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Guildwatch: Farming instances for the holidays
Lots of guilds were off for the holidays, but we still had a surprising amount of news: lots of drama, plenty of downs to report, and a few more guilds recruiting for a serious run at the new endgame.Hope your holidays were happy -- here at Guildwatch, we got exactly what we wanted: angry forum threads, tips from all over the realms, and even a few very offensive vent recordings. If you've got news of guild drama, downings, or recruitment, send it to wowguildwatch@gmail.com. And hit the link below to see this week's GW.
Forced to choose
I think everyone who's run an instance and a raid has been in this situation -- you wait all night for a Karazhan run, it fills, so you decide to go run a heroic or some other five man, and then a few minutes in, you get a whisper: "Someone left, and we need a healer! Are you still in?"Sigh. An embarrassment of riches. So now what do you do: ditch your newfound 5man group for the raid you originally wanted, or stick with the group you signed on with, passing up the original raid? Neither way is very smooth -- either you disappoint the folks you're with, and look like an elitist raider, or you tell the raiders that you're already in a group and run the risk that they won't ask you again. So awkward -- it's like choosing a social circle in high school all over again.Usually, the best course of action I've found is to cover yourself before you leave either group -- jump into LFG or ping the guild for a replacement before you leave anybody behind. Short of finding someone to fill in for your fill in, the next best option is probably to explain yourself well and promise help next time -- hopefully the group you're with will understand that raiding is fun and/or the raiders will understand that you couldn't wait and keep you on the list for next time. Any other ideas for getting out of an instance pinch like this?
WoR previews Zul'Aman
World of Raids has posted everything they know about Zul'Aman, the next 10man instance due in patch 2.3. Tigole has said that Zul'Aman is coming to the PTR next week, so if your guild is a big fan of the PTR, you could be headed to the Troll city in the Ghostlands very soon.They've got pictures up of four of the bosses, and info about the two last bosses, Hexlord Zin'jakk and Zul'jin himself, that we'll fight together. The first boss (whichever one that is-- I thought it was the Bear boss, but that fight seems more complicated) is supposed to be easier in terms of raid coordination, but Zul'Aman is definitely a continuation of what's going on in Karazhan, according to Blizzard. They say the difficulty will start around Nightbane or Prince and head upwards from there. Also, as we've heard, Zul'Aman will have a timed quest similar to the Baron Run, where you can try doing the instance quickly to earn better loot.Exciting stuff. I usually stay away from the PTRs, just because I like seeing stuff when it's released live on the realms, and any progress I make in the PTRs is eventually lost. But 10 mans are always fun, and I love the Zul instances, so whenever the PTR hits this week, you just might find me there taking down Trolls.Thanks, Atryd!
"The Karazhan mistake"
AFK Gamer's got a great post up about what he calls "The Karazhan Mistake." At BlizzCon, and now in Leipzeig, Blizzard has been patting themselves on the back for the 10man raid of Karazhan-- it's clearly the most popular raid in the expansion (does that have anything to do with the fact that it's the first raid most guilds do?), and so they say the 10man raid idea of theirs is the bomb. Along with the new Zul'Aman, we can expect to see more 10mans in Wrath of the Lich King.But AFK says they've learned the wrong lesson. While Karazhan is definitely popular, creating a 10man raid in the guild progression path (remember, UBRS didn't start as a 10man, and it wasn't really a progression instance) was a mistake. It's more or less where all the guild drama and frustration in the expansion has come from-- guilds with only 10 people are rare and far between, and so most guilds have to schedule and run multiple raid IDs just to get everyone through there. And now (eight months after the expansion has dropped), while most guilds have finally got Karazhan (and all that raid coordination) down pat, they're dealing with another problem: beefing back up to 25 for the rest of the raids. Blizzard's making guilds jump through all these hoops, and deal with all of this group A/B drama, and they're citing Karazhan as a success?AFK's solution is a simple one: lower the cooldown on raid IDs. (His other solution is to have raid IDs be guildwide, but letting only 10 people in a guild run Karazhan weekly is a terrible idea.) That would more or less take the raid out of progression (in essence, turn it into UBRS), and let you go there whenever you had 10 people ready and willing, leaving the real raiding to the 25 mans.Personally, I love Karazhan. It's a great dungeon with some cool bosses and lore, and Blizzard's right: it's how raids should be done. It's just too bad that, by creating a great 10 man in a world full of 25 man raids, they caused guilds (especially guilds just starting to raid) so much trouble.w[ via Mystic Worlds ]
