SYTYCB: The Dark Side: Expansion Syndrome

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darkside

tulani-postThis 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.

SYTYCB: Last Details and the Rest of the Seven

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sytycb

collage-2

And here we have the remaining 3 underbloggers! Crutch was able to sneak a submission in on the last day under the wire which we liked enough to squeeze him into the remaining positions we had open.

Unfortunately, Sindaga had to withdraw from the competition due to time commitments and other real life responsibilities. Good luck in your endeavors, Sindaga (and keep trolling the Plusheal forums)!

Let me just say that by getting this far, the top 8 bloggers have earned the right to contribute to this blog and this community as guest posters.

But only one will be able to earn the 3rd blogging position. Who will it be?

Competition begins now

Two posts will be scheduled later today at 10 AM and 2 PM courtesy of Tulani and Crutch. Be sure to give them some excellent critiques and feedback! The other 5 bloggers will have their posts featured Wednesday and Thursday.

Wrath Content Patch Spells Doom for Raiding

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armageddon

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?

SYTYCB: The Top 7 Underbloggers and Competition Details

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sytycb

I was overwhelmed by the number of quality submissions that I received last week. I ended up with over 16 of them. Many of the people that applied were really good writers. In the end, it was decided that we would make the cuts there and turn this into a competition.

Join us in the search for the 3rd blogger on World of Matticus.

The Format

I had originally cut the list down to 8. Due to time restraints and other commitments, one of them had to bow out. I did not have the time or ability to scramble another replacement. Now, there’s no way I can gauge a blogger’s commitment, writing ability, and creativity off of one post. Ergo, I’ve decided to run them through a blogging gauntlet. Every week for a period of four weeks, I pick a post format and style that they have to write. It’s up to them to craft the post itself. They need to come up with the title, the content and any original images on their own. This is done over the weekend. When the weekdays start, the cut off is in place and then I’ll gradually showcase their submissions on the blog for you to read and provide your own feedback on.

Who gets cut and who stays is determined by Wyn and I. We’re not going to list our criteria because frankly, it’s a little hard. How do you answer the question what makes a good blogger? It’s subjective and it’s a decision that we can only make after we see what our underbloggers come up with.

Styles

1: Teaching: A post of value that’ll teach a player how to accomplish something. Could be how to do a complicated boss fight from a class/role perspective or PvP stuff or make money, etc. Sky’s the limit.
2: List: I love lists. They’re short, they’re sweet and they generally get good press and it always stirs up a lively discussion.
3: Player Improvement: Here’s a great one. Take a forum post or a blog post from somewhere. Make sure its got a problem that can be addressed. Write about how they solved it, if applicable, and how you’d do it differently or offer an alternative solution. (IE, question and answer post)
4: Rant: The rant. Can you stir up the masses? The point here isn’t whether you’re right or wrong. The point is to see if you can emotionally charge up the readers and get them passionate about something whether they agree with you or disagree with you.
5: Diary: One aspect about blogging is that some readers are interested in what you’re doing. How have you progressed and grown throughout the game? Downed a boss lately? Completed an event? Attained a mount? Achieved a special ranking? But here’s the catch: A lot of bloggers out there keep diary-like posts already. The trick here is to make yours outstanding and memorable. Whose to say bloggers can’t be story tellers?
6: Updating Post: Pick a blog post that a blogger you’ve admired has done that is outdated (like any of my old ones). How would you change and update it so that it’s relevant today? Did the blogger get it right then? What changes would you make about it now?
7: Debate: This is the sort of devil vs angel kind of post. A few months ago, I wrote a post about an internal debate I had in my head where I weighed pros and cons. When Wyn signed on, we both disagreed with each other on certain aspects of the game where we’d both pick a side and write a post presenting our arguments.

For week 1, I had all of our underbloggers write a rant. WoW players can be very passionate and vocal about anything within the game. But can they translate that emotion onto the screen and get an audience riled up? We’ll find out this week.

Your Underbloggers

If you’ve hung around the Plusheal community or trolled my comments, you might recognize a few of their names! I’ll introduce the other 3 later on.

 collage-1

Again, their posts will be showcased as the week progresses so keep your eyes peeled and don’t forget to comment with your thoughts!

Deep Thoughts, by Wynthea

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So…. Blood Elves are addicted to magic. It makes sense then, that they can be Mages, Warlocks, Palladins, Priests, and Hunters. But what’s up with the Rogues? Did they kick the habit somehow? Maybe they’re on the patch?

Luv,
Wyn