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

Patch 6.2 My Precious

And it is here.  Today.
 

      Saturday was a LFR running day.  I wasn't available as I had to work, and not enough folks showed so we ended up running LFR together.  Wasn't there, but I assume Magilla was stoic, people shot and stabbed things, and fun was had.  If fun wasn't had, then I blame Gul'dan.  Dude ruins everything.

     Sunday was O.k.  We went in and one shot Hanz and Franz, (we decided to skip Gruul) and then went and took some swings at Beastlord no one remembers my other name.  Last week we one shot him.  This week we had some trouble, and weren't able to down him.  Part of it is still getting a consistent group.  I'm hoping Hellfire's excitement will help with that.

     Today 6.2 drops and all of Warcraft quivers in excitement.  New content is always ready to be devoured after a lull, and this lull has felt long despite the fact that it probably was a lot shorter then we used to wait between raids and content.  Mists however has built us up for quicker content and now I don't think Blizzard has the option of easing up on the gas.  I still think at times that the content is too fast, but in this case it's time.

      First of all you can start making sure you are getting ready for the return of flying.  Getting the Draenor Pathfinder achievement will earn you wings for your main character, and any other character you have in Draenor over level 90.  This may actually get me to start leveling characters against.  Be aware there is a bit to getting the Pathfinder achievement.  However, Wowhead.com has a great feature where you plug in your character and it will tell you what you have left to do to earn flying.  You can find it at http://www.wowhead.com/flying.  Be aware that the last 100 treasures achievement is a little misleading here.  It tells me incomplete because Lag hasn't gotten 200 treasures, but he does have over the required 100.  Otherwise plug yourself in and see what you have left.  Securing Draenor achievement quests can be bought in your Garrison if you haven't done them.  You can buy maps of the different treasure locations in Ashran.  Loremaster you will have as long as you finished the main questlines, and exploring is just riding around and seeing stuff.  If you start now when flying drops you will have it available to you soon.  Be sure to work up your three Tanaan Jungle reps because you will need those at revered as well.

      Timewalking is coming.  During the weekends here and there you can hop into special events where you can run past dungeons with your characters being nerfed down so the content will be at level for Heroic.  The gear dropping here will be dropping to an ilevel rewarding to your character.  The reason you can only run these on weekends is so you might want to run some Mythic dungeons....

      And yes Dungeons are getting a Mythic level.  It is recommended you have at least some Highmaul/Blackrock gear before attempting these.  ilevel 680 gear will be dropping here with the chance at a ilevel 700 piece from the last boss.  These Mythic dungeons will be on a weekly lockout like LFR so don't expect to run them non-stop to get geared.

     Naval missions are coming as well.  I hope you have around 6,000 garrison resources saved up because that's what it is going to cost you to get your naval yard built and rocking.  Blizzard has said unlike garrison missions these won't be so time consuming and the rewards will be good.  So, plan on setting your missions every couple of days or every week.  This will also be how you create an inroads into Tanaan Jungle.

     Yes we now go back to the area where this all started.  Back to Tanaan to explore and fight the Fel Iron Horde?  Anyway.  New quests, new factions, new goodies.  Oh, and new mats for Professions so you will have to leave your garrison.  MWha ha ha

     Other features include a new Quest journal that gives suggestions on how to best develop your character.  And several folks having to relearn their classes.  Oh, and did I mention Hellfire Citadel.  Yeah, new big green fiery raid.  Bring it baby!  I am hoping this isn't the last big content patch for the expansion and that Blizzard has something else up their sleeves.  I mean, Gul'dan is not even a boss in the Hellfire Citadel....

Anyway, what is everyone looking forward to the most when the servers come up and they can log in today?

Lag

   

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

     

       

   

The Return of Flying in Draenor.

The community has spoken.

     Saturday raid didn't happen.  I forgot I had promised to be elsewhere that night, and Magilla had prior plans as well.  Not a great way for one of our first Saturday raids, but I think one of the downsides of the weekend raiding is that things are going to come up for people more often.  I ask that people are patient as we work out schedules and the kinks.  Things may be rough for a while.

    Sunday night we didn't have enough folks so we went back and stomped a couple of Pandaria raids.  If we are short again this weekend we are going to stomp them on heroic and get the guild the mount from the first raid tier of Pandaria.  It wasn't current, but it was fun.  Spirits where high and we all had fun.  Was a good way to spend a night.

     But let's get to the topic at hand.  Ian Hazzikostas had made an announcement that flying wouldn't be happening in Draenor or future expansions.  To put it mildly the community did not take this announcement well.  There are several forum posts of rants and raging over this decision.  The few that were defending this choice seemed the vast minority.  I fell on the side of wanting flying back, in a calm rational way.  However as I stated this would not be a game ender for me.  I wasn't going to rage quit and stomp off to other pastures.

     The community was heard however, in the largest rage fit since Blizzard announced they were going to make people post their real names on the forums.  (Did you remember that little gem?)  Here is the article they posted on the matter. Dev Watercooler-Flying in Draenor  Now lets discuss.

      For those who don't want to read the whole thing, let me put it in a nutshell.  Flying will now be introduced into Draenor sometime after 6.2 (not during the patch launch.)  In order to get flying you will have to finish Loremaster in Warlords along with a couple of other achievements.  At that point you will get a shiny new mounts, and all your toons will be able to learn flying after level 90.

      This I think is an elegant solution.  It let's Blizzard get us into the game on the ground while leveling and achieves their goals.  At the same time it will allow people to earn the right to fly, and help them level alts later on rather then having to hoof it through the content on every single toon you level.  I think this is a model they should look at for future expansions as well.  I don't mind them gating flying behind achievements or level requirements.  I don't think it breaks the content to let people fly around after they have done it once.  I am not sure this will get people out of their garrisons, but that's another discussion.

       There is a sacrifice that is being made here that folks aren't looking at.  Dairies on Convert to Raid podcast mentioned that time spent on making content work for flying could be time spent on other content, and he's not wrong.  Think about it.  If Blizzard didn't have to make the world pretty for those who buzz above and fly they could put that time elsewhere.  More raid content? Dungeons? Questlines?  Things that could help fill these times of lull between major patches and give us more stuff to do in game.  I am not saying that this trumps the joy of flying and the ability to re-explore the world from above, but it should be taken into consideration.  As with all things, you have to ponder what you are sacrificing in order to gain.

      How do you feel about this? Is Blizzard on the right track with this plan?  Do you think this means that they won't try to take flying out of newer expansions, or stick to a model like this?  What are your thoughts.

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.

Kids and Flying Banned in Draenor.

This last week had no raids.  I had stuff going on both nights so..... let's get to it.

      First of all in the news of new experiences I have let my two daughters start playing Wow a bit.  This should be interesting to see how they learn to play and whether or not they enjoy this virtual world.  At 12, and 13 they are old enough to experience a game like this and I'm looking forward to watching and teaching them.  Don't expect them to be online a lot, but here and there.  When asked when they get their own account? I answered when they can pay for it.  So, They won't be at raid anytime soon.  I'm just mean like that.

      When your kids are old enough I recommend trying this.  It's fun to see what your kids choose.  Right now we have a Human Mage and a Draenei Hunter.  (I forced them to start Alliance because I'm more familiar with the leveling and story lines should they need help.)

      In other news there will not likely be any Flying added to Draenor.  Here is a link to one o Blizzards forums talking about it Forums/Flying.  Obviously this is a hot button topic and I recommend giving some thought to this before going crazy.  This choice could still get reversed if Blizzard gets enough constructive (notice I didn't say negative) feedback as they have with other choices in the past.  Remember when to post on forums you were going to have to show your real name? I do.  Here is a link to the actual interview where Hazzikostas gave the now flying news. Introducing Tanaan Jungle: six things to know about World of Warcraft's newest zone

       I really want to push the constructive feedback aspect of talking to Blizzard if you want to post or comment about this or anything else.  If you go in screaming and saying things suck, your just going to get lost in the forest of idiots who have nothing to base their opinion off of other then emotion.  If you go in and give facts and act like a decent human being, you are more likely to be heard.  Every time.

      This does mean that my opinion on the Runesaber from last post is strengthened by this choice.  I think it was a bad move to release it with flying and now with this interview it's just going to feed the people angry about no flying.  I just see this as a bigger and bigger mess that people will still be arguing about several expansions from now.  Because you know, most people who are pissed won't unsubscribe and we will have to listen to them go on and on about the mistake removing flying was.  Rather they will stick around and complain.

     For the records, I think they should return flying (and I've said as much) but not at the time of release.  I think it should be introduced after the expansion(s) have been thoroughly explored by people leveling.  However, I'm not going to rant, rave or talk about unsubscribing.  I understand and respect the choice even if I don't agree with it.

       Other new I am still doing raids on Tuesday and Wednesday for the next couple of weeks, but everyone who voted on the website voted for them to shift to Saturday/Sunday night.  I will give warning in raid before they shift, and will still watch for feedback but that decision seems done.

Have a great week
Lag/Lazyeye