A few weeks ago (after almost 2 months exactly of Wrath), my Rogue was level 80 and the only available upgrades are located in the 25-man instances.
Even those upgrades are few and far because most of my non-tier pieces are iLevel 213. My current guild runs 25-man content on Saturday (we full cleared Naxx 25 last Saturday for the first time), so my Rogue really only has the opportunity to “progress” one or two days a week.
That’s pretty unusual. In Burning Crusade, I ran a lot of Heroics. The badge gear was good and it seemed I could never have enough badges for the gear I wanted to buy. But in Wrath, Heroics are quite a bit less important.
In fact, the Emblems are so useless to me nowadays that I haven’t even bothered to do any 10-man or Heroic content outside of Sarth and Malygos in several weeks.
The Mage
And so about three weeks ago, I decided to burn all those excess emblems (and Stone Keeper shards) on some of the Bind on Account items that you can mail to an alt on the same server.
The problem was that all I had on the server was a level 58 Deathknight and a level 2 Bank Alt. I also have a 70 warrior I could have transferred, but I really had no interest in playing another melee class.
Ironically, I fell back to my Warhammer days when I dual-leveled an Archmage (healer) and Bright Wizard (range DPS). The Archmage was my “main” in Warhammer, but if I was being honest with myself – I kinda sucked as a healer. I’m a bit hard on myself, but my good buddy has been playing a healer since Everquest and compared to him I was pathetic.
But on the Bright Wizard... Well, I was epic DPS on the Bright Wizard. And nasty as hell to fight in the Warhammer Scenarios. I loved simply loved playing Range DPS.
The only problem is that WoW doesn’t really have a class exactly the same as a Bright Wizard. Particularly since I was DoT-specced and the closest thing that WoW has to that spec is an Affliction Warlock. And honestly, the idea of playing a Warlock didn’t have a lot of appeal to me. The pet seemed like a pain in the ass and even worse, you need to carry around and collect all these stupid soul shards. Ick.
And so I decided to cash in all those Emblems for gear for a newly created mage. And I have to tell you, with the BoA shoulders and a BoA staff at level 5, I was a pretty badass little mage. I’d like to say that I had the gear at level 1, but I picked up a few quick levels before making it to a mailbox. Eventually, my little mage got the BoA trinket as well, but not until about the mid-30s.
That was on January 12th. One month later, I’m just shy of level 74.
Early Levels
I didn’t use any refer-a-friend tricks for leveling, so outside of the 10% exp bonus from the shoulders, leveling has been fairly “normal” for my mage.
Surprisingly, the old world leveling didn’t bother me that much. In part, I think this is because I specifically focused on NOT doing any of the Neutral faction questing. I had a goal to get the wolf mount for my blood elf by level 60 (since I hate all but the birds except the black one), so I pretty much avoided any Neutral quest that wasn’t really convenient.
Basically, this amounted to doing the Ratchet quests and ignoring Shimmering Flats, Mudsprocket, Gadgetstan, Everlook and Booty Bay. I actually hit Exalted with Org well before 60 (around 51 or 52) in part because I also started picking up Coins of Ancestry which provide +75 faction to all five major Horde factions.
Burning Crusade
I made the transition to Outlands at level 58. Perhaps the most fascinating part about leveling this mage is how completely insignificant the whole BC expansion felt to me. It was just something I tried to level through as quickly as possible.
On previous characters, I painstakingly completed 80-90% of the quests in each Outland zone (usually before going to the next zone). In large part, this was because I wanted the faction. And more importantly, I wanted to save some of the higher level quests for when I hit 70 and could use them to farm some gold for my flyer.
But with BC faction and quests irrelevant at level 80, I tackled the content instead with the objective of getting through it as quickly as possible. That meant skipping any lengthy or pain in the ass quest or chain. I only did about 50% of those zone I quested. I didn’t even visit Blade’s Edge Mountains or Netherstorm (I still don’t even have the flight paths).
At level 68, I left Outland and went to Northrend. It reminded me of how you skip all the old world Level 60 content to jump into Outland at 58. Likewise, I just skipped all BC level 70 content (including entire zones) and just hopped over to Northrend.
Northrend – The Hell Levels
Entering Northrend at level 68 with what amounts to level 65 gear from Nagrand was a bit difficult for about half a level. Once I started getting some quest rewards, things got a lot easier and by the time I hit 69 I was pretty well geared with iLevel 134 or higher items. Tier 4 epics in BC were around 128, so that’s good enough gear to be decently equipped.
Then a really startling thing happened at Level 70. The game sloooowed down.
I mean I was really leveling quickly. I think on average, when I look at the achievements, I was pretty consistent and gained about 10 levels every 4 or 5 real life days. That’s better than 2 levels per day.
I hit 70 maybe a week ago and I’m only now turning Level 74. That’s a bit better than half a level a day. If you think of “progress” as levels earned, my average gain decreased by 75% from my pre-Wrath leveling average.
On the plus side, I do know that things will speed up again at or around level 77 when I get the flyer. Still, these levels in the 70s are a pretty big and unwelcome change.
Wrath Gear
One thing I "am" enjoying about leveling up my badly geared mage is that I actually *do* find upgrades. Pretty frequently too.
On my epic geared Rogue, it really bothered me that my level 70 gear was better than almost every piece of gear I could find until level 80.
It really sucks to watch your gear degrade due to itemization scaling and being offered no replacement gear. I'd rather my "epic" just go into the bank at level 72 than to see it go through a slow, painful, and ultimately desperate death.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Un-Heroic Dungeons
There’s a lot of talk about how Raiding is “easy” in Wrath and as I wrote previously, I think the main cause of that impression is that people are generally more experienced with 25-man content they have already done in 10-man.
However, what’s been really bugging me is that Heroic Dungeons are anything but Heroic.
No Crowd Control Needed
Unlike Burning Crusade where most Heroics required one or two mobs to be CC’d on most pulls, crowd control is a rarity in the current Heroics. In fact, in the last 10 or 12 runs I have made, I think crowd control was only every used one time during one pull out of all dozen or so runs.
Tanks and Healers just don’t need the crowd control anymore. In fact, a single Tank seemingly has no problem keeping aggro on more than a dozen mobs and most Healers have no trouble keeping a single target up against that many mobs.
Wrath of the AoE Spam
Everyone spams AoE during trash pulls. The Tank spams his AoE aggro, the DPS spam the big AoE damage spells like Blizzard and Rain of Fire. But mass chaos doesn’t ensue – the mobs all just die.
A great example of this is the Gauntlet run in Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle. The encounter is intended for you to fight your way through groups of 2-4 mobs until you reach the end and can harpoon the boss. However, one of the more popular strategies is to get an early run and fight ALL the mobs from the very start right next to the harpoon. The tank picks up maybe 16 mobs and then the whole group just gets AoE’d down.
And you see the same thing on the smaller 4 and 5 mob pulls. And you see the same thing in Raids during trash pulls.
Where’s the Skill?
I think what really bothers me about this trend is that whatever skill was actually required to play the game has dropped even more significantly. This game has always had a “gear > skill” equation, but with all the changes in Wrath, whatever “skill” was needed is almost non-existant.
Consider this: Is any Heroic dungeon in Wrath as difficult as Heroic Magister’s Terrace? Or Heroic Mana Tombs? Even the easiest of the Burning Crusade Heroics, the Slave Pens, could use a bit of Crowd Control.
It’s a bit ironic actually. One of the Wrath changes I was most excited about on my Rogue were the changes to Sap that allowed it to work on mobs other than Humanoids.
Woot!, I thought. A “real” CC that will actually be almost as useful as Polymorph. Of course, it turns out that its actually less useful because it’s not needed. The net effect is that, in PvP, Druids can now be sapped in Cat Form. That’s the only advantage to the new Sap.
But why?
Perhaps it was intentional. The new class, the Death Knight, has no CC effect to speak of and giving them one would have severely imbalanced PvP.
And yet, Blizzard must have known that the DK population would be so large that those players would want to do instance runs. Particularly between levels 58-70 where they might outnumber other classes pretty significantly.
Traditionally, DPS classes with no form of Crowd Control had difficulty gaining entry to groups. Ask any Fury Warrior, Ret Paladin, Enhancement/Elemental Shaman how easy it was for the to find a PuG in Burning Crusade. Certainly compared to a classes like a Mage, Hunter or even Warlock/Rogue they were not nearly as desirable.
Alternately, it’s possible, perhaps even likely, that Blizzard didn’t realize that people would stop using CC effects in instances. The lack of foresight they have historically shown certainly leads me to believe that this might be the likely reason for the net effect.
It’s what comes of listening to people whine on forums. Tanks have been complaining and asking for better AoE threat for years. Well, now they have it.
However, what’s been really bugging me is that Heroic Dungeons are anything but Heroic.
No Crowd Control Needed
Unlike Burning Crusade where most Heroics required one or two mobs to be CC’d on most pulls, crowd control is a rarity in the current Heroics. In fact, in the last 10 or 12 runs I have made, I think crowd control was only every used one time during one pull out of all dozen or so runs.
Tanks and Healers just don’t need the crowd control anymore. In fact, a single Tank seemingly has no problem keeping aggro on more than a dozen mobs and most Healers have no trouble keeping a single target up against that many mobs.
Wrath of the AoE Spam
Everyone spams AoE during trash pulls. The Tank spams his AoE aggro, the DPS spam the big AoE damage spells like Blizzard and Rain of Fire. But mass chaos doesn’t ensue – the mobs all just die.
A great example of this is the Gauntlet run in Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle. The encounter is intended for you to fight your way through groups of 2-4 mobs until you reach the end and can harpoon the boss. However, one of the more popular strategies is to get an early run and fight ALL the mobs from the very start right next to the harpoon. The tank picks up maybe 16 mobs and then the whole group just gets AoE’d down.
And you see the same thing on the smaller 4 and 5 mob pulls. And you see the same thing in Raids during trash pulls.
Where’s the Skill?
I think what really bothers me about this trend is that whatever skill was actually required to play the game has dropped even more significantly. This game has always had a “gear > skill” equation, but with all the changes in Wrath, whatever “skill” was needed is almost non-existant.
Consider this: Is any Heroic dungeon in Wrath as difficult as Heroic Magister’s Terrace? Or Heroic Mana Tombs? Even the easiest of the Burning Crusade Heroics, the Slave Pens, could use a bit of Crowd Control.
It’s a bit ironic actually. One of the Wrath changes I was most excited about on my Rogue were the changes to Sap that allowed it to work on mobs other than Humanoids.
Woot!, I thought. A “real” CC that will actually be almost as useful as Polymorph. Of course, it turns out that its actually less useful because it’s not needed. The net effect is that, in PvP, Druids can now be sapped in Cat Form. That’s the only advantage to the new Sap.
But why?
Perhaps it was intentional. The new class, the Death Knight, has no CC effect to speak of and giving them one would have severely imbalanced PvP.
And yet, Blizzard must have known that the DK population would be so large that those players would want to do instance runs. Particularly between levels 58-70 where they might outnumber other classes pretty significantly.
Traditionally, DPS classes with no form of Crowd Control had difficulty gaining entry to groups. Ask any Fury Warrior, Ret Paladin, Enhancement/Elemental Shaman how easy it was for the to find a PuG in Burning Crusade. Certainly compared to a classes like a Mage, Hunter or even Warlock/Rogue they were not nearly as desirable.
Alternately, it’s possible, perhaps even likely, that Blizzard didn’t realize that people would stop using CC effects in instances. The lack of foresight they have historically shown certainly leads me to believe that this might be the likely reason for the net effect.
It’s what comes of listening to people whine on forums. Tanks have been complaining and asking for better AoE threat for years. Well, now they have it.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Warcraft Endame
In my last post, I wrote that I had temporarily left WAR and started playing Wrath of the Lich King.
That was almost two months ago.
I've put some thought into my lack of blogging and the only conclusion I can draw is that WoW just isn't all that inspiring to write about anymore.
While I've enjoyed Wrath and many of the changes, it's still pretty much the same game. That's nothing new, but on this blog I've always liked writing about exciting ideas and while Wrath is *new* it's not exactly a fresh breath of air.
Anyway... what I wanted to write about today is...
Wrath "Raiding" or "Endgame"
Whether or not Raiding is EZ-Mode in Wrath is a hot topic in the blogosphere at the moment. Or rather, most people believe it to be easy and the debate is whether or not it SHOULD be easy.
The debate seems to funnel down into the age old "hardcore vs. Casual" debate that's become MMO's greatest cliche.
However, what I don't read much about is WHY it appears to be easier.
10-man vs. 25-man
I have currently seen all 10/25 man content except Malygos. That's a stark contrast to Burning Crusade in which there are still several 25-man raids I have never entered.
Two versions of the same content really makes a big difference on raiding. Not because it allows people to gear up, but because it provides people knowledge of the fights.
If you have done the 10-man version and know the fights well, then it's not much of a leap to do the same fight on 25-man.
Pre-Wrath, the biggest challenges for a raiding guild were a) maintaining a 25-man roster and b) getting everyone to learn the fight. However, in Wrath, someone can do the 10-man version with the guild and then easily transition to the 25-man.
The net result is that MORE PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THE FIGHT. Two version means you can practice each fight twice a week. Two versions means you can learn with a small group before attempting with a bigger group.
It's not so much about the fight being "easier" as it is about more people possessing knowledge about the encounter.
Pugging 25-man Naxx
Pre-BC, very few people would ever have attempted to PUG a 25-man raid like SSC or Tempest Keep. But in Wrath, a small guild that has mastered 10-man Naxx can pick up 15 other players with Naxx experience and easily do three wings in 25-man.
An elitist would argue that is exactly why raiding is easier. You shouldn't be able to PUG it they would argue. However, what they neglect to understand is that the only reason such a thing is possible is because both the small guild and the PUG had previous experience in the 10-man version.
It's that knowledge of the fights that makes the content easier.
Gearing up a fresh 80 is faster, too
If you were like me going into Wrath, you had some nice epics at 70. I had a nice combination of badge loot and PvP epics that lasted me well into my high-70s before I started replacing it.
The simple fact is that the delta between a level 70 epic and a level 80 blue is not nearly as significant as it was from 60 to 70. Heck, I didn't even find a replacement for my level 70 badge pants until Naxx.
What this means is that players can enter Heroics as a fresh 80. Even tanks who kept themselves defense capped can do some of the easier heroics right away.
Do a bit of research on the right Heroics and with a relatively small amount of effort, you can be geared well enough to participate in 10-man Sarth (a short raid) or even two of the 10-man Naxx wings.
However, this doesn't really make the raid content easier -- just more easily accessible.
Heroic Dugeons
One impact of the quicker gear-up and the easier access to raiding is that Heroic dungeons quickly become irrelevant.
I started playing Wrath two months ago. I am now level 80 and Heroic Dungeons offer me no upgrades.
Ironically, I enjoy running Heroics but the Emblem rewards from the bosses don't even provide me with anything worthwhile (except for Alts).
Sadly, this means that anything outside of a raid is a "waste of time" if you are measuring success by in-game rewards.
They really need some way of converting Heroism Emblems to Valor Emblems. Maybe 10 Heroism = 1 Valor or something. No one would every try to get 600 Heroic Emblems for a shoulder piece, but they would farm 10 or 20 to get those 1 or 2 last badges before the weekly reset.
That was almost two months ago.
I've put some thought into my lack of blogging and the only conclusion I can draw is that WoW just isn't all that inspiring to write about anymore.
While I've enjoyed Wrath and many of the changes, it's still pretty much the same game. That's nothing new, but on this blog I've always liked writing about exciting ideas and while Wrath is *new* it's not exactly a fresh breath of air.
Anyway... what I wanted to write about today is...
Wrath "Raiding" or "Endgame"
Whether or not Raiding is EZ-Mode in Wrath is a hot topic in the blogosphere at the moment. Or rather, most people believe it to be easy and the debate is whether or not it SHOULD be easy.
The debate seems to funnel down into the age old "hardcore vs. Casual" debate that's become MMO's greatest cliche.
However, what I don't read much about is WHY it appears to be easier.
10-man vs. 25-man
I have currently seen all 10/25 man content except Malygos. That's a stark contrast to Burning Crusade in which there are still several 25-man raids I have never entered.
Two versions of the same content really makes a big difference on raiding. Not because it allows people to gear up, but because it provides people knowledge of the fights.
If you have done the 10-man version and know the fights well, then it's not much of a leap to do the same fight on 25-man.
Pre-Wrath, the biggest challenges for a raiding guild were a) maintaining a 25-man roster and b) getting everyone to learn the fight. However, in Wrath, someone can do the 10-man version with the guild and then easily transition to the 25-man.
The net result is that MORE PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THE FIGHT. Two version means you can practice each fight twice a week. Two versions means you can learn with a small group before attempting with a bigger group.
It's not so much about the fight being "easier" as it is about more people possessing knowledge about the encounter.
Pugging 25-man Naxx
Pre-BC, very few people would ever have attempted to PUG a 25-man raid like SSC or Tempest Keep. But in Wrath, a small guild that has mastered 10-man Naxx can pick up 15 other players with Naxx experience and easily do three wings in 25-man.
An elitist would argue that is exactly why raiding is easier. You shouldn't be able to PUG it they would argue. However, what they neglect to understand is that the only reason such a thing is possible is because both the small guild and the PUG had previous experience in the 10-man version.
It's that knowledge of the fights that makes the content easier.
Gearing up a fresh 80 is faster, too
If you were like me going into Wrath, you had some nice epics at 70. I had a nice combination of badge loot and PvP epics that lasted me well into my high-70s before I started replacing it.
The simple fact is that the delta between a level 70 epic and a level 80 blue is not nearly as significant as it was from 60 to 70. Heck, I didn't even find a replacement for my level 70 badge pants until Naxx.
What this means is that players can enter Heroics as a fresh 80. Even tanks who kept themselves defense capped can do some of the easier heroics right away.
Do a bit of research on the right Heroics and with a relatively small amount of effort, you can be geared well enough to participate in 10-man Sarth (a short raid) or even two of the 10-man Naxx wings.
However, this doesn't really make the raid content easier -- just more easily accessible.
Heroic Dugeons
One impact of the quicker gear-up and the easier access to raiding is that Heroic dungeons quickly become irrelevant.
I started playing Wrath two months ago. I am now level 80 and Heroic Dungeons offer me no upgrades.
Ironically, I enjoy running Heroics but the Emblem rewards from the bosses don't even provide me with anything worthwhile (except for Alts).
Sadly, this means that anything outside of a raid is a "waste of time" if you are measuring success by in-game rewards.
They really need some way of converting Heroism Emblems to Valor Emblems. Maybe 10 Heroism = 1 Valor or something. No one would every try to get 600 Heroic Emblems for a shoulder piece, but they would farm 10 or 20 to get those 1 or 2 last badges before the weekly reset.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
It's not you, it's... actually no, it is you.
As I have been progressing through Tier 4 in Warhammer and participating in some of the "end-game" battles for Keeps, I have slowly been coming to a disturbing conclusion:
Warhammer peaked for me back in Tier 3.
At the moment, Tier 4 definitely feels like a grind. On the surface, it's the PQs, PvE quests and Scenarios that I am finding tiresome. But if I look a bit beneath the surface, I think what is REALLY bothering me is that now that I am catching glimpses of the "end-game" I am finding it lame and unfufilling.
MMOs and the "end-game"
MMO bloggers and forum posters both talk a lot about the "end-game" of an MMO. We write about how long it takes to get to end-game and the quality of the "end-game" but we never really talk about why the "end-game" is important to us. An outside observer might even ask why MMOs even need to have an end-game?
The secret MMO players don't want to admit to is that we like to get "hooked" by a game. Whether you are playing a video game, watching a movie or reading a book -- we all love to become so enthralled with our entertainment that it gives us a sense of "being there" in the moment.
In fact, I would argue that, almost by definition, all entertainment is a form of escapism which allows us to immerse ourselves in diversions away from unpleasant realities.
Of course, the problem with reading a good book or watching a good movie is that eventually it ends. But MMOs are different.
Instead of an MMO ending, it just transitions us to something else. A new game that is only playable by people who have finished the original game. A game that allows us to continue what was started (albeit at a much slower pace).
It's like finishing a great book and instead of being sad the book is over, discovering that author wrote another trilogy about the same characters.
The true success of an MMO isn't measured by innovative gameplay but by the number of subscribers and longevity of their subscription. We write and talk about how we want to see all this nifty innovation but what we really want is something that is just fun to play over and over and over again.
My take on WAR "end-game"
In almost every way, the game you play at Tier 1 is the same game that you play at Tier 4. Oh sure, there is MORE of it, but the fundamentals of the gameplay are exactly the same. You can PvP in either open world RvR (oRvR) objectives or through Scenarios.
I'll ignore concerns about population balance and such in oRvR for the moment. I've been fortunate enough to land on a server where oRvR was not a ghost town. In fact, it's quite the opposite in Tier 4 in the evenings. There are certainly issues here, but let's presume for a moment that it's not the game breaker.
Scenarios are fun (and rewarding) but they lack much in the way of purpose beyond leveling Career and Renown Ranks. They might contribute to Zone control, but the result of a single Scenario win is not noticeable. Heck, the result of a dozen wins doesn't even seem noticable.
oRvR is noticeable. Taking keeps, and battle objectives is clearly shown on the zone map and is obvious. So OK -- the zone is controlled. And...? There is still no real purpose to any of it and certainly little in the way of personal rewards or sense of achievements.
In theory, if one side is really dominant over the other side, then they can attack a City and all this cool stuff happens. But uh.. the problem with that logic is that it means one side needs to get trounced. So either you a) have no opposition and can assault a City with little opposition, or b) you have good opposition and end up in some stalemate unable to get to the City "end-game".
So in reality, the only options left to you in Tier 4 are the same exact ones that are open to you at Tier 3. You can do Scenarios or you can attack/defend Keeps and Battlefield Objectives. Don't get me wrong, these are fun enough but they lack purpose.
I don't know what the solution is, but all I can say is that Mythic really needs to do something in order to make this "end-game" feel more meaningful. Or maybe it just would have felt more meaningful if Tier2 and Tier3 didn't have keeps too.
Crashes to Desktop
I crash at least once every hour of gameplay. With load-times and such, it can take me 5 to 6 minutes to load the game back up. If it happens during a PQ, I lose all my contribution points. if it happens during a Scenario, I am no longer in it when I log back in.
I would call these crashes "livable" but highly frustrating. Ironically, I had less of them in beta and a couple of weeks after launch.
Up until now, I have adopted a "well, it just launched" attitude to the crashes. But with the next major game update on it's way, I just don't think they are as focused on improving that part of the game.
Temporarily canceling Warhammer
My next billing cycle was 11/17 and I made the decision to play Wrath instead of WAR for a bit until they address some of these issues.
This is not a goodbye forever thing, just a goodbye for now thing. It's not a bad breakup, just a maybe we should start seeing other people breakup.
WAR is a good game, an innovative game, and a fun game. It's just not a game I feel like playing over and over and over at the moment.
I'll likely be posting some comparison thoughts between Wrath and WAR over the next few days. I have some good/bad thoughts about both games. And since I swore up and down I wouldn't play Wrath, perhaps I should mention start by talking about that first.
Warhammer peaked for me back in Tier 3.
At the moment, Tier 4 definitely feels like a grind. On the surface, it's the PQs, PvE quests and Scenarios that I am finding tiresome. But if I look a bit beneath the surface, I think what is REALLY bothering me is that now that I am catching glimpses of the "end-game" I am finding it lame and unfufilling.
MMOs and the "end-game"
MMO bloggers and forum posters both talk a lot about the "end-game" of an MMO. We write about how long it takes to get to end-game and the quality of the "end-game" but we never really talk about why the "end-game" is important to us. An outside observer might even ask why MMOs even need to have an end-game?
The secret MMO players don't want to admit to is that we like to get "hooked" by a game. Whether you are playing a video game, watching a movie or reading a book -- we all love to become so enthralled with our entertainment that it gives us a sense of "being there" in the moment.
In fact, I would argue that, almost by definition, all entertainment is a form of escapism which allows us to immerse ourselves in diversions away from unpleasant realities.
Of course, the problem with reading a good book or watching a good movie is that eventually it ends. But MMOs are different.
Instead of an MMO ending, it just transitions us to something else. A new game that is only playable by people who have finished the original game. A game that allows us to continue what was started (albeit at a much slower pace).
It's like finishing a great book and instead of being sad the book is over, discovering that author wrote another trilogy about the same characters.
The true success of an MMO isn't measured by innovative gameplay but by the number of subscribers and longevity of their subscription. We write and talk about how we want to see all this nifty innovation but what we really want is something that is just fun to play over and over and over again.
My take on WAR "end-game"
In almost every way, the game you play at Tier 1 is the same game that you play at Tier 4. Oh sure, there is MORE of it, but the fundamentals of the gameplay are exactly the same. You can PvP in either open world RvR (oRvR) objectives or through Scenarios.
I'll ignore concerns about population balance and such in oRvR for the moment. I've been fortunate enough to land on a server where oRvR was not a ghost town. In fact, it's quite the opposite in Tier 4 in the evenings. There are certainly issues here, but let's presume for a moment that it's not the game breaker.
Scenarios are fun (and rewarding) but they lack much in the way of purpose beyond leveling Career and Renown Ranks. They might contribute to Zone control, but the result of a single Scenario win is not noticeable. Heck, the result of a dozen wins doesn't even seem noticable.
oRvR is noticeable. Taking keeps, and battle objectives is clearly shown on the zone map and is obvious. So OK -- the zone is controlled. And...? There is still no real purpose to any of it and certainly little in the way of personal rewards or sense of achievements.
In theory, if one side is really dominant over the other side, then they can attack a City and all this cool stuff happens. But uh.. the problem with that logic is that it means one side needs to get trounced. So either you a) have no opposition and can assault a City with little opposition, or b) you have good opposition and end up in some stalemate unable to get to the City "end-game".
So in reality, the only options left to you in Tier 4 are the same exact ones that are open to you at Tier 3. You can do Scenarios or you can attack/defend Keeps and Battlefield Objectives. Don't get me wrong, these are fun enough but they lack purpose.
I don't know what the solution is, but all I can say is that Mythic really needs to do something in order to make this "end-game" feel more meaningful. Or maybe it just would have felt more meaningful if Tier2 and Tier3 didn't have keeps too.
Crashes to Desktop
I crash at least once every hour of gameplay. With load-times and such, it can take me 5 to 6 minutes to load the game back up. If it happens during a PQ, I lose all my contribution points. if it happens during a Scenario, I am no longer in it when I log back in.
I would call these crashes "livable" but highly frustrating. Ironically, I had less of them in beta and a couple of weeks after launch.
Up until now, I have adopted a "well, it just launched" attitude to the crashes. But with the next major game update on it's way, I just don't think they are as focused on improving that part of the game.
Temporarily canceling Warhammer
My next billing cycle was 11/17 and I made the decision to play Wrath instead of WAR for a bit until they address some of these issues.
This is not a goodbye forever thing, just a goodbye for now thing. It's not a bad breakup, just a maybe we should start seeing other people breakup.
WAR is a good game, an innovative game, and a fun game. It's just not a game I feel like playing over and over and over at the moment.
I'll likely be posting some comparison thoughts between Wrath and WAR over the next few days. I have some good/bad thoughts about both games. And since I swore up and down I wouldn't play Wrath, perhaps I should mention start by talking about that first.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
WAR: An incentive problem
Bloggers like to talk about the "incentive" or "reward" in an MMO because they have significant influence on player behavior.
At launch and during Open Beta, I commented several times that one of the things I really appreciated about Mythic's approach to incentives is that everything you do gives a reward. The theory being that if everything you do can provide a reward, then people will be more inclined to choose the "fun" thing over the "rewarding" thing.
The easiest path
Of course, MMO players also generally prefer the path of least resistance. So while the Mythic approach seems to help players avoid the "unfun" things, all things are not so perfectly balanced that the amount of effort required to achieve each reward is exactly equal.
We see the net result of these inequalities by player preferences. The most obvious one was that players were choosing Scenarios as the primary method of leveling. My take on this issue a month or so ago was that this was because Scenarios were the only activity that earned you both XP and Renown.
Mythic's answer to this problem was to increase the reward of World RvR objectives and World RvR player kills. This is a step in the right direction, but it also seems incomplete.
Renown Rank is more difficult
Syncaine noted today that his RR is nine levels lower than his Career Rank. As I pointed out in his comments, the problem is that he will likely outlevel the gear he wants that requires a higher Renown Rank by the time he achieves the required Renown level.
The issue for Syncaine is that he spent most of his time leveling in other ways, primarily PQs and quests. It seems asinine that he is effectively being PUNISHED for not leveling through Scenarios.
The Renown Rank cap
This is rarely talked about, but until you hit Rank 40, Renown Rank is actually capped and can't exceed your current Rank. In other words, if your Rank is 10 then you can't ding Renown Rank 11 until after you achieve Career Rank 11.
We don't ever talk about this cap because it's largely irrelevant after Tier 1. After all, if Renown Rank is more difficult to earn than Career Rank, how many people ever end up in a situation where this cap impacts them negatively.
And yet -- it does exist. We just don't care because we are never in a position where Renown is "wasted" because our Career Rank was too low.
This got me thinking: What would YOU do if your renown was capped?
If you were 99% into RR 21 and you were only 25% into Career Rank 21, what would you do knowing that earning additional rewnown is simply wasted?
Would you still play Scenarios?
I know I wouldn't play Scenarios. I would go quest or do PQs for gear until I dinged another level. A lot of the "incentive" for participating in the Scenario would simply disappear for me.
Lowering amount of Renown to level RR
I can absolutely understand why RR should go slow in T4. The pacing for RR should be slow, particularly after rank 40.
But when I think about Syncaine's situation and how my own behavior would change if I were RR capped, then I can't help but think that the best solution would be to lower the amount of Renown points required to level Renown Ranks 1 to 35.
If we reduce the amount of points, this means that players would need to participate in less Scenarios in order to rank Renown. This puts more players out in the world for PQs, dungeons and quests.
It also gives someone like Syncaine the opportunity to "catch up" his Renown Rank in a reasonable and timely manner.
World RvR
The counter argument is that this could dis-incentivize Keep Sieges and Battlefield Objectives.
I would disagree.
I actually think that people would be MORE inclined to take Keeps and BOs at the lower tiers if they knew that they could level Renown Rank that way fairly quickly.
In other words, right now it's pretty impractical to spend a night taking BOs and level up RR much. But if it were possible to gain a RR or two in a few hours of taking BOs -- then that becomes much more attractive.
Or at the very least, it's not less attractive than what currently exists.
At launch and during Open Beta, I commented several times that one of the things I really appreciated about Mythic's approach to incentives is that everything you do gives a reward. The theory being that if everything you do can provide a reward, then people will be more inclined to choose the "fun" thing over the "rewarding" thing.
The easiest path
Of course, MMO players also generally prefer the path of least resistance. So while the Mythic approach seems to help players avoid the "unfun" things, all things are not so perfectly balanced that the amount of effort required to achieve each reward is exactly equal.
We see the net result of these inequalities by player preferences. The most obvious one was that players were choosing Scenarios as the primary method of leveling. My take on this issue a month or so ago was that this was because Scenarios were the only activity that earned you both XP and Renown.
Mythic's answer to this problem was to increase the reward of World RvR objectives and World RvR player kills. This is a step in the right direction, but it also seems incomplete.
Renown Rank is more difficult
Syncaine noted today that his RR is nine levels lower than his Career Rank. As I pointed out in his comments, the problem is that he will likely outlevel the gear he wants that requires a higher Renown Rank by the time he achieves the required Renown level.
The issue for Syncaine is that he spent most of his time leveling in other ways, primarily PQs and quests. It seems asinine that he is effectively being PUNISHED for not leveling through Scenarios.
The Renown Rank cap
This is rarely talked about, but until you hit Rank 40, Renown Rank is actually capped and can't exceed your current Rank. In other words, if your Rank is 10 then you can't ding Renown Rank 11 until after you achieve Career Rank 11.
We don't ever talk about this cap because it's largely irrelevant after Tier 1. After all, if Renown Rank is more difficult to earn than Career Rank, how many people ever end up in a situation where this cap impacts them negatively.
And yet -- it does exist. We just don't care because we are never in a position where Renown is "wasted" because our Career Rank was too low.
This got me thinking: What would YOU do if your renown was capped?
If you were 99% into RR 21 and you were only 25% into Career Rank 21, what would you do knowing that earning additional rewnown is simply wasted?
Would you still play Scenarios?
I know I wouldn't play Scenarios. I would go quest or do PQs for gear until I dinged another level. A lot of the "incentive" for participating in the Scenario would simply disappear for me.
Lowering amount of Renown to level RR
I can absolutely understand why RR should go slow in T4. The pacing for RR should be slow, particularly after rank 40.
But when I think about Syncaine's situation and how my own behavior would change if I were RR capped, then I can't help but think that the best solution would be to lower the amount of Renown points required to level Renown Ranks 1 to 35.
If we reduce the amount of points, this means that players would need to participate in less Scenarios in order to rank Renown. This puts more players out in the world for PQs, dungeons and quests.
It also gives someone like Syncaine the opportunity to "catch up" his Renown Rank in a reasonable and timely manner.
World RvR
The counter argument is that this could dis-incentivize Keep Sieges and Battlefield Objectives.
I would disagree.
I actually think that people would be MORE inclined to take Keeps and BOs at the lower tiers if they knew that they could level Renown Rank that way fairly quickly.
In other words, right now it's pretty impractical to spend a night taking BOs and level up RR much. But if it were possible to gain a RR or two in a few hours of taking BOs -- then that becomes much more attractive.
Or at the very least, it's not less attractive than what currently exists.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Death of a WAR Server
There are a number of subjects I could write about today. I could write about WAR patch 1.05 and how it appears to be increasing the damage dealt by all classes across the board while simultaneously nerfing healing. Or I could write about the trials and tribulations of the server migration that took place for my guild earlier this week. In fact, I had a quite lengthy post planned on that subject for today except something else occurred last night that trumped pretty much any other subject for me.
Large scale RvR in Warhammer Online fails. It fails hard and it fails for exactly the reason you would think it would fail when several hundred people all show up in the same place. The server can’t handle it.
A little background information is required
On my old server, Eerie Downs, we were a low pop/med pop community. The interesting thing was that while Order was low pop, we owned everything in T3 and T4. In fact, it was actually a bit frustrating because our guild could never really form up a Warband to take anything because we owned everything – pretty much all the time.
I’d like to claim responsibility, but I can’t. The reason we owned everything was because of the Hate guild. These guys are organized and every single one of them is a vetted out player that goes through a lengthy application process. They are not a big guild, just a damn good guild. Formed back in the EQ days, they have stuck together through several MMOs.
You would expect the Destro to hate an Order guild that was that good (and arrogant) but the surprising thing was how many other Order guilds disliked them. Partly out of jealousy, but also out of the type of frustration that comes from what amounts to a one-sided battle with no objectives to take.
Server transfer shatters Eerie Downs community
When the free transfer struck our realm, Eerie Downs players were faced with two choices: Praag or Hochland. But the bigger question for most guilds (Destro and Order both) was where was Hate going to go? Guild and players who disliked Hate wanted to transfer away from them and those that liked Hate wanted to follow. Once they made the decision, everything else fell into place like dominos.
Hate decided on Hochland. Almost without exception, every single Destro guild chose Praag and every Order guild who disliked Hate also left to Praag. Our guild was pro-Hate and the idea of an organized Destro and organized Order guild facing off against each other just had too much appeal to ignore. The potential for epic battles was just too good an opportunity to pass up and considering that we had some friends in Hate already it only made sense to transfer to Hochland.
The existing Hochland community was described as the polar opposite of Eerie Downs: Destruction owned everything and was dominated by one or two organized Destro guilds. The largest and most dominant of which was a Destro guild named Ruin. The Ruin guild was described as a Zerg guild because of the sheer number of members, but they put together a good argument for how they like strategy that convinced Hate there might be more to them than just a zerg. Ultimately, they threw down a challenge to Hate who ultimately accepted it.
The most surreal thing about the transfer is how much the Hochland players courted the Eerie Downs players for transfers. A good Order guild is a hot commodity and the large Destro guilds on Hochland were desperate for a guild that could offer some challenge. Likewise, the Order guilds on Hochland were also desperate for a good Order guild because they were tired of being constantly beaten down.
Hate meets Ruin
The first couple of encounters between Ruin and Hate were interesting. On Eerie Downs, Hate didn’t have an alliance. They didn’t need one. They are extremely organized, they scout, they flank, and they hit objectives fast and hard.
Whenever Hate ran across Ruin in 2:1 or lower numbers, they trounced them. They took and held most of the objectives they were after and then Ruin started overwhelming them. Hate has less than 100 members. Ruin has more than 300. Anything less than 2:1 odds and Hate whooped Ruin. But as the night went on, Ruin numbers started getting huge. Particularly as the other Destro guilds got into the act.
By night’s end, Destro had won the day and regained control of most of the lost objectives and keeps.
Epic fight brewing
The thing to remember is that unlike on Eerie Downs, almost every single Order guild on Hochland was thankful to have a guild like Hate as part of the community. Hate formed an alliance with several of the larger Order guilds. And those guilds told some other guilds. And those guilds told some other guilds.
Until last night – there were at least 200 to 300 Order players fighting for objectives. And an equal or greater number of Destruction. I didn’t play DAoC, but when I think large scale RvR – this was exactly the thing I am talking about.
And it wasn’t just a Zerg fest either – all very organized under Hate. Warbands (not parties – Warbands!) with assignments hitting multiple objectives, flanking, scouts positioned at intervals at various points of interest. All very very cool stuff, except for one little thing…
Epic failure
The forces of Order formed at the Dragonwake encampment. From there, some warbands attacked each of the two keeps. The largest force circled around the back of the second keep and waited for the outer doors to break down. Once they did, the remaining group stormed the inner doors and we quickly took the keep. Meanwhile, most of the destruction was defending the other keep.
After gaining control of the further away keep, we circled back to help finish taking the other keep. There was a massive group on both sides. All our forces converging on the doors – all their forces defending.
Sounds epic right?
Except it took me 20+ seconds to mount up when we left the taken keep. Oh and every spell I cast took that long to cast. No real way to tell how much health anyone had to heal either since that was also delayed. Oh – and then the server crashed as we approached the door of the second keep. And no one could log on for five minutes. And when we did log in, we were several minutes farther back then when the server crashed.
Epic failure part 2
And so we gave up on Dragonwake simply because that many people in a single location wouldn’t work. So we went to Praag and split up our forces into several groups. These mini-groups of 2-3 warbands each then proceeded to take objective after objective and keep after keep. Destruction also split up forces to counter the attacks but couldn’t keep up with our organization and multiple keep/objective attacks.
So Destruction regrouped back into a large single force and attacked the center objective in Praag (the Square). We remerged back into a big group and…
No not a server crash again. Just a complete inability to cast more than one spell every 10 seconds and roots that last four times longer than the intended durations. And not just me – everyone. And this is particularly problematic when people are trying to HEAL. Group heals were impossible on my Archmage.
The crazy thing is that it wasn’t animations or graphical lag as I would have expected. For example, I could move around fine – I would just see people who weren’t really there. Or after my casting animation would end, nothing would happen. I would summon my horse, see the casting bar end and then nothing. If I moved, I got an interrupted error. If I didn’t move, then 10 to 15 seconds AFTER the casting bar ended, I would mount up.
Pretty much the definition of server lag.
Biggest issue facing Warhammer
This is a huge problem that needs to be addressed. As it stands right now, RvR just isn’t intended for more than a couple of warbands fighting against each other. Age of Conan got a bunch of flak for similar complaints about their end-game and it was much deserved. And so is this.
In my mind, this trumps all other possible issues with Warhammer and they need to derive some type of solution. The sad thing is that there might not be a solution. As with all other problems in Warhammer, how do you control player behavior? I mean if word-of-mouth says that the fight is in Dragonhawk, how do you stop a 1000 people on each side from showing up?
The thing is – this is only going to get worse as this type of thing becomes the “end game” for Warhammer Online. Right now, lots of people are leveling and doing it primarily in instanced servers, PQs or solo quests. What happens when all these people show up for the WAR and the server crashes?
Large scale RvR in Warhammer Online fails. It fails hard and it fails for exactly the reason you would think it would fail when several hundred people all show up in the same place. The server can’t handle it.
A little background information is required
On my old server, Eerie Downs, we were a low pop/med pop community. The interesting thing was that while Order was low pop, we owned everything in T3 and T4. In fact, it was actually a bit frustrating because our guild could never really form up a Warband to take anything because we owned everything – pretty much all the time.
I’d like to claim responsibility, but I can’t. The reason we owned everything was because of the Hate guild. These guys are organized and every single one of them is a vetted out player that goes through a lengthy application process. They are not a big guild, just a damn good guild. Formed back in the EQ days, they have stuck together through several MMOs.
You would expect the Destro to hate an Order guild that was that good (and arrogant) but the surprising thing was how many other Order guilds disliked them. Partly out of jealousy, but also out of the type of frustration that comes from what amounts to a one-sided battle with no objectives to take.
Server transfer shatters Eerie Downs community
When the free transfer struck our realm, Eerie Downs players were faced with two choices: Praag or Hochland. But the bigger question for most guilds (Destro and Order both) was where was Hate going to go? Guild and players who disliked Hate wanted to transfer away from them and those that liked Hate wanted to follow. Once they made the decision, everything else fell into place like dominos.
Hate decided on Hochland. Almost without exception, every single Destro guild chose Praag and every Order guild who disliked Hate also left to Praag. Our guild was pro-Hate and the idea of an organized Destro and organized Order guild facing off against each other just had too much appeal to ignore. The potential for epic battles was just too good an opportunity to pass up and considering that we had some friends in Hate already it only made sense to transfer to Hochland.
The existing Hochland community was described as the polar opposite of Eerie Downs: Destruction owned everything and was dominated by one or two organized Destro guilds. The largest and most dominant of which was a Destro guild named Ruin. The Ruin guild was described as a Zerg guild because of the sheer number of members, but they put together a good argument for how they like strategy that convinced Hate there might be more to them than just a zerg. Ultimately, they threw down a challenge to Hate who ultimately accepted it.
The most surreal thing about the transfer is how much the Hochland players courted the Eerie Downs players for transfers. A good Order guild is a hot commodity and the large Destro guilds on Hochland were desperate for a guild that could offer some challenge. Likewise, the Order guilds on Hochland were also desperate for a good Order guild because they were tired of being constantly beaten down.
Hate meets Ruin
The first couple of encounters between Ruin and Hate were interesting. On Eerie Downs, Hate didn’t have an alliance. They didn’t need one. They are extremely organized, they scout, they flank, and they hit objectives fast and hard.
Whenever Hate ran across Ruin in 2:1 or lower numbers, they trounced them. They took and held most of the objectives they were after and then Ruin started overwhelming them. Hate has less than 100 members. Ruin has more than 300. Anything less than 2:1 odds and Hate whooped Ruin. But as the night went on, Ruin numbers started getting huge. Particularly as the other Destro guilds got into the act.
By night’s end, Destro had won the day and regained control of most of the lost objectives and keeps.
Epic fight brewing
The thing to remember is that unlike on Eerie Downs, almost every single Order guild on Hochland was thankful to have a guild like Hate as part of the community. Hate formed an alliance with several of the larger Order guilds. And those guilds told some other guilds. And those guilds told some other guilds.
Until last night – there were at least 200 to 300 Order players fighting for objectives. And an equal or greater number of Destruction. I didn’t play DAoC, but when I think large scale RvR – this was exactly the thing I am talking about.
And it wasn’t just a Zerg fest either – all very organized under Hate. Warbands (not parties – Warbands!) with assignments hitting multiple objectives, flanking, scouts positioned at intervals at various points of interest. All very very cool stuff, except for one little thing…
Epic failure
The forces of Order formed at the Dragonwake encampment. From there, some warbands attacked each of the two keeps. The largest force circled around the back of the second keep and waited for the outer doors to break down. Once they did, the remaining group stormed the inner doors and we quickly took the keep. Meanwhile, most of the destruction was defending the other keep.
After gaining control of the further away keep, we circled back to help finish taking the other keep. There was a massive group on both sides. All our forces converging on the doors – all their forces defending.
Sounds epic right?
Except it took me 20+ seconds to mount up when we left the taken keep. Oh and every spell I cast took that long to cast. No real way to tell how much health anyone had to heal either since that was also delayed. Oh – and then the server crashed as we approached the door of the second keep. And no one could log on for five minutes. And when we did log in, we were several minutes farther back then when the server crashed.
Epic failure part 2
And so we gave up on Dragonwake simply because that many people in a single location wouldn’t work. So we went to Praag and split up our forces into several groups. These mini-groups of 2-3 warbands each then proceeded to take objective after objective and keep after keep. Destruction also split up forces to counter the attacks but couldn’t keep up with our organization and multiple keep/objective attacks.
So Destruction regrouped back into a large single force and attacked the center objective in Praag (the Square). We remerged back into a big group and…
No not a server crash again. Just a complete inability to cast more than one spell every 10 seconds and roots that last four times longer than the intended durations. And not just me – everyone. And this is particularly problematic when people are trying to HEAL. Group heals were impossible on my Archmage.
The crazy thing is that it wasn’t animations or graphical lag as I would have expected. For example, I could move around fine – I would just see people who weren’t really there. Or after my casting animation would end, nothing would happen. I would summon my horse, see the casting bar end and then nothing. If I moved, I got an interrupted error. If I didn’t move, then 10 to 15 seconds AFTER the casting bar ended, I would mount up.
Pretty much the definition of server lag.
Biggest issue facing Warhammer
This is a huge problem that needs to be addressed. As it stands right now, RvR just isn’t intended for more than a couple of warbands fighting against each other. Age of Conan got a bunch of flak for similar complaints about their end-game and it was much deserved. And so is this.
In my mind, this trumps all other possible issues with Warhammer and they need to derive some type of solution. The sad thing is that there might not be a solution. As with all other problems in Warhammer, how do you control player behavior? I mean if word-of-mouth says that the fight is in Dragonhawk, how do you stop a 1000 people on each side from showing up?
The thing is – this is only going to get worse as this type of thing becomes the “end game” for Warhammer Online. Right now, lots of people are leveling and doing it primarily in instanced servers, PQs or solo quests. What happens when all these people show up for the WAR and the server crashes?
Thursday, October 30, 2008
LazyScript might be coming to a WAR near you.
Do you remember an addon called LazyScript for WoW? It was a framework that allowed players to create a "script" that would perform certain actions on a key press.
Basically, you would write or download a script and when you made a single key-press, it would evaluate all the rules in this script and choose the action that best suited the situation.
Decursive and several other healing addons performed similar functions, but I still believe that LazyScript was the real reason that Blizzard introduced the whole "taint" thing in WoW 2.0 that broke these addons.
Exploiting Warhammer Online
You might recall that back in August, I voiced some concerns about work-arounds. At that time, I had tinkered around a bit looking at some of the default interface code but really hadn't gotten my hands dirty.
My big suspicion was that it would be possible to swap out bindings as they are pressed and effectively allow you to bind several actions to a single button.
I was about 95% certain this was possible, but I didn't want to write a proof-of-concept to test it. It's my belief that Mythic would close this loophole at some point and I didn't want to cripple my playstyle into being dependent on an addon they would eventually break.
And so I waited... Becuase I knew it was only a matter of time until someone wrote it.
HotbarFun
The first addon using the method I suspected of being exploitive is called HotbarFun. Right now, the purpose of this addon is to simply swap actions in/out of a single action bar button based on whether or not it is on cooldown.
Imagine if Action A had a 10 second cooldown and Action B had no cooldown. Basically, if Action A were off cooldown, it would take that button slot. Otherwise, Action B would take the slot.
The important thing to note here is not WHY it can change, but that it CAN be changed. In this case, the author is not really doing much that is terribly expoitive. In his mind, it's more a matter of reducing two button slots into one slot.
The issue is that there is no reason that the criteria couldn't be a lot more complex.
Automation
The real threat here is the potential abuse that can be had by automating actions. Imagine if the button swaps were based on other criteria besides cooldown.
Is your health too low and bubble is off cooldown? Don't worry, that next key press will be a bubble.
Getting damaged by your Target? Don't worry, we'll detaunt him for you on the next key press.
Since Detonate requires your target to be Hexxed, we'll make sure your target has that debuff before we Detonate or cast one for you instead.
Does your target already have that HoT or DoT you were going to cast? Don't worry, we'll cast the right spell for you.
Casting a heal but your target is dead? Don't worry, we'll resurrect instead.
Are you an Archmage with 5 points in High Magic that was going to cast a HoT? Bad idea, your target is low health. Let's cast the big heal as an instant cast instead.
Get the idea?
My point here is that there is NO reason that the logic behind deciding which action gets swapped into the action slot can't be far more complex than a simple cooldown.
Mythic needs to take action
Closing this loophole is something they need to fix in one of the upcoming patches. I'm not trying to be doom-and-gloomy, but all the things I just described WILL be written if they don't work to nip it in the bud now.
BTW, as I wrote to the author of HotbarFun in the comments, he shouldn't be condemned for writing such an addon. Mythic shouldn't let this type of thing be possible. UI addons are great, but as Blizzard learned the hard way, you need secure the functions that allow players to take actions.
Basically, you would write or download a script and when you made a single key-press, it would evaluate all the rules in this script and choose the action that best suited the situation.
Decursive and several other healing addons performed similar functions, but I still believe that LazyScript was the real reason that Blizzard introduced the whole "taint" thing in WoW 2.0 that broke these addons.
Exploiting Warhammer Online
You might recall that back in August, I voiced some concerns about work-arounds. At that time, I had tinkered around a bit looking at some of the default interface code but really hadn't gotten my hands dirty.
My big suspicion was that it would be possible to swap out bindings as they are pressed and effectively allow you to bind several actions to a single button.
I was about 95% certain this was possible, but I didn't want to write a proof-of-concept to test it. It's my belief that Mythic would close this loophole at some point and I didn't want to cripple my playstyle into being dependent on an addon they would eventually break.
And so I waited... Becuase I knew it was only a matter of time until someone wrote it.
HotbarFun
The first addon using the method I suspected of being exploitive is called HotbarFun. Right now, the purpose of this addon is to simply swap actions in/out of a single action bar button based on whether or not it is on cooldown.
Imagine if Action A had a 10 second cooldown and Action B had no cooldown. Basically, if Action A were off cooldown, it would take that button slot. Otherwise, Action B would take the slot.
The important thing to note here is not WHY it can change, but that it CAN be changed. In this case, the author is not really doing much that is terribly expoitive. In his mind, it's more a matter of reducing two button slots into one slot.
The issue is that there is no reason that the criteria couldn't be a lot more complex.
Automation
The real threat here is the potential abuse that can be had by automating actions. Imagine if the button swaps were based on other criteria besides cooldown.
Is your health too low and bubble is off cooldown? Don't worry, that next key press will be a bubble.
Getting damaged by your Target? Don't worry, we'll detaunt him for you on the next key press.
Since Detonate requires your target to be Hexxed, we'll make sure your target has that debuff before we Detonate or cast one for you instead.
Does your target already have that HoT or DoT you were going to cast? Don't worry, we'll cast the right spell for you.
Casting a heal but your target is dead? Don't worry, we'll resurrect instead.
Are you an Archmage with 5 points in High Magic that was going to cast a HoT? Bad idea, your target is low health. Let's cast the big heal as an instant cast instead.
Get the idea?
My point here is that there is NO reason that the logic behind deciding which action gets swapped into the action slot can't be far more complex than a simple cooldown.
Mythic needs to take action
Closing this loophole is something they need to fix in one of the upcoming patches. I'm not trying to be doom-and-gloomy, but all the things I just described WILL be written if they don't work to nip it in the bud now.
BTW, as I wrote to the author of HotbarFun in the comments, he shouldn't be condemned for writing such an addon. Mythic shouldn't let this type of thing be possible. UI addons are great, but as Blizzard learned the hard way, you need secure the functions that allow players to take actions.
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