Personal Space?

So this morning I went to my usual afk spot in Dal to grab some coffee. This horde troll on his ravasuar follows me and sits right on top of me.

Then, two alliance on their wintersabers followed him and soon enough they were all crowding around me.

I started to get really uncomfortable. Why are they all gathered around me? I didn't get a chance to ask the troll what he was up to, as he ran off before I could tag his name. It all left me feeling bewildered and confused.

If it's just a game, how come my personal space threshold felt threatened by having strangers surround me for me no stated reason?

So maybe not getting the T8 was a good thing?

It's been reported before, but the T8 4pc set is getting nerfed, at least it is being tested as a nerf. Many sides argued if this was a good or a bad thing.

I passed on a lot of the tokens because we had so many DKs, Mages, Rogues that getting their dps up seemed more important to me than looking good on the healing meter. Many of them were either new to the guild, rerollers, or otherwise had to take a break from the game and came back undergeared.

We do have a druid with the 4pc and it has greatly improved his overall healing. In this regard, I see the nerf as something that will hurt our healing team.

At the rate these instance have been coming out, I am actually happy now to not be tied down by set bonuses.

I don't like all the crit on the T9. I love my yummy haste too much, especially as a raid healer. Now that the tokens are generic and available for all classes, which I think should drop two not one per boss, I'm even less inclined to scramble for my set pieces.

I am going to have to disagree with Lissanna here: I don't have the T8 and I still throw Rejuv around on everyone for my raid healing, at least in Ulduar. Maybe I am behind the times during our ToC raids and should be using regrowth more. The faction champion fight comes to mind as far as changing my healing style. Something more bursty is needed. In this I agree with Lissanna, that being more than a two button healer something druids need to move to.

If the Idol is any indication, they still want rejuv to be a solid hot to keep on the target. A free, trinket like spell power bonus is just too freaking good. I pray to the game gods that it won't be nerfed.

I will still be employing the method I did for Ulduar, going for incremental upgrades instead of saving up everything for set bonuses.

Will you stay Tauren/Night Elf?

They are hoping to add race changes along with faction changes in the near future. Which got me thinking... do I want to stay a cow?

The alliance kind of got lucky here and have their new race, the Worgen, able to be druids. This is a yummy blend of all that is shapeshift-y and I think it's cool. On the Horde side of things, Trolls will be able to rock it with the claws, feathers or leaves. (See the chart for more a visual look at the class/race combos)

I believe they said that they were looking into different looks for the new races as they shapeshift into druid forms. It would be a stretch to have a troll druid have horns in Cat form (tusks now on top of the head?) so having a unique look makes sense.

Am I on board with Trolls being druids now? Kind of. I wish it were Orcs, as being tied to the elements seems a smoother transition to being tied with nature. However, Trolls are one of the oldest races in Azeroth (and the least played) and a sense of evolving past their cannibalistic ways seems like a good move.

Will I go troll? I might. If anything, for the booty shake over the Electric Slide.

What about the rest of the Druids? Any thoughts so far about changing? No pun intended...

I'm not sure where to begin.

Let me first say that I have been super busy with Real Life, that thing that I do while not blogging or playing games. Fall term is fast approaching, and people at work have been taking vacations so I pick up shifts to cover for them.

Of course, the expansion announcement has pulled me out from under my rock to comment.

I have mixed feelings so far about how this will all turn out.

New Races

I am saddened that Horde doesn't get Worgen, but for the lore it makes sense. If it turns out as well as I hope it does, using the phasing system for these new races will help better connect with their stories and how they fit into their respective faction sides. Especially, for Goblins. It's not like these guys are new and shiny, but the phasing while leveling should give those who roll them a greater understanding of how the heck they got to Kalimdor and why Thrall said "Ya, come join us."

Old Zones are New again

A complete re-do on all the Old World zones is intriguing. More so when they announced that it will affect everyone, regardless of if you bought the expansion. This, I can get behind. I personally feel like I would be playing a new game again after seen the trailer (Barrens split into two parts, Desolace actually with grass instead of desert, for example).

Of course, flying. When BC came out, I predicted that we would be flying in Azeroth within a year. I was waaaay off. But the chance to fly will finally be reached with the expansion.

The game is going to be completely redone. Not just with zones and new dungeons, but also class/race combos and game mechanics. They are redoing how we gain higher ranks of spells and how stats fit into the game play.

My character screen is full, like my inventory

Leafshine makes a good point. Need more character slots. Seriously.

Bold move

Despite feeling both excited and so boggled that I can't wrap my head around many of the changes, I think (today anyway), that Blizzard is doing the right thing by changing the game. It's five years old, and possibly will be six when the expansion comes out (just speculating, don't quote me on that). There needs to be something done in order to bring new life into the game. This is beyond an expansion but a re-imagining of the world we play in. Shifted lowbie areas, new quest hubs, new mechanics all will send folks for a loop (put down the quest helper and learn to read quest text again!). As someone who openly admits she needs something new to look at, hence my Aion beta playing, the New World of Warcraft might entice me to keep playing for a little while longer.

Lore, lore, more lore

I am deep down a RPer. I can't help it, after years of table top RPG and many FFs and the like before even picking up my first MMO, I am invested in the lore of my games. So, imagine my shock when I read about the new, new horde. As a member of the Horde and a Tauren, I feel a sense of loss and confusion. The lore will have to strongly encourage me, as a player to get behind the changes.

I probably will add more of my 2 cp later as more things develop. Read about the announcments at MMO Champion, World Of Raids, the Official Site and a blog near you.

New Ony

Blizz has announced they will introduce a leaner and more pissed off version of Ony for the 5th Anniversary of WoW.

Is this rehash or nostalgia?

Given that it is being released for the anniversary, I want to go with nostalgia. However, I would be more convinced of this if it was updated for a limited time. Maybe even attach some lore to it (which they still might do). Something like "Can't trust the help (Sartharion) to do the job right, I have to do it myself" kind of thing. And, since she's supposed to be dead, have one of the Aspects bring her back. I'm just grasping at straws, I know.

Considering that most Alliance and many Horde already know she had her claws in more than a few pots in Vanilla WoW, bringing her back into the story line would be helpful in leading me to believe this is more than a gimmick.

Without knowing when it will be released, it is hard to say at this point where it falls in the dungeon time line. However, we are looking at a possible two or three months of ToC before this new dungeon is released. Will be interesting to see if this is enough time for players to fully enjoy the new instance we have now before we are bombarded with somewhere else to go.

Meaner, but also harder?
Since they had announced that the upgrade would be here to stay, many are hoping it won't be dumbed down. Given it's supposed to be "fun" I have a feeling it won't be too much of a challenge to many guilds.

Deep Breaths are back, but they have also said they will update it to be more in line with what raiders are used to now (paraphrasing).

Wonder what they will do with all the old quests that were attached to her? Will the classic raider achievement be altered to compensate for the changes?

Blue has posted that the old level 60 version will no longer be available. This may be the start of a trend to phase out older content in favor of a longer end game.

Oh goodie, the helms are back!
That was sarcasm. I do NOT want moose antlers. Thank goodness for tree form and the Off Option. I suppose if I was a lock or a rogue, I would be excited.

New toys... for me?
It wouldn't be a dragon encounter without the chance of being able to get a new mount. This is one I will actually be trying for, since the new change to our flight :)

And, of course, I would be insane to not get the pet. On all characters. Even my bank alt.

Insert the classic humor
I can't really argue with the popularity of the announcement, though. Already, I'm seeing classic quotes from the infamous Onyixa video, and references to the patch notes regarding deep breaths. People are excited for many reason about this up coming release. I am not, but will still go because my friends will.

All in all, there are many good and bad things attached to this change, and I expect to be seeing more revamps in the future.

Camping

I've been involved the last few days with Raptor Camp 2009. What is Raptor Camp? It is the hours I have been spending waiting for the rare spawns to emerge so I can have a tiny non combat pet, of course!

I wasn't really going to spend so much time on them, but I kinda got sucked into it. It started off with 20 runs of WC. Then, sitting in Dustwallow for a couple hours waiting for Dart but giving up because a guildie needed a healer for ToC.

It changed when another guildie cursed himself for missing the Takk spawn and watched another player grab him. I noted the time and through the course of the conversation, I thought he wasn't going to come back a few hours later for it and instead go to bed. I sat there, waited for Takk, killed him not 30 seconds before the guildie logs in. I felt like such a horse's ass. And I am to a degree because I didn't go back and try for another one on behalf of the guildie.

I tried again for Dart. I saw many people come and go as I sat there for a few hours. I realize now that my original camping spot was flawed because when I checked for him the second time around, I literally watched him spawn on top of me on the little mount next to the hill. I was shaking from excitement because I had just seen another horde player ride past me just a couple minutes before.

Now, I'm casually killing raptors in Zul'Drak. For some strange reason, sitting in one spot is easier than killing spread out monsters in a loop. At least during my Dart camp, I could watch a movie or read a book.

I tell ya, these pets are a sickness. But each new pet gives me a sense of glee and I start to squeal and talk in a high-pitched voice about how cute they are.

93 pets and counting...

New Eclipse and other things.

Solar, Lunar, Both?
Just when I thought I had the whole spam wrath till Solar proc thing figured out, a surprising thing happened to me in VoA last night: I got to see how the new Eclipse mechanic worked.

Wow. It's odd, feels weird, but kind of nice all at the same time. Not sure how I want to handle it though in the next raid I dps for, however. I just recently changed my spec to drop some points in Meditation, but realized it was too easy to burn through my mana while maintaining the Solar-Lunar cycle consistently. I will say that once I figured out what was going on, my dps did see an improvement but time will tell as more experimentation goes through. The new change to innervate may help on some fights, and of course, I still have a healthy supply of mana pots.

Empowered Touch
On the healing side of things, I have not changed my spec to take advantage of the new Empowered Touch. This is largely because of my raid role and, frankly, I haven't healed in a raid yet. Our guild took a week off of regular raiding while folks were dealing with the patch and the 10 man we did play around with, I was boomy. In a five man situation, I could see it being very effective, as Nourish is my second most effective spell in ToC.

I am just not quite ready to give up GotEM or Revitalize yet. I may move some points away from Gift into Empowered Touch, but again, I need to see things in a real raid setting.

OMGZ! I HAF OVERHEALZ?!
I recently read on Restokin that our HoT overhealing are now being shown in the combat logs, which means people will finally see how much our hots are NOT doing. I for one will not change how I play and really, any druid worth their salt shouldn't either. As a raid healer, I use hots very preemptively. I toss them on before I big aoe, I toss them on in between waves, etc. Rejuv is going even though I know my target will be snap up by the disc priest or pally because it will still be there when they have moved on.

To change how we heal just to look good on the numbers would be a mistake. HoTs have always been the buffer between direct heals, and just because they now have a numerical, definitive value attached to the overhealing, doesn't mean we should hold back.

However, I read that someone suggested that this overhealing will cause agro. This makes me scratch my head and ask "It does?" And honestly, I do not know. I play a Disc priest and a Resto druid, and while I never looked for it before, I didn't notice anything regarding this mechanic. Perhaps on the next raid it might show up. But, I have my doubts about this claim or else our Pally healers would have been snapping up agro left and right.

I look forward to us coming back from our raid break to test these things out.

In just seven days... I can make you a man!

Ok, it won't take seven days, and he won't be a man but a mount! I couldn't help the Rocky Horror reference.

I'm talking about the new Ravasaur mount offered by Mor'vek in U-crator.

Toxic Tolerance
First step is to get "splashed" by poison off Venomhide Ravasaurs. However, in order to get splashed you have to hit them melee style. Now, I recommend hitting them with fists. As a caster, this shouldn't be too difficult since our melee skills suck. My DK friend had to take off all his gear and switch to tank spec in order to do this effectively. On PTR, seems you had to be splashed 2,000 times, but in 3.2 it is only 20. The poison does hurt even at level 80, but as a druid, just cleanse and go about your business.


Venomhide Eggs
The next step asks you to gather 4 venomhide eggs which are found in the marshlands where you fought the bigger versions. As the quest text says, it will be lighter in color than the other eggs, and really they aren't too hard to find. Just mouse over the nests.

After you return the eggs to Mor'vek, he gives you a hatchling to care for as he is growing up. The Venomhide Hatchling is only usable in certain areas and he offers you a daily quest. I was given the quest to feed him Silithis Eggs, but others have had to collect Roc Feathers, or feed him silithid meat and raptor meat. He's a vicious little bugger, that one!

It will take 20 teeth, 20 Rugged Leather, 20 Runecloth, and 80g to make the saddle and allow time for your little guy to be a full grown mount.

Whistle of the Venomhide Ravasaur

Overall, I would have to say if I was alliance, I would be a bit miffed. No rep grind, and the "grind" of 2,000 poison hits was removed. Having not done the Wintersaber grind, I can only gather from some Ally rerollers how much of a pain it was and I will say we as horde have it easy. However, since it took several years to actually implement it, I am just happy to have the chance to actually get the mount.

Does Gear determine who is a good player anymore?

Is the game too easy mode?

Some how I had forgotten that Emblems of Triumph were the new tokens to get until I did the heroic daily to finish off my Proof of Demise achievement. Then I was like "Sweet, I wonder how many it will take to get a new helm?" A lot. As in, some heroic dailies won't quite get me there. I will still have to raid, and that is totally fine with me.

But it got me thinking, after looking at the rash of applications we got recently, that just looking for purples don't cover our needs anymore. VoA, emblems, the new dungeon offering item level gear similar to Naxx means that folks who are up and coming now are getting geared faster.

This is great news for our newly invited folks. We take the approach of Low Maintenance, meaning as long as you keep your head down and do what needs to be done, we are willing to over look some lack luster dps and carry you. With the changes to how gear is acquired, we expect to see those guys start to catch up in some areas.

Double Edged Sword

One thing about some other MMO's is once the population is out of your level bracket, it becomes difficult to get anything done. Without a guild or some friends, it is like pulling teeth to even get a group going. WoW is not immune to this problem, but they tackle it with Recruit a Friend. The normal on my server at least is running noobies through dungeons they have no real right to be in. Quests are easier, traveling is easier, acquiring gear is all much easier than when I first started playing. This is not saying a whole lot since it was pretty easy compared to my EQ days of leveling off rats for a week.

Many players don't even set foot in dungeons at the lower levels. Some of it is because of the community and some of it because it's slower and the gear that is there will just be out leveled in a few days. Many folks don't see a dungeon until they hit 80. I don't know how many VoA's I've seen with people in greens. Some who have done dungeons are hitting VoA in T4 or T5, which boggles my mind.

This leads to a severe lack of understanding of the game and one's role in it. I recall a blue poster (and I believe it was GC) who said that players are getting smarter. Really? Which players was he referring to, because as I see it, the general population is not. It does not help that Blizz rehashes some mechanics, but I see more and more people choosing to ignore their surroundings or even take a moment to think critically about an encounter. It is a pet peeve of mine to hear over vent "OW, what killed me?" Sigh. Do me a favor and look through your logs or recount before spewing that. Even the question "What happened?" is starting to annoy me. But I will stop there before I start to digress.

Many PuG leaders are stepping up and trying to tackle this problem. Setting requirements like "If you are not pulling 2 or 3k dps by the time we get to the boss, you will be booted." Then folks QQ. But is is a start, even if it's a rather blanket requirement. If you can pull those numbers in your greens, then props to you. I met a druid who did as much healing as I in blues which made me step up my game. It was healthy competition.

Instant Gratification

I had opened trade channel to get some pug time in (yes, on my server, trade is the LFG channel), and after the patch I had to shut it down. The amount of lame ass questions was large. So many people didn't either look at the patch notes or research any of the information that has been out for a month. Why bother when you just ask in open channels what you need to do. Hell, don't know how to update your addons? Ask the channel (true story).

Playing in Aion Beta did make me miss WoWhead. After running around for 20 mins looking for a quest item, my boyfriend said "I bet it will be right under our noses" and sure enough, after asking, we realized we walked right past it. Some things in various games are pretty vague, and for that some help is appreciated and given out willingly. Simple things are not.

Taking the good with the bad

The many minor improvements the game has made since launch I wouldn't ask to be taken away (Remember when we didn't have marks and people had assist macros? How did we kill anything?). With the game being as old as it is, and some servers just as old (mine is one of the early ones) you need something in place in order to allow the new folks or rerollers a way to catch up to their friends. But the downside to that is the dumbing down of the game on many levels which I feel is a slippery slope.

3.2 is here!

After an awesome weekend on the Aion beta, filled with pizza rolls and coffee, it was time to jump into 3.2 on WoW.

Of course, it was laggy, I crashed a few times, and there were too many people on the JC vendor, but I managed to at least get my Orphan quest done and try for one of the pet raptors in WC. All this while others in my guild tried the new 10 man and 5 man versions of the instance.

New forms

Apparently, everyone was going to be a black bear/cat which disappointed me. Kir has been a black cow since the start of the game and I must admit I was little upset and sad to have to change her.



However, I like the white versions of the forms and I will be sticking with them for a while. MMO Champ has a good graphical layout of what you will look like with each color scheme.

Pets
I grabbed the raptor in Dalaran and finished up my orphan week quests to get my very own Wolvar.

See, I when the expansion first came out, I thought I would get one from doing their dailies, but I guess better late than never :)


He's so cute.

Only took me 20 runs or so to get the new Raptor from WC.



JCing

Now that everyone is off the freaking vendor, I can buy my patterns without too much pain. Our guild is separating out the patterns so some are taking tanking some are taking caster stuff, etc. in order to make sure the love is spread through the guild.

Nothing yet from the new instance, as our server practically died as folks were stuck in death and could not release. Hopefully tonight's run will be smoother.