For the second year in a row, IMHO Bliz-con was a complete bore to follow. I had been wanting to go to it for some time now, but after these last two years I think I am more then happy to just read about what went on, on-line. I would rather try and get to PAX Gen-Con or Origins then waste time and money for 2 days of same old same old at BLizz Con, but that’s a discussion for a different day.

So back to the orig point. Last year we were waiting on Cataclysm to come out so all we got was info that we basically already knew (because it was “coming soon” for 18 months and one OTHER Blizz-con), and then some fairly new info on Diablo 3. Not much info on the next Starcraft and no info whatsoever on the new “top secret” MMO Blizzard is working on.

THIS YEAR, we got the announcement of the new expansion for WoW– “Mists of Pandaria”, and some same old same old info on Diablo 3. Nothing on the next Starcraft or the new MMO. So as you can see another year of just not much excitement. They also announced that they are making a 12 month subscription model you can sign up for (billed monthly) and then you will get Diablo 3 FREE. Oh, you think a new WoW expansion SHOULD have me screaming and yelling in excitement? Well, normally yes. But why isn’t this one? Well let’s get started as to why….

“Mists of Pandaria” has been a bit of a poorly kept secret for some time, since in recent time BLizzard had been spotted securing the copyright for the name. So people had it all but figured out that it would either be the next expansion or down the road. The same kinda goes for the “Emerald Dream” which a billion outlets have said would be next for 3 expansions now, so who knows when that will be. What ever happened to the idea that Blizz would never make Pandas characters in game b/c they are sacred or something in China? Guess they either don’t care, or don’t think it will influence it enough.

So what does this expansion have in store for us:

• Pandarans as a playable race for both factions
• Monk as a playable class
• Level cap raised to 90 (up by 5 from last expansion)
• Complete Talent tree overhaul
• PvE Scenarios
• Dungeon “Challenge” mode
• Heroic Scarlet monestary, and Scholomance
• Pet Battles

Ok I want to tackle each one of these with my thoughts. You can look on Wow Insider or Ten Ton Hammer for some of the specifics, so I will just give my 2 cents here on each of them.

Pandarans as a playable race— Yep BLizz you have done it. You have completely jumped the shark making a “cutsie” race such as kung fu fighting pandas. Every single art picture and in game shot I have seen has made me absolutely cringe. They look awful. Sure the “art” or design of it is nice and all the whole idea of it makes me vomit. I just don’t see much of a scenerio where I would like this race choice. At least in Cataclysm the whole ideas of Goblin and Worgen was a good one. They both worked perfectly in it all. BIG BIG minus here Blizzard.

Monk as a new Class-— Well I was hoping for a long time since Cataclysm was announced to someday soon see a new class. Well here it is, and I couldn’t care one bit. It’s on par with the brutality of having Pandarens in the game. They will have a new resource/mana type of system using “chi” and have different moves they can pull off with another bar or orb or something. Basically think of a rogue combined with a death knight with respect to playstyle. It’s on par with the whole theme of the expansion, but also on par with my not caring one bit. Another BIG minus here.

Level Cap raised to 90– Well sure I am glad they are raising the level cap. But I am 10000% against raising caps by 5 at a time. Of course this can keep me hopeful that when we DO get the next expansion after this one we will get that 10 level expansion to get us to 100. But at this rate it will be 2015 or 2016 before we get that one, making it a huge expansion for a 10 year anniversary (my math could be off there of course–so sue me) but will WoW be relevant still? It will be still around for sure, but relevancy is another thing entirely. I know they don’t want to fall in the trap of what some MMO’s and their players do not like, with too many levels making it all a barrier for entry to the new player, but 5 levels here is just fixing the problem that Cataclysm had. Not enough new leveling. The big problem was we only had to get from 80-85 and it was way too easy to do so with such a huge amount of exp out there. My 1st character I went out and just did professions while I was at work. Namely just flying around gaining artifacts and prospecting, and I got 3 levels on that alone. Just poor exp planning by Blizz keeping it to 5 levels for Cata. I think a 10 level Cata might have made it all feel a little less drab. So yay for more levels Boo for it only being 5. But since it’s an expansion I am already down on, I think the 5 levels is good. So this is neither a yay or nay thing in the scheme of it all.

Complete Talent Tree Overhaul–> WOW really Blizz? A complete overhaul??? WTF… let me say this again WTF!!!! You have got to be kidding me. This will mark the 3rd time in as many expansions that we will be overhauling the way talent systems will work. I wasn’t 100% against the last one b/c I kinda understood where they were going. Trying to eliminate too many meaningless talents and making less of them “mandatory” in the grand scheme. Even tho it might have made it all MORE cookie cutter, I was kinda ok with how it played out. They seemed to just work.

What are we going to do now? Well here’s the gist. At level 10 you will still pick a specialization. Then as you level you will get spells etc on a fairly normal pace but not able to pick any of them, just kinda trained. The talent trees will now only have points to spend every 5 levels. Yep you read that right. SIX whole choices as you level EVER. And no they aren’t monumental choices either. They are basically variations of the same choice. It’s not that I don’t like the choices, it’s that I hate the fact that we will only have 6 choices the whole time we are leveling. They are completely going away from everything they have ever said about trees. They don’t want it cookie cutter but by reducing the choices every time, that’s EXACTLY what they are doing. They are making that ONE spec for PvE and the ONE spec for Raiding having to be had even more. Nope I don’t like this idea one bit. Alas, here is a sample of what you will see, as WoW-head already has the calculator up for you to check out now… check it out HERE.

So why do I hate it so much? Well my main problem is kinda two-fold. On one hand I have always loved that Bliz has ALWAYS tried to make every class/race combo 100% balanced. So much so that they want you to be able to choose any combo and that person should be able to compete 1 on 1 with any other and be a viable help to a group or battle. That’s all fine and good but I am not sure what it is. Have they gotten lazy and just want to strip it all down to so little that it’s a piece of cake to balance? Have they just given up? I think a little of both. What was always so appealing to me for the game from day 1 in the talent system was the many choices you could make and make it work for your style. Make all styles good, don’t strip it down to where you can’t help but be good b/c so little choices that they all are about equal. BOOO HISSSSS Blizzard, very poor form here. They REALLY need to steal a bit from the RIFT class/talent system. RIFT has so many choices to choose from in the soul/class system and it’s infinitely fun. You can respec every few levels and fall in love with a whole new play style and the levels just seem to melt away. You have no idea you are even leveling. And the whole time you feel overpowered! Sure it seems that every day there are balance issues, but everyone is so overpowered that, IMHO everyone is just a beast and the overpowered are just more of a beast then others. It just never seems to matter in there. Again Blizzard has let me down with this announcement.

PVE Scenarios— I think here they are trying to find more things for smaller groups to get into and find more things for people to do instead of grind. Have the grind not feel so much like one. Stealing a small page from LOTRO book with this idea. This is trying to stop the burn out of “I only have X time to play and [yawn] the same old crap to do”. So now they are adding these to have someone be able to have 3 or more, friends/guildies and go out and do a quick scenario run with whatever group make up for some of them, and have fun in a short period of time. Finally, something that if done the way that I think it can be done, will be GOOD for the game. Bravo Blizzard.

Dungeon “challenge” modes and Heroic Scholo, and SM— I am neutral here as well. I always kinda liked both of those instances to be honest, so a heroic version might not be too bad. Let me rephrase that… now that Blizz is re-thinking what “Heroic” means in the new expansion it might not be too bad. In Lich King, Heroics were hard but it only took some gear and practice to get it all right and get used to it. In Cataclysm “Heroic” was stupidly hard even for seasoned dungeoneers. At least Blizz has recognized this fact and are trying to make it so that the majority of the players can see them. No matter what they have done in the past, the game still is 80% of the game is seen by 20% of the population. I STILL to this day have not seen Illidan, the Lich King or Ragnaros killed even in their original form. Granted I am not and only for a small time was, a hardcore type raider. Yet I have been playing from day one and have done just about every 5 man in the game (and have 5 80+s) and would like to be able to see such content for logging in so much hours. So sure on paper I like these ideas, and I like the idea of timed dungeon runs and some other ideas they have for “challenges” in dungeons, but like some other things I will believe it when I see it.

Pet Battles— A mini game in which peoples pet collection will fight. Um yeah I can kinda care less. I put this in the realm of the “dance studio” they talked about years ago, in things I hope never get implemented. Yet, so many people are pet hogs collectors  that I bet they will make sure this gets into the game.

Before I get into my final thoughts I wanted to touch on the yearly subscription model. Now initially I thought “GREAT”, even tho naturally it comes out 3 weeks after I officially cancelled my WoW subscription for the 3rd time. I have always kinda wanted this model b/c hell, I have been playing that long, might as well get me something that saves me even MORE money per month and get some freebies out of it as well. So I figured I would go re-sub get Diablo 3 free and play here and there until the Expansion comes out. But then the logical thinking came over me. Sure Diablo will be free, but it’s likely to cost me what.. 60$ for the standard and maybe 90$ for the collectors at most? (I say at most b/c I don’t think I would buy it for more then that no matter what is in it). Now let’s also say that Pandaria is going to come out at absolute earliest 18 months from now. Without looking into it I would say the biggest discount that the money hounds at blizz will give us for the year sub will be 10$ per month. So that’s 180$ to be able to stay in game and get D3 free and a few goodies. Nope, sorry that extra 80-100$ more isn’t quite enough for me to sub to a game I won’t play much in the next 18-24 months. Just look now at the next 6 months. Right now Arkham City, then Skyrim, then SWTOR, then Kingdoms of Amalur, and somewhere in there Torchlight 2. On top of that I am sure I am missing something. Nope, now that I think of it I won’t be signing up for a yearly sub.. But kudos to you Blizz for getting a ton of people to re-up right now with promises of a free d3 and beta invites. A bit sleazy but effective.

Final thoughts—> Well I have said it a ton of times. I am a BLizzard fan boy at heart, and I even own a decent amount of Blizz Stock. BUT, I am no where near a person who is snowed into thinking they are perfect. In fact, of late their decisions have made me think that it might be time to take my money and run. I simply am not happy with how little they have been accomplishing with their games in such a long time. This expansion is due in ’13. REALLY? 18-24 months blizz? I have grown weary of the “when it’s ready” excuse from Blizz now. In the past it was all fine and good b/c they were usually in a timely manner. Well with 2-3 years now between expansions it’s not timely any more. And when you are raking in somewhere in the avenue of 150MILLION dollars a MONTH you can pay enough quality people to get these things done. And I wouldn’t say it’s RUSHED when you are paying and putting in the man hours. Speaking as a shareholder Blizz and a huge fan, get your act together. Don’t give us boring Blizz-cons and Kung Fu panda expansions. Get things rolling and give us something good, and get Diablo 3 out before Christmas so you can sell a bazillion of those boxes as well.

So yes, Kung Fu Panda expansions = big fat jumping the shark, and also quite likely a crappy 2012 Blizz con as well (even tho by then they might HAVE to give us “Titan” info to keep people happy, b/c re-hashing Panda info won’t quite cut it— and prolly neither will simple Starcraft 2 episode info). Gonna have to give BLizzard a C – for this Blizz con wrap up guys. Surprise me with that Christmas release and I might end the year not so pissed at you.

–GJ rant over

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