WoW; 5th expansion Warlords of Draenor

Not going to pay that much for an instant 90. IIRC, you get one free with the expansion. Should I decide to play the expansion, I'll level my main then use the free 90 on a newly created alt. Any alts beyond that, I can level myself.
 
$60 is fine for a 90. Think of how long it takes to level. Even with heirlooms it's a huge time investment. I'd rather pay $60 than sink days into a toon. Besides, if it was too cheap it would cheapen the game experience. People with fresh 90s and no clue how to play them are a TON of fun to play with I'm sure.
 
lloose said:
$60 is fine for a 90. Think of how long it takes to level. Even with heirlooms it's a huge time investment. I'd rather pay $60 than sink days into a toon. Besides, if it was too cheap it would cheapen the game experience. People with fresh 90s and no clue how to play them are a TON of fun to play with I'm sure.
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The only problem with the $60 price tag, is that you can buy it for about half that cost from a 3rd party power-leveling service. Yes, it carries some risk but you also wind up with all the gold, items and achievements from the leveling.

Obviously, YMMV and it's against the ToS. But if Blizzard's goal is to remove/reduce leveling services, they need to make their price competitive.
 
Leveling and Other Numbers

I played a gnome warrior in the Shadowmoon Valley, the Alliance starting zone. After about 5 hours of /played and 80 quests I reached the end of the zone and Level 92.
At level 91, I had 63k health as a Tank.
Monsters had around 100k health.
I was dealing around 1k to 5k damage on normal hits. Up to 10k critical damage for some abilities (Shield Slam).
It takes 597k XP to go from level 90 to level 91 and 640k xp to go from level 91 to 92.
Quests rewards were between 10k and 15k xp. Up to 20k for the difficult ones.
A new quest type is available: the "Bonus Objectives". When you walk around a zone, new objectives might appear randomly in your quest list. Completing the objectives will reward you with extra experience, leaving the area will drop the quest.


Shadowmoon Valley

Shadowmoon Valley is composed of lush green plains lit by the moonlight. It has a very peaceful feeling. The glades and forests are amazing and very colorful. You will find Naarus, Draeneis cities, and Iron Horde strongholds in the zone.
The Alliance starting zone seems pretty much finished. Lots of details, impressive vegetation, and a lot of different monsters.
I found a lot of monsters from The Burning Crusade that have been updated: Talbuks, Nether rays, Turtles, Larvas, Boars, Sporebats, Wolves, Bees. The new Talbuks and Sporebats models are EPIC.
Ner'zhul is the principal antagonist of the zone.
The zone ends with a scenario that I couldn't test because it wasn't available. It was called "Grommar's Purge" (Note: roughly translated)
I found the zone really well made. The vast plains and colorful glades immerse you entirely in the game. The scenery is new and doesn't give you a feeling of deja vu (except for some monsters, but it's not really shocking).


Misc

The new race models are great (I could also create a female dwarf). The facial expressions are awesome!
The new soundtrack is also very good.
When asked about the beta, Ion Hazzikostas answered : SoonTM.
The grass now moves as your character walks through it
There is a toggle for new character models.
The map now has navigation breadcrumbs at the top
 
lloose said:
$60 is fine for a 90. Think of how long it takes to level. Even with heirlooms it's a huge time investment. I'd rather pay $60 than sink days into a toon. Besides, if it was too cheap it would cheapen the game experience. People with fresh 90s and no clue how to play them are a TON of fun to play with I'm sure.
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I look at the leveling as entertainment for the most part. I'd rather have the $60 to spend elsewhere and level an alt to 90. It's not like it takes all that long and I'm never really in any particular rush with alts since, hey, they're alts.
 
Warlords of Draenor: EU reports from fansite play testing [Spoilers]
http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/21/warlords-of-draenor-eu-reports-from-fansite-play-testing-spoil/

The new models are excellent (he also created a dwarf). The facial expressions are amazing!
At level 91, he had 63,000 HP as a tank
Mobs had approx. 100k HP
His attacks hit for between 1k and 5k when not crits. Crits on certain abilities hit for 10k (Shield Slam)
Level 90-91 was 597k XP, 640k for 91-92
Quests awarded between 10 and 15k XP, 20k for more difficult ones.
A new type of quest has been added, "bonus objectives". When you arrive in a zone a quest may appear in your log which you earn additional XP for completing. If you leave the area, the quest disappears.


Shadowmoon Valley is made ​​up of large verdant plains. Everything happens in the moonlight. The area is peaceful and it feels really good. Clearings and forests are beautiful (colorful). It contains Naaru, Draenei cities and Iron Horde strongholds.
Arguably, the starting area of the Alliance is pretty much complete. Very detailed and full of different mobs etc.
He discovered many Burning Crusade-era mob models that had been updated: Nether Rays, Talbuks, Turtles, larvae, Boars, Sporebats, wolves, bees. The new Talbuk and Sporebat models are just epic!
The Alliance landing zone focuses principally on the Draenei and the Iron Horde. Ner'zhul is the principal enemy force in the zone. [Note: the mamytwink article says "the Draenei and Iron Horde sporebat", I think this is an error.]
The zone ends with a scenario which he couldn't test as it wasn't available. The scenario was called "the Purge of Grommar". [Note: probably Grommash]
He had the opportunity to hear the new music, which was excellent.
In conclusion, he found the area really well done. The fact that it consists of vast plains and colorful clearings immerses us completely in the game. The decorations are totally new, there was not the impression of déjà vu (except for the mobs, but it is not surprising).
 
Zorachus said:
Warlords of Draenor: Proving Grounds will be required for Heroic Dungeon random queues
http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/22/warlords-of-draenor-proving-grounds-will-be-required-for-heroic/
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that may be very good.. they need to do somethng like that for Looking for raid. be able to sustain a certain dps to que for the raid.. The other day, i was in one, and there was a warlock pulling 38k in SoO. serioulsy! spiend 2 hours on timeless isle, and you should be pulling 60k +.
 
Is LFR supposed to give lesser / equal gear to heroics, now that the skill requirement is lower?

Unfortunately no amount of skill check is going to keep people from being half AFK during LFR, but fortunately from what I've seen repeat offenders tend to get kicked in a hurry (especially if there's a wipe).
 
Pretty funny how everyone's cool with the free level 90 and the ability to buy a 90 when the same people were probably foaming at the mouth at botters and powerlevelers during the WoWGlider days (or these days with HonorBuddy).
 
Warlords of Draenor: Ion Hazzikostas video interview
http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/24/warlords-of-draenor-ion-hazzikostas-video-interview/


Level 100 talents are being designed around the idea that one talent can/should be different things to different specs, and this philosophy is being used in redesigning other talent tiers as well. He uses the example of the mage level 75 tier and says they've discussed taking all three of the current talents and making it one talent, which gives you one of the three spells (Nether Tempest, Living Bomb or Frost Bomb) based on spec.

The difficulty of Mists of Pandaria heroics was hampered by the decision to not have max level normal mode dungeons, but Warlords will have level 100 normal and heroic dungeons, and LFR in Warlords will not require gear from heroics, just normals. If players want an involved, cooperative challenge, heroic five mans will be more of this.

Challenge modes will see one change -- doing the random daily challenge mode quest will automatically give you one epic for completing the quest -- this gear will be as good as or perhaps better than LFR, even before LFR opens, so you can gear up via challenge modes.

Highmaul is 'very similar to Firelands' in layout - an open area with several nonlinear bosses that you can clear or skip, and two final bosses that must be completed, while Blackrock Foundry is a three wing dungeon that you can clear in any order you wish.

"Gul'dan is not the threat... and he might even be an ally against the Iron Horde."

Sha of Anger was the most successful world boss of Mists of Pandaria in terms of the difficulty and experience, and other world bosses didn't quite work out as planned.
 
Zorachus said:
Warlords of Draenor: Ion Hazzikostas video interview
http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/24/warlords-of-draenor-ion-hazzikostas-video-interview/


Level 100 talents are being designed around the idea that one talent can/should be different things to different specs, and this philosophy is being used in redesigning other talent tiers as well. He uses the example of the mage level 75 tier and says they've discussed taking all three of the current talents and making it one talent, which gives you one of the three spells (Nether Tempest, Living Bomb or Frost Bomb) based on spec.

.
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Im not so sure that is a smart idea. Part of making destro warlock semi viable for pvp is being able to get some of the same talents across all the specs. I guess it depends on which talents they do it to, but why the hell not give gamers more choices for individuals to make? It seems on all fronts, games have less and less customization but better graphics. Give people choices!
 
Zohar78 said:
Im not so sure that is a smart idea. Part of making destro warlock semi viable for pvp is being able to get some of the same talents across all the specs. I guess it depends on which talents they do it to, but why the hell not give gamers more choices for individuals to make? It seems on all fronts, games have less and less customization but better graphics. Give people choices!
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In the example they are taking the three level 75 talents and making it one talent, to me that means they have to add two more talents to replace what was lost...giving you more options.
 
Seelenlos said:
In the example they are taking the three level 75 talents and making it one talent, to me that means they have to add two more talents to replace what was lost...giving you more options.
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its worded pretty badly then. and it still depends on the talents combine and replaced to make it worth while. From my understanding the mage bomb is bad example, because you pick which one suits the need, which is what im talking about.. those new talents would have to be very worthwhile..
 
How I understood it from an earlier post is they wanted to combine skills like the mage bomb together into a single button so that when you switch specs it automatically changes without having to mess with your bindings / skill bars. It's kind of how the modifications to warrior's charge works currently (it replaces the base skill with an upgraded version) except that it'll be a completely different skill depending on spec.

It's part of their 'reduce skill bar clutter' cleanup phase. People were asking for them to add this as a feature and they did.
 
Zorachus said:
Why did we have to squish stats?
http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/06/why-did-we-have-to-squish-stats/
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I'm glad because 700k+ HP and the exponential growth of stats was getting ridiculous. We probably would have seen players with 2 million HP in WoD. I still remember an end game tank hitting 10k HP in vanilla WoW was a huge achievement...

At least my scrolling combat log won't be filled with 6 digit numbers anymore...hopefully...it was becoming a clusterfuck.
 
exlink said:
I'm glad because 700k+ HP and the exponential growth of stats was getting ridiculous. We probably would have seen players with 2 million HP in WoD. I still remember an end game tank hitting 10k HP in vanilla WoW was a huge achievement...

At least my scrolling combat log won't be filled with 6 digit numbers anymore...hopefully...it was becoming a clusterfuck.
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Have to agree , seeing players with a million health? Come on now.
 
Godmachine said:
Have to agree , seeing players with a million health? Come on now.
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No kidding. The top Tanks in my Guild have like 1.2 million health, standard, unbuffed. That's just too much. And why do you need that much today ? Just for one Raid SoO only. No other place in WoW requires you to need 1.2 million health as a Tank. Even the older MoP Raids don't need Tanks nearly that powerful. MoP has gotten out of hand, and with only one high end Raid instance, is stupid. There should be like 2 or 3 Raids released in a final expansion patch, not just one.

I remember back in Wrath a Tank having over 50k health was the man, and 60k health was super bad ass. I liked those numbers.

Then it started to get out of hand, Cat Level 85 Tanks having like 250k health, and now Level 90 Tank at 1.2 million.
 
Zorachus said:
No kidding. The top Tanks in my Guild have like 1.2 million health, standard, unbuffed. That's just too much. And why do you need that much today ? Just for one Raid SoO only. No other place in WoW requires you to need 1.2 million health as a Tank. Even the older MoP Raids don't need Tanks nearly that powerful. MoP has gotten out of hand, and with only one high end Raid instance, is stupid. There should be like 2 or 3 Raids released in a final expansion patch, not just one.

I remember back in Wrath a Tank having over 50k health was the man, and 60k health was super bad ass. I liked those numbers.

Then it started to get out of hand, Cat Level 85 Tanks having like 250k health, and now Level 90 Tank at 1.2 million.
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The Burning Crusade had it best IMO. Tanks that started raiding had around 11k health in entry level tank gear, and the ones in the top end raiding gear had about 20k

Vanilla was nice too. Entry level tanks had around 4200 - 4500 health, and the tanks in Naxx gear had about 7800-8200 health.
 
Fuck me sideways with a brick. I knew there was a reason I cancelled (again) and ordered up the RoS expac.
 
Ruoh said:
Fuck me sideways with a brick. I knew there was a reason I cancelled (again) and ordered up the RoS expac.
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Everyone on MMO Champ is saying Dec. 20th is the worse case, latest it will ever possibly ship, and not even close to reality. Most say they had to put that in there for financial reasons for their investors.

Supposedly "guys in the know" say it will be out many months earlier, in late Summer; Aug / Sept. If the beta starts in April or May, they just need 3 to 4 months for testing, due to no no classes or new starter zones, and no major redo on Talents. So it should go much faster than a typical new expansion they say.
 
Six to Seven months is still quite the haul when you've at least seen all the current content. I'm still working on my cape, but running LFR Throne over, and over and over again w/o hope of an upgrade gets a little old.
 
$49.99 for the standard expansion? You kidding me? So for nearly the full price of an average game..

And I called the release date. I knew they would hold out for a Holiday release but man ..right before Christmas? That's a VERY long time away.. they are going to drop at least 2 sizable content patches before then but even so I can't imagine the player base staying as large as it is over the next 9+ months. If there is ever anything that proved fatal for WoW its large slices of time between expansions..
 
Godmachine said:
$49.99 for the standard expansion? You kidding me? So for nearly the full price of an average game..

And I called the release date. I knew they would hold out for a Holiday release but man ..right before Christmas? That's a VERY long time away.. they are going to drop at least 2 sizable content patches before then but even so I can't imagine the player base staying as large as it is over the next 9+ months. If there is ever anything that proved fatal for WoW its large slices of time between expansions..
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I agree on the price, I thought most expansions were like $39, or some even at $29 ? But $50 seems rather high, but you do get a free level 90 with that.

Release date is no way going to be December, that was put their for financial quarters, to keep investors in check, and not make them worry.

WoD will release in Aug / Sept.
 
Yeah, good luck with that $50 expansion and December is a long time to play basically the same content.
 
That December date for WoD was pretty stupid of Blizzard. Yes I get it, it won't be out that late, and most likely many months earlier than that.

But, some people might see that December date, and think oh well, F. this I'm gonna cancel my subscription for now, maybe come back next Winter.

If it is even close to December, like Sept / Oct is still way too late, with nothing new to do, since Patch 5.4 in September 2013. Didn't Blizzard learn from the long drought between end of Cat Patch 4.3 in December 2011 to MoP release in October 2012, frigging 10 months of nothing new at all.

There will be nothing new coming whatsoever as far as content patches, until the pre-expansion patch 6.0 a month before WoD release. So we will be looking at a good 7+ months of being stuck with SoO still :rolleyes:
 
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Zorachus said:
That December date for WoD was pretty stupid of Blizzard. Yes I get it, it won't be out that late, and most likely many months earlier than that.

But, some people might see that December date, and think oh well, F. this I'm gonna cancel my subscription for now, maybe come back next Winter.

If it is even close to December, like Sept / Oct is still way too late, with nothing new to do, since Patch 5.4 in September 2013. Didn't Blizzard learn from the long drought between end of Cat Patch 4.3 in December 2011 to MoP release in October 2012, frigging 10 months of nothing new at all.

There will be nothing new coming whatsoever as fast as content patches, until the pre-expansion patch 6.0 a month before WoD release. So we could be looking at a good 6+ months of being stuck with SoO still :rolleyes:
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Blizzard is historically bad at releasing content. They take too long in development, drag out the betas well beyond it's usefulness, and end up hot fixing everything anyway. Then they manage to redesign things no one was really complaining about and type up long multiple page explanations for why they just pissed everyone off.

LOTRO and EVE Online have <10% of WoW's subscribers, yet they were on good runs for a while of releasing huge content packs without a problem and on a decent schedule.
 
I am gonna cancel my subscription at the end of the month. I am pissed. I just hate the way Blizzard does NOTHING between expansion releases. This not new, but ongoing with WoW, the 10 to 12 months before a new expansion, there is nothing new at all. Tumble weeds blowing, and crickets chirping. The last Raid patch of an expansion can only last so long, I say maybe 6 months, before you ran it to death, and got most the loot, and know it blindfolded. This is where MoP is right now, with SoO being around 6 months old, and getting stale quick. Now we have to wait until Fall before any new content again.

- Cataclysm patch 4.3 released December 2011, NOTHING new at all until MoP release in October 2012. That's 10+ months of the same shit.

- MoP patch 5.4 in September 2013, NOTHING new at all until the pre-release patch for WoD, which per rumors won't be any earlier than September 2014. So that's 12 months of the same old shit.

So it seems, we are only getting one year or maybe 18 months at best with new expansion content, and then it's the long wait of nothing new whatsoever, just the same old content for 10,11, or 12 months :mad:
 
Frankly, this is where GW2 excels. They get new content (That's fun) out on a pretty regular basis. If only it ran better on my rMBP. *sigh*
 
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