Awesome Macro News

In a post from Taepsilum on the EU forums it was said that they are going to be increasing the number of general macro slots from 36 to 100 which is extremely welcome news to me.  Source.  One of the quality of life changes I have been wanting for years is more macro slots.  For a macro junkie like me this is a fix that has me on a little bit of a high right now.

I often say sometimes the little things matter the most and this little change really has me excited.  Shadowmoon valley preview, blah, who cares, just come out with the expansion already.  I am not excited to hear any previews like that, I just want my content, however hearing about the macro changes makes me happy.

I will be interested in reading a bit more on the new conditions he mentions.  It would be nice to have one macro for one row of abilities like he shows.   It will make things easier so instead of needing three different macros or changing the one macro you use each time you switch skills.

I have one question however, does the "general" macro slots mean only the main shared ones or will each of our characters slots also being increasing?  I hope it is each character I really do but maybe that is just me being greedy now.

What do you use macros for?  Do you even use them?

I agree with Taepsilum, this is indeed great news everyone.

A Few Words About Accessibility

After reading a post by Matthew Rossi over at WoW Insider titled The Difficulty Trap it got me thinking about raiding and difficulty.  Even more so being I am going through what I am currently going through trying to find replacements for people taking vacations, quitting or just taking a break from raiding.

From what he wrote, what I have read from many others and what I have heard from people I know that raided and did not raid in vanilla, it has got me thinking about accessibility a lot.  People say that raiding is more accessible now than it has ever been before and they might have a point but only in one way. 

Raiding is more complex now than it has ever been.  When your average 5 man heroic boss is more complex than anything you would have met in a raid back in vanilla and surely anything from cataclysm the week of release was more complex than anything a vanilla raid could ever through at you, is raiding really more accessible?  Just because you can walk through the door doesn't mean it is accessible.

It is easier to get into raiding now than it was in vanilla, but back in vanilla anyone could raid.  By anyone I mean anyone.  That is not the case with raiding as it is now.  Not even close.  If you could muscle your way into a raid in vanilla that means you worked to be there and being you put in the work to be there you deserve to be there.  With today's raid scene anyone can hit max level and even get the gear level required in a short time so they could walk through the door of a raid, they can even argue they deserve to be there, but they are not raiders.

It occurred to me really what we are talking about here is not so much the difficulty trap but the accessibility trap.  Raiding has always been accessible.  If you want to put in the work needed to be a raider that is.  However in vanilla it was a lot more black and white than it is in today's game where the waters are more than a bit muddy.

Each week I am bringing new people into a raid and each week it is becoming more and more frustrating because how do I deal with all these people who think they are raiders when they are not.  People that can not move from bad, people that do not listen to instruction, people that do not follow mechanics, people who can not perform even at 50% of their potential, people that are quite frankly not raiders.

In vanilla this would have never been the case.  If they worked their way through all the loops, put in the time, farmed the materials and paid their dues so to speak they were raiders.  The fact they could not perform at 50% of their potential meant nothing.  They would still be fine for a vanilla raid because mechanically speaking vanilla raids were so much easier.  The difficulty was in the grind and assembly, not in the content itself.

That was the accessibility of vanilla, the raids were not taxing, the road to get into them was.  Once you worked your way through everything you needed to do to get into them you were indeed a raider.  Not like all those people trying out for spots on my raid team who are not raiders.

Fast forward 10 years and here we are now where anyone can just walk into a raid.  With the addition of the raid finder they do not even need to deal with the largest hassle of vanilla raiding, making a group.  And even at that, raid finder raid will still be leaps and bounds more difficult than anything vanilla could throw at them.  But not everyone is a raider if they raid now, not like in vanilla.  Just because raids have become more accessible to enter does not mean everyone should.  Don't get me wrong, there were still many people that worked their way into vanilla raids that did not deserve to be there either, there will always be someone that does, but now the door is wide open and anyone can walk in and if you have ever done an LFR you know that just about anyone does.

In vanilla the accessibility was front ended.  You needed to work your ass off to get into the raid but once you were their the raid was more about working your ass off to get the gear to get the job done.  Either way, anyone, as long as they worked for it, could get in and once they were in doing it was easier than anything you will ever see in today's game.

In current the accessibility is back ended.  Anyone can walk into a raid, but not everyone can be a raider.  Sure they can manage to get by in an LFR where 10 people are doing the work of 25 and they can slide by.  They might even get a little further if they can find a group to carry them, but they can only get carried for so long before the door becomes closed for them.  The door could be flex for them, or maybe normal and if not there then heroic will surely be the door.

The pendulum has swung on both the accessibility and difficulty scale.  From vanilla having their difficulty being at the entry level (with a grind and assembly) and current raids having it at their tail end (with many mechanics) and vanilla having their accessibility being easy once you made it in because anyone that worked their ass off could likely raid effectively and current having it easy to enter but not everyone that enters can actually raid.

The question is, which is the better method?

Should raids be hard to get into and easy to do like vanilla or easy to get into but harder to do like now?

There needs to be some level of difficulty and there needs to be some level of accessibility.  You can not have the end game being as easy to enter as it is now and LFR be the hardest version of it because that would mean it was easy to enter and easy to do.  And you can not have the end game being harder to enter requiring grind after grind just to get in and be as tightly tuned as heroic currently is once you get there because that would mean it was harder to enter and harder to do.

I am not saying one way is better than the other because I can fight for either side on this one.  I believe both have their strengths and their weakness. The key is there always needs to be some level of accessibility and there always needs to be some level of difficulty.  The problem is finding that right balance.

In the end, like Matthew concludes about difficulty in his post that you really can not compare the two because there was so much more involved and both vanilla and current were difficult in their own way I can conclude that you can not compare the two in terms of accessibility either because they were both very accessible in their own way.

Which was better in your opinion, which way do you prefer?

Or would you have it somewhere in the middle, like wrath was.  Accessible if you put in some effort, but some challenge once you are there.   Which meant it was moderately accessible and moderately difficult.  If I had to choose, wrath design would be my choice.  No raid finder, but valor loot to help get you in if you were willing to work for the loot and then find yourself a group.  Wrath design with a raid making program like OQ or the current in game finder with some added support.  Now that would be the best balance in my opinion.  To pick vanilla style or today's style however, could I not choose.  How about you?

Ch Ch Ch Changes: What Would Be Your Last Straw?

Please excuse that little David Bowie changes stutter at the beginning, for some strange reason every time I think about changes lately the song changes pops into mind.  Now on with the post.

I've been saying, quite often lately, I am not really fond of changes for the sake of changes.  There are some changes I can get behind like the coming stat squish because it was needed even if the way they are doing it is not exactly going to fix anything.  As I said when they first announced it, the undertaking will be huge and if they really wanted to do the stat squish correctly we would not see warlords for another two years.  But it is a change that I can get behind, even if it is being done halfheartedly like it is now.

Some changes were done for quality of life purposes and those too I can get behind.  Who thinks that the removal of soul shards and their related bag space consumption and bullets and arrows an their related bag space consumption was not a good thing?  Sure I might have some fond memories of arrows and a few funny stories to tell because of them but their removal was more about quality of life and it was a good thing.  A change, but a change for the better.

Some changes are bigger and each time you make changes like that you really take the chance at upsetting people.  Some changes seem like changes for the sake of change.  Like when hunters where changed to focus.  It was one of those "if it ain't broke don't fix it" things.  Hunters were fine with mana, they did not need the change to happen but it was done anyway.  It seemed like change for the sake of change to a great many, me included, and it chased away some people for playing hunters and others from playing the game entirely.

That is the danger you run into every time you make a big sweeping change like switching the resource of a class like that.  That is a huge change.  Like most hunters I went with it and learned how to deal with my new resource even if I was not behind this change.  I would have rathered to leave well enough alone.  In the end I am glad I went along with it because the change to focus worked out well.  For the losses of not having mana (such as burst on demand as long as you had mana) we gained so much more (no need to ever sit in viper to regain mana).

Some times you just need to ride the change out.  Some times we have to believe that the people making the game know better what their intention is and where they are going with it and give them a chance to get there with it.  Focus still has its problems, but nothing is without problems, hunters never really felt natural with mana because they are not casters, so a resource all their own did make sense.  Just like the stat squish makes sense.

Reading the patch notes coming from alpha is it easy to get distracted by seeing all those "X has been removed" and just having your jaw drop and think wtf?

Just like my recent remarks about the gutting of the marksmen spec for hunters.

I know what they are doing, they are breaking the spec down so they can rebuild it.  It is not going to be released that way.  Not even blizzard and with how much I question their intelligence sometimes is that stupid.  Marksmen is not going to be stuck as the shell of a spec with no heart when it gets released.  It will be rebuilt.  I am sure of it.  Doesn't mean we will like what it becomes, no, but it certainty will not be released as a spec that will just be remembered as an entire list of "X has been removed".

But the question is, how will it be rebuilt and what would be the last straw before you just quit?

Some change is good, change for the sake of change is not.

Even if all the intentions blizzard has are for the better of the game, reading those lists coming out, the lists with removing all my arms warriors abilities, removing all my disc priests abilities, removing all my marksmen hunters abilities, when is the point going to come when I just say enough is enough.  I know they will be rebuilt, sure, but I do not want everything I do to be changed just for the sake of change.

This will be the third expansion in a row with sweeping changes to our abilities and can even arguably be an even larger change than the loss of talent trees because they are stripping abilities completely, redesigning others, and then adding new ones.

They are basically changing everything we know about our classes, but really not so much outside of abilities and rotations, at least for the damage dealing classes.  But the healers with their cast times and mana regeneration and tanks with resolve instead of vengeance are in for some serious changes once again.

Just like some hunters quit playing hunters or quit playing the game when they made the switch to focus and some healers quit at the beginning of expansions because they seem to put all the pressure on healing in the first tier and tanks that quit because they did not like when vengeance was added people will quit playing their class, role, or the game entirely because of these coming changes, whatever they might end up looking like.

Which brings me to the question, what would be your last straw, what could make you quit playing your main, what change could they make or are they making that has or could have you thinking it is time to find another class or another spec or maybe even another game to play?

Changes can be good for the game but constant changes just for the sake of changing things can be bad for the game.

Next up on ch ch ch changes:  When will blizzard stop adding things they know they have to change as soon as they add it. 

Such as the draenor perks.  You know come the expansion after they are not going to leave a chunk of new abilities just sitting in that small 91-99 leveling range, so why not add it over the course of all 100 levels now instead of having to change everything again the expansion after to fix what they added this time when they know what they are adding will need fixing later.

Limited Time Buffs: What is Next?

It seems like blizzard has decided on how they want to give us new content while waiting for the expansion.  The new content comes in the form of limited time buffs to try and get us playing with the content we have on our mains or alts, or trying new things maybe.

We have had the increased valor buff.  We currently have the black price buff.  To my knowledge there have been no other buffs data mined so we can only guess this it is, this is all the new content we are going to get for now.

The real question is, what is next?  Will they roll over and start from the beginning of their two buff cycle again and give us the valor buff once more next month or will they try to sneak something else in there.

I think it might be in the best interest of blizzard, and us of course, for blizzard to mix it up.  We will not be getting any real content, but these buffs can work for what their intention is, to give us something to do, to take our minds off the content drought.  Not like it really will, but it can serve as a distraction.

So why not give us some more buffs to play around with, more than just the valor one and the black price one.  Rotate those for the last 2 weeks of each month and give us something else for the first two weeks of each month.

I can think of a few buffs that might get people more active in game and maybe even have them do something they have not done in a while or maybe never did.

So here are a few buffs I came up with off the top of my head that might make for a pleasant distraction from the content drought for some people.

[Knowledge of the Ancients]

Increase all experience gained from anything that would normally grant you experience by 20%.

[You've Got Personality]

Increase all reputation gains by 20%.

[Scent For Blood]

Increase honor and conquest gains by 100%.

[Nimble Fingers]

Receive double the amount of items you normally would when using gathering professions and archeology.

[Aren't You The Lucky One]

When you defeat a boss you get a chance to use a lucky gold coin which will allow you to choose any one piece of loot off that bosses loot table.  You only have one lucky gold coin per week so use it wisely.

[Honor of the Celestials]

Every time you defeat a celestial you get a buff that increases all stats by 10% for 6 hours on all your characters.  This buff does not stack and persists through death.  Killing a celestial while time is remaining will increase the buff to a maximum of 6 hours.

What idea for buffs can you come up with?

The 5 Worst Mechanics Ever Added to the LFR

There are many things added to the LFR we can complain about but there are a few that make sense they added and then there are those that make you scratch your head and wonder, what was blizzard thinking.  I could probably make a list of the top 100 worse mechanics ever added for a group of random strangers (LFR) but I over simplified the list so that two of the top 5 will encompass a great deal of those in one.

Before I start my list I want to give an honorable, or is it dishonorable, mention to one mechanic that was hotfixed shortly after release or it would have surely been the #1 worst mechanic ever added.  It would have also made sure that no one would have ever finished the first part of heart of fear unless they ended up being insanely lucky or went with an almost completely premade group.

Garalon's crush was a griefers dream, just stand under him and wipe the raid over and over again.  Even the people that were not raiders but you could explain the concept to would occasionally make the mistake of standing under him and causing a crush.  When it was first released you went in there and effectively this is how the fight went.  Pull, crush, crush, crush, crush, crush, wipe.  Changing it so that it can only cast crush once every 30 seconds and reducing the damage of crush was required and if it were not for both those changes that would have been #1 on our list hands down.

Now lets get on to it, the five worse mechanics blizzard expected 25 random strangers to be able to handle as a group.  These are my opinions, please, share yours, let me know which mechanics you believe should have never been added to the LFR.  Which mechanics should never be handled by 25 random strangers.

5) Stack Up For The Bad:

Blizzard has been drilling into peoples head not to stand in the fire, it is even a loading screen tip.  Everyone jokes about it in any part of game play even while just out questing.  How did you die?  I stood in bad.  It could mean anything from not moving from a puddle of poison, to not moving from a frontal cone effect, you stood in bad and even the best players have made that mistake and had to say, oops, I stood in the bad.

For the history of the game from questing to dungeons to raids we are taught to not stand in the bad.  So blizzard decided to have raid mechanics that required you to stand in the bad and seemed to forget that a great many players in the LFR are not actual raiders, they are random raiders, not organized raiders.  For a group of organized raiders stacking in some bad effect to limit the damage from it is a standard raid mechanic we have all gotten used to but for the random raiders all they know is that loading screen tool tip that says don't stand in the fire.

So when I see someone not stand in something alone that we need to stack for, I can understand.  When I see people run from the group when they have a debuff on them that needs to be shared, I can understand.  These people are not raiders, they do not know.  Or do they?

Something like static shock on Lei Shen, as a hunter I can take it solo and in a normal raid I would do so.  What am I to think in a random group if a hunter gets it on them and runs away?  Is he a raider?  Does he know to hit deterrence and eat it or will he die from it?

For mechanics like that I handle things differently in LFR than I do in a real raid.  In my real raid I expect the players that can solo soak something to do so.  So if someone runs away with it, I know they are going to solo soak.  In LFR I never try to solo soak.  Reason being, you force the few people that know to stack up, but might not understand you can do it solo, to run after you.  Best to just stack up.  But when someone runs, you have to run after them or just let them die.

There are to many fights where you need to stand in the bad, or share the pain.  It is not just from this expansion, it started when LFR first started and it was a bad idea then and remains a bad idea today.  You can not tell people to not stand in the fire and then give them fires they need to stand in when doing random raid content.  It is just a bad mechanic to add.  Let their raid leader teach them that when they raid in a normal raid.  Standing in bad for a reason is not for 25 random strangers.

Starting with standing in the bad on Blackhorn being required to do the fight without the ship being destroyed blizzard has added more and more stand in the bad mechanics.  Such as the previously mentioned static shock, or the inferno strike on Protectors, there have been so many stand in the bad or stack from the bad mechanics.

Yes, I expect an actual raider to know beforehand which bad is bad bad and which bad is stand in it bad but I do not expect 25 random raiders, people who are not actual raiders, to read up on fights before they start.  I can not blame them for running from the group with inferno strike, they are only doing what they think is the right thing to do.

For the most basic form of raiding blizzard needs to keep the most basic design concept.  Stick with one idea, don't stand in the fire, and leave it at that.  No more stack to share the damage things, no more stand in the damaging circle things, none of that stand in the bad stuff.  It is one of the worst mechanics added to the LFR.  You can not spend the entire game telling someone not to stand in the bad and then having them wipe a group, or die themselves, because they didn't stand in (or share) the bad.

This type of mechanic has no place in a raid made up of 25 random players were it is quite possible none of them are actual raiders that understand the good bad from the bad bad.  Just never put this mechanic back in the game at the LFR level of play.

4) Group Assignments: 

Does blizzard actually believe that a group of 25 strangers will be able to quickly and effectively make groups to handle different assignments?  You will have new people, you will have angry people that they had to wait an hour to get there, you will have elitist pricks who think everyone should have done the fight on heroic before they are even allowed to do it in LFR, and you will have dozens of other personalities including trolls, people that are just there to make things harder on everyone.

So why make so many fights in LFR where you need to assemble groups for them?  Just like Norushen automatically pulls people in so there is no orb assignment (good work on that one blizzard) all fights that would mean you need to communicate to make groups or an order should be automatically assigned by the game, or not included at all.

Why does it need to take so long to get a tower crew for Galakras, a nest crew for Ji-Kun, and the like?  Just teleport a few people to the area where they need to do something and let them do it.  Just like they zone one player in on Norushen.

Some fights like that you might be able to automatically assign groups using a random system, just like Sha of Fear automatically pulls people to zone over, the game can automatically pick people to zone over.  Other fights would just need to be changed outright.

My biggest group annoyances this expansion are Spoils and Lei Shen.  Spoils is a quick fix really, just have the entire group go down together and have to work their way through all four rooms as a group, or just two, why not, this is supposed to be faster and easier.  The time it takes to split the group is insane.  I think I have been in SoO wing 3 runs where it took longer to get the spoils groups set than it did to do the entire wing otherwise.  There should never be a need for 25 random people to have to work in a coordinated way like this.

And then, dear god help you, if you get someone that is willing to step up and take the lead he is either blasted as an elitist prick, a know it all, wrong because you do it different, or people just do not want to listen to them because of the infamous "who made you the leader" syndrome.

There is no winning here.  Making the groups for Lei Shen and the phases, making it for the sides on spoils, for the nests or towers or what have you.  None of this should ever be in content that is designed to be consumed in mass quantifies by a group of 25 random strangers.

Blizzard would do well by its player base to keep the need for group assignments out of the LFR.  Even something as simple as who has belts or who has engineer can hold up a run for 20 minutes or more, I have seen it.

No group assignments blizzard, never again.  Learn from your mistakes and take the forth worst mechanic in LFR out of future LFRs even if it not really a mechanic in and of itself, but a way the raid would need to handle it.  Special assignments should not be in the game at this level of random game play, unless they are handled like Norushen was.

3) Elegon and the Amazing Disappearing Reappearing Floor:

I seriously believe there were GMs watching the LFR in those beginning weeks when it first came out and laughing so hard they fell out of their chairs.  I know I would have.  Still up to this day I get a chuckle out of someone jumping to their death after someone says "oh cool they finally added a wall here so people can't fall before the fight begins".  I know it is wrong to laugh but I just can not help it.

It is not like it was a hard mechanic, you could just read through the encounter entry and see it was going to happen but remember, these are not raiders, these are random raiders, a different breed.  These are the type of people that do not even know what most of their own abilities do because reading a tool tip is too much work, do you really believe they are going to read an encounter entry?

I believe, although not sure, that even without deadly boss mobs or another encounter mod that the in game system tells you to get out of the center.  So you have the encounter journal, you have an in game warning, so why do so many people still die to it.

It could be for various reasons.  One is many people play with no sound, no sound means not hearing the announcements.  Some people get so into what they are doing that they pay no attention to anything around them, which means they might not even see visual clues to get out.  Then there is the lag issue.  I know of many people that never have lag problems, ones that even had almost no issues with the 400 player raids on Oon when that came out that still managed to lag like a mofo on this fight.  A fight were even if you know what to do a small bit of lag could be the difference between life and death.

And that is why I hang #3 on elegon, and its instant death, can not be revived from, type of mechanic.  Firstly, there should never be any one single mechanic that can kill the raid like that in LFR.  Second, there should never be any one single mechanic that can make it so you can not revive someone in LFR like this one.  Third, making a mechanic like this in such a graphic intensive fight that could lag some computers just compounds the problem even more.

Instant death mechanics like this, unforgiving ones (meaning no revive), have absolutely no place in the random group setting.

Don't get me wrong, I still play the guessing game every time I am there trying to guess how many will die.  I still laugh when a friend or someone I know dies from it, because now I can pick on them for a while because of it.  I still get a kick out of the people that ask for a rez when the fight is over and when we tell them they have to run back they get upset.  I still get a chuckle about it, but chuckle or not, this type of mechanics has no place in the LFR.  Not now, not ever.

2) Durumu and the Maze of Doom:

I would like to consider myself a semi decent player and even I died to this the first time I did it (first 3 actually) and to absolutely no fault of my own.  I am color blind and I could not see the maze.  I watched the video, I read the guides, I did more than 99% of the player base did before they went in there I am sure.  I knew what to do, I just could not do it.  I swear I tried, I even zoomed in the camera all the way thinking that if it were closer I might be able to see it.  I have raided for many years and never in my entire life have I ever felt so helpless on a fight, so useless on a fight.  There was nothing I could do, or so I thought.

I was lucky enough to have someone in the run mention that if people are having trouble seeing the maze, as it seems it was not just me, to change their settings for particle density to the lowest and then they would be able to see it.  I did that and was fine from that point on.

But I needed to change my settings every time I was on that fight and only for that fight.  This is one reason this is #2 on my list.  No fight should ever require you to have to change your settings to do it.

This, like Elegon before it, can also cause some people to lag.  Lag and a tight maze you need to run without much time to stop is not exactly an ideal paring.  This is another reason this one is on the list.

So now we have 3 solid reasons why even a semi decent player could have a problem with it, color blindness, settings, and lag.  If you are in a normal raid group your group can decide if they want to take you.

When we did our first normal kill we had a healer and a tank that just could not manage the maze.  So just to get it done I told the healer not to even try to run, stand at the edge and stay alive as long as they could throwing heals and then (being they were a shaman) to wait for my call to pop afterwards, and we use our battle revive on the tank.  We ended up doing it.  Later on, they ended up getting better at the maze.  Practice makes perfect.  But we were a group working together and we made a plan.  LFR is random people.

It is completely and totally understandable while you are willing to wipe, or waste a revive, on someone you are with because you choose to be with them, just so they can learn.  But no one, and I do mean no one, wants to wipe over and over with random strangers while they learn.  Wiping while learning for a team mate, and wiping while learning for some random joe blow are two completely different things.

Now, lets forget for a minute that I said there were all reasonable explanations for dying to the maze.  While it may be true, I over came my color blind issue after a few attempts and playing with settings, the healer and tank that we had to revive eventually made it through on their own, we even held a celebration for the healer after she made it through for the first time.  It was fun.  The thing is, all the reasons I mentioned that can cause people to die can be over come.

They shouldn't need to be over come, not in random raid content, but that is only part of the problem.  The other part is, some people are just freaking stupid.  Check that, most people are just freaking stupid.

While I completely understand if someone is new to the fight and is having the same problems we all did when learning it, I am 100% certain that more than 50% of my group is not there for the first time every single time I am there.  Either that or I managed to get every single person that ever did that fight in my groups because every time I am there more than half the raid dies.

Blizzard, really?  First you made a mechanic that could give issues to people as is, but then you made it hard for the average random raider, so even if someone has no issues they still can not do it?

When I go in there now all I hope for is that one tank, 2 healers, and a couple of damage dealers survive.  With the numbers people are putting out now it usually goes down before that phase or sometimes shortly after, so all we need are a good 7 or 8 people to survive.

Sadly, all that ever survives are 7 or 8 people.  And that is why a mechanic like this can never be put into a random raid again.  Whoever decided to keep this mechanic in the LFR must have really been in a bad mood when he made that decision, someone pissed in his cheerios, so he took it out on us.

So taking a solid #2 on the list, with no single boss mechanic in an LFR that can even come close to catching it is Durumu the forgotten with the single worst boss mechanic ever to squeeze its way into the LFR.

1) The Trash Between Tortos and Megaera:

Notice I said Durumu had the worse boss mechanic?  Well he did, but the number one worst mechanic ever put into the LFR is not from a boss, it is not even from a single mob.  It is from the trash between Tortos and Megaera.  All of it.  The ability to teleport players to them is the worse mechanic ever put into an LFR by miles.

First off when will blizzard learn that how people handle trash is the opposite of the field of dreams where it was "if you build it they will come", it is more "if you put in trash, they will skip it".

So blizzard not only put in trash, they put in trash that hides underground, they put in trash that calls for help, they put in trash that grows stronger the longer it takes to kill it, they put in some really cool trash and some very avoidable trash.  For a smart group of people working together that is.

For random raiders all this means is people that do not understand aggro ranges, people that think it is cool to pop the mushrooms which just happen to have spiders under them, and what is even worse than people pulling stuff you could easily have walked around is that if someone is falling behind and pulls something, don't worry, you will find out about it sooner or later because after it kills them it will slowly teleport everyone in the raid to it, one at a time, and kill them, until the entire raid is dead.

And don't even think about running back in sometimes because on some occasions you will be in it's aggro range even all the way back where you spawn in to be teleported to it.  Once activated whatever mob it is becomes the ultimate minion of death and it will not stop until every living breathing humanoid in the instance is dead.

I've been in a run or two were we got caught in a loop and had to keep yelling for people to not zone back in.  As long as people kept coming in, we could not get out of battle, because someone ran for the entrance and dragged the trash with them.  The spider might not be able to climb up those steps but they sure as hell can pull you down to them.

I have suffered more deaths on the trash between Tortos and Megaera in the LFR than I have on any boss in the LFR.  I have seen more people die to that trash from being teleported to it than I have seen fall through the floor on Elegon.  I have seen more people die to that trash from simple pulls that quickly became over pulls than to the maze on Durumu.  I have seen more people accidentally pull trash because they do not understand how to walk past it than I've seen people self implode from trying to take an inferno strike solo instead of stacking.

Who ever created this trash to be put to use in a random raid setting with people that do not understand the basics, like you get from random raiders, is a sadistic bastard.  And that is being kind in my assessment of them.

So the #1 worst mechanic ever added to the LFR is trash that teleports people to it.  Not only is it horrible, but it lends itself to trolls.  If someone pulls a trash pack, let them die, it should not kill the entire raid.  At least not in the random setting with random raiders.

So what do you think are some of the worse mechanics ever added to the LFR?

The Joke of The Black Prince Is Upon You

Clipped from battle.net is the following, source:

The gaze of the Black Prince had been both blessing and curse to her once upon a time. Her journey long and arduous, the blood of the enemy stained her boots. Now she stood on the corpse of the vanquished Fire God – Ordos – her cloak whipping about her frame and victory beating within her heart. Her journey was at an end. But as with any end, there is always another beginning ‘round the bend.

To be legendary, one must obtain– a truly legendary cloak. What hero is hero without one? To help you on your danger fraught quest, the infamous Black Prince would grant you a boon to help make the journey toward adorning your own cloak a little easier. Will you follow in the footsteps of heroes that have come before and brave the challenge?
Beginning Tuesday, June 17 at 9:00 a.m. PDT, through Monday, June 30 at 9:00 a.m. PDT, we’ll be applying the Gaze of the Black Prince buff which will increase the reputation gained with the Black Prince by 100%. It will also increase the chance of obtaining items from his foes needed as a part of the Legendary Cloak quest line including: the Secrets of the Empire, Sigil of Wisdom, Sigil of Power, or Titan Runestones.

To learn more about the Legendary Cloak quest line, check out our previous blog posts: I am Legendary and The Time Has Come: Legendary Quest Line. Or, for a complete walkthrough check out Wowhead’s guide here.

While I do appreciate that blizzard is giving us anything to help with alts (for people that have been playing) or a catch up mechanic for those just starting the quest this buff is a joke.  Not only is it too short for anyone to really take full advantage of it, it is one of those too little too late things.  If blizzard really wanted to give people something to play out as a catch up mechanic for those alts and newer player it would need to last a lot longer.

Let just say I wanted to start my journey this week on my paladin, who has not stepped into a raid this expansion, the two weeks would effectively mean I can get all my sigils of power, without a shadow of a doubt right?

Now lets look at my last 4 characters to go through the process collecting sigils of power and wisdom.  All four of them finished it in two weeks.  One almost finished it in one week managing to snag 19 sigils in their first week of hitting 90.  So now maybe that one out of four lucky characters might only take one week and maybe those other three might even now take only one week.  What exactly did it speed up?  Lessen my need to run LFR for a couple of sigils?  Not exactly a friendly catch up is it.  Sure, any time I can avoid doing the LFR is a good time, but lowering it like that seems more like a joke than anything else.

And to further the joke even more what happens if you are on the valor portion of the quest.  Just started it, or started it one week ago.  You get nothing.  Congratulation for being late to the show, we are going to give you a buff to make collecting the things for the legendary quest line easier.  Too bad you can't use it because you are stuck collecting valor for the entire time this special buff is lasting.  Sucks to be you... loser.  That is the attitude blizzard is giving its players with this buff.

How about if you are alliance side and stuck on the PvP quests and want to take advantage of this.  You better get used to spending the better part of your entire life PvPing if you want to move along with the quest line and take advantage of this.  Winning the two battlegrounds as alliance is such a nightmare that it would give the grim reaper nightmares.  Death would be scared. 

So lets say now you feel forced to complete that part of the quest line to take advantage of this.  It could very well make you end up hating the game.  I know it did on my lock who I once spent the better part of 8 hours over a weekend PvPing trying to get my two wins and it never happened.  What about the poor sap who does not have the free time I do and is not capable of investing that sort of time?  Better hope you are lucky or the buff will be long gone before you see two wins in PvP.  Jokes on you when you miss the whole event because you happened to make the unlucky choice of rolling an alliance character.  Not saying all is hopeless.  I have one shot both on two characters, so you can still get lucky.  Good luck, but it is not like blizzard cares if you are stuck there.

Now, the increased reputation gain, that is something great and something that will be worth taking advantage of.  If you can manage to kill anything on the isle of thunder with the 100s if not 1000s of people that will also be looking to take advantage of this.  Better bring some friends that can mow things down fast or your double reputation will actually build up slower than normal reputation did when the isle was empty.  My mage, on a dead isle, needed 5K more reputation.  I killed stuff while in queue for the LFR, not even chain pulling, just waiting for them to walk to me, for 45 minutes and was exalted.  I'll be willing to bet I managed to get more reputation at normal rate while not even rushing my kills while alone in 45 minutes than you will at 100% increased rep with everyone and their mother there to take advantage of that tiny window they have for increased reputation.

For people on the further parts, secrets and stones, this will be a god send.  Last week I had a few characters with luck.  8 secrets on a hunter and 9 on a druid.  And last week I also had almost no luck.  2 secrets on a mage and 2 stones on a monk.  So any boost will be a welcome boost.

For anyone at those further stages this ia a nice buff, a huge buff, and you would be best to take advantage of it.  For anyone else, it is a joke.  I really feel bad, very bad, for any poor sap caught in collecting valor stage right now.  My most heartfelt feelings go out to you, you deserve better from a game you pay to play.  Better than getting stuck without being able to take advantage of a buff that was intended for everyone, well, everyone but you that is.  You get nothing and you'll like it.  Sorry.

Now, if blizzard really wanted to make a catch up mechanic here is how you do it.  It is about time some one with half a brain (because that is all I have and it is still a full half more than anyone at blizzard has) tells them how to make a real catch up mechanic.

For those that already have a legendary cloak on one character:

1) This buff should be active all the time on all character on any server they play.

For everyone going after their first cloak:

2) The valor part should be capable of being completed along side the rest of the quest line.  As in you can be collecting valor while also collecting secrets.  It should no longer be a bump in the road.
3) The PvP part should be changed to "participate" in each battleground, not win each.

Now those simple three changes would be something to toot their own horn about, this, is not.  This is the joke of the black price.   If they made those changes I could see it drawing people back to finish it, I can see people popping on alts to finish it, I can see people trying to get it on characters they had not even considered getting it on.  As it is, if you are not already on the secrets phase or starting it this week, this buff is more an insult than a help.

Not saying I am not going to take advantage of it.  I would be a fool not to, but it should not be for only 2 weeks if for no other reason than it is effectively screwing anyone that is stuck on the valor part in full or in part.  That is why this is a joke.  But it makes sense, because blizzard is a joke lately.  Hey, lets be happy, at least they gave us advanced warning this time, not like the last buff where they released it in the middle of nowhere after many people already valor capped and let it run long enough so some people were capable of getting an extra week out of it while others that had to work couldn't.  So some people got only one weeks worth of use from the buff and others got three weeks.  Gee, thanks blizzard.  Blizzard just loves screwing things up.  Want them find a way to screw this up too?  I mean, even further than it is. 

Ask someone that just started the valor collection this week how excited they are about this.  I am pretty sure they would have some very colorful words for blizzard and rightfully so, because this is a joke.

Nice try blizzard and thanks for the buff anyway.  Next time try to think of more than just throwing any sort of buff out there for a couple of weeks to try and save face because we are stuck in a horrible content drought.

Monday Random Thoughts

- I sometimes wonder if I really like the idea of valor upgrades.

- I mean they are nice to have, but they suck to waste valor on them.

- I am at the stage on all my characters, even alts that just hit 90, that I hate using valor on anything less than 553.

- It almost seems like putting perfume on a pig.

- Even if you upgrade an LFR piece is is still a piece of crap.

- I really wish valor gear was back.

- Don't know about you but I would much rather spend valor on a 553 piece than on upgrading a 528 one.

- There is absolutely no competition there.

- Heck, I would rather buy a 553 piece at 2250 valor and then win a better 553 piece the same day than waste 1000 valor to upgrade something I end up replacing that same day.

- It happened to me on one of my hunters yesterday.

- I had won a pair of boots the last time I raided on it, to replace 540 ones.

- Logging on to it for the first time since then I put them on, upgraded them, reenchanted as needed, changed a few gems and did some reforging.

- Then I used the in game finder for a normal group while I went to kill some gulp frogs for stone so I can get my weekly valor.

- Within a short time I get a whisper asking if I want to come to nazgrim.

- I asked normal or heroic, he said normal, I said, okay.

- I really would have wanted to do sha of prided, could you an AoC warforged or the tier chest.

- I have a flex chest so that would be a nice upgrade.

- Or if I could get the freaking legs to drop of the celestial or klaxxi bosses.

- That would work too.

- I have off set pieces for everything, but no tier legs to move pieces around.

- Warforged legs, warforged shoulders, warforged helm and warforged gloves.

- No warfroged chest however, so even if I got legs, I do not have a decent chest for it.

- Either way, back to naz and we killed him no problem and the warforged boots drop.

- Ever win something you wanted and been upset you won it?

- I just spent 1000 valor on the boots I am wearing, I just changed 2 gems, 2 enchants and spent money on reforging.

- I just wasted all that.

- On this character is was no big deal because it was connected to my main collection of characters so getting everything it needed was just a matter of character hopping.

- But what if it were one of my hunters without a network.

- I decided to gem up my horde hunter the other day, only the pieces 553 or better mind you, and it cost me 3K.

- That is not all my pieces, that does not include enchants.

- Sure I can make money, but that sucks wasting it if you are just going to replace it.

- That is why I try to only upgrade things 553 or higher.

- Less chance of them being replaced soon.

- Back to my run, the chest dropped off spoils, I won it, so now I have a normal level chest, only need the tier legs to go with it so I can put on the normal chest in place of the flex tier one and still keep my 4 piece.

- Was having a great run, so when we get to klaxxi I am hoping for the best.

- To be all normal geared or better I would need those legs so I can downgrade my warforged one to put on the 553 chest and keep my 4 piece and a ring, because I still have a flex ring.

- I was hoping one would drop and I would coin the other, was having good luck so far this run.

- No luck this time.

- The group did not even make an attempt on garrosh.

- Either way, good night, except for the fact that I wasted all that valor on something that only lasted me a couple of hours.

- And lets say I won those legs.

- I would have to wait 2 weeks for it to be worth switching out the new chest and legs for the old chest and legs.

- Not to mention having to wait another week so I can put on those boots.

- And all this has me wondering, are upgrades really a good idea, or just a general annoyance.

- I like upgrades, do not get me wrong, but in times like this I just can't help but say I hate them.

- It just sucks to win something that will replace something you just wasted 1000 valor on.

- It sucks even worse that it is an upgrade that I need to wait a week so I can upgrade it before it is actually an upgrade.

- The upgrade system needs some work, not sure what, but it needs some work.

- Maybe a system to transfer the upgrade from one piece to another for half valor cost or for some sum of gold as a gold sink.

- But any way to actually put on my upgrade when I get it would have been nice.

- Hey, I am sure someone loves the upgrade system.

- I am sure someone hates it too.

- So if there are people that like it AND people that dislike it, it will be removed.

- Blizzard could not make up its own mind on anything.

- If some people like it and some people don't they will need to remove it, can't have that, have to try to please everyone or displease everyone.

- They can not listen to the whims of the players.

- Except if it is something everyone dislikes.

- Then it stays.

- Was reading over patch notes and thinking, I was just really starting to like druid healing again.

- So said I am going to have to ditch it again when the new expansion comes out.

- I like having all instants basically.

- I like being able to jump around as a tree while I heal.

- I like that I can move my shrooms wherever I want when I want.

- Now, no instants, 30 second cooldown on moving shrooms, no bloom.

- Can someone say... booooorrrrrriiinnnnngggg.

- Blizzard has a bad, very bad, habit of screwing over healers at the beginning of every single expansion and this next one will be no different.

- Except they are taking screwing healers over to all new heights.

- A jumping thee is probably one of the most iconic things I remember from my early raiding.

- I wanted to be that tree.

- It is why when my druid hit max in wrath I tried my hand at healing because that looked like so much fun.

- It is why I quit druid healing in cataclysm because they removed the tree.

- It is why I decided to give it a try again this expansion because there was a glyph that made me a tree.

- And it is why I will ditch it again next expansion because I will not be able to be the jumping tree any longer.

- People are enjoying something?  We can't have that.

- Lets remove it.

- Blizzards motto.

- Like I was so excited to see marks was going to be a top spec for hunters again.

- To almost ending up in tears just thinking about how they removed every bit of heart the spec might have had.

- What is it now, a 4 button rotation?

- Steady for focus, aimed to bleed, chimea and toss on cooldown.

- Oh yeah, and kill shot when the mob gets low.

- 5 buttons, no procs, no interaction on how the abilities work with each other.

- Just create a one button marco, because there will never need to be anything to react to, and you too can do 100% of your maximum potential as a hunter.

- Seriously blizzard, WTF?

- I am all for easier rotations, look at the player base, they can't even do the ones around now, but this is a bit too much.

- I liked the marks of old, an easy rotation that was hard to pull off perfectly with that split second delay and you lose your buff.

- All when you could not move and shoot.

- That is how rotations should be designed.

- Easy enough that anyone can do it, but rewarding for when people can do it right.

- You could tell a good hunter from a bad one back then.

- Now, with the rotation in a one button macro for 100% potential, you would never be able to tell.

- But they will not let that go live.

- They can not let that go live.

- I would be willing to bet that will not go live.

- I just hope they are testing something and going to add all the stuff they took out back in once they balance it as they add it back.

- I sure hope that is what is happening.

- It is the alpha after all.

- This can't be where marks ends up.

- But I never underestimate blizzard.

- Do you know how many things I have heard people say, don't complain, that will never make it live, and it does?

- Hundreds, easily hundreds.

- So never take for granted the stupidity of blizzard.

- I did some LFRs this weekend, way too many if you ask me.

- My monk needed 4 runestones to get the cloak, did every single boss that could drop one and now I need 2.

- Come on, that is ridiculous, if it were not for the guaranteed ones I would have got none.

- I needed 4 secrets for my mage to move onward and with more bosses to get them from this should not be a problem.

- I did every boss.

- I even queued again if I came in on a partial run so I could get them all.

- That is all 12 ToT bosses and the first 8 siege ones.

- I go into next week needing 2 more.

- I only got the two guaranteed ones?

- You have to be freaking kidding me blizzard, really?

- Now I remember why I stopped trying to get the cloak on alts.

- Now I remember why I stopped doing LFRs.

- It is bad enough I need to deal with wait times, bad people, bad players, toxic behavior, but I also need to deal with horrible drop rates.

- I did all the bosses I could do on two characters and only got the guaranteed ones on them?

- Basically that means I got none.

- Can't count the two I am guaranteed as getting one, because I am supposed to get one.

- However, I have been screwed on that one too plenty of times.

- Someone said put in a ticket, they will give it to you.

- Yeah, maybe in your little world, not mine.

- I once put in a ticket because I did not get one.

- By the time they got back to me the week reset and I got the one I needed and then they responded saying I do not need it, why did I put in a ticket about it, I can get in trouble for putting in false tickets.

- Well, I did need it three days ago when I put in the ticket you moron.

- I did not say it like that, but I sure as hell wanted to.

- I did tell them I did need it when I put in the ticket but I got it after reset.

- I did hint at the fact if they had answered in less than 3 days I would have still needed it then.

- Two weeks ago a friend that was collecting sigils put in a ticket, on my request, because he did not get one on sha of pride, one of the so called guaranteed drop ones.

- He had 10 power and 9 wisdom, that would have finished off that part for him and that was the last boss he could do that week.

- He got a quick response, unlike me.

- His response?

- It did drop one for you, a sigil of power and being you did not need any more you did not get it.

- My friend said exactly what I would have.

- It was fixed so that you can not get over 10 and if you would get one it would give you the one you need.

- The GM said, sorry, can't help you, it dropped a power, you did not need a power, you will have to wait until next week.

- There is useless, and there is a blizzard GM, less than useless.

- At least someone useless would have tried to help, this guy did not even try and fail, he just said "no soup for you".

- Have I mentioned that the mage circle thing should be instant cast?

- Would love to place it as I am moving from place to place.

- I am starting to get really good with it however.

- Learning the perfect time to drop it, keeping track of it, and all that jazz.

- People still seem to, oddly enough, stack in it for some reason.

- I was considering making a macro that says get off of my lawn.

- I am a gnome after all.

- Circle = lawn.

- Garden gnome.

- Get it.

- Ha ha.

- Okay fine, only I think it is funny.

- I got two complements on that pug I ran.

- One was someone that whispered me saying, "this is an alt, I would love to see what you do on a main, amazing"

- The other was after I said I could use the chest if no one else needed it because I only had a 540.

- Someone whispered me, how the hell can you do those numbers still having some 540 gear.

- Of course I did not lead on that my main was also a hunter.

- So my "alt" was not like most peoples alts.

- It is not like I was playing in a role or class I do not normally play on.

- So I let them have their fun.

- And I did get a smile from the complements.

- By my own standards however I did not even do that well.

- I did have one awesome start on thok and we wiped.

- I was still over 600K when he went into the first transition, still over 500K when he hit the second.

- I think I had a chance, a really outside chance, of breaking 400K on it for the first time ever.

- And not just breaking it, but really going above and beyond it.

- We wiped with 17% left and me still sitting at 458K.

- I would have done it.

- I ended with 316 when we did down it.

- It feels so blah after flirting with 450.

- It is all in the luck of the procs.

- I must have had a 50 in a row explosive shot streak that run.

- Heck, I do not know how long it was, but it seemed to last forever.

- And then when it stopped, it started all over again.

- I don't think I had my serpent sting up for 90% of that attempt because if it was a choice between another explosive or reapplying my sting there really was no choice.

- Screw the sting baby, I am going medieval on this dinos ass.

- I really do think that DPS sometimes seems like 80% luck 10% skill and 10% connection.

- A little bit of skill, a nice fast connection and with some luck you do 450K and without it you do 316K.

- I guess I will be glad is blizzard could get back to skill based rotations instead of luck based one.

- At least if I do poorly I know I can get better with practice.

- But when it comes to luck, I do not know if I did well, or just got lucky.

- How can you learn to be the best you can be when everything revolves around luck?

- Not saying I did not like having explosive shot lit for an entire fight, or what felt like it, I loved it.

- But now no matter how good I do the fight, even if I do everything 100% within my power correctly, I will never see that number.

- Not without luck, or lots more gear.

- And the game should be able skill.

- Not about luck.

- Not about gear.

- And most definitely not about people standing in my gnome mages circle.

- Get off of my lawn.

- Have a great day.