So, hurricane Irene has left me with no power. I have been super hectic at work with the financial market volatility we saw over the last couple weeks (I work at an investment firm).
So, busy busy. No power at home. UGH! FML!
Hopefully I can get back into the swing within the next week. I have some articles written, just need the time to tweak, revise, and post :)
I don’t often plug other sites, but this is one that I fully endorse and champion. Thank you Frost for putting it together, I suspect it will be a big boon for the hunter community and larger WoW community as well.
I won’t attempt to preface the site, Frost does it better over at the WHU:
Intro can be found here: http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/2011/07/introducing-wow-hunters-hall/
The WoW Hunter’s Hall is here: http://www.wowhuntershall.com/
EDIT: Frost has taken me on to help Admin the WHH (may the WoW-gods help him!!!). I promise to not slack on my own blog any bit…though, I think my playing time may take a hit outside of raiding leading.
Q
Big thanks to Hydra and Fimlys for having me on last night. Be sure to check out the Twisted Nether at www.twistednether.net. They are an absolutely fantastic resource and collection of information regarding the WoW community, bloggers, podcasters, and news & information. I had a great time last night and look forward to more opportunities to partner with fellow members of the WoW community. Be sure to either listen in live on Saturday evenings (check their site for scheduling) or to download them from iTunes or Zune.
New post will be up next week. For anyone who listened to the interview you got a preview of my feelings on the Blizzard campus and my experience with them. I have a semi-critical viewpoint to share. Will be up sometime in the middle of next week!
Q
So, guess who is going to be on the Twisted Nether blogcast…me!
I think Hydra and Fimlys must have hit rock bottom to want to talk to me, but then again perhaps that cool $5 bill I slipped each of them could have had something to do with it.
Show is Saturday July 2nd around 8 pm Pacific time (11 pm EST). There is a live chat room, and a live broadcast of the audio stream can be found on UStream. See the Twisted Nether site for more technical info and specifics.
I am looking forward to chatting with Hydra & Fimlys, though I still don’t know why anyone wants to hear what I have to say :)
Join us on Saturday night…its bound to be a hella’ good time!!!
Someone asked me a while back to discuss the hellish Blizz decision of forcing people into 10 or 25. So I started thinking about it and came to the following conclusion(s)
Some encounters are much easier with only 10 bodies than with 25 in the room. Advantage: 10
Some encounters are easier with greater class/role spread and diversity. Advantage: 25
It’s far easier to get less people organized and ready to raid. Advantage: 10
Larger raiding rosters allows for more variability in the roles and specs available for use. Advantage: 25
Loot drops on 10 man while the same iLvl, are fewer per person in ratio than in 25s. Advantage: 25
So, is that the deciding factor here…simply put, more items per person makes 25s greater than 10s?!?
No, it’s not that simple, we all know that. We are seeing gravitation to smaller and smaller guilds and it’s not surprising. Anyone who raided end game content during Vanilla knows full well the pains of trying to keep 40 people ready to roll and moving in the same direction. 25s are certainly easier, but not simple to be sure. 10s have the difficulty of being hit or miss based on one person not showing up for one reason or another. There is an added element to this equation in regards to human social psyche. Gamers tend to be techies. Developers, systems folks, designers are not usually social creatures. They tend to have less developed social skills, sometimes bordering on the spectrum of various learning and social disabilities. No, gamers are not Rain Man…but the average gamer tends to have more in common with that character than the average non-gamer. Smaller social circles are easier for the average player to manage and certainly easier to organize for raiding. This is not based on any scientific study, merely observations and lessons based on commonalities within the gaming community.
Quick math..To field a 10, 25, or 40 man raid you will need the following actual players available (NOT TOONS…PLAYERS):
10 :: 13-15
25 :: 30-35
40 :: 50-55
What does this mean? Well, you need the additional warm bodies based on encounter mechanics, player availability due to real life interference, in essence: fill ins.
So, to 10 or 25 man raid?? Well, it certainly is a personal question and a personal answer. The shift on the WoW community is apparent…they have chosen 10s. Even larger guilds who could feasibly field 25, have chosen instead to run 2, 3, even 4 10 man raids concurrently. Anyone complaining about the gaming shift and blaming Blizzard should stop and look in the mirror. Blame yourself and your fellow players. Blizzard analyzed the community and responded in kind to our demand. Smaller, leaner, sleeker.
Personally, I like 15 and 20 man raids. The old days of ZG and UBRS (et al) were some of the best experiences in my opinion. I would love to see more of those open up, but I doubt we will ever see those raid sizes again.
Do you have a preference: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, or 40? If so, why?
