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Posts with tag curator

Magisters' Terrace: Great instance or the greatest instance?

I, like many other players, spent the better part of the morning running the new 5man Magisters' Terrace instance (and yes -- it is "Magisters'," so there is actually more than one Magister in it), and while not everyone is thrilled with it (I know some are saying that it's too hard), I love it. I pretty much agree with AA -- it's not that hard when you actually figure out what to do with CC, and get a handle on the fact that even on normal difficulty, this is a dungeon that doesn't let up.

But my favorite part of the dungeon is just the fact that Blizzard put their money where their mouth is on this one -- for a while, they've been saying that they wanted a five man to be like Deadmines, in that it felt like the end of a long storyline. And MT (which is what I think it will eventually be called by most players, since who really runs Mana Tombs anymore?) is definitely that -- I won't ruin the lore too much, but it works perfectly as both a cap on what happened in Outland, and as a sweet preview to Sunwell Plateau. I never thought we'd meet some of those names in a five man instance, but I loved it, and we'll see more of that in Wrath for sure.

Plus, the encounters are fun. Unfortunately, there's nothing super new -- Blizzard cribbed directly from Warlord Kalithresh for the first boss and Curator for the second (boy, AoEing the little guys before that is exciting, isn't it?), but the miniboss battle near the end really does play like a little PvP-ish PvE (similar to the .5 upgrade event in BRD). All in all, I think it's a great instance, and a fun way to cap off five mans at level 70.

Guildwatch: First come, first served


Time once again for Guildwatch, your weekly dose of guild drama, downed, and recruiting news from around the realms. Every week, we collect your tips, sort them out all pretty-like, and put them together in one column. It's all the guild news you can handle, all in one place.

This week's GW starts right after the jump. And don't forget to send us your own tips for next week: wowguildwatch@gmail.com is the address. Click away!

Continue reading Guildwatch: First come, first served

Guildwatch: Too much holiday cheer


Well, our Christmas wishes haven't come true so far-- the drama we've seen in 2008 has so far been pretty undramatic. But hey, there's still 364 days left, and that leaves a lot of time for ninjas, guildleader meltdowns, and drama bombs, so we'll be patient and see what comes.

And if you see it before we do, be sure to tip off GW about it-- send an email with drama, downed, or recruiting news to wowguildwatch@gmail.com. The very first GW of 2008 starts right after the jump.

Continue reading Guildwatch: Too much holiday cheer

The pros and cons of set loot tables

Hardcore Casual has a short but interesting piece up comparing EVE's loot system to that of WoW and EQ. WoW uses what's called a fixed loot table system, which means that everything you kill in game has a set list of loot that drops from it, in varying degrees. If you kill Illidan, you know exactly what he might drop, even if you don't know exactly which piece on that list will drop. But EVE Online apparently uses a much more random loot system-- when you loot, you might get anything.

A better comparison (especially for Blizzard fans) might be Diablo, where almost anything can drop almost anywhere. The problem with a random loot system like this, however, is exactly what I ran into in Titan Quest (a pretty darn good Diablo clone): halfway through the game, a great item will randomly drop, and you'll get a thrill from getting a sweet weapon. However, because you randomly hit it big, you'll have the problem of nothing better ever dropping again, and the game is pretty much over. Diablo fixed this by having separate areas to go through (and I believe TQ got patched in the expansion to fix this a little bit). But in WoW, you don't have that problem-- every new instance you go into will have better gear than the one before it, guaranteed. You can look it up on WoW Wiki, or look at the loot lists, and know exactly what's there.

In fact, some say WoW's loot tables are too random-- I always see Paladin loot drop whenever there's no Paladin in the group. But it does take a little bit of fun out of the game world when everyone is huddled around the Curator saying "cmon staff, cmon staff, cmon staff!" Giving us a boss or two where the loot is totally and completely random (out of almost any item in the game) could actually be fun.

Two Bosses Enter: The Curator vs. Archimonde


Two bosses enter... but just one will get to leave in our continuing series of fantasy boss deathmatches. We've selected 32 of the most dangerous and most interesting bosses around the World of Warcraft, and every week at WoW Insider we present you with another hypothetical boss fight. And the best part? You get to decide who wins!

This week we're considering The Curator from Karazhan and Archimonde from the Caverns of Time. Interested in learning a bit more about these two bosses -- and letting us know which one you think would be the best? Keep reading!

Continue reading Two Bosses Enter: The Curator vs. Archimonde

Let's get ready to rumb-- err, raid

B Dazzld over on Livejournal has posted her guild's minimum stats required to enter Karazhan, and it should serve as a great guide to those of you wondering if you're ready to start raiding the endgame.

I've reposted them all past the jump, so click the link below to see if you're epic enough to join the raid. Truthfully, these stats are considerably lower than you'd need to actually beat all of Karazhan-- Curator is a nice gear check that would probably blow a raid like this away. Of course, the great thing about raiding is that the more you win, the better your gear gets, so even if you can just down the first few bosses every week, you're well on your way to gearing up your ten raidmembers.

This kind of thing tends to attract the hardcore people who like to brag that they had +1000 healing at level 60 and if you have any less than that, you're a noob. That kind of thing's not too helpful, because not everyone has hours a day to grind away on gear. But I'll tell you-- my gear sucks compared to most of the people I'm rolling through Karazhan with, and I'm still better than this listing, so it shouldn't be too hard for you, just running 5mans and the occasional heroic, to get to this point at least. So if you haven't been able to join up with a raid yet, or don't feel that you're helping on the raids you're going on, here's an easy guide that can give you something to aim for. And since I know you great commenters will anyway, by all means provide your own thoughts about these gear minimums in the comments below.

Update: B Dazzld is a girl, shame on me. Also, updated stats are in the comments. Thanks, B!

Continue reading Let's get ready to rumb-- err, raid

But I do spend time with my friends!

Upon my now bi-monthly visit to my parents' house, they inquired if I had done anything social with my friends in the last few weeks. "Of course," I replied, "we started raiding Karazhan about a month ago, and defeated the Curator, Aran, and the chess event!" They looked at me strangely, and I immediately realized that I was talking about people I've never met in person and whom I spend time with only in a virtual setting. I began wondering if I was losing touch on reality, that a video game was becoming a real setting for me to socialize. I soon realized that it was not just me, but instead it is becoming a phenomenon that is quickly becoming the norm.

Every day I work with people all over the world by phone and by email, and every night I do the same thing. Some may say that it does resemble more of a work environment than a friendship environment, but I say it can be both. I log into our Ventrilo server and chat it up with everyone who is online. I have my friends, and my not-so-friends, and sometimes we work hard, and sometimes we goof around.

I believe that if you take it to a level that you desire, the WoW realm can be just as much a social environment as a party with friends, a date out with your sweetie, or a business trip. Granted I've never slaughtered the undead in my sales trips, but I'd love to claim a Karazhan raid as a business expense!

What social event do you take along with you into World of Warcraft?


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