Monthly Archives: June 2014

Accuracy – Warlords of Draenor

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There are new things afoot in the latest Warlords of Draenor Alpha build for pet battlers.

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Many abilities which used to have lower accuracies now instead have an accuracy of 100%, and the randomness is instead based on range of possible damages. The abilities which previously had high, but not 100% accuracy, like Snap, were just decreased, because the range of damages would kind of just be within the scope of RNG for just the one value. The idea is that you’ll end up doing the same amount of damage with that ability over time, but the overall experience will be more positive. Missing feels terrible even when you win.

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So far, I’ve definitely found this to be the case, especially with a few specific abilities. One of my favorite battle pets to grind with is my Clockwork Gnome, but I always seem to get misses with Metal Fist when I’m trying to one-shot level 5s. Now I don’t even think about that miniscule chance to miss, because it no longer exists. If this change makes it to Live, I’m going to have to retool nearly all my guides because I frequently recommend 100% abilities for the sake of replicating results, even if another move might be a bit stronger, and now this won’t be an issue. I’ve also been Burrowing and Diving knowing that the damage component will hit for a unique change of pace. The game is more fun as a result.

The main concern I have, which remains to be seen as far as my own playtest goes, is the issue of transparency. Now, if your Anubisath Idol misses its 400 damage Crush twice in a row, it feels crappy, but you know why you’re starting over, and which move you may want to reconsider. If Crush hits on the low side of its 207-384 damage range, the reason you lost will be far less apparent.

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Overall though, this change does make the game quite a bit more fun. I haven’t PVPed with it yet, though, so we’ll see whether my tune changes when other people can use their newfound accuracy against me.

Warlords of Draenor Travelogue: 1

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Instead of just posting my observations about the Warlords of Draenor Alpha to twitter, I’m also going to post things here in a less transitory format. The first few are bound to be larger, as I uncover various quality of life improvements that nobody but me cares about.

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Firstly, my much-awaited Peacock is a reward from a pet-related achievement. The achievement itself is Not Yet Implemented, so it’s hard to tell what’s what. I’d hypothesize that it’s either the Tame achievement or Beat Tamers achievement.

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Also, the good old ‘you have no pets on PTR’ deal is alive & quite well, so here’s a quick plug for my Cascade guide, because mercifully it’ll only take me a few hours to get to 25s. Until then, the new quest log format makes it easy to see your account-wide quests, and separate them out from any active quests you may have as well.

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If you right click a wild battle pet’s nameplate, it brings up the option to see it in your spellbook. A small thing, but a cool quality of life enhancement.

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There don’t seem to be many new pets available at the moment. Many of the new ones seem to be via engineering–the Boar, Scorpid and Toucan. The one I found the most interesting though, is the Albino Chimaeraling. Other than not being tiresome to type at all, it’s apparently found in Eggs in Shadowmoon Valley. This is a feature I’m really excited about, but don’t know a ton about just yet. Shadowmoon Valley isn’t open yet, so I’ll be sure to investigate when it is.

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Move the heck over, Clockwork Gnome. With laser beams shooting from its eyes and a turret, I may have a new BFF.

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The very first wild pet I found in Draenor was a lvl 1 Sea Gull in my Horde Garrison. I’m really curious about this, and will report back when I have higher level pets. This seems an excellent place for a menagerie.

A very interesting bit about that level 1 Sea Gull. It looks like that’s intentional, and they’re supposed to scale with your pets’ levels, at least for now. If the scaling tech doesn’t pan out, the wild pets in the garrison will just be level 25.

Guardian Cub

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With this little guy retiring from the Battle.net shop in just a few short weeks, I figured I’d give him a quick feature, if you’re debating whether to spend your hard-earned real life cash on him before he goes away.

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I usually don’t focus on the visuals of pets too closely, but this guy has one of the cutest idle animations I’ve seen, where he paws at a gold fly that spawns near him occasionally. All his animations are adorable, but that one in particular makes me want to pet him. He’ll also fly behind you, and until Gloria’s Glorious Gliding Goodies are realized in WoD that’s a pretty unique commodity.

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The Guardian Cub has a pretty standard cluster of usual flying moves: Cyclone, Wild Winds & Slicing Wind. He’s also one of a very few Flying battle pets with Magic offensive abilities, with Onyx Bite in his moveset. Nether Rays are the only others. Rounding out his moveset are the Pyrrhic Reckless Strike and the damage-boosting Beast ability Roar.

The issue with this pet is that, although his moves are solid, his stats aren’t the best. Even with that unique Magic ability, Nether Rays are more versatile, and have better available stat allocation, so this pet is hardly a must-have for battling.

guardiancub

The really unique thing about this pet is that, to my knowledge, he’s the only battle pet which is both available for purchase with real cash and also able to be caged in-game. People cottoned on to this scheme real quick, so the value plummeted soon after they first appeared in the shop. I bought mine ages ago for under 2000 gold. However, since the announcement that this battle pet is being retired, the gold value has skyrocketed again, and there are very few available for trade. It’s hard to say what’s going to happen to the gold value after it’s retired, but if you’re looking to legally swap some real life cash for some in-game gold this may be your ticket, even if your gratification is a wee bit delayed.

Until he’s retired, possibly as soon as June 18th, the Guardian Cub is still available for purchase here at the Battle.net store: (link removed)

edit – As of this later date, the Guardian Cub is no longer available for purchase from the battle.net store. You may still be able to find one on your local auction house.