Project Lore

So, have you found a guild to join yet? If that's the case, then you might be wondering how to make yourself a bit more attractive to the guild leader and/or recruitment officers. Of course, there are several ways to do this. I mentioned yesterday that applying for a guild is a lot like applying for a job. Well, gearing up would be the equivalent of building your resume. Before I give you some suggestions, though, let me point something out: in theory, player skill is infinitely more valuable than gear. You'd be hard-pressed to find a top-level guild that doesn't agree with that statement, so learning to play your class is the number one, most important thing you need to improve. There are plenty of sites you can go to in order to find out how to perform like the best, but two of the most popular are TankSpot (as the name implies, chiefly for tanking classes) and Elitist Jerks (for just about everybody else). Elitist Jerks, in particular, has even been praised by World of Warcraft's Lead Systems Designer Ghostcrawler for their approach to theorycrafting (hint: they create their ideal builds from what exists in the game, instead of whining about what they think their classes deserve). So click on over to their site, scroll down to the class forums, and find the one that applies to you. They also have a handy Guild Recruitment forum for you to browse if you haven't found a suitable one to apply to yet, and considering the types that usually hang around Elitist Jerks, I'm willing to bet that many of them are top-tier choices. Of course, all the theorycrafting in the world means jack if you don't have the experience. This may seem like a bit of a Catch-22 -- "how do I learn about raiding if I can't find a guild to raid with?" -- but the game has different tiers of content for a reason. Whether you're a tank, healer, or DPS, run as many 5-man dungeons as you can. Is someone asking for help with the Amphiteater of Anguish in Zul'Drak? Go lend a hand. Sure, most groups, even PuGs, steamroll through these parts of the game these days, but that doesn't mean you can't test yourself. Take the things you've learned online and apply them as best as you possibly can to these encounters. Something else you might consider engaging in, oddly enough, is PvP. I wouldn't rely too heavily on this option, since specific strategies and class specs are going to be different in a raid environment, but its a good way to prepare yourself for the more chaotic encounters in the game. Being able to keep on your toes and respond well in a crisis is key to defeating many bosses later in the game. In fact, Faction Champions in Trial of the Crusade is basically a mock PvP battle. Those of you out there who play DPS classes may also want to check their level of damage against target dummies that can be found in every major city, but for any class looking to place a value on their play skill, I'd recommend downloading the Recount add-on. I can't emphasize enough how important knowing your class is. If you think you're already good enough, I guarantee you that you're not. There's always room for improvement, and people are rarely aware of their own shortcomings. I've encountered far too many people who acted like they knew what they were doing, but couldn't raid their way out of a wet paper bag. They'd stand in the fires or void zones, their dps barely broke 2000, and they often weren't where they were supposed to be in any given battle. Repeated wipes will quickly show which players aren't pulling their weight. By "gearing up," we didn't mean to level Engineering! So keep that in mind. Good guilds won't recruit you based on your word. They're going to look for bonafide proof that you know what you're doing. How about that gear then? As much as I've rambled on about experience in the past few paragraphs, the suit you wear is still important. An insightful recruiter might still pick up someone who shows potential (and they should if they want to increase their potential pool of applicants), but don't think you're going to be a first-, or even second-, stringer if you haven't got the right equipment. There are certain bosses in the game that some of us like to call "gear checks." These often exhibit relatively simple, predictable mechanics that taxes players to their limit. Think "target dummies that actually hit back." Of course, the most notable of these is Patchwerk in Naxxramas. He's kind of old news now, but the massive amount of damage to tanks pushed both them and the healers to do their absolute best, while a strict enrage time required damage-dealers to take him out before he wiped the entire raid. "Gear checks" and other tough encounters ensure that you need a minimum level of gear to compete. And unless they've opened their hearts and plan on giving you a little charity, any guild you plan on applying to is not going to feel very good about carrying your under-geared ass through a dungeon. At that point, you're reaping all the rewards while they're stuck with the dead weight. As for obtaining the gear that you need, following is a list of viable options:

• Run 5-Man Heroic Dungeons: If you've been building your experience through 5-man dungeon runs, then you've probably already picked up a few pieces of epic equipment just from defeating their end-bosses.
• PuG A Raid: This isn't my favorite option of all, but if you act smartly, it can be a viable resource. I'd warn against joining PuGs for the current tier of content (Ulduar or Trial of the Crusader), but Naxxramas should be fair game now. Both Sartharion and Malygos are fundamentally easy to kill, but the mechanics of their respective encounters are still too complex for some people to follow.
• Spend Your Emblems of Conquest: Well, thanks to the new badge system, gearing up is easier than ever. Each boss in a Heroic level dungeon or regular difficulty raid will cough up Emblems of Conquest. While they won't get you net you the latest tier of gear, you can still pick up a few pieces that are equivalent to what drops in Ulduar. So hop on over to your faction's badge vendor (they're both located in Dalaran).
• Craft Your Gear: Gather materials and make your own or have someone else make them for you. Some crafted purples are actually far better than the average dungeon drop and they're handy for filling in those empty spots when a potential recruiter looks up your Armory profile (speaking of which, always log out with your best PvE gear on when attempting to apply for a progression raiding guild).
• Pay For A Run: This may seem like cheating, but many top-tier guilds out there will allow you to pay for a spot in their raids. You're probably not going to get to run ToC this way, but you might be able to score a trip to Naxx or Ulduar. This might seem to conflict with my advice of PuGing above (since that's free, unless you put a price on time, and I do), but there are some advantages to paying -- you'll be running with an experienced group, which more or less guarantees success. The people running with you may already have better gear, reducing competition on drops. And, if you prove yourself to be a good, consistent performer, who knows? They might just invite you to join them permanently. Of course the limiter here is your own, personal gold reserve. If you're an industrious player who works the Auction House and spends a great deal of their game time doing dailies, it might not be a big deal, but for the rest, it can get quite expensive. The top Horde guild on my server (Anvilmar) lists a raid spot at 1k, which only buys you the run itself (and whatever else is given out to all players, like badges). If you want a piece of equipment or a tier token, you're going to have to shell out even more. But, hey, if you can afford it, they're happy to have you along. It funds their guild bank, while you get a quality service in return.
• Shop On The Auction House: Another option for the wealthy player. Just buy gear. Some bosses drop Bind-on-Equip items that guilds will then sell on the Auction House in order to help fund their own banks. Some of them are quite good and there's nothing shameful in purchasing them if you've got the money.
• Get Creative: If you've got a crazy idea for obtaining loot, make use of it. Propose an offer to a guild recruiter and see if they'll take you up on it. Maybe they're willing to help gear you up if you can, in turn, help them in one way or another. You scratch their back and they scratch yours. If they get kickbacks for bringing in quality new members, then it would be in their interest to make you improve. Don't be afraid to get a little dirty, as long as you aren't stealing gear from other people (progression guilds tend to frown or  black list known "ninjas").

If you need a guide to gear, LootRank is a good general resource. There are also some class- or spec-specific pages out there like ShadowPanther (Rogues) and ShadowPriest (speaks for itself). The class forums at Elitist Jerks often provide Best-In-Slot gear lists if you can sort through the rest of the information. The last piece of advice I have for you today is this: once you've got your gear, gem and enchant it. And do it is much as you can possibly afford. If you can buy epic, purple gems, do it. If you can buy the best enchants, get them. It will show a recruiter that you mean business and that you're willing to be one of the best if they allow you to join. If you don't have the money, earn some. At least load up on blue-level gems, and make it known that you're poor right now. Having under-gemmed and under-enchanted gear is one of the top reasons why people get turned away, so don't fall into that trap. All of these options can and do work for people who do not yet have access to the latest tier of content. If you want to get there, then yes, you're going to have to work your way up the gear ladder. It can take a few days or it can take a few months, but I hope I've proven to you that it's not impossible. And, as always, experience and knowing your class are key. On the next edition, I plan on addressing issues of guild etiquette and why no matter how hard you try to get into them, certain guilds might just not be for you.

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Wings.  What did you think I was getting at?

Malygos, being a Dragon Aspect, is a fight that I would expect to be quite epic.  Not only in its general gameplay design, but its overall presentation.  After running it for the first time last night, I can say that it largely lived up to my expectations.  As soon as you zone into the Eye of Eternity the Lord of Magic begins taunting, teasing and harassing you for being one of the lesser beings.  He also alludes to interference from the other flights, namely Alexstraza and her red brood , which comes into play later.  My big knock against the presentation is his voice.  The dialogue and taunts he tosses at us are well-written, but the vocals just aren't epic enough for me.  They do not command my respect or grab my attention as other dragons have.  In short, Malygos' voice makes me picture a nerd puffing out his chest in a vain attempt to look larger and more confident than he really is. Visually, we are placed on what may be the least laggy battlefield in all of Azeroth, a platform with four pillars that looks out at the vastness of space and a collection of celestial bodies.  Why Malygos would chose to live surrounded by heavenly objects I do not know - seems more like a Nozdormu thing to me - but it looks freaking awesome.  Though, I do love space, so I could be slightly biased in this department.  Blizzard selected the final frontier to enable their designers to go nuts with spell effects and abilities during Malygos' three phases.  And go nuts they did. The humble casual guild I am a part of did not manage to get the Steward of Magic to drop any riches, but we did experience all three of his phases.  The first phase is a glorified tank-n-spank battle with a small twist.  Should one of the summoned sparks get to Malygos, they will grant him a debuff that is almost guaranteed to wipe the raid due to 50% more damage on the tank.  The object is to pop the sparks where the DPS can sit in its debuff pool to receive their own damage increasing debuff.  Like Onyxia, Malygos doesn't just let you smash his face ass during this phase.  Every so often he will rise up and flap his wings, causing a huge tornado which turns all players into a flying cow, albeit one that takes a hefty amount of DoT damage.  The effect is awesome, pushing your camera way out so you can grasp the full size of the twister created by Malygos' wrath. Once the raid burns the blue down to 50% he will lift off, sending a collection of adds on floating discs to destroy you.  During this phase Malygos is untargetable, although he continues to rain destruction upon you.  The floating guys, and the vehicular combat they bring to the table are nice, but the combination of the anti-magic shells and the leviathan's (take that Knaak) Deep Breath collide for some awesome spell effects.  Phase 2 is the coolest phase, but it ends quickly, thanks to the squishiness of the adds.  Upon killing the final add, the floor gives way and the raid falls into the abyss.  As alluded, each player is rescued by a minion of Alexstraza for a last bout of rather boring vehicular combat. As far as raid encounters go, I very much enjoy the overall design and presentation of the Eye of Eternity.  Although his character isn't given the epic treatment that I think he deserves, the encounter is well crafted and fine tuned overall.  At the same time, the fight doesn't feel gimmicky or leave a class or role out of the equation.  To me, the sign of good encounter design is when the success of the encounter hinges on the collective skill of the raid, not an overpowered member or two. Initially, we are hit with something akin to all the previous dragon battles, then we see Malygos' full magical wrath before being tossed into more mundane vehicular combat.  Our night of attempts failed because of poor spark pool placement, 26% was our best attempt thanks to the enrage timer.  I'll be happy to participate in this fun encounter again, even though there is no loot in it for Solidsamm. With Malygos attempted, I only have a single Wrath boss left, Sapphiron.  How'd you like Malygos?

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For those of you that haven’t seen it yet, Blizzard has posted a very nice description and screenshots of the new Ulduar raid on their EU web site. For the last while I have been rather impatiently waiting for this raid, viewing it more as something necessary to keep my interest, rather than something to look forward to. Well, after reading what Blizzard posted I must say I have changed my tune. I am excited! This raid sounds freaking awesome. The thing I grabbed onto right away was the size of the content. I have been telling people for a while that I hoped Ulduar would be a substantial raid. Well it sounds like I got my wish. The post says there will be 14 bosses. This makes it larger than all of Tier 5 in Burning Crusade which had 10 bosses (6 in SSC and 4 in TK). Furthermore it claims that 11 of those fights will have hard modes (think Obsidian Sanctum with drakes up). This should provide tons of new challenges, achievements, and most importantly replayability. If I am going to be grinding this instance night after night I’m glad to hear we will be able to change it up and keep it interesting. The post also mentions an interesting "preinstance" that players must fight through in order to reach the instance proper. It sounds as if this will involve the raid taking out an army on vehicles before a final showdown with a boss that must be taken down on the vehicles as well. While I have never been a big fan of the “vehicle fights” I am going to keep my mind open on this one. While not a big fan of phase 3 Malygos and the Oculus, I love Wintergrasp and this seems to be going more in that direction. I couldn’t be happier that Blizzard has throw this carrot out there. I will be feverishly checking out the Blizzard site, forums, and news sites looking for more details. But for right now, I feel this one will be worth the wait. Be sure to read the preview for yourself here, and tell me, are you as geeked as I am about this one?

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One of my favorite things about playing World of Warcraft has always been the sense that the game is unbeatable. There is always something to do, always ways to improve yourself, and always something to suck up your time if you want it to. Getting a bit of a late jump into TBC raiding, the sense of things I hadn’t done and bosses I hadn’t seen was overwhelming. I loved having far off carrots to chase after and drive me to work on my character day after day. Lately though, I have grown concerned. I know lots of people are saying it, but I am honestly starting to believe that the current amount of content is very inadequate. I have long ago downed every boss in the game. When I saw Malygos go down for the first time, it was bittersweet, but I knew there was lots more to do because of the achievement system. I was content with the fact that while there weren’t any new bosses, there were plenty of new and challenging ways to kill those bosses. The problem now is I’ve spent the time over the last month or so and earned a lot of those achievements. And now I’m faced with the feeling that there aren’t even enough achievements left to keep me very interested. Sure I will likely keep farming Naxx until I have my gear looking exactly how I want it, and I still have the matter of killing Sartharion with 3 drakes up, but I very much want a longer laundry list of things I could still be doing. I consider myself a fairly strong raider, but I am nowhere near as hardcore as a lot of people. If I am running into this issue, I’m sure there are many more than myself who feel the same. In my eyes Ulduar can’t come soon enough, and if Blizzard wants to keep its more dedicated players interested there isn’t a moment to lose.

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We all knew that there would be plenty of people out their racing to hit level 80 as soon as possible. Not you racing against your friend or guildmate. I mean someone who would take vacation, go without sleep, eat dry packets of Ramen (hey, the saliva will hydrate it) and pee in empty bottles of energy drinks, until they finally dinged level 80. As Juggynaut mentioned, this happened less than two days after Wrath went live on the European realms.

Since then, I am sure many of us have witnessed server wide messages proclaiming the first of this class or race to hit 80. Even the North American realms, which are a bit behind due to timezones, have plenty of 80s roaming Northrend. It was only a matter of time before people began taking on the 10-man and 25-man raid content.

For TwentyFifthNovember, that time was under two days after Nymh hit level 80. TFN is the General Electric of World of Warcraft. A guild conglomerate put together by SK-Gaming (Curse) and Nihilum to achieve world first kills and to create “one of the best World of Warcraft community sites.” Their fancy new site is set to launch on November 25^th, well after they started putting up new content. If you head over there now, you will be informed that they have beaten all of the raid content that Wrath of the Lich King has to offer.

Getting a group of players together that fast is an achievement of itself. The guild took it one step further by beating the re-tuned Naxxramas and swiftly moving onto Malygos, the hardest boss currently in Wrath. 68 hours and 30 minutes later, and TFN is standing on top, waiting for Patch 3.1 and Ulduar.

These guys are obviously good at WoW, but damn that was fast. TFN's announcement post wasn't entirely self-congratulatory though. The team questioned Blizzard's tuning of the raids, even suggesting that Blizzard may have made them easier to put the “large casual player base...on equal footing with end-game raiders?”

What do you guys think? Are they just too good, or is Blizzard trying to appease the larger audience? Hitting 80 inside two days is one thing, beating Wrath inside a month, let alone three days is another. Comparatively, it took almost five months for Nihilum to beat The Burning Crusade's PvE content.  Of course, if I mention TBC had more raid content, it isn't really defending Blizzard...Seems like Ulduar cannot come soon enough.

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