Apologies for the temporary absence, mainly due to the fact that I've had sod all to talk about. Not sure whether I do here either, I'll just go with the stream of consciousness for a bit and see where it takes me.
And so another reset comes and goes and again the Shade of Aran stands mocking us at the end. Valiant efforts were made and many repair bills were incurred over the last few days to try and put an end to his taunting of us. The numbers were bandied around for a while; 40%, 18%, 7%...surely he would fall this time? No, fecker was still standing there at the end of it. The other group fared no better, though with a lack of Warlocks to banish a couple of his adds they certainly had a tougher time of it.
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=268897512&sid=1
It seems that we are not alone however. This is a thread started by Bloodlust Enthroned, a fellow Khadgarian raiding guild a bit further down the line than us. Seems that we are all having the same problems then, but to what can we ascribe the reason for this?
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/misc/wowinsider/wowi12/magtheridon.html
From Blizzard's very own pages comes a potential answer. Whilst they speak of Magtheridon and the 25 man content in general, this also applies to the 10 man raids we currently spend our waking life on. Blizzard have attempted to balance tactics (a la 40 man) with tightly scripted elements that force us to react in a certain way or die (Arcane Wreath or annoying Blizzard thing that covers half the room) and the element of chance (who Moroes garottes). I can see how they thought that the element of chance will make things more "exciting", meaning that people have to react fast to keep on track; it's when the random element causes a wipe through nobodies fault that can cause demoralisation. Perhaps it's this randomness that has been introduced into the raid aspect that has caused so many guilds to explode? In their rigid hardcore regime where everyone had to do exactly as they are told at all times, perhaps they were too inflexible to deal with the randomness of the new encounters and simply withered away.
So what does this have to do with us I hear you cry? Well I'd like to think that Covenant can step forward and fill the breach that these other guilds have left. Our casually hardcore (hardly casualcore?) approach means that we (hopefully) have the discipline to succeed at the scripted parts of the fights, yet adaptable enough that the element of chance is minimised (Nefarian anyone?) When we truely master ourselves in this way we will progress to the next level.
It is almost a shame that the Easter break falls upon us now, just when Aran looked like he was going to cough up the goods; bring him down and we can make a serious assault on the remaining bosses. Alas it was not meant to be and with the reset comes a week's break from concentrated raiding (though I'm sure there will be enough people around to get some done). Instead as a kind of last charge at glory, we return to the scene of previous hilarity, Gruul's Lair. Early on we visited there to get a feel for the place. The only thing we truely felt was the pointy bit of their weapons as we were routed on more than one occasion. But now there is a "nerf" in place (apparently you can now only call yourself truely 1337 if you managed to down the place pre-nerf day) and we have better gear and more practise at raiding once more (2 month layoff certainly rusts the reflexes somewhat) we get to go face the challenge once more. Who knows, perhaps we'll survive long enough to get a few of them down this time?
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
On a Day Like This
Today, Covenant HQ has been a hive of activity. Like the busy little bees we are, many discussions have been taking place (Oh Noes! Teh Hidden Agenda!!!1!!©) about what to do with our raid progress. It seems that we have stalled somewhat at the place where if we can just get passed, we can rapidly improve our progress. It seems that the dashboard of the Covenant Juggernaut has developed a bit of a rattle and whilst it's not a major problem, sometimes when you're behind the wheel, damn it can be annoying.
So to make sure that we don't get too bogged down in it, there will be some minor retuning to the way things work. We're going to bust our balls to get everything in place so that we can walk into Karazhan and the bosses will cough up their lewtz rather than making us fight for it. Details are still being hammered out and to be honest, there won't be much difference to the way we do things now but we hope that the little tweaks we implement will make us the lean, mean ganking machine once more.
Keep an eye on the forums, details will follow.
So to make sure that we don't get too bogged down in it, there will be some minor retuning to the way things work. We're going to bust our balls to get everything in place so that we can walk into Karazhan and the bosses will cough up their lewtz rather than making us fight for it. Details are still being hammered out and to be honest, there won't be much difference to the way we do things now but we hope that the little tweaks we implement will make us the lean, mean ganking machine once more.
Keep an eye on the forums, details will follow.
Monday, March 26, 2007
The Day Today
Today I wished to go off one about anything that may have piqued my interest on the warcraft forums, something that sparked debate or gave some meaningful insight into the world in which we play. Just goes to show what you get for reading the official forums I guess. Aside from the usual complaints over how everyone has it so bad against other classes (ZOMG! Nref CloS, we Warlocks have to think!) there was absolutely nothing worth reading or discussing. "I know" I thought, "I'll check our 'Mercan friends. Surely they'll have something to say". They did...exactly the same shite as our European brethren.
Still as they say, no news is good news...unless you're a Warlock
Still as they say, no news is good news...unless you're a Warlock
Friday, March 23, 2007
I remember when all this was fields...
So it came to pass that after last night's enjoyable but also excruciatingly annoying raid where bad guys just refused to play fair, several of our lot managed to do a run through Shattered Halls to unwind. Now having never been there before, I was filled with a slight sense of "This is going to get expensive" because I remember the first time a group went into there, I was listening to the conversation over Vent and thinking "Ouch!". For several hours we sat in silence as they tried to figure out each encounter, wondering if they could do it this time. After they emerged sweaty and beaten, it was commented on that people would need much better gear to be able to do well there.
Fast forward 2 months and it's my turn. Having just handed over 19g in repairs after Karazhan, I didn't fancy having to do the same here, but on we went. It was with a sense of slight disappointment when we found that the place seemed somewhat friendlier. Groups that had previously given the first group the kind of beatdown reserved for red-headed stepchildren were falling over before our onslaught. In fact there was only one hairy moment and that was right at the end with the final boss and his whirlwindy, spinny assault of death. He fell meekly on the second attempt.
It set me to thinking about all the other places that as a guild we used to go to and thought they were hard. Encounters waged and lost because the target just seemed to hard at the time. Fast forward a short while, you maybe replace one or two items of gear, respec slightly to eke out a bit more healing or DPS and all of a sudden that same mob is a pussycat. Pre TBC it was the Baron Rivendare that caused problems, but get a few pieces of your dungeon set and a slightly better weapon perhaps and he goes down faster than a 2 dollar whore.
I guess that this really links back to my opening statement about Karazhan and the question should therefore be this: When the fuck will certain bosses become easy? I'm all for a long, hard fight with a mob always being right on the ragged edge. When you down them for that first time, there's the sense of elation (right up until the point you find the boss has dropped bloody dr00d gear again) and accomplishment. Now it's not so much accomplishment, more relief. I find that there are too many incalculable elements to these fights, it's not a case of tactics working or not working, you have to rely on random elements. Take Moroes for instance; his Garrote is nasty and spells certain doom if you can't get rid of it. Bubbles and Stoneskin work, but one of those relies on you choosing the correct race 70 levels ago. Noone is going to think "Oh yes the Moroes fight, I shall choose a Dwarf!". The other part is reliant on Paladin bubbles, which can only be used every few minutes, so basically you might get one or two off if you're lucky. Now if you are incredibly lucky, he'll go for these people first so by the time that the Garrote does start sticking, he'll be almost dead anyway. If he goes for myself though for instance, then that's 5 minutes of one of the healers having to keep an eye on me for the entire fight and pour much mana into keeping me alive. Of course there's always his 4 adds to consider and if one of those gets loose then it can cause havoc. Or if Moroes happens to stun the MT and decides to run off and gank one of the healers who also happen to be keeping one of the adds shackled...the list could go on.
It could just be that we aren't good enough for the encounter yet, but then what of the Maiden or Romeo and Juliet in the Opera event? Couple of her bolts at the same person within a second or two and our most promising attempt of the event falls down in tatters.
Scripted fights are supposed to be challenging, but with the right tactics should be beatable more times than not. These new fights are too unpredictable and down to random factors we can't control.
Fast forward 2 months and it's my turn. Having just handed over 19g in repairs after Karazhan, I didn't fancy having to do the same here, but on we went. It was with a sense of slight disappointment when we found that the place seemed somewhat friendlier. Groups that had previously given the first group the kind of beatdown reserved for red-headed stepchildren were falling over before our onslaught. In fact there was only one hairy moment and that was right at the end with the final boss and his whirlwindy, spinny assault of death. He fell meekly on the second attempt.
It set me to thinking about all the other places that as a guild we used to go to and thought they were hard. Encounters waged and lost because the target just seemed to hard at the time. Fast forward a short while, you maybe replace one or two items of gear, respec slightly to eke out a bit more healing or DPS and all of a sudden that same mob is a pussycat. Pre TBC it was the Baron Rivendare that caused problems, but get a few pieces of your dungeon set and a slightly better weapon perhaps and he goes down faster than a 2 dollar whore.
I guess that this really links back to my opening statement about Karazhan and the question should therefore be this: When the fuck will certain bosses become easy? I'm all for a long, hard fight with a mob always being right on the ragged edge. When you down them for that first time, there's the sense of elation (right up until the point you find the boss has dropped bloody dr00d gear again) and accomplishment. Now it's not so much accomplishment, more relief. I find that there are too many incalculable elements to these fights, it's not a case of tactics working or not working, you have to rely on random elements. Take Moroes for instance; his Garrote is nasty and spells certain doom if you can't get rid of it. Bubbles and Stoneskin work, but one of those relies on you choosing the correct race 70 levels ago. Noone is going to think "Oh yes the Moroes fight, I shall choose a Dwarf!". The other part is reliant on Paladin bubbles, which can only be used every few minutes, so basically you might get one or two off if you're lucky. Now if you are incredibly lucky, he'll go for these people first so by the time that the Garrote does start sticking, he'll be almost dead anyway. If he goes for myself though for instance, then that's 5 minutes of one of the healers having to keep an eye on me for the entire fight and pour much mana into keeping me alive. Of course there's always his 4 adds to consider and if one of those gets loose then it can cause havoc. Or if Moroes happens to stun the MT and decides to run off and gank one of the healers who also happen to be keeping one of the adds shackled...the list could go on.
It could just be that we aren't good enough for the encounter yet, but then what of the Maiden or Romeo and Juliet in the Opera event? Couple of her bolts at the same person within a second or two and our most promising attempt of the event falls down in tatters.
Scripted fights are supposed to be challenging, but with the right tactics should be beatable more times than not. These new fights are too unpredictable and down to random factors we can't control.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
U.I.? Oh, do I ever
I have a new, not-so-secret addiction to modifying my UI. I've been flicking, moving, prodding, downloading and installing addons for the last month and while I may feel satisfied with it for a day or two, I soon start tweaking it again.
There are so much information I need and so much information that's nice to have. Do I really need to see each individual raid member or can I get away with a raid wide overview? I know all my key-bindings by heart, so I don't really need to see my buttons, but I like the visual feedback. Can I do something pretty with that black bar that Aperture creates at the bottom of my screen? Should I make nicer unit frames? Oh, the possibilities are endless!
There are so much information I need and so much information that's nice to have. Do I really need to see each individual raid member or can I get away with a raid wide overview? I know all my key-bindings by heart, so I don't really need to see my buttons, but I like the visual feedback. Can I do something pretty with that black bar that Aperture creates at the bottom of my screen? Should I make nicer unit frames? Oh, the possibilities are endless!
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
More fun than you can shake a blunt instrument at
There I was, with some Primal Fire and Earth burning large holes in my pockets and several interesting stack of metals. Curious as I was, I set about cobbling together something that I could use. Well bugger me sideways with a pitchfork if I didn't go and make this. Now it just so happened that I had kept a mace from an earlier quest for just such an eventuality so I decided to put it to good use. Coughing up 15 of my hard earned gold, I respecced for maces and I can honestly say I've not had so much fun with both hands still on the keyboard. With the Haste aspect proccing regularly and SnD up, I was hitting as fast as I did with the daggers for silly amounts of damage, regular stuns just made it all the more fun.
Once my mace skill was maxed, I did a run through Old Hillsbrad to help out some people to get to BM for attunement. Whilst laughing maniacally at the insane damage I was putting out, I happened to notice that several procs had triggered at once. Rage of the Unraveller, Unleashed Fury (yay for Shammies), SnD and Haste all combined at once (2200+AP and 1.45/1.08 attack speed, RAWR!). For 10 seconds of pure, unbridled killing machine, something that I had not experienced on my character before. Needless to say, I had to go lie down in a darkned corner for a few moments afterwards.
I discovered something about my character last night; for 60 levels I had remained the same spec (with only a few minor tweaks along the way) and after a couple of hours last night with this new spec I was left with a smile on my face. Dagger spec was fun and backstabbing for 2k+ always made me grin, but the pure savagery I unleashed last night with my new toys left me grinning from ear to ear.
So guys, if you are struggling to find a reason to play your favourite toon, try a respec; you never know it might just be the thing that you are looking for.
Once my mace skill was maxed, I did a run through Old Hillsbrad to help out some people to get to BM for attunement. Whilst laughing maniacally at the insane damage I was putting out, I happened to notice that several procs had triggered at once. Rage of the Unraveller, Unleashed Fury (yay for Shammies), SnD and Haste all combined at once (2200+AP and 1.45/1.08 attack speed, RAWR!). For 10 seconds of pure, unbridled killing machine, something that I had not experienced on my character before. Needless to say, I had to go lie down in a darkned corner for a few moments afterwards.
I discovered something about my character last night; for 60 levels I had remained the same spec (with only a few minor tweaks along the way) and after a couple of hours last night with this new spec I was left with a smile on my face. Dagger spec was fun and backstabbing for 2k+ always made me grin, but the pure savagery I unleashed last night with my new toys left me grinning from ear to ear.
So guys, if you are struggling to find a reason to play your favourite toon, try a respec; you never know it might just be the thing that you are looking for.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Normality resumes
So it was then that the festivities of this last weekend drew to a close. The fearless band of intrepid imbibers have drained the EU surplus lager lake dry and must now wait for it to refill before meeting once more. Even though I "see" these people day after day in game, there's nothing that can replace meeting in person, having more drink than your Doctor would reccommend as being healthy and talking until 6 in the morning about absolutely anything that pops into your head. Then when it was time to go our separate ways, I went home a happy person once more.
As fearful of the possibility that I may have had to lead a raid was, it could not diminish the feeling that I was in the right place. I will admit that for a while I have been evaluating whether this game was for me anymore, but after getting 10 like minded individuals to go through Karazhan with once more and taking the Maiden and the beast boss down with a minimum of effort, I was still happy (though this may have had more to do with Rugan turning up and taking over).
I'd like to end now as I can see that several of you have tears in your eyes (whether from being moved by this or trying to refrain from vomiting remains to be seen) by saying that it's not the game that is special, it's the people you play the game with that make it special (or in certain cases speshul).
OK, done with the mushy stuff now. To bring levels of testosterone back to the accepted standards, I'd like to share a picture with you of a fellow lady bloggers furry kebab...
I have nothing further to add...
As fearful of the possibility that I may have had to lead a raid was, it could not diminish the feeling that I was in the right place. I will admit that for a while I have been evaluating whether this game was for me anymore, but after getting 10 like minded individuals to go through Karazhan with once more and taking the Maiden and the beast boss down with a minimum of effort, I was still happy (though this may have had more to do with Rugan turning up and taking over).
I'd like to end now as I can see that several of you have tears in your eyes (whether from being moved by this or trying to refrain from vomiting remains to be seen) by saying that it's not the game that is special, it's the people you play the game with that make it special (or in certain cases speshul).
OK, done with the mushy stuff now. To bring levels of testosterone back to the accepted standards, I'd like to share a picture with you of a fellow lady bloggers furry kebab...
I have nothing further to add...
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