Final Fantasy XIV

So…Final Fantasy XIV 2.0 A Realm Reborn, I would have to say is a vast improvement over 1.0….

It is quite the beauty even running at normal settings. The default UI and party frames display quite a bit if info within them as well.

Most important to me, is it invokes feeling of playing FFXI again.

Will it make me quit WoW? Depending on the launch, I would have to say it might do it.

The pace of the game is definitely faster then XI but not as fast as WoW, the GCD is 2.5 seconds.

It definitely makes you explore a bit more (i.e. hunting lists, fishing, gathering)

Crafting is definitely a bit different and I definitely like the fishing and the gathering ideas. The actual crafting seems to have more depth then other crafting systems, as you level up you can do things to attempt a HQ synth or add back to your durability.

The Races…I would say are nice, but eh they are just window dressings. (I think I should have rolled human for once!) It is a nice to see some female galkas and male cat boys lol :P. well not really.

I did have a chance to run the 1st 3 dungeons (4 person groups). All three are quite linear in nature and not all that dificult if you have a brain. 😛

What I do applaud SE for trying to do was implementing mechanics even into the “learning” dungeons. They would vary from add control, getting out of bad, and listening to the envinronment.

The best fight I think so far in the “learning” dungeons was a fight against a large slime. The slime starts as being invulnerable to all damage. The party then has to hit a switch to spawn a bomb mob and let it explode on the slime. (Tank would have to watch to make sure boss is in the radius of the explosion and not to get hit by the explosion) Each explosion divides the slime smaller and smaller so eventually they can be killed. To add to this, adds will spawn that will attack the bomb, so the DPS has to kill the adds.

Also the jobs could have more depth but then again the cap is only 50 so we shall see once more content and expacs are done.

Screenshots to follow when I get home!

Liyhe 2.0!

Pretty area 🙂

For all the ladies and for the men out there 2 catgirls!

Did not mean for the upskirt shot!

Tentacle Beast!

Monday Update

As you can see from Repgrind and Arvash Shadow Rising finally finished off Heart of Fear. 🙂 Go SR!~

Although I am happy we have finished off HoF, the clear feels odd to me as there is noone else on the server really progressing it seem on Horde side. Furthermore, once 5.2 hits will Shadow RIsing be the only guild left trying to progress? I sure hope not!

This is a far cry from Drak’s days in Wrath Tier 10. to current days in MoP Tier 14 The only two guilds still raiding from then to now is Shadow Rising and Less QQ more pew pew. (i really like their guild name!)

Other then that, I am really sad to see the poor attitude displayed by some of those on the official forums. (yes, I know they are the armpit of the world!) The sense of entitlement displayed in some of those posts are quite amazing…seriously how can some people actually think this. then again the forums are only a small part of the wow community and the world as a while but it still amazes me how people think.

Also I wonder where is this wave of “vanilla wow” nostalgia coming from?Our memories are meant to be happy and fun, but take off the rose colored glasses for a second! Think about what you are saying…

1.) OMG world PVP was awesome! Ok sure sure you thought it was awesome….but in reality you were pissed it happened! OMG this guy or girl is a jerk they killed my again/took my node/killed my quest mob! Yay! Fighting over quests hubs is awesome! (Man I can’t turn my quests in!)

2.) Day long Alterac Valleys…..ok….really? I know I am not for promoting reality here, but seriously?

3.) The old talent systems were awesome! They promoted so much thought and uniqueness! Again….no. There was so much bloat in the old trees. People could not read and picked stupid crap. Or placed all their points into one tree! You know those 51/0/0 in the blood tree Dks! There was a reason there was perferred tree placement with some points to play around with. Because it worked!

4.) OMG epics are too common! Raiding is too easy, gimme 40 man raids! Get off your high horse! Getting people to see content is good! Blizzard having more money in the bank keeps your sub costs the same it has been since its release. Gets you more expansions. Gets you Blizzcon. Keeps your servers up. Keeps you game in good condition. Gets your updates in a timely fashion!

One thing I will agree with the rose colored crowd is the death of server community. Realm transfers and LFD/LFR has really killed the sense of a server or realm. There is no sense of accountability, which in turn I feel has lead to the degredation of the wow community as a whole.

There is a reason things stay in the past, in Wow and reality. Improvements make life easier! I am pretty sure people are happy we do not use ice to keep our fridges cool still or use candles to light our homes…..

It’s nothing but unicorns and rainbows with MoP! (not really!)

It has been a couple of week with my mitts on MoP. What do I think of it so far?

Pros:

Although I am loathe to admit it, I enjoy the questing in MoP, I am not sure what it is, the NPCs one meets, or the story, or even the personalized quest reward, I like it. (But I still hate questing prior to MoP zones)

I will admit it, I thought the farm would be silly. (Bro why I gotta farm!) However, the farm is awesome! What can I say, I did like the Harvest Moon games back in the day.

Dailys – hate em or love em. I like some of them, I hate some of them. Golden Lotus I like, Klaxxi not so much. (probably cause I hate bugs and I hate the Dread Lands) Although,  some of the content is gated as well as the gear, one has to applaud Blizzard for attempting something to put brakes on a population which devours content like a swarm of locusts. Could they have done it a different way? Possibly, but not in a way which everyone would be happy. Localizing them into dailys, at least it is gold. And who doesn’t like gold in MMOs….and if you don’t I say you are lying.

Pandas – I thought the worgen and the goblins were done nicely, but BLizzard kudos to you for the pandas. Also for the new zones in general, BEAUTIFUL. For once I actually look around and internally say…wow. The mounts are very detailed and amazing – I love how my cloud serpent will scratch his ear? from time to time lol.

Dungeons – not too hard, but not faceroll. Good balance! Thumbs up here!

Pet Battles – 🙂

Monks – Very fun healing wise and DPS wise. Tanking? not sure….seems confusing to me! lol

Cons:

Dungeons – valor it gives…seems low….

Dailys – Why gate the August Celestials and the Shado Pan till revered? Why not one at Honored and the other at Revered?

Farm  – too addicting. Must Farm……

Cloud Serpent Training – why no account bound….seems silly….I hate racing!!!!!

Motes not being BoA – I think keep em soulbound but at least make them BoA.

Priests – OK OMG WTF DID YOU DO HERE! DID YOU PLAY PRIESTS BEFORE RELEASING THEM!?!?! Our main way to proc Divine Aegis – Prayer of Healing is bad…. OMG mana regen is so bad…..seriously Blizzard what did you do to my beloved priest class. Please help PST! What happened to bring the player not the class! Why bring a good player with a gimp class over a good player with a good class?

Trolls – and not Zari or Adoe…I am talking about more troll killing…please no more troll heroics or troll raids…..I am sick of picking on Zari’s family and Adoe’s cousins….

So overall Blizzard A+ a big thumbs up. 100% better then the depressing Cata.

Busy work really takes some time

Have you ever noticed how busy work really adds up?

Between logging in and out of all my toons, seeing which addons work, rewriting macros, and AHing, the next thing I knew, it was 11:30!

1st impressions of 5.0.4

1.) Vanity gyphs are very amusing – Stag form baby – oh yeah!

2.) 102k mana pool will take some getting used to. Now is the time to practice maximizing HPS vs mana conservation.

3.) The new talents – some are great, others not so much….

4.) Broken addons fixed quickly – bless your hearts addon writers, you rock! (please let there be a VuhDo patch soon!)

5.) Account wide pets and mounts – thumbs up on this one!

6.) Being able to cast Penance while moving…..omg so awesome! And the new lolwell which dones not require clicking…win!

What I don’t like so far:

1.) Talent choices – in my opinion, once again there are definitely some “you would be dumb if you choose this” choices in the trees. However, the flexibility to change on the fly is nice, and a good idea and about time it was implemented.

2.) Loss of prime glyphs, I understand why but…I still miss them.

What do you like? Not like?

It’s the final countdown…..to 5.0.4!

Today it’s the MoP prepatch! Yay! cheer! /dance! etc….

It is time for a lot of changes – loss of wand slot for caster, loss of throwing and ranged weapons for melee, hunters can no longer melee (lol). Hunters lose their dead zone in exchange for now having to get expertise. The Theramore event – no don’t hurt Jaina!

But more importantly, new talent system. Sure Blizzard says there is the freedom of choice…but imo it’s really an illusion. In some of the tiers there might be some play there, but if you are primarily a PVE player, then there are not as many choices as one would think.

Now I am primarily a Disc priest, so let’s take a look at the priest talent choices.

Tier 1 – aka CC tree

Void Tendrils – Tenacles that hold things in place etc etc.

Psy Fiend – places a Psyfiend at the designated location, the fiend then will cast psychic scream.

Psychic Scream – same old spell like we have currently.

At least to me it seems like the tendrils will have the most use, as in PVE you don’t want mobs running around poss pulling other mobs.

Tier 2 – movement enhancement

Body and Soul – PW:S increase movement for a short period of time.

Angelic Feather – places a feather on the ground. When runover – players gains more movement speed.

Phantasm – removes movement restrictions.

And the winner here is Body and Soul, Angelic Feahter seems like a hassle to use, and Phantasm is definitely for PVP.

Tier 3 – Mana Helping stuffs!

From Darkness, Comes light – Cast smite, heal, GH, etc, you have a 15% chance to get a free FH.

Mindbender – replaces Shadowfiend – 1 min CD – 1.3% per attack, lasts 15 seconds.

Power Word: Solace – 1.5s cast Strike an enemy with the power of the heavens, dealing 2226 to 2496 (+ 85.6% of SpellPower) Holy damage and restoring 0.7% maximum mana.

So appears from darkness, comes light is out. Now between MIndbender and PW:Sol, that can be tougher.

Mindbender – fire and forget spell (+) Has a cooldown (-)

PW:Solace – no cooldown, cast when you need it! (+), Mana gain vs raid dmg (-)

Both have their plus and minuses. Also keep in mind to get more mana then the mindbender with PW:Sol you will have to cast quite a few casts of PW:Solace to gane more mana then the mindbender. I think I have seen the # of casts to be around 5 a min.

Tier 4 – Priest Survival – opps I stood in bad!

Desperate Prayer – the good ol’ standard, never a bad choice – free instant heal on a 2 min CD.

Spectral Guise – Your shadow blurs into the darkness, leaving your true form behind. As a shadow you are stealthed, but remain in combat. Lasts 6 sec or until your true form is hit by 3 direct attacks. (sounds meh)

Angelic Bulwark – Anytime a damaging attack brings you below 30% health, you gain an absorption shield equal to 20% of your total health lasting for 20 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once every 90 sec.

I would have to say….for PVE – clear choice is Desperate Prayer once again. The guise has a more PVP feel, and the Angelic Bulwark may work in a few fights here and there but really if you know dmg is incoming, you should be preparing oneself, you are a disc priest!

Tier 5 – Healing Helpers!

Twist of Fate -After damaging or healing a target below 20% health, you deal 15% increased damage and healing for 10 sec.

Power Infusion – 20% casting speed increase, and a 20% cost in mana reduction. 2 min CD, lasts 20 seconds.

Divine Insight – (Discipline) When you cast Penance, there is a 40% chance your next Power Word: Shield will both ignore and not cause the Weakened Soul effect. (BTW the holy version of this talent looks a lot more interesting!)

 As Disc…there should be only one talent here to choose – Power Infusion! Twist of fate….eh, not sure might be good in certain situations. Divine Insight – seems better for holy and shadow.

Tier 6 – OMG Shiny new spells!

Here I am going to refer to Tales of a Priest – very good read and lots of good stuff for priests!

Also Spirit Shield (baseline for disc priests) –

For the next 15 sec, your Heal, Flash Heal, Greater Heal, and Prayer of Healing no longer heal but instead create absorption shields that last 15 sec

 Looks very powerful – you know some dmg is coming up. Pop and bubble away!

But other then that lets see how much of the patch breaks my UI! Hopefully, in SR, we will have the manpower to get a raid going on Tues and Wed to test out the new changes!

I for one have a lot of worries about the inital healing when MoP hits, all healers are going to have to get used to the “fixed” mana pool.

Screenshot Monday – These pics will kill the Monday blues! (maybe)

Shhh…there is a troll and a femtaur in disguise here….Also…mmmm fried chicken!

Creepy no?

A lady rides this way? And before Slice is a girl comments! SHUSH!

And below….proof all elves are female? Aka eye candy for Lyss and Van…thought they might appreciate it…or perhaps Sorak as well. Or maybe even Arv!

Blizzcon predictions and another Heroic down!

Huzzah another Heroic down….!!!

SR we do things in the wrong order….

Things that other normal guild do and do well. SR flounders. Things/fights other guilds may save/do later – SR does well. Also clearing vent clear for the most part and keeping a strict order, and ONE person calling it out helped out a lot. Also healers (go Zarm and Vanicus) did an awesome job communicating when they needed to swap etc! Nice healing Arv even with tormented. Nice job DPS!

Heroic Baleroc down – one of the more difficult Heroic fights downed! It’s funny….if slackers would post their SS!! (/glare Rep and Lyssi) Poor arv 😛

This brings SR to 7th overall on Drak – It’s nice to see SR in the top 10. I know we will never be leading/cutting edge progression but it is nice for the epeen.

Plan for next week – Heroic Shannox and Baleroc again. Then Heroic Domo.

 

Blizzcon predictions

Of course more Diablo news, as it should be.

Expansion news – I have a gut feeling it could go either way for MoP or something totally new. I have doubts as MoP being a browser game as I don’t see Blizz putting resources into such a niche game. I am glad for the lack of leaks this year.

I doubt a new hero class – I think Blizz learned their lessen from trying to balance such a thing. If they were to add a new class I think they would have to work their way up just like everyone else imo. Monk seems like a good choice – given the route if they go MoP.

I think it is interesting to note a whole panel on talent trees – if the expansion does raise the lvl cap…the current point values will be thrown into chaos. So I predict another revamp once again. This would be a good chance to str/nerf/alter as needed for Blizz. Perhaps maybe even a chance to differentiate PVE and PVP.

As far as race – maybe both sides gets Pandas? Just like how the high elves and the blood elves are split. Night Elves and Naga. Darkspear Trolls and other Trolls. Humans/Gilneans. It could be feasible that the Pandarans are not as unified as we believe.

However, I think it would be one or the other – Class or Race – not both. As far as letting more races be other classes, I do not really see a reason for the class restrictions at this point. Except for the rare obvious ones – forsaken druids? Dranei druids? Belf shamans? Belf Druids?

More SC2 news but to be honest, I am lukewarm on that.

Random…..thoughts?

What is it about randomness that I dislike.

1.) lack of control over an outcome

2.) no direction

3.) chaos

Lack of Control/no direction/chaos

With my personality, I dislike anything that takes control from my hands. I dislike a direction or focus, and choas is never fun when trying to figure things out.

Those three reasons alone make the Rhyolith fight, normal or heroic versions, a real pet peeve. I appreciate Blizzard for their design of the fight, but those reasons alone take away any fun in the fight.

What one can control is the direction he moves and one can predict when the adds will spawn.

Which volcano is active vs inactive is a pain. This is not fun, much like RNG loot drops. Other bosses, which may pick a random player to do something, is not bad and not as annoying, but for some reason the volcano thing really irritates me.

Other fights in firelands so far are designed much better in my opinion. They are some degrees of randomness, which thru player interaction can help overcome it. Walking a giant into volcanoes is freakin annoying. Other boss mechanics which are random are short and not the major drive in the fight. The volcano activating is the entire freakin fight, it’s like fighting a giant slot machine. Randomness is not a good drive in encounter design, and vice versa neither is a fight that is easy to predict everything. Some element of randomness/chaos is needed.

4.3 PTR thoughts

I am not one for looking aroud in there, but reading the thoughts of those who have, I have to say I am positive about the encounters so far. Mixture of scripting and randomness with some uniqueness here and there. One thing I am not positive about is the length of the raid. 7 bosses? This is not enough to keep people entertained, engaged till the next expansion.

With SWTOR right around the corner, Blizzard will want something MORE to keep people engaged. Like others I have spoken to, I would hope Blizzard is planning a Sunwell type raid to keep people in WoW.

WoW’s Future

With other games on the horizon, WoW will need to do something if it wishes to be the dominant force in the MMO world. It cannot sit on it’s haunches for too long (which I feel EQ did) or change the same to something that people may not want to play (EQ2) . With games ilke SWTOR, GW2, The Secret World, etc. and the whole F2P model Blizzard needs to do something more.

I think Blizzard is doing something good with listening to the player’s wants (like transmog) but they need to do some more quality of life improvements. The transmog idea is really an old idea – games like Aion and LOTRO already have it in some form.

I know Blizzard does not like the idea for some reason but Player/Guild housing would so something to keep people in the game. Keeping people engaged by giving them something to take pride in an develop is a good idea. Endgame characters are more then “purplz”. Having them do quests, maybe PvP or other things to earn points or something to purchase things to decorate or allow them to make trophies of memorable fights would be a nice QOL addition. I know in FFXI, players had a moghouse to decorate and although I was not super crazy about it, I did take pride in at least decorating it. 🙂 It was also cool that SE listened to players and allowed people to invite friend to visit your moghouse.

F2P vs Sub – blizzard really needs to keep WoW somewhat fresh to combat the F2P model. games that have swapped to a F2P model – Age of Conan and LOTRO I have to admit are done quite well. Lots of QOL things to keep casual to hardcore people involved and a non-intrusive cash shop.

WoW needs more QoL additions to it – not just more purplz and raids. MMOs are not a console game, it is an interactive social game, and that is what Blizzard I feel has forgotten when seeing the $$$ signs. Sitting around in Org/SW is not the best way to treat is’s customer base.  Also relying on it’s popularity as it being “Warcraft” is getting old for many.

Lore issues

I know when it comes to lore, game mechanics must go beyond lore. What gets me is all the lore they tend to ignore.

Why not do more with faction leaders? Why are they stagnant figureheads….if i wanted that you could hire Waldo for that. Why are there not scenarios designed involving them more? I know there are some not feeling the PvP, but for those that are why not on PvP servers have a daily quest to kill faction leaders? (Could still be on PvE servers as well) Taking it a step further, to make sure the enemies capital is weakened (i.e guards) why not make it if the enemy faction capture certain certification on route to a city the # of guards/their str is weakened/while providing a buff to the attackers? Also design more BG with an empahsis on faction leaders, give them a chance to show their stuff.

Also with lore…why are not more things taken from lore? They are doing some things with the new 5 mans in 4.3, but why not expand upon the titans? Queen Azshara? Hell, I know we are all sick of Trolls – but what about Zandrazi or however one spells that.

As much as I am a horde at heart, where is the alliance love? Why nothing for dranei after BC??? Where is the alliance influence? Specifically on the human front…..I admit when playing the RTS I loved playing the humans. Where is the pride of the humans…why are they hiding behind the flag of SW, there are still some human nations out there, and where is the last heir to Lordaeron? Arthas’ sister? They brought back Gilneas…where are the others…. ><  SW cannot expect to be the last bastion of humanity, there were so many other ones out there.

And most importantly – USE high overlord Saurfang more! He is much more badass then Garrosh. I understand the need for him, but he is nothing like what I imagined the “true” orcs from Nagrand would be. Sure they are more primitive etc, but they are not warmongering fools….

I am not for bringing back Thrall as Warchief – he did what he had to but is more of a character to bring about bigger things for Azeroth, but I am not sure Garrosh is quite right. Likewise, develop someone for the Alliance to along the lines like Thrall. Varian could have done it, but is too much like Garrosh, Jaina is too whiny, Greymane too old etc. The Alliance really needs a big personalilty that could draw the alliance together like thrall did for the horde. The alliance is too much disjointed to make a real push against the horde if all out war happened. The Alliance is too full of distrust with one another IMO, and again they do not have a shining star to say like Thrall.

Again WoW suffers from too much biasness, much like Warhammer did imo.

But enough rambling – H Rhyolith going down tonight!

4.3 discussion

1.) Are nerfs good for the maintenance and happiness of the overall population in WoW?

Business Slice: Of course it is! Getting the majority of the people to see the content Blizzard has worked on makes perfect business sense. Which will net a company more money? 6-7 million customers or 2-3 “hardcore” players, of course the more casual base will make Blizzard money in the long haul. Without profit Blizzard cannot make improvement/develop more games. It’s all about the benjamins! MONEY MONEY MONEY!

Red Slice: RAWR! REDSLICE SMASH! WTF! WHY ARE THEY NERFING IT MAKES NO SENSE, 4.3 is not even out, or has any concrete information etc. Why are they caving into the whiners and baddies? Why even make a game and make it so easy? With the nerfs it may even make the most casual of player go…why am I playing a game this easy? This makes Hello Kitty Online seem more difficult. 4.2 have been out only for a few months, it only has 7 bosses, why make it so laughable that it can now be cleared by a new group in a week or 2 at most? /smash! WTH are they passing out epix 2 every1?

Slice: It would make more sense to have a balance of the two. They really should take a good look at what is over tuned and also what maybe under tuned and fix as appropriate. No real reason as well to nerf Heroic modes, those should remain as the pinnacle of raiding. Only the best of the best should be able to tackle those. Give the general player base the normal modes, and the heroics to the “hardcore”. Give them each a playground to play in. A flat nerf to the content in general is silly – make the players get a gradual buff (like in Icecrown Citadel) this allows for some mistakes to be made, but does not trivialize the content totally, this in coordination with appropriate hotfixes of mechanics that are under tuned and over tuned.

However by nerfing stuff by this degree so far from the 4.3 patch…I hope it does not cause a backlash that they will nerf 4.3 so quickly cause, “it’s too hard!”

2.)Should I cancel my sub and wait for DW/4.3?

Business Slice: No! Give me your money errr to Blizzard. You need your WoW crack no?

Red Slice: Yeah that will teach them to nerf stuff that doesn’t need it! “/grumbles” Freakin casuals!

Slice: Each individual should decide if they wish to play right now or wait. Use your brain and make your own decision.

3.)Transmogrify?

Business Slice: $$$ more ways to keep people attached to an older game! Good idea to pull at people’s heartstrings.

Red Slice: Old content? LOL…why go back there? It’s not relavent. Why waste time on old raid when you can raid current content or cap VP? Old cheevs? Only ones that matter are ones that are current and give you mounts that are current!

Slice: Yay for clothes! Barbie time?

4.) Catgirls?

All: HELL YEAH!

Catgirls!
 

Funny search terms….

ok…I know others have made posts about ways to get to your blog…thought I would share some…

1.) sexy space marine – Space marines…sexy? Not sure if they belong in the same search term lol.

2.) 4.2 disc reforging…ok this i can touch on

I like to think of it was int/spirit (play around to find where you are comfortable)/haste/mastery crit

Now this is not set in stone – this will depend on your preference on playstyle and your raid composition.

Int is important/king obviously.

Spirit is up in the air – mana regen is important, but how much do you need? too much and you lose out on troughput stats you could be going for. too little and you wont last the fight. (personally, i think i may reforge some of mine away – gonna overhaul gems/reforging tonight)

Mastery – probably out biggest thorn in our side. It helps our niche well (damage mitigation) but at the same only effects a few of our spells – Power Word: Shield and Divine Aegis.

Crit – unreliable at best. With the change to crit heals it makes it appear to be very desirable on paper..but in reality don’t gem/enchant/reforge for it.

Haste – a nice throuput stat. Helps to push out those heals, PoH’s faster etc. However, haste does this at the cost of your mana pool. Watch the mana consumption.

When you take into account of raid size – 25 or 10 man. Your choices can deviate farther. in 25 man you may have the chance to specialize in your role – straight up PoH machine (haste), or tank healer (mastery). Also buffs you maybe missing in 10 you will more then likely have in 25 man raids.

What is in your healing team?

10 man – disc/rdruid/hpally – with the holy focusing on tanks and resto on the raid you may find yourself with a balance of three. In 10’s there will be lots of crosshealing as well.

10 man – disc/rsham/hpally – see above, but with a bit more raid healing.

10 man – disc/hpriest/hpally – once again see above disc/rdruid/hpally.

3.) funeral pyre or smoldering censer of purity for a disc priest?

Funeral Pyre

Smoldering Censer of Purity

My personal preference would be the Censer – haste would be better – especially if your OS is holy or shadow. Although you could reforce some of the crit on the Pyre – meh. Also with the spirit on the Censer one could play around with it if you have too much spirit and want to dump it.