My stance on the WotLK beta
Ever since the closed beta started, teh Intarwebz have exploded with news about the beta. Everywhere people are discussing the talent trees, the new skills, DKs everywhere. It’s a bit much to absorb. My guild’s GM is in the beta. Some of my favorite bloggers blog about the beta. But not me.
I didn’t use the opt-in for the beta. The last betas I tried were LotRO and Mythos, and I just found for myself that I don’t like unfinished products. I love Blizzard polish. I don’t like Captain Placeholder. And I don’t like to speculate about talent trees that will probably change a lot until we see patch 3.0 distributed. YMMV.
Do I think about some beta stuff at times? Sure do. What the heck is up with the new Shield Block? Are the rumors true that PvP gear > all for WotLK tanking to get max benefit from Shockwave? (If that’s true, Imma kill someone in Irving). Will I level protection, will I level fury, will I figure out how to create a crazy prot-fury hybrid? Those are burning questions, but I am pushing them back in my mind.
A la maison de tank and warlock, I most certainly don’t talk about the expansion. There are few things that drive my other half up the wall more than talking about WotLK. It somehow manages to boil the blood, talk of the expansion. Not even news of non-combat pets turning into spells to save bagspace caused a cheer. She has 63 non-combat pets, you see.
Today, I have a slow day at work, and I couldn’t help myself and watched a very long preview video over on a German WoW site. I also looked at screenshots. Do want. Heck yeah. It’s so pretty.
Few things make me feel as torn as all the beta infos. How about you?
July 25th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
I’m an obsessive planner, since I don’t like to respec (the most expensive I’ve gotten to is 15g), so I’ll pour over the talent trees. But the rest of the stuff - skills, and zones, and all that - I don’t pay that much attention to until it actually hits. I’m still discovering stuff in vanilla WoW that’s new to me (the dwarf with the booze delivery quest Alliance-side in the pillar on the one side of the Thandol span that you have to jump to, for example, and Sully Balloo’s letter).
I am a little bummed that all three of my hunter’s current pets are apparently getting the DPS tree, since they’re not likely to give hunters any more pet slots, so someone is going to have to get ditched until 80 for a pet with a tank tree.
It is nice to know that in advance, though, so I can start looking around for a tank pet model I want to use… and then possibly ditch at 80 to get my strider back.
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admin Reply:
July 25th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
@duskhawk - You have a strider? That’s awesome! You see few hunters with one of those around. It isn’t Mazzranache, is it?
I did play around with warrior talents, skipped all other classes that I have, and am really just waiting until Blizzard announces patch 3.0 is imminent to spend more thought on it.
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duskhawk Reply:
November 13th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
Nah, I’ve got the purple one. Violet got shelved for post-Kara raiding, and I think my snow leopard went to all the raids that SHP did jointly with you ladies.
(Um, yeah, I noticed the reply while googling… 4 months later.)
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July 25th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
I am most excited about Blizzard’s commitment to 10-player content. Given my guild has no desire to expand to fill 25 slots, we will only do 5- and 10-slot dungeons. In TBC, that’ll only take you so far. In WotLK, I likey likey all the content I’ll get to explore.
I’m most intrigued about what different dungeons are going to look like, what boss mechanics are going to be used, and whether or not they’ll push party-related play in any new direction. I always enjoy testing out new tricks and synergies, so while the solo stuff is cool, it’s the group bits that have me salivating.
Also, double plus good on the blog. I like the topics and I like the tone. Hasta!
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admin Reply:
July 25th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
@Juzaba - Glad to hear you’re enjoying it! Like you I am most excited about the 10-man progression path. As my guild has only one 10-man raid group so far, almost two, this is really something I am looking forward to so much. It’s my favorite development for WotLK. I am also a group content junkie, I don’t really enjoy soloing that much. Group stuff is just more captivating, one of the reasons I chose to play a tank.
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July 25th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
I haven’t looked at any screenshots beyond what Blizzard’s officially released, but I’ll admit that I’ve been pouring over the talent trees, spells, stat scaling, and pretty much anything related to shaman specifically (and healers in general, I guess, though I haven’t looked at mages yet). I’m somewhat torn over how awesome PvP will be for my little healer versus how unimpressed I am with the way raid healers are headed. I’m just hoping that some stuff in that department changes a heck of a lot before WotLK goes live.
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July 26th, 2008 at 7:58 am
Thing I’m digging about WOTLK even though it isn’t implemented and might not be implemented at all is the possibility of having 2 talent trees to switch between without respeccing. Well I’m excited about all of it but the possibility of 2 talent trees makes me happy. :>
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July 26th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
WotLK definitely gives me mixed feelings. On the one hand, a lot of the changes are looking great and I’m excited for them. On the other hand, there are some changes that I really do not like. It pains me to see my beloved shot rotations going byebye. I am perhaps the only hunter in the world to say this, because to other people they were a limitation, but to me, they were something to master and be proud of.
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July 27th, 2008 at 8:52 am
I’ve been wanting to not get dragged into WotLK mania because I know I’ll end up disappointed but I’ve thus far failed at this. I’m definitely not as excited about this expansion as I was for Burning Crusade but I’m hoping past mistakes won’t be repeated. Mostly I’ve gotten used to understanding just about everything in game and would like to keep that feeling for a bit longer. I’m sure this will change once a solid release date and fixed talents/spells are released. 10-man progression definitely makes me happy.
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July 28th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Well, I’m the GM in the beta, so I have a slightly different perspective.
Once I got the key and upgraded my account, I did pause. Do I really want to know everything before it gets unleashed upon the masses? I started a DK (2, actually), and have played around a bit with their starting quests, but other than do some exploring with my main in Northrend, I’ve not done any quests there yet. I am an altoholic, and since I will have to do those quests with about 10 characters once WotLK comes out, I really don’t want to get burned out.
Then again, my task is to try out everything and see what needs to be improved. So I will do some quests, once I’ve found Dalaran (frelling world server keeps going down!), and hopefully a few instances, and maybe gain some levels.
I didn’t get into the BC beta. I don’t know if I’d offer myself up for the next beta or not.
I do know that there’s still a heck of a lot unfinished, but what I’ve seen is absolutely gorgeous.
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