MoP and ICC: Repeating MistakesFollow

^Why I don't do the beta stuff.

I know there's a certain sense of pride in it and all, but I'm just here for fun.

Oi.

People complained about the beta-ness of the Cata beta?

Did they somehow forget that it is... um... a BETA!?

I would have killed for a beta key to Cataclysm. At least I know I'll get into the MoP Beta if they do what they said they'd do. And I, for one, at least understand the concept of a Beta Test.

Fixed.

Yeah, I imagine all the serious testing will happen during alpha because the people in there will be interested in actually testing the game. I predict the MoP beta will have a large percentage of players who think it's a demo and will complain loudly and often about how broken it is.

Edited, Oct 25th 2011 7:01pm by Callinon

This might actually be the first beta I try out. I kinda wanna see the way the whole new talent system plays out.

The impression I got about the talent system changes was that the new 'talents' were more for flavor to individualize your character beyond the spells and abilities you get from your spec. You will still get new spells and abilities added as you level (not just waiting 15 levels for something new) and I would imagine that they've got some new spell ideas lined up for people to get as they get close to or reach level 90. It is a radical change but then the philosophy behind it does kind of make sense to me. We all tend to have almost the exact same talent build as everyone else of our PVE or PVP spec so why not just make that standard and just give us the filler stuff to play around with in a separate list?

I actually liked the longish gap between ICC and Cata release. It gave me time to finish ICC on normal in my less than hardcore guild. I had time to get an Alliance character to 80 so I could see most of their quests before the big quest revamp of the old world. I spent a lot of time on alts just enjoying the game without the pressure of feeling that I should be working on current stuff on my main. It was nice and refreshing to just do whatever I felt like instead of trying to keep up with the constant barrage of new content to work through. Of course I realize that I'm probably not the most typical player either so I do understand that some people need a constant parade of new things or they get bored and this is especially true of the people who only actually enjoy one facet of the game and dismiss the rest as boring or tedious.

I thought the glyph system was introduced to add character and flavor to the existing talent system. At the least, that is how they originally sold it. I'm not liking what I am seeing about the talent changes. It is a long way off yet, so I am hopful that some constructive critisism will help. Giving the beta to players who commit to a yearly subscription may be a smart move. They may get better participants in general than they had for catacysm.

Edited, Oct 28th 2011 2:35pm by mdelevie

It doesn't help that most companies that have any kind of open beta testing advertise for it like it's a demo. On the other hand, if you didn't get 10k+ whiny gamers that complain about every little bug, some of the smaller bugs might go unnoticed.

From what I understand and have read on the new talent system, it seems to make sense to me. I look at it this way; they're just baking in the cookie-cutter spec and leaving the "talents" for stuff that has no real bearing on numbers.

Looking forward to putting a point in exactly where EJ has said to put it isn't exactly as enthralling to me as to you I guess.

And if there's no optimum, then there's nothing for number crunchers to figure out. If all that's left of the talent trees is what has currently been relegated to "floater points" then I don't honestly see how it matters other than EJ doesn't need to figure out a spec because Blizz already did it, and the players don't have to go research it because there's nothing to research.

People can whine about it killing options or removing individual choice or whatever but honestly, isn't everybody who's doing decently well using the same spec anyway? And maybe a few of those people who aren't doing so well will do better and thus be happier with the game if they can just play without using a number of outside sources.

I always thought the trees were a bit of a tease anyway since there are invariably either things I think "why would anybody take that ever" or "man if I had more points that'd be nice" but nobody ever takes them because there are better producing talents.

That's the problem with making talents optional. They become boring.

And honestly, taking away my Dash (core ability) and forcing me to choose between it and a previous tier 1 talent (Feral Swiftness)... that's just mean, man. Dash has been a core ability since ever. I don't remember when they put it in the game, but it was somewhere around Vanilla, either before or after launch. Now, seven years later, it's suddenly not okay for Druids to have a passive movement speed buff and a sprint?

They're breaking my class again, I can just feel it. And it's got the stench of "OP in PvP, just saying, bro" all over it.

Edited, Oct 29th 2011 2:50am by Mazra

I'm still trying to wrap my head around Scorch being on talent tree.

I kind of like the new talent system. Yes, in their current iteration they are number crunchable, from there's almost no chance they go live in that exact form. Also, from what I can see of some of the rogue talents, the numbers when crucnched won't come up very different.

I signed up for the annual pass because I plan on playing WoW for the next year anyway. The annual pass got me a free copy of Diablo III which I probably wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise and a free mount for all of my WoW characters.

I got into the beta for WotLK and really enjoyed getting to help test the game. I wasn't playing when the Cata beta started so I wasn't in that one. I am very much lookinf forward to the MoP beta.