Posts with tag Method

It's over. We'd predicted that we would get him this week, and after two pulls it was done. We are now the only people in the world to have killed the last boss of tier 15.

The European raiding team Method had a chance to interview Ion Hazzikostas, World of Warcraft's Lead Encounter Designer. Most of the discussion centered around the recently released item upgrade system that came in patch 5.1. One of the more interesting tidbits is how item rewards and raids are slightly different in Asia compared to the European and North American regions.

Ion Hazzikostas

How does the upgrading system work on the Asian servers? From what I have seen their items are upgradable not 2, but 4 times. Won't this result in a problem while tuning the bosses of the next content?

Ion: The way it works in Asia, we actually use the upgrade system to create the distinction between 10 player and 25 player that we previously announced for 5.1. So in Korea, Taiwan and China, when you kill a boss in 25 player mode, it drops an item that is already 2/4. So instead of 496, it drops as 504 but can be upgraded 2 more times, so effectively they are 8 ilvls higher but you are still only upgrading any item twice. The other thing that is changed in 5.1, is actually that all 25 player bosses have 8% more health and do 8% more damage, than they do in the US or Europe. It is a bit more like the Wrath of the Lich King system, where 25man is just harder and drops higher item level loot but in theory doing 25 player with 25 player loot in Asia should be the same as doing 25 with 25 loot in Europe/US.

source

Items that drop in 10-man raids have 0/2 upgrades. Items that drop in 25 man raids have 2/4 upgrades. This is similar to the Wrath of the Lich King model of rewards. Blizzard has already stressed that Asian realms aren't used as "experimental realms" for possible system changes in other regions around the world. In other words, it isn't likely that we'll see these types of reward systems in place anytime soon. But it's an interesting solution to the whole 10 man vs 25 man raiding issue and logistics incentives.

The interview dove into other topics such as:

• Brawler's Guild
• Dominance Offensive
• Current raiding discussion

To those of you who play on Asian realms, we'd love to hear from you regarding your raiding experiences and this reward structure. 25-man raids seems to be the dominant raiding format compared to 10-man raids in that region.

Live PvP competition is old hat. 2009 appears to be the year of PvE (if you ask me, every year should be that year). At the Games Convention Online, in Leipzig over the weekend of July 31 – August 2, two of the strongest PvE guilds in the world, Ensidia and Method, are competing in a timed run of Ulduar.

It's going to be on 10-man, which is kind of strange, given that most people (and especially hardcore raiders) seem to think of the 25-man version as the "real" version of the raid. Maybe they wanted it to be easier for spectators to follow the action.

Points will be awarded for killing end bosses of a "zone" faster than the other guild, with points increasing from zone to zone. I'm guessing that by "zone" the press release refers to the Siege, the Antechamber, the Keepers, and the Descent into Madness, but the translation is not perfect - I could be wrong.

The Ensidia/Method matchup is going to be on August 2nd; as a prelude, two German guilds (Irae AoD and For the Horde) are going to compete on the same event on August 1st. Apparently the raids will be streaming live on allvatar.com, although I can't really get very far on that site - WTB English translation. Does anyone know if it will be free to watch or not?

What can you do with $10,000? You can buy a nice used car, five awesome computer systems, 2,000 Happy Meals or 40,000 gumballs. You can also apparently become the best geared rogue in the world.

Zeuzo, a rogue from Method on Sylvanas-EU, has reportedly sold his account for 7000 euro, or $9,500. Zeuzo's gear includes the legendary sword set Twin Blades of Azzinoth, 4/5 Tier 6, and many other Hyjal/BT loots. The new owner has transferred to Kazzak and is happily PVPing (reportedly quite badly) under the name Shaks.

I would have assumed that Method would be about ready to kill Zeuzo for profiting off of their guild's hard work, but forum rumor has it that Zeuzo's now playing a brand new rogue in Method. So they can't be too mad at him. If someone in my guild was able to get $10,000 for their account, I certainly wouldn't fault them selling it ... particularly if they cut me in on a share of the profits.

One more interesting thing: looking at Shaks' profile, it hasn't been updated since September 3rd. Considering all the publicity this has gotten, there's a good chance that Blizzard has banned the account, and Shaks is 7000 euros poorer while Zeuzo's laughing at him from a beach in Cancun.

Naturally members of the guild contacted a GM, but to no avail. It was a whole day before the guild finally got resolution. They did get a mail message though that told them that their loot would indeed be delivered. World of Raids says Method received a Krakken-Heart Breastplate and Gauntlets of the Crestfall amongst other things. Congrats to them for getting their just rewards. If you're interested in learning more details about the fight, Method will be interviewed by WoW Radio on May 13^th at 12:30 EST. I'm sure they'll have some fascinating insights.

[via World of Raids]