Keep the faith my brothers and sisters

Is it just me or have things lost what they once were? I write this post with some disgust and sadness in my hurt...it has been four days since I have played World of Warcraft and I find myself trying new things. To set the record straight, yes there have been periods in my so called life when I have looked at that WoW icon sitting on my desktop only to meet its gaze with a shrug and a sigh, thinking to myself "Not feeling it". This has never concerned me in the past though with full knowledge that in a week or two I will be back, foaming at the mouth ready to crack the skulls and tear out the insides of menacing ones and zeros....but recently that feeling has been extended. It might be the fact that now that I have a proper job, and have to heed the words of the so called "Man", I just don't see the appeal anymore. My days are now spent crunching numbers and reviewing reports, not casting spells and swinging swords, the ladder of which sounds more like my cup of tea...or it could be because WoW are introducing a selfie taking toy in patch 6.1.....god dammit.

2015...you have a lot to live up too

Okay so am I gonna just say it that 2014 wasn't the best year for me personally. I was finishing my studies that robbed me of many nights of sleep, my relationships took a hard hit because of that, and all my future plans kinda just died on me...like all my hopes and dreams. So 2015 is upon us and there is a lot of "This can't get any worse." Too early to tell but we'll see.

Hi, have you met Warlords?

Although I was given a beta key to Warlords of Draenor, I was only able to play for a short while. I was too busy with work, trying improving myself socially, and trying to not fail varsity. So once that was all out the way and I could finally sit down and play WoD, and the launch issues had been swept under the rug, I could finally enjoy the marvel that once WoD...or so I thought. I managed to get my first level 100 a few days ago, and like the good little addict I am, I couldn't wait for the next injection of time wasting grinding to get the next character to that level. Starting off on the Horde side, because fuck the alliance, Frostfire Ridge was the home away from home, away from planet, away from time stream....sorry lost my train of thought. Anyway, I jumped in, downed some energy drinks, told friends to fuck off for a few days and gain my level 100. But then I released something, I don't want to do this again. WoW use to be simple and fun, but now trying to look after followers, your garrison, and not be murdered by everything is started to get me. I fell like it's taking me away from the main point of the game and you are forced to experience that part of the game in order to experience others more fun parts, like it's a gate way drug hence the addiction reference. It still may be too early to tell but there is something about WoD that may make or break me as a player.  It might be early to make this decision and the release of the raids might make or break the relationship between myself and WoD, but then again it is balancing on raid finder so hopes aren’t high. 

Overwatch

Oh my god I think my pants just got a little tighter. Blizzard has been known to succeed in pulling off crazy shit. Known for mainly making real time strategy games like Warcraft and StarCraft, I am sure that people thought they were bat-shit crazy when they announced their MMORGP monster. However, that same soul sucking demon is the standard for those that follow it. Now when I heard that they were trying to pull off a first person shooter, I chuckled, thinking “Oh Blizzard you crazy bastards!”  Then Overwatch was presented at Blizzcon….and…fuck. Overwatch seems to play like a team death fps similar to that of Team Fortress, not surprising when they are both the love child of the same developer. You take the role of a tank, defensive, offensive or support, feeling the dirty fingers of modern MOBA, and instead of just trying to kill your opponents, you and your team of misfits must complete tasks. Of course relying on other always has it problems, and they way to solve this is that you don’t have to have every type of role in your team. You want six tanks, go nuts kid. You think six supports is a good idea, you crazy kids you. The game will allow you to have a single type in your entire team, but you will probably suffer if you do. And if the gameplay trailer for specific character is anything to go by, to seem to be following the easy to learn but hard to master methods of game style. The same method that will have you screaming “How the fuck did you do that, you hacker you?” as opponents pull off combinations that will leave you in envy. I have to admit though that it looks so amazing it would excite Alan Rickman, Blizzard seem to promising a how lot. Now, it could be my experience with South African politicians or of being disappointed, but this seems like a bit too much. 

Image courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment 

Beta is Closed

With the Warlords of Draenor beta coming to a close, I felt I should say something on it, even if my time with it was as short as the first time for a boy who only read about girls on the Web. Being as this is the first time I have ever been part of a beta, I had no clue as who to do a bloody thing, so I dove in head first like any crazy fan boy. As time went on I learnt my lessons and became experience, even leading my guild members into how to get started. Showing them how to start off then leaving them to explore the new world, mainly because I was getting tired of their questions about shit. Any way what can be said that hasn’t been already said, the new graphics look awesome, the new specs are tricky to get use to and the loss of certain spells keeps me up at night. The new story with old faces makes one think what could have been if the Cool Aid wasn't spiked by demon blood, and we finally get to deal with Garrosh and his daddy issues.  The one big thing that got me, is that WoW has always been an MMORPG that uses the idea that you as a character are not alone in any fight, but the garrison systems seems to contradict that. You are the only one with the garrison and you are commander, or so it seems. I do like that you can chat to anyone else in their garrisons via general chat, like that of a city, but with you being the only one in the garrison, I felt that I was a crazy person talking to people in my head. Usually the conversations are more interesting. 

Come on Blizzard, tinker a litte

What makes a MMO great, apart from gameplay, story, and loyal fan boys, is the classes they offer. WoW has coined the class dynamic and the roles in which they play. The original list was great and each class had its role and story within the lore of Warcraft. The addition of the Death Knight not only as a class but as a hero class, fitted the launch of Wraith of the Lich King, like South African politicians and corruption. The monk's addition, which I totally called by the way thanks Blizzard,  had its glorious intro and game launched on like the devoted disciplines they were, or wanted to be. To be honest with the announcement that Warlords of Draenor would have no class or race addition, I was kind of disappointed. I started this disappointment rant by suggesting and debating new classes and races with a fellow ranter over some much needed liquid bread. The races debate was put on hold, in fear that we would need to remove our heads from our arses due to shear stupidity, the classes proved more successful. We suggested that maybe the addition of a Tinker or Demon Hunter class. Both could use mail, solving the addition mail user problem and each could have a tanking class. I want to focus on the tinker first. Now I should mention that a am nervous to use the phrase “like a [certain class] but”, because it makes it seem unoriginal but it helps to give the reader something to picture while arguing against my idea.

 The tinker could have a tank, dps and healing spec, each using a system of explosives, casters, rockets and robots during the fights. The tank spec, enforcement, uses a system of combo points or energy called potential energy which they gain by actually hitting the target or getting hit. Similar to a warrior or pally tank, the enforcer uses this to perform moves. His threat generator would be called "Static discharge" which gives off a static discharge every time the tinker hits a target and act similar to the pally's "Righteous Fury". The healer tinker, mixer, would use lasers, injections and sludge to heal. For example the tinker throws a caster to the group filled with regenerative agent, healing the raid members in a certain area. His/ her injection act as either heals buffs, or cures, and the lasers act as their main offence abilities and heals. The dps tinker ,crafter, would act as a mid-range dps, using melee attacks, bombs, rockets, lasers and robots as their tools. The crafter could act similar to an enhancement shammy having close range and mid-range attacks. Each spec gets their own robot helping their role in a fight, similar to the monks. Like the crafter gets a turret, the mixer gets a medic-bot, and the enforcer gets trainer-bot (giving them more health and increasing their threat generation) The class would get their own special item, a pouch or backpack, for their weapon slot. Obviously the first to races that come to mind are gnomes and goblins being tinkers, and maybe dwarves and orc as well do to them using tech by their small little friends that won’t move out of their dear cities. 

 There are some bugs to work out, I grant you, but Blizzard please try make this happen. If you do, then I expect to at least have an npc named after me, because if you don't then I will start throwing bricks through windows at your headquarters...attached to flaming copies of Diablo 3. 

Tinker from the first Dota

Pandaland...thanks for memories

With the next WoW expansion on the horizon and we leave Pandaland behind, I wanna take a look back at the Mists of Pandaria as a whole. I joined the exploration of the pandas as the second patch hit, coming back after packing my bags and walking out on Cataclysm because of what she had become. After she showed me she had changed and wanted me back, I decided to take her back you continue from where I left off. I started with the new class which Blizzard totally stole my idea for by the way, monks. Deciding to kill two dragons with one cannon ball, the panda monk Pangtong, trying to sound plausible, was born. Although the panda being able to choose a side made it harder to know which I needed to me and which one wanted to cook and eat my worgen, I overlooked at it, mainly because the rolling function made fighting feel fun and hit close to home. All and all the monks were a great new class that was easy to use hard to master, covering almost all player types. Now the expansion itself felt like a roller-coaster with a slow, flat ending. Jumping into a new unknown story line in Warcraft, showed Blizzard can make an entire expansion based on a joke. It kept me excited learning about new characters while still developing old ones. I say slow flat ending however because the Siege of Orgimmar as a whole felt like a desperate wrap up of a story, that lasted way too long. Why have this buildup of this amazing new land, only to have the final raid back in old WoW? My favorite raid in the whole expansion has to be Throne of Thunder, rating into my top five raids of all times. The gear looked amazing; the game-play punished you if you didn't know what you were doing, and rewarded you if you learnt from your mistakes. The build up to the Isle of Thunder too, felt amazing to complete, but the consist dailies made playing fell like a 9 to 5 job where your boss is insane ask the same fucking thing every day expecting a different result. That was one of the major drawbacks of Mists. The dailies made rep grinding the fell like pulling rusty bits of metal from your skin, you know it will be better for you in the long run, but it sucks now. The elites and small treasures found across Pandaria made me feel like Indy, exploring dark forests, finding rare treasures protected by wild beasts, and really hating snakes. The one big grief I have with MoP is it lasted timing. It lasted over two years and the last raid was 12 months? Really Blizzard come on, give us something new. I know it is hard to roll out a new expansion and it takes time, but develop the last patch of the expansion and only release it may be like 5 months before the next expansion. Just time release dates a bit better, all I am saying. 

This image is owned by Blizzard, that giant game making company that owns my soul