guild-banks
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Blizzard clarifies concerns over guild banks
Gnome bankers still look shifty to me. As excited as most WoW players are about about trying out the new guild bank system in patch 2.3, the prospect of having rogue guild leaders cut and run with the guild's loot, or worse yet delete their characters, is on the minds of many players. (It makes you wonder why people join a guild at all if they suspect the leader is going to rob them of the fruits of their collective efforts, but I digress.)Salthem, a moderator on the European PTR forums, has tried to ease player fields by offering some clarifications about the way guild banks work. First of all, players are not allowed to delete or transfer characters with guild leader status. When a new player is given the role of guild leader, they gain complete access to the stores of the bank. If a guild leader character is banned (which I can't imagine happens a lot, but it's possible), a GM can give leadership to somebody with the guild. If a guild is disbanded, the guild leader receives all the items in the mail.So in the end, the guild leader is still quite capable of just dissolving the guild and taking all the loot, which isn't much of a change from the status quo. Still, it's nice that they finally provided clarification, because it's a problem that was generating a lot of unnecessary commentary.
When guild banks go wrong
Hortus has answered some important questions about what happens to the guild bank when something happens to the guildleader or the guild, and the answers will be of interest to anyone planning to put deposits in a guild bank after they get released with 2.3.First of all, guildleaders apparently can't transfer or delete their characters (news to me), so there's no way they can exit the game that way without giving up the bank. A guildleader that transfers leadership of the guild also transfers leadership of the bank (makes sense). If a guildleader gets banned from the game, a GM will have to be contacted to get the bank back (so you GLs out there, don't get banned). But here's the kicker: if the guild gets disbanded, the GL will receive all the banked items in their mailbox.I guess that's not too surprising-- if a GL had access to the bank in the first place, they can still ninja it anyway. So the lesson here is: don't put anything in the bank that you're not willing to lose to your guildleader on a bad day. It's a little strange that they put the /gdisband power in the same hands that they mail all the items to when the guild shuts down (maybe they should require a guild banker position, just to keep the GL away from the money?), but then again, if you trust your GL with your life during a raid, shouldn't you trust him or her with your hard-earned cash?
Updated info on guild banks
Does your guild run out of space, even after spending cash on a second account to run your bank alt system? Have 16,000g lying around collecting dust? Well, you're in luck, pretty soon a new feature being added to the game will change all that. Niko at WorldofRaids has posted an update on what we can expect with the guild bank feature being added to the game in Patch 2.3. Each guild will have access to six tabs, each with 98 slots of available storage space. The first tab will cost 1g to purchase, with the costs rising exponentially until you reach the sixth tab, which will cost you 10,000g. Doing the math, Niko figured out that it you will have to spend 16, 111g for all 588 slots currently available on the system as it stands on the PTR. Access seems a bit tricky. It's either a you can remove items or you can't kind of system, which means you really need to have faith in those with access. Those who do have access can also use guild funds to repair their equipment should they need to do so.Does this seem a bit expensive to you? I know it does to me. On one hand I know that with my bank alt I was full rather quickly, so all those slots will be most welcome. But I don't see anyone other than officers in my guild ponying up the cash for bank slots. So the guild banks might end up being a tough sell to the smaller guilds. I'm just not sure yet. We'll have to see.[thanks Atryd]
The latest changes on the PTR
World of Raids once again has the latest breaking news on the latest Patch 2.3 Public Test Ream changes! Today's class changes seem to be mostly happy buffs, especially for hunters and rogues and paladins, as well as a slight nerf to warriors beyond the jump. Also read on below for Guild Bank prices, New Arena Season 3 weapon models, a Field Repair Bot change, as well as a few new engineering toys.Hunters: It looks like hunters get their version of Mortal Strike after all: Aimed Shot now reduces all healing done on the target by 50% for 10 seconds, in addition to the regularly increased damage. The dead zone has not been eradicated, but it has been reduced to just about 1 yard. Why not just get rid of the dead zone and be done with it? Is Blizzard paranoid about the possibility of using melee and ranged abilities at the same time through latency bugs or something? Rogues: The rogue talent "Aggression" is being improved so that its damage bonus applies to Backstab as well as Sinister Strike and Eviscerate (at +2/4/6% with each rank). Shadowstep now has a 30 second cooldown in addition to being usable out of stealth. Its range has been changed from 0-20 yards to 8-25 yards, and its +20% damage bonus now applies to whatever special attack you make next (i.e. Sinister Strike, Hemorrhage -- even Eviscerate or Rupture). Could this make it beneficial to non-dagger rogues as well? Hemorrhage has received a huge buff: It now increases physical damage dealt to its target by up to 36 (increased from 10!), but its number of charges has been reduced from 30 to 10. This should make hemo rogues more desirable in groups, and also increase the benefit from having more than one in a raid -- but is it really enough? Paladins: The "Fanaticism" talent in the retribution tree now reduces the paladin's threat by 30% at the highest rank in addition to 15% increased critical strike chance with all judgements. The protection talent "Precision" now gives a +3% chance to hit with spells in addition to melee attacks.
Paying your dues with guild taxes
Now that guild banks are incoming to the game, what's missing from our little virtual economy system? Taxes! That's what Noplat suggests, anyway-- he says that now that guilds have a place to store up their own central banks, the next step is to require payments from guild members for various guild running costs.I'm not quite sure I agree-- most guilds don't require anything like this. The biggest costs I can think of simply involve raiding repairs, and not only is not every member of every guild involved with raiding, but repair costs aren't that big a deal anyway, especially with daily quests throwing out money for just a few minutes' work. There may be costs coming in the game (guild housing would obviously require a lot of money, and we still haven't been told how siege weapons might work in guild battlegrounds-- will we have to buy those?), but at this point, we don't really need guild taxes or membership fees.The closest thing my guild ever did to a membership tax is that they ask everyone to pay a few g to any engineer that drops a repair bot during a raid (to cover those costs), but considering how the new instances are set up, I haven't seen a repair bot need to be dropped for a long time anyway. Does your guild need enough money to require membership fees or taxes? And if so, for what? Potions?
Officers' Quarters: Rank and file
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. Greetings, fellow officers! This week's question concerns guild ranks -- a topic that will see increasing relevance as Blizzard rolls out the new guild bank system in patch 2.3. Hi Scott,I'm the GL of a largish casual adult guild that is growing fairly rapidly. I inherited the GL role 10 months or so ago, and we've enjoyed a great deal of stability ever since thanks to a close, friendly atmosphere, lots of support from higher members, strong but fair decision making on everyone's part, etc. However, I also inherited a bunch of officers. The previous GL made pretty much anyone an officer who wanted to be, without clear roles or responsibilities. This hasn't been too bad up to now, but the lack of organization is starting to strain a bit as we grow in size and start to raid. It seems like a good time to revisit our officer roles and guild ranks. I was curious which officer roles and ranks you use in your guild, or systems that you've found successful?Cheers,Jim
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Beyond Patch 2.2: Schwick's compilation of verified info
Patch 2.2, currently in testing on the PTR, has some great improvements like voice chat and reporting AFK'ers in Battlegrounds. What it doesn't have is any new, big, sexy chunk of playable content. So when are we going to see the post-Karazhan 10-main raid zone, Zul'Aman? New Heroic Badge rewards? Guild banks? Oh, we already know that last one.Forum MVP Schwick on the WoW European forums has compiled a list of known updates in Patch 2.3 and beyond. He often provide reference links to his sources form many of his future patch notes, which makes him an information god in my book.He also goes on to list all the verified information about the WotLK expansion. I thought I had read all the info that was out already, but on Schwick's list I found items I didn't know, like the fact that Blizzard has a plan to deal with the fact that the Horde doesn't have a fear ward. Or that Naxxramas, the last raid zone introduced before TBC launched, will be repurposed in the new expansion. Or that new shaders will be introduced for shinier graphics. Mmm, sparkles.Check out Schwick's post if you want to get a look ahead about what's known for future patches.Screenshot of Zul'Aman boss models courtesy of MMO-Champion.com.
Officers' Quarters: New content, new challenges
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.With another BlizzCon behind us, the wealth of information about upcoming content has been at times overwhelming. As a player, I'm always excited to learn about what's around the corner. But as a guild leader, I worry about what kind of ugliness is going to crop up as a result of it. From the upcoming patches to the WotLK expansion, new challenges will arise to test the savvy, determination, and people skills of officers in all types of guilds. Just like the CEO of any good business, a guild leader shouldn't just react to challenges as they arise, but anticipate them and take steps to meet them head-on. Let's examine what's in store for Warcraft guilds and what we can do now to transition smoothly into the future.
PTR Update: Hortus confirms and denies
Hortus has posted a sticky about the current PTR issues which addresses a lot of problems in and questions about 2.2. Most notably, he has confirmed that Zul'Aman and Guild Banks will not be in patch 2.2. He also has confirmed that Voice Chat will still be in 2.2, but it is not yet available for testing on the test server.In addition, Hortus addressed some of the problems people are having with premade character copies. Hortus says that if you get an error when trying to copy a premade, the queue is full and to try again later. He does not address why the error message doesn't just say that...Also, it seems that even though some premade characters are missing abilities or have abilities they are not supposed to have, they do not intend to fix them at this time.Side note not mentioned by Horus: Copying characters that are not premade to the test realms is also on a several day wait.Hortus denies that the Orc Shoulders are now bigger than before the bug: Orc shoulders are now the correct size, they are not any larger than they were before, it's your imagination. He also addresses Athlon errors, authentication issues and how not to get your post deleted.It seems that with all of these issues and Voice Chat not even being tested yet, Patch 2.2 is a long way off. What are you most looking forward to or dreading in 2.2? Have you successfully copied a premade? If so, any problems and how long did it take?
Zul'Aman sneak preview at E3
We're here at E3 and, although not blown away by any major announcements from Blizzard, did get a chance to check out a preview of the new 10-man Zul'Aman outdoor instance in Ghostlands. It's going to be a more casual dungeon than Karazhan, ideally doable in a few hours' time investment, with six bosses and no attunement required. There will be quests included as part of the story line, with at least one rescue mission per avatar boss that will have a time-dependent element similar to the Baron Run mechanic in Stratholme, with better rewards offered for quicker completion. The six bosses include bear, dragonhawk and lynx avatars, a "god of evil," a witch doctor, and the final troll boss Zul'jin. Like Hakkar in Zul'Gurub, Zul'jin has a spiritual connection with the other boss avatars and is able to draw upon their ghostly spirits in order to change his shape and assume some of their powers and abilities. All the bosses and the trash mobs (which will be primarily forest trolls) will be social and able to call for help from additional mobs -- surely good for a few wipes whilst learning the encounters. Blizzard offered a few other small bits of news: voice chat and guild banks will be coming in minor patches before the big Zul'Aman patch is released. Voice chat will include a feature that automagically lowers the game volume when players are talking, and onscreen interface indicators to help keep track of who is talking at any given time. Guild banks will be endowed with some sort of permission system enabling guild masters to give access to specific items to some guild members and not others. Unfortunately, Starcraft 2 was not yet playable, but we'll be looking forward to that and far more megaton news to be forthcoming at Blizzcon -- it's clear this press conference was merely a teaser.
Guild banks? Someday!
Guild banks are inching closer and closer to reality. According to Enoyls in this thread, Blizzard initially planned to implement guild banks for the expansion, but that has been pushed to the back burner, and the banks will make their appearance in a post-expansion patch.Sure, it is a little disappointing to hear that they were planned for the Burning Crusade but have since been pulled, but it is great news that they are very much on Blizzard's radar. The current system of storing items on alts works, but it is annoying...and wouldn't it be nice to have a guild bank everyone could send items to? Instead of having MiningBank or ShardVault alts? What features would you like to see included in a guild bank? Should everyone in the guild be able to view it? Do any other MMORPGs have a well-implemented guild bank feature you'd like to see Blizzard copy?
