Archive for the ‘Cataclysm’ Category

A New Start

March 11, 2010 :: Posted by - Plectical :: Category - Cataclysm, PVE, Raiding

Confession time. Raiding on my Warlock has become tiresome. I’ve raided with him from the beginning of the Burning Crusade and throughout WOTLK. We’ve braved the depths of Black Temple, explored the haunted hallways of Karazan, tested our mettle against the worst that Northrend has to offer in TOC, and taken the fight to the door of the Lich King in ICC. I’m well versed in the many different Warlock talent builds, used to slightly altering my play style each time a new patch comes out and I’m an old hand at grousing when my group makeup isn’t just right. It may be time to trade up mains.

There is hope on the horizon though and that hope (as odd as it may read), will be Cataclysm. Players often use expansions to switch up their main character. TBC saw the emergence of many new Draeni Shamans and Blood Elf Paladins, and WOTLK saw the explosion of Death Knights on every server. Cataclysm will be a chance for many people to change up their class once again. I’ve got a few thoughts poking around in the back of my head as to what I’ll change to…it involves a ranged pet class. Maybe its just the grass is greener on the other side but it seems that Hunters experience less instability than other classes do (dps wise) in game. For Warlocks, we’ve gone from the top of the DPS pile to the bottom and back more times than I can count in the past few expansions. All I’m looking for is a little more stability in my overall output and new class mechanics to explore.

Anyone else thinking of changing up their class in the upcoming expansion? If you are going to change up, I’d be interested to see a short list of likes and dislikes about your current class and what about your new class seems interesting.

This is borked, please fix it.

March 09, 2010 :: Posted by - Ozimandias :: Category - Cataclysm

MOngoJerry Agent Dawn - US/rant

I don’t know why this bugs me so much, but I can’t stand that my hunter is displayed without his gun or his pet. (I can understand why the pet is not displayed, I am mounted somewhere over Storm Peaks, so my pet isn’t out. That still doesn’t excuse it, but I understand.) What I don’t understand is why hunters don’t get ranged weapon displayed on the log-in screen. NOBODY CARES ABOUT MY STAT AX AND  STAT DAGGER! Read more…

What Vanilla Instances Do You Want to See in Cataclysm?

March 09, 2010 :: Posted by - Plectical :: Category - Cataclysm, Other

News has started to leak out of Blizzard that Shadow Fang Keep and Dead Mines won’t be the only instances that Blizzard makes into Heroic instances.  As always, its refreshing and troubling to see Blizzard revisiting old content and adding a coat of polish.  It’s refreshing because there is so much content that just sits underutilized in WOW.  Its troubling because as nostalgic and fun as old content can be, it’s slightly worrying that Blizzard is sprucing up old content instead of making new content.  Anyway, I’m getting side tracked. Read more…

C’mon Blizz where is my Worgen?

January 08, 2010 :: Posted by - Ozimandias :: Category - Cataclysm, Community, Other

Worgen! My poor rogue.  She was parked at the end of BC after leveling my dwarf priest to 70 through instance after instance. It was at the time very hard to get raid slots as a somewhat poorly geared rogue. “We need a healer” became my mating call and out went my priest, leaving my rogue abandoned and alone. Then I started a DK,  leveling BS, mining, fishing, cooking and first aid to max level, and now I am leveling a hunter. I want to play my human rogue, but it seems stupid considering that I absolutely can’t wait to level a Worgen rogue. This past weekend I looked to see if there was any new information on the Worgen.

I have not found any new information on the new classes since the announcement hit Blizzcon. NONE in over four months. What is up with this? Despite the new content, the DF, and the virtual loot giveaway it enables, I have noticed something in the community as a whole. It appears to be falling apart. Read more…

What is on your bucket list?

November 15, 2009 :: Posted by - Ozimandias :: Category - Cataclysm, Community, PVE

With the new expansion coming out in the (not-so-distant) future, the thing that excites me the most is the new vanilla WoW that we are going to enjoy. It really was about time that the old world got some love and I especially can’t wait to see Stormwind and Thunder Bluff from the air.
As WoW turns 5 and starts to show its age somewhat, expansions like Cataclysm inject much-needed contents and fuel excitement about the game. Things do tend to get stale quickly in the fickle world that we all raid, quest and love in. (On a side note, I would hate to be a WoW developer in the sense that months of work spent designing and balancing an instance might be completely ignored by the masses in a matter of weeks as players progress towards the new level cap.) While change can be exciting, it can also be sad. Things as we know them are going to change radically, and some things are never coming back. There are a couple of tasks that I wanted to accomplish before the expansion comes out. Call it my WoW bucket list.
This list was compiled some time ago, just after the announcement of the new and (sexier?) Onyxia came out. So the first item on my list has been accomplished.
1. Defeat Onyxia before she got all uber.
This was a lot of fun, and when I posted on my guild forums asking for help with this, I was shocked at the response. This actually turned out to be the first “raid” that I conceived, executed and delivered on. She went down fast, even though wearing equipment was optional. This sparked off talk of guild retro-raids on Saturdays before the Ulduar raids. The second on the bucket list is happening as I write this.
2. Roll a Tauren Shammy and explore the starting area/quests
Now I know that there might be quite a few of you out there that are wondering why I would want to do something so mundane as roll a Tauren Shaman. Why a Tauren? I have always played Ally, and quite honestly, I am sick of getting war stomped in BGs. So I am employing the old adage, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”
I used to go to the Barrens on my rogue just to gank Horde at the Cross Roads. Now I am going through the starting areas and learning about Horde. The quests out there are pretty interesting, and even though there is not a whole lot to look at in terms of scenery, it is a nice change from Westfall.
Thinking that I could kill two birds with one stone, I rolled this toon on Stomp and Haf’s server, Staghelm. I figured that since I was the EIC of their website, that I would join their guild. Well I never did put in my application because another idea hit me.
3. Go it alone and level a toon without a Main or a Guild
That’s right, going old school! This is walking-15-miles-to-school-in-the-blinding-snow-uphill-both-ways like old Grandpa Bill used to complain about. Even my first ever toon had some stimulus money come to him in the form of a roommate giving him 5 gold to buy some gear. My roomie at the time was a mage and a tailor so he was able to make me bags. Not this time, I wanted to forgo power-leveling instances, guild banks and extra gold from a main.
This one decision has forced me to change how I play WoW more than any other decision that I have made so far. When you’re prancing around at level 17 with a 6 slot bag and you are still wearing white gear the ripping and running through mobs that I enjoyed in the past is gone. Speaking of gone, that is something that I have been experiencing a lot with this toon. Yup, the old corpse run. I was so happy when I sold a stack of peacebloom on the AH and got 7 gold for it I was so happy that I did a dance and tweeted about it. Crazy huh?
So what are some things that you want to do before the xpac hits? Is there a title that you are going for? Quest lines that you have not gotten to?  Jumping factions has changed my view of WoW for the better, and quite honestly, I am glad that I didn’t pay the $50 to change servers and factions. That is the easy way, and now that WoW is getting easier and easier with every patch, I am glad to be one of the old grumpy players hanging on to things that are hard. Why? Because I can.
NOW YOU KIDS GET OFF OF MY GRASS!!!

Look! Old guys!

With the new expansion coming out in the (not-so-distant) future, the thing that excites me the most is the new vanilla WoW we are going to enjoy. It really was about time that the old world got some love and I especially can’t wait to see Stormwind and Thunder Bluff from the air.

As WoW turns 5 and starts to show its age somewhat, expansions like Cataclysm inject much-needed content and fuels excitement about the game. Things do tend to get stale quickly in the fickle world that we all raid, quest and love in. (On a side note, I would hate to be a WoW developer in the sense that months of work spent designing and balancing an instance might be completely ignored by the masses in a matter of weeks as players progress towards the new level cap.) While change can be exciting, it can also be sad. Things as we know them are going to change radically, and some things are never coming back. There are a couple of tasks that I wanted to accomplish before the expansion comes out. Call it my WoW bucket list. Read more…

Crisis on Multiple Servers

November 02, 2009 :: Posted by - Plectical :: Category - Cataclysm, Other, User Interface

One of the big changes coming with Patch 3.3 is the introduction of randomized dungeons. In order to facilitate this, Blizzard has enabled cross-server LFG (read: players from multiple servers can run instances together). Ultimately, players from all different servers will be running heroics and raids together with a complete group of unknowns.

Hold on, I’m not done. Blizzard has also removed the regular and heroic dungeon dailies and replaced them with randomized counterparts (running a heroic or a regular dungeon with a group of random players from multiple servers). In addition, all heroics now grant two Emblems of Triumph and all random heroic dailies grant two Emblems of Frost (the new Patch 3.3 Emblems). Also, there will be no more lockouts for players who run randomized heroics (so you can run HVH all day long with as long as the group is random). Got all that?

Read more…

Episode 42: I’M AN ICEBLOCK

October 25, 2009 :: Posted by - Stompalina :: Category - Cataclysm, Podcast

On this week’s Rawrcast, Stomp and Haf review a few of the more notable questions posed during last week’s Blizzard Developer discussion on twitter, and details are shared on how Texanbeef became Azeroth’s first Tauren Mage.

Episode 42 of Rawrcast is available for your listening pleasure via iTunes, RSS feed, direct download, or you can stream it from our main page.

Links to items discussed this week:

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The High Cost of No Consequences

September 23, 2009 :: Posted by - Rhabella :: Category - Cataclysm, Class Discussion

On this week’s Blue Plz!, TotalBiscuit pontificated on the worgen and goblin racials for Cataclysm, and proceeded to inform everyone how great it was they were overpowered.  He reminded us how in most RPGs, there is a cost associated with your decisions, but WoW has, interestingly enough, really removed penalties for any major decision you make in the game.

A Lost Philosophy

I have a confession to make: WoW is my first MMO.  It is one I thoroughly enjoy, but it is unlike any RPG I have ever played before.  My first RPG ever was Final Fantasy, the 8 bit masterpiece released on the original Nintendo.  It was a game my dad had gotten for me from one of his friends at work who didn’t enjoy it, and he even gave me the official strategy guide.  Even today, it has playability and will always have a special place in my heart. Read more…

Rawrcast: Ep 35 – Talking Tank

September 06, 2009 :: Posted by - Stompalina :: Category - Cataclysm, Podcast, Raiding

This week Haf and Stomp welcome Veneretio to the show to talk tank. Together they discuss the intricacies of Block Value, Block Rating, and many of the new itemization changes slated for Cataclysm. Ven also shares some of his more memorable raiding highlights from year past, and gives a few tips to up in coming tanks and raid leaders.

This week the Rawr Crew also welcomes Cornelious0_0 who is continuing the Under the Hood segment series, tackling PC performance related issues and questions. And, we are also graced by another installment of Instances with the Inquisitor. These, and many other ongoing segment series are provided by members of our Rawr Crew, and they welcome your comments, feedback and questions to include in future segments. Read more…

Rawrcast: Ep 34 – Pimp yo Guild

August 30, 2009 :: Posted by - Stompalina :: Category - Cataclysm, Podcast, Raiding

This week Stompalina takes a closer look at Progressive Guild Management and how the announced Guild Achievement and Leveling System will influence change and strengthen their guild community, and how they could influence yours. She also shares tips on how to utilize social networking and guild websites to foster out-of-game communication among members.

Haf and Stomp also touch upon a few of this week’s top news stories found on buff.net, and tackle a hefty listener e-mail regarding how a father can help to make his son understand and care about his roll within the game.

Episode 34 of Rawrcast is available for your listening pleasure via iTunes, RSS feed, direct download, or you can stream it from our main page.

Links to topics discussed this week:

Special Thanks to our Sponsors
buffd.net
UGT-Servers.com use the code RAWR for 10% off!
Rawrcast@gmail.com
Music provided by: Powerburn