Tag: WoW

In my years of MMO gaming, I’ve seen a lot of changes. I’ve had to re-learn game mechanics time and time again, each new expansion, in multiple games. I’ve normally taken this with a grain of salt, after all we all learn to adjust and move on – but the latest WoW patch REALLY bugs me, on my shaman in specific.

Shaman used to drop down 4 totems at once, it was “their thing”. What they were known for. You would pick the totem that best fit the situation, and before you started healing or DPS you would place those totems. They could even act as markers, they were raid wide, and they were wonderful. 5.0.4 removed the majority of these totems. Instead of dropping four, you’ll probably only drop ONE constantly (as DPS), with a side order of another here and there. Instead of lasting 5 minutes, they last 10-40 seconds. Instead of having nice totem hotbars where you can make sets of totems to drop, you’ll need them all on your regular hotbars so that you can drop the right ones when you need them. What the totems themselves do has been changed. That nice +agi/str buff is gone. Sure, your flame / stone pets are still there but the class doesn’t FEEL the same, at all.

I spent a bit of time looking over my skills, saddened at how many they removed. They seem to have consolidated every class in some aspect. This is great for freeing up space on my hotbars, not so great for someone who spent a lot of time learning how to play the class to begin with.

I have poked my other characters to some degree. The priest plays pretty much the same except that I have switched over to two heal specs. There is a large difference between the holy and discipline specs now – the level 85 AoE heal all priests used to get is now restricted to holy only. It was annoying to try to heal in my discipline spec. It was also annoying to try to heal a 5 man dungeon in my holy spec. Dropping shadow was something I had been contemplating before the changes, so I don’t mind too much.

Speaking of raids. The new LFRaid loot changes are.. not fun. In fact the majority of players I’ve seen in game have been complaining about them. I told them if people didn’t constantly roll on things that they didn’t actually need, maybe this change wouldn’t have taken place. In other words, THIS is why we can’t have nice things. See, before the change people would just roll on whatever their class could equip, needed or not. Some times trades would go on, some times players would win double items from the same boss. In other words human nature took over and suddenly everyone became a pack of loot hungry mongrels. The new loot system auto distributes 4 pieces of gear to random raiders, and everyone else gets a bag of 25g. You don’t see who wins, and you can’t trade the loot. In other words, blizzard is very literally just handing you your loot and saying here you go. It makes for some very drab and boring raids, that’s for sure. No worries though, people have found other things in-raid to bicker and argue about since they can’t argue about the loot with one another.

Over all? I’m excited about MOP and the pet battles, and even leveling up. I’m not excited about any of my class changes, and the LFRaids are a bit annoying. I LOVE that my guild experience no longer has a cap and they’ve increased the amount of experience you earn for your guild. This has been a godsend to my small guild of 3 people. We’re closing in on level 7, and that’s something that took a few months in the past.

What are your thoughts of patch 5.0.4?

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

If I had a main in World of Warcraft, this would be her. Ellithia is my discipline priest, off spec flutters between holy and shadow depending on my mood. Discipline is great for single target big heals (ie: 5 man dungeons) and I use holy for raids (AoE heals). Shadow I use just when I’m out questing on my own though I am thinking of giving it up and having two heal specs instead.

Her professions are tailoring and enchanting, which is pretty typical for a priest because they are independent of one another and priests wear cloth. I’ve managed to max out all her other professions, and I have the most achievements on this character.  Even finished archaeology which took forever (but was also a lot of fun). Over 50 mounts, 95 pets, it’s the character I’m most ‘proud’ of and have put the most work into. I also spend a lot of time PvPing on this character, despite what a lot of people think, I do enjoy this aspect of WoW and always have. I’m even good at it.

Ellithia has a pretty boring background story. Both of her parents are hard working citizens of Stormwind City, and Ellithia was able to make the choice to become a priest on her own without any pressure. Her mother and father both love her with all of their hearts, and have never judged her or made her feel like less of a person. In fact they are incredibly proud of their daughter and all she has accomplished. Ellithia had a younger sister who was killed in a very unfortunate accident involving a cauldron of molten lava, but her family doesn’t speak about it. Her picture is kept on the mantle, where the family can see her every day.

Ellithia spends most of her days with her best friend Toargo, who is a dwarven warrior from Ironforge. They’ve been friends for a number of years now, and often fight the evils of Azeroth together, their latest conquests have taken them right before Deathwing where they of course emerged victorious.

Ah yes, my little warlock. The class that was completely over powered in the last expansion (Wrath of the Lich King) and that I have struggled so much with in Cataclysm. My main spec is Affliction (dots), and my off spec is demonology. I have a hard time parsing well on the warlock this expansion, it takes a lot of work unlike my other DPS classes. A lot of it is also related to how many mobs are in an encounter, and how long that encounter lasts. Quick fights are not the best of situations as I don’t exactly have a lot of burst damage, multi targets work well though.

Minxes is a gnome, and her professions include engineering (goblin) and mining. I love playing shorter races, and the gnome is just a handful of fun. In MOP warlocks go through a LOT of changes, it’s like playing an entire new class, so that should be interesting to learn. I played around with it some in the beta, but didn’t want to get too familiar, after all part of the fun of a new expansion is having to explore and learn about all the changes.

Minxes comes from a family of 40 – that is to say she lived and was raised at an orphanage, and she was constantly fighting and bickering with anyone who wouldn’t let her get her way. She pretty much (literally) climbed her way to the top, she would be the one standing on top of the roof waving around your most precious doll in order to get you to do her chores. She’s never mean for the sake of being mean, it’s more like she’s mischievous and being a gnome, that’s never going to end well.

She was always warned against the spells of the warlock, which is exactly why she became one. How dare someone tell her she shouldn’t or can’t do anything! That’s not the way she operates. Her best friend includes all of her minions, and she has very little patience for anyone else. At least they do what she says, even if while talking back on occasion.

Arysh is my Dwarven Shaman, enhancement (melee dps) for the most part, restoration (healer) as her off spec. Playing a melee shaman is a LOT of fun, although you’ll hear it referred to as easy mode quite often because it’s a lot of casting unleash elements. Unlike Velours I’ve never had much luck when it comes to playing Arysh. She does have the two BiS (best in slot) raid finder weapons but it was not exactly luck that I won them. See they’re flagged as shaman / rogue only, and there were no rogues in the raid nor were there any shaman dps besides myself. There were some healers, but I have a role bonus. Aside from the awesome weapons she has two pieces of LFRaid set gear, and the rest is valor / twilight instance stuff that I’ve picked up.

Arysh works on jewel crafting and inscription, which may seem like an odd combination but I have other characters who are able to provide her with the materials required (like the paladin, who provides herbs).

Her story is quite simple. She was found left in a room at the local Inn of Ironforge. She has no idea who her parents were or why they left her but to be honest she never spends any time thinking about that. She’s constantly energetic and upbeat, and doesn’t regret a single moment in her life. She was raised by the Innkeeper and his wife who had 6 children, and her upbringing was filled with love, laughter, and a whole lot of noise. She spent a lot of time in the Mystic Ward of Ironforge, and when she was in her late teens she began developing her skills as a shaman. She’s one of the most loyal people you’ll ever meet, and one of the first people who will rush out to battle swinging her axes to defend a scored friend.

I love my characters in every game that I play, and I have a LOT of characters. They all come with their own story and history, along with ‘memories’ of when I’ve played them. I decided I’d go through and introduce a few of them (my ‘mains’) starting backwards from creation. First up, Velours, who is a human paladin, and the last ‘main’ I created. I say main but I don’t really have any one character I play more than the others, I gave up settling on one ages ago.

Velours is a retribution paladin most of the time (that’s a DPS spec) and her off spec is holy (healer). I actually leveled her up as protection, thinking I wanted to learn how to tank. See when I play a game I pride myself on learning as much about it as I can, and the only thing I’ve never been comfortable with in WoW is tanking. It’s just not in my nature to be a leader that way. So after months of trying to convince myself that tanking was what I wanted to do, I gave in and went back to what I’m comfortable doing.

Alchemy is her craft, and it’s come in handy. I’ve enjoyed making trinkets for her to use that don’t cost me an arm and a leg, and in fact tonight took her on her first two Cataclysm raids via the LFRaid finder. I happily walked away with a new pair of pants and gloves, which is already more raid gear than my warlock and shaman have acquired. While gear is NOT everything, obtaining new pretties IS a lot of fun, and it made me giggle and excited that my brand new 85 had managed to win. I won’t lie, her DPS is abysmal, but with MOP just around the corner I was hoping no one would grief me too badly over it. So far, so good.

As far as a back story, Velours grew up in a house just outside the gates of Stormwind. Her father always wanted a son, but Velours’ mother was unable to grant him that one wish. No matter how many times they tried (or how many years) she just wasn’t able to provide him with any more children after Velours. When she came of age and her parents started discussing her future (which involved her being married off and a lot of little babies thumping around) Velours decided to move to Stormwind proper, and enlist in with the Knights. There she found the home she had been looking for almost all of her life, though it certainly didn’t come easily and she was teased mercilessly. She ignored the comments she would get while walking to the temple and instead focused on her training. After years of practice it paid off.

P.S. I don’t think her sword is nearly big enough.