World of Warcraft XIII: Even Aspects Get Nerfed

[GolemsVoice]

Gratulation, we're doing Madness H, too. Do you play with the debuff or without?

[Karoht]

Whelp, that was an interesting 2 hours of Madness pulls.

Our first hurdle appears to be tank cooldowns and Impale. We seem to sort of have that under control now. Kind of. The problem is our DK, he's got to Deathstrike like crazy prior to the Impale to work up a big enough shield. We had some timing issues due to this, but it seems to be under control. For now.

Second hurdle is the new adds. We had to adjust our DPS carefully to the point where we could just throw a few dots on the parasite, leave 1 DPS on it consistantly, and the rest of us keep killing the corruption. The other group of adds (from Hemorage?) seem to be going down fine. Our DPS appears to be in a good place, we're killing that first Wing tentacle about half way through the Cataclysm cast.

We're making it to 4th platform. If we make it there, Elementium Bolt is killing us. Tranquility + Spirit Link isn't helping much. We need 1 more group damage reduction cooldown, or people have to pop personals more proactively. I may have to use Tree and Barkskin and Tranquility. Our Shadow Priest is even helping out with Hymm but I don't think that is helping much. What I wouldn't give to have a competant Disc Priest with a barrier right at that time. Actually, a Disc Priest could just Pain Suppression the DK which would probably help out with that problem too.


We're going to try for Monday night, get a full night on Madness, maybe try some other strategies. We might try having the Shadow Priest take the odd Impale, but we are still doing a 2 tank strat for now.

But yeah, that was a good night. If only it could have happened sooner.

@Golem-With debuff. Not going to lie, as one could easily spot it on the livestream. If we manage to kill Madness this week, we might turn the debuff off and see what happens.

[GolemsVoice]

Without debuff it's a huge pain in the behind, I'm not judging you, really. We're doing the same, much to the anger of my raidleader. Maybe it would be better if you could scale it manually?

[Karoht]

Without debuff it's a huge pain in the behind, I'm not judging you, really. We're doing the same, much to the anger of my raidleader. Maybe it would be better if you could scale it manually?

As someone pointed out, that would mean that there are x number of difficulties within a difficulty setting. While that sounds good on paper, people start demanding balancing and such, or complaining about the imaginary 'brick wall' of going from 10% to 5% and so forth.

IE-Dragon Soul
Normal Mode would have a notch for 5% 10% 15% 20%
Heroic Mode would have a notch for 5% 10% 15% 20%

It starts to then bring them back to the OS3D style heroic encounters. Which, from the development side, were actually a pain in the bottom to balance.
And if they start to overcomplicate the reward system as a result, it only makes problems for the players and the development process.

If they could streamline the development system so that such a fragmentation of difficulty options was easier to handle, great. If it didn't confuse the heck out of players (remember, the current system confuses some players as it is, so does the JP/VP system), awesome. If they didn't tie any additional rewards to it, or penalize the reward system, cools.

[GolemsVoice]

Well, yeah, I gues if you put it that way it's true. But if they already introduced 20%, it wasn't "balanced" for 5,10 and 15%, too, so why not introduce a mechanic that let's you manually set the debuff. Of course, only as soon as there IS a debuff.

[TechnoScrabble]

I just ran Scarlet Monastery Graveyard for the first time as a level 31 protection pally, did great.

Only problem is this new helmet makes me look like a midget Magento.

[Leon]

Got my last 85 LfR capable yesterday so achieved that goal with 12 days till my free play time expires, now i just need to work on getting miscellaneous gear for transmog purposes and leveling assorted alts as far as i can.

[Karoht]

I'm unable to raid this week because of work, so there will likely not be a stream on tuesday. Just a heads up.


Tonight is the night.
We've made it 4 platforms in on Heroic Madness of Deathwing.
Tonight is probably the last night where we will for sure have the A-Team together, for probably about a month.
Tonight is our best possible shot at killing it. I am so stoked and nervous. This day can't be over fast enough. I'm only going to get about an hour of sleep tonight, so I'm probably going to nap, and then pull an all-nighter. I sense a Red Bull or two in my future.
Here's hoping the launch of Diablo 3 doesn't mess with us somehow.
Tonight is the night.

[Jonzac]

I just ran Scarlet Monastery Graveyard for the first time as a level 31 protection pally, did great.

Only problem is this new helmet makes me look like a midget Magento.

Its nice to see people still runing these dungeons...especially at level appropriate times. I remember running that with my lvl 35 prot pally.

Unfortunately, with so many high level folks I can only assume that fewer and fewer people do this..especially without just following some lvl 80+ to just finish the quests.

[Expf]

Unfortunately, with so many high level folks I can only assume that fewer and fewer people do this..especially without just following some lvl 80+ to just finish the quests.

Nah, with LFD there are plenty of those level-appropriate runs.

[Zeb The Troll]

Sunday gave us our first look at a heroic Dragon Soul boss other than Morchok. We tried Ultraxion. Our raid leader told us we were going to do this for half an hour and then move on. We got the turkey down to ~50% every time we pulled him, but invariably someone would mess up either Fading Light or Hour of Twilight sometime after the third Hour passed. It was both frustrating and encouraging. Encouraging because we hadn't hit any other speed bumps by that point and it looks like we have what it takes to do it. Frustrating because we shouldn't be having issues with people failing on HoT and Fading Light at this point in the game. On the other hand, failure was usually caused by someone not used to staying in that botched their turn, so it's a little understandable, and half an hour isn't really a lot of time, on your first effort, to get the hang of that.

[Alarra]

*is happy that I never missed HoT and even managed to jump in twice to stay in for someone who died and didn't screw that up either.

[Karoht]

We didn't kill Deathwing.
7/10 people showed up. Wasn't really expecting better, monday is an off-night for us.

I'm unable to raid for the next week, hopefully next week we can just extend my lockout and go straight for Deathwing, or we clear back to Spine and take out Spine in a hurry.

Also, I will be streaming Diablo 3 now. Streaming test is tonight whenever I log on.

No, I will not be playing WoW any less than I do now.

[The Linker]

Also, I will be streaming Diablo 3 now. Streaming test is tonight whenever I log on.

No, I will not be playing WoW any less than I do now.

Meanwhile, my guild's raid night is totally canceled. Everyone's... uh... sick.

[MechaKingGhidra]

8 people showed up for our Tuesday night raid so we did Archavon & Friends (pretty sad when I have to refer to it as that since I can't recall the raid name from memory) and Naxxramas 25. I brought my rogue alt and nabbed a PvP necklace from the former and a few things to replace my WotLK blues. (I don't like solo play on a rogue, it's dull, and I don't have max level purposes in mind for it, anyway, so hardly any Cata content has been done)

Additionally, The Hand of Nerub for transmogrification purposes. Not as neat as some of the other fist weapons I've seen through various raids and as far as I can tell there is no main-hand counterpiece to it but oh well, a freaky off-hand is better than none!

Friday we'll hopefully be able to gather enough for our usual foray into DS 10, but I'm losing heart because Diablo III is a powerful draw...good thing I didn't get it; elemental hydras (or, rather, hydra, singular, I like my sorceress from II better) call to me.

[subanark]

Well, we haven't gotten far at all. Every week seems to be someone late or missing, and we do about 1 hour worth of attempts on heroic Blackhorn every week. We've defiantly fallen behind some other guilds on their progression.

Right now it looks like we will try people soloing the little swirlies using class abilities and the mirror. The sapper really is getting us though, people seem to distracted to get on him fast enough. Maybe someday we will hit phase 2, which is should be the hard part of the encounter.

[The Succubus]

Howdy,

After many many years, I'm thinking about a return to World of Warcraft. Does Blizzard still do the recruit a friend thing? Is there a EUROPEAN server with a Playground presence and if the RaF thing is still going, would anyone be interested?

I'm thinking about mainly PVPing with either a Rogue, Hunter or Arcane Mage. Any thoughts regarding these choices, in terms of effectiveness, etc?

[Dublock]

Yea Blizz still has the RaF up and running (and a new mount for it "soon").

Rogues are a bit op right now with their daggers and such. Arcane mages isn't the best pvp spec for mages but can still be effective. Hunters low levels can tear it up but I am not familiar with Arenas to know if they are effective there (I only know about rogues and mages cause people QQ about them all the time :P).

Edit: This is the end of Cata and MoP will be out, the pvp balance will shift odds are but not sure how as the Beta isn't even at end game yet.

[Traab]

Heh, recruit a friend, Last time I used that wrath was still new. It was pretty damn silly how fast we levelled out of zones back then, with the lowbie zone revamps AND the exp bonus, I wonder how eye rollingly silly it will be now? We could probably skip every other zone if we do all the quests in each one we enter.

[Dublock]

I did RaF with someone back around Dec, we were level 80 less then two weeks real time with real life happening. I didn't look to see how long but we ended up grinding dungeons (I was heals), and the only dungeon we did 3 times was Blackrock Spire, 3 times other then that we outleveled them by two runs (if that).

[Mutant Sheep]

I've been wanting to do Blackrock for ages, level appropriate, of course. Awesome instance, but I never can reach proper leveling age! And rezzig gives me a cheat 80! Using heirlooms to make another BE pally could work though.

[The Succubus]

Well, if anyone wants to give me a home on their server with tasty little RaF bonuses, please drop me a PM.

Europe only, sadly. >.>

[Karoht]

Hopefully tonight we are extending our previous lock from before my hiatus, and working on H Madness all this week. Here's hoping we get the Impale issue resolved via our Shadow Priest taking an Impale from time to time.

[Hullabaloo]

Let us know when you hit 85.

Ugh, gave up last night with 30% to go. Got really slow doing random dungeons (and specific 84-85 ones), and was tired of sitting around 40% of total dps (is that typical for a tank)while getting druids that put down 5% and died standing in lightning shields.

Random Battle groups got me going again, and almost farmed enough mats to get from 500 to 525 BS while waiting in que. On the low side for DPS but man, I love being the last standing, 6 on me, and popping bubble to keep them busy!

Wife is still away at a conference so will get it tonight :)

[Karoht]

Ugh, gave up last night with 30% to go. Got really slow doing random dungeons (and specific 84-85 ones), and was tired of sitting around 40% of total dps (is that typical for a tank)while getting druids that put down 5% and died standing in lightning shields.

Random Battle groups got me going again, and almost farmed enough mats to get from 500 to 525 BS while waiting in que. On the low side for DPS but man, I love being the last standing, 6 on me, and popping bubble to keep them busy!

Wife is still away at a conference so will get it tonight :)

In Blues, a tank is usually going to account for more damage overall, because they are constantly doing AoE damage to build AoE threat. Most DPS classes in blues can't sustain AoE DPS for very long, have ramp up time, need to multi-dot, etc. Once they hit purples it starts to even out better.

As for people standing in lightning, well, I could say plenty of things but they don't really need to be said now do they.

[Bulldog Psion]

Nah, with LFD there are plenty of those level-appropriate runs.

LFD was the best thing that ever happened for low level dungeons. Prior to it, it had gotten so you could queue for hours and never get even a whiff of a group.

[Traab]

LFD was the best thing that ever happened for low level dungeons. Prior to it, it had gotten so you could queue for hours and never get even a whiff of a group.

Yeah, I mean, getting a max level to run you through is kind of neat by itself, but its just way more fun to tear through a dungeon when everyone is in the right level range. You get the best stories then. Like one day my shaman was on a scholo run when we had a quick break so the tank could go to the bathroom. I was bored and decided to kill critters. Unfortunately, chain lightning will jump from critters to mobs..... at least I learned something that day!

[Elm11]

Well, I've just hit level 60 on my druid, who I'm absolutely loving. At least as far as levelling goes, he's far, far more capable at killing multiple mobs, to the extent I pulled six of them at once during an early OL quest, and managed to kill all of them using treants and DoTs, and surviving easily without the need for heals. Flight form seems a little strange, now that I finally have it, but It'll probably look less silly when I get the epic variant.

[Traab]

Well, I've just hit level 60 on my druid, who I'm absolutely loving. At least as far as levelling goes, he's far, far more capable at killing multiple mobs, to the extent I pulled six of them at once during an early OL quest, and managed to kill all of them using treants and DoTs, and surviving easily without the need for heals. Flight form seems a little strange, now that I finally have it, but It'll probably look less silly when I get the epic variant.

Yeah, multi mob killing while leveling up has been made much easier since cata. My warrior can jump into a spawn of 5 yellows and end the fight at 90% health through his talents. It never used to be that easy. I could win, but there would be downtime. Now it just means I have to take an extra 30 seconds to finish the fight, because im 2-3 shotting everything with victory rush and mortal strike.

Its honestly something I dont like, as it makes the game so easy its on the level of silly. But ive gotten used to it. Blizzards method of gaining new customers and retaining old ones is to add in new, extra hard content, let the hardcore raiders and all others who enjoy a challenge at it, then nerf it down so the more casual can play. Its been that way since vanilla.

[Hullabaloo]

Its honestly something I dont like, as it makes the game so easy its on the level of silly. But ive gotten used to it. Blizzards method of gaining new customers and retaining old ones is to add in new, extra hard content, let the hardcore raiders and all others who enjoy a challenge at it, then nerf it down so the more casual can play. Its been that way since vanilla.

Thats the nature of power creep in all MMOs. Even if they implemented something such that content from 1-60 was difficult for people with mains to bankroll it, send them mats not to mention strong knowledge of the game, yet accessible, interesting, captivating, and does not make noobs seem like noobs to themselves (a major turn of for new subs). And they can develop and implement it in a cost efficient matter (basically impossible), what do they get?

People would complain that its boring the third time through a level 45 dungeon, and demand new content. Same place as now, only with a lot of $$ burnt :)


In other news got 85 last night on my first character, a Dwarven Prot Pally. Got a level 2 alt Ill try out some time :). 525 mining 502 BS.

My first purchase was a Immolation ChestguardChestplate of the Steadfast with a +40 mastery gem and a +20 mastery +30 Stam gems for the bonus. Used all my JP and about 20 gold. Good purchase? My prior chest was a random drop of level 272, so nice upgrade, but was there a better in slot that was affordable?

So now I guess its hitting more random group finder to get lv 333 loot and JP, to get into heroics?