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Breaking News: In game calendar system revealed
Elizabeth Harper managed to get onto the latest beta build of Wrath of the Lich King tonight and snap us a few screenshots of the new calendar system. It looks quite nice, and to me appears to be a step up from current in game calendar options.Blizzard has mentioned that they've been working on one of these for a while, and it's nice to see the results. If you look closely you'll see things like when the Darkmoon Faire is coming, and when the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravagenza is happening. It doesn't show what PvP weekend it is, but I have to believe that's something they'll be working on.Check out the screenshots below for the new UI. I'm sure you'll be happy!Update 12:57 a.m.: There is a way to add user events in the calendar. It also appears there is a way to share the calender items among individuals. More information incoming.%Gallery-28666%
Breakfast topic: Like birds of a feather
When I queue up with friends, I expect to play by their side. Whether we're conquesting new objectives, defending our assets, running a flag, or retaking lost towers, two or three people dedicated to working together stand a better chance than one person alone. When I wear the battleground crown, I make sure that whoever I came in with is in my group. I also answer other people's requests to be placed with their friends. Those groups are likely to be fighting side-by-side. When someone else is not the leader of the battleground, it can be exceptionally difficult to be transferred among groups. This is not like saving a spot at the lunch table for a friend, but it's about winning the game. I've been playing Paladin lately, but I usually play Shaman. As it stands now, only people in my group can receive the benefit of my Auras and Totems. This may be changing in the future, when some of these buffs will affect the entire raid. For now it just makes sense to honor these requests. If the players have a working synergy, the entire team does benefit from placing them together. How do you handle grouping in the battlegrounds?
WWI '08 Panel: Shaman
Holy moly, Shamans got a ton of stuff they wanted and then some today at the WoW Dev Panel during WWI '08 today. Shaman CC! Hex, previously the domain of NPCs only, was confirmed as a Shaman spell -- it'll have a quick 1.5 second cast, and will turn your enemy into a frog for about 8-10 seconds. The frogged person will still be able to move around, but they won't be able to attack or cast spells. A 1 minute cooldown was mentioned, but that's in opposition to the purpose of the spell, which is supposed to be emergency only, so that may change. The devs mentioned that Shaman were suffering from "Totem spam," so a few totems will be combined -- Strength of Earth and Grace of Air will become the same totem, and the physical school news was re-confirmed. Perhaps the biggest Shaman complaint since launch was answered: Shaman totems will now affect the whole raid, not just the local group. That's a big one. Weapon enchants are being revamped for more utility. Rockbiter is out completely, and Earthliving is replacing it -- it will give a +Healing buff. Flametongue will give spell damage, and Frostbrand will "more reliably snare" opponents. A lot of Shaman concerns were answered today for sure, though perhaps not in the way players might have wanted. Will a 10 second CC be enough? It's great that totems affect the raid now, but will their range be extended to reach all of those people?All of this information is still up in the air, of course, but it's awesome to finally see some official news on where classes are headed for Wrath of the Lich King. Stay tuned for more Wrath information, as well as any other WoW news we hear coming out of WWI.
EVE Evolved: EVE Online PvP vs Age of Conan PvP
Before I started playing Age of Conan, I had a very strict mindset on how a PvP MMO should and shouldn't work. From my experiences in EVE Online, I was convinced that good open world PvP was not possible with a level system or exotic gear. I was pleasantly surprised to find that although these games are worlds apart, their PvP styles both work and are both fun. In this article, I compare and contrast my PvP experiences so far in Age of Conan with those in EVE Online.Open world PvP:One of the main features of both EVE and Age of Conan is an open world PvP scheme that allows players to attack each other anywhere within reason. Age of Conan achieves this scheme by designating certain zones as PvP areas. These areas contain the monsters and quest targets required to level up, making players to put themselves at risk to reap the rewards of levelling up quickly. Towns and the areas around them are designated safe areas where PvP is physically impossible.Read on as I discuss important PvP issues ranging from death penalty and group gameplay to equipment types and game server model.
Player vs. Everything: The importance of morale
We've all been there. Any little thing can start it. Maybe the tank messes up and pulls two groups when he meant to pull one. Maybe the healer was distracted by his cat and some people die. Maybe the mage doesn't watch her aggro and the mobs take out the DPS. Something happens, and the group wipes. The seed of doubt is planted: Can this group really pull this dungeon off? Am I grouped with a bunch of idiots? How big is my repair bill going to be tonight? It's like watching a chain of dominoes. Sometimes, the group can laugh off a wipe or two. But if a simple mistake turns into a pattern of someone screwing up, or if luck goes against you and you have a few simple mistakes in a row, people start losing their morale. Suddenly, people aren't using their consumables (why bother when you're just going to die again?). The tanks and healers get frustrated and start getting sloppy. The DPS gets angry and starts getting cocky. Everyone thinks everyone else is a moron, and each pull is a little less likely to succeed than the last. Each wipe spirals you further down. Finally, people start having mysterious "emergencies" and have to leave the group (do a /who check to see them farming somewhere in 30 minutes). You might not realize it, but your group's morale is hugely important to your success.
Player vs. Everything: Playing with your friends
Players often venture into the wilderness of online games alone and friendless, seeking out allies in the worlds they inhabit and making friends as they go along. Some games are better at encouraging players to work together than others, too. You're not going to last very long playing by yourself in games like EverQuest or EVE Online, so you have to go looking for people to play with. On the other hand, in games like World of Warcraft you can start at the first level and get to level 70 without ever talking to another human being (it's even easier if you're a Hunter). Regardless of whether your particular game of choice forces you to find friends, many people like to have friends to play with anyway. Even if you don't need them, it's kind of the point of online games to play with other people. Right? That's why some people roll into these games with a ready-made posse. Maybe it's a group of real-life friends that want to play together online, or maybe it's a guild composed of players that you met in a previous game and you'd all like to try something different together. Either way, it's pretty nice to be able to work with a group of people you already know, trust, and like. You don't have to hope that the fickle hand of fate will deliver good PuGs to you (we all know how rare those are), and you don't have to worry about trying to find a new group of people who you can relate to in a sea of anonymous faces (many of whom will have value systems, expectations, and maturity levels that will be different than yours). Is it possible you're missing out on something by bringing your own people in, though? If so, do you care?
One Shots: Everyone say cheese!
It seems like during the holidays or parties, people love to gather together and do a "photo" (screenshot) together. Our reader Jose found one such group, and being a bit of a game 'photographer' himself, snapped this excellent screenshot for us. With today being Easter Sunday, many folks will be gathering together in brightly-colored finery with friends and family. So we figured what better time to share this festive screen! Jose writes:[This is] a line up for the "photographer" during a party. Funny things people do in LotRO.We've seen screenshot lineups in many, many games, really. But half the fun of gaming is doing funny things with friends -- and occasionally snapping screenshots of them! If you have any great, funny, interesting, off the wall, beautiful, exciting or (insert adjective here) screenshots, then let the world share in your moment! Grab those screens, pop them in a mail with a short blurb about what's in the scene, and send them to us at oneshots@massively.com! No game too old or niche, no screenshot too large. %Gallery-9798%
WoW Rookie: Forming a Group
In the last two weeks we've discussed where to go for an instance and what to do once you get there. Since dungeon runs usually require five members, this week we'll talk about how to find people to go with you. Remember that the typical instance group is made up of a tank, a healer, and three DPS members. It's not always easy to find people that match those requirements. Since there is a shortage of tanks, it's probably easiest for tank classes to find a group. That also means it's hardest if you are not a tank to find someone to play that role. The next most difficult is a healer. There's usually plenty of DPS to go around. It can take some time to make a group, but since dungeons provide excellent loot and good experience it's usually worthwhile to stick with it.
Breakfast Topic: I get by without a little help from my friends
Lane is facing a problem I face quite a bit in World of Warcraft, and I bet you have, too: she needs a group but doesn't have one. I don't care how many friends you have or how awesome your guild is, there are just going to be some times in game where you have a quest to do, or you have something that needs to be done, and you don't have four other people to do it with.So how do you get things done? Me, I usually just sit in LFG while grinding or doing something else, and then just hope I get a group together eventually. But my Hunter has had to run Ramparts for a long time, and no one's jumped up to take me, so I may start offering incentives soon. You'd think the incentive to get some loot and have a good time in a group would be enough, but no -- if you're trying to do a quest that's months old in game and happen to be on your own on a server, you're often times out of luck.So how do you get a group together when you don't have one? Do you ping the major cities and try to pull an expedition together? Do you just ignore the quest and go without? Or do you have to have a guild or friends on the same server to get certain things done? What do you do when you need a group, but just don't have one?
Perils of changing pets in World of Warcraft
As a hunter (well for my main character, in the few days before crunch time, my pet is a big part of the arsenal available to me. I'm quite happy, most of the time, with my bear. Extra armour and extra hit points a nice tank maketh, and if the damage is a little lower per second, that's cancelled out by some durability on those times when I make a mistake and send the poor beast in to a stickier situation than expected (like when I get hit by a load of big critters who all respawn on my head in the middle of an over-level fight).But I was tempted by the thought of big scorpid venom after being hit by one, so I swapped pets, briefly. Ouch is the only description I can think of. The venom is great in PvP I'm sure, but not so useful vs. critters, especially critters with poison themselves. The absence of growl and the ability to attract and hold aggro meant I was suddenly in the midst of fighting all the time. The fact that, even after the scorpid levelled I couldn't teach it growl (or similar) was the final nail in the poor scorpion's coffin. For PvE play I want that tank bank and doing what tanks do best - holding aggro. If I, as I do, sometimes tip over the edge and pull them off him by mistake, so be it - for most things I'm fighting at around my level, it's half dead or more before it disengages. There is still time for a stun and an arcane shot for a bit more damage before contact. It leaves the daggers I use as a nice back up to kill the almost-dead critter as it arrives.The moral of this tale - for both Hunters and Warlocks I guess - think about your pets/summons and what you use them for. Piling out extra damage is nice, but do you want a tank more? If you're hunting in a group, does that change? (How much would the group tank like a pet that slows the attacks on him from ancillary targets, I wonder?) Pets are an important part of your arsenal - one I use all the time and I'm sure most hunters and warlocks do too. Thinking about how to use them is surely smart?
MMOGology: Group dynamics
Leading a group in a dungeon instance can often feel like herding cats, especially if you're playing with a pick-up-group (PUG). Unlike a guild group you don't have the luxury of knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the other players. PUGs also tend to have more members with less experience running the instance. Many instances I've run in World of Warcraft have involved at least one of the following situations: The huntard claims he must be the official puller and then won't shed the aggro to let the main tank do his job. The healer blows all his mana on the soft targets that shouldn't have aggro. The priest or warlock freaks out and fears off the mobs who flee to their comrades in waiting, join forces, and eat the reckless noobs stumbling through their dungeon. No matter how good a player you are personally, you can't save a group from the four other morons that make up your party. Maybe once or twice you'll get off a group saving heal, or manage to get the aggro back onto yourself if you're a tank. Nine times out of ten, though, when the same craziness happens on the next pull, it's a wipe. So imagine my surprise when I joined up a with a group of total noobs to run the Blackrock Depths instance in WoW, and managed to finish most of my quests and take down nearly all the bosses with only one wipe. This was a group of extremely inexperienced players. Besides myself, only one other person there had even run the instance before. Because we were both on alts that hadn't seen this content in a long time, neither of us really remembered the details. So how can a group succeed when it doesn't have experience? How could this be possible when I'd run the same instance with veterans and higher level characters with less success?
The Daily Grind: Your best wipe?
Pretty well anyone who has ever been in a party quest, or on a raid in an MMO has a story of this nature to share. In time they become the center of in-jokes in your group of friends, or guild. The truly spectacularly silly ones can even go on to become Internet history. Today, we'd like to hear about your funniest wipes! Just what went wrong? Or, for that matter, what went right when it came to making them so funny?
Breakfast Topic: The perfect group
You've been trying for days to get a group together to run an instance so you can clear out your quest log. Your guild isn't interested in whatever you're up to, and you've wound up in the looking for group channel, where you find three rogues and a hunter who are interested in joining you. Hopefully at this point you wake up from your nightmare... at which point you may be compelled to spend some time considering the ideal group configuration. So what classes would you put in your ideal group? For a 5-man, a 10-man, a 25-man?
Fellowships versus soloing in LotRO epic storylines
Many of you will have completed Lord of the Rings Online's latest epic storyline from Book 11 by now, and you may have found that you could accomplish this task all on your lonesome. This topic was raised on LotRO's official forums, and whilst the initial poster was against the idea of a solo-able epic quest, the overwhelming response of the thread was that of people who had finished soloing it and loved it, or those that didn't realize it could be done alone and were keen to log in and get started.To date, most of the Books have been composed of a mix of solo and fellowship portions, and this was reinforced for future books later in the thread by a member of Turbine's LotRO team, MadeOfLions (fantastic name by the way), who said, "we're letting the needs of the story dictate the group sizes, rather than the other way around", and also that Book 12 should be a return to a more fellowship-oriented quest line.It's nice to have a mix between the two formats, solo and grouped, because let's face it -- a fellowship isn't always available -- and with Book 11 giving my class of choice, the Minstrel, a little more solo-power, I enjoy having only one life bar to watch over for a change.
Ninja inviting is a no-no
I can't really say I'm surprised to the response to the question Calipsa asked. But what I am surprised by is why she asked it: she wanted to know if sending group or even guild invites without whispering first was rude, and players responded overwhelmingly that it was. Why did she think it wasn't? There's almost nothing more confusing than receiving a random group or guild invite, and considering that even spammers are using group invites to spam, it's just not something you want to do.Now maybe she meant just whether a whisper was necessary or not. If a player is marked LFG, or they're a guildie you know is available for a group, or they've just shouted out "LFG for group quests" in a chat channel, then I'd say they're fair game for a ninja invite. You don't need to actually whisper them and confirm everything you do (well, it's still nice to do, but in those cases, I'd say you don't need to).But yes, invites out of the blue are a no-no. Rude, maybe, annoying, yes, and usually a waste of time for both parties.
Shifting Perspectives: How fun is a druid?
Welcome to Shifting Perspectives! This is a new feature here on WoW Insider, which will bring you various perspectives on shifting forms as a druid, from David Bowers one week, and Dan O'Halloran the next.I'm here kick off our little druid feature for this week with a simple pair of questions to answer: "Is playing a druid fun?" and "should I play a druid?" I reply to both with a resounding yes, of course. "But why?" you ask. "What has the Druid class got to offer me that other, so-called 'superior classes' haven't got?" The answer is, naturally, everything! Well mostly everything. You see, more than any other class, druids have such a variety of abilities and can specialize in these abilities to such a degree that there are many very different play styles available to each druid player. The Druid is the ultimate class for the player who wants to tank sometimes, stealth and kill sometimes, heal sometimes, and then sit back and nuke things from a distance for a few months in order to get a change of pace. A druid can alternately be very good at healing, tanking, dealing up-close melee damage, or dealing far-away nuking damage, filling the roles of a priest, warrior, rogue or mage -- all in one class!
The spammers new (old) methods
While poking around the World of Warcraft LJ, I couldn't help but notice that the spammers are back at it again, and apparently using some of the old tactics that they used to use. Well, tactics that they used to use before they figured out how to script spamming hundreds of people in a split second from a level one character. For those of you who either don't remember them, or who aren't familiar, I thought it might be best to relay the information. There are a couple of main tactics that they seem to have started employing since the new patch is squelching their ability to get to us. The first one involves random group or raid invites where the spammers invite a massive amount of people and just repeat the same text over and over in party or raid chat. While many people will not fall for this, these blind invites may prove problematic for those people who are using the LFG tool. The best suggestion I saw was to /who anyone who sends you an invitation to make sure that you aren't getting invites from level one characters.
What would make you leave a group?
Yesterday's forum debate asked, what is your "best reason for leaving a group?"I personally think that leaving a group is a highly questionable and situational thing. If the group is a pickup group, then you may be giving yourself a bad name by not sticking it out until the end. Of course, there are always exceptions to every rule, and sometimes the actions of other party members warrant the immediate abandoning of the group.Some of the reasons for leaving were quite entertaining:When the hunter says, "I can't find my bow. Do you have it?" It's a good time to leave.The elemental shaman says, "I'll pull," and proceeds to chain lightning.When you hear over vent, "the police are here."While the forum derailed almost immediately, there were still many posters who replied in the original spirit of the forum. Some of the more humorous replies were:"I had diarrhea.""My toes are cold.""Wife Aggro.""I'm finished here at work. Time to go home!"Or, from Nathaera, "I was tired and needed to go to bed before I woke up with waffleface."What's your best reason for leaving a group? Or, what have you ever kicked someone out of a group for?
Unwanted BoE Epics on the black market
Here is, as she says, an interesting "moral quandary" from jumpingjessflash. She was making her way through Maraudon (one of my favorite instances) with a few guildies, and the BoE epic Icemail Jerkin dropped. At first, she thought it was an upgrade for her Hunter, so rolled Need and took it she asked for Need, but then eventually won it with Greed (see note below). But on second thought, she didn't like only +5 Agility-- turns out it wasn't the Jerkin for her.So she's left with a choice: wear it anyway, or auction it and risk suffering the wrath of her guildies.I've been in (almost*) the same position, but (especially with guildies), if I'm not sure whether I'll use something or not, I'll usually let everyone else in the group know that it's iffy for me-- usually they'll let me take it anyway, to keep as a sidegrade or a piece of a different set. If I want to be really nice, I'll sometimes let them reroll on it if I decide I don't want it, and then send it away to the winner. Another option is to sell it, and then split the gold.Of course, you could also go the other way and send it to an unguilded alt to sell it anonymously. That way, you get the cash and no one is the wiser. Like I said, usually I don't care, but I'll admit that sometimes I'm a stickler-- if someone happens to roll Need on a BoE that I think is a questionable call, I have in the past asked them to put it on so I can see them wearing it via /inspect (I haven't ever done that to guildies, but in a PUG everything is fair game as far as I'm concerned).Still, I don't have a problem with selling a piece picked up accidentally, if someone thought it was a good piece and then had second thoughts. If you did that and then put it on the AH, no one would accuse you of being a ninja-- would they?*Update: As a few people have pointed out (including the livejournal poster), it seems like I did misunderstand her original post. She wasn't ninja-ing at all-- she asked for Need, but eventually won it rolling greed. Her concern was that someone may have passed because she asked for Need, not because she rolled Need and then decided she didn't need it. Because she rolled greed and won it, the piece was hers.Anyway, I still think the issue of second guessing something that you roll Need on is an interesting one. That's not what the original post was talking about, but it's what I am talking about in this story, and I think it's worth a discussion.
What's your favorite 5-person group?
With so much 5-person content in Outland, I've been having a lot of discussion with my guildies as to the "perfect" group makeup. With 9 classes, there are tons of options available to anyone starting a group. Tanks: Warrior, Bear Druid, or Paladin. Maybe a Warlock if you have an insane warlock in your guild (I'm looking at you, Turinok!) Healers: Priests, Resto Shammies, Healadins, Druids. I'm personally a big fan of having as much healing as possible in a group. Fewer wipes = shorter runs = happier Paulie. DPS: Pretty much everybody else. I'm going to share with you what I think is my favorite 5-person group for the normal Outland instances. This group likely wouldn't work in Heroic instances, and it's been long enough that I've been out of Azeroth that I couldn't attest to the effectivesness of the group in the "old world." I look forward to your comments on it, and your comments about your own groups. Tank: Paladin Healer: Paladin DPS: Mage DPS: Enhancement Shaman DPS: Elemental Shaman Strengths: Only 1 true squishy in the group, and 4 potential healers surrounding her. 2 blessings, 8 totems, arcane brilliance for more mana for everyone. As I play an alliance shaman, I still come off as shiny, new, and exotic to my guildies. With spell damage and crit buffs from me (the elementalist), and windfury and Strength of Earth from the enhancement shaman, there are benefits for everyone. With Blessing of Wisdom and Mana totems, mana regen is doing just fine. Weaknesses: No rogue to pick locks on chests, no Priest for stamina buffs. I'll count on you lot to tell me further weaknesses. What's your favorite 5-person group? Is your group best for Azeroth, Outland, or even Outland Heroic instances?
