Before reading this blog, keep in mind that everything I say about World of Warcraft is my opinion. If you love what's coming for the next expansion, I respect your opinion, please respect mine as well.

Blizzcon 2011

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m over the moon about all of the changes in store next year for Diablo and Starcraft. As for World of Warcraft and my views of it, I am very disappointed with what has been presented, and to be honest it's now official that I'll never come back to WoW.

The tournaments for Starcraft and World of Warcraft this weekend were awesome in my opinion. Did you see the October GSL Final between MVP and MMA? It was one of the most intense and thrilling matches in Starcraft 2 history. As for the WoW competition, I'm really surprised by how entertaining it was this year, I didn't expect this at all. In my opinion, as soon as it reached the semi-final match, it was one of the best matches I have ever seen for WoW.

Overall, I think it was a fantastic Blizzcon and I enjoyed my weekend watching it.

Mists of Pandaria

Pandas!

Mists of Pandaria will introduce a new race in Azeroth… the Pandaren. The Pandaren will be a neutral race available to both factions. At level 10 players will be able to choose their allegiance to the Horde or the Alliance. I really love this concept, but seriously... a fucking panda! C'mon!

In all honesty I don't like the Pandaren. I think Pandaren, even if they are in the Warcraft universe (making their first appearance in Warcraft 3), are oriented far too much for younger ages. Not to mention since they are peaceful by nature they do not have a place in a world filled with "War". The MoP expansion is about Horde vs Alliance fighting. As you seen on previous video, cute cuddly pandas and war do not fit. This is not World of Peacecraft, it's World of Warcraft.

New Class: Monk

The Monk will be the new playable class, available to all races except for Goblin and Worgen. Monks are a hybrid class with specializations in all three roles: tank, healer or melee DPS. I am actually in love with this concept so I do not have anything to add here, it's a great idea so I will leave it at that. I just fear that the class will reduce the popularity and number of Druids, since the Monk and Druid classes are going to be so similar. Druids are actually one of the least popular classes in Cataclysm, making this detrimental to the Druid class.

Talent System Overhaul

This is where everything begins to look extremely bad in my opinion. The class talent system is being totally redesigned. Players will choose a specialization at level 10, then have their core abilities unlocked and auto-granted as they level. This concept is not new and can be seen in Cataclysm, therefore I have nothing against this concept.

Talent choices will be made available at levels: 15, 30, 45, 60, 75 and 90. Players will select one of three talents when they reach each tier offering a maximum of 6 talents at level 90. Talents will primarily be utility and survivability based, with less emphasis on the primary roles of the class. This idea in my opinion is great because you need to make a very strategic choice every talent. This will bring a lot of variety into the game between players and their talents. It should be awesome for PVP too!

The concept that I totally dislike is the level intervals between each talent choice. Fifteen level between each "talent" is... really... too much! In Wotlk it was over 71 pts. In Cataclysm, it was reduced to 41. This was a smart move by Blizzard in my opinion because 71 points is honestly too high. For Mists of Pandarian it will be reduced to a total of 6. In my opinion it's a lazy way for Blizzard to try to balance the game, however I did not like the concept at all. I think a new talent point every 5 or 10 levels would be suitable.

Challenge Mode Dungeons

Players will have the option to run dungeons in "challenge mode". These more difficult time trials will award statless vanity gear that you’ll be able to skin your gear with via Transmogrification. I don't know what to say about this, I never did any PVE content except during Burning Crusade. This could be a great idea between friends and guild members but overall, I don't think this idea will be popular for the simple reason that "most of the players" are playing the game for the purpose of getting powerful items. As for cool looking gear, that's not really a problem, there is already a ton of awesome items available for transmogrification. Only visual items will influence a lot the popularity of this feature. I'd give this feature 1 month maximum, and it won't be used by players.

Companion Battle Pets

Blizzard will be introducing a new meta game with the Companion Pet Battle System. Players will be able to customize their (previously non-combat) companion pets. Training them for battle for both PvE and PvP action. Okay, I must say.. WTF is going on in their mind?! A Pokemon play style in World of Warcraft? I really hate this idea. If I want to play a first person shooter game, i'll play Battlefield 3. If I want to play a hack & slash game, I'll play Diablo. If I want to play a pet battle game, I would buy Pokemon. The Pet Battle System is a stupid idea by Blizzard because of their lack of imagination to create new content for the game itself.

New BGs and New Arena

Up to 3 new BGs are planned for Mists of Pandaria, and one new arena. That's great, at least they are thinking adding more content for PVP players like me. This is the first time they've added more than 2 maps (Arena/BG's) in a single expansion. For the arena map, I must say, great job Blizzard. You have finally, after 5 years, made a good map. Now delete Ring of Valor and everyone will be happy. I would delete Dalaran as well but that's just my opinion here. For all the others aspect of PVP, unfortunately you must wait until the release of the beta to see whether or not it could be a good expansion for PVP. I have a feeling that PVP will be better in MoP. I remember that I was over the moon when they announced Cataclysm, but it turned out that I was totally disappointed at the release.

PvE Battlegrounds

Hahahaha, this is the most stupid idea Blizzard has ever made. Nothing more to add on this.

Diablo III free with a 12 month subcription

That's great but that's more or less a sense of desperation move by blizzard. They are doing everything they can to keep people playing. If you subscribe to this, it means that you will also buy Mist of Pandaria. It's a great move by Blizzard to sell the next expansion, even if it comes with less content than Cataclysm, but seriously having pokemon battles, oversimplified talent trees, revamped dungeons again and kung-fu pandas... That's not really what I was hoping for the next expansion. Even now, the lack of content they made for Cataclysm doesn't justify it as a good deal.

Recycling

Yep… expect lots of recycled content again. They already announced Scholomance and Scarlet Monastery. Expect more to come, like it was with Cataclysm. Yes it have 5 new zone, but seriously overall it will be like Cataclysm. Almost everything else will be recycled. From a point of view of a player that played since the original release 6 or 7 years ago, this is one of the most shocking development concepts by blizzard in WoW history. This is again, in my opinion, laziness on Blizzards side to steal money because of their the lack of creativity.

Now, I'm sure you don't want me to talk about items, as example ranged slots gone or wand weapon switching as a main weapon. You probably already know what I'm thinking of this as well so I'll skip it.

Five new zones and Conclusion

I have nothing against Pandas or China, but basing an entire expansion on real life culture takes away the fantasy element from WoW. It just doesn't fit with the lore and seems like a pure money grab. Overall, I'm very happy that I've already quit at the release of Cataclysm. I seriously cannot see any reason why I should refund my account for this next expansion.

We want your feedback!

Battlefield 3

Battlefield 3 will be released tonight at 3 AM eastern time. This will be a game that I'll play for sure. Why am I talking about battlefield 3? It's simple, we will have our own Battlefield 3 server with 32 slots. Everyone in here is welcome and we hope to have so much fun between us on this game. The server name use a clan (International Initiative) tag (i2) we made and will be ready at the launch of the game. A banner will be displayed in here on Tukui for everyone that want to play with us! Unfortunately, it will be located in the US but we hope the ping is good for our friends outside America.

You got skill and want to play this game seriously? As I said earlier, we have a clan! We are planning to climb the MLG ladder for Battlefield 3. If you are interested in visiting or joining us, check out our platoon.

We hope to see you on the Battlefield soon!

Future of Tukui

As I said last summer, there was a risk that Tukui 14 would probably be the latest version at 4.3. I said that this decision would not be taken until at least when I see what is coming in the next expansion. Now that the Blizzcon officially detailed what's coming for World of Warcraft, it's the time for me to think what it will happen and take a decision. On my side, it doesn't look good at all as you seen what I've wrote above about World of Warcraft.

First of all, I still don't know what i'll do. Everyone in here are so great, helpful, etc. I really love the community I've built in the last 4 years and I love how Tukui influenced all the user interfaces in the world. I'm also proud of what I've done even if it was requesting a lot of time. I think I was nice with everyone in here and that I did a great job overall almost every time. For big releases, Tukui was always ready 48h before each WoW patch was deployed on live. The bug fixes overall were very very quick, they were typically fixed within hours of being reported. Some were even made instantly! This is huge considering that most AddOns fix their bugs in days or weeks. If you think it was not quick, at least it was a lot faster than the Blizzard game hotfixes or UI fixes. :P

In the meantime, I fear the lack of activities on our site since last spring and the really small support we have for continuing the project. As many of you already know, I have quit WoW last year but i'm still doing by best to keep everything alive. Unfortunately it asks a considerable amount of time to maintain. Not just Tukui, but also the website, forum support and everything it come with. That's a lot of time for a game I'm not playing at all.

Now, I'm not sure if it's worth it. Lots of players seem to quitting WoW, lots of support is gone, the site activity between WotLK and Cataclysm has dropped by ~60% and is continuing to drop month after month. I love that the people are appreciating the work done but I would not like to build something in the next expansion that require days of coding for just a very small amount of players. I've seen at Blizzcon that World of Warcraft 5.0 will have lots of changes within the UI (talents, pet, character, etc) and this would probably require a complete rewrite of Tukui from the start.

So, I'm asking your opinion of what I should do. Do you still want Tukui to continue for Mists of Pandaria and why? Will you buy the next expansion? Will you be sad if you need to move to others AddOns or others UI compilations? I hope it will influence my final decision.

If I continue, it will probably have some small changes, as said in this topic, to development. As example, I would probably come back to the basics, focusing the internal core, functionality of the UI and the layout itself only. Things like Skinning Blizzard frame would be available as an extra mod, maintened by another developer.

On the other side, If I stop, I will continue to maintain and support at least until next summer. Until Mist of Pandaria comes out.

In the meantime, If you like our community, our work, our site and our AddOns, please consider to donate or subscribe for a Premium account. For a small fixed amount per month, you will have access to more features on our website and be able to help us continue to develop/maintain the project and the website in the future.

Have a nice day!

~ Tukz

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Last updated: 25-10-2011