loot
Latest
Patch 5.2 PTR: Cache loot receives a buff
It may seem silly to complain about having more currency to spend, but players have been by and large unhappy with the caches of gold rewarded as an alternative for loot when killing a boss in Mists of Pandaria. The argument does have some weight, however; and it's also been addressed before, in a slightly different fashion. When boxes that dropped from holiday bosses were viewed as disappointing because they contained nothing other than points, those boxes were adjusted to add actual items. And let's face it -- when you're given a box of something, you really expect something to be in that box. Gold just doesn't cut it. Apparently Blizzard agreed with this sentiment, and the caches, deemed "failbags" by some, have been adjusted on the PTR to offer something far more substantial, according to a post by Bashiok on the official forums. Bashiok The change is still in for the failbags to ... not be fail. They'll have a chance to contain things like very valuable grey items (essentially randomizing the gold you get from the bags), LFR versions of non-boss loot, Spirits of Harmony, consumables, pets and mounts, and... maybe some other stuff I forgot. Lots of things! Opening them should have some anticipation and surprise now. :) source Trash drops, consumables, pets, and mounts? Count me in. This change ought to make getting that cache of items a heck of a lot more appealing to players. After all, if you get a surprise box of goodies, it ought to be full of fun!
Officers' Quarters: Thundering up to 25
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. Lately Blizzard has been moving toward making 25-man raids more rewarding again. They've already done so in Asia. Elsewhere, they are trying something new with Thunderforged items, which will drop more frequently in larger raids. Time will tell if this is enough to save 25s. In the meantime, some guilds, like the one in the email below, are thinking about making the leap from 10s. Hello Scott! Very long time reader - first time writer! I love this blog - you have given some really awesome advice, and now I'm looking for some myself, oh wise one! I'm a GL of a 10 man raiding guild. I've seen guilds fall apart around me, and I've seen guilds hold strong through the past 6 months. I'm proud to say that my 2 year old guild is doing fantastic. So, what's the problem? We're doing perhaps a little *too* well. We've been getting applicants without having been actively recruiting. We've brought in some great members. We rarely turn applicants away - if they seem like a great fit, we work with them to give them the opportunity to raid with us. We run two 10-man groups, but with new members coming in that want to raid, we're having to sit people. Now there are rumblings and whispers about running 25s.
Drama Mamas: Loot rules rule
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. We are still compiling our results edition, so if your letter was answered and you'd like to tell us what happened, please send an email to robin@wowinsider.com. In the meantime, let's talk about loot rules. Dear Drama Mamas, A few months ago I joined a guild so I could finally have some people to talk to (I tend to go alone for a long time until I see a guild that interests me) and to have the chance to raid. As I play a healer I was immediately accepted in the raid team and, although we're not even done with normal progress in the Mogu'shan Vaults, we've done relatively well. Some of the people in the guild are pretty nice and I like to be around and play with them, but there is one problem little that's been bothering me for a few weeks now: loot drama. Our loot rules are simple: if you can use it for main spec, roll for it. Everyone seems to love that system, except for me. I prefer systems like EPGP or something similar because, in my opinion, when you're raiding with your guild you should be rewarded for commitment and not just luck (that opinion might or might not have something to do with my terrible luck... >.>).
Loot is the carrot, not getting loot is the stick
We've all complained about loot drops. It is as close to a universal truth as World of Warcraft can encompass. I remember running LBRS with my wife, run after run after run, trying to get the hunter dungeon set piece off of Wyrmthalak. I remember killing Rend Blackhand day in, day out, and never getting the Doomsaw until finally, one bright sunny day, it dropped and the paladin healer took it. Luckily, the Beast provided me with a touch of revenge, as he dropped Lightforge, which I then needed and won. Such was the cynical, sadistic, uncooperative nature of Blackrock Spire pick up groups, a lawless zone in a lawless time. Loot remains one of the prime motivations for running dungeons. We run dungeons to gear up and run raids, which then gear us up for the next tier of raiding. Better loot lets us perform our roles more easily, makes daily questing and grinding easier, and serves as a status symbol of sorts, as well as clogging up my bank with more transmog fodder. (This is not a post about needing another void storage tab, but man, I really do.) And as a result, for as long as there has been loot in World of Warcraft, people have complained about how it dropped, about how it didn't drop, about never getting the drop they wanted and getting the same drop over and over again. I understand this frustration. The current loot system used by LFR and world bosses like Sha of Anger and Galleon often maddens people with its quirks. But I tell you now, there will never be a perfectly rational loot system that gives you what you want or need and doesn't give you what you already have.
Darkfall delays beta due to loot-eating bug
When you've repeatedly delayed the launch of the new version of the game, what's there left to do? You know you shouldn't have asked that because now you made the Darkfall beta go back in hiding. It was just waiting for someone foolish enough to ask that question. While Darkfall Unholy Wars' beta was scheduled to begin today, Aventurine decided to hold back on starting it for the time being. What's the hold-up? According to Producer Tasos Flambouras, a nasty bug's floating around that can, well, have an adverse affect on gameplay: "To simply describe the bug in question: It's a persistence bug. Some players, sometimes, will lose all their stuff." The team is attempting to reproduce and eliminate the bug but said that it will go ahead with the beta after a "few hours" whether or not it's found.
Blizzard Customer Support live Q&A recap
Yesterday, between 5pm and 6pm Pacific, Blizzard's Customer Support Team took part in a live Q&A, using some new software to answer players' questions in real time. In attendance were CS Forum Representative Vrakthris, WoW Game Support Manager Marcus Maczynski, SC2 Game Support Manager Angelo Concepcion, D3 Game Support Manager Andreas Unger, Senior CS Information Specialist Charles Areson, and CS Social Media Manager Antonio Achucarro. With players asking the questions, there was fairly high traffic for the team to deal with, Zarhym told us they received over 1,500 questions in under an hour! Not all of them could be answered, but we've been busy pulling out the key questions and responses for your delectation. Comment From legracen Are there any plans to update/change the in-game ticketing system for World of Warcraft so that the wait times for tickets can be reduced? Marcus Maczynski: Hello Legracen! We're constantly evaluating how we receive CS requests from players. Right-Click-to-Report and self-service options (such as Item Restoration) are both examples of this building in this efficiency. Updating the in-game interface to prompt players for exactly the information we need to service their requests is definitely something we want to do.
LotRO talks Update 9 instance cluster
The first half of Riders of Rohan's instance cluster is arriving with Lord of the Rings Online's Update 9, and the devs are excited to talk about the variety of experiences and challenges that went into making the trio of three-man dungeons. A new dev diary on the site gives the story overview for Webs of the Scuttledells, Seat of the Great Goblin, and Iorbar's Peak as well as a few behind-the-scenes notes. Developer Pinion discussed how the team wanted to make the return to Goblin-town special: "I wanted to ensure that this new interpretation stayed true to the source material while still providing a very different experience from our existing instance in the Misty Mountains. With all the different varieties of goblins that make their home here, I felt it greatly important to distinguish them both in appearance and in drastically varied abilities." A major change coming to these instances deals with loot. Not only is there remote looting for these dungeons, but each treasure chest will automatically reward class-appropriate gear for each player.
TERA holiday event wants you to kill Santa
What could possibly more fun than hunting down and killing Santa? How about doing it in a corset and fishnets? From December 14 to January 2, TERA is inviting players to find both Fat and Tiny Santas in game during their Santa's Slay event. Holiday drop loot includes themed cosmetic items, enchanting gear, and high-level consumables. You also have a chance to win a Santa cap that's exclusive to this event. Check out more info on the event's official announcement.
Learn about rewards in DUST 514
Pretty much everybody likes being rewarded, and it's safe to say that gamers are more or less at the heart of the group of people who like rewards. So let's talk about rewards in DUST 514. Players can earn three things from battle: money, skill points, and salvage. You'll earn ISK, the storied EVE currency, in every battle you fight. Every mercenary will receive basic compensation for fighting; the more you fight, the more of this basic reward money you'll get. Teams will earn rewards based on the value of items destroyed, and that money pool will be divided among team members based on time spent in the battle. Everyone will also receive a monetary reward based on war points earned in a battle. War points will be converted to skill points, which are used to improve your your abilities. Finally, players have the chance to receive salvage items off a loot table. In time, players will be able to equip modules to influence their chances of higher-quality loot.
New RaiderZ video tackles the unbearable agony of being a monster
Be honest with yourself -- have you asked many questions about the monsters in RaiderZ? Probably not. You've gone out and done what you need to do, which in this game is usually kill them until there's nothing left but ash and a new pile of loot in your backpack. But they've got feelings too, feelings that are explored in the latest video covering the unbearable agony of being a boss. Specifically, a giant demon. At first glance, it seems like a good ride. You're huge, you're powerful, and you get to stomp a lot of unprepared players into paste. But then you realize that no matter how awesome you are, sooner or later it's going to come time to experience another round of getting your head chopped off in the hopes that you'll drop a sword. Take a look at the full video to feel at least marginally bad about downing bosses over and over... until you log in again, at least. [Source: Perfect World Entertainment press release]
Mann vs Machine update adds new difficulty settings and matchmaking options
Valve has released a big update to Team Fortress 2's 'Mann vs. Machine' game mode this week, which of course pits human players against an army of invading robots. The update adds two new difficulty settings called tours, one tougher and one easier than the current mode, along with some new loot found throughout the two tours.Players will also be able to search for multiple missions or tours at a time. Matchmaking updates should make it easier to find and keep groups while playing: once you find a team and defeat a mission, teams will stay together. Good thing, too – those robot hordes aren't going to destroy themselves.
The Soapbox: Diablo III's endgame is fundamentally flawed
Diablo III was arguably the biggest online game release of the year, but its predecessor's decade of consistent popularity left some pretty big shoes to fill. Despite being the most pre-ordered PC game in history and selling more than 6.3 million units in its first week, Diablo III has started to seriously wane in popularity. I've seen over a dozen friends stop playing completely in the last few months, and Xfire's usage stats for D3 have dropped by around 90% since June. Guild Wars 2's timely release accounts for some of the drop, but there's a lot more going on than just competition. The Diablo III beta showed only the first few levels and part of the game's highly polished first act, and soon after release it became obvious that parts of the game weren't exactly finished. PvP was cut from release, the Auction House was a mess, and Inferno difficulty was a poor excuse for an endgame. Poor itemisation made the carrot on the end of the stick taste sour, and the runaway inflation on top-end items is crying out for some kind of ladder reset mechanic. But there is hope for improvement, with new legendary items, the Paragon level system, and the upcoming Uber boss mechanic taking a few steps in the right direction. In this opinion piece, I look at some of the fundamental flaws in Diablo III's endgame and suggest a few improvements that would make a world of difference.
Double Dragon Neon's rad awesome soundtrack available for free
Dave totally freaked out about Double Dragon Neon's soundtrack in his review, going as far as to deem it his favorite part of the game. It's true, the music has some real crunk beats. It's a mega jam of 80s happening hip, and we happen to think it's boss.So how radical is it that its composer, Jake Kaufman, just made the entire soundtrack available for free? Yes, it's very awesome radical.All 45 tracks from the PSN/XBLA game can be found on Kaufman's site. While they can be downloaded at no cost, it would be hella bunk of us to not say that you can send some money Jake's way by naming your price. Fresh!
Argue over who gets to be Chun-Li's bracelet in Street Fighter Monopoly
We've always assumed, given there's a version for just about everything, that Street Fighter Monopoly already existed. Then we were wrong, but now we are right. Yes, 'Monopoly: Street Fighter Collector's Edition' is now available on Amazon at a RRP for $39.99.The tokens are Chun-Li's bracelet, Vega's mask, a Hadouken, M.Bison, Blanka, Ryu, and Zangief's tiny red shorts. Alright, we made that last one up, but we had to highlight the oversight. As for the properties, while they're set to locations like 'Japanese Bathhouse' and 'China Marketplace,' in reality we reckon they're ordered by the character portraits on them. So, M. Bison and Gouken are the dark blues, which we suppose makes sense. Although there must be a case for Ryu (yellows) and Ken (reds) being the most valuable. Mind you, we're just happy they included everyone's favorite boxing gentleman, Dudley (light blues).
Final Fantasy 'Ultimate' compilation coming to Japan, priced around $450
Square Enix today announced the Final Fantasy 'Ultimate Box' compilation set, as part of the series' 25th anniversary celebrations. The compilation, priced at roughly $450, includes every main series game up until XIII (no dash-twos for you) and is available in Japan from December 18.Square Enix unveiled the box set at today's opening of the Final Fantasy Gallery in Tokyo. The first nine Final Fantasy games included are PS1 copies, with the exception of Final Fantasy III on PSP. Final Fantasy XIII is on PS3, and the rest on PS2, with XI as the 'Vana'diel Collection.'Andriasang reports the compilation's extras include a commemorative DVD, an art collection, and a two-disc soundtrack among other goodies. Ultimate Box releases in Japan for ¥35,000, which translates into just under $450.Square Enix also announced four 'Ultimania' encyclopedia-like books, which cover the entire main series of games and include previously unseen artwork. They too become available on December 18.We've reached out to Square Enix to see if any of these products are headed west. Meanwhile, look out for some pristine photos of the compilation after the break.
Persona 4: Solid Gold edition full of gold, only 10,000 available
Persona 4: Golden will be available in a Solid Gold Premium Edition at a run of only 10,000 units, Atlus announced today. The shiny gold bundle will see the upcoming JRPG port accompany a lot of Vita-orientated goodies, coming in at a price of $69.99 in the US.Those golden goodies include a very golden Hori pouch, a very golden Hori protective skin, some very golden stickers, and a not so golden face cover. Should you want, you can get the skin separately with a pre-order. Persona 4: Golden and its Solid Gold variant will hit American stores sometime this fall.
Watcher explains gold normalization for Mists of Pandaria dungeon bosses
Have you ever noticed that the bosses in the oldest dungeons drop much less gold now that they can be soloed? Blizzard Game Designer Watcher says the developers felt the gold drops were too high for the difficulty of the battles, so they nerfed the amount of gold you can loot in dungeons like Magtheridon. In Mists of Pandaria, rather than retroactively nerfing legacy content, dungeon bosses will drop the same amount of gold per player, regardless of how many players defeat them. So if a boss drops 100g for 25 players, it will drop 20g for 5 players. This change is retroactive for all dungeons from previous content. The full text of Watcher's clarifications as follows. Watcher In general, enemies in raids and dungeons drop significantly more gold than outdoor foes, specifically because we are assuming that the gold is going to be split 5, 10, or 25 ways. As player power rises over time, it obviously becomes possible to complete old content with significantly fewer players, such that the gold rewards become disproportionately high. In the past, our only solution was to drastically reduce the gold dropped by legacy content across the board (e.g., Magtheridon, much of Karazhan, etc.). In Mists, we have a new system in place that normalizes gold yield based on the number of players involved in the kill. If a Black Temple enemy drops 100 gold today on live, and you kill it with a 25-player raid group in Mists, it'll also drop 100 gold and each player will get 4 gold. If you solo Black Temple, that enemy will also give you 4 gold. If you do it with 4 friends, it'll drop 20 gold and each of you will get 4. In other words, the gold obtained from killing raid or dungeon creatures no longer depends upon how many people you bring, or do not bring, with you. This system does not apply to anything in the outdoor world. source Watcher Quote: If this is the case, will the original gold values of the bosses in Gruul's Lair, Magtheridon's Lair and Karazhan be restored so groups will once again get more gold from the boss than from a single trash mob? Yes. source It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
The Daily Grind: Is looting important in MMOs?
As I play City of Heroes, rolling through the Summer Blockbuster content, I'm reminded that CoH's looting system is really weird. As in, there kind of isn't one. Recipes, enhancement, salvage, and influence just sort of magically appear in their respective trays. There are no sparkly bits to tell you that hey, you should totally come click this monster because its still-warm corpse has shinies for you. You never have to worry that you missed a piece of choice loot back in the last room. And players never, ever fight over loot because at the end of an important mission, everyone gets a drop. At the same time, CoH is missing some of the thrill that comes when you best the random number generator and finally get your purple shiny sword of doom. The near-intangibility of the game's drops means fewer crushing defeats when that freaking Hunter rolls on your tanking sword, but it also means fewer victory laps. You give up the rush from clicking on a monster just to see what he has; that step is completely stripped out. What do you think -- is a physical "looting" process critical to MMOs? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Officers' Quarters: When you're asked to pass on loot
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available from No Starch Press. At one time or another, all of us who play WoW long enough have been "asked to pass" on loot. Usually it all works out OK. Either you pass or you don't, and everyone goes about their business. However, the situation is bursting with the potential for drama -- as we see in the following email. Hello Scott, Great blog, I'm relatively new to WoW (joined my first and current raiding guild in the beginning of Cataclysm) and have due to some unfortunate situations become guild leader. I had to learn and adapt quickly and your blog has helped me a lot. Recently, I had to deal with a situation that seemed very dramatic from my PoV and needed my attention as GM. The guild was doing a more casual Dragon Soul run. We normally have raids for raiding members only and we use EP/GP there. This run was set up and led by an experienced raid and guild leader that is part of our raiding team. I did not personally attend -- normally I would lead raids. They used the Roll system to distribute loot. However, there were a few members of the progression raiding team that attended this run. Some of them still interested in some rarer normal drops. While it was not required, it seemed to be common behaviour to pass for these main raiders when they needed an item. At some point, an item that one of the main raiders actually needed dropped, and was rolled on. This is where it starts.
Rossi-related raiding revelations
Matthew Rossi recently wrote a piece on the spoils of progress, detailing, among other things, his covetous streak and how it translated into a love of raid farming, including heading back to old content, farming out legendaries, and generally stealing stuff from monsters. He mentioned how he loved it when raids go into farm mode, loved seeing his numbers increase and eternally upgrading his loot. He even loved farming through old content he could solo to get drops the loot gods never blessed him with the first time around, or the second, or the third. And it hit me that, while Matt and I both enjoy raiding, we enjoy it completely differently. I read his piece, and barely agreed with 20% of the things he said he enjoyed! This is not a criticism of Matt, not at all, it's simply an observation, and testament to the vast variety of playstyles catered to by WoW.
