WoW Weekly Report - The Overpull for 8/11/09
Posted Tue, Aug 11, 2009 by Medeor
Welcome
to The
Overpull, Ten Ton Hammer's weekly newsletter that discusses all things
WoW.
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
Blues Clues
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.
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).
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?
Jouster is not a Class
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.
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.
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.
Catastrophe or Cataclysm
When all else fails, slap a new coat of paint on it and ship it. 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? 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
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
Blues Clues
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.
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).
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?
Jouster is not a Class
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.
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.
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.
Catastrophe or Cataclysm
When all else fails, slap a new coat of paint on it and ship it. 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? 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
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