I've had an extremely busy couple of weeks at work. It has not been a fun time at all. So, here's the Wow-itized version of why I haven't been posting recently.
I work for a number of Guilds, mostly as stable master and chief herdsman. If there's anything related to mounts or pets, I'm the guy to come see. Each Guild is run slightly differently with different objectives set by the guildmaster and officers. Each guild has certain guidelines and rules set by Bliz that we all must obey but there still remains a fair bit of autonomy in each guild. I get to spend roughly one day each week working at each guild HQ.
Some time ago, Bliz decided to issue a subsidised mount to guildmembers. The current batch of mounts are old and are due to be retired. Normally, we would have a small number of mounts delivered at any one time. We would have plenty of time to train up the new mounts, kit them out in guild livery, round up the old mounts and collect old equipment for return. Guild members would be given a bit of training on how to use their new mount and say a final goodbye to their old one.
This time round has been a comedy of errors. Bliz spent so long renegotiating the contracts with the suppliers that the oldest batch of mounts are now long past their use-by dates. Some of these poor arthritic old creatures are limping along on two legs, or are half-blind. Most guild members look after their mounts and equipment fairly well, but even with careful tending these older ones are slowly dying. These mounts are kept long past the end of the lease term, but Bliz is still billing each guild member, in some cases for a nearly dead mount!
The contracts were signed so late that instead of one smaller batch every six months or so, we are now getting about 40% of the total herd turned over at once. Bliz has made a bulk deal with a knackery, so ALL older mounts must be rounded up and returned. The deliveries of new mounts and the return of old ones was initially scheduled to take place in only 5 days- about a quarter of the time allocated for previous changeovers. Various stuff ups at the supply and delivery stages means that less than a third of the mounts have actually arrived.
Since each guild is different, each mount needs a certain amount of re-training. This can take anywhere from a couple of hours to a day or so for each mount, though several can be being worked on at once. A bit of work also has to be done removing any customised equipment off the old mounts, often moving it to the new ones before handing them over to the guild members. The new owner also needs at least a bit of training in handling the new mount.
Guildmembers were offered a choice between a grey kodo or a green raptor. Most had had a kodo previously and selected the same again. The trouble is, the supplier has used a different training method on the kodo. Kodo's trained in the older method were supposed to be available also but this has not yet happened. The new training means I have a lot of extra training to do to integrate "new" kodos into our existing herd. It seems the new training method really breaks the spirits of the new mounts and they must be extensively encouraged to play along nicely with the rest. At any moment they can turn around and savagely break things.
Adding Raptors to the herd is also somewhat problematic. The raptors themselves are great, sleek, obedient beasts, but they have different feeding and housing requirements, and the riders also need lots of training. Each raptor requires roughly twice the work that a generic kodo does. As far as I know, no raptors have yet been delivered, since a different supplier and delivery company were used. A fair number of additional raptors are expected.
So, the delivery of new kodo has been a shambles. Instead of all new kodo arriving at once, several deliveries of one or two kodo at a time are being made. I was at one of my guilds when the first batch of two arrived. It was such a cantankerous beast that it took about 7 hours of individual training to settle down enough to put into the paddock with some of our existing herd. I didn't even get a chance to start on the second one. Other stable masters have reported that not only are they only half-trained, but that in some circumstances can break down. I suspect this will mean yet more training will have to occur on each mount, but worse, these feral new kodo may have passed on their bad habits to existing mounts.
Today was the last day of the original scheduled delivery period. That, and the return date, have been extended... but not by enough. Basically, there is 5-6 weeks worth of work involved for a smooth transition, which could be done in about 4 if rushed. I think we are being allowed only 2 weeks to do the lot, and as I said, less than a third of the mounts have arrived. One message from Bliz today seems to demand that old mounts MUST be returned ON TIME, even if a new mount has not arrived or been trained for use yet. There will be a lot of very pissed off guild members if they are without mounts, possibly for weeks at a time!
I work for a very large organisation. Individuals within that are often talented, dedicated people. Most of my fellow stable masters are highly skilled, efficient and dedicated practitioners of their art. We are copping a lot of heat from frustrated guildmembers exasperated at the long delays and excessive pressure from Bliz to basically achieve the impossible.
What a load of kodo dung.
Bliz, you suck!
Friday, July 25, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Ride 'Em Cowboy!
Methane, my mid-30's tauren Druid on Dath, picked up his Kodo mounts the other night. I hadn't had a kodo on any of my other characters yet. Riding around on these guys is like steering a minibus or a monster truck!
The normal walk animation on a kodo has a definite side-to-side swaying motion. This looks ridiculously funny when combined with various strafe and jumping motions. Performing a full 360 degree turn after jumping off the lifts at Thunder Bluff was rather amusing too. I am reminded of the line from "hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy" where the Vogon starships "hung in the sky like bricks don't."
The normal walk animation on a kodo has a definite side-to-side swaying motion. This looks ridiculously funny when combined with various strafe and jumping motions. Performing a full 360 degree turn after jumping off the lifts at Thunder Bluff was rather amusing too. I am reminded of the line from "hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy" where the Vogon starships "hung in the sky like bricks don't."
Monday, July 14, 2008
Mercantile Madness - The Enchanted Auctionhouse
I've been playing my two "main" alts on VeCo and Cael in roughly equal amounts over the last week. My Tauren hunter is now level 21, with cat and carrion bird pets keeping mostly up-to-date. On Cael, my warlock is now 19 and a bar or so off 20. I want to hit the BG's a bit before he dings. The bank alts are both level 12 or 13 and are getting desperate to see some scenery other than the path between mailbox and Auction House.
The economy on each server is quite different. VeCo Horde is an old, established realm with lots of level 70's. There are also a lot of lower level alts, but apparently few genuine newbies. This means prices tend to be higher, but more stable.
Cael on the other hand is a newish server. I think it opened around Christmas time, originally only for transfers. I created my first horde alt there about a day after it opened to new characters. Of course, my alliance characters are brand new. The server is frequently at "full" or "locked" status so is plenty busy! The Alliance auction house often has over 22,000 (500 "pages") of listings, roughly double VeCo and Dath figures. There seem to be lots of genuine newbies. This means that there are lots of really dodgy prices for items on the auction house and a whole lot of undercutting going on.
At about level 15 on both servers, my "main" abandoned one of the gathering professions to take up enchanting. The Tauren hunter is now skinning/enchanting and the Gnome warlock is mining/enchanting. The bank alts remain skinning/mining.
I invested nearly all my money back into the auction house on both servers, looking for cheap items for disenchanting. Fifty gold sure buys a lot of crappy greens! I was specifically looking for items who's bid or buyout price was no more than 3/4 of auctioneer's lowest disenchantment value. There were relatively few bargains to be had in immediate buyouts but a lot of items had really low bid values. The mailbox on both bankers nearly exploded with the number of incoming messages.
After I cleared the mailbox of all the "outbid on..." messages, I collected and forwarded all the disenchantable items through to my mains. Disenchanting by itself is not sufficient to level enchanting skill, so I had to use some of the resulting materials. Any remaining materials were sent back to be auctioned. Since I have been adventuring with these two mains and still sending back all the stuff I gather while travelling I'm not really sure how much of their money has been due to disenchanting only.
I also got sick of running out of bag space and have blown large amounts of cash on netherweave 16-slot bags. I think all 3 slots on the hunters and 4 slots on the others are now full of netherweave bags. If not, I'll be getting the last ones soon. On VeCo I was lucky enough to meet up with a guy who gave me a 50 gold donation after I farmed up a bunch of leather for him. On Cael, a nice girl gave me a 14 slot bag, which I have since returned after my upgrade.
These two gifts sort of invalidate my experiment in self-sufficiency but then again, WoW is a social game and using social contacts to help advance is almost a necessity . In both cases the value of the gift is fairly trivial compared to my net-worth at the time anyway.
Despite the gold-sink that is 7* netherweave bags and levelling enchanting to at least 75, both sets of alts have net worth of about 175g as of last night. VeCo is slightly easier to manage due to stable pricing.
Lots of money has come from reselling vendor recipes. Some came from the mining of copper and a bit of tin but this is less now on both servers since I've been concentrating on other things. Selling enchanting materials is starting to build up but I still need to use some of these myself to level up. A relatively small proportion of my income has come from buying and reselling stuff in the auction house.
At this stage I look to be on target to get my level 30 mounts as soon as they become available. If Bliz does not introduce those, then level 40 is looking good as well, with money to spare!
The economy on each server is quite different. VeCo Horde is an old, established realm with lots of level 70's. There are also a lot of lower level alts, but apparently few genuine newbies. This means prices tend to be higher, but more stable.
Cael on the other hand is a newish server. I think it opened around Christmas time, originally only for transfers. I created my first horde alt there about a day after it opened to new characters. Of course, my alliance characters are brand new. The server is frequently at "full" or "locked" status so is plenty busy! The Alliance auction house often has over 22,000 (500 "pages") of listings, roughly double VeCo and Dath figures. There seem to be lots of genuine newbies. This means that there are lots of really dodgy prices for items on the auction house and a whole lot of undercutting going on.
At about level 15 on both servers, my "main" abandoned one of the gathering professions to take up enchanting. The Tauren hunter is now skinning/enchanting and the Gnome warlock is mining/enchanting. The bank alts remain skinning/mining.
I invested nearly all my money back into the auction house on both servers, looking for cheap items for disenchanting. Fifty gold sure buys a lot of crappy greens! I was specifically looking for items who's bid or buyout price was no more than 3/4 of auctioneer's lowest disenchantment value. There were relatively few bargains to be had in immediate buyouts but a lot of items had really low bid values. The mailbox on both bankers nearly exploded with the number of incoming messages.
After I cleared the mailbox of all the "outbid on..." messages, I collected and forwarded all the disenchantable items through to my mains. Disenchanting by itself is not sufficient to level enchanting skill, so I had to use some of the resulting materials. Any remaining materials were sent back to be auctioned. Since I have been adventuring with these two mains and still sending back all the stuff I gather while travelling I'm not really sure how much of their money has been due to disenchanting only.
I also got sick of running out of bag space and have blown large amounts of cash on netherweave 16-slot bags. I think all 3 slots on the hunters and 4 slots on the others are now full of netherweave bags. If not, I'll be getting the last ones soon. On VeCo I was lucky enough to meet up with a guy who gave me a 50 gold donation after I farmed up a bunch of leather for him. On Cael, a nice girl gave me a 14 slot bag, which I have since returned after my upgrade.
These two gifts sort of invalidate my experiment in self-sufficiency but then again, WoW is a social game and using social contacts to help advance is almost a necessity . In both cases the value of the gift is fairly trivial compared to my net-worth at the time anyway.
Despite the gold-sink that is 7* netherweave bags and levelling enchanting to at least 75, both sets of alts have net worth of about 175g as of last night. VeCo is slightly easier to manage due to stable pricing.
Lots of money has come from reselling vendor recipes. Some came from the mining of copper and a bit of tin but this is less now on both servers since I've been concentrating on other things. Selling enchanting materials is starting to build up but I still need to use some of these myself to level up. A relatively small proportion of my income has come from buying and reselling stuff in the auction house.
At this stage I look to be on target to get my level 30 mounts as soon as they become available. If Bliz does not introduce those, then level 40 is looking good as well, with money to spare!
Saturday, July 12, 2008
The family that kills together stays together.
With a title like that, this post should be about guilds... but it isn't, its a lore session.
Azeroth has been the home of civilised cultures for at least 12,000 years. At that time, the Night Elves had a thriving if decadent civilisation centred around the Well of Eternity. This magical lake changed the primitive humanoids into the forms we know today and also bestowed immortality. There is some debate that the elves are descended from trolls, who had several powerful empires established even before the rise of the elves.
Over time, the noble classes of the Night Elves studied the energies of the well. One group, favourites of the queen Azshara, became known as the Highborne. Their dabbling in arcane magic eventually attracted the attentions of the great titan Sargeras. The arrogant Highborne were easily corrupted and used the Well to open a portal for the burning legion to invade.
The war of the Ancients was triggered. The non-highborne Night Elves were eventually victorious under the leadership of Tyrande Whisperwind, Malfurion Stormrage, and Illidan Stormrage. Some few of the Highborne regretted assiting the Burning Legion and escaped Azshara's capital before its destruction along with the Well of Eternity. These were later exiled by the Night Elves for continuing to practice arcane magics.
A number of Highborne still loyal to the burning legion survived the destruction of the Well of Eternity and were trapped in the sunken ruins of Azshara's capital. Cursed creatures, these Highborne that survived became the Naga and were lead by Lady Vashj, Azshara's former handmaiden.
The exiled Highborne moved to the new continent of Lordaeron and established the kingdom of Quel'Thalas. They called themselves High Elves and continued practicing arcane magics.
Some very few Highborne survived the war of the ancients and were not part of any other group. Some of these have survived through to the present.
After the destruction of Quel'Thalas by the scrouge only a few years ago, the surviving high elves renamed themselves Blood Elves and joined with the horde.
The Elven family tree looks something like this:
References:
Mostly from articles on World of Warcraft encyclopedia
Azeroth has been the home of civilised cultures for at least 12,000 years. At that time, the Night Elves had a thriving if decadent civilisation centred around the Well of Eternity. This magical lake changed the primitive humanoids into the forms we know today and also bestowed immortality. There is some debate that the elves are descended from trolls, who had several powerful empires established even before the rise of the elves.
Over time, the noble classes of the Night Elves studied the energies of the well. One group, favourites of the queen Azshara, became known as the Highborne. Their dabbling in arcane magic eventually attracted the attentions of the great titan Sargeras. The arrogant Highborne were easily corrupted and used the Well to open a portal for the burning legion to invade.
The war of the Ancients was triggered. The non-highborne Night Elves were eventually victorious under the leadership of Tyrande Whisperwind, Malfurion Stormrage, and Illidan Stormrage. Some few of the Highborne regretted assiting the Burning Legion and escaped Azshara's capital before its destruction along with the Well of Eternity. These were later exiled by the Night Elves for continuing to practice arcane magics.
A number of Highborne still loyal to the burning legion survived the destruction of the Well of Eternity and were trapped in the sunken ruins of Azshara's capital. Cursed creatures, these Highborne that survived became the Naga and were lead by Lady Vashj, Azshara's former handmaiden.
The exiled Highborne moved to the new continent of Lordaeron and established the kingdom of Quel'Thalas. They called themselves High Elves and continued practicing arcane magics.
Some very few Highborne survived the war of the ancients and were not part of any other group. Some of these have survived through to the present.
After the destruction of Quel'Thalas by the scrouge only a few years ago, the surviving high elves renamed themselves Blood Elves and joined with the horde.
The Elven family tree looks something like this:
Trolls
|
Night Elves
|
Highborne
|
|------------------------|
High Elves Naga
|
Blood Elves
References:
Mostly from articles on World of Warcraft encyclopedia
Friday, July 11, 2008
More Mercantile Madness
On VeCo, my bank alt has more than doubled his money and is now well over 50g. He's running a little low on stock though since my hunter hasn't been out and about gathering stuff and I don't yet know the market well enough to be heavily investing back into the market. I've made a few contacts with various people in /trade who may supply their unwanted "crap"... some of this can be turned into gold!
On Cael, my friends and I did a bit of cross faction trading. We bought a bunch of items available only to one faction and flipped them over to the other via the neutral AH. I have an alt permanently sat at Booty Bay for this now. So far, we turned a 1-g investment into about 40g, with more items still in stock. This was quite good, but not as good as we'd hoped.
On the solo front, my bank alt there has turned ~2g of investments into well over 50g without really trying much. Cael server is full of very low level characters so competition is fierce in the kind of stuff I'm shifting. Profits havent been as great as I would have hoped on lots of what my characters can farm.
Again, personal networks are shaping up. I have met a newbie tailor who will probably help my enchanter level up when I supply cloth to help their tailoring.
I am playing my Warlock there most as that realm's Main. He is now mining/enchanting since hes high enough now that greens are a regular drop. Mining still supplies a regular income but its merchandise and auctioneering that builds my funds mostly.
At the higher end, my banker on Dath has flipped another 500g or so of stock into 1200 or so in gold. One more week should build my funds sufficent to get Crypt his epic flyer as soon as he hits 70. I do farm a bit on this realm but most income still comes from playing the auctions.
There are some truely unethical sellers out there. I got burnt a bit a few weeks ago buying rune thread off the AH. I got it confused with one of the tailor only blue level items... instead, its a vendor supplied item, that nearly every tailoring and general goods vendor has in unlimited quantity. I did manage to re-list it and get most of my money back over time.
On one of the servers, some devious person is trying to sell vendor bought water for upwards of 6g each, when a 5-stack costs only about 20 copper. I got a small level of satisfaction by listing a bunch of single items at just under a g each.... and all of them were bought out by the "evil seller"to protect his inflated prices!
Market PvP... truely more ruthless than any BG!
On Cael, my friends and I did a bit of cross faction trading. We bought a bunch of items available only to one faction and flipped them over to the other via the neutral AH. I have an alt permanently sat at Booty Bay for this now. So far, we turned a 1-g investment into about 40g, with more items still in stock. This was quite good, but not as good as we'd hoped.
On the solo front, my bank alt there has turned ~2g of investments into well over 50g without really trying much. Cael server is full of very low level characters so competition is fierce in the kind of stuff I'm shifting. Profits havent been as great as I would have hoped on lots of what my characters can farm.
Again, personal networks are shaping up. I have met a newbie tailor who will probably help my enchanter level up when I supply cloth to help their tailoring.
I am playing my Warlock there most as that realm's Main. He is now mining/enchanting since hes high enough now that greens are a regular drop. Mining still supplies a regular income but its merchandise and auctioneering that builds my funds mostly.
At the higher end, my banker on Dath has flipped another 500g or so of stock into 1200 or so in gold. One more week should build my funds sufficent to get Crypt his epic flyer as soon as he hits 70. I do farm a bit on this realm but most income still comes from playing the auctions.
There are some truely unethical sellers out there. I got burnt a bit a few weeks ago buying rune thread off the AH. I got it confused with one of the tailor only blue level items... instead, its a vendor supplied item, that nearly every tailoring and general goods vendor has in unlimited quantity. I did manage to re-list it and get most of my money back over time.
On one of the servers, some devious person is trying to sell vendor bought water for upwards of 6g each, when a 5-stack costs only about 20 copper. I got a small level of satisfaction by listing a bunch of single items at just under a g each.... and all of them were bought out by the "evil seller"to protect his inflated prices!
Market PvP... truely more ruthless than any BG!
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Instance Runthrus - The worst thing you can do for a friend.
Taking your low level friends through an instanced dungeon with your high level character is just about the worst thing you can do to "help" them! Its generally quick and easy and they get good gear from it as well as reasonable exp but is still evil.
Catching a ride on your coat-tails means that the newbie is getting good gear without having to work for it. This spoils their sense of achievement, not only for the dungeon concerned, but their questing/levelling until their gear again falls behind. Levelling becomes too easy and becomes boring quickly.
It teaches them nothing about how to play their character. Most runthrus just involve the newbie looting the corpses of the slain - there's nothing educational in that! Lazy, ignorant newbies get themselves into higher level dungeons with no idea how group play works. They become a liability that no-one wants to group with.
It builds the expectation that you will always be available to help them out. More runthrus, free stuff, mount money... the expectation never ends. Giving in to any of this just feeds more begging behavior. Stop the rot at the start and don't do it!
All this of course mostly applies to someone's first character. Runthrus for alt characters are less evil though some of the problems remain. Of course its almost necessary for Twinks to receive runthrus - but twinks are their own brand of evil anyway.
What sort of things can you do to help newbies without spoiling them? Well, I suggest doing things that remove some of the frustrations of low level play.
Give your newbie a set of 8 or 10- slot bags. Bag space limits really suck. Dont give out higher than 12-slot bags though, thats making things too easy.
Clothies could be given a wand. Priests especially suffer from crap DPS in the early levels. A wand, plus instructions on how to use it, are a great help.
Its generally not worthwhile giving gear or enchants to those below level 20, since they will outgrow anything too quickly. Twinks can damn well pay for anything they want!
The best thing you can do for your newbie friend is advice. Wow is a reasonably complex game with a lot to learn. Genuine newbies are likely overwhelmed by it all.
NEVER give money to lowbies.
Remember, runthrus are a disservice to the newbie and the whole wow community. Stop the rot!
Catching a ride on your coat-tails means that the newbie is getting good gear without having to work for it. This spoils their sense of achievement, not only for the dungeon concerned, but their questing/levelling until their gear again falls behind. Levelling becomes too easy and becomes boring quickly.
It teaches them nothing about how to play their character. Most runthrus just involve the newbie looting the corpses of the slain - there's nothing educational in that! Lazy, ignorant newbies get themselves into higher level dungeons with no idea how group play works. They become a liability that no-one wants to group with.
It builds the expectation that you will always be available to help them out. More runthrus, free stuff, mount money... the expectation never ends. Giving in to any of this just feeds more begging behavior. Stop the rot at the start and don't do it!
All this of course mostly applies to someone's first character. Runthrus for alt characters are less evil though some of the problems remain. Of course its almost necessary for Twinks to receive runthrus - but twinks are their own brand of evil anyway.
What sort of things can you do to help newbies without spoiling them? Well, I suggest doing things that remove some of the frustrations of low level play.
Give your newbie a set of 8 or 10- slot bags. Bag space limits really suck. Dont give out higher than 12-slot bags though, thats making things too easy.
Clothies could be given a wand. Priests especially suffer from crap DPS in the early levels. A wand, plus instructions on how to use it, are a great help.
Its generally not worthwhile giving gear or enchants to those below level 20, since they will outgrow anything too quickly. Twinks can damn well pay for anything they want!
The best thing you can do for your newbie friend is advice. Wow is a reasonably complex game with a lot to learn. Genuine newbies are likely overwhelmed by it all.
NEVER give money to lowbies.
Remember, runthrus are a disservice to the newbie and the whole wow community. Stop the rot!
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Hate, aggro, threat - Managing NPC hostility
An understanding of "aggro" in World Of Warcraft is key to your success against computer controlled opponents. When you understand how mobs react you are able to control the fights to ensure victory.
First, what is "aggro"? The terms hate, threat and aggro are often used interchangeably. They all mean essentially the same thing: how annoyed the mob is at you. This is a measurable, numeric value. The higher it is, the more that mob hates you.
Each term overlaps the others but there are certain loose definitions:
Hate: The numeric value measuring how much a particular mob "hates" you. Each mob keeps a separate value for each combatant in range. These values go up or down as the fight progresses depending on the actions of each combatant. Hate values on each mob are tracked separately.
Threat: The value added to a mob's hate list for each action performed in combat. Each attack adds threat, some special abilities remove threat. Tracked independently by each mob.
Aggro: Loosely defined as being the focus of attention from a mob. "Holding aggro" means you are the one who the mob hates the most and will be attacked by it if possible.
Aggro radius: An area about each mob where it can detect and react to hostile combatants. The aggro radius around individual mobs can interact with other mobs of similar type to cause a chain reaction of hate activation.
In general, actions done by a combatant cause threat to one or more mobs, increasing their hate levels towards that combatant. NPC's can have threat and hate towards each other as well as towards players, if the npcs are of hostile factions. Some actions cause hate to all mobs in range, others only to the mob affected by the action.
On to some examples. A young Cryptography, neophyte undead rogue, is standing safely out of range of a single skeletal soldier near the Agamand Mills. Crypto is well beyond the skeleton's aggro radius, so it does not yet know he exists. As Crypto walks towards the skeleton, he crosses the edge of the aggro radius. Immediately, the skeletal soldier is now aware of Crypto and starts rushing towards him. Crypto now "holds aggro" from that skeleton. Being a cowardly soul, Crypto immediately runs away. The skeleton pursues Crypto for quite a distance before breaking off and returning to its starting location. Crypto caused no threat from any attacks, but, since he was the only one on the skeleton's hate list, he "held aggro".
Some little time later, Crypto returns to face the skeleton. He now knows roughly how close he can get before triggering its aggro radius, so stays carefully outside that range. With careful manoeuvring, he can be in range to attack with his bow but still be outside the aggro radius. He sees an opportunity and shoots the skeleton! Instantly, Skelly-boy is made aware of Crypto's presence - an arrow in the ribs being a rather pointed indicator of something being wrong - and rushes over to chastise the young rogue! After a few exchanges of blows, Crypto is taking the worst of it and runs away again. This time, Crypto made several threat-generating attacks on the skeleton but since he was again the only one on the threat list he still "held aggro" and thus the mob's undivided attention.
Deciding the skeleton is too tough to tackle alone, Crypto teams up with another neophyte undead. Mortified is a young mage, barely out of the academy. She's brash and impulsive, supremely confidant in her abilities but aware of the limitations of wearing cloth armour. The plan is discussed beforehand and Crypt will attempt to "pull" the skeleton with his bow before Mortified opens up with her fireball. A few quick shots should smash the nasty skeleton!
Crypto again walks up to just outside the skelly's aggro radius. Mortified is standing some ways back. Crypto fires his bow and the skeleton rushes towards him waving the large axe vigorously. Mortified starts casting fireball, which completes and zooms off to splash explosively against the skeleton's chest just as it reaches Crypto and takes its first swing. Immediately, the skeleton roars and rushes over to Mortified, smashing her to the ground in a few swings of his axe despite Crypto's best efforts with his dagger in its back! When Mortified is dead, the skeleton turns its fury on Cryptography, who almost manages to kill it before also falling to its attacks.
What happened here is that Mortified's potent fireball attack mean that she overtook Crypto on the skeleton's hate list. Mobs attack the one they hate the most... which was the tissue-paper clad mage. Crypt's attacks with bow and dagger did not generate sufficient threat to retake aggro before the mage died. Mortified "stole aggro" and died because of it. Next (and only) target on the mobs hate list was Crypto, so once Mort died, Crypt was targeted and killed.
A little later, after respawning and healing up, Crypt and Mort wish to try again. This time, Mortified will wait a bit before opening up with her fireball. Hopefully Crypt will survive long enough in his better armour to finish off the skeleton.
Using more or less the same tactics as last time, Crypto gets just within bow range before attacking. Mortified is somewhat further back but waits before casting. The skeleton, arrow bouncing loosely in its ribs, charges at Cryptography. When it gets close enough, Crypt stabs it several times with his dagger and manages to take only a few blows from the creature's axe before the first of Mortified's fireballs crash into it. This time, the skeleton goes down! Crypt is in fairly good shape and Mortified is completely untouched. Victory and loot is theirs!
This time round, Crypto built up a reasonable amount of hate before Mort' s high-threat fireballs kicked in. By waiting a few seconds before opening up with her attacks, Crypto was able to "hold aggro" throughout the fight and his much better armour meant that they both survived long enough to finish off the skeleton.
(I will post this now but plan on editing it later.. got to do some work!)
First, what is "aggro"? The terms hate, threat and aggro are often used interchangeably. They all mean essentially the same thing: how annoyed the mob is at you. This is a measurable, numeric value. The higher it is, the more that mob hates you.
Each term overlaps the others but there are certain loose definitions:
Hate: The numeric value measuring how much a particular mob "hates" you. Each mob keeps a separate value for each combatant in range. These values go up or down as the fight progresses depending on the actions of each combatant. Hate values on each mob are tracked separately.
Threat: The value added to a mob's hate list for each action performed in combat. Each attack adds threat, some special abilities remove threat. Tracked independently by each mob.
Aggro: Loosely defined as being the focus of attention from a mob. "Holding aggro" means you are the one who the mob hates the most and will be attacked by it if possible.
Aggro radius: An area about each mob where it can detect and react to hostile combatants. The aggro radius around individual mobs can interact with other mobs of similar type to cause a chain reaction of hate activation.
In general, actions done by a combatant cause threat to one or more mobs, increasing their hate levels towards that combatant. NPC's can have threat and hate towards each other as well as towards players, if the npcs are of hostile factions. Some actions cause hate to all mobs in range, others only to the mob affected by the action.
On to some examples. A young Cryptography, neophyte undead rogue, is standing safely out of range of a single skeletal soldier near the Agamand Mills. Crypto is well beyond the skeleton's aggro radius, so it does not yet know he exists. As Crypto walks towards the skeleton, he crosses the edge of the aggro radius. Immediately, the skeletal soldier is now aware of Crypto and starts rushing towards him. Crypto now "holds aggro" from that skeleton. Being a cowardly soul, Crypto immediately runs away. The skeleton pursues Crypto for quite a distance before breaking off and returning to its starting location. Crypto caused no threat from any attacks, but, since he was the only one on the skeleton's hate list, he "held aggro".
Some little time later, Crypto returns to face the skeleton. He now knows roughly how close he can get before triggering its aggro radius, so stays carefully outside that range. With careful manoeuvring, he can be in range to attack with his bow but still be outside the aggro radius. He sees an opportunity and shoots the skeleton! Instantly, Skelly-boy is made aware of Crypto's presence - an arrow in the ribs being a rather pointed indicator of something being wrong - and rushes over to chastise the young rogue! After a few exchanges of blows, Crypto is taking the worst of it and runs away again. This time, Crypto made several threat-generating attacks on the skeleton but since he was again the only one on the threat list he still "held aggro" and thus the mob's undivided attention.
Deciding the skeleton is too tough to tackle alone, Crypto teams up with another neophyte undead. Mortified is a young mage, barely out of the academy. She's brash and impulsive, supremely confidant in her abilities but aware of the limitations of wearing cloth armour. The plan is discussed beforehand and Crypt will attempt to "pull" the skeleton with his bow before Mortified opens up with her fireball. A few quick shots should smash the nasty skeleton!
Crypto again walks up to just outside the skelly's aggro radius. Mortified is standing some ways back. Crypto fires his bow and the skeleton rushes towards him waving the large axe vigorously. Mortified starts casting fireball, which completes and zooms off to splash explosively against the skeleton's chest just as it reaches Crypto and takes its first swing. Immediately, the skeleton roars and rushes over to Mortified, smashing her to the ground in a few swings of his axe despite Crypto's best efforts with his dagger in its back! When Mortified is dead, the skeleton turns its fury on Cryptography, who almost manages to kill it before also falling to its attacks.
What happened here is that Mortified's potent fireball attack mean that she overtook Crypto on the skeleton's hate list. Mobs attack the one they hate the most... which was the tissue-paper clad mage. Crypt's attacks with bow and dagger did not generate sufficient threat to retake aggro before the mage died. Mortified "stole aggro" and died because of it. Next (and only) target on the mobs hate list was Crypto, so once Mort died, Crypt was targeted and killed.
A little later, after respawning and healing up, Crypt and Mort wish to try again. This time, Mortified will wait a bit before opening up with her fireball. Hopefully Crypt will survive long enough in his better armour to finish off the skeleton.
Using more or less the same tactics as last time, Crypto gets just within bow range before attacking. Mortified is somewhat further back but waits before casting. The skeleton, arrow bouncing loosely in its ribs, charges at Cryptography. When it gets close enough, Crypt stabs it several times with his dagger and manages to take only a few blows from the creature's axe before the first of Mortified's fireballs crash into it. This time, the skeleton goes down! Crypt is in fairly good shape and Mortified is completely untouched. Victory and loot is theirs!
This time round, Crypto built up a reasonable amount of hate before Mort' s high-threat fireballs kicked in. By waiting a few seconds before opening up with her attacks, Crypto was able to "hold aggro" throughout the fight and his much better armour meant that they both survived long enough to finish off the skeleton.
(I will post this now but plan on editing it later.. got to do some work!)
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Training weapons is not such a drag.
(Edit for Wrath of the Lich King: These guys seem to no longer give weapon skill training.)
Something I discovered during a bugged event in Stormwind about 3 years ago is also of value currently to anyone above about level 55.
In Blasted Lands, in the area around the dark portal, are several "Servant of ..." creatures. They are the objects of a quest in the zone that I've never bothered with. They are interesting however in that WITHOUT the quest, they are essentially immortal. Below 5% health, they go transparent. You cannot bring them below 1%, since you are supposed to shatter a crystal... but you can't do it if not on the quest.
This is useful because you can stand there bashing on them with a variety of weapons and get skillups. Some classes may even be able to AFK the whole fight while training!
Wowhead links are:
Servant of Allistarj
Servant of Grol
Servant of Razelikh
Servant of Sevine
Something I discovered during a bugged event in Stormwind about 3 years ago is also of value currently to anyone above about level 55.
In Blasted Lands, in the area around the dark portal, are several "Servant of ..." creatures. They are the objects of a quest in the zone that I've never bothered with. They are interesting however in that WITHOUT the quest, they are essentially immortal. Below 5% health, they go transparent. You cannot bring them below 1%, since you are supposed to shatter a crystal... but you can't do it if not on the quest.
This is useful because you can stand there bashing on them with a variety of weapons and get skillups. Some classes may even be able to AFK the whole fight while training!
Wowhead links are:
Servant of Allistarj
Servant of Grol
Servant of Razelikh
Servant of Sevine
Mercentile madness
My druid Changeabull on VeCo now has 25g at level 11. Mostly this is due to flipping vendor recipes on the AH for stupid mark-ups. When I last played him, Ideale and Ahami took him on a bit of a tour around the world. I grabbed flightpoints at a bunch of places on the way, but also stopped off at the vendors.
Simple stuff like the two cooking recipes for the low level fish cost almost nothing to buy but can be sold for 1 or more gold. Grab a couple, put one or two up on the AH at a time and watch the money roll in.
Simple stuff like the two cooking recipes for the low level fish cost almost nothing to buy but can be sold for 1 or more gold. Grab a couple, put one or two up on the AH at a time and watch the money roll in.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Talent Choices
At level 10 your character gets to select their first talent point. Each level from then on gives you another point. Talents provide boosts to your existing abilities or add in new ones and can play a very significant part in your overall development.
Each character class has three skill trees to select from. In general it is best to concentrate in one particular tree rather than selecting from all of them. As you reach the highest levels in the game you may be able to open up a second tree.
There are heaps of websites that give suggested talent builds for max-level characters. There are also some that tell you where to pick talents as you level. Everyone seems to have their own opinion as to what talents are best. Personally I look for the following when selecting talents for levelling:
A boost to main attack damage, hit, or critical rating.
Reduction in cost or speed of main attack.
Reduction in mana/energy/rage cost for commonly used abilities.
Increased health/mana regeneration
I also look for talents that increase movement speed early in the talent trees. I hate slow walking!
All of these help you to kill stuff more quickly, with less downtime between fights. This will mean that you can complete quests and level more quickly.
Each character class has three skill trees to select from. In general it is best to concentrate in one particular tree rather than selecting from all of them. As you reach the highest levels in the game you may be able to open up a second tree.
There are heaps of websites that give suggested talent builds for max-level characters. There are also some that tell you where to pick talents as you level. Everyone seems to have their own opinion as to what talents are best. Personally I look for the following when selecting talents for levelling:
A boost to main attack damage, hit, or critical rating.
Reduction in cost or speed of main attack.
Reduction in mana/energy/rage cost for commonly used abilities.
Increased health/mana regeneration
I also look for talents that increase movement speed early in the talent trees. I hate slow walking!
All of these help you to kill stuff more quickly, with less downtime between fights. This will mean that you can complete quests and level more quickly.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Losing one's Cool factor.
So, there I was on my freshly rolled gnome warlock doing the newbie quests. A rather rude gentleman thought I was stealing his kills and told me to "Pee off!". At first I didn't even notice, since I was busy clearing trash mobs out of the way so I could get to the ones I needed. When I checked my chat log however I saw the little note. I went back and confronted the little dweeb about this and his only response was even ruder.
What can one do about tactless little shits on a PvE realm? Not a lot really. You can /ignore them. You can retaliate in kind with pointless verbal abuse. You can tag every mob in the area so they get no kills. You can attempt to drag a train of mobs into conflict with them so they die..... or you can note that they have their /pvp flag set on at level 5!
I shamefully admit to trying all of the above, mostly without success. Mr stunted personality seems to have a fairly thick skin to go alongside his thick skull.
But Wait! I have higher level horde characters not too far away and bonehead is flagged. Hmm.
Log out, log in as my horde hunter. She's stationed at Undercity, not too far away from the dwarf lands.... except I hadnt yet picked up the flightpoints on the way. Ah well, I'll walk and get them on the way.
Sephulchure, check.
Taren Mill, check.
Hammerfall, check. Of course, mobs in Arathi are much tougher than my poor hunter, especially the elites! Naked travel makes this a little less expensive than otherwise.
Travel through the wetlands was mostly uneventful. I was joined along the way by a similar level mage from my horde guild. We got past the first dwarf guard in the tunnels, but the second one got us both. On resurection, we were joined by a mid-30's orc hunter. He could handle the level 30 guards without much trouble! We ran through the remaining sections of tunnel and on into Dun Morogh past the guards. Track humanoids helped us avoid the majority of trouble on the way south of Khanoros and into the newbie zone.
The main gate to the newbie zone is guarded by 4 level 65 guards. They can and will aggro on a low level horde from quite a way inside the tunnel. Death by guard swiftly follows! One death is usually enough to get past them however. On into newbie territory we go!
I came here looking to find one particular idiot. Despite a long search, both in the newbie area and the obvious places near Khanoros, I failed to find him. We did however find a couple of other newbies who were foolishly flagged. These were promptly munched on by the Orc's pet.
The newbie area soon lost any attraction so we ran back past the guards (dying again) and on to khanoros. We pointlessly killed several of the quest mobs.. the ones not protected by more level 65 guards that is! Most of the newbies in this area were smart enough not to put their pvp flag on so we were just mucking about killing mobs mostly. One lucky level 9 warlock took out my fellow guildmate when he was weakend by resurection sickness. He then died several times at the Orc's hands. I dont think I got a single kill, and no trace was found of my boneheaded "victim", despite me logging back on the gnome and having a quick scout around!
A completely wasted hour that could have been better spent with a quick /ignore and getting on with the job! I still had fun though so I guess it was worth it!
What can one do about tactless little shits on a PvE realm? Not a lot really. You can /ignore them. You can retaliate in kind with pointless verbal abuse. You can tag every mob in the area so they get no kills. You can attempt to drag a train of mobs into conflict with them so they die..... or you can note that they have their /pvp flag set on at level 5!
I shamefully admit to trying all of the above, mostly without success. Mr stunted personality seems to have a fairly thick skin to go alongside his thick skull.
But Wait! I have higher level horde characters not too far away and bonehead is flagged. Hmm.
Log out, log in as my horde hunter. She's stationed at Undercity, not too far away from the dwarf lands.... except I hadnt yet picked up the flightpoints on the way. Ah well, I'll walk and get them on the way.
Sephulchure, check.
Taren Mill, check.
Hammerfall, check. Of course, mobs in Arathi are much tougher than my poor hunter, especially the elites! Naked travel makes this a little less expensive than otherwise.
Travel through the wetlands was mostly uneventful. I was joined along the way by a similar level mage from my horde guild. We got past the first dwarf guard in the tunnels, but the second one got us both. On resurection, we were joined by a mid-30's orc hunter. He could handle the level 30 guards without much trouble! We ran through the remaining sections of tunnel and on into Dun Morogh past the guards. Track humanoids helped us avoid the majority of trouble on the way south of Khanoros and into the newbie zone.
The main gate to the newbie zone is guarded by 4 level 65 guards. They can and will aggro on a low level horde from quite a way inside the tunnel. Death by guard swiftly follows! One death is usually enough to get past them however. On into newbie territory we go!
I came here looking to find one particular idiot. Despite a long search, both in the newbie area and the obvious places near Khanoros, I failed to find him. We did however find a couple of other newbies who were foolishly flagged. These were promptly munched on by the Orc's pet.
The newbie area soon lost any attraction so we ran back past the guards (dying again) and on to khanoros. We pointlessly killed several of the quest mobs.. the ones not protected by more level 65 guards that is! Most of the newbies in this area were smart enough not to put their pvp flag on so we were just mucking about killing mobs mostly. One lucky level 9 warlock took out my fellow guildmate when he was weakend by resurection sickness. He then died several times at the Orc's hands. I dont think I got a single kill, and no trace was found of my boneheaded "victim", despite me logging back on the gnome and having a quick scout around!
A completely wasted hour that could have been better spent with a quick /ignore and getting on with the job! I still had fun though so I guess it was worth it!
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Out with the old, in with the new Part 3.
My three little projects are going swimmingly so far.
On Dath, my bank alt invested somewhere between 500 and 700 gold on the auction house. A fair bit of that came back to me when I was outbid but I also won a lot of auctions really cheaply. Nearly all that stock was then re-listed for the peak weekend period. My mailbox was flooded with "Auction successful" messages with lots of clinky coinage attached. Not all auctions had sold or expired when I last checked. Still, a net gain of about 800g for a bit over an hour's trawling the AH is pretty fine going!
On Caelestrasz, my new Draeni hunter is busy collecting pet skills on teldrassil. He's got a few more mail messages with gold but I havent looked at them to see how much. I expect he will be at around 5g + bandit mask when I check him next. At some stage I have to check my horde guys there as well and move one to the neutral auction house ready to assist with cross faction transfers.
I have had one setback however, in that my auctioneer data files filled up with stuff from too many realms. I've had to turf away all data and will be rebuilding it for just the 4 main realms I'm currently playing. Other alts will have to manage without it! This isn't such a bad thing anyway, some of the Dath data in particular was corrupt and dodgy. Consider it spring cleaning!
My third little project got somewhat sidetracked, but the details on that can wait for another post. Tauren hunter and druid are both mostly done with Mulgore and are venturing out to the big wide world. Each had moderate success in the market place and have net worth about 10g each, with a bit more on the AH still to come. Things are looking up!
On Dath, my bank alt invested somewhere between 500 and 700 gold on the auction house. A fair bit of that came back to me when I was outbid but I also won a lot of auctions really cheaply. Nearly all that stock was then re-listed for the peak weekend period. My mailbox was flooded with "Auction successful" messages with lots of clinky coinage attached. Not all auctions had sold or expired when I last checked. Still, a net gain of about 800g for a bit over an hour's trawling the AH is pretty fine going!
On Caelestrasz, my new Draeni hunter is busy collecting pet skills on teldrassil. He's got a few more mail messages with gold but I havent looked at them to see how much. I expect he will be at around 5g + bandit mask when I check him next. At some stage I have to check my horde guys there as well and move one to the neutral auction house ready to assist with cross faction transfers.
I have had one setback however, in that my auctioneer data files filled up with stuff from too many realms. I've had to turf away all data and will be rebuilding it for just the 4 main realms I'm currently playing. Other alts will have to manage without it! This isn't such a bad thing anyway, some of the Dath data in particular was corrupt and dodgy. Consider it spring cleaning!
My third little project got somewhat sidetracked, but the details on that can wait for another post. Tauren hunter and druid are both mostly done with Mulgore and are venturing out to the big wide world. Each had moderate success in the market place and have net worth about 10g each, with a bit more on the AH still to come. Things are looking up!
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