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WoW notes and rants
Jan. 14th, 2011 12:55 pmCataclysm in general: Cataclysm made questing fun again. The story lines and cut scenes and the generous use of phases (where once you finish a certain quest, the terrain is permanently changed by your advancement through the plot), and the wonderful sense of humor--Blizzard hit it out of the park. The graphics, particularly in the underwater realm, are amazing, and I've experienced the sense of wonder I had when I first started playing. I've gotten my main, Swansong, to 85, and am now raising my priest, Sis.
The after-85 game: ...eh, not so much. I don't live to raid and the guild is still building up its pool of well-geared 85s, so even if I was a hardcore raider, we're not ready. But like every other expansion, the game becomes rep grinds and repetitious heroic dungeon runs for points for better gear.
Tanks are blessed with insta-queue--there's apparently a tank shortage! Healers wait maybe 10 minutes, because post-Cataclysm it's a much tougher job than it used to be. The wait for a DPS player is 45+ minutes. If, like me, you've literally finished every quest in the new areas, killing that 45 minutes can be problematic.
And once you get into a dungeon...?
The amount of "assholery" in heroic PUGs (translation: Pick-Up Groups for dungeons set at the highest difficulty) is pretty high. Healers, tanks, DPS just drop out of groups without warning, even during boss fights, if they don't feel the group is "elite" enough to carry them through easily. Personally, if a group is honestly trying, and I see progress being made on successive tries, I'll stick with them. Hell, I'm still learning, too! I mean, even though I'm decently geared (and got my first Cataclysm epic last night!), I am a relatively new 85, and I don't know all the subtle differences between regular and heroic versions of the boss fights--and everyone is too darn l33t to explain. Those subtle enhanced tactics can mean the difference between a group's success or failure. Everything I learn, I can bring back to the guild.
So after my 45 to 1 hour wait, I keep ending up in a heroic dungeon already in progress (remember what I said about people just dropping out leaving a group in the lurch)--which means, I've missed out on previous boss loot and faction--I'm just in it for my valor points (currency for enhanced gear). I grit my teeth, join in, and pay my repair bill afterward, but lately, I've said screw it, and just do regular dungeons to earn rep. Or go play an alt.
Once we have a few more geared 85s, I'm never running a PUG again!
That said, it's a humbling experience to go in with a bunch of 85s into heroics and get your ass handed to you by the first boss in the Dead Mines. Or to wipe repeatedly on the first boss in Shadow-f'cking-Fang Keep. These newly revamped dungeons are the same ones Swansong used to solo for fun when they were low-level! My philosophy has always been, "One day we will laugh that these dungeons ever caused us problems..." and thus it has ever been in every expansion, but it's always a good thing to remember when you're paying a 100 gold repair bill!
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The PLAYERS: A new expansion always brings an influx of new players as well as reviving the interest of former players who may have dropped out. I don't know if it's the tea party influence or what, but suddenly people seem freer to let their freak flag fly in public chat areas. I'm not talking about the typical childish talk that seems to be eternal (the "anal" meme and the "Harry Potter and the ____" meme, or Chuck Norris or "Your mom ___", I'm talkin' hate speech.
Trade chat is global and it's always been filled with bored people trash talking, but the racist and homophobic stuff being said has reached a new level.
We've always had a large number of French-speaking players on our server (they wear it proudly, such as "The Mighty Froggers"), but lately we've had an influx of Spanish-speaking players in our battlegroup, many from Argentina and Brazil. I was in a PUG where the tank, healer, and DPS were Argentinian, with only the healer being bi-lingual. Swan and the other DPS, a hunter, were the only English-as-a-primary language members of the five-man group.
The hunter started in immediately, "Damn dirty Mexicans, speak English. God, f*cking Mexicans are everywhere. Can't get away from them even in the damn game."
The bilingual player simply disregarded him. The tank understood enough English to type that he wasn't a Mexicanos, but Argentinian.
The hunter continued in this vein for half the run. "F*cking Mexicans need to learn how to play."
In the meanwhile, the hunter kept attacking the wrong target, was taking enormous damage, and the healer kept saying in English, "Hunter, attack the tank's target, don't just pick one."
I finally typed to the hunter, "Shut up and play, you're an embarrassment to the United States, you stupid racist. And L2P your class." ("L2P" for non-gamers = Learn to Play.)
They finally voted to kick him, not because he was a loud mouth racist, but because he was a piss-poor player who didn't understand dungeon group dynamics.
I hate when people drag their politics into WoW. I don't care if the tank speaks effin' FARSI as long as he can hold aggro on the mobs!
Oh, yeah, the new low - someone posted someone's real name, phone number, email in chat and invited people to add her on facebook and ask for nude pictures. The general consensus was, "So she dumped you, eh?"
-----------
I've heard several game companies sayin' they thought the single player game was pretty much dead. All I can say is sometimes the thought of playing an RPG game quietly without having to deal with trash-talking idiots can be quite relaxing.
The after-85 game: ...eh, not so much. I don't live to raid and the guild is still building up its pool of well-geared 85s, so even if I was a hardcore raider, we're not ready. But like every other expansion, the game becomes rep grinds and repetitious heroic dungeon runs for points for better gear.
Tanks are blessed with insta-queue--there's apparently a tank shortage! Healers wait maybe 10 minutes, because post-Cataclysm it's a much tougher job than it used to be. The wait for a DPS player is 45+ minutes. If, like me, you've literally finished every quest in the new areas, killing that 45 minutes can be problematic.
And once you get into a dungeon...?
The amount of "assholery" in heroic PUGs (translation: Pick-Up Groups for dungeons set at the highest difficulty) is pretty high. Healers, tanks, DPS just drop out of groups without warning, even during boss fights, if they don't feel the group is "elite" enough to carry them through easily. Personally, if a group is honestly trying, and I see progress being made on successive tries, I'll stick with them. Hell, I'm still learning, too! I mean, even though I'm decently geared (and got my first Cataclysm epic last night!), I am a relatively new 85, and I don't know all the subtle differences between regular and heroic versions of the boss fights--and everyone is too darn l33t to explain. Those subtle enhanced tactics can mean the difference between a group's success or failure. Everything I learn, I can bring back to the guild.
So after my 45 to 1 hour wait, I keep ending up in a heroic dungeon already in progress (remember what I said about people just dropping out leaving a group in the lurch)--which means, I've missed out on previous boss loot and faction--I'm just in it for my valor points (currency for enhanced gear). I grit my teeth, join in, and pay my repair bill afterward, but lately, I've said screw it, and just do regular dungeons to earn rep. Or go play an alt.
Once we have a few more geared 85s, I'm never running a PUG again!
That said, it's a humbling experience to go in with a bunch of 85s into heroics and get your ass handed to you by the first boss in the Dead Mines. Or to wipe repeatedly on the first boss in Shadow-f'cking-Fang Keep. These newly revamped dungeons are the same ones Swansong used to solo for fun when they were low-level! My philosophy has always been, "One day we will laugh that these dungeons ever caused us problems..." and thus it has ever been in every expansion, but it's always a good thing to remember when you're paying a 100 gold repair bill!
---------
The PLAYERS: A new expansion always brings an influx of new players as well as reviving the interest of former players who may have dropped out. I don't know if it's the tea party influence or what, but suddenly people seem freer to let their freak flag fly in public chat areas. I'm not talking about the typical childish talk that seems to be eternal (the "anal" meme and the "Harry Potter and the ____" meme, or Chuck Norris or "Your mom ___", I'm talkin' hate speech.
Trade chat is global and it's always been filled with bored people trash talking, but the racist and homophobic stuff being said has reached a new level.
We've always had a large number of French-speaking players on our server (they wear it proudly, such as "The Mighty Froggers"), but lately we've had an influx of Spanish-speaking players in our battlegroup, many from Argentina and Brazil. I was in a PUG where the tank, healer, and DPS were Argentinian, with only the healer being bi-lingual. Swan and the other DPS, a hunter, were the only English-as-a-primary language members of the five-man group.
The hunter started in immediately, "Damn dirty Mexicans, speak English. God, f*cking Mexicans are everywhere. Can't get away from them even in the damn game."
The bilingual player simply disregarded him. The tank understood enough English to type that he wasn't a Mexicanos, but Argentinian.
The hunter continued in this vein for half the run. "F*cking Mexicans need to learn how to play."
In the meanwhile, the hunter kept attacking the wrong target, was taking enormous damage, and the healer kept saying in English, "Hunter, attack the tank's target, don't just pick one."
I finally typed to the hunter, "Shut up and play, you're an embarrassment to the United States, you stupid racist. And L2P your class." ("L2P" for non-gamers = Learn to Play.)
They finally voted to kick him, not because he was a loud mouth racist, but because he was a piss-poor player who didn't understand dungeon group dynamics.
I hate when people drag their politics into WoW. I don't care if the tank speaks effin' FARSI as long as he can hold aggro on the mobs!
Oh, yeah, the new low - someone posted someone's real name, phone number, email in chat and invited people to add her on facebook and ask for nude pictures. The general consensus was, "So she dumped you, eh?"
-----------
I've heard several game companies sayin' they thought the single player game was pretty much dead. All I can say is sometimes the thought of playing an RPG game quietly without having to deal with trash-talking idiots can be quite relaxing.
