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2015-09-17
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World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor

Some odd pocket-dimension threatens to unleash rebooted Burning Crusade lore into Azeroth.

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Table of Contents [hide]

Expansion information ∞

Earning Apexis crystals ∞

Garrisons ∞

6.2.3-specific thoughts (Valor) ∞

"Valour"

(source)

A hard cap on earning Valor (or any currency) essentially sets a weekly benchmark, and falling short of that benchmark leaves you feeling like you've left something on the table. If we artificially cap earning at 1000/week, then we're saying it takes ~8 weeks to fully upgrade your gear, assuming "maximum" effort each week. If you miss a week, then you're a week "behind." If you're busy, or sick, or just don't feel like it, and you fall a bit short of the cap one week, then you are delaying completion by precisely that amount. The existence of the cap makes the whole thing feel more mandatory in a sense, with motivation level then plummeting the moment you hit that weekly cap. Despite all these reasons, sometimes we do need caps as a pacing mechanism, particularly early in an expansion or where the impact on player power is massive (e.g. buying Conquest gear in a new arena season).

Without a cap, there's an inherent diminishing return curve at play. You can start off doing the most efficient and engaging activities first, until you've exhausted those, leaving you with activities that are progressively less efficient and/or less suited to your playstyle preferences, combined with the fact that you also inherently are exhausting your free time as you go, with your remaining time presumably becoming more valuable as it dwindles. At some point, you generally hit a threshold where the reward for the next incremental activity no longer seems worth the time investment required, and you're done for the week. For many people, that threshold will be reached at lower than 1000 VP per week, and their experience is no different whether or not there's a cap. For others, that threshold will be reached at a point above 1000 VP, and the lack of a cap gives them the freedom to decide when they're done rather than having it dictated to them. Some will benefit from the fact that they're allowed to convert a weekend of free time into a bunch of Valor to make up for that week when they were busy or traveling, coming out even or ahead rather than being permanently "behind" due to a cap.

(The particular nature of Valor upgrades also adds another element of diminishing returns - your first 2k Valor will likely go into your weapons and trinkets. After that, every additional point of Valor you earn is progressively less impactful as you work your way down from chest/helm, to gloves, to bracers.)

In this case, we opted for the design that offers more freedom to select the sources of Valor that most suit your preferred playstyle, goals, and available time. If you're into Mythic dungeons, then Mythic dungeons are going to be by far the most lucrative source of Valor, and should let you cover your needs quickly. But for players who don't want to run Mythic dungeons, queued alternatives (such as Heroics and Raid Finder) allow for a way to still earn Valor.

I understand the sense of obligation to maximize performance in a competitive raid environment, but the game asks competitive raiders to make those choices constantly: do you craft every upgrade at the first opportunity, use the best gems in items you might replace soon, use the best food or Augment Runes on every pull, keep running lower difficulties on the off-chance of a Warforged/socketed perfect drop that could be an upgrade, keep up with multiple specs or alts to allow you to optimize for specific encounters, and so forth?

Virtually everyone draws a line somehow and compromises in most of these areas, making a judgment about the point at which further expense (whether of gold, or time, or effort) is no longer worth the benefit. This system presents another one of those choices. The need to "save players from themselves" is a familiar refrain - but past experience has shown that people are better at managing their schedules and gameplay choices than many of the comments in this thread would suggest.

  • I still haven't tried mythic dungeons! Their awarding valour and quite nice gear means that I really do need to pursue these now. Ugh, traditional grouping.

6.2.whatever thoughts (Pepe) ∞

A FUCKING PEPE PATCH?!

6.2-specific thoughts ∞

  • Flying

    • Came way too late for me to give much of a shit about it.
    • It's nice that it spills on to alts. If it didn't, I'd be really pissed off.
    • Flying on alts isn't particularly useful in many cases, though it really helps when turning quests in.

  • I'm pleased garrison salvage boxes don't spit out random greys.

    • It's much easier on my inventory space to open them now!

  • The legendary ring concept is underwhelming.

    • I don't know, it doesn't feel like an achievement to get or have one.

  • Baleful gear turns out to be an interesting idea because of the ability to upgrade them.

    • However, I'm not using that mechanic. I'll give it a shot on my 6.3/7.0+ new-main.

  • Timewalking is spectacular. This was a long-time request of mine. It's the most fun I've had since the initial weeks of a new expansion.

    • Was this introduced in 6.0, or 6.1?
    • I'm really REALLY pissed off that it's not available 24/7, and is not just limited to one week a month but WILL BE REMOVED. Who the fuck thought this was a good idea?! I'm not going to do any more of it.

  • The legendary catch-up mechanic for alts is a great consideration.

I still haven't tried mythic dungeons!

6.1 thoughts ∞

  • I'm pleased several garrison-related items are stackable.

  • The lighting of the characters on the login screen has dimmed.

    • Was this because of my graphics settings changes, or Blizzard's?

  • THE SHIPYARD SUCKS

    • It seems like a good idea.
    • It's annoying to get to.
    • Tying it into the legendary quest line feels dumb.
    • Account-bound baleful gear rewards are a nice idea, but the shipyard is too stupid an idea for this gear to make up for it.

  • The grind for 6.2 flying was annoying.

    • Needing to do the reps with the two new factions was initially harrowing but turned out to be pretty trivial.

6.something ∞

6.0 thoughts ∞

I came into this expansion post-release, so I didn't experience the Mists of Pandaria last-patch experience.

  • Well at least it's not Mists of Pandaria. =/
  • More nonsensical pocket-dimension content.
  • Alliance and Horde are still arbitrarily at war.

  • Garrisons are a dumb idea.

    • "Player housing" takes players away from the world. I thought Blizzard didn't want to do something this stupid.
    • I've been able to make a stupid amount of gold. Literally hundreds of thousands. It did require an investment of time and money, but now it's paying off big time.
    • Garrisons require an addon to deal with them. However, an addon makes it pretty trivial to get things done.
    • By the time I get through all my alts, I already have missions complete. I can literally cycle through my alts completing missions multiple times.
    • Most of the gear rewards are utterly useless. Rewarding Baleful gear would have been a good idea.

  • Making the game gold-to-play is a great idea.

    • Now it may as well be free-to-play since I've set myself up with garrisons. Maybe this will because of next-expansion inflation.
  • I made three tailors just for making 30 slot bags for all of my many alts.

2016-07-20 ∞

  • Spectral Guise was removed: Too good. Too fun. Must go.

    • I had my fun with spectral guise. I understand why bliz took it away.. I broke too many mechanics.

  • The ability for Worgen to automatically return to humanity out of combat was quietly removed some time ago, and never got put back in.

[spec:x] was removed? ∞

Now I have to stop all macro immigration until I 'figure this out'.

One workaround I can imagine for two specs is..

All macros are cloned on actionbar1 for spec1 and actionbar2 for spec2

  • [spec:1] is now mapped to [actionbar:1]

  • [spec:2] is now mapped to [actionbar:2]

When entering into spec 2, either manually change your actionbar or use a macro for that.

--

Since the spec changing ability was also broken, this UseSpec will probably help:

https://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info23955

[edit] not necessary!

-- Rotate through three specs
/run SetSpecialization(GetSpecialization()%3+1)

-- Only through two specs
/run SetSpecialization(GetSpecialization()==1 and 3 or 1)

-- Switch to spec 1
/run SetSpecialization(1)

So I would have a hotkey-macro to:

  • change gear sets
  • change actionbars

  • switch specs

(I would later implement this)

Discipline can Discipline ∞

So the best I can figure is that AoE healing is something like druids'.

The hype is dying down. My dps is something around 20-30k, and while my heals are strong I don't have mana. I would never have a hope of raid healing If it weren't for the recent boss health drop.

I guess I could occasionally sit on my hands..

--

  • Mindbender will do emergency-damage to help heal atonement targets? Interesting!

  • "At the moment, I'm finding Shadow Mend spam to be the most effective way to heal when there's lots of damage going out."

    • I also found this. I'm going to be weaving mind as my primary way to get my atonement buff out.
    • The mana issues persist so badly that I'm drinking every other trash pull.

re. the Atonement buff ∞

I'm simplifying the mindset by only caring about it on the tanks. Other people may or may not get it, depending on how I feel or who I panic-heal.

I'm definitely not enjoying trying to do group healing "on purpose".

I feel like I rely very heavily on other healers, and even the tanks. I wonder if they feel the same.

the final word ∞

Previous technical stuff and skillset were perfectly portable. Wrath, Cataclysm and Pandaria skills and variations are now all useful.

Pre-7.0 patch note research perfectly predicted all aspects of gameplay.

--

Game breakage level: 60%. Confirmed better DPS than a bad DPS. Confirmed better heals than the best healer.

Room for improvement. Problems are uptime (getting used to a rotation), and mana.

Room for regression. Bad DPS will get better. Healers will get better.

--

At present, it absolutely blows away Holy. As it should. Hello, spirit healer, you're adorable. Die. Time will tell if a competent Holy can hold its own in the glorious fire of Discipline.

updated original thoughts ∞

I will post updates in this thread and this top post.

The hype is dying down. My dps is something around 20-30k, and while my heals are strong I don't have mana. I would never have a hope of raid healing If it weren't for the recent boss health drop.

(re. the atonement buff)

I'm simplifying the mindset by only caring about it on the tanks. Other people may or may not get it, depending on how I feel or who I panic-heal.

-

I'm definitely not enjoying trying to do group healing "on purpose".

I feel like I rely very heavily on other healers, and even the tanks. I wonder if they feel the same.

-

Game breakage level: 60%.

I've been main disc since wrath, now with six of them.

Roll one and experience the satisfaction of not just being pushed to your limits as a player but being allowed to shatter the ceiling when you rise to the occasion.

The faster your reflexes, the more aware of your surroundings, the more you prioritize, the better you know mechanics, the better your choice of spells, the better your planning, the better YOU are is the better you will disc.

I can't wait to see the flies drop. To read the outrage at how disc has "been ruined". I want to see those filthy casuals break down in tears. I want to hear the screams of terror.

I have been planning and practicing for this very gameplay since Wrath.

I will grin at the confusion when the "already crap" disc gets nerfed. Nerfed because I broke it.

Burn, brother, consume yourself in the heat that disc will demand. Melt into slag. Be poured into the crucible of raiding. Be hammered by competition. Let it forge you anew. Hone yourself. Polish yourself into gleaming, brilliant, steel. Turn your mirrored finish to the rest. Show them their failure. Revel when they are astonished.

Then, very politely, ask if they can follow suit. Can they?

2014-12-19 - follower cannot be interacted with ∞

I'm not sure what patch number this would have been

  • assign follower to barracks
  • speak to follower, have them join me
  • go through the world, kill stuff
  • hearth to garrison
  • <disconnect bug>
  • repeatedly try to log in. fail with "world server down"
  • log in, combat has already been initiated by a hostile mob
  • three of that follower are seen
  • one follower despawns during or shortly after the combat
  • one follower dies during or shortly after the combat
  • one follower is fixed in place, but can be interacted with

  • the dead follower debuff is seen

At this point, I don't recall what I did.

  • go to sleep
  • log in
  • my bodyguard is following me
  • I cannot interact with my bodyguard (clicking it has it talk but no dialog appears), but it follows me, talks way too much, joins me in combat and I earn reputation for kills
  • return to my garrison
  • un-assign my bodyguard, the bodyguard despawns
  • re-assign my bodyguard
  • the bodyguard is immediately spawned next to me (shouldn't it have despawned and required talking-to?)
  • un-assign my bodyguard, the bodyguard despawns
  • walk to the middle of my garrison
  • return to my architect's table
  • assign my bodyguard
  • go to the barracks to speak with my bodyguard
  • the standard dialogs appear, and the bodyguard follows me

  • I cannot interact with my bodyguard

This is with a level 2 Delvar Ironfist.

--

Reported, then patched.

2014-12-12 ∞

Color changing pets no longer change ∞

It turns out this was intentional

Is this an issue which all hunters have?

A bunch of my pets were simply removed from my stables entirely, and I worry that there was an attempt to replace colour-changing pets but instead some bug removed them.

This might be a more severe version of your colour-changing pets being swapped out for boring ones.

Has anyone had any feedback on this? I'd like my voice ignored too!

30 hunter pets vanished ∞

  • Had an excellent collection of pets, with all 5 character and 50 stable slots filled.
  • Took a break
  • Bought WoD
  • Subscribed for six months
  • Logged into my hunter

  • Pets 21 through 50 are gone from my stables. 30 pets are simply gone.

This has already been described in an in-game ticket.

They are unable to grasp the concept that this player cannot have removed these pets.

These represent impossible-to-get pets, specifically the colour-changing pets which were removed for, I believe, 5.0.4. There are also quest-only pets like the green Hulking Helboar. Whether colour-changing pets were replaced by specific models is a different issue. Perhaps if that change were made, there was a bug that instead deleted them or one of my pets and every one after that pet.

Perhaps if I were given a list of all these pets I could go through the nightmare of taming them all again, but I don't even have that luxury.

I don't record and check every pet, every hunter pet, every item worn, every item in my bank, every item in void storage, every achievement and every quest completed for every character on every server.. for fear of Blizzard removing something. Isn't my data safe?

Last updated 2020-03-18 at 06:44:52

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