World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor Launches Nov. 13th 146
An anonymous reader writes: Yesterday at Gamescom, Blizzard announced the release date for the latest expansion to World of Warcraft, titled Warlords of Draenor. The expansion will launch on Thursday, November 13th. The launch date is 10 days prior to the game's 10th anniversary, and both will be celebrated by a lengthy incursion event in-game. Blizzard also released the cinematic trailer for Warlords of Draenor.
Amazing quality (Score:5, Interesting)
Blizzard, as always, has done a fantastic job on this cinematic trailer.
Whats more impressive is Russell Brower's musical score. The song in the trailer, The Iron Horde, is my personal favorite.
Re: Amazing quality (Score:3)
Um. It's funny. I watched the trailer and all I could think was "wow, Blizzard scores are always so one-dimensional. Disappointing."
They are really good at assigning themes to races or characters. But musically, they just seem hamfisted. There's no real complexity or subtlety. Just HERE IS THE THEME. NOW HERE IS ANOTHER THEME.
Technically well executed; emotionally flat as standalone pieces. Blizzard knows that players will simply attach emotions that they are already feeling in game to the themes they hear
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It's funnier than that.
I showed it to 3 people in the office that don't know what WoW is. All 3 said it was really cool, and were glued to it. One, (a 50+ year old man) quizzed me on what kind of computer it runs on, can he get it in the living room, etc.
You just wanted more, man. It's a decent trailer.
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Agreed, a very impressive trailer, maybe the best one yet. I've only got an hour or two per week to spend on games these days - I'd probably play if they had a usage-based subscription option instead of a fixed monthly rate.
That reminds me... (Score:5, Funny)
Any good MMOs out there worth playing?
Damn. Now I'm going to get modded offtopic...
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I absolutely loved AO. It was one of my first MMOs and I remember it fondly. I remember the tower wars, I remember the insane mass battles. It just ... I dunno. It kinda got worse and worse with every expansion. I'd probably instantly jump into it again if there was any chance to find people to play with again, if only 'cause I absolutely loved it.
Even though it certainly ain't the same anymore. I miss those "100k for $buff NOW or my $other_buff runs out before I can put $item on" screams.
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you *might* like elder scrolls online. has a bit of that "mass PVP" battle.
Good graphics, solid music -- bit of a different combat/control scheme, and the questing is basically single player.
but all in all, a fun and engrossing game.
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Star Trek Online, Final Fantasy XIV
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Star Trek Online
Nope. A branch of goonswarm is on the rise there, under the guise of "starfleet dental" fed side and "nerds of prey" kdf side. Worse? The devs condone their trolling.
Final Fantasy XIV
Possibly.
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They aren't as bad as they used to be in that there are some things to counter their tactics in game. You can easily get a party ball nerf device from a quick game or two of Dabo so their party ball spamming doesn't bother you anymore. Above all else like any other troll, ignore works wonders.
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Are the original 'Goons' meanwhile known?
For those who don't know: the goons are group of perhaps five people (presumably rich) who got bored when they where young and descided to wreck every online game they could be botherd to play. Well, so goes the internet meme, no idea how much is true, But in eve online they where once close in accomplishing it, now they are so hated that when the idea comes up a certain player group could be 'goons' all around them are ganing up and destroying them.
Somehow the self
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I'd prefer a MMO that's not overrun by fanboys. And to make matters worse, it's not like they're fanboys of the game but the underlying franchise.
Nope. Thanks. I don't play MMOs for the RP aspect. I prefer the "let's coop to blow some shit up" part.
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Which is probably why you wouldn't be interested in an MMORPG. Which World of Warcraft explicitly names itself.
But you're posting in an off-topic thread. So carry on.
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I prefer the "let's coop to blow some shit up" part.
So, raids, crawls, and raids huh? Got burned out on that in '06/07.
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I like Final Fantasy XIV, because catgirls FTW!
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Rift
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Rift is pretty cool. I just don't know anyone who plays it. Else I'd probably install it and take it for a spin again. It was a really awesome game, I like the idea of ad-hoc grouping around rifts, it just seems that in mid-levels it becomes near impossible to get anything going.
With a few others playing, I'd maybe give it (yet) another try.
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Really depends on what you like. Final Fantasy 14 is pretty fun and has a good story line. Best graphics in any MMO out right now if you ask me. You can catch it on sale for $15 from time to time and it's like $13-15/month. The player base has started to really split over the past several months into the casuals and elites so you will see a lot of the "if your avg. iLvl gear isn't > X then get lost" type of messages. I personally didn't care when I last played because mine was almost maxed. I would
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Most of the people I know who have gotten bored with WoW waiting for the next expansion have ended up playing FFXIV. Most of them tried Wildstar but quickly dropped it. There's just something about the art style, character animations, and group combat of FFXIV that seems to drag people back to it. I think most of them are going to retreat back to WoW when this expansion hits, however.
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Final Fantasy XIV: ARR.
They have over a million preorders for their Chinese launch. Right now estimates place them at around 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 subscriptions (worth noting this was WoW's subscription count about 1 year in). With the Chinese launch they'll jump up to nearly half of WoW's current active subscription count of 6,500,000.
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LoTRO. Free to play. Pretty well put together.
That reminds me... (Score:2)
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Not since City of Heroes went dark.
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As others have said; Final Fantasy XIV. Candidate for the "most improved game in history", following a disaster of a launch a few years ago.
The current incarnation is possibly the only MMO around to be able to go toe-to-toe with WoW in terms of features, content and polish. The update cycle which adds new content is at least on a par with WoW's (if not slightly better) and, unlike games such as Lord of the Rings Online and Star Wars: Old Republic, it isn't afraid to do things differently to WoW in some resp
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you can't trust the client! The problem was that it was slow, not that things were handled by the server
In general, the "correct" way is to allow things to be done in the client, check them, and then deny access if what the client did was impossible or illegal given server constraints. That how you get responsiveness. If you require the server to send approval of every action, then things will indeed seem "sluggish." That's in a number of online games (like wow and FF) you can move freely, but you might "snap back" if a little lag strikes. Or why you can move instantly, but things like spellcasts might be del
Re: That reminds me... (Score:2)
If you are interested in first person combat, try Darkfall Unholy Wars. It is a full loot MMORPG with FPS style combat.
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Eve online.
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Been there, done that, ran a corp.
I have a life now. I still want to play, but I don't want a game to essentially take over my life. It was hard enough to quit once, I'm not going back.
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Depending on your "definition", no. Every MMO sucks ass today ... WoW was cool when it came out in 2004. Every expansion = more pointless grinding for gear I don't care about.
* Guild Wars 2
+no monthly fee
+dynamic group events
- automatic level downgrade = annoying;
- massive farming required
- lame story
- empty world
* Warframe - http://store.steampowered.com/... [steampowered.com]
+free
-massive grind fest
* Defiance - http://store.steampowered.com/... [steampowered.com]
+ free
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NCsoft has a history of turning games off just when I get to enjoy them. Not going back there
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It's space traders style, very complicated but very good, multi-platform (Linux, Mac, Win, Droid and even iOS), relatively small community but very dedicated which actually means that you get to know the developers and they really listen to you. The game is online since 2005 or earlier (constantly upgraded of course).
If you like stuff like EVE or Anarchy Online you will just get an orgasm with this one.
I don't play it since a lot of time ago, but I still have a subscription. The reason
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Sorry. I was there for its first incarnation. Fool me once and all that. Yeah, yeah, I know, they redid it into a completely different game. I don't care. Besides, I don't like the whole FF franchise.
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If you had the original version, your login still works.
And I think you get a free month for returning. That promo might be over.
If so, it wouldn't cost anything to check it out.
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NC killed off Tabula Rasa, which I still miss, to push their WoW clone Aion. They're not going to get a single cent of my money.
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That's what happens when you kick a game out into the open long before it's done and ready for prime time. And while it's become the norm for the industry to release MMOs that are barely finished and still quite buggy, that one was decidedly NOT finished. Easy to be seen by looking at how they retained the WHOLE coder staff into release (instead of the usual way of putting most people to new projects while letting a core team iron out the kinks). The game was a mess. Shot balance (to the point where a few c
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Well, the whole story (if you're interested) is a long and twisted one, involves a lot of ego on Garriot's side and a lot of bad blood and burned bridges in the end. It's long winded and messy, and sure would make a good plot for some kind of daytime TV drama show.
In a nutshell, the original game as it was envisioned had little if anything to do with the TR that eventually came to be. To give you an idea of the change, this is the 2004 trailer [youtube.com]. And this is what the game eventually was like [youtube.com].
I think it's easy
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See my post above.
There is no dominant clan on Miller, though TR tend to win about 50% of alerts. I guess you need to do some research for the most balanced server in your area.
PS2 servers got merged. (Score:2)
Miller is absolutely jammed at the moment. I need to queue to get into continents more often than not now (subscribers get priority).
Also, if you didn't like the flying-centric version, infantry are pretty strong now.
Lastly, there are some new bonus cert mechanics so it's a lot easier to get access to stuff.
I'm an MMORPG player really but PS2 is undoubtedly the best game there is by quite a long way.
Enough World of Warcraft already (Score:3)
Put all your programmers and designers on Titan [wikipedia.org].
re: Titan (Score:1)
Hmm... ok. Can I ask what Titan's overall theme is supposed to be?
Personally, I have pretty much zero interest in these MMORPGs with traditional "fantasy" characters and scenarios. I played Warcraft 1 through 3 back in the day and enjoyed them at the time, mind you. But games like WoW don't really do it for me; definitely not to the extent where I'd pay for a continuing membership to keep playing and commit that much of a time investment.
If Titan goes with a science-fiction, futuristic theme, I might ta
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No one knows yet. Blizzard has been very tight lipped on the whole thing.
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Given that they already have World of Warcraft, and that their other series are Diablo and Starcraft, and that Diablo is pretty similar in theme to World of Warcraft, I'm hoping it will be close in style to Starcraft. I'm thinking Starcraft-style MMORPG, with multiple dozens of planets to visit.
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Titan was supposed to be a new IP. Not StarCraft-based. But since the whole project was scrapped and restarted, who knows what it will be now, or if it'll ever even see the light of day.
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StarCraft-based or not, as long as it's similar in visual style, races and whatnot, I'm in. Hell it could still be Terran, Protoss and Zerg races but in another part of the galaxy, don't need to bring all the characters and story from StarCraft at all.
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What the heck do you mean with IP?
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Intellectual Property.
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And you do not realize that a sentence like: Titan was supposed to be a new intellectual property. Not StarCraft-based. But since the whole project was scrapped and restarted, who knows what it will be now, or if it'll ever even see the light of day.
Is completely retarded? What about 'game'? 'Product'? 'Hot thing'? (* facepalm *)
I guess you are one of the guys who 'trained' the guards from a grace yard away so your mate could capture it?
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I specifically used the term "intellectual property" to convey the fact that it would not be within the Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, or even Rock'n'Roll Racing or Lost Vikings universes. It's a pretty standard terminology for people to use when discussing fictional universes or properties that span multiple media. I didn't invent the term, I just use it. It's a useful shorthand.
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Sorry, if you would listen to /. ... the term IP means something different than you believe.
It literally means as you said 'intellectual property'. And that is certainly not a term you use in the game industry to refer to a new title, new game or new fictional universe.
How can a two letter acronym where you need to hit caps to type it, be shorter than 'game' which you likely type without thinking, especially if no one really gets it and you need, handy or not, to give an explanation afterward?
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Because "Game" and "IP" mean different things? They can have a new game, but it could be part of the Starcraft universe, as Starcraft 2 and Heart of the Swarm were.
"New IP" is a phrase that has meaning: "containing a new story, characters, and environment not featured in the company's other products."
"New game" and "new product" were too vague and generic to get the point across.
Phrases sometimes have multiple meanings, and IP is one of those. Sure, it's an umbrella term for copyright, trademark, patents, a
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Well, obviously no one besides you uses IP in this sense :) ... see e.g. gamasutra.com
Hence our conversation
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No, a lot of people on Slashdot don't use IP in that sense, but at the content creation companies (game/movie/whatever), that phrase gets tossed around pretty often.
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I linked you gamasutra.org, never saw it their, but thanx for the info.
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In case you hadn't heard, Titan was cancelled internally and sent back to the drawing board. Last I heard there are only like 2 designers currently assigned to the project, with no coders, and no artists. All the people previously working on Titan were put on Warlords of Draenor or Heroes of the Storm, which I think is responsible for a lot of the big shifts the game is seeing this expansion. Previous expansions always felt like they were just taking the existing direction of the game and refining and honin
Re:Enough World of Warcraft already (Score:4, Informative)
Did they change the basic game play?
I was a big fan of the 2-3 expansions. But the game became WAY too nitendo based for me. Literally all the classes had the same gameplay, nothing but watching multiple "cooldowns"
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Yes and no.
They're culling a bunch of one off abilities by grouping them with other abilities or removing them altogether.
To avoid the whole 'nintendo' feeling you mentioned, they're changing the mechanics of encounters to force players of all classes to adapt their rotation. It's very exciting and not as mind numbing as most classic encounters.
In fact, they've already instituted this in MOP to some degree. See the Kanrethad fight or the Proving Grounds
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yup, most of that crap started because of PVP... It is extremely difficult to make things different but equal.
vanilla was good
BC was awesome (probably the pinnacle) ( I remember spending a month and half learning how to properly gear and play my druid for tanking)
WotLK was still decent but the downward spiral had started, ALL classes using same gear,stats,cooldown dependent rotations, etc really started to show.
What the heck was next? I can't remember but it just generic, all thinking ceased. gear no longe
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Well don't blame PvP directly; it's Blizz's reaction, and 'fix' that was the problem.
You spent a month and a half; I spent a year and a half learning how to play that bear. And still got creamed in Wintergrasp for a year. And still had a blast.
The fact is, in good PvP, some classes will be better than others, given the same player skill.
That was fine. Tehy 'fixed' what wasn't broken.
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What the heck was next? I can't remember but it just generic, all thinking ceased
Cataclysm was next, and it actually started out as an improvement, introducing interesting stat combinations (I miss armor pen) and much, much harder starting dungeons. But by the end of the expansion Blizzard had entirely reversed course with the pronouncement that 5-mans should be extremely easy (and therefore disposable).
Pandaria has been a mixed bag.
Warlords might be interesting with the introduction of new secondary stats multistrike and versatility, and tertiary stats which don't count towards the ite
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The original players manual stated, for instance, that the mage was the highest damage dealing class, but in exchange, could likely be 1-or-2-shotted by some other classes
A lot of these things DID sound really cool, but playtesting with millions of players over several revealed that hey... being 1-2 shot just isn't very fun. It's not a fun playstyle for either side, whether it's the super-squishy mage himself, or the victim of the "3-minute-mage." For hunters are well, the inventory thing was ridiculous from the start -- the drawback is they have to fill their bags with arrows? Is this supposed to be World of Inventorycraft? Turns out that inventory hassles didn't actually A
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The basic primary gameplay is still the same. Many class's DPS rotations are actually not even changing significantly.
The changes include things like the removal of hit rating and making all attacks (generally) always land, not allowing flight in the new zone at all, even at max level, and designing the zones in such a way that this does not become a huge inconvenience, but also including things like jump puzzles and making use of vertical space in a way that wouldn't work if they allowed flying (but still
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So if possible they made the game MORE nintendo like, removing any possibility of thought needed in gearing your character...
That answers my question about whether I'd ever want to go back :)
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I honestly have no idea what you mean by "Nintendo-like", by the way.
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The last time I quit wow was just after mop came out. When they added in the ability to upgrade individual items at the cost of valor points, I just gave up. Having to enchant, gem, reforge, and then upgrade my items before they were considered raid ready was just more then I wanted to put up with
The valor upgrades were just there at the end of the expansion so that players would have something to do with all the valor they no longer had a use for, and the feature was removed for Pandaria, readded in a patch between raid dungeons to give a bit of an upgrade before the new raid came out, removed again when that raid was released, and readded (and later extended) at the end of Pandaria. Basically, it's something that was added for a limited time to give you a way to get a minor upgrade between raid c
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With the timing of Titan getting scrapped and the massive gameplay changes in Draenor (such as disabling any and all non-NPC flight until 'later') I can't help but get the feeling that Titan was WoW2, set sometime in the past of Draenor before the Legion appeared, and now large parts of it have been ported over to WoW.
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They had very specifically said that Titan was a new IP not related to Warcraft, StarCraft, or Diablo. They had also claimed it would not cannibalize WoW subscriptions because it was supposed to be a completely new type of MMO, and not use a subscription model. It was definitely not "WoW 2."
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This never happened. Hearthstone was a Warcraft property since its inception. When they were internally testing it they used the WoW TCG card art for the cards. They had a whole presentation about its development process at the last Blizzcon where they talked about this. It was announced at PAX a few years ago as a complete and utter surprise with pretty much zero leaks about it beforehand, and at that announcement it was c
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Just tell me, is PVP now more balanced or can a rogue or warrior or paladin still simply kill a clothy in two or even one blow?
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I haven't played arena in over a year. I can't really comment on its current state, nor its state in WoD. Last time I played it was dominated by casters. Warlock/mage/moonkin were some of the strongest classes. Warriors were complaining they were underpowered (but still had some of the highest class representation). But this is something that shifts with every content patch as they try to rebalance and as scaling changes, which has been the case ever since arenas were introduced. Unless you're literally com
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Isn't that the point of the mage vs. warrior divide? Brawn vs Intellect? Mages sacrifice heavy armor to deal higher damage, but can get murdered by the slightest sneeze. Warriors sacrifice speed for heavy armor and large pointy things.
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Basically yes, but nevertheless in the beginning of a new expansion all cloth wearers are free kills for plate wearers, because the simple idea suddenly does not work anymore. ... roughly 25 seconds, while the warrior can do an instant charge and kill.
You know: if a warrior can kill me with one hit, I would assume my mage can kill the warrior with one 'spell' as well, but the mage needs 10 spells, that is 10 seconds plus casting time of the spells
Nothing new in this expansion (Score:4, Insightful)
No new races, no new classes, no new professions. You get a Facebook game called your garrison. They squished the stats across the board so the number bloat is no longer out of control.
This is Blizzard's obvious attempt to appeal to people who played in Classic ten years ago and gave up the game since. Hell, they're even going to allow you to skip having to play through four obsolete expansions by leveling your first character to 90 for free. You'll only ever be pushing four buttons in combat, for you DotA fans.
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The thing about only pushing 4 buttons in combat is a myth. If anything, the classes I play have had their rotations become more complex, not less. The spells that were cut were generally cross-spec skills you rarely used, or attacks that were so niche and specific you almost never used them in a rotation anyway. For most classes, when you log in on beta you'll see empty slots on your bar and genuinely won't be able to remember which spell went there, because you used it so rarely or not at all. I was playi
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I play a warlock usually. ... if you're doing that in PvP you are likely a huntard, out
I have something like 40 - or is it 48? - 'buttons' on my screen.
All of them have keyboard short cuts. Half of them have a macro, that the same shortcut with or without alt or ctrl does something different.
When I die in PvP the first thing is looking over my 'commands' and memorizing why the fuck I did not use the button, that have might changed it, like throwing a bomb or throwing a net.
Damage rotations only work in PvE
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I challenge you to try to play a few games of Dota while limiting yourself to four buttons in combat. I recommend playing Tinker or Holy Knight. Please, I want to watch.
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Yeah, and it is another failed idea.
The only positive thing I see that non engineers (a profession) can now use engineering items.
The problem of the game however is not crafting/gemming/enchanting. It is the game play. PvE is boring as it is a damage race ... no really skill involved, only gear counts.
The next not working thing is PvP ... in the beginning of a new expansion everyone hates warriors, rogues, paladins and hunters, as they get super easy kills and are unbeatable regardless how smart you play: b
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Too old (Score:4, Funny)
I got too old for this shit
Grand cinematic, less impressive game (Score:1)
They spend more time on the cinematic trailer, than on the actual game.
WoW has become a no-effort game where you can just sit inside a city and be teleported to a dungeon instance after a few minutes of wait. Once you reach the highest level, you will get the best game equipment basically for free.
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Once you reach the highest level, you will get the best game equipment basically for free.
So you have a full set of heroic war-forged gear?
For free? As in, without spending weeks or months of progression raiding to get it?
I didn't think so.
Sorry, more excited about Flame Corgis (Score:1)
give me that sweet sweet flame corgi pet for the 10th Anniversary of WoW.
Nub Nub
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I like referring to it's in-game name, "the Molten Corgi." I am ashamed that in 10 years of WoW I never thought of that myself, nor did the punster in my guild.
Community for folks looking to return to Warlords. (Score:1)
Not sure if anyone is interested, but we have a really nice community with guilds (Both factions) on WoW, Wildstar, SW:TOR and more. http://exinferno.com/ We are building for WoD, The Division, Destiny and a few others. Great crew, fun but focused folks.
Hope to see some of you around! Would be great if I could get Jeff and Rob and others to come join me but I think they already have a server they play on. Btw, I've gone by "Sick" for the past 7 years or so instead of OctobrX. Heh. Moo!
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I have to disagree on graphics. Have you seen Final Fantasy 14? The sound, graphics, weather effects are amazing.
I would still play WoW however it's just the same thing over and over. Down raid bosses to get the best gear, wait till next patch and start over again. I just got bored of it. Sadly FF14 is turning out like that as well so I even stopped playing that.
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it's just the same thing over and over. Down raid bosses to get the best gear, wait till next patch and start over again. I just got bored of it. Sadly FF14 is turning out like that as well so I even stopped playing that
In other words: you just don't like MMORPGs.
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You're in luck! You only have to buy MoP, as everything up to Cataclysm i snow included in the base WOW package.
Now, push that needle in. Everything's gonna be ok. Just a little prick and then you get the goody.
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We get it, you own a mac
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three or four WoW expansions to every Starcraft 2 release?
Well, to be fair WoW is much much older and was releasing its 3rd expansion when Starcraft 2 came out. Starcraft 2 expansions have come out at roughly the same rate that that WoW expansions have.
WoW: every two years, pretty much like clockwork.
Starcraft 2: July 2010
Heart of the Swarm: March 2013
Legacy of the Void: In progress, art and voice assets finished. Game content currently being tuned. Sometime in 2015?
So Starcraft may be every 2 - 2.5 years. I'm not sure where the "each installment was supposed to b