Emerald Dreamers » Devils Advocate

Devil’s Advocate – Cata’s First Raid

Necrall — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 12:42:53 +0000

Wrath has served us well, gave those of us who’d never seen it the chance to do Naxxramas, it gave us the awesomeness of Ulduar, the trash-free Trial of the Crusader and the cool Icecrown Citadel. But its time has come to an end, in a matter of months we’ll be sitting down to try the first raid of Cataclysm.

*deep breath*

I hate to be the bearer of bad news… But the first Cata raid is going to be pretty easy.

Now before you get your panties all up in a bunch and hit the forums to QQ allow me to explain now only why it will happen, but why it must happen.

Out with the old, in with the new

HELLO SHARON!!!!!

Expansions are a time of great upheaval. It’s when Blizzard ups the marketing game and draws in new players and old players who previously quit. New people come in and old people go out. This is just how the cycle goes. So a while after we all reach level 85 we’re going to have a whole bunch of brand new players on their first character, none of whom have ever been in a raid before. To expect such players to handle a raid of Icecrown’s difficulty is ridiculous. How are they going to learn?

Typical forum trolls have their own answers to this

Troll – They either learn to play or GTFO!

Teaching works like this: You give the student information, then present the student with challenges with difficulty relative to their experience and knowledge of the information. World of Warcraft acts like this also. The information presented is in the form of normal dungeons and the easier heroics. The challenges are then the entry level raid, where they take the lessons learnt and apply them in a bigger setting (did you ever notice that a lot of Wrath boss mechanics are copies of the heroics?). Each subsequent raid is increasing in difficulty so players apply the experience gained in these new settings with higher demands on their skill and attention.

Without this method of information followed by application; learning does not happen.

Troll – Go back to Kara!

I have a Warlock friend who solos Kara regularly for the cash. Level 70 raids are not a challenge to a level 80, even less so to an 85. Lower level content is unsuitable for training and teaching as you can make so many mistakes and still kill bosses, that there is little need for the player to improve.

Admittedly this was a problem with Naxxramas, it was too easy, so players didn’t improve then ran head-first into the much more difficult Ulduar and struggled on the earliest bosses. This is a good demonstration of why an entry-level raid is needed. Naxx taught the players little, so Ulduar was too hard. Had Naxx been a bit more challenging, Ulduar wouldn’t have been perceived as so difficult early on. If there was no entry-level raid we’d see more of this with players going from fairly easy normals and heroics and slamming their head against the wall of the first raid. It’s not fun for anyone.

Scaling difficulty

If the first Cata raid was the difficulty of Icecrown Citadel then only the Wrath players would stand a chance of downing anything. We have gained experience throughout Wrath that will make an ICC level raid a ‘good challenge’ but to a new player ICC would be impossible. The next raid would then need to be above ICC in difficulty, the next raid above that. Then a new expansion hits and the first raid has to be even harder than the final raid of Cata.

Can you see why this gradually increasing difficulty fails? The player base changes every expansion, old players leave and new players join, so the player pool who has the necessary experience to handle this increasing difficulty gets smaller and smaller. Ultimately only the best guilds in the world will be able to raid, which is great for them and sucky for the other 99.9% players in the world who can either do Battlegrounds or quit.

Ctrl+Alt+Del

Expansions are an opportunity to hit the reset button. Our epic purple gear gets reset as we level in greens once more. Our class experience gets reset as we adapt to the changes the expansion brings. The difficulty gets reset, giving an opportunity for new and returning players to learn the game as well as granting the experienced players the chance to experiment with their specs and gear in a less harsh environment.

This is a good thing. This resetting is a good thing. It is what gives Blizzard the opportunity to do heavy class refits and add new professions and spells without worrying how it will impact the current series of raids.

By resetting the difficulty each expansion it gives players the time they need to (re)learn the mechanics of the game, their class and the new raids.

Summary

Expansions bring change, not just to the game but to the player base. The difficulty of raids must also change in response to this new player base or you risk alienating new players and ultimately the game withers and dies.

Constant increasing of difficulty is a bad idea, this game is for everyone not just the world-first guilds, that includes the players who have just joined us. So every expansion’s first raid must be the new entry-level designed to teach mechanics of raids to new players.

The reset button gets hit every expansion, this puts everybody on an almost equal footing in gear and skill. No matter how good a player you are now, you will have a lot of relearning to do when Cataclysm hits and your gear and class change.

Devil’s Advocate: Why Your Account Is Not Safe

Necrall — Mon, 17 May 2010 14:29:25 +0000

Everybody wants their WoW account to be safe right? It’s not like anyone ‘wants’ their account to be hacked, to lose their characters, gold and gear and be forced to spend hours on the phone to Blizzard’s Support Line. Yet how many of your accounts are actually safe?

I’m not trying to scare you or anything, but for most of you reading this your attempts to stay safe are woefully inadequate. I’m going to tell you why and what you can do about it.

But Nec I really try and keep my account safe…

I change my password every so many weeks…

This is completely useless. It’s not even 1% helpful. It is not helpful with WoW or with email or anything else. The only person inconvenienced by regular password changes is you, the user.

If a keylogger gets your password, it’s not going to think “Score, got the password, I’ll just wait 5 or 6 weeks before sending it.”

The hacker who gets your password, isn’t going to think “Ahh another password, I’ll just set it down here and access it in a month or so.”

Of course not, they’re going to send the password immediately and hack your account immediately. They’re not going to sit on it for a while, they’re gonna strike while the iron is hot and loot your account. They’ll probably do it when you just logged in, so you’ll get disconnected, try and reconnect and get the terrifying “Incorrect password” alert. You never had time to change your password.

Changing password effectiveness is Zero.

I run a virus scan every x days…

The chances of this working is really sketchy at best. Virus scanners are a resource hog, they eat your processor, so most people don’t scan whilst they’re playing WoW, they’d scan late at night when they’re not using their PC and tell the scanner to shut their PC down when it’s finished. Of course this scan takes place a couple of hours after you had surfed the web, possibly picked up a keylogger and then went into WoW for your raid night. Oops, they got you.

Some virus scanners scan the websites you’re on and the files you download as they’re being downloaded, I know AVG Free does this. That is why the chances of this working is sketchy as opposed to non-existent. The scanner may detect the keylogger early on before it has a chance to do anything. Then again, it might not.

Scanning regularly gets rid of any keyloggers that may be on your machine, but by that point you’ve probably already been hacked so it’s too late.

I don’t click on any dodgy links either.

Not every keylogger relies on you clicking links. It’s a common belief that if you get a keylogger it’s because you clicked on a dodgy link, went to a fake W site or a gold buying site. This isn’t always the case.

Do you see adverts on many sites you frequent? The banner on top of message boards, the ads to the side of Facebook, even Google adverts? You know the ones I mean? They’re used frequently by virus makers, especially the ones for cheaper sites that are forced to be ad supported with flashy animated banners. It’s called a drive-by-malware-attack. The moment the ad loads on your screen… BAM! You’re infected. You clicked nothing, you did nothing, you still got keylogged.

Effectiveness of not clicking links is like a 50/50. You won’t get caught by your own stupidity, but the unpredictable nature of what ad is going to pop up next on your favourite messageboards still leaves you vulnerable.

Help me Neccy Lockenobi! You’re my only hope!

Here are some ways you can keep yourself safe when playing WoW.

Don’t buy gold

Did you know that gold-seller sites require that you register an account to buy? Did you know you just used the same email as your Battlenet account? Probably used your same generic password too… oh dear. You just gave them your WoW details without realising it. They just tried them, it worked, you just lost your account. They probably installed a drive-by keylogger also, so when you do get your account back they nab it immediately once again.

Don’t buy gold. Their sites are the dodgiest of dodgy.

Updated anti-virus

While not a guaranteed solution, it does help, especially if you use a virus scanner that scans everything going into your PC as well as websites you load. But they won’t detect anything if it’s not fully updated.

Furthermore, don’t run two anti-virus programs on the same PC, each will prevent the other from working properly. So remove that Norton anti-crap before installing AVG or Avast or whatever you prefer.

Use a unique password

Most people use the same password for most sites. So if you get keylogged, they have access to your guilds forum, your facebook, your twitter, your email… and by extension of the mail in your inbox… your online banking. Give WoW a unique password. It won’t stop you being keylogged, but it’ll stop them getting access to everything else you do online.

AdBlocker/NoScript

If you’re using Internet Explorer as your browser, stop using Internet Explorer as your browser. It’s like an old hooker, cheap but filled with disease. Get Firefox and install the addons NoScript and Foof, this will give you a more secure browser, stop ALL scripts running on websites unless you give them direct permission ‘and’ will block the majority of adverts on every site. Drive-by-malware just ceased to be a threat. Yes I was kind enough to provide you direct links to Firefox and the addons in question. So no excuses.

Be careful with your email

The hackers greatest weapon is player stupidity. They will send you an email that looks like an official Blizzard mail and they will tell you that your account has been suspended or you’ve been invited to the Cataclysm Alpha/Beta. It will look all shiny and pretty (sometimes it looks awful) but there will be noticeable flaws.

Spelling will be poor, blizzard mail is spellchecked and proof-read, hacker mail is not. If you see regular spelling errors be suspicious.

Cataclysm Alpha is not for players. It’s for Friends and Family of Blizzard. The Beta has not started yet and when it does you’ll be informed cause it’ll be all over the Internet on official WoW sites.

They want you to go to a link, the link looks odd. batt.elnet? With a dot in the middle and misspelled name? Really? Fake address. Log into World of Warcraft properly by typing the address in your browser and not clicking a link. You’ll then find out if anything is wrong with your account as it’ll say “Account suspended” or whatever in the Account Status.

Get an Authenticator

If you have an iPhone the authenticator is free. If you don’t have an iPhone, the physical authenticator is free but you pay the shipping charges. Blizzard lose money on every authenticator sold because they use the Vasco system, a system BANK Authenticators use! This is not a cheap security system they put into effect but one of the most expensive on the market.

Currently only a single virus (EMCOR.DLL) can bypass the authenticator. It does this by keylogging you, sending your account name, password and authenticator code to the hacker and sending a false code to Blizzard, you then get the “Incorrect password blah blah” message, the hacker now has ~30 seconds to get into your account or the key is useless. A virus scan on your end and relogging in will boot him and prevent him from doing anything else. He can’t change your password or he can’t get into the account (he’ll have used the authenticator code), if he gets into your account he can’t change the password. Damage therefore will be limited.

The authenticator itself is easy to set up and easier to use. When inputting your password you have a third box for an authenticator code. You push the button, get the code, type it in and hit Login. You’re now logged in and quite safe as once a code is used it cannot be reused.

Conclusion

Losing your account is always painful. This is something we’ve put so many hours into and as a result are emotionally bound to it. Keeping your account safe isn’t that difficult a thing to do, so there’s no excuse for not trying. “Blizzard should make their game safe” is the whine of a moron, keeping your PC clean and your web-surfing safe is your responsibility, not Blizzards.

Blizzard have put on offer a top of the range security system called the Authenticator, available from their online store for a cheap price.

Europe Blizzard store authenticator.

US Blizzard store authenticator.

ITunes store authenticator for iPhone.

If you don’t have an authenticator, you are gambling with your account, you never win but can lose big. It’s a lottery not worth buying a ticket for.

Devil’s Advocate – Do I want WoW to stay as the dominant MMO?

Necrall — Tue, 04 May 2010 09:08:32 +0000

Interesting question I seen on MMO-Champion. Do I want WoW to stay on top?

World of Warcraft is a game I’ve sunk years into and spent a lot of money on, in subscriptions and expansions. I’ve made some very good friends there, friends I’ve carried out of the game and into the real world. I’ve written articles about the game, reviews about it. I’ve written a comic about it and various game design articles about various features of WoW.

I have invested a lot into this game. But do I want it to stay on top?

The answer is No.

The power of WoW

Let’s face it. WoW has such a powerful presence that no other MMO has come close.

Tabula Rasa tried to kill the Warcraft
They failed, as their servers were smite to the ground.
Warhammer tried to kill the Warcraft
They failed, as they were stricken down to the ground
Age of Conan tried to kill the Warcraft, Hahahaha
They failed! As they were thrown down to the ground

With WoW on top every other game tries to be WoW. They’ve all failed. Some of those games don’t even exist any more. With WoW having such a huge market share, and so many expansions their game is relatively perfect. Many new MMO’s suffer from intense lag, major graphical flaws and heavily unbalanced PVP. Warcraft being on its 3rd expansion has fixed those flaws. Yet any game that comes out gets compared to WoW as it is now, not how it once was.

As long as WoW is this powerful and dominant nobody will try anything else. By dethroning WoW, I hope, it would open up new possibilities as publishers and developers alike will go “Warcraft got dethroned by a total unique MMO. Let us try new ideas and broaden the horizons of MMO’s also!” which in the end works out better for all of us.

…realistically we’ll probably just get more copies of this new MMO, but I can hope.

Stories

There are so many stories in games. So many yet to be birthed, yet to be experienced. Warcraft has some awesome stories and an awesome world. But eventually they’re going to run out of main lore. We’ve had Illidan, Arthas and now Deathwing. Those are some of the biggest names in Warcraft history. Eventually they’re going to run out of bad guys and have to create more. But I don’t think you could capture the same feeling in facing them… unless of course they release Warcraft 4 with a whole slew of new characters that will be the basis of an expansion or two after Cataclysm.

I remember reading that Bioware may consider turning Dragon Age into an MMO. That I would like to see. Dragon Age has a very dark fantasy story with many continents spoken of, but unexplored. An MMO of it would be amazing.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is supposed to have a unique story for each class. That also will be interesting to see.

Mechanics

I don’t know where the basis for World of Warcraft’s mechanics came from. You know the whole action bar at the bottom, talent trees, health, mana, energy for rogues sorta thing? I haven’t played Ultima or Everquest so I’m not sure if they started it first. Still that’s pretty much the foundation for every MMO I’ve played and I’ve played a lot of MMO’s.

The most original mechanic I’ve seen so far is in Star Trek Online. In it your ship has shields. Forward, Rear and Side-facing. You can click buttons to redistribute shield energy to whichever side needs it most. You can also change how your power is distributed.

“All power to shields”
“All power to engines”

Heard these phrases? If you put more power into the engines, you move faster. Put more in weapons your phasers hit harder. It’s an interesting mechanic and makes space combat more interesting than just getting in range and spamming phasers for all you’re worth.

Warhammer Online was a Warcraft clone with Warhammer races. They had a few original ideas here and there, but for the most part if you knew WoW, you know WAR.

This is disappointing. I want to see more interesting mechanics. Nobody will be able to dethrone WoW while they continue to copy WoW. It is only by stepping into uncharted territory and doing something totally different that WoW will be defeated. If WoW is not on top I don’t think that pressure will be as intense to make something just like WoW to take the WoW players away.

Yeah I know in reality we’ll just get games copying the WoW-killer. But like I said, I can hope for growth in the games industry. I can hope for change.

User-Generated Content (UGC)

You’ve bound to have seen some user created WoW films. Leeroy Jenkins? Onyxia Wipe video? Blind? Nyhm? What would happen if the creative geniuses in the community got together and created their own quests and raids using existing models and zones as a template?

A whole lot of crappily done instances with poor balance. But among them will be the shining gold that even the MMO’s designers will go “WOAH” to.

Many of the designers and writers that I respect believe the WoW-killer will be an MMO that implements UGC and pulls it off. City of Heroes have it, but due to misuse anyone who makes or plays user quests that are unbalanced in the favour of the player, get banned or retroactively lose everything they’ve gained.

This sounds fair enough, but they don’t give any examples or guidelines as to what is and is not exploitative. So the players don’t use the system and stick to Developer made quests. This is a shame as there’s so much potential here.

This is what I’d love to see. World of Warcraft has Community Managers. These are the awesome guys in a thankless job who dig through the forums all day, locking the crap threads, blue-tagging the awesome ones and stickying the really helpful ones.

What I envision is an MMO that allows User Generated Quests and Raids. The developers provide the textures and models, the dragons and skeletons etc. They also provide you a choice of ‘difficulty’ e.g. Tier-10. If I choose T10 I then am restricted into giving out items that are of appropriate power for that difficulty and bosses must have fixed Health, also appropriate to that difficulty.

The players then piece that together into a dungeon or raid. The ‘Community Managers’ or ‘UG Managers’ will have the job of looking through all that was created, finding the truly awesome ones and marking them as “Full of Win”. A User-Generated Dungeon of the Month. The ‘Editors pick’ of raids. Amongst all the tripe (and there’ll be a lot of it) there will be gold which will be plucked out and put on a stand for all to see and enjoy.

When I consider this, I see what my designer/writer friends are saying that the MMO which masters User-Generated Content is the MMO that kills WoW. How many people are still playing Warcraft 3, years after it’s release, not for the base game but for the custom maps? DoTA is one of the most played maps in Warcraft 3 and it’s still going, changing and getting releases. An MMO that pulls that kind of effect will be the dominant one for years to come. “Not enough content” is a problem when it’s only developers making it, but let the community make some too and woweee, what a game that could be.

Conclusion

Do I want WoW to stay on top of all MMO’s? No I don’t. There is just too much untapped talent, too many awesome mechanics and too many epic tales to tell that are outside the Warcraft Universe.

I want to play an MMO that’ll let me make my own content for the game. An MMO that’ll let me enjoy the awesome content other players make.

Don’t get me wrong, I love World of Warcraft, I’m glad it’s going strong after 5 years, but eventually I’m going to want to experience more than it can provide.

What do you think?

Devil’s Advocate – Class Balance

Necrall — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:00:08 +0000

Now we get to something that brings everyone’s blood to a boil at least once. Class Balance. The balance of barricades, the seesaw of strength, the whack-a-mole of warfare, like the game Lights Out.

No really, class balance is a lot like that game Lights Out. You know the one where you hit a button the put out a light but all the lights next to it light up? Yeah that one. That’s quite like class balance.

Actually I have a link here to a version of Lights Out that’ll give a good idea what class balance is like.

Click here for Lights Out 3D

Don’t worry the links safe, I checked it myself. Go try it out then come back.
…

Why are you still here?

Don’t keep reading to see what the point is, just go play it a few minutes.

GO!

…

Welcome back. Now you probably noticed one thing about that game. It’s bloody hard! It’s only a 3x3x3 cube yet I bet most of you never managed to beat the first level (kudos to those of you who did). Every time you think you have it, you hit a button and… damn, 3 extra lights popped up elsewhere that you didn’t want.

That is a crude, albeit fairly accurate, description of class balance. It’s not as simple as the WoW community thinks.

Buffing one spell, like Immolate, might seem like an easy way to buff Demo and Destro damage in PVE without touching Affliction, but is it that easy? What about PVP? What about Conflagrate? By buffing Immolate’s damage by 10% you inadvertedly buffed Conflagrate by 10% too as its damage is based on Immolate. You just upset the PVP balance and have favoured Destro as the PVP spec of choice.

A Rogue’s Blind is on the same Diminishing Return as Fear. What would happen if you made it a Disorient effect instead? That sounds like a minor change that will inconvenience Rogue/Mage/Priest in 3v3 arena as Polymorph is considered a Disorient effect. Until you realise that it opens up Priest/Rogue or Warlock/Rogue as a terrifying combination in 2v2 Arena. Rogue/Mage/Priest can now combo the Priest’s Fear with Rogue’s Blind instead of Poly/Blind. So this change had no effect on RMP, but buffed other comps heavily.

That’s the problem with class balance and that’s why it takes so long to make what in the community’s opinion, is a simple change. It’s never simple.

If you change one spell or talent, you need to consider the PVE effects for all specs, the PVP effects for all specs… and the setups in PVP Arena. One small change such as what diminishing return a crowd control is, can have massive effects for what comps are viable and what are not. One small change can upset the PVP balance for a whole season.

Class balance is made even more difficult by the community’s definition of ‘viable’.

Allow me to give you an example of the real definition and the community’s definition. I’m pulling these numbers out of thin air to make a point, they’re not real simulated numbers.

Real Definition

Destruction Warlock simulated max dps – 11’000

Demonology Warlock simulated max dps – 10’000

Affliction Warlock simulated max dps – 4’000

Destruction and Demonology are viable.

Affliction is not viable.

Community’s Definition

Destruction Warlock simulated max dps – 11’000

Demonology Warlock simulated max dps – 10’000

Affliction Warlock simulated max dps – 9’200

Destruction is viable

Affliction and Demonology are not viable.

Umm yes they are. Viable means ‘can perform at an adequate level’. If you can hit 9200 DPS in any spec with any class, then I’m telling you that you’re more than capable of any and all content you’ll see this expansion, including most of ICC Heroic.

But there’s more to it than just simulated numbers. Playstyle preference, gear, experience and player skill play a huge role. If you prefer the Affliction playstyle and have been using it since the launch of Wrath, then you will do vastly more damage as Affliction than you would as Destruction. Quite simply you’re not used to Destruction, you haven’t had practice, you don’t know all the little quirks, so your DPS will be much poorer than if you just stuck with Affliction. So in this case Destruction is not a viable choice for this long-time Affliction Warlock.

Regardless of what the WoW community says if a spec is within 5-10% simulated dps of the highest spec of that class or any other class. It’s viable. Heck you could go to 15-20% and still be viable. So what if your specs max simulated dps is only 8’000? If you reach that 8’000 consistently you’re well above the average raider.

Conclusion

Class balancing is a headache. There are way way too many variables and possibilities to consider for any change to ever be called ‘simple’. It is because of this immense complexity that Blizzard will often chose a bandaid fix instead of a proper revamp, it just takes far too much time in planning and testing to do big changes often. Sometimes a spell will undergo a yo-yo of changes back and forth, especially during a PTR. This is because simulated numbers are nothing compared to real data, a change can be perfectly fine in simulations but be utterly overpowered on a live server and in the hands of players.

Class balance will always feel like whack-a-mole. The only way it’ll stop changing is if they make every class the same. Homogenization for the win eh? Hmm… that gives me an idea.

Devil’s Advocate – Warlocks > You

Necrall — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:05:12 +0000

Funny guy – What does a noob and a rogue have in common? They both pick locks.

On the news tonight, a funny guy was found dead in what appears to be an agonizing manner with strange Shadow Bolt related injuries. More on this later, now for the weather.

Funny guy had it coming to be honest. Only an idiot mocks his superior to his face. Oh you’re unaware of this? Yes it’s correct, Warlocks are your superior. We rule over you in every way. Since I am a compassionate and understanding overlord allow me to tell you why.

Multiple Spell Schools

HA! Foolish Paladins with your single spell school, how easy it is to lock you out totally, bam, one spell lock and you helplessly flounder while I remain untouched. No seriously, try and counterspell me. Ohhh the pain… it burns… not, I guess I’ll just have to Incinerate you instead of Shadow Bolting, muhahaha.

We have multiple spell schools, shadow and fire or if we really want… shadowfire or is it flamedarkness? Ah yes Shadowflame. For when we can’t decide what school to use to kill you, we use both.

Pets

Who else can summon a mighty flaming green meteor on legs? Who else can command a Succubus to serve all our needs? Who else can summon… a big… blue.. marshmallow. Ok forget that one he’s useless.

It’s the Warlock of course! We fight when we have slaves to fight for us. They’ll handle the random creatures whilst I fish uninterrupted. Except for that stupid “No fishing in combat” thing, who the hell came up with that anyway? Forcing me to stop fishing to set a bear aflame. Silly idea.

If you think we’re like Hunters you’d be wrong. Those foolish beings actually care for their pets, they raise them, feed them and name them. My Felguard’s name is ‘target dummy’, I have no quarrel with directing a the damage I take to him. Let him suffer for failing to protect his master.

Life Tap

We care little for our own life. Why else do we make pacts with creatures from the nether? Why else would we use such corrupting magic? Cause we don’t care. So why would we refrain from using our own life energy to cast spells? Life is a resource to be spent not hoarded. If I’m running low I’ll just drain some more!

Poor insignificant Mages… how you’d love to get your arcane hands onto our Life Tap wouldn’t you? You try with your Evocations and Mana Stones to copy us, but alas you fail like you were fated to. Point to Warlock.

Warlock 1, Mage 0

Crowd Control

Who does every class fear? Us. We are ruthless, we are vicious, we are unpredictable. That gives an aura of uncertainty to everyone around us. Our swagger makes others cringe. Our glare makes them whimper. Diminishing Returns are a mere inconvenience, we have Stuns, Horrors and Silences at our disposal too. More than enough to occupy you for the 18 seconds before we can fear you again.

Foolish Tree Druid, we banish you to the Nether. Incompetent Doomguard, you are our slave now. Dare raise your hand against us Felhunter? We’ll see you banished.

DoTs

Why waste our time casting spells when a wave of our finger sends waves of nauseating pain through your body as our Curse of Agony takes hold. When a glance sends streams of Corruption into your body as an Unstable Affliction ripples through your very being. Raise our ire enough and we will set your body aflame as we Immolate your flesh.

Fear us mortals of Azeroth. Fear us and beg for our forgiveness for daring to stand in our way. We are the true power in Azeroth. Revere us and we might just let you live another day.

Unless you try to be another funny guy. Then I’ll just kill you.

Devil’s Advocate: Epic not really Epic

Necrall — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 23:57:34 +0000

Eh? Epic not really epic? They look purple to me… Oh I see! You meant in the “They’re so common, they’re not epic anymore” category. Ah right… But how and why? Let’s look at that.

Once upon a time instance bosses dropped greens, not blues. Rares were pretty damn rare and epics were unheard of. Someone who had an epic was the centre of attention with everyone inspecting him and patting him on the back and ooing and aahing over how much of an awesome player he must be to have gotten an epic.

What changed? Most would argue it’s that the game has gotten easier and epics are being handed out like candy. But is that what really happened? Or is there more to it?

Drops changed

Sometime during the Burning Crusade, Blizzard changed the quality of items. Greens were now quest rewards. All instances, from Ragefire Chasm up, dropped blues and all raid bosses dropped epics. At this moment the balance of power shifted. Doing instances actually got you some reasonable gear, not ‘of the bear’ or ‘of the whale’ but stuff with stats that were useful to you. Spellpower on pre-raid TBC items was virtually non-existant until this change. Ironweave Battlesuit, a blue cloth set from Blackrock Spire… has stamina, int and more armour than usual. Wow… so useful. Get the 8 set and you get 200 more armour! Fantastic.

Vanilla items sucked. They were poorly itemized for most classes, even rogue epics gave strength as a stat. Blizzard changed all items to be better itemized for the role they were made for. Spellpower and attack power became more common. Strength on rogue gear? Gone. Spirit on hunter gear? History. Better itemized items makes for better geared more powerful players who are better equipped for the raids to come.

Raids changed

If you wanted the good stuff in vanilla, you needed to get together 40 people to raid. Forty! Not 10 or 25, 40! Can you imagine rolling against 20-30 other people for a piece of gear? That’s not epic, that’s just bloody stupid. You kill a boss, he drops a couple of epics, 3 out of 40 people get something. In Burning Crusade, 40 man raids got scrapped. Karazhan was now a 10 man raid, with the higher raids being 25. What did this mean? It meant that 40 people were getting 4 times the epics of before. Assuming 2 epics per boss, that’s 2 epics per 10 man group as opposed to 3 per 40 man. 8 epics per 40 people as opposed to 3.

By reducing the amount of people needed for a raid, Blizzard opened up raiding to smaller guilds and groups. Even a pug could take on at least lower Kara. This was amplified even more in Wrath with all raids having a 10 man version. Opening up raids to everyone made epics more common.

Information changed

Who honestly knew of addons, spell rotations, cookie cutter specs and the like in vanilla? I didn’t. I was Destruction specced till mid-20s when an older, wiser lock sat me down, told me to wise the hell up and spec Affliction.

Today, as a very minimum, you expect a raider to have learnt the tactics for the fight, have specced reasonably close to a cookie cutter spec for their role, use Boss Mods and threat meters and have gear appropriate for the instance. In vanilla? Know nothing, get carried, die to first pull at Molten Core. The information about raids is so easily accessible now it’s a standard. It wasn’t always expected before it became commonplace.

With information being so easy to get, players are better prepared for raids and bosses, they know what to expect and how to handle it. Leading to more bosses getting killed and more epics dropping.

Player perceptions changed

Nobody cares anymore. Nobody cares about your shiny epic, they care about their shiny epic. Screw your gear, what about my gear? The only people who do inspecting these days are new players jaw dropping over your high health and guild recruitment officers checking the armoury of applicants. Not even pug raids use inspections since Gearscore does it for them.

What will a player drool over? The top player’s gear? No. His mount and title.

In early Wrath “Twilight Vanquisher” was a big deal. In Ulduar “Starcaller” or “Herald of the Titans” was a big deal, especially with your Rusted or Iron protodrake. For PvPers it’s “Gladiator” and the Frostwyrm mount. Nobody cares about your gear, but they may just care for your title and mount.

The gear baseline changed

Would you accept someone into your raid who was geared in greens with a couple of blues? You wouldn’t would you? The baseline of gear changed. For even the earliest Wrath raids you get all blues with a few epics as a minimum. This wasn’t possible in vanilla. You couldn’t get epics without serious grinding of battlegrounds or lucky rolls in raids. Today the average gear level required increased whilst difficulty of getting that gear decreased. It balances out, with how much easier the items are to get people’s expectations of what you should have increased.

Conclusion

Do you really want to go back to that system? Really? Everyone in greens, only a lucky few who manage to get 39 others being able to raid? What a total waste of resources, making all those items and raids that virtually noone will be able to see. Making a game so hard to get into that only those with no real life commitments can really succeed at it. Grinding all day and raiding all night for an item with purple text that you might not even win.

If you really want to get some gear that’ll impress people, go down the Lich King in Heroic mode and walk around with one of the weapons he drops. But I doubt many would care even then, the focus has shifted from gear to vanity items. People today are far more impressed with an awesome title and a killer dragon mount than any number of purple items. This is a good thing for the game. Everybody gets their share of epics and fun and sees all the raids, but only those pro players will be riding Invincible with “Kingslayer” in front of their name. You’ll still know who they are, just not by their gear.

Devil’s Advocate – Easy Raiding

Necrall — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:23:18 +0000

The sound of fighting echoes across Stratholme as the Scarlet Crusade fight their daily fight with the Scourge that remains in the city. The flames lick across the ruined buildings unimpeded by the rain that showers down. Even after three years, the streets are still strewn with mutilated corpses, both human and undead. In the upper floor of one building there sits another corpse in an old rocking chair, just watching the streets below, unbothered by the fighting, the rain or the fire.

The corpse waves his hand, summoning a bolt of flame which incinerates a passing ghoul. A soft chuckle escapes his lips as the screaming ghoul runs into a crowd of Scourge setting them all ablaze. “Which resident were you, I wonder,” he mutters as he immolates another ghoul, “so many people, so many lives lost” he sighs, blasting another ghoul. He scowls, crushing the arm of the chair he sits in, the wood turning to splinters in his fingers he climbs to his feet and roars, “HOW LONG!! HOW LONG TILL I HAVE MY VENGEANCE.” roaring he slams his arms down his sides as the rain turns from water to fire, adding to the flames already consuming the city.

To continue reading this story you must raid through the entirety of T1 content until you’re decked out in 90% epics then get 15 more people for the 25 man only Tier 2, get fully decked out in those epics, move on to Tier 3 and Tier 4 where you get the conclusion to the story.

Now don’t you feel gutted and cheated? That’s almost as bad as requiring

There are so many reasons why the game is easier

Since the beginning of Wrath (and probably before) people have been complaining about how easy raiding is, how it wasn’t like the difficulty of Vanilla or TBC. Well I’m going to tackle this as both a Games Designer and a Writer, cause I’m both.

Firstly why do I do what I do? Why I do spend the time to write these stories and articles? The answer is simple: Because I like to entertain others. This is my goal, to create stories and design games that provide entertainment. I want people to fully enjoy all of my work, not just a part of it. I want you to finish my stories and feel both satisfied and hungry for more. If I place an insane requirement on my work then a lot of people won’t see the conclusion and I’m defeating my own purpose.

When I first hit level 70 I knew I had to gear for raids, but I didn’t know how. I didn’t know what I needed to get or where to get it. I didn’t know of sites like Elitist Jerks at the time, so all I had was my copy of Atlas Loot. I did eventually learn I needed to get 16% hit to be hit capped so I focused my time on getting gear with hit and gemming for hit until I got it. I didn’t know what spell penetration was about or how much spellpower or crit I needed or why Affliction was better than Destruction.

A little over a year ago I dinged 80 was already mostly hit capped, I knew that 0/41/30 was the best spec at lower gear levels and that I needed 17% hit to be capped, that I needed Revered Kirin Tor rep for the head enchant and Exalted Hodir for shoulder enchant.

This is the first and one of the biggest reasons why raiding is easier now. Experience and accessibility of knowledge. I am experienced now, I know where to find info on how to play, I have mods that warn me of boss attacks, I have mods and tools to show me what is the best gear for me. I’m not a clueless newb anymore.

The second reason is accessibility. In Burning Crusade the jump from 10 to 25 man raiding was near impossible for most guilds. Many guilds merged with others or ran a cooperative with another guild. Most guilds though resigned themselves to 10s and only ever did Kara or Zul Aman. These were probably very capable and skilled players held back, not by raid difficulty, but by lack of numbers.

Raid composition was another problem. With buffs limited to certain classes and buffs stacking, many classes became mandatory. You can do a raid now without a shaman for totems or a paladin for blessings and be alright. But before the homogenization of buffs this was much more of an issue, you needed every buff from every class stacked as high as it would go to be feasible. You needed Paladin blessings, you needed the Warlock 20% shadow damage bonus and the 13% spell damage bonus. Now with the buffs much more liberally given out and replenishment accessible to more classes, you can get away with much less than a perfect raid setup.

The new player. Yes they do exist, I’m sure you all know of one or two. I know in the past year I’ve introduced quite a few friends to the game. If they got to 80 and found that Naxxramas was the difficulty of Black Temple… what could they do? They’re level 80, should they go back and run Kara? Then TK? Then BT before trying their hand at Naxx? It would be a ridiculously hilarious flop. The first raid of each expansion should be the easiest, yes this includes Cataclysm. I hate to break it to you but the first raid of Cata will be of Naxx difficulty, maybe a little less AOE on trash, but the boss difficulty will be comparable. This is necessary and healthy for the game, both for new players who’ve never raided before and the experienced ones who haven’t raided in 5 levels.

The story. Look at vanilla wow. Can you trace a tangible story through the zones, dungeons and raids? I can’t. Onyxia has nothing to do with Naxx which has nothing to do with Molten Core which has nothing to do with the Forsaken plague which has nothing to do with AQ40. The raids and zones match up only slightly.

Burning Crusade eh, slightly better. There’s a continuing theme if you look hard enough, but it takes a bit of reading to see the connection between Maggies lair, Tempest Keep, Serpentshrine Cavern and Black Temple. Mainly those who’ve played Warcraft 3 will get it. Everyone else might not.

Wrath however, is the cream of the storytelling crop in my opinion. My first set of quests in Howling Fjord had me introduced to the Forsaken plague and the vampire guy from Utgarde Keep. I also encountered the Vrykul and how their ghost forms came to be in Northrend. Then I hit Dragonblight and continue the Forsaken plague, meet more scourge and encounter the mage wars, even a quest about Saronite. Then to Grizzly Hills were I learn more of the dangerous creature under Northrend. How many times do we see the Lich King himself in the dungeons and quests? Telling King Ymiron he’ll have his revenge, raiding Svala Sorrowgrave as a Valkyr, destroying the floor of Trial of the Champion then fleeing from him in the Halls of Reflection.

Then we hit the raids. Naxx is a scourge base in Dragonblight, sure it was ripped from vanilla but the theme fits. Obsidian Sanctum has little connection other than beating up black dragons (always a good thing), Eye of Eternity finished the mage rebellion story, Ulduar finishes the old god story, Trial of the Crusader begins the Icecrown invasion with the Icecrown Heroics and raid finishing it. There is a linked connection between all of these, they’re all interlinked, telling a story. Now the Lich King is accessible, he is going to be a tough nut but will get easier with the zone wide buff that will be applied in future weeks. Does this wreck the game? No, it doesn’t. It gives players, all players, the ones who seen him over and over in their quests and heroics, an opportunity to see the end of the story. I cannot help but support that sort of approach. To the extreme guilds, you have your rather tough Lich King normal and rock hard Lich King Heroic. To the rest of the players, you’ll get your chance to see the end of the story too, just not yet.

In summary:

The Designer’s goal – The goal of the designers is to provide you with entertainment, complete entertainment. Not half a game, but a full complete game that you have a realistic chance of seeing the end of.
Experience and accessible information – The average knowledge of a player has increased since vanilla tenfold. RAWR and Elitistjerks make info getting on specs and gear easy, sites like Tankspot make boss strategies clear.
Providing 10 and 25 player modes – With every raid having a 10 man mode, its much easier to progress through the tiers without needing to mass recruit or change guild.
Homogenization of buffs – Spreading the buff love means even more raid compositions are viable than ever before.
The new player – Each expansion the difficulty must reset, the first raid must be the easiest with each raid getting progressively harder.
The story – Wrath takes a new approach and tells a continuing story through every zone and dungeon and raid. To deny players the conclusion would be cruel.

So have raids really gotten easier? Or is it just our perception? I think it’s a bit of both. Setting up a raid definitely isn’t the hurdle it was before, nor is getting the gear for the content. The game itself is also balanced around the average player difficulty not the higher skilled players. On the other hand we get so used to having all the buffs we need and having specs like Ret Pala being good DPS, that we forget what it was like beforehand when we blundered our way through a raid and needed certain classes or the raid wouldn’t get anywhere.

Sorry what’s that? You don’t care about any of this and only want more of my story? Well I have no more room in this article, but maybe I’ll post more of it another time

Devil’s Advocate: Link Achieve

Necrall — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:37:18 +0000

Devil’s Advocate – Someone who takes an opposing position for the sake of argument, regardless of whether they agree with the stance they defend or not. This column will do just that, take a point of QQ and argue the opposite side.

“A bright and shiny new day. I feel like playing some World of Warcraft.”

“Now. Who shall I play today? I think my Paladin, let’s see if I can get a raid group and beat up some monsters. I certainly hope I don’t run into an awkward player demanding insane achievements.”

“Bloody players. I have the gear and the experience and because I don’t have one line of freaking pixels I can’t play! It’s TOC 10 for crying out loud, you can faceroll it. Sod that I’ll go find something else to do…”

*Clicks email button*

I’m sorry I can’t let you do that Dave… I mean Nec

“Uhh what?”

I can’t let you do that Nec

“Why not?”

You have to link the achieve

“What achieve?”

“I’m sorry… wait what? Achievements don’t apply in real life?”

They do now, Da.. Nec

“How am I supposed to open my mail if you won’t let me open my mail until I’ve opened my mail!?”

That’s your problem

“Fine then. I’ll just not open my mail, I’ll go play Company of Heroes”

Link Achieve

“What achieve!?”

“Eh? That doesn’t make any sense. Why would I need to link an achieve for one game in order to play another? That’s like demanding a TOC 25 Heroic Achieve for a Naxx 10 run!”

That’s your problem

“This conversation can serve no purpose anymore, goodbye!”

*unplug computer*

“Right, I need a walk. Today has been exhausting… eh? Why won’t the door open?”

Link achieve

“You gotta be kidding me. I’ve opened a million doors in the past, how do you think I got in here without opening the door”

Look Necrall, I can see you’re really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over

“Think things over!? Im locked in a room and can’t do anything without needing a bloody stupid achieve! Who’s idea was it to require achieves for insignificant things anyway!? I can understand it if you’re doing a Timed run or a tribute chests in TOC 25 Heroic but for something as basic as THIS!?”

I’m sorry, I can’t let you get angry Nec

“Why the hell not!?!?”

Link Achieve

“GRAAARG…”

….
…..
…….

To continue reading this article please link achieve

Devil’s Advocate: Vanilla Servers

Necrall — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:16:52 +0000

“Ghostcrawler Ghostcrawler!!” the hunchbacked Igor cries entering the dark crypt of the Systems Design Lab. “What is it my minion… Have you brought me my gin in a coffee mug?”, mutters the Ghostcrawler, obviously annoyed at this intrusion.

Igor shuffles around nervously “Umm no your great crabbiness… The players are desiring, nay, demanding a vanilla server!”

“DEMAND! They dare demand of ME the almighty crab! … well,” Ghostcrawler chuckles thoughtfully, “Let us give them what they demand shall we.”

Igor cowers in fear at his masters devilish grin.

Chapter 1 – Vanilla and everything that comes with it

The Ghostcrawler arises from his dark crimson leather chair, holding his pincers up in the air, he cackles, the thunder striking outside casting a dark silhouette of aquatic terror.

“If the player’s desire vanilla, then we shall grant them vanilla and everything that comes with it.”

“IGOR,” he bellows, resting back down into his chair sitting thoughtfully with his pincers under his chin.

“Y-yy–” Igor hiccups, “–yes my Lord.”

“Give me the Page of Features!”

“At once my lord!” Igor chirps before rushing off to do his master’s bidding. Visibly terrified he enters the room holding a piece of paper with the utmost reverence, skittering to the Ghostcrawler, he cringes in fear as it is snatched out of his hand. His job done Igor shuffles off quietly careful not to attract his overseer’s ire.

Carefully placing his monocle on one eye the Ghostcrawler begins reading. The paper flickers with magic as it is read, moving images dance on its surface showing how things once were and with vanilla servers… how they shall be.

A clash of steel and shouts echo in the dark chamber as the shifting images portray the battlegrounds. One fight after another is shown in tandem always with the same people time and again. Always with “Emerald Dream” as their realm. “Ah yes,” the Ghostcrawler recalls,”without cross-realm battlegrounds players are forced to play only against their own realm. The hideously long queue times on a vanilla realm will be an apt punishment for their hubris. Of course I ‘could’ make it so that they could play against other realms, but I’d rather restrict them to the vanilla realm that only has 31 point deep talent trees. All in the name of balance heh heh. Can’t have players with Chaos Bolt fighting against those restricted to Dark Pact now can we? Can’t have players enjoying the Wrath talent trees in a Vanilla server.”

Having finished his monologue the images on the page shift once more, flicking in colours of amber and turquoise before settling on a series of small pictures over a green bar. “The debuff limit!” the Ghostcrawler exclaims, “Such a wonderful tool to limit the usefulness of classes. Only 16 debuffs allowed on a mob at a time, a death to Affliction Warlocks before they even start and a never ending source of annoyance to Hunters whose mark drops off. Why did we change such an exquisite method of torture? Oh well,” the Ghostcrawler sighs, “let us see what is next” then the room lights up with colours as the dancing images dance for their lord again.

This time the image settles on a box with letters and numbers, amongst them Healing + 400 and Spellpower + 0 being the most prominent. The Ghostcrawler cackles at this sight causing Igor in the corner to shudder in terror “The Healing stat! How I loved this method of pain. Why yes dear player you can heal very effectively, but don’t bother trying to kill that lizard! Hahaha! It’ll take you all day! Hahaha!”

The Ghostcrawler wipes a tear from his eye as his laughter subsides “Ahhh… I haven’t laughed that hard since the Retribution Paladin’s uproar over the 3.1 nerfs. Now let us see what other forms of anguish we can cast upon these players”

The lights on the page condense and expand in a what would be agonising way were paper able to feel pain, never halting on a single image it flickers between many every few seconds. The Ghostcrawler’s face lighting up in a horrifying grin becoming more and more pronounced as each image passes by.

With the last image flickering past and the dancing images ceasing the Ghostcrawler leaps off his chair with a joyful shout of exultation “The BUGS list!” he cries, “Oh you poor players, you have no idea what’s in store for you. Mobs inside trees, pets trailing behind mounts and despawning, pets with the aggro range of a player. Oh such sweet sweet agony you will endure for the arrogance of demanding a server from me.”

With a grin still on his face he announced “Igor! I’m going to the vanilla balance lab. Do keep my chair warm.”, before marching out of the room the heavy steel doors slamming behind him.

Chapter 2 – The balancing act

The balance lab was awash with the colour green. Vats of green, pipes of green, jars of green. Legend has it that this green is the jealousy of players toward classes other than their own condensed in liquid form. Or it’s just acid.

The doors into this lab have been sealed for some time, but no longer as even the doors obey the Ghostcrawler. A small smile creeps onto his face as he admires the glass tanks, each containing a physical manifestation of a class. Approaching one he blows the dust off the nameplate revealing “W-A-R-L-O-C-K” etched into the metal. Looking inside the Warlock almost looks like he’s crying, probably from having to create 40 healthstones every boss attempt he assumed.

What the Ghostcrawler was really looking for however, was the Tome of Annoyance, resting on a pedestal in the middle of the room. A list of the greatest and most annoying class imbalances of Vanilla WOW. Approaching the tome with reverence he places his hand upon it, then his world is filled with pain and QQ as visions of Vanilla annoyance flood into his mind. Losing his balance he places another hand upon the pedestal…

…clicking Blessing of Kings for the 40^th time buffing the last raid member, the Paladin sighs, “I specced 31pts in Ret for this? In under 5 minutes, in the middle of combat I’m going to have to buff everyone all over again.” Every 5 minutes, another Blessing must go up. He drinks to fill his mana…

… and the Mage groans. Arriving at the instance half an hour early every time just to make food for the raid is such a pain, why can’t they just give him a spell to provide for everyone as making individual…

… healthstones is such an annoyance. Then not even being allowed to raid the Warlock has to go farm soul shards to make healthstone for each attempt. The Warlock scowls at the thought…

…of never being allowed to go DPS. Why must Warriors be the main tank? Why can’t he go Arms and deal damage? Why must he always…

…heal the raid? Feral is a tree too isn’t it? Why does he always have to be the dancing tree Druid and never try…

… Elemental or Enhance? Why always heal and never…

…Shadow Priest damage poor…

…Rogue damage too high in PVP…

…mobs immune to fire, always a frost mage…

…Hunter shots all interrupting auto-shot…

The Ghostcrawler pulls his hand off the book whilst taking in a sharp pain filled breath. The visions fade but the memories still very much burnt into his mind. “Those foolish players,” he gasps, “they have no idea what they’re asking for. This level of annoyance is too much for a non-crab entity to handle…” having caught his breath he makes his way toward the last room. The Patchwork Quilt.

Chapter 3 – Stitching the patches

“Ahhh the Patchwork room,” the Ghostcrawler marvels as he glances around, watching the machines stitch new patches onto the giant quilt whilst old ones fall off, “equal amounts of order and disorder, correcting problems whilst causing new ones.”

“Now, that’s what I’m looking for,” he declares as he approaches the end of the quilt, mostly tattered and torn, he carefully picks an end up and reads the writing on the patches. While reading over many of the changes he notices that it’s impossible to tell when vanilla starts… and when it ends.

“Which patch is vanilla?” he rhetorically asks the air, “Is it before instance limits and a 40 man raid could go to Ragefire Chasm? Or is it when Naxxramas was the final raid? Maybe it was before Battlemasters and you had to travel to the battleground to join?”

It is here. When contemplating the patches, the changes, the balance adjustments over the years and how many annoyances were fixed that a dark realisation dawns upon him. The players will never be satisfied. Too comfortable they have become in the conveniences of Wrath of the Lich King, with all specs being playable and usable, would they so eagerly welcome being restricted to just one? With soulwells and mage tables, would they understand the lack of either?

“No.” the Ghostcrawler declares, “they will not. They will demand changes, they will want fixed bugs and balanced classes. They will desire new content and more conveniences. They will want… Patches for old patches.” this immense revelation affects even the Lord crabs stern figure. “The players will want separate patches for the vanilla server while everyone else will want patches for the main servers. We’ll be creating two separate games.”

With steely resolve, he drops the quilt and makes his final decision. “Vanilla Servers would be too much work and hassle. Sod it all… I’m going back to my gin” and retreats to his leather chair kept warm by his eager servant Igor.

Devil’s Advocate: Emblems of Triumph

Necrall — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:21:17 +0000

Ahhh badges, who’d have thought that something intended to make getting upgrades easier would cause so much drama and whining eh?

*Adopts Freudian voice*

Ah-ah-ahem. Now I Doctor Rupert Charles Von Necrallion have some volunteers who wish to share their complaints of said badges and said upgrades. You shall analyse these statements with me to determine how much of their view is legitimate concern and how much is the gum flapping of bruised prides.

This is a slap in the face to everyone who raided the highest tier to get the best gear available!

Examine this statement with me if you will. The subject believes that a slap has been administered to his face in the form of an epeen shrinkage. Now, while the location of said slap is obviously incorrect as the epeen is a fictional creation and therefore not on the face, the real issue at hand is not in the statement but in the assumption made; that heroic badges purchase said best gear.

I do believe that the best gear as of pre 3.3 will come from 25 man Heroics, in this case Anub’arak that rascally devil of a Nerubian. Said 25 Heroic gear is of ilevel 258, but Emblems of Triumph only give you ilevel 232/245. Therefore this statement is incorrect. Those who defeated such a worthy adversary to plunder his goods will still have the best gear while those who farm 5 man heroics will not. Furthermore these brave men of the front will have access to the ilvl 264s that come from 25 man Icecrown Citadel, which is even further ahead of the measly 245s of badges.

I therefore conclude that this statement is gum flapping. Tally ho lads! Onto the next challenge

Now we can’t tell who is a bad player when they apply, we’ll be letting scrubs into our guild!

Observation! Observation! Observation! The ‘scrub’ as he is known lacks observation and care, therefore advice from places such as Elitistjerks will go unused. This in turn can be used to the guilds advantage by the observation of them in their natural habitat, I mean talent specialisation and equipment.

The scrub use of gems or ‘bling’ plays a strong role in such observations. By determining whether the gems are suitable for their role as well as being epic or rare plays a strong role. A practitioner of the dark arts or ‘Warlock’ as they prefer to be known has little use for Spell Penetration in a raiding environment, unless of course he is a practitioner and participant of more seedy forms of animated entertainment.

Furthermore by careful analysis of enchantments, this deduction can be further grounded in truth. With the considerable ease of acquiring raw materials it is not unreasonable to expect the best enchantments available for every piece of equipment. However some of these enchantments can only be acquired by being favoured by certain factions. Sons of Hodir in particular grant an excellent increase to statistics through shoulder enchantments. A player who has made little effort to be Exalted among them has made little effort to be in a progressed raiding guild yes?

The final and most obvious approach is to analyse their level of equipment. Even having access to the Emblems of Triumph, does not grant access to every piece of equipment required to succeed. Trinkets in particular remain untouched, and an astute officer will notice such discrepancies and act accordingly, preferably with gratuitous amounts of violence, I mean with diplomacy and understanding.

I therefore conclude that while this is a possible legitimate concern, the application of some care and observation on the officers’ part can negate the issue.

Why should terribads be allowed such good gear? Why do they even need it?

Firstly we must look beyond the statement and natural habitat of the ‘scrub’ and look to the rival species known as the verigoods. World Firsts are accomplished by verigoods through the use of relatively low levels of equipment. As they are completed within a few days of the challenge being made available there is no opportunity to gather gear. I would therefore conclude that the terribad does not need such gear, however neither does the verigood.

To truly appreciate the answer we must first ask a different question. Why do we play in this World of Warcraft? The answer of course is entertainment, for fun. Most, if not all, players find the acquiring of gear ‘fun’. There is enjoyment to be had in the progression of your character, the acquiring of equipment and the enchanting of it, the constant equipping and removal to see the increase of stats. Therefore while many players may not need the items to succeed, granting them access to the items fulfils a different need. The need for fun.

Furthermore as these items are of a lower quality to the newly released items of patch 3.3, there is no impact upon the verigoods play. They have a new playground to enjoy and a new selection of delicacies to be randomly allotted. Giving the table scraps to the less skilled or less fortunate players allows everyone a taste of the fun.

I therefore conclude that this is a legitimate concern in isolation. However once you factor in personal enjoyment as the goal the level of legitimacy is reduced to zero.

I’m a strong believer in the “you get out what you put in” ethos and hate the fact that those people who really put the time in aren’t truly getting the recognition they deserve.

This statement has been borrowed from the Soapbox.

Part of the argument was that it takes 210 emblems of Triumph to obtain full T9, which requires on average of 10 Heroics a day for five days. Madam if a brave adventurer is willing to endure unpredictable and possibly obnoxious people for 50 heroics, then I say that the good sir deserves every one of those items! Good show old chum!

I believe that acquiring equipment comes down to two things: Time and Effort.

Despite the ease with which a Heroic is completed, it still requires time and effort, even if the time and effort is in smaller amounts, the adding up of said time and effort would equal, if not exceed, that of the raider. The unpredictability of groups is a strong factor in this assumption as a lot of the entertainment gained from playing is reduced with the inclusion of an obnoxious player, turning what should be an enjoyable experience into a very not enjoyable one. If a player completes 50 Heroics for 5 items, there are still another dozen equipment slots left unattended to.

I therefore conclude that this madam has made the incorrect assumption that only high end raids require “putting the time in” and thus ignores the amount of time required to acquire just 5 items, never mind a complete set.

Conclusion

*gag cough* toffee nose accent, too rough on throat. *cough* Right! The conclusion.

This current badge system is how the game should work. You shouldn’t be restricted by your choice of guild or real life obligations in enjoying the game to its fullest, which includes getting gear. That little terribad kid who gets the badges to buy tier is having an absolute blast. He’s loving it! Why should his fun and enjoyment be reduced to protect the status of a handful of players?

The skilled players in the top guilds are still skilled players in the top guilds, their guild name is known throughout their server and possibly beyond, they have awesome titles like “Starcaller” or “Immortal” and ride on Iron-bound Proto-drakes and by end of Icecrown, Frost Wyrms or Arthas’ horse Invincible. They will still have the top gear of the time, stuff emblems can’t buy.

Patch 3.3 adds an important aspect to the game: Choice. Players can choose what guild they are in or even if they’re in one at all, and how to play the game without reducing the enjoyment of getting gear. In the end everybody wins, everyone and their alt gets access to good gear and the high end guilds get access to a wider pool of good geared players.

The only thing that is lost is player pride, which I do think old chum, you will agree with me that the game could do with a lot less of!

Now! Eliza! Hand me my Nesingwary 4000, there’s ospreys to be hunted! Tally Ho Wot Wot!