Infraction for djhbrd: General Idiocy

• Aldriana · 11/03/08, 3:54 PM

Post: The Burning Crusade: Scoreboard
User: djhbrd
Infraction: General Idiocy
Points: 1

Administrative Note:

Message to User:

If you'd read the thread, you might have noticed:

1) Kaubel asking people not to make lists like this, and
2) 5 people getting infracted for doing it anyway.

But you didn't. So now there are 8 people with infractions for doing it anyway.

Original Post:

Zones and Quests
I thought the zones in BC were for the most part better than those in vanilla WoW. Not only were zones generally level-oriented with a few exceptions (Elemental Plateau, Throne of Kil'jaeden, Skettis), things just seemed to make more sense. The battle against the multiple groups overtaken by Illidan's corruption in Shadowmoon, for example, was better than Winterspring, where you just had a bunch of evil bad guys (Frost Giants, Darkwhisper Gorge, Timbermaw) that you had to kill. The lore fit better in the outside world, basically.

5-men content
I enjoyed 5-man dungeons for a while until they became stale. 2 years of running the same 15 dungeons will obviously get old. Most of them were balanced, a few were rough early in the expansion with the gear requirements to clear something like Heroic Black Morass, but everything evened out eventually. If anything, they became too easy too fast. The badge system I feel was a double-edged sword, which I will address later.

Raids
As a casual raider pre-BC that raided up through part of AQ40, I prefer 25-man raids immensely. Not only were raids easier to organize, but there was more of a sense of niche than there was pre-BC. Less players meant you had to earn your spot more, which was nice to have (hopefully) less dead weight. 10-man raids were a good thing, allowing for smaller raids to see some challenge and progression. Zul'aman was a great addition that set the precedent of challenging 10-man raiding that hopefully will continue deep into Wrath of the Lich King. Smaller guilds could clear dungeons, and if they wanted, push themselves to speed clear it and gain extra rewards (BEAR CAVALRY HOOOOOOOO).

I feel that loot was pretty good in Wrath, with two exceptions. First of all, badges (again, I'll talk about this later) and tier tokens. I was never really a fan of the token system even back in AQ40/Naxx, I would rather have bosses drop items that could immediately be equipped. There was a thread here on EJ a few months ago that asked: What if everything was a badge system? For example, rather than receiving an item from a boss, you received a token (Weapon of the Fallen ________).

As far as class balance goes, I feel 3.0 is another step in the right direction. DPS checks are always nice, but it should hinge on player skill and not whether the Enhance Shaman and all 8 Destruction Warlocks decided to show up. Opening up more class/spec choices is nice (Retribution/Protection Paladins, Shadow Priests, Boomkins, Assassination Rogues, etc.) also.

PvP
I love PvP and enjoy participating in it. Arenas were great for the first couple seasons, but the changes that were made based on PvP that affected PvE were bad. The Windfury change is definitely one of these. Battlegrounds are alright, although most people that queue up on a daily basis are terrible and stupid (and there's not much Blizzard can do to change that). I don't like the new honor system, I was one of the rank grinders back in the day and enjoyed the first honor ladder far more than the current point system, although it did demand more play time of its participants.

Eye of the Storm is a terrible battleground, but that's just personal preference.

Class balance was above average, I think. Some classes got the short end of the stick (Hunters) but overall everybody had a niche in arena play. Obviously you queue up expecting to see a lot of Rogues, Druids, Warriors, and Warlocks, but whatever. Overall, it could have been much worse.

Professions
I don't think much changed in the way of professions in BC. Jewelcrafting is nice, I'm a 375 JC myself, but it just ends up feeling like another Enchanting. For the most part, nobody needs Tailoring, Leatherworking, Blacksmithing, etc., with the obvious exception of Spellthreads and Armor Kits. Alchemy remained useful, even with the battle/guardian elixir change.

Misc
Badges. My people are addicted to them. An addiction made manifest after the Sunwell patch was released...

And I'll stop there. Badges are not inherently bad. I think they're actually a great addition to the game. The implementation, however, was terrible. Allow us to look at the history of Badges of Justice.

Badges in 2.1
Badges only drop from heroic dungeons, which are difficult and demanding. Certain items can be purchased, such as trinkets and jewelry.

Badges in 2.3
Badges drop from Karazhan and all other raids, as well as Heroic Daily quests that offer more incentive to run those dungeons. About half your gear can be purchased with badges. Daily quests were an amazing idea, as they gave incentive to run normally deserted heroics (LFG Heroic Durnholde! Anyone? ... Anyone???)

Badges in 2.4
Badges drop from just about everything, and can be used to buy a full set of tier 6 quality gear. This is bad. Very bad.

And one other thing I'd like to address quickly is attunements. Attunements are great and should be kept in the game when the first few bosses of an instance are hilariously easy. However, they shouldn't hinge on finishing the previous dungeon, as they can become a nightmare to organize attuning new members (finding Hyjal/BT attuned recruits was an obvious case of this).

Best and Worst
I'm going to sum this up in under 10 words for each.

Best: Alternative raid progression options, badges to fill in gear holes.
Worst: Welfare systems rewarding time spent over quality play from everyone.