Posted by J.A. Laraque | 4 Comments

You don’t gank lowbies IRL

There are losers out there who spend all day killing level 20 players at eighty. They will stealth and open up on you with their best gear and attacks (as if that is really needed) and then laugh at you as if somehow you suck for not being able to counterattack someone 60 levels above you. Do you want to know what happens when their mom tells them to keep the maniacal cackling down to a minimum after doing so?

They go into a nerd rage and try to choke their own mother out. James Swan a 27-year-old man child did just that in front of five young children. It happened last Thursday (2/11) on the 6400 block of 12th Avenue East about 10 p.m in Bradenton, Florida.

After a night of wowing and drinking (because we all know this is the epitome of cool) Mr. Swan began to get a little too loud. When his 50-year-old mother asked him just to quiet down a little so her three grandchildren could go to sleep in the room Shawn ignored her request.

When she approached him from behind and touched him on the shoulder to get his attention he freaked out. Swan grabbed her by the hair and threw her onto the bed, according to the sheriff’s report.

The woman was able to get to the kitchen to call 911, but Swan ripped the phone off the wall, banged his head into the drywall and then grabbed his mother and threw her on the floor. He then began to choke her, “saying he was going to kill her,” the report states.

Swan’s grandfather tried to intervene, but Swan screamed that he would kill him as well if he did. What Swan didn’t know was that his grandfather was an Everquest ranger who happened to use his AA point to learn modern firearms.

Dusting off his old trusty gun the old man holstered it not wanting to one-shot his own grandson no matter how much of a douche he was being, but of course when Swan saw the gun he had to have the fat loots and tried to ninja it.

The old ranger wasn’t having any of that and a struggle ensued. The gun discharged grazing Swan behind the left ear and struck the living room window and the wood frame of the porch. I believe he cried out; “Don’t graze me bro!”, but reports on that are sketchy.

In the end the mother was ok and Swan was taken to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, but he refused treatment. He later returned to Manatee County and was being held without bond at the county jail on charges of domestic battery by strangulation, child abuse and felony tampering.

It is yet another sad tale of World of Warcraft related violence. This never happened in the days of Everquest, we only beat up each other at fan faires. You can read the original story here.

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Posted by J.A. Laraque | 10 Comments

World of Warcraft Dungeon finder – Right Track or Wrong Track?

I had taken a small break from World of Warcraft to make a course correction on my career path. When I returned I decided to play my priest who was only level 47 at the time. My guild mates told me the LFD tool was the best way to go. So the first thing I did after getting my talents and spells corrected was to fire it up and instantly I was in a group.

I made sure to tell everyone that though I have played W.O.W. for years I haven’t played a priest or the low levels in some time so to bear with me. Immediately someone left the group. Now it is possible it was a disconnect or something, but later actions from others caused me not to believe this.

Halfway through the dungeon a mage pulls a large group of mobs and dies. He gets upset even though it was clearly his fault and as soon as he renters the zone he leaves the group. Less than a second later I receive a whisper from the tank begging me not to leave and that it was not my fault for the death. We finished the dungeon without any more deaths and everyone went on their own way. I was curious about why the tank was so worried I would leave so I did some research.

From reports on various websites and the main message boards it seems as if LFD has become the perfect way to drop out of a group if it is not 100% perfect. I also learned that if you are not a tank or healer then LFD can really suck, with long wait times and the like. If you are a tank or a healer you are a God and can command whatever you want from loot to even gold to stay with the group. Now if you have read any of my editorials on W.O.W you know I bring up old MMO’s I have played and in this case I think it really fits to do so.

Everquest

In EQ you had what was called the holy trinity (Tank, Healer) and what was called the enchanter, who would crowd control mobs and provide mana regen. As EQ moved forward more and more groups would not form unless these three were in the group. It was entirely possible to do many dungeons without all three, but people were so sure it would fail they did not want to attempt it.

This led to a lot of people shouting LFG and long wait times to do anything. Sometimes someone would form a group without all three and proceed to do well, but this did not make many change their minds. It let too many people waiting hours to get a group because they were sure anything else was bound to fail.

City of Heroes

COH created a LFG tool which was well received and used by the player base. However, because it was too easy and quick to find a group many would not tolerate even one death. People became to accustom to jumping from group to group looking for that perfect setup that would next maximum experience.

Now there is nothing wrong that that in theory, but many bad players used the tool to avoid being singled out. They would often be the cause of the death and just leave in a huff to join another group. Normally when one person left the group most of the others felt the rest would soon leave and more times than not led to the entire group disbanding.

Warning Signs

It is understandable in the age of loot stealing, terri-bad players and min/max freaks that one would be leery of a bad group. I would never advocate staying in a group that is boatloads of fail. With that said deaths will happen. People will make mistakes. If we continue down a road where if something isn’t perfect we leave then we are heading towards failure.

While having a great healer or tank is awesome it is important to remember that everyone brings something to the table and too much power should not be given to any one class or player. It is up to everyone to keep the others in check unless you like being dictated to because you know it’s hard to find a good tank or healer.

LFD I believe is overall a good tool, but can be used to make Warcraft an even less friendly place if we are not willing to work with our team, help newer or inexperienced players and take a death or two. Everyone can complain about WOW being easier, but not if they are jumping ship at the first little hiccup.

Your Take

So, fans of Spooncraft, how has LFD worked for you? Have you experienced what I wrote about or is it just me? Do you feel tanks and healers own LFD and DPS is left out in the cold? Do you jump ship at the first sign of trouble or stick it out. What is your vote for LFD, right track or wrong track?

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Posted by Spooner | 3 Comments

“What’s melee range?” a Tribute to LFG

It has been just long enough and I’ve used the new LFG tool as a tank and as a DPS role (never a healer) and I’ve achieved the title but not yet the mutt; it’s about time to give a sober account. The title of this thread was a real quote said to me by a caster wearing gear up to par with Ulduar and above. I was in greens.

The Good

First off we have our ultimate conclusion – this is a great tool and a positive change to the game overall as it helps out low pop servers and takes the hardest part of 5-man Heroics out of the equation. I’ve come across incredible tanks, smart healers, a DPS mage that admitted within seconds of pulling adds and wiping the group and then apologizing. I’ve played with people that actually seem to have souls and who’s balls have dropped. Most groups are decent people just looking to blaze through the already trivialized and dated content for some easy badges, coin, and enchanting materials.

The Bad

As to be expected the wait time varies as a DPS where I end up waiting 5-15 minutes for a group to form and even then its not guaranteed to be a winner. It’s less than before trying to find only players on your own server but its still kind of a hassle when you run the 15+ minute wait and then people bail on the group. That’s another thing, people will sometimes just up and leave, or some spoiled little bitch will complain about the tank not having 42k health and say we can’t handle the run. Really? You fucking pussies can’t do heroic Utgarde Keep unless you’re in epics and pushing 3k DPS with a tank that never dips below 75%? I swear it’s like an epidemic of cry babies that don’t even want to put in the modicum of effort required currently for T9 quality loot.

The Ugly

Why the fucking hell are the randomly chosen dungeons not random? I’ve done Nexus about 5 times, Occulus roughly the same. I have a time share in the Old Kingdom and this one time I actually got Heroic Trial of the Champion. There’s also been a dash of the two Howling Fjord dungeons and one Culling of Stratholme. Why in the hell can’t I get into the new 5mans? I mean is it really that much to ask to get tossed into some newish content once in a while instead of the same tired heroics over and over and over? Then there are the window licking retards that you might get lumped in with. A resto druid healing, didn’t have wild growth or refused to use it in a 5 man group, and misplaced his abolish poison spell in Ahn’Kahet. He also refused to heal anybody but the tank and I had to bandage up myself and the warlock because the shadow priest thought it was a waste of DPS to switch out of shadow form between pulls.

The Verdict

It’s a good tool and makes getting gold and emblems easier than it used to be. It’s not as brainless or faceroll easy as most extremists and elitists want you to think, but that’s their nature to belittle everything new because change is scary. You’ll run into good players and wholesom people about as much as you run into loot whores and jerkoffs that are carried by bigger jerkoffs on their own servers. It’s also the best place to train on becoming better at your class with little to no risk involved. A target dummy is just a target dummy and you’ll never ever be that stand alone in anything worth being judged – healers, tanks, and DPS should practice in a group setting with enough randomness in the players to allow proper education for situational awareness. The new LFG tool gave us that.

Also as a public service, melee range is up close point blank and can stretch as far as 5 yards from the target for you ranged types but the hitbox of the target can affect your judgement.

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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 | 1 Comment

WoW Cataclysm to focus heavy on Battlegrounds

Good news.

There is going to be a big focus on BGs for Cataclysm, including the ability to get the best PvP gear from rated BGs.

Ghostcrawler took to the forums and went on explaining a lot of where Blizzard’s brain children are in terms of conceptualizing the changes. Needless to say we’re going to be seeing Cataclysm in 2010 which is very exciting. The post itself is more about burst damage and gear scaling in the new expansion as compared to how things are now in Wrath of the Lich King.

I’m pretty excited to see that Battlegrounds are going to be making a comeback so that the spectator sport that is the Arena which also holds little to no place in the canon of Warcraft is dropping aside to it’s rightful place.

The gear scaling is “easy” to fix, meaning we know what to do and it just requires a lot of work. We are prepared for players to be sad when their ratings convert less favorably, but most would agree it’s good for the game in the long run.

I already addressed the burst issue above. If the bathtub is bigger, then the rate of health pouring in and going down the drain don’t affect the volume as severely.

I also don’t want to give the impression class balance is perfect. It’s not. We have some success stories and some specs that we didn’t get to where we intended. But we had an ambitious design from the beginning, and the way we work means there is always a much larger list of stuff we want to get done than we can actually fit into a given expansion or patch. We think the trend is good, and a lot of the changes we made for Lich King are going to endure through Cataclysm, which means we’ll be able to focus more on the problems we have now rather than resetting everything. source

So basically they’re going to throttle back the rate at which DPS scales and make it so healing is more reactive and based on being efficient than just spamming in case the boss lands a hit. That also means avoidance is important but not the only way tanks can gear for survival. I like the fact that burst is being toned down some as well and all of this is going to mean that PvP might be less frantic. A lot of players feel that if the combat is frantic and uncontrolled then it’s fun, but to me that just makes the curve favor the elite or the well geared over entry-mid level players.

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