Patch 5.2 interview with Dave Kosak
Inside an old alt's vault
The latest patch 5.2 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria news[1.Local ]: Screaming over Hellscream's Warsong
by Lisa Poisso 
Mar 14th 2010 at 2:00PM
While some players are hailing the Icecrown Citadel "tugboat" buff (Strength of Wrynn/Hellscream's Warsong) as a great equalizer that will open up endgame content to the player base at large, others have spotted holes in its implementation. The most common complaint is that doing the encounters the hard way yields no bonus at all: no achievement, no title, no recognition.
Mennoknight: The issue ... is that there is nothing showing if they did it the hard way. Most people take kill shots with the UI hidden, so the buff will not show.
Our group wanted to do it "the hard way" because we could. But the more you look at it, there is no reason NOT to keep the buff. There is no in-game tracking of it, and while you could technically take a screenshot of every boss kill without it, who's to say you won't go and kill everything with it one week and then kill the next week (with much better gear and perfected kill strats) without the buff? (5% doesn't matter, but this will become easier in later weeks.)
Additionally, none of the other groups are trading in the buff, and we decided as a realm not to count it in the progression threads, so there is very little reason not to change it. This could be EASILY solved by a simple track (feat of str, no points) with something along the lines of "Achieve your first kill of Marrowgar without using the Strength of Wrynn" (because other kills don't count past the first). Just something in game to track the kill, so you don't have to jump through hoops to get it tracked. You don't need to give better loot, more badges or anything. Just the simple tracking would be enough to get groups like mine to run without the buff.
More reader perspectives on the Wrynn/Warsong buff, after the break.
Gizen: I do not believe you'll be able to choose the strength of your buff, no. Blizzard hasn't said anything one way or another, but judging by how it currently works, it looks like it's either full strength or not at all. This seems especially stupid when you consider that some people are hypothesizing that the DPS requirement for the Lich King on heroic difficulty is too high to be doable without at least the 5% buff, so slower guilds will essentially be forced to fight him with a 30% boost and will never even get the option of fighting him the hard way.
Has your ICC raid been taking advantage of the buff? How do you feel about it -- do you feel a little disappointed, as if you're "cheating," or do you think the buff is a welcome way to open up more content to more players?
It was a great week for crowdsourcing at WoW.com this week. At press time for this post, readers of WoW Rookie had contributed nearly 300 comments towards translating common PUG terminology. Meanwhile, over at The Overachiever, Azeroth's fishers were sharing their secrets on cross-faction fishing.
Ravdoss: "For Alliance, fishing in Orgrimmar is more troublesome. The two pools of water in Orgrimmar are in the Valley of Spirits and the Valley of Honor." It is, especially if you have no stealth ability to get to those fishing spots. A few things I've done to minimize being seen: fishing by the late of night when most foes are fast asleep; Noggenfogger Elixir for the shrink-dink 10-minute effect (plan on buying more than a few in Gadgetzan); cast from a seated position (it works just as well as standing); turn OFF the title to your name, because nothing sticks out more than some huge honking title with your name on one end.
There's little coverage to be had, and I won't give up my choice spots (just in case any Horde happen to be reading.) ;) Happy fishing!
artifex: Don't forget you can tag along with a For The Alliance raiding party. They provide great ironic cover for the Diplomat. Have yet to get Old Crafty, however. :(
Henrah: You can also fish whilst lying down. Just type /lie and then fish away. This works great behind the rocks under the fountain.
If Residue Rendezvous has been giving your ICC raid fits, try these reader suggestions.
Wallert: A little creativity can go along way. Our guild's not so hardcore; we have Festergut on farm but rarely beat the enrage by more than 20 seconds, so a couple of deaths usually means a wipe. We got the weekly to get the debuff off both him and Rotface. We killed Rotface first since he gives us more trouble, downing him after a few wipes. We're having major lag issues, but make our way over to Fester. It goes bad and we lose 3 people to Pungent Blight, causing a wipe. After the groans die down, I ask everyone to check their quest logs -- everyone completed. Demonic Circle outside the door. :)
125 frost badges for the guild made me very popular that night. Of course, being a evil lock, I was just trying to dodge repair bills, but I managed to convince them I'd ran away for the good of the guild. ^^
Andy_C: If this works as you suggest, you're a friggin legend! I guess there's nothing stopping a lock from porting out intentionally after getting the debuff to ensure the quest is completed (usually guaranteeing a wipe, but that might be worth it)? Or am I missing something?
On that note, would a pally bubble or DI do the same thing?
crschmidt: DI/Ice Block/etc. remove debuffs. Feign Death and Evasion both work. I would not be surprised to see these things fixed in 3.3.3 to require you to actually defeat the boss with the debuff or something, but there's been no notice of that yet.
vazhkatsi: Note that we did this a week ago, and you should definitely do it in this order. We had a 10-man with 3 horrible DPS but no hope of replacing them. So we did this so we could do the quest without finishing the bosses off. However, I had a huge repair from us failing 7 times 'cause we either died too fast to get a spore and he ran through the door to swat me, or on Rotface I got an ooze as I was running away.
Goon Squad: harmless annoyance or dirty, rotten scoundrels?
Throckmorton: When I first started playing World of Warcraft back in 2006, I was on Mal'Ganis as Alliance. It was pretty bad. Horde on that realm outnumbered us 3 to 1 and consistently I would be ganked, the mailbox would be covered in Goon Squad alts, the flightmaster in Ironforge would be dead, et cetera. But the fact is, even though I was one of the people who they (and guilds like them) were being "cruel" to, I really didn't mind. It gave me something to do for an hour and took my mind off the monotony of leveling. It was funny. I realize where you are coming from, and it's great you are sticking up for these people (I realm transferred during BC), but it's really not that bad. People need to relax about WoW; it's not like your character is going to lose all his stuff and you have to start from square one. He will still be there when you log back on.
Brett: "Emergent gameplay"? Is that what we're calling weapons-grade jackassery these days? I can't get as exercised about this particular example as the crap these douche nozzles pull in the non-instanced world -- hey, if you want to screw your own raid, feel free. But this isn't some phenomenon that demands a newfangled descriptor from "scientists": it's nothing more complicated than online vandalism by egomaniacal children (in maturity level, if not in age). If these guys weren't playing WoW, they'd be measuring their e-peens by writing malware or hacking web sites. They're a boil on the ass of the user base.
How's your own ass feeling after reading about the Goon Squad's antics?
The lore fanatics were out in force after PC Gamer magazine divulged more details coming in the Cataclysm expansion. Garrosh? Cairne? Everybody has an opinion. Meanwhile, others raised distrustful grumbling about the effects they fear the changes will have on game play.
Radiophonic: So tired of seeing my talent trees "retooled" -- please, just give us a break. I think the only Mastery System here is players' ability to adapt to irritating changes made by game developers.
RobynM: Surprisingly, a lot of this put a damper on my enthusiasm for Cataclysm.
- Number 20 is worrying if they install reputations for Worgen and Goblins, depending on how their starter areas are built. If they're on an inaccessible phase, like the DK starter zone, that'll deprive everyone working on the updated versions of Ambassador of the Alliance/Horde of a significant source of rep.
- Numbers 27 and 30 are troubling. Yeah, they're laden with dramatic conflict, but I'm not sure the devs realize just how unpopular Hellscream is already. Trust me, there's going to be a lot of unforeseen consequences that the devs are going to have to deal with.
- Numbers 31 and 46, particularly in conjunction, are going to make significant portions of the player base -very- unhappy. From the looks of them, it appears that one of the potentially few areas that could be solo-friendly is a PVP zone. Not everyone raids, and even fewer want to be ganked while they're questing, which is why they're not on PVP servers to begin with.
- A particular comment in regard to 46 -- they put the very best sources of a number of high-end resources in Wintergrasp and it still didn't become, by their own admission, the World PVP hub they were hoping for. Maybe that's a clue.
- As for 31, I'm just going to ahead and say it. I'm not thrilled that we're only getting five levels so that the devs could concentrate on yet another huge pile of content I'm never gonna see.
The WoW.com Weird E-mail of the Week
Name: [Redacted]
URL: Medical Alert Systems
Subject:
Will WOW work with medical alert systems. I would like a straight honest answer to this. No double talk. I have just signed up with WOW. I am interested in your reply. Also you could possibly have a new customer. I have no idea what you want (yes-*no) by "remember your info?"
Honestly, if you're looking for a medical alert system, we recommend VuhDo or Grid. We also suspect that you might want to look into beefing up your log-in practices, including checking into an authenticator. Safety first!
Ha, caughtcha looking! Hey, don't scroll away ... Come join the conversation on these and other posts around the WoW.com community. We'll see you around in [1.Local]!Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, [1.Local]
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 4)
SR Mar 14th 2010 5:06PM
Third time replying to this, without going through....
I see his point in this, actually. What I'd like to say is this: If you're gonna QQ about how EASY it is to run a few heroics, do a few 10-man PUG groups, and eventually go up the content, all within a month's worth of casual play, don't QQ at all.
I mean, seriously. I had my hunter ding to 80 4 months ago, and he was Pugging ToC 10/25 easily within the first 3 weeks, and was already seeing ICC 10 by the 4th week. Sure, I understand that people likes leveling, and I have plenty of alts making their way to end-game content, too. But don't cry about stuff you're never gonna see if you won't put any effort into it.
If you're playing a SOCIAL game with SOCIAL INTERACTIONS (Heroics, raids, WG, etc.) and you downright REFUSE to learn your class/optimize it, or make excuses on why you shouldn't, you are not ONLY hindering yourself. You're hindering those around you. If you spend a few days to learn your class mechanics, and figure out your own talents/rotations instead of copy-pasting from a good player, your personal DPS should increase, healing will be more efficient, and surviving as a tank should be easier.
In other words, considering others and putting in your share of the work is what enables you to see end-game content. There's no excuse to be bad.
Hal Mar 14th 2010 7:10PM
The accessibility of end-game content isn't as simple as you guys are making it sound. There are plenty of guilds who are still having trouble downing the LK (much less the pugs), and though the buff will change that, are we as confident about it changing player attitudes? Guilds on my server are only recruiting for hard modes (they want players ready to jump into them), and I have yet to see a pug that was accepting people without ICC achievements.
So, can that content be seen because it's puggable? Absolutely. But as has always been the case, we the players will always be our own worst enemies.
RobynM Mar 14th 2010 8:17PM
Couple things here. First, I'm a she.
Second, where did you ever get the idea that I'm not raiding because I don't know my class? I hate to tell ya, but incompetence is FAR from the only reason people don't raid. And as far as Social goes - all that means is that there are other people around that you can CHOOSE to associate with or not. For a lot of people, it's not.
Yeah, I could be Pugging. According to the Dungeon Finder, my main's qualified for the majority of heroics. However, over the many years I've been gaming, I've had enough bad experiences with PuGs to put me off them for the most part. And frankly, the endless horror stories I see posted here about people being booted for making the tiniest misstep, not being grossly overgeared for the instance, or just plain because someone else wants the loot isn't doing much to assure me that the quality of PuGs has improved.
SR Mar 14th 2010 8:42PM
Robyn, what I'm saying is that if you're competent at your class, there should be no reason why you can't gear up at a reasonable pace. As for the social dungeon finder argument, it's not so hard to please the morons and recruit some of the members to your side of defense by making a friendly approach. Plus, it's not like I've had better PUGs, but my HUNTER geared up faster and better than my DK TANK who's been 80 a lot longer than my hunter. Clearly, gearing up through 5-man PUGs require competence in tolerance as well. I highly doubt you've had 10 bad PUGs in a row, where they'd kick you for having low Gearscore or below-5k DPS.
I'm not saying crappy treatment in the dungeon finder is acceptable. But again, you're playing with other people. Sometimes, you just gotta suck it up and focus on what you want to do, and not let their attitude spoil your wonderful tool for seeing Icecrown Citadel (REGARDLESS of downing the Lich King in PUGs... That's just silly)
PistolPeet Mar 15th 2010 5:48AM
RobynM: Don't let the PuG horror stories on wow.com put you off any content you'd like to see (if you don't want to for other reasons, that's different.) I've had a couple of bad experiences with Dungeon Finder for sure, but the vast percentage of people in my PuGs are very patient and understanding.
I guess it depends on your battlegroup (I'm on Bronze Dragonflight-EU, Cruelty battlegroup) and most people are very friendly, still greed on Frozen Orbs & Books of Glyph Mastery, and generally try to play like decent human beings.
Jade Mar 15th 2010 11:25AM
I am terrible amused that people are, for all intents, arguing semantics.
Let's look at two scenarios.
80-90: Requires for example, 500,000,000 xp. This requires X number of quests, some mob killing, and some quest chains necessary to unlock content (a la Icecrown, storm peaks, etc. A mechanic they seem to be happy with)
80-85 - Requires for example, 500,000,000 xp. This requires X number of quests, some mob killing, and some quest chains necessary to unlock content (a la Icecrown, storm peaks, etc. A mechanic they seem to be happy with)
Notice how similar those look? You could as easily require that hypothetical 500million xp to go from 80-81
The amount of effort, immersion, kills and quests required is _constant_, only the "reward" (i.e. leveling) has been spaced out over 5, instead of 10 levels.
Azairel Mar 14th 2010 2:33PM
Yeah, if you don't like the buff don't use it. That is so simple. I really don't care if another guild downs Lichy or not. It doesn't make me respect them anymore than I do anybody else. I think all people that paid for their game should get a chance at seeing the endgame content. Some people have real lives, Jobs, and families and can't dedicate themselves to be hardcore. Which of course some hardcore members can juggle a real life. But some does not have the time.
Numb Mar 14th 2010 2:42PM
As I said in the original raid buff topic - the only real issue with the buff is that it exists in heroic. The whole point of the heroic versions was to cater to the hardcore types.... So imho, keep the buff as is working on the normal mode, remove from heroic mode.
Jay Mar 14th 2010 7:37PM
Why? The more hardcore can still do it without the buff, you know... for the challenge, for knowing that they can in their own minds.
The real point is that they want extra loot or titles for doing it, so they can still prove they are better. Greedy elite e-peen stroking is what it all boils down too.
They are annoyed more than anything their one claim to fame can now be done by scrubs.
SamLowry Mar 14th 2010 11:46PM
Heh heh heh: Revenge of the Scrubs, Heroic Version!
QQinsider Mar 15th 2010 3:07PM
@Jay: No, they want hard mode to mean, y'know, hard.
The reason for the buff is so that as many people as possible can eventually see the Lich King fight. This is a great idea and I completely agree with it, but's there's no reason at all why it should apply to heroic mode too.
And yes, people do hard mode for the challenge and to prove they're better, and this doesn't affect players doing the normal version AT ALL, so why are you so bothered about them? Looks like a case of e-peen envy to me.
Ian Mar 14th 2010 2:52PM
I don't see that this is any different than a gear upgrade. If you're willing to refuse gear upgrades until you take down Arthas, then your arguments about the buff making things too easy have validity. Otherwise, you're simply saying that one buff is okay, and another one is bad.
Specifically, the buff that everybody gets is the bad one.
I really don't know why it bothers people that others can get through content without doing as much work. How exactly does it affect your existence?
Malkavos Mar 14th 2010 3:07PM
It severely diminishes their ability to feel like a special and unique snowflake.
alpha5099 Mar 14th 2010 2:55PM
I don't really see why people are quite so upset by the idea that Hellscream will be taking power. It's as though they think Blizzard wants us to like him. They know he's unpopular, and it's not like anything he's rumored to be doing is going to endear us to him. Blizzard does not want you to like Hellscream. Hellscream will be a thorn in the Horde's side, and will have to be dealt with. They're telling a story, and not everyone is a good guy.
I fully expect there to be a questline at some point in Cataclysm where players have to depose Hellscream, if not outright assassinate him.
Mognet T Mar 18th 2010 3:13AM
I pray to the Earthmother you are right.
wutsconflag Mar 14th 2010 3:02PM
Fishing in Orgrimmar the easy way (for Alliance):
Grab the food that makes you untrackable. Go to the Valley of Spirits and hide behind the building that has all the Horde portals in it. Fish.
Done correctly, you'll be far enough away from any NPCs so you won't aggro guards and most Horde won't even notice you there. The food also makes you untrackable.
Avan Mar 14th 2010 6:37PM
I don't need tracking to read the combat log.
omedon666 Mar 14th 2010 3:03PM
"As for 31, I'm just going to ahead and say it. I'm not thrilled that we're only getting five levels so that the devs could concentrate on yet another huge pile of content I'm never gonna see."
I'm not a raider, so I SHOULD be getting up in arms on this angle too, BUT...
The random instance finder, the fact that blizz is even remotely considering it, speaks quite strongly to just how far they may bend to put raiding in reach of the vast majority, even more than WOTLK did. That Blizz is even considering a random raid finder suggests a "double size 5-man" raid model, that can function in a void of ventrilo, in the presence of language barriers, or just in a general "I'm your random raid leader, but I don't work for blizz, so I don't have to communicate with you, pulling..." vein, and have raid bosses going down.
I think blizz is finally realizing there is a serious lack of "safe ramp up" for the aquisition of raid-specific skills. We all know gear
omedon666 Mar 14th 2010 3:04PM
So ya... it cut off my comment... re-typing
omedon666 Mar 14th 2010 3:11PM
I think blizz is finally realizing there is a serious lack of "safe ramp up" for the aquisition of raid-specific skills. We all know gear