Catagasm

OMG

Spent the entire morning pouring over Cataclysm stuffs. I don't even know what to say.

Oh, who am I kidding.

/GASM

Now, c'mon. How can Blizz release this sneak peak and expect me to go back to cold, undead infested Icecrown. Sheesh!

Dirty teases.

Reading over it, I wouldn't even know where to start! I mean, I have enough trouble deciding what to do when I sign in right now. :D Are ya gonna roll up a goblin or a worgen and try the new starter zones? Oh, how about a new race/class combo and run the new 1-60 quests??? Wait, you've got five (rumored slower) level on your main? How long can you wait before you absolutely, positively have to jump into Grim Batol or Hyjal? Been waiting to get in there for going on five years!!!! Heroic Deadmines AND Shadowfang?!? What's first? Gah!

Ahem

So what's in it for Warriors?

I was a little disappointed to hear that the human to worgen transformation will be purely cosmetic. It kinda makes sense, I suppose. They'd end up spending too much time getting people to use one or the other or designing situations where you'd want to switch. Like stances aren't bad enough. Basically, being in human form will be like wearing different cloths. All the action is done in Worgen form. That means no special bonuses for being in one form or the other.

The thing that caught my eye, for Warriors, is the removal of AP and ArP and Defense from gears. At first glance, that sounds divine. It means more gear with base stats like Strength and Agility and Stamina. Which means Warrior gear itemized for... well, Warriors. "Of the Bear" sort of stuff. (Remember those?) The end result is that Warriors will have higher Defense or Attack Power, or what have you, through the new talent system, rather than having to hunt down gear specifically for certain specific stats.

This one small change will solve the problem of a leveling Warrior constantly yo-yo'ing from being uber-awesome sauce to pond scum and back again every 5 levels.

Since certain professions will be able to customize the stats on gear (called "Reforging") it'll mean you can customize the gear a bit for what role you prefer, and still have the stats to be decent at the other role. Yes, that means slapping on a shield will make you a solid Arms tank. :) It also means, instead of carrying around four (or more!) sets of Armor, you'll be more likely to just carry two. One for DPS and one for Tanking. Joy!

As a purely hypothetical example, lets say a chest piece drops that has STR and STAM on it. K, but you're an Arms Warrior and right now you need STR and Agility to, say, increase your chance to Crit. So you reforge the piece to remove the STAM and swap it for Agility. You also pick up Dodge and Parry that will be useful for tanking. True, you're a softer tank, but you get hit less, too. And so on... (Just for illustration, not for real... and probably will work a lot differently, but ya get the idea.)

The new talent system looks interesting as well. Toons will be able to get bonuses and talents based on what you do in the game. That means that, over time, a casual player could ramp up their base stats without having to hunt down very specific gear that would be nearly impossible for them to get. The hardcore player is still gonna have way better gear and way better stats (and rightly so), but in theory, a casual player at level cap can enjoy the sense of accomplishment of seeing their character improve without the maniacal focus on just gear. Very good move on Blizzard's part.

Enough rambling though. Cataclysm is gonna be so much fun it'll be freaky. So far it sounds like everything a lot of other people (m'self included) have been dreaming of for a long time. Azeroth is getting a make over.

I better go do my hair.

-Fri

Little updates for 3.2

I'm still going through stuffs from the patch. So far my verdict: Yes!

MOAR!

Mostly though, I've just been playing. No plan or anything like that. I find myself tanking almost all the time. I WANNA DPS! ARRRRR! And mostly old stuffs for guildies. I have posts for several things going about 3.2. Yah, most it will never see the light of a blog... but everything works its way in here eventually.

I am getting tired of the "look" of the blog, so once again, hang on while I move the furniture around. Could get messy here for awhile.

I'm terribly excited about some of the "leaked" information about the next expansion, but I'll wait for something more official to see what's what. I will, however, mention that if Blizzard does add some new class/race combinations AND add Worgen as a playable race, they'd better be adding some character slots.

I just don't want to go through the pain and suffering of having to delete any of my beloved alts for my shiny new Worgen Whatever and Human Hunter. That would be most sad. Oh, geez... what class can Worgen be? You mean I have to start thinking about that as well???

Oh, who I am kidding. Warrior. :)

Oh, yah we're still in Northrend... Ahem...

Alchemy is looking good but WAY over due for some "fun" stuff. Oh, don't get me wrong I like the useful stuff, and it's awesome! But fun stuff would be a Good Thing, as well.

The new Crusader quests are quite nice. The additional quests make the Argent Tournament a little more like Qual'Danas, but with, you know, ice and krakens and dead vikings guys and stuff. Some of the quests are similar, though not nearly as challanging. Solo'ing these is cake.

The new Dalaran Children's Week quest is cute. This is, unfortunately, a done-it before quest chain. Nothing new other than the locales to travel with and the orphan model. We'll keep our fingers crossed that Blizz updates the Children's Week quests next year.

What can I say about the new battleground. Fun? Amazing? Wicked? Parachute into the enemy fort sometime. I don't care if it's strategy or not... just do it cause it's fun as hell! :D Don't like the changes to Wintergrasp, though. I got passed over twice now. Annoying! The other BG changes are fine. Resilience still needs work, but is a little bit better. Arms warriors are still gonna get obliterated, but just not as fast now. Instead of six seconds, you've got like, say 10 seconds. Get your shouts off and take a dive for the team. /shrug

While I don't know, nor will likely ever know, anything about the new raid, the new Trial of the Champions dungeon is fun romp. If you like the Ring of Blood style quests (and who doesn't) you'll love this. Yes, jousting is required. So nah nah ptttttttpht to anyone who didn't spend the first two weeks of the Argent Tournament cussing at the game trying to learn to joust. :P

Seriously, as long as ya got at least three people that can at least stay close to the bad guys, and hold them still, you'll be fine. The rest of it is fun and the loots are great.

K, it's very obvious that Blizzard is giving everyone a leg up in an attempt to pile as many people into Icecrown as possible. I bet anyone who's run the Heroic Trial of the Champion (or at most 10-man, regular Trial of the Crusader) several times (and grabbed some emblem gear along the way) will be able to step into the beginning of the regular version of Icecrown Citadel, gear-wise.

Yes, this still feels like a move away from the "endgame" and big raids being the culmination of an expansion. If even a smidgen of the rumors about the next expansion are true, it'll be very interesting to see how Blizzard continues down this path.

Actually, it makes a lot of sense. But not in the way many players suspect... Hmmm... I'll follow up on those thoughts later. I gotta go play WoW.

-Fri