Monday, March 17, 2014

Monday Random Thoughts

- I played for about 2 hours this week.

- My raid team has seems to have fallen apart, call it burn out.

- So no raiding and me only logging in for raiding meant no reason to log in.

- I logged on to help out a friend with his raid team and came in for 2 bosses.

- And I cleaned out my mail boxes of things that were about to expire.

- My alt hunter got a warforged bow.

- My main still does not have one.

- That really sums up my luck.

- What really killed off my desire to play is no valor gear.

- Some people might think nothing of it but it was huge for the game, at least for me.

- Even if my main(s) do not need any valor gear I still would like to have it available.

- It is a great motivator to play.

- My alts, even more so the ones I do not want to pug with because I am not that good at them, used to gear up with valor.

- Now being it is "raid or die" and the only way for them to get gear is in that nightmare cesspool of a joke they call looking for raid or to pug and for an anti-social person like myself that is not really an option there is no reason to play alts.

- In time past this would be the time I start gearing alts, learning to play them, getting better at them, and then bringing them into a raid.

- But being I can not gear them up, I am not playing them, which means no reason to play.

- And then we hear that warlords is not coming out until "on or before december 20th"

- Are you fucking kidding me blizzard.

- I mean really?

- It should be out now, as in right this moment, not in december.

- When someone like myself who has always found a reason to play, who want to play, can not find anything worth doing in game you really have completely lost it blizzard.

- I have not even bought the expansion yet.

- Normally I jump on that stuff.

- Not even the free 90 is something that interests me.

- WTF would I want another 90 for?

- Another character I can't gear up because I would have to go into the LFR to do so.

- And I would have to finish the legendary line again if I wanted to feel effective.

- Which means LFR is not a option, it is something I will have to do.

- And there is no quick catch up system for other gear because there is no valor.

- And even if there were, I would still not be able to get the cloak without LFR now and a damage dealer without a cloak is worthless this late in the expansion.

- At least for the type of raiding I want to be doing.

- It is raid, raid, raid, raid, raid.

- I love to raid and I am sick of it.

- Does that tell you something blizzard?

- I've been wasting my time on diablo lately.

- Two weeks ago I did not even have 1 level 60.

- When I was originally playing I did the first few levels of difficulty and then quickly released, is this all there is?

- I did not want to do it again harder once more, give me something new if you want me to keep playing.

- I came back because the expansion is coming back soon, see, something new will get me playing.

- So I needed to finish off my demon hunter so they were 60 and could level in the new expansion.

- A hunter, who would have guessed right?

- Now I have all 5 classes at 60 and I am at 84 paragon level.

- I have reached critical mass once again in that game.

- I am bored off my ass.

- The reason I originally stopped playing was, why would I want to do the same thing over and over and over again.

- It is not really appealing.

- There is a gentle hint about the raid raid raid mentality for blizzard there.

- At least diablo had the perfect loot design for that type of game.

- I could get stuff and give it to someone else, or they could give me something.

- The old drop rates were dismal to put it kindly, at least loot 2.0 drops more stuff at a reasonable rate.

- So while I found some awesome pieces, only 2, back when I played, neither of them were for my class so the only good things I ever found where useless.

- But not useless with the old system, because we could trade.

- How freaking awesome was that?

- So that legendary monk fist weapon I could effectively trade to get myself a bow.

- Cool beans.

- If I could not find the piece I needed I could grind the gold and buy it and sell off the stuff I did not need.

- People would help me out giving me things I needed, I would help them out giving them things they needed.

- So at least there was some reason to keep going.

- I could always get upgrades, but with them removing trading completely, where is the motivation to play?

- I can agree with removing the real money auction house.

- I can even see the reason for removing the gold auction house.

- But why remove trading?

- Yesterday I got a nice belt to drop, it was not an upgrade however.

- Someone in guild said, nice belt.

- I said, I don't need it, would loose to much toughness for a minor damage increase.

- He said, it would be a huge upgrade for me all around.

- I said, wish I could give it to you.

- And that is the problem with no trading allowed.

- As it is that belt has no use for me.

- It will get disenchanted to a material that also is of no use to me.

- Why the hell can I not just give it to someone that can use it?

- I mean seriously,  WTF is wrong with blizzard? 

- Do they not want people to actually enjoy anything?

- In the end diablo goes back to a standard game.

- When the expansion comes out, which I already ordered, I will play to the end and probably quit again.

- Where is the motivation to play?

- Once I beat the end boss the game is done.

- Trying to get better gear is surely not a motivating factor.

- It is a single player game, once you beat the last boss it is over.

- Even if I wanted to get into the minor multiplayer aspects of it, which are not needed at all for anything because it is a single player game, gearing up so we could kill things faster is the only reason to keep going solo.

- Even with the increase drop rate there are hundreds of different legendary items, with thousands of combinations of stats on them, with millions of variations of what stats they will be.

- So with my bad luck to begin with finding a piece of gear I need would be like hitting the lottery.

- At least before hand I could have worked on making gold to buy the item I could not get to drop.

- Now I just need to kill stuff over and over and hope for a 1 in 1,563,855,234 chance that the thing I kill will drop the perfect item I am looking for?

- With my luck?

- You have got to be fucking kidding me.

- Trading needs to be added back to diablo or a better loot system needs to be designed.

- Their loot 2.0 does not do the job.

- Maybe they can take a page from the warcraft book and actually make bosses have drop lists so you can farm the bosses for the pieces you want.

- Having everything be random and from everything means the odds of getting what you want slim to none.

- Keep it that it can drop from anywhere, but also things to something specific with a higher drop chance to people at least have something to aim for.

- It is called motivation and keeping people motivated to play is a good thing if you want them to keep playing right?

- And no trading means, where is the motivation.

- But maybe warcraft can take something from diablo.

- I like the paragon system.

- It is like leveling after you are leveled.

- Even if drilling the same crap over and over again gets boring really fast, as least you still see yourself moving forward with it.

- And gaining some power as well.

- So it is like leveling after leveling is done.

- Not a bad idea.

- Not sure if it will work in warcraft however.

- One thing has become certain to me about blizzard.

- No matter what the game is, they will screw it up.

- They make great games and they screw them up worse than anyone else could.

- I might just ditch blizzard products completely.

- I'll get back to posting soon, for the people that might actually want to read my rambling, just have not felt like there was anything worth writing about lately.

- But I do have a post for the "on or before december 20th" thing.

- Make no doubt about it, I have a lot to say on that matter.

- But if you want the TL;DR version of it, it is really simple.

- I feel like I've been taken advantage of.

- Have a great day.

28 comments:

  1. Aw, and here I was hoping for a field report of you doing LFR with groups full of boosted level 90s...

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  2. well GE, this pretty par for the course for Blizzard. They will tell you that it is after all an "MMO" and it is your problem that you don't want to play with others.

    I of course agree 100% with you and if it is an MMO, then why the heck can we NOT trade items.

    So basically, Blizz wants us to play with others, but not with others. They want to pick who with play with, how and when. Sounds like Totalitarianism to me.

    Speaking of mad, some possibly real gold seller from Ghana put an ad on the previous post. Do ya mind deleteling it? Can I call him an asshole and fuckstick before you do?

    -roo

    PS Glad to see you posting again. I did ask a question on the previoius post, but I guess it doesnt matter. The mish-mash of gear that Timeless Isle or any Mists factions you get rep with (like the Klaxxi ring) will never equal what Blizz says you need or other elitest playing fools. :-(

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  3. I'm relieved. You probably think it's silly, but I was worried something might have happened.

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  4. Glad you're back Grumpy. I took a 3 month break myself, and recently returned just as something to do when I feel like it. I still check your blog everyday though.

    I feel the same way about valor gear. In the past I could work on alts to get better at them and fine-tune some things (mostly range classes, I'm mostly a melee person for dps). Now I just can't make myself play them. I don't do LFR and have geared up my alts via Timeless Isle, so there is not much motivation for me to play. I know I can do dungeon grinds to get JP and convert them, but meh. We've had these dungeons out for a year and a half and I'm burned out with them. Not having valor gear to get, beyond TOT gear makes me less motivated.

    However, something that keeps making me play now are two things: I'm one of those pattern completionists so the grind for that is something I actually enjoy (I'm in the minority, I know). Another is making a couple alts on a few servers my friends moved to, because my main low pop realm has not merged yet, and something tells me it may not.

    Anyway, I was going to ask: will you be back for WoD or do you think you may stay away for a bit?

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  5. My recent raid group has been pretty quiet lately, just a couple of runs in the past few weeks... not sure how much longer that'll go on or if there's any plan to try to bolster the ranks. Frankly, I think most of us would welcome a break... I miss casual raiding (which, for me in 5.4, means flex), it may be that enough raids are falling down that there might be a resurgence of interest in flex just as a social raiding platform rather than a progression one. I'd welcome that.

    My two small servers are finally being merged soon... not with each other but that was never really a possibility. Both looking forward to it (socially) and dreading it (gold making wise, I'm expecting prices to floor for a while after merge). Either way I'm hoping it's an interesting experience.

    I'm holding off on ordering the expansion, I don't generally pre-order anything (when I pay my money I expect product in hand, thanks), I'll just order it a few days before release. It's not like the instant 90 is any sort of pre-order perk, everyone's getting it...

    At this point my Battletag list as a group are spending more time in D3 than WoW, I think... probably temporary, but seems to be a thing. Apparently there's stuff there holding their attention. I only ever intended to play the game once, I did, finished it, moved on. Not seeing the point of going back... and that's not a criticism, I generally don't return to that type of game and usually don't purchase expansions, either. When I move on, I move on.

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  6. - Haven't pre-ordered and not planning to anytime soon

    - Got connected with Skywall last week. Trade chat is calling the new realm "Drywall"...

    - I played some Hearthstone for the first time to get the Hearthsteed.

    - Hearthstone was fun for a little bit, but it got annoying quickly. I just don't really like trading card games...

    - Finally got exalted with Shaohao and bought the mount. That's one less thing for me to log in and though...

    - Played in the ESO beta for a while as well. Hoping they have all the issues fixed in the launch version so I can really enjoy playing it in a couple weeks.

    - On the loot subject, in ESO, the BiS loot will be crafted rather than random drops. Also, there's no PvP vs PvE gear. All gear is the same.

    - Not only is it "on or before Dec. 20", it's $10 more than previous expansions.

    - As Shintar hinted at, I also heard that the LFRs last week were indescribably horrible... But that's Blizz's fault. The only requirement for LFR is the iLvL and there is no reason to do dungeons for gear (unless you convert JP to HP and buy honor gear, which is actually worthwhile to do...). They should have required proving grounds on boosted characters in order to queue for LFR. But nope, Blizz just funnels everyone into raiding even when they're not capable of doing it.

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  7. have not bought the expansion either GE I agree the expansion should have been out by now. Been playing a lot of diablo we did discover one thing. Items are trade-able BUT you have to be in the game with the person when they drop and they have a timer but you can trade which is nice we went thru with like 3 wizards the other night trading items back and forth that were better for each other so at least there was that.

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  8. Well as I said in my comment on last Monday's post I've quit. My sub runs out in 26 days and then that's it. This is going to sound stupid but the release date of Warlords, well actually no more to the point how the announcement was handled, it was just the straw that broke the camels back. I refuse to support the company anymore.

    When Warlords comes out I might buy it, and I might resub. I'm not ruling it out but I'm not paying for the next 6-9 months as things stand. Enough is finally enough, I'm voting with my wallet, no sub fee and no expansion purchase.

    I never liked Diablo, I assumed it was because of the type of game it was but I absolutely love Marvel Heroes. So I guess I just don't like Diablo. I played my 3 Hearthstone games to get the mount/achi in Warcraft but I'm not keen on that game either. Basically blizz and I are going our separate ways.

    I hear you on burnout I really do. I also 110% hear you on the level 90 boost. I did actually level 8 of my characters to level 90, but I only ever played my main. Without LFR alts just, well I agree with you. I mean the level 90 boost is spun as something for people to do until the expansion comes out. I've never understood this as what does it give people to do? Basically you get to 90 and what? Looking for real-nightmares? No I just don't get it.

    Obviously as I've quit Warcraft I've quit my raid team. I gave them a months notice to find another raid leader, so my co-raid leader doesn't have to shoulder the burden on his own, they also have a month to sort it tank wise. We do kinda have 4 tanks inc me right now, otherwise well my conscience might not have let me quit, I didn't want it to be my fault if the raid team ran into problems.

    So there ends my 'serious' gaming, well commitment wise anyway. I do play Marvel Heroes, and occasionally Swtor but that's just solo play. It's actually quite refreshing, no responsibility, no demands, just do what I want to do. I also signed up for Everquest Next Landmark, I really looking forward to seeing what they do with that, I follow a bunch of EQ:NL people on twitter and the pictures are incredible.

    As I said in my last post I'll continue to read your blog whether I'm playing Warcraft or not, as it's always a good read. Cheers Grumpy :)

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  9. Good to hear from you, Grumpy. Looking forward to your posts, including the one on the date announcement.

    I have stopped playing altogether. Not just WoW, everything, no games at all. WoW kinda spoiled other games for me, basically I couldn't find a game that would be as good or better than WoW in every respect that would be of interest to me, and since apparently I became that bad of a perfectionist when it comes to games, I stopped playing at all (I know this probably sounds silly but, well... that's what happened). :-)

    There was definitely a void at first, but it filled itself (got a dog plus resumed an old hobby not related to the computers, etc). I guess that's for the better.

    For some odd reason, it's still interesting to read from time to time about WoW, though. Go figure. :-)

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    1. Acutally I am in the same fix as most of us who are here. I really don't play anymore. Running TImeless Island is B-O-R-I-N-G. No raiding or LFR becasue of the horror stories I hear here.

      But, you just wait, PVP anon. When Waste Lands 2 comes out, it will be very good. :)

      -roo

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    2. Waste Lands 2? What's that? :-)

      Do you mean WoD?

      Delete
  10. The introduction of cross-realm normal/heroic raiding yesterday was immediately useful for my current raid group... we were short last night and any other time would have just called the run but we pulled in a few dps from the x-svr tools and were only one boss behind where we usually end up on Tue nights. I knew they were considering adding that sometime before WoD but I hadn't even seen confirmation, let alone any indication that it would be happening so quickly.

    That will also benefit anyone who wants to raid but can't get a run... especially if you're a healer, apparently there are a ton of raids looking for healers.

    On another topic:
    http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/18/poll-rng-gearing-or-points-based-gearing/

    I was picking between the two popular choices myself and ended up with "mostly RNG" as my pick... I would really, really miss the times when something drops off a boss that someone in the raid has been wanting for ages or is just a huge upgrade. The immediacy of the reaction is a big part of why I find loot to be interesting... if all upgrades were done off-screen that would be lost. So, I'd like RNG to stick around as the primary gearing method but I'd really like to be able to fill that one last spot with a purchased item (trinket... again... second expansion in a row my end-expansion raiding toon was completely geared except for a damned trinket).

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  11. Well this is depressing. Aside from ppl quitting left and right, half the fun of reading this blog was reading what you were replying to other ppl, sort of like a discussion.

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    1. Heh I usually check at least once a day, sometimes several times a day if I'm bored. I love reading Grumpy's responses.

      However, I blog, not many people read and only one person ever comments. I have tried on occasion to reply to them but often I don't know what to say. If they haven't raised anything new in their comment then I've said everything in the blog post already.

      So replying isn't easy and maybe he's just not in the mood. I hope he gets back into the swing of things though, as like I said and you said, reading the comments is fun :)

      Delete
    2. I agree. I as I said earlier, I check the blog everyday and read the comments...I just hardly comment myself.

      Is your blog WoW related Taitrina?

      I'm not surprised with several people quitting, I mean there's only so many things one can do in the game that they enjoy until it gets old...and what makes it worse is when people I know for several years leave the game. Once my month is over I will take another 2-3 month break I guess.

      Grumpy may disagree with me, but I used to treat WoW as a second job back in Wrath and Cata. I'd do several raids a week, and work on gearing several alts. It got to be too much. All I can say is do things in moderation. Just be in one raid team a week...focus on maybe 2 or 3 alts max to really work on at a time. That may ease the burnout, just my 2 cents.

      Then again, it doesn't help that we haven't had new content going on almost 7 months now.

      Delete
    3. Am I allowed to answer here? I wasn't plugging it. Merely explaining that in my experience, replying can be hard. As I said I've always loved the reply element of Grumpy's blog, but never been able to replicate it.

      Anyway, yeah it is/was Warcraft related. It used to be just Warcraft, then I branched out. However, I've just quit, my sub expires in a couple of weeks. I will likely still post occasionally about Warcraft because, well I still do love this game. I want it to be better.

      It's a two part issue. Blizz are taking a direction I don't like and don't agree with. However, in the past I've always accepted it. "The playerbase is so diverse, can't please everyone" etc. So I might have kept subbed if it wasn't for their poor communication. I do think that this really long gap is poor management, that could be mean of me but I can't help how I feel. Then the lack of communication, of direction, it just feels like they don't care for us as players anymore. Again I could be being mean, it's just my opinion. I just can't support blizz as a company anymore.

      @Sufferwell 1 raid team a week and 2-3 alts is moderation???? Wow. I burned out just playing my main. I couldn't play alts because of the hell of LFR, which I wouldn't set foot into. So just raiding killed me, though perhaps that was the lack of variety. I logged into raid, to do farming for raid mats, and that was it.

      I really want Grumpy to post again. He's always more eloquent than me when he rants, it's good to read.

      Delete
    4. I don't think Grumpy would mind you plugging. I just asked because you usually give good insight and explanations in your comments, so I figured another good blog out there would be fun to read :D

      As far as moderation goes, I was just giving an example to Grumpy, although I know he loves his alts. Moderation to me this expansion was one main, along with a healer alt, both of which I geared up just in timeless isle. No raiding for me, not even LFRs, after 5.1. And even with that I'm burned out, so to each his own, I suppose. For me, more than 2 toons to work on during this expansion would have been too much, and I don't even raid anymore lol.

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    5. @Taitrina - you know Taitrina, there has been several times, I tried to get you in a discussion and you didn't chat back. I tried just about everyone here, but outside of Jaeger & James & pvp anon, no one took me up on any type of discussion. I also listed and plugged my wow blog a little bit, but, again, no one. And don't think they come to a blog and chat. heck no, they don't. Unless it's GE's blog, then folks will post their mind. Thats the biggest reason, I come here to see some type of blogging life, lol.

      @sufferwell - how about no alts and 9 mains? :-D Everyone of mine runs everything that I can. Just got my 8th 90, working on my 9. He's lvl 54, but he will be there, with no boost.

      So what that I got a tumor in me brain and my thoughts alot of the time don't make sense, I love chatting. And I can always see the other side, even if I don't agree. Oh well. Hopefully, this is just a phase for GE. Maybe he is busy with family life and work. He'll be back. In the meantime, it doesn't mean we can can't keep writing.

      -roo

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    6. @Roo I apologise for that. I never intended to be rude. I haven't seen a link to your blog before, or at least not that I can remember.

      As for you trying for a discussion, I probably didn't know what to say. If I don't have anything to come back with, if I would just be repeating myself, then I don't like to reply. I guess I'm slightly self conscious about replying a lot, especially on someone else's blog, it seems a bit like spamming. Also I type a lot, I don't mean to write walls of text but that's how it comes out, so then it's just like I'm visually taking over and it makes me uncomfortable.

      So unless I do have something to add to the conversation I stay silent. Does that make sense? Anyway maybe Grumpy is writing that "December 20th? Are they out of their minds?!" post that he promised. At least we'll probably get another Monday Random Thoughts in 2 days, he barely ever misses those and I'm always worried when he does that somethings wrong. It's like a "It's Monday, need to read Grumpy's post", starts the week off on an interesting, if not always positive note :)

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    7. Heh I think we can keep this going until GE himself returns :D

      @Roo I did not know you had a blog. That's what I get for not paying attention sometimes.

      Having 8 90s is pretty nice. I stopped at 9. The problem is once I dinged them I never touched 7 of them : /

      @Taitrina I wouldn't worry about typing a lot. I think the interaction with everyone on here with GE is what makes this blog one of my faves.

      Delete
    8. Hi folks. :-D sorry been a rough two days. Not sure if it's the meds or me not doing right. Oh well (please note, not said for any type of pity.).

      @Tait - if you click on the persons name, it will take you to their "me" page where you can go to their blog or web site. nifty huh!
      Aye, I have been to yours a lot - I liked you talking about "free to play games" :-)
      And I spent time in GB back in the 80's at Alconbury RAF :-D I do miss my pint of bitters and Woodpecker Cider. Along with fish & chips. My favorite pub was the Four Horseshoes, right outside the gate. I did research and went to several graveyards and abbeys and to track down my ancestors. They be Scottish and MacTavish. Hence, why my guild is Clan MacTamhais (that name is taken and besides it is copyrighted :-( ) But "mh" makes a "v" sound in Gaelic. So it is cool.
      And like Sufferwell says, don't worry about your typing. I like it!!!! Always an interesting read. Really and sincerely enjoy what you write.

      @Sufferwell - well, I wrote my last note on the blog a few days ago. I really wasn't yakking much about WOW, but other things, birthdays, deaths of people, animals, etc. really my thoughts go all over the place. But it never became like GE's here. I was trying my best, but no. And that's good, lol. But I did learn a lot of things in the way of professions, so I am leaving that up on the blog. I am hoping someone finds the different things of use.

      On the toons - I do touch all of mine - they are all level 600 in all the professions and when I need gems, I go to my JC. When mail armor is needed, I go to, well, me - Roo. And when anything else is needed, I go to that toon with the ability. Right now Juwun finally made it to the Forge in Thunder Island because she is a BS/Tailor (I did not know about that place, but GE and I think Jaeger told me about timeless island).

      Well, you folks take care. Have a pint of cider for me Tait. (I can't drink anymore).

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    9. I don't drink at all so I think I'll pass on that cider :)

      I never knew about the clicking names thing. I did click on your name and went to your blog, only to find it was your last post?

      Blogging isn't for everyone. I blog because I like writing, because I wanted to write what I thought. I don't care whether people read or not in all honesty. I write for the enjoyment of writing. If I get any comments then that's super cool and it's always nice to hear that someone liked reading. So thank you :) I don't know how long Grumpy has been blogging but it's likely been years. I remember when WoWInsider used to feature good blogposts, it's how I learned about his blog. Building up a readership takes time.

      As I said below Timeless Isle is where the best pre-raid, non pvp gear can be found. It's the most efficient but efficient doesn't always mean best.

      Tomorrow we hopefully we'll get another random thoughts to comment on. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

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    10. ah, thats too bad, Tait. Cider is good for the soul and what ails ya. Along with broasted chicken crisps. Hmmm.

      Yes, I write too. I have several fantasy short stories published in my youth and a couple of other things (no, not pron) published too - then family took over and being over seas for a while (6 years ) took all the wind out of those sails. When you clicked on my name, on Bizarre World was up. Now is another and that is where I will be hanging me hat for a while - "Out Where the Gryphons Don't Fly", is it's name. I won't be writing about WOW there. It's just a place for when things become weird. : )

      Be good.

      -roo

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  12. I've read that the December 2014 date is a worst case scenario with the actual expansion actually coming out (early) "FALL". Hoping my guess of September/October still holds.

    With that I did pre-purchase the expansion and have started leveling a Druid alt to mix in with my warlock and priest LFR raiding.

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    1. Note, the leveling is so I can boost this toon from 60 and take advantage of the 'veterans' bonus of max'd out professions. Once maxed out, I have a full set of Timeless gear waiting for her on my other alts that she can equip.

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    2. nah, really? :-D

      I wish I could get that timeless gear. So that is telling me, non of the gear you get from doing the quests for rep (aka like Klaxxi or Shado-Pan) is really worth the time, but instead go to TImeless Isle and get the stuff?

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    3. Timeless Isle is 496 so yeah, pre-raid it's some of the best gear you can get. You just kill everything you can see and randomly tokens for it will drop.

      So all the old reps like Klaxxi and Shado-Pan are pretty pointless to do in terms of what they offer and time efficiency. However, if you aren't planning to raid and just want to play, then do what you enjoy the most.

      I read in your blog you were thinking you wouldn't get Warlords. If you do though you'll have another 10 levels to level through, and all the quest gear you get from that will be better than any gear you grind for now. So don't worry about efficiency or where the best is, just have fun!

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    4. yup, but not right now. too much money.

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