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.

Prepatch feelings.

So, by now most of you have jumped on to try out your characters.

     I have taken a couple weeks to post this, because I've been mulling over what to say.  I want to give some bright insights you haven't heard anywhere else along with infusing you with the fervor and excite which comes when we are looking a new expansion in the face.   I want to thrill you with words and make you want to log in this very moment to see what everyone else is experiencing.

     In my heart I can't.

     The state of the game is fine, don't get me wrong.  I have been moving from character to character trying out some of the specs.  Some like my Ret Paladin just doesn't feel right to me.  Which if funny because I would argue my Retadin got changed very little.  Survival hunter feels more fun that I would have though, my elemental shaman just feels under-powered to me.  And on and on it goes.

     I guess I was expecting more early on.  We got built up to this pre-patch event etc, and I got a little bit of bone with bits of meat on it.  The main coarse is still waiting.  The only opinion I can give right now is that things are not where they need to be yet. They have given us a taste of what is up and coming, but I am not comfortable giving any type of judgement yet.

     I was honestly hoping they would start the pre-patch shenanigans today, a week before we get demon hunters.  Alas as far as I know nothing happened.  I haven't seen any news of it in my feeds or on Blizzardwatch, and the DDoS attacks are keeping me from being able to log in to see for myself.  I guess I thought it would be nice if everyone could focus on the pre-patch event, and then on Demon Hunters rather than balancing time between the two.

     The other thing I can speak to is I am in the Facebook streaming beta from Blizzard.  I can stream any of the games I choose to play in Blizzard's list.  Be it Diablo III, Heroes of the Storm, or World of Warcraft.  So far I'm underwhelmed with this product, but as it is, it is the beta.

     The problems I have seen is freezing while recording (to be honest that is more my computers fault then Blizzards) When you are no longer live on Facebook the recording seem clipped and short. Normally it stops after about five minutes, and half of that is video that is fast forwarded/sped up.   I also would love a way to link the recordings here at the bottom of my blog post, because that would be cool.  I would honestly love to record my blog live, verbally while playing so people could choose to click and listen while I am using this technology.  It has a long way to go.

     I still don't think the intention is to take on Twitch.  I just don't see the earning potential or the focus that would be needed towards a particular group of individuals.  I am not seeing anything in the interface that is comparable and I feel that if such things are implemented, they may not fit into Blizzard's vision of this product. Once again, it's Beta so we don't know what is going to happen down the line.

     So, am I being a wet blanket?  Is there something amazing that has come out that I have missed?  Or am I spot on, and are you gritting at the teeth for some real new content to play?  What is your opinion so far?

Lag

   

Tomorrow, we begin again.

It's official, there are no more mooses in Hellfire Citadel.

      That is right folks, tomorrow is the day that we get to relearn everything.  7.0 will be dropping, for those counting this is the 7th iteration of the game.  Not counting major changes that mid-expansion that is.  This time the focus is on class fantasy.  They have taken the essence of each class and tried to distill it into each of the specs.  I will be honest, I have been lazy about playing on the test realm so all I can really say, is hop on and see how your class works.  The people playing on the PTR have been doing a lot of class switching.  This is going to be the expansion where a lot of people change their main character is the feeling right now.

      Demon Hunters are coming, but not yet.  They will not be available until the last week or two before Legion drops on Aug. 30th.  So, you have to put your warglaves on the shelf a little longer.

     New transmog system will be out.  This means my end of expansion bag and bank cleaning is coming.  No longer will you have to have an item in your bank or void storage to use it for transmog, if you have picked it up on a character that could transmog it, it will be recorded, and then you can vendor that item for gold.  My only question is, doesn't this make void storage pointless? Unless they use it as a second bank for everything, I think it does.

      If you are not started, you won't be able to start your legendary quest for your ring after tomorrow.  As a matter of fact, if you aren't to part II of the quest line it will disappear from your quest log completely.  If you are in the latter part of the quest, you will need to finish it by August 30th, or the quest will be gone completely.

      I know everyone is excited for the demon invasion, however, like Demon Hunters, this event will not be happening immediately.  Instead we will be given a few weeks to get the feel of our characters down.  I feel this is for the best, as much as I would love a long drawn out invasion that progressed week by week, this is going to give us the opportunity to get our feet wet and figure out what we are doing before fel fire starts raining down from the sky.

      There is much more.  If you go to battlenet.com you can go look it up.  So get in there tomorrow, figure things out, and let's get ready to kill some demons.

     If you are in Fear Itself, start watching your calendars for Monday and Tuesday nights.  I will start getting get together's together soon so we can start hitting things together again.  It's time to work our way into a new expansion.

Lag.

Did Warlord's Break Professions.

I’ve been thinking about professions a lot.

                Warlords was not kind to professions.  Everything was made so readily available by garrisons, that for the most point it felt pointless to have any gathering professions, let alone any making professions.  You could upgrade a few select items for yourself or others with a lot of work, but for the most part, it felt pretty useless to be a blacksmith etc… after a point.

                With Legion it sounds like we are taking a step back to the old way of doing things, with a few improvements.  You will have your blacksmiths, doing all the blacksmith work.  Jewel crafters doing all the gems and so on.  The improved part is that if you are not at level with Legion professions, you will still be able to make the items.  This means you won’t have to slog through all making all the Vanilla Wow recipes on up before you can make current gear.

                I look forward to this.  I miss professions feeling meaningful, rather that something you might do so that you can make one or more extra items that through hard work will be comparable to that next drop you get in a dungeon.  I know I’m kind of looking back at things through rose colored glasses on this.  I remember grinding to make a couple of items to get my ilevel up and ready to raid, just to replace them a week or two later.

                However I also wonder how many people are looking forward to going back to the old way?  I remember flying around Uldum for hours grinding ore so I could work on Engineering and Blacksmithing items.  Now because of my garrison, I don’t remember that last time I went grinding for ore.  Well, it’s been a couple of months, but it was in Pandaria to make Sky Golem mount to sell.  I still do that on occasion, but that is a gold earning thing, not a current need gear that works right now thing.  As far as current engineering work, I do the same thing I have done since the beginning of Warlords, I pop out a Blingtron 5000

                Now, since we have not had to do much gathering, are people going to be willing to hope back into that again?  How about professions when it comes to making stuff.  Are people going to have the drive to bang out a bunch of items after it just felt useless?  Or is everyone else’s experience different than mine, where people making a lot of items with professions and making it feel worthwhile?  I am honestly curious.  How is this going to affect people’s feelings going into Legion?  Am I just crazy to be having these thought?

What do you think, are you ready to hop back into professions come Legion?

Lag

               

                

Any Given Tuesday.

It's getting close to that time.

    The patch could drop any week now.  I know we say that every time about now, but every week we are one step closer.  I fully expect we will have at least a month to play with the pre-patch event, as that seems to have been a trend with the expansions that had a pre-patch event (I'm glaring at you Pandaria)

    That means, if you want your Moose from Hellfire Citadel, you have a very limited amount of time to do so.  Once the patch drops, that mount is gone.  If you wanted to level X character up to 100 before the shenanigans begin, you need to get it done quickly.

    The Legion is coming.

     If your like me you are frothing at the mouth to see what Blizzard does with this.  I'm expecting a lot of changes and updates to lore.  I as always, am hoping this new expansion will resonate with players as much as Wrath of the Lich King did.  I think Blizzard needs another expansion that just nails it like wrath did.  There is a reason it was most every bodies (whom I talk to anyway) favorite expansion.  It does have the promise.

     Icon character driving the story forward (Illidan, check) A real threat to our Azeroth (Check again) and a feeling that our actions will have an effect on our world going forward (Sorry Warlords, Check).  An enemy that is both familiar, but has some new aspects to it. (Check it baby).

     Now all we need to do is hope the story and game play lives up to the hype.  I have no illusions that we are ever going to see twelve million players in this game again like we did in Wrath.  It would be nice, but the possibilities are just not there at the moment.  I won't say it's impossible either.  No one expected the player base to jump back up to ten million at the beginning of Warlords, but we all know that didn't last very long.  What does that mean though?

    It means that the fans are there.  It means there are enough players hoping for an experience that can pull them back into the game again like it used to.  I myself would love something that made me feel like I had to log in every day, for at least a few minutes, to see what was going on.  On the other hand I don't really have that time at the moment either.  That pull though, I would love to feel it again.

     So, ten million, twelve million players, not probable, yes.  Impossible?  I don't believe anything is impossible if done right.  I don't see it happening, but I would love to be proved wrong.  I'm pretty sure Blizzard doesn't expect those numbers again, but they would be happily surprised if they happened.

    Grab your swords and staffs, Legion is coming.  It is less than two months away and will be upon us before we know it.  Lets kill some Legion.

Lag.

Two More Months Left Until Legion.

It just dawned on my how close we are to the next expansion.

    We are less than two months away people. That's right let me say it again.

    Less than two months.

    That means within the month we will probably get to experience the launch of the pre-expansion content.  They have said this time around there will be a pre-expansion event, and I for one am looking forward to it.  I love pre-expansion events.  The Wrath one was my favorite.

    It would be yours two if you remembered all the QQing and the zombie plague, (which I loved btw.)

    What will we get this time?  Will it be a set of quests to stop an invasion like the last one?  Or will it be a set of different events that change the landscape of our home cities like the elemental invasion before cataclysm?  The other question here, I wonder ever so humbly.

    They said pre-purchased legion copies will get the Demon Hunter early... will we get it with the launch of the pre-expansion content.  I would be lying if I didn't say I was insanely excited at the moment about all this.  Bring it on baby, I am ready for Legion.  

    In two months we will see if the raid team is back.  Honestly, I would love to try to do a couple of raids before the new content drops if enough folks are around.  I could see bringing our characters with the Legion changes into Hellfire Citadel a couple times to see how they feel.  I'm not sure people will be up or around for it, but it would be nice to see how things feel.

    Like always, I will start posting raid a couple weeks to a month after the Xpack drops depending on how the guild is looking.  If people are hitting 110 quickly, I will be scheduling things quickly. If people drag their feet it might be a little longer.  If the raid team does not get back together, as it has been on hiatus for months I will address that when it happens.  If nothing else I will try and find another raid team we can work our way into.  I really have no desire to rebuild at this point, but with cross-realm invites etc... I may be able to find something we all can still do. I want to keep the team together as much as possible, and I may eat my "I don't want to rebuild words."  Emotionally though I don't think I can do another expansion of people not showing up, and fighting to get a team to raid.  I don't want to quit this game, I still enjoy it.  I love the people like Magilla, and Scorpiack who have been running with us forever.  But, I just have too much spinning on my plate right now to go back and do all that extra work.  We will figure it out though, as we always do.

Lag.

Blizzard Needs a Different Approach.

I love Blizzard entertainment.

      Honestly, if they weren't in a place so crowded as California and I thought I had the talent my goal someday would be to work for them in some capacity.  Everyone I have met from the company, the way the love their own games, and the quality they aim for all impresses me.  They make me happy.

     Now I know that all seem contrary to the comment I made above.  I mean, I'm sitting here fan boying a bit, and you know I'm a fan since I run this blog, but my title implies something different.  The truth is after my last post on flying in Legion my mind has been on the big flight controversy in Warlords.

     I stated at the time and I will state it again.  I'm a firm believer that the biggest issue with the announcement of no flying was the way in which it was handled.  At the beginning of the expansion we were told flying would be added in a later patch, and then right before the final patch there is an interview where (I believe it was Hozzikostas) casually mentioned they had decided not to implement flying.  And the roar from the fans shook Azeroth.  Or at least Draenor.

     Much of the problem was with the way they presented it.  This should have been something aimed directly at the fans.  A post or a video you click on in you Blizzard loader that has Hozzikostas, or Metzen, or one of the other recognizable heads address the community head on and say "hey, we have decided to removing flying, and this is why..."  Instead having it said in the interview made it feel like it was something Blizzard was hiding and that it may have been a slip.  It raised the question, "If they hadn't said it here, would they have said it at all?"

     I admit to having a short term memory, because I don't remember many other outroars that were that big.  I know there was the moment when Blizzard decided to post on the forums your real name would be shown, but beyond that, nothing.

    It does feel however that when it comes to Warcraft we are not getting as much communication as we used to. I remember there being blue posts and messages constantly through other betas/alphas but both the betas for Draenor and Legion have felt quiet.  After Warlords dropped it felt a lot like Blizzards focus was on their other games.  I believe it's part of the shift where World or Warcraft used to be Blizzard's #1 property, and now we are sharing the spotlight.  It however does not feel good when it feels the focus has gone away and it leaves people wondering.

     Here is where I give some suggestions to Blizzard (I know, I'm a short fat dude and they have no reason to listen to me.  I'm going to speak anyway.)

    First of all, next time you have a decision that may be controversial take a moment and discuss it with the community rather than just making the decision.  The flight issue would have been mitigated by a lot if there had been some threads in the forums by blues saying "This is what we want to do and this is why, but we want your opinions."  Yes I know there would be a lot of whining and pointless crap to sift through, but you could also take the pulse and get the feedback from the community before making a change.  If it's something that would effect flying or another major mechanic you have given us, hold an open discussion with your fans.

    My other piece of advice could work for all your games.  Make sure you are talking to all your fan bases on a regular basis.  I don't know if having a monthly update on the state of the game is the way to go, but fight the feeling the community gets of, "well, we are in Alpha, I've got months before the next expansion and Blizzard doesn't care, I mean they are focused on Overwatch."  Make sure the doors of Blizzard tower feel open.  Find ways to communicate that you do care.  There is a reason that there is a #threetiersinthreeyears hashtag.  It's painful, but there it is. Warcraft needs to continue to feel like it's important to you as well as the community.  Long silences get interpreted by the community as you don't care.  Even though I know for myself that is not the truth.

    I know it seems over simple.  But this is a relationship we have with you Blizzard.  Like any relationship, you need to let the important people know you think they are important.  Otherwise overtime you loose them.

    Anyway, until next time.

Lag.

Flying into Legion.

It wasn't long ago we had "Flightgate" in Warlords of Draenor.

     Now let's be fair here.  There was little or no doubt after the community explosion over flying in Warlords that we would be getting flying Legion.  I myself am a fan of flying, but as I stated earlier, if it was removed from future expansions it wouldn't be a game breaker for me.  I think there are valid arguments on both sides, but that isn't the issue at hand.

     It was revealed that when patch 7.0 drops you will have your requirements for flying in Legion.  Like in Warlords it will be an achievement based.  What the achievement will be, I think it's pretty easy to guess.

     Plan on finishing all the main quest lines in all the areas relevant to your faction.  One of the main reasons Blizzard wanted to remove flying was to make sure everyone experienced the content in a good grounded fashion.  This meant not flying over mobs to kill the main baddy in a quest or skipping important content.  They are going to want you to experience the world in a way you have to interact with it.

     Plan on having reputation with factions.  This is where I pray faction reputation isn't the grindfest that it was in Warlords.  I never bothered focusing on any this last expansion because there were no rewards worth wasting my time pounding mobs.  The only factions that mattered to me were in Tanaan Jungle simply because that was how I had to earn flying.  Other than that I simply didn't care. This time around I hope that doing all the quests gets you most of the faction rep you need, otherwise I see this as a point of whining contention from some members of the community.

      Plan on doing class quests.  Part of getting flying on Draenor was the garrison quest lines and the dailies from there.  I would expect there will be some sort of quest line, maybe given on a weekly basis, that you have to finish to get flying, along with daily achievements.

    Don't plan on getting flying in the first patch.  From what has been seen the achievement thus far is part 1.  I do believe they mentioned on Convert to Raid that finishing part one will give you a speed increase on your ground mounts, but you won't get flying just yet.  This is going to be one of those things that we are probably going to get a few months into the game at the earliest.  I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they didn't release flying until the last patch of the expansion again.  I hope not, but it's possible.  This also means I won't be leveling as many alts initially as I normally do.  I like the ease of flying/questing when I've already seen the story.

    I do have some questions though.  Say they release flying earlier in the expansion.  Is it going to include all of our alts again? Or just the character who earned it?  I hope it will effect all of our alts but since in Draenor it was introduced at the end of the expansion, I could see Blizzard implementing it another way, and then opening it up to include all your alts later.

    What will happen with those who didn't earn flying in Draenor.  Obviously after the expansion ends people aren't going to want to hang around and earn the achievement for the most part.  There are exceptions here, but if you have a friend who gets the game and starts playing now, that means if you want to go run retroactive dungeons in Draenor with him, he is going to have to walk.  I am honestly hoping they open up flying in Draenor to everyone when Legion drops.  Or at least make it included if you get the Legion achievement.  I don't think this is a big deal, but it's a question I feel is at least worth asking.

   So, anything I miss or anything that needs to be added to this discussion?  Post below.

Lag.

Legion: From Alpha to Beta

So, as you have heard the Blizzard Beta is opening soon for Legion.

     Blizzard has officially closed off the Legion Alpha, and tomorrow as long as there are no unforeseen circumstances Legion Beta will be opening.

     Now, I've been vocal before on my opinion that the Alpha felt a lot like the Beta to me.  There was as expected a lot of unfinished business to play through.  Bugs and broken things.  However, it didn't take long to feel like it just needed to be polished from the little bit I played through. Now I have to admit that I didn't play far or extensively.  But I really think that a large  part of what Blizzard called Alpha would have been Beta in past expansions.

      So now the gates are opening to a larger crowd.  More folks to test what Blizzard has built so far.  This means that there is a lot of confidence on their part they are getting close to a finished product.  I am imagining a month or two of Beta as they start to put some meat on the bones of their product, and then Anywhere from end of June to end of July the pre-patch will drop.  I would love to say end of June, and of course other Betas recently in Warlords and Pandaria  the patch betas seemed to last about a month or so, but there is more work to be done here than in a standard beta for a patch.  While I would like to think we are getting our pre-expansion content sooner than later, I would put more money on later.

       What does that mean for us now?  Watch your email to see if your invited in for the Beta.  Be aware that there are scam artists out there that will be banking on folk clicking links in emails or signing up through such links.  Don't forget your internet safety.  If you get an invite check it out through your battle.net account.  Don't let excitement push you into something you regret.  Don't trust any Beta keys unless they are given through a reliable source.  Even then, make sure you don't fill out anything or click on any links.  Just take said key, if received and enter it in at the battle.net site.

     We are finally approaching the doorstep to the new expansion.  Very soon we will be breaking forth and fighting the Legion once again.  After that, who knows.  I have a guess from reading the book Illidan where we may go next.  Of course, at the same time I don't think the possibilities offered  would be great for the next expansion.  We need to have differences in expansions and the paths offered there would be a definite similar note if they followed those branches immediately. I think it will more likely be a second trip to Northrend as there is the Bolvar as Lich King and that story line I feel will need to be explored before we go  on anymore outer space adventures.

     So with three months left I'm going to work on getting my characters to that level 100 mark.  I want to have my options in line when the next expansion drops.  I am debating swapping to Demon Hunter as a main, but Lag will still probably get leveled first, as he is and has been my main unless there is a good reason to swap right away.

    So, what is everyone else's plans?

Lag

     

In and Beyond Legion

So, looking forward here.

       I've been openly critical of some of the things coming in Legion, I have also been happily optimistic over others.  This here is what I'm hoping that Blizzard will focus on a bit in Legion, and beyond.  I know this won't be the last expansion, If you have read the book Illidan I would hazard a guess from the end on where we will be going next.  however, let's take a quick look at what I want.

     Story is a big thing for me.  The last couple of expansions have been amazing (mostly) on story.  Pandaria was probably the expansion that sticks in my mind the most as a great example of story telling.  There wasn't a raid from Mogu'shan vaults, to Siege of Ogrimmar that had us wondering why we where there.  Story was given over the course of the expansion in good doses.  This made the expansion feel constantly fresh and interesting.  Every major patch had a minor event or something you interacted with that made what you character felt like what they did mattered.  This is what we need more of in Wow, this is what made Warlords feel so flat.  There was nothing outside of your garrsion in Warlords to interact with after the first bit.  Well, there was Tanaan jungle, but it was more of run around than participate in a story.

      I want more meaningful story in Legion and here on out.  Use Pandaria as your template.  I've said this before, but from the slow opening of the Isle of Thunder to Krasarang Wilds and landing your army everything you did felt driven and purposeful.  They lost that magic this last expansion, and I hope they see that and figure out how to fix this.

     Speaking of storylines, I want to see the different factions move and evolve.  Blizzard has a tendency to introduce a race and then just leave them there... in limbo.  I mean, what has been the major change for the Worgen since the beginning of Cataclysm?  Nothing.  Goblins, Worgen, Blood Elves, most of the races stay static.  Even the old races.  Forsaken, Dwarves, most of them feel like there are little advance behind the lines but there isn't much progress.

      Every now and then we get to retake gnomergon, or some such, but those events are rare.  Personally as a Forsaken I would be really worried since if we ever defeat the Legion, and the new Lich King/Scourge, and the Old Gods in the world, what then becomes what is most likely to destroy and threaten life on Azeroth?  I'm looking at you undead.  Unless something changes to give your race a place in the world you are poised to be the next big bad.  Even to most of the horde races.  Good luck with that...

     I want to see leaders and heroes step down without being corrupted and dying.  I would love to see a grey haired Varian Wrynn living peacefully in retirement while Anduin rules Stormwind.  However, in Wow everyone has to have a heroic death.  (O.k. there are a few exceptions.  Looking at you Saurfang) If they don't have that they have a tendency to be corrupted and go mad.  I'm hoping that in Legion Illidan will get a good redemption story arc, because lets be honest.  The reason people worry about Jaina Proudmore becoming a villain is because when a character in Wow is faced with personal tragedy and they get mad, they tend to slip down the villain path.

      I want a cast of side characters that stay with us.  Seeing the members of SI:7 re-appear in Warlords was nice for me.  Even though it was only a glimpse here and there it was nice to see familiar faces from Pandaria.  I would love to continually see some NPCs that go everywhere with us.  Along with characters that don't just disappear after being majorly important in an expansion.  I will be giddy with joy if I take Lag to the Paladins Class hall and Yrell is there.  Yes, we should have left her back in old Dreanor, but I don't see us just closing the portals off and pretending it doesn't exist at this point.  (I'm still for Blizzard blowing it up slowly and having us absorb the refugees that make it to Azeroth before every things gone so we can use the important characters some more)

     Last but not least, I want some new enemies.  The Legion, Orcs, and Undead are fine but one of the things that made Pandaria stand out was the Sha.  (Yes it was Old God essence, but still) Having a new threat that didn't resemble what came before was awesome.   So many enemies in Pandaria felt new and fresh that I think part of the issue we are having is that a lot of bosses lose their uniqueness when it's all orcs and ogres, all the time.  Give me Klaxxi (still want them as a playable race by the way) give us Mogu and Sha and all sorts of things we haven't seen.  Don't retread ground.

These are the things I'm hoping for not just next expansion, but going forward.

What do you all want?

Lag

Illidan- A book review.

So, I read the book Illidan by William King.  And of course I have opinions.

There may be spoilers... so quit now if you don't like 'em

Serious, spoilers ahead.  IF you read, your own fault

Spoilers.

Alright then.

     So, for those who haven't read my blog much, or haven't heard me rant, Illidan to me is one of my favorite villains in Wow.  however, I have never seen him as a villain.  To me, with the lore I've read and playing World of Warcraft III I've always felt he got forced into the position he inhabits by his own people continually turning their back on him.  Yes, he make questionable decisions, but he also made some pretty big personal sacrifices as well.  

     He infiltrated the burning legion for his people, loses eyes, gains power, but is punished by his people for taking the wrong side.  I can't defend his choice to make another Well of Eternity in Hyjal, that was a complete power play.  I also don't think his being locked up for 10,000 years by his own people was a good decision either.  I think in that case the Betrayer was betrayed.

    Then in Warcraft three he is freed and fights the burning Legion for his people despite their incarceration of him.  Of course he is a bitter character at this point.  When he takes the power and transformation for the skull of Guldan to fight the burning legion more effectively he is again punished by his own people.  Once again you can argue whether this was a "good" decision. Whether it was or not he continues to fight against the Legion and in the end is rewarded with exile.

    After that his decisions are not very good, but I feel everything after that point would have been different if his people had treated him as a hero who had helped them defeat the Legion rather than acting as if he had betrayed them again.  Which, I would argue he didn't.

    This book takes place after this, right after he has first arrived in Outland after he was rescued from Maev.  It details what happens between that point and when we killed him in black temple.  It gives some insight into his motivations, why he made some of the choices he did and what Illidan's goals were.  It also somewhat explains why he wasn't very present as we moved through that expansion unlike Arthas who popped up every other moment in Lich King.  Simply put, he was focused elsewhere.

     His motivation in this book is simple.  He wants to find a way to take the fight to the burning legion rather than waiting for them to come for him.  While he makes several decisions in this book that would be defined as evil (creating fel Orcs, sacrificing souls for power) over all his interests align with ours.  Making me think, once again if he hadn't been exiled, things would have been different. Then again he is so obsessed with his goal he might have done similar things on Azeroth.

    You basically get four point of view characters in this book.  Vandal, a demon hunter that allows you to see the Demon Hunter process, Maev who is, well Maev, and Akama.  Out of the four unfortunately for me I felt Vandal had the most interesting story arc.  In a book named Illidan it should have been Illidan but instead If felt the "sidekick" was a little more interesting.

    That brings me to my first complaint.  This books is really serious to the point of making it dry.  You have Illidan who is very serious, Maev who is essentially a female version of Illidan in seriousness and obsessiveness, Vandal whose also driven by revenge and seriousness, and then Akama, once again very serious.  We needed someone or something to put some bright points in the book or some levity.  Instead it is all a dark crawl to the end page.

    My second complaint is there is underutilized side characters in here.  Prince Kael'thas and Lady Vashj are in there on the side, but have no real interesting dialog or even part in the book. They kind of show up in the beginning, then are mentioned a few times on the side.  Maev has her small contingent of night elves, but even the two main ones (I forget their names, they were that important) never get a moment to shine.  Those two should have been built up so when they are killed later you actually care rather then going, um... ok, I'm over it.

     My third complaint is this book should have been longer.  Instead of digging into details it feels it gives you a quick path of what happened with Illidan in outland.  They could have dug in and gone into greater detail in several places.  They could have build more character into several folks but instead we get just enough to tell the story.  I feel there is a lost opportunity here.

     That aside I did enjoy this book.  I found seeing Illidan's point of view on things interesting as he amassed power in Outland.  He does have several choices that do put him in the villain box including betraying Akama and planning on torturing Maev when she's captured at the end.  He had a definite "the means justify the ends" problem.   At the same time you see his motivation is that he has seen the Legion for what it is.  He has seen the fate of the worlds they have destroyed and he is driven in a desire to stop them before they lay waste to Azeroth.  His belief of course is that the only way to do that is to go defeat them on their home turf, rather than waiting for them to show up and invade.

    I enjoyed that right before the end there is a promise of redemption shown to him, not that he believed it was possible.  We of course know he's coming back (if you've played the Alpha you know a little more about why)  I for one, want to replay the Demon hunter campaign and look for a couple of names now.  I am pretty sure after reading this book he will be on our side completely, if not trusted by the rest of our leaders.

My rating on this book is 3 of 5 stars.  It's good and worth reading, just don't get your expectations up for something new or a thrill ride.  If you don't play World of Warcraft, I would look up know your lore articles from Matt Rossi or Anne Stickney on Illidan before reading so you know the background that will help this book make sense.

Please note, this is the first World of Warcraft novel I have read.  I have a couple in may stack but I moved this one to the front because of Legion's approach.

Lag

Legion Has a Date, Death of Vanilla.

First big news, Legion has it's release date.

   We will all be grabbing our swords and girding up our loins for battle on August 30th 2016.  A little over half a month before their released by date of Sept. 23rd.  This I believe is a good thing.  I'm a little surprised they are announcing it at this point, the game is still in Alpha but hey, I trust they know what they are doing.  And I'll be honest, I think a lot of the Alpha has served the purpose the Beta has in past expansions.  I think the only reason they are calling it an Alpha and not a Beta is to keep folks from making assumptions about how far along the game cycle is.

     This means folks I haven't seen in a while in game will be coming back together.  We will be gathering up our forces and hitting the raids and hopefully downing a few baddies along the way.  I really want to hop in on a Demon Hunter... The class has been fun to play around with, but Lag may still be my main just for consistency sake.

    I am hoping, as they said this would be a longer pre-patch then other expansions this means we will get our 7.0 drop in June.  That is a month and a half away for those who are counting.  While I think the overall game won't be ready by then, I could see the class specs and other such things being ready to ship at that point.  I imagine if you prebought the game, Demon Hunters might be released at that point too.

    The other news is the fact Blizzard shut down a big private Vanilla server.  Nostalrius was a server based on the original implementation of the game that was being run outside of Blizzard's purview, and Blizzard finally stepped in and shut it down.  Now fans are up in arms over this, and there is now a petition going around for Blizzard to open up a Vanilla realm of their own for players to play on.  Which is fine.  What is not fine is the uproar.

     I'm sorry, a private server using someone else's technology and code is illegal.  Yes, I'm sure it was nice to have a Vanilla server to play on, but you are playing on code that was stolen from Blizzard so if they step up and say "No!" you have no ground to stand on.

    If I befriended Brandon Sanderson, got ahold of one of his first drafts of Mistborn, and started selling it I would be stealing his intellectual property.  (Now, to be fair I'm not sure anyone was making a profit off Nostralrius) He would have the right to sue me for distributing what wasn't a finished, or optimum work even if I left his name on it.  The fact Blizzard just shut these guys down, but doesn't seem to be making a bigger smack down, which I'm sure they could, is points to them.

    That being said, if you want to petition Blizzard for a Vanilla server I'm behind that.  Go play a Vanilla server for a while.  Other than the fact you will be forced to build a stronger community to find groups etc... you will also be reminded of the grinding and pain.  But I would love for Blizzard to host a couple of servers of pre-iterations of World of Warcraft.  That would be cool.

Anyway, that is my rantings for this Week.

Lag.

My Warcraft and Waning Passion.

This is something I think about a bit.

      What is the drive to run around in Azeroth swinging a big sword in a virtual environment?  I will be honest, I have tried other MMOs, but none have been able to pull me in like World of Warcraft has.

     Of course, I pushed myself to get into this at the beginning.  It was something my siblings where doing that looked interesting.  Many first toons where created and deleted as I leveled and played around.  As a matter of fact, if I hadn't been this way my first main character would have been a warlock.  Or a rogue.  Those where the two classes That interested me the most at first.

     Then I decided to try a gnome mage.  Pyreknight was born and leveled as fire.  He didn't level cap until Burning Crusade was live, but he was the first character that I kept pushing until he made that far.  When I got there I was able to learn to dungeon it was with the help of me brudderplaying his then warrior Llyria as a tank.  Gwen would heal on her druid, Me, my wife, and my brother-in-law would dps on rogue, mage, and hunter.  There was a lot of stumbling and figuring things out as we went.  But it was good times.

     About the end of Burning Crusade, beginning of Wrath is the first time I think the story actually started mattering to me.  Before that it was going in, lighting stuff on fire, and getting out was my game.  I was going into fights not caring about backstory or why this big dude in front of me deserved a fireball to the face, or an arrow as my hunter Lazyeye eventually started to take over being my main.  I just cared about the fun of the fight.

    Arthas changed that.  I knew his name, I'd played a little bit of Warcraft III and now I had a villain I was a little familiar with.  I started paying attention to what was going around me and the who and why of things.  I bought Warcraft III and played through to get a grasp on the "what happened before."  Then when our tank defected from the raid team I power leveled a DK to learn to tank on to keep us going.  (Quick note, the tank defecting was not my brother.)  The dose of story in the DK gave that character a little bit more meaning to me.  However, in Trial of the Champions I got sick of the fact my DK would just die in three hits with some bad RNG from the boss, and I started leveling Lag.  My mostly main ever since.

    Lag had started out as a joke.  He was a dwarf who would get into trade and complain about how nobody like "Lag" and all he ever wanted to be was loved.  It was fun to see people virtually roll their eyes at the bad joke my character was.  He would even get mad and say things like "lag has killed more players in this game then you ever will..."

     Not liking the animations of dwarfs (and lets be honest, they aren't that great to look at) I rerolled as a human.  This time leveling I payed attention to the dialog of the quests.  I made sure I understood what was going on around me.  The story was important.  I refused to leave areas until I finished their quests and I still managed to climb quickly to a point where I could take over for my DK as the tank.  Lag was geared and ready before we stepped into the bastion of ICC.

    Since that time the story had driven my passion as much as the game play itself.  While I love my guildies, I am mostly a solo player.  I enjoy a good raid, but I enjoy just leveling and poking at things on my own quite a bit too.  I have a bit of social anxiety in the game as I have a hard time getting to know new players, or trying new groups because it just makes me nervous.  This is why I have characters in AIE and Convert to raid, but I don't talk much.  I just listen to what people have to say and pay attention.  I haven't grouped much with either guild as well because I just haven't gotten that comfortable in there.

    Warlords has strained my passion a lot as well.  I feel the endgame story has been severely lacking compared to what we saw in Pandaria and it has effected my desire to play.  I felt there was not clear drive going into Highmaul.  We are going to fight ogres.  Cool, why?  Iron horde member is in there.  Well we killed him first, why not leave?  Story wise while the Ogres where a threat, they didn't feel like something we needed to completely focus on.  When we went to the Blackrock Foundry and decided to kill Blackhand that felt more like it.  We where fighting Iron horde and this felt important to the story.

     But we were not getting story outside of the raid.  The legendary quest involved us having to raid.  The dailies and garrison quests where all the stuff we where doing from the start of the raid cycle.  There was the weekly garrison quest, but once you finished that, then what?

      When the current raid Hellfire Citadel dropped I was looking forward to more.  Tanaan Jungle here we come!

       But all we got was a drop.

      There was a quick shipyard quest which soon became more dailies to manage that was just clicking a button, oh and this time you can be punished by not succeeding and you can lose that ship you worked so hard to level up.  Ha Ha.

     Tanaan Jungle had little story in it to me as well.  Cool, we are here.  We have a base, and now... now just sit there and hope something interesting happens.  Oh, you've explored everything.  Well at least you have the raid.  You wanted storyline?  Raid.

      No isle of thunder where different objectives unlocked things.  No Krasarang wilds where we where involved in an unfolding story line as we brought our armies to a new land.  Nothing to pull me in for more then a few hours of grinding.

      Needless to say my passion for this game has waned a bit.  Going back to school and having less time hasn't helped.  I am looking forward to Legion but if the story is left on the ground like this, I will continue to struggle.  I won't quit.  I have my guild and my friends.  Logging on to do extra things though, we will see.

     I have high hopes because Cataclysm which was largely complained about led us into Pandaria which is my second favorite expansion, after Wrath.

      There will be other challenges as well.  With my new job raid nights are going to shift to Monday, and Tuesday night.  The other nights I'm going to be working.  That means another shift and another hope that folks will be able to shift as well.  School is going to be a thing for me for at least another year.  That means my time is cut down significantly.

     Blizzard, I love your game.  Please draw me back in again.  Give me more than one or two NPCs I can care about, (Bye Yrell) and let me have the story outside the raid.  Feel important to me.

Lag.