How Many Specs Does Your Class Need in World of Warcraft?

To be honest, I want to discuss this, but it wasn't my idea.

     On the latest Blizzardwatch podcast they discussed whether classes needed more specs, less specs, or were just right.  The episode (#99 that came out Dec. 22nd 2016 respectively) had a large discussion.  To summarize Anne Stickney and Alex Ziebart both felt there were classes that could use less specs.  They pointed out rogues in particular in which Assassination and Subtlety had very little difference in idea and weapons.  Matt Rossi felt that with some classes that was correct, but with others (and he cited his favorite which is Warriors) saying that they could use a couple more specs as they lost Gladiators stance which was a DPS sword and shield spec, and single minded Fury which was duel wielding with two one handed weapons.

      Honestly, you should dig in and listen to this podcast for this discussion.  It is why I want to bring it up here.

      There are three classes I have played for any amount of time this expansion.  Rogue, Paladin, and Demon Hunter.  I have toyed with others a bit, but I have to start with the ones I know.

       Paladin is near perfect.  They don't need another spec, they don't need to lose another spec.  All three specs feel good and different.  Ret doesn't feel as good as I would like it too, but damage wise it is fantastic right now and tanking feels smooth.  I don't heal on my Pally, but what I have seen of that spec was fine.

      Demon Hunter is good as well.  While I would like them to figure out a ranged spec for the class, (I think the game is a little Melee heavy when you look at the classes right now) The two it has are solid and feel different.  Tanking felt alright the couple of times I have done it and DPS is nice as well.

     Rogue I will have to agree with the hosts.  They could go to two specs and not lose much.  Roll Subtlety and Assassination in together and call it good.  I don't see a need for further specs, but unless they can make it feel different pare it down a little.

     And the next opinions are subjective as I have not played the classes extensively and I will admit upfront to possibly being dead wrong.

     Monk- Keep it as is.  Three distinct specs.  Three different roles.

      Shaman- As is, two roles, two very different types of DPS.
   
     Mage- This I can see being pared down to two specs.  I like the suggestion that you do fire and frost and mix the arcane spells into them.  Arcane has always felt weird to me in the first place.

      Warlock- I think this one needs someone smarter than me.  I think all three specs are distinct, but as mentioned in the podcast, Demonology has been overhauled into something else.  I don't know how your reface it without stepping into the demon hunter feel of things which is why the demon form aspects were removed.  The idea of being a master of demons is still cool, but I don't see why we can't have two classes taking on those aspects if they are different.  (Make your demon featured warlock fly and shoot fireballs)

      Priest-  I am going to disagree with the podcast here.  I like all three of the specs.  The idea of two different types of healing, one re-active and one pro-active interests me.  If anything I would split Discipline into two different specs and have a DPS spec for priests that wasn't shadow/void based and one healing spec that was all about shielding and preparations.  I think having Disc straddle both kind of keeps it from being it's own animal.

     Druid-is good- Four specs for four different jobs.

     Hunter- This one I think is better now that survival is melee spec.  From what I've played around with all three specs feel different enough to be justified.  No complaints.

     Warrior- I am going to agree with Rossi on one point.  I would like a sword an board DPS spec. It would make more sense to me with the warrior, but I could see the Paladin having one as well. I do like the idea of the fighter who uses his shield as a weapon as much as his sword.  I think a single minded fury spec would end up being to similar to the fury spec we have now.  Harder to justify.

     Death Knight- I would love to make the argument for a fourth spec here.  My favorite tanking was duel wielding as a frost DK in Wrath of the Lich King.  I would love to see it come back as I though at the time it had felt darn near perfect.  I can't honestly make the argument though.  Blood is a good tanking spec, and works.  The two DPS specs feel different enough that I can't say we need another choice there either, or that we might need to merge them.  Keep them as they are.

     How do you feel?  Does your class need more specs and variety, or do you feel lost with your choices and would you like it pared down to something else.  Is the three spec idea outdated, and would things work better if classes weren't limited by a number that might serve some better than others?  Demon Hunters started with two specs, how would you feel if the next class had four?  Or maybe just one?

    Where do you weigh in on this discussion?

Lag

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Getting into the Blizzard Spirit.

Merry Winter Veil you wonderful people.

     So let us start out with the thing that makes me the most excited.  This is blog post number 200 for me.  That means since my first post on 5/07/2013 I have managed to keep writing and going on this blog fairly consistently.  I won't say that I have never done something that was more fluff than substance, but I am proud of myself.  Looking at my first post, I started writing just before patch 5.2 dropped so I have been here giving my voice to the community about this game I still love since the middle of Mists of Pandaria.  I don't feel too bad congratulating myself here.  Most people don't keep writing consistently on something like this, and even though at times it has been hard, I am still here.

     The news is a little slower at the moment.  Blizzard is seeing Christmas time like the rest of us, so I wouldn't expect to hear much until January.  They did mention that they are aiming to release the Nighthold Raid on January 17th.  This means if they want to get patch 7.15 out before than it will have to fall on January 3rd, (Happy Birthday to me!) or on January 10th.  Beyond that World of Warcraft still had raiding, PVP, world quest etc... you could be doing right now.  Or you could be leveling another alt!  The leveling experience is great this time around, as long as you are willing to let characters sit and feel like they aren't progressing.  I still don't like how alt unfriendly this expansion feels.

     Winter veil is in full bloom in game right now.  Go fight your Grinch and prepare to log on Christmas morning to open up your presents in Ironforge or Ogrimmar.  We are sure to get some new toy this year and another ugly sweater. Of course with Christmas being this weekend I have to ask...

     How are you spending your Christmas break?  Assuming you have one.

     I am out of school the week after Christmas so I am looking forward to logging on some week based hours.  Hopefully I can get my family together and run a few dungeons or Mythics.  I don't see myself raiding, but if one of the groups I chat with etc... need a dps I might hop in.  Next week is going to be a big de-stresser for me.  Not that I'm very stressed right now.  School is going well, my new job is fabulous, and my family life is good.  The only thing I lack most days is time to sleep.

     I might throw a few more hours into Diablo III as well. Maybe fiddle around with Heroes of the Storm which I have never done more than poked at here and there.  I am still unwilling to throw money down on Overwatch at this point, as I don't have much time to even play Wow generally, but with everyone I work with playing it, I might give in eventually so I can torture them outside of work. Who knows?

     I have goals coming in for next year as well.  I am only vaguely aware of what some of them might be at this point, but I am getting a plan together on how I plan to progress at work and a bit at home.  I am still working on one book, editing one, and I need to get off my butt and market the other.  By June I will have something full book sized up on Amazon/Kindle.

     I also will be working on getting healthier.  My work has a full sized Gym I can use at any time.  I need to take advantage of that.  I am debating with my work schedule shift, doing a workout before I go to school two or three days a week if nothing else.

    But how are you all spending your Christmas/Winterveil/Holidays.  Does anyone have any big fun plans, or are you stuck just slogging away like normal?

    Either way, Happy Holidays you beautiful people.  Remember no matter who you are the world would be a lesser place without you.

Lag.

    If you would like to support Ben Marble and his bob-sledding goblins, please consider purchasing one of his short stories at Amazon.com

Looking at a Stat Squish Soon.

Because it is out of control!!!!

     Let's be honest, there is no feeling like watching big numbers fly across your screen while you are killing the big beasty in front of you.  The feeling your character is getting more powerful is awesome and fun, and we love that feeling that we are this martial or magical juggernauts that are nigh unstoppable as we slam our way through foes.  In a game there is a cost to that.

    We are looking at the same situation now that we were in Cataclysm where the numbers our characters were putting out were hitting close to the ceiling of what the game can handle.  Add on the many new ways to get and improve armor, and that number is climbing higher even more quickly than before.  I am fairly certain we will have another stat squish at the end of this expansion.

    And that is not a bad thing.  Last time the players showed they were supportive of such a thing.  We managed to accept the feeling that we were still hitting hard with lower numbers because Blizzard did a great job of evening things out.  I imagine it will work that same way again.  I do have my normal advice to Blizzard to go with that, and yes you have all heard me say it multiple times.

    Let's do a level squish as well.

    Seriously, use the leveling experience in Legion, apply it to the rest of the world, and then squish it.  Make it so mobs level with you to the level spread of that expansion.  For example, if we make original WoW 1-30, make the mobs stop adjusting to your character after 30.  That way we can go back and still feel invincible when running older content.

    Make it, Original 1-30.  Burning Crusaide 30-35.  Wrath of the Lich king 35-40.  Calaclysm 40-45, Pandaria, 45-50.  Warlords 50-55, and Legion after this expansion 55-60.

    Do we need this you might ask?  Well, yes and no.  I mean when a new player starts, they get a character that just has to level through current content.  So, they get one main who gets the head start so they can play with their friends and become part of the end game.  That is great.  What happens though if they hit 110, and don't like the class they picked.  They are then reduced to two options.

    Pay $60 bucks, then level the last ten again, or level through 110 levels for another alt who may or may not be as enjoyable as the character they are playing.  If you are a new player and have never leveled through all the beginning areas, that is completely discouraging.  Us old hat players know that you can level through all that content quickly enough, but if you are new to the game, that looks like a daunting trip.

    I think this is partially a matter of accessibility.  When you do your stat/level squish you could throw ilevel on the pile too.  If we can pull back and lower the ilevels with the squish that could give us even more room to develop and grow.  If they do it right it like last time, the feel of the game won't even be very different.  Just the numbers our characters are throwing up when they fight.

How does everyone else feel though?  Are these opinions completely off base, or would this lengthen the longevity of the game.  Am I wrong to think there is a mental hurdle for new players to level up to 110, or am I just postulating an opinion that has no bearing in actuality? How would you all feel about a level squish?

Lag.

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The Wheel Keeps Turnin'

And the players keep playing.

     We are in the middle of many changes for World of Warcraft.  Content is flowing like never before, developers and keeping even the static content such as world quests flowing and changing.  There are more ways to get rewards and develop your character than ever before, and it feels like the world is full and populated with other players again.

    So the question becomes, looking forward how can Blizzard keep up this momentum?

    New and fresh ideas need to keep coming.  We know what the near future holds.  We are going to get mini-holidays, three full tiers of raids, and more throughout the expansion.  We are going to eventually go to Argus and take the Legion on their home ground, and we are going to have fully powered artifact weapons that we have spent hours on while doing so.  At the end, we will be looking at 8.0.  The next expansion.  And yes, it is a little soon but I am wondering what will come next.

     I don't think we will have another Legion based expansion after this.  It will probably be old God based, or maybe we will have to deal with Bolvar as the Lich King.  He has obviously changed in the role he now inhabits.  Whether he is truly on our side or not, defeating the Legion was probably in his best interest.  Whatever those interests are... I am not sure it will be in the living's favor.

     We could also find other stuff in the universe.  What about exploring the remains of the titan's homeworld(s).  We could have an outer space adventure that is completely different from anything we have seen before.  We may not beat Azshara this go round, and if so the naga may be something we have to deal with on a larger scale.  If she pairs up with the old Gods then it might be a bigger struggle.

    There might even be something new, something we cause if we defeat the Legion, because nature abhors a vacuum.  If they are gone, what will take their place?

     What features will the future hold?  We already have an option for Horde and Alliance to be mercenaries in PVP, will we eventually be able to blur the lines while raiding?  Will we see the end of the faction divide eventually as it ceases to make sense as we keep having to fight these bigger enemies?  Players are still, and will always, ask for guild housing or player housing, will Blizzard give in eventually?  If so how will that look?

     What do you all think the future holds?  How long do you think the game will go on?  I firmly believe if they keep releasing content like we have now, it is possible, not necessarily probable, that WoW could hit twelve million again.  What would that be like?  And would Blizzard even tell us?

So fellow players, what do you think?

Lag.

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Reinventing is Hard.

Making changes can have a cost.

     So it was a couple of blogs ago that I changed his to theornerywowplayer.blogspot.com as I felt that without me raid leading, it was misleading for me to keep posting as the ornery raid leader.  I didn't want people to click on this expecting raid updates, tips etc... I also wanted to embrace the fact I am wandering a new path in game as I am in life.  I am finding it relaxing to not have to plan and worry about getting the raid team together, doing the prep, etc...

    I still run with my family or other people here and there on the weekends.  Otherwise I am playing at my own pace, working on a few alts and trying to figure out where I fit in now.  I am actively working on my horde rogue as I had the heads up a few of the people I will be working with at my new job are on that side of the isle.  As with everything else, not planning full time raiding etc... just want the option to pop into a dungeon or something with them.  Not mention a couple people I'm working with now...

    However with this change I ran into an issue that I didn't anticipate.  This has never been an earth shattering big blog.  I have no illusions that I am in the same league as the folks at Blizzardwatch, theinstance, Tradechat, or any of the other big names.  I'm just someone spouting off a few words opinions and hoping everything is coherent when people read it.  I'm away my opinion is not always right, and sometimes is misinformed.  I try to be polite, look at issues from different angles and keep myself open minded.

    My views and rating on this blog have dropped though.  Changing the name of the website deleted every single google+ rating I had earned previous to the name change.  My views were normally about thirty on a low day, and I had hit two hundred once or twice.  Normally at least one day a week I would see a nice spike.  Once again, I know that these numbers are small.  I'm not expecting my presence to even compare to most others.

    Now a thirty view day is good.  I don't think I've broken one hundred yet since I changed.  While I don't write this to garner a lot of attention, the attention I did get made me smile.  So maybe I am a little narcissistic at the end of the day?  Who would have thought?

    So now there is nothing to do but keep trucking on.  Hopefully in reinventing all this I will find a new passion in the game and share that with all of you.  I am enjoying not being tied to the computer, or having to log in at any given time. Still plan on running things here and there with family and guild as I can, but I am not locking myself down.  It has been nice to declare a movie night with the family and not have to worry about it effecting the raid team.

     I have finally got my horde rogue to level 110 as well.  That gives me three max level characters, and one on the other side of the fence to poke at things with.  My rogue is a BE female, because you know, they have the best stealth animation in the game in my opinion.  So far running assassination, but will try the other specs shortly.

     How is everyone else adjusting at this time?  How do you recover from setbacks in game or out of game?  How should I re-invent myself?  Is there a new direction I should take anything, or should I just keep trucking on and slowly rebuild?

Lag/Ben Marble

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Blizzcon is Over. I am Underwhelmed this year.

So, I feel like a killjoy here.

     Blizzcon 2016 has come and gone and we were all excited for the big reveals and commotion that comes with this event ever time it is hosted.  We were excited for Diablo, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, and other Blizzard IP news.  This is where there is a ton of cinematics, news, and upcoming features and games announced.  I honestly feel that it was cool, but not great this year.

     Obviously my first love is for World of Warcraft, this is a WoW blog and it is the only game that Blizzard has that I play on a regular basis.  I hop into Diablo III on rare occasion or Hearthstone but the other games I haven’t gotten into.  Mostly because I have limited time and I don’t want another big time sink pulling me into another direction.

     As someone who has played all three Diablo’s, I was disappointed that there isn’t an expansion or Diablo 4 coming.  I think the idea of going back to old Tristam is cool.  I love the thought of Necromancers, but I only played them a little in Diablo II and getting me to pay for a character pack is not likely to happen.  I think Diablo III needed something bigger this year.  These little tokens are not going to appease folks for long.

     Hearthstone, I will be honest.  New content is cool, but as a casual player I know I’m not going to see the majority of it.  I might hop into the first wing if it is free to see what is happening, but further than that I don’t want to grind the gold or pay the money on an expansion that might last three to four months if it lasts as long as the last expansion.  Which feels like it just barely dropped. 

     Overwatch, let’s be honest.  If you were a fan you knew Sambra was coming.  Now one was surprised at her announcement. Her Cinematic was cool, and I enjoyed it, but as far as everything else goes you would have to talk to someone else on what it means.

     Starcraft, I honestly don’t remember hearing anything.  If I missed it then I am sorry. 

     Heroes of the Storm, the Varian Wrynn/Ragnoros reveal was awesome, and it tempts me to dip my toe into that game a little.  At the same time, the rest of the game you would have to ask someone who plays a lot more.

     And that brings us home to World of Warcraft.  (Yes, I know there are other announcements etc. in other IPs, but like I said, unless I delve deeper they don’t mean a lot to me.)

     In Wow we got a little preview of things coming up.  We now know that flying will be available in 7.2.  We know that we will get a new raid at that time as well.  Oh, and the biggest announcement was that we will be going to Argus in 7.3. 

    Thank you Blizzard for not making Legion a two raid tier expansion, I would have been seriously disappointed.

     We are getting a new set of dungeons in 7.2.  Arcway and Court of stars will become Queue able. Artifact weapons will have further story line to them.  Dungeons gear and difficulty will rise with the raid level to keep them relevant.  Not sure how I feel about that last one.  Another make a wish pet for those who like to donate and get a digital cutie.  And other announcements like that.

     So, a bit of news on World of Warcraft side, but nothing that blew me away.  I feel that it was all very standard information that wasn’t a big surprise.  There was no wow factor for Wow this time around.  Even Argus I was guessing from the information given at the beginning of the expansion and the book Illidan.  Honestly given his history and goals, it would be strange to get Illidan back and not go to Argus.  That is his main goal at this point.  Go to demon home world; destroy demons in a place where they can’t come back.  My guess is that we won’t Armageddon it, and simply throw a bomb into Argus to blow up the planet. 

     Am I off base here though? Was there anything amazing at Blizzcon this year I am overlooking or undervaluing? What is everyone else thoughts on this?

Lag.

     As always, if you want to support my shark surfing exhibitions consider purchasing one of my short stories at Amazon.com for your kindle or e-reading device.

7.1 and Gearing Concerns.

So, I am questioning the gear this time around.

      But first, let's glory in the fact we already have 7.1 up and running.  What you say? Too soon? Too gated?  Yeah, those opinions have been loud and clear.  People are frustrated that there is an attunement quest line before Karazhan.  I honestly haven't started it myself yet, so I'm not going to give an open opinion on it being hard or too long or anything like that.  I don't know.  I just know people hopped on exited to revisit their old favorite raid, and were not able to right away.  I have seen some groups getting together to run it since, so maybe it's not too bad.

      Halls of Valor is out as well, needing to be attuned for as well.  Once again, I think it's a little early for opinions other than, well you have to attune for it.

      This expansion has been rife with ways to get geared up.  Daily quests, dungeons, raids, class hall quests, etc…  There has been no shortage of methods to get gear.  If you are willing to put in the time and effort that is.  My question is, with all the levels of gear, between world quests dungeons (normal, heroic, mythic to mythic+ 10) Raids (LFR, normal, Heroic, Mythic) and World Quests, (I have seen gear up to 840+ on these, but they might go higher I haven’t looked deeply into it.) and PVP

      My question is this, is this too big a spread of gear to be healthy for the game?  When we had a gear squish just an expansion ago, to be pushing numbers like they are now.  If the numbers jump like this, from 800-895 for legendary, per raid tier How out of hand might the gear get by the end of the expansion.  Let's be honest, we haven't even released the end of the first tier, which is coming after the beginning of the year by all accounts.

     I have already seen Mythic dungeon groups asking for gear levels of 860+ which is a little crazy unless you are running Mythic + some crazy number.  If we are looking at a span of almost 100 ilevels a tier, and we go three raid tiers this expansion, that could see us up to ilevel 1000ish.  That is a little wild and out of control.

     Now, on counterpoint, last expansion from my memory, jumped about 50 ilevels a tier, per 2 tiers, which ended up with high end folks being a bit above ilevel 700 at the end of expansion.  Even at 50 ilevels a tier, with thee that would put us at about ilevel 900 at the end of this expansion after this first gear boom.  Honestly it’s hard to say because we have not seen this spread of options before.  Either way, that is a lot of ilevels we are tossing into this expansion.

     And what will come next? Are we going to have another item squish before too long?  If the numbers keep clicking up as high as they are can that be maintained for the rest of the expansion?  What is the long term benefit or damage to the game with all this gear?  How should we keep it better in line if we need to keep the numbers smaller?  Would it be better if they evened things out. so, LFR=reg dungeon, normal raid = Heroic dungeon,  Heroic raid= Mythic dungeon and then have Mythic raid = Mythic plus dungeon somewhere along the line?  (I don't have PVP on this list, because I'm not sure how the gear system works there off the top of my head.)  it would also make dungeons feel more relevant and make 5 man content as rewarding as raids.  

     Of course, there is the hold our part of me that says that 5 man contents should not be as rewarding as raids.  I mean, raids take more work to get together.  They are intrinsically more difficult and are a larger investment of time.  If I am not going to be doing raiding why should I get the rewards of regular raiders?  My answer to that, give them some different rewards.

    Even out gear, and give raiders some cool mounts, unique armor sets, and other such things that set them apart.  I mean, that is what raiders want. To be able to say, look at me!  I have accomplished this.  If you give them other side rewards, I'm not sure they would cry as loud at evening out the gear.  But, there will be some folks crying.  There are always some folks crying.

     The other option, I'm still a fan of doing a level squish.  I don't think it's crazy hard to level a character from 1 to 110, it is a bit of a time investment, but a manageable one.  However, walking in new the the game and seeing there is 110 levels is kind of daunting.  It doesn't manage if you can do it in a quicker time than you used to or not.  People just see that 110.  I say squish the levels down so 0-60 is now 0-30, and make each expansion 5 levels or so.  Put in the scaling technology, so it doesn't feel weird to level through, but make the content stop at the top level so folks can still go back and just destroy stuff if needed.  (i.e. 0-30 content stops at 30)  You could do a gear level squish with this as well.  This would ensure some more longevity in the game and make things feel more attainable to those coming in.  That would be a new level cap of 60 again at the end of this expansion, if that was when they squished it, giving a nice lower number. 

     Once again, I can hear your screams at this idea, but take a breath and think about it.  Do you really want to be leveling characters from 1-140 three expansions from now.  If we take steps like this now, that makes life easier later.  For starting players as well as folks who are leveling things up.

      But what do you think?  Is the gear kind of out of control, or is this just par for the course?  When do you think the next item squish will be, because we know it will happen eventually.  How about a level squish?  How would you feel about it?  Not initially, because no one wants to feel like they have lost years of work, but in the long run?

What points did I miss?

Lag.

If you want to support Ben Marble (Lag) in his dancing the night away, consider to buying one of his short stories on Amazon.com .  

A Few Thoughts on Tanking

I have some thought on tanking.

     Recently, my wonderful sister Anna shared an article on Facebook and tagged me in it.  The subject of this article was someone who was new at tanking was talking about why tanking was difficult in World of Warcraft. He also discussed how it was possibly a flaw of game design since so few people tanked, and so much expectation is put on that one player.  He of course pointed to the things we all know about, impatient players, hard learning curve etc… the article is included Here in PC Gamer magazine and I suggest giving it a read.  So don’t my paraphrasing and take on it, read through it is well worth your time.  I agree with most of what he says.

     I have been tanking on and off since Wrath of the Lich King, Matt Rossi has pointed out several times on Blizzardwatch’s podcast that once people know you can tank, you often end up in that role even if your intention is to become DPS.  Good tanks feel thin in this game, and part of that is because of pressures like this.  The other part is because folks in raid finder, Looking for group, and elsewhere do have a tendency to be verbally abusive and will often blame things going wrong on said tank.  This means if you don’t have a thick skin you don’t tank very long.

    Or you become like me.  I won’t tank for anyone I don’t know.  It is not worth my time and effort to suffer verbal abuse at the hands of someone I don’t know.  I will queue as DPS thank you, and wait the extra thirty minutes.  I won’t lie, part of the social anxiety I have developed dealing with people in World of Warcraft has come from tanking.  I am wary of pugging people into groups, or tanking for strangers because I never know what I’m going to get.  And I know if it’s bad it will often be directed at me whether I have deserved it or not.

    On the other hand, I believe 95% of players in this game are decent people who aren’t looking to tear folks down.  The loud voices in trade chat and in groups are often a vocal minority who like to talk loud because it makes them feel like they matter.  The problem is, you can tank five groups in quick succession, but if you get a person in that fifth group that does nothing but tear you down and get abusive it stands out to the point where you think it’s everybody.  I know one person who is dps that stopped running group finder stuff because he says he has never had a good experience.  I personally can’t say if that’s true, but it sure feels like the game is full of negative individuals sometimes.

     Now, do I think this is Blizzard’s fault?  No.  I think the game is designed for specific types of groups, and that if you were to make everything dps with no heals or tanks it would feel more sporadic and less organized.  Do I think there should be DPS only content? Well, they tried with Scenerios, and my guess is they went away after a small percentage of players used them compared to the amount of time Blizzard had to use to design them.  I could be wrong on that, but for better or worse we are used to the tank, dps, and healer dynamic.

    Now, I wish they would stop gating my content behind mythics, or that the dungeons like the arcway that are gated behind content could be queued for in LFG, but those are minor complaints.  My playing hours right now pretty much make that content hard for me to get to.  I sure am not going to tank them for strangers.  At the same time, I don’t know if there are enough people on in my guild most of the time that need to run them.  That leaves me sitting on quests that are filling up my quest book and that are a bad feeling.

     How do we fix tanking? I hate to say this, but Blizzard can’t.  There is no magical button that is going to change how the group dynamics work.  There is no bit of programming that is going to change characters expectations of quick and clean runs.  The only people who can change this are the player base.

     Players need to openly call out folks that make tanking hard to do.  Players need to set the expectation, that if you start tearing someone down, that is tank or otherwise, the group will kick you.  Folks need to be a little more understanding and patient.  The only way we fix that is one player at a time.

     The other half of this coin, there are some bad tanks out there.  I’m not talking about folks that are learning, but tanks that take for granted that they are important.  Those tanks that are abusive to the groups running with them and tear down other team members are as big a problem as any negative, sweary dps.  (You thought I was going to totally be on just the tank’s side in this blog right?) One run with a tank like that and you might see why a dps would lash out at a tank here and there.

    I think a tank that gets kicked from a LFR, or LFG should have a time penalty before they can queue again.  Why? Because it kills the attitude of, “If they kick me I will get right back in again,” and likewise dps should have a similar penalty.  Not because I’m a jerk, but there should be a consequence when you exhibit bad behavior.   Yes this could be abused.  In my experience 90% of the folks that get kicked deserve it. 

         At the end of the day folks we are all human, and need to treat each other as such.   If we are going to fix this issue in game we need to do it one player at a time, just making the decision to be nice to each other.  I’m not asking you to be everyone’s friend.  Or even to like other people.  Just treat them with the respect they deserve.

Lag

I Am Stepping Down

So… Here it goes.

       I am writing this even debating right now if I’m actually going to post it.  I have been thinking a lot lately about my role in World of Warcraft versus student, versus father and husband.  I made a decision a little over a year ago to change my life by going back to school, getting and education, and bettering my situation overall.  I am essentially working on rebuilding myself as a better person with opportunities that will benefit those whom I love.

      So, with a heavy heart I am going to flat out say it.  I am stepping down from raid leading for the foreseeable future.

     I am going to even change the name of this blog. It will probably go on as theornerywowplayer or something of that flavor.  I want to go into and explain why I am making this decision, and I want to make sure that everyone involved understands why I am doing it.

     It really hit home to me while I was thinking about a job interview I have tomorrow.  If I get this job, I will be getting up around 6 am, heading to work at 7, working 8-5, then going to school 6-9 every weekday but Friday.  This means that I will have even less time in game then I do right now.  I will probably have an hour or so when I get home before I go to bed, and that hour will belong to my wife and family.  I am not going to play World of Warcraft when I get so little daily time.

     I have also been looking at my education down the road. I am going to graduate from DATC when I finish the course I am taking, and that will be around January give or take.  I am going to continue to attend and earn some more certifications, (Project+, Administrators, Linux, Citrix) so I will probably be enrolled until the end of summer at the earliest which is a bit longer than I had originally planned.  After that, I may go on to try and get my bachelors in computer science with an emphasis on Networks and Administration.  Needless to say, that means I will probably be looking at a couple more years at least in school.

     Between these two things it hit home to me.  I am not going to be able to rebuild the raid team.  I don’t have the energy and the time.  I am not going to keep pushing forward on it, because that would not be fair to anyone who is there right now.  I am officially calling quits on raiding leading, organization, etc…

     What does that mean for the guild?  I don’t know.  If someone wants to rebuild the raid team or start one I will support it.  If the guild become just a place where folks leave an alt to hop in and keep in touch I’m ok with that too.  The end line of this is I am taking a step back from any sort of big responsibility in World of Warcraft.

      I am going to keep playing.  This game is my big stress relief and I love chatting with folks.   There are people who I have played with for years that I worry about such as Scorpiak and Magilla.  However, it is selfish of me not to say, feel free to move on if the right opportunity presents itself.  I will still probably get on Sunday nights to run dungeons, LFR, and other such things with my family and people, but I am not going to set my clock by it.

     I am going to be doing my own thing.  I will probably be leveling a couple of horde alts, and a couple of alts on Aerie Peak.  I may find a raid team or two where I can step in as an alternate, but I don’t plan on being the big main raider in any shape or form.  I have grown to the point where this game cannot take priority for me.  It is not fair to myself, or anyone else involved for me to keep going on like I have.  I am done for now, and will be doing my own thing.  I hope I see folks in game, but as everything must come to an end, my time as raid leader has.  I have raid lead since wrath, so I had a pretty good sprint.  It’s time for someone else to pick up the mantle.  Or we can just let it lie.

     Either way, I love the experiences I have and thank everyone for helping me become a better person through this experience.  I wish I could remember everyone.  My family Gwyndolynn, Fantaa, Aeryn, Shaqia, Whatever Toon Jon is helming right now.  (Love you Jon, but you switch more than me.)  And those I’ve played with outside,  Bromli, Laserfina, hummock, Sochia, Bannanahamock, Zhamora, and even the guild leaders in midnight, years ago who picked me up and let me run with them no matter how that ended.  All deserve an amount of thanks.  And yes, I probably misspelt more than one name there.  I have forgotten to mention so many others.  I could sit here thinking for hours and coming up with even more.  But I Won’t bore folks with that.

So, for that last time, as the ornery raid leader,

Thanks for reading,

Lag

No Raids Yet

This expansion is going strong.  But where are we?

     First of all, the state of World of Warcraft is better than it has been in a long time.  If you believe that Ian Hozzikostas told a reporter, allegedly, that Wow is back up to 10.1 million active subscriptions, then there is evidence this may be true.  Despite Blizzard later denying that Ian said such a thing, as they had officially stopped announcing subscription numbers, I think it was clever marketing to get the numbers our unofficially.  If you hop in game right you can feel the resurgence.  Dalaran is well populated again.  The world seems full of players, and there is plenty to do.

     World quests have been a nice way to spend some time every day.  There is dungeons, LFR, I hear that PVP is not bad right now (I don't PVP so I have to take folks word for it.) and we already have a lot of 7.1 announced to look forward to.

      We are already a couple months in and things feel like they are going strong.

      But Fear Itself, is not raiding.  We are not in a position to raid, and I don't know when we will be.

      I find this fascinating because gearing is not hard at the moment.  Just doing my world quests every other day I have managed to get to a ilevel of 844 now.  I have tanked a mythic, and found that those are about as hard as heroic last expansion.  I have done my class hall quests, and spending an hour or so a day on average managed to be at a level where I could be raiding.  I know some others in the guild are in the same boat.  Several are not.

      So this leads to the question, what do we do from here?  I could try and rebuild a raid team, but I am full of social anxiety over inviting a bunch of new people in and figuring out where they fit.  I have done it several times, and happily built what we have, but as I've stated before, I don't know if I have it in me.

     I could find another raid team to pair with, so that people in Fear Itself have a place to go where we can still work together.  I just am not sure where to start as my in game relations have dwindled the last couple of years. I also am unsure about a raid environment that I can't control.  I am also relieved by the idea.  I am just not sure I have it in me to be a raid leader anymore.  I want to enjoy the game, but I have grown weary of pushing people and doing all the work.  This is even an option I can employ across realms since I do have a couple of characters in the Convert to raid team on Aerie Peak.  I might be able to build something there and have my guildies invited in.  Because the simple truth is, I still love my long standing guild members and don't want to let them down.

     I will keep posting stuff on Saturday and Sunday night for now.  Even if we just run LFR I want to keep people working together.  If I see an opportunity to work us in, I will do it.  If someone else wants to step up, raid lead and recruit, I will fully support them.  However, I don't think this will happen as when I have tried to step down in the past, it hasn't been possible.

     I am open to suggestions from guild members as well.  If you have a friends raid team who would love folks to step in, that is awesome.  If you want to create a PVP team to make the guild  have more to do.  Groovy.  Let's keep moving forward.

And let's do it together.

Lag.

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My Frame of Mind.

And the raiding has started!

     And I am sitting here just playing around.  Half of my normal raid team isn’t geared yet, and I have just started scheduling things as of last weekend.  Last weekend we had one team run heroics, and one do regulars.  It informed me that we have a bit of a ways to go.  If we go.

      I’m still not convinced that everyone is coming back for this raid tier.  Other people I don’t believe are going to hang around long enough once the right opportunities open up.  In my head I am debating the energy to rebuild the raid team if it is going in the direction I think, and I just don’t think I have it in me this time around.

     Between school and real life I feel stretched thin.  A couple expansion ago I had every class leveled and had a good idea of how the specs worked etc.  I just can’t do that anymore.  I have debated throwing in the towel but I have folks that have run with me since Wrath that I don’t want to abandon.  I hear that phrase that it’s my fifteen a month, but I feel obligated to those who have played with me for years.

     My question is, if I think things aren’t going to work out, do I let them know now so they can look at greener pastures? Or do I try and hold on to see what happens?  There is a chance I’m just writing this in a pessimistic mood and that this weekend I will hop on, folks will be there and we can jump in.  I still think in the best of luck, we are a couple weeks out from starting raids.  That is if folks show up.

      My beef is that the gearing isn’t hard right now.  You open up world quests, and spending a few hours a week I have been able to get to a very decent ilevel to hop into things.  Class hall quests help, so does finishing each zone including the slog of crack addicted elves in Suramar.  I finally got to revered with them and can now run dungeons that won’t reward me with anything I need because they were gated.  But that’s a gripe for another time.

       Maybe I’m old man grumpy, or maybe I am just tired.  If my situation just change the question is, does this blog become the orneryraidplayer? Runner? Who knows?

       Other than that, I did manage to do an LFR and the new raid in Emerald dream looks fantastic.  There are a lot of NSFW jokes I could make here, but that is not my mission in life.  I would rather tell them in person.

       As a guild we have swapped to Discord as a voice service.  I am enjoying that so far, but I am also in the Beta for Blizzard Voice chat and if that works it would be an even simpler solution.  I just couldn’t justify having Fantaa keep paying for Ventrillo when we don’t use it often enough lately.  Not when there are some great free options out.  I glanced at the Curse.com option as well, that one starts free but looks like it starts to charge after a while.

      Well, I think that’s about it for now.  The big news in Wow is that folks are raiding, the game is as fun as it has ever been, and there is plenty of content.  I am slowly starting to poke at a couple of alts now and will hopefully have a second or third one-ten character in a few weeks.

We will see,

Lag.

Legion: They haven't fixed professions.

So, I have enjoyed professions in World of Warcraft in the past…

     Let me take a step back first and say despite the tone of this post, I am still loving the crap out of Legion.  While it's early to be very judgey it has some of the best starting content we have experienced in game in my humble opinion.  If the rest of the expansion lives up to it's launch it is going to be a great time in Azeroth.

    Warlords put a bullet in the head of professions.  Last expansion with all the garrison options almost no one needed to work on creating potions, armor, and the rest because other than in a very few choices you could have a shop in your garrison for what you needed.  This meant that my paladin didn’t need to have my DK fashion plate armor for him, he could just make it himself.  And ore? Shoot, if he didn’t feel like going out there was a steady supply coming through his garrison.

    The only point I will give Warlords in regards to professions, is that they were still useful when you leveled.

     Legion has killed that for me.  In almost every past expansion my engineers have worked hard to grind up mats so I can have engineering googles to start raiding with.  I love the techno look mixed with the usefulness of being able to make myself a decent bit of gear to hop in with.  In this expansion, not so much.

     By the time I got my first recipe for goggles, I had already out geared them.   I made a pair and threw it on for transmog, but otherwise I was disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to use them well for leveling.  Now, at 110 I have a quest to be able to make my ilevel 815 goggles, but I can’t access the dungeon they are in until I’m further in Suramar.  To top that, I already have an 840 helm from world quests, so I am in no hurry to make them.  Now I know I can with the fel forge (I can’t remember the exact name) make items to level the goggles up.  But stating at 815, (825 if I get lucky and it wins an upgrade roll) that means I have to make, and destroy a few dozen items after doing a quest that cost me about 30k gold after completing to level them to the point of this drop.  That means my profession goggles, the thing that marks me as an engineer is useless for anything but transmog.

     And I have heard other professions having similar issues.  I heard a complaint about it with Blacksmithing on a podcast I listen to.  Now I haven’t played deep enough to know if this is all professions, but if it is then yes then what use are they?  Why do I want to make gear I will never be able to use, unless I put a lot of effort into making it equal to what I can get with a five-minute world quest?

     Of course, Alchemy, Jewelcrafting, and Inscription may not be effected by this.  I’m thinking mainly crafting professions like Leatherworking, Tailoring, Blacksmithing, and Engineering.  Unless we get some pizazz and sizzle in each patch to make these worthwhile, it is going to be another expansion where people don’t care.

     Or am I wrong?  If I am let me know.

      All I know is that I have every profession at least once with all my alts.  If there is no bonus or point in doing my professions why should I bother leveling them this time around.  IF there isn’t reason, it may be the final nail in the coffin for me.  And I have always enjoyed professions before this point.

     Heck, I had three engineers at the end of Cataclysm….

     How are you feeling about your professions?

Lag

I'm Legion it

So we are a couple weeks in, and it’s still a bit overwhelming.

     I make 110 about a week ago, and sadly have not been able to dedicate as much time as I would like to doing everything.  Of course, as soon as I take my Network+ exam next week, should I pass I will have a bit more time.  Until then it is mostly crunch and study time.  This is supposed to be a very hard exam, and so far from what I am seeing I believe it.

     In the game though, is what we are worried about.  Let me tell you, the experience is great at the moment.

      Once you open up world quests, which you will do if you have finished the main storylines in the zones and get friendly with Suramar there is plenty to do.  I still have to finish the Nightfallen quests, I haven’t had time to do more than a handful of world quests, but those are fun, and the dungeons have been great so far.

     The note on that, is I have only run a few dungeons on normal, so I can’t speak to heroic or mythic modes.  I still have only scratched the surface of the Suramar quests and I still feel like I have at ton to do.  It honestly borders on discouraging that I am so overwhelmed with stuff in game, with not much time to play at the moment.  I look forward to finding the time.

     The Legion app they released helps a little.  If you don’t have it yet, what are you doing?   The problem I am finding with it, is by constantly doing Class Hall missions and sending my followers out, I am bleeding through resources much quicker than I am collecting them.  Unlike the Garrisons in Warlords, you don’t have a cache that grows said resources, and you don’t have follower quests to gain them either.  So if you don’t have much time to go out into the world, you are facing the choice of just stopping the missions for now, or burning your resources to the ground and not being able to do your research for Class hall abilities etc.  In short, you have to play to keep up and while that is not necessarily bad, it feels punishing when you can’t get on a for a couple of days.

      Suramar itself is not clicking with me.  I liked the other quest zones, but something about the crack (magic) addicted night elves (Nightfallen) just isn’t doing it for me.  I find it strange because I normally like anything elven, and the story seems great.  I might just need to push further in before it matters to me.  I do find it frustrating that if I don’t quest there for a day or two, I have to feed mana to the NPCs before I can pick up and continue quests.  I know the mana is easy to grind up, it is everywhere, but it seems an unnecessary hurdle to have to jump.

      Despite everything above, I am loving this expansion.  Visually it is amazing.  The storylines are great, and important things happen.  Long known characters are killed and others are saved and you aren’t sure which ones will survive with Blizzard’s willingness to end their characters right now.  And hey, with Metzen retiring (I’m saddened by this) Maybe Thrall in next.  Mwha ha ha.  Just kidding, I like Thrall.  Still, like everyone else, he may die.

      How is everyone else’s experience with legion going?  Are you loving it? Are there things you don’t like or that you feel people are overlooking?  What is your favorite experience so far?

Lag.

The First Week of Legion's Excitement

So three days in, and I’m loving it.

   Yes, I realize that Legion still has its new shine to it, which can be heavily influential on opinions.  So far, I have been leveling my Paladin Lag as Retribution, and enjoying the experience.  The balance with this scaling seems nice as everything I fight doesn’t go down quickly, but at the same time the damage they deal is manageable.  I normally don’t die unless I have several mobs on me, or if I take something on that is bigger than I can chew.

   The only area I have finished so far is Azsuna, and I thought the zone was great.  The locations are beautiful, the stories are interesting, and I’ve flat out enjoyed exploring the area.  My favorite thing, and I know it’s silly, was the fact we have Murlocs again.  After two expansions, (I don’t remember Murlocs in Pandaria, but I could be wrong) I was questing and heard the familiar Mrggglggglggl.  My heart jumped in excitement I was down sword swinging with a smile on my face.  Sometimes the older traditional mobs are the best.

    The side quests have been fun too.  Stopping to fight a demon invasion in Exodar (I can’t say much more without spoilers) Khadgar pulling me here and there randomly to explore things.  And the artifact quests.  So far I’ve done Ret Pally, Prot Pally, and Frost DK.

    And let me tell you, (just not in this post) the DK artifact weapons quest brought up a lot more questions for me than it answered.  It also might point to some things coming up.  But after some time passes I will comment more.  Enough people are hopping in still I don’t want to destroy the surprise for anyone.  I really don’t.  All the quests and fun have been worth discovering and doing first hand.

    The one theme of this expansion I am hoping is Redemption.  I think that we will see a redemption of Illidan in this expansion.  I think he will remain demon formed and sarcastic, but there is a path set forward in which we could see him become one of the champions of Azeroth.  Hopefully this time he won’t get shafted (thank you Malfurion) and we won’t put him back into the position of being the enemy.   

    If you have read the book Illidan, you probably feel this way as well.  There are some heavy implications towards the end of that book as to Illidan’s destiny.  The other half of that book did prove that Illidan was a bit villainous, however I don’t feel he didn’t do anything for the sake of evil, more for the sake of him feeling the ends justified the means.

    I am hoping, against odds, that we see a Sylvanas redemption story as well.  This one may be a bit unlikely.  There was an interesting discussion on it between Matt Rossi and Anne Stickney on Blizzardwatch where they laid out the reasons she really can’t be redeemed.  Part of it being that she is undead and that has a severe effect on her mindset.  Meaning, some things for her are rational when they shouldn’t be. (for example, killing her sister so they can be together forever, which was one of her ideas in “War Crimes.”) And the fact she really isn’t corrupted by an outside influence. The Lich King holds no sway over her, she recovered her body so that’s her own, and other than being undead which effects how she experiences the world, her thoughts are her own.

    That being said, we have magic in Azeroth.  What if she was brought back to life somehow? Why do we consider her being brought back to life the same as redemption?  Is there an in between we could find?  There is a chance they that her redemption could be sacrificing herself for the greater good. I honestly ask these questions because if anyone deserves some happiness in her story it’s Sylvanas.  I would not be unhappy if they did find a way to bring her back to life, and or if she found redemption.  It is strongly hinted her sister Alleria will be showing up, might she have found something in her off world adventures that could bring Sylvanas back?

    I will say it now, if she stops leading the forsaken, I vote for Lillian Voss to fill that role.  I have always found her interesting, and she is probably the next most recognizable forsaken that I can think of.  While her fate wasn’t certain after Scholomance, I’m a firm believer that if we didn’t see a body, they aren’t dead.

     The trolls have a similar problem.  Other than Vol’jin, who amongst them is going to lead now?  I can’t think of a single one that is nearly as recognizable.

     What is everyone else’s thoughts on this new expansion so far? Are you loving it? Is it more of the same to you?  Or is there an opinion you would like to share that is in between?

Lag

A Few Days to Legion

We are almost to Legion.  All we have to do is survive the weekend.

     There is always that time before the next expansion drops where we sit in frenzied excitement planning on this being the best expansion ever.  Normally, a couple months in a few flaws will appear and we will start to talk about how Wrath was the best expansion etc... but that beginning where everything is shiny and new is amazing to us.  And who knows, this could be the best expansion ever.  Until we sink our dirty little claws in who knows.

     I have been blows away a bit by the excitement of the pre-patch event.  For the most part it has been tons of fun.  People are still swarming over the Legion attacks, and you can level a alt quickly.  I can tell you going from 90-100 isn't hard.  Wearing full heirlooms and a 20% potion from your garrison you can get almost a level per invasion.  Even without you can get half a level or more. Now is the time to speed level alts.  The time is perfect for it.

    The story we have gotten each week with a new quest has been two hits and one miss for me.  The first week of course was the most amazing when we saw some major lore characters fall, and both the Horde and Alliance get shaken up a bit.  Some people went out like a bad A, (King Varian) and some died before we could see their potential fulfilled (Vol'jin) either way that week was amazing.  You had to play both sides of the scenerios, or watch them on youtube, to get the full story.  If you only had one half, specifically the Alliance half, you were ready to go murder the other faction.

    The second week and the return of Magni Bronzebeard was fantastic.  We got to trudge around Ulduar and Karazhan again.  There was a great bit of lore introduced, some that may have surprised some people.  Though, it came close to what Matt Rossi and Anne Stickney from Blizzardwatch have predicted. Titan Azeroth.....

     The third week I found disappointing.  It felt shoehorned in because Blizzard needed to add something.  Of course seeing Alodi is no small thing, but it felt more like five minutes in Dalaran than anything substantial. There was no real story to it, just a cool guest appearance to make you feel like it mattered.

    I am spending my last few days, getting a few alts to 100, and just getting a feel for a few classes.  I am still not locked onto one class for my main in Legion, but I have this weekend to decide what I want to do.  I love the feel of Demon Hunter, and have been asking for that class since Wrath, but I don't want to jump on the hot new thing because it's the hot new thing.  My paladin has been my main for so long I almost feel indebted to the idea of leveling him first.  But we will see.

    What are you doing in these last few days?  Leveling alts, trying out new classes, or just taking it easy?  Are you enjoying the pre-patch content?  How do you feel about the pre-patch quests?

Lag

Meanwhile, in the pre-patch....

I don't think I'm holding back spoilers on this one... so really
SPOILERS are here
Don't read this post if you don't like SPOILERS.

    So we are two days into the pre-patch event.  I have already rolled my first Demon Hunter, and played through the Alliance and Horde side quests.  It is a lot of fun, and a lot to take in right now.  So let us start with the Demon Hunter experience.

    Rhumor is my new demon hunter, and while I had played through the starting quests a couple of times in the Alpha and Beta, it still feels good to visit that starting zone.  The last time I played through he cut scenes we have been given with, Illidan, Maeve and Gul'dan did not exist.  It was pretty much play through and enjoy.  With the cut scenes it adds a great bit more importance and atmosphere to the game play.  I loved it the first time I played through, and I love it even more now.  If you don't plan on playing a Demon Hunter, I still suggest just playing on through the starting zone.  It is pretty awesome.

     The Class itself is fun to play.  It is very movement based, and you can't help but jump around, charge, and vault away from your enemies as needed.  They do have a bit of glass canon syndrome going on where if you start to take hits you drop quickly.  Well, at least in Havoc, I haven't tried the tanking spec yet, that is on my list for this week.

    Now we get to the quests.  Here is where we get spoilery.  So, once again, if you don't like spoilers don't read on.  I won't stop you, I'm not your mother.  But don't get mad at me later because you kept going despite my warnings.

    Both the Horde and Alliance Quests start out pretty much the same.  You get sent on a mission to stop the invasion.  You storm a beach, meet up with the forces (led by Vol'jin and Varian Wrynn) that had gone on before.  You then start to push the demons backs.

    The Horde and Alliance are on separate sides of the island but meet up when they go to rescue Tirion Fordring.  You know, the dude who stood in a block of ice while you killed the Lich King and then broke out in time to make sure he got some loot as well.  Anyway, we get there, but it's too late.  We get to witness the death of a major lore character.

     Of course there is then a bit of banter from Gul'dan, and the Alliance decides to take him and the Legion head on while the Horde climbs a cliff to watch the flank.  Seems like a good plan, right?

     Well, the story splits off here again.  I will just say, the Alliance is fighting and sees the Horde leave them to the Legion.  Without the support, the Alliance is overrun and has to retreat.  King Varian Wrynn, sacrifices himself to allow the Alliance to escape, and then charges into the demon's and goes out like the Bad A he is.  No we don't recover a body, but play the quest.  He's gone.

     What the Alliance doesn't see is the Horde is being over run and is forced to retreat.  Vol'jin is severely wounded and Thrall is knocked out of the fight.  Despite the cries of hold this position no matter what, the Horde is forced to retreat.  They too get to see Varian Wrynn die as they make their escape.

     So on Alliance side, King Wrynn is dead and Anduin is now the king of Stormwind.  I am curious where this will go, because Wrynn has always been the war leader for the Alliance, and his son is not a warrior.  We of course get a bit of angry Jaina and Angry Genn Graymane, and half the alliance leadership is calling out for vengeance against the Horde for abandoning them.  They blame the Horde for Varian's death

    The Horde calls you in time to see Vol'jin's last moments.  Yes, the troll whom I love the most is no more.  In his last moments he tells Sylvanas what he thinks of her, and then makes her Warchief.  He then is taken to troll heaven, or to be one with the loa, or whatever their afterlife is.

    So now, we get to see two factions who have lost their main leaders have to interact.  Sylvanas has always been what one might consider evil and very aggressive.  I am curious how leading the Horde is going to effect this part of her now that she has to watch out for all the Horde races, and not just the undead.  This may be the redemption story we have been waiting for.  I mean, we have seen so many leaders killed and corrupted, it would be a nice change of pace.

   The one bone of contention I have with this pre-patch is a small one. When the Demon Hunters emerge, they meet up with Khadgar, who introduces himself as the leader of the Kirin Tor.  This is all well and good, but this takes place before some throne room shenanigans in which Jaina is labeled and calls herself the leader of the Kirin Tor.  Either Blizzard dropped the ball here somewhere, or Khadgar and Jaina may be causing a rift in the biggest mage society on Azeroth.  Because we need more leaders arguing and causing civil war.

    Either way, I am enjoying the crap out of this content.  Play it for yourselves, it's great.  The armor you can get for transmog and upgrades from the invasions looks good.  Well, except for the cloth helm.  And Azeroth feels populated again.  Hop in and see what I mean.

Lag.