Green Monster Games - Curt Schilling

I really do hope you get to raid in the higher end, other then just doing what you are supposed to be doing as your role watch and pay attention to the people performing roles around you. Also, learn whats challenging (Muru) and what a retard check (Archimonde) because retard checks are not challenging at all.

Another that would be nice, is if you could some how get away from dps classes spamming abilities and for some of them (warlocks, mages, elemental shaman) spamming the same button over and over and every once in a while having to hit something else (not often enough) like lifetap for example.

Basically what i am asking for is, give people alot of utility that they are forced to use instead of the single spam this button and watch tv because you never have to switch targets spell. Also while you are at it, when it comes to healing people should have options. Options options options options i cant stress this enough, i would gouge my eyes out with a spoon if i were a holy paladin in wow atm. Limited use healing spells would be amazing, maybe healing spells that dont have much use at all except for when a mob does something to the person you are healing and its used as a counter or even to pre-emptively stop something from happening.

While i cant say rather or not this would be great for the masses (requiring a person to have skill and not the ability to press one button for 6 minutes) but as a avid gamer i would love the option of skill actually showing other then when people look at the healing meter and say wow he did more healing then anyone else and had the lowest over healing.

Last but not least, for the love of god stop the mistakes with raiding that blizzard repeats over and over. Pressure the tank and the healers as the only real way to challenge a raid. M"uru would be the greatest example of challenging dps tanks and healers equally imo, you cant simply go in there as a dps class spam your buttons and it not matter like they can on just about every other fight prior to M"uru. Rogues have to kick, wars have to pummel, warlocks have to switch targets like crazy, enslave a loose spawn, mages spell steal (if your dps doesn"t stop the mage humanoids from getting it off) switch targets frequently and sheep depending on your strategy. You cant bring many healers at all (we bring 6) and as big as the room is its pretty much 3 to each half of the room, and its fun and challenging.

However Archimonde is what we like to call a retard check, keys to winning are as followed: Can you click a item as your falling to the ground (not as your flying up, but as your falling to the ground) can you look at a timer and when it gets 3-5 seconds from 0 run away, and last but most important can you see that trail of fire on the ground and not run into it. If you answered yes to those 3 things, go collect your t6 helms cause its really not harder then that at all.

I must protest!

While not ideal, the tanking alchemist stone is a very viable choice for feral druids because it"s such a huge chunk of +defense. They struggle mightily to reach that defense cap, as most every option they have available with defense on it is absolutely freaking awful.

Otherwise I agree, it sucks for warriors.

James said:

And, finally, I know it"s probably already on The List, but you have got to ditch that Alchemist"s stone. In a bad, bad way. I"d probably take Dabiri"s Enigma over it.

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Ya it"s like 2 days old right now, just made it. Until I get something better it"s what I"m going to carry, or swap with the netherwing badge for the stam when tanking.
Once I can upgrade it, I will. BTW does it supplant the Philosophers Stone for Transmutes? I made another one because I just wasn"t sure.

Ngruk said:

Ya it"s like 2 days old right now, just made it. Until I get something better it"s what I"m going to carry, or swap with the netherwing badge for the stam when tanking.
Once I can upgrade it, I will. BTW does it supplant the Philosophers Stone for Transmutes? I made another one because I just wasn"t sure.

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Yes, it does. I just have my healing stone and it works for transmutes and such.

Alchemy/herbalism are also pretty bad profs for prot warriors, there"s really not much synergy between tanking and alchemy. Engineering is a good profession until T6, the BOP helm engineers can make is amazingly good and all the bombs and such are great for extra threat gen. There is also a very, very good Darkmoon Fair trinket you can make/buy from a deck of cards, I think its the Wrath one (it gives you 51 stam and has a chance to proc holy damage on attacks, extra threat).

Engineering does use a lot of mats from mining, but imo mining on an alt is better, especially since you have 2 70 alts. Jewelcrafting is a nice 2nd prof for tanks, you get a lot of nice BOP gems and a few trinkets which are useful. Enchanting is also a decent 2nd prof, since you get a few self-only ring enchants you can slap on for extra stam or stats. Blacksmithing not really worth it, the armor pieces you can make are not that great.

As a prot warrior you want to set your defense to 490, beyond that is not that useful. After that focus mostly on stamina, dodge will come naturally with gear that has high stamina. Avoidance is nice, but healers can never really "depend" on your avoidance, so never gem anything for just avoidance. Most of the gem socket bonuses are weak, so many tanks just gem EVERYTHING with +9/+12/+15 stamina and enchant everything with +stamina. Also keep in mind when you zone into Sunwell all the mobs remove 25% avoidance from you.

I wonder what Curt"s computer spec"s are... you think he already has the new GTX 280"s in SLI?

Well Ngruk is now in the theorycrafting stage of WOW. Say goodbye to 38S, he"ll never get any work done now.

His game will only benefit him theory crafting wow, provided he do the same with his game. Theory craft>test realm>live, i often wonder if blizzard actually theory crafts some of the class balance changes they make. The reason i say this is because with all the nerfs they either implemented or put on the test realms at one point to nerf resto druids barely nerfed resto and hit the other specs the hardest.

Well good theorycrafting leads to good mechanics which leads to good itemization. Good itemization is very rare, and I"ve yet to see a new MMO with good itemization. Look at WOW"s at release up until just recently. Vanilla WOW was downright awful until T3. TBC was crap until BT was released.

Theorycrafting allows you be actually aware of what you"re doing when you"re itemizating gear rather than just throw random stats on something.

Hopefully Curt"s obsession with stats carrys over. WOW has the best stat system and mechanics of any MMO out there in my opinion.

I don"t like the growing amount of ratings. They"re not intuitive and they clutter the loot table. I think they ought to be using stats and sockets more often and reinforce the potential of stats with more benefits tied to them. I mean, why can"t strength be worth so much feral AP per point for druids? We really need a stat and a seperate line of feral staffs for that?

Little shit. With me it"s always the little shit. Anyway, they"ve noticed their error and have hinted at reversing the trend by lobbing multiple classes into one itemization category, but I sense they"ll still be holding onto a good amount of clutter.

Yea, eventually Curt will be PLAYING his game. We can hope he gets that much more enjoyment from it than WoW.

Agraza said:

I don"t like the growing amount of ratings. They"re not intuitive and they clutter the loot table. I think they ought to be using stats and sockets more often and reinforce the potential of stats with more benefits tied to them. I mean, why can"t strength be worth so much feral AP per point for druids? We really need a stat and a seperate line of feral staffs for that?

Little shit. With me it"s always the little shit. Anyway, they"ve noticed their error and have hinted at reversing the trend by lobbing multiple classes into one itemization category, but I sense they"ll still be holding onto a good amount of clutter.

Yea, eventually Curt will be PLAYING his game. We can hope he gets that much more enjoyment from it than WoW.

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I don"t know, I have and am enjoying WoW, even after 3 70s. It ALWAYS is about the little things, always. Attention to detail, almost anal attention, to me is of paramount importance.

I always preach about Disney and their incredible attention to detail, NOTHING is too minor when it comes to customers and their experience/immersion while at Disney. I don"t see any difference in philosophy here, we are asking you to immerse yourself in our world, and once you log in doesn"t the onus fall on us to maintain and reinforce that immersion?

Needing an abacus at your side isn"t immersive to me

It"s certainly something to pay attention to, regardless of where you project sits in its cycle.

No it isn"t, but it"s a massive appeal to a lot of players. Hiding the numbers should be a personal choice. All not knowing the amount of mana I had in EQ meant was that I spent a few hours running tests to determine how much mana I had.

Eventually players are going to crunch the numbers and know the theory better then even your own designers might. Immersion is great and all, but if I don"t know if an item is an upgrade or not because some dev somewhere got this hippy vibe about how everybody should hold hands and love one another...well...fuck immersion then.

Zehn - Vhex said:

No it isn"t, but it"s a massive appeal to a lot of players. Hiding the numbers should be a personal choice. All not knowing the amount of mana I had in EQ meant was that I spent a few hours running tests to determine how much mana I had.

Eventually players are going to crunch the numbers and know the theory better then even your own designers might. Immersion is great and all, but if I don"t know if an item is an upgrade or not because some dev somewhere got this hippy vibe about how everybody should hold hands and love one another...well...fuck immersion then.

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Right. Numbers need to be available if you want them, to some degree, but not in the face of the players that don"t.

Interview on the Jace Hall showis now up for those interested.

That was environment concept art, yes? Looked very cool.

Ya know I think that"s the 1st video game show I actually like. Never heard of him before either. Couple things about the segment, Curt spent some big bucks on that office furniture! And I think he keeps his designers in a dungeon, brick walls, no lighting.

Wow, very cool to see an inside look of 38S. Thanks for the link. Very nice concept art too.

Also: CINTIQ TABLETS! So jealous.

Ngruk said:

I don"t know, I have and am enjoying WoW, even after 3 70s. It ALWAYS is about the little things, always. Attention to detail, almost anal attention, to me is of paramount importance.

I always preach about Disney and their incredible attention to detail, NOTHING is too minor when it comes to customers and their experience/immersion while at Disney. I don"t see any difference in philosophy here, we are asking you to immerse yourself in our world, and once you log in doesn"t the onus fall on us to maintain and reinforce that immersion?

Needing an abacus at your side isn"t immersive to me

It"s certainly something to pay attention to, regardless of where you project sits in its cycle.

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I sat through a seminar that talked about Disney customer service and etc. They actually train companies on how to do CS. These companies are multi-billion dollar ones too.

However stats are very important in the genre. Everything is about +1 something. If you don"t show damage, stats, numbers etc it takes the shiny away from the player. I hate not knowing if I should upgrade.

You can do like MUDs back in the day and need a scroll or a spell to "identify" items. Except that would be a waste of time on your end as everything will be on the web in a heartbeat.

Just put the item stats on the tooltip and be done with it. Just don"t fuck up the font like Vanguard! Also don"t put shit on items like 0.1% or 5.4% etc. Basically create your own stat system that scales and communicate it effectively to the player.

Draegan said:

Just put the item stats on the tooltip and be done with it. Just don"t fuck up the font like Vanguard! Also don"t put shit on items like 0.1% or 5.4% etc. Basically create your own stat system that scales and communicate it effectively to the player.

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Haha. The Vanguard font is terrible, indeed.

I also agree about listing the stats plainly and having a system in place that players can easily understand. I didn"t like all the random percentages on items in Age of Conan, and EQ2 had a fairly convoluted way of displaying things as well. WoW has done it best so far, I would say.

But yeah, that isn"t to say that you need to have 20 different types of stats. WoW went down the path of meta-stats and now they"re doing a turnaround, trying to unify them all back down. Personally I think it"s only a matter of time before mp5 is removed from the game as well and spirit is just reworked.