And so we're almost there...

So, the big announcement is out and people are getting excited. The timing is also epic because it's looking like October before Mists of Pandaria.
August the 28th, 2012.

Get ready.

What's the point in a guild site?

I’ve got to admit that the proliferation of guild websites still surprises me a bit. I mean, I get them; I do. Particularly for things like guild charters or standing rules and expectations, there’s not really any other viable options and such documents can save you a lot of headaches. But my current guild, and like others I’ve been involved with, is very… Into the idea of a guild site, and many an official announcement is made there for all members to read.

But is it really necessary to maintain a guild website when Blizzard is deliberately trying to move away from people needing external sites to play WoW?

This isn’t a diatribe against guild websites, by the way; quite the opposite. I happen to think they can be wonderful additions to a vibrant community in a way that in-game functionality can’t touch. The aforementioned documentation might be dry but competitions, funnies, random threads and picture posting can all be a great laugh and really bring life into a guild and its membership.

I suppose I’m wondering how you know if a site is going to be an addition or a hindrance with your guild.

The latest tanking comments.

There was quite a big statement from Ghostcrawler last night related to tank performance and the "niche" that has seen certain tanks be heavily preferred to others depending on encounter. First of all, this is MMO Champion's abridge of the question:

How committed is the development team to having all tanks perform within an "acceptable variance" on all encounters? In Cataclysm we saw several "niches" become severe problems for tank balance on certain heroic encounters.

Here's what was said about it:

We don't think any of those cross the line. If it were the same class showing up for all of those bullet points, that would be a problem. Our tanks all have strengths and weaknesses and unusual encounter mechanics may synergize or clash with them, but that's more interesting than extreme homogeneity, which would be the alternative. We like the puzzle aspect of "solving" boss encounters according to the comp and strengths of individual groups. We think it has helped contribute to the fun of killing bosses having such extraordinary legs (meaning that we're on tier 14 now and have made hundreds of dungeon bosses).

If memory serves the first Spine kill was Blood DK / Prot paladin and the second was a pair of druids. Now granted, world firsts sometimes have to resort to unusual strategies since they undergear the fights because they haven't had weeks to farm up better gear. Your mileage may vary.

As a counter-example, paladins on Heroic Major Domo initially were able to solo-soak the scorpion cleave, letting guilds with paladin tanks keep him in scorpion form longer than those without. We thought that crossed the line and we changed the boss mechanics to disincentivize that particular strategy. I fully admit that these calls are subjective.

There are good and bad sides to this response, of course.

You are now Hated with Booty Bay.

I’m hoping that some will recall my mid-May post talking about my plans before the release of Mists of Pandaria. It’s amazing how much plans change in short periods of time, so I figured a bit of a review was in order to see how I was coming along with all my plans; you never know, it might inspire a few people. :)

The biggest development is, of course, hinted at in the title. Rather than propping up a couple more reputations, I figured it was time simply going for Insane in the Membrane. It’s nowhere near as painful as it once was (erstwhile considered quicker to just level up engineering on the Shendralar section), but it was still a rather horrid feeling when I killed Shakes O’Breen for the thousandth or so time and saw the title message.

I won’t enjoy grinding up the Steamwheedel Cartel again, I really won’t.

But before moving on to my plans to become Insane, I figured a quick run down of where else I’m up to would be worthwhile – so here’s where I’m sat on my plans.

Rebuilding the warrior class.

I’ve spoken a lot recently about how poorly I think warriors are shaping up for Mists of Pandaria, and I’ve seen nothing recently that’s made me think otherwise. The pain of facing up to a re-rolled main class has numbed somewhat, but I won’t move on until I’ve shared what I think could see a much-fabled, but seldom delivered, return to form. Again, as erstwhile hinted, I reckon the bare bones are there and we just need a compelling identity with which to move forward.

Recently, I’ve read a lot about what a warrior “is” and how well that relates to our in-game representation. The sad fact is that, particularly in PvP, we’ve been lumbered with ancient mechanics and hotbar fluff that do nothing but hold the class back. Paladin players are comfortable with this notion, given the fact the rest of their toolkit is based around their ability to use Divine Shield which, particularly in PvE, is situational at best.

But at least paladins have saving graces that keep the class worthwhile. Everything that made warriors unique, and worth the effort of gearing up, has been stripped away in the name of balance.

It’s time to restore some.

Enter the Protection paladin.

Levelling a paladin was a strange feeling for me, particularly as I intended to tank once I hit the big ding on it. I’m comfortable admitting that I harbour a level of resentment toward the class, largely thanks to the impact playing alongside them had on me during WotLK. It seemed that outside of a couple of gimmick uses, paladins essentially did everything other classes did… But better. There seemed no definitive weakness to playing a paladin, but there were some significant strengths.

This was a learning experience, to say the least.

I don’t generally level very quickly because it bores me, but I was shocked at the sheer efficiency of just knuckling down and questing your way to the level summit (dungeon quests where appropriate). That said, Blizzard REALLY need to take a look at the difficulty curve from 1 to 85; it’s busted to all heck. I quested as Retribution until I got to 85 on Sunday afternoon, with Sunday night seeing me having tanked my way through all three Hour of Twilight heroics; I’m now looking to round out my gear before doing an LFD run. Yep, it’s THAT quick.

So, say hello to Zellvirae the paladin.

Warriors from scratch.

You know, it’s funny. I often find it very difficult to differentiate between types of “fun” when I’m in the pleasure throes of fun itself. During my time with World of Warcraft, I’ve largely had bucket loads of fun and not really cared much about why that’s been the case. There are times when I have less fun, times when I have more fun, and times when I’ve been at the extremes of one or the other.

Identifying why you’re having fun, to me, is less important than simply having fun. It’s like those people who state that their life goal is “just to be happy”. But being happy isn’t a goal; it’s a side effect of living well, and something that you only tend to think about when happiness becomes scarce. Perhaps my more explicit look into the design of my favourite game has happened because I’ve subconsciously been less content with it in general. I suspect I’ve started to look more deeply at WoW over time because, underneath it all, I just don’t enjoy it as much as I used to.

When push comes to shove, I think I’m looking for that fairy dust that made me love WoW at a time when I simply knew that the fairy dust was there.