[1.Local] The week in chaos

"It's only a game"
"'It's ONLY a game man... I mean you ONLY pay real money for it...'" Basic incredulously quotes a previous poster. "That phrase completely trivializes the time and care people put into this game (both development and by playing). If you really don't think there is any value to this game and nothing lost when something goes this badly you should just uninstall and get back to the important things in your life."

The disaster of patch 3.0.8
"I was never one of those that cried on them to hurry up with the patch, but you've got to admit that calling it a disaster isn't so farfetched," observes Jamesisgreat. "Wintergrasp is down, now Arenas, and there's massive lag everywhere making PvE a pain as well. I understand that these patches aren't simple, but Blizzard seem to have broken most of the PvP aspect of the game with this one, and made PvE unplayable in places. I guess there's still the AH to 'play' on though, right?"

Activision did it!
/whisper Maybe it's Activision's fault ... "It's too much of a coincidence that we've been getting stuff like the recruit-a-friend changes, PvE->PvP transfers, a (pretty much) rushed WotLK (and patch 3.0.8), advertisements on the forums, and paid character customizations all within five or so months, and all after Activision Blizzard was formed," claims Dreadskull. "And those are only the changes to WoW (that and some will probably argue that the more casual tone their bending to now is due to Activision, meh...). I highly doubt whoever's normally in charge of WoW forum stuffs/in-game services decided to go 'Hey, we could totally make money by doing this!'"

Players want more communication
In the end, what players are looking for is communication from Blizzard – lots and lots of it. "I don't know if '...want to know is when...' is really important to me; of course it will be fixed when it's fixed," says Fusitana. "What I would like is some information that they know where the problem lies and have some plan to fix it. Is it in their connections, their server hardware, their programming, the interaction of the instances with the BGs. Just some word that they're not stumbling around blind."

"http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14318941110&sid=1," responds Kyane. "Blizzard is working on it, is apologizing and is trying to get more information. It's not like they are silent on the latency issues."

So there you have it. On to other topics of the week ...

Who's the baddest of the bad?
Most folks who chimed in on this toughest-bosses survey focused on some aspect of technical difficulty. Not Arivia, who equates "toughest bosses" with enthusiasm-draining speed bumps. "Personally, I'd look at bosses that discourage me from running the instance: Skadi, Eregos, Xevozz, the giant mess that is Krik'thir," he observes. "I think it comes down to Krik'thir and Skadi (AN and UP, respectively) -- the fights just have so many chances for things to go wrong and are so stressful as a tankadin (Skadi's first trash is easy; picking up harpooners without a gap closer is aaaargh!) that they make me worry about those parts in advance. I want the Red Sword of Courage out of UP -- but once I get it, I'm not going back."

Show and tell
Are you a show-off? Klink-o and apoxic made some good points in our Breakfast Topic about players who like show off their hard-earned mounts by sitting about in high-traffic areas. "There's always at least one loser that sits on one of the various colors of proto-drakes for 5+ hours at a time at either the FP or one of the various points you can hop on your flying mount in Dalaran," moans klink-o. "I've always had a hatred for people who go out of their way to show off."

"Actually, I'm with you on that one," agrees apoxic. "However, I'm not saying the good old days were bad, where epics actually were epics, when you've gotten that phat piece of (preferably visable) loot, to see a swarm of people around you just by standing at the mailbox in Orgrimmar. It's just not the same these days, especially not with Naxx being so easy -- what's there to show off anyway? Oh how I miss thee, Crown of Destruction and Spinal Reaper. :P"

Two Bosses Enter returns!
It's back! The Wrath Season of Two Bosses Enter, One Boss Leaves pits the bosses of Wrath of the Lich King's five-man instances, two by two, until we come up with an ultimate winner. Mr. Crow nailed the spirit of the smackdown with his perspective on Keristrasza vs. Cyanigosa:

"I think Cyanigosa takes this one.: Her ability to shut down Keristrasza's casting turns it into a physical fight, and despite Keri's Intense Cold ticks and late-fight Enrage, I don't think that can outdamage the combination of Cyan's Uncontrollable Energy and physical damage-dealing.

"Aside from the abilities, Cyanigosa is a confident and powerful lieutenant of Malygos, in control of her abilities and devoted to her cause. Keristrasza is in a distressed state when the players first meet her, exhausted from imprisonment by Malygos, and engineers a plan to do something dramatically against the preservationist philosophy of the Red Flight (orchestrating the murder of Saragosa). Malygos' capture and torture of Keristrasza probably does a good job to unbalance her further. Keristrasza even seems to have a death wish (notably, when she Enrages).

"In a comparison of who goes into this fight with a more solid state of mind, Cyan wins. Keri might be able to make up for Cyan's abilities with clear thinking, but in her boss-state a clear mind is not what she's got. Cyan wins through smarter firepower and because Keri, to a degree, wants to lose."