Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Tuesday Random Thoughts

- I know, I missed monday, sorry.

- Was being bad and waited too long to do my taxes so had to play catch up.

- All done now.

- Speaking of playing, still not playing much warcraft.

- Or that much of anything else either.

- My warcraft break turned more into an MMO break.

- And the time I do decide to play has been on FF 14 instead.

- Still just logging in for raids, even if I don't really want to do that any more either.

- Anyone know a good add on for a sub rogue to track all those dots and buffs?

- Don't feel like making a ton of auras or adding new stuff to need to know.

- That is stuff you do when you are on the game a lot and are really enjoying it.

- I just want to fart around on it in a normal run.

- I am not on the game a lot right now and I am not enjoying it even when I am on.

- So not going to waste my time with setting up all that, just want something plug and play and ready to go.

- Figured I would give sub a try as it is so much higher than assassination right now.

- Two problems, one you already know, and that is I suck at my rogue to begin with.

- Second problem is I have crap gear because this expansion has no alternate way of gearing up outside of raiding.

- Unless you want to count the crafted 3 decent pieces.

- Which are really decent as you can get the stats you want on them.

- Not even follower missions are decent gear unless you raid.

- Having to raid to gear up for raids does not make sense.

- Well, not to a logical person.

- Either way, was doing 19K unbuffed on a dummy as assassination in my crap gear.

- Figured I would be able to pull at least 23 or 24 as sub.

- Guess what I was doing?

-Lets just put it this way, I really am the worst rogue ever.

- 12K as sub.  Maybe I will just stick to assassination even if it is not the best spec if I ever do decide to play it.

- As I always say, you will be better playing a spec you know than a spec you don't.

- And lets face it, assassination is the easiest rotation in the game so it is perfect for a rarely played alt.

- Nothing to screw up.

- It is like an arcane mage in wrath.

- Well, not that easy as a one button rotation, but really close.

- Looked up rotations for my character on FF 14, if I ever make it to 50 I want to be prepared.

- Compared to wow their rotations seem like rocket science.

- I have been avoiding warcraft news for the most part but saw they announced 6.2 is coming.

- To the PTR at least.

- So of course I need to make a lot of grumpy comments about it.

- Would not feel like myself if I didn't.

- First thing I noticed was "No".

- Yes, just "No".

- As in "No" new dungeons.

- As in "No" gear catch up system.

- As in "No" altaholic relief for garrisons.

- As in "No" scenarios.

- As in "No" daily quest hubs.

- As in"No" flying.

- As in "No" balance in raiding for smaller groups.

- As in "No" valor gear, or valor.

- As in "No" incentive to come back for people that left.

- There are a lot more "No" things I saw, but lets just leave it at that and remove the word no and put that all in one sentence along with what they did say they were adding.

- "We are adding new dungeons, a gear catch up system, altaholic relief for garrisons, scenarios, daily quest hubs, flying, balance in raiding for small groups, valor gear and valor, and an incentive to come back for the people that left."

- Sounds like an awesome start to 6.2 if you ask me.

- Too bad those are all things I noticed a huge "No" hanging next to them.

- It is early, they can still add them, we can hold out hope right?

- Don't waste your time hoping.

- In beta we complained about no daily hubs and nothing to do at 100, did they add anything?

- In beta we complained about the problems with professions, did they fix them before release?

- In the beta we mentioned garrisons are awesome fun on one character but will be a burnout machine for people with alts, did they do anything to address that?

- We spoke, they ignored us.

- Big business at its finest ladies and gentlemen.

- They do not care one bit what we have to say.

- So I am aware it is super early and they might still add some, most or even all of that on the beta, but if I were you I would not hold my breath on that one.

- I am sure if they were adding any of those things that many people want they probably would lead with those things to shut people like me up from complaining they are not there.

- But they are sticking to "more of the same".

- What was announced?

- The new raid of course.

- But the new raid will be like the old ones.

- Harder than intended to be for small groups.

- So many fights are a laugh fest with unskilled players if you have 30 but hard as hell with fairly skilled players if you have only 10.

- Is blizzard addressing that?

- Of course they are not, they do not give a crap about small groups, doesn't the mythic change prove that?

- Speaking of mythic, it will still not be cross realm and it will still be 20 players strict.

- Which means once again I'll be stuck not being able to do the content I have been doing since they first added "heroic" level to the game.

- Gee, thanks blizzard, thanks for telling me that the only way I can ever raid at the level I want to is to change servers and leave the people I have been playing with for 7 years.

- Apparently you forget that those people are the only reason I am still paying for a subscription, and you want me to leave them so I can raid heroic (now mythic) again?

- Not a good business plan blizzard.

- Because if I leave them the next time I suffer from burnout and need a break I won't come back because I won't have my friends keeping in there like I do now.

- They are the reason I am still playing blizzard, not anything you have done lately.

- Do you really want me to leave them and then cancel my subscription the next time I need a break?

- But lets get back on topic, mythic dungeons are being added.

- Awesome, that sounds like it can be a fun way to gear up alts.

- Wait, it only drops 680 gear with a rare chance at a 700 piece off the last boss?

- If they were in game right at this very second that would be beyond awesome.

- But for next tier, when all the item levels will be higher, much higher?

- Screw that, what type of catch up mechanic is not only "hard to do" but drop gear that is worse than the previous tiers gear.

- Oh, and get this, it is on a weekly lock out.

- Blizzard, go fuck yourself with that idea.

- Mythic dungeons should drop comparable gear to at least heroic of the tier that is coming out in 6.2.

- And if it is going to drop shitty 680 gear is sure has hell better not have a weekly lock out.

- Does anyone at blizzard think before adding things or does someone just say "this sounds cool" and then someone else in another room, that did not even listen the idea say, "okay add it".

- They are adding a shipyard and navel missions to garrisons.

- Interesting, but still suffers from the same problem garrisons as a whole suffer from.

- Alt unfriendliness.

- Garrisons are an awesome things, I love them, do not get me wrong, but they are not very alt friendly.

- You would think the jukebox would have at least been account bound in 6.1 if they noticed this, but nnnnooooo.

- That would have made to much sense to make that account wide.

- So if they did not do something simple like that to work across all characters we knew that anything they added to garrisons all our alts would have to do if we wanted it.

- Well, that is it, that is all they are adding.

- Well, and the new zone.

- You know, the one that was supposed to be included at launch but they were too busy to put it in.

- Makes you wonder, what were they too busy doing?

- Seriously, I would like to know, what were they so busy doing that they could not get the entire world ready for release.

- Oh, and I have one more grumpy grump I just "have" to make along those lines.

- They said the navel stuff for garrisons are still in "early development".

- WTF have you been doing all this time.

- You doubled your staff, increased the price of the expansion, gave us limited content so far, and you are still working on stuff for 6.2 in only early development?

- With all the time you have had from siege and basically adding nothing so far this expansion you should be done with 7.0 already.

- It should have a release candidate in the works by now with all the staff and time you have had.

- You should be in the "early development" stage of 8.0 right now.

- Not in some tiny feature no one asked for and no one wanted for a patch that doesn't include any new content except for what will surely be a poorly tuned and buggy raid like all the others released so far this expansion.

- Do not call mythic dungeons new content, just don't.

- Increasing some health totals and damage numbers is not new content, it is finishing what they should have had finished on expansion release.

- Same goes for tanaan, it should have been included at release and that is where all our daily quest hub could have been.

- Should have been.

- So we have two basic options blizzard can try to do to draw people back.

- Add lots of stuff people asked for, like all the things I said are "No" things or add a new raid and nothing else really.

- They chose the new raid and nothing else really.

- I do not see this ending well.

- Prove me wrong blizzard.

- Flood us with a catch up gearing system that does not require raiding.

- Give us dungeons and scenarios and quest hubs.

- Give us flying for completing loremaster in tanaan.

- Give us something you so far said "No" to.

- I will be very happy to say I was wrong.

- Make me say it blizzard.

- Please.

- Have a great day.

16 comments:

  1. Mythic dungeons should absolutely not drop anything close to the heroic tier raiding No no no no no getting a piece that's better then normal is fine. That is a gear catch up mechanic. It also looks like there's a daily hub for the ship yard. At this point I think it's safe to say valor is not coming back this expansion continuing to dwell on it is only going to make you unhappy.

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    1. I am not asking them to drop anything close to heroic, I am just asking for them to drop more than heroic level of LAST tier. But they should drop heroic level of current tier, because that is where gearing starts, so that is what it should drop.

      What is now called "heroic" is normal mode raiding. It does not matter what name you want to call it. What is refereed to now as "heroic" is the basic beginning raid gear level. Maybe I should refer to it as something other than normal as to not confuse it, but not sure what to call it otherwise. But that is the gear it should drop. The basic beginning raid gear level. Not gear that is a lower item level than the previous tier.

      The ship yards are garrison dailies, at least as I have read it. We will do some quest to opening it up but then it is just a collection of follower missions. Sending some followers out on navel missions does not translate into a daily in my personal opinion. Going out and collecting 6 things or killing 10 things every day, that is repetitive, but that is a daily. Hitting the 100% button on master plan and sending your followers out is busy work that only keeps you busy for about 2 seconds. Nothing more. Of course I could have read it wrong but to me it seemed that was all about follower stuff once we open it up.

      No worries either way, it is in the early development stage, so it not like it will be in 6.2 anyway based on the track record of blizzard these past couple of years. In development means, "hey everyone here is a cool idea you will never see".

      Yeah, valor is not coming back. Guess I need to gear up the easier way*, like it or not. Sadly I do not like it.

      *I will be making a post explaining how it is easier to gear now than it was with valor, but how I still prefer and miss the valor way.

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  2. I've looked at 6.2 notes and I don't think I've ever been less excited about a patch. To tell the truth, I was disappointed. I'm not sure what I wanted to see, but not this.
    I mean I haven't even tried for platinum in the garrison for example. At all. Not even one. Had lost interest in them for quite a while and adding new higher limits doesn't change my interest much. Adding achievements as content is getting pretty overused this time around.

    I figure the same will happen to the new dungeon system. I know people had asked for them for a while as a 'fix' but it's the same food reheated. It's warm, but doesn't taste better, chances are it's slightly stale too. I haven't even finished the misprinted coin quest yet, that's how many dungeons I have done. And I'm a tank, instant queue and I also get satchel as incentive, can't even imagine for others who have longer queues.

    But it doesn't matter if we are unhappy. We can unsub and leave. Our numbers won't matter much, Blizz now has their whale system in place. When there's people who are willing to pay 10-20 subs, they don't really need to make a lot pf people happy. Just ensure there's stuff to buy, whales are usually completionists who enjoy displaying the latest store mount or spectral or what have you. Or crushing things in pvp with their newly boosted 50 euro flavour of the month character. There's a reason for the imbalances and I don't think I've ever seen classes as imbalanced as now.

    Blizzard used to be a company who took their time doing things right. I didn't mind waiting months, years even for stuff, because when it came it it was top notch. Now, it's poor quality, disappointingly so, like in any freemium game where bugs aren't fixed for months on end. I still don't have any campaign quest on my hunter, despite the tickets I have submitted and reassurances that the devs are working on a fix. In their own words, this was the patch where I was supposed to play catchup on characters and finish their campaigns but I can't do that, now can I. And there have been so many bugged campaign quests too, so many I've had to log on different realms and try different tricks to finish. Frustrating and absolutely disappointing for someone as big as Blizzard. Being on a bigger realm basically means that any quests where are more than 5 people inexplicably breaks for some reason, meaning quest items no longer react or work.

    And I have a few choice words for their CS team. It's such a joke, I always have to resubmit a ticket 3-4 times before it actually gets read. They say they are busy, but yeah, I would be busy too if I had to redo my work 4 times because I can't be bothered to do it right the first time. For example, I put in a ticket saying I have NO campaign quests, NONE have triggered. YEs, wrote with caps. I was told 'sorry you don't have the campaign quest you want, it will eventually trigger, trust me'. Yes, they said 'trust me'. I have a ticket where my second reply was only "Did you read my ticket?".

    WoW is changing into something I don't like. Little work, poor quality, cash grabs. It doesn't SEEM as bad if you take every aspect, but it FEELS bad.
    It reminds me oh so very much of Neverwinter MMO, where you log every day to do your "invocation" for a daily reward and timed professions. After a while of logging the same to do garrison chores, I started calling it "doing my invocation". Actually, Invocation took less time than the chores.

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    1. Also, Neverwinter recently went from max level 60 to max level 70. They added a few new zones with a few dailies, some ongoing (you can repeat over and over for as many times as you want) and that's how you're supposed to level. Also, took all the 60 dungeons and made them level 70 and changed difficulties around. Same crap presented as 'content'. Yet the game thrives, because whales are paying thousands of dollars (yes, one person pays thousands monthly) buying all sort of premium crap, like 200$ packs with new races, mounts, enchantments, companions and so on. And that's actually the least effort money-wise, money is mostly used to upgrade gear. Because they made upgradable gear that you can grind your ass over it for months on end or simply buy the crap you need. And the game is riddled with bugs and broken stuff that hasn't been fixed since the game launched. Yet it's extremely succesful and recovered their investment in less than a year if I recall the numbers. Imagine one player paying 3000$ a month, how many WoW subs does that cover? As long as that player can have Mythic (yes, Mythic) gear, he's happy, he can kill people in pvp and feel special. It's all it takes, keeping whales happy. The game is so extremely expensive if you want top stuff, that 15-20$ a month doesn't buy you anything, but that's ok, it's not for small change people. And it will survive as long as there are free to play players entertaining the whales.
      No wonder WoW wants a piece of it. And soon enough, WoW will present shop items as content, just like Neverwinter does. Push daily chores to ensure players log, gate stuff as much as possible and create and sustain whales.
      Seriously now, if you were a businessman, wouldn't you want to make as much profit as possible? I know I would. Freemium models seemed risky at first but have now proven so succesful money wise, it seems like the way to go. People look at sub numbers and seem to think it matters that F2P games don't have the huge player base like WoW does, but it certainly doesn't matter profit-wise. One whale is the equivalent of tens or hundred of sub players.

      Anyway, should end my rant...

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    2. Oh yeah, Nevewrinter also has event windows. Like times you get extra rewards for doing a certain activity. For example, pvp in this window and you get double that. Do dungeons in this windows and yo get a chest. Seems like WoW is pushing the even stuff as well. Sigh.

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    3. Yeah, there is really nothing to look at with the patch notes thus far. We can only hope they add something.

      I don't think I have ever been so disappointed to see a new raid announced in my time playing this game. The "selfie" patch might have actually had more interesting about it than this one does and that is really sad.

      It does seem like they are trying to put themselves in a position where they can just coast. Now with the tokens as long as there are people willing to spend cash they can keep their high sub numbers without people actually having to pay a sub. They are hoping there will be people that will spend tons of cash to sell time packs.

      In truth, I believe it will work. I've already seen people coming back because "I don;t need to pay a monthly sub any more".

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  3. They already nerfed raid for smaller group.

    BRF just got a scaling nerf for most hard bosses scaling with size (meaning the nerf for small group is bigger than for big groups)

    And I feel you're VERY biased as for now for 6.2. We barely know anything taht will be in appart from the raid. The first strings froom the dungeons finder seems to indicate theere mignt be new dungeons.

    I don't want to go through your whole post to argu with every point, but basically the feeling I get out of it was "I'm not happy with WoD, so anything they will add will be shit anyway".

    I'm not saying that everything is perfect in WoW right now, but it feel to me you're looking for an excuse to just not admit you're burned out.

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    1. I saw that today and was very happy to see it. Not sure why they did not think of it to begin with but like I said, small group content has always been harder than large group content. So it was more a case of them keeping things as they always had been then not thinking.

      Not bias, just calling it as I see it. I did mention that more could be added, even said I would be glad to say I was wrong when they add stuff. Bias is if I ignored the fact they could add stuff. There is nothing bias about staying the truth. The truth is there is not much offered in terms of new content for 6.2 thus far. Lets hope for more.

      Well... "I'm not happy with WoD, so anything they will add will be shit anyway" does kind of fit.

      I am not happy with the game and if they are just going to keep with more of them same, why should I get excited about it because if it is shit now more of the same would be shit too would it not? So yes, you basic feeling of that is what I was saying is exactly what I was saying.

      And I am not looking for an excuse to not admit burn out. I've been saying for months I'm burnt out. I even said what burnt me out. I tried to do complete garrisons on all my characters and tried to get the most out of them. As an altaholic and someone without unlimited time the garrisons ate up all my time, cased me to not do things I would rather do, and burnt me out. I've been saying that for a while.

      So question. If I have been saying I am burnt out on the game for a while, how can anything be an "excuse" to not say that? Can't, and don't need to, make an excuse to not say something you already said.

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    2. Don't get too excited about new dungeons. They also announced "timewalker dungeons". These are dungeons that are legacy (wrath and BC) dungeons that when you enter them, they scale down-level your gear, then they added new mechanics. Utgard Keep anyone with a Kairoz twist anyone??

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    3. I see no reason to add new mechanics, that will screw things up. It is not longer a "timewalker" as in doing it again, it is a remake, which is different from a "timewalker".

      Blizzard will never learn. Leave well enough alone.

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  4. I as worried yesterday when you didn't post, especially given 6.2 news, that you'd just given up. I miss the discussion in the comments that you used to do, but at least you are still posting a bit.

    Looks like you managed to coax me out of retirement after all. Your blog roll hasn't updated but I've put my blog back up. I felt 6.2 was worth commenting on but I'm going to have edit that post now, or make another one.

    I saw 680 ilevel and cheered. Most of my gear is 645, with one 651 warforged I think and a couple of 655 and 670 pieces from garrison missions. 680 would be an upgrade for every single slot.

    I wasn't thrilled about the weekly lockout but I don't have much time to play these days anyway so that wouldn't affect me that much.

    My biggest concern was how it was going to be implemented. If it wasn't on LFG, and able to be completed by an LFG group, then I was sunk.

    However, I had completely not registered that 6.2 would be bringing another raid tier. While from my perspective 680 is an upgrade regardless, it's still not how I really would like the system to work.

    I've been thinking they should have mythic dungeons for a while, but not how they are implementing them, or how I hope they are implementing them anyway.

    In my mind the dungeon system should be normals for levelling/early gear at max. Heroic dungeons provide LFR level gear, to get gear ready for raids/just get gear. Then mythic which would be tuned for a communicating organised group in this scenario, would provide normal/heroic level gear. Mythic dungeons would be like mini raids in essence, for those that like smaller scale hard content. Challenge modes doesn't really provide that as it's a time trial, it's a different way of playing, one I have to admit I'm not a fan of.

    However, with how blizz has it with the gear dropping from normal and heroic dungeons easily outclassed by everything, they are for gearing purposes rendered irrelevant. If they then have mythic dungeons as mini raids, but the gear they drop doesn't match the effort required, then outside of those that want to run them for themselves, the carrot on the stick just isn't there.

    I've resubbed to swtor and I'm enjoying it a great deal. I'm trying to change my mentality about Warcraft. When I first started playing, it was a collection game to me and gear was ultimately irrelevant unless I needed it to be able to get something. I'm trying to get back to that, see if I can find what made it fun the first time.

    I've got way too many ties, all the time, effort, money and social investment in the game, to just say goodbye. We'll have to see how it goes. 6.2 isn't bringing half of what it should be. I'm not surprised Warcraft is getting into time limited events, the whole timewalker thing could be great if the rewards are worth it but I don't expect they will be.

    If I could just get over my hatred of levelling in Warcraft I think I'd be better off. There's stuff I want to do, but because of bind on pickup, I want to do it on certain characters. I want to be level 100 and I'm lazy and don't want to put in the effort to get there. I don't enjoy the process. It's just so damn repetitive, swtor really spoils me.

    Oh and I still haven't got the selfie toy. I got the first part but haven't had the second mission. I really hate RNG.

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    1. I have lots of things I want to write about but really no motivation to write and even when I do have the motivation I do not post them, they just sit in draft. I have two like that from last week.

      It is all part of me taking a break from the game. I noticed it is hard to take a real break when I stay involved in the game. Remember, even being grumpy and complaining means I like the game. So no real reason to post when I am not happy with the game. ;)

      I'll have to take a peek at your views of 6.2.

      I am guessing mythic dungeons will be like heroic scenarios were when they first came out, where you would need your own group to do them.

      I really do hope the mythic dungeons are like that otherwise you will see people who have no business being in them there. And with a once a week lockout the last thing I would want is to come in on an already in progress run and screw myself out of earlier bosses, or not be able to finish because I can not get a decent group with group finder. It will have to be a premade thing. Even more if they are going to stick with this stupid once a week idea. Which makes absolutely no sense when it is lesser than the previous tiers item level gear to begin with. (at the time it comes out that is, now it would be great gear for alts).

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    2. I agree with you about what mythic dungeons should be. They should be exactly what you said. The only reason I'm hoping that they aren't is because I want them to be what heroic dungeons should be now.

      I want that alternate progression path that used to be an option back in Wrath and Cata days. Man, that's two expansions ago, days gone by that are likely never coming back.

      Anyway it's nice to see you commenting again. I understood why you weren't, you weren't engaged, you are on break.

      I have no faith in any catchup mechanism they put in place. They claimed Timeless Isle was a catchup mechanism and what did it drop? I should just let it go, make a change one way or another.

      I made another post today, looking ahead to expansion number six. Part theorizing on reality, part wishlist, the two are remarkably incompatible.

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    3. It would be kind of hard for me to comment when I was so upset with the game. I am grumpy to begin with, did not want to come off as angry as well, even if that is how I felt. I feel angry with blizzard, like they let me down, they did a bait and switch on me. I am not a happy elf. Not like I ever am really. ;)

      TI as a catch up was awesome for a fresh 90. It was no catch up in no way shape or forum for someone that was just "a little" out of date with their gear. 496, that was first tier gear. It should have been at least 522 gear. Said it then and will say it again. Blizzard is just out of touch with actually playing the game. They need to get out from behind the code sometimes and play a little. Some ideas are awesome in idea and code but don't fly so well in game play. That is what the game is suffering from now. Lots of awesome ideas implemented poorly.

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  5. Grumpy, did you saw the tweet warcraftdevs did? They apparently have a catch-up mechanism in the works but not in the ptr yet. And the timewalking thingie.. Kinda interesting for old raid fans like me.. All depends on the scaling of the loot

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    1. I eagerly await what that will be. As todays post shows, gearing up is not hard spending gold, I just don't have fun gearing that way. I like doing things for gear, not playing the AH for gear.

      I do think they were referring to garrisons with that however. I would like to see them take away some of the alt unfriendliness of them however. That is what really burnt me out on this expansion.

      I like the timewalker idea. It was found on the ptr over 2 years ago as well. So they have been working on it for a while. It could be something interesting. FF 14 does that. You still go into low level dungeons even at max level. Seems like a great idea if you ask me. Might as well use the content that is there already. I would not mind doing some throwback stuff. I hope they do design them for fun more than difficulty. I would not look forward to BC dungeons at BC difficulty when they first came out with random people. I shutter at the thought. lol

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