Tobold's Blog
Saturday, March 04, 2006
 
Removing casual content

I love 5-man dungeons. So I am excited to report on the upcoming 1.10 patch notes and accompanying explanations in which Blizzard promises us 3 new 5-man-only dungeons, and one new dungeon for 10 players. The names of these dungeons are:

Stratholme: 5 players
Scholomance: 5 players
Blackrock Depths: 5 players
Blackrock Spire: 10 players

.
.
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HEY! WAIT A MINUTE!

Blizzard is about to totally screw the casual players, and remove a lot of high-level content from their reach. A 10-man raid to Stratholme, Scholomance, or BRD currently is one of the few ways to get decent blue gear for a casual player. Raiding these places with 10 people is relatively easy, thus it can be done on a casual play schedule and with the average pickup group containing a few of the usual bad players. Your chance on winning loot diminishes due to the loot being shared by 10 people. But for many people that is still preferable to doing these places in 5-man groups, because that is really hard, and even one bad player can repeatedly wipe the whole pickup group.

Blizzard obviously observed that many hardcore players are not visiting these dungeons any more, because raiding them is no challenge for the power gamer, and there isn't much decent loot to be found there, compared with Molten Core or Zul'Gurub. So they simply redecorated these dungeons, added more and better loot, added some bosses, but lowered the cap by 5 in all cases. Thus now these dungeons are more interesting to people like me, who are in a well-organized guild, who like the challenge of a 5-man group, and who will now be rewarded with better loot.

To make these old dungeons even more interesting, Blizzard introduces a new series of quests for all classes. *IF* you have your first blue class set of equipment (e.g. Valor for warriors, Devout for priests, etc.), you can now do these quests to upgrade the set into 4 stronger blue items and 4 epic items. Getting the class set is done as it always was in these 4 dungeons, and now you can return there for the upgrade quests.

I *am* looking forward to doing these places, although on average there are 2 pieces of class set gear dropping per trip, so a group of 5 people needing 8 pieces each will need to go 20 to 40 times (discounting pieces that are not for their classes or doubles) before they got their complete class set. And then they will need to go some more for the upgrades.

But Blizzard had announced these new class set update items as being for casual players, in response to criticism on them only adding content for hardcore player. And that is an outrageous bait and switch marketing ploy. A casual player who has just hit level 60, and who doesn't have a guild with lots of better equipped and more experienced guild mates to help him to run through these 4 dungeons, will have a really hard time succeeding a 5-man group to Scholomance, for example. And while before he had the *option* of doing these places in 5-man or in raid, now Blizzard is taking this option away from him, forcing him into the harder variant, and effectively removing content from the reach of the casual player.

And this isn't even sure to work to renew the interest of the hardcore players in the old dungeons. Many of them have done these places already so often, they are completely bored of them, and a new coat of paint won't get them back in there. I would have loved if Blizzard had really introduced 4 new dungeons for small groups, but taking easy content away from casual players to make it more attractive for the better organized guilds is just not right.
Comments:
But for many people that is still preferable to doing these places in 5-man groups, because that is really hard, and even one bad player can repeatedly wipe the whole pickup group.

From when "casual player" has started to mean "bad player" and "hardcore" "good player"?

That's the point. The only letdown is that the runs could take much longer, but I believe they tweaked the dungeons to speed up some more these runs. If they are still too long that's the design problem. But THE DIFFICULTY is not.

A casual player isn't someone who doesn't know how to play. He is just someone that has time constraints and moves through content as a slower pace. But he can play equally well, if not better than a raider who is used to tell jokes in teamspeak and watch TV while "busy" in those long, dull raids.

Maybe you forget it, but even 5-man PUG groups can do very well their work. I played the majority of my dungeon runs in PUGs, I did all the instances at the proper levels, did all the quests, never been helped by someone higher level than me. The challenge is good for the game, those dungeons are doable and originally intended to be done even by players that aren't yet 60.

We are just used to a cheap work.
 
I would have been all for *adding* a couple of 5-man dungeons with the new epic quests. But difficulty *is* a problem. Not for me and you, and most of the readers of this blog, we are all playing these sort of games for years and know how to play well.

But there are LOTS of people out there, and I know several of them from Real Life, who are playing a lot worse than we do. You can get to level 60 in WoW without having to play well in a group, and now suddenly these people are supposed to know how to do it?

Higher difficulty and more challenge might suit us just fine, but there are a lot of people for who casual playing means not taking the game so serious, and who don't want to have to learn to become an expert. Not everybody who has a basketball hoop in his yard is ready to play for the NBA.
 
Difficulty is an issue that may affect a few people, but the obscene tedium of the 1.10 quests is an issue that will affect everyone. Needing to have your blue dungeon set first is bad enough. I only have 4/8 and I've been 60 for over six months. Having to do the quests in order is just a kick in the nuts. I have bracers, belt, gloves, and breastplate. BP will likely be the very last piece, which means even though I have it, I can't upgrade until I find and upgrade the missing 4 pieces. The final insult is the ridiculous cost of the upgrades - multiple quests per piece, running around, grinding mobs for drops, and then spending 50+ gold on materials . . . per piece. For a very minor upgrade. I've been lucky(?) enough to run MC with my guild twice. On the second run I got an epic drop. From the sounds of things doing the first bracer quest will require far more time and money and yet be significantly inferior to an MC drop. Thanks Blizzard, you're just proving your hardcore raider mentality more every day.
 
Graktar, where did you get the information about the details of the 1.10 quests? I hadn't been aware that you needed to do them in a specific order. That would be really stupid if you can't upgrade the part you have, because you don't have the part before that in the series.
 
There is a set order:

Bracers (Rare)
Belt (Rare)
Gloves (Epic)
Helm
Boots/____
BP/____ (Both Epic)

(I have the exact order and rare/epic detail written down at home.) You do not need all 8 pcs to start but you do need to do the pcs in order. The first 3 pcs, all boe's, are soloable. The other 5 pcs require instances. Cost is something like 20-30g per pc (quest). The new sets are being called Tier 0.5 or Dungeon 2. The 0.5 sets *are* class restricted (the quests are). I.e. While a Paladin can wear Valor, he cannot upgrade Valor to the 0.5. The Paladin can *only* upgrade Lightforge to 0.5. In other words, Shadow Priests and Feral Druids are getting screwed.

The set bonuses for all T0/Dungeon 1 sets have been redone. it's (2) 200 armor; (4) ____; (6) [varies by set]; (8) +8 res all. The 0.5 set bonuses are the reverse of the T0. Thus, as you replace your T0 with 0.5, you retain the bonuses you already have.

The few 0.5 pcs I've seen vary wildly. The Rogue pcs look bad but I liked the Warlock ones. The 0.5's are *not* intended to compete with the T1 and T2 sets and *are* inferior to them. Some of the 0.5 pcs are inferior to dropped blues, especially some DM blues. But that's no big surprise per se.

There's also something about a 45 min Baron run, where something special happens or you get a bonus or something if from entry by the back gate to death of Baron it only takes you 45 min. No one has that figured out yet afaik, though Blizzard has announced and confirmed it.

~//~

Personally, I agree with you, Tobold. Changing these to 5 and 10-man instances means I will almost never again join a pickup for them. It also means that groups are going to be forced into archetypes. They have to if they want to succeed. Every Alliance group will want a Warrior, a Paladin or Priest, and a Warlock. After that, it depends where you're going. It also means no doubling up in 5-man groups. I thought one great thing about WoW was the freedom in group and raid composition. Not in 1.10.
 
The US boards a full of complaining, caused by the way the new quests are integrated. Aka grind your tier 0 full force first, then start tier.5. Im suprised actually, that they really made these things kinda hard to get. You see, the majority expected to log on the first day 1.10 is live and get the whole new set handed to them within 30 minutes or so. They made it harder than i expected wich is kinda neat, but bad for the people this is aiming for. Seriously wich casual PUG is capable to take down the Baron within 45 minutes?

Even for someone who will have no problem doing this, these new quest series already sucks. I mean no one i know ever get their full tier 0 set, and even if they did, they destroyed it. It even doesnt make sense. They pitched this as a partly solo doable thing. Good luck getting your full tier 0 solo, to just get a shot at those next new steps. We will see, if this thing goes live, the way it is now. This even looks to hard for the test server guinea pigs, wich are full tier0 plus some epics. Even those people seem to have problems with the 45 minutes baron kill, cause the next step after this is yet unknown. Second thought was the return of the holy trinity. Who is taking the hybrid classes into this, when you already need a highly focused class setup for it? Some bad EQ flashbacks coming right there.

I expected this to be a heavy but easy and steady grind thing: collect this, gain this faction and so on. Seeing the way it looks now, is kinda confusing. It looks like you will need your whole tier0 to get every tier.5 piece. Wich does not mean, you can not start the tier.5 quests without having full tier0. I guess they planned, that you will need so many tries killing the bosses fast enough, everyone will get their tier0 item while tryin. Any other way it would not make sense.

Not nitpicking this new quest thing, i do admit, that this patch really could be the healthiest for the game yet.
 
I don't get this. Everything else in the game is done 5 man, but when it comes to scholo/strat everyone says its to hard?

VC is very hard for 5 16-20 players. but it is doable.

SM Cath is a pain for 36-40 players, but totally doable.

Uldamans end boss is insanely hard for 38-46 players, but doable.

ZF temple and Anut'Sul are very hard for 42-48, but doable.

harder is better. Maybe it will produce a better calibur of player who really knows how to play their class.
 
Anon, imo you answered your own question. VC isn't so hard at level 20. SM isn't so hard at level 40. Uldaman at 46, ZF at 50, Sunken Temple at 50-52. For all of those instances, players have a variable as to when they play them - at what level. If the instance is too tough, get a higher-level party or level up and then go back. Makes a big difference.

For Scholo, Strat and the other end-game instances, there is no choice. As a non-Healer, going in them at less than 57-58 is just plain stupid. At 56, my Paladin was doing single-digit damage. Levels there are pretty much set. You can't level up or get a higher-level group to make them doable. It comes down to equipment, skill, and strategy, period.

Chrismue - Not having played EQ I don't know the exact meaning of "the holy trinity" though I recognize the concept. As it stands, there is no doubt in my mind that 1.10 will see a return to that fundamental. And that makes me sad.
 
The 'holy trinity' in EQ were the three classes you wouldn't form a group without: Fighter, cleric, enchanter. The WoW equivalent would be warrior, priest, mage.

When a game isn't that hard, you gain a lot of flexibility. You can take a shaman as tank, a druid as healer, and then invite two hunters and a warlock, or whatever comes along. The harder the game gets, the more groups will refuse to take anything but a defensive specced warrior for tanking, anything but a holy priest for healing, and anything but a mage for crowd control and damage dealing. That leaves only 2 slots for the other 6 classes in the group, which is a bad thing.
 
Well I commend Blizzards move to reward challenge instead of # of people in a group/raid. I don't know the details, but as they emerge its like the bait and switch they pulled with the Silithus quest lines for epics. Impossible for any casual groups and take more time than an MC or BWL run where the loot is 3x as good.

Blizzard once again sucks at time vs reward and challenge vs reward.
 
Thanks for the explanation, Tobold!

Sub in a Warlock for the Mage in WoW's trinity and I won't be so put-off. ;P
 
Well, actually the enchanter in EQ had a double purpose: Casting clarity on the priest, which significantly improved his mana regeneration and thus cut downtime, and crowd control by mezzing. The mage in WoW substitutes water summoning for clarity, and sheeping for crowd control, plus deals a lot of damage, especially with area of effect spells.

Warlocks have decent crowd control (tanking with a voidwalker, banishing, or seducing with a succubus), but have no way to regenerate other people's mana (only their own), and have less AoE spells. Still good to have in a group, especially at the start, for summoning. But I think most groups would prefer a mage to a warlock. Just like they would prefer a priest to a druid, although the druid isn't so bad in healing.
 
Pretty much agree with you here mate.

There is a big gulf between the hardcore gamer that can succesfully 5 man Scholo/Strat etc and the archetype casual gamer. Note that a hardcore gamer doesn't necessarily equate to hardcore WoW player!

There seems to be a mix up in terminology here. I'm what you could probably call a hardcore gamer. I play a lot of games, and have been playing them on PC's and Consoles since the the 1970's! I am however more of a casual WoW player in that I don't designate all my gaming life or spare time to playing WoW, nor am I in a hardcore guild that makes demands on my time and playstyle.

5 man runs, especially if they have to use PUGs, could scare away those gamers unused to the intensity of a 5 man group in Scholo. Blizzard do run the risk of alienating many of the players they so successfully managed to capture with WoW, all those players unlike you and me who are new to online gaming.

However, from a completly different perspective, once the cap is raised to 70 these dungeons become just like all the previous instances up to this point. Level up, and beat them easily at level 62 instead.
 
Although I am in a medium-sized guild with excellent players, I feel a LOT of casual players will leave the game because of this.

I have had a lot of luck with my Magister set. I got my chest on my first UBRS run ever, and my helm took around 10 runs or so. I bought a couple of the BoE items on the cheap, ending up with 7/8. The boots come after 1.10, as they are moving them off of Postmaster Malown, an UD Strath boss you have to spawn (and nobody ever wants to do this except for mages).

Although it would have taken as many runs in a 1.10 world, those runs would each have taken twice as much time. For those who like to play a couple of hours a night, such runs are impossible - it takes an hour to get through the queue, and another 30 minutes minimum to put a group together. Do they really think casual players will up their play time to 4 or 5 hours to make up for Blizzard's crappy infrastructure or increased instance times? No, they will move to another game that caters to their time constraints.

Furthermore, I played a pally to 60 prior to switching to this mage, and I ran those instances at least 50-60 times each, and only had 3 set pieces after all that (and I purchased one!). Playing a least-desired-for-5-man class guarantees your game ends when you ding 60.

Also, I agree that all classes will be forced to homogenize to a pre-defined spec. This was always the case with MC/BWL. A mage couldn't be fire spec, period. A priest had to be Holy. Now, the smaller content will force the same kinds of prejudice. On top of that, MC/BWL required a number of each class (except paladins, who have been screwed so thoroughly since day one, I'd rather not elaborate /cry). The 1.10 world will do the same for the 5-man instances: warrior/holy priest/rogue/mage, one slot for a shammie/druid/hunter/warlock, with a preference for shammie (because they rock, and they wear mail, which doesn't conflict with the other 4 players' needs, and they can dps and heal).

Also, while a dedicated group should be able to 5-man UD Stratholme in 45 minutes, your average casual player will find this a very demanding task, and getting a PuG that can do this is nigh on impossible.

So, increase time until you can actually play via massive queues, and then increase time to accomplish anything within the game, and finally watch a huge chunk of people cancel their accounts.

P.S.: My pally tranmutes undeaths to waters, and my mage transmutes waters to air. Patch 1.10 will increase the drop rate of Airs, a second increase after that of 1.9. Add to that the increase in Undeath prices as fewer of those come out of the undead instances (number of undead runs decrease and take longer to complete), and basically the profit on those tasks evaporates. Blizzard doesn't want anybody making money in this game unless you spend countless hours farming or are part of a hardcore guild (which, in turn, means you spend countless hours farming instances).
 
I've done Scholo in a 4-man group no problem with a shaman as the lone healer.. i'm a hunter btw. They're also making the 5-man dungeons easier by removing a bunch of mobs. I don't see why this would be a problem.
 
I am a casual-hardcore rogue and I have completed Baron 45 minute run on patch 1.10. With 1 guildie.

It was hard, took an entire weekend to complete, and for the average casual player this will probably be impossible.

The absolute most important thing one needs to complete this quest is determination and time. One needs determination to keep trying and learning from one's failures. One needs time to run Baron again, and again, and again, learning each time.

Additionally, all 5 of the party members must have these qualities. Skill is more important that items here (we had maybe 3 epics other than our 5 epic 0.5 gloves) and if even 1 member screws up, you will not make it.

However, while tier 0 was for casual players, tier 0.5 is not (At least not past gloves). Yeah, its a little better, but the dedicated people who want better can get it, without DKP or long MC runs.

I want full tier 0.5 more for the uniqueness than for its attributes. But casual gamers, kick up your commitement if you want this.

This is all about tier 0.5, and nothing about the 5man limit.
 
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