WoW Expac?

Surprised no comments yet, given as many as have been online. Looking forward to your thoughts.

Awright, I'll respond to my own damn post, as Koko is all of level 93 at this point.

A few things I have confirmed:

--http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2014/11/19/world-of-warcraft-tops-10-million-subscribers-following-warlords-of-draenor-expansion/

--Back over 10 million subscribers after dipping to around 7 million. For all of the chat and wanking online about "dead" servers or overpopulated ones...WoW has always oscillated between 7 and 15 million players. Didn't get the huge bump they may have wanted, but word of mouth is a powerful thing among gamers.

--This garrison thing rocks. I play Clash of Clans, Boom Beach, Samurai Siege, and Knights vs Dragons pretty routinely. If you want to play a LOT, you game pretty constantly. If you want to play a little, you log in twice a day for a few minutes each to keep your plots growing along. If WoW releases an app that would allow you to just do your garrison shit from a smartphone, it would freaking OWN. Basically, minions to do all of the menial shit that consumed your online TIME previously. Mining. Farming cloth. Getting gem mats. Getting gear. Reminiscent of construction days from the era of Actraiser.

--Endgame content. More to follow. Ange and I are enjoying the leveling more than previous xpacs.

--Story. Holy shit. LOVING the backstory on Draenor, the Frostwolf, etc. Hoping it culminates in the sort of epic-ness that marked WotLK, regarding how the face of the Outlands changed. Something cataclysmic, I hope.

--Toys. As you all know, I loved to collect random shit on Koko. Now, rather than occupying over 50 bag spaces, they go into a toy submenu and are no longer in your inventory. Oh, and you get 100 additional slots in your vault for crafting mats...which can be used FROM THE VAULT to craft anytime, anywhere. Ange is pleased.

--Gear creep. Everything you owned previously has been retooled. I logged in, expected my few-hundred k hp, 300k mana, and gear that smoked everything near me from Lei-Shen days...and found that my gear stats were almost identical to endgame WotLK stats. Sporting 77k hp at 90, only 113k hp now, and every level all of my awesome shadowpriest toys from 90 get a little weaker. Haven't replaced any gear yet, but given that every question completion / item drop has the likelihood of upgrading to the next tier, it's kinda cool to be building back up to a REASONABLE level of power.

--Playstyles. Looks like several classes got retooled, and I suspect some of these "new" capabilities will translate into new methods of playing. "Multistrike" on weapons I see drop for casters. Melee weapons that have a chance to proc for damage. Ange's boomchicken only needs one wrath to swing the pendulum to 100%. Took a LOT of hybrid chickenshit out of the game. As a shadowpriest, I can no longer cast ANY meaningful heals AT ALL...not just in shadowform, I mean in the SPEC. I come out of shadow to cast prayer, and I no longer have renew. The ONLY way I can self-heal is to suck life out of things with vampiric touch, or shield myself proactively. Makes this lil hybrid considerably more dependent on healers. Kinda feels like they ditched some of the bullshit. Haven't tried healing specs yet.

--NOT liking the art. The whole raw, primal thing just smacks of lazy design to me. Sorry, preference thang. I liked the crispness of armors and weapons from DAOC.

--Cutscenes are cool, relevant, and tell the story EFFECTIVELY.

--Digging the homage to Homer during a couple of the bigger battles. Very visceral, very primal, very...Iliad.

--Laggy to limber. It's a week after release, and the DDOS attacks have been thwarted, Blizz has been patching routinely, and the hiccups that plagued the first couple days (getting booted when hitting your garrison server, etc) have been largely fixed. Smooth rollout, in comparison to...well, everything.


Planning to make some fire this weekend, brew some schnapps, clean the house, and geek my ass off. Looking forward to seeing plenty of you pogues online, wherever

J

I have not played the expansion but I can't stand to see you talking to yourself.

Can you own a pirate ship from which you can kill other players and take their crafting materials that they spent time farming? Can you roam the massive ocean landscape looking for fishing holes that net you large quantities of gold when turned in(assuming someone does not punch you in the face and steal your fish)? Can you also take the air breathers from your ship and spend your time searching the ocean bottom for treasure found in old ship wrecks? Can you kill pirate lords until your eyes bleed and eventually own "The Black Pearl"? Can you skip all PvP and focus on crafting best in slot items and selling them for large quantities of gold to support your large house and farming operations? Can you build a truly custom character using your choice of 3 out of 10 possible class trees resulting in 120 unique classes? If the answer to any of these is no then I fear you might be playing the wrong game.

Archeage has some flaws. So did Daoc. I stand firm in saying this is the most awesome MMO experience I have had since Daoc.

Too much like my reality in the Mediterranean Sea. Hunt, board, sink. At least the piracy chain of command is the most honest form of governance in the world. Provide booty, stay in command

May get into it at some point.

Next update.

--Growing a little more disenchanted with the storyline now that I am out of content...a week after starting. Oh, and level 100 btw. No more quests.

--Apparently some dungeons, still have to get to heroic modes...a 40-man MC comprised of some of the most AFK pogues you have ever seen (still haven't attempted, just hearing horror stories from Krosa).

--Fishing has been retooled a little. Not so much lag between casts, and the fish contribute HANDILY to first aid (healing potions) as well as cooking (every dish you can think of). Enjoying it.

--Buggy achievements. Finished Gorgrond, but Supporting Your Garrison isn't crediting completion. Known bug. Also, one bonus fight up in NE Nagrand isn't registering as complete despite all elements being complete.

Planning to blow up a LOT of silver elite NPCs tonight, now that my NPCscan is working.

Hrm. I have been playing a week, am sitting at ilevel 609 (610 required for heroics), putting up 8-10k dps without wearing half of the gear giving me that ilevel (on account of me wanting to have my 20% bonus mind blast damage and my 30% haste buff from my head gem)...when I realized that current endgame gear has no head gems.

--Somewhat disenchanted. I mean, Thunder Isle/Timeless Isle damn near had as much CONTENT. I think there's plenty of additional content to plug in at this point, but damn...THIS is what I've been waiting for, for a year?

--The garrison concept is going to force you to level about 3 (maybe 4) toons to keep a running harvest going, on all skills...which allows you 3 of each profession boutique at endgame. Honestly, strategically, think I will first level my toons far enough to get their garrison...and then I may just fish/cook on each for xp/mats/gold and to level their followers. Yes, I may literally FARM while waiting for content. Or play LOTRO. Or Archeage. Or Dragon Age: Inquisition. Or Diablo III. Probably in that order.

--Short of running 5-man heroics with the guys geared enough to handle it...really nothing to do once you hit 100. PvP. Collect pets. Meh.

--NO FLYING AT 100. Really sucks. I get they want you to EXPERIENCE the content...but damn, ground mounts.

--First raid (non 40-man MC) is coming out next week. If they roll out the amount of content that they did with WotLK and Pandaria, things will be good.

--Respecced my 2nd spec to holy last night. The ease of the playstyle will probably permit me to rock it again...however, the stat priority is WHACKED relative to shadow...so bear with. Pretty sure I can keep our tanks up in heroics even now...was off-shielding a tank in a non-heroic UBS last night and kept him from dying...repeatedly...with a monk healer. Greater heal is GONE from all specs btw. New hotness is the old hotness...which I kinda liked, except for a 1s cast time on PoM now.

--Gotta figure out what the daily battle rhythm looks like at 100 now. What rep quests should I run (in order to get some blueprints, btw)? What dungeons can I find my good gear in? Is it worth it to craft the 665 gear, if the next patch will make it as passé as Timeless Isle?

--Holler if you need components. I had 3 super cooling tubes drop during my leveling, and a single coolant gem. Still need the other components (of 4) to make the cooler...and my auctioneer needs 5 total components before he is active in my garrison. Love to trade/barter/give away as needed. Don't think I will get the 68k the first seller was asking for his...heh.

--Check out everyone in your garrison and at the Warspear camp in Ashran...lots of vendors and functions not previously explained. Pays to know what you can trade/make, etc. Hell, Ange told me that I could ALSO use my blueprint books to purchase blueprints...not just via gold. Know where you primal spirit vendor is?

--At some point will write a guide leveling to 100, but right now I am still spinning just a bit.

Sweet, the more I learn, the more stuff there is to pursue.

--Garrison upgrades. Looks like you can have 2 large, 2 medium, and 3 small at tier 3. Going with Barracks and War Mill for larges...Trading Post and Tavern for medium...and tailor, gem, and salvage yard for small. Need about 200 more resources to start my great hall upgrade to tier 3, and unlock the menagerie.

--Reputation. Something like 6 factions so far, and you need 3 at exalted to get your blueprints for your level 3 trading post (muy importante if you got a trading post as your building). Haven't started my rep grind yet, as I was waiting to get my trading post to level 3 for the 20% rep increase...oh, wait. Yeah.

--Followers. This morning, my minions went out and managed to get me 2 gear upgrades...which will permit me to enter heroic dungeons now. Good times.

--JP posted a couple "must-have" addons for anyone in the new zones: Draenor Treasures and Rare Finder. Get them. Why? Because NPCscan is doing a shitty job of tracking what you've already killed, and there are LITERALLY like 200 treasures scattered about the new zones. Make your own maps and spreadsheets if you'd rather be a purist. I wants my loots.

My ardor is rapidly cooling. Massive DDoS...or maybe...a completely fucked up first raid release. Blizz is still researching...

ZZZ. I know I won't get money back for their fucked up server issues.

Sounds like it was a bad weekend for MMO's and down times. AA was down for almost 2 days. Waiting on the compensation now. Wonder what it will be! HMMM?

Cake or cock...and I hear they're fresh outta cake!

Lucky for me I like both?

Hawt.

/begin rant

So here's a little something to remind guildies of when new xpacs hit...

DoTters...warlocks, spriests, and to some degree boomkin...will take TIME to spool up to the point of exceeding your fucking melee burst damage.

When you have a group consisting of 2 melee (tank and MDPS) and a hunter...you might get ONE buff out of them...two if you're lucky (monk/druid/pally); NEITHER of which buffs intellect or spell power, etc. All of which buffs them.

So you and that huntard are the only other RDPS...and he wears MAIL to your CLOTH...good luck with your survivability given your offspec healing nerfs.

EVERY class (including warlock) has significant BURST DPS right now. Guess who doesn't anymore?

Guess who has the WORST AoE in the game?

Guess who looks like he's a fucking loser EVERY TRASH PULL?

Guess who got booted from a group today for putting up low numbers on trash? Guess who got booted for putting up low numbers on a boss, as the only member of the group that MOVED to execute the FIGHT DYNAMIC so that others could continue DPSing? Guess who DIDN'T get a rez before the group voted to boot?

/end rant

So please, be kind to your spriest...so they don't go off the chain and murder every last motherfucking one of you cocksuckers

Chumming for sharks with the blood of your enemies.

Me? Nah.... I was just hanging out... this seemed like a safe place to loiter.