Patch Day (WoW)

So, today is patch day in Azeroth. There are lots of class tweaks. I am looking forward to hunter pets leveling up when tamed, I do hope the same happens when pulled out of the stable. Many of mine are three levels below me still. Pet loyalty and happiness being removed... about damn time. I never understood having to carry around tons of food (and back then tons of arrows), and on top of it all the pets were not like other classes and could be levels below you. Glad the developers are taking away these annoying little things. I remember my son having his Tallstrider pet run away... It was sad for him but also hilarious as his name was Legs. Legs has ran away.... He was only about eight or nine then, poor little fellow.

Call to Arms goes live. Having more time to think it over I wonder where this game is going, some days. Bribes to play a certain role? I thought being in demand was reward enough. You didn't have to bribe people in Wrath. Do I sound jaded to you?

Anyhow, new (OLD) heroics Which my measly gear score is too pitiful to enter with. Woo hoo! I suppose for some reason I just can't get into the feel for doing heroics this expansion. So these new dungeons really don't hold much enticement for me. I mostly find myself adventuring or just questing and gathering achievements. I guess someone out there is jumping for joy over these instances being used as heroics.

On a nice note hunters get a 250% bonus to multishot. I just miss volley, it was so much easier for farming. Sigh. Shadow priests get a damage increase on their AoE- doubled. Nice additions.

I will admit, this morning, I am a bit crabby because I still am not able to finish my Noble Garden achievement. I cannot find an Orc or Troll female above eighteen when my flowers are not on cool down. Sure, ten of them will waltz by when it is unusable, okay maybe just one. Having to sit outside (for long periods of time) of Org is not something I enjoy. I switched factions to get away from it! Since Dalaran isn't a hub, the cool down on the items used on the achievement should have been lessened. I wonder if I can stomach this enough to finish it.

I tamed Olm The Wise, yesterday. I was excited to tame him, pictured at the top of the post. Speaking of cool pets, this patch there are some pets transformed. The one that is the most noteworthy is the new snazzy blue and white cat- Ice Saber. A lot of hunters will want that one! Thanks to Mania for posing up the pics on Petopia!

If you haven't read the patch notes check them out, I just went to MMO-Champion and looked them over. If you're playing, I hope your patch day isn't full of waiting, I can see this one dragging out!

-kaozz

Call To Arms- The Band-Aid (WoW)

Tank today and this sweet mount could be yours! Doh.. I already have it.

Tired of sitting in the LFD queue for ages? Well Blizzard has a band-aid for this painful wait time problem. Call To Arms, check out the info at MMO-Champion and also check out Sprinks' post which is where the topic caught my eye. Basically CTA gives rewards as an incentive to get people to queue for dungeons, mainly tanks and healers. I mean when are we ever lacking DPS? I thought it HAD to be a late April Fools joke.


The handy dandy LFD system will keep tabs on the the queue, once it gets past a certain wait time CTA will kick in, determining which role is the least represented, and offer a reward for filling it. The rewards for filling these roles range from money and flasks to vanity pets and mounts. We all know that tanks and then healers will be the ones to benefit the most from this, mainly tanks. OMG where have all the tanks gone?!! I'll get to that in a bit. The DPS in the queue will benefit but not in the same way, the lacking roles will go above and beyond with a bonus. Is this fair? I suppose it all depends on how you look at it.

Is this a solid fix or a band-aid on the problem that Cataclysm has caused? I honestly think Blizzard needs to take a harder look at why certain roles are not queuing for dungeons. While I like to think its kind of neat that I may have a chance to get something cool on my healers, I really don't like the idea as a dps class, then again it might help me actually get a group at 85 as DPS. I think the root issues of this expansion and direction should be rectified instead of shaking goodies in our faces to try to get us to tank or heal. 'Look in the bag... all the shiny goodies! Now go tank! Heal the PUGS for phat lewt!'

But wait!  You can't queue up with a buddy, you have to go at this alone. I think this is rather harsh. Queuing with at least one other person would add a little more incentive, in my eyes. What the rewards are not enough as it is?! I'm just not sure, only time will tell.

I am glad to see that Blizzard is aware of the queue times and at least trying to do something, I gave up with my hunter on trying the LFD thing, last time I played. Is it enough incentive to get people to tank and heal more in LFD instances?

Do we focus on guild runs or just LFD solo? There we run into a conflict of interest for this expansion. It seems such a contradiction to the theme Ghostcrawler was aiming at in the beginning of the expansion- Wow, Dungeons are hard ... Get a guild! Focusing on guild runs and I quote 'Ultimately, we don't want to give undergeared or unorganized groups a near guaranteed chance of success'... And they wonder why nobody is queuing?! The idea was to take the pressure off healers and tanks, leaving little room for DPS to cause error, think before you act as there are consequences (Oh noes...whoopty doo dah! Thus achieving in scaring off all the tanks and healers), but in reality it actually caused more pressure and people don't want to deal with it. And maybe hose tanks and healers may be just too busy doing rep runs with their guilds, you know, since it requires so many guild members to group. Maybe they like it better, since it was pushed so hard on us. Maybe they would rather go after those shiny rewards instead?

I say give us normal instances at 85 and heroics or heroics which are much like LK heroics and add in Heroic x2. Everyone is happy. Casual fun with rewards and hard mode for those who claim they love these hard dungeons. I think the implementation of this CTA system speaks multitudes about state of end game heroics. Alas nobody ever asked me, so onward with the carrot on a stick!

I am really interested to see how this fares with the community, if it will help any. *Sits back and reaches for the popcorn!*

-kaozz