The Wheel Keeps Turnin'

And the players keep playing.

     We are in the middle of many changes for World of Warcraft.  Content is flowing like never before, developers and keeping even the static content such as world quests flowing and changing.  There are more ways to get rewards and develop your character than ever before, and it feels like the world is full and populated with other players again.

    So the question becomes, looking forward how can Blizzard keep up this momentum?

    New and fresh ideas need to keep coming.  We know what the near future holds.  We are going to get mini-holidays, three full tiers of raids, and more throughout the expansion.  We are going to eventually go to Argus and take the Legion on their home ground, and we are going to have fully powered artifact weapons that we have spent hours on while doing so.  At the end, we will be looking at 8.0.  The next expansion.  And yes, it is a little soon but I am wondering what will come next.

     I don't think we will have another Legion based expansion after this.  It will probably be old God based, or maybe we will have to deal with Bolvar as the Lich King.  He has obviously changed in the role he now inhabits.  Whether he is truly on our side or not, defeating the Legion was probably in his best interest.  Whatever those interests are... I am not sure it will be in the living's favor.

     We could also find other stuff in the universe.  What about exploring the remains of the titan's homeworld(s).  We could have an outer space adventure that is completely different from anything we have seen before.  We may not beat Azshara this go round, and if so the naga may be something we have to deal with on a larger scale.  If she pairs up with the old Gods then it might be a bigger struggle.

    There might even be something new, something we cause if we defeat the Legion, because nature abhors a vacuum.  If they are gone, what will take their place?

     What features will the future hold?  We already have an option for Horde and Alliance to be mercenaries in PVP, will we eventually be able to blur the lines while raiding?  Will we see the end of the faction divide eventually as it ceases to make sense as we keep having to fight these bigger enemies?  Players are still, and will always, ask for guild housing or player housing, will Blizzard give in eventually?  If so how will that look?

     What do you all think the future holds?  How long do you think the game will go on?  I firmly believe if they keep releasing content like we have now, it is possible, not necessarily probable, that WoW could hit twelve million again.  What would that be like?  And would Blizzard even tell us?

So fellow players, what do you think?

Lag.

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Reinventing is Hard.

Making changes can have a cost.

     So it was a couple of blogs ago that I changed his to theornerywowplayer.blogspot.com as I felt that without me raid leading, it was misleading for me to keep posting as the ornery raid leader.  I didn't want people to click on this expecting raid updates, tips etc... I also wanted to embrace the fact I am wandering a new path in game as I am in life.  I am finding it relaxing to not have to plan and worry about getting the raid team together, doing the prep, etc...

    I still run with my family or other people here and there on the weekends.  Otherwise I am playing at my own pace, working on a few alts and trying to figure out where I fit in now.  I am actively working on my horde rogue as I had the heads up a few of the people I will be working with at my new job are on that side of the isle.  As with everything else, not planning full time raiding etc... just want the option to pop into a dungeon or something with them.  Not mention a couple people I'm working with now...

    However with this change I ran into an issue that I didn't anticipate.  This has never been an earth shattering big blog.  I have no illusions that I am in the same league as the folks at Blizzardwatch, theinstance, Tradechat, or any of the other big names.  I'm just someone spouting off a few words opinions and hoping everything is coherent when people read it.  I'm away my opinion is not always right, and sometimes is misinformed.  I try to be polite, look at issues from different angles and keep myself open minded.

    My views and rating on this blog have dropped though.  Changing the name of the website deleted every single google+ rating I had earned previous to the name change.  My views were normally about thirty on a low day, and I had hit two hundred once or twice.  Normally at least one day a week I would see a nice spike.  Once again, I know that these numbers are small.  I'm not expecting my presence to even compare to most others.

    Now a thirty view day is good.  I don't think I've broken one hundred yet since I changed.  While I don't write this to garner a lot of attention, the attention I did get made me smile.  So maybe I am a little narcissistic at the end of the day?  Who would have thought?

    So now there is nothing to do but keep trucking on.  Hopefully in reinventing all this I will find a new passion in the game and share that with all of you.  I am enjoying not being tied to the computer, or having to log in at any given time. Still plan on running things here and there with family and guild as I can, but I am not locking myself down.  It has been nice to declare a movie night with the family and not have to worry about it effecting the raid team.

     I have finally got my horde rogue to level 110 as well.  That gives me three max level characters, and one on the other side of the fence to poke at things with.  My rogue is a BE female, because you know, they have the best stealth animation in the game in my opinion.  So far running assassination, but will try the other specs shortly.

     How is everyone else adjusting at this time?  How do you recover from setbacks in game or out of game?  How should I re-invent myself?  Is there a new direction I should take anything, or should I just keep trucking on and slowly rebuild?

Lag/Ben Marble

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Blizzcon is Over. I am Underwhelmed this year.

So, I feel like a killjoy here.

     Blizzcon 2016 has come and gone and we were all excited for the big reveals and commotion that comes with this event ever time it is hosted.  We were excited for Diablo, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, and other Blizzard IP news.  This is where there is a ton of cinematics, news, and upcoming features and games announced.  I honestly feel that it was cool, but not great this year.

     Obviously my first love is for World of Warcraft, this is a WoW blog and it is the only game that Blizzard has that I play on a regular basis.  I hop into Diablo III on rare occasion or Hearthstone but the other games I haven’t gotten into.  Mostly because I have limited time and I don’t want another big time sink pulling me into another direction.

     As someone who has played all three Diablo’s, I was disappointed that there isn’t an expansion or Diablo 4 coming.  I think the idea of going back to old Tristam is cool.  I love the thought of Necromancers, but I only played them a little in Diablo II and getting me to pay for a character pack is not likely to happen.  I think Diablo III needed something bigger this year.  These little tokens are not going to appease folks for long.

     Hearthstone, I will be honest.  New content is cool, but as a casual player I know I’m not going to see the majority of it.  I might hop into the first wing if it is free to see what is happening, but further than that I don’t want to grind the gold or pay the money on an expansion that might last three to four months if it lasts as long as the last expansion.  Which feels like it just barely dropped. 

     Overwatch, let’s be honest.  If you were a fan you knew Sambra was coming.  Now one was surprised at her announcement. Her Cinematic was cool, and I enjoyed it, but as far as everything else goes you would have to talk to someone else on what it means.

     Starcraft, I honestly don’t remember hearing anything.  If I missed it then I am sorry. 

     Heroes of the Storm, the Varian Wrynn/Ragnoros reveal was awesome, and it tempts me to dip my toe into that game a little.  At the same time, the rest of the game you would have to ask someone who plays a lot more.

     And that brings us home to World of Warcraft.  (Yes, I know there are other announcements etc. in other IPs, but like I said, unless I delve deeper they don’t mean a lot to me.)

     In Wow we got a little preview of things coming up.  We now know that flying will be available in 7.2.  We know that we will get a new raid at that time as well.  Oh, and the biggest announcement was that we will be going to Argus in 7.3. 

    Thank you Blizzard for not making Legion a two raid tier expansion, I would have been seriously disappointed.

     We are getting a new set of dungeons in 7.2.  Arcway and Court of stars will become Queue able. Artifact weapons will have further story line to them.  Dungeons gear and difficulty will rise with the raid level to keep them relevant.  Not sure how I feel about that last one.  Another make a wish pet for those who like to donate and get a digital cutie.  And other announcements like that.

     So, a bit of news on World of Warcraft side, but nothing that blew me away.  I feel that it was all very standard information that wasn’t a big surprise.  There was no wow factor for Wow this time around.  Even Argus I was guessing from the information given at the beginning of the expansion and the book Illidan.  Honestly given his history and goals, it would be strange to get Illidan back and not go to Argus.  That is his main goal at this point.  Go to demon home world; destroy demons in a place where they can’t come back.  My guess is that we won’t Armageddon it, and simply throw a bomb into Argus to blow up the planet. 

     Am I off base here though? Was there anything amazing at Blizzcon this year I am overlooking or undervaluing? What is everyone else thoughts on this?

Lag.

     As always, if you want to support my shark surfing exhibitions consider purchasing one of my short stories at Amazon.com for your kindle or e-reading device.

7.1 and Gearing Concerns.

So, I am questioning the gear this time around.

      But first, let's glory in the fact we already have 7.1 up and running.  What you say? Too soon? Too gated?  Yeah, those opinions have been loud and clear.  People are frustrated that there is an attunement quest line before Karazhan.  I honestly haven't started it myself yet, so I'm not going to give an open opinion on it being hard or too long or anything like that.  I don't know.  I just know people hopped on exited to revisit their old favorite raid, and were not able to right away.  I have seen some groups getting together to run it since, so maybe it's not too bad.

      Halls of Valor is out as well, needing to be attuned for as well.  Once again, I think it's a little early for opinions other than, well you have to attune for it.

      This expansion has been rife with ways to get geared up.  Daily quests, dungeons, raids, class hall quests, etc…  There has been no shortage of methods to get gear.  If you are willing to put in the time and effort that is.  My question is, with all the levels of gear, between world quests dungeons (normal, heroic, mythic to mythic+ 10) Raids (LFR, normal, Heroic, Mythic) and World Quests, (I have seen gear up to 840+ on these, but they might go higher I haven’t looked deeply into it.) and PVP

      My question is this, is this too big a spread of gear to be healthy for the game?  When we had a gear squish just an expansion ago, to be pushing numbers like they are now.  If the numbers jump like this, from 800-895 for legendary, per raid tier How out of hand might the gear get by the end of the expansion.  Let's be honest, we haven't even released the end of the first tier, which is coming after the beginning of the year by all accounts.

     I have already seen Mythic dungeon groups asking for gear levels of 860+ which is a little crazy unless you are running Mythic + some crazy number.  If we are looking at a span of almost 100 ilevels a tier, and we go three raid tiers this expansion, that could see us up to ilevel 1000ish.  That is a little wild and out of control.

     Now, on counterpoint, last expansion from my memory, jumped about 50 ilevels a tier, per 2 tiers, which ended up with high end folks being a bit above ilevel 700 at the end of expansion.  Even at 50 ilevels a tier, with thee that would put us at about ilevel 900 at the end of this expansion after this first gear boom.  Honestly it’s hard to say because we have not seen this spread of options before.  Either way, that is a lot of ilevels we are tossing into this expansion.

     And what will come next? Are we going to have another item squish before too long?  If the numbers keep clicking up as high as they are can that be maintained for the rest of the expansion?  What is the long term benefit or damage to the game with all this gear?  How should we keep it better in line if we need to keep the numbers smaller?  Would it be better if they evened things out. so, LFR=reg dungeon, normal raid = Heroic dungeon,  Heroic raid= Mythic dungeon and then have Mythic raid = Mythic plus dungeon somewhere along the line?  (I don't have PVP on this list, because I'm not sure how the gear system works there off the top of my head.)  it would also make dungeons feel more relevant and make 5 man content as rewarding as raids.  

     Of course, there is the hold our part of me that says that 5 man contents should not be as rewarding as raids.  I mean, raids take more work to get together.  They are intrinsically more difficult and are a larger investment of time.  If I am not going to be doing raiding why should I get the rewards of regular raiders?  My answer to that, give them some different rewards.

    Even out gear, and give raiders some cool mounts, unique armor sets, and other such things that set them apart.  I mean, that is what raiders want. To be able to say, look at me!  I have accomplished this.  If you give them other side rewards, I'm not sure they would cry as loud at evening out the gear.  But, there will be some folks crying.  There are always some folks crying.

     The other option, I'm still a fan of doing a level squish.  I don't think it's crazy hard to level a character from 1 to 110, it is a bit of a time investment, but a manageable one.  However, walking in new the the game and seeing there is 110 levels is kind of daunting.  It doesn't manage if you can do it in a quicker time than you used to or not.  People just see that 110.  I say squish the levels down so 0-60 is now 0-30, and make each expansion 5 levels or so.  Put in the scaling technology, so it doesn't feel weird to level through, but make the content stop at the top level so folks can still go back and just destroy stuff if needed.  (i.e. 0-30 content stops at 30)  You could do a gear level squish with this as well.  This would ensure some more longevity in the game and make things feel more attainable to those coming in.  That would be a new level cap of 60 again at the end of this expansion, if that was when they squished it, giving a nice lower number. 

     Once again, I can hear your screams at this idea, but take a breath and think about it.  Do you really want to be leveling characters from 1-140 three expansions from now.  If we take steps like this now, that makes life easier later.  For starting players as well as folks who are leveling things up.

      But what do you think?  Is the gear kind of out of control, or is this just par for the course?  When do you think the next item squish will be, because we know it will happen eventually.  How about a level squish?  How would you feel about it?  Not initially, because no one wants to feel like they have lost years of work, but in the long run?

What points did I miss?

Lag.

If you want to support Ben Marble (Lag) in his dancing the night away, consider to buying one of his short stories on Amazon.com .  

A Few Thoughts on Tanking

I have some thought on tanking.

     Recently, my wonderful sister Anna shared an article on Facebook and tagged me in it.  The subject of this article was someone who was new at tanking was talking about why tanking was difficult in World of Warcraft. He also discussed how it was possibly a flaw of game design since so few people tanked, and so much expectation is put on that one player.  He of course pointed to the things we all know about, impatient players, hard learning curve etc… the article is included Here in PC Gamer magazine and I suggest giving it a read.  So don’t my paraphrasing and take on it, read through it is well worth your time.  I agree with most of what he says.

     I have been tanking on and off since Wrath of the Lich King, Matt Rossi has pointed out several times on Blizzardwatch’s podcast that once people know you can tank, you often end up in that role even if your intention is to become DPS.  Good tanks feel thin in this game, and part of that is because of pressures like this.  The other part is because folks in raid finder, Looking for group, and elsewhere do have a tendency to be verbally abusive and will often blame things going wrong on said tank.  This means if you don’t have a thick skin you don’t tank very long.

    Or you become like me.  I won’t tank for anyone I don’t know.  It is not worth my time and effort to suffer verbal abuse at the hands of someone I don’t know.  I will queue as DPS thank you, and wait the extra thirty minutes.  I won’t lie, part of the social anxiety I have developed dealing with people in World of Warcraft has come from tanking.  I am wary of pugging people into groups, or tanking for strangers because I never know what I’m going to get.  And I know if it’s bad it will often be directed at me whether I have deserved it or not.

    On the other hand, I believe 95% of players in this game are decent people who aren’t looking to tear folks down.  The loud voices in trade chat and in groups are often a vocal minority who like to talk loud because it makes them feel like they matter.  The problem is, you can tank five groups in quick succession, but if you get a person in that fifth group that does nothing but tear you down and get abusive it stands out to the point where you think it’s everybody.  I know one person who is dps that stopped running group finder stuff because he says he has never had a good experience.  I personally can’t say if that’s true, but it sure feels like the game is full of negative individuals sometimes.

     Now, do I think this is Blizzard’s fault?  No.  I think the game is designed for specific types of groups, and that if you were to make everything dps with no heals or tanks it would feel more sporadic and less organized.  Do I think there should be DPS only content? Well, they tried with Scenerios, and my guess is they went away after a small percentage of players used them compared to the amount of time Blizzard had to use to design them.  I could be wrong on that, but for better or worse we are used to the tank, dps, and healer dynamic.

    Now, I wish they would stop gating my content behind mythics, or that the dungeons like the arcway that are gated behind content could be queued for in LFG, but those are minor complaints.  My playing hours right now pretty much make that content hard for me to get to.  I sure am not going to tank them for strangers.  At the same time, I don’t know if there are enough people on in my guild most of the time that need to run them.  That leaves me sitting on quests that are filling up my quest book and that are a bad feeling.

     How do we fix tanking? I hate to say this, but Blizzard can’t.  There is no magical button that is going to change how the group dynamics work.  There is no bit of programming that is going to change characters expectations of quick and clean runs.  The only people who can change this are the player base.

     Players need to openly call out folks that make tanking hard to do.  Players need to set the expectation, that if you start tearing someone down, that is tank or otherwise, the group will kick you.  Folks need to be a little more understanding and patient.  The only way we fix that is one player at a time.

     The other half of this coin, there are some bad tanks out there.  I’m not talking about folks that are learning, but tanks that take for granted that they are important.  Those tanks that are abusive to the groups running with them and tear down other team members are as big a problem as any negative, sweary dps.  (You thought I was going to totally be on just the tank’s side in this blog right?) One run with a tank like that and you might see why a dps would lash out at a tank here and there.

    I think a tank that gets kicked from a LFR, or LFG should have a time penalty before they can queue again.  Why? Because it kills the attitude of, “If they kick me I will get right back in again,” and likewise dps should have a similar penalty.  Not because I’m a jerk, but there should be a consequence when you exhibit bad behavior.   Yes this could be abused.  In my experience 90% of the folks that get kicked deserve it. 

         At the end of the day folks we are all human, and need to treat each other as such.   If we are going to fix this issue in game we need to do it one player at a time, just making the decision to be nice to each other.  I’m not asking you to be everyone’s friend.  Or even to like other people.  Just treat them with the respect they deserve.

Lag

I Am Stepping Down

So… Here it goes.

       I am writing this even debating right now if I’m actually going to post it.  I have been thinking a lot lately about my role in World of Warcraft versus student, versus father and husband.  I made a decision a little over a year ago to change my life by going back to school, getting and education, and bettering my situation overall.  I am essentially working on rebuilding myself as a better person with opportunities that will benefit those whom I love.

      So, with a heavy heart I am going to flat out say it.  I am stepping down from raid leading for the foreseeable future.

     I am going to even change the name of this blog. It will probably go on as theornerywowplayer or something of that flavor.  I want to go into and explain why I am making this decision, and I want to make sure that everyone involved understands why I am doing it.

     It really hit home to me while I was thinking about a job interview I have tomorrow.  If I get this job, I will be getting up around 6 am, heading to work at 7, working 8-5, then going to school 6-9 every weekday but Friday.  This means that I will have even less time in game then I do right now.  I will probably have an hour or so when I get home before I go to bed, and that hour will belong to my wife and family.  I am not going to play World of Warcraft when I get so little daily time.

     I have also been looking at my education down the road. I am going to graduate from DATC when I finish the course I am taking, and that will be around January give or take.  I am going to continue to attend and earn some more certifications, (Project+, Administrators, Linux, Citrix) so I will probably be enrolled until the end of summer at the earliest which is a bit longer than I had originally planned.  After that, I may go on to try and get my bachelors in computer science with an emphasis on Networks and Administration.  Needless to say, that means I will probably be looking at a couple more years at least in school.

     Between these two things it hit home to me.  I am not going to be able to rebuild the raid team.  I don’t have the energy and the time.  I am not going to keep pushing forward on it, because that would not be fair to anyone who is there right now.  I am officially calling quits on raiding leading, organization, etc…

     What does that mean for the guild?  I don’t know.  If someone wants to rebuild the raid team or start one I will support it.  If the guild become just a place where folks leave an alt to hop in and keep in touch I’m ok with that too.  The end line of this is I am taking a step back from any sort of big responsibility in World of Warcraft.

      I am going to keep playing.  This game is my big stress relief and I love chatting with folks.   There are people who I have played with for years that I worry about such as Scorpiak and Magilla.  However, it is selfish of me not to say, feel free to move on if the right opportunity presents itself.  I will still probably get on Sunday nights to run dungeons, LFR, and other such things with my family and people, but I am not going to set my clock by it.

     I am going to be doing my own thing.  I will probably be leveling a couple of horde alts, and a couple of alts on Aerie Peak.  I may find a raid team or two where I can step in as an alternate, but I don’t plan on being the big main raider in any shape or form.  I have grown to the point where this game cannot take priority for me.  It is not fair to myself, or anyone else involved for me to keep going on like I have.  I am done for now, and will be doing my own thing.  I hope I see folks in game, but as everything must come to an end, my time as raid leader has.  I have raid lead since wrath, so I had a pretty good sprint.  It’s time for someone else to pick up the mantle.  Or we can just let it lie.

     Either way, I love the experiences I have and thank everyone for helping me become a better person through this experience.  I wish I could remember everyone.  My family Gwyndolynn, Fantaa, Aeryn, Shaqia, Whatever Toon Jon is helming right now.  (Love you Jon, but you switch more than me.)  And those I’ve played with outside,  Bromli, Laserfina, hummock, Sochia, Bannanahamock, Zhamora, and even the guild leaders in midnight, years ago who picked me up and let me run with them no matter how that ended.  All deserve an amount of thanks.  And yes, I probably misspelt more than one name there.  I have forgotten to mention so many others.  I could sit here thinking for hours and coming up with even more.  But I Won’t bore folks with that.

So, for that last time, as the ornery raid leader,

Thanks for reading,

Lag

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.

If you want to support this blog or Ben Marble's insanity, please consider buying one of his short stories on Amazon.com