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Latest Armory population figures from Okoloth
Okoloth has dropped an update to his Armory analysis, featuring the latest and greatest information on about half of the World of Warcraft's denizens. He surveyed 4.6 million characters on the Armory, and while that sounds like a lot (it sounds like half of WoW's population, except that Blizzard's 9 million figure is supposed to be players, not characters), it's not actually that much of a representative sample. Still, compared to the table scraps that Blizzard gives us, it's something, so let's get what we can from it.He finds that the biggest majority of players are at level 70 compared to the other levels, but there are still only about 40% of the characters there (adding fuel to the fire on both sides of creating midlevel and endgame content). Mages and Warriors are the standouts on the class breakdown at level 70 (with 13.5% and 14.3% respectively-- what tank problem?), while Shaman are the biggest losers-- only about 7% of level 70s he surveyed were Shaman. Sounds about right. Across all levels, Warriors still have the biggest percentage, while Hunters follow them up. And on the low end, it's Druids, Pallys, and at rock bottom, Shamans. People just don't like playing the totem class.He's also got new stats on realm balance, but remember that these numbers are not much more than guesses. They're pretty close, though, even for that. Drysc told us that Agamaggan's Alliance/Horde balance was about 1.1:1, and Oko's figures have it at about 1.09:1 (by my math), which is pretty darn close. Big ups to Oko for putting these numbers together, always interesting to see the figures on how and where people are playing in Azeroth.[ via WoR ]
The Daily Grind: Your favorite class
Of course, over here on Massively we're all playing who knows how many different MMOs -- but even with the variety of games out there, there are a number of common class archetypes you see repeated. Are you a Rogue in World of Warcraft? Perhaps you play a Burgler in Lord of the Rings Online or a Swashbuckler in EverQuest 2. Or perhaps you break through the traditional class archetypes and play a Cleric in one game and a Warrior in the next. So tell us about it -- which class archetypes are your favorite? Or do you switch around?
LOTRO devs considering the idea of class advisors
In a post to the official Lord of the Rings Online forums, community member annie requests that players be given more of an opportunity to voice their concerns to the development team. Specifically, they would like to have class advocates, or advisors, who could express player concerns about a particular profession to the game's creators. Just a few posts in, Zombie Columbus notes that they think such an addition to the game would be a boon:I personally like the idea of the players helping direct how the classes develop. That is why I was so active on Isengard and read so much of what was on these forums. There are constraints I have as a conscientious developer though... Making a class overpowered hurts the game, making it underpowered hurts the game. It is not an easy line to walk, so I appreciate the help I have gotten, even from those here who are literally calling for me to be fired the trick is in how I translate the comments I get, heh heh.Further discussion (and some name-calling) in the thread led the developer to clarify his statement:Right here is why I'm not such a fan of doing an advocate. I just said "I did talk to players" and the first response was "Well, those players didn't tell you what I wanted." That said, an advocate is someone who could take the bullet for unpopular changes.... Hmmm.... (I'm kidding.... mostly) In all seriousness, the idea of class specific advocates is something I've been thinking about bringing up to my boss. I just need to convince myself they are a good idea before I can try to convince others.The question of whether or not to have profession advocates is one faced by every Massively Multiplayer game. What do you think? Are they helpful, or are they just opportunities for players to grandstand?
Blood Sport: Perfect balance, the PvP pipe dream
Thank you for all your comments on my first blog entry! Yes, PvP is indeed a volatile topic to write about, and I fully expect some of you to disagree passionately with me. I constantly seek to pull information, and opinions from a wide range of sources and players, so that we can all make better sense of this ever-changing beast we all love called PvP. I do not know it all - and I suspect nobody does - we can all learn something through this exchange of ideas. "Nerf warlocks!" A familiar refrain in the forums, in general chat, and even in guild chat. So familiar that OP has almost become an affectionate term for warlocks. But can anyone remember a time when people believed that Blizzard employees all played class x and when the prevailing QQ in the community was "Nerf class x!"? Have you ever thought that a certain class was 'so madly imba' that you wished the devs would fix it immediately, especially after you've been mauled by that class? The idea of 'balance' is seductive - imagine WoW where you walk into every fight confident that your character can beat any opponent. Is balance really about that? Is balance achievable? Even if we get it, do we, as players, really want it? Patch day comes and with every nerf and/or buff, we assume that the devs are trying to reach that nirvana of Perfect Balance. Why is Blizzard happy with a rock-paper-scissors model? Wouldn't everyone be happier if there was Perfect Balance?
Age of Conan's Dark Templar in-depth
Most classes of characters in MMOs are generally morally ambiguous, blank slates for characters to impose their own personalities. At the very worst they're chaotic neutral, vaguely menacing looking but still ambiguous. In an interview with TTH, Age of Conan product director Jørgen Tharaldsen describes how the Dark Templar is noticeably, convincingly evil, evidenced by his very visible use of the powers given him in his pact with dark gods.From the sound of the interview, the Dark Templar will be a unique sort of tanking hybrid, pairing the use of single-edged weapons with auras and enemy draining abilities that rob enemies of health to sustain himself and his teammates. The interview itself has something of a worshipful character to it, but we're willing to look past that because of the depth of information there. As time goes, we're starting to hear more and more about the game's combat system and the kinds of characters we'll see in it, and what we've heard sounds pretty exciting.
Officers' Quarters: Loot whores -- Are you their pimp?
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. Let's talk about loot. Is any subject more controversial in the entire game? After all, the game itself is centered around loot, like it or not. Loot opens doors and conquers enemies. Without it, you'll only see a fraction of what the game has to offer at max level. Without it, you're going to struggle in battlegrounds and the arena. It's the only way to advance your character at the level cap. Currently, the best loot in the game essentially advances your character by 81 levels, to 151 (not counting certain legendary warblades). So it's no wonder that so much guild drama is the direct result of decisions about loot.
Breakfast Topic: Abilities you'd like to see in the Warcraft movie
I was recently playing my hunter in a situation where I could not use my pet because I had to use a special item to mind-control a demon in the Netherstorm, and apparently having a pet and mind-controlling at the same time isn't allowed in the game mechanics. As a beast-mastery hunter, I'm pretty weak without my pet, so I had to use Feign Death a lot to get into position next to the demon. Suddenly I imagined my character as a star in the Warcraft movie, feigning death left and right, and laughing at the demons who fell for it every time.In a movie, certainly, it couldn't be so simple. The plausibility of the plot would require the monsters to figure out something was fishy when the hunter got up from apparent death the first time. Still, I thought if the ability was used once or twice in particularly appropriate moments, it could be really funny and also make the fans go wild, because they would recognize the game mechanics making a cameo in the film. Imagine: the hunter character in the movie is separated from his pet, surrounded by monsters, shot by an arrow and appears to die, only to be fine later on when his friends come to pick up his dead body. Then maybe towards the end, the bad guy feigns death too, and tricks the heroes with their own trick.What other in-game abilities would it make you jump with glee to see get a cameo in the movie? What place do you think it would take in the story? The first abilities that come to my mind are Polymorph, Vanish, and a paladin's bubble shield -- anything with a strong visual impact that could play a significant part on the story.
Blood Sport: Rock, paper, scissors?
Between Arenas, V'Ming, aka Vims, spends his time as a 70 affliction lock feeling OP in AV, soaking arcane damage from the Curator and enslaving Olm's doggies. Sometime in August, an LFM call was made from the rooftops of WoW Insider. I wrote in, pitching the idea of an Arena-centric column. The good people at WoW Insider liked what I had to offer – so here I am, the new kid on the blog! I've been playing this game since May '05; ventured into DM North way too many times for the Rod of the Ogre Magi (in vain), then took a break from the game when I decided that 40-man raids weren't for me. I returned in a big way when Burning Crusade hit. Besides WoW – yes, there are other games – I've dabbled in DDO, Guild Wars, and even Saga of Ryzom. I've also been a player of Magic the Gathering for a couple of years, and have given the WoW TCG a spin, as a Gnome Rogue. No, I did not grind to High Warlord, nor am I part of Power Trip. What I offer in this column is an experienced player's perspective of the Arena game – the theorycraft behind matchups, how to prepare for it, things to consider while going at it, and learning from the best in the business. Let's dive into the most basic of PvP encounters: 1v1.
What's the most boring class?
I saw this poll over at the worldofwarcraft LiveJournal community, and immediately wondered how you loyal WoW Insider readers would vote, and whether it would be different from the LJers. The original question was: "Of all the classes available in WoW, what one do you have the least interest in playing?" Now I know Death Knight is not technically available in WoW yet, but I'm sure some people are already violently disinterested in playing them, so I put them on the poll as well.%Poll-4022%
Back on schedule?
There was a flood of patch 2.3 news yesterday, which almost certainly means the CMs hit some sort of release date for 2.3 info (not to mention that they said they'd talk about 2.3 after 2.2 released, though we didn't realize it would be the day after). At any rate, the CMs made a lot of people happy yesterday-- from numerous amazing class changes (Fear Ward! No Blind reagent!), to info about new Engineering flying mounts and daily PvP and cooking quests, 2.3 is looking pretty groovy all around. Finally, something to get excited about again! Sure, there's the next expansion, but it's tough looking forward to something Blizzard hasn't even designed yet.And the best news is that patch 2.3 is likely to show up sooner rather than later. Eyonix, at the very beginning of the big Blue forum rampage yesterday, once again cited voice chat and the new sound system as the reason for the long wait on 2.2. It wasn't a class balance or content patch, it was a completely technical one. And that's why it's been three months since new content. It'll be interesting to see if Blizzard ever tries something technical like this again-- lots of players have asked about upgrading the graphical engine, but if their efforts on the sound engine are any indication, that's just too large an undertaking for them to handle while also being expected to release new content.But hopefully 2.3 will make up for lost time-- while the coders were working on editing sound channels, hopefully the developers were thinking up new ways to make the classes more powerful and interesting. Of course they haven't announced any release dates (this is Blizzard, after all), but my guess is that we'll see 2.2.2 with a week or two, and 2.3 about a month or so after that, definitely before Christmas.
Shifting Perspectives: PvP is hard
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them, brought to you by Dan O'Halloran and David Bowers.Every class has its pet PvP problems. Some whine a lot about how many times they've been nerfed; others just whine about warlocks. But most of these classes have a pretty clear idea about what they're supposed to be doing. Sometimes they whine that they don't like "what they're supposed to be doing" and would rather remake their class into something completely different -- but that's another issue.Here's the generally accepted conventional wisdom on what each class is supposed to be doing in PvP: Rogues: Kick buttocks (by surprise) Hunters: Shoot buttocks (from a distance) Mages: Freeze and burn buttocks (and sheep) Priest: Melt buttocks (or heal) Shaman: Shock buttocks, drop totems (and heal) Warrior: Charge in and smash buttocks (with a healer in tow) Paladin: Stay alive (and heal) Warlock: Laugh maniacally (a lot) Druid: Mix and match your healing, damage absorption, and buttocks-destruction by being in the right form at the right time to do the right thing that needs to be done based on whoever is around you and whatever is going on at any given moment (lol wut?)
And now for this skill testing... instance?
I was just sitting in Ironforge a minute ago trying to peddle my enchants. The members of the guild I'm in were sitting around shooting the breeze about Burning Crusade instances. Somebody remarked on BRK's article earlier today about hunters "once being in demand" in Blackrock Depths, and I chimed in that as a subtlety rogue I've felt a little left-out of some of the Burning Crusade content. It seems from my vantage point that hunters and mages own the vast majority of the Burning Crusade instances because those of us who have to be in physical contact with our targets who don't have the benefit of plate armour are getting the bejeezus beaten out of us in this series of instances.While I can see the progression that Blizzard has taken, and I can understand the necessity for encounters to increase in difficulty I'm having a really difficult time finding the willpower to flush my carefully crafted rogue build down the toilet that I spent so much time perfecting.So let's shift gears for a moment to solo instances. Yes, we've talked about them before. I think that with the right implementation though, that we could kill a number of birds with one stone.How many crappy rogues have you met in-game? Ok, put your hands down. We can substitute any class into that question. There are lots of players with no skills floating around. We've all seen warriors who don't sunder, mages who don't realize they can summon (food and water), and even shamans who don't know what a totem is. Yes, I'm serious, I've seen every one of those.So here's my idea - with apologies if somebody else already thought of it first. I know Dan brushed gently against it a few months ago. Why not make an Academy style instance where players could go solo, maybe every ten levels, and be taught in "live fire" situations how to use the skills they've acquired in the last ten levels. Loot would have the benefit of being class-specific (or at the very least class-appropriate), and lunchbox letdown would be next to non-existent. The only obvious problem to me, is that the gear would almost have to be Bind on Pickup, and they'd probably want to make it so once you beat the last boss that you couldn't come back until you graduated to the next bracket.Then everybody would have something to do, nobody would feel completely useless, and best of all it would have a positive impact on the skill level of the players on our realms and in our guilds. What do you think?
Forum Post of the Day: Class haikus
Who knew that Warcraftplayers were such poets? Here'sa thread of haiku.All classes are here,Even that class full of noobs--You know which that is.Pretty impressive,Forum posters. Next up, let'stry writing sonnets.
ASH: Class breakdown
Prepare for a megaton: in Archaic Sealed Heat, black mages cast elemental spells and have low defense. Also, they wear hats. We hear white mages hang around healing people as well. Clearly, RPGs will never be the same.Siliconera has the full goods on the character classes in the upcoming Mistwalker title, and if you've ever slipped a roleplaying game into your system of choice, it looks like you will find familiar territory here. There are some slight changes; for instance, thieves here are "stealers" (brilliant), and itemers rely on -- can you guess? -- items. When this one gets localized, we may skip the instruction manual. We must say, if the jobs are so aptly (and obviously) titled, we can't wait to see the game's dialogue. "What is this thing what has scales and breathes fire? I shall call it 'Scaly Firebreathing Thing.'"We'll be here all week.
What class can't you play?
For me, it's rogues, hands down. I have alts of pretty much every other class, some more advanced than others, but no matter what I do, if I try and get a rogue above level six it's usually a disaster. Everyone tells me that rogues are the easiest class to play, but I'm not seeing it. How is managing stealth, figuring out how to get behind pathing targets to unleash attacks, and managing combo points easy? I even tried to play one of the level 70 uberrogues from the PTR, but that didn't go any better because (big surprise) I didn't have any idea what I was doing.I just don't get rogues. I don't get that when they talk about specs they're usually talking about what weapons to use instead of what talents they've picked half the time. I don't get that they're expected to do the most melee damage, that flies in the face of my gamer geek experience from years of tabletop play. I don't get how to use stealth propery, I don't understand how to stunlock. I'm just a hopeless case as a rogue. It doesn't help that Tauren, my second favorite race and my favorite horde side, can't be rogues.I'd personally and with great glee batter my head against the class if I could be a stealthy manbull. And don't tell me to roll a druid, I have one of those, it's just not the same. I have rolled Night Elf, Blood Elf, Human, Orc, Troll, Undead, and Gnome rogues. It always ends the same, with a dead rogue in some zone that I never go back to again. I think I left my highest level rogue dead in the Shimmering Flats.Come to think of it, my favorite alliance race and indeed my favorite race, can't play rogues either. No stealthy Draenei for me. As far as I'm concerned rogues are the hardest class to play. I'd play a Mage, a Warlock, anything else and do a lot better than I will on a rogue. It takes a skill set I don't seem to possess.Any class just totally elude you? Either because of personal preference, playstyle, or a frank and baffling inability?
The music of your class
There's a rather atrocious radio station that I pick up sometimes when I'm "station surfing" in the car that has an equally annoying jingle that advertises itself as playing "The Music of Your Life." I'll pause here so you can all run to the medicine cabinet to grab the nausea medication of your choice. Personally, I like the pink stuff, but I digress. It's no great secret that World of Warcraft players usually turn off the in-game music within moments of installing the game. Some listen to mp3 players while they play, or perhaps they have a stereo blaring nearby in the background. But what about the music of your class? What about a class theme song? What do you listen to when you're staring at the big boss at the end of the raid and you want to get your groove on? I posed this question to some paladin friends on another server. Their suggestions for the paladin class were "I Can Go The Distance" sung by Michael Boulton (the theme song from the Disney animated "Hercules") and – more amusingly – the chorus from "The Power" by Snap! That's just a couple of ideas for one class, but what about the rest? What about races? It's time for you to sound off with your suggestions.
Blizzard's Hero class implementation 101
Toeo of Dragonmaw wrote in to ask about a clarification on Hero classes (of which the Death Knight will be the first). What are they, what will they require, and what does it mean to be a Hero class? We are nothing if not helpful, so here's what we know about Hero classes (mostly from BlizzCon).There were a number of ideas floating around about how Blizzard might implement Hero classes (mostly from D&D, in which Prestige classes are the precursor), but what they landed on was an "unlockable class," that's opened up to your account via a quest with a level 80 character-- that quest hasn't been created yet, so we're not sure what it will require*. So, to play as a Death Knight, you get a character of any class to level 80, do the Death Knight quest, and once your character has completed the quest, you can log on, and create a new character (of any race, we're told) that is of the Death Knight class.That new character then starts at a higher level (anywhere from 55-70, but Blizzard hasn't decided where yet), with starter equipment of the appropriate level (again, Blizzard hasn't decided exactly which equipment yet or how it will work), and then the Death Knight character can work their way up to level 80 as well as a completely different character. Death Knights will have their own Rune resource system, and they will have their own three talent trees, just like all the other classes. It is a completely separate character, unlocked and able to be created when one of your level 80 characters finishes the quest.*Update: Commenter Avalanche makes a good point: we don't know much about the quest, but we know it will be similar to the Warlock epic mount quest, and that it will not require raiding. Thanks, A.!
What we learned from BlizzCon
Here it is-- a comprehensive, one-post guide to everything we learned at BlizzCon 2007. From Alleria to Zul'Aman, it's all here. Everything we know about Death Knights, Wrath of the Lich King, what's happening in Azeroth between now and the next expansion release, what Blizzard thinks about midlevel content, and how they're going to deal with the AFKers in Alterac.From top to bottom, in alphabetical order, here's every single new thing WoW Insider learned (and confirmed-- no speculation here) in Anaheim this weekend. If you have questions or additions, add them below, and I'll either update the list, or answer them to the best of my knowledge. Enjoy.
BlizzCon Day 2 Class Panel notes and Q&A
Because this is a repeat panel from yesterday, we didn't liveblog it. But here are some notes as well as the Q&A session from today.Senior Vice President of Game Design, Rob Pardo announced that they would be going through the same information as yesterday, but more quickly so that there would be more time for Q&A. The crowd applauded.Notes of differences or embellishments compared to yesterday's panel: Shamans were witch doctors in Warcraft 3. PvP balancing is done for 2v2 or 3v3, etc. WoW is not a dueling game, so class abilities in team PvP are worked on as opposed to single class vs. single class. Talents were inspired from Diablo 2. Moonkin Itemization in the PvE environment is not supported currently and is being worked on. Mages are the "experimental" class. The three classes of the Paladin put the class in three different roles as opposed to, for example, the Mage who is DPS, regardless of spec. Priest's Lightwell will get some scaling from gear. Warlocks got booed again. Death Knight notes: Hero Classes are classic Warcraft 3 characters and should have an Epic feel to them. There are class balance concerns, particularly with tanking. But because tanks are hard to find for groups, adding a different tank was considered a good idea. Death Knights will have their own Rune Resource system. Q&A after the break.
BlizzCon Day 1 Liveblog session roundup
We've managed to commandeer a patch of the press seating area located conveniently next to a dear, beloved power outlet and have been camped out all day bringing you live coverage of all the presentations here in the BlizzCon main hall. The big news of the day was the official confirmation of Wrath of the Lich King as the next expansion, to be released, in true Blizzard style, "whenever it's ready." We've got loads of pics and specs from both the opening keynote and the Wrath of the Lich King live demo session earlier today, as well as some great mechanics discussions from the Class Panel and Dungeons and Raids Panel. Here's a roundup of all the session liveblogs from Day 1: Opening Ceremony Wrath of the Lich King live demo session WoW Class Panel Dungeons and Raids Panel
