to The
Overpull, Ten Ton Hammer's weekly newsletter that discusses all things
WoW.
style="width: 250px; height: 50px;"
src="http://images.tentonhammer.com/newsletters/wow/farmwipe.gif"
alt="Now on Farm or That's a Wipe">
It
has been interesting, so many hits and misses with the latest patch.
Where to start...
Hits:
Mounting Speed - noticeably better
New Battleground Isle of Conquest - fun
BG Improvements: Warsong Gulch in 20 minutes or less is a great change.
Badges in Heroics - emblem gear is there for the taking
Trial of the Champion - always nice to have new 5 Man content
Misses:
Instance overcrowding - see below
Easy mode - now with extra easy
Jousting in an instance - I want to play a Paladin not a horsey-guy.
Blizzcast #10 - same lack of information now with more interviewees
style="font-weight: bold;">Blues Clues
href="http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=19110296120&pageNo=1&sid=1#3">Faction
Changes Coming Soon(tm)
As is typical, no
delivery date is set on
the upcoming faction change capabilities, but I have to admit it's one
of the things I'm looking forward to most - even though I'll use it
once and then be done.
href="http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=18031196828&sid=1">Blizzcon
with no lines and cheap beer.
Enjoy Blizzcon from the comfort of your own chair even if you don't
have DirecTV. Recently announced Live Stream orders are available for
around $40, or one day's parking in Anaheim. This is a good option for
anyone afraid of flying, smog, lines or magic kingdoms (except Azeroth of course).
style="font-style: italic;">
style="width: 250px; height: 50px;"
src="http://images.tentonhammer.com/newsletters/wow/mishapsmayhem.gif"
alt="Medeor's Mishaps and Mayhem">
Welcome to the extra roasted coffee edition of the Overpull. This
week's Overpull is just like coffee, mostly bitter.
style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Additional
instances of the Overpull can not be opened currently.
I had such high hopes. The servers came back online in record time
after the patch and everything was working so well right up until we
tried to run after those new badges. This weekend was silly. Over 45
minutes of trying to get into routine instances is not my idea of fun.
This has been a known issue for quite some time, why would Blizzard
release a patch that was sure to have people racing into the instances
only to fail on providing enough instance capacity?
style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Jouster
is not a Class
style="font-weight: bold;">
I choose to play a Paladin (among other classes), I really don't want
to fly a drake, drive a car or ride a horse with a big stick. It's fun
the first time, and then it gets progressively less fun each time
thereafter. As soon as we jump on those horses we're unique Jousters
just like everybody else. Now if Jester was a class I would play that.
style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Wintergrasp
Weather Report: Flying is good, Fighting is good
It's not all bad news, the new mounting cast speed is good, flying in
Wintergrasp is a huge improvement and I have to say that the new
Wintergrasp system has worked well for me. I like queuing up and then
going about my business knowing that I can go right into Wintergrasp
when it's time. Even as a level 79 I have yet to be excluded from a
battle.
style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Ease
of use, Everyone's a Winner
In both a win and a loss, we can now gear up with relative ease. I used
to be one of the guys saying "this is great, now we can all see the
content." The unfortunate part is that ease takes away the sense of
accomplishment. It took me a while to really see this in effect. I'm
all for making content more accessible, and have been a big proponent
of Blizzard making the content easier to reach. I have to say
this
latest round of game-nerfs leaves me a bit unmotivated though. I can
now get a character to level 80 and kitted out in end-game gear in a
few weeks (or several weeks depending on my schedule). That is not so
impressive anymore. The pendulum has definitely swung back towards
people wanting Sunwell and the original Naxx more than the new
easy-to-beat game. One of my intrepid sources explained how a core of
10-12 people can pick up a dozen randoms and beat the game now.
Somewhere along the way we lost something. Hard modes don't count,
those are just placeholders until new content can be created, in my
humble opinion.
style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Catastrophe
or Cataclysm
When all else fails, slap a new coat of paint on it and ship it.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/72500">New
furries and greenies
will be heading our way apparently. Recently leaked and highly
speculated news shows the Worgen becoming a playable race for Alliance
and Goblins switch-hitting and going to the Horde. Amongst my playing
buddies we file news under good, bad and meh. New races fall somewhere
between meh and bad. I have too many of each class now (for instance I
have multiple end game Paladins and Shaman, do I really want to level a
Worgen Shaman?). I keep track of friends who have left the game and
call them with this kind of news to see if it inspires them to return.
According to my buddy Aslow, a new race makes him want to stay away
from the game even more. A new class on the other hand might bring him
out of retirement. I couldn't agree more. I know the cinematic will be
cool and we'll all get a full dose of Coolaid at Blizzcon, but
this expansion needs a lot more lipstick.
I appreciate the fact that Blizzard seems to hold nothing as sacred,
and all parts of the game are up for review and revision. I feel like
the game is ambling along in random directions though. Major class
changes are now routine, historical sacred cows are slaughtered at
every patch (see the parts about transferring from
PvE to PvP servers
from the last major patch and now being able to have characters of both
factions on PvP servers). I will have my account(s) into the
foreseeable future, but I have to admit even I feel some cracking in my
rock-steady support.
Is the game going in the direction you like? This is the first patch in
a while where I see more red flags, or are they white flags? Is
Blizzard surrendering to the five year business cycle? Am I missing the
real story, is this the best patch ever?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=45219">Let's
discuss in our forums.
Maybe my wife will stop by and get some sweetener for me next week.
Have a great week, and thanks for reading.
-Jay "Medeor" Johnson
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our World of Warcraft Game Page.
