World of Warcraft: Shattering

[Steve]

After trying out the content with my seven free days (I played the quest chain at Tyr's Hand with my L70 Dwarf Protadin) for the first time, I can say that the odds of me trying WoW again went up from about 20% to 70%. I like this stuff.

[Molyneux]

I can now report that dwarf shamans are a blast to play. I think I'm going to like Cata; can't wait for worgen and goblins.

[Edward Yee]

My enjoyment unfortunately was hurt when I logged in to see that my hunter was missing his Neck, Back, Waist, Feet gear, a Trinket, and both his melee and Ranged Weapons (there was a T25 Hellion Glaive!), three of his bags, a few Banked items, and ALL OF HIS EMBLEMS/JUSTICE POINTS. Turns out that when I stopped playing at the beginning of June, my account got hacked later that month and then the account closed about a month later -- my account didn't get restored until mid-September, and when I asked yesterday for a GM's assistance, he or she said their records (for the purposes of restoring a hacked character) only go back two months. If it weren't for the pre-WOTLK badges being converted to gold, I wouldn't even have had enough for repairs.

*groan*

At least I have a Rimebane Rifle and two Direbrew Shankers... bought a few pieces off of the AH and Needed a belt from Ionar... AND I now have an Authenticator. (Lesson learned: get an authenticator -- physical, mobile app, or even just a phone call -- even if you're STOPPING play.) Not planning on buying Cataclysm, BUT I can see why people are liking this despite not really touching the new quests. I should note though that the Azeroth flying skill, even if it can be bought, will NOT be active until Cataclysm's actual release.

It's also unfortunate that Cataclysm is needed for Cobra Shot and a few of the other things, as that's supposedly key to Survival spec -- I've got Marks and Survival specs, but at 344-400 ms on average (playing across the Atlantic with a wireless g adapter) I don't see myself doing too hot with either spec.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Azeroth flying can't even be bought yet, that'll go online December 7. Meanwhile, I'm stocking up and I think I have a good chance of 'realm first cooking 525'.

W00T!

[SirNitram]

While you can't fly in Azeroth, I take entirely inappropriate joy in mounting my flying machine in Ogrimmar and skimming the ground in it.

I swear, the 'augh, hate this part' of levelling is now OUTLAND. How messed up is that?

[Molyneux]

While you can't fly in Azeroth, I take entirely inappropriate joy in mounting my flying machine in Ogrimmar and skimming the ground in it.

I swear, the 'augh, hate this part' of levelling is now OUTLAND. How messed up is that?

That's pretty sad...I really enjoyed Outland my first time through. Hopefully the under-80 XP buffs will help out with that, and there's always dungeon grinding!

Also, may I say that I love the new cooking/fishing dailies in Stormwind. I swear I will go back in twenty levels and beat the hell of out those thresher sharks.

On a side note, as well, I still have one overriding hope for Cataclysm; all I want for Christmas this year is an Engi-craftable submarine mount. I don't care if it's a torpedo with handle bars strapped on it!

[SpacedTeddyBear]

Personally I'm not a huge fan of the new fishing dailies. This is mainly due to the bag rewards which when compared the fishing daily from Dalaran, is pretty weak. Unless of course you happen to get the new health potion that gives you 10k hp a swig. Speaking of the sharks, I get a twisted kick out of seeing a few dead bodies here and there whenever I'm on that daily.

[Edward Yee]

*Logs on, queues for a random dungeon, gets Trial of the Champion (5-man) heroic, gets un-worged by an Alliance champion, Feigns Death before hitting 0 hp, is able to run to a Battleworg and get back in the saddle, then goes on to clear the dungeon without being in danger after that AND no visible mouse cursor... oh, and I lootedboth Marrowstrike (Argent Confessor with the Memory of Illidan... which got me the "Argent Confessor" achievement) AND the True-aim Long Rifle (The Black Knight), immediately regearing both melee and ranged*

I LIKE this about how "low" such gear is now compared to the higher-end stuff, without needing an additional expansion pack yet.

Also liking the little Azshara quest chain just outside the Orgrimmar Rear Gate -- the one where you use a Reprogrammed Shredder -- for this line when you have to defend the logging almost-camp: "ARMED GRENADE LAUNCHER."

As for Hunters... I'm not really liking how Cobra Shot requires level 81, because for those Hunters like us who aren't planning to buy Cataclysm... that kinda screws over Survival spec, don'tcha think? I've got both Marks and Survival, but I think I'm going to keep sticking with Marksmanship as my main spec. (From what I understand, Steady Shot is the Focus-builder for Marks, but for Survival you're better off using Cobra Shot for that.)

[SirNitram]

While you can't fly in Azeroth, I take entirely inappropriate joy in mounting my flying machine in Ogrimmar and skimming the ground in it.

I swear, the 'augh, hate this part' of levelling is now OUTLAND. How messed up is that?

That's pretty sad...I really enjoyed Outland my first time through. Hopefully the under-80 XP buffs will help out with that, and there's always dungeon grinding!

Also, may I say that I love the new cooking/fishing dailies in Stormwind. I swear I will go back in twenty levels and beat the hell of out those thresher sharks.

On a side note, as well, I still have one overriding hope for Cataclysm; all I want for Christmas this year is an Engi-craftable submarine mount. I don't care if it's a torpedo with handle bars strapped on it!

I'm with your brother. ENGINEERING AWAY!

I've not found the new fishing dailies in Ogrimmar, but I'll look.

[White Haven]

My engineer brothers, I have discovered a deep, dark secret through the use of our craft. The ceiling of Icecrown Citadel is non-corporeal. I punched my rocket belt (seriously, wtf, rocket BELT? WTB boots again) and instead of streaking through the trap gauntlet, I was instead propelled roughly two and a half times higher than the ceiling of that passageway into a featureless blue void.

[Molyneux]

I'm with your brother. ENGINEERING AWAY!

I've not found the new fishing dailies in Ogrimmar, but I'll look.

My long-standing dream for WoW has always been for more player-craftable vehicles - I still think that Blizzard needs to get cracking on guild-craftable airships. Require a whole bunch of expensive components from a whole bunch of different crafts - engineering, leatherworking, tailoring, blacksmithing, hell, even enchanting - and work out some kind of setup where you can have guild airships flying above Azeroth, complete with vendors and such.

White Haven - that sounds like an interesting bug XD Did you report it?

[White Haven]

Naah, because frankly, who cares? I got punted way the fuck above the ceiling, saw a bunch of blue, then slowly parachuted down back into Icecrown Citadel.

The real problem, of course, is that rocket boots fail a LOT now, which can be calamitous (as in raid wipe) when someone like me (tankadin, guild main tank) is using them to get around the battlefield quickly in the event of an OH SHIT moment. I'd estimate failure rate at something like 15-30% now, which is super not cool given that I don't see a new boot tinker slated for Cataclysm.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Personally I'm not a huge fan of the new fishing dailies. This is mainly due to the bag rewards which when compared the fishing daily from Dalaran, is pretty weak. Unless of course you happen to get the new health potion that gives you 10k hp a swig. Speaking of the sharks, I get a twisted kick out of seeing a few dead bodies here and there whenever I'm on that daily.

The reason they dialed back the fishing (and cooking) quest dailies is because they're now designed for any character that's level 5 or higher. It would be... unbalancing for a level 8 toon to get a quest reward worth hundreds of gold.

Personally the big thing I'm looking forward to now is the ALCHEMY MOUNT! Its going to be a cast-iron bitch to pay for, but 25,000g is a small price to pay to be able to turn into a sandstone drake and fly around the world.

[White Haven]

So wait, random, low-chance of getting the recipe via discovery AND they made it stupid-expensive? Can't they just go for ONE method to ensure rarity? *grumbles*

[SpacedTeddyBear]

Personally I'm not a huge fan of the new fishing dailies. This is mainly due to the bag rewards which when compared the fishing daily from Dalaran, is pretty weak. Unless of course you happen to get the new health potion that gives you 10k hp a swig. Speaking of the sharks, I get a twisted kick out of seeing a few dead bodies here and there whenever I'm on that daily.

The reason they dialed back the fishing (and cooking) quest dailies is because they're now designed for any character that's level 5 or higher. It would be... unbalancing for a level 8 toon to get a quest reward worth hundreds of gold.

Personally the big thing I'm looking forward to now is the ALCHEMY MOUNT! Its going to be a cast-iron bitch to pay for, but 25,000g is a small price to pay to be able to turn into a sandstone drake and fly around the world.

Well it wouldn't be too hard to code the rewards to scale with your character's level right? Besides, those meat-crates you can trade your cooking badges for are non BOP. So a level 5+ character has direct access to level 85 mats that they can potentially sell on the AH or transfer to a higher character.

BTW, didn't know how much the alchemy mount costs.

[Civil War Man]

The reason it's a gold sink is that when you turn into a dragon, a friend can ride on your back.

Multi-passenger mounts will always be hideously expensive. Like the motorcycle or several of the mammoths.

[White Haven]

Or, yaknow, free, just keep running Vault of Archavon.

[Lord Revan]

While you can't fly in Azeroth, I take entirely inappropriate joy in mounting my flying machine in Ogrimmar and skimming the ground in it.

I swear, the 'augh, hate this part' of levelling is now OUTLAND. How messed up is that?

That's pretty sad...I really enjoyed Outland my first time through. Hopefully the under-80 XP buffs will help out with that, and there's always dungeon grinding!

Also, may I say that I love the new cooking/fishing dailies in Stormwind. I swear I will go back in twenty levels and beat the hell of out those thresher sharks.

On a side note, as well, I still have one overriding hope for Cataclysm; all I want for Christmas this year is an Engi-craftable submarine mount. I don't care if it's a torpedo with handle bars strapped on it!

I'm with your brother. ENGINEERING AWAY!

I've not found the new fishing dailies in Ogrimmar, but I'll look.

Valley of honor, where the trainer for warriors and hunters are there's a pond of sorts with the trainers and dailies IIRC (granted the cooking one can be a pain to find).

[Norade]

Anybody played much of the new content yet? I was expecting to be able to buy it on release, but money is tight and I may need to wait until the end of the month now.

[Minischoles]

Played for about 6 hours last night, hit level 83 and slept some, just started questing again. Completely avoided the starting zones and just farmed BRC - very easy dungeon, but I guess it's tuned for people in leveling gear, not 277 heroic ICC gear. I love deepholme - very big, tons of quests, tons of stuff to do, and when I hit it, it was empty so no quest mob fights.

[Broomstick]

Well, the new computer is slated to arrive tomorrow so it looks like I'll soon know what ya'll are talking about.

[White Haven]

Mannoroth is, as usual, filled with bags of dicks. I took a nap after our 11th-hour 'I want Arthas' head on my wall' raid, woke up around 3:20 and logged in. Went to the Stormwind flight trainer, only to find about eleventy-seventeen Alliance all over it. I figured they were being dicks and hiding it. But no, no, instead they were trying to suppress a Horde force that was dead at the time, that was rezzing and insta-nuking the flight trainer whenever she respawned. On arrival in Hyjal, I was confronted with another piece of dickery, but this one from Blizzard. What slack-jawed knuckledragger thought it was a great idea to throw Horde and Alliance into neutral quest hubs again? That was a bad idea every time you have tried it, and that hasn't miraculously changed since then. It's especially a bad idea as the first new quest hub you run into on expansion launch day.

Screw Hyjal. I spent the rest of my time awake last night in Blackrock Caverns. Where I encountered Blizzard working at cross-purposes with itself. The idea of requiring people to visit an instance before they can queue for it is great. It means that people know where the instance portal is so that when they die, they don't spent fifteen minutes running in circles looking for it. So what flipping idiot put a teleport from Hyjal to the entrance of BRC?

[Bedlam]

Unfortuantly, snow stopped play here. I went out to buy a nice shiney copy but your that it hadn't been delivered to anywhere near me.

[Molyneux]

Worgen intro is pretty good, at least so far as I've played it...and it looks like they fixed the one thing that has prevented me from ever playing a death knight - they don't force the player to do stupid shit for no good reason. Those goddamn quests pissed me off enough that I actually searched the entire DK starting zone for a way out (invisible walls, hurrah!), wrote a GM ticket to complain about the "bug", and finally deleted my DK and haven't looked back since.

(As for why I subjected myself to that BS - I had promised a friend I would try out the class.)

I haven't been as pissed off as that at a video game since Naja Salaheem in Final Fantasy XI.

[TheFeniX]

Vash'Jir (or whatever) the water zone was one huge clusterfuck of horde and alliance all trying to do the same quests. Even with the fast respawn time on mobs, it was a chore to do anything. I'd end up just camping the same place until I got whatever bear assess I needed. Got my underwater mount which let me find the entrance to Tides. BTW: thanks Blizzard for not leaving a way out of there.

Hyjal wasn't much better. Horde weren't really interested in fighting, but one would constantly tap me for a few K, then when I went to kill him, other horde would take the mobs that spawned in at the area I was camping. That and since most of my damage is AOE, players would run right past me, get hit, then I'd have to keep the fucking Cenarion guards off me.

I just went and discovered BRC and ran instances all night. The gear is better anyway. And it's not all the tank and spank of WotLK.