(WoW) Interesting Times
And not really in a bad way.
I was starting to think I'd never see a new shield, but last weekend our Auriaya kill netted me a Shieldwall of the Breaker. The big face and glowy eyes is sort of neat, but it sadly doesn't look as awesome as the Royal Crest of Lordaeron now adorning my bank. Also, I was able to get in touch with a nice smith on the server who has all those fancy 3.2 drop patterns I don't and get myself made a pair of Saronite Swordbreakers from him. It looks like those may very well last me a looong time from what I've seen of the 3.3 loot lists.
And speaking of patch 3.3, many sources are pointing at next week. It seems likely. The PTR reports have slowed to a trickle, with no major changes in the last build. If they wait much longer, the holiday interferes, and Blizzard has stated they don't want that. I may not put money on it, but it seems highly likely to me. New 5-man dungeons, a new raid, a bump up in emblems, and the new LFG function. I'm not fond of PUGs, but the last actually appeals to me some. It appears to mean I could run a random heroic for the daily rewards and not be locked out if there's a guild group to go with later. That's especially appealing when I work nights, as I usually hold off pursuing anything in the morning, then may or may not have enough guildmates to go with when I get home.
I'm likely to change my off-spec back to Retribution, which I find some wry amusement in. I went that way originally as soon as they added dual specs because I knew a DPS build would have the widest application. I switched to Holy to do healing when the guild was seriously lacking in attending healers. And yet, after two or three weeks, we started having more healers showing up. One paladin became a regular and is happy to heal. Another hit level 80 and started healing. Of our two non-me priests, one or the other is often available. I miss AJ, but it's fairly rare now that we have no healers present when 5+ people are on. Sometimes we end up a little short of healing in a raid group, still, but I'm going to favor my primary spec for raiding anyway. Thus... it's time to look at Retribution builds again, to get a talent spec picked out. Then I get to dump the 100+ Emblems of Conquest I've accumulated into DPS plate, dust off the stuff I've collected from ToC, and start getting gems and enchants for it all. This could be expensive, but at least it's only digital gold. ;)
We've downed... four bosses in Ulduar, and Sartharion without drakes has become a cakewalk. We have maybe a dozen characters that are well-geared (perhaps overly so) for Ulduar. Of course, that's "characters." Active at one time, we still muster six or seven on raid night. Then we have people who aren't as well-geared, with a few who are relatively new to level 80. But this last week, we actually ended up with more than ten qualified people on when it was time (though there may have been some confusion about the time zone) to go. Which... raises questions of who to leave out.
For a guild or raid group, it's generally better to have too many raiders than too few, but it can make for hard choices. Do you take the people who could most use the experience and drops? Or do you take the best, hoping for the greatest chance of progress? And how do you decide the "best" anyway? There are gear-scoring sites, but that doesn't tell the whole tale. Do you favor the people who aren't around often, or "reward" those who are on the most? It can be a tough call sometimes, and we're getting to the point where the guild (mostly the guild leader) has to face that.
We've been having some trouble with the bosses "midway" through Ulduar. That leads me to think we'd be better off gathering our "best" when trying to push forward. But at the same time, I sort of want to bring everyone else up to speed, which may mean more heroic ToC5 runs and/or going back through Naxxramas (which I wouldn't mind seeing again once anyway). That's a fine enough line to walk, but we also have a couple members pushing strongly to get into Trial of the Crusader and Onyxia. I shy from that a little yet, feeling that may be overly ambitious until we can do better in Ulduar, though I'd like to go eventually. And, as I frequently say, I'll go where the guild goes. Whether it's an easy dragonslaying, or I get pounded into a pulp all night, I endevour to be there for the guild, shield at the fore.
And, y'know, however you look at it, we're doing a lot better in terms of progress. I didn't even see the endgame in "classic" WoW, though I think a few members may have gotten into raids back then (Kyn? Anira maybe?). In Burning Crusade, we just barely started raiding in Karazhan before the next expansion hit. And here we are in Ulduar (which, at one time, I never thought I'd see) prior to the final patch for Wrath of the Lich King, and probably four months (give or take) from Cataclysm. More accessible indeed. I believe downing Arthas in 10-man Icecrown before Cataclysm is actually possible for us.
I was starting to think I'd never see a new shield, but last weekend our Auriaya kill netted me a Shieldwall of the Breaker. The big face and glowy eyes is sort of neat, but it sadly doesn't look as awesome as the Royal Crest of Lordaeron now adorning my bank. Also, I was able to get in touch with a nice smith on the server who has all those fancy 3.2 drop patterns I don't and get myself made a pair of Saronite Swordbreakers from him. It looks like those may very well last me a looong time from what I've seen of the 3.3 loot lists.
And speaking of patch 3.3, many sources are pointing at next week. It seems likely. The PTR reports have slowed to a trickle, with no major changes in the last build. If they wait much longer, the holiday interferes, and Blizzard has stated they don't want that. I may not put money on it, but it seems highly likely to me. New 5-man dungeons, a new raid, a bump up in emblems, and the new LFG function. I'm not fond of PUGs, but the last actually appeals to me some. It appears to mean I could run a random heroic for the daily rewards and not be locked out if there's a guild group to go with later. That's especially appealing when I work nights, as I usually hold off pursuing anything in the morning, then may or may not have enough guildmates to go with when I get home.
I'm likely to change my off-spec back to Retribution, which I find some wry amusement in. I went that way originally as soon as they added dual specs because I knew a DPS build would have the widest application. I switched to Holy to do healing when the guild was seriously lacking in attending healers. And yet, after two or three weeks, we started having more healers showing up. One paladin became a regular and is happy to heal. Another hit level 80 and started healing. Of our two non-me priests, one or the other is often available. I miss AJ, but it's fairly rare now that we have no healers present when 5+ people are on. Sometimes we end up a little short of healing in a raid group, still, but I'm going to favor my primary spec for raiding anyway. Thus... it's time to look at Retribution builds again, to get a talent spec picked out. Then I get to dump the 100+ Emblems of Conquest I've accumulated into DPS plate, dust off the stuff I've collected from ToC, and start getting gems and enchants for it all. This could be expensive, but at least it's only digital gold. ;)
We've downed... four bosses in Ulduar, and Sartharion without drakes has become a cakewalk. We have maybe a dozen characters that are well-geared (perhaps overly so) for Ulduar. Of course, that's "characters." Active at one time, we still muster six or seven on raid night. Then we have people who aren't as well-geared, with a few who are relatively new to level 80. But this last week, we actually ended up with more than ten qualified people on when it was time (though there may have been some confusion about the time zone) to go. Which... raises questions of who to leave out.
For a guild or raid group, it's generally better to have too many raiders than too few, but it can make for hard choices. Do you take the people who could most use the experience and drops? Or do you take the best, hoping for the greatest chance of progress? And how do you decide the "best" anyway? There are gear-scoring sites, but that doesn't tell the whole tale. Do you favor the people who aren't around often, or "reward" those who are on the most? It can be a tough call sometimes, and we're getting to the point where the guild (mostly the guild leader) has to face that.
We've been having some trouble with the bosses "midway" through Ulduar. That leads me to think we'd be better off gathering our "best" when trying to push forward. But at the same time, I sort of want to bring everyone else up to speed, which may mean more heroic ToC5 runs and/or going back through Naxxramas (which I wouldn't mind seeing again once anyway). That's a fine enough line to walk, but we also have a couple members pushing strongly to get into Trial of the Crusader and Onyxia. I shy from that a little yet, feeling that may be overly ambitious until we can do better in Ulduar, though I'd like to go eventually. And, as I frequently say, I'll go where the guild goes. Whether it's an easy dragonslaying, or I get pounded into a pulp all night, I endevour to be there for the guild, shield at the fore.
And, y'know, however you look at it, we're doing a lot better in terms of progress. I didn't even see the endgame in "classic" WoW, though I think a few members may have gotten into raids back then (Kyn? Anira maybe?). In Burning Crusade, we just barely started raiding in Karazhan before the next expansion hit. And here we are in Ulduar (which, at one time, I never thought I'd see) prior to the final patch for Wrath of the Lich King, and probably four months (give or take) from Cataclysm. More accessible indeed. I believe downing Arthas in 10-man Icecrown before Cataclysm is actually possible for us.
who doesn't get to raid indeed... Unfortunately, I'm more likely to give my spot up to someone else simply out of a desire to avoid confrontation.
ReplyDeleteOut of curiosity, have you actually finished any of WoW?
ReplyDeleteI'll interpret for you. >>I didn't even see the endgame in "classic" WoW<>In Burning Crusade, we just barely started raiding in Karazhan before the next expansion hit.<>I believe downing Arthas in 10-man Icecrown before Cataclysm is actually possible for us.<< Second Expansion - still in progress and the 'finish' hasn't been released yet (the 'final patch' he refers to will bring the concluding instances). Ulduar is one "level" back from the current "toughest challenge" (which is Trial of the Crusader). When the new patch comes out, an invasion into Icecrown Citadel to take down Arthas (main bad guy) will be the final challenge. "Cataclysm" refers to the third expansion, probably to be released in the summer or fall of 2010. Understand, that when an expansion releases, not all of the planned content is released with it. Those come later in content patches, each one planned succession. If you bought Wrath of the Lich King on release day, you'd only get to see a fraction of the planned content. It's much more of an incremental approach, and yes it's designed to keep people coming back. :) FWIW, it is very possible for a guild to go back and do the end-game questlines and instances for all of the old content. Some of it is even solo-able for some classes and builds. I believe Redwolf has even done some of that. But the elite rewards and interest is in the latest content, not so much the days-gone-by stuff.
ReplyDeleteI miss playing with you all - the game I am pretty 'eh' about, still. Most of me is glad you're not feeling the crunch that I'm not playing.
ReplyDelete*blinks* Let me get this straight. They release an expansion, and you can't even finish it because they've not released the ending? That's... oy.
ReplyDeleteCorrect. At this point in the (non beta test) World of Warcraft, you can't even face Arthas, The Lich King. The expansion released more than a year ago. It's a completely different development cycle than say Guild Wars. Content patches in WoW are very large and very detailed - the sort of development that only gets funded through continuous subscription to the game.
ReplyDeleteActually, GW's slowing down their patches to I think one every three or four months, so they can be larger. The last big one included the menagerie for rangers to keep all their pets (for example), and the Zaishen Missions, which opened up a number of things. I could see additional missions or quests or what-have-you, but... missing the ending of the game is... wow.
ReplyDeleteAh, what discussions I miss sometimes. ;) It is a little odd to think about in some ways, but WoW is an evolving online game. Regular patches are released as needed to fix bugs and/or balance classes. The latter has been a lot more necessary since arena combat was introduced. Unlike Guild Wars, PVE and PVP play use the exact same ability set. Sometimes, I wish they didn't, but so it goes. I think Blizzard is opting for simplicity and familiarity (so you know what a skill does, period) rather than stability (if they had PVE and PVP versions of skills, there would be less need to tweak back and forth repeatedly). Content patches are the big ones. They add things to the game. New skills, new dungeons, new quests, new items. They have been coming roughly every four months. Usually, the focus is on adding things to the endgame, so people who are already there had more to do. Expansions have basically been big content patches that set things up for the next few by upping the level cap and offering new territory to play in. They usually introduce some measure of plotline that you'll see over the course of quests and "complete" in the final raid of the last content patch for the expansion. Guild Wars expansions (okay, "campaigns") tend to introduce a few new elements in parallel to what exists. WoW's generally add on to the end of what exists. The ability to keep advancing is, I would venture to say, a big part of what makes WoW so interesting/addictive. Part of what intrigues me about Cataclysm is they're spending a good bit of effort alterting existing/original content in addition to building on to the end. I'm curious how that will work out. And yeah, it means some people will never actually do the "end" encounters for a given storyline. In a normal game, I'd say that's bad. In something like WoW, though, there's so much you can do along the way that it's debatable whether that matters. It certainly doesn't seem to have hurt the game's popularity. I never faced down Ragnaros, pre-Wrath Kel'Thuzad, or Illidan. While I might have enjoyed doing so, I don't feel I have "lost" the game for having not done so. I enjoy doing what I do with my guild more (otherwise, I could have found another guild that was doing those encounters). *shrugs*
ReplyDelete*sniffle* ;) I can understand other priorities. You were such a part of our early push for advancement, though, that I wish you were included in the stuff we're doing now.
ReplyDeleteI think the thing here is to step back and realize the purpose of the game is not to 'finish' things. That said, there are quests that advance a storyline, true. You find those throughout the game (and other MMOs) first kill x Neebpobs. Now get x Neepob superiors. Oh, turns out they're all working for Neepob Plus, slay him for us. That's a pretty typical MMO quest/story line. Sometimes you enter into dungeons (Instanced versions of an area of the map with extra harder to defeat enemies requiring a group to defeat) to get Neepob plus. Sometimes there's Lore (The fiction about the game world) about how important/dangerous Neepob Plus is. So. You beat down Neepob Plus. You turn in your quest and get a reward. Is that 'finishing'? Then what do you do? You wait for the next expansion/update to give you a different Neepob Plus and his nefarious minions to defeat. It's a cycle to keep you playing their game. As explained lower down there's patches to fix bugs and balancing issues, content patches which add new stuff into the game and there's expansions (things you actually pay money for) that radically alter the game. Someone who, prior to the first expansion had defeated Neepob Plus' Ragnaros (The Elemental Lord of Fire), Onyxia (A black dragon creating a brood of dragons to take over the world), Nefarian (Onyxia's brother who is making a chromatic dragon brood to take over the world), Hakkar (A Blood-God of Troll worship), Twin Princes (Rulers of an ancient Egyptian/insectile empire from thousands of years ago), C'thun (One of the Old Gods) and Kel'thuzad (Second in command of the evil undead forces of the Scourge) could be said to have 'finished' the game, waiting for the next content patch to add another dungeon and more bosses (Hakkar, Princes and C'thun, and Kel all came in content patches). So, along comes the new expansion, adding a whole new continent to explore, raising the level cap (was 60, made it 70), adding new spells and abilities and a new 'World Plot' to follow (prior to this there was just a loose collection of, there's bad things in the world, here, go kill some). However, the developers, using the content patch example and wanting to extend the life of the expansion while they worked on the next one, gave players some 'starter' stuff to focus on for the 'end game' (thing to do at level 70), and then cycled in other things (like above with C'thun et al) until they culminated with the 'big dungeon/plot' to save the world. So, people who had done all -that- could have been said to have 'finished' WoW... until the next expansion came along to raise the level cap, add another continent to explore, create new gear and spells, etc. tl;dr. WoW does not have a 'finish' that one could measure like console and computer RPGs. There's things to do at all levels in the game and a lot is focused on the level cap at the time, until new stuff is added in.
ReplyDeleteIt is considered possible to go into Trial even without having completed Ulduar, but that most likely requires the 'elite' group of people decked out in Heroic TotC drops/EoC/EoT purchases gemmed and enchanted as appropriate. As comparison, the "other" guild I take part of raids in hasn't even beaten Mimirion (And Thorim only once), let alone General Vexaz and Yogg, yet does Ony and Trial every week. Ony is really whelp and elite management with enough ranged DPS to hit her during air phase. Not hard, just takes practice. Trial is.. varying degrees of hard. Practice, practice, practice. Northrend Beasts is divided between easy (Gormok takes tank taunt trading and situational awareness to not stand in fire and kill whomever has a kobold on their back), hard (Jormungar takes positioning awareness. Whomever has the firey bile debuff needs to wander near whomever has the paralytic poison debuff [who also need to move towards that player], then get back to position, when worms switch between burrowed/mobile, don't panic, also, whichever worm is mobile needs to be moved around because of poison clouds like Grobbulus in Naxx) and cake. (No, really, Icehowl is a joke. Just don't get rammed into when he knocks everyone back and focuses upon someone [They need to strafe real quick out of the way]) Lord Jaraxxus is also easy as long as you have a dedicated interrupter (DK/Rogue) and buff remover (Priest/Shaman/Mage) and good heals. DPS just has to be able to switch between boss and adds and back. Also, don't stand in fire. Faction Champions can go die in a fire. Really. The only challenge to this fight is if you can burn down their healers before the rest of their group eats your raid. That said, the challenge is stupid hard. Twin Val'kyr. Ever play Ikaruga? Not too tough as long as the raid is aware of what color buff they have, where the balls are (and to either avoid or run into them), and when to switch colors or current DPS target. Anub'arak. Spider pride! >8< Azjol-Nerub was merely a setback! Uh. jokes aside? It takes some co-ordination between main tank, offtank (who has add duty), someone to shoot down these frost orbs in the room to make spots of permafrost on the ground (where the OT will deal with adds), and people being persued by Anub's spikes during his submerges (as well as the scarabs not reaching the tanks)
ReplyDelete*laughs* "...and kill whomever has a kobold on their back..." I know what you mean, but how you said it sounds bad. ;) The way I figure it success against bosses requires two complimentary aspects: - One is a matter of what the characters can do. This involves individual builds and group compliment (no healers is kinda bad). This also involves gear. Better gear can and does make a difference in what each character can do, letting them survive longer, do more damage, pump out more healing, etc. - Tactics. This is more what the character DO do, than what they CAN do. Most boss fights have some gimmicks, and they tend to repeat after a while. Don't stand in the fire. Use the buffs. Focus fire specific adds, etc. You can learn a lot of this from write-ups and videos. I would argue you learn best from seeing it in person. Whatever the case, most encounters are subtly different, and learning one only helps so much with others. Neither aspect is enough on its own (unless you seriously out-level the content). Even Heigan is going to kill you if you can "dance" perfectly, but go in with all your equipment removed. Straight Tier 9 and ToC25 gear is not going to save your ass if all you do is stand in a void zone. But you can overcome a deficiency in one area if you do better in the other. So, yeah, if your group is good enough - in gear and tactics - you can surely do the content that is more difficult. But finding something "too hard" does not instill confidence in me when it comes to talking about doing stuff that is "harder." If we can't best Hodir and the Assembly, we're lacking something. Maybe it's a tactical element that isn't there in certain fights that are otherwise harder, and moving on would work. Maybe not. Onyxia is very much a patterned fight. If everyone learns where to move and how to manage whelps and other adds, it becomes a whole lot easier. But she still hits like a truck. "Overwhelming Dragon Damage." I died in one of our attempts simply because I didn't get a heal between two hits (that were a couple seconds apart at most). One missed spell, and the raid wiped. There's no room for error there. We've improved gear some, yes. Have our tactics improved? I'm not sure. If everyone performs perfectly, I have no doubt we can bring her down. What I have questions about is whether we can perform to the level needed to make up for any other shortcomings. When you get down to it, I sort of expect to wipe a few times learning any "progression" raid encounter. When we don't, I'm thrilled. When we do, I accept that as the learning curve. There's little I feel is insurmountable, but I think some things may require more death and learning than people want to commit - but even those will be more forgiving if we gear up first.
ReplyDelete