Scott Jennings may think his new elite team of Bot-busters is cool and all that, but Blizzard has no problem selling your drug dealing arse out to the Po-po even if you jump country lines...
Bad boys, whatcha gonna do, when Blizz and Lum come for you?
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010
Is There A WoW Dungeons For Dummies Book Out There?
I commented recently about Tobold's latest comments about the future of PuG's and the Dungeon Finder.
Myd with her new dungeon gear!
I am on my way to my brand new dungeon gear set and boy are my arms tired. I am convinced that Dungeon Diving takes more out of you then PvP.
Most of my adventures have been okay. I have the occasional mishap or two with doing things I shouldn't because I have no idea what I am really doing in these dungeons sometimes. I have had a few interesting deaths as of late which I may share if not to entertain you, then to at least point out, that there are a few of us normal people out there that mess up and it's "okay".
First off, I just want to mention that I was in over 10 dungeons today at level 80 on random, and most of them I couldn't even tell you what or where they are. So, if I get some details wrong, sue me.
My first major death of the day was in I believe the Halls of Lightning. There are monsters on various platforms that you have to climb up or down to get to. We were in an area, cleared the first boss, or at least some "trash" and I realized that back down on the area below where we were, that I forgot some phat lewts. So I gingerly run on down there, pick up my lewt, and turn around to go back up the platform. When I got there, my homies weren't there. Instead there were more evil monsters happy to see a squishy clothy had come to visit them. Well, I was dead fairly quickly, but you will be happy to know the rest of the group was spared with the exception of the Hunter that followed me up the wrong platform.
Another fun experience I had this day was that I accidently started a quest in the Culling Of Stratholme dungeon. It didn't do anything, but I thought that since I was the last one through the area, my homies wanted me to get this thing rolling. Well, they were at a completely different boss, but we found out that if you do start this last boss quest accidently, then you will be given another chance to start it again.
My biggest failure today, which only cost me my life was when we were fighting some huge bug-like creatures, probably Anub-something, and I didn't step into the last room all of the way and got locked outside of it. Fortunately, my group did just fine without me, but I was a little embarrassed.
I also found out today that I was using Haunt level 2 and not Haunt level 4, thanks to some Annoying addon that broadcasts to the entire party that you are shooting the wrong level spells. Of course this was easily corrected, but I was again a little red in the face.
Overall, I had some great experiences with Dungeon Finder, although, I didn't get any new gear from any dungeons this time around. I did, however find out where to buy some nifty dungeon gear off the vendors in the Argent Tournament Grounds. Now, this should be interesting. I have bought a few items, and I have been replacing all of my PvP gear and putting this stuff on and I do notice a significant increase in spell casting speed and DPS. I plan to get a full set for PvE, and if you thought it couldn't get any better, you can buy the Furious Gladiator items right there for Triumph badges!
On a sad note, I have still not acquired Seethe! Okay, that's it for now... Gotta go see a man about a sword...
Myd with her new dungeon gear!I am on my way to my brand new dungeon gear set and boy are my arms tired. I am convinced that Dungeon Diving takes more out of you then PvP.
Most of my adventures have been okay. I have the occasional mishap or two with doing things I shouldn't because I have no idea what I am really doing in these dungeons sometimes. I have had a few interesting deaths as of late which I may share if not to entertain you, then to at least point out, that there are a few of us normal people out there that mess up and it's "okay".
First off, I just want to mention that I was in over 10 dungeons today at level 80 on random, and most of them I couldn't even tell you what or where they are. So, if I get some details wrong, sue me.
My first major death of the day was in I believe the Halls of Lightning. There are monsters on various platforms that you have to climb up or down to get to. We were in an area, cleared the first boss, or at least some "trash" and I realized that back down on the area below where we were, that I forgot some phat lewts. So I gingerly run on down there, pick up my lewt, and turn around to go back up the platform. When I got there, my homies weren't there. Instead there were more evil monsters happy to see a squishy clothy had come to visit them. Well, I was dead fairly quickly, but you will be happy to know the rest of the group was spared with the exception of the Hunter that followed me up the wrong platform.
Another fun experience I had this day was that I accidently started a quest in the Culling Of Stratholme dungeon. It didn't do anything, but I thought that since I was the last one through the area, my homies wanted me to get this thing rolling. Well, they were at a completely different boss, but we found out that if you do start this last boss quest accidently, then you will be given another chance to start it again.
My biggest failure today, which only cost me my life was when we were fighting some huge bug-like creatures, probably Anub-something, and I didn't step into the last room all of the way and got locked outside of it. Fortunately, my group did just fine without me, but I was a little embarrassed.
I also found out today that I was using Haunt level 2 and not Haunt level 4, thanks to some Annoying addon that broadcasts to the entire party that you are shooting the wrong level spells. Of course this was easily corrected, but I was again a little red in the face.
Overall, I had some great experiences with Dungeon Finder, although, I didn't get any new gear from any dungeons this time around. I did, however find out where to buy some nifty dungeon gear off the vendors in the Argent Tournament Grounds. Now, this should be interesting. I have bought a few items, and I have been replacing all of my PvP gear and putting this stuff on and I do notice a significant increase in spell casting speed and DPS. I plan to get a full set for PvE, and if you thought it couldn't get any better, you can buy the Furious Gladiator items right there for Triumph badges!
On a sad note, I have still not acquired Seethe! Okay, that's it for now... Gotta go see a man about a sword...
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
Satchel of Helpful Goods My Hiney...
I don't know why but maybe someone out there in this vast universe can tell me why this really cool part of the game sucks so very badly. The concept of offering goods for going into random dungeons with people from a huge subset of realms is awesome. The delivery of these goods has left me weighed, measured, and wanting.
What would be the difficulty in choosing an item that, A. You are not already wearing, and B. Something that is acutally "Helpful". How hard would it be to do a quick scan of what you have on, and possibly also scanning what talent spec you are to determine a possible item solution for you? I don't know, but it couldn't be much more difficult then randomly rolling for an item. At least this way you would know what you get can probably be used rather then having a huge amount of items you just have to throw to the vendors. Hey, if I already have everything, maybe some coin? It would save me a step.
The level 80 rewards aren't too bad because you get emblems. With those, you can buy whatever you want for your character and whatever spec you need. Maybe it is time to have some vendors with the lower choices of gear and give you emblems for those as well? Either way, something needs to change here. I am not the only one frustrated by the lack of unique items that they hand you.
I know, Blizz would probably say, "We give em free stuff and they still bitch..." And I would agree, but at least give us something we can use. You don't give a DK a mana potion and you definitely will never see a DK wearing anything with Spirit unless you make Spirit do something for your Runic Power.
I know there are only a few of us out there that care, but if you have any thoughts, please share them with me.
Oh, and P.S. Here is an Interview with that guy I mentioned a few days ago, Gordon Walton along with Rich Vogel, two of BV's favorites to interview from back in the day... Enjoy!
I Busted The Lich King Upside His Head...
And he killed me for it. Part two of why you don't mess with the LK...
**** This is loaded with spoilers, so if you don't want to know about the Fall of the Lich King instances, stop reading here ****
Okay so I mentioned before that you should not shoot the Lich King in the pre Lich King instances, because he really doesn't like it.
Well, not much has changed since the first time me and the LK went rounds outside of the Ice Throne. I don't have all of my experiences in quite perfect order yet, but I have gone through all of the new five man instances with My DK and would like to share my highlights with you.
To start off, there are wondering quest givers in Dalaran that will give you a quest to go in through this "back door" entrance to the LK's lair. Well, as luck would have it, once you get there, you will see the Banshee Queen or Lady Proudmore depending on which side you are on and they will promptly tell you that you should be able to get to the next part of the adventure on your own... What they don't mention is that this means to go on your own with four other people because the two skeleton goons at the front door will kick your head in like a pumpkin smashing on concrete.
After a few attempts at getting past the goons at the door, I decided to send in the pet and run past them. I was thinking maybe things would get better on the other side of that door. Ummmm, nope, they did not. I ran into a whole bunch of spell casters that pretty much ripped my limbs off and passed them back to me through a straw.
Take two, I grabbed my friend Huuna, we used the Dungeon finder to help us, help ourselves. We got a group, and headed through the first part of the dungeon. Now, just to be clear, the first time you go through these instances, you have to go on normal, and perform whatever quests they give you. As you progress to the Halls Of Reflection and turn in each quest, the heroic and regular versions will unlock.
We go prancing along in the Forge Of Souls, on our way to the Pit of Sauron. The most memorable part of this was that the first boss on this journey is the "Godfather of Souls"... The whole time we are trying to kill this guy named Bronjahm, which is some kind of play on James Brown, we can hear music playing in the background. James Brown music as a matter of fact. I had no idea what the music was at first, so I asked the group, and then we all laughed and they told me about an item he drops called "Papa's Brand New Bag", a 22 slot item container. A very cool part of the dungeon indeed, and once we finished him off, it was on to the next guy "Devourer of Souls"... Ohhh Scary stuff.
Actually, the second boss isn't too bad. I don't even remember anything special about him except he is extremely angry and talks way too much for a floating, two-faced head. The only thing I have found that I like about this guy is that he can drop a really cool sword that I can use on my warlock called Seethe. Once you finish this guy, you talk to the Banshee Queen again and turn in your two quests and move on to the next instance.
Now, the Pit of Sauron... This zone almost seems pointless because you don't clear it, but the bosses, I remember vaguely. The first boss, is a big giant that wants to throw Sauronite at you and is basically an overgrown Ogre, but looks like something else. I can't remember, maybe a Yetti or something. Once you clear this guy, you get to deal with a guy named Ick, that drops poison green pools under him, and the tank has to keep him moving around. The guy controlling Ick keeps throwing bubbles of exploding stuff at you to keep your damage high while trying to kill Ick. Not much of interest here, but then you learn that Frostmourne is all alone in the LK's chamber.
Okay, you can mount in the Pit instance, so it is a bit faster to get to the next section. You fight your way into the LK's chamber. All I remember here is that you have to run up a hill, kill about 15 bad guys, and then you hit this cave section which is kind of fun. You are constantly bombarded by falling ice from the top of the cave. If the tank is any good, they will aggro and pull several mobs at a time, only stopping in the middle and the end. Once you get through all of that, you get to face another boss that is really not much to mention, but the story line here gets interesting as you learn a little more about the LK's plans. There is a dragon rider at this point that sounds a lot like Tim Curry, and I thought that was funny.
You have to kill the dragon rider to move on. I don't remember what special attacks he does, but he tells the dragon to kill people the whole time. Once you kill the boss, the Horde guys come out and start talking about how we proved that even in the face of danger, yadda yadda... At the end of this instance, the dragon comes up and kills everyone except for your party because the Banshee Queen pulls you out at the last second. Then, off you go to the Halls Of Reflection. Now, I remember the Banshee Queen's voice reminded me of Rosie Perez. I am not sure if it is her or not, but the voice kept ringing "White Men Can't Jump" in my head, while listening to her long winded chatter with the LK.
Last but not least, we get to go into the LK's chamber and see Frostmourne there floating above a caulderon of skulls. The Banshee Queen tries to speak with the sword, and of course a good soul, Uther the Lightbringer, appears and tells her all of the reasons why we can't just kill the LK. If we did that, then the Scourge would destroy all of Azeroth, and the LK is really this guardian keeping them under controll. We would also have to put another LK in Arthas' in his place, and who could take on such a burden, etc... I am like "Oh, justification of Arthas' existence is unacceptable!"... So, the only way to kill the LK is to go to the Ice Throne. Okay, well we knew that was coming.
After a bit of talk, the LK walks in with his big self and starts to talk his usual Kurgan of The Highlander speak about how you are all going to die and be his slaves etc... Now, the cool part here is that the LK walks over to Frostmourne, his weapon, which is now a living entity, and reaches out to grasp the sword. The LK says that if you want to talk to the souls, you shall, and there is this great flash of light and souls start spinning all around, and Frostmourne goes to the LK's hand. The LK asks his minions to deal with us and bring our corpses to him when they are finished. The LK makes towards the door and the Banshee Queen runs after him yelling he won't get away that easily etc... I am thinking that chick is crazy, and we are left to deal with a couple rounds of souls and two bosses.
Now, on a side note here... I am not a big dungeon person, and I don't know if this is common, but some of these bosses say some pretty freaky stuff to you. One of them is kind of funny, because when someone dies, he says something about the look on your face when you died reminds him of someone, but the other guy... He says stuff like "Despair, so delicious" and then says "Fear, so exhilarating" or something, but it is just wierd to me. He repeats it throughout the whole battle. I get annoyed and want him to shut up, so I shoot faster. Anyways, once you get through these two guys and a whole bunch of attacks, you get to move on to the last part that I like to call the "Run Forest, Run!" ending...
You run down this hall, and you have to kill one more giant skeleton, and then you meet back up with the Banshee Queen sword fighting with the LK. Now, keep in mind, that usually someone needs to talk to the Banshee Queen or Lady Proudmore to get things going, or you will just be standing around watching them fight forever. So, you talk to the Banshee Queen and she continues talking major crap to the LK. He is calmly letting her know, he is not going to be as nice this time as he was last time etc... The group I was with couldn't decide if the Banshee Queen is actually a Night Elf, because she doesn't really look like a Blood Elf, and she is blue, so you go figure that one out.
Anyways, you get to start running away from the LK, as he walks in slow motion, and puts up barriers in front of your party. All the while, the Banshee Queen tries to break down the barriers and the LK throws a bunch of his minions your way that you must kill to get the barrier down. It is important that the DPS is high here, because if the LK slow walks himself to where you are, you die. So, our first experience here was painful as you can imagine. You can in fact aggro the DK into killing you as I did once again by tossing one too many Icy Touches his way. The group did not have a high enough DPS to kill the LK's minions before he caught us at the last barrier, thrust his sword into the ground killing the rest of the group instantly.
The next time through, like a day later, I went in and we made it past the last barrier. Once you do that, the Banshee Queen tells your party there is an opening up ahead, and to run for it. Unfortunately when you get there, it is a dead end. So, the Banshee Queen bears down and says this is where we die. So, everyone gets ready to die... LK strolls in, points his sword at the Banshee Queen lifting her off the ground. Just when you think its over, the gunship from Icecrown comes flying in and shoots down rocks in front of the LK, blocking him from your party, saving you from impending doom! They tell you to get on board the ship, but don't forget to turn in your last quest to the Banshee Queen or Lady Proudmore before you go. Once you do that, all of the instances are unlocked, and you are ready for prime time.
It was a fairly cool set of instances, with a nice progression of getting you to the end. Overall I enjoyed them enough to return a few more times. I am now working on getting my Warlock through the first time instances to get her in tune for getting some better gear.
We shall see how that goes in the future... I have been doing fairly well with my four alts that I frequently mention. The Druid is now 41, my Mage and Shammy are at 40, and the Pally is about 36. I am still having some issues getting the Pally's DPS up to par with the rest, but I still enjoy playing all of them. I have learned much about the games mechanics and have seen many dungeons I missed the first time around, so it has been some fun times.
Anyway, that's all I got for now. If you happen to be on my server, give me a /pst!
Laters.
**** This is loaded with spoilers, so if you don't want to know about the Fall of the Lich King instances, stop reading here ****
Okay so I mentioned before that you should not shoot the Lich King in the pre Lich King instances, because he really doesn't like it.
Well, not much has changed since the first time me and the LK went rounds outside of the Ice Throne. I don't have all of my experiences in quite perfect order yet, but I have gone through all of the new five man instances with My DK and would like to share my highlights with you.
To start off, there are wondering quest givers in Dalaran that will give you a quest to go in through this "back door" entrance to the LK's lair. Well, as luck would have it, once you get there, you will see the Banshee Queen or Lady Proudmore depending on which side you are on and they will promptly tell you that you should be able to get to the next part of the adventure on your own... What they don't mention is that this means to go on your own with four other people because the two skeleton goons at the front door will kick your head in like a pumpkin smashing on concrete.
After a few attempts at getting past the goons at the door, I decided to send in the pet and run past them. I was thinking maybe things would get better on the other side of that door. Ummmm, nope, they did not. I ran into a whole bunch of spell casters that pretty much ripped my limbs off and passed them back to me through a straw.
Take two, I grabbed my friend Huuna, we used the Dungeon finder to help us, help ourselves. We got a group, and headed through the first part of the dungeon. Now, just to be clear, the first time you go through these instances, you have to go on normal, and perform whatever quests they give you. As you progress to the Halls Of Reflection and turn in each quest, the heroic and regular versions will unlock.
We go prancing along in the Forge Of Souls, on our way to the Pit of Sauron. The most memorable part of this was that the first boss on this journey is the "Godfather of Souls"... The whole time we are trying to kill this guy named Bronjahm, which is some kind of play on James Brown, we can hear music playing in the background. James Brown music as a matter of fact. I had no idea what the music was at first, so I asked the group, and then we all laughed and they told me about an item he drops called "Papa's Brand New Bag", a 22 slot item container. A very cool part of the dungeon indeed, and once we finished him off, it was on to the next guy "Devourer of Souls"... Ohhh Scary stuff.
Actually, the second boss isn't too bad. I don't even remember anything special about him except he is extremely angry and talks way too much for a floating, two-faced head. The only thing I have found that I like about this guy is that he can drop a really cool sword that I can use on my warlock called Seethe. Once you finish this guy, you talk to the Banshee Queen again and turn in your two quests and move on to the next instance.
Now, the Pit of Sauron... This zone almost seems pointless because you don't clear it, but the bosses, I remember vaguely. The first boss, is a big giant that wants to throw Sauronite at you and is basically an overgrown Ogre, but looks like something else. I can't remember, maybe a Yetti or something. Once you clear this guy, you get to deal with a guy named Ick, that drops poison green pools under him, and the tank has to keep him moving around. The guy controlling Ick keeps throwing bubbles of exploding stuff at you to keep your damage high while trying to kill Ick. Not much of interest here, but then you learn that Frostmourne is all alone in the LK's chamber.
Okay, you can mount in the Pit instance, so it is a bit faster to get to the next section. You fight your way into the LK's chamber. All I remember here is that you have to run up a hill, kill about 15 bad guys, and then you hit this cave section which is kind of fun. You are constantly bombarded by falling ice from the top of the cave. If the tank is any good, they will aggro and pull several mobs at a time, only stopping in the middle and the end. Once you get through all of that, you get to face another boss that is really not much to mention, but the story line here gets interesting as you learn a little more about the LK's plans. There is a dragon rider at this point that sounds a lot like Tim Curry, and I thought that was funny.
You have to kill the dragon rider to move on. I don't remember what special attacks he does, but he tells the dragon to kill people the whole time. Once you kill the boss, the Horde guys come out and start talking about how we proved that even in the face of danger, yadda yadda... At the end of this instance, the dragon comes up and kills everyone except for your party because the Banshee Queen pulls you out at the last second. Then, off you go to the Halls Of Reflection. Now, I remember the Banshee Queen's voice reminded me of Rosie Perez. I am not sure if it is her or not, but the voice kept ringing "White Men Can't Jump" in my head, while listening to her long winded chatter with the LK.
Last but not least, we get to go into the LK's chamber and see Frostmourne there floating above a caulderon of skulls. The Banshee Queen tries to speak with the sword, and of course a good soul, Uther the Lightbringer, appears and tells her all of the reasons why we can't just kill the LK. If we did that, then the Scourge would destroy all of Azeroth, and the LK is really this guardian keeping them under controll. We would also have to put another LK in Arthas' in his place, and who could take on such a burden, etc... I am like "Oh, justification of Arthas' existence is unacceptable!"... So, the only way to kill the LK is to go to the Ice Throne. Okay, well we knew that was coming.After a bit of talk, the LK walks in with his big self and starts to talk his usual Kurgan of The Highlander speak about how you are all going to die and be his slaves etc... Now, the cool part here is that the LK walks over to Frostmourne, his weapon, which is now a living entity, and reaches out to grasp the sword. The LK says that if you want to talk to the souls, you shall, and there is this great flash of light and souls start spinning all around, and Frostmourne goes to the LK's hand. The LK asks his minions to deal with us and bring our corpses to him when they are finished. The LK makes towards the door and the Banshee Queen runs after him yelling he won't get away that easily etc... I am thinking that chick is crazy, and we are left to deal with a couple rounds of souls and two bosses.
Now, on a side note here... I am not a big dungeon person, and I don't know if this is common, but some of these bosses say some pretty freaky stuff to you. One of them is kind of funny, because when someone dies, he says something about the look on your face when you died reminds him of someone, but the other guy... He says stuff like "Despair, so delicious" and then says "Fear, so exhilarating" or something, but it is just wierd to me. He repeats it throughout the whole battle. I get annoyed and want him to shut up, so I shoot faster. Anyways, once you get through these two guys and a whole bunch of attacks, you get to move on to the last part that I like to call the "Run Forest, Run!" ending...
You run down this hall, and you have to kill one more giant skeleton, and then you meet back up with the Banshee Queen sword fighting with the LK. Now, keep in mind, that usually someone needs to talk to the Banshee Queen or Lady Proudmore to get things going, or you will just be standing around watching them fight forever. So, you talk to the Banshee Queen and she continues talking major crap to the LK. He is calmly letting her know, he is not going to be as nice this time as he was last time etc... The group I was with couldn't decide if the Banshee Queen is actually a Night Elf, because she doesn't really look like a Blood Elf, and she is blue, so you go figure that one out.
Anyways, you get to start running away from the LK, as he walks in slow motion, and puts up barriers in front of your party. All the while, the Banshee Queen tries to break down the barriers and the LK throws a bunch of his minions your way that you must kill to get the barrier down. It is important that the DPS is high here, because if the LK slow walks himself to where you are, you die. So, our first experience here was painful as you can imagine. You can in fact aggro the DK into killing you as I did once again by tossing one too many Icy Touches his way. The group did not have a high enough DPS to kill the LK's minions before he caught us at the last barrier, thrust his sword into the ground killing the rest of the group instantly.
The next time through, like a day later, I went in and we made it past the last barrier. Once you do that, the Banshee Queen tells your party there is an opening up ahead, and to run for it. Unfortunately when you get there, it is a dead end. So, the Banshee Queen bears down and says this is where we die. So, everyone gets ready to die... LK strolls in, points his sword at the Banshee Queen lifting her off the ground. Just when you think its over, the gunship from Icecrown comes flying in and shoots down rocks in front of the LK, blocking him from your party, saving you from impending doom! They tell you to get on board the ship, but don't forget to turn in your last quest to the Banshee Queen or Lady Proudmore before you go. Once you do that, all of the instances are unlocked, and you are ready for prime time.
It was a fairly cool set of instances, with a nice progression of getting you to the end. Overall I enjoyed them enough to return a few more times. I am now working on getting my Warlock through the first time instances to get her in tune for getting some better gear.
We shall see how that goes in the future... I have been doing fairly well with my four alts that I frequently mention. The Druid is now 41, my Mage and Shammy are at 40, and the Pally is about 36. I am still having some issues getting the Pally's DPS up to par with the rest, but I still enjoy playing all of them. I have learned much about the games mechanics and have seen many dungeons I missed the first time around, so it has been some fun times.
Anyway, that's all I got for now. If you happen to be on my server, give me a /pst!
Laters.
Take Two On Moon Guard... Still fun!
Well, I want to talk about my Lich King adventures, but first, I just wanted to comment about Tobold's latest post... "Twinking through Burning Crusade"
Anyway, I mentioned that I have a friend that plays Moon Guard, and I just love it there when I have nothing better to do with all of my new toons... Okay I am really pretty busy, but I just wanted to check out some of the level 60 fungeons...
So, I started again with the dungeon finder, only to realize that again, the DK is always getting stuff they just don't need. The first item the bag of useful goods gave me was a necklace with a bunch of Spirit... After blinking several times and trying to figure how this may be useful and asking the other three DK's in my dungeon group what they thought, I sold it. One DK pointed out that it was useful for selling, and even though I wanted to punch him in his eye for being sarcastic, he was in fact correct.
While I was in the dungeons, and doing quests in between, I noticed that the other items I received from the bag of useful goods were way below the standard drop in those dungeons. I picked up some gloves and boots with great stats and gem slots in the dungeons. I was shuttled back and forth between the Hellfire Ramparts, and the Hellfire Blood Furnace. I also finally picked up the Hellreaver, which is something I have wanted forever. Three people "need" rolled on this item, and I was the lucky one this day. The bag of useful goodies, kept throwing me this pair of plate gloves that were like 112 less armor and had nothing of interest to me. I must have received five pair of these junky plate wonders, and I don't see why they can't go one step further and try and at least give me something different, AND useful once in awhile.
In any event. I finally recieved some good gear for that character from doing both quests and dungeons. The only real issue I had with my experience this time on old Moon Guard was that the wait times for a group are significantly higher for the Emberstorm battlegroup. I am not sure if this is the fact that Stormstrike has more PvP servers with starving PvE'er running about or maybe Emberstorm is just so busy that it takes time to service all of the dungeon divers.
I still had some really good fun with those guys, and really love to visit there. Okay, so I promise, it's now going to be story time... Me and the LK get busy!
Saturday, December 12, 2009
The Lich King Is Like An Evil Santa Clause...
I noticed that in the pre Fall Of The Lich King content, ole Arthas is a bit overweight. So, without spoiling too much, I will say that I enjoyed playing the 3 new 5 man instances in Icecrown. There is so much funny stuff too, and I swear most of the voices they used are like real actors. I recognize the voices, but I just can't put names to them.
I pugged a normal level instance just to get a feel for what is going on. Plus, the heroic people are always in a huge hurry and I wanted to enjoy the experience the first time around. I did enjoy it. These are probably the best put together instances I have seen to date. It is a little wordy in some areas, but I think Blizz did a more then fair job of making you feel like there is a story line and you are a major part of getting things done to help out the Crusaders. I've actually done the 2nd and 3rd parts twice. The second time I really started to understand what is happening.
The PUG's have been pretty good to me with a few exceptions of people just going in for a specific item and then leaving or doing another quest and then leaving. Sometimes just leaving because of a wipe, or whatever, but overall, my experience with the instances have been wonderful.
Once you get a good group you can stay with them and do whatever you want, so that is very helpful. You can vote people off the island if you don't want them in there as well. A lot of really good options and things that make this tool a "must have".
I am mostly doing instances with my lower level toons. I used to be a firm believer in doing the quests to level, but since the dungeon finder came out, I am a firm believer in running those random dungeons till my lips fall off. I leveled my mage from 34 to 38 in two days. And in two days, I am talking only about a handfull, maybe 5 or 6 runs in random dungeons. Mostly I ran the Monestary with different groups and today I hit Uldaman.
Some people say they are having troubles and waiting for groups for long periods of time, but I have had just the opposite effect. I have been getting groups that I would never have been patient enough to wait for with the old Looking For Group tool. The LFG tool would let you see things, but the dungeon finder actually lets you set it up graphically and walk away. When they are ready for you, a box pops up and lets you know it's time to go. Not only that, when you are done, you are returned where you were before you left. So, you can hang out in a city in the old lands where the lag is less and still have some fun.
BG's have been hit pretty hard at least so far. Getting in a BG is a huge wait now, and if you do get in, the people that are in the BG's have no clue what they are doing there. It is a farm fest which I hate more then anything in BG's. I still think they need to drop honor for killing other people and just give it to those that make things happen and help actually win the game. I also think they are going to need to do some serious rethinking on the rewards for BG's. As it is now, "fungeons" are the only way to go for loot and experience. The rewards are too high for dungeons and too low for BG's. So, BG's will suffer as a result.
I also believe that questing will take a huge hit. I mean the time involved vs. experience gained sucks anyway. You hardly ever get good loot, so why do it? They need to make all of the systems worth while to players if they want people to choose the path that is best for them. We will always choose the easiest and best way, so why not make them all equal so we can have a choice of easy and great ways to get what we want?
Wintergrasp has also taken a slight hit, and they made some changes that I am not quite able to figure out yet. I know that now the WG lasts longer, and defending on the Hordie side is actually possible now. My server is mostly Alliance, so it is wierd to see Horde defend when they are out-manned. It's interesting that this great change to the game (dungeon finder) is taking such a toll on other great systems. Like I said before, they are going to have to balance the options to make this all work out right.
I will have some stories soon. I just don't want to spoil too much right now. The LK and I have had some fun together, and I'll tell ya all about it next time.
Laters.
I pugged a normal level instance just to get a feel for what is going on. Plus, the heroic people are always in a huge hurry and I wanted to enjoy the experience the first time around. I did enjoy it. These are probably the best put together instances I have seen to date. It is a little wordy in some areas, but I think Blizz did a more then fair job of making you feel like there is a story line and you are a major part of getting things done to help out the Crusaders. I've actually done the 2nd and 3rd parts twice. The second time I really started to understand what is happening.
The PUG's have been pretty good to me with a few exceptions of people just going in for a specific item and then leaving or doing another quest and then leaving. Sometimes just leaving because of a wipe, or whatever, but overall, my experience with the instances have been wonderful.
Once you get a good group you can stay with them and do whatever you want, so that is very helpful. You can vote people off the island if you don't want them in there as well. A lot of really good options and things that make this tool a "must have".
I am mostly doing instances with my lower level toons. I used to be a firm believer in doing the quests to level, but since the dungeon finder came out, I am a firm believer in running those random dungeons till my lips fall off. I leveled my mage from 34 to 38 in two days. And in two days, I am talking only about a handfull, maybe 5 or 6 runs in random dungeons. Mostly I ran the Monestary with different groups and today I hit Uldaman.
Some people say they are having troubles and waiting for groups for long periods of time, but I have had just the opposite effect. I have been getting groups that I would never have been patient enough to wait for with the old Looking For Group tool. The LFG tool would let you see things, but the dungeon finder actually lets you set it up graphically and walk away. When they are ready for you, a box pops up and lets you know it's time to go. Not only that, when you are done, you are returned where you were before you left. So, you can hang out in a city in the old lands where the lag is less and still have some fun.
BG's have been hit pretty hard at least so far. Getting in a BG is a huge wait now, and if you do get in, the people that are in the BG's have no clue what they are doing there. It is a farm fest which I hate more then anything in BG's. I still think they need to drop honor for killing other people and just give it to those that make things happen and help actually win the game. I also think they are going to need to do some serious rethinking on the rewards for BG's. As it is now, "fungeons" are the only way to go for loot and experience. The rewards are too high for dungeons and too low for BG's. So, BG's will suffer as a result.
I also believe that questing will take a huge hit. I mean the time involved vs. experience gained sucks anyway. You hardly ever get good loot, so why do it? They need to make all of the systems worth while to players if they want people to choose the path that is best for them. We will always choose the easiest and best way, so why not make them all equal so we can have a choice of easy and great ways to get what we want?
Wintergrasp has also taken a slight hit, and they made some changes that I am not quite able to figure out yet. I know that now the WG lasts longer, and defending on the Hordie side is actually possible now. My server is mostly Alliance, so it is wierd to see Horde defend when they are out-manned. It's interesting that this great change to the game (dungeon finder) is taking such a toll on other great systems. Like I said before, they are going to have to balance the options to make this all work out right.
I will have some stories soon. I just don't want to spoil too much right now. The LK and I have had some fun together, and I'll tell ya all about it next time.
Laters.
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