Well I managed to get full honor gear before my holidays ended, but alas they have ended.
Was nice to come back to the game for a short stay, but the magic is well and truly gone. Not sure I'll ever get to experience another time like WoW 2004-2008/9 in an online game.
Might pop back in for the Christmas break, but no guarantees. Might try out a private Vanilla server as well.
Wednesday 9 October 2013
Friday 27 September 2013
Two Week Revival
Time to indulge in a nostalgic past time.
Phase One
- Spec Fire for Battlegrounds
- PoM / IB / FJ / CS / LB / IW
- Evo :: CoC :: DF
- Queue Random until full set of Blue Honor Gear (Tyrannical) obtained
Let's see what I can do in two weeks...
Friday 9 November 2012
Writing Sabbatical
Not feeling the desire to write at the moment so I'll pause things here on the blog until the ambition returns.
The desire to craft writing for no return or profit is something that requires complete commitment and I admit the muse has deserted me. I'll spare you the crap commentary and promise you to write when I feel the urge again.
Don't expect a break of length, a few weeks and I'm sure the flame will be rekindled and I'll find something purposeful to write for.
The desire to craft writing for no return or profit is something that requires complete commitment and I admit the muse has deserted me. I'll spare you the crap commentary and promise you to write when I feel the urge again.
Don't expect a break of length, a few weeks and I'm sure the flame will be rekindled and I'll find something purposeful to write for.
Friday 26 October 2012
Korea is the Best Korea
I browse MMO-Champion every other day and I recently stumbled upon this small quote from Blizzard's Korean Forum Managers.
There are two crucial pieces of information to take from this. Firstly, the note that in patch 5.1 10-man and 25-man raids will have seperate lockouts. This has not happened for a long time and when it did I was still raiding! At the very basic level it is a move that essentially doubles the worth of current content; you can raid it twice in one week if you've got the willing players. A smart move and one that is relatively low risk.
The second crucial tidbit is that 25-mans will drop higher item level loot than their 10 man counterparts. This one has potentially massive implications because if this change goes live and across the world, then 10 man content is no longer 'progression' in the strictest sense of the word. It would be a massive boon to current 25 man guilds who have resisted the urge to change to the 10 man format. Blizzard seems keen to reward the extra logistical headaches of 25 man raiding with a quantifiable reward system and it seems i-level is the method to their madness.
Finally, I wonder why Korea (and apparently China) are the first to receive these changes for testing. What is it about this geographical areas that determine them suitable for such a change? Is it because more 10 man guilds exist Stateside and in Europe? Or is the general culture in these Asian countries more accepting of changes that encourage raiding conditions comparable to years gone by? Do Blizzard feel the potential backlash to be possibly more comprehensive in English speaking countries?
It's fun to postulate but I'm not going to go any further than that for now.
We received several feedbacks regarding raid instance lockouts and 10/25 rewards, and we appreciate your opinions and deep interests. We thought that Korean players wish to enjoy the most hardcore contents more flexibly and according to their play styles. Therefore, from the upcoming patch we decided to change the raid instance lockout rules for all KR servers. Raids, as usual, will be reset every 7 days following maintainance checks. However, after 5.1 patch 10 man and 25 man raids will have seperate lockouts.
From now on, players could play raid instances, such as Mogu-Shan Vaults, in both 10 man and 25 man difficulty. Normal and Heroic difficulty raid of same instance will share same lockout as usual. Furthermore, the loots of 25 man raids has been buffed, and will offer higher iLV compared to same 10 man instance. For example, Terrace of the Endless Spring in 25 man difficulty will drop loots with iLV of 504, wile 10 man will drop 496.
We wish that players will further enjoy the contents and gain satisfactory rewards, and decided to offer the system that suits most well with the KR players.
There are two crucial pieces of information to take from this. Firstly, the note that in patch 5.1 10-man and 25-man raids will have seperate lockouts. This has not happened for a long time and when it did I was still raiding! At the very basic level it is a move that essentially doubles the worth of current content; you can raid it twice in one week if you've got the willing players. A smart move and one that is relatively low risk.
The second crucial tidbit is that 25-mans will drop higher item level loot than their 10 man counterparts. This one has potentially massive implications because if this change goes live and across the world, then 10 man content is no longer 'progression' in the strictest sense of the word. It would be a massive boon to current 25 man guilds who have resisted the urge to change to the 10 man format. Blizzard seems keen to reward the extra logistical headaches of 25 man raiding with a quantifiable reward system and it seems i-level is the method to their madness.
Finally, I wonder why Korea (and apparently China) are the first to receive these changes for testing. What is it about this geographical areas that determine them suitable for such a change? Is it because more 10 man guilds exist Stateside and in Europe? Or is the general culture in these Asian countries more accepting of changes that encourage raiding conditions comparable to years gone by? Do Blizzard feel the potential backlash to be possibly more comprehensive in English speaking countries?
It's fun to postulate but I'm not going to go any further than that for now.
Friday 19 October 2012
The Histories: The Beginning of Nastre
The Histories are a series of articles that recounts past periods of World of Warcraft, experienced from my point of view on Saurfang playing my mage Nastre.First of all I'd like to apologise for the lack of content of late. With my break finished I am back at work and spare time is a luxury, but I am still very much invested in this little project. In thinking about what to write I decided to finally give an account of where it all began with Nastre. Not that anyone has been waiting for me to tell this story, but 'finally' in the sense that I've always wanted to tell it before the memory becomes too faded and gets assimilated into 7+ years of gameplay experience.
Forgive me if you will for not sticking to our native home of Saurfang, but my story began on Aman'thul, before the server of Saurfang was even a twinkle in the Oceanic eye. I had played World of Warcraft for sometime before Nastre was envisaged, but I was very much an amateur player who knew little and played badly. Not surprisingly some of my memories of awe and wonder stem from this period and I look back on them with fond nostalgia. However it is not a time I wish to recount at the moment. Instead I want to take you back to that character screen...
At the beginning of BC I rolled a Blood Elf Mage by the name of Sunphyr. If you played on Aman'thul in early BC days you may have known of me; I did not raid but I was the first person on the realm to achieve the level 1 weapons with a rating of 1850 (how many people still playing know the format of early season gear rewards I do wonder...) in 2v2 with a destruction warlock by the name of Crick, a wonderful player who has long since retired. It was probably an initial sign that I had a knack for arena; destruction warlocks were literally unheard off in the time of SL/SL. Pair that with a Mage and you had a combo nobody played; it made our achievement one I am still proud to claim to this day.
I went from a horrible player to a slightly above average one through sheer practice. I BG'ed extensively and had amassed 50,000 HK's halfway through BC. I learnt not only my own class, but the mechanics, cooldowns, strengths, weaknesses and abilities of every other class. This is probably where I feel most modern players don't work hard enough to improve; their approach is too selfish and not enough research is done on what other players can do and how to counter that. Term it old school if you will but I served an apprenticeship that laid the foundations for my play for years to come.
Soon after I passed the 50,000 HK mark, I fell in love with the Forsaken lore and in particular the casting animations. I reasoned, quite calmly at the time, that if I was to cast Fireball 10,000,000 times that I wanted to at least look great doing it. Of course, the racial Will of the Forsaken was a more advantageous perk of the race but the animations were a factor as well.
At the time the race change was not available, so I was looked upon as odd for re-rolling an Undead Mage when I already had a max level Mage on Horde. While I initially liked the name Nastre, I had no imagininings that over time it would grow on me as it did until it seemed synonymous with the Forsaken and the Mage class. Perhaps its because the name is so similar to the word 'nasty' and that does adequately describe some aspects of the Forsaken. Regardless, when I made him I had no idea that he and I would be in the position I find myself today.
So, when levelling was still interesting and much more difficult that it is today, I set out on the road to 70 once again, heirloom free and with a sense I had finally found my true avatar...
To be continued...
Wednesday 10 October 2012
A Distinct Lack of Bamboo References
Whether you wish to admit it or not, the Pandaren have been the selling point of the latest expansion. Sure there are more raids, more pvp battlegrounds and a pet battle system that Nintendo may see some familiarity in, but the bouncy (an adept description, see the Pandaren racials for evidence...) and rather affable Panda's that have invaded WoW are the posters children for our latest trip into the unknown. I presumed (without great effort or intelligence) that as a result of this focus, Blizzard would have put in a large amount of effort and resources into the newest playable race. So, to check my assumption, recently I decided to take a jaunt through the Pandaren starting zone and level one of the most controversial races to ever exist within the game (check the YouTube comments on World of Warcraft's official channel for reactionary views that would make your and my mother blush).
I'll say it straight away, Blizzard did a wonderful job with the Pandaren starting zone. The storyline is evenly paced and well written and I won't do it the disservice of posting any spoilers on this blog. I will say that in knowing Pandaren players would get a choice over whether to join the Horde or Alliance faction, I was fascinated to see how Blizzard would go about getting players to make that decision. Probably of greater importance was that I was curious to know why players would end up making the decision they did, at least against the backdrop of lore reasons. This was probably the point at which it could have fell over for me, but I'm relieved to say that Blizzard did the choice justice.
The overall feel for the zone harkens back to the original starting areas of WoW, with all the improvements that have been learned along the way. It's a great throwback and the mechanics support this. Unless it was down to incredible stupidity or blindness on my part, I could not find a mailbox anywhere in the Pandaren starting zone. I'll forgive the possibility of a massive error on my part and applaud the intent of this move. It achieves two things; the first is that your new character feels like a separate and new entity within the world and secondly with the absence of heirlooms you complete the storyline quests at a measured pace and while the content is not challenging, it doesn't feel like a cakewalk either.
Supplementing this feeling of a 'new introduction' to the game with a Pandaren is the fact that you may not join a guild until you have made your once-in-a-lifetime-no-returns faction allegiance choice (unless you got the dollars to make that change). With the absence of significant experience modifiers you find yourself progressing evenly with the content and this directly affects the enjoyment I felt in doing the predictably zany and interesting quests within the starting zone. The art is beautiful and will age well even compared to a game that is ageing rather gracefully already. I enjoyed the musical accompaniments but I realise that in-game music is not to the taste of most who play.
My one complaint is a minor one but I feel I must voice it regardless. Without spoiling the story, I was left wondering why Pandaren were not able to fulfill the role of the Druid class, particularly after events unfolded the way they did. I'm sure someone more familiar with the lore can explain why this is so and I don't doubt there is a logical explanation for it. However, I feel it my duty to ask for this to be reconsidered if not for the plight of one player I have known longer than most. Panda is an <Ajantis> Tauren Druid who has played his character for well over a decade now. It is time for him to match the most valuable name on the server with it's destiny.
It is time for Panda to be a Panda. Let it be done.
I'll say it straight away, Blizzard did a wonderful job with the Pandaren starting zone. The storyline is evenly paced and well written and I won't do it the disservice of posting any spoilers on this blog. I will say that in knowing Pandaren players would get a choice over whether to join the Horde or Alliance faction, I was fascinated to see how Blizzard would go about getting players to make that decision. Probably of greater importance was that I was curious to know why players would end up making the decision they did, at least against the backdrop of lore reasons. This was probably the point at which it could have fell over for me, but I'm relieved to say that Blizzard did the choice justice.
The overall feel for the zone harkens back to the original starting areas of WoW, with all the improvements that have been learned along the way. It's a great throwback and the mechanics support this. Unless it was down to incredible stupidity or blindness on my part, I could not find a mailbox anywhere in the Pandaren starting zone. I'll forgive the possibility of a massive error on my part and applaud the intent of this move. It achieves two things; the first is that your new character feels like a separate and new entity within the world and secondly with the absence of heirlooms you complete the storyline quests at a measured pace and while the content is not challenging, it doesn't feel like a cakewalk either.
Supplementing this feeling of a 'new introduction' to the game with a Pandaren is the fact that you may not join a guild until you have made your once-in-a-lifetime-no-returns faction allegiance choice (unless you got the dollars to make that change). With the absence of significant experience modifiers you find yourself progressing evenly with the content and this directly affects the enjoyment I felt in doing the predictably zany and interesting quests within the starting zone. The art is beautiful and will age well even compared to a game that is ageing rather gracefully already. I enjoyed the musical accompaniments but I realise that in-game music is not to the taste of most who play.
My one complaint is a minor one but I feel I must voice it regardless. Without spoiling the story, I was left wondering why Pandaren were not able to fulfill the role of the Druid class, particularly after events unfolded the way they did. I'm sure someone more familiar with the lore can explain why this is so and I don't doubt there is a logical explanation for it. However, I feel it my duty to ask for this to be reconsidered if not for the plight of one player I have known longer than most. Panda is an <Ajantis> Tauren Druid who has played his character for well over a decade now. It is time for him to match the most valuable name on the server with it's destiny.
It is time for Panda to be a Panda. Let it be done.
Friday 5 October 2012
Pleasantly Surprised
A small update today as I'm still on holiday, but I was desperate to make a comment on a recent development before it became an outdated footnote. Mists has been live for close to a fortnight now and the past week has seen the first of the new raid content available to players. Moshu'gan Vaults has seen a fresh batch of 90's throw themselves into Normal difficulty encounters with 6 different bosses. I am yet to participate in any of the new raiding content but I was online on Wednesday evening (Saurfang time) and had my ear 'very close to the ground', if you will. What was relayed to me caused me to slowly break into one of the widest smiles affected by World of Warcraft for a long time.
That's right! Blizzard has finally done justice to the opinion I have long privately held. Raiding has three very distinct difficulty levels. LFR, Normal and Heroic. I have always been disappointed with the fact that Normal and LFR difficulties have been far too similar in that both pose little to no challenge for the majority of players. Both were glorified sightseeing tours through the raid dungeons and I make no apology for describing it as such.
LFR is the mode for a wander through some ancient halls while you throw a Fireball or click your Cleave once or twice. Normal mode should never have been treated with the disdain it received through most of Cataclysm. It should be difficult to the stage that when you meet a boss for the first time you will not be successful on the first or second attempt. Finally I was beginning to see Blizzard reflect my own beliefs when hearing of the challenge that some Saurfang raiders were facing that Wednesday night.
As I write this things have changed slightly, but Wednesday night has been proven to be anything but an anomaly. No Saurfang guilds have cleared 6/6 normal mode and only one sits at 5/6, with a bulging queue at 4/6. This only serves to build my own sense of anticipation for the challenge that awaits with the other 10 bosses this tier, not to mention the small issue of heroic modes.
I've said it once and I'll say it again, it is an exciting time to be a Saurfangian!
"It's taken us 90 minutes to beat the first boss on normal mode"
"Only one guild in the world managed to clear 6/6 on the first night, and it's just the normal difficulty"
"They've changed things since Beta, it's much harder now"
That's right! Blizzard has finally done justice to the opinion I have long privately held. Raiding has three very distinct difficulty levels. LFR, Normal and Heroic. I have always been disappointed with the fact that Normal and LFR difficulties have been far too similar in that both pose little to no challenge for the majority of players. Both were glorified sightseeing tours through the raid dungeons and I make no apology for describing it as such.
LFR is the mode for a wander through some ancient halls while you throw a Fireball or click your Cleave once or twice. Normal mode should never have been treated with the disdain it received through most of Cataclysm. It should be difficult to the stage that when you meet a boss for the first time you will not be successful on the first or second attempt. Finally I was beginning to see Blizzard reflect my own beliefs when hearing of the challenge that some Saurfang raiders were facing that Wednesday night.
As I write this things have changed slightly, but Wednesday night has been proven to be anything but an anomaly. No Saurfang guilds have cleared 6/6 normal mode and only one sits at 5/6, with a bulging queue at 4/6. This only serves to build my own sense of anticipation for the challenge that awaits with the other 10 bosses this tier, not to mention the small issue of heroic modes.
I've said it once and I'll say it again, it is an exciting time to be a Saurfangian!
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