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World of Warcraft |OT4| "Why do we keep playing? It is simply in our nature."

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Tamanon

Banned
Well the first wing of LFR is pretty strat-less, as long as one or two people at least occasionally go in the spirit world. Beyond that, it's each person minding their own business.
 

vocab

Member
the only boss in tot lfr where you somewhat have to know the mechanics is Durumu. Just wait for the maze fun times, and watch your raid bars go nuts. I had 4 stacks of determination the one week. It was painful to watch.
 
the only boss in tot lfr where you somewhat have to know the mechanics is Durumu. Just wait for the maze fun times, and watch your raid bars go nuts. I had 4 stacks of determination the one week. It was painful to watch.

Arguably every boss mechanic matters in LFR if you're looking to become a better player. If you watch videos and strategies you'll understand how not to die to stupid shit, a valuable skill. Whether or not it contributes to the group's success matters even beyond Durumu. Nobody doing Ji-Kun nests, for example, will almost certainly wipe the group. Tanks not properly timing pillar transitions on Lei-Shen will give you a suboptimal checkerboard during the final phase, which sucks. Inexperienced groups still wipe to Crimson Wake everywhere on Animus.
 
R

Rösti

Unconfirmed Member
In just a few short weeks, Blizzard will be at the biggest games convention in the world – gamescom in Cologne, Germany. The show runs from August 21-25, and we’ll be welcoming players with all kinds of stage activities, contests and giveaways – and of course people are there to play games, too!

This year our booth is bigger than ever, which means we can accommodate more gamers than ever. Attendees will be able to play:


  • Diablo III (PC and PlayStation 3): Brave the Burning Hells and whack some demons – playable on console for the first time in Europe!
  • Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (PC): Playable in public for the first time in Europe!
  • World of Warcraft (PC): Check out what patch 5.4 has to offer!
Check back for more updates in the days and weeks leading up to gamescom for
details of what’s in store for you at the Blizzard booth. We’ll have quizzes, leveling contest, show matches, the World of Warcraft dance contest and much more – and don’t forget you can still sign up for the Blizzard costume contest.
http://eu.blizzard.com/en-gb/company/events/gamescom-2013-article.html?id=2

I wonder if patch 5.4 will be out prior to gamescom. I can assume Bobby & Co want new content out as fast as possible due to the recent news of further subscription decline. There's not too much left to test anyway. Some heroic encounters in Siege of Orgrimmar, some bosses in Raid Finder and Flexible Raid difficulty. And also Virtual Realms, if that's even going to be tested externally.

Also, as a reminder:

Activision Blizzard Second Quarter Calendar 2013 Results Conference Call

Aug 01, 2013 at 1:30 PM PT
http://investor.activision.com/eventdetail.cfm?eventid=132930
 
Did Heroic dungeons gave me bonus for being a tank?

I'm going to laugh when they put like Illidan, Sargeras, Kel'thuzad and Mal'ganis on the same Virtual Realm.

Are Flexible Raids going to be Real ID enabled from the start? If so, I think GAF raids are a reasonable possibility, right?

Whats the deal with those realms? I'm from Ragnaros and rarely see one of them in LFR.
 

RPGCrazied

Member
Since I see no one grabbed this yet...

I liked it but it felt more like one of the side stories you'd read on their site versus what you normally get out of the novels lately. It's like they took feedback from too much being explained in the book (and not enough in game) from Tides of War and went in the opposite direction. The result was, to me, was not enough of a balance for rewarding the player for reading the book and not punishing the player who doesn't.

I dunno. It's cool if you like Vol'jin but nothing that demands you should read it.

Oh, got it ordered. I tend to read the WoW novels, they all have been great, the Arthas one was really good. I know this isn't by Christie Golden, but seems the author of this book writes star war novels. Should be good nonetheless.
 

potam

Banned
Good lord their service prices are so outrageous. I started leveling brand new characters on another server a couple of weeks ago, and by the end of the day I should have my 2nd 90 on here. I started fresh since there was no way I was going to pay for all my characters (or at least my level 70+ characters) to change server and faction.

So I reconsidered it, and figured I'd transfer my two 90s from the old server to the new. I'd spoil myself. Then I realized it would cost $110. Fuck that. I would assume Blizzard would make a lot more money by offering a deal where all your characters from a server can move and change factions for ~$50. I know I'd pay for that. Hell, I might pay for it a few times if I wanted to move again later.


No real point to this post other than to vent.
 

Magnus

Member
Good lord their service prices are so outrageous. I started leveling brand new characters on another server a couple of weeks ago, and by the end of the day I should have my 2nd 90 on here. I started fresh since there was no way I was going to pay for all my characters (or at least my level 70+ characters) to change server and faction.

So I reconsidered it, and figured I'd transfer my two 90s from the old server to the new. I'd spoil myself. Then I realized it would cost $110. Fuck that. I would assume Blizzard would make a lot more money by offering a deal where all your characters from a server can move and change factions for ~$50. I know I'd pay for that. Hell, I might pay for it a few times if I wanted to move again later.


No real point to this post other than to vent.

Agreed. Faction + server transfer together at $55 is just reprehensibly awful pricing. There need to be an all-in recustomization/transfer price under $30, and a mass recustomization/transfer for multiple characters at a fairer price.
 

Berordn

Member
Agreed. Faction + server transfer together at $55 is just reprehensibly awful pricing. There need to be an all-in recustomization/transfer price under $30, and a mass recustomization/transfer for multiple characters at a fairer price.

My one real fear with the addition of more micro-transactions is that the character services will probably never be reasonably priced.
 

SRTtoZ

Member
lol are some of those server pops for real? Sub-1000?

Is that at peak time or actual overall population of characters? Or does it count all characters on a server for one account as (1)?

That's players at one time. My realm Kil'Jaeden has about 190,000 characters on it (alts and such).

Anyway to my question, I'm starting my first monk since my Shaman is all geared out and not much to do so ill be going Brewmaster tank. How viable are MW and WW for a second spec?

Further edit: I take that back Magnus, the asterisk next to "Population" says that number represents level 90 toons who killed something from at least tier 14 content. (Or in a guild that did)
 

vocab

Member
All Monk specs are fine, it just depends on your play style. MW are arguably the best healers.

I'm really on the fence. Panda or orc shaman.
 

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
Geezus..pvp is fuckin terrible right now. I'm admittedly in shit gear but I hit people for like 3-5k.. and pvp power is apparently not the answer.
 

Berordn

Member
Geezus..pvp is fuckin terrible right now. I'm admittedly in shit gear but I hit people for like 3-5k.. and pvp power is apparently not the answer.

PVP power is certainly not the answer. Just gem your pvp hit caps normally and then go for whatever you would normally go for with PVP, the baseline resilience changes favor standard gemming now.
 
PVP power is certainly not the answer. Just gem your pvp hit caps normally and then go for whatever you would normally go for with PVP, the baseline resilience changes favor standard gemming now.

I don't do hardly any pvp but does that mean pvp power is worthless to the point that if I'm wearing 519 ilvl pve gear I'm better off using that then spending honor to gear up with 476 pvp pieces? I actually do alright in pvp and some people just melt against me while others I find I can't do much (healers almost always heal more than I can damage and it's a useless fight). I've been slowly accruing a pvp set using honor because I need a place to spend honor and JP but I've been reluctant to actually equip a full set because that drop in ilvl makes me question how viable it is. I figured the boost in pvp power would balance it out in my favor, though.

Just a bit curious since I figure I'll jump more seriously into pvp stuff one of these days.

In other news in an attempt to get a fourth Primal Egg I've been killing dinos and went from 1400 bones collected and I'm now at around 4200 bones. One Primal Egg dropped but it's after I randomly ran into a tanking guildmate on the island so we grouped up to take down all sizes of dinos. We got a load of Direhorn Runts and bones but the one egg that dropped he won in the roll. Anyhow, at this rate I'll end up getting the 9,999 bones for the white raptor before I get a primal egg that hatches into the last raptor I need. Ugh.
 

Fjordson

Member
I use http://wow.realmpop.com/

Sorta accurate, but you can read how they gather the info.

Granted, I don't think you'll find anything completely accurate.
Damn, I wish I was on Tichondrius. Pacific timezone and relatively balanced factions.

I like Sargeras because there's always stuff going on on Alliance, but it's CST (I'm in California) and we outnumber the horde badly. Though cross realm zones makes up for that somewhat.
 

sqwarlock

Member
I'm leveling a hunter alt at the moment, and earlier I was mid-20s in Ashenvale doing some quests. There were a few horde in the area, and decided to partake in some PvP. Nobody really put up a fight, but I must've pissed one of them off something fierce. As I was leaving the quest givers I had a 90 fly in, one shot me, /spit on me, and then fly off. I can only assume it was the main of one of the characters I killed. I've never made someone so angry in same-level PvP that they felt the need to use a 90 for vengeance. I kind of liked it.
 
I don't do hardly any pvp but does that mean pvp power is worthless to the point that if I'm wearing 519 ilvl pve gear I'm better off using that then spending honor to gear up with 476 pvp pieces? I actually do alright in pvp and some people just melt against me while others I find I can't do much (healers almost always heal more than I can damage and it's a useless fight). I've been slowly accruing a pvp set using honor because I need a place to spend honor and JP but I've been reluctant to actually equip a full set because that drop in ilvl makes me question how viable it is. I figured the boost in pvp power would balance it out in my favor, though.

Just a bit curious since I figure I'll jump more seriously into pvp stuff one of these days.

All PvP power does is make PvP better than equivalent PvE gear (because PvP power isn't counted in the item budget). Which works particularly well with Blizzard's new system of scaling down the iLvl of gear in structured PvP (BGs and arena).

Unless you only do World PvP, you aren't switching from iLvl 519 to 476. You're switching from 496 (what all gear is scaled down to in structured PvP - at least right now) to 476. Ultimately, what pieces of gear to you should really just be up to you and what stats you value most (ie. a 476 gear with stats you like is better than a 519 (496) piece with stats you don't care for).

I'd recommend just doing quick arena for points to get 496 Tyrannical gear, though.
 
Any monk heal players? I have some trouble healing more than 3 objetives on instances, damn you druids healing even me and I ventured in pvp. what is the exact stat to help me healing more in pvp, power pvp ?
 

Fjordson

Member
I'm leveling a hunter alt at the moment, and earlier I was mid-20s in Ashenvale doing some quests. There were a few horde in the area, and decided to partake in some PvP. Nobody really put up a fight, but I must've pissed one of them off something fierce. As I was leaving the quest givers I had a 90 fly in, one shot me, /spit on me, and then fly off. I can only assume it was the main of one of the characters I killed. I've never made someone so angry in same-level PvP that they felt the need to use a 90 for vengeance. I kind of liked it.
Haha, yeah I see a lot of world PvP these days with cross realm zones. I like it. Not quite what it was back in vanilla, but still makes things a lot more interesting out in the world.
 

Draxal

Member
Well the first wing of LFR is pretty strat-less, as long as one or two people at least occasionally go in the spirit world. Beyond that, it's each person minding their own business.

Garajal is my favorite fight in the lfr world as a ret paladin, pop in and lay on hands and pop out with cds.
 

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
Thanks for the pvp talk guys, I'd go into it more but I realize most don't pvp here.

Jumped into the Mogu vaults, my first lfr, main tank, wtf.

It's just a big heroic.

Literally. Tank and spank.

Everything.
 

Fjordson

Member
Some of the TOT fights are more interesting and groups need to pay attention to the mechanics in LFR (at least my groups have) but yeah, the early LFR raids are pretty straightforward.
 

ampere

Member
lol are some of those server pops for real? Sub-1000?

Is that at peak time or actual overall population of characters? Or does it count all characters on a server for one account as (1)?

Wowprogress is really just tracking level 90s that raid, so as Entropia said it's not that accurate in terms of total population. Pretty sure wowprogress coulds alts twice if you raid on both toons. Not sure if it counts LFR only raiders or not

That being said, there are some very low population servers.
 

Ultratech

Member
That being said, there are some very low population servers.

Unfortunately so.

Take my server, Garithos, for example.

Back during the Vanilla/BC days, it was pretty active (something like Medium pop I guess?).
But it had a pretty competitive community and lots of people knew one another.

Anywho, sometime after I quit and a good ways into Wrath, there was apparently a mass exodus to other servers, and the population dwindled.
By the time I came back in late Cata, it'd become almost a ghost town, albeit with some small activity here and there.
But for whatever reason, once Mists hit, the place is like near-dead. I might see like a handful of people running around every day.

On top of that, the raiding scene is barely there. If you look on wowprogress, you'll see that only 2 guilds actually did all of Normal T14 (nobody got past Heroic MSV though) and the few other guilds that attempted it got stuck on HoF.

T15 hasn't fared better with only one guild full clearing Normal and the 2nd closest guild only has 3 bosses down.

So yeah, it kinda sucks to see my old home fall into such disarray. :(
 

vocab

Member
I'm really sad that there are servers that are half dead. I hope virtual realms picks up the pace, but if not, they might have to merge servers, and some people will be upset.
 

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
I literally just hit a point now where I feel I can take down an average geared person in a bg.. 4/5 of Malevolent and both weaps (I'm fuckin around with fury). I'm still horribly undergeared but at after changing my spec to something that suited me I'm at least able to get some burst out. Not sure if I should eventually just throw my conquest points at a 2h and return to the wonderful world of arms.
 

Entropia

No One Remembers
Flex and merges might bring back WotLK era pugging

I hope. I loved being able to hop on an alt and find a raid.

Same, that reason is why I think Wrath was the best server. You could raid pretty much at anytime because of all the pugs that were happening. It wasn't forced content like dailies :<
 
R

Rösti

Unconfirmed Member
Same, that reason is why I think Wrath was the best server. You could raid pretty much at anytime because of all the pugs that were happening. It wasn't forced content like dailies :<
The best PUG experience I've ever had was during Wrath of the Lich King and patch 3.3.2. We got to Sindragosa and wiped probably more than ten times. But there was no bitching, no moaning and no swearing. Everyone was very friendly to one another and the whole run was a complete joy. One of my best memories from the game.

Also, regarding Flexible Raid difficulty, I read this on the forums:

Creature health and damage should scale completely dynamically as people come and go, as well as mechanics interactions such as the number of puddles into which Immerseus splits. The number by your minimap should be an accurate indication of your current instance group size.

For testing purposes (mostly internal convenience on our end), you can currently queue with a fairly small group, but nothing will actually scale below a 10-player size. When we release 5.4, we're intending to require a minimum of 8 players to queue. The thought there is that you might want to begin clearing the instance or at least zone in and get ready while waiting on a latecomer 9th/10th, and if we set the queue limit strictly to 10, that wouldn't be possible.
Source: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/9561666086?page=1#16

I don't know if it will become popular to complete Flexible with only eight people but if you are looking for a higher challenge that's definitely the way to go.
 

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
You can go cross realm with friends I believe. Virtual realm will basically act like server merges without actually merging servers.

He's saying we basically have that now. All zones levels 1-85 have people from all different servers in them.
 

Tarazet

Member
Well the first wing of LFR is pretty strat-less, as long as one or two people at least occasionally go in the spirit world. Beyond that, it's each person minding their own business.

On Stone Guard, you keep the dogs together because otherwise, it's inevitable they'll not bring the lone one in during his petrify and everyone will get turned to stone and reset. Feng has a shield the tanks can use, and an ability swap they can channel on the other tank to spellsteal and do a shitload of damage. (Mutually exclusive) Plus there are tank swaps. Then on Gara'jal, the tank that gets banished has to kill his Severer of Souls within 30 seconds, or he gets one-shot.

So the tanks should have some vague notion of what they're doing. But it's only helpful, not mandatory. Enough classes have battle-res that even a tank death is rarely an issue.
 
He's saying we basically have that now. All zones levels 1-85 have people from all different servers in them.

The difference here is you can join guilds with and raid with anyone who's on your server via virtual realms, and auction houses are merging as well. Plus i'm fairly certain cities and level 90 areas are merging as well.
 
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