Tech and Talk → Gaming → World of Warcraft > 5.4 first impressions

5.4 first impressions

We are kind of getting this on some of the other threads but I wanted to make one solely for this. What are your first impressions of 5.4?

I like the content, I like the drop rates (no more farming for lesser charms that's for sure), but I'm really hung up on the warlock changes. I was expecting more, especially with Affliction but it feels like my dps has actually gone down, not up and I can't move and cast to boot. Since I was going to make this my main raid toon, I'm a bit bummed at the moment. Hoping that maybe I just have something wrong in my rotation.
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Absolution -- 6/6 MSV, 4/6 HoF, 4/4 ToES, 12/12 ToT
Pride and Ego -- 6/6 MSV 1/6H, 6/6 HoF, 4/4 ToES, 11/12 ToT

The Isle is smaller than I expected and it seems to be more or less a gear up alt loot pinata than anything else.

Although I did not like the change to Kiljadeens Cunning, the other glyph change is nice. The one that allows you two have two charges on Dark Soul. Also some buffs on several spells so it seems we destro locks hit a bit harder now in exchange for no move casting.

I've not played it yet but my overall impressions after reading patch notes and reading other players views have been mostly positive.

The Timeless Isle looks to have made gearing up alts a breeze, which is no bad thing. I like that you get out of it what you put in, and your rewarded more for the more you do.

Class changes I will need to look into in depth on my 2 mains but from the patch notes the warlock changes don't seem as drastic as I first thought. The KC changes are not bad, just means you have to use the filler spell whilst moving only. A slight annoyance more than anything else. The shaman changes I'm more worried about as the changes to healing rain are a massive nerf and effects our ability to gain buffs/procs we use to heal. Blizz say it's been balanced, but it's the last thing shamans needed as they were already struggling.

Pet battles again seem to have had a decent update, which is something to put on the back burner for me. The proving grounds also seem like something that I'll enjoy, but again it's on the back burner.

Finally the raid seems to be working fairly well with normal/flex. People are downing the first 4 on normal with relative ease so you have high morale which is always good. People also seem to be enjoying flex, so fingers crossed it will be a success.

The island was fun for the first day, but I'm having trouble seeing what will keep me going there on a weekly basis beyond the world bosses. I haven't really read up on everything though, so maybe there's more to it.

The Combat rogue changes are another story. The spec will be playable with the cooldown reduction trinket, and doesn't seem completely horrible without it, but it's significantly slower than it was before, and to me, less fun.

The changes also feel ridiculous when it comes to Proving Grounds and the scaled down 463 ilvl. 50 energy sinister strike, especially when adding in the energy regen reduction from Blade Flurry which is pretty much required on the small groups of mobs, is just too slow. I ran out of time multiple times in the Silver proving grounds simply because I was spending so much time waiting for energy to regen with nothing to do in between. In 520+ ilvl gear, the spec is usable, but as many people pointed out during the PTR, it's almost unplayable at lower gear levels and presumably also while leveling. I really hope they'll get around to doing something about that.
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Brain: Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: I think so, Brain, but "Snowball for Windows"?

I agree the isle felt small, maybe just because how crowded it was patch day. Tons of loot dropped but really unusable for most geared toons. I did however get a mount drop and a 535 ring last night.

I was a little disappointed how easy Ordos was to kill. Our group of 40 had maybe 2 deaths the entire fight. Although at the time it was nice for a quick kill because it was running late.

The coin drops rates seem in line compared to how fast you could gather valor. The prices for pieces seemed high at first but since it is really replacing the valor gear and has now weekly caps it is not bad.
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Feralmordius on Ravencrest Server (US)
Tank for Pride and Ego

did they increase runestone drop rates in ToTLFRv3/4?
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Intelligence is no substitute for Character.

I zoned into the Timeless Isle then quickly queued for TB and left. Way too laggy with everyone there. Maybe I'll try it later but from the sounds of it the welfare epics are now BoA and fall out of the sky!

I don't think so. I'm still on Secrets and just ran 3/4 of the ToT LFRs and have 3 additional Secrets to show for it.
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Absolution -- 6/6 MSV, 4/6 HoF, 4/4 ToES, 12/12 ToT
Pride and Ego -- 6/6 MSV 1/6H, 6/6 HoF, 4/4 ToES, 11/12 ToT

I think something changed with the graphics also because thinks like the Durumu maze and the Lei Shen bubble bounces are super clear now.
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Absolution -- 6/6 MSV, 4/6 HoF, 4/4 ToES, 12/12 ToT
Pride and Ego -- 6/6 MSV 1/6H, 6/6 HoF, 4/4 ToES, 11/12 ToT

Right after playing last night.

The Timeless Isle is great for fresh 90's. For people in 502+ gear, not so much. The gear is BOA which helps but I felt my time would have been better spent trying to Flex raid.

Class changes wise, the shaman at least still felt good. I only ran a 5 man but didn't struggle at all to get to grips with anything. Whether raiding will be different as Healing Rain only heals 6, is another matter.

I did the pet battle on the Timeless Isle. Hits like a train but is easily downed with the right pets. Proving Grounds were also a lot of fun.

I looked at oqueue for flex raids and there were loads, almost all wanting a healer so I am excited to try it when I have a spare few hours.

works pretty well for alts otherwise I dont see much use in the grind and why the everliving hell cant I mail bind on acct things to my alts on other servers. Makes no damn sense.

Whats the deal with the black prince quest ?(legendary cape) Gotta kill the 4 bosses right? Do you have to be in a raid? Or just faction tag? Are there strats or is it just zerg?
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Polluxx - LvL 90 Human Warrior - (US) Ravencrest

Zerging works great because the spirit healer is about 5 inches from the edge of the arena. people die and then just rez.

The funny thing is that the Celestials are supposed to be the easier world bosses, while Ordos is supposed to be the hard one. I died numerous times on the celestials, as did seemingly everyone else, whereas my Ordos group, most of whom knew nothing about the fight, one shot him with no deaths.

I assume once things calm down and people actually use some sort of strategy on the Celestials, it won't be so bad, but I'm not sure how Ordos was supposed to be a challenging "hardcore world-boss".
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Brain: Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: I think so, Brain, but "Snowball for Windows"?

Well any noob can pull the Celestials but you have to have played LOT to have access to Ordos.

sure you could have been carried and LFR'ed the cloak but some of the solo stuff was atleast challenging so people with access to him should atleast know how to play.

Also its likely safe to assume that if they have the cloak then early in the week its the toon with the cloak and its atleast full ToT LFR gear (likely fully upgraded by now due to all the runs it took to get it.)

ya the cloak is easy compared to other legendarily items but still take a large time commitment, though as venom said I'm sure there can be a few that got through the cracks so some bads might have it.
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semper idem
1KTzRMxN1a2ATrtAAvbmEnMBoY3E2kHtyv

I will admit I haven't seen Ordos yet

though the Celestials kills I've seen sometimes lacked a tank or proper heals, weren't grouped up, and were just random.

Getting feral to tank them (as he needed it for the quest and I still needed 2 more) made it far easier as the random pulls sometimes had no or just bad tanks and I'd have to be carefull or I'd have a 2min rez timer.

I think the Celestials will be easier with an actual group
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semper idem
1KTzRMxN1a2ATrtAAvbmEnMBoY3E2kHtyv

Zupe's assumption should hold true for the first week or so... but once the new LFR starts its "catch" up for those who were less militant about obtaining their legendaries... Ordos will be just like any other world boss experience.

There's still the annoying assumption that because a total newb casual could progress through the quest chains that a lot of them did.
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Intelligence is no substitute for Character.

I realize that they've since nerfed it some, but doing the Melee DPS version of the Celestial Blessings part of the epic quest was extremely hard in LFR level gear. If someone got through that, I'd consider that they're probably a decent player. I don't know how much easier it is after the nerf, so that could be moot now.
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Brain: Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: I think so, Brain, but "Snowball for Windows"?

I'm going to have to wait until Icy Veins updates for best stats and rotations before I'll make a call. Running my old builds they seem functional, but I'll have to see what the recommended changes are. Like every major patch the old ways will still work, but there are better ways now.

Having 22 level 90 toons running the Timeless Isle has been great for gear upgrades. I've only done the first round and am now gemming and enchanting, but I'm seeing better DPS in general.
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"Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something." - Robert A. Heinlein

Gave the warlock some love last night, as quite simply, I suck at ele shammy. Timeless Isle is far more enjoyable if your not worried about pulling things. I'm hitting harder now than pre-patch and the loss of KC isn't that much of a killer. I'm still trying to run into a mob, cast CoE then follow it up with Immolate whilst still moving but I will learn not to fast enough. Casting Conflagrate whilst on the move is still nice, and it hits fairly hard since the buff.

One really important thing to remember if your doing the cooking quest for the carts, is after the Jade Temple, don't leave it. You have to turn it in in there and fight another boss, not leave like I did.

Well I'm glad you are seeing positives on the locks Cat. I think I'm going to have to switch back over to Destro and give it a shot because I am getting so @#$ off at Affliction I could strangle someone.

And it doesn't help that my Disc priest, in Disc spec, is consistently pulling 180k on the TI trash mobs as we farm coins while I struggle to stay above 100k on them. @#$!!
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Absolution -- 6/6 MSV, 4/6 HoF, 4/4 ToES, 12/12 ToT
Pride and Ego -- 6/6 MSV 1/6H, 6/6 HoF, 4/4 ToES, 11/12 ToT

180k on a healer, bring that please

After my first night of playing, I like what they put into the island. Tonight we will see Flex and tomorrow we will see normal, so I'll be able to comment on the real reason I play.

There isn't much of a flow, however, to the events on the island. It leads to a very chaotic feel. I ended up embroiled in some pvp on the island... and I honestly have no idea how I got flagged. Since I plan on doing some anyway... it was good practice. I'll admit it... i ended up griefing the horde's attempt at killing celestials... /chuckle. I'm not used to seeing so much horde on my server. I'm still not used to seeing horde on a PvE server, so I end up helping kill faction tag mobs thinking I'm helping alliance... only to be severely disappointed.

I hope the runestones drop well in flex and normal, because the queues for ToT LFR were horrible.
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Intelligence is no substitute for Character.