World of Warcraft: Take 2

[Razola]

I'm curious if anyone besides Craig and I are playing it. Because if you're not, then you may not for a while since Blizzard has stopped production due to the hammering their servers take (all 88 of them).

I still have a damn 10-Day pass for the game. And I may just give it out.

[Heald]

I won't be playing it for a while, but only because Blizzard are being half-arsed and waiting until March to finish the European servers.

[Razola]

Better later than a half-ass now. My server has lines I have to wait through in order to get in (usually at night) and there's a nice amount server downage and occasional lag. The newer servers aren't as bad, but there's a point where you can't just redo a level 46 character from scatch. As a matter of fact, the real problems didn't start again until Christmas, when the little wankers decided to hop on a high population server. GENIUS!

We have gotten several free days out of it, though. And many servers will be down for 16 hours to nip these problems in the bud.

[ryandude713]

I'm going to be buying this as soon as I finish with COH, so I have a few questions.

First: What are the most damaging classes?
Second: Is it worth getting the special edition for the panda/zergling pet?
Third: Is crafting better in this game than others before it? Does it not suck as bad?

[Austrian ViceMaster Alex]

I had the US version imported to me in December and play a Human Priest on some PvP server now. I hate PvP though, only played there cause all my friends I know from EverQuest are playing on that stupid server. I don't like being a Human either, I wanted to be a Tauren, but oh no, my friends have to play on the Alliance side.

The game itself is pretty nice but unfortunately it also is home for an incredibly big bunch of incompetent and unfriendly players. A huge downside of it being so easy to play and handle. Can't have it all I guess.

First: What are the most damaging classes?
Second: Is it worth getting the special edition for the panda/zergling pet?
Third: Is crafting better in this game than others before it? Does it not suck as bad?

1.) Hmmm ... I guess mages.
2.) No idea, all they do is run after you. I call a White Kitten my own. Personally I find a Zergling or Panda or worse mini Diablo running around the game ruining its atmosphere as those creatures don't belong into the game world.
3.) I have no idea what you consider sucking but WoW's tradeskill system is easy, unchallenging, rewarding and you won't be proud of anything you make in it.

[Razola]

First: What are the most damaging classes?

Rogue and Mage have the highest DPS potential. Warrior can get pretty high as well if you go with a DPS talent tree. Keep in mind that rogues deal a lot of damage to one target, while Mages can go AoE. I believe that Mages might edge out Rogues in the long run, but they also have to worry about a weaker body and mana issues.

Second: Is it worth getting the special edition for the panda/zergling pet?

It's a Panda/Zergling/Mini-Diablo that you get at the start of the game. They just follow you and look pretty; they have no combat capabilities. If you get it, do it for the DVD version, the nice case for the CD version, and the soundtrack/artbook.

Oh, and good luck finding one. EBGames is selling it for $150.

Third: Is crafting better in this game than others before it? Does it not suck as bad?

Crafting is quick and simple. You can have two professions, one is normally a gathering skill and the other is a production skill. If you are a miner, you look for mineral nodes. Skinners slice up the corpses of beasts, and so forth. If you have the proper reagents for an item, it takes about 10 seconds to make it if it's of an orange skill level (meaning you are ensured to gain a skill level in that skill).

The items you make are pretty good, and will last you until you find the phat lewt in instances.

[Dark Scizor]

I won't be playing it for a while, but only because Blizzard are being half-arsed and waiting until March to finish the European servers.

x2

I can't wait until it comes out though. Heald, you gonna take the same name for WoW if it is available?

[Red Angel]

I'm considering it, but shelling out $20CDN (+tax) a month is putting me off. That and all this stuff I hear about unfriendly wait times to play. I may look into it by summertime, but for now I'm still enjoying WCIII FFA games and Zelda: The Minish Cap.

[Razola]

There are no wait times if you pick one of their many low population servers. I didn't have a queue until after Christmas, when the little shitheads who got the game for Christmas figured it would be an awesone idea to jump on the alrdeay crowded servers. So now, around 6pm when all the homework and dinner is done with, the kiddies jump on and I have to deal with lines.

When you first log on, the game will pick out a server for you, one that has a low population. "Low" in this case means under 2,000 people. Boo hoo.

[Red Angel]

There are no wait times if you pick one of their many low population servers. I didn't have a queue until after Christmas, when the little shitheads who got the game for Christmas figured it would be an awesone idea to jump on the alrdeay crowded servers. So now, around 6pm when all the homework and dinner is done with, the kiddies jump on and I have to deal with lines.

When you first log on, the game will pick out a server for you, one that has a low population. "Low" in this case means under 2,000 people. Boo hoo.

Problem is, half the fun of any multiplayer game is playing it with friends/clanmates, and considering most of them have characters in the 40s, it's going to be a real piece of work convincing them to switch. And I'm still iffy about paying 70+ for the game and then another 20+ on a monthly basis. I might wait until the price drops a little. Not to mention that I'd rather save for a new computer; mine is underwhelming, to put it nicely. And to avoid having this sound like a blog, how's the PvP? I'm just a tad concerned about being killed left and right by characters 20 levels above me.

[Austrian ViceMaster Alex]

how's the PvP? I'm just a tad concerned about being killed left and right by characters 20 levels above me.

There are certain level caps in PvP. That means a level 60 player can't come and kill a level 1 player. You can only kill (or get killed by) someone who is a few levels above or below you max - as long as you don't attack them first. If the level 1 newbie would be so dumb to attack the level 60 player first, PvP gets enabled for him and he could fight back.

The biggest problem about PvP are the grievers who ruin your quests, for example when you have to protect an NPC from mobs they come up and kill the NPC. Then there are the corpse campers who have nothing better to do than wait for you to revive just to kill you again - you can protect yourself from that by reviving at the graveyard but that ruins your armor and weapons (gotta repair them then). And of course the funny rogues who find it so amusing to sneak up behind you while you maneuver in difficult, mob invested areas and backstab you. Gotta love those corpse runs.

In a fair and square fight PvP is fun but you will barely see those. Most of the times you'll get attacked at unawares, most likely while you're fighting a mob and have already lost half your mana and health so you have no chance fighting back. Fun, fun.

[Heald]

x2

I can't wait until it comes out though. Heald, you gonna take the same name for WoW if it is available?

Maybe. Depends if it ruins the fantasy element of it or not.

[Dark Scizor]

There are certain level caps in PvP. That means a level 60 player can't come and kill a level 1 player. You can only kill (or get killed by) someone who is a few levels above or below you max - as long as you don't attack them first. If the level 1 newbie would be so dumb to attack the level 60 player first, PvP gets enabled for him and he could fight back.

Gotta Love Blizzards system for making sure that lower level players don't get picked on (like in WC3).

Maybe. Depends if it ruins the fantasy element of it or not.

Fair does.

My friend got the Euro Beta today .

[Razola]

Ignore everything Alex said about PvP, because clearly he's playing some foreign game that might sound similar to WoW, but clearly is not.

Three servers: PvP, PvE, and RP

As far as PvP goes, PvE and RP are one and the same.

The way the rules work is that you can be attacked by a member of the opposing faction (Humans/Dwarves/Night Elves/Gnomes vs. Orcs/Tauren/Trolls/Undead) if you are flagged. Getting flagged depends on your server. And on both servers you can always flag yourself by typing /pvp.

PvE and RP

-Flagged if you attack a person or NPC who is flagged or if you help an ally or NPC who is flagged. Otherwise you are safe from combat unless you go inside an enemy Capital.

PvP

-Three types or terrority: Friendly, Contested, Enemy

-Friendly is the areas near your capitals, and the areas where you start leveling. You can only be flagged for PvP if you attack an enemy. Basically, you get the first hit.

-Contested is open warfare. You are always flagged and can be attacked at any time by the enemy. The bulk of the zones in the game are contested.

-Enemy is the reverse of Friendly. You are always flagged and you can't attack the enemy there unless they attack you.

If you choose PvP, you WILL get ganked by people as high as 40 levels over you. You may have to find another area to quest in if a certain area is under enemy control. Make no mistake, people can and will make your life as miserable as possible.

It can be very entertaining, however, to lead charges into certain areas for the right to quest there. That's not to say that an enemy will always prevent you from accomplishing things. I was outnumbered 3-1 and the people there left me alone and even helped me out at times.

Use the defense channels and you can organize counter-attacks and help out people in need. It's a lot more interesting than PvE servers, in my opinion, and just adds another wrinkle to the gameplay. It's something else to do, simply put, and I enjoy the added options.

EDIT: I should also mention that WoW's death penalty doesn't apply to kills via PvP. You MIGHT lose a single durability point off ONE piece of equipment, but that's othing compared to the 10% hit you take off everything when you die PvE.

[ryandude713]

I just got my copy a few hours ago, and after installing it, I was unable to start an account... I get an error screen after I put in my key. I retyped it and redid it many times, but nothing works. So I'm calling customer sevice tomorrow morning, and see if things get better. If not then I'm returning it and buying another copy, to see if that works.

Update: I decided to wait it out, and at 1:30 i finally got my account. I played until 3, and tried to go to sleep. After 2 hours of insomnia, I've woken up to play it more. I'm a Night Elf Druid on a normal server. I love this game.

[PNT510]

Crafting is quick and simple. You can have two professions, one is normally a gathering skill and the other is a production skill. If you are a miner, you look for mineral nodes. Skinners slice up the corpses of beasts, and so forth. If you have the proper reagents for an item, it takes about 10 seconds to make it if it's of an orange skill level (meaning you are ensured to gain a skill level in that skill).

The items you make are pretty good, and will last you until you find the phat lewt in instances.

I thought you could get 2 gathering skills if you wanted. Or 2 production skills if you wanted also. It's just though to come across the goods you need. There are also 3 secondary skills you can learn(Cooking, Fishing, and First Aid).


I just got this game tonight and played it for 5 hours without even noticing. I'm a human fighter(How original) and I just turned level 7.

[Razola]

Yes, you can get two of any of the major skills (cooking, first aid, and fishing are "secondary" and anyone can get), but generallu most people are going to get a production skill and the best gathering skill for it. I know many get gathering skills like mining and skinning for money purposes, but I doubt many people wiill go for two production skills unless one is tailoring or they have a large, generous guild.

[ryandude713]

How good is the money from fishing?
I've gotten to level 90 w/ skinning, and ive gotten some pretty good money from it (about 1 silver and 50 bronze for 10 peices of light leather). Would fishing give me revenue like that in its early stages?

[PNT510]

My fishing skill isn't very high(30 something), but I make more money with Mining and blacksmithing.

[Djinn]

Are you Horde or Alliance Ryan? Light Leather for 1 Silver 50 Copper! I get 5 times that at the Ironforge Auction House.

[ryandude713]

Horde. I don't think i could sell there, being their sworn enemy and all.

[Djinn]

I guessed so, probably not. Why is there an Auction House in Gadgetzan when no one goes there?

[Razola]

It allows you to sell items that you normally couldn't get due to faction. Currently it's really just a dumping ground for non-combat pets (like if an Alliance member wants a cockroach or Horde wants a cat). No one is going to do heavy buying and selling since the deposit is higher and there's is less activity since Gadgetzan is a level 40+ area.

EDIT: Temple of Hakkar is like, the best place for loot in your low 50s. I got a whopping four pieces of blue there on my first run, and I still can go back to get a robe and the prayer of Fortitude drop. Good stuff.

Oh, and I ran into Shadra last night:

[SilverMachop]

Dwarves are the best race, in my opinion, because:

1.) They can be paladins, who rule.
2.) They're great at using guns, hehehe.
3.) Their females, unlike many other fantasy stories, do NOT have beards (thank you Blizzard thank you).
4.) Look at my signature (it's true, the dwarf's in Loch Modon in front of the digging site).

I'm on Proudmoore, just to let you all know. I'm Silvergem, female dwarf paladin, currently level 36.

[Razola]

Dwarves are the best race, in my opinion, because:

1.) They can be paladins, who rule.

Pallies and Shaman are pretty damn broken. Pallies live much too long than they should and Shaman are the kings of not making you move. Frost Shock lasts for six or seven seconds, and yet the cooldown is about five or four.

2.) They're great at using guns, hehehe.

Paladins can't train in guns, or any ranged weapon for that matter. Just a heads up.

3.) Their females, unlike many other fantasy stories, do NOT have beards (thank you Blizzard thank you).

This pisses me off, because it basically makes the Alliance just varying heights of humans. The only really interesting race, in my opinion, is the night elves. The Horde has a much mroe varied and interesting set of races. As now, Dwarven females just look like stereotypical Germanic woman. If human females weren't given their barbie-bodies, I'd easily mistake a dwarf female for a a human.

I'm on Proudmoore, just to let you all know. I'm Silvergem, female dwarf paladin, currently level 36.

Normal servers are the devil. Every person who has bitched to me that the game gets boring at the higher levels was on a normal server. PvP simply adds a bit of a variable. It encourages you to interact with people and helps you get intimate with your class.

If you haven't invested too much time yet, I suggest making the switch.

[The Muffin Man]

1.Ya know, I've play a few other games similiar to WoW, and everyone always bitches that the tank classes "last too long". Well obviously. There's a very good reason why the tank-class Paladin outlasts the Rogue, people. The Shamans Frost shock, however, is a bit unbalanced.

2.Think she meant Dwarves in general.

3.While the horde are varied, I hate the undead so that's out, and I really never liked orcs so I'm stuck with Tauren or Troll. And since Trolls apparently get to ride a raptor at lvl 40, my first character(I currently have a Dwarven Paladin at my friends house, lvl 11, "Gilias" A cookie to the person who figures out why) and first Horde character will be a Troll Shaman or Hunter. Dunno yet...if the Shaman is as broken as Raz says, I might just decide against it.

[Leon-IH]

WoW's tradeskill system is easy, unchallenging, rewarding and you won't be proud of anything you make in it.

Ok, what level and tradeskill are you?

Seriously high end leatherworking is only for those who REALLY like camping one kind of monster for 6-7 hours just to make one item.

I'm playing a shaman on proudmoore, and if anyone buys the game: please don't come to proudmoore, theres too many people on it as is.

Just so everyone knows, shamans and paladins become WAY less broken around lvl 30 or so, even in PVP.

Seeing as paladins DPS is so low with a lack of killing spells and shamans are just plain hard to use in instances at lvl 35 or so onwards - can't use earthshock unless you like 5 elites hitting you, frostshock is weak in Player v Monster, flameshock sucks later - 80% fire resistant stuff hurts the damage badly, chain lightning: see earthshock, lightning is just weak so your stuck with meleeing, totems and healing which certainly isn't as good as a warrior or rogue on damage output.

Also: Shamans don't get plate mail - which makes them pretty crap for absorbing high lvl dmg.

[Razola]

Also: Shamans don't get plate mail - which makes them pretty crap for absorbing high lvl dmg.

As a cloth user, I find this statement to be full of lies. At level 53, I don't think my armor has broke 1,000.

Crafting is easy to do, but still rewarding. Alex probably hasn't spent days mining 100+ Mithril or waiting on Mooncloth cooldowns. Blizzard realizes that crafting is supposed to give you armor that lasts you until the questing loot comes. It supposed to be fairly doable.

And of all people, I expected Leon to be on a PvP server. There is no greater pleasure than duping a rogue four levels higher than you twice.

[SilverMachop]

Jeepers. I wasn't expecting my post to be torn to shreds. But no matter.

You know, I've heard a lot about characters being "unbalanced" and such. I don't think it's true. My paladin may be hard to kill because of armor and healing, but I do find ways.
I also have a troll shaman RP character, and he is not invincible or prone to die.

And about my post:
1.) Well, everyone else I've talked to likes dwarf ladies without beards. Sure, it makes them look like short human ladies, but aren't dwarves just short humans with big beards? All of the races, Horde and Alliance, are humanoid and modeled after humans (except for Tauren).
2.) Yeah, I meant guns in general. I'd know by now if my character can use a gun or not.
3.) Normal servers are okay. I also have a few characters in PvP and RP, so I differenciate. Anyway, I'm not going to be level 60 anytime soon, so this game is still going to be fun.
4.) Have none of you seen the dwarf named Magmar? Don't any of you care? Sob.

[Red Angel]

Well, I'm getting the game. I was just eBaying for a 2.4GHz P4 + motherboard, so I'll likely be playing in 1-2 weeks. So, Raz, what is this free stuff you speak of?

Ok, ok, I'm just kidding about the free stuff.

But watch for me as Nightelf Druid.

[Razola]

"Stuff"? Nothing plural, just a pass that lets you play free for ten days.

Of course, you have to know somehow who owns a copy so you can install it.

[Red Angel]

Raz, a question: if I start a game on the guest pass, can I carry my account over to a regular paid account?

[Razola]

I'm fairly certain you can. Chances are you'll have to make a normal account, provide a CC number and all those goodies. Then, you either cancel it before the ten days is up or continue to pay.

[Red Angel]

Well, it took me 3 hours, but I managed to install. After 2 instalations locked up in the same place, i took a look at my CDs and sure enough, the fourth one had a nice deep gouge in it. However, I managed to successfully copy the CD contents to my HD and installed it from there with no problems. Of course, nobody told me that I need a pre-paid card to use the 30-day trial That's just a weird, weird thing. So I'm going back to EB tommorow to pick up the card and try and get the forth disc of the game exchanged, and then I can hopefully start playing.

[PNT510]

Well then the people at your EB suck. The people at my gamestop told me I needed a Prepaid card or a CC.

[Red Angel]

Well then the people at your EB suck. The people at my gamestop told me I needed a Prepaid card or a CC.

Indeed. Well, I have it up and running, so all's good.

[Razola]

RAWR

[ryandude713]

So I started a troll Rogue named Pirate, who rapes and pillages everything in his path. unfortunantly hes only lvl 10, so his path is from razor hill to orgrimmar. I am having trouble finding pirate like armor and equipment, so if you guys that play can tell me items that look pirate like, tell me so i can have goals to aim for in the fasion department. I also dont have any programs with which to veiw my screenshots. i tried paint but to no avail...

[Razola]

There are variety of Swashbuckler shirts you can wear, and tailors can craft you an Admiral's Hat. There's also a cooking recipe that creates an item that may change you into a pirate for an hour. Other than that, little exists that's practical for battle (and the Admiral Hat is level 30 or so, it's also cloth, which may not be useful to you).

[ryandude713]

I must find someone to cook me into a pirate!

Oh and btw, found this little WOW video on the net.

When auctioning goes boom
A guy on a PVE server blew up an auction house by summoning his pet after living bomb was cast on it. Apparently, he unsummoned it while the timer was still going, then went into Ironforge and blew up the lot of them. Good stuff indeed.