Yesterday, I made a post about Valor, Reputation, and Daily quests in Mists of Pandaria, and it really got me thinking... "How would I handle valor gear, solve the problem of players wanting more to do, while hopefully making the experience seem epic instead of grindy?" Surprisingly, it didn't take long to come up with something I personally think would be incredible. So here goes...
Here's my idea: First, I'd throw out the concept of valor all together. Second, I'd put in maybe 3 or 4 different repeatable quests-chains. I'm talking serious quest chains which would hit upon various types of game play, but I'll get to that later. To get at the rewards for these quest chains, I would divide the would-be Valor gear up based on it's cost, and therefore the expected time investment. I'd make a quest chain for the 1250 pt. items, say bracers, necks, rings; a chain for 1600 pt. items, say boots, gloves, trinkets; and a chain for 2200 pt. items like chest, legs, helm. Aside from the gear, I would offer a lump sum of gold, as one of the reward choices for each quest, thus giving players a reason to continue doing them after they've gotten all the gear.
These chains should play out like miniature legendary quest chains, except instead of taking months, they would take somewhere from 8-16 days. They would be mutually exclusive, so players can only work on one at a time, but there is no requirement to do any one before the others.
Anyway, the quests would be gated, obviously, so players can only make so much progress per day, and they would progress something like this: the first 3-4 days would involve completing some basic daily quests. After that, you might be tasked with completing special objectives in different scenarios for a few days, then maybe you need to collect drops from the end bosses of dungeons for several days. Maybe there's a day or so somewhere when you get to do multiple parts of the chain in one day - where you travel around to different zones hit some lore/story points, and finally at the climax of the quest chain, you're tasked with killing a specific raid boss, which can be completed on any difficulty from LFR to Heroic. Maybe at some point you get an item that works like a Mysterious Egg or Disgusting Jar, basically an item with a gestation period that will give you a few days break from working on the quest chain. The whole point of the chain should be variety, so I would even consider random inter-changable parts for all the quests chains, so you never really know what's next- aside from perhaps the last quests in each chain, the rewards, and the overall number of days required to complete them.
In the end, you'll have put in the effort. While you might have had to do a few daily quests or whatever it might be that you personally don't like to do, it was only for a few days and then you moved on to something else. You'll have experienced a variety of content, and you'll have a choice of rewards based on which quest you chose at the beginning, and hopefully that will also come with at least a minor feeling of having accomplished something. Then, you can pick one of the others quests, or do that one over again.
Each time there's a new content patch, I would add new quests that tie into the story hooks of each new content patch/raid tier. The old quests will still be there and can be done independently of the newer ones. I would probably even nerf the old quests so that they take less time to complete (and reward less gold) but I would plan for that and have a strategy for applying nerfs to the quest chains.
As for factions and rep grinds, I agree with Blizzard that tabards were a flawed system. However, I think faction-based daily quests could reward a consumable that would provide rep gain for a single dungeon clear. It would encourage players seeking maximum daily rep, to do dailies as well as dungeons. As for rep rewards, I think this a good place for a limited amount of gear, but should be primarily for cosmetic items, heirloom or otherwise account-wide items, and profession recipes or rare materials. Account-bound items, in particular, make the most sense for faction vendors for the simple fact that very few people want to do a rep grind on more than one character.
Hit that comment box below and tell me what you think, and how you might do it better.
MoP: Valor, Rep, and Daily questing.
So, I haven't had much to post here in some time, but today is the big 5.0.4 patch for World of Warcraft which will bring many of the Mists of Pandaria expansion changes to the game. While the servers are down, I just thought I'd like to talk about somthing that I'm afraid will keep many players from really enjoying the new expansion: The intersection of Reputations, Daily quests, and Valor rewards.
Let me first start by saying I personally don't have a problem with the way Blizzard chose to design these systems in Mists of Pandaria, but having talked to a lot of people, some people are clearly not going to be happy if I am understanding correctly how these systems will work. So, let's start with Valor point. Valor is your basic currency for buying epic-quality gear that will generally be equal in power to normal mode tier 14 raid gear. One of the big selling points for the Valor system in MoP is that there are many different ways to earn Valor points. You can do any combination of raids, dungeons, daily quests, scenarios, and perhaps other things that all reward valor and contribute to a weekly cap on how much Valor you can earn - just like today. That's pretty good news for people who like to do certain things, but not others.
Now, allow me to change gears and look at what MoP has in store for players via various factions which players will be able to earn reputation with. The biggest change is that using tabards as a means for earning reputation is going away. This is where it gets somewhat muddy for me because I don't think anyone really knows yet how players will get reputation with these factions. One possibility is that they will work like they did in The Burning Crusade. Back then, players earned rep in dungeons and each dungeon was affiliated with a faction. So, if you wanted Honor Hold rep for example, you needed to run the Hellfire Citadel dungeons. However, it doesn't appear this will be the case for Mists of Pandaria. The primary means for players to earn reputation in MoP will be via daily quests, and there-in lies the problem.
Most people really don't like doing daily quests. Now, granted I didn't do any scientific polling, or focus group testing to support that claim, and so it's entirely based on the conversations I have with guild mates, other people I know who play, and a vast majority of topics on the subject in various WoW forums. That being said, I personally think daily quests are great. I look back on places like the Argent Tournament, Sons of Hodir, Sholazar Basin, Tol Barad, and (especially) the Molten Front with fondness. I really like having something to do that I can do on my own or with friends, that I don't have to wait in a queue for, and where I get a feeling of making progress toward some big reward (especially mounts!) For others, daily quests feel like a job. Instead of daily quests being something extra to do when logging in every day it becomes the sole reason for logging in on days when you otherwise wouldn't for fear of falling behind. Now you might be thinking, "Maybe you're right and maybe not, but what does ignoring doing daily quests and not getting rep have to do with Valor points?"
Answer: The valor gear will be spread amongst several different factions and will only be available for purchase by players who are revered or higher with each faction. There was a blue post recently where Ghostcrawler sort-of addressed this issue, as it really seems to conflict with some of their self-declared design philosophy. He basically says that by making daily questing less optional, it will in effect lessen the degree to which players feel like there's not enough things to do in the game. He goes on to say that daily quests are still optional and that since similar gear can obtained from other sources, the valor gear itself is optional too. Personally, I think that's absurd. If Valor gear were really supposed to be optional, then you wouldn't play up all the different ways players can earn Valor points. It seems rather disingenuous to say you're giving players the freedom to earn Valor however they wish, when access to the vendors needed to spend those points has to be unlocked via several daily-quest-based reputation grinds.
Personally, I think Valor rewards and Rep rewards should be separate beasts. That's what real options are. I would still probably grind the rep and farm the valor for the rewards I really want, but I know other players who are going to be really disappointed when they realize that the value of the Valor points they've earned is entirely dependent on whether or not they choose to do daily quests to unlock the vendors.
Let me first start by saying I personally don't have a problem with the way Blizzard chose to design these systems in Mists of Pandaria, but having talked to a lot of people, some people are clearly not going to be happy if I am understanding correctly how these systems will work. So, let's start with Valor point. Valor is your basic currency for buying epic-quality gear that will generally be equal in power to normal mode tier 14 raid gear. One of the big selling points for the Valor system in MoP is that there are many different ways to earn Valor points. You can do any combination of raids, dungeons, daily quests, scenarios, and perhaps other things that all reward valor and contribute to a weekly cap on how much Valor you can earn - just like today. That's pretty good news for people who like to do certain things, but not others.
Now, allow me to change gears and look at what MoP has in store for players via various factions which players will be able to earn reputation with. The biggest change is that using tabards as a means for earning reputation is going away. This is where it gets somewhat muddy for me because I don't think anyone really knows yet how players will get reputation with these factions. One possibility is that they will work like they did in The Burning Crusade. Back then, players earned rep in dungeons and each dungeon was affiliated with a faction. So, if you wanted Honor Hold rep for example, you needed to run the Hellfire Citadel dungeons. However, it doesn't appear this will be the case for Mists of Pandaria. The primary means for players to earn reputation in MoP will be via daily quests, and there-in lies the problem.
Most people really don't like doing daily quests. Now, granted I didn't do any scientific polling, or focus group testing to support that claim, and so it's entirely based on the conversations I have with guild mates, other people I know who play, and a vast majority of topics on the subject in various WoW forums. That being said, I personally think daily quests are great. I look back on places like the Argent Tournament, Sons of Hodir, Sholazar Basin, Tol Barad, and (especially) the Molten Front with fondness. I really like having something to do that I can do on my own or with friends, that I don't have to wait in a queue for, and where I get a feeling of making progress toward some big reward (especially mounts!) For others, daily quests feel like a job. Instead of daily quests being something extra to do when logging in every day it becomes the sole reason for logging in on days when you otherwise wouldn't for fear of falling behind. Now you might be thinking, "Maybe you're right and maybe not, but what does ignoring doing daily quests and not getting rep have to do with Valor points?"
Answer: The valor gear will be spread amongst several different factions and will only be available for purchase by players who are revered or higher with each faction. There was a blue post recently where Ghostcrawler sort-of addressed this issue, as it really seems to conflict with some of their self-declared design philosophy. He basically says that by making daily questing less optional, it will in effect lessen the degree to which players feel like there's not enough things to do in the game. He goes on to say that daily quests are still optional and that since similar gear can obtained from other sources, the valor gear itself is optional too. Personally, I think that's absurd. If Valor gear were really supposed to be optional, then you wouldn't play up all the different ways players can earn Valor points. It seems rather disingenuous to say you're giving players the freedom to earn Valor however they wish, when access to the vendors needed to spend those points has to be unlocked via several daily-quest-based reputation grinds.
Personally, I think Valor rewards and Rep rewards should be separate beasts. That's what real options are. I would still probably grind the rep and farm the valor for the rewards I really want, but I know other players who are going to be really disappointed when they realize that the value of the Valor points they've earned is entirely dependent on whether or not they choose to do daily quests to unlock the vendors.
Diablo III: Elective Mode
So I just learned about one of the features in Diablo III that I wished I had known about 20 levels ago. It's called Elective Mode, and this quick and dirty run-down will tell you all about it and why you want it.
What is Elective Mode?
By default, Elective Mode is an option in the game that is turned off. It's recommended to turn this on when you get a chance.
Elective mode allows the player to place multiple skills from the same category to their key bindings.
How do I turn Elective Mode on? Once you join a game, simply hit ESC > Options > Gameplay > toggle on Elective Mode.
What does Elective Mode allow you to do?
By default, the attack buttons in Diablo 3 are bound to the following: Left mouse button, right mouse button, and the 1, 2, 3, and 4 keys on the keyboard.
The skills in Diablo 3 fall into six categories. These categories vary by class, but every class has six. E.g., The Wizard's six categories are: Primary, Secondary, Defensive, Force, Conjuration, and Mastery.
With elective mode off, a wizards Primary skill must be bound to the left mouse button, a Secondary skill must be bound to the right mouse button, a Defensive skill skill must be bound to the 1 key, a force skill must be bound to the 2 key, a Conjuration skill must be bound to the 3 key, and a Mastery skill must be bound to the 4 key.
By extension, it means the player can only use one skill from each category when selecting which six skills to use. Once they choose a Primary skill, that is the only Primary skill they can use until they switch it out with another Primary skill.
With Elective Mode on, the player is allowed to place multiple skills from the same category on their key bindings. A player could use four Primary skills if they so desired.
With a basic Ice Wizard build with Elective Mode turned on, the player can select both two Defensive and two Force skills. With Elective Mode off, this would not be possible since the player would be forbidden from using multiple skills from the same category.
tl;dr: Leaving Elective Mode off will limit your skill choice combinations, and by extension, customization. It is highly recommended that you turn it on as soon as possible.
Just one thing I'll add and that is that with elective mode off, you may accidentally drag buttons off of your action bar in the heat of combat, and there doesn't appear to be any way to lock down the buttons while Elective Mode is on. However, you can turn elective mode off once you've configured your skills on your action bar and they will lock in place. When you want to change skills again, just toggle Elective Mode again from the gameplay options menu.
Diablo III: Maximized Window Fix
I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but it was bugging the hell out of me, so I thought I'd share a solution I found.
The problem is this: Running Diablo III in windowed mode, but maximized. That is, you can still see the taskbar, but otherwise, the game is filling the remainder of the screen. This is how I play World of Warcraft, but Diablo 3 does not allow you to maximize in windowed mode. (WTF BLIZZARD)
So the first thing you will need to do is install a program called AutoHotkey. This part is pretty straight forward.
Next, you need to make a script that you will use to fix the window. To do this, open notepad and paste this:
^!f::
WinGetTitle, currentWindow, A
IfWinExist %currentWindow%
{
WinSet, Style, -0xC00000 ; hide title bar
WinSet, Style, -0x800000 ; hide thin-line border
WinSet, Style, -0x400000 ; hide dialog frame
WinSet, Style, -0x40000 ; hide thickframe/sizebox
WinMove, , , 0, 0, 1920, 1040
}
returnNow save the file, (on the desktop is fine, or somewhere else if you want it out of sight) - it doesn't matter what you name it, but save it with a ".ahk" extension. (Ex: "Fullscreen.ahk")
Once you've got the script created, right-click on it and Run as administrator. (If your windows account is an administrator, then just select Run Script.)
Now you're ready to open up Diablo III - make sure you have it in windowed mode, and in focus - then press Control+Alt+f and BAM! Maximized window mode.
*Addition information on window size settings: The first number should always be the horizontal resolution of your display. The second number is going to be your vertical resolution minus the number of pixels needed to show the taskbar. In windows 7, large icons make the taskbar 40 pixels vs. 30 pixels for small icons. After some searching, I believe Vista and XP taskbars are 30 pixels as well.
If subtracting either 30 or 40 pixels doesn't work for you, the best way to find out how many pixels to leave for your taskbar is to screencap your desktop (press printscreen to copy screen to the clipboard) and use an image editing program, like Photoshop, to crop out the taskbar. Once you've done that, the dimensions of the resulting image should tell you how many pixels you need to cut out. If all else fails, you could just guess, edit your script, run the script, test it, guess, edit, run, test, etc. till you find what works.
The media is at it again.
There's been a lot of talk in the media recently about that guy who went on the shooting spree in Norway a while back now that his trial is being held, but the shit they're talking about is not only irrelevant and misleading, but it almost seems like a diversion to keep from discussing this guy's ideology and what REALLY motivated him to do what he did.
So, what makes this worthy of a post on a WoW/MMO blog? Here's a snipet from Time's coverage of the trial:
What the hell? What does that have to do with anything? Why talk about what video games the guy played like that somehow matters? I mean, it was one thing back when Columbine school shooting happened; those kids shot up their school and people thought maybe violent video games were a factor, but those kids killed themselves and so it's all speculation - but even then you can't account for all the people who play violent games and never commit crimes. It's even more ridiculous in this case because the guy responsible is sitting in court, making statements, has written a manifesto, etc. While he's certainly a psychopath, and I don't agree with his motives, world view, etc, there's no need for speculation. He's been pretty up-front about why he killed those people. Here's more...
In closing, I'd just like to say that over the past 7+ years that World of Warcraft has been around, subscriptions have hovered around 10 Million world-wide with untold numbers of players having quit and new players having joined over the years - meaning the overall number of people who have played it at some point in it's history is likely much higher. Meanwhile, the number of terrorist nutjobs who've played the game stands at 1. That's a pretty good record, IMO.
Blame video games — that’s the watch phrase these days when something tragic happens. The non-gaming media seem to enjoy zeroing in on video games that are highlighted in horrifying crimes, invoking the rhetorical question: Do video games screw people up? Like the trial of Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik, 33, a right-wing extremist charged with killing eight people in a car-bomb attack near a government building in Oslo last July and 69 others in a follow-up shooting spree at a youth camp run by Norway’s Labor Party.In the trial, prosecutors reportedly “painted an image of a Breivik obsessed with the World of Warcraft computer game, prompting the judge to ask whether the game was violent.” At some point, the prosecution must have displayed images from the game in the courtroom, because Reuters says Breivik smiled “when the image of his online character was displayed.” According to Agence France-Presse, the prosecution said Breivik played World of Warcraft “full time” from the summer of 2006 to the summer of 2007.
What the hell? What does that have to do with anything? Why talk about what video games the guy played like that somehow matters? I mean, it was one thing back when Columbine school shooting happened; those kids shot up their school and people thought maybe violent video games were a factor, but those kids killed themselves and so it's all speculation - but even then you can't account for all the people who play violent games and never commit crimes. It's even more ridiculous in this case because the guy responsible is sitting in court, making statements, has written a manifesto, etc. While he's certainly a psychopath, and I don't agree with his motives, world view, etc, there's no need for speculation. He's been pretty up-front about why he killed those people. Here's more...
Breivik himself wrote in a 1,500-page manifesto titled “2083: A European Declaration of Independence” that in order to battle what he describes as “the rise of cultural Marxism/multiculturalism” and “Islamic colonization and Islamisation of Western Europe,” one must “[avoid] suspicion from relatives, neighbours and friends.” He further advises telling friends and family “that you have started to play World of Warcraft or any other online MMO game and that you wish to focus on this for the next months/year.” Breivik says this helps “justify isolation” and adds that “people will understand somewhat why you are not answering your phone over long periods.” Note, importantly, that Breivik is advising the use of stereotypes about video games as a way to justify social isolation, indicating his intelligent, cynical view of the game. This was someone who used video games for sinister purposes, not someone used by them.Oh, nice ... they have a 1500-manifesto, and the media picks out this tiny part where the nutjob suggests feigning interest in World of Warcraft in order to ... become socially isolated? to what ends? Maybe that's on one of the other 1499 pages.
In closing, I'd just like to say that over the past 7+ years that World of Warcraft has been around, subscriptions have hovered around 10 Million world-wide with untold numbers of players having quit and new players having joined over the years - meaning the overall number of people who have played it at some point in it's history is likely much higher. Meanwhile, the number of terrorist nutjobs who've played the game stands at 1. That's a pretty good record, IMO.
SWTOR unsubbed.
So, I had pretty much stopped playing SWTOR in January due to just generally getting bored with the game and realizing that it was missing a lot of features I consider important for a MMO, but I didn't cancel my sub, in hopes that those features would be rolled out in due time.
Today I read about how the combat log they want to introduce will be "personal" so no one else can see how bad you're doing, and then I cancelled my sub.
You see, I can forgive a game that ships with some features missing, but I fundamentally disagree with a MMO design philosophy that thinks being able to monitor your group's performance is a BAD thing and that players who under-perform should be able to ruin other players group experiences with impunity.
It's like instead of trying to coax away hardcore WoW players with a feature-rich, competitive game, they'd rather cater to players who were called-out by someone for being bad at WoW by saying, "Don't worry, we won't let that happen here. In SWTOR you can suck all you want and no one will know."
Damage meters and ignorance as a virtue.
I don't know if I've talked about this before, but I keep seeing these discussions in various places about the role of damage meters in MMOs. I think it's coming up a lot right now because having one and not having one is a primary difference between World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic.
I don't know if what I've been seeing is a majority opinion or if it's simply a very vocal minority, but I keep seeing this argument expressed and it's driving me crazy. The simple jist of it is:
So let's see if we can break this down. Damage meters are a tool of measurement. I think we can all agree on that, right? Furthermore, those measurements are objective observations rooted in fact. That is to say, the numbers shown on damage meters are reasonably accurate (as opposed to a random number generator that would just make shit up.) So really, a damage meter isn't all that different from say a tape measure or a measuring cup. Are you with me so far?
So logically, the implication is that measuring things is bad. Well if that's the case, then does having a speedometer or a fuel gauge ruin your driving experience? Is it wrong to ask about square-footage when buying a house? If I check my computer to see how much free hard disk space I have, am I taking all the fun out of owning a computer? If I ask someone for the time, am I a jerk for wanting to know how much of the day is left? What if your local electric co. charged you for how much power they "felt like" you had used in a given month?
If measurements are bad, then the corollary is that ignorance is a virtue - which it isn't.
The truth is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with damage meters. It's the behavior of a subset of players who obsess over them that can be annoying. If you want to call those players out and denounce their behavior, I'm with you, but when you blame the damage meters you look like a moron.
I don't know if what I've been seeing is a majority opinion or if it's simply a very vocal minority, but I keep seeing this argument expressed and it's driving me crazy. The simple jist of it is:
"People use damage meters to compare themselves to other players instead of minding their own business and enjoying the game; therefore, a game without damage meters is better."
So let's see if we can break this down. Damage meters are a tool of measurement. I think we can all agree on that, right? Furthermore, those measurements are objective observations rooted in fact. That is to say, the numbers shown on damage meters are reasonably accurate (as opposed to a random number generator that would just make shit up.) So really, a damage meter isn't all that different from say a tape measure or a measuring cup. Are you with me so far?
So logically, the implication is that measuring things is bad. Well if that's the case, then does having a speedometer or a fuel gauge ruin your driving experience? Is it wrong to ask about square-footage when buying a house? If I check my computer to see how much free hard disk space I have, am I taking all the fun out of owning a computer? If I ask someone for the time, am I a jerk for wanting to know how much of the day is left? What if your local electric co. charged you for how much power they "felt like" you had used in a given month?
If measurements are bad, then the corollary is that ignorance is a virtue - which it isn't.
The truth is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with damage meters. It's the behavior of a subset of players who obsess over them that can be annoying. If you want to call those players out and denounce their behavior, I'm with you, but when you blame the damage meters you look like a moron.
Dragonsoul Nerfs Incoming
So, this week Blizzard announced that an initial round of nerfs to the Dragonsoul normal and heroic raid difficulties will be implemented starting Jan 31st. The nerfs will be implemented in the form of a 5% reduction in health and damage done for all bosses. They also stated that this nerf could grow in 5% increments going forward as Blizzard sees fit.
If you read the official forums, or just peruse the blue posts like I do, you get the sense that these nerfs are rather controversial, and let's face it ... they always are. It seems that this time around, many people thought that the introduction of the Raid Finder and it's easier-than-normal-mode difficulty meant that there was a tier of content catered towards players of various skill levels and therefore there wouldn't be any need for nerfs.
Unfortunately, that's just wrong. The truth of the matter is, there are not enough super hard-core players in World of Warcraft for Blizzard to justify creating an entire difficulty setting just for them, at least not in the long run. You see, Blizzard really does understand how important it is to have this truly epic, if stupid-difficult content in the game when the new content is released. That last part is key. They want best in the world guilds to compete to get world-first kills on these ultra-hard raid encounters. It's just a good thing for the community as a whole. That being said, once the world-firsts or even world 100ths are out of the way, there will come a time when not many guilds are progressing through this kind of content. Now, here is where the average forum troll will tell you that guilds that try to progress and fail are just being bad and not putting in the effort, they need to learn to play, etc. This simply isn't the issue at all.
The problem is that most guilds, regardless of whether they are raiding 10-man or 25-man content, have a limited number of members and most of those members do not have more than one heroic-raid-ready character. This doesn't hold true for the super hard-core race-to-world-first type guilds. Those guilds have many many extra players and players with multiple geared characters because at their level it's super easy to recruit. Many of these players are also extremely dedicated, and spend an inordinate amount of time playing the game and prepping multiple characters for the hardest content imaginable. As such, best-in-the-world guilds have nearly unlimited flexibility in terms of raid composition in addition to raw talent and a level of dedication that most players would find counter-productive to living an normal life.
So, that being said, I'd like to talk about my guild, and our situation. My guild is made up primarily of two semi-autonomous 10-man raid groups. Each group has a roster of about 12 players, and most of those players, again, have one primary character that they spend a majority of their time playing so it out-gears all of their other characters. By definition that means we're never going to claim a world-first. Even a realm first would be quite the achievement. However, we're not just down-right terrible players or anything. We can recognize a fight where we get to it and say, "Man, this would be a lot easier with 3 mages and a Warrior tank," but we can't simply throw that raid group together. We just have to make do with what we have. Like most guilds, we cleared through normal Dragonsoul within the first couple of weeks, but are having limited success moving on to heroic content. (Currently 2/8 heroic at the time of this writing) This is why I am looking forward to the nerf. I think it will give us the boost we need to progress.
I guess the point I wish more people would understand is that heroic modes are tuned the way they are at release for a very specific subset of wow players - and I have absolutely no problem with that. It's vital to the community that it be that way. However, there comes a time after release that those players for whom that content was tuned have done all they can do, and it's time to open it up to more average guilds who want a challenge above that of normal mode - but don't have the flexibility and resources of a best-in-the-world guild. That's all Blizzard is really doing, and I think more people should recognize it and be more supportive.
If you read the official forums, or just peruse the blue posts like I do, you get the sense that these nerfs are rather controversial, and let's face it ... they always are. It seems that this time around, many people thought that the introduction of the Raid Finder and it's easier-than-normal-mode difficulty meant that there was a tier of content catered towards players of various skill levels and therefore there wouldn't be any need for nerfs.
Unfortunately, that's just wrong. The truth of the matter is, there are not enough super hard-core players in World of Warcraft for Blizzard to justify creating an entire difficulty setting just for them, at least not in the long run. You see, Blizzard really does understand how important it is to have this truly epic, if stupid-difficult content in the game when the new content is released. That last part is key. They want best in the world guilds to compete to get world-first kills on these ultra-hard raid encounters. It's just a good thing for the community as a whole. That being said, once the world-firsts or even world 100ths are out of the way, there will come a time when not many guilds are progressing through this kind of content. Now, here is where the average forum troll will tell you that guilds that try to progress and fail are just being bad and not putting in the effort, they need to learn to play, etc. This simply isn't the issue at all.
The problem is that most guilds, regardless of whether they are raiding 10-man or 25-man content, have a limited number of members and most of those members do not have more than one heroic-raid-ready character. This doesn't hold true for the super hard-core race-to-world-first type guilds. Those guilds have many many extra players and players with multiple geared characters because at their level it's super easy to recruit. Many of these players are also extremely dedicated, and spend an inordinate amount of time playing the game and prepping multiple characters for the hardest content imaginable. As such, best-in-the-world guilds have nearly unlimited flexibility in terms of raid composition in addition to raw talent and a level of dedication that most players would find counter-productive to living an normal life.
So, that being said, I'd like to talk about my guild, and our situation. My guild is made up primarily of two semi-autonomous 10-man raid groups. Each group has a roster of about 12 players, and most of those players, again, have one primary character that they spend a majority of their time playing so it out-gears all of their other characters. By definition that means we're never going to claim a world-first. Even a realm first would be quite the achievement. However, we're not just down-right terrible players or anything. We can recognize a fight where we get to it and say, "Man, this would be a lot easier with 3 mages and a Warrior tank," but we can't simply throw that raid group together. We just have to make do with what we have. Like most guilds, we cleared through normal Dragonsoul within the first couple of weeks, but are having limited success moving on to heroic content. (Currently 2/8 heroic at the time of this writing) This is why I am looking forward to the nerf. I think it will give us the boost we need to progress.
I guess the point I wish more people would understand is that heroic modes are tuned the way they are at release for a very specific subset of wow players - and I have absolutely no problem with that. It's vital to the community that it be that way. However, there comes a time after release that those players for whom that content was tuned have done all they can do, and it's time to open it up to more average guilds who want a challenge above that of normal mode - but don't have the flexibility and resources of a best-in-the-world guild. That's all Blizzard is really doing, and I think more people should recognize it and be more supportive.
Status update.
I just wanted to drop a few lines about what I've been up to lately in both wow and swtor.
In wow, I am on the verge of completing my legendary staff. I'm at 230 of 250 siphons, and anyone who knows what I'm talking about knows it takes a long time to complete when all you do is 10-mans. It is the 2nd staff for our group, but will be the 4th in my guild. Anyway, I will be finishing it this coming week - more than likely tomorrow night, in fact. I know this will sound stupid, but I'm actually really stoked about it. I've been involved in getting other people legendary weapons - all the way from Molten Core to Icecrown Citadel - but I wasn't sure if I'd ever have one myself. Even in the last few months as I've worked on the quest line, there have been times where I wasn't sure if I would be able to finish it - or if I would have to wait until next expansion to finish it - and then really never be able to use it. Then with patch 4.3, there was a worry that with new content available no one would want to go back to the old content to finish the quest. However, people continued to show up most weeks and now that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I just want to say it feels good to know that my guild and my raid group in particular stood by me and continued to show up for the weekly Firelands raid when they surely would rather be doing something else. So, for that, I must give a big Thank You to those guys for hanging in there. You know who you are.
In SWTOR, I've kinda gotten bored of it. I could lie to myself and make some other reason why I'm not playing it, but the truth is it just feels really repetitive... go to cave, kill alternating packs of weak mobs and either solo strong mobs or strong mobs with like one or two weak mobs, then the occasional solo elite mob, collect shit from cave, kill shit in cave, do RP shit at end of cave, run back, rinse, repeat. I don't remember there being so many random caves or giant underground bunkers in Star Wars. To make matters worse, I really dislike the way the mounts, err... Speeders, are in SWTOR. Keep in mind here, I'm a gigantic mount whore so this is pretty big deal to me. I just passed level 40 where I threw down pretty much all my credits on a speeder that offers a negligible 10% speed increase over the one I had, and all I have to look forward to at max level is yet another 10% upgrade! I quite literally cannot perceive any difference in speed. I just feel like I got ripped off. The main thing tho is I just can't figure out how a game that gets so many things right can get so much other shit so completely wrong. I can repair at any vendor! hurray! Mount speeds are jacked up and pointless! BOO! The game looks and plays great! hurray! No combat log or addons (like recount) make it impossible to theory-craft! BOO! I mean when I play, I'm just pressing buttons, using abilities that have longer cooldowns because generally those should do more damage, right? Are the talents actually working? I dunno! I don't know how much damage I'm doing! I mean, I can see the floating combat text when I shoot a mob but short of FRAPS-ing the game and going back to record all the damage numbers vs. the time they appear in the video there's really not a good way of measuring it in a meaningful way. (God help any asshole who is desperate enough to do that by the way). As it stands, SWTOR is something I'll play when I have absolutely nothing to do in wow, and even then, if I reach level 50, I'm probably just going to cancel my sub and someone can let me know later on if/when they fix some of the more glaring problems because the way I see it, there's really no excuse for some of it and I don't see any reason for them to keep getting my money while I wait for it to be fixed.
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