Our House, in the middle of our street

Our house it has a crowd /
There’s always something happening /
And it’s usually quite loud /
Our mum, she’s so house-proud /
Nothing ever slows her down /
And a mess is not allowed 

Ah the 80s…. ok, enough nostalgia.

Guild Housing

 

Anyway, this post is actually about in game housing. It was inspired by a post this week by Honor’s Code on Player Housing. Yet, I’d like to take it a step further into the realm of Guild Housing. 

He does point out several issues, including space and persistance. Each of them providing a very good point, as you can’t just throw a bunch of houses, especially larger houses for guilds, anywhere on the map, and expect it to not cause issues with the terrain. As for the issue of persistance, and the illusion of a bustling town, I believe that I may be able to have a possible solution for this. 

First we’ll hit the issue of space. I do believe that with the announcement that Azeroth is now “flyable”, there would need to be an instanced area used for the guild housing. The look of a town full of houses would work, with an instance in the center. Possibly providing a few storefronts to further immerse the player into feeling like they were entering a town. However, upon entering the instance they would be brought, first, to their guild’s home/headquarters. This would provide a starting point for them to gather their bearings. It could even be treated almost as apartments, but decent size apartments, allowing them to stack slightly to provide more room. I’ve included a few shots of Gilneas below to show this idea (slight spoiler). It shows how much space is really wasted and could be utilized in an instanced area. 

Guild Housing

Unending Nemesis Guild House

This gives a bit of perspective on the amount of empty space that can be utilized. With this in mind now, imagine a few streets worth of these buildings, each having a few Guild houses to each section of the building. 

Another solution somewhat going along with this, would be to have a town where the buildings themselves are instanced, each door, we’ll say, is instanced. This would create the illusion of a town or “apartment” complex, where upon entering the door, you would be sent to your Guild’s house. This would provide an unlimited (well dependant on server limitations) number of “houses” for each Guild on a particular server. 

This would prevent the issue of a character, or even an entire guild transferring servers. As there is no definitive “area” that their house would exist, but instead it would be a set of variables that would build it upon entering the instance. 

Just think of walking into your Guild house and seeing your tabard up on the wall, maybe even with some trophy kills hung here and there.

Unending Nemesis Guild House

 

Sure the image I chose is a bit elaborate, but it gives you an idea. Anyway, what could be included in each Guild House would be a Guild vendor, for the new items that are going to be available through the Guild leveling system. Also included would be a Guild Bank/Vault, simply reusing the guild banks already existing would work, or creating a new model for it even. Lastly, it may be good to include a general/trade item vendor, and even a “bartender” for each House. 

Then, to provide the “bustling town” feel, the center of town could be zoned to have trade chat integrated, and several shops could be introduced in the middle providing a gathering place. Possibly even an auction house and bank. It would be a new Sanctuary type area but more integrated with each guild. In addition I would include the basic Forge/Anvil, Inscription book, tailoring specific runes, etc. along with a Flight Master. Of course to top it off, you would have to have a Guild master and tabard vendor, simply because this would be a “Guild Town”.  I would also say that it would be best for it to be a no fly zone, therefore preventing the epeen birdfest that was once Shattrath. This would cover the issue of persistence, as it would likely be a great location for nearly everybody to visit, with the essentials all being in a central location. As for the size of the place itself, it would need to be fairly large, if not to allow Blizzard to “zone” each section (no load screens, though) allowing for lower lag issues. 

A final suggestion, would be a section of town for those who are not in guilds, still allowing them to use the essentials, but also providing a place for them to look for new guilds. This is actually something I have been thinking about for a while, but that will be another post (sorry). 

Anyway, those are my thoughts on Guild Housing. With Cataclysm focusing a bit more on the Guild structure and social factors, it may be something that Blizzard could look into. Just some crazy ideas that came up while I read Honorshammer’s post. 

Would you be interested in Guild Housing? Would you take advantage of it?

Ahune… gesundheit!

He’s big, he’s cold, he falls over when you sneeze. He is Frost Lord Ahune.

Achooone

I know that I’m going to sound elitist here, but please, bear with me. I have loved the addition of Holiday Bosses ever since my old guild of local friends used to group up to do the Headless Horseman. I really enjoy the new ability to group up through the LFD tool to get groups for these bosses; and the removal of the dependancy of multiple runs to get a chance at the good stuff. At one time it was difficult to get a group together for these bosses, simply because somebody was already “saved” and couldn’t summon the boss again.

With the new changes, everybody gets one chance at the “special” drops, including the daily Frost Emblems, but can go back as many times as they want for the other standard drops. This does lessen your chance of getting a “special” drop, but also allows Blizz to manage those drop rates closer. It also prevents groups from dropping someone, simply because they can’t summon the boss, which I feel is a good change and removes some of the asshats from the equasion.

There is one thing though. They’re easy. I remember when the Headless Horseman first came out, he was a little tough, multiple phases, stun mechanics, target swapping, stuff folks weren’t used to at the time unless they raided. However, as things have gotten more accessible to the casual player, these things have become “nearly” second nature (not totally, cause there are still those who refuse, or just don’t know how to pay attention and get tunnel-vision). But as time and gear went on, we now overgear these bosses so much that they are hardly a challenge any more.

Alright, melee stay with me.... oh wait, he's already dead?

Now, I understand the fact that the gear that is being dropped doesn’t necessarily match the skills that would be required to make the boss harder, and that the holiday achievement whores (no offense) have to get their fill to complete the meta-achievement. However, this does not mean that the boss can’t be tweaked in some way dependant on the gear of the group.

Just think of Oculus/Ulduar/Any Vehicle Fight. The vehicles are scaled to your gear level, meaning if you are wearing an iLevel 277 piece of gear, then you’re seige engine will be able to take a nuclear bomb to the face. Could the bosses not be scaled the same way?

Here’s my suggestion; scale the boss encounter based on the average of the top pieces of gear of the folks in the group.

Example:
Tank’s top piece: 245
Healer’s top piece: 219
DPS 1′s top piece: 264
DPS 2′s top piece: 232
DPS3′s top piece: 232

245+219+264+232+232 = 1192/5 = 238.4 Average iLevel

This could be weighed towards the lowest average iLevel as well, to scale slightly towards the lower geared folks, especially with the current algorythms being used by the LFD tool. It usually groups 1 or 2 lower geared folks with the higher geared folks, which I think is great, cause it helps get them what they need, at level, without getting frusterated from constant failed attempts.

Now, with the average iLevel set, you could then scale the boss’s HP and damage output based upon that level. I do see how the argument could be made that the fact that the Healer has such a low top iLevel that it may make the encounter too hard, but you also have to think that the tank and dps will likely make up for some of that with the tank’s defensive capabilities, and the DPSs ability to burn the boss quicker. In addition, it will again require some folks to actually think when they enter the encounter. This allows for those folks who grossly outgear an instance/boss to have a little bit of challenge, and in turn continue playing the game more. For Blizzard this would be a win-win situation, as more players on means more players eventually will get invited, which mean more subscriptions.

In fact, I wonder if this would be a safe move for any heroic, simply to keep some challenge in the game. I do believe that it would NOT be beneficial for Raids, as they are often tuned to such a point that it wouldn’t be beneficial, especially with hardmodes out there still challenging groups a good 6 months out.

Personally, it would keep things interesting to me. Not to say that I don’t enjoy flying through a Gundrak run for the daily in a mere 10 minutes (yup, did that last Sunday), but it would make the game feel as if it is growing a bit with you.

Eventually it may be able to get to the point that  you would have a plethora of instances to run (each with their own level of gear) all still challenging, strong at the higher level instances and heroics, while tapering only slightly down as the instances get older, providing less difficulty for lower level instances, but not making them facerolls.

I dunno, what do you all think?

Would you enjoy slightly harder Heroics that scaled with your gear? Would you continue to do more heroics or less because of it?

Addons, Bane or Boon

It’s a topic that a lot of people ask. Are addons required, or not?

GUI BOOM

This all came up after my brother came home for a week to visit, and wanted me to help him with some character tuning. He’s got a Blood Elf Priest on Area 52, level 80, and decked out in 10 man T9 gear. While he was visiting my house, he asked if I minded if he did a quick daily dungeon to get his frost emblems. I didn’t mind, I was busy watching the baby, so I told him to go for it.

First thing he asked… “Do you have Vuhdo?” I told him that I had downloaded it once, but never got around to using it, and instead told him that I’ve got some other addons that should hold him over till he gets a chance to download it.

So, we real quick logged him on, and got Grid/Clique and some of the bar addons in there, just to give him something to work with. He started it up, and hopped in the LFD to heal, and waited till the queue popped up. I was still trying to get him acquainted with the addons, and he didn’t get much of a chance to “customize” it to where he might be used to it. Well, ToC5 popped up, and he hopped in. It was crazy, he was lost as to what was where, and who was who. He had grown so accustomed to Vuhdo and his bar layout (default UI with Vuhdo over it) that he just couldn’t figure out what all was happening and freaked out.

I’m sure he’ll hate me for saying this, but he freaked out a bit quick, and probably could have regained composure, but instead just quit the group and hopped out. Sadly, he’s also used to his mouse which has 2 extra buttons I’ve just got 2 buttons and scroll wheel), that he just couldn’t heal without it.

Here’s where my point comes in. I subscribe to the notion that if a patch comes through, and all your addons blow up, you should still be able to do your job in a group or raid. Sure, it’ll be more difficult with less of the information coming your way, and you’ll have to get used to some slightly differently placed buttons, but it shouldn’t be the end of the world.

I myself have a few addons that I use:

• FuBar: Simply to place some info addons like AtlasLoot, etc.
• SpartanUI: Cause it looks cool
• Dominos: Only because Bartender4 was still broke and Dominos worked at the time
• PallyPower: Gotta love it, though I’m sure it’ll be void by the time Cataclysm comes out
• Clique: I like being able to map some of the spells directly to buttons, and it handles it well.
• Grid: It’s just the right size for both group and raid content, and lets me customize that shows up where.
• PowerAuras: Haven’t really used this to its full potential, but is helpful in keeping track of some buffs I have on targets
• SexyMap: Cause it’s sexy
• Omen: For when I tank, I want to be sure that I’m at the top of that list.
• Recount: Just for shits & giggles, I don’t usually use it much, except to measure how effective a new piece of gear is.
• Deadly Boss Mods: Cause noises and text during a raid can sometimes be helpful
• ElksBuffBars: So much cleaner than what I had.

All these are used in unison to provide the extra info that I need to keep my focus on what’s important. If these blew up… oh well, I’d probably put a couple mouseover macros together to help with the casting, and be on my merry way.

I do feel, though, that there are several folks who depend all their abilities on the addons. This is what I would consider a crutch on your actual capabilities. It should be possible, though fortunately not required, to do all that can be done now with the default WoW UI, and in all reality, it can. We have the tools and the abilities to successfully complete an instance without freaking out cause you couldn’t figure out which way the health went when it dropped (ya he wasn’t sure and people died). I also feel that you should be able to tell who is fulfilling what role in your group, by simply looking at them, and if needed inspecting them. I wholeheartedly feel that a knowledge of the other classes as well as your own can increase your capabilities and allow you to adapt much quicker when things go awry.

Now, in contrast, I do feel that Addons are a wonderful addition to any UI. I have probably 3 or 4 different versions of my UI that I use for my Paladin, Shaman, Druid, and Mage. All this because you need different information for different classes. I have come to love the look of SpartanUI, as well as the versatility of the Grid/Clique combo, and will say that it is very beneficial in making quick decisions on who to heal and when. I try not to inendate myself with information overload, though keeping Omen and Recount up have never hurt my performance. I also like to keep things asthetically pleasing, and the combo of SpartanUI and SexyMap do that well. Without Deadly Boss Mods, I don’t really think that I would have learned some boss encounters as quickly as I have. I really consider it a very helpful tool in getting used to fights, and more often then not, I’ll turn it off once I’ve gotten a fight down pat.

<open rant>

Basically, it doesn’t really matter if you have them or not, but be sure that in the case that the GUI blows up, and all addons are made moot, don’t blame the addons if you can’t complete something. Your abilities should be determined by your skill, not the usability that an addon provides.

</end rant>

What do you use as addons? Do you require them to function?

More Cataclysm Speculation

I’ve had another little brainstorm recently. Blizzard had their latest Cataclysm Press Event, and during their event they mentioned Cho’Gall as being the final boss of the Grim Batol (now known as the Bastion of Twilight), and when certain things are accomplished, the ground will open up and a secret “ultra hard” boss and “horrible secret” will be revealed. Well, speculation went flying in all directions since then.

First was that some folks noticed black dragon eggs down in the lava beneath the floor (I have yet to see the video, so I’m not sure). These eggs were apparently surrounded by lava. This would lead me to believe something pertaining to the Black Dragonflight being part of the secret boss encounter; however, a lot of folks mention the possibility of an Old God, or even a resurrected C’Thun being revealed.

This is understandable, as Cho’Gall has been getting a little freaky with the Old God prophecies, and has even transformed into a two headed massive tentacled chicken monster. Yes, he already had two heads, but one of then has now grown a beak… don’t ask me why.

*Cluck cluck*

A lot of folks have speculated that he just may be possessed by C’Thun’s spirit, since he is in Ahn’Quiraj doing his thing, and that “eyes” are appearing on his body. I however feel a bit differently; I do agree that he is being transformed and influenced by an Old God, but those “eyes” look more like beaks if  you ask me, which just may be the asthetic of a different Old God (there are likely 4 or 5 Old Gods on Azeroth).

It would be interesting for another Old God to make an appearance, especially with the giant Faceless Ones being dug up across the landscape of Darkshore and the Twilight Highlands. But I also feel that is getting to be a bit old, and something new should be done.

Well, my personal idea goes down a different road. Cho’Gall is apparently residing in Grim Batol. Grim Batol was once home of the Wildhammer, and eventually were pushed out by the Horde, who took the place up as a base of operations during the Second War. It is also where Alextrasza was held against her will to breed red drakes for the Horde to use against the Alliance. She too was eventually freed by Rhonin and Krasus, and Grim Batol was again left an empty, dark place.

Well, during the course of “Night of the Dragon”, Grim Batol was also the home of Sinestra, prime consort of Deathwing. Here she was experimenting with creating a new Dragonflight, much like Nefarion had, but using Black Dragons and Nether Dragons from Draenor. She was somewhat successful, in fact a massive Twilight dragon known as Dargonax had successully grown to full maturity. Among his siblings were lesser Twilight Drakes, and likely Halion, the second and likely only remaining mature Twilight Dragon, who will soon be revealed as attacking the Ruby Sanctum.

Well, upon the completion of Night of the Dragon, Dargonax had destroyed the experiments being conducted, and Sinestra along with it. However, this is not specifically said as the details are a bit sketchy. In addition upon the closing of the book, it was said that deep below Deathwing also stirred.

So, what am I getting at? Well, it has been nearly confirmed that Nefarion and Onyxia will be returning, and apparently working together in Blackwing Decent. This would leave a damaged and defeated Sinestra (who, by the way, did show up during the Burning Crusade and spoke of her Master, alluding to Deathwing, during the Netherwing quest lines).

Lady Sinestra

With her being such an integral part in Deathwing’s plan to create a new dragonflight, I have this sneaking suspition that she will be back, and very possibly as this secret boss. Now, what would make her so “ultra hard mode”? Well, since she was supposedly “destroyed” by Dargonax’s explosive end, she may have been brought back to life, much like Onyxia and Nefarion are supposed to be. However, since she was in such close contact with Dargonax, and the experiments being conducted, she very well may have been infused with the nether energy of the Twilight drakes making her a full Twilight/Black Dragon hybrid. This is a lot of power to be held in one creature, so likely will be very hard to defeat.

I guess that we’ll have to wait and see, but I hold tru to my speculation, we’ll see what comes of this.

What do you think is below Grim Batol? Could it be another Old God, or something worse? Leave me some comments on  your ideas.

One set of Footsteps

Alrighty, here comes a ranty post. Though, I’m unsure if it will come across as condescending or uplifting, but I guess that it will be in the eye of the beholder.

May need to be carried.

I used the title of this post because it reminded me of the old Christian saying “When you saw only one set of footprints in the sand, that was when I was carrying you,” an obvious reference to Jesus helping us along the way in life, carrying us when we thought we couldn’t go any further, though it somewhat works here as well.

Anyway, it all started with a tweet from Orithea:

It’s funny how easy it is to drag along a subpar dps, but a horrible healer or tank sinks the ship.

Ok… I lied

Ok, maybe I didn’t lie, but I wasn’t able to continue the romp as DPS.

No More Ret... For now.

I did enjoy doing my daily quests as a Retribution paladin, and I did get a few upgrades; however, I didn’t get to use it that often in group situations. More often then not, we’d be short a healer, and I’d have to step in there instead. I think that only real group experience I had was a couple of 5 mans, and a quick Patchwerk fight for the weekly. I did do pretty well on the meters, which was fun, but it’s a bit repetative, and I don’t think that I really enjoy melee dps… and I never thought that I’d feel that way.

The reason for this, is that I don’t feel like I’m able to DPS to my full potential, unless I have a good tank who can hold the mob(s) in place, plus I’m never sure which mob to truly focus on if the tank is going all willy nilly on all the mobs. Usually I’d just focus another melee dps, and attack the target they are focusing on. I just don’t feel that I contributed as much as I could have, and because of this decided to respec back to Protection.

Yes, I do still have all my ret gear though, saved up in case I get the itch again, but for now I’ll be sticking with my insta-queues and the constant vigilence required to tank or heal. I guess another factor that influenced my decision was the fact that I was fortunate enough to get the Neverending Winter shield from ICC 10. This was even while I was healing, and fortunately all the tanks already had it or couldn’t use it. I had been waiting to replace my ‘ol faithful Royal Crest of Lordaeron (which will stay in my bank forever… yes more clutter). I now look even more like an actual tank, with my fancy T9, fancy T10 shield, and emblem helmet, I was looking good.

I think the loot was somewhat of an issue. I had nearly 5 chances to get a new weapon or other piece of gear for my Ret set, over the few times I was in ICC. The Citadel Enforcer’s Claymore dropped 3 times, each time… I was healing, and the other melee dps that could use it were still using the Tyrannical Beheader, just like me, so obviously, to the winner go the spoils. Ramaladni’s Blade of Culling even dropped once, and went to the dps Deathknight in the run, cause guess what… I was healing. Even had the Bone Drake’s Enameled Boots drop as well, but yet again, I was healing, and one of hte DPS could use it over me. I guess it’s an obvious observation, that there are more DPS, and therefore more competition for gear. With Ret Paladins, Fury and Arms Warriors, and Unholy/Blood DKs all fighting for the same gear, it does get a bit more difficult for me to get my chance, especially when I am unable to actually DPS for the run, as my Healing set/skills are needed more. But, as I always say, c’est la vie.

I guess that is a bane of Pugging as well. I am unable to ever make my guild’s scheduled runs, as I can never guarantee that I’m going to be able to make it. I am more interested in helping out my wife, or being with her and the kids, than starting a run at 7:30-8:00. So, the only chances I’ve ever been in ICC are through PUGs that I happen to run across while sitting in Dalaran doing some dailies, and most of those are pretty late in the evening. I guess that’s also why I have never seen beyond Rotface and Festergut (I’ve actually taken them down though, that was a fun run too).

So to close this all up, I’m no longer Holy / Ret, I’m now Holy / Prot once again, and will likely stay that way unless I am requested to come as dps, or get the itch again. So, until then, insta-queues and Emblems of Triumph flowing from the heavens will be my game again for a while.

Holy Haste Batman

Morning all…

This. Is. CONFUSING!!!

I have begun to step back and look at the stats that I’ve recently been stacking for my Holy set. You see, I am the epitome for a casual 10 man raider. If you look at my gear, you will see pretty much all 10 man level gear for the current tier (except for a couple pieces). Because I usually only run 10 man raids, I have geared and gemmed slightly differently. However, going into ICC has really changed my perception of what stats should really be used.

I subscribed to the Spellpower/MP5 mentality early on, and have really held onto it for what I feel is too long. Don’t get me wrong, I do loves me some SP as well as some mana regen, but I have begun to shift my stat allocation more towards the current cut and dry preferences. Intellect and Haste are king now, and I think that I’m finally coming to terms with that.

As of right now, I’m sitting at a little over 600 haste, and a mana pool nearing 32k. I don’t think that I ever realized how helpful these stats really were until I first pugged Torvalon in VoA 25, and lost one of the tanks, simply because I couldn’t get the heal off fast enough. Also, I had not realized how hard the Deathbringer really hit, until a tank died because I was OOM from all the Holy Lights I was tossing out.

Haste is a really interesting stat, in that you have to have sooo much of it to really notice a difference. I now really notice the difference. I have learned that Flash of Light is great, but Holy Light is king in several situations. I guess that I just didn’t want this to be true, but I feel that it is. With my new stat allocation, and gemming mentality, I can now spam Holy Light, keeping Light’s Grace up, as well as popping a Judgement every once and a while for Judgements of the Pure, increasing my haste (for Holy Light) even further.

There’s one thing though. Once you begin to get so much haste, you begin casting longer spells much quicker. And because you are casting them quicker, you are casting more of them. Unless you really pay attention, and keep your mana regen abilities rolling, you will go OOM very quickly. Yet another thing that I’m learning the hard way.

From what I have read, the base haste cap to shoot for, as a Holy Paladin is around 700. This is easy to reach with talents and abilities, but it is better to reach that number with stats alone, allowing talents and abilities to increase that amount even further. With haste affecting the spell casting speed, it also affects the global cooldown as well, at least down to a minimum of a 1 sec GCD. I did some research and found some info on the Maintankadin site with some further calculations for the haste effect on spells.

Source: DisRuptive1 (on Maintankadin)
For those people above who aren’t sure, to get the 1-second Flash of Light (and 1.33-second Holy Light) you need:

20.6% Haste from gear
15% Judgement of the Pure
3% Retribution Paladin’s Swift Retribution
5% Shaman’s Wrath of Air Totem

Cast Speed / Haste Effect = New Cast speed

Flash of Light
1.5 / (1.206 * 1.15 * 1.03 * 1.05) =
1.5 / (1.49993235) =
≈ 1-second Flash of Light

Holy Light

2.5 – Light’s Grace / (1.206 * 1.15 * 1.03 * 1.05) =
2.5 – 0.5 / (1.206 * 1.15 * 1.03 * 1.05) =
2 / (1.49993235) =
≈ 1.33-second Holy Light

To get Holy Light to 1 second cast time (fun!) you would need 60.8% haste from gear instead of 20.6% (proof below)

1-second Holy Light
2.5 – Light’s Grace / ([1 + x%] * 1.15 * 1.03 * 1.05) = 1-second Holy Light
2.5 – 0.5 / ([1 + x%] * 1.243725) = 1
2.0 / ([1 + x%] * 1.243725) = 1
2.0 = [1 + x%] * 1.243725
2.0 / 1.243725 = 1+ x%
(2.0 / 1.243725) – 1 = x%
x% = (2.0 / 1.243725) – 1
x% ≈ 60.8% haste from gear

This shows that it is even possible to get a Holy Light down to a 1 second cast, though the sheer amount of haste to achieve that is steep. There is a way to push spellcasting speed to the sub-1sec level; however, it is not necessarily beneficial, as your spell will cast faster, but you can only cast that spell once avery second due to the 1 second GCD.

Well, there you have it. Some good info on Haste, and why it is slowly becoming my best friend. Just remember, the faster you cast, the more you cast, the more you cast, the faster you can go OOM, so keep an eye on your mana bar, as it’ll disappear quicker than you think.

Look in the Mirror

Just recently Zarhym posted something interesting on the Blizzard forums about the Vote Kick feature. It’s already spreading around the blogosphere, but I thought I’d post it here too.

We have found that most players using the Dungeon Finder don’t use the Vote Kick feature or abandon groups very often. For these players, we are removing the cooldown on voting to kick players from a dungeon party. In contrast, those players who tend to kick players or abandon groups more frequently will notice that the Vote Kick feature maintains its cooldown. The goal here is to make sure players who are generally patient can make use of the Vote Kick feature when they really need it, without giving a more powerful tool to those who try to kick others or abandon dungeon groups very frequently.

This functionality will adjust itself as a player’s behavior while using the Dungeon Finder changes.

A while back, some folks at MMO-Champion dug up some stat variables dealing with:

• Abandoned LFG (hidden)
• Completed LFG (hidden)
• Kicked in LFG (follower) (hidden)
• Kicked in LFG (initiator) (hidden)
• Kicked in LFG (target) (hidden)

These values have been collected since the LFD was released. This provides Blizzard with information on how many times you’ve abandoned or completed a group, and how many times you’ve either participated, initiated, or been the target of a vote kick.

What the new changes are initiating are the capability to limit those who kick their groups a lot by leaving the Vote Kick timer debuff on. While others who have hardly ever vote kicked or abandoned a group will no longer have the timer, and can initiate a vote kick right away.

There are a few good things and a few bad things with this, along with a few unanswered questions. One thing that I’m wondering is, are they taking into account the previous kicks/abandons/completions, or are they starting from a blank slate? The answer to this question would determine a few things.

First up, if they start from a blank slate, then those who maliciously Vote Kick often, will have a powerful tool to grief early, and often. As we do not yet know what the threshhold is as to when the debuff timer kicks in. On the other hand, if they use current data already collected, then griefers will still have to wait, lessening the chance that they’ll do it as often. Maybe the timer will get even longer, which I feel would be a good thing.

I have had experiences as well as read of experiences where tanks, who have a nearly instantaneous queue time, will get a group, and then just drop it. The reasons are varied, ranging from malicious griefing, to just not liking the group makeup. I myself have never done that, as I think it is well worth your time as well as that of the group to at least make an attempt at the instance, and in turn help somebody out. Maybe it’s the carebear paladin in me, but I have never dropped a group unless there was verbal abuse, or a complete asshat involved.

Now, for the folks who do not often or ever use the vote kick tool, there will not be a debuff on when they can use it. I see how it can be nice for those folks, but also wonder if it will be that much of an incentive. I could see far more use out of the removal of the “dropped group” debuff than of the Vote kick debuff. With no timer on the Vote Kick debuff, some new players may be tempted to follow the path of those who Vote Kick often, and it may lead to more abandoned groups, and pissed off players.

Lastly, it will have those who abuse the system need to look at their own behaviour, and how they act towards others, and make decisions as to how they treat people. Sure it’s a pipe dream to have no more Vote Kicks based on malicious intent, as I’m sure it’ll still happen. But this is one step towards having those who currently partake in malicious vote kicks (kicking after last boss so that gear can’t be passed to the one kicked, etc.) take a look in the mirror. Maybe, just maybe, it’s they who suck and need to L2Play.

We’ll see how it works out. It is nice that those who do not take advantage or abuse the system will get a bit of a pat on the back, and those who do will get “punished”. I’m sure there will be more systems like this put in place in the future (think PvP “deserter” debuff), we’ll just have to see.

Healer Trust

Good morning everyone…

I hope you all (well those state-side) had a nice extended weekend. I know I did, and didn’t want to come back to work. Anyway, this weekend I was able to get online for a bit, especially while my oldest son slept (had a fever this weekend, and slept a good bit), and the other just sat there and smiled all goofy like a 3 month old would. Plus we had to get the house ready for an appraiser (getting a refi), so I was helping my wife do that too. Well, what’s that got to do with Healer Trust? Well, while we did stuff around the house, while my wife was either outside or inside, she would trust me to be keeping an eye on the chillins’. Of course, I helped get stuff ready too, and in turn trusted that she kept an eye on them.

Healer Focus = Parent Focus

What if? – Arthas: Part 2

Well, we left off with the change in Sylvanas’s life, in the case that Arthas had made different decisions. So today, we will continue with some other lore figures whose lives would have changed if Arthas had made some different choices.

Prince Arthas Menethil

So far, we’ve gone through:

• Prince Arthas Menethil himself.
• King Terenas Menethil II
• Thane Muradin Bronzebeard
• Uther the Lightbringer
• Kael’thas
• Jainia Proudmoore
• Sylvanas

In this article, we’ll focus on:

• Illidan
• Anveena & Kalecgos
• Dar’khan
• Jorad Mace & Tyrigosa
• Ner’zhul
• and back to Arthas