The 80 will be close by.

So there I was.  Decked out in heirloom shoulders and chest armor (mail that will become plate), the experience has been coming in fairly quickly.  My new Paladin is now level 33, and he’s played only after I’ve taken care of dailies on two Crusaders, or done a little questing with the wife on some other character.  (The wife’s been on a bit of a tear doing Warhammer PvP recently, so lots of leveling up time for me!)  This character will have a partner once he reaches level 45 and hooks up with the wife’s Paladin.  That shouldn’t take too long.  (And she’s looking to heal, so I’ll look to slay.)  The 2 heirloom armor pieces are really nice.  And the Crusader enchanted Bloodied Arcanite Reaper is like a whole nother sundae on top of the cherry on top of the sundae.

Wow, did I just get sidetracked or what? 

So, there I was, riding to the great lift on my way to Thousand Needles from the Crossroads.  Both Taurens normally stationed there are dead.  Including the one that I need to talk to.  (Who said Vegans are taking over??)  So I wait a bit, then ride around.  There’s a dead body near the entrance to Razorfen Kraul.  It looks Alliance but I didn’t look closely.

I was actually looking for some bristlebacks to kill, but the path to the RFK entrance is cleared.  And there’s a green name bouncing off the portal entrance.  Hmm.

Heirloom gear, stained leather stuff, on a Troll Hunter, and he’s flagged.  Level 22 or so. … That’s odd.  Typically alliance only grief NPC’s when they’re bored and level 80.  Did some low level Alliance just come across the Taurens and kill them, and then this Troll caught him and killed him?  (And is he trying to remove the PvP flag by ducking into an instance?)

And then I see the other player.

What do you get when you see a low level character endless bouncing off an instance portal entrance?  A level 80 character standing close by.  (And wishing he could be anywhere else but there, bouncing off the portal entrance, is my guess.)

The next Expansion is nearly a World of Warcraft 2 experience.  A revamp of the existing world based on Deathwing’s reentrance to the realms of man.  And that means a lot of the early quest lines and story arcs need to be revamped as well.  A couple new races, and Death Knights aside, you’ve got quite a new experience to enjoy.

That said there are an awful lot of 80′s around.  Every noob in heirlooms points to a level 80 character somewhere. (Hey, look at me!)

If there had to be a great “reset,” and everyone goes back to being level 1, (a world in which Death Knights cease to be, unless you could make some crazy level 1 version of them), I’d still play the game.  I’d still enjoy it.  (And, you know, we’d be able to get into the low level instances again without 99.9% priority given to the level 80 players and their fun.)

P.S. Are people downgrading their heirlooms to use them on more than 1 alt?  I see too many Hunters in the leather gear, and warriors in the mail gear, to think they didn’t understand the items will upgrade with them. 

P.P.S. And I absolutely have to play a Worgen, and I have absolutely no idea what Class I’ll want him to be.  (Maybe a Clothie, Mage (the Goblin MUST be a Warlock) and maybe deck him out in Arugals gear for ironies sake.)  Hmm.  Now that you can have both factions on a PvP server, why won’t they let me play Horde and Alliance Deathknights on the same server?  Worgen Deathknight would be pretty cool.

 

All that Int was hocus pocus

The HuntsmansLodge.com posted a blog headline that read “Goodbye Mana.  Hello Focus.“

The reminded me of the old summer camp song parody, Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh, Here I am, at Camp Granada.

Goodbye Mana.
Hello Focus.
All that Int was
Hocus pocus.

What’s that Shammy
Now you QQ
No more Int mail
No more pew pew

Blizzard thinks that
You were OP
Another nerf now
Don’t be mopey.

Here’s some cloth drop
Don’t discard it
‘Chanters offline
So we can’t shard it

Dry those tears now
Here’s a chamois
Next expansion
Goblin Shammy

…

Dang, now I’m going to cry.

Anyway, I’m not sure what this change to a class to make changes in the itemization is going to fix.  Caster Shamans = 2/3 specs, and the Enhancement spec relies on shocks and instants as well, so +Int mail is staying with us. 

Unless the ultimate goal with the reduction of the number of stats is taken to the extreme.

Where Health = Level * 150.  For every single class.  (What could be more fair?)

I mean, is it fair that a Tauren Warrior has a slight base edge over a Gnome Warrior when it comes to health?  That’s absurd!  It makes no sense!  Where in the Lore does it say an 8′ tall mountain of muscle weighing a ton should be expected to have 1 minute’s more health than a Gnome refugee out of Gnomeregan, all of 3′ tall?  It’s just not fair that a Tauren should have some kind of advantage.

Focus/Mana/Rage is a more complicated mechanic, but only in as far as it should result in DPS = Level *20.  For every single class and spec.

Toe to toe, every fight will last under 8 seconds.  Maybe this is what the ADD generation demands?

And, anyway, if it’s important that every single choice is equivalent, this will be how it’s got to be.

Every faction has every class, and every class, to the spec level, has to be equal to every other class, to the spec level.  (And the suggestion was every Race would eventually have every Class.)

Hello Muddah, hello Fadduh.  They took my warcraft, left me a spreadsheet.

Oh well.  It’s not game over until I’ve PvE’d all my characters to the end anyway.

 

Blizzard loves and/or hates Alts.

So there I am.  I finally got the Crusader title with my Alliance Druid.  And sitting on enough Seals for heirloom shoulders and chest armor.  6-7 more days and I’ll have enough for a 1-hand sword.  But for whom am I shopping?

The complication is 1) A new Alliance Race, 2) I’ve got a lot of the classes already covered, and 3) My best candidate for one style of Heirloom items may have to leave the server if they don’t give us more character slots than 10.

Blizzard argued at BlizzCon, in one of the Q&A sessions, that nobody is serious about alts, so what’s the big deal with deleting one to replace it with a new race?  I mean, is 10 characters per server such a hardcoded limit to the game?  If you can blast Azeroth in half, and split Chuck Norris jokes in two, then you can provide a couple extra character slots, no?

C’mon, are they serious with that attitude about alts?  Let’s see:

1) Reward folks with faster experience gains.  Nothing a level 80 character is going to benefit from.  Alts favored.

2)  Allow mounts and flying earlier and earlier.  Again, nothing a level 80 character is going to benefit from, they’re already doing it.  Alts favored.

3) Totally revamp all the old zones with the next expansion, meaning exploration from “Day 1″ is viable and fresh again.  Yet again, nothing a level 80 character is going to benefit from, except the achievement hounds and archaelogists.  Alts favored.

4) Heirloom items.  Sadly, each of those heirloom pieces have some improvement to what I’m wearing at 80.  But those level 80 characters aren’t the intended recipients for Heirloom items.  One big stat is “+10% bonus xp.”  Alts favored.

Blizzard absolutely loves alts.  Faster xp, faster movement, faster advancement, cool gear.

Blizzard hates alts.  You get to delete one every time a new race and/or class comes out.

Which is it, Blizzard?  Do you hate Alts or are you okay with them.  Do you expect them even?  From what I’ve seen I’d say the latter, that you are expecting them.

So why the flip are you expecting me to either 1) delete days of hard work (/trashcan), 2) forgo one of the new races (/sucksbeingme), or 3) Pay Blizzard more money to transfer to another server (/ninja), just because you don’t think anyone seriously needs more than 10 character slots on a server.

EXCUSE ME.  I play more than one character.  If I were hardcore, if I played one raider and did world firsts for a living, then yes, maybe I’d only have one character.  But I know folks who do the raiding deal and they have 10 level 80′s.  What are they going to do?  My lowest character is now wearing heirlooms, and will be wielding another shortly.  I’m going to delete him?  Yeah, right.  I should pay $25 to save him?  Because Blizzard can’t provide 2 additional character slots?

So I’m forced to wonder who do I buy heirlooms for given I’m going to be deleting/transferring/or whatever folks off the server next year?

Odds are I’d move my level 41 Draenei off the main server.  And his being level 41 means he’s the best candidate for heirloom items.  But if he transfers off, being a Warrior, I guess my Worgen would be a Warrior.  Eh.

What Horde-side am I going to transfer off?  My 47 Undead Priest?  She could get the heirloom’s now, and then pass them on to the new Goblin Warlock (who’d look better in Dreadmist anyway).  (She was my primary enchanter, but my Deathknight overtook her, nearly maxing enchantment and inscription now.)

Blizzard, you love Alts.  You made Heirlooms for them.  We love Alts.  We’ve filled servers with them.  Give us 2 more character slots.  Minimum.  If you’d be so kind.  Thanks.

 

So right at night.

I have got to say.  What I absolutely loved about Warhammer was that medieval flavor of Eastern Europe in a lot of the human architecture.  Blizzard has brought it to life too now, with literal vengeance, in Gilneas.

This isn’t in-game, of course, but the ambiance this creates…

It’s a shame Auberdine must be destroyed… (/sorts through backpack in search of [Crocodile Tears])

Edit:  The wife reminds me this is also very Van Helsing and Underworld.

 

Awoot.

Dang.  This is getting good.

Except the “More raids for you raiders than ever!” part.

But, anyway, I’ve got a cursed Worgen to get to level 85!

I just need 2 more character slots!

And pack your elves, the waters are going to change some things.

 

Seaaaaaals. Must. Have. Seaaaaaals.

No, this isn’t a story about mad canadian undead rednecks with southern accents out clubbing seals in Northrend.  (Thank you PETA for making my world a more visualized one.)  (And, hey, everyone loves cute white seals, me included.)

No, I’m talking about Champion’s Seals.  And the grind it takes getting a reasonable amount of them and getting to spend them on the really cool stuff.  Heirlooms I mean.

So, my first Crusader was Msaker.  He only took the +defense axe the racial quartermasters offered.  Otherwise he simply built up his stash of Champion Seal’s and Writ’s.  He used Writs to become Exalted with his very first faction, that of Sen’Jin.  He really wanted a Raptor mount.  Like any self-respecting Orc he then worked on getting Orgrimmar to exalted, again working with Writ turn ins.   Now he rides a Raptor and was called Msaker of Orgrimmar.  Cool.  But with the latest patch the promise of Heirloom items (chest and legs and weapons) for Champion’s Seals was too much to ignore.  The dailies continued daily.  It isn’t hard to get a PUG for Chillmaw+Citadel.  So originally I was getting 4 Seals a day.  Doing those quests I eventually got Exalted with the Sunreavers.  That opened up 3 more dailies, and 3 more Seals.

Then I knocked out the Argent Crusade repuation.  I did the quests leading to the Pa’Troll daily, did that a couple of times, knocked out some of the other “intro” Argent Stand quests, and bang, Exalted with the Argent Crusade.  (And 10g a day to the kid didn’t hurt either.)  Silvermoon was my worst rep, but my last Valiant quests were with the Undercity.  So I’d turn in Writs for Silvermoon rep, and do the Valiant dailies for Undercity Rep.  That last set of turnins I actually took Thunderbluff Writs.  And to cinch the last of the deal, 3 Exalteds in one night, I went to Silvermoon City, Brill, and Camp Bloodhoof.  Bang, bang, bang.  DONE.

So first order of business for Crusader Msaker was to purchase the Heirloom Chest for my level 20 Paladin.  The next day, after completing another round of dailies (netting, what, 9 Seals a day?), I purchased the Heirloom Shoulders.

I’ve got a question.  The Heirloom items are 1-80.  Will they become 1-90 (or whatever the next level cap is) once the next expansion hits?  Are they truly “life long” heirlooms?  With 3 plate wearers, 2 not yet 80, I should get decent use out of them.  So it’s not a priority to continue dailies with him at the moment.  And it means I feel guilty about not accruing seals against more heirlooms for my clothie and shaman.

My current excuse is that Greenclaw is getting pretty close himself.  He too had to take the Writ course to get Exalted with Darnassus, his home town.  Getting Stormwind City and Ironforge was easy enough too.  And, for some reason, Exodar came fairly consistent as well.  (It must have been my lowest so I turned in a lot of Writs against it.

He too is now doing the Pa’Troll daily in Zul’Drak, and otherwise the other 4 the Tournament offers.  The Silver Covenent is pleased to offer him some work as well.  Once I get Argent Crusade done, and Gnomeregan too, halfway to Exalted with both (I can’t rush the Crusade rep, so no need to raid Dun Morogh for the Gnome rep), he too will be a Crusader.  And he’s already sitting on 80+ seals, so the first heirlooms will come right away. 

I think one Crusader of each faction will be enough to keep me in Seals and heirlooms.

But, boy, sometimes I feel like a mindless zombie snuffling about in search of brains.  Getting seals is grindy work.  (Though the zen master in me appreciates the structure.)

 

Gnome Druids

Some crazy ideas being suggested for the next patch expansion.

Troll Druids?  That’s just crazy.  Stupid too.  Lore is in the bathroom getting sick.  I guess the Troll’s hang up their skull crafting and start worshiping the Earth Mother?

Why not just go all out crazy?

Gnome Druids.

If we have Gnome Druids then I DEMAND they look like this!

Fairs fair.  If you’re going to take Lore, dress her in Starcraft Uniform, issue her a machine gun, and let just any dumb idea into the game, I think Gnome Druids should be like they are in that cartoon.

 

An Instance of Irony

So, it’s been going on about a week now that I’ve been trying to get Sunstriker into Shadowfang Keep.

The wife’s Deathknight, level 67, would clear to the stables, and I’d grab the ingots I need for the Paladin class quest.  Maybe visit the Commander and see if he’s got his shield that day.

Last night I was in the Undercity, and the wife was wanting to play Warhammer.  But she was willing to try SFK again and see if we could finally get in.  She logged on, parked on the bridge, and went to the entrance.

SUCCESS!!!!  A loading screen… and she was inside.

Sweet.

So I invited her to a group and made my way to SFK.  Cool.  At least I could get one more part of this quest done.

I zone in and find myself surrounde by Worgen and Wolves.  Dang she’s skinny because she slipped right past these.  So I move a little further inside, and I hear her killing things on her machine, so progress is being made.  I look over and see she’s got the door upstairs open now.

Except on my machine there’s Worgen everywhere and I barely make it out of the keep alive.

WTF?  Are we not in the same instance??

So I have her leave party and exit the instance too.  Now we regroup the party and I go back in.

Then I get the message that I’m in the wrong instance and I’m going to be portalled back out.  I see the Worgen so I assume I’m in my old instance, and should be in her version of it.  So I exit again and ask her to enter first.

“Additional instances cannot be launched.  Please try again later.”

I try, with the same result.  No entrance.

Hil-freaking-larious.

Once we do get in the dang instance management is buggered.

She made a Warhammer night of it.  I did Tournament dailies.

 

100′s of ToC instances available for you.

Sunstriker spent 8 minutes banging his head, his horses head actually, on Shadowfang Keep’s instance portal.  He gained no access.

“Additional instances cannot be launched, please try again later.”

I think by “later” they mean “when hell freezes over.”  Because I’ve been trying for four days now.

What, are they out of instances?

Hardly.

Msaker logged on, at the Argent Tournament, he went to the coliseum, and instantly entered the Trial of the Champions instance.

Login, go.

That means old world instances are closed.  Totally.

And they’ve got ToC instances available, and waiting in the wings for anyone and everyone to enter and have a go.

This means, in effect, Blizzard has shut down old world instances, and is devoting 100% of their resources, with capacity to spare, to the level 80 content.

They’ve gone one Expansion further than they can handle.  Just exactly what are they selling at BlizzCon?  They can’t handle what they’ve got.  They’re going to add more?  Not without jettisoning something.

Is the Cataclysm of the next Expansion the destruction of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms?  At this point what would they lose?  Folks, you heard it here first.

This problem was happening before ToC and 3.2 came along.  But it wasn’t a complete lock out of the early instances like we have now.

So, advice to a new player to the game:  Have your level 80 main get you heirloom shoulders, chest, and weapon.  No level 80 main?  Ooooh, that’s going to suck.

No, I’m seriously annoyed about this.

You know if you’ve gone to the store, and you see the proprietor in the back of the store, as you peer in through the dusty glass, which is locked and denying you access inside, and you see him trying to hide in a corner to avoid you, I mean, c’mon.  They ought to show you, the customer, some respect and at least post a CLOSED FOR BUSINESS sign on the entrance.  “I CAN SEE YOU!  OPEN UP!”  And then you see them hunker down further and in a squeaky voice say “Nobody here but us mice.  Sorry.  Nobody’s here.  Come back later.”

I’m calling shenanigans.

 

Twice a day…

A broken clock is right twice a day.

It seems I, and a lot of other places, a few at least, have seemingly guessed the next expansion’s new races.

So reports (spoiler alert, don’t click, aw, what the heck, you’ll hear about it eventually) WoW.com today, and that was something everyone was bringing up last month on the release of those masks on the PTR.

Ahwooooo.

And if that’s all accurate, that definitely means Gilneas will open up in some fashion or form, and undoubtedly Kul Tiras as well, for the Maritime aspect, as well as the Undermine and the southern Islands.

NATURALLY, all these lands surround the what?  The Maelstrom.  And Sargeras was buried out there somewhere as well.

Hmmm.  That would leave the Emerald Dream to bring us the next/last Heroic Class and the final showdown with the Burning Legion.  Our primal versus theirs.

Edit: I almost forget to add: BLIZZARD: FOR THE LOVE OF LIGHT, ADD AT LEAST 2 MORE CHARACTER SLOTS PER SERVER!!  Thank you.