Siege PvP and Icecrown

I did Wintergrasp and Strand of the Ancients for my first time today. Early today I had also started quests in Icecrown.

First the bad: SotA is too fast. It seems strange that a siege would be the fastest BG around. I'd have expected something a bit closer to AV, though obviously the old style of multi-day battles wouldn't go well now.

Wintergrasp seemed better. I didn't get to see much of it though since I flew over right after an instance and only got to catch the last 10-15 minutes of a Horde defense. What I did catch was a few battles between ground troops and a couple vehicles along with some shooting with the defense guns and one of the plague catapults. Apparently the cannons can be swiveled all the way around and fired through the doorway, which came in handy when the Alliance ran to the other side of the wall. I was able to still hit them with the AoE when they were fighting out of line of sight.

There looks to be a lot of potential for fun in that zone, especially since there are a few benefits to control, so it should attract more people. Afterward a ride around showed a ton of sardonite, especially rich nodes, and lots of elementals.

Moving on to PvE...
Icecrown is great. Phasing makes everything so much more real, having actions actually change the world. Flying fortresses are cool. The Knights of the Ebon Blade seem to be one of the most intelligent groups around. They just get the job done. Also they gave me new tanking boots. Jumpbots are fun.

On to something completely different: I want dual specs now, and I want my second to be holy. Healing is more fun than I remember and sacred shield is turning out to be really useful in 5-mans. I'm just frustrated with the lack of bacon, making AoE a huge pain.

Recent PUGs have been pretty annoying. Yesterday was one in Violet Hold with a tankadin that couldn't pick up adds at all and didn't even respond when I asked for BoM. The warlock was an all around moron, who I'd actually run into before and I guess my ignore list was full then or something, so I'd forgotten who he was. The shaman had a habit of eating between the boss and the tank. Guess who gets initial aggro? I eventually left, they flamed me in trade, I ignored them. Today the PUG had rogues in it, which seem to have turned into melee hunters in terms of average level of intelligence. They died from retaliation, managed to get lost, managed to get an add on their way back to the group. I'm not sure how that happens when you have stealth.

The good news was that I did manage to get a good PUG, but it was the type of PUG that is really not a PUG as much as four people from top guilds who somehow ended up with me in their group. I don't know how it happens. Somehow I manage to attract either complete idiots or the absolute top people, at least in terms of progression.

So, SotA bad, Wintergrasp good, Icecrown better. Better than better. Best zone ever.

Ding!

I turned in Polishing the Helm and dinged 80.

The first thing I did was fly to Dalaran to port and train. I somehow got stuck on an invisible wall around it and got dismounted. The parachute buff wore off before the ground and due to misclicking, I failed to use my flexweave underlay.

Dying seems like an inauspicious start to level 80.

I recovered my mount and fly back over. Failing to learn my lesson, I got stuck again. And died again. This time my body was actually in the zone of Dalaran, but outside the walls, so I couldn't get to it.

So, first few actions at 80:
Die.
Die.
Spirit Res.

The Little Big Improvements

WotLK look likes Blizzard took every complaint they had ever gotten and figured out how to address them, without caving in to whining.

Server stability seems to have been ruined and then fixed with the release and week or two after 3.0. That week or two was terrible, but I'm glad to have had the problems worked out then instead of now. My only complain with the servers is the queues, but that's partially due to players, both returning people and those who are on anyway playing a lot more. I imagine this will level out a bit as the numbers of 80s go up and the leveling rush slows.

Hellfire Peninsula was terrible early on. It was incredibly crowded and mobs were a pain to get. Variable respawns helped, except then you could have a mob instantly respawn on top of you. Or ten. Dead you. Now there are two starting zones. This cuts the zerg in half. To make it even better, there are scattered quest hubs, so people are spread out more. If one area is full, move somewhere else. The final big fix was with many quest mobs being summoned, eliminating the rush to tag mobs.

Questing is set up better as well. In the past quest stacking was unnatural. It required waiting around for all quests to become available for an area, often running to different quest hubs to get them all, and sometimes having to finish long chains first. Now there seems to be a short chain to introduce an area, and them up pop 4-5 quest markers for a single area.

Zones are more contained, so you can finish one and move on to the next in an orderly manner. This is great for completionists. This is also great for reducing the irritating travel times of the past. But the zones aren't totally separate. When you're done with an area, you get quests that send you to the next. It's organized, but if you're not looking for it you don't see it, you just see that you're having fun and not getting lost and constantly back-tracking.

The instances aren't so hallway-like. Azjol'nerub was really cool, which made it unfortunate that it's so short. Apparently there's another wing, which I'm looking forward to.

Banned for Blizzard's Words

So yea, I got a 24 hour forum ban. This does not make me happy. I supposed I did get what was coming to me, after all, I did say that my Future Self had apparently gotten date-raped. That's probably not appropriate for the forums. Still, it's one of those things, of all the people out there, I have the luck to have my post read by a GM. It's not as if I was making things up. Let's see what I said and what my future self said.

Me on the forums:
"Mine called me a noob that turned her into an alcoholic. Also I got the disturbing sense that I get date-ra ped."
Oh right, evading the censors. Oops?

Future You (me):
Future You whispers: Look at you fight; no wonder I turned to drinking.
Future You whispers: Listen. I'm not supposed to tell you this, but there's going to be this party that you're invited to. Whatever you do, DO NOT DRINK THE PUNCH!

I said nothing that my future self didn't hint at. Why am I being punished for things that I have not yet done? This is not Minority Report.

So, justified forum bans aside, WotLK is really great.

WtoLK: Second Impressions

The expansion continues to be great. My second run through the Nexus revealed that it's more complex than I saw at first. It's not a maze, but there are multiple paths to take.

Zul'jin needs shorter queues.

WotLK: First Impressions

The zeppelins are junk. No second level? Cheap goblins.

Warsong Hold is tall.

The Horde and Alliance should communicate better. The Warsong orcs could have learned an important lesson from the dwarves: Do not dig quarries unless you want to get invaded. Dig quarry, wait a few minutes, something invades. It never fails.

The Mist seems to have be blown way out of proportion.

The anti- and pro-Nestingwary groups are funny.

I once said Blizzard is good at dead, or more accurately, undead content. I am forced to add "Cold Stuff" to that list. Blizzard is good at making Cold Stuff.

Zul'jin hasn't cashed yet. I guess they did all the server instability the last couple days to get it out of the way. Excellent timing.

Seven Dwarves Event and WotLK

I can't explain what it was, but it felt different. I haven't been there in a while since I usually take the shortcut to the Emperor. There was a strange feeling to it, a good one. What was it? Perhaps it was going back there after ret was buffed. Perhaps it was the undead. Perhaps it was simply the low NPCs which died so easily. But it seemed like more than just adding those up.

It felt like a paladin should feel.

I went from undead dwarf to undead dwarf, tearing them apart in seconds. When the rogue one used evasion, holy wrath made him stay still. When one tried to heal, hammer of wrath finished the job. The final one paid dearly for his demonic companions. Holy wrath kept them in place and divine storm took full advantage, tearing them apart.

Then I went to go kill the awe-inspiring Emperor.



I feel obligated to say something about WotLK, seeing as it is hitting servers tonight. Earlier today people were doing group quests, trying to stack completions to turn in for a leveling boost. They wanted to get ahead of the pack and avoid the noobs. I am torn. On one hand I hope their exploit fails and they end up with a few gold and wasted time turning them in. But it would be nice to get the exploiting idiots out of the way, let them run ahead and burn out sooner. They sicken me. These are the type of people that ruin WoW.

Maybe I'll gquit tomorrow. It seems rather pointless anyway. Raiding is suspended until people get to 80 and I can't make raids anyway. The last one I did was BT a few weeks ago and it was boring. Yes, BT, boring. Groups shouldn't be an issue since so many people will be leveling. I imagine I'd just get annoyed by the constant "ding!" and people ruining every surprise. Who am I kidding? I'll stick around because a couple friends are there.

My copy is supposed to arrive tomorrow. I guess I'll check for it after my morning class. Hopefully the Zul'jin will have crashed so I can get some work done.

I'm getting a weird feeling. It's a bit like what I get sometimes on Christmas Eve. I rationally know it's tomorrow, but somehow I just can't feel it. It's as if my mind refuses to believe it, like it's in denial. I suppose it fits, since WotLK is practically Christmas for WoW, bringing presents and toys for everyone. Also snow. And just like when I was a little kid, I'll probably be sent to collect ice boar livers and maybe a few troll tusks and my mom's stolen recipe book. Ah, the memories.

Forums locked

I'm not sure when they flipped the switch, but the official WoW forums are currently read-only.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12650534960&sid=1
This may be the best decision they have ever made.

We are approaching a time when communication from Blizzard will be especially important. We are also approaching a time when spam will be at an all-time high.

Big deals:
WotLK is almost here.
The servers were down almost all of yesterday and a lot of today.
The mail system is screwed up.

It's good to see that Blizzard has taken decisive action to ensure that they can communicate with the community. Sure, it's one-way, but it will be a lot more effective than two-way with a billion spam posts getting in the way.

I wonder where all the trolls will go.

[edit] 6:00 local time (no clue how that relates to listed time here, it's always off), the forums are unlocked. This confuses me. Why would they unlock them so soon? There doesn't appear to be a new Blue post about it. Maybe it was an accidental unlock?