Rambling: No focus

I've been a bit busy outside of the game so I haven't really had much thought of what to write.  I've got about 6 drafts in my folders that I want to write on but I don't have the time to make them what I want, so just to keep things moving I'm going to write semi-stream of consciousness.  So apologies on the random, rambly nature of this.

I hate Proving Grounds: Silver.  I have two warlocks that are 100 (which is an oddity for me) that can't get into heroics because I can't get past silver proving grounds.  I haven't given it a lot of effort yet, but I've tried a few times and changed spec and I can just tell that I'm going to have a hell of a time doing this.  I probably need to out gear it by a lot before I can do it.  And even that might not be enough.

But doesn't that mean the proving grounds is doing its job?  Keeping out low DPS like me?  Not pulling down the group?  Maybe?  Beside the fact that I'm pretty sure I've seen a number of warlocks having trouble with proving grounds, I don't think I'd be hurting things that much to be in dungeons. But if I am, then it's kind of unfair to put more stories and quests that I'll never be able to do behind heroic dungeons.  At least, it feels that way.

That's a whole other topic I mean to get into one day - fairness and difficulty.  Part of what got me thinking about that topic was this:

"Legend rank is home to less than the top .5% of Hearthstone players. Out of the millions of players playing Hearthstone, these Legends make up an incredibly small part of the Hearthstone player base."

In a PvP setting this makes some sense - you can't all be the top as there isn't an AI you are playing against.  But the honest truth is, of the millions of people playing, the VAST majority will NEVER see the top content.

There is a carrot on a stick that they tempt you with knowing that millions of people will never get it.  It's one thing to have a very, very hard to get carrot that anyone can get with enough time.  But that just isn't possible here.  And that bothers me.  It bothers me that they are touting it as if it is something that you can get when the reality is, nope, probably not.  It bothers me the amount of development time that they put into something that less than 1/2 of 1 percent of people will EVER see.  I just don't get or really like that.

It is part of why I like LFR in principle (in execution is another discussion).  Prior to LFR I never got to see the story of the expansion to the end.  And I hated that.  One thing that WoD did kind of right (although with a lot of missteps) is that some of the story is clearly told outside of raids and dungeons.  They still have big key parts in raids and dungeons but with LFD and LFR I can see those now.

Pherian (godmother? what do you use?) over at Alt-ernative Chat is always an interesting read.  I don't always agree with her, sometimes quite a bit, but I pretty much always find it is worth my time to read her (when I can get access at work).  The other day she had a great idea that I really liked.

What would I like to see Professions mean to me in Legion?

It is time to cut the crap and head straight for the Cosmetic, it seems to me. Gear is all well and good, and a mount that's BoP and I can only make once? Stick that on a vendor and make me earn a special Crafting Currency to purchase it. What I need to be able to make should have value to me and others, but mostly allow me a unique earning stream. So, it is time for Cosmetics, Blizzard.

This is a great idea! I don't fully agree with the appeal of the grinding for a rare drop but I appreciate the idea and where it is coming from.  Overall though, this could be a really interesting way to revitalize professions.  I'm not sure how practical it is but perhaps a slow start is good.  That has drawbacks too of course, but if Blizzard can better manage expectations by saying "we're introducing a new idea and rolling it out slowly as we develop it" and THEN give updates as it goes, I think it could be a good idea.

I think I'll put this up now.  I could have this open all day and just keep adding and such as I go along but it is already too much.

Back to my semi-focused topic posts next week.  I'll be AFK this weekend so my next update might be post flying.  And I've got a post I really want to do but I want a screencap to go with it.  Probably something everyone else knows but it kind of blew my mind.