Here’s the official Blizzard reply to requests of further changing the focus to giving you everything at Lv1 and I agree completely.

Armor upgrades at level 40
We talked about changing it, but decided we liked it the way it is. It’s a pretty nice reward to suddenly be able to equip mail or plate at higher level. By similar logic, you could argue that we should make helms, shoulders, trinkets and even mounts at low level because they’re awesome upgrades and players are going to get them anyway.

It doesn’t actually make the itemization simpler to add plate at lower levels. We have to create more items and make sure they are well distributed. That’s not a huge consideration either way, but you listed it as a benefit and we don’t see it like that.

We also don’t think it’s a huge balance problem either way. Nobody is so weak below level 40 that perfect gear optimization is really going to make a difference between success and failure.

The strongest justification for letting e.g. warriors use plate at level 1 is the feeling at level 40 of having to swap out all of your gear. But even in that case if you hold on to the mail for a few more levels until you get a more suitable quest reward you’re not really going to be at a noticeable disadvantage. (Source)

I’ve founded, nurtured, and driven 3 guilds in this game from the very bottom of the food chain all the way to the highest existing tier of raid content. Lately I find myself very unwilling to have to choose between the time I spend enjoying other games, my family, and so forth; or whether or not I’m going to raid something. I have turned down officer positions, GM positions, and even Raid Lead positions from various guilds because I don’t have the patience anymore for other people’s bullshit.

Dealing with AFK players, people not showing up on time or at all to a raid, explaining a boss fight over and over again, discussing loot distribution, recruitment, handling inter-player relationships or issues, squashing drama before it can hemorrhage, farming materials, farming gold for bank tabs, funding a Ventrilo server. These are things I used to do all the time and frankly, I’m not doing it anymore.

All the old guilds I came up with have disbanded, moved servers, or simply fell apart from people quitting the game. Friends I have in real life have either quit or become so abhorrently casual that I wonder why they bother spending the $15.00 a month. Sure I’m still friends with them and we talk on a daily basis, but on Azeroth it’s pretty lonesome. Guilds simply aren’t recruiting. You’re either in the thick of ICC or you’re advertising as a casual group of folks that don’t really want to participate in raiding.

Raiding really isn’t the devil, it’s not that hard, it’s not some ugly thing you should hate because it’s such an affront to your freedoms. Don’t be so presumptuous or outraged when at the core you’re just jealous and spoiled. I don’t understand how players can complain about content and lore and substance being “locked away” to the raiding community. Have they even tried to raid? Have they bothered playing other MMOs where there’s a literal brick wall between you and the content? If anything WoW’s is the Fisher Price of raid content. Anybody can get in and see the content, but like everything else in life you’re going to have to learn how to play. How much time are you really investing being “casual” into the tons of mounts and mini-pets you have?

My wife still has her account but in her own words, “I have no idea anymore what the fuck is going on.” Mechanics are different, badges, random dungeons, random battlegrounds, currency abolition, name changes, realm changes, gender changes, true welfare epics, GearScore, cross server dungeons, the sheer disgusting inhumanity and disrespect of players for one another. It’s all a lot to take in at once and then be asked to manage.

Another example. In total honesty, I’m better at tanking on my Warrior than most people are at spelling their own name. My GearScore is ~5051. Experience counts for nothing, neither does knowledge of the encounters or integrity of the player. I only managed to see the first wing of Icecrown because I started the run myself and dedicated an entire night to trying to find players willing to come.

So what of joining a guild to see content? Start fresh with new friends, go at it from scratch. Guilds recruiting now are pretty much looking to fill the gaps burned out players are leaving. “Random is recruiting ranged DPS and healers for ICC25 9/12…” Looking at raid times I guess I’m the only person on my server that has a wife and kids and cannot raid anything other than a 9PM-11PM two nights a week. Funny because every guild I’ve run has done that and made steady progress through BC content and Wrath all the way through Ulduar Yogg-Saron. For the record, TOC is a joke and folks really have no excuse to ever wipe unless trying a hardmode.

What about starting a new guild? Free agents out there are looking for ICC progression guilds. But maybe you can scrape enough to do 10man content, that is of course if you can stand out amongst the melee of small guilds cropping up everywhere as a result of larger groups imploding or the bad players being cut loose from their groups. Leadership is hands down the biggest issue I’ve seen and it really disturbs me that there are so few good leaders out there, it’s almost like that saying “If you want something done right…”

So what do you do ladies and gentlemen? Maybe you’re just getting back into WoW now or simply realizing that your guild imploded leaving you and perhaps two others wondering what the hell happened to the leadership. The announced Cataclysm changes might just be the salvation. Quit the game now and wait until Cataclysm comes out then completely start over from the beginning. Leveling is going to be a better experience in the expansion, it’s also going to be fresh and new. Classes wont work the same as they do now, the best way to relearn is to forget everything you thought you knew right?

Here are the options open to me right now. Cut your losses and wait until Cataclysm to start from scratch with a new guild, perhaps a new realm and try to get that feeling again. Or try to carve yourself a niche in an already established group of people. Me and so many others want to see content but maybe aren’t part of a group large enough to realistically do that. We have the skills required but not the time commitment that so many guilds ask for (really raiding 4-5 nights a week? Are you that bad you need that much time?).

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.

With that said, congratulations are in order to Soosie for his Thunderfury! That is one legendary item that takes damn near forever to get and a world of effort to complete. Once again bro you make me wish I was on the EU servers, here’s to hoping you’re never gonna give – never gonna give up the title of Baron.

I got pretty hyped up during Blizzcon to the point where the Cataclsym confirmations sold me on WoW for 2010, the latest news from Russian IgroMir gaming convention (where Blizzard was attending) has me all fired up again.

Rated Battlegrounds
Battleground and Arena gameplay are different and currently completely separate. Some players enjoy battlegrounds more but they cannot gain Arena points in battlegrounds and thus they cannot receive Arena rewards. Rated battlegrounds will be an alternative way to get Arena points. Each week, there will be a featured battleground, helping concentrate queues and keeping the rated battleground experience exciting and different from week to week.

If you win a game in a rated battleground you will gain rating, however your mileage may vary depending on the BG. Each victory in a rated BG will also give you Arena points. However, a loss will not affect your rating, nor your total number of Arena points.

If you have Arena points, you should spend them on something epic! Among the possible rewards, the most exciting will be the return of the classic honor titles like Grand Marshal or Knight Lieutenant. Players will also be able to earn epic ground mounts and vanity items such as tabards and pets in addition to helping their guild acquire levels and achievements.

You can enjoy end game PvP outside of the arena now in a big battle and you can get the old classic PvP titles. This is made of win.

Tol Barad
Tol Barad is a brand new battleground which will have features similar to those found in both Wintergrasp and the Isle of Quel’Danas. When battle mode is active, the contest will be similar to WIntergrasp with PvP fights, vehicles and destructible buildings. When battles are not in progress, Tol Barad becomes a daily quest hub like the Isle of Quel’Danas. The faction that wins the battle in Tol Barad will not only get Tol Barad marks of honor, but also will get access to bonus daily quests and special bosses.

The Sunwell Isle was actually the best part of Burning Crusade and the prospect of something worth fighting over means that perhaps we’ll see a little concentrated PvP in this particular area. But this is nothing new that I didn’t already report from Blizzcon.

Guild Advancement
Guild advancement will be one of the biggest changes made to the World of Warcraft game system when Cataclysm arrives. Guilds will be able to level up and gain talent points, develop guild professions and gain achievements.

Players earn guild experience in a variety of ways, for instance by gaining levels, reputation ranks, boss kills, rated battleground or Arena wins, or profession ranks. Each guild level grants a talent point that can be spent in a guild talent tree which works similarly to character or pet talent trees. Some of the options in this tree include repair cost reduction and increase in looted gold. Guild talents will affect all guild members. To give fair opportunities to both big and small guilds, only the top 20 earners per day in each guild will contribute to guild experience points.

Guild experience will be converted into a special guild currency, which can be used to buy a variety of rewards such as profession plans, recipes and reagents; vanity items (mounts, tabards, etc.), and guild talent respecs. Guild heirlooms can be created with the help of professions and are bound to the guild, which means that if a player leaves a guild, the item will be returned to the guild. Guild items require less reagents, which can be bought with guild currency.

Players will be able to earn achievements as a guild as well. To do so, at least 75% of guild members (for the moment) will need to complete an achievement to make it appear in the guild achievement tab. As players’ guilds complete achievements, players who are offline will be able to read the latest guild news through an RSS feed to the World of Warcraft Armory and get access to profession info and much more. Guild banks will receive a percentage of gold looted from a boss when guild members make boss kills. Also, it will be possible to invite other guilds to various events such as weekly battlegrounds.

This is by far the most exciting change to gameplay mechanics as you can literally start a guild and tailor it to leveling, then switch it to focus on PvE content, then again to PvP if you so desire. The emphasis on your guild is being ramped up and that’s fucking amazing. When cross realm Battlegrounds came out, and name changes, and transfers, it really did a number on the reputation game. You could be a jerkoff theif and get away scott free, reputation in your server meant nothing as you could easily guild hop. Not anymore in Cataclysm, and that’s a very strong step in the right direction.

You know, the guy has talent. A lot of fucking talent. Greyfoo if you ever need your videos spotlighted or promoted at all or if you’re ever looking to collaborate on anything you let me know man, this is some pretty cool stuff. (Also doesn’t hurt I played a Paladin for a really long time and can relate to the pain lol)