Daily Thoughts: 4.0.6
Those anxiously awaiting patch 4.0.6 should be happy to know that this patch should be hitting the live servers tomorrow. This includes the redefining of how many players constitutes a “guild group”, fixes and adds to the “luck of the draw” buff, adds some balance to Tol Barad and Strand of the Ancients, makes Retributions mastery possibly their best stat, along with a plethora of other class and instance changes. This patch has seen a ton of revisions already – you can find the most current after the break – with more possible by the time it goes live. I’m pretty happy with the changes overall. We should see some class balance, random dungeon finder groups might be a little more manageable, and did I mention the buff to retribution? Continue on for the most recent patch notes (as of this posting) in their entirety.
Luck of the Draw Buffed
The buff we receive for being in groups with random party members through the dungeon finder system is getting buffed, says Ghostcrawler – the leader systems designer of Wow. Each party using the dungeon finder system will see a 5% buff to health, healing and damage for each random member up to 15% increase. This should make pugs a significantly easier process, at least in terms of gear, organization, and skill needed to complete them. In the post GC also comments that the 5% buff we should have been getting already was broken and only working in some dungeons. 4.0.6 is bringing all sorts of goodies. Check the full text out after the break. (more…)
Daily Thoughts: Officers
So, it’s probably worth noting that I’m not referring to the kind of officer that you see in the little video above, this post is instead going to be about guild officers as opposed to Russian police that don’t want to be eaten by wolves. I’m sure you can see the similarity though. Guild officers go through a lot to keep the guild running, especially good ones. I think a lot of players don’t appreciate what the leaders of their guild go through in order to make it function cohesively, or at least as cohesively as possible. Continue on to read a little about what your officers do for your guild and how you can help them out – hint – it doesn’t involve cake.
Guild Recruitment: Band of Thorns, US-Thrall Horde
Band of Thorns (BoT) is looking for a few skilled raiders to round out their 10 man teams. They’re looking for a couple more melee dps (enhancement shaman preferred), a couple healers (not paladin), and one or two ranged (mage, lock or a boomkin would be nice, but aren’t those mythical creatures?).
The majority of BoT has been raiding/playing together since Vanilla/BC. They went 9/12 heroic in ICC (before cataclysm) and are 5/12 in the first tier of Cataclysm content, as of this posting. Raid times are currently 9pm server Tuesday/Friday.
All raiders are expected to show up to raids on time, be properly gemmed/enchanted/flasks, and have fun. Raids, and guild chat in general, keep a pretty light and fun atmosphere even when they’re getting serious for a kill. So, although they’d love you to read Elitist Jerks (or similar) to know your class, please don’t be one.
Their website is available at bot.wowstead.com, or contact Minmon or another officer in-game if interested.
Need to fill your roster? Feel free to email me at contact (at) alternateimage (dot) com with your information.
When a Raid Becomes the Perfect Storm: A Blog Azeroth Shared Topic
Naithin over at Fun In Games started this topic about what causes a raid to just come together. His Post can be found HERE and is definitely worth a read. For those who don’t know about Blog Azeroth already, check them out.
Every so often something amazing happens. There are always forces at work, sometimes they are small, seemingly insignificant and others can be quite powerful in their own right. When these forces coalesce we see extraordinary things happen. The right combination of social and economic factors that came together at the right time destroyed the soviet union; the right mix of chemicals and energy (might have) created life on earth; the unfortunate timing of air pressure, temperature and electrical charge can turn a tropical storm into a devastating hurricane, and a random group of players from across the world can get together and kill a WoW boss 400 times their size. There are a ton of factors that can happen while forming or during a raid that can cause a frustrating wipe or sweet, sweet victory.
Daily Thoughts: Alts
I love alts. My characters other than my main have for a long time been a driving force in keeping my interest in WoW. I keep a stable of max level alts to gear up or for crafting. I often won’t feel like running more than one heroic dungeon on the same character per day, but a heroic on a resto shaman doesn’t feel like the same heroic on a ret paladin. One of the great things about WoW is the sheer variety of stuff to do.
Some days I feel like accomplishing, or working towards, an “end” character goal. This might be something like farming heroics in hopes for best-in-slot pre-raid drops or gear from points to rep farming for epics or actual raiding. This is gearing up my toon with equipment that should last it a while and help my end goal of a character – being raid worthy. Other days I just want to accomplish something. There’s really no guarantee to pick up a specific drop from a dungeon and sometimes you’re just too many randoms or quest away from having enough points or rep to buy something nice. On these days, I might take up one of my leveling toons. Especially at lower levels, but even closing on level cap, it’s only a matter of time to get a few levels. With each level comes new talents or spells and can feel like a little accomplishment for the day. This is especially great after a run of bad luck on a max level toon.