Plarium Responds to Clan Quest Debacle

So… I’d like to think my post helped encourage this, but we know it was the Hell Hades-level Raid: Shadow Legends creators and the bulk reddit feedback that got this response. It is… however, interesting that they are actually responding. Less interesting is their tone. Their response, which came from the official discord, definitely has a tone implying the players just don’t understand their intentions from patch 4.50 and NOT that it was just implemented poorly… “Unfortunately, when it came to implementation, they didn’t quite enter the game and your perception exactly the way they were supposed to” they said. Our perception is the problem. Read further for their whole response and my thoughts on it.

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Patch 5.3: Crazy Changes for PVP

Blizzard has really been doing an awesome job this expansion bringing us consistent, frequent, and meaningful patches. Upcoming patch 5.3 appears to be no exception so far. While, there are a lot of strange data mining discoveries so far (such as a spell for a third talent specialization) the biggest changes I’m seeing are to PVP. First off… hunters – gone! Second, resilience is being removed from gear. Finally, PVP will now feature gear scaling similar to challenge modes. Okay, so only two of those things is true. Follow after the break to see which and also the rest of the patch notes relating to PVP.

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Daily Thoughts: Brawler’s Guild Woes

Upcoming patch 5.1 is bringing with it a lot of changes and new content. One of the most controversial items seems to be the Brawler’s Guild. Despite the first rule of Brawler’s Guild being “don’t talk about Brawler’s Guild”, there is a lot of talking going on – primarily about the way that a player can gain access to this content. For those who don’t know anything about this feature, here’s the description from the patch notes:

Brawler’s Guild

  • Underground fighting rings have sprung up in Stormwind and Orgrimmar that will give brawlers who have their mitts on an invitation a chance to earn bragging rights by testing their solo PvE mettle against some of the toughest creatures found in World of Warcraft.
  • Players will prove their skill, and increase their rank with the Brawler’s Guild, as they win matches against some of the most difficult solo encounters in World of Warcraft.
  • Entry into the brawler’s guild is by invitation only. Invitations can be found on the black market auction house or by invitation from somebody within the guild.
  • As their Brawler’s Guild rank increases, players will unlock additional rewards and activities within the Brawler’s Guild.
  • Brawlers on a realm will gather together into the blood spattered ring to watch as their peers face down their own opponents. They can watch the battles in progress to learn from hardened Brawler’s Guild veterans as they wait for their own turn to fight.
  • If this is your first night at Brawler’s Guild, you have to fight.

Black Market Auction House invitations means that only the wealthiest players will have access to the Guild at first and has some people upset. I think it’s awesome and can’t imagine a better way to handle it.

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Daily Thoughts: 4.2 – Are You Prepared!?

With 4.2 (theoretically) coming out tomorrow, I am pretty excited. Major content patches are always exciting times. They can breathe new life into the game and give us brand new reasons to hate warlocks. Ok, so we probably have enough reasons to hate warlocks without a patch.

So, I’ve spent the past week making sure my toons are prepared for patch 4.2. How have I done this? Well I’m glad you asked. The easiest form of individual character progression was to get all my max level toons nearly capped for justice points. When 4.2 comes around and all the wonderful valor point gear becomes purchasable with JP, I’ll have a stable of alts ready to start getting decked out in tier 11. Keep in mind, 359 will be the new 346 and you’ll be expected to be mostly set with 359 level gear in order to participate in the new raid content. You can also expect pug leaders to want higher average item level given the ease of acquiring 359 in 4.2, regardless of the massive 20% nerf to all of the regular raid bosses. Another great way to prepare yourself, as a raider at least, is to check up on the raid bosses in the common Firelands raid. WoW Insider columnist Matticus shared his impressions of Beth’tilac, Lord Rhyolith, and Alysrazor and could help give you an edge on some of the first bosses if you plan on jumping  right into raiding the new content. I’m sure a quick search around the interwebs would reveal more boss information as well.

I have also prepared myself to laugh at D-bags that try to ninja BOE’s they plan on selling.

  • If a player wins a Need roll under the Need Before Greed system on a Bind on Equip item, the item will become Soulbound to that player. The item will remain unbound if won via a Greed roll.

I’m okay with people needing bind on equip gear they intend to use, not if they intend to sell it. This change makes me all sorts of smiley.

As opposed to listing the entirely of the patch notes after the break, as I had thought about doing, follow me after the break for a direct link to Blizzard patch note blog as well as WoW Insider’s guide to 4.2.

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Daily Thoughts: Patch Day Blues

So 4.1 is in full swing and with that comes all the wonder and joy of new content and new ridiculous bugs. Fortunately, I wasn’t struck too seriously by the patch day blues. The majority of my addons worked right off the bat. The only notable exception for me was recount, but I can still raid without it. Yes, I can raid without watching my epeen grow and flourish. I got home about 20 minutes before raid time, downloaded the patch content, and went right to work tanking BWD and BoT. There were a few hiccups along the way to this otherwise very successful evening. A few of our raiders had trouble zoning in to the instances. They were getting odd error messages such as the instance cannot be found. Others disconnected when releasing from their corpse after a wipe. The most curious was on the Omnitron encounter. When the first boss mob reached 50 energy, it did not trigger a second. Eventually it ran out of energy and powered off without spawning any more bosses. I’m pretty sure someone declared we dps’d too hard that we broke it. Needless to say, we didn’t break it. If you get this bug, don’t fret too much. Just get everyone out of the instance and come back in. After that it was all smooth sailing. I tanked Chimaeron, Atramedes and the Twin Dragons for the first time and one shot them! Go me… ugh, I mean us… go us!

So you might be wondering, is there a list of known issues with patch 4.1? Why yes, yes there is. Blizzard was nice enough to post them HERE – a location which should have more current issues as time goes on. I’ve also included the entire list after the break, at least as it was at the time of this posting. Also check back on this blog in the next couple days for info on the new instances! (more…)

Are You Ready for 4.1?

All indications point to 4.1 coming tomorrow 4/26/11. You are not prepared! Or are you? Wow Insider has a pretty comprehensive guide to 4.1 HERE. Of course there is a ton going on here most important of which is NOT a new raid instance. The Firelands raid and the associated Hyjal healing will likely come with patch 4.2. This means that unfortunately, there’s probably still no dailies in hyjal. If I discover I’m wrong and the Hyjal rep dailies ship with 4.1 I’ll be sure to get a guide going pronto. Of course, we are getting new heroic dungeons, the Looking for Guild system, and a veritable ton of class/instance/gear balances.

One thing I’ll make sure to do tonight is prospect all my Obsidium/Elementium ore, cut the uncommon gems, and vendor them. Notes indicate that uncommon gems will no longer vendor for 9 and will end up being a much lower amount. This will drastically lower the value of the gems that aren’t used for select craftables or the JC daily as well as lowering the price of the ore they come from since there is no longer a high “minimum” prospecting value. Is there anything else you’ll be doing at the last-minute to prepare? Finishing gearing an alt to be ready for the ilvl 346 required new heroics? Something else?

You can find the most current patch notes on Blizzard’s blog HERE.