miss elf

Has Blizzard killed the traditional grindy MMORPG?

No, seriously.

Will we ever see a “hardcore”/”grind” game make it to #1 now?

More interestingly, how far will WoW push it? Mounts at level 1? Purchase a level 80 with your credit card?

How much will the game change (read: become easier) before it’s too much? Or is it already too much for some players?

I still love the game, I’m just curious what others think.

Faction changes…

Low level epic mounts…

More heirloom experience bonus gear…

I’m actually levelling an alt without any help - no heirloom gear, no RaF, no financial boost. It’s the closest I’ve come to the old game for a long time. Not having many friends on the new realm is also helping move the experience along a bit. It’s… well, actually, it’s fun. I’m not rushing, because I’ve seen the end game (80) several times now. I don’t have the huge “oh my god must get to 80 oh my god oh my god”. And I don’t have the extra speed of levelling. No enchants, no excess gold to buy the best gear. Everything is just laid back and easy. If I want to waste an hour doing nothing but wandering around, I just do it. It’s somewhat like playing for the first time again.

One of the best parts is the small spats of world PvP I see. I’m extra careful, because I don’t have an 80 alt to log in and “revenge gank”. I pick my fights carefully and I dodge people I know I can’t beat. There’s actually a few people around, too, so I’m often looking over my shoulder. I’d all but forgotten what that was like.

I wish instead of trying to rush people through, they’d made it more fun, more enticing for everyone - new players and old timers’ alts alike.

If you can resist kitting yourself out with all the twinked gear, I recommend this. It’s sort of satisfying to do it “the old way” (at least, as close as you can to the old way with all the experience boosts they implemented - e.g. bonus quest exp and so on). I also chose a class I’ve never played before, just to add to the “noob” experience. I don’t look up guides or check out recommended specs, I just wander along doing what I think.

Back to levelling my naked little lonely alt.

Quote from Nethaera:

We wanted to give everyone a very early heads-up that, in response to player requests, we?re developing a new service for World of Warcraft that will allow players to change their faction from Alliance to Horde or Horde to Alliance. There?s still much work to do and many details to iron out, but the basic idea is that players will be able to use the service to transform an existing character into a roughly equivalent character of the opposing faction on the same realm. Players who ended up creating and leveling up characters on the opposite factions from their friends have been asking for this type of functionality for some time, and we?re pleased to be getting closer to being able to deliver it.

As with all of the features and services we offer, we intend to incorporate the faction-change service in a way that won?t disrupt the gameplay experience on the realms, and there will be some rules involved with when and how the service can be used. The number of variables involved increases the complexity of implementing this service, but we plan to take the time needed to ensure that it lives up to expectations before officially rolling it out. We?ll go into much more detail on all of this here at http://www.WorldofWarcraft.com as development progresses. In the meantime, we wanted to let you know that because this type of functionality requires extensive internal testing well in advance of release, you may be seeing bits and pieces of the service in the test builds we use for the public test realms moving forward.

Wow. Just, wow. That is massive. Does this mean they’ll also allow race changes of the same faction? E.g. If I rolled a Troll priest and I decide I want an Undead priest instead?

Thinking about some of the outcry from racials in arena, I can see this being pretty interesting, depending on the cooldown.

Pretty much speechless at this point.

I do a fair bit of reading about PVE healing. I don’t anymore, but I used to talk to a lot of healers.

One thing I noticed is rarely will anyone say, “Yeah, I struggle healing that fight”. I’ve been far more likely to hear, “That fight’s so easy, in fact my guild always has to have me because otherwise they won’t make it” or “I’ve never let anyone die there”.

I think it’s rubbish.

Add this to healers who know better - and admit they know better - than to spam healing metres, but who constantly do it anyway (only when they’re at the top, mind you).

If I was a fresh healer, I’d be pretty discouraged by some of the attitudes I see automatically put on the healers.

The “rule” is:

If the healer dies first, it’s the tank’s fault.

If the tank dies first, it’s the healer’s fault.

If the DPS dies first, it’s their own damn fault.

However, the rule seems to be becoming:

If the healer dies first, it’s the healer’s fault.

If the tank dies first, it’s the healer’s fault.

If the DPS dies first, it’s the healer’s fault.

Big difference.

I shouldn’t need to say this, but I will: obviously the “rule” is not set in stone. It’s just a general saying that fits in pretty well a lot of the time, especially for PuGs. At least that’s what I’ve found.

But lately, I’ve noticed no healer will admit defeat. I can’t remember the last time I saw a healer say, “Um, sorry, guys, but I need a hand with healing my assignment”. Nor can I remember the last time I saw another healer acknowledge, “Yeah, I really struggled to heal that”.

I’ve said it, a couple of times. After all, it’s better for the raid if you be honest. The reaction? Maybe this is imagined, I don’t know. But I always pick up on the same vibe of, “Hm so you’re not a very good healer, I see”, or “Well other player’s name could handle it fine”.

Which brings me to another point. Previously, healing assignments in raids were carefully thought out and planned, playing on the strengths and weaknesses of each class. I’m seeing that less and less. Is this a result of the “bring the player, not the class” (which has now being taken back as not including healers)? Do people now think that if Class A can do it, then Class B and D won’t have any problems (unless they’re bad)?

I suppose I notice this last point, being a Paladin, perhaps more than any other class (although I assume a Shaman would feel the same if he was put on tank healing instead of raid healing). It doesn’t seem that fronting up to say, “Look, I’m Class A, this assignment isn’t really working for me” is very welcomed. It probably should be, but it isn’t.

Amongst the healing team, I see very little willingness to accept someone can’t do something and assist. More, I see competitiveness. Competing to be #1 on the metres, refusing to be seen as the weak link.

At the risk of this being taken the wrong way, I’m going to post something I’ve been considering. Is this a problem because some classes/specs can handle fulfilling both single target and raid healing roles with ease (or at least, far better than another class may be able to do so)? If you can do something easily, it’s a bit more difficult to realise someone else may struggle with it - without assuming the problem is a lack of skill on their behalf.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s only me that notices nobody being OK with people asking for help, or admitting they can’t do something. Maybe it’s only me that sees healers getting blamed for just about everything. It could be my realm, my observations, it could be a  Horde thing.

I could be running with a thought and blowing it out of proportion.

It seems we’ve gone from: Healing/overhealing metres being very important, to not important at all, and we are now slowly edging back towards them being important again.

Or, maybe, I’ve been healing for too damn long and I’m just sick of it?

One of the last posts I made was venting frustration about the Patch 3.2 changes to Holy Paladins. For the record, I’m still frustrated by these changes, but am accepting that we’re going to have to roll with it for now.

Anyway, there were some really good comments from (I assume) other Pally healers. Then there was this guy:

“Mobility? All Shaman main heals have the same cast times you do. Disc?s have mobile ?mitigation? only. Unless you secretly want to be a druid (arguablythe most mobile heal class) in plate, I suggest you put the nerd rage aside.”

Interesting. Ignoring (OK, I laughed a little) the way his comment derails into his own little nerd rage, it got me wondering about two things.

1) What problems do other healing classes find with their classes? Mana? Mobility? Lacking thoroughput? Etc.

2) What problems do you have with other healers?

To kickstart it, I figure I’d answer them first.

1: As probably previously mentioned to death, I find our lack of flexibility and mobility to be a majorly limiting factor. I acknowledge that pre 3.2, our regen/inability to outlast the other classes in the OOM race is powerful. It’s very powerful. It also comes at the cost of any real flexibility. Yes, we can raid heal, we’re just the worst choice for it.

What I would have liked to have seen for 3.2 is something better. Okay, fine, take my regen, but give me something in return. At the moment I’m taking a 30% mana return hit and 5% intellect hit in return for a Beacon change that was unnecessary (and somehow manages to be both way too powerful and yet not help us really at all with our limitations), and a HoT that is going to be pretty pathetic.

I was hoping Blizzard would be a bit  more creative and actually address some of the issues we’ve had for so long now. No I don’t want Chain Heal 2.0, but something. The HoT is going to be horribly limited with the fact it has to be paired up with Sacred Shield - unless for some reason you have a major stacking of Paladins (which I never have).

2) I don’t have too many “problems” as such with other healers apart from eyeing some abilities jealously :). I’m still thinking about this one though, so there’ll probably be an edit with a real answer shortly.

The biggest thing I’ve been thinking about lately is how incredibly easy it is to look at another class and go, “stupid class, handles everything so well, what’s he complaining about?”. When you actually step into the shoes, though, it’s an entirely different game as you realise shortcomings and limitations. I’ve raided extensively (at three different level caps!) on 2 healing classes, which is fortunate in that I can appreciate and try to support these classes.

So, what do you guys think?

Well, tonight it’s time to get on PTR and see how we go :(!

Also, whee, midsummer fire thingies are good cash. Finished it up and there’s my week’s raiding money. Hard modes here we go :).

Okay, frustrated as hell by the incoming Paladin changes.

How the hell can Blizzard interpret our requests for some mobility and raid healing abilities as to meaning we want these horrible changes they’ve given us?

Yet again, we have an incredibly shit HoT. Yes, it heals for 100% of the Flash of Light over 12 seconds. Sounds pretty good, right?

You have to have Sacred Shield on the target for the HoT to take effect.

Hey, awesome, another tool to heal… What? Didn’t hear you - did you say one person? What? At max two?

Yep, I can definitely see how this helps our mobility and raid healing issues. Oh. Wait…

“But Miss Elf! It can be any Paladin’s Sacred Shield and your FoL will proc a HoT!”

Really? Cool. ‘Cos, you know, it’s so valuable at the moment to take multiple Paladins to a raid and - oh no, wait, I’m the only one.

Essentially all Blizzard have done is make us worse at our niche role - tank healing - while barely making a difference to our raid healing.

Ghostcrawler is saying that they’ve nerfed Illumination because if we had 60% Illumination and the new Beacon, we would be the hands down best healer in the game.

Oh, please. Such bullshit.

“If it matters, we changed Illumination first to correspond with the Beacon of Light changes. Then when we agreed on changing resilience (and it was a very long discussion) we knew we would have to look at healing, or at least the healing by prominent Arena specs. Resto and Disc almost certainly needed attention. We thought paladins might be okay since their mana regen had already been nerfed and Beacon isn’t a huge factor in PvP.”

So when the Beacon of Light change gets nerfed, will we get Illumination back? I have zero faith that the Beacon changes are going to make it through. Apart from being an unnecessary buff, it’s also going to be deemed OP pretty much immediately (and already has been, in fact).

We want some extra mobility, some extra flexbility and some ability to raid heal without being beaten to it by every Chain Heal, Wild Growth, Circle of Healing, Prayer of Mending, and so on. You have done absolutely nothing to address any of these issues, but you’ve hit us with a mana nerf.

Yep, watching my mana bars more closely than before really does make Paladin healing “dynamic”!

Not because we’re getting nerfed, it happens. Because it’s clear that there is NO understanding and no logical thought process put into these changes. Resto and Disc need attention in Arena? Do I look like I care? How about I tell them to l2p like they did to me in all those seasons in BC while they dominated 2s and I was terrible and no serious team would even consider a Holy Pally if there was a Resto Druid or a Disc Priest around?

How can you deny these changes are PvP in a freaking box related when in the same paragraph you ramble on about arena?

YES we have incredible regen. YES for normal fights, our mana isn’t a huge issue. Do I have smart heals? Good raid heals? Mobility? Flexibility? What? I don’t? Right, then let me keep my regen kthx.

/reroll

Well, here we go…

* Blessing of Sanctuary: This blessing now also increases stamina by 10%. This effect is not cumulative with Blessing of Kings.
* Charger: Can now be learned at level 40.
* Exorcism: Now has a 1.5 second cast time, but can once again be used on players.
* Hand of Reckoning: Redesigned. Now does damage only when target does not currently have the caster targeted, but damage done increased to 50% of attack power, occurring after the taunt effect is applied.
* Judgement of Light: Now heals for 2% of the attacker’s maximum health instead of a variable amount based on the spell power and attack power of the judging paladin.
* Lay on Hands: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 10/20% instead of increasing the target’s armor.
* Righteous Fury: No longer has a duration or mana cost, remaining until cancelled or death. Also cancelled when a Paladin activates a different talent specialization.
* Sacred Shield: When a paladin casts Flash of Light on a target with this buff, they also now place a heal over time effect on the target, healing that target for 100% of the Flash of Light amount over 12 seconds.
* Seal of Blood: This ability has been removed.
* Seal of the Martyr: This ability has been removed.
* Seal of Vengeance and Seal of Corruption: These seals have been redesigned to deal substantially more damage. Now, once a paladin has 5 copies of the debuff from these seals on his or her target, on each swing the paladin will deal 33% weapon damage as Holy, with critical strikes dealing double damage.
* Shield of Righteousness: Now deals 100% of shield block value as damage instead of 130%.
* Warhorse: Can now be learned at level 20.
* Talents
o Holy
+ Beacon of Light: The healing amount on the Beacon of Light target is now based on the total healing done (including over-healing) instead of the effective healing done. Radius increased to 60 yards. Multiple Paladins can now have this active on the same target. Buff indicating a player is within range of the Beacon target is no longer displayed.
+ Divine Intellect: This talent now gives 2/4/6/8/10% increased intellect instead of 3/6/9/12/15%.
+ Illumination: This talent now returns 30% of the mana cost of the spell instead of 60%.
o Protection
+ Ardent Defender: Redesigned. Currently, any damage taken by the paladin while at 35% health or below is reduced. Instead, any attack that would reduce the paladin to 35% health or below has its damage reduced. In addition, once every 2 minutes an attack that would have killed the paladin will fail to kill, and instead set the paladin’s health to 10/20/30% of maximum.
o Retribution
+ Art of War: Now only applies to melee critical hits, but will make your next Flash of Light or Exorcism instant.
+ Crusader Strike: Damage reduced to 75% weapon damage to match the new 4 second cooldown.
+ Seal of Command: Redesigned. This seal now deals 36% weapon damage on every swing, and deals substantially less judgement damage.
+ Vindication: Redesigned. Now lowers target attack power, is consistent and does not stack with Demoralizing Shout.

“+ Beacon of Light: The healing amount on the Beacon of Light target is now based on the total healing done (including over-healing) instead of the effective healing done. Radius increased to 60 yards. Multiple Paladins can now have this active on the same target. Buff indicating a player is within range of the Beacon target is no longer displayed.”

“+ Divine Intellect: This talent now gives 2/4/6/8/10% increased intellect instead of 3/6/9/12/15%.”

“+ Illumination: This talent now returns 30% of the mana cost of the spell instead of 60%.”

Forum highlights:

To all the noob clickers

Post by Jàwsofdeàth:

“hi im jawsofdeath

this post is about the instance servers - its geting insanly retarded how they are full 90% of the time

every day on my realm we get 1-20 new lvl 80s a day (not including the alliance) and blizzard have NOT expended the instance servers since wrath came out so now theres an extra 1-20 people trying to portal bash to get into instances

now if this was a free game i would not complain but keep in mind we are paying $15.00 US a month (roughly $19.78 where im from)

blizzard really needs to expend the instance servers by atleast 300%”

Reply:

“Actually, you’re Jàwsofdeàth. Jawsofdeath was probably taken by another equally unimaginative sap.”

RE: Wrathgate…

“I don’t see anyway Varian could misinterpret that”

Reply: “They didn’t report to Varian because he’s a %*%!?”

Yeah. I hate that guy.

I found this on a random thread in the WoW forums:

“DKs and Paladins have been the premeire classes for the majority of WotLK. Now each successive update brings another DK and Paladin nerf. The next will not be an exception. DK dps is next on the agenda for Blizzard. This is there plan. They are marketing geniuses. Notice that druids have been getting all kinds of blizzard love lately. This isn’t likely to stop soon. Do not look for a druid nerf. Come august blizz will announce their druid themed Emerald Dream expansion pack and a lvl 90 cap. Don’t think blizz is just suddenly lowering the mount levels because they suddenly believe, for no good reason, that they want people to level faster. They do want characters leveling faster but that’s because theres about to be 10 more levels added. The mount changes are just a precursor. They’re not ignorant. They just want people to think that. They want people to think that they can’t balance pvp or raids. They could. They don’t want to. It hasn’t been in their financial interest for this expansion to nerf DKs and Paladins, the two major classes in the current lore.”

I found it pretty interesting… Thoughts?

Wow. Just wow.

These are the upcoming mount changes in Patch 3.2:

• Regular land mounts trainable at level 20 (was 30)
• Epic land mounts trainable at level 40 (was 60)
• Regular flying mounts trainable at level 60 (was 70)
• Regular flying mounts speed increased to a 150% gain (was 60%)

And the associated costs:

Apprentice Riding (Skill 75)

• 60% land mount speed
• Requires level 20
• Cost: 4 gold
• Mount cost: 1 gold
• Mail will be sent to players at level 20 guiding them to the riding trainer

Journeyman Riding (Skill 150)

• 100% land mount speed
• Requires level 40
• Cost: 50 gold
• Mount cost: 10 gold
• Mail will be sent to players at level 40 guiding them back to the riding trainer

Expert Riding (Skill 225)

• 150% flying mount speed; 60% land mount speed
• Requires level 60
• Cost: 600 gold (faction discounts now apply)
• Mount Cost: 50 gold
• Can now be learned in Honor Hold (Alliance) or Thrallmar (Horde)

Artisan Riding (Skill 300)

• 280% flying mount speed; 100% land mount speed
• Requires level 70
• Cost: 5,000 gold (faction discounts now apply)
• Mount Cost: 100 gold

I’m actually kinda shocked about this. Strangely a little disappointed too, although I know it will make things easier… Just another step away from the “good old days” I guess!

The normal flying mount to 150% speed was a needed change - those things were so unbearably, ridiculously slow. Although leaving the ground running speed at 60% seems a bit stupid.

But seriously - epic ground mounts at level forty? Insane.

Also of note: Cold Weather Flying cost isn’t getting changed.

I still can’t get over epic ground mounts at level 40. Imagine levelling in Tanaris at 100% speed!