Vanilla Fun

As in "Vanilla World of Warcraft" no, not like . . .in the bedroom, although that is where my computer is . . . not for that, specifically . . .
But on to Wow.
As most of us know, on Tuesday Sep. 25th, The one race EVERYONE thought should have been in WoW, whether they wanted it or not FINALLY came to Azzeroth, after four expansions. I was on "the wows" that day and was delighted to discover SO MUCH of the content was available without the expansion proper, such as being able to roll Panderan (not as a monk though, that required the Xpac), and the new Pet Battle system.

So, of course, having never seriously played or owned a copy of Pokemon, or Digimon, Or Monster Rancher, I was instantly addicted to the Pet Battle system. (I also weakly justified it because of the vague potential to acquire a geode pet which, T1nk expressed that she wanted. although now I think you can't trade that one so I will have to farm it off Elementium, but, anyway). My buddy Moose was also on and was chatting with me a bit about the PokeWow, as I realized I had dinged the "Big City Pet Brawlin' - Horde" I saw the Alliance Version as well as the "Multicity" version and knew I had to do them!
So I told Moose to meet me and we flew off to Darnassus on our Horde Toons, ready for sneaky cross faction Capitol Poke-WoW. It was a blast, flying up into Darnassus, forgetting how to get to Exodar and then dying repeatedly because all the guards are 90 now, escaping a hunter in The Deeprun Tram by just hopping on the Tram even though I guess he thought he could take a raid spec'ed Tank & a PvP geared Frost Mage by himself, corpse dropping through IF where we REALIZED the guards had been buffed, and then corpse dropping through SW, avoiding ALL THE WARLOCKS ON THE SERVER (Ally side) and watching allies who DEFINITLY COULD(crazy, most recent season PvPgear) take me and moose not even realize we were only a few miles above them, waiting for the boat to Darn, then Exodar.
 It wasn't until the next day till Moose texted me while I was at work "Dude, we could have just done the battles on Alliance toons and gotten the achievement." To which I replied along the lines of, "yeah, that sounds right, but FUCK THAT! That would have been cheating"
Wich reminds me of a anecdote I often recite:
"Back in my day, we used to grind 15 hours in Winterspring, Uphill! With a 40% speed mount and a .05% drop rate. And we were happy for it! None of your silly cross-realm auto Queues. We had to WAIT for BG's & FIND PUG's and then you had to LIVE with the consequences of your actions and those of the idiots you grouped with CAUSE THEY WERE THERE! EVERYDAY, in Orgrimmar, on top of the bank, yelling about how they were the savior of the Horde and would lead us into victory against the disgusting alliance with their more attractive females, even though they weren't even max level and never really left the capitol city, nor was part of a Guild."
(For more, "ol' Man Ribeye" Rants . . . Hang out with me.)

Ol' RibeyeJack has hunted above his weight class on numerous occasions . . . Back when hunters had mana.

It was shortly after that text I realized a certain TYPE or feel of fun had left WoW, or had to be found, instead of an integral part of it. I have lamented certain changes in the past HERE, and there are a number of posts discussing other aspects of the game. Funny enough, I read a couple old posts and realized some of the information was no longer relevant due to many changes with different patches & expansions.
But here I talk about the power slip and the drop of the challenge curve.

Neutering of pets, where you don't have to go train others and then learn their abilities, no feeding, normalization where all pets are created equal, even more so NOW that you can spec whatevr pet you like the way you like. WHich I think is cool, but I like the idea of "hunting" and "tameing" and THEN if you like "re-training." Having played a hunter with a LOT of RP during Vanilla, and even on into today, these are small things I miss.
Bigger things it seems really began with what I've heard dubbed, and what I call, EZ-Patch, a few months before Lich King came out, when many things in Wow changed numerically. NPC's and mobs were nerfed and the amount of XP to get to 60 (cap was 70 at the time) was reduced at each level. At the time, the raiding guild I was with, was having serious issues pushing past certain content in a couple different Raids, but as soon as that patch hit, I was able to see a LARGE amount of content I thought we would spend a month or so on. And although it was very cool, it felt a bit cheapened, because I had hard won 2 peices of raiding gear and then with a couple nights of  rushed wipes, I had half a dozen more pieces of various tiers.
More recently with the achievements, titles, pets & mounts going cross-account. Once again, I like it in so far that certain things I want to be able to access no matter what toon I'm on, like ultra rare pets & mounts such as the Lil' T.K. & my Blizzard Blizzcon Bear mount. But with OTHER super-rare items, like Time-Lost Proto Drakes & Emerald Whelplings, a player puts in serious time and energy on one character, I think that's sort of a unique vanity that the character you accomplished it on should be able to sport, not just having a level 12 run around with a critter who's the same level as him.

We came out of the sea and strode through town, desolation in our wake. They killed one of our own attempting a quest that came too near their border, there mightiest(read: lvl 70's) then ran raids into our settlement. Our retribution was swift and sure.

It sort of feels like WoW evolved a lot like consoles did. I mean like how, when some of us were younger we played games on the NES or Sega, I'll even include PS1, and at those tween/adolescent years, those games were HARD. Then you go back to them almost a decade later, and realize, yeah! they were difficult. That's why there were cheats & bugs & game genies. But now, as consoles & the games have evolved, they are still hard, but it's no more "you need a lantern to get through there or you die because that should make sense to you. There is no sign post or multiple ways to light up the area" now the challenge is the AI, other players, more complex styles of play than just the inherent game itself in the form of achievements & awards.
The traditional way to do huge things in WoW was to get a 40 person raid together, and if you didn't have a massive guild, you had to find alternate ways to do things. Sometimes just for the shiggles of having done it. For example, I STILL need to get a 5 man together of level 20 somethings, corpse drop through SW and do Stockades, cause that's not cheating.

"Back in my day, Tarren Mill didn't even have ground! And we were thankful for that lack of floor!" Yay rendering bugs!

Well, I think I've made my point, but then again, I am really looking forward to this expansion because of the story promised by devs & designers, maybe some of that old flavor will creep back in. Time will tell.

Relevance!?

Quite frankly, I don't care, and I'm sure none of you do.
So, you ever have one of those really nice long vacations/weekends off, and don't seem to be able to get anything done? Yeah, I'm there. So, Imma talk about WoW.

Ribeye loves all the animals . . . ALL of them. Especially ones that have the proper animation for attacking flying mobs.

There are STILL very WIERD things going on in the hills north of Thunder Bluff on the way to Stonetalon. I can't find the screenshots right now, but if anyone cares, let me know, I'll find it. Last I checked, the rabbits were carrying axes in their mouths, most of them the size of gnomes, and they were one-shotting prairie dogs. Oh, and before that, the prarie dogs had on kaiser hats and were wielding rifles. And now that I look at the pic from that old link . . WHEN WE GONNA GET DUAL WIELD GUNS BLIZZ!?!?!?! Or, back int he day, Necrus & I would wax philosophical on how one would design a pole-arm/rifle and just have it fill up all three weapon slots, cool, right? Ah well.

It appears Mists will be one "small" expansion with numerous patches that are the "sequels/continuing storyline that the player will be taken through as war ravages Azzeroth once more, the War between it's peoples once more, not a "greater" enemy like in the past. I'm down, sounds immersive, and I'm fairly sure the rumor that there will be a Battle For Ogrimmar will result in Hellscreams dethroning, I am DOWN!
I'm always tempted to join a new beta, but I think I'll sit this one out as well.

Grue equips Mini Thor! It is super effective! Two ranged attacks FTW!

I've started heavy archeology, Pvping again and Moose has dragged me into some of the LFraids for some QUICK raids. Fun times, actually, gotta get that welfare gear! I am very scared at how well I am doing in PVP and raids. My dps is decent to good and as I continue to reforge/gem/chant my gear into fine tuning my dps can only improve.

As for PvP, I hadnt really gone into a BG since a few months after Cata hit. I think, two patches agoe? But, the bug up and bit me and I found myself in some BG's. AND I WAS OWNING EVERYTHING. I really cant explain it, and I'm not entirely bragging, I'm mostly sharing my amazement.

Manslayer goes for a swim . . . through the air . . . through Ogrimmar. Like ya do!

And of course, gettin mah raid  on has been good, flexing that teamwork muscle. Im actually looking to level a bunch of ttons all at the same time with Tink & other RL friends. Just ALL KINDS of WoW, all the time. Lets see if I have any fun WoW links . . . . I like this one and am working through the backlogs of the blog.

Hope that holds some of you over for now, more next week, maybe even a memorable if I get some time.

WoW: Cataclysm & 2 cents

Holy cow . . no really. Tauren priests! Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself.

This particular post feels like I am spitting into the wind in the middle of a hurricane, but, as of right now, that's kind of what my blog is anyway. But that's okay. I feel that my opinions and topics are interesting or entertaining and believe others would like to hear and discourse, so here it is . . .

If you play World of Warcraft, and, at least walk into a capitol city, and then actually look up at trade chat . . okay, never mind then, I'm losing people . . .

Officially, Patch 3.2.2 is revamping old content, and unofficially the WoWers wait with bated breath to see if the rumors are true . . again . . .

So, with Blizzcon basically tomorrow we wait, nails in teeth to see if its all true. Some wait nervously because they wish it to be, others, because they gripe and flame. Me? Both.

I would love to see the race expansions, seeing Gilneas opened (read the third post down, typo on YEAR, but I was in line inside the con for the Blizzstore they have [who wasn't? ask t1nk sometime] at the '08 Blizzcon when the entire con groaned at that quote.) Will be bomb, getting goblins as a playable race has been a dream of mine since seeing THIS VID (that's right, Manager Rob breaks it down, uh! / dance for bustin moves! ). As for playable race/class combo's, I always wanted to play a Hunter Forsaken, as well as I'm of the RP school that believes that if it can be explained it should be possible, so, I'm okay with expanding the race/class combo's.

My problem, with the official as well as the unofficial, is what about the classic situation? they've done it once with Naxx, they moved it from above Strat to northrend, BUT, its the same instance, just revamped, and I'm okay with these, just uneasy.
If the Cataclysm actually rips Azzeroth a new one and twists, changes, even DROWNS an entire zone, I don't wholeheartedly support it. I have a number of toons at various levels across a few different realms, and although I have been concentrating on my main, I know I enjoy leveling a character and being able to pick and chose what zone and how, and I enjoy every zone for one reason or another (yes, even barrens).

I have a love/hate relationship with the revamping old content, I know, I'm repeating myself a bit here, I guess what I really mean, is that I wish Blizzard would set a precedent and stick to it.
Okay, Ony, Naxx, got revamps and the overall integrity of the storyline and instances themselves were maintained. What about the other old, and not-so-old raids? Are all of them going to get a buff? Is this something we can expect from Blizzard? If so, I hope it is in order to maintain the experience of the raids, not just to recycle content.
But what about "progressing" zones and instances? Instanced zones in Northrend are interesting and fun, but can be very annoying when you have lowbie friends or friends who don't level quite as fast as you and you cant help them or relive the same areas with them without leveling a toon in tandem. More to the point, Clearing Gnomer and giving it back to the gnomes?!?! WHOA! I know everybody makes that joke at some point in WoW, but honestly, if you clear it and give it back, do the darkspear trolls get a whole new "city" off the coast from Sen'Jin village and the entire Echo Isle/Zalazane quest line disappears, not to mention the quest line that leads Horde into Gnomer and gives them fun and exciting quests and some gear any leather wearer can use for a good 20 levels. Crap, tangent, but at least its a supporting tangent. (why does that sound dirty? just me? very well, moving on!)
*researches and rereads info*
I guess I am just an old salt player, well, no, I AM an old salt player. "Friggin blizzard dropping mount requirements and gold prices!? GAH!" I have uttered this phrase many times and many like it. I just like the idea of always being able to go back no matter what and doing the old stuff, unless of course, the world will become a CONSTANTLY shifting and living world, whereas, right now, its a bouncing in and out of comma's with signs of life in some places yet regression in others. I mean, look at Outland, It was the BOMB for like one year, than Northrend hit and it was forgotten. At least the old 50-60 zones had a couple years to establish themselves and have sentimental value to most players. At this point, Outland is just kind of sad. I would like to see revamps there as soon as this patch is live. Heh. I feel bad for outland.

Alright, do I have anything else I want to say about Cataclysm: The Myth, so far?
Yes, but all of it is even MORE knee-jerk reaction and I can hold it till we find out officially. Here's hoping, for what I want to play.