Support NeoGAF

[Data West]

I have a question. Is this game still playable for someone that hasn't put time into WOW since burning crusade? If I was to just start now? maybe with a buddy or two?

I'd wait til the next expansion because they're changing up a ton of the classes. Would be silly to learn them now then relearn them.

But yeah you can jump in whenever. The start of an expansion is actually a really good time for that.

 

[Anoregon]

Hey all, i've got a question regarding Game Time Tokens..

I've used them before so i know that even though my account is inactive that as long as i have enough gold on my chars that i can buy game time.

However i have a friend with an inactive account and he doesn't have enough gold.. and he is no longer willing to pay real money for game time (me neither).

So my question is: is there any way for me to use my gold to get my friend an active account? Can i send one of his characters a token or maybe some gold?? Or is this not possible??

Thanks!

I know lapsed sub accounts can't recieve/send mail, and I don't believe they can trade or use the AH either. This would definitely limit your ability to give him the gold to buy himself a token.

I have a question. Is this game still playable for someone that hasn't put time into WOW since burning crusade? If I was to just start now? maybe with a buddy or two?

Of course, why wouldn't it be? You have never needed to have been keeping up for years in order to reach the current max level.

 

[M.D]

I want in the beta plz blizzard ((

 

[Brohan]

I know lapsed sub accounts can't recieve/send mail, and I don't believe they can trade or use the AH either. This would definitely limit your ability to give him the gold to buy himself a token.

So it probably isn't possible huh.. I kind of figured that this would be the case but it still sucks.

Anyway thanks for your help!

 

[Zelias]

Of course, why wouldn't it be? You have never needed to have been keeping up for years in order to reach the current max level.

To add to this, if you buy Legion (which if you're serious about coming back, you probably should) you get a free character boost to level 100, the current max and the required level to start Legion content when it releases.

That said, if you haven't played since TBC you have a lot of questing content to explore anyhow... you can always do that on alts though!

 

[Dog Problems]

One of things I'm most excited for from the pre-patch/Legion is the option to hide shoulders. I'll be able to finally wear the Replica Shado-Pan Helmet and not have that side piece of clothe clip through the armor.

 

[Jag]

So it probably isn't possible huh.. I kind of figured that this would be the case but it still sucks.

Anyway thanks for your help!

It is if you message a CM. They will almost always give you 2-3 days of game time to make some gold transfers. They know it brings players back into the game.

 

[mileS]

One of things I'm most excited for from the pre-patch/Legion is the option to hide shoulders. I'll be able to finally wear the Replica Shado-Pan Helmet and not have that side piece of clothe clip through the armor.

This option really opens up a lot more transmog options. I remember getting the Hunter garrison set (or character creation set w/e you want to call it) and being excited the shoulders (when wore) actually had a blank model, nothing there. I built the perfect set of ranger gear and went to transmog, only to find out you couldn't transmog the bugged shoulders Literally every shoulder option ruined the set too.

 

[Lomax]

Hey all, i've got a question regarding Game Time Tokens..

I've used them before so i know that even though my account is inactive that as long as i have enough gold on my chars that i can buy game time.

However i have a friend with an inactive account and he doesn't have enough gold.. and he is no longer willing to pay real money for game time (me neither).

So my question is: is there any way for me to use my gold to get my friend an active account? Can i send one of his characters a token or maybe some gold?? Or is this not possible??

Thanks!

No, there's no way to give him the gold unfortunately. What has worked for one member of my guild was putting in a ticket to a GM who then put a day of time on the account and then you can trade. But otherwise there's nothing you can do unfortunately.

If he has been inactive for a while he should check his account page, there might be a free seven day trial there he could use to be active and you give him the gold.

 

[Anoregon]

It is if you message a CM. They will almost always give you 2-3 days of game time to make some gold transfers. They know it brings players back into the game.

No, there's no way to give him the gold unfortunately. What has worked for one member of my guild was putting in a ticket to a GM who then put a day of time on the account and then you can trade. But otherwise there's nothing you can do unfortunately.

If he has been inactive for a while he should check his account page, there might be a free seven day trial there he could use to be active and you give him the gold.

Huh, I didn't think of that but yeah it's definitely worth a shot. CM's give him like a 48 hour sub, you give him as much gold as you want, he buys a token. Everyone wins.

 

[Interfectum]

How are hunters in legion, still deciding if I should bring back out the BM hunter.

 

[Interfectum]

Oh and I saw this reddit... xplay preview of WoW (2003): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQQU2PEJm0M

 

[strafer]

Oh and I saw this reddit... xplay preview of WoW (2003): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQQU2PEJm0M

That melee warlock.

 

[Jag]

How are hunters in legion, still deciding if I should bring back out the BM hunter.

I've mained a Hunter since launch and I'm really unhappy with the changes. It may actually be fine for someone who doesn't play the class, but Hunters as a whole are really, really unhappy with MM/BM. BM Hunters were also the king of soloing and I think they made pet tanking pretty much impossible at this point. Pets are squishy, spirit bond is gone and mend pet is a on CD.

 

[Interfectum]

I've mained a Hunter since launch and I'm really unhappy with the changes. It may actually be fine for someone who doesn't play the class, but Hunters as a whole are really, really unhappy with MM/BM. BM Hunters were also the king of soloing and I think they made pet tanking pretty much impossible at this point. Pets are squishy, spirit bond is gone and mend pet is a on CD.

Meh, I'll def keep him locked up until I hear better impressions. =/

 

[Anoregon]

Meh, I'll def keep him locked up until I hear better impressions. =/

Embrace the meleehunter and go survival when 7.0 hits!

But yeah, I've heard BM is not in a good place atm and that is a bummer.

Edit: Also, I was just looking at beta talents/abilities - do Hunters no longer have active focus generation (steady/cobra shot)? That looks to be the case. If so, have they increased passive focus generation? Because as it is on live it is very slow and requires you to boost with steady/cobra shots to do any decent kind of damage.

 

[Data West]

I'm ok with pets being squishy finally. They should have done that years ago.

Embrace the meleehunter and go survival when 7.0 hits!

But yeah, I've heard BM is not in a good place atm and that is a bummer.

Edit: Also, I was just looking at beta talents/abilities - do Hunters no longer have active focus generation (steady/cobra shot)? That looks to be the case. If so, have they increased passive focus generation? Because as it is on live it is very slow and requires you to boost with steady/cobra shots to do any decent kind of damage.

Arcane Shot builds focus for MM

 

[Dog Problems]

This option really opens up a lot more transmog options. I remember getting the Hunter garrison set (or character creation set w/e you want to call it) and being excited the shoulders (when wore) actually had a blank model, nothing there. I built the perfect set of ranger gear and went to transmog, only to find out you couldn't transmog the bugged shoulders Literally every shoulder option ruined the set too.

Monk set is the same way and I've been wanting to use its appearance since I started playing but I've never found shoulders that I think go well with it.

 

[MonkeyNuts]

Hey all, i've got a question regarding Game Time Tokens..

I've used them before so i know that even though my account is inactive that as long as i have enough gold on my chars that i can buy game time.

However i have a friend with an inactive account and he doesn't have enough gold.. and he is no longer willing to pay real money for game time (me neither).

So my question is: is there any way for me to use my gold to get my friend an active account? Can i send one of his characters a token or maybe some gold?? Or is this not possible??

Thanks!

Ask your friend to try logging a ticket with a GM. Just ask for one day of playtime or something. They are usually pretty good for that sorta thing if you just explain you want to return to the game.

 

[Lanrutcon]

I'm ok with pets being squishy finally. They should have done that years ago.

Yeah, and tanks/healers shouldn't be able to deal damage. They solo way too easily as well.

-_-

 

[Data West]

Since minor glyphs are being retooled as aesthetic things in Legion, is there any word how Ghostly Speed and Travel Form's going to work? It's not baked in on PTR and it'd suck to lose that speed boost

 

[Lomax]

Since minor glyphs are being retooled as aesthetic things in Legion, is there any word how Ghostly Speed and Travel Form's going to work? It's not baked in on PTR and it'd suck to lose that speed boost

Well, the glyphs themselves are dead. My guess is the abilities are just gone. Maybe some version will show up in the artifact abilities, but Blizz doesn't have the best track record with stuff like that. There's still polymorph versions that are gone and were never brought back.

 

[Shahadan]

I want my Zen Flight back ;(

 

[strafer]

Since minor glyphs are being retooled as aesthetic things in Legion, is there any word how Ghostly Speed and Travel Form's going to work? It's not baked in on PTR and it'd suck to lose that speed boost

They are really removing the fun huh.

 

[Lomax]

Yeah this massacring of inscription is idiotic. And they'll probably bring it all back next expansion when they realize they don't want to do the artifact weapons again.

 

[Lanrutcon]

I am still of the opinion that artifact weapons are not going to be fondly remembered.

 

[ampere]

I want my Zen Flight back ;(

It's not gone. https://twitter.com/WarcraftDevs/status/698339824302845952 No functionality change should exist, but you won't be able to use it in the Broken Isles until the patch that adds flying.

I am still of the opinion that artifact weapons are not going to be fondly remembered.

I'm not sure about that. I think there's a good opportunity here with the wardrobe to make all the artifact skin unlocks permanent transmog options in the future for people who unlocked them during Legion, which would be pretty cool. If it just sits in my bank after Legion that'd be a bummer.

 

[jaundicejuice]

In regards to professions in Legion, the most exciting things are the new UI and those books that allow you to store your current professions recipe progress when switching to another. Nothing about the consumables scribes make sound fun or interesting. Might be profitable with the raid item and re-spec tomes but it doesn't sound exactly fun.

 

[SargerusBR]

Wowhead beta giveaway will end soon. May the Beta Gods reward us tonight.

 

[Jag]

They are really removing the fun huh.

Yeah, they removed aspect of the cheetah and put it on a 3 minute cooldown. Which is excessive. Not sure why. It was such a staple of our class.

 

[Lanrutcon]

Wow. So PTR Destro locks are completely new. The changes from live are so dramatic I almost couldn't believe it.

j/k they are exactly the same Blizzard were too busy designing more emo elves to care

 

[JSoup]

Ok, so, addons.
I'm finding that wardrobe addon from a few pages ago a tad cumbersome when it comes to locating errant quest lines I either abandoned or missed. I've had addons in the past that will basically quest check my toons and spit out quest codes for ones that are incomplete. What's looking for is an addon that does that and then marks my map with bug dumb 'look here, stupid' markers so I can just fly around from map to map until I see something pop up.

Edit: Quest Completist seems to do what I'm looking for.

 

[Tarazet]

Wow. So PTR Destro locks are completely new. The changes from live are so dramatic I almost couldn't believe it.

j/k they are exactly the same Blizzard were too busy designing more emo elves to care

Demo is nothing like how it is on live though. I suppose they wanted Demon Hunters to be the class that channels dark powers, and Warlocks just get to have shitty little imps running after them shooting shitty little fireballs.

 

[Micapo]

I've mained a Hunter since launch and I'm really unhappy with the changes. It may actually be fine for someone who doesn't play the class, but Hunters as a whole are really, really unhappy with MM/BM. BM Hunters were also the king of soloing and I think they made pet tanking pretty much impossible at this point. Pets are squishy, spirit bond is gone and mend pet is a on CD.

I've mained a hunter from vanilla as well and this sounds very disheartening.
Currently unsubscribed but planned coming back to pre-patch and play either BM or MM in legion. Are there no redeeming qualitíes in those specs at all?

 

[Lanrutcon]

I've mained a hunter from vanilla as well and this sounds very disheartening.
Currently unsubscribed but planned coming back to pre-patch and play either BM or MM in legion. Are there no redeeming qualitíes in those specs at all?

BM is actually pretty ok from what I've played on PTR. The rotation is super simple, but it works.

 

[TheYanger]

Late night musings: I realized I hadn't read Making Magic this week yet (The head designer of Magic the Gathering writes a column every week, it's insightful even if you don't play magic [I haven't for years]). One of his 20 design lessons struck me as exactly what I think wow has been getting wrong for a while, and I'd even apply it to some of the class changes you guys are talking about. I don';t main a hunter, I like new survival and I like BM, but I only play it casually. But flipside, I think the DK rune system changes are exactly the same as you say: Designed to appeal to those that don't play it, rather than make those that already play the class enjoy it more.

Relevant quote:

Lesson #15: Design the component for its intended audience

When you aim to please everyone, you often please no one. Not all your players want the same thing out of your game. It's important to understand what different kinds of things your players want, so that you can understand what kinds of different players you have. This means when you design any one component, you need to know which part of your audience it's intended for and then design that component for that audience. If other players don't like it, it doesn't matter. It's not for them.

There's a desire when creating something to try and please the widest audience you can, but this has to be done at the macro level and not the micro level. The way you make as many players happy as possible is to understand what audience segments your game has and then make components that speak to each of those segments. It's more important that each type of player enjoys something about your game than it is that they enjoy everything about your game. What this means is when you are working at the micro level on the components, it's crucial to understand who each component piece is for so that you can design it for that audience. Each member of your audience then gets a part of the game that makes them go, "That's for me!"

I feel like you can apply this to many class changes, profession changes, LFR and raiding changes, pvp changes, etc over the years.

 

[Micapo]

BM is actually pretty ok from what I've played on PTR. The rotation is super simple, but it works.

Ok, not all doom and gloom then at least. Gonna try it out on the PTR

 

[Jag]

BM is actually pretty ok from what I've played on PTR. The rotation is super simple, but it works.

It works, but pets are incredibly squishy. They die in a few hits. Also doesn't have a decent focus generator and instead of actively playing, you will find moments of down time where you can't do anything.

 

[Lanrutcon]

It works, but pets are incredibly squishy. They die in a few hits. Also doesn't have a decent focus generator and instead of actively playing, you will find moments of down time where you can't do anything.

I think this is a problem quite a few specs have now.

 

[Tacitus_]

I think this is a problem quite a few specs have now.

Working as intended, sadly.

 

[TheYanger]

I think this is a problem quite a few specs have now.

I mean, that's what every resource based class always has unless they get to a certain amount of haste, hunter was always the anomaly in that they had a filler that was infinitely spammable. I don't think there's anything wrong with having a few open GCDs now and again personally.

And by always I only mean since focus and steady shot came in.

 

[Data West]

Hunter was the only class I played that had much downtime. And Survival didn't have that issue. Everything else was constant ability or actions. Even if Enhancement had some, you can talent out of it and have more abilities.

I don't mind downtime for some specs. Shadow and Demonology have ZERO for example.

 

[Tarazet]

Hunter was the only class I played that had much downtime. And Survival didn't have that issue. Everything else was constant ability or actions. Even if Enhancement had some, you can talent out of it and have more abilities.

I don't mind downtime for some specs. Shadow and Demonology have ZERO for example.

Casters generally don't have any downtime. At least not since they decided to make mana irrelevant for the vast majority of DPS.

 

[TheYanger]

Hunter was the only class I played that had much downtime. And Survival didn't have that issue. Everything else was constant ability or actions. Even if Enhancement had some, you can talent out of it and have more abilities.

I don't mind downtime for some specs. Shadow and Demonology have ZERO for example.

Mana based/Caster specs almost by definition don't have downtime. Their downtime comes in the form of cast times. Resource based specs? always have downtime. Rogues, DKs, warriors, monks, that's just how it is. If you press against the GCD limit you're almost inevitably losing resources somewhere. Hunter was unique in Steady Shot being a filler, but these classes basically always start out slow in an expansion because you need room to grow. Literally every alpha/beta I've ever been in (which is all of them) has started with "ROGUES ARE SO SLOW, MY ENERGY IS SO SLOW" all over the beta, and then by the end of every xpac you're shitting energy out of your eyesockets. A few globals open now and again gives you room for that to fill in with more haste etc. Presumably haste has a greater impact now too since it's not just steady shot cast time reduction and marginal focus gain? Wouldn't surprise me.

 

[Gentleman Jack]

Oh and I saw this reddit... xplay preview of WoW (2003): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQQU2PEJm0M

Sessler with hair O.O

 

[Data West]

Mana based/Caster specs almost by definition don't have downtime. Their downtime comes in the form of cast times. Resource based specs? always have downtime. Rogues, DKs, warriors, monks, that's just how it is. If you press against the GCD limit you're almost inevitably losing resources somewhere. Hunter was unique in Steady Shot being a filler, but these classes basically always start out slow in an expansion because you need room to grow. Literally every alpha/beta I've ever been in (which is all of them) has started with "ROGUES ARE SO SLOW, MY ENERGY IS SO SLOW" all over the beta, and then by the end of every xpac you're shitting energy out of your eyesockets. A few globals open now and again gives you room for that to fill in with more haste etc. Presumably haste has a greater impact now too since it's not just steady shot cast time reduction and marginal focus gain? Wouldn't surprise me.

Most of the resource based specs don't have downtime either, though. And if they do, the talent trees are made in such a way that you can change it up and add more to your rotation. If you take SnD over Marked for Death, that's your own issues. And by the time we'll know optimal talent builds for fights, the classes will have enough haste, 2 piece procs, 4 piece procs that there won't be any downtime.

 

[TheYanger]

Most of the resource based specs don't have downtime either, though. And if they do, the talent trees are made in such a way that you can change it up and add more to your rotation. If you take SnD over Marked for Death, that's your own issues. And by the time we'll know optimal talent builds for fights, the classes will have enough haste, 2 piece procs, 4 piece procs that there won't be any downtime.

I get that you're talking about right now on beta, but I'm talking about literally the entire 12 years the game has been out. If it's like that on beta now it's an aberration. My point is that having a few open GCDs has never hurt any class, and it's not a big deal. It feels FAR worse to be flooded with resources and not feel like you're spending them fast enough.

 

[Data West]

I get that you're talking about right now on beta, but I'm talking about literally the entire 12 years the game has been out. If it's like that on beta now it's an aberration. My point is that having a few open GCDs has never hurt any class, and it's not a big deal. It feels FAR worse to be flooded with resources and not feel like you're spending them fast enough.

I think we're a bit mixed up then because I 100% agree with you.

 

[Tenebrous]

How long has character copy been on the beta for, and why did nobody tell me?! Time to see how my dear ol' Warrior will cope with the new content.

If I can't solo normal dungeons, I'm gunna be mad.

I get that you're talking about right now on beta, but I'm talking about literally the entire 12 years the game has been out. If it's like that on beta now it's an aberration. My point is that having a few open GCDs has never hurt any class, and it's not a big deal. It feels FAR worse to be flooded with resources and not feel like you're spending them fast enough.

I'd rather have open GCDs than have to hit Devastate 4 times straight when Shield Slam doesn't proc.

 

[Data West]

Deus Ex is the week before Legion.

Gonna have to speed run that game.