So…. many…. changes….

Ok, I was intending to write a bit about the upcoming engineering changes this morning.

I even sat down to do it, but stuff just kept coming in.

Paid faction changes coming in the future.

More Engineering love than I have seen since I took up the trade in vanilla Wow.

Being able to fight old bosses as raid bosses. It has something to do with memories, but I don’t have a lot of data at the moment. Hogger, Onyxia, and Edward VanCleef were all mentioned however.

The idea that paid race changes are getting more and more likely occurs to me as well.

I worry that as the game changes more and more it will actually be less and less appealing to me (and possibly a few others, but I can only speak for myself.)

 

One thought occurs to me however. If changes like these are being announced in blue posts with all the fanfare of ordering a pizza for lunch, What in the world could they be sitting on as this years “Big Announcement” for Blizzcon?

A next generation MMO to start replacing Wow?

What the next expansion will be?

Who knows?

 

All I can do is order the live stream, take the day off work, watch,and wait.

Just like everyone else.

Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot… over.

The following is a blue post I just finished reading this evening. A post that may have some truely interesting consequences.

Hell, I was just looking to see about the rumored new engineering changes (more on those tomorrow)

Well, i’ll post it here. Or, if you like you can hit the forums and Read it for yourselves.

We wanted to give everyone a very early heads-up that, in response to player requests, we’re developing a new service for World of Warcraft that will allow players to change their faction from Alliance to Horde or Horde to Alliance. There’s still much work to do and many details to iron out, but the basic idea is that players will be able to use the service to transform an existing character into a roughly equivalent character of the opposing faction on the same realm. Players who ended up creating and leveling up characters on the opposite factions from their friends have been asking for this type of functionality for some time, and we’re pleased to be getting closer to being able to deliver it.

 

 

 

As with all of the features and services we offer, we intend to incorporate the faction-change service in a way that won’t disrupt the gameplay experience on the realms, and there will be some rules involved with when and how the service can be used. The number of variables involved increases the complexity of implementing this service, but we plan to take the time needed to ensure that it lives up to expectations before officially rolling it out. We’ll go into much more detail on all of this here at http://www.WorldofWarcraft.com as development progresses. In the meantime, we wanted to let you know that because this type of functionality requires extensive internal testing well in advance of release, you may be seeing bits and pieces of the service in the test builds we use for the public test realms moving forward.

 

 

 

 

All I can think of is… Wow. this is going to be interesting. I can almost hear the screams from the forums now. (Something about about the sky falling)

 

 

Blah

This just in:

All classes other than yours are getting cool buffs in the next patch.

Your class is getting nerfed to hell (and told to bring back ice cream)

That is all.

It feels like home

There was a time, not so very long ago really, that I rolled my first hunter. A long limbed Troll named Decado with a bear named Cuddles (he liked giving bear hugs).

I rarely read blogs, just kind of making it up as I went along until I was nearly level 70. I started playing in vanilla Wow although I never level capped at 60 (I think I was 53 or so when the dark portal opened)

Anyhow, as I leveled I took the talents that to me just seemed to flow together the best. I knew nothing of theory crafting or min maxing for raids, that all came later. I stepped foot through the dark portal as an 8/31/13 Marksman hunter and finished leveling to 70 where if I recall I was 8/41/13.

I started running instances that way and found I liked it.

Then came the teacher, the guild breaker, the 10 man monolith known as Karazahn. We were having a bit of trouble finding our groove, losing dps races such as Morose. The guild was stalled, and starting to bleed people to other more progressed guilds.

Posts were written, gear guides were created, blogs were linked, all with one purpose… put out more Dps.

After a good amount of reading on the subject I wrote out my plan, headed to the trainer, and became a 41/20/0 Beastmaster…. just like every other Hunter I knew.

I put out more damage pushing my magic “I Win” macro’s hotkey. It looked good on paper, and the bosses started to fall before us as we all tooled up our characters to run their best.

It worked good, but it never felt like home.

 

Wrath hit and I found Beastmastery great for leveling (especially with a tenacity pet) but the nerf bat had simply hit too hard and too often for me to stay there one 80 came around. Once again I found myself cruising the interwebs in search of the “best” hunter spec.. the next magic bullet.

I visited my trainer and walked away with my Elitist Jerks approved cookie cutter Survival build. Hurray for me, I can put out pretty good Dps with that spec and shot rotation.

It worked good, but it never felt like home.

 

It has been said that home is were the heart is. I have always been a marksman at heart, but could never talk myself into gimping my raids performance just because I wanted to play a less than optimal spec. Blizzard has finally gotten the three trees where they are pretty close to each other in damage output and survivability. A few days ago I made a decision, with a bit of help from Nassira, I went about going back to my roots.

A different Hunter, A different server, A different faction…

One again A Marksman.

  

 

Well, that felt good. I am back where I belong. Now I just have to remember how to play a Marksman.

Turns out it has changed a lot since Kara, well not really. More like I have changed.

Keeping in mind the fact that there is no longer a set shot rotation I decided to build my action bars around the idea that there is a shot priority. As for shot priorities there is already a really good writeup over at Diaries of a Marksman Hunter. Instead of reinventing the wheel I will simply link it Here.

So here is what I came up with for my primary action bar set up, the vast majority of which I can reach without ever moving my hand.

 

1. Serpents Sting – first priority if not currently cooking on my target.

F1. Auto attack (mostly there for those times I need to toggle it off)

2. Kill shot – first priority if it is lit up.

F2. Kill Command – weave in where possible

3. Chimera Shot – high damage, second only to Kill shot on my priority list

F3. Rapid fire – if this is not on cooldown at all times I am doing something wrong.

4. Arcane shot – moderate damage, short cooldown. Third after Chimera shot on two or less targets.

F4. Multi-shot – good damage, moderate cooldown. Third after Chimera on three or more targets.

5. Aimed shot – High damage, long cooldown, mortal strike benefit as well. Drop from rotation if I find myself dipping into Viper too much.

F5. Readiness – Instantly gives me back all my cooldowns, great in the last 20% of a boss fight to get in an extra Kill shot and Rapid Fire.

6. Steady shot – if everything else is on cooldown this is whats left. Mine is still tied to my trinket macro for now, might move them later.

F6. Viper sting – on the off chance that I need to drain some mana. Usually used along with Aspect of the Viper.

F7. Scorpid sting – mostly used for soloing, makes my suddenly more squishy pet survive a bit longer.

 

A few other odds and ends I may have to move my hand for, but I still want them close at hand.

 

8. Volley – because mages are not allowed to have all the AOE fun

9. Distracting shot –  I keep this handy in the vain hope that I will someday get to trap again.

F9. Concussive shot – Once again I keep this handy on the off chance that trapping comes back in style.

0. Hunters mark – Because I like to see bouncing red arrows over things that are in the process of dying.

F 10. Disengage – Mostly here because I forgot to remove it. I don’t think I have actually used it since I got Feign Death.

-. Feign Death – I like hitting things. Hard and often. Unfortunately they like to chew my face off for doing it. This helps with that. If all else fails Jumper cables are rumored to work from time to time.

F 11. Deterrence – In case something starts chewing my face off while Feign Death is on cooldown. Throw readiness in there and I can emergency avoidance tank for a really short while before getting my head caved in.

=. Mend Pet – Um, heals my pet…. This has been here on every hunter I have ever had, starting at level 12 when I get it.

F 12. Freezing Arrow – not that I have ever used it on something other than the ogres in Negrand (played with it a bit after patch 3.0). It just seems too neat of a tool to take off the toolbar.

 

Thats it in a nutshell. I may be relearning, but I am a Marksman again.

It feels like coming home.

Tempus fugit

We interrupt your regularly scheduled Wow-blog reading with a bit of writing from Dechion’s fleshy real life avatar. This guy seems to think that the anniversary of his getting married some two decades ago now rates a mention on this decidedly Wow related blog. I tried to argue with him, but he can be remarkably persistent.

Well, since he pays for the Internet connection I suppose I should humor him. We can always get back to Wow tomorrow, after all it will still be there.

Here is a little bit ‘o something he wrote for his lovely wife.

 

Twenty years seems like such a long time,

Really it’s just a drop in the bucket.

Like a snowball rolling downhill gathering upon itself.

Days add to days,  years to years, decades to decades. 

 

All the small things that make up a life add together

Until one day looking back through the lens of memory, 

You realise that you have shared so much together

you can no longer even imagine being apart.

 

Half a lifetime ago something wonderful happened.

We gazed at one another, exchanged rings,  and said “I do”.

It may not have always been the smoothest ride,

But I would not have missed it for the world.

Badge epics are not welfare epics

Ever since the patch notes came out I can hardly sleep for all the whining about the changes to the badge system. Seriously, how many people will have their game experience destroyed by this?

None of the folks who are bitchin that’s for sure.

The main argument that I see is that if players are not able to complete *insert raid instance here* then they do not rate having gear equivalent to the gear that drops there.

Apparently there is only so much epeen around, having someone else get equivalent loot makes theirs look smaller. That is quite seriously the only reason I can see to whine about it.

Let me make something clear…. Gear helps, but it’s the person driving the toon that makes it succeed or fail. Blizzard could mail every level 80 in the game a complete set of best in slot items for their class and spec today and it would not matter.

There are still folks that would turn Naxx 10 into an all afternoon wipefest, geared or not.

Another common argument is that badge loot is Blizzard catering to casuals. It is only there for folks who can barely manage their daily clear of heroic Violet Hold.

I say bullshit.

Gathering all the badges required to completely gear a character just by doing the heroic daily would take just this side of forever. We are talking over 500 badges to take a toon in quest greens and put him in a set of badge epics.

That’s a daily heroic a day for over 3 months, never missing a day.

That’s at least 7 hours a week doing the gear farming. Thats not including time in LFG, travel time, time farming consumables, time wiping over and over with random pugs. I know quite a few “hardcore” raiders that raid two the three times a week for three hours at a stretch. Not much difference in time invested really, not looking at it that way.

The only downside I really see to this is that Naxx will likely turn into a frequently pugged badge run. Kind of like Kara was towards the end of TBC.

Oddly I had a lot of fun in pug Kara runs.

I kind of look forward to the changes, they won’t effect me gear wise (much) but should open up a lot more runs I can find a spot in.

TLDR version: The badge changes will not, in fact, cause your epeen to fall off. People will get gear that will let them walk into Icecrown without the roaches being able to one shot them, deal with it.

Happy Fathers day folks!

I woke up this morning to a quiet house.

My wife was already awake, but had taken the effort to not wake me up whilst getting out of bed. (not an easy task, I assure you). The children, usually so rambunctious and noisy, were quiet. In fact, the only sound I could hear was the ragged breathing of an old hound dog. The same hound dog that had woken me up by sleeping on my feet.

I picked up my phone from the nightstand to check for messages. There were several from friends, most wishing me a happy fathers day. (One just wanted to go fishing)

As I waited for the pins and needles to go away in the feet my dog had put to sleep I thought about fathers day. I was reminded of a time many moons ago that I tried to do something nice for my dad. I was not fathers day, it was actually his 50th birthday.

No one ever said my stories make any sense. Hell, if you think this is disjointed you should see some of the odd stuff I have dreamed. (last night included the movie “Apollo 13” but the cast was the characters from “Spongebob Squarepants”)

Anyhow, my dad’s 50th birthday was coming up some years ago. If I recall I was in 5th grade at the time, maybe 6th. We had recently moved to a new town where we essentially knew only each other. He was about to have a birthday, and there was no one to throw him a party.

A plan started to form in my little head. There was in fact someone who could throw him a party!

Me.

 

First I needed some money, that was the easy part really. For a couple of weeks I took my lunch money and only bought milk with it. There was an apple tree behind the house that provided my lunch for that time, two apples and a milk for my lunch. After a bit I had the money to fill out my shopping list. 

Waiting until a Wednesday (dad worked till 5 on Wed and I was home alone) I took my bike and my backpack on a long ride into town to the grocery store. Using my carefully hoarded lunch money I filled up my pack with things for his birthday, finding everything on my list except a card. Sometime that week I made one.

My dad come home the next Wednsday to find the table already set and dinner cooking. Ok, so hot dogs and ramen noodles may not be a steak dinner, but it was what I could handle. To say he was shocked was an understatement.

The best part was when I brought out a pineapple upside down cake with a five and a zero on top. The look on his face was priceless.

Not really a fathers day story, but it is a story about my dad.

Happy fathers day folks.

Blah, I need a drink

The more I read the less I like about the patch.

For the moment the thing ticking me off the worst is my most favorite of professions, Engineering.

I have always had fun with it, and really hoped to continue to do so. After reading the changes I am very seriously thinking of dropping it in favor of something useful. Basket weaving perhaps. I have kept it around forever hoping for a few perks.

We finally got the chopper, then again so does anyone else with the cash to buy one.

We finally got our portable mailbox, then again all you really need now is a squire.

The repair bots were nice once upon a time, then again I have not dropped one since hitting Northrend.

We finally got our portable bank…. Oh, wait thats the squire again.

The goblin army knife was cool and all, especially the flint and steel part. Don’t really need that anymore, but at least it has built in jumper cables. Not that I ever use them, or that they ever work when I do.

We got a really nice crafted gun in the Nessingwery 4000. Wait, my bad that’s BoE. I can just buy one.

The transporters got a decent buff, they no longer count as trinkets. That will save a few seconds every time I need to go to Gadgetzan or Toshleys Station. Oh, that’s right, I have no need to go there. Then again my Argent Crusade Banner and tabard will be able to transport me to the tourney grounds. Perhaps I will go with the one that gets me to the correct continent.

There are the health and mana injectors that save bag space… except that now potions stack to 20 also. Never mind.

Well, to be fair the injectors will have 125% effect on engineers. That’s a good thing, right?

Well, we do have gizmos that let you run really fast and breath under water. Those may actually come in handy at some point.

There are a goodly number of things that will help out in PvP. The welding beam that heals friendly mechanical targets is a good example, so are the bombs that will now do more siege damage.

Too bad I rarely PvP.

Wait! I know what keeps me with Engineering!

I don’t have a helm to replace my goggles with.

That’s it.

Give me a helm and I am gone.

 

I think I will be going over to Alchemy as soon as I find a new hat. One hour flasks are a nuisance, and double the potion effect beats the hell out of 125%.

And a squire, can’t forget the squire.

3.2.0 PTR patch notes have gone up

The patch notes are up for the 3.2.0 PTR.

MMO champion has coverage Here

And the official patch notes are Here

I’ll post more on them once I have digested them myself.

A bit ‘o fiction

Today I put together a poorly written bit of fiction in response to the monthly writing prompt on the Saucy Wenches podcast.

It is Wow based, so I figured I would link it here.

And with that, I am off on vacation until the middle of next week.

Good hunting, see you then.