Project Lore

1st

grats on the blog sevink. Also biggest change that they could improve upon is of course, the LFG app.

i think it would be good and make radingin far more interesintg and Second

I would agree. the easiest and smartest move they could improve for people would be the LFG. This idea is more aimed at the hardcore raiding guilds with little to nothing to do. I know half of the people in my guild still comes to raids only out of the niceness of their hearts to help guildies, they blazed through the content so fast they've had months to sit on their hands. Oh well it looks like Uld is shaping up to be a nice progression for guilds, I'm looking forward to it.

1153 gold?!! wow

welcome to PL Sevink. very good post. it is a rather intriguing idea. I think it would be a good implement. While I have been able to see some engame content I don't have the time to "grind emblems" like others. However, i have been apart of big boss kills and access to a particular loot table would be nice. I am not sure where Blizz is going with the achievement points (i thought the idea would be able to spend the points) so what you suggested would be nice. Maybe for a particular area there is a location drop list ranging from uncommon to epic. After running the place long enough for emblems that loot list would be accessable to purchase them from. After 2 years of WoW i have only received 2 world epic drops and one of those I actually grinded for.

Will have to see what Blizz has for the future patch. Good post.

Well ... it's true that hardcore gamers deserve an improvement ... but, on the other hand, they are only a few elitists to go around ... most of the players out there aren't nearly close to that rank... so the vendor would really satisfy only a few people on each server ... while Blizzard i trying to satisfy the vast majority of players ... so i doubt that this vendor will exist except if they will introduce newer and harder instances that surpass the current ones (e.g. just like karazhan and zul'aman were surspassed by SSC, TK etc.)

Welcome to PL Sevink! I must say, that sounds like a pretty good idea. Different ways to get PvE drops besides actually rolling on it during a raid and hoping you actually obtain it, sounds like a good plan.

Yeah I can agree with you Eugen this would only satisfy a small number of hardcore radiers, but with the evolution to the game the hardcores are getting less and less per expansion and patch. I'm not saying dont make your game for the mass just don't forget about the people who bought your game day one and still continue to play (and pay) The vendor could also very easily help casuals, once a certain amount of instances have surpassed the the vendors loot open it up for everyone to use their marks on. This would ensue after a length of time even casuals can use their marks for good gear. That way even they could get in on the new vendor.

I was reading this and thinking yea that would be great. Then I read the comment about LFG and thought you know they really should do something about that first.

There is no in game way to tell if someone is up to the challenge of an instance gear wise until your grouped with them and standing outside the entrance. That's when you see they are still all geared out in their T6 raiding gear from level 70 and you want to put your face through your desk at how they were able to gear up so well at 70 and still not understand the game well enough to have found the appropriate upgrades at 80 before attempting their first heroic.

Each item has it's own item level, can't they use gear like this as a way to give us an idea of a players ability not to be a liability in instance, avg item level maybe?

Next there is no way to identify a decent player from the LFG system. Why can't they make the achievements visible while in LFG. This way I can see that player X who is in queue for heroic HOL just dinged 80 today and probably isn't geared for heroics and they have even run a single instance on non heroic.

It would also be nice if they had an instance counter that simply showed instance and how many times the end boss for it was downed. That can help decide when putting groups together if you want to bother with someone in a heroic instance because they haven't run any yet.

I think these types things are far more needed than more options for gear. These enable LFG to be a functional way for players to match up appropriate skills for a given instance and it be less of a crap shot at who your getting meaning more people will use it.

Of course its not a bad idea, but if it were implimented, many "casual" players would get to together and have a QQ rally.

"NOEZ! WE WANT ACCESS TO THINGS EVEN THO WE DONT RAID WELL AND THAT SORTA THINGZ, CUZ WE PAY 15 BUCKS A MONTHZORZ!"

I'm going to have to say this blog posting is a bit bad from a writing standpoint and from a WoW player standpoint.

The author attempts to make multiple points neither of which have anything to do with each other. The first point he tries to make is that Blizzard should offer something more than the achievement to players who complete the higher end encounters for achievements. The second point he throws out there is that Blizzard should offer the raiding dungeon loot drops as badge vendor items for purchase. When you're writing, you should try and stay focused on one idea. If you're wanting to make a post about multiple ideas, explain that up front and make it clear that you're talking about multiple points. Perhaps a list and some paragraphs describing what you're writing about.

From a WoW player standpoint, I'll discuss the first point the author makes. The author claims that Blizzard should offer extra gear from the badge vendor for completion of the higher end achievements. I agree with this only on principal, but from a balancing perspective it would be difficult to do. With the current raid encounters we already end up quickly out gearing the dungeons. Both Naxxramas 10 and 25 man are currently designed for players wearing mostly heroic gear. This amounts to a good mix of level 200 rare and epic items. What this means is that if you're running Naxxramas 10-man, you are already out-gearing Naxxramas 25. If you're running Naxxramas 25, you're earning gear that outgears the entire dungeon. If you're killing Malygos 25 and Sartharion 2D 25, you're getting gear items of ilevel 226 which severely outgear the encounters by 26 item levels and an entire different tier of items (rare vs. epic). What exactly would they offer from this vendor for raiders to accomplish? An extra few items of the same tier offers nothing of benefit to the raid team and would make it very difficult to make a case for running the content for anything more than they already do now--for the ability to say they've done it. You could throw in a vendor that offers them ilevel 226 gear, but then they'd just outgear Ulduar 25 by the time 3.1 hits the game.

Moving into the point regarding offering all of the earlier drops as badge rewards, we end up with a situation that kind of takes the fun out of raiding. If Blizzard were to take every item and simply give you badges rather than drops that you would spend, it would quickly turn raiding into even more of a grind than it is now. The drop system offers some randomized reward for the encounter that helps keep players interested, as well as keeps players playing.

For your point about off spec gear, any guild that's already farming these dungeons already has their characters decked out in off-spec items. I've picked up enough badges to buy not only Savage Gladiator and Hateful gladiator items, I'm also picking up PVE moonkin gear off spec in Naxxramas 25. This is in addition to my character that has a full set of 213 PVE gear with the 226 belt off of Malygos.

If your guild is not offering you the chance at off spec gear, either it's because more players need main spec stuff or you're just in the wrong guild for you.

Take into consideration these ideas for your next post and try to stay on point.

Sevink's "multiple points" do complement each other. He is stating that because the players have completed the achievements, that they should be awarded with the dungeon loot drops as badge vendor items. He is stating the reason why they should be able to get the items for badges. So from a writing stand point there is nothing wrong with his article.

From a game standpoint I feel that this would not work out as simple as we may wish. The major problem I see in this idea is that it takes a lot of the randomness out of the game. The whole point I go into a raid or dungeon is to see if I can win the roll on the loot. If I don't then I have something to look forward too in the future.

In a way Blizzard has already implemented this to a certain extent. My biggest disappointment with the Wrath expansion is that they have made getting all of the great end game gear too easy. I loved the challenge that BC gave me regarding dungeons and raids. You wouldn't be geared for a raid unless you had done some Heroics and received some of that gear. In Wrath I was able to have a BS make me the Savage Saronite Set and there was only 1 or 2 items that needed upgrading from Heroics before I would be any good in a raid. Some people actually skipped over the Heroics, got their crafted epic gear and jumped right into Naxx.

If I want some of the T7 set, I just have to grind a few Heroics and I get my hands and chest piece. Where is the challenge in that? Where is the fun in that? I want to be able to show off my raid gear and feel like I've actually done something to earn it, instead of saying, "Hey check out what I got from the vendor!"

@Displace

The raiding situation should fix itself with Ulduar 25 since you won't be able to craft 213 epics so far as we know right now. While it's entirely possible they add some 213 crafted recipes I don't expect it to be the situation it is now.

Hmm... Not so sure about this...
Although I must say I like the idea of opening vendors that sell new cool stuff if you have progressed to a point, and I am already liking blizzards Gear token system.

There is a few problems though:
1. Gear is really easy to get by now, I mean if you raid 25man naxx you can eventually buy your 4 piece bonus from emblems. Making the random drop factor less for you (sure half of those 4 pieces would be the 10 version).
2. Easyer to get gear = less interest in doing the instance over and over again = You loose interest quicker. Being able to buy offspec gear really isn't going to keep you interested longer imo.

Also thise vendors can't sell gear of a higher item level, as this would out date the Ulduar gear even before it is released. Or it would force Ulduar to be harder than the general populations gear should suggest it should be.
We saw this problem in late TBC. The gear sold by the vendors at Quel'danas was extreamly good, and your could easily get them from farming Kara. And it lead to, atleast for my guild, a lot of players having better gear than they:
1. Deserved
2. could handle. Even with better gear people still couldnt handle bosses that dropped lower itemleveled gear.
3. Lack of interest due to slow progression and no reason to kill bosses, since the gear sucked.

What I am getting at is easy to get gear is fine to a point, but shouldn't devalue what you get from raids.

Also Achievements are there to spice up the game, and give people small challenges. And the rewards Trophies rather than must have items.
I see way to many people obsessing over achievements they are not ready for, what will happen when you get more than your epeen enlarged from doing it?
Same goes for achievement points, its a messure of how many of them you have done, not another 'badge' for loot.

simply put, good idea

I completely disagree with the idea, much as i disagree with the arena point system. My theory behind this is that you shouldn't be rewarding the best raiders with the better gear more so with the horrid arena system (if your the best you get better gear).
Being a casual raider (10 mans on the weekend) the end game gear is not something i will be getting alot of, now if they came up with a way to buy boss drops it could be interesting.

My solution is kinda simple just add more content in the middle more 5 mans more 10 mans (naxx difficulty). Give people a reason to play this game at 80 other than raiding.

well that is my 2 cents and don't take it and try to auction it for 500g it's still only 2 cents.

Done about 14 heroic raids succesfully, as a mage, i havent got a single loot item.

trinkets from OS are too general 10+ people roll, and VOA has a habbit of dropping ALL plate when i go.

I wouldn't be angry that only a small percentage of the WoW population would get this gear, in fact, I'd see it more of a goal for myself that I should look to obtaining the said gear and up my game in order to get it.

So, ultimately, I think it's a good idea.

@Mike C
I would bet a nickle that you applied for one of PL positions and didn't get it. You can tell me I'm wrong and there is a good chance I am, but your post just has a bit to much of a "sour grapes" feel.

Anyway, I would me prefer that the boss drops be a bit smarter. I'm all for main spec and off spec drops. Its just annoying to see SP/Int plate drop when there are either no plate wearers or only warriors/DK's.

what is wrong with teh LFG app... i put in what groups i want and i am searching fro all 3... i never have a problem... only thing they coudl do better is add a tab where u select DPS HEALS OR TANK...

I think that unlocking certain random loot through the achievement system is a grand idea. This wouldn't necessarily only reward the hard-core raiders either. It would instead reward casual raiders that are quality players.

In my opinion one of the worst things a game can do, is make you pound your head against the RNG. Blizzard has already shown that they would rather have WOW players actually participating in their content for the sake of the content. See the changes made to Ebon Knights dailies, the addition of Sons of Hodir and Cenarion Expedition rep turn-ins, and the implementation of rep tabards. With these devices Blizzard has made it so hours played isn't the most important aspect of getting gear. Now a player with a solid plan can get geared for heroics, 10-mans, and 25-mans without wasting hours waiting for a group to run with. Allowing players to do this to get prepared for Ulduar and beyond is a natural progression.