Results tagged “PvP” from From the Abbey to Outlands

I want to preface this with the disclaimer that what I am about to mention is beta info, and may not actually go live. It also may not reflect the state of Ret when the 3.0.3 patch goes live. That said, these are my opinions, and I stand by them.

So a new beta build was pushed up to the beta realms tonight, 9138, and the expected nerfs to Paladins have come in, and they are hurting. Let me point out that the changes that Blizzard said were coming for Retribution Paladins was intended to impact on their performance in PvP, as everything was said to be fine in PvE. Right. Divine Storm is now physical. Yup, PvP. Armor now takes some of the oomph of the spell when used in PvP. Seals and Judgements are down, in fact there is almost all 'down from' numbers on the MMO Champion site when going through the ret spells.

Judgement of the Wise now grants the paladin 15% of his base mana. (Down from 33%)

Wait! What?!? This isn't a strictly PvP thing. This is almost more a PvE thing, cause you generally won't last long enough, if you are going to run out of mana, if you don't have time to drink. This is almost entirely a PvE nerf, and one I can't say I like too much. This hits both my Paladins right in the mana bar, something that Ret has always had issues with before. Based on my math, Med has a mana pool right now of 5658, and the JotW gives back 975. In the current iteration, that same proc would give me less than 500. 443-444 mana, to be exact at a 15% broken down from 33%. Blizz, my friends, I understood the PvP, but this? This is a snuck in ninja to what was supposed to be the solution to the mana problem.

I was sitting in IRC chat, discussing the beta, and a friend going by the name MrCynical pointed out that it seems Orcs get more play, again, in this expansion than his beloved undead, who you would think have more reason to want to take down the Lich King. I spent time last night exploring a bit and found the Westfall based human settlements in Grizzly Hills, which I noted made major human settlements in Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, and Grizzly Hills, in addition to a human leading the Kirin' Tor, Rhonin.

I guess the two separate points struck me as odd. Then I realized something: The majority of the conflicts in the game from start to now seem to boil down to the hatred between Orcs and Humans. In fact, if you look back through the entire franchise, there seems to be a pivotal connection that boils all battles down to these two races. The biggest connection is that these two are the lead races of their faction, making them the big center pieces of many conflicts.

Sure, we have Undead and Humans, Orcs and Night Elves, Orcs and Dwarves, and Draenei and Blood Elves, but most of the major stuff, like the expansions and stuff, is pitting those two lead races against each other. From the start of Warcraft to the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King, these two races have taken the lead in the events of the people of Azeroth and Outlands. What do you think about this breakdown? Would you like to see more major roles for other races? Or are you happy with these two races sharing the lead of the game? Let me know in the comments. 

Having finally spent time recording your searches in my client, I have a more thorough list to pick and choose from in my searches to answer for you today. I hope that some of these answer your query to your favored search service. Let's do some quickies first.

where are paladin trainer in outlands - there are none
wow "gold medallion" "spirit of competition" -win Battlegrounds
how to 2.4 to 3.0 0 - Get into the beta, or wait until the pre release patch
outlands jc design vendors - all over
tree form through outlands - Have fun!

Now for the longer ones:
all tameable pets in northern in wrath of the lich king - I don't know about northern, but Northrend and the hunter pets are I think not done yet, as just this past patch brought them 2 more classes of tameable pet. I would check out Petopia for more current data, though.

alchemy in wrath of the lich king - I hope it is incomplete and unpolished, because there feels like there is not much there, and what there is, takes too much to make. I will say no more for now, only that you wait. In the meantime, go to the Alchemy page on WoWHead's Wrath section for the latest. Just hit Last, and then Previous to see the newer stuff.

New Dire Bear Model wrath of lich - Nothing showing yet, but I would rather suspect it will be Glyph based.

netherwingquest line removed in wrath of the lich king - I have heard nothing about this, but there are some things that are being removed or changed for Wrath. I will look further into this once I have a toon on the beta realms who doesn't already have their drake.

leveling in outlands - ...is very fun, and will get better in wrath when you need to do about 3 of the zones to be Northred ready.

Lastly: abbey outland - Glad you found me!

I have four 70s now, and all but one has epic flying, which he will no doubt have by the time Wrath hits until it hits in the next five weeks or so. While yes, there are quests that can be done, I am honestly almost out of quests to do on those four 70s. It is therefore a really nice thing when Blizzard gives me something to spend a bit of my time on other than dailies and other gold building pass times.

Late last night WoW Insider posted that European and Chinese servers had reportedly received a special Olympics based PvP reward set. It seems that when you participate in a Battleground you get a Competitor's Tabard. Yes, that's right, the item is so new and so undiscovered in the many data mines, that I had to link to the WoW Armory for it, instead of WoW Head. If you win the battleground, you have a chance, seems about 50%, to get a Gold Medallion. The medallion summons a really neat Spirit of Competition, which is a little Chinese dragon looking vanity pet.

As soon as I saw this news, I knew I had to have it. Well, on a hop over to my mule to buy the last few Mark of Sargeras I needed to take Telaan to Exalted(yay!), I saw Ciarda, an old and dear friend, who had both the tabard and the pet. I made arrangements to go do some PvP with her group when she had gotten some food, and went back to Medros to wait. I must say, the few minutes I waited were more than worth it!.

I joined her, Silvarius, and a couple of their friends, though I failed to grab screen shots or the names, and we headed to the shortest of winnable BGs, Warsong Gulch. This was a night of firsts. I cannot recall the last time I won back to back Battlegrounds. I also do not recall any time when all four of the BGs were in the 1000+ range of open matches. PvP was smoking! The first win netted me a tabard, a few deaths, and some good times. The second netted me the Medallion, and it almost felt like a blow out, as the other side seemed to almost give up around the final flag cap, barely defending and using poor strategy.

The other side had little chance, with a concerted and well played offense, mixed with defense at just the right times. I can't say that me and my Kara level gear did a whole lot to contribute, but sometimes all you need is a well placed stun, AoE, or Hammer of Wrath. I want to thank Ciarda, Silvarius and their friends for helping make the BGs seem fun again. Now, who wants to help me other three 70s get their own tabards and pets??

I honestly do know what brought this post to mind, but I have always wondered at the many varieties of the lauded end game. We each have our own form of end game, of that there can be no doubt. For some it's pure, for others it is a mix of little bits of different styles. So, before I get down to the question at hand, let me define for you a few of the main styles of what we can do when we hit the level cap.

Player Killer - Living for the thrill of the next elite player he can take down, and occasionally lowering himself to camping lower level players for varying reasons, the Player Killer lives off his honor kills and Arena ranking. Happy to use anything he can to get more kills, the PK spends his time at the generals, does each PvP daily on first login, and had a mailbox full of Battle Ground marks. Exemplified by the screaming all caps 'leader' of a Battle Ground, the PK can easily break under the slightest hint of failure in Battlegrounds.

Progress Seeker - The player aimed at progresion is likely the one who had their Karazhan key quest as soon as they could after level 69, and was LFG Shadow Labrynth minutes after their digned 70. They usually have a clear line set for their progression from ding to the 25 man raids, frequently doing the best quests for the gear they want for the end game spec, which they have outlined and planned weeks or months in advance. This player does dailies and other money making things purely to make the gold needed for reagents and respeccing as needed.

Badge Collector - Another thing that Burning Crusade brought to us was the Heroic mode of dungeons. Only affecting the Outlands 5 man dungeons, Heroic mode is one of the best ways to get rep with various factions, and with the dungeon dailies, also get extra cash and extra badges as well. Those are one of the biggest reason to do Heroic dungeons, though, is Badge of Justice. Badges can be used to purchase varying levels of gear, from Tier 6 equivalent to lower Tier 4 equivalent gear.

This is one of the more niche play styles in end game, but with the availability of Primal Nether and the epic quality gems through badge turn ins, it is an increasingly popular way to spend your time at level 70, at least in so far as the heroic daily goes at the least. Finding heroics beyond the daily can be a bit of a hassle, but like Arenas and Raiding, a good solid team can be invaluable to making the work a lot easier. Also, pugging heroics can be very, very painful.

Master Crafter - Also known as the Recipe Completist, the Master Crafter spends their time and money at 70, gained from dailies and quests at max level, working diligently on their professions. They run dungeons and work reputation to maximize their professions and abilities. The golden ticker for the crafter is finding that once in a lifetime item they can make that few if any have and everyone wants. The Master Crafter things nothing of killing thousands of a type of mob in order to get their desired recipe.

Mass Murderer - The Mass Murderer is someone who just goes out and kills everything in his or her path, not caring how long it takes. This could be best described as a Grinder, who only starts out with the barest reagents and food required, and just kills and loots mindlessly. This person has no specific goals other than to kill, kill, and kill some more. There is no rep or item they seek, just to see the trail of bodies behind them.

Multiple Personality - Suffering from a varying degree of Altitis, this player can occasionally get through the quests at max level before relegating the character to farm status or maybe filler raiding, but they then move onto a new alt or leveling one they already have in the works. This type of end gamer finds the shear idea of a cap of 10 characters per realm to be ludicrous, and often plot out which character will get the big old DELETE next to make room for another.


So, now the we know a few of the main types of end gamers, I ask you my readers, What is your end game? A mix of a few? A pure version of one of the above possibilities? Or are you one of the niche options apart from above? For me, I am a mix of a bunch. I do light raiding when needed and time allows, I have many alts, 5 played characters at this point, but I also farm and am a hardcore recipe completist. My end game is so varied that it easily keeps me interested. Is this why so many raiders are giving up and moving to other games? How about your end game? Is it keeping you happy and your attention in the game?

As we are beginning to see the news and blog posts of people making preparations for the upcoming expansion, I felt it time to begin working on this planned series of articles. When you look down the path and see change coming, it is natural for us to look back on what has been, and to look forward to what will come. That is the plan for this series of articles of indeterminate length.

In our next aspect of looking ahead, I wanted to take a bit of time to look to what is coming in the end game for Wrath of the Lich King. So far what we know is both significant but lacking details. There are a few general bits of information we know, but as of the last time we heard anything we had nothing about specific dungeon bosses.

The first part of the End Game we have is Lake Wintergrasp, a full PvP enabled zone that will cause anyone on any realm who enters the zone to be PvP flagged. Undoubtedly there will be a new Battleground, likely revolving around the Wintergrasp zone, and a slew of Arena seasons including seasonal gear and other rewards.

The second part is 5 mans and heroics. While we do not know what the majority of the 5 mans will be, we do know that they will be itemized completely separately from the normal mode 5 man dungeons, so it should be a little easier to find a group for a dungeon to fill the needs of those who want gear from the regular version of the dungeons. The big question will be whether the daily drops will also be kept to only the specific level they are meant to be in.

The final part of the End game by most standards is the raiding end game. Again, we do not have much information regarding raid bosses, other than the previously mentioned basics like Malygos in the Nexus and Arthas in the Ice Crown, but we do have a fair bit of info to mull over at this point. First, the split between 10 and 25 mans of the same dungeon. Like the 5 man and their Heroic counterparts, the 10 and 25 man dungeons will have separate loot tables, so the 25 man will have an additional tier of gear higher than the 10 man dungeons.

For the other possible end games I have another piece coming in a few days, but I do wonder what part of the end game we know about are you most looking forward to? Will you be making use of the 10 and 25 man raids being on separate lock outs? Will your guild even bother with the 10 man versions of the dungeons? Will you look forward to or dread hearing of the first 10 person kill of Arthas? Or are you one of the many who feels that someone like Arthas needs 25 people to be a decent fight? Think they will make his 10 person defeat be a token defeat instead of a full kill? Let me know in the comments!

So as I was preparing for work this morning, I noticed WoW Insider had an interesting post about a change in the descriptions of the three different Death Knight talent trees, Blood, Frost, and Unholy. The changes are interesting, moving away from stereotyped roles of a spec(tank, DPS, PvP, etc) to a more tagged type of description, as well as removing the description about what the presence does from that tree.

WoW Insider suggested a pretty decent guess from my perspective of why this might have been done. One of the reasons that we have the current tank shortage in the game is perspective. We have Warriors not wanting to lose the loot priority value of being the main tank in raids, and thus have complained at any improvements that could potentially see them replaced in that role, such as buff to Paladins or Druids as tanks.

Blizzard being attentive to warriors has led to a deep tank shortage, because no one wants to spec their character in a way that will make them less effective or desirable to the overall gaming population. WoW Insider points out that the change to the trees could be a lead up to a change in thinking from Blizzard. If the company stops referring to trees by the stereotypical terms, DPS, Heal, Tank, PvP, Raid, etc, we just might see players change their thinking.

I have to agree with the writer of the piece in that we could just as easily see the terms to describe something, for example Tank, change to be the new terms, control, counters, and combos. We could see 'LFC(control) DK for Naxx' instead of 'LF Tank for Naxx'. Of course, there is something to be said for the stereotypes. Which is nicer to see: 1) 'LF AoE Pal, Threat War, Swipe Druid, Control DK for <instance>' or 2) 'LF Tank for <instance>'? I think 2 will be it.

In the end, this still has the ring of a move away from the age old stereotypes and to a new way of thinking about how characters are designed and planned, as well I would think in how they are evolved as the future expansions hit. As Blizzard brings more Hero classes into the game in those expansions to be named, this will undoubtedly help them broaden the classes beyond the narrow stereotypes that have plagued them since the game was in beta.

Will changing the descriptions of the classes in the game and in the future change how you think about them? Or will it just be a matter of same crap, different pile? Do you think this will even have any effect on the game and it's instance and raid aspects? Let me know what you think in the comments!

Of course, when the patch notes first hit, there was a lot of new info, helping or otherwise adding to the excitement surrounding patch 2.4. While that huge influx of info has slowed a bit, there is still a good amount of info coming out about the next patch for World of Warcraft. WoW Insider has their own roundup post, where they will put all the info they find about the patch in nice, neat categories.

We have info about the World PvP daily quests, a peek at the UI and Interface panel changes in 2.4, and an awesome post about what we can expect to see in 2.4 before we even run off to the Isle of Quel'danas, including daily quests in Shatt from some of the newly converted NPCs which are now members of the Shattered Sun Offensive. Oh, and don't forget the gift to PvPers who spend their time in Battlegrounds, a repeatable turn in quest that gifts you honor for all those excess tokens.

A day or two ago WoW Insider informed the audience that the Naaru that the Blood Elves where fueling their Paladins on had vanished on the PTR, and that pretty much sealed it for the identity of the Dark Naaru in the Sunwell Plateau. Of course, those on the PTR aren't hesitating in having a bit of fun as some enterprising warlocks have found a way to enslave Brutallus the demon from Sunwell Plateau, pretty effectively killing everything on the Island. I agree with WoW Insider's Daniel Whitcomb, this will most likely be fixed before 2.4 goes live.

Fishing is getting some major buffs, or gifts at least, in 2.4. First, we get fishing Daily quests.  Yay! We can push people into 375 fishing with rewards of cash and blues! Speaking of Blues, There is a report that at least one fishing quest rewards you with a new non combat pet, Chuck the baby crockolisk, which you would get in a Bag of Fishing Treasures, which comes from the fishing quests much like the Crate of Meat and Barrel of Fish come from the Cooking Daily. Other items found inside this bag are Sharpened Fish Hooks, a recipe for Captain Rumsey's Lager, Weather-Beaten Fishing Hat.

We also have reports of a seemingly common drop 20 slow unique bag, Sun Touched Satchel, and even though their own reader said so days before, WoW Insider is reporting that the Phoenix non combat pet does, in fact, drop from Kael'Thas in Magister's Terrace. How it took them 4 days to read their own comments which included a screen shot of the Phoenix being looted off Kael'Thas, I don't know, but there you have it.


News out in the last few days shows that items critical to making most high end crafted items, Primal Nether and Nether Vortex, will no longer be BoP, and Nether Vortex will not be purchasable for 15 Badges of Justice as well as 7g and change. This will make crafting my next level breast plates for Medros, as well as the items for Ameland even more possible since I won't have to go run heroics or go and do Kara runs endlessly to get enough badges for them.

The last roundup of news in the last few days are as follows. Suggested possible Dragonhawk mounts, class set changes, and even a few class changes as well as more promised to be coming. We have linkable spells and quests, and more walk throughs of the new area of the Isle of Quel'danas, starting with the new rep, all the way up through the 5 man Magister's Terrace  and unlocking the 25 man Sunwell Plateau. Update: Tigole on Attunements, miscellaneous notes from the latest PTR build, with more likely as the progressive test continues.