The Official World of Warcraft Irrational Discussion Thread

So.

I've been playing again. Mostly, I've been reading what's new since I last left the game, but I'm also not very excited about the realms my old characters are at and/or the old characters themselves.

What realms are the coolest?

What realm does Irrational's sweet guild play on?

What add-ons are King of the Ring?

What other sweet advice have you!? Have at thee!

I find it hard to believe this thread has been up this long and it's not bursting at the seams with insight.

Sorry man I would be more than happy to give insight but I do not have much WOW experience. Not many people have been around lately here we may need to wait till Irrationals mystery shooter is announced to really get lots of people around.

I don't know what the coolest or best realms are but I play on Gorgonnash(horde) and Elune(alliance). Some addons I cant live without are bartender, recount, xperl, deadlyboss mods and parrot to name a few. As for other advice, run away before it sucks you in again.

I give yous twos two thumbs up, but split evenly. The system is keeping me down, maaaaaaan.

Khaz'goroth Oceanic Horde is the best

And as for addons, really depends on the class you play but for healing I find Grid, Deadly boss mods and Quartz indispensable. Other addons are just for making the interface a bit more workable, like Bagnon and Bartender.

I have a level 80 Pally named Rischio that sits around doing nothing on Borean Tundra. My buddy and I founded a guild there called Bad Idea. The notion was if we did PvE we wouldn't get sucked in.

No luck. I finally had to leave the game to not flunk out of grad school.

The last time I ran an instance or raid with him was on Christmas day, though I did log in like a week ago to get the Emblematic achievement:

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Borean+Tundra&cn=Rischio

However, my fiancee loves to play casually so I jump onto an alt once in a while and do random quests with her.

There are only a handful of Irrational folks who play. There are four of us who play in the same guild while the rest are scattered around on various servers.

I've been taking a break lately but I'll be back to playing my level 80 Restoration / Enhancement Shaman.

I would consider myself a casual WoW player. I played for one summer and had a blast, and while I have a desire to go back, if I don't have people to play with then it isn't worth it for me. I have a 76 Shadow Priest. I couldn't tell you what my favorite realms are because I have no idea what any of their names are (I was playing with a friend who referred me so we leveled at an incredible pace, and it's all a blur). I played on a PvP server only to find out that PvP isn't really for me. Getting ganked by Alliance Rouges was infuriating while I was trying to level.

I might go back to it eventually, but for now I'm waiting for Tera! Finally an action MMO -- I hope it's good!

seethrumirror said: for now I'm waiting for Tera! Finally an action MMO -- I hope it's good!

I'm waiting for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

I'm obsessing over it actually.

I just wanted to say that with the announcement of changes for end game raiding in Cataclysm, I may very well spend a few more months with this game when the expansion hits.

The idea that I wouldn't have to deal with 24 people that I can't stand, but instead might actually be able to connect with 9 people that I mildly tollerate--it makes me ready for end game raiding again.

Some "hard core" guys are pissed about this change, but as a former hard core guy, I'm thrilled that I can do raiding AND enjoy my personal and professional life.

I've been checking out mmo-champion here and there to get updates on the expansion. looks like a bunch of new screenshots of all the affected zones are posted there right now. LOTS of big changes to them.

Ok... I'll bite. As Faulstick mentioned already - there are about 10 people in the studio who play in one form or another... maybe 5 or 6 who raid... and only a few of them raid together.

I'm a fairly hardcore raider and an officer in one of the top Alliance raiding guilds on Laughing Skull (PvP). Once we downed Lich King in 25-man and started working through hard-modes I sort-of burned out and have only logged in a couple times in the last month.

My main is a Resto Druid named Taanis (yes it's a lame cross-nod to Dragonlance) - and as such I use a set of Add-Ons that are very specific to my class/spec that allow me to keep track of the status of 25 people effectively as well as lead a successful raid.

The most important one is Grid - which was actually written by a sharp chap who lives in Cambridge - and is probably the most easily customizable "raid frame" addons out there if you have the patience and knowhow to do the legwork.

I set it up so it shows me every single HOT I've thrown out as a colored dot on their Grid-Box and what the remaining duration is numerically as well as change the color depending on the duration (it will turn red when there's only a second or two left on a HOT)... how many Lifebloom stacks I have on someone... if someone in the raid is about to take an incoming heal from someone else (another healer is mid-cast)... if someone is cursed, poisoned, or has a magical effect... I use a system called StatusDebuffs that shows me all the Raid-Specific debuffs I need to know about (ex: spikes on Marrowgar) so I can call them out and apply necessary heals/get away/etc. Basically I show every piece of information I need in a condensed and visually parsable form.

On top of that I use Clique - which allows me to map any cast to any style of mouse click or key-combo-click - and it will cast on a selected target without explicitly targeting them. So if someone gets cursed I just Shift+Left-click on their grid-box and it will cast decurse on them without needing to explicitly target them. Likewise my middle-click will just cast Lifebloom on whoever I click it on. I have every healing/status-removal spell mapped this way.

I also use an addon that shows any missing buffs/flasks/well-fed/etc before we pull (I forget the name of it) and I use IceHUD and Parrot to clean up the feedback text. Of course we all use DBM for raid-boss timers/warnings.

edit - You can actually see some old screenshots of my UI HERE. This was in Naxx and before I started using Parrot/IceHUD. One shot shows full HOT's on 3 tanks on Patchwerk and the other appears to just be me throwing Rejuvination on everyone.

IG.Don said:
Ok... I'll bite. As Faulstick mentioned already - there are about 10 people in the studio who play in one form or another... maybe 5 or 6 who raid... and only a few of them raid together.
I'm a fairly hardcore raider and an officer in one of the top Alliance raiding guilds on Laughing Skull (PvP). Once we downed Lich King in 25-man and started working through hard-modes I sort-of burned out and have only logged in a couple times in the last month.
My main is a Resto Druid named Taanis (yes it's a lame cross-nod to Dragonlance) - and as such I use a set of Add-Ons that are very specific to my class/spec that allow me to keep track of the status of 25 people effectively as well as lead a successful raid.
The most important one is Grid - which was actually written by a sharp chap who lives in Cambridge - and is probably the most easily customizable "raid frame" addons out there if you have the patience and knowhow to do the legwork.
I set it up so it shows me every single HOT I've thrown out as a colored dot on their Grid-Box and what the remaining duration is numerically as well as change the color depending on the duration (it will turn red when there's only a second or two left on a HOT)... how many Lifebloom stacks I have on someone... if someone in the raid is about to take an incoming heal from someone else (another healer is mid-cast)... if someone is cursed, poisoned, or has a magical effect... I use a system called StatusDebuffs that shows me all the Raid-Specific debuffs I need to know about (ex: spikes on Marrowgar) so I can call them out and apply necessary heals/get away/etc. Basically I show every piece of information I need in a condensed and visually parsable form.
On top of that I use Clique - which allows me to map any cast to any style of mouse click or key-combo-click - and it will cast on a selected target without explicitly targeting them. So if someone gets cursed I just Shift+Left-click on their grid-box and it will cast decurse on them without needing to explicitly target them. Likewise my middle-click will just cast Lifebloom on whoever I click it on. I have every healing/status-removal spell mapped this way.
I also use an addon that shows any missing buffs/flasks/well-fed/etc before we pull (I forget the name of it) and I use IceHUD and Parrot to clean up the feedback text. Of course we all use DBM for raid-boss timers/warnings.
edit - You can actually see some old screenshots of my UI HERE. This was in Naxx and before I started using Parrot/IceHUD. One shot shows full HOT's on 3 tanks on Patchwerk and the other appears to just be me throwing Rejuvination on everyone.

My main is a resto druid as well. I found Grid very capable if I spend the time setting it up correctly which is a little daunting after each update. Vuhdo is a great alternative to Grid (or can be used in conjunction too).

I don't use very many add-ons for my rogue - Rogue Power Bars, Recount, Omen and DeadlyBossMods from what I remember.

drewjamicks said:
I've been checking out mmo-champion here and there to get updates on the expansion. looks like a bunch of new screenshots of all the affected zones are posted there right now. LOTS of big changes to them.

I love the new mini-golf course--even though it makes what was once a very sad and ominous zone into a resort. So weird.

TheMadSpin said:

seethrumirror said: for now I'm waiting for Tera! Finally an action MMO -- I hope it's good!

I'm waiting for Star Wars: The Old Republic.
I'm obsessing over it actually.

Me too. Every line of dialogue is acted!

I never gained much WoW experience. My friend gave me a thing for a seven day trial. After about fifteen minutes, I lost all interest. I don't see why some people spend their life on there. It's just, ehhh.

TheMadSpin said:
I just wanted to say that with the announcement of changes for end game raiding in Cataclysm, I may very well spend a few more months with this game when the expansion hits.
The idea that I wouldn't have to deal with 24 people that I can't stand, but instead might actually be able to connect with 9 people that I mildly tollerate--it makes me ready for end game raiding again.
Some "hard core" guys are pissed about this change, but as a former hard core guy, I'm thrilled that I can do raiding AND enjoy my personal and professional life.

I agree with you. I think that WoW has officially abandoned the hardcore players, but I don't think it's a bad thing by any means. If I was going to go back to WoW I would enjoy kicking ass in it and having a life, too.

I have to agree that the abandonment of hardcore raiding is a good thing. I only started playing WoW about 18 months ago, right before WOTLK dropped. Since then I have gotten a Warrior and Mage to 80, and done a lot of successful PuG and guild raiding. Looking back over my time, I am exactly the goal of what Blizzard tried to do with WOTLK (easier entry to raiding, lessen gear restrictions, get a larger player base to see all the expansion content) and I think they have succeeded in every one of their goals. If I had tried to start playing WoW right before BC instead of WOTLK I seriously doubt I would have stuck with it as long as I have, or enjoyed near as much end game content.

I also think the move to 10m raiding in Cata is a good one. Having 10/25 and H10/H25 is just too many sub divisions. Heroic content should be the hardcore domain, and by allowing the same gear to drop in both reg 10/25, a lot more people will get a chance to see H content in Cata, just like a lot more people got to raid in WOTLK.

Lastly, as a tank, I am glad they are making the damage less spikey. Getting obliterated in under a second before a healer can even get one spell off (I'm looking at you TOC 25 Gormak) is the antithesis of fun.

I played for quite some time, myself!

I hadn't played the beta and knew very little about the game before getting it in 2004 - a few memories of screenshots of what I would later realize as Durotar, an early review or two that I didn't pay too much attention to, pictures of orcs with cheesy speech bubbles. That kind of thing.

I played off and on and with varying intensity from that point until around this time last year, maybe a bit later. What can I say that hasn't already been said, though? Most of my appreciation for the game was born from my initial lack of knowledge going into it.

I was immediately struck by the depth, the way that the world felt indomitably large and expansive and something that would conceivably take a person months to personally experience. The early raiding was great - as was the raiding when I stopped. The efforts that went into balancing the game in conjunction with releasing new content was really pretty captivating.

I guess I just really enjoyed playing a game with so much conversation surrounding and affecting it, if you'll allow me that obvious statement. The experience gave me a unique kind of perspective when it comes to thinking about what goes into making good games great.

What more can I say?

I played a warrior. I can say that.

Andrew Marathas
Illustrator

Hell, I'm still classed as a noob on WOW, even with 2 lvl 80's and a bunch of lower lvl chars xD
Anyway, the two 80's are a Shammy and a Warrior-both Alliance. I'm on Azuremyst, and started soon after the WOTLK came out.
I must say, I have found that with every little update they have there is a surprising amount of 'making it easier'. I mean, a mount at 20? Still, I suppose it's to get some new blood into the game.

I really want Cataclysm to be good, I've enjoyed the game so far, with all the raids and dungeons in WOTLK, but I hope it isn't too dumbed down for the more hardcore players.

I thought I was going to play some in my month off, but I wound up being far away from my computer for the last several weeks and classes start back for me on the 7th.

I think if I play again it'll end up being in mid July. I really want that Lore Master achievement... because I make poor choices.