Taking Things Too Far

Blizzard's degeneration of raiding has really gone too far. Seven of the twelve hardmodes in ICC 25 are an absolute joke and will die within 5 pulls. There's another two that will take you only a few more attempts.

The remaining three are slightly more difficult and will last most guilds a few more weeks yet - but that's because attempts on them are limited.

Even the easier hardmodes of Ulduar were a considerable step up from this rubbish - prior to them being nerfed into the ground of course.

And it looks like Blizzard won't even have to nerf Icecrown, it will nerf itself in the form of a stacking HP, damage and healing buff for everyone - stacking up to 30%. Not that you'll need it of course, as everyone except the worst of the worst guilds out there will be 11/12 ICC Hardmode by the time the buff kicks up to 30%.

~P

New Spec for Season 8 PvP

Hello guys,

In the search for a new spec to take Season 8 by storm in the way Protribution took Season 7 by storm, I stumbled upon the following gem:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#sfcbGGrZx0xA0uxZE0Mzrh

I call it the trifecta. Try it, you'll be amazed.

~P

On Ensidia

In case you've recently been living under a rock, in a shoe, or on one of the moons of Jupiter, you should know that Ensidia recently got banned for exploiting the Lich King encounter by using Saronite Bombs to rebuild the platform, trivialising a certain aspect of the fight. This was the world first kill, but they had their titles, loot, achievement, and credit stripped with the ban.

I'm not naive enough to take a side and defend them vehemently, but it's hard not to feel sorry for Ensidia. They've essentially been beta-testing on live and discovered a broken encounter and been punished for it. There's no excuse for content going live with fatal bugs such as this.

That said, Ensidia haven't had the best record of clean kills in the past (C'Thun, Hodir, Mimiron, etc) and their official statements should definitely be taken with a grain of salt. I personally wasn't sure whether I could trust them when they said they didn't know what was causing the bug.

With that said, banning them is a bit harsh, and they should have been given the benefit of the doubt from Blizzard. Next time this happens (really, you're kidding yourself if you think no boss will ever be bugged again), fix the bug and take away their kill, sure, but at least give the guild another shot at it for the week.

It would appear that Blizzard opted for the easiest way out when dealing with this issue. Respawning the Lich King in Ensidia's instance would have been extra effort, and not to mention the effort Blizzard would have to go to when dealing with the bleeding hearts on the US forums crying out "BUT YOU BANNED EXODUS YOU OBVIOUSLY FAVOUR ENSIDIA".

~P

Blizzard gets one thing right

And that one thing is removing limited attempts on normal modes in Icecrown.

Now, let's see if they're sensible enough to do the same for heroic mode.

Actually, scratch that, Cataclysm isn't anywhere near ready yet, need to keep people playing (and paying) a bit longer.

~P

New Stat Required: Resilience Penetration

With the recent resilience buff in PvP, resilience and healing has become far too powerful in PvP. The new debuff that reduces healing done in battlegrounds and arena does not go far enough to solve the problem. This is why I am proposing that Cataclysm takes the following measure to reduce the effects of resilience on PvP:

Resilience penetration. Each point of resilience on gear also grants one point of resilience penetration. This reduces the enemy's resilience by a percentage equal to to the amount of damage reduction you take from your own resilience rating.

Doing this will cause Cataclysm PvP to become far less ridiculous and much more balanced for classes that are gimped against high resilience targets.

~P

Enter the Lich King

Patch 3.3.2 is here, and with it we'll see a few changes and new features. Let's look at the good and the bad:

The good:
Lich King and the Frostwing Halls are here, and you'll now be able to slay Sindragosa and the Lich King for some shiny new purples!
Arena Season 8 is here with some minor PvP changes. I look forward to watching Larxy struggling to break 1500. Also means we have a new boss moving into the Vault of Archavon, giving you 264 tier pieces for something the same difficulty as Ingvar the Plunderer. Nice.

The bad:
We have a new boss moving into the Vault of Archavon, giving you 264 tier pieces for something the same difficulty as Ingvar the Plunderer. Nice.

Other than that there's not really much to talk about. A new cinematic for the death of the Lich King is out, and we'll be able to see it in time thanks to the stacking HP/damage buff!

~P