Patch 5.3 looks to be more of a major game issues fix with some content oriented elements thrown in. I already addressed the earlier noted valor/justice point upgrade system returning. From a gearing point of view, the two biggest things that impact myself are:
- Addressing bad luck streaks for re-rolls. This is HUGE for me. Having done Lei Shi around 10+ times and on a few alts, I rarely would receive certain much needed items, especially for re-rolls. I began questioning the whole re-roll system and whether the term “good luck” should even apply to such a foobar’d situation. I’m hoping that the re-roll bonus isn’t just something lame like a +1% incremental bonus, but something significant like +10-15%. For instance, I often would re-enter LFR Terrace of Endless Spring just to have my paladin go after the 2-handed Sha Touched axe. However, even with the bonus roll, I could NEVER win it. But this change will make farming a boss over and over worth the effort.
- Choosing a spec for loot. This affects quests, LFR and bonus rolls. This is definitely something that has been necessary since the start and I’m very happy to see it. The problem has been tanks, dps and healers choosing a role that they’re not spec’d and/or geared in and entering the raid, causing disruption. While dps queuing as healers probably will still present issues, the problem of seeing an ungeared healer or tank will hopefully go away as people can get the gear they want. For myself, this will be great since I hope to eventually gear up my protection side for specs like paladin, warrior and death knight.
Both of these changes really make me believe that the developers are (slowly) listening to the community. At the same time, I think I’m still going to wait as the current content really doesn’t entice me and these changes are something I want to see in actual feedback from the forums/community. I still feel that it’s better use of my time to work on leveling (if I were to re-subscribe) and do older content until these changes are in place. I mean, there really isn’t any point of doing current LFR when the bonus rolls are horrible and queue times suck.
Some other interesting changes are the ones being done to PVP where resilience is being boosted to an automatic 65% and most resilience being removed from gear. They will be explaining in a future post why this is being done, but I wanted to provide my take. I think resilience has been a worthless stat overall and the introduction of PVP power isn’t all that great. All resilience has been is just a way for people who have managed to grind up their PVP to near top levels to either create a barrier to entry or simply overpower people on PVP servers. I wish they get rid of resilience altogether and PVP power and have bonuses on gear sets relate to cooldowns on PVP related abilities like CC, trinkets, slow effects, etc. Also, I would eliminate the PVP aspects on the crafted gear and just make them into flat PVE related gear. That should solve a lot of problems on both sides.
Of course, the only people who’ll cry about it are the people on top who have created these barriers to entry and the gankers. But the thing about PVP at the end of the day is that it’s really meant to be about skill rather than gear nor certain scores. It really makes no sense that two level capped people are not on equal terms as a result of one person having a certain stat on their gear at a ridiculously high level. Gear should be designed more as a strategy than a barrier to entry so hopefully this is a step in the right direction.
Another gear related change is the ilvl cap. So the gear exceeding 496 will be scaled down to 496 if it exceeds that level. Again, it seems that the design we’re moving towards is preventing the huge gap and creating an overall level playing ground when it comes to PVP. My feeling is that there should be a larger variety of PVP related gear. Or perhaps what should occur is buying enchants for PVE related gear that people can apply as modifiers on their gear to make that type of gear more PVP related. Imagine for instance, having a system that’s similar to glyphs with dust of disappearance that applies certain modifiers for gear sets like actual thorns or thicker plates with visual changes to the gear as well. Then those modifications might do things such as lowering cooldowns or improving movement modifiers.
Some other notable changes are the new arena, battleground and scenarios. Also, they are introducing heroic scenarios. It feels as though the new scenarios will be leading to the story of the raid on Ogrimmar. The important aspect to heroic scenarios is the possibility of receiving LFR quality items. I don’t know if heroic scenarios will be on the level of challenge modes but my guess is that it’s still going to be puggable and without the requirement of a tank/healer. So that implies that they shouldn’t be too impossible.
For those who enjoy pet battles, they can do duel in LFR and instances. It sounds like a good distraction while waiting for tanks and healers, but my only concern is if people will end up abusing this to harass others during combat or otherwise. There’s also the seasonal pet aspect, which makes sense but isn’t a huge deal to me at this point.
Another thing is the faster leveling for herbalism and mining. Now, people with lower level herbalism and mining can speed up with some ingredient (yet to be detailed). Again, it seems like another catch up device.
It seems that outside of the scenarios and PVP arena and battleground, there isn’t going to be a lot of major content. We have yet to see more questing zones that further lead to the Siege of Ogrimmar raid. But that might end up being saved for patch 5.4 with the scenarios acting as hints.
This patch definitely feels like a big “lessons learned” type of fix for the game. For me at least it looks like the game is heading into a better situation overall. I still want to take a break but it looks promising thus far. I will end up being behind but I don’t mind. By the time the next tier of raiding content comes out, the gear prices will end up being reduced in price and I feel that they will do other aspects to make catching up easier.
The main two things I want to get across in this blog is that I think that the community to developer feedback loop needs to improve and that the “meanness” factor needs to be taken out. It feels as though the response gap between the community and developers still lag quite a bit, perhaps between 1-2 patch cycles. I really think that the developers need to respond faster than 1-2 patch cycles. 2 patches is just too long. The LFR changes here should’ve been implemented in 5.1 and would’ve saved a lot of headaches.
Second, is that the developers really should get rid of the whole “meanness” factor in their designs. I think Oondasta really is just an internal joke where developers are secretly trolling players. But for some people, they consider it a serious thing as it relates to gear. Yet the encounter is only one simple example of what I think surrounds the “meanness” of the design. Then the items with the low drop rates, etc. are all part of this mentality. Supposedly, it’s to extend the game life, but I think what happens in the end is discourage players as they end up seeing themselves wasting a lot of time. It might’ve worked for several expansions but it’s getting to the point where the patterns are obvious and the game needs an update not just to the overall concept but to the mentality of how MMORPGs should be designed.
At any rate, I will continue to monitor the progress of World of Warcraft for the next two patches before making a commitment to return. But despite these small changes, I want to see an overall intent for the betterment of the game before I resubscribe.
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