Fading away. (Raid update week of 01/25/2015)

It's been a long week.

       Tuesday was rough.  We had one healer out because they were sick, and a couple of our regulars out as well.  We still one shot Kargath, but couldn't manage to two-heal though Butcher.  I finally gave up and invited someone from the group finder in, and we managed to down Butcher and Twin Ogron, but that is where we stopped.  A bit short from what we have been doing.

        Wednesday on the other hand, I ended up healer heavy and we managed to down Brackenspore quickly enough.  Tectus just wrecked us.  (See what I did there.)  We just couldn't find a good groove to take him down, and we kept having dps and healer deaths early on in the fight causing us issues we couldn't overcome.  Finally, after swapping a heals to deeps we managed to kill him dead.  But not before burning off what time we had left to raid.

         Now, arguably we didn't lose any progress in the big picture of this week, we didn't make any either.  As a raiding week we got some gear drops keeping it from being a complete wash, but I'm looking forward to finishing out this tier.  After this week we will be doing Highmaul on Tuesday and Blackrock Foundry on Wednesday.  I will stick to this until we stop getting drops from Highmaul that are upgrades.  At that point I will save our progress on Highmaul until we finish it off.  Once that is done it will be Blackrock Foundry until next raid tier.

          The big news for me this week is that Wowinsider.com is shutting down.  This makes me sad as it is one of my internet stops for WoW news, maybe my main one.  I find it strange that they would close their doors at a time when World of Warcraft is hitting a resurgence but it sounds like a decision beyond their control.  I am now following Matt Rossi, Anne Stickney, and Alex Ziebart among others to see where they go next.  They have dropped hints that they have something in the works, but my guess is we won't find out what until the site officially shuts on February 3rd.

          This makes me wonder about the longevity of things.  I am on the 120's as far as blogs go into this subject of World of Warcraft.  The instance is well over 300 episodes, and there are various other examples of media that we follow.   All things will come to an end eventually.  Someday I will type out the final blog here.  The Instance will go off the air, and someday the last WoW server will power down.

         We are staring down a ten year old game.  It is showing no signs of stopping at this point, but eventually it will do so.  Even if it keeps going on that long I know I will log out someday for the final time, probably before the game is done.  I love raiding, I love playing, but there are so many more important things in life that sometime it will get left behind.  Some times that day seems closer then others, though I have no intention of quitting anytime soon.

Lag/Lazyeye

How To Make Professions Not Suck

So, Wow Insider posed a good question today, How would you change/fix professions in WoW?

       And that is a wonderful question.  I presently have every profession in the game maxed with the exception of Leather working/skinning.  That will be fixed when my Monk finally gets to max level however.  (As a side not, leveling leather working so far has been the worst profession grind in my opinion.)  With Warlords of Draenor, professions will get another 75 point kick, if they stay consistent.  That means if you start a new character that is 675 points of professions to work through to max any given profession.  That is a little daunting.

      So first I would suggest adding in profession quests.  Cooking has one of these, so does fishing.  Imagine however if you had a daily/weekly quest you could take based around your profession to gain +5 or +10 points for completing it.  Only one or two points if it's a daily.  I know we have a monthly +5 we can get from the Darkmoon fair, but with that being just once a month it doesn't feel like that big of a kick up.

      Second I would add more meaningful/fun items.  I have two engineers.  I wouldn't mind having more.  Why? Engineers are like freaking Batman! You get belt rockets that help you to run on water, a glider attached to your cloak and other fun toys like rocket boots etc.. that you can play with that gives your character a nice flavor.  It however has the save disadvantage a lot of the other professions have.

    There are gaps where it feels useless....

     With each profession you get to make raid entry level gear.  Then you have to wait for the next raid to come out, for new gear that is insanely expensive to make.  This gear's only advantage is that it brings you up to the gear level of whatever the current raid level of gear is.  Normally by the time you can make it, you've been running the raid for a few weeks and in all likely hood a hard core raider is going to have something comparable all ready, and any one who isn't pushing hard against the raid is unlikely to care to drop tons of gold on a one gear piece boost.

     So first I think we should be able to get some simpler to make pieces with each new raid tier.  I know that Blizzard wants to gate things, but you can make equipment difficult to make without making people need to buy whatever item is dropping from the new raid to complete the items.  Daily cool downs, rarely found/picked items all this can be used to gate new equipment.

     I think there should also be more gear made purely for transmog.  Since this has become a well know used and loved feature, there should be gear that can only be used/mogged by members of said profession, and other items with some flare that can be used by everyone who would normally be able to use such armor type (Mail, Plate etc...)

     Then we come to gathering professions.

     I think player should, for a fee or quest, be able to get assistants who farm stuff for them.  I like the farms in Panderia at Sunsong Ranch, but the problem is that eventually it just feels grindy.  Give me a companion in my garrison who I can send to gather mats, knowing that sometimes he will come back with a very low yield, and occasionally he will come back with some cool stuff.  I know farming mats is part of the game, and you could still do that while using this feature to speed up your gathering ability.  You could also gain rep with different farmers you send on quests to get better yields and possible pets/mounts.

    Anyway, I would love more stuff to keep professions interesting and profitable.  Obviously some gates have to exist to keep the gear from all falling to dirt cheap prices right away, or making the professions meaningful.  I do believe however, that some of these gates could creak open a little more, or even if your looking at past Xpack gear that a way to speed through non-current/useful patterns/items could be nice.

   The real question is, how would you fix professions?

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye 

Swing it! (Raid update 01/25/2014)

So, we went once more into the breach.. oh and I just had to include the picture.

Anne Stickney From Wow Insider made this epic picture.

     Tuesday was good.  We one shot every boss except for Sha, and on Sha we still managed to get him down before the raid was over.  This is the first time we have cleared first wing in one night.  I am not saying that we won't be going back in, but we have pushed far enough through I'm happy to start working second wing first raid day now.  We are once again moving forward.  We are showing signs of the raid team improving, and I'm looking forward to making some good progression now.

     Wednesday was a good raid too.  We only managed to get two out of four bosses in the second wing down, but that puts us about even with where we were before things started to decline.  I feel we are about to flip and start getting some forward motion going, and all I can say is that it's about time.  I want to see pay off for everyone who has stuck with us for all the rocky moments, and who want to start building again.  I see good things on the horizon.  I am an optimist....

     That not to say we didn't have some issues.  We are building a raid team, which means some people need performance worked on.  Personalities are getting to know each other.  we had a tense moment at some comments someone made Tuesday night, and luckily it passed.

     One of the hard things with working with different folks it that it's easy to forget we all have different experiences in Wow.  Some of us glide through and have fun, with little problem.  Other's have experiences that have changed the way we view the game and guilds all together.  I know if you want to get my wife's hackles up, just mention the guild Midnight we were part of for a while.  And yet, I can guarantee you there were plenty of people in that guild that had no issues at all.

    That is neither here nor there however, right now we blaze our own path.  We will continue to build, continue to down new bosses, and we will eventually see where it leads us.

    I'm betting it's to a happy place.

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye





   

What Would My Next Expansion Be?

Wow Insider  postulated, what would you pitch for the next expansion.  I have my answer.

     "Rise of Lordaeron"

      I would have Lilian Voss make a return, she would re-appear with a new faction of scourge and bring battle across the ruins of Lordaeron against the forsaken.  At the same time boats from Kul'Tiras appear at Stormwind bringing tales of undead rising and taking their island from them.  After it is determined these undead are coming from Kul'Tiras by both the Forsaken and the Alliance we ship off to the tropical islands that Jaina Hails from....

     When we arrive at Kul'Tiras we have to solve the mystery of why and how these forsaken have risen.  As we quest through the areas of this land we find that Lillian Voss has stolen some of the original plague and used it to create her own scourge.  The first Two raids involve going in and first stopping her production of undead players, and then facing down and stopping Lillian Voss.

     When we beat (not kill) Lillian however, it is discovered that she had created this scourge in response to her discovery that Sylvanas has been experimenting and creating her own version of the scourge which she intends to use to wipe out all the living Horde and Alliance alike. She plans on using the current forsaken as fodder as she marches her new and improved people to war against the living.  While Bolvar has been asleep fighting the lich king's influence, she has even stolen several undead from Northrend with the help of the Val'kyre.  The second raid involves us going in and stopping her production of the "super" undead, with Lillian Voss helping lead the way.   The end boss will be Koltira Deathweaver who had been re-purposed by Sylvanas to be the general of her new army.

     No new race, but the new class "Nightstalker" will be added.  Nightstalkers will be a mail wearing class that shifts from ranged to melee combat depending on the spec.  Nightstalkers are specifically trained in using magic to fight off undead and demons.  However, they use necromatic magics instead of the light to fight their prey.  (Ok, I want Demon Hunters, but with a name that includes the undead etc.. as one of their victims.)

     The last bit, and raid will be around us fighting Sylvanas, who will be the boss midway through the raid.  As we fight her, we will find the burning legion has been controlling her movements.  As she lies dying Vellen uses his magic to heal her, but ends up resurrecting her back into a living High elf/Blood elf.  This breaks her connection with the new scourge army, and she is taken away by her sister Vereesa, and we head on to fight the burning legion and remove the rest of the new scourge from existance.

    This of course will lead into a burning legion expansion, and will also set up Sylvanas' redemption story.  It will also leave the Forsaken's future into question.  Will Sylvanas return to lead them even though she is now living? Will Lillian Voss be the next dark lady? Having to fight alongside the horde, and the Forsaken do the Alliance now have to recognize the Forsaken's right to Lordaeran as their home?

    I know this pitch idea is not perfect, and I am pitching this as an Alliance player who has always loved Sylanas' story and have hoped for since Wrath to see her story progress.  But here is the real question.

    What would you pitch for a new expansion? What would you like to see that hasn't been shown before? What new lands/planets/dimensions would you like to explore and why?

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye