or eat at Joes

Wandering around Wow Insider this morning just to catch up on all the offline info I’ve been half ignoring over the last… year? Been that long already? Huh… Anywho I found a post about patch 4.3. You can find the post here [link] and I wanted to take a moment to really have a think about the implications of it. Here’s the short of it:

  • -Deathwing has a raid! Before most of us have even really cut our teeth on Firelands too…
  • -New 5 man dungeons of about ZA/ZG difficulty
  • -Cosmetic Armor Skins…bwa?
  • -Armor Closet – store all your old armor to free up bank space.

The last patch included a few little things… like a few new hair styles, dailies, new raid all that fun stuff. What sorta bugs me a bit is there was a massive build up for Firelands, including a series of quests to kick it off, before we got started. I don’t know what the timeline is for 4.3 but it seems a little fast and we’ve not gotten a lot about it so far. There’s a little bit of a hint from the article Wow Insider sites for most of it’s info, about AQ (Ok so I just saw it briefly and it was a word I understood), which baring the two dungeons in Wrath and the raid no one got to see during current content we haven’t seen a lot of. We know its there and we might have dallied but nothing serious for the majority of players around these days.

So follow me behind the cut for further discussion on the quality of life stuff… I’ll save the PVE for another post over the weekend.

Still with me? Good.

 

Lets get started with the quality of life stuff first; namely the Armor Closet and the Armor Skins.

One day I’ll fit into those skinny jeans…

If you have been playing for a while, or like me hung out on an RP server, or heck found a piece of gear you had FOREVER and didn’t want to part with where does it all end up? In your bank of course, along with all your tabards, rare items, holiday junk, keys since the key ring is gone, BOA items and other things you can’t just mail off to a bank alt or pop in your bank tab. This could be very big for collectors, like the pet tab and mount tab was, and would be a great improvement for a lot of people.

So the plus sides include more bank space, you don’t have to delete or DE your old stuff just to make space for new things, you could store gear for alts that they can’t use just yet, all that stuff that doesn’t disenchant OR vend… yeah this is a good thing.

I’d like to know if things like badges for tier tokens would count as armor or if you had to actually go get it? I know a few of us might have some of those lying around collecting dust for that dungeon you never went back to. I also wonder if it is accessible remotely or if you have to go to the banker. With Guild Mobil banking getting things is very convenient. I know Goblins can access their bank on a whim, for a minute… every half hour… but that availability is still awesome and this feature could benefit from something similar. I’m sure it would cost and be limited but it would still be great.

A lot of great things happened when Blizz added the Outfitter-esque feature to the basic UI but a lot of us are still lugging around gear and don’t wanna get rid of all of it so this feature will be another vast improvement. I also wonder if weapons count or just armor. I have a bag and a half of weapons I do not want to part with that are sucking up space. Another question brought up is with all this space available now that our RP stuff or old armor sets are tucked away…what do we do with it? Things we’ll have to question when it goes live or is at least in the PTR.

 

Every girl’s crazy ‘bout a sharp dressed man

On the topic of armor… murglegurglergle… I mean armor re-skins. I don’t know about you guys out there… but our last few armor sets have, looks wise, left a bit to be desired. The ability to change the looks to say a dungeon set we liked better or maybe that tier of gear we never got could be very awesome. It could also just be a bit of a flop… if not as an actual component of the game but in the social sense. A lot of people recognize where you are in progression not to mention what class you are by the gear you are in. Case and point: Burning Crusade.

In BC back on Moon Guard you could walk through Shattrath (maybe other people could I slogged through lag for 20 minutes from Aldor inn to the FP) and just by looking in the vicinity of a mail box know where someone was progression wise by what they had. The warlock t4, the void walker face, was recognizable. The purple power ranger gear for Paladins was a cinch too. Mage t5 with its Tesla-coil head and shoulder set up, dead giveaway.

Now I know they said you can’t make plate gear look anything other than plate as an example but if you hate say the murlock gear but LOVED tier 8 with its gas mask… and you change it… well they might know you’re a hunter but people might be hella confused. The distinctive look of each gear set’s look really is a focal point for people. I’ve been ousted from pugs for a hodge-podge of gear before and no one bothered to inspect me… they knew by looking at me. Also don’t tell me you haven’t looked at a pugger, recognized something from forever ago and all the AH gear they slapped on to get into ZG queue, and had a light inner panic attack or rolled your eyes. It even happens in low level dungeons! Gear may not make the man but how you look tells a lot about you.

This does take a big step towards the cosmetic appeal of the game. In a lot of other MMOs, Rift and Star Trek Online for example, you can customize your equipment in a lot of ways. Rift allows you to purchase dyes and even craft your own to change the look of your gear. STO allows you to create entire new looks you can toggle through, from gear to makeup and hair. A lot of the appeal of games can be how individual you can make your characters look. And I may just be a bit of a girl to mention this but dress up is a lot of fun. If I can combine a look I like with a tier bonus that kicks ass… all the better.

Any thoughts from the peanut gallery?

-Ali

 

Coming up! 4.3 Raid and Dungeon talk.