Learn Pandanese in Five Minutes!

Really works! I can TOTALLY understand everything they're saying! 

Screw it... Lets do it!

Does anyone else feel like there is someone new at the helm of WoW? I mean we know there isn't we just saw Chris Metzen and Mike Morhaime standing up there on that stage at Blizzcon and announce World Of Warcraft: Pandas and Pokémon... we can see it's the same people, so why is it they suddenly seem to be throwing caution to the wind and letting their, previously conservative, imaginations run wild?

If Warcraft was, to date, a steady ride through a well polished fantasy world, then the man at the front just threw the leaver into roller-coaster mode and we're in for a great ride!

What I mean is this, this is what we had been told a year ago:

"We will not allow players to change their characters"

"We want every race to have a unique silhouette, so no race can ever be in both factions"

"We will never allow you to turn real money into in-game gold"

"You'll never see a 'neutral' race"

"Pandaren are a joke, you will never see them in-game"

Oh really Blizzard?

From the moment I saw the Tier 13 Rogue set, something made me think the conversations in the Blizzard offices where more and more, going something like this:

"So I've got this really cool idea for X!"

"No... that's ridiculous, it's way out there... although..."

"The players will like it..."

"I was just thinking that, hmm, screw it, do it!"

And the first conversation I imagine was "Hey boss, why don't we make Rogues look like The Goddamn Batman?!"

I think it was an awesome move. I imagine the next few going something like;

"Hey, we should totally bring in transmogrifying!"

"Ah but that would change the silhouette, but then, is that really so bad, screw it lets do it!"

Which could have been quickly followed by;

"Hey... if we don't care about silhouette, we could give both races one race, so we could focus all our development on that!" and perhaps: "So what one race do both sides really want?... oh yeah... PANDAS!"

Couple that with the Real Money Auction House in Diablo 3 and the similar (though much more reserved) auction-able Blizz' Store pet. The old school 'homage' that is WoWkémon Pets and who knows what else that we have yet to see. It's starting to look like the gloves are coming off for the Blizzard developers!

'If it's cool, make it!' is definitely a mind-set I can definitely get behind, even if I'm not sure what triggered it... Is it the increased competition of games like Rift triggered and games like SWTOR and Guild Wars 2 are threateningto be? Is Warcraft reaching the end of its planned finite development life(Level 100 is but 2 5-level expansions after Pandaria)? Or has Blizzard simply decided, in it's quest to always up the Epic, that it's going to start breaking eggs (and rules) to make it's omelettes? I certainly couldn't speculate, but whatever the trigger; it works for me. I'm on board for another year, and let's see what crazy fun awaits!

Screw it! Lets...

Swear Allegiance

Playing the Bad Guy

Like many people in a civilised society I have been brought up, to borrow a phrase: "Lawful-Good". I've also been brought up by prerequisite of an XY set of chromosomes Male, and by want of stellar placement: Human.

Because of this I have a habit of siding with the humans when choosing a character, and usually plump for male characters... that said this is role-play so I sometimes like to be a little more creative, dive into fantasy races and cultures... I have a fondness of stout tech friendly, ale quaffing Dwarves, and I've been known to try female characters when the class lends itself away from lumbering meet heads; mage, healer, or stealthy type.

So why do I have a real problem, it seems, suspending disbelief when it comes to playing the bad guys...

Just me and my big red pet...through the ages

If you guys have read any of my blog posts or heard me on any of my podcasts appearances, you'll know I'm a wrath-baby, not that I'm a QQ'ing n00b (hush Damarai...) I'm taking the wrath-baby title back guys, wear it with pride, we're the ones not burnt out yet!

But... As a wrath baby it means the end of Cataclysm marks the first time I've played a class from one expansion to the conclusion of another, and it has to be said, Hunters have had their world rocked a fair bit...

Join me as I don my Rose Tinted Goggles and drop a hindsight trap.

Don't Mention the (World of) War (craft)!

We are absolutely not fighting in the World of Don't mention the War(Craft!)

Free to (Role)play

So, my twelve month placement for university finished today. I promised myself and Raz that I'd pull my finger out and do some writing, so hear goes with a little idea I've been working on.

For those that read or listen to WoWcasts you may know that Raz can be a real sucker for WoW lore, he's a roleplayer at heart; hence all these little short stories scattered around the blog.

I, myself do enjoy RP but not generally in WoW (the shock!). I often create a persona for whatever character I'm currently playing, but don't often enact it.

For the last year WoW has been my relief, my downtime after many hours dealing with adolescents who've lost passwords or changed keyboards to spell a witty profanity. RP for me requires conscious thought (not something I can afford most days after work), making it hard to do in game when I'm trying to wind down.

Thinking back, one of my most enjoyable moments for roleplaying was an old PBEM (Play by Email) game based on Star Trek. In the fifteen minutes it took to compose a post and send it off, I could be in character and react how I like. It got me thinking, could I do this in WoW?

Raz and I are heavily invested in The Allegiance (myself especially), we may be on other servers or joining other guilds to branch out a little. But the Allegiance is always there, its given us a forum and a source of endless entertaining regardless of its Guild level. So I want to do the old girl some justice and maybe a new lease on life.

Our short stories have created back stories for many alts, such as Crag (& Stout) our beer swilling marksman. Olwenrhea, dubbed the "Bitch Queen of Knives", Selene our fantastic pocket druid (be it as the Feral fiend, healing or that emergency tank, she has it down) and my own Bert, who will be appearing really soon in the first installment of stories starting with his training.

I'd love to see all these branch out, but since we often play multiple characters it's a little hard to get them all together on the Stormwind Docks for a powwow.

So, the idea... Join the Allegiance and write your own story with us, outside the realms/game, even guest post on the blog. Lets start our own lore (maybe it will spill into the game) and still enjoy the game we all enjoy playing. Perhaps you know an erstwhile druid associate for Selene, a brother-in-arms for Bert and Vicheal or another member of the lost 1st Dwarven Rifles brigade?

Drop us a comment and let us know your idea, lets see if we can tempt some people over to the Allegiance. Worry not about your main hidden away on that PvP server, bring them over in words! Swear an oath and lets write our own expansion. You might want to join us eventually an put those words into practice!

So come on, comment and maybe you'll...

Swear Allegiance

Tree-Huggin' hippy crap!

So... 900,000 people have left WoW in the last 6 months. How does that make me a hippy? huh?

It's enough to get anyone sounding the death-knolls... except it's really not. A game like wow with 11million constant subscribers and 13million peek subscribers, is going to see variations of 900,000 all the time. Do I think that's made them step back and think? Yep! Do I think that makes Cata' a failed expansion? hell no! As someone who came in in Wrath but learnt the game from a much more long term player, I can happily say I loved both the difficulty ramp up, and Azeroth post Shattering to pre.

Just about everything felt dated and clunky in Wrath starting areas, I rolled a Space Goat, then a DK, to avoid the vanilla starting areas. All together I've rolled a Palladin, a DK tank, a Holy Preist, and my faithful Dwarf Hunter. Happy times. Righteous golden fury or mechanical pet-and-gun derived death. What more could you ask for?

Now, however, a leveling project with friends has seen me roll a Night Elf Druid... tall, poncey, glowy eyed, hippy, tree-hugger... it is the antithesis of my stout dwarf hunter with a gret' big feckin' gun!

Unfortunately Tree-huggin'-hippy-crap is turning out to be an awesome class. Thee only class that can not only heal/tank/dps but also chose between melee and ranged DPS... in fact one of the best DPS'ers in WoW at the moment (on US realms at least) plays a Boomkin.

This works out well for me because I have really enjoyed tanking in the past, I am surprised just how much I enjoy my first healer (holy priest), I know I like range DPS from my hunter but then again it'd be nice to get stuck in at close range.

It surprises me that Druid is the only class that can do EVERY role... this is also the one available to only 2 alliance classes...

To my mind Shamans should have a spec where they summon a stone elemental and tank along side that.

On that note, as BM remains a useless spec for Raid Hunters I belive it should be made into a ranged tanking spec.

It is at this point I refer you to an awesome post by one Matthew Rossi, where Warlock, Mage and the long needed Hunter Pet tanks are discussed. (Do this Blizzard!)

And then we come to Mist of Pandaria. Will this bring a Monk speck? If it does I can see the class being a melee DPS/Tank/ and Heal type, with the emphasis being on what they can do with their hands, in close combat or healing touches... Monks don't strike me as a ranged class, so Dr00ds will once again have a ridiculous share of the specs

In the mean time I'm the nature lovin' dr00d who keeps getting asked to slaughter innocent animals... they'll take away my tree-huggers card!

Cast regrowth, then

Swear Allegiance