Goings On

So for the benefit of my two loyal readers, I feel it necessary to drop a quick update. Yes, post counts have dropped DRAMATICALLY. Yeah, I've been busy, both in and out of game. In personal WoW news, I have a 7th level 80 character now, a hunter by the name of Jenah. This is both my first ranged DPS character (not counting the brief time my Shaman spent as Elemental while leveling and my Priest as Shadow while leveling; neither of them retained those specs at 80), but this is also my first pure dps class. I have to say it's impressive what kind of numbers a pure DPS class can put up with just a few decent gear pieces. I am thoroughly enjoying playing a hunter.

That's not to say that I have given up on my other toons, however. Quite the contrary. They have been progressing through ICC both 10 and 25. I am very proud to say that two ICC groups of ours have cleared up to 12/14. This should really jump start our raid force a bit.

In non-WoW news, but still game related, I have begun development on a mobile game targeted at Android handsets (primarily the HTC Dream/T-Mobile G1 because, well, that's what I have). I was contacted by a programmer through a mutual contact and asked to assist in development of an Android game, so I am putting forth my experience as an artist and a game designer. I can't give too many details publicly, but as we get closer to a public release candidate, I will post more news. I may even chronicle the development a bit on the site, so check back to possibly see some updates (maybe).

Until then, my loyal reader (I am assuming the other reader has since left the site or fallen asleep), fight on For the Horde!

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Disappointing ICC Weapon Models

I was looking through The Lich King's loot table yesterday, and I was not only amazed at the huge stat budget (the 10 man normal items are iLvl 258), but they are, for the most part, what I like to call comma-weapons; weapons with a comma in the name (see Ashkandi, Greatsword of the Brotherhood, for example). Comma weapons, at least to me, always seemed to represent a truly awesome weapon, whether it be through the sheer difficulty of obtaining the item (Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian), or a unique model that makes people drop what they're doing to inspect a player (Zhar'doom, Greatstaff of the Devourer). And I always thought it would be really cool if the player wielding the weapon could use a derivation of the comma title as a player title (imagine a DK walking around with the title the Bone Arbiter).

Naturally, then, when I saw that the LK's loot was so epic that it deserved equally epic nomenclature, I couldn't wait to see the models. These would have to be equally epic, right? Illidan was an equally-epic boss, and pretty much all of his drops had unique, awe inspiring models. So LK's heroic loot would naturally have to be cool.

Much to my disappointment, however, I learned that this was indeed not the case. No, in fact best weapons in the instance, in the game even, shared models with the worst weapons in the instance (worst being very, VERY relative, as they aren't bad by any stretch). "Surely you jest, Khanus", you might say, "no, this can't be true! I need proof!" Proof you shall have, good reader.

I direct your attention to the model of the Bonebreaker Scepter, which drops off of normal mode, 10-man Lord Marrowagr. That's the first boss of the easiest difficulty of the smallest size raid of Icecrown Citadel for the uninitiated. Compare that model (click View in 3D in the wowhead link) to Mithrios, Bronzebeard's Legacy. This is one of Muradin Bronzebeard's own personal weapons, and without a doubt THE best tanking weapon in the game bar none. It has the DPS of a two-handed weapon from normal 10-man, and yet it is just a simple recolor of the Scepter.

I doubt I am the only one disgusted by this. How big of a let down is this? The hardest damn boss in the game and you don't even get a unique model to showoff with. Why must Blizzard reuse models all over the place? Go back to unique models, please. We had them all the way through BG (Dark Edge of Insanity, for instance), and a lot in BC (Mounting Vengeance was a frakkin' trash drop). Let's be honest, part of the reason we raid end-game content is to look cool while standing in a city. Just ask anyone who farmed Illidan for months on end to complete the Twin Blades. Ask them if it was all worth it if for no other reason that for how damn cool those things look.

Blizzard has been making some real strides in the game's improvement. The ICC encounters are genuinely entertaining, and provide a nice challenge (especially the wing-end bosses). The current weapon models are fantastic, and the armor sets are beautiful. But come on, Blizz, bring back some unique models. Put something unique back into the hands of the raiders to visually set us apart from the non-raiders. We put in the time, give us our proper rewards.

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