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I sent you a PM I can send you a refer a friend. Also I think its up to level 20 you can play for free

It's okay, Digg. I was a die hard Druid for eight years and then randomly started leveling a Warlock. Love the theme of the class, but I'm not entirely satisfied with how the specs are balanced at the moment. I love Affliction, but at my gear level, Destruction does almost twice the damage. Not a fan of Fire Mage Lite.

But the outfits look nice, and go very well with the Forsaken character screen.

http://i62.tinypic.com/f4imoh.jpg

Edited, Aug 28th 2014 8:18pm by Mazra

It always struck me as the class that was slowest to really get fun. I mean, it took so long to get all the pets, and it took so long for drain tanking to really start being feasible, etc.

I tried leveling as Demo back in Cata, but the way they implemented the specs at that time made it so freaking boring. Yeah, it was nice having a Fellguard. Too bad I couldn't DO anything with him.

[EDIT]

Booted up the Starter edition, rolled a Lock.

Got to level 3... noticed my next ability wasn't until level 7. Quit the game.

I remember old school Lock. Shadow Bolt, Curse of Affliction, Immolate, Corruption, Drain Life, maniacal laughter.

This... is gross.

God I hate this new system. I know other people don't mind the new spec system, but I've never come around on it. I hate it so **** much. But hey, at least Blizz gave me the free chance to solve my nostalgia problem.

[EDIT2]

What I WILL say, though, is that the Warlock talent brackets are more interesting than any other class I've checked out.

Edited, Aug 29th 2014 12:05am by idiggory

The thing is, I've always been a leveler. Even when doing endgame stuff, I always had another character leveling. Back in Wrath, when I was doing endgame stuff with my DK, I was leveling another DK. I'm just way more interested in traversing the world and questing and having new (or stronger) abilities on the horizon.

So when the leveling game is poor, I'm really predisposed not to engage with the game.

Now, WoW's leveling questlines aren't bad. Granted, I think Cata was a significant low point in the skill of the writers compared to other expacs (even if the story telling itself was much better). But they're not bad.

But I just really don't like the new talent/ability system. It makes leveling feel empty and passive to me, and robs most levels of the excitement of dinging.


Personally, IF I was going to adopt the system more as-is, I'd make you start with a spec, so you didn't feel so ability-starved at first (and make switching easy). Then I'd give you some sort of enhancement point each level after level 10, so that you could invest that into something that made you feel more unique. Think about D3's new system, where you can add some life drain or something. Even if it's a small impact, it is an active investment you get to make with each level.

Add in the current talent trees, and that's really not a bad system. And it's way more interesting than the current one.

/shrug.

Honestly, I'm just feeling the lack of an MMO.

I've been playing FFXIV, but I'm running out of leveling content. Literally. I only have 3 classes left to hit cap (out of 8), and they're all in their 30s. Cap is 50, and I have all the cross-class skills (skills you can slot into other classes/jobs). So I'm on a break for a while. The next major update will add in the Rogue class (Ninja job), so I might return sometime after that. I'll use the initial rush to level the Warrior and Scholar I have left (tank and heals).

I just refuse to pay a retail price for an MMO now without good reason, so I'm not going to play ESO or Wildstar until I've had a chance to try them, since both of them had EXTREMELY messy betas. I've heard good things about the products since then, but still; my existing experience is not good. Plus, Wildstar is apparently super grindy, which isn't what I'm looking for.

I might get back into TOR/GW2 or try Rift or something... Idk. I'm itching for a MMO, but I don't think WoW in its current state can scratch that itch.

Want to feel nostalgic? Watch the original cinematic... Holy crap.

At this point, there's a decent enough chance I'd sub to WoW just to try and get into leveling. My constant hope is that I'd get engrossed enough in the story lines that it would make up how little I care for the talent/skill system. Hasn't happened yet, but the last time I played I was bringing a Priest through Westfall. And it's not the most interesting zone on the planet.

The irony is that I don't have time for single player games. Not the kind of games I tend to play. Outside of weekends, I typically only have like an hour I could spend playing games. So it's hard to really get into, and stay with, games with heavy story content. MMOs are better paced for limited time. Do a few quests, log off. As long as you aren't gone for a month, you'll probably remember enough about the quest line to pick it back up, no fuss.

If ESO or Wildstar would just have a freaking trial (or if they'd go on sale for <$50), I'd give them a shot.

Literally the only news I've tracked about WoD is the character models. I just don't care.

Okay, to be fair, Strongholds could be fun, but I fully expect them to be daily-based. And, well, that particular brand of controlled pacing bugs me.

Digg, the Warlock class is a rough leveling experience until level 10 (as are most of the classes, in my opinion), but of all the pure damage-dealing classes, I find that the Warlock has the most defining spec choices in the game.

When you hit level 10, you basically get to choose between three new classes. Affliction is the classic Warlock, Destruction is Fire Mage v.2.0, and Demonology is a completely different game, especially if you go with the Demon Hunting glyph.

I LOVED leveling as a Demonology Warlock with the Demon Hunting glyph. It's so much fun, especially since you can pretty effectively tank dungeons. Just wish it would let you queue as a tank in the earlier levels, but alas.

Edited, Aug 31st 2014 2:54pm by Mazra

Pretty sure I took one all the way up to 50, and then her name got reported. Never felt the same, so I deleted her. I had fun with her in PvP.
You know, how you fight a lock in BGs and they drive you mad? like rogues. Well I got to taste that power, and it was fun. I also learned how to fight against Locks better.
But..then someone thought ti would be fun to report her name -.-

I think a lot of your disconnect comes from the changes to the Vale after 5.4. The Sha were actually built up fairly well over the expansion, I think, but never all at once. It was always in bits and pieces here and there. I'd recommend doing the Lorewalkers rep for some good storytelling by Tigger, but here's a quick overview that can hopefully fill in some gaps:

There was an Old God in Pandaria, and the Mantid worshiped it's seven heads (this is revealed when you hit exalted with the Mantid). Y'Shaarj was said to have "consumed hope and begat despair ... inhaled courage and breathed fear," and when the Titans slew it, with its dying breath it cursed Pandaria with the Sha. So the sha are, essentially, echoes of an Old God. The Mantid hate them because they are the barest shadow of a shadow of their master. The Sha have the ability to feed on negative emotions, making them stronger and people more susceptible to sha possession when bad stuff happens.

Garrosh believed there to be something under the Vale, and he was right. When he ordered digging in the Vale in the Dark Heart of Pandaria scenario, he found Y'shaarj's dead heart. He brought it to the pools of the Vale. The Vale had been previously established as a Titan experiment lab, similar to Un'Goro and Sholozar, but the waters of the Vale were special. These waters allow the Valley of the Four Winds to produce such large crops, and these waters have extreme healing properties. It's actually possible that the pools of the Vale may really be a much less powerful version of the Well of Eternity, given that they had a similar effect on the murlocs of the area (transforming them into Jinyu, much like Trolls -> Night Elves).

In the Patch 5.4 trailer, Garrosh dumps the heart into the Pools which doesn't resurrect Y'shaarj, but it does "revive" the heart somewhat. It also has the side effect of completely desecrating the entire area. Garrosh intended to use the heart as a weapon to crush any and all dissenters. This actually wasn't nearly as much of an **** pull as I'm making it sounds, since Garrosh had previously looked to use the Sha as a weapon, with multiple instances of this all expansion long.

Anyways, I think a lot of what you're seeing is because they did a really messy job of changing the Vale. I like that they implemented some permanent change for once with a major patch, but the Vale was integral to a lot of the storyline around Pandaria already, and they didn't do a great job changing it. For example, when you petition the White Tiger to let you into the Vale, that specific quest takes place after the 5.4 trailer, when the Vale has already been desecrated. But when you quest through Kun-Lai and deal with the corrupted Monastery, they trust you because the outsiders haven't **** everything (read, desecrated the Vale) yet.

I think this expansion's story was a big learning experience for them. We had a lot of story-focused patches and we had a lot of great, permanent, and meaningful changes to the world to reflect the passage of time. Pandaria wasn't nearly as static as all the previous expansions were. That said, they did a messy job of it in a lot of places. I think WoD is going to be a lot better.

Edited, Aug 31st 2014 7:41pm by IDrownFish

^
5.4 changed the map, like Cata did to vanilla world.

As to the Horde and Alliance, I have no idea what takes place on the Alliance side lol

The Sha are physical emotions, that the races of Pandaria learn to live without (think Kung Fu) them. When the A and H show up and start mashing each other (the 1st big quest line) the Sha of Anger (?) shows up. Not cool in the eyes of the Pandas.
The quest line in Jade Forest should end with a Sha being released, and super-juiced. Due to the pandas not really "taking care of their emotions" correctly.
This has a domino effect and different types of Sha begin to pop up and effect different regions.
Most of the Dungeons/Raids have you ridding the Sha.

That is what MoP was about at the start.
Then what IDrownFish said happen, and 5.4 destroyed the sacred ground of the Vale.

The Epic quest line went along with each update, and raid.

Thunder (?) Island (?) was the 1st big update, and they gave us the old Mogul King/God and who and what he did in the past, and why the most of the Trolls sided with him.

Timeless Island was something to do.

SoO is everyone going to punk Garrosh for being a ****.