Hour of Twilight patch 4.3 - initial impressions - Thumbs Up!

It's been roughly 24 hours since the servers came back online with all their new 4.3 goodness. I've been going pretty much non-stop since last night and and after this marathon session I have to say it's (mostly) all good.

Transmogrification - 5 out of 5 Yeehaw's!
Works pretty much as they said it would and as the PTR reflected, restrictions aside. Blizzard needs to loosen the armor type restrictions so classes can xmog lower armor quality items they once used on to their current gear. There are many pallys and warriors who saved that Scarlet Crusader chain mail who sadly can't do anything with it. Me included. I'm not one of these players who spent the last several weeks grinding old raids for old tier and weapons, but I was still looking forward to this feature. First stop was the warlock and xmog'n the t8 Deathbringer set from the days of Ulduar. When I aquired this gear I was Forsaken and looked just like Apothecary Putress from the Battle for Angrathar the Wrathgate and even though I'm now a worgen it's still a great looking set. From the full makeover to the minor 1 item change such as my enhance shaman belt looking like the resto one and thus matching the Firelands tier. I hate looking like a hunter! There's no shaman tier matching belt in game for enhancement.... so 1 slot xmog'd on him and I'm a happy sham.

Something I didn't expect, but the urge to start collecting xmog gear for my alts quickly kicked in. I xmog'd a leather eye patch helm on my rogue but wanted to keep going for a full set on her, specifically trying to get the Savory Deviate Delight ninja look, it's going to be an under taking. I took my rarely played pally out to the Shatt badge vendor to start working on a blood knight set. I can already see transmogrification being a very time intensive and invigorating aspect of play for most of us. Getting people back in the old raids, doing random obscure quests from all expansions just to get that 1 cool looking piece of gear they want. Grinding more reps to exalted to buy up those old pvp sets from BC, etc... It's all a good thing and super fun.

The new 5-man Heroics - 4.5 Woohoo's out of 5!
They're fun! They're quick! They have many of our favorite characters in them! They drop gorgeous loots! That one with the Echos is great since every time you go in you'll get 2 out of 4 possible boss fights which keep it fresh and interesting. You don't have to grind through needless waves and rows of mobs/patrols. That last boss in End Time with the 5 hourglasses that reset all your CDs OMG that fight is sooooo fun for dps! I blew though these new dungeons on my prot warrior with guildies for time and it was pretty easy mode. Yet, even with the great resource of the Dungeon Journal available my dungeon finder groups struggled and had some wipes. Freaking noobs. I've run all the new instances a few times with guild and randoms on my prot warr, prot pally, hunter, rogue, but I am apprehensive about queuing up on my resto sham or disc priest... Many fights from trash to bosses are healing intensive for 'steamroll with no CC tanks' and players who don't know what's going on. But for any group of experienced raiders/players they're pretty much cake.

Dragon Soul + Raid Finder - 2.5 blahs out of 5
Only the first 4 bosses are available for now under Raid Finder. These nerfed versions of the Dragons Soul raid encounters are practically retard proof from what I'm hearing. Even my guilds worst raiders completed all the available bosses. I haven't been in myself, I'm holding off to run the regular version tonight with my 10 guild group. Our super team 10 man group who went into the real raid last night got 5 bosses down in 3-4 hours. If this is in fact that last raid content Cata it's going to be worse than ICC which didn't even have all the bosses available until a month or so after patch release. 3 gem socketed gear makes me a happy JC especially when you consider all these dudes who gem up and chant their Raid Finder tier who are only going to be replacing those slots with the real thing in the next week or 2. I've sold 50+ gems 10+ leg armors at crazy expensive prices since last night meanwhile all my toons are running around with empty sockets. Love patch day!

Void Storage - 1.5 ehhhs out of 5
Expensive, 100g to unlock feature, 25g per item you put in. Any gear you place in storage will have it's enchants and gems stripped. Yes I'm overly sentimental over my past epics, but I want all my previous armor sets and tier to be kept in their original "time capsule" condition. I earned that gear, used that gear, grinded reps for chants and farmed for hours for mats or gold to gem and chant them. I want them to stay as they were when I last raided in them. Thus my main, who has sadly had to delete items i'd rather not have in the name of bag space was only able to put old trinkets, wands other random untreated gear in void storage. This wasn't the feature I thought it would be or that I was hoping for. I managed to free up a couple dozen slots altogether, which is fantasic, but ultimately was turned off by the restrictions of Void Storage.

Tyrael's Charger - (negative) -1 ewwws out of 5
There were more of these ugly ass mounts in Stormwind and even Org today than there were the Winged Guardian when it was released. F'n noobs, either get a badass mount that you actually had to earn through rep grinds or raids or just stick with your plane ass old "I don't care" gryphons and windriders. I getting really sick and disgusted by all these rehash, reskinned zero effort mounts they just keep dumping on people. I've been in a couple dozen Bearly Made It runs and never once rolled on that pink easter egg ripoff bear. Finally i was the only one in group who didn't have one so I ended up with it... I see that thing I it just looks like a cheap imitation of the once unique, glorious badass looking War Bear. These new mounts from Darkmoon Faire with their Darkmoon Faire colors are gag inducing. We need more unique flying mounts, not ground mounts too.

There's more, but I'm le tired.

*Dictated but not read or spell-checked by Angry Raider

G.D. Zandalari's! randoms!

I've been so sick of running these 2 instances for months now. For awhile there they were great. I love the throw back instances, don't mind them being 'lazy rehashed' at all. I got a Zulian Tiger on my main last year and ZG was actually the very first raid I ever did on my main, so I'm all about nostalgia. I love the hex sticks for buffs or minor rewards, I love the mini-bosses that drop decent worthwhile stuff, but god help you if you try to get a random group to go 2 minutes out of their way to kill one! I think the reskinning of the Armani War Bear is ugly as sin tho and passed on rolling on them all until I was the only one who didn't have it. Still like heroic SFK and to a lesser degree Deadmines. They're all great and fun, just too damn long, but that's not why I have issue with the Zandalari's.

More so above and beyond my general dislike of running a random I just hate the fact that I have to run either of these 2 to get my valor points on my alts quicker. Its really maddening how they did that. Give them and the original heroics the same amount of valor points, but keep the random queues separate! I realize they're harder than the regular heroics and that's why they grant more points I guess, but when you add in the random noob variable they aren't any more or less difficult than the original heroics! This week I've wiped in regular 5-mans like Grim Batol and Blackrock Caverns to nubbishness more than I have in either ZA/ZG. They're just as difficult when you're a noob, ilevel doesn't help that. Yet lately I've opted to run the older 5-mans for points instead of ZA/ZG only because I'm so flippin bored of queuing up for 1 of 2 different dungeons. That is the definition of 'grind'! Being forced to repeat the same activity over and over again just to get your basic rewards like valor points. Until recently I haven't even bothered running randoms over the last couple months. I've had several alts who haven't earned a single valor point outside of a BH pug just because I want to run dungeons for fun, not because I have to. So for instance my rogue who has only gotten into maybe 1 Firelands alt run has pretty much all the same gear as when this patch started. I made a choice to pass on keeping it's gear current in favor of keeping my sanity intact. I like what I'm reading about alternate non-dungeon valor point rewards coming up in MoP, but I'm not one of these players that swoons over what is to come or drool over some future feature in some future expansion. That's not the game I'm playing today.

The only reason I started up random dungeons again is to get valor to sell BoE bracers while they're still worth something before our points get converted in the soon approaching patch.

Another sub bites the dust... hey!

300,000 more subscriptions lost this quarter? 1.6 million since Cata launch? WoW dying?

Yes, yes and yes...

My BC era realm is a deadzone late night/early morning. There used to be enough Australians and New Zealanders around to pug a 10 man at 4 in the morning. We also used to have a lot more accomplished raiding guilds in Wrath. Lower subs + serious/hardcore players constantly xfering and converging on the same half dozen realms leaves their previous home servers neglected and vacant in regard to the voids they filled.

The biggest indicator for me tho is good ol channel 2, Trade chat. I've been playing consistently for years and at all hours of the day and night and I've never seen so much time go by without a peep out of trade like it is now. It really illustrates low population and inactivity imo. I can't recall trade being 'silent' for more than a couple mins at a time at any hour before Cata.

Demo back in force for Firelands? Blood Pact @ WoW Insider sucks

This was a comment I was leaving on the latest Blood Pact over at WoWinsder. Whoever has been writing that column for the last year or so has absolutely no idea about locks and I've been vocal about this fact in their comments before, but I'm just done pointing out how useless those "warlock" features are. So a simple copy n paste and now it's here.

How about a write up on why Demo locks are resurfacing in Firelands as a force to be reckoned with, in 10 mans especially? I'm guessing it's due to the trash heavy fights, having a mage for Timewarp instead of a shaman so the lock is still adding that +10% spellpower buff, but is there anything more to it?

After doing subpar performance in the ToC days I switched to Demo for ICC figuring I'd go for the spirit/spellpower stacking to uber-buff my raid and still be a vital member for my guild. Little did I know how impressive Demo dps would be during that last year of Wrath, not only was I providing a huge +spell buff, but I was always top 3 dmg/dps in a guild that ended Wrath 11/12 in heroic 25s. I fell in love with being the badass purple pew pew machine. Then came Cata and at 85 Demo fell to the wayside and was only busted out in the last tier for Maloriak when that instantly awesome aoe was needed. Mostly though, nobody was raiding Demo in Cata and for good reason.

Demo has been clunky, sluggish and performing poorly in comparison to Affl/Desto, in addition the numerous changes made to the spec in Cata. There was the whole Improved Soul Fire interweaving, then that was taken away. Our Felguard, Hellfire and Immolation Aura nerfs, Molten Core procs are few and far between whereas back at 80 they were consistent and plentiful. Mastery was (still is?) Demos main stat, but the least desirable for your main spec whether Affl or Desto so unless you held up your raid to reforge all your gear before you pulled Maloriak you still weren't performing as well as you could be. So no wonder most locks abandoned Demo in Cata.

But here I am seeing a resurgence of them in Firelands? Especially for 10 mans which is what most people are running these day. So I'm curious, beyond the obvious why is that?

I have a lot of toons

I used to have more. My lvl 83 Troll warrior had to go because Troll just didn't seem like the right race for a warrior. I never felt right playing him. Deleted. Went Forsaken for the new one, which I know has crappy racials for tanking, but something about this curved-spined, decrepit, rotting husk of a toon being a badass, smash your face tank made me smile. That and the Forsaken are my favorite race. Had a DK at 80, was my only Alliance toon on a realm full of Horde and needed that 10th spot for a reroll. Deleted. Had a hunter who sat at 30-something for a long time. Was my 3rd toon, but coming right after my lock, a range class with a pet seemed too similar. She became my banker for years. Grinded her up to 40 and bought her a Mechano-hog with all the perfect 'banker' gear to make her shine. But I wanted her name for my new paladin, which would be my 2nd paladin, never got into that first one since I mostly power-leveled him for proffs. Now that first pally is my banker/inscript/alch. Sometime he tanks stuff. I've rolled several locks. Just love the class. My very first toon was a Human rogue. I abandoned him within a week and rolled my actual main, a Forsaken warlock (who I recently faction/realm xfer'd into a Worgen, worst idea ever, love the new guild, totally lost connection to this foreign character with some new weird name). He's not the toon I got 50'000+ HKs on. He's not the toon I cleared Ulduar on without a single raid member dying, then defeated Yogg in 226< gear. Nor the toon I "Seek"ed out massive quantities of "Lore" on. Nor the character I not once, not twice, but thrice nabbed the grand prize at the Stranglethorn Vale Fishing Extravaganza on. Two weeks in a row for the first 2. Won it a few other times on my alts. My realm should hate me. But I digress back to that first toon.

This rogue languished at 20-something for years, I just couldn't bare myself to delete him considering he was the toon I first discovered Azeroth on. I had him wearing a 'dress' with intel and spirit because I didn't know any better. I managed to gain 2 or 3 more levels on him in just as many years. I rolled another rogue in this time, and having to deal with the 10 toon limit per realm I realized I had to sacrifice one soldier to help keep the army growing. I have even more toons than those listed above. I just got bored filling out the form-page to add them.

This wall o' text started out as my introduction to the current start of class while leveling and their unbalanced OP-ness in the BGs. Since The Shattering I have rerolled every single class mainly to kick ass in the BGs and I've yet to fail at do so on any of them. My disc priest, currently... 30 something is still getting top damage and top heals in every BG. Putting those huntards to shame. My 51 hunter has only ever been beaten out, by another hunter. My rogue, fugitabotit. My frost mage... well you know how badass they are in the bgs, don't need to got there but just fyi, she was doing 2k+ at 65 on BC dungeon bosses. Remember when Wrath launched and 2k dps was the standard required when pug'n heroics in trade? "LFM HoL pls do 2k+"... lol. I have her parked at 70 now, thinking about xfer'n her to a BC raiding guild. Could really use that 2nd alch xmute though... decisions, decisions...

Anyhow, perhaps my next post will actually delve into the fantastic and frustrating (depending which side you're on) world of low-level BG OPness amongst (F.U. Blooger spellcheck!). Lord know it's been one of my most favorite parts of this expansion. 

GRUMBLE, GRUMBLE...

Moar Maintenance = Moar rage!

Maintenance is nothing new. That regular Tuesday morning downtime is something that's been going on probably since the original launch. I know it's been a weekly staple as long as I've been playing. What's new, or actually what's changed is these "Breaking News" messages and how much later in the day Blizzard has been posting them at log in. I seem to recall whenever I would start playing on Mondays that this prompt was always up. Whether that be 10 in the morning, 4 in the afternoon, etc... But in recent months I haven't even been seeing them at all and often times I don't even log in till late in the evening. 

So yes, somewhere unacknowledged in the back of my mind I know that servers will be going down, typically at 5am PST, but when I don't see that message at log in there's this bit of hope that no maintenance is required for that week and I can just keep joyfully playing on my abnormal nocturnal schedule. I can recall a time when some weeks there was no maintenance and even when there was my realm would be back up hours earlier than the standard 11am estimation given. When I rolled a toon on a brand spankin new realm some time in the middle off 3.3 I was delightfully surprised as it seemed to go a month at a time with no maintenance. Maybe I'm remember this one wrong, but that's what I seem to recall.

So, I'm going off target here, mostly I'd just like to see those 'Breaking News' messages nice and early, especially considering this week when Mondays regular maintenance started 2 hours earlier and this rare mid week maintenance just came out of the blue. I mean, I have shit that needs to get done in game! If I know the server is going offline for a few hours I might just hold off on running that guildie through another heroic on my tank or perhaps choosing to do these dailys over those dailys or like tonight, I didn't even get a chance to hop on my banker and I know I got a full mailbox from everything that didn't sell in the last 24 hours.

But mostly all this downtime just grinds my gears because I speculate that all this "maintenance" is really just Blizz's way of saving a few bucks by just turning off the whole infrastructure for several hours. =D Makes sense, imagine if all companies could just turn off a large part of their networks for a 3rd of a day every week. Verizon would probably save a few million every Tuesday morning! I could prob switch to a crappier MMO if I didn't have to deal with paying to transfer characters, or weekly downtime, which from what I hear a lot of other MMOs don't have nearly as many shutdowns or for as long. I'm guessing it's because they're nowhere near the size of WoW, but eh... What was I talking about?

My !#$% in a box, in a box, in a box

My mage is so Awesome!

Think I got 6 acheesements in this one, including the EoE Victory since it was my first time in and dinged 58 at the win. I am so awesome!

Maintenance blows

Am I spacing out at log in or is Blizz putting these shutdown maintenance messages up later in the day than they used to? This one totally caught me by surprise. Really sucked too since I just finished my Rockstar Punched, the official drink of angry raiders. Mtn Dew is for newbs and tweakers.

= FTW!

Nothing to do with WoW

I don't care how many commercials you force on me for all of your original programming, I'M NEVER GOING TO WATCH ANYTHING ON YOUR NETWORK BESIDES HOUSE RERUNS!!!

Another WTF Blizz moment

Updated!!1 A few couple days after 4.2 dropped.

Your new honored status with the Avengers of Hyjal grant you access to their vendor to purchase... what.... ? ? ?

That's right, a brand new cloak!!! To replace that one you just got yesterday from saving Thrall which replaced that one you got last week from killing Ahune!!!!

Really wish I read patch notes, I would have flooded the AH with chants and mats for engineering chutes.

Original post...

Yay, 4.2 is here and with it the new epic questline to save Thrall from damnation. It's epic because it's a great story with love and action and you get to take part in helping Thrall, the coolest cat in Azeroth.  It's even more epic because it's not very long. Two thumbs up!

My gripe comes with the final reward, your choice of ilevel 365 cloak. Hot damn, everyone gets a new piece of leetness from the get go. So why the frak did I bother putting up with long queues and ninjas for Ahune to get a cloak that would just be replaced this easily even before the seasonal event was finished? Oh, I didn't, not on any of my toons, but I know a shit ton of y'all did. Well at least that Ahune fight was fun and memorable...

Drunk NPC's

Edna Mullby wished me a happy Brewfest today. I guess when you're a drunk everyday is Brewfest.

Happy Midsummer Fire Festival! (aka *S.S.D.D.)

*Same Seasonal, Different Day, er year I guess.
So yes, Midsummer Fire Fest is here again! Whoopie-freakin-doo! I used to love the world seasonal events. I was chasing after them on alts for more than a year after my main had the What Long Strange Trip it's Been. Most recently I earned 'the Noble' title on my lvl 40 pally. At first I didn't care, then I realized this is one of the few titles obtainable at pretty much any level, with the help of some 85 guildies. I'd have that violet proto-drake on my main alt shaman as well, but I lagged on the dailys during last year's Brewfest and didn't have enough tokens to buy the Beer-of-the-Month subscription. Eh, who cares.

So this year everyone is all up in arms (again, btw) about the crappy stats on the Frostscythe of Lor Ahune. Hey noobs! Guess what!? It's been like that every flippin year since the damn thing came out! Last year everyone, including myself who got it on my priest was QQ'n about the lack of crit/haste secondary stats in comparison to other 5-man/older raider 232 ilevel caster staves. It was a bit under-budget, yet still a viable option for the ilevel.


What irks me more so about it this year is that instead of just being grossly under-budget for it's item level is the obvious auto-stat-update to level 85 treatment that Blizz gave it and their completely dismissive response to why it is the way it is: "Making it ideal (stat-wise) now and it would stomp all over ZA/ZG weapons. It's fairly trivial to obtain so we're just not really willing to do that."


It's a trivial item because you made it trivial, but nothing about getting one is trivial. It's such a rare drop and it's so freakin' cool looking what's the harrm in making it useful? I say make it a 359 with stats on par with equivalent current raid drops. Oh, but wait! THERE IS NO CURRENT CASTER STAFF ANYWHERE IN THE GAME! Well, if they couldn't bother to actually create a staff for their brand new expansion, then what the hell are we doing bitching about the lack of attention given to this recycled piece of eye-candy?

My biggest bitch is that my level 22 hunter couldn't get a flippin BG queue to pop all afteroon. Those brackets take no more than 10 minutes even at 4 in the morning server time. I was in queue for 15 minutes, dropped requeued for another 15, dropped again and waited almost 40 mintues in that last queue before giving up. Didn't do a random on any 85 today (actually haven't done hardly any randoms in months, on any toon) but from what the WoW websphere says it's been f'n up dungeon finder and arenas as well.

Those are several bitches thus far, but I haven't even gotten into my main complaint regarding Midsummer. This like most other seasonals have gone mostly untouched for years. I'm not asking for a full overhaul or new multi-questline chain, but how about you just throw something new in that vendors inventory to at least try and motivate the vets to go out and wrangle up more Burning Blossoms. A reskinned/recycled vanity pet would do the trick, always does... "But this one's green.