Comments on: As always, grasshopper, patience.

By: hagu

hagu — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 17:07:25 +0000

You must remember this is Blizzard – just because it will be designed in 12 months and ready in 15, doesn’t mean it won’t ship in 10 months :-) Remember mid-November vehicle quests?

While nothing that was announced should affect today’s play (except for keeping an alt slot open since you have to have a goblin.) But it is very wrong to think unshipped content doesn’t impact the current game; Anyone who tried to sell Badges of Justice two months before the WotLK Beta can tell you that. Or someone who tried to buy titanium after the epic gem announcements. Does any of the “focus on the now” crowd plan to still have all their crusader orbs when 3.3 ships? Guild management will have an even longer horizon as they decide whether they want to continue and how to deal with the dramatic changes in raiding around when WoWC hits alpha/beta and the information starts to build.

Also remember that Blizzard, intentionally or not, has a designed a game that rewards you for not playing it. If you were to not play your 80 for a month or three or 12 (BTW good luck in/thanks for Afghanistan), when you got back frozen/runed/crusader orbs would be cheaper, the gear choices better, the average gear level of your fellow players higher.

By: Bellwether

Bellwether — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 14:50:22 +0000

Until there’s a beta, I won’t be talking about Cataclysm on my blog. There’s too much to do RIGHT NOW. You summed it up well, Bear. I actually regret watching that preview video, even…I don’t need to know about this stuff until it’s going to begin affecting me.

By: Plainsrunner

Plainsrunner — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 07:46:34 +0000

I think I may be in the best place in life for not having to be patient…I am off to Afghanistan for 12 months, which means–no WoW….gasp!

However, this also means being away long enough to be chomping at the bit to play again, with all my boredom gone…only to get to walk straight into cataclysm…NOM NOM NOM!

By: Wintersdark

Wintersdark — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:56:40 +0000

I have to agree that there’s no sense in waiting. The whole “Why bother gearing up when they are going to change it” is the most silly, though. Honestly. We’ve been through two expansions so far, and both times, one thing has been completely true: It’s a bit reset button. Everyone starts anew with gear, gets quest greens and blues, and works from there. If you’d suddenly stop raiding with this news, why were you doing it in the first place? Unless you started with WotLK, you had to know that come the next expansion everything would be reset again.

Regardless, you’re right. Cataclysm won’t be for a long time yet, so either continue on as normal as if they hadn’t announced it, or go do something else… but don’t let anticipation for it stop you from having fun now. Carry on, folks! Nothing to see here!

That all said… It’s normal for me to play a while in a given expansion, then stop playing entirely until the next comes out. This isn’t so much because I can’t wait for expansion changes but rather because I run out of things to do, and people to play with.

I’m a pretty skilled player, but I work evenings. I generally can only play in the mornings. This means raiding is extremely difficult for me to manage. I do well enough, have seen most of Ulduar now when I can manage to get in on guild runs, but realistically I can only rarely raid. I greatly enjoy doing random stuff – soloing instances, doing oddball things with friends (be they wierd instance runs for whatever purpose or… well, anything), and have a lot of fun with that but I’ve found it nearly impossible to get into a guild that’s actually focussed on just being friendly and enjoying themselves.

I’d play longer if I could find a guild that was out first and foremost just to have fun and enjoy themselves, but every one I’ve been in has had dreams to become a serious raid guild, and in the process that *requires* certain changes that generally lock me out. DKP, raid attendance requirements, etc, and it tends to cause the guild to gravitate towards a different sort of player: ones who focus more on staying “cutting edge” on the raid scene but being utterly uninterested in anything else.

Story of my (WoW) life; been that way since release, alas.

Hmmm, sorta rambly and generally grossly off topic in this comment. Excuse that :)

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:14:43 +0000

Totally agree with bear. Enjoy your life as you have it now. Dont’ wait for a year or two or five from now. You may be dead. Sorry, that’s the truth. You could say this bout the game, or extend it to every aspect of life. I regret not doing X while i had the chance. Perhaps my main regret, again real life stuff, is that I didn’t tell my godmother how much she meant to me, and I drifted apart in her last years. She died alone at a too young age.

Anyway wow stuff. Do those naxx achievements. Get champion of frozen waste. I guarantee that it will be more difficult to get a group together to get those achievments (or they may disappear forever). My proudest moments in wow – getting champion of naaru and hand of adal. Granted this was already after attunement nerfs in BC, but still I have those titles, and not many do. Do ulduar. Dont wait until next expansion; everything will be different. What was once hard in tier 9 would be a cakewalk at level 85. Black temple is now a joke with 25 80s, and doable with 10 in naxx gear. Its a far different experience. Just like all the retroraids. There is no plot or strat or anything in MC and AQ20, just zerg zerg zerg (also ZG). AQ40 still has twin emps, BWl still has alot of tough bosses. But by and large the old content will be trivial next expansion. (unless of course they retune them).

By: Flamehase

Flamehase — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:50:09 +0000

Hi Bear,

Loved the post…… You’re right…. it’s about a good 16 months away…. it could be out for Xmas 2010 or a little later….. Plus I like the old WOW and BC content…. However I’m not too high on the item changes……. no attack power or spell power…. and the comment for BlizzCon was that they’re going to add more stamina in its place…. (urrr) think about it….. if they’re giving you 100AP currently….ok… blizz is taking that away and giving you more stamina in its place…..ok ….bear …come on ….stay it….stay it…. that’s not right….but that’s blizz…..they’re going to nurf all of us …. And most of us will not see it… LOL

By: Lady Jess

Lady Jess — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:27:36 +0000

I personally have my lowbie alts on hold til the xpac. Hell, they’ve waited for like…a year already to get where they are, whats one more (one of them is waiting for hubby to come home anyhow)? I’ve done the Azeroth as it Is trek four times. I’m fine with waiting if it means #5 and #6 see it differently from 40 up. Because, as you said…there’s plenty to be done on my lvl 80′s anyhow:P

By: Fuzzyhippie

Fuzzyhippie — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:12:33 +0000

Completely agreed. I have to confess, I have had a slight bit of remorse at the thought that some of the more peaceful places I am used to leveling alts at are go to have gaping chasms of fire in them. I feel as if I need to take this bit of time before the expansion and say goodbye.

By: Kaitus

Kaitus — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:51:22 +0000

Well, considering the awesomeness and epicness (Yes, they’re different things) of IC, I’m assuming it’s going to be a loong while on the PTR before they’re done testing. I mean, Ulduar took it’s time on the PTR rounds, and IC is supposed to be a hundred times better! Plus there’s all that amazing new stuff to test, like cross-server LFG, and even Onyxia! So we certainly won’t be bored waiting around for Cataclysm. Hey, in 11 months I can almost certainly get both of my main alts to 60 at least, probably to 80. I could even pop over to hordeside to try out vanilla WoW horde style (Which is supposed to be a lot better.) before it get’s blown up.
.-= Kaitus´s last blog ..Must not Forget Blog… =-.

By: Leafy

Leafy — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:12:01 +0000

Lovely, timely post BBBBBBBB…

Certainly one I’ll be circulating amongst my guildies who are hitting the freakout stage…
.-= Leafy´s last blog ..Cataclysm: Character Slots FAIL =-.