Leveling through PVP?

Earning XP via PVP was the one aspect of WAR I really liked and always wished Blizzard would introduce into WoW. I had lost all hope until now that they would even do this:

It's something we're very interested in doing. I'm confident you'll find out more soon. :)

Now wouldn't that just be the bomb? Original post here.

Enough about gear already

So we beat that one to death I think. Lets get back on the "doldrums" discussion instead. Since the doldrums have started a bit early this year I thought I would lay out how it normally works. Usually in June people start to get itchy and want to take some time off from WoW to actually go outside and see the Sun, or entertain aspirations of dating. Parents take some time off to spend more time with their kids, or take family vacations. The end result is that most guild suffer hits to their raiding teams and begin to have problems with raid attendance. Many guilds disband or combine with other guilds or go on grand recruiting sprees and for a while raiding still sputters. But then after a short period things usually bottom out and raiding gets back to a modicum of normalcy as the guild sees a bit of progress in their raiding once again.

And things are good throughout the month of July. The "new" raid team has been raiding for a few weeks and not only is getting used to raiding together, but people are getting some much needed upgrades. Then comes the month of August and the people who took off the Summer start to come back. And this is when the guild drama begins anew as people who left their spots open for others to fill over the Summer displace those who filled those spots. And sometimes a good deal of indignation and drama ensues, though to be fair some times the transition back to the "core" raiding team happens without any drama as well.

My own guild is following the recruiting spree model right now. We've invited probably 12 or 13 people over the past couple weeks and all but 4-5 have left already. To be honest most of those aren't much of a loss since they really weren't geared to the level we're currently raiding at, or just didn't have the wherewithal to raid effectively. The remaining few are not bad but some need some gear and need a little more experience. A couple though are pretty good so in the end I think we've made some progress. We'll just have to wait and see what happens in August as those who took the Summer off come back and want their spots back.

This Summer is not all together typical, not only because the doldrums are start a bit early, but also because Ulduar was just released a few weeks ago and most guilds are still slogging through the middle of the raid. The people who have filled the spots in our raid group right now are not being carried. No, instead they are having to earn their gear like everyone else on the team right now and I think will have a compelling argument to maintain their spots.

For those guilds that follow this route there is risk to inviting without following the normal, more careful methods that are used the rest of the year. Guild hoppers are not always looking to become a permanent part of the team but are rather more interested in obtaining a few pieces of gear before they leave for another guild. That gear, which undoubtedly would have gone to someone else who is looking to remain and become a permanent member is a waste and the worst aspect of raiding over the Summer. I myself never did obtain my Tier 7/7.5 shoulders (i hated the way they looked anyway) because I lost the roll on 4 occasions to people we had invited to our team when we ran Naax. And lost them another two times to people who were on the team already. That's just one example of what can, and does happen to raid teams that don't exercise restraint while recruiting.

Raiding might not be all about loot, but anyone that says they don't want some loot along the way is simply not being completely honest.

Speaking of gear

Since we've been speaking about gear quite a bit lately I've obviously been thinking along those lines. And it occurred to me, as I was earning honor for my PVP suit for my Shaman just how ugly it is. Then I started thinking about previous "sets" I really did like, like the Druid tier 4 and tier 5 for instance. Wouldn't it be nice if instead of Blizzard creating all new sets using all new art work every arena season, or every tier they instead offer a means to upgrade the stats on existing sets you already have?

As far as Druids go, I liked the old tier 4 set the best and I'd still be wearing it today if that were possible. I'd love to be able to update the stats on that old set instead of having to change my set every 10 levels, or have to go through three tier sets every "end game". That isn't to say that Blizzard should get out of the new art business, just that the capability should be there for those who would rather keep an older set instead of everyone all wearing the same stuff every expansion.

Gear progression part 2

Now that you understand a little history and the current progression means lets get to the meat of how progression works currently and is meant to work. Players progress in their gear as they level by picking up the odd quest reward and from 5-man instances. When they hit 80 they are expected to start running Heroics, which as I previously mentioned, drop badges of heroism in addition to the loot off each boss. The loot off each boss is fairly good and there are a number of instances to run, so you should be running these and obtaining at the minimum, an all blue suit before heading into Naax-10. And I say Naax-10 because you won't be competitive in Naax-25 in your blues, and without some level of Naax-10 gear. That is, unless your group is willing to carry you and get your geared up. There is also a good number of craftable items which can be made that are comparable to lower Naax-10 gear, so you could get a leg up by picking some of those up as well.

In any regard the accepted progression pre-patch 3.1 was Heroics > Naax-10 (OS-10/EoE-10) > Naax-25 (OS-25/EoE-25). With the introduction of Ulduar in patch 3.1 Blizzard stated they expected progression to work from Naax-10 > Ulduar-10 and Naax-25 to Ulduar-25. However with Emalon now in the Vault of Archevon you can get also get Tier 8.5 pieces from VoA-25 and Tier 8 from VoA-10 as well. In fact I recommend raiding VoA-25 because unless you are in a very hard core raiding group you likely won't see any of the Tier 8 or Tier 8.5 pieces for quite a while. They're in the latter half of the Ulduar and Ulduar is considerably more difficult than Naax was. That definitely can give you a big leg up on the progression tree if you are lucky to have your pieces drop and win the rolls.

Other wise you are at the mercy of Emblems again. The Badges/Emblems have been so popular because they give you a definite means to obtain specific pieces you may want. In the Burning Crusade people ran Heroics for the Badges of Justice and paid little attention to anything else. Unless you were completely new to level 70, anyway. Unlike the Emblem system now, there are considerably less choices on the Emblem vendors now than there were on the Badges of Justice vendor then. While you may not care more for the loot that may drop from Heroics, it is a great deal better than the loot tables from the older level 70 heroic bosses. And beyond the few items you will probably want off the Emblem of Heroism vendor your progression will very clearly be up and into Naax-10 or perhaps Naax-25.

With the limit of choice through the Emblem system Blizzard is giving players a subtle push into the raiding end-game. But again the limited choices for gear you can obtain through the emblems you will be getting while raiding puts you back into the waiting game for specific pieces to fall off specific bosses. Luckily in Naax some items are in multiple boss loot tables however.

I think the system, as currently constituted, works very well for most players initially. But after a few weeks of running heroics and raiding you've probably already purchased everything you need off the Heroism or Valor vendors. It was six months between the introduction of WotLK and Naax until patch 3.1 and the introduction of Ulduar, which is a very long time to raid without much chance for some gear progression. Ulduar resets the equation and gives people a lot of room for upward progression. Especially since it's a great deal more difficult and people will take longer to gear up. But it doesn't change anything overall. You will get to a point where you are able to purchase everything you need from the Conquest vendor and then will be back to waiting for specific things off specific bosses.

What it all means is Blizzard purposefully has put a throttle on gear progression. Expect to spend a lot more time raiding to get smaller upgrades.

Taking a moment

I got a couple of really nice upgrades last night. First, I'm the first person in my guild to obtain a Tier 8.5 piece (pants), and I also got a ring off Flame Leviathon. So my WoW Heroes score went up considerably last night. I'm now the 29th best geared Death Knight on my server, so I'm finally making some progress on that upward trek.

But what I really wanted to mention was my UTTER SHOCK at how much damage I was able to pull off on one small mob pack before XT in Ulduar last night. I'd never done more than around 5k on any pack previously, but last night I did over 10k on one pack. Yes, you saw that correctly. 10k with those two new upgrades.

That's some crazy stuff going on right there. The other guy that did 10k DPS on that pull is a Rogue btw. Fan of Knives seems to be working out quite well for them.

Gear progression part 1

While we're on the subject of how one goes about getting PVP gear, I thought we might discuss the current PVE gear progression right now as well. Throughout the Burning Crusade Blizzard created a new way of earning gear for your character, independent of individual instances which had been the only means of obtaining gear previously. Many people were forced to run specific instances upwards of 40 or 50 times hoping a boss would drop the one piece of specific loot you needed. Back in that day, where each class' class gear, was often spread out among several bosses in two or even three instances, there were no tokens to be found. Instead, the bosses had a chance of dropping the individual piece you needed. Since they would also drop the piece other classes needed it created a tremendous time sink as it often took months to obtain your full level 60, pre-raid, suit. Once you began raiding the same system was in place as well. Individual class set pieces were dropped from various bosses. Tier 1 dropped from bosses in Molten Core and Onyxia's lair, and Tier 2 dropped in Black Wing Lair and it again could take months of raiding to obtain your full set.

Recognizing the frustration many players experienced with this system Blizzard began experimenting with a token system in the original Naaxramus. There, the bosses would drop a token, instead of the individual class pieces that were keyed to multiple classes. The individual winning the token could take the token to a vendor and purchase the piece for their class. This system enabled more classes to more quickly earn their set pieces and enabled Blizzard to reduce the size of the loot tables on a lot of bosses. Blizzard carried this system forward into the Burning Crusade but also instituted a second system for earning gear independent of individual bosses or specific loot tokens.

Once you started running Heroics in the Burning Crusade you would earn Badges of Justice for boss kills. In addition to whatever loot the boss would drop, they would also drop a badge that you could accumulate and use to purchase gear off a specific vendor -- the badge vendor -- in Shattrath. The new badge system was wildly popular and players began clamoring for more and better gear obtainable through it. Old vestiges of frustration with bosses not dropping specific pieces of loot resurfaced and Blizzard responded during the Burning Crusade with two updates to the gear on the badge vendor.

The token and badge system was carried forward into WotLK but while the token system remained identical to the system instituted during the Burning Crusade Blizzard made some changes to the badge system. In Burning Crusade there was one type of badge, called Badges of Justice, that could purchase everything and anything from the badge vendor. When Blizzard updated and added to the gear already on the badge vendor anyone that already had enough badges could simply buy the new gear on the spot. And it lead to people that had never raided, or that had never gotten past Karazan, getting gear that was comparable to gear from much higher raid instances.

In order to correct that Blizzard created tiers of badges in WotLK. From Heroics and 10-man raids (Naax, EoE, OS) bosses would drop Emblems of Heroism which enabled you to purchase gear comparable to what would drop in the early 10-man raids. Emblems of Valor dropped off bosses in all the beginning 25-man raids (Naax, EoE, OS) enabling you to purchase gear comparable to what dropped in the early 25-man raids. And with the recent introduction of Ulduar, Emblems of Conquest drop from Ulduar-25 and Emblems of Valor from Ulduar-10. From the outset this tweaking of the badge system seems logical, however instead of adding to the limited amount of gear available from either the Heroism or Valor badge vendors Blizzard created the 3rd tier -- conquest -- which clouds the gear progression for this system somewhat and has lead to a similar feeling of of frustration experienced during original WoW.

While it's still likely some people might still need or want to purchase items off the heroism or valor vendors, most raiders have long since purchased everything they need from those or are now getting better gear from Ulduar-25 or the Conquest vendor. There is no longer any reason to run heroics or any of the earlier raids when you can run Ulduar-10 (for the gear, not for the emblems) or Ulduar-25 instead. Many people commented on this problem when Blizzard announced how they were going to handle emblems in Ulduar but they stuck with their plan. As they so famously do from time to time, they simply stated "they were fine" with how things were going to work out. It was all part of their larger plan, but it still leaves players with a dilemma now in that most often they are back to waiting for specific pieces to drop off specific bosses and running raids perhaps long since past their intention to do so.

I only speculate, but I would expect Blizzard to follow the same scheme with the introduction of Icecrown some months down the road by introducing a 4th and perhaps a 5th tier of emblems for the 10 and 25-man raids. More uncertain is what they will do with the upcoming raid that is to be introduced in patch 3.2. I would expect them to continue using Emblems of Valor and Conquest there as well for the 25 and 10-man raids respectively, but one never knows with Blizzard.

Why aren't there any weapons available from honor vendors?

So a little level 1 alt on the official forums would like to know. Actually I would like to know that too. Up until WotLK there has always been an array of weapons available through the regular honor system, in addition to the other gear. In BC Blizzard also made previous season arena gear available through the honor system as well. But in WotLK Blizzard changed their attitude toward "welfare epics", continuing to enable access to most arena gear from the regular honor system but making weapons arena system only.

I'm uncertain as to the exact reason for this particular change, though there had been a constant din of disapproval from hardcore arena players in BC that casuals were getting good weapons. That despite the fact that the best weapons came only from current Arena play, or from Raiding. I see no reason why that couldn't still be the case now.

As it stands, unless you are willing to participate in arena play and can obtain the needed rating for even the lowest ilevel weapons available through the arena system, the only way for you to obtain any weapons what so ever is through raiding or Heroics. We can completely discount regular 5-man instance weapons because they simply are not adequate for either raiding or PVP.

Most people choose the raiding route as far as I can tell, which I think is not the most ideal route. Take me for example. I had been working on leveling a Paladin, which I wanted for healing BGs. I had no real intention of raiding with him since I raid on my Death Knight, but it looks like if I want a really decent weapon I'm going to have to.

In the back of my mind I really wonder if this new philosophy isn't geared toward making arena play even more popular tham it is currently in some corners. There are a lot of people who participate, but there are even more who don't and Blizzard has been pushing to get their arenas into E-Sports. Recently inking a deal ESL TV indicates they are becoming more serious about the effort, so it would seem to be in their interest to get everyone involved in arena play. Perhaps forcing people to participate in order to get weapons -- the only weapons that will also give you added resilience -- is intended to help in that regard.

Cox customers on east coast unable to access WoW

Sometime around noon EST a cut fiber on the Cox network has disabled all access to the Blizzard network, making it impossible for mid-eastern coast Cox subscribers to log into WoW. Normally internet protocols would reroute requests along another route, however, Cox seems to have their backbone configured to only route packets bound for Blizzard through this one route and it stops at ashbbrj02-as0.0.r2.as.cox.net (68.1.1.232).

So much for a leisurely afternoon of leveling my Paladin to 80.

[Update] Cox restored network access to Blizzard's data centers by 4:30 pm EST.

Blizzard wins Wintergrasp....we lose

The effects of the change in honor and battle-ground quests have been as foretold. Over the last couple days there have been noticeably less people in Wintergrasp. I've even personally seen people who were unaware of the changes asking for others in the raid group to share the daily quests because they were unavailable to them. When they were told in raid chat that the quests were now weekly they uniformly were dismayed. Not a one of them stayed.

There was even a funny statement from one raid member last night "WTB Horde" as we basically crushed through the walls and into the relic room virtually unscathed.

So, Blizzard, you win. You succeeded in de-incentivizing people to play the very battleground you used to help sell the expansion to begin with. People now run Wintergrasp, by and large, to get their weeklies done and to gain access to VoA for that week. Then they head to greener pastures.

Thanks for taking the low road instead of taking those other steps you alluded to so many times but refused to take.

The Albino Drake

Just before the release of WotLK Blizzard introduced the new achievement system. One of the achievements requires you to acquire 50 mounts, for which you are rewarded an albino drake mount. At the time it was fairly difficult to get to 50 mounts and required you to grind up Netherwing and Kurenai rep in order to meet that requirement. Now of course it's much easier with the plethora of new mounts released in WotLK. And so I finally completed this last night on my DK.