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Ready Check: Progress raids and You
Ready Check is a weekly column focusing on successful raiding for the serious raider. Hardcore or casual, ZA or Sunwell Plateau, everyone can get in on the action and down some bosses. Or wipe to them. Again. And again. And again... This week, we look at progression and what it means to you. This week, we were going to present a column on Brutallus, in similar vein to our Kalecgos and Zul'Aman timed run walkthroughs. However, we'll be leaving you in suspense for another week, as disheartening 1% wipes prevent us from actually having killed him yet. So, until we manage to eke out that final drop of DPS, we present WoW Insider's handy guide to Progress Raiding and You.There are two main 'classes' of raid, progress and farm; progress raids involve conquering new content, such as facing (and killing) a boss for the first time, whereas farm raids are easy rides through familiar territory, with clean kills and quick epics. Obviously, there's some middle ground, when you kill something for the second or third time -- but at some point the fight becomes repeatable, easy, and unlikely to warrant a second trash clear, earning it the title 'farm'.
The drums of progress
Anyone watching Nihilum's recent achievement closely would notice a few odd things. It was notable that the kill was achieved without a single Rogue, or more appropriately, melee DPS class in the raid. Nihilum guild leader Kungen is renowned for his traditional views on class roles, although he is open to off-specs and has even taken a Retribution Paladin on a progression kill. But there's always a simple explanation behind each of their actions (no melee classes were on, can't have all Paladins specced Holy for this boss, etc.). Interestingly, my armory-trolling cousin pointed out something curious that a close inspection of Nihilum's raid make-up would reveal: only three members (including Kungen) aren't Leatherworkers. You read that right, that means even cloth classes dropped old professions in favor of Leatherworking. The thing is, this trend isn't restricted to Nihilum. The most dedicated, progressive guilds in the game have many of their members going for Leatherworking.The explanation is simple: drums. In particular, the Drums of Battle, which increases melee, ranged, and spell haste. In an exclusive interview with WoW Insider last March, Neg of Nihilum remarked that the one thing that impressed him (and presumably Nihilum and their raid planning) was the effectiveness of haste. Haste is a statistic that became extremely prevalent in Patch 2.4, with many new items containing haste, including spell (currently AWOL) haste gems. Our raid specialist Marcie Knox wrote thoroughly about haste in a series of articles under her column RaidRX. It's a lesson that the top raiding guilds seem to know by heart. Nihilum was so impressed by haste that most of their core raid members leveled Leatherworking to be able to use drums, because it benefits the raid more than the individual unlike other professions like, say, Tailoring.Before Patch 2.4 dropped, many members of the game's top guilds furiously leveled Leatherworking. With almost all raid members carrying the Drums of Battle, a raid can have an almost permanent haste buff that stacks with Heroism/Bloodlust. Having all your raid members level Leatherworking -- and basically for one item -- for raid progress is a masterstroke that shows the lengths that hardcore raiders will go to push the envelope. Clearly, it isn't the only reason Nihilum beat the Eredar Twins, but with a 6-minute enrage timer breathing down on every raid group doing the encounter, it certainly helps.
Realm progression rankings for the Shattered Sun questline
The efforts to retake the Isle of Quel'Danas proceed apace. Some realms are going faster than others, but Drysc assures us that even the low-population realms will get the phases auto-completed for them eventually if they don't have the manpower to get there fast enough on their own. What if you want to see exactly how the realms stack up? We talked last week about a manually maintained forum post; however, that has problems with trustworthiness and the difficulty of keeping it updated.Edur, of Gorgonnash-A (EU), has created a web site that relies on game data form participants to rank the realms according to their completion of the Sunwell questline, and a very nice site it is. You can see all the US and European realms and where they stand both on the main phase quests and on the side accomplishments, like constructing the portal from Shattrath to Quel'Danas. There are also nice progress charts for each individual realm, and, most usefully, ETAs for when the objectives might be reached given current rates of completion.
Do you read your realm forums?
Do you read your realm forums? Simple question, eh? Personally, I make sure I at least take a look at my realm forums once a day, even if I don't post.Admittedly, realm forums are quite often just a pile of drama. Who cybered who, who ninja'd from who, who ganked who. Blah blah blah. Hidden behind all of that, though, there is usually a lot of helpful information. Patch note discussions, recruitment notices, maybe even server progression lists or charts of who on the server has rare crafting recipes. I've been amazed a few times by people that desperately search for raiding guilds to join on the server, but have not once looked at the official realm boards to see who is even recruiting. Plus, as an officer in a raiding guild, it's just a little bothersome to find out there are so many people that may have been interested in that open spot you had for two months, you just had no way to reach them or know about them.I've been under the impression that most people who play more than a few hours a week read their realm boards, but I'm not so sure that's the case. That would be a lot of people, when you think about it. So what about you guys? Do you read? Do you post? Patch 2.4 sounds great, but what's in it for you? Find out on our Sunwell Isle page where we list the impact on classes, professions, PvP, Raiders and many other playstyles and interests including walkthroughs on the new Sunwell Daily Quests. Looking for more great info? Check out the WoW Insider Directory for the best of our guides and analysis.
Dirt Dog Gaming's Sunwell daily chart
So, by now I'm sure many of you have made your way to the Sunwell and started figuring out the daily quests. You've probably checked out our walkthroughs of the new dailies for Shattrath and the 1st phase of the offensive, and gotten your bearings pretty well. Still, there's a lot of quests to deal with, and it can understandably get a bit boggling sorting through them all. That's where Infamy of Dirt Dog Gaming steps in, with a very handy chart that breaks down all the various phases of the offensive with handy color coding indicating which quests are progressive towards unlocking content. It's definitely a very nicely done resource, and one which should help you plan out your daily runs as you work towards exalted SSO reputation, epic flying mount money, or just unlocking the island completely. Check it out!
Blood Sport: Hitting the brick wall of 1800
V'Ming - who thinks that gnome warlocks are travesties of nature and need to be KOSed - shares thoughts and ideas on becoming deadlier at the Arenas. He also dabbles in the dark arts in Blood Pact.You've formed your ideal Arena team. You have great expectations and diligently put in time and effort to claw your way up the ratings. You dust yourself off after defeats and trudge on, knowing that great things will come your way if you persist.Gradually your team rating improves, and the sweet taste of victory more than makes up for the disappointment of defeats. You move past 1600, and 1700 eventually. You notice that victories are becoming scarcer, and defeats seem a lot more painful. Your team hits 1800 - woot! - and suddenly match wins seem to all but dry up - and your weekly matches start to feel like exercises in futility.Welcome to hardcore Arena - where your opponents are much more likely to be decked out in full Season 3 gear and less likely to give you an "easy" win. You start to run into a lot more cookie-cutter comps - you know, the ones you read about here. The queues are long but the matches are short - and you've run out of encouraging or witty things to say to your team while waiting. It's almost an awkward, seething silence between matches, and the game becomes a test of patience. "Did I sign up for this?" You ask yourself.
Does server progression matter?
Daniel discussed the removal of the Essence of Immortals from the PTR and the progressive content of Quel'Danas awhile ago, and it led me to think a little about progression.Obviously, the removal of that bit of the Sunwell Plateau isn't particularly devastating or crippling. Its inclusion could actually be crippling for the more underpopulated, raiding-light servers, holding the one or two raiding guilds back from experiencing content simply because they chose the wrong server to roll on. I can understand the removal, but my mind being the strange creature it is used this as fuel to wander to similar topics, my braincells discussing it amongst themselves.
PvP for PvE on the PTR
The changes just keep on coming, and at the oddest times too. The following was just unlocked on the patch 2.4 PTR: Arena gear is now obtainable in exchange for PvE tokens. According to World of Raids, Tier 4 tokens will get you season 1 gear, T5/6 will get you season 2, and the new Sunwell T6 tokens will get you Vindicator gear. You can also, apparently, exchange Badges of Justice for "all PvP gear," as pictured.What does this change signify? Yet again, Blizz is trying to open up progression. Whether this is in advance of Wrath, when this all will be relatively meaningless, or simply in response to continuing pressure for advancement from players, this is probably a change that will be lauded by those who don't already have what it gives. If you've got this arena gear already, it might seem unfair that people can get it through alternate paths, and maybe it is. But I like that Blizz keeps trying to make it easier to be versatile in the game, to not just have to devote yourself to either PvE or PvP. Players being able to take advantage of all the game has to offer is key to its continued success.
The Daily Grind: Effective guild recruiting?
Among the many places I crawl for news and interesting tidbits are some of the different unofficial MMO forums. But no matter if it is World of Warcraft or City of Heroes, it seems like there is always someone recruiting for their guild/supergroup/etc. Now, I'd note that I come from a relatively small guild, where several of us have played together since EQ. To me, the concept of open recruiting is a very strange one, as our group just doesn't do that. (The trade-off is that we're not on the bleeding edge of progression either.) But as someone who faces being a free-lancer in many other games that my home guild is not in, I have had to deal with pushy guild invites and pleading invites -- and those certainly never interest me. So this morning, we thought we'd ask you -- what's your best way to find new guild members? Does your group put out a recruiting call in different forums? Do you generally have people banging down the door to get into your group instead? Do you think it's best to play with someone several times before you recruit them so you have an idea of their tactics and abilities? Or is it just x-class, x-number, bring them in and work out the details later?
Breakfast Topic: Should vanity gear be implemented in the game?
There's been some talk as of late on the topic of having vanity gear in WoW, or gear that is just for looks and separate from the gear you wear for stats. It's even come up in our very own WoW Insider Show. The idea is that you have one set of gear that affects your character, and another set that is what people see. A couple other games are doing it, and mixed thoughts aside, there are rumblings of this feature possibly coming to Azeroth.My personal take is that it's a horrible idea. I think having epic gear look good and not so epic gear look not good is all part of the motivation for me to get epic gear. But instead of just being a nay sayer, I've thought up a simple solution.A lot of players are already carrying a separate set in their bags for vanity purposes. There are all kinds of great add-ons (like Outfitter) that allow you to swap all your clothes at the click of your mouse. I like this. I think this suits game play better from a role playing perspective. When you're out in the middle of Netherstorm, you're gonna wear the best gear you got to protect yourself, but when you arrive in Stormwind, you wouldn't trudge around in your armor. You'd get some stylin' city clothes on before you hit the pub.Blizzard had mentioned plans of bringing Outfitter functionality to the game as a standard feature way back at Blizzcon for raiding purposes. Wouldn't it be great if they integrated vanity features as well? They could give us options to automate gear swapping based on what zone we're in or what day of the week it is!So what do you think? Should vanity gear come to WoW or does it kill gear progression?
Beating the Zul'Aman gauntlet
So far we're hearing that most guilds are slowly working their way through Zul'Aman-- while some guilds waltzed in and took over the place, others have had a few bumps in the road, but if you've taken down Karazhan, progression seems to follow about as easily as Blizzard expected.The toughest part so far seems to come right before what most guilds traditionally take on as the second boss-- Akil'zon, the Eagle god. We ran through boss strategy the other day in our Zul'Aman guide, but the problems people are having are coming from the trash mobs before the encounter-- there's a Suppression Room/Gauntlet type of run that some players are having a hard time with.So far, the strategy seems to be, first of all, to keep moving. Just like in the other gaunlet areas (the aforementioned Suppression Room, the Lyceum, and the Shattered Halls gaunlet), slowing down will get you mobbed to death. Two tanks seems to work well (one to take elites, the others to take Warriors), and a Paladin tank will not only keep mobs off of clothies, but help out with AoE as well. Keep the group together, get those eagles down first and then focus on the other targets together, and it should be a piece of cake.Have any other good suggestions for people trying to make it through the gauntlet in Zul'Aman?
The challenge of recruiting for farmed content
I've never been in a guild where we've finished all the content in the game, but I've definitely seen a difference between raiding farmed content and raiding progression. When you're working on farmed content, things are very, very different from a progression raid-- the mood is lighter, things move more smoothly, more mistakes are made (and it matters less), and there's a little less leading and a little more joking. Not that farming content is more or less fun than raiding progression, but it's a very different feel-- last night I ran Karazhan with my guild for the first time (they're farming it now), and things were very, very different from those raiding days back when we were struggling through Moroes and scared that the Wizard of Oz event might come up in Opera because we didn't have the DPS we needed.But what if you're recruiting for farmed content? Sara is facing exactly that situation, and she wonders if her guild will be able to find good people now that they're about to finish off all the content in the game. They're expecting loss and attrition (because some people only like to raid progress, and have no interest in farming content beyond their own needs), and trying to bring new people into a guild that's already done everything. Will they only be able to find folks in it for their own loot, or will they bring interested, knowledgeable raiders willing to do the work for the rewards?Hopefully they'll be able to weed out the "omglootz" people from the casual raiders and the other folks interested in seeing the endgame content. There's no question that running farmed content is not nearly as demanding (and that's why some people don't like it as much) as progressing a raid, but that doesn't mean that anyone wants to take on a raid full of loot whores only bent on scoring their next Epic.
Should Oceanic realms get their own progression?
MMO Champion's got the tip on the Oceanic first kill of Illidan by a guild called Not Steamboat on Aman'thul. I'd actually call Archimonde the last boss in the game right now, although for the current Burning Crusade storyline, Bou is right-- Illidan is it, at least until the Sunwell.But the kill brings up another interesting point with regards to Oceanic players. While they're often grouped with the US servers (unlike the EU or Asian servers, Oceanic and US servers are in the same place and subject to the same maintenance), are Oceanic servers that different that we should acknowledge a kill like this? This isn't like in China, where Burning Crusade just released. These Oceanic players have had access to Illidan just as long as an EU guild like Nihilum has. Why should we care if they kill Illidan? Sure, it's an accomplishment (just like every boss kill is, no matter how small or big), but is there even such a thing as "Oceanic first"?Sanctus emailed Boubouille to argue just that and say that Oceanic servers should be considered separate, in terms of progression, from US and EU servers. He says that Oceanic players have to deal with the aforementioned maintenance schedule problems, as well as huge lag. So what do you think? If this issue of Oceanic progression as compared to the rest of the world hadn't come up, I wouldn't have mentioned this Illidan kill at all-- in my opinion, there is no such thing as "Oceanic first," because Oceanic players play on, more or less, the same realms that US players do. So should Oceanic realms be considered separately when comparing guild progression? Or should they be held to the same schedule and timeline for "first kills" as the rest of us?
The Karazhan exchange program
Krystal is a guild leader over on Skywall, and she's got a cool idea for how to get all of her guildies geared up and knowledgeable about Karazhan-- a "Karazhan exchange program," where Team A (the veterans) trades a person with Team B (the newbies) every week, which gives both teams a chance to learn and show more about what they know with each other.It's an interesting thought, and I'm curious-- do a lot of guilds do this already? To tell the truth, I've been kind of absent from my guild's Karazhan runs lately, but from what I've heard, we pretty much keep things separate-- Team A has their progression, and Team B has theirs. But regularly mixing up the teams seems like a good plan. Sure, with one newb on Team A, their progression might slow a little bit (and there might be a little drama coming out of forcing a certain veteran onto Team B), but by switching things up, it seems that overall both teams will benefit, and especially when you're headed for a 25 man instance (where you'll need both teams and then some), that's an ideal situation.What's your guild like? If you have two Karazhan teams, do you mix them up periodically, or does Team A stick to themselves, and make Team B learn the bosses on their own?
Why is the Horde suddenly so good at PVE?
Pre-Burning Crusade, it was widely acknowledged that in general, the Alliance was superior in PVE and the Horde was superior in PVP. Aside from a few outstanding Horde guilds like Elitist Jerks and Nihilum that regularly got world firsts, the top 10 kill list of new bosses were usually dominated by Alliance guilds. Horde members constantly complained on the forums that the developers favored Alliance -- paladins got raidwide buffs, dwarf priests got fear ward, etc. Alliance fired back the same thing about shamans and War Stomp in PVP. But finally, in Burning Crusade, the Horde got paladins, the Alliance got shamans, and no one could really complain about anything. So what happened? Well ... maybe the Horde did have something to complain about after all. Looking at WoWWiki's guild progression page, five Horde guilds and five Alliance guilds were in the top ten for killing Nightbane in Karazhan and Doom Lord Kazzak. But after that, things solidly shifted in favor of the Horde. Gruul: 6 out of 10 guilds are Horde. Magtheridon: 7 out of 10. Hydross the Unstable: 8 out of 10. The percentages shift, but Alliance has only caught up once, on Leotheras the Blind. So what happened? Was the previous Alliance domination only a myth? I can't find any records of the top ten boss kills in AQ40 and Naxx, but I recall that there were far more Alliance than Horde at the time. I also recall many, many threads arguing about what advantages paladins had. The Horde gets paladins and the Alliance gets shamans, so everyone's equal, right? Apparently not. What mystical force is pushing the Horde ahead? I asked a couple Horde stalwarts on my server, and they had some interesting ideas. Since the Hordeside is smaller than the Alliance on most servers, the Horde gets to know each other better as a community. We know who's good and who's bad, and guilds can recruit accordingly. And while the Horde who rerolled to paladins seemed to do it for PVE reasons -- "Hey, the guild needs a pally and I'd kind of like to heal for once" -- a lot of Alli shamans seem more PVP-focused. Or it could just be dumb luck that the Horde's ahead right now. Why do you think Horde guilds have jumped to the fore of PVE post-Burning Crusade? Or is the whole thing just coincidence?
