World of Warcraft: Episode 3: A New Patch

[OptimoPeach]

-Recycled dungeon for the main raid

-They recycled it because Naxx was pretty much the best thing Blizzard ever did PvE wise, but they nerfed it so much that it's way far-removed from what it was. It's still nice for the players that didn't see it Pre-BC I guess.

-All the armor models look the same. Really lazy on graphics. Mundane to the max.

-Generic armor design has pretty much always been an issue. I don't really care about this, though.

-PVP finally exposed for the joke it is in WoW. Fans finally clue in and realize Arena is bork.

-Arena was fairly well-refined towards the end of BC, but I guess that kinda goes along with what you're saying, because it is pretty imbalanced in some ways right now.

-Rampant class imbalance, often reported in beta but ignored/denied by developers, only to hit live and become real issues.

-Yet again, expansion released with bugs reported in beta, that are allowed go live.

-This I agree with wholeheartedly.

-More sidegrades than upgrades. Armor has become homogenized not just in visuals but in stats. Not a big problem for me, but makes doing 25 man versions not all that important.

-wat

-Good PvP gear only attainable through Arena or luck, but most classes and specs not viable enough in Arena to attain them.

-There is at least one player for every class/spec combination in the top 100 in every bracket (unless you're in BG9). If you aren't a complete distinguished mentally-challenged fellow you can still break 2k with any class in any bracket, even with all of the balance issues. In some comps you might be shoehorned into a certain spec depending on the bracket, but it's basically always been that way. I will admit that this is probably the worst it has been since S1. As for gear, honor farming + VoA makes gear pretty easy to at least get the lower tier PvP stuff.

The PvE is pretty unsatisfying right now, I do agree with that. The game definitely needs more difficult raiding content, because there's a problem when I -- having just hit 80 three days ago, still in all blues -- am able to hop into 25 man Naxx and actually be an asset. Last night I cleared Naxx with some shit guild that hadn't even attempted it before that. I think with PvE they are just pandering to the scrubs, mostly.

Oh yeah, and I forgot: they are supposedly delivering a much-needed nerf to mutilate rogues and arcane mages tomorrow. Should help 2v2 a bit.

[etiolate]

why are death nights worsening class imbalance?

and what did they do to stats on armour?

Because the game mechanics already favored melee in PvP and DKs are a melee with tons of anti-caster ability, which tips the scales even further.

Armor was homogenized in that there really isn't any priest cloth or mage cloth or warlock cloth, but just cloth that any of them could use. Which is good in a way, because there are more drops that people can use, but then they add tons of slight variations on these stats that sort of fill the game with gear drops, but pretty soon they don't really progress the characters much for they are only slight variations.

[etiolate]

Well that was a waste of $120. 

what?!?

Expansion sucks?

Expansion is lazy. Endgame lasts about a week.

A partial list of problems

-Recycled dungeon for the main raid
-All the armor models look the same. Really lazy on graphics. Mundane to the max.
-PVP finally exposed for the joke it is in WoW. Fans finally clue in and realize Arena is bork. E-sport idea becomes obviously a ploy by Blizzard to fight competition(though why?).
-Rampant class imbalance, often reported in beta but ignored/denied by developers, only to hit live and become real issues.
-More sidegrades than upgrades. Armor has become homogenized not just in visuals but in stats. Not a big problem for me, but makes doing 25 man versions not all that important.
-Yet again, expansion released with bugs reported in beta, that are allowed go live.
-Whole thing makes expansion looked rushed.
-Good PvP gear only attainable through Arena or luck, but most classes and specs not viable enough in Arena to attain them.
-Death Knights only worsen class imbalance, overrun every server.
-Blizzard spends first couple months of release telling customers they're wrong about 'issues' only to a pull a 360 and finally start to look at things.
-The game just dies at 80.

Yea, I've done VoA, and there are like a few more raids and that's it. I'm still focusing on heroics but my guild is starting to get ready for Naxx. Looks like there's not a lot of content.

don't really care much for pvp. Hell, I only go to Wintergrasp to farm titanium/eternals/etc.

Do you feel the lv70 content for TBC was more expansive/better than LK's?

Karazhan lasted a lot longer than Naxx has. That is partly because Kara had so many trash pulls and sort of a meandering design. I don't think anyone misses the Kara trash pulls, but the bosses were a bit more interesting. There was also Kara attunement that slowed things down, but attunement has been phased out and that is a good thing. But Kara still had some drops that were really good and worth doing it for. One of the best Elemental Shaman rings was a random Kara drop. The Terrestrian staff was a good feral stick for a while and also just cool enough looking that people liked getting it. Opera was 3 different bosses in one, and the dragon bosses were still challenging for awhile. Gruul wasn't that hard, but dragonspine trophy was like the holy grail of BC. Magtheridon(pre-nerf) was rather hard to do.

Blizzard has to figure out how to make a lasting dungeon without filling it with trash pulls from hell like they did at the start of Burning Crusade tier4 and 5 content. Zul Aman did this pretty well.

[etiolate]

Yola- That is one thing. Naxx was sort of legendary in its difficulty and 'epic'ness. Somehow it just doesn't come off that way in WotLK and I don't think its just the difficulty drop. Even though most have not been in Naxx before now, all of its elements, undead, abominations, spiders and death knights, are now just a lot more common than they were before. You really didn't touch those monsters in original wow until plaguelands, and plaguelands had some mean mobs just wandering around. It made it feel menacing.

And I think the original wow has way better armor design. I saw a warrior(twice) in battlegrounds, PvPing in his field marshall gear, so I was like "sup funny gear". And then he cycled through all this saved up gear he had, including ZG warrior set that just looked way more freakier than the black-brown football pads of his 80 gear.

Look at the Dreamwalker druid set from old Naxx(I think?).



The t7 is the same design, but with duller colors. wtf? Why lose the vivid green?

[pilonv1]

are there any more raids like onyxia? i liked that because it didn't have trash pulls. fucking whoever thought it was good to full raids with trash should be shot.

[cubicle47b]

Naxx's low difficulty is part of it.  The other part is mechanics introduced in Naxx were re-used a lot in BC dungeons and raids.  At the time it was created it was far better than any raid Blizzard had made before it.  If people really wanted it, Blizzard could easily make another Sunwell but the vast majority of people don't want that.

are there any more raids like onyxia? i liked that because it didn't have trash pulls. fucking whoever thought it was good to full raids with trash should be shot.

Malygos doesn't have any trash at all.  And Sartharion / Naxx trash is fairly limited.

[Phoenix Dark]

jeez, what's up with VH being the daily...every other day. It's an easy 5 emblems but fuck why not something else. No one does Halls of Stone/Lightning or Oculus, I can't wait for them to be a daily

[OptimoPeach]

Armor was homogenized in that there really isn't any priest cloth or mage cloth or warlock cloth, but just cloth that any of them could use. Which is good in a way, because there are more drops that people can use, but then they add tons of slight variations on these stats that sort of fill the game with gear drops, but pretty soon they don't really progress the characters much for they are only slight variations.

Ohh wow, I'm sorry, I misread this whole part. Yeah, the whole spellpower thing really backfired. The line between healer and dps gear is so fine that there might as well not even be a distinction. Just the other night there was some huge feud with that guild I did 25 man Naxx with. Kel'Thuzad happened to drop these legs which are currently best-in-slot for numerous classes and specs, and as a result the shadow priests complained that it is a damage piece, the disc/holy priests insisted it's healing gear, and all the priests were pissed off at the fact that the moonkin druid needed them as well (which is who ended up getting them).

I guess what I'm really saying here is that shit like this is inevitable when you don't use DKP, but you are still mostly right on this too. I have a feeling this won't be as much of an issue once they introduce some new content, though.

[Phoenix Dark]

Had nothing to do today so I wound up doing like 6 instances, 4 of which with the same group. Met a badass, badass healer. Etoilet, you familiar with Truwar? His alt is Cymera

We did a CoS speed run and I won the mount ha. I'm about 900g away from getting the flying training. Won't be long considering I have 7 titansteel bars, soon to be 8.

Then I joined a Naxx pug and was getting destroyed mere seconds into trash mob fights. We wiped 3 times before someone realized we were 10 manning the 25 man heroic lol. So yea, on reg we took care of the trash but couldn't get by the first boss (Anub'Rekhan). Not nearly enough dps. ie after 12min of fighting the boss he wasn't even at 50% health. But yea, from what I saw it didn't seem too hard. We had solid heals and tanks, so with solid dps I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard

[pilonv1]

i starting playing this after being out for 3 years. for some reason it's nowhere near as interesting as i used to find it. oh well, ill get to 80 with my rogue so i can see the new content

[Phoenix Dark]

Our healer DC'd shortly after second boss in heroic Nexus. We had a balance druid who then started healing for us, and we cleared the rest of the instance 

I took a combat log for Keristrasza
http://wowwebstats.com/i1eratmrpvxlo?s=19-2752 

(that trash mob stuff occurred after I left instance btw)


Got my artisan flight training yesterday too. Makes farming much easier

[OptimoPeach]

Got my artisan flight training yesterday too. Makes farming much easier

I'm jealous I'm dumping thousands of gold into the Nobles deck because the trinket you get from it is currently best-in-slot for hunters.

[Phoenix Dark]

I basically sold frozen orbs, eternal belt buckles, titansteel blacksmith stuff, and did dailies. The Icecrown dailies are ridiculously easy/fast

I still miss Quel Danas though; definitely wish there was a similar area for LK

[Phoenix Dark]

3.1 coming soon
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p1/ulduar.xml

I've beaten one boss in Naxx, that's it.

[OptimoPeach]

Eh, you'll probably have it all cleared by the time 3.1 hits. It'll at least be a month and a half from the date it hits the PTR, probably even more.

[Phoenix Dark]

meh, if my guild gets off their ass and starts it at a reasonable time, ie not when I'm busy with school.

I got this today
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=37872

Nice. I put it with a shield block macro, and I can't wait to pop it then use Shield Slam

[BlackMage]

fuck this game.

[Phoenix Dark]

Never seen that before. Only happens in Exodar?

[Phoenix Dark]

I've got a lv11 draeni, I'll have to dust her off and play with you lol

[Phoenix Dark]

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Ravenholdt&n=Goinio

Been working on my mitigation, most recently by getting that chest piece. I did DTK today and it definitely seemed like I was taking less damage

[etiolate]

This pally that always behaved oddly to me just figured something out yesterday. I imagine this story ends with crying in the shower.

[CrystalGemini]

This pally that always behaved oddly to me just figured something out yesterday. I imagine this story ends with crying in the shower.

Oh my my my.   

[Phoenix Dark]

 

I was actually surprised a female mage I always play with it actually a chick; found out today when I learned how to use the party chat thingie.

And btw, guild vent is hilarious.

[ManaByte]

This pally that always behaved oddly to me just figured something out yesterday. I imagine this story ends with crying in the shower.

Kinda like Alea on Tich.

[T234]

Only the difference is, I'm pretty sure there ain't gonna be a 500 CHARACTER GUILD named after our boy here.

[ManaByte]

Only the difference is, I'm pretty sure there ain't gonna be a 500 CHARACTER GUILD named after our boy here.

 

[Van Cruncheon]

i can easily tell actual female players from male ones regardless of character gender just by the way they chat in-game. not that i care since i HATE THEM ALL EQUALLY

my main char is a female, but i never get mistaken for a chick. my new guild knew i was dude after the second time i typed in guild chat, when i threatened to murder every teenager in barrens chat

[Akala]

i can easily tell actual female players from male ones regardless of character gender just by the way they chat in-game. not that i care since i HATE THEM ALL EQUALLY

my main char is a female, but i never get mistaken for a chick. my new guild knew i was dude after the second time i typed in guild chat, when i threatened to murder every teenager in barrens chat

 

80 yet? I may actually get to play some this weekend.

[ManaByte]

http://forums.deadgod.net/showthread.php?t=1898

[Van Cruncheon]

i can easily tell actual female players from male ones regardless of character gender just by the way they chat in-game. not that i care since i HATE THEM ALL EQUALLY

my main char is a female, but i never get mistaken for a chick. my new guild knew i was dude after the second time i typed in guild chat, when i threatened to murder every teenager in barrens chat

 

80 yet? I may actually get to play some this weekend.

uh, i am almost 79!

[Phoenix Dark]

I go in to all internet games assuming everyone is a dude. If a person is being obnoxious or bragging about their dps or complaining about Blizzard etc etc, it's  definitely a dude. If a guildie seems more interested in working on their professions and setting up meetings while scheduling them around times they have to pick their kids up from school...it's probably a girl. I find most people just chat like normal human beings.

[Phoenix Dark]

Just finished the spider wing of Naxx. Wiped a couple times on first boss, and once on the following bosses. Overall it wasn't too tough. Kinda was bummed that we wiped twice while I MT'd the first boss, causing them to make me OT for the rest of the instance (although I wound up MTing the last boss). It wasn't even my fault:

Basically I'd die shortly after kiting the boss during the locust swarm. I wasn't healed, maybe my healer (we have 3) got the buff or something.

No drops for me tho

Doing the plague wing tomorrow

[Phoenix Dark]

Soloing in TBC early areas was a bit of a pain as a prot warrior, but maybe that was because I didn't like those areas. I've always liked tanking though, and it definitely seems like things are easier in LK. Shockwave is a great aoe for tanks, something we sort of lacked previously. Heroic Throw is great for picking up mobs, Enraged Regeneration makes soloing multiple mobs much easier, Sword n Board is great, etc.

I dunno, either I'm just better than I was or Blizzard has just made it easier to generate/hold threat.

DPS is boring to me btw. I like having a good reputation as a tank; people constantly want to run with me because they know things are gonna go smooth (for the most part lol).

[etiolate]

Somone Reported Kateground's name. After being around for a year or two and being decently known in the community, I have to change it.

I'm going to find out who it was and have them perma-camped.

[Van Cruncheon]

what is wrong with "kateground"

edit: oh, it's the name of that mutie footwhore from kate's playground.

[Phoenix Dark]

I consider myself a porn connesiour and even I didn't know who Kate Ground was. I remember people would laugh at his name in guild chat back in the day, then I looked it up

[etiolate]

my lightning bolts are hardcore BEEYACH

[Phoenix Dark]

No one showed up for plague wing last night. Maybe we can do it tonight

Guild bitch of the day: I'm not a fan of the "guildies before non-guildies" rule. Today we wanted to do a quick VH run. Two of the guild mates who came are badass, but one (mage) was questionable. I had never played with him before and heard he hasn't geared for heroics. So of course I try to add a safe dps pick (DK!). "no guild first!"

Wiped 4 times on the dude who spawns the voids. He's not even hard, you just have to kill those voids asap. Our mage was barely over 1000dps which didn't help either. le sigh

[CrystalGemini]

It was probably Denetta. 

[Phoenix Dark]

Obsidian Sanctum is fun - definitely more so than VoA. The boss fight has an old school feel to it

[Dickie Dee]

Are all you Borians spread out over multiple realms?

[Phoenix Dark]

Oh yea dude, gotta add you

Just quit a bad UP group. I used to think Skadi was hard, but he's pretty easy as long as you avoid the god damn whirlwind. I just taunt him and take him down hall, simple as that right?

Not if you have a DK popping army of the dead the minute Skadi hits the group. Did it fucking twice, and the previous tries he wouldn't run from the ww.

[Dickie Dee]

I'm Horde PvP for what it's worth.

Actually it's Gurubashi, the server a GAF guild was started by Manabyte until he completely flamed out, and managed to fuck it up so badly guild leadership couldn't even be transferred to someone else.

[ManaByte]

I'm Horde PvP for what it's worth.

Actually it's Gurubashi, the server a GAF guild was started by Manabyte until he completely flamed out, and managed to fuck it up so badly guild leadership couldn't even be transferred to someone else.

Leadership was transferred, but the idiot then got banned.

[Phoenix Dark]

Had my first guild meeting today. Very...weird. Like, dancing and semi-RPing shit. I got promoted and got to make a speech, yay me. We have about 8-10 well geared people who can raid and I've taken it upon myself to get our under geared lv80s better stuff, through instances/blacksmith stuff.

We have a bunch of great DPS, one good healer with another gearing up, and three raiding tanks (myself included). Our main healer/guild leader has one of those raiding tanks as an alt and the other tank is a druid, so I don't have to compete for gear. So while the dps have lots of competition for gear I'll be able to get my stuff the minute it drops.

So it's basically like we have a top tier of players, and a second tier in the wings. Once they get into the top tier our raiding situation won't be as meh as it is now. Started Naxx a few days ago, and never continued. It resets tomorrow

[CrystalGemini]

Are all Evilboreans on Ravenholt?

[CrystalGemini]

Are all Evilboreans on Ravenholt?

No. As I recall from what PD told me Drinky/MAF/Patel/White Man/Eric P/PDs alt are on Muradin.

Ravenholt is pretty great though. You should play on Ravenholt.

I've been playing on Ravenholt the last couple months.    That and Dunemaul.  HomemadeMilk's been giving me hell about being on a RPPVP server though.   

[Phoenix Dark]

What was the speech about, PD?

I just said uh, thanks for the invite/everyone's been nice/look forward to playing with everyone/etc. It's a great guild. We don't raid a lot but there are so many cool people in the guild, plus I like the casual atmosphere. I know some of the bigger guilds like August Muse do stuff all the time but I'm gonna stay in this one

[T234]

Are all Evilboreans on Ravenholt?

No. As I recall from what PD told me Drinky/MAF/Patel/White Man/Eric P/PDs alt are on Muradin.

Ravenholt is pretty great though. You should play on Ravenholt.

I've been playing on Ravenholt the last couple months.    That and Dunemaul.  HomemadeMilk's been giving me hell about being on a RPPVP server though.   

Don't worry about him, he's more of a Chinese girl than Rodi is.


I'm on Tichondrius, THE GREATEST PVP SERVER IN EXISTENCE


TICH IS NOT FOR YOU

[ManaByte]

Are all Evilboreans on Ravenholt?

No. As I recall from what PD told me Drinky/MAF/Patel/White Man/Eric P/PDs alt are on Muradin.

Ravenholt is pretty great though. You should play on Ravenholt.

I've been playing on Ravenholt the last couple months.    That and Dunemaul.  HomemadeMilk's been giving me hell about being on a RPPVP server though.   

Don't worry about him, he's more of a Chinese girl than Rodi is.


I'm on Tichondrius, THE GREATEST PVP SERVER IN EXISTENCE


TICH IS NOT FOR YOU

  TICH

[cubicle47b]

After 2.5 nights of eating shadow fissures and flame walls (seriously, my guild is apparently borderline distinguished mentally-challenged) we finally killed Sarth3D.  I have to say, I absolutely love the encounter.  I dig the choose your own difficulty nature of the encounter, the feel of it as drakes fly overhead and talk shit to Sartharion as they start to land ("Father was right about you, Sartharion...You are a weakling! "), the feeling of needing a raid that has situational awareness and knows how to work together, the general chaos of it all.  It's fucking awesome which surprised me since 2D was relatively boring.

Bring on Ulduar hard modes if they're anywhere near this good.

[Phoenix Dark]

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Ravenholdt&n=Goinio

I was playing around with my spec a few days ago and put full points in Deep Wombs. My dps has gone up some but more importantly it's a great threat generator. I do shield damage whenever I get hit, and more often than not it's a crit hit which means that mob gets a Deep Womb. So it's great for holding multiple mobs

[Phoenix Dark]

Dusted off my shaman alt. Deadmines is so awesome. We just rambled through, and it was clear everyone didn't know what they were doing lol. Tank duel wielding swords, constantly in arms stance. Me forgetting to put up totems, hunter pulling large amounts of mobs. So fun 

I did some off healing which was more interesting than dps. I might go resto (elemental/enhancement right now). I'd assume it's faster to lv as elemental/enhancement right? Either way I'll definitely do some healing when duel specs are available

[Phoenix Dark]

Fuck I'm drained. Just did 25 man Naxx, well two wings (arachnid and plague). It was like 15 members of some guild plus assorted friends, and luckily I got in. Pretty smooth run. Most awesome moment was dying 5min into Heigan fight; 20min later six people remained 

I got:
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40252


My guild was supposed to do the 10 man tonight but barely anyone was on smh. I'm certainly not one of those raid 24/7 type people but I'd like to do something once or twice a week. There are 2 more heroic items I want, so at this point all that's left for me is raids; I love doing heroics though. Luckily VoA and OS are easily PUGable

[etiolate]

After 2.5 nights of eating shadow fissures and flame walls (seriously, my guild is apparently borderline distinguished mentally-challenged) we finally killed Sarth3D.  I have to say, I absolutely love the encounter.  I dig the choose your own difficulty nature of the encounter, the feel of it as drakes fly overhead and talk shit to Sartharion as they start to land ("Father was right about you, Sartharion...You are a weakling! "), the feeling of needing a raid that has situational awareness and knows how to work together, the general chaos of it all.  It's fucking awesome which surprised me since 2D was relatively boring.

Bring on Ulduar hard modes if they're anywhere near this good.

I'm supposed to be helping my guild do 3d, but I haven't had the time lately to raid. I think the prob has been finding the right tank set up and the raid healers not dying on waves.

[Phoenix Dark]

Did half of the Construct wing today.

Patchwerk: ffffuuuuccccckkkk. Tough tough boss. Definitely more of a healing challenge than a tanking challenge; I was the second OT in the group but they let me MT him. A few dps kept dying early because they didn't jump into the poison pool first. Heals were a bit shaky and we wiped 4 times. I got:
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40263
shield block rating

Grobbulus: Pretty easy. Would probably be a pain without people following directions

Gluth: Couldn't beat him, plus it was getting late so we called it. Had hunters on left and right picking up adds, with me in the middle gathering them for huge aoes when they got to 5%. I'm gonna head to tankspot and check out some videos/strategy for this dude

[cubicle47b]

Patchwerk: ffffuuuuccccckkkk. Tough tough boss. Definitely more of a healing challenge than a tanking challenge; I was the second OT in the group but they let me MT him. A few dps kept dying early because they didn't jump into the poison pool first. Heals were a bit shaky and we wiped 4 times. I got:
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40263
shield block rating

If you had 2 tanks eating hateful strikes the DPS were dying because they exceeded their threat (unless a tank died).  Only the top two (after the MT) in threat are eligible for hatefuls and the highest current health of the two eats the strike.

[Phoenix Dark]

Basically I pulled him with a heroic throw/taunt, then started tanking along with the OTs. The plan was to let us blast him for a couple seconds (giving dps time to dip into the poison), but a few dps jumped right into the melee too fast. I had #1 threat throughout the entire fight

[ManaByte]

Just killed the Horde leaders and got my Black War Bear!

[CrystalGemini]

I hate how the war bear has the most distinguished mentally-challenged look on his face.  His mouth is constantly open it just ruins the whole thing.