My WoW Concerns

Pardon me if this post seems more disjointed or chaotic than my ramblings usually are.  I am only on my second cup of coffee, am functioning on about 4 hours of sleep, and I had my finger broken in an incredibly complex handshake with Reala.   Also, there is the added distraction of hoping my new camera is delivered today, so I am camping my mailbox like Jadefang’s spawn point.

Also, a disclaimer;  this is NOT a rant.  I am not rattling my saber, shaking my fist at Blizzard, and demanding my pony from Ghostcrawler.  This is just an airing of concerns, most of which have been stated by others much more eloquently than I could ever hope.  So please, put down the pitchforks and torches.

My cause for concern centers around hotfixes and the impending 4.1 patch.  Keep in mind, I am entirely casual, unabashedly an alt-oholic, and completely of the understanding that what is on the PTR may never see the light of day on live realms.

My first concern is Blizzard’s latest trend with hotfixes.  Granted, my play time as of late has been incredibly limited due to Mardi Gras and Saint Patrick’s Day, (which we call down here in the French Quarter “Amateur Night.”) I like the concept of being able to fix what needs to be fixed on the fly, but a few weeks ago there were hotfixes for hotfixes that had previously fixed something that was hotfixed.  When you have to use the “Oh Shit” button to fix something that happened the last time you used the “Oh Shit” button, I think that is indicative of a potential design philosophy problem.  Yes, I know a Blue poster ( I can’t remember who it was, and looking it up on a Blue Tracker will distract me from spawn-camping the Mailman,) said that this was addressed, but the potential is still there.  In my opinion, I think hotfixes should only be used to fix something that is broken.  Like the cogwheel bug on the Headless Horseman event, a bugged quest or raid mechanic, or a class ability just plain old not working.  Things like class balance issues or damage output passes should be patched, with a PTR testing cycle and a good look at the data to prevent giant swings in class abilities.  While I understand there are a great many raiders and PVP’ers out there, there are even more who won’t see the inside of a raid or an arena, and I have never been a big fan of improving the lot of the few at the expense of the many.  I would like to see them put “Hotfix” on a cooldown.   Or possibly have to get a signed permission slip from Ghostcrawler before they can put a hotfix in effect.  Maybe a ready check type of mechanic?  I am just throwing out ideas here.

And now, patch 4.1. Or what we know of it anyhow.  I haven’t pored over the various iterations of patch notes, as I said, a little busy here.  But one thing I did see caused quite a knee-jerk reaction in me.  ”Shield Bash is being removed from game.”  I’m sorry, what?  One of my highest level alts is a warrior, and I love me some shield bash.  I understand that it is being removed to balance around PVP, which I have opinions on that I won’t go into on this post, but really?  This is one of those things that kinda defined prot warriors for me.  Am I gnashing my teeth and pulling my hair out over this?  No.  But I am looking at it whilst arching my eyebrow and scratching my head.  I know they had a lot on their plate with the redesigning of the world and all, but I thought that the class overhaul happened with the redesigned talent trees.  I totally understand having to relearn your class a little each expansion, but these mid-expansion revamps seem a little much for me.  I want to spend more time playing, and less time relearning my class.  Maybe I am just waxing nostalgic, or getting old and grumpy and resisting change.  I accept change, believe me.  That doesn’t mean I won’t huff about it a bit.

In the end, none of this will have me running from WoW, screaming at the top of my lungs for Blizzard’s collective heads on pikes,  or Trion to not be in Azeroth anymore (see what I did there?)  I still love me some WoW, these are just things that float around in the space where my brain sometimes resides.

Opinions?  Flame wars?  Requests for posts of kitties and puppies being cute?

Happy Gaming!

Oz

Chronologically Challenged; Day 7, why I am the Wowgeek.

Ahh, day 7 of Saga’s WoW blogging challenge.  It seems as though I only just completed day 6…

As long as I can remember, I have identified myself as a geek.  I wear the title like a badge of honor.  I recall one day in middle school being verbally accosted by some would-be bully, who called me a nerd.  I corrected him, and told him I most certainly wasn’t a nerd, but was proud to be a geek.  That seemed to take all of the wind out of his sails, and I found my latent super-power.  My first encounter with geekdom was seeing Star Wars at the tender age of 6 in the theaters.  This was the real one, you know, fat lasers and Han shooting first.  I was done for from that day on.

I have many geek hats.  My first, and still one of my favorites, despite everything George Lucas did to absolutely kill the franchise, was Star Wars.  I was so over the moon with the original trilogy that to this day, many of my friends automatically associate anything Star Wars with me.  I got so many texts after the Star Wars kid Volkswagon commercial during this year’s superbowl I thought my phone was going to explode.  An old band mate of mine had the Imperial March on his phone as my ringer.  And I am waiting on the Bioware Star Wars MMO much like a fat kid would press their face up against a bakery window in anticipation of some icing-laden baked goodie.

There are  many other things I geek about, from music, food, and technology in general.  But closest to Star Wars in my heart, there is WoW.  I love this game in all its aspects.  The lore is captivating, the game-play still continues to innovate, and the friends I have met both in and out of Azeroth through this incredible world, all of these make WoW special to me.

When I “geek” about something, it means that I enjoy it so much that I consider it to be a part of me, a facet of who I am, and what I stand for.  I have gotten a great deal of pleasure out of this world, both in game and out.  And when I enjoy something this much, I tend to want to share it with anyone else who will listen.  And that, my friends, is why I give you the rantings of a WoW geek.

 

Happy Gaming!

 

Oz

Saga’s Challenge, Day 5; My favorite item in-game.

Before heading back into the fray,  I would first like to apologize for the long period between posts.  As I stated in my last update, Mardi Gras was upon me and, as Illidan told me so many years ago, I was NOT prepared.  But, the old batteries are recharged, and I have even caught up on a little WoW.  Time to get back to the challenge.

This is a tough one for me, because I honestly don’t have anything in-game I am that attached to.  My characters?  Heck yeah, I even have some toons on servers I haven’t signed into in years that I just couldn’t bring myself to delete.  But as for their inventories, I just don’t have any attachments like that.  I have lots of pets on lots of toons, but I couldn’t pick one as my favorite.  Honestly, I seldom remember to summon the little guys.  Except Li’l Rag.  I summon him all the time, but that is just for cooking.

Mounts?  If I had to pick one it would be the Green Proto-drake from the Oracle Egg, but I have that on one of my semi-retired alliance characters, so I never even really see that.  I am not attached enough to log in just to fly around on him.

The only thing I can even feel like I come close to considering a favorite in-game “item” would be the title.  Halloween has always been my favorite time of year, and I have endeavored to earn that title on every toon I have that is eligible.    I do have a few that are missing it, but most of my “Main” characters have that, and I consider it my default title.

Come to think of it, I have never gotten the Horseman’s Helm.  THAT would definitely be my favorite item ever, provided it dropped for one of my plate wearers.  Knowing my luck, I will get it on my druid or rogue this year.  I have coveted that for many, many years, and have never won the roll the few times I have seen it drop.  I know they changed the mechanics so that you get a loot bag with a chance at finding it in your inventory, but I remember seeing it pop three times in the loot screen.  Two of those times, I was on my rogue, and passed on it (nothing like winning something you can never equip,) and the third was on my warrior, and I am pretty sure my need roll came up negative.

So I cheated a little and talked about a non-item and an item I don’t have, but I guess I am still a little mentally taxed from last week’s grueling schedule.   But it is good to be back, and I look forward to catching up on my end of the challenge, and seeing where everyone else is.

Happy Gaming!

Oz

P.S.  I may post out-of-order the next day or so.  The next challenge should be a picture of my desk/computer set up, but I just ordered a new camera and would like to wait to use that for those photos.  So if you find yourself wondering where Day 6 went, don’t worry, I didn’t lose it, or have too many drinks and forget my chronological order or anything like that.