tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36010690358041332992024-02-21T00:28:56.923-08:00lol survivaljust one hunter's ideasJC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.comBlogger62125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-40881402890502567132016-05-26T14:16:00.001-07:002016-05-26T14:16:45.178-07:00World of Warcraft: A 2016 Beginner's GuideSo everyone who goes to see <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0803096/?ref_=nv_sr_2">Warcraft: The Beginning</a> is getting a free copy of WoW. I don't know how many people are out there will take advantage of this deal, but I think it is safe to say we may be seeing some brand new players on our servers. This could be great for the game. It could also just reinforce gamer stereotypes, as new players are pummeled with, "Ur gear blows kill yursef noob lol"<br />
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So first, a call to WoW veterans. This is an opportunity to give a little back to the community. When the film releases, keep an eye out for folks asking questions, struggling with quests, or being abused by other players. I plan on turning trade chat on for the first time in years. Maybe even general if I can stand it long enough. With little else to do in game, I may just hang out in low level areas trying to be friendly and helpful while I play another game on my phone. Think about doing the same, even if it cuts into your Overwatch time.<br />
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And for new players, some unsolicited advice and a few affirmations:<br />
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<ul>
<li>You have found an amazing community. Most of the people you will eventually interact with will be awesome. But like any large group of humans, we have to put up with some very vocal assholes.</li>
<li>You are not bad. You are new. Regardless of whispers you may have already gotten, we know you aren't bad.</li>
<li>Turn off general and trade chat. There is an awesome database called <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/">Wowhead</a> that can help you with quests and stuff. The comments page can be particularly helpful with quests.</li>
<li>If you're struggling with <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/">Wowhead</a>, feel free to tweet me for help.</li>
<li>Stay out of battlegrounds for a while. People are really mean in there. Same with Looking For Raid. Also, the official forums.</li>
<li>Don't accept an invitation to a guild that nobody has chatted with you about. It's just a spam add on.</li>
<li>Do try to find a guild. The right group of friends can elevate WoW from a video game to an alternative lifestyle choice. Finding the right guild is probably the most important thing you can do as a new player. My guild, <a href="http://www.converttoraid.com/">Convert to Raid</a> on the Aerie Peak server, always has room for more people.</li>
<li>Leveling is pretty broken right now. Don't judge a class too harshly based on the leveling experience. It's a serious problem, but there isn't anything to be done about it until August. Don't even try to level as a healer right now.</li>
<li>Every single class will change significantly at the end of August. You picked a great game, but a bad time to start it. The bright side is come September, people who have been playing for 12 years will be learning the same stuff you are. The playing field will be somewhat leveled.</li>
<li>Abuse is very much against the Terms of Service. If someone is abusing you, you can report them. It's usually a ton easier to just /ignore them and go about your business.</li>
<li>If you're a woman, you may want to keep that information to yourself. It's shitty and unfair, but that is unfortunately life on the Internet right now.</li>
<li>Did I mention that you aren't bad and most of us are really nice?</li>
</ul>
So welcome to WoW! We are truly glad you are here. Readers, let's get all the advice I forgot in the comments.JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-55144687552636316532016-05-23T10:13:00.000-07:002016-05-23T10:13:46.166-07:00Puzzle Solved..I ThinkI have been confused for a while now. After saying at Blizzcon that players will have access to all their classes' specs in Legion, various barriers to spec switching have rotated in and out of the alpha/beta. We have artifact weapons that restrict switching specs. Then, for a suspiciously short time, there was the old-school gold cost for spec switching. About an hour later Blizzard had a post ready to go that removed the gold cost, but added a required reagent to switching individual talents. Think, <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=79249/tome-of-the-clear-mind">Tome of the Clear Mind</a>, but much more expensive and not available from a vendor mount.<br />
I have been baffled. As a BM hunter who primarily raids, I make 1 or 2 talent changes in a night of raiding. I couldn't figure out why Blizzard thought this change was necessary. I never find myself waiting on people to change talents. Looking at twitter and the bolgosphere, it seems I'm not alone. This seems, according to the overall voice of the community, like Blizzard "fixing" a non-problem. It was perplexing. Then <a href="https://misdirections.wordpress.com/">Fiannor at Misdirections</a> commented on one of their posts about Mythic+ dungeons, and it all became clear to me. Swapping may be a non-issue NOW, but in Legion ..<br />
I speculate swapping could become a problem in Mythic+ dungeons (if you are unaware, dungeons in Legion will behave like Diablo rifts). I would absolutely switch between BM and MM when going from trash to bosses, for example. Got the debuff that puts out constant damage? No problem, throw on Spirit Bond! Movement increase between packs? Heck yeah! I finally understand why Blizzard has been trying so hard to lock us into one spec via the artifacts.<br />
I can't prove it, but I absolutely convinced Fiannor was right. And this is crazy. Blizzard is going to break the best version of the talent system they have ever had over one small aspect of the game that frankly nobody asked for. When I want to run a Diablo rift, guess which game I launch? Diablo. Anybody who wants that style of play can get it. Hell, most of us WoW players got it for free from the Annual Pass! If the current spec and talent system really will break these Mythic+ dungeons, they should just make talents locked WHEN YOU ARE IN THE DUNGEON! I imagine that is what they would really prefer, but technical issues compounded by a release date forced them to create this convoluted "reason" why we shouldn't really change specs and talents. Well guys, figure it out. This proposed system is ridiculous. <a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/5713-Armory-Stats-Proving-Grounds-Robert-Kazinsky-Interview-Tweets-Warcraft-Movie">Here is MMO Champion's data on how many people did endless proving grounds (the closest thing we have to Mythic+).</a> Maybe we don't need them at all..JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-2982991806083423812016-03-01T12:26:00.000-08:002016-03-01T12:26:09.515-08:00Going Free to PlayI'm going to start this post off with a story:<br />
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The same summer that I got my driver's license, the most important bridge in my hometown needed to be rebuilt. It was the kind of construction project that had everyone talking. Literally a half million people would be required to drastically alter their daily routines. A friend of mine even quit his job in lieu of tripling his commute time. This major transport artery was so close to my father's business, we had even more serious concerns at home about how traffic would be affected. Anyone who knows much about public construction projects, especially in areas that get ice and snow, will tell you to double the time they are supposed to take for a conservative estimate. I was 16 when the project started, and my father half-jokingly told me we would be lucky to use the new bridge to take me off to college. We did use it to take me to college. And to visit the college my senior year. We were using that bridge six months after construction began. Six months <b>ahead of schedule. </b>When the announcement was made that the project was completed, everyone in the community was surprised. Except my father. He told me about how this project had a contract that was unique at the time. For every month that the project was late, the contractor had to take $1 million off of the price. And for every month that the project was done early, they got to charge an additional $1 mil. The government agreed to this deal in a heartbeat because no one thought the project was even possible in a year. I'm sure someone literally laughed out loud when they heard about the clause for finishing early. And yet, we all got our bridge back early, and under budget even with those bonuses. Your econ teacher was right: people respond to incentives in a market economy.<br />
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You probably already figured out what this has to do with World of Warcraft. I'm honestly surprised that we are in yet another huge content drought, and I shouldn't be at this point. But, our community has been told a number of times that expansions will be roughly annual. They have publicly lamented content deserts (we're beyond drought at this point). Even worse, the last two expansions were horribly front-loaded. We got more content than most could handle in the first 6 months, and then, not much. And then nothing. And here we are.<br />
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So it is time for Blizzard to put their money where their mouth has been for years. While I would like to propose WoW going free to play any time a year goes by between expansions, that isn't likely. What may be more feasible is any time a year goes by without new content of some kind, we all stop paying a subscription until the content goes live. It still probably won't happen, but I think it should. Keeping players playing during these content deserts is very much in Blizzard's interest. As it has gone, tons of players unsub during these times. Then a new xpac is released and some of them come back. But not all of them. I don't know how many of my friends have left promising to return and are never heard from again. At least not in WoW. They are still gaming, many in Battle Net. But they don't come back to WoW or it's subscription. And at this point it's hard to blame them. If there were no subscription, I bet at least half of them would still be showing up to raid, if not playing the entire game more.<br />
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At the very least, this kind of arrangement would compel Blizzard to space the content they do have for us more judiciously. WoD would still be rather thin, but imagine if MoP or Cata had been under this arrangement. We could have gotten new raid tiers, or new troll dungeons, spaced out evenly over the course of the expansions. We wouldn't have had year-long periods with nothing other than Dragon Soul or Siege.<br />
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Ok, that last paragraph is what my history professor would call "counterfactualism." That aside, if you are Mike Morheim and Hazzikostas tells you, "We could make some new dungeons for them or give up $45 million in revenue each month for a while, what would your decision be?JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-59961990834781869972016-02-22T10:21:00.000-08:002016-02-22T12:17:23.024-08:00At a CrossroadsAbout 8 months ago I committed to writing a series of positive blog posts in an attempt to counteract what I saw as a pervasive negativity in the WoW community. It lasted for one installment. I gave Blizzard the benefit of the doubt regarding their development cycle, and I assumed I would have a lot more nice things to write. I was wrong. And with the information we currently have about Legion and hunters, I have never been so unsure about my future blogging about WoW, playing a hunter in Legion, or even continuing to play the game at all. This will NOT be a particularly positive post.<br />
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I never started this to become a WoW "personality." I started this site because I found myself chiming in regularly while listening to <a href="http://www.huntingpartypodcast.com/">The Hunting Party</a> podcast. I can TALK about hunters all day. Ask my friends. Writing about them, without echoing other writers, proved much more difficult. But it was a different era when I started this blog. Today, it's all about the stream, or at the very least, videos on YouTube. The blog format itself is pretty dated, and not an ideal medium for covering a video game, when you weigh it against the other available options. So there is that.<br />
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I also wanted to be a voice for the survival spec itself, which I had loved since Vanilla and was virtually ignored by the hunter community until Cataclysm. Well, even I don't play survival anymore. I switched to my SV spec over the weekend. First, the only reason I did was to make it Marksman. Second, I still had the <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=118876/lucky-double-sided-coin">Lucky Coin</a> on my bars. That's how long it had been since I even went into my SV spec! I just don't play it anymore. And that isn't likely to change.<br />
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If you're into hunters enough to read this neglected blog, you already know that SV will become a melee spec in Legion. I think that is fine. I agree with Blizzard that three ranged hunter specs are redundant. Between hunter changes, and the Demon Hunter, I suspect that if they could design WoW again Blizzard wouldn't feel the need for every class to have at least three specs. So while I have no problem with the SV change, I won't be playing it. I've never really enjoyed melee, but if I chose to play it, I'll be playing an established melee class. While it's early, even if I wanted to play melee, the <a href="http://eyesofthebeast.com/2015/12/legion-alpha-some-more-things-making-me-grumpy-about-survival/">Legion info coming out</a> isn't very exciting. I'm not dealing with pet pathing issues ever again. Been there and done that. To an old fart like me, hunters are ranged. With a pet.<br />
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If I play a hunter in Legion, it will be as Beast Mastery, as I have for virtually all of WoD. <a href="http://blizzardwatch.com/2016/02/19/first-impressions-of-beast-mastery-in-legion/">Bendak accurately called BM, "the last bastion of the classic WoW hunter."</a> I totally agree. The whole dark ranger thing they have cooking for Marksman sounds interesting and fun, and I will probably check it out if the artifact system doesn't make dual specs prohibitive (we desperately need more info on this system). But I need a pet. So BM it is..if I play a hunter.<br />
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I have a Priest. Both shadow and discipline sound fun in Legion (the hybrid aspect of disc is especially intriguing). I have a monk. And a rogue. And a warlock. I have not used my 90 boost yet. If I buy Legion that will give me another boost. All these options means there is a LOT riding on Beast Mastery being fun and competitive for me to stick with my favorite class. If it isn't, with the little information about artifacts that I have currently (basically none regarding off specs) I keep thinking I may just have to go with one of my other classes or boost a new one. If I play Legion.<br />
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The ONLY reason I'm playing WoD at all is I found a super fun raid team with the perfect schedule for me. I was an inch away from unsubbing when I found them. But I have ridden my 2009 iMac as far as it will go for gaming. There is no way I can run Legion on it. As I was contemplating the purchase of a new system, I remembered almost doing the same for WoD. If I had, I would have been PISSED about it. Let's be honest: Warlords of Draenor sucked. It was the least amount of content for the most amount of money that World of Warcraft has ever sold us. There absolutely were good things about it. But I have never in my life been so disappointed with a video game purchase. So, while I am happy to keep paying my sub while I have this amazing team, buying new hardware just to run what could be another WoD is less than appealing. I am anxious to hear details about Legion's number of raid tiers, dungeons after launch, and again how artifacts will allow/prohibit alts and off specs. Someone recently described WoD by saying Blizzard basically gave up on it. I totally agree. There are plenty of hints that this is what happened. Remember the island inhabited by ogre pirates? WTF happened to that? I was dying to see that! Two raids, no new dungeons, and an ugly Timeless Isle rehash doesn't make for much of an expansion. At least we got a new, interesting final boss. Oh wait, nope. Killed him already. In two other games. And it was more expensive than all the previous (good) expansions. I understand inflation and a price hike was of course inevitable, but pairing it with the thinnest expansion ever was a public relations disaster. Warlord would have been really disappoing at $40. The extra $10 added at least $25 worth of insult to injury.<br />
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So I'm at a crossroads. I have a neglected blog named for a spec I may never play again, in a subscription game that does nothing for me outside of three hours every Thursday. To be fair, $15 a month is still a value for 12 hours of quality entertainment. But this game, and the hunter class, used to mean a hell of a lot more to me.<br />
<br />JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-32042087058260551832015-06-03T13:57:00.000-07:002015-06-03T13:57:22.994-07:00Pleasant SurprisesThis is the first in what will (hopefully) be a series of positive posts. While it's understandable all things considered, I don't think I've ever seen the WoW community so negative. About a bunch of different stuff. Anyway, I think a few posts with a positive vibe are in order.<br />
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Today I'm writing about a few parts of the game that have become pleasant surprises for me. Things I like, or do, more than I thought I would.<br />
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<b>Beast Mastery:</b> For a guy who has "survival" in his blog's title, I play a shit ton of beast mastery these days. I like the pets (finally tamed Gara this week) and the play style. I used to dismiss BM as just a spec with one overpowered dot. The current iteration of BM is incredibly fun for me. It is an excellent balance of easy and skill. As long as I manage my pet appropriately, my dps will be ok. But BM adds just enough RNG and buff stacking to be really interesting. I love how Focus Fire works these days so much that I'm glad they adjusted the set bonus so it won't just always be up. Way more fun in it's current version. I'm so all in on BM that I recently changed all my enchants to mastery. My pet does a lot of damage. And Beast Cleave on Kromog? Super fun.<br />
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<b>Pet Battles:</b> When pet battles were announced I said, "Neat. I'll never do that. Ever." Then I did a few just to get some easy achievement points. Then I did a PvP battle to see what that was like. Then I wanted a rematch. Then I was close to some more achievements. Now I'm installing add-ons just to manage pet breeds. So yeah. I love pet battles. PvP pet battles are ridiculously fun. I don't care so much about collecting a million pets, but I really enjoy putting some oddball teams together and seeing how they do in PvP. I do have a few gripes about pet battles, but this is a positive post. The point is, no one is more surprised than I am about how often I pet battle.<br />
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<b>Fishing:</b> Fishing in Warlords is pretty fun. More fun, and useful, than it's ever been before. Not a lot else to say about it, I mean, it's fishing guys.<br />
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I never thought I would enjoy any of these things. Just goes to show you shouldn't prejudge stuff!JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-48283156443260006262015-05-26T11:37:00.003-07:002015-05-26T11:38:03.980-07:00Public Relations 101Ask any politician or public relations professional, and they will tell you damage control is done on Fridays. If circumstances are forcing you to drop bad or embarrassing news on your audience, you do it on a Friday. Always on a Friday. The Friday of a holiday weekend is even more preferable. See, people don't usually watch the news on Fridays, or the weekends for that matter, so the hope is that by the time people come back from their weekends things will have moved on. Maybe other news will eclipse the bad news, or people will be more interested in talking about the new movie they saw, etc.<br />
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Blizzard announced the death of flying on, wait for it, a Friday. A Friday that began a holiday weekend in the US. Personally, I'm not that upset about the flying decision. I feel like it is a decision that has been settled at Blizz HQ for a while, and they have been putting off making the announcement because they feared the blowback. The way they used common damage control tactics such as the timing reinforces this point.<br />
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I don't bring this up to criticize Blizzard in any way. They pay PR people to do exactly this kind of thing, and there is nothing wrong with it. I bring it up to show that Blizzard knew a long time ago how this decision would be received by their customers. They knew that when they eventually had to tell us that flying was gone, it would be a shit show. Because, contrary to what you have read over the weekend, they do in fact listen to us. The merits of flying or no flying aside, I keep reading that Blizzard is out of touch, doesn't listen to the players, and has no idea how to make a good game anymore. They do listen. They knew how much Twitter rage, I quit manifestos, and personal attacks they were about to endure by announcing the removal of flying because they are aware of the WoW player base. Just because they didn't do what you asked does not mean they didn't listen to you. They listened to you enough to know to announce bad news on a Friday like the pros that they are.JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-2129897258453170492015-05-05T10:53:00.001-07:002015-05-05T10:53:28.001-07:00Burnout Is Like AggroIf you get it, it's your fault. Not your raid leader's fault. Not your garrison's fault. And it's not Blizzard's fault either. Take some responsibility for your actions. If you are burnt and not enjoying the game then it's time to change your behavior instead of bitch about game design or content release cycles.<br />
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Ok, this is the post I'm sure every Community Manager at Blizzard has written at least once and then deleted so they could keep their job. But I don't work at Blizzard so can write it for them.<br />
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Stop it. Stop. Now. Whatever part of WoW you're still doing even though you don't enjoy it anymore-stop. It's really that simple. I was burning out on raiding during MoP. So I took a very long break from it. Now I'm having more fun raiding (with a much smaller time commitment) than I ever have before.<br />
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You should know better. If you're old enough to read you should already realize that doing the same thing over and over again (with a few exceptions) GETS BORING! I am so fucking sick of seeing on Twitter, blogs, and in chat some version of "OMG I just got my 9th lvl 3 garrison and can't take it. Garrisons are broken. They are a prison!" Garrisons aren't broken. You are. What the hell did you think was going to happen? Are you really, truly, surprised that doing 9 sets of missions and work orders and daily quests is kind of repetitive and boring? If you honestly didn't see that coming you're a moron. Sorry, but sometimes the truth hurts. And the whole "prison" metaphor has to be really insulting to the millions of nonviolent Americans currently in real prisons. There's no fucking Pepe in prisons, kids.<br />
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Same with the legendary quest. While there are some very legitimate complaints about the quest itself, if you're on your second, third, or fourth character doing it, you have no right to complain and I don't want to hear you do so. You knew exactly what you were getting yourself into. My alts will never have the legendary. It would be nice, but I know I would detest doing it. So guess what? I'm not doing it. And when I log into my alts I enjoy doing so. I got bored with playing the auction house, so I scaled back my auctions considerably. Now, when I do auctions on the weekends I have fun. Notice a pattern here?<br />
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Many players, including myself, have spent a lot of energy criticizing this expansion. And we have had some very good reasons. But burnout isn't one of them. And it isn't new or tied to garrisons (remember daily quests in MoP or reputations in Classic?) If you are burned out it's <b>your</b> fault. The good news it it is also easy to fix. Think about what parts of the game you still actually enjoy. Keep doing them. Stop with all the other stuff at least for a while. Harness some personal responsibility for your actions. At the very least if you can't show some restraint at an all-you-can-eat fish fry, don't blame someone else for your stomach ache.JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-90833106188310915412015-04-23T14:49:00.000-07:002015-04-23T15:58:21.380-07:00I want the old gear system back. Mostly.When Warlords was announced approximately 7 years ago, I was pretty excited about the new gear system. It sounded interesting, and certainly different from all previous expansions. Now that I have had a few months to try it out I have to say I'm not really a fan. I don't enjoy the parts I thought I would and it hasn't really solved any of the problems it was supposed to.<br />
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Of all the major changes to gear this expansion, the only part I wouldn't change at all is how primary stats change when a player changes specs. That is undeniably awesome. When it was announced I immediately thought, "Killer! Now my priest only needs one set of gear!" But it really hasn't worked out that way. Secondary stats are so strong that very few pieces of gear are good for both specs. Or I'll get pieces with sockets or Spirit. All of a sudden I have two full sets of gear for my two specs. Just like before. It's fine, and maybe the system saves other classes some more inventory space, but I still have two sets of gear. And my hunter now has 4. Four. The SV set. The BM set. PvP set. I can't get rid of anything decent with leech or avoidance on it for soloing..Tertiaries and gems have made my inventory woes worse on my pure DPS character.<br />
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The most frustrating aspect of gear in WoD is figuring out what is really an upgrade. Sockets, Warforged, Tertiary stats. It's kind of driving me crazy. Last night I got a 685 neck from a mission. I was wearing a 670 neck with a socket. Due to the two combinations of secondary stats, these two pieces were incredibly close in value. I ended up having to use Simcraft to figure out what to do. I have to do that a lot these days. More than I ever have before, and I'm a pretty informed player. One of the reasons for getting rid of hit and expertise was that it seemed crappy players just went to an outside web site to find out what to do. Some of that is always going to be unavoidable, but it feels like I have to sim gear upgrades/sidegrades a lot more than I should. I know what my best secondaries are. I listen to the hunter podcast. I should just know what is an upgrade and what isn't, especially when I'm gaining 15-20 ilvls. It seems unreasonable to expect a less informed player to understand upgrading correctly under the current system. I think it's time to dial back some of the RNG attached to gear. It's confusing, and many times doesn't feel good. Unless you get the super lucky "trifecta," it always feels like something is missing. Maybe I'm greedy but I get a nice upgrade and instead of looking at the stats it has I see the socket that isn't there or wonder how much more agility is on the warforged version. Tier pieces are even worse because you don't really know what piece of gear it is until it's been won by a group member. I'm sure there are teams out there dealing with "I would have rolled on it if I knew about the socket!" drama. Gear has essentially turned into a slot machine experience where we're trying to score all three cherries for the jackpot. It's a bit much.<br />
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I think gem slots should stop being random. I don't mind them being rarer than they were before WoD, but let's just know which gear has them and which doesn't. Tertiary stats can come or go. I honestly don't have strong feelings about them. Except they shouldn't be random either. Maybe make them into enchants or something, but not random. If we have to have some slot machine aspect to gear I would prefer just going back to the MoP system where gear has a chance of being warforged. That is plenty of RNG.<br />
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<br />JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-41096101485410606562015-04-08T14:21:00.000-07:002016-03-01T14:07:49.449-08:00A Server Transfer Cost Me $285I've earned a million gold in World of Warcraft. Twice. That doesn't mean I got up to two million. It means I got to a million, had to walk away from half of it, and earn that 500k again. A couple of years ago Blizzard had a "sale" on character severs. Faction, race, and server changes were all 50% for one week. This was amazingly timed with the end of my long time guild disbanding, and many of us were already in conversations about moving to a bigger server. All of sudden we had a week to decide on a destination, organize our bags, and transfer for a more reasonable price. As a player of two characters, it was essentially a two for one deal. Not bad. So I spent a day or two liquidating assets I didn't want to transfer and getting all my various heirlooms to the characters I was going to move. There was probably another day or so spent researching destination realms and comparing notes with my comrades. So with decisions made and things in order I logged into battle net to move my characters to their new realm. And then I got this error message. The gold cap for transferring servers is 50k per character. I was stunned. 50k? But I have 900k that I worked damn hard to accrue! I'm sure 50k seemed reasonable when server transfers were first implemented. But we are now in an era with mounts between 40 and 100k. I spent 70k on a single Darkmoon trinket at the beginning of MoP. 50k?! Seriously? I was in disbelief. And running out of time.<br />
So I frantically raided the auction house. I was looking for anything of higher value that would stack in my bags for the transfer. <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=76132/primal-diamond">Primal Diamonds</a> were good. I bought a few <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=44413/mekgineers-chopper">chopper</a>s (I know they don't stack, but still a decent way to convert some gold). It was working. I had fairly quickly turned more than 300k into things in my bags that I knew I could sell on the new server. Even if some of it sold at a loss, that was better than leaving gold on the table. But my old server was small. The same factors that let me corner the jewelcrafting market and earn a million gold were limiting my supply of available goods to "smuggle" across servers. I had to laugh when someone in trade asked why the price of <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=72104/living-steel">Living Steel</a> had quadrupled overnight. Because I bought literally all of it. And would have bought more if it had been there. I quickly realized that my little server's economy wasn't going to allow me to get all that gold converted. At least not while the sale on transfers was still happening. A friend and I looked into splitting a guild transfer, but details I can't remember now (guild level?) made that a non-option. And guild transfers weren't half-off anyway. I was starting to get pretty upset with the transfer gold cap. Having a degree in economics, I understood why one exists. I just couldn't/can't fathom why it is still so damn low. 50k was a lot in TBC. It really was. But today? Epic flying is 10% of that! I wasn't happy about it, but I couldn't see any solution. I kept telling myself Earth money is more valuable than Azeroth money. Over and over. Then I dropped 400k into my guild's bank and transferred immediately. My way of just ripping off the Band Aid. Eventually I got over it. I sold all that stuff in my bags, got my production system in TSM going again, and got back to making gold. I eventually peaked at 1.3 million before I started spending. While I was never ok with the transfer cap, I just kept telling myself it wasn't real money.<br />
<br />
But now it IS real money. Now I could be using that gold to pay my subscription. And I'm kind of pissed about it. Beside the fact that I had to forfeit a major component of my personal character progression, the reason I had to do it is no longer valid, if it ever was. The only reason to have a cap at all is so somebody like me can't move to a server like my old one and disrupt the whole economy with their deep pockets. I understood that at the time even if I thought 50k was way low. But the <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=122284/wow-token">WoW token</a> is being sold region-wide. Large amounts of gold are now moving between server economies in 20-30k chunks. In a sense, there is only one economy for the entire region now. The AH is no longer faction specific, and we have been able to move battle pets across servers for years now. The old definition of a server economy has broken down. It's time for the transfer cap to disappear as well. Or at the VERY least be raised into the millions. Because of the 50k cap, I essentially paid $285 for a server change. And at the time I thought $25 was bad! My gold is gone, but maybe we can get the cap raised or removed now that gold is literally worth real money.<br />
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Update: The transfer cap is now 150k. That probably would have been enough before garrisons..JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-37949405801206289122015-04-06T10:13:00.000-07:002015-04-06T10:14:19.498-07:00Extreme PvPBlizzard got me thinking. A week or two ago one of the PvP designers asked the community why people play Heroes of the Storm but not World of Warcraft PvP. The common answers were unsurprising to anyone who has tried to get into PvP: gear is a barrier to entry, way too many abilities, etc. The community painted a pretty clear picture that the HotS experience, made from the ground up as a competitive PvP game is far superior to WoW PvP, which was essentially an afterthought for a game designed as an RPG (I'll try to never ever put that many acronyms in a single sentence again).<br />
So with HotS and Overwatch both on the horizon, not to mention all the mobas from other companies out there, what should Blizzard do with WoW PvP?<br />
<br />
Kill it.<br />
<br />
You heard me.<br />
<br />
At 10 years old, it is time for bold decisions regarding World of Warcraft and I say it's time for PvP to be done. I am so tired of abilities being changed in PvE to balance PvP and I have to assume serious PvP players feel the same when the opposite occurs. And I really have to wonder how many serious PvP players are left in WoW when it seems the whole world is playing LoL and Hearthstone for competition. I say it's time to draw a thick, clear line in the sand regarding which games are going to be supported for PvP (HotS and Overwatch) and which are not. If people want to do world PvP or duel, that's fine. But it's time to get rid of BGs, Arenas, PvP gear, and any sort of ranking system. Don't get me wrong, I love the occasional BG. World PvP can be a blast at times. But I think for the health of all of Blizzard's involved games, it is time to make WoW a purely PvE experience. At least in terms of content and balance.<br />
This would obviously upset a lot of people. Bold, meaningful decisions always do. Maybe Blizzard could define the "serious" PvP players in WoW (total HKs, above rank X, wins in rated battles) and give those people a free copy of HotS or a special skin that nobody else has or early beta access to Overwatch. Something to placate the folks who will be most affected by this. I know when HotS and Overwatch are both out I won't be doing my PvP in WoW anymore. I doubt I am in the minority. Let's kill PvP for the good of the game as a whole.JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-89563126929160897052015-03-31T11:23:00.001-07:002015-03-31T11:23:30.392-07:00Pro Tips for PuggingThere are a lot of reasons to pug dungeons and raids these days, and with the group finder or a site like Open Raid, it's never been easier to get an invite. But then what? It's a fact that over half the internet is made up of horrible people who will judge you. You can get kicked from a pug for no good reason these days. Fear not. The following list of tips will separate you from the average or terrible pug hunter, and if you follow them all I guarantee the shortest and smoothest pug experience of your life.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>The first thing people will see about you other than your class is your name. Show them you know hunters by borrowing the name of a famous one. I'm talking your Leggolas, Katnissss, Robnhoood types. ASCII characters and paid name change are your friends here.</li>
<li>Summon your biggest, loudest pet. You want your presence known right away. I usually go for a gorilla with <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=63900/thunderstomp">Thunderstomp</a> on autocast.</li>
<li>FACT: People love trains. Get yourself the <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=44606/toy-train-set">Toy Train Set</a> and begin using it as soon as you zone in.</li>
<li>Ask everyone in the group if they want to pet battle. Chances are good that's why they are in there.</li>
<li>People will inspect you. Stack intellect as high as possible so people will know you're smart! I pop a <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=156578/draenic-intellect-potion">int potion</a> any time I see a group member has me targeted just to be safe. An int flask goes without saying.</li>
<li>People want to get pugs done fast, and you have a ton of tools to help push the group along. Make surer <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=13159/aspect-of-the-pack">Aspect of the Pack</a> is ON. I used to always turn it off when I would see "PACK OFF!" in chat, but that's just people using the command to switch their backpack for a larger bag. So keep the Aspect on regardless of what you see in chat.</li>
<li>Another way to keep pushing the group forward is the clever use of knockbacks. Use <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=109259/powershot">Powershot</a> on cooldown, and make sure you have <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=42908/glyph-of-explosive-trap">Explosive Trap is glyphed</a>. Just keep knocking mobs out of the tank's range and the group will keep chugging forward chasing them.</li>
<li>Especially in 5-man dungeons, the slowest part of the experience is waiting for healers to regen mana between fights. Mana regeneration is based on threat, so if you see a healer asking for time or sitting there drinking, the polite thing to do is <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=34477/misdirection">Misdirect</a> as many mobs as possible onto them. Don't forget <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=120360/barrage">Barrage</a> for this! I guarantee using this trick will get you out of that dungeon quickly.</li>
<li>Trinkets and their procs are really unpredictable. Do NOT equip them. And get that scope off of your gun while you're at it. </li>
<li>Since the beginning of WoW people have gotten jealous of legendary items. Make sure you don't have evidence of the legendary ring quest line equipped. It will just upset people.</li>
<li>The one thing that every class and player in WoW struggles with is bag space. If you want to really be courteous get yourself assigned master looter and just loot everything yourself, regardless of what it is. People will love the extra bag space. I guarantee you will get whispers!</li>
<li>If you're not linking Recount reports after every pull, why are you even there? How will the group know how amazing you are? </li>
<li>Speaking of that, make sure you have macros or addons to let the group know EVERY TIME you cast <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=172106/aspect-of-the-fox">Aspect of the Fox</a>, <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=19801/tranquilizing-shot">Tranq Shot</a>, <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=20736/distracting-shot">Distracting Shot</a>, <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=34477/misdirection">Misdirect</a>, <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=131894/a-murder-of-crows">Murder of Crows</a>, <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=147362/counter-shot">Counter Shot</a>, and <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=136/mend-pet">Mend Pet</a>.</li>
<li>It shouldn't be often, but threat happens. If you do pull threat, <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=781/disengage">Disengage</a> and <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=5384/feign-death">Feign Death</a> immediately. You want to get as far from the tank as possible. It's called manners.</li>
<li>Some bosses require the group to stack in melee range to share damage and heals. Obviously you want to be using a melee weapon when you're up close. Make a macro to quickly swap out your gun. You won't believe what that does to your damage numbers. </li>
<li>FACT: People love selfies even more than trains. Let everybody know you need some time before each boss pull to compose the perfect <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=122637/s-e-l-f-i-e-camera">S.E.L.F.I.E</a>. Take your time with this. If you need to dial your settings up to ultra and then back down again, so be it. People may grumble a little-until you ask to get get everyone's email address so you can share these amazing selfies. And if you need extra time to Tweet them out, take it!</li>
</ul>
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If you follow these tips, I can basically guarantee you will be out of that dungeon or raid really fast. Share your success stories in the comments! And have an amazing April;)<br />
<ul>
</ul>
JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-66571838290240809452015-03-19T15:35:00.002-07:002015-03-19T15:35:38.750-07:00The Liebster Award<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVpyfFUaET-mzwsJUlI3HdXJmK4OnYTJnnANpNX3E7Z0hh8qYp0nsQRGvNx0PeBQaMafTkuPnNFJG-dLpL9AYWb4lwP48ZBk5j09V05qBrF-VWx7kC2lUZaubyPgXnlYW7bWaiw-iliQw/s1600/liebster2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVpyfFUaET-mzwsJUlI3HdXJmK4OnYTJnnANpNX3E7Z0hh8qYp0nsQRGvNx0PeBQaMafTkuPnNFJG-dLpL9AYWb4lwP48ZBk5j09V05qBrF-VWx7kC2lUZaubyPgXnlYW7bWaiw-iliQw/s1600/liebster2.png" /></a></div>
<br />
Delirium, author of <a href="http://www.thrillofthewild.com/">Thrill of the Wild</a>, has nominated me for a Liebster Award. Even though I've honestly never heard of the Liebster, I'm flattered. Delirium's blog is far superior to mine, and I really appreciate the endorsement. It works like this:<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Write a blog post about the Liebster Award</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thank the person who nominated you and
link to their blog</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Display the award on your blog</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Answer the eleven questions that the
blogger who nominated you gives you</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Give eleven random facts about yourself</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nominate five blogs that you think
deserve the award</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Create eleven questions for them to
answer</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
List the rules in your post</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Inform the bloggers that they’ve been
nominated and provide them the link to your post</div>
<br />
<b>Blogs I Nominate:</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<a href="http://huntersrhok.blogspot.com/">Hunters Rhok</a><br />
<br />
*Not to break the rules, but it seems everything else I still read has already been nominated. WoW blogs aren't what they used to be. I blame the rise of streaming. I'll update this accordingly if I have forgotten someone. And I look forward to finding some new blogs from this whole Liebster thing. Alright, on to Delirium's questions for me.<br />
<br />
<b>1. What's the best (and/or your favorite) blog post you've ever written, and why?</b><br />
I think <a href="http://lolsurvival.blogspot.com/2014/03/lone-wolf-is-terrible-idea.html">Lone Wolf is a Terrible Idea</a> is my favorite. I like how the writing turned-out, it generated some discussion, and proved to be at least a little bit prescient.<b> </b>I have since calmed down a little regarding Lone Wolf.<br />
<br />
<b>2. If you could take any moment from your life, and relive it, what would it be?</b><br />
A certain first kiss I had many years ago. We were on a bridge over the Willamette River<b> </b>with the whole city's lights behind us. I haven't seen or heard from the woman in years-it was that great of a first kiss. I look forward to having a better one some day.<br />
<br />
<b>3. What was your favorite tier in WoW?</b><br />
Tier 4. It was far from the best designed tier, but it was the most meaningful for me. It was the first tier I raided all the way through, my first (only) participation in a realm first kill, and the first armor set I completed while it was current.<b> </b>I still run with some of the friends I made during T4.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>4. Where would you, and where would your characters, like to grow old, once they're finished killing dragons?</b><br />
My hunter would retire to the woods of Ashenvale, where he learned to hunt and tame back in the day.<b> </b>My priest would go to Stormwind. I would/will retire on <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Vieques/@18.1214489,-65.4229005,12z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x8c04c7ba61982cbb:0x965a7045c3b84037">Vieques</a>, a tiny island next to Puerto Rico. If you ever get a chance to go there-do it.<br />
<br />
<b>5. What book are you reading right now (or the most recent book) and why did you like it?</b><br />
I'm currently reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ancillary-Justice-Imperial-Radch-Leckie/dp/031624662X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426803555&sr=1-1&keywords=ancillary+justice">Ancillary Justice</a> by Anne Leckie<b>. </b>If you like science fiction I definitely recommend it. I read almost entirely non fiction, so this is a nice change of pace. It's the right balance of pleasure reading and a challenge (which I enjoy).<br />
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<b> 6. If you could have any super hero power, what would it be?</b><br />
<b> </b>Flight. It's boring, but true.<br />
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<b>7. If you could change any one thing in WoW, what would it be?</b><br />
Access to the entire hunter stable<b> </b>anywhere. I only play a few classes, but I can't think of any other class that can't use all of their abilities or buffs out in the world.<br />
<br />
<b>8. What was your favorite lore moment in WoW?</b><br />
The end of Dragon Soul. The whole idea that we are now in the age where mortals are the caretakers of Azeroth is awesome. Talk about a great big picture reason for all your characters to still be adventuring (and me still playing). For me, that was a much more satisfying ending than Wrath or Pandaria.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>9. If you had to be stranded on a deserted island with on NPC from WoW, who would it be?</b><br />
Love this question. It was tough to chose one, but I'm gonna have to go with Rexxar.<br />
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<b>10. What other games do you like to play?</b><br />
Oh boy. WoW is the only video game I play with regularity, but the list of games I play is quite long. D&D probably goes without saying. I'm way into Fantasy Football during the season. Cards Against Humanity, Betrayal at the House on the Hill, Dominion<b>, </b>Caracssone, Settlers, Jenga (that's our back from the bar game), Dominos, Cribbage, Chess. This list could get really long so I'll stop there. As a native Midwesterner I have played a metric ton of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euchre">Euchre</a> in my life and recently discovered a variation called Wizard. Wizard is amazing.<br />
<br />
<b>11. What's your inspiration for writing WoW blogs?</b><br />
I write regularly for my day job so I started my blog just to have an outlet to regularly write for an audience (even a tiny one).<b> </b>I would have to say my inspiration<b> </b>were the first WoW bloggers I read. I'm talking Big Red Kitty, Frostheim, Euripides, and <a href="http://blizzardwatch.com/2015/02/06/if-raiding-guilds-were-actually-honest/">Allison Robert</a>. Special nod to Allison. She is just hilarious. I always read her druid column just for the humor, even though I've never ever played a druid. If LOL Survival ever contributes 10% of what these bloggers have to the WoW community, I will consider it a total success.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>My Questions for Them:</b><br />
1. What was harder, 10 or 25 person raiding? Everyone has an opinion.<br />
2. What's your favorite non WoW blog?<br />
3. Which country that you haven't visited yet would you like to?<br />
4. Who really killed President Kennedy?<br />
5. Should we get flight back? If so, when?<br />
6. iOS or Android?<br />
7. Your favorite hunter pet? Even non hunters have one.<br />
8. Where should we go in the next expansion?<br />
9. Favorite artist in any medium?<br />
10. Do you PvP? Why or why not?<br />
11. Could WoW support another class, or are we full?<br />
<br />
<b>Random Facts about JC:</b><br />
1. I grew up in Detroit, Michigan and now live in Portland, Oregon.<br />
2. I teach high school history.<br />
3. My main is still the very first character I ever created when I bought WoW in 2006. Hunters are just that amazing. <br />
4. I was lucky enough to be an exchange student in Spain when I was in college. Siesta may be the single greatest human invention ever, but it's probably the semiconductor.<br />
5. Eminem owns the house across the street from where I grew up. He's pretty much never there.<br />
6. I hold the world record for number of boss kills with a <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=25653/riding-crop">Riding Crop</a> equipped.<br />
7. I've never watched someone stream or unbox anything ever. Probably never will.<br />
8. Sometimes I mess around with turntables. If you like dance music, <a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1912336/Vieques.mp3">here is one of my mixes</a>.<br />
9. A dream of mine is to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. It predates <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2305051/?ref_=nv_sr_3">Wild</a> I swear.<br />
10. I raid with a 2-button trackball. On a Mac.<br />
11. I was a terrible older brother. My sister still brings up the time I handcuffed her to the Canadian Border.<br />
<br />
This was incredibly fun to write. Many thanks to Delirium for the nomination and the great questions. I had to restrain myself from adding a bunch of honorable mentions to my answers.JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-62485966762127779842015-02-26T13:33:00.000-08:002015-02-26T13:33:59.618-08:00Communication Breakdown?It's been quite a patch week. I wasn't really going to write about the patch because I hate just repeating things I agree with from other community members. But I've been wondering about the state of the WoW dev team's communication ability for quite a while. After this week I am really concerned. I can confidently say in my 9 years of playing this game I've never seen worse communication between the developers and the players than I have this week. And it didn't even start this week.<br />
<br />
For a while I have thought Blizzard's timing for patch 6.1 was a misstep. Why on earth did they feel the need to drop it so close to the opening of Blackrock Foundry? The timing has created all kinds of confusion for players. Is BRF a new tier or not? Where are my BRF follower missions? Do we need the new +125 food to stand a chance in Blackrock? I've seen all these questions and tons more over and over again since the date for 6.1 was announced. I really believe a ton of confusion could have been alleviated if they had waited to release 6.1 until all the LFR wings of BRF were open. The division between the raid tier and that patch would have been obvious. And why the rush for a "features patch" (that's a new one to me)? Did we really have to get 1-click work orders (should have been in at launch) and a selfie camera (who cares) asap?<br />
<br />
To make a bad situation worse Blizzard communicated patch details horribly. I don't know why they used such a convoluted system for spawning the new crafting vendors in the first place, but it became clear by Wednesday that the players did not get it, including myself. I'm rarely the smartest guy in the room, but I do my homework. I didn't fully understand the "system" until today, and that required a great explanation from <a href="http://blizzardwatch.com/">Blizzardwatch</a>. Not Blizzard. It goes on and on. Players didn't understand the changes to follower missions and equipment levels. Or professions. Or the Twitter-Real ID issue. Now, why someone would be comfortable with completely open Twitter but not Real ID is baffling to me, but that's a different topic. So much confusion! Like no other week I've ever seen, including the launch of five expansions. Thank god I play a hunter. I can't imagine how hard it might have been for support classes to get good information on their class changes. Something has deteriorated in Blizzard's ability to communicate with its customers. I'm not going to pretend to know what it is. Ghostcrawler was awesome, and we don't have him anymore. Maybe it's the scatter shot approach (see what I did there hunters?) to where info goes. What I mean is sometimes it's a blog, sometimes it's a blue forum post, occasionally it's twitter (and about 500 different accounts to track), rarely it's redditt or twitch or a podcast interview.You get the idea. I don't know what it is, but after the last three days I'm convinced of the existence of a big communication problem. There was a clear pattern of players feeling like things they were promised were not delivered. Even if that is perception and not reality, it's an incredibly dangerous situation for a company relying on happy subscribers to sustain their cash cow of an MMO. Especially at a time when a big chunk of them already feel screwed about the lack of flying in Warlords. <a href="https://twitter.com/WarcraftDevs/status/570331942337425408">I don't think anything sums up the communication problems related to 6.1 better than this twitter thread.</a> Somebody down in Irvine needs to take charge of the message and how it is disseminated. And probably soon if they want to keep subscription numbers up.JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-83810018343244145662015-02-10T10:27:00.002-08:002015-02-10T10:27:51.363-08:00My Favorite Raiding GlyphLet's talk about glyphs. Frankly, let's talk about anything other than how the three specs sim and which talents we should take. For good reasons, that's about all the hunter community has been discussing since the launch of WoD. Now that we can play any spec we want, and have more talent options than any time I can remember, I feel ready to talk about something else.<br />
<br />
I really like <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=119410/glyph-of-endless-wrath">Glyph of Endless Wrath</a>. I love <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=56850/glyph-of-deterrence">Glyph of Deterrence</a>. But hands down my favorite glyph for raiding is <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=20895/glyph-of-animal-bond">Glyph of Animal Bond</a>. I've talked to many hunters who don't use it. The reasoning is always along the lines of, "It doesn't do anything for <i>my</i> abilities, so why bother?" And yes, it is more fun to enhance one's personal game play. But it's also pretty damn fun to down bosses, and <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=20895/glyph-of-animal-bond">Glyph of Animal Bond</a> is amazing for downing bosses. A 10% increase to all your healing received is going to really add up over the course of a boss fight. At least for me it does. When I'm learning a new fight (or new role in it) I will end up in the bad stuff at some point. I don't think I've survived Tectus yet without a battle res. And even if you're way better at avoiding damage than I am, so many fights have unavoidable, raid-wide damage. At those times, when your healers are doing everything they can to just get the group through a high damage phase, the extra 10% healing could mean the difference between life or death. It will at least give your healers a little extra breathing room. And that's never a bad thing.<br />
<br />
To me, this is the real cost of going with <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155228/lone-wolf">Lone Wolf</a> for your level 100 talent. Now, my <a href="http://lolsurvival.blogspot.com/2014/03/lone-wolf-is-terrible-idea.html">inherent bias</a> toward the talent is well documented, but that's not what I'm talking about today. I have actually backed off a bit and have used LW in raids a few times. It turns out I'd rather not have a pet then have a long cast time <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152245/focusing-shot">Focusing Shot</a>. I'm trying to like FS, but that's a topic for another time. But when a hunter chooses <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155228/lone-wolf">Lone Wolf</a> they are not going to get the benefit from <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=20895/glyph-of-animal-bond">Glyph of Animal Bond</a>. I really, really hate giving that up in a raid. Any time I consider going <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155228/lone-wolf">Lone Wolf</a> for a fight I ask myself if I should give up that extra healing. If my group needs to squeeze out every drop of damage we can to beat a timer, it's probably worth it. On the other hand, if your healers are struggling to keep up and your group's damage is in a good spot, <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155228/lone-wolf">Lone Wolf</a> might not be your best choice. It will depend on your specific situation, but for me, more often than not the healing benefits of <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=20895/glyph-of-animal-bond">Glyph of Animal Bond</a> are more useful than the 1k dps increase I get from using <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=155228/lone-wolf">Lone Wolf.</a>JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-82549683016815504022014-12-17T13:41:00.002-08:002014-12-17T13:41:47.595-08:00Christmas Comes EarlyThis week's buffs to Survival and Beast Mastery mean all three specs are close enough in DPS to allow player choice. Obviously, certain specs will still shine on certain fights, which has and always will be the case. The important thing here is play the spec you want (and hopefully excel at). If <a href="http://eyesofthebeast.com/2014/12/playing-bm-matter-principle-now/">people give you crap for playing with a pet</a> (or without one depending on their level of hunter ignorance) they are wrong-not you. Get good at your two favorite specs, grab some pets, and go be a hunter again.<br />
<br />
And there was much rejoicing from the hunters.<br />
<br />
For about 5 minutes.<br />
<br />
I have already seen a TON of comments and tweets about Survival needing more. Some mention the rotation's feel, the lack of on demand burst damage, and no execute ability. These are all valid points. I've said myself (before the buffs) that there is plenty of room for <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=53351">Kill Shot</a> in Survival's toolbox. So I share the feelings of these other hunters. But now that we have decent spec parity, <b>CAN WE JUST NOT FUCK WITH IT FOR A WHILE PLEASE?</b> Clearly balancing hunter specs is pretty hard. Blizzard couldn't get it done before releasing WoD, even with months of beta evidence to guide them. Now that we're in a decent place, adding <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=53351">Kill Shot</a> back into SV is just going to lead to more months of adjustments.<br />
<br />
Ok, that said SV does need something. As much as love the spec's flavor and utility ability pruning has left it feeling just a little empty, especially compared to BM. I would propose giving SV better interrupt options than the other two hunter specs. SV seems to be the utility/PvP flavor of hunters these days. On top of that, <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=147362">Counter Shot's</a> cooldown feels long a lot of the time. I mean looooong. I would love to trade <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=157752">Enhanced Entrapment</a> for a perk that gives us a 12 or 15 second<a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=147362"> Counter Shot</a>. Even an SV only glyph that reduces the CD would work. Or hell, give SV <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=36732">Scatter Shot</a> back and remove the damage part of it.. When you have those fights where you can be the interrupt person, throw on the glyph and go. Managing your dots and procs AND interrupting every 12 seconds or so would certainly add some complexity to SV that so many hunters are asking for. I dare say it would be much more interesting than just adding<a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=53351"> Kill Shot</a> back into the last 20% of the fight. And it wouldn't effect DPS balance at all.<br />
<br />
Final thoughts: Personally, after the last month I'm happier about hunters than I have been in a while. I'm willing to just sit tight until we have to do this all over again due to set bonuses and gear scaling. But if you really want to muck around more with Survival, maybe damage dealing isn't the place to do it. Obviously Blizzard isn't as good at balance as they used to be.<br />
<br />
I want to acknowledge the work that <a href="https://twitter.com/BendakWoW">Bendak</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/deliriumhunts">Delirium</a> are doing these days. Bendak has been really vocal on <a href="http://eyesofthebeast.com/">his blog</a> and the <a href="http://www.huntingpartypodcast.com/">Hunting Party Podcast</a> about this ridiculous spec situation. And Delirium supports the community with <a href="http://www.thrillofthewild.com/">amazing theorycrafting</a> I could never hope to accomplish. I owe both of these guys a beer or five.<br />
<br />
My last thing: A lot of hunters will be picking up Beast Mastery this week. There is a ton of conflicting information out there about secondary stats and when to use <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=82692">Focus Fire</a>. <a href="http://www.thrillofthewild.com/2014/12/tots-stacking-bestial-wrath-with-focus.html">This post</a> by Delirium convinced me of when to use it, but my point is be a critical consumer of information. Know WHY you believe one side or the other. Also know that we as a community have a lot more testing to do, especially with all these adjustments over that last few months.<br />
<br />
Hey Blizzard, <a href="http://lolsurvival.blogspot.com/2014/03/lone-wolf-is-terrible-idea.html">I predicted this bullshit months ago</a>. JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-39960849352932484932014-11-19T11:25:00.003-08:002014-11-19T11:27:12.196-08:00Impressions of WoD While LevelingWell, I've been doing pretty much what everyone has been doing for the last week-leveling. I've never been a speedy leveler as I don't really see the point. I'm currently 98 and into Nagrand. I did not complete any of the previous zones, so there may be some back tracking after 100. Here is just a bit of a ramble about my WoD experience so far.<br />
<br />
For all the deservedly bad press the Survival spec gets, I've loved it for leveling. The heal you get from every kill is really nice, and combined with better traps and multi dots, you can take on quite a few mobs at the same time. I'm still trying to hit <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=53351">Kill Shot</a> pretty often, but I'll be going to BM here shortly anyway. If you have a hunter yet to level I stongly recommend trying SV. It may be the last time you get to use for a while. Also, the new version of <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=131894">A Murder of Crows</a> is BRILLIANT for leveling. Regular mobs always die before it's done, keeping the CD available constantly. And, you get to really enjoy the graphic on a single mob up close. It really gives me a "Death From Above!" feeling when I use it. Using a flock of birds to kill bird men? Even more win. Use AMoC for leveling! Trust me.<br />
<br />
Took me about a minute to get used to the number squish. Wish it had happened sooner. Loved no flying the first time around. Not sure how I'll feel about it after two more characters get to 100. But if we never get flying in Draenor it won't be a big deal. They have designed for it pretty well. Still don't have enough bank or stable space. I probably never will.<br />
<br />
Loved every zone except Spires of Araak. Partly didn't like it because the previous two were so damn beautiful. But mostly it was the crazy dark part. Maybe people with high end graphics or better monitors had a different experience, but that shit was way too dark for my tastes. I can tolerate Duskwood, but I'm probably skipping whatever I can the next time I level there. Which is too bad because..<br />
<br />
The random quest reward upgrades happen a lot more than I expected. Even before I put a <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/building=8">Dwarven Bunker</a> up it felt like I was getting upgrades quite a bit. I went into Draenor with a 573 item level and started getting sidegrades as early as Talador when rewards were upgraded. <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/building=8">Dwarven Bunker</a> for the win.<br />
<br />
The garrison rocks harder than I expected. It's fun to be there, and a 20 minute Hearthstone is perfect for keeping it from feeling like a chore to get there and back. Love the follower system so much. Great to feel like when I need a break to sleep, work, or watch a football game, I'm still progressing in these early weeks of the content. And I'm not usually a "take it to mobile and consoles!" person, but the follower missions system has mobile written all over it. That needs to happen yesterday. Needs to.<br />
<br />
This is probably the most fun I've ever had leveling. That may explain whay I'm not quite ready to be done doing it on my favorite character.JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-58580834864305178752014-11-03T13:38:00.002-08:002014-11-03T14:48:44.786-08:00It's Time To Fix The StableHaving to go to town to switch hunter pets has annoyed me for a while. Now that I'm playing Beast Mastery as my main spec, it seems downright out of date. I'm going to stop you before you tell me how bad it used to be, and how I shouldn't be complaining at all. I was there for 3 total slots and having to learn pet abilities. And at this point in WoWs life, going to a stable master located only in major cities is just as outdated as seeking out a pet just to learn Growl (level 3). Or having only one spec.<br />
<br />
The hunter stable hasn't been updated in any meaningful way since October of 1010. 49 months. That's almost as long as SoO has been out! Sure, we have gotten more slots. That is great. Personally, I would rather have a smaller stable work better than one where I can put all 600 pet skins in a window. The way our stable works now is inconvenient, outdated, and seemingly arbitrary.<br />
<br />
What is the thinking behind being able to "carry around" five pets? Why five? There are 10 buffs/debuffs in the game, and there used to be more. OK, so it's not about buffs. Special abilities (<a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=90355">Ancient Hysteria</a>, etc.)? Maybe. There will be at least five of those in WoD depending on what you count. But the limit has been five since before Direhorns were in the game so..Frankly, there is no good reason I can think of to limit us to five pets out in the wild. It is just an arbitrary limit that will be forcing many, many hunters back to town in the next expansion. And it will force the rest of our group to wait while we do it.<br />
<br />
Personally, I think we need a way to summon at least 25 pets these days. Why 25? I think a way for hunters to distinguish themselves is by having a complete stable of pet buffs and special abilities. I really enjoy checking the composition of a 5-man group, seeing what we need, and bringing that buff. Even if nobody notices, I get some small satisfaction out of "min/maxing" my pet. And if it makes the run a little quicker, all the better. So, to cover all the buffs, debuffs, and most special pet abilities we would need 15 slots. I say we need 25 because of a different quality of life change that we have had for years now: Dual Specs.<br />
<br />
Remember, this whole idea of fixing the stable came out of my preparing to play BM for the first time since Burning Crusade. I'm actually pretty excited about it. That said, I know there will be times I will want or need to play another spec. Under the current stable, I'm going to have a strange mix of exotic and non-exotic pets, or go to the stable master every time I swap specs. When I'm BM, I'm going to want exotics. If I carry around 5 exotics, any time I switch specs I have no pet! Factor in not knowing which buffs I'm going to need until I zone into the group finder, and the whole thing becomes a mess. All the convenience of a second spec is negated if I still have to hit the stable master in town to use it. Some of the convenience of a flexible raid size is also lost if hunters need to keep porting in and out to get specific pets.<br />
<br />
The hunter stable system is a relic of a game we don't play anymore. Regular trips to town used to be part of the WoW experience. All classes had to go there for reagents, repairs, to change talents, and of course good old ammunition. The only one of those systems that even still exists is repairs, and they remain more for economic reasons than anything else. Thanks to pets and expensive mounts, we don't need a town to repair, get and send mail, or even transmogrify. Hell, we don't even need to go to the bank anymore to use crafting materials that are stored there. But we still need a stable master? I don't think any other class still needs to go to town for basic game play.<br />
<br />
There are lots of potential solutions to this situation. I want the stable fixed so desperately as I move forward as a BM hunter that I would be thrilled to get any of them. We could:<br />
<ul>
<li>Simply be able to access the whole stable anywhere. OK, maybe not inside arenas.</li>
<li>Gain a slot every 10 levels, which would at least get us to 10. 5 for each of your two chosen specs.</li>
<li>Sacrifice a garrison spot to get some kind of "magical" stable.</li>
<li>A huge quest. This is hunters' green fire.</li>
<li>Rare companion pet who can access the stable remotely, kind of like the <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/item=44998">Argent Squire</a>.</li>
<li>A crafted (expensive) item that can access the stable. Engineering, perhaps?</li>
<li>A stupid expensive mount that has a stable master on it. I'd pay 200k for that convenience.</li>
</ul>
Playing my hunter in Warlords gets me really excited. Constantly going back to town to switch pets does not.JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-32691752168477437622014-08-16T11:44:00.000-07:002014-08-16T11:44:19.596-07:009 Years, 10 QuestionsA little late, but I'm jumping on the <a href="http://www.alternative-blog.net/2014/08/10-years-10-questions-official-launch.html#sthash.99fzC6xZ.95xgNk6h.dpbs">"10 Years, 10 Questions"</a> bandwagon. This fantastic community project originated over at Alt;ernative Chat.<br />
<br />
1. When did you start playing World of Warcraft?<br />
<br />
November of 2005. I had been hearing about it since it launched, but it took a year and an eavesdropping Apple Store employee for me to be convinced it could run alright on my G3 MacBook. Wherever that dude is, he rocks. Hence "9 Years" in the title of this post.<br />
<br />
2. What is the first character you ever rolled?<br />
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JC Sway, the hunter I still play as my main. He has since been 4 races and both factions, and is about to go full circle back to his original night elf self. I now also have a max priest and a cadre of other classes forgotten along the leveling trail, but no other class has come close to how I enjoy the hunter. I got lucky with my first choice.<br />
<br />
3. What factors determined your choice of faction?<br />
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I grew up on the paper and dice RPGs of the 1980s, so going with the gang of Elves, Dwarves, and Gnomes was a no-brainer. I honestly gave it very little thought.<br />
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4. What has been your most memorable moment in WoW and why?<br />
<br />
Ok, gotta do two here. The first was when my server opened the Gates of AQ. I was just out by myself leveling along and got a /w from a friend. "Get down to Silithus ASAP! Hope you're not too attached to your laptop's video chip.." Concerns about my hardware aside, I decided to see what was happening. When I got there I had never seen so many player characters in one place before. It would have been even more impressive if they were not all just standing around. After about an hour of waiting/wondering what the heck was up, all hell broke loose. At about 5fps for me. But even as my MacBook was taking a good, long, look at itself, my mind was blown. Huge enemies everywhere and the whole server fighting them off together. For the first time I got to experience the power of the MMO format and WoW's popularity. It was simply incredible and I was hooked. Getting a couple of blue drops just added to the fun.<br />
<br />
My second favorite WoW moment was my guild's first Gruul kill. We had been working on him for a few weeks. For many of us it was our first raid bigger than 10 people. For me, it was the first fight I would now describe as "progression." The idea that it was normal for us to need weeks to learn a boss fight was foreign to me. People that had played other MMOs or raided Vanilla assured me we were working as intended, so I kept at it. When we finally got the kill, I showed my raiding inexperience one more time by yelling into my headset. The elation of finally getting 25 players to execute a fight strategy hooked me on raiding instantly. I have had a ton of fun raiding with many different teams since then, but not even finally getting Heroic Spine felt like that first Gruul kill.<br />
<br />
5. What is your favorite aspect of the game and why?<br />
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Raiding. I love the teamwork it requires. I have often compared it to running a play in football when trying to explain it to non players. Being the "trap guy" on the Moroes pull, for example, was really fun. I so don't miss traps being out of combat, however.<br />
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6. Do you have an area in the game you always return to?<br />
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It's not exciting, but Stormwind. That's where the AH is, so I have to go there pretty much every day. I don't understand why we never get an AH in expansion areas. I also enjoy returning to the farm I developed in Pandaria, so I imagine my garrison will be a regular hangout.<br />
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7. How long have you /played, and has it been continuous?<br />
<br />
Nope. No way. Never. The notion of looking at my /played is terrifying. I have never looked at it and never will. My therapist and I agree that /played is a bug and needs to be removed from the game.<br />
I have taken breaks, but I've never missed an expansion. I also take breaks from raiding, usually during the summer.<br />
<br />
8. Admit it, do you read the quest text or not?<br />
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More often than not, I don't. Especially if I'm just trying to level quickly. If a zone or quest chain starts to interest me, than I read the text. Any time I catch myself wondering what I'm doing or why, I will open my quest log and take a look.<br />
<br />
9. Are there any regrets from your time in game?<br />
<br />
I wish I had just bought WoW when it first launched. I regret my "Summer of Horde" when some friends and I faction changed temporarily just for a change of pace. In and of itself it was fun, but it reset my Argent Tournament rep before I had all the mounts. I'm not doing all that jousting again. Totally regret the 1,000 times I jumped off the ledge in UBRS without dismissing my pet. Except that one time. That one was on purpose. Why I didn't think to screenshot an entire dungeon chasing my gorilla is beyond me. If you've never seen it, picture the opening scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark.<br />
<br />
10. What effect has Warcraft had on your life outside of gaming?<br />
<br />
I've made some great friends that I have gotten to meet in the real world. Even more importantly, I am staying connected with some of the childhood friends I used to roll a d20 with. Now we can continue our adventures as adults, without being in someone's basement until 3am. Also, carpal tunnel.<br />
<br />
<br />
This is the most fun I've had writing a blog piece in a while. Thanks to <a href="http://www.alternative-blog.net/2014/08/10-years-10-questions-official-launch.html#sthash.99fzC6xZ.95xgNk6h.dpbs">Alt;ernative</a> chat for the amazing idea!<br />
<br />JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-21759206882840216072014-07-31T11:02:00.000-07:002014-07-31T11:02:06.044-07:00Survival Beta AnalysisI can't give you any first hand analysis of the beta, but others can! Delirium at Thrill of the Wild has several great posts about SV. One on <a href="http://www.thrillofthewild.com/2014/07/wod-beta-feeling-out-survival-pve.html">PvE</a> and another on <a href="http://www.thrillofthewild.com/2014/07/wod-beta-feeling-out-survival-pvp.html">PvP</a>. You should really check them both out. <a href="http://www.thrillofthewild.com/2014/07/wod-beta-lock-and-load-question.html">He also has some analysis on Lock and Load in WoD.</a><br />
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Speaking of Survival PvP, Bendak at Eyes of the Beast <a href="http://eyesofthebeast.com/2014/07/wod-beta-survival-pvp-concerns/">has an opinion</a> on how the WoD changes will impact SV PvP. It's incredibly well thought out and worth a read.<br />
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One of these days I'll get in there..JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-18200092292594078172014-07-22T12:22:00.000-07:002014-07-22T13:51:02.325-07:00You Can't Measure Much With a Target DummyI'm not in the beta. It's fine. I'm getting my fix as best I can through the amazing hunter community's blogs and podcasts. With all of the ability pruning and whatnot, I'm paying most of my attention to how hunters are experiencing the new versions of our specs, with my obvious bias toward Survival. While there are a lot of different interpretations of how the individual specs feel in their new incarnations, there does seem to be an overall theme that things are "missing" or a certain spec feels "simple and hollow." This may be true. The hunters I'm paying attention to generally have a much better understanding of the class than I do, and again I can't get any firsthand experience myself, but I have to say these opinions seem like they were formed prematurely.<br />
<br />
I have to assume a lot of people are judging the specs as they level. Most of us level as fast as we can for obvious reasons, but is leveling a good way to experience the depth of a class and spec? I usually use very few of the tools available to me when leveling. Maybe some testers are running 5-mans, which is a much better gauge of the state of a class, but they are still just regular 5-mans. Even at the beginning of Cataclysm I don't remember needing <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=19263">Deterrence</a> or <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=59543">Gift of the Naaru</a> in regular dungeons. Maybe once I got to max level and into heroics. Maybe. And everything I have read analyzing the new state of hunters was written before ANY raid testing had begun. I don't know about you, but a raid environment is what I care about. That is where you will learn if your newly-pruned spec really is boring. Many beta testers are deciding how the specs feel by going to the worst place on Azeroth to gauge such a thing : A target dummy.<br />
<br />
Target dummies are great. I love them. They are an amazing way to practice and compare rotations. But a target dummy can never tell you how fun a spec or class is. There is no strategic use of AoE on a dummy. You don't use traps on a dummy. You don't use utility abilities like <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=20736">Distracting Shot</a>, <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=34477">Misdirection</a>, or <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=19263">Deterrence</a> on a dummy. I think it's safe to assume most testers are not working a regular <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=51753">Camouflage</a> into their target dummy practice, but you can be damn sure you'll be doing it in a raid environment as Survival just for the heal. One of the most fun encounters for me was Spiderling duty on Bethilac, and I wasn't doing anything close to my target dummy rotation until the last 20% of her health. Running around the lair flinging traps and then burning down spiders with <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=2643">Multi Shot</a> was a ton of fun, but it was absolutely nothing like hitting a dummy for 5 minutes. When you factor encounter mechanics and the new healing model, a hunter's single-target rotation may be a much lower priority than positioning and damage avoidance/mitigation.<br />
<br />
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe ability pruning has gone too far and hunters need to get something more to feel fun again. But until I get to play WoD myself I'm going to keep the faith. And I'm going to be skeptical of anyone who went to a target dummy to determine if a spec or class is fun to play.JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-10309593403180708982014-07-11T11:16:00.000-07:002014-07-11T11:16:04.028-07:00The Blog Is Not Dead!I just don't have anything hunter related to write about right now. I'm not in the beta, and I'm not very comfortable writing about things I have no first hand experience with. For beta hunter info Bendak, Darkbrew, Delirium, and Solar are all doing amazing work. I'm reading them every day. Should I get a beta invite, posts will start rolling out. Until then, I'm just trying to get better at PvP and learning BM so I have some flexibility in WoD. I'm also using the lull to enjoy summer here in the Pacific Northwest.<br />
I may do a few gold related posts in the meantime, but if you only want hunter and WoD info, I got nothing until I can play it in some form. Please stay tuned and read the blogs linked in the margin.JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-7684010618916717272014-05-22T10:16:00.000-07:002014-05-22T10:17:40.467-07:00Quivers and Ammo (sort of)!I havn't been posting enough lately because, well, there isn't a lot to say. I recently hit my goal of having a million gold in the bank, and with that out of the way I'm barely even logging into WoW. I log on every Tuesday to kill Ordos on my priest, and then I clear a few old raids looking for mount and transmog drops. All that takes about 30 minutes. Then I play Diablo (I'm terrible) or just go do something outside. I havn't cleared Siege yet, and I don't care if I do or not. I'm just over this expansion for two reasons. For one it's been out a looooooooong time. Too long. Nothing else really to say about that. Second, we keep hearing about the awesomeness of WoD. It's hard for me to get excited about old content while I'm reading all about the new shinies, like....<br />
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Quivers! We are getting cosmetic-only quivers and ammo pouches. That is just fun. Pure fun. We don't yet know how we get them, but as transmog has gotten me really into my character's look for the first time, the idea of a quiver sounds awesome. I was already leaning toward making my hunter a Night Elf (his original race in Classic and BC) and quivers sealed the deal.<br />
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We're also getting ammo types. Not literally, don't worry about bag space, but the new level 100 talent that replaces Flaming Shots gives us a choice of one of three ways to augment our Auto Shots. One does AoE fire damage, one does a nature damage DoT, and one does a movement reduction. A comment on <a href="http://eyesofthebeast.com/2014/05/hunter-warlords-draenor-alpha/#more-634">Eyes of the Beast</a> specualted that we will use the first for AoE fights, the second for single target, and the third for PvP. While pure speculation, if the tuning is done right I think that makes a lot of sense. I'm excited about this talent for a few reasons. For starters, it's kind of like 3 talents in one. Quite a bit of versatility, although I'm not sure how many different DoTs survival really needs at this point. I know and love that that's our "thing" but if you take the nature damage one for single target, we will have <a href="http://wowhead.com/spell=36984">Serpent Sting</a>, <a href="http://wowhead.com/spell=3674">Black Arrow</a>, <a href="http://wowhead.com/spell=53301">Explosive Shot</a>, <a href="http://wowhead.com/spell=13813">Explosive Trap</a>, <a href="http://wowhead.com/spell=53432">Bear Trap</a>, and the new one all potentially on a target at the same time! Kind of nuts. It might take a little bit, but that target <b>is</b> gonna die. Taking the fire damage one will make survival even more amazing for AoE. I love doing awesome AoE, it's just fun. I don't PvP much, but the third ammo type seems over powered. Giving us a ranged slow that doesn't require a key press, much less a global cooldown will bring the complaints from non hunters. It's going to be interesting to watch the development of all this. The big question regarding this new talent is can ammo types be swapped during a fight? I hope not. That seems like aspect twisting all over again, which I personally did not enjoy. But no big deal either way. How many fights are going to really require a lot of swapping? On my old team, I was either doing AoE duty or single target duty. And if you are forced to have the AoE ammo during an execute phase, it's not going to be a huge deal. I'm also happy to just see a 100 talent I would actually choose. <a href="http://lolsurvival.blogspot.com/2014/03/lone-wolf-is-terrible-idea.html">I've made no secret about disliking Lone Wolf</a>. I hope to avoid Focusing Shot as well. I've gotten way to used to casting it all while moving and I don't really want to go back. If it were just a way to let more skilled hunters do higher damage I would be excited about it, but also being the focus generating shot seems problematic to me, at least for high movement fights. So this early, Exotic Ammo has me the most excited. The only issue I have with it at this point is the damage types seem redundant for Survival. We already have a single target nature damage ability (<a href="http://wowhead.com/spell=36984">Serpent Sting</a>) and a fire damage AoE (<a href="http://wowhead.com/spell=13813">Explosive Trap</a>). Damage type doesn't usually matter these days, but I'd like them to switch it up a bit just in case. Call one of them Blessed Bullets and make it holy damage or something. Variety is always good.<br />
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Things are shaping up for WoD. I'm really excited about it, which is why I'm barely playing World of Warcraft at all. I may even cancel my subscription for the summer and go fishing.JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-11401197934699465162014-05-08T10:55:00.000-07:002014-05-08T11:00:47.768-07:00So Many QuestionsAs opposed to providing you readers with any sort of helpful information, I thought I would share the growing list of questions I have right now about hunters and WoW. Between blog posts, Twitter, and developer interviews we're getting a decent amount of information. But each bit seems to generate more uncertainty in my head. So here is an improvised, no particular order list of questions. If you know the answer to any, help me out.<br />
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<ul>
<li>What will Bear Trap do? It better not be a root+bleed, because we can basically do that now.</li>
<li>What is replacing Flaming Shots?</li>
<li>Why are the kids wearing headphones on their head but not putting the speakers on their ears?</li>
<li>Any timetable for the beta? I'll settle for a season at this point.</li>
<li>Why am I the only one who isn't gonna miss <a href="http://wowhead.com/spell=20736" target="_blank">Distracting Shot</a>?</li>
<li>If one of the hunter specs is being redesigned for PvP, which one is it?</li>
<li>What's the difference between a cupcake and a muffin? Cuz I just ate a "muffin" that had frosting on it.</li>
<li>What are talking about with this mobility tax? I think I could live with 5 or 8%. Any more than that and my shadow priest starts to look really good.</li>
<li>How in the world are tertiary stats balanced? Maybe we need a beta..</li>
<li>How well is my 2009 computer going to run WoD?</li>
<li>What race am I going to change my hunter to? It's between Dwarf and Night Elf right now.</li>
<li>Are we getting some new taming challenges?</li>
<li>Isn't Marksman's 120 focus combined with <a href="http://wowhead.com/spell=3045" target="_blank">Rapid Fire</a> a bit much?</li>
<li>How did I not know about <a href="http://thrillofthewild.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Delirium's blog</a> until this week? Great stuff there.</li>
<li>Will people really be able to take <a href="http://wowhead.com/spell=121818" target="_blank">Stampede</a> and Lone Wolf at the same time? That seems dumb. If hunters want the big cooldown they should have to manage a pet.</li>
<li>How can people say not having the Hunter's Mark visual will be weird, but not having a pet will be awesome? I'm fine having one less visual effect on the boss, personally.</li>
<li>Why didn't Blizzard cut <a href="http://wowhead.com/spell=13159" target="_blank">Aspect of the Pack</a>?</li>
<li>Have the devs actually confirmed yet that we're not flying in WoD? We all know that's happening so someone might as well say it straight up.</li>
<li>Is there another long-term legendary in the works? Let me guess:A legendary toolshed for my garrison.</li>
</ul>
Well, that's what I have right now. Obviusly this post is a little silly, but the questions are (mostly) sincere. I really need an answer on the muffin vs cupcake thing. What are you wondering about?JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-84893953384256535742014-04-23T12:19:00.003-07:002014-11-11T13:56:38.054-08:00Pets, Pets, Pets!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The long, LONG, sunset of an expansion is my favorite time to revisit my stable and do some pet collecting. We get announcements that may make you want to pick up a pet you don't have for the next expansion, and if you're into collecting rares your competiton will almost certainly already have what they want. Some tames might even be a bit easier now before we lose some of our abilities. If you recently boosted a hunter, you probably have quite a bit of pet collecting to do in order to get all the various buffs. If nothing else, it's something to do during a content drought. And if you want to try for the MoP challenges, you can <strike>spend</strike> waste a LOT of time looking for those damn tracks. (Side note, why make a taming challenge and then use the same skin later for a regular tame? They did it in Cata and again in MoP. Pretty silly in my opinion.) I spent some time the other night dropping some unused pets (Why did I have 5 cats in there?) and taming the serpent pictured above to grab a buff I didn't have. I couldn't resist naming him Whitesnake.<br />
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The biggest pet news we have gotten recently is that <a href="http://wowhead.com/spell=32182" target="_blank">Heroism</a> and <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/spell=61999/raise-ally" target="_blank">Battle Res</a> will no longer be exclusive to Beast Mastery in WoD. If you never play BM or just want to cover all your bases, get yourself a Nether Ray for Hero and either a Crane or Moth for B Res. As sombody who likes to play Survival whenever possible I couldn't be happier about this change. No longer will I be pressured to go BM just for Heroism!<br />
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While it's been well documented already, a pet post would be incomplete without running down which pets will bring which buffs and debuffs in WoD. If you run in a smaller sized raid, or like me just want to have the whole hunter arsenal in your stable, you'll want to have one pet from each group. The groups right now aren't distributed very well, and this is the development process so I anticipate some changes. Note that I am including BM only exotic pets here. I'll do my best to keep the list updated.<br />
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The Pet List as of September 9, 2014 (Beta):<br />
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<b>Buffs</b>: Any group size bigger than 10 will almost certainly have these covered already, but weird things can happen with group composition. You'll definately be able to use them in the new 5-mans and scenarios. And if you <a href="http://lolsurvival.blogspot.com/2014/03/lone-wolf-is-terrible-idea.html" target="_blank">go petless</a>, the current thinking is you can bring one of these as an aura. <strike>See my note below about the importance of a Multistrike pet for Survival Hunters.</strike><br />
<ul>
<li>Stats</li>
<ul>
<li>Gorilla (One of my all-time favorites. Happy he is going to be useful!)</li>
<li>Dogs </li>
<li>Shale Spider</li>
<li>Worm</li>
</ul>
<li>Stamina</li>
<ul>
<li>Bear</li>
<li>Goat </li>
<li>Hook Wasp</li>
<li>Silithid</li>
<li>Rylak </li>
</ul>
<li>Spell Power</li>
<ul>
<li>Serpent </li>
<li>Silithid</li>
<li>Water Strider</li>
</ul>
<li>Haste</li>
<ul>
<li>Sporebat (Nice to see we have some choice here. Lots of sporebats lately.)</li>
<li>Wasp</li>
<li>Hyena </li>
<li>Hook Wasp</li>
<li>Rylak </li>
</ul>
<li>Crit</li>
<ul>
<li>Wolf</li>
<li>Raptor </li>
<li>Devilsaur</li>
<li>Quilen</li>
<li>Shale Spider</li>
<li>Water Strider</li>
</ul>
<li>Mastery</li>
<ul>
<li>Cat</li>
<li>Tallstrider</li>
<li>Hydra (You'll want to wait for WoD and get this one because Hydra!) </li>
<li>Spirit Beast</li>
</ul>
<li>Multistrike</li>
<ul>
<li>Basilisk</li>
<li>Chimaera</li>
<li>Clefthoof (Formerly called Rhinos) </li>
<li>Core Hound</li>
<li>Dragonhawk</li>
<li><strike>Fox</strike></li>
<li>Wind Serpent</li>
</ul>
<li>Versatility</li>
<ul>
<li>Bird of Prey</li>
<li>Boar</li>
<li>Porcupine</li>
<li>Ravager</li>
<li>Stag </li>
<li>Clefthoof</li>
<li>Worm</li>
</ul>
</ul>
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<ul><ul>
</ul>
</ul>
<b>Debuffs</b>: Not a lot to say here since so many debuffs have been removed. Make sure you have a Mortal Wounds pet at the very least.<br />
<ul><ul>
</ul>
<li>Mortal Wounds</li>
<ul>
<li>Devilsaur</li>
<li>Scorpion</li>
<li>Carrion Bird</li>
<li>Riverbeast (WoD pet) </li>
</ul>
<li>Slow Movement</li>
<ul>
<li>Spider </li>
<li>Warp Stalker</li>
<li>Silithid</li>
<li>Crocolisk</li>
<li>Chimaera</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<strike>The most important pet buff every SV hunter will need to have is Multistrike. Multistrike will proc Lock and Load after 6.0. It is going to be imperative for SV hunters to have the highest Multistrike possible. Make sure you have a Dragonhawk, Fox, or Wind Serpent before 6.0 drops if you're going to go Survival.</strike> As of this update, Lock and Load has been reverted to an older version.<br />
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As always <a href="http://www.wow-petopia.com/" target="_blank">Petopia</a> is your best resource for "shopping" for cool and rare pets. I also want to mention that <a href="http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/raid_checklist" target="_blank">Raid Checklist</a> is my favorite add-on for figuring out which buff or debuff I should bring to the group. If you raid lead or don't know every class inside and out, I highly recommend it. What pets are you collecting right now? What's your favorite pet? Mine is <a href="http://wowhead.com/npc=50959" target="_blank">Karkin</a>.<br />
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<br />JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3601069035804133299.post-48078378432984280032014-04-14T13:52:00.002-07:002014-04-14T13:52:57.567-07:00I'm Back...and Now with Stuff to Talk About!Wow, I hate going this long between posts. The break began when there was just nothing to write about. End of expansion, no news, less people playing. I'll admit that I'm pretty burned on MoP right now, and maybe WoW in general. Been playing this game for nine years at this point. I even got back into Diablo recently because of how I feel about WoW at the moment. And then my vacation lined-up with the Alpha release. Just my luck. Considering the Alpha patch notes are a few weeks old at this point, I'm not going to summarize them here. But I am going to assume my readers have seen them. If you want great rundowns of the hunter changes go to <a href="http://thebrewhall.com/" target="_blank">The Brew Hall</a> or <a href="http://eyesofthebeast.com/" target="_blank">Eyes of the Beast</a>. Now that we have seen the very, very first iteration of the new hunter I'd say things look pretty good.<br />
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<u>Button bloat:</u> No real surprises regarding what abilities we lost. I am thrilled that traps are not only staying, but getting more powerful. Especially for survival hunters, proper trap usage is going to be really important. The change to Explosive Trap is so cool. Reminds me of the days of old. Also, survival is losing Kill Shot. While I actually advocated for all the specs to have it removed, I'm going to count that prediction as a win. I totally called that:) More importantly, I think it will really help SV. With Lock 'n Load and all the other cooldowns, our rotation is just chaotic enough to make a new shot that pops up at the end of a fight seem weird. I'll totally take being the sustained, dot based spec.<br />
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<u>Differentiation:</u> Blizz did a better job with this that I could have hoped. Only SV has Serpent Sting? Love it. Traps are better, and SV traps are better still? Hell yeah. A solid self heal once per minute? Now we actually live up to our spec's name! I do have to say I wish they had not changed how Serpent Sting is applied. There was some skill involved in keeping it up (especially on multiple targets) or remembering to reapply it after transition phases. But if the choice was between the new system and scrapping the ability altogether, I think Blizzard made the right choice. SV really sounds like THE dot and magic damage spec.<br />
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<u>Draenor Perks:</u> Such a cool idea. Some kind of power increase every level, in a random order. By max level everyone is the same, but how they got there will be a little different for everyone. As someone who really doesn't enjoy leveling, I think these could create some replayability for WoD. In any case, they sound totally fun.<br />
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<u>Camouflage:</u> Camo, in the alpha notes, is amazing. For a survival hunter camo becomes a nice self heal that one can use every minute without stopping the deeps. Sweet! Awesome! Killer! But here's the thing: we've been burned by camouflage before. In the Cataclysm development process, camo started out really cool and was slowly eroded into an almost worthless ability. I really hope we don't repeat that whole experience. I know it's the nature of game development and class balance, but I'm not sure I can go through that again with camouflage, considering how awesome it looks right now for survival.<br />
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I have heard people describe the changes as making Survival into the PvP spec. I can see why they feel that way. Our CC will be better, and the buffs to Camo will certainly help as well. On the other hand, it looks like we will have the lowest burst damage (although we can use some talent choices to mitigate that somewhat) and we won't have an execute button. It looks to me like SV will be a good choice for PvP, but I really hope Blizzard can get the balancing close enough that it is good for more than that. I feel like they did an amazing job balancing the hunter specs in MoP, so why not do it again?JC Swayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12580720277068633415noreply@blogger.com0