Gaming Round-Up: More WoW, Dark Vs. Light, Landmark, and Heroes Ambivalence

Posted on August 4, 2016 by Tyler F.M. Edwards

Once again, I’ve got a lot of things to say on the gaming front. Let’s hop to it, shall we?

WoW: All of the specs!

I’ve been continuing to try out as many of the class changes in World of Warcraft as I can.

Firstly, with the new tri-spec feature, I’ve finally done some mistweaving on my monk. The last time I played mistweaver was all the way back in the Mists of Pandaria beta, where I determined it to be a very strange spec and wound up gravitating toward brewmaster instead.

It’s changed a lot since then, but it’s still a strange spec. It’s basically a HoT spec that can’t easily spread its HoTs across multiple targets, which is usually the whole point of HoTs.

For healing single targets, it works well and is fairly enjoyable. However, I find healing multiple targets frustrating. There’s no shortage of options on that front, but they all seem to come with some severe disadvantage.

I do like the animation for essence font, though.

I’ve also done some healing on my shaman, something I did a lot of back when I played him regularly. Although a few things have changed, for the most part restoration is as I remember it: a well-rounded “jack of all trades” healing with a broad toolkit. Of all the healing specs I’ve tried in 7.0, it’s easily the winner.

I’ve also given elemental a shot. It proved surprisingly enjoyable. I don’t know how the current elemental compares to what it was like before the patch, but I like the current incarnation. Like restoration, it has a little bit of everything — a DoT, a proc, a quick filler, a big finisher — but what it lacks in clear identity it makes up for with solid gameplay. It’s the only ranged spec I’ve played so far that doesn’t feel gutted in 7.0.

I’ve really enjoyed getting back to my shaman. I always had a lot of fondness for the character, and I regretted abandoning him. I think it might be time to take him out of mothballs.

On the other hand, the more I’ve played my mage, the more I’ve realized that all the issues that drove me away from the class are still in full effect. It’s still too simplistic, and Blizzard is continuing its crusade to make sure each spec only uses spells from its primary school. This ensures each spec is flavourless and monochromatic while also failing to conceal the fact they all play more or less the same. A different colour of spells does not a spec identity make.

Fire is so hollow now. It was never a terribly complex spec, but now it’s almost insultingly simple. Even your DoTs spread themselves for you now.

I did try frost, and it’s a little better. Still simple, but it doesn’t feel quite so empty. And praise the Sunwell they finally gave them the option to play without the elemental. Mages were never meant to be a pet class.

The simplicity of mages is what drove me to switch to playing a warlock in the first place. Of course, now warlocks are also heavily simplified. Still not to the extent of mages, but the gap is now small enough I don’t feel entirely justified in looking down my nose at them anymore. And if you can’t sneer at mages, what’s the point of even playing a warlock?

*Sobs.*

Ahem, anyway. Moving on…

Protection paladin did turn out to be a fair bit more entertaining than it used to be — mainly just because of the option to have no cooldown on HAMMER OF THE RIGHTEOUS — but like brewmaster, it seems rather undertuned right now.

I was expecting very little from the new version of retribution, but it turned out to be pretty good. Maybe better than before. Still not sure why they got rid of exorcism — it could have easily filled the role given to blade of justice — but it feels good. Surprisingly fast. With the right talents, it’s at least as spammy as a rogue or windwalker.

Finally, I’ve given tanking on my warrior a try. I like it, though the fact it’s currently the only tank spec (of those I’ve played) that doesn’t feel severely undertuned probably has something to do with that. The amount of damage you can absorb with ignore pain is staggering.

There’s also a certain amusement to watching a ball of screaming Dwarf lady pinball around the battlefield. NO KNEECAP IS SAFE.

SW:TOR: Consular story complete (again)

The general response to the Dark versus Light event in Star Wars: The Old Republic has been, shall we say, less than glowing. I can’t say I disagree with any of the criticism, and I very nearly didn’t participate at all.

Still, the sheer volume of different rewards eventually won me over. I do still have several classes that I haven’t leveled yet, which is an advantage.

But I leveled another consular instead.

Let me explain the method to my madness.

I’ve seen enough of the Republic side to know that consular is the class that I feel the most connection with, and I do want to play the expansions as a Republic character to see both sides. However, I didn’t much enjoy the gameplay of the subclass I’d chosen. So I decided to reroll as the melee subclass (shadow, I think).

Despite still being relatively new to the game, I’ve quickly developed a pretty good understanding of how to level fast, so by making heavy of use every available XP boost, I was able to complete the class story quite quickly.

I enjoy the consular story, so I didn’t mind playing it all again, though I would have preferred more of a gap between my original playthrough and the second. It was nice to see Nadia again, at least, and the new subclass is more fun.

I haven’t changed my behaviour at all because of the event. I still just pick whatever choice seems best at the time, which means light side in most cases, but not all. I want light side to win, but I’m not going to let Stark live just for that.

So far I’ve completed the first two tiers of the event. I’m sure I’ll get the third one done before it closes. I had intended to start a second character to get the fourth and fifth tiers done, but now I’m not so sure. It’s a lot of effort for uncertain rewards. I’ve already got Satele Shan’s boots, which was the main thing I wanted from the event.

It does seem silly to invest in the event without the main reward — the new companion — but realistically I don’t see myself using a companion with little or no story relevance very often. And if the dark side ends up winning then I really don’t care. Only Chiss nationalism got me interested at all.

Landmark: Because Elves, that’s why

I am still playing Landmark, albeit quite sporadically.

I did grab the new racial customization pack. Paying for race choices feels a bit distasteful, but it’s such an inexpensive game to begin with it’s hard to complain too much. And given the choice, you should always be an Elf. In my case, a Dark Elf. With horns.

For a while I was just wandering aimlessly, but I came up with an idea for another build, so I bought a second claim.

It’s currently quite unfinished. I’m being a fair bit more ambitious with this build, which I may regret. Let me tell you: Digging out a new valley is easy. Making it look natural isn’t.

In the meanwhile, my original build is finished and ready for visitors. Maigraith’s Grove on Silver Shallows (Serenity). Southeast of the spire — look for the giant pine tree.

Heroes of the Storm: Hope and change

One final thing worth noting is that my interest in Heroes of the Storm has fallen off a cliff as of late. I haven’t logged in since Gul’dan’s launch, and my play had been falling off sharply even before then.

I’m just not having fun anymore. Losing feels much more frustrating than it used to, and winning no longer has the same satisfaction.

Perhaps it’s just good honest burnout. I have been playing the game all but continuously since alpha. That’s a lot for any game.

I also have some issues with the current metagame. Burst damage has become so prevalent that team fights are beginning to feel more like they do in Overwatch — you’re dead within seconds, sometimes without even knowing what hit you. Except it takes you several times longer to respawn than it does in Overwatch.

Chromie really sucked a lot of fun from the game for me. There may be more all around effective heroes, but none are so stressful to play against. She can do so much damage before you even know she’s there. An AoE skillshot that can take out 30% or more a tank’s health that you can’t see coming should never have been allowed in the game. Nova was similar, but she had to work a lot harder to one-shot you, and she didn’t have the sustained damage of Chromie.

The most worrying possibility is that it may be the result of stress in my Real Life. If that’s the case, my time with Heroes may be done for the foreseeable future. My life ain’t getting any less stressful anytime soon.

Even the upcoming release of Auriel, the Archangel of Hope, isn’t much exciting me, and I’ve wanted to see her in Heroes for a long time. I’m not sure if I’ll try her or not. It’s a real shame, because she does seem like a pretty unique hero. A healer that doesn’t use mana? Now you’re speaking my language.

WoW: 7.0 Changes, a Stroke of Luck, and the Rise of the Mountain Queen

Posted on July 23, 2016 by Tyler F.M. Edwards

With the launch of the Legion pre-patch, I have returned to my dark master. Warlords of Draenor’s reign of terror has ended; let the cries of joy echo across the land!

A whole new world (of Warcraft):

The class changes for any expansion are always big, but this time the changes are so radical that it almost feels like an entirely new game. The new versions of classes are a bit of a mixed bag, but on the whole I’d say the good outweighs the bad.

I’m most happy with the changes to rogues. After several expansions of stagnation, rogues have received a much needed facelift.

I’m very pleased with the new outlaw spec. Despite the name change, it still feels a lot like the old combat, just with a bit more flavour. If you take slice and dice, you’re basically just playing combat, except a little faster and a lot flashier.

The animations have been vastly improved for nearly all melee classes, but rogues may have gotten the best of it. There is so much style and flair to everything they do now — a stark contrast from how visually bland they were before. Killing spree is now a strong contender for coolest looking ability in the game… though it’s probably not good if you get motion sickness.

Also, pistols. Damn the pistols are fun.

I do miss the cooldown reduction and energy refunds on finishing moves, but otherwise outlaw is the embodiment of everything I envisioned combat to be: a versatile weaponmaster proficient in all fighting styles, quick as thought and deadly as the embrace of the grave.

Subtlety is really hurting from the loss of a separate action bar for shadow dance, but aside from that, it seems to have turned out well enough. I like that it’s now a hybrid magical spec. Gives it a very distinct flavour from the other specs — again, something the class badly lacked before.

Thanks to the new ability to swap to any spec within your class, I have also now given assassination a try for the first time. It turned out to be almost as boring as I expected it to be, though, so I don’t expect to play it much.

Rogues are in a better place than they have been in a very long time, but warlocks, on the other hand, have been run through a woodchipper.

Demonology was my favourite spec in the game before the patch, and I’m quite bitter over its loss. I spent the last few days before the patch playing demo heavily and taking lots of screenshots of metamorphosis while sad music played in my mind. You are missed, Minidan.

I refuse to even look at the new demo. My initial reaction to affliction was one of utter disgust. Once I tried it a bit more, I mellowed a bit, but it’s still pretty dull. When I last played it, it was too complicated, but now it seems too simple, and the talents you can take to add more complexity come with problems of their own.

The deeply missed warlock metamorphasis form in World of Warcraft

RIP, Minidan.

Destruction, alone, is okay. It’s slow and turrety, which I’m not fond of it, but it works, and with the right talents its AoE potential is pretty insane. It will probably be my go-to spec now.

I was very worried about the changes to brewmaster monks, but my fears seem to have been unfounded. Mostly.

My concern was that the loss of chi would make the class feel as slow and awkward as other tanks, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. If anything the rotation might be a little faster now. I always have something to press.

I do badly miss keg toss, but otherwise the spec is still pretty fun to play.

The downside is that I’m super squishy now. My mitigation abilities don’t seem to do much of anything. I pity my poor healers. I can only hope artifacts will make the difference.

Windwalker seems to be pretty much the same, with only minor tweaks. It was fun before, so that’s fine by me.

With so much changing, I’ve also been revisiting older characters I had stopped playing to see what they’re like now.

My shaman is probably the most different, with enhancement having been heavily overhauled. I think it’s probably an improvement over the old “whack-a-mole with cooldowns” version, but I’m still not in love with it. The rotation just doesn’t seem to flow quite right.

Mages seem pretty much the same — somewhat satisfying but very basic. Fire is slower than I remember, and I miss living bomb.

Let me tell you, it felt very weird to be playing my mage again, however briefly. He was my original main, but I hadn’t played him since the end of Cataclysm.

On my even more neglected death knight, the current iteration of frost seems very dull, but unholy seems okay. Nice rotation — not too simple, not too complicated. Animations are surprisingly bland by the new standards of WoW melee.

Paladin healing isn’t hurt as much by the loss of holy power as I expected. WoW healing still feels a bit dull to me after playing other games like Neverwinter and The Secret World. Whoever came up with light of the martyr deserves a hearty slap.

On the other hand, I did take a quick look at paladin tanking, and that looks like it could be very fun now. Further investigation is warranted.

Transmog transition:

And then there’s the transmog changes. Ah, the transmog changes.

I made at least five to six thousand gold in the first day just by vendoring all my old mog gear. I was also able to get the “Fabulous” title on the first day. I was only missing three shirts, so I bought a few cheap ones off the AH.

I mean, I’m a Blood Elf. Of course I’m Fabulous.

*Hair flip.*

I was also pleased to discover that the Pandaria legendary cloaks can now be used for transmog. They don’t trigger their wing procs, and other legendaries are still ineligible, but it’s a start.

It’s nice to be able to easily transmog weapon enchants now, too. While I was dusting off my paladin, I got her to make some of the illusion tomes. Light of the Earthwarder, berserking, and netherflame are my favourites right now. Not too subtle, not too flashy.

I haven’t made many new outfits yet, but I did take the opportunity to return my rogue to her traditional outfit, including my favourite weapons from back in the Wrath days: Liar’s Tongue and the Bone Warden’s Splitter.

The new system has also created an odd opportunity for making money. Several starting shirts from pre-Cataclysm are now BoE, and because those appearances can no longer be obtained, they’re very valuable. Easiest ten thousand gold I ever made.

This sent me investigating even older characters as I searched for any other pre-Cata shirts. At one point I wound up on a level three Dwarf paladin with no abilities and broken boots (?) running in terror from troggs on my way to Ironforge to see if his shirt was worth anything.

The mountain queen cometh:

Just before the patch, I finally got around to using my free level 90 boost that came with Warlords of Draenor. I chose a race and class I never could have predicted a few months ago: a female Dwarf warrior.

Warrior has traditionally been one of the least appealing classes to me, but what I’ve heard about their artifact and class hall storylines in Legion sounds amazing, so I decided to give it a shot.

As for the race choice, I always thought if I did play a warrior I’d make them an Orc or Tauren — go big or go home — but I really like how female Dwarves look since the model revamp, and since I may be dusting off old characters, most of which are Horde, another Alliance character seemed a decent idea.

Plus, female Dwarves are among the rarest race/gender combos in the game, so I get to be a hipster.

As for gameplay, based on my vast experience of two hours /played before the patch, I’d say fury is much improved by the changes. It’s not going to be my new favourite spec, but the rotation is mostly solid, and I like the mobility… even if having that much mobility on a plate class makes no sense at all. Also, I love the rampage animation.

I’ve also been milking the nostalgia by going for as much of a “mountain queen” build as I can. Avatar, storm bolt… All I need now is bash, and it’s Warcraft III all over again.

Because priorities are important, I have not yet spent any time on leveling or anything practical and have simply been farming transmog gear for her. I’ve already got a pretty good outfit established, though I would like more weapon options. Turns out WoW has almost no decent two-hand hammer models.

RNGesus smiles:

Finally, a few nights ago a friend was running Black Temple for the pets, and I decided to tag along. I figured “Well, the Warglaives won’t drop, but it can’t hurt to try.”

So guess what dropped.

Yeah.

Of course now I have to get the other one…

Superior Realities

Category Archives: Games

Gaming Round-Up: More WoW, Dark Vs. Light, Landmark, and Heroes Ambivalence

WoW: 7.0 Changes, a Stroke of Luck, and the Rise of the Mountain Queen

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