No More Hero(ics) Anymore

Tell me I am not the only person getting royally pissed off in Heroics.

Once upon a time, back in those heady days post-Expansion launch, the Heroic was serious business. You needed planning, crowd control, extra buffs and friends who could spare the time to make sure when you walked into an Instance, you came out with the end boss loots. It wasn't about finishing in double quick time it was completing it at all. In the case of Oculus, for instance, it could mean four or five HOURS worth of effort.

What the Hell happened?

I don't even get the time to apply a foodbuff or summon a pet anymore. More often than not, as soon as I accept the queue and zone in the Tank has already begun pulling. There's very little buffing AT ALL until either someone dies or the first argument ensues about a) who wants what loot and b) what bosses can we concievably skip to speed up the process. I've seen what I can only call an exploit in the Old Kingdom that circumnavigates everything except the last boss. I hardly ever do the first boss in UP any more, or anyone except Brann and the last guy in the Halls of Stone. Making instances quicker has simply encouraged people to cut corners, which is all very well until any of the ICC 5 mans appear and frankly all Hell breaks loose. Success rate on the Halls of Reflection in a PuG is 10%, on a good day I'm the last one left as the bickering starts when we all wipe on the first boss and everyone blames everyone else.

Of course, when you get a good group they are normally spectacuarly so, but still no-one suggests a second instance, it's simply about getting the Frosties and buggering off. From the early days when the PuG was King, it's now all about doing Guild runs and speaking in disparaging tones about the quality of people Cross-Server. I bet everyone's just as belittling about each other...

How can this situation be improved? Put a gate outside the instance and give people a minute to stand and prepare a la BG's? Make it mandatory to kill every boss in the Instance in order to qualify for the Frosties from the last boss? Large rubber mallets that come out of your monitor and bash you over the head each time you argue over a boss to skip? I can only hope that Blizzard Towers is keeping a close eye on the dungeon stats and working out whose being smart and who's being an idiot when it comes to dungeon etiquette. What I will say however that having the Oculus pop up as an option will inevitably result in a 20 minute flawlessly issue-free instance. Everyone knows the quickest way to get in, grab their free booty and get the Hell out again. Ironically I feel this is the Instance model for the future. I would be rather afraid if I'm right...

Needless to say, I still run the odd PuG heroic early in the mornings, normally because the quality of player seems to be a lot better in the AM. Of course all that goes out the window on the Weeekends and during school holidays... but it's no fun anymore, it's a chore, or simply a way of getting Elbows, unless it's one of the ICC Three. The difference in quality and application required is noticable. Maybe instead of making the older 5 mans easier maybe Blizzard should have made them harder, so that people were forced to concentrate when doing them...

I used to like Heroics, now I find myself wishing there was another way.

The Mighty Nerfbat

Once the mortal enemy of the Retribution Paladin, the Nerfbat has a new calling. It's task, to completely belittle the 5 Man Heroic Dungeon!

Here, via wow.com, is a list of what we should expect to see completely mullered in the next patch. Those of you of a sensitive disposition may wish to look away, as this isn't pleasant...

Halls of Stone

• Brann Bronzebeard has been working out, so he'll run faster during the escort event.

Forge of Souls

• Devourer of Souls will cast Mirrored Soul less often.
• Trash mob Spell Reflect abilities have been changed. It now has a casting time, and will proc only twice at a rate of 75% instead of 100%.

Nexus

• Anomalus will create rifts only once.

Ahn'Kahet: Old Kingdom

• Elder Nadox's Ahn'kahar Guardian will only spawn once.
• Jedoga Shadowseeker will initiate her volunteer phase only once.
• Some trash packs between Nadox and Jedoga have been reduced/removed.

Pit of Saron

• Dead players are now able to re-enter the instance when the Ick/Krick and Forgemaster Garfrost encounters are active.

Utgarde Pinnacle

• Players can bring down Skadi's drake using only three harpoons, down from five.
• Svala Sorrowgrave only casts Ritual of the Sword once, down from thrice.

Vault of Archavon

• Toravon the Ice Watcher has been added to the dungeon! He awaits your challenge on 10-and 25-player difficulties.

Violet Hold

• Portals will open faster after Portal Guardians are killed.

It's still unclear whether this is part of a patch that will be applied today in the US (MMO Champion are saying not this week), but it shouldn't be long before we do. If that's the case, EU nerfing would begin in earnest tomorrow morning...

He Told Me So

So, my husband was spot on. He said the first week we entered Ulduar they'd nerf it, and I laughed at him. How foolish I am.

We're currently in the process of making further difficulty adjustments via hotfix to the following encounters:

• Ignis the Furnace Master
• Razorscale
• XT-002 Deconstructor
• The Assembly of Iron
• Kologarn
• Auriaya

The difficulty of these encounters is being lowered in multiple ways. Some of the adjustments are live already, others will be live soon. Note that some of the spell tooltips for the encounter will not reflect the hotfixes being deployed until the next patch. As the hotfixes are deployed, the Service Status board will be updated. You can check the current hotfix thread here:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=16474158165&sid=1

Further adjustments are highly likely to some of the other encounters in Ulduar, but these were the highest priority encounters for us. We want to allow additional players to experience more of the cool Ulduar content.

I'm going to say I'm disappointed, because I really am.

Of course it's great news for many people who I KNOW would never have gotten past the XT-002 in it's pre-nerf state. However, it does (for a brief moment) make me wonder why Blizzard bothered with the testing at all. It also throws up an issue I was going to post on at the time I was on the PTR and I think is worth revisiting now: who actually tests on the PTR in the first place.

Casual raiders don't test content on the PTR. Hardcore guilds do. Casual raiders, by their very definition, have better things to do (like get ready for the patch in Heroics or by grinding mats to make items they'll need to be able to do the new content in the first place) If you want them to test stuff then the current PTR system is a complete and utter waste of time, because by the time they've gotten around to downloading the PTR patch or queued their characters for transfer... well, they're going to not want to waste any more of their time on something that won't give them any satisfaction. Really, if you want more people to get to see the content Blizz, you just need to give it to them. I assume it's easier to make hard encounters less taxing than make easier things more complex, hence the hotfix celebration of the last week. I have to think however there's an easier way. Not sure what it is, and if I think of it I'll be sure to let you know...

Anyway, it's great news for my Guild. Thursday is now our scheduled Jour du Biffage. Reports will of course be forthcoming...

RIP J.R. Hartley

Via www.socketdesign.co.uk: he was a great old bloke, wasn't he?

It hadn't occured to me until this morning that a couple of lines in the 3.1 patch notes has sounded the death knell to those of us who considered Fishing as truly Old Skool. One of the areas of the game which so long stood apart from the Nerfbat has finally and soundly been given a right kicking. Ol' JR would not be amused, I am sure.

You can now fish anywhere, regardless of skill. Every catch has the potential for fishing skill gains, but you are likely to catch worthless junk in areas that are too difficult for your skill.

This means, in real terms, that if you are L77, in Dalaran and in posession of a fishing rod and a 1 skill in Fishing you can take and do the Fishing Daily, and you will eventually complete it. Yes you will. As long as you can survive Northrend you'll have a daily done and be suitably rewarded and you will eventually get to 450. No need to stand in SW catching fish, or following schools around Outland, you can simly spend 15-20 minutes a day in Northrend and it's job done.

Of course it's great news for any of you who thought the fishing skill up was useless and pointless and a waste of time. This way you have the potential for new pets, 100g vendorable items (yes I got one this morning) and a new skill which means you can make a fortune selling fish on the AH coz no-one else has the skill... hang on, wait a minute... bang goes that moneymaker then ^^

In reality this has been a long time coming. The Crockilisks in the City quest from Old Man Barlow was generally accepted by most Guildies I know as a great quest as it meant they could level a bit in SW AND still have a chance at the quest item. For the pet collectors especially it was very well recieved. Considering that the complete the Salty Achievement requires you to fish up a fair selection of items, I suppose it really was a matter of time before this changed. Doesn't make me any less sad though. It was a LONG haul from 1-450, and for a long time in my Guild I remember being the only person with the 300 skill at all. I'd supply people with fish in exchange for potions. Aaaah, nostalgia.

Oh well, off to get all my alts who can take the quests in Shatt to do the dailies there so they can level in Outland then...