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WoW Weekly Report - The Overpull for 9/14/09
Posted September 16th, 2009 by Medeor
Take the transfer test to track total takers.
Welcome
to The
Overpull, Ten Ton Hammer's weekly newsletter that discusses all things
WoW.
For the first time in a while it's safe to plan a raid on a Tuesday as the realms weren't brought down today. Outside of a critical Paladin nerf that went live last week, there apparently wasn't much else to do today. Since there was no downtime, it's safe to say that today will not be patch 3.2.2's launch day.
Speaking of Patch 3.2.2, fans of Kung Fu Panda can look forward to the scavenger hunt for the Pandaren Monk non-combat pet that will roll out. MMO-Champion has a video of the pet's passive combat skills.
Ouch, my Shaman is feeling the sting of the nerf bat, as of Patch 3.2.2's patch notes that state the cleansing totems no longer pulse instantly when dropped. Booo.
On the flipside, Demonology Spec Locks should be looking for some love as the blues will be increasing their DPS.
Some shenanigans are going on in the Arena tournament this season. We have a character at over 3,200 personal rating and barely winning more than half the matches. This doesn't help the issues surrounding Arenas and the lackluster showing of the rewards.
Blues Clues
Outland still matters, just ask it.
Barnakk says what do you want people, we're already redoing two whole continents!:
"Just because Azeroth is being affected doesn't mean the threat of the Burning Legion isn't still there (for new toons to experience at least). If anything changes in this regard it would probably be a couple quests that send you there but I wouldn't expect Outland itself to change much since messing with 2 continents is already a lot of work. "
Aw shucks Maw, that's perdy
Latest Cataclysm feature shown on the main site::
"To keep Azeroth safe from these threats, the titans imprisoned the Old Gods underground and banished the savage elementals to the titan-constructed Elemental Plane, a secure dominion where the elementals could dwell without harming Azeroth. Four domains were created within this primordial realm to serve as ideal environments for each type of elemental. For ages since, the elementals of air, water, earth, and fire have engaged in endless strife with each other, waging titanic battles in the confines of their realm. One of the Elemental Plane's domains, a vast ocean known as the Abyssal Maw, is home to the water elementals."
Talk about slow news after avalanches the prior weeks, this week must be the real hangover from Blizzcon. Good, it means everyone in Irvine (Blizzard's HQ) has their head down and they're working.
Transfer Test
One flurry of activity was in regards to the faction changes that started a few weeks ago. This is one of the services that had a huge pent-up demand but will likely go unused after the intiial round of groups moving between factions. I'm sure most of you moved those tough looking Orcs to Gnomes, didn't you? In this week's episode of The Instance podcast, the hosts Scott and Randy pontificated on this very topic. Using a WoW census-taking-mod, Randy calculates the moves at the Alliance transferring two characters to the Horde for every one Horde character transfered to Alliance. While not surpirsing, it raises some interesting questions. Take the following self-graded quiz and see how you do:
Gnome, It's What's For Dinner
Speaking of cute little buddies, I broke my little Gnome Warlock out of prison and took him into the Battlegrounds to shake the rust off. There is something therapuetic about standing away from the fray and tab-DOTting everything in a 2 mile radius. That never gets old. Of course when the "fray" closes in and and you see that horrible bluish/purplish bungie grappling hook come flying out of a pack of enemies as you get "yoinked" by a Death Knight, well then the fun is over. My poor little buddy doesn't stand a chance when the action gets up close and personal. I have cleaned off more blades with my brand new cloth chestpiece than I care to think about. Oh well, you win some and you lose some. If you play on my team, you lose more than some.
Warlock tip of the week:
Gathering soulshards in PvP is called "trolling." You are the bait. That cool purple spell effect is the perfect tracer round showing everyone that at the end of that string is a defenseless honor kill. PvP is no place to channel flashy spells, except when they group up nicely for a Rain of Fire.
Paladin tip of the week:
Even though some may call it a bit of an exploit, we're only using what's available. This week we look at a Protection Paladin in healing gear roaming the Battlegrounds. Jumping into a non-tenacity adjusted battleground with 20k health, 20k mana and about 20k armor is quite fun, especially when dropping some 19k heals on people. So any of you who have disparaged Protection Paladins in battlegrounds (sorry, I'm guilty) should rethink their remarks. This is not new, but it's new to me. I never gave it a chance because I figured there were too many gimicks I'd have to employ. Nope, it's very straight forward and really hard for the opposing force to kill you or anyone you are healing..
Now let's play a game...Broken or Not Broken
In a very short time of using the Refer-a-Friend program, I will have 3 level 60 characters with around 24 hours of playtime. Granted the characters are lacking in skills, reputations, and even flight paths, but I can understand why Blizzard does not feel it's necessary to let us start any class at level 55; heck we get to start at almost 60! Is that broken?
If Refer-a-Friend isn't broken, then Arenas are broken. Few people seem to be heading towards arenas these days which could be caused by many issues. Prior to the stupid (yes, I went there) rating requirements to purchase gear, Arenas were a good place to drop in for a few weeks and then pick up a piece of loot. Since it was so "gated" you could only get a piece or two a month, which made it hard to exploit. Now all of the real gear has rating requirements that are well out of normal reach, and Arenas are the *only* way to get weapons through PvP. That is broken. Arenas aren't fun, and now they don't reward for jack.
How did you score on today's quiz and what do you think is "working as intended" versus broken? Let's chat in our forums.
Have a great week, and thanks for reading.
-Jay "Medeor" Johnson
For the first time in a while it's safe to plan a raid on a Tuesday as the realms weren't brought down today. Outside of a critical Paladin nerf that went live last week, there apparently wasn't much else to do today. Since there was no downtime, it's safe to say that today will not be patch 3.2.2's launch day.
Speaking of Patch 3.2.2, fans of Kung Fu Panda can look forward to the scavenger hunt for the Pandaren Monk non-combat pet that will roll out. MMO-Champion has a video of the pet's passive combat skills.
Ouch, my Shaman is feeling the sting of the nerf bat, as of Patch 3.2.2's patch notes that state the cleansing totems no longer pulse instantly when dropped. Booo.
On the flipside, Demonology Spec Locks should be looking for some love as the blues will be increasing their DPS.
Some shenanigans are going on in the Arena tournament this season. We have a character at over 3,200 personal rating and barely winning more than half the matches. This doesn't help the issues surrounding Arenas and the lackluster showing of the rewards.
Blues Clues
Outland still matters, just ask it.
Barnakk says what do you want people, we're already redoing two whole continents!:
"Just because Azeroth is being affected doesn't mean the threat of the Burning Legion isn't still there (for new toons to experience at least). If anything changes in this regard it would probably be a couple quests that send you there but I wouldn't expect Outland itself to change much since messing with 2 continents is already a lot of work. "
Aw shucks Maw, that's perdy
Latest Cataclysm feature shown on the main site::
"To keep Azeroth safe from these threats, the titans imprisoned the Old Gods underground and banished the savage elementals to the titan-constructed Elemental Plane, a secure dominion where the elementals could dwell without harming Azeroth. Four domains were created within this primordial realm to serve as ideal environments for each type of elemental. For ages since, the elementals of air, water, earth, and fire have engaged in endless strife with each other, waging titanic battles in the confines of their realm. One of the Elemental Plane's domains, a vast ocean known as the Abyssal Maw, is home to the water elementals."
Talk about slow news after avalanches the prior weeks, this week must be the real hangover from Blizzcon. Good, it means everyone in Irvine (Blizzard's HQ) has their head down and they're working.
Transfer Test
One flurry of activity was in regards to the faction changes that started a few weeks ago. This is one of the services that had a huge pent-up demand but will likely go unused after the intiial round of groups moving between factions. I'm sure most of you moved those tough looking Orcs to Gnomes, didn't you? In this week's episode of The Instance podcast, the hosts Scott and Randy pontificated on this very topic. Using a WoW census-taking-mod, Randy calculates the moves at the Alliance transferring two characters to the Horde for every one Horde character transfered to Alliance. While not surpirsing, it raises some interesting questions. Take the following self-graded quiz and see how you do:
- Will the Alliance start winning in Battlegrounds?
- Will the Horde enjoy all the guild drama that was once the sole domain of Alliance?
- Do all of those people who got Horde tattoos feel betrayed?
- Is it now cool to be on the Alliance?
Gnome, It's What's For Dinner
Speaking of cute little buddies, I broke my little Gnome Warlock out of prison and took him into the Battlegrounds to shake the rust off. There is something therapuetic about standing away from the fray and tab-DOTting everything in a 2 mile radius. That never gets old. Of course when the "fray" closes in and and you see that horrible bluish/purplish bungie grappling hook come flying out of a pack of enemies as you get "yoinked" by a Death Knight, well then the fun is over. My poor little buddy doesn't stand a chance when the action gets up close and personal. I have cleaned off more blades with my brand new cloth chestpiece than I care to think about. Oh well, you win some and you lose some. If you play on my team, you lose more than some.
Warlock tip of the week:
Gathering soulshards in PvP is called "trolling." You are the bait. That cool purple spell effect is the perfect tracer round showing everyone that at the end of that string is a defenseless honor kill. PvP is no place to channel flashy spells, except when they group up nicely for a Rain of Fire.
Paladin tip of the week:
Even though some may call it a bit of an exploit, we're only using what's available. This week we look at a Protection Paladin in healing gear roaming the Battlegrounds. Jumping into a non-tenacity adjusted battleground with 20k health, 20k mana and about 20k armor is quite fun, especially when dropping some 19k heals on people. So any of you who have disparaged Protection Paladins in battlegrounds (sorry, I'm guilty) should rethink their remarks. This is not new, but it's new to me. I never gave it a chance because I figured there were too many gimicks I'd have to employ. Nope, it's very straight forward and really hard for the opposing force to kill you or anyone you are healing..
Now let's play a game...Broken or Not Broken
In a very short time of using the Refer-a-Friend program, I will have 3 level 60 characters with around 24 hours of playtime. Granted the characters are lacking in skills, reputations, and even flight paths, but I can understand why Blizzard does not feel it's necessary to let us start any class at level 55; heck we get to start at almost 60! Is that broken?
If Refer-a-Friend isn't broken, then Arenas are broken. Few people seem to be heading towards arenas these days which could be caused by many issues. Prior to the stupid (yes, I went there) rating requirements to purchase gear, Arenas were a good place to drop in for a few weeks and then pick up a piece of loot. Since it was so "gated" you could only get a piece or two a month, which made it hard to exploit. Now all of the real gear has rating requirements that are well out of normal reach, and Arenas are the *only* way to get weapons through PvP. That is broken. Arenas aren't fun, and now they don't reward for jack.
How did you score on today's quiz and what do you think is "working as intended" versus broken? Let's chat in our forums.
Have a great week, and thanks for reading.
-Jay "Medeor" Johnson
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