Breakfast Topic: Attunement, hassle or not a big deal?
by Mark Crump 
Jan 14th 2008 at 8:00AM
I recently dinged 70, finally after a long haul. Naturally, I was all hopped-up to run Karazhan until I learned I needed to first complete an arduous attunement process. Ok, I've known for months that I needed to do this, and it's not that arduous at all. It got me thinking about attunement in general, though.Frankly, my initial reaction to any sort of flagging was negative. I started in EverQuest and its Planes of Power expansion each tier required its own flag. Once guilds got far enough along, latecomers like myself were well and truly screwed as most guilds weren't inclined to go do any back-flagging. They'd usually mumble something along the lines of "how the hell are we going to progress if we're holding newbies hands through the same zones, day after day." Thankfully, pictures of the guild leader and a goat came in handy.
Thankfully, WoW has few attunement needs--Kara being the most common. Even almost a year later my guild is more than willing to help me through the process--it seems everyone has two or three alts needing this, so groups have been easy to come by.
During the process, I got used to working with my guild mates. I haven't done many instance runs with them, so it was nice to work as with them. One of my guildies plays the same class as myself and he gave me some pointers. And he's right--in hindsight using multi-shot to pull with misdirect cast on the priest was a poor idea*. All-in-all, the process has been enjoyable, educational, and, one six-hour-frustration-filled-night in Shadow Lab aside, painless.
While I'm not done yet--I'm hoping to wrap that up next weekend--I was forced to admit my initial reaction to attunement was off-base. I think Blizzard's got the right mix: relatively few zones needing it, but require enough group-steps to force players to get used to it--especially those casual solo players like myself.
What do you think about attunement and what would you change if you could?
* if you made your sarcasm save, that's a joke.
Filed under: Guilds, Odds and ends, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Squishy Jan 14th 2008 8:04AM
Kara attunement is pretty darn easy. Soloable first two quests for most specs - deep healing might have a bit of an issue. And the three dungeons are commonly found in LFG.
Squishy Jan 14th 2008 8:04AM
Er, four.
Heraclea Jan 14th 2008 10:00AM
Technically, you need to finish at least five, and possibly run seven dungeons:
Shadow Labyrinth - one key (requires a pretty much complete run)
Arcatraz - not a complete run in itself for the key, but it requires a key: so you may need to finish
Botanica, and
Mechanar first if no one you know has the key or can pick the lock.
Steamvalts - does not require a complete run; no attunement here.
Durnholde - no key requirement, but you must have finished this to get into:
Black Morass - final key quest, and requires a complete run.
I got severely burnt out on Shadow Labyrinth when I was still trying to run my warrior as a tank. Every run of that place seems to take at least three hours. The key is in the room with the final boss, who does not technically have to be beaten. I never want to see that place again.
nav Jan 14th 2008 10:13AM
Heraclea forgets that Shadow Labyrinth also has a key, from Sethekk Halls. So if you're counting Bot and Mech you need to count Sethekk too.
Squishy Jan 14th 2008 10:27AM
I'll concede Durnholde, but not the keys for SL and ARC. Only one party member needs those keys. More importantly you have to have a flying mount.
Rainnajax Jan 14th 2008 8:14AM
I am lvl 69 and started attunement at the end of lvl 68 because my guild and our brother guild who currently have a Kara group need another healer and so I respecced to healing at lvl 60 and have been getting ready to fill an off-heal spot on the Kara group as soon as ready. Luckily for me, I have a great guild who are super willing to help me get the attunement dungeons and while we had a difficult first run for Shadow Labs, we made it through and are now planning runs for the other items as I wipe through this last level.
I think the key to this is having a guild that wants you to run Kara with them and who are geared well enough and experienced with the attunement dungeons that they can help put together the right groups. We run alot of instances as a group so we have gotten used to communicating and each person knows their position and job within the group. PuG's for me tend to really be aweful as you are working with people you don't know and haven't work with before. At least when I have one of my two guild tanks, I know that they have my back and I have theirs.
I think this can also bring a guild closer together as a team because they are forced to work together and work to accomplish a common goal. Grouping two guilds together who work well together is also helpful because each guild knows some backups if necessary.
:-)
Rainnajax
ninjasuperspy Jan 14th 2008 8:19AM
Put me down for an "no big deal." Sure, the guild isn't really all that in to running me all over hell's half-acre to attune for Kara, but if I can't find a group for Black Morass, I just need to wait for the right daily.
But then I play a healer, so LFG is cake.
ninjasuperspy Jan 14th 2008 8:22AM
Geez, run on sentences and serious misuse of commas. It is to early for coherence.
Richard Jan 14th 2008 10:10AM
I'm not sure why people marked your comment TO YOURSELF down... L2read and UNDERSTAND people. He was flaming HIMSELF.
/facepalm
Augger Jan 14th 2008 8:21AM
I have to guess not many groups run Upper Blackrock Spire or Onyxia any more, at least at level 60. Remember the days of constant "lfg Jailbreak" ?.
Maz Jan 14th 2008 8:30AM
Karazhan attunement's no big deal.
However.... The Eye? SSC? Crap.
"Go run yourself through Gruul and Nightbane to get into SSC..."
"Go run yourself through Magtheridon to get into the Eye..."
At the onset, not a big deal. But raiding guilds have huge turnover rates and you can either be an arse and require your recruits to have attunements done before applying to your guild or you blow part of your raiding guild's schedule trying to get the trickle of warm bodies hooked up.
With the onset of SSC / TK equivalent gear being churned out by ZA and Heroic Badges in 2.3, why in God's name am I still required to drag these people through not only an entire SSC run, but also a TK run? Especially when your guild is crotch-deep in Black Temple / Hyjal progression and wrote off SSC and TK months ago in favor for more time working on Bloodboil, Archimonde and RoS.
And don't tell me it's not an arduous task. Yes, Kael and even Vashj can be handled in the span of two four-hour periods, but that's still a lot of time for anyone out of your weekly raiding schedule.
Attunements are good for throttling the high-end guilds. They absolutely suck when you're trying to bring people into the raiding game who're 8-10 months behind.
jr Jan 14th 2008 11:07AM
/agree,
all that effort to get the one or two recruits attuned, dumb and no guilds on my server will do it anymore. So if you're not attuned to BT/MH sorry, you don't get to see it.
Jason Jan 14th 2008 5:37PM
Except the fact is, you don't need an attunement for SSC or Eye, and haven't for some time.
Charles Jan 14th 2008 8:32AM
I swear to god, I have key run half the server. I know those zones like a pro.
Kadathwack Jan 14th 2008 8:39AM
I think the only real problem you get with attunement is when you have to back-key people. The worst at the moment is getting people attuned for Hyjal. Most of the guilds that run Hyjal/BT don't bother with the T5 instances anymore, so they have to sink two full nights in by clearing SSC and TK to attune anyone new. And when that guild's raiding 3, 4, or maybe even 5 nights a week anyway... ouch.
Dah Jan 14th 2008 8:46AM
Considering how many completely undergeared 70s think they can just waltz into Kara when they ding 70, I'm glad there is some sort of attunement. Personally I think the idea of most guilds requiring a player to be keyed for all heroics (back when it required revered faction) was a good idea because it got a lot of players that skipped instances to start doing them which A) got them used to playing groups and B) got them some decent starter blues to replace pre-70 items they were often wearing.
JPN Jan 14th 2008 8:46AM
It looks like everyone agrees that Kara's attunement isn't a big deal....but with all these attunements, I guess they're supposed to be...roadblocks? I mean truly, what's the point? They removed the attunement for TK and it didn't seem to change anything. Why not throw the doors open to anyone who can get a group of 25 together? Is it to make them feel special? I mean it seems like the only thing it does is make guilds annoyed at having to attune those who aren't attuned and take time out of their raiding schedule.
gd1107 Jan 14th 2008 9:24AM
The problem with opening the doors for everyone for every instance is guilds having a tough time on say illidan or kael'thas, they can skip them completely and go onto BT or Hyjal to gear them up so they can go back and get an "easy mode" kill.
You should earn the right for the next instance, its like a status symbol.
The problem where blizz really f*ed up was not having an open 25 man at the beginning (gruul & mags are single encounters and I don't count them as true 25 mans). The whole idea of 10/25 mans is nice, but transitioning to a 25 from a 10 and getting people keyed for the 25's isn't that easy.
there shouldn't be a key for kara...there should be a key for gruuls and or mag...but of course the way mags is, why would people even bother anymore?
Deb Jan 14th 2008 5:53PM
It's been a real pain for me. I've been a lvl 70 spriest for several months now and just got my first key fragment for Kara attunement yesterday through a PUG because every time I asked for help from my guild there was nothing but crickets. I even left one guild to join another who promised me they would help get me attuned.IMO,it's no fun for the guild or the person trying to get keyed.
theRaptor Jan 14th 2008 9:34PM
The only part of kara attune that takes longer then 30 minutes is possibly slabs. Both Arc and SV keys can be got to in ten to fifteen minutes, and BM is a quick and easy run for any competent Kara guild. In the last month I have helped about a dozen people get attuned. If you guild can't get of their asses to at least help with BM, then they probably just don't need another priest. Or suck.