Maybe not…

As pointed out in a new report by DFC Intelligence, it just ain’t that simple. Om Malik does a nice job of taking us over key points…

http://featured.gigaom.com/2006/08/29/world-of-warcraft-2/

W00T! New talents and spells for the expansion have been annouced. The additions to to warlock afflictiion and demonlogy talents are very exciting, espcailly the the max talents of Unstable Affliction and Summon:Fel Guard. The destruction tree doesn’t really impress me.
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So today was my first day PvPing in BGs as Horde. I tagged along with my trusty priest friend and had an absolute blast. I’d never enjoyed PvP really, but this was a whole new ballgame. I never actually successfully queued for AB either — it just hasn’t popped. But both AB and WSG were one right after the other all evening and far into the night, and it was incredible.

As soon as we hit 29 we decided to do the BGs, and below is what I ended up with today starting at 238xp into my level, 0 rep, and 0 HKs for the day. My only complaint is our server is only two weeks old, and our battlegroup is composed of day one servers — so we’re facing a lot of twinks. It’s tough to kill a warrior with 2500 HP when you’re just a regularly geared group, but we managed to face whole raids of them time and time again and come out on top.

I’m sure these numbers aren’t astonishing for old-school Horde, but for someone who’s come over from the land of pointy ears and pally bubbles, it was astonishing for me.

Cross Server BGs? For the Horde? Yes, please.

They asked me why I was visiting Canada. I was to visit a friend I met on World of Warcraft…
“In an online game.”
“What online game?”
“Umm … World of Warcraft,” I responded meekly.
“What kind of game is this?”
“It’s a fantasy game … it takes place online.”
“Fantasy … like it’s got wizards and warlocks?”
“Well, it’s got warlocks.” (And they need to be nerfed.)”

Straight from the WTF category…. here it is.
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Until this week my advice for Alliance friends who were complaining about long BG queue times was simple – roll Horde. Horde side I’ve never not been able to get into a BG in a matter of minutes, and usually have to choose between several popping all at once. I’d often play AV just wating for AB to come up. Eitrigg is in Battlegroup 6 ( Aegwynn Akama Chromaggus Drak’thul Draka Eitrigg Garithos Hakkar Jubei’Thos Khaz Modan Korgath Kul Tiras Malorne Mug’thol Muradin Rexxar Runetotem Thorium Brotherhood ) and after a few days of these cross server BGs I can outright say they totally suck. I’ve seen a lot of Allinace folks jumping for joy that they no longer have multi hour waits but as Hordie who didn’t have that problem, they’ve just turned to crap, for several reasons:

1. LAG – In the last year I’ve never seen such constant lag in BGs. It’s unending and brutal. Frequently I’m dead before I even know I’ve been attacked.
2. ZERG – AV is now all zerg all the time. I’m not complaining about 15 minute AV rounds, it’s fun once or twice, but 90% of the content in AV is now useless since 100% of the people just rush in and cap it.
3. WHO? – With this many people now playing, the chances of playing with, or against, the same people over and over again is completely lost. Previously upon entering BG you could scan the player list and get an idea of what your teams strengths and weaknesses were just by who was there, as well as size up the opposing team. Likewise everyone knew who to follow and who to ignore. Now since it’s 100% new people on all sides, it’s complete chaos. People barking conflicting orders at each other and most people having no idea where to go.
4. WSGRIP – 3 days, not a single WSG yet. WSG was like old faithful before, if nothing else you could always play WSG. No, not a chance in hell.

Most of these could be written off to it being a new thing and once the novelty wears off it might balance out a bit but for the moment, my PVP grind just got a lot more annoying.

Authentic Warrior BC talents or wishful thinking? Check them out out at Curse Gaming

I am a big fan of WoW’s follow feature. It’s a reat way to get to where you’re going without making your grouping buddy wait while you grab a beer. Follow is not without its perils, however. My guild leader tends to go, as he calls it, “exploring”. I call it “getting lost”. He tends to explore mostly when I am following, and when I return to my desk with a ice cold Red Stripe, we are both dead or dying. The places I have “explored” this way include:
The pirate cove in Tanaris
Elite dragonkin camps in Burning Steppes
Entrance to the Caverns of Time
Seradine
The Dream bough in Feralas
Southeastern Azshara- you know, where Azuregos lives

I am not complaining. There is something spectacular about sitting down just in time to catch a glimpse of a horde of blue dragonkin one-hit you. Still, I think I may install a mini-fridge next to my computer soon.

The cross realm battlegrounds, as I have seen them so far in Battlegroup 7 (I think, I don’t know…it’s got Hellscream, Blackhand, Alleria, Whisperwind, Goulash and like that), have been mostly as I expected, at least in Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin.

We’ve gone from frequent Alliance losses in those fields to seemingly more frequent Alliance losses. The one thing I saw in WSG that I hadn’t really seen in months of PVPing, the blantant en masse encampment of the Alliance Graveyard by an apparent premade group from Blackhand. Seven of them, just wiping out Alliance rezzers. One of them was the guy with the Alliance flag. At that point, Alliance just stopped rezzing.

As far as losses in AB, I have seen a certain improvement. I don’t see us losing because 13 people are defending the stables from onslaught. It’s now pretty regularly the inability to grab and hold a third node.

The biggest incidence of seeing new things from other servers was in Alterac Valley.
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It’s fun to get into a battleground, especially AV, in just a few minutes. The wait on Eitrigg for Alterac Valley was often an hour or more before the 1.12 release. But what’s up with the battle only lasting 15 or 20 minutes? OK, sometimes it’s 40 minutes or even and hour, but Alterac Valley used to be a long, almost epic battle.

Truth is, I used to complain about the long battles, too. It was hard, sometimes, to get people off defense. It was a grind. It took hours.

Maybe I’m just seeing different strategies. It does seem everyone rushes to offense now, with the D left to the NPCs. The coordination and teamwork is better for sure.

So is everyone else seeing this? What’s different? Is it just both sides rushing to offense? Is there something else I’m missing?

I’d like to tell you all about a nifty mod I’ve been using that makes me happy, happy, happy. It’s called Call To Arms and actually allows the global LFG channel to be what it was meant to be — a global LFG channel.
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