Tuesday Morning Post: Call to Arms edition
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Apr 12th 2011 at 7:00AM
If you're getting tired of all the hubbub, though, don't despair. There's plenty of other news to review and discuss as well, and we have the usual roundup ready to go. This week marks a return to server downtime starting at 5 a.m. Pacific and continuing until 11 a.m. Pacific, so you should have time to read it all.
Hot news and features
- Patch 4.1 continues to be updated on the PTR. One of the newest additions is a nice little resort town.
- Check out the patch 4.1 PTR patch note updates for April 7.
- Patch 4.1 will let you convert PvE currency to PvP currency.
- The Wailing Caverns are getting a makeover in patch 4.1
- The WoW Archivist explores the Karazhan Crypt.
- Round 4 of Ask the Devs features your armor and weapon questions.
- Blizzard had a few words to say this week about Savage Defense and other tanking concerns.
- Blue poster Bashiok spoke out recently on WoW's difficulty.
- Blizzard's released more information about the upcoming remote mobile guild chat feature.
- Cryptozoic has released official information on the WoW TCG War of the Elements expansion, including loot card info.
- Totem Talk looks at pre-raid gemming and enchanting for restoration. We also have a guide to gearing your low-level enhancement shaman.
- Lichborne looks at gemming, reforging, and other stat tweaks for blood death knights.
- Shifting Perspectives has a feral weapon retrospective and a roundup of moonkin mailbag answers. We also have more feral cat raiding tips.
- Encrypted Text takes a look at rogue stats.
- Spiritual Guidance continues our shadow priest guide to raiding Blackwing Descent. We also have a Lightwell manifesto.
- The Light and How to Swing it discusses hitting the avoidance sweet spot. We also take a look at holy paladin stats.
- Raid Rx helps you determine healing spell priorities.
- Arcane Brilliance suggests some fire tree tweaks.
- The Care and Feeding of Warriors continues teaching you about Cataclysm tanking.
- Blood Pact has some suggestions for the affliction tree.
- Ready Check discusses recovering from a bad raid night.
- Gold Capped discusses alchemist overload, the price of gems in patch 4.1, and tailoring profits.
- Addon Spotlight introduces ReforgeSaver.
- The Overachiever helps you grab some Northrend mounts.
- Blood Sport wishes arenas were more like rated battlegrounds.
- WoW Rookie has part 1 of a newbie PvP guide.
- Know Your Lore has more words on Sylvanas, as well as an in-depth look at the Van Cleefs and the new Westfall.
- The Lawbringer discusses the concept of avatar rights.
Filed under: Realm Status, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Al Apr 12th 2011 7:17AM
Made the mistake of stopping by the forums while checking Shut-down, and even for that place there's some serious pissing and moaning.
"All DPSer's, we need to only do guild runs until this is revoked."
"DPSer's, we need to boycott anything"
"Waah, Waah, Waah!"
So I got to wondering, do these people drop group if a Shield drops? "WTF? They're favouring Tanks by not dropping weapons! I could at least Need roll on Stamina trinkets, but no!"
Leliana Apr 12th 2011 9:23AM
Imo, if DPS start boycotting random queues, wouldn't that lower the queue times, and thus CTA will have the desired effect?
I don't see the logic...
Alchemistmerlin Apr 12th 2011 7:37AM
If the goodie bag is a bribe, does that mean loot is also a bribe?
"God damn it! This boss dropped the shoulders I needed! F@*% Blizzard, I am not a hooker!"
Amaxe Apr 12th 2011 10:49AM
No. Loot is a goal. Goodie bags are incentives to even bother to show up and then to stick it out to the end. Big difference.
Alchemistmerlin Apr 12th 2011 7:45AM
I'm saying this as someone who mained a Tank through BC and Wrath, Tanks are not special. You're just another player, and you have a job to do. I've certainly met a number of "special" tanks in my time slumming it as a healer, but the role is not inherently special.
If a class role is, in fact, singularly more important than the other two, then the game itself is broken. It is simply bad design to have one player be innately more important than others.
If you'd really like proof that tanks are no more special than the other roles, go try and run a heroic sans DPS, or sans Healer. All the roles are necessary.
quams Apr 12th 2011 7:50AM
I am a tank. IMHO CTA is nice, but as Stella Khatibi already stated, it doesn't solve the problem. The low brain usage with DPS is the problem. Nothing else.
What I am currently doing, when using the dungeon finder is, that I tolerate one comment of the kind "go go go" - "I Don't need CC" - "I don't care abour marks" etc. Thats when I warn them, I don't tolerate this behaviour, because it ruins my fun, and WOW is a hobby not work. The second time I read it in the group chat, I give the group 30s for a kick vote of the IMHO misbehaving member. If they don't want to, I leave. I don't care about the 15min block. There is always another daily or archaelogy waiting...
It works for me. I don't need CTA...
Neyssa Apr 12th 2011 8:05AM
Some of my ideas, and my solutions as well:
1) Blizzard's solution
The goodie bag is really irrelevant: just as some blog said, you either give mounts/pets a very low drop rate (and then I dont want to try to get it) or higher drop rate (and you would stop queueing as soon as you get it).
2) Not properly geared tanks for goodie bag
Call to Arms: Tank will only increase the number of tanks not ready for HC's (they get the ilvl from PVP gear anyways). Somehow LFG should check your TANKING gear. They will only queue for the bag and the insta queue, not being able to finish the dungeon, and the rest of the party is stuck there until a new tank comes.
My solution: this new call to arms should add a buff to that player, like Luck of the Draw. Extra hp, avoidance. It would help poorly geared tanks get into trying it. LFG tank queue should not be filled with epixxx tanks coming for pet/mount, but with fresh people WANTING to tank. Some extra buff would help them not to be afraid.
3) Looting problem
If you queue as dps, you should not need roll on tank gear if the tank needs it. Its ugly. It should be forbidden like armor type. But you cannot queue as a tank until you have the gear.
My solution: I dont know if its possible already, but provide good, affordable crafted gear to start tanking (FOR EVERY SLOT). I remember my druid loving Heavy Clefthoof set in BC. I know BS can already do all kind of stuff, but dont forget to add trinkets, weapons, relics. It would also be a nice income to those professions. It should be somewhere in the range of 5000 g to get good crafted gear, which would be sufficient for a HC. Everyone can farm that much money for insta-queueing.
!4) DPS are stupid/ agressive / not paying attention
First of all thats not really true, morons are morons in any role. However, about stupid dps standing in fire:
why does 'fire' has to decrease your health (which is then the job of the healer to fill up)? Make 'fire' (or any ugly thing you should not stand in) stun you, reduce your energy bar to zero, give you an undispellable debuff for minus attack power, spell power, whatever. Make 'fire' hurt your personal dps, not your hp.
Wolfshanze Apr 12th 2011 8:32AM
"My solution: I dont know if its possible already, but provide good, affordable crafted gear to start tanking (FOR EVERY SLOT)."
There is already the "Hardened Obsidium" tanking armor set from Blacksmiths, which is a head-to-toe (with shield if needed) tanking starter set for Cat dungeons. The entire set is craftable and available at lvl-80 (all pieces) for a reasonable amount of mats. Pieces range from item-level 289 to 308. This is more then enough to get any tank into a good set of armor for tanking Cat normals at lvl-80. From there (if they are serious about tanking), they should be able to get better tanking gear as they tank the Cat dungeons.
This is a continuation of the Northrend "get your tank started" blacksmithing philosophy that was started with the head-to-toe level-70 "Cobalt" tanking armor set when you started Northrend.
Mamaryno Apr 12th 2011 8:12AM
Tanks are important, yes, but not so special that they dont have to communicate. Not so special that they can act like prima donnas/asshats and that they are doing the group a favor by their mere presence. Yes let the tanks get aggro, but tanks dont drop aggro on one mob so you can pull the next. I cant read the mind of someone god knows where. Tanks let your group know what you're planning.
Keep in mind that some in the group have mana to deal with and for the love of pete PROTECT YOUR HEALER. A group with out a tank wont get through fast but a group without a healer is, well, dead. Not all healers can heal while running so if you want your precious tank tush kept alive, watch out for your healer.
extra Incentives for healers and tanks? Yes. good idea. We DPSers will get ours by not having a looooong que (in theory).
Koleckai Apr 12th 2011 8:19AM
As a tank, I don't really care for the Call to Arms and don't think it will fix anything. Much more e joy able to queue with friends and not deal with Jerk X from server XYZ. I wish they would add the option to restrict LFD to your server. I understand that would result in a queue, even for tanks, but I would rather be able to hold people accountable for their actions.
Shinae Apr 12th 2011 9:57AM
Actually, as a tank, you can easily form a realm-members-only group for a random. Announce in Trade or LFG channels that you're a tank looking to group for a random heroic (if you don't have enough people in your guild or friends list, that is). As it is, people offer gold to tanks for queueing together; they'll jump at the chance to get it free.
You get the same rewards from doing a pre-made random as you do from a PUG random. You'll only miss out on the PUG HP/DMG buff, whoopdedoo. Seeing how my friends list has been dwindling in active members lately, I might try this to meet new people on my realm.
Moridin Apr 12th 2011 8:19AM
I tanked most of the first 3 months in cata and decided to give my warlock some love in dungeon running. I stared at my screen in aghast after getting deadmines twice for randoms. First group dissipates after the tank leaves and the second group dissipates at COOKIE?! Because the 2nd tank looked like a half and half dk of dps/prot...
What I want as a dps is to be put back in the front of the queue if my group falls To pieces in the beginning or if I don't complete my random but do not get deserter.
Keep in mind I gave friendly advice or at least tried even though the tank didn't know what to do but insisted on just pulling bosses without me finishing the basics.
Why queue if you aren't going to listen?
thawedtheorc Apr 12th 2011 8:24AM
For those players who never play tank or healer, you have no real reason to gripe. You are like people who whine about the government, but never vote.
Blizz has done a helluva a lot to make 5mans and Heroics so accessible now. Yet so many still complain.
There is really only so much they can do, save creating AI/Bots for tanking. Good Lord if that ever happens.
msh005 Apr 12th 2011 8:33AM
I agree 100% with the call to arms. The reasons are tanking is the most gear dependent spec ever. Always has been and seems like it always will be. So not only do have to get a spec that you are not allowed to pvp in (everyone complains if you anything close to viable.) but you have to get a gear set that can do heroics or raids that's it. Now you finally managed to get a good set and want to raid? Oh you are S.O.L my friend, guilds only need 3 tanks, not like the 15 to 20 dps they need. So if you want to be viable for a guild not only do you get tank gear and learn that BUT you get dps gear too.
Not only is it hard to more into endgame as a tank, it is stressful. Who is the one marking in heroics? Who is the one explaining the start? Who is the one that gets blames when dps pop all their cool downs at the start and pull?
I have alts that are dps and heroics are so worry free for me, I usually watch a movie at the same time. I will admit as soon as I got the gear I needed I never queued as a tank again for heroics because I would rather enjoy my time on the game and tanking for pugs is not enjoyable or rewarding enough.
Gath Apr 12th 2011 8:45AM
lmao no one is more important than anyone, everyone is as important as anyone else. in Cataclysm, the new wow hopeful idea is to "make" everyone get along and work together using the "role" you rolled. Everyone is as important as everyone else in any raid BG or dungeon. PERIOD ...all you need to do is know your role, if yer' a hunter ...make sure you are killing all the ads, protecting the healer, and "Allowing" yes allowing the tank their proper aggro threat. many hunters as well as healers have more threat than your tank will. so know your role, take yer' pet off "growl"... set yer focus on yer tank and use deterrence on him ...there are many ways to alleviate your own threat, feign death after you drag a mob to your tank, disengage, etc etc. a tank needs only one thing, healz... and better communication, i have a dk tank and i used to feel superior to any other class, now? after cata, i realize that each one of my toons is as important in their role as any toon in the group. So this is to EVERYone ...don't go thinking you're more important than ANYone, we're ALL important. now all bullshit aside, lets communicate better, defend better and attack TB better, and for pete'sake leave the damned LH alone and hold WW and the mines lolz bye bye
Gath Apr 12th 2011 8:58AM
but yeah, as a DK tankola, my Que time is at the most, 2 seconds ...my hunter? lawl...time stands still. 40-45 minutes every single time, it sucks Borean moose balls, and wastes wayyy too much time,
IMO
I know Blizzard relies on making this game last as long as possible, but at the same time, they need to disregard their unexpected windfall of this entire last 20 years and stop reaching for their next monetary level and just level off and fly level financially/profitably and allow us to enjoy less time having to Q or get the things done that blizzard intentionally slows down ingame, which is only designed for one thing... monetary gain. so ....if they'll be willing to level off their profit making they would be able to speed things up, but fat chance now that they've hit the bell at the stock market, they are a global financial asset to wall street, so you have the devil in one hand offering you the world on a silver platter and then on the other hand you have the losers...i mean players :)...who will not ever be rich..but will forever be kept stifled ingame just to keep our money comin' in ;) and we as players will jus keep playing no matter what happens, cuz we love the game. IMO
coville Apr 12th 2011 9:05AM
There is too much generalization going on with this issue. Dungeons are a team effort and each roll is important. Hutners pull with traps, Healers determine the pace the group moves at, Mages/Locks control AOE and Tanks are pin cushions.
I love the LFG feature and it has brought much enjoyment for me. My main is a hunter and I can tell you that I have encountered jerks in all roles. I have made mistakes myself and have encountered the smart tanks that say "NP, Try not to do that again." and I have encountered that tanks that ruin the atmosphere and say "stupid huntard."
You want a friendly pug then be friendly and supportive. You get out of it what you put into it. If your a tank and you treat the rest of your team as your survants, then a hunter may pull extra mobs just to watch you die and the healer may spend more time healer the hunters pet to see you cry.
The reason we are seeing a shortage of tanks is that it is not as fun to play for a majority of players. People vote with their time and most people would rather spend their time with cool pets, awesome spells or powerful heals than standing in the middle of mobs being pounded on.
I am fine with the CTA feature and I am interested to see how it works out, I am leveling up a DK tank to take advantage of the system. But if Blizzard really wants to fix the problem of a lack of tanks over the long run, they need to look at how to make them more fun to play.
Moridin Apr 12th 2011 9:12AM
This game doesn't need 12 million subs to keep the game alive. More like 4 and they would still turn profit. Blizzard makes more money in micro transactions than subs. But profitability is a subject for a different day. This is about the impact that CTA is going to have on 5 mans, not raiding as that's the individuals responsibility if they want to raid.
So yes 5 man heroics are important as they get players ready for raiding but I don't queue for heroics when raiding gets me all the VP I need. Part of Blizzards design flaw was a cap on VP accruement even though you can only get so much. Drop the VP cap and you will have me tanking 5 mans again. Having 3 specs to be viable and only getting one piece every 2 weeks is a dumb way to handicap and pidgeon hole players into tanking.
Kaylad Apr 12th 2011 9:53AM
I heal. But I can't heal stupid and I refuse to take the blame when stupid dies. I'll only run as a healer with guildmates and friends. The tanks and healers that I know that have forsworn using LFD for anything other than a DPS alt, have all done so because they are fed up with the abuse they receive at the hands of, mostly, the DPS. No bribe of the sort that has been proposed is ever going to convince us to start queuing as tank or healer for pugs again.
If Blizz really wants to "fix" the problem of tanks and healers not queuing, they need to address the problem of the abuse. But that would take a lot of GMs actually investigating tickets to see if a complaint is valid and taking appropriate action (perhaps a sliding scale of penalties for type of abuse and a player's history). It would take Blizz employing a lot more GMs _and_ it would take a change away from the ridiculous "we can't tell you what action we have taken *blah*blah*" responses that they send out and to letting the person complaining know whether a) their complaint was found to be valid and b) that the culprit has been penalised in some way.
But it would cost them too much and take too long. As ever with large companies they were trying to find a cheap(er) technical solution to a non-technical problem.
Hrothgar Apr 12th 2011 3:01PM
I'm totally behind your idea of penalizing DPS for abusive actions during runs. But, in the name of fairness, let the GMs also be responsible for penalizing the following:
Healers that are watching American Idol during a run and phoning it in.
Tanks that ignore when a DPS suggests that they can provide CC
Tanks that chain pull while the healer is at 20% mana
Healers that spam smite and ignore healing the ranged
Hired tanks that zone in and immediately leave group
Tanks that only run the bosses they want to run and ignore the requests from the rest of the group
Healers that PvE in PvP gear
Healers that won't buff
Tanks that won't buff
Tanks that won't wait for a mage to drop a table at the beginning of a run
Tanks that won't wait for a warlock to drop a soulstone
H Priests that won't drop a Lightwell
Tanks that need on DPS gear
Tanks that flip out when a DPS asks if they can roll need on their tank spec, even when the tank has already rolled DE
Heals that won't get out of the fire and let themselves die
Heals that won't heal themselves
Priest that won't fade
Heals that won't observe range restrictions
Tanks that won't pull the boss out of fire
Tanks that won't watch the entire area and refuses to pick up mobs that peal onto the healer
Tanks that won't wait for the whole group to loot
Tanks that geared up in 5 days giving grief to DPS that require more time to catch up
etc, etc, ad infinitum
You see, the bottom line is You, yes YOU are not special. I am not special. WE are supposed to be a team. You rolled a tank but that doesn't mean you know how to be a leader. You rolled a healer but that doesn't mean you are the smartest person in the group.