ECTmmo.com- MMO Blog: The Adventures of Kaozz...: 6.0.2 Thoughts

Looking Good!

Patch day has come and gone. The first thing I did was head to the barber. I really like how my characters turned out, for the most part. Some look drastically different in the face but the bodies and movements are quite similar when playing. Seeing the character from behind, they have the same look and feel.

I did notice that certain human faces look better with different skin tones. I saw faces that looked much nicer on characters paler than my human character, you could notice the shading better. You cannot change the skin tone in the barber shop, that's a 15$ charge if you decide that you really want one. Overall I am very happy with the look of the new models.

I suppose the thing I like least about the changes would be human female eyebrows. Each choice is pencil thin and they are arched too high, giving them all a relatively same look. They are pretty but different brows would have gave them more definition. My brother hated the human males, while my son and Dire like them.

Class Changes

I am once again leaning heavily on playing my lock to 100 first, though maybe the DK since she is now a contender. The hunter on the other hand felt like it has even

less choice on what abilities to use, not bad really, but it just didn't feel as fun as the lock. I also managed to hit 90 with my DK- Which I really like but feels much weaker than my mains due to her gear not being as good, being a fresh 90. She was easy enough to gear up and get to 509 ilevel within a couple of days with island gear and even the horseman rings help. My druid is still a horrible monstrosity of a class as balance. Whoever designed the mechanics for the class... really shouldn't work as a class designer. Overall lots of class changes, some for the better, some just make the classes feel boring. Not even going to complain, it's been this way far too long to even bother. For now I'm pretty happy with most of my characters, seeing them at 100 being fully fleshed out will make a difference.

There are now level 100 talents listed, which look cool. I cannot wait until my lock gets 100, there is a talent for a permanent Infernal pet. Other classes such as my DK seem rather dull, I wish they were all fun talents. I'm looking forward to hitting 100 and getting out of Pandaria regardless.

Squishing Old Content

So we had the big stat squish. Lots of people were worried that we'd not be able to solo old content, myself included. Things are much easier than before. Where groups were needed for the Firelands, you can solo and duo this content. Some classes might have an easier time than others, very much duo-able by any two classes; most classes won't have any trouble. It was a breeze. I am so glad I didn't do tons of these group runs, fresh things to do while I wait on the xpac. I have to say it worked out great. It was changed from the first day on live, to compensate for the lowered hitpoints of mobs, which I did notice it is still easy but not the speed of the first day (live).

The big squish wasn't even that big. I mean, yeah we lost a lot of the bloat but I honestly thought we'd be lower than we are now. Some people are still sitting at around 100k hit points. I imagine the stats will get out of hand again rather quickly if Blizzard continues to add in such inflation through the life of Warlords of Draenor. We'll have to wait it out and see.

Quality of Life

The addition of the toybox was nice. Also a huge welcome to have more void storage and a personal bank tab for crafting materials (which stack to 200 now). Big help on inventory management! I think things will be quite fun at 100. Old content will be such a breeze for all classes, which will be great. Many old tier gear sets are selling for gold on vendors, where they were selling for valor/justice. Charms now upgrade gear. Frog groups on the isle are the best way to farm these. Basically thr group throws tons of aoe and just does a mass slaughter while ignoring each other. The plus side is it is quick, you can get around 1000 or so in a good group in around half an hour, 500 probably with a mediocre or small group; which would be one not pulling fast enough.

Thoughts

I was very hyped and excited about this patch. It is a great patch in my opinion, Lots of improvements and I am glad to see these things in WoW. But I think that WoD is my last chance for WoW. If it doesn't deliver, if it stagnates I think I'll walk away for good. I love the game but I get tired of everything being tuned for raiding, classes being balanced around class sets (who designs a class around a set which will be replaced?!) for things that are made irreverent so quickly and so on. It is simply a game I pay for to enjoy in my free time. Things like LFR made things nicer for those of us who no longer care to have a raiding schedule. But when LFR is treated as if it is trash (no Garrosh heirlooms handed out as they are in the other modes which are 100% drop rate until the xpac), kind of annoys me.

Those are just some of my thoughts after letting the patch sink in and playing again. Maybe I just need new content, as I have played six too many characters in Pandaria. I am having fun (most of the time!). Let's hope for a great expansion! So far things are looking good, I hope they continue to.