Druid healing in heroics in flowchart form

I have resigned myself to doing heroics so I can get a cloak for when I level from 80 to 85, and in order to save my sanity, I have decided to run them as a healer. I find healing to be a much more relaxing job than tanking, and with all of the gear everyone has, healing in heroics has become quite simple--so simple, in fact, that it can be reduced to a flow chart, which is exactly what I have done here. For the sake of ease of use, I have highlighted the starting point of the chart in a red box.

















Click for the full size.

When spells are put in pairs or triplets, use them in order from let to right. For the sake of space, I used icons rather than spell names. Here's a visual guide in case the spells aren't familiar to you.

= Healing Touch




= Lifebloom




= Nature's Swiftness




= Nourish




= Rejuvenation




= Regrowth




= Revive




= Swiftmend




= Tranquility




= Wild Growth




Note that this post is only meant to visually cover what spells to use for restoring health. For a more complete guide to druid healing, I highly recommend Lissanna's healing guide. I was going to write more on the other points of druid healing, but I am too busy to do so this week; expect more info on druid healing in heroics next week.

To what does Blizzard owe their loyalty: the player-base, or the lore?

I know I usually post my philosophy posts on Friday, but this edition of WoW.com's Know Your Lore really got me thinking about an issue I am now so eager to write about that it just can't wait, leaving me no time to work on my miscellany post, so my miscellany post will need to go on the back burner until Friday. That's just the way the cookie crumbles.

Anyways, the post in question talks about the history of Thrall, Garrosh Hellscream, and the politics of the horde in general. What really got me thinking was the final point brought up by Anne Stickney's amazing post: the reason Thrall is losing control of the horde, and the reason Garrosh will gain control in Cataclysm, is that Thrall is an orc with human tendencies, while Garrosh is an orc with orcish tendencies, and to the orcs, his way of going about recent WoW politics is much more akin to their nature, as opposed to Thrall's peaceful diplomacy. Thing is, it was Thrall's human-like ways that made the players so sympathetic with him. Players love him because of his identity as a "noble savage," but that made them forget what the orcs truly are. Players hate Garrosh because he is the exact opposite of Thrall; he is the opposite of everything that made it possible for players to fall in love with a race of savages in the first place. That, however, makes his ideals much more in line with what an orc would actually believe. Put simply, Thrall is everything the players wish the orcs could be, while Garrosh is everything the orcs wish they could be.

This will make things difficult when Cataclysm comes along and Garrosh becomes the new Warchief. While the orcs are struggling with their inevitable civil war between those who believe in Thrall's peaceful ways and those who believe in Garrosh's truly-orcish ways (that's Stickney's prediction, anyways), players will be fighting their own battle, too. It may be an internal conflict, but it will be a conflict nonetheless. While I can't imagine what it must be like to be a loyal Horde player and know that this is going to happen, I'd imagine the hordies (orc-players in particular) would be caught between two options: one, stay loyal to the horde, even if it wasn't exactly what they thought it was or could be; or two, leave the horde (switch races or maybe even factions) and show no support for this not-so-new horde. (I say not-so-new because, according to Stickney, Garrosh personifies what the orcs always were, so while his violent tendencies are new to us players, they are not new in general.) I know that's probably more role-play-ish thinking than most people will apply to this situation, but if my watching the WoW.com comments sections has taught me anything, it's that Horde players love them some Thrall, and I'd imagine they also love the things he stands for.

This brings me to the dilemma I want to look at. By putting Garrosh in power, Blizzard will be advancing the lore of Warcraft in a believable way. Though Thrall's ideals were nice, he was raised by humans, and they are, in the end, human ideals. The Horde couldn't keep up the pretense of following those ideals for very long, so Garrosh going into power is really the only logical conclusion of the events that have lead up to this point in the lore. The one difficult point is that the players, the driving force behind many of the contemporary events of Warcraft, hate Garrosh. Unless they are really willing to suspend their real-world sensibilities and take up the mind-set of an orc, players simply can't identify with Garrosh. One of the things that made the Horde so attractive as a faction was that they were not the typical bad guys; they were really just victims. Under Garrosh's leadership, however, we can expect the Orcs, if not the whole Horde, to become a much more violent, impulsive, and generally villainous group. This would take away much of what made the Horde popular in the first place, and take away almost all of the sympathy players have for the Garrosh-following Orcs. It would make playing an Orc... difficult, to say the least.

However, I am not here to argue Thrall vs. Garrosh vs. Basic Campfire; this debate is simply an example of the real dilemma I want to look at, a dilemma that can best be worded thusly: Should Blizzard be more loyal to their fan-base or their lore? As much as it pains me to say this, I think that, in matters of story, Blizzard owes their loyalty to the lore, not us players. I say that it pains me because it means that I inherently agree with Garrosh being promoted to Warchief, but that's just the way it has to happen if Blizzard is going to stay loyal to the lore.

One might say that, since we pay Blizzard to keep this story going, they should think about what we want when they write the story, but one could just as easily say that it's the story that justifies the game existing in the first place, so we really owe it to the lore to let it evolve naturally. Also, to expect the epic storyline of Warcraft to follow the whims of what we players want just because we supply the money to keep the story going would make us no better than studio executives who stifle an artist's creativity for the purpose of making a work potentially more profitable. (Executive meddling, as it's called.) Now, granted, the contention that Blizzard should tailor their story to what we players like could be differentiated from executive meddling by saying that we players are only looking out for our own enjoyment, while studio executives are trying to maximize their profits, which surely must be a less ethical motivation. Regardless, the outcome is the same--art is watered down to appease the masses--so I see no practical difference between the two.

Of course, disproving a contention doesn't prove its opposite, so why should Blizzard remain loyal to the lore, rather than the players? How about this: video games are art. Though many don't see them that way, video games are a medium, especially when they involve a story as long, involved, and epic as Warcraft's. As an art form, it is the responsibility of a game like WoW to challenge our perceptions, our beliefs, and make us ask questions about ourselves. Promoting Garrosh to Warchief will certainly accomplish all three of these purposes. We already know that our perceptions of the orcs as a race capable of human ideals of peace and diplomacy could be false, and Garrosh's promotion will cement the breaking of that idea. While we may believe that it would be better for the orcs to try to be more like Thrall, we may be deceiving ourselves by thinking that is possible. So what questions will this plot point make Horde players ask themselves? Many, certainly, and interesting ones at that: Do I feel comfortable with this not-so-new Horde? Will the loyalty I've developed to what was largely an illusion carry me through this part of Warcraft's story? Can I follow a leader with few qualities I find redeeming? Is the Horde becoming the villain, and am I ok with that? I'd be surprised if there aren't already players asking these very questions.

But what if Thrall stayed in power and Garrosh remained an underling or was booted out entirely? That really wouldn't do us any good. Considering how fickle the fan-base can be, to base the plot of Warcraft's story on the whims of the masses would result in a largely unbelievable story that would probably not satisfy the player-base anyway. If Blizzard keeps Thrall in power, then all of the previous lore about the orcs is worth nothing. Considering all that has lead to this moment, keeping Thrall in power would be even more of an odd move than putting Garrosh in his place. Blizzard would be betraying their lore, their fans, and themselves if they kowtowed to the desires of the players to not be lead by Garrosh.

As I said, though, this logical conclusion leaves us with many unsettling questions that make the future uncertain. Will the player-base move away from the Horde as an act of rebellion against Garrosh's rule, or will they continue playing as if it isn't happening? Will players be able to ignore the forced revelation of the Orcs' true nature, or will they adapt and adopt Garrosh's philosophy? All we can be sure of is that Cataclysm will surely bring about great changes to this game we all love, and the way we respond to them will likely shape the plot of the game and the entire Warcraft saga. It's going to be an interesting expansion.

Why have solo content in a Massively Multiplayer Online Game?

Whenever I talk about solo content in WoW, if I ever lament the sad state of it these days (whether it be on this blog, in the comments section of WoW.com, or anywhere else), I frequently get reactions that sound something like this: "WoW is a massively multiplayer online RPG. Why worry about the solo content?" I think we can all agree that WoW needs some solo content. The question is, how extensive should that solo content be? Should we expect Blizzard to deliver engaging solo content to us players on a regular basis, or should we greet extensive solo content with a surprised, "Solo content? In my MMO?"

Picture is unrelated.

It's pretty obvious why an MMO needs any solo content at all: when players are just starting out, it's a pretty big challenge for them to try to get a hold of all the new game mechanics that WoW throws at them; needing to learn group mechanics would make it even more difficult. Solo content allows people to become familiar with the game and get a feeling for the way their class plays. It allows them to push their class to its limits without the risk of letting other people down if the fail. Solo content is, if nothing else, a training ground for new players to get them comfortable with the game before they enter group play. There is a risk in that set-up, though. Blizzard could, if they so desired, make sub-par solo content to try to motivate people to move into group play, but if they did that, no one would stick around to see the group content, no matter how awesome it may be. Blizzard needs to make WoW's solo content fun and engaging to draw players in, so they do. This is where the trouble starts.

Though WoW may be a MMO, it is really the solo content that gets people hooked. However, people respond differently to the solo content: some say, "If playing alone is this fun, I bet playing with other people must be even more fun!" These people end up being raiders. Some say, "If the game is this fun fighting computer-controlled enemies, fighting other players must be even more fun!" These people end up fighting in battlegrounds or competing in the arena. Then you have the players like me. Players like me go into raids and say, "Ack, this is too much of a time commitment/too much pressure/etc." Players like me go into battlegrounds and say, "Ack, this is too much of a variable experience, and I play this game to relax. " Or maybe we just don't PvP as a matter of principle. Either way, we don't enjoy the group content that WoW seems to be geared towards getting us to play, so we are quite content with playing the part of the game we enjoy, the part that drew us in in the first place: the solo content.

This leaves Blizzard in a tight spot. They designed WoW to be, at its core, a group game. Ghostcrawler has even said explicitly that their goal is to get PvE'ers into raids. The solo content was meant to draw us in so we could move on to bigger and supposedly better things; to paraphrase one of my commenters, "If I want to play a solo-RPG, I'll play Dragon Age or Mass Effect." However, if the poll on the side of my blog is anything to go on, a fair amount of us prefer to stick with the solo content, in spite of the greater challenges to be had by grouping up.

It seems Blizzard doesn't mind that fact, though, or if they do, they have at least resigned themselves to designing solo content in spite of their larger goals for WoW players. Why else would they release solo content with each expansions pack and with many of the patches? In spite of Ghostcrawler's statement, it seems Blizzard has made it their goal to satisfy all WoW player, including those of us who are quite happy to chuckle at Ghostcrawler's sentiment and keep on solo-ing.

Why is he smiling? That can't be a good sign.

That could, however, all be an illusion. As I said in my post on the homogenization of Wrath of the Lich King solo content, solo content in Wrath of the Lich King has been streamlined to make it more straightforward and make the road from solo-ing to heroics to raiding a smoother one, and the road is only going to become smoother. One of the major promises of Cataclysm is that the old world will be made over to make leveling from 1 to 60 more fun and more like leveling through Outland or Northrend, i.e., smoother. After all, one of the biggest obstacles to getting to level 80 is vanilla Azeroth, which wasn't designed for fast leveling, but that's going to change. Come Cataclysm, the road to the level cap will have even fewer roadblocks than it does now, and the road to raiding will be similarly affected, assuming Blizzard sticks with their current design for solo content. What am I trying to get at here? It seems to me that Blizzard is designing their solo content to make it easier for people to get into heroics and raids, rather than as its own stand-alone content. Solo content in WoW is merely a stepping stone to bigger things, and they are making those steps even smaller.

I know that's a tough contention to prove. After all, why would Blizzard add two extra zones (Icecrown and Storm Peaks) of quests to do after hitting level 80 if they wanted to get us into raids as soon as possible? Well, those quests certainly provided a large chunk of cash, cash we needed to get some basic gear upgrades before starting heroics. (Hell, if you put in enough gold and effort, you could get your gear to the point where it was good enough for starting Naxx-10 without ever entering a heroic; I did. It wasn't advisable, but it was possible.) They also provided the back-story and starting points to the plots of the various heroics and raids those zones contained or would eventually contain, plots we could only see the conclusions of by running those heroics and raids. I think you get what I'm trying to say.

Now, I'm not saying that this design is a bad thing. There are plenty of people who just want to get into the group play, but without solo content, those heroics and raids would have no back story, and there would be no motivation to run them. Solo content also allows those who didn't get good gear in the last expansion to get on even ground with those who did, which prevents people from being locked out of raiding because they arrived at the party late (metaphorically speaking). Solo content is a good thing, even for people who prefer group content. The question is, how far should this smoothing of the path from solo-ing to heroics and raids go? When solo content is designed for the people who hope to surpass it, those who are quite content to stay within it are left behind.

I think Blizzard owes it to us soloists to not leave us out in the dust with their solo content. They drew us in with the solo content, and though they might want us to move on to bigger and supposedly better things, we would rather not. We like where we are, and that isn't going to change any time soon without a big change to the way raiding or PvP works. Now, granted, solo content shouldn't hinder people who want to go right into raiding or PvP, so where can a happy medium be found? Long-term goals. Burning Crusade had reputations like the Consortium and Sporeggar that gave solo-ists something they could work for that couldn't be steam-roled by grouping. The closest thing we have to them in Wrath of the Lich King is the Kalu'ak, and I hit exalted with them a week after hitting 80. What we need is more solo content that takes a large commitment of time to complete and provides appropriate rewards for that commitment. Supposedly, the Path of the Titans will be along the lines of what I am thinking of; let's hope Blizzard does it well.

Advice on blogging, part II

In my last advice post, I went over advice for the beginning blogger who is just getting starting in the blogging game. That advice was mostly for bloggers who have not been noticed yet; however, once a blogger is noticed, blogging becomes a different ballgame. Once you reach the point of being a read blogger, you will likely have already internalized all the basic blogging advice anyone can give you, so consider this post Blogging 201, advice on blogging once you are noticed.

How will I know when I am noticed?

You can always use a service like Google Analytics to find out how many people are visiting your blog and whether they stay to read it or not, but objective numbers can be misleading (ironically enough). Statistics can only tell you so much about your readership, so how can you gauge your readership more subjectively? Comments certainly serve this purpose. While you should not ignore the silent majority that reads your blog, comments give you a unique cross-section of your readership. People will usually comment only when they feel strongly enough about what you have said to want put their feelings into words, so comments let you see just what about your posts really struck a chord with your readers. Most importantly, comments show you what your readers think of what you posted, which is ten times more important than any objective measures of your readership. With that out of the way, let's get to the advice.

Having a readership means being more discerning about what you post.

When you are blogging for yourself, you can put up anything in your posts since no one is reading them, and you may get in the habit of posting things you may not have posted if you were worried about quality. That changes when people are actually reading your blog. When you are writing your posts, you'll need to ask yourself, will anyone get anything out of this post? Will someone walk away wiser, or a better player, or more amused? There are a wide array of responses you can evoke in your readers, and as long as the responses you evoke aren't boredom, frustration, or the like, then you have succeeded as a blogger.

With that said, allow me to quote Matticus when he gave the two questions you should ask yourself before putting out any post:
1. If I write this post, is ANYONE going to give a crap?
2. If I write this post, is someone going to benefit from it in some way?
Now, granted, the second point isn't as important as the first; it mostly applies to advice posts, which you may not want to be a part of your blog, and that's perfectly fine, but you should still ask yourself the first question before putting out a post. As long as someone will give a crap, then go ahead and post it.

Respond to the comments you get.

While you don't need to respond to every little inane comment you get, or even most of the comments you get if you get a lot in a short time, it's nice to let your readers know that you appreciate them taking the time to comment on your post. If one of them asks a question, answer it. If one of them brings up a point that you hadn't considered before, give your thoughts on it. Even if someone says something simple like, "Great post," a thank you is still a good idea. Most of the challenges you face after being noticed will have to do with how you respond to various types of comments, so I'll go over some more specific advice pertaining to certain types of comments.

Trolling/Spam
If someone posts a comment on your blog that is blatantly advertising a WoW website (especially one that is against the ToS) and has no relevant content to the post, delete it post-haste (get it?). Nothing good can come of leaving those kinds of comments on your page. Trolling usually requires a less systematic approach. If a comment is trollish but still a legitimate comment, I usually leave it and ignore it, trusting my readers will do the same. If the comment is simply irrelevant trolling and could detract from discussion of the post, I usually delete it. For example, on one of my advice posts, someone commented saying, "Lol u mad." Had he left such a comment on a rant, I probably wouldn't have been so quick to delete it, but such a comment has no place bellow an advice post, so I deleted it so that he wouldn't distract from any constructive commentary. Whether you make such a distinction in moderating your own comments or you take another approach (either leaving all such comments up or deleting them without discrimination) is your call to make.

Corrections
Sometimes you will make an objective error in your post. You may wrongly list the spellpower coefficient of a spell, or you may make an egregious grammar mistake. If you make such a mistake and someone points it out, it's best to just make the correction and thank them for pointing it out. Don't do what some bloggers do and make the correction while deleting the comment to save face; own up to your mistakes; after all, it's only through our mistakes that we learn. Some extra pointers: don't respond with antagonism to people who correct your posts, and don't be spiteful of people who only left a comment to correct a mistake without commenting on any other aspect of the post.

Respectful disagreement
If you say anything of worth, at some point, someone will disagree with you. This can be a jarring experience the first time it happens to you if you aren't prepared for it; it certainly was for me. Allow me to share something with you that would have done me well to hear it when I first started blogging: you don't need to make everyone agree with you. Your commenters may have different view-points from you, and that's ok. As long as it isn't a misunderstanding that lead them to disagree with you, there's nothing wrong with agreeing to disagree. That said, don't feel like you can't defend your viewpoints. Quite the contrary; as a blogger, it is your prerogative respond to disagreement with further reasoning to support your point. Just don't make it your goal to convince everyone who disagrees with you that you are correct.

It's also worth mentioning that only people who respectfully disagree with you deserve this kind of response. If someone resorts to ad hominem and attacks you rather than attacking your point, you don't owe them a response. Treat comments of personal attack in the same way you treat trolling, because that's all they really are: ignore them; you'll be surprised how your readers can come to defend you when someone mocks you in this way.

And remember, disagreement is a good thing; it means you are discussing things that are worth discussing. If you get a lot of comments and not a single person disagrees with you, you probably aren't taking enough risks as a blogger.

Would we be better bloggers without comments?

An up-coming shared topic on Blog Azeroth really got me thinking about this thing called blogging. Rather than try to summarize the topic bellow, I'll copy and past what Anea of Oh look, an alt! wrote.

One of the things that can make us happiest as bloggers is seeing e-mails notifying us of comments on our blogs. However, if we took that away - and the influence it may have over our writing - would we become better bloggers?

Would writing what it really is you want to write make you truer to the purpose that you started the blog for? To write exactly whatever is in your head, rather than worrying about whether or not anyone will find it "interesting" or "good enough" to comment on? For the joy of writing?

Or are comments integral to your blogging experience and if you don't have them, you don't write?

While I won't go so far as to say that I won't write if my posts aren't commented on (I did just that for fives months, after all), I see comments as a very integral part of the blogging experience. After all, comments are the only thing that differentiates a blog and a private or read-only Livejournal. Still, the question was really about whether writing without keeping our audience in mind would make us better writers, and speaking personally, writing with my audience in mind does makes me a better writer.

I have experienced first-hand the difference between writing for oneself and writing for an audience, and it a pretty big difference. When I wrote for myself, I was my only critic. I didn't have to refine or justify my ideas any more than I wanted to because only I would see them. When people starting commenting on my post on how the new emblem system ruined heroics, I realized immediately what effect writing for myself had had on my writing. I had let my quality slip, and I felt it in the comments that directly targeted the weaknesses of my post.

That experience left a big impression on me, an impression that deeply affected the way I approached my post on whether WoW's addictive elements make it a sub-par or unethical game. I knew the claim I was making with that post was equally significant as the claim made by my post on how the emblem system ruined heroics, so I knew my claims and reasoning needed to be much more sound. Because of this, I was much more critical and discerning about what I did and didn't include in that post. It did have its flaws when it was published, but it is still a much higher quality post than it would have been had I not kept my commenters in mind.

As I said, keeping my audience in mind improves the quality of my writing. When I know people will be reading my posts, I am more mindful of the quality of my writing. When I know people may actually benefit from my advice posts, I am more considerate of which topics may actually be worth writing about. When I know people will be critiquing my philosophy posts, I am more diligent about making sure my reasoning and logic are sound. In short, comments put the fact that people are reading my posts in the forefront of my mind, and that awareness makes me a better writer.

Still, the question remains: would blogging without minding the comments I get be truer to the purpose that I started the blog for? Well, I started blogging as an excuse to write frequently and at length, as well as hobby. While writing with my readers in mind doesn't further either of these purposes, it doesn't hinder them either. More importantly, the fact that writing with my audience in mind makes me more mindful* of the quality of my writing means that blogging affords me an opportunity to practice making my writing better, and good writing is really an invaluable skill.

*In unrelated news, this may be the longest alliteration to ever appear on my blog.

Do WoW's addictive elements make it a sub-par or unethical game?

There was an interesting article over on Cracked.com recently entitled 5 Creepy Ways Video Games Are Trying to Get You Addicted. It was a very illuminating read, and though I will summarize it bellow, I recommend you read the article itself first. The general thesis of the article could be summed up by these lines from the opening: "So here's the big question: Are some games intentionally designed to keep you compulsively playing, even when you're not enjoying it? Oh, hell yes. And their methods are downright creepy." Many of the examples given by the article were from WoW, which got me thinking: the presence of these artificial devices that keep us playing WoW when we no longer enjoy it could mean that we wouldn't play WoW were they not present, that WoW can't stand on it's own merits. Does that mean that these addictive devices make WoW a sub-par game? Let's find out.

I'll summarize the article bellow. Skip the small text if you have read the article already.

The video games of yore were only designed to be fun so that we would buy them and potentially their sequel, but modern MMO's need to keep us paying in order make money. However, developers can't make enough content to forever satiate our desires, so what do they do? They changed the games so you'll keep playing, whether you enjoy it or not. So they add repetitive elements to the game that keep us playing because of our gathering instincts, even if the things we gather have nothing to do with progressing through the game itself. (Think of the long grinds people will go on for pets and mounts.) They then force you to play for a long time to get those rewards, either by making them rewarded randomly (I can't stop running The Frozen Halls now because the next run may drop the hilt. Or the next one. Or the next...) or by giving you little rewards along the way as they force you to rerun repetitive content. (Think of the satisfaction you get from getting one Emblem of Frost. That's what keeps you playing until you get the 405 you need for Tier 10 armor.)

How do they keep us doing this? One way is by easing us in with easy rewards early on, then making the rewards take longer to get as we keep playing. (Think about how long it takes to get from level 1 to 10, compared with 70 to 80) This extra time has the added effect of making each reward more satisfying, which makes us want them more. They also prevent us from stopping by eliminated stopping points (like the fact that you can't just bail on your raid), and they punish us for not playing; if you don't raid for a month, you're likely to fall behind your guild in gearing up and be unable to go with them into raids.

Why is this an issue? Because games are supposed to fulfill the function of giving us the basic satisfaction of mastering a skill, even if that skill serves no purpose in the grand scheme of things. "Fun" is our brain's way of rewarding us for playing games because playing games "help us develop our brains (especially as children) and test ourselves without serious consequences if we fail." >These addictive elements are designed to keep us playing long after we have already mastered them, taking out any semblance of fun from the game. WoW rewards us for performing the same tasks long after we have mastered them; "no new content, no element of practice, or discovery, or mastery... just a virtual treadmill." Where, exactly, does repetitively executing a skill you have already mastered fit into the definition of fun? It doesn't.

The article then goes on to discuss the larger implications of these facts, but for now, what I have summarized will serve our purposes.

Now that we are all on the same page, let's get back to the issue at hand: do these elements make WoW a sub-par game? The fact that they exist within WoW to such a large extent can only lead to one conclusion: WoW is designed to keep you playing after you no longer find it fun. After all, how many of you keep running raids even after you have beaten the final boss? You have to, because you need the gear to get to the next raid. How many of you have run random heroics dozens or maybe even hundreds of times, just to get better gear to make already boring content even easier? Why do you do it? Because the game is designed to keep you playing when you reach the point where you would have become bored with a non-addictive game.

This is a necessity, though. Content takes time to create, so Blizzard could either let us blast through the content and enjoy it all quickly, only for us to be bored until they release more, or they could stretch out that content by forcing us to run it repeatedly. The latter keeps us interested in the game, while the former makes us less likely to keep playing. That's why content is "gated" by the gear you have, and that's why gear takes time to get. That's why raids are on a weekly lock-out timer. Those elements prevent us from going through the content too quickly, while the addictive elements keep us from stopping when it gets tedious. These addictive elements exist to keep us playing the game so the game can stay alive. In that case, these elements need to exist for WoW to keep going as an MMO. If you lose player interest, you lose subscribers, and without subscribers, Blizzard has no motivation to make new content. If these addictive elements are a necessity, then they don't make WoW a sub-par game since a WoW without them is impossible.

Of course, by asking whether these addictive elements make WoW a sub-par game, we are ignoring whether it is ethical to make a game with these addictive elements. The final part of the article can probably give us some perspective of that, so I'll summarize it here.

Many people get addicted to games because those games fill a void in there lives, a void which should be filled by school or work, but isn't. In order for use to be satisfied with school or work, we need three things: the feeling of being in control, complexity in our work (to avoid boredom and repetition), and a visible connection between effort and reward. Most people don't have those elements in their daily life, but addictive video games give us all three, or at least the illusion of all three. The games give us a sense of accomplishment, and their tedium only adds to that accomplishment because it makes us feel like we worked harder to get there.

The reason addictive games draw us in so easily is because we find the real world's system of rewards to be so much slower and crueler than we expected it to be, so gaming is a form of mental escape from that horrible reality. Thing is, whereas other forms of escapism, like substance abuse and fandom, only provide an escape from that slow and painful system of rewards or the real world, addictive games replace it. "The danger lies in the fact that these games have become so incredibly efficient at delivering the sense of accomplishment that people used to get from their education or career. We're not saying gaming will ruin the world, or that gaming addiction will be a scourge on youth the way crack ruined the inner cities in the 90s. But we may wind up with a generation of dudes working at Starbucks when they had the brains and talent for so much more. They're dissatisfied with their lives because they wasted their 20s playing video games, and will escape their dissatisfaction by playing more video games. Rinse, repeat.

And let's face it; if you think WoW is addictive, wait until you see the games they're making 10 years from now. They're only getting better at what they do."

So, are these addictive elements ethical? Well, they keep people who are dissatisfied with the reward system of life playing the game, keeping them locked in their unreasonable expectations, making them unwilling to pursue anything difficult in life like a rewarding career or helping a worthy cause. After all, why should they do those things when they can get that satisfaction from a game much more easily? By providing that instant gratification, addictive games dissuade their addicts from bettering themselves in meaningful ways, since people usually do that for the satisfaction it provides, and if they can get that satisfaction from a game... you get the idea. Addictive games hinder self-improvement and prevent players from reaching their full potential to benefit the human race. That's pretty shady, at the very least, if you ask me.

It really wouldn't be that big of a logical leap to call WoW's addictive elements unethical; many people would say that a dealer selling drugs to an addict that is ruining his life through his substance abuse is acting unethically, and Blizzard is really just the dealer, while WoW itself is the drug. Granted, WoW probably isn't as addictive as something like heroin or vodka (I haven't experienced either personally, so I can't say for a fact that they are more addictive than WoW), but as someone who had dealt with WoW addiction in the past, I can tell you that it is certainly addictive, so these charges are not without merit.

Some of you may be saying, "But wait a minute; I play WoW, and yet I'm going for my masters/in a well-paying, satisfying job/a contributer to my community/not a failure at life." Well, you probably aren't as addicted to WoW as you could be, and if you were as addicted as you could be, you probably wouldn't be going for your masters/etc. Like alcohol, it is possible to partake in WoW moderately and not let it ruin one's life. However, the potential for addiction is still there by the design of the game.

I suppose whether or not you consider WoW to be unethical would be influenced by the same factors as whether you consider the sale of alcohol unethical. Both provide enjoyment to people who partake in them, both are not too dangerous when enjoyed in moderation, and both have the potential to create a crippling addiction in those who overindulge. Thing is, alcohol vendors didn't design alcohol to be addictive; it just happened to be that way, a fact which helps their business, and they just take advantage of that fact. Blizzard designed WoW to be addictive, as we have already seen; rather than simply taken an addicting product and selling it, they designed their product to be addictive. It's the approximate difference between a drug dealer who sells regular drugs and a dealer who manufactures his drugs to be more addictive than usual, keeping his costumers coming back for more. It's that active element that makes WoW potentially more unethical than something like alcohol.

Some may say that I can't condemn something that brings enjoyment to the many who partake in it moderately at the expense of the few whose lives are destroyed by it. Thing is, WoW is designed to try to get all of its players addicted; that is its purpose. Those who aren't addicted are simply those who have managed to resist WoW's "charms," if you will. The purpose of WoW is to get us addicted, to get us to forgo the satisfaction we would otherwise get from a career or our education in favor of the satisfaction we get from WoW. Considering its malevolent purpose, I am left with no other conclusion than that WoW's design as an addictive game is unethical.

Advice on blogging

Though I haven't been blogging as long as some of the more established bloggers here in the WoW blagoblag, I have been blogging long enough to learn my fair share of lessons about blogging. Blogging is an interesting hobby, and a fun one for those who enjoy writing and want to be read without the usual pressures of writing for a commercial outlet. Though there are certainly other great articles out there on the interwebs with advice on blogging, it never hurts to put one's own wisdom out there as well, and that's exactly what I intend to do here.

1. If you want to blog, you better enjoy writing.

I'll be honest; I put this rule here more to discuss it than to just state it. I say that because, before I started blogging, I thought I didn't enjoy writing. However, that was mostly because the extent of my writing had been academic writing, hardly a fun form of it. The few times that I wrote of my own volition, I did enjoy it, but I was never able to stick with any one project because I simply had no motivation to stick with it. Blogging was my savior in that it gave me the perfect medium to exercise my writing muscles. Blogging is a good outlet for writers who enjoy writing but can't stick with any one piece for very long. The fact that most posts are self-contained entities means that you don't need a long attention span to blog successfully, since posts don't take a long time to write (compared to writing short stories or novels). The prospect of being read is also good motivation to stick with it, but even that will only take you so far.

Here is where I would say that if you don't enjoy writing, you shouldn't blog, but what I will instead say is this: if you feel that blogging itch, then even if you think you don't enjoy writing, give blogging a chance. It may be the outlet you were looking for to start writing consistently. If you don't want to make the commitment of starting a blog, then try just writing some entries in a Word document for a week or so. That way, if you do start blogging, you'll have some starter material to work with, and if you find out you don't like writing in a blog-like format, no harm done.

That said, you'll figure out pretty quickly whether or not you enjoy writing. To paraphrase WoW.com, unless you already have a reputation for thoughtful commentary, useful advice, or for being entertaining (if Alamo had a blog, I would read it), you'll be starting from scratch. If any of those cases apply to you, then you probably enjoy writing already, since you probably had to write a lot to build up such a reputation (unless you had one funny post that made you infamous for life). If that's not the case, you'll need to build a reputation of some kind if you want to be read, but that takes time. Until that happens, you'll be writing for the sake of writing. Some can do that, as I did for my first five months of blogging. Some, however, will find that, without anything tangible motivating them to write, they just can't do it, and there's nothing wrong with that. Blogging is a hobby, and if you don't enjoy it, you shouldn't force yourself to do it.

2. If you want to be read, you need to have something to say.

The great thing about blogging is that you can add your own unique voice to whatever you write about. That's why people read more than just two or three blogs: even if people say that same thing, no one says it quite like how another person says it. That's why people want more from your blog than links to other posts. Sure, there's a place for such posts, but that place is as a starting point for your commentary. We have already established that to successfully blog, you need to enjoy writing, so a blog consisting of unoriginal content is really a cop-out of real blogging. If you want people to read your posts, you need to give them a reason to read them, and if you are simply posting things they can find elsewhere, why should they read your post at all?

To put this advice into practical terms, avoid posts that only consist of a brief introduction followed by something you copied and pasted from elsewhere. This means no posts whose only purpose is to contain patch notes, blue posts, other blogger's posts or anything like that. It's far better to post those things and follow them with your own commentary. Even if you feel as if you have nothing to say about it, sometimes the simplest comments are the most effective at getting people thinking and commenting on your post.

3. Be consistent.

When I say be consistent, I mean it in two ways: One, keep your topics consistent. Two, post consistently. People read blogs because they like what they read, so if you want to keep people reading, it helps to stick with a theme. Even if that theme is something simple like stories from when you play, commentary on other posts, a class or two, or anything else, people will come to expect that theme from your blog. Keeping readers happy requires giving them what you have taught them to expect, so don't write posts that are all over the place in terms of topic.

On that note, it helps when your readers know when to expect a new post. Believe it or not, some of us still check blogs manually rather than just subscribing to them and forgetting them until our feed is updated. As such, we like to know when a post will go up so we don't need to check constantly to see if the blog has updated yet. Not seeing a blog update can be disheartening to your readers and make them less motivated to read your blog, but if they know when to expect a post, this will not be an issue. Keep to a schedule, even if it's only a loose one, and let your readers know if that schedule is going to change.

4. Write about what you know and what you enjoy writing about.

I write many of my advice posts about the Druid class because I know a lot about the druid class. I write my philosophy posts because I enjoy philosophy and I enjoy philosophizing about... well, everything, so that includes WoW. As I said earlier, one of most important aspects of blogging is keeping yourself motivated to write. If you write about what you know, then writing will be easier since you'll be able to draw mostly from your own knowledge, rather than needing to research your information, and writing about what you enjoy writing about will certainly make writing more enjoyable, further motivating you to stick with it. Both of these points simply make blogging more fun, and as I have said, if you don't enjoy blogging, why do it?

5. Write down any ideas you have

There have been a few times when I had a great idea for a post and it was never written because I simply forgot it (or maybe they were horrible ideas; we'll never know). If an idea for a post strikes you, write it down or make note of it somehow. Even if you don't use it immediately, it helps to have a reserve of back-up ideas when you want to stay consistent with your posting but can't think of anything to write about. That said, it's also important to write down a bit of exposition about your ideas. I have a few ideas languishing in disuse because I never wrote down any details to them and can't for the life of me figure out where I was planning on going with them. So, when you write down your ideas, think about them for a while and jot down a few notes of where you could go with them.

Where should you jot those ideas down? I personally have a draft post that I have set to be published in the year 2020, and I keep my ideas written down in that post. Why 2020? Because, that way, it's always on the top of my list when I go to the "Edit Posts" page, and if I accidentally hit the Publish button, there's no risk of all of my ideas being open to the world. You can also keep a plain text file on your desktop to hold your ideas, or use the Stickies application if you are on a Mac. Just do whatever works for you.

6. Don't be afraid to evolve, and don't preclude yourself from doing so.

People change; it's a fact of life, and your interests are no exception. You may be a dedicated raider now, but you may one day find more entertainment in PvP. You may be dedicated to one class now and be dedicated to another in the future. You may stop playing casually and get really into theorycraft. If those changes happen, you're blogging habits will likely reflect those changes, and you'll be forced to change the direction and focus of your blog. This is not a bad thing. Writing about a part of the game you no longer enjoy or engage in just makes no sense. As such, don't be afraid of changing the focus of your blog; while you may lose a large part of your readership if they have grown accustomed to one thing and you start writing about something else, there's just no way to avoid that.

With that stated, you should be proactive and not preclude yourself form making such a change should your interests shift. Don't lock yourself down with a blog name or domain name that is too specific unless you are very sure you won't be deviating from that subject area. I called my blog "WoW Philosophized" because I knew that I love philosophy, a fact that is not likely to change in the future. There is nothing else entailed in that blog title, so it was a good choice. Now, if I called my blog "The Philosophical Tank," that would have made my title a misnomer when I switched to restoration being my main spec or when I went from being a frequent tanker of heroics to being more of an ineffectual loner. Had I called this blog "The Philosophizing Druid," that would have made things sticky when I started focusing more on my Shaman or Priest alt.

I think you see where I am going with this. Though it helps for your blog name to reflect the focus of your blog, don't pick one that locks you into writing about something you may lose interest it. If you give your blog a more general title and use the description to say what your focus will be, you can change the description when your interests change without needing to make a big adjustment to the site, like changing your URL. And hey, if you end up going through your entire blogging career without making any changes to your focus, no harm done.


There's my advice for you start-up bloggers out there. If I were to try to summarize all this advice in one sage tidbit, I wouldn't be able to, but I will leave you with the most important piece of advice I can give any beginning blogger: enjoy it. Blogging, like WoW, is a hobby, something done for pleasure to occupy oneself in one's spare time. As much as some of you may do it for your readers, who may depend on your advice, wisdom, or commentary, if you get nothing out of blogging, it's not worth doing. Keep your blogging experience fun, and you won't regret it.

This post last edited for grammar and spelling issues on 11/1/10, 10:40 PM. No changes to the actual content were made.

What mastery bonuses I want for Druids

I have already written a post about what mastery bonuses I want for druids, but this was back in the days when we didn't know much about mastery bonuses would look like. Now that we have a better idea of what they will look like, I think it's time I revisit this topic. I'll reprint the part of that post that summarizes the general set-up of Mastery bonuses.

Here's how the system works: As you spend points in a given talent tree, you'll receive three different passive bonuses specific to that tree. The first bonus will increase your damage, healing, or survivability, depending on the intended role of the tree. The second bonus will be related to a stat commonly found on gear desirable to you, such as Haste or Crit. The third bonus will be the most interesting, as it will provide an effect completely unique to that tree -- meaning there will be 30 different bonuses of this nature in the game. This third bonus is the one that will benefit from the Mastery rating found on high-level (level 80 to 85) gear.

Balance:

Bonus 1: Damage - Improves your spell damage by X%.

Bonus 2: Perception - Increases your hit rating by an amount equal to X% of your spirit. Any extra hit rating will be converted into crit rating.
Blizzard has said that in order to allow Trees and Moonkin to share gear, Moonkin will receive their hit rating from spirit. That said, this creates the potential for them to get too much hit rating, which is why I added the second part of this bonus. Still, if Blizzard could balance (no pun intended) that conversion well enough, perhaps converting surplus hit to crit wouldn't be necessary.

Bonus 3: Crit Damage - Improves your spell critical strike damage bonus by X%.
This would replace Vengeance in the Balance talent tree. Though I don't know much about the Moonkin playstyle, I know that critical strikes are a large part of it, and this is one of the few boring talents in the Balance tree, so it warrants being converted into a mastery bonus.

Feral:

Bonus 1: Tenacity - Improves your melee damage by X% in Cat Form and reduces all damage you take by X% in Bear Form.
Since Feral Druids perform two rolls, we would need a dynamic first bonus like this one. The issue would be how to give the two effects different numbers, since a 100% bonus to damage is very different in potency from a 100% damage reduction. Perhaps it could be worded like this: "Damage done (Cat) X% / Damage taken (Bear) -X%"

Bonus 2: Ruggedness - Improves your attack power by X% in Cat Form and your stamina by X% in Bear Form.
This would replace Heart of the Wild, one of our boring talents, and would have the dynamic-ness we Ferals need.

Bonus 3: Bloodlust - Improves the damage of your bleed effects by X%.
Bleeds are an integral part of the Feral playstyle. Lacerate is important for Bears to cause threat and Cats need to keep Rip and Rake on their target to maximize their DPS, so it makes sense for our third mastery bonus to boost our bleed damage. After all, no other class depends on bleeds as much as we do, and the third bonus is supposed to boost what makes each class unique.

Restoration:

Bonus 1: Healing - Improves your healing by X%.

Bonus 2: Intensity - Improves your mana regeneration from Spirit in combat.
Since Blizzard seems to be intent on priests replacing their Meditation talent with a mastery bonus, it makes sense for us druids to do the same for ours.

Bonus 3: Splendor - Adds an instant healing effect to heal-over-time spells, such as Rejuvenation.
This would make many of our spells better: Rejuvenation, Lifebloom, and Wild Growth would all cause some instant healing when cast, which would probably make the Resto playstyle much more interesting. Regrowth is left out in the cold by this bonus, but perhaps the heal could instantly be applied when Regrowth is cast, but if the cast isn't completed, then the health restored by the instant heal is lost.

The inherent risk of replenishment

Replenishment is an interesting little buff. It has been added to a variety of talent trees over the course of Wrath of the Lich King, from the most overpowered to the ones in greatest need of a buff. The first three trees it was added to (Survival (Hunter), Shadow (Priest), and Retribution (Paladin)) were all less than popular during the Burning Crusade, and I suppose part of Replenishment's raison detre was to increase interest in these trees. Replenishment was later added to the Destruction tree and the Frost tree (Warlocks and Mages, respectively), and though I can't speak about the state of Warlock balance when Replenishment was added to Destruction without risking saying something horribly incorrect, I know that Frost has been falling behind the other Mage trees in terms of DPS and is only now coming to the forefront on the PTR. It seems to me that Replenishment was just a band-aid to make Frost seem more raid-viable while Blizzard worked on an actual fix to Frost's DPS, just like how Replenishment was likely added to it's original three sources in case Blizzard wasn't able to make them viable by the time Wrath of the Lich King came out.

There is a risk in using Replenishment in such a way, though. That risk is that replenishment may let Blizzard off the hook when it comes to fixing specs. We saw that risk manifested in Frost Mages, who are still falling behind on the PTR, though not as much as previously. Though I can't say for certain that Survival wasn't as attractive as Marksmanship when Wrath began, I do know there were few talents in the tree that actually boosted ranged damage, and I know that Black Arrow was originally slated to be included in Burning Crusade, but was scrapped because it was too powerful. The fact that Blizzard added a spell to the Survival tree that they once considered too powerful says a lot about how Survival was matching up against the other specs.

Far be it from me to criticize Blizzard's balancing efforts, for they have a lot of things to consider when tweaking the numbers behind class balance. That said, Replenishment seems to me to act as no more than a consolation until Blizzard can come around to fixing a spec. After all, most raids already had a source of Replenishment in the form of a Retribution Paladin, considering their massive popularity during most of Wrath, and considering the prevalence of Replenishment when it was added to Improved Water Elemental (now Enduring Winter), most 25-man raids (the only place where Replenishment was considered a necessity, rather than a bonus) had some source of it already. Point is, giving Replenishment to Frost Mages didn't really mean much in the grand scheme of things; it was little more than a symbolic affirmation that Blizzard recognized that Frost Mages were falling behind and wanted to improve them.

Blizzard could have accomplished the same thing with an actual buff, however; something like adding Glyph of Eternal Water earlier. Now, I don't know the logistics of how Blizzard goes about buffing and nerfing classes, but it seems to me like giving a minor buff to a class would be a better option than adding Replenishment. It would allow Blizzard to dip their feet, so to speak, in the buffing pool and get an idea of how much buffing the class needs to be even with everyone else, it would actually improve the class in a tangible way, and it would give the same affirmation that adding Replenishment to a class gives.

Of course, Blizzard probably would have buffed Frost Mages if they thought they really needed to be buffed. Perhaps Frost Mages weren't falling behind at that point in time, or perhaps Blizzard didn't see keeping them competitive as a necessity, considering their survivability and thus viability as a solo-ing and PvP spec. (Perhaps one of the commenters could enlighten me on the state of Frost Mages around the time when patch 3.1 was released.)

Regardless, the fact that Frost Mages fell so far behind shows that adding Replenishment or a similar effect to a spec isn't enough to make that spec worthwhile. Many people think Rogues should get an effect similar to Bloodlust/Heroism in order to make them more popular, but considering how many shamans there are in the world, how much would that really help? After all, like Replenishment, the Rogue version of Bloodlust would need to be subject to the same cooldown as the Shaman's Bloodlust, meaning if there were already a shaman in the raid, the Rogue's Bloodlust would be a pointless addition. The key to making classes and specs attractive is not adding homogeneous buffs, but to either bring the class up to speed with everyone else or add something that makes the class unique (or both). Adding a carbon-copy of another class's buff to an underpowered class is nothing more than pointless consolation, an easy way out for Blizzard.

Advice for emblem-gear-fueled dungeon speed runs

I don't think it's a controversial statement to say that the new emblem system has changed the face of the five-man dungeon scene, making it near unrecognizable compared to what it once was. Heroics these days are more comparable to running Scarlet Monastery at level 60 than Blackrock Depths. It's safe to say that much of we thought we knew about five-man dungeons has changed, and new assumptions need to replace old ones if we are to evolve to face the new challenges (or lack thereof) that await us on the other side of those instance portals (now replaced by an interface). Many have made these changes subconsciously already, but some may have avoided heroics during this time of great change, and this guide is for them. Note: This guide only applies to heroics, and only to the original Wrath heroics. The advice bellow doesn't apply to raiding or The Frozen Halls.

Tanks:
-Focus on whatever the DPS is attacking.
When it comes to trash, kill order is mostly meaningless these days. As much as you may want your DPS to attack the healer first, you will encounter DPS that just won't want to do it. Rather than getting worked up over them, it's better to just go along with it and focus on causing threat to the enemies they are attacking. Why? Let's say you focus on causing threat to the target you think should die first. This makes it easier for the DPS to over-aggro, so you will lose control of the mobs, making the battle slower. If, however, you focus on what the DPS is focusing on, you stay in control on the situation and the mobs will die faster, making the run faster, and because the mobs won't be running around doing damage to everyone, the run will be more enjoyable in general.

-Focus on AoE threat while fighting trash.
Back when kill order mattered, you would try to cause the most threat to the enemy highest on the kill order while not causing too much AoE threat because your DPS would be focusing on the target of highest priority and not trying to cause massive AoE damage. These days, DPS just want to AoE everything down, meaning if you try to focus on causing most of your threat to one target, you'll end up only holding on to that one target. Though you should use your auto-attacks to cause extra threat to whatever your DPS is attacking (as per the previous piece of advice), you should focus on using your AoE abilities rather than your single-target abilities.

DPS:
-Try to attack what the tank is attacking.
The tank losing control of trash is bad. Sure, with the kind of gear you're wearing, you can probably afford to take a few hits, but if the tank can't keep control of enemies, he can't cause as much damage to them as he could otherwise. As such, the run will be slower. The tank will be causing the most damage to his target, so it helps to focus your attacks on whoever your tank is targeting. You can turn on target-of-target in the options menu to make this easier.

Healers:
-Do some damage if you don't need to focus all of your time on healing.
If you and the tank are in great gear, you probably don't need to spend all of your time healing him and the group. In the olden days, it was considered unthinkable for healers to do any damage to enemy targets. After all, they need to heal when people take damage, and healing causes threat. The DPS can stop doing damage if they cause too much threat, but healers don't have that luxury. Extra threat was just something healers didn't need; it was something they couldn't afford. These days, however, you'd be lucky to break 1% of the tank's threat in an average heroic run. As such, consider dropping some damage on your enemies to make the fights go faster. This will be easier for Priests and Shamans than for Druids and Paladins, of course, since Druids need to leave Tree of Life to do damage, loosing a healing boost in the process, and Paladins can't do much damage without entering melee range, but Priests and Shamans should definitely consider dropping the odd offensive spell when they have nothing better to do. If anything, it will make the run more fun for you while you wait for your tank to drop bellow 95% health.

-Forgo mana efficiency for spell potency.
If you out-gear heroics and are rocking tier-nine or ten gear, you don't need to worry about mana. You do, however, need to worry about wiping. Heroics have become so easy these days that players simply have no patience for wiping. Now, granted, wipes are a near impossibility these days, but you still don't want them to happen. An unexpected development (adds, runners, etc.) can cause a sudden influx of damage, even in these heroics that we have all run before, so you need to stay on top of your game. In fact, being so comfortable with heroics likely leads us to make mistakes we would not have made in the days when they were difficult, if only because of sloppiness. Anyways, your main goal is to avoid a wipe, and knowing that running out of mana is a near impossibility unless you are blatantly overhealing everyone, you should feel free to use your larger, more expensive heals to reduce the chance of a wipe to near zero. It may feel wasteful, but it's only wastefulness if you can run out of whatever you are using.

Ardol as a raid boss

Edit: Well, I accidentally posted this ahead of schedule, so you get your miscellany post early this week.

An old Blog Azeroth Shared Topic asking us what we would be like as a raid boss really got me thinking, so I figured I'd pull it back from the grave to breath a bit more life into it. So here you go: Ardol, as a raid boss.

The battleground: I would be fought in a circular arena, about the size of Shade of Aran's library. Rather than being an enclosed room, it would instead be a floating platform with a spiral staircase leading up to it. There would be a red ring centered on the ground, the radius of which would be half of the radius of the entire battlefield. The importance of the ring will be apparent soon. The arena itself would be made of drab blue-grey stone. The area around the platform would be a blue-black fog.

The boss: I would fight the raid in simple clothing, unarmored and unarmed. I would have wings composed of light, similar to the wings of the seraphim in Tales of Symphonia. I would run around the during the battle and only use my wings to fly during my special attack. The raid would be assisted during the battle by a former accomplice of mine (we'll call him “Lodra” for now).

Fighting me: My fight would be a long one, a very long one, with endurance being an important point. In general, my fight would emphasize avoiding damage rather than healing a ton of it. It be a tank-and-spank most of the fight, except for my Chicanery ability. In between using Chicanery, I would attack the tank with only moderately damaging attacks. The actual damage will be very heavy, but Lodra would cast a spell on the tank reducing all damage he takes from me by 80%. A second tank would need to tank an add that would otherwise attack Lodra, preventing him from casting the shield spell. The add would share a health pool with me, but all damage he takes is reduced by 90%, meaning people will need to attack me myself to end the fight. Lodra would constantly be causing a high amount of threat by casting the shield spell, so the add-tank would need to stay on top of his game. The add wouldn't cause very much damage.

I would use two spells during my normal phase. One, Luminescence, would summon two balls of light to seek raid members. If the balls touch a raid member, they cause massive damage. However, only the ranged DPS and healers need to worry about the balls of light, for anyone who causes enough of their damage with melee attacks will not be sought. Still, the ranged needs to take care to not track the balls through the melee DPS. On normal mode, the balls will only seek the closest raid member, but on hard mode, they will try to flank the raid. The other spell I would use in normal mode would be Radiance, which would cause heavy damage to all targets in melee range. The melee needs to run out quickly to avoid dying, but the tank could stay in and tank me because of his damage reduction. One of the two spells would always be active.

I would use Chicanery every 20% on 10-man mode and every 10% on 25-man mode. Upon using Chicanery, I would float high into the air and would randomly select a raid member to summon to the middle of the battlefield. That raid member would then, imbued with my power, forcibly cast a souped-up version of one or more of his spells or abilities on all other raid members. During this time, the tank's damage reduction would be lost. If at all possible, I would use a different class each time, though if that isn't possible, I would go through all class available before repeating them. Once Chicanery ends, the targeted player would regain control, Lodra would recast his shield on the tank, and I would be damageable again.

Death Knight: The player would Death Grip everyone to the center and use Chains of Ice to slow them down. He also immediately apply Frost Fever and Blood Plague to the tank, as well as an über version of Chains of Ice that prevents him from moving from the center. After a certain amount of time, he would then use Pestilence on the tank. Anyone who is not outside of the ring would be affected. Chicanery would then end. Because the tank would regain his shield after this, the diseases wouldn't be much of an issue for him, but they will cause massive damage to everyone else. As such, the key is to get out of the center before the Death Knight uses Pestilence. On normal mode, simply running in a straight line out of the circle will be enough to escape in time, but on hard mode, the player will need a speed-boosting effect of some kind to escape the Pestilence. It won't need to be much; a speed-boosting boot enchantment would be enough. Barring that, Chains of Ice can also be dispelled.

Druid: The druid afflict everyone with Entangling Roots a few seconds after being teleported to the center. He would then use Hurricane on every player. The duration of both spells would run out at the same time, at which time Chicanery would end. If the players haven't spread out enough and are bunched up, the multiple Hurricanes will kill them quickly. As such, the key to surviving this phase is to spread out so that only you are damaged by your own Hurricane. The Hurricanes will have a wider radius on hard mode.

Hunter: The Hunter would instantly set a large amount of Explosive Traps around the arena. The radius of the explosion of these traps would be greatly increased, such that tripping one would affect everyone in the arena, and the damage over time component would stack. He will also start shooting off arrows into the air that will fall down over the battlefield. These arrows will create a purple circle where they are about to land and will cause enough damage that two or three will kill a player. This continues until Chicanery ends, when all un-tripped traps will be disarmed. The key here is avoiding the flame traps while avoiding the arrows falling from the sky. Avoid both and you won't take damage. More traps will be spawned on hard mode.

Mage: The Mage will instantly start casting Arcane Explosion over and over, which would cause less damage as players moved away from the Mage. Arcane Explosion would not reach the ring in the center. Blizzard would also activate around the outside of the arena, causing less damage as players move away from the outside and towards the ring in the center. This continues until Chicanery ends. Surviving this stage means getting to the ring as quickly as possible. As long as the player can manage that, it's a simple strategy. The players are also slowed to 50% of their movement speed on hard mode.

Paladin: The Paladin first summons various mobile shields resembling the Hand of Protection shield. He then Consecrates the whole arena. Anyone not in a shield will take massive damage from this effect. The shields move around, so players need to stay inside of them. As the effect continues, the shields move towards each other and merge, so players will need to watch to see which shield they will need to follow. As longs as players can stay within the shields, they will survive. Fewer shields will spawn on hard mode.

Priest: The Priest will start by slowing and damaging everyone a la Mind Flay and will then cast Mind Sear on everyone. Mind Sear will cause a lot of damage, so spreading out is the key to surviving this part of the fight. The Mind Sear will continue to grow as the stage passes, so players must be sure to maximize the distance between themselves. On hard, the Priest will delay casting Mind Flay for a second or two, but it will start at its maximum radius.

Rogue: The Rogue will use Fan of Knives but aim them in a cone. If the player is hit by the knives, he will take a lot of damage. The key to this stage is to not be hit by the knives. The closer the player is to the Rogue, the less he needs to move to avoid them, but the less time he'll have to avoid them, and vice verse, so players will need to find a balance that works for them. On hard mode, there will be significantly less time between when the Rogue faces a new direction and when he uses Fan of Knives.

Shaman: The Shaman will first drop Earthbind Totem and will them alternate between using Thunderstorm and Chain Lightning. Chain Lightning will jump to as many targets as it can and its damage will be evenly split between every target it hits. If all the players are in the ring, they will be close enough. As such, players want to remain close together throughout the entire fight so that one or two players don't take lethal damage. This will be difficult because Thunderstorm will be launching players in a random directions away from the shaman. On hard mode, the Shaman will use Thunderstorm more frequently.

Warlock: The Warlocks casts a Curse of Doom on two or four random raid members (on 10- and 25-man, respectively). The Warlock will also summon as many Demonic Circles as there are players with Curse of Doom active. When a player steps on the Demonic Circle, he dispels the Curse of Doom and it jumps instead to another party member with a few seconds added to its duration. The Demonic Circle then disappears and moves. The key to this phase is keep the curses moving so that they last long enough that they can be dispelled by Lodra when Chicanery ends. On hard mode, less time is added to the duration of the curse with each jump.

Warrior: The warrior starts in the middle and will then use Intercept on the closest raid member. He will continue doing this until Chicanery ends. The damage he does will be significantly increased if he doesn't need to charge very far, and he will stun the target if that happens. The key to this phase is for players to stay far away from each other so that the warrior isn't able to cause extra damage with his Intercept; they'll know he did if they are stunned. On hard mode, the target will also be knocked back when they are hit if they are not close enough to be stunned.

After being targeted by Chicanery, the player would gain a Signet of Sanctified Revenge in his inventory. Depending on which class the player is, the Signet will have a different effect when used. The Signet lasts as long as the player is in the arena, meaning it can't be saved through death and it can't be used in another battle.

Death Knight: Freezes the Luminescence orbs in place and places an Anti-Magic Shell around Ardol, significantly reducing the radius of Radiance.

Druid: Revives all fallen raid members.

Hunter: Freezes Ardol in place for 15 seconds, disabling Luminescence or Radiance, allowing the raid to go all out on him.

Mage: Restores all of the raid members' mana.

Paladin: Makes the raid members immune to damage for 10 seconds.

Priest: Reduces the mana, rage, energy, runic power, and rune cost of all abilities by 100% for ten seconds for all raid members.

Rogue: All threat caused by all raid members will be redirected to the person in Lodra's shield for five seconds.

Shaman: Increases the effect of all non-healing beneficial spells on raid members by 200% for 30 seconds.

Warlock: Increases the effect of all non-damage effects on Ardol by 200% for 30 seconds.

Warrior: Double's the health of all party members for fifteen seconds, healing them for an amount equal to 100% of their maximum health when the effect occurs. The health is not lost when the effect ends.

Loot: Because of my love of pets, I would definitely drop a pet. It would look like the light ball summoned by Luminescence, and it would be radiating light like the Radiance effect. On hard mode, I would also drop a flying mount that simply causes the player to sprout wings like mine and fly. The rest of my loot would be trinkets, for I find those to be the most fun items. The trinkets would have heroic versions that would drop on 25-man mode and 10-man hard mode, while Triumphant versions would drop on 25-man hard mode. The numbers that follow are based on the numbers on trinkets that drop from ICC.

Aegis of Light:
Equip: Increases your dodge rating by 152 (3.86% @ L80).
Use: Heals you for 6500 damage over 5 seconds. Any overhealing done will create a shield that will absorb damage equal to the amount of overhealing done by the trinket. (2 Minute Cooldown)

Beacon of Light:
Equip: Restores 76 mana per 5 sec.
Equip: Any over-healing you do will shield the target, absorbing as much damage as was overhealed. Will not create a shield that can absorb more than 2500 health.

Empowering Glow:
Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 131 (2.85% @ L80).
Equip: When you deal damage with auto-attacks, you gain a Glowing Charge. Each Glowing Charge increases the attack power of your next ability that scales with attack power or weapon damage by 250, stacking up to five times.

Focusing Glass:
Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 131 (2.85% @ L80).
Equip: Each time you deal spell damage to an opponent, your spell damage against that opponent is increased by 18 spell power for the next 10 sec, stacking up to 10 times.

Mote of Enthusiasm:
Equip: Improves hit rating by 85 (2.59% @ L80).
Equip: Your melee and ranged attacks increase your critical strike rating by 32, stacking up to 20 times. The effect is consumed when you critically strike.

Protective Luminescence:
1890 Armor
Equip: Heals you for 500 every second when you are bellow 35% health.

Shining Light:
Equip: Increases spell power by 179.
Equip: Your direct healing spells have a chance to heal the target for 6000 over twelve seconds, and your heal-over-time spells have a chance to instantly heal the target for 6000.

Shining Object:
Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 152 (3.31% @ L80).
Equip: Each time one of your spells deals periodic damage or healing, you increase your spellpower by 45, stacking up to 10 times. When you use a direct damage or healing spell, the effect is consumed.

Achievements: Each achievement would have a normal 10-man mode version, normal 25-man mode version, hard 10-man mode version, and hard 25-man mode version.

Down With Ardol
Defeat Ardol in (whatever raid I am fought in).

It Feels So Good To Be Bad
Assist Ardol through Chicanery, then defeat him.

I'll Have No Part In This
Defeat Ardol without ever being targeted by Chicanery.

Avert Your Eyes!
Defeat Ardol without any raid member being hit by Luminescence or dying to Radiance.

Nothing Personal
Defeat Ardol without any raid member using his Signet of Sanctified Revenge.

No Hard Feelings
Defeat Ardol without any raid member...
-Being hit by a Death Knight's Pestilence
-Damaging another raid member with a Druid's Hurricane
-Tripping a Hunter's Explosive Trap
-Dying to a Mage's Blizzard or Arcane Explosion
-Being damaged by a Paladin's Consecration
-Damaging another raid member with a Priest's Mind Flay
-Being hit by a Rogue's Fan of Knives
-Not being hit by a Shaman's Chain Lightning
-Dying to a Warlock's Curse of Doom
-Being stunned by a Warrior's Intercept.

Familiar With Betrayal
Survive a Chicanery of every type without...
-Being hit by a Death Knight's Pestilence
-Damaging another raid member with a Druid's Hurricane
-Tripping a Hunter's Explosive Trap
-Dying to a Mage's Blizzard or Arcane Explosion
-Being damaged by a Paladin's Consecration
-Damaging another raid member with a Priest's Mind Flay
-Being hit by a Rogue's Fan of Knives
-Not being hit by a Shaman's Chain Lightning
-Dying to a Warlock's Curse of Doom
-Being stunned by a Warrior's Intercept.
[This one would likely require multiple runs to do, unless you have a 25-man raid with every class in it.]

Shining Example of Perfection
Awards the title the Radiant on 10-man mode and the Luminous on 25-man mode.
Defeat Ardol on heroic mode without an raid members using their Signet of Sanctified Revenge, being hit by Luminescence, dying to Radiance, or...
-Being hit by a Death Knights Pestilence
-Damaging another raid member with a Druid's Hurricane
-Tripping a Hunter's Explosive Trap
-Dying to a Mage's Blizzard or Arcane Explosion
-Being damaged by a Paladin's Consecration
-Damaging another raid member with a Priest's Mind Flay
-Being hit by a Rogue's Fan of Knives
-Not being hit by a Shaman's Chain Lightning
-Dying to a Warlock's Curse of Doom
-Being stunned by a Warrior's Intercept.

Looking back, I suppose this is more of a boss that I wish existed than what I would be like as a boss, but the former is probably more interesting anyways.

Should the dungeon finder should put people of similar gear levels together?

As it stands now, the Dungeon Finder tries to create groups whose members have varying levels of gear; it tries to put people who outgear heroics to a ludicrous degree and people who are just starting to gear up together, rather than separate the two. Of course, this frequently ends up with people who are new to level 80 being put with elitist a-holes who could never fathom doing heroics in non-epics, even though we all used to do that. Many people have claimed that the Dungeon Finder should instead put people of similar gear levels together; people who are new to heroics would be put together and people who outgear them would be put together. But is this system really in everyone's best interests, or are we ignoring the risks of such a system?

Let's first look at the benefits of grouping people with similar gear together. People who out-gear heroics would stand to gain a lot from this kind of system. Most people who run heroics these days know that finishing the heroic is a given; the only thing that changes with your group composition is how long it takes to do so. As such, having "under-geared" members in your group only slows you down, but rarely if ever prevents you from finishing the heroic. If the Dungeon Finder put über-geared people together, they would get to breeze right through heroics and get their daily emblems of frost without difficulty. Many of the "best run" stories I hear about heroics are stories of groups where everyone had amazing gear and the trash and bosses died really quickly, so I don't think many players would object to more of their runs being like that.

What about the players that are still gearing up? What do they stand to gain from a system like this? Quite a lot, actually. If a player is just starting heroics, they likely don't have much experience with groups or with their class in group play. Heroics are not just a place to get gear; they also serve as a training ground for people so they can better play their characters when they move into raids. Now, let me ask you something: What does a tank learn when a healer can heal him through all his mistakes and the DPS can survive the damage they take if they overaggro? What do DPS learn when the tank causes so much threat that they don't need to worry about aggro and the healer can heal them through damage they should be avoiding? What do healers learn when tanks barely take any damage and DPS don't need to be saved immediately when they take damage? As it stands now, the Dungeon Finder spoils newer players, allowing them to get gear without the necessary experience and lessons that once accompanied it. That would be different if those new players were put with other new players: they wouldn't be carried through the heroics, so they'd learn something from it, and they'd be spared the hateful tongues of those who think one needs ilevel 232 epics to run heroics.

There's also the issue of intimidation. When a healer can't heal a tank that is chain-pulling half the instance because healers can usually heal him through that or he can't heal the DPS because they are taking damage that they should be avoiding, it's likely to turn him off from heroics. When a tank can't hold aggro because DPS refuse to watch their threat and they then chastise him for it, it's likely to turn him off from heroics. If a DPS are continually kicked from groups because they are only putting out 1.5k DPS, it's likely to turn him off from heroics. However, if people who are gearing up through heroics are put together, these issues would vanish because the potential for their existence would be lost. A new tank cannot chain-pull half the instance; a new healer can not heal the DPS through their mistakes, so he won't be expected to; and a new DPS can't pull aggro off of a comparatively geared tank. In short, players that are gearing up through heroics stand to gain a lot by being put in groups with other people who are gearing up through heroics.

Also, if the Dungeon Finder put people of similar gear levels together, there would be more of a sense of progression in heroics. If a new player starts out in heroics with players who can carry him through it, the heroics are already easy for him, and he'll probably get bored pretty quickly. If, however, he first runs heroics with people like himself, heroics will be challenging for him like they were in the early days of Wrath of the Lich King. As his gear gets better, he'll be put with people with progressively better gear, so the difficulty of heroics will go down accordingly, rather than starting easy for him when he first steps inside of them. Under a system like this, getting gear would make heroics easier for the player, rather than making him less of a burden to his groups. It would be a form of positive progression, rather than negative progression.

Now that we've gone over the easy stuff (the benefits of this system), what would the drawbacks of such a system be? One drawback for the more geared players would the potential for the widespread impatience among better-geared players to get worse. After all, no system is perfect, and people who are just gearing up would at some point be put with elitists. If the more geared players got used to being in very speedy groups, the less-geared players would be even more abused than they are now when they are inevitably put with more geared players. Rudeness is already an issue in heroics, but a system like this gives it the potential to become even worse. Still, considering just how bad rudeness had gotten in spite of mixed groups, I don't think it could get much worse. Would people who are gearing up suffer any ill effects from this system? None that they don't already suffer; they'd just suffer them less frequently.

So, in the end, everyone benefits from the mixed-group system being abolished in favor of a system by which people are put in groups with people in similar gear. It seems that the newer players would benefit the most, which is ironic, considering that the mixed-group system was probably put in place to benefit them.