MOP:Balance

First up, I think the http://www.thedailyblink.com/ has it spot on:

Diablo III took a lot of players elsewhere, I am not hooked though, looks nice and all, but there's something missing, don't know what though...

Now, in WoW, Innovation has managed to kill Heroic Morchok-25, yes, 25 man, finally we can do that again, much more fun then 10's.

But I actually (hence the title) wanted to share my thoughts on balance in MoP.....  boring.

Above are our core-abilities.  Missing in action is Insect Swarm, which according to a 'blues' somewhere is being reconsidered. But with this tool box our core-rotation is going to be:

Moonfire-Starfire till Solar-Sunfire-Wrath till Lunar, with Starsurges and Starfall cast on CD.

Now look at our current rotation:

Insect Swarm-Moonfire-Starfire till Solar-Insect Swarm-Sunfire-Wrath till you have below 16 solar power left-decide if it's better to recast IS/SF, or can you reach lunar with current dot's, probably not, what is the boss going to do the next 30 seconds?, ok, casting it-wrath till lunar-Starfall if off CD-apply IS/MF when IS/SF are falling off-Starfall if off CD-Starfire-Starfall if off CD-oh wait, less than 25 lunar energy left, can I wait with re-applying dot's till solar, or will they fall of too soon, ponder ok, maybe I just can make it-Starfall if off CD-cast wrath till solar-damn IS/MF fell off,shit-continue casting wrath.... and of course cast Starsurge on CD

[core-rotation does not include treants,shrooms etcetera]

So....  we get a lot less to think about, which for some players may be a god-send, but I actually like to plan ahead, and that will be lost. We do get some more cooldowns outside the base-rotation to manage. That is great, but doesn't actually change our core-rotation. On most fights it will probably mean hit it when ready, or wait till a certain phase, just like we tend to use shrooms and treants (and possible trinkets) now.

It seems Balance will get a lot easier to play, and I don't think I like that.

MoP: first steps

Yes, I am in the Beta, I got the invite about a week ago, but..well.

You have to know that I am actually playing on a MacBookPro, one that's about 5 years old, so probably one of the first. And it was running OSX 10.5.8. Apparantly that will not work, so a quick visit to the Apple-store, and snow-leopard 10.6.3 was on his way...which is on a DVD, why not just downloadable?

Wednesday I received the DVD, only to find out that I had a little problem with my DVD-player, it didn't work.... CD's no problem, but DVD's....  and after sifting through a few apple-forums, a broken MacBook DVD-player is actually standard, what? Luckily I could lend a portable DVD-driver from my work.

So, Sunday-mornin I went to the disc-world...rrr... Pandarian-starting area. I made a monk, and because it was early, not many other Panda's around, only about 300 I guess. I think the starting area is almost finished. I didn't encounter any bugs, although some cinematics where missing. At level 10 I specced Brewmaster (Tank), to see how that worked.

Not that I played any dungeons, but the Brewmaster has an ability where you have to target the area to give (up to three NPC's) a debuff/buff for you. It feels a little bit wobbily as tank, trying to put a circle on the ground while also turning the camera around to see if everything goes well around you.

I am now one of the people waiting to actually get a lvl85 on the server. It was not possible to do that for a few days, but yesterday I got Mardah and Mariandel on the Pending list. I also would like to have a lvl85 premade Panda, because I have no intention of levelling anything on Beta...  so...waiting.

MOP: rolling the slot-machine?

So, they want to introduce a new roll system to the LFR, and maybe to other boss-drops. My first thoughts after slimming the different explanations, and there where a few, is...really? This is your solution to the current need-all-LFR's?

But, first, let's look at the info I gathered, and still remember (and most is of a blue post on the us-forums).

Bosses will not drop loot. OK! Let's get that clear. Currently bosses drop loot. In 25 there are 5 items that drop of their so-called lootlist. Why Morchok has two necklaces, I don't know, but that's how it works. Boss dead, system rolls 5 times on the loot-table, and you can loot 5 thingies from him.

With the new system, bosses don't actually drop loot. What happens is that every player makes a 'hidden' roll. For simplicity, let's make it a 1-100 roll. On a high enough roll (say 90+), the system is gonna check if there is an item on the lootlist you can use.

If yes, and there is only one, you get it. If there are two (or more) the system gives you one randomly. If there is nothing on the lootlist that you can use, you get some gold.

So, everyone will be rolling for himself, like using a slot-machine. And that determines if you get a reward for killing the boss. Now.... that seems nice and all, no more people ninja-ing something from you, but....  there are some things I am questioning... both positive and negative I think.

First of, the phrase 'you can use'. They, as in Blizzard, stated that it means something your current spec can use. Current spec is the catchphrase here. Also, no more trading LFR-stuff in Raid. So say goodbye to getting offspec stuff in LFR. Which is exactly what was said. If you want off-spec dps-gear as a tank, que as dps.

what?..What?.. WHAT!

I don't know, but, euhm, Mardah hasn't seen LFR in weeks. Her boomkin-set doesn't need anything from there anymore, and I think I have only one 384-item left. Now, my guild is blooming with trees, so after winning two extra tier-pieces, I think I have enough tree-gear, to heal on the one occasion I maybe asked in 3 months..... Most of my guildies are running LFR for off-spec gear, which is what I do on my multitude of alts. That's the reason my shammy is Elemental atm, instead of Enhancement.

With this system, I'll see Raiders quitting LFR after two weeks, and trust me, LFR is full of people who hit random buttons, so there will be much more wipes if the slightly better geared, much better players don't show up anymore.

And no, I am not going into an M&S discussion, but if I, as a good player with barely-372 gear, ends up 4th on the damage-meter....  well....

Where was I, oh yeah, Second, there was some news about farming up a thingie to make your roll be an always win. ????  Why don't they just give us the loot then? Farm up thingie, use thingie, get loot. especially usefull if you know there's only one thing on the loot-table for you. I see some abuse here.

Third, and this is a fun fact. It is now possible that everyone in the raids get an item....  or no one at all  :p

And last (I think). They say they might implement this in other raids/dungeons. Dungeons is the same discussion above I think. But... in raids?

I don't know.... but that's for the far future I hope.

Many info, left side, handle it.

And the floodgates opened, lots of screenshots, interviews and little movies.

So much I can hardly remember it all.

But, the most important for me, and 11th character-slot, finally. And glyphs for druids, and dethroning Garrosh, and no new models, and...and.....

Well, I am going to do beta...when it comes around.

Mardah, Blessed Defender of Nordrassil

So...  after the trainingsession, we took 3 or 4 pokes at Heroic Morchok before he fell down, and nobody took a screenie  :(, which is probably a little hard, because, and I quote our GM, one was in Stormwind and the other in Ironforge....

But, I actually wanted to tell you another story.... about my road to a legendary...which probably completes around patch 5.2 orso.

Be warned, spoilers ahead.

I am telling this by pictures...yada yada, says more then a thousand words, yada..badoom..

Here we are killing of Volcanus, so I can get my branch of Nordrassil. As you can, maybe, see through al the clutter, I am a big Treant with lots of aggro. Yes, tanking boss in tree-form, how cool is that. I still miss the ol' Tree-form, so this was very nice.

Also, you can see my UI nicely, although I have no idea why Healbot is active, normally it is not. I have enough information flying around already.

After you have gotten the branch, you get a 2 hour title, and flowers at your feet, damn hippy-trees.... oh, and see that hatchling, it dances the moonkindance when you target it with /dance, very funny.

After flying to the Amber Ledge to talk to Kalecgos, which by the way, I had to find out on the interwebs, because the quest-text was not that clear, Tarecgosa transported me towards the Nexus. Some story about her being the prime-candidate to follow up Maelcgos, who we killed ages ago it seems. But.....

...she had to be captured. With me lying besides her in the snow, luckily Kalecgos showed up to safe me and infuse me with the essence of the now-almost-dead Tarecgosa, and he asked me to find 1000 cinders in the Firelands...great....

And after those 1000 cinders, I have to collect more stuff, so, probably 15 more clears of FL needed I guess....  well... at least I am exalted with the Avengers of Hyjal now.

Laters

Training-camp?

What's this, what are those people doing in the Hills of Feralas?

Some of us went on a secret mission, to prepare for Heroics.... apparantly, Moonkins are good stomp-soakers...

Mardah, Destroyer's End

Two pulls it took sunday, two pulls after 5 wipes last tuesday....  and the first time we got past platform 4... and we did it, we cleared Dragon Soul pre-nerf, surprising our GuildLeader who was expecting some evening full of wipes....

What remains are the pictures.....  

.   

But (apart from T7 which was EZ-mode mostly) this is the first time I cleared a raiding-tier before it ended, or it was nerfed.....  Ok it is on normal, but that's what we were aiming for. Time for Heroic DS.... I don't know, we'll see...

I am just a very happy Tsjikin now.