Initial Thoughts on Pandaria

[Miasma]

I hit the cap doing the terrible dailies.

[ghost]

Can anyone give an assessment of the fun factor for a super casual player so far with the new expansion? 

[Merusk]

Leveling-up; Tons of fun.  Only frustration was "dammit I want to fly over some of these vistas."

Endgame:  Depends on you. 

We've outlined the daily grind info, then there's the usual dungeon & raid cycle and PVP for those inclined.  There's also scenarios for when you just don't feel like taking things seriously and want a dungeon NOW. (My approach to them.) 

There's also Challenge modes - AKA "HARD HEROICS." Throw those in the face of the kids bitching in general that heroics are too easy, it's fun.  (OH, heroics are too easy? So you've completed gold challenge mode right? What's your time in the server rankings...")

There's also Pokeman, which is incredibly addictive and much more fun than anyone realizes until they get involved.

Since I got my iLevel to the LFR point I've cut way back and focused on X-Com since it came out. I'm only running 1 faction's dailies a day and doing my planting. This is good enough for the days between raid resets. 

I'm also *very* slowly leveling-up my Horde Paladin for the Two-Faced achieve.  I've spent 3-hours on her the last two Sundays while watching football and she's only just hit level 86.  Taking it that slow I'll probably not hit 90 until late December.

[ghost]

To be clear, my level of play will be "leveling up".  I'm not much of a social player and I don't endgame.  I don't even dungeon, really.

[Paelos]

Can anyone give an assessment of the fun factor for a super casual player so far with the new expansion? 

I'd say it's fun. I haven't done any of the dungeon content yet really, and it's pretty easy going to get things done and find upgrades just questing around and doing the scenarios.

All the MOP dailies give Valor points now, so you can do those if you like. Or you can do scenarios which don't really tax you too much for 30 valor a day (15 each after).

XP to get to 90 will take you a good long while, so the leveling curve will take a ton of time to see it all if you choose. I'd say probably 40 hours?

[luckton]

Knocked out the Glorious! achievement today.  Yay for burning through content  

[SurfD]

Knocked out the Glorious! achievement today.  Yay for burning through content  

How populous is your server?!?  On mine, most rares are tagged and dead within seconds of spawning, meaning that getting Glorious is going to take me a while, and a lot of luck.

[luckton]

It's Earthen Ring.  Believe me, it's populated, and a good third of the NPCs I killed were ones that I managed to invite the person that tagged it into a group just before the mob died so I could get credit.  At least half though were ones I solo'd outright, and a few I camped on the spot for up to half and hour because of the mob's survival rate in comparison to it's spawn location (i.e. Ferdinand spawns by the lake right next to the Serpent Riders' ranch.  Because of the high traffic, he typically doesn't live long the moment he spawns, and even while I was fighting him and after death I had about a dozen people fly in close because their NPCScan went off).

Focusing now on gathering the mats I need to finish all of the Cooking Ways.  Will knock out the third of six today; it's just a matter of growing the right stuffs.  After that, the farm will be used to grow the stuff I need to finish becoming BFFs with the Tiller NPCs, and finally moving onto Harmony mote farming.

On the PvE front, I have 800 lesser Elder coins, enough to buy the big coins for the next two months.  So I should be set for loot bonus rolling for a while   

[Sjofn]

I logged into my paladin, couldn't decide on some of the talents, and logged back out. That's not actually a bad thing, as I couldn't decide which I liked best, rather than which one sucked least.    My indecision is making it hard for me to shell out the money for MoP, though.

[Rokal]

I logged into my paladin, couldn't decide on some of the talents, and logged back out. That's not actually a bad thing, as I couldn't decide which I liked best, rather than which one sucked least.    My indecision is making it hard for me to shell out the money for MoP, though.

The cost to respec a talent is a reagent that costs 50 silver, and it can be done instantly with no cast time if you are out of combat. No reason to stress out about it, you aren't committing to anything permanent and you should really just try them all eventually.

I find myself switching between the aoe stun and the 20 yard CC as a monk (only for CMs), but otherwise I use the same exact talents as a tank or dps do not see myself switching much over the life of the expansion. I'm not going to say the old talent system offered more choices, but the ones we are given now are mostly still false choices.

The last tier for monks is a good example. My options are:

1. A cone attack that costs 2 chi yet seems designed to start pulls (grants stagger). I will never have 2 chi before a pull, and there are better things to use 2 chi on after a fight has started, so this is never going to be a good choice.

2. Roll now gains a damage/healing component. I don't want to fling myself out of position during a fight as a tank or dps by rolling through the thing I'm trying to attack. I'd also rather keep Roll as a movement ability, rather than having it be on cooldown when I need it because I used it for dps/healing.

3. A tiger pet that costs 0 chi, lasts for 45 seconds, and does cleave damage.

As a tank or dps #3 is the only "right" choice. Healers will pick #1 for an additional aoe heal. My hunch is that if Blizzard released talent spec popularity statistics, there would still be a cookie cutter build for most specs at 90.

[Mithas]

As a tank or dps #3 is the only "right" choice. Healers will pick #1 for an additional aoe heal. My hunch is that if Blizzard released talent spec popularity statistics, there would still be a cookie cutter build for most specs at 90.

This site has done that already: WoW Popular

Might help make decisions anyway.

[Ingmar]

I logged into my paladin, couldn't decide on some of the talents, and logged back out. That's not actually a bad thing, as I couldn't decide which I liked best, rather than which one sucked least.    My indecision is making it hard for me to shell out the money for MoP, though.

The cost to respec a talent is a reagent that costs 50 silver, and it can be done instantly with no cast time if you are out of combat. No reason to stress out about it, you aren't committing to anything permanent and you should really just try them all eventually.

I find myself switching between the aoe stun and the 20 yard CC as a monk (only for CMs), but otherwise I use the same exact talents as a tank or dps do not see myself switching much over the life of the expansion. I'm not going to say the old talent system offered more choices, but the ones we are given now are mostly still false choices.

The last tier for monks is a good example. My options are:

1. A cone attack that costs 2 chi yet seems designed to start pulls (grants stagger). I will never have 2 chi before a pull, and there are better things to use 2 chi on after a fight has started, so this is never going to be a good choice.

2. Roll now gains a damage/healing component. I don't want to fling myself out of position during a fight as a tank or dps by rolling through the thing I'm trying to attack. I'd also rather keep Roll as a movement ability, rather than having it be on cooldown when I need it because I used it for dps/healing.

3. A tiger pet that costs 0 chi, lasts for 45 seconds, and does cleave damage.

As a tank or dps #3 is the only "right" choice. Healers will pick #1 for an additional aoe heal. My hunch is that if Blizzard released talent spec popularity statistics, there would still be a cookie cutter build for most specs at 90.

#2 sounds awesome for PVP. Autohealing tagged onto your defensive repositioning move? Yes please.

[Merusk]

As a tank or dps #3 is the only "right" choice. Healers will pick #1 for an additional aoe heal. My hunch is that if Blizzard released talent spec popularity statistics, there would still be a cookie cutter build for most specs at 90.

This site has done that already: WoW Popular

Might help make decisions anyway.

What a surprise, every hunter uses the same talents with very few exceptions.

[Trippy]

Rogue is even more skewed.

[Rendakor]

I'm not sure why this is surprising; fewer choices just make cookie cutter builds easier to copy from the forums.

[Ingmar]

Even with the lack of variety on certain talent picks it looks like there are more different builds per spec now than in the past.

[Sjofn]

I logged into my paladin, couldn't decide on some of the talents, and logged back out. That's not actually a bad thing, as I couldn't decide which I liked best, rather than which one sucked least.    My indecision is making it hard for me to shell out the money for MoP, though.

The cost to respec a talent is a reagent that costs 50 silver, and it can be done instantly with no cast time if you are out of combat. No reason to stress out about it, you aren't committing to anything permanent and you should really just try them all eventually.

I'm not particularly concerned with gimping myself or having to pay to respec or anything, I'm just indecisive. :P

I also don't really give a shit about what other holy/prot paladins are doing spec-wise (although I suspect I'll have a lot of overlap with the "popular" spec, I almost always do, even by accident), so that's not an issue either!

[Rendakor]

Even with the lack of variety on certain talent picks it looks like there are more different builds per spec now than in the past.

More different builds than Cata maybe (but not WotLK nor the early Cata alpha/beta 76p builds) but a different build now means 1-2 different buttons or passives at best. Most of the new talents are very situational or PVP focused anyway, resulting in very little change to gameplay.

[Rokal]

#2 sounds awesome for PVP. Autohealing tagged onto your defensive repositioning move? Yes please.

With a lot of the talents, I can see a case where they might be useful in PVP. Unfortunately "PvP talent vs PvE talent" is exactly what we had with Cata talents, and wasn't deemed compelling then either.

[Rendakor]

Was there a recent hotfix that made Surveying give Arch. skill up again? While leveling mine from 525 to 600 I swear I was only getting them on completing an artifact until today, but now I got skill ups one for one for an entire digsite.

[cmlancas]

I find priest very flexible with talents.  I can see Halo being more useful than Cascade in some places,  and the samewith Mindbender over From Darkness, Comes Light (for both shadow and disc).  Also, the survivability talents are pretty solid as well.

LFR part two last night...was hilarious to watch 75% of the raid fall down the hole, to which I replied, "raidgroup go down the holeeeeeee"

 

Girlfriend got three sigils and four pieces of gear as well.  For six bosses, that's pretty sick life.   

[Paelos]

Shocking nobody, the warrior talents at 90 were dumb choices. Everyone uses Avatar.

[Miasma]

How are people doing with their Elder token rolls?  I'm only one for eight so I'm not getting much with them.  If that keeps up I won't be farming dailies once I get revered with everyone.

[luckton]

Doing my research before I hit LFR to see if the boss actually has something for my tanking roll before I burn a coin or not.  No point in using it if the boss only has one piece of tank gear and I've already got it.

Also, I have 800 lesser coins. Would really like to have something else to spend these on.

[Paelos]

Yeah the lesser coins really add up, and the stupid cap of 10 major coins is dumb. We should be able to treat those are real currency for a vendor on something else. Like actual gear instead of just additional rolls.

[Merusk]

I stopped running dailies for lesser coins when I realized I'd done a week of dailies and had 2 1/2 weeks of coin turn-ins. At that point the grind seemed pointless.  I have no use for the gated items since my GS lets me do LFR so it's just grind for cash and faction which I can delay. I'll get my serpent tonight (Because I'm out of cloth for bandaids and haven't been able to do the bandage quest for 3 days.) and then I'll be done with them as I focus on Fishing and Tillers.   

Golden Lotus have fallen to the wayside because it's too damn many people to compete with.  I'll come in on the weekends when I have more time, but fuck taking an hour to do the first set of 6.  My GL is still running everything every day.  Last night he was bitching he'd been doing dailies for 2 hours straight and he still had 2 hubs to go.  It's too much, particularly when I love X-Com so much and I've let Torchlight and WOT lie fallow for weeks now.

As far as rolls vs wins.  I've used 4 and won once. A very nice belt in Moshugun.

Last night I quit two LFR groups after the 3rd wipe to the same damn drop mechanic.  Even after being warned to watch on the first one we lost 50% of the raid.  The 2nd attempt we lost 4 people.  The third we lost the tank after the boss vortexed him back in as the floor went away and I dropped, unwilling to take another repair hit.   Next raid, same pattern.

I'm going to avoid that section for a week, I think.

[Paelos]

Golden Lotus may trump attunements as the dumbest "gating" design decision Blizzard has put in a game to date. I understand the thought behind it, and I understand why they want to keep content flow at a certain progression.

What I don't understand is forcing massive amounts of dailies down your throat in the same 10x10 box so that everybody killsteals while they skullfuck the zone into oblivion. All for the priviledge of using those points you earned doing something fun.

[luckton]

I dunno...getting a free heroic chest piece last night for doing the Revered Golden Lotus quest unlock kinda made it worth it.  And I can look forward to a free Valor-grade epic ring when I reach Exalted for that quest, so I can save and spend my Valor on other priorities.

But I agree with the dailies overkill and Golden Lotus gating.  I think we can expect that to get the axe within the next month here anyways, as most people will be divided into two groups:those that got Exalted Golden Lotus and those that said fuck that shit and waited until they fixed it.

[Merusk]

The single best fix they could do is just flag every damn GL mob as !.  The pick-up spawns suck enough for fighting over, let's not add in normal mob fights as well.

[Paelos]

Setting 50 spider babies on fire is the worst quest in that series by far.

[Miasma]

Yes I wouldn't mind the dailies at all if everyone were able to work together like in GW2.  The vast majority of why I hate them is other people.  At the very least they need to increase the spawn rate by 1000% for some of the mobs, it's nothing but a brutal tagging competition right now.

[Merusk]

Goats in Valley ot4 Winds are by far the worst in my experiences thus far.  Low meat drop-rate, along with small spawns.  Genius!

[luckton]

Semi-rolled through the second half of Mogu'sha Vaults LFR this afternoon.

- Spirit Kings was interesting.  I can certainly see the difficulty of this encounter in a 10-man or 25-man normal, but once again the nerfs of LFR combo'd with raw spam healing and DPS overcame.  The raid reset for some weird reason on the third king, but we nailed it out pretty quickly.

- Elegon is what lorelol people think it is.  The mogu got a hold of Titan tech and reverse engineered the shit out of it.  LFR nerfs the encounter by removing the stacking buff/debuff one gets from being in the inner ring, which negated a lot of damage + removed the tank swapping.  Still, the remaining mechanics did put pressure on the healers (I let the auto-bot tank keep Elegon's attention while I corralled the adds that spawn.  Obviously no amount of warning to both read up the encounter and get out of the inner ring at the right time prevented at least half of the cat herd from falling into the pit in stag 3  .  But once they got that down he was pretty simple.

- The Will of the Emperor is a modified Tribunal of the Ages fight.  Sheer DPS and healing power couldn't overcome this one.  With the steady stream of different add types, the dual boss constructs with large sweeping AoEs, and the occasional room-wide damage amp debuff, it took six attempts, but we finally got through it.  Would love to tackle this as well in a 10-man.

[craan]

I've had a good deal of trouble healing on my priest as disc or holy.

I was holy for all the fights in DS (normal) and did pretty well, I thought.  My overhealing was really low.  I felt I could really manage my mana through long fights and short intense damage periods.  5-man dungeons were usually no problem unless someone did something extremely bizarre such as pulling the whole room of mobs + Ozruk in the Stonecore dungeon.  We all lived but it was hairy.

The new MoP dungeons are really making me feel stupid.  Both the normal and heroics give me fits.  I have a good idea of what the bosses are going to do because I've read up on them on Icy Veins and youtube walkthroughs.  I felt obligated to do that because hey, I'm the healer.

Hasn't seemed to help me that much.  I would say a third of the dungeons (both normal and heroic) are fine in that while I am low on mana after the fight, nothing occurred that I couldn't handle or adjust on-the-fly for.

The remaining two-thirds have been pretty nightmarish.  If a DPS pulls aggro, I have to let them die because I use too much mana keeping them alive before the tank has gotten threat back.  And by too much mana I mean I won't have enough left to finish the fight after popping a pot and Divine Hymn/Mindbender.

Other times the tank will take a huge spike of damage that makes me shout 'WTF??' at my desk and frantically spam my keys.  I get alarmed when this happens because I know I'm going to dump a shitload of mana to stabilize things and be out the remainder of the fight.  For example, I tried the heroic Mogu-Shan Vaults 5-man last night.  The first boss, about 10 seconds in the fight, hit the tank with Ravage and dropped him to 30% health the first tick.  So I used holy's shitty PW:S, PoM him quick, and start spamming flash heal to keep him alive but my mana was burned and I OOMed a bit after that.  After we wiped, I left group.  This time I didn't bother going back over the combat logs since I was too depressed.

Well, not exactly depressed.  Puzzled and frustrated.  My iLvl is 444 so it could be a gear and spirit issue.  But my spirit is just under 7K which seems like alot but clearly isn't.  Sure, some DPS did bad things, some more than others.  I definitely don't have the mana to correct alot of 'standing in bad shit' mistakes.  Some tanks have been easier than others but if it was their gear, their skill (knowing how to use their cooldowns) or just a class thing.  Or if I am not that good at priest healing and Cata spoiled me.

I dont have any other leveled healers to compare this to in order to narrow down the issue.  But all that said, I have enjoyed the expansion so far.  I do like healing even if it makes me rage and ages me during raids.

[Lakov_Sanite]

One tip is to make SURE you take the mindbender talent.  Having a shadowfiend on a one minute cooldown is a MUST HAVE for mana regen.