IC Forum Archive

DeusJester · Posts: 1388

It seems like every time I poke up the fact that I'm playing this game, there's a little spike of interest, so! Here we go, one more time.

Dear Insert Credit:

I am currently playing World of Warcraft, available for Mac and PC, and would like you to join me.

I've got a high-level character and my own small, casual guild. It's currently at around 20 active members, and they're a good group of people. We're looking to expand our population without having to go through the work of weeding them out of the general populace. Most of you on here fit the bill, so come on down and I'll hook you up.

The game's like 30 bucks now, and you get a month or so for free, so it's worth a shot.

On a more IC-centric note, it's actually worth checking out if you're one of those people who wants to see what happens when a company making an MMO decides to strip out all the bullshit. Older players will probably get a surprising amount of mileage out of it: Once I found my little niche within the game, the social aspect has sort of boosted it to a Multiplayer Oblivion-like status. It's nowhere near as much of a collect-a-thon as, say, Diablo II, nor anywhere near as competitive as Starcraft or Warcraft III. You can actually just hop online to hang out and not feel like you're "wasting time".

Even Elisa, the non-gamer fiancee, fell in hard once she met some people she didn't want to kill. This makes for a weird dynamic on my side, too, as I'm on the Horde and she's on the Alliance (who normally are trying to kill each other). So, I can do stuff like have my guild mates track her down in game. Makes for some interesting photo ops, particularly since Elisa's character doesn't seem to be into the whole "wearing pants" thing.

On top of that, the PvP Combat is a blast, if that's your thing.

Anyway, I've no doubt this'll sink to the bottom and die like the last five times I've asked or so, but fuck it. Jooooiiinnnn ussss...

Character name: Mohal
Server: Kirin Tor
Guild: The Bleeding Hollow Clan

Screenshot Collection!

If you come on, let me know and we'll ride out to get you and hook you up.

SuperWes · Posts: 681

Don't do it guys! When you start playing one of these you start to give up on games that are actually... you know, good!

-Wes

DeusJester · Posts: 1388

Funny, that hasn't happened to me yet. Maybe if you don't actually play games that'll happen, though. A lot of players I meet only play Warcraft, but not because they're given up other games to play it; they never played other games to begin with.

Look on the bright side: This makes them much easier to kill.

BalbanesBeoulve · Posts: 2126

I'm already bored with this game at level 43. Mainly because of instances. All the annoyance of having to find a party in FFXI with none of the fun once you get one. Just pressing 2 and 2 and 2 over and over again to keep spamming shadowbolt.

The normal questing/leveling isn't bad. But if you ignore instances you're stuck with crappy gear.

Belthegor · Posts: 154

Okay, I might stop by. ...Muahahaha.

DeusJester · Posts: 1388

BalbanesBeoulve wrote:

I'm already bored with this game at level 43. Mainly because of instances. All the annoyance of having to find a party in FFXI with none of the fun once you get one. Just pressing 2 and 2 and 2 over and over again to keep spamming shadowbolt.

This is why we only ever run instances with people in the guild. If you're just staying in pick-up groups and never actually forming any social interaction, then yeah, the game is going to get real boring real fast. Hence, the IC thing.

Give us a shot, see what you think. No guarentees: GCDiaz got it and immediately got bored, so, hey.

Again, we're pretty much the epitome of "casual". No l33t raidx0rz OMG or anything. That shit bugs all of us to no end.

And, uh, if you're just spamming shadowbolt, then you're kind of being a crappy Warlock, dude. You've got a jillion cool spells, try using 'em, or roll a hunter or something. Warlocks are kind of a pain.

Better yet, be a Shaman (or a priest!)

BalbanesBeoulve · Posts: 2126

When the average elite mob dies in a few seconds I'm not going to cast DOTs. Bosses are a different story. But yeah, of course I use my banishes and seduces and healthstones and all my other spells. Though most people are constantly idiots and do shit like hit guys i have seduced, or priests that soulstone revive in the middle of a wipe only to immediately die again thus wasting the purpose of a soulstone.

DeusJester · Posts: 1388

BalbanesBeoulve wrote:

Though most people are constantly idiots and do shit like hit guys i have seduced, or priests that soulstone revive in the middle of a wipe only to immediately die again thus wasting the purpose of a soulstone.

Yeah, this is for two reasons:

a) You're playing alliance. Alliance is full of idiots. Ask anyone who's ever switched sides (there are many). Not everyone on the alliance is a moron, but they tend to have a much, much larger pool of them.

b) You're playing in pick-up groups. A vast majority of the people doing PUGs at level 40 are people too irritating/dumb/greedy to get into a guild (or ones that got kicked out of their guild for being those things), so yeah, I'm not surprised you're being grouped with retards.

Belthegor · Posts: 154

I'd like to ask for your opinion on something if that's alright.

Which class progresses the fastest (in levels and such), generally?

If I'm gonna make a new character, I want it to be one I don't have to struggle with too much.

BalbanesBeoulve · Posts: 2126

I'm in a guild. My average instance is usually with at least one other person from my guild. But most people in the guild (and the game) are level 60, since it so relatively easy to hit 60.

DeusJester · Posts: 1388

Belthegor wrote:

I'd like to ask for your opinion on something if that's alright.

Which class progresses the fastest (in levels and such), generally?

If I'm gonna make a new character, I want it to be one I don't have to struggle with too much.

Well, what's your playstyle? A Shaman can solo damn near everything, but they require a LOT of thinking on your feet. Warriors, comparatively, can also level fast but unless you're actually fighting something hard, you can sort of go on autopilot.

The other thing is, if you're a priest, you'll suck at solo, but it won't be an issue because everyone and their entire guild is going to want to be your best fried. You will level VERY fast as a priest, simply because you will never, ever be without a zillion party invites, and that continues right up to 60. High-level priests are the most sought-after characters in the game bar none.

A VERY loose list of classes, from the most difficult to play to the least:

Priest
Druid (if played "right", otherwise drop to the bottom of the list -- "Moonfire Spam!")
Shaman (horde only)
Rogue
Warlock
Mage
Hunter
Paladin (alliance only)
Warrior

Note that the difference isn't huge, though. A warrior can be damn tricky to play, and a priest might have an easy task, so take all that with a grain of salt. Also, all this smooths out if you're doing PvP: No one class is "better" than the others, it's more a sense of "this class can take this class easier than this class". A rogue can fuck up a mage no problem, but they're going to have trouble with a paladin. A shaman can waste a rogue, but a good hunter or warlock can take them down easily. And so on.

As far as classes that can solo easy, Hunters, Shamans, and Warriors take the cake, in that order.

DeusJester · Posts: 1388

BalbanesBeoulve wrote:

I'm in a guild. My average instance is usually with at least one other person from my guild. But most people in the guild (and the game) are level 60, since it so relatively easy to hit 60.

We have our 60s run people through instances, plus most players have alts at various levels.

extralife · Posts: 3316

I played the game for a while, got to about level 37 or something, and stopped. It looks pretty, but outside of that I don't think there is anything to seperate it from all the other shitty timesinks out there. And it still costs money.

Actually, I only started playing it originally because my friend bought me a copy. Without telling me. So I sort of had to give it a go at that point.

LegatoB · Posts: 1546

I've been taking a break again because of school, but finals are next week, and the game is calling to me once more... I doubt I'll be able to resist it much longer. Maybe I'll pop in and check out your server when I bite the bullet and charge the card again, Deus. I haven't played Horde in a while, and I kind of miss it.

Also, yeah, Balbanes, never do instances in PUGs if you can avoid it. Never! Instances are much more fun and satisfying with a good group of dudes you know who don't suck ass. Plus, then there's less fighting over loot (usually).

GrimSweeper · Posts: 530

I have noticed an annoying tendency with people to replace "rogue" with "rouge." I thought at one point that I had mysteriously undergone a time-warp and lost the period of time in which everybody agreed that this spelling was the way to do it. I checked the online dictionary...but from what little I learned in this semester's Linguistics class (hated it), dictionaries are automatically out of date by the time they are published.

So uh, I tend to play a rogue in other games, as in scoundrel, as in thief. I do NOT use rouge, as in blush, as in metal/glass polish.

Just had to get that out of my head.

PS. When I first typed the last sentence in the paragraph, it was "by the time they are punished."

DeusJester · Posts: 1388

I fucking do that all the time, and I never catch it.

Rouge. Rogue. Brain hurt! Eyes fuxxored!

hazylium · Posts: 199

Hey DJ when (as in what times) do you and your guild usually get online to play? I've temporarily stopped playing- school obligations- but I'm thinking of picking up the game again in a month or so. Since I'd only played for a month previously and my character (on Dark Iron) is only level 20, I don't mind starting over on another server which has people worth playin with.

DeusJester · Posts: 1388

We're generally on every day in the evening, from about 6PM-ish to 2AM-ish EST. Not all of us for the entire time, mind you, but there will almost always be a fair chunk of us on at that point.

Also, at this point all I'm really doing is PvP combat: I'm more or less "finished" with the single player game and am now just on it for pure casual fun, so I don't mind running people through places or doing RP events or whatever. Anyone I know from IC who drops by will be getting hooked up pretty nicely. You're basically going to have a personal squad of level 60s backing you up, which is nice.

That's probably also worth pointing out: We all enjoy Role Playing to some extent. We're not crazy with it or anything, but a general rule of thumb is that stuff your character actually says out loud should be in-character.

The idea is that anyone walking by two of my guild members having a conversation won't be pulled out of the game. In party chat we're either/or depending on what people want to do, and then we have a full-time, uncensored out of character chat room that ourselves and a few other allied guilds all share.

So, it's roleplay with the geek factor taken as low as we can get it and still have fun. We really just spend most of our time goofing off. It's nice.

Talbain · Posts: 628

I play on Spirestone. Drop me a line if you ever decide to play. I'm not moving. Blizzard did something fucking stupid when they decided to have no good way of moving characters between servers.

bort · Posts: 319

I used to play this. I eventually got bored of it and couldn't justify spending the time or money on it, but it was pretty fun for the most part. PVP is pretty excellent. By the end all I was doing was logging on to do a battleground. Instances are boring shit though, and the only reason I could put up with them was because my friend and I would screw around the whole time. Like making everyone stop for 5 minutes during the middle of the instance so that we could face Mecca and pray. Shit like that that would get people saying AW HELL NO I DONT PLAY WITH FUCKIN MOSLEMS and the like.

But yeah you wouldn't really want me to play anyway since all I did was fuck around with people and roleplay as my character's - Crispus (as in Attucks, first martyr of liberty...) level 60 Paladin - namesake. I also had a black dwarf rogue named Harrietubman (two T's wouldn't fit) and I would do pretty much the same thing but SASSIER.

So yeah this game is kind of fun!

BalbanesBeoulve · Posts: 2126

There's rumors that they're going to implement pay character transfers soon.

Ethoscapade · Posts: 627

i hate to say it but i really can't see a downside to that. and my personal experience with the game was a ten-day pass that did nothing for me.

Talbain · Posts: 628

BalbanesBeoulve wrote:

There's rumors that they're going to implement pay character transfers soon.

I'm not paying to transfer my character. Fuck, I shouldn't have to pay to play the damn game. It's really quite terrible. They should pay me. In fact, I'm thinking of selling gold so they will pay me. Or somebody will.

extralife · Posts: 3316

bort wrote:

Like making everyone stop for 5 minutes during the middle of the instance so that we could face Mecca and pray. Shit like that that would get people saying AW HELL NO I DONT PLAY WITH FUCKIN MOSLEMS and the like.

That is god damn hilarious.

Monochrome · Posts: 27

I picked this up about a month ago and my work ethic hasn't fully recovered yet.

I spend most of my time being totally indecisive about what kind of character I prefer to play. So many combinations to put together, test for a while, wonder if I should have combined things differently, and worry that if I pick wrong I'll not want to go back and do the same damn quests again later. Combinations where I'm very satisfied with the gameplay and PVP but realize I have no idea how to fit into a group or RP role, combinations where I like the RP concept behind the character but find the actual levelling a groaning chore, combinations of professions I like but classes I don't and vice versa. So many combinations, to feel irrationally dissatisfied with. I'm going to be old and gray and hooked up to an IV tube before I get anyone to 60.

On another note: you're saying it's actually, confirmably true that Horde players have their shit way more together than Alliance players? I ask because every Arathi Basin game I've ever played on Emerald Dream has been an ungodly blowout for the Horde. WSG is not so ridiculous, but Horde clearly has a big edge there as well. Being a fly on the wall on Maelstrom Alliance city chat (neither of my Allies are big enough to do anything but take a more valuable contributor's place in WSG), I gather that it's the same story there, or maybe even worse.

But I wonder about that, since the biggest difference by far is nothing more than the types of players that get attracted to either side. It makes me wonder if Blizzard shouldn't deliberately imbalance BG's in favor of the Alliance to compensate for an aspect of it that is clearly inherent.
I haven't played 51+ BG's yet so I have no idea if things are different up there.

DeusJester · Posts: 1388

Talbain wrote:

BalbanesBeoulve wrote:

There's rumors that they're going to implement pay character transfers soon.

I'm not paying to transfer my character. Fuck, I shouldn't have to pay to play the damn game. It's really quite terrible. They should pay me. In fact, I'm thinking of selling gold so they will pay me. Or somebody will.

It kinda weirds me out how often I hear people saying this, but they're still playing.

I'm not saying that to be snippy, either. Like, in-game, I'll hear people going:

"Christ, my guild sucks, there's nothing to do at level 60 except grind PvP Honor and raid shitty instances, and I've already seen everything in the game. Fuck this shit."

Me: "So why don't you stop?"

Them: "Fuck no, are you crazy!? We're gonna run MC in three days and I'm the only one who can tank Ragnaros without fucking it up and wiping the party!"

DeusJester · Posts: 1388

Monochrome wrote:

On another note: you're saying it's actually, confirmably true that Horde players have their shit way more together than Alliance players? I ask because every Arathi Basin game I've ever played on Emerald Dream has been an ungodly blowout for the Horde. WSG is not so ridiculous, but Horde clearly has a big edge there as well. Being a fly on the wall on Maelstrom Alliance city chat (none of my Allies are big enough to do anything but take a more valuable contributor's place in WSG), I gather that it's the same story there, or maybe even worse.

But I wonder about that, since the biggest difference by far is nothing more than the types of players that get attracted to either side. It makes me wonder if Blizzard shouldn't deliberately imbalance BG's in favor of the Alliance to compensate for an aspect of it that is clearly inherent.
I haven't played 51+ BG's yet so I have no idea if things are different up there.

Well, from what I've been able to tell, the game works like this as far as PvP:

Generally, you get older players attracted to the Horde side. Also, generally, the Horde winds up as people's secondary characters. Most people roll an Alliance character first, learn the ropes there, then switch to the Horde.

So, one way or another, you've less Horde overall but they're much better players, whereas you've got a far greater number of Alliance but they're generally less skilled at the game.

I know this phrase has been floating around, but it's pretty true: Alliance is "Easy Mode", Horde is "Hard Mode". So, the better players tend to be Horde.

Again, there's obviously lots of exceptions to those rules -- there's plenty of crazy-skilled Alliance -- but that's the general gist of it.

So, when you go into the Battlegrounds, the numbers are evened out, and the Alliance's "natural" advantage of sheer numbers is taken away. And the Horde just walk all over them with practically no resistance.

When you start to hit the higher brackets, however, it becomes much more balanced. All the Alliance players who are left are generally quite good, and are also much more prone to banding together. Horde easily looses as many as it wins in the 50's bracket on my server, but it's also the same alliance party over and over again, and they're very organized.

The other interesting thing is that all the good Alliance fighters now know my character and won't attack him outside of the Battlegrounds, which immediately removes one of the biggest threats to my health in the game. I've come across them in common areas of the game quite a bit and we usually just salute each other and go on our ways, even if I'm drastically outnumbered and they could slaughter me without a problem. It's pretty cool.

We were even granted safe passage into Stormwind to go fishing at one point. See? And Rhinjet, who you see there, is one of the highest-ranked PvPers on the Alliance side: check it out.

So now, if I get attacked by Alliance in the general world areas, it's usually by Alliance who don't really know how to fight, or I would have seen them in the battlegrounds at some point. Case in point: I took out four of them at once a couple days ago: A 33, a 44, a 37, and a 40. Now, I'm level 59, so I had a big power advantage, but not so huge that four of them at the same time couldn't have killed me. But not only did I kill them all, I did it twice. Another alliance 46 who was standing around actually declined to jump in and help his faction once he saw they were losing; he just waved at me and started dancing once all his buddies were dead. If they'd really known what they were doing, I wouldn't have stood a chance.

And I've seen fights even worse than that. A level 25 Horde killed a level 41 Alliance, which should be practically impossible, but the poor Alliance guy was either not paying attention or just had zero clue on what they were doing. The horde -- a hunter -- just walked backwards and kept unloading shots at the guy while the Alliance continued to try to close to melee range. She led him halfway across the barrens before he finally keeled over without having landed a single hit. Nevermind Warcraft; if you've played videogames, then that trick won't work on you.

That's the equivalent of just using a sweep kick over and over again in Mortal Kombat II and having your opponent walk into it every single time for the entire fight.

The Alliance also seems to just go looking for trouble a lot more (which I'm guessing has to do with the age difference, since standing outside of Orgrimmar yelling obscenities is a lot funnier when you're 14).

Have you heard about that video floating around the internet of some poor slob whacking off to his dancing night elf character on the screen while muttering to himself about how hot she is? His roommate snuck in and caught it on tape, then uploaded it to the internet. That pretty much sums up a good chunk of the Alliance population's reason for choosing that side. Even on our server.

If you're a female Night Elf druid or a male Night Elf hunter, don't ever expect to be taken seriously by anyone, ever. Those are far and away the most prevalent retard classes in the game.

GcDiaz · Posts: 1057

OK, you sick demented fuck, I renewed my account. You better bring the girls and beer!

Iammadmak · Posts: 210

That video is the reason a friend of a friend quit WoW, because the person in the video was in his guild and he had known him very well.

DeusJester · Posts: 1388

Iammadmak wrote:

That video is the reason a friend of a friend quit WoW, because the person in the video was in his guild and he had known him very well.

I really do feel bad for that kid. That kind of shit is the last thing you want a video of yourself on the internet doing. That's just below being caught fucking an anime sex pillow for crap you really need to not be seen doing if you ever want to retain a shred of dignity.

My assertion stands, though. Don't roll a female Night Elf. That's the reason so many people do -- they want to be the "pretty" character. And if you're a lonely teenage geek with a nudity mod and a fondness for their titty-rubbing dance animation, well...Yeah, you really don't wanna be that kid.

Which is also why the Blood Elves are going Horde side come the expansion, so that the Horde will also have a pretty race. Closest thing we got right now is the female troll, who aren't exactly geek fapping material, despite being interesting looking in their own right.

This prettification of the Horde is something most everyone currently on the Horde is not looking forward to, obviously.

dmauro · Posts: 933

BalbanesBeoulve wrote:

There's rumors that they're going to implement pay character transfers soon.

They've been saying this for some time now, but they have yet to actually allow my roommate to transfer his character to his own account.

I'm on Dalaran in the guild Bushido. It's a nice guild because it's serious enough to do large raids like MC, or get a 5 man together whenever you need, but not so serious that you feel like you're playing with a bunch of uptight jerks. If you can get into this kind of situation, the game is a lot of fun. I also happen to think that warlocks are the most fun class to play, and that gnomes are the best race, so having a lvl 60 gnome warlock means the game is actually a lot of fun for me.

So yeah, here's another vote for the game, but I'm not about to start another alt on another server, but if you ever feel like rolling an alliance toon, try out the Dalaran server and ask about getting into Bushido.

Jeff Garneau · Posts: 1622

so i kinda want to get into this game, but mostly just to pretend to be a girl so i can get easy money from boyfriends who i will collect and extort. then i'll sell the gold on ebay. it sounds like alliance is the side to do it on, though.

LegatoB · Posts: 1546

If that's your aim, then yes, Female Human or Female Night Elf is the way to go.

DeusJester · Posts: 1388

Jeff Garneau wrote:

it sounds like alliance is the side to do it on, though.

Yep. Look for the Human Male Paladins or Male Night Elf Hunters, those are your best marks for toon extortion.

BalbanesBeoulve · Posts: 2126

dmauro wrote:

BalbanesBeoulve wrote:

There's rumors that they're going to implement pay character transfers soon.

They've been saying this for some time now, but they have yet to actually allow my roommate to transfer his character to his own account.

That's not what i'm talking about. Not many people want to do that. I'm talking about transferring characters from one server to another.

benreed · Posts: 100

DeusJester wrote:

I know this phrase has been floating around, but it's pretty true: Alliance is "Easy Mode", Horde is "Hard Mode". So, the better players tend to be Horde.

I've played a level 60 Human Warrior for a while now so I couldn't resist offering a bit of insight into this topic.

To some degree that's true, and there's a couple reasons that stereotype developed:

- Alliance have Paladins. Paladins do shitty damage (except in the very early levels), but they're in many ways easier to play than Shamans and most other classes because of their sheer survivability. They have two shields which offer temporary complete damage immunity on seperate cooldowns, great heals, shitloads of armor, and a super-emergency heal to restore 100% of their lifebar if things get really nasty.

In PvP this is annoying because they take a long time to kill (making them good node defenders and flag cappers), and in PvE they have to be a lot less careful than Shaman players, even in the endgame raid dungeons.

Paladins hardly ever pull aggro when healing (their main role in raid dungeons), they can take a lot more punishment than other healers and casters if a mob or boss suddenly gets loose, they have Lay on Hands for a super-emergency heal on the main tank or somebody equally important to a boss fight, and with decent +healing gear their heals are second only to Priests (Druids are good healers too, but unlike pallies their major heals are big and slow, making them rely more on their heals-over-time and less effective at battery healing).

- By virtue of having Paladins, Alliance have Blessing of Salvation. This is only really important in endgame raid dungeons like MC and BWL, but in raiding it makes a HUGE difference.

BoS is a buff that, when cast on a player (usually everyone except the tanks, because they're EXPECTED to pull aggro), significantly reduces the amount of "threat" they put out when healing or attacking during a boss fight, making it significantly less likely that they will pull "aggro" (or, the big mean dragon's attention and focus of attack) off the main tank, whose job it is to "distract" the big nasty monster in question (who can kill most cloth-armored classes in one or two melee hits) while the rest of the raid kills him.

This makes a HUGE difference in the opening phase of a boss fight, where the main tank hasn't secured aggro yet with Sunder Armor/Revenge and it's very likely that a big Shadow Bolt/Fireball/Backstab critical hit will draw the monster's attention and send them rampaging for precious seconds among the ranks of the casters, usually killing 10-20 people (healers and primary damage dealers all) before the tank gets aggro back. If you lose a lot of damage dealers/healers when that happens, you basically lose the fight slowly and painfully, because even with everybody alive and going all-out on damage and healing, these bosses have metric fucktons of HP and take at least five minutes to kill even with forty people slinging spells, gunshots, and huge swords at them.

This is also especially important on fights where many of the bosses have a periodic aggro "wipe", where they will randomly or uniformly stop attacking the tank for a few seconds and suddenly start attacking another member of the raid (in most cases, somebody in the caster ranks), and everybody has to immediately drop what they're doing and help guide the monster back to its proper position where the main tank can tank it and everyone else can stay safely out of the way.

What this means in short is that with BoS, Alliance raiders can go a lot more all-out right off the bat fighting raid bosses than Horde players can. Horde players have to be a lot more careful about managing their threat level so they don't pull aggro off the tank and kill half the raid, which means slower damage and stingier healing.

Shamans were recently given a totem roughly equivalent to BoS, but I've never played endgame Horde, so I have no idea how it ACTUALLY compares to BoS (I would assume it's not that great, given that you have to refresh totems far more often than BoS and you have to make sure that the totems are placed properly so that it doesn't interfere with the tanking by reducing the tank's threat...that, and if it's a Wind totem, you'd probably prefer to put something down like Windfury to aid in DPS.)

- Minor things: Alliance also have an easier Onyxia key quest chain (which isn't saying much, because even the Alliance one is long and annoying), a much better positioning of major cities for raiding MC, Onyxia, and BWL (Ironforge and Stormwind are like a 6 minute flight + horse ride away, Horde have to go from Booty Bay to get there quickest, and Orgrimmar and UC are way too far away for quick hearths to repair after wiping), and some of their flight paths are better and some of their towns better positioned (going to the Alliance flight point in Arathi from Wetlands is pretty easy, I can only imagine what a nightmare gankfest it must be as a level 25-ish Hordeling running all the way from Tarren Mill to Hammerfall). I'm sure there are other things I'm forgetting.

LegatoB · Posts: 1546

Dwarves can be Paladins?

My mind is blown.

Talbain · Posts: 628

DeusJester wrote:

Talbain wrote:

BalbanesBeoulve wrote:

There's rumors that they're going to implement pay character transfers soon.

I'm not paying to transfer my character. Fuck, I shouldn't have to pay to play the damn game. It's really quite terrible. They should pay me. In fact, I'm thinking of selling gold so they will pay me. Or somebody will.

It kinda weirds me out how often I hear people saying this, but they're still playing.

I'm not saying that to be snippy, either. Like, in-game, I'll hear people going:

"Christ, my guild sucks, there's nothing to do at level 60 except grind PvP Honor and raid shitty instances, and I've already seen everything in the game. Fuck this shit."

Me: "So why don't you stop?"

Them: "Fuck no, are you crazy!? We're gonna run MC in three days and I'm the only one who can tank Ragnaros without fucking it up and wiping the party!"

Why? Because WoW is TV for the modern age. You never know how much you've sunk into it until it's already too late. Honestly though, I play because I find myself bored. When I do, I come do this to fill time. I could do other stuff (and I have a lot of other stuff to do, but it can wait), I just really don't really feel like it. I want to "veg."

DeusJester · Posts: 1388

benreed wrote:

Shamans were recently given a totem roughly equivalent to BoS, but I've never played endgame Horde, so I have no idea how it ACTUALLY compares to BoS (I would assume it's not that great, given that you have to refresh totems far more often than BoS and you have to make sure that the totems are placed properly so that it doesn't interfere with the tanking by reducing the tank's threat...that, and if it's a Wind totem, you'd probably prefer to put something down like Windfury to aid in DPS.)

Ahhh, yes, our "trusty" Tranquil Air totem. Like, the most backhanded concession ever on the part of Blizzard.

And yep, it's annoying for those three reasons you mentioned. One, like you said, it chews up an Air Totem so that's no Windfury and no Grace of Air. Two, you get to keep laying it down, though the timer isn't too horrible on it; it's more an issue of you can't tell when the thing is going to vanish without either counting, or just manually keeping an eye on it. Three, you have to be amazingly careful where you lay it down, or it sends the hate to, say, your mages instead of your tanks, and then you're all proper fucked. If you don't have good spatial reasoning, you're going to get everyone killed. Even better, if everyone decides to change position while the totem is active, they can wipe the party anyway...And you'll still take the blame for it.

The thing even has a shitty icon. They just reused the Frost Wand image from Warcraft III.

Being a Shaman in the endgame (outside of PvP) is one of the most thankless tasks in the game.

On the other hand, we absolutely rock within PvP, which I sort of like better anyway, so meh.

benreed wrote:

I've seen some legendarily stupid Paladins

Yeah, I hear that a lot, and have seen a few screenshots of some paladins saying mind-bendingly idiotic things. It's kind of funny how the "righteous" characters also draw some of the biggest morons. Art imitates life, I suppose.

"all the hoard players are ugly irl wich is why the choose the ugly races. lol idiots."

That one was my favorite.

ChairmanMeow · Posts: 15

I've rerolled like 3 times looking for a good server, can this time be my last?

GcDiaz · Posts: 1057

Just pick Kirin Tor and keep trying. I made two characters there when it was already full, and both got in with minimal effort.

DeusJester · Posts: 1388

The population of Kirin Tor has actually gone down a bit, I think. Anyone who's account is suspended or cancelled isn't factored into the overal server population, and I know we just had a big exodus of people a while back.

extralife · Posts: 3316

My friend brought his laptop over today and I logged onto my old Shaman, which he respeced and got to level 40 (I was at 37), and I immediately killed three level 38's and a level 43 in Stranglethorn within like a minute of each other. And I pretty much suck at the game. I was chasing down one of the 38's after he polymorphed me, and I ran into another one that I killed without breaking stride. He literally died in less than a second. So don't nobody tell me Shaman's are hard to play as or Paladins make the game easier for alliance or whatever.

And no, I didn't have any good equipment.

haircute · Posts: 928

Dj: If you and your clan were on ThunderLord I would be down. Mostly because my sister could hook me up with mad help.

Only cool kids play horde BTW and FTW. Maybe FTW.

DeusJester · Posts: 1388

extralife wrote:

So don't nobody tell me Shaman's are hard to play as or Paladins make the game easier for alliance or whatever.

Hop in the battlegrounds and see how well that works, dude. Take movie captures to this effect! I will eat lots of crow pie if you do.

extralife wrote:

I was chasing down one of the 38's after he polymorphed me, and I ran into another one that I killed without breaking stride.

And, uh, no offense, but I'm gonna go ahead and call bullshit on that one, unless the 38 in question was a gnome. Wearing cloth. And already half-dead. And had his back turned.

And was AFK.

And you critted him.

With Windfury.

Twice.

Monochrome wrote:

extralife wrote:

killed without breaking stride

He must have had ressurection sickness. That happened to me once.

Or that!

Monochrome · Posts: 27

DeusJester wrote:

hilarious hunter story

What class was the NE, anyway? You'd think he'd do a Charge or a Sprint, or a ranged attack (I'm assuming the Hunter must have been in AotC to pull this off) or something.

On the topic of closing to melee range against a hunter: my main is an Orc Hunter with a lot of Survival talents. Dual Wield + orcish axe bonus + orcish Blood Fury + orcish pet damage bonus + (AotM + Deterrence) * (Mongoose Bite + Savage Strikes) + (immo trap that I was careful not to step away from + sqrt[Entrapment]) + "if you're a warrior or rogue all you have to do is run up to him and you'll win the fight, everybody knows that!" = endless source of entertainment. I can hardly wait until I get Counterattack.

DeusJester wrote:

Which is also why the Blood Elves are going Horde side come the expansion, so that the Horde will also have a pretty race.

I'm now officially predicting that Dranei are going to be the new Alliance race.

extralife wrote:

killed without breaking stride

He must have had ressurection sickness. That happened to me once.

DeusJester · Posts: 1388

Monochrome wrote:

What class was the NE, anyway?

Not a Nelf; Human Paladin. Dumb as a bag of rocks, too.

extralife · Posts: 3316

DeusJester wrote:

extralife wrote:

I was chasing down one of the 38's after he polymorphed me, and I ran into another one that I killed without breaking stride.

And, uh, no offense, but I'm gonna go ahead and call bullshit on that one, unless the 38 in question was a gnome. Wearing cloth. And already half-dead. And had his back turned.

And was AFK.

And you critted him.

With Windfury.

Twice.

He was a full-health...Priest, I think? Maybe he was the Hunter? Either way, there were definetely some windfury crits going on. Someone else said he may have had res sickness, and that is a possibilty. Still, I took out a 43 Paladin with no mana. I killed a 'lock when I had ZERO health. Some dude finally killed me, and then they all fucking left. They wanted no part of that shit.

As much as this is making me sound like I'm making fun of the game (and I kind of am), I have to say, if there's anything that would ever get me back into the game, it'd be the ability to run amok in stranglethorn beasting Paladins.

LegatoB · Posts: 1546

Even the Alliance fantasizes about running around in Stranglethorn killing Paladins after they've quested with enough dumb ones. And if you bring a party, you can actually manage to survive in STV long enough to do it!

StorminNorman · Posts: 70

I play Alliance on Lightning's blade. I have a human mage and NElf rogue, and recently decided that humans are the only class worth playing, as their +10% rep bonus makes end-game rep grinding so much easier.

Lately I've been rocking it up in the battlegrounds because I want some of the exalted rep rewards (especially from AV). WoW's PvP is utterly shitful, however. Blizzard has a really fucked up idea of what class balance is supposed to be, and while they claim that their PvP isn't designed around 1vs1 fights, what they don't mention is that it doesn't work too well in group PvP either.

The idea that some classes (warlocks and hunters, for example) should be totally impossible for other classes (mages and rogues, for example) to beat regardless of player skill or gear is so stupidly retarded I've not yet found a way to comprehend it.

A mage simply cannot defeat a warlock if the warlock has the felhunter out. At all. Ever. Unless the warlock is played by a braindead moron.

Go play Guild Wars if you want to see what PvP balance means.