Well, it may have taken a couple months but Onyxia has become the new Vault of Archavon (maybe Onyxia isn’t quite as easy but it’s widely pugged and players with two brain cells to rub together can easily make some type of contribution to the raid). That said, there are some moments even in pugs, where the sheer cliff of incoming failure stands before you and forces you to make a decision. Am I going to give this a shot or no? I wrote about this in a previous post but some of the issues that I ran into in this particular pug raised some new questions.
First off, it was immediately clear that several players in the raid were already saved to the instance. What was unclear was the reason why players couldn’t check their raid lock outs to see if they were saved (several players cycled in and out of the raid and we continued to get the saved to the instance warning message). Questions about who was locked out were greeted with silence or simply players dropping group. Needless to say, this was not an auspicious start. Read more…
At least in it’s current inception. The Rawr Crew has received information from reliable sources who say Scourgewar will be the last series of the Upper Deck World of Warcraft trading card games. Sources report Blizzard is unhappy with sales and feel Upper Deck has done a poor job of marketing the TCG.
Not surprisingly, one of the more interesting items of note from our sources is the loot cards have carried the sales of the TCG thus far. The rocky relationship with Upper Deck, the popularity of the loot cards, and the newly introduced pets available from the Blizzard store are an interesting coincidence to say the least.
The Rawr Crew
We have all heard the rumors and reports from people who have leveled their toons in the battlegrounds. Well I am a skeptic and I don’t totally believe all of the reports of how easy or how quick it is in the BG’s. So, I decided to do something about it and test out the theory on how easy it is to level in the BG’s.
Over the next couple weeks I am planning on leveling my toon almost solely in the BG’s. The reason I say “almost” is the fact that I am planning on leveling my cooking and doing some exploring at the same time. The cooking will most likely require some killing and xp gains in the process and while I explore I am bound to be pulled by some mobs and will need to kill them also. In the end however it is my plan that 90+% will be from the BG’s.
Okay, here I am a level 30 Paladin ready to enter the first Arathi Basin of my leveling experiment. I am ready to be pwned and mocked as a level 30 pally when I am facing too many higher level 30’s. This is going to be an experience!
I am now Level 31 and the first level did not go so well. I was killed so many times I do not care to count, I was somewhat useless to the horde in many of these battles. It was not pretty. The saving grace was that Arathi is somewhat fun, but this level in Warsong is like having someone slowly insert a steak knife into my eyeball. Read more…
A recent Blue Post by Ghostcrawler caught my eye and since the post is in reference to my favorite class, Warlocks, you all are subject to my penetrating analysis. Instead of paraphrasing, I’m simply going to quote the undead crustacean directly in his conversation regarding the Infernal.
“We thought ‘difficult to control’ would be a good cost to pay for ‘very powerful demon.’ We also thought it fit the kit of the warlock having to struggle to harness the demon’s power. Guess what? We were wrong. It wasn’t a fun implementation. We could easily change the spell to summon an army of Infernals, but they would all be individually weak. That’s how numbers work.
I think there is some promise to the idea that warlocks might have permanent pets and guardians, with the Doomguard and Infernal as DPS-timers in the second category, much like Force of Nature or Mirror Image. But we’re going to have to think through that design and analyze the technical and balance implications. Maybe it will work and maybe it won’t, but it isn’t going to happen for 3.3. If you’d like, we can bump the Inferno cooldown back up if it bothers you so much.” Read more…
This week tempers flare and sides are taken regarding the emergence of more “casual-friendly” micro-transactions, and a listener e-mail might have you trying a different kind of strafe. So, climb aboard Blizzard’s new throbbing Love Rocket and get the lowdown in this week’s show.
This and much more is available for your listening pleasure via iTunes, RSS feed, direct download, or you can stream it from our main page.
Links to topics discussed this week:
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Coming this November 14th…
Cadistra from WoW, Eh? Webcomic, Nourish, and a member of Azeroth United, joins Haf and Stomp to discuss her adventures with Kissless, and a few holiday recipes submitted by the readers of Nourish! So, break out your Rawrcast apron, and let’s dive in! Join the discussion surrounding this, and other future episodes here. |
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A long time ago, in a realm far, far away before the kinky psychedelic world of Outland or the Gothic S&M feel of Northrend, there was a place known as Vanilla. Back in those days, a paladin was balanced around his ability to heal. More specifically, he was balanced around his ability to heal and to heal as equally as the shamans who were members of the opposite faction. It may not have been balance in the way we think of balance now, but within the parameters established by the class model by the good ol’ boys on the original WoW development team, they were as balanced as any paladin could hope.
In fact, they weren’t just balanced; they were OP in some ways. They were phenomenal healers with nasty mana sustainability because back in those days if you crit a heal, you didn’t get 30% of the mana cost back like you do now. Hell you didn’t get 60% of the mana cost like you used to before 3.2. A paladin received 100% of the mana back for every healing spell that crit. Of course, like the warrior dilemma today, paladins were up against an invisible wall that once they climbed, never had to worry about mana again. If you read any of Rossi’s Care and Feeding over at wow.com, you might find similarities between holy paladins and dps warriors. Read more…
This is my first crack at a column that is geared towards discussing potential tweaks to WOW gameplay and their implications. Think of it as the equivalent of cloud gazing in Azeroth or what adolescent Dwarves think about when they’re daydreaming during Alchemy class. Ideally, I’ll have a column up every Friday to get you excited for the weekend and primed to play. Here goes nothing…
How awesome would it be if…non-combat pets gave passive buffs. Imagine it, you visit the Crazy Cat Lady in Elwynn Forest, pick up an Orange Tabby to pal around with and that Tabby gives you a 2% Intelligence buff (we’ll name it after my old cat and call it Petie’s Wisdom). The buff will only be active when you have the Tabby out of his cage and will behave like any other buff in game. Read more…
Off Nights. Everyone has them, no one likes them. Maybe your girlfriend just dumped you or you picked up the flu but there are just some nights when your play is not up to snuff. Here’s a personal story of one of my off nights.
The Context
I’d taken a few days off of WOW to build up some credit at the girlfriend store (dinner and a movie buys you some quality play time) and was chomping at the bit to get back in and play. I checked the raid calendar for the night and saw that my guild had several raids scheduled for that night (Onxyia, TOTC 25, and TOTC 10) and I had signed up for them all. Perfect.
Read more…
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Rawrcast Ep 158:
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