Mists of Pandaria

[cmlancas]

Innervate had long since changed to only provide such a tiny amount of mana when a Feral used it as to be nigh useless.  It was really, really small.  Tranquility was slightly more useful, but only if you got the talent that improved your healing based on your agility.  Even then heals as a Feral were really, really small.  Also, it would be a very rare circumstance when a Bear would be able to shift and use a channeled heal.  Both spells were better at various points in Wrath, but by the time Cata rolled around neither one was worth much for a Feral.

Without pulling logs, innervate (although yes, not as useful as balance/resto) is still useful.  Some>none.

And, you're flat wrong about Tranquility.  It's exceptionally useful on Madness and Warmaster Blackhorn.

[Nevermore]

Some is worse than none when it means shifting forms to throw it while you're tanking, especially when that some amounts to maybe 1 or 2 more spells innervate would let the target cast.

As for Tranquility, I can only go by my own experience.  I don't recall it ever being a good idea to shift out of Bear to channel a HoT for 8 seconds that only healed 5 people for a very small fraction of their health.  I'm not subbed now so I can't test it directly and tell you exactly how much it would heal for, but in an expansion where even non-tanks are at or over 100k health (iirc) a spell that heals for 5k health (base according to WoWhead, and Feral isn't going to modify that up all that much) over 8 seconds isn't exactly something to get all that excited over.

I'm really glad you dug up this topic again, though. 

[Paelos]

I'm always amazed how often these threads go into druid mechanics.

[Miasma]

I'm always amazed how often these threads go into druid mechanics.

Soon everything will devolve into Monk mechanics too.

[cmlancas]

@Nevermore:  True, if you don't take the nuturifng instinct talent, but I'd argue that's what it's there for.

Moving on from druid mechanics, is anyone actually planning to give MoP a whirl?  My 10m raid group is especially excited about challenge modes -- Vanilla speed runs, anyone?

[Paelos]

I'm saving up my pennies in my D3 RMAH account to buy it along with some sub time. So yeah.

But I won't be cracking out the credit card for it.

[Miasma]

Has it been confirmed you will/are able to buy MoP with blizzbucks?  Some people were claiming you can only buy pets and stuff but that was before it actually went on sale so I just want to make sure they were wrong.

[Paelos]

From what I understand you can buy the digital upgrade to your account directly from Blizzard, but not the hard copy from the Blizzstore.

[Rokal]

Moving on from druid mechanics, is anyone actually planning to give MoP a whirl?  My 10m raid group is especially excited about challenge modes -- Vanilla speed runs, anyone?

I'm still looking forward to it. I haven't spent a whole lot of time on beta, but the time I did spend playing Pokemon and messing around with Pandas/class changes was encouraging.

I was initially very excited about monks but I didn't love what I played on beta (recently, not just my earlier impressions). Windwalker (DPS) plays decent, but doesn't feel much different from playing a combat rogue. Mistweaver (healing) still feels cumbersome to play. Trying to keep Renewing Mist on everyone so that Uplift (your only aoe heal without a long cooldown aside from the channeled spinning crane kick) actually does something is obnoxious.

I also have to wonder how much of my opinion is based on jumping into the class with an 85 template, rather than slowly leveling up and getting used to each ability individually.

I've got a cheap copy of Vanilla/Wrath lying around from the last Blizzard sale store, but I'm not sure whether I'm going to use them to power-level a monk with RAF and catch up with guildies. Current plan is probably to play my priest in Mists instead.

[cmlancas]

Did you play Discipline, Shadow, or Holy during Cata?

Still holding out hope that spirit shell will be a fun new mechanic here.

[Rokal]

I played a rogue for Cata, but my priest was Holy whenever I dusted him off. The Disc changes sound pretty fun to me (haven't tried them myself) so I'll probably give that a shot for MoP.

[cmlancas]

Yeah, I'm hoping atonement remains a viable spec -- it's really fun during downtime to feel like you're contributing rather than spamming a cheap heal all the time.

Anyone get to beta PvP at all?  I've been reading it's a lot less bursty (yay), but I'd be interested to hear ya'lls first-hand accounts.

[Trippy]

@Nevermore:  True, if you don't take the nuturifng instinct talent, but I'd argue that's what it's there for.

Moving on from druid mechanics, is anyone actually planning to give MoP a whirl?  My 10m raid group is especially excited about challenge modes -- Vanilla speed runs, anyone?

I'm going to resub after 7.5 years to play PANDAS!

Also: this isn't Twitter, don't use that @ crap.

[Rendakor]

I'll be coming back for MoP, probably sticking with the DK as my main. I haven't futzed around much with the beta just because I'd rather wait for it all to be in a polished state. How much I actually play depends on how many of my old guildies come back; we pretty much all quit in January.

[Arinon]

Is anyone actually planning to give MoP a whirl?  My 10m raid group is especially excited about challenge modes -- Vanilla speed runs, anyone?

May give it a go depending on how long GW2 holds my interest.  Haven't looked at anything WoW related in over a year so not up on all the new hotness.  Challenge modes look pretty cool but if the carrots for those are cosmetic/titles then I don't see that mode having any legs...unless they make it super hard without requiring specific class make-ups.  Which won't happen.

[Merusk]

I'm totally in for it.  After TOR puttered out on me I got a scroll of rezz and found I liked the changes they'd made so much I went ahead and did the year pass to get D3.

* Raid finder may be mocked but fuck the haters I'm doing what I want which is seeing bosses.  I'm happy it's in the game and it means I get to stay with the guild I like, despite their raid times being 10pm -1:30am my time when I have to be up at 5am.

* The new 5-man content is all pretty good, too.  Mechanics to learn but the dungeons aren't the hellish slog fests they once were.  A great balance of thinking and facerolling where you *might* need CC before you're geared but it's not required after getting the gear from the dungeons.  As it should be.

My only real concern with MOP is the monk class is going to be an unbalanced mess, probably on the OP side, for a while.   I played it a bit in the beta and was impressed, but I felt the same way about the DK at first.  So rather than have the same heartbreak again, I'll stick with the DK and Hunter mains.

Challenge Modes can still be hard without requiring class make-ups.  The issue will be that the metagamers will decide "This is the best for this challenge mode" and unless you have good friends or guildmates to say "fuck that thought process" that's the way things shall be.  Just as it was in BC when Locks and Hunters got sidelined for Mages and Rogues and warriors took a back-seat to Paladins despite all of those classes being totally capable of helping a group finish a heroic.

GW2 holds nothing for me so it's no challenge to this.  GW1 bored me to death so much I still haven't gotten to level 12 on the first character I made when it was released.  Much like the elder scrolls series I've just decided it's not for me.

[Feverdream]

I can hardly wait for GW2, but am also in a really friendly and fun WoW raiding guild that is filled with PvE addicts who will never, ever join me in Guild Wars.  So I'm going to raid once or twice a week with them and get my PvP fix with GW. 

I checked out the Mists beta enough to be convinced that I feel it's a good expansion - nothing earth-shattering, but some nice twists on new content, and the Pandas look better in the game than they do in the screenshots.  At least, the male Pandas in particular have a ton of personality.  The females all have the same freaking lobotomized-looking face (wtf, Blizzard).  That issue aside, I think there will be plenty of entertainment in Mists for a little while.

[cmlancas]

Merusk:  I think you're totally right when you say fuck the haters about LFR.  My guild is 5/8 through hardmodes right now and we still have fun running LFR.  And, when I was completely new, I thought it really did feel as epic as the tooltip described.

I also think focusing more effort on 5-mans is a bigger bang for Blizzard's buck.  Many more people see that content, imo.  Also, breaking the 10-mans into smaller raids is a good move too.  I know folks nostalgiabomb for long raids like Naxx, Kara, and ICC.

Also, I post from my phone nine times out of ten, so clever quote posting is a real PITA.  Apologies if I'm inconveniencing those who're trying to follow the thread.   

[Sheepherder]

I also think focusing more effort on 5-mans is a bigger bang for Blizzard's buck.  Many more people see that content, imo.  Also, breaking the 10-mans into smaller raids is a good move too.

LFR came late in Cata and was only done for Dragon Soul, as it shouldn't have been.  With the launch raids presumably being LFR enabled, it's conceivable that people might go from quest item gearing to endgame content without seeing more than a a handful of five mans.

[cmlancas]

LFR came late in Cata and was only done for Dragon Soul, as it shouldn't have been.  With the launch raids presumably being LFR enabled, it's conceivable that people might go from quest item gearing to endgame content without seeing more than a a handful of five mans.

This assumes the only reason folks play PvE is to get purple pixels as fast as possible.  I think challenge modes and scenarios will provide other diversions Cataclysm didn't.  I know when my DBM record timers pop up I'm trying to race them, even though only I see those.

This post made me think of ghosting from MarioKart...that'd be really awesome if you could see yourself progressing through the dungeon as you ran.

[Ingmar]

Scenarios is the one thing I want to find out more about, if those are cool it could potentially lure me back. I've never understood why nobody has yet stolen LOTRO's Skirmish system; its really the only way I've ever seen anyone make daily quests actually fun.

From what I hear they're not soloable, though, so that feels like a missed opportunity.

[Zetor]

I've heard they're 3man mini-instances that you can LFD for, and your rewards depend on completion time... they said any spec can do well, so you could have 3 dps, 2 dps 1 healer/tank, 3 heale-- haha no.

Anyway, since scenarios are LFDable and they take any combination of players, they're almost as good as a solo activity anyway. The concept reminds me more of Rift's Instant Adventures than lotro skirmishes, btw.


e: and yes, the only sort of daily quest I'll accept in a mmo is one that requires me to play with other people, preferably in a painless pseudo-solo way ala LFD - so pretty much just dungeon runs / pvp battlegrounds / IAs/invasions (Rift).

[Lastwolf]

I also think focusing more effort on 5-mans is a bigger bang for Blizzard's buck.  Many more people see that content, imo.  Also, breaking the 10-mans into smaller raids is a good move too.

LFR came late in Cata and was only done for Dragon Soul, as it shouldn't have been.  With the launch raids presumably being LFR enabled, it's conceivable that people might go from quest item gearing to endgame content without seeing more than a a handful of five mans.

LFR ilevel requirement is higher than that of Heroic Dunegons (there are no level 90 normals), considering quest blues and greens won't be enough to make the jump and they've made the crafted PVP gear a lower ilevel rather than higher (as it is now), seems like you'd be hard pressed to skip Dungeons even buying up the random BoE epics.

Also considering they are staggering the release of all the raid content, you'll have a lot of free time.

[Miasma]

Trailer is out.  I liked it right up until the panda showed up and turned everything comedic.

[tmp]

My immersion of playing an upright, armed, warmongering cow has been similarly ruined forever by this new comedy element.

FOREVER

[apocrypha]

You can totally tell that panda is just a dude in a panda suit.

[luckton]

Yes, god forbid we have a little comedy with our games 

I liked it.  Much better than the Cata intro, and about on par with Vanilla and BC.  Wrath will always be my personal fav 

I did enjoy this scene, and I have once again forgotten the picture size BB code.  Mea culpa.

[Lakov_Sanite]

That scene was 

[Rendakor]

Pretty good trailer, got me excited for the expansion even though it gives the entirely wrong impression that the Horde and Alliance will be working together against pandas.

Did anyone else think of Ninja Scroll when the panda's hat got damaged?

[luckton]

Damn, son, they're are trying to bust down GW2 hard.

http://us.battle.net//wow/en/blog/6994738

All races, regardless of whether you've bought any expansions past, present, or future, will be unlocked and available for playing.  Pandaren will be the exception, becoming available on MoP launch next month, but if you don't buy MoP, you an still roll a Panda Rogue, Warrior, whatever.

[Ingmar]

I liked it.  Much better than the Cata intro, and about on par with Vanilla and BC.  Wrath will always be my personal fav 

Bah, Wrath was the single worst one. It's where you can really tell they forgot that the story should be around the PCs, not the NPCs.

[Hutch]

Yes, god forbid we have a little comedy with our games 

I liked it.  Much better than the Cata intro, and about on par with Vanilla and BC.  Wrath will always be my personal fav 

I did enjoy this scene, and I have once again forgotten the picture size BB code.  Mea culpa.

Use width=X inside your img tag.

Code:

[img width=400]

I also got a chuckle out of this scene 

[Maledict]

I thought it was very pretty, but didn't get me excited at all. I like the big bads to conquer.

They really are gunning for GW2 with the race thing though. Understandable why they are doing it, but also depressing as its bound to be effective.

[Ragnoros]

They really are gunning for GW2 with the race thing though. Understandable why they are doing it, but also depressing as its bound to be effective.

Don't see why wow is going to all the trouble trying to compete with GW2. Firstly there is the sub vs no sub thing, play both if you want. But frankly if wow is fun I will play wow, if not I won't. Blizzard has stumbled, if not totally fallen down, on their last three releases. They are currently their own worst enemy by a mile.

Bottom line: Build it (fun) and they will come.

FWIW: I have already purchased GW2. Yogscast and my sister talked me into it. It looked, wait for it... FUN!

[Merusk]

I liked it.  Much better than the Cata intro, and about on par with Vanilla and BC.  Wrath will always be my personal fav 

Bah, Wrath was the single worst one. It's where you can really tell they forgot that the story should be around the PCs, not the NPCs.

He's talking about the intro cinematic, not the storyline.  The BC intro focused on the PCs very much through the homage to the Vanilla cinematic and its tour of the races, ending in Sillydan shouting"YOU ARE NOT PREPARRRED" It told nothing of the greater story arc other than letting you know you were going through the Dark Portal.

I still in the the WOTLK intro was the best.  It set the theme for the whole expansion and let you know what was going on. The speech from Terenas offset by Arthas raising the army of the dead and the dracolich.  Not a single scene related to the PCs but you knew the story from it.  Great intro.