A Nice Return.

I finally stepped into a raid this expansion.  And yes, it's been a little while.

    On my rogue I had a chance to step into the Emerald Nightmare on Heroic.  She has stepped over the guild "Screaming for Vengeance" on Zangarmarsh/Hellscream realm.  I am keeping the Horde side Fear Itself guild intact, but as no one has really logged onto it recently and there are no resources in the bank I'm holding it for the name only.  I might do something with it in the future, but have debated deleting it completely.

    I had the opportunity with this guild, as I had the week off of school after passing my Security+, to go in and fight a few bosses.  We downed the Nythendra fight, then the Dragon's of Nightmare, and ended on Ursoc, but not without getting him down to 10%.  We were running the dungeon on Heroic, and while I haven't talked a lot to this guild yet, they do seem to be starting their raid team so I am happy with what was done.  So far they seem a group of nice folks, and I look forward to hopping into things with them here and there.

    My own performance was somewhat lacking.... I could see some of the rust on me as I died more than once to stupid mistakes.  My DPS was good, I actually placed closer to the top of the charts than to the bottom. As it is said though, dead DPS do no DPS, and I went down more than I should have.

    What else would one expect though after not raiding for a while, and not DPSing for an even longer period of time.

     Otherwise, life is good but slow.  I am still logging in sporadically and enjoying the game at my own pace.  I am learning and working at my new job with inContact and loving it here. I am a IT Asset Tech. Which means I am in charge of ordering and maintaining equipment and I do some good helpdesk/IT crossover.  Kids are healthy and energetic and my wife as always is wonderful.  Oh, and I have officially graduated from DATC.  Next it's on to work towards my Bachelor's degree.

     There is also Fear Itself.  I am happy that when I log in there are still some familiar faces online.  Some don't see often either.  I knew there were all sorts of possibilities when I stepped down.  I knew there might be a mass exodus from the guild, or that things might fall apart.  I hoped they wouldn't, and so far things look like they are mostly together, but time will tell if things will still be there when I am ready to full time raid again.

     Of course, I'm pretty sure I don't want to go back to being a raid leader at this point.  I am done with that part of my Wow experience.  I leave it open to anyone in Fear Itself who wants to raid lead and rebuild things in that area, but it won't be me.  I just don't have a time and energy for the stress anymore.  Even were I to finish school tomorrow I don't think I would go back to it.  I will raid, I will participate as much as I am able, but I am done being the raid leader.

     I still love this game, I still love my guild and my guildies.  It's just time for me to do something else.  The major part of my heart is still in Fear Itself and I plan on always having a presence there.  Objectively though, I don't have the time and effort in me to push raiding or guild events at the moment.  If others do, let me or Gwyndolynn know.  We will give you the resources and support to build your own raid team etc...  More than happy to.

    See you in Azeroth,
Lag

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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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Time-Management and Little Broken Things

Legion is still several months away, and I'm already pondering raiding.

     First of all, yes, this is on my mind.  Due to the fact for the first time in over ten years of playing Wow I haven't been spending tons of time online I worry about where things are going to be when Legion launches.

     If I get the job I'm looking at right now, weekend raiding will probably be out.  However, doing raiding on the week nights will probably exclude the guild leader if she is not done with school.  Then there is the hope that people will come back and want to raid.  I'm not sure with this being the first time the guild has actually taken a break from raiding when it wasn't the beginning of an expansion how it's going to effect things.  I could sign on Legion launch day and find out that half the folks that normally raid with us have moved on, or that they decided not to come back with the new expansion.  I don't know at this point.

     I can't promise anything is going to change for a bit either.  Right now I'm working on my A+ certification in my classes, which means my brain is geared on school right now.  This certification opens up some doors to be that will otherwise be closed.  It's funny to think that when I started school at DATC I was talking about getting a few certifications to improve my work skills.  Now I'm discussing going all the way to my BA potentially.  At my age thinking about all that schooling is a scary thing.  I am weighing the financial rewards against the fact that by the time I get my BA my oldest will probably be a senior in High School.  The fact that means I will be wrapped up in school for a large part of her teenage years makes me ponder if it is worth it.  It will be time to take stock when I get my associates here probably in about a year from now.   We will see.

    As far as Wow goes, I've not done much in the Legion Alpha.  That whole priorities thing.  I did use tax money to prepay for Legion and I have that level 100 boost staring at me, but I'm not exactly rushing on that account since I already have maxed, or close to maxed every class in the game.  I may boost my mage on Aerie Peak, but I don't want to blow the free boost and then never play the character.  So I will sit on it for a while.

      Yes, this is a early morning, organizing thoughts post.  I apologize to any who wanted something deep and meaningful about the state of the game or what the newest buzz on Demon Hunters is.  Right now things are pretty simple.

      Wow will be there for a long time yet.  Legion is coming.  I'm predicting that subscriptions before Legion drops hits an all time low.   Then I'm predicting that the amount of players that come back at the expansion drop "surprises everyone!"  The same way that Warlords did when it shot back up to 10 million subscribers.  I don't know if I would predict 10 million again.  But I don't think 8 or 9 is out of the question.  There are a lot of Wow players who want the game as it was during Wrath to come back.  (By the way it won't, the game evolves forward, not backwards) and with all the new shininess they will hope this is it.  It might have a lot of similar feelings and nostalgia, but it won't be Wrath.  As a matter of fact even though Wrath was my favorite expansion, I personally don't want it to be.  I want it to be it's own thing.

     So here I am, feeling broken and timeless during the game.  I am logging on for maybe 30 minutes 3-4 times a week just to make sky golems to sale.  I'm hoping that before Legion drops I can find a way to get my groove in game back.  But time will tell.

Lag.

I Love Good Community Stories.

They give me happy feels.

     So, I have the opportunity to work with one or two other Wow nerds at work.  Some are Horde, some are loved.  Just kidding they are all loved but one of them was talking about the trade chat on their main server the other day, and it made me happy.

    Apparently someone got in trade and shared they were feeling suicidal.  

    Now, I know what you all are saying.  Not trade chat! (we of course are not talking about the Wow commentator Trade Chat, but the actual community chat service in main cities, for those non-Wow acquainted)  The cesspool of negative thoughts, Thunderfury and other such horrid eye-wrenching commentary that makes the T for teen into a hard M some nights.  I know, that most of you at the thought of someone mentioning this in the trade chat forum may have your gut clench and your heart stop.  Just not the place for any positive discourse in most situations!

    But instead of doing what trade chat normally does, according to this co-worker of mine, people started voicing support.  Several folks jumped into trade and started talking to this troubled person and trying to help them out and give them some good vibes.  Now, let's admit as a virtual community sometimes there is only so much support we are capable of giving, but at time any support is better than no support.  

    So, first thing first.  Big shout out to the community on the Skywall server Horde side.  I would hope that any server would have a good community that would lift someone up in need, but I wouldn't put money on it.  Anytime people talk about the toxic community in MMOs or any other type of online game, it's folks like you who put them in their place.  Because at the end of the day we are all one big community.

      This also makes me think about the few times I comment in trade chat.  I will be honest, I normally avoid it.  I try to keep the few comments I make positive and happy, but I know there are times I feed the negativity that seems to rule the trade chat forums.  So, I ask myself, if some one on Zangarmarsh/Hellscream server (Or on Aerie Peak if I'm on Trisham or Pyrestone in CTR)  jumped in trade chat and shared having such issues, would I try to build them up? Or would I go my way and not even think of sending some positives their way.

    I honestly can't think of an instance where I have been in that position in trade chat, but I hope I would at the least drop a kind word.  We need more kind hearts in this world who are willing to lift spirits when they need it.  If we all where to stop and say one kind thing when those around us are feeling troubled, whether it's suicidal thoughts, or simply a bad day, this world would be a much better place.

As would the World of Warcraft.

Lag.

I'm in the Legion.

So, I got an invite into the Legion Alpha.

    So far, I've been enjoying it.   Of course the first thing I did was roll a Demon Hunter to take a spin at how the class feels.  I love this class.

    The double jump is fantastic.  Pair that with the ability to sprout wings and glide it's fun just to hop around as needed.  I'm going to call it now.  Blizzard is going to get hit with a top of people complaining about the Demon Hunter's double jump being an unfair advantage yada, yada.  Of course, this will make Blizzard go one of two directions.  They will either get rid of the double jump, or give everyone a double jump.  I just hope the glide part stays unique.  Anyone who wants to be able to glide can use toys or become an engineer.

     Battle wise they feel O.k.  The mechanics feel fun, but I don't feel it's completely unique.  The building and release of a resource isn't something new, but the animations look cool.  The double glaves as a weapon feel nice and manages not to look clunky, even though that was a distinct possibility.

      The Demon hunter starting zone was fun as well.  It was lovely with demons and a unique mount.  I'm not going to spoil much in the way of story, but it was nice to see that not all elements of demon hunters where Illidan yes men and women.  There are several names of the demon hunters that you will recognize, and you will continue to see those names through the entire beginning area and on until you get your class hall.  I hope Blizzard does something so that moving beyond this expansion the familiar names are not lost.  If the class hall moves on to the next expansion, or is revitalized it would be nice to continue to fight with the same army of people.

      I don't know if I'm going to play much further, but I am planning on fiddling with some of the other starting experiences.  I really don't like spoiling an expansion for myself, or doing so much that the expansion doesn't feel new and shiny when I play it.  However, I do like to do a little spelunking and poking about.  What I do play with, I will report on and let people know, without spoiling anything as much as possible.

     That is my week. I'm going to try and log on a little more, give my friend Aaron a little more support if I have time for it.  He needs some training so he's not a noob by Legion dang it.  School does eat up a lot of my time, along with work with has had me working a little later than normal lately.  Starting to feel the burn there, but there isn't much I can do about it.  Between school and work i'm not home about 4 nights a week now, that is a lot more than I was missing at home a couple months ago.  I'm alright with this for now, but if it doesn't change when I get back to my IT classes I may have to shift something.

See you all soon.
Lag

Wow on the resume

So, I had an oral presentation to give in my current class.

   My Quick World of Warcraft update, is that I still haven't had much chance to be on lately, but I'm managing to long on a bit more.  I'm working on a new alt on Arrie Peak along with getting my other toons up to 100 in preparation for Legion in a few months.  I'm excited.  My demon Hunter calls....

    As for my presentation....   Here it is!

     I know that's a little foggy, so I'm working on getting power point that goes with it added.

     So, here it was.  At DATC (Davis Applied Technology Center) in Kaysville, Utah where in my Workplace Relations class I had to give an oral presentation.  What did I choose? Why I chose whether gaming was ever relevant on a resume.

      To be honest, I had fun with this, and I'm sad the power point didn't show up well on the video. I received full credit for the project itself, and I was happy with the result.  I won't lie that I was a little disappointed with the response I got from all the companies I emailed, but sometimes you just lose some.  There is a chance some may still email me, and if they do I will add it on here.

      This is my first time using power point as well.  So, please don't mock me if it's not a great theme, I did my best and I felt it turned out all right.  I also had my daughter to coach me and that helped out.
It's sad when in school they are teaching your kids stuff like this, that they never bothered with when we were kids.

      At this point I'm guessing mid-summer for Legion.  I think they want to beat the release date they have given by a good margin.  Hopefully we will see them step past the Alpha pretty soon, and then we can look at Beta.  Once we hit that point I am feeling it will go quicker than normal this cycle.
   
     If it doesn't Blizzard is looking at well over a year of Hellfire Citadel, and this year is going to feel even longer than the year of ICC, or Siege of Ogrimmar with how quick the content was shucked out this expansion.  But I've given my opinion on this before.  Feel free to give yours,

Lag.

It's a Brand New Day.

You may have not seen me online lately.

     Yes it's snowy and foggy here in Utah.  Wonderfully so.  Can't say much for the inversion though, that stuff sucks

     For the last couple of weeks holidays, getting my computer fixed etc... have kept me offline.  I have now been able to hop on a couple of times, in hopes of getting the holiday mount from the Winter's Veil Dailies in the garrison.  So far no dice, but I've only been able to try for a few days, and I believe I just tried for my last.

     But here we are in a new year.  The force has awakened, and most of us have set resolutions that will last for another week or two.  (Don't worry, I haven't set any to break) I am now looking forward to what this year will bring.

     School for me will probably be going until the end of this year.  Assuming I bust my butt and get all my coursework up to Network Administrator done at DATC I will probably still have some work to do at Weber College to get my Associates.  This means that I don't foresee a time this year I'm not dealing with school work.  I also have been trying (unsuccessfully) to get back to writing and editing because I would like to have my book ready to submit to different agents/publishers here in a few months.  I need to stop putting it off and put the work in.  If I get published I will be screaming it here as well.

     This means for World of Warcraft my time will continue to be a lot more limited than it has been in the past.  For now while we are in the slog between expansions that is OK.  I'm taking a little time to teach my friend who has just subscribed but otherwise haven't been on much.  I'm not going to take a 100% break from game, but for now it's definitely on the sideline.

     When Legion drops I'm not sure how this is going to effect things.  Normally at the beginning of an expansion most of our raid team comes back and we get running within a few weeks.  I am hoping this is the case again.  I have asked people if different raid days would help etc... but at this point have gotten little feedback so I plan on keeping things to weekends.  I am looking forward to introducing my friend to raiding and building up a couple of resources who have been kind of sidelined at this point.  I am playing with the idea of swapping to demon hunter, but have a hard time thinking of setting Lag aside as he has been my main for most of Wow since Wrath.

But here is the thing.

     If raiding doesn't start up with folks coming back again, I'm not sure I have it in my heart to rebuild things.  I have been working with the ups and downs for several expansions now and part of me is just tired.  I want to raid.  I want to be there for the team and I will feel some guilt if I just let go, but at the same time fighting people to show up is getting old.  This is still several months away, but it is on my mind.

    Of course, I could pull a 180 on this by the time Legion drops with the excitement of a new expansion and shiny new stuff, but right now this is where I am at.  It was made pretty apparent that if I step out, raiding will probably fade away from our guild and I don't want to be the cause of that.  At the same time, I'm not the only one responsible and I need to start seeing it as that.  If folks don't want to show up, or put the effort in this expansion might be the one where I give up raid leading and whatever happens happens.  I will keep on playing, and keep being involved with folks, but if this next expansion is as much of a  fight as Warlords has been I'm done.

    But, it's early yet to be negative.  Folks will come back.  Some will be looking for a guild and we have some good guild recruiters waiting to pull folks in.  We may get a shiny new/changed raid team and start blowing stuff up and laughing maniacally.  This as with every expansion has the potential to be the best expansion for our guild, Fear Itself, on Zangarmarsh.

Lag

The Wait is a Mistake.

I know, lot's of awesomeness from Blizzcon today.

     Blizzard and Activision starting their own film and Television company.  They are starting with a Skylanders T.V. show, and mention was made of a Call of Duty treatment.  This is perfect as anyone who has seen Blizzard's cinematics has seen the awesome talent that Blizzard has hired on.  I'm excited to see where they take this.

      The Warcraft movie cinematic was released as well.  I enjoyed it and I look forward to that movie more than I do Star Wars.   I don't feel the trailer gave a ton away other than the idea of the main conflict.  The few shots of Garona made me wish she looked a little more orc like, but really I had no complaints.

      The opening Cinematic for Legion was released as well.  I felt it was VERY Alliance heavy, and that is coming from someone who mainly plays Alliance.  I thought the tone was interesting and I am wondering if they are foreshadowing Varian's doom, or if they are trying to fool us on the direction the expansion will go.  The moment between Sylvanas and Varian before the fight breaks out was something I never thought I would see in a Warcraft game... and anything else I say will be way too spoiler filled for those who haven't watched it.

      And here is where I get a little negative.  They announced, last night actually, that Legion will be released on or before September 21, 2016.

      Really Blizzard? You are focusing on getting content out quicker and it's likely to be well over a year of Hellfire Citadel?  This is going to be a mistake on their part, and I would be surprised if there aren't folks at Blizzard working to make sure they beat that September deadline by a bit.  If they wait that long, I am betting the subscribers who plan on returning will be less than if they dropped it in June, or so.

      The honest part is that the date says BY.  That means there is a chance that the expansion could drop well before September if things work out right.   But with Blizzards standards of perfection and track record, if they do get the game out before September, I wouldn't bet on it being a lot sooner.  They could prove me wrong here however.

      Once again however, this wait could have been alleviated by one or two things.

      Blizzard could have slowed down how quickly they released content by a little.  I'm not saying a lot, but if each of the major patches had been delayed by an extra month or month and a half that could have bought Blizzard 3-5 less months of waiting for the next expansion.  Yes, in reality we would have been waiting just as long, but it would feel as long since the last bit of content was much closer.

      A third raid tier.  I won't lie that I felt it was a mistake for Blizzard to up the price on expansions at the same time they released a two tier expansion.  We had taken it for granted that the previous expansions from Wrath to Pandaria all had three raid tiers.  Yes I know they were saying that the third raid tier was sacrificed for Garrisons, but had they done something, anything, to at least give us a midway raid that would have bought them more time as well.  Instead if feels like we paid more for less content.  That feeling is never good for a player.  It probably won't cost Blizzard my subscription, but I'll be severely dissapointed if Legion only had two raid tiers.  It's just not a direction I think Blizzard should go.

      I'm sure there are other things I could think of.  They could release a patch of just extended quests, make some timewalking raids available, etc... There are things they can, and may do to alleviate this time.  However, remember. Anything Blizzard does at this time is essentially development time they are taking away from Legion, so it becomes a double edged sword if they throw a lot of resources our way to help get past this down time.

    I'm honestly surprised they didn't offer another annual pass deal, because while I don't think this is by any means the death of wow, I thinks it's a major loss of revenue they could have had if things had been planned better.  I honestly hope next time around they do figure this out.  The less people playing World of Warcraft does effect the gaming experience, and I have a right to worry about the future of the game I love.  But enough about that.

What has been your favorite bit of information dropped from Blizzcon so far?

The Last Week Before.....

Blizzcon is coming.  That means the news drought is almost over.

      Had some Firelands fun this weekend.   Nothing big, just a clear for some transmog.

      I've been slow on mentioning it, but the drought got some relief a couple of weeks ago on the PTR.

    We are getting new time walking dungeons from Cataclysm, which to be fair is probably the last expansion that I ran dungeons in after I got past the point where I didn't have to.  They are also expanding the dungeons we are running from Wrath and Burning Crusade as well.  Pretty cool stuff.

     We are getting Valor points back.  Instead of capping how many you can have, they are capping how many you can earn.  Meaning, you will run out of stuff to do to get some Valor love because you simply won't get them from EVERYTHING.  We will be able to use these valor to upgrade item levels again, and they are also making it possible for all your Tanaan Jungle gear to level up to 716 I believe it was... Anyway.  This will give folks a boost to finish the raids they are working on, and maybe even step up a level higher.

     Speaking of raiding, so much rage over a moose.  I mean, Ghost Crawler promised us a moose right?

     Well, he lied.  In order to get this moose you must finish Hellfire Citadel on Heroic or Mythic before the next expansion drops.  With it being shoved into the game at this point, without warning and later in this raid cycle this has folks blowing their tops.  Partially because a lot of people don't think they can finish Hellfire Citadel on Heroic+, but because the time is limited on this mount so you won't be able to go back and get it if you don't finish Hellfire while it's current.  People feel entitled to a chance at anything added into the game.  To be honest, everyone has that chance for this if they can put in the time and effort.  I don't expect to get it, but I'm not putting much effort myself towards this at the moment since my focus is elsewhere right now.  I won't lie, If I get a chance to make a run for it I will, but I'm not sure when I'd find that chance right now.

      But I'm not upset or bitter.  Sometimes there are cool mounts that you don't have time or focus to earn.  I don't begrudge Blizzard this new carrot on a stick.  The mount does look freaking cool though....

     If you are curious you can look up the latest PTR build.  Many things coming.

     Now I will ask, what do you think will drop at Blizzcon this year that might surprise us?

     There is the big push in eSports, but other then that we know most of what is happening.  Legion has been announced, Starcrafts new expansion is dropping already, Diablo has been a little quiet but it might be a little early for another expansion there (I could be wrong) so what do we think will be the big surprise announcement?

     I personally would love to see another annual pass.  My suspicion is that we won't however.  I wonder if they found that the folks who signed up for that where those who would have just played Wow without cancelling subscription anyway.  Or if there was enough negative press that it made Blizzard decide it wasn't work trying again.  Either way that seems like a one time deal at this point.

     But man, if they announced that those who signed up for one would get Overwatch for free and a themed in game mount... I would be on that train.  But I of course probably won't unsubscribe during this time either.

Anyway, that's my rambling for this week.
Lag

This is My Towel. I'm Throwing it in.

So want Blizzcon to get here now.

      Alright, after last weekend and tonight I'm officially calling raiding done until Legion.  I will still put stuff up on Sunday or Saturday night.  But I'm done wasting my nights wondering if enough people will show.  We will probably be just getting together, running old content etc... from here on out.  Watch the Calendar.  But there may be weekends now where I don't plan anything.

      We will pick it up when Legion Launches again.  Before then I will be doing a poll to see best nights for folks to raid, along with times etc...  I can't claim things will change but if there is another time/times that might work better I will look at it.  I am open to suggestions etc... for raiding next Xpack.

       I plan on continuing this blog as news comes out.  I want to continue to discuss different ideas, iterations, and features coming out.  I want to make sure I am keeping my opinion out there.  Being called "the Ornery Raid Leader" may be a misnomer for a while, but for now here it will stay.  I am planning on still raiding leading next Xpack so it will eventually fit again.

     News is sparse at the moment.  Linkin' Park is playing at Blizzcon. That almost makes me consider buying the digital pass for the event.  However, I 'm sure I will get the news I want without paying for the extra content.  While I like to poke at other Blizzard games, I'm still mostly Wow so a large amount of what I pay for won't be of interest to me.

      Now Overwatch Beta is launching a couple days after Blizzcon.  I'm hoping to get in on that, it's a first person shooter that looks like it might appeal to me.  I was in the Heroes of the Storm Beta and didn't find much time to play.  That game is fun, but I haven't had time to play it in depth.
 
      I won't lie, since I now own Benmarble.com I might migrate this page over eventually into a sub domain.  I need to learn a little first.  

      As you can tell, there is not a lot to discuss this week.  Go kill the Headless Horseman.  Get a mount and a pumpkin.  Level some alts. Play Wildstar now that it's Free to play.  Have fun.

     I'm out until next week.

     Lag.

   

The Magic we Miss

Yes, it's going to be dry news until Blizzcon.

     Last weekend no raiding again.  Saturday, only 4 folks showed and we all went and did our own thing.  Sunday, we blew up Firelands for transmog.  Gratz to Scorpy by the way on his Flame Talon of Alysrazor.  So, once again, not enough peeps and we ran older content or dispersed.  I will keep trying to do things on weekends, but if we don't raid until next expansion it won't break my heart.  Don't get me wrong, I would love to get back into Hellfire Citadel and finish it.  However, if I have to find an alternative to do it, I will.

     I just hope we have a group to start raiding with in Legion at this point....

     Anyway, let's go back and discuss a topic we light to cover.  Why do people miss original, (or vanilla) wow so much? People are always talking about wanting to do forty man raids, and how epic it was back in the day.... There is a level of prestige to saying that you've played the game since vanilla (in your own head generally). Part of the reason we were so excited for Warlord of Draenor was the fact it hearkened back to good old Orcs. Vs. Humans and old Warcraft.  Which, while not being Wow itself, stirred up a lot of nostalgia and emotion.  Now we are getting the same feels for Legion.   But what exactly do we miss?

     I think it has more to do with scope and excitement.  I know the first time I rolled a character, (a Night Elf Rogue because I was excited about playing a Drizzt type character.  You R.A. Salvatore fans know what I'm talking about.) The sheer size of the game baffled me.  My brother was nice enough to port me to Stormwind so I could learn the sword skill, because once again, I wanted to wield swords no matter how impractical, and I was amazed at the difference just between Darnassass and SW.

    After that as I deleted and re-rolled characters, trying to find the perfect fit for me, I would run my rogues, hunters, warriors, etc... from Darnassas to Stormwind for that sword specialization.  This would be an hours trip give or take depending on how many time I died on the run etc....  The first couple times however, it amazed me how far I would run/ride a ship between the two areas.

    As I continued to play, it was still hard for me to image just how big the game was.  All the way to level 60 I found myself constantly being surprised at how many areas I could level in, how big the quests where, and all the different story lines.  I very quickly lost my desire to picture Night Elves in the same light as the Dark Elves they had resembled to me.  I fell in love with the lore itself.

     And I remember how cool it felt, when my first character, who was a gnome mage incidentally, hit level 60.  What a big accomplishment that seemed to be.

    That I think is what people are looking for in each expansion.  A level of scope and immersion that we probably won't see again.  We want that experience that was stepping into Azeroth for the first time, not knowing what we where doing in the slightest.  That feeling that there is no way we will touch every corner of this game because of how big it is.  The knowledge that there is something we have never seen before around every corner.

     And that will never happen.  We know this game.  We love this game and have grown with it.  Over the years, Azeroth has been explored by our characters so many times it's no longer the giant unknown.  Each expansion brings us new lands, but they are filled with as much familiar as they are new.  There is no going back, just forward.

    I personally wouldn't have it any other way.

Lag.

   

We Have Time on our sides.

So here we are, It feels to me like everyone is over Warlords, and pining for Legion already...

     This week was fairly O.K.  On Saturday we went in and downed the first three bosses in Hellfire Citadel again.  I am still back and forth on saving progress here, because I know there is a couple pieces of gear folks could get from the first few bosses... but I want to move forward more quickly.

     Sunday we picked up on Council, and even with odds against us we started working on the Council fight again.  We only had 3-4 pulls when the tank we pulled from the nether dropped and left us stranded with 45 minutes left to go.  Rather than pull someone in for half an hour by the time we found them, we called it there.  Of course... we made some nice progress on council!  We might have downed them too if we hadn't lost the guest tank.  He dropped without a word.  Next week I'm pretty sure we will have that fight down.

      Now, with Legion on the way, and despite my tone here it is on the way, we still have some time to wait.  Beta hadn't dropped yet, and with Blizzard the betas for World of Warcraft tend to last a long while.  Several months in most cases.  So, supposing that the Beta for Legion starts right after Blizzcon, in November, we are still probably looking at a March release if they move quickly.  That is guessing at a 3 month long beta and that Blizzard might be very far along in their process.  Most likely the Beta will be longer and we will be looking at June for the time the next expansion drops.  I could be wrong, feel free to tell me I'm wrong, but I feel it's unlikely if we don't see the Beta by Blizzcon that we won't see the next expansion sooner.

     So what to do in the mean time?  I know I plan on sticking to raiding schedule.  Other then that Denarin and Scorpiack are working on openly recruiting to our guild "Fear Itself" on Zangarmarsh.  My hope is to get some of these folks that get abandoned as guilds start to go elsewhere and unsubscribe.  I'm looking at this time of "dulldrums" to do some building.  I haven't had a lot of time myself lately, but I'm managing to log in for an hour here and there.

     Other things that you can do right now? Level your characters.  Build up the character you want to play next expansion.  If  that's your main, you can always get an alt ready.  If you want to try something new, now is the time to get working on it.  Unless it's a demon hunter, demon hunters will have to wait.

     You can work on old achievement and content.   I know on my pally I can solo anything form original wow to dragon soul fairly easily and quickly.  If you ever wanted a rare mount drop off one of those raids, go start farming it.  There are several sweet mounts that are hard to find.  Go get 'em.

     Level something new from scratch.  1-100 still takes a little while.  Go experience the story from the beginning again.  Or start a character on the opposite factions side.  If you haven't played all the starting areas since Cataclysm you are missing out on some great stories.  I recommend the Forsaken starting zone.  It's the reason I have some a desire to see Blizzard do something big with Lillian Voss....

     If you can't find anything to keep you interested, then unsubscribe and wait.  The game will be here when you get back.  I'm a die hard and probably won't unsubscribe unless I literally have no more time to play.  As long as I can at least do raids I'm here for the duration.  My honest guess is that with Wow down to 5+million subscriptions right now, that before Legion drops we will be down to 3.5-4 million.  Once again I don't think this is a death knell in any way for Wow, because when Legion comes back the players will too.  And I think we will have a resurgence that quiets the naysayers until the next subscription drop.  But that is my guess as well.  Since this is all speculation and opinion, I could very well be wrong.

Lag.

My Open Letter To Deathknight Joe

Here we go again.

     I won't lie, Saturday we had a rough go at it.  Ended up pulling in a few folks to get running, and it turned into an uncomfortable mess.  Yes we got the first two bosses down.  It was rough but we did it.  However, the folks we pulled in criticized our DPS and brought a negative vibe to the raid.  Nto fun but we eeked through.
 
     Sunday didn't happen, not enough folks and I didn't have the heart to pull folks in again after the previous night.  So a couple folks hung out on ventrillo and we did some dailies and chatted.  Not a bad way to spend an evening, but it wasn't raiding.

     No, I'm going to address the Deathknight Joes out there.  Not there is nothing wrong with Deathknights... I enjoy playing mine.  But this is my imaginary douchebag character.  Deathknight Joe...

    So Joe, if I may call you that.  There is something called common courtesy.  If you are queued up in the looking for raid tool I know that there is no promise that any group you land in is going to be great, or good.  I know that you sit there at your keyboard hoping that when you get an invite it's not going to be to a bunch of hosers that  call you names and treat you like crap.  Or maybe you are a masochist and you do want that, but I digress....

    Being nice people, if we extend that invite to you DK Joe, we are then you hosts.  By the laws of hospitality you are our guests.  It puts in place a mutual respect that means, if there is something you don't like about us, rather then be an asshat, just politely bow out.  Tell us your cat is on fire, or there is a nail polish sale at your local Walgreens.  I won't be offended.

     Don't sit there and crap on our DPS because some of them are low.  I am aware of the situation and we are working to fix it.  I can vouch for one in particular who has been working on rotation, looking stuff up on Icy-veins, and pushing for gear in Tanaan.  She has also tapped a couple of folks to work with her on her class.  I guarantee you next time her dps will be higher.  Do I think it's going to break the charts? Not without practice and some more work.  But she's getting there.

    The thing is Joe, you don't know our situation.  You don't know we just changed to weekends and that means we are building a couple of folks up.  If it's a situation that you don't like, I understand that.  I am fine with you leaving.  I am not fine with you building your ego by criticizing my raid team.  Because I guarantee you Joe, that when you started raiding and playing, you where not better.  Hell, with that ego you where probably worse.

      Here we are though.  We will be working on building our raid team back to proper.  With a little work maybe it can be stronger then it's been in the past.  We don't know yet, but we are working on it.

     So do me a favor Joe, give the next group your in a bit of consideration.  As for me, I'm going to continue doing what I'm doing and being polite and happy to everyone I raid with.  I don't care if they show up in level one grays.  I will politely ask them to get their real gear if I notice, but hey, I will be polite about it.

Lag, Lazyeye

One Shot Ahead.

This weekend was interesting.

      We were short folks on Saturday so we pulled in a few from the nether.  We managed, with this help, to down the first two bosses in the Hellfire raid first time fighting them.  It was exciting and exhilarating and we got pumped up.  Then we hit Kromroc.  OR more specifically he hit us.  We stopped on him for the night and resolved to come back tomorrow.

     Then tomorrow happened and a big thing was apparent.  We are undergeared/under dpsed on several characters.  This leads the question of what to do about it.  I know we have switched nights and a few things are  going to be out of whack for a little bit, but there is no reason anyone can't keep up.  At the end we didn't down any additional bosses.

     So here we are in Tanaan Jungle.  There are a ton of ways to get some gear now.  Every 20k Apexis crystals you can upgrade one of the armor/item drops from the area to 695.  Of course when they drop they are at 650 not upgraded so that works too.  If you can't get a drop (i.e. a weapon) you can buy the token to create it as well for about 10k apexis.  This means you can get a decent upgrade every 20-30k apexis that drop.  That seems like a lot, but doing your dailies and a little grinding and you gain apexis fast.  Also keep an eye out for the apexis weekends when drops are increased...

     Doomlord Kazzak is the new world boss and taking him down once a week is worth a chance at a 705 ilevel item.  This is also the best place to farm Felblight if you are saving up for some to make upgrades for your crafted items.  Which hey, another thing you can do in this area.

      As of this week LFR opens for the first wing as well.  This is your weekly run of hopefully upgraded items in whatever doomed group you end up in.  I only mean doomed by normal bunch of LFR folks refusing to talk or do anything beyond getting in, getting loot, and getting out.  I am hoping to run this sometime in the next couple of nights to see how it is.

      This week will be a short Weekend as well.  With the 4th of July we will only be raiding Sunday.  So take time to get some gear, get worked up, and let's hit the raid hard Sunday.  I would love to at least get the first two bosses down again.  Also look up the first few raid fights.  Fat boss is preferred but LOS gaming is fine for quick tips if you don't have a lot of time.

See you all this weekend,

Lag/Lazyeye

Will Garrisons be in the next Expansion?

I'm not that sure.

      Saturday was interesting.  We were short a couple people so we went and stomped down Heroic Mogu’shan Vaults and Heart of Fear to get our guild achievement for the mount.  It was nice laid back fun and if we are short again I am hoping to stomp throne of Thunder in the same way next.  But hopefully next week we won’t be going to back to do old content.

       Sunday was awesome.  Pure, 100% awesome.  Lag put his tank pants back on due to the sudden departure of our off tank.  Despite having to kick the rust off my tank skills we ran pretty smooth.  Once we were up and running we downed Gruul, Hanz and Franz, and Beastlord with only one wipe between the fights.  I found the groove I needed and we moved through well.

      Now, while I would love to rant on having folks leave during a transition time.  For example, like when we are swapping to weekends and things might be rough getting schedules in place. I really want to discuss garrisons and how I think this system will work in the next expansion.  (See, I’m being good and moving on.)

      Garrisons have been the big feature of this expansion.  There is no way advancing in Draenor without building/maintaining one and without getting to level 3 you won’t be able to experience then next big bout of content.  They have allowed us to make stuff from any profession that we might need.  They have made it so gathering (other than leatherworking) can largely be done without going anywhere.  The garrison had felt like your specific place on Draenor, and it has pretty much destroyed the desire for most folks to go out into the world.

      I don’t believe we will see garrisons like this again.  I think the ideas taken to the next expansion might include building your own little quest hub, but won’t be as comprehensive.  Allowing folks to make stuff from any profession, gather, play the Auction House, and do pretty much everything in one space has been detrimental.  There is a reason a lot of people are referring to this game as “World of Garrisons” now.

     There is no need to go to a main city unless you are actually PVPing in Ashran.  Other then maybe a weekly visit to get your tokens for raiding.  Every time I go I’m lucky to see more than a handful of other players who are trying to get in and out as quickly as possible.  Gone are the days of players hanging around showing off mounts, or just staying together in a central location.  For all the rage that happened when Blizzard announced it would be moving the Capital Cities for the factions before expansion launch it seems it didn’t matter what they did.  We have abandoned the idea of a faction hub where everyone hangs out.

      I normally have an alt with every profession leveled.  Garrisons have destroyed my need for that.  Not only am I not leveling several alts like I have in previous expansions, I haven’t felt the need too.  I have no use for professions I can access if I can just make items in garrison.  On top of that, I just don’t have it in me to level a bunch of alts if that means I have to keep up with garrisons on them as well.  With three level 100 characters it feels like a big time sink right now.  There is no way I could keep up on garrisons on ten or twelve characters.  It just feels impossible to do more with a limited amount of time.

     So, my guess is that for the next expansion we will see things pulled back to somewhere between the garrisons we have now, and the farm we had in Mists of Pandaria.  I think we will still have something that we can work with and build up, without it taking all desire to do other things in the game away.  The other thing I could see happening is they could just do away with garrison/player housing completely as Blizzard does have a tendency to overcorrect when something doesn’t work.  This would be a shame as I do like the feeling my character has a little bit of something invested in the current world.

     So what we need is an area where we can enhance our professions, without replacing them.  Supplement our resources without replacing the need to grind.  Build and have something that feels permanent without being tied down to the point where you feel like not visiting several times a day puts you behind.  I am not sure how they can pull this off, but I like the idea of them doing some sort of guild housing, or maybe a keep that is phased in a way that you see other players, but certain buildings look different or change when you enter them.

    How do you think they can change garrisons for the next expansion, if they include them at all?

Lag/Lazyeye

     

       

   

Sharpening Swords for Hellfire Citadel.

The switch has come.

      Tuesday we went in and fiddled around in Blackrock without making much progress.  We worked on Hanz and Franz when we finally got moving, but to no avail.  At the end of the night we went home without an love.

      Wednesday was a little better.  We went in, had to pull one healer from group finder, but managed to down Hanz and Franz.  We then went to Beastmaster, and with a newer healer and his friend managed to get our first Beastmaster kill!  Apple Beer for everyone is what I say to that!

      We are now to about the midpoint of the expansion.  I am sure I've mentioned that before but it bears repeating.  The first tier of raiding is wrapping up, and the second part of the first tier actually felt like a mid-expansion raid.  Which is always the one our guild struggles the most with.  Due to attendance etc.. it seems that's the raid we never quite finish.  I am pretty sure at this point we won't be finishing before Hellfire Citadel is released, but I would love to be proved wrong.

      When Hellfire Citadel is released in a month or two.  (My money is on Mid-June) I am hoping we will move on.  If we can we will circle back and finish later, but we will see how Hellfire Citadel treats us.

      The other big thing is that we have officially moved raid times to Saturday/Sunday 10 server time.  The time I may look at moving to a little earlier (not much) but otherwise we are going to see how this works out.  I also have kindly asked Magilla to be the co-raid leader.  He was crying and wailing, but said yes, so on the days I can't be there it will fall onto his mighty shoulders to run things.

     This change should allow me to go to school without stepping down.  While I am a bit disillusioned with Wow right now, I still enjoy it for the most part.  I have no intention of quitting, but won't be able to be on much other then raiding and a few minutes here and there in the future.  How long this will last? Who knows.  School should take me about a year and a half to two years If I work at their pace.  Once I get out we will see what happens.

    That's my update for the week.  What is new with ya'll?

Lag/Lazyeye

Hopes for How Draenor Ends

I have been pondering this lately.

      So, I was listening to the Blizzard watch podcast and they hit several nails on the head with this expansion that has been a problem.  The two most relevant where that out characters felt like side characters this time around watching events unfold, and that when we where done here in "the alternate Draenor," Nothing we do will have any relevance to Azeroth afterwards, other then stopping the invasion.

      I'm not sure how to fix the first one.  Being the side character is not a good feeling.  In the past expansions we have felt that we were the ones driving the story forward.  Feeling we are more witness or bystanders isn't fixed by everyone in your garrison calling you general or captain.  This may actually be part of the problem.  It is great to have characters recognize you after all you have accomplished, but a general is normally someone who sits back planning the war, not fighting it.

      The other problem is that things don't feel like they will effect the long picture of the game.  All the people we are meeting here, will never step foot in our world.  Everything we do just changes a different universe that we have no long term investment in at all.  For those who love Wow' lore and stories this is also a negative feeling.  Woot! We saved Yrel and watched her grow into a mighty hero.  So what? What is the relevance in another expansion.   This one I have two suggestions Blizzard could (or might) go with on this one.

      My first suggestion is the least likely.  What if, once we finished our mission we went back and found that our actions had changed Azeroth.  What if by changing this alternate timeline it caused a ripple effect that changed our past.  Or what if we found out that it wasn't an alternate timeline at all, but that we had changed the very history of our world, and now we have to figure out what that means for each race going forward.  

      That first suggestion I find very unlikely.  It would take a lot of extra work to explain why things had changed, what that meant for each race, and to essentially re-create a bit of the world to reflect this.  With how many people where confused by traipsing off to an alternate Draenor in the past, this would not work well, but it would give us something that felt like it would last going forward.

       The second suggestion or hope I have is that we see a reflection of what happened in past Draenor happen again.  What if after the last raid Gul'dan, mad with power simply ripped the world apart.  What if in the chaos we were forced to evacuate the Draenei and Orcs and whoever else we could to our Azeroth to save them from destruction.  If that were to happen then we would suddenly have all these new faces and characters in our world and the ripple from these events would be felt for expansions to come.

        Imagine a suddenly full Exodar, that now hosts massive numbers of Draenei instead of a few scattered remnants with Yrel joining Velen to rule.  An Ogrimmar suddenly bolstered by a bunch of new Orcs and Ogres and no watched over by Durotan.  We also could have a group of Arrokoa trying to carve their way out into our world, Oggron suddenly sharing the land.  This would bring about many new story lines and the growth of the world could be immense.  I love this idea so much I hope Blizzard considers it, or is planning something like it.

       So what would be your idea to make the events we are witnessing and the stories now matter in an expansion or two.  I really don't want to walk away from this one with no lasting changes to our own world of Azeroth.

Lag/Lazyeye.

6.2 is coming

Normally I would do a lot of what we did here, not this time.

      Because last week we didn't really raid.  Not enough peeps showed the first night, and we LFR'd the second night.

      This week was a little better.  We were a person short Tuesday night and managed to pull someone from the nether to come heal for us.  Because it was a mixed team of newness etc.. we just did Highmaul.  We didn't get started until late, and because of it, we only downed Khargath and The Butcher.  Better then nothing.

      Wednesday we managed to get into blackrock a little, but just managed to down Gruul.  We brought in the healer, this time on a hunter, again and had a relaxing fun night.  Yes, things can be fun and relaxing when not downing bosses.

      Right now honestly, I just want to build the team back up.  I think we may lose another toon or two before things are through but I'm hoping that with one person who came back from the nether, and this healer if he wants to keep putting up with us might give us the flexability we need to start working on progressing again.  I would love to feel the team was whole by the time Hellfire Citadel opens.

     Now, time to look at what's coming up in a month or two.

     First up is the end of the Legendary Ring quest.  We are supposed to get a proc that we can blow every X amount of minutes for added damage.  Here is the catch, if you blow it everyone else in the raid with a ring blows their proc at the same time.  I will be honest, I don't like this.  I see nothing but chances for abuse on this if your pugging or running LFR.  I would much rather just have another cool down that all players could use at their own discretion.  Either way, it's a thing and it will be interesting to see the end of the Gul'dan/Legendary story line.

      We are getting a naval yard in our garrison.  You will need about 6k resourced to build your ship yard up.  Your garrison will need to be level three as well.  The quests here will be used to open up Tanaan Jungle to you as you quest in to fight the new Fel Iron Horde?  Really not sure what we are calling them now.  But this will essentially be what you have to do to progress in the story of the expansion.  Once again I'm not fond of a gate that involves a lot of resources that may keep my alts from venturing into this.  Obviously, as stated before Tanaan Jungle will be open to players.

     Felblood will be replacing Savage blood as a building mat for professions.  So, don't sit on your Savage blood at this point.  Sell it or use it before the patch drops, because after that it may start being fairly useless.  My understanding is that the item upgrades from the Felblood skip the savage blood upgrades completely.  If that's the case Savage Blood will just be a bag space holder.

     We will be getting Mythic level dungeons.  Because nothing makes you hate the dungeons you were so glad to be done running (and for some reason they have been painful for me this Xpack) like having to run them again.  Only with them being harder.  Oh, and epic gear, epic level gear drops so you may have to run them if you want to gear up quickly.

     I am excited about Timewalking dungeons in retrospect.  We will be able to run select dungeons on level with current content, and the drops will be ilevel equivalent.    This means older gear with current stats.  Kind of pointless with transmog, but it will be fun to run some older content and have it feel like something other then a cakewalk.

    And of course there will be some minor class changes etc.. that I'm not going to list here.  If you want to know what is happening with your class just go hunt down the patchnotes on blizzard forums.  Or Blizzardwatch.com normally lists them in articles as they are updated every few days.

See you next week.

Lag/Lazyeye.

   

   

   

I'm Trying Not To Be Angry.

But, really inside right now I kind of am.

       Tuesday we didn't raid.  Simply just didn't happen.  Only five folks showed up including me and we opted to just chat in vent and do our own thing.  I was not happy.

        Wednesday we went into Blackrock Foundry.  We were still short three folks, and two of them we found from friends on another realm.  One we used the raid finder tool to fill.  With the changes etc... and a new tank we didn't even down Gruul.  Raid was called short because one of the people had to log.  Once again, frustrating.

        When we started this expansion, we had about fifteen folks raiding with us.  Over the last three months that number has dwindled.  Now I'm looking at a drought for the first time since the beginning of Siege and I'm finding it maddening.  We are back to the people getting frustrated because we aren't progressing quickly, so they jump instead of working on getting one team to great.  Some of them leaving without even saying a word which is double maddening.  I can take it if someone wants to leave.  If they don't even have the courtesy to say goodbye?  It makes me a little mad.

       So, I have started working on recruiting again.  I have found myself despite me hate of the spamming add ons, using one since cross realm zones has pretty much defeated my normal method of flying through the world and messaging chat.  Hopefully I can bring in some new blood, and get some more bodies into the guild to liven things up a bit more.  I'll be honest though, we may be struggling for a while.  I know personally I am.

       This raid tier has put a big focus on personal responsibility.  That means one person standing in the fire can doom us all now.  This means the dynamic I have fought of half the raid doing their homework, and the other half just showing up and hoping the explanations are enough may not cut it anymore.  Folks may actually have to put some effort into preparation. 

       But this is all stuff I've said and that we've been through before.  As painful as it is if I continue to raid lead it's stuff we will go through again in the future.  Life and the grass is greener complex will always take folks from us, and we just need to learn to adapt.  The downside

       I was prepared to just keep working Blackrock at this point.  Now we may have to go back and do some Highmaul to gear folks as we bring new raiders in and up to speed.  So, we may be taking a step backwards in progression.

      So, If you are on Zangarmarsh or Hellscream and want a new home to try out, let Fear Itself Alliance side know.  Come in and be part of rebuilding a raid team.  If you do so, please be committed to being in raid weekly, ready to go.  If  you can't make raid on a weekly basis, don't plan on healing or tanking.  DPS spots I can fill.  The more critical spots I need to have folks there, because every time a tank doesn't show it effects everyone a lot more critically.

Lag/Lazyeye.

Buying Time In Highmaul

How do you feel about it?

     Tuesday night was interesting.  Several people in the raid where in on alt characters (Including yours truly who took his hunter Lazyeye.) So, it became fascinating to see how we handled so much change.  The deeps was a little lower over all, but mechanics seemed to be the demon of the night.  We still one shot Kargatch and The Butcher.  Butcher had some rough spots though.  Twin Ogron kept setting us on fire because we just weren't avoiding it very well.  We finally got them down at the end of the night, but we only got 3/7 for Highmaul this week.

     Wednesday we managed to get Gruul down on the first pull that wasn't an accident.  It felt good and we moved on to Hans and Franz again.  We managed on the final pull to get them down to 10% but we have some more work to do here.  Hopefully next week.

     Let's get to the meat shall we.

      Blizzard is going to allow people to buy game time tokens and sell them on the auctionhouse.  As of yet a price hasn't been set for this token, so we don't know how much it's going to set us back.  My honest guess is it will be $15 for 30 days, not cheaper (because then it would be cheaper to get tokens rather then a subscription) and I don't think it will be much more expensive.  Maybe a dollar or two as a "service fee."

     I am not sure where I stand on this yet.  I like the idea of being able to use gold for game time, but we don't know how much gold it's going to cost yet either.  That price will be set by the community on the AH.  My honest opinion is that anything over 10k I won't spend.   Even then I will hesitate as I haven't had the play time to earn a lot of gold lately.  I would like to say when they did the guardian cub years ago he was $10, and he stared out for about that 10K price, but eventually dropped down to 5k or so.  This only means so much because the economy has been inflated a lot since then.  But it does give us an example of what has happened in the past.

    The obvious pitfall here is that if the game time sells for too much gold only a select amount of players will be able to afford it.  At that point it will be a benifit for the elite few who make a lot of gold off the AH, and the rest of us will occasionally be able to get a month for free if we are lucky.  I am sure that this is not what Blizzard intends, but it may be what it becomes.  In that case if you want to buy gold it might be lucritive to drop an extra $15 or so here and there and  pick up some in game currency.

     The bonus is that if it works out right, then the price will drop down to a point where the everyday player can afford to drop gold on time if thats what they choose to do.  Now, to be fair, I don't think that this idea will work if everyone in game can afford to buy time off the auction house.  I think the average player should be able to afford to buy time every couple of months or so.  There will be people who never can afford this, but I am hoping those are in the minority if this is implimented correctly.  At least that is my opinion.  For all I know Blizzard is looking at this in a whole different light.

    How do you feel about buying WoW time with gold? Are you going to participate in this as a buyer or seller?  What thoughts have I missed?

Lag/Lazyeye.