Ol' Grumpy's first week with Patch 4.1
by Matthew Rossi 
May 2nd 2011 at 7:00PM
This time, I'm here to explain how to adjust to the new realities of patch 4.1, our two new heroic instances Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman, and our Call to Arms feature in the dungeon finder. I've noticed some weeping, some wailing, and some gnashing of teeth over these new introductions with the passing of our first week with patch 4.1, and I'm here to help.
First off, calm down already. The Call to Arms feature didn't trap you in a deserted old house outside of town and murder everyone from the camp but you and that cute guy you've always liked from the other camp. It didn't steal your dog, kick your car, or write nasty things about your ma and pa on the back of the barn, either. And while both ZA and ZG provide more challenge than the previous tier of heroics, they didn't steal your cattle or set your grave on fire, either. In short, the level of consternation and yes, even whining about this has been entirely over the top. These instances are puggable with a little luck and some work, and CTA has shortened queue times, which was its only real goal.
So what should you do? Well, being an irascible old curmudgeon, I will happily tell you what to do. Especially if it keeps you off of my lawn. My wife just planted roses! Stay off!
The panic, it is unnecessary
I've always found that perception can easily trump reality. One of the indisputable and easily collected pieces of information for this patch is queue times. Are they shorter? Almost universally, the reports are that they are. Does that mean that CTA isn't an unvarnished attempt to bribe tank capable players into tanking? Nope. it absolutely is. It's bribery. It neither addresses nor even attempt to address any of the underlying causes (whatever they are) of the tanking (and to a lesser extent, healing) shortages. My point here is twofold.
- The situation is no worse than it was before CTA. Whatever the issues for the tank shortage might be, CTA doesn't exacerbate them in any way -- even if it doesn't fix them, either.
- Before CTA, you were just as likely to get a bad tank as a good one as you are now. The difference is, now the tank is more likely to stay to the end so that he or she can collect the bribe.
The LFD system and the CTA feature have never promised you anything but a group. All this does is try and motivate people to fill the least-filled role in the system. That's it. The sky's not falling; dogs and cats still haven't gotten timeshares. We've seen some queue improvement, and that's about all we can really say.
New instances: Harder -- and that's fine
Back in late December and early January, pugging the previous tier of heroics was often a painful horror show of broken CC, unused CC, healers going OOM and people blaming each other as fast as they could. Over time, as gear improved and players learned to adjust to the new paradigm, stuff got easier. Well-geared players could CC less and use more AoE. This was intentional; as gear improved, we were supposed to start having a slightly easier time. The Luck of the Draw buff helped as well.
With the introduction of ZG and ZA, players are once again getting a taste of what we experienced back in those earlier times. It's not really as marked because we are, generally, better geared now, but it's useful to know your CC and learn the encounters, and there's some wiping involved in that process.
Frankly, I have never seen players more likely to fall apart over a wipe than I am seeing now. I do not understand this mentality. I'm not talking giving up on a group because it wipes six times on the trash leading up to Venoxis. I'm talking dropping a group because it wiped once on Mandokir due to a miscommunication on how the new mechanics work so that no one realized they needed to kill Ohgan when he gets rezzed, or dropping after two chains are down on phase 2 Jindo because someone got unlucky trying to kite adds. In general, taking any excuse to bail on a mostly successful run because any mistake is too much. The acrimony and blame gaming is at an all time high.
This crap needs to end. No matter where you are in current raid progression, no matter how awesome you think you are, no matter what you think of the rest of the group -- if you think the slightest mistake is grounds for a tantrum, don't queue. You're just a sucking chest wound on the run, frankly, and you should go find something else to do with your too-awesome-for-the-group self. Either put your head down and do your job, or save us the time and effort of having to deal with you.
Patch 4.1 didn't destroy the world, pugging, or group dynamics. Players might manage it, but the patch didn't.
WoW Patch 4.1 is live, and WoW Insider has all the latest news for you -- from guides of the revamped Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub to new valor point mechanics and new archaeology items.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
wutsconflag May 2nd 2011 7:09PM
I wish you could post this bit in LARGE BOLD FONT, twice:
"This crap needs to end. No matter where you are in current raid progression, no matter how awesome you think you are, no matter what you think of the rest of the group -- if you think the slightest mistake is grounds for a tantrum, don't queue. You're just a sucking chest wound on the run, frankly, and you should go find something else to do with your too-awesome-for-the-group self. Either put your head down and do your job, or save us the time and effort of having to deal with you."
QftMFT
Scunosi May 2nd 2011 7:58PM
This is a rather succinct way of saying what I actually wrote (but didn't post) in 4-5 pages for my guild's raiders. My realm is Heroics now, and I hate tanking for Heroic-Raiders who refuse to CC, ignore what I tell them to do and blame me when they pull aggro. It seems there's a lot of "pros" out there who just end up causing more problems than good when they enter a dungeon that they frankly don't belong in.
Remember, you may be the star of your raid, but in a Heroic 5-man it takes all 5 people to complete it, not just one guy running around AoEing mobs.
TonyMcS May 2nd 2011 8:55PM
Good advice but unfortunately they won't read it and even if they did, their definition of slightest mistake is not yours ;-)
Does anyone disagree that participation is down, that once mighty guilds are out poaching? Aren't most guilds having problems filling raids? The elephant in the room is the lack of people logging-in.
Lack of tanks is also a constant problem which Blizz has "addressed" by trying to bribe the tank. They've changed RDF to try and use people from the same server first - another attempt to mitigate the awfulness of pugs by trying to reduce the anonymity.
Yet the lack of people still remains.
Heroics are expected to be difficult, but the Cata ones require knowledge, skill and teamwork. In addition, even without wiping umteen times, they are comparatively long. The tank is expected to know the dungeon, call for CC (and know all the CCs) and put up with the GOGOGO guy that seems to always appear. Instant abuse seems tied to the RNG as it doesn't seem to matter what you do, someone will regard it as wrong.
To "fix" this Blizz has provided even harder heroics, that are just as long. New content, even recycled, is good, but most people will be waiting until 4.2 until real content appears.
I'm now playing a meta game of gearing my prot pally without doing heroics. Up to around 352 so far, so I can at least participate in the few guild raids that happen.
I think all of this could be fixed by just making the heroics shorter. I don't mind the challenge, and I could put up with the abuse, if they weren't so damned long.
mibu.work1 May 3rd 2011 9:39AM
I agree completely, and I LOVE the new heroics, as they have the same feel as the old raids, just different mechanics and updated systems. The Mandikor fight in particular is my favorite, and I would happily see that arena enlarged and the fight turn into a raid. That said, I've been lucky with any group getting past Venoxis. Most of the time, it's a tank who thinks he can Avengers Shield/Heroic Leap/whatever into a group of Mobs and then expect the group, many of whom have never seen the dungeon and don't know the mechanics, to just mop up with no kill order, no CC, and no assignments for inturrupts, dispels, or whathave you. I have also had a bad rash of healers who don't heal Toxic Link victims as long as the tank is topped off, will attempt to heal through avoidable damage (the mojo-wave on the panther boss), and will life-grip people back towards the Berserker adds. I find myself unwilling to PuG those dungeons simply because of the MASSIVE headache inherent with getting just ONE bad player who doesn't know their rotation, their class, their spec, or even their role, and it seems these people are popping up more frequently than ever.
Xotzalqual May 3rd 2011 9:12AM
Someone said to me once: "We don't have to like eachother to achieve a goal. It makes it more enjoyable, but at the end of the day we can complete our task and move on."
This is true, however, I spent about 2 hours yesterday in a PUG that was going through tanks like it was popcorn. Finally we got a tank that was a mouthy little leet imp and started annoying the other players. Finally on the last boss I couldn't take it anymore and left group. I stuck it out, but eventually too much is just too much and some players really make it difficult to remain civil.
I would say: "If you have nothing positive to put forth, then say nothing at all".
That's not to say don't criticize, just do it in a respectful and positive way rather than "You noob, you suck and can't DPS worth your salt". It might be true, but it's also not a productive statement.
-X
Monato May 3rd 2011 3:13PM
Wish I could up-vote this sentiment a few dozen more times.
Eliel May 2nd 2011 7:12PM
The bribe has worked on me, I'm farming orbs, and before I'd have just dpsed the instances, now I'm tanking them. (but not the new ones, I'm greedy, not crazy)
Eirik May 3rd 2011 4:18PM
What bribe, then? AFAIK, the CTA only applies to the ZG/ZA heroics, not the earlier ones.
Steve May 3rd 2011 4:59PM
Ditto for me. Tanking the regular heroics is still nice and easy (in general, but still dependent on the pug's not being complete idiots), but the Zandalari heroics I just queue DPS for... And while I'm waiting, I go and do quests. Works out for everyone (well, probably mostly me)!
Talia May 3rd 2011 6:41PM
@Eirik - No, it applies to all of them. It's just not always up. I have definitely seen it on the finder for a non-Zandalar heroic, though.
vitamink May 2nd 2011 7:17PM
This is all too true regarding the ZA/ZG dungeons. Yes, they're a little more difficult, but it's ridiculous that out of a couple dozen runs I can't seem to find a group that's willing to stick together. Still yet to completely finish one because every time it turns into a bunch of name-calling and bashing.
alieria May 2nd 2011 7:18PM
As a counterpoint, isn't it *our* time we're talking about here? I'm willing to wipe a few times if the group is honestly trying, but as an example: joining a ZA group on a pally alt, we wiped twice on bear gauntlet due to people rushing ahead and just generally thinking they could just faceroll it. I stuck it out, killed bear, then dropped group. I didn't feel as if the frustration I knew was coming for the rest of the run was worth the run itself.
I guess what I'm asking is at what point is it okay to leave the group?
Mathbear May 2nd 2011 7:23PM
I would say the key is to be a little more patient than you want to be. Set a number of wipes ahead of time, then add 2 more.
h3lladvocate May 2nd 2011 7:25PM
On the same "time" concept. I have one rule when running these things, I want what I was promised. Meaning until they fix the bugs, if someone drops group and the CTA is no longer available when we requeue, I'm leaving. I didn't join to gear yall up, I joined for the bribe, and I will stay as long as I get that bribe. It sounds selfish, and it is, but people have to understand that the people who join for the CTA are there FOR the CTA, not for you to get your purpz. It is a lot faster to requeue sometime and get a better group than to deal with people who jump over the maze, or people who jump into ZA in there mixmash of blue PvP gear and expect a good time.
Matthew Rossi May 2nd 2011 8:12PM
As I argued in the post, I'm not talking about six or seven wipes on trash, or constant inability to grasp basic mechanics. I'm talking "one wipe and out" mentality. Frankly, one or two wipes learning a new instance is NOT BAD.
nydgirl May 2nd 2011 7:18PM
Kudos Ol'Grumpy
Harithing May 2nd 2011 7:22PM
the biggest problem I've seen do far is the douchebag 'need' rolls on epic BOE drops. Kicked a tank with 359 gear needing 353 tank bracers. She put them on the AH before logging.
Gennifurfur May 2nd 2011 7:25PM
I thought that they were going to change it so that if you needed on BOEs they instantly become soulbound. Did that change not happen?
Merch May 2nd 2011 7:53PM
I thought need rolls made items BOP now?
wutsconflag May 2nd 2011 7:55PM
@Gennifurfur:
I was under that same impression, and have the same question.