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The least visited instance... and why
Overpowered on the forums wonders what the least popular instance is, and I'd say his guess of Blackfathom Deeps is probably pretty close-- it's a long run away for pretty much everyone but Night Elves, and at 25-30, there's so many more quests and things to do that BFD usually gets passed up. The other good guesses, I'd say, are the "old" late game instances like Naxx and LBRS. Unfortunately, while Blizzard tells us all about the most popular stuff in the game, they are pretty mum on what players don't like, for obvious reasons.So how do you make an instance that makes players want to visit? Relmstein walks us through his idea of what makes a perfect instance ambiance: music, visuals, interactive features (the Chess Event is one of my favorite dungeon features, although almost all the dungeon dialogue "cut scenes" are fun for me), and memorable boss encounters.But then again, BFD seems to have all of them-- it's a very pretty dungeon (I especially like the temple at the end), and while it might be a little short on interactive features, I really like the lore and the unleashing of the monster at the end. The last ingredient, I think, to a good dungeon, is just a storyline that drives you there. I'm sure Scarlet Monastery (except the Graveyard), and Deadmines are definitely among the most popular instances, and both of those have huge amounts of lore and mystery to make them interesting. Maybe if more players realized that Aku'mai was actually a pet of the Old Gods (or, you know, if there was a quest to kill him that explained that), BFD would see more traffic.
Killing off the Horde and their heroes
Ketsumei of Bleeding Hollow makes a pretty good point on the forums: we're killing off Horde heroes, and Alliance are getting a pass. Actually, the Horde heroes point isn't quite a valid one-- yes, we've taken down Kael'thas, Rend Blackhand, and eventually Zul'jin, but we've also killed off Emperor Thaurissian, the Architect of Stormwind (many, many times), and Mekgineer Thermaplugg, not to mention that eventually we'll be killing the number one figure in Alliance lore, Arthas himself. Oh, and some lady named Katrana Prestor, usually found sitting on the left hand of the throne in Stormwind, has been killed as well. But it's true that more instances, especially raid instances, are featuring the deaths of Horde races rather than Alliance races. Especially in the endgame, we're fighting Trolls, Orcs and Blood Elves, not Humans and Draenei.So what's with the imbalance? This Horde-heavy enemies list is actually a very recent thing-- Scarlet Monastery is full of Humans, as are the Deadmines, and BRD is full of Dwarves. But as we've headed to Outland, the Burning Legion seems to have a thing for recruiting Blood Elves and Orcs, and Zul'Aman will bring about the death of many, many Trolls. Far many more Horde cries of death are being heard lately, and that's just racist.There's only one thing for it-- as players suggest, we should be allowed to kill a corrupted Malfurion Stormrage in the Emerald Dream expansion. No arguing now-- let's say he's gone insane from fighting the Nightmare and he's got to be put down. We need an instance full of Night Elves to kill over and over again. Oh, and while we're at it, let's have Arthas bring Uther back as a Scourge, and kill him, too! And what's the King of Stormwind up to-- isn't time he died, too?
Loot hoping, and loot whining
Cryptos posts on the forums about a subject very near and dear to my heart: loot whining. It is one of my great flaws that whenever I get close to a boss that I know drops something I really want, I can't help but share my excitement with my fellow party members, and sometimes (more often then not, unfortunately for them) my guild members. I'm sorry to say that I'm the guy he's talking about-- I'm the guy that is about to fight Murmur telling the guild, "man I sure hope my pretty dress drops." And it's a sign of how amazing my guild really is that they put up with me talking about it all the time.But then again, loot is basically why we play the game in the first place. Shouldn't I, and players like me, be able to share with our fellow players what loot we're going for, to let them in on the stuff we hope we get? Is it right for this GM to actually threaten to disenchant a piece of loot, just because someone says they want it?I definitely agree it can go over the top-- one of my pet peeves is people who join a PUG and try to "reserve" not-yet-dropped items, especially when there are others in the party who would obviously roll on it. And for my part, I've already noticed that I should keep my loot hopes to myself-- my guild doesn't really care about me getting every little upgrade I want. But good loot is the reason why many of us play this game, and so it's only expected that we should be excited at the prospect of getting it, and want to share that with fellow players.
The Care and Feeding of Warriors: The Holy Trinity?
Every week Matthew Rossi writes The Care and Feeding of Warriors, the column dedicated to the class everyone can aspire to except blood elves. Why can't blood elves be warriors? Because giving Taunt to blood elves would be redundant. The common wisdom is that there are three roles in an instance. You have your DPS, who kill things. You have your healers, who keep things from killing you. And you have your tanks, who keep the things you intend to kill from killing you first. It's a concept so simple and widespread in WoW that most people refer to it as 'The Holy Trinity'. The only problem with this beautiful theory is, it's wrong. When I first thought about it, the glaring omission was CC, or Crowd Control. You have CC to help the group by deciding which mobs you're going to try and kill first and prevent other mobs from trying to kill you while you do it. Eureka, I shouted from my bathtub (almost dropping my laptop), there are four lights! But the more I thought about it, I realized that I'd fallen into a subtle trap. There aren't four roles, there are still only three.CC, DPS, and healing. And that's it.
Breakfast Topic: Killing the lore
Instance after instance, Blizzard introduces us to new and exciting bosses -- usually figures of high lore, that we'd previously considered undefeatable. Yesterday at E3 we were given a first preview of Zul'Aman, in which we've learned we'll also be killing a major figure of lore: Zul'jin. Zul'jin, a leader of Troll infamous for his raids against Quel'Thalas, will be the instance's final boss. So soon enough, yet another figure of lore will be permanently removed from the lore by virtue of a world first. On a practical note, I wonder if there will come a time when in-game instances contain all of the universe's major figures of lore and we'll be completely out of things to kill. But considering storyline, I wonder -- when we're powerful enough to kill bosses such as Kael'thas, Archimonde, and Illidan, what challenges could the rest of Warcraft lore pose for us? And does being able to kill them weaken the lore associated with them?
Why do we raid?
It's a question that comes up more and more as I talk to my friends in the game. Why do we raid? The topic comes fairly close to home because I am in a situation where raiding is not quite on the horizon. Sure we have our Kara keys, but the coordination of an actual run has been far from successful. In addition to whatever challenges we have in my guild, there is the fact of my class. I am a mage, and currently the best gear I can reasonably attain is crafted, not found in an instance. So why am I pushing to raid Karazhan when I can get gear made that is better than what I'll find? Quite simply put, I want to know. I want to know what it is like to experience the instance. The more I see of the Warcraft universe, the more I come to appreciate the complex beauty of it as a whole, with rich and deeply laid foundations of story and lore that intrigue me. If the game were a novel (and I've read the novels too, this is just a metaphor) I would sit down at the beginning and read until the end. Raiding is the climax to the story as it has been told, since the pivotal plot points are told in the raid instances. It is in Mount Hyjal that players finally face Archimonde, and in the Black Temple where they can best Illidan, providing they are uber uber leet. In order to read to the end of the story, you must raid. I guess what I'm saying is that I want to raid not only for the chance for sweet gear, and I'm sure there is some still out there for me, if only in the form of weapons. I want to raid because of experience itself. But many are disillusioned with the game since TBC, and some say raiding is broken. Why still do players charge out into the 25-man instances, if they feel that the accomplishment has lost its grandeur despite the game elements becomin more difficult to overcome? Why do we raid? [via James]
WarCry talks with Tigole
WarCry has a quick interview with Jeff Kaplan, a.k.a. Tigole, lead designer in charge of world design for WoW, mostly on BC instances. Head over to WarCry to see the full interview. Here's the question that caught my eye: WarCry: In many ways, Karazhan mirrors instances like Zul'Gurub or the Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj in terms of raid size compared to the 40-person raids. How did the development of Karazhan compare to the development of these previous raids? Are there any plans for future 10-person raid dungeons? Jeffrey Kaplan: While there are definitely philosophical tuning differences between 5-, 10-, 20-, 25-, and 40-person instances, we don't have a vastly different approach in our dungeon-creation process. The same basic elements that make a 5-person instance great -- pacing, story, varied creatures, varied abilities, punctuating boss fights, good itemization, accessibility, and understandability -- will also make for a great 25-person experience. Karazhan was a lot of fun to work on, and we really took our time developing and polishing it. Karazhan, more so than Zul'Gurub or the Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj, had a very storied history in existing Warcraft lore, and we wanted to deliver on the high expectations. There are definitely plans for more 10-person content. It's interesting to see that they think of a raid as fundamentally the same design problem as a 5-man. And more ten-man content, which we suspect Zul'Aman is going to be, is good news in my book. However, I think the approach of treating dungeons as similar to one another, regardless of size, is somewhat flawed. For instance, I'd say in a 5-man, trash mobs are almost more important to make interesting than bosses; in a raid, on the other hand, trash is an obstacle, and bosses are really what you come for.
Jumping up and down
Are you a jumper? I am.Some people just do it all the time. The easiest simple move in the game-- every character can do it at almost any time-- is to hit the space bar and jump. And some people do it constantly.Of course it drives some others nuts. 9 times out of 10, there's probably something better you could be doing than jumping-- even in an instance, you could be crafting, or summoning, or drinking for mana, or organizing the groups, or getting food and water ready, or organizing your bags. Why are you jumping? Stop it, you're giving me a headache!Then again, I jump all the time. Usually, it's actually to signal impatience-- if I'm ready for a pull and we're not pulling, I'll start with the jumping. And if I ever feel helpless-- I've been spell interrupted, or I'm silenced, or in PvP, where there's nothing for me to do while I'm sitting stealthed defending by a flag. Some times when I'm surrounded and getting murdered in PvP, I'll jump just for the heck of it, like a last laugh against death (sometimes I even do the /laugh emote at the Paladin that's tearing me apart). Or sometimes I'm raidleading and I want to get the raid's attention. There are lots of good reasons for jumping around.But many times, there's not, and I do it anyway. Are you a jumper?
It came from the Blog: Into the portals we go wrap-up!
If you missed last week's guild instance-stravaganza in It came from the Blog on Zangarmarsh, you missed out on some real fun. Most of us are pretty low level still and many of us are playing unfamiliar classes -- but I have to say we had a blast storming Ragefire Chasm and the Deadmines in all-guild groups. (And when things broke up, some of us took the party into Warsong Gulch.) But even if you missed out, you can experience some of the fun vicariously through our event screenshots. (I know looking through them brings back memories of many a nostalgic Deadmines run for me!)And even if you haven't yet joined us on Zangarmarsh, you're still welcome to hop on for some good times -- there's no level requirements and no class restrictions and whatever you want to play, we'd be happy to have you. Our next event is coming up this Saturday, at 10:00 AM server time, when we're going to be playing hide and seek in the Undercity. (And after that? Who knows!)%Gallery-4105%
Phat Loot Phriday: Stinging Viper
Our It came from the Blog guild is going to be going into instances this evening, including (I hope) at least a few runs through Wailing Caverns. While they're in there, they can get this very nice and cool-looking lowbie (read: twink) mace.Name: Stinging ViperType: Rare One-hand MaceDamage/Speed: 30-57 / 2.80 (15.5 DPS)Abilities: Chance on hit: Poisons target for 7 Nature damage every 3 seconds for 15 seconds. For you non-math majors, my calculator says that's 35 damage to a proc. Unfortunately, there aren't any other stats on it, but it's still a nice weapon for the level (I had it on my Shaman for quite a while as I came up past 20). Especially good for offhand on Rogues, as the higher damage range and the proc help out DPS quite a bit. Pair this with a Cruel Barb or a Wingblade and you're set. (Update: also see good points for using this as a Main Hand in the comments below) How to Get It: Comes as a drop off of Lord Pythas, one of the four druid snake guys you have to put down in Wailing Caverns (in order to fight the giant Murloc, that is). Seems to drop all the time-- there's an 18% drop rate on it-- but as you all probably know, going in there specifically hoping for it to drop means it probably won't. Always seems to happen that way, right? What's up with that?Getting Rid of It: Vendors for 30s 18c, disenchants into a Small Glimmering Shard.
It came from the Blog: Into the portals we go
Yup, as you can see, our little Zangarmarsh guild, It came from the Blog, is growing and growing-- we've made it to 188 members, and a good 90% of them are really fun people (the remaining 10% of them is me, and then some BigRedKitty haterz). If you'd like to find out personally who's who, just come over and roll a Horde character on Zangarmarsh, then whisper anyone in the guild for an invite. You can also come by our new forums and leave a note there, and we'll look for you ingame.We're trying to have one big guild event per week, and this week's event is going to be this Friday evening, June 15th, at 8pm server time. This time around, we're going to run some instances! Most of us are still fairly low, and all of us are Horde, so there'll probably be a lot of Ragefire Chasm and Wailing Caverns, but hopefully we'll also get a group into Deadmines, and maybe even try Blackfathom Deeps (one of my favorite instances) or Shadowfang Keep. Unfortunately I won't be there (I'll be off covering the Darkmoon Faire in Chicago, so look for pictures and reports from that this weekend), but if you join us, you'll have the chance to play alongside "Krystalle" Voecks, Robin "Robiness" Torres, and Elizabeth "Lizzie" Harper. You may also see Dan O'Halloran, Amanda Riviera, and Lisa Poisso there in some form as well. Not to mention that you'll get to play alongside up and coming IctfB superstars like Pingles, Hudson, Mogwai, and, if you're lucky, Zungaba. Shoutouts for the win! (Don't worry, rest of the guild, I'll get you in later.)So please come join us this Friday when we finally take the guild into some instances. Wipes for everyone, and loot for most!
What's next for WoW instances?
Well, 2.1 has come and gone. A few people have beaten Hyjal and the Black Temple, rather more people are riding their new netherdrakes and nether rays around, and Worldofraids is already wondering: what's next? Blizzard hasn't even announced their next expansion, so it's a safe bet there's going to be a lot more dungeons before patch 3.0. The only semi-confirmed dungeon is the troll area of Zul'Aman, which is probably going to be another 10-man. Gee, great, another troll dungeon full of my allies mistaking me for a mob and trying to click on me. Other possibilities include:
