AT World of Warcraft Thread (Mists, Where do you play, General BS and all that)

[Joeydubbs]

The current expansion is barely one year old (released September 2012), and while I still believe their ultimate goal is to be able to shorten the period between expansion packs to 18 months, I don't think they're going to be able to do that this time. If I had to guess, I'm going to say mid-to-late summer 2014, with the standard delay to early fall to August-September (i.e. I'm a little more optimistic than lupi ).

Hard to believe that panda land is only 1 year old, seems like forever! Probably seems longer because most of us got beta access (something I don't want this go around, spoiled some of the early fun )

 

[diesbudt]

The current expansion is barely one year old (released September 2012), and while I still believe their ultimate goal is to be able to shorten the period between expansion packs to 18 months, I don't think they're going to be able to do that this time. If I had to guess, I'm going to say mid-to-late summer 2014, with the standard delay to early fall to August-September (i.e. I'm a little more optimistic than lupi ).

Considering the last raid is out, and they are quickening time inbetween expansions and patchs and adding more staff.

I see mid-late Dec or early Jan 5.5 comes out. 5.5 will have the last story chunk of MoP. Some more "individual" play, maybe another scenario or 2. And the trial of garrosh in MoP. Maybe even a 1 boss raid just to add it in there.

Then another I see 4 months until 6.0 (Patch prior to expansion) with the normal 1 month between 6.0 and 6.0.X [expansion number]

so I could see early May.

They will announce the xpac at blizzcon, and changes, and even that I bet Beta is not that far away.

 

[diesbudt]

Hard to believe that panda land is only 1 year old, seems like forever! Probably seems longer because most of us got beta access (something I don't want this go around, spoiled some of the early fun )

Only blizzard game I ever got beta access to was StarCraft II. And I don't play the starcraft series, at all. (They actually gave me 5 invites to give out also).

 

[lupi]

I've actually done pretty good with blizz betas lately, have had diablo and starcraft access as well as hearthstone, and all the WoW ones since Wrath.

 

[Phoenix86]

Considering the last raid is out, and they are quickening time inbetween expansions and patchs and adding more staff.

I see mid-late Dec or early Jan 5.5 comes out. 5.5 will have the last story chunk of MoP. Some more "individual" play, maybe another scenario or 2. And the trial of garrosh in MoP. Maybe even a 1 boss raid just to add it in there.

Then another I see 4 months until 6.0 (Patch prior to expansion) with the normal 1 month between 6.0 and 6.0.X [expansion number]

so I could see early May.

They will announce the xpac at blizzcon, and changes, and even that I bet Beta is not that far away.

The last tier is out, we may still get a filler raid, who knows. 18 months doesn't seem unreasonable.

 

[lupi]

18 months has always been their goal, about 23 I believe is the best so far. And when wow $$$ is keeping the company up regardless of whatever lies the blizz people tell you I'm pretty sure they are under strict hiring limitations.

 

[lupi]

Winged guardian on sale this week, only 1/3 off though.

Also if you can find it, bestbuy selling diablo 2 pack for $5.

 

[lupi]

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
As a part of our ongoing Connected Realms implementation, we will be connecting additional pairs of realms as listed below. We don’t have a specific date yet on when these connections will occur, but we’ll provide another update once we do. Please be aware that as a part of the connection process realm times may change to match each other.

Next Realm Connection Pairs:
Balnazzar and Warsong
Gurubashi and Aegwynn
Dalvengyr and Dark Iron
Garithos and Chromaggus
Onyxia and Burning Blade
Maiev and Bloodscalp

We're currently evaluating further realm connections and will provide updates as they're available.

For more information on Connected Realms, please read the preview blog post here.

 

[rh71]

is connected realms making the world a LOT more populated? It was just sad to be doing dailies and see only 1 other guy doing it at any random time during the day.

 

[lupi]

My just got connected but haven't been out enough to say yet. I know the realm phasing whatever that is called has had an impact on the pre-panda areas. I'll be spending more time out during this weekend and will try to see how it is out there.

I do know that I've been upgrading my farm rep on an alt, and before going conencted it was easy to hop from dark soil to another, since maintenance and the connection I've seen a couple while doing the dailies but not enough to want to keep after them.

 

[Phoenix86]

oQueue is quietly connecting all the realms anyways...

 

[lupi]

Looks like with adding yet another raiding tier other tiers are having attendance/queue problems; a shocking result.

 

[diesbudt]

Looks like with adding yet another raiding tier other tiers are having attendance/queue problems; a shocking result.

1) The attendance issue needs to be looked at. SoO isn't even completely out in LFR, and SoO has only had 5-6 weeks. ToT and T14 are done, and had many many weeks. Until SoO is over, we cannot compare quantitatively.

2) Tanking in 5.4 dropped a lot. Tanks would rather do flex, that has some organization than LFR in which has basically none. Add in that tanks actually have to do things in SoO, the population of tanks have plummeted in general.

Thus causing a shortage of tanks in LFR.

 

[lupi]

I don't doubt that. I'm just somewhat amazed that blizz doesn't think flex is really having any impact on the LFR. At this point, I'd say that's about as silly as saying introduction of 10's raiding wasn't having an impact as 25 raiding started to wane.

 

[Pens1566]

I've had more "issues" in LFR since the patch than in the entire time it existed before. I attribute that to Flex taking away most capable players combined with oQueue making it much easier to find (for dps) spots. There has been a big gap in skill between the top 2-3 players and the rest of the raid. I wasted a few hours last night in wing 2 as the only dps consistently above 100k. I left when after 3 attempts no one else could seem to grasp the concept of killing adds on Nazgrim.

 

[Malladine]

I've been enjoying LFR - done vaults and half of heart of fear so far and each time less than 20 minute queue which is fine since I don't even try unless I know i'm on for another 90 mins at least. LFR is amazing for me...i'd never otherwise see the high end content. Also no wipes on any of them so far (maybe lucky??) and even a couple of upgrades. Plus the rep gains and sigils. Fun stuff

edit: Fury warrior

 

[diesbudt]

I don't doubt that. I'm just somewhat amazed that blizz doesn't think flex is really having any impact on the LFR. At this point, I'd say that's about as silly as saying introduction of 10's raiding wasn't having an impact as 25 raiding started to wane.

If anything the LFR system is going to be removed, and Flex will be the new everyone goes to mode, or LFR will be revamped.

LFR was a ok system, but with flex out, LFR is kind of outdated now. Can be pugged, separated into wings, don't need to be amazing, just capable. and you do not need a set schedule to do them.

 

[Malladine]

But you need to be in a guild for Flex raids right? or at least join a premade? LFR is great precisely because I can just join a queue and pug it. With 2 kids my gaming time isn't particularly conducive to building relationships and taking part in guild stuff, much as i'd like to.

 

[diesbudt]

But you need to be in a guild for Flex raids right? or at least join a premade? LFR is great precisely because I can just join a queue and pug it. With 2 kids my gaming time isn't particularly conducive to building relationships and taking part in guild stuff, much as i'd like to.

Yes, however with Siege of Org. The LFR there, has 1+ hour queue times now for DPS classes. As tanks and healers won't go to the unorganized crap fest known as LFR. And those queue times are getting longer. In that time someone could find a pug for flex, and be at least half done by the time it pops. Add in the non headache of playing with players who do 10x worse than they should in the gear they have, and people who do not listen, or care as there is no individual responsibility. Since kick system fails. Plus it has better gear.

 

[Malladine]

k I can understand where you're coming from now. Probably by the time SoO is no longer top tier the queues will be fine for LFR.

 

[diesbudt]

k I can understand where you're coming from now. Probably by the time SoO is no longer top tier the queues will be fine for LFR.

SoO will be top tier until next expansion...

And at that time LFR for it will be nonexistent. Much like Dragon soul LFR.

 

[Malladine]

SoO is going to remain top tier until late summer 2014?!

 

[diesbudt]

SoO is going to remain top tier until late summer 2014?!

SoO is it until next expansion. This is the end of the game raid wise.

There may be 1 more patch (5.5) that adds some more small single player content with some lore on what happens to garrosh after SoO and the ramifications that will lead to 6.0.

But yes, SoO is the last raid until the next raid at level 100.

 

[Onita]

Yes, however with Siege of Org. The LFR there, has 1+ hour queue times now for DPS classes. As tanks and healers won't go to the unorganized crap fest known as LFR. And those queue times are getting longer. In that time someone could find a pug for flex, and be at least half done by the time it pops. Add in the non headache of playing with players who do 10x worse than they should in the gear they have, and people who do not listen, or care as there is no individual responsibility. Since kick system fails. Plus it has better gear.

I've never had to wait close to an hour for SoO LFR. I'm apparently also a lucky person, in that I've only had 1 LFR that was full troll mode.

 

[lupi]

I'd expect a raid revamp with the next expansion, and they "may" even talk about it at blizzcon. One of the best things about vanilla raiding was that there was a single 40 man tier. Then they added 25 man lesser tier for people that couldn't get in 40 man groups which resulted in the 40 man players feeling compelled to do both and 25 man players complaining it was too "difficult" for them as it was also made to be challenging for the 40's.

Sounds a lot like today, magnified by how many more tiers we have. Not an area blizz seems to have learned from yet.

At this point I'd say just make everything flex, a normal & hard version and let it be LFR'able. At least then you'd be back down to an amount the could be adjusted reasonably.