Category Archives: thoughts

screenshots, thoughts

Do You Min/Max Your Fantasy Races?

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Discussion of racials and their effect on PvP is all the rage right now if MMO-Champion is any indication.  This brings me to my topic of the day: when you roll up your fantastical fictional race (or normal human, if you swing that way), do you take things like racials into consideration?

Because I don’t.  Not in the slightest.

In World of Warcraft, I tend to be drawn to races that I like for various personal reasons.  My love for gnomes and goblins comes from my love of technology, robots, and SCIENCE! in general.  My love for the tauren is because Mulgore reminds me of where I live, and the way they exist in harmony with their homeland is very appealing to me.  And blood elves, well… let’s face it, they’ve got the best lore in the entire Warcraft universe.  I’ve felt that way basically since Kael’thas become a major player in WC III: The Frozen Throne.

Oh, also, blood elves are pretty.

The prettiest, in fact.

Especially the guys.

CLbcPDNVEAASL9v.jpg largeSo yeah.  Orc hunters may min/max out at a slightly higher DPS but if there’s no /flourish then there’s no deal, to be honest!

What about you guys?

classes, thoughts

What If… There Was A New Class That Was “Almost” Hunters?

We’re getting a new expansion announcement in a week and, of course, the rumors are flying.  One rumor that I’ve seen in more than one place is the idea of a new class that uses ranged weapons but is not a hunter.  Demon hunter?  Ranger?  Scout?  Who knows?

Let’s talk about this idea, though.  A non-hunter hunter.  What would that be like?  I imagine they probably wouldn’t have pets, and I feel like a new ranged weapon class would focus more on magic than on physical damage to further differentiate themselves.  Maybe a sort of… gun-wielding spell slinger.  That sounds pretty cool, right?

Even more interesting would be if this class came with a tank or healing spec (or both).  Blizzard has not introduced a pure DPS class since Vanilla and I honestly I don’t see them introducing another one since DPS queue times for things like LFR are currently through the roof.  Healing with a gun?  Tanking with a gun?

spock_fascinatingHow do YOU GUYS think something like this would play out?

P.S. Kind of unrelated but I wrote a Warcraft fanfic and then tossed it on AO3.  If you want to read about elves doing elf things, check it out.

karazhan, lore, meta-wow, news, thoughts

Apparently Blizzard Trademarked a New Thing. Let’s Take a Look.

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DISCLAIMER: This could all be fake.  But it looks real to me so for now let’s roll with it.  I can’t think of anything else to write about today anyway.

So yeah, apparently Blizzard trademarked a new thing.  It’s called “Council of Glades” and it’s being trademarked as computer game software, i.e. not a book.

The million dollar question relevant to WoW players is, of course, is it Warcraft related?  My money is on yes, and here’s why:

  • The Council of Tirisfal is a thing in lore.  Tirisfal Glades is a thing in game.  Thus, Council of Glades.
  • StarCraft 2 is already getting its (final, I think) expansion.
  • It doesn’t really sound Diablo related to me.  Councils exist, but I’m not so sure about glades.   But who knows, I guess?

This brings us to four possibilities: A WoW expansion, a Hearthstone expansion, something involving HotS, or something entirely new.  Hearthstone just got a new thing and I don’t really see Blizzard doing anything completely new with the Warcraft universe, since Hearthstone is still pretty young.  It might be HotS, but that’s not nearly as exciting as wild speculation.  (Although I would sell a kidney for a Medivh hero.)

So, let’s see here:

  • Medivh was (is?) in the Council of Tirisfal
  • Medivh is connected to Khadgar
  • We were just reintroduced to Khadgar
  • It’s about time for a WoW expac announcement
  • “Council of Glades”

…

…….

20110218040846KHADGAR/MEDIVH THEMED EXPANSION WITH KARAZHAN INVOLVED.

MAKE IT HAPPEN, BLIZZARD!

thoughts

Tanaan Jungle Basically Did Dailies the Right Way

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I’m not a huge fan of trillions of dailies which is probably why I only played MoP for like two months.  I mean, yeah, we all did them back on the Isle of Quel’danas in TBC and whatever and it was all well and good.  But that was then and this is now.  And now I’ve definitely had my dailies fix for a lifetime.

Actual picture of my mind when I got to level 90 in MoP and there were dailies everywhere.
Actual picture of the inside of my mind when I got to level 90 in MoP and there were dailies everywhere.

But I really like how WoD has done it.  You only get a couple!  And they’re like… “freeform” so can improvise on them a little!  You know, pair this up with that today, and pair that up with this tomorrow, and so on.

I dig it.  I dig it a lot.  The one thing I do wish that Blizzard included was more of a story, the way they did with the Dominance Offensive in MoP.  I mean, I guess there’s kind of a story there but I don’t think it was pulled off as well.  And besides, WoD’s story isn’t super engaging to me anyway (it’s one of the few aspects of this expansion that I find truly lackluster.)

Anyways, I realize that this expansion hasn’t exactly had a lot of fans but I hope that Blizzard doesn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to future expansions!

What are your thoughts on the dailies this time around?

thoughts

Why I Feel Disconnected From Most Other WoW Players

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So today I hopped over to MMO-Champion to see if there was anything going on and it turns out there’s a poll on the front page asking if you’d do Timewalking even if there was no reward.  My first thought was, “Pffft, of course I would.  Wouldn’t everyone?”  So I clicked on the Yes button aaaand guess what: most people actually don’t agree with me.

pollAnd for a minute I felt absolutely flabbergasted.  Only 15.96% of players love this stuff as much as I do?  Really?  How bizarre! I mean, I know that not everyone finds the same stuff fun, but dang.

After some thought, I realized that I’m probably coming at this from a different perspective than most other players.  To me, WoW is not really a social game.  Yes, I know, it’s an MMO.  But as Bhagpuss recently very eloquently stated, it’s sort of like going to a cafe.  Other people may be at the cafe to hang out with friends or socialize.  Me, I’m there to eat.  The other people are just atmosphere.

Back in TBC and WotLK I was in big guilds and I raided and stuff.  It was great fun and I looked back on it fondly.  But the social game eventually grew thin, and I went dark.

Now I’m here for fun.  I do things in game not because they’re an obligation to my guild, but because I want to do them.  This is a playstyle that fits my life very well and I like it a lot.  I often see people decrying the state of the game or the expansion, and honestly if I felt the same as they did I would have bounced to another game long ago.  But presumably for these other people, the game is still, ultimately, social.

So!  Gaming out of obligation.  It’s not something I do anymore.  I used to do it, and it was fun, but those days are gone.  There’s nothing bad about playing that way, of course, but I prefer my current style.  And that, I think, is probably why I feel so disconnected from many other players.

But that’s okay.  Whatever makes me happy, I’m gonna go with it. 🙂

battlegrounds, pvp, thoughts

Mercenary Mode is a Band-Aid (But It’s a Good Band-Aid)

So, the big news!  Remember not so long ago when I was lamenting the faction imbalance in PvP lately?  Well have no fear, Mercenary Mode is here, which lets you queue up for the opposite faction in order to alleviate pesky things like queue times.

Although this doesn’t address whatever the core, underlying problems are– and I suspect racials have to do with a lot of it– I think this will probably do a decent enough job at helping to treat the symptoms, at least.  I don’t really suspect us Hordies will be able to try the faction hop anytime soon, since it’s the Alliance who has most of the queue problems, but hey, maybe with some Alliance on our side we can actually win AV now?  Maybe?  Like, just once a week?

Honestly my biggest question right now has to do with battleground chat.  It’s always been a toxic place; one that I put up with, rather than leave, just because it’s nice to be able to call out “incs” and be able to actually talk tactics on the rare occasions that I’m not making liberal use of the ignore feature.  Presumably now you will be able to communicate with the opposing faction and I foresee a lot of dumb playground fights and namecalling from both sides.

You know who else forsees? ARCHMAGE TIMEAR!
You know who else forsees? ARCHMAGE TIMEAR!

Ah well.  More people to sacrifice to Ignore for the Ignore God, I suppose.

The REAL question now becomes “Is Ashran fixable?”  (Probably not)

i love hunters, thoughts

“Starting From Scratch”

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So Blizzard released a poll asking what class you’d make if you were starting completely from scratch.

blizzard poll…seriously did you guys think I was going to say anything else?

My alts are really fun though, as I mentioned in my last post.  My paladin got some sort of execute and it’s just absurd how fast things die.  But if I were going to start from scratch and make a new main, there’s only one class for me.

I mean, clearly.

If I was forced to pick a different class, I’m honestly not sure what I’d say.  Possibly druid?  But right now I’m kind of hugely in love with my mage and spoiled by teleport so maybe that.

How about you guys?

alts, thoughts

Alt Leveling Right Now Is the Best It’s Ever Been In This Game

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That’s a bold statement, perhaps, but it’s true.  I have been playing this game for almost a decade and I have never had this much fun leveling up new characters.  I’m not sure what it is, exactly.  I think it’s a combination of both the new Heirloom Tab and how easy it is to use, and how streamlined classes feel right now.  It feels like every class I touch is just an absolute blast.

cayrel profileI’m just having

glofish profilea great deal of fun right now

quileus profileplaying my alts

and yeah.  I highly recommend it.  Leveling is smooth, quick (but not too quick– then again, I’m only in about half heirlooms) and fun.

Regardless of what you may think about this expansion’s endgame, I can’t complain about this expansion for alts.  This is the best it’s ever been!

battlegrounds, pvp, thoughts

This Is Why I Don’t PvP Anymore

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So before I start on this, general disclaimer that I might not be getting the full picture, that this relies on third party graphs and datamining, and so forth.  But I feel like this is fairly accurate, based on my own experiences and what I’ve heard from others.

Basically I’ve discovered a nifty website that tracks battleground statistics and to no one’s great surprise (and especially not mine), us Hordies are getting demolished in basically every way.  Especially in my dear Alterac Valley.

Ouch
Ouch

Now I used to do quite a few battlegrounds, but I haven’t done any in a while.  Why?  Well, it’s simple: constantly losing isn’t fun.  Constantly losing isn’t fun for anybody, which is probably why the Alliance is now running into battleground queue problems.  Because I’d guess a lot of players are like me and stopped trying once it became clear that things weren’t improving.

So what can be done to fix this?  Well, I’m no serious PvPer so I’m not going to sit here and theorize on this when I’m sure others can do it better.  But it certainly does need fixing!  Until then I’m just gonna do other stuff and dream of Alterac Valleys in days gone by.

 

thoughts

Has anyone even used that free level 90 boost yet?

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I still have my level 90 boost, sitting there on my log-in screen, taunting me.  I almost wish I could hide it because I have a feeling it’s going to be there forever.

I mean, leveling goes so fast these days (the other day I leveled my baby paladin from, like… 32 to 36 in about an hour and fifteen minutes, and she’s not even in full heirlooms) and I like the idea of slowly learning about your skills and abilities over the course of several levels.  I recall using a couple of level 80 boosts back in the day (when they came with recruit a friend) and I basically never touched those characters again because I had no idea what I was doing.

I guess I could use it on (yet another) hunter, because then I would already know what I was doing.  But… but… I like leveling hunters!  That’s why I have ten million of them!

So yeah.  Has anyone else used their free boost yet?  What did you use it on?