A Random Act of Gaming

I have a closed beta key.
Turns out I've had it for almost 2 weeks but didn't realize it until a few days ago.

Burning crusade rocks though. Great soundtrack and worlds. It's just a very cool feel. And the blood elf female has the best /flirt ever. "I'm the girl the ESRB warned you about"

And when I finally made my way to outlands I received this quest with what I thought was a blatant text error when he told me to go speak with "Amish Wildhammer". Since my character name is amish I sent in a bug report but lo and behold 20 paces to my left stood none other than Amish Wildhammer with a yellow question mark over his head.

lol...that is funny. You must have named your character Amish deliberately!

That is pretty cool having a beta key. What character classes are you playing in the beta? You will have to keep me updated with any cool stuff you find in the Outlands.

Jiistme

Right now I'm mostly playing my mage. He's 61 so far. And I noticed that they're giving talents and spells every level instead of every even level. And the arena's seemed alright I did some 2v2 for an hour or so the other day. I'm worried druids will be a little too pwnage though...I went up against a mage druid combo with a mage mage combo several times and the mage would toy with us while the druid just stealthed around out of the way until we decided to attack the mage then he'd pop out and throw out some heals. Granted...they were both 64 and we were 60. But I think druids will be very powerful in the 2v2.

They've also improved world pvp. In Hellfire Peninsula there are three capturable towers. They've got a larger footprint than the standard alliance tower so you can actually fight inside them. If you kill an enemy player in or near the tower you can loot a token from them which you can turn in for world pvp rewards from that region's pvp vendor. If your faction controls all three you get a 5% bonus to damage.

In the south of terrokar forest (I don't remember the region's name) there's a town that is capturable and there are 4 bridges that lead into the town that can be captured to allow bombardment of the city. I'm not sure on the details cause it's geared towards characters in the mid to late 60's.

The third region with world pvp has two towers and a graveyard that are capturable I didn't spend any time there so I don't know the details.

One of the regions other than hellfire has a +5% exp region buff for control over the region.

I am glad druids will own in PvP considering my main is a druid. I have a friend whose main is a mage, so we could easily pull off the mage/druid combo if that turns out to be a good one. I am in the process of levelling my mage (lvl 53 right now) so I have two 60s ready to level when the expansion hits.

I am glad to hear that the outdoor PvP is looking good, fun, and the rewards seem to be significantly better than they are right now. I am sure people on servers that have severe imbalance from one side to another will complain that they never get the bonus, but there will always be complaining regardless of what Blizzard does.

I like the fact that you get new abilities every level. Makes levelling even more rewarding. How long did it take you to get from 60 to 61? I had heard rumors that they were lengthing the time it took to get levels past 60.

What spec is your mage? I assumed you respecced him to get your 41st talent. If you did, what is your opinion of that talent?

Jiistme

I've always been frost so I went full frost. And the water elemental has "Waterbolt" (400 dmg on a 2.5 sec cast) and frost nova but the awesome thing about this frost nova is that it can be done at range and since it's on the pet isn't on the same cooldown as my other frost nova. I wish it lasted longer than 45 seconds or that it didn't have a 3 minute cooldown but it only costs about 250 mana. The other night a rogue tried ganking me so I just summoned my elemental and then iceblocked. And the rogue just kinda left the elemental alone and waited for me to break the iceblock and so he was softened up once I broke and was able to 2 shot him. Granted...the elemental has 2000hp so if the rogue was well geared he could take down the elemental pretty quick.

Overall I'd say mages are getting nerfed. I know I know everyone is probably saying the same thing. But there's a few things that are really bad. Dragon Breath the fire 41 point talent is now interruptable. Obviously very bad for fire mages. It's a close range aoe much like cone of cold. The only reason cone of cold has ever been viable is that it's instant cast. Dragon was already risky cause you have to sit there with it blazing. But now you'll be sitting there very prone and the damage you do is going to be cut short real quick.

The other issue is a little more subtle but I think will have far greater consequences. They're putting counterspell on the global cooldown. To everyone but a mage it doesn't seem like a big deal. All other silences are already on global cool down with the exception of the felhunter and blood elf mana torrent. Blizzard argued that the mage's counterspell was an offensive spell and as such should be effected by the gcd. The issue is that mages are constantly casting spells often times various instant cast spells. After this the gcd will be triggered. The issue is that against any healer the only way the mage can hope to survive is to counterspell a heal and then finish them off really quick. The gcd means losing another 1.5 seconds of dps. More importantly frost mages can't pull off a double shatter combo.
This is a post by faxmonkey that outlines the issue very well. This guy knows way too much about mages

The other balance issue I'm not happy with is warlocks...they're getting buffed again and again. I read a post saying that a mage saw a lock that was afk with his felgaurd out and on defend and when he tried to kill the lock he only had 10% hp left. If the lock has so much as wanded him he would have been killed. I watched a pali duel the felgaurd with no intervention by the lock whatsoever and the pali didn't heal and the pali lost. Granted palis don't do much dps but it still seems pretty ridiculous considering a lock has 6k + hp and will have more by the time they hit 70 AND they have a whole arsenal of dps from dots and shadowbolts. I've heard of locks doing arena's afk with the felgaurd on hostile.

60 to 61 took me a few days cause I haven't had much time to play and I went slow because I read all the quest text and spoke to every npc I could. If you had an evening of solid wow play I bet that's all you'd need to get from 60-61.

I like the way they're doing instances. Hellfire citadel is split up into 2 lower 60s 5 man instances, 1 70 5 man, and 1 raid. So far I've done the first two and each one is small (3 bosses each) which some people have complained about. But what it really is is one instance which smaller chapters which mean you can do the first half of the 2 instance set and come back another night and finish up the second half. Since 5 mans are generally for the more casual crowd it makes complete sense to make smaller instances that are more easily managed time wise. I for one will love being able to do an instance between class and dinner and not have to devote a full evening to do an instance.

The other thing I absolutely loved was the Skettis. It's a hostile race in one of the regions but neutral in the city sanctuary. I don't know if you've ever seen The Dark Crystal but it was a favorite of mine as a kid and the Skettis look exactly like the Sketsis the antagonist race from the movie. Supposedly there is also a blood elf somewhere named Haris Pilton although I've only seen a screenshot of her so far.

Edit: Oh yeah...they nerfed elemental precision's +% chance to hit with frost/fire and added 3% less mana cost on frost/fire. And they reduced the aggro reduction on frost channeling (although not a big deal since I think invis will reduce aggro)

Nice write-up...I will just include enough of your reply so that you know what I am replying to. I am 11 fire / 40 frost right now. I am planning on going 11 fire / 50 frost during BC. So, I will probably end up with even more questsions for you.



The water elemental sounds cool...having a second frost nova and a ranged one at that is really cool. I was already pretty excited about the elemental, now you have me even more excited about it. I still do not understand why people are so dumb as to keep attacking an ice-blocked mage. When I was running the 40s BGs with a pre-made group. I would often times just run into a graveyard that had a recent rez wave with ice barrier up and when I was about to die, ice block. I could keep 4-5 guys on me for at least 10 seconds while they all attacked me for 10 seconds waiting for ice block to disappear. Anytime one character can keep 5 other characters busy for 10+ seconds, that is a good thing in my book. One of the new talents I am really excited about is Ice Floes since it reduces the cooldown on all my really useful talents (ice block, cold snap, ice barrier, and cone of cold).



I am confused about dragon breath since on WoW's site it says it is instant cast. Does it have a cast time now? If so, how long? I think I would agree with you that it should be like cone of cold where it is instant cast. If cone of cold had a cast time, even a 1 second one, I wouldn't use it nearly as often as I do now. As for cs on the gcd. That one I really don't know. I understand the complaint, but I am not so sure I agree with everyone. The silence part of ics is definitely hurt and makes it not quite as worthwhile, but the school lockdown is still 10s, which is significant. It is a nerf. I won't deny that, but I am not sure it is one that I care too much about. It just means I will have to anticipate my opponent's moves better, but that is true with alot of things. Do I throw up fire ward or frost ward? I have to make a split second decision. Sometimes I get it right, sometimes I get it wrong. Overall though, I would disagree with you. Mages are not getting nerfed. A couple of items that get reduced don't mean that overall we are getting nerfed. We are getting buffed overall, but what really is the issue is how the class balance works out. To be honest, I am not too much against the current class balance in WoW with the classes I play. With my druid and my mage I can hold my own. Some classes are more annoying than others depending on which character I play, but overall, I think it comes out pretty even.



Now, this could be a problem. The one class that is currently on the verge of being overpowered is the Lock. (Shamans to an extent as well, but since both sides will get shamans, I think that alone will help out that issue.) If what you are saying is true, then that is a serious problem that I hope gets resolved. But, then again, it also gives me instentive to work on my lock.


I really liked what you described for the instances. Being able to do instances quicker would be much, much nicer. Also, splitting instances between days even for 5 mans will be cool too. How are the battles and loot drops like? Are the battles pretty much just straight forward tank, heal, dps or do they have some complexity to them? Do the loot tables look pretty much the same as what you see from current instances? I hear that I should save a decent amount of gold for my first day in the Outlands. Is that true? and, if so, about how much would you say I should have saved up per character for gear upgrades, ability updates and stuff like that?


That is interesting. So, races are now not globally friendly or hostile? They can be friendly in one region and hostile in another region? Is their reputation anymore? If so, how does that work? (Basically I am curious if it is possible to get friendly with this race everywhere.) I did see the Dark Crystal, but it was so long ago that I don't remember much about it. As for the Haris Pilton blood elf, that is funny. I will have to find that one.



Yeah, I noticed those changes. I didn't mind them too much. +6% to hit was pretty darn high as it was. I am still going to get +3% to hit since that frees up slots on my character for more +dmg items. I wish I could put three talent points in +% to hit on my druid. I have a couple items that are clearly inferior to other items, but they have +1% to hit and so I keep them around so I don't miss as often. I can't wait for lacerate since that will help out with that problem. (Right now my main agro generation when bear tanking is maul, which is on a 2.5s timer. If it misses, that is alot of agro lost and it is an on next attack ability. With lacerate as an instant, I can use it instead to generate initial agro and still have my white attacks hitting. If one misses, I have a good change the other one will land.)

Whenever you get high enough level to use the new spells, I would be interested in knowing what you think of them. Of particular interest to me are Ice Lance, Arcane Explosion, and Spell Steal. I have heard rumors that Ice Lance is now instant cast. If so, that would be sweet.

Thanks for all the info. I really appreciate it.

Jiistme

The reason I don't think the 6% hit was too high is because it isn't equivallent to melee and spell % hit. However...I don't really know how much I need because when a spell says "Resist" it could be it was resisted or it could be that your spell missed. I really hope blizzard fixes this so that it's easier to tell when it's resisted vs missed.

You can still gain rep with factions. I don't believe the skettis are a a faction you can rep up with though. And they are globally hostile...except in sanctuaries. Sactuaries are areas where everyone is friendly essentially. As of right now I know of 2 places. The dark portal and Shattrath City.

Every region has it's own faction it seems so that means a looooooot of rep grinding. But each region has an instance which gives rep and quests but most importantly most factions only seem to require honored for their best rewards so no revered or exalted grind which was really the only bad part. This could be in place just for the beta so that people can try out the faction rewards without wasting all of their time grinding although I sure hope not.

I started the beta with 600g and after a few days of playing I'm at about 570. Training is expensive (about 10g per profession and new spells cost plenty) but there's a lot of gold to be had just doing whatever. All grey drops seem to be at least a gold. Greens are even more expensive. Alot of quests give 1-3g and some vendorable item.

The drops in the instance are very nice. Even in those first 2 5 mans I did most of the blues were slightly better than tier 1. I got a nice caster ring with +25 dmg/healing and about 15'ish int and stam.