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[hedgie]

The mining thing is useful.  Then again, my gathering alt was a hunter, so if there was a mob there, I just sent fluffy to deal with it (I did the same with my dk before she ditched mining for engineering).

[Method of Madness]

Why are enemies called mobs?

[TheEvilDog]

Why are enemies called mobs?

"The term "mob" is short for "mobile," which was used by Richard Bartle for objects that were self-mobile in MUD1. The term as it exists in MMORPGs is derived from the MUD usage. (Source code in DikuMUD uses the term "mob" to refer to a generic NPC; DikuMUD was a heavy influence on EverQuest.) The term is properly an abbreviation rather than an acronym, but backronyms for "MOB" such as "monster or beast," "mere ordinary beast" and "mean old bastard" have also been coined."

[Method of Madness]

Oh, so it's mob with a long o?

[Lines]

No, everyone I know pronounces it the regular way.

[TheEvilDog]

No, everyone I know pronounces it the regular way.

Basically the word you would use for a large unruly crowd or slang for the mafia. And I think there isn't too much more we can say about that without repeating ourselves.

Just finished the majority of the storyline in Stormheim, save the dungeon, with my Warrior and honestly, I love the way the whole region is like a love letter to Wrath. You have an area that is like the brighter and warmer regions of Northrend with the same subtle fear of something looming over you. Other regions you do feel that the Legion is right in front of you and its coming for you, but Stormheim has a subtle feel of the Legion's presence, they're in the background and pulling the strings.

[Method of Madness]

No, everyone I know pronounces it the regular way.

Well it's short for mobile, so I wasn't sure.

[Neko_Ali]

I went to Stormheim first. I have a great love of the Norse stories, and I loved all the references to it in Wrath, and the Vrykul race. So I was amazingly excited that they returned. I'm especially excited that they did more with the Kvaldir, the even more evil aquatic version of them. Wrath had a story thread about them that was really interested... then it just stopped and didn't go anywhere. Everywhere else it was the Vrykul and Valkir, but past the Borean Tundra there really wasn't anything more about the Kvaldir until now.

If only we could have a playable Vrykul race...

[Lines]

Nemo, after WotLK, I really really wanted a vrykul PC. I think one of my favorite parts was the area where you would get turned into one and then everyone would ride the smallest mounts they had because it looked so silly. Can't remember the zone off the top of my head.

No, everyone I know pronounces it the regular way.

Well it's short for mobile, so I wasn't sure.

Honestly I didn't know that, I just took it as the unruly crowd meaning. And I've been playing WoW for well over 10 years. 

[TheEvilDog]

Add me to those who wanted a Vrykul playable race (AND HUMANS DON'T COUNT!). Lines, I think you're thinking of the Storm Peaks, where you could do a daily disguised as a female Vrykul.

[Neko_Ali]

Nemo, after WotLK, I really really wanted a vrykul PC. I think one of my favorite parts was the area where you would get turned into one and then everyone would ride the smallest mounts they had because it looked so silly. Can't remember the zone off the top of my head.

They were quests in the Storm Peaks, where you got to hang out with some friendly(-ish) Vrykul. Some of my favorite quests.

[LeeC]

I just figured out that all the bonus areas disappear after you reach level cap, which sucks because now you cannot get those order hall resourced.  I am no where near starting the world quests (which I hear gives a ton of resources).  I still have to do Suramar and Val'Sharah (currently doing it). Awe well.

[TheEvilDog]

I just figured out that all the bonus areas disappear after you reach level cap, which sucks because now you cannot get those order hall resourced.  I am no where near starting the world quests (which I hear gives a ton of resources).  I still have to do Suramar and Val'Sharah (currently doing it). Awe well.

No you can still do them and you can still get the resources. You just don't get 40k experience.

[LeeC]

Then I must be bugged. 

[ChaoSera]

You people really need to stop making me want to pick up WoW again.

[Neko_Ali]

Do it! Do it! Do it!

People have said it's a much better expansion than Pandaria or Warlords.

[TheEvilDog]

It captures the overwhelming sense of dread that seeped from Wrath and Cataclysm and refined the gimmicks of Warlords to a point where its more rewarding without the constant going back to base (the phone app really helps). Just the overall feel of the expansion is that Blizzard has taken the best elements from previous expansions and said to players "Do things your way!"

[hedgie]

Do it! Do it! Do it!

People have said it's a much better expansion than Pandaria or Warlords.

Meh, if you're right, us holy pallies got stuck in melee in the last few expansions.  I'll stick with private BC or LK servers if I get sucked in again.

[TheEvilDog]

Do it! Do it! Do it!

People have said it's a much better expansion than Pandaria or Warlords.

Meh, if you're right, us holy pallies got stuck in melee in the last few expansions.  I'll stick with private BC or LK servers if I get sucked in again.

The designers have said they wanted all Paladins to be frontline fighters and healers, rather than just standing in the back like the cloth classes. So unfortunately, the artefact for the Holy Paladins has a two handed hammer. And I can see where they are coming from - Paladins wear plate, they should be mixing it up in combat and not sitting at a safe distance.

[TheEvilDog]

Following Blizzcon last week and the reveal of the next expansion, I am sorely tempted to renew my subscription to the game. Anyone else still playing?

[LeeC]

I still get on daily for a few hours.

[Tova]

No, I have cancelled my sub.

... Again. 

I don't plan to resubscribe for the next expansion, but I said that last time. And the time before.

[Neko_Ali]

I'm subscribed still, and occasionally get on and play. I want to play more. I still have yet to do any of the Suramar quests and I have a wide variety of characters I want to get to max level all along the range. It's just that my game time is more limited than ever of late and there are so many other games competing for my time. Some of which are brand new or were having limited time events I was trying to accomplish.

[TheEvilDog]

Bit of news about patch 7.3.5 if anyone is interested.

All pre-Legion zones are being redesigned to be similar to the Legion, with each region scaling to the player levelling. They will resemble something like this:
- Starter zones will be up to level 10
- Classic zones will be level 10-60
- Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King zones will be 60-80
- Cataclysm and Mists zones will be 80-90

In the case of the latter half, the expansions will be a choice. Don't like Burning Crusade? That's okay, you can play Wrath. Or vice versa. Or a mix. This also might mean that the old raids and dungeons will also scale up, so better make sure you have those achievements if you haven't got them yet.

The patch should be released in early to mid December.

[LeeC]

Some fun speculation on B4A based on prophecies from Legion:

[Tova]

So... any news from the WoW expansion? What's to like/dislike?

[TheEvilDog]

From the Alliance side, I'm really liking Kul Tiras. Got a nice Wrath feel to it.

- So far, the new monsters are nice and the new skins for the old ones make them look better.
- Questing feels like Blizzard has finally gotten into a smooth transition between areas; the quest giver is usually near where the quest is, rather than you having to trek halfway across the region.
- You have a new mode of fast travel in addition to portals and gryphons; you can now use ferries, just need to get a license, which is one of the first things you do when the expansion starts proper.
- Haven't unlocked any of the allied races yet, but from the looks of it, the Kul Tiran humans are going to be on the hefty side (think Circus Strongman).
- The follower missions from Legion and Warlords are back. That said, I think Blizzard have reduced the cost of missions but have also reduced the resources and confined them to treasure chests.
- Armour and weapons look good, and the Heart of Azeroth item has really made things interesting (You only ever get 3 types of armour that can be used with the Heart; helmet, chest and shoulders, but when you get them, you really notice the difference between them and the "ordinary" equivalents.
- Stat squash was a bit of a pain, but in another way, what you get really has noticeable effects. It went into the expansion with 25,100 health on my warrior. At 114, he's got twice that, including 2 Heart of Azeroth items.

That said, the fact that you have to reach exalted with the respective faction in order to unlock them as an allied race, is something of a pain.
And there are quite a lot of cutscenes, not a bad thing, but they come up quite a lot and without warning.

[Neko_Ali]

The really bad part is that the 6 allied races currently in the game are all Legion races. So if you want to unlock them and aren't at Exalted yet, you have to go back and do the old content. It's caused a fair bit of back and forth. People who played regularly don't see it as a big deal because they already hit Exalted or near to it. So it was a trivial or non-existent issue to get the races unlocked. People who took a break and missed the end of Legion though... If they want to play the races that were touted as a Battle for Azeroth feature have to go back and spend a lot of time grinding for rep in old content, instead of spending their time playing the new expansion. It's worse for people who skilled Legion and level boosted a character to 110.

The BfA Allied races, the Kul Tirans and Zandalari trolls don't appear to be available yet in game. So even if you hit exalted with them, I don't think you can play them yet?

[TheEvilDog]

Yeah, that is the major point of frustration now. Honestly, I would have thought Blizzard would have given some thought to raising reputation, especially for people who boosted or people who took a break, but it seems they want people to go back and forth between expansions.

Kul Tiras Humans and their Troll counterparts are, according to Blizzard, "coming later in the expansion". So I presume, their respective recruitment will be tied to the first major raid addition to the expansion. Which could be a misstep for Blizzard.

[Tova]

Yeah, that is the major point of frustration now. Honestly, I would have thought Blizzard would have given some thought to raising reputation, especially for people who boosted or people who took a break, but it seems they want people to go back and forth between expansions.

I am certain that they gave it quite a fair bit of thought. Ever since the introduction of achievement points, enticing or even coercing players to go back to old content has been a firm part of their business model. I wouldn't be surprised if they are deliberately targeting players who quit each expansion half-way through and pick the game up again at the start of each new one.

[TheEvilDog]

No doubt about that, but the fact is it also feels like Blizzard is punishing players who have quit mid expansion. Especially because the reputation gains in Legion are, well, not consistent. Most quests reward something like 250 or so rep, while in Legion, the four you were trying to recruit for BfA were something 75-150.

Normally, you might be able to grind rep and get to Exalted with a faction in two weeks or so, even on a slow grind. With the gains in Legion, you're looking at nearly a month to raise one allied race. So yeah, it can feel like Blizzard are punishing those who are coming back.

[LeeC]

I'm glad I have a human character, grinding rep was pretty easy from x-pac to x-pac. I am also lucky Blizzard made it so you didn't have to grind rep on those legion factions for horde AND alliance to gain the allied races in BFA.

I still have yet to log in (never got a chance to log back in after the burning of the tree to do the siege of Lorderon) so I hope its as fun as the last 2 x-pacs were when you started.

[Tova]

No doubt about that, but the fact is it also feels like Blizzard is punishing players who have quit mid expansion. Especially because the reputation gains in Legion are, well, not consistent. Most quests reward something like 250 or so rep, while in Legion, the four you were trying to recruit for BfA were something 75-150.

Normally, you might be able to grind rep and get to Exalted with a faction in two weeks or so, even on a slow grind. With the gains in Legion, you're looking at nearly a month to raise one allied race. So yeah, it can feel like Blizzard are punishing those who are coming back.

Of course they are.

[Neko_Ali]

Which is why I'm surprised they're sticking to their guns on the 'we aren't changing the requirements to unlock allied races'. So far, at any rate. I still think that's likely to change about 4-6 months down the line. The last thing they want to do is alienate people who stopped playing and came back for the new expansion, and they are well aware of this fact. Sure the people who got it the hard way will complain... But that's all their likely to do. That and keep paying their subscription. On the other hand, if someone signed up with the promise of being able to play a void elf or Blackrock dwarf and finds out 'Oh no, you have to spend a month doing pointless Legion content to unlock the abilities to finally play the character you want they are more likely than the dedicated player to quickly drop out.

And Blizzard has a long history of making things harder to get while they are new/in current expansion and then relaxing the requirements a lot once the event or whatever has been out for a while, or when it's not really relevant to current events. Allied races are a bit of a risk for them I think, where they are trying to balance giving people what they promised, but still making people work for it. But I expect either the requirements to eventually be loosened or removed eventually. Or they turn up the rate you acquire reputation with the relevant factions so you can do it in a week or two casually instead of more than a month.

[TheEvilDog]

I was watching a couple of videos about potential allied races and a thought came to me.

A big part of Sylvanas' character has been to do with her fear of what waits for her in the afterlife, or rather lack thereof. Following Arthas' death, Sylvanas had nothing to "live" for and sought to end her own life and found there was nothing. No afterlife. Just a black emptiness.

(click to show/hide)

What if the Void Lords knew Sylvanas had committed suicide and took the opportunity to make her their agent? Manipulate her by exposing her to themselves, not the afterlife but their ravenous hunger? Hence her more aggressive stance, beginning with the invasion of Gilneas and planning to unleash the Blight Plague there and the forming of a wedge in the Horde. And with Sylvanas as Warchief, she's begun a war that could further the goals of the Void Lords.

[TheEvilDog]

Finally unlocked the Lightforged Draenei today!

But in other, more interesting news, there's been some more information about the 8.1 patch. Obviously I've put the main points in the spoiler, but there's a larger spoiler I've kept because it is incredibly revealing about the future story of BfA.

(click to show/hide)

- The requirements for Kul Tiran humans and Zandalari Trolls allies have been revealed (Exalted Proudmoore Admiralty and Zandalari Empire respectively).
- Zandalari druid aquatic form resembles a pike fish.
- People thought that Kul Tiran druids would get a Boomkin form similar to the Drust golems in Drustvar (the ones that look like the wicker man). They won't, its going to be obvious a boomkin, but with a Drust flavour....if that makes any sense).
- The main raid (Siege of Zuldazar) will have an interesting twist. The timeline will have the Alliance invading the city after sabotaging the Trolls navy. They're proceed up the docks and into the city, facing three Alliance unique bosses before fighting the Zandalari troll Emperor Rastakhan). The Horde's version of the raid takes place after the Alliance get to the centre of the city and is about them reacting to the invasion as they approach from the North. Like the Alliance, the Horde version will have three unique bosses and will culminate in a naval battle with Jaina Proudmoore). To top that, both factions will be able to take to soldiers and find out what happened in the other half of the raid, effectively letting Horde players to play through as the Alliance and vice versa.
- Darkshore will be the next warfront, with the emphasis on the Night Elves battling with the Undead.
- The first two classic heritage armours have been announced - Dwarves and Blood Elves. The Dwarves will end up travelling to one of the Ul facilities (Uldir, Ulduar, one of them) and finding more about themselves. The Blood Elves.....will have to go through Arthas' decimation of their people. Again. Fun times!
- Night Elves are getting a new customisation, black eyes. I'm not sure on the details about this, but I think its to do with the aspect of Elune called the Night Warrior.
- The Alliance will get a new horse... But also a Savage White War Tiger (or something to that effect, its one of the PVP mounts). The Horde get an undead horsey.
-

(click to show/hide)

A new quest chain will see players trying to discover why Vol'jin selected Sylvanas. When they get in contact with his spirit, he doesn't remember. But its heavily hinted that it wasn't the Loa that whispered to him. Next the players will go to Icecrown to ask the Lich King if he had anything to do with it, he doesn't and then chases the players out of Icecrown. More importantly, Bwomsamdi reveals that he hates Sylvanas "because she keeps that which doesn't belong to her", which is obviously a reference to her attempts to raise new Undead, meaning there are souls that aren't going to the afterlife.

[Neko_Ali]

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Oh, so Jaina will indeed be a raid boss. And we'll probably have a Garrosh Fight 2.0 where everyone has to gang up on Sylvanas or something. Great. Wonderful. Any other of my favorite characters you want to destroy, Blizzard. Because I'm running out, fast.

[TheEvilDog]

(click to show/hide)

Oh, so Jaina will indeed be a raid boss. And we'll probably have a Garrosh Fight 2.0 where everyone has to gang up on Sylvanas or something. Great. Wonderful. Any other of my favorite characters you want to destroy, Blizzard. Because I'm running out, fast.

(click to show/hide)

That Sylvanas fight might be for a later patch. I might not have been specific about the raid but there will nine bosses, with each faction having to fight six bosses in their own raid, three specifically for the Horde and three specifically for the Alliance. with the other three shared between the two versions.

And I seriously doubt they'd kill Jaina just after her becoming Lord Admiral of Kul Tiras. In fact, I don't really see them killing any major faction leaders this expansion. Sylvanas will probably be deposed or imprisoned. Azshara will probably get bumped off, Rastakhan too, but while the former has always had a presence, the latter has basically set himself up for death throughout the campaign.