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Are raiders becoming obsolete?
At first glance, I didn't really think there was much out of the ordinary about a post made by one of Nihilum's resto Shaman, Neg. A number of raiding guilds have complained strenuously about the presence of easy-to-obtain epics in the game, but any post entitled, "Does Blizzard Hate Raiders?" is typically going to get a scoff and little else. I had read the article shortly before zoning into Black Temple for the third time ever, and for the first time with the ingame sound on. My guild had recently killed both High Warlord Naj'entus and Supremus, and while the Karabor Sewers portion of the instance is interesting to look at, it pales in comparison to what you'll see once you're offered a teleport to a different floor by a member of the Ashtongue Deathsworn. My guildies and I were really just there to farm Hearts of Darkness for resist gear and to explore a little bit, with nothing really important on our minds. Nevertheless, what we saw that night was beautiful. The floor you're ported to has a tiny, friendly area with the Ashtongue Quartermaster, but beyond that lie a number of sinister things. The ceiling is pillared by giant statues much like those that guard the portal into Outland, and rogues lurk in pairs seemingly all around you. Not infrequently you find yourself turning around to shouts on vent to see them rapidly killing off members of the raid; we finally hit upon the strategy of sending our own rogues off to sniff out the presence of danger while the raid itself was ringed and guarded on all sides by the tanks. Once another set of rogues was found, our hunters set up Flares to flush them out of hiding, marked them, and pulled carefully. You were only really safe if you were in the middle portion of the raid; wandering off to go explore on your own was unthinkable.The music is lovely, the atmosphere is stellar, and for the first time ever in a raid I felt the real sense of a dangerous place with violent, unpredictable creatures that didn't want us there. It was one of the few times that we've actually had to use real strategy as a raid outside of a boss fight. Black Temple makes it abundantly obvious that you are a small, embattled group struggling to survive against overwhelming odds. Most raids are pretty straightforward - learn the tricks to the trash, pull the trash, clear the trash, ask "What's the respawn timer?", and then kill the boss. Tempest Keep is a pretty cold and sterile environment; Serpentshrine Cavern is more interesting visually but the trash is, in many cases, just pull after pull after pull of the exact same stuff (weirdly enough, Karazhan and Zul'Aman seem to come a little closer to the Black Temple raid mentality than their Tier 5 brothers). But there is so much obvious care and attention lavished on the endgame raids, I said to myself (while taking tons of screenshots and turning the sound up), that I just don't buy the argument that Blizzard doesn't give a hoot about raiders. But Neg isn't really writing about the conflict between raiders and the rest of us, which has been a pretty thoroughly discussed in one form or another. It's his contention that the raiding world - what I saw on Thursday and what Nihilum practically does professionally - is becoming obsolete in this, the Age of Purple.
WoW Insider Show Episode 26: Badges, Blizzard and buffs
This past Saturday the WoW Insider Show welcomed Amanda Dean and Adam Holisky on, as well as myself and Turpster, for the 26th episode of our podcast on WoW Radio. Despite some lackluster, if I may say so, email from readers (you can send us some better emails at theshow@wow.com), we charged through and got a lot of good discussion done: We chatted about Amanda's hacked characters, and what a little name-dropping will get you from Blizzard (not much) We confronted whether all this new badge loot makes raiding worthless (surprise -- we decided it does not) We talked about all the new class changes on the PTR, with a special look at Shamans, and the Warlock change to Lifetap. We ran over what Rob Pardo said during the GDC Liveblog And finally, we wondered just what kind of player it takes to PuG with Adam All in all, good show, and you can listen to it right now over on WoW Radio's website. You can also subscribe to our podcast in iTunes if you so choose, and we'll be back at it again next weekend -- every Saturday at 3:30pm EST. Enjoy the show!
Badges for dailies
Originally, there was only one way to obtain Badges of Justice: Heroic bosses. Now there are a couple more: Heroic daily quests as well as raids. Still, there hasn't been a way for the die-hard solo player to get their hands on some badges -- until now. The Shattered Sun Offensive (SSO), the new faction associated with patch 2.4, assigns many daily quests (to help you fill the new 25-dailies-a-day limit). Several of these quests reward you with Shattered Sun Supplies, a box which contains a high-level green item, and also -- coming to my point -- has a chance to contain a Badge of Justice.According to Wowhead, there are seven dailies that reward Shattered Sun Supplies. Some of them are apparently only available during certain phases of the SSO effort, so let's say you can do five of these per day. I don't have numbers on how often the supplies contain a Badge, but let's say it's a 50% chance, based on one comment that Badges are contained "more often than not." So on average, you could get 2.5 Badges per day just by doing these daily quests, which means 60 days to get one of those snazzy new 150-badge weapons. That's a long time, but arguably justified by the fact that these quests are probably pretty easy. Overall, this is, in my opinion, an excellent enhancement to the Badge system. Your thoughts?Update: Suzaku questions my hypothetical 50% drop rate in a comment. Obviously, the impact of these badges will depend on how frequent they are, and we just don't have solid numbers on that yet. Not to mention it may change during testing.
Officers' Quarters: Kicking and screaming
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.The past 12 months have been some of the toughest for raiding guilds since WoW went live. When The Burning Crusade launched, the PvE path was riddled with speed bumps: lengthy, complex attunements; massive consumables requirements; subpar loot rewards; fast, punishing trash respawns; luck-based encounters . . . I could go on and on. In comparison, the PvP path was smooth sailing: get your 10 Arena games in and you'll eventually get all the loot you want with no additional farming to cover consumables or repair costs. Run the battlegrounds for the other slots at your leisure and convenience. As a result, raiding guilds have taken a beating as more and more players have thrown in the towel. Gradually, Blizzard has undone most of those speed bumps (while making some of the top-end PvP a little more exclusive). Now, in patch 2.4, it looks like they're really getting serious about bringing guilds back into the 25-player dungeons. They're increasing the amount of gold and loot tokens bosses drop and lifting the attunements for Mount Hyjal and Black Temple. If that wasn't enough, they're also bringing Heroic badge rewards up to par with Black Temple/Season 3 Arena gear. I've got a backlog of e-mails, so I thought this week I'd address two. Both officers are having problems motivating their guilds to give raiding a try. It seems like they have to drag their guildmates into Karazhan kicking and screaming. So maybe the changes in 2.4 will help them out. Let's see if we can, too.
Badges of Justice topple the Black Temple
According to Drysc, the Sunwell Plateau will bring new badge loot to a vendor near you. Its too early to say what these items will be, but Drysc says the items are going to be Black Temple quality.This definitely has ups and downs. In my opinion, it really seems like the devs are eager to make their past dungeons obsolete. Dumping the old world raids with the launch of the Burning Crusade made a lot of sense, but rendering most of the pre-Sunwell content obsolete with badge gear within the same chapter of the game seems a little strange to me. Even if the vendor was in the raid zone itself, giving a wider selection of gear to those who have cleared Black Temple and Mount Hyjal, that would only lead to those with a plethora of badges paying for a raid ID for vendor access.Of course, this could be a very good thing for people sitting on many, many badges from Karazhan and are trying to gear up for Wrath of the Lich King levelling. Black Temple loot in exchange for a few Kara runs? Sure, I'll take that!
The Daily Grind: Non-combat titles vs combat titles
I admit it; I'm a title hunter. Way back when I started up City of Heroes, the idea of gathering as many badges as I could seemed like a lot of fun to me. It gave me a plethora of various titles and accolades to choose from at any given time. Later, when the TaxiBots entered the scene, I joined up with their cause. One of the things we had the most success with in regards to player-run events was the Badge tours, whereby people who either didn't know where the badges were, or just didn't feel like hunting them could get teleported from place to place via Recall Friend. We took the badge flavor text and spun outrageous stories based on it, then sent them along to the next person in the route. After approximately 2 minutes, the "fare" (player) would have gained 5-7 new badges, and had a lot of fun listening to us spin tales of bravery and occasionally depravity. Fast forward to WoW and LotRO, and I find myself chasing titles once again, but most of these require combat to gain. It is quite different from the early CoH badges with many available just for walking over a certain area, or finding an easter egg. Is there a better way to do it? Perhaps. But this is what we'd like to ask you about today. Are you also a badge hunter, seeking the next new title? If so, do you prefer yours for combat and feats of prowess, would you rather have them for just finding some "historic" spot that advances the lore, or do you like the idea of a combination of both? Do you think the idea of a non-combat title is just silly? Or do you really just not care about the idea of titles at all?
Under The Hood: The Ouroboros System
In most MMOs, once you hit a certain level, quests from before you hit that level turn useless and defunct. This sort of mechanic keeps players from going back and experiencing old stories because they leveled too fast, and really detracts from the overall feel of a game. What if I wanted to go back and play old quests (World of Warcraft, I'm looking right at you) and get some reward for them? Well, thankfully, City of Heroes/Villains has just implemented the Ouroboros System to allow you to go back and play previous missions you couldn't. But how is this going to affect the industry?
CoX Winter Event on Test server
Dust off the sleigh bells and strap on your rocket-propelled skis, boys and girls, it's that time of year again: NCsoft has once again released the CoX Winter Event into Test. Now, a word of warning: it's not always up, and it could be pulled at any time for further tweaking, but it is there, waiting for you to discover it just like a tasty digital sugarplum in the bottom of your spandex stocking.This year, prep for some serious competition on the ski slopes: the slalom course is now timed, and you can win medals badges depending on your placement. And don't worry, Old favorites like Father Time and his missions have returned, and the Gamester is still putting out gifts for those who are naughty or nice. One intriguing element this year is new salvage: Candy Canes. This sweet treat can be redeemed in Pocket D for holiday rewards. Sorry to disappoint the fan community, though, but Sexy Jay's not collecting them, the Candy Keeper is. So ... who's up for hot cocoa and cool gaming, hm?
CoX Issue 11 patch live on Test server
Affecting client version 16.20071113.3T, NCsoft has released a new patch for the CoX properties, and it's currently active on the Test server. The new patch addresses power set activation times, accolades, graphical and sound effects, Flashback missions, and global chat tweaks for all players. As well, two new costume sets were introduced: an Enforcer set and a Jester set. Attendees of last week's Meet & Greet had the opportunity to see the costumes a week ahead of time, when Sexy Jay showcased his work. Aside from the costume sets themselves, two new pattern sets for existing costume customization are also available.For this particular Issue 11 patch, Heroes will see Scrapper, Blaster, and Defender changes, as well as some adjustment done to Badge levels in Flashback missions. Villains will find some improvement to the Mastermind set, and that Snake Eggs will once again hatch. While there's no stated release date for the patch to go live on the regular servers, if you have the opportunity to so do, download and try it out on Test.
CoX: New web-based display options
Supporting the theory that the world should know more about the CoX universe, you'll soon be able to configure the game client to display or hide certain information on the web. It is a bit convoluted, however, so please be sure to note the information contained in the official forums.In the Miscellaneous section under the General tab (Menu > General), you will have the option of hiding your Statistics, Powers, Badges, and Friends list from inclusion on the public web page. If you choose to show them, leave each option disabled; however, if you wish to hide them, enable the option. If you're a private person, simply enable the Statistics option, and all other options will automatically be hidden. One other thing: unlike graphic settings, these options are configured on a per-character basis, so if you want everything hidden, you'll need to properly configure each character you have on each server. The only caveat to this is if your character has not been logged in for at least 90 days: at that cut-off point, all options are hidden.Although a final go-live date for this feature has not been announced, it's planned for a relatively short lead time. There will be more information available in the official forum as the release date approaches; and, as always, if you have any issues, concerns, or comments, NCsoft wants to hear from you in the discussion thread.
How are those Heroic PUGs coming?
Lane asks a good question on WoW LJ that I'd like to ask you as well-- how are those Heroic PUGs coming? With the recent changes to reputation requirements for Heroic dungeons, there's probably a whole lot more players out there ready to run Heroics and looking for groups to do it with. But as classically unorganized as most pick up groups are, and as much concentration and skill that Heroics require, I can't imagine a Heroic PUG would ever been a good time, unless you got really, really lucky. Heck, I have enough trouble running with a normal PUG-- a Heroic PUG seems like it would be hell and a half.I'm sure it's not impossible-- if you've already got a good tank and some good CC, you can probably PUG a DPS or Healer and do OK. And I'm sure that, just like real PUGs, every once in a while, you'll strike gold and get a group that really has it together. But as easy as badges are to come by nowadays, I have to stand in awe of the people who still go for Heroic PUGs. How's it going out there?
70 new badges in Issue 11
A full listing of the new 70 new badges available in City of Heroes and City of Villains is available on Badge-Hunter.com's site. While Issue 11's new badges are split into Exploration and Achievement areas, the vast majority seem to be focused on the new Ouroboros-based missions. I'll even give you a hint on where to find the Chrononaut badge: it's placed in a similar location to two of the badges found in Atlas Park. And don't forget that you can change or clear your badge title at any time. After all, why be known as a Keeper of Secrets when you can be perceived as Justice Incarnate?[Via Kill Ten Rats]
Inside the accounting files of NPCs
I've already said a few times that I'd love to see Blizzard's population figures, but a query (from an MVP, strangely enough) brings up another set of figures that I wouldn't mind a look at: NPC vendor sales numbers. Crepe wants to know how many items Griftah has sold (and how many hula dolls he sells post 2.3), but unfortunately, Nethaera deflects the question and leaves us with nothing. Additionally, I'd like to know how many heroic badges G'eras is going through on any given night-- maybe the fact that he's not selling many of his Heroic items is the reason why Blizzard is going to start dropping Badges in both Karazhan and Zul'Aman next week.Blizzard has given us peeks at a few numbers behind the game, but they haven't updated that page since it went up (and with all the exceptions on those lists, it's not much help anyway). There is a whole new world of statistics to be had in Outland, and it'd be nice for Blizzard to let us at just a few of the most interesting ones.
Under The Hood: Of Titles, Badges, and Achievements
Say what you will about achievement points on the Xbox 360. They may cheapen the experience, or reduce elements of skill down to raw numbers, but anyone who has ever played a 360 knows how addictive the little "Achievement unlocked!" message is. So what happens when you toss that into an MMO? Titles. It seems that a recent trend in MMOs is "titles". When they first debuted in the mainstream with City of Heroes, they didn't do much. All they did was add bragging rights for the person who has them, and a displayable title above the person's head. They were worthless (Well, mostly worthless). And most of the titles in CoX are still worthless. "Oh, I killed 200 Circle of Thorn members. I've got that sweet new title." Some MMOs are actually starting to change things up now, though, including the pioneers of the "Titles" system. Getting the exploration titles in City of Heroes/Villains will enable your Supergroup to teleport to that map from your Supergroup base. Getting certain titles in Guild Wars will allow you to increase your holding cap on faction. Getting all titles in an area in Tabula Rasa gets you a huge experience bonus (noticing a trend here? NCsoft developers seem to love the use of titles).
Badges of Justice may not be in WotLK
I sure thought that Badges of Justice were here to stay (especially since Blizzard has been ramping up where they're used and what they buy), but maybe that's not the case. When a player asks if they'll still be around in Northrend, Neth says it's not a sure thing, and that's a lot less certain than I thought I was.I really don't think Blizzard will abandon the turn-in system entirely-- although Badges are a little different than they've ever done it before (and yes, they probably do need a little tweaking in how they're given out), the system works. It gives people a reason to run instances, and it lets you choose what you want to run, and then choose the loot that you want from that run. Token-based loot, in general, is so far a great alternative to the drop or the quest system.However, I can definitely see Blizzard moving on to some new tokens. Maybe as WotLK comes out, they'll just spread these Badges around more and more, making the Heroic loot more and more easy to get, and then when we reach Northrend, the next iteration of token loot will go back to being much more rare.
BlizzCon: Tales of ticket pick up
It's the day before BlizzCon, and the WoW Insider team got the chance to stand amongst the throngs to get our badges. The challenge was, of course, that the lines themselves were crazy, wondering out the door without much organization. The mood in the convention center can be described as calm expectancy. I expected more excitement, but I think the ordeal of waiting in such long lines wore the excitement right out of us. Tomorrow we'll be out there in line, looking for more shining faces, and bringing you all the latest. For now we sit waiting for the meet up to begin.
The E3 badges for 2007
Following incidents in previous years, the new E3 badges have the ultimate security precaution added -- pictures. In previous years the badges had names and ultraviolet backgrounds, but completely lacked pictures, which allowed people to pass their badge around. Better yet, it allowed people to photocopy their badges (in some cases sell those copies) and by day two security was in full force after many people started showing up that didn't have authentic badges.And every year there were incidents of people getting to the badge generating area (which happened to be right next to the the media room). This caused the media to listen to the screams of a very irate members of the group running the event screaming about how somebody got into the room and printed unauthorized badges. We'd show off the new badge for this year, but frankly, it's even less secure than the previous year's badges and would be ridiculously easy to duplicate with a quick trip to Michael's craft store. Then you just have to get a picture ...
Video game nerd cred now in convenient badge form
Sure, you could use this super-cool line of gaming-themed buttons from Prickie to spruce up a favorite knapsack or family pet. But there are enough oddball items on here that you may want to use them to show off your (literal) videogame ownage. Are you tired of having to tell people about your QuickShot II Turbo to earn street nerd cred? Just buy the button and pin it to your forehead. (Notably absent from the list: The Duke. There are apparently some things that just don't fit on buttons ... yet. How about it, science?) Now go, game nerds, buy like the wind -- or at least before Hot Topic snaps them all up.[Thanks, Axel]
Badges of Honour back at Blockbuster
For you fellow Canadian fanboys out there, Blockbuster Video is carrying the "Badges of Honour". For a toonie, you can get your hands on one of five limited edition badges, from GRAW 2, to Guitar Hero II to Halo 3. Proceeds are going to be donated to the Children's Miracle Network, so its definitely for a good cause. They will only be available until Sunday, April 1st, 2007, so next time you're renting something over at Blockbuster, pick up a couple badges to help show gamers care.[Thanks, DjDATZ]
Video game merit badges; Tetris is the new archery
In this Worth 1000 Photoshop contest, entrants were tasked with creating a "real-life merit badge." Our favorites: this 2600 joystiq joystick, a Tetris badge, a Pac-Man badge, and a weird Half-Life lambda logo in a pink triangle ... though we're not sure that one's game related. While those are all really boss, I'm really wanting a Geometry Wars badge. Busting 1mln points certainly deserves something more than a simple XBL achievement![Via Boing Boing]
