Tag Archives: Warcraft

Altitis Strikes Again + New Article

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In both my MMO drugs of choice, World of Warcraft and The Secret World, I’ve reached something of a plateau on my main characters. In WoW, my rogue and my warlock are both geared enough to do Siege of Orgrimmar when it releases, and my warlock is nearing the end of the Wrathion legendary chain. In TSW, my Dragon has beaten all the solo content in the game and run every dungeon at least once.

My Templar within the Dreaming Prison in The Secret WorldFor some, this situation might lead to boredom, but for the alt addicts among us, this is an opportunity! Now is that glorious time when I shift focus away from the main characters a bit and move on to the neglected low level characters.

WoW: Monk-ying around:

I’ve decided that I want to get my monk to level 90 before Mists of Pandaria is finished. Partly, this is because I’m genuinely enjoying the character. But another reason is that I continue to be very unhappy with the direction of the rogue class, and it’s actually getting worse, not better. The next patch is slowing down combat even more.

So I want the monk as a fallback. If I’d known things would be this bad for rogues, I wouldn’t have bothered leveling mine at all, but I’ve sunk enough time into her now that I might as well stick it out through the rest of the expansion. But if things don’t improve in 6.0, I’m jumping ship to the monk.

So I’m pushing on towards 90 on my kung fu Night Elf. I cruised through Northrend in no time at all thanks to the monk XP buff, and I’m now punching and kicking my way through Cataclysm. While I’m still questing, I’m also doing a lot of dungeons in brewmaster spec.

It continually amazes me that I enjoy brewmaster as much as I do. Normally, tanking is my least favourite group role by far, but monk tanking is fiendishly fun.

My monk sailing to NorthrendI think a lot of it has to do with the mobility. My paladin felt so slow and sluggish, but my monk is blindingly quick. There are so many strategies you can pull off as a monk that would be impossible for any other tank. A lot of times I can avoid damage simply by staying out of the boss’s reach.

I also like that they have a very broad toolkit. This is the first tank spec I’ve played where I feel like I always have the tools I need to handle any circumstance.

TSW: Templars are red, Lumies are blue…

Meanwhile, in TSW, I continue my disturbing need to play alts in the game where there is absolutely no good reason to have alts.

On my Templar, I’ve now finished the main storyline. Her choices took a darker road than my Dragon’s did. She dreams to soar among the screaming stars with the whale-mollusk gods. The Dreamers will wake.

Ahem. Anyway…

I also repeated issue #7, A Dream to Kill, on her. It occurs to me I never gave my thoughts on issue #7 on this blog, but suffice it to say every aspect of it blew me away, and to my surprise, it lost almost none of its luster on the second playthrough. The snowmobile chase is still ridiculously fun, the new twists still have me chomping at the bit to get to Tokyo, and the Nursery is still absolutely bone-chilling.

One of many horrors within issue #7's Nursery in The Secret World

Now I’m going to have the song stuck in my head for a few more days…

And a new player has entered the scene. I’ve started a second alt to experience the Illuminati’s version of events.

The Lumies appealed to me the least out of the three factions off the bat, and playing one now hasn’t improved my opinion of them, but I can definitely see how a certain type of person would adore them.

While the faction-specific content in TSW is minimal, Funcom does a very good job of creating a distinct feeling between factions for what content there is. The Dragon are very mysterious and intellectually stimulating. The Templar ooze pride, tradition, and power. And the Illuminati are very clearly the comedy relief of the Secret World.

While superficially very different, the Lumies sort of remind me of the Goblins in WoW: madcap eccentrics out to make a fast buck or die trying. No sleep ’til Brooklyn — sex, drugs, and Rockefeller!

For all the fame Kirsten Geary has among the fans, I didn’t find her as funny as some seem to. Dr. Zurn, on the other hand, was definitely the highlight of the Illuminati starting experience.

Dr. Zurn experiments on my Illuminati alt in The Secret World“You ever seen a jaguar trippin’? Look it up sometime!”

The really horrible thing is that I’m already considering a fourth alt. I love the Dragon so much I want to play through their whole storyline again.

Although that would mean playing through that nightmarish parking garage mission again. Hmm… maybe not.

New article:

My latest contribution to WhatMMO is 5 Boring MMO Mechanics (That Could Be Fun). YES I REALLY WANT BETTER ARCHER CLASSES IN MY MMOS DAMN IT.

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, and What It Means for WoW

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The plot thickens:

So yesterday we learned that Blizzard had trademarked “The Dark Below.” The big question was whether this was the next World of Warcraft expansion, or the next Diablo expansion.

And now Blizzard has launched a site for Diablo III: Reaper of Souls.

Review: Diablo: The Book of CainThe odds of this being anything but the expansion pack for D3 (which will probably be annnounced at Gamescom in a few days) are slim to none.

So that can only mean one thing.

[UPDATE: Okay, it’s getting weirder. MMO-Champion is now reporting that Blizzard has trademarked “Corgis Unleashed.” This somewhat throws into question whether “The Dark Below” is legit or not. Someone is obviously trolling us. The question is whether Blizzard is intentionally trying to throw us off the scent (they’ve done similar things in the past), or whether this is all just some douche’s idea of a joke.

I’m still inclined to think The Dark Below is real. The timing is right, and it sounds like a WoW expansion. But maybe it’s wishful thinking on my part.

On with the original post.]

World of Warcraft: The Dark Below

I think this is all but confirmed now. The timing is right for this to be the next WoW expansion. It’s not a Diablo expansion. It’s not a StarCraft expansion. It’s almost certainly not related to Titan considering that just got reset.

So what could the Dark Below refer to? Despite all the hints of a Legion expansion being next, my money is on Azshara.

Let’s put on our tinfoil hats here. Ozumat is the Fiend of the Dark Below. There have been hints that something really nasty is happening in Azeroth’s seas from as far as back as Warcraft III. There have been repeated mentions of N’zoth, the Drowned God, in both Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria. We never did find out what happened to Neptulon, and if Azshara succeeded in corrupting him, she would now have complete control over the element of water. Sounds like an expansion-level threat to me.

Art of Queen Azshara from the Warcraft trading card gameAlso, Blizzard said that Mists of Pandaria was sort of a late addition. They originally had a different plan for expansion five fully planned out, then decided to put it off in favour of PandaLand. Cataclysm had a lot of Naga involvement and hints of Azshara, as if they were planning that as the next big threat…

An Azshara expansion is something I’m whole-heartedly in favour of. Azshara is one of the last major villains from pre-WoW lore we haven’t tangled with yet. She’s one of the most unabashedly evil characters in Azeroth’s history, and she was a mage of near godlike power before the Old Gods turned into her into an immortal Lovecraftian monster and before she conquered the elemental plane of water.

She’s also a female villain, which is something WoW doesn’t have a lot of. And this could be a great opportunity to bring Tyrande back into the spotlight, as she’s probably Azshara’s most iconic rival.

And the Great Sea includes all kinds of interesting places, like Zandalar, the Rift of Aln, Kul Tiras, and the Tomb of friggin’ Sargeras.

Of course, it could also be an underground expansion focused on the dark places within Azeroth. Which could also be very cool. Azjol-Nerub, anyone? Or it could even combine elements of both.

Concept art of the cancelled Azjol-Nerub zone from World of WarcraftI’m trying not to get too excited. Expectation is almost always better than reality.

And then there’s the other news:

And we mustn’t forget that this is big news on the Diablo front, as well.

Surprisingly, I am quite excited about a D3 expansion. Although I’ve not always been the biggest Diablo fan, I did quite enjoy D3 — despite its many notable flaws — and I’m very eager to see the next installment of the story.

It’s hard to speculate based just on this vague title, but the website quotes a line from the Prophecy of the End Days that most people assume to refer to Malthael, the missing archangel of wisdom.

I’ve said before that I want a D3 expansion with the angels as the main villains, so that would definitely get my seal of approval.

Mostly, I’m just excited to return to slaying demons with Kormac, Eirena, and Shen. Love the characters in that game.

My wizard in the Diablo III open beta* * *

So, what say you about this news? Does the Dark Below tickle your fancy as a WoW expansion? What do you think it might be about? And what are your thoughts on Reaper of Souls as the Diablo expansion?