raiding
Latest
Exclusive interview: Awake from Nihilum speaks with WoW Insider
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Exclusive_interview_with_WoW_guild_Nihilum'; There might be no guild in all of Azeroth that has attracted attention like Nihilum has. They've charged through the endgame, gaining an unimaginable four world firsts in one day. They've downed Illidan. They've beaten the game.And even out of the game, they seem to be a lightning rod for controversy. They don't like girls. They supposedly cheated on Vashj, and maybe they buy gold. Players have followed Nihilum's exploits like no other guild-- some hate them and some look up to them, but everyone who follows news from the endgame must know who they are.Now, in their first exclusive interview after downing Archimonde and finishing off the current content, Awake from Nihilum spoke with us to talk about all of these things and more. What did they and did they not like about the endgame they just beat? What's Nihilum going to do now? And exactly how many of them have girlfriends?Click the link below to read this exclusive interview, and get a glimpse of what it's like to run with the guild that beat the game. Questions were collected from both WoW Insider staff, and from members of our own casual guild, It came from the Blog. Thanks to Awake from Nihilum for doing this with us, and good luck to him and his guild in future content.
Officers' Quarters: The raid farming blues
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. At one time, possibly for ten or even twenty minutes, Molten Core was an exciting challenge. But now, if I never see the featureless brown walls of that godforsaken cave for the rest of my life, it will be too soon. Most raiding guilds probably aren't at the point where running Karazhan or Gruul's Lair is the tedious chore that weekly MC runs became, but someday all of this shiny new Burning Crusade raid content is going to be old hat too. At that point, it's going to be harder and harder to convince people to go back to it to help alts and newer guild members gear up. One reader dealt with this issue prior to the expansion. Hey, Great column. Here's a situation I came upon many times while running with a raiding guild in summer 2006. I'm curious as to how you dealt with it. I spent 4 months in a progress guild . . . and we did a great job for the time that I was there (downed C'thun in June '06 . . . moderate progress in Naxx after). But I came into the guild later than most of the people, and I only got in because of skill. I was one of the rare exceptions that was allowed in the guild of AQ40 hardcore raiders, with cloth blues from DM . . . I was a resto shaman. As time went on, we would get me the occasional piece of gear from a farm-status instance (I ended up with 5/8 Earthfury, but that's kinda necessary), but for the most part the guild was focused on progress, and we did not do MC or BWL very much anymore. The problem is, when Naxx hit, it got even worse. We were constantly wiping in Naxx, having issues with bosses that we shouldn't've, and I attributed it to the fact that everyone wasn't as geared out as possible. Some people needed pants off Rag, some people needed that one piece from Nef, . . . I was still using Finkle's Lava Dredger!
Ask WoW Insider: When is it fair to upgrade an epic?
Welcome back to Ask WoW Insider, where each week we publish one of your questions. Last week we had some fun imagineering new battlegrounds, and this week we turn our attention once again to an issue near and dear to our hearts: loot. This week's question comes from Chris, who wants to know about etiquette regarding rolling or bidding for an epic drop to replace an item in a slot that is already an epic: All DKP ideas aside, when is it fair to upgrade an epic over an epic? Here is the situation: We are running Karazhan and the Staff of Infinite Mysteries drops. I, being a mage, have the epic spell blade form Thrallmar and epic off hand I got from turning in badges of justice. In addition to my weapons I have dropped all money making professions to take up tailoring and enchanting and power leveled them up to get the best gear and enchants possible to make raiding easier. Everyone else has just started doing the same thing finally and are a bit slow in the progress. Now, every DPS squishy wants the staff because it's an obvious upgrade to their blue weapon and I want it because it's an upgrade for boss fights because of the +hit and secondary stats. Would it be fair to roll for the staff seeing as how I have worked hard to get where I am at and still consider the staff to be an upgrade? Or should I just let the people that haven't worked as hard to get geared out take it in hopes it helps out the raid progression a bit faster. My opinion is that passing on loot to help those less geared out is like taxing the smart to help the dumb. Perhaps you have a better theory. What say you, readers? What factors should you consider when bidding or rolling on an epic drop that will replace a piece of gear on your character that is already shiny purple? Should you gear up those in blues first to help your guild, or is your dkp yours to spend on whatever you like with a free conscience? How much of an upgrade does it need to be to justify taking it over the lesser-geared? Join us next week for another Friday edition of Ask WoW Insider, and don't forget that we need your questions to make it happen! Send us what you want to know at ask AT wowinsider DOT com.
Raiding gear vs. Arena gear
With the advent of Arena season 2, a lot of people are looking forward to the new arena sets. But others are wondering if gear gained from the arenas should be better, worse, or equal to gear from raiding. Two forum topics -- "ARENA GEAR should NOT = RAIDING GEAR" and "Raiding gear should NOT = Arena gear" purport to pit PVEers against PVPers, even though most people seem to do a mix of both. Basically, the argument goes like this: Raider: Anyone can get arena epics fairly easily just by PVPing a few matches a week, so why should they be as good as the drops I spent hours raiding for? Arena player: Any brainless monkey can mash a keyboard against programmed opponents. Facing other people is the real test of skill in WoW, so we should get the best gear. Everyone else: Hey, aren't the PVP sets better for PVP and the PVE sets better for PVE? What's wrong with that? It's not like that stamina and resilience are gonna do most people tons of good against Kael'thas. Personally, as one of those elusive casual raiders, I like having the arena sets equal to raiding sets. It gets all the people who just want to gear up through raiding, then /gquit and PVP all the time out of raiding guilds. PVP gear should be best at killing other players, and PVE gear should be best at killing bosses. And when did doing Arena for a month to get ONE epic item become "easy epics"? It's only easy if you compare it to the old PVP honor system, which was life-destroying. Drysc puts it pretty well in one of the threads: "You're not actually concerned that someone else is getting something easier than you, because you would go do it and wouldn't look back. You're either unable or unwilling to switch to what you perceive is the easier route, and want what you're invested in or willing to do made easier based on what you perceive matches the effort invested in the other." Basically, if you're raiding for gear and complain that Arena is easier, go do Arena, and vice versa. Are you okay with the gear from raiding and from Arenas, or would you like to see one part of the game buffed? Is "PVEing to PVP" still a viable way of winning in PVP?
Battleground rewards meant to be "a tier behind" arena, PvE gear
Hellaciouss asks why there is no epic set for level 70 Battleground honor rewards, and Drysc, in answering, reveals quite a bit about how Blizzard views the arena PvP, raid, and battleground experiences.Drysc says the high-end arena gear is "intended to always be about on-par with the current tier players are progressing on." That means that if you play well in Arenas, you can earn gear that's just as good as what the hardcore raiders are earning in PvE. But Battleground gear, says Drysc is actually intended to be not as good. Because Arena and raiding take "quite a bit of effort, interaction, etc" (and BGs apparently do not), the gear for regular honor just isn't as good.I'll let you decide whether that suggestion is true or not, but I've been playing in the BGs, and there are large numbers of players sitting there AFK just to earn honor-- I reported a few of them. That definitely doesn't match up even close to the effort the best teams put into the arenas. But then again, it takes a lot of coordination and effort to lead a winning Horde team through AV, and if I'm able to do that, shouldn't I get rewarded for it? Just because it's easy for some people to exploit the BGs and earn lots of honor doesn't mean Blizzard has to treat all of the people playing in the Battlegrounds like second class citizens. Instead of gimping the gear, how about upping the effort required, and ditching the AFKers?
The masterminds of WoW on gaming
Have you ever wondered what the names and faces behind WoW do in their off time? In the recent interview 1up had with Shane Dabiri, Rob Pardo, Jeff Kaplan, and Tom Chilton, we get to find out a bit about that -- at least in regards to some of the games that they're playing right now. Two of them were really no surprise to me: Guitar Hero II and God of War. Those two have been all over the gaming media and are a lot of fun to play, so it makes total sense. The two titles that caught me off guard were several mentions of Viva Pinata and Rob saying that he plays the PopCap game, Peggle. They also covered some great background information from their gaming roots, to some ways they think WoW has changed the genre. Check it out!
WoW Moviewatch: Nihilum vs. Essence of Souls
I don't care how you feel about Nihilum as a guild, this looks like a great fight. Props to the art folks at Blizz for the animations; this is definitely the coolest-looking boss I've seen in a while. One warning, though: the video is rather long. If you want to download the full 365-MB WMV version, head over to WarcraftMovies.[via World of Raids]Previously on Moviewatch
Officers' Quarters: When guilds fracture
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. For some people, it is the fundamental question of Warcraft: friends -- or progression? Some people are lucky enough to be able to play the game with their friends and meet their in-game goals at the same time. This week's question is from an officer who has been able to live that dream but now has to choose between them after his guild splits apart. Hey Scott, My guild just recently went through a bit of a break up, and as one of the founding members/officers of the guild, I'm a bit uncertain of how to help handle things. Apparently this split had been near inevitable with a leadership (though not filled with ill will) clash between the shared guild leaders. Our guild had integrated a larger guild into our fold, and the split has largely fallen back on those old lines. The problem is, the original guild was started with my real life friends, so obviously there's an amount of loyalty there. Then again, I've made a few good friends from the incoming (and now outgoing) guild as well. I see my real life friends often enough, and I know the smaller guild would have both its upsides (namely better organization, a guild leadership I prefer, and a tighter knit group of people) and downsides(such as a lack of instance progression because of the lack of players). I play WoW for both the gameplay and friends, so I feel like I'd be sacrificing one for the other, at least for a while. Is it possible to interact with both, and do so diplomatically? I'm not trying to have my cake and eat it too, but this dissolving of the guild came rather suddenly and I'm at a loss. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has ever been (or will be) in this sort of situation before! My thanks and regards, Brandon
Breakfast Topic: What should Nihilum do now?
They've done it all, raided from one end of Azeroth to the other, and now they've conquered Outland as well. So what is next for the golden boys of raiding? I imagine they themselves may be wondering the same thing. They have the gear, they've done all the encounters, so what now? What would you suggest Nihilum do as they set out into the unknown? Is it time to set their sights on The Card Game perhaps? Or maybe start ramping up to compete in the Arena season 2? What do you think?
Archimonde down, Nihilum beats TBC
And here I thought Nihilum was going to take a break. But no! They have just defeated Archimonde, the final boss of Mount Hyjal, which means that they have cleared every PvE encounter currently available in WoW. Um...good job, guys! (This was, of course, another world first.) What's next?MMO-Champion has Archimonde's loot table. Here's what Nihilum got.
The pacing of the new endgame
So Illidan met his match yesterday in the form of Nihilum, which means that since the Black Temple is the last and latest bit of content to show up on the live servers, the game is effectively beaten. That's it. We're done. Time to go home.Didn't that seem a little fast? The original WoW content took a few years to "beat," it seems, and now Burning Crusade (and the 2.1 patch) has been beaten by players in a matter of months. Is the endgame going too fast? From Boubouille's wrapup of the Illidan defeat yesterday, we get this post on the Elitist Jerks forums by Tigole. He says Blizzard is very happy with the way Black Temple is tuned. He also takes a look back at Naxx, and says the Four Horsemen were an example of an encounter that was well-tuned, but players at the time didn't have the gear they needed, so it took much longer for guilds to finish them off. The biggest hole in WoW content right now, Tigole says, is the lack of options after Karazhan for 10 man raids-- but, he says, "we're fixing that." So /cheer for more 10 mans to come.But is the endgame dropping too fast? In my estimation, not at all. In my estimation, Nihilum is not a normal guild. If you're willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on gold buying (and frankly, I am not-- I believe they're cheating), they clearly play the game more than anyone else, driven by both their own determination and the fact that they are basically raiding celebrities in Azeroth. They are the hardcore. And if you're asking me whether hardcore players should finish the endgame content quickly, I'd say they should.Why? Because that means it will be that much easier for casuals to get there, too.
Illidan slain by Nihilum
This should mark an end to this string of world-first posts, and hopefully the poor raiders of Nihilum can get some sleep now. Illidan has now been defeated: the Black Temple is cleared. But how did the fight go? Do you actually kill Illidan, or is it more like the Majordomo Executus fight from MC? At the moment, I don't know, because they haven't uploaded any pictures or information to their site -- no loot, no fight shots, no kill shot. But I'm sure these details will surface soon, and when they do, I'll update this post. For now, I offer one more "congrats" to Nihilum, the current champions of WoW raiding.Update: loot, via World of Raids; apparently there were also 2 Tier 6 chest tokens. Also, if you look at the killshot above (click for a bigger version), Illy certainly looks dead...
Essence of Souls killed by Nihilum (world first)
Nihilum is really on fire these days. Fresh from seven world firsts in the past week or so, they have now achieved the world-first kill (on the live realms, anyway) of the Essence of Souls, a Black Temple boss. No details have emerged about the fight that I've been able to dredge up, although WoWWiki speculates that the boss has a different phase for each of its three different faces.In their comments thread, Nihilum deem the Essence of Souls "the hardest encounter we've met so far in WoW, ever" and "likely the hardest and most intense encounter in the history of world of warcraft," so my guess is it was probably pretty hard. Congrats! And in an unusual turn of events, they actually got their loot upon killing the boss: MMO-Champion has this boss's full loot table, thanks to PTR kills.
Peep drops from Kael'thas
Most of you have probably seen the news that Peep, the super-rare epic flying phoenix mount pictured above, was first given to Ezra. Last night, Method, of A-Sylvanas (Eu), got the world-first drop of The Ashes of Al'ar, the item that summons Peep. This was on their guild's first kill of Kael'thas, the final boss of The Eye. I don't think there are enough kills of Kael'thas that we have any idea what the drop rate of the Ashes is, but if it's anything like the Deathcharger's Reins (from Baron Rivendare) or the Fiery Warhorse's Reins (from Attumen), expect it to be significantly less than one percent. By the way, how do we abbreviate "Kael'thas"? I would go with KT, except Kel'Thuzad has that one already. Perhaps just "Kael"? It's a bit of a surprsie to me that he would drop this; for some reason it doesn't seem quite "serious" enough for him. I had previously hypothesized that Peep might drop from the boss Al'ar, the Phoenix God, but that does not seem to be the case. Anyway, grats, Method![via MMO-Champion]
Get in line! Rezzing order and you
So someone moved, someone pulled aggro, someone didn't heal fast enough, or you just don't have the DPS. It's a wipe. Everyone's dead on the ground, and the raidleader calls for a Shaman to pop, or for someone to use their soulstone. I'm a resto Shaman, so this happens to me pretty often: I Reincarnate and I'm standing over 24 dead people. Who do I rez first?Obviously, the first people I go for are those who have a rez to use, so we can do some chain rezzing. Priests, other Shamans, and Paladins. But after that? Caralynn lays it out: while your first instinct may be to rez your MT or your friends, you should really be rezzing pet and buff classes before melee.Which makes great sense. Warlocks and Hunters need to drink and resurrect their pets, and that's a lot of time wasted if you rez them last. Mages and Druids use all kinds of mana casting those buffs, so they usually have to drink, rebuff after a wipe, and then drink again. And Warriors and Rogues are easy to refill-- Rage doesn't refill, and I wish my mana filled up as quickly as Energy did.So it's Other Rezzers > Pet Classes > Buffers > and then Melee. There are other schools of thought on this (one player says to rez RL girls first, wink wink say no more), but this plan seems to be the best. Plus, Caralynn points out that this has the added bonus of not having melee standing around trying to pull while clothies are rebuffing. If you time it right, everyone can be ready to go again at the same time. And this time, watch that aggro!
Hybrid Theory: Getting into raids as an off-spec
Each week, Jason Lotito contributes Hybrid Theory, a new column on hybrid classes in World of Warcraft. Last week we discussed hybrids playing more than just the healing role and the flame wars that causes on the forums. This week I'd like to focus more on off-spec hybrids and how they can get into raids. Let's be clear now -- I'm focusing on off-spec hybrids and them getting into 25-man raids. And we aren't just talking about farmed content. I'm focusing on real progression raids. So let's get started! Be realisticKnowing if you can actually fill your needed role is important. But you have to be honest and realize that just not everyone is open to allowing off-specs into raids. And while you might get into a raid eventually, are you actually a regular player? Are you someone who is actually contributing to the raid as a whole?The whole goal is for you to play an active part in your raids daily successes, not sitting on the sideline hoping for a pity invite. So really you have to ask yourself from the outset if your guild and raid leader are open to giving you an honest shot.One way to go about doing this is to get support from key members of the guild. Class leaders and officers can do a lot in getting you in on raids. Of course, it also doesn't hurt if you are an officer or guild leader yourself.
Officers' Quarters: Keeping your hybrids happy
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. This week's question deals with a topic that another recent addition to the WoW Insider team, Jason Lotito, has been covering in his excellent Hybrid Theory column. Of all the classes in Warcraft, I find that the true hybrids -- Druid, Shaman, and Paladin -- can cause the biggest issues when dealing with loot. Sometimes you can really find yourself in the lions' den, and in Warcraft those feral kitties have sharp claws! Here's a common problem: Hey Scott, I stumbled upon your column, and I'm happy to see that someone is taking the time to address guild leadership. My original guild started on Everquest, and moved to WoW when it came out. I was an officer/raid leader in that guild for eight years, then they recently split up [. . .] I decided to pack up and start anew on another server, this time as Horde. A good chunk of players decided to follow me [. . .] So now we've leveled from 1 to 70, [ground] out our Karazhan keys, and blam-o, we're back to raiding again. We used to use the typical earn DKP/spend DKP system, but I haven't decided to apply it in Karazhan. I figured it's a 10-man zone, and 25-man is the greater goal. So I've done with just rolling 1-100. But the other night, I had a problem that, as Alliance, I didn't have to face before.
Nihilum - Four world kills in one day
Nihilum, never ones to rest on their laurels, tore through Tempest Keep and claimed the head of Kael'thas Sunstrider in a bold sweep that landed them the world first kill on live servers. From there, they finished the Mt. Hyjal attunement quest, and then proceeded to peek their heads in and see what was up in Hyjal. Just to send a warning shot to the other bosses that it was just a matter of time, they decided to tear Rage Winterchill a new one and leave his corpse behind as a warning. Due to a bug in that fight, Tigole had to get involved and reimburse them as only one of the items for Black Temple attunement dropped -- as opposed to the 25 expected.With those items in hand, they headed towards the Black Temple, finished up the attunement chain, and then took down both High Warlord Naj'entus and Supremus in a one-two punch based on their hard work learning the strategies on the PTRs. In one evening, they secured four World First kills on live servers, thereby proving their dedication to the destruction of endgame content.[via Nihilum]
Catching up to the rest of the raid
My guild isn't exactly Death and Taxes, but we've done pretty well in raiding post-BC. We have two groups that can clear Karazhan and we've been working on the 25-mans. However, our raiding schedule is Monday, Wednesday and Thursday -- the three days that I've had night classes since the beginning of January. So I've mostly been sitting and waiting on the sidelines with my rogue while leveling up a pally. Now, finally, the summer is here, and I was able to attend my second-ever Karazhan raid Thursday night. I came prepared with elixirs, potions, poisons and everything else one might need for a raid. I had read up on the strategies and even had a little map. There was only one problem -- I pretty much had no clue what I was doing. There's a big difference between reading the strategies and executing them properly when everyone else in the raid has done it before. In the space of a couple hours, I:
