Hello my two readers!
Sorry for the week delay on posting LFR tips for the 2nd wing of Throne of Thunder: the "Forgotten Depths". I had laid out the plan in my MIND and ASSUMED that I had posted this. Guess not. So in order to facilitate a smooth and happy run for you in obtaining your gold and VP (no items for you!), here we go!
Tortos
I will again list out the CORE competencies required to downing Tortos.
1. One tank tanks Tortos.
2. Off-tank tank the bats.
3. Ranged kill Whirling Turtles, and kick them at Tortos. (He'll take extra damage)
That's it.
Ok fine you want advanced tips? If your group can handle it.....
1. Try staggering the turtles to maximize the uptime of the debuff Tortos gets.
2. If you're a destro warlock, ALWAYS have a rain of fire ticking on all the bats for a shit ton of embers. Always. Always mind your havoc cooldown and gauge it towards either the turtles, or Tortos.
3. Oh, I guess those were only Warlock tips. /shrug
On a sidenote, for the past two weeks I have joined an encounter where the group was on their second stack of LFR Fail-Buff. How is this even possible? I received a lot of hate for pointing this out, that the instance was brand spanking new...well not really. Also, if you just briefly skimmed the dungeon journal you should be able to pick out the key elements of the fight. There haven't been a TON of revolutionary new mechanics anyways.
Anyways.
Megaera - Three Headed Beast Thing
I'm not sure if it's even called Megaera, but essentially your group must ride around the cavern following Tortos and kill 3 spirits and ring their dingalings.
Tips for success:
1. Each tank takes an active head and faces them to the left and right of the group to avoid spray damage.
2. Everyone stands in between the heads.
3. If you get targeted by stuff, move out of the group.
4. Kill Order: This may vary, but I found focusing on the Venomous head, then the Burning head and just rotating between these two seven times is a fairly solid strategy. So do not even attack the ice/blue head. This prevents the ice head from doing its ability which....come on you can't expect much from LFR for people to handle this eloquently.
Ji'Kun - Bird Pooper
Again, key success factors:
1. Send a small group to kill her babies. 4 DPS and a healer is great. You'll have to fall/jump off the edge of her platform to reach the first group of eggs.
1a. After you kill her babies, they leave behind a feather which will enable you to fly.
1.b. Flying enables you to reach nests up high and allows you to intercept Ji'kun every time she casts "Feed Young"
2. I suggest if you tend to have high DPS, go grab a feather but don't waste time killing hatchlings. As she is casting "Feed Young", use your button to fly up over her head and touch her goop. You'll receive a 100% damage bonus buff for 30 seconds.
2b. You can only reliably do this if the group assigned to kill hatchlings is on top of things. Otherwise, just go kill hatchlings.
3. Everyone else feel free to soak purple stuff on the ground.
Overall, I hope you'll find this to be an amazing dungeon to "crawl" through. Don't get discouraged by the amount of adds, or the fact that you got wtfpwned by a snail (you'll see), just know that the Thunder King managed to build a nicer palace than Arthas.
Truny the Helpful
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
The Right to be Tranquil
Oh hi there single reader,
I am so glad that you've stuck with Kluptomania after all these years of my nonsensical babbling and bitching. I never really planned out what direction my blog would take, would I be a cutting edge resource for whatever I was interested in? No? Would I provide high quality commentary on hard hitting social issues and technological trends going on in the gaming world? Ehh not really.
All I wanted to do was talk about stuff and hoped that other people also have the same wants to talk about the same stuff. Uh huh.
Now if you have not been following my "progress" since the launch of Pandaria, my resto druid was holding strong, we were 13/16 bosses by somewhere like November then everything kind of just scattered to the wind.
Complete halt. Starting from square 1. Our raid group sort of reformed then scattered again a couple months ago and now I'm with a second group in my druid's guild and also the same group from Truny's guild and it's all very confusing.
Anyways, instead of doing TOT yesterday we closed off T14 by essentially steamrolling through TOES and getting our Tranquil Master titles. Seriously though, the trash in TOT is harder and more annoying and tedious than TOES.
To sum it all up: "Your guild can probably clear TOES if everyone is capable of standing behind a pillar when they need to". Yup!
Anyways, now that my accounting program is finally drawing to a close and things have died down, I have time to do things again!
Things To Do
So for the sake of collecting "rare" mounts, I have been "dedicated" to do the following:
1. Onyxia eack week on 4 characters.
2. Tempest Keep each week on 4 characters.
3. Solo Alysrazor weekly. Give a destro lock 75% bonus crit and let me see you TRY not to cackle wildly while flying through the sky.
4. Get an ILVL of 500 on my HUNTER. I achieved this yesterday on my warlock, OR
4b. Level my 2nd warlock to replace my hunter.
Why won't a proper ranged weapon drop for my hunter? Should I just wait till patch 5.3?? Anyways, hunters have too many staggered cooldowns anyways.
And that's about it.
Truny the Wtfthatwasn'tafullpost
I am so glad that you've stuck with Kluptomania after all these years of my nonsensical babbling and bitching. I never really planned out what direction my blog would take, would I be a cutting edge resource for whatever I was interested in? No? Would I provide high quality commentary on hard hitting social issues and technological trends going on in the gaming world? Ehh not really.
All I wanted to do was talk about stuff and hoped that other people also have the same wants to talk about the same stuff. Uh huh.
Now if you have not been following my "progress" since the launch of Pandaria, my resto druid was holding strong, we were 13/16 bosses by somewhere like November then everything kind of just scattered to the wind.
Complete halt. Starting from square 1. Our raid group sort of reformed then scattered again a couple months ago and now I'm with a second group in my druid's guild and also the same group from Truny's guild and it's all very confusing.
Anyways, instead of doing TOT yesterday we closed off T14 by essentially steamrolling through TOES and getting our Tranquil Master titles. Seriously though, the trash in TOT is harder and more annoying and tedious than TOES.
To sum it all up: "Your guild can probably clear TOES if everyone is capable of standing behind a pillar when they need to". Yup!
Anyways, now that my accounting program is finally drawing to a close and things have died down, I have time to do things again!
Things To Do
So for the sake of collecting "rare" mounts, I have been "dedicated" to do the following:
1. Onyxia eack week on 4 characters.
2. Tempest Keep each week on 4 characters.
3. Solo Alysrazor weekly. Give a destro lock 75% bonus crit and let me see you TRY not to cackle wildly while flying through the sky.
4. Get an ILVL of 500 on my HUNTER. I achieved this yesterday on my warlock, OR
4b. Level my 2nd warlock to replace my hunter.
Why won't a proper ranged weapon drop for my hunter? Should I just wait till patch 5.3?? Anyways, hunters have too many staggered cooldowns anyways.
And that's about it.
Truny the Wtfthatwasn'tafullpost
Friday, March 15, 2013
Kanrethad Ebonlocke: Absorbed!
Hello my one reader!
Tonight was a good night, my belly was full and I was nice and rested.
I made some healthy attempts at Kanrethad tonight! My main issue, and what seems to be the crux of success or failure to this encounter were the dreaded dastardly Felhunters. My previous attempts a couple days ago were fraught with error. I let Bobby the Pitlord (oh CRAP I forgot to take a final screenshot of my best friend!) get in FRONT of the Felhunters on my failing attempts, and tonight what I did was set him on passive and move him BEHIND where they spawn.
Once they spawned, blow all cooldowns and maximize havoc to burst them down. It's exactly the same on the 2nd wave (I am not geared just yet to take him down before the 2nd Felhunter phase, or perhaps I didn't maximize my DPS beforehand).
On my 2nd last attempt, my freaking wi-fi died on me! It just...exploded! I quickly ran to my wired-connection computer and made a clean attempt.
The Review
The fight itself, was "intense" in that, I really wanted to get this over so I would stop stressing about it during the day. Occasionally I would find myself visualizing how I would position Bobby and the Felhunters, and how I would use cooldowns. It was annoying. I had to get this done and done for the sake of being a Warlock on the Internet.
Once I managed to get him down below 20%, I hadn't even realized that I was quite tense, my heart rate was increasing but I knew I had to stay calm for the final Felhunter phase and not worry about embers being wasted. In desperation I sent Bobby the Pitlord to stun all three of the hunters, and managed to run to my magical portal to LOS Kanrethad's final chaos bolt. One more cataclysm and a stun later, he had been banished!
The ending is kind of anti-climactic, and didn't really provide a lot of juicy graphics for screenshots but....yeah.
But now I am free to do other things, like dailies and....oh dear.
Truny the Corrupted Fire
Tonight was a good night, my belly was full and I was nice and rested.
I made some healthy attempts at Kanrethad tonight! My main issue, and what seems to be the crux of success or failure to this encounter were the dreaded dastardly Felhunters. My previous attempts a couple days ago were fraught with error. I let Bobby the Pitlord (oh CRAP I forgot to take a final screenshot of my best friend!) get in FRONT of the Felhunters on my failing attempts, and tonight what I did was set him on passive and move him BEHIND where they spawn.
Once they spawned, blow all cooldowns and maximize havoc to burst them down. It's exactly the same on the 2nd wave (I am not geared just yet to take him down before the 2nd Felhunter phase, or perhaps I didn't maximize my DPS beforehand).
On my 2nd last attempt, my freaking wi-fi died on me! It just...exploded! I quickly ran to my wired-connection computer and made a clean attempt.
The Review
The fight itself, was "intense" in that, I really wanted to get this over so I would stop stressing about it during the day. Occasionally I would find myself visualizing how I would position Bobby and the Felhunters, and how I would use cooldowns. It was annoying. I had to get this done and done for the sake of being a Warlock on the Internet.
Once I managed to get him down below 20%, I hadn't even realized that I was quite tense, my heart rate was increasing but I knew I had to stay calm for the final Felhunter phase and not worry about embers being wasted. In desperation I sent Bobby the Pitlord to stun all three of the hunters, and managed to run to my magical portal to LOS Kanrethad's final chaos bolt. One more cataclysm and a stun later, he had been banished!
The ending is kind of anti-climactic, and didn't really provide a lot of juicy graphics for screenshots but....yeah.
Truny the Corrupted Fire
Thursday, March 14, 2013
The Black Harvest: Green Fire Quest
Good evening my one reader,
SO after my bitching and moaning about how poorly designed the initiation of the new "green fire" quest is for us Warlocks, I magically got a sealed tome last night and started up the quest-line.
I'll try to keep this vague and spoiler free, not that there's TOO much to spoil without going into great depth.
It starts out pretty awesome, I never knew our pets could communicate with us? This gives my demons a bit of flavor, and I shall treat them differently going forward. Silly felhunter.
Then you go do some stuff which is kinda meh, it wasn't "go gather some super rare raegants, or kill traverse upon some strange dungeon", then it was the final area which was kinda cool and of course I was only expecting a challenge near the end. I am super happy that Akama remembered me!
Then it came down to the final boss and by now it was nearing midnight.
My first attempt was just silly. I sat in awe as Kanrethad was channeling Cataclysm. I thought to myself "Hey! We were supposed to get this ability! OMG ITS SO COOL! AND H- *Splat*" One shot. Oops. WTF? What do I do?
On my second attempt, I actually looked at something on my screen and realized...OH you can do something. So I got farther until something got summoned and kind of messed up my mojo. It wasn't too bad because by the 2nd wave of adds, he was already nearing 50% health.
Then midnight hit and I went to bed thinking how I could have mitigated that crucial few seconds and I realized, oh maybe I can either aggro first or do some clever maneuvering. I will probably attempt this again tonight or on a day where I'm not groggy as hell from daylight savings. =P
The Detailed Rant/Review But Not Really
The overall story and background knowledge that this epic questline brings is adequate, in that it explains away why we were so annoying back in Cata, the origins of demons and their workings and purpose (squee!) and also....now that I've seen what is going on......I was thinking "wait....ALL we are getting is green fire? We should get so much more power, like the ability to summon 100 demons!"
But no, let's just be super happy that green fire is in and all you have to do is maintain high dps, control your pets and cooldowns and CC's and kite and LoS!
Truny the Soon to be Fel
SO after my bitching and moaning about how poorly designed the initiation of the new "green fire" quest is for us Warlocks, I magically got a sealed tome last night and started up the quest-line.
I'll try to keep this vague and spoiler free, not that there's TOO much to spoil without going into great depth.
It starts out pretty awesome, I never knew our pets could communicate with us? This gives my demons a bit of flavor, and I shall treat them differently going forward. Silly felhunter.
Then you go do some stuff which is kinda meh, it wasn't "go gather some super rare raegants, or kill traverse upon some strange dungeon", then it was the final area which was kinda cool and of course I was only expecting a challenge near the end. I am super happy that Akama remembered me!
Then it came down to the final boss and by now it was nearing midnight.
My first attempt was just silly. I sat in awe as Kanrethad was channeling Cataclysm. I thought to myself "Hey! We were supposed to get this ability! OMG ITS SO COOL! AND H- *Splat*" One shot. Oops. WTF? What do I do?
On my second attempt, I actually looked at something on my screen and realized...OH you can do something. So I got farther until something got summoned and kind of messed up my mojo. It wasn't too bad because by the 2nd wave of adds, he was already nearing 50% health.
Then midnight hit and I went to bed thinking how I could have mitigated that crucial few seconds and I realized, oh maybe I can either aggro first or do some clever maneuvering. I will probably attempt this again tonight or on a day where I'm not groggy as hell from daylight savings. =P
The Detailed Rant/Review But Not Really
The overall story and background knowledge that this epic questline brings is adequate, in that it explains away why we were so annoying back in Cata, the origins of demons and their workings and purpose (squee!) and also....now that I've seen what is going on......I was thinking "wait....ALL we are getting is green fire? We should get so much more power, like the ability to summon 100 demons!"
But no, let's just be super happy that green fire is in and all you have to do is maintain high dps, control your pets and cooldowns and CC's and kite and LoS!
Truny the Soon to be Fel
MoP LFR Tips: Throne of Thunder - 1st Wing
A new exciting patch brings us a new and exciting way to gear up, and what better way than to traverse the sometimes batshit crazy antics of what we know as LFR!
The Throne of Thunder is the raid of the day and the first wing has been released for all us crazy people to go in and cry over the ilvl 502 loot that won't drop!
The raid provides rep for the Shadow Pan Assault once a week and consists of 3 bosses.
Now in order to ensure everyone has a smooth and non-crazy run here are my critical factors tips for the first three bosses.
Jin'rokh the Breaker
On easy mode he only has 3 mechanics to watch out for:
1. Lightning Storm: Stack and stay out of water and heal hard.
2. Lightning balls, if you see a ball of lightning connected to you, run away and don't let it hit you until you are out of water pools. Also everyone else should try not to touch those balls.
3. Most importantly, the boss will turn and throw the tank at a random statue in the room, flooding 1/4th of the room. STAND IN THIS WATER. It gives you 40% damage and that's pretty much all you need to clear this, if everyone is in it that is.
4. Your goal here is to be doing OVER 90k dps. If you aren't, then something is wrong. I have to be blunt. With relatively high uptime of 40% increased damage, your main goal is to hit 180k+
Horridon
Horridon is fairly simple. Just do the following:
1. Focus adds. They are priority #1.
2. Stay away from his head and tail.
3. If he targets you and charges, don't be around other people.
4. Lust/HeroicAllySpell once he's hit 3 or 4 walls. He takes an additional 50% damage after each time he smashes into a door. Up to 200%. Yes 1,xxx,xxx crits are gigglicious.
5. Someone go tank the last big add and burn Horridon. If this last guy dies first, horridon enrages.
6. Cry that your stupid loot bag STILL only had gold and not even the new useless junk that was implemented.
7. Your goal here is to be at around 150-175k, unless you are doing a superb job at interrupting and burning adds. Or do both and challenge yourself.
Council
The council may seem daunting at first but there's only really three or four (my brain is wanting me to type out seven but that's too much) things to look out for that are crucial:
1. One of the bosses will be "possessed" and look like a shadow priest. Focus him/her. This possessedness moves, so always be burning the shadowy boss.
1-a. Tank the ice guy. All the others just jump around and look crazy.
2. Other than doing that, you MUST kill adds, and MOST importantly are the little sandling adds that Sul the Whatevertheshithisnameis summons. If they live through a sandstorm they heal and do massive damage.
3. Try to kill the priestess' spirits because they heal/damage boss/players. Not TOO crucial but if you have time.
Use your own discretion for the ice troll's abilities and also the thunder one, they don't hit too hard, just burn adds and everyone focus the same boss.
4. Your goal here is to personally kill four sandlings.
5. Leave instance and go do something else.
Truny in the Throne of Thunder
The Throne of Thunder is the raid of the day and the first wing has been released for all us crazy people to go in and cry over the ilvl 502 loot that won't drop!
The raid provides rep for the Shadow Pan Assault once a week and consists of 3 bosses.
Now in order to ensure everyone has a smooth and non-crazy run here are my critical factors tips for the first three bosses.
Jin'rokh the Breaker
On easy mode he only has 3 mechanics to watch out for:
1. Lightning Storm: Stack and stay out of water and heal hard.
2. Lightning balls, if you see a ball of lightning connected to you, run away and don't let it hit you until you are out of water pools. Also everyone else should try not to touch those balls.
3. Most importantly, the boss will turn and throw the tank at a random statue in the room, flooding 1/4th of the room. STAND IN THIS WATER. It gives you 40% damage and that's pretty much all you need to clear this, if everyone is in it that is.
4. Your goal here is to be doing OVER 90k dps. If you aren't, then something is wrong. I have to be blunt. With relatively high uptime of 40% increased damage, your main goal is to hit 180k+
Horridon
Horridon is fairly simple. Just do the following:
1. Focus adds. They are priority #1.
2. Stay away from his head and tail.
3. If he targets you and charges, don't be around other people.
4. Lust/HeroicAllySpell once he's hit 3 or 4 walls. He takes an additional 50% damage after each time he smashes into a door. Up to 200%. Yes 1,xxx,xxx crits are gigglicious.
5. Someone go tank the last big add and burn Horridon. If this last guy dies first, horridon enrages.
6. Cry that your stupid loot bag STILL only had gold and not even the new useless junk that was implemented.
7. Your goal here is to be at around 150-175k, unless you are doing a superb job at interrupting and burning adds. Or do both and challenge yourself.
Council
The council may seem daunting at first but there's only really three or four (my brain is wanting me to type out seven but that's too much) things to look out for that are crucial:
1. One of the bosses will be "possessed" and look like a shadow priest. Focus him/her. This possessedness moves, so always be burning the shadowy boss.
1-a. Tank the ice guy. All the others just jump around and look crazy.
2. Other than doing that, you MUST kill adds, and MOST importantly are the little sandling adds that Sul the Whatevertheshithisnameis summons. If they live through a sandstorm they heal and do massive damage.
3. Try to kill the priestess' spirits because they heal/damage boss/players. Not TOO crucial but if you have time.
Use your own discretion for the ice troll's abilities and also the thunder one, they don't hit too hard, just burn adds and everyone focus the same boss.
4. Your goal here is to personally kill four sandlings.
5. Leave instance and go do something else.
Truny in the Throne of Thunder
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Sealed Tome of the Lost Legion: Bad Design or History?
Disclaimer: This post may be laced with snark and harsh truths.
Ah yes, also known as the Sealed Tome of Aggravation. Wait what are you talking about Truny? Well, I'm sure all of you are quite curious as to why so many warlocks nowadays are a part of your Isle of Thunder rare hunting expedition.
These rares drop an extremely "rare" item called the Sealed Tome of the Lost Legion, which allows the lucky warlock to take part in an epic story quest for a chance to test their warlocky skills and obtain green fire.
The Drop
In order to start this quest, one must be super lucky and have a tome drop for them. This may take hunting down and essentially farming dozens and dozens of the new rares. Though according to one snarky bitch on our server, it's "not that rare, she's found 2". Well fuck you. But of course you found yours on your first kill, which means you are superior at finding things, and a better warlock than everyone else (more on this later). I am not sure of any given person's schedules, but I only have four hours of effective playtime and this must encompass doing dailies and other random things that waste time.
The Gating
Why such an awesome element, with its "prestigious" reward as Ghostcrawler states is started in such a tedious fashion we will never know. I can only think of two class quest lines that I've done, and that was the hunter bow of old, and also the Dreadsteed quest line Those were simply quests available to every hunter/warlock and it was up to them to gather the resources and test their mettle along the way for the final reward.
I'm not saying a vendor should simply sell this elusive tome, but come on, after killing the same few rares for the hundredth time, it gets old and boring. At least we VP cap.
The random drop rate may have been the "easiest" and most logical method, without factoring in the insane amount of "determination" required.
The Rush and the Reason
Why the rush to obtain green fire when we know the drop rates will be increased, and that the boss will be "easier" as our gear improves? Well for myself, it's the fact that this is a pivotal moment in Warlock history. Think about it, when people talked so fondly of the old and dusty class quests that you will never see, you shrug it off and go "that's nice".
Now we are part of history. One day we will speak about how STUPID this quest was to start, how awesome the story was, and how difficult the fight is (though I will comment on that when I actually try it out, I have yet to hear from someone whose main has been their warlock for 5+ years complain).
Right now, we are those people. The original warlocks who first set foot in obtaining the much coveted green fire. If this tome drops for us soon (and good luck to all), we will be able to say "I obtained the green fire, before our gear level exceeded 500. I am sure it's doable at 476, but unfortunately I am already at 497. We can say that we didn't have to wait for the quest to be softened, that we were "better" and the "first".
Ultimately it does not matter, but currently as is the WoW community's values, it does. For example if you haven't gotten in any heroic Throne of Thunder kills YESTERDAY you are irrelevant (bah!).
Of course, there are hundreds of warlocks who have already found the tome and are having fun with being green. They are obviously better than us at playing the warlock class because they were simply "chosen" to be the ones to be privileged enough to be lucky with loot drops.
SO Yeah
Ultimately, I am not a fan of being rewarded based on luck. Let's just say I was raised thinking if I worked hard and knew my shit, I would reap in the benefits, and this has been true. But let's not tie those values too deeply within a game. Let's come back to the game.
Anything that I have been "lucky" with, I have valued. The latest moment that this has happened was winning the Life-Binder's Handmaiden upon the close of Cata. I was "lucky" in winning but I made sure I healed my ass off to "earn" the right to win it. Had I been carried through dragon soul I would not even had rolled.
(This is why we get so pissy when the AFK 1k dps rogue wins Slabhide's mount, and etc etc)
So what do you guys think of this design? Should all class quests henceforth be initiated through a random tedious drop? Or should we be able to embark on an epic journey like the class quests of old?
Truny the Old and Tedious
Ah yes, also known as the Sealed Tome of Aggravation. Wait what are you talking about Truny? Well, I'm sure all of you are quite curious as to why so many warlocks nowadays are a part of your Isle of Thunder rare hunting expedition.
These rares drop an extremely "rare" item called the Sealed Tome of the Lost Legion, which allows the lucky warlock to take part in an epic story quest for a chance to test their warlocky skills and obtain green fire.
The Drop
In order to start this quest, one must be super lucky and have a tome drop for them. This may take hunting down and essentially farming dozens and dozens of the new rares. Though according to one snarky bitch on our server, it's "not that rare, she's found 2". Well fuck you. But of course you found yours on your first kill, which means you are superior at finding things, and a better warlock than everyone else (more on this later). I am not sure of any given person's schedules, but I only have four hours of effective playtime and this must encompass doing dailies and other random things that waste time.
The Gating
Why such an awesome element, with its "prestigious" reward as Ghostcrawler states is started in such a tedious fashion we will never know. I can only think of two class quest lines that I've done, and that was the hunter bow of old, and also the Dreadsteed quest line Those were simply quests available to every hunter/warlock and it was up to them to gather the resources and test their mettle along the way for the final reward.
I'm not saying a vendor should simply sell this elusive tome, but come on, after killing the same few rares for the hundredth time, it gets old and boring. At least we VP cap.
The random drop rate may have been the "easiest" and most logical method, without factoring in the insane amount of "determination" required.
The Rush and the Reason
Why the rush to obtain green fire when we know the drop rates will be increased, and that the boss will be "easier" as our gear improves? Well for myself, it's the fact that this is a pivotal moment in Warlock history. Think about it, when people talked so fondly of the old and dusty class quests that you will never see, you shrug it off and go "that's nice".
Now we are part of history. One day we will speak about how STUPID this quest was to start, how awesome the story was, and how difficult the fight is (though I will comment on that when I actually try it out, I have yet to hear from someone whose main has been their warlock for 5+ years complain).
Right now, we are those people. The original warlocks who first set foot in obtaining the much coveted green fire. If this tome drops for us soon (and good luck to all), we will be able to say "I obtained the green fire, before our gear level exceeded 500. I am sure it's doable at 476, but unfortunately I am already at 497. We can say that we didn't have to wait for the quest to be softened, that we were "better" and the "first".
Ultimately it does not matter, but currently as is the WoW community's values, it does. For example if you haven't gotten in any heroic Throne of Thunder kills YESTERDAY you are irrelevant (bah!).
Of course, there are hundreds of warlocks who have already found the tome and are having fun with being green. They are obviously better than us at playing the warlock class because they were simply "chosen" to be the ones to be privileged enough to be lucky with loot drops.
SO Yeah
Ultimately, I am not a fan of being rewarded based on luck. Let's just say I was raised thinking if I worked hard and knew my shit, I would reap in the benefits, and this has been true. But let's not tie those values too deeply within a game. Let's come back to the game.
Anything that I have been "lucky" with, I have valued. The latest moment that this has happened was winning the Life-Binder's Handmaiden upon the close of Cata. I was "lucky" in winning but I made sure I healed my ass off to "earn" the right to win it. Had I been carried through dragon soul I would not even had rolled.
(This is why we get so pissy when the AFK 1k dps rogue wins Slabhide's mount, and etc etc)
So what do you guys think of this design? Should all class quests henceforth be initiated through a random tedious drop? Or should we be able to embark on an epic journey like the class quests of old?
Truny the Old and Tedious
Monday, March 11, 2013
Analysis on: Zandalari Warbringers and Griefing
Good day readers,
Patch 5.2 is what I would like to call the Stressful Patch. Warlocks are stressing about finding non-existant tomes for a try at the green fire quest-line (I wish you luck not in finding the tome but actually doing the fight).
There's stress regarding Oondasta, idiots who keep him in combat long enough so the opposite faction's pull does not reset, and the fact that one single guild in the opposite faction in our server controls everything anyways so it wasn't really a surprise that they'd get the first, and all subsequent kills for the next 9 months. I'll just do Oondasta when he's not current. Just like how they kept Galleon on perma-lockdown until probably last week.
But no, this post is in regards to the new "rares" called Zandalari Warbringers and my moderate commentary regarding their design.
I shall also do up this post in the report format in which I was trained in. For accounting.
Introduction
Patch 5.2 introduced Direhorn Mounts to the populace, in the form of a rare-ish drop off new world-rare-elite mobs called Zandalari Warbringers. This short post will review their design and gameplay implications regarding their status as rares, griefing and tagging, and potentially recommend a new design for them.
Zandalari Warbringers
Now let's face it, a dinosaur mount is just cool. Direhorn mounts look like triceratops, and are dropped of new rares called Zandalari Warbringers. These warbringers spawn in each zone except for the Vale and the Valley, usually near a cliff/water.
The warbringers have a small chance at dropping a Direhorn mount of the same color that they are riding. They also drop reputation tokens and material bags, which are moot since those are useless nowadys. We're only interested in the mounts. The warbringers appear to have a 30-60 minute respawn timer and have just over 21 million hitpoints. They do require a tank/heal/dps or if you re a blood DK or a hunter who is really comfortable in kiting.
Issues
My first issue with these mobs is not even the griefing and tag-stealing. It's their status as a "rare". Also, their status as one of the very first non-actually-rare mobs which drop a mount. Let's think back to what are the only mobs out in the wild who drops mounts? Aeonnax, and Time Lost Proto Drake right?
Those two are special and have their own "time lost" category. They have erratic spawn points, and spawn so infrequently that only the most devout will be willing to camp them out.
The issue with warbringers is that their spawns are completely predictable/campable, which then demotes their mounts to a status of "not that prestigious". However, the drop rate is still so low that you may kill ten and still not get a mount.
See where the issue is "mounting" now (yay puns). Not only are they not actually prestigious, but they are also so high in demand that these direhorn mounts are momentarily perceived as "rare". Even if you find one, you may not be guaranteed a mount, which there are three different variations of. This sets off a cycle of continuous hunting and competing.
Next issue is the general gameplay competition you see. You could be waiting for 30 minutes but you are slow, another group can just swoop in and tag the mob once it spawns. This is ineviable. We did it to a group yesterday and another group did it to us.
Another issue is purposely despawning the mob and trying to steal it on reset. Hunters can powershot warbringers off a cliff, or an entire group can taunt-kite the mob so far away that it resets. This is a total dick move.
Alternatives
There are a few alternatives to alleviate the aggravation of these mount-dropping-not-actually-rare assholes. First is to make them untauntable except for within the group that has the tag. This is a simple which prevents seven paladins taunting your mob out into the sea. I do not see a downfall to this other than it can't be taunted externally.
A second option would be to make these rares share the same tagging mechanics as the rares on the Isle of Thunder. Blizzard did good on making them tag-to-EVERYONE. There's no stress, just find the mob and get to it and you have your independent loot. What you can do with the warbringers is make them tag-to-faction, just to have a little bit of competition. My reasoning is, if our little group of 3 can take down a warbringer, why would we want to help out fellow hordies and diminish our SMALL chance at the mount? Selfishness justified. We killed five with no mount, why would we want to kill more and then extend the roll on the mount to even more people?
A third option to everyone is to wait it out for a year. In a year no one will be hunting these mounts, so setup a small fun guild expedition to hunt dinosaurs. This is the single positive point that I have managed to salvage from these rares. An event for the FUTURE. It's a conspiracy to get us playing into the future.
Recommendation
I recommend switching these mobs to be untauntable AND tap-to-faction. WoW has done such a good job in mitigating threats in regards to rares, and this stems from helping out hunters and their rare pets.
Let's take a look back to Wrath.
We had spirit beasts. Coveted beasts with low health and a high demand. Angry hunters may kill your tame, or kite it away. This was alleviated through the challenge tames in Cataclysm, and further alleviated with HIDDEN tames in Pandaria.
None of the rares in Pandaria on the get-go dropped mounts, just useless vanity items and they were also very plentiful.
Everything was going SO WELL until the arrival of the Warbringers. What happened? I don't want to fly around for hours looking for a "rare". They aren't even "rare", we know when they will spawn and hence there's no thrill of the hunt involved. It all boils down to who hits it first? You know what that means? This reminds me of world-bosses in MAPLESTORY. Do you want to become Maplestory? No!
Does tagging a mob first mean you are a better player? No it means you were a split second faster or your ability has priority over others.
I guess this goes towards the Isle of Thunder rares as well, we know when they will spawn so we treat them as VP farms. However it's independent loot so there's no grief.
Conclusion
Just get exalted with your new faction rep and buy the exalted Direhorn mount and pipe the fuck down in the mean time. It's been less than a WEEK of 5.2 those warbringers aren't going anywhere. We have such a massive hunger for content that we don't even appreciate how awesome everything else is. The end.
Turny the Direhornless Tree
Patch 5.2 is what I would like to call the Stressful Patch. Warlocks are stressing about finding non-existant tomes for a try at the green fire quest-line (I wish you luck not in finding the tome but actually doing the fight).
There's stress regarding Oondasta, idiots who keep him in combat long enough so the opposite faction's pull does not reset, and the fact that one single guild in the opposite faction in our server controls everything anyways so it wasn't really a surprise that they'd get the first, and all subsequent kills for the next 9 months. I'll just do Oondasta when he's not current. Just like how they kept Galleon on perma-lockdown until probably last week.
But no, this post is in regards to the new "rares" called Zandalari Warbringers and my moderate commentary regarding their design.
I shall also do up this post in the report format in which I was trained in. For accounting.
Introduction
Patch 5.2 introduced Direhorn Mounts to the populace, in the form of a rare-ish drop off new world-rare-elite mobs called Zandalari Warbringers. This short post will review their design and gameplay implications regarding their status as rares, griefing and tagging, and potentially recommend a new design for them.
Zandalari Warbringers
Now let's face it, a dinosaur mount is just cool. Direhorn mounts look like triceratops, and are dropped of new rares called Zandalari Warbringers. These warbringers spawn in each zone except for the Vale and the Valley, usually near a cliff/water.
The warbringers have a small chance at dropping a Direhorn mount of the same color that they are riding. They also drop reputation tokens and material bags, which are moot since those are useless nowadys. We're only interested in the mounts. The warbringers appear to have a 30-60 minute respawn timer and have just over 21 million hitpoints. They do require a tank/heal/dps or if you re a blood DK or a hunter who is really comfortable in kiting.
Issues
My first issue with these mobs is not even the griefing and tag-stealing. It's their status as a "rare". Also, their status as one of the very first non-actually-rare mobs which drop a mount. Let's think back to what are the only mobs out in the wild who drops mounts? Aeonnax, and Time Lost Proto Drake right?
Those two are special and have their own "time lost" category. They have erratic spawn points, and spawn so infrequently that only the most devout will be willing to camp them out.
The issue with warbringers is that their spawns are completely predictable/campable, which then demotes their mounts to a status of "not that prestigious". However, the drop rate is still so low that you may kill ten and still not get a mount.
See where the issue is "mounting" now (yay puns). Not only are they not actually prestigious, but they are also so high in demand that these direhorn mounts are momentarily perceived as "rare". Even if you find one, you may not be guaranteed a mount, which there are three different variations of. This sets off a cycle of continuous hunting and competing.
Next issue is the general gameplay competition you see. You could be waiting for 30 minutes but you are slow, another group can just swoop in and tag the mob once it spawns. This is ineviable. We did it to a group yesterday and another group did it to us.
Another issue is purposely despawning the mob and trying to steal it on reset. Hunters can powershot warbringers off a cliff, or an entire group can taunt-kite the mob so far away that it resets. This is a total dick move.
Alternatives
There are a few alternatives to alleviate the aggravation of these mount-dropping-not-actually-rare assholes. First is to make them untauntable except for within the group that has the tag. This is a simple which prevents seven paladins taunting your mob out into the sea. I do not see a downfall to this other than it can't be taunted externally.
A second option would be to make these rares share the same tagging mechanics as the rares on the Isle of Thunder. Blizzard did good on making them tag-to-EVERYONE. There's no stress, just find the mob and get to it and you have your independent loot. What you can do with the warbringers is make them tag-to-faction, just to have a little bit of competition. My reasoning is, if our little group of 3 can take down a warbringer, why would we want to help out fellow hordies and diminish our SMALL chance at the mount? Selfishness justified. We killed five with no mount, why would we want to kill more and then extend the roll on the mount to even more people?
A third option to everyone is to wait it out for a year. In a year no one will be hunting these mounts, so setup a small fun guild expedition to hunt dinosaurs. This is the single positive point that I have managed to salvage from these rares. An event for the FUTURE. It's a conspiracy to get us playing into the future.
Recommendation
I recommend switching these mobs to be untauntable AND tap-to-faction. WoW has done such a good job in mitigating threats in regards to rares, and this stems from helping out hunters and their rare pets.
Let's take a look back to Wrath.
We had spirit beasts. Coveted beasts with low health and a high demand. Angry hunters may kill your tame, or kite it away. This was alleviated through the challenge tames in Cataclysm, and further alleviated with HIDDEN tames in Pandaria.
None of the rares in Pandaria on the get-go dropped mounts, just useless vanity items and they were also very plentiful.
Everything was going SO WELL until the arrival of the Warbringers. What happened? I don't want to fly around for hours looking for a "rare". They aren't even "rare", we know when they will spawn and hence there's no thrill of the hunt involved. It all boils down to who hits it first? You know what that means? This reminds me of world-bosses in MAPLESTORY. Do you want to become Maplestory? No!
Does tagging a mob first mean you are a better player? No it means you were a split second faster or your ability has priority over others.
I guess this goes towards the Isle of Thunder rares as well, we know when they will spawn so we treat them as VP farms. However it's independent loot so there's no grief.
Conclusion
Just get exalted with your new faction rep and buy the exalted Direhorn mount and pipe the fuck down in the mean time. It's been less than a WEEK of 5.2 those warbringers aren't going anywhere. We have such a massive hunger for content that we don't even appreciate how awesome everything else is. The end.
Turny the Direhornless Tree
Thursday, March 7, 2013
New Rares in 5.2
I would like to retract my earlier complaint regarding rares and people piping up in General chat.
The new rares that spawn at the Isle of Thunder appear to tag-to-EVERYONE. Ally and Horde. Say an ally is killing a rare, help them! The mob gains HP and loot is independent.
This is DIFFERENT from WORLD bosses. Oondasta/Sha/Nalak(?). These still follow tap-to-faction rules but anyone from whichever faction currently has the tag can claim a piece of the reward.
This is nice, going into a new patch pretty much blind. I had only expected Direhorns and Green Fire.
Conspiracy Theory But Not Really Because It Makes Sound Business Sense
Ok, I have a theory going on. The little tome that drops for warlocks is being kept at a very low drop rate to keep us playing until 5.3, when the magical background "what have you killed vs what have you looted" secret ratio will be modified in our favor. Currently, finding a green fire tome is probably as rare as finding a world drop epic item back in the good old day. So probably 10 people total in the past few days.
This is clever. Keep grinding and hoping and playing. But I don't want to...play. Well, let's jump forward in time as we are so akin to in this blog.
Magical Time Travel Section
Hey guys, I finally got the green-fire quest tome to drop! My incinerates are awesomely fel, but now I am bored of it and am demanding new fire spells to fully utilize this green-ness. Our "fire" looks more like smoke, and isn't rich and full and burning like real fire should be. Update the graphics!
The end.
The new rares that spawn at the Isle of Thunder appear to tag-to-EVERYONE. Ally and Horde. Say an ally is killing a rare, help them! The mob gains HP and loot is independent.
This is DIFFERENT from WORLD bosses. Oondasta/Sha/Nalak(?). These still follow tap-to-faction rules but anyone from whichever faction currently has the tag can claim a piece of the reward.
This is nice, going into a new patch pretty much blind. I had only expected Direhorns and Green Fire.
Conspiracy Theory But Not Really Because It Makes Sound Business Sense
Ok, I have a theory going on. The little tome that drops for warlocks is being kept at a very low drop rate to keep us playing until 5.3, when the magical background "what have you killed vs what have you looted" secret ratio will be modified in our favor. Currently, finding a green fire tome is probably as rare as finding a world drop epic item back in the good old day. So probably 10 people total in the past few days.
This is clever. Keep grinding and hoping and playing. But I don't want to...play. Well, let's jump forward in time as we are so akin to in this blog.
Magical Time Travel Section
Hey guys, I finally got the green-fire quest tome to drop! My incinerates are awesomely fel, but now I am bored of it and am demanding new fire spells to fully utilize this green-ness. Our "fire" looks more like smoke, and isn't rich and full and burning like real fire should be. Update the graphics!
The end.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Dinosaurs in 5.2
Dinosaur indeed, it's been a while since I have updated! Sooo, 5.2 was released yesterday as is quite apparently with the flock-fest at the Isle of Giants and the Isle of Thunder! Bah, don't you HATE opening events where there's just people up the hoo-ha, general chat is bustling with activity and questions? What's up with this? Just pipe the fuck down and quest and get out of my way!
Why would people expect me to tell them if a rare is up? So they can steal it? Hell no! Not on opening day!
Isle of Thunder
Or it could be lightning. Anyways, I really like this little hub, despite it's Golden Lotus Extreme. You wanted dailies? Have three freaking hubs with mobs up your hoo-ha!
I really really like this island. You can sense so much rich history and power embedded through the very ground. It's also unlike Pandaria, all happy and sunny and it's more "WoW" like.
I'll comment more on this hub as I progress. Or not.
Isle of Giants
Dinosaurs! DINOS! After doing my dailies I immediately hopped onto Turby the Hunter and luckily after about 8 Dinomancer kills he found the Direhorn Learning Thingamajig. Meet [Unnamed] Direhorn. He shall have a name very soon! DINOS! I had to "give up" some pets for adoption to my other hunter, and I may have to "give up" some more to make room for some new Devilsaurs. Maybe?
And here's a bonus photo. Sha sky!
Turny the Lazy Poster
Why would people expect me to tell them if a rare is up? So they can steal it? Hell no! Not on opening day!
Isle of Thunder
Or it could be lightning. Anyways, I really like this little hub, despite it's Golden Lotus Extreme. You wanted dailies? Have three freaking hubs with mobs up your hoo-ha!
I really really like this island. You can sense so much rich history and power embedded through the very ground. It's also unlike Pandaria, all happy and sunny and it's more "WoW" like.
I'll comment more on this hub as I progress. Or not.
Isle of Giants
Dinosaurs! DINOS! After doing my dailies I immediately hopped onto Turby the Hunter and luckily after about 8 Dinomancer kills he found the Direhorn Learning Thingamajig. Meet [Unnamed] Direhorn. He shall have a name very soon! DINOS! I had to "give up" some pets for adoption to my other hunter, and I may have to "give up" some more to make room for some new Devilsaurs. Maybe?
Turny the Lazy Poster
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