Battle Resurrection Changes for Cataclysm

Cataclysm raiding is supposed to be a change. It is going to be different. Players all have “Oh Crap!” buttons now to preserve their life, and somewhere I know Ghost Crawler or another predominate World of Warcraft figure made the comment that each person would be responsible, to a degree, for staying alive.

This is the beginning of the end of healing the DPS that stands in ooze puddles or fire, the DPS that forgets what first aid is, how to pop a health stone, or a health potion. In conjunction with this same mentality, Blizzard has taken it to another step. They are setting limits on the number of battle resurrections that can occur during one boss attempt. This reminds me of how they change Hand of Protection from working on Deathbringer Saurfang, or the change where you could only use one potion during a boss fight. I remember when you could consume potions every 2 minutes, and they didn’t share cool downs.

This change will impact the druids’ battle resurrections, as well as soul stones that a warlock can use. It hasn’t been determined yet at this time of posting if ankhs on shamans will be impacted the same way. In addition to this, they may make the change that soulstones can be cast on a dead player to revive them. The latest posts on this topic show one battle resurrection for 10 man raids, and 3 battle resurrections for 25 man raids. With the cooldown changes of druids’ resurrections back to the 10 minute mark, and the warlocks’ soulstones on a 15 minute cooldown, it brings some interesting possibilities.

It removes the one thought of letting people die by stacking druids, and bringing them up afterwords to avoid dealing with game mechanics. It also makes one wonder if this is the functionality that may be bugging out the druid battle resurrections on the live servers. In some ways, I am very anxious to see how Cataclysm unfolds and if it brings back the feel Vanilla World of Warcraft had to the raiding scene.

4.01 Changes and Impacts

With 4.01 hitting the servers live, here at No Quarter Given, we went ahead and implemented all of our Cataclysm main changes, solidifying our raiding core. We’ve been recruiting to fill the empty slots with talents folks that both offer the skill and the commitment we expect from our raiders.

This patch brought some changes into guild, with the character switches, as well as a hard look and re-evaluation of our guild goals and ambitions. We did some tweaking on our Raid Conduct, trying to cover the loop holes we have noticed over the last couple of years, and taking a different approach with our tiered raider rank system. This change was implemented because we currently have a few members that are valuable assets to the raiding core but their attendance could not be met for our 85%. We’ve really restricted this rank to existing members whose work schedules change weekly. While there is no difference on “loot”, “effort”, or “raid slot”, there is a difference of attendance requirements.

As far as game mechanics go, World of Warcraft has been buggy in itself since the landing of patch 4.01. About half the guild had their 310% drakes, so the riding mastery was free. We’ve been struggling with the adhoc changes in ICC, as well as the lock sharing between 10 and 25 man content. Our guild is extremely focused, and the new raid core has tons of synergy, welcoming our new members. While we were recruiting hard for Cataclysm, we’ve slowed to a crawl in an effort to evaluate what we have and how these people are meshing with our community and atmosphere- and above all else, our strange way of doing things.

Cataclysm launch is roughly a month away, with a major holiday in right before. We are still maintaining our raid schedule, and making great progress for the remaining heroic mode bosses. It’ll be interesting to see how far we get.

Rusted Drake Farming

Our off night groups have taken a detour to visit Ulduar. We just got a second 10 man group through to get their drakes – minus a few people needing a few more dwarves, the meta requirements are completed. Not only is it nice to have completed this a couple of times, but to have a 310% mount as well for those that do not complete the holiday achievements. Alagon is on the agenda, holding the Starcaller title. For our 25 man raids, and this guild's focus, we are working through the same meta for the ironbound drake as well. For now, here's a picture of the 10 man drake:

Purchasing your titles - a Cataclysmic future

As always, in World of Warcraft, the time before an expansion usually sees many guilds folding, or some guild even go dormant. It's also a time where you see many new guilds get created. On Eitrigg, this time period had shown the return of a guild that was strong in Burning Crusade and around the beginning of Wrath only to disappear as people transferred off server. The top guilds on any server rarely completely disappear. The guild is still usually in existence when these types of things happen. Usually alts are kept in the guild to preserve the guild tag. In this case, the tag became active again. A few people transferred back in, and the previous members on server, who had left to join the remaining top end game raiding guilds, returned "home". The reformed guild started recruiting again. It completely crippled the top raiding guild on server, and threw server rankings out of synch at two guild ranking sites – since they allow cumulative kills to count. The reformed guild became server 2^nd – in a quick swoop just by the members it added on most ranking sites, without actually clearing the content as a group.

Most of this is just what happens these days with guilds, and maybe that will change with the guild changes in Cataclysm. What really just bothers me is seeing posts like this:

This is a post on the Eitrigg forums - selling drakes and titles. Yes, this is virtual currency. Yes, it is up to them if they want to do this. But has this become what this server and the gaming community here is about? The guild below is currently ranked number one, yet due to the mass departure of several of it's members, you can see below that they are asking for people to come and fill their raids with an enticement of the top performers getting gold. (Guess that means they have their own discipline priests and tanks.)

The point is.. back to why do you raid? Is it the prestige? If so, what prestige is to be had from buying the title so you can show it off, or the drake? There's other ways to make money for your guild. What's even worse is that most of the guild doing the selling of these virtual items hasn't cleared most of this content as a group on 25. 10 mans, yes, and rightfully earned that but as a guild, the 25 man achievements/hard modes were basically grandfathered in.

For me, a raid is about the guild. It's about the thrill of the kill. I've occasionally ran a friend through Stockades, or something similar to help them level, but I've never sold my services as in the post above. It makes the achievement or kill that much sweeter to earn it, than to be carried - to complete it with friends, with your raid group, and know that you did this on your own.

The expansion has obviously shaken up a few guilds on the server, but definitely not this one. As a guild that still farms drakes, we generally have people their titles in the first week of being in guild. It just is a bit shocking to see a guild selling these services when they still have folks that don't have it within their guild.

More achievements

Last night we spent some time on Deathbringer Saurfang Heroic mode, but without much avail – our composition was really light on ranged. We did complete Festergut and Rotface on heroic, which was by a vote since we could have also done Flu Shot Shortage as well. With that said, both bosses went down easily and we got our first look of Putricide Heroic. This is going to be a fun fight. It will also really put the pressure on people to keep up their situational awareness. Controlling the unbound plague is the most challenging part of this fight. After giving it a couple of attempts, we went ahead and flipped it to normal. We did the Nausea, Heartburn, and Indigestion achievement so that some of our newer members could get their achievements. After that, we quickly went to Frostwing Halls and healed Dreamwalker up on heroic mode. Great job Pallies!

Drakes Away!

As Wrath is ending and whispers of Cataclysm events are on the horizon, it has found us looking at what we need to get our drakes from Ulduar and ICC. We have been farming OS3D for quite a while now. As you can see, it's quite a collection, complete with a few folks having their Ulduar 10 drakes. For 5 minutes time, it's a nice invest in our members. We also opted to complete Full House again for some guild members that weren't present or joined afterwards. What are you planning to do or hoping to accomplish before Cataclysm launches?

The Wind Down of Wrath

Looking back over the content that Wrath brought us, the several changes that rippled through guilds, the different versions of raids and dungeons, and constant emblem changes with each content patch release, it's finally drawing to a close. This sense of impending closure is more brought on by the release of Operation Gnomeregan and Zalazane's Fall events. It seems by no means complete, but it is the start. These events bring back several memories of the last two expansions, and everything leading up to the expansion release. It also puts a sense of urgency in completing things.

We are shifting focus. While we want ICC 25 completed on hard modes and our drakes, it's also time to finish up the Ulduar ones as well. It's time to focus and buckle down on the few hard modes that are left, a drake waiting, and a very cool title. As we look ahead, there are also other things to consider. Guild dungeons to complete, quests, and achievements linger on the horizon. The entire guild perk system is looming ahead, to counter balance the ease of a faction change and/or server transfer, to disappear forever.

We almost have our first Frostmourne in guild, which will be quite an achievement. I'm excited about the future. There is a strong loyalty base in this guild, and with that, it means we have allot of new opportunities about to pop on the horizon. We are seeing our second Pirate's Day as a guild – with a new guild picture in the works. We're working on some cool new ways to recruit but honestly, while we had a drop in attendance the prior week, the roster is back to being very solid this current raid week. We've got an influx of healers, which is probably good because who knows what main changes Cataclysm will bring.

Many people say that Cataclysm will fix most of the things that Wrath broke. There are also many skeptics about, thinking this will be yet the end to this game. Personally, I don't see the game in a downward spiral, just a shift of focus. From a business perspective, it makes sense to cater to the masses then the few. Hopefully, Blizzard will have balanced that with the folks that want notoriety which comes from spending the extra time, pursuing the harder things that the game can provide, and offers a way to at least give some sort of way to differentiate between these players that strive for a higher level of game play, and the player that logs in on occasion. Something should be there for the effort. In a 25 man guild, I'm hoping the extra time we've taken on recruitment and to mesh up players with 25 man interest has paid off.

Looking back, this guild was formed for Wrath. I'll need to revamp our website opening pages, because at this point, we have weathered the many storms that Wrath has thrown at us. It's been a roller coaster of a ride. I know what challenges we faced as a brand new guild for Wrath. I'm glad we are facing a slightly different set of challenges for Cataclysm. I know some people may go but I also know we've many people that have raided together for more than a year. That fact alone gives me such faith in this guild for what we can accomplish in the next expansion.

Impacts of a Virtual World

World of Warcraft is only one of many MMORPGs available today. It does happen to have the largest subscription base, with clients spanning the globe. People are social by nature, not discounting the loners that prefer a solo play style. In the terms of content, it takes social interaction to be able to experience all that Blizzard offers. Yes, Blizzard’s scaled down some mechanics, allowing buffs in others, but to accomplish any of this, one has to be able to communicate effectively and listen- it takes social skills.

There has been tons of talk circulating the web on the benefits of guilds in the upcoming expansion. In some ways, I think this is a great move, because with all the other changes Blizzard has implemented, guilds (their structures and membership) have been impacted greatly. People move guild to guild, and server to server, using these infrastructures to get the “achievements” they seek. Other than human nature, there isn’t much cause for loyalty. I’ve raided since the days of Molten Core. The guild we had was a late bloomer, transitioning from a “leveling” guild to a “raiding” guild. It took much effort for the transition, and yes, naturally some people were left behind or opted not to take that path.

The relationships that you form in this online virtual world have impacts. I still remember a set of brothers in Puerto Rico that raided with us. I talk yet with folks on my original server that I rolled my characters on. The recruitment process I use now varies greatly from the process I used in the original release of World of Warcraft. No longer is it: “PST for invite or more info”. To accomplish the goals we’ve set, it’s much more vigorous. There is a written application, which is followed by a mandatory Ventrilo interview for any person applying to be a raider. Friends and family can be invited, but to raid, an officer group must cover our topics. This means every person that comes into this guild chats with me – anywhere from 15 minutes to upwards of an hour. It all varies by the applicant.

Honesty is usually best here, and I’m very frank about the expectations in this guild. If you are here to raid, you have gone through a two step process. We strive to find people that fit with our guild’s goals, atmosphere, and community. No system is perfect. As a female player in this game, I’ve had my share of unwanted attention, which I have quickly resolved. Today’s World of Warcraft environment has granted me a completely different experience. I interact with many people personally. Not only the raid lead (at the moment), but in recruiting and maintaining the guild, its raid roster, and everything in between, I handle many different types of issues.

Recently, I’ve had the responsibility to remove not one, but two different members. The guild itself has its own policies. No one is above them. A member who went through our process, gained membership as a raider, decided that as such, it granted a tolerance for policy. Patience only goes so far. It became obvious that the honeymoon period was over. Not only did this person have problems with existing policies and point blank questions that were answered differently on the application, this person proceed to go on about “issues” in the guild. There was only one thing in common. Every issue in this guild involved a female player. As a guild, we do have a high volume of female players, including many couples, too. The mindset is very much the same of our female population, and we can be an ornery bunch but no more than your average guy group of poker players. Occasionally, you do see guilds that refuse to recruit females because “they are high drama”. This experience was the second time I’ve seen that attitude represented. It was quickly ended with a “You aren’t happy here so you should find a guild to be happy at” and a /gkick. Callous approach on my part, completely. However, you have to understand, while I realize each player in this guild is undergoing real life to some degree or another, when it impacts the raid, repeatedly, then it’s time to reconsider why that player is here and what the damage could be to the guild. It only takes one bad apple to spoil a basket. Personally, I didn’t make the correlation with all the issues this person had until well after the fact. I knew that I looked into each issue, investigating it, and found no bias or reasoning there. It was later when a member said, “especially with the issues she has with female players” that it dawned on me – each issue was with a female player. This member was completely correct in the statement.

People come and people go in any guild. It’s part of the process. Guilds are living entities similar to businesses, but the payment for work is a virtual currency in the forms of achievements, mounts, and titles. I’ve known people from many walks of life, many areas around the world, and while some people may have little impact on me, there are others I do think of often. Many times, I find myself wondering how things worked out, and hoping that each player found what they were looking for in this game. Recently, after the experience above, I just realized the opposite is true. I’ve impacted many people, good or bad, in this game. Our shared experiences will lead to some biases, or even expectations. Yes, it’s a game. But it’s a game each player pays for, and each player invests themselves into. When people experience this game, real or not, the interactions are very real – it’s our social aspects and the nature of being human. My best friend, met through this game, resides in Georgia. That friendship is more real than most friendships that were formed in the “real world”. The point of this article is to make you, the reader, think about your actions in a virtual world, because out there, somewhere, is someone you have impacted as well.

Casual Raider Mentality vs. Old School Raider

As a guild that focuses on progression on our own terms, we take people from all World of Warcraft backgrounds. We look for people that want to raid, to see end game content, and seek to do so on their own terms. We try to balance real world with our love for seeing content – and it's always on OUR terms as a guild. As a casual raid guild that brings a hardcore mentality, the guild walks a fine line. We're all very human, and we all make mistakes – it's knowing or taking the initiative to fix them that make the difference. We often take ventures on new people that have never seen an end boss die – or have yet to experience the bittersweet kill of a boss that you've worked on for weeks. The mindset is everything. Are you performing? If not, are you working on it? There is a difference in guild mentality. In this guild, we do not believe in handing out "pink slips", because we want people that want to be here to raid – but raid instances have requirements – for healing, damage, and threat and let's not forget about survivability. Criticism is a hard thing to give, and even tougher to take. The approach has to be a delicate one. Old School Raiders may well be used to commands being barked out, wiping, and running back was all part of the process of conquering content. A casual raider may have never experienced this type of process: wiping on content for progression. It comes with a price. The emotional player does not fit in well to the guild that seeks progression. It can be a source of stress. It can also be frustrating for this type of player to struggle with the structure that most successful raid guilds have in place.

While this guild has policies on real life taking precedence, the raid is ensured to always continue. This means that the expectations are clear cut coming in. The tone is set during the interview. Fun is relative to how each person defines it. The goal of this guild is a focused raiding environment. This means that we have a good time at the appropriate time. Casual raiders do not always understand the importance of consistency, focus, or following instructions. As someone that's been recruiting for two guild guilds over the span of World of Warcraft, many things have changed. The most important resource in World of Warcraft is human capital and locating the right type of people to make your guild a success is challenging.

The casual raider may sit and think that spreading dissension is acceptable or ranting is ok. The problem with this is it spreads drama. If there are issues, you need to take them to the "management". If you don't like the answers, and the explanations are not valid from your viewpoint, you should ask for clarification. If it becomes obvious that you aren't a good fit, we will maintain the right to remove you. It's a guild, not a jail. Our atmosphere is solid and the people in this guild want to be here. It's not everyone's play style – and we understand that. Before you apply to any guild, you should ensure that you agree with the terms. By applying, and specifically in our process, you are agreeing to the guild's charter and expectations – and that holds true with any guild. The idea and concepts of having policies isn't to make up a bunch of things to inhibit you – the member- but to ensure that the policies apply across the board to all. It makes the policies clear and defined – and thus the expectations are set, and we are all accountable.

Active Sites

I've been really busy with a new job so I haven't had allot of time to keep up on the blog. I'm also in the middle of packing to move. In the process of keeping our website up to date, forums with accurate information and what not, I've really not given this poor blog the attention I planned on. During a bit of website maintenance, I was in the admin section of our site. I know all the great features that that Guild Launch site provide makes the job allot easier. As a guild that relies on our website, Guild Launch's support, prompt answers and immediate updates to problems always keeps us informed. We have a private domain that is re-directed to the Guild Launch hosting service.

Many guilds rarely use their website. For us, it's a way of life. We keep an updated "Raid Week of" post. We require signups via the Rapid Raid addition that Guild Launch uses. We track our loot via the website. Our strategies are also discussed in great detail there. What is probably outstanding is not only the ease of use, but I can, at a glance, get a solid idea of how many people have been to the site within the last week or few days. Over 80% of our members have been on the site within the last days, a remaining 10% within the last week (but some of these folks have spouses that peruse the site as well.) The last 10% are casual members that rarely use our website.

We have a recipe section, in additions to Men's Forums and Women's Forums. It is very guild oriented. There's even a "Music of the Day" thread. On the average, I would say our guild site is very active compared to most. How's it rate compared to your website?

Flu Shot Shortage – 25 Man Strategy

With the short raid weeks we've had do to the holidays, we decided to knock out some of the achievements. One of the easiest ones to accomplish is Flu Shot Shortage. With the normal Festergut encounter, we usually setup 7 ranged, with one or two collapse points. Ranged DPS keep up range finders for 8 yards – to prevent a chain vomiting from Vile Gas. Any extra ranged that benefit the most from stationary positions are setup within the melee and healers. If we are short on ranged DPS, we will move a healer out with the ranged DPS. There is some randomness to this – provided that the tank doesn't get one of the first spores, or that the same person doesn't get spores three times in a row.

Otherwise, if needed, you can adjust the ideas to what is actually occurring in your raid environment – provided your raiders have solid reaction time. Make sure all of your raiders are sitting above 20k health and have health stones and healing potions. Vile Gas recipients need to be healed up as quickly as possible. Also make sure you have Shadow Protection up- and a paladin spec'd into Aura Mastery can help save someone who only manages to get one stack of inoculation.

First Spore Spawn- all raiders with a spore move away from your collapse positions. The rest of the raid continues to collapse and respond as if the fight was continuing normally.

Second Spore Spawn – the people that previously had the spores run out. The current people with the spores run in to their perspective collapse points. At this point, the entire raid should have 1 stack of inoculation. If for any reason, you have someone with two stacks at this point, that person will have to move away from his/her group on the next spore.

On the third spore, you treat it as normal- and everyone collapses. Pungent Blight will hit for quite a bit of damage but you should be able to heal through it easily.

Hopefully, this will help you get the achievement for raid guild. Good Luck!

3.3.5 Wipe Out

Blizzard announced an extended downtime- one that was supposed to range from 3 PDT to 11 PDT. It’s 6 PDT and the servers are just beginning to come up. Not all servers either, just a few and with a subscription base like Blizzard’s – those servers are already Max Queued. Between holidays, summer raiding blues – entailing various guild members’ vacations, our small bench has nothing but dust on it because we really don’t have one. This doesn’t count the folks that have gotten hacked (for the love of WoW and your character, by a damn authenticator- the “It’ll never happen to me” can easily become “I thought it COULDN’T happen to me”) have cost the guild raiders that are basically out of commission as well. I thought this week, we finally had a solid raid week ahead of us. We’ve planned out a couple of achievements to work on- and were hoping for solid face time on the Lich King (Father’s Day was less than optimal considering we ran 23 folks for the fun stuff we cleared).

Ever just feel like the game is out to get ya? Fire Festival released and our guild leader called the raid around 5:30 CST PM because the deadline kept being extended. It is a positive sign that everything in game is going to be screwed up. Eitrigg still isn’t online – and we’ve lost another full raid week. Last week was Father’s Day, this week the patch, and next week is the 4^th July weekend. As a guild that tries to leave its options open, we’re going to have rethink what we’re going to work in. We still have a few folks wanting the OS3D drake and the trinkets still are very nice from ToC. VoA maybe on the chopping block. We’re just going to have to prioritize although in all honesty – it doesn’t take long. Just food for thought on the raiding scene for NQG.

As a side note, I’ll be putting together a video on HudMap. AVRE and AVR are gone – dust in the wind. If you have them installed, you need to remove them. Ruby Sanctum isn’t active yet, and it won’t be until 3.3.5 is deployed on all realms and Blizzard releases it. Vote Kick changes are in effect, and as stated with AVRe and AVR, the lua has changed some. Now the addons have to catch up. Real ID is live so that will be experimental. One issue about that is allot of people like the anonymity of the internet and game play. Granted, those folks generally don’t fit well in this guild, because quite a few of us are on a first name basis. But with that said, this Real ID will creep out quite a few folks. Also, the 25% buff is now active so those achievements aren’t going to quite as hard as I had figured. Just amazing- with a move like this, it makes me think Cataclysm isn’t that far off. I guess we’ll all wait and see.

The Rusty Key

I'm a avid fisher person in Northrend. If I do nothing else, I do the fishing and cooking daily - and try to remember to transmute a gem. To my surprise, doing "Disarmed" - I caught a Rusty Prison Key. This was something I hadn't heard of previously. I actually went and looked this one up on wowhead.com; I've gotten waterlogged recipes, tiny lock boxes, even the pet from the bag of fishing treasures.. but never a key while fishing for this daily.

I sent the moonshine to Sarifen as usual, and then proceeded to figure out this key. Below Violet Hold, you can see a few grates, and inside there are "rusty lockers". Inside the locker was some junk, but also a couple of BoE Blues. Go AH!

Rumors from wowhead.com listed that it's availability was reputation based (Kirin Tor) but that's not the case folks. It was something a bit unusual to catch while doing a daily. Good luck to you if you're after it!

Downsizing

In an interesting blue post today, I found that in Cataclysm, while 10s/25s do share the same id - you can only shift down. Basically, a 10 man guild can't shift up. The real thought would be is this going to be on a per boss basis, or once you shift down, are you stuck on 10 man versus 25?

How does this work for end bosses? Take for example Lich King. Sure you have a 25 man raiding guild -and you are consistently getting to and working on the end boss- if you have 10 people who are available and want to put in the extra time, do you let them?

How will this impacting ranking sites? If you share the id, what happens on the achievements/ progression marks? I already know of guilds that will halve runs so that both guilds get credit for the 25 man progression/achievement. In this scenario, I could easily see guilds shifting down to 10 to get the credit.

Smokey The Bear

It's that wane time before the expansion, where content has been released, and the population of Warcraft drops as its denizens leave for summer or a break before Cataclysm hits. Yet still.. for those of us that do dailies, if you go to Crystal Song Forest when Awilo Lon'gomba <Grand Master Cooking Trainer> is handing out the Sewer Stew daily, you will tons of forest fires. It just leads me to believe that the people who continue to play have a routine, or set goals they want to accomplish before Cataclysm hits. Until then folks, remember – there's a cooking fire right next to where you have to turn in the quest in the Sewer – and only you can prevent forest fires!

AVR / AVRE Broken in 3.3.5

According to a blue post

This is a notice that we're making changes in 3.3.5 in attempts to break the ability for the AVR (Augmented Virtual Reality) mod to continue functioning. For those unaware, this mod allows players to draw in the 3D space of the game world, which can then be shared with others who are also using the mod. In some cases this manifests itself through drawing/tagging/defacing the game world, but more popularly is used to give visual guides for dungeon and raid encounters.

We're making this change for two reasons. The invasive nature of a mod altering and/or interacting with the game world (virtually or directly) is not intended and not something we will allow. World of Warcraft UI addons are never intended to interact with the game world itself. This is mirrored in our stance and restriction of model and texture alterations. The second reason is that it removes too much player reaction and decision-making while facing dungeon and raid encounters. While some other mods also work to this end, we find that AVR and the act of visualizing strategy within the game world simply goes beyond what we're willing to allow.

The change we're making in attempts to break the functionality is light in its touch and approach. When blocking any functionality we run the risk of affecting other mods, but we've targeted the changes as carefully as possible. If we find that the AVR mod (or any mod attempting to replicate its functions) are usable after 3.3.5 we will take further, more drastic steps.

This is coming from the same people that put sparkles on plants and quest items, updated the maps include giant yellow question marks for quest turn ins, and much more. On the whole the impact isn't that great for skilled players – but it may make the game more of a challenge for some folks that aren't so situationally aware. The nice aspect of this mod was the ability to mark and for it to stay consist throughout the encounter (whereas you have access to smoke flares still) so the issue isn't a large one.

I don't know Bliz.. my stance is that if there is a desire to use functionality to this effect – someone will figure out a way to code around it. Until then, there's already a tentative type replacement for those folks that do rely on the visual cues of AVRE. Enter Hudmap – it's much smaller scale but the effect is similar. This doesn't even go into the aspect of audible cues – what about that twist on things Blizz? Are you sure it's not taking away some reaction time on the part of the player?

Interface – First Looks

The first impression I had of the beta was "WOW" – why? Because they really changed a few things on the User Interface. I copied over my shaman – with a bit of gold – as premades aren't available yet. There was so much to explore – it was hard to decide where to start. Upon logging in – I naturally got the "Your talent points have been reset" message. This found me hitting the P button.. and WOW, what a difference.

Check it out- you couldn't visit the profession trainers, and you couldn't find the archeology trainer yet – but hey it's new yet.

The next awesome find was the talent tree itself. It resembles the Add On Talented – so if you're used to that type of interface, you'll find yourself right at home with the new talent point UI.



I'll add a post on once you spend your talents - the top changes but I've got to download the updated version.

Cataclysm – Beta?

I have an acquaintance at work – that posted to an internal workgroup that he used to play in Cuties Only (Horde guild) and that a few Bliz devs played there. He said he had contacted them for the Friends and Family Alpha for Cataclysm. Each Blizz employee got 20 invites, and while he couldn't guarantee invites – he stated that if we sent the battlenet name, he would see what he could do. I know the alpha is out – but when I checked my battlenet account – under games, I found a Cataclysm beta. Let the fun begin!

At first, just the screenshots while it was downloading was pretty exciting. As you can see my screenshots below – it did take a while.

Even more awesome – being able to mount in Stormwind on my drake -even more awesome!

Check back for some incoming screenshots and posts.

Got Cash?

The latest release in the Blizzard Online store has created quite a buzz, and I might add, revenue base for the software company. Blizzard announced yesterday that they would be selling the Celestial Steed and Lil' XT noncombat pet online. The steed itself is unique in that it's a Bind On Account item that scales with whatever level of riding skill the character has. It's also usable in Azeroth as well as a flying mount. The cost? $25. It binds to a specific account, so if you have multiple accounts, I believe (I'll need to verify this) you will have to purchase the item for each account, even if they are linked to the same Battlenet account.

The concept of a mount having such usefulness is great – but geez, the queue lines were horrendous. Blizzard racked in money from all over the globe yesterday. Sparks of controversy appeared.. and much discussion. I think Lil' XT was almost forgotten about.

Topics in our vent channel included "I wonder if they will be allowing armor skinning" to other customizable options- or if you had an item and wanted it skinned like old Tier 3, if they would offer that. This leaves me wondering – is Blizzard going to the route of "If your pockets are deep enough, you can have what you want."?

All skepticism aside, the mount does look awesome and there were several in Dalaran and elsewhere last night – as we covered a variety of instances. With the money Blizzard made in just the first few hours alone while the digital item was on sale, who could really blame them for offering up other similar services?

I expect with a fan/customer base as large as Blizzard has, we'll be seeing new digital items added.

Noble anyone?

This year's Noble Garden came and went rather quickly, or it felt that way. The first couple of days, eggs were hard to come to by. Holidays always seem to bring the worst out in people, and in the game of World of Warcraft, this is no different.

Of all of the achievements for the title, I think putting bunny ears on various level 18 (gg Blizz because we can't cheat now) females was probably the most challenging. The annoying cool down on the Spring Flowers meant that even if you found the female race you were seeking, you may miss your opportunity as someone else dashed over and put bunny ears on your target.

By the end of the holiday, things had calmed down quite allot. I managed to secure this title on my lowly paladin, Holygoatgirl the Noble. It has quite a distinct ring to it, eh? (LOL) What about you, readers? Did you successfully accomplish what you were after or was this just a lull of a holiday for you?

The Revolving Door

Ask any raiding guild, and the recruitment officer will tell you – it's a job that is never done. It may wane, and the need may not be so urgent, but a guild is a living breathing organism. In saying that, people come and people go. Real life happens – schedule changes, significant other aggro, performance issues, computer problems are among the many culprits, not to mention, just plain burn out.

Recruitment isn't a fun task to undertake. Not only is it hard, but at this point in the game, there are lulls. Every major guild that raids is recruiting. Summer is right around the corner (and more people will step away or take vacations). This is where keeping a small bench allows the raid to continue on. Finding the people to fill your raid slots and positions isn't always easy. If you recruit, in today's World of Warcraft player base, you have to be aggressive. This means not just replying (and please read the person's post) but also following up with in game contact. You can either try to catch the person in game, or leave the person an in game mail with a way of contacting you.

Personal touches matter – and keeping in mind that these are people who are looking to "hire" for your team, so you need to make sure you're clear on your expectations, what you are offering, and you cover the potential applicant's questions as well. These steps can help minimize the revolving door effect, but it is the nature of the game. There are several sites that you can post on, and other steps you can take to maximize your success ratio. We conduct vent interviews- and I literally have a check list to go down on topics that should be covered. (Yes, Soth will roll his eyes when I ask about the Authenticator) The reason I have this list is to make sure I cover and standardize the process. It also makes sure that other officers can conduct the interview, and while we may not have the same style, we do cover the same material. We offer the chance to sit in on a raid, to make sure the person understands the type of atmosphere and expectations.

When you recruit a new guild member, it's a vested interest on both parts. We take steps to try and ensure that it is a solid fit. It doesn't always work but most of our turnover has more to do with real life than people just not being a good fit. Occasionally you get the person that is looking for the bigger better deal- but for the most part, these type of people show themselves rather quickly. Our initiate phase is designed to maximize exposure to the raid core, both progression and farm content. This way we can determine how you handle wiping, if you can follow instructions, and if the raid conduct is on par with the expectation. We don't recruit people to fail, but we do recruit to fill a specific role. We understand not everyone may be happy here, but with that, this is a guild - not a jail. Happy raiding!

But do I have to??

Guild ranking systems are many; in today's World of Warcraft, you have not only "progression kills" but you also have "achievements"- normal modes, and hard modes. With all this, it's no wonder that finding a ranking system is hard. There are many sites out there that claim to offer this service: WoWJutsu , WoWProgress, GuildOx, and a fairly new site: WoW Guild Progress. Each site approaches this ranking differently. WoWJutsu hasn't really been updated in months, more than likely years. It's pretty much obsolete. WoWProgress weights the ranking on how quickly you accomplished the kill, in comparison to other guilds on server and gives you a value. The longer you take to kill the boss, the lower the value. Guild Ox measures "progression" based on specific points/achievements; they also have a separate achievement tracking system.

Why does any of this matter? It matters when you start recruiting. It matters even more if you mainly recruit off server. As a guild that really marches to its own drum, where we constantly are defining ourselves, with our values/goals/missions – this is hard thing to digest at times. Content has popped quite quickly. With the release of new content, there are still "progression points" to be had in old content. The issue comes in that some of your raiders (and maybe even officers) really don't want to step back into the older content. As the person that does most of the recruiting, I know this is something that I do bring up in interviews, right along with achievements, hard modes, and lock outs.

It matters because some folks only see purples. There aren't any gear upgrades in Ulduar for any "progression point" we haven't done, but there are achievements. ToGC is slightly different, but only because trinkets are something Blizzard regularly fails at. There are still several BiS trinkets in ToGC. There isn't any justification to spends weeks working on old content, but there is justification to step back and complete these instances. Since we use Guild Ox as our ranking site of choice, there are several points that would move us up the ladder. The fight is simply "do I have to?" in typical a Steve Urkel voice from some raiders – others are more than happy to see the content. This will take some incentives, I'm sure- but to be able to recruit quality players, it's worth the investment.

3.3.3 The Frozen Orb Loot Ninja Cries

I am not someone who runs allot of heroic randoms. Usually if I do so, it's with guild- not PUGs. I do have the title and puppy on my shaman – "The Patient", but mainly because I'm a pet fanatic. There was a blue post today about patch 3.3.3. Like most folks who keep tabs on the upcoming changes know, the frozen orbs will be a new currency. For what you may ask? For frost lotus, eternals, and a pattern if you are a tailor, as well as runed orbs and crusader orbs – Frozo the Renowned is your one stop shop.

While working on the achievement, and also, running random heroics on my priest (she needs emblems), I've come across the all too often person who waits until everyone has rolled greed, and then needs the orb, and /leave on the group. Before Frozo rumors abounded and the upcoming changes, this was mildly annoying. Due to the changes, frozen orbs have jumped in value and price.

Apparently Blizzard has seen a rash of this type of behavior because in 3.3.3, where these changes are implemented, the Frozen Orb will only be able to be greed rolled on or at least according to this blue post. Fear no more, the Frozen Orb Loot Ninja will have to be fair- at least for the orbs.

Through the Looking Glass

In WotLK, people choose to spend their time doing different things on off-nights (non raid nights). For us, we put together all types of runs. Typically we have one or two ICC 10 mans up, as well as an alt/main of ToC or Ulduar. Then, about every two or three weeks, we have an old world run. "Old World" runs are basically any raids prior to Wrath of the Lich King. Last month, several folks finished up their "Classic Raider" achievement.

ROFL'stomping through these instances – facing the bosses that I still remember wiping and spending time – learning the mechanics, with the greatest of ease. It was fun to see Ragnaros again – on a character that hadn't stepped in there before, or Black Wing Liar. I think the best part of the last Old World run was actually doing AQ 40. I remember when this place was released. (The server lag was HORRIBLE.) Seeing armor pieces drop that used to be a status symbol in Vanilla WoW, the raid team gets a little of the epic feel the boss used to present, even while the boss's appearance reminds most as being Yogg's predecessor just from his appearance. And let's not forget BUG MOUNTS!

The real key here is community. While not everyone comes, or people come on new toons, it's a blast. The whole point is not only to get your achievements, but to sit back and have a good time. Execution can still be a requirement but it's just a matter of letting folks who didn't play in "Vanilla" WoW see content that they missed. Burning Crusade players are often referred to as "BC Babies" which really makes me wonder what Wrath players are going to be called. On the agenda this month: Outlands Raider Achievement!

A Matter of Timing

The pros and cons of raid locks out- dare to mention this word on a guild forum and watch opinions fly! Lock outs…this was something folks did not have to contemplate when running a guild in Burning Crusade. It's a tool for guilds short on time to be able to implement; it can give a casual guild more face time on the boss. It's a tough decision to make as far as any guild management goes- but in a progression based guild, sometimes it is necessary.

The Cons of Lock Outs

There go the easy emblems, the fast pace, and the loot (even though you may be disenchanting most of it). Currently, clearing two wings in a night is very doable, and I imagine as some of the raiders get more experienced, three wings will be a solid possibility. Most of the speed has to do with efficiency and familiarity; it also never fails that most resets signups abound.

The Pros of Lock Outs

The issue comes to looking ahead- some folks need time to get a boss down. Composition can be a real pain in the ass – especially if you end up with a few folks out on vacation/real life at the same time. Not only does a lock out give you time to focus on a specific boss, it can also afford you time to go back and achieve some things in prior content that you haven't done. In some ways, it gives more time.

The argument of upgrades are available is pretty valid – but it's completely random if it drops or not. I think the decision is never made lightly, but I also believe that it brings up a solid question of why do YOU raid? It's a simple question – do you raid just for purples? Do you raid because you are a boss kill junkie? Do you like to see new content?

Yes, wiping can be horrible. It can demoralize a guild quickly- but the big picture – "are you making progress?"- has to be assessed as the encounter continues. Killing the boss the first time, or succeeding, after putting forth effort to learn, adjust, compensate, and achievement – well, much like Vin Diesel's XXX, " I live for this shit".

For me, it isn't about the epics, or the loot, but the experience. Knowing that I was a part of a larger picture and together we accomplished something- this is why I raid. Sure, badges are nice, loot is phat, and gear scores (if you look at trade) are requirements for the simplest things- but it's the thrill of the kill for me. So, in my own opinion, if it means a lock out to accomplish it – so be it.

Gearing your offspec - just for fun or priority

As we see the en-masse running of heroics for Embalms and as more and more guild push further into ICC you start seeing people who's offspec is gathering a nice set of gear. This happens for many reasons especially after your guild can clear the front of ICC in one raid nite.

How do you handle the distribution of the offspec gear and what happens when your offspec starts to be as good geared as your main spec?? Does this mean your raid role should switch to let the best geared / best played toons have the raid spot??

It's a tough question to answer especially when you factor in VoA now with its T10 gear dropping from 10/25 man instances now. You might be a tank in VoA 10 in your class and the tier drops and no one else can use it so - BAM!!!! you get phat lootz for your offspec. Now you start looking at the T10 badge pieces a little more closely now. If you get the legs , that saves you 90 frost badges so it makes getting that 2 piece T10 all the easier.

Sometimes you gear the offspec to run the heroics and you start to find out that wow , it is easier to dps cause all I have to do is pew pew the mobs!!!! So you gear up and now you want to start to raid as your offspec , does your guild give you slot as DPS just because you slogged thru the BC muck with them as a tank?? Interesting question.

However you handle the gearing of offspec toons , you have to remember that people like to play classes that are fun for them and when that fun and magic wears off , it gets to be a drag. Healers and tanks can attest to this as they usually suffer the fastest and greatest burnout of any of the classes.

Hopefully as Mastery comes into play with Cataclysm things will be defined a bit better and some of the so called " hybrid" classes will have to choose a pigeonhole to go into or risk gimping their dps / play style.

Here is looking forward to those changes.

Where the metal meets the meat - Strength of the Wrynn or no??

So the latest raid nerf has been put into effect , Strength of the Wrynn for the Alliance folks , in ICC that is a raid-wide 5% buff. Appereantly this buff will stack up to 30%. Blizzard has implemented this so more guilds will have access to kill the Lich King or at least see that content.

The forum and community QQ about this is harsh but I think you need to look at Marketing 101 to see why Blizzard is doing it. Lets look at some numbers:

1. About 11 million people pay to play WoW. At $15 a head you are looking at a monthly revenue stream of approx $165 million dollars a month, again this is A MONTH.

2. Out of those 11 million people it is estimated that less than 1% are the hardcore , elitest raiders that get realm /world firsts and do the hard modes. Again less then 1% so lets just say for clarity , 1 million people or a monthly revenue stream of $15 million dollars a month from those people.

So given these two principles above , you dont have to be a marketing wizard to see that the majority of your monthly revenue comes from the average to above average players. These are the people that can clear the 1st wing of ICC but can't get the 2nd one down , or maybe they cant get the last boss in the first wing down either. These are the people who skipped Yogg and Alagron in Ulduar because ToC came out and it was way easier to do. Did they do hard mode ToC (ToGC) ?? No they probably did not attempt it.

With the ICC raid wide buff you have the ability to take it off and continue on like the good old days when you raiding MC was srs buizness. Somehow this is not good enough for that 1% as they feel slighted by Blizzard because now people can down the LK and get those shiny purple pixels they worked so hard to get before the ICC raid buff. Does that make their kill less special?? No I don't think that is does in the least.

This raid buff is made to make a GAME more enjoyable to the people that make the largest customer base , and the #1 rule in business is the customer is ALWAYS right. I am sure that a $150 million worth of right is going to have more sway than $15 million.

There has always been the dis-equality in the game of those that are "elitest" and those that are not , along with the middle grounders who fail in between. That is just the way life is as well and unlike our school systems that give every kid a trophy for participating no matter how bad they suck at it , Blizzard is saying here is way to show the difference where the metal meets the meat.

I think this is a good change and the only thing I would recommend is a way to track achievements with the buff turned on or off so you know how someone cleared ICC and that is where you can get your sense of satisfaction .

How is your guild going to handle the buff??