Shamanin...ing

I rolled another Shaman and before I knew it she was level 50. I think it must be my second favourite class after monk. Now that I think about it those are the only two classes I got to 100 this expansion.

It's weird to realise you don't really understand what you like.

Shaman's great though. For a while Enhancement was my main raiding spec, wayy back in Icecrown. Only melee class I ever took as a "main" at any point. I used to love all the hybrid support stuff you could do, and then suddenly in Cata couldn't do.

Another two expansions worth of changes later, I feel like I'm playing the same spec again. Maybe all a melee class needs to be brilliant is a couple of extra support spells you can cast while the enemy is (and they will be at some point) out of melee range. Enhancement seems designed to grant you with a regular supply of free GCDs that you can spend on whatever OP Shaman BS you feel like at the time.

Ironcially reading about all the shitty-sounding changes Mistweavers are getting in the next expansion made me want to play Mistweaver, so I healed through all the Mythics (wat how did they ruin that word already) this week to partially upgrade the toon I still eventually hope to get back into a regular raiding gig. Item levels just got bumped up by 3 per week for the next three weeks? Something like that anyway. It's like a content nerf, but this time you need exactly 20 people to play the next level.

Exactly 20.

19 is inadequate. 21 is of course absurd.

I'm still angry

Currencies. I swear to god these days WoW has more useless esoteric currencies than a fucking pay to win mobile phone game.

item. fucking. levels. Who needs content when you can grind one kind of points to spend on a different kind of points? At this rate they wont have to make new raids ever again and we can just all upgrade our gear forever through endless repetitive dungeons and everyone will be happy.

Beta. It's an unfinished game. Stop pretending that you're doing us a favour by having us test it for you.

Even more radical class overhauls. Are we even "fixing" things now? I mean these aren't just changes for change's sake right? Right..?

I heard they are getting rid of Mistweaver melee healing. Seems like a logical decision considering nobody uses it these days. Although the reason for that might have less to do with player interest and more to do with the way they didn't bother making it anything close to viable this expansion. Is that a self-fulfilling prophecy or was it a deliberate strategy?

Why in the distended anus of god fucking mother shitting christ are they giving hunters a melee spec? Out of any class? Not Mages? Not Warlocks, who actually had some melee stuff back in the day, not to mention that huge beefy demon form? Of all the competing development priorities that these bitches keep whining about, what other considerations were so bad that a melee hunter ended up seeming like a good idea in comparison.

What isn't Blizzard telling us about melee that makes it so much more important than ranged? Every single new class has been pure melee (unless you count healing as ranged-- I don't) and now we're actually losing ranged specs? What's going on?

some ranting

Dear Blizzard, please stop hard-selling me on an expansion that I wont be able to play for a year. It's just cruel.

Last week I bought a really expensive mount that also came with a level 100 character boost. How many god damn times do these guys expect me to run the same raids, upgrade the same garrison, level the same followers, collect the same daily resources. I only ever play one out of the four 100s I have already.

So I guess I'll do what I did last time and save it until the expansion becomes playable, which usually happens a week or two after the release date. Maybe I can use it on that new class oh wait... Would they even let me boost a demon hunter from level 95 to 100?

But you know what I fucking would pay extra for? A level 1 demon hunter, that I can actually play the majority of the game with. Yes I fucking get today that the whole game and all its players are completely focused on endgame and nobody gives a shit. I do though. I give a shit.


I really need to find me a proper guild. This game isn't doing it for me as a solo experience any more.

I rolled another shaman, the fourth one by my count. Because at least while you're leveling there's a variety of environments and your power progression is rapid and noticeable. Your gameplay changes over time as you gain new abilities. And unlike the endgame you actually feel like you're playing a small character in a massive world. My main toon is practically a god at this point when it comes to solo content.

And I think.... I think I just don't like Draenor very much. Not the expansion, the continent. The whole place feels very sterile, like it's a playground covered in soft foam so nobody could possibly hurt themselves. Is that what flying has done? I don't remember feeling this way before. The game is still great, but somehow the world doesn't seem compelling any more.

On abortion owls

I was feeling depressed so I decided to craft some more golden cards for my Hearthstone paladin rush deck that I've been playing since not long after my last post.

It's this one: http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/276624-s16-legendary-aggro-paladin

But the one change I make is I drop the 1-mana pirate and have one more Abortion Owl because I think silence is just so useful in so many situations and the most common is stopping a Deathrattle from spawning additional minions-- effectively you're killing a minion that doesn't exist yet. You're aborting it.

So I crafted two golden owls. You can see the night sky rotating behind them and holy shit their fucking eyes glow. Evil fucking eye glow, which I guess is appropriate for a bird who performs non-consensual abortions as a combat tactic. And then it hit me. South Park Woodland Critter Christmas Hail Satan! He's an evil critter that performs abortions! Does anyone else remember that thing? Remember South Park? From the 90s..? Poor little feller.

But anyway, as I wrote this (more or less) I literally just won a game by silencing my opponent's last ditch tank, propelling me into a win streak. I think silences are really strong in the meta right now. Most decks these days feature some kind of deathrattle or inspire or other trigger that ramps or provides some other critical advantage.

Um, but yeah. I haven't played wow since I moved house and neglected to tell my guild that I couldn't make the raids that week and they booted me and I just got down on the game.

I've been playing this indie-ish RPG that I found on Steam called Darkest Dungeon. It's roguelike and really mathy and I can barely progress and I fucking love it. The positioning mechanic is really interesting, and as I say that I realise it probably qualifies for nerdiest thing said ever. I swear to god positioning is fucking interesting motherfucker. Didn't you ever play Kwirk? Or like, um, Boxxle?

I think I'm out of things to say.

Does anyone read this?