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[notworksafe]

I'm sure it won't be too bad. The Vanilla+BC pack came out a few weeks after Wrath for like $30. I'm betting that Blizz keeps the price the same for the Vanilla+BC+Wrath pack and also drops it a few weeks after the Cata launch. That way first timers will pay about the same as a console game and get a ton more content.

 

[speedpop]

I swear J-Rzez drinks nothing but a negative tonic. WoW will never be good enough for him.

 

[Sax Russel]

Sweet, I can do my new alt leveling before having to worry about getting mains to 85 =D

Also,
Blizzard is still trying to decide whether Archaeology will come out before or when World of Warcraft: Cataclysm releases.

Reads as:
Blizzard is still trying to decide if trying to hang on to this now useless profession has any point after scrapping Path of the Titans.
(Yes, still bitter)

 

[Bisnic]

I wonder what kind of bosses there will be in Baradin Hold(the Cataclysm's "VOA")

Hopefully, not 4 giants again.

 

[C.Dark.DN]

I wanted housing 4 years ago. But, yeah, less populated cities are a big deal to me.

 

[J-Rzez]

I swear J-Rzez drinks nothing but a negative tonic. WoW will never be good enough for him.

As I have in the past I give credit where it's due. I'm just really tough on games I love that have issues that really piss me off. I'm no different with MAG for example. Love it, favorite shooter this gen, but man some things just piss me off and I like to express my concerns as I know people frequent these boards that actually work for said developers. In fact, I think boards like these have a greater impact than fansites or official sites by the way some developers talk.

What did I say negative that's not true though? Pricing will need to change. I'm sure shit is going down on this patch launch as it's pretty drastic and lesser patches caused drastic promblems. As many problems and shortcuts that Blizzard takes, they have the measuring stick for all MMOs due in large part that their gameplay is king to date, plus tons of RL friends and I made some great new ones in the game which keeps me coming back. It's a good time, but there's just such simple-stupid things they can do to improve upon the game and keep raising the bar instead of slightly diluting their standards over time, especially considering how much money the game makes them.

I'm pretty excited now though, as this is the first time I'm on a larger realm, and want to see what it's like Day-1 with an expansion, seeing tons of people everywhere, fighting for mobs, world pvp, etc.

As far as housing goes, I understand where they're coming from. Though, I wish they'd add in a bank for legacy armors and tabbards as they eat up a lot of space.

 

[notworksafe]

Yeah prices will go down. Blizz waits a few weeks after an xpac though. I always figured that they like to get the quicks bucks from people who just can't wait, then they drop the price.

 

[PhoenixDark]

As far as housing goes, I understand where they're coming from. Though, I wish they'd add in a bank for legacy armors and tabbards as they eat up a lot of space.

This this this. My bank has so much tier shit from back in the day. You can't sell or exchange it, why not create a Museum tab in your bank for the gear. And if they really want to be cool: allow people to visit each others Museums and have a CoT-esque area where you can have instant access to whatever fight you want from vanilla/BC with your old gear/talents

 

[C.Dark.DN]

Now that I think about it, museum does sound cool. I want to see armor sets hangng on a wall or on a statue.

 

[speedpop]

I know people who have nothing but gear in their banks.

 

[Retro]

LotRO is adding a "Wardrobe" feature when it goes F2P, essentially it's a big vault that 'copies' gear into it. LotRO has a feature where you can put gear into cosmetic slots and those items display instead of whatever you're actually wearing. The Wardrobe basically lets you save gear without taking up storage space.

As for all the talk about player housing, I've been staying out of the discussion because its something I feel genuinely makes a community stronger... but I'd rather not get into it. Suffice to say there is more than just 'playing Sims' in a solid Housing system, but the MMO community by and large automatically assumes it's strictly a fluff feature.

 

[lordmrw]

I would kill for something like that. I took up weapon collecting a few months ago on my rogue and my bank was almost full with the stuff I got before I made a guild to hold the bind on equip stuff last night.

 

[FLEABttn]

I wouldn't be against it if they could make it not fluff. But, if their other non-vertical based progression is anything to base it on, it would be "You collected 100 stools to put in your house, congrats, have a special 101st stool. This one supports 4 people so now you can have all your friends over...sitting."

It's why I don't "get" the whole pets thing. Collecting pets for the sake of collecting pets.

 

[yacobod]

I swear J-Rzez drinks nothing but a negative tonic. WoW will never be good enough for him.

makes ya wonder why he still plays

 

[C.Dark.DN]

I wouldn't be against it if they could make it not fluff. But, if their other non-vertical based progression is anything to base it on, it would be "You collected 100 stools to put in your house, congrats, have a special 101st stool. This one supports 4 people so now you can have all your friends over...sitting."

It's why I don't "get" the whole pets thing. Collecting pets for the sake of collecting pets.

People can see your pet anywhere... If it's neat I want it. If it's dumb I don't.

 

[J-Rzez]

makes ya wonder why he still plays

I thought I explained that above.

I remember FFXI had an instanced player housing, but I don't need that. Just give me that extra tab for legacy gear and tabbards and I'd be happy. I have far too much old gear in my toons I used to play as pre-DK-wrath main. Like some of my Warlock sets that I'll never-ever part with, along with some of my old Rogue stuff.

If they're worried about people "cheesing it" and using said tabs as extra storage, just make it so non-current endgame level 85 gear goes in those slots. Once it's in there, it's in there, and items can never be removed, or just flags the item so you can wear it, but never ever sell the item. And only soul-bound items can be put in there.

Hell, I still have stupid things like the Mace that's a bear bone, another that's a board with a nail in it, and that shovel mace warriors got. :lol

Tabbards are big offenders of space to me too. They need their own tab as well, as I went around collecting those things.

 

[notworksafe]

Tabbards are big offenders of space to me too. They need their own tab as well, as I went around collecting those things.

I thought I'd seen that this was happening.

 

[Tideas]

so what server is US gaf playing on?

 

[FLEABttn]

All of them? There's no one server we're all on.

 

[Tideas]

i just saw the spreadsheet, lol

 

[J-Rzez]

I thought I'd seen that this was happening.

I've seen them mention it before, but we all know how that goes, especially when they say "we'd like to", "soon", or "down the road" in it's mentioning. I'm still waiting on my dance studio you know. Damn them.

 

[firex]

I thought I'd seen that this was happening.

yeah, it's basically getting a keyring, since the current keyring is kind of de-emphasized.

 

[krypt0nian]

Any add-on ui packs worthwhile right now? I just jumped back in and would really like something fairly simple and lightweight. Preferably w/o an hour's worth of tinkering.

 

[funkmastergeneral]

Cataclysm needs to come out already

Also, leveling up my first toon with the dungeon finder in the game. It's great to be able to run around Nagrand doing quests, take a break and run a quick dungeon, then I'm right back to where I was a half hour later killing ogres. So convenient while leveling.

 

[TomServo]

Yeah, dungeon finder is seriously making me reconsider not using my priest as a main in Cata. Wait time for my 'lock is usually around 15 minutes for a random heroic. Wait time for my disc priest is less than a minute. Did my daily heroic in 15 minutes (including queue time) while eating breakfast today.

 

[Bisnic]

Yeah, that's why almost all my recent alts can either heal or tank. No more waiting 15-30 mins to get into a dungeon.

It's not too bad with a pure DPS when you can quest while waiting, but once you are lvl 80 and have done all the Northrend quests outside of dailies, it gets boring. Fast.

 

[TomServo]

Yeah, that's why almost all my recent alts can either heal or tank. No more waiting 15-30 mins to get into a dungeon.

It's not too bad with a pure DPS when you can quest while waiting, but once you are lvl 80 and have done all the Northrend quests outside of dailies, it gets boring. Fast.

My old warlock is in all iLevel 245-258 gear from my time progression raiding up to ToGC... except for trinkets... always bad luck with trinkets. I'd love to get that iLevel 232 trinket from H Pit of Saron, but DPS wait times for a specific dungeon seem to be about 30 minutes.

And there's really nothing to do during that time. Maybe the fishing daily, but he has no gathering professions and all the reps I care about are maxed out.

 

[Confused101]

Also, leveling up my first toon with the dungeon finder in the game. It's great to be able to run around Nagrand doing quests, take a break and run a quick dungeon, then I'm right back to where I was a half hour later killing ogres. So convenient while leveling.

I did this last night while leveling in Grizzly Hills. DPS queues on my server have been around 15 minutes. Not too shabby. I wonder if it'll change much once I hit 80. I guess we'll see.

I ended up doing Violet Hold last night. At least I think that's what it was called. On the second to last boss fight, my little 77 'lock topped the dmg chart by doing a little over 30k more dmg than the next guy. However, on Cyanigosa (sp?), our paladin snuck into to first with about 8k dmg above me. I guess he decided to play or something because I really didn't change anything.

It was great fun and I got a nice pair a blue legs. =)
(remember that I still haven't seen a majority of WotLK dungeons so a lot is new for me)

 

[Flib]

I hate VH so much.

 

[Bisnic]

I hate VH so much.

Well at least we dont have to wait 1:30 min after every boss like before.

Damn, was that annoying back then.

Black Morass.

NEVER FORGET.

I heard gnomes had to swim if they walked on the deeper water in there. Is this true?

Poor gnomes, not even Blizzard thought about them back when they made it.

 

[Sykotik]

Black Morass.

NEVER FORGET.

 

[Johnlenham]

Waiting 15 seconds for a party as a DK tank is fucking awesome compared to 25+mins as a hunter. At this rate my Dk will be more geared than my main.

If only I could transfer over rep/quests done to my DK my hunter would become a glorified chef/jc/fisher :lol

Oh and MR Pinchy. He is awesome

 

[HarryDemeanor]

I hate HoR so much.

Fixed.

 

[Flib]

I love HoR though, and I'm a tank.

 

[HarryDemeanor]

I love HoR though, and I'm a tank.

Then how do you hate VH? It's so damn easy.

 

[notworksafe]

Black Morass.

NEVER FORGET.

Best BC 5 man. Loved it. I'm a fan of VH because it's so similar, but it's not the same. And yes, gnomes had to swim in the water in BM.

Any add-on ui packs worthwhile right now? I just jumped back in and would really like something fairly simple and lightweight. Preferably w/o an hour's worth of tinkering.

Add-on packs? I don't use many addons to justify one of those packs. Just Quartz, Bagnon, Omen, Recount, and SexyMap.

 

[KernelPanic]

Just for fun I pulled my old 72 DK out, respec'ed him for frost tanking to speed up the queue and tanked the first WOTLK instances, so much fun. I could never quite grasp Dk tanking until now. Its kinda scary if people pull aggro and all your runes are on cooldown. I didn't have any heirlooms on him but I had little trouble holding aggro even with a suicidal firemage doing blastnovas and dragon's breath, although I told them to stop.

I"m tempted to try blood tanking, is that a good one for 5mans ? It seems AE threat is weaker in it, I'm wondering if DnD and Blood Boil are enough, especially for someone new to the rotation/build. Frost was always my favorite and with HB I have little trouble unless I mess up.

No one waits for the tank to establish threat nowadays, so glad they're bringing back CC and cutting down on the huge AE pulls, it's kinda dull pulling a group, holding aggro while everyone spams AoE.

HoR only sucks if you're not a pally tank or have an incredibly stupid group.

 

[Johnlenham]

Frost is best id say up till raiding as blood is the best single target.
I use frost atm and howling blast is glorious.
Helpful guide

 

[idlewild_]

Just for fun I pulled my old 72 DK out, respec'ed him for frost tanking to speed up the queue and tanked the first WOTLK instances, so much fun. I could never quite grasp Dk tanking until now. Its kinda scary if people pull aggro and all your runes are on cooldown. I didn't have any heirlooms on him but I had little trouble holding aggro even with a suicidal firemage doing blastnovas and dragon's breath, although I told them to stop.

I"m tempted to try blood tanking, is that a good one for 5mans ? It seems AE threat is weaker in it, I'm wondering if DnD and Blood Boil are enough, especially for someone new to the rotation/build. Frost was always my favorite and with HB I have little trouble unless I mess up.

No one waits for the tank to establish threat nowadays, so glad they're bringing back CC and cutting down on the huge AE pulls, it's kinda dull pulling a group, holding aggro while everyone spams AoE.

HoR only sucks if you're not a pally tank or have an incredibly stupid group.

blood is really good for single target and has the best plate EH, both of which you're not very concerned with when leveling. frost on the other hand has a little less survivability but much better aoe threat, which is more imp in leveling dungeons. i wouldn't say that blood is bad, but it is not as good as frost until you get into raiding ICC, where EH actually matters.

 

[notworksafe]

Frost in a 5 man is really just amazing for tanking.

 

[Flib]

Then how do you hate VH? It's so damn easy.

That's pretty much why I hate it. I'll take HoR because I actually have to do something during the waves. Also dislike running around.

 

[notworksafe]

Wow, they really dropped the price of dual spec.

Also thank god that hitcap/expt cap are built into the game now

 

[keeblerdrow]

Add-on packs? I don't use many addons to justify one of those packs. Just Quartz, Bagnon, Omen, Recount, and SexyMap.

You can get skada to replace Omen and Recount. It'll use far less memory, bug out and lag you far far less and do both functions with only one window on your screen. Sometimes it's not as accurate as Recount, but usually the difference is only 10-15dps or so in large scale situations.

 

[notworksafe]

I've tried Skada but I just didn't like it much. Never had lag/memory issues with the Omen/Recount combo either (uses like 2mb total).

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

Heh, so the big world changes happen prior to the xpac launch then? Hopefully they have a live feed of the rooms the servers are in because that's where the real cataclysm is going to happen. After all, imparting such sweeping changes can't possibly go over smoothly, considering much small patches bring the realms down to their knees.

They can't expect anyone to pay that much for just starting off fresh. They said they want to really target some new players with this xpac, and raping them without lube for Vanilla, BC, and Wrath, then tack on the fresh $40 (I assume) for reg Cata is not going to win over many people as to "get up to date" (that's what people are going to look at, not the 1-60 experience). Anyone on the fence, that's for the 10-day trial.

We'll see how this new "cater raiding to the hardcore" goes considering they've been doing their damned best to make it more casual than ever.

I am a bit concerned too actually, but I hope it will work out. I hope Blizzard is upgrading their servers to be able to handle more players. Make it smoother, less lag, being able to wield more people at the same places. They did a fair bit of optimizing for the others. I think the game can handle a lot more players now than at launch.
I remember when in game admins would forbid big pvp raids on the cities because it could bring the servers down!

 

[J-Rzez]

I am a bit concerned too actually, but I hope it will work out. I hope Blizzard is upgrading their servers to be able to handle more players. Make it smoother, less lag, being able to wield more people at the same places. They did a fair bit of optimizing for the others. I think the game can handle a lot more players now than at launch.
I remember when in game admins would forbid big pvp raids on the cities because it could bring the servers down!

Yeah, but remember, something may not go as planned, and there maybe some downtime for the servers until they find the bugs that pop up in the world. I think the new servers are nice, as my latency has dropped nearly 50ms since they upgraded. It's just that there will be some glitch were someone kills a specific critter and the world comes crashing down. Or all the NPCs spawn with just their heads showing out of the ground like that one time.

The new built in Hit/Expertise thing is very very nice. Theorycrafters are a lil miffed though, one less thing for them to stroke themselves to while figuring out the statistics on a napkin while sitting at McDonalds.

Dual Spec is priced right. I mean, they made it available for level 40, but no starting level 40 will have that much gold to mess with. 100g is fair. Though I lost a few thousand gold from it with my main and alts. But meh, got my use out of it.

Good changes with the Dual Spec and Hit/Exp stats.

Man, I just hope they get this out the door soon. But considering they didn't unlock level cap yet (i think), so no one got to try heroics/raids, I think the game is FAR and aways a long way off. I'd say late-late November at this rate, at the earliest. Which is a shame. It'd be more cataclysmic if it launches next year even than what happens to the old zones.

 

[Garryk]

Weren't those 24-hour downtimes used to migrate realms over to upgraded servers?

 

[speedpop]

Wow, they really dropped the price of dual spec.
http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2010/august/dualspec100.jpg

I was hoping this would happen.

 

[J-Rzez]

Weren't those 24-hour downtimes used to migrate realms over to upgraded servers?

Yes, thus why my latency has been lower than ever which is nice.

 

[HarryDemeanor]

Wow, they really dropped the price of dual spec.

Also thank god that hitcap/expt cap are built into the game now

Finally those are built-in now.

As for dual-spec price I had a feeling they were going to drop it to 500g but 100g doesn't hurt either.