Weekend Update

Well by now you all know that Amber’s our new GM. Mach did a wonderful job in my opinion, but I for one can more than sympathize with stepping down. Hell it had gotten so bad for me that I not only stepped down, but made the tough decision to leave friends behind and go to another server. But damn it! She’s already got me helping her clean out the bank…Mach never made me do crap!

So what did I do this weekend? Well, I leveled alts mostly. I was supposed to raid on Saturday, but personal things got in the way. My wife and I made the conscious decision to get rid of one of our cars a few months back. I only live 3 miles from work so it works out pretty well and saves some money. But at times it gets a little annoying.

On Saturday I had to take my oldest son to get his H1N1 vaccination. We waited outside in the cold for 1.5 hours. It wasn’t exactly fun, but I have to thank my kids for being so good about it.  To do that, I had to drop my wife off at work and pick her back up which conflicted with raid start. I thought I’d just be a little late, but it turned into more than that. We started Christmas shopping a little early this year.

My wife works at a department store, if they even use that term anymore. And we decided this year to buy a Wii. The store was having a buy 2 get 1 free on Wii games. So she got the Wii, games, and a couple of accessories for the family with her 10% discount. My son has been begging for a DS, but he’s 6 and still hasn’t done a great job of taking care of his toys and mine for that matter. At the end of the week there’s always a stack of games and DVDs in the living room and it often takes 30 minutes to find the cases and put them all away. Yeah, I’m not buying a $200 handheld toy for him to destroy…

Anyway that made for a late evening and we picked up G.I. Joe to boot and watched that when we got home. So Saturday became family night and I have to admit it was a lot of fun.

So mostly that left time for leveling alts which was a lot of fun. I know I’ve been rather negative about the end-game lately. We had an Ulduar10 hardmode run this week which was the most fun I’ve had in raiding for a long time. We didn’t complete any hardmodes, but we sure had a hell of a time trying! I think we would have had XT with a slightly different makeup and a couple of slightly more geared dps alts.

But in the meantime, leveling has been a huge blessing! I’m having a ton of fun with the rogue, hunter, and warrior. The warlock is a little boring still, but I seriously dislike dotting and wanding. If I do much more, I aggro and in the few cases where I don’t I end up running seriously low on mana and have to sit and eat/drink afterwards. Trying to keep the downtime to a minimum, so wanding it is. There has definitely got to be a better way, but I’m a noob and haven’t found it or found the motivation to really go and find it.

I will admit that the mage has gotten a little better since I’ve learned pyroblast! I can almost kill mobs my level before they reach me and anything 2 levels below is dead. I need to figure out a better cast sequence though. I’m basing it solely on cast times which has got to be the dumbest way of doing it.

Unfortunately I was ganked several times yesterday and I finally raged enough to park my DK in the zone. In fact, I ran around the zone for 15 minutes trying to find the four or five guys that had ganked me. I had even attempted to move into Stranglethorn Vale, but there were a couple of guys literally parked at Nesingwary’s camp waiting for Alliance lowbies. They stared at me for two minutes across the river before I finally gave up on them leaving.

Is it wrong that I want to level my rogue to 80 just so I can camp lowbies like Scrappie does in Redridge Mountains? You got a kid that apparently has been doing this since BC every weekend and most weekdays according to several people in the zone and through my own personal experiences. It’s a nice dream I suppose, but one I’m likely to never do. Man sometimes I wish I was more of an ass*!

*In all honesty, it’s probably less of being an actual ass than just a different method of playing. But it’s less fun to bitch about!

War-mart: Spend Money, Live Better

I wasn’t going to comment on this because everybody and their dead ancestors already have (Merlot has a great one btw), but unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few days you are well aware that Blizzard now has two new pets for offer for the small sum of $10 each.

As we’ve seen it’s caused quite a stir as predictions of doom and gloom abound. Blizzard has gone the way of the microtransaction. Soon we’ll all be able to buy gear with real money instead of having to farm away in-game. No more grinding Naxx, Ulduar, and ToC for those shiny purples! No more farming heroics to buy emblem gear! Just whip out your credit card and deck out your new level 80 for raiding Icecrown in 5 minutes!

Bullshit.

The game, like any other, revolves around progression. You create a character, you log in, and you begin progressing.

Oooh! I’m level 2! I got a new ability! What’s it do?

Awesome! I’m level 40, I can start wearing plate!

Only 5 more pets and I get my achievement!

I know that spirit beast is here somewhere. If he’d just spawn…

<pant, pant>…Only 5 more laps around Dalaran…<pant>…I will fit into those jeans again, I swear it!!!

Whatever you’re after, whatever you’re doing, you are attempting to progress in something. Otherwise what’s the point of playing?

So my prediction is that yes, we will see Blizzard introduce more microtransaction items into the game; pets, mounts, and other vanity items will be all up for grabs. Just like race changes, faction changes, and server transfers these little transactions will have absolutely no effect on gameplay. We will NOT see items for sale that have an impact on PvE or PvP gameplay.

Have you ever played a game and used an invincibility cheat or an unlimited ammo cheat with an extremely powerful weapon? What happens? Oh sure, it’s a ton of fun initially being able to beat all those hard areas that you couldn’t before, but do that for a few minutes, a few hours, or possibly even a few days and the game becomes boring. There’s no challenge. So what’s the point?

If I’m wrong, then this game will become so pointless that this paladin will sadly hang up his mace.

Heroic…Regular…Heroic…Regular…

Just ran across this post over at MMO Champion. For those of you that can’t access it at work, etc. Here’s the part that’s interesting.

Icecrown Raid Difficulty Functionality
Quote from: Bornakk (Source)

In the upcoming patch we are adding a new feature to the Icecrown raid instance that allows the raid leader to change the instance’s difficulty setting on a boss per boss basis. The way the raid leader chooses to switch is the same as now, by right-clicking on the character portrait. The difficulty settings can be changed from inside Icecrown Citadel, with some restrictions. For example, you cannot change the difficulty in combat or during certain events specified by our design team. To enable the ability to change the raid difficulty to heroic, you must first defeat the Lich King on normal mode, as doing so unlocks the heroic version of this raid instance. There is no heroic version of trash; meaning changing the difficulty will only affect boss difficulty.

We chose this particular functionality because we didn’t want to use the Trial of the Crusader method, and have four versions on a raid of this size. We felt the Ulduar method of having to know a certain trick to do on the boss was difficult to communicate and tied too heavily to achievements. We might eventually convert Trial of the Crusader over to this new system but Ulduar and Naxxramas will likely never change.

Not that it’s really all that important, but I think I’m confusing myself a little. With the release of Arenafest, we saw the introduction of heroic raids. If you recall, before 3.2 we had always assumed that the 25-man versions of raids were the heroic raids. Trashlessfest changed all that for us. We were given 10- and 25- man regular raids and heroic versions to boot. It appeared that this was going to be the new system going forward. Some believed it was Blizzard’s way of copping out on new content. Instead of giving actual new content, just release something and give it three other versions to tide us over.

Personally, I’m not a huge fan of Snoozefest, but that’s because it doesn’t feel like an instance to me and in general it’s easier than Ulduar which is more of a personal dislike of the progression rather than anything really important. My brain tells me that content should get harder as you move on. It didn’t, at least not in the way I thought it would. Remember, I still haven’t experienced heroic ToC, or ToGC, or whatever the hell you kids are calling it these days. I bet I’d have a shitload of fun in there!

But I still have fun in regular 10- and 25-man ToCs because it’s still challenging. Well, maybe not 10s so much, but we still haven’t cleared 25s and still wipe on every boss at times. I like that. Some don’t. They feel we should already have it down pat and get pissed off when we wipe. Me? I’m playing a game I really enjoy with people I really enjoy. I don’t need anything more.

Anyway let’s abandon Mr. Sidetracked here and get back to the topic at hand. Bear with me as I try to piece this together while clearing cobwebs out of my brain.

“In the upcoming patch we are adding a new feature to the Icecrown raid instance that allows the raid leader to change the instance’s difficulty setting on a boss per boss basis.”

• So we will still have 10- and 25-man heroic versions of each of the bosses.
• Since they can be changed on the fly, we will not have a regular and heroic version of each instance. This means there’s only 2 versions of the instance instead of 4 like Lootfest.
• Ultimately this appears to be similar to the hard-mode mechanics of Ulduar except it’s automatically selected instead of sometimes having to do something special.

So how do I feel about this? Actually it’s kind of neat. How many bosses does Icecrown have? Wasn’t there 31 announced? But I think some of those included the 5-man instances as well, but still it’s gotta be a lot. Can you imagine trying to run both versions in the same week? LOL!

I also find it interesting that Bornakk states “we didn’t want to use the Trial of the Crusader method, and have four versions on a raid of this size” and further that they “might eventually convert Trial of the Crusader over to this new system”.

I’m not a big fan of the multiple versions, but I don’t know that I can say it was broken. But does this mean that Blizzard is saying that their switch to the 4 raid versions didn’t work or was just impractical? And what does this mean for future small raids like ToC and Ony?

Altitis

I’ve really got altitis right now. If you’ll notice on my sidebar, all of my alts at this time are currently at least level 30, except the mage.

Try as I might to love the Mage, I just can’t. I was leveling frost spec until last night. It’s boring!!! So when I hit 24, I switched to fire to change things up. Problem is it’s still the same at level 24. Boring! There is a good chance that I’m dysfunctional and don’t know what the hell I’m doing… Frostbolt, Arcane Missiles, Fire Blast, Ice Whatchamafreezethemob*, run away or Blink, and continue blasting until dead. At least fire spec changed it up a bit so instead of Arcane Missiles I was using a lot more fire spells for the hell of it. Saw a little faster damage, but overall still boring.

The Warlock finally got a little play time and to be honest, it isn’t as much fun as it once was. My little tank fiend is getting better at holding aggro, but I still often have to just dot the mob and wand away. Pretty boring. I was finally able to practice aoe’ing a little bit though since I’ve noticed his threat has jumped significantly in the last few levels. But it’s somewhat difficult to do still since I end up aggro’ing extra mobs and even when I do survive the downtime of getting mana back sucks. Then again, I could totally be doing it wrong and I’m just one of those noobs.

The Hunter is fun. I tamed a raptor in Wetlands the other day to see what that was like compared to the bear. Works pretty well! Mana is an issue though. Seems like I always run out way too fast so I usually end up hitting a mob with poison and then auto-shooting. Not sure why that’s more fun than wanding with a warlock, but it is. Maybe it’s the sound of the gunshot?

The Warrior is surprisingly fun! More so than I thought it would be. It used to actually be the one class I disliked above all others, but it’s definitely picked up some. Especially now with dual-wield I can generate enough rage to keep going. And I can even hit multiple mobs with little downtime.

The Rogue is fun. I never thought it would be. I’ve tried leveling them in the past, but I never could get past about level 15. The combo point mechanic was just too weird for me, but after having leveled a druid it definitely is a lot easier to understand and stealthing is always fun. I’m also motivated by the potential of pvp’ing with the rogue. There’s some definite sense of satisfaction about sneaking up on an enemy and hitting him while he’s trying to cap something.

I am ashamed to admit that I did gank someone last week. I was level 28 and snuck up behind a level 29 Horde paladin near Southshore. She was leveling near Southshore and I stealthed with the intent to move to another area when the bright idea hit me to see what all the fuss was about:

You know. That paladin probably wouldn’t hesitate to gank you. You haven’t yet run across a single Hordie on this server that hasn’t at least tried to kill you if they were anywhere close to your level or much higher.

Yeah, but I don’t play that way. I have nothing to prove by being able to kill someone. At least not outside arenas and battlegrounds. It’s why I never accept duel requests.

You don’t accept duel requests because you suck at PvP!!! Besides she’s one level higher than you! It’s basically equal footing. It’s not like you’re 10 levels higher which would prove nothing more than you’re an ass!

I got better things to do, like questing.

Come on! Just try it! First, you’re dying to see it from a rogue’s point of view and second, you’re curious as to why people do this. Try it! You may find out why the average rogue is such an ass!

Fine. Let’s see what happens.

Anyway, all I proved is that when you engage someone while they’re already in combat with mobs, you generally have the upper hand. I did feel somewhat guilty after the fact because this isn’t how I play. I did however try to console my guilt by saying that this person probably ganked me on her main at some point.

But why the sudden altitis this past month?

I’ve been debating for about a week whether to bring this topic to light. In fact, I hinted at it recently. Then Amber, Rivs, and Cel all hinted at it too so what the hell.

Bottom line, I’m tired of raiding because of attitude. It’s negative. We all know I don’t care about loot. I have sufficient for the content we’re doing. I’ll get sufficient for the content we’ll end up doing. I’m not worried. It’s the fact that raids are no longer fun.

To be fair to all, I must point out that I have little to no detail in some areas and am guessing at others. Bottom line it appears that illness and real life issues have cropped up in the background. The added stress has not helped the raid leaders and complaints in guild, raid, healer, and officer channels have brought a couple of people to the breaking point where tempers flare.

Whatever the causes it has finally been acknowledge by our officers. We had a brief meeting after our so-called “fail raid”.  We will be working on it further so that even if our raids are still “fail” in the sense of difficulty on bosses, they will not be “fail” in the sense of fun.

P.S. Mach, I really miss this…

P.S.S. To the rest of you, we were having a little trouble with this fight way back when. Amber abused Raid Warning while Mach calmly explained the fight in Vent. Now one might find that distracting and annoying while an explanation is going on and perhaps it is, especially by someone not as entertaining as Amber, but I think the added effect was it made the raid a little more fun.

Now I don’t have a recording of her in Vent, although I should probably start doing that, but Amber is also very good at voicing things in a certain way. Her tone doesn’t carry the harsh accusatory tone you often hear in pugs. I’ve heard her get that motherly tone in her voice where she starts to speak softly when she says something like “Ky, dear. You have to stay out of the fire. Standing in fire is bad, mkay?” If most of us tried to say something like that, it would come off as condescending. Perhaps some people think she is, but I for one find she’s not and it’s a lot easier to accept her comments as constructive criticism than accepting someone yelling ”Ky! Stay out of the fucking fire!”

As an officer, and more importantly as a raider, it’s my responsibility to help out the raid leaders in whatever capacity I can. They aren’t getting paid to provide me entertainment. What they do can be very difficult and like I said I’m no good at it and don’t want to be. I’d rather someone else lead the way and I’ll enjoy the ride.

So basically I just need to help out by being a little more positive. Maybe that attitude can be contagious.

So in the interest of being positive about negative things, have fun with this.

Man I miss his show!

*You have to give me credit for even remembering the names of the first three spells. I can’t ever remember the names of my healing spells!