Support NeoGAF

[traveler]

I must say the social implications (i.e. guild breakups due to long streches of contentless time) never occurred to me before, but the subscription point is exactly why I said previously that I understand the way content is managed is a necessity. I get that this genre has its inherent flaws that must exist for the sake of the business model; I just don't see why gamers wouldn't understand why others don't like the flaws.

To put it a different way, I would consider the ideal WoW to be a game where people cancel their subscriptions frequently but also one people come back to time and time again. Allowing content to be experience in its purest, most undiluted form- albeit in large gaps- is more preferable to me than dragging it out to the point where the ideal customer stays subscribing month to month.

 

[Xabora]

292 DPS Weapon

Ran another sim with a 255 weapon and the dps came to: 9147
17/0/54 build

Two builds, two tests
17/0/54
7/10/54

# 17/0/54 is the new spec of choice, as Epidemic and Reaping are back in!
# Glyphs will still be Ghoul, Dark Death, and Icy Touch for single target fights. For AoE centric encounters Death and Decay, Disease, and Icy Touch will reign supreme.
# The single target rotation will revert to the old:
PS > IT > BS > BS > SS > DC > HoW // SS > DC > SS > SS > DC.

From: http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t72364-unholy_dps_3_3_brick_boring_brick/

 

[Xabora]

Worgan Gameplay Video from the Russian Event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMuwunNHJhc

 

[Swag]

Worgan Gameplay Video from the Russian Event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMuwunNHJhc

Worgen summon animation is BOSS.

Just ran ToC 10/25 for the first time and Onyxia 25. Pretty fun, enjoyed myself even though I was kinda in the dark on how to do some of the encounters. Need to get myself to around 4700 gs so I can try ToGC 10 (Yeah Right 5100gs pug requirement :lol )

 

[VaLiancY]

Me and my friends were talking about how boss the Shadowmourne is and then it hit me - It must suck if you have one of those douchebag guild leaders who always takes things for himself first instead of being fair. I know there is one Fury Warrior guild leader who is happy to be in a position of leadership right now.:lol

 

[Tamanon]

I'm just happy scourge strike makes a return as completely viable as more than just burning an FU.

 

[border]

To put it a different way, I would consider the ideal WoW to be a game where people cancel their subscriptions frequently but also one people come back to time and time again. Allowing content to be experience in its purest, most undiluted form- albeit in large gaps- is more preferable to me than dragging it out to the point where the ideal customer stays subscribing month to month.

I think anyone involved in a fee-based subscription service of any sort would tell you that once someone has canceled, it's a nightmare to get them to ever come back. Once someone is done, they are done. It's far cheaper to string them along rather than let them cancel and try to woo them all over again. The kind of scenario you are talking about is not impossible, but it would take more than a new raid to regain subscribers every 5 months...it would probably take an expansion's worth of content.

I think a hybrid model would almost work better - pay to raid, free to quest. People continue to keep up their alts and collect badge gear for free during raid downtime, then pay for a premium subscription when a raid is hot and new. The problem is that you'd be completely up-ending your business model to cater to the handful of people that really get bored 3-5 months after a new raid has been released....when most users still have plenty of stuff to do.

 

[evlcookie]

Now unholy is top shit in 3.3? Man i was totally trying to get up for DW Frost since xabora's DPS was awesome.

Boourns. Although i dunno if i can even be bothered with either spec :lol

 

[gottalovetheglove]

Me and my friends were talking about how boss the Shadowmourne is and then it hit me - It must suck if you have one of those douchebag guild leaders who always takes things for himself first instead of being fair. I know there is one Fury Warrior guild leader who is happy to be in a position of leadership right now.:lol

Could be worse, could've been non-unique and the quest repeatable. That would've sucked.

 

[Son of Godzilla]

I think anyone involved in a fee-based subscription service of any sort would tell you that once someone has canceled, it's a nightmare to get them to ever come back. Once someone is done, they are done. It's far cheaper to string them along rather than let them cancel and try to woo them all over again. The kind of scenario you are talking about is not impossible, but it would take more than a new raid to regain subscribers every 5 months...it would probably take an expansion's worth of content.

... Everyone I know who plays WoW has quit at one time or another. Including myself.

Speaking of that, when's this patch? I want to know when I gotta resub.

 

[yacobod]

... Everyone I know who plays WoW has quit at one time or another. Including myself.

ya exactly, i've quit several times for 4-6 months over the past 5 years only to come back and play, i typically come back play for 6-8 months and then burn out and quit for a bit, keeps the game pretty fresh, i cant imagine playing it for 5 years straight since launch tho

 

[hobart]

Yah. I didn't play for all of TBC. As a rule... whenever a game starts to feel like a job... it's time to move on

 

[Atrophis]

What are Blizz like dealing with hacked accounts?

My buddy got hacked today and has found his account has been closed by Blizz. Surely they will restore it?

 

[VaLiancY]

... Everyone I know who plays WoW has quit at one time or another. Including myself.

Same. I love coming back when they do a big change.

"I can do WHAT NOW? SWEET!"

 

[Evlar]

But you have the headache of getting your UI working again. Usually takes me several hours to get close to normal functionality.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I love reading Blizzard's comments to the community :lol

They've been answering the same question about Warrior tanks sucking for 4 straight patches. :lol They are not wrong, in their assertion that Warrior tanks are exceedingly common, regardless of what the "community" might say about Paladins being way better. I've never been in a guild that didn't have a Warrior as one of the primary tanks. Druids are the rarest tank in my eyes. I never see one in PUGs or guilds.

My personal thought about why there are so many Paladin tanks: There are 10 trillion level 80 paladins. (That could just be my server though :lol) In reality, the only "solution" to perceived tank imbalance is the Vanilla WoW option: A Hobson's choice in which there's only one viable tanking class.

 

[VaLiancY]

On my server, it tends to go.

Warrior
Paladin
.
.
.
.
Druid
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Death Knight.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

But you have the headache of getting your UI working again. Usually takes me several hours to get close to normal functionality.

The default UI is near perfect for what it needs to be. The only add-on I have is QuestHelper, which is getting put into the default UI in the patch anyway.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Paladin Level: 60!

So I just got Divine Storm and am trudging through outlands on mah brand new Gryphon.

Basically, I was already overpowered for regular questing once I got to level 55 and got Sheath of Light and Crusader Strike, but now I can fight like 5 mobs at once. :lol

 

[border]

The default UI is fine, once you add a second row of bars on the bottom and the right side of the screen. People that have seen me play always act like I'm insane for not having 80 mods installed....but then I go watch them play and their screen just has a bunch of garbage on it and some fugly unit frames.

I imagine only healers need any extensive UI reconstruction. The only UI mod I use is CTBuffMod.....which is a pretty decent way of showing buffs and debuffs.

The default UI is near perfect for what it needs to be. The only add-on I have is QuestHelper, which is getting put into the default UI in the patch anyway.

The default UI isn't getting the Crazy Taxi arrow though is it? That's probably my favorite part of Quest Helper, since you can point your mount in the right direction and walk away from the PC during trans-continental flights

 

[Angry Grimace]

The default UI is fine, once you add a second row of bars on the bottom and the right side of the screen. People that have seen me play always act like I'm insane for not having 80 mods installed....but then I go watch them play and their screen just has a bunch of garbage on it and some fugly unit frames.

I imagine only healers need any extensive UI reconstruction. The only UI mod I use is CTBuffMod.....which is a pretty decent way of showing buffs and debuffs.





The default UI isn't getting the Crazy Taxi arrow though is it? That's probably my favorite part of Quest Helper, since you can point your mount in the right direction and walk away from the PC during trans-continental flights

Meh, I have a shitload of addons, but not many that do a lot of UI stuff; I use;

GRID
Questhelper
Bartender4 <---love the scalable icons and bars and options
MoveAnything! (to keep party bars off when I heal 5 mans)
MSBT (not really a UI mod)

For healing, I use 1-5 as my primary heals set as macros with mouseover targets, and Clique set up to do some click-cast dispelling/abolish disese

 

[hobart]

What are Blizz like dealing with hacked accounts?

My buddy got hacked today and has found his account has been closed by Blizz. Surely they will restore it?

I actually just got hacked myself so... the experience is rather fresh in my mind.

First of all, gotta say, little weird getting hacked all of a sudden and right after I decide to merge my account into the Battle.net system. Could be a coincidence, but for someone that runs a Mac who hasn't DLed an addon in some time.... suspect. I am told, however, that some sites' ads are running keyloggers... so... whether or not this is how I get got hacked... who knows. My suggestion is that everyone got out and get an authenticator... iPhone has a free app... the website sells the hardware for $6.50. In all... it adds like 10 seconds to my login experience... and... gives me the protection I so richly need (and, yah, deserve).

As far as how Blizzard deals with it... from what I can tell... they really go on a case by case basis. Because of this... your buddy's account my not be completely restore for a little while (I could foresee 2 weeks). For me... it took 3 days because I got a little lucky. The hacker tried to change my password once he logged in.... which alerted me via email... and I took proper measures.

Blizz employee got back to me, via email, in about a day. The first thing they wanted to do was make sure that my account was secure and in my hands. It was. I got the impression that this cut out A LOT of hassle and time. So, for your buddy's purposes, it may take a little longer for them to make sure he is the account holder and that he has his account safe and secure (again, the best way to make sure your account is secure is thru the authenticator).

Once you have your account back... you are going to want to see what the damage was. For me it was extensive only to what was in my bags and wallet. Luckily for me... the hacker was too busy send all my enchanting mats and gems and gold away to get to my gear. Blizzard tracks EVERYTHING. So getting items back really is just about making sure everything is kosher... and then going out and doing it.

In all... the experience took me 3 days. I think my case is rare. I have a guild mate where it took 5 days... and another where it took him about 9 or so.

 

[border]

The funny thing is that it only takes a few days to recover your account if it gets hacked.....but if you lose your authenticator or your iPhone I'm told it can take upwards of a week. Makes the authenticator seem kinda pointless.

 

[Atrophis]

Ok cheers guys, as long as it does eventually get his shit back.

He's only just reactivated and is lvl 67 on his priest so its not like theres tons of gold to be made from his account :lol

 

[VaLiancY]

I got my shit back in day and since then I haven't used an add-on yet. I'll get around and buy the authenticator sometime in the future.

 

[hobart]

For me... I got the authenticator for iPhone. My phone is always with me... so... no worries.

Even with the hardware... I don't really see how you could lose it. If you play on a desktop on a desk... keep it in a drawer and just use it when you log. Seems pretty cool to me.

 

[Atrophis]

Just got some more info off him.

He logs in and finds half his stuff gone, then gets kick off server and his login details dont work anymore.

He emailed blizz and they told him he's been banned for cheating??

GJ blizz...

 

[Tamanon]

The funny thing is that it only takes a few days to recover your account if it gets hacked.....but if you lose your authenticator or your iPhone I'm told it can take upwards of a week. Makes the authenticator seem kinda pointless.

Huh? All you do is call Blizzard's customer service, verify yourself and take the authenticator off the account. It's near instantaneous.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Just got some more info off him.

He logs in and finds half his stuff gone, then gets kick off server and his login details dont work anymore.

He emailed blizz and they told him he's been banned for cheating??

GJ blizz...

Tell him to stop cheating

 

[Evlar]

The default UI is near perfect for what it needs to be. The only add-on I have is QuestHelper, which is getting put into the default UI in the patch anyway.

Not if you're a healer.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Not if you're a healer.

We have a fail healer in our guild who I really hate who I'm convinced is just clicking targets and then pressing the button. His healing is beyond awful.

 

[Atrophis]

Tell him to stop cheating

Tell yourself to stop being an ass?

 

[Angry Grimace]

Tell yourself to stop being an ass?

:lol

You'd have to be pretty easily butthurt to let that zinger bother you.

 

[Atrophis]

Yup im crying here, you broke my heart *ragequits*

 

[Tamanon]

Yeah, I used to heal without any sort of add-on, wasn't really that good at it. Once I installed Grid and GridClick I improved dramatically. I think it's just because it allows me to quickly see who has HoTs, who needs them and administer them quickly.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Yeah, I used to heal without any sort of add-on, wasn't really that good at it. Once I installed Grid and GridClick I improved dramatically. I think it's just because it allows me to quickly see who has HoTs, who needs them and administer them quickly.

The only healing I ever liked was Priest healing because it's so straightforward. Druid healing never made a lot of sense to me because the raid bosses all hit for 1204981049 damage every hit, so I could never figure out how I was supposed to keep someone up without just using Nourish all the time.

I haven't tried to heal on my Paladin, but it looks lame as hell, tbh. I have, what, four total spells?

 

[Tamanon]

Eh, four spells is still one more than they used to have, and 3 more than they used to use!

Druid healing is weird, they can be tank healers but are much better on the raid. It's all about knowing the fights and knowing when damage will hit, then pre-HoTting as many folks as possible and Wild Growth/Swiftmend after the damage to catch up if needed. In heroics they're super easy, just because of the fact that tank damage isn't that tough so you can get by with Regrowth/Rejuv and just wait to nourish if needed. AE damage is never too much so you can just blanket if needed.

But yeah, on tank healing, it's regrowth/rejuv/wild growth/lifebloom maybe and nourishes. They're almost never on tank duty though, just because Priests and Pallies have much better burst and oh shits.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Eh, four spells is still one more than they used to have, and 3 more than they used to use!

Druid healing is weird, they can be tank healers but are much better on the raid. It's all about knowing the fights and knowing when damage will hit, then pre-HoTting as many folks as possible and Wild Growth/Swiftmend after the damage to catch up if needed. In heroics they're super easy, just because of the fact that tank damage isn't that tough so you can get by with Regrowth/Rejuv and just wait to nourish if needed. AE damage is never too much so you can just blanket if needed.

But yeah, on tank healing, it's regrowth/rejuv/wild growth/lifebloom maybe and nourishes. They're almost never on tank duty though, just because Priests and Pallies have much better burst and oh shits.

I "pre heal" the raid with my priest with PW:S's but that's a lot easier to do because I have less options on what button to press :lol.

Not to mention, I never ever run out of mana with Disc healing. I've all but abandoned Holy healing at this point although I still have the spec. Holy is fun since you're throwing out Druid-like numbers, but Disc PvE is really fun, and much more versatile than most people give it credit for. I can credibly raid heal in Disc, although not *quite* to the extent I can with Holy.

The real thing that makes tank healing so easy with Disc is that current content only allows tanks to get hit around 30% of the time, so you just stand there waiting to penance while regenning a shit load of mana (that you wouldn't run out of anyways since PW:S gives you a ton of your mana back anyways).

 

[explodet]

Shaman healing is awesome. Just spam chain heal, toss in a riptide or earth shield every now and again.
If the tank's really low spam LHW.

I'm positive there are better shaman healing strats out there, but the above hasn't failed me yet. :lol

 

[Angry Grimace]

Shaman healing is awesome. Just spam chain heal, toss in a riptide or earth shield every now and again.
If the tank's really low spam LHW.

I'm positive there are better shaman healing strats out there, but the above hasn't failed me yet. :lol

It's hard to be "bad" at healing if you are trying hard enough. The biggest obstacle to good healing is the default UI, imho.

The one thing I never, ever understood is the why healbot is so popular. I messed with it once and absolutely hated it.

 

[Tamanon]

Don't forget the part where you yell at spread out ranged dps.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Don't forget the part where you yell at spread out ranged dps.

I yell at off-tanks that move out of range for no reason a lot.

 

[Swag]

It's hard to be "bad" at healing if you are trying hard enough. The biggest obstacle to good healing is the default UI, imho.

The one thing I never, ever understood is the why healbot is so popular. I messed with it once and absolutely hated it.

It allows you to bind spells to mouse clicks. In the days when I felt lazy I would bind Flash of Light to left mouse click, so whenever I clicked on someone in my healbot grid it would cast FoL. Amazing for when I wanted to do two things at once, Holy Light on Right click, Holy Shock on middle, Beacon on mouse 4, (Mana Back ability) on mouse 5 pretty much made it require 0 effort.

 

[Angry Grimace]

It allows you to bind spells to mouse clicks. In the days when I felt lazy I would bind Flash of Light to left mouse click, so whenever I clicked on someone in my healbot grid it would cast FoL. Amazing for when I wanted to do two things at once, Holy Light on Right click, Holy Shock on middle, Beacon on mouse 4, (Mana Back ability) on mouse 5 pretty much made it require 0 effort.

Well, Clique lets me do that too and GRID is much more modular than Healbot is. But my particular problem is that click-healing didn't seem any more efficient (less so, in fact) than using 1-5 bound to my main heals and using the scroll wheel and shift-modifiers for Pain Suppression, Dispel and Abolish Poison. I sort of envy Paladins having one button to remove everything :lol I set up GRID to put different colored corner icons for specific debuff types I can dispel. I'll grant that Abolish Disease is overpowered in team situations in PvP vs. DKs, who are basically fucked if a priest is on the ball with Abolish Disease.

 

[Xabora]

It's hard to be "bad" at healing if you are trying hard enough. The biggest obstacle to good healing is the default UI, imho.

The one thing I never, ever understood is the why healbot is so popular. I messed with it once and absolutely hated it.

We have healers that use the default UI and out heal (effective healing) people using addons like Grid or Healbot.

 

[Angry Grimace]

We have healers that use the default UI and out heal (effective healing) people using addons like Grid or Healbot.

Raid Frames aren't particularly important for putting up healing numbers. It's that they help track raid and dispellable debuffs.

It's the fact that the basic User Interface requires you to acquire a target to cast a heal that causes a healer using it to be uncompetitive, but it can be fixed within the basic UI by just setting the proper cast settings and macros that heal on mouseovers.

The reason people don't use GRID is because GRID ships "out of the box" virtually unusable and requires you to manually go figure out how to configure it to be useful.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Random Oddities based in Warcraft lore:

Within the game's lore, Blood Elves vastly outnumber High Elves, but there seems to be like 10 times more High Elf NPCs than Blood Elf ones.

I sort of wonder whether they are going to add "special" quests/areas for class like, say, Night Elf Mages, since a Night Elf Mage makes no sense lore-wise.

When Cataclysm comes out, we'll be able to explore Mt. Hyjal...so what happens if you hop in the Well of Eternity ? Was there some kind of effect in BC in the Hyjal raid instance? I imagine it would horribly kill you.

 

[Xabora]

*cough*

 

[gottalovetheglove]

Random Oddities based in Warcraft lore:

Within the game's lore, Blood Elves vastly outnumber High Elves, but there seems to be like 10 times more High Elf NPCs than Blood Elf ones.

I sort of wonder whether they are going to add "special" quests/areas for class like, say, Night Elf Mages, since a Night Elf Mage makes no sense lore-wise.

When Cataclysm comes out, we'll be able to explore Mt. Hyjal...so what happens if you hop in the Well of Eternity ? Was there some kind of effect in BC in the Hyjal raid instance? I imagine it would horribly kill you.

1) Not really. You do have to think of all the enemy NPCs in Outland/Draenei starting zones, not just the ones that joined the horde. And then add in the Scryers and Shattered Sun Offensive. Not to mention that, at least in Silvermoon, the NPCs shown in-game is nothing compared to the amount in lore. While in the High elf encampments, there's probably a more reasonable amount shown in-game compared to the lore.

2) Ever been to Dalaran as Alliance? There's a quest added in 3.2.2 there showing the Highborne (who utilise magic) coming to Darnassus to join the Alliance in time for Cataclysm.

3) No idea. Apparently in CoT the Well just gives you a debuff that stops spellcasting, so we'll have to wait until the beta to find out.

 

[gottalovetheglove]

*cough*

Er... what?
GMs having a bit of fun?