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[Deputy Moonman]

Honest question here since I have not gotten MoP, yet and my subscription is not current. Are they going to add portals in all the major cities like they did in Wrath? Even with the new alliance and horde hubs, I prefer to set my hearthstone in Ironforge. Of course, Cataclysm pissed on that tradition and forced me into the cluster job that is Stormwind.

 

[Acidote]

Level 87, I guess I can hit 88 today with some effort (few hours available). 90 by the weekend and to start leveling my farming druid.

Oh, I thought everyone already knew. It's the difficulty man, I'm literally sleeping while healing and everyone is fine - be it trash, or bosses :/

This is what I feared most before the launch and I called it. I don't know why did they change it, 4.1 heroics were perfectly tuned.

 

[HarryDemeanor]

Honest question here since I have not gotten MoP, yet and my subscription is not current. Are they going to add portals in all the major cities like they did in Wrath? Even with the new alliance and horde hubs, I prefer to set my hearthstone in Ironforge. Of course, Cataclysm pissed on that tradition and forced me into the cluster job that is Stormwind.

You'll be making the Shrine of the Seven Stars your home for this expansion. It is the Dalaran of this expansion. Portals to every major faction city but again no Auction House unless you're an Engineer.

 

[Yoshichan]

Fuck, I am so tired right now.

 

[Robin64]

Cos Heroics aren't Heroics this time. They even said they probably should have come up with a new name. There are no Normals at 90, these "Heroics" are the only dungeons.

For the challenge you want, you go to Challenge Mode.

Personally I'm going to stick to the thousands of dailies for a while, waiting for the rest of my mates to catch up with me.

 

[Yoshichan]

What good is Challenge Mode? What good can I get from it?

edit: that I can't get from heroics of course.

 

[Robin64]

What good is Challenge Mode? What good can I get from it?

A challenge, for one thing. Also getting to the top of the realm leaderboards.

Titles, mounts (PHOENIX!), and the best damn armor in the world.

 

[Yoshichan]

So... gimmicks then :/ Not pleased to hear that.

 

[Robin64]

And more VP than Heroics.

You wouldn't do Normals in Cata when Heroics are available, would you? Same thing.

 

[Yoshichan]

I would do normals if they rewarded me the same thing - which it is in this case since I'm not interested in gimmicks (pets, mounts etc).

edit: how much more VP are we talking about here?

 

[Robin64]

Forget the labels for a minute. Both Cata and now MoP have easy dungeons and hard dungeons. This time you're choosing to do the easy ones. :\

In this game, the vendors now sell 489 purples for VP.
The "Heroic" dungeons only drop 463 blues.

I don't know the exact numbers, but Heroic VP rewards are capped. Challenge dungeons have no cap, you can get as much as you want.

 

[Yoshichan]

I'm just too tired to understand anything right now (I'm literally going through these heroics half-dead atm), haha. But thanks for explaining. I'll wake up tomorrow and grasp the whole thing a lot better.

 

[Acidote]

Got this project yesterday:

http://www.wowhead.com/item=89685

Spear of Xuen
Binds to Battle.net account
Two-Hand Polearm
9462 - 14194 Damage Speed 3.60
(3285.4 damage per second)
+899 Agility
+1349 Stamina
Durability 100 / 100
Requires Level 85
Item Level 463
Equip: Increases your critical strike rating by 600 (3.35% @ L85).
Equip: Increases your mastery rating by 600 (3.35 @ L85).
"Artifact details have already been logged in your Archaeology Journal, under the Completed Artifacts tab."

I guess I have something to equip my farming druid as soon as I complete it, requires level 85 and item level 463.

 

[Touch]

Just 40 man Sha of Anger. Settle down, bro!

 

[Robin64]

Where Gear Comes From

Scenarios - 463 (random chance in reward cache at end)
Heroic Dungeons - 463, rare chance of 476 from final boss.
Crafted Epics - 476 to 496
LFR - 476 to 483
Reputation Vendors - 489
Normal Raid - 489 to 496
Normal Elite - 503
Heroic Raid - 502 to 509
Heroic Elite - 516

 

[Yoshichan]

That's a lot easier for me to read . ♥ you Robin

 

[mileS]

got this bad boy from my third solve of arch in the first zone http://www.wowhead.com/item=89684

yay for my caster alts. this thing is awesome.

 

[Acidote]

I got that too. But I don't have any lvl 85 caster alter, transmog I guess.

 

[Yoshichan]

Aaaand I'm done for today.

Many hours today also, but definitely not as productive as I had wanted it to be. Not much I could do though. So many "soft" caps with the dailies (which affects the reputation gain per day) And the heroic farming was boring as shit, and I've been stuck on 4k JP for 7-8 hours now because of the rep-cap). Bleh.

G'night!

 

[CarbonatedFalcon]

89 and 2 bars into 90. Gonna wrap this up before I take a break.

Spent a decent amount of gold on stuff, but made a fuckton back. I think alchemy has more than paid for itself already.

I'll maybe check out the dailies/other 90 content quick before starting work on my Warrior. He's a miner/JC and I want dat delicious goldflow.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Level 87, I guess I can hit 88 today with some effort (few hours available). 90 by the weekend and to start leveling my farming druid.



This is what I feared most before the launch and I called it. I don't know why did they change it, 4.1 heroics were perfectly tuned.

You mean the Troll ones? Or the regular ones? Because everyone hated the regular ones and Blizzard dropped a shitload of subs doing that.

 

[Rokam]

Hit exalted with the Lorewalkers, I love the flying disc mount.

 

[Acidote]

You mean the Troll ones? Or the regular ones? Because everyone hated the regular ones and Blizzard dropped a shitload of subs doing that.

The heroics released with Cataclysm were perfectly tuned for me. They were not easy, but they were not hard either. You just had to do things right. Then, they nerfed it for pugs. I didn't like them particularly as instances, but I liked how their difficulty was tuned.

 

[Bizazedo]

Where Gear Comes From

Scenarios - 463 (random chance in reward cache at end)
Heroic Dungeons - 463, rare chance of 476 from final boss.
Crafted Epics - 476 to 496
LFR - 476 to 483
Reputation Vendors - 489
Normal Raid - 489 to 496
Normal Elite - 503
Heroic Raid - 502 to 509
Heroic Elite - 516

Awesome post, thank you.

The heroics released with Cataclysm were perfectly tuned for me. They were not easy, but they were not hard either. You just had to do things right. Then, they nerfed it for pugs. I didn't like them particularly as instances, but I liked how their difficulty was tuned.

Agreed, I thought the heroics were tuned fine in the beginning of the Cata. It was the raids that were horribly mistuned for the casual crowd and caused the sub loss.

Imo.

 

[JCizzle]

The heroics released with Cataclysm were perfectly tuned for me. They were not easy, but they were not hard either. You just had to do things right. Then, they nerfed it for pugs. I didn't like them particularly as instances, but I liked how their difficulty was tuned.

As someone who pretty much only pugs, they were such a major pain in the ass and turned me off the game. So, so many failed groups or groups that would take over an hour to finish a stupid five man. However, I can see how they were fun for others running in premades.

 

[nicoga3000]

What's the deal with the new world bosses? How do they work and how are drops handled with them?

 

[CarbonatedFalcon]

Haven't gotten to MoP Heroics yet to compare, but I've pretty much been breezing through the leveling dungeons without even checking what stuff does, but just eyeballing it.

Cataclysm launch Heroics were definitely overtuned for anyone not in a pre-made group. For a pre-made though, they were just about right (though not hard enough to be "challenge modes", which I'll have to compare as well when I get to them.) There was some interview where Blizzard was talking about the Cata stuff and difficulty and it kind of ended up like that because it was the first real test of the dungeon finder. Remember, the dungeon finder only came out in 3.3, so everyone was well geared and knew the dungeons like the back of their hand already. So throwing 5 random people together wasn't going to result in too much trouble. 4.0 was a virgin environment, with everyone either appropriately geared or undergeared, with some especially long and arduous dungeons thrown in the mix (Deadmines, I'm looking at you -> trash was about halved or more after a bit.)

Anyway:

89 and a 1/4 now. Stopped for the moment since my eyes were getting tired and I was annoyed with the achievement toast overlapping some other parts of my UI, so I got an addon to fix that problem next time I log in. Gonna try and take a couple hours of sleep here before getting back to it. Should be able to finish Dread Wastes + the zones I left unfinished (once I get flying) today), and from there I'll figure out what I want to do. So MUCH TO DO!

 

[Lain]

Got my CE yesterday and messed around a bit, then during the night actually headed to Pandaria to level a bit.
I was really surprised to find not one but two named alive, though I guess that has to do with the server being kinda dead.
Those 2 named kinda weirded me out a bit. Both had about 1.5 million HP but weren't elite, both went down quite easily and both dropped 1 epic weapon (a dps 1h mace the first, a caster mace the second) and a pair of blue pants (the first one even dropped a green bag with some ore and plants).
I started to wonder if they are supposed to be that easy while dropping epic (ilvl420) weapons.

Another thing that surprised me was reaching 600 mining from gray nodes. I guess the last 10 skill points were from the guild perk, though I wonder if it's really intentional to let people just reach the 600 skill like that.

Anyways, loving the expansion so far, especially since now the game is translated and localized in Italian! Though there are still some quests left in English, which is quite weird.

 

[Bizazedo]

Cataclysm launch Heroics were definitely overtuned for anyone not in a pre-made group. For a pre-made though, they were just about right (though not hard enough to be "challenge modes", which I'll have to compare as well when I get to them.) There was some interview where Blizzard was talking about the Cata stuff and difficulty and it kind of ended up like that because it was the first real test of the dungeon finder. Remember, the dungeon finder only came out in 3.3, so everyone was well geared and knew the dungeons like the back of their hand already. So throwing 5 random people together wasn't going to result in too much trouble. 4.0 was a virgin environment, with everyone either appropriately geared or undergeared, with some especially long and arduous dungeons thrown in the mix (Deadmines, I'm looking at you -> trash was about halved or more after a bit.)

.....good point, I rescind my statement.

I still think it's funny / been concerned by how some of the randoms I've been with have thought some of the normal dungeons have been hard, though, not even having hit heroics yet on this run. One was warning me strenuously about the Sha of Doubt .

 

[Hixx]

Gaaaaah came across my first MoP rare, Lon the Bull. I thought I'd tagged it, my UI didn't grey him out or anything. 2mil HP only to find out I hadn't been the one to tag him and the one who did fucked off! Sick.

 

[Ultratech]

What's the deal with the new world bosses? How do they work and how are drops handled with them?

From what I've read, it's the same deal as LFR looting, meaning you get your own individual rolls.

 

[hyduK]

Where Gear Comes From

Scenarios - 463 (random chance in reward cache at end)
Heroic Dungeons - 463, rare chance of 476 from final boss.
Crafted Epics - 476 to 496
LFR - 476 to 483
Reputation Vendors - 489
Normal Raid - 489 to 496
Normal Elite - 503
Heroic Raid - 502 to 509
Heroic Elite - 516

So basically Heroics/Challenge modes (or scenarios?) and use the valor for rep items?

Also, how much is the training for pandaria flying?

 

[Robin64]

Where Valor Points Come From

Daily Quest - 5
Heroic Dungeons - 60
Scenarios - 30, 8 times per week. 10 each additional.
LFR Clear - 90
Daily Challenge Mode - 40
Raid Boss - 100
Challenge Mode Gold - 60, 1 time per week. 10 each additional.
Challenge Mode Silver - 50, 1 time per week. 10 each additional.
Challenge Mode Bronze - 40, 1 time per week. 10 each additional.


Also, once you reach VP cap of 3000, all your other characters on the same realm get a buff - Valor of the Ancients. "When one of your characters reaches maximum Valor Points for the week, all of your characters on the same realm earn 50% additional Valor Points."

 

[Touch]

From what I've read, it's the same deal as LFR looting, meaning you get your own individual rolls.

Yep. It's exactly like LFR. Though I think there is more loot outs. Today when we killed Sha of Anger lots of people linked the items they got. While still most only got a bag of gold.

 

[nicoga3000]

Yep. It's exactly like LFR. Though I think there is more loot outs. Today when we killed Sha of Anger lots of people linked the items they got. While still most only got a bag of gold.

So by joining in the kill, we get to roll for something? Similar to Guild Wars 2 open world stuff?

 

[Woorloog]

Well well. Back to WoW. After a nearly 3 year break.
Things have changed quite a lot... yet they're the same as always. Good.
Goblin starter is fun.

Playing a Goblin Warlock called Röblin on Twisting Nether (EU-en) in case there are GAFers. I reckon i'll make an Alliance character somewhere as well.

Not playing my old high levels anymore.

 

[Anoregon]

Did anyone else find profession leveling super easy? I got to 600 inscription with like no effort. I had a trio of gylph recipes that were +3skill oranges from like 550 to 590.

 

[Mengy]

Not playing my old high levels anymore.

I'm more of a casual player now than I used to be, but I've always tended towards more of an altaholic than a hardcore raider. The problem with playing alts used to be that you gave up all the stuff your high level toons had, and if you wanted it again you had to regrind all of it. But WoW as it is right now, it's so damn altaholic friendly that there almost isn't any down side at all to playing alts. Account wide achievements, mounts, pets, and titles, pretty much if you earn it on one toon you earn it on all.

And I'm loving this more than anything else in MoP.

Tuesday night I was grinding on my high level druid when I got sidetracked doing pet battles and leveling up my Blizzard Bear. Last night I leveled my new Panda monk to 13, but I also continued to pet battle my Blizzard Bear with any critters I came across. This morning I logged onto my 62 human pally, flew around on a mount (that my druid earned months ago), and yeah continued to pet battle that same Blizzard Bear on low level criters in an entirely different zone than I had the two days before. I even captured a few new pets there that I will be able to access back on my druid later tonight. And my pally got two new pet battle achievements, only it's not just an achievement on that character, it's on my account and every character now has it.

Yeah, new zones and high level content aside, the alt friendliness of WoW as it stands now is nothing short of a Godsend for me. It's incredibly awesome in ways I probably haven't even realized yet.

 

[Gvaz]

I can't stand to play my paladin anymore because of how badly they changed it around for the worse. I'm glad they have account wide achievements and shit because I've moved onto my shaman.

Do they have cross pets/mounts yet?

 

[Anoregon]

Do they have cross pets/mounts yet?

That happened the same time they added account wide achievements.

 

[Woorloog]

I'm more of a casual player now than I used to be, but I've always tended towards more of an altaholic than a hardcore raider. The problem with playing alts used to be that you gave up all the stuff your high level toons had, and if you wanted it again you had to regrind all of it. But WoW as it is right now, it's so damn altaholic friendly that there almost isn't any down side at all to playing alts. Account wide achievements, mounts, pets, and titles, pretty much if you earn it on one toon you earn it on all.

I don't have any BtA items... not that i could use them either, since i switched servers (i used to play on EU Vashj but it is more or less dead according to my friend who is going to move to Twisting Nether). I've never been a money maker, by DK was almost broke almost always. EDIT wonder what account wide stuff i have outside pets. Nothing probably.

I cannot stand gearing up for raids and the idea of raids itself is kinda no-no for me. Well, i guess at least from Wrath onward they would have been casual-friendly enough but i just never bothered.

I prefer exploring and leveling.
Exploring is going to be fun since everything has changed so much.

 

[Magnus]

I'm more of a casual player now than I used to be, but I've always tended towards more of an altaholic than a hardcore raider. The problem with playing alts used to be that you gave up all the stuff your high level toons had, and if you wanted it again you had to regrind all of it. But WoW as it is right now, it's so damn altaholic friendly that there almost isn't any down side at all to playing alts. Account wide achievements, mounts, pets, and titles, pretty much if you earn it on one toon you earn it on all.

]And I'm loving this more than anything else in MoP.

Tuesday night I was grinding on my high level druid when I got sidetracked doing pet battles and leveling up my Blizzard Bear. Last night I leveled my new Panda monk to 13, but I also continued to pet battle my Blizzard Bear with any critters I came across. This morning I logged onto my 62 human pally, flew around on a mount (that my druid earned months ago), and yeah continued to pet battle that same Blizzard Bear on low level criters in an entirely different zone than I had the two days before. I even captured a few new pets there that I will be able to access back on my druid later tonight. And my pally got two new pet battle achievements, only it's not just an achievement on that character, it's on my account and every character now has it.

Yeah, new zones and high level content aside, the alt friendliness of WoW as it stands now is nothing short of a Godsend for me. It's incredibly awesome in ways I probably haven't even realized yet.

Also, once you reach VP cap of 3000, all your other characters on the same realm get a buff - Valor of the Ancients. "When one of your characters reaches maximum Valor Points for the week, all of your characters on the same realm earn 50% additional Valor Points."

 

[Gvaz]

That happened the same time they added account wide achievements.

Yay! Goodbye forever paladin, was nice knowing you.

 

[Westlo]

Uh tip... take a look in your AH for MOP Blue gear for levels 80-84, that shit will be best in slot for that twinks easily... some of that shit on the AH right now for like under 50g... could mean the Cata Greens 77-79 market turns into Panda Blues 80-84...

 

[Mengy]

I cannot stand gearing up for raids and the idea of raids itself is kinda no-no for me. Well, i guess at least from Wrath onward they would have been casual-friendly enough but i just never bothered.

I prefer exploring and leveling.
Exploring is going to be fun since everything has changed so much.

Yeah, I'm an explorer at heart too. I will run dungeons and heroics and the occasional casual raid, but I spend more time leveling alts and pretty much just sightseeing. I'm the kind of player that dives into caves just to see what's down there, even if I don't have a quest for it. I walk into random houses in the wild just to see how Blizzard furnished the inside. I actually read quest text. I fish while enjoying the Azeroth sunset.

End tier stuff is always a goal, but I'm more interested in enjoying the journey to get there than the actual destination.

 

[nicoga3000]

I cannot stand gearing up for raids and the idea of raids itself is kinda no-no for me. Well, i guess at least from Wrath onward they would have been casual-friendly enough but i just never bothered.

I prefer exploring and leveling.
Exploring is going to be fun since everything has changed so much.

I raided a LOT in WotLK. One of my favorite things we ever accomplished was 25-man Safety Dance and OS3D 25. Both of those things were not terribly gear dependent (I mean, 25 3D was a bit of a gear push, but it wasn't terrible). Mechanics based encounters are MUCH more satisfying.

I think that's one of the reasons Ulduar is SO amazing (I know, Ulduar AGAIN)...It's a LOT of mechanics based fights that require some very tuned execution to pull off. And on that same mechanics based comment, Heroic Halion is something I've been itching to do. The mechanics are a make or break thing.

I don't like gearing up for gear check encounters. I don't like getting myself set for a fight that requires you to execute some basic mechanics while rushing the DPS. But fights like Halion [H], Putricide [H], etc are my favorites. Raiding is fun when success is more about avoiding tunnel vision than it is mashing buttons.

 

[Dunlop]

Are the new skill trees in before MoP, i.e if I take a scroll for the 7 days can I play try out the new system?

Also I want to get off of the alliance PVE server to a horde PVP, I have a 85 priest and a 85 pally..which is the better gamble?



edit: just occured to me is there still a free server transfer/faction change for a toon? (firewall at work). If not have they speed up leveling cataclysm content because the thought of doing it a 3rd time is depressing

 

[Echoplx]

Is there any free 7 day play time thingos going around for the lauch of pandaria? Want to check it out before investing in any game time.

 

[Learn2read]

Can the Ulduar meta achievements be um, achieved, in one run?

Same goes for ICC I guess. I want to get some of the mounts and shit that I never got around too the first time since I only played off and on (there's a Ulduar run on openraid that says it's doing "all the achievements")

 

[hyduK]

Are the new skill trees in before MoP, i.e if I take a scroll for the 7 days can I play try out the new system?

Also I want to get off of the alliance PVE server to a horde PVP, I have a 85 priest and a 85 pally..which is the better gamble?



edit: just occured to me is there still a free server transfer/faction change for a toon? (firewall at work). If not have they speed up leveling cataclysm content because the thought of doing it a 3rd time is depressing

New skill trees are in regardless.
Balance is hard to determine right now, what do you plan on focusing on?
Not sure about the free transfer (maybe with SOR) but the XP required for 80-85 was reduced quite significantly.