WoW [General Discussion]

[Martinus]

Zarhym popped into one of the many official forum topics complaining about the seemingly inordinate amount of times Old Kingdom pops on the Dungeon Finder to offer some welcome news for exhausted dungeon runners: Old Kingdom and Nexus alike will be receiving some adjustments meant to bring the dungeons in line with other Wrath heroics.

Old Kingdom will receive the most changes. Elder Nadox will spawn only one Ahn'Kahar Guardian and Jedoga Shadowseeker will ascend only once in their respective encounters. In addition, some static trash groups will be removed, while some roaming groups will have their paths altered. He stressed that these changes are not meant to make the dungeon easier, but rather to make it a slightly quicker run, more in line with other heroics. He also acknowledged that the dungeon finder made the daily quest associated with the dungeon somewhat complicated to obtain and turn in, and while the dev team would like to fix it, they still haven't found a satisfactory solution.

Later in the thread, he announced a similar change to Nexus, namely that Anomalus will use his Create Rift ability much less often. Finally, he revealed that a "quick start" option for the Culling of Stratholme is in the works, but will likely not be ready for the next minor patch due to the complicated scripting required.

All of these changes, I am sure, will cause great joy among the badge running crowd. I admit I never disliked the lore of the Culling of Stratholme instance, but after the first 10 times, you know, it loses some of the lustre. This also makes me wonder which dungeon is next. It seems like Halls of Stone is really the only dungeon left that still has a problem with people dropping group. I'm guessing we might see a reduction of the time to victory on the Tribunal of Ages event, and possibly a pruning of the trash before Krystallus and Maiden of Grief to give more incentive to grab them.

Regardless, there's no word on when these changes will be implemented, but all the same, they should be welcome. Stay tuned for any more news on this stealthily announced "minor patch" as we hear it.

MOAR EMBLEMZ!

[Eddie Teach]

Nexus will be receiving some adjustments meant to bring the dungeons in line with other Wrath heroics.

And thus they decided to NERF it?

[Martinus]

It's not about nerfing - it's about making it less long.

[Eddie Teach]

Nexus makes up for being longer by having more bosses/badges.

[crazy canuck]

Any urge I had to come back to this game was quickly killed by the notion of having to collect badges.

[Martinus]

Badges?! We don't need no stinking badges!

Someone had to say that. 

[Barrister]

Any urge I had to come back to this game was quickly killed by the notion of having to collect badges.

It is a slightly more interesting mechanic to earn gear than to run the same instance numerous times hoping for a low % drop...

[Strix]

Its just going to be blood elves and tauren.

The Dungeon Finder System doesn't really affect the guild system that much. Those who want to push end game raid content can't rely on it. In order to get the harder stuff down (heroic modes) you really need a steady roster of 10/25 people hitting the bricks every week. I am unsure if theres a raid random dungeon finder but I imagine it'd be highly ineffective against Ice crown raid content.

I take it you aren't playing anymore.

[Strix]

Zarhym popped into one of the many official forum topics complaining about the seemingly inordinate amount of times Old Kingdom pops on the Dungeon Finder to offer some welcome news for exhausted dungeon runners: Old Kingdom and Nexus alike will be receiving some adjustments meant to bring the dungeons in line with other Wrath heroics.

Old Kingdom will receive the most changes. Elder Nadox will spawn only one Ahn'Kahar Guardian and Jedoga Shadowseeker will ascend only once in their respective encounters. In addition, some static trash groups will be removed, while some roaming groups will have their paths altered. He stressed that these changes are not meant to make the dungeon easier, but rather to make it a slightly quicker run, more in line with other heroics. He also acknowledged that the dungeon finder made the daily quest associated with the dungeon somewhat complicated to obtain and turn in, and while the dev team would like to fix it, they still haven't found a satisfactory solution.

Later in the thread, he announced a similar change to Nexus, namely that Anomalus will use his Create Rift ability much less often. Finally, he revealed that a "quick start" option for the Culling of Stratholme is in the works, but will likely not be ready for the next minor patch due to the complicated scripting required.

All of these changes, I am sure, will cause great joy among the badge running crowd. I admit I never disliked the lore of the Culling of Stratholme instance, but after the first 10 times, you know, it loses some of the lustre. This also makes me wonder which dungeon is next. It seems like Halls of Stone is really the only dungeon left that still has a problem with people dropping group. I'm guessing we might see a reduction of the time to victory on the Tribunal of Ages event, and possibly a pruning of the trash before Krystallus and Maiden of Grief to give more incentive to grab them.

Regardless, there's no word on when these changes will be implemented, but all the same, they should be welcome. Stay tuned for any more news on this stealthily announced "minor patch" as we hear it.

MOAR EMBLEMZ!

I just am happy they'll tinker with OK. It's way to long an instance and noob tanks end up wiping a group several times on the last area to clear to end boss and the chick.

[Strix]

You guys realize the dungeon finder is only for 5-mans, right? People are still going to raid with guild groups or pickup groups from their server.

Yes but where do guilds recruit from? And who runs pickup groups that much anymore? Most of the guilds I have belonged to recruited in three ways. They'd allow friends in, they'd allow people to apply, and they invite trial members from pickup groups (especially 5 man heroics). The new system basically reduces it to people applying based on gearscore now.

Most pickup groups are composed of end game guild alts who need badges or a chance at lower content gear. Most conversation is reduced to "kick the noob, l2P, or in my guild we XXX". They aren't that talkative and any possible invite would be for a healer or tank.

I just see it hurting the social guilds which are made up of the more casual player who makes up a large percentage of WoW's player base.

[Jaron]

Its just going to be blood elves and tauren.

The Dungeon Finder System doesn't really affect the guild system that much. Those who want to push end game raid content can't rely on it. In order to get the harder stuff down (heroic modes) you really need a steady roster of 10/25 people hitting the bricks every week. I am unsure if theres a raid random dungeon finder but I imagine it'd be highly ineffective against Ice crown raid content.

I take it you aren't playing anymore.

Not much, why?

[Jaron]

You guys realize the dungeon finder is only for 5-mans, right? People are still going to raid with guild groups or pickup groups from their server.

Yes but where do guilds recruit from? And who runs pickup groups that much anymore? Most of the guilds I have belonged to recruited in three ways. They'd allow friends in, they'd allow people to apply, and they invite trial members from pickup groups (especially 5 man heroics). The new system basically reduces it to people applying based on gearscore now.

Most pickup groups are composed of end game guild alts who need badges or a chance at lower content gear. Most conversation is reduced to "kick the noob, l2P, or in my guild we XXX". They aren't that talkative and any possible invite would be for a healer or tank.

I just see it hurting the social guilds which are made up of the more casual player who makes up a large percentage of WoW's player base.

Most guilds that recruit now will do so through friends, trade channel recruiting and forum posts. I don't think random 5 mans were ever a hot recruiting spot for most guilds. What a lot of guilds do nowadays is host a weekly raid of some kind and if the guild does well they invite interested people to apply to join.

The new LFG system does make it less likely you'll get to know people on your own server, this is true, but I don't see it having a huge impact on raiding guilds. The RP guilds will be fine too. Its going to be the little guilds that will be hurt the most.

[crazy canuck]

Any urge I had to come back to this game was quickly killed by the notion of having to collect badges.

It is a slightly more interesting mechanic to earn gear than to run the same instance numerous times hoping for a low % drop...

Now you need to run the instance the same number of times to accumulate the required number of badges.  I agree it is a good mechanic to keep people putting time into the game - since all you really need to put in to get gear is time.

I liked it better when you had to have some skill to get into the raids that got the good gear but that doesnt translate well into as good a commercial success.

[Strix]

I liked it better when you had to have some skill to get into the raids that got the good gear but that doesnt translate well into as good a commercial success.

No, no it doesn't. The casual players won that war. Companies began to realize that people who take ten times as long to accomplish their goals pay that much more money than hardcore players who get succeed quickly and get bored just as fast.

[Berkut]

I liked it better when you had to have some skill to get into the raids that got the good gear but that doesnt translate well into as good a commercial success.

No, no it doesn't. The casual players won that war. Companies began to realize that people who take ten times as long to accomplish their goals pay that much more money than hardcore players who get succeed quickly and get bored just as fast.

I thought they hit a rather nice "keep everyone happy" model. New content is damn hard, which keeps the hardcore competing, which drives buzz and interest, even if 96% of the people are not involved in that race at all. They may not be involved, but they do care, at least some of them.

Then, a few months later, they just start dumbing it all down. Remove entrance requirements, lower "nearly as good" epic costs so you can get into the next level dungeon without having to do the previous necessarily, etc., etc.

The hardcore is a little annoyed because now everyone is running around with the Black Bow of the Betrayer, but hey, there is another dungeon that you are trying to be server first on, so who really cares?



I ahve to admit I am having a lot of fun on my second run through as a hunter. the first time Div went through TBC, he was in a pretty full set of epics already, so the quest rewards and such weren't interesting at all. Now I actually care about what is going to drop from a boss in Hellfire Ramparts.

The only bitch I have, if it is even a bitch, is that I can tell I am going to level through the 60-70 zone very, very fast. No way to actually do all the quests in each zone before I've leveled out of it.

And I fucking hate Death Knights. They are basically unstoppable at the 58-62 levels with their insanely awesome gear they are handed for nothing. Talk about the ultimate WoW flavor of the month class.