Project Lore

Groups tackling normal modes in Icecrown Citadel no longer will be limited by a fixed number of available attempts, Blizzard blue poster Daelo announced on the official WoW forums late Monday. Here's what was posted:

After each region's maintenance this week, raids will no longer lose attempts on wipes in Normal mode for Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, Sindragosa, and the Lich King. There will still be limited attempts in Heroic mode. We will continue to monitor developments in Icecrown Citadel in the future, especially since the Heroic difficulty has been unlocked by a significant number of raids.

A few hours later, Slorkuz expanded on the topic in the European forums:

Click to read more ...

If you've read up on the latest Icecrown Citadel preview, you might have noticed the following text in the description:

"Icecrown Citadel features 10- and 25-player versions of the raid dungeon, and each version has 12 encounters. Each encounter can be fought in either normal or Heroic mode, and players can use a new user interface feature to toggle easily between difficulties."

As it implies, ICC will be returning to a more traditional style of raid progression, with only two lockouts (10-man and 25-man) as opposed to four, like Trial of the Crusader (10-man, 25-man, and heroic versions of each). But the wording didn't seem entirely clear. What exactly did it mean by each encounter being fought in either normal or Heroic mode, then? Well, the problem seems to be that Blizzard is doing a little dance with their own terminology. It should really read "each encounter being fought in either normal or Hard mode," since Heroic is once again being used as a label for the 25-man version of the dungeon. What this really means is not that you will be able to switch between 10 and 25-man at will, but rather that you will have the opportunity to tweak the difficult of individual boss battles at any time you want outside of actually being in combat with one. This is different from the way the mechanic is handled in Ulduar, where the Hard modes for each boss are activated in different ways like timers, buttons, and damage dealt. Bornakk confirms:

"Assuming everything goes as planned, you can switch it back and forth as much as you like. Encounter 1 on hard, 2 on normal, 3 on hard, 4 on normal, etc. In effect it works out similar to Ulduar but it's with a much more clear method in the UI as opposed to the fairly confusing process of figuring out some encounter mechanics just to activate it."

To be honest, I'm not sure if this is necessarily a good change. Sure, it'll give everyone a chance to try out the Hard modes as they see fit, but sometimes the limits placed on accessing them also served as a trial to see whether or not a given raid group was cut out for it. For instance, if you don't have the chops to kill XT-002's heart, then you probably won't be able to finish the fight without dying or hitting the Enrage on Hard. Allowing just anyone to take a crack is going to end in a lot of bitter tears, and may even lead to some Hard modes being nerfed faster, since there will be a greater number of unprepared players engaging them and, thus, complaining about them. I'm all for convenience, but sometimes it feels as though tweaks like this further marginalize the hardcore player base. If Hard modes are supposed to challenge top level raiding guilds, why not just leave it that way? What say you, readers?

Click to read more ...

Despite the fact that the official patch notes clearly state that the Forge of Souls would be the first wing of the new 5-man Icecrown Citadel instance available for exploring, players on the test server can only currently access the the second wing, Pit of Saron. Even if it does seem a bit odd to kick off testing with the middle of this epic story instead of the beginning, I was still hungry for any bone Blizzard was going to throw us, so I gathered up a war party and ventured deep into the unfortunately-acronymed dungeon. If you're not afraid of spoilers (and there will be some), continue reading below! A word of warning to those who might seek entrance to the Pit of Saron before I begin: while the servers themselves seem to have been largely stabilized, many characters are having trouble seeing the instance portals. This appears to be a bug associated with phased content, meaning that anyone who has completed certain Icecrown quests (the exact culprits haven't been nailed down just yet) will not be able to see, let alone use, them. In that case, you'll have to either transfer another, less developed character, use a premade, or hope there's a Warlock in the group that can summon you in. I, for instance, have been stuck using my under-geared Elemental Shaman, Nuggnuts, instead my pimped out Rogue, Amatera. This will no doubt be fixed in upcoming builds, but those are the only options for now. If you're not cool with that, feel free to join the rest of the players out there using the dungeon's abbreviation as a fun pejorative for describing their current experience! That aside, let's get on with it! The first thing I noticed when I entered the Pit is that the bulk of it consists of a wide-open outdoor area. This means two things: mounts and the ability to skip trash. There also may be some choice regarding which order you tackle the first two bosses in. The dungeon map for Pit of Saron. The second thing I noticed was the big, bad frostwyrm called Rimefang hovering overhead, with Scourgelord Tyrannus, the mine's overseer in the saddle. After taking a few steps in, Lady Sylvanas appeared from the portal behind us (well, if you're Horde, she will), with two of her Dark Rangers, and a small battalion of troops in tow. The redshirts of the group charged right for Tyrannus, who clearly doesn't like people interfering with his operations. A little bit of the old Darth Vader stranglehold and they all dropped to the ground, dead. Tyrannus flew off, leaving the remainder of his undead minions for us to deal with.

Sylvanas' forces attempt to crush Tyrannus...

...and are subsquently destroyed. From here, the path split off to the left or the right around the eponymous Pit, where tired slaves are busy digging out Saronite while a giant, floating skull watches from above. Each one leads to a different boss encounter, and as I mentioned before, it doesn't seem particularly important which you decide to fight first. We chose to go to the right, which included offing some giant skeletons, necrolytes, and vrykul -- in other words, the usual Icecrown rogue's gallery. *The* Pit of Saron Along the way, just passing by slaves working the ore freed them, and they had all sorts of reactions to their saviors, from just plain old running away to thinking that they're hallucinating when they first saw you. It adds a nice little touch to the proceedings. Eventually, we reached the platform where Forgemaster Garfrost resided, who was essentially a giant vrykul crossed with an abomination. He looks a lot like the Pustulent Horrors you might see wandering around Mord'rether, but with a sack of giant Saronite boulders on his back, which he evidently thought was a good idea to toss at us during the fight. His other primary ability seems to be an AoE pulse that stacks a debuff on you, increasing Frost damage taken. This means you'll need to take him down quickly before it builds up and his regular attacks start doing too much to handle. Garfrost's ugly mug. Though we downed him on the first attempt, I won't say it went cleanly. I was killed due to one of the boss' ranged attacks and so were the Hunter and Resto Druid (aka the healer), leaving the two Paladins in our group to finish the job (I should mention here that loot hasn't been implemented yet, on trash or bosses). A previously enslaved Orc named Gorkun Ironskull appeared to retake the forge, along with all the other laborers we had previously relieved of their bonds. He promised that they would take the opportunity to gear up and help us in our final assault. After rezzing everyone and buffing back up, we traversed the Northern edge of the Pit towards the second boss, a corrupted leper gnome named Krick and his hideous companion/mount, Ick. This wasn't a particularly hard fight either, but it was fun and definitely tested our movement skills. For a majority of the encounter, Ick tossed globs of slime, which created poisonous, green pools on the ground where they landed. These came slowly and were easy to dodge. But at some point during the fight, Krick decided that it simply wasn't doing the job on its own and started conjuring time bombs on the ground. Represented by expanding, purple domes, they started popping up all over the place and quickly became difficult to completely avoid. All the while, Ick continued to throw bolts of his fetid bile at the party, dealing direct damage this time. Unfortunately, I bit the dust again, but we still managed to pull off a victory on our first attempt. Krick gets throttled by Sylvanas. Sylvanas appeared to take the vile gnome's life, but before he perished, he let slip that the Lich King's blade, Frostmourne, could be found in the 3rd wing of the instance, the Halls of Reflection. Sylvanas questioned Krick's admission, citing that she thought Arthas always had it by his side, but he continued to insist that he was telling the truth. With the second boss down, Tyrannus showed his ugly mug once again. He taunted us from the skies, provoking us to burst through the ranks of his most powerful undead lackeys and challenge him on the platform above. Several more powerful packs of trash stood before us on the slope, five or six to a number. Trash on the way to Tyrannus. Hey, look! A cave! Embarassingly, we wiped on the first set, but picked back up and made it through the rest more or less unscathed. The cliffside eventually lead to a cave, which I can now admit is probably my favorite part of the dungeon. The trash inside isn't terribly difficult, but you'll have to fight them through falling blocks of ice. If you've ever fought Hodir in Ulduar, you should already be familiar with this mechanic, as glowing blue circles on the ground will show you where icicles are about to drop. This looks awfully familiar... On the other side of the cave we met Tyrannus for the final time. He had nowhere left to run or hide. Gorkun and his men appeared to back us up, distracting the Scourgelord's undead army so that we could face him and his frostwyrm alone... In the interest of at least keeping some things a secret, I'll end my recount of the events here. As for what I thought of it when it all was said and done? Well, if you were expecting a challenge, I don't think you'll find it here. The Pit of Saron, at least, isn't much more difficult than any of the other Heroic 5-man dungeons out there. But it does flow better, and the integrated story elements allow the instance to have a sort of "rhythm" you just don't get in other parts of the game. With each boss down, you feel like you're actively working towards an end goal instead of just more loot, and the inclusion of important NPCs like Sylvanas adds some extra fun, even if you never fight directly by her side. I'm reminded somewhat of the dungeons in Lord of the Rings Online, and I hope that, at least in terms of pushing the narrative, this is a path Blizzard continues to tread in the future. Facing down Tyrannus, once and for all!

Click to read more ...

Trial of the Crusader has been something of a test-bed for Blizzard's raid experimentation. There's no trash, there are four different versions to complete, (almost) all of the fights take place in the same room, and you can choose from three different levels of tiered gear (not to mention the split between Alliance/Horde-themed equipment, and the resulting similarities of said pieces between classes of the same faction). The devs have made it clear that this dungeon doesn't represent a fundamental change in their raiding philosophy. That's to say that while we may see similar instances at some point in the far future, there are no plans to use ToC as a template for everything they create from here on out. Now that Anub'Arak has been released (and conquered), and we've all had a chance to see the instance from beginning to end, I think it's safe to raise the question: has it been a success? Is the model for Trial of the Crusader a good one to build upon in the future? There's no way for us to tell how Blizzard feels, except for the random bits of information that we can occasionally glean from posts on the forums or the rare developer interview, but that shouldn't stop the rest of us from discussing it amongst ourselves. We hate to love it, and we love to hate it. To me, Trial is a risky proposition. In many ways, it's the idealized form of what a raid should be: several interesting boss fights that drop desirable loot, with as little bullshit as possible. This is, essentially, what many players say that they desire. On Normal mode, with a decent group, you've got a really good chance of clearing it in an hour or so and walking away with some top-of-the-line gear (and even if you don't, those Triumph badges build up real quick). So, why is that a potential problem? My personal philosophy is that, whether we like them or not, we all have to play by the rules of the MMORPG. That means that we're all slaves to the good ol' "carrot-and-stick." It's an odd relationship, for sure. Blizzard's got to figure out how big to make that carrot and how hard to whack us with the stick, while we players have to decide whether or not the carrot's big and tasty enough to make getting whacked by the stick worth it in the first place. What makes it even more complicated is that each and every player has a different level of tolerance. But here's the rub: at the end of the day, I think most of us secretly like getting hit by the stick, because that makes the carrot oh-so-much-yummier by the time we actually get to eat it. Does that mean we're masochists? Well, quite simply, yes. Trash, wipes, and other hardships draw out the experience. If you think of each raid as its own narrative, all of these things help build the story slowly towards its climax. Trial of the Crusader, on the other hand, gives us all the details up front. Which is great, for the short time we get to enjoy it, but the excitement dulls all that much quicker. It didn't help that even the most casual of guilds have been clearing bosses within their first few attempts (my guild one-shot Jaraxxus, Val'kyr Twins, and Anub'Arak the day they were unlocked). I can tell you that, even after banging our heads against the wall last night on Heroic 10-man, I'm secretly happy that we weren't simply able to bowl over the Northrend Beasts encounter as we always have before. Sure, some top-tier guilds have already blown through these more difficult encounters, but I think the margin of success will be much slimmer than it was at first perceived to be. As I mull over these thoughts in my head, I think I've come to the conclusion that while Trial of the Crusader may seem like a misstep right now (aside from the excitement provided by its near-instant reward structure), that's only because it currently represents the highest level of raiding content. When placed in the context of a greater spectrum (for instance, after Icecrown Citadel is released), Trial of the Crusader is going to be vindicated as a great place to blow off some steam for those guilds still intent on exploring everything Wrath of the Lich King has to offer. After long hauls through Naxxramas and Ulduar, ToC is going to feel like a breath of fresh air, and a respite from the arduous nature of your typical raiding regimen. I think that's quite enough rambling from me today, but I'm still interested in what you readers think. This is a subject more central to our gameplay experience than we might initially believe!

Click to read more ...

Word on the street is that Blizzard was running an in-house pool to bet on whether or not anyone would complete the Heroic version of Trial of the Crusader released today. Well... it looks like at least one employee owes everyone else some money! Why? Because Premonition, what can now be considered the premiere U.S.-based raiding guild, has brought down the house. Not only did they clear the challenge on 10-man within a few hours of its release, but they also did it in less than five attempts. That earns them the A Tribute To Mad Skill achievement, which is rewarded to players who defeat all of the bosses, up through Anub'Arak, with 45 tries left on their counter. Just check Delia's Armory profile to see it for yourself! If you aren't familiar with the mechanic, Heroic runs through Trial of the Crusader allow you to obtain extra rewards depending on how many attempts you have left by the end. The total starts at 50 and dwindles, with each wipe, from there. I can tell you from first-hand experience that it's quite a feat. Is it harder than Yogg + 0? Perhaps not. But even after my guild one-shot Anub'Arak on Normal (not as surprising as you might think), we wiped for a good hour-and-a-half on Heroic Northrend Beasts. By the end of our scheduled raid time tonight, we were down to 35 attempts for the week. So for those of you who feared that ToC would be a cakewalk, worry no longer. This is the way it should've been all along (we'll bring you impressions in a forthcoming post)! But as far as we know right now, the World First for Heroic 25-man Trial of the Crusader is still fair game. So what do you guys think about this Premonition's achievement? I know speed kills like this can be discouraging to some people out there, but remember that this was done by one of the top guilds in the world. And hey, remember, they still wiped to Hogger at BlizzCon!

Click to read more ...

As we enter the end of the 3rd 'set' of raid instances in the current expansion, I think it is a good time to take a look at Blizzard's new raid philosophy which made another dramatic change in WotLK, not unlike the change from 40 man raids to 25 man raids in Burning Crusade. With the release of this expansion Blizzard essentially made a promise to the entire WoW community that the raid content would be opened up to everyone (in theory). They changed all raids in Wrath to have two separate versions, a 10 man and a 25 man. Within those raids they had even more lines drawn with heroic and standard versions of many of the fights. For better or for worse though, six months into this expansion we can see that they are well on the way to their goal to opening this content up to nearly everyone. On my home server of Cenarius you can find PuGs for any range of content that fits your need without too many problems. Did your side just capture Wintergrasp? It's very easy to find a group for Vault of Archavon which drops some of the best armor pieces in the game (for both PvPers and PvEers). Naxxramas, Eye of Eternity, Obsidian Sanctum, and even Ulduar are all PuG options for both versions. Granted you most likely will not be hitting up the hard modes with these kinds of groups, but you're seeing the content, which is esentially what Blizzard wants. This is why they brought Naxxramas back (which I missed the first time around, so I am a huge fan of the decision) and why they have expanded the types of groups that can attend these raids, and brought around the philosophy of “bring the player, not the class” (which was a problem in TBC, especially with Sunwell). As positive as these changes are there are naysayers, mostly in the hardcore raiding community. They do have a point as they continually clear through normal modes like nothing. Blizzard really changed the raid designs with Ulduar though. There was only one fight with the release of WotLK that gave those who went “the extra mile” incentive and better gear for doing the fight in a more challenging way (Sartharion with three drakes up). With Ulduar though, most fights have a hard mode, better loot and a greater sense of accomplishment. To even clear the whole instance though players must clear hard modes to unlock the extra boss Algalon. Now that Ulduar has been fully cleared (all hard modes completed) we can shift our focus to the future once again with 3.2. The raid philosophy gets a slight shift again, this time with the separation of 10 man and 25 man raids into regular and heroic, all with separate lockout timers, so essentially you'll be able to run Trial of the Crusader four times a week, all on the same character. In the coming weeks though, we will get a lot more information about this raid zone as we will see the zone live on the PTR for testing. Blizzard seems to be opening things more and more for players to experience the raids. With the change to badges helping players gear up fairly quickly to be able to have proper gear for the new content shows a shift in design philosophy. Previously you absolutely had to have cleared old content (within that expansion) to really gear up for the newest, or next tier, of content. The lines have been blurred now and there is no “one” way to gear up properly anymore. Once patch 3.2 drops we will most likely see an emergence of heroics being run once again, and quick clears of Naxxramas (my guild doesn't even have anything besides Ulduar and Wintergrasp on our raid schedule). It seems as if Blizzard is attempting to please everyone with this patch, the hardcore raiders will have their 25 man heroic and regular 25 man to gear up quickly and easily. While tighter knit guilds still have the opportunity to do regular or heroic modes. Blizzard is also introducing a feature that I think every guild will be able to appreciate, with the ability to extend a lockout period an additional week. This will allow guilds to get additional work on a particularly challenging boss, but will require them to give up loot on the “easier” bosses for one week. I think this will be another level of strategy for raid leaders and guild leaders to use their time more effectively for their guild. Possibly the biggest surprise throughout all of this is that there will be absolutely no trash in this instance, purely bosses! I am a huge fan of this and I think more people will be happy over this than just me, no more complaining that mages pad the meters on trash! Will this be how it is in Icecrown Citadel though? I would be very surprised if they did, as I think this is a special case scenario and I think they want the Colosseum feel to feel authentic and not similar to how it was in Hyjal. If we take a look at our preview of Crusader's Coliseum then it appears that it will be just one area that we fight in (this may or not be the case and we should know very soon). Do you like the way Blizzard is pushing their raid content now? There are a lot more options for people (three separate versions of the Tier 9 gear) do you think this will spread the player base out a bit too much? And one more thing, what will you be doing with your guild, just one tier of the new raid or multiple ones?

Click to read more ...

My guild took down Mimiron last week, knocking off the last of the Keepers of Ulduar. It was an exciting kill that took a fair amount of coordination and strategy adjustment. Touted as one of the most challenging bosses in the instance, Mimiron is a complicated encounter, but it shouldn't roadblock a well-prepared guild. When bosses have multiple distinct phases, like Mimiron, they tend to develop a reputation for being extremely difficult. Images of Kael'thas or Illidan begin to cross players' minds. Sometimes players can build these bosses up and place them on pedestals to the point that it actually makes them harder. Is this a tough fight? Yes, I would agree that Mimiron is probably more complex than almost anything we've seen in WotLK up until this point. (I haven't had the pleasure to attempt Yogg-Saron, yet.) However, my "medium-core" guild bested the clockwork gnome and his inventions on the third night of attempts and claimed his incredibly yummy trinket, Pandora's Plea. As a raid leader, I have found the best way to combat encounters like this is to treat each phase as a separate mini-boss. Explain the first phase of the fight to the raid, give out assignments and then go. It's better to get an attempt under your belt before you lose your audience to napping and afk runs for Pop Tarts. While running back after a wipe, go over what you observed and tweak your strategy. The more familiar your raid is with the fight, the better you will do, so make sure you are spending more time fighting the boss, than talking about it. When you make it to phase 2, or know you are close, then go over the basic strategy for the next phase. Rinse and repeat. Make sure your raid members have all read the boss strategies and watched movies of the boss in advance of the attempts. Do not underestimate the importance of having a well-prepared raid. Sure you're going to go over the fight, but it's better to have 25 people with ideas, than relying on one raid leader. On the other hand, written strategies and movies are only going to get you so far. On complex encounters it's the adjustments you make to the basic strategy that will determine your success. Every raid is different and will have different strengths and weaknesses that you must cater to in order to succeed. Here are some of the adjustments and tweaks my guild had to make in order to get this boss down. As I mentioned, every raid is different and some suggestions may have value to you and some may not. These are some of the things that worked for us and perhaps they can help you too. If you don't know the basic strategy for this fight, please click here first, as these tips assume you already know the basic strategy. Phase 1: Leviathan MKII

• When the melee and tank run away from the boss to avoid shock blast, don't run too far. There are three stripes on the ground with circles in them, which divide the room. If the boss is positioned in the center of the room, you only need to run to the second circle on the ground. If the tank is running too far, the boss will get out of position and possibly lay a set of proximity mines too close to the casters and healers.
• The plasma blasts deal an insane amount of damage. Even with a proper cooldown rotation established, all of the healers need to be focused on keeping the tank alive. Every healer that is assigned to use cooldowns on the tank, such as pain suppression, guardian spirit or hand of sacrifice should have another healer near them in case they get hit with a napalm shell at an inopportune moment.
• Your raid members should know their jobs and what to do, however, having someone diligently calling out things over ventrilo can help your raid stay alive. Giving your group a few second warning on shock blast and plasma blast, can make a difference when you're learning the fight.

Phase 2: VX-001 Anti-personnel Assault Cannon

• We tried having the melee constantly rotating around the boss to avoid rapid bursts, but it didn't work well for us. So we assigned everyone a specific place to stand. The room has three stripes on the floor, which divide the rest of the room into wedges. The positioning we ended up with was dividing the ranged and healers into three groups and assigning each a wedge to stand in. The melee was also divided into three groups and each group was assigned a stripe to stand on. The rapid bursts would then have six distinct targets to choose from and each time the damage would only be hitting 3-4 raid members at a time.
• Have someone watch the back of the VX-001 and call out when they see the rockets launching, so the ranged classes can avoid them. They do five million damage to those that get hit! Fortunately, as of patch 3.1.3, the rockets don't seem to target the melee anymore. Someone should also call out when they see the boss casting spinning up, which will lead to laser barrage. Everyone needs to run around clockwise to avoid getting hit by this.

Phase 3: Aerial Command Unit (ACU)

• Everyone should group up on one side and be as close to the outer walls as possible. The ranged DPS tank for the Aerial Command Unit needs to make sure it is positioned well away from the raid, but it also cannot be directly in the center of the room. We found that the magnetic cores had trouble rooting the ACU when he was positioned in the center. If the ACU gets too close to the raid, it will drop bomb bots directly on top of them.
• The bomb bots can be dealt with by having one death knight using the following macro:

/target bomb bot /cast chains of ice

• When a bomb bot spawns, call for ranged DPS to kill it and the death knight can keep it place by hitting the macro. If a bomb ever gets to close to the raid, the death knight can Death Grip it away from them.
• The raids in our guild usually have a lot of melee DPS in them. We found that saving two magnetic cores and using them in immediate succession allowed for more DPS on the ACU and less running back and forth. You have to be cautious with this strategy, however. After you loot a magnetic core, it only lasts in your inventory for one minute. So I recommend leaving the cores on the assault bots' corpses until you are ready to root the ACU.

Phase 4: V-07-TR-0N

• Phase 4 can be a chaotic mess and all three parts of the gnomish Voltron need to be killed within 10 seconds of each other, otherwise they respawn. We had everyone go back to their assigned positions from phase 2. We asked all of our ranged DPS to focus on the ACU (head) and the melee DPS to focus on the Leviathan MKII (feet). We had them DPS those parts down to around 12% health and then focus on the VX-001 (middle). Once all three sections were around 12% health, we had folks assigned to DPS all three pieces and we coordinated their death over vent.
• The shock blast in phase 4 can be interrupted by the Laser Barrage spin. The shock blast graphic will flicker for a moment and then stop while the laser barrage spin is cast. Be careful! If this happens, as soon as the laser barrage is over, the shock blast will cast and blow up anyone in melee range. If you see this, call it out on vent and have your melee and tanks stay away until after the shock blast goes off.

I hope some of this information proves useful to you and your guilds, as you attempt this unique encounter. Feel free to post your own suggestions for this encounter or ask any questions you may have as well. If these suggestions help you make progress, please come back and let us know!

Click to read more ...

Seen this kind of image?  Then you aren't casual -via ElitistJerks

Recruiting issues promoted me to write the latest in the line of DPS guides.  By the end of the day, the guild's officers and GM had tossed in their towels and canceled raiding for the foreseeable future.  For most of us the news wasn't exactly shocking.  Over the past few weeks the mighty force in Naxxramas known as the Warriors of Faith had degraded into Warriors of Whenitseemsnecessary.  Sign-ups remained incomplete, those that did lend their John Hancock were no where to be found for invites, and players began disappearing earlier in the night than normal. It isn't that the guild is dead, far from it.  The former trio of raid leaders simply got fed up with all the extra work they were putting into the guild, with little to show for it besides stress.  After all their recruiting, hand holding and calming efforts, raids failed to materialize.  Rather than continue their struggles, they have put the pressure on the rest of the guild to step up and form raids ourselves.  The irony is that this is exactly what many of the newer members were doing rather than joining the guild runs. I think that the current raids have harmed casual guilds.  Being a group of older players, our time is often limited by other obligations (family, friends, work, this blog).  This in turn means that many of us have unexpected things come up fairly often, causing us to miss invites, sign-ups or raids altogether.  Who cares when you can PUG all of the available instances?  My point is this, since you don't need a guild to get through the content, most players feel less inclined to actually support their guilds.  This is especially the case if they have no other reason, like long standing friendships, to guilt trip them. At first, I simply thought that it was just our little guild that was having issues.  But if my other WoW playing comrades are anything to go by, that isn't the case.  According to them, their guilds are also struggling to get guild runs together.  Their plight is for the same reason, many members are running PUGs on their own time.  Hopefully, most of you will read this post through before commenting, because here's the kicker.  It isn't a big deal.  Yea, there are some hiccups to scare out, but casual guilds won't be going anywhere, ever.  The early raid content has shaken things up a bit, but as Wrath of the Lich King matures and Blizzard ramps up the difficulty - we are looking at you, Ulduar - the guilds, all guilds, will collapse back into themselves. It's just interesting to see how fleeting these online relationships can be.  One minute you are joking about this druid's mom or laughing about how the RL proposed that all Gnomes are drunkards IRL.  Then a freeze on raid leader lead raids is handed down, and boom, a fistful of long standing members gquit.  It's fine that they are leaving to pursue what they want from the game, but I have never been one to guild hop.  How are the more casual, small scale guilds doing for the greater ProjectLore Society?  Possibly more importantly, how goes those Heroic Naxx/Malygos PUGs?  I have been somewhat successful in my PUG attempts, still haven't managed to take on the Eye though.

Click to read more ...

BigRedKitty bring us along as they venture into the Arachnid Quarter of 25-man Naxxramas. Watch as BRK squash this oversized bug with the help of a couple dozen other people. Addons mentioned in this video include: Omen Threat Meter Mik's Scrolling Battle Text Power Auras - check out some more tips from BRK about Power Auras here. Deadly Boss Mods Remember to vote for Project Lore on the streamys at http://vote.streamys.org/

Click to read more ...

One of the perils of doing anything publicly is the risk of being labeled "Stupid". Ignorance we can handle, stupidity not so much. Is there a difference? You bet. Ignorance is the absence of knowledge. How do rogues do an attack rotation? We have no idea; we're ignorant about rogue-mechanics. Stupidity is acting in a manner inconsistent with known facts. We know not to pull aggro from our main tank. If we were to start firing before the main tank has established aggro, we'd be acting stupidly. There is a fine line between ignorance and stupidity and that's "Unconventional". A hunter who melees because he knows no other way is Ignorant. A hunter who knows the proper method of playing a hunter who chooses to melee his way while leveling is Unconventional. So also would be a player who eschews killing mobs while leveling -- known as pacifist-leveling -- or someone who refuses to wear gear while leveling, just for the challenge of doing it. Being unconventional is fine, as long as you don't affect other people without their knowledge and consent. For example, it is known by most hunters that bringing a level seventy-five pet to a heroic instance will be gimping his own damage-output. It is also well known that the fastest way to level a hunter-pet from seventy-five to eighty is in heroic instances. A single heroic Violet Hold will usually give a pet almost an entire level. Bringing a level seventy-five pet to a heroic with the goal of leveling it quickly, but seeking the permission of the rest of the raid before the raid starts, is Unconventional. Bringing a level seventy-five pet to a heroic because you didn't know there are level seventy-nine pets available for immediate taming is Ignorant. Bringing a level seventy-five pet to a heroic and without caring about the feelings of the rest of the raid is Stupid. Personally, we are ignorant about just about everything there is to know about tanking and healing. When we bellow at our tank, "Make more threat!" we are very fortunate she doesn't yell back, "Why don't you, in your infinite wisdom, tell me just how you expect me to accomplish that!" Because if she did, we'd stammer and stutter and exclaim, "Just... you know, get it angry. Hit it, whatever, right? Threat! Do it!" And she'd reach through the Internet and squash us for our ignorance. However we are not stupid, and we know that regardless of how the tank is generating threat, it is our responsibility to not pull aggro from the main tank. Our ignorance of tanking-mechanics can be compensated with our knowledge of hunter-mechanics. How do we compensate for a tank not generating as much threat as we'd like? * Cast Misdirection at every opportunity. * Feign Death before we overtake the tank on the mob's threat list. * Just chill out and decrease our DPS until the tank has a solid threat-lead. If we were to refuse to Misdirect, Feign Death, and reduce our DPS when the tank is having difficulties maintaining aggro, we would not be "teaching the tank a lesson" by intentionally pulling aggro. No, we'd be Stupid. Eliminating ignorance requires two people: an apt teacher and a willing student. Eliminating stupidity is the job of just one person: the stupid one. You can encourage, enlighten, educate, and cajole a person towards not being stupid, but ultimately, it's his decision. But what else can you do? You can learn to differentiate between ignorance and stupidity yourself and react accordingly. Your PUG is having a hard time in Culling of Stratholme because the priest keeps running ahead of the party? Remind him that the paladin tank makes a wonderful Undead battering ram. Teach the priest that standing on top of, or slightly behind, the paladin tank will basically guarantee the priest's survival. If the priest adjusts his tactics appropriately, you'll have eliminated a little ignorance from the game and probably ensured the success of your run. But if the priest says nothing and keeps running amok, you'll know that you're dealing with Stupid and it's time to abandon-party. Ignorance, stupidity, and unconventionality are big parts of Warcraft. Learning to modify your behavior when confronting these characteristics is key to your progression and fun in the game, (and in real life too).

Click to read more ...