The First Rule of WoW Raid Composition

Have between four and six people from every class.

Weekly, some knucklehead in the forums decides that they, Raid Leader A, have figured out the only way to beat Boss X is to take fewer (or none) of Class Y to the encounter.

This runs into a serious problem right out of the gate. Namely that, since other guilds have beaten Boss X with a respectable representation of Class Y, the weak point in the chain is most likely Raid Leader A.

This recurrence aside, it's important to understand the reasons why we insist on this numerical constraint.

Reason One : Gear.

If you only take two of Class Y, you'll soon find yourself throwing gear meant for Class Y away. Even if you rotate people in and out, it doesn't do the raid much good to have good gear sitting out.

At the opposite extreme, if you bring eight of Class Y, you'll find them getting geared very slowly considered to other classes. This means, among other things, that you'll either have to deal with bad gear on Class Y forever, or you'll have to continue running instances to gear Class Y long after all other classes are finished.

Reason Two : Inter-class Competition.

Taking at least four, and no more than six of every class should reduce infighting among classes with similar roles. No class is treated too well and no class is treated too poorly.

Reason Three : Blizzard.

From the posts made by the Community Managers, it is pretty clear that Blizzard doesn't see conflict between classes the way players do. Blizzard feels different classes are complimentary, while the players often feel contentious towards other classes.

As with any other game, it's important to understand the view of the developer and take that into consideration while playing. I think Blizzard assumes you have four to six people from every class, and instances become significantly harder when you don't.

For example, I play a warlock. In Molten Core warlocks are dynamite on Garr and Majordomo. Any guild that said "We don't need 4 warlocks in the raid" made those encounters much more difficult for themselves.

Trust Blizzard, and run instances with a well-balanced raid group.

On The Venture Brothers

Saying The Venture Brothers is one of the best TV shows ever is akin to claiming Jesus is one of Christianity's most important Messiahs.

It is a dangerous blasphemy and a sacrilege.

And I would respond to the speaker of either statement the same way. By driving a bulldozer swarming with jack-booted shock clerics through the wall of their parent's basement, at which point the heretic could be detained and reeducated.

Not quitting WoW after all

I think I'm going to keep playing WoW. Every time I think about quitting I think about how much I love playing MMORPG's. I try to think of another one I'd like to play but none really come to mind. So it's back to WoW.

It was much easier to quit FFXI. I knew WoW was coming out, and I sold all my gear and gave the money away. Never really tempted to play again.

Jack Thompson times 100

You thought Jack Thompson was bad? You ain't seen nothing yet. Now the UN is getting involved ...

The US appears set on a collision course with the rest of the world, this time over a treaty to promote cultural diversity that Washington claims could provide protectionist cover for restrictions on US exports of films and television programmes

Basically, this means that governments have another excuse to skim more cash off the top, and games are likely to feel the heat. It means fewer games will be bought, which means fewer games will be made. It means when the game companies from your country start to suck, they will get the government to raise prices on the good cames coming in from foreign countries instead of making better games..

It will make Jack Thompson's outrageous lawsuit demands seem insignificant by comparison.

That would be like ... 100 Jack Thompsons

Is this the end of WoW?

I'm thinking I'm cooked. This might be the best MMORPG ever made, but I'm coming up on a year, and that's more than enough.

Originally I played so I could PvP with friends and relatives. But they mostly quit. So I raided with my guild. I watched all the drama and participated in some of it.

But that's over now. Time to find a new game to beat into the ground.

Think I want to try out Dawn of War and the new expansion, Winter Assault. I always loved the Warhammer 40k universe. I also played a great turn-based strategy game in the day, Chaos Gate, that was a 40k license.

And who can forget the worst game I have ever owned, Space Hulk, which was also a 40k license. If you ever see a used copy of this game being sold in a store, shoot the manager of the store. No jury of nerds would ever convict you.

Selling out to the man

The man is all like "Turn comments on for your blog."

And I'm all like "No way am I going to sell out, man."

And then the man comes back at me "You can't beat the man."

Indeed, you cannot.

My Awesome Job Should Also Be Cushy

This article at joystiq takes, I think, the appropriate tone towards a circulating email, allegedly from a disgruntled ex-Electronics Boutique (EB) employee.

Some of the complaints seem outrageous, if true (roaches in used game systems!), but some of them are just whiney.

You see the same things from these overworked EA employees. People want to work in EB and get discounts on games. People want to work for EA programming games. These people are not treated overly kindly because these are highly desirable jobs and they don't exactly require the cream of the crop in their respective fields.

I don't get 12 oz. mouse

12 ounce mouse is a new Adult Swim cartoon.

I don't really get it.

Usually with these ... cartoons ... I'm not a fan at first, but, after time, I take a shining to them.

Don't think that's going to happen with this one.

There were two things about it I really liked about it though

1. It was only 15 minutes long.
2. The final 13 minutes, which I spent slamming my hand in a car door.

I am going to run over any squirrel I see for at least a couple weeks.

World of Warcraft Leaked 1.9 Patch Notes

I don't know if I'm a WoW addict or not, but this much is clear : I play freaking all the time.

In my many hours in the game, I've made some powerful friends. Powerful friends who do very unethical things. Like passing me a very early rough draft of the World of Warcraft 1.9 patch notes.


CAYDIEM, THIS IS A GOOD FIRST DRAFT, I MADE SOME COMMENTS.

--EYONIX

Patch 1.9 Changes

Ahn'Quiraj

Deep within the hot, beige, boring deserts of Silithus, a new 40-man instance blah blah blah. This should be an exciting blah blah blah. Here's an idea ... instead of clearing an instance in two months, why don't you go meet a girl?

Also there's a 20 man instance for losers. There's something for everyone.

Kill All Imperialist Americans Day

Is that a Capitalist hiding in your inventory? It just might be. Check with Captain Chairman Mao in Ironforge or Stone Guard Undead Charmain Mao in Orgrimmar for a week filled with bloodthirsty jingoism!

-- Question for Eyonix about this :
-- 1) Bloodthirsty Jingoism? Isn't that a pejorative term in Mandarin?
-- 2) You're sure we're only doing this one in China, right?

-- ANSWERS FOR CAYDIEM ABOUT THIS
-- 1) ONLY A FEW OF THE FORTY-TWO WORDS FOR THAT ARE BAD
-- 2) LOLZAROS DEPENDS ON HOW MUCH CASUAL WHINERS COMPLAIN ON FORUMS B4 NEXT PATCH

Paladin 1.9 Rework
-- Due to significant talent changes, Paladins will have all talent points refunded and can be respent. Training costs for all talent spell/ability replacements have been significantly reduced.
-- Paladins will be deleted in patch 1.10

Hero Classes Announced

Having trouble ganking level 30's? No longer! Hero classes are now available for the residents of Azeroth.

Scrub Class ==> Hero Class
Druid ==> Shaman
Hunter ==> Shaman
Mage ==> Shaman
Paladin ==> Shaman*
Priest ==> Shaman
Rogue ==> Shaman
Shaman ==> Two Shamans
Warrior ==> Shaman
Warlock ==> Shaman

Kill Your Dog

To the next person who posts in the forum that they are quitting WoW (instead of just quitting) ... I will go to your house and kill your dog.

UI
-- A Much Improved Meeting Stone UI has been added so you can more clearly see that, no, nobody is ever going to do BRD with your woefully-unattuned alt hunter.

Items

-- (TODO : Nerf at least a few accidentally useful low-level items here, e.g. Ornate Spyglass now has a chance to kill the user with double durability loss, or free-action pots can now cause items from inventory or bank to be
permanently lost, etc.)
-- Engineers and Alchemists will now find new schematics and recipes at honored, revered, and exalted with various factions throughout the world. HAHA just kidding (EYONIX SAYS I LOVE LINCOLN LOLGZ)
-- New trainer recipes for some kind of leatherworking we probably made up (EYONIX : I SUGGEST LOLGONSCALE) are now available throughout Azeroth.

Warlocks
-- Death Coil - Death Coil cooldown has been lowered to 30 seconds, and the non-diminishing fear effect now lasts for up to 9 seconds. Accordingly, the mana cost has been raised to 7256.
-- Warlocks who use Firestones, Spellstones, or Soul Fire now have a chance to win great prizes, like one of those crap Box-Looking cars designed as a joke but sold like they're real. The Grand Prize is an all-expense paid trip to Blizzcon 2006! ("Blizzcon 2006 : This time we promise ... no Offspring")
-- Shadow Bolt - Shadow Bolt has been converted to Shadow Bolt Volley, an insta-cast multi-target global cooldown spell which does the same damage as a normal shadow bolt and gets the same bonus from spell damage and shadow damage gear as a normal shadow bolt. Mana cost has been raised to 80,000.

Bugs
-- (Fix a few funny bugs that the dev team probably just made up)
-- Equipping the Choker of the Fire Lord no longer can no longer spawn ten Invincible Super-Ragnaros' in Coldrige Valley
-- Grey Items will now be listed under their correct categories at the Auction House. Previously they caused Paladins to be boring and slow to level.


* These Shamans will also be deleted with 1.10

Death of Blogging Imminent

When historians look back at our time I feel pretty confident this blog will be singled out as the beginning of the end of blogging, the imminentization of the blogschaton, the fourth horseman of the blogpocalypse.

See how I used normal words, but incorporated the word "blog" into them? As I understand, that's what you have to do if you want to be a cool blogger. That and have botulism injected into the lining of you stomach. I am having this done in Mexico over the weekend. The most important part of my blog that you need to understand -- I'm prepared to make almost any sacrifice to be cool.

If I understand correctly, this blog will mostly be about video games, with some of the lesser aspects of culture and technology thrown in, at no charge to you.

5:36 AM? I'm never going to be cool until I have this timezone issue taken care of. Which is to say I'm going to have PST killed and dumped in a river.