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Relmstein tells you how to poach great raiders
Relmstein has a great tongue-in-cheek guide up about how to "poach" great raiders for your guild. I'm assuming that he doesn't actually suggest you start stealing raiders from other guilds (unless you want to show up in Guildwatch next week), but not only is Relmstein's writeup really funny, but there are a few actual suggestions hidden in there about ways to promote your own growing guild legitimately.Now, you don't want to start lying about how Eyonix is your GL (#7), or stand outside Karazhan trying to show off (#4), but there's nothing wrong with making sure people know that you're progressing. Have your guildleader post on the forums when you make a big kill, or throw out a few yells when you're about to give out a zone-wide buff (I remember when my guild turned in the Onyxia head way back when, and we did a nice parade through the center of Orgrimmar, all decked out on our mounts). A great video helps, too-- a funny recruitment video will get you attention, but a how-to video for a tough boss your guild has on farm will attract exactly the kind of people you want on your team.You should never try to steal raiders from other guilds-- guildleaders have a hard enough time keeping a raiding team together as it is without teams fighting amongst themselves for players. But there are always good ways to "advertise" your guild to the right people, so that when a good raider is looking for a place to hang their hat, you can make sure they find you.
One Shots: The black dragon in its natural habitat
Ingmar sends in this excellent shot of the dragon Onyxia in World of Warcraft, one of the game's earliest raid bosses. Forty level 60 players had to complete a lengthy attunement quest to enter Onyxia's lair and fight her, often finding themselves burned to a crisp by her fire attacks or overwhelmed by the young dragon whelps who would come to their mother's aid. Ingmar tells us that this attempt was a wipe, but "not because I was taking screenshots instead of paying attention to the raid." Hey, Ingmar, you don't have to explain yourself to us -- we've always found that being dead provides the best opportunity to take lovely screenshots of the world around you.Do you have your own shots from a particularly gruesome raid wipe? One Shots wants to see them, so we can all remember the glory days of dying to Onyxia and Ragnaros. We only post what you send us -- so send your screenshots and stories to oneshots@massively.com. You may see it featured here tomorrow, same time, same place. %Gallery-9798%
Have you had your moment yet?
By "your moment" I mean that one, shining, crystalline moment of clarity when you finally feel like you 'get' World of Warcraft and why you play it. Technically as a player you could have many such moments - perhaps the first time you make a kill in PvP and finally feel like you understand how to do it, or the first time you successfully run an instance, or the first time you tank a major boss, or the first time your raid drops a major progession milestone... but it's just as likely to be when you dinged 40 and got your mount, or first stepped through the Dark Portal into outland. It's unique to you and yet you may well share it with hundreds if not more of your fellow players.For me, the biggest moment was also my biggest screwup - tanking Onyxia in PvP gear with a 2h weapon. It made the game really click for me because 20 people pulled together in the face of my colossal screwup to kill Ony anyway. I've really never felt closer to a guild before or since than I did at that moment, and I've never had such a feeling of triumph when the boss finally hit the ground. It wasn't our first Ony kill, we were on much more challenging content, and I've since gone on to raid level 70 instances... but that Ony kill was special. So I ask you, gentle (and not so gentle) readers: what was your moment? Have you had it yet?
More rumblings of new Dustwallow Marsh content
Here's a topic I almost feel like I've been talking about too much lately, but there is some good news to report. Neth confirms, once again, that Blizzard is planning on streamlining the experience from 1-58, and then adds something else: there are changes, big changes in terms of "detailed quests," being added to Dustwallow Marsh. And while we heard mention of Dustwallow Marsh before, this is the first time I've ever heard it mentioned in conjunction with 1-58 specifically. It seems like Blizzard is actually planning to bring about new content for people who haven't yet hit 60.And that is pretty exciting. So what might be going down in Dustwallow? Jaina Proudmoore is there in Theramore, and of course she's got some old ties to Arthas, so something might be happening in that vein. Onyxia has taken residence in Dustwallow (when she's not masquerading in Stormwind), and we've also heard rumblings in Outland that Deathwing may be making an appearance in either Azeroth (or Northrend) soon. And Dustwallow is also very near to Alcaz Island, which used to be where a certain missing King was previously seen ingame. Or it could be something completely new, of course, that we haven't even heard of yet.At any rate, it's cool to hear that midlevel content is coming, even if it's in a pretty unexpected place (still no Heroic Deadmines plans?). Get ready to go back to Dustwallow Marsh.
WoW Moviewatch: 40 Priests vs. Onyxia
Though after seeing Onyxia 5-manned post-Burning Crusade, it seems like 40 players of any class would be able to take her down, I wonder who would tank in a 40-priest raid. (Apparently a shadow priest holding aggro with Mind Blast.) Watch the power of 40 Shadow Word: Pains!Previously on Moviewatch...
High infidelity
If you've been anywhere on the WoW forums this weekend, you've probably heard the tale of Demeter and Gilgamesh from Onyxia. Demeter, the guild leader of Dirty Sons of Liches, posted on his realm forums that he had discovered Gilgamesh, his wife, was being "too friendly" with members of his guild in Vent. In return, he offered GMship of his guild to anyone who could provide him with more information and details about the Vent infidelities. The drama exploded, featuring screenshots, videos, supposed confessions from cyberers -- all without the involvement of Gilgamesh, who is suppposedly away for the weekend. Demeter attempted to backtrack and claim the whole thing was a hoax, but he eventually printed the character name of one of the accused -- and the real name and phone number of another. I assume that post is going to be deleted quickly, so I'm not going to link it. Whether it's real adultery, or merely the best troll ever, remains to be decided. Yes, it's just another tale of sordid e-drama, but it's a good example of something I've seen happen more than once in WoW. A couple plays WoW together, they join a guild, maybe they even rise to guild leadership -- and then one of the two hooks up with another player they met online, destroying the relationship/marriage/guild. A friend of mine, "Skwisgaar", had this unfortunate series of events happen to him some time ago, and he's agreed to talk to me about what went down, and how other WoW players can avoid getting e-cuckolded.
Mysterious Mysteries: Highlord Bolvar Fordragon cuts off his own head!
Highlord Bolvar Fordragon, bodyguard to the King of Stormwind, was not previously known to be suicidal -- but today in Stormwind Keep a shocking sight was unfolded before the eyes of all citizens on their way to greet the child-king, Anduin Wrynn. As seen here, Bolvar repeatedly used his own sword to slice his head off!Mysterious Mysteries questioned King Wrynn, as he stood there, seemingly oblivious to the horror taking place right beside him. His only reply was to gaze at us meaningfully, and confess in a whisper: "I see dead people."Lady Katrana Prestor, who is actually the dragon Onyxia in disguise, agreed with the King on this matter. "Obviously you are too stupid to see the obvious. Bolvar here may be slicing his head off, but do you see any blood? I didn't think so. Now... go die in a fire."It is a mysterious mystery indeed: Why does Mister Fordragon repeatedly kill himself without success? Why does he allow Onyxia to keep coming back and standing next to him? The draenei emissary to the court of Stormwind, mister Taluun, had this to say: "This is but one of the Light's miracles, my son. The blessings of the Naaru prevent the great ones of the world from perishing -- as you can see, this powerful blade passes right through him."One careful listener, however, was able to get close enough to Highlord Bolvar's mad whisperings as he muttered words to himself before each slice: "She just won't leave me alone... she keeps coming back... they cut off her head a thousand times and she's still here! Aaaargh!" Gift of the Naaru? or curse of agony? It is for you to decide! Have you witnessed any other abnormal behavior on the part of Azeroth's denizens? Send your insider information to Mysterious Mysteries through the top-secret drop off box below this article!
WoW Moviewatch: 4.5-man Onyxia
When we received a tip pointing us to this video, the first thing I did was search around YouTube to see if there were any Onyxia kills with fewer people. Maybe there are, but if so, I couldn't find them. Here we have a group of 5 level 70s (Hunter, Paladin, Druid, Shadow Priest, and Mage) taking down Onyxia -- but we're calling it a 4.5-player group because the Mage disconnected at some point during the 20-minute fight. Nice kill, Solinari!Previously on Moviewatch...[Thanks, ShadowFyre!]
One Boss Leaves: Onyxia vs. Sapphiron wrap-up
Last week we pitted Onyxia against Sapphiron in the battle of the dragonflights. And if the screenshot above is any indication, you should be able to make a reasonable guess as to who won. Sapphiron absolutely wiped the floor with Onyxia, as you can see from the result of our poll: Of the responses, readers felt that even if their health and damage levels were equivallent, Sapphiron would win out for several reasons: Sapphiron is an older and more experienced dragon (he lived a long life before becoming undead!) Sapphiron can drain life to regenerate health, whereas Onyxia can just deal damage. In our scenario, Onyxia didn't have her swarms of dragon whelps to cause trouble. Thus far, in our epic battle of the bosses of World of Warcraft we've only seen one fight, but here's the standings so far. It's too late to have a say in last week's battle, but the next fight, between General Rajaxx and Bloodlord Mandokir is coming up this afternoon. Stay tuned!
The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Ooops!
Every week Matthew Rossi will be writing The Care and Feeding of Warriors, a column dedicated to the lumbering, clanking, mana-deprived folks who spend a lot of time yelling at monsters to ignore the people in dresses and that guy stabbing them a lot in the back.Introductions are always hard, especially when you're about do something ludicrously arrogant like presenting yourself as an expert on something. Still, it's better to do something all the way then it is to tenderfoot it, so here goes. I'm Matt Rossi, and I'll be writing about warriors for WoW Insider. I've played two to 70, have another to 68, a Draenei I'm letting rest at 51 for now and another who I left on an RP server at about 60. Basically, I love warriors, always have. Every time I play my pally or shammy alts, I keep muttering but where's my charge gone in my best Johnny Depp lamenting the loss of his rum voice. Warriors have had their ups and their downs... who can forget when we lost all rage on a missed execute? But I've played since my wife brought her copy of the game to move in with me, and all that time warriors have usually been my mains.I wanted this first column to break the ice a little, so instead of writing a deep treatise on tanking basics, or the merits and drawbacks of various tanking specs, or how playing another class can help your tanking, or the mythology that's built up in players from other classes about how amazingly awesome plate armor is in game, I decided today would be a good time to humiliate myself in public with one of the biggest screw-ups I've made as a warrior. This way, we can all laugh at what a cretin I am together! Since I'm sure I'm going to post something that will convince you of that sooner or later anyway.
Continuing quest chains (and a new [fake] Quel'serrar!)
A few weeks ago on Phat Loot Phriday, I wrote about the Essence of Eranikus, a cool little trinket from the dragon in Sunken Temple. It's actually part of an unfinished questline-- a few steps after you get the gem from Eranikus, the questline ends in Winterspring with no explanation as to what happened with the rest of the story. Like many players (including myself), Falandan wants to know if Blizzard has any plans to finish up this series of quests.Tseric answers on the forums, and says that while Blizz is leaving their option open, the main problem with returning to unfinished quests (The Missing Diplomat/King of Stormwind is another) is that they'd have players of a high level doing low level quests. Either that, or they'd have to interrupt the normal leveling game, and you'd be doing quests in the same line with ten (or more) levels between them.But while that's an obstacle Blizzard is considering, apparently it's not going to stop them from revisiting some old questlines: reader anobolic (thanks!) sends a link to this flickr account, with what looks like an extension of the Quel'serrar questline!If you've got Quel'serrar now (not sure yet if Blizzard will give it back to you if you've sold or destroyed it for some reason), you'll be able to do another set of quests (rumored to involve another dragon, and maybe even an Undead Onyxia-- she's back?!?) that will either get you the Daughter of Quel'serrar (more purple for paladins), the Son of Quel'serrar (for warriors), or, if you're the first person on the server to complete the quest, Quel'serrar Reborn (and apparently you get a "dragonslayer" title with that as well). Oh, and there's also a rumor of a Quel'serrar shield to come. Very cool! Of course, all this is rumor so far-- it's not even certain that this is coming in patch 2.1 is real at all (see Update) -- but if Blizzard is rewarding those who worked for the High Blade with another questline to work through, it's a good sign that we might see updates to the old unfinished ones as well.Update: Commenters are casting doubt on the authenticity of the pictures. Stuff like this could be easily photoshopped, and we have no other source for it, so take the info about Quel'serrar with a grain of salt.Update2: Commenter Leggend (thanks!) says this is proof the images were just adjusted in Photoshop. Oh well. Maybe someday Blizzard will actually finish off some of these old questlines.
Scholomance? More like Solomance
I've been speculating a lot on what Blizzard is going to do with the old instances, just because I'm always ready for a challenge, and currently, at level 70, the old raids don't offer a full group much of a challenge at all. But as some of our wise commenters have said, you don't have to wait for Blizzard to change the old instances to have fun with them-- just go in solo.NSDragon on LJ asks what instances (Mara and up) can be soloed at 70. You don't have to wait until 70 to solo Mara-- I know folks who were soloing that one back at 60. Sunken Temple might have been tough at 60, but a well-geared 70 should be able to take that place down.I know for a fact that a guildie of mine has repeatedly soloed BRD all the way to Emperor for farming, and a hunter in the guild was farming Stratholme for Righteous Orbs a while back. So I'd guess that most of the 5mans can be soloed pretty easily. Has anyone tried to beat UBRS solo? That seems much harder, but a duo seems pretty easy, and I'm sure a trio of the right classes would probably take down Drakk before he even knew what hit him. Someone on the LJ thread says MC has been 5manned, and I've heard that Ony has been three manned. Anyone know about BWL? Or Naxx? It's really hard to believe that Naxx doesn't still require at least 15-20 well-geared 70s, but I guess anything's possible. ZG and AQ20 are probably easy with ten 70s, but I could definitely see those getting 5manned as well as more people head into the new endgame.When a five man group downs Kel'Thuzad, you know it'll be time for Blizzard to worry about the old instances. But until then, I guess unguilded 70s can just enjoy all the new solo content!
Around Azeroth: Dragons in odd places...
Reader Dave sends this shot our way -- a nice look at everyone's favorite dragon, Onyxia, sitting peacefully in the heart of Stormwind Keep. If you've done the quest line to attune yourself for the Onyxia raid, you're familiar with this sight, since one of the last steps of the chain involves a battle with Onyxia's minions in the keep. And occasionally the encounter bugs, leaving Onyxia hanging around far after the event is over, offering a perfect time to sit down and have a peaceful chat with the dragon.Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! You can attach a picture file or send us a link to one -- and don't worry about formatting, we'll take care of that part. See more of your pics from Around Azeroth. %Gallery-1816%
Onyxia is deep breathing more ... no, really.
"Onyxia is deep breathing more" is sort of the end-all be-all of generic post-patch raiding complaints, kind of like how "Kite him to Vael's room" is always offered as a strategy for any new boss. These comments are generally met with derision, since a. Blizzard really doesn't have much of a reason to change Onyxia at this point and b. if you spread out and do enough damage to Ony, you won't get deep breathed, or so conventional wisdom says. However, Maeda of Homegirls offers photographic proof that something was a bit ... different with Onyxia this time around for her guild. Nhaerl, of the Feathermoon server, chimes in with his screenshot. Luckily for all who still fear the big black wyrm, Yaltus provides a reasonable explanation -- possibly the first ever seen on the WoW forums. Have you noticed any older bosses acting tetchy since the patch?
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Judgement dropping for Horde? Working as intended.
A few different folks have reported in the Blizzard forums that some pally gear has been dropping for the Horde in the raid instances, and shammy gear has been dropping for the Alliance. Is it January 16th yet? Can I go ahead and make that Blood Elf pally? Uh....no. According to Drysc in the World of Warcraft forums, the drops were a known problem, and a small price to pay to get the patch into our hands. As you can imagine, the forums are full of angry players. One Horde guild reported getting two Judgement Crowns off of Onyxia. Ouch. Not the end of the world, of course, but plenty frustrating. What I don't understand is why they can't adjust the loot tables for the time being, as it doesn't seem like something that complicated to do. However, I know about as much about complex computer gaming code as I do about launching rockets, which is to say, not a whole heck of a lot.So...have any of you Alliance guys come across any sharp looking Earhfury gear?
WoW Moviewatch: Take 40 druids...
So what can you do with 40 druids? 40 moonfires, 40 innervates, 40 bears, 40 cats... Well, not all at once, of course. But this video gives you some idea of the capabilities of druids in large numbers -- though, okay, the 40 druid raid on Ogrimmar at the end of the video may actually be the best part.
GuildWatch: To the Victor Go the Spoils
This week's GuildWatch is all about the loot-- to the victor, as they say, go the spoils. One guild finished off Nef, and gave out free loot to their guildmates. Another guild got a world first occurence-- not one but two Staff Heads of Atiesh from the same Kel kill (at least that's what their screenshot says-- I'll leave it up to you to determine if it's faked or not). And I even got some sweet loot this week-- my guild downed Ony, and I got our first Tier 2 helm for my Shaman. Yep, it felt pretty good beating Ony up for the first time, and now, I get the spoils: my eyes glow white with power.As always, if you have Drama, Downed or Recruiting news from your guild (or anyone else's), drop a note to us at wowguildwatch@gmail.com. This week's GW starts right after you click the link below.
"The Lament of the Raidleader"
Gharuvy over on the forums posits this theorem: that most instances/raids/encounters are based upon the ability of 25% of the players to "do their job effectively"-- for 5 mans, that's just one person, for 20 mans, it's about five people, and for a full raid it's 10 people. He also adds that it only takes one person to "ruin" an encounter. He then adds, somewhat poetically, that that is the "lament of the raidleader"-- it's too much to expect everyone to be in that "effective" slice of the group, but not too much to expect no one to be in that "ruin" section.To a certain extent, he's right. People have run Onyxia, perhaps the seminal 40 man raid encounter, with only 10 players (in fact, they've run it with six before). In my personal experience, as long as you have a core group of people who know what they're doing, everyone could pretty much stand there and do the bare minimum, and you'd still finish an encounter without much fuss. And I personally have dragged four people with me through Deadmines on my priest. They were terrible-- one mage pulled aggro constantly, the other didn't sheep, the warrior didn't use a shield, and didn't bother to even switch targets when the mage pulled aggro. And yet I pulled them through it all just because I played my role perfectly and kept everyone alive while doing damage (just in case you think I'm bragging, I've been on the other side of it, too-- I'm in MC when a family member calls, and I'm too distracted to do anything on my Shaman except spam lightning bolt).And it's true that most raidleaders don't (or at least shouldn't) expect perfection. On any raid, you're going to have a core group of people who know what they're doing, and another set of players who either aren't well geared enough or (more likely) experienced enough in the encounter to play their roles well. Is it true that one person can "ruin" the raid? In some cases it is (ever had a bomb explode an entire group during Baron Geddon?), but in most cases, I think one player's stupid actions will likely get them killed, but not necessarily down the raid.Then again, I'm a casual raider, so to date, I've never played Naxx. Do you need more than 25% to be on top of their game there? Are the later raiding encounters more difficult in that you really need to coordinate 40 people, or, considering everyone is geared well, can you pull them off when 1/4 of you are great, and the rest of you are just pretty good?
'Hardcore' raiding, one month in
"Because you're not hardcore unless you live hardcore" I've always considered myself a casual player; although at times I may live and breathe WoW, it's not all there is to life, and if something better comes up in RL I'm happy to pause PvP or say no to raiding. While epics are nice, I tend not to measure my worth in purples, nor do I min/max my spec to flatter damage meters. However, all this talk of Naxx recently led me to feel I was missing out. I'd been in the endgame a while, and although I knew some instances all too well, there were other parts of the level 60 experience that I had never seen. I'd never set foot into Blackwing Lair, never seen Onyxia up close, and certainly never had a point of DKP to my name. So, when I was invited by a friend to apply for a spot in her raiding group, I did.
Four New Realms Today
Four more new realms opened today - for PvP players, there's Onyxia and Blackwing Lair, while PvE players can enjoy Gnomeregan and Anvilmar. So if you were feeling like a fresh start in Azeroth, here's your chance. The realms appear to be in the PST time zone, so if that's what you're looking for, this is your fix. There are ongoing complains on the forums about low population servers, but perhaps the combination of newer realms and pay for realm transfers this will aid in evening out population imbalances across all the servers. However, only time will tell!
