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BlizzCon Day 2: Sunday

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My Sunday started off well enough. I was able to sleep in and fuel up with breakfast. I didn’t feel compelled to go in early today since I decided to give up on going to the gear store or hitting up the Darkmoon Faire. Instead, I sat down at the main stage in the morning to take in some more information on the Warcraft Forever panel. They touched upon some key aspects:

  • Talents (with Paladins as an example)
  • Transmog
  • Legacy System
  • Server infrastructure
  • Camping
  • Itemization

Reaction seemed generally positive especially with servers being decided via rulesets instead of individual realms. There’s a lot of questions here. Can a player on a PvP ruleset change to join a friend on normal? What about RP rulesets? Is there an option like flagging yourself for PvP (similar to retail)?

All of it was fascinating information. I can’t wait to look at the Priest talents further.

My level of involvement in Warcraft: Forever is a challenging one to answer. I’m on four different raid teams. Of the four, two of them are CE focused that I help run to some degree. The third is another CE team where I’m just a player. The last one is a simple AotC team that I joined so I wouldn’t have to queue into group finder for. Picking up Forever means making compromises and dropping some of those teams.

After it ended, I wandered around the show floor to explore the different things that were going on that I didn’t get a chance to from the first day. I ran into the boss man GM and he told me one of our former raiders wanted to meet up with us, so we trekked over to say hello. Seeing people and guildies is a priority that I try to make happen.

The Diablo Immortal line was next. I should’ve entered the phone line instead of the PC line. I tried out the new Tempest class since everyone who participates gets one of three different pin types. I wanted Malthael but my loot luck rewarded me with Andariel instead.

Biggest highlight of the day was participating with my guild in a miniature tabletop session with my friend and former WoW Insider colleague, Anne. She was GM’ing for us. It was a short 20 to 30 minute experience. The story is that Khadgar got himself locked away and we needed to help free him. The party involved a Warrior, a Paladin, a Shaman, and a Mage (me)! I started the game off by casting Invisibility on everyone. Our Shaman went ahead and looted a potion to throw on top of one of the three Ogres that happened to be in the room. Me (in my oh so infinite wisdom) strode over to the weapons rack to see what I could find and somehow pulled a Gorehowl which had to attack someone (and I knocked off the second Ogre). Our Paladin, who rolled a natural 20, tried to speak to the third Ogre to see if it knew anything about what was keeping Khadgar at bay and locked up.

As we should have known, Ogres aren’t bright at all and did not know how to answer a question while it was busy using a table leg for a tooth pick. At least the Ogre was polite and offered another table leg to our Paladin.

Turns out the solution was quite simple. All we had to do was blow up a crystal which lowered all of the shields and countermeasures. My assumption is that the Ogres were a defensive mechanism conjured up by the crystal (which also happened to trigger the wards up in the room that trapped Khadgar). All in all, an enjoyable time! My legs and feet were cooked after standing in line for about 90 minutes.

Having access to NFL Sunday Ticket made lines bearable. I was able to watch stuff during the wait. But this can be substituted for a stream, a Youtube video, or a book.

After all that, we left and got something to eat since everyone was on different schedules. Wished everyone well while I went back upstairs to my room to refresh!

Things I would have done differently

Let’s talk about some BlizzCon lessons.

  • This is my 12th BlizzCon. I don’t need to go in to the main stage to watch the opening ceremony anymore. I can watch it and stream it direct from my room after sleeping in and eating breakfast. I’ve done enough of that. I can give up my seat for someone else who has never had that opportunity.
  • More undershirts and underwear for sure. This time of year was atrocious with the humidity and the heat. It needs to be back in the October and November time frame.
  • Gold Bond. I didn’t think I’d need it this time, but chaffing is awful.
  • If I really wanted stuff, outright skip the Opening Ceremony and start going to the stores immediately.

How I wish BlizzCon were done differently

I understand that this is the first BlizzCon back since the disaster that was 2023. But Blizzard needs to start working on getting their fastball back.

  • Let’s get that date back to the late Fall. Mentioned it earlier up, but it bears repeating again.
  • Line management. Lots of misinformation or misunderstanding regarding lines and where people are supposed to go for the store or for entry into Darkmoon Fair.
  • Line activity. PAX West does a great job of this for attendees in lines. But just having something engaging to do to help pass the time is nice. I spent most of my time watching Sunday Ticket.
  • Store inventory. Lots of stuff just went out of stock quite quickly. I’d flag Battle Net accounts tied to BlizzCon attendance with store exclusives that attendees can ship home, if they wish.
  • Professions section had great turn out. Those lines were jam packed every time. Easily one of the more popular attractions and maybe having more staff and space for it would help.
  • Participation prizes? Immortal demos gave away some pins for trying out their game either on PC or on the phone. I never would have tried it otherwise. Battlegrounds demos for some swag would’ve been a good pick. WoW probably wouldn’t need any incentive prizes.
  • Multiple stages for opening ceremony. That one year when all stages were used for their respective title announcements was amazing. It helped distribute people throughout the venue.

While it was a bit of a let down on retail announcements, I’m still pleased with all of the other announcements that were made. I wish we learned more about StarCraft and what they envision there.

BlizzCon: Actual Day 1 – Saturday

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What an interesting day! We’re going to just dive into all of the major announcements.

  • World of Warcraft: Not much on the retail side of things which is to be expected since, y’know, spoilers. Warcraft Forever seems like it’ll be well received. I did end up trying the demo for one of the dungeons with the squad from DJs. I forgot how much more challenging it was then with the different spells, the mana, the drinking after every pull, etc. Can’t do it. This version of the game probably isn’t for me any longer sadly. I could always get it and try a different class that isn’t a Priest, I suppose. However, the new Talebound game mode seems like a fun activity to get lost in as well. It’s funny how the crowd was not happy about the new Season 3 dungeon pool but cheered the loudest with transmog opening up to all armor types.
  • Warcraft 3: I might need to pick up Reforged with that new campaign. 30 hours of new stuff? I’m in.
  • StarCraft: Cinematic announcement was amazing. 2030 as a release date seems so far away. Probably too early for gameplay footage but would’ve been nice to see some of that. But hey, it’s an open world shooter. I know not many people were happy about that but I’m looking forward to exploring StarCraft from a new perspective.
  • Diablo: While it’s sad to see that Diablo 4 is finished with expansions, it was a big surprise for me regarding Diablo 5. For it to take place in a new setting and environment where Diablo wins is going to be an all new perspective from previous games where it was always about the eternal conflict. In this case, it seems like the conflict has resolved itself.  Now what? How does the rest of Sanctuary react? Who is left to challenge Diablo? More importantly, the Monk is back! Lastly, this Netflix Diablo collaboration should be awesome. Hoping it bridges the story between D4 and D5.
  • Heroes of the Storm: I never expected to see anything new coming to Heroes of the Storm. Is it coming out of maintenance mode? Xal’atath is entering the Nexus and another hero is slated for release later in the year. It’s enough to get me to reinstall it.
  • Hearthstone: YO NEW MONK CLASS THOUGH.

That’s all! Tomorrow I plan to try out more of the games on the show floor. I want to explore Hearthstone and Diablo for sure. I was going to put some time in towards the store or the Darkmoon Faire, but I fear that may be a bust.

Season 1 Last Call Postmortem: So Close to Midnight Falls

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We threw everything we had at Midnight Falls this last week. Extra hours, an extra day, and on Monday we got Lura down to phase 4 more than once. Our best pull took her to 14%. We didn’t get the kill.

It’s the closest thing I can compare to a Game 7 loss in overtime. We did everything right to get there. We gave it our best shot when it mattered most. And it still wasn’t enough.

By the time we called it, we’d logged 560 pulls on Midnight Falls. For comparison, Death Jesters killed the same boss in 404 pulls. That gap tells its own story about how this season went for Last Call, and it’s worth sitting with before I get into the why.

A Season of Constant Turnover

Over the course of our Lura progression alone, we cycled through roughly 32 different characters. Not 32 pulls with a few swaps here and there. Thirty-two different characters who sat in a raid slot at some point during that fight. One of our locks switched to a Disc Priest because we were down a healer. A Hunter couldn’t make it, so we had to pull in a hunter alt from DJs. A crystal carrier had power issues, so I had to ask for someone else to get it while we grabbed a Ret Paladin.

We never had back-to-back weeks with the same roster walking in the door. Every single time I had to sub a new player in, it cost us about 20 minutes of problem-solving just to get phases 2 and 3 re-assigned and moving again. That’s not a one-time tax. That’s a recurring tax we paid over and over, week after week, on top of actually learning the fight.

I’m genuinely proud of the team we had. But it’s hard to build momentum on a fight that demands precision when you’re constantly rebuilding the roster around it.

Where We Excelled, and Where We Didn’t

Progression-wise, this team is really good at fights that reward preparation. Crown of Cosmos went down in a reasonable number of pulls because that’s the kind of encounter where our strengths show up: strict timelines, scripted assignments, everyone knowing exactly where to be and when.

Beloren was a different animal. That fight demands individual accountability in a way our other kills didn’t. Ball soaks, quill soaks, interrupts, all resting on players managing their own responsibilities in real time instead of following a script. It exposed the skill ceiling of some of our newer mythic raiders, several of whom were tackling serious mythic progression for the first time in their raiding career. We got through it, but it took longer than I wanted, and it was the first real sign of what was waiting for us in Midnight Falls.

The GM Introspection

This is the part of the postmortem that’s less about the boss and more about me.

Every season, it comes back to personnel. Did I have the right players in the right roles? Did I hold onto players too long instead of cutting and evaluating quickly enough? Those are the questions I ask myself every time a season wraps, and this one is no exception.

Recruiting doesn’t make this easier. We raid Sunday and Monday, the last two days of the week, which is not exactly a popular slot for players shopping around for a new guild. It narrows the pool right when we need it widest.

On top of the roster churn, we lost one of our top healers right before Midnight Falls progression started. I also changed my own class mid-season, moving from Shaman to Evoker. Any one of those changes on its own is manageable. Stacked together in the same season, they added up.

A handful of our weaker performers joined midway or late into Season 1. They’ll get another look in Season 2, but with expectations set clearly from the start this time. That’s on me too. Clear expectations from day one would have saved us some of the harder conversations we had later.

Heading Into Season 2

Here’s the strange part: I’m much more optimistic heading into Season 2 than I probably should be after a season like this.

We’ve parted ways with a number of players and brought in some new faces. Some of the new additions are what I’d call project players, people who’ve historically capped out around mid-mythic and are looking to push past that ceiling. That’s exactly the kind of mentality this team needs more of.

Our systems and strategies are already in place. We know how we prepare, how we assign, how we approach a new tier. What’s left is execution. Season 1 taught us where the cracks are. Season 2 is about not letting the same ones open back up.

We fell short of Midnight Falls. But a Game 7 loss doesn’t mean the team is broken. It means you know exactly what to fix before next season starts.

Matt’s Notebook: Midnight Falls Over!

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It’s finally over! Death Jesters has cleared Midnight Falls and finished the tier at US 324. That’s a big drop from our previous tier (Manaforge Omega), when we were in the US 190 range.

What a relief to finally get it done and over with. In the end, it took us exactly 404 pulls. We can jump into the details below.

  • Our Raid Leader didn’t have internet. He tried to play by hotspotting his phone, but the connection was too slow, so we had to sit him. Poor guy missed the very first interrupt. Raid calling duties were split.
  • Roster boss was real for this last boss. I firmly believe if we had a consistent 20 (or even 22), we would’ve killed it earlier. We went through two Evokers before mine was brought in. I’m fortunate enough to have had crystal reps earlier on when we were learning the fight. Might even make the Evoker a change for me next season. Less emphasis on keeping damage up, so I can just focus on buffing the raid and addressing mechanical needs that the encounter demands.
  • With this week, we have some players that will be stepping down and moving on. Some are looking to pursue higher ranks, and others are retiring from raiding altogether. Ultimately, this will be the largest roster turnover we’ve had in quite a few years. We’re looking to recruit a Warrior, a DPS Death Knight, and some any ranged DPS or healers. Come apply here!
  • Over in Last Call, we too have been struggling on a week-to-week basis playing roster roulette. It’s not fun. Every single substitution leads to around 30 minutes of additional work. It means positions changed, new interrupt macros need to be made, and other cascading effects that lead into intermission, phase 2, and phase 3. Even something as minor as switching a range DPS for a melee DPS throws things off. Now I have to move a healer back from the inner ring on intermission to the outer ring so that the melee DPS can take that spot over.
  • The overall raid preparation has been okay, but I’m a little frustrated with some of the individual aspects. We had a healer who kept scooping up crystals on phase 2 when the crystals were deliberately dropped in the middle after I previously emphasized that players (non-crystal holders) had to fight the pull-in to not accidentally pick them up. Over the span of 8 pulls, it was picked up 5 times by the same player. Naturally, this led to unnecessary splashes that needed to be soaked. But still, I can’t help but be annoyed. It’s no longer enough for CE players to have an intimate understanding of what they need to do at an individual level, but they have to have a larger comprehension of what is happening at a phase-by-phase level. A bigger picture, if you will. Even if they’re not assigned a crystal, they need a fundamental understanding of why and when crystals are dropped so they don’t put themselves in positions where they won’t get it. This is an area of comprehension that separates mid-level mythic players and CE players.
  • I haven’t started deep diving into the next season’s roster yet, but by all accounts the next tier is rumoured to come out in early August. We’re going to have some turnover ourselves in Last Call with some players whose schedules are changing and others who also want to move up. I’m planning to open recruiting for another healer, some extra ranged DPS, and maybe one more melee. But I’ll need to schedule end-of-tier talks with everyone to determine their intentions.
  • It’s too early to say right now, but if I were to do a post-mortem, Bel’oren is where we lost some time and progress overall. I benched myself for the first few nights because of my damage (or lack of). I wanted to give more reps to the others that were there, and I focused more on the 21st man side of things, calling the raid. I can’t help but wonder if we would’ve killed it faster if I was in there instead. Ultimately, the raid buffs and other things pushed character power to the point that we had to fundamentally change our start. We used to hold 2 minutes for the first egg phase, which felt really bad. Instead, we decided to go with lust on the 2nd egg phase instead (and just use CDs as they came up). We found that we struggled a lot if we got to the third dive on the second phase 1.

Normal PTR testing will be starting up this weekend, and we’ll be stepping into it. Can’t wait to give it a go!

Matt’s Notebook: The Midnight Edition

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We’re almost through to the end of June, and that means the weather is going to be insanely hot for the next while. Made some great progress in both teams, but here’s where we are and what’s been going on these past few weeks.

  • Death Jesters reached phase 4 for the first time. Always remember, stars go left-right-left. Don’t be the guy who went left-right-right and wiped the raid. We saw about six Phase 4 pulls, and any of them could’ve been the kill. All we had to do was stay alive as we did reach the enrage. There’s some type of aura of buff where when you’re alive, you just happen to deal extra damage.
  • Last Call finally crushes Belo’ren. I was a little disappointed it took us longer than the average. I felt we should’ve killed it weeks ago, but between the power creep of Sporefall and the extra raid buffs, it threw off our damage math. Eventually, we settled on going with lusting and using potions on second egg phase. We were sending our 2 minute CDs as they were coming up. First egg phase resulted in Belo’ren going below 60%. It also meant that we could force our 2 minute CDs on the second phase 1 on the various adds. Our goal here was to get Belo’ren down quick to avoid the fifth Dive (or fifth set of adds appearing). But it worked.
  • Last Call started working on Midnight Falls. It took us the first hour just to test our interrupt macros and UI elements with the memory game stuff, but it worked.
  • There’s been some discussion about replacing underperforming players (whether it’s damage out or just mechanical play or early deaths). This is probably the time to do it, but it’s hard to find people to come in now for it. It also almost feels like a disservice to those who’ve been playing with us from the start of the tier. The problem is that the encounters from Paladins onwards to Alleria and Belo’ren have really exposed the skill gaps and skill ceilings.
  • The new Sporefall raid debuted earlier this week with flex raiding. I’ve tried it from 15 ranging through to 25 with just pug mythics, and boy, it was an absolute nightmare over the week. I felt like I logged about 8 or so hours just trying to pug it and use as many rolls as I can. Most raid groups go with adds on the boss and adds in the middle. I saw one raid group go with the left foot and right foot positioning for adds, and that one felt much better. You could assign 2 ranged players to focus the remaining add on its own.
  • The release date for the next raid tier has been allegedly leaked, and we’re looking at August 11 for Race to World First to begin. That’s too early. I was hoping it would be after BlizzCon in September. With that timeline, there is no way we’re going to be able to clear Midnight Falls and give everyone a mount. We’ll have to come back to this later in the expansion.
  • Speaking of patch information, upcoming class changes and tier set stuff have also been released. I’ll post some more thoughts on it later on in the week. The big focus seems to be on smoothing out the burst and spiky damage (especially for Elemental Shaman) with the goal of making damage more consistent. I like that philosophy because I’ve historically been awful at playing classes with those DPS windows (including Shadow Priest and Shaman). I should’ve played an Aug or a Mage instead.
  • This is my official last week of work before my contract ends. I’m a little scared of what’s next. The job market’s been awful for the past year and I worry that I won’t be able to find anything that I can contribute to.