World Of Warcraft

Eh, I never had trouble acquiring more treats than I had use for in previous times. Just running the horseman every day for sweet loot, plus lazily completing buckets for achievement gave me all I wanted.

The buckets only look bothersome if you rush them in one go.

edited 20th Oct '14 8:09:05 AM by Adannor

I did them all in one go on Saturday. Well, I stopped just over halfway through Kalimdor because I had enough for both pets.

Ah, Unburdened. Now I remember why Hallow's End is my favorite holiday. Oh, how I missed that extra 10% rep gain~

Pfft. My main has exalted on every single rep that it's practical to get, and some that aren't. No point in grinding on alts given that all the rewards they could want are surpassed by Timeless and Siege loot.

Well, when you're working on reps like Hydraxian Waterlords and Brood of Nozdormu, every bit helps. Especially for Hydraxians.

That's a valid point.

I have yet to become Exalted with Emperor Shaohao and the Shado Pan Offensive.

Dont think I will until I can solo that instance. Plus Shaohao is painfully slow. Just. Painful.

Shaohao SUCKS. And that's the model they're going for for warlords: mob grinding. Ugh. What happened to championing? I miss it.

Metallica to perform live at Blizzcon.

I thought the whole point of the Insane in the Membrane Feat was that you'd have to be insane to grind reps like in the old days? Why in the name of Onyxia's Deep Breathes are they doing it now?

For Insane in the Membrane, it had to do with how little rep the mobs give.

The Warlords grinds might be way faster. Plus could have a chance of dropping non-soulbinding rep bonus tokens or something. Lots of ways to use that model without making it onerous.

I am not going to sacrifice my rep with the goblins to farm Bloodsail rep. I draw the line there. It took months to max out the Steamwheedle Cartel, one goddamn pirate at a time.

edited 21st Oct '14 2:15:13 PM by Fighteer

Yeah, I got Insane in the Membrane and only "Cheated" 6k rep out of it (I only needed a few more decks and then the DMF Island came out, so I just got exalted with them with those quests). I even have the Shen'dralar.

Point is, Shaohao is just as bad as grinding one of those. It is brutally punishing.

Shaohao isn't so bad. It took me less than a month on my main, and that was without dedicating hours per day to it. It's much faster than farming pirates. The stupid Timbermaw Clan furbolgs were another pain in the ass rep grind. Hydraxians were terrible, too, but I ran MC so many times back in classic that I only had to get from Revered up to Exalted.

The centaurs in Desolace... that's another grind that I refused to attempt. That and Shen'dralar.

edited 21st Oct '14 2:25:57 PM by Fighteer

I do not find it fast at all. Also, I got exalted with the old Dire maul quest, I do not know ocmparatively how much worse it is.

But I still think Shaohao is pretty bad

It's not meant to be fast. Blizzard fully intended Shaohao to be a time sink. If you want to max out your mounts collection, you've got to spend a lot of time farming stuff.

It's a "classic" rep grind but not the worst.

Perhaps it is a time sink, but I still do not find it wholly reasonable. Blegh. I am just OCD about being a completionist. You have no idea how achievements vex me. It is not even a thing about being competitive, I hate competition. I just can't have empty things.

Wo D is pretty much being made into a time sink, just an fyi, everything in it is pretty much designed to take time. Buildings take 1 hour to build, garrison resources generate 1 every 10 minutes, daily quests and hunting for rares are the only ways to make that go faster. There are reps that generate rep very slowly per day, rares that rarely drop stuff etc.

The huge issue is its not contained in a small isle, the whole game is designed around mixing that in with more standard and branching quest lines. And you can not fly from point to point like farming rares in pandaria as well as there are level 100 content in every zone, however there are certain buildings that can make porting around easier but they take up precious space.

edited 21st Oct '14 2:41:14 PM by Memers

Which I do not mind, since dailies have been a part of things for al ong itme, and Blizzard has been more lenient on that than ever before. They understand people cannot be hooked to the computer 24/7. It is a bit more visible on Hot S, where you get double bonus EXP when playing on weekends, but leniency on dailies is more allowed as of late on World Of Warcraft

But my point remains that Shaohao is a repetitive, unfun, unrewarding, slow grind with no other options just sitting there, taunting me. I actually think garrisons might be ok gameplay wise (lorewise they are retarded) but the attached grind to them is not necesarily inherently punitive

In what way? They are as close as World Of Warcraft is ever going to get to Warcraft III. You are the commander of the base, you are basically the player in Warcraft III. You secure resources, set up a gold mine, build your base, bring in heroes to help out, mark trees to be cut down via shredders, establish outposts in every zone, send out raiding parties, rescue them if they are captured, defend your base from attack, attack other bases etc.

But yes progression is there, slow progression though, you will still be upgrading the thing for months.

edited 21st Oct '14 2:59:23 PM by Memers

How is assuming the role of the nebulous figure that controlled everything in WCIII a lore figure...? The WCIII events happened without this nebulous figure assuming that role has absolutely nothing. It is just not concordant to lore. You are: A) the person who killed Illidan, Arthas, Deathwing, and defeated Garrosh and you have, by proxy, also saved the world half times over. You saved/burnt to ash all of Ashenvale single handed and also dismantled via chop chop/fireball every member of the twilight cult, as well as been blessed and basically sanctified by Naaru and also tortured people for information.

It is not a story they are telling it is just a gameplay element. Forgetting/ignoring there are other P Cs is the greatest sin of Blizzard. Just assume your average guild. What justifies 10 garrisons with dozens of (the same) heroes working for 10 different people achieving the exact same objectives?

I dunno if you were around for it, but, for example the opening of the gates of Ahn'Qiraj had much more of a feel of "You are all pitching in for something without being the one wielding the blade but we can't do this without you".

It's a stylistic shift in gameplay. There's nothing wrong with that, unless you've become fixated on a particular gameplay style and refuse to accept the possibility of having fun with anything different.

There will still be plenty of raids to do, of course, if you want to feel like the conquering hero, but I'm very much looking forward to a return to the RTS roots of the franchise. If they put out another expansion like Catacylsm or Pandaria, as entertaining as those were, it might be the last gasp of WoW for me, simply because I am getting bored with the current formula.

edited 21st Oct '14 3:15:59 PM by Fighteer

As I said though, I am not opposed to it as a gameplay element, I just cannot find it is actually telling a story that makes any sense in the world as an interactive MMO.

I meant to say you now hold the position of the PC in WC 3, the commander of the army, which was a position in WC 3 just never seen as you were it.

And the game has been heading that way for a long time, in cata you were recognized for your achievements in Icecrown and again you were personally chosen by Nazgrim (horde side) for Pandaria due to your work with him in Cata... now you have killed him and gotten a Klingon Promotion. Other characters haven't mattered in the plot for years, you are the hero and they are your friends and from their perspective they are the hero and you are their friend. Join a group with someone and you enter the party leader's base.

edited 21st Oct '14 3:27:27 PM by Memers