Easily among the aspects of Warlords of Draenor that I’m most excited about are the changes to stats. Not the item squish, mind you, that I still have some reservations about, but the secondary and new minor stats. As you’re likely aware, if you’re here reading an obscure gaming blogs WoW Post, several stats have been removed entirely. Dodge, parry, hit and expertise are gone. I’m very happy with the removal of hit and expertise. Those stats always felt so limiting. It was never a “boost” to reach their respective caps, just a pain when you didn’t and it always caused such touble in choosing gear. I’m a little more torn about dodge and parry. While I agree they weren’t very “fun” stats, they did provide a little something in making a tank feel like a tank and not just a dps with threat. I’m curious to see what tanking abilities and passives are added to make up for the loss of passive mitigation from the stats. The new stats, however, seem really fun. Follow after the break for a full list. (more…)
Tag: expansion
Problem with Warlords Premise
I’ve been doing some thinking, some pondering, some soul-searching over the plot line of the new expansion… and I really don’t think I like what I know so far. In previous expansions, we fought incredibly powerful and epic enemies. In BC, we fought Illidan who was a massively powerful mage who dedicated his life to power and combat, was granted extra power by demons. He was the first of his kind – a demon hunter and was thousands of years old. We may or may not have been prepared. In WolLK, Arthas was a Paladin, who was effectively merged with a Shaman/Warlock, infused with demon power, given amazing gear and had the power over death. Come on. In Cataclysm, Deathwing was the freakin’ aspect of earth granted power by the titans and corrupted (and possibly empowered further) by old gods. In MoP… we got an orc who only a few years before was basically mopey kid in Outlands who couldn’t have fought off the average basic campfire. While the enemy in Warlords doesn’t seem to be quite as insignificant as Garrosh, I don’t expect the epicness of previous expansions. There will be spoilers below, continue at your own risk. Also, check out the end of the post for the Warlords trailer. (more…)
Warlords of Draenor: Garrisons
One of the biggest and most anticipated features coming in the next WoW expansion, Warlords of Draenor, is the Garrison. I want to take a moment to discuss what we do know about the Garrisons, what we don’t know, and to make a plea to Blizzard about their design direction for this (at the end of this post).
The Basics
Garrisons are essentially player housing (which I probably said at some point wouldn’t happen), but are filled with awesome that gives them a purpose far beyond a place to park your character in private. Blizzard has this to say about them: (more…)
Magni Bronzebeard Returns?
Last night Chris Metzen, the Senior Vice President of Story and Franchise Development with Blizzard, was blowing up twitter answering random “x or y” tweets (he didn’t get to my ninja turtles vs dungeon boss question, unfortunately). One of his responses (shown after the page break) may have incidentally revealed something larger than the community has realized so far. For those who are unaware, Magni Bronzebeard is the elder of the 3 Bronzebeard brothers and is the rightful King of the Dwarves at Ironforge. Unfortunately, after messing around with some titan relics somewhere during patch 4.1 in Cataclysm, he has been turned entirely to diamond. This left a void for his estranged daughter, now leading the Dark Iron Dwarves (see: bad guys) to come take a place of power in Iron Forge. But, Chris Metzen’s tweet may have hinted that Magni is coming back.
Daily Thoughts: Why Demon Hunters Will Never Be A Class
There seems to be a perpetual debate in different WoW social circles (Blizzard Forums, private forums, game chat, etc) about what the next class is that will be released. Aside from a plethora of slight variations of WoW classes that exist in other games with different names, the most common that come up tend to be the Bard or the Demon Hunter. I’ll get to the Bard in a later post. Demon hunters have been present in the Warcraft universe since Warcraft III, starting with Illidan Stormrage, and have continued to exist into World of Warcraft in areas of the game that have heavy demon infestations (Outlands, Felwood, etc). So, there is a mild case that can be made for adding them as a class since they do exist in Warcraft lore. Why is it then that they’ll never exist as a playable class?
Daily Thoughts: Mists of Pandaria First Impressions
I wanted to give a few days of being max level before attempting to post my commentary on the expansion. My opinion, however, has not changed since I reached level 86 to level 90 and to now. Mists of Pandaria is a solid upgrade and addition to World of Warcraft. If you read my last post, or feel like going to read it now, you’d have seen that I was indecisive regarding what character to make my ‘main’ for MoP. In the end, my Death Knight won out over the rest. I leveled from 85-86 as Unholy, but quickly switched to Frost. Howling Blast, hitting all targets for decent damage and applying dots, is simply one of the most superior AoE options available right now – particularly for questing, given the heavy movement that comes from running to and from mobs/nodes/etc. Questing was easily the most enjoyable that it has ever been to me, possibly with the exception of when I started playing back in The Burning Crusade. I wouldn’t think this is because TBC quests were better (they weren’t), but just for the new factor at the time. The zones were amazing. It’s been quite sometime since some visage in WoW made me think, “Damn, that’s pretty awesome looking.”