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[notworksafe]

Yeah 98% of the teams were RMP, as it's always been. Either way I am just saying that Arena is going to be around until it dies out as an eSport, and probably a bit after that as well.

 

[Brazil]

Oh my God, tanking is so much fun.

 

[Twig]

You made a post to complain of a petty grammatical irritant, yet failed to either capitalize or use punctuation.

Yes, I was trying to be light-hearted about it. It is called a pet peeve, and you have them, too. Everyone does. Sai's avatar quote was a much more proper response to my post than was yours.

I think you need a hug.

-Separate PVP and PVE skills. There is no debate on whether this is good or not. If people are crying no on the team, make them play some games with good PVP. Have them come back learneded.
-No more Resil. No more PVP Gearing. Have a base set of PVP gear with easy access. Make PVP about skill instead of grinding for gear! *GASP*
-Improve spell targeting finally. Spell targeting needs to auto follow and not fail if someone jumps over your head near the end of a cast.
-How to change between PVE and PVP? Lower spell cast times and lower effectiveness. Make physical conditions removable. Remove the PVE intended crowd control skills from PVP. They stick out likea sore thumb. Less stuns! *gasp*
-Ditch Arena for gods sake. Focus on larger scale where your class imbalance issues are covered up.
-Part of the problem with rated BGs is you don't know what BG you are getting into, so you can't set up your team properly. Battle for Gilneas may make you want three healers while WSG will want two healers more likely. Do you want to be winning or losing because you brought a comp for one BG but got another? That's just chance.
-Remove all cost from respeccing.

Probably more as well. At this point, Blizz just humors PVPers to not lose every single one of them to another game.

I agree with almost all of this, although I think that SLOWS, if not stuns, still have their place. Crowd control is a fine thing, as long as it can be countered and doesn't literally remove you from the fight for minutes at a time, which CAN happen against people who know how to work together really well.

fear fear stun sheep cyclone root stun fear root sheep sheep sheep fear stun cyclone stun stun

Etc.

Diminishing returns only do so much when they don't apply across different CC types.

 

[Lumpy Onion]

About to start playing WOW today for the first time and am pretty excited. Only MMO I ever played before this was FF XI.

Anyway, I was wondering about all the expansions. Should I go through vanilla WOW first before even considering the expansions? And how do I know when I should upgrade to Burning Crusade---->Lich King----->Cataclysm? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Deleted member 30609]

Just play through to level 58-60 on vanilla before upgrading, I say. After that point you'll know where the expansion content kicks in. I then bought BC individually, then played to 70 before buying both WotLK and Cata. But really, if you get to 60 and still love playing, I say at that point just buy all three expansions together for a slight price cut.

Basically BC is all the content in Outland, WotLK is all the content set in Northrend, Vanilla is set in the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor and Cataclysm spans different sections of both of those two continents. By the time you hit Cataclysm content you'll have no issue sorting out where to go. The game does an excellent job of letting you know where to go next.

 

[dimb]

Since we're talking about game balance here are some beautiful elemental shaman alt tears:

 

[Scrow]

Also, I'm curious, do you use a custom UI?

as far as UI mods relevant to running dungeons i use bartender, quartz, tidy plates, omen threat meter, deadly boss mods, recount and RSA.

tidy plates was probably the best thing i could use when i started tanking to quickly see threat on multiple mobs and pickup loose aggro.

i don't have anything for unit/raid frames though where i can have my portrait and my target's portrait placed beside my character near the center of the screen. what's a good addon for that?

9/10 people aren't aware they died half the time because they have to bring their eyes back to the top left of the screen to check their HP

yeah, i'm guilty of checking my health like that. i need to use an addon that configures that kind of stuff to make it clean and repositioned.

 

[Deleted member 30609]

will I be kitted out in level 329 gear by the end of Twilight Highlands? I'm already receiving one or two bits of gear at level 333 or so, but others are 318s.

 

[Lumpy Onion]

Just play through to level 58-60 on vanilla before upgrading, I say. After that point you'll know where the expansion content kicks in. I then bought BC individually, then played to 70 before buying both WotLK and Cata. But really, if you get to 60 and still love playing, I say at that point just buy all three expansions together for a slight price cut.

Basically BC is all the content in Outland, WotLK is all the content set in Northrend, Vanilla is set in the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor and Cataclysm spans different sections of both of those two continents. By the time you hit Cataclysm content you'll have no issue sorting out where to go. The game does an excellent job of letting you know where to go next.

Cool thanks for the info. Glad I don't have to plunk down $100+. Vanilla should keep me busy for quite a while I imagine.

Can't believe I am finally getting around to playing this game. Heres hoping it grabs me.

 

[Scrow]

will I be kitted out in level 329 gear by the end of Twilight Highlands? I'm already receiving one or two bits of gear at level 333 or so, but others are 318s.

i had to run a few normals to reach 329 and i quested in all the zones except hyjal.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

lol i got a temporary ban from the official wow forums for complaining about the city portals being removed.

My whole issue with Blizzard is that their reasoning for removing them makes no sense. If it's too easy to get around, then why did they make it so that people can get to almost any location from Stormwind/Orgrimmar? So everyone is essentially forced to put their hearthstones in one of those two locations.

If they wanted people to do more traveling, then why didn't they put one portal to a different cata zone in each of the major cities? Everything they said and did is hypocritical of what they said their intentions were with the changes.

If they dont want people to be able to have easy travel points with portals while leveling, make the portals only usable by level 85's. Problem solved?

I think that with as time consuming as wow is these days, most people want to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. Only a small percentage of max level characters are concerned with looking at the pretty scenery. So why are max level characters being punished? Why should I be stuck in Stormwind, one of my least favorite cities in the game?

It really pisses me off to be honest. Blizzard can't give a good reason, because there isn't one. I go on the forums and make my argument, instantly given a temp-ban. Thanks a lot.

 

[dimb]

lol i got a temporary ban from the official wow forums for complaining about the city portals being removed.

My whole issue with Blizzard is that their reasoning for removing them makes no sense. If it's too easy to get around, then why did they make it so that people can get to almost any location from Stormwind/Orgrimmar? So everyone is essentially forced to put their hearthstones in one of those two locations.

If they wanted people to do more traveling, then why didn't they put one portal to a different cata zone in each of the major cities? Everything they said and did is hypocritical of what they said their intentions were with the changes.

If they dont want people to be able to have easy travel points with portals while leveling, make the portals only usable by level 85's. Problem solved?

I think that with as time consuming as wow is these days, most people want to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. Only a small percentage of max level characters are concerned with looking at the pretty scenery. So why are max level characters being punished? Why should I be stuck in Stormwind, one of my least favorite cities in the game?

It really pisses me off to be honest. Blizzard can't give a good reason, because there isn't one. I go on the forums and make my argument, instantly given a temp-ban. Thanks a lot.

They took the portals out of Dalaran because they don't want people to still be hanging out there. You're stuck in Stormwind because they redid it, and they want you in their new content. Set your hearth in the Dwarven District and try to enjoy it.

 

[notworksafe]

Stormwind essentially has slightly longer portals. Take the tram to IF or a boat to Darn/Exo (jk no one goes there). Blizz said the focus would be on old world caps and they've made that happen by force. I'd feel bad for you if everyone wasn't flying around at 310% speed.

also:

 

[SnakeswithLasers]

will I be kitted out in level 329 gear by the end of Twilight Highlands? I'm already receiving one or two bits of gear at level 333 or so, but others are 318s.

You'll need to do some runs of Grim Batol, Halls of Origination, Lost City of Tolvir to get to 329.

By the way, congrats on your journey. It's been cool seeing your updates up to 85 (and remarkably quick).

 

[C.Dark.DN]

So I try and log on and it says my account is locked and that I need to check my account's e-mail and change the password to unlock. I changed it easily and am logged into the game. WTF.

 

[notworksafe]

The automated anti-hack system kicked in because someone tried to use your account from somewhere else (unless you are away from home atm, because then it's you).

 

[C.Dark.DN]

The automated anti-hack system kicked in because someone tried to use your account from somewhere else (unless you are away from home atm, because then it's you).

I've only accessed it from my house.The email address I use to login isn't one that I use on a regular basis when typing into websites either.

 

[notworksafe]

That may be, but the lockout is triggered by attempted access from a location that isn't normal/home.

I'd recommend the normal scans with WoW open and other rigamarole associated with a possible hack just in case.

 

[Deleted member 30609]

So I try and log on and it says my account is locked and that I need to check my account's e-mail and change the password to unlock. I changed it easily and am logged into the game. WTF.

this happens to me every other week. I travel between my city-home and my hometown all the time, so I log on from my Macbook remotely and my PC at home at random times, and every now and then it decides that this constitutes suspicious activity and I need to change my password. Granted, the two locations are 200km apart.

Kind of annoying but better than no anti-hack system, I guess.

You'll need to do some runs of Grim Batol, Halls of Origination, Lost City of Tolvir to get to 329.

By the way, congrats on your journey. It's been cool seeing your updates up to 85 (and remarkably quick).

a mix of late nights, no real responsibility over the summer (down here in the southern hemisphere) and the rush to get through in my free month got me through things pretty quickly. It's funny, I'll probably be done without having ever paid for a month's subscription.

 

[Twig]

Fucking Blizzard, I should be able to PvP with same-level characters in a level 63 zone but nooooo they make the guards 85 elite.

Worst. Absolute worst.

At least he dies just as often as me. :3

 

[C.Dark.DN]

That may be, but the lockout is triggered by attempted access from a location that isn't normal/home.

I'd recommend the normal scans with WoW open and other rigamarole associated with a possible hack just in case.

Scanning while browsers and the game is running. I'm actually going to play on low settings. I usually do it every few days while leaving it on the login screen over night. I haven't in a week tho.

 

[dimb]

That may be, but the lockout is triggered by attempted access from a location that isn't normal/home.

I'd recommend the normal scans with WoW open and other rigamarole associated with a possible hack just in case.

I'm not sure about this. My brother and I share a WoW account and live in different states. So between going back home the account logs in between three states regularly. My guess would be that the account would lock after a certain number of incorrect attempts to log in.

 

[notworksafe]

I'm not sure about this. My brother and I share a WoW account and live in different states. So between going back home the account logs in between three states regularly. My guess would be that the account would lock after a certain number of incorrect attempts to log in.

Well Blizz says on the forums that it's triggered by a login from a location that isn't "normal" for the account.

Maybe they assume that if it is regularly logged in from three locations that those are "normal", but a location outside of those three is worthy of a lock?

 

[C.Dark.DN]

lol i got a temporary ban from the official wow forums for complaining about the city portals being removed.

My whole issue with Blizzard is that their reasoning for removing them makes no sense. If it's too easy to get around, then why did they make it so that people can get to almost any location from Stormwind/Orgrimmar? So everyone is essentially forced to put their hearthstones in one of those two locations.

If they wanted people to do more traveling, then why didn't they put one portal to a different cata zone in each of the major cities? Everything they said and did is hypocritical of what they said their intentions were with the changes.

If they dont want people to be able to have easy travel points with portals while leveling, make the portals only usable by level 85's. Problem solved?

I think that with as time consuming as wow is these days, most people want to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. Only a small percentage of max level characters are concerned with looking at the pretty scenery. So why are max level characters being punished? Why should I be stuck in Stormwind, one of my least favorite cities in the game?

It really pisses me off to be honest. Blizzard can't give a good reason, because there isn't one. I go on the forums and make my argument, instantly given a temp-ban. Thanks a lot.

Their reason makes sense to me:

Portals existed to give people access back to capital cities to reach auction houses and class trainers. Auction houses and class trainers were kept in the old world capitals because we knew that if we didn't require people to go back the old world would be a ghost town.

Those portals had a few fun side effects like letting people warp all around the world toot-sweet at the shake of a nose to do anything they felt like. This was not the intent of the portals and regardless if people enjoyed being able to zip around, it is not the intent of our travel as it exists now to allow them to do so.

Now that the old world capitals are the major hubs in the current expansion, the expansion zones are in Azeroth which keeps more people around, and we've decided to add trainers and auction houses to Shattrath and Dalaran to aid in the leveling experience, the portals no longer serve their original purpose and were removed.

If you're in love with a certain city you can find a way to make it work. Buy a mage portal and hearth back to Storwind every 15 minutes with Hasty Hearth. If you get stuck get a mage to port there then port both of you back since trade channel connects all cities.

You may have a few minute inconvenience, but Mage's really should hold the key to fast and unlimited city to city travel.

 

[Twig]

Their reason makes sense to me:

Same.

It's kind of annoying losing that convenience, but it's still super easy to get wherever you need to be once you hit max level.

 

[Lumpy Onion]

After playing my first few hours of WOW tonight I am pretty impressed how easy it was to jump right in. At first I was overwhelmed, but the UI is so user friendly that I was able to control my character and do stuff without any trouble. Combat seems really fast paced and enjoyable from the little time I have put into it.

Graphically I am finding the world setting to be quite charming and unique in its style. What impressed me the most was when I looked at the actual world map and saw just how many areas there are. Can't wait to see just how big the world really is.

Anyway, I am definitely going to be putting some time into this game. Having never really played any MMO outside of FF XI this all seems fresh and exciting for me, and to be honest unlike anything I have played before.

 

[thunker 9000]

After playing my first few hours of WOW tonight I am pretty impressed how easy it was to jump right in. At first I was overwhelmed, but the UI is so user friendly that I was able to control my character and do stuff without any trouble. Combat seems really fast paced and enjoyable from the little time I have put into it.

Graphically I am finding the world setting to be quite charming and unique in its style. What impressed me the most was when I looked at the actual world map and saw just how many areas there are. Can't wait to see just how big the world really is.

Anyway, I am definitely going to be putting some time into this game. Having never really played any MMO outside of FF XI this all seems fresh and exciting for me, and to be honest unlike anything I have played before.

Be very very careful. It will gobble you up.

 

[CarbonatedFalcon]

Be very very careful. It will gobble you up.

Nah, that's only endgame when he gets into the gear/profession/reputation grinds. And then decides to roll an alt and do it all over again.

 

[Deleted member 30609]

After playing my first few hours of WOW tonight I am pretty impressed how easy it was to jump right in. At first I was overwhelmed, but the UI is so user friendly that I was able to control my character and do stuff without any trouble. Combat seems really fast paced and enjoyable from the little time I have put into it.

Graphically I am finding the world setting to be quite charming and unique in its style. What impressed me the most was when I looked at the actual world map and saw just how many areas there are. Can't wait to see just how big the world really is.

Anyway, I am definitely going to be putting some time into this game. Having never really played any MMO outside of FF XI this all seems fresh and exciting for me, and to be honest unlike anything I have played before.

This is triggering 'nam flashbacks for me, and I was only in your position roughly a month ago. Have fun.

 

[Scrow]

i don't have anything for unit/raid frames though where i can have my portrait and my target's portrait placed beside my character near the center of the screen. what's a good addon for that?

i went with Shadowed Unit Frames. very happy with it and highly configurable, but without being too overwhelming. recommend it to anyone wanting to improve party/raid frames from the default UI.

Oh my God, tanking is so much fun.

it's a nice change of pace from DPS.

as DPS I CC and interrupt where i can, stay out of damage i can dodge, but otherwise focus on a single target and get my priority/rotation perfect for mad deeps in recount.

as a tank i watch omen for single target threat, look around me for death auras so i can give melee dps a better position to stand behind trash/bosses without dying, watch for low aggro on adds and try to pick them up before they go after the healer, or i have to quickly change targets and taunt, interrupts, calling out boss tactics to people who aren't sure, marking trash pulls, deciding what we skip or not, telling people what's going wrong when we wipe, watching healer mana, watching my own health and popping CDs to stay alive, not breaking CC with AoE i use to pickup threat on multiple adds etc.

tanking is a much broader spectrum of the game all at once. no one thing is particularly hard (holding threat is probably the easiest part), but all of them together makes being a tank more challenging than DPS.

and it's much harder to gauge how you're performing as a tank too. with DPS all you really need is recount to tell you how well you're doing. there's no clear way to judge how you're performing as a tank, other than the smoothness of the runs themselves. sure there are some metrics you can use to get some idea how good/bad of a tank you are, but the real indicator of a good/bad tank can't be tracked in something like recount.

 

[Mojojo]

Even if I still find Winterspring horrendous quest-wise (kill 15 this, 15 that and even more 15 this), I liked what they did with the Yetis, Empire Strikes Back style

 

[TheExodu5]

I've only accessed it from my house.The email address I use to login isn't one that I use on a regular basis when typing into websites either.

I am very careful and knowledgeable when it comes to PC usage...haven't had a virus in many years. I still managed to get hacked. I think my password was just too simple (two common words, and the number 1 following) for WoW. I put on my tougher password (lowercase, uppercase, number, and special character) and haven't had a problem since.

I mean, it's possible I made a mistake at some point...but somewhat unlikely.

After I had gotten hacked initially, I put on an authenticator but hadn't changed my password. After a while, I quit playing WoW for a bit. I decided to remove the authenticator so I didn't have to use it to log into Starcraft 2. I got hacked that day again. Clearly whoever had hacked me was trying to log in every single day with the stored password. I wouldn't be surprised if there is some brute forcing going on.

 

[TheExodu5]

it's a nice change of pace from DPS.

as DPS I CC and interrupt where i can, stay out of damage i can dodge, but otherwise focus on a single target and get my priority/rotation perfect for mad deeps in recount.

as a tank i watch omen for single target threat, look around me for death auras so i can give melee dps a better position to stand behind trash/bosses without dying, watch for low aggro on adds and try to pick them up before they go after the healer, or i have to quickly change targets and taunt, interrupts, calling out boss tactics to people who aren't sure, marking trash pulls, deciding what we skip or not, telling people what's going wrong when we wipe, watching healer mana, watching my own health and popping CDs to stay alive, not breaking CC with AoE i use to pickup threat on multiple adds etc.

tanking is a much broader spectrum of the game all at once. no one thing is particularly hard (holding threat is probably the easiest part), but all of them together makes being a tank more challenging than DPS.

and it's much harder to gauge how you're performing as a tank too. with DPS all you really need is recount to tell you how well you're doing. there's no clear way to judge how you're performing as a tank, other than the smoothness of the runs themselves. sure there are some metrics you can use to get some idea how good/bad of a tank you are, but the real indicator of a good/bad tank can't be tracked in something like recount.

One suggestion I can make is to use Tidy Plates : Threat Plates.

Makes it so easy to see if you're holding aggro. When you're tanking, anything you don't have aggro on has a big red healthbar. When you have aggro, it turns into a small green healthbar. When in DPS mode, it's the opposite. They also take a lot less space than the default nameplates.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Yes, I was trying to be light-hearted about it. It is called a pet peeve, and you have them, too. Everyone does. Sai's avatar quote was a much more proper response to my post than was yours.

I think you need a hug.

You can't just will people into getting successfully baited by your trolls when they legitimately don't care.

 

[notworksafe]

I am very careful and knowledgeable when it comes to PC usage...haven't had a virus in many years. I still managed to get hacked. I think my password was just too simple (two common words, and the number 1 following) for WoW. I put on my tougher password (lowercase, uppercase, number, and special character) and haven't had a problem since.

Just a heads up, case doesn't matter when logging into WoW for your password. Try it!

 

[Cyrillus]

Just a heads up, case doesn't matter when logging into WoW for your password. Try it!

Wow, I just tried this, and it kind of makes me mad, considering their pushing of authenticators onto everyone.

 

[notworksafe]

It is odd. Case matters on the battle.net site and I think in SC2 as well. Not sure why it doesn't in WoW.

 

[Devolution]

I am very careful and knowledgeable when it comes to PC usage...haven't had a virus in many years. I still managed to get hacked. I think my password was just too simple (two common words, and the number 1 following) for WoW. I put on my tougher password (lowercase, uppercase, number, and special character) and haven't had a problem since.

Doesn't matter. All it takes is browsing the wrong website or a malicious flash ad. The ways they can get into your Wow account is ridiculous and you can't always prevent it, even if you consider what you've done thus far, "safe."

 

[C.Dark.DN]

How is arms DPS in heroics these days and how much should I be doing? My average item level is 330, using the COC 333 2h, I reforged to 8% hit, and I don't have any enchants except for 30str/20crit to shoulders. Getting 6k on a dummy.

 

[Ferrio]

Everyone should have an authenticator, you're retarded if you don't. Also don't go off on some conspiracy theory that it's some master plan from Blizzard to get more money from you. The phone apps are FREE and they could of easily charged for them if they wanted to.

The damn hackers that actually compromise your account even use them you fools.

 

[Twig]

You can't just will people into getting successfully baited by your trolls when they legitimately don't care.

I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming that you're not trolling ME, so:

I am being completely legitimate when I say that it literally wasn't a troll at all. If you think it was, then you have some serious problems. This is fucking ridiculous. You need to grow up.

Seriously. Go back and reread my posts from the perspective of someone who ISN'T insane, and tell me you think I'm trolling you.

 

[C.Dark.DN]

Meh, my random dungeon story of the day: One person needs on a BOE neck they already have equipped and says it's for an offspec. (I see two on the auction house for 600g each.) Someone says they could actually wear it and I say I refuse to DPS until we /roll or he gives it to him. They pull the boss anyway and kill it without me. I eventually leave because nothing is being rectified. People are jaded. Two people in the group didn't provide any input. This was in a 85 dungeon by the wau.

 

[funkmastergeneral]

Meh, my random dungeon story of the day: One person needs on a BOE neck they already have equipped and says it's for an offspec. (I see two on the auction house for 600g each.) Someone says they could actually wear it and I say I refuse to DPS until we /roll or he gives it to him. They pull the boss anyway and kill it without me. I eventually leave because nothing is being rectified. People are jaded. Two people in the group didn't provide any input. This was in a 85 dungeon by the wau.

I don't think you can trade BoEs cross server regardless if everyone in the group was there when it dropped.

 

[C.Dark.DN]

I don't think you can trade BoEs cross server regardless if everyone in the group was there when it dropped.

If that's true, there's still a principle. He didn't know or was going to attempt it.

That reminds me of a different scenario I've been thinking about. An enchanter could wear shit gear to specifically roll need on dungeon gear he already has to disenchant. I don't like that there isn't a way to track things like that and some people don't notice if the person is wearing it that second.

 

[Perspicacity]

I don't think you can trade BoEs cross server regardless if everyone in the group was there when it dropped.

You can if it's blue/purple

 

[dimb]

How is arms DPS in heroics these days and how much should I be doing? My average item level is 330, using the COC 333 2h, I reforged to 8% hit, and I don't have any enchants except for 30str/20crit to shoulders. Getting 6k on a dummy.

It...does okay I guess. Lower burst, lower mobility, lower survivability, worse AOE outside of very short durations of time, misses out on the big DPS game changers like Death Wish and Raging Blow, but you can put out decent damage as Arms. It just won't compare to what you can do with Fury though.

 

[thetrin]

will I be kitted out in level 329 gear by the end of Twilight Highlands? I'm already receiving one or two bits of gear at level 333 or so, but others are 318s.

Also, don't even bother doing Heroics at 329. I didn't start doing heroics until 339, and I'm still getting my ass handed to me. (we beat Foe Reaper 5000 on Deadmines on our 4th try, but called it a day after that, mostly because of our team was fatigued. It wasn't a PUG, so no one felt shafted.)

Btw, why are we still talking about authenticators like it's some controversial subject. GET AN AUTHENTICATOR. End of story.

 

[Deleted member 30609]

yeah, my month is going to end long before I actually have the time to gear up. I'm sort of out of time to spend long nights on WoW. It was a lot of fun while it lasted.

 

[thetrin]

yeah, my month is going to end long before I actually have the time to gear up. I'm sort of out of time to spend long nights on WoW. It was a lot of fun while it lasted.

It's probably for the best if you don't intend to play past the first month. Otherwise, your final memory of the game would be rep grinding and playing PUG normals with idiots.

 

[Twig]

It...does okay I guess. Lower burst, lower mobility, lower survivability, worse AOE outside of very short durations of time, misses out on the big DPS game changers like Death Wish and Raging Blow, but you can put out decent damage as Arms. It just won't compare to what you can do with Fury though.

I did 8-9k DPS in full honor PvP set. In almost full heroic gear, with a few JP pieces, I tend to get 10k+, although lately for some reason I can't break 8k consistently... I suspect it's because I traded my PvP set bonus for actual PvE gear?

Arms damage is only getting nerfed next patch, and fury is getting buffed. So... Yeah.