WICBT: What is your favorite announcement for Warlords of Draener?

Personally I want to say all of them but if I had to choose one it was the announcement of Garrisons. Everything about them, be it the profession tie ins to the follower systems, or the ability to choose which zone you want yours to be in. But more than what the announced features of them were I am most excited for what they didn't announce as I said in an earlier post I am excited for the potential of them to use the followers as mannequins so that they can display your gear you have collected in a meaningful way. I am hoping that at some point in WoD we are able to use our Garrisons to wage war on a player from the opposing faction in Strand of the Ancients type battle. And I am also excited for the RP potential to having my very own Garrison and a forward base for the RP guild I recently joined.

The one thing about Garrisons that I was disappointed not to see was that they really only showed Orc and Human architecture, it would be amazing if we could choose between the iconic Faction structures and your Races structures, a Tauren styled Garrison would be pretty sweet.

Finally the ability to have the Garrison be a living breathing part of the game even when you are not logged in is going to be nice, especially in terns of earning gold for repairs if you cant play outside of your raid times in a given week.

As I stated in the beginning it is pretty hard not to be excited about all the announcements surrounding WoD.

World of Draenor Speculations and Thoughts

So first things first, WOW what a Blizzcon. Now that that is out of the way lets dive in.

Garrisons
First up Garrisons still not quite player housing as many hoped for, but it may be even better. With the discussed features like trophies it could become a way display your accomplishments. So if you're paying attention to the deep dive on Garrisons you may have briefly heard them say something about changing your followers appearance and nothing else was said. Listeners of the The Instance podcast may have heard Ghostcrawler talking about transmog and helping us free up inventory space by doing something with transmog but they don't want to say anything about it because they didn't want to get our hopes up, then the discussion turned to collections much like they are going to be doing for Heirlooms and Toys. The transmog feature I think Ghostcrawler was hinting at is actually a feature of the Garrisons and you follower where you can equip them with your armor thus freeing up some bag space and allowing you to display gear on your followers.

Now I realize they mentioned something about gear upgrades for you follower which could negate this which is why I think follower will have 10 item slots (head, shoulders, cloak, chest, hands, belt, pants, feet, weapon, and off-hand) each of these slots will have a transmog slot where you could just place an item from your inventory. So you would have a total of 20 slots. If nothing is in the transmog slot then the original art will show.

This is a lot  to hope for and may be a little off but I was hoping for The Elder Scrolls-esque mannequins which may be the thing Ghostcrawler was hinting at, although I would like to not just see mannequins but also be able to transmog our followers.

I would also like the ability with Garrisons to perform GvG or PvP Garrison battles, what I mean by this is you can queue to battle someone from the opposing faction and have your followers battle each other either on a battle field or by a SotA style battle of attack and defend, where the loser has there building put on a CD where they aren't generating resources.

Character Models
Next are the new character models, if you haven't seen them I suggest you check them out. Even though I don't put any kind of Machinima, Machinimatographers should be able to do so much more with these new models. Also as some one who has started to dabble into the RP elements of the game I think this will help me immerse more into the game especially as someone who plays a strong silent type role.

I am also very very interested in seeing not just seeing how this expansion plays out but how they handle the characters from the past that were brought to the present and if they will find out that some of these people are there kids.

Boost to 90
Now to the hot topic issue "Boost to 90", in my opinion the feature is completely fine and actually right now is the time to do it if any especially since we almost for sure won't see a stand alone WoW 2. I have a couple reasons for this 100 levels will surely turn off any new comers to the game especially if they have never played an MMORPG before and leveling 1-85 now on alt is lonely even with changes made could you imagine a new player leveling through 90 levels without the MM part of the equation.

It wont hurt the interest in the lore of the game anymore then it already is. Currently you have people who will read ever quest text and do every quest, and then you have the people that just follow leveling guides or the quest tracker (yes even new players) because they want to play with friends. The people in the first category will be the ones who take the level 90 as a new player and level to 100 and go back and play through content that they want to learn about. I did this with my paladin because in my race to to get to level 70 AoE farming an all I went back and played through all the Paladin-centric zones and quests just to explore the lore. Even now in game their are players who could care less about knowing their lore or why they are killing something, they just want their gear and to progress the character stats wise. Just because they don't like lore doesn't hurt me or you. And if you are truly into WoW for the lore RP servers may be a safe haven for you.

It in no way hurts what I have or continue to experience in WoW these people who boost to 90 wont experience defeating Archimonde pre-WotLK Nerfs/Buffs, they wont experience the joy of committing Ogre genocide in Outlands to get that one Blacksmith plan. And frankly they can't take it away from me either.

Some argue a boost to 90 now they will work in a boost to max level because they wont stop. I am fairly certain that Blizzard wont ever go back to pay to win ever again, especially after the closure of the Diablo 3 AH. and leveling to 90 when the cap is 100 is not pay to win. You will still have people who buy and can't handle the leveling process, or get to max level and don't enjoy the gear grind. People will still need to develop skill to become good enough to raid with you unless you like bringing unskilled players.And guess what all of this still happens today even without a boost to the previous expansions level cap. It is only good for the player base as whole because currently subs are on the decline and will only go down especially when the longtime lore junkies had there Warcraft 3 desires filled (Illidan and Arthas) and a potential new player may see that level 90 cap and put the box down. With this change potential new players will think oh I only have to gain 10 levels and they may actually buy the game.

WICBT: Should professions be account-wide?

Image found on MCA Network Academy Blog

This weeks Community Blog Topic hits on an issue that is actually something that I and I am sure many of you have not only thought about recently but through out you playing time in Azeroth. The easy route would be to take a page from the Diablo 3 book and have it be to have all characters have access to all professions and each one of your characters can contribute to leveling said professions at the same time, however I disagree on this route, follow be after the jump to find out my thoughts.

More After The Jump!

WICBT: How long have you been playing World of Warcraft and what life changes have you gone through?

I have been playing WoW since January 2007. My college room mate (all 4.5 years) asked me if I wanted to try it out with him since he had friends at work who played it. So we went in to the BB he worked at and picked up 2 each of Vanilla, TBC and Time Cards. Over the last almost 7 years my life has changed so much. At the time my girlfriend and room mate all lived together, That same year we found a stray dog that is still with us today. In the December of 2008 my girlfriend and I got engaged. The Summer of 2009 we bought our 2nd dog and in December all three of us graduated from Arizona State, 2 days later my fiance and I packed up all of our stuff and moved back to California. My fiance and I got married in July of 2010. Since then my wife and have bought a car, had a wonderful baby girl, bought a house, and now I am General Manager of a dealership.

I have met many great people in game, and the game has helped me with my social anxiety. Some of my favorite people that I have met in game no longer play even my room mate stopped playing at the beginning of Wrath. I would love to get my wife playing a little bit. I hope to play with my daughter, she seem interested in and loves to sit in my lap and watch me play. I think WoW and a lot of gaming in general if properly handled can be used to develop bonds with our kids and also teach them critical thinking skills.

Finally over with all the changes in my life above I have had those changes effect me in game. I no longer play 6 hours a day 6-7 days a week. Most weeks its 2 days for 3-5 hours, some weekends I get in more play time if I'm not watching football or going out with the family. Also I with the limited play time to put into improving my character every chance I get I have been dabbling in the other aspects of the game beyond Raiding. I have joined an RP server, dabbled in pet battles, leveled a 3rd alt to 90, started to random PvP more, and any of the newer features Blizzard has given us.

WICBT: What's your most and least favorite expansions?

Image Courtesy of  TheDDGuides

Favorite Expansion is a hard one I could say TBC but then again that is when I started, so it'd be like a  Vanilla vet or Wrath child saying those were their favorite expansions, because it was new and newness and and nostalgia are powerful emotions. I loved Wrath's story if not because I loved Warcraft 3's story so much. Cataclysm was good because well Arms DPS was amazing. Pandaria has been pretty awesome from game play changes and lore plots. But if I had to really sit down an pick a favortie expansion I think I would have to go with TBC the wonder that I felt along with Sunwell was amazing, I think if they hadn't (even if hastily) released Sunwell I think my answer may be different.

As far as least favorite expansion, even if Arms DPS was godlike Cataclysm earns this (dis)honor. Not wrapping up Neptulaons story, or how disappointed I was in Thrall stepping down when the Horde needed him most are just a few of the things that rubbed me the wrong way.  The fact that we killed potentially the biggest threat to Azeroth well before his time, unless Sargeras will finally not fail at coming to Azeroth in his full power and glory.

To sum it up I think all of the expansions have had their bright sports as far as game play, quality of life changes and lore.