I'm getting really tired of my current epic quality gear look. Part of the problem is that I'm not using T4, as being a tailor the Frozen Shaddowweave set is much better than Warlock T4, and arguably T5. However, the point is that I'm starting to look like a replica of every other raiding shadow priest, warlock, or frost mage.
It's kind of distressing that as you play the game from early game to midgame, everyone looks different, as there are plenty of viable gear options. As you progress into the final endgame, though, there are fewer options for gear choices, and they are coveted by multiple classes and multiple specs. The end result is you have a largely homogenous mob of players.
Its kind of a shame that when creating a character we get all of these hair/face/skin color choices and that by the time we reach the end of the game we are totally encased in armor that hides those features away, with no option to customize our armor other than choosing whether or not we want to see our cape or hat. Hopefully when WotLK rolls out, Blizzard will have listened to players cries of "let us customize our armor".
I mean, those new hairstyles (its kind of sad that was even a selling point for the next expansion @ blizzcon) still wont mean crap when they're all hidden underneath the same engame helmet.
In the meantime, if I'm just waiting around for a raid to start or a PuG to form, I swap out my DPS gear and put on a few more interesting items that are seldom worn by other players. Right now I mix and match various peices of the cloth dungeon sets I have collected (I'm trying to get every TBC cloth dungeon set possible). Nothing like seeing a warlock with +healing gear and a mage set item on to inspire PuG confidence, am I right?
Showing posts with label info. Show all posts
Showing posts with label info. Show all posts
Jan 25, 2008
Jan 24, 2008
why bind on pickup is a great game mechanic
If you've ever played Diablo 2 -- and as a devoted Blizzard fan you've killed Baal at least on Nightmare difficulty -- you'll quickly realize that getting into Hell difficulty requires you to do boss runs or cow level runs over and over again. Even afterwards you will then spend the rest of the game avoiding monsters because they are too difficult (Extra Strong Multishot Lightning Enchanted Physical Immune? More like "fuck you, player") and not worth the ensuing repair bill.
The game shifts from steadily progressing to being stronger and taking on swathes of enemies to avoiding those monsters so you can go kill the boss that has a much better chance at dropping something worthwhile. Part of this has to do with the fact that if Boss monsters ALWAYS dropped Unique level items, everyone and their pet dog would have them -- rather than just the botters or the devoted grinders. Suddenly the game no longer is challenging once you have a single high level character because they can just farm all the overpowered gear a new character would ever need, and hand it off to them. They could even create a looping progression cycle of hand-me-downs that they never get rid of when they want to reroll a new character.
World of Warcraft's avoids this by binding equipment. By having equipment bind, you can no longer have an overinflated item economy due to people just shoving off their hand-me-down equipment when they are done with it, or farming the same boss over and over and trading it out.
Bind on Equip items force a choice of either using said item for yourself, or getting trade value from somone else who wants it. There is an opportunity cost with equipping it, so you either have to choose to use it or get rid of it entirely, rather than trading it away the moment it loses its usefulness.
Bind on Pickup forces you to actually be present in an attempt for the item. Usually contributing towards getting it. It's still quite possible to take a higher level character in and trivialize the encounter, however its not possible anymore for you to bring in your own high level character, gather all the items, and then hand them over to one of your lower level characters. You need somone else to help you to twink out, and they are often busy grinding something else in the game.
With this, Blizzard no longer has to agonize over drop rates of the best equipment like they did in Diablo 2. The economy doesnt become oversaturated with powerful items because once they are placed on an owner, they cannot be put back on the market again. So now when you get through the effort of killing a "really hard guy" you dont have to sigh as it again drops a bunch of items that are useless for everyone. (Instead you sigh because once again, they didnt drop item X for you).
Overall the improvement is noticeable, when killing a boss you have a 10-33% chance of getting an item you want to drop, drop, rather than having a droprate below 1%.
The game shifts from steadily progressing to being stronger and taking on swathes of enemies to avoiding those monsters so you can go kill the boss that has a much better chance at dropping something worthwhile. Part of this has to do with the fact that if Boss monsters ALWAYS dropped Unique level items, everyone and their pet dog would have them -- rather than just the botters or the devoted grinders. Suddenly the game no longer is challenging once you have a single high level character because they can just farm all the overpowered gear a new character would ever need, and hand it off to them. They could even create a looping progression cycle of hand-me-downs that they never get rid of when they want to reroll a new character.
World of Warcraft's avoids this by binding equipment. By having equipment bind, you can no longer have an overinflated item economy due to people just shoving off their hand-me-down equipment when they are done with it, or farming the same boss over and over and trading it out.
Bind on Equip items force a choice of either using said item for yourself, or getting trade value from somone else who wants it. There is an opportunity cost with equipping it, so you either have to choose to use it or get rid of it entirely, rather than trading it away the moment it loses its usefulness.
Bind on Pickup forces you to actually be present in an attempt for the item. Usually contributing towards getting it. It's still quite possible to take a higher level character in and trivialize the encounter, however its not possible anymore for you to bring in your own high level character, gather all the items, and then hand them over to one of your lower level characters. You need somone else to help you to twink out, and they are often busy grinding something else in the game.
With this, Blizzard no longer has to agonize over drop rates of the best equipment like they did in Diablo 2. The economy doesnt become oversaturated with powerful items because once they are placed on an owner, they cannot be put back on the market again. So now when you get through the effort of killing a "really hard guy" you dont have to sigh as it again drops a bunch of items that are useless for everyone. (Instead you sigh because once again, they didnt drop item X for you).
Overall the improvement is noticeable, when killing a boss you have a 10-33% chance of getting an item you want to drop, drop, rather than having a droprate below 1%.
Jan 3, 2008
the khadgar house rules
If you couldn't tell by the character sheets on the side, I play Alliance on Khadgar, and as long as I've played there, there is one very simple rule for loot distribution:
Pass on BoPs
I dont really run into that rule now as a 70, because pretty much every group I play with has veterans of the server who accept the rule as law and dont question it. A lot of new players, however do. I was like that once, but if you group enough as you level, you will keep hearing it and keep encountering it, and more experienced players will force the rule down upon you.
From what I've come to understand the rule is there so you can have more time to decide after combat is over on who deserves to actually roll for need on it. There have been plenty of times while levelling where people would get item crazy and roll on things they didnt necessarily need at all, only to get shouted down by the group to l2p. Should the debate on "needing" the item end in the result that it should be "greeded", the item then can be picked up by an enchanter and sharded. Early on the shards dont mean much, since newbie characters can afford to pay for nice enchants when they can barely pay for their lvl 40 mount when they ding 40, but later on their economic importance becomes realized.
But of course it leaves the system wide open for ninjas. Nothing's stopping anyone from picking up items either by clicking need after everyone has passed, or self looting the item after passing and discussion about who it goes to is under way. But ultimately its just a 5 man drop. I'm sure Master Looter was a lot more prevalent during the old days of PuGing 10 mans, or participating in 40 man raids. But for 5 mans it doesnt really seem that important to use it in order to ensure somone isnt going to ninja the item, as while levelling, the only people who really care about missing out on a blue item tend to be newbies, and at lvl 70, its not [i]that[/i] much of a hassle to run instance X again and again until the item drops.
Pass on BoPs
I dont really run into that rule now as a 70, because pretty much every group I play with has veterans of the server who accept the rule as law and dont question it. A lot of new players, however do. I was like that once, but if you group enough as you level, you will keep hearing it and keep encountering it, and more experienced players will force the rule down upon you.
From what I've come to understand the rule is there so you can have more time to decide after combat is over on who deserves to actually roll for need on it. There have been plenty of times while levelling where people would get item crazy and roll on things they didnt necessarily need at all, only to get shouted down by the group to l2p. Should the debate on "needing" the item end in the result that it should be "greeded", the item then can be picked up by an enchanter and sharded. Early on the shards dont mean much, since newbie characters can afford to pay for nice enchants when they can barely pay for their lvl 40 mount when they ding 40, but later on their economic importance becomes realized.
But of course it leaves the system wide open for ninjas. Nothing's stopping anyone from picking up items either by clicking need after everyone has passed, or self looting the item after passing and discussion about who it goes to is under way. But ultimately its just a 5 man drop. I'm sure Master Looter was a lot more prevalent during the old days of PuGing 10 mans, or participating in 40 man raids. But for 5 mans it doesnt really seem that important to use it in order to ensure somone isnt going to ninja the item, as while levelling, the only people who really care about missing out on a blue item tend to be newbies, and at lvl 70, its not [i]that[/i] much of a hassle to run instance X again and again until the item drops.
Dec 14, 2007
alt love
Early on in my WoW career I was weary of my alts. Sunblossom was my bread and butter, and it took only casual observations that she could accumulate wealth much faster than a brand new character could, and thus could easily twink out a new character -- even in only minor amounts -- which would be much faster than "legitimately" levelling that character from scratch.
Now that I'm raiding and Sunblossom has a full set of purpz (though, I am still using the Scryer Bloodgem, but its one of the best +spell hit trinkets in the game, so it doesnt count) my "progression" focuses have narrowed. I cant be raiding all the time, because they are scheduled only for specific nights. 5-mans no longer give me gear that I can use, and I dare not do heroics outside of my guild as PUGing is rampant with idiocy. I don't care to do PVP at all -- TF2 satisfies those urges quite nicely. This limits the current activities I can do with Sunblossom:
Questing - My log is currently full of 21 group/dungeon quests that need to be completed. A lot of the time I'm too busy to get people together to help me to do those. Besides the last few Ethereum quests I have left to do, the only zone thats left for me to quest is Shadowmoon Valley, and I dare not start that with only 4 free quest slots.
Reputation Grinding - I'm exalted with Scryer and Kurenai, but I really need to get Sha'tar and Cenarion Expidition down
Epic Fyling Training - :(
Grind Enchanting to 375 - :( :(
Grind Fishing to 375 - :( :( :(... at least until I get a boxed set of some TV show I want to watch, then fishing is fun to do.
None of these are that fun right now. Plus, recently I've been feeling the itch to re-experience the lower level content, and with a super powered main that can buy a few peices off the AH for them every now and then and fun their lvl 40 mount expenses, why not!? The increased level curve makes this even more enticing. Furthermore, since I can afford to trick out several alts, I'm taking advantage of the fact that I can wait for the weekends and then only play them while they have rested XP up. It makes the entire experience so much less painful than it was when I first started out. Quite frankly, levelling alts rock right now. Especially with the levelling curve and old world dungeon changes. I'm not entirely sold on the "solo-ification" of some of the Old World questing areas by removing elites. I know that all of those orcs that used to be elite still require a group to kill easily since they are crammed so close to eachother.
Some other day I will go into length about each of my alts, but for now all I can say is that alts should be best left to those with level 70 mains they cant trick out easily anymore. The only alt a new player should have is a bank alt.
BANK ALTS FOR NEWBIES
While you should never ignore a characters bank space, never underestimate the power of a bank alt. Just make a new character, and run them to a city with where a bank, auction house and mailbox are in close proximity. For alliance this means ironforge, unless your computer sucks in which case you might have to relocate. Horde has more options, and Ogrimmar seems to be the most popular one.
The key to the bank alt is that all they do is process mail your other characters send them. They sell the items you want to sell on the auction house, and they store items that you want quick access to when levelling a character that cant hack it in outlands yet. By sending all your goods across the mail, you save loads of time that would otherwise be spent running/riding/flying around on a levelling character between the bank and where they need to level.
Plus it also starts a centralized area of finances where you can visibly tell how much profit you've gotten from selling items off the AH. Your bank alt will need some seed money, but after that they will be more than capable of establishing a positive cash flow for you quickly and easily as long as you supply them with goods that will sell on the AH.
So seriously. Do it. It just takes a few minutes of boring running to get them set up, and then later on you can enjoy tricking them out with unique clothing ("real" characters have to unequip a lot of crap to see the awesomeness of festival gear). My bank-alt wears only brewfest regalia (hat, hosen and shoes!), a stein and an offhand fish. And it was totally worth getting too.
Now that I'm raiding and Sunblossom has a full set of purpz (though, I am still using the Scryer Bloodgem, but its one of the best +spell hit trinkets in the game, so it doesnt count) my "progression" focuses have narrowed. I cant be raiding all the time, because they are scheduled only for specific nights. 5-mans no longer give me gear that I can use, and I dare not do heroics outside of my guild as PUGing is rampant with idiocy. I don't care to do PVP at all -- TF2 satisfies those urges quite nicely. This limits the current activities I can do with Sunblossom:
Questing - My log is currently full of 21 group/dungeon quests that need to be completed. A lot of the time I'm too busy to get people together to help me to do those. Besides the last few Ethereum quests I have left to do, the only zone thats left for me to quest is Shadowmoon Valley, and I dare not start that with only 4 free quest slots.
Reputation Grinding - I'm exalted with Scryer and Kurenai, but I really need to get Sha'tar and Cenarion Expidition down
Epic Fyling Training - :(
Grind Enchanting to 375 - :( :(
Grind Fishing to 375 - :( :( :(... at least until I get a boxed set of some TV show I want to watch, then fishing is fun to do.
None of these are that fun right now. Plus, recently I've been feeling the itch to re-experience the lower level content, and with a super powered main that can buy a few peices off the AH for them every now and then and fun their lvl 40 mount expenses, why not!? The increased level curve makes this even more enticing. Furthermore, since I can afford to trick out several alts, I'm taking advantage of the fact that I can wait for the weekends and then only play them while they have rested XP up. It makes the entire experience so much less painful than it was when I first started out. Quite frankly, levelling alts rock right now. Especially with the levelling curve and old world dungeon changes. I'm not entirely sold on the "solo-ification" of some of the Old World questing areas by removing elites. I know that all of those orcs that used to be elite still require a group to kill easily since they are crammed so close to eachother.
Some other day I will go into length about each of my alts, but for now all I can say is that alts should be best left to those with level 70 mains they cant trick out easily anymore. The only alt a new player should have is a bank alt.
BANK ALTS FOR NEWBIES
While you should never ignore a characters bank space, never underestimate the power of a bank alt. Just make a new character, and run them to a city with where a bank, auction house and mailbox are in close proximity. For alliance this means ironforge, unless your computer sucks in which case you might have to relocate. Horde has more options, and Ogrimmar seems to be the most popular one.
The key to the bank alt is that all they do is process mail your other characters send them. They sell the items you want to sell on the auction house, and they store items that you want quick access to when levelling a character that cant hack it in outlands yet. By sending all your goods across the mail, you save loads of time that would otherwise be spent running/riding/flying around on a levelling character between the bank and where they need to level.
Plus it also starts a centralized area of finances where you can visibly tell how much profit you've gotten from selling items off the AH. Your bank alt will need some seed money, but after that they will be more than capable of establishing a positive cash flow for you quickly and easily as long as you supply them with goods that will sell on the AH.
So seriously. Do it. It just takes a few minutes of boring running to get them set up, and then later on you can enjoy tricking them out with unique clothing ("real" characters have to unequip a lot of crap to see the awesomeness of festival gear). My bank-alt wears only brewfest regalia (hat, hosen and shoes!), a stein and an offhand fish. And it was totally worth getting too.
Dec 7, 2007
on this blog and myself
When I first started World of Warcraft I didnt know what to expect. I had basically shunned it for its first 2 years in college, when I saw the devestating effects it had on my roommate, and at the time I felt it was inappropriate to play a game that incurred a monthly fee when I didnt have a steady source of income. I also realized it was basically a gigantic time sink, and that as a sophomore and junior, if I had time to play WoW, I probably should have been studying.
Senior year though, things were different. I finished most of the hard classes I needed to take, and even hard classes were easy for me to sleep through. So I figured I might as well try it one day at a friends house while drunk.
After killing a few kobolds I was immediatly hooked.
There was something about how the combat worked that just seemed so right.
After a trial account I realized that playing a Warlock was my true calling in the game and bought a boxed copy to have fun with after finals were finished that semester.
My initial observations painted it as some sort of inferior bastardization of the worst aspects of Warcraft 3 and Diablo 2, blocky and confusing in the heat of battle and a clickfest with an unappealing endgame grind. In reality it had a much leasurely pace, and unlike in the information overload in Warcraft 3 -- where it was vital to understand every detail in the battlefield -- the mass of information the game throws at you is tuneable and most of it is ignorable.
Currently I am in a "casually serious" (or is it "seriously casual"?) raiding guild. Our current progression as of this post:
- Karazhan, Gruuls Lair on farm.
- Magtheridon down twice.
- Working on Lurker Below.
- Doing Zul'Aman runs when we dont have enough to do a 25 man and no new recruits need gear from Karazhan. (ie: never)
Not a very impressive list of bosses down, but Magtheridon is quite an accomplishment in my opinion, and I really dont think Lurker or Void Reaver will take that long for us to get on farm status.
I started this blog partly as a desire to share information and opinions about the "state of the game (tm)". I dont expect anyone to read or follow this advice, but I do expect to get in trouble with my guild leader when somone links a post where I complain about the Shitty-DPSer-of-the-week-who-keeps-wiping-us-on-learning-content-because-they-cant-pay-attention-and-arent-cautious-enough. (please dont do this)
Its also so I can post speculative stuff in hopes that some blizz designer will see it and think "hey thats a good idea to put in the game, we should work that angle" (this is purely fantasy and will never happen).
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