Project Lore

Now that the new patch is alive and kicking, my guild has decided to get back to raiding. Finally! This is great news, but things seem, well, different. I know Blizzard went ahead and reduced mob’s health by 30% for the new patch, and I also know that all of the classes have been buffed a bit with their new abilities. What I wasn’t quite ready for was the net result of all of this. All of the raid content is now ridiculously easy. This has been an extreme nerf, way more so than I had expected. Perhaps it was just the new class abilities are just much more powerful than it seems, or maybe 30% is just way more than I was able to visualize. Either way, wow. In the last two days alone we have had groups go through Kara in half (literally) the time it used to take, we have earned a few guild firsts, and we have taken groups of people who have never raided before into 25-mans with ease. It’s all quite overwhelming. Even heroics have changed significantly. About two pulls into my first heroic since the patch (Ramps), my group quickly went from strategic marking and pulling to just grabbing 14 mobs at a time and AOEing everything down. CC has been rendered completely useless. These made many of us reconsider our activities for the next few weeks. We now have the opportunity to see content that we never thought we would be able to see. Of course we will go down those bosses that always gave us trouble (Vashj I’m looking at you), but after that I think we will be able to press on into content we have never even seen. I even heard about a trade channel PUG that cleared most of Black Temple, surely we can do the same! As fun as this is, I can’t help but think this massively devalues these encounters. Sure we may get guild firsts, but do they count? No way. I no longer get a since of pride from downing a boss, it’s just an achievement/gear run for me now. It’s kind of sad. But then again, I don’t think anyone is really kidding themselves. All in all I think I am just going to take it as it is. I will enjoy the easy achievements, see some new things, gear up my alt, and continue to wait for new (non-nerfed) content in Wrath!

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SK-Gaming announced yesterday that the guild is splitting up.  No, no, the guild isn't dieing by any means but splitting into two distinct guilds, a PvE and PvP guild.  First, let me hit you guys with some details. The organization actually started way back in 1997 with the Quake franchise.  Later, the team transitioned to Counterstrike, where they received most of their fame, and has lived on in all things competitive gaming since.  The company runs various teams for numerous games including Counterstrike, Warcraft III, and World of Warcraft.  SK-Gaming has been a part of World of Warcraft for only a few months, since they teamed up with Curse shortly before the launch of Sunwell Plateau.  So, now you know some background on the team. The break-up is more than name only.  There will not be a SK-Gaming PvP guild and PvE guild.  Instead the teams will be completely separate, as the SK-Gaming brand wants to focus solely on e-Sports titles, of which they consider WoW's Arena ladder to be one of them. The decision speaks a lot for Blizzard's e-Sports hopes and the ability to manage two vastly diverse playing styles.  It should be pretty apparent that WoW is now an accepted e-Sports franchise.  I mean with millions of dollars in prize money being offered by various tournaments, how could you disagree?  It also should show just how drastically different the gear, playstyles, management and mindset need to be for players to be that hardcore in both aspects of WoW. For their part, the Curse/SK-Gaming PvE guild was the most dominate in Sunwell, with a combined five world first kills including Kil'jaeden.  So it isn't like the team wasn't working out.  They likely just did not feel comfortable surrounded by all the e-Sports guys, as it was reportedly their decision to leave.  There is also the issue with content generation.  How is a sponsored company like SK-Gaming supposed to keep people coming back after the newest PvE content is cleared?  There are things  they could do like training videos (we have that covered) or joke raiding videos, but that may not keep their members happy.  Perhaps that is why they have reformed under the new banner of “Put Your Name Here” and continue on with their previous benefactors, Curse Gaming and World of Raids. What does this mean for PvE?  Probably nothing.  Guilds, including the "splinter" PvE guild, will still race for world first kills, content will get cleared and then another dull period will ensue.  Same old, same old.  Life will go on, but as recocered hardcore raider, the changes interest me nonetheless.

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As we all know, Season 4 is almost upon us. What does that mean for me? It means Season 2 equipment will be available for Honor. Ideally, I would be grinding out Honor and tokens with the rest of the noobs who don't have Merciless or Vengeful gear yet. I'd love to buy a whole set of Epics, since both my Enhancment and Restoration sets have ugly blue holes in them. Unfortunately, I decided long ago that battlegrounds alone are much worse than battlegrounds with friends. Now, for me, this is pretty much the case with anything in WoW. But most of my time is spent dealing with guild organization (I had no idea what I was getting myself into), raids (same), or financing my habits, both in game and IRL. This leaves precious little time for battlegrounds and even less when friends are available. Alas, Season 2 gear, it seems we are not meant to be. I guess I will have to try and make those ZA runs in the future.

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