Initial Thoughts on Pandaria

[craan]

I've been leveling an alt on Barthilas and never had a big problem.  Occasionally, yes, I'd be one-shotted by a 90 doing Arch/Herbing/Mining but they would always be gone by the time I got back to my corpse.  So except for an extra minute of corpse-running the cross-realm stuff there was pretty painless until I hit 80 and went to Hyjal.

There were 3-4 groups of 5-6 Horde hanging around each of the beginning quest nodes there.  Goldrinn's Shrine and places like that.  They were a mix of people from Frostmourne and Jube-something.  All 90s and all one-shotting the 80s.  There were calls for help going on in a few of the channels but there didn't seem to be much response from our side.  I managed to finish a few quests by just being lucky and ignored amidst the chaos.  But I logged shortly after knowing the other hubs were being fucked with.  My alternative was to go quest in Vash'jir.  Ugh.

I am kinda used to (at least in my experience) Alliance apathy about Horde attacking but it was shitty they were all cross-realm since its not like I can nurse a grudge and get back at them because they aren't on my server.

[Fabricated]

This is why you don't play on PVP servers. PVP servers are fucking dumb.

[Zetor]

If Bliz offered one-time guild server transfers, we would've moved to a pve or rp server looooooong ago. Paying big $$$ to transfer 4-5 characters per person is not really an option for us, though (especially when most of the guild isn't even playing now). We didn't really have an issue with the pvp server thing since Crushridge was never 'big' (I levelled during launch week in Cata with only 3 people of my level attacking me... none of them straight-up ganks), and it had a really small ganker population + there were always peopel ready to hit them back. With cross-server zones though, all bets are off.

And yeah, I started to have issues in Hyjal too (a fair amount of 90s and 85s hanging around questing areas ganking people). I didn't catch the server names for most of the gankers, but I know at least two of them were Frostmourne. They also try to corpse-camp the lowbies after killing them, which is hilariously sad and pointless at the same time (even as a non-stealther, they won't be able to get me in combat before I get on my 280% flying mount after rezzing out of LOS).

[cmlancas]

If Bliz offered one-time guild server transfers, we would've moved to a pve or rp server looooooong ago. Paying big $$$ to transfer 4-5 characters per person is not really an option for us, though (especially when most of the guild isn't even playing now). We didn't really have an issue with the pvp server thing since Crushridge was never 'big' (I levelled during launch week in Cata with only 3 people of my level attacking me... none of them straight-up ganks), and it had a really small ganker population + there were always peopel ready to hit them back. With cross-server zones though, all bets are off.

And yeah, I started to have issues in Hyjal too (a fair amount of 90s and 85s hanging around questing areas ganking people). I didn't catch the server names for most of the gankers, but I know at least two of them were Frostmourne. They also try to corpse-camp the lowbies after killing them, which is hilariously sad and pointless at the same time (even as a non-stealther, they won't be able to get me in combat before I get on my 280% flying mount after rezzing out of LOS).

Flying mounts make this much less painless, which is nice.

Cleared 4/6 last night.  Elegon is a brutal fight, and seems like what you'd want out of a raid boss.  Although I appreciated what spirit kings were, they were extremely easy compared to Gara'jal.

I have to admit, while the dailies are an awful grind, I enjoy being out in the world.  Anything I can do to stay away from /2 is a win in my book.

[Azazel]

I've heard that one of the pandaria factions is easier/faster to max out than the others? does anyone know which one it is?

[Merusk]

3 are in my experience, but don't give gear.

1) Lorewalkers - Just fly around once you hit 90 and find all the lore objects that tell the story of the Klaxxi, Mogu, Pandaran and Jinyu and Hozen.  Instant exalted rep and flying disc.
2) Jinyu/ Hozen (faction dependent) - You should be exalted once you complete Jade Forest and/ or Kun-Lai summit.
3) Cloudserpent Riders - Do the profession dailies and it's about 2 weeks of questing. Get some egg spawns and it's faster than that.

After that Tillers is the next easiest as you get rep for harvesting as well as the dailies.  The dailies are also pretty quick so long as you always ignore that goddamn fatty goatsteak one.

[luckton]

One more day for Shado-Pan exalted.  Will still check them daily after like I've been the others to get the achieves, but I should be more than ready to tackle the next factions in 5.1 when they come out.

[Setanta]

I've been leveling an alt on Barthilas and never had a big problem.  Occasionally, yes, I'd be one-shotted by a 90 doing Arch/Herbing/Mining but they would always be gone by the time I got back to my corpse.  So except for an extra minute of corpse-running the cross-realm stuff there was pretty painless until I hit 80 and went to Hyjal.

I'm on Blackrock - total alliance ganks of my toons = 1 out of 3 now-90s

It really doesn't seem to be a problem and hasn't been post-TBC.

Having said that, the one gank was a 90 hunter vs my 87 prot pally (I was farming turtles/rat-dudes). Death by boredom to them as their pet died to adds that they picked up as we played chase and I had AS glyphed and think I had popped all < 3min CDs twice in the fight plus the 2 big ones never once saw a scatter shot or trap - I know their death was more due to them sucking than me being any good because my pally was hitting like a wet noodle.

[Zetor]

I've been leveling an alt on Barthilas and never had a big problem.  Occasionally, yes, I'd be one-shotted by a 90 doing Arch/Herbing/Mining but they would always be gone by the time I got back to my corpse.  So except for an extra minute of corpse-running the cross-realm stuff there was pretty painless until I hit 80 and went to Hyjal.

I'm on Blackrock - total alliance ganks of my toons = 1 out of 3 now-90s

It really doesn't seem to be a problem and hasn't been post-TBC.

Having said that, the one gank was a 90 hunter vs my 87 prot pally (I was farming turtles/rat-dudes). Death by boredom to them as their pet died to adds that they picked up as we played chase and I had AS glyphed and think I had popped all < 3min CDs twice in the fight plus the 2 big ones never once saw a scatter shot or trap - I know their death was more due to them sucking than me being any good because my pally was hitting like a wet noodle.

Well yea, but I assume you were levelling those characters from 85-90 (which are not cross-server). My problem is with level 90 gankers in cross-server zones, especially BC (60-70) and Cata (80-85). My level 83 monk has been ganked about 7 times now (90s in almost all cases, one 85), and one of the 90s as well as the 85 tried to camp me as well.

And yep, gankers are almost always bad at pvp when it goes beyond one-shotitng lowbies - comes with the territory, I think. I used to enjoy killing the level 60 rogue gankers in low-level contested alliance zones (Redridge/Wetlands/Duskwood) with my warrior back in vanilla.

[Sheepherder]

They really should have level bracketed the cross-server zone, tossed all similar level characters into a reasonable number of instances regardless of server type, and just auto-flagged the pvp players.  Might actually be sort of fun if it was +/- 2 levels or so.

Fuck dailies.  Seriously.  I don't subscribe to do what is very obviously busywork.

[Miasma]

LFR is getting annhilated on the last boss of the first half of Heart of Fear which opened today, they're going to have to nerf that down.  There is a giant purple circle under the boss and when people get under it he stomps on the entire raid, so any random person out of 25 can screw you over.  Plus a screwy tank to tank to dps swap that requires more coordination than can be expected in lfr.  It's kind of funny because you can't get any lfr that isn't stuck at 2/3 bosses finished with the raid cycling through queueing more people up as they leave.

[SurfD]

LFR is getting annhilated on the last boss of the first half of Heart of Fear which opened today, they're going to have to nerf that down.  There is a giant purple circle under the boss and when people get under it he stomps on the entire raid, so any random person out of 25 can screw you over.  Plus a screwy tank to tank to dps swap that requires more coordination than can be expected in lfr.  It's kind of funny because you can't get any lfr that isn't stuck at 2/3 bosses finished with the raid cycling through queueing more people up as they leave.

Odd, my very first HoF LFR queue today was a 2/3 complete one, which stuck us at the last boss, which that particular group then proceeded to oneshot.  It got kind of hairy at the end, when there were phermone pools literally everywhere, but for the most part, seemed to go pretty simply.  I think we also only had like one person die to the Crush.

[luckton]

I've read the strat on Garalon for 10/25 man.  What aspect did they nerf for LFR?

[Miasma]

As far as I can tell it's just reduced damage, the mechanics are the same.  So far you have been able to ignore mechanics but not on Garalon.  There is a complicated switch on the phermones that anyone not involved can screw up, there is the purple zone that anyone can screw up, the people with phermones have to keep moving (actually everyone has to keep moving) while kiting the pools to the outside.

[SurfD]

I believe something in the phermone trail / pool / debuff mechanic has been changed for LFR.  Either a reduced duration on phermones, or lowered chance for it to jump to others, or something, that makes that aspect of the fight (which is argeuably the most important) a bit less reaction intensive in regards to instant wipeing if it goes bad.

[Merusk]

Pheromones only seem to jump to the tanks on LFR. I didn't quite follow that as all I had to do was, "stand in the green circle, avoid the purple and kill legs not the boss."   

My experience was the exact same as SurfD.  Came in on 2/3, people explained it as I did above, we wtfpnd in one try, end of story.  Though I gathered my group had several wipes before I joined and they kicked the tank who refused to run back.

I didn't even realize what the pheromone pools were until the end of the fight when they were all around the area, I stepped in one and DBM yelled at me.

One hint.  Be sure you expressly tell the DPS that 1) Standing in the green gives you a 100% damage boost and 2) That this boost ONLY works on the legs.  Several people who'd stuck out the wipes said "Oh, ok!  I didn't know that!"   (Which then got others bitching "Oh, sure, get a DPS increase and you'll pay attention to the goddamn mechanics.")   

You can try to explain that killing a leg drops 3% off the bosses health, but really the folks who care about that would know it already.  Just point out "circle =  loldeepz!"  and you should be good.

[SurfD]

I think Garalon is much like the first week of Will of the Emperor. Lots of wipeing the first few times groups do it, then once people get a grip on the mechanics, it will be a standard easy LFR fight.

As to ignoring mechanics, there seemed to be plenty of mechanics on the first two bosses that you cant ignore.

You can ignore the sound circles on the first boss, but if you dont get in the Bubble during the AOE yell thing you will put a lot of stress on your healers, and probably eventually end up with people dying. You also cant really ignore the MC'd people, especially on the final phase, if you still have MCd people up when he casts the AOE yell thing.  You CAN heal through it, but if too many people are standing outside of the Protective Bubbles, you will likely end up with people dying.  Also, I saw at least one person die during the AOE yell phase because they were MCd, got focused by a couple of people with high burst damage, got burst down to like 30%, then died to boss damage when the MC ended because they were outside the bubble.

On the second boss, you can ignore most of the mechanics (untill the final phase, where you need a minimum number of people who can avoid tornadoes or you will wipe), but you cant ignore the one where he vanishes and attacks a random target, because if you dont get enough people stacked around that target, they WILL die.  On my frst run on him, we had two people die to that mechanic because the first person it targeted got a Boss Mod raid marker stuck on his head and then proceeded to run away like a little girl, resulting in him getting himself and the one unlucky person who was next to him killed when the boss popped in and oneshot them.

Garalon however is the only LFR fight in game I am aware of that has a 100% instakill mechanic that is totally up to the individual player to avoid (if you are still in the purple circle when he does a crush, it WILL kill you).  However, you pretty much have to be a complete failure to die to that mechanic, since you have something like 4 seconds to get clear when the in game raidwarning screams INCOMING CRUSH at you.  (sort of like if Ultraxion was allowed to Oneshot you with the attack that no one pushes the button on in LFR)

[SurfD]

Just discovered something I REALLY wish I had known like, a month ago :(

If you are an achievement whore (like me) and are doing Getting Around With The Shadow Pan, The Achieve to do 15 dailys with each Shadow Pan companion, make sure you are DISMOUNTED, standing beside a DISMOUNTED Companion if you attempt to turn the quest in.   Appearently if you are Mounted, and your companion is mounted (flying on their Kite), you have a high chance to get no credit for the Quest.  This drives me nuts, because i could be like 90% done with that achieve, instead of like 20% because I have been turning in most of the quests directly to my companion while hovering over the battlefield.

Also of note: if the August Celestial Dailys happen to be for Nizuao's temple, do those with your Shadow Pan companion, as appearently they also count as credit towards that particular achieve.

[Paelos]

They need to fix that stupid Shadopan pet getting on the kite at all opportunities. Are we done fighting? Let me get on my fucking kite so I block your looting.

[SurfD]

They need to fix a lot of things with the shadowpan pets.  The hunter is almost useless 90% of the time.  Dumbass will drop traps at his feet (miles away from mobs), sometimes just stands there doing nothing, other times runs in and starts meleing, instead of shooting things, and likes to disengage into other packs of mobs just for fun.

[cmlancas]

They need to fix a lot of things with the shadowpan pets.  The hunter is almost useless 90% of the time.  Dumbass will drop traps at his feet (miles away from mobs), sometimes just stands there doing nothing, other times runs in and starts meleing, instead of shooting things, and likes to disengage into other packs of mobs just for fun.

There's a webcomic out there I read about them once upon a time.  Can't remember if it was in this thread or not.

Also, I specifically don't get a companion because they are worse than Barrens General chat from Vanilla.

nyone have any experience downing 10m reg Elegon?  Guild group is struggling a little bit.

[Merusk]

Know that they use the same AI as mobs and it becomes clearer why they do some of the dumb stuff.  I avoid any of the companions with pets, but the rogue, 2hdps, monk and tank all compliment me fairly well.

[cmlancas]

Know that they use the same AI as mobs and it becomes clearer why they do some of the dumb stuff.  I avoid any of the companions with pets, but the rogue, 2hdps, monk and tank all compliment me fairly well.

"Mr. Merusk, you sure look great in that armor.  Is it a new transmog set?"

/technicalwriteroff   

[Merusk]

That joke was bad and you should feel bad!

[SurfD]

Wasnt sure where else to post this, but it gave me a really good laugh.

Quality WoW machinima is alive and well:
http://youtu.be/qMlzJdeOeVc

[Trippy]

That was impressive.

[Paelos]

The fung-fu version of the Arthas showdown is probably better than the actual one.

[Lakov_Sanite]

ARTHASU!

[Fabricated]

A horde fury warrior that was the same level as me challenged me to a dual yesterday. Literally 15 minutes later he gave up because neither of us could kill the other. I couldn't get him from 10% to 0 for some reason, and he could never get me under 70%. Was kinda funny.

[Ironwood]

And what were you ?

[Zetor]

For good times*, duel a holy pally as a blood DK.


* not really

[Fabricated]

And what were you ?

Oh bah, I should've said. I'm a prot warrior. It was a massive exercise in futility.

[SurfD]

A horde fury warrior that was the same level as me challenged me to a dual yesterday. Literally 15 minutes later he gave up because neither of us could kill the other. I couldn't get him from 10% to 0 for some reason, and he could never get me under 70%. Was kinda funny.

Second wind is utterly retarded.  Hell, a LOT of the DPS class "self healing" abilities are poorly though out and badly in need of balancing.  I mean, yes, I know that playing a dps class is boring when you have to med up between fights, but they should not have gone to the point where some classes can do compedative HPS to actual healers (in some case without really having to actually DO anything) while still maintaining good dps.

[Zetor]

To be fair, my blood DK outhealed a lot of LFD healers even in Cata. 

[Setanta]

I was doing 2s as a blood DK with a rogue as my partner.

The rogue was smashed but the ret pally/resto druid combo couldn't drop me below 80%

I'm going to miss death strike :(

I still haven't got my ret pally sorted - I get hit like a truck by other rets but need more gear I think.