Random thoughts on Cataclysm

I have to say, so far I'm thoroughly enjoying Cataclysm. I love the start areas and the quest lines that while it might still be kill 10 rats, etc., at least seem to have more meaning.  I've not completed the 80-85 zones yet, as I've been enjoying the start areas, and have done the Troll, Goblin, Tauren, Worgen, but still want to do the new Gnome one. I've heard the others are improved but haven't done those either.  Couple years for the next expansion so there's time right?

I like Thrall's new look -but the braids are a bit scary. I did finish all the books prior to Cataclysm's release, and the Shattering tied in nicely with all the transformations that occurred.  Hellscream as a leader, hmm, he's more aggressive, but adds to the tension between the Alliance and Horde now.   I did find Varian Wyrnn referring to himself as Lo'Gosh too interesting and glad to see Anduin has aged too.

Even the changes to the cities are great.  Orgrimmar I've been lost in so many times (no flying on lowbies PiA), but it feels more 'Horde-like' than before.  Stormwind has been changed, but not to the same degree - the park and all is nice, and yeah on multiple Inns, AH and banks in both cities.

My favorite zone so far, definitely the Goblin.  Blizzard went over the top with this one and it's great.  Deathwing torching Kazan, to all the changes in Azshara, just fun.

  The Worgen start area, I love the feel and the story-line, but Worgen themselves - I can't play them!  All that sniffing/snuffling noise I find annoying to the max.  I did roll a female Worgen, but after 10 levels realized I was getting motion sickness with her movement.  Rerolled a male, slightly better, but still no love for the race as it stands. I even made a druid so I could avoid much of the Worgen movement.  He's on the delete list.  Their running reminds me of a dog with rabies or someone with Tourettes - no thanks.  The Darkshore quests are much improved though.


This quest in Silverpine Forest made me laugh.  (spoiler don't read if you haven't done it, just go talk to High Executor Darthalia.), the quest line continues into Hillsbrad - what a zone change there!  Silverpine>Hillsbrad you really get a feel for Sylvanas has lots of ideas, mostly involving everyone joining her as Forsaken.

I hope they have something similar on the Alliance side, but I don't have any low level Alliance at the moment to find out.

I have been consolidating my main characters on one server, both Horde and Alliance, so quickly running out of slots, but once I've done what I want with them they can move elsewhere or /delete!

I have heard healing is awful at the higher levels, so I guess the priest and druid are going to stay DPS only for now.  I'm re-learning the Priest anyway after a year off, so have an excuse. : P

The new server is an RP one, and I've always wanted to try that aspect of the game, so new game new server!  I'm not sure I 'get' RP completely, but going to give it a shot.  A couple of the Horde characters have found a guild, now to find an Alliance one.

It is odd though to be on a non PvP server, it's is a whole 'nother animal.  Kind of odd to see the opposition out in the world and not kill them or be killed.  Although my Hunter did run across a few 'red' Hordies in Ashenvale and felt obliged to end their life.  My Night Elf's, a bit sentimental to the changes in Ashenvale and definitely no love of Trolls or Orcs.

So all in all, I'm loving WoW, I think Blizzard overall did a great job with this expansion.


As my blogging has been sporadic at best, going to wish everyone a wonderful New Year and a great 2011.

WoW-Pro

WoW-Pro, administered by Jame has been a great tool and reference for me over the years.  The people that contribute leveling guides, tips and tools have done an awesome job.  As it is basically player contributed and maintained (and FREE!), I'd highly recommend checking it out.


This is from their FAQ Intro:


Welcome to World of Warcraft Pro. We are a platform for WoW-Players to exchange self-written guides, free of charge. Our guide books are a compilation of all guides submitted by the WoW-pro memberbase. We will try to answer all questions about functioning, features and troubleshooting here, however if you still have questions, you can always contact us through the contact form.


I've not tried the Wow-Pro Addon written by Jiyambi yet, but I'm planning to roll a new character on a PvE server and follow it exactly sometime after Cataclysm launchs.

I know the quest circuits I've followed in other leveling guides on WoW-Pro have been great. Each ten level section, builds off previous levels (they can be done at any time though), and cuts down the endless running back and forth you do while questing while maximizing your leveling XP.    


I've also used their guides to make sure I've collected ALL the quests that pertain to an instance, although with Cataclysm changes I'm not sure that will be such a chore.


If you've never been to Wow-Pro, check it out. 

Change a light bulb?

How many forum members does it take to change a light bulb?

One to change the light bulb and to post that the light bulb has been changed.

Fourteen to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently.

Seven to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs.

Seven more to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs.

Three to correct spelling/grammar errors.

Six to argue over whether it's "lightbulb" or "light bulb".

Another six to condemn those six as stupid.

Fifteen to claim experience in the lighting industry and give the correct spelling.

Nineteen to post that this group is not about light bulbs and to please take this discussion to a lightbulb (or 

light bulb) forum.

Eleven to defend the posting to the group saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts are relevant to this group.

Thirty six to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to buy the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for this technique and what brands are faulty.

Seven to post URLs where one can see examples of different light bulbs.

Four to post that the URLs were posted incorrectly and then post the corrected URL.

Three to post about links they found from the URLs that are relevant to this group which makes light bulbs relevant to this group.

Thirteen to link all posts to date, quote them in their entirety including all headers and signatures, and add "Me too".

Five to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy.

Four to say "didn't we go through this already a short time ago?"

Thirteen to say "do a Google search on light bulbs before posting questions about light bulbs."

Three to tell a funny story about their cat and a light bulb.

AND

One group lurker to respond to the original post six months from now with something unrelated and start it all over again. 

Things to do while Windows 7 installs.

I've had Windows 7 sitting around for four months waiting to upgrade from Windows XP on my gaming PC.  I have it for the work one too (Vista), but have not wanted the whole 'reinstall' everything task.  Yesterday for some odd reason was the DAY.  Backed up everything to the external HD, downloaded and installed Win 7, and then began the arduous task of reinstalling software.

I had read somewhere that I should put the 'biggest' programs on first. Something about the way it filled the HD. So, monster one MMO - WoW is first in line.  I've been having issues with WoW since patch 4.0.1, so decided to just bite the bullet and do a complete fresh install.  Oh what a joy this has been. 

I had forgot how many times an un-tended PC will decide to 'update' itself.  At least three times I came to find that had occurred, and what I had assumed to be continuous WoW downloading had in fact NOT happened!  ARGH!  

So, I've been MMO free all weekend, but we're down to the final Cataclysm stretch of updates - another 5GB to go!  

Then the rest of the MMO stable will get installed this week (LoTRO & EQ2 for now) as well as Curse and Steam. 

Too keep myself entertained, I first flirted with the idea of playing on the Xbox but instead watch Bounty Hunter (movie), really bad and not worth the time.  Then I guilted myself into putting in some time in on the NaNoWriMo thing.  I'm not going to ding 50K words this month, as I've barely scratched 9K.  Too much of what I've written feels disjointed. Nothing novelish about it.  It has the same characters but more short story adventure compilation in feel than one continuous story.  I want to go back and edit it, but figure getting it all out would be better now.  Editing can wait!  My goal with NaNoWriMo, is to try to get more discipline in writing period.  My website and blogs have long dry spells as I don't 'protect' my writing time.  If I can get that down, 50K words or not I'll consider this a success!

I've also been reading up on the lore from WoW after locating an excellent resource on the book order on the WoW forums and an even better one over at LoreCrafted.  Wonderful site btw as I have a secret yearning to RP, but turn into a stammering idiot every time I've tried.  I love to read the writing of RPers and listen to what/how they do it.  

The novel chronology has helped as I've found what appears to be the chronological order isn't, and read War of the Ancient's Trilogy - assuming it was first - not!.  So, I'm going to follow this guide and hopefully get up to the Shattering before Catacylsm is released in a month!

I'm really finding it fascinating and want to start a new level 1 Horde (or maybe a DK to just do the Outlands areas I've been reading about), as now much of that makes sense as to the how's and why's of Outland's areas.

Fortunately both Amazon and iBooks stores have many of the WoW novels to download, so Rise of the Horde on the iPad was a quick read.  I'd love to feel for the Horde (I do a bit, especially at the loss of their lifestyle), but being Alliance at heart - poor Draenei!  

Headed back to read more about Medivh and Khadgar, but had to check the PC hadn't found a new update it had to install!

Top 10 Cataclysm wishes

As we're all eagerly waiting for Cataclysm next month, I was thinking about changes I'd like to see -

1.  Drop an elemental on the brat, William, in Stormwind so that Donna can have her dolly, Betsy, back!

2.  People that roll on a PvP server actually liked and participated in world PvP.  Why did they start on a PvP server in the first place?

3.  Female character gear that is stylish and/or functional, yet doesn't scream 'I'm working the red-light district'!  Bustiere armor? Cute cut-outs on their legs? Daisy Duke shorts? Ugh.

4.  Hunter pets stay out with hunters while mounted.  Where do they go?  I can see not making them usable (grey out their action bar) until you've dismounted, but, why aren't they out all the time?

5.   Stackable tabards or a tab for all of them.  The same for all the 'holiday' clothing.  How do RPer's manage? I have at least two bags of clothing and stuff for holidays and I'm not on an RP server! Plus tabards I can't re-buy but don't wear hogging bank space.

6.  Crafting materials stack to at least 20 - all of them.  Mojo, teeth, core of this, elemental of that, essence of whatever - all those odd things that we have to use that still stack to 5-10 - bigger stacks!  Better yet mats - cloth, flowers, metals, stone that stock to 50-100.

7.  Get rid of the 'useless' stuff we have to craft to level.  Either give it a value/reason to be made or remove it from the game.

8.  Have reasons for people to go to Exodar and Silvermoon City other than jewelers or ERPers.  They're distinct and beautifully designed cities. But such ghost towns and basically pointless except for people in the start areas.

9.  NPC's that 'attack' the neighboring city/community that people could join and PvP with even on non-PvP servers.  These are two factions that have a deep distrust and hate, right?  Why don't they ever attack each other?

10.  Ideally what I'd love, love, love.  A shared bank for your characters of the same faction on a realm.  Separate bag slot for BoP gear, but money, materials, etc., could be stored in one bank.  Most of us have 'guilds' to have bank alts use.  I'd pay the same amount NOT to have to form a darn guild and have it accessible by ALL my characters without having to mail stuff all the time.

I'm sure I could drone on, but I said 10 so 10 it is!

It's your UI causing the problem

What annoys the heck out of me and I've been opening a ticket every day with support is the constant d/c in battlegrounds and the feeling that I'm in a beta test that shouldn't be a beta test.

I get d/c'd at least once a day and come back as a deserter - WTF???  I never leave a BG, ever.  Even the truly terrabad ones, I will stay.  I've left maybe three in three plus years as it was an emergency call, otherwise I will stick it out.  I might be swearing at the PC screen but I stay.

Then there is miscounting the number of people in WSG  - Blizzard's interface or whatever can't recognize 9-11?  That isn't 10-10 sorry!  It might be 20, but it's not the right way to count it!   Not recording stats in the leader board - half the time people are missing or there are surprise 11 in Warsong Gulch on one side or another!

This doesn't happen every WSG (never in EoTS, AB, etc.,) but apparently my UI is the issue. Some how randomly it is.  So, I wasn't surprised with getting the "It's your UI that is causing all the problems" response.

Get stuck in a wall, fall through the earth, d/c, whatever it's always your UI.

To be fair, I'd like to think maybe that is the problem. I do use a number of Add ons, (updated daily with Curse Client); BUT, my UI can't add extra people to either side or not let that 10th person in on either side nor can it boot me out as a deserter! If so, there are some players I'd gladly use that on!

I was going to try a couple of WSG with just the basic Blizzard provided UI and then if I get booted, see what they have to say.  I'm sure it will be "reload the game" or "it's your graphics card" or ?  ARGH!

As excited as I am for Cataclysm, knowing the continual borked game we'll have to play with for next two months with patches, updates and fixes, makes me almost wish it was January and all will be playable... for awhile at least!

Class changes love 'em... in general!

As I'm sure many have, I've been 'adjusting' to the 4.0.1 patch in World of Warcraft, that changed so much of the game.

Most of them I'm absolutely fine with, especially BM hunter finally being all that it should be, at least for the next month.

Hunter:

• I can learn about focus over mana. Why did Hunter's ever have mana anyway? 
• I love no more arrows, although I wish they'd have implemented an 'arrow' drop in Instances, much like other weapons so we'd have different level of arrows, just not have to constantly purchase them.
• Twenty pet slots - w00t!  Five to carry around even better!
• If they'd let our pets level in BG's I'd be over the moon.  Why don't they get XP in BGs? Or just level with us?
• I'm still toying with spec's on the Hunter as I've never really developed a feel for Survival, but may give it a try just to do it.

Warlock:
I just dual spec'd from Affliction to Affl/Dem and have been playing Demo the past week or so in BG's.  OMG do I love it.  Death Knights and Warriors are much more manageable now - lol!

• Love my Felguard's axe toss
• No more Soul Shard bags and not using to summon demons, etc. YEAH!
• Soul Burn is pretty sweet

Shaman:
I've not played her much (about a level so far), but the changes don't seem overly dramatic.


Druid:
Taking away tree form was cruel.  Shortening it to an ability/spell unfair!  That and the new model I find hideous.  They don't want us to stand out in battlegrounds - make an ugly huge tree with a gaping mouth why not.  Definitely will keep people out of tree form!

The new graphic for Eclipse I know should be helpful, but I tend to spend more time looking at that and trying to maximize either Arcane or Nature damage, I know my DPS suffers.  Apparently a Solar Eclipse lasts a long time. He's been in one for days - no fighting just doing other stuff.


Death Knight:
I'll admit the runes thing I find a bit WTF?  I definitely need to spend time on my rotation and watch the runes.  Definitely tired of 'it's not ready yet', but I haven't spent much time on the DK, so definitely not in sync with if it's better or worse.

Rogues:

They seem to be even more OP in battlegrounds than ever before, but I can live with it, if they don't two shot me they're going down! LOL!  I know they're OP when my level 31 is high on damage and HK, that's not right, but I can live with that too!

Warriors:

Reading the changes to Rage, makes me want to try one again.  I've failed twice, getting to level 20-something then deleting in frustration.  Who knows.

I've respec'd and dual talented a couple of characters (the Shaman, Warlock, Hunter and Druid are now), half a level on the Pally and we'll try Holy/Ret.  I've somewhat enjoyed learning or relearning how to play each class.  I still haven't spent time on the Priest or Mage, but plan to squeeze them in this month.

Cataclysm is coming

Cataclysm is a little over a month away and the Pre-Orders are available at the various stores. Amazon, Gamestop, Newegg.com, Best buy, Walmart, etc., all have this expansion listed for sale at the standard $39.99.  This seems to be the best price point for new MMO's and relative to a movie out with snacks or a light meal pretty comparable!

Blizzard is offering a digital download which I'm finding very tempting, as the minute servers go live you can play.  No worries about software out of stock, not shipped, etc.  So that may be the route I'll go, but...

Then there is the Collector's Edition.  It's running $79 to upwards of $185 on different sites.  So, the question is do I really NEED the CE?  The soundtrack would be cool, and I do have some of the ToC cards. Lil Deathwing - very cute - the pet collector in me says want him.

Worth an extra $40?

I don't know.  Possible.  It's a want over a need most certainly.

I do consider that the price difference between the standard and CE is close to three months subscription of another MMO or a new game.  So, I guess I'll decide over the weekend.

WoW Heads of Sacramento

The WoW Meetup Group has been resurrected.  Now called the Wow Heads of Sacramento, they're having their first MeetUp, Friday night, October 29th.

If you're in the Greater Sacramento area, check it out - WoW Heads of Sacramento.

EQ2 Extended

I Alpha tested EQ2X (Extended) Sony's free to play (F2P) model, which was fun shop the Marketplace with an unlimited wallet of Station Cash (SC).  So, I bought a mount, appearance gear and ginormous bags - fun spending other people's money, even virtual money.

 
So, I jumped in the beta version, and have put a few hours in so far at the 'FREE' bronze membership level. I rolled a half elf Templar in New Halas, a class and zone I'm unfamiliar with so thought it would make it more of a 'new game' feel.  I will admit it's great seeing the lowbie zones full of people.  Having 7 to 14 instances open of New Halas, pretty cool!  Will this taper off in the coming weeks?  Good question.

The streaming seems to be quite good, as I've had very little stuttering or slowing of the game - watching the weird little dinosaur march is different.  I've even upped my graphics to maximum quality (see photo below), which is like playing in slow motion at any time, but what a gorgeous world!