Project Lore

Vote to Kick is one of those tricky subjects with no clear cut "correct" way to solve. Currently, players using the Dungeon Finder tool need a unanimous vote (save the person being voted on) to remove someone from the party. Votes can be initiated by anyone and are completely anonymous. Players have no way of knowing who started the Vote to Kick, or who voted which way on a Vote to Kick if it fails. A Vote to Kick cannot occur within the first 15 minutes of an instance, unless the player has disconnected. This sounds like a pretty good system, but it has its flaws. Lets start with the things that should be considered direct exploits. Currently, there are players who get three of their friends together and queue for a dungeon, filling out the last slot with a pick-up member and receiving the luck of the draw buff for doing so. During a boss fight, just before a boss dies, the group votes to kick the random member, who has no say in the matter since the vote passes with the unanimous consent of the other four. The member loses the ability to roll on any loot that the boss drops. The scumbags can then queue to find another member for the trash and next boss. Its really despicable, and there have been some incidents brought up on the official WoW forums. A solution seems to be to not allow vote to kick when you queue with 4 people, but what do you do in the situation that you legitimately need to remove the last person? How about people who enter an instance and immediately AFK? Its doubtful that the group will wait for one person for 15 minutes, and they can't be removed during that time. If honor AFK farming is any evidence, there may need to be some sort of AFK countermeasure. Blizzard posters have said that the Dungeon Finder and Vote to Kick are very young and they are examining how it should work. Here are some ideas to amend the current system:

• Majority vote. For a party of 5, you would need 3 votes to remove someone from the party. The only drawback would be that if one person votes "no", they know that everyone else voted yes. In the current system, only after everyone has voted "yes" do players get any information on who took what action. For smaller sized parties, the majority and unanimous amount to the same thing.
• AFK tool. An interface option to go idle for a certain amount of time could be okayed by the party. If a player is AFK during non-approved time, a check could be done by other players to see if there are at their keyboard. If they don't take action for some amount of time (30-60 seconds?), they are removed from the party. This would solve the constant AFKer/AFK farmer problem.
• A reputation or karma system. Using player feedback during a Vote to Kick or after a dungeon system, Blizzard could improve matchmaking. Players found to be abusive of the system can be flagged and examined after repeated incidents. Based on your friends or guildmates feedback, the tool could dynamically match you with players you are likely to get along with. This is a very social way to approach the problem; I feel like this could fix some of the problems with "community subvesion" that the Dungeon Finder causes, but would require a lot of work. I could see this being implemented to an extent in the Battle.net overhaul. At the very least, increase the chance to be grouped with friends-of-friends and less likely to be grouped with friends-of-ignored-players.
• The ability to split parties. If a disagreement happens and 3 players want to vote to kick the other two, they should be able to continue on together. This is impossible to do if you can't loose the other two and you are from different servers.
• Cross server friends. This is something that is coming in the Battle.net implementation, likely in "patch 4.0". Finding good people to queue with and having some way to find them again lets you decide who you would to be grouped with and lessens the chance of conflict.

What ideas do you have for solving difficult situations arising from the Dungeon Finder?

[caption id="attachment_9533" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Ungemmed weapon = /gkick IMO"][/caption] In an effort to continue our series on what makes Project Lore tick, I managed to tempt DJTyrant with some British fare.  He gave us a good glimpse into what makes him tick, and why he plays the game before he ran off to his flat by the university.  Cheeky bastard. Project Lore: We know where your name came from, but why did you start playing WoW in the first place? DJTyrant: I've always been a huge Blizzard fan, and was really excited about the idea of a Warcraft MMO. I was working at EBGames (now Gamestop) at the time and I pre-ordered the Collector's Edition (having no idea how rare it would actually become).  My boss paid off my pre-order for my birthday and that was how I got into it. PL: What's your main right now? DJTyrant: Berrorth, my Night Elf rogue, but I will be switching to my death knight to tank with some friends due to how busy the upcoming semester is going to be. PL: For the Horde or Glory to the Alliance? DJTyrant: Alliance!! PL: Do you have any in-game infatuations outside of raiding/PvP, ie mount or pet collecting, AH farming, alts galore, etc? DJTyrant: I'm starting to get into mount and pet collecting, but farming makes me go bananas.  I just can't do it. PL: What is your favorite dungeon?  What about raid? DJTyrant: All time is probably Scarlet Monastery, I love the lore around it and I have a lot of great memories from it. But current dungeons I'd have to say Halls of Lightning.  I find it a fun dungeon. My favorite raid is Black Temple. I have always been a huge Illidan fan and the lore around the dungeon was amazing, and the challenge curve of it was near perfect as far as I'm concerned. Pacing is near perfect (great ratio of trash/bosses) and the climactic end with Illidan.  Also, the music is incredible in there. PL: What do you spend most of your time on in Azeroth? DJTyrant: Raiding, dungeons. With the LFG tool I have been running dungeons a lot more (even though they're faceroll easy at this point). I've become bored of dailies and PvP for the most part, and my leatherworking is still at 440 :(. PL: Do you have a favorite WoW story? DJTyrant: My guild was in the top 300 in the US to kill Illidan.  It felt like quite the accomplishment, along with being fifth on the server behind some five-six day hardcore raiding guilds.  It felt really good to do that content on a three-day schedule. PL: How many guilds have you been a part of? DJTyrant: Five, but most of my time has been with my current guild that I have been raiding with since the beginning of Burning Crusade. PL: Ever quit the game?  If so, why, and what sucked you back in? DJTyrant: Not really. Though there was a period of a few months in 2005 where I played Guild Wars more than WoW. PL: In your opinion, what aspect of WoW does Blizzard need to attend to the most? DJTyrant: Leveling, but the company is doing that of course. I actually would really like to see some sort of closet or something.  I tend to hang on to everything and I have tons of old sets of gear just taking up space in my bank.  I'd love a place to put them so I can put it on and look at again when I want, without it taking up four-five bags worth of space. PL: We've missed your posting lately since your Worgen Hands-on Preview from BlizzCon.  Are you going to be coming back to us soon? DJTyrant: Absolutely! It's one of my resolutions for 2010, I love taking about raiding! PL: Do you have a favorite post of your own?  What about the other bloggers? DJTyrant: I personally don't really like my writing.  Reading it sounds weird to me.  I really like pixiestixy's posts since she has a completely different perspective than mine.  I really enjoy reading that different angle. PL: What other MMOGs have you played in the past? DJTyrant: EverQuest was where I started, then Final Fantasy XI (canceled as soon as I de-leveled), WoW, and Guild Wars. PL: What do you to unwind from WoW? DJTyrant: I watch anime, read manga and graphic novels, and play other PC and console games.

[caption id="attachment_9555" align="alignright" width="300" caption="I'm in your base, killing your princes!"][/caption] Good news everyone, The Crimson Hall opens in two weeks! I hope you started working on The Plagueworks last night, because the next wing will be coming super quick.  Blizzard has made good one the promise to deliver the following wings much sooner than the 28 days we experienced between the Lower Spire and The Plagueworks.  Come January 19, 2010, we will be able to tackle the leaders of the San'layn. Thankfully, the server was super stable last night, allowing my guild's 10-man "A Team" to down Festergut, and put in numerous attempts on <brainfart> Rotface, before the 25-man team does their run tonight.  However, with the difficulties our "most skilled" players had on the second encounter, it does not seem like we'll manage to have Professor Putricide down.  Thanks to Putricide's 10-attempt lockout, we may even be missing his badges as we tackle the Blood Princes and their queen. Bornakk was kind enough to drop the unlock date, but the untainted orc didn't give any further details on the two-boss-encounter wing.  I wonder when we'll see the Frostwing Hall and Sindragosa.  Reports indicate a February 2 date for the queen of the frostwyrms.  Anyone want to place bets? It'd be nice to kill Arthas by Valentine's day.  The best present a girl could ask for. Content is coming quicker than most guilds can handle.  Is that good or bad?

[caption id="attachment_9558" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The fabled Buff Bludgeon, so rarely noticed by players distracted by the Nerf Bat that most people deny it exists at all."][/caption] Yesterday's list of in-game fixes was updated once again after the posting of said story and boy is there one change that I am super excited about! You might recall an article I wrote a few days ago about my decision to pick up a proc-based dagger for my Rogue called Heartpierce. It was a harrowing choice and, at the time, a middling upgrade for a semi-expensive 25 DKP. Then Bornakk rode in on a unicorn, held the Buff Bludgeon to the sky as his mount reared back on two legs, and proclaimed thus, "Hear ye, Rogues! I doth answer your prayers! From this day forward, thine shiny but underpowered dagger shall be even more awesome! " And then, like a silent wind, he disappeared as if he had never been there at all. But we Rogues were left with a proc that now doubled the amount of energy we received from each tick. At least according to gear list site Shadowpanther, that mere change takes Heartpierce from a 264 weapon weaker than its 258 equivalents to a veritable Best-In-Slot option (aside from Icecrown Citadel Heroic loot, of course). As you can imagine, I'm now feeling a lot better about the choice I made and there should now be little question for other Rogues as to whether or not it's worth bidding on. Scanning the rest of the changes, you'll note that Oculus has been nerfed even further and players can now whisper cross-realm party members in their Dungeon Finder groups (a preview of Battle.net 2.0 upgrades to come?):

• The proc for the item, The Last Word, has been greatly increased to allow for more continuous uptime.
• The NPC Margrave Dhakar in Icecrown will properly respawn if killed while doing the quest, The Flesh Giant Champion.
• Wyvern Sting no longer triggers the extra shot effect from Zod's Repeating Longbow.
• The Oculus had some additional changes made. The Planar Anomlies during the Eregos encounter will have a shorter duration and do reduced damage, some of the drakes above Varos’s platform have been removed, and the drakes controlled by players will move a little faster.
• Players can now send a whisper to a player from another realm that is currently in their party.
• The Invigoration buff from melee attacks using the Heartpierce dagger will now grant twice as much resources as before. It now grants 2 rage, 4 energy, or 120 mana every 2 seconds for 10 seconds.

[caption id="attachment_9547" align="alignright" width="276" caption="Beware overpowered players and raid bosses! Foamy justice awaits you on the business end of the nerf bat!"][/caption] The first maintenance back from the holidays brings changes both as small as bug fixes and as big as boss nerfs. Roll on to find out what in-game fixes have been added over the past couple of days:

1/4/10

• 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.

1/5/10

• The Lady Deathwhisper encounter has seen the following changes in the 25 player normal version: mana pool has been reduced, the health on all adds has been reduced, and Adherents will wait a little longer after spawning before they start casting.
• Interrupting a fireball being cast by the Ymirjar Flamebearers in normal and heroic Pit of Saron will no longer make them instantly cast Hellfire.
• The ghost waves at the beginning of both normal and heroic Halls of Reflection have undergone several changes that should make them easier to defeat such as preventing 2 mages or 2 mercenaries from spawning in the 5 mob pulls, a shorter duration of the spectral footman’s shield bash, and the spectral mage’s flamestrike having a longer cast time, shorter duration, and (in heroic) doing less damage.
• The Oculus loot improvements posted here have been made: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=22418861894&pageNo=1&sid=1#0

I think most of these changes will play favorably with people. I, for one, am really excited about the nerf to Lady Deathwhisper. Going into Icecrown Citadel, I fully expected Deathbringer Saurfang to pose the greatest roadblock for our guild, but instead it was Deathwhisper that kept us from progressing for the first couple of weeks. You could blame it on any number of things: a bum strategy, lack of a tight ranged core, or just a lot of trouble handling the adds, but for some reason, winning seemed to elude us attempt after attempt. We eventually achieved victory over the vile temptress, but not without a lot of stress and yelling along the way. I'm proud of our guild and the fact that we managed to conquer Deathwhisper before the nerf, but it will also make things a lot less painful on successive runs. I'm looking forward to curbstomping her tonight so that we can spend more time on Deathbringer and, hopefully, the new bosses that lay beyond. What say you of these changes, readers?

[caption id="attachment_9543" align="alignright" width="300" caption="We don't know much about S8 gear, but Paladin's can look forward to wearing this set."][/caption] Start wrapping up your career folks. Get all your Arena points and rankings in line, because it won't be much longer before the current season comes to a close:

We are currently planning to end Arena Season 7 as early as January 19. At that point we will go through our normal process to determine who is eligible for the end-of-season rewards. This process should take approximately one week. It's very important for players who feel that they may be eligible for the arena-specific titles and/or Relentless Gladiator’s Frostwyrm to refrain from transferring their character to another realm until after Arena Season 7 ends. The following Arena Season will not begin for at least one week after the current season ends. During this time between seasons, all rated matches will be turned off and only skirmishes will be available. When Arena Season 8 begins, all team ratings, personal rating, and arena points will be wiped, but matchmaking rating and honor points will remain.

Of course, the transition between Arena seasons can also be a portent of things to come. I'm sure by the end of tonight, when the best guilds in the world have no doubt blown through all the new encounters in Icecrown Citadel, we'll find out anyway, but why don't we do a little predicting ahead of time? A little bit of math could tell us when the next wing of the raid, The Crimson Hall, is set to open. If Season 7 ends on January 19th as cited above, that gives us two weeks right there. But it takes a whole extra week for Blizzard to go, tally up the scores, and hand out the rewards. There's a good chance we'll get a minor patch at this time that unlocks both Season 8 gear and the latest boss in the Vault of Archavon, Toravon the Ice Watcher. This Hodir-lookin' mofo will no doubt drop the usual PvP equipment, Tier 10 pieces, and even more Emblems of Frost for you to gobble up. This makes January 26th, three weeks away, the perfect time to drop the next wing of Icecrown Citadel. We will likely also find the fabled cinematic slipped stealthily into the game files in the process. So mark your calendars, everyone. January 26th the next date to mark on your calenders. Make sure to steel yourself for both more PvP and PvE conquests in the near future! Update: Looks like two weeks for the next wing is the official word. I suppose it will coincide with the end of Season 7 and not necessarily the beginning of Season 8.

I've only had the chance to complete three weekly raids since the release of Patch 3.3 (with the fourth one awaiting me when I find the time this week), and I already can say that I'm a big fan. As opposed to the daily heroic quest that we had waiting for us prior to the new patch (replaced with random heroics that we continue to run without the quest), it seems that this new challenge of a weekly raid offers a slightly new experience -- plus the drool-worthy spoils of 5 Frost badges, 5 Triumph badges and 33 gold. The first couple of weeklies I got, Lord Jarraxus must die and Instructor Razuvious must die were pretty straight-forward since both include content that I've already seen plenty of times. And both involved me grouping with guildies who also were familiar with the fights, so it went really smoothly. Then last week threw a curve ball when Malygos must die made its way into the rotation. Since I've only made my way to the raiding scene in the past couple of months, I actually had not previously downed the arrogant dragon. And apparently I wasn't the only one, since out of my group only three players knew the fight going in. That made the fight interesting, to say the least, but also a lot of fun. Even though I died promptly at the start of Malygos' third and final phase in flight, the rest of the raid party battled it out, and we managed to one-shot it. This week, I'll take on everyone's favorite temper-tantrum throwing robot, XT-002 Deconstructor. So after a few shots, here's what I really like about the weekly raid:

• Coordination is necessary. It's a lot easier to screw up a 10- or 25-man raid, especially in a PUG. This also could be a bad thing if you get an inexperienced group. But I see it as a good thing, because it adds to the challenge.
• A variety of content. As was the case for me with Malygos, the weekly raid likely will introduce players to a lot of content that they otherwise might not go see ( such as the Obsidian Sanctum, Naxxramas, The Eye of Eternity and Ulduar). Likewise, it may also allow more recent level 80s the opportunity to try to get into groups for the newer content like Trial of the Crusader and, of course Icecrown Citadel.
• The option for 10- or 25-man raid groups of varying difficulties. If you're not having any luck getting into a 10-man group because everyone has already done it for the week, you can try to form a 25-man group. Or if you already have one achievement but need the other, once again you can choose to try that route. Options are always a good thing in my book.
• Only once a week. Which hopefully will prevent the raids from getting stale -- at least not right away.
• Phat lootz, as mentioned above.

And the cons:

• Once again, the need for coordination. If you find yourself in bad PUG after bad PUG, it could get frustrating quick. Players who don't know the fights (or don't have the achievements to prove that they do) also may have a hard time getting into groups if its not with guildies or other friends in-game.
• Killing of specific bosses leads to skipping over the rest of the content. Perhaps that's good for old school raiders since you can get the quest done pretty quickly. But for newer raiders hoping to get through the whole raid, they'll have to advertise it that way to the group or risk everyone leaving after the downing of the quest boss.

Overall, though, I'm digging the new system, which is why I'm obviously in favor of it. Perhaps that will change over time if I think of more cons to add to my list. What does everyone else think of the weekly raid so far? And what pros and cons would you add from your own experiences?

The second wing of Icecrown Citadel, known as the Plagueworks, will be playable today. Players must first defeat all four existing bosses in the Lower Spire (Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, Gunship Battle, Deathbringer) in a given lockout period to access the Plagueworks. There are three bosses in the Plagueworks - Festergut, Rotface, and Professor Putricide. They are located in the west wing of the citadel. Once the subsequent wings are released (Frostwing Halls and the Crimson Halls), it seems that there will be some leeway in choosing what order to do the bosses. Professor Putricide leads the Plagueworks. He is one of  the masterminds behind the Plague of Undeath and has been researching and perfecting many of the Scourge's horrors. Rotface and Festergut are two of his more horrific creations. Some of the loot from these new bosses has already been found by MMO-Champion. Head over to their site to see what you can hope to get from Rotface, Festergut, and Putricide. There are a number of other bug fixes and changes going live today, including updated loot for Oculus. I would expect a small patch to be distributed today to reflect some of these changes.

[caption id="attachment_9526" align="alignright" width="300" caption="I bet if the dungeon was as sweet as this yacht, people would be running it all the time!"][/caption] Blizzard's tried. They really have. They've toned down the difficulty, they've increased the power of the drakes, and they've even made it easier to find a group for a dungeon that nobody wants to run. Alright, so they force you into a group for a dungeon nobody wants to run, and even then people bolt the minute they get past the rather telling loading screen. For a lot of players, getting Oculus out of the Dungeon Finder is more like playing the version of roulette where you have to use a six-shooter instead of a spinning, multi-colored wheel. At this point, what else could they possibly do to make the instance more popular with their players? Why, how about passing out even more loot? It's starting to look a lot like begging, Blizz. Next thing you know you'll be putting on the kneepads, and I'm not talking about the ones you use while praying for people to actually run the dungeon. But you heard me right. According to Zarhym, you get a free bag of goodies as long as you make it all the way to (and through) the final boss, Eregos:

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.

Considering a good run of the Oculus takes about as long as it does for the 15-minute Dungeon Finder debuff to wear off anyway, this is a total steal! I'm already drowning in Emblems of Triumph, but hey, some rare gems and a shot at a new mount (it seems you don't even have to roll against other people for it) is decent enough for me. This update should be hotfixed in by the time maintenance is done tomorrow, but whether or not it will change the fate of what seems to be Wrath's least popular dungeon remains to be seen. But we can take an informal poll, right? Will this change in loot policy persuade you to stick around the next time Oculus pops up as your Random Daily?

[caption id="attachment_9518" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Casting agency still searching for a plucky female lead with a torn past."][/caption] There was a tidbit of news that dropped at the end of the year that any World of Warcraft player should know, because it concerns the privacy of your information.  Way back on December 31st it came to light that Blizzard Entertainment had helped the Howard County Sheriff's Department track down an alleged drug dealer.  Across country, not county, lines, no less. Alfred Hightower had a warrant issued for his arrest in 2007.  He was wanted for dealing in controlled substances and marijuana.  During the investigation two pieces of information came out that ultimately lead to Hightower's arrest. Deputy Matt Roberson discovered that Hightower had fled the country, and that he enjoyed playing a little game called World of Warcraft.  Taking a shot in the dark, Roberson, a retired WoW player himself, sent Blizzard a subpeona seeking any information the company would divulge. Roberson hit the jackpot. In accordance with the Terms of Service that Hightower agreed to by playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard sent the deputy loads of information on the suspect.  His IP address, account information and history, billing address, preferred server and even his "online screen name" was handed over.  With that much information in hand it became a routine bounty hunt. “I did a search off the IP address to locate him,” said Roberson. “I got a longitude and latitude. Then I went to Google Earth. It works wonders. It uses longitude and latitude. Boom! I had an address. I was not able to go streetside at the location, but I had" his location in Canada. This should serve as an important reminder to players that your information is never secure on the Internet.  Big Brother Blizzard implications can now commence.