How to Survive... the PuG

The art of the PuG (Pick up Group) is a very delicate art to master. Sure, one could always find a guild and avoid PuG-ing by running with guildies, but such good guilds are hard to come by on my server. So, I ended up PuG-ing, especially when I got to endgame and had to start gearing up in Heroics. My guild of friends had appearantly spontaneously gone on hiatus, so I was left all by my lonesome to find groups to run with.

The key to surviving a PuG with your sanity intact is your mindset going in. Don't expect an efficient, well-oiled machine. Things are going to take a while to start up, and it's going to take a few minutes for players to get used to one another's play styles. As weird as it sounds, the best raid/party leaders aren't necessarily the ones who are nice to everybody. They're the ones who push just a bit harder than you want.

PuG-ing raids and dungeons are two, completely different animals. Particularly if you're pugging a raid, things are going to take a while. This should be expected. However, there is definitely a fine line between normal downtime and having to wait half an hour between attempts on Patchwerk. In fact, if your raid is wiping on old Patchy, there's probably something wrong. A key skill is reading the signs on how the raid is progressing. As long as it's constant, things will probably be okay. If things are stop and go, stop and go, you might want to consider (this is important) POLITELY bowing out.

Dungeons don't take nearly as long as raids to put together, but they do seem to fall apart much easier. A heroic group wipes once and all the sudden the healer's like 'DONE!' and leaves the group and hearths out. Then all the rest of us look at each other and shrug sadly, and I make a portal to Dalaran. People just don't mind leaving a dungeon group as much, perhaps because they know it's not all that hard to find one. People don't leave raids because they've been saved to that raid; they can't just go join another in trade chat. It's hard to say how to aid this problem. If you get in a group and the tank or healer is inexperienced, the group is going to fall apart really fast, no matter what you do as a bystander. The only thing in that situation is to be positive, and be confident with the rest of the group that you can find someone else to replace the noob. Otherwise, you're pretty much stuck.

The other possible piece of advice is obvious. Take some friends into heroics. Even if you wipe a few times, friends don't bail on friends. Or, go with some guildies. Especially in a larger guild, there's sure to be at least one who'll help you out. And above all, if you do find a good group, whether in LFG or with friends, run more than one instance with them. You can do two or three instances with a good group in the time it would've taken you to do one with a bad group. Also, be polite while you're in the group. That one jackass in the group just makes everyone want to quit and log off for a while to find something to take their aggression out on. Which isn't good for progression. Be polite, and be effective at your job, and someone will invite you back for another round of boss-beating fun.

Overall, just be patient with this whole ridiculous business. Just think about the goal: get enough decent blues to not be a total hinderance in a raid. Find a good guild, get a raid schedule going, and pretty soon, you'll be in some shiny new purples, ready for Ulduar.

UI's for dummies

When you first start your first character ever, just playing the game is pretty awe-inspiring. There's so much to learn, so much you don't know about the simplest aspects of the game, that changing the UI doesn't even cross your mind. One needs to learn to use the darn thing before modifying it, after all. However, when that newly minted character first gets a quest to go into Ragefire Chasm, there might be a few things lacking. Once you start getting a few more bags to store your stuff, the regular old system just doesn't seem to cut it so much. And when you ding 80, you learn it's pretty valuable to know just how much damage you're doing. Luckily, some very smart people have made it so the rest of us noobs can change the default UI and get some stuff done.

The one thing any raider or PvPer needs NOW is information. Whether it be a new phase of a boss encounter, GET OUT OF THE FIRE!!, or what class your opponents are in the arena, we need info and we need it fast. Also, it's good if all the information sources we have are sort of clustered together, so that it's easy for our eyes to take it in all in quick order. For me, I posistion Recount right near my spells and all the action, so I know how effective I'm being at any moment, and how big the risk of some hard-ass pug leader kicking me out of the raid for sluggish DPS is. For healers, it might be the raid frames, so they know who's dying, or for tanks, it might be... I dunno, Omen or something. (That's how much tanking knowledge I have.)

Efficiency also comes in the form of bag mods. I really hate having to sift around my huge Frostweave bags (and one Dragon-Hide Bag) to find that one stack of Infinite Dust I need to give to the enchanter. The solution: ArkInventory. Hooray! Organization also comes in the form of Dominos, a bar mod. No, not that kind of bar. An action bar. Another time-saver is Auctioneer, an AH mod that helps you buy and sell with ease.

Of course, it's all useless if your UI doesn't look good. Looking good is part of a nice, streamlined UI that helps you get stuff done. And it'd better be pleasant to look at, if your going to be looking at it hours each day. The biggest thing is consistancy. Most mods can be configured to look at least sort of similar to one another, so it's relatively simple to make a cohesive-looking UI. Also, don't let your screen get too cluttered. If you're soloing, you don't need Omen or Recount. Both mods can be told to go the hell away when not in group or raid, and can also be told to come back again when you are. This goes a long way in making a screen look nice.

A good UI is like a good book. It should have the bookish equivalent of bent pages, tattered covers, and coffee stains. These things are what makes that book yours. Part of the reason to change the screen is to make it yours. Don't use Dominos to put to double rows of buttons on the bottom and two columns on the right side. That might be what you're used to, but change it up a little. Put a column on either side, if that's what you think will work the best. I saw one UI that had no buttons on it at all; the guy decided he didn't need any additional information when he was soloing. All he had was the map, essentially. Do whatever you like, and whatever you think makes you a better player.

Bringing the players up

Once again, I was thinking today that it's kind of weird how Naxx was imported from the original game. I know that Blizzard did it because there were very few players who actually saw Naxx in its original context, but it's still kind of odd to think that some people have seen Patchwerk a thousand times. Somehow this got around to this point: in the end of Burning Crusade, Blizzard nerfed all the high end content so even low-end raiders could see things like Sunwell Plateau. They brought the content down to the players' levels. They are doing the opposite with the emblem changes in that they are bringing the players gear up to the level of, essentially, 25-man Ulduar. This doesn't mean everyone can waltz into the brand new content in the Argent Tournament; players still need the skill and experience they squire in Naxx and Ulduar, but this change eases their passing. And... that's it. Just a thought.

For all those who don't understand Twitter

The boiled-down reason for Twitter is "tell people what you're doing". This leads people to comment, "Well, I don't want to hear about when people are going to the bathroom". To all those who say that, bite me. Only assholes tweet when they're taking a shit.

Now we can get to what Twitter actually is. Twitter is a way to connect to people. For the most part you can follow whomever you want. It can be used for any number of things, from keeping up with family and friends, to keeping up with blogs and podcasts, as I do. Lately, a big part of Twitter is keeping up with current events. For example, Michael Jackson passed away about a week ago. Googling "Michael Jackson" really did no good; you may get a Wikipedia link, links to his music, but probably nothing on what's happening RIGHT NOW. If one wants to learn about something happening RIGHT NOW, one goes to Twitter and searches the subject. A whole list of things that people have tweeted and re-tweeted comes up, and things like that spread like wildfire. Twitter embodies web 2.0 in that it is an instant thing. A search like the one I described above is a snapshot of an instant in time, rather than a culumnation of things, like a Google search.

Then, there's the general arguement against technology that it's better to interact with people face to face. While this is always true, there are many, many times when such meetings are simply not possible. I might be out of town, cut off from friends and family in general. Sure, I can call or text, but that's a very singular act. I can tweet and theorhetically communicate with everyone at once. Or, I can follow people from around the web and around the world, people I would never have met otherwise. Same goes for WoW. There's a girl in my guild who I would consider a friend, to a certain extent without ever meeting her. I never would have met her or anything without this thing that I do.

Yes, there are times when everyone should disconnect, and yes, it is usually better to get together with friends and go to dinner and have a good time, but this technology allows otherwise impossible relationships and impossible communication. If you still can't see the worth in that, then bah humbug. I'll make sure and tell you the next time I'm on the crapper.

Natal? That's kids' stuff.

I was just listening to a podcast, and they were talking a little bit about the new motion technology by Sony and Microsoft. I was thinking: what's weird about this? Two or three years ago, Nintendo was talking about their motion technology, in the form of the Wii. Back then, I was still solely a console gamer, and I played mostly on the Gamecube, though I did have a PS2. I was excited about it, but I remember everyone else being very skeptical; the controller was just so different, how will this fit in, etc. I don't remember many people being all out excited, like many are now about the new stuff coming out.

So why are people so much more excited? To me, a fairly serious gamer, the Wii is mostly a flop. It's a win for Nintendo, since they've sold sooo many, but for the gamer, it doesn't do much. There are a few good games, mostly those made by Nintendo, standbys like Zelda and Mario Galaxy, that made very good use of the motion controls. Others, like Fire Emblem and Super Smash Bros. barely use the motion controls at all. But for the majority of the games I've seen for the Wii, the best descriptive word is "gimmicky". It pains me to say it, as a former Nintendo lover, but it's true. The Wii has become a console almost solely for casual gamers, something I don't really consider myself anymore. Nintendo aimed at a specific market, and that's what they got.

For me, the new ideas presented by Microsoft and Somy are no different. If possible, Project Natal is even more fake and gimmicky. If you think you look stupid waving a controller around, just wait until you're flailing your arms around like a drunkard on ice. Honestly, I think both companies are doing this for money. This is a concept that has already been proven to work. Cater to non-gamers and you open up a huge new market, all willing to spend ridiculous amounts on obnoxious peripherals. They are doing this because Nintendo is making money hand over fist and truth is, they're not making nearly as much as they want to. It shows just how much the business side of the industry has taken over: there are precious few companies who can do what they think is best for the GAME, rather than that which is best for the company. And still make money.

Now, this is not to say that this concept can't work. Perhaps game developers will actually make cool games for these new devices; I don't know. The precedent is, features like this produce lame games that let you pet some virtual puppy's head. I don't see any good shooters or RPGs coming for Project Natal. Virtual puppies are all well and good, but I don't see this as the future of gaming.

Happy 4th of July!

I hope everyone's having a great holiday! Fire up the grill and have some rocking burgers or something. I'm partial to hot dogs at other peoples' BBQs, because most peoples' burger cooking skills just aren't up to par. Hard to screw up a hot dog. On a side note, does anyone think it's weird that this day is the only day that we say "4th of July" instead of like, "September 5th"? It goes along with that thing where they have day/month/year in every place except America, where we have month/day/year. Why are we always the odd duck out? Oh well. That's what makes us unique. So go blow some stuff up.

Etsy FTW!

I find that a surprising amount of people don't know about this gem of a website, so it's definitely worth mentioning. Etsy is a website where, like Blogger, people can create their own webpage. The difference is, rather than writing, people can sell items through the website. For what I'm sure is a small fee, Etsy gives people a webpage, puts featured items on their frontpage and in email newsletters, and facilitates payments between sellers and buyers. Buyers can get their products out there and make some good money on what, for most, is a simple hobby. The result is an indie mecca. People sell everything from clothes and jewelry to custom-made webpages and furniture.

The best thing is I feel like I'm supporting a real person rather than a faceless company. Most sellers are very personable, and will customize many orders to your personal needs. If you want a necklace, but want a longer chain length, it's usually no problem. Often, the seller will make the change with no extra cost to you. I buy mostly jewelry from the site, since there's so much individual, unique jewelry of all kinds on the website. There is some excellent clothing to be bought, but it's somewhat more of a slippery slope. There's a lot of clothing of... questionable taste, and it can be a lot to wade through some days. It may be easier to look for something specific than to simply browse the clothing listings, however. A friend of mine had tremendous success finding a cute little dress for prom, for example.

The only problem I've had is shipping. Most sellers send their wares through regular post. This can mean both a long wait and a potential lost package. One of the necklaces I ordered got lost, but luckily the seller was really nice and sent a new one. This could be avoided by asking the seller to ship the package by Fed-Ex or some such thing, but it will likely cost you more. It may be a small price to pay for the time saved though, especially if you need the item in a speedy manner.

So, when looking for some jewelry that will make you stand out from the crowd, or for a piece of handmade clothing for a price second-to-none, you now know where to go. Etsy.

Faction changes? WTF?!

A day or two ago, a blue announced that Blizzard would soon be implementing character faction changes into the game. This is one of those things like PvE to PvP server transfers, something we never thought would happen. However, this is a far more intricate change, with many more repercussions. Sure, the way players play differs by the type of server, and many would say it's much easier to level on a PvE server and then switch to a PvP server. I don't think most players would do this though. Unless they're changing to a server where they know some friends, or because they want to join a particular new guild, most people are going to stay on the server they started on. Also, the actual change was easy to implement; all Blizz had to do was put an option in to let players change to a PvP server no matter what server they were coming from. No problem.

This change is way larger. Your character is changing races AND changing factions. This means, for example, any Horde-specific titles, mounts, pets, quests, gear, or items have to be either changed or removed upon changing to Alliance. I'm sure there are tons of little tiny details that have to be worked out that only Blizzard knows about. This has to be a very time-consuming venture.

So why are they doing it? Surely Blizzard has enough to do, with a new patch rolling out in the next month or two, BlizzCon to plan, Icecrown to come in another patch, and another probable expansion, not to mention the next MMO they've started, and SC2 and D3 to release. Why do the one thing no one ever expected when they have so many other things worth doing?

It may be just that: shock factor. Something's gotta keep all the big blogs in business, after all. That doesn't really make sense though; it's not as if the game was stagnating in any way. As iterated in the previous paragraph, there's plenty going on the the Blizzard community right now. It could be to help restore faction balance on some realms. I know on my server, Horde far outnumbers Alliance. This kind of situation really is a bad cycle. Not many Alliance players want to transfer to a realm in which they're outnumbered 3 to 1, and many probably end up transferring off the server for frustration of being so outgunned in Wintergrasp and world PvP. This way, there may be Horde flowing out and Alliance flowing in. It's a previously unavailable way out of the cycle.

The larger answer may lie in Blizzard's overall philosophy for this game. WoW has always been a game for more casual players. Now, as we get towards the end of the game's lifecycle, the devs are extending this even further. The rationale is the same as the rationale for the PvE to PvP server changes; previously PvP-disinclined players want to experience a PvP server, but don't want to level up yet another toon, a player wants to be with some friends who he/she discovered play WoW on a different server. In this case, it's that a player wants to experience the Alliance without leveling a toon, wants to play with friends on another faction. Essentially, it's the same thing.

In any case, we should probably stop saying Blizzard is never going to do certain things. It seems they're not at all opposed to breaking their own "rules".

It's the little things

In the end, it's not just the possibility of new gear that keeps one coming back for more WoW. It is, in fact, the little things. Fun times with guildies, inside jokes. Riding through some radom place and looking up to notice how beautiful the scenery is. It almost makes me want to go outside. Nah.

A (not so) scary story

When summer comes around, I always get ants in my pants. One year, I chopped my hair off to chin length, and it looked awful. This year, I pierced my ears. This action in fact proves my insanity, because I've been deathly afraid of needles for my entire life.

I literally had to psych myself up for it. I had to set a solid date on which I WAS going to pierce my ears, and I had to tell all of my friends that I was doing it so I couldn't chicken out of it.

After we got out of school forever (the summer), we went looking for a piercing shop. The one we started going to wasn't open at the time, so we kept driving. And driving. Finally, we found one that was open. Since I'm not old enough to get a piercing all by my lonesome, we had to wait there for my mom to get there, and as we all know, waiting's the worst part. Finally, she got there and we went in.

Surprisingly, I was not the one most scared in that piercing shop. My mom essentially tried to talk me out of it. She kept asking, "You sure you want to do this?" and "Maybe you should wait until later." I, knowing full well I'd never do it if I waited 'til later, insisted. I was a little bit nervous because he insisted on using an actual needle instead of a needle gun, citing the fact the guns aren't as sanitary and they don't heal as well or something.

I am pleased to report that not one tear was shed. Everyone was surprised at this. -.- In fact, the most unpleasant part was not the piercing itself, but the bleeding afterwards. I got two in my left ear, and the second one would NOT stop bleeding. Also, I made the mistake of playing with it when we went to a movie afterwards. The scab opened up and it started bleeding again. Luckily not on my clothes, but it was still very irritating.

Things like this are all about getting past the mental part, I've found. Needles are now slightly less terrifying than they were previously, though I'm sure shots will still make me squeamish. In any case, I'm glad I tried out something new this summer.

Curse You, Apple.

I think it's a really good thing we don't have an Apple Store in the town I live in.

Why?

Because I have the techy's fundamental need for the latest and the greatest gadgets. To me, this includes almost everything Apple produces. I don't know why everything they touch is magical; it just is. There's just something about, say, the iPhone that's so alluring. Some might say it's just the looks of the phone that make it so much more popular than other phones. I'd say this definitely plays a part. I currently own an LG Voyager, and it's just so much more clunky and dated-looking, even though it's only around six months old. The Palm Pre really just isn't attractive at all to me, though it sounds to have some really good features. Looks have come to be a huge part of the gadget market, whether it be phones or laptops or music players. And this is a primary reason why Apple has such a corner on the market.

But it's not the entire reason. After all, there are now many phones from Samsung or LG or plenty of other companies that emulate the smooth styling of the iPhone. The difference is the App Store. When it first came out, the iPhone was just another phone; good looking, but light on features other smartphone owners boasted about. The App Store changed all of that. Instead of being just a phone, the iPhone could now be anything. It's limited basically by the imagination of the programmers making the apps. The iPhone is now a competitive handheld gaming device, a VoiP phone, if you wish, a to-do list, a connection to Twitter and Facebook, even a newspaper if you want it to be. Other phone companies are trying to catch up on the app market, but they really have no chance. Apple has cornered the app concept as firmly as they have the digital music market. Sure, there are other retailers selling music, just as there will be other retailers selling apps. The situation is the same: Apple will be the largest and most successful for a good long time.

So for all those who cut down Apple fanboys, consider that Apple has taken over the market. In most everything they do. For whatever reason, the public eats up whatever Steve throws out at them, and someone's going to have to be very very good to usurp that throne. Sure, there are flaws with Apple's products. But they're shiny.

And finally...

We'll wrap up the major aspects of the patch notes here. Besides the new dungeon and raid instance, the Argent Tournament is expanding in some other areas. There will be new dailys for those exalted with the Sunreaver or Silver Covenant factions, and new mounts and pets corresponding with these factions will also be available. Similarly, there will be new dailys for those who have earned the "Crusader" title (Oh yeah, that'd be me.); these will also give rewards like a new tabard, pet, etc. One of the more exciting new things arriving with this change is a mounted squire, with which you can access bank, vendor, and mailbox for a short time every few hours. Also, there will be new heirloom chest pieces that have a 10% exp boost.

I'm a rather large fan of the Argent Tournament, and I find these changes to be excellent. I have a reason to go back and start doing the dailys again, since I'll need more seals for all those shiny new rewards. More dailys to have is always good. I like how Blizzard has provided enough dailys in the expansion that players can kind of choose which ones they're going to do that day. For example, I may want to do some Hodir dailys one day, Oracles and Kalu'ak the next, or spend the whole day just doing Tournament dailys. It doesn't have to be the same thing every day, though that's the way most players seem to do things. It might not get you that one rep all that fast, but it is nice to know one has options.

Finally, the last changes I'll talk about are the changes to travel. The level needed for ground mounts has been reduced across the board, and regular flying mounts are now available at level 60. Higher level flying skills have remained the same. Prices for ground mounts and training have also been lowered. Also, portals have been added from Orgrimmar and Stormwind to the Dark Portal, so players have easier access to the Outlands, and a zepplin route has been added between Orgrimmar and Thunder Bluff.

As far as the mounts go, I'm really excited. Alt leveling will be much less painful, and I'm all up for that. It will be interesting to see how the feeling of leveling in Outlands changes when everyone's zipping around on (150% speed) flying mounts. Thank goodness for the speed change too; 60% just felt like a standstill. Portals, meh. Blizzard's taking away my business! Not that I make portals for people all that often, but still. It's a good market. The zepplin is good though. I never really used Thunder Bluff that much, mostly because it's so disconnected from everything else. I still probably won't use it that much because the city itself feels disconnected to me, but it's a nice change for leveling and such.

So, that's all the major changes coming in the upcoming patch. The PTR also just came up yesterday, so everyone go test to their heart's content! I'm not much for the PTR; I like to see the content only when it goes live. I do appreciate all the juicy tidbits though.

Also, I should probably say that most of my numbers and info come from WoW.com. They rule.

Midsummer Festival!

A slight excursion to the current holiday. The Midsummer Fire Festival has been going on for a few days now, and unfortunately, I've just started. This holiday essentially consists of honoring and desecrating fires, as well as several different torch tossing dailys. The achievements, which I myself am going for, require one to honor and desecrate all the fires, steal flames from enemy capital cities, and to buy a set of clothing from holiday vendors using the currency of the holiday, which are Burning Blossoms. The one other thing is the defeat of a boss named Ahune who resides in the Slave Pens in Outland. I am ashamed to say, I've never done an instance in Outland outside of Ramparts. I got started a few days late, and I've yet to see someone looking for a group for Ahune, which worries me a little bit. Hopefully one will come around.

The main part of getting this achievement done is time. I have to do most of the fires in Eastern Kingdoms and the ones in Outlands. You know what I hate about this? Little bastard druids who follow you around and camp your non-PvPing ass. That's what I hate. Anyway. Time. It's taken me a few hours to do most of Kalimdor, and I suppose it will be similar for Eastern Kingdoms. Ahune probably won't take that long; he's a boss apparently just inside the entrance of the Slave Pens. To access the encounter, players must pick up a quest from an NPC inside the instance, who directs you to another NPC who gives you an item to summon Ahune at the Ice Stone (which hasn't melted lately, I might add). He should be a fairly quick kill, since he is still level 70.

And that's about all there is to this event. The Burning Blossoms you aquire from the fires around the world should be plenty to get the set of clothing. Blossoms for the extra items can be gotten from the daily quests in any major city.

Here are a couple of in-depth guides to the Festival: WoW.com, Wowhead. Both are good guides, with a few differences. The Wowhead guide is much more in depth: it has more information about the specific requirements, quests, and rewards, all of which can be easily investigated further with links further into the Wowhead site. The WoW.com guide is more of an "at a glance" guide, and is good to use if you're, perhaps, just looking for coordinates of the fires. Either one works just fine.

Personally, this event is slightly nostalgic because it's the first event I remember doing, last year. I started in early May last year, and they didn't yet have the Easter event. I thought I was so cool that there were holidays integrated into the gameplay in WoW. It was so different from what I was used to, which was mostly console RPG's and platformers. The dynamic nature of the game really stood out to me through the holidays. It's rather quaint to think I was so impressed by something in which the only major benefit I got was a nice little xp buff.

Next, the rest of the 3.2 changes. If I feel like it.

WoW: PvP in 3.2

The biggest changes in this patch relating to PvP are the new battleground and the XP changes. The new battleground, the Isle of Conquest, will have 40-man teams on each side, and will have vehicles and generals similar to those in Alterac Valley. I don't have much to say about that one, except that I'm sure I will eventually try it out. Hopefully, I'll get to it a little bit sooner than I did Strand of the Ancients.

The XP changes are a little more interesting to me. Players will now be able to gain XP from completing battleground objectives. To avoid the wrath of twinks, players can also now turn off XP gains altogether. Still, this change still affects twinks. From now on, players will be put in battlegrounds only with others with XP turned on or off, corresponding to the players' own status. Essentially, twinks will only be put in batttlegrounds with other twinks.

Now, I don't twink at all, but it seems that this leveling of the playing field pretty much takes all the fun out of twinking. After all, the best part about twinking is pounding little normally-geared low-levels into the dirt. If all you can do is attempt to pound other twinks into the dirt, it's not nearly as cool. All in all, it won't be seen if this is the so called "death of twinking" until the patch hits. Aside from that whole thing, it will be nice to have more of a reason to go into battlegrounds as a lower-level toon. I'm currently leveling a priest alt, and it'll be nice to have an incentive besides an awesome mount.

Other changes include a general shortening of battlegrounds. Battlegrounds that require victory points now require less points. Some other assorted buffs grant additional honor. Finally, Warsong Gulch has a 20 minute timer. Hallelujah! I've gone through way too many nightmarish WSG battles zerging and zerging the flag room, never getting anywhere. Never again, muahaha! This change is similar to the raiding changes in that players will be able to get better gear, faster. This is also exciting to me because I'm trying to get into PvP more, and this will help me get some more resilience pieces so I can be less of a squishy squishy mage.

Next, I'll finish up with the rest of the (more interesting than PvP) changes coming out in the patch.

WoW Patch 3.2 Thoughts

I should probably begin by saying I'm a level 80 mage on the Rivendare realm. I'm currently specced Arcane, and am a semi-hardcore raider. I suck at PvP, but I'm working on it.

Now that that's out of the way. Information about the upcoming Patch 3.2 has been rolling out at a breakneck pace (of course, all while I'm out of town). The PTR is imminent, and many of the changes are, to be mild, hotly contested. Since my personal interest lies mostly in raiding, I'll start with that.

The centerpiece of this patch is the expansion of the Argent Tournament. Up to this point in the game, the Tournament has been focused largely around daily quests. The updated Tournament will include a new 5-man dungeon, Trial of the Champion and new 10- and 25-man raids, Trial of the Crusader. There will also be heroic versions of both the raids, Trial of the Grand Crusader, in which raiders will have only a few attempts at each encounter each week. All of the raids are on separate raid lock-outs.

Personally, I like all of these additions. There's a little something for players of every level, from new 80s running Heroics to hardcore raiders who demand more and more difficult encounters from Blizzard. Also, the fact that all the new instances are on separate lock-outs means... more gear! The only concern I have with this set-up is the possibility for different levels of gear presented. Currently, Blizzard has it set up so the 10-man and 25-man raids each have different item levels of gear that drop in them. If they continue with this model, they could have a large plethora of gear levels dropping from similar instances. I think it would work best if they had two levels of gear at max. I guess I could deal with three.

The second change is to the emblem system. Currently, there are three levels of emblems: Heroism, Valor, and Conquest. In Patch 3.2, all heroics and raids dropping Heroism and Valor badges will drop Emblems of Conquest. This is the change that seems to be the one people are most upset with. For the most part, those most upset are those hardcore raiders who have already worked up to tier 8. They see this change as having trvialized their months of hard work, since any newly minted level 80 can waltz into a heroic dungeon and get themselves a few easy pieces of tier 8 gear.

In reality, Blizzard isn't just trying to piss off their most loyal players. If this change was not made, each player would have to go through heroics, Naxx, and Ulduar to get to the shiny new tier 9 content. This is not much in the best interests of a 25-man raiding team, and Blizzard knows this. Personally, that's not the part I have a problem with. It feels like the dev team is slightly schizophrenic; the 10- and 25-man system made for a complicated emblem system. Now, it seems they've deemed it too complicated. Now, they jump into a different philosophy, one of more simplicity and ease of use. For the most part, I'm all for it. I kind of just wish they would make up their minds about what's going to go down. Of course, the game does go through different cycles, and maybe this expansion has just gotten to the point of a little change.

Next, a little bit on the PvP changes.