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Warlords of Draenor: No more Tier vendors
One of the more irritating and frustrating aspects of winning Tier loot from bosses is having to take the token to a vendor in order to actually get the piece of armor you won. Nowadays it's rare for me to equip a piece as soon as I get it, unless it's a truly huge upgrade, but I still find it annoying to have to take a token to a vendor in order to get the actual piece of gear. In addition, as a druid, there are four versions of everything available for each token, and scrolling through page after page of nearly-identically named armor pieces makes my eyes cross. Minor complaints, really, but nonetheless the following announcement by Lead Game Designer Ion Hazzikostas, aka Watcher, on Twitter really made my day: @RhoWoW @MeaganTC They will work that way in Warlords. No more vendors - you can get your set piece on the spot. - Watcher (@WatcherDev) September 1, 2014 This is a fantastic quality of life change for raiders. No more running to vendors and no more waiting to get your new piece of Tier gear. I'd say "no more accidentally buying the wrong piece" with your token too, but in Warlords, your primary stats will auto-change when you shift specs anyway, so that's no big deal. In any case, this new system will be more convenient for players, and I'm certainly thankful for that!
Bonus rolls are likely not going anywhere
We already know that there are some major changes coming to raiding in Warlords of Draenor -- specifically the shifting of what LFR, Flex, Normal, and Heroic raiding means to us right now. With raiding changes often come loot changes, and folks are understandably nervous about how loot could work in the future, considering that all new raiding modes save Mythic will have a cross-realm option. @CaimNyu Sure. We'll likely still have bonus rolls, and those are always personal even if your loot system is not. - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) November 13, 2013 Never fear, it's Ghostcrawler to the rescue, with loot question clarifications. It seems likely that bonus loot rolls aren't going anywhere. Right now you can roll for bonus loot on any boss, including Heroic, and it looks as if at least that will continue. We don't know about it continuing into Mythic level raiding, however we have no indication either way.
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!
The Guild Counsel: Should guests get an equal shot at raid loot?
In last week's Guild Counsel, we looked at how to rebuild a guild, and one suggestion I made was to use PUG groups and even raids as a way of advertising your guild and screening for new members at the same time. However, that does bring up a tricky situation when it comes to loot. On one hand, it's better to keep loot within the guild; after all, the better geared your raid is, the easier it will be to tackle raid content and progression. On the other, it's not really fair to bring non-members along and then not give them a fair shot at the loot. So what should a raid leader do? Let's explore this problem in this week's Guild Counsel.
Does a video game have to force us to make good choices?
Take a moment and picture this: There's a politician out there, a pretty sleazy politician, who is basically in a position of power to use that power to do whatever suits him or her best -- no regard for anyone that voted him into office, no real sense of caring for those he is supposedly serving. One day, someone comes up to that politician and says, "Hey man, I'll give you $3 million if you start taking an interest in your constituents and doing what is best for them, OK?" The politician agrees, takes the money, and promptly starts doing the right thing. Is that politician in the wrong? Or is that politician simply learning that if he behaves badly, he'll get a bribe to start behaving correctly? What's to stop him from behaving badly again, if he thinks he's going to get another $3 million out of the deal? More importantly, if all the other politicians out there see this guy get a bribe to behave like a decent politician and all of those politicians decide to start behaving badly in an effort to get that bribe for themselves, are they in the wrong?
The Tattered Notebook: Auctioning raid loot, place bids now!
If you've spent any time in EverQuest II, you've probably seen auctions in public channels for fabled group and raid loot. And if you've walked past entrances to raid zones, you've probably seen the herd of semi-afk toons waiting outside, watching chat, and ready to zone in and loot at a moment's notice. Those who object to this practice have a few strong arguments. But the main one is that they believe in the philosophy of "earn it to wear it" -- that you should put in the effort and the time it takes to defeat a raid encounter in order to reap the benefits. They also argue that it cheapens the overall sense of value that raid gear has if "everyone else is wearing it." While I find that argument a bit dubious (and I have a little story to explain why), there are several strong arguments, both for and against the selling of loot rights. Read on for a closer look.
Phat Loot Phriday: Bryntroll, the Bone Arbiter
How would you plate-wearing raiders like your best-in-slot (pre-Shadowmourne) weapon first thing upon stepping into the 25-man version of Icecrown Citadel? If Lady Luck is on your side, it could happen. Bryntroll the Bone Arbiter was, for a few glorious weeks, far and away the best weapon available to death knights and retribution paladins before Shadowmourne and its own Heroic counterpart. Slightly less awesome for warriors, but still pretty amazing. Can you believe it drops from Lord Marrowgar, the first (and probably the easiest) boss in ICC? Let's talk numbers, shall we? Name: Bryntroll, the Bone Arbiter Type: Two-Handed Axe Damage: 801 - 1203 Damage, 294.7 DPS Speed: 3.40 Attributes: 169 Strength 161 Stamina One red socket and one blue socket Chance on hit: Steals 2138 to 2362 life from target enemy.
Scattered Shots: Picking the right hunter loot, part 1
Welcome back to the Scattered Shots, the weekly hunter class column. This week we begin our series "Picking the right hunter loot." Where we will review what truly makes something qualify as hunter loot, and not just loot hunters can use. We'll also review the drops off of each major raids starting with Naxxrammas and ending with the PTR Patch 3.3 raid, Ice Crown. So join me, Eddie Carrington, aka Brigwyn from The Hunting Lodge, as we explore what loot we should put on our watch lists. Things on the patch 3.3 PTR are getting closer and closer to wrapping up, so I thought it might be a good idea to review hunter stats and how they help you select the right gear for you. In the past we have talked about how to use iLevel to do a gear check. Also, we've talked about how to use the different hunter tools and resources out there to select an upgrade for your hunter. What we really haven't talked about was what makes up good hunter gear, and in each of the different raids in Wrath of The Lich King makes up some good hunter gear. And a recent comment on the Damage Dealing forum from Ghostcrawler got me thinking that it might be a good idea to make sure to first review how stats impact our gear choices, and how they impact both our and our pet's raid performance. Just like the hunter leveling guide, I'd like to set a few discussion guidelines.
Several Ulduar weapons buffed
Apparently a few tweaks to items were either too random or too last-minute to make it into the patch 3.1.2 notes. Three weapons have had their stats improved, "to match their appropriate item level:" Icecore Staff Boreal Guard Malice You can see a screenshot of the new stats at right. Additionally, eight weapons have had their speed changed, "to make them more optimized when used in PvE content compared to equivalent weapons obtained in the Arena." I read that as "Arena weapons were too good, so we changed the speed on these ones to make them better." Golden Saronite Dragon: 2.6 -> ? Remorse: 1.6 -> 1.5 Stonerender: 1.6 -> 1.5 Voldrethar, Dark Blade of Oblivion: 3.4 -> ? Dark Edge of Depravity: ? -> ? Aesir's Edge: 3.5 -> ? Hammer of Crushing Whispers: 3.5 -> ? Caress of Insanity: 2.6 -> ? If anyone can fill in the question marks, please leave the information in the comments.
Addon Spotlight: Atlasloot Enhanced updated for Wrath
That's right, Atlasloot Enhanced has been updated to include the Northrend instances and raid. Personally, I've been waiting to be able to browse and try-on the gear from the new dungeons and raids since the expansion launched.Atlasloot Enhanced is absolutely one of my must-have addons, and I've watched it grow with loving admiration since the day I realized I could see what my toons looked liked wearing Sunken Temple loot.For those of you not using this one, it's a wonderful way to spend your time while waiting for your groups to get situated, double check drop rates on certain items, or even link items from your wish list for typically uninterested group-mates. (Go ahead and take advantage of the captive audience.)Although we've featured this one before, Atlasloot Enhanced has some great features for the curious player, and in light of all the new content, I thought we'd review some of the reasons to install and use this very useful mod.
The return of stamina to tier 6
A few days ago, Eliah mentioned a tragic thing in his list of Undocumented Changes in a recent PTR push: The Stamina disappeared from the new Tier 6 pieces!There was a pretty big outcry about this, and understandably so. The Burning Crusade has made Stamina a very important stat in all areas of gameplay from PvE to PvP. You need to be able to take blows in the arenas, and almost every raid encounter has multiple sources of random damage to the raid. Stamina is a big deal, which brings us to the good news.The Stamina has returned to the T6! Not in the amounts it had previously(unfortunately) but still a decent amount. While not ideal, it has enough Stamina that classes can actually wear these set pieces now. Previously, with no Stamina on this armor, most classes were completely unable to wear them in a raid. I know that I, personally, already have to wear PvP gear for a number of encounters because my raiding gear simply doesn't have enough Stamina on it for Black Temple and Mount Hyjal. New tier pieces with no Stamina at all would be something I could not even consider using, no matter how good the rest of the stats may be. Being one-shotted by environmental damage makes that awesome damage and mana regen a little useless.
The ultimate loot distribution system?
I've been toying with the idea of putting together my own Kara raid, so when I saw the World of Matticus suggestions for loot distribution I read through them with eager interest. If you are unfamiliar with the concept of DKP, or Dragon Kill Points (a phrase harkening back to the days of Everquest), essentially every person attending the raid gets points based upon what bosses they participate in downing. Each DKP system is very different, from the basic to the complicated, and some are so complex that they require mods to organize. In the raid I was most recently in, they used zero-sum DKP, supposedly designed to keep people from hording the points, but it ended up being much like what they seemed to be trying to avoid, at least from what I saw. Matticus suggests that we modify the DKP systems, blend them together, and add a very important element: attendance. I also like his ideas on incentives for the spending of DKP, with discounts given for item pieces that are below the guild's current raid progression. It's an idea that allows the newer members of the raid to build their sets without having to wait the long period it normally requires to build up sufficient points. I'm still not sure how I would feel about Matticus' idea of a guild hierarchy, where certain classes get items first, but I suppose that is mostly because I play a mage. I do, however, see the value in building up the gear of those that are most central to the raid's success, so I guess I see his point after all. Personally, I think his ideas on DKP are sound enough to try. Whether or not they can be implemented by a brand new raid leader remains to be seen.
