I feel as though I ought to say SOMETHING about the announcement on Mists of Pandaria, particularly because so many people are so negative about it. It was hard to think of what to say, though. So, I decided to make a pros and cons list.
Pros:
New continent looks exquisite--like something from a Chinese brush painting
New sanctuary city COULD be as awesome as Dalaran
Bringing back the mystery and excitement of exploring a whole new land
This expansion seems focused on fun, and you know what? I like fun.
Account-wide pets (My druid will have all of my mage's very expensive and/or Horde pets? YEAH!)
New talent system actually looks interesting
Melee healing could be fun
Cons:
Pandas
Half the new stuff seems stolen from other games
No signs, as of yet, of interesting lore developments
It's not the Emerald Dream
As you can see, my pros are definitely outweighing my cons here, so you can call me cautiously optimistic. I don't know how all this will play out, but I'm hoping for the best. Sorry if you wanted a rant--you won't get one from me!
Monday, October 24, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
The Old, Weird Azeroth*
Understand this, to begin with. I'm not one of those people who thinks Vanilla WoW was "way better" because you had to find forty people to go raid Molten Core or whisper random priests and druids to find heals for Scholomance. Hell, I wasn't even playing back in those days (though I do remember that my boomkin during BC still got a LOT of whispers to heal Ramparts).
But in fact, despite the bread and circuses we've been given since, there are some things I miss about Vanilla, and it boils down to the little hidden surprises that used to be tucked throughout the world. The Vendor-Trons in Desolace. Sully Balloo's letter (how DARE they take that out?). A Jubling's Tiny Home. Goldthorn Tea in Razorfen Downs. The mailboxes in Stratholme. The sprite darter quest for Alliance. Most of these things are gone or going, and I have to admit that it simply guts me.
Because Azeroth used to be a difficult place to navigate, with the best stuff hidden, needing endless searching and a lot of travel time to get it. In BC, however, the game changed. Outland didn't have VERY many surprises, it had grinds. And that became the philosophy of game designers. It shouldn't be hard to find the good stuff, it should just take weeks of dailies and dungeons to get it. Because that's what keeps people coming back, right? Right?
For my money, this philosophy is absolutely wrong. Oh, I'm as daily-addicted as the next player, and I'll keep grinding for that brass ring. But searching on Wowhead for that one hidden quest or item used to keep me occupied and engaged far better. Things felt special then. You might do a special quest or get to a difficult dungeon with friends and remember it forever.
So I'd like to suggest one exercise in nostalgia this week, since the old Darkmoon Faire is in town, possibly for the last time ever. Go to the Grim Guzzler (for 85s, just queue for Coren Direbrew and then hang around after). Buy about three Dark Iron Ale Mugs. Go to the Darkmoon Faire and find Morja. She'll tell you about her missing Jubjub. Throw down an ale mug (two COULD be required, but usually not). Then give her the last ale mug, and in return you'll get a very special egg.
I'm not saying, mind, that the Jubling is going away forever. I'm sure it'll be found in some way at the new Darkmoon Faire. But...this quest is the last of a dying breed. Let's give it the honor it deserves.
On a lighter note, have you discovered any surprises in new Azeroth? Please share them with me!
*500 bonus points to whoever knows the source of my title
But in fact, despite the bread and circuses we've been given since, there are some things I miss about Vanilla, and it boils down to the little hidden surprises that used to be tucked throughout the world. The Vendor-Trons in Desolace. Sully Balloo's letter (how DARE they take that out?). A Jubling's Tiny Home. Goldthorn Tea in Razorfen Downs. The mailboxes in Stratholme. The sprite darter quest for Alliance. Most of these things are gone or going, and I have to admit that it simply guts me.
Because Azeroth used to be a difficult place to navigate, with the best stuff hidden, needing endless searching and a lot of travel time to get it. In BC, however, the game changed. Outland didn't have VERY many surprises, it had grinds. And that became the philosophy of game designers. It shouldn't be hard to find the good stuff, it should just take weeks of dailies and dungeons to get it. Because that's what keeps people coming back, right? Right?
For my money, this philosophy is absolutely wrong. Oh, I'm as daily-addicted as the next player, and I'll keep grinding for that brass ring. But searching on Wowhead for that one hidden quest or item used to keep me occupied and engaged far better. Things felt special then. You might do a special quest or get to a difficult dungeon with friends and remember it forever.
So I'd like to suggest one exercise in nostalgia this week, since the old Darkmoon Faire is in town, possibly for the last time ever. Go to the Grim Guzzler (for 85s, just queue for Coren Direbrew and then hang around after). Buy about three Dark Iron Ale Mugs. Go to the Darkmoon Faire and find Morja. She'll tell you about her missing Jubjub. Throw down an ale mug (two COULD be required, but usually not). Then give her the last ale mug, and in return you'll get a very special egg.
I'm not saying, mind, that the Jubling is going away forever. I'm sure it'll be found in some way at the new Darkmoon Faire. But...this quest is the last of a dying breed. Let's give it the honor it deserves.
On a lighter note, have you discovered any surprises in new Azeroth? Please share them with me!
*500 bonus points to whoever knows the source of my title
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Firelands Dailies!
Many of us are now about halfway through the Firelands dailies, so this seemed a good time to pause and reflect on the big question--are the rewards worth the endless grind?
Well, first off, you get some rewards without endless grinding. Once you unlock the Molten Front dailies, you can meet up with Zen'vorka, who sells some nice 365 items, including, for casters, the Nightweaver's Amulet, which is a good upgrade from the Yellow Smoke Pendant.
But then we get into unlocking vendors, which takes, as many sites have noted, takes a good month. If gearing up is your primary focus, you want to do the Additional Armaments quest first to unlock Demok Bloombeard.
Demok sells you some pretty nice items, including some beautiful caster gear. Elemental (and resto) shaman will want to pick up the Fiery Treads. For the moonkin among us, there is the Fireplume Girdle. And, for your favorite clothie, there are the Widow's Clutches. As the last have neither spirit nor hit, they're a viable option for any class that wears cloth.
Now, if you're very lucky, Demok will also sell you some useful professional recipes. If you happen to be a tailor or leather worker, however, you'll need to do Filling the Moonwell to unlock access to Ayla Shadowstorm. She'll offer some other caster goodies, including a trinket and an off-hand. The Moonwell Chalice is going to be particularly good for those classes that enjoy mastery most, like arcane mages. And the Globe of Moonlight is another item without either spirit or hit, and so may need reforging for your class.
Still aching for more? I thought so! Varlan Highbough will sell you the Spirit Fragment Band...once you unlock HIM. Please note that, despite its name? No spirit here! Besides, there's a better reason to finish unlocking the vendors (even better than the mini-pets!), and that is the Flameward Hippogryph. This is possibly the coolest looking hippogryph in the game and, by not being a drake, will set you apart from a lot of other players. Mind, I'll still probably be rocking my Cenarion War Hippogryph, but it'll be nice to have another option.
In conclusion...here there be grinding, but the rewards, for those who are serious about gearing up, are certainly worthwhile. And, as with all dailies, you're raking in the gold the whole time!
Well, first off, you get some rewards without endless grinding. Once you unlock the Molten Front dailies, you can meet up with Zen'vorka, who sells some nice 365 items, including, for casters, the Nightweaver's Amulet, which is a good upgrade from the Yellow Smoke Pendant.
But then we get into unlocking vendors, which takes, as many sites have noted, takes a good month. If gearing up is your primary focus, you want to do the Additional Armaments quest first to unlock Demok Bloombeard.
Demok sells you some pretty nice items, including some beautiful caster gear. Elemental (and resto) shaman will want to pick up the Fiery Treads. For the moonkin among us, there is the Fireplume Girdle. And, for your favorite clothie, there are the Widow's Clutches. As the last have neither spirit nor hit, they're a viable option for any class that wears cloth.
Now, if you're very lucky, Demok will also sell you some useful professional recipes. If you happen to be a tailor or leather worker, however, you'll need to do Filling the Moonwell to unlock access to Ayla Shadowstorm. She'll offer some other caster goodies, including a trinket and an off-hand. The Moonwell Chalice is going to be particularly good for those classes that enjoy mastery most, like arcane mages. And the Globe of Moonlight is another item without either spirit or hit, and so may need reforging for your class.
Still aching for more? I thought so! Varlan Highbough will sell you the Spirit Fragment Band...once you unlock HIM. Please note that, despite its name? No spirit here! Besides, there's a better reason to finish unlocking the vendors (even better than the mini-pets!), and that is the Flameward Hippogryph. This is possibly the coolest looking hippogryph in the game and, by not being a drake, will set you apart from a lot of other players. Mind, I'll still probably be rocking my Cenarion War Hippogryph, but it'll be nice to have another option.
In conclusion...here there be grinding, but the rewards, for those who are serious about gearing up, are certainly worthwhile. And, as with all dailies, you're raking in the gold the whole time!
Monday, June 20, 2011
The Hit Dilemma
Hi, all. Sorry for my absence. There was a break from WoW, and there was moving, etc. etc.
Anyway, today I'd like to talk about hit. Most especially hit and the arcane mage. Now, understand, I'm not one of those namby-pamby folks who whines about stacking hit. I like stacking hit. To a point. But I wonder if Blizzard hasn't gone a little far in this expansion.
Just to reach hit cap, my mage has three hit gems (plus some other mixed hit/something else gems), a Wrath hit enchant on her gloves (because there is no Cata glove hit enchant), the Stump of Time, and every single item that didn't come with hit reforged to add hit. And that still leaves me with a .03 miss chance when I'm in all my best gear unless I eat some hit food.
Is it just me, or does this seem a little silly? Or, not so much silly as really narrowing down choices for enchanting and gemming? And, if mages are going to be required to put on gobs of hit, why do the Firelord's Robes have no hit on them?!
All this is a bit beyond me. I keep telling myself that by the time we're stumbling through the Firelands raids, hit will rain from the sky and no longer be a concern, but I'm not so sure, honestly.
Next up: Firelands dailies--worth it or not?
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Caster Consumables
My guild is finally heading into "real" (i.e. not Baradin Hold) raiding this weekend, so I've been going through my little checklist to make sure my mage is ready. After all, no one wants to be the droopy drawers going, "Hey, does someone have a flask?"
Flask of the Draconic Mind is your first purchase.
For potions, Volcanic Potion is far and away your best choice. The sign of someone committed to progression is someone who knows when to toss back a potion, so make sure you're that person!
Now, for food, there are a few interesting choices. Severed Sagefish Head is the non-controversial one (you can also use a Fortune Cookie to provide you with the same stats). Any caster can use more intellect--it will always be beneficial.
I think, however, that for some classes, the Basilisk Liverdog is an equally good choice. I would specifically put arcane mages into that category, for one. And, honestly, for now, I would probably recommend it for a demonology warlock.
Another option, depending on your spec, is plain old Lavascale Minestrone. An elemental shaman might be very wise in choosing this.
Finally, there's Baked Rockfish. This one goes cheap, so it may be attractive to many, but I don't recommend it for most. If you're a fire mage, obviously, this is tasty.
Flask of the Draconic Mind is your first purchase.
For potions, Volcanic Potion is far and away your best choice. The sign of someone committed to progression is someone who knows when to toss back a potion, so make sure you're that person!
Now, for food, there are a few interesting choices. Severed Sagefish Head is the non-controversial one (you can also use a Fortune Cookie to provide you with the same stats). Any caster can use more intellect--it will always be beneficial.
I think, however, that for some classes, the Basilisk Liverdog is an equally good choice. I would specifically put arcane mages into that category, for one. And, honestly, for now, I would probably recommend it for a demonology warlock.
Another option, depending on your spec, is plain old Lavascale Minestrone. An elemental shaman might be very wise in choosing this.
Finally, there's Baked Rockfish. This one goes cheap, so it may be attractive to many, but I don't recommend it for most. If you're a fire mage, obviously, this is tasty.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Happy Lunar Festival!
I love Lunar Festival. It's one of my favorite in-game holidays, after Midsummer Fire Festival. Why? In part because of the aesthetic, which manages to be elegant and appealing, but mainly because of the lore.
Lunar Festival is a time that we celebrate the victory of the elder races in the War of the Ancients. Omen was once a demigod blessed by Elune, but the injuries he sustained during the War of the Ancients caused him to fall prey to corruption. Thus he sleeps fitfully beneath Lake Elun'ara, only to awaken every year and spread chaos and destruction.
I think this holiday offers a wonderful opportunity for roleplayers, particularly Kaldorei roleplayers, to flesh out their relationship with that monumental event and do some work establishing where their character belongs in the Warcraft canon.
And, of course, let's not forget the opportunities for dress-up! Kirina did a wonderful post some time ago about Lunar Festival outfits, though you'll see that my personal favorite, as pictured above, is the tailored festival dress. This dress is a great item for bank alts too, so now's the season to pick one up if you don't already have one.
But I was perplexed about one thing for my Lunar Festival frolicking. What pet to have out? Most holidays have a pet closely associated with them, but this one doesn't. I think there are three good options here. If you're lucky enough to have a Spirit of Competition, now's the time to show it off! I also think that the Enchanted Lantern (or Magic Lamp, depending on faction) is a nice choice that fits the look of this holiday beautifully. And finally, 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit in the Chinese Zodiac, so this seems like a fun and apropos time to pull out the Spring Rabbit.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Chore Time or Fun Time?
I was talking with a friend this evening about why he had recently strayed away from WoW a bit. He said he felt like the game felt like a commitment of large time chunks. When I pointed out that doing Tol Barad dailies only took half an hour tops, he agreed, but said that it just felt like a chore.
I'm relaying this conversation because I think my friend expressed something that many of us may be feeling at this point. I mentioned a post or two back that I felt like my play time was very linear and structured right now—-heroics, dailies, crafting, etc.
So what contributes to this, and what can we do to mix it up and remind ourselves that this game is for fun? I think one of the reasons this feeling has set in now, for both me and my friend, is that goals are very clear at this point in the game. There is good gear, and we want it. In order to get it, we have to grind rep and valor points.
This brings up the contrast between an open, sandbox style of play, which I feel allows WoW players to be at their most creative and happy, and a completely linear, goal-driven style of play. Now, I'm not saying goals are bad. Goals are what keep us in this game. But being able to imagine different kinds of goals keeps the play fresh and new for us.
So how can we bring back that element of play (I know I'm using that word a lot, and I'm doing so intentionally, informed by some interesting talks I've heard on the theoretical aspects of play) to a game that sometimes feels like Dungeons and Dailies, as some call it?
The first thing I think we need to do is to remember that, at some point, we will probably have all the gear we need to be successful. That doesn't mean you'll get tier gear without setting foot in a raid anytime soon, but it does mean that if you're a raider, there is gear for you. If you're a low-key badge-grinder, there will be more gear for you as patches drop. Heck, if you just want to get some blues on, it will happen. My point is that, sooner than we think, we're going to be geared up to the point appropriate to our playstyle, whatever that may be. There's a queer sense of desperation that players have as they go from being ridiculously undergeared to running around in blues, but I think we need to embrace this as a moment of opportunity. You get to be excited about gear drops again! Don't squander that in these first few weeks.
So, once we've quashed the demons that drive many of us, what then? The answer will be different for many of you, but I do have a few suggestions. My first is banal: roll an alt. Being on an alt frees you up from the “responsibilities” of your main. Maybe you'll like to try out a new class, or maybe just work on perfecting one that you've played with before. Maybe you want to tank Stockades so you can let that jerk warlock who keeps running ahead die—-go for it!
But maybe you've already done that, and it's lost its lustre. What then? Well, who says all this newfound power you have has to be expended on beating up Argaloth? Go farm for your white hawkstrider or your time-lost figurine or whatever silly thing you want.
You know what I think the best answer is, though? Turn to your friends. Yeah, those guys. Grab a few of your favorite people, hop on vent, and run Sarth 3 drakes, or get your roleplay on, or do something silly like three-manning a Wrath dungeon with the shadow priest healing and the ret pally tanking. Before long, the game will feel like fun again because you'll be playing it the way it's intended. As an mmorpg whose only limits are the ones you create for yourself.
I'm relaying this conversation because I think my friend expressed something that many of us may be feeling at this point. I mentioned a post or two back that I felt like my play time was very linear and structured right now—-heroics, dailies, crafting, etc.
So what contributes to this, and what can we do to mix it up and remind ourselves that this game is for fun? I think one of the reasons this feeling has set in now, for both me and my friend, is that goals are very clear at this point in the game. There is good gear, and we want it. In order to get it, we have to grind rep and valor points.
This brings up the contrast between an open, sandbox style of play, which I feel allows WoW players to be at their most creative and happy, and a completely linear, goal-driven style of play. Now, I'm not saying goals are bad. Goals are what keep us in this game. But being able to imagine different kinds of goals keeps the play fresh and new for us.
So how can we bring back that element of play (I know I'm using that word a lot, and I'm doing so intentionally, informed by some interesting talks I've heard on the theoretical aspects of play) to a game that sometimes feels like Dungeons and Dailies, as some call it?
The first thing I think we need to do is to remember that, at some point, we will probably have all the gear we need to be successful. That doesn't mean you'll get tier gear without setting foot in a raid anytime soon, but it does mean that if you're a raider, there is gear for you. If you're a low-key badge-grinder, there will be more gear for you as patches drop. Heck, if you just want to get some blues on, it will happen. My point is that, sooner than we think, we're going to be geared up to the point appropriate to our playstyle, whatever that may be. There's a queer sense of desperation that players have as they go from being ridiculously undergeared to running around in blues, but I think we need to embrace this as a moment of opportunity. You get to be excited about gear drops again! Don't squander that in these first few weeks.
So, once we've quashed the demons that drive many of us, what then? The answer will be different for many of you, but I do have a few suggestions. My first is banal: roll an alt. Being on an alt frees you up from the “responsibilities” of your main. Maybe you'll like to try out a new class, or maybe just work on perfecting one that you've played with before. Maybe you want to tank Stockades so you can let that jerk warlock who keeps running ahead die—-go for it!
But maybe you've already done that, and it's lost its lustre. What then? Well, who says all this newfound power you have has to be expended on beating up Argaloth? Go farm for your white hawkstrider or your time-lost figurine or whatever silly thing you want.
You know what I think the best answer is, though? Turn to your friends. Yeah, those guys. Grab a few of your favorite people, hop on vent, and run Sarth 3 drakes, or get your roleplay on, or do something silly like three-manning a Wrath dungeon with the shadow priest healing and the ret pally tanking. Before long, the game will feel like fun again because you'll be playing it the way it's intended. As an mmorpg whose only limits are the ones you create for yourself.
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