I really don't think I'd have done nearly as many pet battles if I didn't have the addon PetBattle Teams. Being able to make teams for every occasion is super handy. I currently have 50 teams. I've got carry teams set up for every Pandaria tamer. I've got teams to quickly kill the various Beasts of Fable. I have teams for each of the battles in the Celestial Tournament. I usually have six or seven PvP teams set up, but those evolve over time. I have a bunch of leveling teams set up as well, both for carrying a pet in Pandaria, and for lowbie leveling in cities and the rest of the world. In short I have far too many teams set up, but I do use all of them pretty regularly.
However, the most important teams are the Pandaria Master Tamers. Each of the teams for the Pandaria tamers and Spirit tamers consists of two level 25s and an empty slot for a lowbie that is getting XP. I'll use a Lesser Pet Treat and then follow a route from the Pandaren Earth Spirit west to Courageous Yon, then South through Townlong and Dread Wastes. The East and North through Krasarang and Jade Forest before heading West again to go to Grand Master Aki and then South to finish up at Farmer Nishi. From there I'll also do a quick blast through Beasts of Fable 2: Lucky Yi, Greyhoof, and Skitter Xi. That route will get the equivalent XP of 2 pets from 1 to 25. And doing Beasts of Fable 2 will get a Lesser Pet Treat to use for the next day.
I'm not actually sure how many unique pets I own at the moment. I think I've got 537, but Hyjal armory has been messed up since the server merge. Last I was able to upload to WarcraftPets I also only had 30 pets left that weren't blue. All of the non-blue pets are also only available through pet battles. So I'm trying to speed up my pet blue-ing by doing a bit of wild capturing as well. Of course the non-blue pets I have left are the ones that are only available in one zone, and often in one sub-area of that zone.
My goal is to have all my pets blue and level 25 by the time that Warlords of Draenor comes out. I've heard that the pet max level will still be 25 in the new expansion. I'm not sure if I trust that, but I'll be ready either way. I'm hoping that they don't bump the max pet level. I'd really like to be able to have all my pets leveled up and only need to level up new pets that I get or capture in Draenor. I'd also like to buildup a stockpile of flawless battle stones, so that I have extras when I capture new pets or when I get a pet that isn't from battles that only starts out as green rarity.
Once I have all my pets to 25 and blue, I might go even more obsessive. I'm currently trying very hard not to obsess on the "best" breed for each pet. Mostly because with 18 different moths with the same set of abilities I don't need them all to be the 'best' breed, if I have one of each breed and can choose the breed for the occasion. I do admit that when I started getting extra dragonkin battlestones I couldn't resist and went to get myself a destruction emerald protodrake whelp.
Even if I manage to restrain myself from going full on OCD with pet breeds I'm not going to try to stop myself from trying to acquire all the different pets. I've been working steadily on the various pets that I'm missing. In fact most of my gold this expansion has gone straight into buying pets that I don't have. Sadly I'm still missing a lot of pets, but most of them are from the later parts of this expansion. I'm missing most of the pets that drop from Throne of Thunder and Siege of Orgrimmar. I am also missing several pets from Timeless Isle. There are also various pets that I need from archaeology, and a few older scattered achieves here and there.
I am really wondering how the pet stable in the garrison will work. I think the current plan is that you're able to breed two pets of the same family to be able to pick the breed and get a chance at an epic pet. Who knows if that will be the plan by the time the expansion is released. However, given that is a possibility I am sticking with my plan to make sure I've got all my pets blue and leveled up.
Showing posts with label speculation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label speculation. Show all posts
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Friday, February 28, 2014
I was doing a bit of WoW Insider reading this morning while I ate breakfast and I happened to see this article about probable changes to Warlords of Draenor racial abilities. Mixed in with all the news about nerfs and buffs was a tidbit about what is happening for Night Elves racials:
I was trying to come up with something pithy about a buff that changes based on time of day and how that would be a pain to try to get haste breakpoints correct, but the first comment I read said it so very concisely:
Let me just take a moment and be thankful that I am part of the Horde, and all raids I lead are Horde raids.
Night elves see a bonus to Quickness that adds a 2% passive buff to movement speed and a completely new racial, Touch of Elune, which adds 1% haste at night and 1% crit during the day. Shadowmeld is unchanged.I was trying to come up with something pithy about a buff that changes based on time of day and how that would be a pain to try to get haste breakpoints correct, but the first comment I read said it so very concisely:
I think raid leaders should be able to make whoever came up with Touch of Elune take a drink whenever someone asks them if they can move the raid forward or backward an hour to get the better buff. Let the true min/maxing begin!Let me just take a moment and be thankful that I am part of the Horde, and all raids I lead are Horde raids.
Friday, November 15, 2013
Women of Draenor??
With the announcement of the new Warlords of Draenor Expansion there is a lot of excitement and also a fair amount of shrieking. I'm hearing shrieks of joy about character models and garrisons and the change to toys and heirlooms. But right now the shrieks seem to be about gender equality and they are not joyful in the least.
If you follow the Warlords of Draenor link, you'll come to a lovely informative page. It's got a trailer and news and maps and art. The expansion looks like it'll be awesome.
Looking at that page you see it is full of Orcs. This makes sense. Garrosh has gone back in time and stopped the Orcs from drinking Manoroth's blood, and given them a tech boost. So the Orcs have formed the Iron Horde and are now rampaging across Draenor with the the intent of bursting into Azeroth and rampaging there too. So we get Iron Horde orcs as baddies.
However, that page is very male dominated. All the orcs on that page and all the humans are male. There are a few shots of a female draenei. But no orc women or human women or any other women. And a large number of people are full of unhappy shrieking about this.
Now as Big Bear Butt points out, this is Blizz's story. They can write it however they want to. And they do! That's fine. We the players are only entitled to enjoy the story as it is.
BUT.
Blizz doesn't always get their own story right, as the existence of the Wildhammer Fact Checker proves. They sometimes need some help to be reminded about all the info that their giant universe has. And I think they need to be reminded that Orc society is matriarchal. As any Horde player saw in Nagrand, Greatmother Geyah was the one in charge at Garadar. Yes there are warchiefs, but the actual town and village is controlled by the women. The warchief is just there to be in control the wars. (Unless you get craziness like Garrosh...)
So where is Geyah? Or Draka for that matter? If Durotan is around then Draka should be too. And as Anne Stickney puts it so much more eloquently than I can Where is Aggra?
I hope that all of the female orcs (and some non-orcs too!) show up sooner rather than later, but the fact that they aren't on the main Warlords of Draenor page doesn't give me a lot of hope as to the magnitude of their role in the story.
Yes, it's Blizz's story and they can tell it however they want. But it'll be a better and more interesting story if it isn't merely a boys clubhouse.
If you follow the Warlords of Draenor link, you'll come to a lovely informative page. It's got a trailer and news and maps and art. The expansion looks like it'll be awesome.
Looking at that page you see it is full of Orcs. This makes sense. Garrosh has gone back in time and stopped the Orcs from drinking Manoroth's blood, and given them a tech boost. So the Orcs have formed the Iron Horde and are now rampaging across Draenor with the the intent of bursting into Azeroth and rampaging there too. So we get Iron Horde orcs as baddies.
However, that page is very male dominated. All the orcs on that page and all the humans are male. There are a few shots of a female draenei. But no orc women or human women or any other women. And a large number of people are full of unhappy shrieking about this.
Now as Big Bear Butt points out, this is Blizz's story. They can write it however they want to. And they do! That's fine. We the players are only entitled to enjoy the story as it is.
BUT.
Blizz doesn't always get their own story right, as the existence of the Wildhammer Fact Checker proves. They sometimes need some help to be reminded about all the info that their giant universe has. And I think they need to be reminded that Orc society is matriarchal. As any Horde player saw in Nagrand, Greatmother Geyah was the one in charge at Garadar. Yes there are warchiefs, but the actual town and village is controlled by the women. The warchief is just there to be in control the wars. (Unless you get craziness like Garrosh...)
So where is Geyah? Or Draka for that matter? If Durotan is around then Draka should be too. And as Anne Stickney puts it so much more eloquently than I can Where is Aggra?
I hope that all of the female orcs (and some non-orcs too!) show up sooner rather than later, but the fact that they aren't on the main Warlords of Draenor page doesn't give me a lot of hope as to the magnitude of their role in the story.
Yes, it's Blizz's story and they can tell it however they want. But it'll be a better and more interesting story if it isn't merely a boys clubhouse.
Monday, November 11, 2013
Warlords of Draenor
Blizzcon has come and gone with a whole lot of new things announced. I'm actually pretty excited about the next WoW Expansion. There are a lot of things to look forward to.
I have to admit that the thing I'm most looking forward to is the updated character models. The Vanilla and BC races are currently looking a bit tired. It wasn't so bad before, but when comparing an orc or troll to the pandaren is it painfully obvious that there needs to be more polygons for the original races.
The next most exciting thing I saw announced is the changes to raiding. Blizzard has finally entirely caved in and the flex model is going to be here to stay. Current flex will become the new normal. Current normal will become the new heroic, and current heroic will go up to a fixed size of 20 people and be called Mythic. I am overjoyed at both the extension of flex to two gradations of raiding and at the fact that the single raid size Blizz settled on is 20 people. I think that fits perfectly with the 10-25 flexible sizes of the other raids. It basically means that if you're going after Mythic raiding you'll take your entire roster into the flexible Normal level raids.
Something that entirely surprised me about the new WoW announcements was the Garrison. I think the comment I saw that best describes it is that Blizzard decided that Player Housing was boring, so instead they went with a Player TOWN. A full on walled town that you build and populate. This has some seriously awesome potential, especially since you can actually invite your friends to visit. The party or raid leader can allow a full 40 man raid into their Garrison. If I were into RP I'd be dancing for joy about that. I am looking forward to gathering followers and sending them on missions.
The one thing I'm a bit dubious about is the storyline itself. Yes, yes, Garrosh escapes before his trial, and travels into the past to stop his Daddy from drinking Mannoroth's blood. He also gives the orcs a big technology boost, and thus the Iron Horde is formed. I just am dubious about why we try to fight the Iron Horde after Garrosh has mucked about with the past. My rampant speculation is that this is the expansion that we see Nozdormu turn into Murozond.
See, if Nozdormu were still fully and truly on our side he'd help by sending a strike team back in time before Garrosh corrupted the timeline. Maybe he can't stop Garrosh from breaking free, but an assassin team waiting for him to appear in Draenor past would put a stop to his machinations.
We know that in the future Nozdormu turns into Murozond. And we know that Murozond still has the ability to control time. (See events in the End Time dungeon.) So clearly either Noz is holding out on us currently, or he's about to go bat-shit crazy and try to disrupt the time stream in some twisted effort to get his time controlling powers back. Either way I suspect that we'll see an end boss of some raid that is Nozdormu/Murozond.
I have to admit that the thing I'm most looking forward to is the updated character models. The Vanilla and BC races are currently looking a bit tired. It wasn't so bad before, but when comparing an orc or troll to the pandaren is it painfully obvious that there needs to be more polygons for the original races.
The next most exciting thing I saw announced is the changes to raiding. Blizzard has finally entirely caved in and the flex model is going to be here to stay. Current flex will become the new normal. Current normal will become the new heroic, and current heroic will go up to a fixed size of 20 people and be called Mythic. I am overjoyed at both the extension of flex to two gradations of raiding and at the fact that the single raid size Blizz settled on is 20 people. I think that fits perfectly with the 10-25 flexible sizes of the other raids. It basically means that if you're going after Mythic raiding you'll take your entire roster into the flexible Normal level raids.
Something that entirely surprised me about the new WoW announcements was the Garrison. I think the comment I saw that best describes it is that Blizzard decided that Player Housing was boring, so instead they went with a Player TOWN. A full on walled town that you build and populate. This has some seriously awesome potential, especially since you can actually invite your friends to visit. The party or raid leader can allow a full 40 man raid into their Garrison. If I were into RP I'd be dancing for joy about that. I am looking forward to gathering followers and sending them on missions.
The one thing I'm a bit dubious about is the storyline itself. Yes, yes, Garrosh escapes before his trial, and travels into the past to stop his Daddy from drinking Mannoroth's blood. He also gives the orcs a big technology boost, and thus the Iron Horde is formed. I just am dubious about why we try to fight the Iron Horde after Garrosh has mucked about with the past. My rampant speculation is that this is the expansion that we see Nozdormu turn into Murozond.
See, if Nozdormu were still fully and truly on our side he'd help by sending a strike team back in time before Garrosh corrupted the timeline. Maybe he can't stop Garrosh from breaking free, but an assassin team waiting for him to appear in Draenor past would put a stop to his machinations.
We know that in the future Nozdormu turns into Murozond. And we know that Murozond still has the ability to control time. (See events in the End Time dungeon.) So clearly either Noz is holding out on us currently, or he's about to go bat-shit crazy and try to disrupt the time stream in some twisted effort to get his time controlling powers back. Either way I suspect that we'll see an end boss of some raid that is Nozdormu/Murozond.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Hopes for Mists of Pandaria Expansion
I've talked about what I thought about the Cataclysm expansion. I've planned what I'd like to get done before Mists. Here is what I hope to see in Mists of Pandaria.
I am, as usual, excited about all the new things for Pandaria. I have quite deliberately kept away from any sort of story spoiler. Yes, I know there will be Pandaren and Monks, and there is a new continent called Pandaria, and Garrosh is the end boss, but that's all I know. In fact, I have instituted a No Spoilers rule in guild chat and on our vent server. People who start to say something I think might be a spoiler get the same noise that I use when the dogs or cats are misbehaving. I have not tried the beta at all. And I've pretty much entirely stopped reading WoW Insider, except for the Drama Mamas.
The new story for Pandaria should also be quite exciting. I like reading quest text and seeing what all the NPCs have to say. I really enjoy video games as a method of storytelling, and I'm looking forward to the next Warcraft installment. I really, really hope that the way the story develops isn't dumb with respect to how Garrosh gets taken down. And I hope that the way that Pandas are available for both Horde and Alliance is dealt with delicately as well.
That said, I'm a bit worried about Blood DKs. We're in a good spot now at the end of Cata, and I'm worried that will not continue into Mists. There are things I would change, but I like our Death Strike/Mastery mechanic. I hope that in Mists that doesn't get messed up or overly needlessly complicated.
One good thing about the new Monk class, with respect to DKs, is that it'll be the new class on the block. I'm sure it'll start out just as ridiculously OP as DKs were in early Wrath. But maybe, just maybe, all the faddish people will reroll Monk and abandon their DKs. Hopefully most of the dumbest DKs will swap to Monk and then those of us who are competent will get less crap just for being DKs.
I am, as usual, excited about all the new things for Pandaria. I have quite deliberately kept away from any sort of story spoiler. Yes, I know there will be Pandaren and Monks, and there is a new continent called Pandaria, and Garrosh is the end boss, but that's all I know. In fact, I have instituted a No Spoilers rule in guild chat and on our vent server. People who start to say something I think might be a spoiler get the same noise that I use when the dogs or cats are misbehaving. I have not tried the beta at all. And I've pretty much entirely stopped reading WoW Insider, except for the Drama Mamas.
New Stories
I am looking forward to the new dungeons and raids. I hope that the heroic dungeons are kept challenging, at least to start. It was awesomely fun to fight through the heroic dungeons for the first time in Cata. The group was really challenged to do their best tanking/dps/healing, and I hope we get that same experience at the start of Mists. I love fighting my way to the end of a instance and getting to see all the cool stuff that happens along the way.The new story for Pandaria should also be quite exciting. I like reading quest text and seeing what all the NPCs have to say. I really enjoy video games as a method of storytelling, and I'm looking forward to the next Warcraft installment. I really, really hope that the way the story develops isn't dumb with respect to how Garrosh gets taken down. And I hope that the way that Pandas are available for both Horde and Alliance is dealt with delicately as well.
Monks
I'm also hoping that Mists raids don't have melee vs ranged damage requirements. In Dragon Soul there are two fights where you absolutely cannot succeed unless you have fewer or even numbers of melee compared to ranged. The rest of the fights are merely harder if you have too many melee. I'm currently having to juggle people so that we don't have too many melee dps. And adding another melee spec isn't going to help that. Currently it's never a problem if there are too many ranged, just have one of them stand in melee range or target the usual melee target. But it's just not possible for melee classes to stand with the ranged or target the ranged target, if there are separate targets.- With monks there will be 11 classes, with 34 different talent specs (since druids will get 4)
- tank specs: 5 (blood DK, prot Pally, prot Warrior, bear Druid, and new tank Monk)
- healer specs: 6 (holy Pally, resto Shaman, resto Druid, holy and disc Priest, and new healer Monk)
- ranged specs: 12 (ele Shaman, 3xHunter, balance Druid, 3xMage, 3xWarlock, shadow Priest)
- melee specs: 11 (ret Pally, 2xWarrior, 2xDK, enhance Shaman, cat Druid, 3xRogue, new dps Monk)
Death Knights
I have not been actively avoiding DK talent and skill information, but I'm not yet doing any research. Honestly I think it's still a bit early, and besides I'm busy having fun with my current WoW playing. There is no reason to rush off to the next expansion yet.That said, I'm a bit worried about Blood DKs. We're in a good spot now at the end of Cata, and I'm worried that will not continue into Mists. There are things I would change, but I like our Death Strike/Mastery mechanic. I hope that in Mists that doesn't get messed up or overly needlessly complicated.
One good thing about the new Monk class, with respect to DKs, is that it'll be the new class on the block. I'm sure it'll start out just as ridiculously OP as DKs were in early Wrath. But maybe, just maybe, all the faddish people will reroll Monk and abandon their DKs. Hopefully most of the dumbest DKs will swap to Monk and then those of us who are competent will get less crap just for being DKs.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Pandemonium
So Mists of Pandaria is officially in beta and has been for a couple of weeks now. There are many announcements about new and exciting panda-stuff. We finally get to see the female Pandaren model. There are new battlegrounds. Apparently there will be an Orgrimmar raid. There will even be an eleventh character slot for everyone.
As usual with the end of an expansion, I have mixed feelings about all of this stuff. Usually that is because I'm still working on getting the end of the previous expansion wrapped up. In fact, in all previous expansions I didn't kill the end boss until months or possibly years later. It's nice that Deathwing is dead by my hand already.
I'm not excited about playing a Panda. Oh, I'll roll one up to see the starting area. But I'm not seeing myself leveling a new panda to anything resembling a high level. Frankly I've never been really interested in them, they always seemed like an in-joke tossed in because Samwise Didier has a nickname of Panda. I like my orc, bloodelf, and trolls far to much to play some sort of lame joke character. I'm also rather disappointed by how the female Pandaren look. I'm not surprised, but I am sad. It would have been nice if Blizzard kept the Panda females just as chubby as the males.
I am intrigued by the new monk class. I wish it had been Demon Hunter instead but I'll try a Monk out. Unless the play style is super awesome I'm not seeing myself switch away from Morn and her awesome Death Knight-ness.
New character slots is an excellent idea. Only one per server seems a little bit lame, but at least it is something. And I am excited about new types of BGs. Of course, I'm super excited about the new zones and story we'll get for Pandaria. I have some vague hope that we won't get a new level of professions, but then again they aren't outpacing weapon skills anymore because we no longer have weapon skills... So I'm sure there will be a new level of professions with all new mats to farm and JC tokens to grind.
I'm not pleased about the Orgrimmar raid. I'm a displeased that it was revealed immediately that Garrosh would go down. I do try to stay away from next expansion spoilers. But since it's been pretty well publicized that Garrosh is going to be a final raid boss I don't feel too bad about it.
But, what could make the Horde turn against Garrosh?
Sorry Alliance people, but I'm pretty sure that the Alliance is already quite happy to kill Garrosh. Varian has a huge grudge against him dating back to the cutscene from the Ulduar release, and that was only made worse in TOC. Then Cata pretty much sealed the deal with the various invasions.
For Horde we have a bunch of different players with various grudges.
Vol'jin: Has outright said he'd kill Garrosh. Near the end of the Troll starting area you see a replay of a conversation that Vol'jin and Garrosh had after Cairne's death. That's when you see that Vol'jin promised to wait until everyone saw that Garrosh is a failure and then kill him.
Thrall: Is angry at how Garrosh is leading the Horde. As part of helping Aggra get his elemental bits back into one body you see that he's conflicted and angry at how Garrosh has handled things. However, he relinquished the mantle of Warchief to become World Shaman. And especially now that the Dragon Aspects are mortal and used up their power I think his duty as World Shaman is even more important.
Baine: Garrosh killed his father! Ok, Magratha poisoned the weapon, but Garrosh stuck the killing blow.
Sylvanas: She's a bit of a stretch. I'm sure she'd be happy to see Garrosh out of the way. However, aside from him calling her a bitch and restricting the use of plague I don't see any specific grudge. Oh she'd be happy to join a Garrosh-hunting party, but at current I don't think she'd lead it.
Zaela: As Horde you help Zaela kill the (fel orc) leader of the Dragonmaw and establish her as Dragonmaw warchief. She is absolutely overjoyed to welcome "orcs of pure blood" and to get rid of the fel tainted Overlord Mor'ghor. Garrosh meets her right after she's executed Mor'ghor and they seem to hit it off. I was hoping that she and Garrosh would get it on. Two proud warrior leader types: it seemed like it'd be an excellent match. And maybe that would help mellow Garrosh out. But if Garrosh gets himself fel tainted I can only see her leading the charge to annihilate him. She's been under the thumb of a fel orc before, and isn't going to stand for that again.
Saurfang: In Borean Tundra you watch as Saurfang cautions Garrosh about attacking too much and leaving no defense. He promises to kill Garrosh him self if Garrosh takes the Horde on a genocidal path like that.
So, thinking about all of that I think that the most plausible story going forward would be for Garrosh to get himself fel tainted somehow. Shadow Council interference, maybe some Old God influence, or even just straight up drinking demon blood. It is about time for the Burning Legion and Kil'Jaeden to stick their noses back into Azeroth. Willfully and with open eyes Garrosh gets himself fel tainted, even though he really should know better after his father's mistake. Maybe he thinks it's the only way to defeat the Alliance or save the Horde or who knows what went on in his roid rage skull. Rades thinks it could be a completely dishonorable act that makes Garrosh think he has no choice but to accept some really horrible help.
But when the rest of the Horde found out that he'd been drinking demon blood all hell would break loose.
Zaela says "We want only orcs of pure blood here! Get your fel tainted ass out of bed, I mean out of the Horde!"
Baine chimes in "My name is Baine Bloodhoof. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
Sylvanas would be ready, "No one calls the Banshee Queen a bitch!"
Thrall says "I did not ask for this! I will not let you ruin the Horde!"
Saurfang speaks "Garrosh your day has come!"
And after Garrosh was defeated but not dead Vol'jin would appear from the shadows and shoot Garrosh. One swift shot and Garrosh falls to the ground with a pool of his own blood growing around him.
Now as silly as the above dialogue is I don't actually have any objection to Garrosh being replaced as leader of the Horde. I didn't want him as Warchief to start with! I never wanted Thrall to step down from Warchief and do his shaman thing, but even so there were many better choices for Warchief that Garrosh. Abasik Kampfire for one, but Cairne or Vol'jin would each have made an excellent Warchief.
I guess my main beef with Garrosh being ousted as leader of the Horde is that the Alliance is going to get to kill him. Both DraNgNon and I have a pretty fierce faction pride. We play Horde characters. We both do city defense whenever we see the Alliance attacking. Despite my desire to see the story from both sides I have been unable to get an Alliance toon past level 64. I just can't stand the Alliance quests in Outland and their story in Northrend doesn't seem all that interesting either. But now the Alliance is going to get to kill our Warchief?!? He may be a piss poor excuse for a Warchief, and make terrible tactical decisions (like losing the entire Horde Airfleet in the attack on Twilight Highlands), but he is still the Warchief of the Horde!
As usual with the end of an expansion, I have mixed feelings about all of this stuff. Usually that is because I'm still working on getting the end of the previous expansion wrapped up. In fact, in all previous expansions I didn't kill the end boss until months or possibly years later. It's nice that Deathwing is dead by my hand already.
I'm not excited about playing a Panda. Oh, I'll roll one up to see the starting area. But I'm not seeing myself leveling a new panda to anything resembling a high level. Frankly I've never been really interested in them, they always seemed like an in-joke tossed in because Samwise Didier has a nickname of Panda. I like my orc, bloodelf, and trolls far to much to play some sort of lame joke character. I'm also rather disappointed by how the female Pandaren look. I'm not surprised, but I am sad. It would have been nice if Blizzard kept the Panda females just as chubby as the males.
I am intrigued by the new monk class. I wish it had been Demon Hunter instead but I'll try a Monk out. Unless the play style is super awesome I'm not seeing myself switch away from Morn and her awesome Death Knight-ness.
New character slots is an excellent idea. Only one per server seems a little bit lame, but at least it is something. And I am excited about new types of BGs. Of course, I'm super excited about the new zones and story we'll get for Pandaria. I have some vague hope that we won't get a new level of professions, but then again they aren't outpacing weapon skills anymore because we no longer have weapon skills... So I'm sure there will be a new level of professions with all new mats to farm and JC tokens to grind.
I'm not pleased about the Orgrimmar raid. I'm a displeased that it was revealed immediately that Garrosh would go down. I do try to stay away from next expansion spoilers. But since it's been pretty well publicized that Garrosh is going to be a final raid boss I don't feel too bad about it.
But, what could make the Horde turn against Garrosh?
Sorry Alliance people, but I'm pretty sure that the Alliance is already quite happy to kill Garrosh. Varian has a huge grudge against him dating back to the cutscene from the Ulduar release, and that was only made worse in TOC. Then Cata pretty much sealed the deal with the various invasions.
For Horde we have a bunch of different players with various grudges.
Vol'jin: Has outright said he'd kill Garrosh. Near the end of the Troll starting area you see a replay of a conversation that Vol'jin and Garrosh had after Cairne's death. That's when you see that Vol'jin promised to wait until everyone saw that Garrosh is a failure and then kill him.
Thrall: Is angry at how Garrosh is leading the Horde. As part of helping Aggra get his elemental bits back into one body you see that he's conflicted and angry at how Garrosh has handled things. However, he relinquished the mantle of Warchief to become World Shaman. And especially now that the Dragon Aspects are mortal and used up their power I think his duty as World Shaman is even more important.
Baine: Garrosh killed his father! Ok, Magratha poisoned the weapon, but Garrosh stuck the killing blow.
Sylvanas: She's a bit of a stretch. I'm sure she'd be happy to see Garrosh out of the way. However, aside from him calling her a bitch and restricting the use of plague I don't see any specific grudge. Oh she'd be happy to join a Garrosh-hunting party, but at current I don't think she'd lead it.
Zaela: As Horde you help Zaela kill the (fel orc) leader of the Dragonmaw and establish her as Dragonmaw warchief. She is absolutely overjoyed to welcome "orcs of pure blood" and to get rid of the fel tainted Overlord Mor'ghor. Garrosh meets her right after she's executed Mor'ghor and they seem to hit it off. I was hoping that she and Garrosh would get it on. Two proud warrior leader types: it seemed like it'd be an excellent match. And maybe that would help mellow Garrosh out. But if Garrosh gets himself fel tainted I can only see her leading the charge to annihilate him. She's been under the thumb of a fel orc before, and isn't going to stand for that again.
Saurfang: In Borean Tundra you watch as Saurfang cautions Garrosh about attacking too much and leaving no defense. He promises to kill Garrosh him self if Garrosh takes the Horde on a genocidal path like that.
So, thinking about all of that I think that the most plausible story going forward would be for Garrosh to get himself fel tainted somehow. Shadow Council interference, maybe some Old God influence, or even just straight up drinking demon blood. It is about time for the Burning Legion and Kil'Jaeden to stick their noses back into Azeroth. Willfully and with open eyes Garrosh gets himself fel tainted, even though he really should know better after his father's mistake. Maybe he thinks it's the only way to defeat the Alliance or save the Horde or who knows what went on in his roid rage skull. Rades thinks it could be a completely dishonorable act that makes Garrosh think he has no choice but to accept some really horrible help.
But when the rest of the Horde found out that he'd been drinking demon blood all hell would break loose.
Zaela says "We want only orcs of pure blood here! Get your fel tainted ass out of bed, I mean out of the Horde!"
Baine chimes in "My name is Baine Bloodhoof. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
Sylvanas would be ready, "No one calls the Banshee Queen a bitch!"
Thrall says "I did not ask for this! I will not let you ruin the Horde!"
Saurfang speaks "Garrosh your day has come!"
And after Garrosh was defeated but not dead Vol'jin would appear from the shadows and shoot Garrosh. One swift shot and Garrosh falls to the ground with a pool of his own blood growing around him.
Now as silly as the above dialogue is I don't actually have any objection to Garrosh being replaced as leader of the Horde. I didn't want him as Warchief to start with! I never wanted Thrall to step down from Warchief and do his shaman thing, but even so there were many better choices for Warchief that Garrosh. Abasik Kampfire for one, but Cairne or Vol'jin would each have made an excellent Warchief.
I guess my main beef with Garrosh being ousted as leader of the Horde is that the Alliance is going to get to kill him. Both DraNgNon and I have a pretty fierce faction pride. We play Horde characters. We both do city defense whenever we see the Alliance attacking. Despite my desire to see the story from both sides I have been unable to get an Alliance toon past level 64. I just can't stand the Alliance quests in Outland and their story in Northrend doesn't seem all that interesting either. But now the Alliance is going to get to kill our Warchief?!? He may be a piss poor excuse for a Warchief, and make terrible tactical decisions (like losing the entire Horde Airfleet in the attack on Twilight Highlands), but he is still the Warchief of the Horde!
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Death Knight Origins
I was chatting with Clariana/Volo the other day and in the course of conversation we got to talking about character origins and endings. Specifically about how our characters became Death Knights and what happened to Volo's characters after the WoW subscription lapsed.
Volo the player has several characters, all with different ends. Clariana lives out her days as a tailor. A shaman stayed in Dalaran for intellectual pursuits. The rogue retires and lives out her life in Orgrimar. Ildiavolo himself put out the rumour that he died in the Firelands so that he could spend the rest of his days meditating on a rock in Orgrimmar. Because he was really messed up in the head after being undead and a death knight servant to Arthas.
This led to discussion about how our DKs became DKs.
Me: So what is the story in your head for how Ildiavolo turned into a death knight?
Volo: He was a rogue that died fighting Illidan. One of his glaives sliced Ildiavolo's jaw off. And when Arthas was gathering bodies he was revived. He was human to start, he died when Illidan and Arthas fought in Warcraft 3.
Volo: How did Mornara become a death knight?
Me: She started out as a warlock. In my head she never actually died, she was just tortured until her mind broke and Arthas used his sword to suck her soul just enough to bind her to his control.
Volo: That's brutal
Me: She'd been a warlock questing around with a certain pally of Kuan's and they split up. Morn went off to the plaguelands to fight the scourge, but it didn't work out so well.
Me: Well she didn't lose her jaw or anything like that!
Volo: I had to explain it somehow!
Me: ;D Wounds from Illidan are cool
Volo: I saw Ildiavolo as being a casualty of war.
Me: I thought of Morn along the same lines, but more along the Roman lines, where the defeated were sold into slavery
But this got me to thinking. I'd never really considered Mornara's origin all that brutal. I mean, yes, she was tortured and then enslaved, so it wasn't a picnic. But she didn't *die*. Her head was majorly fucked with, but she's still alive. She can recover from that. With many scars yes, but still not out of the fight.
Then again, death isn't that great a barrier in Warcraft anyway. There are all sorts of mechanisms for ressurrection. And if that fails there are a bunch of different ways to get zombie-fied. And regardless of zombiefication or torture you're still going to be messed up in the head after it is done.
Volo the player has several characters, all with different ends. Clariana lives out her days as a tailor. A shaman stayed in Dalaran for intellectual pursuits. The rogue retires and lives out her life in Orgrimar. Ildiavolo himself put out the rumour that he died in the Firelands so that he could spend the rest of his days meditating on a rock in Orgrimmar. Because he was really messed up in the head after being undead and a death knight servant to Arthas.
This led to discussion about how our DKs became DKs.
Me: So what is the story in your head for how Ildiavolo turned into a death knight?
Volo: He was a rogue that died fighting Illidan. One of his glaives sliced Ildiavolo's jaw off. And when Arthas was gathering bodies he was revived. He was human to start, he died when Illidan and Arthas fought in Warcraft 3.
Volo: How did Mornara become a death knight?
Me: She started out as a warlock. In my head she never actually died, she was just tortured until her mind broke and Arthas used his sword to suck her soul just enough to bind her to his control.
Volo: That's brutal
Me: She'd been a warlock questing around with a certain pally of Kuan's and they split up. Morn went off to the plaguelands to fight the scourge, but it didn't work out so well.
Me: Well she didn't lose her jaw or anything like that!
Volo: I had to explain it somehow!
Me: ;D Wounds from Illidan are cool
Volo: I saw Ildiavolo as being a casualty of war.
Me: I thought of Morn along the same lines, but more along the Roman lines, where the defeated were sold into slavery
But this got me to thinking. I'd never really considered Mornara's origin all that brutal. I mean, yes, she was tortured and then enslaved, so it wasn't a picnic. But she didn't *die*. Her head was majorly fucked with, but she's still alive. She can recover from that. With many scars yes, but still not out of the fight.
Then again, death isn't that great a barrier in Warcraft anyway. There are all sorts of mechanisms for ressurrection. And if that fails there are a bunch of different ways to get zombie-fied. And regardless of zombiefication or torture you're still going to be messed up in the head after it is done.
Monday, January 2, 2012
LFR thoughts: counterpoint
What I'm seeing is that LFR seems to be suited for a certain type of player, the raid PUG-player. The attitude and expertise of these people is very precise, they are very aggressive and bossy, intolerant of wipes, quick to blame, and those that know the fights are clearly pleased with themselves when they know. In fact, they are exactly the people who made raiding Vault of Archavon in WotLK a painful experience. This person is not someone who can deal with progression raiding; the only challenge they are interested in is outperforming the rest of the raid, and when PUG'd in, usually drop group after more than 1 wipe on a boss. With LFR, Blizzard has given them their own playground, exactly suited to them. It's a face roll for any geared character played by someone who knows how to raid. LFR even has a loot system which is not merit based, giving the raid PUG person a perfect target for their displeasure.
I do agree that 25man raids are suffering, but not from LFR, just from the combined lockouts. We can't just go into a 10man to see the fights, then try it on 25. And 10s are easier by far, even if the odds of useful loot decrease significantly. I'm sure Blizzard is seeing this and will deal with it appropriately in Mists of Pandaria. There are quite a few remedies they could apply without significant recoding.
While the various tiers of TOC and ICC was crazy bullshit, I think MoP raids should go back to how Ulduar was done, specifically Hodir and XT, with 10 and 25 on separate lockouts, and "heroic mode" triggered by demonstrating in the fight via a gear check mechanic that the raid could handle it. Well, "heroic mode" isn't the subject of this post. They do not have to distinguish between 10- and 25-man gear. There's really not going to be any harm in letting people go after a boss twice a week.
But if they really want to avoid some people feeling they have to run both, I'd rather see 10 and 25s be separate raids, like in BC; but that would not work well with guild structure as coded in the game and would be the source of "left out" drama. Maybe 10 and 20, instead of 25.
I do agree that 25man raids are suffering, but not from LFR, just from the combined lockouts. We can't just go into a 10man to see the fights, then try it on 25. And 10s are easier by far, even if the odds of useful loot decrease significantly. I'm sure Blizzard is seeing this and will deal with it appropriately in Mists of Pandaria. There are quite a few remedies they could apply without significant recoding.
While the various tiers of TOC and ICC was crazy bullshit, I think MoP raids should go back to how Ulduar was done, specifically Hodir and XT, with 10 and 25 on separate lockouts, and "heroic mode" triggered by demonstrating in the fight via a gear check mechanic that the raid could handle it. Well, "heroic mode" isn't the subject of this post. They do not have to distinguish between 10- and 25-man gear. There's really not going to be any harm in letting people go after a boss twice a week.
But if they really want to avoid some people feeling they have to run both, I'd rather see 10 and 25s be separate raids, like in BC; but that would not work well with guild structure as coded in the game and would be the source of "left out" drama. Maybe 10 and 20, instead of 25.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Mists of Pandaria???
Apparently Blizzard has trademarked the phrase "Mists of Pandaria" in relation to computer games. People all over are scrambling to put forth their ideas on Pandaren and new continents/islands/zones. Bandwagons are fun, so here goes:
I think it's entirely possible and even likely that this will be the next expansion. With Blizzcon coming up this is the right timing for the name of the next expansion. My gut instinct is that we'll get a new continent, south of the Maelstrom, with a climate reminiscent of Stranglethorn. I'm specifically thinking of the bamboo in Zul'Gurub when I say that, which always made me think of pandas in the wild in China. I'm also inclined to think that we'll get a new joint capital city run by the Pandaren.
Burning Crusade: new races for each faction.
Wrath of the Lich King: new class for both factions.
Cataclysm: new races for each faction.
Mists of Pandaria??: I'm guessing a new class for both factions.
I'd like to see demon hunters. It'd fit with the way that DKs were added. There could be some fun phasing with the naive blood or night elf in the Black Temple being trained by Illidan to hunt demons. Maybe some big reveal with Kil'jaeden smacking Illidan around or Illidan getting killed by *your faction* band of nameless heros, and Maiev being very angry/taking under her wing the demon hunter students. If the demon hunters were allowed to skip Outland the way that DKs were allowed to skip vanilla I could see that making a lot of sense.
I'd also really like it if Maiev had a better ending to her story. I ran Black Temple again the other night and her lines ("I feel nothing, I am nothing") when Illidan is dead are just kind of lame. Giving her a bunch of baby Demon Hunters to train would be a good continuation. She isn't some sort of has-been just because she made it her life's work to hunt Illidan and actually *succeeded* at it.
Also if the Demon Hunters were allowed to skip Outland that would let Blizzard put off redoing Outland the way they redid Azeroth. I don't think there is enough Dev time to make a new Southern continent (Pandaria) and also to redo all the quests in Outland to account for Illidan and his lieutenants being defeated for the past three or four years.
Having a new class as opposed to a new race for each faction also lets Blizz devote more time to making sure that the Pandaren get the attention to detail that they deserve. With a name like "Mists of Pandaria" there has to be Pandaren central to the story in there. There would be too much drama if the Pandaren joined either the Horde or the Alliance, whichever faction was left out would pout and whinge the entire expansion, so that leaves them as a big neutral faction. And to be perfectly honest, if Blizz leaves the Pandaren as a neutral faction, they can either portray them in a way that doesn't offend China or swap them for another race in the Chinese version.
I never played any of the original Warcraft games, so perhaps I'm missing out on the allure of the Pandaren. Were there many references to them in the RTS games? All I can remember from WoW is an empty keg that belonged to Chen. So my knowledge of the Pandaren is limited to their love of alcohol and their Asian/Chinese clothes. I'm getting some sort of "Drunken Master" grade B martial arts movie vibe here.
I'm far more excited about the new class that would be introduced in this new expansion. As noted, my preference would be the Demon Hunter. However I could also see a Monk class being introduced. I hope that either monk or demon hunter would have leather or mail armor. There are already three each of cloth and plate wearers, but only two each or mail and leather wearers. This *might* help with loot table distribution. (hahahahahah /wipestears)
In fact, thinking about the TWO pieces of leather gear that dropped in my 10man raid the other night, I'm hoping that whatever new class is added wears leather. (Both of them went to the same druid for offspec...)
Adding Monk in as a new class would fit with the Pandaren. Especially if the Pandaren are so desperate for help that they will share their martial arts knowledge with the Horde and Alliance in return for military aid fighting off whatever is encroaching with or through their Mists.
I could see both Demon Hunter and Monk as leather wearing classes. Though I think that Monk would work better as a cloth wearer. I think they would both be some sort of melee damage class. Monks would prefer maces and fist weapons, or maybe a nice staff, basically no bladed weapons for monks. Demon Hunters would have to use the stereotypical double swords (Warglaives of Azzinoth), but I could also picture them with double axes, and possibly also fist weapons and daggers.
Resource systems would be a little bit tricky. Can't reuse combo points for another leather wearer, and don't want to have focus for another class that has hunter in its name. For monks at least it would depend on the source of their power. If we've got some sort of holy monk, like we see in Scarlet Monastery, then some derivation of holy power might work. If we've got drunken master type monks then maybe a battle intoxication or rage derivation might work. Demon hunters might have some sort of sight they could employ. Insight into the enemy that lets you use more abilities, but done like DK runes and rune power instead of rogue/cat combo points?
Anyway I'm voting for Demon Hunter as the next new class. That would let the focus shift back to the Burning Legion as bad guys. It's time for Kil'jaeden to make a reappearance. The Burning Legion has had time to lick their collective wounds and should be ready to go on the offensive against Azeroth again.
I think it's entirely possible and even likely that this will be the next expansion. With Blizzcon coming up this is the right timing for the name of the next expansion. My gut instinct is that we'll get a new continent, south of the Maelstrom, with a climate reminiscent of Stranglethorn. I'm specifically thinking of the bamboo in Zul'Gurub when I say that, which always made me think of pandas in the wild in China. I'm also inclined to think that we'll get a new joint capital city run by the Pandaren.
Burning Crusade: new races for each faction.
Wrath of the Lich King: new class for both factions.
Cataclysm: new races for each faction.
Mists of Pandaria??: I'm guessing a new class for both factions.
I'd like to see demon hunters. It'd fit with the way that DKs were added. There could be some fun phasing with the naive blood or night elf in the Black Temple being trained by Illidan to hunt demons. Maybe some big reveal with Kil'jaeden smacking Illidan around or Illidan getting killed by *your faction* band of nameless heros, and Maiev being very angry/taking under her wing the demon hunter students. If the demon hunters were allowed to skip Outland the way that DKs were allowed to skip vanilla I could see that making a lot of sense.
I'd also really like it if Maiev had a better ending to her story. I ran Black Temple again the other night and her lines ("I feel nothing, I am nothing") when Illidan is dead are just kind of lame. Giving her a bunch of baby Demon Hunters to train would be a good continuation. She isn't some sort of has-been just because she made it her life's work to hunt Illidan and actually *succeeded* at it.
Also if the Demon Hunters were allowed to skip Outland that would let Blizzard put off redoing Outland the way they redid Azeroth. I don't think there is enough Dev time to make a new Southern continent (Pandaria) and also to redo all the quests in Outland to account for Illidan and his lieutenants being defeated for the past three or four years.
Having a new class as opposed to a new race for each faction also lets Blizz devote more time to making sure that the Pandaren get the attention to detail that they deserve. With a name like "Mists of Pandaria" there has to be Pandaren central to the story in there. There would be too much drama if the Pandaren joined either the Horde or the Alliance, whichever faction was left out would pout and whinge the entire expansion, so that leaves them as a big neutral faction. And to be perfectly honest, if Blizz leaves the Pandaren as a neutral faction, they can either portray them in a way that doesn't offend China or swap them for another race in the Chinese version.
I never played any of the original Warcraft games, so perhaps I'm missing out on the allure of the Pandaren. Were there many references to them in the RTS games? All I can remember from WoW is an empty keg that belonged to Chen. So my knowledge of the Pandaren is limited to their love of alcohol and their Asian/Chinese clothes. I'm getting some sort of "Drunken Master" grade B martial arts movie vibe here.
I'm far more excited about the new class that would be introduced in this new expansion. As noted, my preference would be the Demon Hunter. However I could also see a Monk class being introduced. I hope that either monk or demon hunter would have leather or mail armor. There are already three each of cloth and plate wearers, but only two each or mail and leather wearers. This *might* help with loot table distribution. (hahahahahah /wipestears)
In fact, thinking about the TWO pieces of leather gear that dropped in my 10man raid the other night, I'm hoping that whatever new class is added wears leather. (Both of them went to the same druid for offspec...)
Adding Monk in as a new class would fit with the Pandaren. Especially if the Pandaren are so desperate for help that they will share their martial arts knowledge with the Horde and Alliance in return for military aid fighting off whatever is encroaching with or through their Mists.
I could see both Demon Hunter and Monk as leather wearing classes. Though I think that Monk would work better as a cloth wearer. I think they would both be some sort of melee damage class. Monks would prefer maces and fist weapons, or maybe a nice staff, basically no bladed weapons for monks. Demon Hunters would have to use the stereotypical double swords (Warglaives of Azzinoth), but I could also picture them with double axes, and possibly also fist weapons and daggers.
Resource systems would be a little bit tricky. Can't reuse combo points for another leather wearer, and don't want to have focus for another class that has hunter in its name. For monks at least it would depend on the source of their power. If we've got some sort of holy monk, like we see in Scarlet Monastery, then some derivation of holy power might work. If we've got drunken master type monks then maybe a battle intoxication or rage derivation might work. Demon hunters might have some sort of sight they could employ. Insight into the enemy that lets you use more abilities, but done like DK runes and rune power instead of rogue/cat combo points?
Anyway I'm voting for Demon Hunter as the next new class. That would let the focus shift back to the Burning Legion as bad guys. It's time for Kil'jaeden to make a reappearance. The Burning Legion has had time to lick their collective wounds and should be ready to go on the offensive against Azeroth again.
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