Moar Achievements: Account wide and the promise of a pony

Blizzard has marked several achievements in the beta as account wide by adding a blue tint to the banner at the top of the achievement listing.  Let me clarify this somewhat: all achievements count towards an account achievement total. Some have components that are also account wide.  So Loremaster can be achieved by having different Quest achievements on different toons, but Tabard achievements require one toon to wear all the tabards still.

Below are listings of a few achievements where it might not be clear whether components are account wide or not.

Account wide

• Mount achievements including individual mount achievements for those mounts being made account wide (i.e. Wooly Mammoth, One Hump or Two?)
• The Hemet Nessingwary meta
• The Loremaster and other quest metas
• World Explorer and other exploration metas
• Metas for each Battleground and Battlemaster
• For the Alliance!/Horde!
• Jack of All Trades
• Profession metas
• World Event metas

Not account wide

Remember, this means all toons will get points from it, but the complete achievement has to be done on one character.  I’ve not listed everything, just the ones where I thought there might be a question.

• Achievements for using gear of a certain rarity/ilevel
• Tabard achievements
• Got My Mind On My Money
• The Squirrels series and Pest Control
• Well Read
• Higher Learning
• Achievements to eat and drink certain foods and drinks/certain numbers of foods and drinks
• Achievements for numbers of quests, daily quests and dungeon quests including for each zone
• The Bread Winner
• Exploration achievements
• Achievements to get a total number of Honorable Kills
• Achievements for numbers of points
• That Takes Class/Know Thy Enemy
• Achievements to cook/fish/dig up named things
• Reputation achievements including reputation metas

There were a couple of suprises in there.  The Reputation metas stand out as being a bit harsh, but since a lot of them carry titles I guess I can live with it.  I’ll still have the points – I’ll just have to pick a rep farm toon (probably Morrighan) and farm reps on that toon.  The same for Tabards.

What I am less happy to see is the quest number and honor kill achievements are not tagged as account wide.  This may be just that it hasn’t been done yet.  Because Ghostcrawler said in his blog post:

The other category are achievements that are just brutal to complete on one character (and you’d never want to do for multiples), such as 2500 daily quests or 250K honorable kills. In these cases, the cumulative work of all your characters on those criteria will count.

I will be most put out if this doesn’t happen.  Ghostcrawler promised me an account wide pony and I want it!

Moar Achievements: Mountain O’ Mounts Action Plan 1-57 (the easy part)

The good news is that there are a lot of mounts in game now that you can use to get the Mountain O’ Mounts achievement (100 mounts).  The bad news is that mount collecting is expensive!  This is my Mountain O’ Mounts action plan, plus some optional extra mounts you could use towards your collection.

Things to know about Mountain O’ Mounts

• Class mounts don’t count
• Profession mounts do count
• You don’t need to be Exalted with your own faction
• This is an Alliance list – but all mounts have a Horde equivalent

 What you are going to need

• Cash!  At least 16829 gold according to my action plan, though you could replace some of these mounts with cheaper options if you were willing to farm for longer/can do more achievements/have rare mounts. This assumes no discounts so you will spend lest with faction discounts and the guild saving.
• Time – you will need to farm reputations at some point, and there are quite a few mounts to be had from dailies too.  You also can’t do all the dailies every day.
• A level 85 toon (I include Tol Barad mounts here, hence the requirement – you could do this achievement at a lower level, but you would need more of the alternative mounts).
• 2175 Justice Points
• 14000 Honor points
• At least Artisan Riding.  You can gain Master Riding by doing the holiday meta if you wish.  None of these mounts require Master Riding to use.

The mounts

1. Abyssal Seahorse – Vashj’ir quest

Just go to Vashj’ir and follow the quest line and you will get this mount for free and quite quickly.

2. Black Stallion – 1 gold + Exalted with Stormwind
3. Brown Horse -  1 gold + Exalted with Stormwind
4. Chestnut Mare -  1 gold + Exalted with Stormwind
5. Pinto -  1 gold + Exalted with Stormwind
6. Swift Brown Steed -  10 gold + Exalted with Stormwind
7. Swift Palamino -  10 gold + Exalted with Stormwind
8. Swift White Steed -  10 gold + Exalted with Stormwind

You can become Exalted with Stormwind by buying a Stormwind Tabard and wearing it while in any instance, including low level ones. You will get reputation for every mob killed. The mounts are all available from the stables within Stormwind.
Cost so far: 34 gold

9. Blue Mechanostrider –  1 gold + Exalted with Gnomeregan
10. Green Mechanostrider –  1 gold + Exalted with Gnomeregan
11. Red Mechanostrider –  1 gold + Exalted with Gnomeregan
12. Unpainted Mechanostrider –  1 gold + Exalted with Gnomeregan
13. Swift Green Mechanostrider –  10 gold + Exalted with Gnomeregan
14. Swift White Mechanostrider –  10 gold + Exalted with Gnomeregan
15. Swift Yellow Mechanostrider –  10 gold + Exalted with Gnomeregan

You can become Exalted with Gnomeregan by buying a Gnomeregan Tabard and wearing it while in any instance, including low level ones. You will get reputation for every mob killed. The mounts are all available just outside Kharanos.
Cost so far: 68 gold

16. Brown Elekk –  1 gold + Exalted with Exodar
17. Grey Elekk –  1 gold + Exalted with Exodar
18. Purple Elekk –  1 gold + Exalted with Exodar
19. Great Blue Elekk –  10 gold + Exalted with Exodar
20. Great Green Elekk –  10 gold + Exalted with Exodar
21. Great Purple Elekk –  10 gold + Exalted with Exodar

You can become Exalted with Exodar by buying an Exodar Tabard and wearing it while in any instance, including low level ones. You will get reputation for every mob killed. The mounts are all available just outside the Exodar.
Cost so far: 101 gold

22. Brown Ram –  1 gold + Exalted with Ironforge
23. Grey Ram –  1 gold + Exalted with Ironforge
24. White Ram –  1 gold + Exalted with Ironforge
25. Swift Brown Ram –  10 gold + Exalted with Ironforge
26. Swift Grey Ram –  10 gold + Exalted with Ironforge
27. Swift White Ram –  10 gold + Exalted with Ironforge

You can become Exalted with Ironforge by buying an Ironforge Tabard and wearing it while in any instance, including low level ones. You will get reputation for every mob killed. The mounts are all available from the Amberstill Ranch in Dun Morogh.
Cost so far: 134 gold

28. Spotted Frostsaber – 1 gold + Exalted with Darnassus
29. Striped Dawnsaber – 1 gold + Exalted with Darnassus
30. Striped Frostsaber – 1 gold + Exalted with Darnassus
31. Striped Nightsaber – 1 gold + Exalted with Darnassus
32. Swift Frostsaber – 10 gold + Exalted with Darnassus
33. Swift Mistsaber – 10 gold + Exalted with Darnassus
34. Swift Stormsaber – 10 gold + Exalted with Darnassus

You can become Exalted with Darnassus by buying a Darnassus Tabard and wearing it while in any instance, including low level ones. You will get reputation for every mob killed. The mounts are all available from Darnassus.
Cost so far: 168 gold

35. Mountain Horse – 1 gold + Exalted with Gilneas
36. Swift Mountain Horse – 10 gold + Exalted with Gilneas

You can become Exalted with Gilneas by buying a Gilneas Tabard and wearing it while in any instance, including low level ones. You will get reputation for every mob killed. The mounts are all available from Darnassus (from the Gilnean area).
Cost so far: 179 gold

37. Ebon Gryphon – 50 gold
38. Golden Gryphon – 50 gold
39. Snowy Gryphon – 50 gold
40. Swift Blue Gryphon – 100 gold
41. Swift Green Gryphon – 100 gold
42. Swift Purple Gryphon – 100 gold
43. Swift Red Gryphon – 100 gold

All of these mounts can be brought in Stormwind from the vendor near the flight master.
Cost so far: 729 gold

44. Brown Riding Camel – 100 gold + Exalted with Ramkahen
45. Tan Riding Camel – 100 gold + Exalted with Ramkahen

You can become Exalted with Ramkahen through quests in Uldum.  You can also buy a Ramkahen Tabard from the Quartermaster in Uldum and wear it in at least Cataclysm level instances.  You will get reputation for every mob killed.  The mounts can be brought from the same Quartermaster.
Cost so far: 929 gold

46. Wooly Mammoth – 2175 Justice Points
Cost so far: 929 gold + 2175 Justice Points

47. Black War Elekk – 2000 Honor Points
48. Black War Mammoth – 2000 Honor Points
49. Black War Ram – 2000 Honor Points
50. Black War Tiger – 2000 Honor Points
52.  Black Battlestrider – 2000 Honor Points
53. Black War Steed – 2000 Honor Points

Yes I know mount number 51 is missing.
Cost so far: 929 gold + 2175 Justice Points + 12000 Honor Points

51. Albino Drake – you get this for having 50 mounts! Congratulations.

Cost so far: 929 gold + 2175 Justice Points + 12000 Honor Points

54. Bronze Drake – Heroic Culling of Stratholme

The Bronze Drake is a guarenteed drop as long as you get to the boss in time.  You just have to win the roll.  If you take a buddy or two with you it should be easy to get it.
Cost so far: 929 gold + 2175 Justice Points + 12000 Honor Points

55. Blue Qiraji Battle Tank
56. Green Qiraji Battle Tank
57. Yellow Qiraji Battle Tank

These all drop from AQ40.  If you get a couple of people and run through this, you will get drops.  In fact, if you PuG this you will still likely get them as the drop like candy for the most part.  You can only use them in Ahn’Qiraj but they still count towards your meta.
Cost so far: 929 gold + 2175 Justice Points + 12000 Honor Points

Whats in a main …

When I first played WoW I had one character.  Her name was Akandra and she was a priest.  It was relatively simple, then, to answer ‘What do you play?’ or ‘What’s your main?’

The changing face of a WoW player 
Then came other characters – Enalla, my druid, Morrighan, my paladin and Jera, my much neglected mage.  I finished The Burning Crusade with 3 level 70s – Akandra, Enalla and Morrighan.  And at that point I did something interesting.  I changed my main to Morrighan.

During The Wrath of the Lich King I mostly played my paladin (I had a brief time where Akandra was my main, but healing in Wrath was nasty).  I levelled two more toons to the new cap of 80 – Hesttia, my shaman and Arianrhodd, my death knight and my first max level Horde.

Then came the Cataclysm.  A little way into the expansion I returned to Akandra, because thats what the guild needed.  I am now considering changing toon to my hunter, Brynna, newly max level this expansion, because thats what would suit the guild most and because I’ve never had a ranged dps as my main.

The emotional connection
But my feeling towards these characters has changed.  In The Burning Crusade there was One Character to Rule Them All.  Morrighan saw a little time in Kara as a tank because paladin tanking was kinda fun.  Kara was the first time I participated in an ‘alt’ run.

In Wrath I spent more time in alt runs, taking Akandra and Enalla (and even Hesttia I think).  And again, in Cataclysm, Morrighan and Enalla have attended alt runs.  My changing main, between Akandra and Morrighan, has meant that I feel very torn between the two of them.  I have invested a lot in both.  I currently have position 8 and position 9 in the guild Achievement points list with Morrighan and Akandra respectively.  Both have unique achievements that I value because my experience in getting them was so positive.

And now, with patch 4.3 and the prospect of some form of merged achievements on the horizon, I find I don’t mind investing in yet another character.  And, in fact, I want to invest in all of them.  Because I want to get all of them into LFR and get some gear on them and enjoy playing them.  I find I don’t care what my ‘main’ is.  With raiding becoming somewhat repetitive the new represents an interesting change.

This is not true for everyone.  Some people have invested a great deal in one character.  But increasingly I am finding that even they are more likely to engage in activities on other characters, outside of the ‘alt run’ model.  And if you play multiple games, the dynamic changes again.

Does ‘main’ still have a function
If the emotional connection I used to focus on one character is now spread across all my characters – what purpose does it serve to have a ‘main’?  I would argue there is still a practical purpose, but even that is being watered down.

Within a guild a main is useful because it helps the guild to focus its resources, in PvE in particular.  A guild might provide potions, flasks and food for progress raids.  It will want people to bring a main to a fight so it can focus on gearing that main and make all the main toons better to enable progress.  If loot is spread over alts as well then that will slow progress a little (the exception is at the top end where the guild has time to gear both mains and alts as needed).  Limited resources such as time, loot and gold are focused where the guild needs them.

But even that is being eroded.  With many Dragon Soul bosses needing only one tank we find we are using an alt for a second tank.   My healer may also be a backup.  But the principle still stands – resources should be focused where the guild needs them.  And by asking players to choose a ‘main’ you are giving power to the player to make that choice.

Your online identity
Another part of the traditional role of the ‘main’ was the definition of your WoW identity.  I was Akandra the Holy Priest.  Akandra was the tag I often used in other games.  It was who I chose to be when online.  Within WoW, at least, this is being overcome by Real ID and the Battletag.

If the concept of main also references the concept of a single online identity, I would like to think that this, also, is passing.  Identity is far too complex to be singular.  I can be both Akandra the Holy Priest, Morrighan the Ret Paladin, as I can be a WoW player, a SWTOR player, a Project Analyst, a mother, a wife, a friend, a daughter.  All of those are identities that I hold.  People who know the Project Analyst have never met the WoW player and may not even know she exists.  Identity is multiple.  So gaming identity can also be multiple.

Maybe we need a new language for a new world
Games are changing to better support this new multi-toon world.  WoW has long supported players levelling multiple characters with Heirloom gear being its main method.  It is now looking at cross-account Achievements and pets, and maybe more.   SWTOR is introducing a Legacy system.  In its current form, it allows you to choose a ‘surname’ that all your toons will share.  But it also allows all your characters to accrue Legacy points and levels which will give further benefits later.  The advantage of this system is it does not require you to level one character all the way to max level before all your characters start to benefit.  You have to get one character to level 30.

So instead of talking about main and alt, how might we describe this situation?  We might describe our characters by what we do with them – a Raiding toon, a PvP toon.  We might talk about having a ‘guild’ or ‘active’ character that allows the guild to focus resources on it.  I tend to find I talk about my toons by class – ‘I’ve done LFR on my priest and my hunter’ – and sometimes by role.

What do you guys think?  Has the main/alt dynamic seen its best days?  Do you still feel that strong connection to one character?  Did you ever?  Do you still only have one toon, or are you embracing multiplicity and doing different gaming activities with different groups at different times?

Blizzcon Analysis: New Talent Tree System

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away … or two years ago at Blizzcon, Blizzard announced Talents 1.5.  Talents 1.5 had two particular focuses: to remove bloating from the trees so that all the talents were exciting and to improve player choice so that players could choose the fun stuff.  It was meant to be accompanied by ‘Path of the Titans’ – a kind of talent addon where you chose a tree according to your role no matter what class you were and got more talents.  Somewhere between announcement and the final product, Path of the Titans was removed.  As for its goals, Talents 1.5 took a step in the right direction, but it would be generous to say it achieved its goals.  It did remove some, but not all, of the bloating.  And it did enable some choice, but limited choice in other ways.

So now Blizzard have decided to go with revolution instead of evolution.

Your talent trees are gone.  A lot of your talents will now be base spells you are giving for picking your tree.  For example, Holy seems likely to get Chakras just for picking Holy.  The same for Spirit of Redemption.  Other spells, such as Circle of Healing, will be given to all specs.

These are replaced by Talents 2.0.  Each CLASS (not spec, class) has one tree of six tiers.  Each tier has 3 options.  You can pick one.  No backfilling.  You will be able to change your talents as easily as you change your Glyphs (i.e. out of combat for a small fee as often as you like).  Does this remove bloating?  Does this improve player choice?  Lets take a look at Priests.

Tier 1 (accessed at level 15, otherwise known as the cc tier)

Void Tendrils
Instant cast, 30 sec cd, 4800 mana
Summons Shadowy tendrils out of the ground, rooting all targets within 10 yards for 20 seconds.  Killing the tendril will cancel the effect.

Psyfiend
Instant cast, 1 min cd, 4800 mana
Summons a Psyfiend that stands in place.  The Psyfiend casts a Psychic Scream on a nearby enemy within 40 yards every 2 seconds lasting for 10 seconds, preferring anything attacking the Priest or her friends.

Psychic Scream
Instant cast, 30 sec cd, 4800 mana
The caster lets out a psychic scream, causing enemies within 8 yards to flee for 8 seconds.  Damage caused may interrupt the effect.

Now those are some interesting options.  All three sound nice.  All three sound like they would have a use.  In competitive PvP I think you would choose based on your comp.  In PvE you would choose depending on what you were doing.  I could see all three being useful.  And all three sound cool.

Tier 2 (accessed at level 30, otherwise known as the movement speed tier)

Body and Soul
When you cast PW: Shield or Leap of Faith, you increase the target’s movement speed by 60% for 4 seconds.

Path of the Devout
Increases your movement speed while Levitating by 25%

Phantasm
Any time you fade, you remove all movement impairing effects from yourself and your movement speed will be unhindered for 3 seconds.

Now Body and Soul is currently a Holy talent and Phantasm a Shadow talent.  Personally I see this one breaking down a little more simply.  PvE would take Body and Soul most of the time no matter what their spec.  The little speed boost is fabulous for getting out of trouble.  Its going to be amazing as Disc.  In PvP you would take Phantasm.  But for running around doing quests/grinding archaeology I see myself slapping on the Path of the Devout.  I suspect it might also have a situational use in PvE too.  I don’t see PvE players of any spec running with anything other than Body and Soul as default.  But I’m okay with that as I LOVE Body and Soul.

Tier 3 (accessed at level 45, the ‘BOOM’ tier)

From Darkness, Comes Light
Surge of Light (Caster form)
You have a 6% chance when you Smite, Heal, Flash Heal, Binding Heal or Greater Heal to cause your next Flash Heal to be instant cast and have no mana cost.

Surge of Darkness (Shadowform)
You have a 6% chance when you deal damage with Mind Flay to cause your next Mind Blast to be instant cast and have no Shadow Orb cost.

Divine Star
Instant, 30 sec cd, 20 yard range
Fires a Divine Star in front of you, travelling 20 yards doing damage to all enemies and healing all friendly targets in its path. After reaching its destination, it will return to you also dealing damage and healing all targets in its path.

Archangel
Archangel (Caster form)
Consumes your Evangelism, increasing your healing done by 5% for each Evangelism consumed.  30 sec cd.

Dark Archangel (Shadowform)
Consumes your Shadow Orbs, increasing the damage done by your Mind Flay, Mind Spike, Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death by 5% for each Shadow Orb consumed.  90 sec cd.

The first thing is that this tier implies both healing specs will get Evangelism.  Two of these are old talents recycled.  From Darkness, Comes Light sounds pretty awesome.  As does Archangel.  I suspect you will swap between these in PvE depending on whether you want general additional damage/healing or focused damage/healing.  Divine Star sounds odd (but cool).  I suspect it will be good in PvP because you can cast it and move on to other things.  It may also have situational uses in PvE.  I am not sure which I will run with as a default.  I will need to try them.

Tier 4 (accessed at level 60, the ‘oh, s*** tier)

Desperate Prayer
Instant, 2 min cd
Instantly heals the caster for 30% of their total health.

Angelic Bulwark
Increases the effectiveness of your own shield effects on yourself by 30%.

Final Prayer
Any time a damaging attack brings you below 30% health, you gain an absorption shield equal to 20% of your total health lasting for 20 sec.  This effect cannot occur more than once every 90 sec.

Another tier where all three talents are useful.  Like Tier 1, I think it will depend very much on situation and personal preference which you choose.  Along with tier 1 this goes some way to making Holy more viable in PvP.

Tier 5 (accessible at 75, the odd tier)

Twist of Fate
Increases damage and healing done to targets at or below 25% health.

Power Infusion
Instant cast, 2 min cd, 40 yard range, 5120 mana
Infuses the target with power, increasing spell casting speed by 20% and reducing the mana cost of all spells by 20% Lasts 15 seconds.

Serendipity
When you heal with Binding Heal or Flash Heal, the cast time of your next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing spell is reduced by 20% and mana cost reduced by 10%.  Stacks up to 2 times.  Lasts 10 seconds.

Mind Melt (Shadowform)
When you deal damage with Mind Spike, the cast time of your next Minda Blast is reduced by 50% lasting 6 seconds.  Mind Melt can stack up to two times.

So lets look at this one. Twist of Fate looks boring and like a bloat talent at first glance, but actually it isn’t.  Its useful for tank healers.  And its an execute for shadow priests.  As shadow, you only have two options as Serendipity is terrible – I have yet to find a situation where I want to use Mind Spike regularly other than quest farming.  Which you choose as Shadow depends on if you really need to focus your dps at specific times or want a boost overall.  Its an interesting tier as a healer.  I will be taking Serendipity at first, as mana is likely to be an issue.  But I can see myself changing per encounter.  Do I need to burst heal for a short time?  Is my healing not that hard but the dps need a boost?  Is this a mana intensive fight or a throughput fight?

Tier 6 (accessible at 90, the save the cheerleader tier)

Vow of Unity
Instant, 3 min cod, 40 yard range
You create a Vow of Unity with the friendly target.  Whenever you heal the target through spells and effects, you are also healed equal to 20% of the amount.  In addition, when the target is attacked, 50% of the damage is redirected to you over 6 seconds.  If your target is victim to an attack greater than 30% of their total health, the Vow of Unity effect ends.

Void Shift
Instant, 3 min cd, 40 yard range
You swap health percentage with the currently friendly target.  After this effect ends, you are instantly healed for 25% of your total health.

Vampiric Dominance
When you deal damage or healing, 15% of the amount is healed to up to 3 low health nearby allies.

I will be taking Vampiric Dominance and hoping, against all hope, that they do not design any encounters that require me to change that.  Both of the other spells are useful, I agree.  I am just hoping they are not part of a plan to have lots more rotating cooldowns to save the tank type encounters.  If they are, I’ll be changing class again.  Thats what made me change to my paladin last time.  Both of the other spells are interesting, in that you really need to plan for them.  Its just that cooldown rotations make me cry.  I also feel like these are pretty rubbish for level 90 end of tier talents.  Ohh look some more cooldowns and background healing.  Not excited.  And I imagine Shadow is even less excited.

Conclusions
Overall, it looks good.  I think 2.0 is likely to eliminate bloat and increase player choice in some ways.  It does allow you to tailor when and how you get your boosts and what exactly is boosted.  Unlike Glyphs, I can see myself swapping these around for different fights and the very fact that you can do that eliminates ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ builds.  Instead players will have to figure out what works best for them and when.  There will probably be some discussion about optimal choices in a fight, but based on the priest trees there will be no overall ‘best’ build unless Blizzard screw up and something is out of balance.

If the priest trees are representative, Blizzard have interpreted hybridization as utility.  Most talents that enhance healing or dps seem to work differently for healers or dps, so I don’t expect to see Shadow priests doing a bit of healing in high damage phases.  This system is not going to produce a true hybrid class in that sense.  Whilst I think some people would like to be able to become a true hybrid, I can see why Blizzard haven’t gone that route (balance issues, PvP issues, not forcing people who want to dps to heal, etc.).  In fact, the addition of a fourth spec to druids removes the last true hybrid option in the game.  However, Shadow priests will be able to access things like Void Shift and Vow of Unity, or provide Vampiric Dominance.  This seems to suggest at instants of strong hybridization, or sustained periods of weak hybridization, which is very much what has happened in Cataclysm (paladin utility for example was nerfed following Wrath and this is in line with that philosophy).  My one worry is that with this support for hybridization we might see things like fights requiring a cooldown rotation return, since more players will have access to these kinds of abilities.  Lets hope not (or I will need to find a class with no such cooldowns)!!!

I don’t think this system is without flaw.  In the priest trees its notable that at least two tiers contain nothing that would naturally fall within the current Shadow role and the availability of those might cause balance issues in PvP.  Tier 5 has a lot of cool stuff in it and will be the one tier I am sorry I can’t backfill, whereas I don’t really want anything from Tier 6.  Vow of Unity and Void Shift seem confusing and far too similar and I hope there are some changes there.  But overall I am optimistic.

Blizzcon Analysis: The Annual Pass

The Annual Pass:

• You commit to paying for WoW for the next 12 months
• You may well not have to change the way you pay (you might, it depends how you pay)
• You get a free mount in 4.3 just to say ‘thanks’
• You get Diablo 3 for free

Should I get it?
So for me this is a pure win. I had every intention of continuing to play WoW and of paying for the next 12 months. And I was planning to buy Diablo 3. Now I get a mount and Diablo 3 for free. A lot of people will be in the same situation and will be happy.

On the other hand some WoW players might not have been planning to buy Diablo 3. If you were planning to pay for the next 12 months anyway, you might as well sign up to the Annual Pass and get the game free. If you’ve never played Diablo before, its a fun game and you don’t have to get involved with all the Real Money AH stuff. You can just play the well-designed RPG that I have no doubt Diablo 3 will be on your own and probably enjoy it. Unless you have an unquenchable hatred for the Diablo series, its worth it.

If you weren’t planning to pay for WoW for the next 12 months then its time to look at total cost of ownership. I pay £7.69 a month for WoW. Diablo 3 would probably have cost me £30 if I brought it online. So Diablo 3 costs the same as 4 months of WoW. If you were planning on taking more than 4 months off, then it works out cheaper to pay for Diablo 3 separately in most cases (if you can’t get Diablo 3 for £30 online and will end up paying £40 on the High Street, that goes up to 6 months, and you might be paying up to £8.99 a month for WoW). Its like a mobile phone contract – you should add up what you will pay for the phone and per month over the life of the contract to figure out the best deal.

What does this mean?
Well I think it says something about the future of Blizzard games. There was an article I read the other day in which EA pointed out that every game has a 10-15% marketing cost and they were looking at ways of changing how we buy games in order to reduce that. Steam does probably the best job here. It looks like Blizzard are also thinking about how they market their games and different ways of producing revenue.

I am not the target of the Annual Pass
Gamers like myself are not who the pass is aimed at. They are losing money on me. But it seems that gamers like myself are also not the majority of their player-base. For this to have gotten through, the play-break-return players must be a bigger number than I had thought. Even if these players were planning on taking a break of more than four months, they might be tempted by the deal to keep playing. Say they were planning a six-month break. Paying for the pass essentially gives them 6 months for the price of 2. Thats a good deal still. It might tempt them to pay for the pass, rather than buy Diablo 3.

Marketing
The Annual Pass gets Blizzard Diablo 3 sales numbers with very little spent on marketing. On release day, they will have millions of sales which cost them an announcement at Blizzcon and a few pages on a website. On release day, they will have some nice big sales numbers to announce, which will further advertise the game in a positive way. Thats a huge cost saving for Blizzard. It might even tempt some WoW fans who weren’t planning to play Diablo 3 to give it a try as its free anyway. And some who might never touch it might still want the free mount. Those players will add to that huge sales number on launch.

Subscription services
Now does this indicate a possible future in which all Blizzard games are available via a monthly subscription? Possibly. There are a couple of things going on that makes me think this might happen.

Firstly, there is a massive resentment over paying for expansion packs in both WoW and Starcraft. In the case of WoW, the huge number of expansion packs becomes a barrier to entry. In the case of Starcraft, people felt they only got 1/3 of the game (even though they got the entire multi-player platform). These issues would go away with a subscription based model.

Secondly, Blizzard’s new releases cut into the profitability of WoW. People stop playing, and paying for, WoW while they play Starcraft and Diablo. And thats just their own games – people also stop to play other games from other companies, which is even worse. With a new MMO on the horizon, they will have to know that their own product is the one most likely to kill WoW. My guess is that this is a test. Will the Annual Pass see people who they might otherwise have lost keep subscribing in order to get Diablo 3 for free? Will it tempt people to pay for the extra 2 months? If so this is what I would like to see:

• Legendary subscription that gives you the lot – WoW, Titan, all packs and games when they are released, premium and mobile services, collector edition items, all in store pets and mounts
• Epic subscription that gives you the games, but not the extras like premium and mobile services and collectors edition items
• Rare subscription that gives you WoW and Titan plus packs
• Uncommon subscription that gives you just WoW and Titan and you buy your own packs (I am certain we will see this option)
• Common subscription where you just pay for what you want
• Flexible bolt ons to all these so you can get the parts you want

Blizzard aren’t going to go down the free to play route – they don’t need to. Free to play would undoubtedly lose them money at this point. The introduction of the first 20 levels as ‘free to play’ was not the first step on a slippery slope, it was a marketing ploy aimed at improving the retention of new starters and getting the game marketed in such a way that people might try it out since its ‘free to play’ (as opposed to using the free trial for a paid for game – see how its a different way of saying the same thing?).

The final point here is player retention within the Battle.Net framework. If you subscribe you can play all their games and keep in touch with all your friends no matter what they are playing. You would never have to go to the bother of ordering a new game. You pay and content wings its way to you electronically when available. New games are consumed en masse with no additional marketing required. New franchises are less risky because you already have the money in the bank. The only issue with this model would be keeping enough new content coming that people felt it justified the monthly fee. But Blizzard have been experimenting with this for years now, so they have a good idea of what works. And they have this great Battle.Net framework that lets you stay connected with your friends whatever you are playing. Could this be a recipe for a subscription success?

So what do you think of my crystal ball gazing? It might not be right. Or it might be right, but Blizzard get thrown a curve ball by Star Wars*. But somehow, I don’t think that will happen. I read a argument from Tobald a while back about how micro-transactions are the best payment model for most games. And hes not wrong. Its only Blizzard’s huge market share that makes this viable for them. And the confidence people have (at least those who don’t whine on the WoW forums like a bunch of 3 year olds about stupid things) in Blizzard producing only good games (who remember Starcraft: Ghost?) and not the kind of tat that many games companies churn out as standard fare.

*For what its worth, I think Star Wars will be a success. It might even be a big success, but it will take time because there are some things you just can’t beta test enough. WoW is the only MMO that will ever get the free pass for problems on release, because it got to the mass-market first. People expect their new MMOs to come fully formed out of the gate with minimal bugs or balance issues and that doesn’t happen. Very few MMOs have been good enough for people to stick through the growing pains in large numbers. Star Wars might manage that. Or it might not. I will be playing it, because I think the levelling experience will be very good. I don’t know if I will play the end game much though because it would have to be truly awesome to make me give up what I have in WoW and while it might be good, it won’t be truly awesome right off the bat.

The calm before the storm: 4.3, premium services and Blizzcon

Does anyone else feel like we’re in the calm before the storm? Its been a VERY long time since we’ve had such a silence from the developers on almost all issues. I’ve been following sites like MMO Champion, etc. since the beginning of Wrath and its never been this quiet.

What do you all think they are working on right now? I am pretty certain there is some kind of announcement about 4.3 on the horizon. And of course one of the Blues already mentioned they are preparing for Blizzcon so there is likely to be something pretty big there. But I can’t help but feel theres something else in the works. Something to do with the cross-server invite tool and premium services perhaps. Maybe something to do with that mysterious hint about a reason to explore old content more that was dropped a while back? Or to do with the promises to improve Archaeology?

What else might be hidden in the depths of Blizzard HQ’s collective brain (resistance is futile)?

Chimaeron Crib Sheet

Welcome to Morrighan’s Crib Sheet Raid Guides. This Crib Sheet is for the 10 man version of Chimaeron, which can be found in the Blackwing Descent raid in Blackrock Mountain. The tactics for 25 man are the same as far as I am aware and simply involve scaling up what is written here (though you can also use 3 tanks to make life easier). You can find consolidated Crib Sheets on the menu to the right.

• 2 tanks, 3 healers, 5 dps.
• Spread out at least 10 yards.  Mark one person to collapse onto during Feud.
• Except during Feud, no player needs more than 10k health, but every player needs to be kept at or above 10k health apart from the Double Strike tank who needs to be over 100k health.
• 1 tank takes all the normal boss hits.  The second tank taunts the boss to take the Double Strike hits (two big hits).  The first tank then taunts back.
• Caustic Slime will reduce 2/3 people to 1 HP.  Heal them back to above 10k before the next Caustic Slime/Massacre/Feud.  You will need to use your fast and expensive heal for this.
• Massacre reduces everyone to 1 HP.  Heal them back to above 10k before the next Caustic Slime/Massacre/Feud.
• During Feud Chimaeron stops all other attacks and just does lots of damage.  Spam heal the whole group.  You want to keep everyone as high as possible here.  Everyone should hug during Feud for maximum healing.
• Repeat the above abilities until he gets to 20%.  You will want to assign healers carefully.  We normally assign 1 tank healer (double strike tank first) and 1 healer per group.  The group healers keep an eye on the normal hits tank too.  A good tactic is to assign healers a priority order in groups.  So group healer 1 starts at the top of group 1 and group healer 2 starts at the bottom of group 2.
• At 20% NUKE.  You can’t heal any more, so healers NUKE.  You can’t taunt either.  He still has Double Strike.  Spread out so he has further to travel before he hits you.  Use cooldowns to prevent people from dying from double strike.  People will die so this is a race to down him before he kills you all.

Game Breaking Change Hails the End of WoW

Authenticator field removed from the main login screen
The authenticator prompt is indeed no longer on the main login screen, and this was an intentional change to prepare for future authentication functionality. Rest assured your account is still protected.

Do you have any idea how irritating this is Blizzard!!!!  Any idea!!!!  Especially in combination with a d/c every time I release spirit!!!!  Every time I log in I tab after typing in my password and enter my authenticator code.  Which overwrites my username.  Which means I fail to log in and have to retype my sodding username.

*Goes to sob quietly in a corner.*  This new functionality had better be awesome!!!!

Conclave of Winds Crib Sheet

Welcome to Morrighan’s Crib Sheet Raid Guides.  This Crib Sheet is for the 10 man version of the Conclave of Winds, which can be found in the Throne of the Four Winds in southern Uldum.  The tactics for 25 man are the same as far as I am aware and simply involve scaling up what is written here.  You can find the consolidated Tier 11 Crib Sheets here.

• 3 djinn, Anshal, Nezir and Rohash, are on separate platforms and need to die at around the same time.
• 1 tank, 1 healer and 3 dps (melee here) should go to Anshal’s platform.  You may want to have one dps swap to Rohash.
• 1 tank, 1 healer should go to Nezir’s platform
• 1 healer and 2 dps should go to Rohash’s platform
• All 3 djinn have an energy bar which at 90 triggers an ‘ultimate’ ability.  There must be someone on each platform at that time or the raid will be insta-wiped.
• You can jump from platform to platform at any time apart from when an ultimate is cast.  Aim carefully or you will miss.
• The tank/healer pairs should swap platform just before each ultimate (70-75 energy) and remain on their new platform until the next ultimate.
• Rohash’s healer stays there for the whole fight (some people have the dps stay instead).
• The dps should all move to dps Nezir during the ultimate and then return to their platforms and bosses.  During Nezir’s ultimate they should stay alive, self healing if needed as the damage is high.
• On Anshal’s platform – move him out of the green circle fast as it heals Anshal and silences everyone.  Kill the adds.
• On Nezir’s platform – avoid the cone attack which knocks you back and stay off of ice patches. This ultimate does a lot of damage.
• On  Rohash’s platform – melee is generally bad here, avoid Wind Blast which circles around the platform and will knock you off it you are hit and stay out of tornadoes.

Retribution Paladin pre-raid gear list 4.0.6

This is the set I would go for pre-raid based on the gear list.  This set will see you 2 points off the hit cap (with hit gems in blue slots).  You will need to reforge to meet the expertise cap.  Its a bit of a change from items you may have gone for beforehand, due to the changes in 4.0.6.  You could add one other epic item to this list the Valor Points boots are BoE and probably

Head – Stonemason’s Helm (Heroic Deadmines)
Neck – Gift of Nadun (Ramkahen – Exalted)
Shoulder – Pauldron’s of the High Requiem (1650 Justice Points)
Back – Geordan’s Cloak (Heroic Lost City of Tolv’ir)
Chest – Elementium Deathplate (Blacksmithing)
Wrist – Alpha Bracers (Heroic Halls of Origination)
Hands – Reaping Gauntlets (1650 Justice Points)
Waist – Belt of the Ferocious Wolf (Guardian’s of Hyjal – Exalted)
Legs – Greaves of Gallantry (2200 Justice Points)
Feet* – Greaves of Wu the Elder (Heroic Lost City of Tolv’ir)
Rings – Nova Band (Heroic Halls of Origination) and Circle of Bone (Heroic Grim Batol)
Weapon – Foe Reaper (Heroic Deadmines)
Relic – Weapon of the Brotherhood’s End (Heroic Deadmines)

*If you are Drenai replace Greaves of Wu the Elder with Waywatcher’s Boots from Wildhammer – Revered.

So what do you need to get this gear?

Heroic Deadmines (3 items)
Heroic Lost City of Tol’vir (2 items)
Heroic Halls of Origination (2 items)
Heroic Grim Batol (1 item)

Ramkahen – Exalted (do all the quests in Uldum and then use the tabard – there are two dailies you can use to give a bit of a boost)
Guardian’s of Hyjal – Exalted (do all the quests in Mount Hyjal taking you to Revered and then use the tabard – there are no dailies)

5500 Justice Points

100 Elementium Ore
20 Volatile Earth
36 Pyrium Ore
60 Volatile Fire
60 Volatile Air
60 Volatile Water
3 Chaos Orbs (the crafter will have these, and if thats not you then you’ll need a big chunk o’ gold instead)

I’ll post separately about trinkets when I’ve done the numbers, but I am going to guess that as of 4.0.6 you might want Baradin’s Wardens reputation and marks …