Mopping up leftovers

It’s been a while.  I always say that lately it seems.

Anyway, a good bit has happened since I last left something of substance here.  Including getting a chance to got o Blizzcon and seeing the new Mists of Pandaria in person, hitting up the demo, and watching the class panels.

A lot has already been written across the WoW blogosphere, so I’ll try not to repeat too much of it. Instead here are some interesting upcoming changes that I have noticed, and think will keep me playing even into the next expansion.

Pandaren - Samwise Didier

First up… Pandaren, love them or hate them, they will still have a place in my heart.  I remember seeing a lot of artwork by Samwise Didier, one of the penultimate WoW artists on the Blizzard staff, and its focus on the pandaren. I may be mistaken, but I believe that he may have been the creator of the race in the first place.  Of course letting the story tellers move it along beyond his art, I still leave him at the top of that group.

There are those who still think that the Pandaren were some “April Fool’s Joke,” yet those also ignore anything you say debunking this, and talk mean to their mothers.

The Pandaren have been around since Warcraft III, in fact Chen Stormstout assisted Rexxar in taking the first steps into a new Horde, only to take a separate path, not to be seen again.

I guess the only other reason that I am a big fan of the Pandaren is the Asian influence that inspires the art.  I have been a HUGE fan of Chinese and Japanese art since I was in 8th grade (I’ll even have a hipster moment and say that I was a fan of Japanese art and culture before it was cool).  From what I saw at Blizzcon, the environment and artwork of this new expansion is going to be amazing. An entire continent, and even a giant turtle (though I do think of it as a bit silly, but just imagine the size of a lot of things in WoW), covered in beautiful artwork, both architectual, and natural.  I thought that I was impressed when I first saw Darnassus when I began playing WoW some 5-6 years ago, but it can’t even light a candle to what I saw in Pandaria.

Well, enough of my babbling, onto another subject.  Next up, is the new talent trees.  N0w, most of you have already heard of or seen the new trees, and their new “choice” mechanic every 15 levels.  It is a huge step away from the 71 talents to choose from back in the old vanilla days. Despite a lot of folks disliking the new path that Blizzard is taking, I am actually a fan of it.  Most core abilities are going to be simply given to you, just because you are a specific class/specification combination.  I was excited about how they did this initially with Cataclysm, but this goes even further.  I guess it is an over simplification of the abilities system, and I am not that big of a fan of not being able to actually hit up your trainer to learn new abilities.  However, will be a nice improvement when you have a ton of alts, though that isn’t everybody.

The choices that are available though, seem to fit into their “fun talents” methodology that they have been working towards.  It’s just a big change, and change is scary to some people.  I am personally a fan of it, as there are a lot of abilities that I have always wanted to have on my Holy Paladin, that I just couldn’t get because it was only available to other specializations. (Hello Repentance, I can’t help it… I’m a supporting type character.)  This is going to change come MoP.  Now, I do not deny that the EJ guys will eventually find the “right” build, and begin the cookie cutter cycle again; however, I do not believe that it will be a simply cookie cutter build like it used to be.  Instead it will end up being a fight-by-fight type of build, where the choices made are depenedant on the situations that you face.  This will provide a nice little bit of complexity, and will separate the good players from the great players.

Alright, lastly, though it’s coming out before Mists of Pandaria (in fact it should be released in patch 4.3) is Transmogrification/Void Storage. I literally jumped for joy… ok I didn’t jump, but I was excited, when I read about this. Do you remember me writing about this a while back.  Yeah, I’m a bit of a hoarder, and I have lots and lots and lots and lots of stuff in my bank, most of it I will never actually wear because of the stats… but now… oooohhhh now, I will have a hayday with transmogrification.  I will be a very poor Pally soon.  I have already hit several old instances to scrounge up old gear, gear that I can almost not fit into my bags or my fully sacked bank… all of them Soulbound.  How about you?  Are you going to be having fun with the new Transmogrifications?

Well, I know it was a rambling hodge podge of topics, but hey, it’s been a while.  And with limited resources, you gotta do what you can.  Hope to see y’all again.

The Long Word :: 10/29/2010

Welcome to another edition of The Long Word.  Got some interesting stuff this week.  Including some changes for my Paladin, and some good news for my DK. Lastly, I’ll try to keep everybody up to date with the latest releases and updates from Blizzard.

The Long Word

 “Tanking” Care of Business

Yes, yes… it’s a corny title, so sue me. But it gives me a good start for this part of the post. After reading some of my favorite Tankadin’s blog (Righteous Defense), I decided to give Prot a shot again. I felt a bit lost with Retribution. Sure there were more buttons to push; however, it felt as if there was a lot of waiting, either that or I just had not yet figured out a “rotation” to work with. I usually topped out at aobut 5k dps, and just couldn’t break that barrier. Sure it’s still a good number, but I didn’t want to feel limited by my inept Ret skills, and wanted to go back to something a bit more comfortable.

Boy was it a suprise to see how little comfort was there. I will agree, originally Paladin Protection tanking was a bit of a faceroll.  The same buttons, whenever the popped up, no procs, no Holy Power, the same old same old. That has all changed. I will admit, it is a much more fluid feeling rotation, though the rotation changes dependant on the types of enemies, and yes, it gets  a bit monotonous hitting Crusader Strike every other attack, but wow does it feel so much more structured and fluid.

Per Rhidach

Pull with AS > CS > J > CS > HW > CS > ShoR > CS > J > CS > AS > CS > Shor > CS > J > CS > HW > CS > ShoR > CS > AS > CS > J > CS > ShoR > etc.

The rotation looks a bit complicaated, but isn’t that bad. It’s donned the name “939”, and though can be considered  a rotation, requires for you to watch for procs, and have patience on using abilities “as they light up.”

A big change, is the fact that Holy Shield is no longer cast on yourself, but rather placed as a buff upon using Shield of the Righteous. Speaking of ShoR… it hits like a truck with 3 Holy Power… just keep that in mind 😉  It is important to get the ShoR of as soon as possible though, so that you have that extra block buffer up.  It will normally last until you have built up the Holy Power to place a full power ShoR, so get it up as soon as you can.

Threat

This is a tough subject.  First up, you automatically get Vengeance upon choosing Protection.  This converts some of the damage done to you to Attack Power, allowing you to hit a bit harder, in turn generating more threat. Next up is the good ol standby of Righteous Fury. This still provides us with the threat we need, as well as… if I’m not mistaken… our ability to be uncrittable (defense cap’d).

I was able to tank a few heroics last night, and discovered that our front side threat has really dropped from what it was.  And, to tell you the truth, AoE threat has appeared to have been lowered as expected. But it took me a little whlie to realize it.  First of all, I had forgotten to use Hammer of the Righteous whenever tanking groups… oops, give me a break here, it was only my first or second instance since 4.0.1.  I had gotten so used to being able to use HoR as an extra attack when tanking groups, that I forgot the fact that it and Crusader Strike are exclusive from each other, and now share a cooldown. This did however, teach me how flexible our new rotation is. I was able to go from AoE tanking a group using HoR down to a single target focus by replacing HoR with CS on the fly, allowing me to keep threat up on a single target while the DPS burns it.

As I mentioned earlier, it feels very fluid, and the spells seem to work very well with each other. By the end of the night, I had pretty much gotten the rotation down pat, and was still hitting about 3k dps on the charts.

Tasty Holy Buffs

With the latest info released, it looks like several of our holy spells are getting a nice buffs.  Check out the list below:

• Holy Radiance‘s effectiveness now diminish on targets farther than x yards away.
• Divine Light base healing has been increased by 30%. From 8538-9512 to 11100-12366 (!).
• Flash of Light base healing has been increased by 30%. From 5313-5961 to 6907-7750.
• Holy Shock base healing has been increased by 30%. From 3033-3285 to 3943-4271.
• Holy Light base healing has been increased by 30%. From 3202-3567 to 4162-4637.
• Beacon of Light now lasts 5 min, up from 1 min.
• Mastery: Illuminated Healing now absorbs 10% of the amount healed, up from 8%. Now lasts 8 sec, up from 6 sec. Each point of mastery increases the absorb amount by an additional 1.25%, up from 1%.
• Lay on Hands no longer restores mana.
• Holy Wrath now scales from 61% of SpellPower, up from 30%. Base damage reduced by 22%, from 3122 to 2435.
• Exorcism now scales from 34.4% of SpellPower or AP, up from 15%. Base damage increased by 15% from 2343 to 2741.

In the words of the Almighty Cthuloo… “Yum Yum!”

So, let’s begin:

Holy Radiance
This actually did not come as a surprise to me.  I expected that you couldn’t run across the raid, and heal everybody for the same amount.  That really just seemed to be a bit overpowered to me.  So this change, was sort of expected. I still can’t wait to get this spell though.

Divine Light
Holy tauren… them thar numbers is quite large. And to think that those are base numbers, not buffed by spell power or any other healing buffs. Ever since 4.0.1 came out, I felt that Divine Light was a bit weak for its status as the heal bomb. But now with these “enhanced” numbers, I feel that we’ll begin to see some huge heals again, and possibly some more use of this spell.

Flash of Light
Yup, it’s still potent, and yup, it’s still expensive.  However, I have a feeling (since I haven’t really done any raids since 4.0.1) that it will still be used, and now be spammed as much as Holy Light was back in the day. It feels so strange to not use it as my go-to spell, but it’s quick cast is so very nice combined with it’s big numbers.

Holy Shock
Not a whole lot to say, like the other healing spells, it got a nice buff in base potency, and in turn should mean a little quicker turn around on tanks after damage spikes.

Holy Light
Our “go to” spell, though still slow as Christmas (unless a proc is present), did get a little bit of a buff as well. Again, not much different here, besides the base potency change.

Beacon of Light (!)
Oh shout praise and joy to the Heavens! Beacon of Light is now a 5 minute buff!  That is a very big change.  One thing that it will save is an extra global cooldown.  I’ve always had those moments, when I need to get some big heals out, but also notice that the Beacon is starting to drop off of the tank, or my beacon target.  This change will be huge.  Next is the mana savings.  With Beacon’s cost having been dropped as of 4.0.1 (6% base mana), it still is not an easy decision to make when you are running on fumes. But now that you will likely only have to cast it once maybe twice a fight, there is a good bit of savings there.

As for the Glyph to go with it, it now removes the mana cost… hmmm… not much of a help considering you will likely have regained enough mana to cast it tenfold by the time it would fall off after 5 minutes.  Means it’s time to take another look at my glyphs.  Or just follow Tarinae’s advice and go with the Cleanse Glyph in it’s place.

Mastery: Illuminated Healing
This new central mechanic of our class has gotten a nice initial buff of a 2% increase to the amount absorbed. In addition, an extra .25% is earned with each point of Mastery added.  I’m not really sure of the reasoning behind this; however, it is a welcome addition.

Lay on Hands
Well, it no longer returns mana as well as HP.  This is not that big of a deal to me, as I was not using it to return mana, but rather save a tank from the brink of death (or get huge numbers on Valithria Dreamwalker). It does have an effect on the Glyph though, which has now been changed to simply return 10% mana to you upon using it on another target.  This is a welcome change, as it provides the same amount of mana return as Divine Plea would, but without the Healing debuff.

Holy Wrath
The damage output of this spell is now buffed by over twice as much spellpower now (61% up from 30%), though the base damage has been dropped by 22%. I’ve yet to really work these numbers in game, but some quick napkin math says that it’s about a 300 damage boost:

Original (with 3100 spellpower):
3122 (base) + 930 (30% SP) = 4052

New (with 3100 spellpower):
2435 (base) + 1891 (61% SP) = 4326

Nothing huge, but a nice little buff nonetheless. It very well may scale better with Ret and Prot, but I don’t have many numbers to work with there.

Exorcism
Again, like Holy Wrath, not much use for a Holy Paladin, but it too has been buffed to scale a bit higher via Spellpower or Attack Power (I’m assuming whichever is higher).

Original (with 3100 Spellpower):
2343 (base) + 465 (15% SP) = 2808

New (with 3100 Spellpower):
2741 (base) + 1066.4 (34.4% SP) = 3807.4

It is about a 1000 damage increase… very nice.

The Longer Word

Well, that’s all for the paladin class that I have got for this week. I’m sure I’ll have more as I get back into doing a few raids.

In other news though, I finally got my Horseman’s Mount.  I actually got it after my son watched me take down the HH, and was about to head into the living room to play with some cars.  I opened the pumpkin (which I thought I had not gotten since I thought my bags were full), and apparently had one slot left in my bags.  So there went a stack of chilled meat… oh well, very much worth the mount,  haha.  Simply put, I’ve basically slowed down doing that fight anymore on my paladin, though have been hitting him up on my death knight.

Speaking of my Death Knight, he’s now getting close to half way through level 79.  I hope to hit 80 this weekend.  Sadly this will only be my second max level character. He has been fun to play though, an interesting difference from the paladin. He’s also my money maker, selling glyphs left and right.  But I’ll have more on him later.

Until next week… Light be with you.

Real Friends on RealID

Good morning everybody!

Been a bit since my last post, but as usual, in the eloquent words of Tinkerpriest:

“If I got paid like as porn star would, every time I got bent over by work, I’d be rich”

Things have calmed down a bit, and I’ve had a chance to get online with some local friends of mine and both of my brothers. About a year ago, maybe two, I learned that some of the folks that I work with also play WoW, and at the time we were all guildless, so after migrating a few characters to a single server, we started up “Wanderers Among Realms” (see what I did there :P), yes, it’s not correct grammar, but I couldn’t fit “Amongst”. Anyway, we got together, and were all leveling through The Burning Crusade, and eventually running some heroics together.

Pop the Bubble

Yesterday afternoon, I read a great article by Ambrosine on I Like Bubbles. Her post focused on why some Paladin tanks ask a Discipline priest to not bubble them O_0 

Wait, wha? 

Yup, I do understand that there is an issue of the bubble actually being “too” powerful, scaling too well, and preventing any damage from actually getting to the tank, and in turn not requiring any heals.  This effect, causes the paladin to not regain mana from Spiritual Attunement. This, apparently, is what these tanks are complaining about. Now, to be fair, most, if not all of these Paladin tanks that complain are found using the LFD system, they may just be starting out, and are running 5 mans. However, if  you actually plan to tank, and fulfill that role, then it would be best for you to learn your class. 

Popping the Bubble - Learning your Role

A Nip and a Tuck

No, this post isn’t about blood elf fasion statements, it’s instead about the new, smaller talent trees and paladin changes announced in the last beta build. With some recent information, it also looks like paladins will be getting another nip and tuck. Seems the devs over at Blizzard still don’t have a true grasp on what they want a paladin to be. Now-a-days I almost have a feeling that the Paladin should have been added as a hero class instead of the Death Knight, the way things are going.

Most parts of me are still underage.

Anyway, according to GC, it looks like another close look is being given to the paladin class, and how they should function. In addition, we again get to wait a little longer than everybody else to get some information on our new talent changes… Crusader’s Patience, my fellow paladins, patience.

These are old talents. This is not the paladin revamp that we said was coming. Sorry, you’ll just have to wait a little bit longer. (Source)

Here’s what else they had to say:

I’m going to regret saying this, but the paladin trees are the most changed in the game. There are only a few of the current beta talents that survived the, um, cleansing. (Source)

Again? Why do we have to have the most changed class every expansion.  One answer, no design focus. Again, us paladins will get to learn our way through new mechanics, and push on up to catch up with the other classes who may have had fewer changes.  Even compared to the Hunters whose resource management completely changed. I’m a bit jaded. I’ve been through nearly all the changes, especially some of the newer ones. I died a little on the inside when Illumination was nerfed from it’s 100% regen down to its current 30% (even down from the previous 60%). I wasn’t a fan of the 50% decrease in healing power when Divine Plea was activiated. I felt a shift when they removed the “all holy damage” from Divine Storm. I cringed when they turned Crusader Strike into a slap from a wet noodle. So basically, I’m used to the paladin class getting smacked around by the nerf bat, and the feeling of utter amusement when they become OP for just a little while.

On the other hand, Paladin’s aren’t OP. Ever tried raid healing as a paladin? Ever tried to top DPS the charts on a boss with a silence? Ever tried to tank a boss with a silence? It’s not fun, and greatly affects the paladin class in each situation. I’m sure some will feel that it is very situational, and that every class has these problems; and I would agree, however, paladins always seem to get the short end of the stick every expansion.

In the Ret case, we started with a basic question: what is it they should be managing? There are a lot of things they *could* be managing. Today it’s cooldowns. It could be mana or procs or a lot of things. There was one Ret talent in particular we really liked, and we started building a rotation around it. Then we decided the mechanic was good enough to flesh out for Holy and Prot too.
We’re not ready to share the design just yet, and like all changes of this sort, it will be controversial. Some players crave a more interactive rotation. Some like their paladins the way they are. Some are only attracted to the class because it can be overpowered and they like to feel like a superhero.(Source)

I myself have craved some more interactivity when playing as a Ret paladin, and feel that it would be a welcome change. However, the mention of integrating this mechanic, that was obviously brought about from discussions about “what a ret paladin should manage”, into Holy and Protection concerns me. Especially with no mention as to what that mechanic is. How far do they plan to change our class? I’m sure, as he said, it will be controversial, and yet another part of me will die, but I will hold true, and continue my adventure as a paladin. I never felt like a superhero, except that one time just before WotLK came out. I have felt like a cockroach (and called one) when I do some old school raids with friends, but other than that, I kind of feel pretty equal, and sometimes underpowered compared to other classes; yet again, situational.

Again, as usual, this is only beta. So there really aren’t many conclusive decisions that we can make. In fact I haven’t jumped into any of the Paladin Talent Trees yet, simply because they seem so unfinished. But, once we get more information, I’ll be sure to share it here.

Automatic LFD?

Ever had a strange feeling that another change was going to come along the line, somehow linked to a recent change? I seem to get those a lot when Blizzard announces changes, especially with expansions. In this case, I had a feeling that there was going to be a change to the LFD tool, linked to the new Talent Tree and Specialization changes.

Automatic LFD?

Last night, I had an interesting thought about the new talent trees, and the requirement to choose a Specialization. Since you are required to choose which tree you are going to focus on, it is assumed that this information is stored about your character, including those with Dual Spec. Basically, if you chose Holy as one spec and Protection as the other, those become your specializations for each of those trees.  This is then “hardcoded” into your character.

Now, since the system now knows that you are a certain Specialization, and really doesn’t allow you to create crazy Holy/Ret DPS specs, it can also determine what roles you can play in a PuG using the LFD tool. Basically, is this change going to remove the possibilities that, for example, a Ret paladin can sign up as a tank on the LFD tool, and in turn get a quicker queue, in turn gimping the group? I see this as a good thing, but also can see some setbacks.

First up, DPS specialized characters, can’t “fudge” their way into a quicker queue by signing up as a Tank, simply because the system knows that they are not a tank, and will automatically mark them as DPS. I guess the same goes for Healers or even tanks, signing up as another role.

Example 1: All available, if your class can accomodate those roles.

Example 2: Roles restricted based on the Specializations you have chosen.

There would be setbacks though. For example, I have often used the LFD tool, but only marked healing, so that I would have a little time to finish up some quests before the instance popped up. The obvious solution for this would be to lock out all other roles dependant on your specialization, and then allow you to choose which of those you really want to queue as. There would be another setback though.  Even though a Ret Pally may have signed up as tank, and can’t tank at all, they at least have a group formed up, and can then drop/pick up as they need.  Time will still be an issue, but not as much as it was while waiting for the dialog to even pop up, since now, your group is at the top of the queue.

Anyway, this was just a quick post to toss that idea out there.  What do you all think, is it a possibility?

How Real should it get?

Wow, it looks like the Cataclysm came early.  It seems that Blizzard’s player base has been torn asunder, with fissures and vents forming everywhere. Some have simply left the game, while others are unsure of their future with our favorite MMO, while even others feel that the new RealID feature may be a good thing. Anyway, here is my two copper on the whole RealID concept, and it’s plusses and minuses.

Battle.net & RealID

I myself am a bit split. I have taken advantage of the feature already in-game. It is really nice to be able to see when Friends are on, even if they’re hiding.  I’ve even been able to connect with some of my friends from Australia from my Halo 2 days.

Open the floodgates!

Well, it looks like the flood gates have been opened. As I arrived home from work yesterday after picking up the kids, I checked my twitter feed, which was empty before I left work. Now as I look at the notification bar on my phone, there are nearly 250 tweets from everybody and their brother. Looks like the NDA is lifted, the Alpha is over, and the Beta is to begin.

The Flood Gates have Opened.

There are some fellow bloggeres, those of whom I will not hold a grudge nor covet, who revealed that they were in the Friends and Family Alpha, and are now in the Beta. I cried a little on the inside, but then I remembered… I was “in the alpha”, just not a functional questing/dungeon crawling/lore finding version.

I will not lie, I had a copy of the Alpha client, and in turn a local sandbox to play in. I will not reveal where I got it, though, simply to protect those who happened to make it available, and in turn give me this little peek into the Cataclysm. Sure, I had no NPCs, no quests, no items, and mostly broken terrain and the occasional complete system lockup, but it was still fun to see the new content. In fact it got me even more excited about the upcoming expansion.

Anyway, with the new information flowing onto the web, I hope to bring you some speculation on the upcoming Paladin changes.  Most likely I will focus on the Holy and Protection trees, but will touch on Retribution as well.

So, for now, I leave you with my favorite shot of a very inquizitive Deathwing… guess he’s wondering what you’re doing at his welcome back party.

Hey... did you bring the cake?

Nostalgia’d

Nope, I’m not dead, or MIA, or AWOL, whichever you’d prefer. But I am peeking my head over this pile of work that I’ve had lately. With a mix of a busy work week, and magically turning our pool from deep green to blue, all while prepping for a trip with the kids to visit some family out of state. Let’s just say that there hasn’t been much WoW time in there. I’m lucky to get my daily Ahune kill.

Good Old Elwynn Forest.

Anyway, on to the subject of this post, nostalgia. When it comes to WoW, I’ve been part of the game if not the community for nearly 4 years now. I’ve seen classes rise and fall, and have seen those class raiders learn and grow along with the raids they explored. I’ve watched as instances sprung up from the forest floors, and carve themselves into mountainsides. Let’s just say that I’ve seen a lot, and remember most of it.

As of recently, with the lull in content, and the anticipation of the new expansion, I’ve made the decision to go back and do every instance that I can, soloing them if possible. I believe that I’m still a few short when it comes to old world dungeons, which I really want to complete as they very well may become unavailable. While doing this, I have finally completed my Explorer achievement, and can now say I’ve been everywhere in Azeroth. In addition I’ve put a decent dent in the Loremaster achievement along the way.

One instance though, brought a rush of nostalgia beyond that experienced from the others I had been through. I believe that this instance seems to have that effect on a lot of folks. This place was my first step into raiding, and provided me with my very first legitimate piece of tier level gear. You see, I have been playing a long time, but have never actually raided until the end of BC. I never had the time or ambition to raid in Vanilla, and kind of regret that, though the time was spent on more important things, like getting my personal self to where I am today.

Warning, incoming wall of text.

Guild Boards: Please, take one…

 I’m in a decent size guild, close-knit for the most part. I’m a bit of an outsider, since I’m not able to be on as often as the rest, but when I am there, I am willing to help out.

I didn’t look for this guild specifically though, in fact I happened to run with them in an Ulduar run, and had a lot of fun. They were impressed, or at least greatly satisfied with my abilities, and offered an invite after the raid. I was fortunate to run into these good folks, and happen to see a couple familiar faces.

Who's Recruiting?

However, if you aren’t so lucky, and are looking for a good guild, what options do you have? Well, there are a few options currently available. Also to note, I am not a guild or guild recruitment specialist by any means, these are just observations on my part.

1. First up, you can hit the Recruitment Forums (Alliance – Horde)on the official WoW sight, and look for your realm. Here guilds will post openings and links to their sites. As well as provides ways to contact them.
    
   Pros – Guilds can link directly to their guild website, and the folks looking for a guild can see all realms and factions.
   Cons – Guilds must constantly monitor and update these via the forums.
    
2. Next you can spam Trade Chat with “LF Guild, such and such and such and such”.
    
   Pros – Quick and easy, a simple copy and paste can keep the message going for hours.
   Cons – Not everyone is going to listen. Some folks actually block Trade Chat, because of some of the junk it gets filled with; plus it can get kind of annoying to hear somebody yelling that they’re looking for a guild ever few seconds/minutes.
    
3. Lastly, you can do the research yourself online, checking guild websites, googling guilds and seeing what’s out there.
    
   Pros – There is tons of information out there, lots of guilds with open policies, and others with open spots.
   Cons – There is tons of misinformation out there, lots of people trying to steal your info, or send you spam, and with WoW being so large now, I’m sure it’s become a very juicy target. As for guilds, they again must monitor this for changes, and maintain a forum/site to make it visible to the outside world.

My concept would remove some of the need and misinformation with these forms of communication. Rather than posting and scanning the recruitment channel or recruitment forums, players could instead view “Job Openings” for the server’s guilds. This could be worked from both sides.

1. Guilds and their Recruitment Officers can “post job openings” onto the recruitment board that would be viewable by other players. Think of it as an Auction House type interface, but instead of listing items and whether you can buy them, it’ll be openings and whether you can apply to them.

I’ve listed some of the options for the applications below some being required others optional:

• Description of Application
• Class
• Race
• Role
• Experience (comment section)
• Reason for Applying (comment section)
• Other Information (comment section)

2. Unguilded players could then browse the board to find an opening that fits their needs, and apply, in turn sending their application to the guild they chose, and of course you could put in multiple applications.

I do see some issues arising from this in the form of inappropriate material being posted; however Blizzard could control this by providing options for the applications, basically building the applications for the recruiters who could then post them. This would prevent spammers and asshats from posting whatever they wanted as much as they wanted. It could also provide a little bit of information on the guild itself, possibly a new screen providing guild achievements/levels with the new systems coming in Cataclysm.

On the subject of spammers, there would still be the option to report the application, allowing Blizzard to catch them and remove them before any damage can really be done. Currently there is a little bit of leeway in what is seen by other players, an example being the Raid Browser. You are able to put whatever note in there that you want, and anybody using the Raid Browser can see it, so a “comments” section of the application could be used in this way.

Anyway, once unguilded players “apply” to a guild, the application is sent directly to whomever the guild deems as the recruitment officer, in an in-game message, whether it be one person or several. This way they don’t have to leave the game to see new applicants. This letter then could be passed to other folks, but only within the guild. Upon reaching a decision, the original application could then be pulled up again, and approved or denied, in turn sending an invite to the person applying. As the positions are filled, the job postings could be removed, or even archived, allowing for new ones to take their place.

This would work great for those just trying to find a guild to hang out in, or one to raid in.

Now, that was the case for those who are unguilded; however, the system could be used by those who feel like moving from one guild to another. These individuals could browse just as unguilded players would, but if they were accepted, the system would have to notify them that they are forfeiting their current position in their guild before being automatically added to the new one.

As I said, I am not much of an expert on guild mechanics, guild politics, nor guild recruitment. However, I feel that a system like this could be very helpful for those new to the game, and wanting to get in with some folks with similar tastes.

What do you think about an In-Game Guild Board? Would it be beneficial, or to much of a hassle?