elitistjerks
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The Queue: I don't really know what's happening here
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. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.The video I've included in today's edition of The Queue is... something. It is certainly a thing. A thing that is entirely unrelated to WoW. I know the music is produced by Justice, but the video? Well. It's a video. Enjoy?corwin asked... "Is anything more going to be done with the Grizzly Hills Venture Bay PVP areas? It seems like it has a lot of potential and isn't paid any attention."
Is ignorance of class changes bliss?
Ahhhh, how I love the Elitist Jerks forums, the home of the most intelligent, informed, and well-written players of WoW. EJ produced another gem of a topic recently that made me think a bit about the purpose of sites like ours, and what function they serve in the overall scheme of WoW. Malan, who plays the tauren shaman Keiji on Skullcrusher, recently posted in a thread on the shaman forums about an upcoming patch. Rather than complain about shaman mechanics, however, he asked the community manager Nethaera an important meta-question: If most WoW players don't read the forums, and the forums are the main way the developers and community managers tell new information to the player base, then isn't there a huge gap in communication for most players?
What is the ideal raid size?
Over at Elitist Jerks Quigon of Maraudor started a thread about raiding. In it he philosophizes about raiding as we knew it, and how things have changed since the expansion. Raids in the original WoW varied in size, but the main push was toward the 40-man grouping. We did it in MC, in Naxxramas, even with the world dragons. But with the large number of members the encounters were for the most part simplistic, since it takes a great deal of skill to coordinate a large number of people to do just about anything. As Quigon puts it, the feeling of an epic fight has diminished somehow, despite the new encounters being more challenging. There isn't the same amount of excitement as a boss drops, that tangible electricity over the Vent channel. Is this because the encounters still need some tune ups, or is it because of the smaller group? Do you get the same swelling of pride as you form up as a group of 25 heroes to wage war as you would if there were 40 of your brethren around you? On the other hand, what about the 72-man raids in Everquest? Since we have so many variations in spec, build and class these days, wouldn't more people in a raid be better than fewer? He raises a lot of stimulating questions, questions I'd love to hear your perspective on. What is the perfect raid size? Is it 10, 40, or 100? [via Elitist Jerks]
WoW Moviewatch: Day in the life of an Elitist Jerk
I'm sure you've all wondered what the life of the illustrious Elitist Jerks was like, and this little machinima tells you just that. (However, I think it must have glossed over the parts about consumables farming and repair bills.)Previously on Moviewatch...
Arena rankings for sale
Want to get some of those awesome PvP arena rewards, but don't have the friends or talent to win the points yourself? Buy your way in!A poster on the Elitist Jerks guild forums says a rogue and shaman in his guild (he's part of Paradox on Eredar) are supposedly selling arena spots on highly ranked teams. These guys go in, get the rating up to 2000-2100, and then charge 500-800g (depending on the rating) to join the team and play 10 matches. At the end of the week, "customers" pick up 500-600 arena points, and within a few weeks and a few thousand gold, they're buying a Gladiator's weapon.Is this cheating? I don't think so, any more than the selling of Onyxia slots way back when was. This team is probably known on the server (or they will be now, if they're not already), so anyone but the two guys running it won't get the respect those with such a high ranking normally would. And if the two guys can actually hold down a 2100 ranking while adding in random people from week to week, I say they deserve the cash.Who knows what Blizzard will say, though. Sometimes they're hands off on this stuff (I don't think they ever had a problem with guilds selling raid spots), and sometimes they take an interest. To tell the truth, I'm not really sure how big a market there is for this anyway. Would you pay 3000g to run the arenas 10 times a week and pick up the epic weapon when you're done?Update: Robert says in the comments that he talked to a Blizzard GM about this, and the GM says it's cool. So there.[ Thanks, Robert! ]
Raiding and the consumables dilemma
Praetorian, over on Elitist Jerks has posted an interesting examination in the role that consumable buffs play in raiding. While this just popped into my own guild's forums, and although it's a couple of weeks old now, the point is still current and relevant.Praetorian summarizes by saying:"Consumables are too powerful, such that Blizzard's raid designers are forced into the untenable position of balancing around unbuffed groups and having their content steamrolled, or balancing around buffed groups and forcing players into a cycle of unpleasant farming in order to even have a chance."He goes on into great detail, breaking down the differences between the different tiers of raiding gear in terms of how they help in raiding, and then into the consumables. In the end, he calls for a change in how raids are approached by Blizzard in the development phase of the game.What do you think of Praetorian's analysis? Do you carry a lot of consumables with you, and do you think things need to change?[Thanks to Forge for the submission!]
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We're in your docks, kidnapping your flightmaster
With the disappearance of dishonorable kills, many people are hoping for the return of innovative world PvP. As an example of "innovative world PvP," and how angry people get when it actually occurs, we present last month's Mal'Ganis Flightmaster Hostage Crisis. Mal'Ganis is a fairly overcrowded PvP server, hosting both some of the world's best guilds (Ret, Elitist Jerks) and some of the world's best drama (the guildmaster who threatened to kill a guy who gquit after spending a month in the hospital.) One of the native Mal'Ganis guilds is Goon Squad, a giant Horde crew that was formed from readers of http://www.somethingawful.com. Goon Squad is known for pranks and odd ideas, the most well-known of which is their "I Summon People Off Cliffs" warlock PvP video. On the night of November 4, Goon Squad snuck into Theramore and kited away the Alliance flightmaster. Soon after, they posted a ransom demand on the Mal'Ganis realm forums: If the Alliance bought out two Lightforge Belts listed for 1500g each in the neutral auction house, Goon Squad would free their hostage. If not, wrote Stuul from Goon Squad, "It would be very unfortunate if we were forced to hold him for the weekend while you try to raid." To encourage the Alliance to pay up, they also camped the Ratchet boat and kidnapped the Auberdine flight master. A large group of Alliance joined in the fun and vowed to hunt down their beloved flightmasters rather than pay the ransom. Goon Squad soon posted that the hostages were in Bael'Dun Keep in the southern Barrens, and challenged Alliance to come and get them. Unfortunately for the Horde, enough people complained to GMs that the incipient world PvP battle was nipped in the bud. Five hours into the hostage crisis, GMs struck down the kited flightmasters with instant Curse of Dooms, killing them and allowing Alliance to fly free in Kalimdor once more. "Your flight masters were slaughtered by a overexcited GM," Arktdnonoobs wrote. "We had no part in their deaths." Goon Squad received commendations from both Horde and Alliance on several servers. Even a CM on the Customer Service Forum, Batta, noted that while the GMs had to kill the flight masters to keep them from being "lost", he admired Goon Squad's ingenuity in pulling off the caper. So is this an example of innovative world PvP, or a bunch of Horde being jerks? Do you have any plans to spice up your server's PvP in the future?
Ahn'Qiraj Bosses Hotfixed
Two of the most difficult bosses in Ahn'Qiraj - C'thun and Ouro, neither of whom have yet been defeated - have both been hotfixed to make the encounters (presumably!) less difficult. With major PVE raiding guilds on the verge of giving up on the buggy C'thun encounter (see Death and Taxes and Elitist Jerks for examples), CM Drysc posted regarding changes to both encounters. If you approach either of these two bosses in the future expect the following: Ouro's Quake effects deal significantly less damage Lowered hit points for C'thun's Giant Claw Tentacles and Giant Eye Tentacles Decreased damage from C'thun's Ground Rupture ability, which should also now be resistible Significantly decreased melee damage from C'thun's Giant Eye Tentacles The faction changing debuff applied to players in C'thun's stomach should no longer appear Tentacles should no longer spawn in C'thun's stomach A player in C'thun's stomach can no longer be the target of C'thun's Eye Beam Will this be enough to encourage disheartened guilds who have been wiping for over a month on the C'thun encounter? This seems the way of many of the game's major bosses thus far... Ragnaros was impossible, until the encounter was tweaked by Blizzard. Nefarian was impossible, until the encounter was tweaked by Blizzard. Does it surprise anyone that C'thun is impossible in the same way?[Thanks to Wreckless and Dave for contributing links]
