Category Archives: World of Warcraft

Shutting the door behind you

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There’s an expression in English which is basically when you’ve got to the top, rather than holding out a hand helping others up as you were helped, you shut the door behind you so you’re the last one that can get there. On the eu forums there’s a nearly 200 page thread and WoWInsider got in on the act as well. The topic? The age old argument of casual vs hardcore. Now I’ve covered this a bit before and said something similar to what the indomitable Matt Rossi said. We’re all different, and with a large player base we’re as different as can be. There is no one universal truth, everybody has their own truth influenced by their experiences, and so we’re all right and we’re all wrong.

However, if I was just going to rehash the ‘please can we all just get along’ this would be a very short post.

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The Direbrew Dilemma

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For the last three days, since September 25th became the day, players have been speculating on what would happen to Brewfest. Well, last night the blues posted their answer which was that it was going to be upgraded for level 90. Now Brewfest starts on the 20th so Coren Direbew would be inaccessible for five days, it ends on the 5th giving players 10 days to kill him. The catch is you have to be level 89 in order to queue for him, meaning those 10 days aren’t kill opportunities but levelling time. As blizz have stated that they want people to stop and smell the roses, and won’t allow flying until level 90 to better facilitate this, there was predictable outrage at this mixed message.

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May we live in interesting times

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A few days ago I posted my new cata bucket list. I posted it a day after I’d written it and the day after that I’d done what I could of it. The rng items and the argent tournament obviously take time and are a daily errand so not those. That left me wondering ‘what now?’ which is precisely what I was thinking when I wrote that list. Now one of my flaws is that I’m a tad impulsive and I’m not terribly patient. Run before you walk syndrome if you want to call it something.

The two months between now and Mists, and my need for a goal, led to me pushing ahead with a plan that I wasn’t supposed to enact till Mists.

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New Cataclysm Bucket List

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About six weeks ago I posted my cata bucket list. I also included my general warcraft bucket list under the ‘one day but not today’ heading. As those were very general and all encompassing goals which will take a long time, if ever, to complete. However, I’ve finished my cata bucket list which has made me wonder “what now?”. With no indication of when Mists is likely to be released I’m facing, at the minimum, a couple of months until then. So it’s time for a new bucket list, or an expanded one anyway.

Hopefully in two months time I won’t be having to post another bucket list, as Mists will soon be on the horizon.

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Gear: What is it good for?

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The Grumpy Elf wrote a post the other day Is Gear the Great Motivator? which really got me thinking. I’d had a conversation the night before with a friend, guildie and often fellow raider. He was saying that if Mists wasn’t released soon then he’d quit the game and wouldn’t come back. He said there was nothing to do, that all he was interested in was kitting out his character in the best gear he could, that the only better gear he could get was from heroic raids which he didn’t have the opportunity to run, so he was done.

People play for different reasons, this guy plays for gear, I personally can’t do that. I think that there’s a lot left to do in the game but he said he wasn’t interested in any of the content I listed. He’s all about the gear and once he’s got it (or as much as he’s able) then he’s completed the game until they bring out another tier of content.

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A Single World: Good or Bad?

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This is Blog Azeroth’s shared topic for this week and the first shared topic I’ve participated in. Technology has moved on a lot since Warcraft’s debut in 2004. Realms or servers were necessary then as there wasn’t another way to handle the population, or if there was it wasn’t a feasible option back then.

It’s something that I don’t really appreciate most of the time. I was 14 in 2004 and so it seems like only a couple of years ago to me, it was high school and that’s very recent, but it’s not. 2004 was eight years ago, nearly a decade, and in technology terms that might as well be hundred years with how fast things advance now. Did I even have broadband in 2004? I don’t remember as it seems impossible that I haven’t always had it.

So if it isn’t technology that is holding back the single world what is?

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Beauty of the World

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When they announced that you couldn’t fly in Pandaria until level 90 I wasn’t best pleased. I remembered how annoying it was in Outland when you had to wait until 60. Even on my very first character, who had never flown before, I was counting down the bubbles until I could fly. I have a loathing for Hellfire that is quite unreasonable. However, that attitude is completely unreasonable. I am thoroughly disgusted with myself for it. No flying is the best decision they could have made.

I wrote a post the other day about Warcraft and difficulty. I think some of the same arguments apply to flying and the ease it represents. I didn’t say this in that post but sometimes we can’t and shouldn’t have what we want. Some people think that should apply to raiding in that it’s ok if most people can’t raid as it’ll just inspire them to get better. I don’t agree with that, as I think that people are how they are, and they shouldn’t be forced to be something else just to get to play the game. Raiding should be accessible to a certain extent, much like it is already but people just need to change how they view it. Let the elite 1% or whatever batter down hard modes when they’re current. Let the rest of us mere mortals kill normal if we want to group up with a guild and work towards that goal. Let everyone else kill it on raid finder to see the conclusion of the story who don’t have the time or the inclination to be able to join a regularly scheduled group. Let everyone be happy with the level that they play and accept that even if they strive for more that it might be out of reach. I’ll never clear hard mode when it’s current as I don’t play like that and I don’t want too.

This applies to flying in a way. We wanted flying and we got it but did we know what we got? Did we realise what we gave up for it? I love flying and I never want to see it go. However, I’m not convinced that I always like it for the right reasons. I also think that we have the best of both worlds by restricting flying to level cap.

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Warcraft and difficulty

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This is an endless debate and the problem is no-one is wrong and no-one is right. It’s about how you feel and no-one can, or should, tell you that what you feel is wrong. If you think the game is too hard then it’s true, if you think it’s too easy then that’s also true. Whatever, someone thinks is their own personal truth. It also doesn’t matter why they think that, after all people’s views are usually shaped by circumstance and experience. The problem is some people are very vocal and this is a debate that the community as a whole is quite passionate about. It’s easy to feel ‘got at’ if you don’t agree with the game is so easy people, it’s easy to feel disgruntled and like no-one cares if you do think it’s easy. Everybody is right and everybody is wrong and that’s the true problem.

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Cata to Mists Beta – Initial Class Impressions (Part One)

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I mentioned in the previous post “What are you playing in Mists?” about the changes in classes between expansions. I have one of every class on live, not all at max level, but I have a feeling for how most of them play. I haven’t played all specs of course therefore not all of these will mention differences. If I’ve not played it on live I won’t know what the differences are. However, some classes have changed a lot so even though I loathe them on live they look like they could be a firm favourite in Mists.

It’s all about how they feel and I say how they feel because I’m not one of the super smart theory crafters. I don’t know whether changes are good or bad in terms of the numbers, I just know how the class feels to play. So this is about how I think the classes feel. Might be light on details, this is not a class guide for Mists, this is just a what I like and what I don’t I guess. I’m not including the healing specs as unless you level by dungeons they don’t come into play until the end game. Even if you do level using dungeons most people quest a little which requires an offensive spec, that’s what I’m covering here.

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