Matticus

Blizzard has finally released details on the Dinar system. It’s called Puzzling Cartel Chips for Season 2, and if you’re a fan of flexible gearing, you might want to cool your excitement. While the Dinar-style token system was a welcome addition in previous seasons, this new version comes loaded with restrictions that feel needlessly punishing, especially for those of us with alt armies or who are more invested in Mythic+ than Mythic raiding. We’re getting enough Chips to purchase two three items of our choice (this was updated recently).

What’s Wrong Here?

To get to the point: the requirement to kill a specific boss before you can buy their loot with Chips defeats the entire spirit of what the system is supposed to be.

The Dinar system is meant to be a catch-up mechanic. It helps players who aren’t part of cutting-edge Mythic raid teams access trinkets, weapons, and key items. Tying these purchases to boss kills means only players already progressing in raids get the benefit. It leaves out Mythic+ mains, casual raiders, and punishes alt-heavy players like myself.

And by the time Chips become available, which is weeks into the season, the top guilds are already done progressing. They don’t need the help. This doesn’t protect their prestige. It just delays everyone else’s ability to gear up.

Not only that, but if I spend a Chip on a Heroic-track Jastor’s Diamond, do I need to spend another Chip on the Mythic version later after we down Gallywix? That doesn’t seem right. And if I hold onto the Chip and wait, I’m holding back potential gear that could help our team progress now. Either way, it’s a bad tradeoff.

What About Alts?

Alts are getting the short end of the stick here. If I kill a boss on my main, why shouldn’t that unlock the ability to purchase that loot on my alt? At the very least, make the unlock account-wide or warbound. I want to enjoy gearing different characters, not grind the same raid on three toons hoping for RNG drops just to be allowed to buy something.

This System Favors Boosting

Let’s not pretend this won’t be monetized. Locking loot behind boss kills gives boosting communities a perfect business model. Need a specific trinket? Pay for a carry. This design directly incentivizes selling runs rather than rewarding honest progression or effort.

Blizzard’s Rationale

To their credit, Blizzard responded quickly to the backlash. The feedback was instant and, for once, unified. Reddit, forums—you name it. Everyone was saying the same thing.

They posted an update, and this part stood out to me:

“The middle of The War Within Season 2, however, presents a very different situation. Puzzling Cartel Chips were designed primarily as bad luck protection, allowing players who’ve been chasing specific raid items without success to have a guaranteed path to earning them. They also provide a path for players who have only done the Normal version of the raid to get a few guaranteed Hero items, without undermining a core motivation for the challenge and coordination required in Mythic raid progression. We also need to be mindful of how we will transition into the next season. Giving players who don’t normally engage in high-end content access to Item Level 680+ trinkets would essentially obsolete those slots for Season 3.”

My Take on This

If the concern is that 680+ trinkets will be obsolete next season, then address that through item tuning. Blizzard has nerfed plenty of overperforming trinkets between seasons. We even have a certain ring equipped that was designed to be used into this season that saw multiple adjustments.

This feels like gatekeeping. It’s an artificial limiter meant to preserve progression prestige instead of empowering players. If the worry is that the item is too strong, let’s cap the upgrade track. Let people buy it, but only allow them to upgrade it to 6 out of 8 until they’ve killed the boss. Simple.

What I’d Change

Let’s fix this. Here’s how:

• Remove the boss kill requirement, or at the very least, make it account-wide. If I’ve killed it once, that should be enough.
• Cap the upgrade level if you’re worried about power. As mentioned, let the item go to 6/8 until the boss is cleared.
• Add Mythic+ and Delve items to the vendor. These are just as important as raid gear and deserve a place in the system.

The Puzzling Cartel Chip system could be something amazing. It could be one of the most player-friendly systems Blizzard has added in recent years.

But right now? It just feels like a missed opportunity.

Did you have a nice Easter? I had my concert over the weekend. On the plus side, I didn’t choke anywhere, which is always nice. Here are the updates and my thoughts from our raid this past weekend.

• Death Jesters gets One Armed Bandit to a best pull of 5%. With this week being a spark week, it’s highly likely that a kill will be secured. Work has already begun on planning out Mugzee and how that’s supposed to go. We’re looking to add another Shadow Priest to our roster as our previous Priest trial ended because he couldn’t commit to the schedule.
• Last Call ended up raiding over Easter weekend. We had a few absences which stymied our reclear somewhat on Sunday, but we were still able to field a full team on Monday and get all of our farm completed with about 90 minutes left, progressing on Stix. At the time, we had exactly 24 players on the roster, and we had 4 people who ended up being away. The Rik Reverb reclear was one I felt anxious about because we were missing a few of our starters, but thankfully our bench players who haven’t been in on Rik at all did manage to step up and we were able to get those kills in for them as well.
• In other admin news, my co-leader in Last Call has decided to hang it up and step away from that team. Our existence was in jeopardy for a while because there was no way I could handle and sustain team operations all by myself. We got together and assembled a description of what needed to be handled. I wrote down the duties I would still oversee (raid planning, defensive cooldowns, and recruiting) while we listed out other areas that would need to be covered (Loot council, tools administration like Discord and WoW Audit, personnel performance management, and bank management). We shared the news with the team on Monday, and a few people offered to step up there which puts us in a safer position. It sounds like the team will continue to live and fight on another day.
• Our Loot Council needs to be reconfigured since a few of the people on it wish to step down from that responsibility.
• After a drought of recruits on Last Call, I was getting worried for a while. Ended up signing a new Mage to a trial and taking on an internal Balance Druid transfer from one of the other teams to also trial. I’ve also got three more players I need to interview who were referrals from another player on a team who was looking to step into Mythic raiding after missing out for a while. That might put us at around 28 players total, and now the hard part would be balancing play time across the board. We still could use a Rogue, though. Come check us out!
• On the Death Jesters side of recruiting, we’ve added another Windwalker Monk with experience (this brings us up to 3 but we are moving one of the Monks to Evoker). We could look at adding a Shadow Priest or some other range class and that will help us with the stretch run towards Gallywix.
• The recent 11.5 patch that came out has definitely had its fair share of bugs. I continue to be dismayed at the state of the release. Thankfully, most of it has been addressed but it did suck on the first day where I wasn’t able to complete the scenario event with the boss kill not being credited.
• Timed my first 12 but it was on my second Priest, whoops!

I do love a shortened 4 day work week. It’s extra key time mostly. Grinding 24 keys (across 3 characters) is not the easiest thing to focus on. Back to work!

Ever wondered what it’s like to raid on more than one team per week? As someone who does exactly that (with both DJs and Last Call), I wanted to break down some of the pros and cons that come with managing multiple raid commitments across different characters and raid teams.

The Pros

• Same people every week
  You get to build consistency and familiarity without any of the unpredictable pug business that might come up.
• Exposure to new strategy ideas
  Different groups solve bosses in different ways. It’s great for expanding your raid awareness and encourages you to think outside the box, especially with different class compositions. If you’re a raid leader or officer, you might pick up some great strat or leadership ideas from one team and apply them to the other.
• Consistent schedule
  If you’re tired of sitting in group finder every week, hoping for a clean run, having a second team keeps things predictable.
• More reps = better execution
  You see the same fights multiple times per week, which builds muscle memory fast.
• Fun on alts
  Running with a second team gives your alt characters purpose and lets you try out different specs or roles. I mainly bounce between my Holy Priest, Elemental Shaman, and Ret Paladin.
• More loot chances
  Two teams = double the lockouts. Although your characters can’t exactly trade gear to each other, you might be able to increase the chance of getting more potential BoEs or Warbound gear.
• Wider social circle
  Great way to meet more players and make connections (like a larger pool of M+ players).

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The Cons

• Same people every week… again
  What’s a pro can also be a con if you’re not really vibing with someone or just need a social break.
• Different strategies
  Each team may handle fights differently, so you have to mentally compartmentalize starts, especially for mechanics-heavy encounters. In Last Call, we run 3 tanks for Mythic Rik Reverb. In DJs, we do it with just 2 tanks.
• More character upkeep
  More raiding means more Mythic+ runs, crafting, and farming to stay viable on multiple toons.
• Less free time
  Between raid nights, keys, and logs, your backlog of Steam games may start to gather dust.
• Mental burnout
  Double the raiding can drain your energy, especially in high-pressure tiers or long raid nights.
• Varying progression
  One team might be much further ahead, which can make the other feel slower or less exciting in comparison.
• Loot system whiplash
  It’s hard to keep track when one group does loot council and the other does personal or soft reserve.
• Real-life conflicts
  More raid nights = fewer flex nights. You might find it harder to plan non-WoW activities.
• Potential social awkwardness
  It’s rare, but if there’s friction between teams you could end up in an uncomfortable and awkward spot.

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Would I Recommend It?

If you’ve got the time, the energy, and the characters to support it, raiding on multiple teams can be incredibly fun and rewarding. Just make sure you’re aware of the time commitment, and don’t forget to take breaks when you need them. I’m able to make it work, but my recommendation would be to be a player (and not take on leadership roles). You can definitely share observations or things you learn that might work well on your lesser progressed team, but don’t feel the need to take the lead on it (like I did).

Welcome back! It’s been an exciting weekend of raiding for both teams with some more serious progression and two new boss kills total for both of my raid teams. Here’s the latest update:

• Death Jesters came so close to getting Sprocketmonger Lockenstock before we finally crushed it on our 101st pull. It’s definitely a step up on the difficulty curve due to the orchestrated choreography required with the red and blue side mechanics. Unlike last season’s Silken Court, the sides are randomly shuffled throughout the fight, so players need to time their movements accordingly. The harder overlap is later in the fight with the wide black beams and the magnet pull at the same time. I had to really fight to cast and tap my movement keys to maintain control.

• Now that we’re onto One Armed Bandit, I’m effectively going to be on the bench for the rest of the tier. My Holy Priest is sadly not in the best spot to get included in any of the remaining progression bosses. With Sprocketmonger defeated, the decision has been made to extend until the rest of the instance is cleared. Our first day on One Armed Bandit saw our best pull at 64%. One of our hunters is also moving on from Death Jesters just due to lack of playtime. We’ve got an opening for some range or melee DPS, so feel free to apply!
• One of the side benefits of raiding in multiple teams is that I can still get some reps in on the encounter as a whole and understand what’s going on. Not to be outdone, Last Call also moved forward and defeated Rik Reverb and now we’re moving on up to challenge Stix Bunkjunker. Unlike Death Jesters, we modified our strategy here to go with 3 tanks and 3 healers instead to help trivialize amp management. We’re still looking for range DPS to help augment the team. Come check us out!
• I had to bark at the team during the night. We had players dying to the Sparkblast Ignition (the orange circles that appear when barrels spawn). This was happening on the first barrel set. I got extremely frustrated, and I had to let the team have it, saying that we were on pull count 50 at this point and dying to a visible orange circle on the ground within the first minute of the fight is unacceptable, is not becoming of a team with Cutting Edge aspirations. I wiped it right there after two deaths to them and said we go again. We all expect better play from each other. Sure enough, the team tightened itself up and we killed it within 3 pulls.

• In other non-Warcraft news, I have my spring concert coming up this weekend! I won’t be around for the first half of my raid as I’ll be on stage. My setlist includes Pirates of the Caribbean and Gladiator. I’m sure it’ll be fun but I did admit I’ve lost a lot of motivation for this season. It’s hard to stay motivated when you’re only playing half the pieces that the rest of the ensemble is doing. After this, we enter our summer season, and I’m on the bench for that one too, since we’ll be playing at a smaller stage. The junior strings won’t be performing there just due to the complexity of the setlist. I’ll still attend rehearsals and continue taking lessons. Sometimes you have to suffer a bit in the short term for the eventual payoff of being able to play the cooler, fun stuff later (like the Halo theme). I feel like I still made some major progress this term. I’ve gotten better in string changes and bow control, at least (and hopefully I don’t squeak as much).

I had a Frost Mage apply to Last Call. Super friendly, very put-together, and it was apparent to me that she was someone who loves raiding. She told me she was ready to leap Mythic. She had been raiding with a guild she really cared about, but they were still stuck somewhere around that mid-Heroic level and hadn’t obtained AotC yet. Meanwhile, she had been pugging the later bosses and dipped her toes into early Mythic. Honestly, that alone tells me she’s got that drive.

Her goals lined up with ours: She wanted to push as far into Mythic as possible, maybe even snag Cutting Edge. That’s precisely the mindset we’re building around here. I checked her logs and it was enough to warrant a conversation. Clearly knew what she was doing. We ended chatting for about 30 minutes and discussed raid expectations. I asked her a few questions, and she had some of her own about our raid environment and if IO shaming was a thing. I actually never heard of that term before our conversation. Anyway, I thought she’d be a great pickup. I usually sleep on applications for a day before I reply, just to give it a bit of breathing room.

But the next day, I saw she had pulled her app.

Turns out, she had a change of heart and found another team that was also doing Mythic, but at a slower pace. It was more of a mid-tier Mythic guild, not one gunning for CE right out of the gate. She realized that she might not be quite ready for the pressure and expectations that come with a Cutting Edge-focused group. She still wanted to improve and work toward it, but she wanted to do it at a pace that felt right for her.

And honestly? I respect that.

It sucks because I felt she would’ve been awesome with us. At the same time, I admire the self-awareness it takes to step back and say, “You know what? I want to be CE, but I’m not quite there yet.” That’s such a rare thing. Most players I come across just want to fast-track their way straight into endgame and assume they’ll figure it out once they get there. Some do. A lot don’t. They end up overwhelmed or frustrated because they skipped the part where they learn how to actually raid Mythic.

The ambition is great, but being honest with yourself about your readiness is pretty crucial, too. Taking the slower path might ultimately end up being faster in the long run. Hopefully our paths cross again one day.