Now I really want to play WoW again after hearing about this new phasing system. :|
Has Blizzard done anything to the 1-60 experience or has it been left mostly unchanged? What I didn't like is that WoW absolutely wreaked of a game that was still having its mechanics figured out well after release. The gear from levels 1-60 is in no way a less-powerful mirror of level cap gear stat distribution wise. Old pieces that may have +16 spirit and +4 strength are left in the game from the old perceptions of classes and what stats they needed.
Have they gone through and tweaked the 1-60 experience? Have they taken warrior items with +1 spirit, +16 strength and +2 stamina and tweaked them to something along the lines of +10 strength, +12 attack power and +4 stamina?
Is this making any sense? I don't know why it's so hard to express what I'm talking about but it is. x.x
QuaunautThe longest seven days in history...Join Date: 2003-03-21Member: 14759Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
<!--quoteo(post=1695599:date=Dec 8 2008, 09:24 AM:name=Haze)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Haze @ Dec 8 2008, 09:24 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1695599"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Now I really want to play WoW again after hearing about this new phasing system. :|
Has Blizzard done anything to the 1-60 experience or has it been left mostly unchanged? What I didn't like is that WoW absolutely wreaked of a game that was still having its mechanics figured out well after release. The gear from levels 1-60 is in no way a less-powerful mirror of level cap gear stat distribution wise. Old pieces that may have +16 spirit and +4 strength are left in the game from the old perceptions of classes and what stats they needed.
Have they gone through and tweaked the 1-60 experience? Have they taken warrior items with +1 spirit, +16 strength and +2 stamina and tweaked them to something along the lines of +10 strength, +12 attack power and +4 stamina?
Is this making any sense? I don't know why it's so hard to express what I'm talking about but it is. x.x<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Largely, they have done that. For example, there was a quite prominent super-low-level blue chestpiece you could get that was 4 Agi 11 Intellect, 8 spirit. This has since been changed to 11 Int, 8 Spirit, 12 Spell Power.
Other ways they've changed the leveling experience, is making it exponentially faster- doing 1-20 isn't an all day chore anymore as much as it is a few hour funfest. Doing 2 levels in 3 hours at level 30, 40, even 50, is fairly common place. Even post 60, into the BC content, things are exponentially faster- my DK was able to do 63.5 to 66 in 4 hours.
Also, Dustwallow Marsh got a makeover, the travel flow has been smoothed out(Auberdine now goes to Stormwind, for example), stats on gear is better allocated in general for faster leveling, and low level abilities have been changed/added to help leveling.
A great example of that last fact is Hunters in the post-3.0. world. Now, they get Aspect of the Viper, an aspect that makes them do half damage but recover mana with every shot, at level 20. Disengage now launches you away from your target in a case of intentional knockback- very useful for leveling a Hunter(and for PvP at max level). Similar changes happened to Shaman(Water Shield at 20), Priests(Devouring Plague at 20), Paladins(Judgement system changes, buff system changes, total talent reworkings), Warriors, mages...simply everyone in the game. Not to mention, that after you've gotten some of the higher level currencies(Badges from PvE or Shards from PvP), you can get account-transferrable heirloom items that level up with your character, getting stronger as you do.
Honestly, the game is smoother and more fun now than it's ever been before. It will take you a MUCH shorter time to hit max level, and you'll have TONS more fun doing it. I hate to sound like an advertiser('cause I don't do that enough), but its never been a better time to jump in, or come back.
Only thing I'd be concerned about, is if you're looking for max level PvP, and are trying to decide between this and Warhammer, WoW hasn't rolled out its PvP stuff quite yet. Tons of changes are coming on December 16th apparently, with the arena season starting, tons of gear reworking, and adding the entirety of the PvP gear to the game(since it isn't even in yet). Note however, if you liked PvP before, its less grindy now- getting honor is a LOT easier than before(Doing a single Wintergrasp will net you either 1k honor or 2k honor, depending on if you win. Granted you can only do this every 2.5 hours, but hey).
QuaunautThe longest seven days in history...Join Date: 2003-03-21Member: 14759Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
<!--quoteo(post=1695551:date=Dec 7 2008, 06:14 PM:name=Geminosity)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Geminosity @ Dec 7 2008, 06:14 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1695551"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Interesting... I always complained that quests in WoW did nothing: if you were sent in to eradicate the orc village it was still there after the 40 you killed and while the NPCs who claimed they were going to go in and finish them off never did. This could let that kind of stuff happen which would definitely be way cooler than before.
That's the upside at least... the downside is that the inconsistancy of the world between players will be a tad weird and in many ways is almost an odd kind of step towards a more 'single player' experience if you get what I mean.
Ah well, that's the way WoW was built from the start so I guess this is the next logical step and as you say: it's interesting regardless :3<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Its less weird than you might think. By and large, phased quest chains are soloed, and yet you can still do them with a friend with relative ease. Only difference is, you may be following a friend to Crusader's Pinaccle (I think thats the name), and all of a sudden he poofs into thin air, but you're still in the same party. You'd want to do the quests anyway for the gear, money, story, and gameplay usually though, so its not really an issue.
Hell- its still a ton of fun going over areas that I know I slaughtered dozens of undead in and seeing its an Argent Crusade base now.
Kouji_SanSr. Hινε UÏкεεÏεг - EUPT DeputyThe NetherlandsJoin Date: 2003-05-13Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
Elite world npc's, I heard they lost their 1337 ness? -ifso that would be a change as well <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
<!--quoteo(post=1695904:date=Dec 11 2008, 11:12 AM:name=Kouji_San)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Kouji_San @ Dec 11 2008, 11:12 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1695904"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Elite world npc's, I heard they lost their 1337 ness? -ifso that would be a change as well <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Most of the non-instanced elite mobs have been toned down to non-elites. There are sill a few 5man quest mobs roaming around, but sub-zones populated entirely by elites can now be counted on one hand
Been playing wow way too long for my liking, i blocked out everything else in life, my art, natural selection, the outdoors.. I think its time i really toned down my addiction to it.
I have found i am also bored of wotlk, i got to 80 (sadly leveling seems the funnest part) i did all the 5 man heroics, even did some naxx (got terribly bored) and i just couldnt grasp it anymore.. Its too dumbed down for me now and I feel like I am just doing this over and over, by the time i gear up and get everything, get a good rating in arena, a new patch comes out and its the merrygoround again.. I have had enough, there is no feeling of achievement in this game, its just a constant run around and a huge HUGE time waster..
I look at my art and realise I have only done 3 serious pieces this year... THREE??? when while i played ns I was kicking out well over 20 a month!? this is seriously a bad thing for me, I want to make a career with my art and yet I feel that WOW has prevented me this opportunity..
So I am quitting it, I miss it yes, but I cant go back to it if I want to do more with my art. Otherwise it wont ever happen <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" /> I will sit bored in wow 8 hrs a day again thinking I "need" to be in "just incase".. no more i say!!
AbraWould you kindlyJoin Date: 2003-08-17Member: 19870Members
<!--quoteo(post=1696019:date=Dec 13 2008, 03:37 AM:name=kyliegirl)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(kyliegirl @ Dec 13 2008, 03:37 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1696019"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Been playing wow way too long for my liking, i blocked out everything else in life, my art, natural selection, the outdoors.. I think its time i really toned down my addiction to it.
I have found i am also bored of wotlk, i got to 80 (sadly leveling seems the funnest part) i did all the 5 man heroics, even did some naxx (got terribly bored) and i just couldnt grasp it anymore.. Its too dumbed down for me now and I feel like I am just doing this over and over, by the time i gear up and get everything, get a good rating in arena, a new patch comes out and its the merrygoround again.. I have had enough, there is no feeling of achievement in this game, its just a constant run around and a huge HUGE time waster..
I look at my art and realise I have only done 3 serious pieces this year... THREE??? when while i played ns I was kicking out well over 20 a month!? this is seriously a bad thing for me, I want to make a career with my art and yet I feel that WOW has prevented me this opportunity..
So I am quitting it, I miss it yes, but I cant go back to it if I want to do more with my art. Otherwise it wont ever happen <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" /> I will sit bored in wow 8 hrs a day again thinking I "need" to be in "just incase".. no more i say!!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
/slowclap /mediumclap /fastclap
Hey Kyliegirl, hope to see the creativity flow again when NS2 hits - your NS artwork was amazing.
yeah, I hit my limit a while ago... I don't really have an addictive personality, so once I realized that I was spending all my time either LFG, or wiping in a raid, I gave up. Honestly, I like MMO's, because it definitely is possible to play them much longer than a normal game before getting bored, but you always reach that point in the curve where the boredom of grinding and waiting outweighs the fun and coolness of playing the game and decking out your character.
Warhammer is my current poison, but I'm sort of tired of that too. I like that you can level up almost entirely in PVP, but then you spend most of your time waiting for queues, which is no more fun here than it is in WoW...
Well, I resubscribed, upgraded, transferred servers, did the entire <i>shabang</i>. I have to say that WotLK is...pretty ######ing fun.
The new zones are absolutely gorgeous. You thought TBC had rollings plains of awesome? WotLK takes TBC's beauty and refines it even further. Stepping off the zeppelin at the Howling Fjord gives you an incredible outlook into the surrounding territory. The seas are dotted with ships, the coasts dotted with wreckages, and crows actually float at legitimate distances this time around -- no more always-hovaring around five feet above the ground. On top of it all there are actually shaped shadows in the game now. You don't just have a black blob underneath you...neat.
The first few quests stray from "kill x to get y" <i>in a manner of speaking.</i> You kill X to get Y to feed to Z in one, and another you have to burn X which is typically guarded by Y. It's still the same outcome in the end -- 10/10 crows meat or 10/10 body's burned, but the methods are a lot more fun this time around. Of course there are still "kill X (and give me Y)" quests, but they are much fewer than before. It's a welcome breath of fresh air. Also, flying/bombing missions make a return as well as a long defend quest stylized after a familiar engagement near the crossroads with a clan of centaur...hm...
The reworkings to the class are evident the first time you try to engage in combat. Paladins' judgement/seal system has been completely reworked and every class seems to have gotten the shakedown by Blizzard -- where help was needed, it was given. Protection warriors, for example, now actually are useful in PvP compared to their minor annoyance roles in the game before WotLK. With the addition of more DPS, an AoE stun, and freedom from snares AS WELL AS a ranged, instant cast silence, the days of frustration are over. TRY TO KITE ME NOW ######, GO AHEAD, ######ING TRY IT, AGHHEOAIHFA
Sorry.
If you're on the verge of trying WotLK I'd push you to do so. It's pretty fun. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
edit: Professions have also gotten a lookover, and I haven't been to lake wintergrasp yet but it looks like it's going to be awesome from what I've seen so far. Open world PvPers rejoice! GENERALLY, if you had a problem with WoW before WotLK proooooobably fixed it.
Unless you thought rogues were overpowered. They don't seem to be in PvE, but there's a whole lot of complaining about them in PvP. The infamous combo I keep hearing about is Premeditation -> Ambush -> Eviscerate. Good gear and two crits later you have what happens at the start of <a href="http://warcraftmovies.com/stream.php?id=96367&stream=1&h=0e0e99739a070a314ca975c7b1fe0f9d" target="_blank">this video</a>: 20k damage in the space of a global cooldown.
Possibly. There's probably some gear difference, but watch the rest of the video if you have the patience for it. He keeps pulling off very fast kills, the one at the start is just the most stark example.
Disruptive though. Somebody plonked it down while the raid leader was explaining tactics for Gothik the Harvester, and I couldn't hear what he was saying over all the choo-chooing. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
I believe it's easier (compared to the level it is intended for, that is). The old Naxxramas was a 40-man dungeon, the last to be released before Burning Crusade, and generally held as the hardest raid instance of WoW before the release of the Burning Crusade. By contrast, the new Naxxramas is an entry-level raid instance for either 10 or 25 people.
<!--quoteo(post=1696404:date=Dec 19 2008, 07:42 PM:name=Sonic)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sonic @ Dec 19 2008, 07:42 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1696404"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Don't forget there is the heroic 10 and 25 man modes so they're *really* hard.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Actually heroic for raids just means 25man, theres no "Heroic 10mans" and for Naxx its not even particularly difficult on 25man, theres a number of bosses that can be downed with 10 people on the 25man mode (they just take considerably longer) The real challenges currently come from the raid achievements, most of which involve a fair bit of co-ordination in your raid.
QuaunautThe longest seven days in history...Join Date: 2003-03-21Member: 14759Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
Yeah, Achievements really are where its at for difficulty.
A good example, is the 'new' Onyxia, Sartharion, in the Obsidium Sanctum.
Normally, the boss works like this:
BIG ASS DRAGON ON A SMALL ISLAND SURROUNDED BY LAVA
He hits tank ooooh bad
Every 30 seconds, Lava Waves come from either the left or right side: Don't get hit by these! It won't kill you if it does, it just does a decent amount of damage and wastes the healer's mana 'cause you were an idiot.
After a wave comes, sometimes Lava Elementals spawn. Kill them!
Hey look dead dragon.
However, Sartharion's area is surrounded by 3 big Drakes. Normally, you take these Drakes out before you deal with Sartharion. They each deal in the idea of portals.
Two of the Drakes, when you go to take it down, every once in awhile spawns a portal in which is an enemy, that as long as its alive, the Drake is immune to damage. Also, while you're inside the portal, you take 1000 damage per second.
The last one works similarly to the others, in which he spawns a portal every once in awhile- but when you go through his, there are 8 or 9 eggs. You kill as many of these as you can, as if you don't finish them, you get thrown back out of the portal and Whelps spawn to come and kill you. You kill these, then go back to the boss.
But what if you don't kill the Drakes before going after Sartharion?
I think you see where this is going.
During the fight, the Drakes join him, at 30, 75, and 120 seconds, respectively- and you have to fight them exactly as they were on their own, with some added fun.
First off, they still have to be tanked.
Second off, they Flamestrike randomly on the field, like Kael'thas.
Also, they each have a fun aura: One is 100% extra Fire damage. Another is 100% extra Shadow Damage(the Drakes breathe shadow fire). The last is 25% off your maximum health.
For all your hard work, adding a drake gets you an extra piece of loot with a few extras added to the table. Another Drake gets you an extra drop. A 3rd, a complete ######ing Sartharion kill, nets you a Black Drake to fly on. Oh, thats on the 10-man. In the 25-man, it drops a Twilight Drake- AKA, one of the 3 Drakes you downed to do this.
Somehow, they make it, for the sake of a little bit of extra loot and achievements, from literally the easiest raid fight in the game(Patchwerk is harder than this -.-) to a ######ing suicidal cacophony of fire, shadow, mayhem and death. Even adding 1 Drake makes it ######ing ridiculously hard. 3, with all of their abilities, is one of the hardest things imaginable, and easily the hardest thing ingame now- probably as difficult as the original 4 Horsemen.
that sounds annoying, but it also sounds more like a gear check than skill check, like doing a ZA speed run...
also sounds like they're running out of ideas for boss mechanics... big dragon sounds like an easier Ragnaros clone, the eggs through the portal sounds like C'thun's swallowing mechanic... not that I blame Blizzard - there's only so much you can do with a game engine, and they've done a lot... but nothing I've heard about sounds fresh enough to tempt me back... maybe I'll skip this expansion and jump back in for the next one, and level straight from 70 to 90 =p
and is that really the hardest encounter in the game? I would have guessed that would be the Lich King... or is that instance not out yet?
wow, have we really not talked about WoW in 2 years? what do people think of the whole "real names on the forums" policy? I mean, I could see if maybe they showed some account-wide identifier so people can't hide behind level 1 alts, but real names? seriously?
<!--quoteo(post=1777327:date=Jul 7 2010, 11:14 PM:name=DiscoZombie)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (DiscoZombie @ Jul 7 2010, 11:14 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1777327"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->wow, have we really not talked about WoW in 2 years? what do people think of the whole "real names on the forums" policy? I mean, I could see if maybe they showed some account-wide identifier so people can't hide behind level 1 alts, but real names? seriously?
maybe, but facebook and whatnot are a totally different thing.
You don't kill people in PvP with your facebook account do you? You don't argue with complete strangers with potential mental problems over stuff in games on myspace either.
Seriously, I've had my fair share of e-stalkers and the last thing I want is something going "oh here's gem's real name. Now you can probably go find their phone number and stuff real easy via google." Unless you've had creepy people discussing their plans to get a coach/train across the country to come stalk you because they have feelings for you, you honestly have no idea.
There's already <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/may/11/german-man-murder-wargame" target="_blank">enough</a> <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/06/gender.blogging" target="_blank">problems</a> with weirdos on the internet without making it easier for them to find the virtual people they've become fixated on :/
<!--quoteo(post=1777337:date=Jul 8 2010, 10:02 AM:name=esuna)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (esuna @ Jul 8 2010, 10:02 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1777337"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I'm permabanned from the official forums so i really don't give a ######.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--quoteo(post=1777337:date=Jul 8 2010, 12:02 AM:name=esuna)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (esuna @ Jul 8 2010, 12:02 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1777337"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I'm permabanned from the official forums so i really don't give a ######.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->At one point in the huge Real ID thread on Bliz's site, a GM popped in to say "Hey I think Real ID is a good idea!" and posted his real name on the thread. Within minutes his physical address, email address and phone number were posted in a reply. Thanks to the quick "delete" fingers of the Blizzard mods it was removed almost instantly; but the damage was done. If you read Blizzard's Real ID FAQ, it's obvious that what they're trying to build is a Blizzard version of Facebook - a social networking site for you to talk about Blizzard games, get together with your guild, set up matches, etc, etc, etc... The thing is, Facebook's already screwed up security on more than one occasion - and starting out with a policy of "everything you want to post publicly uses your real name" doesn't really bode well in my mind.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> <a href="http://gucomics.com/comic/?cdate=20100707" target="_blank">Source</a>
Kind of says it all, doesn't it? I'm sure we all vaguely (at least in my case it's vague) remember that story from eastern Asia where one dude murdered another dude over an item in some MMO. Far be it from me to panic-monger, but can anyone seriously deny that some WoW-players take this game far, FAR too seriously?
Add to this that there are not a few employers who think that people who play WoW are unemployable and will consider that simple fact to be grounds for ignoring job applications, and you REALLY don't want your real name to show up right next to WoW on a Google search.
Thought you'd be smart and just change the name on your Battle.net account to John Doe? Well tough ######, you can't change it.
The bright spot on the horizon is that you can still keep your real name private by not using the forums or the new "Real ID friend" thing. Which is a pity, because the latter is a really nifty feature: It allows you to see/talk to people on that list no matter what character they're on, which is way nifty (and something that Guild Wars did from the beginning and without seeing the need to disclose your real name, <strike>my inner fanboy</strike> I might add). No more having to add all the alts of people you enjoy playing with to your friends list - well, unless you don't want to disseminate your real name to those people, in which case you need to stick with the old sucky system.
All in all, the entire thing reeks of overreaction. They want to build a community and establish accountability? Unless they DO want the threat of physical harm to be a factor in all that, this would be accomplished with ANY single identity, whether real or fake. The problem right now is the multitude of "identities" each WoW player has. The problem is that he can flame with his level 1 alt while maintaining an aura of respectability with his level 80 character and none are the wiser. The problem is that when he's tired of his level 80 character and levels his alt, his friends don't know that he's online and can't contact him. Both problems would be solved if all his characters had "lolfighter" stenciled above them. Nobody needs to know that his real name is August von Schnitzelhausen.
Edit: Not sure where in the tabstorm I had open I came across this, so you may already have seen it, but bear with me, it's too good not to mention: <a href="http://carywhy.blogspot.com/2010/07/open-letter-to-blizzard-or-it-seems.html" target="_blank">http://carywhy.blogspot.com/2010/07/open-l...r-it-seems.html</a>
Comments
Has Blizzard done anything to the 1-60 experience or has it been left mostly unchanged? What I didn't like is that WoW absolutely wreaked of a game that was still having its mechanics figured out well after release. The gear from levels 1-60 is in no way a less-powerful mirror of level cap gear stat distribution wise. Old pieces that may have +16 spirit and +4 strength are left in the game from the old perceptions of classes and what stats they needed.
Have they gone through and tweaked the 1-60 experience? Have they taken warrior items with +1 spirit, +16 strength and +2 stamina and tweaked them to something along the lines of +10 strength, +12 attack power and +4 stamina?
Is this making any sense? I don't know why it's so hard to express what I'm talking about but it is. x.x
Has Blizzard done anything to the 1-60 experience or has it been left mostly unchanged? What I didn't like is that WoW absolutely wreaked of a game that was still having its mechanics figured out well after release. The gear from levels 1-60 is in no way a less-powerful mirror of level cap gear stat distribution wise. Old pieces that may have +16 spirit and +4 strength are left in the game from the old perceptions of classes and what stats they needed.
Have they gone through and tweaked the 1-60 experience? Have they taken warrior items with +1 spirit, +16 strength and +2 stamina and tweaked them to something along the lines of +10 strength, +12 attack power and +4 stamina?
Is this making any sense? I don't know why it's so hard to express what I'm talking about but it is. x.x<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Largely, they have done that. For example, there was a quite prominent super-low-level blue chestpiece you could get that was 4 Agi 11 Intellect, 8 spirit. This has since been changed to 11 Int, 8 Spirit, 12 Spell Power.
Other ways they've changed the leveling experience, is making it exponentially faster- doing 1-20 isn't an all day chore anymore as much as it is a few hour funfest. Doing 2 levels in 3 hours at level 30, 40, even 50, is fairly common place. Even post 60, into the BC content, things are exponentially faster- my DK was able to do 63.5 to 66 in 4 hours.
Also, Dustwallow Marsh got a makeover, the travel flow has been smoothed out(Auberdine now goes to Stormwind, for example), stats on gear is better allocated in general for faster leveling, and low level abilities have been changed/added to help leveling.
A great example of that last fact is Hunters in the post-3.0. world. Now, they get Aspect of the Viper, an aspect that makes them do half damage but recover mana with every shot, at level 20. Disengage now launches you away from your target in a case of intentional knockback- very useful for leveling a Hunter(and for PvP at max level). Similar changes happened to Shaman(Water Shield at 20), Priests(Devouring Plague at 20), Paladins(Judgement system changes, buff system changes, total talent reworkings), Warriors, mages...simply everyone in the game. Not to mention, that after you've gotten some of the higher level currencies(Badges from PvE or Shards from PvP), you can get account-transferrable heirloom items that level up with your character, getting stronger as you do.
Honestly, the game is smoother and more fun now than it's ever been before. It will take you a MUCH shorter time to hit max level, and you'll have TONS more fun doing it. I hate to sound like an advertiser('cause I don't do that enough), but its never been a better time to jump in, or come back.
Only thing I'd be concerned about, is if you're looking for max level PvP, and are trying to decide between this and Warhammer, WoW hasn't rolled out its PvP stuff quite yet. Tons of changes are coming on December 16th apparently, with the arena season starting, tons of gear reworking, and adding the entirety of the PvP gear to the game(since it isn't even in yet). Note however, if you liked PvP before, its less grindy now- getting honor is a LOT easier than before(Doing a single Wintergrasp will net you either 1k honor or 2k honor, depending on if you win. Granted you can only do this every 2.5 hours, but hey).
That's the upside at least... the downside is that the inconsistancy of the world between players will be a tad weird and in many ways is almost an odd kind of step towards a more 'single player' experience if you get what I mean.
Ah well, that's the way WoW was built from the start so I guess this is the next logical step and as you say: it's interesting regardless :3<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Its less weird than you might think. By and large, phased quest chains are soloed, and yet you can still do them with a friend with relative ease. Only difference is, you may be following a friend to Crusader's Pinaccle (I think thats the name), and all of a sudden he poofs into thin air, but you're still in the same party. You'd want to do the quests anyway for the gear, money, story, and gameplay usually though, so its not really an issue.
Hell- its still a ton of fun going over areas that I know I slaughtered dozens of undead in and seeing its an Argent Crusade base now.
Most of the non-instanced elite mobs have been toned down to non-elites. There are sill a few 5man quest mobs roaming around, but sub-zones populated entirely by elites can now be counted on one hand
I have found i am also bored of wotlk, i got to 80 (sadly leveling seems the funnest part) i did all the 5 man heroics, even did some naxx (got terribly bored) and i just couldnt grasp it anymore.. Its too dumbed down for me now and I feel like I am just doing this over and over, by the time i gear up and get everything, get a good rating in arena, a new patch comes out and its the merrygoround again.. I have had enough, there is no feeling of achievement in this game, its just a constant run around and a huge HUGE time waster..
I look at my art and realise I have only done 3 serious pieces this year... THREE??? when while i played ns I was kicking out well over 20 a month!? this is seriously a bad thing for me, I want to make a career with my art and yet I feel that WOW has prevented me this opportunity..
So I am quitting it, I miss it yes, but I cant go back to it if I want to do more with my art. Otherwise it wont ever happen <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" /> I will sit bored in wow 8 hrs a day again thinking I "need" to be in "just incase".. no more i say!!
I have found i am also bored of wotlk, i got to 80 (sadly leveling seems the funnest part) i did all the 5 man heroics, even did some naxx (got terribly bored) and i just couldnt grasp it anymore.. Its too dumbed down for me now and I feel like I am just doing this over and over, by the time i gear up and get everything, get a good rating in arena, a new patch comes out and its the merrygoround again.. I have had enough, there is no feeling of achievement in this game, its just a constant run around and a huge HUGE time waster..
I look at my art and realise I have only done 3 serious pieces this year... THREE??? when while i played ns I was kicking out well over 20 a month!? this is seriously a bad thing for me, I want to make a career with my art and yet I feel that WOW has prevented me this opportunity..
So I am quitting it, I miss it yes, but I cant go back to it if I want to do more with my art. Otherwise it wont ever happen <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" /> I will sit bored in wow 8 hrs a day again thinking I "need" to be in "just incase".. no more i say!!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
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Hey Kyliegirl, hope to see the creativity flow again when NS2 hits - your NS artwork was amazing.
Warhammer is my current poison, but I'm sort of tired of that too. I like that you can level up almost entirely in PVP, but then you spend most of your time waiting for queues, which is no more fun here than it is in WoW...
The new zones are absolutely gorgeous. You thought TBC had rollings plains of awesome? WotLK takes TBC's beauty and refines it even further. Stepping off the zeppelin at the Howling Fjord gives you an incredible outlook into the surrounding territory. The seas are dotted with ships, the coasts dotted with wreckages, and crows actually float at legitimate distances this time around -- no more always-hovaring around five feet above the ground. On top of it all there are actually shaped shadows in the game now. You don't just have a black blob underneath you...neat.
The first few quests stray from "kill x to get y" <i>in a manner of speaking.</i> You kill X to get Y to feed to Z in one, and another you have to burn X which is typically guarded by Y. It's still the same outcome in the end -- 10/10 crows meat or 10/10 body's burned, but the methods are a lot more fun this time around. Of course there are still "kill X (and give me Y)" quests, but they are much fewer than before. It's a welcome breath of fresh air. Also, flying/bombing missions make a return as well as a long defend quest stylized after a familiar engagement near the crossroads with a clan of centaur...hm...
The reworkings to the class are evident the first time you try to engage in combat. Paladins' judgement/seal system has been completely reworked and every class seems to have gotten the shakedown by Blizzard -- where help was needed, it was given. Protection warriors, for example, now actually are useful in PvP compared to their minor annoyance roles in the game before WotLK. With the addition of more DPS, an AoE stun, and freedom from snares AS WELL AS a ranged, instant cast silence, the days of frustration are over. TRY TO KITE ME NOW ######, GO AHEAD, ######ING TRY IT, AGHHEOAIHFA
Sorry.
If you're on the verge of trying WotLK I'd push you to do so. It's pretty fun. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
edit: Professions have also gotten a lookover, and I haven't been to lake wintergrasp yet but it looks like it's going to be awesome from what I've seen so far. Open world PvPers rejoice! GENERALLY, if you had a problem with WoW before WotLK proooooobably fixed it.
I don't care how much it costs...it's just so <i>fun!</i>
I never fully finished naxx 1.0... there were 3 or 4 bosses we never downed...
Actually heroic for raids just means 25man, theres no "Heroic 10mans" and for Naxx its not even particularly difficult on 25man, theres a number of bosses that can be downed with 10 people on the 25man mode (they just take considerably longer)
The real challenges currently come from the raid achievements, most of which involve a fair bit of co-ordination in your raid.
A good example, is the 'new' Onyxia, Sartharion, in the Obsidium Sanctum.
Normally, the boss works like this:
BIG ASS DRAGON ON A SMALL ISLAND SURROUNDED BY LAVA
He hits tank ooooh bad
Every 30 seconds, Lava Waves come from either the left or right side: Don't get hit by these! It won't kill you if it does, it just does a decent amount of damage and wastes the healer's mana 'cause you were an idiot.
After a wave comes, sometimes Lava Elementals spawn. Kill them!
Hey look dead dragon.
However, Sartharion's area is surrounded by 3 big Drakes. Normally, you take these Drakes out before you deal with Sartharion. They each deal in the idea of portals.
Two of the Drakes, when you go to take it down, every once in awhile spawns a portal in which is an enemy, that as long as its alive, the Drake is immune to damage. Also, while you're inside the portal, you take 1000 damage per second.
The last one works similarly to the others, in which he spawns a portal every once in awhile- but when you go through his, there are 8 or 9 eggs. You kill as many of these as you can, as if you don't finish them, you get thrown back out of the portal and Whelps spawn to come and kill you. You kill these, then go back to the boss.
But what if you don't kill the Drakes before going after Sartharion?
I think you see where this is going.
During the fight, the Drakes join him, at 30, 75, and 120 seconds, respectively- and you have to fight them exactly as they were on their own, with some added fun.
First off, they still have to be tanked.
Second off, they Flamestrike randomly on the field, like Kael'thas.
Also, they each have a fun aura: One is 100% extra Fire damage. Another is 100% extra Shadow Damage(the Drakes breathe shadow fire). The last is 25% off your maximum health.
For all your hard work, adding a drake gets you an extra piece of loot with a few extras added to the table. Another Drake gets you an extra drop. A 3rd, a complete ######ing Sartharion kill, nets you a Black Drake to fly on. Oh, thats on the 10-man. In the 25-man, it drops a Twilight Drake- AKA, one of the 3 Drakes you downed to do this.
Somehow, they make it, for the sake of a little bit of extra loot and achievements, from literally the easiest raid fight in the game(Patchwerk is harder than this -.-) to a ######ing suicidal cacophony of fire, shadow, mayhem and death. Even adding 1 Drake makes it ######ing ridiculously hard. 3, with all of their abilities, is one of the hardest things imaginable, and easily the hardest thing ingame now- probably as difficult as the original 4 Horsemen.
also sounds like they're running out of ideas for boss mechanics... big dragon sounds like an easier Ragnaros clone, the eggs through the portal sounds like C'thun's swallowing mechanic... not that I blame Blizzard - there's only so much you can do with a game engine, and they've done a lot... but nothing I've heard about sounds fresh enough to tempt me back... maybe I'll skip this expansion and jump back in for the next one, and level straight from 70 to 90 =p
and is that really the hardest encounter in the game? I would have guessed that would be the Lich King... or is that instance not out yet?
<a href="http://kotaku.com/5581209/blizzards-real-name-forum-policy-has-fans-in-an-uproar" target="_blank">http://kotaku.com/5581209/blizzards-real-n...ns-in-an-uproar</a>
<a href="http://kotaku.com/5581209/blizzards-real-name-forum-policy-has-fans-in-an-uproar" target="_blank">http://kotaku.com/5581209/blizzards-real-n...ns-in-an-uproar</a><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'm permabanned from the official forums so i really don't give a ######.
maybe, but facebook and whatnot are a totally different thing.
You don't kill people in PvP with your facebook account do you? You don't argue with complete strangers with potential mental problems over stuff in games on myspace either.
Seriously, I've had my fair share of e-stalkers and the last thing I want is something going "oh here's gem's real name. Now you can probably go find their phone number and stuff real easy via google."
Unless you've had creepy people discussing their plans to get a coach/train across the country to come stalk you because they have feelings for you, you honestly have no idea.
There's already <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/may/11/german-man-murder-wargame" target="_blank">enough</a> <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/06/gender.blogging" target="_blank">problems</a> with weirdos on the internet without making it easier for them to find the virtual people they've become fixated on :/
I am both shocked and surprised. Yesssirree.
--Scythe--
I'm warm and fuzzy inside.
Kind of says it all, doesn't it? I'm sure we all vaguely (at least in my case it's vague) remember that story from eastern Asia where one dude murdered another dude over an item in some MMO. Far be it from me to panic-monger, but can anyone seriously deny that some WoW-players take this game far, FAR too seriously?
Add to this that there are not a few employers who think that people who play WoW are unemployable and will consider that simple fact to be grounds for ignoring job applications, and you REALLY don't want your real name to show up right next to WoW on a Google search.
Thought you'd be smart and just change the name on your Battle.net account to John Doe? Well tough ######, you can't change it.
The bright spot on the horizon is that you can still keep your real name private by not using the forums or the new "Real ID friend" thing. Which is a pity, because the latter is a really nifty feature: It allows you to see/talk to people on that list no matter what character they're on, which is way nifty (and something that Guild Wars did from the beginning and without seeing the need to disclose your real name, <strike>my inner fanboy</strike> I might add). No more having to add all the alts of people you enjoy playing with to your friends list - well, unless you don't want to disseminate your real name to those people, in which case you need to stick with the old sucky system.
All in all, the entire thing reeks of overreaction. They want to build a community and establish accountability? Unless they DO want the threat of physical harm to be a factor in all that, this would be accomplished with ANY single identity, whether real or fake. The problem right now is the multitude of "identities" each WoW player has. The problem is that he can flame with his level 1 alt while maintaining an aura of respectability with his level 80 character and none are the wiser. The problem is that when he's tired of his level 80 character and levels his alt, his friends don't know that he's online and can't contact him. Both problems would be solved if all his characters had "lolfighter" stenciled above them. Nobody needs to know that his real name is August von Schnitzelhausen.
Edit: Not sure where in the tabstorm I had open I came across this, so you may already have seen it, but bear with me, it's too good not to mention: <a href="http://carywhy.blogspot.com/2010/07/open-letter-to-blizzard-or-it-seems.html" target="_blank">http://carywhy.blogspot.com/2010/07/open-l...r-it-seems.html</a>