WoW- Pandaria beta live

[Callie Del Noire]

Anyone on the Alliance side of Gilneas beta server yet?

Actually since I despise PVP I'll be on Lost Isles

[Shjade]

Shit.

Thus far, nothing about the upcoming expansion has garnered any interest from me whatsoever.

Then I saw their talent calculator and took a minute to make a rogue spec. Mutilate rogue with shadowstep, free energy costs in stealth, improved deadly throw and infinite redirect?

Dammit.

Fortunately I burned that bridge hard when I left, so no way I'm going back, but now it hurts just a little. >:|

[Haloriel]

Likewise.  If I do get the WoW expansion, it will be a result of having buddies I know there, no other reason.  Pandas don't get my attention at all - though, the idea that the players are supposedly villains does.

[Callie Del Noire]

So far, level 14 Brewmaster Pandaren, it looks okay. Need another level t o get into instances to see how tanking goes.  Starter zone was nice but brief, both sides well represented.

[Chris Brady]

As of 28 minutes ago, I am in the Panderia beta.

And oddly, I am finding myself conflicted.

On one hand, a lot of the proposed changes are cool.  On the other hand, I hate, hate, HATE the Pandaren.  They are endemic to what's wrong with the Warcraft universe.  And that's one man's vision crushing and superseding everyone else's to make his fantasy work, no matter how hard they don't.  But the fact that they're changing the talent system to make it more like Diablo (and screw over customization, but let's face it everyone who does anything end game goes with the cookie cutters, whether or not they truly want to.)

Some of the things proposed do disturb me.  Namely the removal of bleed effects.  The bread and butter of my favourite Warrior Build.  The Armsman.

I don't know...  I really don't know how I feel about this.

[Tiberius]

Blizzard has continued to dumb down this game with each progressive expac, I wont be around much quite possibly, I just like the lore, and i'm just about burned out on Cata again after only playing for like 2 months.

[Samael]

What I hated about Cata was how painfully linear the new zones were.
I liked to play through em -once- that way, but ever new character was just painful.
I rather liked to just run to a quest hub, pick up a few quests, and then go to town. Being forced to do them in a certain way was just annoying like hell, especially if you only wanted something specific, like some quest drop pets.

[Shjade]

Some of the things proposed do disturb me.  Namely the removal of bleed effects.  The bread and butter of my favourite Warrior Build.  The Armsman.

I...what? Seriously?

Bleeds are practically the only thing Rogues have to give them a chance at hurting high-armor targets until/unless they get poisons rolling, and poisons aren't a big help for non-Assassination rogues compared to a 5-point rupture. Removing bleeds would completely break rogues vs. plate classes in pvp. I have no idea how they'd hope to deal with that.

[Tiberius]

its called defense and attack lol, they are copying Rift's PvP defense mechanic giving everyone the same base level defense and adding + PvP attack and + PvP defense to PvP gear which is going to make the PvP imbalace a lot worse then it already is

[Rhapsody]

As of 28 minutes ago, I am in the Panderia beta.

And oddly, I am finding myself conflicted.

On one hand, a lot of the proposed changes are cool.  On the other hand, I hate, hate, HATE the Pandaren.  They are endemic to what's wrong with the Warcraft universe.  And that's one man's vision crushing and superseding everyone else's to make his fantasy work, no matter how hard they don't.  But the fact that they're changing the talent system to make it more like Diablo (and screw over customization, but let's face it everyone who does anything end game goes with the cookie cutters, whether or not they truly want to.)

Some of the things proposed do disturb me.  Namely the removal of bleed effects.  The bread and butter of my favourite Warrior Build.  The Armsman.

I don't know...  I really don't know how I feel about this.

I just got in myself. I'm rather unimpressed with the "talent point" ability selection. I've only specced my holy cow, but some tiers have nothing that makes sense for healing, and other tiers have three useful abilities crammed together, but I can only take one. Choose between a HoT and a shield? Wow, thanks, Blizzard! -.-

I dunno, I only got my invite this morning, and I'm waiting for the streaming install to download more before I really play (because loadtimes with only 25% of the game downloaded just suck.

[Chris Brady]

Assuming you're still on Rhapsody, I'm not sure I'm downloading the PTR...  I keep getting the Cata screen loading launcher, but I assumed that it be a more Mists themed.  Is that normal?




And if I'm installing a third instance of WoW on my rig I am going to be mildly annoyed...

[Chris Brady]

I...what? Seriously?

Bleeds are practically the only thing Rogues have to give them a chance at hurting high-armor targets until/unless they get poisons rolling, and poisons aren't a big help for non-Assassination rogues compared to a 5-point rupture. Removing bleeds would completely break rogues vs. plate classes in pvp. I have no idea how they'd hope to deal with that.

They're redesigning combat, and I'm seriously not sure what the plan is.  I mean, yest, Rupture for Combat Rogues was kind of important, for Arms Warriors it was the same.  Especially during raiding.  Rend was our primary attack.  Every Mortal Strike kept it going or extended it.  The only thing I can think of would be to make armour debuffs built into the various attacks.  Which would increase attack damage.

Personally, I WISH they allowed the Melee classes to as much damage as the Mage classes.  What irritates me is that whenever someone brings that up, Mage fans always complain that this would mean that they are making the mage useless, because that's all they have.

Uh, no it's not.  In fact, Mages have the best crowd control.  Even Warlocks have some as well, by way of the their pets (in PvP) and against some targets (in PvE.)  Even Rogues gets some in stun effects.  Hunters get pets and slow effects.  Warriors?  Nothing that the other classes don't get better at.  So what's left?  Damage.  And we don't get that.

[Rhapsody]

There were problems with the login server earlier. I haven't tried logging in again. I was speaking about load times going from one zone to the other. :)

[Chris Brady]

But when installing the game, is it OK to have the Cata launcher rather than a MoP themed one?

Or am I installing the basic game, yet again?

[Rhapsody]

You need to install the beta client. If you go to your Battle.net account page, under games, you should see two or three WoW accounts. Wow1 is your main account. Wow2 is (for me) the PTR. WoW3 is the Pandaria account. Click on whatever one is MoP for you, and it'll take you to the screen where you can start the streaming install.

[Chris Brady]

The file I got was called PTR, but I'm getting the Cata Launcher...

And I can't check because right now, the Battle.Net site is undergoing maintenance.

[edit]I knew I was doing something wrong.  I was doing the basic PTR, not the MoP one.  Nyeargh...

[Tiberius]

Still waiting for my beta invite *curses* never did the annual past because the website was broken, blizzard couldn't be assed fixing the profile section, and I couldn't be bothered calling them to authenticate my details

[Requiem]

Got my invite today as well.  I dunno, Warrior talents look fun.  Dragon Roar seems to be a whole lot of awesome.

[Chris Brady]

Currently downloading and installing it.  I have transferred my main warrior (which ironically is the same thing as the PTR premade copy is) to see how these new talents work, and if they did get rid of the Bleeds.

[Callie Del Noire]

I miss multiple blessings, they seriously nerf hammered Blessing of Kings.  I mean 5% increase to Str, Agi, and Int?  I am now a days a more social player. I like running with my guild and Wow's 'idiot' proofing is seriously messing with my Chi.

I mean it doesn't have to be the big 40 man instances with vast complex planning but I would like SOME of the old gameplay I had in my game.

[Chris Brady]

They also rebalanced the combat and stats and monsters, so a 10% boost would be too great a boost.

[Callie Del Noire]

They also rebalanced the combat and stats and monsters, so a 10% boost would be too great a boost.

Lets be honest.. they 'simplified' the game down to it's barebones.

[Chris Brady]

Which has always been their goal.  WoW is not for the hardcore.  Not originally.  It was made for the casuals.  I'm not sure why people are whining about that.  ???

[Callie Del Noire]

Which has always been their goal.  WoW is not for the hardcore.  Not originally.  It was made for the casuals.  I'm not sure why people are whining about that.  ???

I'm not whining.. but there is a difference from challenging.. to making it to the point of simple beyond words. I mean.. I regained over half my tool bar in beta.. I like some of the changes (5 slots of holy power is VERY nice for tanking) but why get rid of the Ancient Kings? Why eliminate stamina buffing? Get rid of all the blessings? (I liked having Kings, Sanctuary and others)

[Rhapsody]

I'm not whining.. but there is a difference from challenging.. to making it to the point of simple beyond words. I mean.. I regained over half my tool bar in beta.. I like some of the changes (5 slots of holy power is VERY nice for tanking) but why get rid of the Ancient Kings? Why eliminate stamina buffing? Get rid of all the blessings? (I liked having Kings, Sanctuary and others)

As I said to Requiem while we were playing together last night: "You forget, dear. They've childproofed the game."