TBC raiding: linear and non-progressive?

Tobold recently post his impressions on patch 2.1. The general consensus seems to be that raiding currently requires a full-time commitment and it is killing WoW. While WoW is quite unlikely to collapse outright, because the effects of MMORPG interia will reduce the collapse to a slow bleed. Would you abandon a character and the community that you spent the last two years overnight? I don't think so, because there is no alternatives available that are significantly better.

While I agree that WoW endgame has several outstanding issues, I don't think that the problem is as bad as the doomsayers make it sound. Patch 2.1 did have a lot of changes that should make somewhat easier. They do not address the major flaws, though.

What are the major flaws then? In my opinion, strictly linear progression and non-progressive content.

One thing that TBC has done really well is the 5-man instances. There's lots of them and they stay a viable option at level 70 thanks to the Heroic system. They are and remain challenging to even raiders, but are not too difficult. Since every individual heroic instance has a 1-day reset timer, people are encouraged to try out different isntances to stop them from getting bored. However, this freedom of choice vanishes the moment you start raiding.

Although the attunement chart suggests that Karazhan, Gruul's Lair and Magtheridon are your starter raid instances, the only real choice is Karazhan. Gruul and Magtheridon will wipe the floor with your raid unless you are epicced out from Karazhan, PvP or Heroics. Gruul is generally considered to be the easier of the two, so once you are farming him and Nightbane, you can enter Serpentshrine Cavern. Once Magtheridon goes down you can enter the Eye in Tempest Keep. Once both Lady Vashj and Kael'thas Sunstrider die, you can enter Mount Hyjal. Once you have killed the first boss there (and A'lar, the phoenix god boss in the Eye), you can enter the Black Temple.

Do you see the prevalence of preconditions there? Let's compare it with Vanilla WoW.

Zul'Gurub, Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj and the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj are instantly accessible. Molten Core, Blackwing Lair and Naxxramas require a single attunement quest each, are not linked and at most require a single instance run. Onyxia has a lengthy attunement quest, but is required only after you have progressed deeper into Blackwing Lair. While the relative difficulty of the instances does set a recommended sequence, you can switch instances if you choose to do so.

TBC raiding is strictly linear, with the trouble spot at Gruul and Magtheridon. These are very difficult encounters at first, and you cannot proceed any further until you defeat them, leaving Karazhan as the only place you can go.

The status of Gruul and Magtheridon as gatekeepers is enforced by the nature of their instances. These are very short instances in the style of Onyxia. A handful of trash mobs, followed by a boss. The trash mobs do not drop any interesting loot, nor do you gain any crafting materials or reputation in the process. If you keep wiping, there's nothing to show for your efforts, just a hefty repair and consumable bill. This discourages guilds from even attempting these encounters.

In small-group/solo PvE content, PvP and vanilla WoW raiding, the idea of progressive content worked. Any effort was rewarded by something, be it random epics from trash mobs, reputation or crafting materials. Even if you wiped horribly on some boss in Molten Core, you did gain something which made the next raid slightly easier. This is not the case with Gruul and Magtheridon. Each time is as hard as the previous one.

Gatekeeper encounters are fine when they are buried in the middle of normal raid instances, since you can clear everything up to the gatekeeper encounter. However, Gruul and Magtheridon are Onyxia-like encounters, not full instances. The progressive content model breaks down, which discourages guilds from trying these encounters. So, they return to Karazhan. So if you were looking forward for endgame raiding consisting of 6 instances instead of one, it's no wonder people became frustrated. As well-designed as Karazhan is, I can see myself become bored of it eventually. The upgraded loot will keep people interested for a while, but will it be enough?

The introduction of Zul'Gurub back in the day was a very welcome addition to raiders who were burned out by Molten Core (pardon the pun). I hope Zul'Aman has the same effect for TBC.

No questable netherdrakes yet

Apparently the Netherdrake questline is indeed incomplete. Drysc confirmed this, so the Arena will be the only way to get a Netherdrake until the next content patch.

The Incredible Shrinking World

Tobold has noticed that the effective size of the world has gone down. Because many high-level characters have little or no reason to go back to Azeroth, the old continents seem quite deserted. This is not a new phenomenon per se.

I started my current character on a brand-new server, so most of the time I spent the time with the majority of the population in the same zones. When a server matures, the majority of the population flocks to the high-level zones and capitals, which leaves the mid-level zones relatively empty. When the server matures further, the outside world quiets down when the majority spends their evenings in instances. The same thing is now happening with Outland.

However, there is one significant difference between the level distribution of Azeroth zones and Outland zones. On Azeroth, the high-level zones are spread all around the world. Silithus and Winterspring. Eastern Plaguelands and Burning Steppes. In addition, the low-level zones were always close to the capital cities, where high-level players spent their idle time. This meant that high-level players had to travel across several mid-level and low-level zones to reach the high-level zones. On Outland, all of the zones qualify as high-level zones, and they are right next to each other. Shattrath, the new de facto capital is there as well. A high-level player has little reason to go back to low-level zones, even to just pass through. While the theoretical land mass of the game has increased, less of it is put into use. For a high-level player, the World of Warcraft is practically composed of only Outland.

This is an another example of "lost content". Blizzard is in essence depreciating their own game, piece by piece. I gladly admit that the new zones and capitals are indeed much better than the old ones and there's lots of things you can do in them. However, there is a danger that Blizzard is setting itself up for a vicious circle. If the amount of content that interests the majority of players keeps getting smaller and smaller every expansion, there will be more and more pressure on Blizzard to keep making new content at a faster pace. They can't keep building new stuff faster than the old keeps crumbling from under them. Content is always consumed faster than it's created.

To prevent the vicious circle Blizzard needs to ensure that old content stays relevant even when the game world is expanded with new continents (Northrend, South Seas) or entire worlds (the Eredar homeworld Argus). One way to do this is to update old content while you keep making new. Opening Caverns of Time and Karazhan is a start, but there's still a lot of unfinished business back on Azeroth. Enabling heroic mode for old dungeons could help a bit. Filling out unused zones in Azeroth would be better. I hope I'll someday be able to see what lies east of Badlands, sail to Zandalar Isle or discover whether an Old God really sleeps in Tirisfal..

Brian Morrisroe interviewed

gamona.de interviewed Brian Morrisroe, the lead dungeon artist at Blizzard. Don't let the German site scare you, the interview was done in English.

Among other things, they do discuss the so-called "lost content". Morrisroe believes that people will still run level 60 5-man instances as well as Molten Core and other level 60 raid dungeons. I doubt it.

Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny

GMs sang out in immaculate chorus.
Down from the heavens descended Overlord Saurfang,
who delivered a kick which could shatter bones
into the crotch of Bolvar Fordragon,
who fell over on the ground, writhing in pain,
as Magni changed back into Stoneform,
but Saurfang saw through his clever disguise,
and he crused Magni's head in between his thighs..

PvP sets will be even cheaper in the expansion

Apparently PvP sets will be even cheaper in the expansion. While the stated reason is that expansion items are so much superior that PvP sets should not take so much effort to get, I wonder whether there are other reasons as well.

Anyway, since the PvP sets are now the Blizzard-sanctioned way to go to gear yourself up for the Expansion, I think that all level 60 PvE content before Naxxramas will be mothballed.

I'm still wondering about the difficulty level of Burning Crusade instances. The expansion was obviously tested with well-geared characters, so a fresh level 60 character might want to grind some honor before stepping through the Dark Portal.

All in all, this makes gear progression quite interesting. My guess is that the most cost-efficient way to gear up your character from scratch would be to do PvE for the low- and midlevels, and then start PvPing heavily when you get closer to 60. When you have enough PvP gear, you go to Outlands and gear up solely on PvE until level 70, where you start the Arena battles and get your tier 4. Raiders will go up one more notch and farm Illidan, Magtheridon, Kael'thas, Lady Vashj and Archimonde for their tier 5, though.

Sin'Dorei the Musical

Apparently there's a Ghostlands quest where you return Sylvanas' locket to her, and she starts to sing.

Outland Map

A map of the Outland is now available with a Google Maps interface.

He's baack..

Thanks to some meddling adventurers, Teron Gorefiend makes a comeback.

Faction Wars

Wowzer recently tackled the old issue of competing factions. Currently, there are three sets of competing factions in the game. The Gelkis and Magram Centaurs, Steamwheedle Cartel and Bloodsail Pirates, and finally Ravenholdt and the Syndicate. Of these three, only the centaur factions can be compared to teach other, because they are equal in power. Choosing between an unique hat and access to four important cities should be a no-brainer, so the Bloodsail mostly get ignored. The disrepancy is even greater with Ravenholdt and the Syndicate. While it is possible to gain reputation with the Syndicate by killing Ravenholdt personnel, there are no Syndicate NPCs that would talk to you. None. The faction exists in the game, but the various Syndicate at Hillsbrad, Arathi Highlands and Alterac Mountains do not count as members. You can kill them without losing Syndicate reputation. In fact, a very patient person could go kill some Ravenholdt personnel and then go pickpocket some Syndicate Emblems to regain their reputation with Ravenholdt. This can be repeated as long as necessary.

In addition to these, there were the Wildhammer Clan and the Revantusk Tribe at Hinterlands, but since you could gain reputation on only one of them, they were never really a choice and were removed as factions a few patches ago.

Fortunately, Burning Crusade will add one other pairing into the game, and this time they are equal in power and have rewards. In the neutral city of Shattrath, there are the Blood Elf Scryers and the Draenei Aldor, who compete for the favor of the Naaru A'dal. Working for Scryers decreases Aldor reputation (and vice versa), but working for either increases reputation with the Naaru. In addition, there is one more unrelated faction in Shattrath, the Lower City, which is mostly composed of refugees.

Wowzer did miss one important aspect of the factions, though. Too many of them are simply worthless. For example, there is a faction for the surviving Highborne in Dire Maul, the Shen'dalar, but the reputation bar is just for show. They offer no new quests and no new rewards depending on your reputation. The viability of high Timbermaw Furbolgs reputation depends heavily on your crafting skills. Unless you want the novelty trinket, many players never have a reason to grind their reputation higher than Unfriendly, which is required to pass Timbermaw Hold in peace.

The remaining factions have better rewards, but they are also tied to their respective dungeons. For example, the only way to gain Zandalar Tribe reputation is to clear Zul'Gurub repeatedly. Achieving high Thorium Brotherhood reputation requires your guild to farm Molten Core. What makes it worse is that you need the reputation to obtain enough fire resistance gear to eventually kill Ragnaros. Argent Dawn is somewhat better. While you can get to Exalted by grinding alone, it's much faster to run Stratholme and Scholomance with a good group. However, the best faction currently in the game is the Cenarion Circle. They offer both tangible items and crafting patterns. You can solo farm reputation, but there's also quests for parties and raids of all sizes, ranging from two-man parties for Field Duty to 40-man raids to Temple of Ahn'Qiraj. In addition, there are three-item sets for all classes obtainable from Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj.

Symbolically cast... in a bad light

The Pig's significant other gives him an important lesson on WoW masculinity, while the Pig himself is trying to get accustomed to his new identity as John Elfovich.

Thrall's grandma

Jaynez recently witnessed an event where Thrall returns to Outland to see the folks. Apparently the event is so well-made that even PvPers /kneel when he arrives.

Jewelcrafting after 300

I recently spotted a jewelcrafting guide linked from Tobold's blog, which also includes a shopping list to level jewelcrafting from 1 to 300.

240 copper, 120 bronze, 40 iron, 60 mithril, 255 thorium, 110 gold, 30 truesilver, 50 flask of mojo, 10 large fang, 30 malachite/tigerseye, 30 lesser moonstone, 100 shadowgem, 35 jade, 40 citrine, 45 star ruby, 35 aquamarine, 40 large opal, 20 azerothian diamond, and 20 huge emerald.

While I'm not switching from Engineering to Jewelcrafting, the information about new ores is useful to all miners. Unfortunately I have smelt all my thorium already, so, I can't take advantage of all those people buying stuff to powerlevel their new professions.

Burning Crusade delayed, new patch for Christmas

As everyone has probably heard by now, the Burning Crusade release date has been postponed. However, Blizzard is planning to release a patch before Christmas, which includes the new honor system among other things.

Burning Crusade talent updates

WoW Insider has the scoop on new talents. Arcane tree gets a quite intersting 30-point talent called Spell Power, which increases critical strike damage bonus by 50% on all spells. Combined with Ice Shards, that means +150% crits. I suddenly feel tempted to reconsider my deep frost spec..

Pictures from a Burning Crusade betatester

Alizia has gathered a bunch of fresh screenshots from the Burning Crusade Beta to her Flickr album.

Tactics progression in Burning Crusade?

After listening to the latest Farm Status, I started to wonder about the tactics and coordination required for Burning Crusade endgame raid instances.

Currently the level progression, tactics progression and gear progression goes hand in hand when you go through the game. The first instances are fairly simple and require only basic coordination to complete. When you level up, you'll be able to access harder instances, get better gear and be able to handle more complicated encounters. This progression continues up to level 60.

At level 60, the levels cease to matter. Instances continue to progress through better itemization and more difficult encounters. First tries in Molten Core always seem to be quite complex if you are used to 5-mans or UBRS. When you master Molten Core, your guild has the gear required for Blackwing Lair, and knows how to arrange healing for multiple tanks. When you get better gear, you also learn how to handle more complicated encounters. This holds true all the way to Naxxramas.

Then let's add the expansion into the equation. Obviously the level progression starts again, and so does the gear progression. According to preliminary reports, simple quest rewards rival or exceed Molten Core and Blackwing Lair gear. This means that the vast majority of players will skip the current 20-man and 40-man instances altogether, because they can get better gear easier and faster in Outland. But what about tactics? How hard will the Burning Crusade endgame boss encounters be? Will the 5-man instances teach new raiders the skills they will need in endgame? I would feel pity for the guild master who tries to convince his guild to go back to Ahn'Qiraj to learn group coordination and caster tanking, for example.

New Burning Crusade music, meeting Gul'dan

The Burning Crusade Closed Beta is now in progress. Although I didn't get a beta key (hint hint), I did some digging. Apparently the expansion contains about 4.4h of new music, compared to the 2.2h of the original WoW. This should help alleviate some weariness players have with the soundtrack. All of the new zones have several different themes and have different themes for night and day. Although Zangar Marsh does sound very similar to Ahn'Qiraj..

In other news, it seems that we'll be seeing Gul'dan again. He got his own theme music in a folder called "Musical Moments". While the first orc warlock is quite dead, there is one place where he probably will be seen. One of the scenarios in Caverns of Time is the first opening of the Dark Portal. Medivh worked on the Azeroth side, while Gul'dan worked at Draenor. My hunch is that when the scenario is completed and the portal is succesfully opened, Gul'dan will be among the first to step through it. This will be a boon to lore freaks such as myself, because it has never been seen in any of the Warcraft games. Even the events of Warcraft: Orcs and Humans take place 15 years after the opening.

Elves!

Someone doesn't like elves.

New hunter pet talents?

WoW Insider has the scoop on new hunter pet talents.