Is Harder Better?

Such a weird question... here we go.

      Saturday we mounted up and headed into Hellfire Citadel. It was a good night, very few issues and we downed Kormoc for the first time.  A good raid night all around, I was very happy and my tanking didn't kill us all.  We had a new raider and a person we pulled from the nether with us as well.  It was nice.

     Sunday didn't happen as a raid night.  Not enough showed so we split up and rand timewalking dungeons.  I pulled my DK Illyrea out for a tank test (I haven't DK tanked since Wrath, when I could duel wield tank.  Thank you Blizz) and only wipe us a couple of times.  To me the tanking feels a little clunky on the DK at the moment, but I haven't developed the timing and muscle memory for the class.  Had fun anyway.

      So this week Topic is one that has been on my mind.  With Illidan and a lot of old stuff being brought back again, there seems to be a lot of people wishing for the old days of World of Warcraft.  You know, where there were 40 man raids and everything was mind numbingly hard, because only the elite raided, and they stood apart for it.  And the grinding man, if you didn't spend hours getting herbs and ore making your eyes bleed with all the pixels they were taking in just so your character could be their best.... Well, I think you can already tell where my opinion is on this.

     I think there should be some challenges in game.  And I think we have them, there is Mythic raiding, PVP, and some bigger achievements.  Do I think we should go back to the days of having to CC every pull, spending a couple hours in a dungeon, and wandering around Dallaran yelling in trade for a group? No.  Not at all.

     This game, like all successful things has evolved with the player base.  I would imagine for every person who yells about how easy this game is now, there are a could hundred who roll their eyes and close their ears as soon as the song of the glory days of vanilla comes on.  While I started playing at the end of Vanilla, or original Wow, I sure don't miss the days of grinding and praying I could get one character to level 60.  To me, getting one, being able to get a couple things done, and getting off in an hour or two is perfect.  Heaven knows I can't spend hours upon hours on the game anymore.  Call me a casual.  I'm cool with that.  I hardly believe though the people calling for things to be like the old days are the majority.  I think it's more a vocal minority with a lot of folks who just as soon don't want to engage in a long pointless debate.

    But I could be wrong.  I admit it.  I mean, I know raiding wise as a leader I'm not lighting any fireworks.  We have fun, which I thought was the point of this game, but compared to a lot of the "big raiders" we are mediocre.  I will take mediocre and fun any day over stress, yelling, and treating this game like a job.  Obviously if you want something harder there are other options out there.  Wildstar is going free to play in a couple of months, and it is supposed to be very punishing and hard on the raid content.  Of course, like I said, it's going free to play so there might be a reason for that.

     Alright, my rant is over.  I meant it to be an argument and it's all one sided.  Sue me.  I just can't justify a discussion on making the game harder and more grindy for a few special snow flakes.  In other news....

     Get your pathfinder done.  6.2.2 drops on Sept 1st.  That means we are getting close to flying in Draenor.  If you haven't gotten your achievement, now is the time to get 'em done.  If you don't care, it doesn't matter what I say anyway.

See you in game.
Lag.

Regaining The Fire

So, raiding happened.  I'm very happy that raiding happened.

     The first night we ventured in may have had a couple of issues.  I brought in a new raider who was geared but inexperienced, and it showed a little.  Also, the first boss just kept outright destroying us and we couldn't figure out why.  The healers couldn't keep the tanks up through the first few mobs, and I think we only got to the second siege weapon once.  finally called it.

     The second night our mystery was solved.  On the way in my wife noted that there was a skull in front of the portal.  Somehow I had my raids turned to heroic, and we were all expecting normal. To put it lightly, I screwed up.  But that second night we downed the first two bosses and had our best attempt on the third we have seen so far.  More importantly, we managed to raid two days in a row.  I am hoping this means more happy things to come.

     Now, I've been thinking of the next expansion in reference to the subscription drop.  For those living in a cave Wow is now down to just over 5 million subscribers.  Now, I do not think this is unexpected.  The game is ten years old and we see a lot of drop off as expansions go on.  Warlords itself feels like an expansion that just has aged prematurely to me too.  While it's been out for less then a year, for some reason the content just hasn't felt lasting.  Normally we get some excitement, you feel content to log in every day and do stuff, but this time it feels like it's all been done pretty quick.

     Part of it is the shock of how the end game feels after the great leveling experience.  You hit level 100, and half the stuff you want to do is tied into your garrison.  There are rep grinds, but you really don't need them.  There are daily apexis, but while they are fun the first couple of times they just don't feel great after a while.  The dungeons felt ok, but I wasn't enthralled.  And raiding, as always is fun, but that is only a couple nights a week.  Overall the experience people got after a while was, log in, check garrison, log out.  There was no benefit to hanging around in game for the most part, other then visiting with you guild mates.

     I also think this is where the faster content expectation they built hurt them.  When it feels like very little is coming, and it's coming quickly it just isn't a wonderful experience.  In Pandaria it worked because we had things like the Isle of Thunder, or the invasion of Krasarang Wild as our factions showed up.  All that had direction and felt like it had purpose behind it.  Then we got the wild treasure hunt that was Timeless Isle.  

     Now the best we have is Tanaan Jungle, which is fun, but feels as directionless as the rest of the expansion.

     Don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed Warlords, but I wanted to take a look before I went forward at the issues I have had, and that I have heard discussed before I moved forward.  Because there are a lot of things that Legion is going to have to be in order to keep the current subscriptions they have.  Let's be honest too, we know when the expansion drops those subscriptions are going to go up again.  I don't know if they will go all the way to ten million, but no one expected to see that with Warlords and it happened.

     Legion is going to have to have direction and purpose.  We need to feel like we are interacting and controlling the story, not just witnessing it.  Being called general, master, etc... doesn't make up for the fact you don't feel like your character is important to the story.  I want to feel like the driving force behind taking down the baddies, not like I'm holed up in my castle giving orders and surfing chat.

     It is going to have to play on our nostalgia, and keep a hold of it.  The themes we are seeing so far are familiar and exciting.  Demon hunters, Illidan, Tomb of Sargaras, are all fan favorites and great memories from Warcraft III and early World of Warcraft.   Blizzard needs to make sure that these places and people feel enough like the original that we don't feel cheated.  It also has to feel shiny and new enough that we don't get the, "It's all been done" feelings.  Right now the excitement is high, and i'm hyped up, but I need a good pay off for that excitement.  If I hop on my new demon hunter and I feel like, "Well, I've played this class before" it's not going to be so great.  If I go into the Tomb of Sargaras and say, "Oh, I seen this cave skin since vanilla." It will be disappointing.

    The last thing Legion needs to do is find a way to find new players.  Most of us who have been playing for years don't have the time we did long ago.  I know I can't spend hours upon hours questing like I used too.  I have also debated lately dropping my subscription for a while with work and school just so I don't have one more thing pulling at me.  (I'm not dropping, don't panic raid team)  We need to find a way to get new blood into Wow.  I don't know if it's possible but getting those late teen and early twenties crowd to hop in would build a player base with more time, and durability then those of us die hards who have been logging in for years.  At some point we generally move on to other things, there needs to be players coming in, to slow the number drop of those going out.

     Not that Wow is dead or dying.  They still have more subscribers by far then any other MMO out there.  That doesn't mean that they shouldn't be looking to the future a bit more.  I imagine this game will still be going on in some form ten years from now.  I also think with the MMO market what it is, we will never see another MMO with 12 million subscribers that dominates the market like Blizzard has in days past.  I would love for them to prove me wrong.

    That is my thoughts on it anyway, what are you all thinking at this point?

Lag

World of Warcraft:Legion. The Newly Announced Expansion.

      So, needless to say, as this was all announced as information leading into the next expansion, I 'm not going to worry about anything that might be considered a spoiler.  So, if you don't want to know what is coming stop reading here.  I am not filtering, I am not avoiding, I am talking about what was shown and what I'm still looking through.

      So, I am giddy with excitement.  I just watched and looked through some information for this expansion and I'm very happy with what I'm seeing.  I don't think I've been this excited for any other expansion, and I've been excited for most of the expansions... let me explain.

     When you watch the expansion trailer it is voiced by Illidan.  Just to hear him doing the voice over made me insanely happy.  If you watch the teaser cinematic you see Gul'dan going into revive someone who looks strangely just like Illidan.  Pair that with the voice, and we can be sure that the other Stormrage is returning to our World of Warcraft.  I am not sure what role he is playing however, but we will discuss this in a moment.

      We are witnessing the return of the Burning Legion on Azeroth.  While we have tangled with them before, in Wow it was limited to Outland in BC, and the end of Draenor.  Sure there has been the odd demon or two popping out of the nether and earning a sword to the gut, but for the most part that has been the extent of our interactions in this game.  Of course, before BC, they were the ending focus of Warcraft III.

      We are going to the Lost Isles.  If you played Warcraft III you have been here, it's where the Tomb of Sargaras lies among other things.  If I remember correctly, this continent was between Kalimdor and Northrend, but it's been a few years so if I'm wrong I apologize.

      While this is being marketed as, "The burning legion has returned we must defend ourselves" it's very apparent we are going after Gul'dan right off.  He is in one of the first two raids, and I am hoping we put him down.  But I'm not counting on it.

      This expansion seems to be pulling on the heartstrings of those like me who remember playing in Burning Crusade.  From the Illidin voice over to the familiar legion mobs it smacks of new mixed with familiar.  Once again I think Blizzard is playing with Nostalgia to try and bring people back into the game.  But they are also giving us new shiny stuff like my favorite thing... The Demon Hunter Quest.

      The new class looks pretty cool.  With only two specs, the Demon hunter is either Melee or tank.  I am disappointed that they went with leather for armor, since mail is the types that has the least users right now.  Other then that, from the characteristic green glow from where the character's eyes had been to glaves the class looks awesome.  They metamorphose into demon forms while fighting, can double jump, and they even mentioned using your wings to glide down from areas.  This class is supposed to be all about mobility and in the minor game play video they showed, the Demon Hunter can bounce around and fight with the best of them.  However, they mentioned that the Demon Hunters we play (limited to the two elf races) are the Illdari that followed Illidan back in Outland.  This brings us to the big question.

     If we are fighting for the Horde and Alliance, and Illidan is back, does that mean that Illidan is flipping sides to help us against the Burning Legion?  While I've always found his story somewhat not convincing in making him an outright villain, (yes he betrayed people for power in the war of the Ancients, not forgetting here) I felt more that he took opportunity in Warcraft III to grab power and then used it to help, I don't see him as a "good" guy.  He may fit in the Anti-hero role fairly well though and I imagine that it might be safer for him, and for us, to ally for at least a little while.

    But what do you all think?  There are many things that I haven't mentioned like Class halls (garrison where you hang out with the other members of your class in game), and artifact weapons (because you know you want to wield Doomhammer or Ashbringer), and many other things.  Level cap 110, etc...

    Are you guys excited too here? or is it just me?

Lag

   

     

     

Next expansion 2015.... War of The Dead?

     It's that time of year again.  Time to speculate on what the next World of Warcraft expansion will be.  Last time I made a guess at what I wanted the expansion to be I said an adventure where the Forsaken are shaken up because Sylvanas is resurrected and giving her some sort of redemption story.  My guess was that Lilian Voss was going to be the next Forsaken leader as they seem to be building her up to something, and that the expansion would also take us to a series of tropical Islands including Kul Tiras and Zandalar.

    This year my expansion idea is actually a little similar.  So bear with me here.

     I am somewhat basing this on the fact that we get a reference to Wrathion having been in Draenor with us, though he never appeared and what happened to Admiral Taylor's garrison.  Admiral Taylor's garrison bothers me simply because it was obviously destroyed by a necromancer/warlock (Ephial) but we are in a Draenor where as far as we can see, Warlocks if they exist are somewhat new.  The orcs have not lost their shamanistic powers, as happened (to my understanding) when the race gave up on the elements and started practicing magic through demons.  Of course this change seemed to have happened along with the orcs drinking Mannaroth's blood.  (I haven't read to books so my understanding may be skewed here)

    What if the "Dark one" that the Necromancer was referring to wasn't even on Draenor.  Ephial came through the portal to Draenor with us, and may have had some plan all along.  While Taylor's journal does mention Ephial going missing for a while after a Horde attack, I'm not sure this means that whatever twisted him happened on Draenor.  He could have been evil before he stepped through the portal.

     I think things may be stirring in the North.  What if Bolvar has awakened, and he's been corrupted.

     He has spent the last few years up there with Ner'zhul in his head.  Frozen alone with the ghost of the Lich King whispering in his ear.  Because with Arthas having been in the helmet all those years, there is a chance that his voice in in Bolvar's ears as well.  What if we are about to fight another scourge invasion.  What if Wrathion knew this and had arranged Garrosh's escape in order to find  a way to get a bigger army for Azeroth.  I don't think it's coincidence he showed up in the same garrison as Ephial.  He told Admiral Taylor that he was fleeing the ogres, but was that the truth? Or did he lie so he could keep an eye on the evil he found had followed us through.  Strangely, we didn't see any signs of ogres chasing him.  From the account in Admiral Taylor's book he was hardly a prisoner. 

     Now picture this, Bolvar goes south to take out the only true threat he can see to his power, Sylvanas.  What if Sylvanas where to strike back with a Frostmourne rebuilt from the shards.

    When the sword takes her like it did Arthas, will we be stuck between to factions fighting for the dead of Azeroth?  What might have happened in Northrend in the years of our absence?  What might have been awakened from beneath the ice? What lands might the Cataclysm have unearthed between us and the North?

    Anyway, that is my thoughts.  I would love to see "The War of The Dead," as an expansion.

    I'll be honest, everyone is thinking Burning Legion expansion, and dealing with Gul'dan.  But let's be honest, following Garrosh to Draenor was the first time the previous expansions event led to the next expansion.  I'm more inclined to believe they will let that thread dangle for a while.

    What do you all think the next expansion will be?

Lag

Road to Nerdtacular 2015.

It's that time of year again.

      Last couple weeks of raiding has been not really happening.  Low attendance etc.. has had us running old content for kicks and having fun doing other things.  This weekend I'm hoping will be better but since I will be somewhere Saturday night.... The place listed in the title we will see.

     Maybe if I'm not there folks will show.  Who knows?

     Nerdtacular is over for me now.  This is my one big get away event where I go to hand out with Geek kind at Snowbird, Utah.  It is awesome to see how it has grown since the first year I went to see it and we watched Iron Man 2, then had a short Q&A upstairs.

     I wandered around a bit, caught some cool panels.  I really loved the ones on Podcasting and Comic books in Modern media.  However, due to the fact it's so big I had to pick and choose between panels and ended up sitting out hypothetical help and Sword and Laser.  All of these will eventually be streaming somewhere on the Frogpants Network among other places, and I recommend thumbing through and seeing if there are any you like.

My Fat head next to Chris Metzen's

      The highlight this year for me was that Chris Metzen was there.  I didn't talk to him much, but I managed to shake his hand and thank him for an amazing game.  I then embarrassed myself by not being used to taking selfies on my camera. (let's be honest, this is not a bad thing except in this situation.)  I did get this picture with him, and it is fun to be able to say I've met the man.

     If you only listen to one thing from Nerdtacular, I would suggest "The Instance" Podcast.  (Though you should listen to more)  Chris Metzen and Russell Brower where both part of the panel, and Chris essentially stole the show.  He talked a lot about the beginning days at Blizzard and how things have grown and illuminated the path they took to get where they are.  Whatever you think of World of Warcraft, and Metzen himself, I will tell you from the little bit I saw; the man has passion and while he's very smart, he seems very humble as well.  When they talked about Project Titan and the Values Blizzard holds to when releasing a game, I felt myself smiling.  You can tell he cares a lot about what he does, and about the people his products serve. 

Ever Wonder why I love living in Utah?

    Here I am though, two days of Nerdtacular past, and feeling happy about the time I spent there.  Here is the funny thing about me though, I don't talk to many people.  I sit there, by myself this year, and just watch the people around me and enjoy what is going on around me.  I did miss my opportunity to thank Jules from Tauren Think Tank and to say hi, as she had reposted one of my blogs from last year.  I need to email her and say hi and such, but I felt that I should have said something and I let the moment pass.  Once again, I am much better at typing my thoughts out here than approaching people in real life.  Especially when I have a lot of respect, and a little hero worship, for what they do.

     

     I even asked a question on the Podcast (building an audience panel) because I've been kicking around starting one to compliment this blog.  Nothing big, and probably just once or twice a month, but we will see what happens.  In all likely hood between work and school that goal is a long way off.

Snazzy new shirt.

     So, if you ever get a chance to find your way to Nerdtacular, I recommend the experience. Scott Johnson has created a wonderful experience and it's amazing to see how it's grown.

See you soon,

Lag

Comics Panel

Podcast/Building your audience Panel

    Yes I included a lot more images then normal.  But this was a special occasion.

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