Good (early!) Morning brothers and sisters!
It has been a significant amount of time since I have had the opportunity to grace this hall in a very long time. Due to some unforeseen events in my life, mostly for the better, I had to step away abruptly and without warning. The TL;DR being that I have moved from North Carolina to Oregon and went back to college to gain a degree in Network Systems Administration (for now, with long term goals covering something much bigger). Currently I am an straight A student pulling a 4.0 GPA and just starting my third term/quarter as of today. TIME TO MAKE ORANGE JUICE!
Outside of my personal affairs and on to slightly more recent news, Blizzard Entertainment has started up alpha testing for the most recent addition to their World of Warcraft line, Legion. It is early days yet my friends, but I am excited about a whole host of possibilities! It surely seems like they are throwing everything and the kitchen sink into this one, and I for one, could not be happier (assuming they can deliver, HA!). Warlords of Draenor showed some promise in its infancy, but as the expansion grew in age some glaring issues started to show in some of its core philosophy. That is not to say that it did not have its merit, in my view it did have some interesting lore and game design, and the raids were far superior to anything we have seen yet as a whole. That said, the garrisons were a good idea in theory but were executed poorly, certain classes were just not performing well inside the raid scene for large portions of the expansion while others dominated for the same length of time. I also took issue with the lack of released content midway through the expansion as well. While I still hold that World of Warcraft is still a fantastic game, it seemed that my wanted design direction differed from what the Blizzard staff had in mind, which sadly lead to my eventual retirement from the game for a second time. This was not to be just a momentary detachment either, I sincerely had no intention of ever returning this time. Interestingly enough, during my WoW hiatus a friend and I had a somewhat protracted conversation about it. The culmination of that discussion ended with me saying something to the effect of “There are only two things that Blizzard could do at this point to pull me back in….introducing Demon Hunters and making the story focal point about the legion again”. Funny how that worked out!
I have been desiring, to the point of pining for, demon hunters as a playable class for YEARS, ever since The Burning Crusade gave me that first real taste. While I still submit that I identify with the warrior at heart more, there has always been this strange attraction what the demon hunter seemed to be, at least in my own mind. And now, I am chomping at the bit to get in and start testing (legitimate testing mind you) what the WoW team has in-store for the player base. As has been the case…pretty much since always, I do not have alpha access. This is okay, perhaps my luck will change with the beta.
I will do a quick right up on all the Fury Warrior changes that I have come across in the near future, I just ask that everyone keep in mind that this is alpha and things are subject to change at any moment.
Here is to hoping that you all have an excellent holiday filled with Christmas cheer! Till next time friends, stay angry!
Berserker Stance 