Recent Posts

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Outside Azeroth - General Chatter / Re: Hearthstone (and battlenet desktop)

« Last post by Piralyn on March 01, 2021, 06:47:19 AM »

It's really a long time coming.

While they tried to replicate some of the rotation of Magic Type I/Type II by having a rotating chunk of expansion sets, having the same base cards from a century ago more or less really doesn't quite fit that bill. It's beneficial to add in some cards that prove to be fun staples to the core set overtime, rather than reinventing everything every year again.

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Outside Azeroth - General Chatter / Re: Hearthstone (and battlenet desktop)

« Last post by Snique on February 28, 2021, 06:38:11 AM »

HS is about to get its first serious revamp since the introduction of "Wild". With the new season the traditional basic card sets will be no more, replaced by a new "core" set. Everyone gets it for free if you have leveled heroes. Some cards will remain, some come back, some get revamped, and a lot new. This gives them more or less a clean slate on which to redo the design and fix some of the problems and corners they painted themselves into. Plus, as with MtG and other games, the core set can rotate year over year.

They're also adding (a la WoW) a true 'classic' mode where you get to play the game as it was on release. There's some hinkiness in that you really only have one (two) copy of a card but when you use that card in a certain mode it has the stats/abilities appropriate to the mode.

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Outside Azeroth - General Chatter / Re: Shadowlands makes no sense (lore-ish)

« Last post by Snique on February 25, 2021, 07:45:46 AM »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xtAknG16ug&ab_channel=Taliesin%26Evitel

I've been enjoying Taliesin fan-boy-ing over the various cinematics. This one is interesting to me as he makes several lore connections and speculations on where the story can go from here.

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Outside Azeroth - General Chatter / Re: Shadowlands 9.1

« Last post by Piralyn on February 24, 2021, 06:19:31 AM »

I think folks are also underestimating the fact that they were actively working on systems for 9.0 until... the actual day the expansion went live. While they've "cut it close" before, the delay and active iteration right up until go-live is a different order of magnitude. This probably means they had even less pre-emptive work done on 9.1 like they would for follow up patches in the past, especially with the WFH limitations.

The way the game has evolved at this point means they're basically going to have to either add some new systems or extend the existing ones. With gear trickling in at a glacial pace in many cases, and the squishes making most upgrades look pretty minimal, power has to come from somewhere. Whether that's something like the extra set of Artifact Weapon powers they added in Legion or an entirely new system, who knows, but for better or for worse, they've pivoted to most of your character's power growth for an expansion being attached to borrowed power and systems. I don't think 're-grind all the same conduits you already had at a slightly higher item level' is going to compel people to continue playing. It's already felt a little shitty getting conduits to give you back powers you've had in previous expansions.

Given the fact they had basically nothing to show, they're only just now getting 9.0.5 spun up on the PTR, and WFH gutting a lot of efficiency--although it's probably less of a factor for a game designed to be played online and across the world rather than a console single-player primary game--I'd be surprised to see it before like... July. That seems like a very long time.

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Outside Azeroth - General Chatter / Re: Shadowlands 9.1

« Last post by Snique on February 24, 2021, 05:42:55 AM »

I both agree and disagree. I think that the pandemic and WFH adjustments have an impact, but I don't think that's a systems thing. My sense is that they learned from last expansion where basically every .x patch brought a new system. In 8.x I felt like I had to re-learn the game each time, often changing talents and gems/enchants to optimize for the latest system. With 9.x we got all the systems up-front (omg so many systems) but now we just get systems tuning rather than whole revamps of the gameplay.

Valor aside I don't expect to see more new systems come out in this expansion. The downside of that is that the systems are now essentially dead ends. Most people have exactly one legendary per spec and it will upgrade when your gold matches the slowly descending price curve. That means you likely have to pass up some significant ilvl upgrades - last night I had to give up a 213 to keep my 190 legendary - which sort of sucks but it has happened before, like with set bonuses.

Likewise soulbinds and conduits are set-and-forget. There's not an exact BIS here but there are generally recognized best and very few reasons to change. It's sufficient overhead that unless you're raiding on the very edge it's likely not worth changing between single-target-best and cleave-best options between fights.

All that makes me think that we'll see some kind of combinatorics coming. For example, we're supposed to gather the convenants to invade the Maw so maybe they'll come up with a way to let us get cross-covenant soulbinds, or maybe do some kind of spell-effect thing that adds onto existing conduits. Like, if you "ally with" some other covenant it lets you add something. Maybe that's a new system? I dunno, maybe I just suck at game design.

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Outside Azeroth - General Chatter / Re: Shadowlands 9.1

« Last post by Kharvek on February 23, 2021, 10:27:15 AM »

My gut is content is going to slow down from the normal rate.  This current calendar year of releases and everything beyond is now fully in the midst of 'heavily affected by pandemic'.  The stuff that hit last year was likely almost done when any sorta WFH measures hit.  The stuff from here on out has probably had significant development time under those circumstances and likely will cause some amount of delay.  The toughest stuff to work out under WFH is anything that relies on feel, which is I think the real reason there was barely any systems updates.  Those are the hardest things to do right now.  Cranking out assets isn't as problematic.  (Which is a little odd they didn't have a ton to show on that front)

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Outside Azeroth - General Chatter / Re: Shadowlands 9.1

« Last post by Snique on February 23, 2021, 02:10:50 AM »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhnpB3kUHGM&ab_channel=Taliesin%26Evitel

Tali points out that there was a remarkable lack of even simple visuals for any of the new things that were announced for 9.1 at Blizzconline. This makes it seem like the actual patch is pretty far away.

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Outside Azeroth - General Chatter / Re: Shadowlands

« Last post by **andius on February 20, 2021, 06:51:08 AM »

Those number are a rather painful joke.

The numbers do rather put pay to the idea you farm lower level keys to get the item. Then upgrade it as upgrading things just takes to long due to the rather low cap vs item upgrade cost. Them numbers will need to change by a lot,

If your doing m15+ it is still going to take you multiple week to raise that 210 to 220 (unless it is an offhand) and the Great Vault giving you one 226 each week just does not add up.

To me the something is rather off upgrading a 184 item should not cost the same as upgrading a 216 item. I would assume you are going to get more points for doing higher keys!


To sum it up for me this as describe is "a dumpster looking for a fire"

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Outside Azeroth - General Chatter / Re: Torghast

« Last post by HeidiB on February 19, 2021, 03:35:51 PM »

Don't use "Ravenous Anima" on the broker - he'll be missing from future floors if you do. You can do it on the final floor if you want.

IIRC, he drops phantasma if you do!

This happens because the PUG sees a shiny ball and buys it, knowing that if they use shiny balls they get more powers.  They use the shiny ball to get more powers, not realizing that this is the "consumes a mob" ball or that they have the broker targeted.  Poof!

Don't ask me how I know this...

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Outside Azeroth - General Chatter / Re: Torghast

« Last post by Snique on February 19, 2021, 10:54:26 AM »

Stupid Torghast Tricks my PUG did:

Don't use "Ravenous Anima" on the broker - he'll be missing from future floors if you do. You can do it on the final floor if you want.