I'm not much of a player vs player person, I am sure I have mentioned that before. I do love world player vs player however, and I am sure I have mentioned that before as well. Whenever I think of player vs player I start to think about how blizzard can bring it back and make it worth doing.
Thinking about it a bit today I've thought of a few things that I think would help the player vs player aspect of the game as well as return world PvP to the glory it once had.
Here are six things that need to be changed to see a true return to world PvP in my opinion.
City Personal:
- First up, guards. Ditch them. A few waves here and there, not so powerful, but enough to give a little resistance is all that is needed. Leave the super powered guards for the low level zones. Up to level 20 at most you can have the serious guards. After that, you are on your own. City guards are one of the reasons that world PvP has taken a huge hit.
- Second up, quest givers and key game play personal. Unflag them. Make inn keepers, quest givers, bankers and auctioneers unable to be killed. This will keep people from crying about not being able to do their quests or other things they need to do. It would also mean that on unbalanced servers you do not have to worry about excessive griefing. I know on one server I am on alliance own org and my poor tauren can never get anything done there. Some people get an ill feeling toward PvP because while leveling it ruined their game play. When I was leveling my first character I spent two days in ashenvale hoping the quest givers would respawn and I could take, or turn in, quests before they where killed again. This is one of the reasons I hate PvPers, because it left me with the feeling that most PvPers are jerks and assholes who just live to ruin the game play of others, a belief I still hold to this day.
- Third up, high military targets. We are removing super guards but that doesn't mean we can't have a few high priority targets in each city worth aiming for with a small contingent of super guards. People would receive their share of loot (more on that later) for being in the group that took down these key targets. In major cities there could be a few all over the place so instead of city attackers looking for leaders only, the attack could be anywhere that a high military target might be patrolling.
Remove Resilience:
- I can not stress this one enough. I think the removal of resilience would be the number one incentive for people to pick up playing the PvP part of the game even if they never attempted it before. There are dozens of reasons to not have resilience but only one reason to have it. Do PvPers really need to show off their 4500 resilience e-peen so badly that they refuse to accept the fact that if they where skilled at PvP they would not need that resilience to compete against someone with none? If no one had resilience it would be a fair fight based on skill always and not a fight of who put on their PvP gear and who didn't.
- The removal of resilience would also remove the number one reason I hear people say they do not like PvP. The whole gearing up concept and the need for a second set of gear just for it. If people felt they could be effective and not just a free kill target in their PvE gear they would PvP in their PvE gear. If people did not feel like they needed to collect a whole different set of gear just to PvP, and then gem, enchant, reforge and carry around a whole different set of gear, they would be more likely to jump in on the action. I can not even begin to tell you the number of times I was in a city being attacked and heard someone say, the attackers are lucky I do not have my PvP gear with me or I would help but without my PvP gear I would be useless and get slaughtered. One set of gear and the removal of resilience would fix that.
Offer Rewards:
- For the high military in major cities offer some sort of reward. Do not make the bodies need to be looted, just make it so when it is killed the gold goes directly into your bag so to speak. Perhaps have it based off the number of people used in the group. If a high military was labeled as a 40 man PvP boss it would give everyone 5 gold in a 40 man group but it if were done with a 20 man group they would get 20 gold, not 10, which would mean an even split, but more than that because they did something that required 40 people with less. Something like that. Something tangible. You will not only get the glory of the kill but the spoils as well.
- Maybe there could even be an in game raffle every day for every person that had 100 open world honor kills that day or killed at least two high military officers that day or killed one leader that day. Everyone that reached that requirement would be put into a random raffle to win 1000 gold for that day or even better, some raw gems in a goodie bag with some gold.
- Offer daily titles. Titles you can only have for the day you earn them and if you want them again tomorrow you need to complete the needed requirements to get them again. Something like if you kill 10 people in your city you get the temporary secondary title of City Defender. This would not replace your current title, it would be your secondary one. So Arthasdklol would be Arthasdklol, Destroyer's End and the next line would be City Defender. A new tab for secondary titles would be added and you could choose which one you activated that day to use, if any. Make some really hard, some super easy. When dailies reset, your secondary titles will also be reset. I am sure some alliance would love to be Pillager of Crossroad and some horde would love to be Pillager of Goldshire even if just for a day. And they would have to do it every day to get it again.
Make Killing a Gathering Profession:
- Give people more of a reason to kill people in the open world. Give non PvPers a real reason to get involved. A new catch all bag would be added for all players called the booty bag. Whenever you kill someone you get a gathering resource based on that persons professions. It would also be an item that fits the level of the person and it could come in amounts of 1-4 of said item. You kill a jewelcrafter you have a chance at getting a gem. Kill a skinner or leatherworker have a chance to get some leather. Kill a miner or blacksmith you have a chance to get some ore. Kill someone with no professions and you could get anything. You get the idea. I can see it already in guild chat. I'm going out to do some gathering at crossroads if anyone wants to come. I need some BC leather so heading to hellfire to see if I can find anyone flagged. Killing to gather could be fun.
- By making killing players a way to gather materials you are creating a way to break the monotony of flying around mining ore or picking herbs. People would go out killing just to spice things up or get a small change of pace from the same old same old. It would also allow people to get items for professions they do not even have. They can gather their herbs for their flasks by killing instead of needing to have an herbalist to get it themselves.
- Allow for the big score. Some random kills on very rare occasion could reward a PvP based pet in your booty bag. Just like you would see people kill a billion foxes in TB to try and get the fox kit they might start killing a billion of the opposing faction just to get some pet that can only be attained that way. Maybe even make the epic gems an extremely rare drop into your booty bag when you kill a jewelcrafter, or patterns for blacksmiths, tailors, etc. as all rare booty bag deposits.
Add World PvP Achievements:
- Many people like achievements. Adding achievements to world PvP might get quite a few people that where not previously interested in player vs player combat into it which in turn would mean more participants. Just take a look at any assembling of for the horde or for the alliance runs. There will always be people in the group that are not PvPers but are going just for the achievements and just for the mount. Achievements can be a great motivator.
- Make attacking and defending achievements for each area and main city. Defeat X amount of enemy players in Felwood, Defend stormwind from X amount of enemy invaders, Slaughter X amount of enemies while raiding thunder bluff. You get the idea. There could be ones for every zone, for every city, for every thing that would inspire people to go kill other people. Also the defeat X means there is always room to expand the achievements to add more. 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, 500, 1000, 2500, 5000, 10000, so forth and so on.
- Make some meta achievements just like there is one for killing the four main leaders how about one for killing one high military officer in 25 different enemy settlements. Or maybe one for reaching the 100 kills in every zone. Or one for reaching the 1000 defends in each of your home cities. All things that could inspire people to PvP even if they never have before and even more so if they offer rewards like titles, pets, mounts, tabards, etc.
A Perpetual Battleground:
- How would a perpetual battleground help world PvP you might ask? Well, being there would be no win and no lose to the battleground there would be no people afraid to jump into it not knowing what to do. The battleground would serve as just one giant killing field. It is a place people can go, almost unnoticed on an individual basis, and get a taste for PvP, to practice killing and not to worry about objectives and being a fool for not understanding them. It makes for the perfect place for people to go into a PvP environment and learn. People could come and go as they wish and the sides would be kept even as best they could by the system.
- As to not be used as a farming area there would be no gathering drops into your booty bag while in the perpetual battleground and there would be a cap to how many honor kills you can farm per day in it but it would still get you into the mayhem of pure open world PvP and perhaps even inspire you to get out in the open world and start killing once you reached your cap and can no longer get anything from the battleground. After battling, you are in the grove, so might as well get out and get in the world and keep the blood flowing.
I think these six changes to player vs player could make world PvP something that would become fun again and something that would get people that have never PvPed into it. World PvP died, as a friend that has been around since the start said to me, the moment they added resilience. People became less likely to pick up their sword in defense when they knew the other team had come ready to fight and had the huge advantage of PvP gear. I happen to agree with him. I might have not played in vanilla but he is not the only one I've ever heard say that. Ask 100 hard core vanilla PvPers and most will tell you, resilience killed world PvP.
Remove resilience, add the other five incentives to get people back out in the world, and world PvP will make a huge return. I guarantee it.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
What Type of Achievement Hunter Are You?
Achievements are going account bound with mists and there are many reasons to like or dislike it depending on what your personal views on achievements are.
Achievements mean different things to different people. To some it is an e-peen thing. To others it is something they feel validates their time wasted playing a game because they earned something. For others it is just there but not something they actively think about. And yet for others it is a form of content itself just like a raid would be content, something to do.
Something as simple as the achievement system has become a huge part of the game even if it sometimes goes by without even thinking about it.
There are people like me that look at the list of new achievements and immediately starts to think about which ones I can do solo and which ones I will need groups for. I actively seek the solo ones as something to do when not doing anything else. Other people come across an achievement and go, wow, I didn't even know that was an achievement. There are all different types..
Which type of achievement hunter are you?
E-Peen Achievement Hunter:
This is the type of person that goes out of their way to try and be the first to do anything and everything. They are the ones that have to have realm firsts and will gladly show everyone that asks, and doesn't ask, how great they are by posting their achievements and immediately shooting down anyone as a "bad" that doesn't have the same date on their achievement.
They only go for the achievements worthy of bragging about. Realm first mage is important to them. Realm first raid is important to them. The salty title is a waste of time to them because anyone can get it. It only means something to them if they did it before the other person.
There is also the wanna be e-peen hunter that would fit in the same category even when not talking about firsts. They might have a fall of deathwing achievement dated May 10th, which most would not be impressed by, but if you do not have it, they will brag on and on about how they have it and you don't, just to extend their e-peen. This version of e-peen hunter would think salty is important however because if they have it and you don't they can use it to stroke their e-peen.
Completest Achievement Hunter:
They take achievements serious, but not to the point where they go crazy about it. If getting a raid achievement would be easier to get next patch, they do not mind waiting, but they have to do it because they need it. Seeing 54/56 in an achievement category bothers them because it is not complete. They want to have everything because they believe the only true achievement is completing all the achievements. Each one of those 54 achievements are nice, but until they have all 56 in that category they have not really achieved anything.
A completest will raid even if they are not a raider, because they have to have them all. A completest will PvP even if they do not PvP, because they have to have them all. A completest sees each achievement as part of a bigger achievement, the achievement of getting them all. It is the over all number and getting as many as they can that matters to them, even if they take their time doing it.
Content Achievement Hunter:
This is the type of player that uses achievements as a form of content. To them, like the completest, when they see 54/56 they want to get the other two but unlike the completest that looks at it as the real achievement isn't done until all 56 are the content achievement hunter looks at it like they have two other things to do for content.
Where the content and completest differ is the content hunter does not stress over having it all. 54/56 is fine with them. They will do only the ones they want to do and use the achievements list as a form of tracking to see what they have and have not done. They are the type of person we have all seen and quite possibly the most common achievement person. Hey, I just noticed I never did black temple on this character, who wants to go? Is something a content achievement hunter would say. They use achievements as a way of giving them something to do when they do not have anything else to do.
Dedicated Achievement Hunter:
These are the people dedicated to having to get it done. Kind of like the e-peen one that has to be first this one has to be done as soon as possible but they will not be as up front about it as the e-peen hunter. They will also not rub it in your face. They will just be happy to have done it.
This category of hunter usually comes from the dedicated raider or dedicated PvPer. They focus one thing and that one thing is not done until they can do it all. They are dedicated to that single focus. To them, nothing says you are a real raider like having all the raid achievement. Nothing says you are a real PvPer like having all the PvP achievements. They do not seek the achievements to rub it in someones face, they do it to show people who they are. I am raider. I am a PvPer. My achievements show that. That is what they would say and they are really dedicated to getting those achievements, none of the others really matter at all to them.
Incidental Achievement Hunter:
This is the type of person that usually only gets the achievements that come without much, or any, effort. 25 fish, level 10, things that happen just because they do are the achievements this person will have. So why are they still classified as an achievement hunter? Because if you tell them that they can get an achievement for doing something without actually changing what they are doing already by much, they will do it.
They are the type of person that if you ask them why they are fishing and they say it is because they are waiting in queue and only doing it because they are bored you can tell them they can get achievements from fishing in the dalaran fountain they will move there. Being they are only fishing to pass the time where they fish does not matter to them but if they can fish to pass the time and get an achievement at the same time, they will do it. They won't go out of their way for an achievement, but they will take all the ones that will come to them on their own without any concentrated effort.
Closeted Achievement Hunter:
Oddly enough this type of achievement hunter will usually have a fair deal of achievements but if you ever ask them about achievements they might say something like they are not a loser that wastes their time on useless achievements or I'm not really into achievements. They will be the ones that will come along to help out on things only if they do not have the achievement for it but will never say that. Doing a run of black temple and they do not have the achievement, they will gladly tell you they will help you out. Doing a run of tempest keep but they already have the achievement, they are busy at the moment or they would have helped.
The closeted hunter is an achievement hunter in denial. They want the achievements, they want as many as they can get, you can tell that from their usually high number of achievement points, even if they always say they do not care about achievements. You can pick them out easily when running old content because they will always be happy to help other people get achievements but never ask for help in getting any themselves. They are a closeted achievement hunter.
Bonus Achievement Hunter:
This is an achievement hunter with an agenda. Does it offer a pet? Does it offer a mount? Does it offer a title? If so they are all over it like white on rice otherwise they don't care about it. Achievements matter to them only when there is something else that comes along with the achievement. They want the bonus goodies only, that is all that matters. The achievement pop up means absolutely nothing to them unless it comes with something else. A new title, a mount or pet in their mail box, or anything else they can show off. A tabard, the dalaran coin, things like that.
Indifferent Achievement Hunter:
This person does not care about achievements in any way. If they get one, cool, if not, that is cool too. If they get a bonus out of something, cool, if not, that is cool too. The word achievement is not even in their gaming vocabulary. They play because they enjoy playing. They do what aspects of the game they like because they like doing it. The thought they will get an achievement for something never enters their mind. They might get the destroyers end title or many others but they will usually be the ones that wear none. None of that matters to them. They are only here to play the game.
With the shared achievements coming out in mists you have to look at all the types of achievement hunters out there and see how this changes the game for them in one way or another. It will have a fair deal of impact on nearly all types of achievement hunters out there in some why, even the ones that do not care about achievements at all.
I fit into the content achievement hunter category myself. When I am bored and looking for something to do I go to my achievement list and think, what can I aim for now. Shared achievements will impact me and people like me the most of all the types of achievement hunters out there I think. We lose the most when this comes out.
If all my characters already have all the dungeon achievements what need would I have to go back and do all the BC stuff on a new character when I am bored, they will already have the achievement. Achievements worked as a form of content for me. It gave me something to do when I was bored.
What type of achievement hunter are you and how will shared achievements effect you?
Achievements mean different things to different people. To some it is an e-peen thing. To others it is something they feel validates their time wasted playing a game because they earned something. For others it is just there but not something they actively think about. And yet for others it is a form of content itself just like a raid would be content, something to do.
Something as simple as the achievement system has become a huge part of the game even if it sometimes goes by without even thinking about it.
There are people like me that look at the list of new achievements and immediately starts to think about which ones I can do solo and which ones I will need groups for. I actively seek the solo ones as something to do when not doing anything else. Other people come across an achievement and go, wow, I didn't even know that was an achievement. There are all different types..
Which type of achievement hunter are you?
E-Peen Achievement Hunter:
This is the type of person that goes out of their way to try and be the first to do anything and everything. They are the ones that have to have realm firsts and will gladly show everyone that asks, and doesn't ask, how great they are by posting their achievements and immediately shooting down anyone as a "bad" that doesn't have the same date on their achievement.
They only go for the achievements worthy of bragging about. Realm first mage is important to them. Realm first raid is important to them. The salty title is a waste of time to them because anyone can get it. It only means something to them if they did it before the other person.
There is also the wanna be e-peen hunter that would fit in the same category even when not talking about firsts. They might have a fall of deathwing achievement dated May 10th, which most would not be impressed by, but if you do not have it, they will brag on and on about how they have it and you don't, just to extend their e-peen. This version of e-peen hunter would think salty is important however because if they have it and you don't they can use it to stroke their e-peen.
Completest Achievement Hunter:
They take achievements serious, but not to the point where they go crazy about it. If getting a raid achievement would be easier to get next patch, they do not mind waiting, but they have to do it because they need it. Seeing 54/56 in an achievement category bothers them because it is not complete. They want to have everything because they believe the only true achievement is completing all the achievements. Each one of those 54 achievements are nice, but until they have all 56 in that category they have not really achieved anything.
A completest will raid even if they are not a raider, because they have to have them all. A completest will PvP even if they do not PvP, because they have to have them all. A completest sees each achievement as part of a bigger achievement, the achievement of getting them all. It is the over all number and getting as many as they can that matters to them, even if they take their time doing it.
Content Achievement Hunter:
This is the type of player that uses achievements as a form of content. To them, like the completest, when they see 54/56 they want to get the other two but unlike the completest that looks at it as the real achievement isn't done until all 56 are the content achievement hunter looks at it like they have two other things to do for content.
Where the content and completest differ is the content hunter does not stress over having it all. 54/56 is fine with them. They will do only the ones they want to do and use the achievements list as a form of tracking to see what they have and have not done. They are the type of person we have all seen and quite possibly the most common achievement person. Hey, I just noticed I never did black temple on this character, who wants to go? Is something a content achievement hunter would say. They use achievements as a way of giving them something to do when they do not have anything else to do.
Dedicated Achievement Hunter:
These are the people dedicated to having to get it done. Kind of like the e-peen one that has to be first this one has to be done as soon as possible but they will not be as up front about it as the e-peen hunter. They will also not rub it in your face. They will just be happy to have done it.
This category of hunter usually comes from the dedicated raider or dedicated PvPer. They focus one thing and that one thing is not done until they can do it all. They are dedicated to that single focus. To them, nothing says you are a real raider like having all the raid achievement. Nothing says you are a real PvPer like having all the PvP achievements. They do not seek the achievements to rub it in someones face, they do it to show people who they are. I am raider. I am a PvPer. My achievements show that. That is what they would say and they are really dedicated to getting those achievements, none of the others really matter at all to them.
Incidental Achievement Hunter:
This is the type of person that usually only gets the achievements that come without much, or any, effort. 25 fish, level 10, things that happen just because they do are the achievements this person will have. So why are they still classified as an achievement hunter? Because if you tell them that they can get an achievement for doing something without actually changing what they are doing already by much, they will do it.
They are the type of person that if you ask them why they are fishing and they say it is because they are waiting in queue and only doing it because they are bored you can tell them they can get achievements from fishing in the dalaran fountain they will move there. Being they are only fishing to pass the time where they fish does not matter to them but if they can fish to pass the time and get an achievement at the same time, they will do it. They won't go out of their way for an achievement, but they will take all the ones that will come to them on their own without any concentrated effort.
Closeted Achievement Hunter:
Oddly enough this type of achievement hunter will usually have a fair deal of achievements but if you ever ask them about achievements they might say something like they are not a loser that wastes their time on useless achievements or I'm not really into achievements. They will be the ones that will come along to help out on things only if they do not have the achievement for it but will never say that. Doing a run of black temple and they do not have the achievement, they will gladly tell you they will help you out. Doing a run of tempest keep but they already have the achievement, they are busy at the moment or they would have helped.
The closeted hunter is an achievement hunter in denial. They want the achievements, they want as many as they can get, you can tell that from their usually high number of achievement points, even if they always say they do not care about achievements. You can pick them out easily when running old content because they will always be happy to help other people get achievements but never ask for help in getting any themselves. They are a closeted achievement hunter.
Bonus Achievement Hunter:
This is an achievement hunter with an agenda. Does it offer a pet? Does it offer a mount? Does it offer a title? If so they are all over it like white on rice otherwise they don't care about it. Achievements matter to them only when there is something else that comes along with the achievement. They want the bonus goodies only, that is all that matters. The achievement pop up means absolutely nothing to them unless it comes with something else. A new title, a mount or pet in their mail box, or anything else they can show off. A tabard, the dalaran coin, things like that.
Indifferent Achievement Hunter:
This person does not care about achievements in any way. If they get one, cool, if not, that is cool too. If they get a bonus out of something, cool, if not, that is cool too. The word achievement is not even in their gaming vocabulary. They play because they enjoy playing. They do what aspects of the game they like because they like doing it. The thought they will get an achievement for something never enters their mind. They might get the destroyers end title or many others but they will usually be the ones that wear none. None of that matters to them. They are only here to play the game.
With the shared achievements coming out in mists you have to look at all the types of achievement hunters out there and see how this changes the game for them in one way or another. It will have a fair deal of impact on nearly all types of achievement hunters out there in some why, even the ones that do not care about achievements at all.
I fit into the content achievement hunter category myself. When I am bored and looking for something to do I go to my achievement list and think, what can I aim for now. Shared achievements will impact me and people like me the most of all the types of achievement hunters out there I think. We lose the most when this comes out.
If all my characters already have all the dungeon achievements what need would I have to go back and do all the BC stuff on a new character when I am bored, they will already have the achievement. Achievements worked as a form of content for me. It gave me something to do when I was bored.
What type of achievement hunter are you and how will shared achievements effect you?
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Blizzard to Players: Buy Gold NOW!
Warning: This post is a tin foil hat edition
Please take it with a grain of salt
Blizzard has finally made their stance on gold buying public. They support it. Even more than support it, they have decided to make a reason for you to buy gold and they spent time, effort and development money to create the perfect place to spend the gold you are buying. Enter the Black Market Auction House (BMAH).
It has been a long held belief around some in the community that blizzard doesn't really mind the gold sellers being out there. Anyone that has ever reported one of the susan express gold sellers posting in trade can tell you that. Even more so, someone that did not report the susan express gold sellers could tell you better.
If you do not report them their future messages will not be blocked, so you will see them in all their gold selling glory. All... Day... Long... You will also see that they keep going for hours and hours on end.
I've seen days where one susan express person was in trade all day long on the weekend. Were the GMs letting them post or does no one work on weekends? That is a full day of people reporting for spam. That is a full day of any GMs possibly logging into the game and seeing trade. That is a full day of no one playing the game that does not see it at least once. Yet they are not banned. They are not even silenced in trade. Blizzard wants them to get some solid sell time before they pretend like that give a crap.
The common tin foil hat belief about gold sellers is as follows.
1) Gold seller creates an account.
2) Gold seller sells gold for some time quietly.
3) After a long time operating, blizzard gives them a short ban.
4) They come back and shift their stock to another account that just sells quietly and has not been banned yet so it is not lost.
5) They change that account to just an advertising account and spam trade until they are banned.
6) Go back to step one.
The reason for this approach is simple. They want the gold sellers to feel as if they are getting away with something. If they ban them as soon as they find them they might stop making new accounts because it is not profitable for the gold seller. The gold sellers need to sell product to make it worthwhile to keep getting new accounts, blizzard has to allow them to make money to keep the flow going. So they let them make money, enough to feel it is worth having accounts to do this, and then ban them for a short time, to let them know a permanent ban is coming.
This allows them to send all their stuff to another account so it is not lost when they come back and then they spam trade with that account until they get the permanent ban they knew would be coming shortly thanks to blizzard giving them the nice little warning. Now this forces them to buy a new account and some game time, making money for blizzard. Even if they only buy one new game, the base one, it is still a product sold for blizzard and it is still an additional subscriber for their numbers.
This is how gold sellers are handled. They let them get away with it just enough so it is worth them continually buying new accounts, thus buffing up the companies bottom line.
The introduction of the BMAH is just pushing it to a whole new level. More people will be needing gold to buy stuff on the market, which means more gold sellers.
More gold sellers means more people to ban and make buy new accounts. New accounts mean more income. New accounts mean more people that they can label as active players for the stock holders meeting.
By creating a market that offers items that can not be attained any other way in the game, like offering T3 sets, they are saying you have to buy this, you can not earn it in game in any other way. It is pay gold or you don't get it.
This will create a much larger market for gold sellers meaning they can ban gold sellers more often, as they are making a lot more real money, which means they will buy more accounts more often. It is a full circle. They create more demand for gold, so gold sellers make more money, which means they can ban them more often.
When people are not buying a lot of gold they can not ban them often. It might reach a point where it is not worth them making new accounts all the time. But if they are making a lot of money, they can ban them much more often. This means it is worth them making more accounts which makes blizzard more money and looks like they are getting a nice subscriber boost.
This tin foil hat is on fire now. It burns. It burns because as wild as it sounds, it does sound... possible?
But could there be any truth to it behind the scenes?
People might say that blizzard does not want gold sellers around because that means hackers too and that makes more work for them. There could be some truth to that but you also need to remember that they offer everyone in the game the perfect way to protect their accounts.
They do not want people getting hacked, that just creates work for them. So they offer a free authenticator, just pay shipping and handling, so you can protect your account.
So basically anyone that says that the hackers causing them more work is proof they do not support gold selling is wrong. It is an unfortunate side effect that they have created a way to beat, instead of banning the gold sellers and account hackers to begin with they just tell people, protect yourself and let the gold sellers do their thing, here is the item to protect yourself.
For things like Ashes, you could still farm it if you want to in game, or you can buy it with gold. So that could be a flip of the coin in wondering if they support gold sellers by creating the BMAH. However, by offering things that can only be attained through the BMAH they are basically saying they want people to have a lot of gold.
Being we live in the x-box generation of instant gratification, and they know that, people will not grind to make money. The grinder generation is mine, not the ones playing the game now. The x-box generation will just go out and buy the gold and blizzard is 100% fine with that.
Blizzard has been working on ways to drive up subscribers ever since they released the patch they passed off as an expansion called cataclysm that they charged us for and they scared away a fair portion of their customer base with. The annual pass was a subscriber grab, and it worked. The scroll of resurrection was a subscriber grab, and it worked. The BMAH is a subscriber grab, and it will work too.
The thing is, it is a back handed subscriber grab. They want gold sellers buying new accounts, selling gold, getting banned and then starting all over again by buying another account. This way their subscriber numbers will go up while their player base gets happier because they feel like they are getting away with something and getting hard or impossible to get items.
It is win/win for blizzard on many levels. For those that know how to make money, there is more reason for them to stay in game playing. For people that are not good at making money, there is even more reason for them to stay in game to grind money. For people that buy gold they get to feel like they are getting away with something. For the gold sellers they will be more likely to continue to make new accounts no matter how often they are banned because they are making money hand over fist.
It is all good for blizzard, as long as hacking does not increase. So expect a new push for people to get an authenticator so they can let the gold sellers do their thing while they have less hacking worries. Don't be surprised if an authenticator is included with the new mists box, just so they can let the gold sellers do their thing with less hacking going around.
This might very well be completely tin foil hat but you have to wonder what are their true intentions. There are a lot of questions we can ask them and I wonder what the answers would be.
Is it really just a gold sink or just a sign they are out of ideas?
If they are really trying to get away from grindy content for the x-box generation why create something that would require people to grind gold?
If they want people out in the world why stop them from making TK groups every week to get the ashes mount when they can sit in their home town and buy it?
If it is just about making money, why not sell T3 at a cash shop like they do the mounts?
How is creating the BMAH good for the game?
Are they going back to the concept of whoever has to most time to play has all the best toys?
Do they have a plan to stop people from cheating (buying gold) to get stuff over others that actually worked for their gold?
This might be a tin foil hat edition but something inside of me read the announcement of the BMAH as blizzard putting up a huge sign in blinking neon lights over Org and SW that read "Buy gold NOW!" in huge letters going blink, blink, blinkity blink.
Monday, May 14, 2012
LFM DW Kill 395 ilvl+ Must have Achievement.
I've been seeing that line around lately. On two different servers as a matter of fact. Mind if I ask what is up with that?
Why would you need to be in almost all DS gear to kill DW? You didn't need to be in all DS gear to kill DW before the debuffs.
I've tanked it, healed it, DPSed it at range, and DPSed it in melee. Of the ones I have killed DW on not a single one of my them was over 395 when they killed DW the first time. Two of them before this new debuffed version came into place.
Someone said in trade, 395 lololol.
Normally I do not like people that type like that because they are usually trouble makers but I am glad someone said something. He was dead right, in this own trollish sort of way.
The poster said that they just wanted people that knew what they where doing.
I wonder how a 395 item level means someone knows what they are doing. Could someone please explain that to me?
I wonder how having the achievement means someone knows what they are doing. Could someone please explain that to me?
Maybe I am missing something here or that guy is just a total moron.
I'm going to go with the guy being a total moron.
I was so tempted to say that my druid tank only has a 384 item level but the fact I was killing it well before the 20% buff must mean I am baddie and don't know what I am doing when he was looking for a tank with those requirements.
People like that are the vocal ones, they are the ones that new people see and hear, they are the ones that make it hard for someone just starting.
I dislike them and I dislike their logic and I dislike the fact they make it hard for new players to actually pug things. Sad thing is, you see more runs like that then runs looking for just anyone that can at least gem and enchant correctly.
The guy might have said "LFM DW Kill 395 ilvl+ Must have Achievement." but what I read it as is "LFM DW Kill need geared and skilled players to carry my sorry ass because I am too lazy to learn my class or the fights".
I hate trolls but sometimes I have to give them the credit they deserve and do something I rarely ever do, quote one.
So to that guy, 395 lololol.
Why would you need to be in almost all DS gear to kill DW? You didn't need to be in all DS gear to kill DW before the debuffs.
I've tanked it, healed it, DPSed it at range, and DPSed it in melee. Of the ones I have killed DW on not a single one of my them was over 395 when they killed DW the first time. Two of them before this new debuffed version came into place.
Someone said in trade, 395 lololol.
Normally I do not like people that type like that because they are usually trouble makers but I am glad someone said something. He was dead right, in this own trollish sort of way.
The poster said that they just wanted people that knew what they where doing.
I wonder how a 395 item level means someone knows what they are doing. Could someone please explain that to me?
I wonder how having the achievement means someone knows what they are doing. Could someone please explain that to me?
Maybe I am missing something here or that guy is just a total moron.
I'm going to go with the guy being a total moron.
I was so tempted to say that my druid tank only has a 384 item level but the fact I was killing it well before the 20% buff must mean I am baddie and don't know what I am doing when he was looking for a tank with those requirements.
People like that are the vocal ones, they are the ones that new people see and hear, they are the ones that make it hard for someone just starting.
I dislike them and I dislike their logic and I dislike the fact they make it hard for new players to actually pug things. Sad thing is, you see more runs like that then runs looking for just anyone that can at least gem and enchant correctly.
The guy might have said "LFM DW Kill 395 ilvl+ Must have Achievement." but what I read it as is "LFM DW Kill need geared and skilled players to carry my sorry ass because I am too lazy to learn my class or the fights".
I hate trolls but sometimes I have to give them the credit they deserve and do something I rarely ever do, quote one.
So to that guy, 395 lololol.
Monday Random Thoughts
- No new mount this Monday, the trend has been broken.
- I did happen to finish off a few achievements however this weekend.
- The one that didn't get away finally didn't get away.
- So that gave me accomplished angler as well in the process leaving only old crafty as the sole achievement in professions that I do not have.
- I also killed loque to finish off frostbitten, which means bloody rare is the only achievement in exploration left for me.
- Three more rares needed for that one.
- It was sad having to kill loque, the first spirit beast I have ever seen even leveling at least 20 different characters in that zone over the years.
- Even after farming in that area countless hours on my miners, skinner and herbalists.
- I had never seen a spirit beast until that.
- And I killed him.
- Makes you want to cry doesn't it?
- Any hunter would understand my pain there. It was a sad day for me having to kill him but a good day to finally knock out another achievement.
- Makes you wonder how they judge points on achievements.
- You get 10 point just for hitting level 85. Something that is going to happen anyway without even trying.
- You only get 25 for frostbitten, something that take time and effort to do.
- Doesn't seem logical to me.
- Then again, nothing blizzard ever does seems logical to me.
- Take a look at what they are doing to poor healers in mists.
- We are in for cataclysm part 2, a world where all the healers disappeared.
- Why does blizzard keep piling on all the hate on to healers and making their lives hell?
- I guess it will be a good 4 months before I can start raiding in mists, just like it was in cataclysm, because there were no healers to be found anywhere in the game.
- Looks like mists is going to end up being worse then cataclysm in terms of the hell starting healers will need to go through.
- And here I was thinking nothing could have ever been worse than cataclysm healing before you where geared.
- The beginning dungeons, even nerfed, are still not capable of being healed by a 329 item level healer that is just learning.
- A pro, maybe with a good group, but a beginner? Hell no.
- A beginner with a random group all in 329 item level gear? You have a better chance of hitting the lottery.
- Hell, you have a better chance of hitting the lottery without even buying a ticket than you have of healing that dungeon with any chance of success.
- And blizzard wants to make it worse this pass around.
- Healers of the wow world, you have my utmost sympathy.
- Maybe you should take the hint.
- Blizzard doesn't want you playing the game.
- If they did, they would not put all the pressure on the healers at the beginning of every expansion.
- Blizzard does not want people playing healers.
- But they do what you buying gold from the gold sellers.
- They would not be starting up the new black market if they did not want you buying gold from the gold sellers.
- A gold sink is one thing, offering you things that you can not get in game any more, or things that are super rare drops for gold, is a way of saying, we want you to have gold to spend, so go buy some now.
- Funny that this comes from a company that keep saying they want us out in the world more while they are giving us more reasons not to go out in the world.
- If I can buy the ashes mount then why go out in the world each week to try and get it.
- Blizzards new policy, "Stay in your home town and buy gold to get everything you want."
- Message received blizzard. But I don't like it.
- I guess I'll have to start looking for what I consider the safest place to buy gold from.
- Blizzard basically just told me too.
- They said, stop wasting your time on a 1% drop grumpy, just buy it from the black market.
- They said, stop going out in the world to do things grumpy, stay in stormwind and we will sell it to you.
- More and more this game is feeling like it is not my game any more.
- I'm holding on, but not sure how much more of their bull shit and double talk I can take.
- Mark my words, the black market is going to make the gold sellers extremely popular.
- Heck, for someone like me that never bought any, I am considering it now.
- Even if I can make 10K gold per hour in game, I could make 50K gold per hour buying it and just working an extra hour at work.
- If time is money, my time is better spent working and buying gold than playing and earning gold.
- Keep it up blizzard and you just might convince me to buy gold.
- That is if they can convince me to keep playing with all this crap they are doing.
- And about those new achievements I got, it put me in the top 2.8% of all people playing the game achievement wise.
- Once shared achievements come I wonder what that will look like?
- I have 17 level 85s at the moment and countless other characters.
- I am sure many achievement whores have numbers like that.
- So getting all those achievement will become lesser of an achievement.
- Me having 1 character pushing 12K is an achievement in its own.
- Me having 18 doing the same thing is nothing special.
- Nice way to kill the value of achievements if you ask me.
- What is next? Giving us an achievement for logging in?
- Don't forget to get your achievement for logging in.
- Or your achievement for walking 10 steps.
- Heck, I'll even give you an achievement for reading this post.
- You have earned the achievement [Wasted a few minutes on some random thoughts].
- Tune in tomorrow for more achievements.
- Have a great day.
- I did happen to finish off a few achievements however this weekend.
- The one that didn't get away finally didn't get away.
- So that gave me accomplished angler as well in the process leaving only old crafty as the sole achievement in professions that I do not have.
- I also killed loque to finish off frostbitten, which means bloody rare is the only achievement in exploration left for me.
- Three more rares needed for that one.
- It was sad having to kill loque, the first spirit beast I have ever seen even leveling at least 20 different characters in that zone over the years.
- Even after farming in that area countless hours on my miners, skinner and herbalists.
- I had never seen a spirit beast until that.
- And I killed him.
- Makes you want to cry doesn't it?
- Any hunter would understand my pain there. It was a sad day for me having to kill him but a good day to finally knock out another achievement.
- Makes you wonder how they judge points on achievements.
- You get 10 point just for hitting level 85. Something that is going to happen anyway without even trying.
- You only get 25 for frostbitten, something that take time and effort to do.
- Doesn't seem logical to me.
- Then again, nothing blizzard ever does seems logical to me.
- Take a look at what they are doing to poor healers in mists.
- We are in for cataclysm part 2, a world where all the healers disappeared.
- Why does blizzard keep piling on all the hate on to healers and making their lives hell?
- I guess it will be a good 4 months before I can start raiding in mists, just like it was in cataclysm, because there were no healers to be found anywhere in the game.
- Looks like mists is going to end up being worse then cataclysm in terms of the hell starting healers will need to go through.
- And here I was thinking nothing could have ever been worse than cataclysm healing before you where geared.
- The beginning dungeons, even nerfed, are still not capable of being healed by a 329 item level healer that is just learning.
- A pro, maybe with a good group, but a beginner? Hell no.
- A beginner with a random group all in 329 item level gear? You have a better chance of hitting the lottery.
- Hell, you have a better chance of hitting the lottery without even buying a ticket than you have of healing that dungeon with any chance of success.
- And blizzard wants to make it worse this pass around.
- Healers of the wow world, you have my utmost sympathy.
- Maybe you should take the hint.
- Blizzard doesn't want you playing the game.
- If they did, they would not put all the pressure on the healers at the beginning of every expansion.
- Blizzard does not want people playing healers.
- But they do what you buying gold from the gold sellers.
- They would not be starting up the new black market if they did not want you buying gold from the gold sellers.
- A gold sink is one thing, offering you things that you can not get in game any more, or things that are super rare drops for gold, is a way of saying, we want you to have gold to spend, so go buy some now.
- Funny that this comes from a company that keep saying they want us out in the world more while they are giving us more reasons not to go out in the world.
- If I can buy the ashes mount then why go out in the world each week to try and get it.
- Blizzards new policy, "Stay in your home town and buy gold to get everything you want."
- Message received blizzard. But I don't like it.
- I guess I'll have to start looking for what I consider the safest place to buy gold from.
- Blizzard basically just told me too.
- They said, stop wasting your time on a 1% drop grumpy, just buy it from the black market.
- They said, stop going out in the world to do things grumpy, stay in stormwind and we will sell it to you.
- More and more this game is feeling like it is not my game any more.
- I'm holding on, but not sure how much more of their bull shit and double talk I can take.
- Mark my words, the black market is going to make the gold sellers extremely popular.
- Heck, for someone like me that never bought any, I am considering it now.
- Even if I can make 10K gold per hour in game, I could make 50K gold per hour buying it and just working an extra hour at work.
- If time is money, my time is better spent working and buying gold than playing and earning gold.
- Keep it up blizzard and you just might convince me to buy gold.
- That is if they can convince me to keep playing with all this crap they are doing.
- And about those new achievements I got, it put me in the top 2.8% of all people playing the game achievement wise.
- Once shared achievements come I wonder what that will look like?
- I have 17 level 85s at the moment and countless other characters.
- I am sure many achievement whores have numbers like that.
- So getting all those achievement will become lesser of an achievement.
- Me having 1 character pushing 12K is an achievement in its own.
- Me having 18 doing the same thing is nothing special.
- Nice way to kill the value of achievements if you ask me.
- What is next? Giving us an achievement for logging in?
- Don't forget to get your achievement for logging in.
- Or your achievement for walking 10 steps.
- Heck, I'll even give you an achievement for reading this post.
- You have earned the achievement [Wasted a few minutes on some random thoughts].
- Tune in tomorrow for more achievements.
- Have a great day.
Friday, May 11, 2012
The Power of Buffs for Survival
Out of boredom I decided I wanted to take a look at buffs and how each one effects me on a one on one basis and collectively. Instead of doing my normal looking at them and pondering them I figured I should share what I was looking at.
As my extremely casual guild, with two hunters and a feral druid as the top DPS in a 10 man that only plays around 2 hours each week is attempting heroics here and there, I wanted to see what we can squeeze out DPS wise to make the fights easier. Hence the reason for looking at buffs now. The feral in our group is already top 20 on world of logs for all fights but me and my fellow hunter rarely rank. Me only on two fights and him only on one and all those ranking are low rankings.
Hunter background. Standard survival spec, standard ferocity pet spec. All 397 gear, sporebeard gloves offspec, no spine trinkets and no DW weapon or bow. Yes, over four months of clears and not a single bow has dropped for either of us hunters. :(
Aspect of the Hawk Only:
27242.19 DPS
Now to look at how all other buffs effect the hunter, no pet buffs are enabled for any of these numbers to make them natural and be able to see the impact of each buff/debuff on its own.
5% Stats Buff (All Paladins / All Druids):
+ 1078.19 = 28320.38 DPS
10% Attack Power (All Paladins / MM Hunter / Blood DK / Enhancement Shaman):
+2110.68 = 29352.68 DPS
5% Critical Strike (Feral Druid / Fury Warrior / Elemental Shaman / Subtlety Rogue):
+1063.82 = 28306.01 DPS
10% Attack Speed (SV Hunter / Frost DK / All Shaman via Totem):
+0 of course, as I am a survival hunter to begin with and it is always with me.
3% Damage Buff (Arcane Mage / BM Hunter / Ret Paladin):
+817.26 = 28059.45 DPS
549 Agility (All Warriors / All DKs / All Shaman via Totem):
+1681.71 = 28923.90
3% Haste (Dark Intent from a Warlock):
+656.28 = 27898.37 DPS
Tricks of the Trade, on cooldown, from any Rogue:
+721.64 = 27963.83 DPS
Tricks of the Trade, Glyphed, on cooldown, from a Rogue:
+481.09 = 27723.28 DPS
So looking at the numbers, the top 5 priority for buffs for a survival hunter to perform at peak efficiency are as follows:
10% AP > 549 Agility > 5% Stats > 5% Crit > 3% Damage
Now lets take a look at common debuffs, again, without any buffs to start and no pet buff given.
12% Armor Reduction (Sunder Armor / Expose Armor / Faerie Fire):
+352.04 = 27594.23 DPS
30% Bleed (Mangle / Trauma / Hemo):
+0
4% Physical Damage (Blood Frenzy / Brittle Bones / Savage Combat):
+358.69 = 27600.88 DPS
8% Spell Damage (CoE / Earth & Moon / Ebon Plague / Master Poisoner):
+1461.99 = 28704.18 DPS
So looking at the numbers, the top 3 priority for debuffs for a survival hunter to perform at peak efficiency are as follows:
8% Spell > 4% Physical > 12% Armor
Now to look at these all combined in terms of pets a survival hunter should have out if that buff is not supplied. Cross the buffs off the list as they are applied and take the best pet otherwise. A few of the top buffs a survival can not bring, these include two of the very top ones and they are 10% AP and 5% Stats, however a beast master hunter can bring 5% stats with a shale spider.
The other three of main consequence are as follows:
Cat (549 Agility) > Dragonhawk or Wind Serpent (8% Spell) > Wolf (5% Critical)
Now to look at other buffs we can apply ourselves.
Food: 90 Agility (Skewered Eel / Seafood Feast):
+273.28 = 27515.47 DPS
Flask: 300 Agility (Flask of the Winds / Cauldron Flask):
+1160.66 = 28402.85 DPS
Potion: 1200 Agility for 25 Seconds (Potion of Tol'Vir):*
+316.72 = 27558.91 DPS
Potion: 1200 Agility for 25 Seconds + Prepot (Potion of Tol'Vir):**
+619.22 = 27861.41 DPS
* Number will increase if used during hero/lust, proc and/or cooldown usage.
** Number will increase based on timing for prepot and hero/lust, proc and/or cooldown usage.
This basically means that you, yourself, with no buffs other then hawk, can increase your DPS by, at minimum, 2053.16 DPS. Over the course of a raid night in DS that could very well translate into as much 4,927,584 damage done. You might think 2K DPS does not sound like a lot but when you look at it as 5M damage over a night, it is a lot. So eat, drink your flask and use your potions, it matters.
Now lets look at that base number again, with just hawk, and add the best raid buffs to it.
All buffs and debuffs:
+15175.05 = 42417.24 DPS
Buffs make a huge difference don't they?
You just went from doing 27K DPS to 42K DPS just by having the best buffs you can have.
In 10 man raiding you will most likely not have all the buffs but with your pet you can try to fill the spots as needed as best you can. For me and my current raid set up I am currently looking at this for what my best numbers should be:
My 10 Man with the buffs and debuffs we have:
+7378.87 = 34,621.06 DPS
I've been averaging 33K-35K, and even can reach 39K on ultraxion, so I guess I am doing just fine.
So if you are a hunter and wondering why you are seeing the top hunters average around 44K yet you can't seem to match that look at the buffs you have and base your performance on the buffs you currently have in your group, not the best the other hunters are doing. Not only might they have gear you do not, they might have buffs you do not and we have now seen the massive effect buffs can have on your numbers.
I am almost 8K under the max number I could be, and that is all because of buffs. Not because of what I am doing but who I am doing it with.
Hope the little list helped some people in figuring out where their DPS is going wrong, I know it helped me move from thinking I was doing something horribly wrong to knowing I am doing something right. I am reaching my maximum potential based on the gear and buffs I am currently running with.
I guess for my raid group the only thing I need to change is to get one of us hunters to switch to a wind serpent. That will get my 34621.06 maximum potential up to 36083.05 DPS. Might as well be me, I am running with a wolf, see picture on the top of blog, and we already have the critical buff. Who would have thought a wind serpent could make that much of a difference?
Special thanks to Zeherah's Hunter DPS Analyzer for crunching all those numbers for me.
As my extremely casual guild, with two hunters and a feral druid as the top DPS in a 10 man that only plays around 2 hours each week is attempting heroics here and there, I wanted to see what we can squeeze out DPS wise to make the fights easier. Hence the reason for looking at buffs now. The feral in our group is already top 20 on world of logs for all fights but me and my fellow hunter rarely rank. Me only on two fights and him only on one and all those ranking are low rankings.
Hunter background. Standard survival spec, standard ferocity pet spec. All 397 gear, sporebeard gloves offspec, no spine trinkets and no DW weapon or bow. Yes, over four months of clears and not a single bow has dropped for either of us hunters. :(
Aspect of the Hawk Only:
27242.19 DPS
Now to look at how all other buffs effect the hunter, no pet buffs are enabled for any of these numbers to make them natural and be able to see the impact of each buff/debuff on its own.
5% Stats Buff (All Paladins / All Druids):
+ 1078.19 = 28320.38 DPS
10% Attack Power (All Paladins / MM Hunter / Blood DK / Enhancement Shaman):
+2110.68 = 29352.68 DPS
5% Critical Strike (Feral Druid / Fury Warrior / Elemental Shaman / Subtlety Rogue):
+1063.82 = 28306.01 DPS
10% Attack Speed (SV Hunter / Frost DK / All Shaman via Totem):
+0 of course, as I am a survival hunter to begin with and it is always with me.
3% Damage Buff (Arcane Mage / BM Hunter / Ret Paladin):
+817.26 = 28059.45 DPS
549 Agility (All Warriors / All DKs / All Shaman via Totem):
+1681.71 = 28923.90
3% Haste (Dark Intent from a Warlock):
+656.28 = 27898.37 DPS
Tricks of the Trade, on cooldown, from any Rogue:
+721.64 = 27963.83 DPS
Tricks of the Trade, Glyphed, on cooldown, from a Rogue:
+481.09 = 27723.28 DPS
So looking at the numbers, the top 5 priority for buffs for a survival hunter to perform at peak efficiency are as follows:
10% AP > 549 Agility > 5% Stats > 5% Crit > 3% Damage
Now lets take a look at common debuffs, again, without any buffs to start and no pet buff given.
12% Armor Reduction (Sunder Armor / Expose Armor / Faerie Fire):
+352.04 = 27594.23 DPS
30% Bleed (Mangle / Trauma / Hemo):
+0
4% Physical Damage (Blood Frenzy / Brittle Bones / Savage Combat):
+358.69 = 27600.88 DPS
8% Spell Damage (CoE / Earth & Moon / Ebon Plague / Master Poisoner):
+1461.99 = 28704.18 DPS
So looking at the numbers, the top 3 priority for debuffs for a survival hunter to perform at peak efficiency are as follows:
8% Spell > 4% Physical > 12% Armor
Now to look at these all combined in terms of pets a survival hunter should have out if that buff is not supplied. Cross the buffs off the list as they are applied and take the best pet otherwise. A few of the top buffs a survival can not bring, these include two of the very top ones and they are 10% AP and 5% Stats, however a beast master hunter can bring 5% stats with a shale spider.
The other three of main consequence are as follows:
Cat (549 Agility) > Dragonhawk or Wind Serpent (8% Spell) > Wolf (5% Critical)
Now to look at other buffs we can apply ourselves.
Food: 90 Agility (Skewered Eel / Seafood Feast):
+273.28 = 27515.47 DPS
Flask: 300 Agility (Flask of the Winds / Cauldron Flask):
+1160.66 = 28402.85 DPS
Potion: 1200 Agility for 25 Seconds (Potion of Tol'Vir):*
+316.72 = 27558.91 DPS
Potion: 1200 Agility for 25 Seconds + Prepot (Potion of Tol'Vir):**
+619.22 = 27861.41 DPS
* Number will increase if used during hero/lust, proc and/or cooldown usage.
** Number will increase based on timing for prepot and hero/lust, proc and/or cooldown usage.
This basically means that you, yourself, with no buffs other then hawk, can increase your DPS by, at minimum, 2053.16 DPS. Over the course of a raid night in DS that could very well translate into as much 4,927,584 damage done. You might think 2K DPS does not sound like a lot but when you look at it as 5M damage over a night, it is a lot. So eat, drink your flask and use your potions, it matters.
Now lets look at that base number again, with just hawk, and add the best raid buffs to it.
All buffs and debuffs:
+15175.05 = 42417.24 DPS
Buffs make a huge difference don't they?
You just went from doing 27K DPS to 42K DPS just by having the best buffs you can have.
In 10 man raiding you will most likely not have all the buffs but with your pet you can try to fill the spots as needed as best you can. For me and my current raid set up I am currently looking at this for what my best numbers should be:
My 10 Man with the buffs and debuffs we have:
+7378.87 = 34,621.06 DPS
I've been averaging 33K-35K, and even can reach 39K on ultraxion, so I guess I am doing just fine.
So if you are a hunter and wondering why you are seeing the top hunters average around 44K yet you can't seem to match that look at the buffs you have and base your performance on the buffs you currently have in your group, not the best the other hunters are doing. Not only might they have gear you do not, they might have buffs you do not and we have now seen the massive effect buffs can have on your numbers.
I am almost 8K under the max number I could be, and that is all because of buffs. Not because of what I am doing but who I am doing it with.
Hope the little list helped some people in figuring out where their DPS is going wrong, I know it helped me move from thinking I was doing something horribly wrong to knowing I am doing something right. I am reaching my maximum potential based on the gear and buffs I am currently running with.
I guess for my raid group the only thing I need to change is to get one of us hunters to switch to a wind serpent. That will get my 34621.06 maximum potential up to 36083.05 DPS. Might as well be me, I am running with a wolf, see picture on the top of blog, and we already have the critical buff. Who would have thought a wind serpent could make that much of a difference?
Special thanks to Zeherah's Hunter DPS Analyzer for crunching all those numbers for me.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Shared Achievements: Are They a Good Thing?
With all the announcements about shared pets, shared mounts, shared achievements, and shared sharing it has me thinking if it is really a good thing over all.
While I have always liked the idea of account wide achievements I am not sure I am ready to embrace the idea of characters having them all. Let me explain.
Lets take the what a long strange trip its been meta achievement for example. Only one of my characters has it. More than a few others have many parts of it but only one has actually put forward the effort to finish it. That is my main, my main is who I try to get the achievements on. Makes sense right?
So when I am on my hunter, I have it. When I am on my priest, I do not.
What I would have liked to see is achievements put into two numbers, first number meaning this character and second number meaning an over all my characters number. For example my hunter has 11000 achievement points and my priest had 4000 but my priest has a fair deal of achievements my hunter does not.
So my achievement points should look like this, when displayed.
Hunter 11000/11880
Priest 4000/11880
This would show what that character has, and what all my characters combined have.
The way I am understanding it is that it will show as 11880 on both my hunter and my priest now.
The question is, is that a good thing or not?
I have a feeling that showing it as one definitive number like that takes something away from the concept of achieving something.
If I get an achievement that takes time and effort, like strange trip, on my priest it would feel like I did nothing, because I already have it thanks to the work I did on my hunter some years back. Sure, I made it on this character as well now, but will it feel the same? Will I even have the desire to do it again?
It is not like I ever wanted to do that on any of my other characters again anyway. When I finished it a few years ago I was happy to say I would never have to do it again and I never have. I've not even attempted it on any other characters.
The one thing that seems to be confusing me the most about it is the recent announcement that reputations will not shared as well. So if my hunter gets exalted with therazane and gets the achievement all my characters will have the achievement yet I will still need to grind exalted to buy shoulder enchants with each character individually?
I don't get it. If anything, that is something I would want shared. Why should I have to grind all my characters to exalted when they all have the achievement for getting to exalted already?
This is one of the huge faults in the shared design of shared achievements.
Like if my main has the achievement for master flying, the 310% one, all my characters will have the achievement for master flying as well. But they will not have 310% flying. Who decided these things and do they want to share whatever drugs they are on?
Another thing I don't think I get is the concept that certain things are shared while others are not. Lets say a part of loremaster needs 14 areas and If I get loremaster on one character in 12 areas and on another in the 2 the first one was missing they are collected for one lump sum of the 14 needed and thus I get the meta achievement. Yet my honorable kills are not added up so I can have the 100K achievement? How can you choose to add some things up and ignore others?
I think there is something good about shared achievements. Some achievements are easier to get on some classes. Like the moonwell thing with the healer never getting hit.
My priest healer has it because I know how to heal, I know when to heal to get the least aggro, I know how to position myself and I know how to hit fade at the right moments, but none of my other characters have the achievement because I have not been lucky enough to have a healer that knew those things. I like that achievement being shared.
For the longest time I had many cataclysm glory achievements on other characters that my hunter was missing and my hunter is my main, so of course I wanted them on my main. Same goes for T11. I finished BWD as a tank and a healer but never on my main, a DPS.
My main still does not have shattered world because I have never gone back to do it. At the beginning of the expansion we were healer light and tank light, so I took one for the team and played those roles instead of on my main. Now I will get that achievement on my main. I love shared achievements for that. I will not longer be upset because I am stuck healing when I would rather be on my main. I will no longer feel tied to my main because I want the achievements on him most.
But look at the bad things I mentioned, do the good things outweigh the bad ones?
I think they are going about the shared achievements all wrong. They should do them the way I mentioned before, and share everything, even rep, even valor points collected, even honor kills, everything.
They should display the number as xxxx/xxxxx meaning character points / player points.
So my main, my hunter might not have the achievement for BWD but I, the player, do. My hunter should not be given the achievement for clearing it, as he did not but I should be able to show people that me, the person behind the characters, does indeed have the achievement. This way would also give me the incentive to go back and get it on my hunter. While I, the player have it, that character still does not.
They want to add more to the game yet they don't seem to understand that sharing achievements takes away from the game. Now if I want something on all characters I have to get it on all characters. If this goes through, all I have to do it do it once.
Doesn't this effectively remove tons of content from the game? Doesn't it remove the desire to do things on an alt? Doesn't it take away the feeling of accomplishment that some people like while they are leveling an alt?
My hunter might not have 100K honorable kills but over all my characters combined might. So my characters would have their respective achievements they earned, and I, the player, would have the collective total and its associated achievements on my player achievements list.
Shared achievements are a good idea. Just not a good one as they are planning it.
As they are currently doing it, I do not think they are a good thing.
While I have always liked the idea of account wide achievements I am not sure I am ready to embrace the idea of characters having them all. Let me explain.
Lets take the what a long strange trip its been meta achievement for example. Only one of my characters has it. More than a few others have many parts of it but only one has actually put forward the effort to finish it. That is my main, my main is who I try to get the achievements on. Makes sense right?
So when I am on my hunter, I have it. When I am on my priest, I do not.
What I would have liked to see is achievements put into two numbers, first number meaning this character and second number meaning an over all my characters number. For example my hunter has 11000 achievement points and my priest had 4000 but my priest has a fair deal of achievements my hunter does not.
So my achievement points should look like this, when displayed.
Hunter 11000/11880
Priest 4000/11880
This would show what that character has, and what all my characters combined have.
The way I am understanding it is that it will show as 11880 on both my hunter and my priest now.
The question is, is that a good thing or not?
I have a feeling that showing it as one definitive number like that takes something away from the concept of achieving something.
If I get an achievement that takes time and effort, like strange trip, on my priest it would feel like I did nothing, because I already have it thanks to the work I did on my hunter some years back. Sure, I made it on this character as well now, but will it feel the same? Will I even have the desire to do it again?
It is not like I ever wanted to do that on any of my other characters again anyway. When I finished it a few years ago I was happy to say I would never have to do it again and I never have. I've not even attempted it on any other characters.
The one thing that seems to be confusing me the most about it is the recent announcement that reputations will not shared as well. So if my hunter gets exalted with therazane and gets the achievement all my characters will have the achievement yet I will still need to grind exalted to buy shoulder enchants with each character individually?
I don't get it. If anything, that is something I would want shared. Why should I have to grind all my characters to exalted when they all have the achievement for getting to exalted already?
This is one of the huge faults in the shared design of shared achievements.
Like if my main has the achievement for master flying, the 310% one, all my characters will have the achievement for master flying as well. But they will not have 310% flying. Who decided these things and do they want to share whatever drugs they are on?
Another thing I don't think I get is the concept that certain things are shared while others are not. Lets say a part of loremaster needs 14 areas and If I get loremaster on one character in 12 areas and on another in the 2 the first one was missing they are collected for one lump sum of the 14 needed and thus I get the meta achievement. Yet my honorable kills are not added up so I can have the 100K achievement? How can you choose to add some things up and ignore others?
I think there is something good about shared achievements. Some achievements are easier to get on some classes. Like the moonwell thing with the healer never getting hit.
My priest healer has it because I know how to heal, I know when to heal to get the least aggro, I know how to position myself and I know how to hit fade at the right moments, but none of my other characters have the achievement because I have not been lucky enough to have a healer that knew those things. I like that achievement being shared.
For the longest time I had many cataclysm glory achievements on other characters that my hunter was missing and my hunter is my main, so of course I wanted them on my main. Same goes for T11. I finished BWD as a tank and a healer but never on my main, a DPS.
My main still does not have shattered world because I have never gone back to do it. At the beginning of the expansion we were healer light and tank light, so I took one for the team and played those roles instead of on my main. Now I will get that achievement on my main. I love shared achievements for that. I will not longer be upset because I am stuck healing when I would rather be on my main. I will no longer feel tied to my main because I want the achievements on him most.
But look at the bad things I mentioned, do the good things outweigh the bad ones?
I think they are going about the shared achievements all wrong. They should do them the way I mentioned before, and share everything, even rep, even valor points collected, even honor kills, everything.
They should display the number as xxxx/xxxxx meaning character points / player points.
So my main, my hunter might not have the achievement for BWD but I, the player, do. My hunter should not be given the achievement for clearing it, as he did not but I should be able to show people that me, the person behind the characters, does indeed have the achievement. This way would also give me the incentive to go back and get it on my hunter. While I, the player have it, that character still does not.
They want to add more to the game yet they don't seem to understand that sharing achievements takes away from the game. Now if I want something on all characters I have to get it on all characters. If this goes through, all I have to do it do it once.
Doesn't this effectively remove tons of content from the game? Doesn't it remove the desire to do things on an alt? Doesn't it take away the feeling of accomplishment that some people like while they are leveling an alt?
My hunter might not have 100K honorable kills but over all my characters combined might. So my characters would have their respective achievements they earned, and I, the player, would have the collective total and its associated achievements on my player achievements list.
Shared achievements are a good idea. Just not a good one as they are planning it.
As they are currently doing it, I do not think they are a good thing.
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