MMO Champion has posted a massive load of unofficial, unconfirmed information about the supposed upcoming WoW expansion, Cataclysm.
I haven’t read through it all in detail yet (I’ve been doing 12+ hours of Java coding each day this week) but one thing immediately caught my eye:
New Classes
The expansion doesn’t have any new class. Instead, Blizzard will offer more race and classes combinations to players, some of them have been datamined on the 3.2.2 Test Realms.Human Hunter
[... snip uninteresting classes ...]
Undead Hunter
Again, this is all unconfirmed and unofficial. But very interesting, no?
Head on over to MMO Champion to read the full post, then let me know what you think about this in the comments. Meanwhile I will be …. finishing another few hours of Java coding. *sigh*
“Those aren’t imaginary statistics.”
Yes… they are! Statistics, for the most part, do not exist in fiction. Unless, they are actually stated as part of the fiction. It’s not unreasonable to formulate an “opinion” based on your experiences (it means that the story has an immersive feel to it)… it is a bit unreasonable, however, to insist that the opinion is fact. “Fact… meet fiction… now go and be opposites.”
“And I am not getting up in arms over fictional characters. I am getting up in arms over people like you who are unwilling to look at these things from a different angle.”
If you’d like a good example of “uwilling to look at things from a different angle”… trot up to what I said 2 paragraphs ago. If you don’t aqree with me, then consider yourself among the ranks of the unwilling. (As clearly, I presented a different angle than yours.)
Annnnd… none of this really changes the fact that “For ANY leader (real or imagined) to risk war and the possible extinction of his own race over a personal hatred is stupid on an epic scale.”
You will note that I make NO mention of any particular leader… that is because the statement is pretty universal. Lore doesn’t matter. History doesn’t matter.
“Stupid is as stupid does.” Forest Gump
Here’s the thing. Thrall thus far has not done his job very well. He is an extremely noble and likable character, but the fact remains that the majority of the Horde still seemingly acts outside of his control. The majority of the Orcs and Trolls are just as vicious and violent as ever and haven’t seemed to recant in any way (still practicing slavery, and still allowing Warlocks in their midst wtf!?) Yeah, there are exceptions, like the Shamans, but they still aren’t the driving force in the Horde that they need to be. For the most part, the Forsaken are downright evil. It’s been Sylvanas’ plan from the get-go to destroy all life on Azeroth. The only issue she had with the events at the Wrathgate was that someone else beat her to it. And yet Thrall hasn’t really taken issue with her…… The Tauren are probably the best example of the Horde, but again it doesn’t seem like they have enough influence to really cause any change. And if the rumors about Cairne in Cataclysm are true…… Point is, Varian specifically targeting Thrall is not good, but for the most part he’s right in his assertions that the Horde is still just as dangerous to the Alliance races as they ever were.
@Ryai
I’m not actually attempting to troll here. In fact, way back on post #175 (my original post) I just mentioned in passing that both Garrosh AND Varian were idiots. This was my opinion, based on all current quest and in-game dialog that I have seen from them.
I’m not claiming that some hatreds are completely unjustified (it’s consistent to the current storyline). I’m merely stating that allowing hate to dictate your actions is stupid… very stupid.
BTW… I completely agree with your last statement. As much as I think Varian is a stooge, I think Garrosh is a much bigger moron (and it makes me feel sad for helping bring him back to power in BC).
What you said two paragraphs ago was saying that “Statistics don’t exist in fiction”. Statistics DO exist in fiction, but since it is fiction, they can be altered at any point in time, WHICH IS SOMETHING ELSE I HAVE SAID.
*takes a deep breath* Look at the time line in WoW. Yes, Variann Wrynn is EXTREMELY pissed at the horde, right? But in the time line of Wrath, HE HAS NOT ACTED ON IT AT ALL. The most he did was invade Undercity, when the Apothecaries took it over, and he had plenty of right and reason to do that. He has not attacked the orcs, or the horde at all since he became free, he did not attack the horde in Howling Fjord or Borean Tundra ((Although the horde in Borean Tundra expressed a desire to attack the alliance)) not in Dragonblight, not in Zul’Drak. Not in Storm Peaks, and not in Icecrown. He may declare loudly how much he hates the orcs, but diplomacy has still dicated his actions. He has not openly declared war on them yet, though they gave him plenty of reason to in Icecrown. How is that the mark of an idiot?
And I am done. I realize I said that once before, but this is getting old. I understand what your saying, but I don’t think you give Variann anywhere near enough credit.
Neat! A cool contradiction…
A quote form you: “What you said two paragraphs ago was saying that “Statistics don’t exist in fiction”. ”
And my quote: “Statistics, for the most part, do not exist in fiction.”
Which I followed with a qualifier: “Unless, they are actually stated as part of the fiction.”
A fine example here of where opinion (what you quoted) meets fact (what I actually said).
In any case, here is what I’m driving at about fictional statistics: It’s easy to say “Millions of Horde citizens have died in the various wars with the allaince.” But you could just as easily say thousands, billions, or even trillions. Now somewhere out there, a number (a statistic) actually exists in the mind of a player or staff writer or a random developer…
BUT, until the number actually reaches print in some form (such as an in-game statement from an NPC or an offical history blurb on the WoW website) then the number does not exist to any degree that a player can claim to be true. Many have died, but the body count can only be guessed at until the number becomes part of the text of the story.
This is what I was getting at about your post (#184) … where you have given Orc behavior numbers to qualify your theory (“a third” etc) where no such numbers actually exist in-game. You may “feel” that these numbers are correct, and who knows… they may even be put into print someday (making you correct) but until then, the statistics you gave are meaningless (at best) and potentially false (at worse).
Had to comment on this… the Scarlet Crusade and Scarlet Onslaught are all human, as are most of the pirates and the Defias Brotherhood. The assorted cultists kicking around also tend to be largely human (when cultists aren’t human, they’ll generally be orcs instead). The dark iron and iron dwarves are (obviously) dwarves. The draenei “bad guys” are the eredar. Gnomes generally appear as bad guys due to something going wrong with their tech (i.e. Dun Morogh/Gnomeregan, Borean Tundra). Night elves have been largely behaving themselves since the Great Sundering – off the top of my head, I can’t think of any cases of current NE bad guys.
Regardless, I would guess that the only horde race that would come close to matching the frequency of humans appearing as bad guys would be trolls, largely due to having two whole zones devoted to them (STV and ZD) along with a couple of raid instances (ZG and ZA).
That’s because there are more humans on Azeroth then any other race, Nimizar. You can’t really count the Scarlet Crusade OR Onslaught because those are two factions that are, while fanatical, are being manipulated heavily by demonic sources. The Defias are a relatively small band of ex-Stormwind workers, so their numbers aren’t that great. The dark iron and iron dwarves are NOT the dwarves of Ironforge or of Wildhammer, they are basically totally seperate races. And bad gnomes? You have the irradiated gnomes of Gnomeragan who pretty much have a justifiable reason, and the traitorous whats-his-face at the end, but by and large gnomes aren’t bad guys. Night elves have their bad apples, like the prudish Archdruid Staghelm, and the naga are actually night elves who supported Aszhara. The draeni also have their broken cousins who are fairly often hostile and not very nice.
For the horde though, you forgot to mention the Blackrock Spire orcs, the orcs around Menethil harbor, and the Twilights off the top of my head. The tauren have the Grimtotem. The undead…..do I even need to go into the undead? Or the Blood elves for that matter? If your just going by racial, then the undead and Blood elves both rival the Scarlets, and the undead even far surprass them in numbers.
As for the trolls, they are the only naturally occuring ‘evil’ race in Azeroth. The trolls have been around for a very, very long time, and have been fairly bad for most of it. It’s only a fair sized retcon that makes the Zandalar tribe ‘good guys’, really, and the Darkspear are only changing their ways because of Thralls kindness towards them.
Hey here’s an idea, lets stop this rediculous contest ffs and just move on. fine, you disagree with each other. now stop responding to each other over it.
I did, Kayb. I responded to Nimizar instead.
Needs to be an ignore function like in WoW.
Example of my LATEST ENCOUNTER of one needing it.
‘oh lol shoo ur not 80 get out of Dal’
*proceed to link BoA Hunter/Shammy mail*
‘oh lol this calls for heavier tactics’
*ignore*
*Tell him being an bleep doesn’t make his bleep bigger*
But yeah anyways I find Ignore on places VERY useful, it can stop flamewars from erupting, stop them in their tracks or just keep annoying people like my example showed, from bothering you. Seriously :/
I don’t mind a good argument but yeah it was getting out of hand.
Anyways, while Thrall is ‘at fault’ for not being ‘the best leader possible’ he’s not SuperOrc, he can’t make people, or races rather, bend to his will at a glance. He can only just hope for the best really- some orcs have undoubtedly changed Palla but well you are right. Most haven’t, and most won’t.
But I don’t blame Thrall for it, atm all he can do is keep everyone in check.
tho imo I think Sylvanas was shaken up, not just a ‘someone did this before me’ deal, and still think it was the Dreadlord using her bitterness over her death and what Arthas had done, and twisting it to keep her blinded, litterally, by her rage. If Sylvanas can actually change now and see past it, things might change…
Cause Hopefully she will be -to- much of a danger for Garrosh to try anything, because we NEED to keep some sane leaders :/
In response to the idea that they are making the horde more ‘evil’ and that the horde is an evil faction with evil races and Garrosh is boob and that ongoing argument.
Nothing is black and white in WoW. It is not one faction good, another evil. The evil is outside the factions (old gods, black dragons, feral gnolls that only want to make tents out of your skin). Even the defias have reason (good or bad) to be bad. I think they have fleshed it out so that the Alliance has enough grounds to distrust the Horde as the Horde does to distrust the Alliance. (Garrosh would just push it over the edge) Past and current predjudices like: ‘Orcs killed mah family;’ ‘Humans kept our race in camps;’ ‘The Undead are icky and smell;’ ‘Our race is way better then everyone else’s, which is why our influence is good for them;’ ‘I didn’t like Margaret when I was alive and I’d rather rot then hear another of her trite stories. Oh, was that my toe?’
Politics: The friends of our friends are our friends as well. There is the ‘we don’t like orcs either! Let’s be pals!’ or ‘Nobody likes ‘monsters’ let’s unite!’ I am also convinced that Sylvanas remembers affection for the blood elves. The Highborne Lament quest is quite touching…even if she is like ‘I hate that I still suffer the weakness of love.’
I find that a lot of the starting quests flesh out reasons and histories. As an undead you need to learn to ‘live’ with what you’ve lost by either reveling in the horror or wallowing in the grief. You cannot do some of the other races quests as you are not trusted.
As a Troll you are told to thank Thrall.
Taurens as well were helped by Thrall and his Orcs and bound by honour on that front.
Orcs are fascinating…the dichotomy, the stigma, perhaps you were not old enough to be afflicted with the bloodlust, but you were most likely born in the camps the humans set up, lived through the struggles of starting over and uniting under Thrall, attempting to redeem yourself with cultures who are similar to your own and have no real knowledge of the blood curse and yet with relatable issues of their own (feral, tribal nature, Undeadness).
Night Elves are exposed to the xenophobia of their own people and the reason to venture out of the safe haven of Teldrassil. Though how safe is it really? I’m keeping an eye on you Fandral Staghelm.
Humans are a mess. There is a reason there are so many offshoots (defias, scarlet crusade, blah). Theramore or Stormwind, which is the real human capital? …to be fair though I haven’t done a starter quest since Varian came back, but under the corruption of Lady Prestor it was made clear that the human settlements were on their own (though still affiliated with each other)…even in Theramore there are dissenters.
Dwarves are on a quest of race discovery which takes them all over and gives them more of a diplomatic edge then humans, imo.
Gnomes just have no where else to go. It will be nice for them to get Gnomeregan back. I would like to see it as a starting area… killing level 1 Leper gnomes (though how sad is that? A victim of their own hubris.)
Speaking of hubris: Garrosh might be a bad choice by Thrall…but #1 we are not getting the whole story. Garrosh is smart and he believes he is right and I’m sure he would do his best to secure a position of power (He reminds me more of some republicans than Hitler). Or Thrall might know something we don’t. He is also not dumb and not a pushover. #2 Where Thrall goes so goes the Horde. They have good reason to trust him. If he backs Garrosh then the other leaders will back him too. And the Tauren owe a lot to the Orcs if Garrosh has Cairne killed…well, idk. If he is assassinated the Tauren will turn to the Orcs for help. And if Garrosh flat out kills him, say, in a battle of honor, well, I could see them trying to keep a powerful friend then making a powerful enemy and honouring their customs and their new race leader (even if that leader is under Garrosh’s sway)
So in conclusion there is no race that is perfect. There is no faction that is entirely good. It is the cracks and flaws that make them interesting and exciting to play.
Most of MMO Champion’s info seems a load of malarkey to me (especially the entire Thrall/Garrosh/Cairne thing, and the sundering of Kalimdor [how the heck are they going to implement it? Will new players never know what everything originally looked like? Will they use a new type of phasing to change the world as you progress?]).
However, the new race/class implementations DO fit into the lore, and with what they added in 3.2 (two Taurens discussing the Light; a Highborne Night Elf speaking with Tyrande) they seem to be working towards explaining how it will all come to pass. And I’m truly excited about some of them, especially the new Hunter races (and the Troll Druid. Heh heh, a bear or a tiger with great big tusks and pointy ears coming at you).
For the Forsaken Hunter, what they should do is have your pet become an undead creature when you tame it. They already have quite a few undead-style beasts for the base textures and models, and they could just make some more for the beasts without undead variations.
Imagine running around with a skeleton Wind Serpent following you, or a rotted Devilsaur with areas of skin missing and red glowing eyes inside its black sockets.
‘what they should do is have your pet become an undead creature when you tame it. ‘
Sorry but no- while it would be ‘cool’ it doesn’t make sense; and it would be vastly unfair to other hunters. I mean worse than the infamous that happened a while back.
I DO however support lowbie bears, wolves and other ‘diseased’ animals being implimented that EVERYONE can tame; IE Deathclaw[?] as an example of this.
Maybe replacing the Demonic hounds as ‘Real’ Plauged Hounds in tirisfal glades?
(first of all iam not really good at english so try to read this post )
jaina will be the last guardian of tirisfal , but her life is in danger thats why thrall leaves the horde couse he knows that she’s the only 1 thats keeping varyan controlled and if something happens to her then varyan will declared war on the horde , he knows that garrosh or whatever his name is will not be a good leader but at least he would be able to comeback anytime and take the power back , buuut if jaina dies or something happends to her well nothing will stop varyan .
(why does people keep saying that thrall will be the last guaridan of tirirsfal ?)
OMG, please…. no more of that disgusting phasing… I so do hope that’s all a fake. I truly sincerely hate it. Hate hate hate it. It’s the most stupid and stoned idea they ever came up with. Ok, for like one quest line – and the DK starting area – it could’ve been fun, but not as it is now, with two whole zones full of that shit. And if those expansion rumours are true, there will be even more of it. Goodbye helping your friends with hard quests, goodbye boosting every now and then. We will now be forced to either play tight with our friends to stay in the same phase, or forced to pug on group quests and other hard quests.
Excuse me while I throw up my intestines. =(
If the phasing shit is true, I might consider quitting WoW. I don’t want to pay for such crap.
As of the hunter stuff, I have not much to say. Human hunters should’ve been there from the start, UD hunters sounds cool. I always wanted to play a goblin, so if that’s true, I like it. Worgen sounds nice to play as well. (But I still want to play murloc, naga, dryad and centaur. In my dreams…)
I would believe Jaina being the last guardian of tirisfal, it just seems right to me. Thrall would leave to protect Jaina because she’s in danger of Queen Azshara’s attack(The Cataclysm). What doesn’t make since to me is the Night Elf mages… Didn’t NElfs give up “magic” after Well of Eternity and the events involving Illidan Stormrage? I can’t wait for the Dwarf Shamans, I’ll delete my Dranei in a heart beat. Fugly squids. Be this news true or not, I cannot wait until the official release.
degbunke, I’m sorry you feel that way. But from a lore and storytelling perspective I think it’s a marvelous ideal and pray that it is true. What they did with the initial quests for DKs was amazing and wonderful story-telling. This is what wow is trying to move back towards, the story. Not a “take this to __ , or kill so many of __” Remember WoW will have to compete with Aion, in which they’re already losing hosts of people and then SW: ToR which will have the most in-depth story board of all the MMOs out.
If this is the ‘Cataclysm’ Expac, i’d expect Jaina go and help out her brother on Kul Tiras rather than going to Tirisfal… It’d make more sense b/c with additional attacks and storms from the Naga/Maelstrom he would most definitely need any Reinforcements, but this again is me hoping for the reintroduction of Kul Tiras… FFS the island isnt even ON the ingame WoW map…
Yeah, well, I don’t play WoW for the storytelling. I play for the fun of questing, levelling, killing mobs, fixing my professions, getting some good gear (and pets), doing some heroics and battlegrounds every now and then, and having fun together with my friends. I never even read the lore stuff, I find it totally uninteresting. To me the phasing is just a pain in the ass.
So if there’ll be more of the phasing, WoW just won’t be my kind of game anymore. I liked the fact that you could walk around in a non-linear world, doing whatever you wanted. Now it becomes just as linear as all the other games. The point of the game, as I see it, is lost. I play linear games as well (can’t wait for Diablo 3), but my fascination with WoW was the fact that it _wasn’t_ linear, it stood out from other games and was interesting because of that.
And the interaction between players will be kind of destroyed, since you can never help lowbies in their questing anymore. That sucks.
It also seems like Blizzard assumes that all players have only one char, which we level up to cap as soon as possible, and then only spend our time with end game content, since end game content seems like the only important thing nowadays. That also sucks. And I think it’s a pity, and it makes me sad.
“”It also seems like Blizzard assumes that all players have only one char, which we level up to cap as soon as possible, and then only spend our time with end game content”"
Now they dont think that, if they did they wouldnt give us such awesome BoA items that is the only reason i can level a rogue without changing daggers every 4 levels
“Nothing is black and white in WoW.”
You nailed that one. If there is one thing that I truly love about WoW it is the recurring theme that “nothing is absolute”. Even the purest of individuals can become hideously evil (see M’uru) and purely evil races can split off and become good (like Dranaei).
The player-involved factions are much the same: Each is carefully balanced. None are particularly all good or evil (although a few are more extreme towards a particular direction).
Dranaei, Night Elves and Tauren would be your “leaning to good” factions… the quest material that they give us tends to be less mercenary in nature and more “put them out of their misery” in nature.
The Undead questlines are the only consistenly “leaning towards evil” questlines given to us as players. “Here, go try this poison on a helpless captive” quests seem to be a favorite among them. Interestingly, the introduction of the Wrathgate storyline could however suggest that the bulk of the Undead that were giving these quests were unwittingly following what they THOUGHT were the wishes of Sylvannas… but instead turned out to be an extended sub-plot for Grand Apothecary Putress. We, as players, will probably never really know who was the real puppet-master here… as Bliz is likely to never bother revealing the full truth.
Gnomes, Dwarves, and Trolls (despite the brutal nature of npc trolls) tend to have silly quests… or just fairly routine ones.
Blood Elves are not so much evil as just plain angry. Their quests are often centered on vengeance.
Humans (like ourselves) are just all-over-the-board when it comes to quests, history, and npc interactions. They are brutal, kind, and all things in-between as quest givers. IF there is a theme to human questlines, I would have to say “betrayal” is the key word. There are lots of major arcs about betrayal (ironically almost always human/human betrayal).
And Orcs… in a word, are Klingons (the 80s/90s versions). Warriors at heart, driven by bloodlust but restrained by a sense of honor… when I hear Lok’tar or Zug Zug spoken as I leave an Orc npc, you can almost feel the Q’plah in their voice. (And I’m not EVEN going to pretend that I spelled those words right… just run with me.) Orc quests are usually more brutal solutions to problems. All of the races employ brutality to a degree, it’s just way more common with Orcs.
I could have believed some of this. Then I scrolled down.
“Tauren Paladin”
WTF?!
‘Remember WoW will have to compete with Aion, in which they’re already losing hosts of people and then SW: ToR which will have the most in-depth story board of all the MMOs out.”
it’ll be Aion that has to compete with WoW actually. Most players who enjoy WoW probably won’t get into an Asian MMO (which focuses on different points than Western MMO’s). As for SW, well, I’d never leave anything for a SW game, I absolutely hate SW. But as for losing hosts of people? I’m not sure how that’s exactly true when Blizzard is one of the only stocks that is continuing to not drop in this economy, so I guess WoW is still very large and in charge? XD
As for the phasing, I’m not so sure if there’s really that much new phasing going on. I mean, I really only see the mention phasing 2 times in that whole article, something I really wouldn’t get upset over.
“Most of the new content for Cataclysm will take the form of a revamped Azeroth, taking advantage of newer additions to WoW such as phasing and daily quests.”
It just says taking advantage of newer WoW additions of events. That doesn’t mean, for example, that the flooding of Thousand Needles or a phased version of Barrens is going to be lush. I’m assuming once they flood Thousand Needles, it’s permanently flooded for everyone.
The WoW has been going on for almost 5 years now, it would make sense that all that hard work and lore people have spent on it should affect the world at some point. You helped those druids for 5years and now, BAM green Barrens.
Will Blizzard use phasing? Probably. For everything? Doubtful. Phasing really wasn’t used during the “entire” Northrend experience. I don’t expect Cataclysm to be either.
I don’t see why undead hunters would get special treatment for their pets in any way what so ever. If the undead do get hunters, they’ll tame their pets normally like everyone else. No need to try and change things just because the race at hand happens to be rotting. And honestly, we’re hunters. I can’t see an undead hunter being a totally heartless !@#$%^& and wanting to have to kill what they tame first. It wouldn’t fit the feel of the class.
I think I have to agree with you, Rikaku. Blizzard has stated repeatedly that they want to make the leveling through old Azeroth less painful, and I think this might have a lot to do with it. By only increasing the level cap by five, they have to worry a lot less about high end quests, not to mention that much of this expansion would take place on familiar stomping grounds anyway. And so far, we only have rumors about Kalimdor, I wonder what is going to happen on the Eastern Continents?
As for phasing, I think it’s a good technology to use, and it isn’t typically over used. The DK starting area is supposed to give you an ongoing feel of your servitude and eventually freedom from the Lich King. Wrath Gate is supposed to go from being a war front to a disaster area. Both achieve what they are supposed to, so what’s the big deal? The phasing in Icecrown is generally nothing less then epic. From helping the Argent Crusade push the undead back so that they can establish a foothold, to assisting the Ebon Blade in retaking the Shadow Vault, it really feels like your helping make a difference. And this is from some one who doesn’t even LIKE Wrath as an expansion.
I hope they make the Cataclysm affect everything as well (no phasing). Then we can have all these epic 85′s telling grand( really?) old tales about questing in the old Azeroth and reminising about the old Ogrimmar. “I quested up hill, both ways, in the snow!”
Tashi:
‘I could have believed some of this. Then I scrolled down.
“Tauren Paladin”
WTF?!’
I take it you have NOT read any posts? OR done the new quest in Dal? If you have a high enough hordie.
OR as I said Ariamodasu said there was CONCEPT ART of Tauren Priests- and what do Priests follow usually as I said? The LIGHT, what do sane Paladins follow? Again THE LIGHT. Tauren are about balance- it makes sense, they have ONLY been following ONE of the ‘earthmother’s eyes’, and completely IGNORED the sun.
Do the horde Dal quest, it starts near the portals or just start an alt and camp the npcs where the drood trainers are in TB.
Rikaku:
‘Will Blizzard use phasing? Probably. For everything? Doubtful. Phasing really wasn’t used during the “entire” Northrend experience. I don’t expect Cataclysm to be either.’
It’s still gonna suck, there is stealth phasing in Icecrown, Rikaku, I’ve experienced it hard and bad, on my pally when Aria was driving my lv 65ish butt around cause we were faffing about, to Ryai when she got mass jumped by scourge and I asked a friend to please rez me as there was only a SMALL opportunity to rez safely.
He couldn’t, as my corpse was invisable to him. He WAS able to attack the abomi I aggroed and saved me tho.
Zul’Drak has it, Ice crown has it, Storm peaks has it, [tho my friends don't from my swearing when I do have the dumb idea to LETS TRY THRUSTING HODIRS SPEAR DAILY TODAY] . Tbh that’s enough to count as a good idea as to WHAT could happen to the rest of Azeroth ..
I still hope that with barrens it waits till you’ve done all the quests then you leave and BAMF WHERE THE HELL DID ALL THIS GREEN COME FROM.
For all those interested in the lore behind the lore explanations for the new race/class combination,check out WoWinsider, they have a new post up detailing (quite well I think) lore on the new combos :)
http://www.wow.com/2009/08/18/a-discussion-in-defense-of-new-race-class-combinations/#continued
I apologize for the terrible grammar in mt last post >.<
English not being your first language ftw :P
Ryai:
“It’s still gonna suck, there is stealth phasing in Icecrown, Rikaku, I’ve experienced it hard and bad, on my pally when Aria was driving my lv 65ish butt around cause we were faffing about, to Ryai when she got mass jumped by scourge and I asked a friend to please rez me as there was only a SMALL opportunity to rez safely.”
Maybe I should word it a tad better XD I just said that there isn’t that much to where it’s ‘OMG Northrend is nothing but a Phase’. There’s no Phasing (at least Alliance side) in Howling Fjord, and very little in Borean (minus that mist stuff, but that’s to make you feel ‘lost in the mist’, not to expand the storyline) for example.
So Storm Peaks, Icecrown, Zul’drak are 3 regions that heavily use phasing in their main quests. 3 zones out of 11 (counting Wintergrasp and not counting that small Hrtohgar’s landing) total zones. That’s what I meant to point out. 3 zones out of 11 that use phasing heavily is not that much in comparison to all of Northrend. So I wouldn’t mind 6 zones out of 24 Kalimdor zones getting phased if all of Kalimdor got a facelift. But the chances of all of Azeroth getting a facelift (minus the tree-trick being reworked for flying mounts) is not that huge.
Maybe it’s just me though. I’ve never had a real problem with phasing and I like it alot. I play WoW for the lore, I want to see the world change. It feels more amusing to me that when I kill a dude and torch his evil minions, that when I come back Tirion has taken over the spot and built a light-filled tower.
Ryai:
Double!
“I still hope that with barrens it waits till you’ve done all the quests then you leave and BAMF WHERE THE HELL DID ALL THIS GREEN COME FROM.”
That would rock so hard. Heh I bet people would still be wondering where Mankriks wife is.
Tauren priests…yanno I saw that so easily. NE don’t necessarily worship the Light, they eblieve in Elune the moon goddess. The same moon goddess that the Tauren call Mu’sha right? So if NE can be priests, why not Tauren? That’s what I’ve always wondered anyways…
Wait…are the taurens getting priests or paladins, I don’t even know anymore. My brain is melting from pre-expansion rumors now aaugh
@ Ryai:
Yes I have read the posts here, and yes I did the quest. It just… still makes as much sense to me as a druid engineer. >.<
Well I don’t mind phasing- aslong as I can still boost my friends or be boosted. I hate grouping up at lower levels. No not cause I have to share loot, but because just don’t feel comfortable until at around lv 60 and up to start grouping up.
Paranoia of pugging if you will.
If we can’t or can’t help lowbie guildies who got jumped that’s what I fear about.
I mean phasing isn’t bad just, this is gonna be annoying.
And yeah I know- mean it’d make sense and still give people the chance to ‘help make Barrens green’ …. and yeah, there was a DK seriously asking where the wife was like a month ago Dx
Tashi I was a bit blargle at first, UNTILL I did the quest/listened in AND Aria has told me, and she’s no liar, there WAS concept are for Tauren Priests. Lore Wise it’s ALWAYS been there, hidden yes but WAS there.
Troll druids, now THAT is just what’s gonna be retcon in my opinion, yes I’ve thrown out theorycrafting of how it’s possible even tho I am still do not want, but that is by far the most senseless thing.
Sides Tauren engineer was how Ryai got her last gun upgrade lol.
Eh, sorry Ryai, but outside of Instance runs I don’t really like boosting. Something that buggers the snot out of me is seeing a level 80 running a level 5 through quests. You level a lot faster by yourself anyways.
Addendum: I level a lot faster by myself. I realize that may not be true for everyone. 1-80 I can get by without doing instances, and it takes the harder five man quests for me to not be able to solo, and I can generally bypass them with no problems.
“- and what do Priests follow usually as I said? The LIGHT, what do sane Paladins follow? Again THE LIGHT. Tauren are about balance- it makes sense, they have ONLY been following ONE of the ‘earthmother’s eyes’, and completely IGNORED the sun.”
You know, at first I was thinking “I’m not really sure that holy light and sunlight are the synonyms that Bliz was going for here”.
But then I got to thinking about about real human history, where a festival to celebrate “the return of the SUN” at winter solstice was slowly supplanted by the “birth of the SON”.
So yeah, I guess anything is possible here (the sky is the limit, so to speak).
I can see Tauren priests. I can see Troll warlocks! But a tauren running around in bright yellow gear on a warhorse or a troll shapeshifting into a boomkin with a voodoo mask… Just seems a little odd. Maybe lore-wise a tauren pally could work. But in-game it would be something to get used to. Now the troll druids… That I don’t really get. Lol.
Just gonna sit tight and see what Blizzard actually says about “Cataclysm.” ;)
Don’t forget neutrallo that the Blood elves version of the light was also different from the other versions. At least the Blood Knights ((Paladins)) was originally. They forcibly removed power from a naaru to fuel their abilities. It wasn’t until…..Muuru, I think his/her/its name was went ballistic and blew that popsicle stand that the blood knights had to find a different source. That was, of course, after saying they were really, REALLY sorry about the whole thing.
Palla:
“Eh, sorry Ryai, but outside of Instance runs I don’t really like boosting. Something that buggers the snot out of me is seeing a level 80 running a level 5 through quests. You level a lot faster by yourself anyways.”
OMG does it ever bother me to see that (outside of instances). I generally refuse to help (as an 80) for lowbie quests (unless it’s like a guildie who just needs to kill King B and is just too low). It always annoys me when I’m questing and I see some lvl 80 killing every mob I need for a player who’s the same level as me. Granted it may sound selfish, but it is rather annoying when sometimes the 80 sticks around just to annoy you. Thus, that is why I don’t help lowbies myself with their quests like that. I don’t want to be that annoying lvl 80. And if I do find myself farming mobs for rare items that a lowbie needs, I leave for awhile so they can finish their quest in peace.
If it’s a group quest that you really can’t solo, that’s one thing. If it’s an intance, that’s one thing. But if it’s just normal quests, then it bugs me. No offense intended Ryai, I promise. But there is no way a character on the level can beat a level eighty to something in old Azeroth, or at least not enough of them to make a dent in the quest.
That’s what I meant Palla, group quests or instances, I only boost friends like that for quests if it’s like Ghostlands and you know- well if you don’t, ALL the quests are basically in one zone and I’m like hey lets genocide zombies 8D
But yeah I only am boosted/give boosts to guildies/friends, and it’s usually just to get quests done, or faf about.
Though never let Ariamodasu boost you through ZF. It was like OH GOD TROLLS EVERYWHERE TROLLS EVERYWHERE. Then corpses everywhere.
Though while I find it annoying too, I find it silly, cause the first few levels is how you LEARN to play and it’s like lol what? Ok my friends did that when I first started, they blasted and dragged me around mulgore on my first character, oneshotting crap and showing off, but that tbh is fine cause they were helping me learn the basic ropes, cause if they hadn’t of done that or been there I dun think I would have lasted on WoW as it was a struggle at first as I’ve never played an MMO at first …
… but yeah if you’re lv 17 and you need a lv 80 to oneshot your mobs so you can get quests done faster then well …
Anyways no offense taken Palla, it was my fault for not explaining I meant instances, not normal quests.
[tho I don't mind helping with normal quests for friends if it is a real struggle. Ug ever have to kill 200 centaurs to make one spawn, and just have someone steal your kill cause they're to lazy? UG.]
It took me until about level 54 to really learn how to play a paladin back in the day. It’s not that I was bad at it or anything, I just didn’t really have a ‘feel’ for the class. Most classes, it isn’t that severe, but I think that paladins in particular don’t really start until higher levels. Most of what makes that particular class do well in it’s given category doesn’t start until at least 40, and in the worst case scenario’s, 50 and 60.
Anyway, what I was saying is that you really need to play your class, and get into trouble to really learn what makes it tick. You almost NEED to die, so you can go “Okay, how could I have done that differently?” It’s how you learn, and it’s how you grow. You can look at spreadsheets, study tactics, or listen to others advice all day, but in the end it won’t matter one lick until you go out and actually DO something. Everyone needs to do some wetwork from time to time.
Having some one drag you around by the hair from level 1 to level 80? Doesn’t teach you much of anything. It’s one thing to show some one the ropes, another to grind them out just so your raid has that spot filled.
Marci: Say again? Did you say that Mazzranache is no longer pink?!
Meh: If it’s not a hunter, it’s not interesting (to me). *grin*
All: I regret that I haven’t been around much the past week. I was rather surprised to see that this comment thread had turned into ground zero of a lore debate, but that seems to have resolved itself without too many casualties. (Non-specific reminder: If things ever seem to be getting out of hand and I don’t seem to have caught it, feel free to e-mail me about it.)
This week is also going to be rough for me, but I am saving up my free time for BlizzCon on Friday and Saturday. (I bought the internet stream thing so I can report pet news as I hear it.)
If Mazzaranche is no longer pink, some one at Blizzard gets a wedgie from hell. End of story.
My Mazzaranche on my little orc alt is still pink, though it does seem like there is more black mixed in now.
yeah its a duller, more greyish pink now
Screenshots.
Palla: Yeah but for me it’s number 60 that I’ve finally ‘learned’ a class. Tho, still figuring out a rotation for my warlock, and still am still balking a bit at tanking pugs on my paladin [mostly cause of gear issues. Need better gear first]
Anyways just popped onto my belf that has pinkstrider, and I think it’s just a case of lighting affecting everything- my Mazz is still as pink as the ss on peopia.
Remember, WoW lighting affects all, you could be in ice crown and your red drake all a sudden looks bronze, or in ashenvale and it turns your black bear brown bleh.
LOL, yesterday when my brother was playing Rottingham, someone asked him if it was the same Rottingham from Mania’s Arcania. He had no idea what to do and told the person “No.” And then ran away. I appologise for whoever that was, Yes it was the Rottingham from Mania’s Arcania.
“Don’t forget neutrallo that the Blood elves version of the light was also different from the other versions.”
True enough there Palla.
Somehow I doubt that the Naaru are emitting actual sunlight (as was kind of suggested as a source above), but whatever the source or definition of “light” is in WoW… it’s vague enough to allow for just about anything they throw at us. And as fantasy gamers, we are usually pretty tolerant of vaguely defined holy sources.
And as a side note: It would not surprise me at all if ALL race/class combos are available soon. It would take a bit of explaining, but it’s not a huge stretch… for instance, if the Emerald Dream were a heavy part of the next expansion it could be explained as a kind of “universal awakening” in a time of need.
It would honestly be easier (in my opinion at least) to explain why ALL races can have ALL classes rather than why just SOME races can suddenly have new access to SOME classes. Anyway, just a theory.