spirit-shard
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WWI '08 Notes from the Dungeons & Raids Panel part 2
11:01 AM: Lessons from TBC. A big project, heroics were an interesting tuning problem, hard enough to be a challenge but easy enough that people just starting out could do them. Were a great success. But too hard, want to make them more accessible. Don't want e.g. lacking a prot spec tank, holy priest, etc to bar people from doing heroics. Should be available to more players, open up to different classes and groups.Some dungeons were too long. Took longer than they planned. Like to keep dungeons to ~1 hour long. Not their intention to have players stuck in dungeon in 3 hours. Going to really check length before releasing new dungeons.Quests did not feel as connected as they should (kill end boss/kill 10 creatures). Really trying to allow dungeon quests to have interesting goals. Gundrak is cumulation of a long questline encompassing the whole zone. You know why you're killing the endboss, and what the outcome will be, connects players to dungeons beyond killing bosses for loot. More of an impact on the world.Summoning changes worked out great. Stones/warlocks summoning into instance (audience applauds). Main reason was to remove barrier to entry to dungeons that were annoying to get to. Wanted to make it convenient.Patch order. Has an impact on what players have available to do, have to make sure things feel right when releasing patch. They wanted to get Black Temple out asap so Zul'Aman ended up being released later, probably would have been better to deliver ZA first since most players weren't ready for BT but keen for 10-man content. Learned that lesson with WotLK. Arthas is final endgame boss so delivering content in the order they thinks works best for the players, whether that's a new 5-man, raid etc. 11:07 AM: Naxxramas... Again? Audience cheers; 'that's about the same way we feel about Naxxramas'. Huge labour of love. Always felt it was a dungeon that WoW needed. Most players never got to experience it because of the release timing. Loot was still really great but TBC superceded it. Made sense to come back to it and give everyone a chance to experience it. 10-man accessible. Extremely proud, want everyone to play it.Lore-wise Naxx fits in perfectly, with Arthas/Northrend, history behind Naxx lends itself well to being a part of WotLK and something players can get into really early. Chance to retune it and make it even better. Huge dungeon with a ton of bosses, over 15 bosses in one raid dungeon, non-linear (wings) giving players a lot of choice.11:10 AM: Itemisation. PvP gear will be available through PvE as well as PvP. Spirit shard system. Players that want to get started in arenas who love dungeons can get started through PvE. Won't be the best gear, but will give you a chance. More items per boss kill in 25 player raids. More items desired by more classes, big project. Trying to remove unnecessary stats because there are too many different types of loot, what if a ret paladin item drops and you don't have one? Merge some of the stats so that items will work across a group of ~3 different classes. Players can get loot that's more useful and accessible, killing a boss feels better.11:12 AM: Recipe drops, pretty rare right now. Specific plans only drop off one boss at really low drop rate. Doesn't mean they won't put unique plans on hard to reach bosses but want most plans to be accessible, earlier bosses, easier dungeons. Might not feel like such a grind to get that one rare pattern. NEXT: Reducing the faction grind and a sneak peek at The Occulus ===>
Forum Post of the Day: Burning Crusade constructive criticism
With Burning Crusade winding down as we get closer to WoTLK, Scarpa of the Bleeding Hollow server had the bright idea of starting a thread to do a little bit of post-mortem on the Burning Crusade: Praise the stuff you liked, and offer constructive critcism on stuff you didn't like, in hopes that it can be improved in the expansion. There's a lot of good commentary in there on raids, arenas, badge gear, and other stuff. Some of my favorite criticism included Quaesitor's observation that a lot of reputation gear becomes automatically obsolete, because by the time you have the reputation (or the special tokens) to purchase it, you're too high level for it and probably have something better from a quest or dungeon anyway. I also tend to agree with many that they could tone down the trash a bit in raid dungeons. It's hard to clear the same trash over and over again every raid when you want to get to the generally much more interesting and lucrative boss fights. As far as likes, I like that the reputation PvP sets mean you can get a good hand up to start PvP, then gradually work your way up through Honor gear and into the Arena sets. I am also glad to see many in the thread were big fans of badge gear. I've always liked the concept, it makes for a good reason to run dungeons and means I always feel like I'm working toward something instead of waiting forever for one certain thing that won't drop. It's a great idea and a good positive thread that has even gotten some blue attention, so I'd say it's a perfect change for you to head in and deliver your own critiques and praises before BC is just a speed bump on the way to level 80.
PvP all day, everyday: Spirits of Auchindoun
One of the two World PvP daily quests that was added in Patch 2.4 was The Spirits of Auchindoun, which is arguably the easiest of all daily PvP quests because it actually doesn't necessitate combat. The quest becomes available at Level 63, giving players leveling in Terokkar Forest a chance to help their faction take control of the Bone Wastes. Alliance players can obtain the quest from Exorcist Sullivan in Allerian Stronghold while Horde players can talk to Exorcist Vaisha in Stonebreaker Hold. At Level 63, the quest awards 186 Honor points, 3 Gold 70 Silver, and 11,650 experience. At Level 70, players are awarded 209 Honor points and 11 Gold 99 Silver.Interestingly enough, just like the Halaa quest, The Spirits of Auchindoun do not require the factions to take control of the Bone Wastes, merely for players to assist in the capture of one tower. For most Level 70s, this is extremely easy, particularly with a flying mount. It takes about 1-2 minutes to capture one tower, so it's possible to complete the quest immediately and turn it in at the nearby camp. It's arguably the easiest 12 Gold to earn in the game, the only caveat being the timing of the quest, which can only be completed every 6 hours. The quest can be completed in a raid and can be shared, making it easy to PUG the quest with nearby allies in the zone. Note that in order for the objective to count, you must see the tower's slider move from uncontrolled to your faction. If you are on a flying mount, make sure that you've landed. As detailed in one of my earlier articles, control of the Bone Wastes grants a zone-wide buff, the Blessing of Auchindoun, which grants +5% to all damage dealt and +5% experience gain. The buff also allows the capture of Spirit Shards within the Auchindoun instances of Mana-Tombs, Auchenai Crypts, Sethekk Halls, and Shadow Labyrinth. Once captured, the Bone Wastes remain under the winning faction's control for six hours and cannot be captured again, making The Spirits of Auchindoun one of the few time-sensitive quests in the World of Warcraft.
