Friday, June 29, 2007

Shadoweave Mask

I made one today.

It's hot.

Be jealous.

I know Jago is. :D

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Burning Crusade

There are a lot of things that can be said about the expansion for World of Warcraft. Overall the lore for a lot of the end-game is interesting and entertaining, so at least Blizzard has that going for them.

It's been months now since the release of Burning Crusade and Blizzard has already introduced patch after patch of extended content, existent content fixes, and 'nerfs'.

The latest patch dismissed the attunement steps for SSC and Tempest Keep: The Eye. Both instances have been out the whole time and numerous guilds worked hard to get attuned so that they could complete more content together. This has always been the case with end-game content. MC, BWL, Naxx... AQ was a server-wide effort. They never removed the steps necessary to access any of those, so why did they change their minds with BC instances?

It's annoying, to say the least. Not that many guilds who weren't doing these instances prior to the change will accomplish much now, but the problem is that they've made these places easier to access for the casual gamer, thus in a few weeks I can definitely foresee a nerf to the trash and bosses within them so that the casual gamers can yet again easymode their way through things by having Blizzard cater to them.

I realize that expecting people to play hardcore is a bit stupid, because well... people have lives, but when you begin dumbing down the things that guilds have and are working hard to tackle in their current state, you leave a lot of the people who are putting the effort into the content as it currently, wondering why they even bothered in the first place.

Karazhan for example was the first step in BC raiding when BC was released. Why? Because you had to kill Nightbane and other bosses and trash in order to eventually obtain an item that allowed you to be halfway attuned to SSC. Since BC they've first nerfed the shit out of Karazhan, buffed the gear that drops in Karazhan, and now... have altogether eliminated it's necessity from the equation, ultimately. The only thing it offers now, essentially, is gear for a new to 70 raider. Even then, the gear released with the new Arena season surpasses that of the stuff from Kara... so guilds could basically drop Karazhan from their plate and take up arena for a few weeks, gain good gear, and work on 25 man content.

That kind of nerfing and crap is what gets to me. It's like when they nerfed Gruul. Lots of guilds went in and downed him right afterwards that couldn't even come close pre-nerf. I do understand and agree that some content does need a nerf... either the bosses health or the amount his spells and attacks hit for, or the the adds that spawn... yes, some of that stuff is much harder than it should be. It isn't impossible, by any means, but it's rough. Karazhan before they nerfed it and buffed the gear was annoying as shit. Some of the encounters in there such as Shade of Aran were seriously very luck reliant. No matter what you did, it was a matter of whether or not you got lucky with which spells he cast, who resisted them, and whether or not you could take care of the elementals without dying to blizzard... which you could barely see unless you wanted to lag the hell out. Yes, nerfing is needed at times. Lol.

But... entirely dismissing something such as an attunment... isn't it a bit much?

Blizzard has ruined their own game. Yes I am enjoying leveling at the moment, and ultimately I'll appreciate having it easymode to get into raids... but that doesn't mean I agree with it. I think there was something regarding scrolls that Vashj would be dropping for guilds so that they could get members attuned without all of the prior steps. Why do away with that? I think that would have made more sense... and made it worth it for all of the people who put the work into getting attuned in the first place.

All in all, nerfing content has always existed. Not to the level we've seen in BC, but it patches have always offered changes to content and additions as well. The issue I'm seeing now is that WoW is being rushed, per say. New content is being thrown out before many guilds can even come close to being ready for it. Attunments to existing instances are being dismissed so that people can 'catch up.' It's all a joke now. I mean where do you draw the line? Why cater to the top guilds by forcing new encounters so quickly (that are usually buggy as hell upon release and often get nerfed to hell shortly after one or two guilds can confirm that they are, in fact, buggy as hell), why cater to the casuals who complain about things being too hard or too time consuming? What happened to appealing to the crowd that seems to dominate the game all along... the people who want to play it? Did WoW really lose that many of it's hardcore player base?

Back to the Blog

So it's been awhile since you've all had the pleasure (or dissatisfaction as the case may be) of my blogging habits to entertain you. A lot has changed since you've all last heard from me, including my blog address. I must say, change is certainly not a bad thing some of the time. In this instance, it's definitaly been for the best.

To bring my readers up to date without spending an hour typing it all out, simply put, I no longer run Prom Kings and the guild no longer raids. I am also no longer playing World of Warcraft on my warlock known as Jaderosen. If any of you paid attention to any of the WoW blogs that spun off of my own, you may already know a few sides to what happened. I haven't spoken out about what happened until now, and even now I don't intend to dwell on what's already long in the past.

If you want to know a little more, read ahead. If not, the above summarized all I could possibly say on the matter.

What happened to Prom Kings?

After weeks of working hard with the same fifteen or so members, I came to realize that I was fighting a losing battle when it came to recruitment. I devoted more than any human should to the game and things outside of it in the attempt to recruit players so that I could progress my guild into 25 man content on a consistant basis. I began to notice that some of the transfers I'd talked into coming to the realm for PK were ending up elsewhere before I even knew they'd made it to the server. A few of my own members had either stopped logging in for the most part or had moved on. (Or at least hinted that they were ready to.)
It was all downhill.
The few reliable and hardcore members of the guild that stuck through everything were amazing. I'm thankful I had the opportunity to raid with those guys and I hope that they're finding a new place that is fun and welcoming to them. If not, I hope they realize that this is just a game and that no matter what, they aren't stuck where they are.
I won't say much regarding the faction as a whole because there isn't a point to QQ about it. I did the best I could with what I was given. PK was amazing while we lasted and I'm sad that it's over, but it had to be. We had good times, but I would have felt guilty passing on the job of leading the guild to anyone else. If I felt there was a chance to revive things, I wouldn't have made the choice to let us all move on. It was a bittersweet breakup, to say the least.

Just to clarify:

The Prom Kings guild is still existant. I didn't disband it and I never made anyone leave. I simply stated to the guild that we'd no longer be raiding and that if they wanted to raid, they'd have to look elsewhere. I did not transfer Jade off the server and most likely never will. I didn't end things so that I could disband and go join up with some SSC clearing guild on another server. I'm still occasionally on Jade to do arena with some old friends and such, so you may even be able to catch me around if you're lucky. :)

Outside of arena on Jade a few times a week, I'm happily giving the other side a chance. Before I was Jade, I leveled a human paladin to level 48. At the time the Alliance were a horrific cluster of 13 year old children and 22 year olds that acted 13. I grew tired of it fast hence why I rerolled Horde. Now, as I did years ago with my pally, I've simply moved on and decided to try the other side. I must say, the Alliance aren't half bad these days. I think a majority of the Alliance retards rerolled as Horde when Burning Crusade was released, and with that some of the more intelligent Horde have crossed over from the darkside of WoW. But that's for another entry, possibly my next.

Hai2allofu again. :D