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Shifting Perspectives: A peek at the beta bear
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting feral/restoration druids and those who group with them. This week, we push off from the island of Swipe spam and float toward the ominous continent inhabited by Lacerate spam. Hail, druids. I've had another week in the beta, and my main's now level 82. While I would love to tell you that all of the bugs we talked about last week have been tracked down and eliminated; that's not the case, so I'm not sure that a big analytical article on abilities that Blizzard's by no means finished with is a great use of our time. But I did tank a very successful Blackrock Caverns run, and Ghostcrawler (lead systems designer) recently wrote something interesting about the future of AoE tanking, so today's post is going to take a quick peek at how bears are developing. Also, there's a great quest in Mount Hyjal where you throw bears off a tree, which naturally I recorded. It recorded upside down for some reason, so I'll have to figure out how to flip it before it gets posted.
Shifting Perspectives: Pulling 101: Deeper into the dungeon
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting feral/restoration druids and those who group with them. This week, we continue to get hit in the face. This week, we're continuing our series on Pulling 101 with a look at what happens during the dungeon itself. I was surprised to discover exactly how much of this advice concerns rage management, but shouldn't have been; any discussion concerning how to pull as a rage tank invariably touches on how to get the most out of an eccentric resource system. A good chunk of this advice will become obsolete as of the Cataclysm content patch, but if you're leveling and gearing a bear through the dungeon finder, there are still an awful lot of 5-mans between yourself and this fall.
Breakfast Topic: Dealing with unpleasant players
I'm usually pretty lucky with my dungeon finder groups, but every so often you run into some real stinkers. And by that, I don't mean incompetent players -- just mean ones. This was brought home to me on a recent Halls of Stone run I was healing when one of our DPS, a moonkin, got mind-controlled by a Dark Rune Controller and then killed by our mage and rogue. He or she very politely asked the other two DPS if they could interrupt the Domination cast next time to avoid that happening, and in return got an avalanche of abuse. The tank took their side while I was resurrecting the moonkin, and it was then that I noticed that all three were from the same realm. They were still making snide comments about it while we were pulling trash to the Maiden of Grief, and I finally snapped, "He's right. You can spare a second to interrupt the cast, and if you won't do that, the least you can do is avoid killing a mind-controlled player." The abuse rerouted in my direction for a few minutes, but one of the nice things about working here is that after you've been a target of the professional trolling class, their amateur counterparts don't have that much effect. It leaves me wondering how you deal with unpleasant players without causing a blow-up or turning into a bit of an ass yourself (as I admit I probably was while coming to the defense of the moonkin). We all run into them eventually, and I don't know whether it's better to speak up on behalf of a bullied player who may not want the help, simply drop group or spend the run in silence, not rising to the bait.
Breakfast Topic: Would you like some heroic with your vanilla instances?
Exciting times! On the latest Twitter Dev Chat, a fun little inquiry for old 5-mans came up: do you think we'll get to see older instances given the heroic makeover? It's already been confirmed that both Shadowfang Keep and Deadmines will be made heroic, mostly for their own story purposes. This poses an interesting thought -- what other instances could be made heroic, and why? Since we know that Desolace is going to be green and lush, maybe they'll do something with Maraudon? (I'm not sure who would want to see Princess Theradras again, but hey.) Perhaps a heroic Blackfathom Deeps, considering that the Twlilight's Hammer is making such a big comeback in the next expansion? Or hey, why not even a heroic Razorfen Downs? Why? Why not, I say! So, dear readers - what old world instances should be given the heroic upgrade, and why? Personally, I think I'd rather stick hot pokers in my eyes than see a heroic Wailing Caverns, but that's just me.
Breakfast Topic: What roles do you play?
An interesting thread popped up on the forums a few days ago that I wanted to ask our readers about here at WoW.com -- what roles have you tried in the game, and has experimentation with other roles changed how you play overall? Right now my main spends her time tanking and healing at an even 50/50 split. Healing's made me a more observant tank; I have a better appreciation of what a heal team goes through to keep my furry rump alive. Tanking hasn't exactly made me a better healer -- the two roles are so different that I even wind up redoing a portion of my UI while jumping between them -- but it's made me more forgiving of tank mistakes, and also left me in a better position to gauge whether a problem is the result of the tank or another group member. Damage-wise? Oddly enough, playing as a tank/healer for so long has made me into a hesitant DPS at best. I hate losing aggro to anyone as a tank, and hate healing oblivious DPS who pull it, and that's made me incredibly paranoid about my threat as a DPS. I watch Omen way more than I worry about my rotation. So what role do you normally play in the game? If you change roles at all, do you notice experience from one role having an effect on how you play others?
What effect does the Dungeon Finder have on smaller servers?
For a few days now, I've been mulling over a point raised by Spinksville in a blog post concerning the Dungeon Finder's impact on smaller servers. It was her contention that, although the Dungeon Finder makes getting 5-man runs faster and easier for people on underpopulated realms, the new tool was contributing (or likely to contribute) to the depopulation of realms without a lot of options for raiding. It's never been easier to gear up a character, she observed, and someone with a geared character is increasingly likely to want that toon raiding. However, smaller servers rarely field the array and depth of PuG raiding opportunities offered by larger realms. Her conclusion? "Being on a smaller server has never been less attractive for a casual player." While I go back and forth on that point -- lots of people will just gear a toon for its own sake without necessarily planning to raid on it -- I don't think she's entirely wrong, and I also think the larger point concerning the Dungeon Finder's potential impact on server communities is probably accurate.
Breakfast Topic: What do you do while waiting for LFG to pop?
Every so often, an email comes along the tip line that really gets the writers talking, and we received one such email last night from our reader Zikko, who was curious what people did while they were waiting for the Dungeon Finder to assign them a group ("Guess this only applies to DPS," as he/she observed). While Zikko usually does dailies, watches TV, or farms mats for cooking and fishing, he/she wondered whether anyone had hit upon a better way to pass the time while the Dungeon Finder went on the search. I include the writers' individual comments below, not just because it's a nice "slice of life," but I also think it's a good peek at how different peoples' experiences can be depending on the roles they play: Matt Rossi: I have time to inhale a couple of times during the LFD queue. Allison Robert: To amuse myself, I start counting, "One mississippi, two mississippi, three mississippi..." from releasing the mouse's left button on the Join Group option and the queue popping. However, I am likely to discontinue the practice, as my brain is having increasing difficulty remembering what comes directly after three. It starts with an F. I know it does. Alex Ziebart: When I'm queueing on my DPS, I tab out and play a different game for 15-20 minutes. On my healer, I brace myself so I don't get whiplash zoning into a heroic so fast. Eliah Hecht: I have about enough time to cross my fingers hoping it's not Old Kingdom again. Robin Torres: I tend to my farm in Country Life.
Breakfast Topic: Missed Dungeon Opportunities
So we've talked about the WoW that wasn't in terms of what was planned for Wrath that never got implemented, but that brings to mind another question: What about the WoW that could have been? Namely, where could the game have used another instance or raid, even if Blizzard didn't make any plans for one? Reader Elstor, who sent us this question the other day, had some ideas himself, such as Oshu'Gun, the giant diamond mountain in the middle of Nagrand. It's honestly a good idea. Unfortunately, the Horde is the only faction who gets quests to head into the middle of the mountain and find out its true secret, as well as gain a valuable insight into the nature of the Naaru. Fleshing out Oshu'Gun as an instance would have provided some great lore insight into the Naaru (and maybe even the Horde) that the Alliance is sadly missing, and would even be an opportunity to further develop the split between the Kurenai and the Mag'har.
Blizzard: Run Oculus, win fabulous prizes
Despite the nerfs in Patch 3.3, it's pretty obvious that whole lot of people still hate Oculus, enough so that they immediately bail when it comes up as a random dungeon. Apparently, it's a substantial number of people doing this, enough that Blizzard's taken notice and taken action. But they're not removing it from the system. Instead, they're incentivizing it -- or, if you prefer to be a bit more pessimistic, turning final boss Eregos into a loot pinata in the most direct way possible. Zarhym's announced that those who happen to get Heroic Oculus with the random dungeon finder and stick it out to the end will find their own personal loot bag in Eregos' cache. The bags will contain two extra Emblems of Triumph, rare gems, and a chance at the Reins of the Blue Drake, formerly the rare mount drop from 10-man Malygos. To make up for the switch, the Reins of the Azure Drake will have a chance to drop from both 10-man and 25-man Malygos. Will this staunch the exodus from Oculus? Will the lust for yet another pretty dragon mount inspire people to tough out the dreaded vehicle mechanics? Or will people just tough it out until they get their drake and start group dropping again? It should be fun to see what happens.
In defense of ignorance
Friends, gamers, Earthicans -- lend me your ears. One of the things that has increasingly struck me while reading peoples' accounts of the new LFG system is the frequency with which people cite getting kicked from groups due to a low gear scores, or scathing comments from other players on the extent to which they are being "carried" after damage meters are posted. Now, while I don't believe that this is an overwhelmingly common practice (most players have had positive experiences with the dungeon finder, and I'm one of them), it's still a problem. People have complained since the beginning of WoW about damage meters and the jerks who spam them, and we've all seen our fair share of the unhappiness wrought by the misuse of GearScore, but this is different. At no point in WoW's history have so many players who don't know each other from Adam been tossed into relatively intimate 5-man situations with the total freedom to be angels or asshats to each other (and, speaking of the Adam we do know, even he's given up and started to expect some bad play in his PuGs). I am about to propose what I know is a radical departure from the standard gamer practice of reducing someone else's total worth to a number that, ideally, is lower than yours: Don't bother. You're happier not knowing.
Breakfast Topic: What do you want to see in Icecrown Citadel?
While a lot of us (myself included) have been starving for Cataclysm news lately, it would behoove us to remember that we still have one more patch to go: Patch 3.3, the (hopefully) epic showdown with one of the most iconic figures in Warcraft lore, the Lich King himself. We've actually learned very little about it so far. We got Ghostcrawler admitting there's not 31 bosses, and a few other BlizzCon tidbits, but beyond that, what do we know?The other day, Zarhym at least gave us a small hint or two, saying that the 5-man dungeons would be epic and essential to the overall fight against Arthas, that they would be separate content from the raids, and that neither dungeons nor raids (Thank Elune) would have vehicular or mounted combat (the airship battle will not be a vehicle fight, it seems). Of course, that does give us hope, but doesn't get us to the meat of the dungeon so to speak. So I'm sort of wondering: What do you want or expect to see in Icecrown Citadel, both the raids and the dungeons? Are there certain bosses or boss encounters you want to see? What type of storylines would you think epic enough for the 5 mans? I'm still hoping for the completely ignoble, futile death of Tirion Fordring, but that could just be me.
Patch 3.2.2: 5-man Coliseum jousting woes to be addressed
I'm sure a lot of us have had this experience: You finish up jousting down the three champions in the first encounter of the 5-man Trial of the Champions, then all hell breaks loose. Your tank goes to lock down the Warrior, but in the meantime, the Rogue, who fell on the other side of the coliseum, makes a beeline to your healer, who was the person who dismounted him. Then the Mage, who's on yet a third side of the arena, starts blasting down your Mage who never seems to get any stamina on his gear. Your tank tries to rein everybody in, but since the bosses still have the aggro they built up from the jousting stage, they're near impossible to peel. Everyone dies.
Dual specs and loot priority
Like lots of other players, I found myself running the regular version of Trial of the Champion endlessly in pursuit of trinket drops when patch 3.2 hit, and it wasn't uncommon for groups to spend some time beforehand figuring out who was going to roll on what. With so many players now dual-specced into different roles and volunteering to come to 5-mans on an offspec just to get things moving, determining who had more priority on an item drop usable by multiple classes got a bit tetchy at times. I saw some ugly fights break out, and never more so than when a DPS player who respecced to heal for the sake of the group was told not to bid on the Abyssal Rune or Banner of Victory. Losing a roll on something you need to an off- or secondary-spec sucks, but being unable to roll on gear that benefits your main spec just because you respecced to get the group going is equally agonizing.
BlizzCon 2009: Cataclysm dungeons
Cory Stockton and Scott Mercer gave an in-depth look into the dungeons and raids available at the launch of WoW: Cataclysm during the Raids and Dungeons panel today at BlizzCon. We'll look at the dungeons first.OVERVIEW: At launch, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will ship with eight 5-man dungeons and two heroic versions of old-world dungeons.Grim Batol: One level 85 5-man.Skywall: One level 80-82 5-man.Abyssal Maw: Two 5-mans; level 80-83 and level 82-84.Deepholm: One level 80-83 5-man.Uldum: Two 5-mans; level 83-84 and level 85.Blackrock Caverns: One level 85 5-man.Shadowfang Keep: One level 85 heroic 5-man.The Deadmines: One level 85 heroic 5-man.Descriptions and info after the jump for dungeons that were covered in depth in the panel. %Gallery-70745%
BlizzCon 2009: Blizzard announces cross-server instances
In what will certainly be the be-all end-all solution to "additional instances cannot be launched", Blizzard announced cross-server instances and LFG at the Dungeons and Raids panel at BlizzCon 2009.By taking advantage of brand-new hardware separate from your realm's instance servers, not only will you be able to find groups from pools of players in your entire battlegroup, your realm's specific instance servers will be free of the stress of mass heroic-running.On top of the convenience factor, Blizzard says that rewards will be in place for players who lead groups through instances successfully. The nature of the rewards is currently unknown but Blizzard promises more information soon. Blizzard says that the feature will be used for 5-mans only at this time. It'll be launched with 3.3, not with Cataclysm. Fantastic news! No more "additional instances" errors, a larger pool of players to choose your groups from, and rewards for good party leaders. Great news for everyone. BlizzCon 2009 is here! WoW.com has continuing coverage, bringing you the latest in Cataclysm news, live blogs, galleries, and reports right from the convention floor. Check out WoW.com's Guide to BlizzCon for the latest!
The Queue: Dragon Slave!
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Allison Robert, erroneously described by Alex Ziebart as "universally adored" on this site (whisper the phrase "I hate Tauren cat form" in Turtlehead's direction and run) is your hostess today.Mmmm...my favorite kind of Queue, the kind with a tank question. Actually, there were two good tank questions from the previous Queue, but the one asked by Gatorforest is something I'd like to address in a separate article. Additionally, two of the questions you'll see here wound up requiring fairly involved answers, so there are a few more questions I'd like to take a crack at sometime later this weekend if I get the time.And because it's Friday:Charlie asks...How many Queue columns does it take for one to finally reach the front of the line?The readers or the writers? I don't know about the former, but for us, it depends on the outcome of the previous day's in-staff gladiatorial match. Much like Mary Sues in the now-classic Pirate Monkey comic, THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE. Actually, I'm just using this as an excuse to quote the following:Professor Flitwick: Wait, she said she's both Dumbledore's and Snape's daughter. How is that possible?Dumbledore: Ehh, remember that Christmas party where we all got really drunk?
Do tanks get the most out of PuGs?
I've been leveling my Restoration Shaman through Northrend, and the closer he gets to the level cap, the more I find myself getting unnerved comparing his group experiences to those of my main, a Druid tank. This past week, for example, I've healed normal 5-mans on my Shaman, then relogged and tanked heroic 5-mans on my Druid (in some cases, the very same content my shammy just did on normal). With very few exceptions, my shammy's had a tough time of it, whereas my main has sailed through her pugs without a care in the world. Initially I chalked this up to having a lot less experience playing a Shaman, but I think it was around the time that my shammy's second Utgarde Keep PuG quit at Ingvar after wiping for 30 minutes* (no joke -- and yes, this was on normal) that I had a small epiphany; maybe the reason I've enjoyed pugs so much is that I've almost always played a character who's largely immune to their faults.
The OverAchiever: Attack of the Glory of the Hero
Mr. Daniels: This is punishment, gentlemen, not party time.Logan: Well, that would explain the absence of balloon animals. -- Veronica Mars, "The Girl Next Door." Heresy! A Veronica Mars quote rather than Firefly. Eh, who cares, it's a holiday weekend, so we're wild and crazy. We're continuing our march through Glory of the Hero, and today we're going to tackle the first of Wrath's "halls," the Halls of Lightning. Before we do, here's a round-up of what we've done previously in the OverAchiever: GotH series: Part I: Ahn'kahet Part II: Azjol-Nerub and Culling of Stratholme Part III: Drak'Tharon Keep Part IV: Gun'drak HALLS OF LIGHTNINGLightning StruckAs long as your tank and healer aren't in greens, this isn't an overly difficult achievement. Bjarngrim and his adds path around a series of 3 platforms and will pause at each, gaining a Temporary Electrical Charge that increases their damage. You simply need to pull Bjarngrim while he still has this buff. During the fight you can force him to lose it by killing his adds, and if you're still gearing up, that's a more reasonable option than trying to survive the damage. The abilities of note here are Mortal Strike, which is a fairly nasty hit in the range of 15-16K, and Whirlwind, which can two-shot melee DPS.
Choose my Adventure: Insert funny title about being level 25 here
WoW.com readers, it's up to you to decide the fate of Turpen the Gnome Warlock with Choose My Adventure. Help test the site's new features by participating in this event, casting your vote toward the many aspects of Turpen and following his exploits on Alex Ziebart's WoW.com profile!Well, you guys wanted me to run Deadmines. As you can see, I ran Deadmines. Many thanks go to Urse (Healer), Child (Tank), and Sneafoo (Noob Rogue of Doom) for 4-manning the thing with me. Urse was pretty overleveled for the place so healing was hilariously easy, but Sneafoo made up for it by starting the run at level 12 and aggroing Gruul from the pirate ship.I went further than that, too. I didn't stop at Deadmines, I did Wailing Caverns, Blackfathom Deeps and Shadowfang Keep as well. I was kicking around the idea as soon as someone suggested Deadmines, but I didn't think I would manage to land a group for either of them. When I went out to the Barrens to get my Succubus (Angva) at level 20, that sealed the deal for me. I picked up the quest The Orb of Soran'ruk, and despite the fact that its quest rewards sucked, it gave me more reason to try and get the groups together. I put out a call to all of the various resources I knew, LFG and community chat channels (your server probably has a few good ones) and all of that, and managed to score a few groups.
Ghostcrawler on the future of 5-mans
Snowyfox of the US Vek'nilash server recently brought up a point on the forums which is near and dear to my heart: 5-mans really feel like they've lost their heart. In both Vanilla WoW and Burning Crusade, you could usually count on having the motivation and reward for running a 5 man no matter what your level. In Vanilla WoW, you might do a tribute run for potions and buffs or a Stratholme run for Abomination stitchings for an enchant. In BC, you'd run for badges. In Wrath of the Lich King... not so much. Badges don't stretch so far since most of the good stuff requires badges only obtained in raid dungeons, and even the daily quests aren't even close to as lucrative as just heading up to the Argent Tournament or over to the Sons of Hodir and doing some dailies.
