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SYTYCB: The Last Piece of Loot

September 3, 2012August 26, 2008 by Matticus

This is a SYTYCB submission from Crutch who made it into the top 7.

“Of course,” I sigh as I pick up my badges, trying to ignore the other loot as it taunts me with its very presence. I walk away, moving on tothe next boss, just a little disappointed.

I’ve been running full Karazhan clears every week since the beginning of February. I’ve downed this boss 29 (TWENTY-NINE!) times, and I’ve only seen it drop once. And that time I lost the roll!

“I want this nightmare to be over!”

It seems like everyone has a story about some piece of loot that just won’t drop for them. That elusive item that you’ve hunted for hours, weeks, months, maybe even years, and it still hasn’t dropped. You’ve farmed this item so long that the anticipation of clicking on the corpse is just a little painful, even as fighting the actual monster is trivial. You know all of its tricks, you just want that little icon to appear when you click on the corpse. As the mob loses its last percent of health and it falls over dead, you’re torn. Do you pray the treasure would finally just drop already, or do you try to keep yourself from believing, hoping to avoid the feeling of disappointment when it inevitably doesn’t?

Maybe you’re a prot paladin, running Shattered Halls well past the point of getting Exalted with Thrallmar, all for a Figurine of the Colossus. Maybe you’re a hunter in yet another pug, praying that Gruul will finally drop your Dragonspine Trophy (and, while you’re at it, that you’ll beat all the other hunters, rogues, and fury warriors on the roll!) Perhaps you’re the rogue on top of the DKP list for your guild, and you just want Illidan to drop his Warglaive of Azzinoth. It might be that you’re running Black Morass for the 20th time looking for Hourglass of the Unraveller, or maybe you’re just hoping that those Scarlet Spellbinders will finally, finally give up the Enchant Weapon – Crusader.

Me, I’m a holy paladin. Our guild is 4/5 MH 4/9 BT, but I’m still running Karazhan every week, and not just for badges. No, every week, as we kill Illhoof, kill the four spell shades at the top of the next ramp, and turn to those cursed library doors, I think to myself “Ok, Nielas Aran, are you finally going to give me my Pendant of the Violet Eye?” I spend those two or three suspense filled, excruciating, boring minutes dodging blizzards, not moving on flame wreaths, dodging arcane explosions, healing a little harder through the elemental spawn. Long gone are the days where we worry about him running out of mana, and having to bubble through a pyroblast. The accursed Shade drops, and I drink, waiting for our raid leader to announce that maybe, this week, it dropped. But, no, another Saberclaw Talisman and Shermanar Great-Ring to shard later, and we’re on to Netherspite.

“I’m not even sure I want it anymore!” I yell at the screen, frustrated.

Maybe I should get in on an SSC pug and get Sextant of Unstable Currents, or TK for Fel Reaver’s Piston. “It’s not that good,” I mutter angrily, trying to convince myself that what I have is>enough. And maybe it is “enough”… but it’s not what I want.

So next week, I’ll go down that familiar hallway past Curator, past Illhoof, to that ill-fated progenitor of Medivh for the 30th time.

Will it drop?

Or will I sigh, loot my two badges, and leave again, just a little more disappointed?

Tell me, oh readers, of your tales of RNG woe and let us commiserate together.

SYTYCB: The Dark Side: Expansion Syndrome

May 3, 2012August 26, 2008 by Matticus

darkside

tulani-post This is a SYTYCB submission from Tulani who made it into the top 7.

I remember back in September of last year, I was talking to a friend of mine. He had raided through Naxx pre-BC, and at the time resided in my hardcore progression guild. We were discussing the unnamed expansion, and he warned me of something that at the time, I didn’t – nay, couldn’t – believe, in my limited BC-only raiding experience. Now, however, it’s more than a reality; it’s an epidemic.

Expansionitus.

That’s right, I said it. I said what so many of us in our “expansion craze” refuse to acknowledge.

There is absolutely nothing that makes me want to scream more than pre-expansion lull. The length of time to get five people together increases to unbearable standards, and god forbid you try to slap a raid into a cohesive class balance. Recruitment slows to a crawl, and the only sign of life in your previously loudmouth guild is the discussion of what’s to come. Everyone turns to the future while shunning the present.

I’m talking to you. You, who’s read everything you can on the new expansion, and now you’re biding your time, leveling alts, and saving up your money, ready to sprint right up to the top all over again. In the meantime though, you’ve grown bored of this version, and you’ve started showing up less and less, and when you do, you couldn’t be more uninterested. And your attitude drags everyone else down with you.

Oh, you thought the quitters were the worst? No, it’s you – the player who’s far too lazy to put in the effort they did a few months ago, but still hang around anyway. You, the member who, had you acted like this before, would have been kicked without a second thought. These members litter raiding guilds as the expansion nears; as an officer, you won’t believe how infuriating it is to deal with the victims of this plague. Well, I’m here to administer the vaccine, and a swift kick to the behind:

Expansion isn’t for months. That’s months of new raids, months of new content, months of new kills.

Allow me to backtrack a second here: I am every bit as eager for a new haircut as the next girl, and there is nothing wrong with preparing and being excited. Expansion will surely be great, and with all the buzz, it doesn’t take an analyst to see how much it dwarfs what we currently play. However, I have goals which I need to see accomplished before I can enjoy something new.

My aspiration? To /dance on Kil’Jaeden’s corpse, plain and simple. I mean, it seems easy enough. You’d think with guilds who have cleared the majority of the game, the only way to go is forward, right? Wrong. Let me tell you my abbreviated story: the looming expansion has hit my guild smack in the face, right after we killed Mu’ru, the “hardest boss in the game.” And I’m not alone. I’m not the only guild experiencing the all-too-common symptoms: the sudden disappearances, the lack of concentration, the endless burnout… but one boss from the end? Your attitude, Mr. Waiting-For-Expansion, is a slap in the face not only to current members, but to everyone who’s given all they have to get us where we are today.

“But Lani, it’s all for nothing anyway. In a few short months, everything you do now won’t matter.”

Allow me to read this for what it really is: in a few months, all that nice gear, and your top dog reputation, will be insignificant, and you can’t handle that. Did you not join your guild saying that the joy is in the journey, not in the epics? It’s another reminder of how a lot of people lie on that question, and unfortunately, it’s those very people that see that the physical gain is going to be worthless, and they’re jumping ship quick. But me, I have a need to kill this big stinking Eredar, for pride, for completion. I don’t want to be “That Guild,” who we’ve all heard about when we’re clearing trash. The “yeah, we almost killed C’Thun, then Beta came out” guild.

We all know Expansionitus isn’t a real disease. It’s simply people who choose to lose sight of the world around them as they sit on their thumbs and wait for a new one. Maybe you’re already sneaking off from raids or your arena teams, or just showing up and watching some ESPN until it’s over. Maybe, like me listening to my guildmate long ago, you just don’t believe it. Wise up. If you want to have anything to come back to in Wrath, then when it comes time for your daily dose of raiding, do those 24 other people who rely on you a favor and pay attention.

So come on. This is the current game. Let’s finish it.

Wrath Content Patch Spells Doom for Raiding

September 15, 2008August 26, 2008 by Matticus

This is a guest post by fellow guild and Enhancement Shaman all star Aylii who has become worried by the recent announcement of the pre-Wrath content patch and what it could mean to current end game raiding.

A few hours ago, Eyonix posted that the pre-Wrath content patch will be released in the coming weeks, which means that Wrath is just around the corner.

Like in the pre-Burning Crusade content patch, we will get to experience many of the new changes that will be coming to wrath a bit early, without needing the new expansion (Inscription to 375 anyone?). However, there is one flaw in the release that has me worried, and that is the new class spells and talents.

So far in Wrath, we as bloggers have read and kept track of the many changes to our respecting classes in the coming days. From the addition of many AOE healing spells, the change in mana regeneration and it’s respective talents, the warrior dreaming of duel wielding his two-handers, we have watched it all. There is one darkness that looms over all of these changes, and it mostly revolves around something many of us do casually or hardcore:

We love to raid.

Many class mechanics in Wrath were drastically changed to handle the encounters for the future. Crushing blows were removed. Intense need for mana regeneration destroyed. Changes in how we attack and defend. All of this tuned for Malygos and Arthas.

Yet it is released now, when we are still killing bosses who will preform crushing blows, still begging for blessing of salvation because we know we will pull, still chugging our mana potions. The sad thing is, there is most likely nothing we will do to stop it. For, after all, the pre-BC bosses were never changed, so why should the post-BC bosses be changed for wrath?

Crushing Blows

When I read about these changes, the first thing that popped into my mind was, “Gridlock is never going to get his Warglaive now.” The reasoning, Illidan will become undoable with the changes to talents. In the new content patch, Shield Block will be changed to a 40 second cooldown with Improved Shieldblock. Your Warrior will be crushed if he saves his shield blocks for shear. Sure, you can use a paladin to tank Illidan, but then the flame tanks will be crushed. I’d hate to imagine Sunwell guilds trying Brutallus now.

Threat

Every boss in BC is tuned to have threat control. In the content patch, we will be losing the main ways we reduce threat, Salvation and Tranquil Air. The talents will be still there, but until tanks (mostly warriors and druids) get some new gear from Northrend, they will not be able to keep up threat, unless they tank in Arena Gear. Goodbye Reliquary of Souls.

Itemization

So far I know of three classes (specs) who are getting major itemization changes: shaman, druid, and warrior. The smart enhancement shaman currently wears leather gear, which will leave them weaker after the patch due to the new stat bonuses they get (1 ap per str, agi, int). Similarly, protection warriors, who focus on block value and stamina, will be unable to keep threat because none of their gear has strength. Blizzard has stated that they will make the transistion easier for classes such as these, but gear only accounts for one of the problems.

These are the highlights of Eyonix’s post, but it is just that, highlights. There are other things in the content patch that we might see that can kill raiding, such as:

Potions

Potions. Potions. Potions.

We love them, we need them, we crave them. Soon we will be without them. Currently, in Wrath, if you drink a potion, you get potion sickness, which makes you unable to take another potion. Current bosses are tuned to make us chug mana pots, and even with three classes now supplying mana, I fear the changes will not be enough until we hit Wrath itemized gear.

Downranking

If the downranking nerf makes it into the content patch, kiss your healers goodbye. As I write this now, there is currently no alternative to healing people up besides using the max rank heal, which means more mana, which means out of mana healers who have to sit on their butts and watch their aggro loving dps and tanks die. I sincerely hope that Blizzard does not include this in the content patch, ot better yet, unnerf the nerf!
Whatever Blizzard does, I hope they do something about this. Myself, and many other raiders, still wish to raid before Wrath.

Source: Eyonix Post

Now it’s your turn. Do you think raiding will become even more difficult? Would this alarming change add even more pressure to your Guild to start knocking out bosses and seeing more of end game?

BETA: Well, hello, there!

August 23, 2008 by Wynthea

So, I went to Undercity to see the new skin for Lady Sylvannas:

While boarding the Zepplin to head back to Northrend, this little convo took place:

I blurred the name, because I didn’t think to ask them if I could use this….. I’ll put it up, edited back in if you let me know that it’s okay.

Totally made my day.

If you’re in beta, feel free to say hello! It’s always nice to meet someone that finds value in what we write here.

Luv,

Wyn

BETA: 10 Achievements that Will Make You Go WTF?

September 3, 2012August 22, 2008 by Matticus

So you’ve heard about the new Achievements in Wrath. They’re designed to help other players recognize you and your accomplishments. Many Achievements are easy to achieve such as winning a PvP match or doing 1000 quests in your time.

But a closer look at some of the other Achievements offered just make me cringe in what’s necessary to be able to accomplish them.

Here is what my Achievements look like so far. I didn’t actually level to 80, but I did max out all of my non-crafting and gathering professions. I didn’t actually do 2000 quests either if you look at the updated statistics below.

The bar at the top shows how many Achievements you have. When you start playing Wrath from your 70 toon, expect to have around 20% of them complete. Actually, I might be wrong in this regard. Anyway, we’ll see when it goes live. I’m not sure how many Achievements most players will have.

I believe the number to the side of the Achievement name is the amount of points it’s worth. I’m not suite sure what those points will be used for.

Now, let’s find out more about our ridiculous and non-essential goals that we will do anyway for the sake of completion!

City Defender

Ah the City Defender. You’re out late at night patrolling the streets of whatever Capital City you call your home. Usually, there aren’t that many assaults or sieges on capital cities unless you’re on a major PvP server. Not only that, but you have to physically land the killing blow? Or does it refer to just honorable kills? I have no idea. Any Horde want to ride into Stormwind on beta so I can take you out?

It’s re-DONK-ulous I tell you.

To All the Squirrels I’ve Loved Before

I shoot them on sight. You know of my reaction to Murlocs. Critters are no less the same way. D.H.E.T.A. will hate me for it. But it’s the only way I can increase my place on the damage meters!

My Sack is Gigantique

If the Achievement title doesn’t make you cringe slightly, then the cost to pick up one of these bad boys will. All you have to do is drop 1200G and you’ll get yourself 10 Achievement points. If you didn’t need bag space before, you won’t need it now.

Well Read

Wow. Just wow. This is the scavenger hunt to end all scavenger hunts. The only book I really ever read was out in Scarlet Monastary about the crusades and all that against the Undead Scourge.

Seriously, just look at all the reading you have to do. If you do plan on going for this, I salute you.

Master of Arms

I’m Holy. The only weapon skills I can max out are Staves, Maces, Wands, and Knives. I guess Unarmed can be thrown in there, too. Now if I can just find me a mob that won’t die yet won’t hit hard enough to kill me.

That’s Gotta Hurt

Actually, this one isn’t so bad. You just need to make sure you’re standing in the right spot so you can sort of clip through the platform. The trick is to break the other team’s will so that they do spawn on the platform and stop trying to fight back so they can get out of there.

We Had It All Along cough

Yes, we’ve all pull this off once. Some of the luckier ones managed to do it twice. But now that it’s in the game and winning by a margin of 10 actually matters, I bet it’s going to be one that not many players will be able to pull off easily.

Resilient Victory

Again, the problem is going to depend on the rest of your team. 500 resources is one hell of a handicap.This means pre made groups will have to sort of “throw the game” at the start before going full tilt later on.

The Alterac Blitz

No way. It takes 5 minutes to full capture a tower. By going straight down to Drek or Van and the time it takes to navigate the path and dodge Horde or Alliance forces, the timer will almost be over. If anyone has a serious thought or plan to do this, let’s hear it. The only way I can think of is to go straight to the General with both Warmasters up unless you can capture towers within 60 seconds. But even, that’s still a lot of time.

Damage Control

I’ve been able to accomplish this one myself with no problem. If you’re a Shaman, Chain Lightning as often as you can. If you’re a Priest, stay Holy and spam the heck out of everyone around you. Just make sure you hide and park yourself in a not-so-obvious spot.

Now that we’ve gone through some of the teeth grinding Achievements that can be done, I turn the hat over to you. What other nigh-impossible Achievements can you come up with? You’re free to use any aspect of Classic, TBC, or Wrath. What about Class specific Achievements? Is there any challenges that Priests or other individual healers can engage in?