I've now taken my Death Knight into Hellfire Citadel's second (of five) wing. Right now, I think that Kilrogg Deadeye will be the LFR-killer until people get more used to the fight's mechanics, whereas the Hellfire High Council is pretty easy. The Gorefiend is sort of in the middle - you might occasionally wipe on it, but you're far less likely to than on Kilrogg.
Hellfire High Council:
The council has a simple kill order: Gurtogg, Blademaster, Dia. DOTers might want to light up all three, but killing Gurtogg Bloodboil first is a high priority, as the debuff he slowly stacks up lasts the rest of the fight - killing him quickly means that you'll only be set back by 10 or 20% of your health. Melee can get some nice cleave on the Blademaster while working on Gurtogg, but you should still prioritize single-target damage. When Gurtogg fixates on you, be sure to run away from his tank - not only is this the way you avoid, you know, getting killed, but you also give the tank time for his or her stacking DoT to fall off. The fixate doesn't last quite long enough for this to happen if he can just go back to the tank immediately, so try to draw him back to the other end of the room (though not to Dia Darkwhisper.)
If you get hit by Dia's debuff, be sure to run to the edge of the room, away from the raid, so that you drop the void zone out of the way of your fellow raiders.
Blademaster what's-his-name is relatively easy to deal with. Basically you'll just need to burn down his multiple mirror images when he pops them out.
Kilrogg Deadeye:
The name of the game here is Adds Adds Adds. Also, Visions of Death.
Let's talk Visions of Death first. Periodically, Kilrogg will create three runes near him in a line. You need one person to stand in each rune - which will cause them to light up, a handy little hint to help you make sure all of them are covered. If you don't have all three runes covered, it doesn't count, and when the spell expires, the raid will take damage (though on LFR it's kind of slap-on-the-wrist damage.) The main drawback of failing to do Visions of Death is that you lose out on a massive damage buff.
If you successfully pull off the mechanic, the three people on the runes (if there are extras on each rune, you might just get left behind) will be transported to what is ostensibly a vision of their own demise, standing in Stromwind Keep (or Grommash Hold, I'd assume, for Horde) as waves of Imps and Azzakel-style fire demons come in. Kill as many as you can before you die. If you survive long enough to kill 20, Khadgar (in the vision) will set off a massive explosion to take out the demons attacking and go out in a blaze of glory, ending the vision and returning you to the boss chamber.
For every demon you kill during Visions of Death, you'll get a 10% damage buff, meaning that with all 20 stacks, you'll be doing three times your normal damage. Healers will also get an aura around them that I believe heals everyone standing near them (and presumably get a healing buff rather than a damage one.)
Now, as important as that mechanic is, it's not the only one.
There are four types of adds you'll need to deal with. Periodically, regular orcs will charge toward the blood fountain where Ariok is chained up. If they reach the fountain, they'll transform into dire orcs, which are a pain. These orcs can be slowed and knocked back, so do what you can to keep them from getting to the fountain.
Sometimes, even if you've been good about taking out the regular orcs, some will jump directly into the fountain and transform before you have a chance to stop them. These guys should be picked up by the tanks and DPS'd down quickly. They have a shout that should be interrupted. Tanks can switch off on these guys. These guys will give players Fel Corruption, which honestly is a mechanic that I don't quite understand, but doesn't seem to be super relevant on LFR except as a reason to keep the big adds off the blood fountain.
Kilrogg will frequently pick out a random raid member and prepare to throw a knife at them. You'll see an arrow on the ground that shows which way he'll be throwing. If you're not targeted, make sure you're not in the knife's path. If you are targeted, run as far away from the boss as you can. When the knife lands, a little blood glob will form. Everyone should kill the blood asap, as it will damage the raid and heal the boss if it gets to him. Sometimes the globs will be fel-corrupted, and I believe become more dangerous.
The key to the fight is taking down adds and using Visions of Death. It can be a long slog, especially if you allow the blood to heal him, but if the raid focuses on those adds, he'll go down.
The Gorefiend:
The Gorefiend has two alternating phases. You'll be doing way more damage to the boss during the second phase, so you'll want to prioritize killing adds in phase one.
When you get marked with the shadow of death, you'll eventually get sucked into his stomach. Kill adds that you find there - using snares to keep them from exiting if you can. You have thirty seconds before he digests you, so give yourself 25 seconds to kill adds and then run to the center to get the hell out of there.
Of course, some of the adds will escape. There are slow-moving melee adds that fixate on people that you should kill or kite if you're the one they've fixated on. Casters will stand and spam AoE spells. And occasionally you'll get a tougher one that needs to be tanked. I believe these are top priority.
You can get some damage in at the boss during this phase, but for the most part you should focus on knocking down those adds. Save your big cooldowns for phase two.
Once he depletes his energy, Gorefiend will do Feast of Souls. You'll want to burn the boss as much as possible during this time, as I believe he takes something like two or three times as much damage. If you can, try to absorb the spirits that come toward him (they look like big sparks.) You'll take a bit of damage, but you'll slow down the rate at which he recovers his energy.
Rinse and repeat and he'll go down.
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Playing the Skeleton King in Heroes of the Storm
After a delay of a couple hours, Leoric, aka the Skeleton King from Diablo, was made available for purchase in Heroes of the Storm. I decided to chuck a few bucks Blizzard's way and get the bundle with both Leoric and his Vrykul skin (what's fun is that the different color schemes you earn as you level for the Vrykul are basically normal Vrykul, blue Ymirjar, and green Kvaldir, complete with a seaweed cape.)
Leoric is a lot of fun. He encourages you to play aggressively, because you actually get to do stuff even if you die. Mind you, you should still avoid dying if you can - you'll still want to retreat and use a healing fountain if you get low on health - but if you see an enemy hero who's on his or her last legs, the stakes are a bit lower for you to chase after them.
The reason being Leoric's trait, Undying. When you die playing Leoric, rather than having to wait at the spawnpoint, you'll instead become a ghost (I don't know if you can see the ghost if you're on the other team.) While a ghost, two of your abilities become available in a non-damaging capacity, but using them will allow you to speed up your death timer by regaining "health." And once you've filled up your health again, you'll simply pop back into existence wherever you ghost is. While Undying, you can't do basic attacks, but you get alternate versions of Skeletal Swing and Drain Hope.
Essentially what this means is that your opponents can never get rid of you. They can only turn you into a nuisance rather than a threat.
Q: Skeletal Swing: Q will allow you to swing your giant mace in a wide, 180 degree arc, slowing enemies that are hit. This lands for a lot of damage, and is great for taking out swaths of minions in a single swing, or at least getting them all pretty low. It's also useful when used in conjunction with the W ability. It does double damage against non-hero targets, so this can be used to knock down entire squads of minions, and at higher levels you might be able to just take them all out completely in one go. Given the wide arc, you can also hit a gate and its two turrets with a single swing.
While Undying, Skeletal Swing becomes Ghastly Swing, which does no damage but reduces death time.
W: Drain Hope: W is a skill-shot that hits an enemy hero and begins to drain health from them. It only works on heroes, but thankfully will pass through minions if they're in the way. You'll be slowed while this is active and you'll need to remain in relatively close range for it to continue to work (hence why hitting them with a mace swing is a good idea) but this will provide both damage and a decent amount of healing.
While Undying, this become Drain Essence, and no longer deals damage but also doesn't slow you down.
E: Wraith Walk: E is a somewhat more situational ability, but quite useful when used properly. Hitting E will free your ghost, leaving your body stationary but "unstoppable" (to prevent people from stopping you using the ability.) You'll move your ghost separately and when the timer runs out or when you hit E again, your body will be where your ghost has gone. Importantly, though, your body can still take damage during this, so you'll want to hit E again as soon as you're clear, lest you wind up dead before the timer runs out.
Wraith Walk is problematic as an escape move, given that you're leaving your body there for them to beat on, but it's great at chasing down enemy heroes, as the longer you wraith-walk, the higher speed you'll travel. You can combine this with your other abilities to lull an enemy into thinking they're winning by holding off on your attacks for a second and just doing basic attacks, then Drain Hope, Skeletal Swing them to slow them down, and when they get low enough that they want to run, finish them off by catching up to them with Wraith Walk. It's also a fantastic counter to things like Nazeebo's Zombie Wall.
R: Entomb is one of your heroic abilities, which creates a three-sided room essentially to trap enemies inside. I think this barrier will work regardless of whether your enemy is inside or trying to move past it, but it blocks allies as well, so be careful with it. Still, a great addition to the "you can't escape" arsenal.
R: March of the Black King is the one I tend to go for, which sends you forward, unstoppable, smashing everything in your path with massive strikes that heal you. You'll travel relatively far and strike three times in a wide arc. This can be useful for finishing off enemies, dealing with a crowd if you get ganged up on, or getting a lot of cathartic stress release from just smashing things like crazy. You also heal for something like 70% for each hero you hit, so if you find yourself low on health with a bunch of enemy heroes nearby and don't feel like playing the ghost game and handing them some XP, this is a great way to survive and maybe put them on the ropes long enough to make a getaway or wait for the cavalry to show up.
The build I've been playing puts a ton of emphasis on healing, making Leoric quite the implacable foe. He's certainly not as tanky as Johanna, but with the right talents he can be a very hard-to-kill harasser and bane of minions. There a nice talent at level 4 that heals you and restores mana whenever a minion dies near you, which can really charge you up quite well. Also, one of the level one talents allows you to collect regen globes while Undying, as well as giving yourself a permanent health regeneration bonus for each one.
I love the aesthetic of the Skeleton King (though it pains me to say it, I actually think he looks cooler than Arthas - though Arthas is certainly the character I like better.) His Master Skin is a little funny looking, (nowhere near getting it - my max character is Sergeant Hammer, who's level 7, though I expect Leoric to join her and maybe even surpass her) but the Vrykul look is pretty good, though it doesn't really hit the "skeleton" theme (though this will cost real money - there's a bundle up now for both Leoric and the Vrykul skin, which is the main reason I payed real money for him.)
For future skins, I think a living Leoric would be pretty obvious, and I'd like to see how he'd fit into some of the other universes that exist solely in HOTS' alternate skin descriptions.
Leoric is a lot of fun. He encourages you to play aggressively, because you actually get to do stuff even if you die. Mind you, you should still avoid dying if you can - you'll still want to retreat and use a healing fountain if you get low on health - but if you see an enemy hero who's on his or her last legs, the stakes are a bit lower for you to chase after them.
The reason being Leoric's trait, Undying. When you die playing Leoric, rather than having to wait at the spawnpoint, you'll instead become a ghost (I don't know if you can see the ghost if you're on the other team.) While a ghost, two of your abilities become available in a non-damaging capacity, but using them will allow you to speed up your death timer by regaining "health." And once you've filled up your health again, you'll simply pop back into existence wherever you ghost is. While Undying, you can't do basic attacks, but you get alternate versions of Skeletal Swing and Drain Hope.
Essentially what this means is that your opponents can never get rid of you. They can only turn you into a nuisance rather than a threat.
Q: Skeletal Swing: Q will allow you to swing your giant mace in a wide, 180 degree arc, slowing enemies that are hit. This lands for a lot of damage, and is great for taking out swaths of minions in a single swing, or at least getting them all pretty low. It's also useful when used in conjunction with the W ability. It does double damage against non-hero targets, so this can be used to knock down entire squads of minions, and at higher levels you might be able to just take them all out completely in one go. Given the wide arc, you can also hit a gate and its two turrets with a single swing.
While Undying, Skeletal Swing becomes Ghastly Swing, which does no damage but reduces death time.
W: Drain Hope: W is a skill-shot that hits an enemy hero and begins to drain health from them. It only works on heroes, but thankfully will pass through minions if they're in the way. You'll be slowed while this is active and you'll need to remain in relatively close range for it to continue to work (hence why hitting them with a mace swing is a good idea) but this will provide both damage and a decent amount of healing.
While Undying, this become Drain Essence, and no longer deals damage but also doesn't slow you down.
E: Wraith Walk: E is a somewhat more situational ability, but quite useful when used properly. Hitting E will free your ghost, leaving your body stationary but "unstoppable" (to prevent people from stopping you using the ability.) You'll move your ghost separately and when the timer runs out or when you hit E again, your body will be where your ghost has gone. Importantly, though, your body can still take damage during this, so you'll want to hit E again as soon as you're clear, lest you wind up dead before the timer runs out.
Wraith Walk is problematic as an escape move, given that you're leaving your body there for them to beat on, but it's great at chasing down enemy heroes, as the longer you wraith-walk, the higher speed you'll travel. You can combine this with your other abilities to lull an enemy into thinking they're winning by holding off on your attacks for a second and just doing basic attacks, then Drain Hope, Skeletal Swing them to slow them down, and when they get low enough that they want to run, finish them off by catching up to them with Wraith Walk. It's also a fantastic counter to things like Nazeebo's Zombie Wall.
R: Entomb is one of your heroic abilities, which creates a three-sided room essentially to trap enemies inside. I think this barrier will work regardless of whether your enemy is inside or trying to move past it, but it blocks allies as well, so be careful with it. Still, a great addition to the "you can't escape" arsenal.
R: March of the Black King is the one I tend to go for, which sends you forward, unstoppable, smashing everything in your path with massive strikes that heal you. You'll travel relatively far and strike three times in a wide arc. This can be useful for finishing off enemies, dealing with a crowd if you get ganged up on, or getting a lot of cathartic stress release from just smashing things like crazy. You also heal for something like 70% for each hero you hit, so if you find yourself low on health with a bunch of enemy heroes nearby and don't feel like playing the ghost game and handing them some XP, this is a great way to survive and maybe put them on the ropes long enough to make a getaway or wait for the cavalry to show up.
The build I've been playing puts a ton of emphasis on healing, making Leoric quite the implacable foe. He's certainly not as tanky as Johanna, but with the right talents he can be a very hard-to-kill harasser and bane of minions. There a nice talent at level 4 that heals you and restores mana whenever a minion dies near you, which can really charge you up quite well. Also, one of the level one talents allows you to collect regen globes while Undying, as well as giving yourself a permanent health regeneration bonus for each one.
I love the aesthetic of the Skeleton King (though it pains me to say it, I actually think he looks cooler than Arthas - though Arthas is certainly the character I like better.) His Master Skin is a little funny looking, (nowhere near getting it - my max character is Sergeant Hammer, who's level 7, though I expect Leoric to join her and maybe even surpass her) but the Vrykul look is pretty good, though it doesn't really hit the "skeleton" theme (though this will cost real money - there's a bundle up now for both Leoric and the Vrykul skin, which is the main reason I payed real money for him.)
For future skins, I think a living Leoric would be pretty obvious, and I'd like to see how he'd fit into some of the other universes that exist solely in HOTS' alternate skin descriptions.
The Prophet Zul and the Zandalari Story Moving Forward
Warlords of Draenor is our first expansion not to have a single "Troll Instance." Granted, the Trolls do have a certain presence, what with the fact that Vol'jin is now the first non-Orc Warchief of the Horde (giving the Horde a certain Azerothian legitimacy, actually - no offense to Thrall, who is of course a native Azerothian himself. *Insert joke about long-form birth certificates.*)
For the first few expansions, our dealings tended to be with individual Troll Empires. Vanilla had us fight the Gurubashi and, though they were a much smaller presence, the Farraki. We fended off the Amani in BC (who might have been ok with joining the Horde had it not been for the addition of the Blood Elves.) Wrath set us agains the Drakkari, but in all these cases, we were dealing with empires that were well into their declines. We allied with the Zandalari tribe who seemed perfectly friendly (to both factions) until the rather shocking turnabout in patch 4.1.
I've always been a little uncomfortable with that turnaround, primarily because not just in previous expansions, but as recently as 4.0, we had been working with the Zandalari. In Stranglethorn Vale, there are still quests where you help the Zandalari fight against Jindo's attempts to resurrect the threat of the Gurubashi. How the Zandalari so suddenly went from helping us fight Jindo to providing him with troops and allies within the space of a single patch... well, it wasn't really earned narratively. There was nothing remotely close to foreshadowing.
Still, the change was made, and the Zandalari developed into a unified threat - the oldest of the Troll Empires uniting the other tribes under their banners. We dealt with a contingent that was sent to Pandaria, and we foiled them in Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman, but the Zandalari forces on whole are probably safely fortified somewhere in the South Seas.
That said, things aren't going great for them. Indeed, the main motivation for their bellicose turn was the Cataclysm's effects of Zandalar. The island is sinking into the sea.
The key figures among the Zandalar are King Rastakhan and the Prophet Zul. "Zul" is almost certainly a pseudonym - Zul is apparently a kind of honorific prefix. I don't know how complex Blizzard has gotten with their Troll etymology, but to take a few names into account, Sen'jin and Vol'jin have both been chiefs of the Darkspear, which might suggest the suffix "jin" means "chief." Zul'jin, who had been the Amani Emperor, might have dropped his personal name for what was really more of a title: Zul'jin meaning "Honored Chief."
It was Zul - a mysterious prophet - who galvanized the militarization of the Zandalari. Rastakhan likely does not have firm control over his Empire as more people have been signing up for Zul's quasi-nationalist vision.
It actually wouldn't surprise me if there are dissidents among the Zandalari who would still see us as allies. Certainly, even some of the trolls we helped in Stranglethorn have turned to the dark side (Jinrok the Breaker, the first boss in Throne of Thunder, had been a quest giver in Stranglethorn Vale,) but it still seems a bit shocking for all of them to turn against us so suddenly.
To go into tinfoil hat territory, I wonder if Zul is really a troll at all. The Old Gods are largely based on HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos, and one of the evil creatures in that is Nyarlathotep - the only eldritch abomination in the mythos who bothers disguising himself as a human. Zul's preachings about reunifying the Trolls and making war on the rest of Azeroth would certainly cause a lot of death and chaos, and the swiftness with which he turned the Zandalari to this task suggests something that goes a bit farther than charisma.
The Trolls are the oldest humanoid race on Azeroth - all the Elves and the Naga are off-shoots of the Trolls. In many ways, Azeroth is really the Troll planet. If the next expansion takes us to the South Seas, I can't imagine that we won't be sent to deal with the Zandalari - even if Azshara is the main villain.
For the first few expansions, our dealings tended to be with individual Troll Empires. Vanilla had us fight the Gurubashi and, though they were a much smaller presence, the Farraki. We fended off the Amani in BC (who might have been ok with joining the Horde had it not been for the addition of the Blood Elves.) Wrath set us agains the Drakkari, but in all these cases, we were dealing with empires that were well into their declines. We allied with the Zandalari tribe who seemed perfectly friendly (to both factions) until the rather shocking turnabout in patch 4.1.
I've always been a little uncomfortable with that turnaround, primarily because not just in previous expansions, but as recently as 4.0, we had been working with the Zandalari. In Stranglethorn Vale, there are still quests where you help the Zandalari fight against Jindo's attempts to resurrect the threat of the Gurubashi. How the Zandalari so suddenly went from helping us fight Jindo to providing him with troops and allies within the space of a single patch... well, it wasn't really earned narratively. There was nothing remotely close to foreshadowing.
Still, the change was made, and the Zandalari developed into a unified threat - the oldest of the Troll Empires uniting the other tribes under their banners. We dealt with a contingent that was sent to Pandaria, and we foiled them in Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman, but the Zandalari forces on whole are probably safely fortified somewhere in the South Seas.
That said, things aren't going great for them. Indeed, the main motivation for their bellicose turn was the Cataclysm's effects of Zandalar. The island is sinking into the sea.
The key figures among the Zandalar are King Rastakhan and the Prophet Zul. "Zul" is almost certainly a pseudonym - Zul is apparently a kind of honorific prefix. I don't know how complex Blizzard has gotten with their Troll etymology, but to take a few names into account, Sen'jin and Vol'jin have both been chiefs of the Darkspear, which might suggest the suffix "jin" means "chief." Zul'jin, who had been the Amani Emperor, might have dropped his personal name for what was really more of a title: Zul'jin meaning "Honored Chief."
It was Zul - a mysterious prophet - who galvanized the militarization of the Zandalari. Rastakhan likely does not have firm control over his Empire as more people have been signing up for Zul's quasi-nationalist vision.
It actually wouldn't surprise me if there are dissidents among the Zandalari who would still see us as allies. Certainly, even some of the trolls we helped in Stranglethorn have turned to the dark side (Jinrok the Breaker, the first boss in Throne of Thunder, had been a quest giver in Stranglethorn Vale,) but it still seems a bit shocking for all of them to turn against us so suddenly.
To go into tinfoil hat territory, I wonder if Zul is really a troll at all. The Old Gods are largely based on HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos, and one of the evil creatures in that is Nyarlathotep - the only eldritch abomination in the mythos who bothers disguising himself as a human. Zul's preachings about reunifying the Trolls and making war on the rest of Azeroth would certainly cause a lot of death and chaos, and the swiftness with which he turned the Zandalari to this task suggests something that goes a bit farther than charisma.
The Trolls are the oldest humanoid race on Azeroth - all the Elves and the Naga are off-shoots of the Trolls. In many ways, Azeroth is really the Troll planet. If the next expansion takes us to the South Seas, I can't imagine that we won't be sent to deal with the Zandalari - even if Azshara is the main villain.
Friday, July 17, 2015
What Should We Hope for in Expansion Six?
Warlords of Draenor has been, much like Cataclysm, a kind of odd mix of success and failure. Subscription numbers surged when the expansion was released, climbing back up to ten million. Leveling up through Draenor has been maybe most pleasant leveling experience in WoW history, and certainly since Wrath.
A lot of nice new features have been added, and I think the gear consolidation has been tremendous for us hybrids. Draenor is also a gorgeous setting, and the game certainly has never looked so good (especially now that we all have fancy new character models. Well, almost all of us.)
But there are some ways in which the expansion has felt not as good. Probably the biggest problem there is content - we got a huge first raid tier, yes (in fact, it's tied with tier 7 for the largest number of bosses in a raid tier,) but there has been a sense that the expansion has felt fairly limited to raiding and sitting in one's garrison.
The garrison itself I think was a noble failure. Blizzard insisted on making the garrison more gameplay-based than cosmetic, when they should have done the opposite. The relative value of the different buildings is quite skewed (I can't imagine not having a Dwarven Bunker or Armory on any character,) and the ultimate result of much of the garrison's gameplay has made it easy for players to simply check in on their follower missions and get better stuff than they would get going out in the world.
But let's not talk about Warlords - let's talk about what we want to see in expansion six:
New Toon/Low Level Content Incentive:
With no new race, class, or race/class combination, Warlords is the first expansion that did not give anyone an incentive to start a new character. One could argue that the free level 90 boost does this (something I still haven't used) but I'd argue that this is almost the opposite of a new-toon incentive. The boost further concentrates players at the highest levels, and while that's probably good for Draenor, it effectively cuts away the rest of World of Warcraft as content.
WoW's expansions do, by their nature, kind of cut off their predecessors, but it seems to me there should be an incentive to do low level content. Timewalking's ability to mix people of various levels together is a good start, but I think new races and classes are really the best way to get people to do the old stuff. It's also a great incentive to try the expansion: you might have been disinterested in going to Pandaria, but playing a class that tanks by getting their opponents drunk? Count me in!
The best routes for this are of course new races and classes (especially the latter, though I recognize how difficult that is balance-wise.)
New race-class combinations are perhaps less exciting, but also pretty fun (I still want Undead Paladins just because of how much of a mind screw that would be.)
Player Housing and Not Garrisons:
The Ashran capitals were pretty underwhelming after the promise of using Karabor and Bladespire, but ultimately, Stormshield and Warspear are really secondary to our own isolated capitals - our garrisons.
Warlords has thus been kind of lonely, and much of the excitement about player housing was directed toward features that didn't wind up being there.
Player housing should essentially be a new kind of vanity item. You like collecting mounts? Battle pets? Toys? Make furnishing your house the new collectable.
Get everyone to hang out together in a real capital city (you can split the factions if you want, but I always loved Dalaran, even with the lag,) and those who care about housing can pursue that as a fun thing. And hell, put the housing in old zones. There's enough spare room in just about all the racial starting zones that you could easily set aside some space for a house. (You might have to have Goblins use Azshara.)
More Small Group Content:
I'll admit this is kind of a pet issue, but I've always felt 5-player dungeons were the best content in WoW. Sure, Raids can go big, but there's a lot more personal responsibility in a 5-player situation.
It might even be a good idea to bring back scenarios - just make sure that tanks and healers have something compelling to do in them.
Bring back Justice/Valor Points:
Admittedly Tanaan Jungle has made Apexis Crystal farming much quicker and more rewarding, but the JP/VP system was great - knowing you can work toward a specific piece of gear (none of this random stat nonsense) was a great way to lessen frustrations over RNG. It works for PvP, why not PvE?
Draenor-style Exploration:
No, this isn't just a litany of things that Warlords did wrong. Draenor is a fantastic setting, and the myriad nooks and crannies to search made leveling up tons of fun. Holding on to that expanding upon it is something I both hope and expect Blizzard to do.
New Types of Exploration:
If, as we've often postulated, we wind up getting a South Seas expansion, I think there's tremendous potential to make the world feel huge. Creating an ocean to explore - allowing zones to be near each other or isolated far away - would be a great opportunity. I'd love to see a "continent" where there are tiny islands hidden out in the ocean that don't belong to any specific zone.
Cool Lore Developments:
Warlords had some cool characters (I'm a big fan of Yrel,) but ultimately, its place within the story of Azeroth feels a little flimsy. Because so much of the story took place not only on another planet, not only in a different time, but in a different universe, the longterm repercussions on the price of bread in Ironforge are ethereal at best. Warlords was basically a nostalgia kick to allow us to see some old famous names from the original Horde (though most of them died without getting much of a personality) and admittedly a really fun way to see the Draenei at better times, but expansions should have a big impact on the ongoing story. Wrath and Mists did this quite well, but I don't know if we're really coming out of Draenor feeling we've learned anything particularly new other than "wow, I guess Orcs have kind of always been assholes."
A lot of nice new features have been added, and I think the gear consolidation has been tremendous for us hybrids. Draenor is also a gorgeous setting, and the game certainly has never looked so good (especially now that we all have fancy new character models. Well, almost all of us.)
But there are some ways in which the expansion has felt not as good. Probably the biggest problem there is content - we got a huge first raid tier, yes (in fact, it's tied with tier 7 for the largest number of bosses in a raid tier,) but there has been a sense that the expansion has felt fairly limited to raiding and sitting in one's garrison.
The garrison itself I think was a noble failure. Blizzard insisted on making the garrison more gameplay-based than cosmetic, when they should have done the opposite. The relative value of the different buildings is quite skewed (I can't imagine not having a Dwarven Bunker or Armory on any character,) and the ultimate result of much of the garrison's gameplay has made it easy for players to simply check in on their follower missions and get better stuff than they would get going out in the world.
But let's not talk about Warlords - let's talk about what we want to see in expansion six:
New Toon/Low Level Content Incentive:
With no new race, class, or race/class combination, Warlords is the first expansion that did not give anyone an incentive to start a new character. One could argue that the free level 90 boost does this (something I still haven't used) but I'd argue that this is almost the opposite of a new-toon incentive. The boost further concentrates players at the highest levels, and while that's probably good for Draenor, it effectively cuts away the rest of World of Warcraft as content.
WoW's expansions do, by their nature, kind of cut off their predecessors, but it seems to me there should be an incentive to do low level content. Timewalking's ability to mix people of various levels together is a good start, but I think new races and classes are really the best way to get people to do the old stuff. It's also a great incentive to try the expansion: you might have been disinterested in going to Pandaria, but playing a class that tanks by getting their opponents drunk? Count me in!
The best routes for this are of course new races and classes (especially the latter, though I recognize how difficult that is balance-wise.)
New race-class combinations are perhaps less exciting, but also pretty fun (I still want Undead Paladins just because of how much of a mind screw that would be.)
Player Housing and Not Garrisons:
The Ashran capitals were pretty underwhelming after the promise of using Karabor and Bladespire, but ultimately, Stormshield and Warspear are really secondary to our own isolated capitals - our garrisons.
Warlords has thus been kind of lonely, and much of the excitement about player housing was directed toward features that didn't wind up being there.
Player housing should essentially be a new kind of vanity item. You like collecting mounts? Battle pets? Toys? Make furnishing your house the new collectable.
Get everyone to hang out together in a real capital city (you can split the factions if you want, but I always loved Dalaran, even with the lag,) and those who care about housing can pursue that as a fun thing. And hell, put the housing in old zones. There's enough spare room in just about all the racial starting zones that you could easily set aside some space for a house. (You might have to have Goblins use Azshara.)
More Small Group Content:
I'll admit this is kind of a pet issue, but I've always felt 5-player dungeons were the best content in WoW. Sure, Raids can go big, but there's a lot more personal responsibility in a 5-player situation.
It might even be a good idea to bring back scenarios - just make sure that tanks and healers have something compelling to do in them.
Bring back Justice/Valor Points:
Admittedly Tanaan Jungle has made Apexis Crystal farming much quicker and more rewarding, but the JP/VP system was great - knowing you can work toward a specific piece of gear (none of this random stat nonsense) was a great way to lessen frustrations over RNG. It works for PvP, why not PvE?
Draenor-style Exploration:
No, this isn't just a litany of things that Warlords did wrong. Draenor is a fantastic setting, and the myriad nooks and crannies to search made leveling up tons of fun. Holding on to that expanding upon it is something I both hope and expect Blizzard to do.
New Types of Exploration:
If, as we've often postulated, we wind up getting a South Seas expansion, I think there's tremendous potential to make the world feel huge. Creating an ocean to explore - allowing zones to be near each other or isolated far away - would be a great opportunity. I'd love to see a "continent" where there are tiny islands hidden out in the ocean that don't belong to any specific zone.
Cool Lore Developments:
Warlords had some cool characters (I'm a big fan of Yrel,) but ultimately, its place within the story of Azeroth feels a little flimsy. Because so much of the story took place not only on another planet, not only in a different time, but in a different universe, the longterm repercussions on the price of bread in Ironforge are ethereal at best. Warlords was basically a nostalgia kick to allow us to see some old famous names from the original Horde (though most of them died without getting much of a personality) and admittedly a really fun way to see the Draenei at better times, but expansions should have a big impact on the ongoing story. Wrath and Mists did this quite well, but I don't know if we're really coming out of Draenor feeling we've learned anything particularly new other than "wow, I guess Orcs have kind of always been assholes."
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Time for the Rumor Mill?
With Mythic Archimonde down, we find ourselves in a similar situation to the end of Mists (yes, Blizzard should be worried unless they can announce the beginning of the beta for the next expansion at Blizzcon.) While I wouldn't say we're "done" with Draenor (LFR raiders haven't had a chance to see over half of Hellfire Citadel, and the flying patch hasn't come out yet,) we're at a point where we can look at Warlords of Draenor as a final product.
While the expansion has been out for less than a year, we can be almost certain that this Blizzcon we will find out what the next one will be. That's always been the pattern, and the only reason I could imagine them announcing at a different time would be to get an initial trailer out at an earlier convention so that they can get the hype up before going into the nuts and bolts of the expansion at Blizzcon.
Previous expansion names have historically leaked as a trademark registration. This happened in my memory for Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria, and Warlords of Draenor (at the time of Wrath's announcement I wasn't hunting for WoW news as much, and BC had already been announced by the time I started playing.) That said, these leaks can be misleading - recall of course the "Dark Below" trademark that turned out to be for Destiny.
The Warlords trademark was only discovered a few weeks before Blizzcon, so I'd hold off on jumping on those until the fall.
We will of course sometimes get leaks that describe the expansion. This, of course, is a field that's prone to trolling and presenting wishful thinking as fact. But this is not always wrong either. Cataclysm's old-world revamp and five-level range was leaked beforehand, and I definitely did not believe it until I saw the official announcement. Elements of Warlords of Draenor (specifically that it would take place in a past Draenor and involve a time-traveling Garrosh Hellscream) did leak briefly before the announcement.
So far, I've only heard one rumor for expansion six, which suggested that we would be going to the alternate/past Azeroth and fighting Gul'dan, essentially turning the Eastern Kingdoms south of Blackrock Mountain into the new "continent." I'd rate this as plausible, given Blizzard's comments that they really want the expansions to flow into one another, though I'd personally like to get back to the "real world." It would of course tie into the movie quite well, which is the kind of cross-media marketing that I'm sure a lot of executives would be happy about, but I don't think it would be all that great for the game. Also, it would most likely have us fighting more Orcs, which... let's have at least three expansions without fighting any organization that ends in "Horde" (except Alliance fighting the player Horde faction in PvP.)
But this is just the first of many rumors, and we've gotten plenty of those that never took root as it were.
We'll start to see more rumors crop up as time goes on, but ultimately it's all unconfirmed until Blizzard announces it for real.
While the expansion has been out for less than a year, we can be almost certain that this Blizzcon we will find out what the next one will be. That's always been the pattern, and the only reason I could imagine them announcing at a different time would be to get an initial trailer out at an earlier convention so that they can get the hype up before going into the nuts and bolts of the expansion at Blizzcon.
Previous expansion names have historically leaked as a trademark registration. This happened in my memory for Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria, and Warlords of Draenor (at the time of Wrath's announcement I wasn't hunting for WoW news as much, and BC had already been announced by the time I started playing.) That said, these leaks can be misleading - recall of course the "Dark Below" trademark that turned out to be for Destiny.
The Warlords trademark was only discovered a few weeks before Blizzcon, so I'd hold off on jumping on those until the fall.
We will of course sometimes get leaks that describe the expansion. This, of course, is a field that's prone to trolling and presenting wishful thinking as fact. But this is not always wrong either. Cataclysm's old-world revamp and five-level range was leaked beforehand, and I definitely did not believe it until I saw the official announcement. Elements of Warlords of Draenor (specifically that it would take place in a past Draenor and involve a time-traveling Garrosh Hellscream) did leak briefly before the announcement.
So far, I've only heard one rumor for expansion six, which suggested that we would be going to the alternate/past Azeroth and fighting Gul'dan, essentially turning the Eastern Kingdoms south of Blackrock Mountain into the new "continent." I'd rate this as plausible, given Blizzard's comments that they really want the expansions to flow into one another, though I'd personally like to get back to the "real world." It would of course tie into the movie quite well, which is the kind of cross-media marketing that I'm sure a lot of executives would be happy about, but I don't think it would be all that great for the game. Also, it would most likely have us fighting more Orcs, which... let's have at least three expansions without fighting any organization that ends in "Horde" (except Alliance fighting the player Horde faction in PvP.)
But this is just the first of many rumors, and we've gotten plenty of those that never took root as it were.
We'll start to see more rumors crop up as time goes on, but ultimately it's all unconfirmed until Blizzard announces it for real.
Visual Upgrades I Only Just Noticed in Bodyguard Followers
If you have a level 2 or higher Barracks, you can assign certain followers with the Bodyguard trait to "work it" and take them anywhere outdoors in Draenor (not sure about Ashran.)
Anything you kill will grant you 10 reputation with them (this is affected by bonuses, so as a human with a level 3 trading post, I usually get 14.) You can then progress through three reputations: Bodyguard, Trusted Bodyguard, and Personal Wingman.
At the second level, you'll get an instant-complete quest that unlocks a new ability. At the third and final level, you'll be sent on a quest to one of the level 100 daily assault areas to retrieve an item for them and unlock a useful non-combat ability.
What I had not realized until recently is that most of the bodyguards get a visual upgrade when this happens.
Tormmok: After retrieving his sword in a cave at the Broken Precipice in Nagrand, he'll wield it instead of the rusty old one he used to have and become a repair vendor.
Talonpriest Ishaal: After acquiring a staff from a Shadowmoon sorcerer at the Pillars of Fate in Shadowmoon Valley (though I've always felt this counted more as Spires of Arak, given that you can use your outpost ability from there,) Ishaal will be able to send and receive mail and he'll gain a shadowform with interesting particle effects.
Delvar Ironfist (Alliance Only:) Delvar will send you to the Everbloom Wilds to take down a plant-zombie and give him the remains (as a Death Knight he's particularly appalled by people getting killed and then taken over by a foreign puppetmaster.) He'll gain the ability to create a Death Gate that takes you back to your garrison and he'll trade out his purple tier 10 armor for some tier 17.
Leorajh: Leorajh will send you to Skettis to retrieve some of his prayer beads. Doing so will allow you to access your garrison follower missions out in the field, though as far as I can tell, he has no change to his appearance.
I have yet to do Defender Ilona or either of the Horde-only followers, but this was kind of a neat discovery for me.
Also, I believe these changes only apply to them while they're active bodyguards - unassigning them will return them to their old looks.
Anything you kill will grant you 10 reputation with them (this is affected by bonuses, so as a human with a level 3 trading post, I usually get 14.) You can then progress through three reputations: Bodyguard, Trusted Bodyguard, and Personal Wingman.
At the second level, you'll get an instant-complete quest that unlocks a new ability. At the third and final level, you'll be sent on a quest to one of the level 100 daily assault areas to retrieve an item for them and unlock a useful non-combat ability.
What I had not realized until recently is that most of the bodyguards get a visual upgrade when this happens.
Tormmok: After retrieving his sword in a cave at the Broken Precipice in Nagrand, he'll wield it instead of the rusty old one he used to have and become a repair vendor.
Talonpriest Ishaal: After acquiring a staff from a Shadowmoon sorcerer at the Pillars of Fate in Shadowmoon Valley (though I've always felt this counted more as Spires of Arak, given that you can use your outpost ability from there,) Ishaal will be able to send and receive mail and he'll gain a shadowform with interesting particle effects.
Delvar Ironfist (Alliance Only:) Delvar will send you to the Everbloom Wilds to take down a plant-zombie and give him the remains (as a Death Knight he's particularly appalled by people getting killed and then taken over by a foreign puppetmaster.) He'll gain the ability to create a Death Gate that takes you back to your garrison and he'll trade out his purple tier 10 armor for some tier 17.
Leorajh: Leorajh will send you to Skettis to retrieve some of his prayer beads. Doing so will allow you to access your garrison follower missions out in the field, though as far as I can tell, he has no change to his appearance.
I have yet to do Defender Ilona or either of the Horde-only followers, but this was kind of a neat discovery for me.
Also, I believe these changes only apply to them while they're active bodyguards - unassigning them will return them to their old looks.
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Flight and "Mercenary Mode" on the PTR
6.2.1 is on the PTR, and while usually an x.y.z patch isn't all that interesting, this one will add two fairly big features.
The first is of course flight in Draenor. By now if you've been working hard on it, you should probably have the Draenor Pathfinder achievement, which awards a Rylak mount and the ability to fly once it gets implemented. The addition of flight and the compromise on how to unlock it was a rather late decision in 6.2 development, which is why we got the achievement and not the ability with 6.2.0.
I'm eager to soar above the heights of Draenor and see what it all looks like from up there.
The far more surprising change is "Mercenary Mode" in Ashran.
NPCs from the opposite faction will be hiding out in the Ashran bases. If the queue to enter is too long because of faction imbalance, you'll be able to talk to these guys and become a turncoat, disguising yourself as a member of the other faction and fighting for them.
This is a hell of a take on faction cooperation - though it's really not so much cooperation as treason. But Ashran is barely in the "lore" of Draenor anyway.
Still, I think this sets an interesting precedent - one that I'm sure many will decry as messing with one of the central mechanics of the game, though I find it fairly exciting. Of course, this particular implementation is, lore-wise, a fairly despicable act of treason, I've always thought that cross-faction grouping could be quite good for the game - and could easily be justified in lore.
After all, the factions have a history of working together to face larger threats - why has this never spilled into cross-faction grouping?
While doing this would be pretty out of character for most of my characters, one of the ones I occasionally PvP with, the Undead Rogue, would have no qualms whatsoever (being apathetic to the faction conflict and really just interested in money and the fine things money can buy.)
Anyway, if players are willing to do this (and I'm sure some will object on principle) it could help fix the balance issues in Ashran
The first is of course flight in Draenor. By now if you've been working hard on it, you should probably have the Draenor Pathfinder achievement, which awards a Rylak mount and the ability to fly once it gets implemented. The addition of flight and the compromise on how to unlock it was a rather late decision in 6.2 development, which is why we got the achievement and not the ability with 6.2.0.
I'm eager to soar above the heights of Draenor and see what it all looks like from up there.
The far more surprising change is "Mercenary Mode" in Ashran.
NPCs from the opposite faction will be hiding out in the Ashran bases. If the queue to enter is too long because of faction imbalance, you'll be able to talk to these guys and become a turncoat, disguising yourself as a member of the other faction and fighting for them.
This is a hell of a take on faction cooperation - though it's really not so much cooperation as treason. But Ashran is barely in the "lore" of Draenor anyway.
Still, I think this sets an interesting precedent - one that I'm sure many will decry as messing with one of the central mechanics of the game, though I find it fairly exciting. Of course, this particular implementation is, lore-wise, a fairly despicable act of treason, I've always thought that cross-faction grouping could be quite good for the game - and could easily be justified in lore.
After all, the factions have a history of working together to face larger threats - why has this never spilled into cross-faction grouping?
While doing this would be pretty out of character for most of my characters, one of the ones I occasionally PvP with, the Undead Rogue, would have no qualms whatsoever (being apathetic to the faction conflict and really just interested in money and the fine things money can buy.)
Anyway, if players are willing to do this (and I'm sure some will object on principle) it could help fix the balance issues in Ashran
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