The Faulty Design Of The Argent Tournament
Posted by iTZKooPA on Friday, May 22, 2009 - 24 Comments Tags: argent tournament, champion's seals, game design, icecrown, lagergrasp, qqing, quest design, wintergrasp
It's been just over a month since the Secrets of Ulduar stopped being secretive and brought us the Argent Tournament. The new Icecrown area was designed to raise the level of solo content for those players who wouldn't be entering Ulduar any time soon, or ever. And we enjoyed it for awhile.
I've only missed 3 days worth of dailies since the tournament went live and would consider myself a bit of an expert on the subject. Don't believe me? Well then how about this dose of arrogance; I can down all four Champions for Among the Champions without healing my stead. That really should be an Achievement in my humble opinion. Doing anything that many days in a row leads to a bit of burnout and I am no exception. I can't wait until either new Argent Tournament content is added - how long does a coliseum take to build anyways? - or I can stop grinding those Champion's Seals. Only 70 more to go till I grab the five-some of pets, then it's back to grinding for the Hippogryph.
Enough background and qualifying information. The major fault of the tournament isn't that the content gets stale quickly, or even that it's more financially rewarding to not Champion every faction, it is the design of the Citadel quests. Actually, not the quests themselves, but the area of Corp'rethar itself. I'm lucky enough to have time in the morning to tackle my dailies when most people aren't online. Over the course of the month+ I have had to delay those tasks till peak hours, a time when the Court of Bones turns into a mini Wintergrasp. If I had to deal with the lag and lack of mobs on a daily basis I think I would have quit the Argent Tournament a long time ago.
At first I wrote off the problem as being due to the allure of new content, and wholeheartedly expected the area to become a wasteland in the near future. Last week's afternoon Citadel run told me otherwise. How did Blizzard not see this coming? They basically took the crowds of Dalaran, tossed them into a single confined area and have them fight over a limited resource (although quickly respawning). Who approved that design document?
With the reduction of the Hippogrpyh's price, the bird has been re-added to list of things to purchase. This means I only have...44 days left. Those added quests and chance to score a Seal from the purses can't come soon enough. Solidsamm deserves a break after the pets.
Do you experience this kind of lag, or is it limited to my aging and crowded server? Still plugging away at those Seals?
Reader Comments (24)
Argent Tournament does become stale very quickly and i agree with the whole layout of the Corp’rethar area. Whilst I don't experience lag there, i do see alot of players there also. And in all fairness, people group up to do the quests there. So people don't really solo it.
Dalaran though I still get major lag.
I am sick of grinding for stuff from the Argent Tournament! As much as i loved it at first now its just tedious imo, i only do the dailies now that keep you on site :/
Also doing my dailys elsewhere in Icecrown has become a paint in the ASS! Luckily i play a PVE server but this means people just tag mobs and pull massive amounts that a clothie like me couldnt handle :(
Also THANK GOD I STOPPED SOMEONE SAYING THE F WORD!
i play on a squishy PvE server :) no need for mini WG in court of bones
I don't get lag but I play at 12 am est. Even then it's a bit crowded. I have a long way to go to get anywhere and I am bored with it already, but all daily grinds bore me so...
PS @Eli you were not F anyway lol :)
I blame you realm.
I am at the same point as you. I do the 4 champion fights without healing my steed everyday to make somewhat of a challenge (and the first time I did that I said the exact same thing as you to my guild, that it should TOTALLY be an achievement) Shit I even try not to heal my stead for the 4 champion fights and run over to do valiants fights and see how far i get before i need to heal. But Im totally sick of doing those quests where u have to get a weapon for the race you're trying to champion (ex: Winters Edge) but I also agree with davie, that all dailies tend to bore me one way or another. Repeativeness bores me I guess. But I still do them for the pets, mounts, and especially the quick money.
Well, surely you remember the Isle of Quel'Danas! This is similar, however the quests are more fun imo. I am on a PvE server so the peek hours are actually the best time to play due to getting groups for the Threat from above quest.
I don't see a problem with it, yet I have been playing WoW since classic when the only "dailies" were farming mobs that drop 5s hours on end to make money for your epic mount.
I have never had to fight people over mobs, as I play on a pve realm, but also, I usually dont play during peak hours.
However, on the off chance I do, I still see no crowding, and I play on Area 52, a very crowded server.
I don't have much of an issue with Corp'rethar myself, either. I think my only complaint would be when a mob that you've supposedly tapped magically becomes tapped towards another player who's fighting your mob. (Thank goodness that doesn't happen very often.)
i havent had a problem at all...i hardly see anyone out there as a matter of fact and im on a medium population server...can get up to high sometimes...idk, time of day probably plays a huge factor but i have done the quests at varying times of day and havent run into any problems
I only ever suffer lag in Corp'rethar when there is a WG battle going on, there are always a lot of people about and when a WG battle is not going on and this still does not cause lag issues for me or the fact that its a small area because the mobs respawn so quickly. I would say the only reason you are experiencing lag at these peak times is because of either your server or a WG battle is going on, next time it happens, check to see on the map. Crazy I know, WG lag spreads to surrounding areas.
Well the tournament is like a mini ren faire, like a ren faire it gets a bit boring after a while
They really do need to build on it more though, other ways to get the seals, more quest options for those that dont like some of them esp since 5 seals a day is brutal
I'd like to get the tabards but i dont really have anywhere to store them bagspace is crowded as is :(
Same thing with the banners except moreso.
As for the issues with bottlenecking in corprethar, that happens whenever blizz puts out content. Dalaran same problem, island, same problems, org/stormwind/ironforge same problems. People clump ALOT. It's hard to get them to stop clumping. :(
i like to go thier and gank hordies so fun i havent tried to beat all 4 of the champions but i am surre i could do it i rape the commender with usauly half my healph still left but sometimes scourge may interfear it woul be coolif you could complete all 25 dailys in one place thier are 4 or 5 in EB thier ALOT on teh scy breaker an then thier is the argent tournament anoter 5 dailys then just hit teh sons of hodir to finish it of the isle of qual'danas was quite diffrent for starters you never had ti keave the island and in my opion the dailys aare much easier i loce the EB dailys whear you have to shoot down the drakes i usauly stay even after i get my 15
Isn't that the point of PvP servers? You can't have it both ways.
doing 4 champions without healing? that not rly that hard, have a personal record to loose less than 4.5k hp on one so without healer should be ok even you need to digure the strategy, and I am not a champion with my third faction yet
i pretty much stopped argeant tournament after i got my Staff of Feral Furies due to i HATE the mounted combat :S i know theres so much more i can get out of it and so much money to be made but i just cant bring myself to do it. i need motivation!!
@Albullno
Blizzard has put up some new info on the Warcraft site regarding patch 3.2 . Dunno if it'll change your mind any, just poiting it out.
I meant mini WG in the lag sense, not the PvP sense. You'll never see me complain about getting PvPed.
Despite how tedious the dailies are I enjoy the fact they are pretty much all there in Icecrown. Makes it much quiker to do them. I finally got my Crusader and Ambassador title yesterday, which was what I was aiming for.
As we have no details on what new dailies are in the upcoming pack, I'm going to reserve further judgement until then.
I have given up going to Dalaran. I get a grand total of 2 fps when I enter this place.
As for a "chance to score a seal from the purses", I have had 8 in the last 8 purses (1 per purse). Call me lucky, but I like it ^_^
I've never done the argent tournament (I'm an 80 paladin) but I've checked it out and saw a staff that I want on my hunter once I get her to 80 (Staff of Feral Furies). My hunter is level 70 right now.
I am fortunate enough to squeeze in the Argent Tournament dailies fairly early in the day, but I have absolutely noticed that the later I get to the Court of Bones, the harder it is to finish the quests in a timely fashion.
I really do not tire of dailies, so I feel no boredom at all yet from the Tournament. I would however like to see the next stage soon.
~Ril
I wish people would quit complaining about grinds. It's called a "grind" for a reason, you know! Once you're done you get something that other people DON'T get unless they do the grind, as well. If you don't want to do the grind, guess what?!.......YOU DON'T HAVE TO! Please just don't then bitch that Blizz didn't just hand you whatever item it was that you wanted and how that's so unfair for them to force you to do something you don't want to do to get something you want but aren't automatically entitled to. Jeez.
Well, i havn't championed any of the factions yet in the Argent Tournament. Im just now getting past Aspirants. lol. I do most of the dailys there but since reaching Valiants i've been saying 'NO' to the half an hour or so of stress trying to defeat 3 valiants on my mount.
Here recently i've started to pick up on it though after talking to a few friends how they do it and even a few guildies. Im getting where i can just blow through the 3 fights with ease.
But i mainly go there for gold. That's all im interested in at this point in the game. The more gold i can get, the better. But i agree with the citadel daily. That one isn't tough for me but it's frustrating when you target a lieutenant and charge in just to have it go gray a split second before your attack hits.