It's Not Just Kodos

I've always felt a little guilty that I don't really like Kodos as mounts for my Tauren characters. In general, I like the idea of race-specific mounts, so I usually prefer them for my characters. But I have never been happy with Kodos and it took me a long time to figure out why. At first I thought it was the size – a kodo doesn't fit through small openings that other mounts fit through or under, so when you are running around with a group of friends you often end up having to go around things. Annoying but not really a deal-breaker. Eventually I realized that what really bothered me was the undulating hip-wiggle, especially at epic (100%) speed. If I watch it for too long, I actually get a little seasick. So my Taurens all ride Wolves, Talbuks, or Bears as soon as they can acquire one.

Well, my Draenei paladin recently hit 60, and I can report that I feel the same way about Elekks – the 60% speed one he has had since 30 is barely tolerable, but the 100% speed one is just as bad as a Kodo. I'm guessing that the models share some of the same architecture. Fortunately for Marrad, he hit Exalted with Darnassus in his late 50s so he has been riding a Sabercat ever since.

It's unfortunate because I really do appreciate the lore that connects Kodos to the Tauren and Elekks to the Draenei, and I like the way Elekks and Kodos look – but only when they are standing still or moving at a walk.

I'm Still Alive...

Not much new these days, as I don't have a lot of time to play. I guess I'm ultra-casual right now.

If I have half and hour or less, I log in on my Draenei, Marrad, and put a few minor glyphs on the AH (net profits average 20g-30g per day) and browse the AH for bargains, especially low level herbs. Having leveled Inscription up to about 280, he's sitting on a stockpile of glyphs for various classes that will hopefully see a price spike when 3.1 drops.

If I have an hour or so, I log in on Rockbiter and do the cooking daily and farm a few herbs, or complete a few quests. After clearing all of Borean Tundra except for some of the instance quests, I've been picking and choosing quests in Howling Fjord and Dragonblight. I originally intended to clear Howling Fjord as well, but I got fed up with the Forsaken quest lines. The whole "help us make a super-plague that will wipe everyone out" isn't much fun for a Tauren character who is a dedicated healer and a Grand Master alchemist. After being asked to hack out dwarves brains, I just gave up on those quest chains. It's much more fun to help out the Taunka and Tuskarr.

Dual Specs

There's a lot of talk about the new Dual Specs feature, so I thought I would add my two cents. My thoughts on the feature as a whole can be summed up in one simple prediction: dual specs will cause more headaches than it solves.

Let's begin by asking exactly what problem is dual specs supposed to solve? Apparently, it is intended to alleviate the costs of flip-flopping between two different specs. That's great, but it's no panacea for respeccing. It won't make it possible, or significantly cheaper, to experiment with lots of different builds, nor will having two specs optimize a character for every activity in WoW, from dailies and heroics, to raids, battlegrounds and arenas. There are just too many variables, which would require several specs to cover all the bases.

I think the real problem with the mechanics (as currently described on the PTRs) is that it doesn't differentiate between the possible reasons that a player might want to alternate between two different specs. Some players might want to have a PvP build and a PvE build, others might want two PvE specs or two PvP specs. And if you go with two PvE specs, is one for raiding and one for heroics, or are both for raiding?

And that's the crux of the matter. Dual specs will allow "hybrid" classes (which includes two-mode hybrids such as Warriors who can DPS or tank, and three-mode hybrids such as Paladins who can DPS, tank, or heal) to be much more flexible for raiding than the "pure" DPS classes. When you add in the fact that DPS damage as well as buffs and debuffs have been homogenized among the classes, why would you take a pure DPS class to a raid when you could instead take a DPS class that can make a five-second switch to heal or tank as needed? "Pure" DPS classes will go to the back of the line for raid spots. Not everybody raids, but enough players do that I think the new feature will cause some dramatic shifts in the way people play the game.

Since I am not yet raiding (and while I would be happy to do so when I get a character to 80, it's not the center of my WoW existence), and since I enjoy playing a healer, this is likely not to hurt me, and may actually work in my favor. But I don't think it will be good for the game as a whole. Or maybe everyone will adjust well to the new system, and things will work out. I guess we will find out.

Personally, I think I will enjoy dual specs, at least on my "hybrids." For my shaman Rockbiter, I will go with Elemental and Resto; for my paladin Marrad, I will go with Ret and Prot. That way, at least while leveling, they will need to carry only partial sets of gear to switch specs, since Ele and Resto share caster stats (Int, SP), and Prot and Ret share melee stats (Str, Sta). It will work better, and make more sense, than switching between two incompatible specs with entirely different gear requirements. In the same way, my lowbie Druid (who is actually nowhere near 40 yet) would add Resto to his Balance spec.

For my Hunter (which I haven't actually played in weeks) the only thing that would appeal to me would be a PvE/PvP pair. Tjur is a beastmaster hunter, period. He has been beastmaster since level 10, through the good times and the bad times with the spec. But don't get me started on hunters – all of the recent pet homogenization has taken out of the class a lot of the variety that I used to enjoy. Thunderstomp and Charge for all Tenacity pets? *rolls eyes*

Tagged!

The Game Dame has tagged me in the screenshot meme!

First, an admission. I am an (obsessively) organized person. My screenshots are all sorted into folders by character, then within each folder the images are captioned and arranged in chronological order.

So I went to my sixth folder, which is labeled "Masaka Bloodrage." Inside there is just one image, as seen here. In short, it is a level 6 Orc Warlock leaving the Valley of Trials. But there is actually a long and convoluted story behind this character, if you would care to keep reading…

Hey, thanks for staying! Well, here goes. In order to explain Masaka Bloodrage, I have to go all the way back, more than three years now, when I began playing WoW. I was a casual gamer (mostly turn based strategy and board games, and a little RTS) and a casual reader of fantasy fiction, but I was not familiar with WoW lore when a friend suggested the game to me. So I experimented with a variety of characters and classes, but for the most part I picked the races by looks. For example, when I decided to try a Horde hunter, I started a Tauren because I thought they were less "ugly" than Orcs or Trolls.

I never really warmed up to Orcs until I started reading some of the WoW novels and was really impressed by the fantastic lore. Such a tragic race! So my interest in playing an Orc was piqued, but I had more than enough characters going and put the idea on hold.

In early 2007, I met up with a great roleplaying group, Dramatis Personae, which has a presence on many of the U.S. RP servers. They are a wonderful bunch of people, and I have really enjoyed hanging out with them. Unfortunately, my erratic playing schedule has made it difficult for me to participate in a lot of activities, but I can't say enough good things about the group.

One DPer proposed starting an Orc RP group. The premise was really fantastic: each character in the group would be created with the green-yellow skin tone, and as the basis for its backstory would be a member of the Dragonmaw Clan. The Dragonmaws are one of the Orc clans that have not joined the New Horde (kind of like the Grimtotem Tauren). You can find them in the mountains of the Wetlands, east of Menethil; in fact, there is an Alliance quest chain that ends with killing the Dragonmaw leader. All the Dragonmaw NPCs are that green-yellow color.

So for our RP group, each participant would have to come up with a story for why their character had left the Dragonmaw and joined the Horde. I decided to start, no not a Warlock, but a Shaman named Masaka Bloodrage. (I told you this was a long and convoluted story.) He would be a middle-age Orc (note the gray hair) who had been a young grunt during the Third War. Masaka left the Dragonmaw because he had become increasingly concerned that his clan was on the wrong path, surrounded by enemies but with no allies. So he decided to join the other renegade Dragonmaw (the other members of our RP group) and throw in his lot with the New Horde. Upon arriving in Durotar, he would discover his budding shamanic abilities.

Well, there were only two or three people who were interested in joining the group, so it never got off the ground. I soloed Masaka the Shaman into his teens, but then abandoned him since he was taking time from my other characters.

About a year ago, I was taking stock of my WoW experiences and realized that there were (and still are -- sigh) just two classes I have never leveled to 20 – Warlock and Warrior. (There's just one other class I have not gotten to 30 – Priest.) So I decided to spend a little time with each class to see if I might learn something. As I thought about starting a Warlock, well, what race would it be? Humans are kind of boring, and I hate playing a Gnome (the squeaky voice and bouncy animations are so annoying). Blood Elves and Undead, meh. But an Orc…hmmm, now that might be interesting.

So I pulled out the Masaka concept and reworked it. I hadn't really decided whether Masaka the Warlock would have left the Dragonmaw voluntarily, or perhaps was kicked out for some reason. But joining the Horde could be rather ticklish and very interesting, since Orgrimmar has more-or-less renounced Warlocks. I was thinking that Masaka would spec Destruction, pretending to be a Fire Mage (under Troll tutelage perhaps) or Elemental Shaman. As he progressed, he would have the opportunity to align more with the Forsaken in order to practice his Shadow magics more openly. So I played the character for a few levels, but again had too many other things to do and deleted him.

There you have it. This one screenie is the only artifact of my limited attempts to play an Orc. I'm still fascinated by the race, but I don't know if I will have the time or motivation to try one again.

Computer Update

Well, I got my computer back last week, just in time for the flu to hit our household. But we're on the mend and I'm back in business, for the most part.

My computer is actually better than ever. It's a HP dv9000 laptop, about 18 months old. (Sorry, I don't remember the specs, and I'm writing this at work.) It was a huge headache when it was new and Vista still had a lot of problems. But in recent months, new drivers and Vista patches have cleared things up somewhat.

With this repair they had to replace the motherboard which also, of course, wiped the system. But instead of restoring it from the restore sector of the hard drive (which is still there and intact -- I checked), they just installed a clean up-to-date version of Vista, without all the garbage and trial software that came originally installed. Very nice.

So I installed Norton (since I have a subscription), my Palm software (the latest version from their website), Open Office.org, (I am NOT paying Microsoft their exorbitant price for their office suite, and MS Works does not "work," ha ha.) Google Chrome for a browser, and WoW. That's it, nice and clean.

Of course with my anemic video card, I still only get about 20 fps in WoW, but it's better than the 9 fps I was getting on my wife's computer.

Alt Update

I've been spending most of my limited time on Rockbiter, my main (he's now 73). But I thought I would make a few notes about my alts.

I gave up on my Death Knight – I just don't enjoy playing a bad guy, and it's awful hard to figure out how to be a good guy while flinging diseases around and consorting with ghouls.

I've been playing my Draenei Ret Paladin a little, mostly to work up Inscription. Hopefully he can cash in on the likely surge in demand for Glyphs when dual specs are live.

I have not been playing my Hunter at all. I just don't enjoy the class right now.

I now have a lowbie Tauren Druid named Arnakh Winterhoof for hanging out with a few super-casual friends. And I really mean super-casual – one guy has been playing WoW for three years and his highest level toon is 36.

This is my third try at the Druid class. My first Druid was one of my earliest characters, and I got him up to 35ish before switching to my Shammy. I loved the hybrid nature of the class, but tended to hit the buttons for the wrong form at the wrong times. I later tried a second Druid for a while, and with more experience and some good macros was much more successful. But I really wasn't into Feral. Having played a Shammy, I should have known better than to believe those who said you have to level as Feral. But I was young and naïve back then…

This time, I'm Balance all the way, and loving it. You nuke like a Mage or Elemental Shammy, but you can open at range with an awesome root spell (Entangling Roots). Melee is almost always avoidable. And on those rare occasions when a situation takes a turn for the worse, Bear Form and/or self-heals are more than adequate. Then there's the bonus of being able to sneak in and out of quest areas in cat form. Too much fun.

A Comment on Glyphs

A number of bloggers have recently published diligently researched and carefully reasoned advice about Glyphs. I don't have any such contributions to offer, but I convey my heartiest thanks to those who have done the hard work. :)

However, I would like to make a few comments about Minor Glyphs. Most Glyph analyses are focused on one class or even one spec. In researching Glyphs for my various characters, I have noticed how uneven the Minor Glyphs are from class to class. Some classes have Minor Glyphs that are mostly useless while other classes have one or more Minor Glyphs that are quite good.

Let me illustrate with the three classes I have studied the most, Shaman, Paladin and Hunter:

There are currently seven Shaman Minor Glyphs: Glyph of Ghost Wolf, Glyph of Water Shield, Glyph of Water Breathing, Glyph of Water Walking, Glyph of Astral Recall, Glyph of Renewed Life, Glyph of Thunderstorm.

Glyph of Water Shield is incredible for a Resto or Elemental Shaman because it reduces the frequency of refreshing the shield, leaving you more time for useful activities. Saving GCDs can make a big difference in a tought fight, in fact, Glyph of Water Shield is frequently a "required glyph" for raiders. Glyph of Water Walking and Water Breathing are quite handy; I use both spells a lot (especially now that Water Walking works while mounted) and it's nice to free up two bag slots plus no longer have to worry about acquiring reagents. Glyph of Thunderstorm and Glyph of Renewed Life could be useful in some circumstances (primarily raiding); Glyph of Ghost Wolf and Glyph of Astral Recall are the only duds of the lot.

Now for Hunter Minor Glyphs: Glyph of Feign Death, Glyph of Mend Pet, Glyph of Possessed Strength, Glyph of Revive Pet, Glyph of Scare Beast, Glyph of the Pack.

Glyph of Feign Death could be useful; a shorter cooldown on a great spell is never a bad thing. Glyph of Mend Pet is very popular for raiders, especially BM Hunters; it is redundant with the happiness pet talents, but when your DPS depends on keeping your Pet alive and happy, this Glyph can help if you have to Revive your pet in the middle of a fight.

The other Hunter Minor Glyphs are almost useless. When would you need to worry about pushback when casting Revive Pet or Scare Beast, especially with the new pushback mechanics? And how often does a Hunter ever use Eyes of the Beast or Aspect of the Pack?

Paladins also got a raw deal; their Minor Glyphs are: Glyph of Blessing of Might, Glyph of Blessing of Wisdom, Glyph of Lay on Hands, Glyph of the Wise, Glyph of Blessing of Kings, and Glyph of Sense Undead.

Glyph of Lay on Hands can be helpful, now that Lay on Hands is on just a 20 minute cooldown, but only if cast on a mana-using class. Of course it’s most useful for getting out a jam when soloing. Glyph of Sense Undead is situationally useful. The others are all useless. Extending the self-only duration of buffs? Reducing the mana cost of buffs? Buffing is something that happens out of combat. As long as the buff lasts all the way through a fight, what does it matter if the duration is a little longer or the mana cost is a little less? What Pallys really need is something that simplifies the whole Blessing/Greater Blessing system.

So here's the score: Shammys: 1 great, 4 ok, 2 poor; Hunters: 2 good, 4 poor; Paladins: 1 good, 1 ok, 4 poor. Not very well balanced if you ask me.