not exactly a feature, more so a feature that should hold up the development and release of the game.

Blizzard could have just as easily not done character models and not added garrisons and just made it a slightly more advanced farm, which they already have designed, instead of the huge leap forward they they are doing for personal space, a sort of player housing thing.

They could have released the new zones, with new levels, and item squished redesigned skills and talents and let us get playing in those new dungeons and new raids with a new player vs player season.  This would have kept the player base happy, very happy.  All they want are things to do.

Would we like new character models?  Yes.  Would we like garrisons?  Yes.  But the question is, would we have rathered the expansion being released in march at the latest, as it should have been, or in november as it seems it will be?  March please.

Blizzard should have noticed that garrisons were holding them back, that the art work was holding them back, and instead of making an already disgruntled player base wait and get more upset with them they should have released new content.

Save the garrisons for a november patch, save the art work for a november patch, they should have released the game to keep the player base happy at a reasonable time, like in march.

Did blizzard bite off more than they could chew trying to get all these things ready?  I believe so.  They should have worked on the heart and soul of the game first.  The story, the zones, the leveling, the dungeons, the raids, the quests and added the "new content" later.

Think about it, even at its base, the basic stuff like leveling is going through a great deal of changes as it is.  With some stats being removed and other stats added, items being squished, talents being removed, talents being changed, talents being added, and so much more micro managing going on for this coming expansion, they had enough to worry about just to get out the simple stuff so we could do it.  Adding new leveling content has never been harder because we would be leveling through it with new stats, missing stats, new abilties, missing abilties, squished items, and it would all need to run smoothly to work.  Isn't that already a lot to ask of them?

Even if I say often that warlords is offering us nothing new really, and it isn't, it is not exactly offering us nothing at all, just nothing new but a lot of something adjusted.  There is a huge undertaking to the backbone of the game and how it works.  Not something you could call a feature, but something that was needed and apparently, something that was already a bit too much for them to handle.

I believe garrisons should have been held back for a later patch.  I believe the character models should have been released over time one at a time.  I believe everyone should have been working on the basic game to make it work and make it ready for release instead of making us wait.

So yes, I believe blizzard bit off more than they can chew.  Lets just hope it "feels" better when it is all done than the cataclysm redesign of the old world did, and just feel like a complete waste of time.

Only time will tell, but as it seems, blizzard is going to make us wait.  Maybe they are hoping if they make us wait long enough we might forget how much we hate being stuck in the middle of nothing with no new content for a year.

Hey, maybe that is the angle they are going for.  Release it as late as possible so we will just be happy to have something instead of complaining how late it was.  One problem, how many will be left to be happy when we had to wait so long.  Yes, they bit off more than they could chew.

Monday Random Thoughts

- Played a little more often this week being I was doing some PvP.

- But seems like my life as a PvPer might come to a quick end.

- Two of the people that were helping me learn the ins and out and were well geared decided to faction change because they got sick of alliance groups.

- And this is why alliance does so poorly at PvP.

- Whenever someone gets good at it, they get sick of losing and switch to the side that wins.

- It is also the reason why you see horde heavy servers and alliance heavy servers.

- No one likes to be on the losing side.

- I did try to keep myself active however.

- Still checking golden lotus every day for that one quest I need to do to get the achievement for not getting hit.

- I saw that quest once this expansion, at the beginning, before I was worrying about the achievement.

- I've never seen it since.

- I only need that one half, have the other half.

- But no, they will not make it the daily.

- It is the only achievement under the quest header I am missing.

- It must be a murphys law sort of thing.

- Whenever I look it isn't there, which means whenever I don't it probably is.

- I am going to have to remember to check every day.

- Did some leveling this weekend on my newest DK.

- Went from 77 to 81.

- Yes, I still actually level even if I can just buy a 90.

- Hey, I like to level even if they did kind of ruin the leveling process.

- Feels weird going from wrath to cata content, always has.

- From a fresh questing character with mostly 138 to 174 gear and getting 272 gear from quests just does not seem right.

- I know why they did that, so the raiders could feel like they were getting upgrades while questing.

- Hey, blizzard, let me clue you in on something because you seem clueless.

- Raiders just care about getting to max level.

- Getting upgrades while questing is more of an inconvenience than it is a "fun" part of the game.

- The next upgrade I get from my SoO gear should come from a level 100 heroic dungeon.

- I do not need gear while leveling, so do not make it an item level to appeal to me.

- The game would go much smoother as well when things get old if they did not do those stupid jumps for no reason.

- I would not be replacing my 138 ring with a 272 one.

- Admittedly, blizzard has never actually been very good about balancing things, so why should we expect that they will balance things from expansion to expansion.

- But you would think after so many expansions they would have gotten better at doing it.

- Well, we thought wrong.

- Not sure what I think about professions bonuses being gone.

- On the one hand, I love that I can be whatever I want to be.

- On the other hand, I hate that I lose my engineer burst.

- And then there are other questions, like will alchemy still have double length on flasks?

- It was not really a performance bonus.

- It was more of a saves gold bonus.

- I hope that stays because I drink flasks like they are going out of style.

- I like the longer time.

- I started to do some spring cleaning on my characters.

- Listing massive amounts of auctions.

- Still trying to sell all those enchanting recipes that I made when I powered leveled a mail enchanter and a leather enchanter so I take full advantage of the rain of sha crystals coming from the timeless island.

- Still getting around 70 gold a piece for them.

- Nothing to shake a stick at.

- And I still have nearly 700 sha crystals left.

- Oh, and lots and lots of timeless gear left to disenchant that I am just keeping around for if I level another character.

- I have 8 mails of 12 pieces each of mail gear alone that I am bouncing between 2 hunters.

- That is 108 pieces that means 108 more sha crystals and that is not even considering procs.

- And that is only mail, not counting the cloth, leather and plate.

- Or the rings, cloaks, trinkets and necks.

- And if anything I have used more mail pieces than I have any others because I have gotten another hunter and shaman to 90 after they were released.

- So if I had to make an inaccurate, but probably close, guess I would say I have well over 1200 sha crystals rolling around.

- So much so that I had stopped opening more chests on the island because I did not want more junk I needed to bounce between characters.

- But spring cleaning got a lot done for me.

- Bounced a lot of timeless pieces and got them together so they are bouncing between the right people.

- Actually put on gear that had been collecting in my bags for many characters.

- Put 6 pieces on my druid.

- I had not put them on because there is just so much maintenance that needs to be done to them.

- I got sick if the need to regem, reenchant, rereforge every time I got one single piece for an alt.

- They are an alt, there should not be that much maintenance in keeping them up to back up potential.

- I already tanked all of SoO without those pieces on, so it is not like I needed them.

- But doing spring cleaning means I needed to clear out bag space and that meant putting that gear on and getting it done up.

- I thought my druid was my worst offender of gear they had not put on yet out of all my alts.

- And it was, until I decided to do my rogue.

- My rogue had 5 pieces in his bag, less than my druid, but I ended up with a few more before I did it.

- I decided to do the world bosses before I added the new gear, just to see if I could get more to do at the same time.

- Celestial was a bust.

- Ordos was a god.

- I won 2 pieces off of ordos and not only that but they were two things I really needed.

- Bracers which replaced a timeless island burdened bracer and legs which replaced 502s.

- So now my rogue was adding 7 pieces.

- I figured, might as well make it 8.

- I sent my rogue a leather timeless helm from my leather timeless catch all character and used a burden on that.

- It replaced a 502 helm with a 535, not bad.

- And the helm had crit and haste too boot, awesome.

- So 8 new pieces on my rogue and I went from a 525 item level to a 548 item level.

- Now to just get rid of that damn 502 weapon.

- My rogue does have the legendary cloak too, so that is why his item level appears better than it really is for a character with bad gear over all that I rarely play.

- While spring cleaning I had to do a lot of bouncing around.

- I had so many pets that I needed to learn but had 3 of each pet.

- So I have a bank alt on a server where the entire bank is my pet collection for selling.

- I am not selling mists pets, I am waiting until later when they will become rarer as they are not being gathered all the time in current content.

- So I would pop on my pet alt, cage some, throw them in the bank, go back and learn them.

- Sunreavers, Gahz from the barren line (yes some characters still had a bunch in their bags), the zandalari dinos, the durehorn runts, azure crane chick, etc.

- They are all over the place now but next expansion they will not be popping up all over and should sell for more.

- Or so I hope.

- I put all the timeless island "goodies" in my banks.

- I sent a lot of my characters back to thunder isle too.

- Had to use all those incantations I had in my bags.

- It is not in me to just throw away things.

- Got a lot of goodies from there.

- Those coffers sometimes contain things that sell for a fair deal of gold.

- And they contain elder charms which can be traded in for troves which can have lots of stuff that sells well too.

- See, I can not throw away one of the incantation, it is like throwing away gold, and I can't do that.

- My priest had 8 coffers in her bag but was full on charms so I could not open them because she was not exalted with them to spend the charms to buy the trove.

- So I did the dailies on her to get rep and the last quest got me to exalted.

- So I traded in, opened up, and got lots of gold to boot.

- And of course every character I sent there got themselves a key for later use.

- At 300-600 gold per run I get the keys whenever I am there and maybe one day when I am bored or need gold I will spam run it.

- Currently I have 87 keys over my characters.

- Would have lots more if thunder island was not so far away.

- I do not have the time to sent 18 or so level 90s over there every week.

- But if ever I am near there I always stop in a grab one.

- Like I said, 300 to 600 gold per run.

- Who out there would not stop for a second for 300+ gold?

- Well, I sure would.

- Would love to say that I did everything I wanted to do with my clean up.

- But not even close.

- Doing world bosses on my rogue, quests on my priest, other little stuff just to clean thing up, takes time and I ran out of time.

- It is amazing how with an army of alts like I have, even more since connected servers, how much junk you accumulate.

- So even if was not raiding, not PvPing, I was keeping myself busy and in game and doing something that, oddly enough, I like doing.

- Organizing things.

- For as great an expansion as mist was I think it will always end up being remembered for its end.

- This time we are in now.

- Where the game basically sucks.

- I think blizzard made a mistake saying the expansion might not be out until as late as december 20th.

- We would have been better off not knowing, hoping and thinking about it instead of knowing it was not coming for a long time.

- A very very very long time.

- Really, what were they thinking.

- Hey people, we are not putting anything out for over a year, feel free to take a break and unsubscribe, you won't miss anything.

- Giving us the date was the worse thing they ever could have done.

- As soon as they released that data my guild went from running a 25 man and 2 10 mans to not even having enough for 1 10 man most nights because everyone just quit or took a break.

- And the ones that did not take a break left the guild for a more active guild that was running more often like we normally did.

- Normally did that is, before blizzard told everyone to unsubscribe.

- Seriously, what were they thinking?

- What business tells their customers that there is no reason to buy their product right now.

- Blizzards business plan amazes me.

- It is as if they want to kill off their cash cow.

- Have a great day.