Vol'jin, So Modest

Safiree & Gauss

We're Always Epic

Happy Saturday, everyone :) Hope your weeks were amazing. Gauss and I are still playing World of Warcraft, and enjoying every second of it. Except the mass amount of dailies in Pandaria. I've just a couple more to get exalted with until I take a break from them. LFR's are such an amazing/terrible concept. Wish they would've put them in sooner. Terrible because it's like people just came from League of Legends and if you mess up once, they will call you everything they can think of, and insult your mother in some form lol. Awesome because we don't have the stress of relying on 23 others to be on in time for raid. :)

Past week, i've been reading my Arthas book I bought years ago. Upset that I didn't take the time to read it sooner. Just one of those things you never want to end. I love Arthas Menethil and his lore. I hate endings. So as long as I read this book nice and slow I can enjoy it for as long as my excitement will allow. It's amazing the detail that is overlooked in alot of the game itself. I now understand the depth on how beautiful the cinematic after killing The Lich King, is. Happy endings everywhere :D

Official trailer for Elder Scrolls online was really disappointing, and anti climactic. Especially with the music. It was insanely boring. I feel bad for all the fans waiting in anticipation to play it. Anyways, hope you guys have a great week. WE DEFEATED GARROSH!!. I hate trolls, but Vol'jin is pretty cool.- For the Horde!
-Safiree

You Fail At LFR If...

Fail Day! Yes it is that time of the week. You know when I first started Fail Day I thought Tuesday was the perfect day because it was the day raids reset in WoW and Fail and the first day of raiding for the week tended to go hand and hand. Still unsure why this was true but it never failed. As most of you know I took quite the breaking from WoW and now being back and max level I have gotten my first taste of LFR. With all my previous raiding experience I have always wondered how this would go, and well now we have a Fail Day for it.

You Fail At LFR If...

• You expect to have fights explained to you
• You love to experience the joys of standing in many different types of things covering the ground
• Swapping targets and the word hard go hand in hand
• You think topping the DPS meters matters
• You think topping any meters matters
• You happen to get a rez timer
• You think it is everyone else's job to follow the mechanics
• You are not prepared to deal with people who are "awesome"
• You think it counts as raiding
• While explaining anything you use the words tab targeting
• You think you are better than others because you have a whole set of "normal" gear
• You don't think LFRs only point is to make sure everyone can seethe content
• Your main concern is what pet you will be showing off during the raid

and finally

• You actually think this will prepare you for real raiding

There you have it this week's edition of Fail. Hope you all enjoyed it more than being in your latest LFR.

Cross Realm Raids What You All Think

So yes I realize it is Saturday and the Reader Post is supposed to be on Friday, and I would have really liked to get it up yesterday, but there was a problem. See I live in Canada and we get this stuff called snow quite often during the winter months and sometimes during these storms we lose power and sometimes even internet. Yes I know it is a horrible thing. So because of this I had to delay the post till today. So what is the Reader Post about this week? Well I wanted to know what all of you thought of the cross realm raids coming in 4.3.2. So let's see what you thought

I suppose it's a nice feature if two small guilds on different servers wanted to raid together. As long as sometime in the future it isn't just LFR. At least they're adding new features which is nice. I'm sure there must be some demand for it.

With battletags, and no need to share you real name/id, it will be interesting to see what kind of market is created with this. While it would be against the rules to trade money for such things I could see some trying to do it. Regardless though it will be interesting to see what type of groups are formed via third party sites. Imagine someone posting on the forums looking for 24 more people for Firelands and then everyone using the battletag system to get in a group with each other. To bad cross realm isn't cross region though that might add to many language problems to really be worth it. Great system to release with or around the battletag system.

This will solve a lot of issues with people who are on different servers (such as real life friends) and could even help out guilds who transfer servers but some people don't want to... They can stay on their server and still raid with the guild. Wonderful feature in my books!!!

Great addition, an in-game raid browser cross realm would make this perfect. For example once this releases i'd love to go back and do T11/T12 achievement runs but i don't know exactly anybody cross server to do it with even tho i'm sure they're out there.

This scares me. While Blizzard makes quite a capital from server transfers, if they ever decide to further extend this to current content, it would put the last nail in the coffin housing the rotting corpse of the mythological beast called Server Community. For what it is, it's fine and welcome and I'm sure I'd find myself using it soon enough. But I'm personally really disliking the direction this game has been heading ever since patch 3.2.

There you have it. Thank you to everyone who submitted something. If it didn't make it into the psot it doesn't mean I did not read it. This post wouldn't be possible if all of you did not take part. If you are interested in taking part in next week's Reader Post look for the topic tomorrow in the Ask Gauss post. Until then have a great weekend!

LFR Is Now Somewhat More Idiot Proof

If you had not heard many of the items in the Dragon Soul raid have now been reclassified for LFR purposes. The issue was that many players were unsure if an item was either and upgrade or if it was supposed to be used by them at all. And with how fast LFR moves it became an issue. This is the Blue Post on the matter.

As a part of the on-going evaluation of Looking For Raid and the loot system, we have recently implemented a change to the Looking For Raid Need Plus system. Weapons, trinkets, rings, neck pieces, shields, offhand items, and the Robe of Glowing Stone are now class-restricted to their intended users. With the speed at which a Raid Finder group moves through a zone, we’ve found that it makes it challenging for players to evaluate loot decisions – by class restricting these items, we hope that the natural behavior will have a more positive set of results for everyone involved. This change will not apply to normal or heroic raid or dungeon loot rules.


Raid Finder and Need Plus are both very new systems, and we’re working to iterate on these systems rapidly to ensure that everyone has the best possible experience as we learn more about how players are using the system. Please keep in mind that this system is not considered complete and we have further plans to improve upon it within Mists of Pandaria.

If you looted an item from Looking for Raid which replaced another and you need Game Master assistance to recover your old item, please place a petition with the new item name, that you can no longer use it - and the old item name you need restored. For more information on the affected items, please visit the Customer Support forums here- http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3729953854#1

We apologize for the inconvenience.


So what does this mean? Well if you look at the list of items that are now classified by class I think you would be quite surprised that these items were ever in question. Seeing something like this always makes me think about the people rolling on such items. Now I understand that LFR is supposed to be at its core a way to get the now raider interested in raiding, and I agree this is a great way to do it. But there is a big BUT if you have absolutely no idea what kind of gear your class uses should you be raiding at all? If you don't know what stats are good with you, how will you understand basic concepts of DPS, stopping DPS, moving in and out of crap, stacking up, spreading out, and so on and so forth. Now you would think that a raid is the only place these people can learn such a thing, but I would say instances are the best place to learn these basics. I am of the opinion players like this would make the people who are first trying out raiding dislike it because it will not give them the experience Blizzard hopes for.

You expect there to be morons, idiots, and such and such in Heroics, and yes LFR is not going to be perfect, but Blizzard if they want to expand their raiding base of players have to do everything they can to deter players who will ruin the experience from new raiders from partaking.

LFR Exploit

Well Blizzard decided to act on what had been going on for the first week of the LFR system. People who they have found out have used this exploit were given anywhere from a 3 to 8 day ban. What this basically has done is taken away a week of raiding from players in top end guilds and in turn has made it so the ground they have to catch up to attain world first kills is a substantial one.

Here is Blizzard's official statement on the suspensions

Shortly after patch 4.3 was released, we became aware that some players were abusing an exploit to obtain loot from the same Raid Finder bosses multiple times in a single raid lockout period (one week). The Raid Finder loot mechanic is of course intended to only allow a person to roll on boss loot drops once per raid lockout period. The raid lockout mechanic has been a mainstay of the World of Warcraft rules since Onyxia and Molten Core, ensuring that no one can obtain loot from a boss more than once per lockout. Due to the nature of the exploit and the clear intent of those who abused it, they've been issued notices and given temporary suspensions from the game. We’re also working to remove all Raid Finder items from those who used the exploit.

Some would say it was Blizzard's error and therefore the players did nothing wrong. That is like saying if someone left their bank card in the machine logged in it would be ok to clear their bank account out. Yes they were not the brightest for doing this, but the players in this case knew what they were doing was wrong and should have acted accordingly.
 
Paragon who is always under the microscope posted this apology on their website.

An LFR Apology

There has been a lot of misinformation going around, so to clear things up, here is a truthful account of what exactly happened with the LFR and what we have to say about it:

The patch hit EU servers on Wednesday. We started off with our 5x Firelands runs to wrap up legendaries and called it a night. For Thursday, we had an elaborate plan to run a personal LFR raid for every main character to get the maximum amount of loot.

As we were doing the first few runs, we noticed an unrealistic amount of tier pieces on some guilds' armory profiles, which we thought was unattainable through normal means. We started looking into it, and found out that you can loot passed gear from bosses, regardless of save status, if you zone out and back into the instance. This did not provide the raid with any extra loot, but it did eliminate a major portion of the RNG that would have been involved in simply doing personal runs for everyone.

We acknowledge that using this unintended behavior, which was quite clearly a bug, to our gain, was wrong. The fact that others were using it as well is no justification for doing it ourselves. We apologize for doing it, and accept whatever consequences follow.

This shows that the knew it was wrong and they did it anyway. This really shows you what guilds have been doing to get world first kills. in 4.2 entire guilds faction changed just to get a 1 week ahead of everyone else. There was no ban in that case and Blizzard had to change the system. Also the entire Lich King issue last expansion. Now is this because it is competitive or because the guilds feel they have to cheat because everyone else is? The whole steroid issue in some professional sports only time will tell. Until then I think anyone who exploited this should get what they deserve.

4.3 So Far

As many of you know 4.3 was launched yesterday, and if you didn't know then I really have no idea what to say in response to that. So with the launch let me go over a few things that I have noticed and I think are worth mention.

LFR

I haven't tried it, but I have there is a problem with invited Real ID friends from cross server to form a group. This to me should be an important part of the system and I have heard at the moment this is working as intended. Also there has been mention that double token drops from the same boss can be won by the same person. As in regular raids this was a possibly, but was always frowned upon. Again this seems to be working as intended, but I would hope Blizzard would auto pass you on loot if you have won a piece and someone else is rolling for the other you rolled on. That sentence sounds awkward, but I assume you all understand the point.

LFD

Seems for the new instances this is crash city. Will give you my opinion when I actually get a chance. From what I have been told they are working the same as the PTR with minor changes. Honestly I cannot wait to see them all put together with what has been rumored to be the best musical score Blizzard has even created.

Transmogrification

The system I have been asking for, for years is finally here. So know all of you that have been listening to me bitch about it all this time now do not have to. One thing that I have noticed is the level 60 PvP gear is not able to be transmogified(this is a word I will now use till the end of time). This was true on the PTR, but was always assumed to be a bug. I am not really sure why you would want to look like the level 60 PvP models, but it should be an option. Blizzard do the right thing and fix it.

Void Storage

Finally a way to spend gold and a way for me to not be on WoWs first edition of Hoarders. I know I am not the only one to feel this way. I also don't see the gold fees to be a problem it isn't meant to be a bank its purpose is to be a storage locker.

Well there you have it 4.3 is upon us, and now it is time to enjoy it.

Ask Gauss

Yay for Sunday. The day you wake up and excited for the day even if you are hungover and are drinking so much coffee you can't think straight. Anyways, let's get back on track. Sunday means Ask Gauss in Gaussland so thats what we will be doing. You know the psot of the week where I get to answer some question which have been driving you insane. Someone may ask, "Gauss how can I send in a question?" I would follow that up with, "where the hell have you been all this time?" then laugh and say top right of the page or just email them to gaussafication@gmail.com. I know so very difficult, maybe one day I will write a instructions in 30 different languages. So with all of that out of the way let's get to the questions.

What do you think of Blizzard applying there LFR boss loot strategy to the game as a whole?

For those who don't know. In the new looking for raid system Blizzard is letting you participate as many times as you wish, but with the exception that you can only be eligible for loot from a boss once. Meaning if you have already killed a boss in the raid you will automatically pass if you are in for that  boss kill again.

So after that explanation I think this is a wonderful idea. Some people would love to do raids more than once per week and don't care about the gear. They just want the experience, and this is the best way to do it. Also there is the case where you may have been in a horrible pug and can't do any of an instance because you have that one boss kill that counteracts all the ones you haven't been able to do. Also think about guilds that could do multiple runs with just a few changes so that those not able to make it on said day or there were too many people on they can now not get locked out of guild raiding for the week. So if you cannot tell I would be all for would be one of the best things for Blizzard to incorporate into raiding.

So it could be that Nozdormu's end will be in a 5 man, isn't this a slap in the face?

Well we don't know the whole story yet, but I really doubt his end will be in a 5 man. I know they are dealing with the infinite dragonflight in a 5 man, but when you think about it all the infinite story lines have been in a 5 man or a quest. I think in this regard they are being fair, but I really doubt arguably the most powerful dragon in all of Azeroth is killed in a 5 man. I think the infinite storyline is perfectly fine to take care of in a 5 man, but Nozdormu's story itself is very far from done. I will do some specific post about this later in the week, but I am absolutely sure this is far from over.

Don't you think it is stupid to have Alexstrasza as a mount reward?

Well for years 90% of the WoW community has been wanting Alexstrasza to mount them. So I think this is Blizzard's way of throwing them a bone...

There you have it. That is it for this week's edition of Ask Gauss. As always thank you to everyone who sent in questions even if I didn't get to them here I always respond to them regardless. For those waiting for it, next week's Reader Post I want to know what you think of Nozdormu's presence in the new 5 man End Time as always you have until Thursday night to get them in. Enjoy what's left of your weekend.

Looking For Raid

Friday is upon us on this final day of September. What a September it was for WoW announcements. One of the biggest I think though has been the looking for raid and even with the big revelation with it yesterday I still asked for this week's Reader Post how you all think LFR would work. So here goes let's see what you all thought.

I think it may turn out to be worse then pugs for instances. Many people cheat to get the ilvl needed for instances by swapping PvP gear in and around could you imagine what they will do to get into raids? Blizzard also knows this will they then tune the encounters to deal with fail people or will see this as a fluke? I am extremely interested in trying this out so I can raid on some alts this kind of just scares me.

The one plus I see is that you won't get saved so if you happen to be part of a horrible LFR then you will have a chance to try another one. I think this is Blizzard's answer to bad groups. Everyone has been part of a horrible pug before and know it can mess up your heroic imagine if it could mess up your raid for the week? Just think about the forum rage that would erupt from that.

To me having Deathwing available to a LFR difficulty setting I think will take away the epicness. I know they want people to see the content and that is great, but I would really be in favour of them gating LFR to the server based upon what has been killed therefore LFR progression isn't the same as a servers until heroic s get taken care of.

I am kind of disappointed it is only going to be Dragon Soul raid. I was looking forward to finally get my Throne of four widns finally done. No one ever wants to do it after they have done it and it is extremely frustrating since I missed the first month and a half of Cata. Maybe Blizzard just wants to stick with current content though and not open up. Or maybe it is the fact that they don't want to go back and tune LFR for the previous instances.

I think this will be a great system to use as starter guilds or alt runs for guilds that just need to fill a couple spots. Although I am not completely sure how it will work out loot wise.

There you have it that is the Reader Post for the week. As always thank you for all your submissions they are always appreciated as this post would not exist without them. If you are interested in participating check out next week's topic during Sunday's Ask Gauss. Enjoy your weekend everyone!