I've done my share of battlegrounds in the past, but a couple of days ago I tried my hand at something new: rated battlegrounds.
The result can be described in two words: Ye Gods.
Although we were in three BGs that night, I think we set some sort of record for losing in the Battle of Gilneas, because we lost in exactly 01:44. The opposing team swarmed over us and took the flags as if we weren't even there. Their composition --something like 50/30/20 Healers/Rogues/Tanks-- made it impossible to get more than a few hits in before getting obliterated.
"Geez, Q," one of the guildies told me, "I only got two heals out on your mage before she bit it."
Oh yeah. Now I know what a mop feels like when you're dumped in dirty water.
I think the only BG experience that is comparable is the time I ported into Alterac Valley as Tom to find only five fellow Alliance players against a full complement of Hordies. Even then, I lasted longer in the ensuing fight against an 8:1 ratio.
If you want to run rated BGs, think about Arenas first. Trust me. For myself, I think I'm going to stick to regular BGs, because by comparison the pace is much more relaxing.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go pry a knife out of Neve's back.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Friday, April 1, 2011
Hear Ye, Hear Ye!
Like the font color?
Good, cause you're gonna see a lot more of it soon!
Yes, that's right, Parallel Context is going to be an official mouthpiece of Blizzard. You hear it here, it must be true!
There will be the occasional guest post by GC and others, but in general the three of us will be providing the WoW community with official updates that --due to our extensive readership-- will be disseminated more thoroughly than is currently possible on the WoW Forums.
One nice little side effect of this is that we can provide Blizz with suggestions that will be taken to the highest levels of development. For example, my suggestion to prevent ninjas in a PuG --flipping a switch so that if a player drops group after a loot roll in an instance they will be unable to roll for loot for a one week period-- has been favorably received by the development staff, and a version of this upgrade will be in the 4.1 PTR shortly.
We look forward to serving you in the future with timely, cogent updates on the game we all love: Ultima Online!
EtA: I'd be remiss in pointing out that a few of my fellow WoW bloggers have similar momentous announcements for this Friday:
Rades atOrcishDraenic Army Knife
Vidyala atManaliciousOrcalicious
EtA: I'd be remiss in pointing out that a few of my fellow WoW bloggers have similar momentous announcements for this Friday:
Rades at
Vidyala at
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Recycled content...
Never have I seen a company recycle so much content. In fact, it’s
gonna get really old if everything is always the same. However,
give it time and I’m sure we’ll see some new stuff.
You have to trust that a company as big as Blizzard has something up its sleeve.
Up until the news of the re-release of ZG and ZA, I
never thought I’d see them again. I should say I hoped that would be the case anyhow.
Gonna be fun to see how they changed the dungeons and mechanics. Hopefully, it will
let us get the mounts a bit easier this time, though I seriously doubt it.
You have to wonder though, what else is going to be recycled? Will we see MC version two?
Down to even lower dungeons such as stratholme version 2? If that’s the case I can say I’m
NEVER – ever gonna be really motivated to run them. Seriously, who’s really
gonna want to do that all again? I certainly don’t. In fact I’d be happy to
run any new themed dungeon that’s introduced. You think we’ll see any new dungeons
around path 4.2 as well? I really hope we do, because if the content doesn’t hold my interest
and burn out starts to set in, it would be a really big shame to
desert this game after so many hours put into it.
You can’t take things too seriously though.
gonna get really old if everything is always the same. However,
give it time and I’m sure we’ll see some new stuff.
You have to trust that a company as big as Blizzard has something up its sleeve.
Up until the news of the re-release of ZG and ZA, I
never thought I’d see them again. I should say I hoped that would be the case anyhow.
Gonna be fun to see how they changed the dungeons and mechanics. Hopefully, it will
let us get the mounts a bit easier this time, though I seriously doubt it.
You have to wonder though, what else is going to be recycled? Will we see MC version two?
Down to even lower dungeons such as stratholme version 2? If that’s the case I can say I’m
NEVER – ever gonna be really motivated to run them. Seriously, who’s really
gonna want to do that all again? I certainly don’t. In fact I’d be happy to
run any new themed dungeon that’s introduced. You think we’ll see any new dungeons
around path 4.2 as well? I really hope we do, because if the content doesn’t hold my interest
and burn out starts to set in, it would be a really big shame to
desert this game after so many hours put into it.
You can’t take things too seriously though.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
You Never Know
Last night my family attended the district-wide Festival of Bands held at our local high school. The Festival of Bands pulls together all of the woodwind, brass, and percussion band students throughout the entire school district, from 5th Grade through 12th Grade, for a combined concert. The concert showcases all of the hard work the band students have been putting in --my oldest, a flutist, among them-- and gives them a chance to shine on the stage. (Or in this case, gymnasium, as there were over 400 students assembled for the program.)
We left after the concert and went back home, just in time for my wife to realize that she'd accidentally a book she'd been reading behind. I went back to the high school to go hunt for the book, hoping that the building hadn't been emptied and locked for the night.
Luckily for me, I encountered one of the band directors when I was roaming through the gym, and he suggested we try the high school band's office. We crossed into the Commons area, and while he called his wife my eye was drawn to the lost-and-found shelf. I pointed to myself and at the shelf, and the band director nodded while he talked on his cell.
I searched under the hoodies and jackets and found a few notebooks which I searched through, but not much in the way of my wife's book. I set the notebooks back, and it was then that I noticed the owner's name of the topmost one:
Jimmy "Leeroy" Jenkins
"For the Horde!" I whispered, smiling.
We left after the concert and went back home, just in time for my wife to realize that she'd accidentally a book she'd been reading behind. I went back to the high school to go hunt for the book, hoping that the building hadn't been emptied and locked for the night.
Luckily for me, I encountered one of the band directors when I was roaming through the gym, and he suggested we try the high school band's office. We crossed into the Commons area, and while he called his wife my eye was drawn to the lost-and-found shelf. I pointed to myself and at the shelf, and the band director nodded while he talked on his cell.
I searched under the hoodies and jackets and found a few notebooks which I searched through, but not much in the way of my wife's book. I set the notebooks back, and it was then that I noticed the owner's name of the topmost one:
Jimmy "Leeroy" Jenkins
"For the Horde!" I whispered, smiling.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
So... Where've you been?
That was the question asked me by a guildie when I fired up Quintalan for about 20 minutes early last evening. It was about the only time I had to spare in between the end of the work day and having to take two of my kids to a skating party, but I figured I'd knock out a few quests in Uldum before I spent a couple of hours at a 1970s era roller rink.
I kind of shrugged at the question. "I've been on," I replied. "Mostly in the mornings and the early afternoon."
"Okay. I haven't been able to get on in the mornings lately, except for Saturday."
I'd noticed that the regular morning crowd for both Tom and Neve/Q has been thinning a bit lately, but until my guildie alluded to it I hadn't noticed the decline in my evening playing. With three kids (and their activities) and a wife who works in the evenings part of the time, I've cut back on my WoW playing. When I do play, it's much easier to run a quick BG or knock out some quests/crafting rather than queue for an instance.
At times like this, I miss the quick Wrath instances like A-N or Forge of Souls, the BC quickie Hellfire Ramparts, and Vanilla's Scarlet Monastery Graveyard. Got 15-20 minutes? No problem! You don't have to be in a losing fight in Warsong Gulch; you can go bash some Scourge or Fel Orcs instead!
But really, the design for Cata instances took away the ability to get a dungeon quickie. Given that Blizz wants to make the instances --especially the heroics-- hard, the concept of a quick and dirty instance clashes with design intent. And I'm fine with that. It's my schedule that has changed, and I shouldn't expect the game to change for me.
This is where things kind of intersect with a persistent theme the past month or two out in the WoW blogosphere, how a certain subset of WoW players have gotten disaffected with the game. We're not talking about the people who like WoW but tried and fell in love with Rift (or LOTRO or another game), but the people who burned out on WoW or who threw up their hands in disgust over the game.
Even if my own WoW time has been cut, I still find things to do. If I'm the only person in my guild on in the morning, I make a point of chit chatting while holding down a tower in Alterac Valley. (And I'm not even talking about roleplaying, but just regular in-game talk.) What I don't get is when people focus in on one aspect of the game so completely that they miss the rest of the game world. I've said it before and I'll say it again: an MMO is what you make of it. Yes, there is design intent at play, but you can choose to buck the system and do your own thing. Nobody pulled out the book of WoW Scriptures and read "Yea, and upon the Seventh Day the Toon assembled with many brethren, and thus they entered the Great Raid. And the Two Headed Ogre with many pokey eyes was slain."
I kind of shrugged at the question. "I've been on," I replied. "Mostly in the mornings and the early afternoon."
"Okay. I haven't been able to get on in the mornings lately, except for Saturday."
I'd noticed that the regular morning crowd for both Tom and Neve/Q has been thinning a bit lately, but until my guildie alluded to it I hadn't noticed the decline in my evening playing. With three kids (and their activities) and a wife who works in the evenings part of the time, I've cut back on my WoW playing. When I do play, it's much easier to run a quick BG or knock out some quests/crafting rather than queue for an instance.
At times like this, I miss the quick Wrath instances like A-N or Forge of Souls, the BC quickie Hellfire Ramparts, and Vanilla's Scarlet Monastery Graveyard. Got 15-20 minutes? No problem! You don't have to be in a losing fight in Warsong Gulch; you can go bash some Scourge or Fel Orcs instead!
But really, the design for Cata instances took away the ability to get a dungeon quickie. Given that Blizz wants to make the instances --especially the heroics-- hard, the concept of a quick and dirty instance clashes with design intent. And I'm fine with that. It's my schedule that has changed, and I shouldn't expect the game to change for me.
This is where things kind of intersect with a persistent theme the past month or two out in the WoW blogosphere, how a certain subset of WoW players have gotten disaffected with the game. We're not talking about the people who like WoW but tried and fell in love with Rift (or LOTRO or another game), but the people who burned out on WoW or who threw up their hands in disgust over the game.
Even if my own WoW time has been cut, I still find things to do. If I'm the only person in my guild on in the morning, I make a point of chit chatting while holding down a tower in Alterac Valley. (And I'm not even talking about roleplaying, but just regular in-game talk.) What I don't get is when people focus in on one aspect of the game so completely that they miss the rest of the game world. I've said it before and I'll say it again: an MMO is what you make of it. Yes, there is design intent at play, but you can choose to buck the system and do your own thing. Nobody pulled out the book of WoW Scriptures and read "Yea, and upon the Seventh Day the Toon assembled with many brethren, and thus they entered the Great Raid. And the Two Headed Ogre with many pokey eyes was slain."
Friday, March 18, 2011
So Many items to craft, so few toons to do the dirty work...
There are days when I feel like two toons are one toon too many. Then there are days when I look at the AH prices and grumble that I don't have enough toons.
I've been spending some of my recent time leveling Enchanting and Tailoring on Neve, and as I watch my gold disappear into the WoWified ether, I'm reminded of the old maxim: The questgiver giveth, and the Auction House taketh away. But at least she can craft her own high level gear; Quintalan and Tomakan don't have such a luxury.
Sure, Jewelcrafting and Engineering have their perks, but in terms of the majority of gear I'd need a blacksmith to do the dirty work. Since there are some decent Cata items you can craft via Blacksmithing, I really really really would like to level an alt to get access to that stuff.
But I'm also conflicted on leveling another alt.
I mean, it is a grind leveling again. With Cata zones the way they are, you kind of have to go through them to finish all of the phasing. The XP you get from BGs and instances got nerfed with Cata's release, so I don't have the option of pugging my way to riches like I did with Tom and Neve. (Okay, the option is still there, but not as good as before.)
At the same time, there are races and classes I've thought about trying that I haven't had too much of a chance to experiment with before. The concept of a NE Mage is appealing --hey look, an outsider group in the Alliance!-- but also tinkering with a Worgen or Orc Lock could be good. (Shadow Council? What Shadow Council? I don't know what you're talking about!)
I've been spending some of my recent time leveling Enchanting and Tailoring on Neve, and as I watch my gold disappear into the WoWified ether, I'm reminded of the old maxim: The questgiver giveth, and the Auction House taketh away. But at least she can craft her own high level gear; Quintalan and Tomakan don't have such a luxury.
Sure, Jewelcrafting and Engineering have their perks, but in terms of the majority of gear I'd need a blacksmith to do the dirty work. Since there are some decent Cata items you can craft via Blacksmithing, I really really really would like to level an alt to get access to that stuff.
But I'm also conflicted on leveling another alt.
I mean, it is a grind leveling again. With Cata zones the way they are, you kind of have to go through them to finish all of the phasing. The XP you get from BGs and instances got nerfed with Cata's release, so I don't have the option of pugging my way to riches like I did with Tom and Neve. (Okay, the option is still there, but not as good as before.)
At the same time, there are races and classes I've thought about trying that I haven't had too much of a chance to experiment with before. The concept of a NE Mage is appealing --hey look, an outsider group in the Alliance!-- but also tinkering with a Worgen or Orc Lock could be good. (Shadow Council? What Shadow Council? I don't know what you're talking about!)
***
After being oh-for-January and most of February, I finally started getting on the winning side of BG runs. I still can't win Warsong Gulch to save my life, but I finally got into some winning AV, AB, and BoG battlegrounds. Considering I'm starting over with building up my PvP gear, I'll take whatever badges/points/whatever I can get.
Even after all this time of playing my three toons, I still have this annoying --and often fatal-- habit of charging into the heart of the enemy side while on Neve. I get this "I have to close to really do some damage!" mentality going, and all I can think of is Crusader Strike, Templar's Verdict, Inquisition, and other Paladin abilities. I'm sure that my wife wonders who the hell I'm talking to when I constantly say "No no no! Stay back, dammit! Stay back!" to the computer screen.
***
I've posted before about what happens when my kids watch me play WoW, but it had been a while since any of them had done so. I guess I'd kind of forgotten exactly what it was like having extra pairs of eyes watching me play, when I'd gotten into an Arathi Basin run last week on Neve.
A Hunter and I took the Gold Mine and we kept beating off persistent attempts by a Rogue to ninja us and steal the Mine. After the Hunter pursued the Rogue up toward the Alliance base, I pulled back to see a Pally coming down the other way. In the ensuing duel, I died once but ran back and rezzed to finish the job. Just as I let out a big sigh of relief, I got one-shotted from behind.
"Stupid assed Rogues," I grumbled as I sat by the Spirit Healer, fuming, as I watched the Hunter chase after our persistent pest.
"You died again, Dad!" a small voice piped up at my elbow.
I must have jumped a good foot in the air because my youngest got the giggles. "Scared ya!"
"Hey!" I protested, turning my head in her direction.
She pointed at the screen. "Oh look, you died again."
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Frost Mages get a bit more love
Well, looky here, straight out of the updated 4.1 PTR notes:
Frost
Glyphs
I like the tweak on Ice Barrier, but I'm actually just as excited about the new Glyph. Anything to regen mana quicker is fine by my book. I didn't have any issues running out of mana until Neve reached L85, and then suddenly it hit like a truck. So anything to alleviate mana problems that doesn't entail equipping Spirit gear is fine by me.
Frost
- Ice Barrier base damage value has been increased by approximately 120%. In addition, the benefit from spell power has been increased by approximately 8%.
Glyphs
- Glyph of Frost Armor (new glyph): Frost Armor also causes the mage to regenerate 2% of maximum mana ever 5 seconds.
I like the tweak on Ice Barrier, but I'm actually just as excited about the new Glyph. Anything to regen mana quicker is fine by my book. I didn't have any issues running out of mana until Neve reached L85, and then suddenly it hit like a truck. So anything to alleviate mana problems that doesn't entail equipping Spirit gear is fine by me.
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