Ima Roll A Jaina

We only got to play for about 45 minutes last night, but were able to knock out a pretty neat chain of quests in Hyjal. I won't spoil anything other than to say that we completed the Thrall-Aggra chain.

Did anyone else tear up a bit at the end?

Not that I did, mind you.  I'm a Warlock.  Warlocks don't cry.

Those shiny beads were actually souls.

Yeah, souls.  I was filled to the brim with souls.  I may have tested the new animation a bit too much.  The buggers were coming out of my eyes.

I think I'd love the new animation if it were a little less... pink.  Maybe that's just me though.  Does it look pink to anyone else?  Even so, I'll count it an improvement.

So, just to recap: I was not crying pink tears.  Those were souls.  Harvested souls. 

In similar news, loved this.  Different tears.

4.2 Warlockery

I was going to reproduce the Warlock notes... and then I read them. There are four bullet point. Four. Druids gave me finger spasms on my iPhone. We got four.

I suppose we could view this as a good thing: we're not being f-ed with.  There is no need to change a whole lot as far as guides and such go.  It's going to killing as usual for 'locks in 4.2, with few notable exceptions.

Here's the big one:

Glyph of Soul Swap now applies a 30-second cooldown to Soul Swap, up from 15 seconds.

Holy fel!  Double?  Really?  Was it that OP?  Well, that sucks.  It already feels like years before the damned thing is off cooldown.  So much for having a cool, useful spell to make us not suck on trash.  I guess I'll go back to living for boss-meters now.  It may be worth dropping that glyph for something else now.  Not sure what.  I'm going to have to look into it I think.  You're basically only going to want to use it to preserve dots from one target to the next, and you probably will only be able to do that once.  Count me in for AoE on trash pulls because that's the only way I'm going to be helpful.


Otherwise, there's some bug fix (regarding leaving combat while channeling Drain Soul), Soul Fire is now available earlier (level 20), and Soul Harvest has a new spell effect.  That effect better be f-in awesome.  Like, purple lighting should shoot from my fingertips and burn holes in nearby Mage robes.

For Warlocks, this is a pretty boring patch.  I don't particularly like the major change (can you tell), but it's tolerable.  It's doesn't really effect most bosses and it basically just puts us solidly back in the "stays on boss" class brigade.  No more helping with the adds or anything useful like that.  I guess it's a PvP balance thing, so whatever.

Good news is that there's a lot of gear (and some new dailies) opening up.  Saga's got a great little list going rounding up the new stuff.  Check it out if you're looking for something to make you smile.  Gear sometimes has that effect, especially when patch notes fail.

As Time Goes By

"I congratulate you," Harrison says after a prolonged silence.  The piano continues its song, providing a pleasant background to the clinking of glasses and low murmur of conversation.  Every now and then, the high pitched laughter of an amused woman can be heard above it all, punctuated by the answering rumble of her companion.  Though the veneer of casual celebration remains unmarred, one can't help but notice the undercurrent of intrigue that hangs over each table.  Surely no one in the Ramkahen oasis is exactly what they seem.

Valentis sets his drink down and fixes the lone companion at his table with deep green eyes. "What for?"

Harrison tilts his glass casually. "Your job."

Valentis allows himself a satisfied smile. He nods toward the other man and replies, "I try."

A short laugh escapes Harrison's lips. "We all try.  You succeed!"

The two men continue to drink amicably, forcing no conversation between them.  They survey the room in turns, eyes alighting on a giggling couple here, a hushed conversation there.  Harrison notices that occasionally the Gilnean's eyes stray towards the doorway with a look of concern.  Who is he waiting for?

"Don't you sometimes wonder if it's all worth this?" Harrison asks.  He waves an expansive arm as if to take in the whole world.  "I mean, what you're fighting for."

Valentis leans forward.  "You might as well question why we breathe.  If we stop breathing, we'll die.  If we stop fighting our enemies, the world will die."

"Well, what of it?  It'll be out of its misery."  Harrison drains his drink.

"You know how you sound, Mr. Jones?" Valentis snatches up his drink and sits back.  "Like a man who's trying to convince himself of something he doesn't believe in his heart."

Harrison snorts, but does not correct the Gilnean.

Across the room, Decedereful returns from outside.  Her eyes find Valentis, but then sweep over to his companion.  She stands frozen.  From her vantage point, she has a clear view of the side of Harrison's face.  Something close to panic clouds her face.  For a moment, it appears as if she is about to bolt like a frightened animal.  Valentis wrinkles his brows in confusion, his eyes darting from one to the other.  Harrison sips his drink, oblivious. 

Decedereful seems to have reached a decision.  She snaps out of it.  Instead of returning to the table, however, she weaves over to the piano.  The placard on the instrument names it's operator.  Sam, it reads.  She would have known his name without it.  He is a longtime friend of Harrison's.  It is a bittersweet memory that informs Dece.  A memory she thought she'd left behind in the Lost City.

"Hello, Sam," she says.  "It has been a while."

The notes falter for a moment as the pianist recognizes the voice.  Turning, he continues on, his blunder unnoticed by the patrons.  "Miss Dece.  Truly, it is a pleasure and a surprise.  Harrison will be overjoyed to see you."

"I'm afraid he won't be, Sam.  Things are... different."  She stares over at the table where the two men sit sipping drinks.  She bites her lower lip.  "It seems fate has a sense of humor."

Sam shrugs.  "If you say so."

With a deep breath, she seems to summon the resolve for a particularly difficult task.  "Play it once, Sam," she says.  "For old times' sake."

Sam frowns.  "I don't know what you mean, Miss Dece."

"Play it, Sam.  Play 'As Time Goes By.'"

Sam finishes the song he was playing and stops, looking worriedly around the room.  "Oh, I can't remember it," he lies.  "I'm a little rusty on it."

Decedereful favors him with a reassuring smile.  "I'll hum it for you."  She begins with the opening notes.

With a shrug, Sam joins in.

"Sing it, Sam."

The pianist continues in a deep, melodious voice,

"You must remember this
A kiss is still a kiss 
A sigh is just a sigh 
The fundamental things apply 
As time goes by 
And when two lovers woo 
They still say, "I love you" 
On that you can rely 
No matter what the future brings-"

He is interrupted as Harrison rushes up, furious.  "Sam, I thought I told you never to play..." he trails off, seeing Decedereful for the first time.

The two stare at each other and its as if the rest of the room drops away.  Sam, excusing himself, stands up and heads to the bar for a drink.  The patrons clap politely, but neither Decedereful nor Harrison respond.  Sound drops away and everything seems slowed.  Light itself seems to dim, sucked into the air between the two figures at the piano.  They are locked in a pouring of souls, spilled through eyes.  No words pass between them, and yet volumes are communicated.

After a moment that seems to stretch to infinity, Decedereful smiles.

Regarding the Dungeon Journal

I was reminded today by WoW Insider of the impending implementation of the fabled Dungeon Journal.  For those that may not have caught it, here is a brief run down.  As I understand it, the journal is meant to give you data on raid/dungeon bosses.  It will be part of the default UI and allow you to pull up a window which describes the basics about each encounter.  How, exactly, this is done remains to be seen.

I am unable to click through to the preview that Blizzard has provided today.  See the link in the WoW Insider article for more information.  All may be made clear in there.  This is an opinion piece, not a patch note debrief. 

I have several off-the-cuff thoughts about this that I wanted to share.  First, I guess I should explain that I am under the impression that this is a controversial addition.  I believe there are a lot of folks that disagree with the journal and believe it spoon feeds content or goes too far in a dumbing down or ruins the progression race.  I can see their point.  Yet, very simply, what is the different between having an in-game journal and allowing one to minimize a window to pull up a web browser.  (Mind you, the bleeding edge may not have access to them, but, heck, even then someone usually has a guide up as soon as there's been a realm first).  Just because a resource is available does not take away the free will to use it.  Should Blizzard instead lock players into the game, not allowing minimazation in and effort to prevent dumbing down?  The strats, the info, they're all already out there.  As far as I'm concerned, the only thing this addition is doing is providing and in-game alternative.

And guess what?  You can still choose not to use it!

Now, if it pops up automagically when you enter the room or something, then count me among the detractors.  So long as we are not forced to see anything but another button down there with the rest of them, I don't really think anyone can voice a true complaint.  Heck, I'll bet someone could/will make an addon that simply disables or removes the button from the a custom UI. 

From someone who is often looked upon to lead (be it in dungeons or raids), this is a godsend.  Depending on the actual information, of course.  I would love to have concrete data with regards to the range and nature of abilities.  Is it conic?  5 yard? 8? 10?  Avoidable or non?  It would be great if we're allowed to add our own notes.  Heck, it'd be great if we could share those too, but I think that's probably asking for too much.

Even if we just have a basic picture: "this is what he looks like and he does fire based attacks," I consider it a good thing.  You know we all tab out to wowhead or wowwiki or tankspot anyway.  Why not have something in-game?  In fact, I'd even wager that there are going to be key components missing that I wish were integrated that will still force raiders to minimize and use third party options.  Most of us will probably not even use it.  (This is based on the assumption that if you're out here, reading my blog, checking out stuff about the game... you probably are already comfortable with certain outside resources.  And what do the people purely in-game even care?)

There is one argument I could get on board with, and it's thus: there is absolutely no immersion to a dungeon journal.  I don't really see how it fits in lore-wise or any-other-wise.  How did we get all these sweet journals with all this great information?  Brann's been busy?  Thrall finally got a more detailed answer?  I'm not sure that this is a big issue though.  After all, immersion in WoW hasn't been dependent on things "making sense" for a long time.  It's just not a core concern of the game.  I'm okay with that.  If you're not, I doubt it's going to change in this MMO.  Look elsewhere.

There are some neat things I think they could do that might help with immersion (and maybe that bleeding edge thing).  What if the journal filled in over time, over the course of a server's progression.  Think about it.  Maybe right when the new stuff is release you only have, like, a message from Thrall saying: "Big fiery dude... go get 'em!"  Then, as we start getting realm firsts, it fills in.  Blizzard could even do clever notes from key characters in the story like from Jaina: "Guy sprays a cone like I did when Theramore was flooding."  Or Harrison Jones: "Watch the tail, kid."  Or Random Goblin #7: "Time is death, friend.  Better kill him in 8 minutes!"

Perhaps we could tie it to the individual.  Maybe the page is blank until you enter, then it fills out.  Maybe each time you enter you "discover" a new boss ability via "observation."  Maybe you give Warlocks the Libra spell from Final Fantasy.  Why not a spell?  Just sayin'. 

Anyway, I guess my point is that the base idea shouldn't really be that big of a deal.  Yet, I'm sure there are ways we'll all think of that could possibly provide for a smoother integration.  On the other hand, it's just another button.  If you don't like it, don't use it.  There are already better resources out there.  And if you want to go in blind and wipe a few times in trial and error, well... gl hf and all that jazz.  I have those days too.

Skim 'Locks

Now that we're on the cusp of the next content patch, I feel like I can go ahead and ponder my more immediate warlocky future.  I'm wading through somewhere around 400 blog posts that I missed in four days of vacation.  I'll be honest, even if you wrote a Pullitzer, I'm probably only going to skim your post.  Sorry.

In my skimming, I noticed some vague feedback from the devs.  I believe Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street wrote about it on the whole water-cooler thing.  Basically, Warlock changes were boiled down to a two things:

• We nerfed the Glyph of Soul Swap to reduce the ease of applying multiple DoTs in PvP.
• We nerfed Drain Life because Affliction was forsaking Shadowbolt in PvE, which wasn’t intended. We want Drain Life to be for utility, not primarily for damage, and we want all casters to have to hard cast at least some of the time. This was done via hotfix and players won’t see a change in 4.2.

I guess we should be thankful that we have only two things to begin with.  This serves to reinforce my belief that Warlocks, in general, are in a pretty good place right now.  In fact, I can't help but groan when I see our name on the list.  Last patch we saw buffs.  Of course we're going to see nerfs this time.

I'll reproduce the patch notes proper when it goes live, but we can assume we're simply going to see a version of the above.  I don't like that SS keeps being mucked with, as I really like the spell and am afraid they are determined to make it un-useful.  I'd almost rather take nerfs elsewhere and keep SS badass.

I'm not very surprised about the DL hotfix.  The explanation aligns with what I had thought about the spell's purpose.  Still, it was nice having it as a option to lose and not feel like your damage was suffering.  I was never fully on-board with any DL filler spec, so it's not going to be an issue for me.  I'm not sure if I like that it was a hotfix.  Hotfixes just scream "stealth nerf" to me.  I don't like it when rogues creep around and I don't like it when nerfs are slid beneath my robes.  It just gives me the heeby-jeebies, and I'm supposed to be the one doling those out.

I guess what I'm saying is just... why the rush?  It would seem to me like hotfixing is adding another variable to the change pot, and it's one that, by nature, isn't communicated very well.  Why not just wait until, like, the patch?

Anyway, Warlocks of the World... of Warcraft, what do you think?  Are you, like me, generally happy with our class?  What would you see changed?

Jet Lag

So we're back from our little trip out west. Hit up wine country in Walla Walla, WA. Good times. Now we're paying the price of a three hour time shift. Woke up at noon today and through it was nine. Then had to go to work. Ugh.

I'll feel clever again in a day or two.  Until then, I took a picture for y'all.  Fuu was looking at some clothes in one of the local shops (in between wine tastings, of course), and we came across this:

I thought it fitting.  Not as in the clothes fitting.  I'm not sure if I could fit in the clothes (though the epic one IS tempting), but the sign.  Apparently Affliction gives you like +100 sexy or something (if the price tag was any indication). 

In any case, I wanted the sign but, sadly, it was not for sale. 

And Then There Were Two

Major Strasser’s frown continues to deepen as those around him make small talk until his green face sports a canyon. Participation does not appear to interest him. Nor does wasted time. The Goblin can hear the gold clattering on the floor with each note in the frivolous song pounded out on the club’s piano.

“I am needed elsevhere,” he says suddenly.

Rising, his eyes can barely be seen past the plane of the table. Captain Renault gets up. Harrison and Valentis do not.

“I shall be along shortly,” Renault promises.

“Wery good. Zhere are ozher places to inwestigate.” The Major turns to Harrison. “Be careful vho you trust, Mr. Jones.” He looks pointedly at the Gilnean. “You vould not vant to end up on zhe vrong side and lose zhis… establishment.” He favors them all with a curt nod before marching away.

“Pleasant chap,” Valentis notes.

Harrison chuckles. “His type come through here every month or so. Do not let him bother you. This club steers clear of affairs outside her walls.”

“So long as we remain friends, eh?” Renault smiles.

“Yes, of course.”

“You know,” Renault continues, still standing, “I've often speculated why you don't return to Stormwind. Did you abscond with the church funds? Have a dalliance with Jaina Proudmoore?” He ran his fingers across his thin mustache. “I like to think you killed a man. It's the Romantic in me.”

“It was a combination of all three,” Harrison replies with a straight face.

Renault frowns and leans in close. “This man is here for exit papers,” he whispers so that only Harrison can hear. “No matter how clever he may seem, he still needs papers… for two.” The look he gives Harrison is dripping with meaning. For a moment, Jones is sure that the Captain knows that the Rogue passed the papers to Harrison before his untimely demise.

No matter, the good Captain has always been agreeable in the past… so long as he’s properly paid.  “Why two?”

“He is traveling with a lady.”

“He’ll take papers for one.” Harrison mumbles back. Much easier to deal with a single transaction what with Strasser sniffing around. There was no way Harrison was going to stick his neck out, even for the Gilnean.

“I think not. I have seen the lady.” Renault stands with a plastered smile. “Good evening, gentlemen,” he says more loudly.

Harrison and Valentis sip their drinks as the Captain departs.