Morning blog lovers...
Well, this was the first weekend that we had with all the new goodies that is patch 3.2. I played alot this weekend, in fact, I will go to say that I played too much lol. WoW is a totally different atmosphere since the new patch has gone live.
It has brought back alot of players that stopped playing the game, not enough in Blizzard's eyes I'm sure lol. It has never been easier to get into 5, 10, or 25 man group. I ran every single heroic this weekend, even the Occulus. I also did a few wings of a Naxx 25, a clearing of 25 VoA and OS.
It was crazy! Trade and LFG channel was consistently popping looking for people to run stuff.
However, it should be.
3.2 - The Alt Patch...yeah F'n right or true???
Blogger queen Larisa wrote a post last week that touch on the subject I am about to dive into. 3.2 is being called the "Alt patch" by many due to the changes in leveling and the new mounts restrictions.
However, this is not the case. Blizzard is basically saying
"Peons, as long as you put in the time and keep abusing our drug playing our game, we will reward you with loot that you can use at the highest level"
With that being said, your level 80 really doesn't have any excuses on why he/she isn't geared. You can't blame it on loot not dropping, not having enough DKP, or any other RNG pwnage story you may have. There is no were to hide anymore people and I am on the fence about how I feel about it.
On one hand, I am all for it. I hate loot not dropping and getting OWNED by the random number generator. It sucks and it can make you get burned out quickly. This new system also allows for your additional toons to get gear without spending multiple weeks in Naxx 10, then another month or more in Naxx 25 to be geared up to move on to additional content (Ulduar and above)
Its not only for your additional toons, its for newly level 80 players that from this point on will not have to experience the gear grind in Naxx 10/25 if they do not want to. They still can, but it is not forced on them like it was the rest of us before patch 3.2.
I am assuming that Blizzard did some research and found out that it is a good thing for them to get as many people involved in their new content as possible. Atleast give them options to gear up, different routes, yet ending in the same place.
However, its not like my main wasn't geared enough to heal or dps anything in the game currently. I will state that there is no way that I would level a new character and go through the gear grind that was...
Ding level 80 > Heroics > OS/VoA/Naxx 10 > OS/VoA/Naxx 25/Malygos > Ulduar
...just to get to where I need to be for the new content. Only way I would do that is if I took a long break from WoW and then came back. Which I have done in the past, but Blizzard does not want that. They lost roughly 90 bucks just from me during my 6 months break back in TBC.
Final thoughts on 3.2
For the fan boys that are calling this patch the "Alt patch", I can not disagree 100% with you. It is true that this patch is leaps and bounds over other patches in terms of buffing the leveling and gearing process. Which is very valuable for older players alts and newly level 80 toons.
However, because you are now given the option to run 5 mans and get the same loot as one would get from a 25 man raid of the highest level....you should really be making sure your main is updated with all the of the best gear. Which makes you play your main more then you would be playing your alt.
Take me as an example. I been leveling a druid for the past two weeks, only playing my main to check the AH (for my alt) or send money to him.
Patch 3.2 hit and I played him about 5% of the total time I played WoW over my three day weekend.
Alt patch or main patch, you decide.
Now for the new, juicy stuff...
Trial of Champions and its loot
Wow, just wow. Regular instance dropping loot that is on par with tier 7? Quite a change from how things were being run in WoW the past 4 years. I ran ToC multiple times (6-7) this weekend and I must say....I like it overall. There is a thing that is slightly bothering me about it though, its the quality of the loot.
The regular version of ToC is pretty simple. I only wiped once during it and it was because my group was filled with fail. I am ok with the quality of the loot in this version though. It is slightly less then epics that are found in 10 mans. However, the trinkets that drop in this version are pretty badass. Definitely not the best in slot, but nothing to frown at. Worth your time to mess around with different options.
I got the caster dps one on my mage and I replaced it with +100 sp trinket. Was this the right thing to do? I'm not 100% sure, but I do know that procs ALOT! Off the top of my head I would say that it procs around once every 30 seconds. I could be wrong but I think that +600 sp once every 30 seconds is better then a consistent +100 sp. Its not like I am doing any hardcore raiding or anything, just pew pew heroics and 10 mans.
Heroic ToC
Heroic ToC is not an easy instance, but its not a hard instance either. You need a decent group that knows whats going on and a good healer. A good tank always makes thing easier, but a good tank in ToC makes this instance alot easier. I wiped a bunch with a few groups, but come to find out, they just were not good and didn't know what was going on.
The past 3 times I have done it though, I have completed it. This is making sure your group is decently geared and that they know the fights before you accept the summon or fly out to the instance.
WTFloot
Healing mace dropped off the second boss. Come to find out it has the exact same stats as the healing dagger that drops off the 6th boss in Uludar.
6th boss?
Ulduar?
5 man heroic?
2nd boss?
I know that I just said a bunch of stuff about how it Blizzard wants to close the gear gap in order for more people to experience new content when it comes out.
But damn...it slightly pissed me off
I guess I know how hardcore raiders feel about the whole conquest badges changes. Oh well, try to remember not to hate and roll with the punches. Lets face it, we all love WoW and we will continue to play until they decide to they make a change that will ultimately destroy the world
...of warcraft.
Until next time, I'm WTFout!
4 comments:
Last night, I ran H ToC and upgraded THREE of my pieces of gear. TANK gear. I upgraded my Naxx25 helm (Helm of Vital Protection), my ULD25 shoulders (Shoulderplates of the Deconstructor), and my emblem ring (Signet of Impregnable fortress). It was pretty ridiculous, considering I have a ton of Ulduar gear. This may be a bit skewed for me, though, since Blizz failed in making their T8 gear. I spent any tokens I had on DPS gear since they made their entire T8 set a SBV set. But still. 3 upgrades from a heroic for someone who was successfully tanking Uld25 is pretty nuts.
If you're talking about the haste+spell power proc trinket, yeah, it's a pretty massive boost. It's a variation on the crit+spell power heroic badge trinket, which was far and away the best trinket in the pre-raid game (yes, even better than the hit rating one from HVH).
On paper, my main should be precisely the target demographic of this patch. I'm not willing to make the schedule tradeoffs I would have to make to raid, and now Blizzard is willing to bring the loots I wasn't getting to me in the 5-mans I was running anyway for fun.
Thing is, there isn't any REASON why I need the gear - I already gear all heroic 5-man content (and massively overgear solo content, to the point where I melee mobs on my mage to raise weapon skills). If I don't need it now, and won't need it later because it's going to be replaced with even better stuff within the next year (either in 3.3 or the expansion), why should I go out of my way to collect it? That's irony for you - by making the incentives too good, they've actually diminished their long term incentive value.
@Brey - that isn't nuts, thats down right crazy. I didn't think it was that big of a difference...
...dang
@Green Armadillo - You just blew my mind. Excellent point, especially if you only plan on doing 5 mans and 10 man raids. You really don't need to do crazy dps.
But there is something about getting bigger numbers and improving your toon that keeps me coming back. Even though I know that next year there will be another expansion and all my gear will now be worthless.
Kinda depressing really lol, but its the circle of life we live in this world
of warcraft.
and yes I am talking about the haste+spell power trinket. It rocks my face. <3
Who are these people with time to play an alt after the patch?
I've been in heroics non-stop, logged my little priest just to clear out some mail before it expired.
Patch of the alt? Pfffttt... patch of the badge grind!
Thanks for the shout out!
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