WoW: Blizzard is Evil™ Edition

I am so glad for sites like WoW Insider and MMO Champion. They make data gathering for ranty sites like mine so easy.

With that aside out of the way, Blizzard is just totally evil. Not in the megalomaniac villain sort of evil, but the "business evil". The kind of evil where you know it is nothing but a cash grab, but you can't resist it because of one or more compelling reasons. One cannot fault them for it though because, well, they are a business after all. For every company, despite all the repeated "for the players" speech or PR quote they do, they all have to watch their bottom line.

So why is Blizzard "evil" this time? Behold the Annual Pass! You sign up and you get a bunch of free stuff. A new mount for World of Warcraft, a free digital copy of Diablo III, and guaranteed access to the next WoW expansion beta. All the other stuff is great, but that last one really caught my eye. 

I am still on the fence with regards to purchasing the next expansion, even if I have already accepted the pandas invading WoW. My hope was that I would be lucky enough to get a beta invite to try it out before I decide. And this is where the annual pass comes in. If I want to make sure I get beta access, I should get locked into a subscription for a year and there is already speculation that Mists of Pandaria™ can go live sometime Summer 2012. If this is true, then I'm basically paying for the game whether or not I buy the expansion. If this is the case, I would not be able to play any of my max level characters except for fiddling around the new systems. And I certainly would not be able to make a Monk or Pandaren character.

So basically, getting the annual pass makes getting Mists of Pandaria™ pretty much a sure thing. Unless it gets released late Fall or Winter 2012.

How evil. But also incredibly smart.

Will I get the annual pass though even after seeing all this mindbending evil? The magic 8-ball says "most likely". Man, that toy is kinda creepy.

WoW: Death Knight T13 - Huh.

So MMO Champion has datamined the death knight's T13 set from the latest PTR update and I have to say I am underwhelmed. It's not a bad looking set, and, if it was released/available when the others were, it would have been more acceptable. However, Blizzard has indicated that the original T13 was not up to snuff when it was rendered so they started from scratch. They went on to say they wanted to make a really great set that fit the death knight theme and I have to give them that this set does that. However, a lot of expectations were raised when the Q&A panel was asked:

Where is the Death Knight tier 13?

Its really awesome and you will see it soon

It's hard not to anticipate from that that the death knight tier 13 would be on par or better than what they did for warriors or hunters. Like I mentioned earlier, this isn't the worst set for death knights, but the first impressions from it was that it was rather bland. So what is really wrong with it?

It's really all about the helm. The rest of the set seems right and I do like how the shoulders look, but the helm is what everyone looks at first. The helm is where the first impression is from and where one would like people to stop and look at the fearsome death knight standing there. As it is, the first thing I saw was a bearded man. After some adjustments in MMO Champion's model viewer, it looked better, but I cannot unsee the beard. The female example looks like a bearded lady.

Now I know what they are going for with the spiked front of the helmet. It's supposed to be a ribcage for the skull theme of the helm. But it also makes the horns look a bit out of place. Granted, it looks fine in the front view, but the forward angle and length seems a bit much.

The biggest problem with the set is that it was released almost a month after the others were available. Even at the Blizzcon art panel, they had an image that shows every class except the death knights. This raised expectations even more. Surely something that takes this long would be an epic set that would blow away the rest. It became almost certain that Blizzard would put something that would "wow" their death knight players. It would immediately be known that death knights will have an awesome set.

Then we have the MMO Champion datamine. Huh.

I have to say, once again, that it is, in no way, a terrible set. It simply did not have the impact that was expected, certainly not in the way when the warrior or hunter sets were introduced. The general reaction was closer to when the paladin set was found. I remember the round of mocking laughter at the "bird boy" set, but, after a while, it did grow on people and I personally find it a set I would like to kit my paladin with. The same is likely going to happen with the death knight set. As understated as it is, it does fit the death knight theme and will likely look a whole lot better in the game than through model viewer pictures.

Even if it doesn't get accepted widely as a good set down the road, death knights do have to be glad that Blizzard didn't try to make a counterpart for the warducks.

WoW: The Pandas are Coming

I have dreaded this moment. It is probably a good thing I didn't attend Blizzcon as I probably would have just left after the expansion announcement. But is it really that bad? Are having pandas ... er ... pandaren really that devastating to the World of Warcraft? Is it really worth ragequitting the game because of this rather dubious addition to WoW lore? 


Actually, after the initial shock wore off and I managed to think about it,  the answer is no. 


Yes, the addition of the pandaren is a bit hard to swallow, and the lore behind their appearance in the game may seem forced, but it is definitely better than the draenei. A mist-ical (get it? wow, tough crowd) land shrouded in magic is definitely more acceptable than goat people crash landing their spaceship on Azeroth. But in the years since their introduction, they've become an accepted, and even a preferred, race for players. 

Panda or not, this is an awesome picture

Pandaren also serve another purpose; the World of Warcraft needs to stand on it's own. WoW has relied heavily on lore from the Warcraft RTS games and the story can stretch so far. As of 2011, Illidan has been killed, Kil'Jaeden locked from Azeroth, Arthas is dead and Deathwing is soon to follow. The list of threats stemming from the RTS lore is running low. 


That's not to say World of Warcraft was only keeping to lore born from the RTS games. The game has introduced a lot of lore it can claim as it's own and has been very successful (mostly) in making all that very immersive. Beloved and hated characters like Highlord Bolvar, Garrosh Hellscream are WoW inventions. The increasing insanity of Sylvannas, while not a WoW-born character, brings further depth and the promise of interesting events to come that will affect Azeroth. 

Pictured: Freshness

The lore additions of World of Warcraft has been weaved into, and expanded, the RTS lore and has been, for all intents and purposes, gradual. Mists of Pandaria takes a huge leap into lore of it's own making. An entirely new continent, new races, new stories not stemming from anything found in Warcraft of the past. The pandaren and Pandaria are a shot of freshness and are there to show there indeed are more stories to tell in Azeroth. It's Blizzard's way of showing that the World of Warcraft is more than just what we have already seen in previous games. 


Yes, they could have done an Emerald Dream expansion, and maybe it would have made more sense. Yes, they could have maybe sent us to bring the fight to the Burning Legion. But with the reveal of Pandaria, now we have to think "what else does Azeroth have to offer?". The last line in the reveal trailer said it quite nicely: "Azeroth's limits have yet to be revealed".  There is now confidence that there can be more after Pandaria. 


So I have accepted the pandaren as a good race for the World of Warcraft. The models look great and the environments shown look like they can be quite immersive. But why am I not convinced that I will play this expansion? 


Maybe I am not sure I will like this story arc. The promise of returning the focus to the horde/alliance war is nice, but I would have preferred fighting for lands already taken and lands to be conquered. Pandaria seems like a detour kind of like how Outland was. Perhaps it's because I don't know too much about it. After so many years, the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor do feel like a second home. I still feel badly for the loss of Southshore and I take my time to look over it during my archaeology runs. After Deathwing falls, it just makes sense to me to kick some Horde ass and take back some of what we've lost. Or, if Horde, press the offensive. 

Do I look like I snuggle?

Maybe there will be all that in Mists of Pandaria and maybe it will be awesome. With the information now though, I just don't know. With luck, maybe I can get into the beta and see for myself if I will purchase this expansion and snuggle with the fuzzy bear men. 

WoW: Hollow's End Returns!

Another holloween season and another Hollow's End event in World of Warcraft. Naturally, the Headless Horseman's loot has been updated to ilvl 365 but great news to those who need those last few masks for the achievement: you can get them from the vendor.

There is also a new pet (pic from MMO-Champion) - leave it up to Blizzard to make something cute and creepy at the same time. 



The cat costs 150 tricky treats. Now these are relatively easy to come by, my paladin has around 30-odd of those in the bags now. In an eeeeeeevil Blizzard way, these treats can also be obtained in the handful of candy bags from the inns. So in their eeeeevil Blizzard way, they've found how to get people who have already done the achievement to do it again.

A few other things of note:

• Masks no longer take the helmet slot. They instead put a buff with no duration on the character to put the mask on. It doesn't persist through death and is still really, really ugly.
• The new quests are pretty fun to do and the Wickerman dousing WILL get you flagged for PvP. Some horde chased down my paladin after getting the dousing done. no one bothered my Death Knight. Sheesh, not even ganking love.
• The sword from the loot bag has some use even for non-agility users. The pumpkins are now level 85 and they can do some damage. Having my army of ghouls and pumpkins attack a boss was pretty funny to see.
• Setting fire to your own faction's Wickerman gives a reputation and xp boost.
• All those rare items that caused frustration for completionists that could not get their title for years? Those can now be bought by using tricky treats. Not cheap, but now a better means to complete the achievement instead of just pure luck.