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Arcane Brilliance: Gearing your mage up for the Raid Finder in patch 4.3
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week we discuss some ways to make sure your mage's wardrobe is filled with only the prettiest dresses, most mysterious cowls, sparkliest wands, and ... er, staffiest staves. Patch 4.3 has been with us for a good solid month now, and I sincerely hope that by now we've all escorted our mages through a good portion of the new content it offers. As all the best patches do, 4.3 has ushered in a fresh tier of gear and a new progression hierarchy to follow in getting said gear. Best of all, we have a whole new gearing tool to play with in the Raid Finder. If you happen to be one of those mages who looks at his item level and finds it still languishing somewhere below the minimum requirements to join the battle to vanquish Deathwing, I believe a gearing guide is in order. Without further preamble, I present Arcane Brilliance's Handy Guide to Shiny Things, patch 4.3 edition.
Raid Finder loot rules changing in patch 4.3.2
Zarhym hit the forums to respond to posts discussing the problems and concerns with the current loot system in the Raid Finder. The Raid Finder loot system currently grants a bonus on need roles to classes that could use the item the best, allowing the right loot to go to the right classes. The loot system also does not currently account for whether a player has the item already equipped or has already won the same item on the same boss, resulting in one player winning two of the same item. Coming up in patch 4.3.2, it will no longer be possible to win two of the same item from the same boss. New loot rules coming so quickly seems to be indicative of Blizzard's position on the Raid Finder and its rules -- fluidity is a good thing. With the Raid Finder, more people are seeing raid content then ever, and these players need a different set of rules and a varied approach opposed to classic raiding. As time goes on, you'll be sure to see more tuning to the Raid Finder rules. Hit the jump for the full post.
The Queue: Go eat a pizza pie
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Today is another one of those days where I have no clever intro to put here. I guess I didn't talk about stupid things from the '90s on Twitter enough last night. I need to rectify that. Let's see, how about ... Samurai Pizza Cats? Yeah. That'll do. Stargazer asked: There's a rumor going around the LFR groups that people with lower quality gear get "favored" in the roll system so they get mgeared faster. Can you confirm or deny this? Also, does Blizzard have to tell us about every single change they make in the game? What if they want to tweak something like a drop rate. Thanks.
Lichborne: Siege of Wyrmrest Raid Finder advice for the death knight
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done. Once you've finished the new patch 4.3 dungeons and gained a bit of loot from them, you may ask yourself: What's next? One of the most obvious answers is the Raid Finder tool. You'll get better loot and faster valor point gain, as well as some starting experience in the raid game if you ever get the desire or chance to join an organized raiding group. Still, the idea of heading into a raid (even a simple one) can be a little daunting, so today I'd like to help allay your fears by giving you a quick look at the first of the Raid Finder scenarios, the Siege of Wyrmrest. Before we get into the boss strategies, though, there are a few things you should get down. Make sure your gear's good enough. If you can, get it gemmed (with strength gems) and enchanted. While you can head into Raid Finder as low as ilevel 372, don't be afraid to pick up an extra piece of gear or two from the heroic dungeons. A good weapon upgrade, for example, will do wonders for your DPS. If you can afford them, consider grabbing some consumables. A Flask of Steelskin and some Lavascale Minestrone for tanks or a Flask of Titanic Strength and some Beer-Basted Crocolisk for DPS will put your performance at the next level, and for a good group, you'll only need one flask to face the whole dungeon. Morchok's easy enough that sometimes I save the flask until we engage the second boss, just to make sure it stretches. Follow your raid leader. A raid is only as good as its raid leader and its members' abilities to follow their raid leaders' instructions, even in Raid Finder. Use these boss strategies, but defer to your raid leader where you can. They don't always know what they're doing, but in Raid Finder, sometimes that doesn't matter; either way, the more everyone works together, the easier things become. Don't Panic and don't get uptight. This is a pickup group, so things will go wrong and people will randomly drop between groups. Just stay loose, have fun, and be prepared to wait a bit for replacements in between each boss. Griping just makes it less fun for everyone.
The Raid Finder, the Dungeon Finder, point caps and you
I have a theory that either our various caps for justice and valor points are too low, or the amount we get per activity is too high. I'll relate my thinking. I have several level 85 characters I'm running through the Dungeon Finder and Raid Finder tools. Clearing both halves of the Raid Finder Dragon Soul gets me 500 valor; I then run four random heroics, and I'm capped. This means that playing my main any further that week is effectively a waste of time. (I usually cap my valors out before I even raid for a week, which makes raiding just about the gear, but I'm OK with that.) My problem is, I like my main. I'd play him more if there was anything to do. As it is, I tend to cap out on justice points rather than run on one of my alts, and even then, they usually cap on valors as well. (At least two of them do.) I even sometimes cap on honor, and with the new conquest point gains for Random BGs, I could cap on conquest if I really set my mind to it. And while I understand why we have both weekly and total caps on points, it often feels like I'm being penalized for liking the game and wanting to play it.
The Light and How to Swing It: 5 clever tricks for maximizing your Dragon Soul healing
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Every Sunday, Chase Christian invites you to discuss the finer side of the paladin class: the holy specialization. Feel free to email me with any questions you want answered, like why paladins are so awesome. If you're a holy paladin with a pulse, there's no reason not to be raiding Dragon Soul. The Raid Finder allows us healers to find groups in minutes, with no strings attached if you have to leave early. The normal versions of the bosses are all accessible for guilds across the spectrum of dedication levels. Healing a raid in Dragon Soul gives you access to the best gear available and provides us with the greatest challenge we can face today. I was looking at my World of Logs parses from the old days, and I was surprised to see how bad my HPS looked then when compared to more recent parses. The first step in preparing yourself to heal in Dragon Soul is to realize that the instance isn't built like Bastion of Twilight or Firelands. While the Ascendant Council repeatedly punished the raid for clumping and Baleroc crushed our tanks, many fights in Dragon Soul involve tight stacking and tons of AoE healing. Optimizing our AoE healing has become a key to succeeding in Dragon Soul.
What the Raid Finder's success means for the future of accessible content
The Raid Finder is here to stay. It's rolled out to astonishing success, getting more people to see the encounters of the major raid of the Cataclysm expansion than we've seen since the days that Karazhan convinced Blizzard that 10-man raiding was an option worth exploring. With Blizzard explicitly intending to move forward with the Raid Finder so that every future raid will have a RF difficulty option, a few things are likely to develop. When we consider the Raid Finder as a tool, we have to consider it both as a tool for the players (us) and as a tool for the designers, a means for them to deal with a persistent and somewhat untenable issue with the raiding game -- a ton of work goes into raid design, and statistically speaking, almost no one ever sees it. People who got to see Kel'Thuzad at level 60, Illidan or Kil'Jaeden at 70, or even Arthas at level 80 are in the minority. Thanks to the Raid Finder, Deathwing may be the most accessible big bad any expansion's ever had. Looking forward, a few broad strokes may be discerned about the Raid Finder and where it will drive the game.
Raid Finder vs. Normals: The Siege of Wyrmrest Temple
Previously, we've made explaining Raid Finder fights easier by showing you how to tackle the Raid Finder mode bosses of Dragon Soul in 5 seconds with our handy guides. You guys responded positively to those descriptions, so we're going to take it a little further. If you're a Raid Finder player who's gearing up to hit the normal mode version of Dragon Soul, here's how each encounter differs and what you need to look out for. The Raid Finder calls the first four bosses of the Dragon Soul encounter "The Siege of Wyrmrest Temple," accessible as the first wing of the raid. In normal mode, there is no distinction between the two wings, as the whole place is just one instance. For the sake of understanding and what most people in Raid Finder are accustomed to, we'll split our explanation into two wings as well. Before we begin, here are a few general points to make about the jump from Raid Finder to normal difficulty. There will be more damage. Everything hits harder in normal and heroic mode Dragon Soul. Everything. Every ability will require more healing, and every player will be required to mitigate as much damage as they can to make the healers' jobs easier. There will be more healing. With more damage comes more healing. Healers will need to know what cooldowns they have and where they are best used. Tank cooldowns are good for periods of high tank damage. Raid cooldowns are good for periods of high raid damage. Your raid leader will most likely be in charge of letting you know what cooldowns to use where, so listen closely.
Breakfast Topic: Would the Raid Finder difficulty approach work for 5-man instances?
With 4.3's introduction of the Raid Finder feature, more players than ever before have the chance to see and participate in the deaths of some of Azeroth's most destructive villains. The design concept is simple: Take a raid that's fairly difficult on normal mode and ridiculously hard on heroic, and simplify it to the point that 25 random people who've never met before can emerge victorious with a little effort. Casual players who don't have the time to raid on a weekly schedule get to see endgame content, and heroic raiders can still flex their egos with higher ilevel loot and the knowledge that they were able to take on some of the toughest encounters in modern gaming and win. Assuming this works and everyone remains happy with the Raid Finder system, is there a future for the Raid Finder model in the Dungeon Finder system? We know now that Blizzard has entirely revamped the 5-man system in Mists of Pandaria, offering new PvE encounter zones, timed instance runs, and no normal versions of level 85 heroic dungeons. But what if Blizzard decided to follow the Raid Finder system instead and redesigned 5-mans with three tiers of difficulty? The first tier, the Dungeon Finder mode, would be designed to be easy enough that five puggers with no voice chat could queue for it and win. Normal mode would require five dedicated players working in coordination with one another but would still ultimately be easily conquerable without significant effort. Heroic modes would require hours of wiping, retuning of strats, and a dedicated group of players.
5 ways to improve the Raid Finder
I'll admit it: The Raid Finder feature has been a lot more successful than I expected it would be, and for the most part, it works not only better than I had thought but better than I could have ever hoped. I've run multiple alts through both halves of the Dragon Soul via Raid Finder, and while it's easy to tell that the fights have been reduced in complexity from the raid, they do still require some coordination and execution to get through -- enough to make a full PUG of the Raid Finder a hair above just showing up and getting loot, which is nice. The Raid Finder does the job of making complex raid content accessible for players who might otherwise never get to see these fights and it does it well. That being said, there have been some issues with loot, player behavior, and even the way the Raid Finder selects players in my runs that I wanted to address, aspects that could be improved or streamlined to give us all a better Raid Finder experience.
Encrypted Text: A savvy rogue's guide to the Fall of Deathwing via the Raid Finder
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any questions or article suggestions you'd like to see covered here. The first half of the Dragon Soul raid consists of knocking out a few of Deathwing's commanders that are attacking Wyrmrest Temple. After toppling the first four bosses of Dragon Soul, we finally see Deathwing face-to-face at the peak of the temple. He's still too busy to attack us himself, instead sending a couple of his additional underlings our way. Our first challenge will be overcoming Ultraxion, Deathwing's favorite twilight dragon. He's an easy target for rogues and is just about as simple for us as Warlord Zon'ozz. After that, we board an airship to face Warmaster Blackhorn and his Twilight infantry. Finally, we confront Deathwing in two separate encounters, each with its own challenges. We fight Ultraxion from the roof of Wyrmrest Temple, as he's too massive to fit inside. He'll spend most of the encounter cleaving the entire raid, which makes Feint an amazing tool here. Use it on cooldown for the entire fight. Unfortunately for rogues, we're not able to get behind Ultraxion, due to his positioning over the ledge of the temple roof. While Ultraxion has a buff that prevents him from parrying our frontal attacks, we're not able to use any positional attacks like Backstab or Ambush.
Raid Finder items reclassified for intended classes
Many items in the Raid Finder have been able to be rolled on by classes that might not get the best use out of them -- for instance, mages rolling on spirit cloth or warriors rolling on one-handed agility axes. Blizzard has confirmed that it has updated many items' classifications in Raid Finder to only be rolled on by the classes for whom the item is intended. Now, classes that can use the item the best will apply the roll bonus correctly. I am very glad that Blizzard is changing these items' classifications and making the Raid Finder even more fair for players. So far, the Raid Finder has been an enormous success, and with some tweaks and changes down the road, it's here to stay in a big way. Hit the jump for the announcement and full list of updated classes that can roll need on many Dragon Soul items in the Raid Finder.
Dragon Soul: Fall of Deathwing Raid Finder bosses explained in 5 seconds
The Raid Finder has more people than ever filling World of Warcraft's raiding zones with players, adventure, loot, and fun. With more accessible dungeons comes the potential for explanation issues -- raiding is still about communication, even in the Raid Finder. Here is a quick look at the last four bosses of the Dragon Soul raid that you can use for great success in the Raid Finder. For tips for the first four bosses in the Dragon Soul raid, The Siege of Wyrmrest Temple, please check out our first guide. First, here are some quick Raid Finder facts: No lockouts. Participating in the Raid Finder will not lock you out from doing the raid on 10- or 25-man with your guild or group, nor will it lock you out from loot for these instances. You only get to roll on loot once per boss per week. You can fight bosses multiple times but are only eligible for loot on the first kill. Get 250 valor points for completing the raid wing. Two tanks, six healers, 17 DPSers are needed for a Raid Finder raid. You can queue up in Raid Finder with your Real ID friends across servers.
The Daily Quest: Good for me
WoW Insider's on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative, and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. So have you tried out the Raid Finder? Or maybe just the raid itself? Did you get any good stuff? Or heck, have you found your perfect transmogrification set yet? Patch 4.3 has been nothing but a ball of fun so far as far as I'm concerned, and everyone else seems to be having a good time too -- but that doesn't mean there's nothing to talk about, of course. Check out these posts from around the blogosphere for some frank 4.3 discussion. Orcish Army Knife points out that transmogging heirlooms isn't really that big of a deal. Tree Heals Go Woosh is uncertain how to feel about the new Raid Finder feature. Cynwise's Battlefield Manual goes over the new Arena season, PvP gear and epic gems. Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment, and you may see it here tomorrow! Be sure to check out our WoW Resources Guide for more WoW-related sites.
Encrypted Text: A savvy rogue's guide to starting Dragon Soul via the Raid Finder
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any questions or article suggestions you'd like to see covered here. The introduction of the Raid Finder is one of the biggest features in patch 4.3, and so far it has been everything that we could ask for and more. The queues have been quick, the bosses are tuned just right for the demographic, and the rewards are potent enough to keep the system running. Anyone with decent gear can queue up for a raid, gaining valuable experience and gear. I think the new system is perfect for allowing new raiders to get their feet wet, preparing them for what lies ahead. Even as a pure DPS class, the Raid Finder queues haven't been too bad for rogues. Between my own experience and the word on the street (not Greg), queue times are between 15 and 30 minutes, and groups are mostly competent. To a class that's historically had problems finding a spot in a raid group, the Raid Finder looks like our new best friend. The only bummer is that we can't start or progress in our legendary quest line in the Raid Finder. In order to maximize our random group's chance for success, we need to be prepared to do our best.
Spiritual Guidance: How to get your shadow priest started with the Raid Finder
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. On Wednesdays, shadow priesting expert Fox Van Allen comes from out of the shadows to bask in your loving adoration. He is also scientifically proven more beautiful than boomkin blogger Tyler Caraway. There's a lot of great content stuffed into the recent patch 4.3, but let's face it -- we're always going to be drawn to the content that has the best gear available. We can't help it. It's programmed in our shadow priest DNA. So while patch 4.3 has some sweet new 5-man instances with it, the real lure seems to be the new Raid Finder tool. What was once reserved for the hardest-core of players is now accessible by just about anyone with an hour and a half to spare. We can all, with the help of 24 complete strangers, defeat Deathwing. (Yes, that's a good thing.) Before you try queueing up for the Raid Finder, though, you need to know some basics. A new level 85 player will still need to navigate the gear ladder. More importantly, though, all players need to know what the hell they're doing during the fights. Let's talk strategy, shadow priest style. To use the Raid Finder tool to attempt the new-for-patch 4.3 Dragon Soul content, you're going to need a minimum average item level of 372. Like previous ilevel gates, you don't actually need to be equipped past an item level of 372; you merely need to have that gear in your bags or bank. This is good to know (considering how, for example, the i359 Darkmoon Card: Volcano remains a better trinket than the i365 Moonwell Chalice or i378 Rune of Zeth).
Shifting Perspectives: The best and the worst of patch 4.3
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat, bear, restoration and balance druids. This Tuesday, we chortle our way through 5-man trash. Oh, patch 4.3. I didn't know what to expect from you after so many bad, ugly, or just plain bizarre PUGs on the public test realm, but you turned out to be pretty cool. I don't have to wear ugly gear anymore, the Dragon Soul raid is live, Vengeance blows up like a grade school volcano science experiment, and Deathwing no longer roasts all my archaeology dig sites with the sadistic glee of an NPC who knows that I will never get the Crawling Claw if I am dead. On the downside, I have to deal with Echo of Tyrande trash ("Hey, where'd the healer go?"), and Thrall still does not seem to have realized that the rest of the world moved on to epic mounts several years ago. You win some, you lose some.
Blizzard issues official statement on Raid Finder exploit consequences
Earlier in the day, raiding group Paragon apologized for exploiting a bug in the Raid Finder tool that allowed their raiders to obtain loot from a boss more than once in a lockout period. Blizzard has followed up with a statement of its own, explaining that people who exploited the bug in a similar manner will be receiving temporary suspensions. Raid Finder Loot Exploit Suspensions Shortly after patch 4.3 was released, we became aware that some players were abusing an exploit to obtain loot from the same Raid Finder bosses multiple times in a single raid lockout period (one week). The Raid Finder loot mechanic is of course intended to only allow a person to roll on boss loot drops once per raid lockout period. The raid lockout mechanic has been a mainstay of the World of Warcraft rules since Onyxia and Molten Core, ensuring that no one can obtain loot from a boss more than once per lockout. Due to the nature of the exploit and the clear intent of those who abused it, they've been issued notices and given temporary suspensions from the game. We're also working to remove all Raid Finder items from those who used the exploit. source It's good to see Blizzard taking action on this. Certainly there will be some who will believe this to be too mild a punishment. But given the number of people who abused the exploit (Paragon was far from the only guild doing this) and a need to hand out punishment evenly and consistently, a temporary suspension appears to be the right solution. Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Paragon: We're sorry we cheated
High-end raiding guild Paragon issued an apology today for exploiting a bug in the Raid Finder that allowed its raiders to accumulate a large quantity of tier 13 gear. The statement reads, in part: We acknowledge that using this unintended behavior, which was quite clearly a bug, to our gain, was wrong. The fact that others were using it as well is no justification for doing it ourselves. We apologize for doing it, and accept whatever consequences follow. Paragon had come up with a plan to run the Raid Finder multiple times, once for each raider. While executing the plan, they noticed and exploited a bug that allowed the raid the ability to loot passed gear -- a violation of Blizzard's rules. The exploit has since been hotfixed. Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Breakfast Topic: Will Raid Finder popularity be sustainable?
When the Raid Finder feature rolled out on the PTR, it was terrible. Queues were long, dropouts were common, and the overall experience was poor. The Raid Finder on live, in contrast, is new, shiny, and by all accounts a success. Everybody's happy ... for now. Now, I don't want to channel Ol' Grumpy here, but will that success be sustainable? Right now, a good 90% of the active playerbase still has upgrades they need from Raid Finder, including current raiders. This means quicker queues and better groups overall. Once those raiders have their gear, though, will they continue to participate in the Raid Finder? With gear levels topping 380 and the heroic 5-mans reasonably easy, those seeking quick valor will likely end up there instead of the Raid Finder, which demands a larger commitment with less chance of reward. Two months from now, I'm afraid the Raid Finder queues will be full of nothing but alts and occasional players, causing the situation from the PTR all over again. What do you think?
