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[Vigilant Walrus]

Also: Am finished with Northeren STV.


*Sigh*


You remember in Vanilla back at launch, how it was like, STV was like that middle point where you felt that there was little creativity and the players just had the zone to get some serious XP?

It' still feels like that. Less emphasis on trolls, but you still collect some tablets, and do a bit with murlocs and ogres, but the majority is still Nessingways camp. The auto-questing makes it much easier. I think I did all the quest chains(Panther, Raptor, Tiger) quite fast... Being a Ret Paladin you just browse through it right now. I think when everything gets nerfed and adjusted it might be seriously frustrating, when you get down time. I havent had Downtime yet on my Paladin, and im lvl 29. My Mana might have dropped below 50% once since I started playing, and my itemization is weird.

Pala items are all Str and Stam. There is almost no Mail with Int or Spirit. It's very low, but for some reason, I have such a overkill of mana its insane. I think it should be toned down(obviously) for balance reasons, but I still really enjoy Paladin. It's more fun in this beta right now than any other class on live IMO, but I can see some people on the forums don't agree. I agree its a more simple Rogue combo setup, but why is that a bad thing? Just add possibilities to it, and it's great IMO!


But North STV, goddamit.


The Kurzen thing didnt made sense. You do the same thing as in Vanilla. It's also a weak parody on Apocalypse Now... Kurzen is dead now, but they are still a threat, which the quest givers doesnt know, but you have to kill their leaders? It's poorly done, but it's basically also just breadcrumb.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

I don't know whether they are going to rework those quests or not, but basically the Worgen that are in Duskwood now were originally the Night Elf Druids who have been transformed and lost their mind - possibly a few Humans into that mix who were bitten by them or whatever (which later ties in with the Raven Hill stuff). I imagine they wouldn't harbor any outright hatred towards Gilneans who are Worgen because of the fact that they've been able to regain their senses.

Learning what happens to Sven and a few people in Raven Hill is very interesting though.

Yeah, but its such a glomy feeling over it, that you would think the people living their would be scared of any Worgen, no matter the explanation!

With one of the quests with the Worgen, you're trying to turn some of the cursed Worgen(something related to the coward known as Jitters).



I don't know. It's hard to say, because Gilneas 1-11 was insane. That was just downright awesome, and introduced some cool characters very fast and efficently, and you felt some sort of human honor and valor you had not felt since Warcraft 3, since the humans in that campign just lose territory.



I also love how the Undead are truly evil now. The stuff they are doing in Gilneas is pure Genocide.. ruthless. You really start to hate them, it finally kills the argumement about the "Forsaken" just being "misunderstood". They are the ape shit insane people of WoW. Sylvannas is basically becoming the new lich king, which you also see in the new starting area. She's even on the "it was just a setback" speech too. She needs to go, and that is nice.

 

[Tacitus_]

A
It' still feels like that. Less emphasis on trolls, but you still collect some tablets, and do a bit with murlocs and ogres, but the majority is still Nessingways camp. The auto-questing makes it much easier. I think I did all the quest chains(Panther, Raptor, Tiger) quite fast... Being a Ret Paladin you just browse through it right now. I think when everything gets nerfed and adjusted it might be seriously frustrating, when you get down time. I havent had Downtime yet on my Paladin, and im lvl 29. My Mana might have dropped below 50% once since I started playing, and my itemization is weird.

Pala items are all Str and Stam. There is almost no Mail with Int or Spirit. It's very low, but for some reason, I have such a overkill of mana its insane. I think it should be toned down(obviously) for balance reasons, but I still really enjoy Paladin. It's more fun in this beta right now than any other class on live IMO, but I can see some people on the forums don't agree. I agree its a more simple Rogue combo setup, but why is that a bad thing? Just add possibilities to it, and it's great IMO!

What do you mean the itemization is weird? You're wearing what other plate users wear, not the awfulness of vanilla/BC gear.

 

[MattPeters]

I got Heroic Lockjaw tonight on my holy pally. I am very pleased.

Rotface is bloody easy on 10HM, Festergut on the other hand was a pain in the ass.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

What do you mean the itemization is weird? You're wearing what other plate users wear, not the awfulness of vanilla/BC gear.

Yeah, and I guess that's a good thing, now that I think about it. I like not having to feel bad for rolling on a Str item when your a Pally! I think there will be some dungeon need/greed drama over this, but I guess that's the cost of changing 6 year old perceptions of how things are.


Visually its pretty good. Basically, you get the same sort of art, throughout an area, so by the time you leave Westfall your decked out in a certain color of armor.. as was the case in Elwynn, Gilneas, Redridge, Duskwood. Gilneas I had a hardcore red mail armor. Strange, but at least it was not circus freakshow like during BC.

Though I have to say its becoming more like a clown suit in STV... I think they might not have made the new drop rates and rewards. hmmm. Right now I look like the mix between a homeless retard and some spokesman for skittles. Not that I am complaining it's just not very paladinish with purple chest, gold tuna can helmet and so on...

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

Powerpants, lvl 29 as off the new Dwarf camp, in Southeren STV. He is sad

Forgive my weak ass graphics. I'm having difficulties, and hardcore framerate drops. The water is bugged on Nvidia cards, unless you enable some fanky panky Shader model 3 and 4. This is old water, with many details taken to medium or low. It shows some of the destruction near the cape of STV(breaking point of northeren and southeren). It's raining and there are some nice fog effects I had not seen before.
To the right is the hill top where the last animal you need to kill for nessingway is. to the left is the big vortex. I tried jumping down. you just get sucked down and die. no running to the corpse in that one.

Just finished Duskwood and pimped my way into STV's Rebel camp, ready to rock Kurzen! Here I am boosting my awesome Rambo Bandana! Raawrr! Got it around lvl 19 I think. It's a quest reward!

I don't know if this is new, but a Kurzen dude dropped a Egg, it hatched immediately and was a quest. Out popped this little guy. He is not a companion guy, he is just popping out when I tell him too. I went back to a guy at the rebel camp, and he told me that I was "lucky" and that it would grow attatched to me, and that I should keep it to see what happens. It attacks what I am attacking and does a bit of damage. Suddenly at a point it had this skull in its mouth( a bit creepy) and it just ran around with it until I logged out. I think it grew a little, but right now I am not sure what is supposed to happemn with it.
This might be something in the game already, but I have never seen this.

As a side note, I think there are a lot more of pick up quests from loot. Very nice!

The only female Worgen I have seen out of Gilneas thus far. This is taken from the Raven Hill camp in Duskwood. She is pretty cool, this gal. I like her looks. Any furries fan should be in heaven with this<.<

People flying around... I think it would be a good idea to make flying in azeroth something that takes a bit, or I forsee the people getting to 85, going on crazy ganker hunts while everyone is questing. On a 280 flying mount I suspect, we will see a new level of ganking.
I don't think flying certificate in Azeroth should be something boring like 1000000 gold or something, but perhaps some interesting or cool quest chain, so it would actually be a bad ass status symbol when you finally would get flying in the old world? It seems to me that when you can raid the cities from the air, its like the cake of the game. How can you top that?
If I were the devs I would take the chance to really try and make it status, kinda like how mounts at lvl 40 were at launch. It was like the motivator, and goal for many people.

Skills are fun. At this point, with the lack of ranks or only a talent point every second level, I have not had a feeling of draught. Quite the oppesite. With the fast levelling(and I dont have heirlooms, or increased guild xp rate, or RAF) I often go 5-6 levels without going to trainer. That's what the lack of level ranks do to the game. It makes your character feel more organic and like he is growing.
I never noticed how retarded spell and abillities ranks were until now.

Entrance to Redridge, where Guard Parker used to greet you, with quests to slay gnolls and by flowers for his beloved(who he is now married to at the base of this tower... ) while he stands atop looking out with his looking glass. he really made something of himself. A few quests there. But the rest of Redridge looks like itself, bridge got build done and such.

Stuff going on at Sentinel Hill... Use of phasing is what you see here.

NPC allied characters are more interesting...

... And random.

I'm in the boat, with four other allied NPCs. The Mage is using a fireball to propell the boat faster across the water, to attack the enemy undetected.

Many places still needs proper rebalance, but some more interesting items art/name wise have popped up. Even at lower levels. The final weapon quest reward from Westfall is really nice.

Small changes to the UI... Warcraft 3 portrait picture on some quests. Sometimes to show a enemy, sometimes the character you need to find, sometimes the person who is talking to you or gave you the quest.

... and auto quest. i just did the quest, this one pops up and i do the next quest without going back to quest giver. saves a lot of time. Particularly in STV Hessingways kill-raptors, tigers and panther quests where you used to run back like 10-20 times across the entire zone. such a time waste.

Fox' a new Hunter type pet. I have seen them in Redridge and Gilneas so far. Really cute. They dont make any sounds so far... they have a weird growl when attacking. Lots of Hunters running around with these.

Lots of NPCs and enemies running around with these. Like seriously a lot. It's like they are all watching 3D movies or somethin'

Tornado hurling my ass 10 meters into the air! Had to dig around there for a treasure hunt for some dead pirate...

A darker mood, homeless, strays, depression. Hostility. I cant wait until they implant the new Deadmines...

Beiberelf, Blood Elf Warrior. :O

 

[speedpop]

Nice post with the random stuff that the big sites tend to avoid.

PVP servers might be crazy because of flying mounts now, though it really depends upon who the player actually is really. I imagine it'll be a bit like Outland/Northrend was, though both of those areas had a big hub world for people to congregate in. Then again, that argument is pointless when you consider the fact that people will be back in Stormwind/Orgrimmar because of the portals to 80+ zones, let alone the two Auction Houses in those cities.

Though I do imagine a lot of people will cry over Druids getting them :lol

 

[speedpop]

Just saw the new model for Malfurion Stormrage. Fucking badass! :lol

 

[Swag]

Damnit Cata questing is going to be so fun :lol

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

Just saw the new model for Malfurion Stormrage. Fucking badass! :lol

he looks like Jiraiya in frog mode, or what its called!

 

[markot]

Ill just post a few pics I took awhile back >.<
Sry the pics are so big...

Best Gnome Ever, in Ashenvale.

Noggenfogger is now in charge of Gadgetzan ^_^


The life of a Goblin Sapper in Southern Barrens >.<

They rush out from the Horde side of the battle, and into the Alliance walls and the troops near the walls >.>

Blasted lands, Naga have enslaved a Murloc tribe thingy, huge convoys of them carrying stuff and their kids for the Naga >.< kinda sad, they even have some murlocs pit fighting while the Naga watch.

 

[arhra]

Yeah, and I guess that's a good thing, now that I think about it. I like not having to feel bad for rolling on a Str item when your a Pally! I think there will be some dungeon need/greed drama over this, but I guess that's the cost of changing 6 year old perceptions of how things are.

Ret and Prot paladins have used exactly the same gear as warriors for all of WotLK (and even in TBC, they mostly used warrior-style str gear, with a few exceptions like prot paladins wanting spellpower weapons). You only need caster stats (int/spirit) for Holy.

There won't be any drama over it. Well, not any more than there is already, which is basically not any more than there is over any other type of gear, mostly just thanks to entitled idiots who'll get all butthurt when anyone rolls on anything they can use, no matter what classes or gear is involved (even if it's someone else of the exact same class/spec rolling against them).

 

[Tacitus_]

Ret and Prot paladins have used exactly the same gear as warriors for all of WotLK (and even in TBC, they mostly used warrior-style str gear, with a few exceptions like prot paladins wanting spellpower weapons). You only need caster stats (int/spirit) for Holy.

There won't be any drama over it. Well, not any more than there is already, which is basically not any more than there is over any other type of gear, mostly just thanks to entitled idiots who'll get all butthurt when anyone rolls on anything they can use, no matter what classes or gear is involved (even if it's someone else of the exact same class/spec rolling against them).

Yeah, just don't roll on gear your spec isn't currently using and there won't be any hard feelings.

 

[Bregor]

Our Keleseth tank at Blood Prince Council (on vent):

'Somebody cleaved all my balls off of me!'

 

[funkmastergeneral]

Did the Blasted Lands become flooded with water from Swamp of Sorrows? Otherwise it seems strange to have Naga and Murlocs in a desert.

 

[markot]

Did the Blasted Lands become flooded with water from Swamp of Sorrows? Otherwise it seems strange to have Naga and Murlocs in a desert.

There is water to the south and east, the mountains are mostly gone round there, and they added abit more land >.<

 

[funkmastergeneral]

Oh nice, a forest was added. That area with the elite demons has been useless since TBC came out anyway.

 

[markot]

Surwhich is Worgen, and they have some boats that ran aground on the eastern coast, so there are werewolf ghosts!

Sunveil is a BE little camp, theres alot more stuff going on there now.

And horde took and upgraded dreadmaul hold and now they are fighting for control of the mines next to nethergarde with ze Alliance.

Couldnt find those BE mages that used to give those quests for the regent run/buff thingys >.<

 

[notworksafe]

So is it easier to stick with a ranged tank for Keleseth on Heroic? My guild was trying a normal tank on him (me), and the other tank doing both of the other Princes and it seemed like it wasn't helping much.

 

[Tacitus_]

Couldnt find those BE mages that used to give those quests for the regent run/buff thingys >.<

With any luck they've been removed from the game, ugh.

So is it easier to stick with a ranged tank for Keleseth on Heroic? My guild was trying a normal tank on him (me), and the other tank doing both of the other Princes and it seemed like it wasn't helping much.

Always done it with a proper tank. Casters just feel so squishy and they don't have any useful cooldowns. Though with the 30% buff it is propably a lot easier than when we first tried it.

 

[funkmastergeneral]

With any luck they've been removed from the game, ugh.

Indeed. Those were horrible, horrible quests when I did my loremaster achievement. Don't make quests drops that are rare only come from a select few mobs in an entire zone.

 

[notworksafe]

Always done it with a proper tank. Casters just feel so squishy and they don't have any useful cooldowns. Though with the 30% buff it is propably a lot easier than when we first tried it.

We did normal mode with a hunter as the ranged tank and did well, but it's tougher to do it like that in Heroic. I guess we'll switch to proper tank for today's raid and see how it goes.

 

[water_wendi]

Indeed. Those were horrible, horrible quests when I did my loremaster achievement. Don't make quests drops that are rare only come from a select few mobs in an entire zone.

The only quests from them that were a real pain were the ones where you have to kill the buzzards. Theres only like 5 or so that spawn in the entire zone and they have like a 25% chance to drop or something.

 

[GhettoGamer]

Havent played WoW in 3 years and this thread is about to cut it short:lol. Ive been eyeing my WoW disks for the past couple of days.

 

[MagicJackBauer]

Well I haven't played since last October and I'm thinking about coming back in September to just get back into the hang of things before Cata drops. How are things looking for warlocks?

 

[notworksafe]

At the moment, amazing. Demo and Affliction are rocking some really good DPS. Destro is basically the same as always.

For Cata they are looking to be quite good. Soul Shards are being removed as a resource and instead are going to be used to power up/change spells. You'll have 3 of them below your MP bar and they can be recharged after every fight.

 

[GhettoGamer]

Yup Im installing vanillia WoW as of right now, then BC and Ima just digital download Wrath:lol. Gotta get my pally/hunter up to speed for Cata

 

[notworksafe]

Yup Im installing vanillia WoW as of right now, then BC and Ima just digital download Wrath:lol. Gotta get my pally/hunter up to speed for Cata

I believe the Wrath download has all the Vanilla/BC content in it so you can skip right to that.

 

[GhettoGamer]

I believe the Wrath download has all the Vanilla/BC content in it so you can skip right to that.

Oh sweet, thanks for the heads up

Edit: yup, you just saved me hours of installations:lol

 

[firex]

Well I haven't played since last October and I'm thinking about coming back in September to just get back into the hang of things before Cata drops. How are things looking for warlocks?

Odds are really good that warlock becomes my new main in cataclysm, barring some kind of miracle for warrior/shaman or hunter just being amazing.

 

[AceBandage]

Man, I'm having a horrible time just trying to stay logged into the Cata Beta.
:lol
Either the server crashes or some weird bug happens that closes the game.

 

[Cipherr]

Right now I think you port there then you fly in with a gryphon next to thrall.

Punching Deathwing in the face: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3Q5yD2gKpI

^_^

Punch Deathwing in the Face 1/1

WOW.....lmfao at that. And Lol @ the way Deathwing just takes a punch to the face head on like that, fucking hilarious.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

At the moment, amazing. Demo and Affliction are rocking some really good DPS. Destro is basically the same as always.

For Cata they are looking to be quite good. Soul Shards are being removed as a resource and instead are going to be used to power up/change spells. You'll have 3 of them below your MP bar and they can be recharged after every fight.

I've been spec'd demo for our raids, but I've been struggling with it. On stand still fights like Saurfang, Festergut, and BQ Lana'thel, it's easier to pump out the dps, but with movement my dps goes down significantly. I probably need to work on my efficiency/execution more than anything. But yeah, locks are faring a lot better now than they were in Trial of the Crusader. Mages are still blowing us out of the water though imo. Their cooldowns are just ridiculous.

 

[firex]

Mages are pretty much the best dps class in the game and get bloodlust in the expansion. I only hope this means they buff shamans to compensate instead of nerfing mages.

 

[J-Rzez]

Mages are pretty much the best dps class in the game and get bloodlust in the expansion. I only hope this means they buff shamans to compensate instead of nerfing mages.

Spoiler

Hybrid Tax: One class is a hybrid, another is not.

They'll probably adjust Mage dps a little bit due to it, but I wouldn't expect a huge nerf. I mean, they can't let a class with the best CC's in the game, run around with massive DPS, and great mobility.

I believe I read that they're still going to look at shamans a little more, whatever that means in the end I guess we'll see.

As much as people hate it, they do balance the game around PVP as well, and they don't want people bursted down, so actually I'd expect them to tone down mages because of this, and not buff shaman too much.

 

[Ashodin]

Loving the beta pics and the holy fuck awesome badlands quest :lol

Questing is going to be fucking awesome! Rolling alts is gonna kick ass :lol

I'm totally rolling a Troll Druid and a Blood Elf Warrior

 

[evlcookie]

I had no idea Markot was a WoW addict

So how is everyone finding the beta at this stage? Those who are in it, is it awesome? Does it suck you back in, is it worth your time etc?

I'm still on the fence about picking it up whenever it gets released. I probably will but i will be the most casual bastard on the planet.

 

[Swag]

We did normal mode with a hunter as the ranged tank and did well, but it's tougher to do it like that in Heroic. I guess we'll switch to proper tank for today's raid and see how it goes.

Don't know if this will help, but usually when I do it on heroic 10 man, we just have 1 tank take 2 of the princes, Taldaran and the other guy. And have a Paladin or DK take Keleseth, not really feasible to have a ranged on heroic I think. No defensive cooldowns in case shit hits the fan.

 

[Manus]

About how much would a PC cost that could run WoW at almost max settings? I'm getting tired of running it off my Macbook since it doesn't run well on it.

 

[shintoki]

Mages are pretty much the best dps class in the game and get bloodlust in the expansion. I only hope this means they buff shamans to compensate instead of nerfing mages.

Mages always start off the best, but progress down as gear scales up after a new update.

 

[ampere]

About how much would a PC cost that could run WoW at almost max settings? I'm getting tired of running it off my Macbook since it doesn't run well on it.

Pulling this number out of my ass, but with a regular HDD and no monitor included I would say ~$600 range.
I built a PC in February for $1200 with a nasty SSD ($280) and expensive case ($100) so if you were to forgo those you could have a similar machine and it slaughters WoW.
So if you're savvy and build one, ~$600.

I couldn't tell you a thing about prebuilt desktops.

Mages are pretty much the best dps class in the game and get bloodlust heroism in the expansion. I only hope this means they buff shamans to compensate instead of nerfing mages.

Fixed that for you ~_^
I main a shaman and

Spoiler

while I am a little bitter

I think it makes sense to give heroism to another class. In 10 man raids you can't always count on having a shaman.
Same with many other raid buffs. It's fun in a way when they're unique, but realistically it ends up being more of a pain when making a large raid.

That being said, shamans should get replenishment now that hunters have focus and don't need it anymore

And I'm not worried about losing raid spots because I'm a good healer and my guild loves me

 

[markot]

I had no idea Markot was a WoW addict

So how is everyone finding the beta at this stage? Those who are in it, is it awesome? Does it suck you back in, is it worth your time etc?

I'm still on the fence about picking it up whenever it gets released. I probably will but i will be the most casual bastard on the planet.

I think its great, but I kinda dont want to ruin all the stuff for myself so I dont play it much >.< I mainly explore and try out new talents and crap...

 

[notworksafe]

So we downed Heroic Prince. We actually used a Hunter on Keleseth again and I tanked the other two. Our OT went DPS and we actually ran through them really quick. Guess that 30% buff helps!

Also did H-Valithria and H-Blood Queen. BQ was super easy! We downed her faster on Heroic than on normal! Now we're 9/12 Heroic-10! Getting close to another title! Ran into some issues on Sindragosa and ended up stopping for the night. I think next week we'll do Putricide instead and save Sindi.

 

[Arment]

:lol :lol :lol :lol :lol @ the laser Shark IN game.

 

[firex]

Spoiler

Hybrid Tax: One class is a hybrid, another is not.

They'll probably adjust Mage dps a little bit due to it, but I wouldn't expect a huge nerf. I mean, they can't let a class with the best CC's in the game, run around with massive DPS, and great mobility.

I believe I read that they're still going to look at shamans a little more, whatever that means in the end I guess we'll see.

As much as people hate it, they do balance the game around PVP as well, and they don't want people bursted down, so actually I'd expect them to tone down mages because of this, and not buff shaman too much.

I don't think either class is as good at burst dps as a lot of others can be, but I really do hope they don't punish shamans any further since they are pretty weak. so far cataclysm has looked really great for them but I'm already getting class envy over the paladin redesign and other abilities, plus playing a priest alt has made me realize just how stupidly underpowered shamans really are.

I just find it annoying that shamans are never given much good stuff because of a 5 minute cooldown (really more of a 10 minute cooldown due to the debuff) that they only use in situations where it makes other, better classes even better anyway. it's basically pants-on-head retarded to use bloodlust in any kind of pvp situation where you aren't surrounded by a huge group and the only real use for it in soloing is if you are taking on an elite way tougher than you and you need an edge for burst dps.

 

[CassSept]

So is it easier to stick with a ranged tank for Keleseth on Heroic? My guild was trying a normal tank on him (me), and the other tank doing both of the other Princes and it seemed like it wasn't helping much.

Tanking him with my paladin tank is laughably easy. You should get one at least for that fight. Build up threat on him with Hammers of Wrath every cooldown and pull orbs with Exorcism/Hand of Reckoning. Rinse and Repeat. Every now and then you can run up to him to get more threat (especially if he is the second one to dps, this is the only moment that threat can be a problem). Other than that, I think it is the best tank for the fight.

The new screenshot on mmo-champ is epic. Troll on RAPTOR ON SHARK SHOOTING LASERS OVER MALESTROM?
MY.... GOD....

 

[Tacitus_]

Tanking him with my paladin tank is laughably easy. You should get one at least for that fight. Build up threat on him with Hammers of Wrath every cooldown and pull orbs with Exorcism/Hand of Reckoning. Rinse and Repeat. Every now and then you can run up to him to get more threat (especially if he is the second one to dps, this is the only moment that threat can be a problem). Other than that, I think it is the best tank for the fight.

The new screenshot on mmo-champ is epic. Troll on RAPTOR ON SHARK SHOOTING LASERS OVER MALESTROM?
MY.... GOD....

DKs do an excellent job as well with the the +threat on IT in frost presence. Warriors and bears are just awful at it though I've seen it done.

 

[Celsior]

My friend re activated my account............all my characters a gone.
*cries a single tear*

 

[funkmastergeneral]

man I'm dying to play this expansion.

 

[Bregor]