raiding
Latest
Problems appearing in 2.0.3
2.0.3 doesn't seem to have as many problems as 2.0.1 did, but there's at least a few going around.The first is more of a problem players are having-- the actual code is "working as intended." More than a few players were distraught to note that crowd control trinkets like the Tidal Charm are now "fizzing out after level 60," according to the tooltips. Drysc says about what you'd expect: that this kind of stuff is part of the CC nerfing going on, and that the trinkets coming in BC will make your eyes pop out of your head anyway. Tough luck, basically.There's a few known bugs going around, however. One a lot of people are dealing with is that the default target frame-- the little portrait of your target next to yours-- is disappearing. One small fix is simply typing /console reloadui: that seems to bring it back up for a bit, but it usually drops away again. It's definitely a repeatable bug, though, so hopefully a word from Blizz is forthcoming.Another known bug leads to issues changing and promoting raid leadership and main looters. Blizz acknowledges they're working on this one. Meanwhile, Kelriia over on LJ supposedly has a fix: either type /promote [name of leader][last letter of leader's name] , or /script PromotetoAssistant [name and last letter again]. Not sure if anyone else has tested those (or why you'd have to include the last letter repeated), but if it works, there you go.A few people are complaining that their addons aren't loading-- here's a quick reminder that after a patch, you have to go to the addon screen and actually check "Load out-of-date Addons." Worked for me.And finally, just a personal disappointment, being a Shaman: Where the heck is my Totemic Recall? Never mind-- commenter mubari says it's waiting for me at the trainer. Sweet!
Have You /hug'd your raid leader today?
Good raid leaders need to have a lot of tools in their tool basket. People skills, the ability to manage people and understand people is critical. Tactical skills, being able to study an encounter, look through a combat log and understand what went wrong, and being able to make the adjustments to complete an encounter more efficiently and more easily next time is critical. It's a political job, keeping groups happy and managing everyone's expectations. It requires time, effort, and a lot of knowledge. So give your raid leader a /hug.
Death and Taxes 5-mans Loatheb
Our Guild of the Year for 2006, Death and Taxes, hasn't wasted any time in 2007, either. At a time when most guild are trying to keep their raiding numbers up, D&T doesn't bother-- they just go in with less people. And now, reports Curse, they've downed Loatheb with just five people-- three shadow priests, a warlock specced with Nether Protection (or maybe not, see comments), and a warrior.The official announcement is over on their forums. They don't say specifics on attempts or how long it took them, but apparently they've got 15 gigs of video from FRAPS on the kill. That means, of course, that a video is coming soon, but as one of the guys says, we probably don't need to see a video to know what happened: "Just imagine a shadowbolt and 3 blue lines flying in the air for 40 minutes."
Breakfast Topic: DKP Systems
Love them, hate them, or love to design them over coffee, DKP systems are overwhelmingly prevalent in raiding guilds. I only recently learned to stop hating them when I saw a forum post that analyzed DKP vs. random rolls and proved that the relationship between number of raids and amount of gear gotten is pretty much the same in both cases, but with less random noise in the case of DKP. My guild uses a fairly simple zero-sum system, which seems to work well (even if I am almost always in the negative). What about you? Where do you stand on DKP, and what DKP system, or what way of distributing loot, does your guild use?
The Burning Crusade: What to do at 70?
Yeah, I realize this is a little way off for some, and a long long long (like maybe next year or the year after) way off for some other people, but when I think of the Burning Crusade I always tend to think, "What'll I do when I hit 70?" I've had a level 60 since December of 2004 (yes, I'm one of those nerds), so I've always been wondering what's next in the endgame. In WoW 1.x, we had Molten Core, and then Blackwing Lair, and after a while we had ZG, AQ20 and AQ40. That's a fair bit of content in itself. Add Naxxramas to that, and there's been a lot to do. Or at least, I thought I'd had a lot to do. Attunements were pretty simple, the quest chains not unbearable, and progression a pretty solid and steady advance. Last week I talked about Mount Hyjal, and the attunement leading up to it. As it turns out, it's even a bit more complicated than I thought.
AddOn Spotlight: Grid
I used to raid heal using mainly the CT_RaidAssist emergency monitor. Call me a bad healer if you want; it was a lot nicer than having 40 health bars all over my screen. The emergency monitor is not clickable in WoW 2, and thus began my hunt for a way that I could see everybody's health and still see the fight. CT_RA bars, Blizzard's bars, and the like were all out due to being simply too big. Furthermore, I find them a bit overwhelming, making it hard to spot who's low on health. I mostly heal main tanks, but I like to be able to easily see if a Rogue or something takes a big hit. So where does one turn for a set of raid health bars that's small, legible, and informative?
The Burning Crusade: A long path to Mount Hyjal
Without getting too much into the lore, you may recall Mount Hyjal as being a pretty pivotal place in the history of Azeroth. It was there that the Battle of Mount Hyjal was fought at the end of Warcraft III, and the destiny of the night elves was forever changed.We've known for awhile now that the Burning Crusade will let us access some moments in Azeroth's past, including Hillsbrad, the Dark Portal, and Hyjal. What we weren't really aware of until now, is the apparent gargantuan effort it's going to take individuals to get ready for and attuned to the Battle of Mount Hyjal.Blizzplanet has a rundown on what you'll need to do in order to be admitted to the Caverns of Time for this epic event. Keep in mind that there will be some spoilers in there, but I believe it's worth the read just to get a grip on what Blizzard has in mind for us to get ready.This is not like getting attuned for Onyxia or BWL. In fact, this seems like it's a bigger deal than the AQ40 event was, on top of which every single person in your 25-man raid group has to have completed all the steps.Personally, I think this is pretty cool. Instead of slugging through raid after raid, you get a big build-up to that raid. No more walking into a giant event without some idea of what lead up to it. I think this shows that the Blizzard developers are thinking about the world they're creating, and the lore behind it. This can only be good for the continued success of the game, and I'm sure it works as a nice timesink for the beancounters, too. What do you think of lengthy prerequisites and jaunts around the world before being let in to a big raid event? Does this encourage you or discourage you from pursuing quest chains and following the lore?
Raiding and the consumables dilemma
Praetorian, over on Elitist Jerks has posted an interesting examination in the role that consumable buffs play in raiding. While this just popped into my own guild's forums, and although it's a couple of weeks old now, the point is still current and relevant.Praetorian summarizes by saying:"Consumables are too powerful, such that Blizzard's raid designers are forced into the untenable position of balancing around unbuffed groups and having their content steamrolled, or balancing around buffed groups and forcing players into a cycle of unpleasant farming in order to even have a chance."He goes on into great detail, breaking down the differences between the different tiers of raiding gear in terms of how they help in raiding, and then into the consumables. In the end, he calls for a change in how raids are approached by Blizzard in the development phase of the game.What do you think of Praetorian's analysis? Do you carry a lot of consumables with you, and do you think things need to change?[Thanks to Forge for the submission!]
The Burning Crusade -- you vs. your guild
New races, new (to your chosen faction) classes, 10 more levels. That's the short-form of what The Burning Crusade is going to deliver to us, come January 16th. Many guilds are focusing on the push to 70 and refining strategies for 25-man raiding. Many players are understandably eager to try out the new races and classes available to their chosen faction. Can these two goals mesh, or are we going to see a shift in the player-guild dynamic? My earliest guild wasn't started to beat endgame content. It was there for a group of people who enjoyed playing in each other's company and so that these people would have an easily accessible pool of resources for leveling and grinding up to 60. When we hit 60, the usual drama set in, as not everyone hit the level cap at the same time. Some people got bored or frustrated with the lack of progression at 60 and went off to look for raiding guilds. Others were happy just hanging out with friends, and still others were a bit upset that they were left behind and were feeling pressured to level to 60 so the guild could progress together. Now that the expansion is going to be upon us, I see the potential for the same type of splits amongst guild memberships. Some are going to want to power level to 70 to get back on the raiding wagon, while others will start fresh new characters that they hope to one day get to level 70. Then there are those people who want to savor the new content and while do a bit of leveling and a bit of playing around with the new low-level content.
Breakfast Topic: A wipe to remember
Mostly, full group or raid wipes are lame. Really, really lame. But sometimes, every once in a while, you'll have a wipe come along that is so spectacular, so fun, and so memorable, that it almost makes the repair costs worth it.So let's hear your best wipe story. The shot above wasn't actually a wipe (we finished the Tiger boss in ZG with one solitary hunter left, and it was awesome), but my guild will always joke about the time our Warlock lead accidentally fell off the bridge in MC and onto the head of Golemagg-- who then proceeded to make his way all the way around the instance, grabbing every lava pack and puppy on the way, and crushing every single one of us out of existence. TS was just full of people screaming, yelling, and laughing the whole time. Oh, the Horde-anity!
The art of switching your main
Switching your main is easy enough if you are in a very casual guild, or not in a guild at all. You simply say to yourself..."Hey! I want to be a rogue now." No problem! You're a rogue! How about when you are in a raiding guild, or a hardcore pvp guild, and you have been raiding with your mage and you want to start raiding with your rogue? And you want to roll on loot? Problem! Or at least there has been in every raiding guild I have been in. Why? Well, the reason most commonly given is that you spent the last few months raiding and equipping that mage, and it would be unfair to retire the mage and start over as a rogue. After all, the guild has equipped that mage, and all that loot would be wasted. I totally get that point of view, and it is a reasonable one. I mean, if you let one person change their class, what if everyone does? That would really kill progression. However, some of the folks who want to change mains see it a different way. They want to change because they are bored, and isn't playing a game supposed to be about the fun? And from another point of view, you are running the risk of losing the mage-wannabe-rogue if he gets fed up and rerolls on another server. If a player is fun to have around and not a drama queen, why not give into their wishes? Is it worth losing a good player over 4 pieces of tier 2 gear? I can really see both sides of the issue. With that said, I have never been in a raiding guild that allowed someone to switch their main under any circumstance, and in talking to some of my friends today, neither have they. Once you roll on that first piece of BWL or MC loot, you are essentially committing to your character for the rest of your tenure with the guild. And another thought, with The Burning Crusade right around the corner, wouldn't now be a perfect time to allow folks to switch mains if they so wish? By the time everyone regroups at level 70 to start endgame raiding, most, if not all, of your current gear is going to be replaced. That means, provided the guild has a good balance of classes, that the switching of the main is not hurting the guild or "wasting gear." Of course, you'd have some folks raiding with new classes, and there would be a learning curve with that, but that is to be expected. And with all the new talents, spells and encounters, there would be a learning curve anyway.So what do you guys think? Do any raiding guilds allow the switching of mains? And if they do, how is it handled? Finally, is the expansion release the perfect time to switch classes without a penalty?
Return of the addons to Azeroth
My guild headed back to raiding last night (seems a lot of guilds are taking a vacation lately, with the patch and the expansion giving a one-two punch to the PVE game), and while BWL wasn't quite ready for us-- the Razorgore orb was bugged, and our MT couldn't see a pet bar for him-- we finally got back in the groove in MC. We'd been at a loss with new specs and a lack of our usual mods, but tonight, with various means and instruments, we were able to finally down some of our old farm targets and pick up some epic gear.Decursive, as I said last week, was the big one. Apparently it was number one on the devs' hitlist, and for good reason, because it definitely took a lot of work out of cleansing decurses (like the one Lucifron throws out). But we've found alternatives that are "good enough." One of our mages now swears by Grid, an addon that works with 2.0.1 (I haven't tried it, but it comes highly recommended). And even more people benefited from this macro, posted in the Forums. It seems that if you create a macro that says "/cast [target=mouseover] Remove Lesser Magic" (or whatever decursing spell you want to use), you can then run your mouse over players or their raid icons while spamming the macro button, and you've got a reasonable facsimile of what Decursive used to do. In fact, this is even better-- Shaman (like myself) can create a mouseover Purge macro, run your mouse across a group of enemies in PVP while spamming the button, and never have to put up with a buff or renew spell ever again.Speaking of my Shaman, when I asked for help last week, you all gracefully answered. I was extremely frustrated with the changes to addons (I lived by all the extra info redHeart gave me), but when I finally tried out and used Clique, I finally felt back at home. It's simple to set up and use, and makes things almost as easy as they were pre-2.0 (the author even has a video up showing how simple it is to use). Finally, the brand new version of CTRaid, 1.621 (I think that's the third version they've released since the patch) finally gets rid of that extremely annoying "clicking" noise the patch added to raids. A few things are still bugged in a few raid instances, but finally, raiding is getting back to normal.
Are you raiding?
Over the past few months, it seems as though all of the big raiding guilds -- both Alliance and Horde -- have disbanded on my server. For my part, I've watched each drama-filled guildsplosion while nodding to myself, thinking this to be an obvious result of the coming Burning Crusade expansion. By next month we'll all be jumping into playing Draenei or Blood Elves, or leveling our mains to 70. And would you rather spend four hours a night, as Zubon of Kill Ten Rats puts it, for a tiny chance at rolling on a desired item -- or would you rather just wait a few more weeks and pick up similar-quality gear as quest rewards and new instance drops?I know I stand firmly in the latter camp. The closer we've gotten to the expansion's release, the less I've bothered with my main. Why push forward into raid dungeons when I'll be replacing most of my gear in the leveling spree to come? So when I play, I play alts -- getting a new class to 60 just seems more useful than the slight chance of a minuscule improvement for my priest main seems right now. But what about you? Are you out there pushing through raid content? And if so, I must say I'm curious -- why?
Post-patch raiding: an exercise in frustration?
An anonymous low-level alt on the WoW Raids & Dungeons forums posts about the (lack of) fun her guild has had raiding Naxx after the patch. She bemoans that many useful healing mods no longer work, dungeons keep crashing or lagging badly, and of course, there's the maddening click ... click ... click sound of people joining and leaving the raid, which is the raiding equivalent of listening to someone scrape their fingernails across a blackboard for five hours. Other raiders note that certain boss encounters are nearly undoable post-patch, including Patchwerk (which was hotfixed fairly quickly) and Instructor Razuvious (priests mind controlling Razuvious's students were not able to use their "pet bar.") Less-progressed raiders have been discouraged by paladin and shaman loot dropping for both factions. And of course, there are the personnel issues associated with trying to raid right after a giant patch. What do we do with these trees of life? Why are all our healers either PVP-specced or missing in action? And for crying out loud, who's been going through half the instance 0-0-0 specced because they forgot that the talents reset? Have you given up on raiding until the post-patch madness subsides, or are you planning to fight the good fight right up until the expansion?
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.
Forum Post of the Day: The ABC's of raiding
No, This post doesn't quite fit my usual standards for "quality" forum posts -- it's not informative or thought-provoking. But it is funny in a way that I don't see every day, as we're lead through the ABC's of raiding. And as no thread post can leave well enough alone, this one goes through the alphabet several times over supplying interesting tidbits and jokes about raiding life. Now, come on, say it with me: C is for Core Hound, that's good enough for me!
.jpg.cf.jpg)
No plans to tweak the current raid dungeons after BC release
After our rather lengthy discussions the past couple of days about the viability of the current raid dungeons come the BC expansion, I thought you guys would be interested in this post from Tigole, that I discovered via Tobold (which he in turn snagged from Blue Tracker).To sum it up...there will be no major changes to the current endgame raid dungeons whatsoever come the Burning Crusade release. No new loot tables, no adjusting of current loot, no new caps and no new timers. Nada. Tigole hopes some players will be able to experience them for the first time with the new level caps,and others will be happy that they will be spared their umpteenth MC run. However, he does mention the possibility exists in the future for the raid instances to be overhauled, but that is not on the agenda anytime soon.In a sense, I am disappointed, but at the same time I would much rather have them working on the new BC content (and getting it into our hands ASAP) than spend time re-balancing C'Thun and redoing his loot table for a group of 70s or 65s or whatever. But he does leave the door open just a crack, so maybe those dungeons will be redone at a point when the new BC content starts to become old hat. Heck, maybe a patch eight months down the road will turn those raid dungeons into really awesome 25 mans, or maybe even 10 or 5 mans. That would certainly be interesting. What do you guys think? Are you a little disappointed? Or could you care less about the old stuff?Oh! I almost forgot...for a lighter look at the current raid loot vs. new BC gear debate, check out our friends over at Not Addicted.
Organizing raids with Raidar
Raidar is a neat little site that claims to let players plan and organize guild raids in WoW. It's pretty clear the site is new, so it's not completely done yet (not to mention that almost no guilds are in the system at all), but in my few minutes' experience signing in, creating a guild, and setting up a raid, it all worked pretty smoothly (and AJAX-y, if you're a web designer into terms like that-- the site works like it was built in Ruby on Rails).So what's still missing? The "planned features" page promises a top-to-bottom guild management system, incluing email raid notifications, character profiles, and even a "Looking for Guild" board. The one thing I missed in setting up a was the ability to set up numbers for class balance on a raid, but over on the site's message board, the creator says that wasn't a priority for him quite yet (seems to me like it would be a big one). But as I said, the site looks smooth-- if he keeps up with it and throws in all the features he promised, it could be the place for raid planners to set up on the Internet.And as far as I know, there is still a hole for one right now. One of my guilds simply uses our Guildportal message boards to set up and plan raids-- members sign up on the board, and our guild leader keeps track of who signs up and who we need. I know Guildportal has a system for it as well, but none of our members seem to have be interested in using it yet. The other guild I'm in, which is a little bigger, uses the Guild Event Manager addon to announce and plan raids ingame. I do like the way GEM works-- it's easy to use and set up, has that min/max feature that I want from Raidar, and keeps up a constant list of who's signed up for a raid in what class roles.But the only real problem with GEM is that, as far as I know, it's ingame only. There's no way for me to check when a raid is or sign up for one unless I'm in-game (not always an option, especially at work). If Raidar can fill out its features, and do the same thing that GEM does (but from anywhere), we might have a winner.
So you want to be a raider...
Jumping from leveling up to end-game content can be daunting -- and if you've done nothing but run 5-player instances before, how to get into raiding may be a bit mysterious. Well, Coriel, of the Blessing of Kings blog has written up a great two-part guide on how to make this jump. Part one covers what raids are, why you might want to do them, and what to have (gear, levels, professions, etc) before you try to get into a raiding guild. And part two covers how to find the raiding guild for you as well as how to apply and make a good impression. I'd write tips of my own, but I honestly think Coriel has covered all the bases.
What's a Warcraft player do in Second Life?
Why, plan raids of course! This is, apparently, the perfect activity for Tuesday's regular maintenance (or any of those irregular maintenances) -- log on to Second Life and go over strategy with your fellow WoW players while waiting for the realms to come back online. Sounds like fun!
