Archive for April, 2010
April 30th, 2010
All right, we’ve seen over the past five weeks the current political activity in all of the Horde races; orcs, trolls, tauren, Forsaken and blood elves. Needless to say, there is a lot of conflict just beginning to rear its head — not just from one race to the next, but internally within those races as well. What does all this mean in regards to the Horde, when Cataclysm comes into play? Today we’ll be looking at what (given all the information we’ve been presented previously), if anything, will happen when Cataclysm finally launches and the world gets thrown into chaos.
Please note I’ve put a spoiler warning on this post. This is because the following content, while mostly sheer speculation, may or may not end up being correct and will also directly address several rumors regarding Cataclysm that have not yet been confirmed. If you see a “TFH” demarcation on any future Know Your Lore posts, these are “Tin Foil Hat” predictions based on current lore and are in no way actually indicative of anything officially from Blizzard in regards to the game or where it’s going to go. If anything presented here does end up being correct, these will actually become Cataclysm spoilers; if not, we’ve still had plenty of fun trying to predict how things are going to go down! Potential spoilers start immediately after the break.
Continue reading Know Your Lore TFH Edition: Cataclysm Horde politics
Filed under: Lore, Know your Lore
Know Your Lore TFH Edition: Cataclysm Horde politics originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 30 Apr 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
April 30th, 2010
Today’s screenshot appears to be a sea goblin in what might be Vashj’ir or the Abyssal Maw. WoW.com will definitely have our eyes glued to these daily screenshots, as they’re sure to include a lot of awesome visuals. Maybe even a female worgen! We can hope, right?
Filed under: Cataclysm
Screenshot of the day revived for Cataclysm originally appeared on WoW.com on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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April 30th, 2010
Big Bear Butt asks, “Can 25 man raids really be as fun as 10’s to play in, if most people have to be bribed to take part in them?”
I don’t know, BBB. But one could ask, “If 10s are really that much more fun, why do they need higher quality rewards? Surely the extra fun is more important than the lower level loot.”
But both questions miss the point. Or more accurately, both questions twist the situation, conveniently ignoring many aspects of the problem.
Here’s how I look at it:
1. 25s are more fun than 10s.*
2. 25s are more significantly more work than 10s for the officers.
* Not really up for debate. Just accept that I personally find 25s more fun than 10s.
So it’s a question of marginal value. Does the extra fun outweigh the extra cost. In the current game, the calculation is, “Does extra fun + greater quality loot outweigh the extra cost?” The answer for a lot of people is Yes. However, there are still a lot of people who answer No and do mainly 10s. Or they don’t consider 25s more fun, so the decision is solely “greater quality loot versus extra work”.
In Cataclysm, the question will be, “Does extra fun + greater quantity of loot outweigh the extra cost?” I think that a far greater majority of officers will answer No. And people who are willing to lead guilds are the heart and soul of the WoW community. The rest of us will follow their lead.
As for quantity versus quality of loot, we’ve debated that before. For some reason, quality is far more important to PvE. Witness the fuss made over Best-in-Slot gear versus gear that is just slightly worse.
The only time quantity of loot actually matters is if gear becomes very hard to obtain. For example, the switch from tier set pieces to tokens. Blizzard is not going to cripple 10s by making the quantity of loot low enough to actually be a factor worth considering when debating between 10s and 25s. Or if they do, the howls when the only item that drops off the boss is Spell Power plate–or something else unusable–will quickly force them to reconsider.
25s may drop more loot, but 10s will drop enough loot. And at that point, I don’t think the extra fun will outweigh the extra work for the officers.
On the other hand, perhaps putting all this extra work on the officers was a bad idea in the first place. I’ve been raiding for several years now, first in 40s and then 25s, and I’ve seen a lot of officers burn out. As I mentioned above, these players are usually the heart and soul of the guild and community. Perhaps sacrificing 25s is worthwhile if it keeps them playing and involved in the game at a comfortable level.
April 29th, 2010
In a follow-up to the lengthy Badge and PvP point preview for Cataclysm, Bornakk posts that weapons for PvP will be tiered much as normal and heroic drops are in current raiding.
Bornakk – Cataclysm Badge and PvP Point ChangesThis basically means that while the best weapons will require success in Arenas and Ranked BG’s, PvP players will be able to get weapons upgrades via running PvP out of the gate rather than having to hope for an instance/raid drop. It also means an end to armor pieces, trinkets and other items requiring a rating to purchase, making gearing up for PvP easier. It seems likely that this change is aimed at making PvP easier to start in and taking some of the perceived need to PvE away from the PvP game.
Filed under: News items, PvP, Cataclysm
Cataclysm: PvP weapons clarification originally appeared on WoW.com on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
April 29th, 2010
We here at WoW.com play (and love) the game just like anybody else. Blizzard’s recent announcement regarding Cataclysm’s raid progression changes certainly sparked debate among the team. While we spent hours debating this amongst ourselves, we tried to get a snapshot of our initial feelings on the changes.
This article will be broken up into two pages. The first page will be the WoW.com writers against the change. In the interest of ending on a high note, the second page will be the writers for the change.
Continue reading WoW.com reacts to the Cataclysm raid changes
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, Cataclysm
WoW.com reacts to the Cataclysm raid changes originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
April 28th, 2010
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com’s daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.
There you go, ladies. I told you I wouldn’t leave you out. Enjoy your Clooney, the classiest man in the world. And you thought I was going to inflict the Twilight boys on you again. Bah. Bah, I say.
wulfishmojo asked:
“When the Cataclysm beta hits, will the Ask a Beta Tester feature return or will The Queue field all of our beta questions?”
Continue reading The Queue: Your turn
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Queue
The Queue: Your turn originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
April 28th, 2010
Welcome to Lichborne, your weekly journey into the world of the death knight. This week, we’re getting ready for Cataclysm in our own round about way.
While sometimes less considered by the WoW population at large, blood tanking has long been known to serious players and theorycrafters as an incredibly dominant raid tanking spec, thanks to incredibly high health pools. It will also be the sole tanking tree for death knights in Cataclysm. While it is certain that the tree will change extensively under this new system, it is likely to have a lot of the same elements in place that make it distinctively blood tanking, even in the new expansion, so it might not hurt to start practicing with it now.
Whatever your reason for trying blood tanking, this guide is here to help you take the first few steps along that path. Remember as this is a 101 guide, we won’t necessarily being doing hardcore theorycrafting, and we may simplify a few basic concepts that can be a bit more nuanced for an experienced, high-end blood tank.
Continue reading Lichborne: Blood tanking 101
Filed under: Raiding, Death Knight, (Death Knight) Lichborne
Lichborne: Blood tanking 101 originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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April 28th, 2010
Well, Blizzard has posted some changes to the way Cataclysm raids will be structured. Here are the high points:
* Shared lockout between 25s and 10s
A good call. Repeating the same boss multiple times a week was a bad idea.
* Normal versus Heroic toggle on a per-boss basis
This is okay. I prefer separate instances because it makes it a lot easier to structure your time, especially for a limited-time guild. On a per-boss basis, it’s fairly easy to misjudge the amount of time needed to finish the instance. You either fail to kill the end boss, or have time left over which you could have used to practice a Heroic mode. Neither of these results is particularly ideal. If Heroics were a separate instance, you keep going until you clear it, or you run out of time. Very easy to schedule.
* 10s and 25s to have same difficulty level
We’ll see if this works. 10s might end up being much more rigorous in class composition requirements. Every class you double up on means one entire class won’t be present in the raid. At least a 25 can count on at least one of each class.
To be honest, I think raid buffs and debuffs will need to be scaled back significantly for this to work. The difference between a 10-man which can cover every buff and one which can’t is huge.
* Multiple shorter dungeons
Sure, why not? Might be better for PuGGing. A good PuG might be able to clear the entire instance, while if you get trapped in a bad PuG, you only burn half your raiding opportunities.
The problem with multiple dungeons is that you can end up with what happened with Tempest Keep and Serpentshrine Cavern. People will kill 1 boss from one instance, then go to the other instance and kill a couple before heading back. Cherry-picking bosses in order of difficulty, and generally wasting time.
I think this would work best if there was a clear progression in difficulty. Instance A is harder than Instance B. No randomly-accessible Loot Reaver.
* Gating is staying
Good. I like gating. It gives you something to look forward to every couple of weeks. And the race among the top guilds is far more interesting. You don’t get the situation where one guild jumps out ahead early and rides that all the way to the end.
* PvE will earn Hero/Valor Points, like PvP Honor/Conquest (Arena) Points
This is pretty good. The PvP model is much better model for vendor-sold gear, especially when the top level Points will be converted to the lower level at the start of a new Tier.
No more having to run to the Money Changer in the Dalaran sewers to get the correct type of Emblem necessary.
* 10s and 25s will drop the same loot
Saving the controversial change for last. I think that this change heralds the death knell for 25s.
The thing is that it does not matter how many people want to do 25s. What matters is how many guild or raid leaders want to do 25s. The administrative costs are disproportionately placed on a few shoulders. Even if they really like 25s, I can see more than few guild leaders cracking and saying, “Screw this, it’s much less headache to just take my core and do 10s and get the same loot.”
I like 25s better than 10s. 25s are much more intricate, and I like the camaraderie of hanging out in the paladin or healer channel, bemoaning the lack of proper loot dropping. The whole group within the group aspect. I will be sad to see them die. But this change does simplify things a great deal. As well, it allows Blizzard to keep loot in a much tighter band, so we hopefully will not see the rampant loot inflation of Wrath.
I don’t really think the extra amount of rewards for 25s is going to make much of a difference. If 10s drop 2 pieces of loot, 25s must drop 5 pieces just to maintain parity. If 25s get a 50% premium, then they drop 7-8 pieces, which is a little ridiculous. It might work if 10s dropped 1 item and 25s dropped 4. But imagine the howls in a 10-man when your one item turns out to be holy paladin spell plate (or any item which no one can use). And since it is 10s, the odds are higher that the item will be unusable due to your raid composition. Extra gold or Valor Points is unexciting, especially if Valor Points are capped. Might as well do the 10-man and daily heroics. That’s much less effort for the raid/guild leader.
I do wonder what affect this will have on guild recruitment. Guilds always have attrition, but in a 25s guild that attrition can be “smoother”. Maybe you lose one person a week, but that’s only ~3% of your raiding force. Meanwhile, losing one person in a 10s guild is a loss of ~8% of the force at one time. So recruiting for 10s is “spikier”. Whereas you can always apply to a 25s guild and they might take a flyer on you because it’s only a slight increase in the size of the raiding force. But a 10s guild doesn’t really have that luxury, I think. One additional person is a much larger increase in the raiding force.
You know, this analogy between recruiting and healing is kind of interesting. Smooth, steady damage versus spiky damage. Maybe I will look into it later.
Conclusions
So that’s my take on Cataclysm raiding. Overall, many good ideas and changes. The best of Wrath (except Ulduar-style heroic toggles1) is being carried forward. However, I think Cataclysm will see the slow death of the 25s raiding scene, especially among the Aristocracy and Gentry tiers.
1. I really should write a post about why Ulduar-style toggles are much better than interface toggles.
April 27th, 2010
The Icecrown Citadel raid buffs, Hellscream’s Warsong and Strength of Wrynn, have increased from 10% to 15% today. This is great news for those guilds just on the cusp of downing a boss — expect to see quite a few new Lich King kills and some more progression in the next day or so.
The buff is going to keep increasing, so expect it to go to 20% in about four weeks.
Enjoy!
Filed under: Raiding
Icecrown Citadel raid buff to 15% originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
April 27th, 2010
- Hero Points, Low tier PvE gear
- Valor Points, High tier PvE gear
- Honor Points, Low tier PvP gear
- Conquest Points, High tier PvP gear
Personal ratings will be removed from almost all items, including weapons.
Blizzard’s full statement after the break.
Continue reading Cataclysm badge and PvP point changes
Filed under: News items, Cataclysm
Cataclysm badge and PvP point changes originally appeared on WoW.com on Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.