Getting off the Gold Standard2009-03-10 00:00:00One great appeal of MMOs is that they are so open and versatile for gamers to do what they want. Players can choose to participate or ignore just about every facet of a game: PvP, crafting, lore, exploration, and in some cases even PvE. Gamers can play individually or in groups, they can choose to roleplay or not. But one aspect that can never completely be ignored is the economy. In a sense, this is an accurate reflection of reality. After all, people in the real world can hold many professions, yet regardless of what we do (or don't do) we are still bound by the price of food, rent, and clothing.
Game designers face many challenges, and one of the largest of these is balance. Classes must be balanced in both PvP and PvE, races must be comparable with each other, trade skills, weapons, and armor all need some form of equity. Yet curiously, one facet that seems to garner a much smaller degree of balance is the economy. That isn't to say that it doesn't get a great deal of attention. Designers struggle to provide and sustain a manageable amount of profit and loss through all aspects of the gaming experience. It is a massive challenge because the economy is, by its very nature, pervasive. Yet the current s...
Ghostcrawler defends Death Knight Howling Blast nerf2009-03-10 00:00:00Ghostcrawler is on the forums today getting feedback on all of the patch 3.1 notes we saw yesterday, and the conversation has turned to the Death Knight's Howling Blast nerf, which some players are complaining has "dismantled" the DK's dual wield chances. Our own Daniel Whitcomb agrees -- he says that the 0/32/39 build will pretty much be out with 3.1 on the live realms.
But Ghostcrawler responds with an insight that all classes might benefit from hearing: Players will find a way. First, he says that if Blizzard didn't want ...
Ghostcrawler explains the DK aura changes2009-03-10 00:00:00When the first set of 3.1 patch notes popped up, many Death Knights were surprised to see that their auras were being reworked into something that, well, just isn't an aura at all.
Instead, the effects are being rolled into talents so that, if talented, the Death Knight herself still gains the benefit, but does not extend it to party or raid members.
Although they will now be called, for example, Improved Blood Presence, the benefits will be applied regardless of the presence assumed by the character.
I have to admit that my first reaction to the change was a negative one. It feels weird to me switching from a Holy Paladin to a character that simply does not have a comparable range of buffs and auras to offer.
That's when my roomie and addict of WoW forums and websites, piped in with the why. Today,...
Ghostcrawler on the state of the Mage2009-03-10 00:00:00The tension between PvP balance and PvE balance is once more giving the developers a hard time. Ghostcrawler has made a post on the state of the Mage, and it runs roughly as follows. They're happy that Arcane is "starting to feel like a viable alternative" to Frostfire for raid DPS. However, they're concerned that Arcane does too much burst in PvP, and they need to figure out how to fix that without hurting Arcane too much in PvE. Argh! Can we just introduce different rule sets for PvP and PvE and ...
Ghostcrawler on the success of 2009-03-10 00:00:00You have heard Blizzard's motto for raiding in Wrath of the Lich King, "bring the player not the class." The intent is to steer away from strict raid composition and shake things up.
Encounters are being designed so that no one single class is necessary, although the 25-man Razuvious fight currently requires at least one priest, preferably two or three, with at least one specced shadow.
Classes are being designed so that many necessary buffs, such as Replenishment, can be acquired through a variety of classes, rather than just one.
The rigidity that came with Sunwell is one of the reasons that development has taken this direction. The motto spark...
Ghostcrawler2009-03-10 00:00:00The forums are abuzz with warriors who are not happy with the state of protection spec warriors compared to the other three tanking classes. Ghostcrawler responds to a post fishing for blues, both to discourage such fishing and to state that the original premise is not one that he and the developers agree with. And to a degree, I agree with him. Warrior tanks are not majorly inferior in any way to the other tanking classes. They're simply slightly inferior in every way to the other tanking classes. This slight inferiority in specialization means that, if given a choice, a min-maxing raid guild will always choose other tanks over warriors, even though the warrior has all the tools needed to tank current end-game content effectively and well.
Warriors still lack the paladin's AoE threat, while paladins have equal single target threat (indeed, paladins at this point gear almost identically to warrors, have a shield slam equivalent and even use the same tanking itemized weapons) and survivability, while paladins have a tanking buff in Blessing of Sanctuary that no min-maxing raid leader will want to do without. Warriors lack the high health of a bear tank or the speed of threat generation, are roughly equiva...
Giving Engineering a little self-buff2009-03-10 00:00:00You may think, as I did upon first seeing this Engineering thread in the forums, that Engineers have nothing to complain about. They get some of the coolest and most-wanted items in the game exclusive to their profession. In fact, as a LW/Skinner, I'm thinking about dropping Skinning when I hit 440 LW just to pick up Engineering, and pour a whole ton of gold into it just so I can get the Roflcopter and all of the other great stuff they get.
But after Wryxian gets everyone to settle down and give out...
Gorilla Thunderstomp ability given to all tenacity pets2009-03-10 00:00:00If you've been reading WoW Insider for a while, you probably remember Big Red Kitty's meditations on the Gorilladin. With judicious use of the Gorilla Hunter pet's Thunderstomp skill, you could grind multiple mobs at once and bring Hunter leveling and farming to a whole new level -- enough that Blizzard's had Gorillas under the microscope for a while. Now the word has come down: No more monkey business in 3.1. Gorillas are losing Thunderstomp as a unique pet family ability.
That doesn't mean, however, that Thunderstomp is going away. Rather, it means that all tenacity pets are getting it.
As Mania reports, the new Thunderstomp...
Group 2009-03-10 00:00:00I'm not done with this yet. As an introvert, I'm pretty outraged that this game is marginalizing my entire personality type. The developers repeatedly confirm that 40-man raids deserve the most powerful items. Many of the players are brainwashed by this poor assumption, often saying "It's an MMO, of course you have to group with 40 other people do accomplish anything." Ironically, World of Warcraft was originally founded on exactly the opposite idea. The game started off by saying that EverQuest had that philosophy, and that Warcraft will not. So much for that.
Here's an obvious point that is taken for granted by posters on http://terranova.blogs.com/, but completely lost on about half the World of Warcra...
Guest Post2009-03-10 00:00:00Please give a warm welcome to Bloodshrike who sent in the following guest post to Just...
