"...and remember, 'Mud' spelled backwards is 'Dumb'."
--Bugs Bunny
Leveling an Affliction Warlock via BGs has been --for the most part-- an exercise in patience.
You die a lot. And I do mean a lot.
You also lose a lot.
Yes, I do realize that when you run as many BGs as I have, you are going to have your share of losses, but in the low level BGs especially, clothies are Rogue and Hunter chow. When that happens in a 10/10 game such as Warsong Gulch, you're essentially giving the other team a few more players advantage.*
In the current environment of random BGs, unless you've managed to use cross realm grouping or you've got a bunch of guildies with alts at the right level, you're pretty much stuck with what you draw. Most of the time you get players with different strategic and tactical ideas, and that can translate into shouts and recriminations on BG chat.
Sometimes, however, you get lucky.
I ported into Eye of the Storm in time to hear someone ask what the map was about. "I haven't done this one before," the Warrior said.
Oh oh, I thought.
A DK and myself ran over the basics --capture your bases, try for a third and to control the middle to get the flag-- and I mentioned to call out incs.
"Incs? Sorry, I don't know the lingo."
"Incoming." Didn't this person know anything? Well, I'd been there before, so I wasn't going to judge, but this certainly didn't look good.
"Okay."
The game started out... well... very badly. We were quickly overwhelmed at the Draenei Ruins while most of the team went to the Mid. Then, when everybody from the Mid came running to DR, the Horde swept into the Mage Tower.
We very quickly found ourselves down by 500 points before we stabilized things.
"Go to FR! FR is empty!" another DK was yelling. "We need bases to catch up!"
I found myself at DR at that point, so I could only watch at first while three people got ahead and managed to take the FR to gray. The Horde then moved en masse from the Blood Elf Tower to FR.
"Let's go!" I yelled. "BE is empty!"
Turned out that was a temporary situation, as a Horde Rogue and Shaman reached there just as I did. I feared them as much as I could, but I got swept under by too many CCs from the Rogue. Fortunately, 3 or 4 fellow Alliance had followed me over, and we were able to capture that base.
The situation remained fluid. The Horde had built a lead with three bases and capturing the Mid, but they abandoned that to try to farm kills over on our side of the field and capture both MT and DR. The Horde got DR and the FR briefly flickered back to Horde Red.
"Let's go get MT!" the newbie Warrior yelled.
"We've got MT," I corrected. "We need DR back."
"Sorry, this is still new to me."
It was then that a Rogue piped up. "This BG has been around since patch 2.1. How can you not know about this BG?"
We still had a chance at this game, but if we were going to dissolve into BG drama, it was going to slip away. "Look," I said, "the dude is probably new."
"I'm not a dude," the warrior replied, "and I am new."
I looked at the Warrior's masculine name, and decided to let it go. I thought about mentioning the number one rule of MMOs**, but I decided it wasn't even worth it.
We weren't able to retake DR, but suddenly FR flickered to gray and then to Alliance Blue. We had a 3:1 edge for the first time, and we also had the flag.
But the Horde also had less than three minutes remaining, and we were down by 300 points.
"We're not out of it yet," I called out from MT as we captured the flag. "If we capture the flag a couple more times, we may pull this off."
Our Shaman picked up the flag again and took off toward MT, with two Horde hot on her heels. I mounted and intercepted them all, using Howl of Terror to scatter them as she slipped free to capture the flag. The rest of the crew at MT swept onto the two Horde as I climbed back to MT and cast my DoTs from there.
Down by 100 points, and we were closing fast with a minute and a half left.
Then FR flickered into gray.
"Crap! FR!" The newbie warrior led the charge to dislodge the Horde from FR as our Feral Druid picked up the flag and raced toward the same area.
40 seconds.
"Don't cap until we get FR back!" I yelled.
30 seconds. 20.
I could only watch from Mage Tower as the drama unfolded. "Come on," I muttered. "Come on...."
15.
10.
FR turned blue, and the Feral Druid captured the flag.
Cheers erupted on our side.
"We did it!"
"Wooo!!!"
I whispered to the newbie Warrior that she did a good job, but she'd already ported out. Well, if a certain newbie Warrior happens to come across this post, I'll raise a pint to you. You acquitted yourself well, and didn't rise up and take the flamebait, either.
I'm also not too proud to admit that my initial impression of that team proved to be wrong. After all, I've never been happier to be called 'mud'.
*Unless they have Locks that can be Rogue chow too, and your side has Rogues who aren't afraid to take advantage of that.
**Nobody knows your gender unless you volunteer it, and sometimes, not even then.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Monday, June 4, 2012
Fear and Loathing in Hellfire
Well, the WoW-verse seems to have righted itself once more, as crowds in Org and Stormwind are back to pre-D3 release levels (roughly 50 or so on an average night in an evenly split server). I suppose you could post a list on a wall and throw darts at which is the best explanation why the crowd is back and you'd have as good a guess as any pundit, but it wouldn't shock me if some folks burned through D3 and are simply back to their normal routine.
I've been avoiding roving bands of Rated BGers and have been back to leveling my Affliction Warlock, Adelwulf (thanks for the kick in the pants, Cynwise!), and as soon as I hit L60 I noticed a change in the ol' Furball. There weren't any new spells to be learned, but suddenly attacks started having a bit more punch. At first I thought it was due to the buying spree on heirlooms that I went on*, but when I swapped them out for Outland Clown Gear (tm) I discovered there wasn't much of a dropoff at all.
I guess the tuning for Locks has finally begun to kick in.
In a moment of weakness, I decided to queue up for a random Outland instance so I could spend the intervening time farming herbs and leveling Alchemy. That kind of backfired, because I found myself in Hellfire Ramparts before I could make even one circuit of Hellfire Peninsula.**
One thing about a Lock --especially an Affliction Warlock-- is that you're used to bringing up the rear in the damage meters in a regular 5-man instance. By the time those DoTs kick into gear, the mob is gone. The bosses will at least stick around long enough for a Lock to update their DoTs a few times, but that's not a recipe for high overall DPS. However, this time I was able to pull off damage that left me somewhere in the middle of the pack.
Not too bad.
Having run BGs almost exclusively as a Warlock, I had to consciously choose not to do some things while in an instance. For example, during the pulls up to Watchkeeper Gargolmar, a second mob swept down on our Shammy. I was closest to her, but my instinctual reaction --Howl of Terror-- would have been disastrous. There were simply too many other mobs (plus Gargolmar) nearby to risk using it. Instead, I spammed Hellfire to draw aggro then kite the mob back to the tank.
This, I grumbled, will have to take some getting used to.
Another strange thing about this Ramparts run was the complete and utter absence of DKs in the group: a Prot Warrior, a Ret Pally, a Resto Shaman, and a Fire Mage were my compatriots. The cluelessness you get from DKs in these Outland instances was still present, however, in the form of the Ret Pally. Almost immediately after he'd complimented the Shammy on the good job she'd been doing, he rolled Need on a healer neck drop, and beat out the Shammy in the ensuing roll.
"That's a healer item," the Shammy pointed out.
The Ret Pally was nonplussed. "Yeah," he agreed.
"It's MS before OS, or so I thought."
"That's why there's Dual Talent Specialization."
My brain melted into a gibbering pile of goo. Of all the... I began to type, but then bit it back. "I'm embarrassed that my main shares a spec with that guy," I whispered the Shammy, who whispered a smile back.
There's just something in the water about the Hellfire Citadel instances that causes people to act like jerks.
*All of my cloth Heirlooms are back in Neve's bank on A-52, and I wasn't planning on spending money to move them. Besides, I had all this Honor that I was racking up and had to blow it on something.
**But it does make for a PUG story, something I've not had in months.
I've been avoiding roving bands of Rated BGers and have been back to leveling my Affliction Warlock, Adelwulf (thanks for the kick in the pants, Cynwise!), and as soon as I hit L60 I noticed a change in the ol' Furball. There weren't any new spells to be learned, but suddenly attacks started having a bit more punch. At first I thought it was due to the buying spree on heirlooms that I went on*, but when I swapped them out for Outland Clown Gear (tm) I discovered there wasn't much of a dropoff at all.
I guess the tuning for Locks has finally begun to kick in.
In a moment of weakness, I decided to queue up for a random Outland instance so I could spend the intervening time farming herbs and leveling Alchemy. That kind of backfired, because I found myself in Hellfire Ramparts before I could make even one circuit of Hellfire Peninsula.**
One thing about a Lock --especially an Affliction Warlock-- is that you're used to bringing up the rear in the damage meters in a regular 5-man instance. By the time those DoTs kick into gear, the mob is gone. The bosses will at least stick around long enough for a Lock to update their DoTs a few times, but that's not a recipe for high overall DPS. However, this time I was able to pull off damage that left me somewhere in the middle of the pack.
Not too bad.
Having run BGs almost exclusively as a Warlock, I had to consciously choose not to do some things while in an instance. For example, during the pulls up to Watchkeeper Gargolmar, a second mob swept down on our Shammy. I was closest to her, but my instinctual reaction --Howl of Terror-- would have been disastrous. There were simply too many other mobs (plus Gargolmar) nearby to risk using it. Instead, I spammed Hellfire to draw aggro then kite the mob back to the tank.
This, I grumbled, will have to take some getting used to.
Another strange thing about this Ramparts run was the complete and utter absence of DKs in the group: a Prot Warrior, a Ret Pally, a Resto Shaman, and a Fire Mage were my compatriots. The cluelessness you get from DKs in these Outland instances was still present, however, in the form of the Ret Pally. Almost immediately after he'd complimented the Shammy on the good job she'd been doing, he rolled Need on a healer neck drop, and beat out the Shammy in the ensuing roll.
"That's a healer item," the Shammy pointed out.
The Ret Pally was nonplussed. "Yeah," he agreed.
"It's MS before OS, or so I thought."
"That's why there's Dual Talent Specialization."
My brain melted into a gibbering pile of goo. Of all the... I began to type, but then bit it back. "I'm embarrassed that my main shares a spec with that guy," I whispered the Shammy, who whispered a smile back.
There's just something in the water about the Hellfire Citadel instances that causes people to act like jerks.
*All of my cloth Heirlooms are back in Neve's bank on A-52, and I wasn't planning on spending money to move them. Besides, I had all this Honor that I was racking up and had to blow it on something.
**But it does make for a PUG story, something I've not had in months.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
NBI Ending
Although the month of May has come to a close, the fruits of the NBI Initiative will continue to ripen over the years.
Welcome to all new bloggers!
Welcome to all new bloggers!
Monday, May 28, 2012
In Memoriam
In honor of those who served and fought. Memorial Day may be an American holiday, but most other countries also have an Armistice Day or Day of Remembrance.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Ghost Towns
Things are pretty dead when Dalaran has just as many people in it on a Monday night as Stormwind.
I suppose you could argue that it was an 'up' day for Dalaran with 20 or so people in it on a Monday night, but Stormwind? Of course, that other software product that Blizz dropped last week might have something to do with that, but the downward trend had been noticeable since the beginning of the year.
Ironically enough, the regular LFD random queue was the shortest it had been in well over a year for me, clocking in at around six minutes. Maybe you'd expect a quick wait as a tank or healer, but DPS? But on the flip side, getting into a random BG meant a 10 minute wait, a definite change from the typical 2-3 minutes.
I can't really make any sense of the weirdness surrounding the queues; while empty servers ought to translate into longer wait times for both sets of queues, it only impacted BGs. Perhaps the people who are left playing WoW at this stage of the release are those who are the true 'hardcore' players: leveling alts, crafting, transmogging, raiding, etc.* If that's the case, leveling alts might be the reason for the short LFD queue times: you get a bubble of people who began leveling alts at roughly the same time, and they all reached Cata instances at once.
Of these so-called hardcores, how many of these people are still blogging out there, working on beta, and figuring out their pathway to L90 on Mists? Maybe we bloggers have a skewed sense of things, because we're passionate enough about the game to devote words to it in addition to any in-game activity. But right now, I think we've long since entered the long lull before the lead up to the next expac, and the servers won't get busy again until the release date is imminent.
Which brings me to the Blizzard suggestion to merge servers in low population zones to give the illusion of more activity.
I can't be the only one who, when I first heard about the idea, said "I guess the first zones they'll do are Exodar and Silvermoon City. After all, nothing says 'activity' quite like seeing a hundred or so bank alts in one location."
From an activity standpoint, this proposal sounds absolutely great. It will give newbies the impression that there are a lot of things going on in WoW, and might convince them to stick with the game past L20. It will also make some historically dead zones more lifelike, and will help players in The Ghostlands and Bloodmyst Isle find groups for questing.
However, WoW being WoW, I have some concerns about the proposal. Not from a technical standpoint, but from a social standpoint.
What's the worst part about the social experience in WoW, particularly from the standpoint of a new player?
It isn't a lack of people to interact with, but an excess of antisocial people ruining the initial play experience:
Based on an initial experience like that, it's a wonder that WoW gets new subs at all.
If Blizz is serious about bringing in and keeping new blood, then they have to address the social issues in WoW. This isn't Polyanna country, and it ain't EVE, either. People like to be welcomed and respected and tolerated. If they feel the environment is toxic, they'll move on. You can't expect a new player to blindly stumble through all of the social pitfalls and land in a good guild without guidance, and likewise you can't expect someone to blithely ignore all of the social issues that some players bring to WoW.
This is something that Blizz will need to tackle now, before Mists, when their system will strain under the weight of hordes of leveling Pandaren named Pandaspanx or Hotnfurry.
*Well, aside from the gold farmers, that is. When I left Icecrown a couple of days ago there were more people there (15) than in Dal (10). And as for me, I don't consider myself hardcore at all. I just get on and play when I can.
I suppose you could argue that it was an 'up' day for Dalaran with 20 or so people in it on a Monday night, but Stormwind? Of course, that other software product that Blizz dropped last week might have something to do with that, but the downward trend had been noticeable since the beginning of the year.
Ironically enough, the regular LFD random queue was the shortest it had been in well over a year for me, clocking in at around six minutes. Maybe you'd expect a quick wait as a tank or healer, but DPS? But on the flip side, getting into a random BG meant a 10 minute wait, a definite change from the typical 2-3 minutes.
I can't really make any sense of the weirdness surrounding the queues; while empty servers ought to translate into longer wait times for both sets of queues, it only impacted BGs. Perhaps the people who are left playing WoW at this stage of the release are those who are the true 'hardcore' players: leveling alts, crafting, transmogging, raiding, etc.* If that's the case, leveling alts might be the reason for the short LFD queue times: you get a bubble of people who began leveling alts at roughly the same time, and they all reached Cata instances at once.
Of these so-called hardcores, how many of these people are still blogging out there, working on beta, and figuring out their pathway to L90 on Mists? Maybe we bloggers have a skewed sense of things, because we're passionate enough about the game to devote words to it in addition to any in-game activity. But right now, I think we've long since entered the long lull before the lead up to the next expac, and the servers won't get busy again until the release date is imminent.
Which brings me to the Blizzard suggestion to merge servers in low population zones to give the illusion of more activity.
I can't be the only one who, when I first heard about the idea, said "I guess the first zones they'll do are Exodar and Silvermoon City. After all, nothing says 'activity' quite like seeing a hundred or so bank alts in one location."
From an activity standpoint, this proposal sounds absolutely great. It will give newbies the impression that there are a lot of things going on in WoW, and might convince them to stick with the game past L20. It will also make some historically dead zones more lifelike, and will help players in The Ghostlands and Bloodmyst Isle find groups for questing.
However, WoW being WoW, I have some concerns about the proposal. Not from a technical standpoint, but from a social standpoint.
What's the worst part about the social experience in WoW, particularly from the standpoint of a new player?
It isn't a lack of people to interact with, but an excess of antisocial people ruining the initial play experience:
- People who go kill opposing factions' quest givers in the intro zone. (These are intro zones, so unless a newbie decides to set the PvP flag there isn't any direct ganking going on.)
- People with names such as "Isukballz" or "Killitnow" challenging people to duels, killing the mobs you were supposed to work on, and spamming guild invites to any and all comers.
- The toon who decides to zero in on a player for some ERP.
- The "Yr doin it wrong!" or "L2P noob!" toon who spews trash into Gen Chat just because they think it's funny.
Based on an initial experience like that, it's a wonder that WoW gets new subs at all.
If Blizz is serious about bringing in and keeping new blood, then they have to address the social issues in WoW. This isn't Polyanna country, and it ain't EVE, either. People like to be welcomed and respected and tolerated. If they feel the environment is toxic, they'll move on. You can't expect a new player to blindly stumble through all of the social pitfalls and land in a good guild without guidance, and likewise you can't expect someone to blithely ignore all of the social issues that some players bring to WoW.
This is something that Blizz will need to tackle now, before Mists, when their system will strain under the weight of hordes of leveling Pandaren named Pandaspanx or Hotnfurry.
*Well, aside from the gold farmers, that is. When I left Icecrown a couple of days ago there were more people there (15) than in Dal (10). And as for me, I don't consider myself hardcore at all. I just get on and play when I can.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Great Spoof of the D3 Opening
I enjoyed this, hopefully you will too!
(there's nothing NSFW about the video, but it would still be awkward to have a co-worker look over at you watching this one)
(there's nothing NSFW about the video, but it would still be awkward to have a co-worker look over at you watching this one)
Thursday, May 17, 2012
The Law of Unintended Consequences is Alive and Well
Steve Rogers: How do you know about this, Beast?
Beast: I am an agent of S.W.O.R.D. Also.
Steve Rogers: Anybody else here an agent of a clandestine specialized covert operation and forgot to bring it up?
Spider-man: I'm a level 27 Rogue on World of Warcraft. Does that count?
--From 2012 Free Comic Book Day "The Avengers: Age of Ultron 0.1"
Sometimes I get my thinking done doing something very mundane, such as cutting the grass.
Of course, when I do cut the grass, I've got my earbuds in to muffle the noise from the mower, and that means I've either got music or a podcast on.
Not too long after I mentioned that I didn't have the time to listen to podcasts in a previous blog entry, I began to make time. I have a small collection of regulars in the pencil-and-paper RPG and WoW areas, but I'm always looking to find a podcast with an interesting voice. So, while I pushed the mower along late last afternoon, I listened to the 2 GMs 1 Mic podcast* and became acquainted with the term "murder hobos".
According to one of the hosts of the show, it's a put down of one aspect of old-school style RPGs: your characters move from place to place and kill things. I chuckled at the definition, because not only would characters from old-school RPGs qualify as murder hobos, but those of most MMOs as well.
Seriously.
When was the last time you walked into an instance and didn't kill just about everything? (No, wipes don't count.) Of course, the complexity of interactions beyond the absolute basics keep higher level actions out of the reach of most MMOs., so it isn't quite a fair comparison. We, as players, can interact more between each other (or with a DM) than we can with computer NPCs. And with NPCs programmed to perform only certain duties, it doesn't take very long before interacting with an NPC gets boring.
This got me to wondering whether the "biggest beta ever" for MoP is a good thing or not.
Getting all of the annual subs into the beta is a good thing from a polish and bugs standpoint, but what about from a freshness standpoint?
Some of the beta testers have been playing for over a month now, and we can expect this beta to continue for the foreseeable future. However, how many of those beta players will find themselves burning out on MoP more quickly than if they'd not been in the beta? Could Blizz be feeding the beast by getting everyone into beta so that they'll have seen everything (or enough of it, anyway), only to discover widespread apathy a month or two into release?
Before anyone starts telling me how awesome and cool beta is, I'll point out one thing: I worked in software development for five years. I've been through about six or seven development cycles on a product that took well over 300 developers worth of effort. By the time the product went Gold, we were utterly and completely sick of working on that release and looked forward to the next release.**
If that happens to developers who (supposedly) like to code, why wouldn't it happen for beta testers?
Think about it: people will have effectively been playing MoP since April 2012. Those of us not in the beta won't get to try it out for several months (or later); while MoP will be fresh for us, it'll be old hat for the testers.
And how long did it take before people started complaining about things to do in Cata or Wrath? A few months?
I'm not sure what the consequences of the beta will be (other than a polished product), but what I am sure of is that people wouldn't have thought of them beforehand.
*I've only listened to part of one episode so far, but it's pretty good; I'm willing to listen to a few more podcasts before I decide to pick it up or not. The hosts do use colorful language, so this isn't the sort of podcast to listen where little ears might hear.
**One of the statements that would cause the most anguish in a developer were the words "I need you to work bugs on the current release for a few months."
EtA: It's "agent", not "ancient". Stupid auto correct. @#$&!
Beast: I am an agent of S.W.O.R.D. Also.
Steve Rogers: Anybody else here an agent of a clandestine specialized covert operation and forgot to bring it up?
Spider-man: I'm a level 27 Rogue on World of Warcraft. Does that count?
--From 2012 Free Comic Book Day "The Avengers: Age of Ultron 0.1"
Sometimes I get my thinking done doing something very mundane, such as cutting the grass.
Of course, when I do cut the grass, I've got my earbuds in to muffle the noise from the mower, and that means I've either got music or a podcast on.
Not too long after I mentioned that I didn't have the time to listen to podcasts in a previous blog entry, I began to make time. I have a small collection of regulars in the pencil-and-paper RPG and WoW areas, but I'm always looking to find a podcast with an interesting voice. So, while I pushed the mower along late last afternoon, I listened to the 2 GMs 1 Mic podcast* and became acquainted with the term "murder hobos".
According to one of the hosts of the show, it's a put down of one aspect of old-school style RPGs: your characters move from place to place and kill things. I chuckled at the definition, because not only would characters from old-school RPGs qualify as murder hobos, but those of most MMOs as well.
Seriously.
When was the last time you walked into an instance and didn't kill just about everything? (No, wipes don't count.) Of course, the complexity of interactions beyond the absolute basics keep higher level actions out of the reach of most MMOs., so it isn't quite a fair comparison. We, as players, can interact more between each other (or with a DM) than we can with computer NPCs. And with NPCs programmed to perform only certain duties, it doesn't take very long before interacting with an NPC gets boring.
This got me to wondering whether the "biggest beta ever" for MoP is a good thing or not.
Getting all of the annual subs into the beta is a good thing from a polish and bugs standpoint, but what about from a freshness standpoint?
Some of the beta testers have been playing for over a month now, and we can expect this beta to continue for the foreseeable future. However, how many of those beta players will find themselves burning out on MoP more quickly than if they'd not been in the beta? Could Blizz be feeding the beast by getting everyone into beta so that they'll have seen everything (or enough of it, anyway), only to discover widespread apathy a month or two into release?
Before anyone starts telling me how awesome and cool beta is, I'll point out one thing: I worked in software development for five years. I've been through about six or seven development cycles on a product that took well over 300 developers worth of effort. By the time the product went Gold, we were utterly and completely sick of working on that release and looked forward to the next release.**
If that happens to developers who (supposedly) like to code, why wouldn't it happen for beta testers?
Think about it: people will have effectively been playing MoP since April 2012. Those of us not in the beta won't get to try it out for several months (or later); while MoP will be fresh for us, it'll be old hat for the testers.
And how long did it take before people started complaining about things to do in Cata or Wrath? A few months?
I'm not sure what the consequences of the beta will be (other than a polished product), but what I am sure of is that people wouldn't have thought of them beforehand.
*I've only listened to part of one episode so far, but it's pretty good; I'm willing to listen to a few more podcasts before I decide to pick it up or not. The hosts do use colorful language, so this isn't the sort of podcast to listen where little ears might hear.
**One of the statements that would cause the most anguish in a developer were the words "I need you to work bugs on the current release for a few months."
EtA: It's "agent", not "ancient". Stupid auto correct. @#$&!
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