"Jed" in this story would be me. It is just a name but it is my name. It annoys me whenever I start on a new server I can not use my name. On the PTR I am flagged to change my name. On the tournament server I had to change my name. I do not care if someone else is using it. It is my name. Make them change their name. Their name does not matter to me, my name does.
It might sound selfish and it is. Why should I give a crap if someone else is also named "Jed"? I do not care. If the game chooses to care then make them change it. My name is my name and I am sick and tired of being forced to change my name to appease someone else that has no right using my name. I will not make a bastardized version of my name using stupid symbols or accented letter. It is my name and there is no reason I should need to deviate from it.
Some names I do not mind changing but as a writer and a life long role player (even if I do not role play in wow, yeah, weird, I know) my name is my name and has been my name for a very long time. My main character's name is a name I created for a book I wrote 12 years ago. That is my claim to that name. It has never been used in any other literature anywhere that I know of, ever. It is a creation of mine therefore is it, without question, my name.
Okay, rant over about people stealing my name. Lets get to the point I wanted to get to before I turned all grumpy elf again. The point is that names are limited. At least if you want a decent name that sounds like a name and not some stupid name like "droodheals" or "ikillu" and crap like that and not names that use other characters in place of letters so it can appear they have the name that was already taken.
Names of that style usually come from one of two things. A retarded person that thinks "ikillu" is cool or someone that got so frustrated trying to find a decent name that was not already taken that they were forced to just take anything.
I wondered why people can not have the same names. I mean, look around you, how many Mike's do you know, or John's? A few, maybe even a dozen or more if you get out a lot. I can easily name off the top of my head 10 different Mike's I talk to on a weekly basis and another 5 or 6 John's. People have the same name. Why can't they have the same name in game?
They say it has something to do with saving the data and people getting confused by two people with the same name. I have a small solution for that. Just limit the times the name can be used and not limit the name itself. Like if I make a Night Elf Hunter and name it "Jed" and someone wants to make a Blood Elf Paladin and wants to name it "Jed" they would be allowed. One on each side, now you effectively doubled the amount of non retarded names that people would need to use because all the good names are taken.
Want to take it further? How about a Dwarf named "Jed" too and an Orc and a Troll and a Human, and so on. One of each race, now you effective can use "Jed" 10 times. See, we are expanding the amount of times a name can be used. Maybe even more if we can go further, one of each race/class combo can have a name.
They always use the excuse that people will get confused with who is who if people have the same names. This would help with that. Or maybe just add another field if they think that people will get a Night Elf Hunter and a Dwarf Hunter both named "Jed" confused. Add a field for last names. How awesome would that be for role players? I am sure they would love it but so would many others.
If you are a role player you will most likely have a name combo that will be distinct enough that you can use it on every server and if you are not a role player then you would not really give a flying crap what your last name was as long as your first name was the name you wanted.
Lets say you wanted "Jed" to be your name and it was taken, so you can make "Jed Clampett" but if there was another Beverly Hillbillies fan on the server you could make it "Jed Smith" or "Jed Jones" or "Jed Johnson" or "Jed Robinson" or... well, you get the idea. This effectively means that you can have 100s if not 1000s of Jed's in the game and none of them will be forced to use stupid ass symbols in their name and none of them will be forced to have to change their name. Maybe in extreme cases, like my "Jed Clampett" example, where a name from pop culture comes into play there will still be issues, but at least now those would be limited by a great deal.
Either way, we should be allowed to use our names as we want them and I will never have to deal with some other asshole using my name somewhere. Blizzard has been doing lots of little things to make the game better and are simple additions, the return to graveyard button, dungeon maps, and many other things that where simple as hell to add and should have been added when the game was first created so why can they not add something like this? It is as simple as simple can be.
And I can make the idea even better for Blizzard. Name change fees would only apply to first or last, not both. More to sell. I can see it now, to join "Awesome Guild" you need to change your last name to Awesome. So people will be changing names left and right. Personally, I would never join a guild that named themselves Awesome Guild or change my name to be allowed to join a guild but to each their own.
Either way, limiting names is a bad idea all around and something that needs to be fixed. Not just because I am a grumpy elf that hates people stealing my name but because I am a grumpy elf that hates trying to figure out how to say efgerhyy over vent.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Downloading the PTR... Again?
That is the way it sure seems. I went to pop on the PTR last night to check something out (the cataclysm events have been added) and it started to download again. I figured this had to be a mistake but I rolled with it. After I was able to log in I figured I would log in and check. I did not need to download the entire thing to see what I wanted to see. I get in and my characters are gone. Now that pissed me off. I now have to wait for the download to finish again and wait for my characters to be transferred again? Why?
I can understand the need to download the PTR again and I'll live with it. It is the PTR after all and you have to understand that not everything is going to work perfectly. I am not happy about having to wait for my characters to be transferred again however. There is no reason what so ever for that. My characters data has not changed since I logged off. They have that data. Even if I need to download everything again that data is still there. Why not just use it? It better not take 4 days to transfer a character over again. PTR or not, that is just stupid.
So I started a new Priest for the hell of it to see what the starting parts look like now. Only played a short while but I must say I both love and hate the leveling process now. The part I hate is that there seems to be too much hand holding. When I started I liked that I needed to find my own way and explore some. Everyone you need to talk to is highlighted as if to say, hey you, come here and talk to me. Every mob you need to kill for a quest is highlighted as if saying, hey you, come here and kill me. Now for me, even more so having done some of these things 5 or 6 times, it is not needed but I can see how a new player would love this.
They also have an embedded arrow that shows you where you need to go next on the map. One problem with that is it seems to show you the wrong direction half the time. No biggie, their quest system has been screwed up since they added it. Whenever there is a quest that has an alliance and a horde equivalent, it always sends me to the horde version of it... as alliance. Who says that Blizzard does not support PvP, hell, they are trying to trick people into it. I personally do not mind, I am smart enough to notice that but I hope they fix the arrows. To a new player that has no clue what they are doing following those arrows will get them lost.
I love the leveling up graphics. Simple but I like them. I do like the notice when you can learn a new spell that pops up. You can now learn Power Word: Shield, please visit your trainer to learn it. Sweet! I can not tell you the number of times I took a trip to the trainer hoping to learn something new and there was nothing new to learn or all they had to teach me where things I never used anyway. This will make it a lot easier to know when it is worth going back to the trainer.
Now on to the water. The last time I was in the PTR there was no water. This made for a very interesting view of the world. Stuff just floating in the middle of the air, fish swimming in the middle of the air. I got a chuckle out of it. Now the water is added and I can tell you one thing for sure. As soon as you see it you will just have to go for a swim. The water looks fantastic. Thumbs up for some nice graphic work there.
Looks like I will not be testing the pre-Cataclysm stuff if they are going to make me wait 4 days again for it or even if I do, it will be out shortly after but so far I am looking forward to leveling some new characters when the changes come. Sad part is, on my main server, I do not have much leveling left to do on any of them and all 10 slots are filled with one of each class.
Guess that means off to the RP server for me where I have a hunter, paladin, warrior and DK all on 100% rested. They will be saved for Cataclysm however. Maybe I will go back to my long abandoned Orc Hunter on Aggy. Been a long time since I have been there.
Either way, while I still seem to not be excited about the end game, or 80+ stuff from Cataclysm, I am really looking forward to the leveling aspect again so I can see the whole world and leveling looks interesting again.
Oh, and the Alchemy mount. That I am really really looking forward too. A Night Elf Hunter that turns into a Dragon to travel. Wow, now that is F'N epic. Can you just see this dragon flying at you at 310 speed then changing instantly as someone drops out of the sky and an arrow comes at your head from 40 yards away and a wolf comes dashing at you to crew your face off. I can't wait.
I can understand the need to download the PTR again and I'll live with it. It is the PTR after all and you have to understand that not everything is going to work perfectly. I am not happy about having to wait for my characters to be transferred again however. There is no reason what so ever for that. My characters data has not changed since I logged off. They have that data. Even if I need to download everything again that data is still there. Why not just use it? It better not take 4 days to transfer a character over again. PTR or not, that is just stupid.
So I started a new Priest for the hell of it to see what the starting parts look like now. Only played a short while but I must say I both love and hate the leveling process now. The part I hate is that there seems to be too much hand holding. When I started I liked that I needed to find my own way and explore some. Everyone you need to talk to is highlighted as if to say, hey you, come here and talk to me. Every mob you need to kill for a quest is highlighted as if saying, hey you, come here and kill me. Now for me, even more so having done some of these things 5 or 6 times, it is not needed but I can see how a new player would love this.
They also have an embedded arrow that shows you where you need to go next on the map. One problem with that is it seems to show you the wrong direction half the time. No biggie, their quest system has been screwed up since they added it. Whenever there is a quest that has an alliance and a horde equivalent, it always sends me to the horde version of it... as alliance. Who says that Blizzard does not support PvP, hell, they are trying to trick people into it. I personally do not mind, I am smart enough to notice that but I hope they fix the arrows. To a new player that has no clue what they are doing following those arrows will get them lost.
I love the leveling up graphics. Simple but I like them. I do like the notice when you can learn a new spell that pops up. You can now learn Power Word: Shield, please visit your trainer to learn it. Sweet! I can not tell you the number of times I took a trip to the trainer hoping to learn something new and there was nothing new to learn or all they had to teach me where things I never used anyway. This will make it a lot easier to know when it is worth going back to the trainer.
Now on to the water. The last time I was in the PTR there was no water. This made for a very interesting view of the world. Stuff just floating in the middle of the air, fish swimming in the middle of the air. I got a chuckle out of it. Now the water is added and I can tell you one thing for sure. As soon as you see it you will just have to go for a swim. The water looks fantastic. Thumbs up for some nice graphic work there.
Looks like I will not be testing the pre-Cataclysm stuff if they are going to make me wait 4 days again for it or even if I do, it will be out shortly after but so far I am looking forward to leveling some new characters when the changes come. Sad part is, on my main server, I do not have much leveling left to do on any of them and all 10 slots are filled with one of each class.
Guess that means off to the RP server for me where I have a hunter, paladin, warrior and DK all on 100% rested. They will be saved for Cataclysm however. Maybe I will go back to my long abandoned Orc Hunter on Aggy. Been a long time since I have been there.
Either way, while I still seem to not be excited about the end game, or 80+ stuff from Cataclysm, I am really looking forward to the leveling aspect again so I can see the whole world and leveling looks interesting again.
Oh, and the Alchemy mount. That I am really really looking forward too. A Night Elf Hunter that turns into a Dragon to travel. Wow, now that is F'N epic. Can you just see this dragon flying at you at 310 speed then changing instantly as someone drops out of the sky and an arrow comes at your head from 40 yards away and a wolf comes dashing at you to crew your face off. I can't wait.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Tanking Pet Peeves Return.
I don't do a great deal of tanking because of my pet peeves about how everyone else in the game acts in general but being the Brewfest Boss is around I offered up my tanking services for my guildies. I figure it helps them get it done faster, the fight will never last more then 2 minutes even with a pitiful DPS core, and if they are gearing up a character this is a great way to get trinkets and trinkets are sometimes hard as hell to come by.
So here is the story on my bear. I do not use it often but while it is not ICC geared it is geared enough for most anything else. Unbuffed I am over 40K hit points and I have high avoidance. Which basically means I could most likely tank ICC because of the 30% buff. I played the bear a bunch (with guildies) and I read bear stuff all the time even if my bear does not leave the zoo all that often.
I stopped tanking randoms for a reason. I sometimes remind myself of that reasons and amazingly enough for such a simple event like this many of the things came back up once again. How do you really get on this bear's nerves when it is a one shot boss that usually takes 60-70 seconds to down?
1) Pulling For the Tank.
- Yes, even in this it happens. One time we port in and some asshat mage walks up the the boss and starts him. I was not in bear form. How did he know I did not need to switch specs? You do know that a druid can be a tree or a chicken right? I could have tanked it in cat no problem but even at that you have a 50/50 chance that you are about to go splat to a lame ass holiday boss because you pulled for the tank. Don't do that.
2) Focus Fire.
- There is one fucking boss. How the hell can you miss him and start killing other things? I grab the boss, do my bear like things and keep the guy mad at me. I swipe like crazy, because you know that is what us bears do, and that is more then enough to keep the little guys from being drawn away by healer aggro or AoE. For you to pull one of those non elite, inconsequential, will despawn when the battle is over, sort of adds from me you had to be focus firing it. Why the hell are you focus firing it?
3) I Don't Need Any New Friends.
- Why do people have to go and aggro the whole fucking instance when in there and bring them back to me. Sure, one swipe kills them all and if not two surely does. Why do you have to go collect adds? At least you brought our new friends to me, I will give you some credit.
And people wonder why I stopped tanking. If I can run into three different pet peeves in just about 10 runs in a super simple single target 1 minute fight imagine what tanking randoms was like. That is why I do not do it.
On a side note, they are making tanking harder in Cataclysm? I do not want to do it now when it is easy why the hell would I do it if it was hard. Great way to get more people interested in tanking Blizzard. Who is the moron in charge over there? Not sure who should be fired, the idiot that said "lets make tanking hard" or the idiot in charge that thought that might actually be a good idea.
How about nerfing all DPS to do less damage and lowering the hit points of the mobs. That way, no huge numbers even from crits and much harder to pull off the tank. There you go, you fixed everything and made it so people might actually want to tank.
So here is the story on my bear. I do not use it often but while it is not ICC geared it is geared enough for most anything else. Unbuffed I am over 40K hit points and I have high avoidance. Which basically means I could most likely tank ICC because of the 30% buff. I played the bear a bunch (with guildies) and I read bear stuff all the time even if my bear does not leave the zoo all that often.
I stopped tanking randoms for a reason. I sometimes remind myself of that reasons and amazingly enough for such a simple event like this many of the things came back up once again. How do you really get on this bear's nerves when it is a one shot boss that usually takes 60-70 seconds to down?
1) Pulling For the Tank.
- Yes, even in this it happens. One time we port in and some asshat mage walks up the the boss and starts him. I was not in bear form. How did he know I did not need to switch specs? You do know that a druid can be a tree or a chicken right? I could have tanked it in cat no problem but even at that you have a 50/50 chance that you are about to go splat to a lame ass holiday boss because you pulled for the tank. Don't do that.
2) Focus Fire.
- There is one fucking boss. How the hell can you miss him and start killing other things? I grab the boss, do my bear like things and keep the guy mad at me. I swipe like crazy, because you know that is what us bears do, and that is more then enough to keep the little guys from being drawn away by healer aggro or AoE. For you to pull one of those non elite, inconsequential, will despawn when the battle is over, sort of adds from me you had to be focus firing it. Why the hell are you focus firing it?
3) I Don't Need Any New Friends.
- Why do people have to go and aggro the whole fucking instance when in there and bring them back to me. Sure, one swipe kills them all and if not two surely does. Why do you have to go collect adds? At least you brought our new friends to me, I will give you some credit.
And people wonder why I stopped tanking. If I can run into three different pet peeves in just about 10 runs in a super simple single target 1 minute fight imagine what tanking randoms was like. That is why I do not do it.
On a side note, they are making tanking harder in Cataclysm? I do not want to do it now when it is easy why the hell would I do it if it was hard. Great way to get more people interested in tanking Blizzard. Who is the moron in charge over there? Not sure who should be fired, the idiot that said "lets make tanking hard" or the idiot in charge that thought that might actually be a good idea.
How about nerfing all DPS to do less damage and lowering the hit points of the mobs. That way, no huge numbers even from crits and much harder to pull off the tank. There you go, you fixed everything and made it so people might actually want to tank.
Mouse Issues
A long long time ago at a computer desk far far away I had this mouse I used to call the mouse from hell. It would go wherever it wanted to as if it had a mind of its own. A friend of mine, when I told him about it, was nice enough to buy me a new mouse. It was one of those little cat toys with catnip in it, yes, a catnip stuffed mouse. I've had that thing for going on 14 years now and to this point in time it is the only mouse I have ever owned that did not give me any problems. If only I could figure out how to hook it up to my computer.
I recently purchased a new mouse. It cost me $359 and while that might seem outrageous I am quite content with paying that much for something as simple as a mouse if it works the way I want it to. You see, I hate mice, despise them. I have had so many over the years and tried so many styles it is crazy. I've found that for me a tackball mouse is the only way to go.
Using a traditional mouse has never worked for me. Quite frankly I can not see how anyone can use one of those. They are not even close to being precision and they require a lot of movement and a lot of space to allow all that movement. A track ball is precision, it sits in one place and it is really comfortable to use.
One issue that seems to be an issue sometimes is that the ball gets dirty and the response time gets sluggish. Sluggish is not good, I like a trackball because of the freedom of movement it allows over a traditional mouse, not to mention the ability to do 3D movement, something a standard mouse can not do as simply. I can run circles around someone in PvP with a trackball. Make faster movements and adjustments even when half asleep then even the best player in the world can when they are at their peak. That is one of the beauties of the trackball. Until it starts getting sluggish.
That is the reason I went out and got a new one recently. They do not make them like they used to being they must not sell all that well. Add to that, being they do not sell as well, they do not have updated ones, like ones with 5 buttons and the such. I found one that had 5 buttons and I had to get it. So I went on Amazon and get myself the Microsoft D67-00001 Trackball Optical Mouse and it is a beauty for sure.
One thing that I am noticing that is a problem is the one word you see in there, Optical. Optical is the way everything seems to be now. Anyone that has ever used mechanical extensively and optical extensively will tell you that optical can not hold a candle to mechanical. The technology is just not there yet. Optical skips a beat sometimes. That means that you will not always have precision movement. I was quite upset that something that cost as much as this mouse did would still have the problem I have seen with all other optical mice. I held hope that an optical trackball would have better luck then the traditional style optical mice out there.
No such luck. The trackball has the same issues. Kind of blows my precision out of the water but what can you do. I'll learn to adjust. It is larger then my previous trackballs. Much larger. Do you know who Andre the Giant was? He was a wrestler and if you ever saw the movie the Princess Bride he was the big guy there. Remember his hands, he could cover someones entire face? Well, that is who this mouse was designed for. Geeze, makes me feel like I have the hands of a 12 year old with that thing. That was no big deal really, I adjusted to it quickly. It is not as bad as I first thought it would be.
My issue comes down to why I decided to get a new trackball. My old one was starting to get sluggish. Over the years of popping out the ball and cleaning it, it starts to lose its luster and it starts to get a little sluggish once in a while with the mechanical system of the old style trackballs. So I figured I would get a new one and not just the same one I have bought 3 times over the past 12 or so years. The new one is optical and has 5 buttons. My healer loves me for the 5 buttons as do all the people that my heals keep alive.
The thing is that the optical mouse has the same issue (brand new) that the old mouse had (after many years of use). It gets sluggish from time to time. The thing is that optical does not pick things up sometimes. It misses movement. I hate that. So now I need to decide to either move back to the old style, (I bought one of those also at the same time just in case I did not like this, as a back up) find a way to make the optical pick movement up better or just get used to it.
Yesterday when running my daily on my Priest it just stopped responding completely. Not a good thing when you use healbot and all your other spells are all designed for mouse over. (Stupid me forgot I could have used the F keys to target) It was all guildies so we were on vent, I said my mouse died and to hold up, so no harm, no foul. The mouse came back right away, it was just one of the pitfalls of optical. Sometimes it does not pick movement up. It died for all of 4 or maybe 5 seconds but in any thing where you need maximum use for quick response time 4 or 5 seconds is a lifetime.
I need to find a 5 button trackball mouse that is NOT optical. It is amazing that everything has changed to optical and optical is suboptimal when it comes to mice. But then again, trackballs have gone the way of the dodo for the most part and they were/are vastly superior to traditional mice.
Goes to show you that quality means nothing when it comes to the public buying it. You can go way back to prove that one as well. The Betamax machines where leaps and bounds better then the VHS machines and yet every household in the world ended up having a VHS while most people never even heard of a Betamax.
Never leave it up to the public to decide what is best. If history shows us anything it is that people will make the wrong decision 90% of the time given the option.
If anyone has mouse options please feel free to share. I need something that moves when I need it to move, more so on my healer (and for PvP). I can deal with it on my DPS characters or even tank characters, but people will die without my mouse working perfectly on my healer.
I recently purchased a new mouse. It cost me $359 and while that might seem outrageous I am quite content with paying that much for something as simple as a mouse if it works the way I want it to. You see, I hate mice, despise them. I have had so many over the years and tried so many styles it is crazy. I've found that for me a tackball mouse is the only way to go.
Using a traditional mouse has never worked for me. Quite frankly I can not see how anyone can use one of those. They are not even close to being precision and they require a lot of movement and a lot of space to allow all that movement. A track ball is precision, it sits in one place and it is really comfortable to use.
One issue that seems to be an issue sometimes is that the ball gets dirty and the response time gets sluggish. Sluggish is not good, I like a trackball because of the freedom of movement it allows over a traditional mouse, not to mention the ability to do 3D movement, something a standard mouse can not do as simply. I can run circles around someone in PvP with a trackball. Make faster movements and adjustments even when half asleep then even the best player in the world can when they are at their peak. That is one of the beauties of the trackball. Until it starts getting sluggish.
That is the reason I went out and got a new one recently. They do not make them like they used to being they must not sell all that well. Add to that, being they do not sell as well, they do not have updated ones, like ones with 5 buttons and the such. I found one that had 5 buttons and I had to get it. So I went on Amazon and get myself the Microsoft D67-00001 Trackball Optical Mouse and it is a beauty for sure.
One thing that I am noticing that is a problem is the one word you see in there, Optical. Optical is the way everything seems to be now. Anyone that has ever used mechanical extensively and optical extensively will tell you that optical can not hold a candle to mechanical. The technology is just not there yet. Optical skips a beat sometimes. That means that you will not always have precision movement. I was quite upset that something that cost as much as this mouse did would still have the problem I have seen with all other optical mice. I held hope that an optical trackball would have better luck then the traditional style optical mice out there.
No such luck. The trackball has the same issues. Kind of blows my precision out of the water but what can you do. I'll learn to adjust. It is larger then my previous trackballs. Much larger. Do you know who Andre the Giant was? He was a wrestler and if you ever saw the movie the Princess Bride he was the big guy there. Remember his hands, he could cover someones entire face? Well, that is who this mouse was designed for. Geeze, makes me feel like I have the hands of a 12 year old with that thing. That was no big deal really, I adjusted to it quickly. It is not as bad as I first thought it would be.
My issue comes down to why I decided to get a new trackball. My old one was starting to get sluggish. Over the years of popping out the ball and cleaning it, it starts to lose its luster and it starts to get a little sluggish once in a while with the mechanical system of the old style trackballs. So I figured I would get a new one and not just the same one I have bought 3 times over the past 12 or so years. The new one is optical and has 5 buttons. My healer loves me for the 5 buttons as do all the people that my heals keep alive.
The thing is that the optical mouse has the same issue (brand new) that the old mouse had (after many years of use). It gets sluggish from time to time. The thing is that optical does not pick things up sometimes. It misses movement. I hate that. So now I need to decide to either move back to the old style, (I bought one of those also at the same time just in case I did not like this, as a back up) find a way to make the optical pick movement up better or just get used to it.
Yesterday when running my daily on my Priest it just stopped responding completely. Not a good thing when you use healbot and all your other spells are all designed for mouse over. (Stupid me forgot I could have used the F keys to target) It was all guildies so we were on vent, I said my mouse died and to hold up, so no harm, no foul. The mouse came back right away, it was just one of the pitfalls of optical. Sometimes it does not pick movement up. It died for all of 4 or maybe 5 seconds but in any thing where you need maximum use for quick response time 4 or 5 seconds is a lifetime.
I need to find a 5 button trackball mouse that is NOT optical. It is amazing that everything has changed to optical and optical is suboptimal when it comes to mice. But then again, trackballs have gone the way of the dodo for the most part and they were/are vastly superior to traditional mice.
Goes to show you that quality means nothing when it comes to the public buying it. You can go way back to prove that one as well. The Betamax machines where leaps and bounds better then the VHS machines and yet every household in the world ended up having a VHS while most people never even heard of a Betamax.
Never leave it up to the public to decide what is best. If history shows us anything it is that people will make the wrong decision 90% of the time given the option.
If anyone has mouse options please feel free to share. I need something that moves when I need it to move, more so on my healer (and for PvP). I can deal with it on my DPS characters or even tank characters, but people will die without my mouse working perfectly on my healer.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Background Downloader and Other Stuff
I had always been one of those people that did not use the background downloader. I have a fast connection and I wait until patch day to download all I need. Worst case, it takes 30 minutes for me to download things. If I know the patch is that day I just change my routine a bit. I'll log on as soon as I get home from work to start the download and then go about life as normal. By the time I get to the game to sit down and play it is ready to roll.
This time around that is not going to work. After downloading the PTR and seeing how long 16 gig took me and knowing that I would need to download that to play I decided to enable the background downloader. I am glad I did. When the time comes in, most likely, 8 days, I will be ready to roll and not have to wait 12 hours or more for a 16 gig update. So far I have received 2 patches of roughly 1.5 gig and 4 gig each. I am expecting more to come. Most likely it will end up being the full 16 gig that the PTR required us to download.
For many people this will come as a huge surprise. They will log on the Tuesday following next and not be able to play until the download finishes and depending on their connection that could be quite a long time. Lets not even mention all those college students and others who have a download limit on what they are allowed. It could end up taking them weeks, if not months, depending on how much they are allowed to download. If you have a really crappy connection or one that only allows 100 mb per day it is going to take you damn near forever to get this patch.
So assuming you are not limited by download limits and time is your only issue I suggest you enable the background downloader now and get to work. That way when the time comes you will be able to play the same night and not have to wait. Even a fast connection like mine would make it impossible for me to download 16 gig in enough time that I could have waited and still played the same day.
Meanwhile back at the ranch...
I played a bit more on the PTR, took a pass by ZG and a few other places to find things I needed to know about. ZG has not been removed yet, which I didn't think it would be, but it was worth looking into. I need roughly 1 1/2 clears more to reach exalted and it looks like I will have the time.
I checked the conversion for honor to whatever the new PvP points are called to see what I would need for my last PvP mount that I put off getting while trying to finish off some PvE things first. Seems like this will be a non issue. The fact that the mount is still around is really all I care about. I will get it sooner or later.
Meanwhile back at the ranch...
Last I did an update on my leveling my Shaman was still only 76 and now it is 80 with both skills maxed. This weekend was more about my Warlock however. Last I updated my Lock was only level 22 but I had gotten it to 30. My intention is to get 35 before the Thanksgiving holiday event so I can level cooking using that as much as I can. Love that even for leveling cooking. However, once I reached level 30 I got the quest for my Felhunter. Being I am leveling affliction, from the guides I read, the Felhunter is the way I want to go. So my goal this weekend was to at least get that done. Easier said then done.
Warlock quests are ridiculous. Not ridiculous hard just ridiculously long. The had me running all over the freaking world. To some places I have never even been to before to boot. Oh well, I had time. I put myself in query for a random dungeon and started my quest to go to the barrens. I had to find someone in the middle of nowhere it seemed. First off, as alliance I never quest in the barrens being there is not much there for me to begin with, secondly, the sting of quests it sent me on was as if they looked at my log and said, lets send him everywhere he has never been before.
Each time the dungeon popped up I entered and did my dungeon then came out and continued on my quest to see the world for this stupid quest. I worked my way through to grab the path at the Loch, then the Harbor on my way to Southshore. Once there I grabbed the murloc quest, I figured I would have to kill them to get to the book anyway, might as well do the quest at the same time. More dungeons popped up, I took them, and finished that part of the quest in time. Now I had to head to Thousand Needles for the other book. Woohoo, with all sarcasm I can fit into it. I could go to Ratchet and work my way down from there but I am closer the The Harbor which will get me more flight paths going from that way.
I am all about trying to make the most of things. While dungeon after dungeon pops up I make my way from the Harbor to the Marsh and grab that flight path and then swim the long way to Tanaris where I grab that flight path, go through Thousand Needles and get my book then continue along past the great lift, grab the book from the dead guys hand, for the quest of course. Even if it is a low level quest I am walking past it and going to where the turn in is anyway. Always grab quests that are along the way and you do not need to do anything for. It is stupid to ignore free experience for doing nothing. I turn in the quest, grab that flight path and fly off to Ratchet in route to Ironforge to turn in the quest.
The dude in Ironforge gives me a quest to go get some rods. I know where that is, get on a bird to the harbor and grab the low level quest to get the banners from those guys. Remember, never turn away a quest that is where you are going to be anyway. I figure I need to kill them to get rods so why not get banners too. I kill, kill and then kill some more. These suckers where not rod friendly and they granted no experience being my level so it was a waste. Oh, BTW, just from doing dungeons while trying to finish this stupid quest I am now 33. I get the rods and make my way back to Ratchet to turn in the quest. That brings me to 34, I do the next quest and get my Felhunter.
So all in all, if it were not for the dungeon finder I would have wasted nearly 4 hours doing nothing getting not even one level just to get my Felhunter. At least with the dungeon finder I was able to grab 4 levels along the way as I did it. Who in Blizzard thought that something like this would be fun? Are they sadistic? Lets say you are the average Joe, the type of person that can play an hour here and there and do not spend a decent amount of time on the game like freaks like me do. This quest alone would take them a week to do just from all the traveling. Where in their right mind did anyone at Blizzard come up with the idea that this would be fun? If it were not for the dungeon finder I would have never gotten the damn pet. I would have respeced to a spec that uses a pet that does not waste 4 hours of my life to get.
Meanwhile back at the ranch...
Speaking of the sadistic nature of the coders at Blizzard we move on to the Rogue. Last we saw the Rogue he was level 63. He is now level 67. As much as I hate the little bastard I keep working on him. It is still the most useless class in the game as far as their complete lack of ability to solo anything elite or anything that is more then two humanoid mobs. You get two beasts on you of the same level you are kiss your ass goodbye. The put out dismal DPS in randoms to the point where if you see a Rogue in your group just consider it as you are 4 manning it.
I've gotten to the habit, being I know I can not contribute as well as any other class, a healer can out DPS me, of kicking casters. That is what I spend 80% of dungeons doing. I round up the caster mobs for tanks that can't handle them and trust me, that means nearly all tanks. It is partly because tanks do not have a great deal of ability to deal with them at that level and that most of the tanks at that level are DKs that are not tanks at all but just query as one for the faster query time.
People tell me that once Rogues get to end game they really shine. I'll find out. I guess I take leveling this piece of crap as a challenge. I will get it done sooner or later. They really do suck on a level of suck that no other class comes close to. Even a hunter with no pet has dozens more tools then a rogue does when it comes to PvE. I guess I should get into PvP with the Rogue. That is where they shine.
One other thing about my Rogue that will become an issue soon. I need to up my lockpick skill. At level 67 now I will be moving to Northrend shortly and I am still behind on my skill. I need to start running around pick pocketing just to get some boxes but again that is something Blizzard likes to torture you with. I can pick 200 pockets and get 1 damn box. Blizzard really loves to waste the players time doesn't it?
I know I am new to the game but was "annoying as hell" considered "hard" back in the day? The warlock quest was not hard, it was annoying as hell. Getting pickpocketing up is not hard, it is annoying as hell. How did this game get to be so popular if the designers thought that annoying meant hard. I do not mind hard games. I do mind annoying. I am doing it now because I am a completest and I like the challenge a bit but if I had started this way I would have given up. I would not want to spend hours and hours on end picking pockets to up my skill. As least now with the dungeon finder it is not as bad. I query up and go about my thing. Gives me time to get some experience and break up the grind of pickpocketing.
Meanwhile back at the ranch...
Last we saw our lovable Paladin she was wondering around level 40. Now she is sitting pretty at 43 with the greatest dungeon finder story in the world. It is short but cool. I was heading to the Marsh to turn in a quest to Tabitha while, as always, I was queried up in the dungeon finder. I make my way to Tabitha and click her to turn in one quest, then the second, oddly both where from different people telling me to talk to her. The exact second I am about the compete the second quest my dungeon finder screen pops up. I finish the quest and see the explanation mark over her head. I knew what quest it was, I figured, lets grab it anyway. I am still too low for ZF but I figured I might as well pick it up while I am here. I grab the quest, enter the dungeon, get ZF. How awesome is that? I do the dungeon, loot the tiara and leave the dungeon and turn it in at the same exact spot I was standing before I entered the dungeon. Now that was fantastic.
Meanwhile back at the ranch...
My only other leveling update to give is from my Warrior which is now level 55, up from 52. Nothing much to report there. Just wondering how to go about doing him in the future. I am not sure I want to tank randoms at a low level without anyone to quest with. Tanking is more fun when it is with someone and much more fun when it is with a pocket healer. I'll wait until the update on him now most likely and dual spec so I can do DPS as well for soloing. Being they are lowering dual spec to 100 gold, down from 1000, I will wait on that. No reason to waste 900 gold.
This time around that is not going to work. After downloading the PTR and seeing how long 16 gig took me and knowing that I would need to download that to play I decided to enable the background downloader. I am glad I did. When the time comes in, most likely, 8 days, I will be ready to roll and not have to wait 12 hours or more for a 16 gig update. So far I have received 2 patches of roughly 1.5 gig and 4 gig each. I am expecting more to come. Most likely it will end up being the full 16 gig that the PTR required us to download.
For many people this will come as a huge surprise. They will log on the Tuesday following next and not be able to play until the download finishes and depending on their connection that could be quite a long time. Lets not even mention all those college students and others who have a download limit on what they are allowed. It could end up taking them weeks, if not months, depending on how much they are allowed to download. If you have a really crappy connection or one that only allows 100 mb per day it is going to take you damn near forever to get this patch.
So assuming you are not limited by download limits and time is your only issue I suggest you enable the background downloader now and get to work. That way when the time comes you will be able to play the same night and not have to wait. Even a fast connection like mine would make it impossible for me to download 16 gig in enough time that I could have waited and still played the same day.
Meanwhile back at the ranch...
I played a bit more on the PTR, took a pass by ZG and a few other places to find things I needed to know about. ZG has not been removed yet, which I didn't think it would be, but it was worth looking into. I need roughly 1 1/2 clears more to reach exalted and it looks like I will have the time.
I checked the conversion for honor to whatever the new PvP points are called to see what I would need for my last PvP mount that I put off getting while trying to finish off some PvE things first. Seems like this will be a non issue. The fact that the mount is still around is really all I care about. I will get it sooner or later.
Meanwhile back at the ranch...
Last I did an update on my leveling my Shaman was still only 76 and now it is 80 with both skills maxed. This weekend was more about my Warlock however. Last I updated my Lock was only level 22 but I had gotten it to 30. My intention is to get 35 before the Thanksgiving holiday event so I can level cooking using that as much as I can. Love that even for leveling cooking. However, once I reached level 30 I got the quest for my Felhunter. Being I am leveling affliction, from the guides I read, the Felhunter is the way I want to go. So my goal this weekend was to at least get that done. Easier said then done.
Warlock quests are ridiculous. Not ridiculous hard just ridiculously long. The had me running all over the freaking world. To some places I have never even been to before to boot. Oh well, I had time. I put myself in query for a random dungeon and started my quest to go to the barrens. I had to find someone in the middle of nowhere it seemed. First off, as alliance I never quest in the barrens being there is not much there for me to begin with, secondly, the sting of quests it sent me on was as if they looked at my log and said, lets send him everywhere he has never been before.
Each time the dungeon popped up I entered and did my dungeon then came out and continued on my quest to see the world for this stupid quest. I worked my way through to grab the path at the Loch, then the Harbor on my way to Southshore. Once there I grabbed the murloc quest, I figured I would have to kill them to get to the book anyway, might as well do the quest at the same time. More dungeons popped up, I took them, and finished that part of the quest in time. Now I had to head to Thousand Needles for the other book. Woohoo, with all sarcasm I can fit into it. I could go to Ratchet and work my way down from there but I am closer the The Harbor which will get me more flight paths going from that way.
I am all about trying to make the most of things. While dungeon after dungeon pops up I make my way from the Harbor to the Marsh and grab that flight path and then swim the long way to Tanaris where I grab that flight path, go through Thousand Needles and get my book then continue along past the great lift, grab the book from the dead guys hand, for the quest of course. Even if it is a low level quest I am walking past it and going to where the turn in is anyway. Always grab quests that are along the way and you do not need to do anything for. It is stupid to ignore free experience for doing nothing. I turn in the quest, grab that flight path and fly off to Ratchet in route to Ironforge to turn in the quest.
The dude in Ironforge gives me a quest to go get some rods. I know where that is, get on a bird to the harbor and grab the low level quest to get the banners from those guys. Remember, never turn away a quest that is where you are going to be anyway. I figure I need to kill them to get rods so why not get banners too. I kill, kill and then kill some more. These suckers where not rod friendly and they granted no experience being my level so it was a waste. Oh, BTW, just from doing dungeons while trying to finish this stupid quest I am now 33. I get the rods and make my way back to Ratchet to turn in the quest. That brings me to 34, I do the next quest and get my Felhunter.
So all in all, if it were not for the dungeon finder I would have wasted nearly 4 hours doing nothing getting not even one level just to get my Felhunter. At least with the dungeon finder I was able to grab 4 levels along the way as I did it. Who in Blizzard thought that something like this would be fun? Are they sadistic? Lets say you are the average Joe, the type of person that can play an hour here and there and do not spend a decent amount of time on the game like freaks like me do. This quest alone would take them a week to do just from all the traveling. Where in their right mind did anyone at Blizzard come up with the idea that this would be fun? If it were not for the dungeon finder I would have never gotten the damn pet. I would have respeced to a spec that uses a pet that does not waste 4 hours of my life to get.
Meanwhile back at the ranch...
Speaking of the sadistic nature of the coders at Blizzard we move on to the Rogue. Last we saw the Rogue he was level 63. He is now level 67. As much as I hate the little bastard I keep working on him. It is still the most useless class in the game as far as their complete lack of ability to solo anything elite or anything that is more then two humanoid mobs. You get two beasts on you of the same level you are kiss your ass goodbye. The put out dismal DPS in randoms to the point where if you see a Rogue in your group just consider it as you are 4 manning it.
I've gotten to the habit, being I know I can not contribute as well as any other class, a healer can out DPS me, of kicking casters. That is what I spend 80% of dungeons doing. I round up the caster mobs for tanks that can't handle them and trust me, that means nearly all tanks. It is partly because tanks do not have a great deal of ability to deal with them at that level and that most of the tanks at that level are DKs that are not tanks at all but just query as one for the faster query time.
People tell me that once Rogues get to end game they really shine. I'll find out. I guess I take leveling this piece of crap as a challenge. I will get it done sooner or later. They really do suck on a level of suck that no other class comes close to. Even a hunter with no pet has dozens more tools then a rogue does when it comes to PvE. I guess I should get into PvP with the Rogue. That is where they shine.
One other thing about my Rogue that will become an issue soon. I need to up my lockpick skill. At level 67 now I will be moving to Northrend shortly and I am still behind on my skill. I need to start running around pick pocketing just to get some boxes but again that is something Blizzard likes to torture you with. I can pick 200 pockets and get 1 damn box. Blizzard really loves to waste the players time doesn't it?
I know I am new to the game but was "annoying as hell" considered "hard" back in the day? The warlock quest was not hard, it was annoying as hell. Getting pickpocketing up is not hard, it is annoying as hell. How did this game get to be so popular if the designers thought that annoying meant hard. I do not mind hard games. I do mind annoying. I am doing it now because I am a completest and I like the challenge a bit but if I had started this way I would have given up. I would not want to spend hours and hours on end picking pockets to up my skill. As least now with the dungeon finder it is not as bad. I query up and go about my thing. Gives me time to get some experience and break up the grind of pickpocketing.
Meanwhile back at the ranch...
Last we saw our lovable Paladin she was wondering around level 40. Now she is sitting pretty at 43 with the greatest dungeon finder story in the world. It is short but cool. I was heading to the Marsh to turn in a quest to Tabitha while, as always, I was queried up in the dungeon finder. I make my way to Tabitha and click her to turn in one quest, then the second, oddly both where from different people telling me to talk to her. The exact second I am about the compete the second quest my dungeon finder screen pops up. I finish the quest and see the explanation mark over her head. I knew what quest it was, I figured, lets grab it anyway. I am still too low for ZF but I figured I might as well pick it up while I am here. I grab the quest, enter the dungeon, get ZF. How awesome is that? I do the dungeon, loot the tiara and leave the dungeon and turn it in at the same exact spot I was standing before I entered the dungeon. Now that was fantastic.
Meanwhile back at the ranch...
My only other leveling update to give is from my Warrior which is now level 55, up from 52. Nothing much to report there. Just wondering how to go about doing him in the future. I am not sure I want to tank randoms at a low level without anyone to quest with. Tanking is more fun when it is with someone and much more fun when it is with a pocket healer. I'll wait until the update on him now most likely and dual spec so I can do DPS as well for soloing. Being they are lowering dual spec to 100 gold, down from 1000, I will wait on that. No reason to waste 900 gold.
Friday, September 17, 2010
The Cataclysm Blues
Cataclysm will be my first expansion playing this game. I joined only a bit over a year ago so all I know is WotLK. I've heard stories of the past and I look to the future only with the limited knowledge from my time playing but I can't help to be one of those people you would classify as having the Cataclysm Blues.
There are various versions of the Cataclysm Blues and all of us have seen them or have experienced them recently. One of the versions is the one where someone no longer wants to raid any more because they are tired of working to get gear that will be replaced within the first 3 or 4 hours of playing the new expansion. I can relate, but I still like raiding. Another is the version where people are just taking some time off because they know they will be in obsessive overload mode when Cataclysm comes out so they are taking a break now. We all know someone like that. The third is the one I think I fit. Excitement that reaches the point where you are bound to have a let down.
Have you ever seen a movie that had such fantastic hype that you went into it thinking that you would love it and after seeing it you where so disappointed? It has happened to me more times then I can recall. It works both ways as well. When the movie Hudson Hawk came out every review I read panned it as a horrible movie and one even said that if there were capable of giving it less than 0 stars they would. One day I happened to end up watching it for some reason and I loved it. I loved it so much I would actually consider it one of my favorite films now.
Both cases I think are because I went into something having expectations. I expected one movie to be great and it never lived up to what I consider to be great while I expected another movie to be horrible but it was not really as bad as I would have expected thus making it appear better in my mind.
I am sort of in between with Cataclysm so I do not know what they will bring me. When I first heard the announcement for it I was filled with interest and excitement for the chance that something new was coming. While I was leveling I came across many areas like Grim Batol, Udlum and Hyjal and I could never get into them. I was always wondering that they must have had ideas for these places and just never got around to adding them. So hearing they were adding them reminded me of the mystery of when I first started playing and I first found these hidden areas and I liked it. Now I feel a bit indifferent. Those places should have been there to begin with or they should have been added as some content patch in any of the previous expansions. They are also in lower level areas so they will disrupt leveling flow. I know, all petty complains but because of that I just really do not care any more.
I was excited that there would be flying in the old world now. Now that I really have no characters that need to go through the old world any more it is not as exciting as it could have been. Then add to the fact that by the time you can fly in the old world you will not be in the old world again for 20+ levels. Way to add something after the time it would have really been useful. While leveling my characters I would have loved to have that. How many damn quests did I have to waste 25-30 minutes to go back to a place I just came from the quest before that one just to pick up one thing. It is a waste of time. Being able to fly there and back in 3 minutes would have been nice. Now, even with a mount or an epic mount you still have to fight you way there and back.
Sure, I am the type of person that has 3 hours to play but what if you are someone that plays a little here and a little there. Quests like that eat up your entire play time for what? Nothing. I always say that faster and easier travel does not make the game easier for new players it makes it more enjoyable for them. I am not arguing that fact for me. I have passed that stage on all but two of my characters. I will argue it because traveling is the biggest waste of time in the game when you could have been doing something that might have actually been fun. But they decided to make flying in the old world after the point where you needed it most. After 60 it is a convenience before 60 it would have been a godsend. In truth, if they are not going to make it so you can use it before 60 they should have saved it for 80 or at the least 78. Before that point you will be in BC and WotLK content and you really do not need old world flying. Making it 60 is a slap in the face. It is like the designers said "lets give them something they wanted so bad for 60 levels after they won't be needing it again for 20 more. hahahaha Now what else can we screw with them about?"
I am not a huge fan of changing everything I know about hunters but I can live with that. I am however quite a bit displeased by the fact that when I heard of the expansion I figured I would get 5 more skill points and a few new skills. Instead I am ending up with less skill points then I had before to spend on fewer skills and I am getting no new skills to replace all the ones they took out.
Camo? Get real, that is nothing special.
Rocket Launcher? We already had a freezing arrow, now we have it for every arrow. Wow, that is so freaking exciting.
Cobra Shot? I bet that making a "magic"(nature damage) version of steady shot took hours and hours of the developers game time to think up. But wait, you took away our mana and our volley because they felt too much like magic but you gave up a steady shot that does "magic"(nature) damage as a new skill? Who runs the developers team?
Developer #1: I want to take mana and volley away from hunters because magic just does not fit the hunter model well.
Developer #2: I agree, magic for hunters never felt right.
Developer #3: I agree too. Check out this new skill I added into the game. It is a steady shot that does nature damage.
Developer #1: Awesome idea.
Did anyone even question the logic of removing magic from hunters when one of their new skills is a magic based skill?
Do you want to know what would have been fantastic level 85 abilities for the Hunters in my opinion? Sure you do.
Level 85 Survival Skill - Close Combat You can now use ranged weapons in melee range. Whenever you hit a melee range target with your ranged weapon there is a 5% chance to snare them for 3 seconds.
(Making the survival hunter as master of melee as well as range)
Level 85 Marksman Skill - Sniper Combat. Increases maximum range by 10 years. For every 10 yards you are away from the target all damage by the Hunter on that target is increased by 10%.
(Making the marksman hunter a true marksmen)
Level 85 Beastmaster Skill - Master Trainer - Whenever you are struck in combat by a melee attack you have a 5% chance to instantly call a random animal to your aid for 1 minute. This effect can not happen more then once every 2 minutes.
(Making the beastmaster a true master of beasts and the animals would be random ones that you can not tame normally)
Now there you have some kick ass ideas on how they could have actually made the specs different and make the level 85 skills pack some bite to them. I am sure that many hunter would be glad to sacrifice their level 81, 83 and 85 (cobra, camo, launcher) crap talents they were given to have these at level 85 for their spec.
Okay, sorry for turning this into a mini hunter rant. Just using that design as an example as it is the one I know best and explains the Cataclysm Blues at work. I could have easily bitched about swipe having a cooldown now. Wow did they fuck bear tanking in the ass on that one.
We were promised something new and ended up using old unused areas as "new" content. They should have been added content for patches of an expansion and not the expansion itself.
We where promised new skills and ended up with less skills. We were going to get more points to spend on skills and ended up with fewer points to use on those fewer skills and the new skills they do give is are really just recycled skills that really bring nothing new to the game or how we experience it.
While I do still love the idea of everything being redesigned because I am one of those weird people that actually do go sight seeing in the game and I love the art work I do not really see that as being something huge for an expansion. Same for flying, I look forward to it but it is not something huge to be a major part of a new expansion. In my mind adding flight in the old world is akin to adding cooking going from 450-500. It is nothing major but is needed as it is an expansion and you need to update old professions. It is NOT an added feature. If you want to call old world flying an added feature then why do you not call cooking from 450-500 a new added feature. It is an upgrade to a skill. Nothing more.
I hope they have some surprises for us in store because so far what seemed like something I would really enjoy is already becoming a let down and it is not even out yet. Maybe it is suffering from the movie syndrome I mentioned before. Maybe I expected so much from it when I heard the announcement that no matter what I am going to be let down. Or maybe I am on phase two now where I am so underwhelmed by what I have seen that I am going to think I hate it and end up loving it.
I am officially sitting in the Cataclysm Blues mode. I went through the excitement phase. I went through the disappointment phase. Now I am sitting the the phase where I have no desire to ever see the expansion come out. I would be more then happy to just continue playing the game I currently enjoy and not have to worry about any changes. Maybe Blizzard announced it way to soon but I am burnt out from thinking about it. Loved it. Hated it. Now I just don't even want it. If it comes, it comes. When it comes, it comes. Either way, I just do not care any more. If it turns out great, fine and if it sucks, fine. I no longer hold any expectations. That is the Cataclysm Blues for me.
There are various versions of the Cataclysm Blues and all of us have seen them or have experienced them recently. One of the versions is the one where someone no longer wants to raid any more because they are tired of working to get gear that will be replaced within the first 3 or 4 hours of playing the new expansion. I can relate, but I still like raiding. Another is the version where people are just taking some time off because they know they will be in obsessive overload mode when Cataclysm comes out so they are taking a break now. We all know someone like that. The third is the one I think I fit. Excitement that reaches the point where you are bound to have a let down.
Have you ever seen a movie that had such fantastic hype that you went into it thinking that you would love it and after seeing it you where so disappointed? It has happened to me more times then I can recall. It works both ways as well. When the movie Hudson Hawk came out every review I read panned it as a horrible movie and one even said that if there were capable of giving it less than 0 stars they would. One day I happened to end up watching it for some reason and I loved it. I loved it so much I would actually consider it one of my favorite films now.
Both cases I think are because I went into something having expectations. I expected one movie to be great and it never lived up to what I consider to be great while I expected another movie to be horrible but it was not really as bad as I would have expected thus making it appear better in my mind.
I am sort of in between with Cataclysm so I do not know what they will bring me. When I first heard the announcement for it I was filled with interest and excitement for the chance that something new was coming. While I was leveling I came across many areas like Grim Batol, Udlum and Hyjal and I could never get into them. I was always wondering that they must have had ideas for these places and just never got around to adding them. So hearing they were adding them reminded me of the mystery of when I first started playing and I first found these hidden areas and I liked it. Now I feel a bit indifferent. Those places should have been there to begin with or they should have been added as some content patch in any of the previous expansions. They are also in lower level areas so they will disrupt leveling flow. I know, all petty complains but because of that I just really do not care any more.
I was excited that there would be flying in the old world now. Now that I really have no characters that need to go through the old world any more it is not as exciting as it could have been. Then add to the fact that by the time you can fly in the old world you will not be in the old world again for 20+ levels. Way to add something after the time it would have really been useful. While leveling my characters I would have loved to have that. How many damn quests did I have to waste 25-30 minutes to go back to a place I just came from the quest before that one just to pick up one thing. It is a waste of time. Being able to fly there and back in 3 minutes would have been nice. Now, even with a mount or an epic mount you still have to fight you way there and back.
Sure, I am the type of person that has 3 hours to play but what if you are someone that plays a little here and a little there. Quests like that eat up your entire play time for what? Nothing. I always say that faster and easier travel does not make the game easier for new players it makes it more enjoyable for them. I am not arguing that fact for me. I have passed that stage on all but two of my characters. I will argue it because traveling is the biggest waste of time in the game when you could have been doing something that might have actually been fun. But they decided to make flying in the old world after the point where you needed it most. After 60 it is a convenience before 60 it would have been a godsend. In truth, if they are not going to make it so you can use it before 60 they should have saved it for 80 or at the least 78. Before that point you will be in BC and WotLK content and you really do not need old world flying. Making it 60 is a slap in the face. It is like the designers said "lets give them something they wanted so bad for 60 levels after they won't be needing it again for 20 more. hahahaha Now what else can we screw with them about?"
I am not a huge fan of changing everything I know about hunters but I can live with that. I am however quite a bit displeased by the fact that when I heard of the expansion I figured I would get 5 more skill points and a few new skills. Instead I am ending up with less skill points then I had before to spend on fewer skills and I am getting no new skills to replace all the ones they took out.
Camo? Get real, that is nothing special.
Rocket Launcher? We already had a freezing arrow, now we have it for every arrow. Wow, that is so freaking exciting.
Cobra Shot? I bet that making a "magic"(nature damage) version of steady shot took hours and hours of the developers game time to think up. But wait, you took away our mana and our volley because they felt too much like magic but you gave up a steady shot that does "magic"(nature) damage as a new skill? Who runs the developers team?
Developer #1: I want to take mana and volley away from hunters because magic just does not fit the hunter model well.
Developer #2: I agree, magic for hunters never felt right.
Developer #3: I agree too. Check out this new skill I added into the game. It is a steady shot that does nature damage.
Developer #1: Awesome idea.
Did anyone even question the logic of removing magic from hunters when one of their new skills is a magic based skill?
Do you want to know what would have been fantastic level 85 abilities for the Hunters in my opinion? Sure you do.
Level 85 Survival Skill - Close Combat You can now use ranged weapons in melee range. Whenever you hit a melee range target with your ranged weapon there is a 5% chance to snare them for 3 seconds.
(Making the survival hunter as master of melee as well as range)
Level 85 Marksman Skill - Sniper Combat. Increases maximum range by 10 years. For every 10 yards you are away from the target all damage by the Hunter on that target is increased by 10%.
(Making the marksman hunter a true marksmen)
Level 85 Beastmaster Skill - Master Trainer - Whenever you are struck in combat by a melee attack you have a 5% chance to instantly call a random animal to your aid for 1 minute. This effect can not happen more then once every 2 minutes.
(Making the beastmaster a true master of beasts and the animals would be random ones that you can not tame normally)
Now there you have some kick ass ideas on how they could have actually made the specs different and make the level 85 skills pack some bite to them. I am sure that many hunter would be glad to sacrifice their level 81, 83 and 85 (cobra, camo, launcher) crap talents they were given to have these at level 85 for their spec.
Okay, sorry for turning this into a mini hunter rant. Just using that design as an example as it is the one I know best and explains the Cataclysm Blues at work. I could have easily bitched about swipe having a cooldown now. Wow did they fuck bear tanking in the ass on that one.
We were promised something new and ended up using old unused areas as "new" content. They should have been added content for patches of an expansion and not the expansion itself.
We where promised new skills and ended up with less skills. We were going to get more points to spend on skills and ended up with fewer points to use on those fewer skills and the new skills they do give is are really just recycled skills that really bring nothing new to the game or how we experience it.
While I do still love the idea of everything being redesigned because I am one of those weird people that actually do go sight seeing in the game and I love the art work I do not really see that as being something huge for an expansion. Same for flying, I look forward to it but it is not something huge to be a major part of a new expansion. In my mind adding flight in the old world is akin to adding cooking going from 450-500. It is nothing major but is needed as it is an expansion and you need to update old professions. It is NOT an added feature. If you want to call old world flying an added feature then why do you not call cooking from 450-500 a new added feature. It is an upgrade to a skill. Nothing more.
I hope they have some surprises for us in store because so far what seemed like something I would really enjoy is already becoming a let down and it is not even out yet. Maybe it is suffering from the movie syndrome I mentioned before. Maybe I expected so much from it when I heard the announcement that no matter what I am going to be let down. Or maybe I am on phase two now where I am so underwhelmed by what I have seen that I am going to think I hate it and end up loving it.
I am officially sitting in the Cataclysm Blues mode. I went through the excitement phase. I went through the disappointment phase. Now I am sitting the the phase where I have no desire to ever see the expansion come out. I would be more then happy to just continue playing the game I currently enjoy and not have to worry about any changes. Maybe Blizzard announced it way to soon but I am burnt out from thinking about it. Loved it. Hated it. Now I just don't even want it. If it comes, it comes. When it comes, it comes. Either way, I just do not care any more. If it turns out great, fine and if it sucks, fine. I no longer hold any expectations. That is the Cataclysm Blues for me.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Grumpy Ramblings on Hardcore vs. Casual
I was reading a post over on MMO-Champion about what people consider hardcore and casual. Not really a "vs" thing but how you would define them. Most people really just seem to be completely retarded when it comes to the subject and it usually has to so with the type of player they are. A casual player thinks all hardcore players are elitist assholes and a hardcore player thinks all casuals are bad that is why they are causal.
I am going to pick apart some posts and give my grumpy response, because lets face it, I like being grumpy. No names will be quoted, just comments.
1) So you are saying that a hardcore player logging in did not "want to"? Maybe that is how they have fun or how they relax and because of that they "want to" log in so they can have fun and relax. Hardcore players are not "compelled" by some unknown force to do it, they do it because that is what they "want to" do.
2) Who decides what "reasonable limits" are? If someone has 3 hours free time per night and spends that 3 hours online raiding does that make them causal because for them it was "reasonable"? Whereas the next guy only has 1 hour free time so he looks at the previous person as hardcore? Each persons free time is different. I work the same hours every day 5 days a week. My free time is the same every day after I do everything that needs to be done. So because I play the same time every night (and am capable of raiding because of that) it makes me hardcore? No, it just means that I have nothing to do between 8PM and 11PM every night. I "choose" to play warcraft. If I where to "choose" to watch TV every night for those 3 hours would you call me a hardcore TV watcher? It is a matter of perception. You might think my 3 hours are not "reasonable" but for me they are because if I was not playing wow I would be doing some other mindless thing to waste time like watching TV, getting drunk at the bar, bullshitting on the phone, etc.
3) So you are saying that casual players can't let the game take over their lives? Only hardcore players are like that? Let me break something to you that might be a surprise but there are many hardcore players that have very full lives with work, family, friends and other hobbies besides WoW and there are many casual players that have no lives outside of the game. Note: I do not like using the "no life" comment however because if this is how someone cares to spend their free time then that "is" their life but it was used to get my point across.
Quite honestly those three are three of things (among some others) that bad players usually use as excuses for being bad. Bad players equate time to skill. Time and skill are not connected at base. Sure, people that have skill and time might be better then people that have skill but not as much time. Bad players will be bad players even if they play 24 hours a day. Time helps you get gear, time helps you get gold, time does not help you get skill. Anyone that says, "you are only better because you have more time then I do" is an idiot. That person is better because they are better. Plain and simple.
If someone is a bad singer you can give them singing lessons for a year and they might get a little better but they will still be a bad singer. You can either sing or you can not sing, if you have skill at it to start you can get better but if you do not have the skill to sing you will never be a singer. You can only get "so much" better at something you can't do but you can never get great at it if you do not have it in you. So no matter how much time you give a bad wow player they will remain a bad wow player.
I have under geared alts that I bring on the weekly just to get badges. That is the only time I ever log on to those characters unless I need to use one of their skills. I do not even do daily dungeons with them. Most of them have hardmode achievements by accident. Hardmode does not mean hardcore. A character that logs in once a week and only runs for 30 minutes at most is not and will never be considered a hardcore character. Get real. Most people get hard modes for fun because even "casual" players are so over geared now it is funny.
I am an achievement whore. If anything, while I do not consider myself a hardcore player I do make an effort to get achievements. I might go about that with a hardcore mentality but I am doing it because I like doing it. I have fun doing it. I do not do it because I am hardcore. If anything my reason for doing it would fit more into the casual description most people use. I do it because I want to do it because it is how I have fun. Achievements do not mean hardcore.
There are people that watch all the games from their football team, does that mean they are hardcore or a fan? There are people that go to church every sunday does that mean they are hardcore or religious? Just because football or religion is your life does not make you hardcore. Freaking out and killing someone because they like another team or follow another religion... now that is hardcore. Hardcore in a sick, twisted and extreme way, but you get the point. Just because something is your life does not make you hardcore.
How do sex/relationships equate to being hardcore or casual? So you are saying some hardcore raider that just got finished having fun with their wife/husband before they go to raid hard modes is no longer hardcore because they had sex? They are the same exact player with or without the sex. Having sex has no bearing on your game play... well, unless you play better when you are happy.
Casual or hardcore you will end up making friends online. It happens, even if you are a grumpy elf like me that generally hates people. Given the option I could easily go through my day in game and never speak a word to anyone even if I were raiding and be quite happy. The fact that I made a few friends over the time I played changes the status of my game play? What about my friends that bought me into the game? You know, the real life ones from the bar that told me to join them and play? Because they now count as online friends that makes me hardcore right? Wait a second, they must have not been hardcore because I was their friend and I did not play. So let me get this straight. They were casual because I was their friend that did not play but as soon as I started playing they are now hardcore because I am now a wow friend instead of a bar friend? Hmm, I changed their status when I started playing. Did you inform them of that? I think that they should know.
Have you ever visited the websites of some of the top guilds out there. Some of them have rather open forums. You can see people talking about their lives, their pets, their kids, their jobs. A job is a consistent responsibility isn't it? Well, I guess some of the top raiders in the game are not hardcore. Can you please take the time and go tell them that they are casuals and they suck because all casuals suck too right? Thanks, I am sure they will really appreciate you letting them know.
The whole caring about progression is full of crap too. I care about progression. I want to beat ICC while it is still current content and haven't yet because I do not really go out of my way to try and get it done. If I did go out of my way I would have had it done months ago. By your definition I am hardcore because progression matters to me but I am casual because I have not progressed yet. Maybe that is where the term hardcore casual comes in?
Also on that topic I am sure I could introduce you to 100s, make that 1000s if not 10s of thousands of people just on my server alone that care about downing ICC but they are just so bad that they will never get anyone to take them there. They are horrible players that do not know specs, gems, enchants, rotations, fights, or anything else but they actively care about progression. So you are saying all of these amazingly BAD players are all hardcore because they care about progression?
For that we must go back to the start where words of wisdom, normally not seen on any wow (or any internet) forum where written.
- A hardcore gamer is someone that will make any and all efforts to be the best they can be withing the time that they are able to play. They will spend as much time as they can to complete a task they set forth for themselves and will usually be focused on getting this task done before moving on to the next task.
And Dispelling the Misconceptions:
- A hardcore gamer CAN have other interests besides the game. They CAN have a girlfriend. They CAN have a job. They CAN have kids. They CAN have offline friends. They CAN be like people that have never played a game in their life and CAN be like it is normally assumed only casual players are like.
- A hardcore gamer CAN be a bad player.
- A hardcore gamer CAN only play a few hours a week.
Casual: (the mindset)
- A casual gamer can range from someone that plays rarely just for fun to someone that plays often and sets goals for themselves. They will work toward these goal whenever they can but unlike the hardcore gamer they can be easily distracted to do other things that seem fun to them and go back to their goal later.
And Dispelling the Misconceptions:
- A casual gamer CAN make the game their whole life. They CAN be single. They CAN have no kids. They CAN have only online friends. They CAN be all the things that are normally reserved as assumptions of what a hardcore gamer is.
- A casual gamer CAN be a good player.
- A casual gamer CAN play many hours every day.
I just wonder why every time the casual vs hardcore discussion comes up it always reverts down to people insulting each other. "You have no life, so you are hardcore", "you suck at playing, so you are casual" and things like that when ability to play or activity of life outside of wow have absolutely nothing to do with if someone is hardcore of casual.
The mindset on how you approach the game makes you one or the other and in some cases you can be both. I always say I am casual because I am. I get distracted easily.
Oh look, something shiny. I have to go check it out now.
I am going to pick apart some posts and give my grumpy response, because lets face it, I like being grumpy. No names will be quoted, just comments.
Now here is a person that got it right. That is exactly what it is. I call myself casual and by most definitions I fit that but I can easily rock people wearing ICC 25 hard mode gear. You know, the type of people most love to call hardcore. It is more a mindset then anything else. For me I call myself casual because if I get into a hard mode run I'll do it but if I don't I don't care. A hardcore mind set person feels that they "have to" get that hard mode gear.The terms 'casual' and 'hardcore' are nothing but definitions of a mindset and say nothing about skill and knowledge.
Casual World of Warcraft Player: 1. Any of a type of person or individual who plays World of Warcraft because he or she wants to and not because he or she needs to or is compelled to play or log in. 2. A person who logs into World of Warcraft without a purpose in mind before doing so and then proceeds to play only for a duration of time that real life permits within reasonable limits.Wrong, wrong and oh, by the way, wrong.
3. A person who allows normal living behavior to take priority over game play; priorities include family, friends, work, food, sleep and otherwise normal social behavior.
1) So you are saying that a hardcore player logging in did not "want to"? Maybe that is how they have fun or how they relax and because of that they "want to" log in so they can have fun and relax. Hardcore players are not "compelled" by some unknown force to do it, they do it because that is what they "want to" do.
2) Who decides what "reasonable limits" are? If someone has 3 hours free time per night and spends that 3 hours online raiding does that make them causal because for them it was "reasonable"? Whereas the next guy only has 1 hour free time so he looks at the previous person as hardcore? Each persons free time is different. I work the same hours every day 5 days a week. My free time is the same every day after I do everything that needs to be done. So because I play the same time every night (and am capable of raiding because of that) it makes me hardcore? No, it just means that I have nothing to do between 8PM and 11PM every night. I "choose" to play warcraft. If I where to "choose" to watch TV every night for those 3 hours would you call me a hardcore TV watcher? It is a matter of perception. You might think my 3 hours are not "reasonable" but for me they are because if I was not playing wow I would be doing some other mindless thing to waste time like watching TV, getting drunk at the bar, bullshitting on the phone, etc.
3) So you are saying that casual players can't let the game take over their lives? Only hardcore players are like that? Let me break something to you that might be a surprise but there are many hardcore players that have very full lives with work, family, friends and other hobbies besides WoW and there are many casual players that have no lives outside of the game. Note: I do not like using the "no life" comment however because if this is how someone cares to spend their free time then that "is" their life but it was used to get my point across.
Quite honestly those three are three of things (among some others) that bad players usually use as excuses for being bad. Bad players equate time to skill. Time and skill are not connected at base. Sure, people that have skill and time might be better then people that have skill but not as much time. Bad players will be bad players even if they play 24 hours a day. Time helps you get gear, time helps you get gold, time does not help you get skill. Anyone that says, "you are only better because you have more time then I do" is an idiot. That person is better because they are better. Plain and simple.
If someone is a bad singer you can give them singing lessons for a year and they might get a little better but they will still be a bad singer. You can either sing or you can not sing, if you have skill at it to start you can get better but if you do not have the skill to sing you will never be a singer. You can only get "so much" better at something you can't do but you can never get great at it if you do not have it in you. So no matter how much time you give a bad wow player they will remain a bad wow player.
Hardcore - raids 4-5 nights a week, does all hardmodes, has a lot of achievements - the game is their life. ie No girlfriend, more friends online than offline, no real consistent responsibilities.Wow, who pissed in this jerks cheerios. Apparently someone called him bad or something because he really seems to be pissed off at harcore players. Hardmode does not mean hardcore. Achievements do not mean hardcore. Many online friends does not mean hardcore. No girlfriend does not mean hardcore. No responsibilities does not mean hard core.
I have under geared alts that I bring on the weekly just to get badges. That is the only time I ever log on to those characters unless I need to use one of their skills. I do not even do daily dungeons with them. Most of them have hardmode achievements by accident. Hardmode does not mean hardcore. A character that logs in once a week and only runs for 30 minutes at most is not and will never be considered a hardcore character. Get real. Most people get hard modes for fun because even "casual" players are so over geared now it is funny.
I am an achievement whore. If anything, while I do not consider myself a hardcore player I do make an effort to get achievements. I might go about that with a hardcore mentality but I am doing it because I like doing it. I have fun doing it. I do not do it because I am hardcore. If anything my reason for doing it would fit more into the casual description most people use. I do it because I want to do it because it is how I have fun. Achievements do not mean hardcore.
There are people that watch all the games from their football team, does that mean they are hardcore or a fan? There are people that go to church every sunday does that mean they are hardcore or religious? Just because football or religion is your life does not make you hardcore. Freaking out and killing someone because they like another team or follow another religion... now that is hardcore. Hardcore in a sick, twisted and extreme way, but you get the point. Just because something is your life does not make you hardcore.
How do sex/relationships equate to being hardcore or casual? So you are saying some hardcore raider that just got finished having fun with their wife/husband before they go to raid hard modes is no longer hardcore because they had sex? They are the same exact player with or without the sex. Having sex has no bearing on your game play... well, unless you play better when you are happy.
Casual or hardcore you will end up making friends online. It happens, even if you are a grumpy elf like me that generally hates people. Given the option I could easily go through my day in game and never speak a word to anyone even if I were raiding and be quite happy. The fact that I made a few friends over the time I played changes the status of my game play? What about my friends that bought me into the game? You know, the real life ones from the bar that told me to join them and play? Because they now count as online friends that makes me hardcore right? Wait a second, they must have not been hardcore because I was their friend and I did not play. So let me get this straight. They were casual because I was their friend that did not play but as soon as I started playing they are now hardcore because I am now a wow friend instead of a bar friend? Hmm, I changed their status when I started playing. Did you inform them of that? I think that they should know.
Have you ever visited the websites of some of the top guilds out there. Some of them have rather open forums. You can see people talking about their lives, their pets, their kids, their jobs. A job is a consistent responsibility isn't it? Well, I guess some of the top raiders in the game are not hardcore. Can you please take the time and go tell them that they are casuals and they suck because all casuals suck too right? Thanks, I am sure they will really appreciate you letting them know.
I'd say casual would mean that you don't necessarily care about min/maxing, and you don't necessarily care about progression raiding/getting top PvP ranking. Again, it's more of a mindset than anything.I like the mindset thing, fits the previous smart statement on mindset. Everything else is full of crap. Min/Maxing to such an extent that you change your skills when the best skills change might surely make you hardcore I'll give you that but having the best enchants and the best gems does not make you hardcore it makes you a decent player. Remember, there is a HUGE difference between the hardcore/casual debate and the good player/bad player debate. Hardcore players can be bad and many are, casual players can be good and many are. The enchants and gems part should never be part of the hardcore/casual debate they are part of the good player/bad player debate. Good players use the good gems and enchants while bad players use the bad gems and enchants. Understand? It has nothing to do with hardcore or casual.
The whole caring about progression is full of crap too. I care about progression. I want to beat ICC while it is still current content and haven't yet because I do not really go out of my way to try and get it done. If I did go out of my way I would have had it done months ago. By your definition I am hardcore because progression matters to me but I am casual because I have not progressed yet. Maybe that is where the term hardcore casual comes in?
Also on that topic I am sure I could introduce you to 100s, make that 1000s if not 10s of thousands of people just on my server alone that care about downing ICC but they are just so bad that they will never get anyone to take them there. They are horrible players that do not know specs, gems, enchants, rotations, fights, or anything else but they actively care about progression. So you are saying all of these amazingly BAD players are all hardcore because they care about progression?
Casual = 10 hours a week or less?Just figured I would add this one to go over something I said earlier. Time has nothing to do with anything. Thank you, nothing more to see here, please move along.
Hardcore = anything above 10 hours?
Hardcore = good playersI think we just found a casual that wants to play like they are hardcore. There are many good casual players and there are many bad hardcore players. And this is where I will go to sum things up and explain it for the masses that are too stupid to understand the difference.
Casuals = bad players
For that we must go back to the start where words of wisdom, normally not seen on any wow (or any internet) forum where written.
The terms 'casual' and 'hardcore' are nothing but definitions of a mindset and say nothing about skill and knowledge.Hardcore: (the mindset)
- A hardcore gamer is someone that will make any and all efforts to be the best they can be withing the time that they are able to play. They will spend as much time as they can to complete a task they set forth for themselves and will usually be focused on getting this task done before moving on to the next task.
And Dispelling the Misconceptions:
- A hardcore gamer CAN have other interests besides the game. They CAN have a girlfriend. They CAN have a job. They CAN have kids. They CAN have offline friends. They CAN be like people that have never played a game in their life and CAN be like it is normally assumed only casual players are like.
- A hardcore gamer CAN be a bad player.
- A hardcore gamer CAN only play a few hours a week.
Casual: (the mindset)
- A casual gamer can range from someone that plays rarely just for fun to someone that plays often and sets goals for themselves. They will work toward these goal whenever they can but unlike the hardcore gamer they can be easily distracted to do other things that seem fun to them and go back to their goal later.
And Dispelling the Misconceptions:
- A casual gamer CAN make the game their whole life. They CAN be single. They CAN have no kids. They CAN have only online friends. They CAN be all the things that are normally reserved as assumptions of what a hardcore gamer is.
- A casual gamer CAN be a good player.
- A casual gamer CAN play many hours every day.
I just wonder why every time the casual vs hardcore discussion comes up it always reverts down to people insulting each other. "You have no life, so you are hardcore", "you suck at playing, so you are casual" and things like that when ability to play or activity of life outside of wow have absolutely nothing to do with if someone is hardcore of casual.
The mindset on how you approach the game makes you one or the other and in some cases you can be both. I always say I am casual because I am. I get distracted easily.
Oh look, something shiny. I have to go check it out now.
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