Posted by Spooner | 3 Comments

Oculus Loot Improvements

Wow there must have been some serious complaints about Occulus for Blizzard to go this far. Let’s face it, Occulus sucks. It’s nothing I’m cutting my wrists over like a lot of other people but the instance itself is just a pain in the ass. Hell anything involving the mario-death-fall-drop mechanic is obnoxious as hell (like the Aces High quest in Coldarra that can lick my taint) but Blizzard is pretty much giving you 2 more badges and the chance at a blue drake just for completing the instance. Do you guys think this is a bit much or a step in the right direction?

Special note: It must be selected through the random dungeon finder for you to see the new loot bags.

Personally I think they’ve gone a little over the top as now I want to run nothing but heroic occulus just for the extra badges.

To encourage players not to shy away from the many invigorating adventures to be had in The Oculus, we have applied a change to enhance the rewards players are provided when selected for this dungeon via the Random Heroic option in the Dungeon Finder. Once Ley-Guardian Eregos is defeated, one loot bag per character will be provided in his chest in addition to the current rewards. Each loot bag will offer players rare gems, two additional Emblems of Triumph, and a chance of being rewarded the Reins of the Blue Drake. These fine treasures could be yours should you honor your fellow party members by besting the challenges contained within The Oculus! Keep in mind, however, that these extra loot bags will only be awarded to each party member if Oculus is selected by the Dungeon Finder when players choose the Random Heroic option.

In light of this change, the Reins of the Azure Drake will now have a chance of dropping in both 10- and 25-player versions of The Eye of Eternity.

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Posted by Spooner | 20 Comments

WoW: Is raiding too easy?

Yeah we’ve been here many times before, I hope that the conversation is just as lively as previous incarnations as well. I used to side with the hardcore raiders in thinking that the raid game and WoW as a whole has gotten too easy. I used to steep myself in thoughts of nostalgia on how the original raids and even Burning crusade content was so much more challenging than the offerings of Wrath. I can say now with the utmost honesty that I was full of shit – and most people who think that way are in some way full of shit too. Be it self dilution or simple denial, the direction Blizzard has taken the World of Warcraft is a right one and only improves the health of the game and it’s playerbase as a whole. To quote Bornakk directly:

We see posts like this from time to time but they tend to not include any compelling argument. Nostalgia is powerful. In a game that has been out this long there can be a lot of great memories of the past that you would relish to relive again. We understand this, but, the game continues to move forward and changes are made to benefit the entire playerbase.

As opposed to the old systems of years ago, the current raiding content is more accessible to more people. Yes, this is a good thing. The way emblems reward items also allow more players to be on the same or similar levels of gear and help minimize/avoid the “I’m in max gear and smash all faces” scenarios that force players to start from the very beginning raid content no matter how progressed the content patches are.

For players who are only satisfied by beating the highest level content and the most challenging encounters, the hard modes are available. Encounters like Yogg-0 and Anub’arak 25 are no joke. Then, the Lich King awaits (behind his walls).

I’ll admit that the Yogg-saron fight in full Ulduar and Naxxramas (25) gear wasn’t a simple fight and the first time we got him down did feel like an accomplishment. The first time downed with fewer watchers was even more so and I personally have yet to defeat him with zero watchers active. But a lot of players will just as easily and irresponsibly say “oh it’s easy and faceroll and I can do it in my sleep without breaking a sweat” if you can ignore the fierce thumping of the masturbatory nature of these claims – you’ll realize that it really is nothing more than self-fucking in the face of exaggeration.

The new dungeon system, 10 and 25 normal and heroic modes, and badge system has pretty much made it so that if I start playing today or two months ago – the endgame will remain proportionate.

Before, you could not raid Blackwing Lair until you were in full Tier 1 gear (give or take) and the only way to get it was to raid Molten Core. In BC you wouldn’t be caught dead in Black Temple (pre-nerf for Wrath) unless you were pushing gear from SSC or TK. If you joined the game late you were pretty fucked or at the mercy of your friends to carry you through content until you were on their level.

I notice a lot these days people asking for achievements and such before raid invites. Isn’t that contradictory to the idea that people are so hung up on? If raiding was such a face-rolling easy and quick thing to do then why do players insist so adamantly that you have already completed it before joining the group? Oh, because they want a fast and easy loot piñata run and not have to spend hours explaining fights, wiping, checking gear and consumables, or working strategies for different group compositions.

Raid Heroics and hardmodes should be challenging and is most cases they are with very little room for mistakes. But raiding as a whole doesn’t need to be an insurmountable climb uphill, both ways, in the snow, barefoot, with only a sharp stick to fend off the gathering hordes.

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Posted by Spooner | 19 Comments

How does Loot work in the LFG system?

Son, I am confuse. People can’t seem to understand this new dang-fangled loot system with the Need Before greed option. There are some exceptions and errors with it when it comes to certain weaponry or trinkets and the likes, but as far as armor goes in general you are essentially only allowed to roll need on pieces within your armor class. So that means a Warrior cannot roll need for a pair of leather shoulders no matter what (as an example).

Personally, this is a fucking amazing idea and I feel a little bummed that Blizzard didn’t think of this sooner. Now they have a lot of work ahead of them to refine the system so there aren’t any issues with legit upgrades and such especially in the accessory/trinket/weapon field – but this is a start.

There has been some confusion regarding looting items when using the new Dungeon Finder system so we would like to take a moment and provide an explanation for some of these new features.

Anytime players are matched up with other players using the Dungeon Finder system, the looting option is automatically set to “Need Before Greed” which is designed to be a fair system that rewards items to the classes they are designed for. While there can be some finer details on how this works, here is an overview on this system:

• The “need” option is only available for both armor and weapons that are designed for your class. Caster classes and hybrid caster classes can roll “need” on items with intellect and/or spell power while melee classes cannot. Melee classes and hybrid melee classes can roll “need” on the items without intellect and/or spell power. There is an additional restriction that only allows characters to roll for armor items if it’s the armor type that is designed for their class. So since cloth armor is designed for mages, priests, and warlocks only they can roll “need” on these armor types. Then leather armor is for druids and rogues, mail armor for hunters and shaman, and plate for death knights, paladins, and warriors. Keep in mind that these restrictions only apply to items above a certain item level since the breakdown of stats is very different in the early leveling area of the game.

• We also introduced a “disenchant” option that is open to all classes on all items whenever a player with the sufficient level of skill in enchanting is in the group to disenchant the item that just dropped. If the winner of the item has selected this option the item will automatically be disenchanted and the resulting material(s) placed in the character’s bags instead of the item. Just like it was before the patch, disenchanting any item is not reversible and the item is permanently removed so you should only select this option if you have no plans to use the item or trade it to another player.

• The “greed” option is open to all classes and all item types but the players who roll greed will also roll against those who select disenchant. The reason for this is that if an item is not a high priority and/or eligible to be rolled “need” on, then other players running the dungeon have an equal chance to get a reward for defeating the encounter.

As far as how the whole Dungeon Finder system works, it matches up characters with others in their entire Battlegroup instead of just their individual realm. Once a dungeon is completed players go back to their respective realms where they cannot communicate or trade with players on other realms, so any items you gained in the dungeon can no longer be traded to another character in the group. If you are considering giving an item to another player, you must do so before either character leaves the dungeon.

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Posted by Spooner | 7 Comments

Update 01/04/10 bug Fixes for Patch 3.3 Live

This post has been updated with the recent changes for 01/04/10.

Listed below are recent fixes we have applied to the game. Keep in mind that some of these changes may not be active until after the realm has been restarted.

01/04/10

• The mail Bloodsunder Bracers have had their appropriate socket bonus added.
• The proc on Zod’s Repeating Longbow should no longer reset auto shots.
• The gear requirement for heroic Halls of Reflection has been increased.

12/16/09

• Ionar, in the Halls of Lightning, will now only disperse once during the course of the fight.
• Prophet Tharon’Ja of Drak’Tharon will now only steal your flesh one time during the encounter.
• Players with the quest “Wrath of the Lich King” will now properly receive quest credit.
• Muradin and Saurfang will no longer gain stacks of Battlefury from totems. Additionally, the duration of Battlefury has also been reduced.
• Lord Marrowgar is now tauntable.
• The Looking For Group item level requirement for Halls of Reflection has been raised to match the difficulty of the encounters.

12/15/09

• Quel’Delar in now unique equip.
• Naxxramas can now be cleared in any order for the Immortal and Undying achievements.
• The drop rate for the Battered Hilt has been increased.
• The Skeletal Slave in the Pit of Saron has had the ability to drop the Battered Hilt and other random drop epics removed.

12/14/09

• In Ulduar, the Salvaged Demolisher’s Hurl Boulder ability will now properly ignite tar.
• Vault of Archavon bosses are again able to be hit by area of effect abilities.
• The trinket Ephemeral Snowflake will now be triggered by all healing spells.
• The players’ Gunship will now appropriately dock after achieving victory.
• Lord Marrowgar will now do significantly less melee damage in both the 10 player normal and 10 player heroic difficulty.

Death Knight

• Chains of Ice is no longer limited to a single target. In addition, when Chains of Ice is used on a snare immune target with Everlasting Winter talented, it will once again apply Frost Fever.

Druid

• Druids will now be able to shapeshift out of a spell-reflected Entangling Roots spell.

Warlock

• Everlasting Affliction can now refresh the duration of Corruption on a target when the Warlock casts Shadow Bolt. This talent also refreshes the duration of Corruption with Drain Life and Haunt.

12/10/09

• Onyxia will now move at a normal at her regular speed when casting deep breaths.
• Onyxia has been cut off from the magic that sustained her invulnerable state.
• Players will no longer die while zoning into Icecrown citadel as the Gunship event resets.
• The Battered Hilt will show it’s appropriate faction-racial restrictions.
• Hunters, Rogues, and Shaman will once again be able to roll need on off-hand weapons when the need before greed looting system is active.
• Earthen Power now properly removes snare effects.
• Hunger for Blood now increases a rogues damage by 10% down from 15%.
• The Ephemeral Snowflake trinket now has a very short cooldown to prevent it from restoring inappropriately large amounts of mana.
• The Shadow damage from Scourge Strike will no longer be able to critically strike. The physical component will continue to be able to critically strike.
• You are now able to recast Mind Flay after missing with the spell without receiving a “This spell is not ready yet” message.

12/9/09

• Onyxia has settled down and is once again killable and flying in the proper areas during phase 2.
• Icetouched Earthragers casting Avalanche now deals appropriate damage.
• The quest “Keeping the Enemy at Bay” is now completable.
• Totems are no longer targeted by chain effects as intended.
• The Death Knight chest piece, Scourgelord Chestguard, has been updated to reflect appropriate tanking statistics.
• Emblem of Triumph quartermasters now exchanges one Emblem of Conquest for one Emblem of Triumph.
• The NPC Usuri Brightcoin in Dalaran now exchanges one Emblem of Triumph for one Emblem of Frost.
• Bosses no longer respawn in the new Frozen Halls 5 player dungeon after being defeated.
• Scourgelord Tyrannus now heals to full when the encounter begins.
• The chance for epic items to drop off trash mobs in the Icecrown Citadel raid dungeons has been reduced.
• The chance for epic items to drop off trash mobs in the Frozen Halls 5 player dungeons has been reduced.
• Running up the ramp at the end of the 3rd encounter in Halls of Reflection will no longer disconnect players. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=21723843673&sid=1
• Trading soulbound items will no longer make them appear as lost. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=21723842445&sid=1
• Improved Counterspell now triggers Burning Determination as intended.
• The Call to Arms: Warsong Gulch daily quest is now properly offered to players of all levels.
• The quest “No Mercy for the Merciless” can now be completed as intended.

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Posted by Spooner | 12 Comments

Battered Hilt and Epic Drop Rate Changes

I don’t exactly know where I stand on this subject. On the one hand I like the fact that such an amazing item lore-wise is not going to be inaccessible. On the other hand I worry about the exact uniqueness of the item specifically since it’s already BOE and going for unbelievable amounts in the Auction house. We want our lore to be accessible but at the same time we want it to be unique and carry a certain notoriety with it and those two don’t seem to be fundamentally compatible without some sacrifice. I guess simply put, some people just want it all regardless.

The days when somebody got a rare epic and that in itself being something amazing are gone. It’s just part of the game growing up past the toddler years. Now Blizzard seems to be favoring extremely rare and unique mounts and titles as well as legendary weapons to be a player’s main claim to eFame. Personally, I’m down for an increased drop rate. What do you all think?

Based on feedback we’ve been provided by players, we’d like to make you aware of a couple of changes we are applying to Icecrown Citadel: The Frozen Halls via in-game fixes. Firstly, we are increasing the drop rate of the Battered Hilt in all three wings of this Heroic five-player dungeon. We have seen a great deal of discussion about this item’s chance of dropping since the release of patch 3.3.0 and agree that it is currently too low. As a result, players should find greater accessibility to this item while running these dungeons, or while trading with other players who have it.

In light of this change, we are also removing the chance for the Battered Hilt or any other epic item to drop from the Skeletal Slaves in the Pit of Saron. The need to ‘farm’ these creatures for the Battered Hilt should be reduced by our first in-game fix and will no longer result in a chance for epic loot or Battered Hilts.

You’re welcome to discuss these changes in this thread and provide us with any additional feedback you may have. Please refrain from creating additional threads about these in-game fixes at this time.

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