Eternal deferment [of my free 10 days]

More blog spam. Downloaded pretty much everything to get on the most recent version, but didn't quite get to playing. I have an old x86 PC that meets the suggested sys reqs, but it's running Win2k, which is no longer supported. And the PowerPC G4s aren't strong enough to run LK. What do to?

After some forum digging, it looks like I should be able to get started with my tired G4 Macs, which I guess is enough to burn my free 10 days tomorrow.

Did find this entertaining comment from the WoW forum thread "Wrath of the Lich King System Requirements":

Blizzard really does try hard to get people to buy new computers. I don't know if they watch the news or understand at all the very hard time we are all having economically. No its best to string them along with non-answers like the game will work in some fashion, but we won't tell you exactly because you might not buy WotLK.

Hilarious. Sword of Fargol was a good game in its day, but I'm not going to pay $20 to play it online now, thousands of other folks playing at the same time or not. Perhaps these sys req folk should go play UO with the original client. Fun!

I'm fairly glad Bliz is upping sys reqs, just upset that I don't have anything that can comfortably meet them right now. Where's my new NVIDIA'd Mac Mini?!

Panzerkins NERFED! It was nice while it lasted

It was nice while it lasted. No, this isn't the standard, "I just got married/a job/a new baby and can't play WoW anymore. Sorry things got so slow, but I have to move on."

No, this is WORSE. The panzerkin experience, as of 3.0.2, seems to be over. Imagine my surprise reading the patch notes when I see this...

Moonkin Form (Balance) no longer increases your attack power or causes you to regenerate mana off melee attacks, but now has a chance to cause you to instantly regenerate 2% of your total mana every time you critically hit with a spell.

No more attack power or mana regen? Wtf? FTW!!!! TWF!!!!!!. (That's right. I said it. THE WHAT FREAK!!!!)

Panzerkin, I hardly knew ye. Sheesh. Wonder what caused them to smash that old playstyle. Seriously, why not just keep both? What would it hurt to have panzer and oomkin out there? If anything, wading in with a staff to regen mana was a boost to role-playing. It made moonkin more memorable, and also gave me an excuse to prove I was worth something during melee time. How the freak am I supposed to mana up if I'M OUT OF MANA AND MY ONLY MANA REGEN IS BY CRITING WITH A FREAKIN SPELL?!!

This sucks. Please kill my desire to solo MORE. SUX0RZ!!!1!

I'm upset. This is what I get for thinking I should come back for a while. Which I will. Soon, now that I'm over the superfun "World of Warcraft could not be found. Please make sure the game is properly installed" jive. My free ten days should start up tonight, followed by a period of work, followed by my 60 day game card. I need a vacation, and don't have a solid week to travel, and that means Northrend, here I [finally] come.

(Note the extreme disconnect between, "They've ruined the game!" and "I'm going to start playing again tonight." I don't get it either. Maybe I'll play a lot of death knight stuff. Take THAT, Blizzard.)

WotLK Reading

Shifting Perspectives: Gearing your Balance Druid at 80
Daily Druid Balance Info
Moonkin FAQ
3.1 patch notes

Was sorry to see resto4life is hanging it up. Get your shirts at a discount quickly, you know!

Finally, some dual-speccing

In general I don't like making the game easier just to increase play, but at endgame/max level, there really is a need to be able to go with more than one spec. Panzerkin is a great solo spec, but not as conventionally useful in instances. There, I'd rather be feral. OKAY, I SAID IT. It's so much easier to find a group if you're a bear, or at least it was the last time I played, or even, dare I say it, spec'd resto. And let's face it, filling the heal slot as a panzer in healing gear is no fun whatsoever. (If you can find a group that lets you tank as 'kin, however, it's nothing but fun...)

So this, from Inside Mac Games, makes me once again want to start back up my char...

Nethaera: Why are we allowing players to dual spec after all this time?
Ghostcrawler: We really felt like this was a great way to increase the flexibility available to players and encourage them to take part in more aspects of the game. To use just one example, some players like to participate in both raids and Arenas, which is awesome behavior that we want to promote. But, there are some talents which are more useful in one part of the game than another.

That and some texts from an old guildie, that is. Man, I wish real life wasn't so time consuming. *sigh*

Please nerf LW more

Inside Mac Games News: World Of Warcraft Update 3.0.8 Released:

Bonus armor beyond the base armor of an item will no longer be multiplied by any talents or by the bonuses of Bear Form, Dire Bear Form, or Frost Presence.

Guess that random ring I bagged from the tortoise near Gadgetzan can finally go into the bit bucket. Kinda kills the usefulness of LW's armor kits too.

At some point in the not too distant future, I should fire WoW up for another month to try out the free 10 day WotLK trial. As we all know, WoW is a double edged sword. Play as much as you want, and $15 a month is a steal. Play as much as you should (a few hours a week) and $15 might be better spent at the Redbox. Argh. I really don't want the WoW shakes again, which I tend to get every time I stop playing. (WoW shakes being that strange compulsion to at least go online and figure out what faction rep to chase to most efficiently put together good, soloable raiding gear...)

Can we get some gear balance this time?

From IGN's WotLK "preview":

So how soon will you be replacing all your gear from Burning Crusade? We'll have to wait and see.

Heck of a preview there. Thanks guys.

Still, this does raise the part of BC that bugged me the most. After my first major WoW hiatus, I came back determined not to buy BC until I'd finished a few things on my old TODO list, like up my rep with the Thorium Brotherhood, grab my Pattern: Lava Belt and Pattern: Molten Helm, and make PHAT LOOT!

Luckily I came back just before BC's release, and I managed to cash in, but just barely. Aside from a little naive buying, prices for Old World craftables dove like there'd been a housing bubble after BC arrived. And after buying BC, I could tell why. The quest loot was so phat, there was no reason to keep my hard earned craftables and purples around any more.

Burning Crusade forced players to upgrade. I should argue that in more detail, but for now I won't. The bottom line is that BC provided unique shortcuts to power that did not, imo, greatly improve gameplay. Instead, it created another system of virtual ghettos back in WoW's Old World. Endgames shifted. Years of development time for instances, etc, rendered worthless. Those new to WoW or who hadn't seen the OW end game had no real incentive to go back.

There were options. Create mobs that have a new attack type or one for which there was little resistance gear in the OW, kinda like fire resist was used in the original. Keep the progression of items natural, and ensure items (other than just epics) continue to have some important value in the future. Here, I'm thinking about something like the Illdari-Bane items -- perhaps there's a mob in the WotLK that can only be damaged by items that specifically harm demons by 150 or more points. Bam, you're dropping Wrath folk back into BC storylines. And, honestly, there's no reason not to put some check in the game that can tell when level 75s are dropping in to grab the Lexicon Demonica from Grandmaster Vorpil and up the difficulty a bit.

I realize the achievement system is supposed to help fix the obsolescence issue, but so were heroic dungeons. I'm not optimistic that WotLK will be much different, in practice, than BC (though honestly it's no big loss to me this time. Aside from the blood elf zones, I didn't find much in BC that I couldn't do without).

In a strange twist, complete obsolescence isn't a boon to the publisher, like it is when Microsoft kills Word 97. Here, there are rendered instances, ready for just a little tweaking before they're efficiently eating up monthly fees from addicted ur, happy players. I hope Blizzard gets it right this time.

Repeat after me: You have a problem.

I've still got a 60 day card sitting on the bookshelf. I've promised myself I'm not going to play until Wrath, and even then not until mid-December. But then The Molten Core was released.

Yep. You guessed it.



It was lots of fun, though after some time away I'm pretty sure it needs a bat.