Project Lore

Wishful Thinking is a column dedicated to the theorycrafting behind World of Warcraft.  No, not the number crunching madness perfected by the folks at ElitistJerks, but the features, abilities, and design ideas that the Project Lore writers conjure from their squishy pink stuff. A Perfect Example Of A Soloable Boss Please hold your comments until after reading the post.  Fallacies and design flaws will be brought to light later in the post. World of Warcraft's dungeons are absolutely fantastic.  They offer bite-sized content (at least since The Burning Crusade) for players with only an hour or so to spare.  The challenges are appropriate for the levels required, and include a healthy mix of encounters, trash mobs and loot. Sure, it may take as long as the run to create a group, but that should change with the upcoming cross-server LFG system.  I digress.  Five mans are as close as the MMORPG comes to offering a multiplayer experience that's deep and goal oriented without requiring an immense time investment.  But it doesn't have to be. Imagine dungeon designs that didn't require five players.  Heck, it wouldn't even allow a full handful of Azeroth's finest to enter.  These dungeons would be specifically tuned to smaller groups, four, three, two, possibly even a soloable dungeon.  They'd be even more bite-sized content (more pickup and play).  Challenging the group to push through smaller trash groups and requiring players to maximize the skillsets and abilities made available to them.  The inherent need for less people would mean less time forming a group.  The new creation would allow for Blizzard to easily return to a long lost dungeon attribute, non-linear gameplay.  In short, tons of benefits. The possibilities of sub five man dungeons are nearly limitless.  We'd have soloable dungeons that offer a maximum challenge for every class.  Those capable of perfecting their class would be rewarded with maximum loot, those who wipe could be locked out of the instance until the next day.  Groups could be split up – Gothik The Harvester style – and forced to help each other through the split paths.  The smaller nature of these dungeons would allow for Blizzard to implement experimental gameplay attributes for an increasingly diverse and unique grouping experience. Running with a priest, rogue and a mage?  Well then there'd be no reason to tackle that boss who drops plate and mail.  But perhaps you have to kill Big Bad Bossman because he offers the only priest, rogue, mage route to the final encounter.  That's right, done well the long lost design method could allow a group that isn't the holy trinity alternate ways through the dungeon.  Yes, a design that wouldn't require the holy trinity, a DPSers wet dream. Now on to the obvious problems with such designs.  The main problem is one of balancing.  No matter the size of the content balancing is always an arduous task.  That fact doesn't change here, and could easily become worse.  If Blizzard designed the content to accept absolutely any combination of classes, then balancing would get out of hand.  Instead the developers would have to be smart in the creation, designing the experience to only work with a subset of classes.  A subset that the players would have to figure out, the hard way.  Or they could use the multi-pathing idea to give players multiple routes to try. Another issue would be loot.  Should players be given the same ilvl of loot as a normal five man?  What about badges?  All of that should be entirely dependent on how difficult a run is – an idea that Blizzard already subscribes too.  That's the third issue, the perception that a raid would be easy, or easier, when run with classes x, y, and z.  That's pretty much the case right now - run without a Shaman and you feel that lack of Heroism – and won't change until all classes become clones of each other.  Or those special abilities are turned into items... Just do it in five man you say?  That's a reasonable point, but there are many ideas that wouldn't make sense, or even be feasible in a five man environment.  Not to mention that an attractive factor to these fun sized packages is that they'd be easier for Blizzard to create due to their minute nature.  A five man that ended in twenty minutes just wouldn't seem all that challenging, or engrossing. Blizzard's mantra lately has been that the company wants to offer content to all of its subscribers, not just the hardcore, or the casual.  Wouldn't the mix of incredibly difficult solo dungeons and smaller dungeons offer just that?  What do you think?  Would you be up for the challenge of a soloable dungeon?  Interested in experimental design and story telling mechanics?  Let's here your ideas for a sub five man group.  The best may be selected and expanded upon in the upcoming revitalization of the Design A Dungeon column.

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Follow The Tips Or Be Eaten By Each And Every Maw Combat, Assassination, Sublety.  Backstab, Mutilate, Sinister Strike.  White, yellow, green damage.  These are all important things to consider when you are trying to maximize your DPS, but they aren't the only things.  Not by a long shot.  The stab-happy class (and all other classes) also needs to keep stats like Hit, Expertise and Critical Rating in mind as well.  Then there's the act of standing behind your target at all times, timing a Slice and Dice refresh, popping the various cooldowns to maximize total output, sharing the wealth effectively and dropping a Vanish at the most appropriate time.  In short, the class that many players believe to be incredibly easy simply isn't.  Maximizing a rogue's abilities is as difficult as any other class in WoW. Here's the thing, one's raw DPS isn't the only thing that matters.  Adding to the already complex task of DPS is other raid mechanics.  Staying alive, reducing the healing required, spreading out and minimizing incoming damage.  These are all highly important tactics that every raider should be trying to master.  PvE encounters will become far easier for each member that masters their basic role - DPS, Tanking, Healing - and these "secondary" tasks.  Achieving outside the box is exactly what separates the casual raiders from the hardcore, and I don't mean in time spent. It'd be impossible for me to discuss what every class can do outside their normal role, but here are a few for my favorite class.

• Minimization of incoming damage - Yes, yes, of course killing the target will reduce its DPS to the fullest extent.  By show of hands how many of us can kill an elite target inside 10 seconds?  No one?  Thought so.  In the midst of burning that mob down be sure to interrupt incoming damage as much as possible.  Kick spells - but prioritize which you kick - stun whirlwinds, Blind stray mobs.  Sap.  Every class has a handful of tools to make life easier on the healers, use them.
• Spreading out damage - You have to be careful with this one depending on your class. Especially considering that this mostly comes up during a breakdown in an encounter.  During these hairy times spreading the damage across multiple players can be the difference between a catastrophic failure and a messy recovery.  For a rogue the idea is to save any squisher class from being pummeled, while bringing the mob to a tank.  Liberal use of Evasion and Cloak of Shadows are key.  By reacting quickly you can save other raids members, give healers time to react and focus on the tanks while reducing the tanks incoming damage as the encounter returns to normal.  Saviors just need to watch our for their own well being, as heals won't likely be coming their way.
• Staying alive - Blaming the healer is a fun past time, but barring a complete wipe you could have saved yourself.  If you were one of a few deaths during an encounter it's on you.  Sorry.  Perhaps you should have potted, moved away from the pretty spell effects that were nearby or eaten some food for that extra stamina.  If all else fails Sprint or Vanish.
• Dealing with AoE - Previously rogues couldn't do much with AoE.  We'd just stand there and take it, interrupting when applicable.  And we couldn't return the favor.  Very annoying.  Now we have two new tools at our disposal.  For incoming AoE damage - as seen in numerous Ulduar fights - we should be spamming a tried and true ability, Feint.  A 50% reduction in AoE damage is a sweet buff to the old school spell.  For dishing out AoE we have Fan of Knives.  FoK is best used with slow weapons.  If your energy is going to be dedicated to FoK during an encounter then switch to your slowest, hardest hitting pair.
• For the love of all that is holy - Enchant, socket and fill out all of your glyphs with something!  None of this "waiting for a better piece of gear to enchant" or "need to find a good gem."  Get a placeholder at least!

With many experienced raiders part of the readership I know a fair amount already grasp these concepts.  But I hope each of you learned a new trick, or at least remembered how important these tactics are.  If you already knew this information, then I am sure you have something to add.  Let's hear it.  Examples for other class tactics would be appreciated as well. Remember folks, we each have roles, but we can all make raiding easier, more efficient and, most importantly, faster by performing outside our narrow view of the world.

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My GM made a call to the general members when the guild hit its raiding roadblock the other week.  I took up the call and set up a heroic night where members who needed badges, reputation, gear or something to do, could have a dedicated night where others would know to be online.  I even put a little thought into it.  I selected a weekday that the guild doesn't raid on, ensuring that the heroic night - should it become popular - would not interfere with the general operation of the guild.  The plan was to have separate groups, or some sort of rotation, that would enable us to run a few heroics over the course of a night.  Brilliant, I know! The first week was not what I would call a raging success.  I was only able to notify the guild via the little used forum, which don't garner too much attention.  After about an hour sitting around in Guild Chat a group consisting of a healer, tank and ranged and melee DPS was formed, a PUG was found and we were off to tackle the Daily Heroic, The Oculus.  It became the most agonizing instance run of my life, an amazing feat considering that we only wiped once. I've run my fair share of piss poor PUGs, but that punishment came from other players due to messy pulls, not paying attention, bad play or what have you.  Never have I gotten frustrated at the title's design itself, until last week.  The Oculus is one of three instances inside Coldarra, the others being another 5-man dungeon, The Nexus (also the name of the area) and the 25-man raid against Malygos, The Eye of Eternity.  Many of us have likely completed the other 5-man dungeon, as it is one of the easiest Heroics to participate in.  The Oculus is known for the opposite reason, being one of the most difficult and least run heroics that Wrath introduced. For me, the instance is, without a shadow of a doubt, the worst instance ever.  The dungeon is high on the fail meter from a culmination of its length, inspiration, execution and general boredom.  You spend most of your time flying around the outside of The Nexus killing trash mobs as you make your way to various constructs.  The fights with the guardians and constructs are basic, uninspired quick kills.  As if that wasn't boring enough, the trash is followed by uneventful tank and spank boss fights.  It isn't until the third boss, Mage-Lord Urom, that an encounter becomes interesting.  About 90 minutes after we zoned in - no wipes up to this point - we finally pulled Eregos, the only enjoyable aspect in the entire dungeon.  Many players hate the final encounter because it's a very fickle battle, requiring knowledge and near perfect execution.  Thanks to a fantastic explanation and constant communication, our group downed him in only our second go. The designers attempted to make The Oculus heavy on vehicle combat but it just didn't work.  The battle against the blue dragonflight is painfully boring mainly due to all the crappy trash you have to clear to do anything of consequence.  Hopefully the team behind The Oculus learned from their mistakes, and passed that knowledge on to the team responsible for Ulduar's vehicle-based encounters.  At least those fights inside Ulduar will enable gear to make a difference. The Oculus was a valiant effort at trying something new, but it didn't come together.  If you feel like torturing yourself then you can run it, just be prepared for agony.  We ended on a high note, as the the entire party received a chuckle after we downed Eregos.  This came by way of the Guild's GM receiving six, yes a half dozen, achievements all at the same time.  As for Solidsamm, he shall never return there, daily or not.

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MMORPG designers are a crafty bunch.  The genre may be relatively new, but by using design philosophies from single player titles, mainly standard RPGs, the minds behind MMOGs learned to keep a players entranced quickly.  Blizzard has nearly perfected the art of retaining its player base by implementing the relatively ancient knowledge of past video games into World of Warcraft.  They don't even hide their lifting of another company's ideas, as evidenced by the blatant use of Achievements, which is their most recent addition.  In all fairness, damn near everyone from Sony to Valve is ripping that off due to Microsoft's highly praised implementation. The massive flattery of the Achievement system is simply because it works.  The added goals, no matter how fleeting they may be, add to the longevity of any and all titles.  It was only a matter of time before MMOGs began implementing them in full force.  And what a powerful force they have become.  However, the age old catch - just gotta get this next mob/drop/quest/level - continues to drive my elongated playing sessions. I spend most of my time during my journey to Exalted for my third Northrend faction completing the group's half dozen daily quests.  But I always queue up for various Heroic dungeons, especially those that may have some piece of gear for Solidsamm.  Being of the overpopulated DPS archetype, I often grind through the dailies, get annoyed at never finding a group in under an hour and log off for the night or afk to make dinner before the raid.  Well, that is what used to happen.  Lately, right as I go to log I get ninja invited or join this or that party/raid. My original intention when I sign on these days is to complete an instance quickly.  Doing dailies is supposed to be the distraction during group formation.  After waiting so long, then getting ready to log, the late invites and formations can be hard to stick with.  In the end, it isn't any fault of Blizzard's that I hang around past my personal time limit.  Even after admitting that to myself, I can't shake that nagging feeling in the back of my brain that some designer in Anaheim is celebrating his small victory over my lack of willpower.  Bastard. Anyone else have this problem?  Do you always get pulled back in when you are on your way out?  When was the last time a 20 minute session became two hours for you?  And to those of you with willpower, can I have some?  Please?  Sugar on top?

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Yes, I dinged while working on Sons of Hodir

Wrath of the Lich King's PvE content may be easy compared to The Burning Crusade, but there remains a line of progression.  For instance, hitting level 80 does not mean you should immediately jump into one of the many heroic dungeons.  With my long weekend, I figured I could get a bunch of heroics under my belt seeing as I have finally hit level 80 (DING!).  My old warrior buddy set me straight in only the way he can, through ridicule and yelling. I still have a lot of gear from Season 2, Karazhan and high level crafted items equipped and haven't seen many alternatives.  This is why I was thinking about banging out a dozen or so heroics with my free day.  After the text-lashing, I checked in with WoWHead to see just how much my gear could be upgraded through non-heroics.  Turns out to be a crapload.  Nearly every dungeon from Gundrak on has some sort of an upgrade, incremental and not so incremental.  The only thing that they lack is a pair of quick daggers for my Mutilate build.  Guess I will be sticking with old trusty for awhile longer. Rather than diving into the ranks of heroic runners, I have taken the advice of my friend (although I will never admit it to him) and segued to the non-heroic instances for the moment.  By the end of the day I will have run over a dozen non-heroic dungeons, and hopefully, bumped by gear into the next level.  But damn if I don't want a new off-hand dagger. Doing non-heroics before jumping to heroics may seem like an obvious notion to many of you, but I have run across countless people in the non-heroics who are barely geared for them, let alone the more difficult flavor of the dungeon.  Even many of my guild mates tried to make the leap from level 79 to heroics.  The better geared members were able to roll with the punches, but just as many had to be replaced during the instance.  From our anecdotal evidence, anyone decked out in SSC gear or better, with some Wrath gear mixed in there, was more than ready for heroics. Nice, just found a group for Halls of Lightning, off to shiv some baddies from Nordic lore.  This will be my first run at Loken, hopefully he is kind enough to drop his hood.  For those still leveling, do all the heroic runners a favor, check out which dungeons have gear you need and hit them up first.  My tank is sick of out DPSing other party members in heroics... How many of you had the patience to gear up before attempting your first heroics?  For those that just dove right in, what was your gear like and how did you do?

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I first recall hearing about the Faceless Ones – in World of Warcraft - around the time of Ahn'Qiraj and its faction's leader, C'Thun. While I can not recall why they came up in this context exactly, I assume it was because of the link between Forgotten Ones leading the Faceless Ones. No, C'thun isn't a Forgotten One, he is an Old God, but he looks a lot like the Forgotten Ones from Warcraft 3. Anyways, today isn't a day to dive into their lore, mainly because the topic could take more than a day to cover! Instead, I want to talk about my first interaction with the Faceless Ones via WoW.

While grinding my way to level 80 I skipped over one instance for some time, Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom. I wasn't dodging Herald Volazj or anything like that.  In fact, I much wanted to meet the oddly proportioned end boss, but I could just never get a group going, PUG or otherwise. Finally, many levels over the suggested range and at a time when I logged in to “play for 30 minutes,” I got invited to a party for OK and couldn't refuse. The fact of the matter is that after killing members of the Lich King's Scourge, decimating any spider mob is on the top of my list. I hate spiders, but I love their fangs and femurs.

The following contains ***SPOILERS*** for boss encounters. You have been warned.

The instance is pretty standard fare, feeling much like the earlier Azjol-Nerub. After replacing the tank due to a few bad pulls early on, we breezed through the cobwebbed corridors and on to meet the Faceless Ones and their leader, Herald Volazj. The fight is tank-and-spank with a substantial twist at 66 and 33 percent. At those designated intervals, Volazj will cast a debuff across the whole party. The debuff is quite frankly best one since Vaelastraz in Blackwing Lair, and possibly the best ever.

For the lore nuts, this gives us another link to the use of insanity and C'Thun for the Lovecraft connection.  Although I may be stretching it there since the evil eye is not a Forgotten One.

The spell makes use of the phasing design, showing each party member a slightly different scene. Each player's view has the rest of their party turn on them, playing their previous roles only now you are the target. Before you can get back to the boss fight (or help the slower DPSers) you must dispatch the shades of your friends.

***SPOILER OVER***

The encounter's design saved the instance from being run of the mill.  Launching it ahead of the insanely short Azjol-Nerub and into the realm of fun instances, if only for the gimmick. If you haven't been there already, be sure to hit it up as soon as possible, it is another aspect in WoW that everyone should experience.

Personally, I think the guys are going to go nuts when they finally get to The Old Kingdom. Hopefully someone is new to the instance when they film it so we can see the raw reaction.

Past that, lets get some more Faceless Ones in WoW now that we have opened up the Nerubian empire. I do hear there are some in Icecrown's lands, hopefully they come with some solid lore to boot.

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Many moons ago, Bastosa and I discussed how and who we planned on getting to 80. Back then I figured I would simply keep healing my way up to level 80, pushing my priest as my main toon. While things started out that way initially, Solidsamm has returned to the forefront. After Mutilate's “from behind” requirement was removed, I jumped at the chance to try the new dagger spec that would not force me to be behind my target at all times. The freshness that came with the conversion is exactly the reason I returned my angry Gnome to main status.

There are two reasons why I knew I was going to be hooked on World of Warcraft when it was released in late 2004. First off, I have loved the WarCraft universe since I first entered it via WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness. Secondly, and probably most important, was Blizzard's reputation. The company should just make their tagline “We don't make bad video games.” While a game can have the best story ever, it'll still suck if the gameplay isn't there to back it up, enter Wrath of the Lich King.

I had a pipedream that I would level mostly through instances, but without a close friend who's main is a healer, that is pretty hard to accomplish these days. Lucky for me the quests in Wrath of the Lich King have diverse goals, interesting lore, and an attachment to the zones that keeps me interested. While grinding via quests may not be the best XP/hour (that still goes to good old fashioned grinding), it is incredibly less mind-numbing. I will save that process for leveling my fishing.

Now that many of you are well on your way, or already 80, who and how did you get there? Did you roll that Death Knight and start from level 55 or abandon that idea and go with one of your level 70s? While I have done some instances, I generally haven't gone back to them after finishing their quests. How about you?

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