repair-bills
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You break it, you bought it
Larisa over at The Pink Pigtail Inn mused on an interesting question the other day: Should you pay for the wipes you cause? Her feeling is not only that you shouldn't, but that the mere fact of offering to pay is offensive to her, like offering hush-money or a bribe. Instead, she says, apologize quickly and confess what you did so that others can learn from your mistakes.I agree with the idea of the mistake-maker apologizing and confessing immediately. This technique also works in real life situations. (I wish it was heeded more often in politics, too.) Further, I vigorously disapprove of ham-fisted reactions from over-zealous raid leaders or guild leaders. Overreacting by /gkicking people (as one of the commenters related) in normal guilds is completely ridiculous. (If you joined a guild who wants to make world's firsts or server-firsts, then you know what you're getting into.) If you are the raid leader then you need to take responsibility for the team you put on the floor. In life, work, politics, and gaming, the buck stops with leadership. Leaders need to pick the right team and remind people who they know are not as experienced or strong in the particular raid situation about tactics, strategy, and common mistakes. Or else they need to chill the heck out. In fact, from a certain point of view, it's not the person who caused the wipe who should pay repair bills: it's the raid leader.Other commenters on Larisa's post offered different payment plan ideas. One suggested a tax on all the loot acquired in the raid. Another suggested that before the raid even begins, raiders should pay an ante to participate, thereby socializing the costs of what might happen. Of course, there is the ever-popular solution of letting the guild pay for repairs afterwards, too. But as another commenter pointed out, repair bills and buff flasks for a 25-man raid can run a guild nearly 400G per run. My feeling is that as long as everyone goes into the raid knowing those taxes are being imposed, it sounds like a fine idea. Or, realizing that mistakes are going to be made, even by the most experienced and savvy players, we could all act like we realize that raising gold is as much a part of the game as raiding, questing, or grinding, and suck up our own repair bills, regardless of who caused the wipe.[Via The Pink Pigtail Inn]
LotRO dev diary details Book 12 Guardian retooling
As promised, a new Lord of the Rings Online dev diary has surfaced giving excruciating detail on the changes to the Guardian class in the upcoming Book 12 content patch. The short version is: tanking is getting both buffs and nerfs; a new dps stance is being added along with new dps skills; and new utility abilities are coming.Let's take these one section at a time, shall we?TankingThe good news is the new defensive abilities the Guardians are getting. Shield Wall will allow the tank to take all the incoming damage targeted at another party member. And Fray The Edge is a new ranged single-target taunt that is stackable and has a chance of triggering a Fellowship Maneuver.The bad news is some current defensive skills are overpowered and are getting tweaked. Shield-taunt will no longer put the Guardian at the top of the threat list, but will add significantl threat. And the Deep Breath ability that allows Guardians to prematurely end the cooldown of many of their skills is getting it's cooldown significantly increased.There are some other tweaks, but the bottom line for Guardians in defensive mode is they are going to have to change their playstyle a bit. They have relied on some ability mechanics that are making their job too easy in some cases, especially in Raids.Before the wailing and sackcloth and ashes get going, remember two things: the devs are trying to balance the game to make it challenging and every game does class revamps. No one hates you. Well, except that Minstrel that kept dying in your pick up group, but aggro control is everyone's job, right?Read on for the really good news.
Practical and impractical jokes
The other day I was invited via the LFG queue to join in on a heroic Mechanar run. The other four players were all in the same guild and seemed to be good friends, based upon the way they were joking around while we all made our way to the instance. Not long after we entered the dungeon, I received private messages from three of the other group members telling me that they were going to play a practical joke on the tank. As soon as he attacked the first creature, the rest of us were going to run out of the instance, leaving him alone to die. I wasn't really sure what to make of the idea, but when they all ran out, I followed, not wanting to die myself. The guy seemed to take it well and laughed it off with some good natured teasing, but I've seen similar situations where the outcome wasn't as pleasant. For instance, several months ago, when my guild was trying to enlist new members to raid the larger dungeons, we were in an alliance with another guild for a short period. A lot of the people in my guild like to joke around and one of them decided to play a prank on the hunters in the raid while we were learning how to take down Gruul. After the tanks died on one of our attempts, this player decided it would be funny to run to the area near the doorway where the hunters were feigning death, hoping to avoid repair bills. Of course, he pulled Gruul right on top of the hunters, turning their fake deaths into real ones. Most of them laughed it off, but one guy in particular became really upset and made a big commotion in raid chat. It took him awhile to calm down, but the group eventually pulled it together and went on to kill Gruul.Ever had an experience like this? Does this sort of thing annoy you or do you think it has a place in WoW?
