Wrath of the Lich King

[Gfted1]

The new patch rocks. With the talent respec it seems like my mage kicks even more ass now but Ive only done some PvP so Ill reserve final judgement until Ive got some PvE under my belt. The pet tab is a godsend. I freed up 9 spaces in the bank and 2 on my person, which is huge for me as Im always pinched for bag space due to extreme packratitis. The new currency tab is nice, also freed up several bag slots. I only noticed one new piece of mage PvP gear, a new back item, so I snagged it. I thought there would be a lot more. The achievements are a cool little diversion. A real highlight IMO is the new Glyph system, I think that was a great idea. Already chose two majors but cant find any minors worth scribing into my book as of yet.

[alanschu]

Need to learn new strats for PvP now haha

I like the new energy regeneration scheme though. No more ticks.

[Aristes]

I have to say that I prefer the PvP in W:AR. That's probably because there's none of this "we're not really enemies but we kill each other and do petty things like grief the NPCs on Sentinel Hill all day." I'm in an RvR (full PvP) server, and there is no doubt that you will kill the enemy when you see them. The PvE, as it seems to me, is entirely secondary in W:AR.

 

I like a lot of the new stuff in the latest patch. In particular, they made it a lot easier on a warrior to AoE tank. Still doesn't compare to a Pally, but the new tricks help a lot. If you could do it before, you're better at it now. If you sucked before, you have a good chance now. Hell, if anything it makes it far too easy. No more having to really think/create macros to manage a high threat party.

Edited October 17, 2008 by Aristes

[Gfted1]

Need to learn new strats for PvP now haha

 

Same here. Between the new spells, a talent that causes an insta-proc of my Flamestike and having moved a few icons around I catch myself occasionally fumbling for a button when the action gets heavy.

[alanschu]

I have some sort of "dismantle" which like removes weapons/shields/equipment or something...

[Gfted1]

Heh, that gives me a mental image of you popping the talent, the sound of an air ratchet, then all the plate armor falling off a pally into a heap. I noticed a new perk under my character tab called "Toughness" which is a +300hp bonus due to "hard labor in mining has granted you 300 hp", lol. Might have always been there but I just noticed it. They also seem to have nerfed shadow resistance, a passive ability for undead. It use to grant 10% base resistance to shadow magic but now its 2% base.

[alanschu]

Nah the collection professions all have special perks to them now. Herbalists can heal themselves somehow (based on what roommate said), and my skinning gives me a modest +15 to crit rating.

[Aristes]

You get up to 5 ranks (at 375) for your gathering skills. They're not game breakers by any stretch, but pretty good. Extra hit points for being tough as you progress in mining. A not so bad ability to heal yourself by absorbing energy from the earth as you progress through herbalism. Finally, like alan said, critical strike rating as you progress through skinning.

 

Personally, I think the crit strike rating is the weakest ability, but all of them are good. I especially like the healing power that comes from herbalism. It has a 3 minute cooldown, which sucks, and it's only 1200 hit point. However, it is free. After all, I'm an herbalist anyhow. It's not like I had to waste a talent or anything to get it. I'm getting the ability gratis. It also doesn't cost mana. Finally it's an instant cast ability. So, for my healer, who happens to be my herbalist, I have an ability that I can use mana free that won't cost precious time just in case I have to heal myself while I'm trying to keep the tank on his feet. Will it come into play often? I doubt it, but I've already used it to save my sorry butt once.

[alanschu]

I agree the crit strike rating one is the weakest. However, I also think that skinning is the easiest to level up.

[Aristes]

Hey, at 70, that should be edging up on 1% for 15 cs rating. That's not bad at all. ...And the healing ability and extra health wouldn't help, say, a hunter as much as that crit %. I wonder which class is mostly likely to see the benefits of skinning. I think it's a fabulous ability, not because it's so powerful, but because it's free. Skinners get extra crit. If you think about who will use the ability the most, warriors and pally's are probably the best candidate for end level blacksmithing, and I don't think a few extra hundred hit points they get from mining adds as much as a percentage of their health as 15 crit strike does as a percentage of a hunter or shammy's crit %. I'm not much of a number cruncher, though, so I'm not sure. I can say that even for my warrior, I don't turn my nose at even a couple hundred free health. Hell, I'm not going to complain about 50 extra health. ...And the healer won't mind it either.

 

You know who really gets screwed by this? Folks who designate their scrub 70 to gather, like I do. haha My scrub just got two decent free buffs. Maybe I'll play him for a while. lol Seriously, though, I think it's a great move. Really good ideas in this patch. I can't think of one off hand I hate so far.

[kirottu]

Need to learn new strats for PvP now haha

 

Same here. Between the new spells, a talent that causes an insta-proc of my Flamestike and having moved a few icons around I catch myself occasionally fumbling for a button when the action gets heavy.

 

My first fight being full arcane was against prot warrior. I lost. I don

[julianw]

Well, I haven't touched Wow for a while but here is my hawt blood elven maiden: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.x...&n=Evoldoer.

 

Still not sure if I want to get the expansion. Has Wow become almost a brand new game or simply more of the same?

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Endgame is such a hassle for me.

 

I played WoW for the discovery. And when I explored all the territories and made pretty much all the classes/races I just gave up.

 

EDIT: That means no WotLK.

Edited October 21, 2008 by WILL THE ALMIGHTY

[Hurlshort]

Endgame is such a hassle for me.

 

I played WoW for the discovery. And when I explored all the territories and made pretty much all the classes/races I just gave up.

 

EDIT: That means no WotLK.

 

That was pretty much my experience. Exploring the world was fantastic, but nothing about the later levels appealed to me. I'm not a big fan of the grind of MMO's, and WoW was great at masking it until about level 45.

 

I've heard they sped levelling up after the first expansion, so maybe it's less of a grind now. But the gear grind still sounds pretty crazy.

[Mamoulian War]

Endgame is such a hassle for me.

 

I played WoW for the discovery. And when I explored all the territories and made pretty much all the classes/races I just gave up.

 

EDIT: That means no WotLK.

 

That was pretty much my experience. Exploring the world was fantastic, but nothing about the later levels appealed to me. I'm not a big fan of the grind of MMO's, and WoW was great at masking it until about level 45.

 

I've heard they sped levelling up after the first expansion, so maybe it's less of a grind now. But the gear grind still sounds pretty crazy.

 

compared to other mmo's, it's realy minimal grinding atm... if you think wow is grind, never ever touch lineage 2 or final fantasy XI

[Calax]

Endgame is such a hassle for me.

 

I played WoW for the discovery. And when I explored all the territories and made pretty much all the classes/races I just gave up.

 

EDIT: That means no WotLK.

 

That was pretty much my experience. Exploring the world was fantastic, but nothing about the later levels appealed to me. I'm not a big fan of the grind of MMO's, and WoW was great at masking it until about level 45.

 

I've heard they sped levelling up after the first expansion, so maybe it's less of a grind now. But the gear grind still sounds pretty crazy.

they reduced the XP requirements from 1-60 by 33% after BC hit. Also they've changed the Classes radically and reduced boss life by somthing like 30% for end game bosses. the killing speed and power of the classes is now MUCH higher than anything previously.

 

the biggest grind I've found in WoW is the grind to get your trade skills up, and the grind to get EPIX! for your character. the latter is easier for me to deal with because usually you have a pack of allies along with you that change the scenery and generally make it funner, while the tradeskills is just roaming around finding material then taking said material and turning it into somthing else for a minor skill upgrade, it's bothersome.

[Aristes]

I seriously have a hard time believing you have any difficulty with tradeskills at this point, Calax. Just buy everything. Getting a good set of epic gear does suck. However, I think the latest patch made it much easier for the casual folks in my guild to succeed with blues/low scoring epics. One thing I can say is, take a look at the Direbrew battle as compared to the (haha) headless horseman battle. I 'm telling you, Direbrew could be tough with my guild. Not enough dps, not enough bonus healing. Tanking is easier, healing is easier, and the baddies don't take as much damage. Still, it's a lot of fun and all the changes really did is make it easier for folks to progress different story-lines.

 

I don't think getting to 70 was really all that much of a grind. I agree with Calax and Hurl that gearing up is a terrible grind.

 

There are some really neat things about the new patch. Inscriptions, it turns out, are quite good. With three major and three minor inscriptions available at 80, along with some of the really great inscriptions available, folks who choose the insriptionist tradeskill will have a lot of work and might actually make some coin for themselves. Achievements are kind of gimmicky, but I've enjoyed achievements (or badges or whatever the latest iteration is) since I started with City of Heroes. The dock in Stormwind is really neat. I like that and it's about damned time they made it easier for Night Elves to reach the Eastern Kingdom capitols. Along with the talent trees and buffed out characters, I don't see that leveling is going to be that much of a grind at this point. Sure, there are going to be some levels that are more entertaining than others, but nothing that bad, especially if you have a group of folks to help you.

 

WoW has moved up to second on my current favorite list for MMORPGs. Warhammer is way too buggy and is too sparse for my tastes. It's lacking in PvE but not populated enough for PvP. I'm in a straight PvP sever and I desperately want to kill more Destruction players, but I have not been able to get into an RvR scenario in less than a half hour, ever, and I have to choose between progressing as a character or going way the hell out of my way to get to the Dark Elf lands in order to fight folks. I like the PvP. I enjoy the battlegrounds immensely. At the end of the day, though, the PvP doesn't make the other nonsense worth it.

Edited October 21, 2008 by Aristes

[Gfted1]

One thing I can say is, take a look at the Direbrew battle as compared to the (haha) headless horseman battle. I 'm telling you, Direbrew could be tough with my guild. Not enough dps, not enough bonus healing.

 

 

Is the Direbrew battle youre referring to the boss fight one in BRD that you take the mole machine to get to or another? Im assuming the latter as any 5-man PUG can take out the boss (Im hoping you know of another Direbrew fight I may have missed).

 

I really like the achievments now. Just last night I got "Damage Control" for causing at least 300,000 damage in a single BG. One of my favorite new tricks since they gave Blastwave a knockback is during an AV battle, when all the alliance group up on the bridge in front of their castle, is to run into a pile of them, fire off Blastwave and watch them all sail over the ledge to a big drop. Man, do I love being a mage.

[Aristes]

Nope. That Direbrew battle with the mole king. I know, I know. A lot of folks did it with level 5 characters all in grey gear, but it was pretty tough for my guildies to do at level 70 with green gear. By the way, I did do it and beat him consistantly with my guild. However, the main point is that, while Direbrew could be a tough fight for my guildmembers in their sucky gear, the headless horseman fight is easy as cake.

 

I could beat Direbrew with a PuG easier than with many of my guildies. ...But I suppose mentioning that might have come off as idle boasting when my main point revolved around how much easier the game is now.

[Gfted1]

You ever go there with someone that has the remote? In the next room there is a band set up and if the remote holder talks to the goblin roady the band will come out and play some pretty rocking tune! Its pretty funny.

 

Upon further review, I can see where that would be a tough fight if the players are undergeared or unfamiliar with the battle. The first few times I went we would lose on average one of the five times you can fight him. The secret is to take out the adds that burrow up, they make a beeline for the healer if you dont.

[Aristes]

That's pretty much what happend to us. The real problem was that our best dpser is also our best tank, which meant that we lost a lot of dps in order to tank. ...But my guildies do stupid things. I get so frustrated sometimes, you wouldn't believe it.

 

We must have done that battle 30 times... and I can't get out of doing it because they wouldn't even go with out me. In all those times, that damned remote didn't drop once for me. Not once. The headless horseman? I think we've already done it 30 times and we've already had the blade, the plate helm, the vanity helm and pet, and the broom drop. I think there's only a cloth wearers helm now. Unless the vanity helm counts as a cloth helm. My wife has already gotten the achievement for getting the two vanity items.

 

Here's another thing I hate. My guildies can't figure out the damned need/greed thing. I hate it. Seriously, dude, I'm going out of my mind. We're talking a chemist and the Director of a library and Retired Seargent from the police force and a damned exec for a mail order company. ARGHGHGHH How hard is it to understand need/greed? So, I have to put myself on master looter all of the time. I always get whatever novelty drops last because I need to super careful to be fair.

[Gfted1]

Ive seen the remote drop twice but Ive never won the roll. What I really want to see is the Headless Horseman's mount. Between last year and this year Ive probably killed him 50-60 times and never once has it dropped.

 

Talk about idiots, I was in a HH PuG two night ago where a 66 shaman came along. The mage ring drops and he "need" rolls it. Too bad he cant use it for four levels when he meets the rings requirement of level 70. That would have really pissed me off if I didnt already have it.

Edited October 21, 2008 by Gfted1

[Aristes]

My guild's problem is that some folks don't want to appear greedy while other folks understand that hitting greed is not greedy. SO, a piece of cloth armor will drop. The Warlock, who KNOWS that she is the only person who can use the cloth armor hits greed soas not to appear greedy. Well, two folks pass because they don't give a crap but two others hit greed because that's what I tell them they should do. So, the warlock doesn't get the cloth item, the hunter does. Now, it's true that I could be angry because my guildies need crap all the time, which they don't. ...But it's almost as bad for people who desperately need the gear (and whom the guild has a stake in seeing get good gear) lose out on stuff because they're afraid of the accusation of "greedy." Even worse, a few people have gotten pissed off and refuse to go anywhere because of some mistakes where one of our members (the library director no less) has accidently hit need because he couldn't get it through his head that NEED means you're saying you NEED it. So, he's gotten epic wands. Now, because we all know each other in real life, there are some folks who refuse to do any instances without a master looter. haha It's like your virtual crime thread, man! It's politics in the WoW guild! hahahaha

Edited October 21, 2008 by Aristes

[Gfted1]

Huh, I thought it was common knowledge that BoE (bind on equip) = greed, BoP (bind on pickup) = pass and roll, and Need better damn well mean you NEED it, lol.

[Aristes]

Hell, like I can get them to understand about BoP items. I mean, they understand the idea in theory, but they don't read it. I still, STILL have folks tell me that they'll trade an item that drops off a boss.

 

On the other hand, we really are a guild that's in it together. Unlike you guys, I think I've had three deaths since the patch and quite a number of honorable kills. I won't count defending Velen, since that was a big group effort, but the folks I smote in Southshore were at no disadvantage. Turns out sometimes the horde buys into it's own hype. I like being a hype killer. Of course, I'll turn forty before long, my reflexes will go down hill, and then some rat bastard teenager will start pwning me. Oh well, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Unlike real life, characters don't end up in the hospital. What I really like is that going into an instance turns off flagged status now.

 

That's why I like PvP realms. Not because I like PvP, but it simply cuts out the bullcrap. You go into a new area, you're fair game. Either you can put paid to the other guy, or you avoid him. None of this being mindlessly griefed. They are out to get you and you either run or get them first. My guild would have quit playing in a PvP realm already. That's what I liked about Warhammer. On that RvR server, there was no doubt. Go find someone to kill. I would like to play more Warhammer, but it just doesn't work. With all the good ideas, it crashes or hangs on me constantly and I just don't want to waste the time or money on a product that I can't use. Not only that, but waiting for a scenario (battleground) or searching for Destruction players turned out to be a chore. The wait on scenarios is horrible.

 

Here's something odd, Order was always winning whereever I played. I figured it would be different. Maybe because I only played High Elves (I'm sure you could guess), but Destruction lost five of the six scenarios I played and the lands were often under Order control or contested and virtually never under Destruction control.