To All Things Patchy and Good

So there I am sitting at the Las Vegas Beer N Blog, having a few pints, checking Twitter from my cell phone... when the most amazing thing happened. WOWInsider started Twittering about the patch notes for 3.1. My jaw dropped as BIG NEWS: Consumable ammunition removed from the game! came across my screen.

I had to read it again to be sure. Passed the phone across to the hunter that was sitting on the other side of the table. This was possibly more exciting than our usual heckling of the open mic night bands in the bar in which we were gathered. A non WOW player reads it, to see what we are on about and states, "even I know that is huge". We discuss some more about Hunters and changes to Pallys and Shaman. our lack of playtime etc. I often forget how nice it is to discuss these things since our last WOW player friend moved out of state.

Today, as I finish up reading the news of the 3.1 patch notes and all the glorious changes that will be heading our way, I have to stop. My play has been nerfed since December, I have barely felt the nerf bat that afflicted my Hunter from the 3.0.8 patch. Have not fully gleaned the changes that effect my Shaman from that patch.

Along with my lack of play time, I have no desire to listen to the dozens of often whiny, bitchy pod casts to which I subscribe. My mp3 player sits at home these days, instead of accompanying me to work, to give some levity to the day. No doubt they will be abuzz with their opinions soon, they all love to read patch notes ad nausea.

Yet I have not been ignorant of what transpired with 3.0.8 patch. All the praise and devotion lavished on Blizzard for their execution of WOTLK was taken back with the release of that patch. They were stoned with accusations of laziness, sloppiness and all the other insults that accompany a patch that is neither well received or well executed in it's deployment.

Suddenly all is well again, because it seems every class is getting buffed. Even the recently nerfed BM Hunters are being raised back to their short lived glory. Probably there are the usual QQers over at the WOW forums, I rarely visit that despot of trolls and RickRollers any more. They will trash Blizzard's intentions with snide and venom filled tirades about the integrity of the game.

Even with the seemingly epic changes to Shaman, those forums will still be full of the usual "not good enuff Blizz" posts. I have said it before and I will say it again, I love my Shaman. Hunters will be optimistically pessimistic, and off specs like Ret Pallies will sit steadfastly with their refusals to tank or heal.

So, as we wait for the testing and roll out of this patch, I hope to work my way back into the game on a regular basis. My extended break has gone on long enough and as with every major patch that is released, I feel the need to get back in the swing of things.

Let's just keep the crying to a minimum about ez mode and catering to the casuals. We now know all to well about how well the epic PVP, HARDCORE, REAL MMO biz went... it went the way of layoffs yesterday as it sits at a stagnant 300k subscribers and looks no better than AOC atm. Yes Warhammer, I am talking to you.

WOW Vacation Update

So it turns out, that when I dinged 79, about 5-6 weeks ago, I decided to take an unexpected break from WOW. Since then I have been grinding professions on my Death Knights, making tons of money at auction and not leveling at all.

Holidays, early Spring cleaning (yes in Winter, because Spring in Vegas is so damn short!), football playoffs. They are all conspiring to keep me from actually playing WOW. Not that I am not logging in and killing time, but really no playing.

I expect this funk will continue for a few more weeks, but with the release of the 3.0.8 patch, I will be back at the business of WOW. Until then this blog will probably remain a bit stagnant.