An honest look at MOP

theratmonkey

I was pretty disappointed when I first heard of the Mist of Panderia expansion. Granted, I no longer play wow anymore, but I do check up to see what they're looking into doing with the game.

After much thought, I think some of the new things in the game coming to MOP are pretty cool, and people should step back and look at it.

For one, Pandarens, one of the most asked for races, is coming to the game. I honestly think the only bad part about the arrival of this race is timing. Newbies and outsiders to wow look at this addition as bad, and while the "Kung Fu Panda" jokes are funny, a lot of people just don't seem to understand that this race has been in the Blizzard Lore for a long time.

But not only are they adding Pandarens, but I think they're adding them correctly - They were never an "Alliance Or horde" race, they were always neutral. The same could have been said for Dreanei and Goblin, which is why people raised a fuss over them.

But the pandaren race is not going to have some silly story as to why they're joining one side or another, instead (like in a lot of the lore) an individual will get to pick who he thinks is worth fighting for.

The other good part about this expansion is the emphases on the Horde and Alliance. For too long, it's been "Fight this big bad guy and play nice for a while." Honestly, there wasn't any real reason as to why the Alliance and Horde hated each other.

Only recently have they stepped up and said "you know what, this is why they hate each other". And now that they're going to focus on the relations between the two factions, I'm hoping to see more pvp options in game. Particularly, world pvp.

I also think that Challenge mode dungeons might be cool, but on the other hand, I think this could work negatively for the game, as people will use this as a way to measures ones skill. Hell, they're already using Acheivements for this.

 

Now, for some less than positive talk:

I don't care how they spin this, I just feel like with the new talent system, they are trading less choice for more illusion of choice. I mean, no matter how awesome you make all three talents in each section, people are still going to pick what they think are the most effective in PVE and PVP. You're still going to have builds.

I just don't see this system creating options. In fact, I see it hurting the game a bit, and I think Blizzard's gonna have to try a lot harder than that in order to create a talent system that does what they want it to.

And the pet battle system. Oh, what can't I say about this pet battle system? It feels like they're trying to make more off-time activities for players to get into, but I think this might be in the wrong direction, at least for an expansion. This is the sort of thing that I would have expected to see in a patch, not headlining as one of the great features in an expansion.

And as a personal gripe: I think they missed an opportunity here to do something new and interesting. We have the introduction of the Pandarens, we have the Horde and Alliance leaders being complete dicks and about to tear out each others throats, I think now would be a perfect time to introduce a third faction: A neutral faction.

Now, its anyones guess on how this would work in WoW, but since they're ballsy enough to change the original world so completely, I don't see why this could have been an option to them.

Plus, I'd love to see some 3 faction pvp in wow. Seems like it could be fun. Plus, you'd have no shortage of races from both sides wanting to dissent from the Alliance/Horde, considering they're both being massive dicks at the moment.

 

 

That's just my opinion though.

inb4 Wall of text

 

Johnie-Marz

Not just three factions, in some ways the undead should be their own faction.

kalinis

I dont see why they couldnt have a third faction either. That said this is wow its always been a 2 faction chioce. 

the one thing i dont agree with is the talents. For one 3 talents are basicly a like in alot of ways and are more utility based then + dps or + heals . Sure some will pick a utility cause they think it will be more useful to pvp or pve but not everyone will have to have that talent to raid.

It allows players to get the talents they would of had to of picked to start with automaticly. I like that u also learn your new skills when they become available automaticly instead of having to go train them. 

There will be more choice though in how u pick your talents even with less talents as there were only 3-4 pts per spec that actually alllowed any choice at all in cata and in lk u had no choice at all if u wanted to raid.

theratmonkey

Originally posted by kalinis

I dont see why they couldnt have a third faction either. That said this is wow its always been a 2 faction chioce. 

the one thing i dont agree with is the talents. For one 3 talents are basicly a like in alot of ways and are more utility based then + dps or + heals . Sure some will pick a utility cause they think it will be more useful to pvp or pve but not everyone will have to have that talent to raid.

It allows players to get the talents they would of had to of picked to start with automaticly. I like that u also learn your new skills when they become available automaticly instead of having to go train them. 

There will be more choice though in how u pick your talents even with less talents as there were only 3-4 pts per spec that actually alllowed any choice at all in cata and in lk u had no choice at all if u wanted to raid.

To be clear, I didn't say that the cata talent system was any better - I hope I didn't give that impression.

I just think that it will take a lot more than simplifying the entire system, personly.

I could be wrong though. If it works as intended, then awesome.

 

 

Volkmar

First of all, Kudos for a balanced opinion on MoP!

Second, the talent discussion is a spiky one for sure. Mostly because this is the same exact thing they said in Cataclysm.

While the whole Spec system in Cata worked really well, with classes basically splitting up in 3 advanced classes at level 10, the actual talent tree did not because you ended up to take most talents in your choice tree and left with a smackering of points that didn't really do much.

Now I have checked some of the talent trees in the new choices and while 6 sounds quite little to me, they are quite nice indeed. Final judgement will have to be shelved until we know also how often we get spells and what spec abilities are now "spec base" instead of talents, but I feel the new talents do what Blizzard intended, give you choices.

Have you looked at them? Easy exmaple: 1st Hunter tier talent is:

Frost arrow, Arcane arrow or poison tipped arrow. All add a chance proc to your attacks, the first slow down enemies, the second give you back focus and the third add a DoT.

You could say that the DoT add to damage, so that is what everyone will take, but also more focus=more damage. The slow one is more straightforward and that is more clearly a levelling/pvp talent.

Others are similar, later on the Hunter get a talent to determine what happen when (I think it was) Disengage is used. One increase your speed by 60% for some seconds, another makes you invulnerable for 3 seconds and the last one heal you by 15% of your total health. All these are quite useful in many situations.

Not all are quite as dramatic as others, but then again, the expansion is quite sometime away. The Idea though, if well executed, will feel better than Cata in my opinion.

As for Pet Battles, well, I see it as the new Archaeology. That also was one of the major features of Cata and did not turn out well. Pet Battles, however, sounds much more fun, involving and less prone to RNG than archaeology is.

As for the third faction, that is a nice idea, but how would it be implemented? This third faction would need a full quest levelling path from 1 to 90 and where that would be? ANOTHER remaking of the world so near Cata is not feasible, IMO.

I actually like neutral factions (yes, plural) and I would like them to be more involving for the player as they are now. I wish my character could proudly say he is a member of the Argent Crusade and can speak freely to other Crusaders, no matter their race. Same for Cenarion Circle, Earthen Ring and all the other existing factions. However, I do not have an idea at the moment on how it could work :P

Recant

Honestly, I have to say that the new expansion has been one of the most disappointing announcements I have ever heard from Blizzard.  This is simply because Pandas are probably the least interesting animal in the world, sorry Panda lovers, and to theme and name an expansion around them is totally underwhelming.

However, expansions are more than just a new race.  Everything Blizzard does oozes quality.  There is only one gaming company on the planet that can make Pandas remotely interesting or cool, and that's Blizzard.  After all, the game still surpasses every single MMORPG out there in every possible area.

How many times over the years has WoW been "near death" now?  If only other games were as "near death" as WoW, there might actually be some viable competition.   This whole hoo-ha reminds of me of the Nintendo "Wii" announcement, people soon forgot about the name which everyone said was commercial suicide, but changed console gaming forever.

Do not underestimate the ability of a veteran company to take an un-cool idea and make it the next big thing.

Briansho

LOL the first thing I thought of when I saw pandas was Kung Fu Panda and Runes of Magic. The first thing I thought of when I saw the pet battle arena was Mike Vick.

paroxysm

I don't think Pandas are on a whole any more absurd than any other playable race.  I'm on the fence on giving them the choice of faction based on the original premises of the game and the quick assessment of a race as a foe in pvp.  But, I wasn't a fan of what they did to existing neutral npc races to make them be one side or the other.  I'm more concerned with the point of leveling only 5 levels at current speeds and how it works with new tiers.  I'm more concerned with the talent revamp again and how the illusion of choice is not choice.  They should just come out and say it's because fewer choices "seem" easier to balance even though they have proved they can't balance the fewer options either.  And lastly, I'm concerned how a historically hybrid all at once class like monks will work out in a 3 spec manner.  Or, are they no longer doing the 3 specs with the revamp?  I haven't taken the time to look that closely because I, from experience, don't believe they can make the game playable for me anymore.