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The healer shortage and how to fix it
The Tank Shortage is a topic that's come up a few times before, though thankfully, since the release of Wrath, Death Knights have more or less solved the situation. But the issue facing us now is just as dire: a Healer Shortage. Ghostcrawler acknowledges that there may be such a shortage on the forums, and he gives two reasons: first, lots of people are still working their way up to level 80, and the majority of healers may still be leveling through Northrend. And second, they've beefed up and changed a lot of DPS builds lately, so many pre-Wrath healers may have respecced DPS to try it or to level a bit, and haven't gone back yet.Later, he backpedals a bit -- not everyone is experiencing a healer shortage, and while he's already told us Blizzard is working on ways to make healing more "fun," he also points out that some people enjoy the whack-a-mole game. Still, just because a problem isn't affecting everyone doesn't mean it's a problem: it's true that lots of groups are having trouble finding healers, and lots of healers would rather not watch health bars all day.We're very curious to see what changes Blizzard might have in mind for healing -- we discussed quite a few on the healer podcast a while back, including making healing spells a little less attention-intensive, and giving healers some UI ways to keep their eyes on the fight rather than their party members. And of course, if the rumors are true, we'll hopefully have a new healer Hero class to come and fill in the blanks. GC says this isn't a matter of tweaking things in one patch, so we are definitely a few patches away, but there is hope for healers on the horizon.
Behind the Curtain: Are we having fun?
Well, it all kicked off over on WoW Insider the other day, didn't it? You couldn't move for all the handbags being thrown around in the comments! Who'd have thunk it? Don't worry, I kid because I care. The thrust of the argument SLASH discussion was whether or not we should be tracking raid progression any more. It got me thinking. Not about raid progression exactly; about how different people approach MMOs and the content they offer; about how different people find 'fun' in different playstyles. Here at Behind the Curtain, I've shared my opinions on the Hardcore vs. Casual issue previously. To recap, I'm of the opinion that the difference between the two states, if it even exists, is in the goals one sets for oneself. Taking that line of thinking further, I began to think about fun. 'Fun' is a nebulous concept, difficult to pin down and pretty damned different for almost everyone in the world. Wikipedia currently defines fun as, "the expenditure of time in a manner designed for therapeutic refreshment of one's body or mind" which seems like a bit of a mouthful, to be honest.
The World (of Warcraft) is full, please come back later
Queues are the highest most of us have ever seen tonight. On my home server of Eldre'Thalas I was behind over 850 people at one point, and have had over an hour wait be estimated for me more often than not. I maxed out at 115 minutes.The estimated wait time will fluctuate back and forth depending on the frequency in which players log off or leave the queue in frustration.Perhaps the biggest thing we need to worry about this expansion is not server down time, but the phenomenal amount of players wanting to get in the game.If Blizzard has any announcement about this, or solutions (other than transferring realms) we'll keep you updated here. Other than that... good luck getting in.
Pyrus, another iPhone word game from the creator of Lexitron
I've mentioned here before how big a fan I am of Lexitron -- it's just the perfect kind of pick-up-and-play game I enjoy having on my iPhone, and the art deco look and feel of it is an added bonus. Now, digicide has come up with a new game called Pyrus, and it looks pretty good as well. Just like Lexitron, you're still focused on making words, but this time, you just need to come up with one word per set, and the app uses multitouch in choosing each letter of whatever word you make. It's an interesting idea, and once again digicide's app is oozing with style, this time in an Egyptian theme (I love the music notes that play when you hit a letter). The app is in the store now for just $1.99, which is probably a bargain for how much time you'll spend messing around with this while waiting in line or for the bus or train somewhere.If I could improve on these games at all, I'd almost like a few more letter options (Bookworm is pretty much the perfect word game, and while digicide obviously can't and shouldn't rip them off, something with a few more letters to choose from would seem fun). I'd also like to see a goal that's a little more involving than just racing against the clock -- maybe building up a power meter that unlocks certain letter choices or cheats, or even multiplayer against an AI or human, if digicide can pull it off. But for sheer pick-up-and-play wordcrafting fun, these games are already great. Very nice job on both, definitely two iPhone games to check out if you haven't yet.
Phat Loot Phriday: Goblin Rocket Launcher
Just another good reason to be an engineer.Name: Goblin Rocket Launcher (Wowhead, Thottbot, Crafter's Tome)Type: Rare Engineering TrinketDamage/Speed: N/AAbilities: +45 Stamina, which marks this thing as a PvP trinket, basically. On use: Fires a powerful rocket at the enemy that does 906 to 1440 damage and stuns them for 3 seconds. Which is as awesome as it sounds -- the rocket blasts out of the gun, flies with a firey trail towards the target and then boom. It can also crit, and we're told it's affected by haste and crit, so the better your specs, the better it'll do. There's a big five second cast, however, so it's better to use this either when enemies are just coming into range, or when they're leaving it. It does also generate threat, so theoretically it could be used as a pulling tool. The two-minute cooldown would make that hard to do often (not to mention that anyone tanking endgame probably wouldn't want to waste a trinket slot with this), but if you want to pull with flash, there you go. There is one drawback -- firing it will do a quick knockdown on you, so you'll need a second or two to get up. Hitting this thing under pressure is a bad idea. But if you've got one more enemy to tag and aren't getting hit yourself, it's a very nice ranged attack. It's a fun little toy, too. There's no limit on how many time you fire it (just the cooldown), so you can hit it every two minutes for some extra ranged damage. How to Get It: As you might imagine for something this awesome, the requirements are going to be big. You'll need engineering 350 to make equip and use it, and you'll need to be a Goblin engineer (the recipe just comes from Goblin engineering trainers in the Barrens and Tanaris). You ready for the entire recipes list? Broken down into their component parts, you'll need 120 Adamantite Ore, six Khorium Ore, 24 Fel Iron Ore, eight Eternium Ore, two Thorium Ore, two Arcane Crystals (which means two Arcanite Transmutes), two Ironweb Spider Silk, seventy Motes of Fire, and sixty Motes of Earth. So either you'll be grinding out quite a bit, or you'll be spending a goodly amount on the AH for all that stuff.But get it all together, make the Rocket Launcher, and start shooting, Tex.Getting Rid of It: This is pretty much an item you keep, even if just for kicks. Vendors will only give you 2g 25s for it. It is BoE, so you can try to sell it on the AH, but considering the grocery list of mats you'll need to buy or otherwise find, and the high requirements to actually use the thing, it's very, very unlikely you'll find a market willing to pay what it's worth. Sell Mechanical Squirrels instead.%Gallery-33600%
Ghostcrawler: Healing is next for an update
Ghostcrawler just popped up on the beta forums with some good news for healers: while tanking has gotten the focus lately in terms of mechanics and tweaking, healing is apparently next on the docket.It's nothing to hold your breath over (you'll pass out way before we see any changes on the realms), but Ghostcrawler says that healing is due for a revamp in terms of "fun," and while he says it'll be "a more challenging fix because what people think is fun about healing varies and some people are pretty happy with it already," he also hints that it'll be a pretty big change. Right now, healing is basically whack-a-mole -- when someone gets hurt, you cast a heal on them -- but Blizzard may be rethinking that mechanic completely. We'll have to wait (probably quite a while) and see.It's also interesting to note that Death Knights are a tanking class, and tanking got the revamp in Wrath of the Lich King. While some healers probably won't want to wait all the way until the next expansion, could this be a hint that we're looking at an Emerald Dream expansion, with an Arch Druid healing Hero Class, and an accompanying revamp of healing mechanics? Obviously, that's a stretch, but it makes sense, doesn't it?
Ten fun and mostly-free iPhone apps
Here are ten apps that won't annoy you (OK, Alarm Free might) and are either clever diversions or simply fun toys. All links take you to the App Store. Check out the gallery for a preview of everything I've mentioned. All of these were free when I first downloaded them, as I'm a terrible cheapskate, but several now cost between $.99 and $1.99, which isn't bad.Ancient WisdomBasically just a database of quotes from three philosophers: Lao Tzu, Miyamoto Musashi and Sun Tzu. To make it a little more fun the developers make the quotes come from cute cartoon monkeys. Not exactly genius, but fun and the quotes are, of course, pure gold. Better than a Magic 8-Ball, I think.Newtonica PlayerThis simple app has you spin a mesh ball to generate a "beat" that times the pace of the electronica music. There is a surprising amount of depth to the song, simple as it is. I was able to modify the tune a bit depending on my spinning, direction and how long I kept spinning. Terribly simple but fun because of those little tonal surprises.FireworksWherever you tap your finger a firework is launched to that spot and explodes. Nice little animations, plus it works in landscape mode and offers several backgrounds. The sounds could go further, and the fireworks aren't all that varied, but again, kids love it. Put it in "fireworks show" mode and keep it in your dock for a little fun. Note: at the time I originally wrote this Fireworks was free, but it is only $.99 now, which isn't too much to ask, I think.xCubeThis is just a Rubik's cube in iPhone/iPod touch form. But it is really easy to use, provides several customization options and has an undo feature. If you've ever wanted to learn how to solve the cube but didn't want a big cubic bulge in your back pocket, here's your answer. Note: again, here's an app that was free for a while, but is now $1.99 -- still cheaper than a new Rubik's cube, but more expensive than one at a garage sale. You make the call.%Gallery-34000%
Going Deep Sea Fishing for some better 375 Fishing rewards
I've been leveling up fishing lately (hit 373 last night, along with 375 cooking, thanks to El's great guide), and I've actually found it pretty fun. It's a little too boring to do it without something going on in the background (last night it was the Cubs game, as depressing as that was), but it's kind of fun just to throw a line into some random water or pool and see what comes out. That said, the rewards could use a little tuning -- while events like the STV Fishing Tourney are fun (I've done it twice now and haven't won it yet) and offer some nice items, fishing itself even at the highest levels just isn't as rewarding as, say, running dailies or Heroics. The only reason to run it all the way up is really just to say you did -- while there's a promise of a Mr. Pinchy somewhere out there, there's no real fishing endgame in the way that there is for the rest of the game.Which makes Qann's suggestion intriguing -- he says that high level fishers should have access to certain areas via boat that offer them tougher fishing challenges, and better rewards for it. A boat could shuttle you out to a remote island or location, where only certain fish could be caught or found. And we don't even really need a boat -- just more events like the STV Extravaganza (where certain fish that appear in special pools can be turned in directly for items) would be great. And why is it that the best items obtained through fishing are apparently scrolls? Why can't we fish for Badges, or even have a fishmarket, where fish can be exchanged for gems, crafting materials or other rewards?Even Blizzard admits that there's a lot of work to be done for fishing, but it doesn't seem too hard -- if they're giving out epics for holidays, fishermen and women who make it up to 375 should deserve some good loot for their hard work as well, whether it's through Deep Sea fishing, keys that will unlock special chests, or just a vendor that will take all of those Barbed Gill Trout off your hands and give you something worthwhile in return.
How to make three free pseudo-apps for your iPod, touch or iPhone
Yes, you can roll up your own lighter app by videotaping a lighter. Yes, you can create a soundboard by recording noises and creating a playlist. And yes, coin-flipping apps are a dime a dozen since most of us have ready access to some form of coinage. Along these lines I'm going to show you how to create three "apps" using nothing but a Mac (or PC) and your iPhone, iPod (must be able to display photos) or iPod touch. The apps? A "mood lamp" (or color-changing night light), a futuristic medical scanner (aka Tricorder) and a simulated energy blaster (aka Phaser).The gallery will walk you through the process step-by-step and on the next page I'll show you a video of these in action. Essentially I'm making playlists: one each for the futuristic devices (with only one "song" in a playlist, set to loop) and a looping slideshow for the mood lamp. Much easier than Xcode, I'm sure. Got a similar DIY trick for you machine? Let us know in the comments. No doubt there are much better ideas than mine!Note: you'll need speakers attached to your iPods, or you'll look like a fool pointing the thing at people and pretending you shot or scanned them. You might look like a fool anyway, but at least with some external speakers they'll be in on the joke.%Gallery-32802%
Horde of Orcs updated, Flick Bowling released by Freeverse
Two big updates from our friends at Freeverse in the past few days. First off, Horde of Orcs, their extra-shiny (and funny) version of Desktop Defense, has gotten a big update to 1.1.4, and now features an in-game news system, two new maps, more helpful in-game tips, and "major performance improvements." That last note is of most interest to us -- I had a little trouble getting the game running smoothly on my mini, and can't wait to try again and see how it runs now. You can pick up the full version of the game for $24.95 over on Freeverse's site, or try out a free demo there.And even more exciting, Freeverse has released another iPhone game: Flick Bowling brings the iPhone's touchscreen interface to one of my favorite games (after all, I did grow up in the very city that hosts the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame). With a bunch of different characters, locations, and even a choice of bowling balls to choose from, odds are that Flick Bowling is probably the best bowling game on the iPhone (though it may only one of a few, if not for long). The app is available in the App Store right now for $4.99. Once again this is a place where a demo would help us, but until Apple gets its App Store game back together, it's all or nothing. If you do decide to take the plunge, let us know how it is.
Steamwheedle holds a Dance of the Dead next month
We always love to hear about cool roleplay events, and it looks like there's a particularly cool one coming up over on Steamwheedle (Horde-side) on October 11th. Their Caer Darrow inspired Dance of the Dead looks like it's got a lot going on -- a costume contest, a dueling event, some fortune telling and a midnight toast. But they have a couple events that really raise the bar for organizing a roleplay extravaganza -- a "Corrupt a Wish" contest and a Wild Hunt. The Corrupt a Wish seems cool. You make a wish in two sentences, and a winner is chosen to have the wish come true. (I imagine they want you to keep it reasonable, though.) The trick comes in that your wish gets twisted into a nightmare version. The even cooler event, though, is the Wild Hunt. They've captured some Alliance members (volunteer roleplayers), who've been stripped of their uber gear. Through the night, the Alliance will be released into the wild, wearing only some gray and white items. The Horde will go on a Wild Hunt to find and kill the Alliance members. To complicate the hunt, the Alliance victims do have allies -- rescuers who're wandering the Plaguelands looking for their lost kin. This event looks really well-planned, and it makes me wish I had an Alliance character myself on Steamwheedle. You can contact Banshih for more details if you're Horde, or Charam if you're Alliance.
WoW Crossword 9/7/08
Do you like puzzles, of course you do! Answers to this week's puzzle will appear next Sunday. Special thanks to Michael Gray for his guest crossword last week. We'll get his solution up as soon as possible. %Gallery-27429%
Fuel for the PetEmote addon
David B covered the PetEmote addon way back in the beginning of this year, and now the Great Green Hunter has posted some really great ideas for custom pet emotes, for a few different families of Hunter pets. PetEmote lets your pet automatically show up in your emote text randomly, and is really good for giving your pets a little more personality of their own -- instead of just doing what you say all the time (and eating all of the food you've got to buy), PetEmote can make it seem like your pets are doing their own thing: chasing a stray bug that passes by, flicking their tails, or "giving you a sly look."GGH's descriptions are really great, but of course whatever goes in the "Localization LUA file" in the PetEmote addon folder is what shows up in the game, so you can customize it as necessary. If you want to say your cat "waggles his butt, ready to pounce," you can do it.Of course, if you think of your pet as just a DoT you have to feed, you might not be so interested. But having a pet and keeping track of where it is is such a huge part of the Hunter class (though PetEmote works for Warlocks as well) that giving your pets a little more personality goes a long way in game.[via Mania]
Be careful what you ask for
Amidst all the excitement surrounding the coming of Wrath and the beta testing revelations, I have a question. Does anybody care that Death Knights will be OP? I disagree with my fellow bloggers when they surmise that the upcoming Wrath world will not be overpopulated by Death Knights. On the contrary, I think you won't be able to sneeze without three Death Knights around you to say Gesundheit. And what's more I think they won't be a flash-in-the-pan like the Blood Elves and Draenei overpopulations were.I believe this because I hate tanking and have never liked playing melee classes (my main is an elemental shaman and my highest alt is a warlock) and yet I'm having HUGE fun in the beta realm playing a Death Knight. I've played the class PvE to level 65, trying all three specs multiple times. I no longer fear dueling. I solo group quests that are above my level. I can approach elites one level higher than myself, alone and with no fear. I just run into a group of mobs with little strategy and almost always survive. Although I think the clarity of the purpose for each spec is still a bit muddy, I see Death Knights mostly filling a tanking role. (Perhaps this was Blizzard's response to the tank shortage? Make a tank so fun to play that lots of people will play them?) And yet Death Knights have soloing capabilities like warlocks and hunters -- only they survive better. They are by far the best soloing class I've tried. For illustration purposes, I even made a goofy movie showing how badly you can play a Death Knight and still take some serious names without dying once.Blizzard has proved that it knows what it's doing over the last four years. However, the current class system even without Death Knights has always had complaints about balance. As even Blizzard itself has admitted, adding a new class is not easy. Perhaps I am wrong and the tweaks they are making to the existing classes for Wrath will make everyone feel like they are overpowered. As it is, though, playing my new Death Knight gives me such a feeling of power that I've never had in the game before that I can't imagine that there won't be a lot of other players like me when Wrath hits the shelves this fall. Will this be good for class balance? More importantly, will anybody care?
Cro Threadstrong and his crushable apples
I love Cro Threadstrong. Ever since we arrived in Shattrath, the guy's been yelling about the Fruit Vendor's cart blocking his way, and this isn't just an annoyed angry, it's a full-on, all-out, apple-crushing war kind of angry. And though we somehow missed this in among all of the Wrath beta news lately, we've now been invited into the trenches -- Cro is now selling his own crushable apples so players can walk right over to that Fruit Vendor, crush apples in front of her, and tell her ourselves: "YOU ARE RUNNING OUT OF TIME, FRUIT VENDOR!!!"So much fun. As you can see in the gallery below, the apples let you cast a quick spell that shows a spurt of red juice flowing out from beneath your feet, but the real fun here is yelling for no discernable reason. "Did you see that, Fruit Vendor? The Ogre will not protect you! Do you not value the life of your apples?!?" And how funny it would be if Granny Smith really did turn out to be masterminding a war.%Gallery-29281%
Anti-Aliased: Do you actually want to play the game anymore?
I was kicking around Silvermoon City of World of Warcraft a few nights ago, working on a new Blood Elf warlock as a way to relax and just forget about the long day, when I saw an extremely peculiar conversation in my chat window. What it boiled down to was a guy who was trying to get help with the warlock Voidwalker quest because he couldn't figure out where to go to find the void crystals specified in the quest log.Now, instead of someone responding with a generalized location as to where you could find these crystals, the response, "Get QuestHelper and it will tell you where to go," was made. Needless to say, this guy was new to the game, and he was pretty baffled.With the advent of custom interfaces, it seems that many people would rather have the game play itself than take the time to actually work things out. At the worst, people would rather pay to be able to "skip" through the game; thank you RMT. So, the key question around here remains: "Does anyone actually want to play anymore?"
Zandalari on Moon Guard hosting a Story Circle tonight
Here's another player-run RP event that looks like a lot of fun -- the Zandalari, a 'tribe' (read: guild) on the Moon Guard server apparently hosts a weekly "story circle," in which they sit around and tell stories of all kinds. As usual, I remain not so into RP, but I am very much into storytelling and fun player-run events, and this evening sounds like a good time, especially if you just sit and listen (or read, as the case may be).If you'd like to go, it'll be at the Grom'gol base camp in Stranglethorn (so it's Horde only, but you can roll an alt and fly from Orgrimmar) over on Moon Guard this evening (and every Thursday) at 8pm server. And I'm sure I don't have to say this, but if you do go, be sure to be respectful, or they'll definitely whip out the ignore stick on you, or worse -- it's an RP server, so no monkey business.And be sure to take lots of pics and send them to us if you like -- we always love hearing about creative player-run events on the servers.
First Look: Sketches
Sketches was one of the apps I picked up the very first day the App Store opened -- in fact, it was the first I ever bought, and I bought it as a mistake: Apple's one-click shopping bit me for $7.99 (the app has since dropped in price to $5.99). But it turns out, as a mistake, it was a fortuitous one, because it's one of the apps I've been most impressed with. There are a few other "Paint" style apps floating around the store nowadays, but Sketches is worth the price of admission for doing exactly what it says: letting you easily and quickly draw whatever you want on whatever you want.The quantity of options in a simple app like this are surprising. Choose from six different kinds of backgrounds, including photos shot with the phone's camera, existing album photos, a solid color, a webpage pulled from an in-app browser, a map of your location or a library of six included backgrounds.Next, select from a bevy of colors and line thickness for drawing or the provided clip art. Finally, save the sketch in the app, export it out to your photo album or send it to Twitter. And even as you use the app, more fun appears -- there's a cool Etch-a-Sketch-like shake feature to erase what you've drawn, and the zoom button can move you in close for even more detail.Text input is missing (and reportedly will be included in a later version), but as a quick sketch creator (you won't be designing the Mona Lisa with this, more like circling something on a map or pic before a quick upload to Twitter), Sketches is a really fun, very professional app. LateNiteSoft has it up to 1.2 so far, and even though I had no intention of buying it when I pressed the "Buy App" button without thinking (weren't we all a little feverish when the App Store first dropped?), I don't regret my purchase one bit.%Gallery-29178%
Forum post of the day: Simple pleasures
I've long said that once the game becomes more like a job than a diversion, it may be time to reconsider your choice of hobbies. True, to get to the top it takes lot of work, knowledge, and time. But when it comes down to it, what is the game really about? Vagh of Kil'jaeden sent out a shout out to those who aren't the best of the best, but are still enjoying the game. He tipped his hat to: A person who is happily running around a main city with greens and blues A person who is so happy to kill a boss in a 5 man instance A person who gets a blue off of a non-heroic mode boss for a badly needed upgrade and floods the party channel with "Woot!" or "I'm so happy!!!" A person whose arena rating hovers in the 1400s but still enjoys the game A person who doesn't complain endlessly on the forums about imbalance
Sleeper Cartel holds their Summer party (and Horde Diplomacy)
Those wacky folks of the Sleeper Cartel guild (on Perenolde) emailed to let us know they are having their annual summer party this coming weekend, July 26th at 7pm server time, and it looks to be a hootenanny. They'll have player-run quests, trivia contests, and scavenger hunts, there'll be a snowball fight and fireworks aplenty, and they're even planning to give away an honest-to-goodness epic. If you're a fan of player-run events, this is the Super Bowl -- as you can see from their last party, they do it up right. Roll Alliance and show up in Perenolde on Saturday if you want in on the fun.And here's another player-run party: on July 27th, a couple of Hordies on Steamwheedle are planning a "Tribune of the Horde" RP event -- apparently they think the Horde needs leaders, and Thrall and the rest of the gang aren't cutting it. (see Update) So they're having a Horde meetup in ZG to talk things out -- one Horde member of each race has been chosen as diplomat, and diplomats will give their own speeches, while those in attendance will be able to ask questions and speak their mind as well.Sounds interesting -- we always love hearing about (and hopefully attending) events like this. If you're putting one on, feel free to tip us about it, and if you go, take lots of screenshots and send them back to us so we can see what players are up to in the realms.Update: I never did understand RP -- the people running the Horde event emailed us to say that they're not looking to replace Thrall at all. Instead, they're convening a Tribune of the various Horde races to voice their concerns and working up a scroll to take to the Warchief himself -- they're working in complete concert with the current Horde, they just want to make sure the voices of the little people (and trolls, and Undead, and so on) are heard. Our apologies for the misunderstanding, especially for the suggestion that anyone was trying to take over from Thrall. For the Horde!
