Entries in raiding (63)
Patch 3.2: Raiding Lockout Extensions
iTZKooPA on Thursday, July 9, 2009 - 9 Comments Tags: PvE, blizzard post, blue, call of the crusade, eyonix, lockout extension, lockout period, patch 3.2, patch v3.2, pugs, raid info, raid lockout, raiding, vaneras 
Nerf the Iron Concourse!
Amatera on Wednesday, July 8, 2009 - 19 Comments Tags: Raid, Ulduar, brann bronzebeard, flame leviathan, iron concourse, nerf, raiding, vehicles It pains me to say it, but after several months of dutifully raiding Ulduar, one of the coolest aspects of the dungeon just isn't the bee's knees anymore. I'm talking about the Iron Concourse, that long stretch of dark iron dwarf-infested land that sits between your raid and Flame Leviathan each and every time you start a new lockout period.
In the previews leading up to the dungeon's release, nothing could've sounded more epic: you and your buddies jump into some high-powered engines of destruction as your tear across the map, laying waste to the gate-keepers of Ulduar and anything else that might be unlucky enough to sit in your path. And it was fun... the first few times. The scale was huge, the concept above and beyond what you'd normally find in a dungeon, and the on-going narration from Brann Bronzebeard was a real atmospheric treat.
Blizzard could do with fixing the ramp bugs while they're at it!
But now, just as soon as I first jump into a vehicle at the start of the event, I can't help but count down the time until the whole affair is over. Once the majesty fades, the Iron Concourse is nothing more than a terribly easy, drawn-out trash-clearing exercise of the worst kind. Ten to fifteen minutes of demolishing towers is enough to kill my raiding buzz.
I've rallied against nerfs to Ulduar in the past, but now I'm putting out the call: nerf the Iron Concourse! Despite the negative connotations the word has come to be associated with over the years, it's not always such a bad thing. The way I see it, there are two ways to "nerf" something: to make it easier or to make it more convenient. Blizzard's been doing a lot of both lately, and while I'm not a fan of the changes they've made to a lot of the bosses in Ulduar, I would welcome just about any remedy to ease the pain of having to clear this area.
What can they do? They can't very well make the vehicles any stronger or faster without having to retune the Flame Leviathan encounter, and it may just make clearing more of an ordeal to make it any more difficult. Likely, the easiest thing to do is simply make the enemies weaker (and get rid of those damnable helicopters!). As it is right now, the iron dwarf gnats that stream out of the storm towers right now can be easily dealt with, but the bigger mobs act as nothing more than huge damage sponges.
Unless you're running into the dungeon with a bunch of people who have sub-200 item level gear, the Iron Concourse just doesn't pose much of a challenge. And if you're doing that, you probably just shouldn't be in Ulduar anyway.
What do you think, guys and gals? Has the Iron Concourse event become as rote and annoying for you as it has for me? I'm always hesitant to suggest things that make the game too convenient for players (let's face it, you've got to put some effort in), but when you're forced to engage in an encounter like this with no tangible rewards for doing so, maybe it would be better to just get it over with as soon as possible. Hey, we've all dealt with worse trash, but at least you might get some gold or the occasional drop out of it. Are there any other parts of Ulduar you feel the same way about?
Raiding in 3.2: Decisions Decisions
Tyranis on Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - 14 Comments Tags: 3:2, Raid, call of the crusade, coliseum, lockout, patch 3.2, raiding, raids, tier 9 
Patches mean different things to different players. For some, it is looking forward to more adventure and exciting things to do. Others might be anticipating changes to their class or getting their hands on a new vanity pet. As GM of a raiding guild, I find it necessary to scrutinize patch notes in search of changes that may impact the way my guild operates.
For example, in patch 3.1, they introduced dual specialization. This had an immediate impact in our raids. If we're facing a boss that only requires one tank, then we'll have the other tanks swap to their DPS specs. If we're short a healer, one of our DPS can swap over. Having raid members with well-geared secondary specs became important. In order to encourage our raid members to have well geared offsets, we changed our loot policies to offer gear for offsets at a discount DKP price, assuming no one needed the item for their main spec. Another smaller change in 3.1 was the duration change on flasks from two hours to one. As a result, we now make sure everyone is using their flasks in unison so we can time our breaks for when the flasks run out.
As I peruse the patch notes for patch 3.2, there are a few line items that could impact the logistics of raiding. It will be interesting to see how guild officers respond to these changes. One of the first decisions guilds need to make is how will the new raid instance, Crusader's Coliseum, fit into their raiding schedule. While the new dungeon is technically a new tier of raiding, guilds may not remove Ulduar off their schedules immediately, like they did to Naxxramas when 3.1 hit. While the details aren't solid at the moment, it has been posted that the encounters in the Coliseum will be unlocked one at a time at the rate of one per week. Many guilds will still spend a lot of time in Ulduar while the bosses are slowly introduced in the Coliseum.
Once all of the tier 9 encounters are open, there are more scheduling decisions to make. The Crusader's Coliseum (aka The Argent Coliseum) has both a normal and heroic version for both 10 and 25 players. The heroic versions of the instance limit players to a number of attempts each week, but open up greater rewards for those who succeed. With that in mind, do you try and take out Ulduar quickly and then spend the remaining time working on the normal version of the new instance? Or do you skip the gobs of easy loot from Ulduar in favor of the new content? How do you balance time spent in normal vs. heroic Coliseum? Interesting questions, indeed.
Perhaps the biggest raiding change to be introduced in 3.2 is the extend raid lockout feature. When 3.2 hits, guilds will be able to decide if they want to prevent a raid instance from resetting on a weekly basis. Raid lockouts can be extended for up to an additional week to allow players more time to work on and clear boss encounters. With instances as big as Ulduar, many guilds begin to struggle towards the end of the instance because they run out of time to work on bosses like General Vezax and Yogg-Saron. How will your guild use this exciting feature?
Players in 3.2 will have the ability to trade soulbound items with other raid members that are eligible for the loot. This feature grants you a two-hour grace period before the item is permanently bound and will save Blizzard GMs from throngs of in-game tickets from items that are distributed incorrectly. Guilds may decide, however, to use this feature as a time saver during raids. Instead of spending precious flask time distributing loot after each boss kill, the master looter can grab everything and hand it out at specified break periods. Obviously, this is more beneficial when you're clearing a lot of bosses in a night and can get complicated if you frequently have raid members leaving and joining throughout the night, but it is still a nice option to explore.
The Call of the Crusade patch will change the way a lot of guild approach raiding. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. Which raiding features are you most excited about in 3.2? How is your guild going to approach some of these changes? Share your thoughts and ideas with us.
The Curious Case of High-End Raiding Guilds
Amatera on Friday, July 3, 2009 - 17 Comments Tags: The Wizard, billy mitchell, blizzard, boss kill, competition, counterstrike, digital athletics, ensidia, espn 2, exodus, fred savage, guilds, hidden warp zone, king of kong, mlg, professional gamers, professional gaming, progression, quake, raiding, steve wiebe, twin galaxies, walter day, world firsts
[caption id="attachment_4468" align="alignright" width="186" caption="Ensidia"]
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Their existence is of no surprise, coming from humanity's need to define a "best." From the minute we are born, we start building hierarchies and classifications, sliding different people, organizations, and things into them like blocks in a pyramid. Quite simply, given anything, there are those individuals that will seek ways to be, make, or facilitate a standard. High-end raiding guilds just represent the capstone of the WoW universe.
I don't think it matters whether or not a particular goal is worthy, merely that it exists to be conquered. But what of it, then? How do we measure the importance of a world first kill? As a long-time gameplayer myself (and I'd pretty much have to be, if I were blogging for Project Lore!), I'm not about to call it a waste of time, but it feels to me as though there's something that needs to be sorted out when your "win" seems to consist of nothing more than learning and executing a set pattern.
If that were truly it, then we'd all be able to do it given enough time. No, you need skill, mental and physical dexterity. A quality rig and decent connection doesn't hurt, either. There's little doubt that your average high-end raider is playing at a completely different level than you are. And as many of these top-tier progression guilds are also home to rock star PvP teams, you certainly can't knock their expertise.
I suppose my concern arrives at the point of content, and what is being "conquered" in WoW. Most of those old Twin Galaxies records are endurance trials. Arcade games have a history of running indefinitely (or at least as long as the programming let them), allowing your average record attemptee to play and rack up points until they run out of steam. On the contrary, a world first in Warcraft amounts to a race to see who can reach a benchmark first. But once it's accomplished, that's it.
As it is, everybody gets to sit on their hands until the next dungeon comes out. So perhaps it is the mere nature of the competition that makes it seem so fruitless on the surface. What can be done to remedy this? I'm not entirely sure, but the measurement likely needs to be changed. Currently, MMO-Champion keeps a log of world firsts called the Hall of Fame, which records only the time, date, and guild associated with an initial kill.
We could go the route of cataloging reams of personal data (things such as DPS, healing effectiveness, and so on), but that almost seems too complex. Personally, I'm a fan of the speed-run, something that's been a stock measurement of finite-end video games for awhile now. You can find loads of them all over Youtube and other video sites, covering everything from Super Mario Bros. to Final Fantasy. It's a convenient mark of efficiency that's even started to creep its way into the World of Warcraft. A few enterprising individuals realized that they could still squeeze some fun out of Naxxramas before the release of 3.1 by completing it as fast as possible. Watching them, I was amazed at how the players handled certain encounters or deftly side-stepped trash mobs in ways that I hadn't conceived of before.
The downside of speed-runs is that they're ultimately susceptible to the same foul play as world firsts, by means of taking advantage of bugs and glitches to achieve faster times, but they do offer a wider range of accomplishments to be had. But whatever measurement might ultimately be employed down the road (and it will have to be as the field of eligible guilds expands), there's still the issue of competitive progression on the WoW playerbase.
Having browsed forums, fansites, and in-game chat, I've seen everything from cheerleading to vitriol. Whether you hate them or love them, there's little doubt that these guilds are community touchstones. Even Project Lore's own iTZKooPA claims to "live through them vicariously." While I lean just a tad towards the critical side, I've caught myself referencing the timing of world firsts as standards by which to judge the difficulty of the content.
Stepping back for a moment, common sense sets in, and I realize that talent is a greater factor in these accomplishments than a lack of complexity, but that sort of mindset is dangerous for content developers. Namely, Blizzard. Perception, especially when combined with the mob mentality of the internet, can quickly and easily trump the reality of things. If the community sees a difficult boss kill achieved within the first few days of a dungeon's release, they're going to start questioning whether or not Blizzard's given them their money's worth, and that seems to be one of the major problems they've run into with providing content in Wrath.
On the other hand, top guilds can be a huge boon for the game's popularity. After all, how pervasive would most professional sports be without the cult of personality? All the pomp and circumstance associated with teams and players does amount to something. As the proletariat of Azeroth, guilds like Ensidia, Exodus, or Premonition give us rare insight into the inner workings of upper-level game mechanics. They might even inspire us to play better or to become something ourselves, just like little Jimmy did in "The Wizard." *cue Stan Bush*
The controversy associated with high-end raiding guilds, however, will not go away, and it may even metastisize as more and more join them at the pinnacle. I'm honestly not sure what to make of Exodus' response to their own banning. Their complaints, citing past game explotation by rivals, may stink of butthurt, but are nonetheless valid. The blatant flag-waving, though, whether or not its tongue-in-check, leaves a real nasty taste in my mouth.
If this is a sign of things to come, I'm not sure I like it, and it's most certainly not something that Blizzard, a company founded on fair play and a commitment to quality, would want to be associated with.
To close out this post, I'd like to emphasize that despite some of my skepticism concerning the phenomena of high-end raiding and competitive progression, a lot of the guys and gals involved are ultimately classy and well-respected players. They've mastered elements of the game I can only hope to one day in the distant future and consistently proven their dedication to a product that many have waned on out of sheer frustration. Their knowledge and input may just make World of Warcraft a more fun and interesting game to play.
But my concern remains. After years of observing (and in some cases, even help running) gaming competitions, I'm all too familiar with the complications and inconsistencies that can arise. Organizations like MLG are doing their best to create a standard set of rules which we can all play by (though I don't believe they currently cover the brand of achievements I've talked about here), and if "professional gamers" are seeking to live up to the first part of that title and gain more mainstream acceptance, it is in their best interest to follow them. "Another lengthy post by Amatera, right? What is this guy thinking?! This is a blog! Posts are supposed to be bite-sized and easily digestible!" Well, I'm sorry for making you all sit through my verbal torture, but I hope you've enjoyed what you read, and I'm especially interested to hear what you all have to say about this topic. It's one that I think rarely gets taken seriously, but has the potential to explode in the future. What do you think of the existence of high-end, competitive raiding guilds, and what kind of effect do they have on the community? Do you believe that their accomplishments have honestly influenced WoW's development over time, or is the whole affair of world firsts completely pointless? Readers, the floor is yours.
The Next Expansion: Guild Progression
iTZKooPA on Thursday, July 2, 2009 - 35 Comments Tags: columns, comradery, expansion ideas, feats of strength, guild housing, guild progression, guilds, ideas for the future, player housing, progression, raiding, the next expansion, titles 
Fond Memories: The Gates (And Raids) of Ahn'Qiraj
iTZKooPA on Wednesday, July 1, 2009 - 31 Comments Tags: C'thun, Isle of Quel'Danas, ahn'qiraj, aq20, aq40, columns, fond memories, lore, old world content, raiding, raiding old world, simple directions, twin emperors, war effort, world events, zombie invasion 
Life's a Grind
Amatera on Wednesday, July 1, 2009 - 18 Comments Tags: addiction, blizzard, dailies, dopamine, everything bad is good for you, grinding, life, philosophy, quests, raiding, rant, rewards, steven johnson, work 
It's easy to become insulated when you write for a subject-specific site like Project Lore, surrounded by like-minded colleagues and readers whose clear interest in the topics at hand is evidenced through repeated page views and lengthy comment sections. But I have, and still do, inhabit other realms of the internet, many of which I've been a part of since long before wetting my feet in the World of Warcraft.
There, a fan like myself comes under fire from care-bear-hating MMO elitists and console proselytizers, and that's just the gaming forums! I couldn't imagine, for a second, what undying vitriol might be slung my way in more "public" spheres. The same old arguments await me at every turn, variations on "who in their right mind would pay 15 bucks a month for this crap?" or "it's all just one big grind!" What's even more defeating is when the hate comes from lapsed players who chime in only to pat themselves on the back for leaving the game some months ago, as if they'd just successfully completed a marathon run of treatment at the Betty Ford Clinic.
Even knowing that there are at least 11 million other people out there just like me, it's hard not to let the scathing commentary get you down sometimes. What are we WoW fanatics to do? How do we counter? Do we sag our shoulders and willfully take our lumps, or do we fight back? Well, scratch that last part. Fighting back on the interwebs will only invite more catcalls and mocking derision like "Warcraft is serious business lawl!" No, that may not be an amicable solution, but you can take solace in the following: Life, like Warcraft, is a grind.
We all do it. We all go through the motions, day in and day out. "Grinding" is an integral, and inseperable, part of our working lives. Allow me to indulge in a couple of generic scenarios here:
You drive to your job in the morning, bleary-eyed and sipping coffee while trying not to get run over on the freeway. Eventually, you arrive at work, and are given a set number of rote tasks to complete that day. You've done them all a thousand times before, but hey, you're earning money right? Chances are you're working with a team, and you have to coordinate with them to get these things done. Once in awhile, you might have to go to a meeting or be given a new, interesting project to work on. At the end of the day, you hope that all of your efforts might someday result in a raise, promotion, or even just a nice pat on the back. The money you've earned is spent on living expenses, and if you have some leftover, you might be able to afford that new TV you've always wanted.Now, take a look at this:
You get on your computer, bleary-eyed and slamming your energy drink of choice while trying to avoid the ire of your significant other. Eventually, you log into WoW and figure you might as well get your dailies out of the way. You've done them all a thousand times before, but hey, you're earning gold right? Chances are you're in a guild, and you might be doing some raiding tonight. Maybe you'll clear through to a new encounter or try some fresh content. At the end of the day, you hope that all your efforts might result in some tier gear, sweet epics, or even just a few DKP. The gold you've earned is spent on repair bills from all those wipes, but if you have some left over, maybe you can actually afford to enchant your equipment or purchase that bear mount you've always wanted.By no means are these scenarios exemplary of every person or player, but I do think that there are common experiences shared between them. But if playing Warcraft (or, really, any other video game, MMO or not) is, at its basic level, so much like our daily lives, why do we find it to be so much fun? Isn't it meant to be escapism? I'd like to quote the wonderful popular science author Steven Johnson from his book Everything Bad Is Good For You:
The dirty little secret of gaming is how much time you spend not having fun... if this is mindless escapism, it's a strangely masochistic version. Who wants to escape to a world that irritates you 90 percent of the time?This took me aback when I first read it several years ago. I've been playing video games for most of my 25 years, but not until then did I realize that playing it truly amounted to so much work. He also provides an anecdote, which is too long to reproduce here, but can be summed up as an account of a construction worker who willingly spent months in the virtual world of Ultima Online leveling up his blacksmithing (and selling the produced wares), just so he could afford a better in-game house. I can hear cries of "madness!" and "waste of money!" coming from the far reaches of the internet now. But you and I, WoW players, do the very same thing every day (and the rest of the world does, too, whether they care to admit it or not). We parade our avatars around Azeroth, spending unquantifiable amounts of time doing the most seemingly mundane activities for the simple chance to make them look cooler. And why? The easy, and inevitable answer is: to increase the size of our e-penis. That construction worker, when asked the same question, replied with, "Well, it's not work if you enjoy it." A long, perhaps more satisfying answer, is given by Johnson himself. He goes on for quite awhile talking about dopamine and the reward center of the brain, an explanation that seems to ring true. Critics will cry that it's just further justification for MMOs being nothing more than an addictive drug, but that would be willfully ignoring that dopamine can produce positive reinforcement and applies to the "good feeling" that comes from accomplishing any task. What video games do, in a sense, is give us a shortcut to the rewards we desire. The satisfaction of killing Arthas, just like earning a promotion at work, may yet be a long way off, but at least in WoW we're treated to plenty of smaller pleasures along the way: completing a quest, a new piece of gear, an honor kill in PvP, downing a boss. Each and every turn we take in the game is a chance to earn a new reward. MMOs, in particular, promise a potentially limitless or expanding number of rewards, unlike your typical console game, which often has a concrete endpoint. We discuss Blizzard's development philosophy a lot here on Project Lore. From all of the changes we've seen to leveling and bosses, gear acquisition and the like, it's clear that they've been paying attention. Sure, those of us who've been playing the game longer will continue to balk at newbies getting a free pass on parts of the game we had to slog through, but that's a feeling that comes from latent jealousy. If we'd been afforded the same conveniences from the get-go, we'd heartily lap it up, wouldn't we? Rewards are wonderful, and they make us feel good, but I'd like to add some insight of my own: despite our frustrations, and despite lashing out at the developers, many of us enjoy grinding on some level because it is work. We play WoW because its underlying structure is intimately familiar to us, and that familiarity is comforting. But there's another wrinkle: it's work on our own terms. Normally a slave to the greater aspects of life that plague us all, World of Warcraft gives us the opportunity to have some control over what we do and where we go; what tasks to complete, in what order to complete them, and the ability to stop when you feel like you've accomplished enough. Of course, all of this rests on top of the basic fact that it is escapism. We can travel in different circles, and talk to different people, and engage in a world that is different from own in just as many ways as it is similar. To work is to grind, and to grind is to play. Next time an internet bully gives you a hard time about playing WoW, tell them to stick that in their craw and chew on it (or maybe it can just be our little secret!). As usual, thoughts or opinions are very much welcome. If you've made it this far, I'd like to think you have something to say on the subject, so please chime in and post in the comment section below!
Too Soon for a New Tier?
Bastosa on Tuesday, June 30, 2009 - 31 Comments Tags: Ulduar, bastosa, gear, loot, progression, raiding, tier 8, tier 9, time 
As more and more information comes out of the PTR, its pretty hard to not pay attention to it. I am personally getting pumped for all the great new content Blizzard is getting ready for us.
As I'm pretty sure most of you have noticed, the new loot we will be able to earn is amazing. Tons of great drops, crafted gear, and most importantly the new tier pieces. While it all exciting, with 3.2 seeming near it makes me wonder if it all is coming a bit soon.
I know this may sound a bit odd coming from the guy who complained about how long we were stuck in Naxx, but I don't think we have had enough time in Ulduar. Most of my shiny new T8 epics still have that new car smell, and there is plenty of hard-mode loot I haven't even had a chance to farm.
Perhaps I am just concerned that the new loot showing up on the PTR is a bit too good. With all of this new stuff available I will see little reason to go back to Ulduar. This would be a shame because I think Ulduar is an amazing instance! Blizzard managed to create a challenging instance that is full of story and has tons of replayability with the hard modes. I am not ready to leave!
While I'm sure people will still be running it, finding motivated groups will be difficult with all of the best stuff somewhere else. At the very least it would be nice to still make the hard mode loot relevant. Yes, I know there will still be best-in-slot items sprinkled around in old content, but by and large we are progressing past it.
While I feel most people have had a fair shot at Ulduar itself, I know many people want time to go deeper and try those hard modes.
Of course you can never make everyone happy, people progress at different paces, so while some are farming Algalon, many are still in Naxx. None the less for me, this seems fast.
How do you guys feel about it? Want more time, or are you ready for something new already?
Keeping A Guild Together
iTZKooPA on Monday, June 29, 2009 - 26 Comments Tags: PvE, creative solutions, gm appreciation day, gms, gquits, guild progression, guild recruitment, guild trouble, halp!, membership, raiding, transfering, unsubscribing 
- With over 200 members, let whoever wants to leave go.
- Although we are casual, trim the roster down to at least active players who login. Personally, I believe it looks bad to have that many members, even if they are alts, and not be able to fill a 10-man.
- Get rid of members the higher-ups dislike. Sorry, but if you dislike them, their very presence will add to burnout.
- Have members fill in the open spots in the roster with friends, alts, or other players that they know well. Even if other players aren't willing to join the guild, drop them a line so they know that WoF is in need of some PUGs.
- Re-roll your main. I am hard at work on leveling my priest so I can fill in the healing hole left by two members. Although I love and enjoy my rogue, I enjoy raiding much more than not raiding.
- Go back to 10-man raiding, two nights a week. Cutting back to 10-man should ensure that the raid is filled. Slashing to two nights a week, say one night progression, one night farming, will give members a concrete schedule and reduce burnout. If they want to do more, see point one.
Downsizing Dungeons
Amatera on Wednesday, June 24, 2009 - 29 Comments Tags: 10 man, 25 man, Drama, blizzard, game design, guilds, members, raiding Blizzard's raiding model has seen its share of changes over the years. First, it was raids that catered to 10-man, 20-man, and even 40-man groups. Then, with Burning Crusade, a curious mix of 10s and the new 25-man raids. And now, with Wrath of the Lich King, dungeons that can accommodate runs 10 and 25 strong in tandem. Like so many other things in the game, the idea has been to make end-game content accessible to as many people as possible. But I think they're onto something else, something beyond the mere ability to PuG the toughest dungeons in the game. You see, I think I've become addicted to 10-man raids. Forced into them due to low turnout from the membership, it's basically all our guild has been able to run lately. And you know what? I'm OK with that. I'm perfectly peachy. I've learned that the tighter, more intimate setup has led to a relatively stress-free experience. I don't think I'm the only one, either. As my server's population plummets over the Summer (and I'm sure it must have on many of yours, as well), I've found that several notable raiding guilds have fully converted to lean, mean 10-man raiding machines. It makes me think: would the whole game be better off this way? The immediate results would be obvious. Less people to deal with means less fighting over gear, less drama, and less people to round up for the nightly raid. On the flip side, if the "drama dragon" rears its ugly head, the impact on a smaller guild could potentially be devastating. But I find that, out of all the people I've actually played this game with, I feel like I could trust oh, about, ten or fifteen of them, and that means that I can deal with the occasional outburst and tense situations between members can be more easily defused. After all, the number one killer of WoW guilds isn't a raid boss, it's the "d-word." Urging guilds to operate on a more compact skill would be a long-term benefit for the health of the game, in my opinion, though that wouldn't help with cleaning up the messy business that would need to be carried out beforehand (I'm talking about trimming rosters and restructuring, which would no doubt leave many players homeless for awhile). The more people there are in a guild, the more they're going to feel devalued. When people feel devalued, they stir the pot to get noticed, and that's not good for anybody. It would be infinitely easier to understand what every person can bring to a raid when there are fewer bodies to consider. Another thing to take into account would be difficulty. With the exception of several fights (like Grobbulus, where an exponential number of targets decreases the chance of any one person being afflicted by a poison cloud), most encounters are, indeed, harder in their 25-man versions. Currently, 10-mans seem to be tuned chiefly through tweaking of "soft" numbers (reducing the min-max damage of a boss' spell) or "hard" numbers (4 adds become 2, 2 adds become 1, etc.).
