To recap the last 24 hours:
- WoW's servers went down yesterday at 8 AM for the weekly maintenance (the one that we are not entitled to compensation for).
- Somehow, something they did during the maintenance wiped the contents of the in-game mail system. This is actually a major issue because players use the mail system for item storage. I question whether that is more work for the database than just letting you keep as much stuff as you need in inventory, actually moving all of the various soulbound currency tokens into the currency tab so that they don't take up space, and/or reducing the number of items you literally cannot replace if you get rid of them. Regardless, this kept the servers down until almost midnight.
- Now the servers are down again because they somehow managed to remove all costs from some of the PVP gear. This bug popped up in beta and I'm guessing some tired tech didn't check their builds while dealing with the mail debacle.
That's not a very impressive record leading up to the day the expansion goes live. I guess the goal is to have the servers up and running at midnight, when the actual big event happens. In the mean time, while Larisa is taking a walk down memory lane as the TBC era closes in Europe, I'm looking at an empty select server screen. Somehow, perhaps foolishly, I had expected better of Blizzard. This may bode poorly for the weekend.
(In fairness, Blizzard did issue a three day time credit a week ago for the first round of expansion-patch related downtime and server instability. If you figure on 5 million North American/European subscribers paying $0.50 a day, that's a $7.5+ million apology.)
P.S. Street Dates
Meanwhile, and I put this in its own section since it's technically something I have a choice on, if the servers are up this time tomorrow, when I would normally log in, I won't be able to visit Northrend. That's because I won't be picking up my expansion box in time to get it installed until after work. I suppose it's a way of self-selecting the people most eager to get on - people willing to come home after a midnight launch party to start playing will have a chance, if the servers are even up, to play with the most quiet continent of Northrend the game will see until the next expansion.
Still, it's a bit of an annoyance to have the servers go live on the game's actual street date, especially when you read stories about how other players managed to snag copies from retailers who were incompetent enough to break the date. LOTRO is not only allowing direct online upgrades to the expansion but ALSO allowing them in advance, so that everyone who wants to participate in their launch can do so without staying up all night and/or skipping work.
(Blizzard probably doesn't have the option of doing direct download on launch day - retails would quite possibly retaliate with decreased shelf space if denied a cut of the expansion launch sales.)
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Sunday, November 9, 2008
The Last Ride of Cheerydeth, the Death Knight
With the end of the Wrath Beta, Cheerydeth, my level 80 beta Death Knight, officially retired into the mists of history. I don’t regret the 5 days and 9 hours /played I invested in Cherrydeth The First in the slightest – the beta was a very unique opportunity to see how the development process I spend so much time writing about actually works in action. Still, in the absence of a formal end of beta event bash, I felt that Cheery deserves one last hurrah. Hopefully, you, my readers, will indulge her with one post on Player vs Developer that isn’t directly about either players or developers, but rather, one pink pig-tailed Death Knight’s ride into the sunset.
“They say that the world is ending,” Cheerydeth thought to herself. “Funny. After the struggle against Illidan, the invasion of the Scourge, and the counteroffensive by all the peoples of Azeroth into the heart of Northrend, I always figured this world would go out with a bang. Instead, they say we’re all just going to cease to be. Probably the mages’ fault, or maybe Malygos. Magic can be irritating like that.”
Cherry shook her head as she rode her motorcycle down the streets of Dalaran. A cheese vendor lept out of her way at the last minute, cursing the day the Kirin Tor allowed regular adventurers into the city. Somehow, Cheery had a hard time feeling bad for them. She’d rather be flying overhead on her gyphon than running people off the street, but apparently the mages felt strongly about not allowing flight inside the city. Some idiocy about how having people swooping in and out to conduct their business in peace disrupts the feeling of the city. Cheery wasn’t sure why a group that wouldn’t let people in unless they appeared to be powerful enough to be useful cared quite so much about community to begin with, but then, she supposed that she might make a few changes of her own if someone ever gave her a magical flying city to run.
Cheery swung by the bank to dig through the piles and piles of arms and armor that littered her vault. Back in her living days, she would no doubt have been horrified at how many soldiers of the Alliance must have fallen in battle to leave so much gear lying around for every random post commander on the continent to hand out sets of armor to anyone who could complete a basic assignment and come back alive. If she ever wanted to start her own army, she could personally equip a decent sized adventuring party, perhaps even a small raid. Cheery passed by the enchanted jewelry from the mages, the armor of the Argent Crusade, the weapons of the Valiance Expedition, and the miscellaneous shiny objects from the strange puppymen of Sholazar Basin, for something she had not dug out for a very long time.
Most of her fellow Death Knights of the Ebon Blade had been eager to replace the Saronite gear they had worn until the day that the Knights ceased to serve Arthas. Cheery, though, had carefully stashed every last item away in her vault. Perhaps the Adamantite armaments of Outland had proven more effective in combat than the crudely forged gear of the unliving Scourge, but Cheery was not willing to forget who she had become so easily. Arthas’ plague had transformed her into something neither Gnome nor mindless Scourge, and the power of the Light had returned her will and control of her mind. The jet black plates and the glow of the runeblade reminded her of whom she had been, and why she had fought so hard to protect others from the same fate.
Cheery climbed to the top of the Inn and hopped out onto the roof, again cursing the Mages’ no-fly zone for making her take the long way, to take one last look at the city. She supposed that it was impressive how a city that spent years enclosed in a bubble within the ruins of Lordaeron now hovered above the serene but nigh deserted Crystalsong Forest. Despite the forest’s central location on the continent, neither the Scourge nor the invading forces of the Alliance and Horde had established much of a foothold in the area. Cheery guessed that the explanation for the general lack of population in the area beneath the city was probably another one of those magic things she’d rather not know about.
“Well,” she muttered, “might as well take advantage of it while it lasts.”
Cheery hopped off the roof, injuring herself, and tapped the power of one of the blood runes engraved on her Runeblade to instantly heal the wounds. There are, she supposed, some perks to the un-life. The Silver Covenant had installed portals to all of the cities of the Alliance, and even Outland’s Sanctuary city of Shattrath, in the courtyard. Cheery didn’t consider her choice for long, as the moments until the end of the worlds ticked away. Without hesitation, she stepped through the portal to Stormwind and returned to where her journey had begun.
Upon materializing in the Mages’ tower in Stormwind, she let her Netherwhelp out of its carrier, and summoned a ghoul for good measure. Riding around with a ghoul seemed to make the living folks around town nervous, but Cheery was somehow alright with this. That idiotic beggar outside the Stormwind Auction House didn’t seem to bother her so much when he saw a slathering ghoul at her side; Cheery did not for the unlife of her understand how none of the heroes inflicted with The Plague during the invasion had bothered to eat him first. Cheery lept from the ramp leading down from the top of the Mages Tower, tapping the faithful Blood Rune a second time, to avoid Archmage Malin. She may not be alive anymore, but, somehow, she couldn’t quite look the man in the eye after events in the Dragonblight. Sometimes the Kirin Tor could be more ruthless than the Ebon Blade when it came to such matters.
Cheery activated her white Mechanostrider and rode towards the Harborway that she had helped build, literally a life ago. As always, the ghoul, and her intrepid Netherwhelp somehow kept up, despite the Strider’s speed. Cheery never fully understood why the Lich King had taken everything of her former life but the little blue Dragonling’s collar. Perhaps a Lich King simply did not trouble himself with such harmless creatures, despite the great speed they exhibited when their master was speeding away on a robotic strider. Cheery closed her eyes for a moment, listening to the bird’s metallic clanking.
She had kept the armor and the Runeblade that Arthas had bade her soak in the blood of the Scarlet Crusade, but she did try to keep her use of the Deathcharger bonded to her to a minimum; its shrieking was, frankly, annoying. Obtaining a new strider had been one of the first things she sought after breaking free of the Scourge. While riding it, trusting that its navigational computer would take it to her destination, it was as if she were still alive.
Finally, Cheery reached her destination. She peered out across the canals around the grand archway and the path to the harbor that sat on the coast below Stormwind. The harbor had always been there, of course, but seemingly no one knew where it was or how to get there. Lord Bolvar had commissioned a fine team from Dun Morogh to blast a path down the mountains so that the people of Stormwind could reach it, ironically right before the Scourge had invaded and more adventurers than ever had needed to reach the port, and, through it, Northrend. Cheery wasn’t sure how many of the Ebon Blade had anything from their past lives that evoked any sense of pride; certainly the deeds they did since they turned had done a bit to dull the enthusiasm for their own past. Still, Cheery always loved that archway for some reason. Perhaps its sheer practicality was enough to appeal to the ruthless sense of aggression that simmered under the surface of all Death Knights’ cold exterior. Cheery wasn’t sure, but it was here she waited for the end.
Cheerydeth staggered groggily down to the main room of the Gilded Rose, dusting the cobwebs from her eyes. She gratefully accepted a glass of [Ice Cold Milk] from Innkeeper Allison.
“Another rough night?” asked the Innkeeper, worried about the sleep-deprived state of her guest.
“Yeah,” Cheery muttered, “More dreams.”
“Out hunting Witches again?” asked Allison, “What was that city you lived in, Altdorf?”
“No,” said Cheery, shaking her head. “No such tall, leggy antics for me. I was my regular old, gnome-shaped Death Knight self.”
“Oh,” said Allison, remembering the night when an Argent healer had delivered a barely-alive gnome who had narrowly survived infection with the plague infesting the city.
“Yeah,” said Cheerydeth. “It’s strange, though, it’s like she was somehow going away.”
Allison thought about that for a minute. “Maybe it’s the news from the front? That we’re taking the fight to Arthas, that the Argent Dawn has launched a crusade and even the Horde has joined us in striking back after the invasion?”
Cheerydeth nodded. “Yeah, perhaps that’s it.” She munched on a chunk of [Freshly Baked Bread] for a minute. “Oh, that reminds me. I heard back from Master Shaw... err, I mean the guy from the inscription shop. They said they didn’t have anything for me just yet, but someone named Marshal Dughan was looking for adventurers in some town down the road. Maybe I’ll be out of your hair sooner than we thought after all.”
Allison smiled. “Well, I’m sure they’ll find a good use for you in Goldshire. Say, when did you take an interest in inscription?”
Cheery shuffled uncomfortably for a second, thinking quickly. “Uh, it’s something the Death Knight version of me did, seemed like it might be fun. And hey, the market for glyphs took off overnight around here. No one had heard of them last week, and now everyone seems to have a few. Certainly seems safer than my old job as an engineer.”
Allison thought back a moment to the time she went past the canal district while Cheerydeth was working on the SW Harbor gateway, only to see her perched on top of a literal wagonload of explosives. “Fair enough. Well, you’re welcome to leave your Hearthstone here at the Rose for as long as you want. ”
Cheerydeth nodded. “Absolutely. I’ll be in and out of town to visit the trainers anyway. This won’t be the last time you hear of Cheerydeth.”
FIN
“They say that the world is ending,” Cheerydeth thought to herself. “Funny. After the struggle against Illidan, the invasion of the Scourge, and the counteroffensive by all the peoples of Azeroth into the heart of Northrend, I always figured this world would go out with a bang. Instead, they say we’re all just going to cease to be. Probably the mages’ fault, or maybe Malygos. Magic can be irritating like that.”
Cherry shook her head as she rode her motorcycle down the streets of Dalaran. A cheese vendor lept out of her way at the last minute, cursing the day the Kirin Tor allowed regular adventurers into the city. Somehow, Cheery had a hard time feeling bad for them. She’d rather be flying overhead on her gyphon than running people off the street, but apparently the mages felt strongly about not allowing flight inside the city. Some idiocy about how having people swooping in and out to conduct their business in peace disrupts the feeling of the city. Cheery wasn’t sure why a group that wouldn’t let people in unless they appeared to be powerful enough to be useful cared quite so much about community to begin with, but then, she supposed that she might make a few changes of her own if someone ever gave her a magical flying city to run.
Cheery swung by the bank to dig through the piles and piles of arms and armor that littered her vault. Back in her living days, she would no doubt have been horrified at how many soldiers of the Alliance must have fallen in battle to leave so much gear lying around for every random post commander on the continent to hand out sets of armor to anyone who could complete a basic assignment and come back alive. If she ever wanted to start her own army, she could personally equip a decent sized adventuring party, perhaps even a small raid. Cheery passed by the enchanted jewelry from the mages, the armor of the Argent Crusade, the weapons of the Valiance Expedition, and the miscellaneous shiny objects from the strange puppymen of Sholazar Basin, for something she had not dug out for a very long time.
Most of her fellow Death Knights of the Ebon Blade had been eager to replace the Saronite gear they had worn until the day that the Knights ceased to serve Arthas. Cheery, though, had carefully stashed every last item away in her vault. Perhaps the Adamantite armaments of Outland had proven more effective in combat than the crudely forged gear of the unliving Scourge, but Cheery was not willing to forget who she had become so easily. Arthas’ plague had transformed her into something neither Gnome nor mindless Scourge, and the power of the Light had returned her will and control of her mind. The jet black plates and the glow of the runeblade reminded her of whom she had been, and why she had fought so hard to protect others from the same fate.
Cheery climbed to the top of the Inn and hopped out onto the roof, again cursing the Mages’ no-fly zone for making her take the long way, to take one last look at the city. She supposed that it was impressive how a city that spent years enclosed in a bubble within the ruins of Lordaeron now hovered above the serene but nigh deserted Crystalsong Forest. Despite the forest’s central location on the continent, neither the Scourge nor the invading forces of the Alliance and Horde had established much of a foothold in the area. Cheery guessed that the explanation for the general lack of population in the area beneath the city was probably another one of those magic things she’d rather not know about.
“Well,” she muttered, “might as well take advantage of it while it lasts.”
Cheery hopped off the roof, injuring herself, and tapped the power of one of the blood runes engraved on her Runeblade to instantly heal the wounds. There are, she supposed, some perks to the un-life. The Silver Covenant had installed portals to all of the cities of the Alliance, and even Outland’s Sanctuary city of Shattrath, in the courtyard. Cheery didn’t consider her choice for long, as the moments until the end of the worlds ticked away. Without hesitation, she stepped through the portal to Stormwind and returned to where her journey had begun.
Upon materializing in the Mages’ tower in Stormwind, she let her Netherwhelp out of its carrier, and summoned a ghoul for good measure. Riding around with a ghoul seemed to make the living folks around town nervous, but Cheery was somehow alright with this. That idiotic beggar outside the Stormwind Auction House didn’t seem to bother her so much when he saw a slathering ghoul at her side; Cheery did not for the unlife of her understand how none of the heroes inflicted with The Plague during the invasion had bothered to eat him first. Cheery lept from the ramp leading down from the top of the Mages Tower, tapping the faithful Blood Rune a second time, to avoid Archmage Malin. She may not be alive anymore, but, somehow, she couldn’t quite look the man in the eye after events in the Dragonblight. Sometimes the Kirin Tor could be more ruthless than the Ebon Blade when it came to such matters.
Cheery activated her white Mechanostrider and rode towards the Harborway that she had helped build, literally a life ago. As always, the ghoul, and her intrepid Netherwhelp somehow kept up, despite the Strider’s speed. Cheery never fully understood why the Lich King had taken everything of her former life but the little blue Dragonling’s collar. Perhaps a Lich King simply did not trouble himself with such harmless creatures, despite the great speed they exhibited when their master was speeding away on a robotic strider. Cheery closed her eyes for a moment, listening to the bird’s metallic clanking. She had kept the armor and the Runeblade that Arthas had bade her soak in the blood of the Scarlet Crusade, but she did try to keep her use of the Deathcharger bonded to her to a minimum; its shrieking was, frankly, annoying. Obtaining a new strider had been one of the first things she sought after breaking free of the Scourge. While riding it, trusting that its navigational computer would take it to her destination, it was as if she were still alive.
Finally, Cheery reached her destination. She peered out across the canals around the grand archway and the path to the harbor that sat on the coast below Stormwind. The harbor had always been there, of course, but seemingly no one knew where it was or how to get there. Lord Bolvar had commissioned a fine team from Dun Morogh to blast a path down the mountains so that the people of Stormwind could reach it, ironically right before the Scourge had invaded and more adventurers than ever had needed to reach the port, and, through it, Northrend. Cheery wasn’t sure how many of the Ebon Blade had anything from their past lives that evoked any sense of pride; certainly the deeds they did since they turned had done a bit to dull the enthusiasm for their own past. Still, Cheery always loved that archway for some reason. Perhaps its sheer practicality was enough to appeal to the ruthless sense of aggression that simmered under the surface of all Death Knights’ cold exterior. Cheery wasn’t sure, but it was here she waited for the end.
Cheerydeth staggered groggily down to the main room of the Gilded Rose, dusting the cobwebs from her eyes. She gratefully accepted a glass of [Ice Cold Milk] from Innkeeper Allison.
“Another rough night?” asked the Innkeeper, worried about the sleep-deprived state of her guest.
“Yeah,” Cheery muttered, “More dreams.”
“Out hunting Witches again?” asked Allison, “What was that city you lived in, Altdorf?”
“No,” said Cheery, shaking her head. “No such tall, leggy antics for me. I was my regular old, gnome-shaped Death Knight self.”
“Oh,” said Allison, remembering the night when an Argent healer had delivered a barely-alive gnome who had narrowly survived infection with the plague infesting the city.
“Yeah,” said Cheerydeth. “It’s strange, though, it’s like she was somehow going away.”
Allison thought about that for a minute. “Maybe it’s the news from the front? That we’re taking the fight to Arthas, that the Argent Dawn has launched a crusade and even the Horde has joined us in striking back after the invasion?”
Cheerydeth nodded. “Yeah, perhaps that’s it.” She munched on a chunk of [Freshly Baked Bread] for a minute. “Oh, that reminds me. I heard back from Master Shaw... err, I mean the guy from the inscription shop. They said they didn’t have anything for me just yet, but someone named Marshal Dughan was looking for adventurers in some town down the road. Maybe I’ll be out of your hair sooner than we thought after all.”
Allison smiled. “Well, I’m sure they’ll find a good use for you in Goldshire. Say, when did you take an interest in inscription?”Cheery shuffled uncomfortably for a second, thinking quickly. “Uh, it’s something the Death Knight version of me did, seemed like it might be fun. And hey, the market for glyphs took off overnight around here. No one had heard of them last week, and now everyone seems to have a few. Certainly seems safer than my old job as an engineer.”
Allison thought back a moment to the time she went past the canal district while Cheerydeth was working on the SW Harbor gateway, only to see her perched on top of a literal wagonload of explosives. “Fair enough. Well, you’re welcome to leave your Hearthstone here at the Rose for as long as you want. ”
Cheerydeth nodded. “Absolutely. I’ll be in and out of town to visit the trainers anyway. This won’t be the last time you hear of Cheerydeth.”
FIN
Friday, November 7, 2008
The changing face of Profession Perks and BOP's
WoW Insider has a concise summary of the self-only crafting profession perks in wrath. To sum up, the devs felt that BoP epic profession gear encouraged players to take professions they didn't like. (It also led top end guilds to mandate that everyone take up Leatherworking in order to spam drums.) Nowadays, all your crafted gear is BoE and crafters get some self-only enchant-like perk. Depending on which trade you're working on, that's either a small bonus to a gear slot that can't be enhanced by any other means (belts, rings) or a larger bonus to a slot that can be enhanced by other means (shoulders, bracers, gloves).
Does your profession still do what it did?
My mage is currently a Shadoweave tailor, a specialty I picked up for the infamous Frozen Shadoweave set (now known as Shadow's Embrace). The set was very good at what it did - frost and shadow damage (a combo deliberately chosen because no class deals both) - but bad in other ways. The set devoted all of its stats to pure damage, and (until patch 3.0.2) received an additional bonus to that damage for being restricted to specific schools. This meant that players had to go several tiers above the set in order to find meaningful upgrades. The Shadoweave set, and the other tailoring sets, also presented a problem because they are specific to a damage type, meaning that they become useless to the crafter upon a respec.
Well, in the new era, it appears that the sole benefit of your tailoring specialty is an economic choice on which cloth you want more of. The new version of Shadoweave makes a pair of items that offer spell hit, and is needed for the 22 slot bag recipe (along with the third edition of Mooncloth). However, the former point is moot because you can equip whichever of the others you want (Spellfire produces spell haste gear, and Mooncloth produces gear with spirit), and you don't even need to be a tailor anymore. That is a minor disappointment if you went to the trouble of leveling tailoring solely because you wanted to make your own gear, when now all you get for your trouble is a cloak enchant you may or may not want, cheaper spellthread for your pants, and a rug.
If you are a Spellfire tailor at this point, you might be considering a specialty respec, as it is not needed for generic bags and will probably see a smaller market. Then again, things could change. Alchemy really wasn't all that useful as of patch 2.1, when I dropped it from my mage. Nowadays it offers a competitive trinket and increased benefit from potions/elixirs. Perhaps you'll drop Spellfire, or even Tailoring entirely, and then Blizzard will add something nifty down the line and you'll be sorry. Change and innovation can be good but this kind of uncertainty is less so.
Will changing the perks even work to stop min-maxing?
No. The Elitist Jerks thread on Wrath mages is quick to inform you that "Mining, Skinning, Tailoring, Engineering are currently not competitive options for Mage DPS."
Money makes the world go round
The epic crafted gear that formerly made a profession perk are now BOE's, meaning that anyone can and probably will buy them at the AH. Indeed, unless you really care about the increment between your profession enchant and the next best alternative, professions are now less necessary than they were before Wrath. But this isn't the only change with BOE's. Tobold has some commentary on BOE epic raid boss loot. These items may or may not cause a loot distribution nightmare for raid leaders, but they're also part of a trend - Blizzard apparently wants players to be able to buy epic upgrades for cash.
There are some upsides to this plan. Everyone can get cash, regardless of their raid availabilty. Cash is gained one copper at a time, so players can progress as quickly or as slowly as they're willing to. Cash is gained from most activities in the game, even including leveling low level alts (at least, if you can resist the urge to spoil your lowbies with twinked leveling goodies ;)), so no one is forced to do any specific content. AH fees on crafted goods will help sink cash out of the in-game economy. And, finally, cash is not soulbound, meaning that you can rapidly gear up an alt, or even a friend's main, and have them ready for at least the entry level of Wrath raids.
That last point, though, is also a downside. The gold sellers of the world are rejoicing to see their product featured so prominently yet again - sure, the materials to power level a profession cost in-game money that you could choose to buy off a gold seller, but that's a less direct process than seeing a finished item on the AH for X amount, which a spammer claims they will sell you for Y dollars. The ability to sell raid drops for in-game cash also opens the door for ninja looting and various other scammery. Let's just say that I wouldn't advise you to join and PUG's that aren't run by people you personally trust.
Going Forward
These changes appear to be here to stay - Blizzard actually experimented with BOE raid loot for the two Outland world bosses a few patches back, and apparently liked the results. As I said, it's probably a good deal if you don't care at all about crafting, as you'll be less penalized for not doing any. (Indeed, as an enchanter, one can argue that I can continue to get milage out of my existing ring enchants for a while to come, lessening any pressure to level the profession for upgraded ones.) If you care greatly about crafting, you're probably going to level all your professions anyway, though this change may make you regret choices you made the last time around.
In the middle of the road, though, it seems like the shift to crafting is a net downside. Fewer incentives, and, in some cases, incentives available at lower skill levels compared to their TBC counterparts, leaves less to make crafting worth your while. Perhaps Blizzard will use the relatively empty space just before the newly increased crafting caps to introduce some crafting progression later in the expansion cycle. Perhaps the crafters that are left in the economy will find more profit potential due to decreased competition. In the mean time, though, it feels like the AH's gain is crafting's loss.
Does your profession still do what it did?
My mage is currently a Shadoweave tailor, a specialty I picked up for the infamous Frozen Shadoweave set (now known as Shadow's Embrace). The set was very good at what it did - frost and shadow damage (a combo deliberately chosen because no class deals both) - but bad in other ways. The set devoted all of its stats to pure damage, and (until patch 3.0.2) received an additional bonus to that damage for being restricted to specific schools. This meant that players had to go several tiers above the set in order to find meaningful upgrades. The Shadoweave set, and the other tailoring sets, also presented a problem because they are specific to a damage type, meaning that they become useless to the crafter upon a respec.
Well, in the new era, it appears that the sole benefit of your tailoring specialty is an economic choice on which cloth you want more of. The new version of Shadoweave makes a pair of items that offer spell hit, and is needed for the 22 slot bag recipe (along with the third edition of Mooncloth). However, the former point is moot because you can equip whichever of the others you want (Spellfire produces spell haste gear, and Mooncloth produces gear with spirit), and you don't even need to be a tailor anymore. That is a minor disappointment if you went to the trouble of leveling tailoring solely because you wanted to make your own gear, when now all you get for your trouble is a cloak enchant you may or may not want, cheaper spellthread for your pants, and a rug.
If you are a Spellfire tailor at this point, you might be considering a specialty respec, as it is not needed for generic bags and will probably see a smaller market. Then again, things could change. Alchemy really wasn't all that useful as of patch 2.1, when I dropped it from my mage. Nowadays it offers a competitive trinket and increased benefit from potions/elixirs. Perhaps you'll drop Spellfire, or even Tailoring entirely, and then Blizzard will add something nifty down the line and you'll be sorry. Change and innovation can be good but this kind of uncertainty is less so.
Will changing the perks even work to stop min-maxing?
No. The Elitist Jerks thread on Wrath mages is quick to inform you that "Mining, Skinning, Tailoring, Engineering are currently not competitive options for Mage DPS."
Money makes the world go round
The epic crafted gear that formerly made a profession perk are now BOE's, meaning that anyone can and probably will buy them at the AH. Indeed, unless you really care about the increment between your profession enchant and the next best alternative, professions are now less necessary than they were before Wrath. But this isn't the only change with BOE's. Tobold has some commentary on BOE epic raid boss loot. These items may or may not cause a loot distribution nightmare for raid leaders, but they're also part of a trend - Blizzard apparently wants players to be able to buy epic upgrades for cash.
There are some upsides to this plan. Everyone can get cash, regardless of their raid availabilty. Cash is gained one copper at a time, so players can progress as quickly or as slowly as they're willing to. Cash is gained from most activities in the game, even including leveling low level alts (at least, if you can resist the urge to spoil your lowbies with twinked leveling goodies ;)), so no one is forced to do any specific content. AH fees on crafted goods will help sink cash out of the in-game economy. And, finally, cash is not soulbound, meaning that you can rapidly gear up an alt, or even a friend's main, and have them ready for at least the entry level of Wrath raids.
That last point, though, is also a downside. The gold sellers of the world are rejoicing to see their product featured so prominently yet again - sure, the materials to power level a profession cost in-game money that you could choose to buy off a gold seller, but that's a less direct process than seeing a finished item on the AH for X amount, which a spammer claims they will sell you for Y dollars. The ability to sell raid drops for in-game cash also opens the door for ninja looting and various other scammery. Let's just say that I wouldn't advise you to join and PUG's that aren't run by people you personally trust.
Going Forward
These changes appear to be here to stay - Blizzard actually experimented with BOE raid loot for the two Outland world bosses a few patches back, and apparently liked the results. As I said, it's probably a good deal if you don't care at all about crafting, as you'll be less penalized for not doing any. (Indeed, as an enchanter, one can argue that I can continue to get milage out of my existing ring enchants for a while to come, lessening any pressure to level the profession for upgraded ones.) If you care greatly about crafting, you're probably going to level all your professions anyway, though this change may make you regret choices you made the last time around.
In the middle of the road, though, it seems like the shift to crafting is a net downside. Fewer incentives, and, in some cases, incentives available at lower skill levels compared to their TBC counterparts, leaves less to make crafting worth your while. Perhaps Blizzard will use the relatively empty space just before the newly increased crafting caps to introduce some crafting progression later in the expansion cycle. Perhaps the crafters that are left in the economy will find more profit potential due to decreased competition. In the mean time, though, it feels like the AH's gain is crafting's loss.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Is it time to allow quest reward trade-ins?
Let's say that you are a mage entering Wrath of the Lich King with a [Mark of Defiance] (that's 32 spell damage and a mana regen on spellcast proc) and an [Airman's Ribbon of Gallantry] (that's 34 crit rating - good for both crit and some mana regen via Master of Elements - and a damage proc). Now let's say that you complete a quest and receive a choice of the following two trinkets:
- 18 mana/5s, on use 120 Haste Rating for 20 sec (2 min cooldown)
- 43 Crit rating, on use 183 damage for 20 sec (2 min cooldown)
I won't link the quest because I'm not sure if links to WoWhead's Wrath beta site will still work in a week, and because some of you may consider it a spoiler, but that's a real pair of reward choices.
Well, the Crit trinket looks like it was intended for DPS casters, and is an upgrade from my Airman's Ribbon, provided I remember to activate it. That said, trinkets with crit rating are much more common than trinkets with mana regen, at least as quest rewards, and the mana regen trinkets almost always force a choice like this one between a traditionally DPS trinket and a traditionally healing trinket (there's a very similar choice in the next zone over between mana regen and haste rating). If I take the crit trinket now, I'm going to replace it with another, better DPS trinket (perhaps even a week or two later), but the mana regen trinket could actually stay with me for use in a farming set.
You can't keep everything
Here's a picture of Cheerydeth's bank and bags from the Wrath Beta. I did opt to hold onto the starting DK gear for its distinct look, but basically I managed to fill up an entire bank - the main area plus seven expansion slots with 16+ slot bags in each - with gear. This isn't even all the quest rewards in Northrend - I had to vendor several bags worth in order to make room.
Cheery did enter Northrend with random level 66-68 quest reward gear, and I didn't really know enough about melee stats to do an effective job weeding out the upgrades. She also has a set of tanking gear and a set of spell damage gear (which doesn't actually benefit DK's, but I wanted to keep one for testing purposes). However, as I've noted before, Wrath uses more stats than TBC did, so even a veteran player is likely to find some upgrades, or at least situational items, pretty early on.
And so we get some tough choices. Do I want to be holding a mana regen set for farming? A spell hit set in case I ever wind up filling a loose spot in a pick up raid? A haste set in case I decide I want to conjure up food for the raid the old fashioned way? And, of course, as a "pure" DPS class, the mage's life is much easier than what the other classes face, with healing and tanking sets to accompany DPS and PVP.
Time for Trade-Ins?
Sunwell introduced the concept of vendors who would exchange raid loot for alternate variations of the item aimed at different specs. At the time, this was more of a way to stretch the loot table to accommodate hybrid specs, but it could, in principle, be used to allow players to trade in certain quest rewards. Obviously, that's not a decision to be taken lightly; allowing easy swapping out of quest rewards would make the decisions of which rewards to select a lot less meaningful. But what if there was a cost to balance the exchange? Say, for example, that the questgiver will only do me this favor if I'm exalted with their faction, and if I pay some fee?
Again, this is less of an issue for my mage, but a huge issue for my Pally - with proper reward choices, I was able to get a very decent tanking set together for the Pally, and I wouldn't have had that option without very careful planning of my gear choices. Let's say that I level as Ret this time out and then decided I wanted to heal or DPS. I wouldn't have the gear to do so effectively, so I would have to join groups as a Ret spec and roll on off-spec gear in order to get the stuff I'd need to even begin to try and learn how to tank/heal.
Given the lack of storage space, limited number of quest alternatives, and increasing abundance of specialized gear, it may be time for something to change.
- 18 mana/5s, on use 120 Haste Rating for 20 sec (2 min cooldown)
- 43 Crit rating, on use 183 damage for 20 sec (2 min cooldown)
I won't link the quest because I'm not sure if links to WoWhead's Wrath beta site will still work in a week, and because some of you may consider it a spoiler, but that's a real pair of reward choices.
Well, the Crit trinket looks like it was intended for DPS casters, and is an upgrade from my Airman's Ribbon, provided I remember to activate it. That said, trinkets with crit rating are much more common than trinkets with mana regen, at least as quest rewards, and the mana regen trinkets almost always force a choice like this one between a traditionally DPS trinket and a traditionally healing trinket (there's a very similar choice in the next zone over between mana regen and haste rating). If I take the crit trinket now, I'm going to replace it with another, better DPS trinket (perhaps even a week or two later), but the mana regen trinket could actually stay with me for use in a farming set.
You can't keep everything
Here's a picture of Cheerydeth's bank and bags from the Wrath Beta. I did opt to hold onto the starting DK gear for its distinct look, but basically I managed to fill up an entire bank - the main area plus seven expansion slots with 16+ slot bags in each - with gear. This isn't even all the quest rewards in Northrend - I had to vendor several bags worth in order to make room.
Cheery did enter Northrend with random level 66-68 quest reward gear, and I didn't really know enough about melee stats to do an effective job weeding out the upgrades. She also has a set of tanking gear and a set of spell damage gear (which doesn't actually benefit DK's, but I wanted to keep one for testing purposes). However, as I've noted before, Wrath uses more stats than TBC did, so even a veteran player is likely to find some upgrades, or at least situational items, pretty early on.
And so we get some tough choices. Do I want to be holding a mana regen set for farming? A spell hit set in case I ever wind up filling a loose spot in a pick up raid? A haste set in case I decide I want to conjure up food for the raid the old fashioned way? And, of course, as a "pure" DPS class, the mage's life is much easier than what the other classes face, with healing and tanking sets to accompany DPS and PVP.
Time for Trade-Ins?
Sunwell introduced the concept of vendors who would exchange raid loot for alternate variations of the item aimed at different specs. At the time, this was more of a way to stretch the loot table to accommodate hybrid specs, but it could, in principle, be used to allow players to trade in certain quest rewards. Obviously, that's not a decision to be taken lightly; allowing easy swapping out of quest rewards would make the decisions of which rewards to select a lot less meaningful. But what if there was a cost to balance the exchange? Say, for example, that the questgiver will only do me this favor if I'm exalted with their faction, and if I pay some fee?
Again, this is less of an issue for my mage, but a huge issue for my Pally - with proper reward choices, I was able to get a very decent tanking set together for the Pally, and I wouldn't have had that option without very careful planning of my gear choices. Let's say that I level as Ret this time out and then decided I wanted to heal or DPS. I wouldn't have the gear to do so effectively, so I would have to join groups as a Ret spec and roll on off-spec gear in order to get the stuff I'd need to even begin to try and learn how to tank/heal.
Given the lack of storage space, limited number of quest alternatives, and increasing abundance of specialized gear, it may be time for something to change.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Revamping Low Level Azeroth Would Take Time Blizz Doesn't Have
Lume the Mad has posted an excellent critique of the current state of sub-58 content in World of Warcraft. The post comes complete with maps that show exactly how much unnecessary travel (a favorite topic of mine) gets bundled into low level quests. Quest hubs and objectives are all over the place compared to TBC/Wrath, and, with new technologies introduced in Wrath, Lume argues that the time has come for Blizzard to revitalize this content with an ongoing revamp as a side project to the addition of new content. I agree that the need is significant, and that the changes Lume wants would address the problem. So what's my problem?
Blizzard's quest team tackles one project at a time
Lume correctly points out that the addition of new raids and PVP content does not necessarily conflict with revitalizing the old world of Azeroth. By and large, the guys who are trying to make sure that Kel'Thuzad is just challenging enough for an entry level 10 man group, or the guys who are trying to decide exactly which classes can counter exactly which forms of crowd control, are not the guys who are placing quest hubs. The conflict exists between having the quest team add new content and having them fix old content.
A few examples:
- In patch 2.3, Blizzard added a large number of low level quests to Dustwallow Marsh, re-itemized all the old world dungeons and significant numbers of old world quests, and rebalanced the exp curve. This patch did not contain significant amounts of level 70 quest content (perhaps the Cooking daily quests, if memory serves). Both patches 2.1 and 2.4 introduced significant daily quest hubs for level 70 characters. Neither introduced low-level content.
- TBC introduced 4 newbie zones and 2 newbie cities, along with 7 zones and one city in Outland for players who were already level 58+. Wrath introduces one semi-newbie zone (the DK starter area), along with 8-10 zones and one city in Northrend for players who were already level 68+.
We can't fully compare back to the pre-TBC era, since content patches of the day were a very different beast from today's mega-patch, but the clear trend is that time spent on low level content is time directly taken away from time spent on solo quest content for players' mains.
Making limited quest content go further
In response to my previous post, Doomdiver pointed out that more and more of the quests in the game these days are assigned by neutral questgivers, who point the Alliance and the Horde against the same common foe. Indeed, a significant majority of the content in the stretch from levels 75-80 is delivered via neutral questgivers. This, like Blizzard's decision to focus on content for characters who are already at the level cap when the expansion launches, is no accident.
Solo PVE is the factor that made the difference between WoW's 11 million players and the 110,000 players who would have made a hit MMORPG pre-2004. Lume argues that the issue is NOT that Blizzard isn't adding content (in probably the most heroic effort I've ever seen on the blogosphere for a comment response, Lume produced a list of over 100 things that have been added to the game through patches and expansions of the last four years), but rather that players aren't using all the content in the game. This isn't necessarily a matter of player choice - many players cannot make the commitment needed to offer a meaningful contribution to a raiding guild's progression - and it certainly isn't for lack of trying on Blizzard's part.
As I noted in my review of the Wrath beta, Wrath quests do everything in their power to lure players into more involved content. Major chains come to an abrupt end at zone lines of instances, until the player can find a group. Other quests flag PVE players for PVP in the hopes of fostering world PVP (good luck with that, Blizzard), and I'm sure there will be quests in Wrath, like TBC before it, that attempt to lead players from dungeons into raids. However, it's clear that Blizzard has acknowledged - in a way that they arguably hadn't back in 2005 - that some players simply aren't going to be willing or able to make that content jump.
So, Blizzard hits increasing pressure to make the quest content they are able to produce last. That means focusing on repeatable daily quests with rewards good enough to attract players to complete them, instead of non-repeatable level 40 quests that many players will literally never see. That means using more neutral factions so that players don't miss half the quest content in the expansion because they don't have an opposite faction alt. And yes, unfortunately, that means no time to fix the woes of low level Azeroth.
How can Blizzard make time to deal with Azeroth?
Instead of dealing with the content gap before level 58, Blizzard has been focusing on helping players burn past it quicker than ever. It now requires less exp to level. Players have more DPS as a result of revised talents and profession perks, and, once the expansion goes live, Heirloom items (which are, inexplicably, currently obtained solely through group PVE content). The expansion will also add a level 55 "Hero" class (it's no coincidence that they picked 55 - it's low enough that players will have to invest time leveling, but not so low that players have to deal with much pre-Outland content) to go with the recently added recruit a friend, get free exp promotion. But is there another way?
Perhaps part of the issue is that so many of the game's incentives, especially the solo-friendly ones such as reputation and achievements, reward focus on a single main. That's fine if you're already farming Sunwell; your main has all the progress it's going to get before the expansion, so you might as well go work on some alts. For everyone who hasn't maxxed out all the content the game provides, though, these systems provide a disincentive to playing additional characters. In that case, account-wide achievements might be able to help out.
Sure, you do get benefits from having a stable of alts now (perhaps you can get all the crafting professions your small army needs on your own account), but achievements for multiple level 80 characters, collecting all the professions, etc might help tip the scales in favor of spending more time on alts instead of less.
Ultimately, I still maintain that Blizzard has left themselves no choice but to allow players the option of level 55 non-DK's at some point in the next calendar year. The consequences of starting DK's, and only DK's, at that level will be too great for class balance to handle longterm. But even here, incentives may offer a solution. If your level 55 character starts with zero quests complete and no professions, that's certainly a bit of a handicap if you're going for the "complete 1000 quests on multiple characters" achievement line, no?
In short, I'm hopeful that account-wide achievements MIGHT be able to help whenever they roll out (perhaps as soon as patch 3.1, perhaps later). In the mean time, though, it is very hard to justify taking the time away from new content for existing characters to revamp content many players moved past for good, nearly four years ago now.
Blizzard's quest team tackles one project at a time
Lume correctly points out that the addition of new raids and PVP content does not necessarily conflict with revitalizing the old world of Azeroth. By and large, the guys who are trying to make sure that Kel'Thuzad is just challenging enough for an entry level 10 man group, or the guys who are trying to decide exactly which classes can counter exactly which forms of crowd control, are not the guys who are placing quest hubs. The conflict exists between having the quest team add new content and having them fix old content.
A few examples:
- In patch 2.3, Blizzard added a large number of low level quests to Dustwallow Marsh, re-itemized all the old world dungeons and significant numbers of old world quests, and rebalanced the exp curve. This patch did not contain significant amounts of level 70 quest content (perhaps the Cooking daily quests, if memory serves). Both patches 2.1 and 2.4 introduced significant daily quest hubs for level 70 characters. Neither introduced low-level content.
- TBC introduced 4 newbie zones and 2 newbie cities, along with 7 zones and one city in Outland for players who were already level 58+. Wrath introduces one semi-newbie zone (the DK starter area), along with 8-10 zones and one city in Northrend for players who were already level 68+.
We can't fully compare back to the pre-TBC era, since content patches of the day were a very different beast from today's mega-patch, but the clear trend is that time spent on low level content is time directly taken away from time spent on solo quest content for players' mains.
Making limited quest content go further
In response to my previous post, Doomdiver pointed out that more and more of the quests in the game these days are assigned by neutral questgivers, who point the Alliance and the Horde against the same common foe. Indeed, a significant majority of the content in the stretch from levels 75-80 is delivered via neutral questgivers. This, like Blizzard's decision to focus on content for characters who are already at the level cap when the expansion launches, is no accident.
Solo PVE is the factor that made the difference between WoW's 11 million players and the 110,000 players who would have made a hit MMORPG pre-2004. Lume argues that the issue is NOT that Blizzard isn't adding content (in probably the most heroic effort I've ever seen on the blogosphere for a comment response, Lume produced a list of over 100 things that have been added to the game through patches and expansions of the last four years), but rather that players aren't using all the content in the game. This isn't necessarily a matter of player choice - many players cannot make the commitment needed to offer a meaningful contribution to a raiding guild's progression - and it certainly isn't for lack of trying on Blizzard's part.
As I noted in my review of the Wrath beta, Wrath quests do everything in their power to lure players into more involved content. Major chains come to an abrupt end at zone lines of instances, until the player can find a group. Other quests flag PVE players for PVP in the hopes of fostering world PVP (good luck with that, Blizzard), and I'm sure there will be quests in Wrath, like TBC before it, that attempt to lead players from dungeons into raids. However, it's clear that Blizzard has acknowledged - in a way that they arguably hadn't back in 2005 - that some players simply aren't going to be willing or able to make that content jump.
So, Blizzard hits increasing pressure to make the quest content they are able to produce last. That means focusing on repeatable daily quests with rewards good enough to attract players to complete them, instead of non-repeatable level 40 quests that many players will literally never see. That means using more neutral factions so that players don't miss half the quest content in the expansion because they don't have an opposite faction alt. And yes, unfortunately, that means no time to fix the woes of low level Azeroth.
How can Blizzard make time to deal with Azeroth?
Instead of dealing with the content gap before level 58, Blizzard has been focusing on helping players burn past it quicker than ever. It now requires less exp to level. Players have more DPS as a result of revised talents and profession perks, and, once the expansion goes live, Heirloom items (which are, inexplicably, currently obtained solely through group PVE content). The expansion will also add a level 55 "Hero" class (it's no coincidence that they picked 55 - it's low enough that players will have to invest time leveling, but not so low that players have to deal with much pre-Outland content) to go with the recently added recruit a friend, get free exp promotion. But is there another way?
Perhaps part of the issue is that so many of the game's incentives, especially the solo-friendly ones such as reputation and achievements, reward focus on a single main. That's fine if you're already farming Sunwell; your main has all the progress it's going to get before the expansion, so you might as well go work on some alts. For everyone who hasn't maxxed out all the content the game provides, though, these systems provide a disincentive to playing additional characters. In that case, account-wide achievements might be able to help out.
Sure, you do get benefits from having a stable of alts now (perhaps you can get all the crafting professions your small army needs on your own account), but achievements for multiple level 80 characters, collecting all the professions, etc might help tip the scales in favor of spending more time on alts instead of less.
Ultimately, I still maintain that Blizzard has left themselves no choice but to allow players the option of level 55 non-DK's at some point in the next calendar year. The consequences of starting DK's, and only DK's, at that level will be too great for class balance to handle longterm. But even here, incentives may offer a solution. If your level 55 character starts with zero quests complete and no professions, that's certainly a bit of a handicap if you're going for the "complete 1000 quests on multiple characters" achievement line, no?
In short, I'm hopeful that account-wide achievements MIGHT be able to help whenever they roll out (perhaps as soon as patch 3.1, perhaps later). In the mean time, though, it is very hard to justify taking the time away from new content for existing characters to revamp content many players moved past for good, nearly four years ago now.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Predictions for World of Warcraft: The Clash of the Dragonflights
Tobold predicts that the next WoW expansion will hit in 2010, featuring another 10 levels, associated content, and a healing Hero class. I had decent luck with some very unambitious predictions for Blizzcon, so I say that the smart money is on slapping the title "The Emerald Nightmare" on that sucker and penciling it in for May 2010. But that's boring, so let's talk about a slightly more ambitious idea that isn't so much more work that it'd be beyond what Blizzard would be willing to consider: The Clash of the Dragonflights.
Why it won't be WoW: Murloc Maelstrom Menace
Before we get there, a few words on the only obvious alternative. One could very easily imagine an expansion set under the Maelstrom in which players fight the Naga and the Murlocs. Presumably the Goblin homeland, Undermine (on an island south of the Maelstrom) would be the capitol of this expansion, and there would be demand for playable Goblins (perhaps with the choice of which faction to join). I think this one will happen, but not this time. After two expansions with new continents, I think they'll want to do something slightly different. Also, there's nothing I saw in the Wrath beta to suggest that the Naga arc is moving forward this expansion. Going to the Maelstrom, which isn't really iconic in the previous games the way Illidan and Arthas were, right now would seem a bit out of the blue. (/pun)
The Emerald Dream
The Emerald Dream is kind of a parallel Azeroth, with a focus on nature. We've had ongoing plots from the original WoW suggesting that bad things are underfoot in the Dream, and those arcs continue in Wrath. Because it is a parallel world, Blizzard would essentially be taking existing terrain and making it greener and more overgrown - this is an appealing prospect given the length of time it's taken Blizzard to develop content. We also have a total of four portals that could lead into the Dream in Azeroth, currently home to the Green Dragon portals. Finally, the focus on druids would help to fit a healing-themed Hero class into the lore. Thus, this is viewed as the most natural place to stick the next expansion. (/pun)
Why don't I think Blizzard should stop with The Dream/Nightmare (which, again, they might)? Well, there shouldn't be much civilization in there, and I suspect that Blizzard will not want to make an entire expansion out of zones that are green. So where could they get more material to add some variety to the game?
Deathwing, the Undying?
Deathwing is the father of the Black Dragonflight, and he is supposedly still out there, messing with the Netherdrakes. Certainly not enough to base an entire expansion on, but he could set up shop in some currently un-utilised corner of the map (perhaps the dead World Tree in present day Hyjal could play a role in reviving him, more on this in a minute) and become a raid boss. (I'm sorry, I can't think of any good puns here. :()
The Bronze and the Infinite Dragonflights Fight for Time
Tobold suggested that what he would really want to see would be an expansion set in WoW's future that replaces most of the current content (effectively making WoW into its own sequel). I don't think that will happen as he suggests, but there IS a perfectly good mechanism for moving the timeline into the future via the Caverns of Time and the struggle between the Infinite Dragonflight (which is trying to mess with the timeline) and the Bronze flight (trying to preserve it). Perhaps all the loot that players have been pocketing while messing around in the past was supposed to play some role in the future, and now the players themselves will need to jump ahead to make sure that the leader of the Infinite Flight dies when he's supposed to.
Like the Emerald Dream idea, this would allow the zone designers to recycle terrain, and hopefully shorten the dev cycle. The expansion probably still won't be out for the Holidays in '09, but it could come out in time for early 2010. (The /puns are back!) That way, we'd be looking at 2 expansions in three years instead of two years per expansion.
Bringing it all together
So, what do all these dragon arcs have in common? Well, the Dragonflights are all united in trying to stop Malygos and the Blue flight at the moment, so perhaps their enemies will view now as the time to strike. The zone geography team could spend the time they save by recycling zones making old world Azeroth flyable (like it or hate it, it's going to make less and less sense for flying mounts to be able to follow you everywhere except the old world), and we would presumably see more of the dragon-riding mechanic that's in some of the dungeons of Wrath as players side with one of the good (or at least less evil) Flights.
Blizzard has previously hesitated on the flight issue due to the time, and the need to fill out some missing zones of the old world (notably present-day Hyjal), but there's no reason why Deathwing and/or the Infinite Flight can't take up residence in these areas. With maybe 1-2 new zones, it would be easy to get together the requisite 7-9 zones total - we would have Duskwood, Winterspring, Ashenvale, and Ferelas for the Green Dragon portals, perhaps a pre-Sundering version of Azshara via the CoT to set the stage for the Maelstrom expansion down the line, 1-2 future zones, and, just like that, they're already done. Players would be spread out in a bunch of disconnected zones instead of united on one new continent, but I'm sure Blizzard would love the opportunity to have players traveling through the increasingly deserted old world of Azeroth to get from zone to zone.
Realistically? Expect the Emerald Nightmare in mid-late 2010. Which is too bad, because The Clash of the Dragonflights would be fun. If I were sitting around bored in late 2009 - wondering should I stay or should I go (one last /pun for the road!) - a far-reaching, time-spanning war against the dragons would be a lot more to look forward to than an entire expansion done in overgrown green.
Why it won't be WoW: Murloc Maelstrom Menace
Before we get there, a few words on the only obvious alternative. One could very easily imagine an expansion set under the Maelstrom in which players fight the Naga and the Murlocs. Presumably the Goblin homeland, Undermine (on an island south of the Maelstrom) would be the capitol of this expansion, and there would be demand for playable Goblins (perhaps with the choice of which faction to join). I think this one will happen, but not this time. After two expansions with new continents, I think they'll want to do something slightly different. Also, there's nothing I saw in the Wrath beta to suggest that the Naga arc is moving forward this expansion. Going to the Maelstrom, which isn't really iconic in the previous games the way Illidan and Arthas were, right now would seem a bit out of the blue. (/pun)
The Emerald Dream
The Emerald Dream is kind of a parallel Azeroth, with a focus on nature. We've had ongoing plots from the original WoW suggesting that bad things are underfoot in the Dream, and those arcs continue in Wrath. Because it is a parallel world, Blizzard would essentially be taking existing terrain and making it greener and more overgrown - this is an appealing prospect given the length of time it's taken Blizzard to develop content. We also have a total of four portals that could lead into the Dream in Azeroth, currently home to the Green Dragon portals. Finally, the focus on druids would help to fit a healing-themed Hero class into the lore. Thus, this is viewed as the most natural place to stick the next expansion. (/pun)
Why don't I think Blizzard should stop with The Dream/Nightmare (which, again, they might)? Well, there shouldn't be much civilization in there, and I suspect that Blizzard will not want to make an entire expansion out of zones that are green. So where could they get more material to add some variety to the game?
Deathwing, the Undying?
Deathwing is the father of the Black Dragonflight, and he is supposedly still out there, messing with the Netherdrakes. Certainly not enough to base an entire expansion on, but he could set up shop in some currently un-utilised corner of the map (perhaps the dead World Tree in present day Hyjal could play a role in reviving him, more on this in a minute) and become a raid boss. (I'm sorry, I can't think of any good puns here. :()
The Bronze and the Infinite Dragonflights Fight for Time
Tobold suggested that what he would really want to see would be an expansion set in WoW's future that replaces most of the current content (effectively making WoW into its own sequel). I don't think that will happen as he suggests, but there IS a perfectly good mechanism for moving the timeline into the future via the Caverns of Time and the struggle between the Infinite Dragonflight (which is trying to mess with the timeline) and the Bronze flight (trying to preserve it). Perhaps all the loot that players have been pocketing while messing around in the past was supposed to play some role in the future, and now the players themselves will need to jump ahead to make sure that the leader of the Infinite Flight dies when he's supposed to.
Like the Emerald Dream idea, this would allow the zone designers to recycle terrain, and hopefully shorten the dev cycle. The expansion probably still won't be out for the Holidays in '09, but it could come out in time for early 2010. (The /puns are back!) That way, we'd be looking at 2 expansions in three years instead of two years per expansion.
Bringing it all together
So, what do all these dragon arcs have in common? Well, the Dragonflights are all united in trying to stop Malygos and the Blue flight at the moment, so perhaps their enemies will view now as the time to strike. The zone geography team could spend the time they save by recycling zones making old world Azeroth flyable (like it or hate it, it's going to make less and less sense for flying mounts to be able to follow you everywhere except the old world), and we would presumably see more of the dragon-riding mechanic that's in some of the dungeons of Wrath as players side with one of the good (or at least less evil) Flights.
Blizzard has previously hesitated on the flight issue due to the time, and the need to fill out some missing zones of the old world (notably present-day Hyjal), but there's no reason why Deathwing and/or the Infinite Flight can't take up residence in these areas. With maybe 1-2 new zones, it would be easy to get together the requisite 7-9 zones total - we would have Duskwood, Winterspring, Ashenvale, and Ferelas for the Green Dragon portals, perhaps a pre-Sundering version of Azshara via the CoT to set the stage for the Maelstrom expansion down the line, 1-2 future zones, and, just like that, they're already done. Players would be spread out in a bunch of disconnected zones instead of united on one new continent, but I'm sure Blizzard would love the opportunity to have players traveling through the increasingly deserted old world of Azeroth to get from zone to zone.
Realistically? Expect the Emerald Nightmare in mid-late 2010. Which is too bad, because The Clash of the Dragonflights would be fun. If I were sitting around bored in late 2009 - wondering should I stay or should I go (one last /pun for the road!) - a far-reaching, time-spanning war against the dragons would be a lot more to look forward to than an entire expansion done in overgrown green.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
The Plate Skirt of Undead Gear Reset and Pally Balance Antics
My Paladin has a kilt that is apparently made out of plate mail. Thanks to the PVE portion of the otherwise canceled Scourge Invasion my Pally, yes, the one who managed to become Uncrushable pre-patch 3.0 despite a remarkable allergy to any instanced content whatsoever, is suddenly wearing 3/4 pieces of an epic set after getting a lucky pant drop off of a rare spawn.
Overall, it took about two hours or so to farm up enough necrotic runes to buy up the two vendor-based piece of the set, and the coveted Argent Dawn Tabard. This also means I get a palette swap of the amusing Judgment set shoulders, which have daggers mounted on them for no discernible reason; players have quipped that Pallies don't know what else to do with the things, since they aren't proficient.
Sure, I suppose the gear is only ilvl 115, but it's better than the rep-based PVP set items I was wearing in those slots, but still, this kind of extremely rapid progression is only possible the week before a gear reset. Ah well, free loot for all I suppose. Overall, the look is visually distinct enough that I may keep all of the items around, even at level 80, just because.
The State of the Ret Pally
Much has been written on the subject of recent Paladin nerfs. Rohan is better qualified to summarize than I, so the short form is that Ghostcrawler made an unfortunate remark about nerfing Retribution to the ground right before actually doing so. There are a number of thoughtful suggestions on how to get the balance right, but it appears that Blizzard simply has no idea what they're doing with this particular class' balance.
Of course, this isn't the first class that was allowed to stay massively overpowered and then abruptly nerfed during beta - Death Knights suffered the same fate a bit over a month ago. And, contrary to popular belief, Wrath is still in beta with balancing in progress and everything. The fact that they put a slightly outdated beta build on the live servers is partially due to the competition and partially due to wanting to get the worst of the stress testing done before the formal retail launch of the expansion so they can claim the expansion launch went smoothly.
(Blizzard did issue a three day time credit to NA and EU accounts for the downtime, which may or may not be enough, but it's an impressive gesture when you figure that these two regions probably contain something like 5-6 million players paying $0.50 - or more in Europe - per day. This decision may have literally cost them over $10 million.)
What is stunning is that they didn't get the nerfs out of the way BEFORE putting the build live. Like I said, I was there when a class I was playing got nerfed to the ground, but at least they got it over with in the space of two builds (around a week apart). Sure, the beta is relatively public knowledge, so there would still have been outcry, but at least they wouldn't have come off looking like they don't know what they're doing.
The sad part? I don't have the faintest idea about PVP or group content, but, as a solo player, Ret is much more interesting now than it was pre-3.0. Before, ret felt very boring to me, because it was just a question of watching your character autoattack to see if Seal of Command proced. Now, you actually get to push three separate spells (Judgment of Wisdom, Crusader Strike, and Divine Storm) as often as their cooldowns allow with zero downtime and better DPS than the old Command+autoattack routine. As Altitis puts it, the changes feel good, which would have counted for something with the community if Blizzard hadn't totally dropped the ball with balancing.
The other issue is that it no longer makes any sense to grind with any less than 33 points in Retribution (for Judgments of the Wise, which is what pays for all of the mana used in the above combo). I hope they fix this at some point, but it appears more likely that they're just going to do what Altitis feared a few weeks back: Stall til 3.1 comes out and then tell unhappy Prot/Holy specs to use their second spec slot for ret. That would be very disappointing and, therefore, par for the course.
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