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Guildwatch: How casual is casual?
Do you consider your guild to be a casual one? If so, how often do you raid? Today in Guildwatch, we've got news of a guild that considers themselves casual, but has downed 3 bosses in Serpentshrine, and raids three nights a week, four hours a raid. Is that casual or hardcore? What is casual raiding, exactly? And have you ever heard of a guild that's working through Black Temple while only raiding once a week? Is that even possible?Along with all those questions, we've got your weekly dose of guild drama, downed, and recruiting notices, as we do every week on Tuesday (and feel free to send us your own for next week, at wowguildwatch@gmail.com). Hit the link to check out this week's GW!
Guildwatch: The other side
Attumen sure talks a big game, doesn't he? But just like all the other little dominoes in Karazhan, he falls down easy when you push him hard enough. Lots of guild are finishing Karazhan by now-- so next week, let's see some big Gruul kills, ok?For this week's dose of drama, downings, and recruitment, just hit the link below. And send your own tips (please!) to wowguildwatch@gmail.com. Always knew... someday I would become... the hunted.
Raiding progress, minus attunements
Players have pretty much /cheered across the board about the removal of attunements from Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep yesterday-- even the Blizzard curmudgeons over at PaladinSucks nodded in approval.But as Elizabeth asks on the WoW Livejournal, what exactly does this mean? Can your guild change this weekend's Gruul run into a raid on The Eye? Can guilds skip over Karazhan and Heroics now, and just head straight to Serpentshrine? Will we see Void Reaver dropped by most guilds quicker than Isiah Washington from Gray's Anatomy?Unfortunately, the answer to those questions is probably no. True, the removal of attunements does mean that more guilds can head into SSC and Tempest Keep right away (instead of waiting for 25 of their members to get attuned), but the bosses in both of the big raids aren't real forgiving unless your guild has already seen a few Kara clears, a few successful Gruul raids, and hopefully even a Magtheridon raid or two as well. Just as a reference, Void Reaver, the first boss in The Eye, requires about three or four tanks in the raid, and easily hits for 7k in the space of a few seconds. Likewise, Hydross, the first boss in Serpentshrine, is not nice to raids-- his adds hit for about 5-6k, and he enrages within 10 minutes.But on the other hand, if you have run Kara, Gruul, and Mag a few times, most guilds are saying you'll have no problem at all with Void Reaver, so guilds who are ready already will definitely benefit from the attunements opening up for all. But if you're still stuck on Curator or Shade of Aran, you likely won't get much out of SSC or TK except a repair bill and a bit of perspective. You'll need to gear up before tackling the bigger stuff.
Guildwatch: Roses are red, violets are blue, I /gquit, and f#($ you
Is that title too harsh? Too bad-- drama ain't pretty! It is poetic, though, as today we've got a /gquit rant that sounds more like free verse than anything else.Click the link below to read your weekly dose of drama, downed, and recruiting notices for the week. And remember: your tips fuel this poetry corner, so send tips, anonymous or otherwise, to wowguildwatch@gmail.com.
Guildwatch: WTB 15 more players
Lots of guilds had to slim down to get into Karazhan, but now it seems like they have the opposite problem-- as they head towards 25 man raids, more of them are needed more players all the time. If you're picky and you've been looking to join a guild, it's a seller's market right now.So click the link below and check out this week's recruiting notices, as well as your weekly dose of guild drama and downings. It's Guildwatch and just like Scarface, the world is yours right after the jump.
Gruul's hurtful strike bugged again
At least for all the guilds I've talked to, Gruul's hurtful strike is now targeting the third person on the aggro list instead of the second. This bug is probably related to this morning's patch, because HS has been messed up with other patches before. A possible solution to this problem is to keep your guild's best rogue second on the aggro list, and the actual offtank third. With hunters shooting Misdirections at the rogue and everyone keeping a close eye on threat meters, you should be able to do it. (Thanks to Schleeze of Magtheridon for the solution.)
Gruul's Lair tweaks
Gruul's Lair is the first 25-man raid many BC raiders may experience. My guild hasn't gotten a crack at it yet, since we can't seem to get 25 raiders together at a time, but I'm still hopeful. The raid is relatively short, consisting of two bosses (Gruul the Dragonkiller and High King Maulgar) plus relatively small amounts of trash. It doesn't require any attunement, drops (among other things) the T4 legs and shoulders, and is required for Serpentshrine Cavern attunement.Both bosses in the raid have had adjustments in the past couple of days. Gruul was using his Hurtful Strike ability on both the second and the third players on his aggro list; this was a bug introduced in 2.1 and has been hotfixed such that only the second player on the aggro list gets struck, as intended. Maulgar was slightly nerfed in 2.1 as an intended change; he now attacks faster, but for less damage at a time. His overall DPS should stay the same. This change ought to result in less spiky deaths, and will be "mostly noticed by under geared raids."
Guildwatch: Stripped bare
Getting your toon stripped to his undies is bad enough, but what happens when your guildies do it to you? That's what happened in the picture above-- click the link below to read more in this week's Guildwatch.And don't forget, the only way we get all this drama, downing, and recruiting in one place is via your tips-- send them in ASAP to wowguildwatch@gmail.com. And if you don't, be careful. Your bags just may end up full of junk!
For great (Badge of) Justice!
The other night my guild stepped into a heroic instance for the first time. Now this isn't great news for those of you who already spend your weekend nights huggling Gruul, but it's a great accomplishment for us. Since we all have the Coilfang Resevoir key we started with Slave Pens, and I must say it was a joy to have challenge in that instance again. It felt like I had been given the instance back, as it were. If I were to walk into Slave Pens at the normal level I would feel little interest since it's tuned for 62-64. I finally understand the method behind the heroic dungeon concept, to allow level 70 players to have fun going to those dungeons again. But what I'd really like is heroic dungeon settings for the old instances in Azeroth. Can you imagine what Van Cleef would be like at level 70? It makes me giddy just to think of it. We only got as far as the first boss, and then the trash beat us to a complete pulp before exhaustion forced us to quit. I really was surprised how the tides shift with heroics. I have a hard time reconciling trash mobs who are impossible to kill and bosses who are manageable. Either way I am excited to have such a novel experience added to our game play. Whoever came up with the concept of heroic dungeons was brilliant. I have my first Badge of Justice, now. Only 112 to go.
Guildwatch: Well that's one way to do it
I'm so excited. Next week, finally, my guild is going to roll with a full 25-man group, and head into Gruul's Lair to try and take the big guy down. We haven't raided together in a full group in quite a long time (it's been 5mans and Karazhan, of course), so I can't wait to see some action like High King Maulgar here (this is Shadow Fate's kill, complete with extra adds-- see below).It's Tuesday, which means it's time once again for your weekly dose of guild drama, downings, and recruiting notices, brought to you by tipsters from all over the realm of Azeroth. If you've got a good tip (and we're sure you do), please send it away to wowguildwatch@gmail.com for next week's column. Meanwhile, hit the link below to read about this week's hot guild-on-guild action.
CM chaos on the PTR
The community managers showed up on the PTR on Friday, and as you might imagine, chaos ensued. Eyonix appeared as a level one gnome, and he and Tseric both got invited to a player guild, where they chatted with players for a couple of hours. I don't know if any actually battleground matching systems got tested (that was originally their reason for showing up), but apparently lots and lots of people got killed by Gruul, Baron Rivendare, and even Nefarian appearing in Lower City Shattrath.Hopefully a CM event like this (as has happened before, when the expansion beta ended) signals that the end of the PTR (and the patch going live) is right around the corner.%Gallery-2985%
Guildwatch: Back in the swing of things
I think I can now safely say that most guilds have either survived the expansion drama, or reformed as guilds that can, because things are really rolling in the endgame lately. Lots of guilds are moving up through Karazhan, and we're finally seeing those 25-man groups out there working on Gruul. Raiding times are here again?This week's GW starts right after the jump, but don't forget-- next week's Guildwatch is completely and totally supported by your tips! If you've got info about drama, downed, or recruiting going on around the servers, get 'em in the email right now, please: wowguildwatch@gmail.com!
Kaliban's Loot Lists expanded and updated
My good friend Bonemine on Thunderhorn pointed out to me this evening (during a very successful Arcatraz run) that the great Kaliban's Class Loot Lists has been seeing a lot of great changes lately. Thottbot and Wowhead will tell you about items when you look for them, but if you want to know which items to look for, Kaliban's site is the place to go. They've got all the lists set up first by class and then by instance, so that you can, with a glance, know exactly what you want out of every instance from every boss.But lately, Kaliban's been throwing a lot of new stuff in there. All of the Heroic instances have now been added, and they've even gone to the trouble of listing important gear quests for your class by zone-- so you can know, after 70, which quests to go back and finish to get that gear. Also, they've even added an instance map and tips for each swirly portal, so not only do you know which boss to go to, you can know how to get there and how to beat them. The other feature I really like is at the bottom of every page-- for each sample spec, they've provided a list of five or six items that you can aim for in each slot, so you can build a set specific to your own build. Very cool, and it saves you hours of poking around Wowhead trying to find good items otherwise.As of yesterday, Kaliban has even added a list of raid loot from Karazhan (along with recommendations for who the loot is good for), as well as two 25 mans-- Gruul and Magtheridon. Excellent work going on over there. Before, it was a good guide for picking and choosing gear from instances, but with all the new expansion content, it's an almost invaluable guide for getting your higher level toon outfitted with the right gear.
Guildwatch: Drama, in comic form
I think the picture above is like the best thing I've ever seen in putting this column together-- a member of the guild has actually put their drama in stick figure comic form. That's only two panels of it, actually-- click on the pic above to read the whole, awesome thing.And click on the link below to get your weekly fix of guild drama, downings, and recruiting notices. If you want your guild to appear here (or know of one that should), just drop an email to wowguildwatch@gmail.com. We're also asking for funny GMOTDs this week (make sure to read the note at the bottom of this week's column). Click on, clickers!
A look at Blizzard's stats, post-Burning Crusade
Last November, Blizzard finally made public a page full of stats for what's happening to all of us in game-- the most dangerous creatures, most gathered items, most completed quests, and so on. Ever since, I always find it fascinating to stop over there and see what's new, but today I realized that I haven't really seen it since Burning Crusade dropped. So let's take a look at what players are up to since the Dark Portal opened, shall we?Netherweave has jumped right to the top of listings in the Auction House, while Arcade Dust makes a nice showing at 7th. Of the Primal elements, only Earth is on the first page (most likely because it's the most farmed from all those Earth Elementals in Nagrand). It also comes from Mining, so it makes a good showing on the Most Gathered Items as well-- Copper leads that category by double everything else, though, most likely because of all the jewelcrafting going on. In fact, while Soul Shards are still number one, Copper Bars are the second Most Created Items in the realms, too. Interesting that you have to go to page 3 before you see a jewelcrafting item, though-- two sets of battleground tokens (Arathi Basin and WSG) are being made more than any Delicate Copper Wire.Warlock pets remain on the top of the Most Dangerous NPC list, but King Bangalash and those nasty Defias Pillagers have company-- apparently people are back playing their mains, and raid bosses like Shade of Aran, Gruul, Nightbane, and the Maiden are killing players by the thousands. The Most Complete Quests screen has interesting info, too-- almost all of the quests are newbie Blood Elf quests (there is at least one Draenei newbie quest mixed in, but BEs have the clear majority). You'd think people would be completing quests in Outland to level, but three months after BC release, maybe that's not the case anymore. According to the stats, it seems like the large majority of players has gotten their mains to 70, are raiding Kara and Gruul, and leveling up their Blood Elf mains.
Guildwatch: Spartans! Tonight, we dine in.. Moroes' room!
Man I hate that Moroes. My guild is so, so close to finishing him off, but our shackles are breaking, our Hunter's trap is resisting, or the aggro is wonky somewhere down the line. But don't worry, faithful readers, we'll get him. Prepare for glory!Meanwhile, it's Tuesday, and here's your weekly fill of Drama, Downed, and Recruiting news from around the realms. Remember, this column lives and dies on your tips, so if you've got news, we want it: drop a note to wowguildwatch@gmail.com. Clicky linky to read this week's GW.
Gruul hotfixed again: Hurtful Strike restored
I suggest that the day between Wednesday and Friday be called "Gruulday" from now on (although it might confuse people into serving you porridge). Looks like Gruul was accidentally overnerfed in last night/this morning's hotfix, and has been hotfixed again:We just fixed a bug that was causing Gruul to not perform his Hurtful Strike ability. Gruul should once again be using this ability.Now I suddenly wish I'd gone on a Gruul raid last night. Hurtful Strike is an ability that Gruul performs about three times a minute, targeting the second character in melee range on his aggro list (hopefully the off-tank), which does around 12k damage before damage mitigation. Not the biggest stumbling block in the fight, since it just means the melee DPSers have to be a little more careful about their aggro so as not to overtake the OT, but still, every little bit helps. On the other hand, maybe if I got loot from a bugged Gruul, I'd feel guilty about that item forevermore...would you?
Forum post of the day: New "changes" to Gruul
No, sorry, it's not Blizzard's official patch notes -- or the Gruul hotfix itself, which happened yesterday. Instead, this Raids and Dungeons thread is full of raiders venting their dislike for the former Gruul fight. While quite a few guilds have killed him, Blizzard had said that they consider him too difficult, too random and too buggy for a first 25-man raid, and retuned his "Shatter" ability to do less damage. But just in case they miss the old Gruul, the R&D crew has these satirical patch notes to tide them over (an overview of the Gruul fight can be found here): The "Cave In" effect was incorrectly not causing the cave to completely fall in. This has been corrected. As it is unlikely for a creature with seven sons not to be fully grown, Gruul now starts out at the hard cap of 99 grows. The size of Gruul's room was entirely too large. It has now been reduced to 1/4 of its previous size. Giant Eye Tentacles will now spawn in Gruul's stomach. When players kill other players with the Shatter mechanic through stupidity, all resulting item decay will be assigned to that player. Added an option to Gruul where players can just speak with him and directly deposit enough gold and consumables to have him roll over dead.
Gruul hotfixed, Shatter damage lowered
Eyonix brings word that Gruul has been hotfixed on the servers, so in case you've been beating your head against the wall trying to down him, now's the time to try again.The fix consisted of a drop in Gruul's HP, as well as a lowering of the Shatter damage-- Shatter is an AoE Gruul sends out that affects players more or less depending on how close they are to each other. When players are close, it reportedly could do up to 9000 (yes, NINE THOUSSSSAAANNNDD) damage, and if players were able to spread up to 20 yards away, the amount would lower. I haven't done the encounter in the past day, so I'm not sure what it hits for now, but players say it's much easier.Eyonix also promises that Magtheridon is being inspected by the devs, but there's no word yes as to what changes might come about on that one.
Guildwatch: Hot off the Gruul
You guys really had it out for Gruul this week-- we've got two guilds here that finished him off, and I'm sure they're not the only ones. Anyway, it's Tuesday, time for your weekly roundup of happenings and circumstances in guilds around the World of Warcraft. We've got reader submitted downings, drama, and recruiting notices for your pleasure.And if you've got a tip of your own, drop in our inbox ASAP: wowguildwatch@gmail.com. Show off your guild to the world.. or, y'know, just us. This week's GW starts when you click the link below.
