When Is An Upgrade Not An Upgrade?

World of Warlock is periodically updated, roughly every month or two. Two days ago patch 1.10 was released. The good news is there is a test server which allows users to test a release prior to it being generally released. The bad news is this patch has at least one severe problem that had been found on the test server and had been reported early on in the testing process.

Here's an example with a little background first.

Players progress from level 1 to 60. Starting at level 10 they get one talent point for each level. So, at level 60 a player has 51 talents. Players can use these talent points to improve their 'toon'.

Two of my 41 points are to have a 'talent' called Nightfall. One high damage per second spell a warlock has is called a Shadow Bolt. The problem with this spell is it takes 3 seconds to cast, and if one's toon is being pounded on, it can take significantly longer than 3 seconds due to spell interruption.

Nightfall allows for a Shadow Bolt that is instant cast, and can not be interrupted -- very nice! To trigger nightfall, a warlock should cast Corruption (a DOT, or damage over time spell, which ticks 6 times over 18 seconds), followed by repeated Drain Life spells (which tick 5 times over 5 seconds). Nightfall has a 4% chance of falling on each 'tick'. Corruption has about a 24% (or about 1 in 4) chance of producing nightfall over 18 seconds. Drain Life has about a 1 in 5 chance each time it is cast. It is not uncommon to have Nightfall when fighting a mob. At least before the 1.10 patch it was common.

Now is not. -frown- Although very early on in the testing process on the test server it was reported that Drain Life was no longer producing Nightfall, the production version of 1.10 was released with this 'issue'. For those warlocks who use Drain Life a lot, and take advantage of Nightfall, this is most disappointing.

What's worse is the game's technical support team have been silent on this subject on the official game forums, although numerous people have reported the 'issue'; also, very disappointing.

When Is An Upgrade Not An Upgrade?

World of Warlock is periodically updated, roughly every month or two. Two days ago patch 1.10 was released. The good news is there is a test server which allows users to test a release prior to it being generally released. The bad news is this patch has at least one severe problem that had been found on the test server and had been reported early on in the testing process.

Here's an example with a little background first.

Players progress from level 1 to 60. Starting at level 10 they get one talent point for each level. So, at level 60 a player has 51 talents. Players can use these talent points to improve their 'toon'.

Two of my 41 points are to have a 'talent' called Nightfall. One high damage per second spell a warlock has is called a Shadow Bolt. The problem with this spell is it takes 3 seconds to cast, and if one's toon is being pounded on, it can take significantly longer than 3 seconds due to spell interruption.

Nightfall allows for a Shadow Bolt that is instant cast, and can not be interrupted -- very nice! To trigger nightfall, a warlock should cast Corruption (a DOT, or damage over time spell, which ticks 6 times over 18 seconds), followed by repeated Drain Life spells (which tick 5 times over 5 seconds). Nightfall has a 4% chance of falling on each 'tick'. Corruption has about a 24% (or about 1 in 4) chance of producing nightfall over 18 seconds. Drain Life has about a 1 in 5 chance each time it is cast. It is not uncommon to have Nightfall when fighting a mob. At least before the 1.10 patch it was common.

Now is not. -frown- Although very early on in the testing process on the test server it was reported that Drain Life was no longer producing Nightfall, the production version of 1.10 was released with this 'issue'. For those warlocks who use Drain Life a lot, and take advantage of Nightfall, this is most disappointing.

What's worse is the game's technical support team have been silent on this subject on the official game forums, although numerous people have reported the 'issue'; also, very disappointing.

Although WoW might be the best MOOG out today, it won't always be this way. Some of us have long memories, too (expect when we don't). -smile-

When Is An Upgrade Not An Upgrade?

World of Warlock is periodically updated, roughly every month or two. Two days ago release 1.10 was released. The good news is there is a test server which allows users to test a release prior to it being generally released. The bad news is the company that published WoW releases updates that have severe problems that have been reported on the test server.

Here's an example with a little background first.

Players progress from level 1 to 60. Starting at level 10 they get one talent point for each level. So, at level 60 a player has 51 talents. Players can use these talent points to improve their 'toon'.

Two of my 41 points are to have a 'talent' called Nightfall. One high damage per second spell a warlock has is called a Shadow Bolt. The problem with this spell is it takes 3 seconds to cast, and if one's toon is being pounded on, it can take significantly longer than 3 seconds due to spell interruption.

Nightfall allows for a Shadow Bolt that is instant cast, and can not be interrupted -- very nice! To trigger nightfall, a warlock should cast Corruption (a DOT, or damage over time spell, which ticks 6 times over 18 seconds), followed by repeated Drain Life spells (which tick 5 times over 5 seconds). Nightfall has a 4% chance of falling on each 'tick'. Corruption has about a 24% (or about 1 in 4) chance of producing nightfall over 18 seconds. Drain Life has about a 1 in 5 chance each time it is cast. It is not uncommon to have Nightfall when fighting a mob. At least before the 1.10 patch it was common.

Now is not. -frown- Although very early on in the testing process on the test server it was reported that Drain Life was no longer producing Nightfall, the production version of 1.10 was released with this 'issue'. For those warlocks who use Drain Life a lot, and take advantage of Nightfall, this is most disappointing.

What's worse is the game's technical support team have been silent on this subject on the official game forums, although numerous people have reported the 'issue'; also, very disappointing.

Although WoW might be the best MOOG out today, it won't always be this way. Some of us have long memories, too (expect when we don't). -smile-

All Dressed Up and Nowhere To Go.

One of the concepts in World of Warcraft is improving one's reputation with factions. Examples of factions are "Ironforge", "Agent Dawn", and "The Thorium Brotherhood". Completing quests assigned by NPC's (non-player characters) can help improve one's reputation with any given faction.

I recently became "Honored" with the Thorium Brotherhood faction. This required turning in a TON -smile- of items. To move from "Friendly" to "Honored" requires completing the same quest 240 times! To complete a quest you have to move your mouse four times and click it four time. This is a good to get a repetitive motion injury. -frown- Regardless, although it doesn't take as long as it may sound, it is incredibly TEDIOUS. -smile-

Of course, the 'carrot' is if a player is honored they can buy cool stuff that they otherwise could not. But, guess what? The vendor who sells the cool stuff is buried deep inside a dungeon that a poor little weak Warlock toon, like mine, has no prayer of reaching safely unless accompanied by a team of SUPERTOON bodyguards.

Hence my comment about being all dressed up with nowhere to go. I'm honored with the Thorium Brotherhood, but can't take advantage of it until I am MANY levels higher.

I do appreciate my guild who generously gave to me much of the materials needed to complete this quest 240 times. But, I'm wondering if they did to induce me to level up more quickly, so I can get to that vendor. -big smile-

Server crash?

One of the downsides of a MMOG is that if the server is down, you are down. That happened for the first time tonight for me during game play.

The official message when attempting to log back in is "World server is down".

Should be interesting to see how long it will be for the server to come back on.

The Boreium Brotherhood.

Actually, the real name is the Thorium Brotherhood, but I'm working on a quest to gain 'faction' status of friendly with them, which has to be the most tedious and boring quest of the entire game so far.

Why do I bother with improving my faction status with them? Because if I attain 'friendly' status with them I can buy things from them which I otherwise could not. I have been told in general terms from my experienced guild members that gaining status with this group is highly desirable.

The problem is the quest to gain friendly status involves 'donating' goods a many as 120 times! Each donation must include a lump of coal (they must have a *lot* of naughty children -smile-), and can include a stack of heavy leather (10 items), or an herbs (4 items), or iron bars (4 items).

To go down the heavy leather path would require as many as 1200 pieces of heavy leather. I have heard of being into "heavy leather", but this is absurd.

The final piece of the puzzle is as many as 240 Incendosaur scales. These are found in a cave which has to be one of the more heavily farmed areas in the game. Must of the time is spent waiting for these creatures to respawn. It's a funny sight seeing multiple toons chasing after a mob hoping to be the one to strike the first blow.

In situations like this I wish I were a hunter. This class has the potential to strike as far a 100 yards away. My toon (with improvements) has a 36 yard range.

Once I gain 'friendly' status, I hope they have a recipes for "cure repetitive motion injury" and "cure extreme boredom". -smile-

How the game designers came up with such an uninteresting, repetitive, and BORING quest is anyone's guess. I most certainly hope there will be no more like it again.

Paladins are my pal. -smile-

World of Warcraft has thousands of quests. They are color coded green, yellow, orange, and red. Yellow means that the quest can be done solo without extreme difficulty. Sometimes I wonder who codes these quests. -smile-

Last night's 'yellow' quest was against level 47 to 49 'elite' mobs (mobs are game opponents). I'm currently at level 48. Elite mobs are *much* more difficult to defeat than non-elite mobs at or near the same level. They have much more health (3 times more?), and much higher attack power. Taking on an elite mob at one's own level is considered challenging in most cases.

So, I worked on these elite mobs with some success, but it was slow going, including a few trips from the graveyard (where your toon's spirit goes after 'dying') back to my toon's 'corpse'. Along came a level 46 paladin, who I asked to join in my quest. The paladin class is a hybrid class which can heal, 'tank', and cause damage. In my case, I needed a healer.

The reason I needed a healer is my gear (as it is called) was intentionally selected to give me more damage, but the sacrifice is I have less health. Normally, this doesn't matter because the mobs I face (even those as many as 3 levels higher) are weak enough that I can transfer their health to me (using two spells named 'drain life' and 'siphon life') fast to offset their damage and keep me healed. But, this was not true with these elite mobs.

With a level 46 paladin backing me up, staying healthy was no problem at all. My total health is about 1900. His Holy Light spell is good for about half that. When he saw my health was about 50%, he would cast his spell and my health would be back to 100%. For each fight this needed to be done once during the fight, and once after it was over. I could focus on damage, and didn't need to be concerned about casting fear in time so I could bandage. It was simply wonderful.

Paladins also have an array of 'buffs' they can cast on others, a very nice plus.

I really need to hire a paladin as my full time game 'pal'. -smile-

Note: the game has other healing classes, notably the priest and druid classes.

Introduction.

I discovered World of Warcraft in December, 2005, and have spent a good deal of free time playing the game since then. This is my first blog, too, so please don't expect anything too remarkable. :-)

For those who aren't familiar with World of Warcraft or WoW for short, it's a MMOG or massively multiplayer online game. At last count there are 5,500,000+ accounts. At any given time, the server I play on has somewhere between hundreds and thousands of players. Other than playing some chess online, this is my first online game.

A primary distinction in this game is PvE versus PvP. PvE means player versus environment; PvP, player versus player. I'm on a PvE server. While I can play against other players, I don't have to. Personally, I much prefer PvE over PvP.

Once the decision of PvE versus PvP server has been made, a player's next decision is what 'toon' he or she will play and for which faction. To make PvP more 'real' this game has two opposing factions named the Horde and Alliance. You have to choose one of these factions, and that's done by chosing a "race". The Horde has what are to me most unappealing races such as Orcs, Taurens, Trolls, and Undead (yuk! -smile-) . The Alliance has Humans, Dwarfs, Gnomes, and Night Elfs. Obviously, I chose an Alliance race, a Gnome, for their high intelligence.

The next step is choosing a 'class'. There are nine total; although, some are restricted to certain races. I picked a Warlock class, because I read it soloed well, and was complicated to play. I like complicated because that can mean less boring during the long grind these games sometimes require to 'level up'. The Warlock has magically summoned 'pets' (each have special abilities), and some rather unique magic spells. The focus of the class is on 'debuffing', which makes an opponent weaker (or less buff); although, the class has plenty of spells that will do damage, and a good deal of it.

My initial reaction to the game was that it has great graphics; although, the characters themselves are somewhat cartoony. That's necessary for smooth game play on moderately powered equipment. The 'world' is highly detailed and vast, and often beautiful to look at. Although, some areas, which were once beautiful, have been destroyed either due to war or environmental damage. Some of the quests in the game focus on correcting this destruction and proper management of the land, especially quests given to Night Elf players.

Some of the fun of the game is grouping with other players. These are often PUG's or pick up groups. The reason for grouping is simple, it often makes getting things done easier, and sometimes makes the impossible, possible. The game supports "guilds", too. These are formal groups of players with leaders, ranks, and a private guild chat channel. Some portions of a game require teams of players up to as many as 40. Guilds can provide a social environment, too, and allow players to share their skills. I'm blessed to be part of a guild called the "Knights of the Sacred". It's a highly experienced group that has been a lot of fun to play with, and has been very helpful.

All players can learn cooking, fishing, and first aid. They can also pick two professions from a list of nine. I chose herbalism and alchemy mostly because the game website suggested that as two good professions for a warlock. Herbalism is one of three 'gathering' professions. Alchemy is one of six 'production' professions.

Many goods either gathered or produced can be bought and sold at the auction house found in major cities in the games. It's a lot like ebay. Many items that are 'looted' or awarded through quests can be bought and sold at the auction house, too.

Some of the goals of the game are to 'level up' by defeating opponents and/or completing quests. As one gains higher levels, one's 'toon' becomes more powerful and often learns more skills, too. This allows players to take on progressively tougher challenges in the game, which are fun in and of themselves, and often yield nice 'loot' which can either be used to improve one's 'toon' or sold or given away.

Overall, I find the game fun. My biggest complaint is lack of story, and too many of the quests are a repetitive grind of some basic themes.

For more information see www.worldofwarcraft.com