AMFG are you kidding me? 100g to unlock, 25g to deposit, and withdraws are FREE?!?! Now every nub on the server who can't farm up a few thousand gold will have the same void storage privileges I do. This is an insult, and a slap in the face to every Gbolinesque person out there - or hell, anyone who can run a few quests/dailys and get some gold. I swear, if they don't up the price back up to somewhere in the 10k range PER DEPOSIT, you might as well call it Hello Warcraft Kitty Rift Island TOR Adventure.
What a load of shit.
/end sarcasm
/end rant
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Things to do before 4.3
With 4.3 on the horizon, it's now time to take stock of what I need to do before it hits. This is something I do before every patch, though it's something I'm generally bad at sticking to. After all, what's the point of making a list if I can't deviate from it later?
Step One
Do nothing. I'm serious here. I've taken this stance since TOC was released, and it hasn't failed me yet. As much as I read up on class notes and such, I'm the last guy who knows where anything is come patch day. It's my 5 minutes of finding something new - back up off me. I still look back with fondness at the utter chaos at trying to find our way back to the ICC 5 mans when they first came out. Wait, you fly up where?
Step Two
I'll probably spend some time thinking about PvP, and if I'm really on the ball I'll stock up on 4k/4k Honor and JP so I can buy the previous season's PvP gear. I know I won't PvP that much, but it'll save me some hassle for those few weeks when I think it's something I want to do. Every season I think about doing 2v2 and 3v3, and then I remember the day I left my shadow in Nagrand after getting hit by a pair of trinket-POM-Pyro mages in Season 2 (or was it 3?).
This really is a good step to take though, since I'll be able to kit out quickly. Alternatively I'll be trying to decide which alt I think I want to PvP with (right now it's a hunter or a Disc Priest) and I'll try to power-level them up and max out their honor/JP.
Step Three
At some point when reading the patch notes I'll pick up on things like "Chaos orbs will no longer be soulbound" and other such goodies. At this point I'll make a plan to /need on as many as I can before 4.3, so I can sell them all off. At least now you have to have the profession to get them in 5 mans. It seems like after the patch everyone will be able to roll on them again, and you know everyone will be /needing on them to either sell, or hand off to their one crafting toon. Whatever, that's what the need button is for, right? Let's not get into the whole debate that my need for gold is less than your need for anything else. Or my need to cause misery to others. After all, I play a Warlock and a Paladin - between sucking souls and being self-righteous, I can make anyone's day worse.
Oh, and I sing to Voss. He loves it, he just can't admit it in front of the others.
Step Four
Play a few more alts, and enjoy how easy it is to level up now. I really can't wait for the nerf to the required XP for 71-80 - but it's still stupidly easy to level. Stuipdly easy I say. Oh, and hunters are idiotically OP in lower brackets of PvP - you know, just in case you've been avoiding that. I might also play with twinking out a toon, but that motivation usually lasts about 24 hours of real time.
Step Five
Forget everything above, and do nothing but play Starcraft II (I'm so bad at ladder, I'm in the plastic spoon/rounded scissors league) and Space Marine, while waiting on BC3.
Editor's Note - that's me
Thanks to Sin for pointing out that I've been calling the "Dragon Soul" patch the "Demon Soul" patch. Whoops.
Step One
Do nothing. I'm serious here. I've taken this stance since TOC was released, and it hasn't failed me yet. As much as I read up on class notes and such, I'm the last guy who knows where anything is come patch day. It's my 5 minutes of finding something new - back up off me. I still look back with fondness at the utter chaos at trying to find our way back to the ICC 5 mans when they first came out. Wait, you fly up where?
Step Two
I'll probably spend some time thinking about PvP, and if I'm really on the ball I'll stock up on 4k/4k Honor and JP so I can buy the previous season's PvP gear. I know I won't PvP that much, but it'll save me some hassle for those few weeks when I think it's something I want to do. Every season I think about doing 2v2 and 3v3, and then I remember the day I left my shadow in Nagrand after getting hit by a pair of trinket-POM-Pyro mages in Season 2 (or was it 3?).
This really is a good step to take though, since I'll be able to kit out quickly. Alternatively I'll be trying to decide which alt I think I want to PvP with (right now it's a hunter or a Disc Priest) and I'll try to power-level them up and max out their honor/JP.
Step Three
At some point when reading the patch notes I'll pick up on things like "Chaos orbs will no longer be soulbound" and other such goodies. At this point I'll make a plan to /need on as many as I can before 4.3, so I can sell them all off. At least now you have to have the profession to get them in 5 mans. It seems like after the patch everyone will be able to roll on them again, and you know everyone will be /needing on them to either sell, or hand off to their one crafting toon. Whatever, that's what the need button is for, right? Let's not get into the whole debate that my need for gold is less than your need for anything else. Or my need to cause misery to others. After all, I play a Warlock and a Paladin - between sucking souls and being self-righteous, I can make anyone's day worse.
Oh, and I sing to Voss. He loves it, he just can't admit it in front of the others.
Step Four
Play a few more alts, and enjoy how easy it is to level up now. I really can't wait for the nerf to the required XP for 71-80 - but it's still stupidly easy to level. Stuipdly easy I say. Oh, and hunters are idiotically OP in lower brackets of PvP - you know, just in case you've been avoiding that. I might also play with twinking out a toon, but that motivation usually lasts about 24 hours of real time.
Step Five
Forget everything above, and do nothing but play Starcraft II (I'm so bad at ladder, I'm in the plastic spoon/rounded scissors league) and Space Marine, while waiting on BC3.
Editor's Note - that's me
Thanks to Sin for pointing out that I've been calling the "Dragon Soul" patch the "Demon Soul" patch. Whoops.
A second look at the nerfs
So the nerfs have been out for about two weeks now, and BT has rocketed from 2/7H to 6/7H in that time. Of course, there are still some issues with the fights, most notably Beth. It's kind of aggravating that one hunter can cover all the little spiderlings, but that it takes all of our other ranged DPS to do the same thing. That's just a small issue though, and one that we've been able to work through without too much hassle.
Alt time shenanigans
So Sunday night, we rounded up a handful of alts, and rolled into Firelands to see what we could do. I was personally sure we would go 7/7, but I really should have taken bets. I know quite a few of the raid team weren't expecting the nerfs to be as big as they were. I'm sure it helped that our MT was an alt of our regular MT (just a DK instead of a War), our heavy hitting mage was on his PvP mage (so Alysrazor flying was covered), and one of our main healers was on a druid healing alt. We only had one "new" player to Firelands, but he was a pretty solid raider in T11, so it wasn't a big hump for him to get over.
Our average equipped iLvl was around 358, easily obtainable through Zulroics and capping out your VP. Toss in a few nerfed T11 raids, and you're right there. I think out MT was wearing a 319 helm, and Direbrew trinkets - with a smattering of other random drops thrown in. I'm fairly certain my Paladin was the highest geared, and that's just because I had my heroic T11 gear.
Now while we did 1 shot every boss except Shannox (killed the wrong dog first - oops), I can certainly see where another group would have trouble with the mechanics. I'm still not sure how healing on Baelroc is supposed to work, I just built up 11tybillion stacks on our Spriest, and then healed the tanks. Rhy was driven by someone who'd never done it before, but we never were in trouble. Overall it was easy, but I think a good part of that is due to our experience with the encounters. I'm pretty sure that a group who was stepping into it for the first time would at least find it challenging.
Added benefit to the nerfs
I'm sticking with my hope that Demon Soul will drop in October after Blizzcon. Now we haven't seen any bosses show up on the PTR yet (***Edit - looks like the PvP boss is up for testing***), but it's still a possibility. I really can't see them dragging this out until TOR launches in December. So what does this mean for us? If you have an inkling that you're going to be losing members hard and fast on Dec 20th, now is the time to get them into the easier content for gear. Alts can get geared up very quickly in this environment as well.
The other thing that this nerf buys us is that most valuable commodity - time. If you're a guild that is wholly uninterested in doing heroic content, you should be able to finish out Firelands without too much difficulty before Demon Soul - and can focus on other aspects of the game. From taking some time off, to gearing an alt or maxing your honor/JP - you should now have a little more time on your hands. For us it means two days a week working on H-Rag, for you it might mean something else.
I still support the nerfs
Even with the complete faceroll we performed on Firelands this week, I still support the nerfs to the zone. I will concede that it would have been nice to include a "no thanks, I want the pain" option for those that didn't want the nerf - but when I'm doing an alt run, the last thing I want is to spend two hours beating on Rhy's legs. I do alt runs for laughs - and the enjoyment of hanging out with my fellow guildies. I don't do them because I want the massive challenge.
So however you're handling the nerfs, I think we can rest assured that the Demon Soul is just around the corner, and that means exciting times ahead.
Alt time shenanigans
So Sunday night, we rounded up a handful of alts, and rolled into Firelands to see what we could do. I was personally sure we would go 7/7, but I really should have taken bets. I know quite a few of the raid team weren't expecting the nerfs to be as big as they were. I'm sure it helped that our MT was an alt of our regular MT (just a DK instead of a War), our heavy hitting mage was on his PvP mage (so Alysrazor flying was covered), and one of our main healers was on a druid healing alt. We only had one "new" player to Firelands, but he was a pretty solid raider in T11, so it wasn't a big hump for him to get over.
Our average equipped iLvl was around 358, easily obtainable through Zulroics and capping out your VP. Toss in a few nerfed T11 raids, and you're right there. I think out MT was wearing a 319 helm, and Direbrew trinkets - with a smattering of other random drops thrown in. I'm fairly certain my Paladin was the highest geared, and that's just because I had my heroic T11 gear.
Now while we did 1 shot every boss except Shannox (killed the wrong dog first - oops), I can certainly see where another group would have trouble with the mechanics. I'm still not sure how healing on Baelroc is supposed to work, I just built up 11tybillion stacks on our Spriest, and then healed the tanks. Rhy was driven by someone who'd never done it before, but we never were in trouble. Overall it was easy, but I think a good part of that is due to our experience with the encounters. I'm pretty sure that a group who was stepping into it for the first time would at least find it challenging.
Added benefit to the nerfs
I'm sticking with my hope that Demon Soul will drop in October after Blizzcon. Now we haven't seen any bosses show up on the PTR yet (***Edit - looks like the PvP boss is up for testing***), but it's still a possibility. I really can't see them dragging this out until TOR launches in December. So what does this mean for us? If you have an inkling that you're going to be losing members hard and fast on Dec 20th, now is the time to get them into the easier content for gear. Alts can get geared up very quickly in this environment as well.
The other thing that this nerf buys us is that most valuable commodity - time. If you're a guild that is wholly uninterested in doing heroic content, you should be able to finish out Firelands without too much difficulty before Demon Soul - and can focus on other aspects of the game. From taking some time off, to gearing an alt or maxing your honor/JP - you should now have a little more time on your hands. For us it means two days a week working on H-Rag, for you it might mean something else.
I still support the nerfs
Even with the complete faceroll we performed on Firelands this week, I still support the nerfs to the zone. I will concede that it would have been nice to include a "no thanks, I want the pain" option for those that didn't want the nerf - but when I'm doing an alt run, the last thing I want is to spend two hours beating on Rhy's legs. I do alt runs for laughs - and the enjoyment of hanging out with my fellow guildies. I don't do them because I want the massive challenge.
So however you're handling the nerfs, I think we can rest assured that the Demon Soul is just around the corner, and that means exciting times ahead.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Raid Finder details released - double raiding remix?
Blizzard released some of the initial details about the upcoming Looking For Raid (LFR) tool, which is scheduled to launch with 4.3. While I was hoping that a different raid would be designed for the LFR, a scaled down version of the Demon Soul raid will be the only available option at the start. In a way, this makes a lot of sense, especially when you take the recent Firelands nerfs into account. There will also be reduced pressure on learning a new raid that isn't available in a normal environment.
Tell me about what matters - the loot!
Right now in Firelands we're getting 378, 384, 391 and 397 gear, with the standard 13 iLvls between normal and heroic, and 6 iLvls for Rag. Much like the 1/2 step we saw between regular heroics and Zulroics, I can certainly see the LFR handing out 397 gear - just like Sinestra's loot was around the same iLvl as starting Firelands. I full expect to see 397 from LFR, and then 404 and 417 (with possible 1/2 steps from Deathwing) from normal and heroic DS. All sounds fine, yes?
Not necessarily.
The first alarm bell that starts ringing in my mind is that the LFR will also drop tier tokens, even if they are slightly lower iLvl. So now you have a potential situation lining up where raiders can be expected to not only raid the standard Demon Soul, but also use the LFR to pick up slightly lower gear. While this may not be as big an issue for your top tier guilds that already have full Fireland heroic gear, I'm betting that there are still some slots folks would like to upgrade. So here we have a similar situation to ICC/ToC 10/25, where you had to run both raids every week, just to make sure you were getting as much loot into your raid group as possible.
This isn't a real issue for a 25m guild, where you can control (to some extent) how the loot is handled in the LFR - but this becomes a bigger issues for 10m guilds that are trying to get a few extra drops for the week.
Need before Greed shenanigans
So now my question is, how will the loot be handled in Tank/Healer/DPS situations? Based on what I'm reading right now, it looks like it will perform just like the LFD. If you can use it, you can roll Need on it. So there will be ample opportunity for some shenanigans to take place - especially since you can queue in a large group. As it stands now, you can roll into the raid with anything from a single player to a full 25m raid group. As long as loot is still tradeable between raid members, I can certainly see an entire group rolling Need on an item to increase their chances of getting it to the person they want to have it.
While this type of thing can occur anywhere, I think the anonymity of the LFR will take the asshattery of LFD to a whole new level.
So will I use it?
I really don't know. I imagine I will give it a go with the guild as much as I can, and I'll probably throw my Paladin into the mix just to see how it plays out. I have to hope that enough checks and balances will be placed in the system to make it at least semi-decent. It certainly won't hurt to get some extra practice on bosses, and a lot will depend on how nerfed the encounters are. I really hope that they don't turn the LFR Deathwing into a nerfed Shannox on the first day.
Tell me about what matters - the loot!
Right now in Firelands we're getting 378, 384, 391 and 397 gear, with the standard 13 iLvls between normal and heroic, and 6 iLvls for Rag. Much like the 1/2 step we saw between regular heroics and Zulroics, I can certainly see the LFR handing out 397 gear - just like Sinestra's loot was around the same iLvl as starting Firelands. I full expect to see 397 from LFR, and then 404 and 417 (with possible 1/2 steps from Deathwing) from normal and heroic DS. All sounds fine, yes?
Not necessarily.
The first alarm bell that starts ringing in my mind is that the LFR will also drop tier tokens, even if they are slightly lower iLvl. So now you have a potential situation lining up where raiders can be expected to not only raid the standard Demon Soul, but also use the LFR to pick up slightly lower gear. While this may not be as big an issue for your top tier guilds that already have full Fireland heroic gear, I'm betting that there are still some slots folks would like to upgrade. So here we have a similar situation to ICC/ToC 10/25, where you had to run both raids every week, just to make sure you were getting as much loot into your raid group as possible.
This isn't a real issue for a 25m guild, where you can control (to some extent) how the loot is handled in the LFR - but this becomes a bigger issues for 10m guilds that are trying to get a few extra drops for the week.
Need before Greed shenanigans
So now my question is, how will the loot be handled in Tank/Healer/DPS situations? Based on what I'm reading right now, it looks like it will perform just like the LFD. If you can use it, you can roll Need on it. So there will be ample opportunity for some shenanigans to take place - especially since you can queue in a large group. As it stands now, you can roll into the raid with anything from a single player to a full 25m raid group. As long as loot is still tradeable between raid members, I can certainly see an entire group rolling Need on an item to increase their chances of getting it to the person they want to have it.
While this type of thing can occur anywhere, I think the anonymity of the LFR will take the asshattery of LFD to a whole new level.
So will I use it?
I really don't know. I imagine I will give it a go with the guild as much as I can, and I'll probably throw my Paladin into the mix just to see how it plays out. I have to hope that enough checks and balances will be placed in the system to make it at least semi-decent. It certainly won't hurt to get some extra practice on bosses, and a lot will depend on how nerfed the encounters are. I really hope that they don't turn the LFR Deathwing into a nerfed Shannox on the first day.
Tier set bonuses - still a work in progress
If you know me well at all, you know I feed on the tears of those that nerd rage about things that I consider to be inconsequential, or at the very least - not worth raging about. Near the top of this list are rants about changes on the PTR, especially in the early days of the PTR.
Love those people.
Legitimate theory-crafting
Now it's certainly permissible, and encouraged even, to put forth some solid theory-crafting and speculation towards anything you happen to see - that's the beauty of having a public space to talk. Having said that, let's look at the two set bonuses that I really care about.
First, the Paladin. The new 2pc bonus is similar to all the other healers - 25% reduction in mana costs to all healing spells cast for the next 15 seconds. This is really sweet for us, because it's triggered off of Divine Favor, which increases our haste and crit - so when we really need to pump out the heals, they're cheaper. This is a lot nicer than the Druid or Shaman bonus - they have their cost reduction tied to their mana return talent.
The 4pc bonus is a little iffy, though it will depend a lot on how the proposed changes to Holy Radiance pan out. Right now I generally cast this on CD anyway, so 20% more healing isn't something I'll say no to. With the new changes making this a concious choice to switch into an AoE healing mode, I think this will be even better (especially with BoL transfers and Mastery hits).
And the Warlock. When I first looked at the Warlock bonuses, I had a small fit. First even though the Doomgaurd is pretty powerful, it's still a 6 minute CD with the bonus. Now if the fights are long enough that you can get two full uses out of him, well then that makes this a pretty amazing CD. If not, it's pretty lackluster. Sure the demon does some great DPS, and it's nice that it's a fire and forget type buff (cast the demon and keep doing your thing) - I just think it's kind of unimaginative.
The 4pc bonus is a nice DPS boost every 45 seconds, and the recent change certainly makes it better. Soulburn an instant Soulfire, and you get a shard back with the 4pc set. Affliction locks may want to still use Seed of Corruption if they have the talent, since this will reapply Corruption when it detonates, and gives you some AoE damage as well. It's not an instant cast though, so casting a fire spell may actually be a DPS increase - that's something we'll have to sim out later.
In the end
I expect to see a few more changes to the set bonuses between now and when the patch goes live. As much as I would have liked to see the patch go live without a PTR, this is one of the big reasons why they exist. A lot of little tweaks and changes will take place between now and the go live date, though I do hope they don't draw this out too long.
If I was a betting man I'd count on at least one more round of changes to the tier bonuses, and 2 or 3 balance changes to the notes already posted.
All Paladin healing has been reduced by 25%, and mages will now spontaneously combust and take 3456 damage per second of being within 100yds of a Warlock - friendly or hostile.Now if that was a real patch note, what do you think the odds of it actually going live are? You can bet money though that a handful of folks would read that and set the proverbial forums on fire.
Love those people.
Legitimate theory-crafting
Now it's certainly permissible, and encouraged even, to put forth some solid theory-crafting and speculation towards anything you happen to see - that's the beauty of having a public space to talk. Having said that, let's look at the two set bonuses that I really care about.
First, the Paladin. The new 2pc bonus is similar to all the other healers - 25% reduction in mana costs to all healing spells cast for the next 15 seconds. This is really sweet for us, because it's triggered off of Divine Favor, which increases our haste and crit - so when we really need to pump out the heals, they're cheaper. This is a lot nicer than the Druid or Shaman bonus - they have their cost reduction tied to their mana return talent.
The 4pc bonus is a little iffy, though it will depend a lot on how the proposed changes to Holy Radiance pan out. Right now I generally cast this on CD anyway, so 20% more healing isn't something I'll say no to. With the new changes making this a concious choice to switch into an AoE healing mode, I think this will be even better (especially with BoL transfers and Mastery hits).
And the Warlock. When I first looked at the Warlock bonuses, I had a small fit. First even though the Doomgaurd is pretty powerful, it's still a 6 minute CD with the bonus. Now if the fights are long enough that you can get two full uses out of him, well then that makes this a pretty amazing CD. If not, it's pretty lackluster. Sure the demon does some great DPS, and it's nice that it's a fire and forget type buff (cast the demon and keep doing your thing) - I just think it's kind of unimaginative.
The 4pc bonus is a nice DPS boost every 45 seconds, and the recent change certainly makes it better. Soulburn an instant Soulfire, and you get a shard back with the 4pc set. Affliction locks may want to still use Seed of Corruption if they have the talent, since this will reapply Corruption when it detonates, and gives you some AoE damage as well. It's not an instant cast though, so casting a fire spell may actually be a DPS increase - that's something we'll have to sim out later.
In the end
I expect to see a few more changes to the set bonuses between now and when the patch goes live. As much as I would have liked to see the patch go live without a PTR, this is one of the big reasons why they exist. A lot of little tweaks and changes will take place between now and the go live date, though I do hope they don't draw this out too long.
If I was a betting man I'd count on at least one more round of changes to the tier bonuses, and 2 or 3 balance changes to the notes already posted.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Why I don't PTR/Beta
Betas, PTRs and Demos oh my! Space Marine, Battlefield 3, SW:TOR, Diablo 3, WoW 4.3 PTR - you've got your pick (yes, I know Space Marine is live - and it's AWESOME) of games to select from. I'm sure there's a bunch of others available as well, these are just the ones that have caught my attention.
Now, there are certainly differences between a demo, beta, and PTR - but they're all basically designed to do one thing. Whet your appetite for the real deal. Some do it by giving you a (hopefully) polished taste, and others do it by letting you help to test out the upcoming content. Either way, it's a great way to get a feel for the new stuff by playing before the full package is released.
Too much too soon
One of my biggest issues with these is that you start burning through the actual content early. One of the biggest complaints I hear about games is that you run out of the "new" too soon. Well by participating in the free play, you're just burning through it that much faster. You also spend your time playing in an environment that may be less than stable. While instability isn't limited to non-live environments, it's certainly more prone to bugs and issues.
Now if you're actually interested in testing software and actively reporting bugs, then by all means please continue. I appreciate your efforts to make my experience better. Personally though, I do enough testing and trials at work, and I'm compensated quite well for it. I don't feel that getting access to content early is enough to justify the work that I would want to put into being a proper tester. There's also something that is kind of disappointing when you know that everything you just did, you'll have to do again when the game goes live. I get enough of that just leveling alts in WoW, thank you very much.
Demos save you money?
I know some people play demos to help make a decision about the games they want to buy. While I can appreciate this, I'm generally either sold on a game long before it's released, or I show up to the party 6 months late. I was mentally commited to buying every game that I have on my list (BF3, TOR, D3, SC2 Swarm) long before a beta was even announced. I love Star Wars, Space Marines, and the previous Diablo and Starcraft games. Until a company lands a giant turd on my desk, I'll usually stick to a few specific producers. Of course I didn't really like ME2 or DA, but who knows - I'm really hoping that Bioware delivers with TOR.
In the end
At the end of the day, these just aren't for me. While I'm not severely limited in the playtime that I have, I'd much prefer to actually progress my character than spend time in an environment that will soon reset, and I'll have to start again. I have no illusions about ever being a Masters SC2 player, getting a world first WoW kill, or topping the kill charts in BF:BC2 - I'm just looking for a few hours of entertainment.
Now, there are certainly differences between a demo, beta, and PTR - but they're all basically designed to do one thing. Whet your appetite for the real deal. Some do it by giving you a (hopefully) polished taste, and others do it by letting you help to test out the upcoming content. Either way, it's a great way to get a feel for the new stuff by playing before the full package is released.
Too much too soon
One of my biggest issues with these is that you start burning through the actual content early. One of the biggest complaints I hear about games is that you run out of the "new" too soon. Well by participating in the free play, you're just burning through it that much faster. You also spend your time playing in an environment that may be less than stable. While instability isn't limited to non-live environments, it's certainly more prone to bugs and issues.
Now if you're actually interested in testing software and actively reporting bugs, then by all means please continue. I appreciate your efforts to make my experience better. Personally though, I do enough testing and trials at work, and I'm compensated quite well for it. I don't feel that getting access to content early is enough to justify the work that I would want to put into being a proper tester. There's also something that is kind of disappointing when you know that everything you just did, you'll have to do again when the game goes live. I get enough of that just leveling alts in WoW, thank you very much.
Demos save you money?
I know some people play demos to help make a decision about the games they want to buy. While I can appreciate this, I'm generally either sold on a game long before it's released, or I show up to the party 6 months late. I was mentally commited to buying every game that I have on my list (BF3, TOR, D3, SC2 Swarm) long before a beta was even announced. I love Star Wars, Space Marines, and the previous Diablo and Starcraft games. Until a company lands a giant turd on my desk, I'll usually stick to a few specific producers. Of course I didn't really like ME2 or DA, but who knows - I'm really hoping that Bioware delivers with TOR.
In the end
At the end of the day, these just aren't for me. While I'm not severely limited in the playtime that I have, I'd much prefer to actually progress my character than spend time in an environment that will soon reset, and I'll have to start again. I have no illusions about ever being a Masters SC2 player, getting a world first WoW kill, or topping the kill charts in BF:BC2 - I'm just looking for a few hours of entertainment.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Warlock 4.3 Patch Notes
Shadowbolt has a new spell effect.
Well, color me excited! This is almost as huge as Felfire being green. HUGE.
Honestly I'm sure there's more coming, once part 2 of the balance changes is released. There appear to be several interesting changes to the Paladin healing mechanic, including changing the need to judge from 8 seconds to 30 seconds. It looks like overall there are going to be some decent changes, which are usually met with mixed feelings. Everyone loves to be buffed, hates being nerfed (scissors are fine, nerf paper), and learning new mechanics (or how to incorporate the changes) is always interesting.
I'm looking forward to seeing 4.3 come out, though I hope we're not looking at 8 weeks of PTR. With SW:TOR announcing the 20th as their launch date, it would be pretty poor to have 4.3 wait that long. I don't care about it interfering with TOR (I'll be picking that up regardless), it's just that another 3 months of Firelands instantly sucks at my soul - especially given the recent nerfs. Going from 2/7 to 5/7 in one week is awesome, and I love killing new bosses. Farming the same 7/7 (or 6/7 with H-Rag work) for 12 weeks is not something I'm looking forward to.
Here's to a new spell effect for Shadow Bolt.
/cheers
Well, color me excited! This is almost as huge as Felfire being green. HUGE.
Honestly I'm sure there's more coming, once part 2 of the balance changes is released. There appear to be several interesting changes to the Paladin healing mechanic, including changing the need to judge from 8 seconds to 30 seconds. It looks like overall there are going to be some decent changes, which are usually met with mixed feelings. Everyone loves to be buffed, hates being nerfed (scissors are fine, nerf paper), and learning new mechanics (or how to incorporate the changes) is always interesting.
I'm looking forward to seeing 4.3 come out, though I hope we're not looking at 8 weeks of PTR. With SW:TOR announcing the 20th as their launch date, it would be pretty poor to have 4.3 wait that long. I don't care about it interfering with TOR (I'll be picking that up regardless), it's just that another 3 months of Firelands instantly sucks at my soul - especially given the recent nerfs. Going from 2/7 to 5/7 in one week is awesome, and I love killing new bosses. Farming the same 7/7 (or 6/7 with H-Rag work) for 12 weeks is not something I'm looking forward to.
Here's to a new spell effect for Shadow Bolt.
/cheers
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