Super Magina

[Calantus]

Yeah but the barrens is a... well whatever that's called, plains? savannah? Whatever it is, it's not possible for it to be anything but brown for the environment it is. I think people would complain how it was so green if it was a forest of the same size. Also, I liked the barrens. Actually, of all the 2nd-3rd zones in the whole game the barrens is my favourite.

[Rasix]

I've been playing a hunter alt (wanted a fun class to twink) and it's gotten to the barrens level range.  I like the zone, there's a variety of quests with interesting story lines and a lot of the quests can be done concurrently.  Everything's just so spread apart though; way too much running for a level range where just about no one has any sort of speed buff.

And the retardation is just at critical mass there.  It's non stop spam about the most inane crap you can imagine.  Yesterday's topic was Jesus and Chuck Norris.  That spun off into a really deep discussion about Jesus and morality.  That's if you consider "deep" something someone would mutter if they had a serious head wound and sepsis.  The only way to slow it down is to say something like, "I'll give you all 10 silver if you just shut the hell up."  Then you get 2 minutes of people insulting you, insulting 10 silver, and then saying how they'll take your money and then keep talking.  After that two minutes is up, they've forgotten what they were originally discussing and you've got a moment's peace. 

Of course, I could just "/leave 1", but sometimes I actually want gen chat on.

[Righ]

I hope its an Orc hunter.

[Rasix]

I hope its an Orc hunter.

It is. And while you're listening, what's a good hunter build for leveling up?  Is marksman doable or would I be better served going BM or Survival?

[Righ]

Start with marksman. You can do beastmaster at 40-60 if it fits your play (more solo than anything) but the early talents in marksman are most useful for lower levels. Survival is very PvP oriented, and if you PvP with your hunter a lot, you'll know when you want its tricks. Until you do, learning to PvP with a hunter is easiest with a marksman build anyhow. So, lowbie first hunter = marksman. :)

[kaid]

Actually soloing early on especially after the revamp beastmastery and marksman are both about equal. I do recommend sooner or later getting marks man at least enough to get to hawkeye and likely enough to get some or all points into mortal shots.

Hawkeye is a freaking god send it gives you extra range and that extra range is the differance between a slugging match and sniping somebody dead before they can even hit you.


kaid

[Phred]

Yeah but the barrens is a... well whatever that's called, plains? savannah? Whatever it is, it's not possible for it to be anything but brown for the environment it is. I think people would complain how it was so green if it was a forest of the same size. Also, I liked the barrens. Actually, of all the 2nd-3rd zones in the whole game the barrens is my favourite.

I think of it as African veldt myself and it seems to fit well. I also liked it. I liked how central all the quests were, compared to Alliance areas like duskwood that had you running to the other end of the zone and back to hand in all your quests. Another thing I noticed about horde areas under 30 is that there were a lot less camps of linked mobs you needed to deal with, which made soloing much easier than say the Redridge mountains area on the Alliance side, where half the quests had you searching for lone spawns as a soloer. Pulling gnolls or orcs in Redridge was much more difficult than Razormanes in the Barrens. About the only difficult quest I remember in Barrens was the schamophlange series as the Venture company mobs tended to run for help really early but even there it was possible to pull them solo, something that was pretty well impossible for many of the quests in Redridge mtns.

[Xanthippe]

I thought the Barrens was majestic when I first saw it (as an undead).  It was so different from the gloomy starting undead area.  The giraffes, zebras, and antelopes were really cool.  I thought it was very well-done in terms of immersion.

The quests, though, didn't seem immersive.  The storylines are weak, compared to Silverpine leading up to Shadowfang Keep or for Westfall with the Defias stuff.  Even Loch Modan is more cohesive.  There's too much running on Fed Ex's and too much running on kill tasks.  The flight path at Camp T is an improvement but still, it's too big and there is too much running around.  A flight path at Ratchet would be nice.

With regard to retards, there are plenty on both sides, I'm afraid.  I've not noticed either faction having an advantage or disadvantage there.  It may be the servers that I'm on.

I find it fascinating that people feel so strongly about the other side in games.  I recall the same thing in DAOC, where the different factions had certain reputations amongst players (Albs are zerglings, Hibs are treehuggers, Mids are .... I don't remember).

It does seem to me that more women (non-manginas, I mean) play Alliance.  It will be interesting to see whether or not the addition of BEs entice more women to play Horde.  Part of it for me was the toon art, but another part of it is that the Alliance side has children.  When I played Horde, there were none (have they added any?).

[Ironwood]

It does seem to me that more women (non-manginas, I mean) play Alliance.  It will be interesting to see whether or not the addition of BEs entice more women to play Horde.  Part of it for me was the toon art, but another part of it is that the Alliance side has children.  When I played Horde, there were none (have they added any?).

Where are you pulling this from ?

[Dren]

It does seem to me that more women (non-manginas, I mean) play Alliance.  It will be interesting to see whether or not the addition of BEs entice more women to play Horde.  Part of it for me was the toon art, but another part of it is that the Alliance side has children.  When I played Horde, there were none (have they added any?).

Where are you pulling this from ?

She's a women.  They have that "one mind" thing going on.  Best not to get involved.

[Ironwood]

Ok, I'll rephrase :

My wife wants to know where you're pulling that from.


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And where's her connection to the hivemind ?

[angry.bob]

Part of it for me was the toon art, but another part of it is that the Alliance side has children.  When I played Horde, there were none (have they added any?).

The Horde side always had children. Not anywhere near the quantity that are in Alliance lands, but almost every Orc farm I run by has at least one orc child NPC on it. Though if you count gnomes, nature's special retarded children, the horde just can't match alliance child-wise.

[Dren]

Ok, I'll rephrase :

My wife wants to know where you're pulling that from.


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And where's her connection to the hivemind ?

Has she paid this month's bill?  They cut the connection otherwise.

[Mazakiel]

Orcs do have children.  There's the aformentioned farms, and there's also an orphanage full of them in Orgrimmar.  Undead obviously have none, and having zombie kids running around would probably cause all sorts of complaints.  I've never seen troll or tauren kids, but then again I've only ever seen human children Alliance side. 

[Xanthippe]

I played Horde from launch to February 2005  and ended up with a 53 rogue.   I saw no children.  There were no orphanages when I left Horde side.  What farms have children?  I imagine they were added later, as I went 1-53 not seeing any.

I'm basing it only upon my experience.  There were few women playing Horde side on my server.  Perhaps 20% were female toons, to 80% male toons.  On the Alliance side, it seemed about 50/50.  Most women that I know play female toons (I have only known one woman who consistently plays male toons).  Do manginas play Alliance more than Horde?

But mostly, I'm basing it upon the women I know who game from other games.  All picked alliance to play.  A couple ended up playing Horde because their boyfriends/husbands insisted.  It's a small sample (15 women, perhaps).

[cevik]

I played Horde from launch to February 2005  and ended up with a 53 rogue.   I saw no children.  There were no orphanages when I left Horde side.  What farms have children?  I imagine they were added later, as I went 1-53 not seeing any.

The orphanage in og is just west of the hall of honor where you join the battleground queues.

I have formed "The Committee to Remove All the Crazy Sharp Pointy Objects From Every Damned Thing in Og."  Our motto is "WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!?!!?"

[Righ]

Near the fishing trainer in Orgrimmar (that would be the by the pond before the hunter trainer for Xanthippe). There's a farm with some children NE of the crossroads, for example, though the barrens sprogs were added fairly late in the game (same patch as the troll village in the hinterlands). Humans had children from the outset, orcs had them patched in, and they are just green human children basically.

[Yegolev]

Humans had children from the outset, orcs had them patched in, and they are just green human children basically.

I love playing the "bastard" side in WoW.  At least I'm undead; not even the other Horde like us.  Also: face straps.

[Righ]

But surely its fun to have some escapism - why play the same thing in the game as you are IRL? 

[Dren]

I'm wearing my brown suede face straps today.

[HaemishM]

OK different Barrens experiences then - The zone itself is a good, fun zone.

Only if you like RED.  A LOT.  The Barrens has very nearly killed my desire to play the game, just due to overdose of RED.  People complained about the earthtones in EQ2...  Freeport has nothing on the Barrens.

Alkiera

The Barrens isn't just ugly, it's about half a zone too large, and really boring. There were some decent quests, but playing through there once was enough. Playing through a second time as my Horde rogue really was enervating.

[Yegolev]

But surely its fun to have some escapism - why play the same thing in the game as you are IRL? 

This is why I have a female avatar.

[Yegolev]

OK different Barrens experiences then - The zone itself is a good, fun zone.

Only if you like RED.  A LOT.  The Barrens has very nearly killed my desire to play the game, just due to overdose of RED.  People complained about the earthtones in EQ2...  Freeport has nothing on the Barrens.

Alkiera

The Barrens isn't just ugly, it's about half a zone too large, and really boring. There were some decent quests, but playing through there once was enough. Playing through a second time as my Horde rogue really was enervating.

I think a lot of the problems could be fixed if Barrens was contested.  And Hillsbrad was not.

[Furiously]

No I think that would be A Very Very bad idea.

[Yegolev]

OK, a lot of MY problems could be fixed, how's that?  I'd like Barrens much better if it was a contested area.  There aren't even any trees to hide behind.  Tarren Mill is like a summer home for lv60 Alliance pigfuckers, I just want to share the love with my Horde brothers.

[Furiously]

No it's that the people who put an alliance town 50 feet from a horde town decided to make the alliance need to go to the area 5-10 levels later then the horde.

[Yegolev]

As someone who has been killed mere seconds after logging in while standing in the TM inn, I say it is probably both.  At least Hammerfall has a fucking wall, not that it is impregnable or anything close.