Blue Stew: 9/1/09
Posted by 
Amatera on Tuesday, September 1, 2009 - 10 Comments Tags: Sunwell, anub'arak, arean season 7, cataclysm, expansion, heirloom items, icecrown citadel, koralon
Amatera on Tuesday, September 1, 2009 - 10 Comments Tags: Sunwell, anub'arak, arean season 7, cataclysm, expansion, heirloom items, icecrown citadel, koralon
Blue Stew is a new daily column bringing you a delicious concoction of developer news, thoughts, and opinions straight from the boiling pot that is the official World of Warcraft forums. The highlights of each day include additional commentary by Project Lore staff.
It's the beginning of September, and you know what that means! New content for all! OK, so that has less to do with the beginning of the month, and more to do with it being a Tuesday. But that doesn't mean we can't get excited about it, right? You can bet the forums are abuzz with people discussing Arena Season 7, Koralon: The Flame Watcher, and the release of the final boss in Trial of the Crusader, Anub'Arak (which brings with it the unlocking of Heroic mode).
Anyway, that's enough from me. All of the servers should certainly be up by now, so go forth, and enjoy the new offerings Blizzard has so beautifully laid out before us today. Whether you're a fan of PvE or PvP, there's something for everyone!
It's the beginning of September, and you know what that means! New content for all! OK, so that has less to do with the beginning of the month, and more to do with it being a Tuesday. But that doesn't mean we can't get excited about it, right? You can bet the forums are abuzz with people discussing Arena Season 7, Koralon: The Flame Watcher, and the release of the final boss in Trial of the Crusader, Anub'Arak (which brings with it the unlocking of Heroic mode).
- Oddly enough, the big issue of the day is none of these things. Instead, people are concerned with something Bornakk said yesterday in regards to heirloom items in Cataclysm: "Heirloom items specifically state that they go from levels 1 to 80 so we don't currently plan to make the currently available items auto-update to go to level 85 in the next expansion. As for the experience gain, nothing is set in stone yet, but I think it makes sense that we won't want players to get a 20% exp bonus when leveling to 85." Seems like some people will do just about anything to get ahead! Isn't a boost from 1-80 good enough for ya? After all, they were meant to lend you a hand through the painful process of leveling an alt for the umpteenth time. Bigger and broader changes are being made to the 1-60 game in Cataclysm, not to mention all of the new items and equipment that Blizzard would probably rather you use (considering they've spent so much time developing them already). Really, heirloom items should be less of a concern until the whole process becomes boring once again. Why not concentrate on enjoying the streamlined leveling experience and new zones instead of being the first on your server to hit the cap? Wryxian doesn't rule out the potential for "Tome of Cold Weather Flying" style upgrades when your first character hits 85.
RAWK!
The complaining doesn't end there. You'd think Carstalker would be happy after beating out his little sister for first place in the Domino Rally, but he's only interested in figuring out what he's going to do with all those badges he spent on heirloom gear (you know, the ones that Blizzard practically hands out for free these days?): "Sooooooo i just spent alot of badges for my shadowcraft parts giving me a total of 20% bonus to experience gained for my rogue which has been lvl 80 since a week after wotlk was released... can i have these badges back please? i feel kinda tricked, the chest heirloom got handed too us pretty recently ingame which made me think that heirlooms is going to be a + when cataclysm arrives..." Listen up, Carstalker, I'm not sure you're entitled to anything. Blizzard's not out to get you, mon frere! Outside of the experience bonus, do you really think it's worth running around in those old hand-me-downs like Azeroth's own Bag Lady? Surely, you'll be able to find better (and better looking) gear from quest rewards and leveling dungeons. Maybe it's just me, but I get really cheesed when it seems the only thing anybody ever worries about is the race to the finish. What do you think, readers, should the man get all those badges back or is he simply a victim of planning a little too far ahead for his own good?- Kanye West impersonator, er... Kanye, insists that he doesn't like fish sticks. But he does enjoy things when they're hard. Case in point: raiding in World of Warcraft. Echoing a popular philosophy amongst the player base, he asks if Blizzard can make Icecrown Citadel just as challenging as Sunwell: "The concept of a hard version of every instance sounds okay at first, but then you realize how easy they make the regular version and it just seems pointless. This expansion needs more fights like Brut/Muru that are extreme cockblocks and make you feel awesome when they die. Hopefully some of the ToC hardmodes are like this, as well as plenty of Icecrown encounters. I will be beyond disappointed if 3 or 4 months into Icecrown these same 31 guilds have killed Arthas too. This may come off as me being an elitist #%%###* but who can honestly say they hope the final encounter of the game will be puggable eventually? There were only like 10 guilds to kill Illidan and even less to kill KJ at level 70 on my server." The reponse from Valnoth was as curt as his rant was verbose: "Heroic Modes are for progression. Please make use of them." I'm a rather big fan of difficult raids myself. To most people, they may feel like running a sheet of sandpaper over your genitals until they bleed, but oh man does the payoff make all the pain worth it. At the end of the day, though, I'm not going to let it bother me. While my guild's easily bested all comers in Trial of the Crusader so far, we still haven't made it past General Vezax in Ulduar. I'd say raid difficulty, overall, is more lop-sided than it used to be, but challenges remain for those who seek them.
Anyway, that's enough from me. All of the servers should certainly be up by now, so go forth, and enjoy the new offerings Blizzard has so beautifully laid out before us today. Whether you're a fan of PvE or PvP, there's something for everyone!
Reader Comments (10)
Carstalker and all the other people who want an XP bonus getting through Cataclysm need to lighten up. I'm still only level 79 because I enjoy seeing all aspects of the game, ESPECIALLY the parts that don't grant XP. People who are convinced they have to be the first to do everything need to do what I do when I feel like i'm becoming overly obsessive: Stop what they're doing, head to a section of the coast that they enjoy being in (Booty Bay for me), and spend at least one hour fishing to give them time to relax. It makes the game much more enjoyable, and for me it leads to ideas that are much more fun for me than leveling.
i cant believe people are complaining about the BoA heirlooms like that. Expect to see a million worgen in heirlooms day 1 running around gilneas, they will be the fanciest wolves in town. I personally wouldnt want to use the heirlooms after 80.
Once i hit 80 with my fancy pants worgen and gobbo, i figure a few runs in ToC should get me nicely geared in purples and then off to grind the next few levels til 85.
Did the first two comments get deleted or can I just not see them for some reason?
Ummmmmmmm... nevermind. They went away for about 5 minutes for some reason
"Kanye, insists that he doesn’t like fish sticks. But he does enjoy things when they’re hard."
hahahahahahaha. burned. :D
Progression, schmogression. I would rather die a fiery death.
Nice roundup of blues. I enjoy your pervy commentary!
I honestly agree with him. Arthas should be the hardest fight ever and not everyone should be able to kill him. If people faceroll their way through to the toughest fight and clear the guy no problem after 1 or 2 times it will kind of take away from the epicness of it.
I myself am not in a super strong guild. We have like 300 members but only 15 or so are geared and good for ulduar. We've cleared yogg recently and I thought the fight was pretty easy compared to the rest of the stuff we cleared to get there. While it was really fun being in a guild first I really thought it would be a tougher encounter.
About the heirloom items. People have gotten really lazy now. It's five levels. That'll be a week of leveling to max out.
@ Dan
I completely agree with your statement saying that Icecrown Citadel/Arthas should be the hardest fight ever. I'm not saying he should be "unbeatable", but he certainly needs to be hard.
On the subject of the heirloom items, I agree. People have gotten WAY too lazy for this. Oh sure, those items are nice to have for the alt-o-holic who wants a character of every class or something. At the same time though, I think heirlooms should be "turned off" for brand new characters in Cataclysm.
On second thought, let the millions of goblin/worgen characters get their heirlooms and use them too. Just don't let these "OMG RACE TO 85!!!!1ONEONE!!!1" people use em to speed the leveling process. It doesn't need it.
"Citadel/Arthas should be the hardest fight ever."
That means you want it to be impossible/improbable. The first version of C'thun was impossible unless the stars aligned perfectly and your guild was flawless in their execution. No one was able to defeat him until they nerfed him down to being beatable.
Not to knock on the final expansion boss being difficult. By all means, make him insanely difficult. The people that dedicate time to this game should have the digital prestige of killing major lore figures. C'thun was an old god. Kel'thuzad, Illidan, Kil'Jaeden are all major lore figures and should be insanely difficult to kill.
I say let Worgen and Goblins use heirlooms. That way, the people who are left in regular gear leveling without bonuses know that they're surrounded by people who want to enjoy the game for what it is, and don't just want to say they beat everyone else. I personally won't be using any of them. I'll be spending my time playing through the levels like they were meant to be played.
you misspelled Frère.
/grammarnazi