WoW 5.0 - Mists of Pandaria

Rallick wrote:

I didn't hear that about Titan. What's the problem with it? That sucks, I was looking forward to finding out more about it.

They appear to be going back to the drawing board with the whole project. Its my theory that they saw some other next-gen game and realized they had to change their strategy to beat the new stuff.

Sdnick wrote:
Rallick wrote:

I didn't hear that about Titan. What's the problem with it? That sucks, I was looking forward to finding out more about it.

They appear to be going back to the drawing board with the whole project. Its my theory that they saw some other next-gen game and realized they had to change their strategy to beat the new stuff.

I heard third hand that Titan was basically the same kind of mechanics as Firefall - which makes a lot of sense considering Red 5 studios was started by a bunch of ex-Blizzard employees. Also considering Firefall beat them to the punch, it makes sense that they went back to the drawing board.

So I've found myself surprised at how much WoW has got it's hooks back into me. A lot has changed since Classic, but a lot has stayed familiar, which is kind of nice. I'm playing almost nightly at this point (usually late nights, 11-1:30AM eastern) which is fun, though I'm kind of worried about all my other games taking a backseat. Still, so long as I don't let it start dictating my life like it did back in my mis-spent raiding youth, I should be pretty active for the forseable future.

I'm enjoying chatting with you guys in guild chat, too. Hope you don't mind my pratter, feel free to let me know if you're busing doing something.

Question - what's the etiquette with the guild bank? Can I take whatever mats or whatever I have access to? Can I get a loan from the cash stores? Sorry, being able to see the guild bank is a new thing for me, my previous GM guarded it like a treasure trove.

Glad you came aboard, Dys. And please ask questions in the guild channel. That's why we're there.

AFAIK (and I'm not an officer), take what you need from the guild bank. The first few tabs are mostly old content, and folks dropped it there figuring that levelers could put it to good use. The later tabs are raid mats that only officers can get to.

I'm afraid you'll have to raise your own cash. I can't recall much money going out except for repairs on your main. I'll try to remember to promote your guy so you'll at least have that perk.

If you need money-making suggestions, I probably have a few.

Thanks. I'm happy enough making money by questing/leveling ( I've gone from about 200G from my old character to 1000g by leveling in just a week), but I really want to grab Master Riding ASAP. Was just curious.

Dysplastic wrote:

I really want to grab Master Riding ASAP.

Your profs are enchanting and tailoring, right?

Cata enchants are worth almost nothing. That might change in 5.4, though. Blizzard is lifting some some level restrictions on enchants. It might mean that folks will just slap Dancing Steel on a BOA 2H sword instead of Crusader. But I'm not 100 percent sure of that. There might be money to be made here.

For now and after 5.4, cloth is your best friend. Everyone needs Frostweave and Embersilk to level tailoring, and no one wants to grind it. Either sell the cloth, the bolts or the bags. Embersilk (22 slots) and Frostweave (20) bags are strong sellers.

Rallick wrote:

I didn't hear that about Titan. What's the problem with it? That sucks, I was looking forward to finding out more about it.

Wikipedia has a decent summary about what's happened to Titan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(Blizzard_Entertainment_project)

They moved about 70 people off the team to do Blizzard All Stars and Mists. Not a good sign.

mateo wrote:
Rallick wrote:

I didn't hear that about Titan. What's the problem with it? That sucks, I was looking forward to finding out more about it.

Wikipedia has a decent summary about what's happened to Titan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(Blizzard_Entertainment_project)

They moved about 70 people off the team to do Blizzard All Stars and Mists. Not a good sign.

Given that it's barely out of the concept phase, I don't see how that's a bad sign. I highly doubt they need those 70 folks to do design work, and they could clearly be put to better use elsewhere. Honestly, they were probably coming in to work and twiddling their thumbs for 8 hours a day.

While I really dislike Pandaren, Pandaria itself is awesome. Enjoying myself quite a bit since coming back.

Sooooooo... Blizzard was "kind" enough to send me a "we want you back" email last night, attempting to entice me with a 7-day temporary subscription, and a trial for Pandaria. And it worked (at least for a little while). I leveled a Panda Monk Brewmaster (yeah, how original, I know) through the noob area, and while that was quite fun and an interesting set of quests, I have no desire to continue the character any further. I also brought my L85 mage through the first handful of high-level story missions, but I'm still not quite feeling it. I'll probably go a little while longer down the story chain -- are there any "must-see" areas/instances for a tourist?

I thought the Chen Stormstout quest line was nicely done. You'll meet him right after you cross over from Jade Forest to Valley of the Four Winds.

The Shado-Pan story line is another good one. It starts in Kun-Lai Summit and continues into Townlong Steppes.

If you hit 87, you can do the quests to open the gates into the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, which is where the main Ally and Horde bases are (and where a lot of the events leading up to SoO take place). The Vale is, ah, not looking quite like it did at the start of the expansion. I'm not sure what exactly you'll see when the gates open. It's another must-see quest for this expansion.

If you're at 85, you're probably in the midst of the where's Anduin? quest line. Another must-see.

I believe the trial only permits me entrance to the areas -- it doesn't increase my level cap, so I'll still be stuck at 85.

Ah, pity. I would have suggested the Savior of Stoneplow questline as a must-see but that one does require you to finish 2 lvl 86 zones.

So Mists is half off on amazon. I'm not biting but I do love harassing merphle.

Yes.

It's half-off on Battle.Net too, but that doesn't mean I have time to devote to it.

Don't let that stop you from harassing me, though. <3

My son seems to have gotten hooked and is leveling my old paladin. Can someone hook me up with a scroll or ressurection? Thanks

Bear, PM me your email addy and I'll take care of it in game tonight. I'm on Blackhand-Alliance. Check the FAQs, but I think that matters.

If someone else wants the SoR mount, by all means send Baby Bear a scroll.

I'd actually love to have that mount, mind if I do it?

Bear, PM me your email address and I'll do it when I get home from work.

If there's one thing I hate about new content patches is how ridiculously overcrowded the new hotness areas are when you go to check them out.
I couldn't move a yard in game without seeing a ton of people:
- milling around waiting for kills
- kill stealing
- flagging pvp and hanging out on top of NPCs
- training elites into town

While I've been having a new renaissance of sorts lately playing alts, I think I'm done until another expansion comes out.

@ Sel: I hear you. I've been hanging back on Isle of Thunder in the meantime. Come level an alt with me if you're still playing. I think I might try Horde for a while (and actually mean it this time).

@ Dys: The mount is all yours if Bear hooks you up with his email addy. (I think it's easier to send a scroll in game than online, but ymmv.)

@ Bear, I got your PM. PM me later if Dys doesn't come through.

Dysplastic wrote:

I'd actually love to have that mount, mind if I do it?

Bear, PM me your email address and I'll do it when I get home from work.

Dysplastic wrote:

I'd actually love to have that mount, mind if I do it?

Bear, PM me your email address and I'll do it when I get home from work.

Sent!

Okay Blizzard. You got me.

mateo wrote:

Okay Blizzard. You got me.

Ha ha.

There's a lot to like about the new patch. But I can see how folks will get tired of it after a while. The ebb and flow seems to be a lot faster these days.

Yea, I think that's one of the things that drives me nuts about the way content is being drug out for those who aren't raiding normals and heroics. I know that there's a ton of stuff to do, and when I'm actually doing stuff I still love this game, but apart from daily character maintenance, I don't really have a ton to do, even though it's less than two weeks since the patch launched.

So I completely ignored Mists of Pandaria when it came out, but some of the new Siege of Ogrimmar stuff looks interesting. And I also didn't realize that you can play a "drunken" monk, which has me more interested in the class. Can anyone tell me if monks are a decent class for a returning player, and whether or not they're in demand? I tried coming back with a Death Knight a couple years back and since everyone and their mother played one I really struggled finding groups.

Monks are fantastic. But I typically play solo and casually team up.

jdzappa wrote:

So I completely ignored Mists of Pandaria when it came out, but some of the new Siege of Ogrimmar stuff looks interesting. And I also didn't realize that you can play a "drunken" monk, which has me more interested in the class. Can anyone tell me if monks are a decent class for a returning player, and whether or not they're in demand? I tried coming back with a Death Knight a couple years back and since everyone and their mother played one I really struggled finding groups.

More so than ever Blizzard has squeezed the min/max flavor of the month out of this game.. sure you'll find the top end hardcore raiding guilds (the few that are still left) favoring certain classes and builds over another..but for the LFR and the more casual raiders class and spec take a back seat to pretty much everything else including showing up for a raid and not standing in sh*t.

As a monk you can be all 3 roles which means if you queue for LFR as a tank or healer you have like a 2 min wait time lol.

So I've been playing for about a week now and damn, is this a different game. It seems to me that WoW has made the game a lot more welcoming to the casual player but holy crap have they dumbed this game down. It's not necessarily a bad thing but it makes me reflect on what we used to have to do in "vanilla" WOW.

Two things I didn't expect:
1. Once you hit 90 heroics seems to be more of some kind of speed trial than an actual dungeon run. Most of the trash is mass pulled and the boss fights are mere speed bumps. Last night I did a LFR Scarlet Monastery run where a single Paladin pretty much solo'd the place. I'm going to have to learn to pick up the speed because I'm constantly trying to catch up.
2. The Timeless Isle is an epic pinata. In one hour last night I added FIVE epics to my inventory and sent three others to my alts. I guess the heroic gear grind is over?

Oh, before I forget. I'd love to level up a Monk but the thought of grinding through the Burning Crusade content makes me want to hurt myself.

Yeah, heroics were a joke this expansion, even before the Timeless Isle. I think I have one or two alts that never stepped foot in one; there were enough other gearing options to get me to LFR that there wasn't a point. Don't even get me started on the worthlessness of JPs this time around.

As far as monks, I love them, but they're a different experience to play. For tank monks (my current main), I don't see that many around. It's a more complicated spec to play overall I think, which turns off some. I do see a fair number of healer monks, but not sure if it's any more often than other healers. Trying to think how many dps monks I see, not sure offhand. Overall, I'm pretty sure that monks aren't anywhere near as over represented as DKs were during Wrath.

As far as leveling a monk, once you get to a certain level (30? 40? Can't recall offhand) you get the ability to teleport to a monk training center on Pandaria where there's a daily you can do that bumps all XP by 10% for an hour. It's available all the way to 90. If you combine that with rest and heirlooms, it can go pretty fast. Through most of it I was just queuing up for dungeons as a tank and I would often gain a level or two per dungeon, playing for about and hour or two each time. I was barely in BC long enough to get frustrated with it, though I didn't even start until 61 I think (I had shifted to questing for a bit as I hate dealing with the weirdness of LFG for the late vanilla dungeons and how they're "split").

Early on in expansion content(if you're interested in the legendary quest line, you'll still have to do them), they were good for maxing out your valor each week. But as for being a gear source, yea not really.

Also, for folks working on it: Titan Runestones are a PITA.