Stuff

I want to write about how I'm not raiding. And about how this new patch is like the beginning of cataclysm for me all over again. And about things completely unrelated to this blog and I would probably need to set the content warning flag for. And about my old website that has sat untouched for years now and ideas about reviving it into a blog where I can write all that. And I want to do that all at once.

I suppose I should condense down those ideas and probably skip over the content warning one as it's completely unrelated to the content of this blog.

So what's this about not raiding? Well past two three weeks our tank has mysteriously disappeared, however, I'm sure someone knows where he is and hasn't told me. Also, one of our main melee DPS has gotten into a rough patch and can't attend. This is great news for our warlock however. He's joined the main raid and has gotten 3 heroic tier along with other things since one of their DPS has mysteriously disappeared, same as our tank.

How's this patch similar to Cataclysm? Well the bug I mentioned of my respec cost suddenly dropping permanently only after I respeced I mentioned is similar to the bugs only I experienced post Cataclysm. I really miss that 33g. Also as I work, and log on after 5pm. I've yet to do any new instance, not that I need to I guess, but would be nice to do with friends. But everyone's done it all when I log on and is sick of it.

Content warning? Well, getting into blogging has kinda discovered a way to check all the blogs I used to look at infrequently and add many more. So now I'm reading about half wow blogs and half content warning blogs. You can fill in what content they might be warning me about on your own. And I'd love to make my own, or just talk about similar things maybe get into it in a way I haven't seen on a blog. Which relates to.

I have a website? Yes, I bought the domain when some creepy poet stopped using it years ago. It's got Wordpress on it and last post I made was way to long ago. I think I'll make a new theme and ideas and get it up and running and switch making all these post ideas completely unrelated to wow over there. And probably copy the wow posts here and there maybe integrate them somehow. The idea is still just starting and will take some time to finish.

Patch 4.0.6!

Or at least that's what my blizzard patch notes said as it installed. Has anyone else had that same problem? I love reading patch notes. I've even gone back and reread patch 1.14 patch notes and such for various reasons. But nearly every patch since the new launcher/patcher I keep getting the previous patch's patch notes. I could go browse around the forums, but I always have problems with that. I can't find it cause it's been so long, or I get distracted with the new layout, or the bug forum and think about posting my bugs again.

I expected to find them on the main page, which turns out they are there, but not in the highlighted news section at the top. I should stop looking at the top of the site and just scroll down it seems, but it's so big and demands attention. So now I guess I'll read the changes and post at the same time.

• Prowl has a new icon

That was probably the largest change I noticed right away, besides addon errors and respecing for 66g which dropped to 33g permanently after I switched specs for the first time since the patch.

• Feral Swiftness now also causes Dash and Stampeding Roar to have a 50/100% chance to instantly remove all movement impairing effects from the affected targets when used.

Well that goes and explains why I've not been hearing any "complaining" about how much ferals suck in pvp lately from the guild.

• The troll druid models for Flight Form and Swift Flight Form have been slimmed down to be more in scale with other druid flight forms, and have had their animations improved.

Aww, I just saw that last weekend or something. It was so neat looking.

Wow what a huge patch, did anyone else notice the massive changes to old dungeons? They removed chunks of wailing caverns! Also wtf they added the leatrix latenancy fix into the game options O.O which would remove the affects of the global registry settings from other programs. And to think my guild master just posted that to our main page.

Where's the 4.1 resto druid analysis and changes you may be wondering. Well almost every druid blog I read has a 4.1 post I agree with and I'm certainly not going to add anything new to their well thought posts. Especially since I'm not even raiding until our tank mysteriously reappears.

Making 'I' a link just felt wrong

Internal Blizzard Policies

Most of this is not based on facts, just ideas.

Blizzard is a company and as such has policies and management dictating decisions. One policy I firmly believe in currently is that each expansion class spells are strictly limited in order to make classes feel equal. I've heard my guildies talk of BC spells being unequal, according to WoWWiki classes got 5-6 new spells. Some felt they deserved 6 when they only got 6 or some were completely useless; arguments ensued. Now in cataclysm every class got three spells.

Perfectly equal with every class getting exactly three new things. Which is why, although I think it would work amazingly, we won't be seeing a new druid healing spell, although making shrooms have a heal might work. Then again I could be completely wrong, Spirit Link Totem, grats shamans! Really, we both need fixing. I guess your new spell made it through the management levels faster ;) I'm hoping we get something similar since there are still issues.

I have also noticed a change in the way the game has been handled recently. I have an idea that this translates back to something within Blizzard that has changed. The change I've noticed relates to the distribution of patches. It's true I've never been through a previous expansion, so perhaps I am wrong. However, I have been through a lot of patches.

Previously patches were something I dreaded, and still do, full of bugs, addon updates, hours of unexpected downtime, and just eww. But since the release of 4.0 the patches have seemed smoother. This may just be coincidence and Blizzard might not be doing anything different. I at least think they are though. It seems patches on the PTR stay there longer. The bugs get worked out, and the patch goes live with a lot fewer issues overall. There are lots of hotfixes I attribute to it being an expansion, but there aren't many major bugs.

I've also been rather bad at predicting when patches will come out lately. I'm normally on target or off one week rarely, and I've been consistently off by two weeks. In fact I've given up predicting when they come out. The patches seem to be lacking in extended downtime or server crashes. There's been fewer server crashes and lag outs since 4.0 than the few patches before in wrath. Also, I believe, the expansion was playable. I've heard that didn't happen when wrath came out. I wasn't there though, so I can't say anything for sure.

What does this all add up to? I can't say for sure, but being in the software field, especially a tester, I think they could be focusing on quality. Before I'd say they were focusing on keeping people interested with new sh-ahem, stuff. I've felt that they didn't need to do that at all through all of wrath and maybe they caught on. Maybe they are focusing on quality now. Or maybe there's a new boss. Whatever the case, I'm glad that when a patch comes out I'm not hating the fact that I have to raid cause that's where peoples schedules line up.

incoming extended downtime to prove me wrong

Three 10s make 25

Since the expansion came out my guild has been focusing on 10 man raiding. I've always enjoyed this more. 25 just seemed an odd number to me. I was used to the 40 or 15s of vanilla even though those make even less sense looking back at them. I'd still like there to be a 40 man raid come around again, just something for fun and not 3 days long. The guild has been running two 10 mans for a while now, with some minor attendance issues, including the blizzard knocking out my 10's tank last week and us barely raiding.

But tonight, we are joining up with another guild on our server to combine our two guilds three 10 man raids into one 25. I can't say I'm thrilled, but all the reasons make sense. Also, I'll always like helping people and will pretty much always come along. With the new patch coming out today, along with the new dual guild 25 being attempted I can hardly imagine it will go smoothly. My last dual guild raid was in vanilla, and there was a little issue involving a belt, an enchanting pattern, and me. While it is the only claim to fame I have, I hate telling it, and for some reason continue to do so.

Luckily the only loots I'm obsessed over drop outside of raids and I think I've matured a bit since then, and well defined loot rules should hopefully make tension from drops not as much of an issue as they used to be. So I'm hopeful the raid goes well and the only issues we have stem from addons and instance servers. Not the players or guilds.

Patch!

So the other night was a raid with a new patch, omfg. I love healing though, so I didn't complain. The major issues would be addons, they always break and mess up, right? Well mine were all fine, I don't use very many, and the only one that died was carbonite, and I barely use it anyways. So what's the first thing I see when I join the raid? Half the people are logging on and off trying to get their addons working. I understand this is their first time on all day, but why do they need so many to function I always wonder.

I never like patches, there's too much hassle when one comes out. First there's the patch, which needs to download. It's nice that part of it preloads once they know they are done with parts, but it can still be a while. Also, nice they use a torrent since the more people downloading it the faster it has a chance to go. Then it has to install which always takes a while. Then the servers have to come back from the extended downtime when they update the server software. Then you have all your addons that break and you need to try and get them back. Then the addon website is overloaded by everyone else trying to get their addons. Then there's the random bugs that each patch brings (strafe and jump then shapeshift into crow form, whee!). Then there is the lag from everyone trying to do everything new all at the same time, which may or may not crash the server.

Really though, this was one of the best patch days (or weeks) I've ever been through. I downloaded the patch, read the notes, got new addons, and by then the servers were up and then addon websites crashed. So I logged in and was ready for the raid that night. I'm just sitting there slightly fixing grid so it doesn't error out, which is really easy, don't even need to log off. People are trying to get a new DBM, which there isn't one, and complaining about xperl. As always people take a good 30 min to get to the instance, and even longer since they keep logging off to mess with addons.

I've never seen the point of a vastly different user interface for any of my characters. Before my mage I didn't really need any sort of bar mod. And when I used one I didn't replace blizz, just added some extra buttons I could customize of keybind. So when people completely replace the UI and then freak out on patch day, I always wonder why they do that to themselves. If you don't freak out, yay!