Blizzard is promoting the new 5.4 patch to the four corners of the world. I have a response to this.
Things I love about 5.4
Timeless Isle. In fact, I’ve loved all of Pandaria game play with the exception of the lunkheads that I’m forced to play with because there still aren’t any community policing tools in the game. Pet battles, quests, collectables. It’s a feast. If I could play it by myself. But this is about what I like, and I really do like Pandaria. It’s unqualified beautifully imagined. The landscape is breathtaking. The fights are challenging, if not a bit over-long in places. There are more ways to play the game now than there have been in any version prior to this one. Pet-battling may be demonstrably derivative, but it’s a great way to spend some time in the game, and a welcome addition to the melange of methods available to leveling characters.
Leveling has been sped up, and is so short through classic game that level ‘dings’ occur faster than you can clear quests in an area, if you are the kind of player that bothers to quest. The re-mapped areas introduced in Cataclysm wear better than the original game quests where they have been changed (my objections to continuity issues aside) with the dungeons and PvP battlegrounds thrown into the mix, there really isn’t enough time to experience the full breadth of the game before you move off to the next area.
Things I hate about 5.4
New currencies introduced to hobble long-time players.Why do that? Why punish players who have stuck through to the end of this XP who now have to throw away the work done with previous currencies, since those currencies are now worthless? (well we didn’t…) Really? The currency for speeding up research products has been spirit of harmony for the entire XP. Now it’s the same token that you use for extra rolls in the new raid. [It is actually an entirely new mat acquired through disenchanting. The previous mats acquired this way have never been seen by yours truly, although I have it on good authority that they do exist. Consequently the limit for the average player will be significantly lower than 3 a week] Don’t even get me started on the problems with raid looting. Besides, I’ve already blogged on that subject.
However, and I don’t think I can stress this enough in an MMO game, the biggest downside of the game remains the stunning lack of tools for dealing with bad actors. I really can’t understand Blizzard’s unwillingness to introduce a ratings system into the game; and because of this group play remains hit and miss based on the luck of the draw. With the fights more difficult than anytime previously in the game this presents a real problem for the average player just trying to get through the content.
I personally would welcome the challenge, if there was a way to remove the idiots.
