[1.Local]: Reader comments from this week
by Lisa Poisso 
Aug 29th 2008 at 5:30PM
Reader comments – ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week. Be sure to dive into the comments area of each thread (not this one!) and add your own thoughts – unlike your mama, we like us some hot, fresh backtalk.
 |
Engineering fun builds up in beta [1.Local] regularly runs across what we call "shiny pennies" among our reader comments. These comments aren't very big, and they aren't worth very much – but they're sure a bright, shiny spot in the day. Reader dotorion contributes his own shiny penny to a post mentioning a new set of goggles that allows the wearer to see others without ... well, without their clothes on: "Interesting. Low-level people with goggles identify these people as twinks. High-level people with goggles will now identify these people as perverts. I'm looking forward to being chased by a balding gnome with goggles on ..." |
 |
Sylvanas finally gets her makeover The debate is on about Lady Sylvanas' incoming new model. While most people applaud the move toward greater authenticity, others are already nostalgic for her completely inappropriate Night Elf "booby bounce." But some readers just don't think the new model is up to par: "She doesn't look very scary or formidable," laments STereo. "It's as if Haris Pilton was leader of the Undead, the red eyes being from the drinking binge the night before." |
 |
Raid buffs overhauled for 3.0.2 Shadowpriests are up in arms about the dwindling effectiveness of their class. The current mood seems guardedly optimistic, as the Priest community waits for further tweaks to the beta balance. Augustus, a Shadowpriest who's content with the concept of giving up raid utility in exchange for more raw DPS, reassures the crowd: "They have already said that they would buff shadow priests. I believe they will boost our DPS significantly. I mean they said the same thing about Pallies, and look what happened to them. I for one am pretty happy about the opportunity of rocking the DPS charts rather than being just utility." |
 |
So you want to be an orc Feminist orcs, take note of this comment to a recent post on roleplaying an orc. "Hey there -- just wanted to start out by saying that it was a great article, but there was one thing that I thought might deserve some comment and correction towards the status of female orcs in the Horde during the time of Mannoroth and the opening of the Dark Portal," comments Ancro. "You guys already did an interesting article about this (I think it was a Know Your Lore) about female characters of various species in Warcraft, and the issue did come up that by and large there were no femme fatales (except the notable exception of Garona) within the Horde due to the brutishness of the Horde at the time. It is quite unlikely that any younger female Orc warriors were a part of the 'evil' Horde at the time of the portal were even remotely treated with the Orcish pride at the time. Without screaming out a bunch of spoilers, I would point you in the direction of the 'Beyond the Dark Portal' for more indications – specifically, Tagar Spinebreaker's conversation with the Greatmother Geyah. The only notable exception I can find within the lore (again, beyond Garona) of one of the women being treated with the respect they deserve was Durotan and Draka, Thrall's parents. "I guess what I'm driving at is this: the equal treatment policy that was put into place the moment Thrall became the warchief is a fairly new policy for the Orcs and the Horde in general, and there is still some resistance to it, particularly from some of the members of the Old Horde. It might be noteworthy for RPers to experiment with their characters dealing with these policies with both their female characters (who might remember the oppression of the Old Horde and might be the first Orcish feminists) and older male characters (who might still feel that women are unequal warriors). This would be some heavy roleplaying, however, and should probably only be undertaken by people who feel that they can handle the tension and seriousness that this can sometimes bring about." |
 |
Number crunching Many guilds plan on taking Wrath of the Lich King as an opportunity to restructure for a smaller, more intimate and possibly more casual raiding experience. "I am an officer and current raid leader of a 25-man 'casual' raiding guild," explains Cubby. "When we have 25 people on and ready, we crush content. Vashj took two and one-half weeks. Boom -- we get it done, when we have enough on and those enough are good. But for the past three months we've had, at best, lackluster attendance. Each and every night we get 25 raiders on, we drop new bosses. But at least one night out of the three we raid, we don't have enough or are short healers, so we can't raid. "We are making the transition to 10-man raiding for WotLK. I personally can't wait to cut out all the BS and just have a good time while working hard, knowing that the people in the guild feel the same way. This transition is not easy. People are upset, questioning and pleading with us to not go this direction. "For those of you that have lead a guild or have just been an active officer, you know how difficult it is to maintain a content-crushing guild. (We may be casual -- but frankly, we're pretty good.) To be able to shed all the crap is very, very attractive. If we aren't sitting in the best gear available, I just don't care. To me it's more important to raid with friends, not be dragged down by leechers and have fun while seeing all the content. "If you are running a 10-man guild in WotLK, you'll be able to have more than one raiding 'main.' I have three 'toons that I plan to run through all the 10-man content. It's going to be so much fun to explore a lot of the content in a lot of different ways." |
 |
Chilton content to endorse multi-boxing These days, [1.Local] wouldn't seem like [1.Local] without a comment about a multiboxing post. "Getting (multiboxed characters) to cast at precisely the same time with zero latency is virtually impossible," writes Jennifer. "Multiboxers can't do this, either. Three-Druid Noob put it very succinctly recently. "One of the comments PVPs make is that five individual players cannot react as fast as one player. This is both true and false. For a start, any target that the 'master' acquires takes time to reach the slave. For example, if I have a 250ms latency, then it will take 250ms to reach the server and then another 250ms to get back to my slaves. Half a second may not seem like much -- but if you ask anyone playing outside the United States 'What difference does a couple of hundred ms make?', you will quickly find out. "Like the other posters said -- if you have a problem with stacked Shaman groups, have a problem with stacked Shaman groups. Little do you know, when I first rolled my multibox Shamans, I was told they wouldn't be viable because they 'had no aoe.' "You want to see more than just Shammy groups? This is what I, as a single multiboxer, have leveled (I'm an altaholic): 4x Shaman + 1x Paladin (already had a Resto Shaman at 70); 5x Warlocks; 4x Hunters; 5x Druids. I also have a Holy Priest, and I regularly mix and match groups. Just because you only hear or only report about Shaman groups on Wow Insider doesn't mean there aren't anything different. When Suvega and I did Karazhan, he was running 1x Warrior / 3x Mage / 1x Priest and I was running 1x Paladin / 3x Ele Shammy / 1x Resto Shammy. Learn your facts." |
 |
How to PuG heroics A good heroic PuG – does such a creature exist? "Problem with PUGs is now that BC has been out for so long, most people have already been through the instance a bazillion times -- so if you aren't 'geared,' you aren't accepted, because a lot of people now are just looking for a fast run and the bonus badges you get from the daily," notes Arktic. "WoW has turned into an elitist society, which should be reset for a time once WotLK comes out. "Advice on getting a good group together? Don't judge players by their gear. When you have good players in your group, add them to your friends list. Eventually, you will have a solid number of friends who are good at what they do. (Trust me, when someone whispers you and says, 'I grouped with you last week and thought you were an awesome. Would you like to group up again for another heroic?', it makes you feel good and all the more likely to join up.) Stick with it, put yourself into the LFG queue and do some dailies, battlegrounds or other questing. You'll be picked up eventually, assuming there are even people wanting to run the same instance as you on the given day." |
 |
Blood Elf tank and Murloc hair bow as seen on Etsy And finally, some readers see all of life through WoW-colored lenses: "Normal people would see 'tank' and think 'shirt' and see 'bow' and think 'something made of ribbon' ..." notes Nick. "I saw 'Blood Elf tank' and thought 'Prot Pally' and saw 'Murloc hair bow' and was really, really confused how you'd shoot a bow made out of Murloc hair." Poor, befuddled guy ... |
