Time for a post. Things have slowed down enough in my life to afford me a few seconds of grumpiness as I survey the black, nubby tail end of the expansion.
Proving Grounds
There comes a time in any healer, tank, or damage dealer’s life when they decide to take their collaborative skills and abilities to the next level. When that time comes, the Proving Grounds will be waiting. Set within the Temple of the White Tiger, this new feature will provide a repeatable solo Scenario where level 90 players can test their mettle or try out different roles in a safe, controlled environment.
What a wonderful idea! A chance for people to pick up the basics of an unfamiliar role in a controlled, non-judgmental environment, so that they can move into heroics and raids confidently. This is a great concept.
Proving Grounds will be available in four different modes: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Endless. . .Once you’ve beaten Gold, you’ll unlock Endless and be truly prepared to astound and amaze your friends with your prowess. . .The longer you survive Endless, the higher your score, and the system will track your progress so you can see just how well you’ve done.
/facepalm...
I have a problem with having yet another yardstick to bludgeon people with, again reducing a person to, as Charlie Brooker said, "a bunch of grey, eyeless, dickless little numbers." Think about it: we have ilevel, DPS, health, achieves, mounts and titles with which to judge a person's digital worth. With proving grounds ratings in the mix, people may not even get a chance to prove themselves in a raid. Silver rating? Sorry son, we want gold. How dare you even apply with less.
Dailies
That people call this expansion "Mists of Pandailia" pretty much says it all. I'm happy to hear that this will be changing with Warlords. I'd like to see reputation items go back to being purchased with gold rather than Valor. And no more sticking reps behind other reps! Blizzard said that they were getting rid of attunements but make no mistake, that's what the August Celestials rep was: an attunement. Dailies are far too much like work. They aren't really playing the game, no matter how much story or lore is attached to them.
Timeless Isle
The Isle represents an interesting notion. In the past, we've seen a set of end-of-expansion instances launched to help people gear up: Pit of Saron, End Time, etc. Of course, 5-mans don't build themselves; they are a lot of work to design, build and test. Beyond that, players have to deal with other players, which in this game is quickly becoming a tiresome chore.
Enter the Timeles Isle. It's brilliant, really. Give people easy purples with faction-tagged mobs. Even better, make the mobs rares, which automatically flips a player's kill switch. All of the dev manpower can be poured into this one experience, rather than spread across three instances. Is this Blizzard being lazy? Ehhh...yeah, a bit, but lazy for a good reason. I'd rather have the devs working on the next expansion, not more old content.
However, I don't think that the Isle has the staying power of instances. It's just not as compelling as a dungeon. I've gotten gear, yes, but the Isle costs money in repairs, chants, gems, etc. I've lost more money on the Isle than I've gained, outside of my hunter, who's worn out a knife from following people around and skinning kills.
While we're on the topic, I remember reading comments about the Isle on WoW Insider, and people were moaning that "the structure of Timeless Isle allowed me to burn out too quickly on it." If this is what people are doing, it is NOT Blizzard's fault. Blizz can't be held responsible for how quickly people choose to gobble up content. That's a self-control issue, not a game design issue.
LFR
I hated LFR when it first came out. I loved the idea of allowing everyone the opportunity to see the fights, the architecture, and the hard work of the designers. If LFR had been around in BC, everyone would have been able to see how beautiful Black Temple is. However, when it first appeard in Cata, there was a strong gear disparity, as hardcore raiders slummed in raid finder Dragon Soul, bringing their superior gear and snotty attitudes with them.
Today It seems that LFR has become its own form of raiding, not the poor relative of normal 10 and 25. Since I've quit regular raiding, I've been drifting, doing dailies and soloing old stuff for transmog gear. It then occurred to me that Mists might go by without having seen Garrosh. I then started setting up LFR runs with my guildies; we're currently 3 of 4 sections of SoO. It was then that my eyes were opened to the beauty of LFR: it's relaxed. Show up, don't show up--it's not a problem. Having a tank or healer along makes things much faster, but the ultimate point is to have fun with my friends, eventually get some gear, and see these elements of the game. To me, this is what regular 10 man should be about.
Races
Is it me, or do the mogu sound a little...well, racist? I keep hearing the NPC in Mogu'shan Palace talking about "sullying our great-a regacy," and I can't help but feel a bit uncomfortable. The jinyu were there to get us going, but their story starts and stops in the Jade Forest. I was hoping more would be done with them. I wanted a bath after every time I had to deal with the grummles. They just felt oily and insincere, with their reeking incense and constant bullshit about luckydos. The hozen are proof that at least one paint-huffing 13-year-old boy works for Blizzard, enough said. The pandaren to me we're simply maddening. They seemed at all times smug and self-satisfied in their continent made of overstock from Pier 1 Imports, and that feeling is due in no small part to Taran Zhu constantly telling me that I'm worthless and that I'm going to wreck his home. If Garrosh hadn't done such a fine job of that, I might be tempted to smash a few vases and melt down a few golden quillen statues myself on the way to the portal back home.
Monks
A guildie was on the Isle and saw a Horde monk take on an Alliance mage and two celestial guards, and win with no problems. I would say that's the very definition of OP. I get that Blizz wants the new class to get lots of attention, so monks started out overpowered to get the buzz going, but at this point, things should have been smoothed out by now. And did we really need another agi class? Perhaps I'm being too shortsighted. It is nice to have someone to pick up all those wasted agi necks and rings that feral druids, guardian druids, all three flavors of rogue, enhancement shammies and hunters don't want. It'll be nice to see that gear not get sharded for a change, unlike all that spell plate that gets snapped up.
Hmm, all that was pretty negative. I suppose I should at some point talk about the good things from Mists. Maybe next time.
Posted with Blogsy
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