MobBoss
Off-Topic Overlord
Just curious, I guess. My small group of online friends all left that game roughly 2 years ago to try new MMOs coming out, and that was right before The Lich King expansion came out.
Well, with nothing really compelling on the MMO front anytime soon, we have gone back to WoW for our MMO fix.
And to our astonishment, we found out that Blizzard has made so many improvements to the game in the last two years, its almost an entirely different game.
So, in case you used to play it a bit and have been gone for an extended period, here are some of the more significant updates:
First of all the biggest change is probably in the dungeon finder system. Previously, unless you had 5, 10, or 25 friends handy, it was often hard to get consistent access to high end game content. The meeting stones from the 2nd expansion were a largely unsuccesful attempt to change that. Now there is the dungeon finder system brough up by hitting the 'i' key. Essentially, its an app that you decide your pre-determined role in the group be it, tank, healing or dps. You can select multiple roles if you desire. The app also asks you if you are willing to be the dungeon advisor if you have previous experience and know what to expect. Once you select your role, you hit enter and the app puts you into a queue awaiting party assignment. The beauty of this system is that it spans ALL servers, not just yours, thus you can find a group for your instance literally in seconds, if not minutes from entering the queue. The app also lets you select from a range of random dungeons of your level, but also lets you pick specific ones as well (handy if you have quests for a specific dungeon, but not the friends to get er done). Oh, did I mention that you can do this all while questing or gathering or whatever.....and once you complete the instance you are automatically teleported directly to the spot you previously were prior to entering the dungeon? Essentially, this lets you quest/whatever, all the while being able to enjoy dungeon instances as well.
Secondly, is the change that now allows players to have two specializations for their toon. Have a healing priest but tired of healing, but didnt want to go through the hassle of respeccing all the time? Now you can pay 1000 gold and get a second spec that you can switch over to on the fly. The only rule is you cant switch while in combat. This allows players to alter their roles, and gives them some choice and flexibility all without the hassle of having to respec.
Third is now the inclusion into the game interface of many of the mod addons. For example, along with that respec ability, there is now an equipment manager on the character screen that allows you to switch out gear for your alternate spec. There is also a quest helper now built into the game as well, and basically uses your in game map to guide you to where you need to be to kill those murlocks (or whatever).
Fourth is the heirloom system, which essentially lets a player purchase items that they can send to an alternate low level character that actually gives exp bonuses and levels in scale as the character levels. For example, you can purchase (with badges from doing dungeons) an item that will give your low level toon some good stats, and possibly a 10% exp bonus in quests/kills. As that toon levels, the item will level with them becoming more effective stat wise, while still giving them an exp bonus. You can buy multiple pieces of heirloom gear for your alt, and doing so greatly decreases the time it takes them to get from 1 to 80. You can literally do this in a week or less if you were of a mind to now.
Fifth is that the game is still expanding, and is still going strong, even after all these years. I was literally amazed at the numbers of people still playing. There is still a huge variety in quests with lots of twisted humor involved, and the developers apparently are determined to keep adding and adding and adding.
Now, I understand that Wow wasnt (and still isnt) for everyone. But this was just a quick post to say that the reasons I actually left the game two years ago (hated guild politics and the forever waiting game for raid end content to happen) have largely evaporated. Now, even without a guild, you can experience a lot of dungeon experience thanks to the dungeon finder system.
So, any wayward Wow fans out there?
Well, with nothing really compelling on the MMO front anytime soon, we have gone back to WoW for our MMO fix.
And to our astonishment, we found out that Blizzard has made so many improvements to the game in the last two years, its almost an entirely different game.
So, in case you used to play it a bit and have been gone for an extended period, here are some of the more significant updates:
First of all the biggest change is probably in the dungeon finder system. Previously, unless you had 5, 10, or 25 friends handy, it was often hard to get consistent access to high end game content. The meeting stones from the 2nd expansion were a largely unsuccesful attempt to change that. Now there is the dungeon finder system brough up by hitting the 'i' key. Essentially, its an app that you decide your pre-determined role in the group be it, tank, healing or dps. You can select multiple roles if you desire. The app also asks you if you are willing to be the dungeon advisor if you have previous experience and know what to expect. Once you select your role, you hit enter and the app puts you into a queue awaiting party assignment. The beauty of this system is that it spans ALL servers, not just yours, thus you can find a group for your instance literally in seconds, if not minutes from entering the queue. The app also lets you select from a range of random dungeons of your level, but also lets you pick specific ones as well (handy if you have quests for a specific dungeon, but not the friends to get er done). Oh, did I mention that you can do this all while questing or gathering or whatever.....and once you complete the instance you are automatically teleported directly to the spot you previously were prior to entering the dungeon? Essentially, this lets you quest/whatever, all the while being able to enjoy dungeon instances as well.
Secondly, is the change that now allows players to have two specializations for their toon. Have a healing priest but tired of healing, but didnt want to go through the hassle of respeccing all the time? Now you can pay 1000 gold and get a second spec that you can switch over to on the fly. The only rule is you cant switch while in combat. This allows players to alter their roles, and gives them some choice and flexibility all without the hassle of having to respec.
Third is now the inclusion into the game interface of many of the mod addons. For example, along with that respec ability, there is now an equipment manager on the character screen that allows you to switch out gear for your alternate spec. There is also a quest helper now built into the game as well, and basically uses your in game map to guide you to where you need to be to kill those murlocks (or whatever).
Fourth is the heirloom system, which essentially lets a player purchase items that they can send to an alternate low level character that actually gives exp bonuses and levels in scale as the character levels. For example, you can purchase (with badges from doing dungeons) an item that will give your low level toon some good stats, and possibly a 10% exp bonus in quests/kills. As that toon levels, the item will level with them becoming more effective stat wise, while still giving them an exp bonus. You can buy multiple pieces of heirloom gear for your alt, and doing so greatly decreases the time it takes them to get from 1 to 80. You can literally do this in a week or less if you were of a mind to now.
Fifth is that the game is still expanding, and is still going strong, even after all these years. I was literally amazed at the numbers of people still playing. There is still a huge variety in quests with lots of twisted humor involved, and the developers apparently are determined to keep adding and adding and adding.
Now, I understand that Wow wasnt (and still isnt) for everyone. But this was just a quick post to say that the reasons I actually left the game two years ago (hated guild politics and the forever waiting game for raid end content to happen) have largely evaporated. Now, even without a guild, you can experience a lot of dungeon experience thanks to the dungeon finder system.
So, any wayward Wow fans out there?
