... so hard to keep them.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Sunday, February 10, 2013
patch 5.2
Olla folks,
Below is a personal take on what stands out for me on the 5.2 patch notes:
Players that have grown attached to working the land at Sunsong Ranch can now purchase the land from Farmer Yoon. Once the farm is owned by a player, it becomes a rest point like an Inn, where the player can bind and instantly log out. Work orders will pour into the farm from factions across Pandaria, and completing a work order will earn a reputation boost with the issuing faction.
This is nice - I'm wondering how many dailies a work order will represent. Probably 2 - gotta say rep equal to 4 dailies is probably what it'll take to get me across the line as we're also talking about lost earnings (I assume one gives up the produce on the work order).
A number of new pets can be found on the Isle of Lightning, including rare spawn drops, wild pets, and raid boss drops.
Liking the sound of the isle - harking back in my memory to many a fun PVP experience on the previous isle.
Elite Battle Pets have been added to the game world. These rare pets will spawn alone against an entire team. The Beasts of Fable taming quest will now become available from Gentle San or Sara Finkleswitch once Aki the Chosen has been defeated. Defeating all of the fabled beasts will award the new Red Panda pet, while completing the associated daily quest has a chance to award the rare brown, white, and orange variants.
New pet quest is win.
The chance of getting personal loot in Raid Finder and the chance of a successful bonus roll in Raid Finder have been greatly increased for the 5.0 raids.
Alts need the shinies - very good Blizzard.
Mists of Pandaria Season 12 Malevolent Gladiator’s PvP gear can now be purchased with Honor Points instead of Conquest Points, including weapons.
I'm interested to see the new weapons rules. I couldn't get PVP weapons last season due to the points requirements (and the play style I prefer). It would be nice this season to equip something with resilience on it.
Transmogrification rules have been broadened for several weapon types:
Seed bags have been added that allow planting of crops 4 plots at a time.
About time.
Kil'jaeden's Cunning is now a passive talent, and its activated ability has been removed.
This talent change has just made the tier 75s useful to me.
Dark Intent now increases Stamina in addition to Spell Power.
Win for the lock soloing old content.
New Level 60 Talent: Cloak and Dagger - Ambush, Garrote, and Cheap Shot now have a 30 yard range, and will cause the Rogue to teleport behind the target.
Did my sub rogue just get her second shadowstep back?
Stay liquid folks,
M.
Below is a personal take on what stands out for me on the 5.2 patch notes:
Players that have grown attached to working the land at Sunsong Ranch can now purchase the land from Farmer Yoon. Once the farm is owned by a player, it becomes a rest point like an Inn, where the player can bind and instantly log out. Work orders will pour into the farm from factions across Pandaria, and completing a work order will earn a reputation boost with the issuing faction.
This is nice - I'm wondering how many dailies a work order will represent. Probably 2 - gotta say rep equal to 4 dailies is probably what it'll take to get me across the line as we're also talking about lost earnings (I assume one gives up the produce on the work order).
A number of new pets can be found on the Isle of Lightning, including rare spawn drops, wild pets, and raid boss drops.
Liking the sound of the isle - harking back in my memory to many a fun PVP experience on the previous isle.
Elite Battle Pets have been added to the game world. These rare pets will spawn alone against an entire team. The Beasts of Fable taming quest will now become available from Gentle San or Sara Finkleswitch once Aki the Chosen has been defeated. Defeating all of the fabled beasts will award the new Red Panda pet, while completing the associated daily quest has a chance to award the rare brown, white, and orange variants.
New pet quest is win.
The chance of getting personal loot in Raid Finder and the chance of a successful bonus roll in Raid Finder have been greatly increased for the 5.0 raids.
Alts need the shinies - very good Blizzard.
Mists of Pandaria Season 12 Malevolent Gladiator’s PvP gear can now be purchased with Honor Points instead of Conquest Points, including weapons.
I'm interested to see the new weapons rules. I couldn't get PVP weapons last season due to the points requirements (and the play style I prefer). It would be nice this season to equip something with resilience on it.
Transmogrification rules have been broadened for several weapon types:
- Two-handed axes, maces, and swords can be Transmogrified to each other.
- One-handed axes, maces, and swords can be Transmogrified to each other.
- Staves and polearms can be transmogrified to each other.
Seed bags have been added that allow planting of crops 4 plots at a time.
About time.
Kil'jaeden's Cunning is now a passive talent, and its activated ability has been removed.
This talent change has just made the tier 75s useful to me.
Dark Intent now increases Stamina in addition to Spell Power.
Win for the lock soloing old content.
New Level 60 Talent: Cloak and Dagger - Ambush, Garrote, and Cheap Shot now have a 30 yard range, and will cause the Rogue to teleport behind the target.
Did my sub rogue just get her second shadowstep back?
Stay liquid folks,
M.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
a little social pressure please
I think Blizz is missing an opportunity with the way they're playing the LFR loot drops. There's fairly large amount of dissatisfaction over loot which I believe could be solved with a little visibility.
I don't raid now, but when I did raid I did so with a competitive 10-man guild. An extreme minority of items were loot councilled as we were a progression guild but everything else was rolled on and later we used a points system which tbh I never truly understood but seemed to do quite nicely from. On the nights where I didn't win any rolls or simply no loot for my bear dropped I was able to come to terms with the process as I could still see the loot dropping. I got a certain amount of vicarious pleasure from seeing loot drop for my guildies as well as the reinforcement that loot did in fact drop.
Now in the current system, as described by Ghostcrawler, they've worked hard to remove social pressure from the conglomeration of strangers that is LFR. That is no one will beg you to pass them to loot you've just won. The boss dies, each player rolls their small chance to get loot, if they win Blizz selects an appropriate piece for them and they walk away anonymously happy.
Outcome: sunshine, lollipops, rainbows.
Only what if no loot drops for you? Or more to the point as the plethora of forum posts have been shouting: what if you've been at this for a while and you've not seen "any" loot drop. Might I present a hypothetical case in point: consider a highly charismatic gnomish warlock who, for argument's sake, let's call... Shortgame. Shortgame has run through 16 Cata bosses and used 6 bonus rolls and got precicely zero loot. I'm not saying that this is unfair to poor Shortgame (... although it certainly feels unfair) but rather that this run of unfortunate chance highlights Blizzard's approach to this issue - they're treating LFR rules as a memoryless process which raid loot in fact never was. People would slowly built their gear over time and if you missed out you knew that you'd get it eventually as others in the raid already ‘had’ that piece. Your raid contained the social memory upon which you relied to get loot in a fair (and timely) manner.
How can we gain back the social memory that was lost as Blizzard dealt with their social pressure problem? Two ways:
Turn off the secrecy
Those who nurse conspiracies feel that the secrecy about drops is purely a Blizzard tool to stop players from seeing what the actual percentage on drops really is (the view being that a lower drop percentage = longer playing time and longer subscriptions). Not our hypothetical warlock of course, he trusts Blizzard and their assertion (could not verify this – only forum traffic available) that the drop chance is 15%.
I wouldn't argue for a reversion of the new process to pre-MoP LFR, the new process is good and it certainly minimises drama. What showing the drops does do is to lift the veil and folks who are putting their time into this pursuit can again see that items are dropping and though they personally are not having luck at least someone is.
Give the process some memory
Simple - provide to players a low percentage chance but raise it by 10% for each unsuccessful boss kill, using tokens progresses the percentage by 10% as well. Reset it when they get a drop. Under this process players know that in 10 boss kills they will certainly get a drop, five boss kills and they’re over 50%. It’s a very small carrot to toss but the forums are reporting people seeing 30+ bosses without a drop.
So while the easier process for Blizzard would be to simply turn off the secrecy my preferred approach would be to add a layer to the process and sequentially increase the drop chance. No more complaints could be levelled knowing that running two three-boss raids would put you over the 50% chance.
5.2 will see the existing raids have their percentages upped according to Blizzard. I’ll try LFR again then.
Stay liquid folks,
Mogul.
I don't raid now, but when I did raid I did so with a competitive 10-man guild. An extreme minority of items were loot councilled as we were a progression guild but everything else was rolled on and later we used a points system which tbh I never truly understood but seemed to do quite nicely from. On the nights where I didn't win any rolls or simply no loot for my bear dropped I was able to come to terms with the process as I could still see the loot dropping. I got a certain amount of vicarious pleasure from seeing loot drop for my guildies as well as the reinforcement that loot did in fact drop.
Now in the current system, as described by Ghostcrawler, they've worked hard to remove social pressure from the conglomeration of strangers that is LFR. That is no one will beg you to pass them to loot you've just won. The boss dies, each player rolls their small chance to get loot, if they win Blizz selects an appropriate piece for them and they walk away anonymously happy.
Outcome: sunshine, lollipops, rainbows.
Only what if no loot drops for you? Or more to the point as the plethora of forum posts have been shouting: what if you've been at this for a while and you've not seen "any" loot drop. Might I present a hypothetical case in point: consider a highly charismatic gnomish warlock who, for argument's sake, let's call... Shortgame. Shortgame has run through 16 Cata bosses and used 6 bonus rolls and got precicely zero loot. I'm not saying that this is unfair to poor Shortgame (... although it certainly feels unfair) but rather that this run of unfortunate chance highlights Blizzard's approach to this issue - they're treating LFR rules as a memoryless process which raid loot in fact never was. People would slowly built their gear over time and if you missed out you knew that you'd get it eventually as others in the raid already ‘had’ that piece. Your raid contained the social memory upon which you relied to get loot in a fair (and timely) manner.
How can we gain back the social memory that was lost as Blizzard dealt with their social pressure problem? Two ways:
Turn off the secrecy
Those who nurse conspiracies feel that the secrecy about drops is purely a Blizzard tool to stop players from seeing what the actual percentage on drops really is (the view being that a lower drop percentage = longer playing time and longer subscriptions). Not our hypothetical warlock of course, he trusts Blizzard and their assertion (could not verify this – only forum traffic available) that the drop chance is 15%.
I wouldn't argue for a reversion of the new process to pre-MoP LFR, the new process is good and it certainly minimises drama. What showing the drops does do is to lift the veil and folks who are putting their time into this pursuit can again see that items are dropping and though they personally are not having luck at least someone is.
Give the process some memory
Simple - provide to players a low percentage chance but raise it by 10% for each unsuccessful boss kill, using tokens progresses the percentage by 10% as well. Reset it when they get a drop. Under this process players know that in 10 boss kills they will certainly get a drop, five boss kills and they’re over 50%. It’s a very small carrot to toss but the forums are reporting people seeing 30+ bosses without a drop.
So while the easier process for Blizzard would be to simply turn off the secrecy my preferred approach would be to add a layer to the process and sequentially increase the drop chance. No more complaints could be levelled knowing that running two three-boss raids would put you over the 50% chance.
5.2 will see the existing raids have their percentages upped according to Blizzard. I’ll try LFR again then.
Stay liquid folks,
Mogul.
Friday, January 18, 2013
pets and raids
Olla folks,Yes, I'm back from the holidays with news from WoW.
PETS
I've got back into Pets in a big way - I always had a thing for pets but still am surprised to tell you that I now have over 400 pets and have just steamed past 400 achievement points in pets (ahh tentacle, now you are mine... ) What can I say - Blizz got this right. I'm working on some dailies for items atm and on the way from here to there I'm levelling up a few pets as I go. It's fun, easy, and interesting and only very rarely feels like a grind, which is saying something in this game.
OLD RAIDS
NEW RAIDS
Not too worried about these but I've had a few tries and it was enjoyable after a fashion; locks are well set-up for self preservation. Which is to say that I can mitigate PUG healers and know not stand in fire which equals surviving to the end of the fight. On the loot side though I think something is wrong. I recieved no loot after about 16 boss kills and 6 extra rolls... nada... niente! Forums suggest I'm not alone. I've heard that in 5.2 drops will be increased in order to get people ready for the newer raids. Maybe I'll have another look then.
GOLD
Ha haa. What can I say spending comfortably and am still up around the 870K mark. Towards the end of this expansion I may have toons at cap with sufficiently levelled reps to get at some of the gated recipes. For now though I'm making a few things but mostly buy what I need. A part of me misses the thrill of opening a mailbox bulging with gold but the reward for effort is no longer sufficient to hold me to it... perhaps when I'm a little poorer. ; )
No thanks. I definitely have a 'main' this expansion and that's my lock. I'll get to the other classes eventually but at this stage over three months' since launch I can advise that I still haven't levelled a panda monk or that shammy or pally that I thought I'd be working my way through.
PVP
A slow down here. I know the next season is coming out and felt I'd gotten as far as I could without changing the way I played. I find it hard to schedule regular time so RBGs are out and am not interested in arena for any other reason apart from gear (which means I should steer clear). Also 1500 honour for a very minor upgrade to my existing pieces really annoyed me. The next season should be up soon - when it arrives I'll likely BG until I have a full kit of gear then go back to soloing raids with my stat increase.
That's it for the moment folks. I'm still enjoying the game for the mindless challenges it provides me (= Mogul downtime after a day at work) and hope you are too.
: )
Thursday, November 29, 2012
old school
Hi folks!
A quick update before the month is out. Here's what I've been up to:
I'm learning demo on my lock. One of my favourite solo locks, Aventurka of Burning Legion, uses demo a lot for soloing old world bosses so I'm building my Power Auras up, doing my reading at Icy-Veins and getting keybinds sorted for burst (I'm looking at you Naj'entus).
I have indeed been soloing the old raids, so far:
Molten Core 10/10
Serpentshrine Cavern 2/6
Hyjal 5/5
The Eye 4/4.
Sunstrider was the hardest boss out of those - a lot to do with getting the right strat and understanding boss and sub-boss mechanics + for about three wipes I was standing in fire without realising it (classy... )
People who know locks will know the two sets of gear I'm trying to build. Hyjal rewarded me with possibly the best lock helm in game. Wings my friends, wings.
Next on the list is Black Temple and Naxx is definitely a go - especially now that Gluth has a chance to drop miniGluth!
Lastly - I've been tilling. Revered and heading towards exhalted at some speed. The dailies are interesting and building the farm is strangely fun. I plant almost exclusively Songbell seeds for the motes as I'm angling for my Depleted-Kyparium Rocket.
Stay liquid folks,
Mogul.
A quick update before the month is out. Here's what I've been up to:
I'm learning demo on my lock. One of my favourite solo locks, Aventurka of Burning Legion, uses demo a lot for soloing old world bosses so I'm building my Power Auras up, doing my reading at Icy-Veins and getting keybinds sorted for burst (I'm looking at you Naj'entus).
I have indeed been soloing the old raids, so far:
Molten Core 10/10
Serpentshrine Cavern 2/6
Hyjal 5/5
The Eye 4/4.
Sunstrider was the hardest boss out of those - a lot to do with getting the right strat and understanding boss and sub-boss mechanics + for about three wipes I was standing in fire without realising it (classy... )
People who know locks will know the two sets of gear I'm trying to build. Hyjal rewarded me with possibly the best lock helm in game. Wings my friends, wings.
Next on the list is Black Temple and Naxx is definitely a go - especially now that Gluth has a chance to drop miniGluth!
Lastly - I've been tilling. Revered and heading towards exhalted at some speed. The dailies are interesting and building the farm is strangely fun. I plant almost exclusively Songbell seeds for the motes as I'm angling for my Depleted-Kyparium Rocket.
Stay liquid folks,
Mogul.
Monday, October 29, 2012
gallery
Hey folks - an update post today via screenshots. Here we go!
Stay liquid folks,
Mogul.
 |
| got a yak - didn't look back |
 |
| wasp that you say? |
 |
| little fellah gets his mojo back with MoP |
 |
| travelling companion - surly and blood thirsty, just the way my lock likes em |
 |
| wormhole generator you are the bomb! eventhough you mostly seem to drop me at Sra'vess O.O |
 |
| note to self: change stylist |
Mogul.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
MOP WORLD PVP
Is alive and well baby and blooming in the Valley of the Four Winds.
I tell ya it's a bloodbath out there - it's almost as if the Alliance and the Horde are at war. ; ) I'm loving the shared quest givers and the multiple small settlements throughout the valley. The terrain is sufficiently bumpy to provide cover in combat and other PVP opportunities (ie, sneaking up on folk). It's a lot of fun to simply be about your business in the valley and to not know whether when you hit town you'll be called out. "You and me dwarf - outside!" "Surely, just you and me... " (a chair falls over as an invisible crab shuffles past following the hunter out). Heh heh heh. There's something quite delightful about walking into a town to see the ground littered with Horde and Alliance skeletons.
I'm finding my hunter to be quite strong both for questing and PVP. I have a ready swag of defensive capabilities and (through picking fights with those horde I come across) am slowly learning where they go and at what time to use them.
Here's a pro tip - Readiness works on everything in mop rather than just Rapid Fire. Especially useful for my talented heals but also great for other defensive PVP cool downs. It's the same experience that sub rogues have previously had.
I also found a brilliant pet opener:
#showtooltip Bestial Wrath
/cancelaura Deterrence
/cancelaura Hand of Protection
/petattack
/use 14
/cast Bestial Wrath/cast Rabid
/cast Blink Strike (Kill Command if you're untalented)
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
Along with many many other great macros at the Huntsmanslodge.
The above opener usually gets me about 60K damage in the first couple of seconds of an encounter. Regardless of whether the class has self heals and can come back from that it must be a shock to see about a third of your hits suddenly disappear. A shock hopefully that gets them panicking.
One more thing - Camouflage! Love it, love it, LOVE IT! I'm not sure quite how visible I am when on the move (ie, am I a glisteny hunter-shaped mass or am I a glisteny hunter-shaped mass with a red hit plate above my head) but I love the fact that when I stand still I'm basically stealthed. I also love the fact that I still cast a shadow. This makes me subject to my surroundings if I want to use this skill properly - which makes sense as I'm not invisible, I'm camouflaged. I think this skill, perhaps more than any other in world pvp, makes a hunter a hunter. Barring your opponent's use of camera angle you basically sneak up only moving when their back is to you before finally springing your trap.
That's all for now - stay liquid guys,
M.
I tell ya it's a bloodbath out there - it's almost as if the Alliance and the Horde are at war. ; ) I'm loving the shared quest givers and the multiple small settlements throughout the valley. The terrain is sufficiently bumpy to provide cover in combat and other PVP opportunities (ie, sneaking up on folk). It's a lot of fun to simply be about your business in the valley and to not know whether when you hit town you'll be called out. "You and me dwarf - outside!" "Surely, just you and me... " (a chair falls over as an invisible crab shuffles past following the hunter out). Heh heh heh. There's something quite delightful about walking into a town to see the ground littered with Horde and Alliance skeletons.
I'm finding my hunter to be quite strong both for questing and PVP. I have a ready swag of defensive capabilities and (through picking fights with those horde I come across) am slowly learning where they go and at what time to use them.
Here's a pro tip - Readiness works on everything in mop rather than just Rapid Fire. Especially useful for my talented heals but also great for other defensive PVP cool downs. It's the same experience that sub rogues have previously had.
I also found a brilliant pet opener:
#showtooltip Bestial Wrath
/cancelaura Deterrence
/cancelaura Hand of Protection
/petattack
/use 14
/cast Bestial Wrath/cast Rabid
/cast Blink Strike (Kill Command if you're untalented)
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
Along with many many other great macros at the Huntsmanslodge.
The above opener usually gets me about 60K damage in the first couple of seconds of an encounter. Regardless of whether the class has self heals and can come back from that it must be a shock to see about a third of your hits suddenly disappear. A shock hopefully that gets them panicking.
One more thing - Camouflage! Love it, love it, LOVE IT! I'm not sure quite how visible I am when on the move (ie, am I a glisteny hunter-shaped mass or am I a glisteny hunter-shaped mass with a red hit plate above my head) but I love the fact that when I stand still I'm basically stealthed. I also love the fact that I still cast a shadow. This makes me subject to my surroundings if I want to use this skill properly - which makes sense as I'm not invisible, I'm camouflaged. I think this skill, perhaps more than any other in world pvp, makes a hunter a hunter. Barring your opponent's use of camera angle you basically sneak up only moving when their back is to you before finally springing your trap.
That's all for now - stay liquid guys,
M.
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