THIS IS NOT A PURPLE INSTANCE!

Dinged 80 with the Shaman yesterday and decided to go Resto and Elemental. Problem is, whenever a group fails, I'm automatically blamed. Doesn't matter if it's my fault. What does matter, or at least seems to, is that I'm still wearing blues.

An example. Old Kingdom is the Daily today. We got to the first boss, were doing fine, then started wiping. And I mean a lot. They blamed it on me, saying I had "too many blues and even a couple of greens". First of all, I've got one green and that's a trinket. Secondly, Old Kingdom is NOT a purple instance. Doing it in blues is fine. I've ran through it many times like that.

But people pick the easiest thing to blame. In reality, it was the tank's fault. He wasn't T-clapping and would leave me to die when the adds would gather on me. Not a good tanking strategy.

I'll try to pug it again tonight though I'm not sure how that will go. Maybe a new group will realize that healers can't take on 5 to 6 mobs at once.

Clearing Up...

I'd like to clear up my last post. Y'know, the one underneath this one that talks about the $20 for the Arena realm.

It isn't that I don't think World of Warcraft's PvP takes skill. I know it does. In fact, I've been beaten to a pulp before because I couldn't compare in terms of skill to the other player (I know it was skill because they were 6 levels below me and had crap for gear).

What I meant by saying Guild Wars was more skill-focused is that gear isn't an issue in that game. In WoW, it is. If I decide to PvP in Guild Wars, I simply create a max level character (level 20) and go to town. I can change all of my armor and weapons around, adding new powers and abilities to them, for absolutely free. Unlike WoW, I don't have to strive for gear because it is all given to me. So when I enter a battle on Guild Wars, everyone is exactly the same and therefore the matches are determined completely by skill (and sometimes the luck of a well-chosen spell).

However, in WoW you have to work for everything. An example. A few months ago my Warrior dinged 80. Since then I've been running heroics and raids, trying to gear up. I eventually began to get bored with this process and decided to PvP. Unlike in Guild Wars, I had to start at the bottom of the totem pole. It was only by PvPing for days that I was eventually able to work my way up and purchase some gear that allowed me to compete. However, there are people who have been doing this much longer than I and have much better gear because of it. So when it comes to fighting those types.... well, I usually don't fight those types. Running is the better option there.

So which system of PvP is better? That's for you to decide. Some people enjoy the simplicity and instant gratification of Guild Wars while others like their power to come from hard work and determination (WoW). Personally, I prefer the Guild Wars style. I don't like having to lose a hundred times just so that I can compete. It's very disheartening. However, I will say that I do enjoy the sense of reward in WoW. With Guild Wars, each time my team wins a battle (or kills an enemy, captures a flag, etc.) I receive Balthazar Points for it (a.k.a. Honor in WoW). With these points I'm able to buy skills for my PvE characters, purchase Heroes to aid me in fighting other players, or buy a few PvP "upgrades", none of which that give a solid increase in damage or survivability. This, too, can be disheartening.

I like how Call of Duty does it. When starting at level 1, I feel as if I can still compete against a level 55 (or 65 if you're playing World at War). However, as I do better and gain experience, I feel as if I'm earning ample rewards. Now, while these rewards do make me more effective in combat (especially the Red Dot/Aperture Scope... so handy), it isn't enough to make me unbeatable by someone 10, 20, or even 30 levels than me. Activision did a great job of making a player's skill outweigh their gear without making the gear feel useless.

Hopefully, with the release of Guild Wars 2, NCSoft will make their PvP rewards system resemble that of Call of Duty rather than the first Guild Wars. Or, maybe Blizzard will be convinced by my infinite wisdom and do as I stated above with the next expansion (or in a super patch). We all know this isn't going to happen (in either game) but I can wish.

Arena Realm

So a week ago my friend convinced me to pay $20 so that I could play WoW Arena with him. I want my $20 back.

For anyone that considers doing this, let me give you a tip. Guild Wars allows you to do the same thing but for free (for the price of the games, of course). And Guild Wars' Arena is better, in my opinion. It's not as "cookie-cutter" and is more skill-focused rather than gear-focused.

If you want some PvP action, play GW, or Warhammer from what I hear. I need to try that out. That game sounds like one big PvP-orgy.

A Simple Change

Be warned. Nerd-speak ahead. Proceed at your own risk.

Lets get it out there. I play World of Warcraft. I know, I know. Its amazing I'm wasting my life on this right now and not that. Anyway, I'd like to share a lesson I learned from WoW with you.

As some of you may know, once a player hits 80 (max level), one of the best ways to make money is through "dailies" (quests that can be repeated every 24 hours). These ventures usually net a pretty penny and are very helpful in buying everything from a flying mount to a shiny new ass-kicking weapon. So, as one might assume, upon reaching the highest level, I did dailies. Lots and lots of dailies.

While doing them, I stumbled across one of the least fun quests I've ever played in WoW. It was called "Shoot 'Em Up" and it was bad. The premise was simple. Find a turret and shoot some spears at some dragons until 20 are dead. Sounds easy or even fun, right? No. Not in the least.

The problem wasn't so much in the premise of the quest but in how everything was executed. First of all, 20 dragons was just a little too much. After about 12 or 15, I felt that it should be over. Secondly, each time the player shot a spear, it took 10 energy. Considering that you only have 100 energy to spend (before it replenishes, slowly), misses weren't optional. Lastly, it took at least 5 spears to kill each dragon. And the dragons fly by quickly, so its not like I could pump 5 spears into each one with no problem.

For these reasons, I dreaded this quest. I would bear through it only because I needed the money. It was always the last quest I did and something I usually considered skipping.

And then one day, everything was all better.

Every few tuesdays, Blizzard releases a patch for WoW. Its usually a small thing and is used to do what it should; patch up holes in the game. So the evening after Blizzard released the "Shoot 'Em Up" patch, I played a very fun quest. A quest I'd been waiting for. A quest I knew was possible but had been deprived of due to some key issues.

And it isn't like Blizzard completely reworked the daily. Its basically the same as when the game released. However, now instead of killing 20 dragons, I have to kill 15. And instead of losing 10 energy per shot, I now lose 5. And instead of each dragon taking 5 hits before they die, they now take 3-4. You'd think with these miniscule changes, nothing would really be different. But it is. I now do "Shoot 'Em Up" first because I enjoy it better than almost every other daily.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, if something doesn't work the first time, it doesn't necessarily mean its broken. The smallest tweak can make a world of difference, because its usually the small things that give us the most trouble.