Solving the Problems of Azeroth

My Mage managed to ding level 56 last night, while thinning out the population of Un'goro Crater. As I systematically eliminated a variety of Pterodax, Ooze, and Dinos I realized that I was racking up requirements for no less than 4 quests simultaneously. It's not unusual to see the counters up for 1 or even 2 quests at a time, but...4?

Amazing.

I mentioned previously that I'm following a leveling guide, at least for the past few levels, and I am truly in awe of the person who put it together. It reminds me of something from my college days that I thought would never have a practical application. Let me explain.

One of my classes in the field of Operations Research involved methods of solving difficult problems. Perhaps the most difficult problem is the Traveling Salesman Problem. This is a classic problem that has been taught for many, many years. Here's how it goes:

A traveling salesman needs to make sales calls in 4 different cities. Given the distance between each city find the optimal (shortest) route which includes all cities only once and returns to the starting point.

At first glance this may not seem to be a difficult problem to solve, and in fact if you only have 4 cities you can probably look at a map and figure out the fastest route. But...if you add additional cities, say 10 or 20 or more, it then becomes much more difficult.

There are only two way to solve this problem. The brute force method involves computing each possible combination of paths in turn and then selecting the shortest one. The number of possible routes for 4 cities is 4! (4 factorial), which is 4x3x2x1 = 24 possible routes. This is certainly manageable, tedious with pencil and paper, but simple if you use a computer. As you increase the number of cities, however, it gets exponentially harder.

Number of Cities	Possible Routes
5	120
10	103,628,800
15	1,307,674,368,000

Using a computer, you could still use the brute force method, but even a computer takes a good long time to calculate and compare over a trillion possibilities.

The second way to approach the problem is by using some sort of heuristic method. This essentially means that you make a series of educated guesses as to a good route, then compare other possible routes to your guess to see if they are better or worse. There are several possible algorithms designed to tackle this, and using any one of them you will get a good answer, but you will never be able to prove that you have the best route since you didn't test all of the possibilities. Looking at the map to guess which route is best for the initial example of 4 cities was essentially an heuristic method, since you would be eliminating the obviously longer routes based on your innate perception of distance. Unfortunately once you increase the number of cities you quickly outstrip the capability of this common-sense approach.

The point of this little ramble is that creating a leveling guide is much like solving the traveling salesman problem. Each quest is like a city, but even more complicated, because there are not only locations for quests, but also varying degrees of travel difficulty, different modes of transport available to different classes of characters, and prerequisites. There can also be multiple requirements for each quest, and they can begin and end in different locations. In short, a huge number of variations which would make the brute force approach to solving the problem even more daunting. There are also several constraints which limit the possible routes to take in completing quests, such as quests available only to one faction, race, class, or profession. And of course the menu of possible quests changes as you progress through the levels with new ones popping up and old ones going gray.

I'm pretty sure that the guide's creator didn't use the brute force approach, since in addition to requiring a huge amount of time and computing resources to solve, it would also require an extensive database of quest information to be compiled and programmed. Therefore the guide must be the result of an heuristic solution, otherwise known as educated guessing confirmed by experience gained by leveling multiple characters. I'd go even further and guess that the convergence of 4 simultaneous quests was more of a happy coincidence than a planned outcome. If I were to try to create a guide, here's how I would proceed.

First, I would narrow down the possible quests by faction and level, and then use Thottbot to find the ones with the largest XP rewards. Then, I'd try to find those featuring common locations and try to group them together. Finally, I'd draw myself a map and try stringing them together in several different ways. Once I had a route that looked pretty good, I'd run a character through it making careful notes on locations, the collection of items, and the rewards gained.

This is certainly a very tedious and time consuming approach, made even worse by the fact that it takes a considerable amount of time to get the test characters to the right level in the first place. And of course there's no way to guarantee that I would find the best solution, in fact my route might only be mediocre. Bet even so, it would still be much better and faster than randomly wandering through quest-givers never knowing if there was a better way.

So, to those who have taken the time to create a leveling guide, my hat is off to you, and you have my thanks. There may in fact be a better and faster way to level a character than your way, but I doubt that we will ever know for sure.

For more information on the Traveling Salesman Problem click here.

Making it Real

My main being a Mage, I feel so sorry for the rest of you non-Mages. Really, I do. I've already published a list of the best Mage characteristics, and today I want to expand on one a little bit.

The first thing in my list of Mage-arific abilities had to do with travel. For you non-Mages, know this: we'll beat you back to the tavern every time. Beginning at level 20 Mages can learn spells which allow them to instantly travel from wherever they are to either Ironforge or Stormwind, just like using a Hearthstone. At level 30 Darnassus becomes available as well, and Exodar too, though I haven't bothered with that one yet, since you do have to show up in the city once in order to learn the spell. At higher levels Portal spells are added so you can take your friends along with you.

While these are certainly convenient time-savers, what made a big difference for me was the role play opportunities that opened up for my character. I am a casual player, and even though I have enjoyed RP events many a time I often resent the feeling of wasted time that builds up when things drag on seemingly without direction. Imagine how much more frustrating this could be if I had to walk/ride/fly from Darnassus to Stormwind to attend?

When the Council of Magi was a functioning guild, I participated in 2-3 weekly RP events. Our back story included our base in Stormwind so almost all events were there. We used the Park for book readings, the Blue Recluse for social events, and the Dwarven Hall for guild meetings and formal events. In fact, one of the best parts of playing WoW during that time was how alive the cities - Stormwind in particular - felt to me. Since all of my guildies were also Mages, we would often cross paths in the Wizard's Sanctum, the tower in the Mage District that held the class trainers and the portal spell destination. No matter where we happened to be in our levelling progress, we'd all converge in Stormwind frantically trying to be on-time for these events. For Robing Ceremonies which we used to initiate new members I used my meager tailoring skills to provide crafted robes to the initiates. Naturally we never knew in advance exactly what type and quantity was needed, so I would run around gathering mats from the AH or friends at the last moment. Then I would stagger into the meeting hauling several large bags stuffed with robes and documents like the frazzled old geezer that I was. If I was in the mood I'd even provide some narrative in guild chat for the amusement of all. It was fun, and considering my limited play time it would have been nearly impossible were I not a Mage.

So, having easy access to Stormwind made the city feel alive and personal. Even though I've really cut back on the RP due to time restrictions, I still feel that Stormwind is my home. I know where the important NPC's are, and I remember their names. I have my favorite auctioneer. The picture next to my profile on this page is taken next to my mailbox.

One quiet afternoon the guild chat turned to all of the empty buildings in Ironforge, and how there didn't seem to be any in Stormwind. Of course several of us then had to scour the city looking for them, and I've made it a point to really explore from time to time ever since. Though we didn't find anything that we could call a house in Stormwind, there is an empty Inn in the Park that I must have walked past 100 times without seeing it. It's similar to all the other Stormwind Inns, even the jaunty music plays, but there's no inkeeper or bartender. The well in front of the Slaughtered Lamb is perfect for small meetings, like guild officers, as long as a passing Warlock doesn't ruin your fun. There's a ledge overlooking the Moonwell in the Park that's perfect for snapping that large group photo. There's a little corner off the ramp to the Gryphons that I fell into and had to Hearthstone out of.

One of the oft repeated suggestions for new features in WoW is the addition of guild halls and/or player owned buildings. These would be great, but people do manage pretty well anyway. I know of two guilds that use the Westbrook Garrison as their home base. Oddly, even though they're on the same server they never ran into each other once. The Council was briefly on a quest for an appropriate location for their secret library, and we were leaning toward a room downstairs in the Cathedral of Light that had several tables along with bookcases. Of course it didn't fit the lore very well to have it in the cathedral. We might have used the Mage tower in the way to Redridge Mountains if the guild had held together. That would have fit the lore.

Looking for something a little more private? One of our guildies discovered a place along the Deep Run Tram tunnel where we could jump off. There was plenty of room for a whole bunch of people, and you could walk down the tunnel from the station if you were careful of the tram. There were some drawbacks...it was pretty dark, requiring a video adjustment for visibility, and first time visitors were apt to ride by on the tram several times before leaping to their death.

One guild event, a sort of open-ended RP that went on too long, started out great. The best part was the location....a room in Northridge Abbey that included the Priest Trainer for newbies. We had about 15 characters seated on benches, with one or two standing up talking. Every few minutes a level 2 Priest would wander in and wonder what the hell was going on. I hope that seeing this group together made these new players think WoW was a really cool game.

To AoE or not to AoE

Surely anyone with a mild interest in Mage tactics and some spare time at work has read about AoE grinding. I had one experience with this Mage-only (except for Pallies sometimes I hear) ability. I was grinding turtles in Dustwallow Marsh when a fellow Mage - guildie of mine - showed up. We decided to team up and try out AoE on the local Murlock population. Being the noob that I am (and was then) my partner was in the driver's seat, I was just along for the ride and to try to learn something.

She was Frost and had read up on the how-to and where-to for AoE. There's a group of Murlocks down at the south end of the beach with no casters off by themselves behind a hill. I was Fire and didn't really know what to do, but the plan was for her to round up some mobs, Frost Nova them, and blink over next to me at max Blizzard range. Then we would both unleash Blizzard and hopefully kill them all before they reached us.

The first attempt, she rounded them up, Nova-ed them and Blinked over to me. We got off one full Blizzard each, then had to scatter. Some were dead but most were not. We Blinked off in separate directions, Blizzarding between us, until one or both of us were oom and dead. Since the plan must have been sound, we tried this several times with similar disappointing results. Eventually we gave up, but not before I learned the following valuable lessons:

• This partner mode AoE grinding may be viable, but never assume that your partner has a good understanding of the mechanics unless he/she can explain it back to you. My partner knew what she was doing, but I didn't, and therefore I was not able to help out as much as I could have otherwise. Being a noob and knowing it, I elected not to advertise my ignorance, and instead demonstrated it.
• Make sure the coast is clear (groan) before starting. Our location featured a couple of Coastrunners that ran in big circles around the whole camp. Until we learned to take them out separately they would show up at the wrong time and screw everything up.
• Fire Mages are not the best choice...with no Frost Shield or Ice Block I was toast if anything went wrong. Mana Shield was no substitute because it left me oom with no options.
• Anything that causes your carefully grouped mobs to spread out results in big trouble. It is important to pass over talents like Frostbite that could leave the mobs advancing at different speeds. In counterpoint to the famous saying, united they fall.
• Try to find a place close to a grave yard.

Since I've been following a levelling guide I'm quite pleased with my progress, so the temptation to further experiment with AoE has faded. Looking back, the initial attraction was due to abandoning the Mage quest chain in Dustwallow due to frustration, and questing really is more interesting I think. If I had been Frost along with my partner, I think we would have figured it out that day. Partner AoE might not be as lucrative as solo AoE, but it would still seem to be worthwhile if you could survive it.

Scanning the patch notes

Test Realm Patch Notes for the upcoming (next week maybe?) 2.1 patch are here. Though far from an expert, here are a few things I found interesting. I apologize for the crappy formatting, it happens when I try to cut and paste, and I'm too lazy to fix it just now.

In the Mages section:

Added a new rank of Ice Barrier to mage trainers Ice Barrier is my favorite Frost-only spell. Mages need a "bubble" and Mana Shield isn't the same thing. When I was pure Fire (50 levels) I didn't know what I was missing. In some zones I don't even know where the grave yard is now..

Arcane Brilliance, rank 1, is now available from trainers. Any time a spell that used to cost talent points is made available to all via a Trainer, that's good.

Arcane Missiles: Rank 3-11 will now consistently pulse 5 shots of arcane damage. I knew it wasn't just me that noticed this...

Arcane Missiles: This spell will now obey line of sight restrictions during its entire casting. Was this broken? Loved the tracking of Missiles...they never miss. Also love how they turn the caster to face the target.

Arctic Winds (Frost Talent) now also increases all Frost damage caused by 1-5%. More damage for Frosties.

Cold Snap: The tooltip has been adjusted to indicate it only resets cooldowns caused by Frost spells. e.g.: Cold Snap will not reset the cooldown caused by Dragon's Breath. You mean I can have both Cold Snap and Dragon's Breath? Hmmmm...

Conjure Mana Emerald: This spell now triggers a global cooldown as intended. Who ever conjures mana gems when Global Cooldown is an issue?

Counterspell duration reduced to 8 seconds, and the cooldown reduced to 24 seconds. What? Why would this make any difference to anyone? Mages paying closer attention to sheep means less DPS on the bad guy. Maybe that's the intended effect, since it was already watered down for PvP methinks.

Water Elemental: This pet will now come into the game with full health and mana, including that gained from a percentage of its master's stamina and intellect. LOVE the Water Elemental! I'd really love it if it stuck around longer though. Not a permanent pet, like a Hunter or Warlock, but maybe 10 minutes?

Note that the title of the Mage section is "Mages" not "Magi." I still use them interchangeably depending on my mood.

In the UI section:

Players will now be able to access the Looking For Group Channel by joining the Looking For Group/Looking for More tool. Not looking for any groups right now, thanks.

Using abilities and casting spells that cannot be used while mounted will now auto-dismount players as needed. This can be disabled by turning off the auto-dismount option in the UI options. Useful for sure. Probably some inconvenience too though. We'll see if it's worth it to leave this on.

Spells that have reagent costs will show the number of uses left in the lower right corner of the action icon, just like consumable items on the action bar. Department of common sense contributed this one for sure.

Holding down the shift key while mousing over an equippable item that you can use will now show you the tooltip for the item you currently have equipped in that slot as well (much like how the auction house currently works). Hoovered up a popular add-on capability.

The network performance meter now shows framerate and how much memory AddOns are using. For the geekier players.

When consuming reagents or using items on the action bar, smaller stacks will be used before larger stacks. Department of Common Sense again.

Players who feign death no longer appear dead to party and raid members and friendly spells will not be interrupted. This will prevent some confusion, but players who feign death causing the 6 mobs they pulled to aggro on the Mage should be permanently dead.

Equippable items displayed as quest rewards will always show you the tooltip of the item you are currently wearing in that slot. More hoovering of popular addin functionality.

The area of interest while on a flight path is farther along the path instead of in front of you.Huh?

Your current target will now display all of the duration based spells that you have cast on them with cooldown rings so you will know how much longer they will last. Very useful for warlock damage over time spells and druid healing over time spells as well as many others. That sounds interesting. Wonder why they choose to supply more information about why it's useful on this change? Do they think people can just sense how other changes are useful? Like the flightpath "area of interest" one?

Raid Windows now remember their position in the gamefield between sessions. I've only had the Raid UI up once, during a guild meeting of all things, and found it incomprehensible. Of course, I wasn't actually trying to do anything except keep up with a million people in the chat window...

Profession UI now has a search field. Text that is entered into the search field searches against item names, reagent names and item levels (if you include a level). For instance you can type Peace into the search field to see all of your recipes that use Peacebloom, or type in 20-30 to see all of you level 20-30 recipes. This search field only appears once you have more than 75 skill in your profession. Good stuff.

Profession UI now has a checkbox that allows you to search by only items that you have the materials to make. Ditto.

Active corpses or objects (ones with loot on them) now can be selected and looted, even if they are underneath another corpse that does not have loot on it. What about the invisible mobs...will I ever be able to loot them, assuming I manage to kill them?

While flying or swimming the 'X' key will now make you move down. Will certainly prevent many a noob from drw

Party members will no longer see a hunter who is feigning death as actually dead. What, did they think we missed it the first time? Can party members now tell when I'm feigning interest?

The directional indicators on the minimap for the towns have been added in Outlands. Was ity really a problem? All the noobs in Ouland were getting lost? Heh.

How not to help

WoW Insider has a post today that made me think about my recent experiences. I've spent the last few days trying to get my Mage through the 50's (54 as of last night). In doing so I discovered something that most people probably know about already, a leveling guide. I won't mention the specifics because some are free, some are for sale, and I just don't want to get into that... Anyway I will say that this is an excellent aid which is making my play time way more productive and interesting because I'm not spending nearly as much time wandering around trying to find level-appropriate quests. I am for sure a self-acknowledged noob, even after 6 months of playing, but suddenly I'm starting to feel like I know what I'm doing.

Since I'm also a nice guy, I've tried to be helpful to other players when possible, with less than spectacular results, as you shall see.

Helping out the lowbies. In Searing Gorge, there is an area called the Slag Pit with lots of quest activity. As I was soloing through level 50 or so mobs I noticed a group of level 47-ish players attacking a trio of elites. I had a quest to pick up a parchment on the table behind said elites, and had been trying with no luck to find a partner or group to attack this trio for a while. I walked closer and observed the battle. I immediately realized that if this group was able to clear the elites, there was a good chance I could scoot in and complete my parchment quest, and since there was something in it for me I felt I should help out, so I joined the battle by blasting away at the elites with all of my frosty uber damage weapons.

I'll bet you can guess what happened.

Natually, the group was not expecting my uber DPS and when I pulled aggro from the whole group there was no time for their tank to recover. My AoE Blizzards slowed them down, but still the ones that weren't headed my way were instead demolishing the other players one by one as they frantically tried to regain control of the situation. Naturally I switched to full Suicide Mage Mode and tried to achieve victory single-handedly, but fell short. As I did the corpse run I realized that this group probably would have been fine if only I hadn't disrupted their plan, and in fact when I rezzed I watched as they took care of business without my unsolicited help. I apologized...no response...and took the opportunity to nab the parchment for my quest.

They might have welcomed my help if I had first announced my intention, but in truth they were a well coordinated group, probably a guild outing, and were capable of handling themselves even though they were over-matched level-wise.

Helping out the enemy. In UnGoro Crater there is a cave full of gorillas. I had a quest to collect pelts from them and when I was almost finished I encountered a Horde Mage who /bowed indicating that she was not interested in PVP and only wanted to continue on whatever quest she was on...probably same as me. She even helped me burn down a gorilla which yielded the final pelt I needed, before she continued deeper into the cave.

Not wanting to be rude, and since I have an affinity for Magi of any persuasion, I decided to help her out. I followed her in, and, since I have such an excellent grasp of Mage tactics, decided to organize an AoE roundup that would kill 3-4 gorillas at once if we were lucky. She already had one on here, so I pulled out my Water Elemental, rounded up 3 more, froze them in place and commenced with Blizzards. My plan worked perfectly but my Mage friend didn't seem too pleased with the help. I waved and rode away, realizing only later that my AoE attacks had injured her as well as the mobs, since she was of the opposite faction and PVP tagged. /doh!

By now you've probably noticed that much of what I write about revolves around my screw-ups in this wonderful world of WoW. I hope that others might find it instructive, or at least amusing, to relive my mistakes. But I could instead choose to tell these stories from a different viewpoint. For example, in my story about the group and the 3 elites I could complain that this group was a bunch of noobs because they didn't respond appropriately to the mega DPS boost I selflessly provided, and I'll bet that there are plenty of people who, in my place, would take that position. Personally I think it's better to always give others the benefit of the doubt, and knowing myself as I do, assume that if anyone has screwed up it's probably me.

A Time to Die...right after logging on to an alt

For months, whenever I played WoW I played my Fire/Arcane Mage. I had all the spells mapped to keys and I could PVE with my eyes closed if necessary. It eventually got kind of boring to tell the truth. So, to celebrate gaining level 50 I changed my spec to Frost, and of course had to revamp my key mappings and PVE strategy. It's a huge difference changing from Fire based burn-em-down-quick DPS to Frost based chill-em-and-kill-em control/DPS. This change has made playing my Mage fun again, but has also led to many untimely deaths as I hunt around for things that just aren't there any more.

I further complicated this situation by starting several alts of different classes, and I quickly found that whenever I switched to a different alt, I invariably died a shameful death before I figured out which keys did what. With so many bloggers writing about their alts, I'm wondering how people deal with this issue...

Here's what I did for my Mage over a period of months:

All combat spells on the main tool bar with keys mapped to the number pad 1-9 plus "-", "+", and 0. Decimal point and "/" are left as the default (autorun and run/walk toggles respectively), and "*" is look-behind so I can see who is about to gank me. AoE spells and short duration but frequently recast buffs (Combustion and Mana Shield) are on the second toolbar (just above the main one) and are mapped to the six keys to the left of the keypad beginning with "Insert." Other buffs (Arcane Intellect, Frost Armor) and utility spells like Amplify Magic and Remove Curse are on one of the right hand toolbars and are always activated with mouse clicks. This keeps the lesser used things out of the way and makes it difficult to hit them unintentionally. Finally, eat and drink (so important for a Mage) are all by themselves on the second toolbar, the one you scroll down to from the main one.

I realized early on that I would have to change the mapping for scrolling to the extra toolbars because I often hit the "Shift-2" key accidentally (don't ask me how because I don't know) losing access to all my offensive spells until I looked at the bottom of the screen and frantically began scrolling back up. I was usually dead by that time too. So, I changed the binding from the number key row to the F-key row which is not so accident prone. This of course interferes with my group member targeting but that's not much of an issue right now since I so rarely play in groups.

This is all well and good until I play an alt. What I've tried to do is arrange my alt's key mappings to somewhat correspond to my Mage's. By this I mean that on my Tauren Druid Entangling Roots goes in the same place as Frost Nova since they are both snares and play a similar roll in fights. This only goes so far though. If I switch to the Barbie-doll Pally the Seal and Judgement routine has nothing to correspond to the Mage layout, and it's really sad when your level 12 Pally dies to a Level 7 mob in full view of the Shepherd's Gate of Silvermoon City.

And don't even get me started on healing spells...

The Horde doesn't seem that bad

I've recently started three new alts - a Dranei Priest, a Blood Elf Paladin, and a Tauren Druid. As a newbie player back in November I'll admit that I fell for the conventional logic and went for a Human character because they were good and they didn't look evil. Alliance = good and Horde = bad, right?

Well, I thought that was the way it was, but several things have happened to make me think that this line of reasoning was flawed.

First, since I started playing on a PVP server, I naturally viewed every Horde as evil, since for quite some time every Horde I saw tried to kill me. This naturally reinforces the stereotype, and is surely the reason it's taken me so long to try out the other side. Why, you ask did I decide to try Horde? Because of the Blood Elves [duck].

Yup, I know that the greatest fear of many Horde players, who feel that Horde is more mature, more helpful, etc...was that 14 year olds would flock to Silvermoon to play with the shiny new Blood Elves. And of course many did. And I did too, though I haven't been 14 in many a long year, but not before I tried a Dranei and was underwhelmed by the Barbie pink Exodar. I also tried a Tauren Druid, and was pleasantly surprised to find out how nice they are, with their concern for the land and the balance of nature and all.

So where are the really evil Horde? The Undead of course. And Trolls. Orcs too. They are all pure evil and I'll never consider playing any of them.

For a while at least.

The disappointment of PVP servers

We all know about the four types of servers available in World of Warcraft...PVE Normal, PVE RP, PVP Normal, and PVP RP. As a new player six months ago I picked a PVP RP server, because it was the newest type and therefore must be the best. My son, who had played a bit with his friends before I started, questioned whether a PVP server was going to be a good choice, since he had already tasted the heartbreak of ganking, but I tried it anyway. I almost immediately hooked up with a fun RP guild and I was committed. I still love the RP aspect of the server, but I have to admit that I've never warmed up the the PVP part.

Why, you ask?

Well, for one thing, the idea of open world PVP, with armies of Paladins and Wizards clashing on the open fields of Azeroth turned out to be just that...an idea. Even in a guild like mine, where players want to cooperate and are willing to do as they are told, the planned battle strategy immediately turns into a bunch of individuals running around frantically. The battle in the South Park parody episode is a hundred times more organized than any of the battles I've witnessed.

And then there's the issue of ganking. This is something that gets plenty of discussion in the Blizzard forums, and for the most part the answer to complaints about being killed, harassed, or otherwise annoyed by higher level players of the opposite faction is to play on a non-PVP server, where it's not an issue.

Here are the facts of life on a PVP server, as I see them:

• From the first day your new character sets foot in a contested area, you are vulnerable to higher level characters of the opposite faction who see you wandering around. In the lower zones like Wesfall you won't see too many opponents, since there is little reason for them to go there and it's out of the way for them. But, if you do see a red tagged player, chances are very good that you're going to die.
  
• Once you move into the mid-level zones, particularly Stranglethorn Vale, you learn to constantly be on the lookout for red-tagged players who will smack you down while you're otherwise engaged in killing quest mobs. There are also small groups of players who will roam around killing any solo or other small groups that they can easily take. On my server, The Venture Company, Stranglethorn Vale is recognized as the gank capital of the world, and players will go to great lengths to stay alive long enough to complete quests there. We stay off the roads, lest a passing level 60 on his way to the Arena dismount to kill us. We swim the river to avoid both players and beasties. We carefully scout out a quest area before entering it, knowing that the presence of an opponent will most likely sabotage any progress we would otherwise make. We hot key our reverse-view so we can watch for sneaky-upsies. We log on before work in the morning to talk to the quest givers at Nessingway's Expedition, who will hopefully be alone. In short, the play style has to be different on a PVP server, whether you personally want to participate or not. There's no way around it.
• Perhaps the most hated variety of PVP - corpse camping - is, in my experience at least, much less of a problem than you would think from listening to complainers. This is the practice of killing an opposing player, then hanging around their corpse and killing them again and again as they try to rez and continue with what they were doing. It's not very sporting for the attacker, since the newly rezzed player has only half their health and mana. If taken too far it can be very annoying for the victim, since the multiple graveyard runs take time and they may not be able to see a stealthed or otherwise hidden opponent before they rez and are attacked again. But these are the only consequences for the victim...waste of time and frustration. There is no looting of their corpse allowed, so they keep all their stuff. They don't run up a repair bill because PVP kills do not damage their equipment. They can always choose to rez at the graveyard and go somewhere else. And, it really doesn't happen that often. Most of the times I've been victimized the attacker just mounts up and continues on their way, unless I go looking for revenge of course.
  
• There is an etiquette to PVP. The truth is that since TBC came out most players are more interested in levelling their characters to see Outland than in making life miserable for others. I've noticed that there are many times when I can happily share a quest area with an opposing player, exchange a /wave and things are good. Of course, these temporary truces are fragile, and can disintegrate without warning. In the forums, there are sometimes threads where people describe why they might choose to attack, or not attack, an opponent. Some say that if they exchange a /wave, that's enough to get a free pass. Some require a /dance or a /bow. Some need to be recognized as the alpha dog by seeing the opposing player sit down offering no threat whatsoever. This is all interesting, but of course the potential victim probably has no idea what behavior is required to be spared an attack, and even a well intentioned opening can be misinterpreted. Don't be disappointed if you are attacked despite your peaceful intentions, and just because you were able to share a quest area with an opponent doesn't mean that he won't stab you in the back when he's finished with his quest.
• Players get very excited about their PVP victories. It doesn't matter if it was a fair fight, an outright gank of a relative lowby, or a miraculous against-all-odds knockout when they were clearly overmatched. All wins will be reported as the latter case. In reality, however, most kills are against lower level or unprepared opponents. Fair fights, which would resemble duels, are few and far between. Somebody always has the upper hand or they wouldn't start the fight.

So, to summarize, PVP servers have not fulfilled their promise, as far as I am concerned. The organized PVP activities available on all servers (Battlegrounds and Arena) are much more fun and provide better competition than open world PVP ever will. Of course if PVP is your thing then by all means gank away. My future characters will be on PVE servers.

BFD

[Black Fathom Depths, that is]

Lots of WoW time for my Mage this weekend, managed to make lvl 51 and moved on to more difficult questing in Azshara, Un'goro Crater, and the Blasted Lands. The traveling for quests gets even more pronounced, but I am learning my way around.

While in Ru'theran Village reporting back after a lengthy chain quest I noticed that my Teleport spells were dark, meaning that I had run out of the Rune of Teleportation reagent. Wandering around Darnassus didn't yield any reagent vendors, (though later in the day I almost stumbled over one wandering around outside the Temple of Elune) so instead of blowing a 20s Rune of Portals or spending another 10 minutes on a Griffon I decided to take the scenic route from Auberdine to Tanaris and then to Azshara. I still think getting a mount is one of the best things about levelling up a character. It makes it so much more interesting to go sightseeing. Here are a few things I experienced in my travels.

Being a good Samaritan part 1.
After ascending into The Barrens on The Great Lift and pausing in wonder that the level 20-something guards were just ignoring me, after being chased around and scared to death the last time I passed this way, I noted the approach of a level 21 Gnome Warlock. I waved, he waved, and he told me that he needed to use the lift. There were no Horde about, but the guards probably wouldn't turn a blind eye to him so I agreed to help out. I ran over to the nearest guard, Frost Nova'd him in place, and them killed him as my friend the Gnome skipped down the ramp to the elevator. Even though there was no thank-you I know he was grateful.

Picking flowers and being a good Samaritan part 2.
I've been trying to spend a little time on a second profession since I realized (pretty late in the game as it were) that the reason my Mage has always been broke is that he didn't start off with a gathering profession. His Tailoring skill is at a mediocre 239, but I'm continuing to work on that with cloth I pick up from my travels or donated by guildies. I understand that there are some pretty nice Tailoring items in the expansion, so I'm not giving that up. I did however decided to train in Herbalism to add to my income and maybe help out our guild Alchemists with materials in the future. Training up a gathering profession when you've already moved out of the lower zones is a real pain though. At any rate, this is the reason that I was zig-zagging through Darkshore, an area I hadn't really spent any time in before. Since the herbs can only be picked when dismounted, I felt like all I was lacking was a nice wicker basket as I tra-la-la'ed from one bush to another.

Eventually I arrived at the southeast end of Darkshore, and there I met a Night Elf Hunter who I will call Laggy. [Aside: I chose this moniker to memorialize a phrase overheard when my son was talking with some of his buddies on XFire...I think they were playing Star Wars Galaxies. One of them was apparently having trouble, because my son exclaimed "Dude! Your chat is so laggy!" ] As I wandered past Laggy I noticed that he was having a little trouble with some of the local fauna so I frosted one or two of them for him and /waved. He approached and asked if I'd "run him through BFD so [he] could level."

Normally I would have just said no and skipped away into the forest, but since I had never been to Black Fathom Deep, I decided to help out. Actually, I didn't even know where it was, and was surprised to find that I was standing almost on top of the entrance. So I told him, in the interest of fairness, that I had never been in BFD but would be willing to spend a little time helping him out. He said "great" and "I just have to do something for my Dad." That was ok with me, as long as it didn't take too long. As I waited I thought about all the times I've called my son away from SWG or WoW to pick up his shit or something. It felt a little strange to be on the other end. When you think about it, it's darned complicated to play a game with other people while still balancing the real people in your house. Probably why, at level 50, I had yet to enter BFD.

Eventually he returned and I led the way into the depths. BFD is pretty much a drippy cave with Nagas, crabs, and turtles. The 20-something elites weren't much of a problem for my Mage, but Laggy did manage to aggro a mess of them at once a couple of times. I think this was mostly due to his poor connection, because he'd run ahead and hit a wall at odd times, then reappear behind me while several mobs gave chase. After about 5 minutes he disconnected twice, and when he didn't come right back I uninvited him. I'd had enough of Laggy for one day.

Since I was already inside the instance I decided to explore a little more. I made it to the first boss, a turtle, and got a useless belt as my reward for killing him (her?). More Nagas followed and after a while I managed to get myself killed. The loot was crap and the dungeon wasn't very interesting so I decided to rezz at the graveyard and continue on my way. One other thing about Laggy....he was very insistent that I kill a lowby Orc we passed on our way to the instance portal. I did kill it accidently (targeting malfunction) but I just don't see how it's fun to gank lower level characters...well it is a little funny that it was accidental. Oh well. Maybe Laggy had been ganked six ways to Sunday before I arrived.

After all the running around for Night Elves I am Honored in Darnassus now, which I hope will allow me to buy one of those nifty big cats to ride around on. I'll have to look that up. More to come from the Suicide Mage, who is oddly still on rested XP. If it's a bug then I'm not reporting it...

Update 4/16/07:
Turns out you have to be Exalted to buy racial mounts...I've still got some work to do there.

On Role Playing

Lately I've been pondering the state of role playing in Azeroth. My main is a member of an active heavy RP guild on The Venture Company, the Midnight Reveries. Prior to joining this guild he was a founding member of The Council of Magi, an all Mage guild for which this website was originally created. I was a WoW greenhorn when I started with CoM, and I had some great experiences.

One of the best things we did was to have some regular RP events. On Monday nights, our GM would have a book reading in the Park. We'd all sit on the lawn and he would cut and paste some interesting story from the general lore or a book that someone had recently found. On Wednesdays, we would have a Robing Ceremony in the Dwarven hall. Our members would sit in ranks wearing their official robes (red for Fire Mages, purple and white for Arcane, and blue for Frost) and we would welcome new members, asking them to profess agreement with and sign our Constitution. We'd also award them a low level robe and they'd join the ranks of their brother and sister Mages. As an officer (Librarian) I got to participate in this event and it was always a high point of my week.

Both of these events were open to the public and became fairly well known events among other RPers on TVC. The members of the Midnight Reveries came to be our friends through these events, and it was natural for most of the CoM members to join the MRs when CoM fizzled out.

While MR is a great guild, the RP is much different than it was in CoM. When Flon first joined them he attended a couple of guild meetings and there was an RP storyline going on. One of our Druids seemed to have a split personality and went darkside. I never really followed it because I must have missed the startup. There was also a trial held for a Rogue which stemmed from a staged event at a CoM book reading. Though I missed this trial, those who attended thought it was great. There was a cross-continent search for a missing guildie who had returned from an extended absence, and most recently a wedding ceremony. Lots of interesting events, none of them the structured type that dominated in CoM.

But here's what my problem is.

When I attend one of these events, I'm never in the loop on what the plot is. I'm assuming of course that there is a plan...that someone has thought out how things will unfold in a general sort of way, so that it's not open ended and subject to being sidetracked. This is perfectly understandable since I don't play nearly as much as most of the others, and I'm pretty inconsistent on which events I can actually attend. But I will say that the RP events really become spectator events for me, and for most others except for the few that are "in the loop."

Duration is also an issue. I think the ideal length for an RP event is somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes, but this is hard to achieve because many people want to participate, if only to add their own emotes, and it's very common to have it go on and on. Because of this I haven't been very enthusiastic about attending, but of course the whole point of being in an RP guild is to participate in RP.

So I am resolved to make more of an effort. First, I'm going to work on adding a little more personality to my Mage. He needs a story to tell, and it needs to be easy to draw others into. Of course he's been spending most of his time questing all over the place, and hasn't been to a lot of guild events, so that needs to be part of the story.

So now, Flon Darkstar has a cause, and his cause is Climate Change. Have you noticed that there's only a couple of areas in all of Azeroth where there's snow? There are no glaciers that I know of. On the other hand, there are plenty of jungle areas, deserts, and volcanic hell holes. The climate of Azeroth is changing and if nothing is done then the whole world will be one big desert. Flon himself became concerned that his use of Fire magic was making the problem worse, and therefore he resolved to study Frost magic almost exclusively. He is traveling the world with a large journal documenting the progress of climate change. Maybe he'll enlist some Druids in his cause. He's going to become the Al Gore of Azeroth!

Well, we'll see how this goes. It should be fun to try at least!

My Major Accomplishment for the Week

...was to read at least some of every WoW blog listed on Kinless' Chronicles. Pathetic when you think about it.

The Suicide Mage Dings 50

...finally.

I've read many a post on WoW blogs describing the maddening grind that is the 40s, and I have to agree with them. I got so tired of the corpse run in Dustwallow Marsh that I gave up on the Tabitha Mage quests and missed out on some good items because of it. I trekked from one side of the map to the other and back again...and back again...and again. I tried some PUGs in Maraudon and Uldaman and met with disappointment. I PVP'd in Tanaris, Southshore, Stranglethorn Vale, and The Hinterlands. I killed a few, and was killed many a time. I started some alts and didn't have time for my RP guild. The only part I enjoyed was the last couple of levels with questing in The Hinterlands and Tanaris. I'm glad it's behind me now.

To celebrate getting to 50 I blew 5g and re-specced to Frost. After 40 levels as a Fire Mage it was time for a change, and the 41 point talent Summon Water Elemental was something that I just had to try. I didn't spend much time researching the build, I just made one up that looked good and clicked away. Too soon to say whether this was a smart move or not, since I didn't have time to do more than freeze a couple of Wildkin to death after remapping my spells. I do miss the fire crit animations though.

My cherished hope is that going Frost will allow me to control battles more effectively, but only time will tell. If it works out I may not be the Suicide Mage any more.

Character Level Distribution on The Venture Company

This promises to be my geekiest post ever.

Over at warcraftrealms.com you can view census data, collected with a UI addin, covering all WoW realms (servers actually). You can also download the raw data files used to create the pretty charts and open them up in Excel for an interesting diversion.

Here I've used the file for The Venture Company to create a chart showing the total number of characters reported at each level. The data does not include any characters lower than level 11, which eliminates most of the banker alts and similar non-played characters, so I think that this represents a pretty accurate picture of characters that get at least some play time.

Here's what I find interesting about this:

• If you create a new character and get it to level 20, you've got about 200 comrades at your level. This assumes an even faction split of the 400 total characters reported. This is also the first of several plateaus that exist around levels 20, 30, 40, and 60. My take on this is that these levels represent goals for players, who decide to get to 20 and experience the new abilities that their character gets at that level. Oddly there is no spike at 50, but then again once you get your mount at 40 there isn't really anything new between 40 and 60, the old level cap.
• It gets lonelier as you progress through the levels. You start out with somewhere between 100-200 comrades in your own faction at comparable levels, but by the time you get to the mid 50s you'll be lucky to find 50 others in similar straights.
  
• There is a plateau at 60 with slightly over 200 characters hanging out at the old level cap, but the largest group of characters is at 70. If you thought getting to 70 would make you part of an elite clique think again. There are over 1200 other level 70s to keep you company.
  
• Level 70 characters represent a little over 10% of all characters, with the other 90% working their way up.
  

Maybe I'll look at this again in a few weeks to see if the top level plateau grows or not. I'm assuming it will.

Update: Population growth in Azeroth

Back on March 19 I observed that the server I'm creating new characters on seemed very lonely, and indeed at that time it had a total of under 2,000 characters, compared with about 14,000 for my "old" server The Venture Company and similar numbers on a couple of other mature servers I checked out at www.warcraftrealms.com. I looked again today and there's been a huge increase to 7,700 characters, and TVC is down to around 12,000. Since I still play regularly on TVC, I haven't noticed any complaints related to server performance or announcements of forced or voluntary mass transfers, but TVC does seem to be emptying out nonetheless. I am happy that the new server is filling up, and last night in the Dwarven starting areas (more on that later) there were scarcely enough wolves and trolls to go around. It might be an interesting project to research server population in WoW and see what sort of trends emerge.

The meaning of "Phat"

Phat Lewt (definition)

Phat Lewt = Fat Loot

Fat as in the slang word; Cool/good

Loot as in Items picked ut(looted) from mobs in games, most often mmorpgs [sic]

I want phat lewt!

I got phat lewt!

How good does it have to be to be phat? Well I don't really know since I've rarely seen anything drop that excited me too much. Usually, if I can equip it, and it's marginally better than what I'm already wearing, it phat to me. Once or twice I've picked up something that has a significant value on the AH, and by significant I mean more than a couple gold, casual lowby that I am. My main, a 49 Mage, has only one blue item equipped, Keller's Girdle, which dropped in Gnomeragon on the same trip my Hydrocane came from. Until now that was as phat as it got. Yes that's right, I said until now.

Last night after turning in quests at Feathermoon Stronghold in Faralas, I browsed through my quest log looking for one last activity before dinner time. It seems that there was a named non-elite naga in a cave on the southern island, just a hop skip and jump from where I was standing. It seemed worthwhile, and since I had about 3 bubbles left to ding 49 (with rested bonus still going) I mounted up and headed south. I enjoy killing nagas. They don't make any pathetic noises when they die, they have evil intentions (just ask the Night Elves in Feathermoon) and they come in an entertaining variety of fighter and caster types. After dodging big green giants up and down the coast of Faralas they were just what I needed.

The cave was easily located, and the big sea serpents were crawling all over the place. At first it looked like they were too close together to pull individually, which would make this much harder to accomplish, but after the first couple fights it was apparent that the beasties had no regard for the systematic and efficient demise of their neighbors. With Combustion up (about 25% crit rate) I was burning them down with 2-3 spells each, which is Mage heaven. Piles of dead serpents, very little down time. I happily worked my way through the cave, found the boss, and took him down. The respawns were faster than I expected, and I did die a couple times when I backed up into one, but it was all good. Lots of good XP flowed and before long I had my level.

I hearthed back to Feathermoon and unloaded my bags to the local vendor, and in addition to a couple of mediocre green items I found this Icemail Jerkin, which I couldn't use myself, but Auctioneer valued at 80G. That's easily 10 times the value of anything I've ever found before. Now, I realize that this will be unimpressive to many players who are raking in the gold in Outland or have filled their bank boxes with mounds of purple and blue items from instances, but for me, this is an event. The only thing better would be if I could actually use it, or at least send it to an alt, but sadly all my alts are on another server, and too low to use it for a very long time anyway. So it's off to the Auction House I'll go, to chat up Auctioneer Jaxom in Stormwind and hope to double my money.

Before I wrap this up, let me just say that this is exactly the kind of unexpected pleasure that makes WoW fun for me. I've complained about killing the same mobs over and over again, and every player lusting after the same items (wait, I haven't done that yet) but here's an item that is very cool and can only be obtained through luck or a significant outlay of cash on the AH. Even if you wanted to buy one, Auctioneer says it's only been seen a total of 8 times at auction, and the drop rate is listed at about 0.002%, so you won't see another one at a party. It's like finding $20 in you pants pocket!

Update 4/13/07
I sold the Icemail Jerkin on the AH after 2 midweek listings and cleared about 68G! That wasn't quite enough to double my cash on hand but certainly beats the heck out of making money the hard way. I also had a clean sweep of other stuff I posted on the AH, which hasn't happened in a while. It's so nice to wander up to a mailbox and see nothing but those little scrolls with cash in them.

Goat People from Space

The other day I wrote about finally getting the expansion pack and creating a Dranei Priest to check out the new content. Today I want to talk more about my Priest alt.

[Begin ramble on alts]
If you are new to WoW or MMORPGs in general, you may not know what an alt is. It's just an alternative character, and alter-ego. These games usually let you make a number of different characters so you can experience the world from different perspectives. WoW gives you more than most people will ever use - up to 20 per server I believe - which leads to the condition sometimes called altism. That's when players skip around from one character to another constantly, never sticking with one long enough to gain much experience or get them involved in the game lore or community. This is how my teenage son and his friends usually play these games, and of course they get bored after a while and move on to something else, leaving behind them a roster full of level 15 characters with no one to love them. To be fair, my son and one of his friends do have high level characters on SWG, they just didn't take to WoW which is why I tried it in the first place.

Players that stay around WoW for any length of time usually settle on a main character that is their favorite and spend most of their time levelling him or her up, join a guild, and become a pillar of the community. There's also another class of alts, those that are created for convenience, to act as a banker, warehouse, or materials gatherer for a main.

Here's an example of a typical player's stable of alts:

Main - Level 60 Warrior [guilded, occasional raider, artisan crafter]
Healer Alt - Level 30 Priest [created to round out guild parties, gatherer for crafting materials]
Banker Alt - Level 3 Druid [hangs around Ironforge and conducts banking and auctions via mail]
Mule Alt - Level 3 Rogue [only exists to hold onto stuff the Main can't carry but can't part with]

This system is used by most player and is designed to overcome 2 of the major limitations in Wow - travel time and storage space. In order to lead a life of adventure characters need to have an income, and the way to do that in WoW is by selling things you find or craft to other players in the Auction House or on the streets of a large city. However, the work of an adventurer usually takes them to far flung corners of the world, and it's time consuming to travel back and forth to the cities all the time. The network of alts allows them to use the in-game mail system to be in 2 places at once.

Personally, when I first started playing I was determined not to collect alts, because I was afraid I'd never get any of my characters to the upper levels if I did. That may come to pass anyway, but it will not be due to the alts, but instead to my limited play time. So I recently decided to create some alts and have some fun with them, while still working on my main. My rule is that I play a character until his rested XP runs out, then put him away and play with another one.
[End ramble]

So my big blue goat man Priest is in his mid-teens and is following the advice of many a Priest before him. Which of course means that he's using his meager talent points to spec Shadow for ease of levelling. The nasty controversy over Shadow versus Holy spec for Priests is one of the reasons I wanted to play one. Nothing like experiencing something first hand to learn the facts. Although I expected that he would play a lot like my Mage, that's not the case at all. He's pretty limited on ranged damage at this point, with no crowd control, and the mobs will be in his face every fight.

My Mage would not stand for this, knowing that if he actually comes into contact with a monster then his goose is cooked about 50% of the time, since his "bubble" (Mana Shield - like a personal force field) depletes his mana pretty quickly. If he can't kill it quick he has to run. His preferred method of killing things is to burn them down from a distance and let them die at his feet.

No such luck for the brawny Priest though. After the first or second ranged spell (Shadow Bolt followed by Shadow Word - Pain) the mob is up close and personal and he has to use his own bubble (Power Word - Shield) while he uses a wand to finish up. The great thing about PW-Shield compared to Mana Shield is that once PW-Shield is cast, it absorbs damage without consuming any more health or mana. By the time it expires, the cooldown is usually up and it can be cast again, and again if needed. Since the Priest can do damage with a wand his mana is regenerating while he fights. For the Mage, once the Mana Shield is cast it consumes 2 mana for each point of damage that it absorbs, draining the mana pool quickly. The Mage can also use a wand of course, but he doesn't have the luxury of time because he may not have enough mana left to cast his bubble again, and his big damage spells to end the fight quickly also require a healthy mana supply.

I'm not sure I described this very well, but it is a huge difference in the way the character is played. Mages never have enough mana, while Priests, at least when soloing, seem to have plenty. Thanks to this experience I did start to use a wand for my Mage, which helps a little with mana conservation.

The Dranei are an interesting race to play, and the quests in the starting areas are all about helping survivors of the crash of the Exodar and protecting and restoring the local plant and animal life. The Exodar itself, though, is nothing to get excited about unless you really like the Barbie aisle at Wal-mart. It's really, really pink. The layout is odd too, and the signage blends right in with the walls and floor so it's hard to find anything.

My favorite quest so far involves running some errands for a Dranei stable master. The mounts are called Eleks and look like baby elephants. Since you're doing his business, you get the use of one, which is neat because otherwise you wouldn't get to ride one until level 40. When I was running around in the single digits I would occasionally see a mid-teens level character riding around on one, and wondered if they were somehow cheating. While riding around myself, someone asked me where I got the quest to "ride that thing" and I chuckled. At least he knew it was a quest and I wasn't a cheater. I was allowed 15 minutes to ride around and talk to 3 people, which was more than enough time, so I decided to explore a little in the 7 minutes left. Sadly, once I passed the edge of the "dead" area to the north on Bloodmyst Isle the Elek disappeared from under me and I was informed that "My Elek will not enter hostile territory." Fortunately breaking this rule did not cause me to repeat the quest. I was able to turn it in as usual after running back to the camp.

The Barbie-Doll Pally

As part of my plan to experience the new content of TBC in a timely fashion...meaning that it will still take me weeks at this rate to get my 48 Mage to Outland...I decided to try both of the new races. My Dranei Priest has just ventured to Bloodmyst Isle, and is doing well having learned how to use a bubble and wand tactic to kill things efficiently, and, having used up his rested XP bonus, I created a Blood Elf to see what that was like. I already have a Human Mage and Dranei Priest on Alliance side, and a Tauran Druid (pretty new), so I wanted something different. I know several players who tell me they really enjoy their Pallys, even though there are things that annoy them, like the gimped tanking, healing expectation, and lack of ranged attack. Since I've never played one I really don't know the issues, except that I assume it's like every other class where people start off with a certain idea in mind for their character, then find out somewhere along the long road of advancement that they can't do what they want to do as well as they want to do it. Since I don't have much online time each week and rarely play in groups, the soloing game is where it has to be fun for me to be happy. As it turns out, Pallys do seem to be lots of fun to solo.

I also decided to roll a female...yes I know. All my other toons are guys like me but since the male BElfs look like girls anyway why not go for the real thing? I also admire several female Pally or Warrior types that I've met, some played by guys, and liked the idea. So that's that.

So I start out with my Barbie doll little Pally in the land of the Sunwell. Let me just say - Wow! Of all the starting areas I've seen I really like the BElf area the best. I have read that some people think it's too Harry Potter, but I really like it. The quests right off the bat are interesting, and I haven't had to risk my life to fetch booze for anyone yet.

Playing a Paladin is also very refreshing. Prior to this I've been mostly a caster, and frankly it looked a little boring to just run up to a mob, click attack, and wait for one of us to die. The Seals make it pretty interesting though. Once I engage a mob I can use a Seal to speed up the fight, and if I get in trouble I can bubble and heal. No wonder Pallys are reviled in PVP battles.

The BElf city Silvermoon is also very cool, with an Arabian Nights feel. The Exodar was really a disappoinment but Silvermoon is different and very interesting. My Pally just arrived in Silvermoon, so I'll leave it there for now. She'll be there for a few days to build up some rested XP.

Completing the Quest

Last night my Mage was attempting to complete a quest in the Pirate Cove area of Tanaris. The object was to retrieve a shipment of rum or something from one of the buildings inside the fenced compound. I had been through this area about a week ago and, after teaming up with a passing NElf Hunter (he only killed me once by Feigning after pulling every occupant of a building) and managed to complete the 2 quests I had at the time, which just involved killing some of these and some of those other guys, and maybe collecting their Pirate hats. When I grouped up with him he had this quest for the rum and shared it with me, but since we did it first (of course) I didn't have a chance to read it so I didn't follow him upstairs to rifle through the crates there. By the time we were on our way back to Steamwheedle Port (awesome name IMHO) he was out of time. I did make one attempt to go back and do it myself but the local Horde population wasn't having any of that.

Which brings me back to last night.

I've noticed that the Horde on my PVP server are particularly annoying in Tanaris. They always seem to have me 3 to 1 and will go out of their way to knock off a lone Mage just minding his own business. Did I mention that I almost never gank, even when I have the upper hand? Life is too short and it takes too much time for no tangible reward, win or lose. Mostly lose. So I've been working on tactics to complete those quests without time-wasting gank-fests. On last night's attempt I knew that I could do the quest solo, even though it would involve a couple of 3-mob pulls on each floor of the building I needed to clear. I'd have to sheep one, then pull the other 2 outside where I had room to maneuver. Of course this meant that I had to first clear the outside area to prevent adds, and also hope that there were no Hordies hanging around to jump on me while I was occupied. I arrived at the compound without incident, but, this being the popular spot that it is, there was a group of Horde collecting their own bag full of Pirate hats. I decided to stand next to "my" building, hopefully out of sight, and wait until they finished and moved on. This worked for a little while, but after they cleared out the compound one of them spotted me (it's so hard to hide in this game if you're not a $#@%# Rogue) and came over to take me down. I didn't put up much of a fight.

During the runback I was hoping again that the others had moved on, but no such luck. Running around in my ghost form I could see them working their way back around the compound, racking up the XP on respawns. They were sure to spot me again and ruin my fun. I resolved to give it one more try and figured I'd check inside the building to see if maybe they had cleared it out for me, in which case I could just run in, loot the crates, and hearth back to Gadgetzan. No such luck, but I did have another good idea. I noticed that since my body was right next to the corner of the building outside, I could rezz at several places inside the building, including on the top floor next to the crates and our of range of the pirates. This worked like a charm. I looted the crates, ran like a scared rabbit down the stairs, out the door, and halfway to the beach until the 6 Pirates gave up the chase. I hung around to rack up a few more easy Pirate kills and headed back to Steamwheedle Port for the turn-in. The follow-on quest, which merely required a trip to Booty Bay, netted me 3700 XP. Not a bad night's work.

Gankers can be funny

Last night I was working on a quest outside of Gadgetzan, the one that involves killing water-stealing scum in the form of 'locks and rogues. It's pretty annoying because while I'm dealing withe the 'lock (sheeped) and the pet (in my face) the wandering rogues jump in. I died a couple of times but I was making progress. In the midst of one of these little battles 3 Hordies come up behind me and attack. Since I've been using my wand (a very recent revelation) I've got mana to play with and I manage to sheep one and do some fire damage to another before I succumb. I was actually pretty pleased with my performance since I'm not very good at PVP and I usually die before I even see who's attacking me.

These players have strange, non-RP names, like FuzzyBunny (the only one I remember) and that amused me, but what I really found amusing was that they had managed to aggro so many nearby mobs in the process of ganking me that they wiped immediately. I decided to see if I could make them do it again, so as soon as I rezzed I ran around collecting mobs and lead them back to the Hordies hoping to train them before I died again. Alas it didn't work and they managed to dispatch the mobs. I rezzed at the GY next to Gadgetzan and stoned at the Inn since I was about ready for bed anyway. While I was puttering around my group of gankers rode through town (one on an Ostrich...really looks silly) and I got a wave from one of them. I thought it would be funny to mess with them a little so I quickly typed:

/e [Flon] is glad he got the gank/wipe on video...look for it on YouTube!

...but by the time I managed that I think they were too far away.

I kill me.

I am a ninja looter

Well, despite my attempts to maintain a decent reputation I screwed up last night in a Maraudon PUG. The group seemed to be pretty good, but it didn't last very long for me.

We started out with a good balance, Warrior Tank, Priest Healer, Rogue, Hunter, Mage (me) DPS. This was only my second trip into Maraudon, first time on the purple side, though I didn't share that information because I didn't want to get kicked for being a noob. So we start through the caves, not even to the instance portal yet, and we come across some big lizards. Not sure what they were called, because I was having trouble with my interface. This is where the trouble began.

After installing TBC one of my must-have mods, LitheToolTipMover (or something pretty close to that) wouldn't work. This is a little gizmo that let's you put the default ToolTip location where you want it (next to the minimap in my case) instead of the usual location, which for me is on top of several important buttons. So the other night I went looking for a new mod and found one that provided many more options than the old one did. I had it configured for my new toon, my Dranei Priest, but hadn't been on my Mage except for a guild event last night (tour of Outland...lot's of fun but we had to hold hands to keep from getting people lost and killed). So the mod on my Mage is using the default setting, which makes the ToolTip float at the cursor location when you roll over things. I find this to be really annoying, especially in an instance with a group where there's things all over the place that pop a ToolTip. So I was planning to fix it when I got this group invite, and then I forgot about it until we got into the caves.

So anyway, we start to attack these lizards, and I can't cast a spell. It took me quite a while to realize that they had an AoE Silence and I was stupidly getting too close to them. I died once, Priest rezzed me, and advised me to stay back. That was good advice. We moved along for a few minutes and then a blue item dropped. I looked it over, noticed that it said "off hand," "+Int" and "+Spirit." I was having trouble keeping the ToolTip up so I could read it but it certainly looked like a caster item, for a Priest definitely but possibly for a Mage like me with crap gear. So I rolled Need, figuring the Priest would too.

Party member 1: wtf?
Leader: Flon? Did you roll need?
Me: yes
Me: (wondering why they would question me on an obvious caster item) problem?
Party member 2: 'cause somebody else might need it more
Party member 1: roll on everything or he'll ninja it

*** You are not part of the group in this instance ***

So now I'm a little upset because there were no loot rules communicated, and I thought I had a legitimate claim to this off-hand caster item. I could go find a one-handed sword and be in business, especially since I was still using a staff I got in Westfall. I've been trying to PUG the last few days to get some decent items, and meet some other players, and as a casual it's not easy, and I also felt a little guilty thinking that I had somehow crossed a line but I just didn't realize where. So I quit and went to watch some TV, thinking that all of WoW is populated by jerks and I'll never PUG again, even if I get invited which I probably won't because I'll have a rep as a ninja and I'll probably get booted from my guild too.

A little later I logged back on to fix the stupid ToolTip settings and took a good look at the blue item that caused all the fuss. It was a shield! Ugh. My Mage couldn't use it at all...couldn't even equip it. It was an item probably intended for a Pally or a Shaman, and it was no wonder my group kicked me because I am a moron. Sure, they could have given me 5 more seconds and I would have figured it out and apologized and all that, but they naturally assumed I could read what was right in front of my face and decided I was bad news.

They wouldn't believe the explanation anyway. I wouldn't in their place.

Suggestion: a scalable instance

One of my biggest disappointments in playing WoW is the difficulty of finding good groups for instanced dungeons. When I first started playing I thought that joining a guild was the solution to this problem, but I quickly learned that I was mistaken. Guilds are great for many things - socialization, help with items, help with noob questions - but making groups is not one of them. Sure, you could probably convince one of your 60s (pre-BC) to run you through any instance you wanted, but that's not the experience I'm looking for. I want to run the instances as intended, with a level-appropriate group. I want to be surprised by new tactics, backed into tight places, have things go wrong, and pull out a victory against all odds. That doesn't happen when you have one of your high level guildies along who's been through the instance so many times he lost count. When you do reach 60, guilds make it possible to tackle the end-game raid instances, but at that point the only difference from one character to the next is the items they've managed to acquire. That's all pre-BC of course, for the past couple of months all of the active 60s have been leveling in Outland, but even at that they all knew each other already and they all started out at the same place, so the gap between them doesn't seem to be as wide as in the first 60 levels. Since I don't have a 60 I don't know this for sure though.

So the problem for me is, I know several other people at various levels, and since I'm a casual player they usually pass me by pretty quickly. But I'd love to play instances with them if there was a way to do it that was fun and profitable for all.

Here's my suggestion: The Scalable Instance.

Get your group together regardless of the level of the individual players. You may have a 20, a 30, a 40, a 50 and a 60. Normally this group, led by the higher level players, could run most any 5-man in the "old" world easily, with the lowbies just along for the ride. But, what if the level adapted itself to be a challenge for all players? What if the mobs dished out higher damage to the higher players, and lower damage to the lower players? What if the players themselves were able to kill or otherwise interact with mobs as if they were on a comparable level? Wouldn't that make it more fun? Everybody could gain level-appropriate experience, items that drop could be scaled based on who won the roll for them, etc.

Purists would probably object to this claiming that it alters the balance or overall gameplay experience, but there are ways of addressing these objections. Maybe the rewards are lower in the scalable instances than in the "real" ones. Or maybe players could choose to gain reputation instead of experience or items, making it an alternative to reputation grinds. I think people would enjoy them, since it would be more valuable for a high level helper to actually have a chance of getting something useful out of it.

It really is lonely 'round here

I checked out www.warcraftrealms.com/census and yes, my new server is pretty empty. The Venture Company, which went online 7/12/06, hosts over 14,000 characters. My new server, online in January 07, has just under 2,000. I looked at some of the notoriously over crowded servers, like Warsong and Laughing Skull, and they too had around 14,000. I'm assuming that's their comfortable population after all the transfers...forced and voluntary. I never had a login queue on TVC so that number must be good. I wonder how long it will take for my new server to fill up, and if I'll still be playing there when it does.

Finally got the expansion!

I wasn't too keen on buying The Burning Crusade, mostly because my Mage is still in the 40s and I figured that I didn't need to upgrade until I reached 60, and that seemed like it might never happen. I was levelling in The Hinterlands when I got ganked and ended up at the GY on the coast. I took a step off the mountain, hit this hills, and tried to find my way back to my body on the other side of the mountains. After running up and down the coast for 20 minutes (there has to be a way back somewhere) I tried swimming out to sea, remembering that I ported back to my Hearthstone location once in Westfall by doing this. Well, that didn't do anything but waste my time, and I did eventually find my way back using the path that was right next to the GY. About that time I caught up all of my rested xp bonus and got ganked again standing in front fo Arie Point or whatever it's called by a ?? Rogue. Not fun.

So, walking by Circuit City later that evening my lovely wife bought me TBC as a present. I'll skip over the part where all my mods were broken, 'cause that wasn't fun either. I decided to try something different and roll a Dranei. That way I could actually see some of the new content that others have seen. I also decided to try a different server. It's not that I don't like my current server, and the people in my guild, it's just that I've only played on one server, a PVP-RP flavor, and I thought maybe I'd try out a PVE server, since I'm terrible at PVP. I also decided to try out a healing class, just to be the sought after new kid for instances, so I settled on a Dranei Priest. Here are my initial impressions:

The Dranei starting area, Azure Mist Isle, is beautiful. There are lots of fun quests and a great storyline. The background music gets old very fast though, and I had to turn that off in favor or iTunes. This never bothered me in Elwyn Forest. The Dranei models are nice, and I like the tail. It's easier than looking over a Tauren's shoulder too.

Exodar, or rather the Exodar, a crashed space ship of all things, is somewhat disappointing. It's all pink and lavendar and reminds me far more of Darnassus, my least favorite Alliance city, than Stormwind or Ironforge. I'm still having trouble finding my way around and I predict that once move out of the new content areas as I level up I won't be coming back very often.

Being a Priest is OK so far, with better PVE play than I expected. Having played a Mage the casting is pretty simplistic, but the Power Word Shield seems more useful than Mana Shield ever was, and the self-healing and speedy mana regeneration is nice. From the forums I've read that wands are the essential accessory for PVE, which seems strange because I never found them to be useful on my Mage. I just acquired my first one as a quest reward so I'll try that out and see. One thing that concerns me is the complaining in the Priest forum. It seems that people feel the class is nerfed both as healers and DPS. With the evolution of patches I've seen just since November I'm sure this will change over time. I am surprised at the mechanics of Shadow spells. It's kind of neat especially compared to the Fire spells that I've grown accustomed to. All they do is damage, lots of it...but Shadow spells do damage and can also heal or regen mana. Pretty neat.

The new server is, so far, pretty quiet. The population seems low, even lower than TVC was back in November when I started there. It also has many more Horde players than Alliance. There seem to be many players that transferred here from overpopulated servers, and they like the quiet. The worst symptom of this may be the effect on the Auction House. Whatever...the population is sure to fill up over time so this is just a temporary issue. I am looking forward to enjoying quests without the worry of gankers...Stranglethorn Vale will be my bitch.

More on PUGs

Something amazing happened last night. I actually got into a PUG for an instance I wanted to visit and had plenty of time to play. Yesterday I talked about some of my PUG experiences and how I often find them to be frustrating. Last night's outing was much more satisfying.

I started off just like the night before, setting up the LFG panel for Maraudon, Sunken Temple, and Uldaman. After a few minutes I auto-joined a group for Maraudon. Looking over the other members, I quickly realized that this was my lucky day. We had a Paladin and a Druid, both able to provide healing to the group. Why is this so important, you ask?

Groups for tackling instanced dungeons in WoW must have a certain balance to them. It's all about how the mobs (enemy creatures) behave and the abilities of each class in the group. There have been many good guides written on this subject which I won't try to reproduce here, but I will say in summary that you need to have at a minimum 3 critical roles filled in any good group.

1. Tank. One of your armor-wearing, close combat characters gets to attack the mobs directly and try to keep all of the mobs attacking him and him alone. This keeps the mobs from running off and killing your less durable buddies. Tanks are aptly named due to their ability to take a beating and dish out a steady stream of punishment in return.
   
2. Healer. Even though your Tank is heavily armored and has a huge pool of hit points, with all the mobs beating on him he needs the support of a healer to stay in the game. The Healer's main function is to keep the Tank alive, because if the Tank goes down the mobs go after the rest of the group, who will probably die in short order.
3. DPS (Damage Per Second). This extremely geeky term is used to identify group members who mainly deal out damage from a distance. In WoW, the classes are designed so that the more damage you can dish out, the more fragile you are in direct physical combat. Casters, for example, can apply huge damage in a short period of time (thus the term DPS) but can't wear armor and won't last very long if the mobs start beating on them.

These roles can be filled by many different combinations of players. The purest form is the Warrior Tank, Priest Healer, and Mage DPS. Some other good choices for these roles include:

1. Tanks - Paladins, Druids (in Bear form), Hunter or Warlock pets.
2. Healers - Druids, Paladins.
3. DPS - Rogues, Druids, Hunters.

There are probably other combinations that work too. At any rate, this particular group included both a Druid and a Pally, very nice since Healers are underrepresented in WoW and having 2 players capable of healing in a group is a luxury. The Druid volunteered to heal, which was also refreshing because there's usually some discussion about who will heal since it seems that many players don't enjoy that role.

So 2 of our group members are pretty close to Maraudon, and they summon the rest of us in short order. The Hunter in the group stepped up and took the leadership role, which worked out great, since he had been through the instance a few times before. There was a minimum of argument about which path to take, and he managed the first few pulls just fine.

A good pull and a well coordinated group is wondrous to behold. The Hunter uses his bow to attack the nearest mob, which in this case was a walking thorn bush. The first bush brings along 2 of his buddies and they all start shuffling toward us. The Hunter Pet and Pally engage and tank the mobs, the Druid keeps them alive with healing spells, and the Rogue and Mage (me) deliver the beatdown in carefully measured doses.

As long as this balance is kept the mobs go down and the party advances. But this is a truly fragile balance, and it can be easily upset. Here are some of the many ways to screw it up:

1. The Tank loses aggro on the mobs. This can result from many things, like a Mage doing so much damage that the mobs decide he is the greater threat and they charge into the back row after him. Or, the Healer may be providing so much relief to the Tank that he draws aggro himself. Aggro management is itself a balance between the damage done by the Tank, the DPS, and the output of the Healer. If a Healer or DPS manages to draw aggro off the Tank, you have to hope that the squishies are smart enough not to dig their hole any deeper (ie stop attacking/healing) and that the Tank can open his bag of tricks to regain the attention of the mobs. Because it's a balancing act, when things go wrong some players insist on finding a scapegoat (which is never them) to take the blame. Usually the Healer gets blamed...whether it's his fault or not...and he often picks up his marbles and goes home knowing that there are 10 other groups out there waiting for a Healer.
2. Poor crowd control. Mobs have a tendency to wander around, and if you let them wander too far, they can bring more of their buddies back with them. There are also patrols in many instances that can show up in the middle of an otherwise manageable fight and make things difficult. Some classes have crowd control abilities that can help with these situations, but they have to pay attention and understand their limitations. A good leader is essential here, to make assignments for players and to manage the pulls. Pull too many mobs and the party will wipe for sure. In some areas groups must carefully clear an entire building in order to prevent the boss from calling every mob in earshot to help him. In these situations, the only good leader is the one who's been there before.
3. Lag. It's not as bad in an instance as it is out in the world, but if you lag at the wrong moment things can go straight to hell. While you're staring at your motionless screen, the mobs are chewing up your party, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Anyway, back to our story. Our little group was light on tanking ability, but we managed pretty well anyway. I died a couple of times from using AoE spells to wipe out large numbers of larva and slimy things, but that's OK with me, I'm the Suicide Mage after all. As long as I go down in a blaze of glory, and get a rezz from a friendly group member who's ass I've probably just saved, I'm happy.

Somewhere along the line our Druid Healer says something in /party chat about "Please make sure I have full mana before you pull." A very reasonable request, but I'm not sure anyone but me noticed, and I wasn't pulling. After the next fight, which in all fairness did start while she and I were still recharging our batteries, she suddenly disappears.

Now, I've mentioned before that there are plenty of reasons why players leave a group unexpectedly. Sometimes it's a real life event - like Mom says it's bedtime right now dammit - sometimes it's a network disconnect, whatever. In a perfect world everyone would stick around until the bitter end, and if they did have to leave, would let the group know. But it's not a perfect world, and shit happens. In this particular case the Druid Healer may have been pissed, but her request was pretty common, she said please, and as I said I don't think anybody else noticed anyway. I tried to /whisper her to see what happened, but she was out of the game. Good thing for us we had our Pally as a backup Healer, because there was a boss fight just around the next corner.

Or not.

Turns out our Pally didn't want to heal. He wanted to whack things with his big shiny sword. The group leader points out that killing this boss will complete a quest for several of us, if only the Pally will heal just for this fight. Pally reluctantly agrees.

So we pull the boss. Some sort of smelly elemental, I forget the name. As the fight progresses, the big guy splits into several little guys, then another big guy, and so on. Maybe Pally is healing, maybe not, I can't keep track as I'm trying to crowd-control all the little guys and stay alive myself. After about 30 seconds we all go down and the Rogue is berating the Pally for being a lousy healer. Pally quits the group, Rogue quits, and the Hunter and I corpse run back inside. We decide to try the boss by ourselves but of course we don't last 10 seconds.

And that is how you ruin a perfectly good group.

OK what did we learn from this?

1. Don't piss off your Healer. In this case I'm not sure she was pissed or just had to go unexpectedly, but as a general rule, if you've got a willing Healer, be nice to them, give them things, and try to make friends.
2. Don't force players into a role they don't want. Who knows whether our Pally just hated to heal or knew he was out of practice and was afraid he'd blow it. Whatever the reason, why try to make someone do something they don't want to do? Usually the rational for bringing on the pressure is that we have to have a Healer or we can't go any further. Fact is, our group didn't get any further anyway, and I'll bet that Pally will hold a grudge against all Rogues forever. Maybe I exaggerate a little.
3. Even good PUGs are easily ruined.

Undaunted, I will try again tonight.