AQ opened on Medivh

[Tale]

How the hell can anyone lift that dagger ?

As an imaginary magic item, it's lighter than air and deadlier than Dick Cheney, of course.

[Ironwood]

Sigh.  Well, yes.

But if you're going to pull imaginary into the argument, what's the point ?   

[Tale]

The sharp end of the dagger.

[Ironwood]

Have you seen it ?  It's got more ends than Memento.

[Glazius]

Yeah, that's pretty much the conversation I had with the wife.  A dagger with a base damage of 101 for Ambush would be insane. 

But the fact is the Artists on these new items are just totally smoking the crack pipe.  Each set just manages to outdo the other in total image stupidity.  How the hell can anyone lift that dagger ?

Weeeeeeellll, if you look real carefully nobody's 'lifting' anything. They're all just using stickum.

--GF

[angry.bob]

What happened to style and artistic vision being one of Blizzards strong suite? None of that shit fits with the Warcraft universe on any level, plus with one or two exceptions among the weapons, it's just shitty looking. All the armor looks like shit that was rejected from the 70S Battle of the Planets or Power Rangers for being to gay to be the normally gay outfits everyone wore.

Man, all that stuff looks like shit. I don't care what the stats are. I don't care if they'd let a Paladin one-shot Nagafen, it all looks too bad for any self-respecting person to wear. But then again, the amount of grinding involved means you wouldn't have any left anyway so nevermind I guess

[cevik]

I don't hate it.. it all looks like special edition Tod Mcfarlane stuff in the "zomg look how much money I can make off these spawn toys" era of Image Comic's toy division.. I guess there is a certain nostalgia there for me.. ohh how I loved Spawn..

[Jobu]

The gates were opened on my server today.

So the guild with the magic-gong-smashing-item decided it would be in their best interest to ring the gong on Monday morning, at 6AM server time (it's a Pacific Rim/West Coast server). Their excuses were to prevent server instability and lag. But the reality of it is while the rest of the server does their normal stuff, you know going to school, work, or whatever they get pretty much free reign over the rare and elite mobs that are spawning around the world.

Now in the grand scheme of things, it's not really that big of a deal. It's a silly event to open a dungeon and zone that I will realistically never see because I don't run with large raiding guilds. But I was looking forward to running around the goblin cities having some fun PvPing and helping kill a few giant egyptian statue dudes. It just sucks that the raiders decided to be selfish jerks and lock out everyone they could from competing against them for polygon-peens. Am I surprised? Nah. Not really. I've learned by now that the first thing players will do is screw the other guy if given the choice. Just a bummer while I read the threads of other folks like me, asking how it's going and wishing they could have been in on the fun.

[HaemishM]

It just sucks that the raiders decided to be selfish jerks and lock out everyone they could from competing against them for polygon-peens.

I thought that was the entire raison d'etre of raiding guilds.

[MrHat]

The guild on my server decided they want 10k gold to open the gates.

[SurfD]

How the hell can anyone lift that dagger ?

As an imaginary magic item, it's lighter than air and deadlier than Dick Cheney, of course.

You people have obviously never been into a House of Knives and looked at their Fantasy Dagger displays.  Some of those daggers make WoW weapons look positively utilitarian.

[schild]

Just saw the deathdealer armor. WoW is still ugly.

They just want to make sure everyone thinks it.

[Dren]

Just went on a raid of AQ20 last night.  3 1/2 hours of preparation to be be completely thwarted by the first boss.  I got nothing.  The group accomplished nothing.

3 1/2 hours.

I will not go back unless a group has been formed and they've been successful 3 times.  Seriously this is like those old arcade games that never let you save your spot in the game.  We spent 3 1/2 hours to do this, and failed.  We'll have to spend another 3 1/2 hours to try again and will probably fail again.

When I had games like that as a kid, I'd quit playing them and return them for a better game.  There is one difference, however.  Those games let you actually play.  Last night was 3 1/2 hours of sitting on my ass doing nothing but watching chat.

Yup, I still hate raids.  Guess I have to keep proving that to myself. 

[Jayce]

Just went on a raid of AQ20 last night.  3 1/2 hours of preparation to be be completely thwarted by the first boss.  I got nothing.  The group accomplished nothing.

By contrast, we downed the first boss on our second try with maybe an hour of preparation/trash mob killing/journey to the instance... with horde outside camping the instance entrance.

But I agree that if you don't like raiding you shouldn't just do it for the items.  I didn't get any shinies for the first month we ran ZG just because nothing dropped I was interested in.  It was an enjoyable experience though anyway.

[Rasix]

Just went on a raid of AQ20 last night.  3 1/2 hours of preparation to be be completely thwarted by the first boss.  I got nothing.  The group accomplished nothing.

3 1/2 hours.

I will not go back unless a group has been formed and they've been successful 3 times.  Seriously this is like those old arcade games that never let you save your spot in the game.  We spent 3 1/2 hours to do this, and failed.  We'll have to spend another 3 1/2 hours to try again and will probably fail again.

When I had games like that as a kid, I'd quit playing them and return them for a better game.  There is one difference, however.  Those games let you actually play.  Last night was 3 1/2 hours of sitting on my ass doing nothing but watching chat.

Yup, I still hate raids.  Guess I have to keep proving that to myself. 

That's kind of sad.  We did a similar length raid, killled all bosses (Moam path) with no wipes until we hit Ossirian and took like 4-5 attempts at him before downing him (enough that we killed him on everyone's "this is my last shot").   Then we jetted over to Buru (neat fight) and killed him rather easily. The boss fights for the most part took everyone being on their toes and were pretty fun, except Rajaxx, who is a goddamn joke if you keep all of the NPCs alive.

I like the zone a lot.  There's a minimum of trash mobs (this means less faction though) and the boss fights are both interesting and strategic.  Ossirian is a boss that always has the opportunity to wipe any raid that has him on "farm" status.  Depending on your luck the fight can either be hard or REALLY hard (bad crystal spawning pattern + tornadoes).  Moam is an interesting fight also that can get quite assy if you don't have enough warlocks on.

However, the loot is pretty "meh" and getting exalted with Cenarian Hold is a royal pain in the ass I don't think I'll bother with even though I got the hilt for my epic class weapon (no one else wanted).   I'll still do the zone when I can (cutting down on play time), because I really like it so far and.. I need my totem upgrades.

[Dren]

I believe our issue is that we are a casual guild skipping all other raid content before this, thus not having the gear.  We just aren't pimped enough, but it was just a major event to get 15 of our own guys and 5 pickups to even attempt this.

We also didn't have the right make-up of classes.  The healing power wasn't there and I guess you need warlocks pretty bad.  We had zero.  It would have been nice to have more dot's going so the dps would be there but not enough to pull off of the tanks.

The tanks wouldn't last because the healing depth and consistency wasn't there.

[Rasix]

I believe our issue is that we are a casual guild skipping all other raid content before this, thus not having the gear.  We just aren't pimped enough, but it was just a major event to get 15 of our own guys and 5 pickups to even attempt this.

How underpimped are you? Can you do ZG? I think any guild that can do a good amount of ZG can at least get to Ossirian (you'll have tanking issues with him if you don't have a couple tanks in pretty decent tanking gear).  A lot of the instance comes down to execution and only really pimped out guilds can afford poor execution in the zone.

We also didn't have the right make-up of classes.  The healing power wasn't there and I guess you need warlocks pretty bad.  We had zero.  It would have been nice to have more dot's going so the dps would be there but not enough to pull off of the tanks.

The tanks wouldn't last because the healing depth and consistency wasn't there.

I'd say you need around 7-8 healers for the zone.   We had 9 (3 priest/6 shaman) last run and it was honestly too much.  You probably need at least 2 warlocks if you're planning on killing Moam.  They also help for mana draining situations (well, like Moam) and it's nice to have a nice source of shadow damage and AE.

A lot of the executional challenges in this zone can be made up for by top tier DPS.  Since you're not going to have it, you're just going to need to be a lot better coordinated.  With 5 pickups, that's going to be really difficult.  All fights have the opportunity for disaster if someone is slacking off and not paying attention.

[Dren]

ZG? Nope.

Healers? 6 (3 priests, 3 druids) [4 Pally's - don't count and one was me.]

Coordinated?  Huh?

Yeah, we had no business being there.

[Rasix]

Yah, if you're rolling in with critadins, probably not. 

[Dren]

Yeah, I recognized that right away, I was doing nothing for damage.  I was buffing and healing only really.  I finally just stayed away and tried to avoid damage/silence and healed and cleansed people.

I'm giving up on my Pally main.  He just feels out of place no matter where I am.  I can't heal near as well as a priest/druid even with a holy spec.  I'm always the last to die, but who cares?  Dieing is dieing and I couldn't prevent wipes at all no matter what I did.

I'm going to pour my time into getting my warlock and priest to 60 now.  I would have been 100% more effective with those and they are more fun to play to boot.

[cevik]

I'm giving up on my Pally main.  He just feels out of place no matter where I am.  I can't heal near as well as a priest/druid even with a holy spec.  I'm always the last to die, but who cares?  Dieing is dieing and I couldn't prevent wipes at all no matter what I did.

If you like AV Pally is for you.  Otherwise it sucks.

I'm going to pour my time into getting my warlock and priest to 60 now.  I would have been 100% more effective with those and they are more fun to play to boot.

Having taken both to 60 now (DING! 60 on my warlock last night), I think the warlock is by far the more enjoyable class.  Of course I found the healing portions of WoW rather lacking, so if you like healing with your Pally (and ONLY healing, because that is ALL you will EVER be doing with a priest) then you might want to take that route..

[Dren]

I agree, Warlock is more fun.  The trouble is, a lot of other people figured that out too.  My guild hasn't so I should be OK, but when in alliances, etc I might be in trouble. I figure if I have both a lock and priest in my back pocket I can participate no matter what.

No, I do not do AV, so, yes, Pally sucks otherwise.  I figure Pally was fine for solo PvE right up to 60.  Then, it felt like the devs just didn't even think about the class past that point.  Questing with the Pally was the safest and steadiest out of the 6 classes I've played.  It was also the most boring.

I'll use him for mining and maybe picking up some gismos from quests that I can do solo, but that's about it.  When the lvl 70 max comes into the game, I'll work on him some then too.

Never know, I might try doing AV once in awhile and see what I can do there.

/shrug.

[cevik]

I agree, Warlock is more fun.  The trouble is, a lot of other people figured that out too.  My guild hasn't so I should be OK, but when in alliances, etc I might be in trouble. I figure if I have both a lock and priest in my back pocket I can participate no matter what.

Well.. I hear that a lot, but in all honesty I cast banish maybe once a week or so.  Which means I'm not running into many locks at all in the bgs.. not nearly as many locks as hunters, warriors, rogues, mages, hunters, rogues, druids, paladins, hunters, rogues, priests, rogues, hunters or hunters..

And all of the major guilds on my server are currently recruiting locks, despite the supposed deluge of locks and locks being the fotm.. *shrug*.. I may be wrong, but my guess is, most people found that warlock isn't really actually easy mode..

[Modern Angel]

I think it has more to do with warlocks being a reasonably complex class. By that I mean easier than, say, rogue. It's very effective when played right and a ton of fun but fiddling with shards, curses, fears, and ping ponging aggro with a pet can be a pain for some of the less metally apt players.

[Dren]

I think it has more to do with warlocks being a reasonably complex class. By that I mean easier than, say, rogue. It's very effective when played right and a ton of fun but fiddling with shards, curses, fears, and ping ponging aggro with a pet can be a pain for some of the less metally apt players.

But that's why I like it.  I do see what you are saying though.  I see a ton of low level warlocks, but not many high level.  That might be were the false perception of FotM comes from. /shrug

I also agree, it is not an instant win class at all, but again, that's why I like it.

[cevik]

But that's why I like it.  I do see what you are saying though.  I see a ton of low level warlocks, but not many high level.  That might be were the false perception of FotM comes from. /shrug

I also agree, it is not an instant win class at all, but again, that's why I like it.

Yup.  It rocks! :)

[Ironwood]

WHAT IS THE FUCKING POINT OF MAKING A SERVER WIDE WORLD EVENT IF NO-ONE CAN GET ON TO THE SERVER.  I'M FAIRLY FUCKING SURE THOSE BASTARDS HAVE THROTTLED IT FOR THE NIGHT.

THIS IS FAIRLY BLOODY STUPID.

NO MORE WORLD EVENTS PLEASE YOU MONEY GRABBING SHITSTAINS.

[Calantus]

Looks like your server's resident uber guild shoulda been "dicks" and done it at 6am so you could actually play when you got home Ironwood.

[Jobu]

Looks like your server's resident uber guild shoulda been "dicks" and done it at 6am so you could actually play when you got home Ironwood.

After our server's guild screwed us, the server still crashed throughout the whole event. Especially hard at the last 45 minutes. All their cries of doing it for stability reasons were hogwash.

[Chenghiz]

Our guild opened the gates in the morning on a weekend. The server didn't crash. Go low-pop!

[Ironwood]

Looks like your server's resident uber guild shoulda been "dicks" and done it at 6am so you could actually play when you got home Ironwood.

I don't care, so yeah, they should have.  No need for quotes round 'dicks' either.  Seems fair enough that if the server can't handle a world event, then it should turn into a sneaky when no-ones around event.

I can't stand the resident Uber Guild and think they are dicks for other reasons.  This isn't their fault.  It's Blizzards.  Someone in the World Event meeting should have said NO, we can't do this.

[Dren]

Just for the record, our server handled it fine even during prime time.  We are not a low pop server either (300+ queues during prime everyday.)  I even went over to gadget to do something unrelated and got in on killling a few of those Anubis things and other misc. gigantic creatures that popped out of nowhere.

It always seems like there are big difference from server to server on stability.  Do they all have that much difference in terms of hardware?

[Zetor]

Crushridge is low pop, has queues at primetime (even though not many people are actually on), and still lags like heck with occasional instance / kalimdor server crashes.
So yeah, I'd say some servers [server clusters] are more equal than others.


-- Z.

[Calantus]

Nah the quotes were for the benefit of Jobu, who complained about his server's gate being openned up at a non-primetime hour.

[Ironwood]

But seriously, when else are they going to do it.  For higher population servers, it's the ultimate griefing tool.

It was funny as hell to watch from the safety of the other continent tho.