Can It Be Done?

In the middle of all the Blizzard lawsuit controversy, the TBC Classic Fire Festival event is in full swing.

The Fire Festival was delayed by a month, mainly because TBC Classic dropped June 1st*, but since it showed up now I took advantage of it to play around with Card. 

She already had 4 bars' worth of XP from farming Felcloth --yes, Felcloth and Mooncloth still sell on the AH-- so when I saw a couple of quests registering an entire bar of XP, I decided I was going to have her do all the quests that she can in the Old World, just to see how much XP she could get.

This should give you an idea.

This has inspired me to do something with Card I'd never have considered even a week ago: to find out just how far I can level a toon in the Old World without having set foot in Outland. 

My first instinct is that as a practical matter, I could probably hit L64 or L65 given all of the quests remaining in max-level zones such as Silithus. However, the mobs in Silithus reach up to L58-L59, so it's conceivable with enough grinding I could possibly get Cardwyn to L68 by the time Wrath Classic drops, and she could just go straight to Northrend without having set foot in Outland at all.

Now that's a challenge I'd be interested in. 

Before anybody asks why, my response is "Why not? I have no desire to overdo it or get spellcloth factories going or raiding with a ton of toons. I want to just screw around in game rather than get caught up in the Meta, and this is just one way of doing that."

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And given the news that Phase 2 is now in the Public Test Realm, the rumor that Phase 2 will drop in mid-August is starting to sound more and more likely.

Which gives me heartburn.

Maybe it's time someone finally told Blizz what's what:

Blizz, stop this rushing to get the Phases out. Just because the Top 5 guilds on each server have been clearing since Week One doesn't mean you have to feed the beast and encourage the Meta any further. There are still plenty of guilds out there that aren't even close to getting properly geared up, much less downing all of the Phase One bosses, and if you ratchet up the arms race I believe you're more likely to have people simply jump ship from Classic into something else rather than push harder. It is not the Classic Community's fault that Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands have proven to be duds, so artificially trying to keep subscriptions up by pumping out the content faster than necessary only serves to exacerbate the problems that exist in TBC Classic. 

And given the disproportionate rate healing gear has been dropping relative to everything else --it's pervasive enough on Myz-US that it's practically its own meme-- I doubt that most average raiding guilds will be truly ready for a Phase 2 release in mid-August. Oh, and let's talk about the elephant in the room: the mitigation gear needed for Phase 2. Auction House prices will spike once news of an impending Phase 2 drop is on the way, and guilds will be hard pressed to get ready in time.

Blizz, don't give me the BS that people don't have to start raiding SSC and The Eye when Phase 2 drops. You know as well as I that your player base is conditioned to jump after the latest and greatest, and pretending otherwise is being disingenuous (at least).

My concern, Blizz, is that if you push too hard, enough people will vote with their wallets and jump to another MMO instead of WoW Classic. And if a Top 5 guild moves on, so what? There are a lot fewer of them than there are the "filthy casuals", so maybe slowing things down a touch isn't necessarily a bad idea. And extra month or two between phases isn't a bad thing, as it allows the majority of the server population to see the content without feeling like they're missing out. 

Okay, Blizzard isn't going to read this blog; I'm quite aware of that. But perhaps it's cathartic to get my opinion out there, because I doubt that Blizz is going to listen to people anyway. If anything, they listen to only a few people, typically those that share their own viewpoint on the game. That makes a certain amount of sense, as a more casual player isn't going to write a "Dear Blizz" post, in spite of there being far more of them than the hardcore raiders. Oh well. It was worth a try.

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I do have one piece of sad news to report: WoW YouTuber MadSeasonShow is leaving WoW behind. Yes, both Retail and Classic. 

His second last video, provided below, makes it plain it was made prior to the A-B lawsuit being filed by the State of California. He outlines why he is leaving, and provided an ending video that... well... hit kind of hard.

*That's the official reason, but I'd have honestly preferred to have gotten it over with back in June because the lure of easy gold would have thrown a monkey wrench into the Meta.