WoW Pandas and you.

A lot of information came out from the latest BlizzCon.  The part that really mattered to me was about the next WoW expansion.  I was gone back and forth with World of Warcraft and I am currently playing it, since it is the only game I can really play right now.  I get really excited when it comes time for a new WoW expansion.  This expansion, however, is a little odd.  The main feature of this expansion is going to be centered around... pandas.

Yes, pandas.  The Pandaren are a race of panda-people in Warcraft lore.  I'm not really sure how I feel about this particular expansion being based so heavily on these... pandas.  I really like the idea of seeing a race that has been represented in the past coming into the game.  I think it will interested to see their home, which happens to be ON THE BACK OF A GIANT FUCKING TURTLE.  I think that the new class has potential to be fun and interesting.  Which this current expansion not even a year old, I'm a little concerned about how they will handle the end of it.  We still have to finish up this expansion and wrap it up.  I think it will be nice to not have a centralized villain to go after from the beginning of the expansion.  This should make it easier to develop more fun things to do, some of which won't be dedicated to building up to that one final encounter.

The talent overhaul seems like a fucking joke.  They essentially want to do away with talents as they are, do away with the need for training and allow your spec to determine your skills.  Obviously there will be skills that everyone of that class will have.  Then there will be certain skills that you earn as you level, automagically.  No need to go back to a trainer, you just learn it as you ding killing that kobold.  At level 10 you would pick a specialization and then the rest of your character is just going to happen.  No need to input any brain power.  The new talent system would essentially have 6 different types of skills.  Each skill does something similar, but it lets you pick every 15 levels.  So you have 18 total skills, but you have to pick one from each tier.  Think of it as tier 1: snares, tier 2: DPS boosts, tier 3: fear/polymorph immunity, tier 4: instant cast spell, tier 5: aggro dump/builder, tier 6: another DPS boost.  Each skill will be similar, but might apply more to one spec than another.  It really looks awful.  Not only is it over simplified, but sometimes your playstyle doesn't make sense with entire tiers.  I looked at the Rogue tree for the new talents, and I felt that I'd much rather have ALL THREE talents from the top tier (based on Stealth, mostly).  If I was Sub, I'd probably have talents similar to them anyway, but since they are removing that sort of customization... I lose.  Terrible.

The new Monk class looks kind of cool.  Tank/DPS/Heals.  Great... another class that is laid out like this.  Sigh.  Why haven't we made every class available to do two roles?  I'd tank as a Rogue, it'd help get me in more groups.  I'd heal as a Warlock via demonic energies or tank with a pet if I was ever given a chance or the proper abilities.  Adding another class to the game that can do what so many other classes can, without fixing the current classes seems silly.  I'm sure the class will be cool, but there are other classes that are being slapped in the face by this.

The most interesting play made during this event was Blizzard offering beta access, a special mount, and a FREE COPY OF DIABLO 3 if you signed up for a year.  I don't mean pay for a year up front, I mean if you lock yourself in for a year.  You can still pay 15 a month or 40 every 3 months, but you can't cancel for a year. The mount looks very nice and getting a free game is pretty nice.  I saved myself 60 bucks... kind of.  I would have not purchased Diablo 3, otherwise.  I would, however, have had a WoW account active for a year.  This is a brilliant move.  Now people are locked in for a year.  180 bucks from people doing the 15 a month, PLUS they are almost assuring that people will be around to get the expansion and if nothing else... they will want to beta test and give feedback, before the expansion comes out.  It will get them a lot of feedback and help them give the game something for everyone.

I think the expansion will be alright.  I'm not sure how long I'm invested in WoW, but it's been pretty good to me thus far.  It have provided a lot of great memories and it seems like it might have some great stuff left to give.