The Last Straw – What it’ll be

…and it hasn’t happened yet.  And, given the post below from a blue, it might not happen with Patch 3.2.

What am I talking about?  Faction changes, but not anarchy.

 

Faction Change Service Update – July 1, 2009, 11:26 am

Q. Will we be able to switch between the races on our own faction?
A.. No. Players will only be able to switch to a race of the opposite faction. Q. Will I be able to choose the race on the opposite faction that I want to change to?
A.. Yes, but you will only be able to switch to a race that has your class type available to it. So if you play a human paladin, you’d only be able to change to a blood elf paladin.

Q.How much will it cost?
A.. We do not have further information on this at this point in time.

Q.Will I be able to switch back to my original faction but a different race?
A.. No. You will only be able to switch back to your originally chosen race.

Q.. How will the switch between reputation, gear, mounts, etc be handled?
A.. We’ll have more details for you at a later point in time, though we plan to keep these as close to a reflection of the other faction as much as possible.

Q.How often can you change your faction?
A..We do not have any information to share on this at this point in time, however we will have restrictions on the frequency by which players can change their faction.

Q. How will this affect the balance of Horde and Alliance on the realms?
A.. We are taking great care in how we implement this new service in order to maintain balance between the factions on the realms but do not have any further details to share.

That last straw I’m speaking of will be allowing Gnome Druids and Tauren Paladins.

I remember the “good old days” when Horde had Shamans and Alliance had Paladins.  I was one of those Shamans, and proud of it.   Now you can just grow a pair of tentacles and you too can be a Shaman.  Steal some incarnation of  The Light and you too can be a Paladin.  Alright, so they had balance issues in those “good old days,” and now everyone has access to everything and everyone is happy.  Sure they were.

The Last Straw will be when they, this is Blizzard I mean, allow willy nilly creation of  Tauren Paladins, Gnome Druids, Beavis and Buttheads, Michael Jackson Lookalikes, and Feenik Wizcharlies. 

It’s going to be like them saying:  “Ah, screw it.  Do what you want.  Roll and role whatever, play whatever, be whatever you want.”  Because that’d be just like saying: “We no longer care.  We’ve moved on.  Do what you want.”

This latest change is crazy.  But it looks like they’ve tempered it some.  It’s not suicide.

 Because when Blizzard finally decides to throw it’s own lore into the trashcan to please some griefers, because ruining the lore will be as good as ruining the game, it’ll be “Game Over.”

Teach a toon to fish

Give a toon a fish, and he’ll sell it as vendor trash.

Teach a toon to fish, well that’s a different story.

Both World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online offer fishing.

Mechanically, the operation is fairly similar in both games. 

In LotRO you click a button to cast.  (The button is where you’ve put your “hobby” ability, and fishing is a hobby.)  When you see that a fish has taken the bait, you click the same button to snag it and reel it in.  It’s a pretty good graphic.  There’s a string out to the bobber.  When it lands, it lands with a wet plop, and sinks a bit, with ripples.  Then it bobs to the surface, settles, the ripples are gone, and you wait.  You’ll actually see fish flicker in and out of the bobbers vicinity.  You’ll actually see a fish begin to nibble, and then yank the bobber underwater.  Your character reacts a little by bracing himself.  Once you see the ripples of the bobber being pulled under, or see yourself react by bracing, it’s time to hit the button again and reel it in.  Cast and reel in enough times and you’ll earn some skill ups in the hobby.  There’s also a limit to the number of skill ups you can earn in a day.  It seems to be 10.  At least the first two days I fished I got 10 and 10.

Warcraft is kind of the same.  You can have your fishing on a hotkey/button.  Clicking it casts your line, and you similarly watch a bobber.  When the bobber reacts with a splash, as it’s being pulled under, you click on the bobber, not the button you used to cast, to see if you’ve caught something.  The more skilled you are at fishing, the more casts it takes to level up to the next skill point.  But, if you’re dedicated, you can get a lot of skillups in day.

In LotRO it would appear you can cast your line anywhere.  You’re skill doesn’t matter when it comes to choosing where to cast your line.

Now in WoW, it used to matter.  If you weren’t skilled enough yet, you were limited to where you could fish.  Without any skill, you could not fish in Menethil Harbor, for example.  You had to earn your skill in Auberdine first, then you graduated to fishing in higher level areas.  Now, it seems the rules have changed.  You appear to be able to fish anywhere, regardless of your skill.  It might limit you to what you can catch, trash versus catch of the day, but you can at least fish for the fishing daily items at any skill level of fishing.

I don’t think LotRO offers anything of true practical use that could be caught with fishing.  You appear to be able to reel in the occasional trophy, to be stuffed and displayed in your house, but I don’t think they have food fish that get used in cooking.  Though cooking is a well developed craft ability in LotRO, it appears farming and gathering is the source of raw materials for the aspiring chef, and not hunting or fishing.  (Are they all vegans in Middle Earth?)  Because I think I’ve fished for long enough, I’ll get to that, to have fish up something edible if it existed.

In WoW, fishing is almost required to level up cooking.  And there’s some pretty good buff foods available to be made with fish.  And doing the fishing dailies garner you cash and sundries and the occasional blinged out fishing rod.  (I think everyone fishes with sticks in LotRO.)

We try to catch the fishing dailies in Dalaran every chance we get.  (As we did in Terrorkar Forest.)  They’re varied enough to keep us flying around the map, and I appreciate the opportunity to level up the skill and get something accomplished at the same time.

Now, just recently, for the on-going Summerfest in LotRO, we’ve been required to fish up a storm.  See, to get the Summerfest accomplishment, you had to do the following:  Visit the Hobbits and get the quest to stock their pond.  To stock their pond you need to catch fish from the towns of the Dwarves, Elves, and Men.  Once that is accomplished, and the Hobbit pond is stocked, phase II is available.  Each race wants to see how many fish you can catch in their pond in 20 minutes.  (10 minutes in the Hobbit pond for some reason.)  And you need to fish the full duration in each pond at least once to get the accomplishment.  (Plus, while you fish for them during this fest you catch special fish that are bartered for tokens you can use to purchase hats, cloaks, dresses, and various other items.)  The accomplishment earned the wife and I the title “Sunshine.”  I bartered my tokens for summer hats (straw with a smoking pipe stuck in it) and cloaks (spiffy red and gray rays with a sun in the center).   The wife and I did this with two characters each.  That’s a lot of time spent fishing!  (And those “fish here for 20 minutes” quests are dailies, in case you need more barter coins.  50 coins lets you trade in your common horse for a spiffy festival version.)

What prompted the post was the wife’s comment about it being curious that both games really wanted us fishing.

It’s a way to occupy yourself in the game.  There are rewards to be had as well.  Vanity items in LotRO and some fairly spiffy stuff in WoW too.  Pets, gear, and mounts even.

It’s kind of a game within the game, and definitly blunts the feeling that there’s a finishing point that must be reached.  Living in the worlds, rather than marching to a goal.

I’m conflicted. No, I’m in harmony.

Oh, come on.

Enough already.

Faction changes for a price now?  WoW.com linked to this post by a Blizzard Blue.

“… the basic idea is that players will be able to use the service to transform an existing character into a roughly equivalent character of the opposing faction on the same realm.”

Just wait.  They’ll be offering Middle Earth Hobbits, Stygian Rangers, Greenskin Choppas, and a whole slew of other classes and races to play with their *NEXT* announcement.

Say What?

Somebody, for the love of Azeroth, call 911 and get the paramedics over to Irvine now!  Somebody’s been partaking very heavily in the ’shrooms and they’ve got access to blue accounts and they’re posting the trippiest comments.

My own head is about to explode, so I can’t imagine what they’re going through now.  Get them some help before we’re all playing Second World of Warcraft Life.  (Wait, was that just a white rabbit?)

Meanwhile, let me get back to farming some money for my Templar’s new chocobo.  That’s going to be so cool.

P.S.  Oh, oh.  Wait!  While those ’shrooms are still instilling that mind expanding feeling, can you reconsider your decision, and go ahead and take that 2nd green proto-drake out of my (Msaker – Kirin Tor) inventory and depositing it in my wife’s (Droonda – Kirin Tor) inventory?  It would be real groovy of you if you could.  Kind of think it like I’m passing around Puff, the Magic Dragon, and how cool is that?  Thanks!  And, yo, peace out, man.

Patch 3.2 will play for you.

Coming on the heals of the announcement that Patch 3.2 will show quest objectives on the world map, we’ll be hearing in the next announcement that Blizzard sanctioned bots are going to be introduced.  Now that QuestHelper and Carbonite are relegated to the trashcans of countless desktops, replaced by an in-game feature duplicating them, players will also now be provided an in-game version of the glider bot.

In the interests of getting every player into Ulduar, one need merely log on and activate their characters “glide mode,” in effect auto-piloting through the content all the way to the end-game.  That’s right, not exactly pre-made level 80 characters, but close enough.

With Blizzard content programmed directly into the Blizzard bot characters, you’ll level faster than ever, shooting straight into Ulduar faster than you can say “Give 10 gold plx.”

“The Raiders have spoken,” said an anonymous Blizzard accountant.  “‘Give us Ulduar, or … uh…’  We want them to know we got the message Loud and Clear!”

When will the surprises in 3.2 end?  What next? Plate Armor for Shamans?  Happy Paladin players?  Dogs and cats living together? Mass hysteria!

3.2 = 3.1415926

What the heck’s going on in Irvine?  Have you seen all the changes coming with the 3.2 Patch?

If you haven’t, if you’ve been living under a rock, say, or busy doing your dailies, fishing for Mr. Pinchy, whatever, go check out WoW.com’s coverage.

Today we’re learning about substantial changes to Paladins.  (Seal of Blood no good anymore.  Not working as intended?  Too harsh?  Blood Elves came up with this masochism???)  Then you’ve got new pets.  A Winterspring type mount for the Horde (Ravasaurs).  Argent Tournament mounts, something new for Paladins (yay!) and other gear and goodies.  Like heirlooms?

I mean, do we get out our water skis from storage and hook up with Fonzie to go jump that shark?

Or are we talking about stuff whose value is the ratio of any circle’s circumference to its diameter in Euclidean space? I.e. it’s all pi?

I mean, who doesn’t like pie?

Why are they throwing this much at us, all at once? Before BlizzCon even? … Is there going to be “bad news” at BlizzCon?  (Did you notice:  “Blizz” Con.  NOT “World of Warcraft” Con.)  Is something going on that the average Joe is unaware of?  Because we’re too busy, and happy, eating pie?

I’m wondering if this is going to be tasting a little like Andrew Zimmern’s saurkraut pie that he got up in Minnesota.

HMMMM.

Lakeside

We went to a new area and found this beautiful lake.

Check out the water.  I want this for my backyard.

A Three-Crest Mohawk. Leveling speed accelerated.

Our Druids saw a little Zul’Drak action last night.

We’re into the second cluster of quests there now, I’m level 80, the wife 79, and with instant flight the getting to and conducting the required fights are trivial.  HOWEVER, I’ve planned to see as much of Zul’Drak with our Druids as possible, and it won’t be over until the fat lady sings.  (Yes, the Valkyr are up in Storm Peaks, that’ll be our next stop.  I guess that’ll be when she sings.)

So I’m in Cat Form DPSing and I noticed how clunky the current cat form really is, graphically. 

Swift Flight Form is gorgeously detailed.  The jewelery, the armor pieces, the wings and claws and everything.  The  Bear and Dire Bear (why can’t the bears get different looks??) are ugly to the point I’d rather not play them.  (And I like my DPS fast and furious, cat style, and not slow and plodding, like bear style.  So I rarely see my bear form.)  Travel Form is cat-like, but smooth.  It’s not adorned with a three-crested (or is it just two?) Mohawk like Cat Form, Night Elf version, is.

The new version of the Night Elf Cat Form (and otherwise all the cat and bear revamps for both Nelfs and Tauren) are finally up to speed with current level of “the best” in-game graphics.  Some alternate ideas, like Scene Kid Cat, were happily passed over by the development team.  However, they appear to have left the dangly glow-in-the-dark baubles intact.

I’m planning on the dark blues cat and bear, and the wife liked the look of the white ones.

I’m happy to see that development is continuing in WoW.  Even if the development is being used to test-bed things for the next MMO out of Blizzard it’ll be worth it.

Oh, yeah.  As we zipped quest to quest there in Zul’Drak, and I was marveling how fast it was to do quests so easily by flying place to place, it suddenly occured to me, reminded me, that flight will be available at level 60 come the next patch.  And faster flight to boot.  That means the Outlands will be a lot less painful than it has been.  (And mounts earlier, and faster sooner, than ever before.)

Blizzard appears intent on keeping the 1-80 experience (DK and Super Druid experiences aside)  for most everyone.  “Vee haf content, you vill see it.”

On the otherhand, they’re accelerating folks through it in record time with changes like this.

Is it a good thing for new players?  Yes, if the point is to race them to the end-game where all the cool kids are.  And no, if you consider what they experience is nothing like we old codgers experienced.

Should rabbit ears, vacuum tubes, and round black and white screens be a pre-requistite to enjoying HDTV on a flat screen?  The more you experience of the previous content, the more you appreciate the new content.

“How do you play WoW?  I’m new to this.”  “Join a guild and get a level 80 Death Knight to catch you up by running you through all the intervening content.”  <— This can’t be anyone’s idea of a good thing. 

I suppose speeding up travel is a middle-ground solution?

Some day there will be a fantasy game, without an “end-game” and without “PvP required.”  More of a world, less of a goal.

A month with LotRO, and the next WoW.

Just about a month ago I picked up LotRO again.  As I related then I wasn’t really into it the time previous and the wife was suggesting we simply cancel my account.  But I wanted to see what she saw in it, and surely Middle Earth should be a fascinating place to visit and adventure in.  I was simply going to focus on one character.  Perhaps diluting things like I was, too many alts, no “main,” and otherwise still fully engaged with WoW, wasn’t helping.

So I created a Warden, Geirmund, and the wife a Rune Keeper, Culedhel.  He’s level 25 now, she’s 24.  He’s a pretty solid fighter.  He’s got ranged attacks from day one, he can tank, aoe tank too, his class is a “tank” class, and he can DPS well enough that I can go farm mats with him.

Since the crafts are so interdependent, and I wanted one each of weaponsmith, armorsmith, tailor, and the ability to gather what I wanted at will, my Champion is back in play, level 20 now, and my Burglar is nearly there, level 19.

I’m still figuring out how the craft mastery works.  You can do enough of a trade to advance it to the next level, and then start things on that new level.  But you have to do the previous level once through again, in order to achieve mastery in it.  That’s to say I can smelt enough bronze to advance it to the next level, where I can mine and smelt barrow iron.  In prospecting, at the initial level, I’ve got a bronze anvil icon.  If, however, I want to get “critical successes” while smelting bronze I need to have mastered it.  I can’t do that with barrow iron, so I need to work with more bronze until I get the gold anvil icon.  Then that level of things is truly done.

A new character, Skjoldr, a Dwarf Guardian, has been getting some recent play time.  In addition to getting him to 15 so I can see what dwarven heavy armor looks like on a dwarf (not half bad) he took a lot of detours while running quest to quest to gather wood, copper and tin, and collect hides.  He boils the hides and smelts the metal in order to advance his Forestry and Prospecting to the next level, and then master it as well.  The boiled leathers, though low level, went to Geirmund, my main tailor, now, so he can achieve his mastery there in Tailoring.  That’s happening slowly since he’s only crafting one leather component that he sends to Angthir, my metalsmith.  Skjoldr sends Angthir the bronze, and he, with the leather components from Giermund, is mastering his metalsmithing.  And the completionist in me is just loving it!

And, if you’re out collecting medium leathers off bears, it’s kind of a zen experience where you simply get in a zone and cycle through an area.  It’s like a lottery because there’s chances at random purple items to drop in addition to the hides that you expect.  Like they say, “Wasted time is not time wasted.”

So the month with LotRO has been really good.  I’ve finally gotten into it enough that it’s found a place in my gaming interests right alongside WoW.

I will say, though, that if both games came out with expansions next month, I’d probably head to WoW and take it all in.  Blizzard’s expansions are over the top NEW.  TBC brought new races, new starter areas, and a new world with out-of-this-world looks.  WotLK brought a new class, a new and improved starter area concept, and a new continent with looks that have matured from what we had earlier like a fine wine.

WoW’s next expansion I’m predicting will offer either the Emerald Dream and/or the Maelstrom.  And I’m predicting it’ll be the Maelstrom, and then the Emerald Dream as the last and final expansion.  The Maelstrom will bring in the last of the earthly bad guys (Azshara, and a reawakened Sargeras), new underwater zones, the islands and the southern continent.  (See the Explorers tabard.)  And then, for the grand finale, the last expansion, the Emerald Dream, in which the Druids, who were the first in battle against the Burning Legion, and those other classes, defeat the Nathrezim, whose works corrupted Sargeras in the first place.  It’ll be Nature versus the Twisting Nether, and it’ll culminate with players reaching level 100.   The new lands could be any number of planets as we march across the universe like Paul Maudib’s Freman setting things in line for a better future.

We’ll be ditching all of our Northrend somber rust, earth, and metal toned gear for the Maelstrom and I predict the gear palette will be bright, fishy, and tropical for the Maelstrom expansion.  (Just look to the Naga for inspiration.  Nevermind all the hand-me-downs they wore in Zangarmarsh.)   The Emerald Dream will revert to something somber again, earthy and woody.  Anyway, that’s what I think.

LotRO, you already know what’s coming.  You know the land already, you’ll just have more and more access to it.  So it doesn’t have that same level of improvement about it’s expansion like WoW’s will undoubtedly have.

LotRO is offering porterhouse steak versus WoW’s magic mushroom.  Munchies anyone?

You’ve come a long way, Baby. Again.

The wife finally beat me to Dalaran.  Mages get in at 71!   Nerf Mages.

Honorus is sleeping on a cot down below in Star’s Rest.

The Lone Lands

It was a great weekend in Middle Earth.  My Warden, above, has reached level 22, and the wife and I are making things right in the Lone Lands.  He’s been crafted some level 21 weapons, the spear and javelin on his back.  He’s still using the level 15 class quest shield.  He’s wearing slightly out-of-date gear, level 16 stuff crafted for him, beneath the cosmetic (level 20+) Ranger Cloak, and my Warden Backpack (also a cosmetic item) provides unlimited javelins (well, not really, they’re just for show).  He prospects ore and harvests wood to support the crafters supporting him.

Those crafters, are my burglar Aelwald, who can prospect at the same level now as the warden, and is now crafting both metal and wood weapons in the level 20’s range, and my champion, Angthir, who is on the quest to master his tailoring (to allow level 20’s gear creation), but that requires killing some elite level 25+ aurochs for an item to drop.

I’m having fun, in other words.  Our Warden and Rune-Keeper couple are making hash out of mobs 4-5 levels higher than them, and even handling elite mobs for fellowship quests, if done carefully, aren’t difficult either.

The more I play, the more I’m liking it.  Maybe it’s because it’s doing a fine job of keeping the obsessive-compulsive inside me busy.  And since the crafters rely on the harvesters, and you can’t do everything alone, in order to keep my characters in gear and weapons I need to play three characters.  And the altoholic in me says “Thanks!”