Biggs' Zone

A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

Category: World of Warcraft Page 12 of 13

WoW: Patch 5.0.4 Impressions

By

On September 7, 2012

In World of Warcraft

The latest content patch has been out nearly two weeks and by now everyone should have picked their new talents and glyphs for pretty much all of their toons. This patch brought a lot of changes to the game including the revamped talent system, which I’m still on the fence about. I felt a little bummed when my warlock hit 83 the other day and I was all excited about setting a talent point but then remembered I don’t get to do that until 85. I have not had an opportunity yet to try out any of the new rotations to get a sense of whether the specs I chose for my classes match my play style. I imagine that I may have to spend some cash changing my talents around until I find something that best suits me.

I’m also curious how this will change the concept of theorycrafting. I thought one of the motivations behind Blizzard’s decision to change the talent system was to prevent players from being forced to use a specific spec. It always annoyed me when I would get a whisper from someone while in a LFG dungeon that I should have put X number of points in Y talent.

I think one of my favorite changes are the changes to the minor glyphs. Instead of utility, for the most part, they are just goofy, cosmetic changes. I really think it adds more depth to the customization of your character. They saved the major glyphs for game play modification. Expect to see things like your shadow orbs appear as shadow ravens, polymorph porcupine, charge leaves a trail of flames, four wings with avenger’s wrath, etc. I could go on forever so log in and check it out.

There is so much more going on with this patch that I don’t think I could possibly cover it all without causing your eyes to glaze over and decrease your heart rate. Overall I’m pretty satisfied with the changes with this patch and it does make me a bit more excited for the Mists expansion. If you have been away from the game for a while, I would come back and check out the latest changes, you might be pleasantly surprised.

Cheers!

WoW: Turned Off By Legendaries

By

On August 21, 2012

In World of Warcraft

So when Mists of Pandaria goes live, and everyone starts leveling and raiding again, the angst of acquiring the new shiney legendary will begin and I fear the worst. I don’t really fear for our guild because we are all pretty reasonable adults, but I can already see the drama starting now in the community as a whole. It will envelop hundreds and thousands of players. People will be crying endlessly because they were not chosen to receive the required widgets that must be collected to progress through the quest line. I don’t think Blizzard is quite prepared for the swell of controversy by creating a legendary for all classes.

I’m sure there will be several that have staked claim on a legendary “since level 10” and they will not acquiesce quietly.

Personally I’m not going to get caught up in it because I stand by my belief that a legendary item is merely a luxury item so I could care less. As history has shown us through all the previous expansions, you must have completed the raid to even complete the questline to obtain the legendary and most of the time the bosses need to be farmed for several weeks to acquire all the little bobbles needed for the quest. Therefore any claim that obtaining the legendary for any role within a raid/party will make a significant impact in progression is ludicrous. In fact, as far as my personal opinion goes, anyone that makes that claim should automatically be exempt from the list of potential recipients of said legendary.

Something else that makes legendary weapons pointless is that they become obsolete quicker then it takes to obtain them. Unless you are part of a basement dwelling hardcore raiding guild, you won’t complete the quests and construction of it until just as the next content is about to be released. I think its stupid that Blizzard doesn’t allow you to use it for transmog so really you are just obtaining a Feat-of-Strength achievement and/or unlocking some other frivolity. In fact I don’t think I will even finish the construction of Shadowmourne because I can use Shadow’s Edge for future transmogs.

So someone please explain to me any other purpose for obtaining a legendary other then for touting your epeen? I’m open minded enough to listen and discern any logical and practical application or usage.

Biggs On: Why I Still Play WoW

By

On July 9, 2012

In Biggs On, World of Warcraft

I decided that since I wrote a post on why I still play The Old Republic, I thought perhaps I should do the same for World of Warcraft. I actually have an active subscription for both games. I have been playing WoW since it was a year old and I have many friends (most of which I know in their physical form) that are still playing as well. Most of us are on the same server and in the same guild. We don’t care about how our guild does compared to other guilds on the server, we just play to hang out. We all know that we have our own lives and that sometimes we can’t log in and raid because life happens.

My friends are predominately the reason I still play WoW, but there are other facets of the game that I still enjoy. I know the game has changed tremendously since vanilla and many people have criticized Blizzard for making those changes. While I understand their viewpoint, I think they are being a bit obtuse. The game has to evolve. Only a small percentage of the player base were experiencing the bulk of the content, if Blizzard hadn’t evolved the game to appeal to more players the game would have died years ago. I’m glad they got rid of 40-man raids and implemented 10-man raids. I love the dungeon finder tool and transmog. All of these changes improved the quality of life of the game and are the other reasons I keep logging in.

I doubt I will play WoW until the servers shut down, it all depends on what life brings for me and my friends. Despite my feelings for the name of the expansion, odds are that I will be playing Mists of Pandaria. I’m not really looking forward to the changes to the talent system but I’m sure I will adjust, just as I did for all the other expansions where they made dramatic changes. In a few days it will seem natural again and I’m willing to give the new talent system a chance. Perhaps after 6 years of trying to meticulously construct the perfect build, it will be nice to only have to worry about six talents.

I’m also kind of a fan of the Asian culture and I’ve always been a big martial arts fan. I’m looking forward to making my own “kung fu panda”, I’m already working on some names so I will be ready at launch. I don’t know if I am going to buy the collector’s edition. I’m not sure that I am as much into the game as I was for Lich King and Cataclysm. I might just buy the digital version instead of going to Best Buy at midnight.

Blizzard has done a fantastic job with World of Warcraft and I’m glad that I chose to make it my hobby because I have made some terrific friends. It’s also been fun to unexpectedly meet a complete stranger because they yelled “For The Horde!” when they saw your Blizzard t-shirt.

Cheers!

WoW: Why I’m Not Going to Beta MoP

By

On March 21, 2012

In Gaming, MMORPG, World of Warcraft

I suppose it wouldn’t be completely accurate to say that I won’t opt-in for the Mists of Pandaria beta, I probably will. In fact I may even log in to check it out, but I probably won’t do any long term testing of the expansion. In fact I probably won’t participate in any beta for a game (or expansion) that I intend to play when it goes live. I have decided this after playing the beta for SWTOR.

I discovered, after participating in the SWTOR for nearly 8 months, that once the game goes live, it starts to feel stale pretty quick. Granted there are some subtle changes and sometimes that is good and sometimes, not so good. For example, in SWTOR there was a preference in the Social options that I used all the time while I was in the beta, but when the game went live, they took it out. I never found out why but I was pretty disappointed to find it missing.

Eventually SWTOR became exciting again after I leveled past all the quests that I had already done repeatedly (because of data resets) in the beta. Be that as it may, I would still like to avoid that kind of repetition especially in an expansion where the level cap is only increased by five (which means there will already be some repetition, relatively quickly, when I start leveling the alts). I hope that I don’t discourage anyone else from participating in a beta. The beta test is an extremely important part of software development and the more people that participate the better the user experience will be (in theory) when the product goes live. It is also kind of fun to say that you had participated in the beta of a popular game.

Cheers!

WoW: Wrath Still the Favorite

By

On March 13, 2012

In Gaming, World of Warcraft

I haven’t written too many blog posts about World of Warcraft. Most of my ramblings have been about gaming in general or SWTOR (when I was in the beta), so its kind of fun to blog about the game that really started it all (for me).

I have now played vanilla (though I did not reach max level before the expansion), Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King and now Cataclysm. I have watched the game change tremendously and I have tried to follow the lore throughout each expansion. I have been following along as more information about Mists of Pandaria is unveiled. I think, among all of the expansions (past and future), Wrath of the Lich King is still my favorite.

I played Warcraft III several times before and during college so I think that is why I enjoyed the lore so much in Wrath of the Lich King. The addition of the Death Knight as a playable class added an ironic twist to the story and the quest to defeat Arthas. I loved doing the quests specifically to follow the story and the lore and the homages it payed to Warcraft III. Every time you left Eastern Kingdoms (or Kalimdor) it felt like an expedition to Northrend, just as Arthas did (before he went totally nutz). Dalaran was, and still is, my favorite capital city. I still have my hearth set there for several of my toons. Sometimes its depressing to be there and see it so empty. I think that Ulduar and Icecrown Citadel are still the best raid instances in the game.

As WoW is declining in popularity, I think the timing of its decline is somewhat fitting. Despite the fact that Cataclysm brought many features players were clamoring for (ex: flight on the original continents), from a lore perspective I kind of feel like Wrath of the Lich King was the final chapter. It ended one of the biggest story lines in Warcraft lore. I would go so far as to say that any expansion that follows Wrath of the Lich King is just an appendix because its hard to imagine that any expansion could be better … unless there is an expansion dedicated to the Emerald Dream/Nightmare.

Or, maybe one day we will have to return to Northred … after all there always must be a Lich King 🙂

Cheers!

Bioware Has Blizzard Scared

By

On October 23, 2011

In Gaming, SWTOR, World of Warcraft

So I have been watching Blizzcon to see all the new things Blizzard is introducing with their various gaming franchises. I think the biggest news from Blizzcon this year is the concept of the World of Warcraft Annual Pass where anyone who commits to keeping WoW for a year will receive Diablo 3 for free and a guaranteed entry into the Mists of Pandaria beta.

I thought that was a pretty bold move by Blizzard and then it occurred to me, I think this is a tactic to combat the release of Star Wars. I think Blizzard is actually scared about losing players to Star Wars. So much so that they want players to commit to playing their game for a year, and if you do, they will let you play their other game for free. I know that quite a few of the Blizzard employees are Star Wars fans, they have made many comments during other Blizzcons and there is the various Star Wars references in the game (ex: an NPC named Landoo). So I know they have been following the development of SWTOR just as much as the rest of us have been following (obsessively?) it.

I don’t know if any of you watched the in-depth coverage of Mists of Pandaria but some of the Monk abilities seem to have a Star Wars influence. The Monks have a Holy Power-like resource called Dark/Light Force and the Death Knights are getting a new ability called Asphyxiate. Asphyxiate is a new silence ability where the Death Knight chokes the target while lifting them in the air … seems blatantly obvious.

Perhaps Blizzard is trying to increase the Star Wars influence in the game to keep players from going to SWTOR. I’m sure that’s just wild conjecture but its hard to deny suspicion when some of these mechanics are “lovingly” ripped off from Star Wars.

Despite their best efforts, World of Warcraft will never be Star Wars. I’m sorry Bilzzard but no matter how close a Gamorrean is to an Orc, the two will never be the same. If Star Wars fans want to play SWTOR, they will play SWTOR regardless of the fact that a Death Knight can do a Force Choke.

Cheers!

Page 12 of 13

Previous

Next

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén