Who the hell was Canned Heat?!? I don't usually get all hippie like, but I thought the lyrics fit this topic kinda well. Listen in the background while you read, maybe, or not if you don't want to.
So, Blizzard, they came out a few days back with this little gem. Flex Raiding. What in the Sam Hill is that? Say you want to raid, current content, but LFR makes you want to vomit all over your next door neighbor who will then punch you in the face. But, you can't get a solid ten man or twenty five man group that will dedicate the time to do normal raids. What do you do? Blizzard now lets everyone form a scaling raid based on number of bodies, anywhere from ten to twenty five people, assumes you know to have enough tanks and healers doing simple math (read as at least one healer for every five people, and two tanks), then lets you fight current content that is much more casual friendly, yet not the stupidness of LFR. It won't be as hard as normals, but it won't be the Keystone Cops that LFR usually is.
Why I think this is one of the best ideas ever created:
First, all of these statements to follow are based solely on the idea of what this feature could be. None of the WoW community has actually been able to test this to any real extent, so nobody can come out right now and say what everything is like. It's all conjecture and idealism and people pissing thoughts out the window. Which is great, because everyone loves to get involved in some imagination time. Especially about WoW.
Aside aside, this feature, if done correctly, is going to be a fantastic tool to build raiders. This mode, as Blizzard has said, will not share any kind of lockout with the other raids. Which means that people in serious guilds can kick back with their friends that don't raid as much as they do, still do meaningful encounters, and be able to teach others and give them first hand experience at how raiding really is.
Take my guild as an example. We have a fairly big roster and not just a crap ton of alts. We have a large amount of unique players. We have a pretty kickin ten man team that is a serious set of raiders. There are others in the guild who are trying to get a second team going, because they do enjoy end-game content and want to raid, but they are just a bit behind current content mostly because they are getting into it later than others. Nothing wrong with that, it just means that whenever new content comes out, they get to it a few weeks after others do until they can catch up. Then you have others in the guild that wouldn't mind pitching in from time to time if anybody needs it, but they don't want to commit to a serious schedule. If they happen to be on, and a team needs a filler because someone is out that day, then everything keeps moving along smoothly.
But not everyone is in that situation. Take my ten man team, we're at the point, content/gear wise, where if we have someone out on any particular raid night, then progression halts. We usually have to reschedule, because on our server, finding a suitable replacement is very difficult. The general raiding community, horde side on Eldre'thalas just isn't very strong. Not many people are at the same gear level we are, or have the same fight knowledge that we have, so finding someone to fill in is nigh impossible.
So Flex Raiding, how does that actually help? Well, those teams that are trying to build up, it gives them the ability to form a meaningful raid, because now the content is a little easier, there are still meaningful rewards, and you don't have to strive so hard for that perfect team comp. My second team will probably use this while learning fights, or if they have to sub people in. Our main team raiders can easily come in on a Flex night, help carry while teaching people how to handle mechanics and such, and not take up a valuable slot preventing people from learning fights or getting gear, because gear is distributed using the LFR loot system, nobody interferes with your loot.
Or both teams could group up together, plus fill in with random people in the guild, and get a taste of what twenty five man raiding is like. Or everyone could hop onto whatever alts they have, run a Flex raid, the fights won't be as gear dependent, and everyone can have fun running through the raids while still making progress on their alts.
There are tons of possibilities for how Flex Raiding can be a huge boost to the "fun" in WoW. There will be more pugging going on every server, because people won't have to wait longer for more gear to overcompensate for mechanics, they will be able to enter into raiding earlier, have meaningful improvements, have a meaningful learning curve, and have fun.
Wasn't LFR supposed to do that? Well, yes, it was, but when you lack real communication in raid encounters, the developers have to dumb fights down to ridiculous levels. Or what they did recently, which was to put in a stacking buff after wipes. In reality, LFR leaves a sour taste for many players. You are getting this weird roulette type experience, because unless you queue up with a lot of people that you know are good, you have no clue if your healers are going to suck, if your tanks won't know any fight mechanics, or if your dps are a bunch of tools who just auto attack and stand in fire constantly. With Flex, you are able to hand pick people, have better communication because more than likely you will be using Mumble, or Vent, or Skype, or whatever, and have a better raiding experience with better rewards.
Flex Raiding, as long as Blizzard doesn't totally fubar it, is going to be an amazing gap closer for people wanting to get into raiding, for people looking to gear alts, for people wanting to play with friends, and guilds needing people to sub in from time to time or build up a farm team. You can realid friends with this, on current content, across servers, and you don't have to have perfect raid comps to do it. This is going to be a wonderful system for building a greater raiding community, for casual raiders, for heroic raiders, for guilds, for entire servers. Blizzard, get Flex Raiding out to us ASAP!
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Who cares what side of the plate the fork goes on?!?
Etiquette - is a code of behavior that delineates expectations for social behavior according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group.
Thanks Wikipedia.
Why the hell did I post that?
Something happened a couple of weeks back, something that irks me. A raider of mine left, not just left the guild, left the server. Without mentioning anything to anyone, no word, no "hey, I'm gonna go play on xyz server with my friends." Not a peep.
Why is that bad?
Raiding, it's a group activity, and it takes up time. Time is always in short supply, the one downfall of being mortal and all that crap. So we don't have infinite time, thanks Sherlock. Well, when you are on a raid team, either nine other people, or twenty four other people, are depending on you to be there. You know, to slay dragons and crap like that, because we can't solo them right now. So you agree to spend your time with those other people who also agree to spend their time with you. Mutual benefit, everyone ethereally agreeing to do something, placing value on their time being spent in that manner together.
So he left without saying a word, big deal, find another random person out of the 12k that are playing on your server.
Not quite so easily done. On my server, the amount of people that can effectively do what we do is very limited. Imagine if you will, that Tom Brady, of massive NFL fame, decides that, six hours before game time, he decides to quit playing for the Patriots and hops a flight to play in some league in Venezuela. Sure, you can get a backup, you may have a few on your team that are okay, but they aren't a Tom Brady.
That's kind of the deal we got put into a couple weeks back. A key position player just ups and vanishes, without a single word. Finding another Tom Brady caliber tank on this server, tough to do. Thankfully, we found a couple new tanks that are fantastic, and do the job even better, in less gear, than our previous Tom Brady did.
So, what is my take on proper raiding etiquette? Mine will differ from some guilds, probably different than every casual team, because my team pushes tier content.
First, respect everyone's time by showing up on time. You aren't the only person giving up three hours, nine other people are. And I will value the nine people giving up their time more than the one giving up their time. You don't respect everyone's commitment, they aren't going to respect yours. You know, the same reason employers want you to show up to work on time. Nobody likes having their plans ruined by someone not showing up. You can't be here when everyone else is, just don't log in.
Second, know your role. Don't waste everyone's time by showing up and not having any clue what-so-ever about what is about to happen. My raid team works very well at learning fight mechanics before hand, with whatever information is out there to help, but then also applying that information as they get first hand practical knowledge. If you aren't able to do a bit of homework ahead of time, just don't log in.
Third, be ready. Yeah, I made that a short vague sentence. Gear, know how to have it reforged, enchanted, gemmed, etc. You should know, if you are going to get into raiding, and not LFR, but real normal/heroic raiding, what your class should be doing, how you should be choosing what stat is important, and how to maximize your character. You should want to be the best at your class, and not being the best at your class should irk you. Know your rotations, or priorities, if you are dps, so that we kill things. If yer a healer, or a tank, know what cooldowns need to be used and when. Everyone, understand positioning in every fight and why it matters. Those goofy achievements, the "Ready for Raiding" ones, they may seem stupid, but it's a core principle, like people who are in fantastic shape still do warmups before they do their real workout. If you can't be bothered to know the basics about yourself and your class and your role, do me a solid, don't log in.
Fourth, know what you want for gear. Wowhead has been around so long that it should be as common to wow players, especially raiders, as google is. There's also sites like askmrrobot that help you build a BiS (Best in Slot) list, and who drops what from where. If you aren't going into raids knowing that if this one item drops that you need because there isn't anything better in the game yet, stay logged out.
I'm going to elaborate a little on point number four. Loot can be the biggest thing that will split a raid team up. My raid team, ten man, does a BiS loot system. If an item drops, say an INT ring, lots of classes will be interested, but because of itemization (spirit, crit, haste, etc), not everyone is going to value it the same. Priority is given to those classes that want the item because there is flat out nothing better, hence, it is the best item in that slot. If multiple people are wanting the item for BiS, then they roll for it. It doesn't matter who's getting a bigger upgrade for it, the item is valued the same, because there isn't anything better. If an item isn't a BiS for anyone, or if all the people that do value it as BiS have it, and others can make effective use of it since it is an upgrade, then it goes to the person who will have the biggest ilvl jump or it's a roll-off if two or more will get the same ilvl boost from it. Tier for us works differently, everyone want's tier, so we round robin it with people that have earned the fewest rolling for tier drops each time. For our raid team, this has worked insanely well. Everyone can respect each other for their valuing items certain ways. And with websites like askmrrobot, where you can edit stat weights and fact check people, it's massively easy to keep everyone honest. Plus, we kill every boss every week, so nobody is feeling left out because we have a chance for everything to drop every single week. There is a massive amount of stress and drama that goes right out the window when you know that every single week you will get a chance at whatever loot you want.
Fifth, drama. If you bring retarded drama to my raid team, don't bother logging in. Legitimate concerns and issues are one thing, but if it's a "Sally said that Mark likes her better" kinda piece of crap, I'll Falcon Punch you over the internet. Thankfully, everyone on my team is mature and not an asshat, so I don't have to worry about that.
If you can keep those things in check, you are on a great start to having a blast killing some cool bosses and getting shiny loot. If you can't be bothered to be a decent human being, I hear Call of Duty is a great game.
Thanks Wikipedia.
Why the hell did I post that?
Something happened a couple of weeks back, something that irks me. A raider of mine left, not just left the guild, left the server. Without mentioning anything to anyone, no word, no "hey, I'm gonna go play on xyz server with my friends." Not a peep.
Why is that bad?
Raiding, it's a group activity, and it takes up time. Time is always in short supply, the one downfall of being mortal and all that crap. So we don't have infinite time, thanks Sherlock. Well, when you are on a raid team, either nine other people, or twenty four other people, are depending on you to be there. You know, to slay dragons and crap like that, because we can't solo them right now. So you agree to spend your time with those other people who also agree to spend their time with you. Mutual benefit, everyone ethereally agreeing to do something, placing value on their time being spent in that manner together.
So he left without saying a word, big deal, find another random person out of the 12k that are playing on your server.
Not quite so easily done. On my server, the amount of people that can effectively do what we do is very limited. Imagine if you will, that Tom Brady, of massive NFL fame, decides that, six hours before game time, he decides to quit playing for the Patriots and hops a flight to play in some league in Venezuela. Sure, you can get a backup, you may have a few on your team that are okay, but they aren't a Tom Brady.
That's kind of the deal we got put into a couple weeks back. A key position player just ups and vanishes, without a single word. Finding another Tom Brady caliber tank on this server, tough to do. Thankfully, we found a couple new tanks that are fantastic, and do the job even better, in less gear, than our previous Tom Brady did.
So, what is my take on proper raiding etiquette? Mine will differ from some guilds, probably different than every casual team, because my team pushes tier content.
First, respect everyone's time by showing up on time. You aren't the only person giving up three hours, nine other people are. And I will value the nine people giving up their time more than the one giving up their time. You don't respect everyone's commitment, they aren't going to respect yours. You know, the same reason employers want you to show up to work on time. Nobody likes having their plans ruined by someone not showing up. You can't be here when everyone else is, just don't log in.
Second, know your role. Don't waste everyone's time by showing up and not having any clue what-so-ever about what is about to happen. My raid team works very well at learning fight mechanics before hand, with whatever information is out there to help, but then also applying that information as they get first hand practical knowledge. If you aren't able to do a bit of homework ahead of time, just don't log in.
Third, be ready. Yeah, I made that a short vague sentence. Gear, know how to have it reforged, enchanted, gemmed, etc. You should know, if you are going to get into raiding, and not LFR, but real normal/heroic raiding, what your class should be doing, how you should be choosing what stat is important, and how to maximize your character. You should want to be the best at your class, and not being the best at your class should irk you. Know your rotations, or priorities, if you are dps, so that we kill things. If yer a healer, or a tank, know what cooldowns need to be used and when. Everyone, understand positioning in every fight and why it matters. Those goofy achievements, the "Ready for Raiding" ones, they may seem stupid, but it's a core principle, like people who are in fantastic shape still do warmups before they do their real workout. If you can't be bothered to know the basics about yourself and your class and your role, do me a solid, don't log in.
Fourth, know what you want for gear. Wowhead has been around so long that it should be as common to wow players, especially raiders, as google is. There's also sites like askmrrobot that help you build a BiS (Best in Slot) list, and who drops what from where. If you aren't going into raids knowing that if this one item drops that you need because there isn't anything better in the game yet, stay logged out.
I'm going to elaborate a little on point number four. Loot can be the biggest thing that will split a raid team up. My raid team, ten man, does a BiS loot system. If an item drops, say an INT ring, lots of classes will be interested, but because of itemization (spirit, crit, haste, etc), not everyone is going to value it the same. Priority is given to those classes that want the item because there is flat out nothing better, hence, it is the best item in that slot. If multiple people are wanting the item for BiS, then they roll for it. It doesn't matter who's getting a bigger upgrade for it, the item is valued the same, because there isn't anything better. If an item isn't a BiS for anyone, or if all the people that do value it as BiS have it, and others can make effective use of it since it is an upgrade, then it goes to the person who will have the biggest ilvl jump or it's a roll-off if two or more will get the same ilvl boost from it. Tier for us works differently, everyone want's tier, so we round robin it with people that have earned the fewest rolling for tier drops each time. For our raid team, this has worked insanely well. Everyone can respect each other for their valuing items certain ways. And with websites like askmrrobot, where you can edit stat weights and fact check people, it's massively easy to keep everyone honest. Plus, we kill every boss every week, so nobody is feeling left out because we have a chance for everything to drop every single week. There is a massive amount of stress and drama that goes right out the window when you know that every single week you will get a chance at whatever loot you want.
Fifth, drama. If you bring retarded drama to my raid team, don't bother logging in. Legitimate concerns and issues are one thing, but if it's a "Sally said that Mark likes her better" kinda piece of crap, I'll Falcon Punch you over the internet. Thankfully, everyone on my team is mature and not an asshat, so I don't have to worry about that.
If you can keep those things in check, you are on a great start to having a blast killing some cool bosses and getting shiny loot. If you can't be bothered to be a decent human being, I hear Call of Duty is a great game.
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