Archive for the ‘Glitch’ Category

This was supposed to be a post where I discussed the changes to druids in patch 4.0.1. I was supposed to discuss the changes to balance and the addition of the new solar/lunar power bar. I was going to talk about how I liked the change of bear form to cat at level 10. But it’s not going to be. Old grudges have resurfaced, and old wounds reopened. I’m going to vent instead.

I hate druids. I always have. Now, I even hate my own druid, Wrain. Wrain is my level 16 night elf balance druid who I popped onto the PTR to test low-level druidic play. I specced him balance and came to enjoy the spell that came with it, Starsurge. I didn’t really understand the solar/lunar power bar, and I still don’t. It’s not explained to a low-level druid what the changes do, so I kinda ignored it. I also played with cat form, and found it to be a better aid at my level then bear form.

Here’s where it all went to hell. After an hour or so rampaging through Darkshore I wanted to hearthstone home. But what’s this? No hearthstone?! WTF?? I checked everything in my little bags, and no hearthstone. Now that doesn’t make sense. Oh well, I thought; I’ll teleport to Moonglade and fly home. I was grumpy to find that the druid flight point wasn’t working (or missing, one of the two – I’m not sure where it’s supposed to be but there wasn’t one anywhere to be seen) so I had to hike it to the Alliance flight point just like Gav did back years ago. Once there I found that I didn’t have the money to fly home. Dammit! It’s just one thing after another!! Grumbling all the way back to town about having to run around for nothing, I played with my graphics settings, resetting my interface in the process. I don’t know whether it happened from that or during the loading screen, but I saw that my hearthstone had returned once I got to town and tried to sell things. What the hell?! Now thoroughly irritated, I hearthed back to Auberdine and logged off.

What is it with me and druids? Why do I always run into trouble with them and their stupid Moonglade?

I think druids hate me.

For those not yet privy, the 4.0.1 PTR servers are up and active. This means that you can go try out the new Cataclysm powers, specs and interface (yay!) but not the new beta-centric world changes, races and zones (boo!). In short, it’s the WoW you’re playing now but with new powers and a modified interface. I popped Gavelier in (known on the PTR as ‘Gavalier’ due to a naming conflict) and trained his ret spec as I’d decided I would while toying with Wowhead’s talent calculator. Or, I tried. You see, this PTR makes use of the new streaming feature. That, combined with the 16 GB download time meant that I hopped in before everything was loaded (I ought to be done downloading sometime in October, by the way). This meant that I didn’t actually have all the data I should have and the game glitched. Restart.

Back in, I got my spec set and was ready to test my powers on some hapless mobs in Storm Peaks when I realized I was missing some of my key new abilities. Stuff like my new main damage seal for one (that’s kinda important) and the new Word of Glory heal. Off to Dalaran, and then to Stormwind. Once in Dal I stood for about three minutes waiting for the portal to show up. Once it did I popped through and hopped on my Albino Drake atop the Mage’s Tower… and promptly fell about forty feet straight down. Ok, so no flying in the old world yet (yes, I know there’s a new ability that needs trained, but it wasn’t at the Dalaran flight trainer). It’s actually funny to see folks running around on their flying mounts, hopping up and down with them, vainly trying to get airborne. Anyway I got my new abilities and ‘ported back to the Argent Tournament grounds. Or I tried to. The game froze and I was back at the character select screen. I reselected Gav and sat at the finished loading screen for a few minutes before giving up. Restart.

I finally loaded up at the Tournament grounds and took a few dailies to practice my pummeling on the Cult of the Damned dudes. My first thought was that the game does an awesome job letting you know when a proc’d ability is available. For example, with Art of War my exorcism spell glows so I know to hit it. Very nice. Also, the new holy power mechanic kept my eyes off the battle more then I would have liked, keeping an eye on my new bar so I could know when to hit Divine Storm, Word of Glory or Templar’s Verdict. In all though, I seemed to be doing more damage then before. Of course, without a DPS meter it’s hard to tell for sure.

I hearthed back to Dalaran and took the portal back to Stormwind. Here’s a few more random pics I took while  n Goldshire.

The new stat window is great at telling you what you need to know without you having to do on-the-fly math or looking things up online. It will tell if you’re hit-capped for your level (and levels above you) for example.

Here’s the talent spec window. Nothing fancy but very functional.

I’ll have more tidbits as I continue to play.

For the last eight and a half hours, I’ve been fighting WoW tooth and nail. I, like many players, am struggling to log in. I attempt to load Gavelier, but when I get to the loading screen, the loading bar fills up and then sits there. Forever. You can find more rants and raves in this topic on the WoW forums. I’ll check back in if I ever get back into the game.

On another note, I forgot to mention that after my run through the Old Kingdom the other day, I used my frost emblems to grab the Libram of Three Truths. It seems to have upped my DPS against Cult of the Damned mobs near the Argent Tournament by over a hundred or so DPS. Sweet!

Here we see Ineveitable taking his pet Mistsabre out for a flight. How nice. Now if druids were supposed to be able to ride their land mount in flight form, that’d make this a boring shot. Instead, it makes Sights Seen. Sometimes glitches are more fun then features.

Well, I won my first Isle of Conquest match today. Actually, that’s a lie. The Alliance won a match while I was there; I was no help. I got ganged up on by – no lie! – six hordies at once near the start, all of them after me alone. Later, there was an undead warlock at the top of one of our towers, burning the hell out of me while I tried to shoot his tanks with the turret. How inconsiderate. Couldn’t he see I was busy?! Anyway, I finally got un-busy (he killed the turret) and turned my attention to him. I swear he was cheating somehow. He had only slightly more HP then me, maybe a thousand or so, but he wasn’t taking any damage from my attacks. WTF?? I literally couldn’t hurt him. I’ve had the same problem was several different foes in IoC. Yesterday, a Draenei death knight and I chased a Tauren shaman all across the map, but we couldn’t kill him. We’d stun him, pin him, pound on him, and yet he’d take next to no damage. What. The. Hell?! He wasn’t using his totems because our battle took us all across the island, so how was he so damned immortal? *sigh*

Anyway, we won today, somehow, even though the Horde held most of the map. Don’t ask me how; I was in our keep, dead. I spent most of the match that way: rezzing in our keep’s graveyard. I did account for the second most Honorable Kills on the Alliance though, even though I had no killing blows. I guess that means that I was wearing everyone down but not finishing anybody. That’s no way to win.

Is it?

I paid a visit to the new Argent Tournament grounds on the PTR last night, and here is a pic of them. I cruised around and snooped, but not allot got done. I really couldn’t do any quests, since I wasn’t even a Valiant with the Tournament yet. Why? Well…

I’m kinda not playing as Gav on the PTR right now. He’s yet to make the transfer, so I opted to test drive a premade level 80 Draenei Hunter, who came complete with a kick-ass set of gear and a Spirit Beast pet. Oh, and a Bronze Drake. Man, this thing is sweet. It’s really, really fast compared to Gav’s current gryphon (280% speed increase on the Drake versus 60% on the gryphon). The gryphon will be up to 150% once I get Gav into the PTR thanks to included changes, so I’ll be a little over half as fast, rather then just a third as fast. Add my Crusader Aura and it’s 20% speed increase to the equation, and I’ll be just 110% slower, rather then 200%. Yeah… makes it sound all better, doesn’t it?

*Sigh*

In other PTR news, there seems to be a little glitch at the Tournament.

Fordring! What the hell happened to ya, man?!

I had just left a Wintergrasp battle where the Horde had taken the keep in less then five minutes when a guildmate, Oakleaf, told us he was having a problem. I flew to him in Howling Fjord and… you can see the results above. Dude was floating over my head! He later roamed under the ground, appearing only for short bursts above the surface when he’d jump. He eventually found out that he could stand on the cannons in Valgarde (“the only solid land in my world”, he said), but that was little consolation. He then proceeded to roam the zone while I tailed his dot on my map. I was so focused on that dot that I actually followed it off of a cliff! Since he was underground and not following the road, he was unaware the peril he put me in. Thankfully, my bubble saved my hide (again!). We never did find out what the problem was, but it reminded me of the the time I swam/flew through Hellfire Peninsula.

Unbelievable.

Super Gav! A glitch hit in Hellfire Peninsula the other day, and I was swimming through the air. Fun, yes, but it ruined the game as I was unable to interact with anything. I couldn’t even log out! I had to shut the game down and start it back up, at which point I was reset back at the Dark Portal.