LAGWAR | PC GAMING'S BEST IN TOP NOTCH MEDIOCRITY

How hard is too hard? This is not a question normally associated with WoW. In fact many players (especially those playing other MMO’s) have critiqued WoW as being too easy. But the fact remains – Arthas, the final raid boss of Icecrown Citadel, the pinnacle of WOTLK raiding, has been active for over a month and only two guilds have killed him on heroic difficulty –and both kills were in 10 man format. If most the best guilds in the game can’t kill Arthas after a month is he too hard?

WoW is a good example of an MMOG – but we often forget exactly what that stands for – massive multiplayer online game. Take away the multiplayer and all you have is a massive empty world, and an even harder time getting people together for group quests. In the end WoW is only as much fun as the people you play it with: your friends and your guildmates, which is why I am so excited about the changes coming to guild structure and management in Cataclysm.

Remember how great the original Indiana Jones movies were? I am not talking about that monstrosity with Shia Labeouf, I am talking vintage Indy here, Raiders of the Lost Ark or Last Crusade style. Those movies made Archaeology sexy. I even rated archaeologist equivalent with astronaut or fireman as a profession choice after watching those movies. Unfortunately for ancient relics (and damsels in distress), I never quite made the cut as an archaeologist. In Cataclysm, however, our characters will have the chance to be archaeologists, so grab your hat and whip and let’s talk about the new profession Archaeology and the new mechanic, the Path of the Titans.

The equation above has nothing to do with aerodynamics, nor is it important for tax deduction purposes. It is, in fact, the equation required to calculate armor penetration cap for a given player. Confusing? Yeah, it’s about as obvious as an invisible midget. Unfortunately for us and our calculators WoW has accumulated quite a few midgets since the game first debuted in 2004. Not only do they make our heads spin trying to optimize our gear, they also make loot itemization a nightmare for developers – “Wait do we stack haste with armor pen? Or was it agility? Hold on, this is mail, do we need intellect here too?” It turns out that in addition to remodeling our zones Blizzard intends to overhaul our stat systems with Cataclysm too.

Cataclysm will remodel old zones, create new ones, add new instances, and of course, add two new races to the game. But in the midst of all this upheaval many players will notice that their talent points have changed. This is a perfectly normal occurrence and will happen to everyone when they enter Cataclysm. There is a lot of rumor circulating so I wanted to take chance to explain exactly what (I think) is happening to talent points and what you should expect from Cataclysm.

WoW is all about killing bosses. It’s true. Where do all the storylines in the game converge? Where does the best gear drop? And where is the most challenging gameplay found? It’s not a world quest, it’s certainly not PvP, it’s all at the biggest baddie in the instance. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking Deadmines or Icecrown Citadel. In the end, WoW is only as good as the boss fights that Blizzard gives us. If every boss was the same fight, no one would play – thankfully for us; Blizzard has given us some variety in boss fight mechanics. Below I will go through some common fight mechanics…but do we need more?

Where have all the rational people gone? They seem to have all abandoned the internet for somewhere else. Maybe they forgot to send me my invitation? I don’t know what happened to them all but I wish they would come back, because there are too many message boards, too many forum posts, and too much in-game chat that seems completely devoid of any real rational thought.

Many players don’t appreciate it, but WoW is on the verge of a major shift. This past week the second wing of Icecrown Citadel was released to players, which means the next wing that gets released will pit us up against The Lich King, Arthas himself. Before I delve into this I have to warn you, this might get lorey, but I think I have earned it. I’ve written about game mechanics the last few weeks anyway. Tell you what, next week I will write about expertise caps or some theorycraft thing, you know, to balance it out. Anyway back to Arthas.

It’s remarkably hard to please everyone, no matter what you do. Remember middle school when the teacher decided that there would be no quiz that week as along as everyone was ok with it? All of the students would cheer, and then there was that one kid at the back of the room that would speak up in his nasally voice demanding the quiz. What was wrong with him? Clearly someone needed to introduce him to peer pressure, or a swift kick in the groin. But I am getting off-track. My point is that it is really hard to reach a consensus with any group of people and Warcraft is no exception.

In WoW we have the advantage of being able to hide behind our avatars, but things can still get pretty embarrassing. Unfortunately for us, combat logs, screen shots, and guild members with surprisingly good memories keep alive our “oops moments” much better than forgotten fellow saxophonists from high school. There are lots of chances at “oops moments” in WoW too. Take a game that most people play in some form of sleep deprived state, add cooperative team based gameplay, and then a pinch of “you can wipe everyone if you screw this up”, and you have the recipe for some pretty great “oops” moments. Whether it was an errant tab-target, a mistell go horribly awry, or an accidental DI of the tank mid-fight we have all had some pretty embarrassing moments while playing. Read on for a few (select few) of my most embarrassing “oops…” moments.