Warlords of Draenor Lands in Fourteen Hours

[Fappy]

For those of us who are still playing this old dinosaur or who have recently returned to the game; are you ready? Is it coming too soon? Not soon enough?

Anything you're particularly excited for or disappointed by? Plan to power level or take your time? Feel free to say what server(s) you play on and whatnot.

My main's on Thrall right now, but I'm also playing a bit on Ursin (Horde).

Personally, I am a little pissed off that it launches at 3:00am EST. It used to be that I'd go to a local Gamestop and pick up the newest expansion at midnight! Considering I have an early morning meeting now I can't play on launch night at all!

This is basically just a general pre-launch thread for WoD, so feel free to discuss anything related to it!

 

[BloatedGuppy]

For those of us who are still playing this old dinosaur or who have recently returned to the game; are you ready?

I've played pretty much every major MMO release bar a couple since the genre existed, and WoW is surprisingly contemporary despite its age. Blizzard has been actively developing it over the years, and it has more modern features and quality of life improvements than most newly launched competitors. It does show its age sometimes, particularly in old world areas, but there's a lot of life in those legs still.

And yeah. I'm prepared.

Is it coming too soon? Not soon enough?

Not soon enough from the POV of the die hards who stuck it out with Pandaria this entire time. There was an ungodly content drought as they hired/trained something like 100 new staff. From my perspective...I'd have been happier with it launching a month ago, this creates an awkward collision with DA3.

Anything you're particularly excited for or disappointed by? Plan to power level or take your time? Feel free to say what server(s) you play on and whatnot.

Excited by:

1. Garrisons
2. More difficult/challenging 5 man content
3. Changes to guilds (mega/spam guilds de-incentivized)
4. Content that is new to everyone/fresh start syndrome
5. Changes to healing

Disappointed by:

1. Condensed development time resulting in cuts to capital cities, loss of a zone
2. No new classes or races
3. Wariness of Orc-centric storylines. We don't need another expansion worth of the Green Jesus dominating everything.

Personally, I am a little pissed off that it launches at 3:00am EST. It used to be that I'd go to a local Gamestop and pick up the newest expansion at midnight! Considering I have an early morning meeting now I can't play on launch night at all!

Correction sir...you cannot attempt to log in and wait in a queue at launch.

This is basically just a general pre-launch thread for WoD, so feel free to discuss anything related to it!

You're on a loser server and faction sir. We could have been in-game friends but noooooo.

 

[Fappy]

You're on a loser server and faction sir. We could have been in-game friends but noooooo.

I have played Ally just as long as Horde. I am a two-timing whore :3

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I have played Ally just as long as Horde. I am a two-timing whore :3

When I came back to the game in...I'll say July...I started as Horde. Had every intention of being Horde. Rolled up a Blood Elf Priest, got as far as Northrend before it all just felt wrong. Paid an unreasonable amount of money for a faction change, felt better. Found out that Blood Elf models aren't getting an update for WoD launch, and knew I'd made the right choice.

If you're ever on Moon Guard let me know. I'll slip you some seed money or some bags or something, assuming I haven't already blown it all making fancy outhouses for my garrison.

 

[Fappy]

I have played Ally just as long as Horde. I am a two-timing whore :3

When I came back to the game in...I'll say July...I started as Horde. Had every intention of being Horde. Rolled up a Blood Elf Priest, got as far as Northrend before it all just felt wrong. Paid an unreasonable amount of money for a faction change, felt better. Found out that Blood Elf models aren't getting an update for WoD launch, and knew I'd made the right choice.

If you're ever on Moon Guard let me know. I'll slip you some seed money or some bags or something, assuming I haven't already blown it all making fancy outhouses for my garrison.

Considering I play mostly Blood Elf ladies (favorite race is Night Elf though) I was pretty disappointed by the news, but I'm okay waiting one or two patches for the new models. The old ones were easily the best out of the Vanilla/TBC character models.

I currently have a bunch of random characters spread out around different servers to play with people, so you never know. I am saving my free 90 just in case things go sour on Thrall or I just want to play somewhere else and not pay extra for it (or level a toon).

 

[TakerFoxx]

Oh. I read the thread title as "Warlords of Draenor Lasts Fourteen Hours," and my initial reaction was, "Well, that's sort of short for a WOW expansion."

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Considering I play mostly Blood Elf ladies (favorite race is Night Elf though) I was pretty disappointed by the news, but I'm okay waiting one or two patches for the new models. The old ones were easily the best out of the Vanilla/TBC character models.

I'd agree on that, but they were really showing their age, particularly when lined up alongside Pandas or even Goblins. It's less the texture quality than the animation quality, the gap is quite stark. I know I'd have felt pretty depressed as one of the only non-new-modeller's banging around.

I currently have a bunch of random characters spread out around different servers to play with people, so you never know. I am saving my free 90 just in case things go sour on Thrall or I just want to play somewhere else and not pay extra for it (or level a toon).

Yeah. My long term investment is going to rely on finding a nice little guild to join. "Nice little guilds" did not exist in MoP due to the guild leveling system promoting huge, impersonal zerg guilds. We'll see if that's changed.

Oh. I read the thread title as "Warlords of Draenor Lasts Fourteen Hours," and my initial reaction was, "Well, that's sort of short for a WOW expansion."

Heh. I'm expecting "Fourteen Hour Queue to Play Warlords of Draenor", personally. Population is still at roughly Burning Crusade levels, and I remember what a clusterf*ck that expansion launch was all too clearly.

 

[Fappy]

I'd agree on that, but they were really showing their age, particularly when lined up alongside Pandas or even Goblins. It's less the texture quality than the animation quality, the gap is quite stark. I know I'd have felt pretty depressed as one of the only non-new-modeller's banging around.

That's why I have been playing my female troll shammy a lot. She is a nice balance of pretty and mean/strong. I like it. Too bad her running animation is weird as fuck.

Still missing T1 gloves on her. Using T5 as a substitute.

Yeah. My long term investment is going to rely on finding a nice little guild to join. "Nice little guilds" did not exist in MoP due to the guild leveling system promoting huge, impersonal zerg guilds. We'll see if that's changed.

Man, all I want is a small group of people that are fun to play with to do normal raids two days a week (in the middle of the week). Is that so much to ask? D:

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Still missing T1 gloves on her. Using T5 as a substitute.

For transmog? Or like, actual tier gear? I got as far as LFR and Timeless Isle gear and said "fuck it, there's an expansion coming".

Man, all I want is a small group of people that are fun to play with to do normal raids two days a week (in the middle of the week). Is that so much to ask? D:

Yeah I like small, friendly, family guilds with lots of adults and little to no drama. Last time I encountered something like that was...a long time ago.

 

[Fappy]

For transmog? Or like, actual tier gear? I got as far as LFR and Timeless Isle gear and said "fuck it, there's an expansion coming".

Transmog. I am vain

Yeah I like small, friendly, family guilds with lots of adults and little to no drama. Last time I encountered something like that was...a long time ago.

They are faaaaaaaaaar too rare in my experience.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Transmog. I am vain

Show me.

This is what I went for...kind of a bog standard transmog but I like it: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/moon-guard/Aoelyn/simple

They are faaaaaaaaaar too rare in my experience.

Best ones I started/ran myself, but I'm past the age where I'm willing to put in the kind of effort it took. I want some young, plucky kid with loads of times and energy to do the heavy lifting for me.

 

[Fappy]

Transmog. I am vain

Show me.

This is what I went for...kind of a bog standard transmog but I like it: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/moon-guard/Aoelyn/simple

They are faaaaaaaaaar too rare in my experience.

Best ones I started/ran myself, but I'm past the age where I'm willing to put in the kind of effort it took. I want some young, plucky kid with loads of times and energy to do the heavy lifting for me.

I honestly hate how they do the Armory models, but here we go:

Warrior (don't mind the Prot gear in Fury spec lol) - http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/thrall/Classysavage/simple

Shammy - http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/ursin/Fappy/simple

Just got Hellscream's shoulders on my warrior. Apparently it's a .03% drop :O

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I honestly hate how they do the Armory models, but here we go:

Warrior (don't mind the Prot gear in Fury spec lol) - http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/thrall/Classysavage/simple

Shammy - http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/ursin/Fappy/simple

Just got Hellscream's shoulders on my warrior. Apparently it's a .03% drop :O

The gimpy poses do leave something to be desired, I agree.

Not bad, not bad. No legendary cloak though? Lolnub!

How did you find flex/normal raiding in MoP? Last time I raided (outside of LFR, which shouldn't count) was Naxx in WOTLK. Quit the game right as Ulduar came out. 25 man raiding with what was essentially a weekly pick-up raid burned me out. Too much screeching and bickering. Felt like a job.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I'm honestly not really looking forward to it. There's just not much I feel is worth getting excited about, especially after the massive disappointment that was the pre-expansion event and patch.

Also not fond of how crazy dumbed-down everything feels now. They went so far in their efforts toward reducing ability bloat that now playing my characters feels aggressively boring.

I have a feeling this might be my last expansion with WoW. Every other release I've at least been somewhat excited for. Unless this one turns out to be friggin' AMAZING, I'm probably just going to level to max, dick around with the raid content for a couple months, then cancel subscription.

I used to be pretty hardcore into raiding back in the day, but I just don't have the time or patience for it anymore. Especially not when I have a stack of other games that I actually am looking forward to playing.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I have a feeling this might be my last expansion with WoW. Every other release I've at least been somewhat excited for. Unless this one turns out to be friggin' AMAZING, I'm probably just going to level to max, dick around with the raid content for a couple months, then cancel subscription.

MMO players are a rare breed.

"God, this game was SO disappointing. I got maybe 2-3 months of constant play out of it, tops."

BTW, I disagree about the ability trim. I realize they probably went overboard on some classes, but LAS is where it's at in MMOs these days for some reason, and WoW still features 2-3 bars full of shit, including tons of situational stuff, whereas GW topped out at 10 abilities, and Wildstar has a whopping 8.

There was an ability creep issue going on and it did need addressing.

 

[leberkaese]

This will be the first addon I won't play during its release. The decision not to play this one was a struggle, but the golden days of WoW are over (atleast for me).

Not that WoW has gone bad, it's as good as it always has been - I played WoD during the beta. But I simply can't enjoy the game anymore.
You kids go out and play and have fun with WoD while I'm sitting here... not playing WoW =[

... But as soon as they make mythic 5man dungeons I'm back!

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

MMO players are a rare breed.

"God, this game was SO disappointing. I got maybe 2-3 months of constant play out of it, tops."

BTW, I disagree about the ability trim. I realize they probably went overboard on some classes, but LAS is where it's at in MMOs these days for some reason, and WoW still features 2-3 bars full of shit, including tons of situational stuff, whereas GW topped out at 10 abilities, and Wildstar has a whopping 8.

There was an ability creep issue going on and it did need addressing.

Y'know, I realized after submitting the post how insane it sounded. That I was bitching about getting months of gameplay out of it. Out of context that seems insane.

In context though... that's actually a pretty big departure from what I used to do. I was the sad type of person that would play for like 10 hours a day during high school and college. I had a max level character of every class, I ran a raid team and was an assistant raid leader for multiple others, I typically raided on four or five characters each week. I put an obscene amount of time into the game. I skipped classes and called sick out of work for expansion packs and large content patches.

But the 2-3 months that I estimated up above likely won't be constant play (unless the game turns out to be significantly better than my expectations). It'll likely be log in, run a raid, log out for the rest of the week. Basically, the same thing I'm doing now, and have been doing for... a while.

As for the abilities... while I don't deny that there needed to be somewhat of a culling... they went kinda overboard. My Elemental Shaman and my Druid's Guardian off-spec are so easy-mode now that I think I'm probably down to like four or five regular-use buttons on each. Hell, on my Elemental Shaman the majority of my damage right now isn't even coming from anything I'm doing. My mastery is now passive damage, and it's accounting for like 48% of my output on most fights.

EDIT:
And combining Travel Form and Flight Form on a single button just sucks.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

In context though... that's actually a pretty big departure from what I used to do. I was the sad type of person that would play for like 10 hours a day during high school and college. I had a max level character of every class, I ran a raid team and was an assistant raid leader for multiple others, I typically raided on four or five characters each week. I put an obscene amount of time into the game. I skipped classes and called sick out of work for expansion packs and large content patches.

No, I knew what you meant. I've just found the expectations players have for MMOs to be kind of amusing, myself included. We expect hundreds if not thousands of hours of quality game play, and act aggrieved when we get bored or the content runs out. There isn't another genre in existence where these kinds of outrageous expectations are commonplace.

I can still sink a hilarious amount of time into an MMO, but my days of it being my second job are behind me. Too many other games to play, too many other things to do. It's not impossible that another game could come along and swallow me completely, but it won't be with this timeworn formula.

As for the abilities... while I don't deny that there needed to be somewhat of a culling... they went kinda overboard. My Elemental Shaman and my Druid's Guardian off-spec are so easy-mode now that I think I'm probably down to like four or five regular-use buttons on each. Hell, on my Elemental Shaman the majority of my damage right now isn't even coming from anything I'm doing. My mastery is now passive damage, and it's accounting for like 48% of my output on most fights.

It's a change that needed to be made, and should reflect well on the game play if they're able to get more mechanical complexity into encounters through other means. Having a library of 30-40 buttons, many almost uselessly situational, is a ridiculous case of UI opacity and becomes a barrier to entry for new players who haven't spent years adjusting to it. There's a strong case to be made that it isn't particularly skillful design, either. There should be "things for the player to be doing" rather than going through rote memorization on some enormous rotation.

We'll see how it goes. It'll certainly alienate some people, but WoW players tend to push back against everything, even changes that were the best for the long term health of the game. Wildstar recently tried to "recapture" that old school vanilla/BC era WoW feel, and it was a ripe catastrophe. They're not always going to make smart decisions, and some classes are going to be hurting for the first couple months, but it was the right direction to move in.

If it makes you feel better, my class/spec is hurtin' a bit too. They completely re-designed it, and it's kind of a square peg in a round hole atm.

And combining Travel Form and Flight Form on a single button just sucks.

No argument there. Needs a minor glyph to split them.

 

[The Madman]

Started playing again a couple of months ago only to discover my old server is absolutely dead Alliance-side. It's kinda sad seeing Stormwind and other capital cities so empty. Still I've actually been having a blast playing casually.

Finished leveling up my main character; a Night Elf druid. Did all the Panadaria stuff, got some cool new mounts, did the whole LFR thing to see the new raid content, and most recent I've been having fun running old content for battle pets (Most entertaining side-game I've played in a while) and transmog gear. I also started playing an old paladin alt of mine and leveled him up to max, which is nifty. With Moon Guard it's also nice to play on a much more lively server and seeing all the silly roleplaying stuff is kinda endearing, even if I haven't taken part in any of it. Adds a bit more life to the game and its world to see players all over the place doing who knows what.

Still haven't decided whether to server transfer my main to Moon Guard for the expansions release of not. On one hand I really like the level of activity I see all over the place, but I also like that element of danger a pvp server brings. Plus playing on a dead server has a few advantages in that aside from the occasional Horde ganking, I'm pretty much free to farm whatever I want with little competition.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

No, I knew what you meant. I've just found the expectations players have for MMOs to be kind of amusing, myself included. We expect hundreds if not thousands of hours of quality game play, and act aggrieved when we get bored or the content runs out. There isn't another genre in existence where these kinds of outrageous expectations are commonplace.

I don't feel aggrieved when it comes to the content. I'm just not excited for it. There's nothing that I'm looking forward to like I did with the previous expansions. I don't feel any resentment at all because, as you've said, I've gotten thousands (I'm not going to kid myself with 'hundreds') of hours of gameplay over the years. I've had a lot of really good times, I've made great friends that I keep in touch with even outside of WoW, hell... I have WoW to thank for my marriage.

I've already bought the expansion, I pre-ordered it the day they made that an option, based purely on that. I'm not angry with them for not catering to me, because it's my tastes that are changing. I'm willing to give it a chance, but if I cancel my subscription it's not going to be a rage quit. It's just going to be pragmatic; why pay a monthly subscription for a game that I'm not playing because I've moved on?

It's a change that needed to be made, and should reflect well on the game play if they're able to get more mechanical complexity into encounters through other means. Having a library of 30-40 buttons, many almost uselessly situational, is a ridiculous case of UI opacity and becomes a barrier to entry for new players who haven't spent years adjusting to it. There's a strong case to be made that it isn't particularly skillful design, either. There should be "things for the player to be doing" rather than going through rote memorization on some enormous rotation.

I'm not entirely sure that it needed to be made. There certainly didn't seem to be much outcry about it. Those situational abilities were what separated "skilled and useful" from "highly skilled and indispensable." You could completely take them off your cast bars and still be a great player, but learning to recognize when to use those abilities and actually doing so gave a clear edge. As it is, most classes had already veered away from "rotation" toward more of a priority system prior to the change. It was certainly more engaging than the current system, which seems almost across the board to be mostly just mashing one or two buttons and that's about it. The complexity seems to be rapidly disappearing all for the sake of clearing up cast bars of the people that probably could have just ditched those abilities anyway and been fine.

Maybe I'm just a product of a different time. I grew up with RPGs that didn't hold your hand constantly. I'm not against streamlining, but too much of it just makes things far too easy. It's a trend I've been seeing in gaming, not just World of WarCraft, for a few years now. I want to actually master mechanics to be the best player that I can be, but when you take all complexity out of them it kinda cheapens the experience. That said, 26 is far too young to feel like the stereotypical old dude waving his cane and ranting about whatever new trend has come up in pop culture.