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.

   

I don't want another Death Knight. (Introducing Demon Hunters)

I love the Death Knight class.  (Sorry Bel) but....

    Let's start with the raiding news.  Family stuff came up and I didn't make Saturday.  Sunday, no one showed so the couple of us who where there just ran some time walker dungeons.  Pretty much the story lately, I'm going to keep on posting, and we will do something.  This next weekend might be tight for me too... we will see.

    Like I said, I love the Death Knight class.  The starting zone, the feel of the play, the animation I think is all well done.  Some of the Lore choices that Blizzard has made with them (I must make things suffer or go insane being one of them) are not my favorite, but that is something that doesn't effect me in game.

    Let's remember when the DK's where first introduced however.  Blizzard was smart to cap the class at that time to one per realm because everyone had a DK to play.  The class itself was introduced as a hero class and was overpowered in a lot of instances.  Sometimes to the point where someone could just mash buttons and put up great DPS.  The class, despite a lot of criticism has come a long way from that point with all the changes over the last few expansions, but most don't forget the herd of facerolling DK's that haunted our Wrath Nightmares.

    And let's be honest, they still have some features that are arguably overpowered.  You don't see many other classes with the livability and self healing the blood spec has.  There are famous DK's that make a point out of soloing what is considered current or close to current content because they can.  While Blizzard may change that eventually, it's so ingrained into the DK at the moment that the screams would be loud and crazy where they to nerf it away.  So I don't think we will see a big change on this front anytime soon.

    I do however, have to mention, I mention duel-wield tanking on my DK.  It just felt and looked awesome.

    Why am I discussing DK's like this? Well, because with Demon Hunter's being introduced as a hero class I'm hoping Blizzard takes a strong look back and sees what did and didn't work with the DK initially.

    I want Demon Hunters to be fun, I don't want them to be overpowered.  I want them to pull about the same DPS as everyone else when a skilled hand is applied. That's not to say I won't complain if they aren't exactly at the middle of the DPS charts, I just don't want them to breeze into any dungeon and raid and immediately take the top DPS spot on account of the class, not the player.

    I would love to see the one Demon Hunter per realm limit.  I know I might get flack for this, but I know tons of people want to roll them.  I don't want to make it worse by having players roll five Demon Hunters to swap around depending on looks.  Make it simple, and then take the limit off in an expansion or two.  We don't need to be overwhelmed.

    Please let them feel unique.  At this point with Duel Wielding we have Fury Warriors, Rogues, Monks, and Frost DK's.  I am praying that the demon hunter doesn't feel borrowed or mashed from these other classes.  I am a fan of duel wielding in my reading fantasy, and my game fantasy, but I want it to feel like it's own thing.

     Brief but interesting starting area.  I love the DK starting area.  It has great story, feels imporant, and I can play through it in a couple hours easily.  I have a hard time with the Worgen, Goblin, and Pandarin starting areas because I feel trapped and stuck in them forever.  I know they probably aren't much longer then the DK area, but they feel like they take forever.  I would love an option to opt out and just start at level in the Orc, or Human zone.  Please make the Demon Hunter starting zone brief, but interesting.

    Let's make sure that with the introduction of the class I have been begging for since freaking Wrath or earlier is introduced in such a way that they are fun and iconic, but don't create multi-expansion grudges.  I plan on playing this class, and if they live up to their promise there is a good chance I will replace Lag as my main for the first time since wrath.  He has taken a back seat a couple of times, but he has always come back.  The Demon Hunter may be the death of him.  Or at least cause his retirement.

How do you hope the demon hunter is introduced? What did I miss here?

Lag.  

Little Broken Worlds

Last couple of weeks weren't so hot.

     Attendance one again down, through Saturday, and a little into Sunday we just went through and nuked Siege of Ogrimmar.  I think at this point when we don't have the attendance we will start working old raids for mount achievements etc....   At this point there is no reason not to.

     Then the next week, (yes I missed a week here) I forgot to post the raids, and attendance was low, probably because of that.  We worked on ICC 25 (I got my achievement mount) and the next day we did heroic BOT and BRD.  Some achievements where had, a couple missed.  Next time will be better.

     Now is the hard time.  People are playing less and less, some because of real life obligations, others because it's hard to get the will to work on things in an expansion that is for all intents and purposes coming to a close.  Attendance is going to be harder to gain, and so on.

     So now is the time to level the alts if you have something different in mind for next expansion.  It's time to play other games, be they Wildstar now that it's Free to Play, heroes of the Storm or whatnot.  Now is the time to take a breath and not live in Azeroth full time.

    But I would love you all to still show up for raid... hee hee.

    To be honest, I will keep posting raid times whether or not people show.  We can go work on old content mounts like I mentioned in the moments when not enough folks show.  I do still want to work through Hellfire Citadel, and I think we can if we can get the attendance, but If people don't want to show I'll make other plans.

    Let's be honest, we still probably have at least four to six months before the next expansion, we have time.  But that only works if we use that time.

     As for me, I plan on keeping my account active and dropping in when I have time.  School has had a major effect on my play time and that's a good thing.   I am doing well in school and I can't complain about the experience.  I think it had been good for me, and in the long run it will provide some good opportunities.  Not just for me, but for my family.

     So, let's try to get this raid done.  The little nerfs are coming through which will make things even easier.  And if folks decide to keep not showing up, there is always next expansion.

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.

Things I'd like to see in Legion.

So, I was at a wedding in Vegas last weekend, so I didn't raid.

      Now here is one of those things that bear asking before the launch of a new expansion.  What have they promised, and what do you want to see that hasn't been mentioned.  And I'll admit it is kind of a hard question for me this time, because it feels like everything has been thrown into this expansion that we have asked for.  It has been called the fanservice expansion in a few descriptions I've read, and I'm not sure how far from the truth that is.  But here are some things anyway....

      I want to see more dynamic professions.  Warlords gave us a neutered down, generic path for our character's professions.  It largely felt like it didn't matter what profession your character had, because you could just get a vendor in your garrison to make whatever you needed for the most part.  The only exceptions seemed to be the items used to level up the ilevel on gear.  Gathering professions where just laughable.  Your garrison pretty much gave you everything you needed on this front.

    Class specific quests.  It feels like we may be getting some of these with the class halls, but I'm not holding my breath.  I have walked in to to many things only to find that we have been supplied with the same quests as everyone else, just with a different starting point, or different faction.  I am hoping that each class with have a series of quests unique to each.  So my Paladin and Death knight can have very different experiences.

     More involved story lines.  A lot of Warlords felt like we were watching events unfold, but not necessary to the story.  This was a departure from the feeling of places like, say Jade Forest where we did something, and felt like we were personally responsible for the consequences at the end.  In warlords despite being called general etc... it felt like we were watching others achieve thing for us, and we just happened to be helping a little.  In order to feel involved our characters need to feel like the driving force in the game.

     Involvement from characters in Warlords  or Mists, or.... Rather then having great character like Yrell disappear from this point on, I would love to see them pop in here and there as we move forward.  Even if it's just running into her while visiting the king on a quest that takes me back to Stormwind. I hate that we get invested in characters and storylines just to see them abandoned for the next big flavor.

     That is the list on my mind, what would you like to see in Legion when it drops?

Lag