balkoth’s word

All posts tagged balkoth’s word

Suggested Reading: Of gear, dungeon scaling, time, and crowd control

Posted by Peter (Devee) on October 25, 2013
Posted in: Suggested Reading, World of Warcraft. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

Why Have Gear?, Balkoth, Balkoth’s Word, 10/18/13.

In this piece, Balkoth, one of my favorite WoW bloggers, discusses the importance of the role of gear in WoW. He also heavily quotes and responds to Rowan of I Have Touched the Sky. It’s a great read.

Potential new WoW feature caught on video, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 10/23/13.

Is this a bug, or is this the dungeon scaling technology?

Know Your Lore, Tinfoil Hat Edition: Twists in time, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 10/20/13.

What’s up with time right now? err, back then? in the future?

The Daily Grind: Is crowd control in MMOs dead?, Brianna Royce, Massively, 10/18/13.

I hadn’t even realized it was so important before WoW.

Suggested Reading: Of bloggers, 5.4’s greatness, inventories, story, and more

Posted by Peter (Devee) on October 10, 2013
Posted in: Suggested Reading, World of Warcraft. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Behind the Blogging Scenes Interview: Rohan, Matticus, World of Matticus, 10/5/13.

Matticus interviewed Rohan, one of my favorite bloggers.

I Think I’m in Love With 5.4, Balkoth, Balkoth’s Word, 10/3/13.

Wondering what’s so special about 5.4? Balkoth can explain.

Inventory fixes being worked on, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 10/5/13.

Yes yes yes.

Warcraft as a whole: story balance between RTS and MMO, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 10/7/13.

A consideration of the different ways the MMO and RTS games have interacted with story.

WTB generic glyphs, Sarah Pine, WoW Insider, 10/9/13.

Some interesting ideas for generic glyphs.

The Mists of Pandaria that never was, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 10/4/13.

Things could have been a bit different.

New Refer-A-Friend system revealed, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 10/7/13.

The new system sounds good, but are there really people who are coming to play WoW for the first time still?

Breakfast Topic: Today, the Sky Golems invade Azeroth, Adam Koebel, WoW Insider, 10/9/13.

This is a pretty sweet mount.

Suggested Reading: Of solving LFR woes, instance scaling, the WoW TCG, fishing, and more.

Posted by Peter (Devee) on August 29, 2013
Posted in: Other MMOs or Related Games, Suggested Reading, Warlords of Draenor, World of Warcraft. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Raid Lockouts and “Free Loot,” Balkoth, Balkoth’s Word, 8/25/13.

Balkoth discusses an idea he got from Theck at Flex Capacitor (who got it from someone named Thels). What if you got your shot at LFR loot (and/or Flex) when you downed a boss in normal or heroic if you hadn’t done that boss in LFR that week (or Flex)? Raiders would still be encouraged to step up in difficulty but no longer down. Great idea. I’m so mad at Blizzard for not doing something like this already.

Low level dungeon and raid scaling technology complete, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 8/28/13.

Tom Chilton revealed that Blizzard has finished the technology to up-scale dungeons and raids. They’ve yet to find a reward scheme that they liked for it.

World of Warcraft Trading Card Game closes its doors, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 8/26/13.

This makes me a sad panda troll.

Player sweeps all three Stranglethorn Fishing winning spots in one day, Lisa Poisso, WoW INsider, 8/28/13.

How could someone come in first, second, and third? Amazing.

Warcraft and its “Joker Problem,” Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 8/28/13.

We keep killing our good enemies.

The Queue: No Hearthstone Day, Michael Sacco, WoW Insider, 8/23/13.

The answer to the last question has information that’s good to keep in mind – the ilvls for Siege of Orgrimmar. Raid Finder: 528,. Flex: 540. Flex Hellscream Weapons: 548. Normal: 553. Normal Warforged / Ordos: 559. Normal Hellscream Weapons: 561. Heroic: 566. Heroic Warforged: 572. Heroic Hellscream Weapons: 574.

Know Your Lore: The life and legacy of Lei Shen, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 8/25/13.

Care to know more about the guy you just killed?

Item Squish extremely likely for WoW’s next expansion, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 8/24/13.

I think we all knew this was coming.

Suggested Reading: Of prolonged leveling, small decisions, tauren, magic, and the future of WoW

Posted by Peter (Devee) on August 1, 2013
Posted in: Suggested Reading, World of Warcraft. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

I Just Want to Play With My Friends! (On WoW Leveling), Balkoth, Balkoth’s Word, 7/26/13.

Leveling is fine for some people. For other people, it becomes a huge barrier to playing with their friends. Balkoth examines some scenarios and discusses the leveling process.

Small Decisions, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 7/29/13 and Small Decisions, Part II, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 7/30/13.

These two articles discuss the small decisions (reagents, arrows, talents every level) that were removed from WoW and what that’s done to the game.

Know Your Lore: The tauren peoples of Azeroth, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 7/31/13.

An examination of the three tauren peoples in World of Warcraft.

Know Your Lore: The color of magic, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 7/28/13.

There are a lot of flavors of magic in Azeroth.

New World of Warcraft class coming? Ghostcrawler drops a hint, Adam Holisky, WoW Insider, 7/25/13.

Could we be gaining a support class?

Ghostcrawler, potentially, details the future of WoW at Chinajoy, Sarah Pine, WoW Insider, 7/25/13.

GC sort of talks about some things that, honestly, we should probably just ignore for now.

Discussion with Balkoth

Posted by Peter (Devee) on July 24, 2013
Posted in: Blog, World of Warcraft. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Two weeks ago, I wrote a post titled Microtransactions in WoW. Last week I wrote Suggested Reading: Of the in-game store, pay-to-win, statistics, weapons, legendaries, nostalgia, and warlock utility. The author of one of the articles in my Suggested Reading, Balkoth, had a nice discussion with me in the comments. (If you haven’t read it, you should also check out his post titled I Have Discovered the Source of Forum Complaining in Mists! It’s fantastic.)

Anyways, we discussed pay-to-win, farming charms, and more. As people probably don’t go back to check comments, I just wanted to post to let people know that they might want to check the comments here. It’s a good read.

(Plus, I’ve been busy due to San Diego Comic-Con and don’t have anything else ready to post!)

Suggested Reading: Of the in-game store, pay-to-win, statistics, weapons, legendaries, nostalgia, and warlock utility

Posted by Peter (Devee) on July 11, 2013
Posted in: Suggested Reading, World of Warcraft. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 6 Comments

World of Warcraft to sell experience buff and more in confirmed in-game store, Samit Sarkar, Polygon, 7/9/13.

Huge news in my opinion.

Thinking about the in-game store, TyphoonAndrew, TyphoonAndrew’s – Eye of the Storm, 7/10/13.

TyphoonAndrew doesn’t seem too pleased with the buffs being sold.

#245 A word of warning to Blizzard about Microtransactions, Spencer Nozell, Be MOP, 7/10/13.

Spencer cautions Blizzard about microtransactions, using Valve’s TF2 as an example.

Enough With the WoW P2W* Hysteria!, Balkoth, Balkoth’s Word, 7/10/13.

Balkoth thinks people need to calm down and that the news about microtransactions aren’t a big deal. I disagree.

Choosing Statistics to Evade the Argument, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 7/9/13.

Just because someone uses statistics to back their argument doesn’t mean the argument they’re rebutting is wrong.

WoW Archivist: WoW’s 20 greatest non-legendary weapons, Scott Andrews, WoW Insider, 7/5/13.

Andrew examines the coolest non-legendary weapons.

WoW Archivist: WoW’s 20 greatest non-legendary weapons, part 2, Scott Andrews, WoW Insider, 7/9/13.

Andrew finishes his look at some cool weapons.

Patch 5.4 PTR: Legendary spell effects for all (druids included), Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 7/8/13.

If you want to see what our new legendary will look like, take a look!

The living game and the end of nostalgia, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 7/8/13.

It’s okay to miss the past, but don’t be blinded by it.

Do warlocks bring too much utility to a raid?, Sarah Pine, WoW Insider, 7/8/13.

I kind of think they do, but I hope it’s not removed. That utility is important, and I like the flavor that it comes with warlocks.

Suggested Reading: Of grinding, Zandalari, Uldaman, and more

Posted by Peter (Devee) on April 18, 2013
Posted in: Suggested Reading, The Old Republic, World of Warcraft. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

I Have Discovered the Source of Forum Complaining in Mists!, Balkoth, Balkoth’s Word, 4/13/13.

This is an extremely fascinating article.  The idea is that opinions on how much effort gear is worth varies drastically. Balkoth found that 32.7% of responders think you’d be crazy to kill 200 mogu for a BiS heroic ring. Next, 50% think you’d be crazy not to kill 500 mogu for the ring.  At 1000, 41% think you’d be crazy not to go for the ring. Lastly, 13% think 5000+ mogu is reasonable. Blizzard can’t make everyone happy.

Mini Horridon, Arvash, The Crimson Hammer, 4/17/13.

I didn’t even realize Horridon dropped a mount. It’s so cute! I want one!

Savage trolls roleplay the revenge of the Zandalari, Lisa Poisso, WoW Insider, 4/11/13.

Atal Zanza Aka on Argent Dawn (EU) is a roleplaying guild of trolls loyal to the Zandalari based in Zul’Gurub. Very cool.

Depths of Uldaman: Why we should go back, Matthew Rossi, 4/12/13.

What do we know about Uldaman, and why should we go back?

Know Your Lore, Tinfoil Hat Edition: What was the purpose of Uldaman?, Matthew Rossi, WoW Insider, 4/10/13.

Rossi guesses as to the purpose of Uldaman. I wonder if Blizzard actually thought that far ahead.

The eternal question of mounting versus running, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 4/15/13.

Jarre of Rank4HealingTouch provides some math to determine what’s faster – mounting or running.

Patch 5.3 PTR: Role Check in Battleground queues, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 4/15/13.

Here’s an interesting change. You’ll now have to pick your role when queuing for a battleground. From now on, the difference between the two teams’ number of healers can be no more than one. I wonder if I can just queue as DPS and then heal.

First Impressions: SWTOR’s Rise of the Hutt Cartel, Eliot Lefebvre, Massively, 4/15/13.

If you’re curious about what’s been happening in TOR, Lefebvre can bring you up to speed.