Miscalculation

Legion is still the most fun I have had in gaming in years. There is always something to do, there is measurable and frequent progression, and the game play is smooth and nuanced. It’s not boring to play but not too difficult, and you can weave in complexities to your actions to make the rotation and combat just a bit more fun. Like most things it seems you get out what you put into it.

My druid remains in maintenance mode although I did add the LFR (Looking for Raid) activity into my weekly rotation. I had left WoW long before LFR was a thing – and the old raiding snob in me sees it as a complete dumbing down of content / loot pinata, while the [filthy] casual in me is very thankful that I can progress in some of my quests, see bosses I would never see this expansion, and also get some sweet sick loot. I received my first ilvl 850 loot this morning on a raid that was less challenging than completing a heroic dungeon. Truth is the more that are in an activity, the less the individual contribution matters. I can live with that. I still push myself to be on the top of the healing charts for the sole fact that I know that will make it easier on others, and hey, I still want to “win” – even though I am just playing a largely solo experience. That means I only have to beat my own expectations.

My rogue, on the other hand, is now friendly with every faction and ready for world quests. Except that is where my miscalculation arrived – you can’t do Suramar (the 5th faction to unlock world quests) until you hit level 110. I am not sure why I thought I could level via World Quests but that was a goal I worked towards that I now can’t complete. This is disappointing because going through the story line a second time is as un-fun as watching a “just ok” movie over and over. DPS classes definitely get a raw deal here as dungeon queues can run 40 minutes plus so questing is the only real method to advance.

I have 37 problems and a tank is one

This is a minor gripe and the same one DPS classes have been struggling with forever. The Outlaw rogue is my *dream* spec. I LOVE the flavour of the class and the abilities. It is less convenient for me to do dungeons and fun things but I enjoy it enough to find new ways to play. The Class Hall quest line fits really well – without spoiling, you become a member of a shadow council who operates in the background of society and not leaving things to chance. Kind of like a secret society, pulling strings from the shadows. I wasn’t sure how the rogue would translate over in this manner as the Druid and Paladin quest lines work well on a big scale (heroes of the light / forest) – how could a stabby class compete? It does this well, albeit a bit standard fare.

Racism alive and well in Azeroth

I have actually been pleasantly surprised with the tone and attitude of the player base, and then this smacked me in the face the other day (names blurred out)

I have seen far worse, but actually I haven’t seen ANY talk of this nature in a long, long time in WoW. That is the small positive I will take from this, that it is clearly improving. The sad part is that it still exists at all. Whether or not it is really improving or only *feels* like it as people take it to less public channels I have no clue. It was a stark reminder that we still have a long way to go both as a gaming community that hides far too comfortably behind anonymity.

2 comments / Add your comment below

  1. I was surprised during my pre-Legion run with how innocuous open chat channels seemed to be. Five-to-seven years ago or whenever I was last playing regularly most of the channels were cesspools. It was by no means polite or PC but it was a vast improvement. I have no idea if that’s because of Blizzard cracking down or the playerbase maturing but either way it certainly made it a more enjoyable experience.

  2. I hope it is a sign that things are improving, instead of just people are not bothering to talk. I have had multiple dungeon runs without a single word said – it is like they are NPC’s. Actually, scratch that – NPCs give more meaningful interaction…

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