What the PuG!?

In the last couple weeks, I've been in PuGs for just about every raid, except Sunwell. Some have been successful, some haven't. But it's still amazing to me that they exist. On a server where the top Alliance guild was selling chances at tier pieces mere weeks after first downing the bosses themselves, and most of the inhabitants are just looking to get "epicced out" - regardless of the stats on the gear, it's somewhat refreshing to see people have complete PuG runs where rolls are simply mainspec first, then offspec.

All this freely available gear has set rumblings in the foundations of some guilds. I've seen a few 25-mans break into 10-mans, 10-man guilds split into arena teams, and arena teams disintegrate into individual battlegrounders. Of course, this might just be the result of pre-expansion restlessness spreading wanderlust that makes people test the waters of what they can accomplish on their own.

I have some very mixed feelings about these PuGs. On one hand, they get the bosses down (sometimes), and that's where the phat lootz come from. On the other hand, they're terrible players who are so sub-optimal at their roles that even after the patch boss nerfs, wipes are vastly more common than boss kills. So while I enjoy reaping the benefits of killing bosses in Black Temple, it helps to have a movie to watch during downtime, and maybe a game of solitaire going to keep my clicking finger from locking up.

On the whole, I think that more PuGs can only be good. They stimulate the interest in raids and heroics, and keep the game from becoming stale. But I'd like to see a return of attunements with the increase in PuGs. As easy as this game is, some people just aren't good enough at it to perform at the level required to do high-level content. To me, this is the challenge of game design: invent a natural content progression that cultivates building skills that will help you later in the game. Of course, this would effectively "lock out" some people from the end of progression, but I'm conceited enough to believe that I can perform well enough to make it to the "end."

This ties in to how I think that progression should depend on skill intead of raid size, but that's a whole different post. Perhaps later this week.

In the mean time, enjoy the free PHAT EPIXX L00TZ0RZ flowing out of PuGs.

To Raid or Not To Raid

One of my very few regrets with WoW is never having been in the "endgame." I went into Naxx yesterday for the first time and stealthed around as much as I could and it really hit me that I wanted the legendary [Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian]. I probably could have worked through Burning Crusade and picked up my 40 splinters, but I was getting my T4 and leveling my warrior and shaman.

With the reduction in raid size in Burning Crusade from 40 to 25, I was able to get into raiding. But this only garnered me one tier of gear before I gave up on the "hardcore" raiding in favor of hanging out with my friends. I briefly took my shaman into T5/T6 and was able to at least see the instances, but I hated the huge amounts of downtime and incompetence of the other raiders.

As WotLK advents, I think Blizzard is showing that they understand these frustrations, but also those of the extremely hardcore raiders by having dual-size raids. The hard jump from 40 to 25 man raids caused an almost universal wipe of guilds, with a few exceptions. By offering the option to continue on the 25 man path, these established raiding guilds aren't hurt. By dropping better gear than the 10 man versions, these guilds aren't trivialized. But by implementing these 10 man versions, just about everyone can venture into "engame" and complete the story arc of the expansion.

The only thing that is still up in the air is ZOMG LEGENDARIES!! In classic WoW, there were huge quest chains leading up to obtaining obscene amounts of materials to craft your own legendary weapons. In Burning Crusade, these weapons were just drops from the "end" bosses of the game in their respective patches. If this trend continues, the legendaries in WotLK will be kill-quest rewards. I don't think this will happen, but I am concerned that they will be 25 man only drops. While this is very fair, it puts me back in the same position that I'm in now. We all know that Frostmourne will make an appearance, but most likely only from hard mode Arthas 25.

Also of concern to me is the class restriction on these items. The huge uproar caused by the [Star's Fury] being given to a rogue over two hunters is well known. While I know this won't be a problem in my guild, I don't want Blizzard to react by restricting Frostmourne to Death Knight only.

I'm sure BlizzCon will shed lots of light on the situation, but until then, I'm on the edge of my plush gaming chair.

The State of the Game Address

Hmmm. . . where to begin? The beta is shiny. And I mean very shiny. I think the graphics have been souped up a ton. But the really exciting thing to me is that the patch is coming! I want to share the shiny with my friends. 

The new talents are promised to make content super easy, and I think that ZA won't be challenging at all, except to learn the dance of the new fights. We still have some time to get a bear mount or two if we hurry, but honestly, I'm not too wound up about them. Might and Aeon (as well as a couple other guilds) have been selling bear mounts forever, so every dumbass who can scrape together 10k gold can get one. I much prefer my Raven Lord.

This isn't to say that I won't enjoy ZA. I want to get in there and just destroy Zul'jin. The fight seems interesting, Hex Lord's fight is complicated (which means fun!), and if I can get another potential "achievement" before the patch comes, I love it. I think the guild is plenty geared, and we just need practice at taking down the trash before the dragonhawk and lynx bosses. The bosses themselves we one-shot on their respective first attempts.

Without going into any detail about the new talents or abilities or anything, I think that feral is weak, and resto is strong. Balance is strong like a bodybuilder at Venice Beach. I love the conversion of damage/healing to a single stat, and have long thought that it should be that way. It means that healers can actually solo without taking a year to kill something, and that the caster specs (elemental, balance, shadow) of those classes can toss around heals in need without being at half-power.

Sadly, I don't see my shaman making the list of exceptional specs. He's enhancement, and I really have no desire to play as elemental (since balance is so good) or resto (since resto druids are so good). Fury is making awesome headway due to their 51-point talent, so melee dps will probably be my warrior. Rogues are reported to be zomgsupergood with assassination, while combat is decent and subtlety is still PvP only. So I might try to level my rogue (currently 12, lol) and see what happens there. And it's not that enhancement will be bad, it just won't be good, either. Just sort of hanging out until a future patch.

But here's to new content, new abilities, and sharing them with friends!