Mists of Pandaria Wishlist

So I saw this Mists of Pandara Wish List from Among the Elements and that got me to thinking about my own wish list.

Wish Lists are like the Santa Lists one might have made as a kid. Ordering the wish list was very important, because people would naturally start reading the list and never get toward the bottom. So you wanted to put the things you really wanted to get near the top of the list. At the same time, you had to temper your expectations. If you asked for a huge present at the top, one that no one would likely be able to afford, there’s the danger that the person would stop reading and get you socks instead. So the list would be ordered in a mixture of desire and pragmatism.

That’s how I’ll try to format my list here. The things I’d really want and I think Blizzard is capable of doing are going to be near the top, while the things that I either don’t want too much or I don’t think Blizzard is capable of doing (or willing to do) are toward the bottom.

Wish Number 1: Updated human and night elf models

This would likely be a part of a comprehensive update to the vanilla models, but these are the races I care about. It’s been a long time and even in comparison to the Draenei and Blood Elves, humans and night elves look kind of blocky. A huge portion of the game for me is about aesthetics and making Jana and Saxsy look more aesthetically pleasing would have a big effect, I think.

Wish Number 2: Multiple Quest Alternatives With Real Consequences

In Burning Crusade, you had to pick between Aldor and Scryer and this choice had some real consequences in terms of gear and patterns you could or could not get. I’d like to see more of that, on a smaller scale perhaps: a bit of the sort of story changing decisions like you might find in RPGs like Mass Effect or Dragon Age. I have hope for this because Pandaren are forced to choose between Horde and Alliance, but I’d like to see more of this. I don’t recall there being anything of the sort in Cataclysm.

Wish Number 3: A way to alter (within reasonable limits) your character’s size

This wish would be trivially easy for Blizzard to implement. With things like Giant Growth potions and Pygmy Oil, Blizzard has already made it possible for a player to manipulate his or her character’s size within the game. What I’d like is a nod that character height is an important part to a character’s identity, and seeing humans that are not all the same height would be a tremendous improvement in the variety of the crowds. Putting in code that allowed you to set your model to between 90% and 115% of the base model would be easy.

Wish Number 4: An “Explosive Fireball” spell

This is a fireball that would do a moderate amount of damage to the primary target, and a smaller amount of damage to surrounding targets. For instance, if a base fireball does X damage, this might do .6X to the primary target and .4X to targets within twenty yards.

I do not like Flamestrike as a spell. I don’t like that so much of its damage is wrapped up in a DoT on the ground that’s overwritten on the next Flamestrike. But more fundamentally, I don’t like that I have to target it specifically. (Sometimes, as in the Warmaster Blackhorn fight, that’s helpful, but that’s rare.) I’d like some targeted AoE spell. I figure that Blizzard will probably add one fire spell to the game, and this is the best idea I could think of. 

Wish Number 5: More Intelligent Raid Boss Combat

I’m thinking here of something akin to the Faction Champions fight within ToC. Most raid boss combat is more or less scripted, with the raid bosses acting in either predictable or random ways. I’d like to see some fights where there are tactical decisions to be made on the fly, testing a player’s knowledge of their class in ways that can’t be reduced to a rotation or a priority list.

Beyond the top 5 we get into more fanciful requests, either ones that I don’t think Blizzard will implement, or ones that I care less about.

Wish Number 6: Player/Guild Instanced Housing

I’ve heard they had been working on implementing such a thing before.  This would be a huge improvement for RP, since there are times with guild events and personal RP that you just don’t want to be disturbed. Yes, you can always fly off to a remote location or hop into an instance, but damn it, I want Jana to have her own house.

Wish Number 7: More Hidden Locations

On the east coast of Arathi Highlands, there’s a farm I like to call the Dwarven Cat Farm because it once had a lot of cats in it. There are or were other similar places, like the resort in southern Feralas or the Tauren village off the coast of Silithus. I’d like to see more of these places, because I think they’re kind of neat to find.

Wish Number 8: Dungeon Armor Sets

Why should the fun of collecting a cool looking set of armor be limited to raids?

Wish Number 9: Fire Mage Buffs

This one is purely selfish.

Wish Number 10: Drop Tables That Take Into Account Group Composition

This would probably be a real pain to code up, but I’m tired of warrior/hunter/shaman loot constantly dropping for our group when we have only one or two of those classes.

Wish Number 11: More Baby Murlocs

Because they’re cute.  I like cute things.

Wish Number 12: A Real Alliance Victory Over the Horde

Maybe take back most of Ashenvale, or take back Andorhal, or something on the order of them destroying Theramore. I have no faith that this will happen, and fully expect that in the expansion after Mists of Pandaria, the orcs will have destroyed Darnassus and Night Elves will no longer be a playable class for new characters.

Wish Number 13: Customizable Character Body Styles

Because some characters are fat, some are thin, some are bulky, and so forth. Probably impossible to code without a complete rewrite and reconceptualization of the character model design, but at this far down the list I am dreaming.

Wish Number 14: An Ability to Betray Your Faction and Join the Other Team

If pandas can choose, wouldn’t it be neat for a human or an orc to be able to, with some crazy amount of effort, join the other side? Blizzard’s highly unlikely to implement this but I would think it would be the ultimate personal grind for those who are crazy about such a thing.

Wish Number 15: The Complete and Utter Destruction of Sylvanas and the Forsaken

At this point I’m really dreaming. I hate Sylvanas. I hate the Forsaken. But this isn’t happening.