Posted by Spooner | 1 Comment

Patch 3.2 is launching today!

I’m not going to throw 500 posts at you now about this patch, like you haven’t already been reading or hearing about it for the past two months. Other sites will be spamming and riding this bitch until the wheels fall off for the next 48 hours, I’d rather finish reading my starcraft book and write a review on it. But if you’ve a brain in that pretty little head of yours you’ll know where to find any information on patch 3.2 and tie off those loose ends and final questions.

To make things easier, here’s a link. This is pretty much every post I’ve done for patch 3.2 to date.

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Posted by Spooner | 3 Comments

A quick refresher on Patch 3.2’s Argent Coliseum

Just a quick recap for everybody since this information has kind of fallen by the way side.

• The10% XP gain bonus from heirloom items does stack. (source)

There are going to be a lot of different items dropping in the many different raid levels in 3.2 and here are their ilvl:

• Trial of the Champion (5-player) normal mode: Item level 200
• Trial of the Champion (5-player) Heroic mode: Item level 213
• Trial of the Crusader (10-player) normal mode: Item level 232
• Trial of the Crusader (25-player) normal mode: Item level 245
• Trial of the Grand Crusader (10-player) Heroic mode: Item level 245
• Trial of the Grand Crusader (25-player) Heroic mode: Item level 258

In addition, successful tribute runs (Trial of the Grand Crusader only) will result in higher item level rewards from the tribute chest at the end. (source) Assuming you are eligible for all of the new dailies being added to the Argent Tournament — meaning you have championed all primary factions and reached exalted with them as well as with the Argent Crusade and Silver Covenant/Sunreavers — and plan on doing Trial of the Champion, the 5-player Crusaders’ Coliseum dungeon on Heroic mode, the maximum number of Champion’s Seals you can obtain in a single day will be 15 after patch 3.2 hits, not including any lucky Champion’s Seal drops in the Champion’s Purse.

Here is a breakdown of the costs of some of the Argent Tournament rewards in 3.2:

• Argent Crusader’s Tabard: 50 seals
• Argent Pony Bridle (for your squire): 150 seals
• Bind-on-Account chest pieces: 60 seals
• Bind-on-Account weapons: 60-95 seals
• Bind-on-Account trinkets: 75 seals
• Argent Warhorse/Argent Charger (epic ground mounts): 100 seals
• Quel’dorei Steed/Sunreaver Hawkstrider (epic ground mounts): 100 seals
• Silver Covenant Hippogryph/Sunreaver Dragonhawk (epic flying mounts): 150 seals
• Shimmering Wyrmling (pet): 40 seals (source)

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Posted by Spooner | 5 Comments

What do you guys think about 4 Raid Lockouts?

I like that Blizzard is willing to experiment with different ideas for their end game content. I’m not exactly sure how this whole new system is going to pan out, it seems a little crowded on paper but still a novel concept. If this new system of raid difficulties becomes popular and viable from a design standpoint then does that mean they’ll go back and rehash old content with the new system? Doubtful.

As for the option of extending your lockout period, I’m on the fence with that one. It has potential for dedicated raid groups to make some headway without having to go through the first bunch of wings and bosses, but in the same hand I worry about the possible abuse that can come from this system.

No, this does not mean that Eye of Eternity or Naxxramas will have the same difficulty layout as the new upcoming Crusaders’ Coliseum. The new format will only be applied to this particular tier of content.

This is sort of a test run for this format, so we will be watching the situation very carefully to see how the reaction to the new raid modes lean.

More lockouts means more opportunities for gear upgrades and the ability for our development team to really make seamless and difficult encounters without having a gimmicky activation component. We can do that and still offer a very friendly environment to players who still want to move up in gear, but don’t have the time to dedicate to the more extreme content.

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Posted by Spooner | 8 Comments

Tier 9 Alliance Plate Preview?

BB from mmo-champion has dug up more treasures from the game files for us and let me tell you, I’m kind of glad that Alliance and Horde are getting different models because this kind of looks retarded. He’s not saying that these are the T9 models but it’s highly likely they are. We should be getting more information as new builds are added to the Patch 3.2 PTR. For now all we have is the plate alliance paladin, death knight, and warrior models and the file list pretty much confirms that these are indeed sets.

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Posted by Spooner | 1 Comment

Block/Boss changes, OP Warriors, and Rage starvation GO!

Listen up raid leaders and shield using tanks alike. I’ve been concerned about the way raids have been going in that pretty much every T8 encounter in Ulduar (keepers and onward) as well as all the hardmodes, pretty much demand without question or hesitation, blowing cooldowns like a motherfucker or the raid is wiped. It’s obviously doable, but the RNG involved is pretty demoralizing in some cases. That’s why I’m very excited about the next raid encounter coming up in Patch 3.2 if this information is any indicator of what we’re looking at.

Block is a systemic problem. We’re not sure we can make it a very compelling mitigation stat in a world where tank avoidance is so high and bosses hit so hard. However I will say that the Coliseum fights should focus less on the blow-your-cooldowns-or-die style of encounter.

Now about warrior tanks, they’re not OP per say, but they’re not the sob story that most warriors would have you believe. Honestly, warriors have been in a fucking glorious place for a long time. Sure we’ve had our crappy times but looking at the big picture we’ve been a popular class with a lot of viability in PvE DPS, tanking, and PvP pretty much since 2004. Warriors that seem to love trashing their class and crying about how horrible they are aren’t talking about the class, they’re talking about themselves.

I’m not sure that statement is accurate, but here is the problem. There are A LOT of warrior tanks. They are tanking every fight in Ulduar. If warriors were too low and if we buffed them, I don’t see how that would increase the numbers on the other tanks. I don’t think the conclusion to be drawn is that warriors are overpowered. I think the conclusion to be drawn is that warriors were the traditional tank and lot of established guilds have established MTs who see no reason to reroll the FotM. It’s not actually a goal to have 25% of each tank in Ulduar, but is also seems strange to buff the most popular tank. Won’t that just make them more popular? Again, don’t misinterpret that as GC sez suck it up warriors. It is something we have to keep in mind, however.

Rage starvation is a problem. Frankly, we’re not sure a model where you have to get hit in order to tank is that compelling anymore. Something that has come up a lot is changing rage (even for Prot) to damage done. This is a slight nerf to the PvP mechanic of being punished when you hit the warrior, but there are other ways to solve that as well. Again, we’re talking a big change here. I’m not sure we’re comfortable jacking with such a core mechanic before 3.2.

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