Project Lore

Blizzard is known for pulling random, often unrequested, features out of the collective brain trust and adding them to an upcoming patch without warning.  Normally people cheer for additions to the default setup.  Some of the features just don't cut it, falling way short of the robustness offered by the many add-ons already available.  Other changes are entirely unobtainable outside of Blizzard's doing.  Case in point, the changes to Raid Info in Secrets of Ulduar.  The change in code enabled players to accept or deny a raid lockout for various reasons.  If something wasn't right, then we'd be able to abort that cleared instance or one that started ages ago unbeknownst to us.  Without a doubt a useful addition which has made everyone's instancing less cumbersome. Following the same RaidID logic, Blizzard confirmed this week that Call of the Crusade will give players the ability to extend your raid lockout period.  No longer will you have to give up on an instance with just Kel'Thuzad up, or clear the beginning of Ulduar just to make further attempts on Yogg-Saron.  Instead members of a raid or party can chose, individually, to continue the instance at a later date by extending the lockout timer for another session (seven days for most raids, another day for heroics).  The lockout timer can be extended indefinitely.  Worried that you'll extend your lockout timer only to fail at completing your goal?  Fear not, Blizzard will allow players to drop the extended instance so long as nothing of substance was completed since its extension. Why would Blizzard do this you ask?  Eyonix has your basic sure-to-upset-the-hardcore answer.  "This new option is being added as a means to allow parties and raids to progress through an instance at their chosen pace". Initially I was annoyed with the announcement.  Not only did it seem to be a pointless waste of development time, but it removes one of the reasons for a lockout period to exist.  I got over those issues though.  The development time spent on the change is nothing in the long run, perhaps a week's worth of work for a programmer and some QA personal.  And the lockouts exist mainly to keep people from getting too much loot in a week, not as a race against the (long) clock.  In the end both casual and hardcore guilds will benefit from the change, and it is doubtful that the gear gap between the teams will shrink with the added feature.  Leave that up to the emblem changes. Time well spent or is this going to be a rarely used feature like in-game voice chat?  Another win for casual raiders and a strike for the hardcore?  As an added, perhaps unintended, bonus we'll be able to gear up our alts by taking over older, partially cleared (all hard modes downed) instances and cleaning up any remaining easy bosses.  That can't be bad right? For more details, check the latest official PTR notes.

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At first, I didn't give it much thought when a WoW acquaintance asked me to join his 3v3 arena team for the tournament. "Sure," I said. "Sounds like fun." Actually, I didn't think it was a serious request. I mean, really - he was asking me, of all people? I'm still working to ding level 80 for the first time, and haven't ventured much into the realm of PvP. Back in the pre-BC days when my main was a warrior, I played a bit of Battlegrounds in Warsong Gulch. Even then, I never dared walk into an arena. And since I switched to my rogue, I've been focused more on leveling and only try out a battleground here and there when bored. So it seemed like an odd request. But the idea grew on me. I kept thinking about how fun it would be to play a super-beefed-up version of my rogue. A nice change of pace, I thought. And it turned out the guy was both serious and persistent in asking me to join. I explained my lack of experience, and he didn't seem to mind. So I caved. I paid my $20 fee. Rolled Pixiestixy. Signed the team charter. Decided on a 41/5/25 mutilate spec. Set up my action bars. And spent a couple hours figuring out the best gear, enchants and gems to use. All I needed was confirmation that the team had been formed so we could start playing toward 200 matches (and a glorious, golden-armored pet murloc) before the April 6 deadline to qualify for the next round. So I waited. And waited. Played around with some macros. Admired my glowing-red berserking Deadly Gladiator's Shankers. Waited some more. A couple days later, I got an e-mail. My friend decided to play with a couple of his other (and, as it were, more experienced) friends, instead. I sighed in exasperation. I saw it coming, but had been hoping that wasn't the case. So I started with the obligatory search for a PuG. It seemed no one wanted a PvP noobie in their group. I don't blame them - most people who sign up probably have at least some clue what they are doing. I got no responses, not even to "BElf rogue LF a good time." I started asking RL friends (I had my husband convinced at one point, but we still needed a third). I saw several PuG requests from people saying they would just play 200 matches and lose each one to get the murloc. Pet collectors, I guess. But, somehow, that feels like cheating to me. If I'm going to do this, I oughta at least try, even if those attempts are futile. So I made a final effort to PuG it before the extended deadline to register last Friday. And finally, found a couple of takers. Myself, an affliction warlock (who also said he was no good at PvP) and a hybrid holy/ret paladin (who wanted to make top 1,000 teams to earn the Vanquisher title, but said he'd stick with us even if we lost). We became The Misfits. The first few matches were mayhem. I had absolutely no experience to back up everything I've read about PvP. And let me tell you, the experience is much different. It's way harder to keep track of everything going on than I had expected. We only played 6 matches the first night, with an even 3-3 record, and set a time to play again Saturday. Another 12 games in Saturday, and we had been getting worked. Despite me starting to get a better feel for the hectic arenas, our record was 6-12. Our paladin kept going AFK between matches. And then, the dreaded message. Pally "has left The Misfits." Teamless, again. I'm taking a break to work off the annoyance, then perhaps back to PuG-ing. What have I gotten myself into? So who all's in the tournament? What have your experiences been so far? How should us who are new to PvP find a group willing to stick it out through the 200 matches? And is there still enough time to squeeze in 200 matches before the 6th?

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I remember a time, pre-BC, when the Blackrock Mountains were the place to group and raid. I unfortunately also remember having to pug to get my Light Forge Spaulders. I wasn't much of a guild person back then, so I would have to do the obligatory "Lvl 60 Paladin LFG for UBRS, PST".  There were always 3 strikes a group would always face heading into UBRS. 1.) Does your group have someone who's keyed? 2.) Do you have the DPS for "The Beast"? 3.) Does your group have the understanding of how to fight the General, (ex. the kiting strategy)? I can remember countless times when groups would just fall apart after one attempt of the General or when someone finally got their shoulders off the Beast and they'd say they have to leave because of something in real life and just force quit. Here we are two expansions later and we have a lot of new players to the game. I know quite a few people who joined in the middle of Burning Crusade's lifespan and never spent one minute in the old world dungeons. So they were lucky to have avoided the Excedrin (yes, the headache medicine) popping moments. But I'm wondering why were pugs in those dungeons so bad? I bring this up because since Wrath of the Lich King was released I've had to pug a few Heroics and even Naxx on occasion. The thing I've noticed is how smoothly the runs seem to go. Last week I pugged a 25 man Naxx group. Funny thing is we downed 3 quarters in under 3 hours. People listened. People did their jobs and did them well. This was incredible. Usually the more people in a pug the more drama, crying and problems you have or at least you would have had been back in the day.  Two weeks ago I main tanked a 25 man Obsidian Sanctum without vent and we downed it with ease. Even a run in Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle went surprisingly well. So here are three different experiences with the same results. Have players grown up? Are people finally "learning to play their class" as the old complaint use to be thrown around?  Has Blizzard done anything special to the game mechanics to make it easier to communicate without voices? You could say vent servers have helped but people have been using them for years and still have bad experiences. I'm just really curious to see if I'm the only one who's noticing this nice change in pugs. If you are experiencing a change why do you think it's happened? While I still prefer to run with my guild I can say that I really don't mind the pugs as much as I use to in the pre-bc days.

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PUGing can be a brutal experience.  The lack of coordination, responsibility and inability to read a player's worth is a soul-draining experience.  A few bad Heroics or 10-man Naxx's can force even the most patient and understanding player to swear them off for good.

What happens when even your guild fails?  What do you do then?  QQ, abandon the "newbs" and find another guild?  Hold out for the next raid and see if the situation is repeated?  Go on a tirade in Ventrilo about how the tanks can't generate enough threat-per-second and that the healers don't know how to heal out of group?  Sit there and cry?  Or, do as I do, blog about it. This past week, SolidSamm's new guild failed to down even one boss in 10-man Naxxramas one night.  Yes, the same dungeon that is done by PUGs on a daily basis and that we fully cleared the week before, held us up.  In all fairness, we did not have the normal group together.  The raid was initially delayed an hour due to scheduling conflicts.  At 8:30 PM we decided to go with the 10 we had online.  The ragtag bunch included only two healers, one of which was our main tank on his fresh level 80 alt.  Thus, the off tank became the main tank, and a feral druid had to take over the off tanking duties.  We knew the night would be a tough one, but we all figured it was worth a shot. Our first boss of the night was to be the poison spewing mob known as Grobbulus.  Attempt one was a mess.  I'll be honest and admit that I did not notice how poorly we were doing until only the tank and myself remained alive.  From what I was told after I asked wtf happened, someone dropped a poison on the casters.  The wipe was caused by an easily correctable mistake, so we ressed and went at the abomination a second time.  While the second attempt got us to 8%, we still failed to drop the fat ass, causing the raid to be canceled for the night. Eight percent.  Grobbulus had less than a quarter million HP at that point and the raid was called.  I hate repair bills as much as the next guy, but I hate leaving a boss up when he is killable even more.  I voiced my opinion politely, but it was decided that due to the raid's composition, the undergeared healer, and the replacement off tank, things just weren't going to go our way.  Yea, we may have been able to kill Grobb, but could we have gone any farther?  Doubt it. Two hours, 20 something gold, a collection of consumables, some additional gray hairs and I have nothing to show for half a nights work.  I did get to play the sweet boyfriend and pretend I left the raid to hang out with the girlfriend.  Brownie points for sure.  How does your guild decide to call it a night, and under what circumstances?

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