A friend of mine just reached the big seven zero and was trying to figure out what to do next. I think we all hit that point when we reach the level cap after months of leveling, and feel a little lost on what to do now that our XP bar refuses to increase. After a couple seconds of thinking over the options here is what I came up with to do at 70. (Note: Some these options are not available to fresh 70s.)
70 Activities
• Normal Instance
• Heroic Instance
• Raid Instance
• Grind Reputation
• Grind Gold
• Grind Profession
• Grind Mats for Gear
• Grind for Cosmetic Items (pets and tabards)
• Arena
• Battle Grounds
• Party Quests
• Solo Quests
• Attunement Quests
• Reputation Daily Quests
• Battle Ground Daily Quest
• Heroic Instance Daily Quest
• Instance Daily Quest
• Start over on an Alt
Now the real limit to what you can and can’t do in a MMORPG is the amount of time you can commit in one sitting. Several times this last week I started a heroic instance with 3 hours available to me, and then found the heroic running longer then 3 hours for one reason or another. I had to leave one of these runs before the last boss, missing out on the heroic daily quest and the epic plate item that dropped after I left. Other times I stuck it out and ended up finishing much later, losing sleep and wife rep. So I have found that I really cannot do a heroic instance on a weeknight, because I just don’t have time if everything doesn’t go smoothly.
If we divide up the possible activities by the amount of time they take it makes it easier to see what you can undertake if you have a set amount of time. Of course, if you have 3 hours it means you can do anything in the 3 hour list as well as anything in the smaller time blocks.
3+ hours
• Heroic Instance
• Raid Instance
• Heroic Instance Daily Quest
2-3 hours
• Normal Instance
• Instance Daily Quests
Less then 2 hours Committed
• Arena
• Party Quests
Less then 2 hours Uncommitted
• Grind Reputation
• Grind Gold
• Grind Profession
• Grind Mats for Gear
• Grind for Cosmetic Items (pets and tabards)
• Battle Grounds
• Solo Quests
• Attunement Quests
• Reputation Daily Quests
• Battle Ground Daily Quest
• Start over on an Alt
The committed and uncommitted label has nothing to do with your mental health, instead it means that you have committed to a specific block of time, or not. If I agree to a 5 man party quest then I am committed to the group until it is done, a committed time block. If I instead work on solo quests, then I am uncommitted time wise, and can log off any point. Might be a better label but this one makes sense to me.
I have an average of 3 hours to play on a weeknight, so if I look at my list, that puts me on the borderline of heroics, and able to do most everything else. On the weekend I tend to play for much longer blocks, so I have the entire list of activities available.
Now if you look at this list and compare it your average time blocks to the list you can pick out what your endgame options are. If you do not have more then 3 hours available to you at least a couple nights a week, then it is unlikely you will be able to find a raid that will fit your available time. If you only have 1 hour blocks of time available to you then that limits your play to pvp and questing, and pretty much completely excludes any type of instancing or raiding. So time blocks, not total time, is what limits your end game options. And I think it is also these time blocks that divide the perceived casual and hardcore players.
There has been an ongoing battle mentioned on Tobold’s site between casual players arguing for an easier entry level raid and raiders arguing that casuals wouldn’t play one even if it was created. As I have shown, it is the time blocks a player has available that limit their ability to raid, not their skill or their total weekly playtime. So, as much as I hate to say it, the raiders/hardcore are right, if the new raid was just easier, but not designed with the casual’s smaller time block casuals would no more be able to play it then they can currently play Kara. If casuals truly want a raid available to them it wouldn’t need to be easier, it would need less outside of raid work and require a smaller time block.
How to create a raid with a smaller required time block is up to Blizzard, but would probably be similar to what Tobold envisioned in his comments.
“If I had to build a casual raid dungeon, it would start with about 20 minutes worth of trash mobs, a first boss, and then doors in three directions, leading to more bosses. Thus the raid group can always decide how many wings of the dungeon they want to do in what evening.” -Tobold
I know my guild and I would step up and do a 10 man raid that was designed like that. Make the rewards equivalent to heroics and allow badges to drop, and it would allow a stepping stone into Kara for people who want to raid heavily, and a fun option for play for casuals.
What time blocks do you have available to you? Would you enjoy a raid designed like this? What dangers would it offer to the game balance?
Friday, November 23, 2007
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5 comments:
Sometime adding a simple challenge can raise the complexity of instance immediately ala Baron run or the 55 minute Shattered Halls quest.
I'd like to more wing-based instances with options. Normal, Heroic and Epic mode giving badges and nethers would be awesome.
Actually, your suggestion of instance where you can determine your own pace and time sounds exactly like Karazahn. Like I have said on many occassions, Karazahn is not your pre-BC raid by any comparision. Its more an extension of the Heroic concept where 11 bosses live in one tower waiting for you to visit. Its really is the definition of casual raiding if there was ever one.
I also love the new Dailies and from a time sink perspective defiitely fill a void that the Ogrila and Netherwing dailies couldnt fill. Those Dailies have also bought the guild closer together as they are usually first guild activity of the day. I am very keen to see expand to other professions across the board.
There is no way to successfully raid Kara in two hour blocks 3-4 nights a week, unless your group is already have geared up in mostly Kara gear. Kara is not the solution I am looking for. If you join a fully geared guild who is running Kara for badges, it will certainly feel easy, but if you are trying to progress with 10 new raiders 2 hours a night, you will get no where. Starting out Kara also requires a higher investment of time farming to make consumables to make up for your lack in gear.
How is the winged option any better than kara?
You spend a few hours battling then get one boss down. Done for the night. The next night again a few hours and a boss. Just because it isn't winged doesn't necesserily mean you need to take it all in one foul scoop. Its quite possible to do it in chunks at a time.
As for the mentioning of farming consumables to make up for gear - Kara can be started on dungeon blues. Seriously making a new raid thats branched would still require this farming. I think Karazhan was kind of designed to fill this role as zan has said.
The only advantage a winged raid would have is time difference (e.g. one boss take 1 hour to get to, one takes 3 hours etc). This would make it easier for guilds with less time to do the 1 boss, but realistically people would want the loot from the second boss too - as no doubt the second boss would have different loot tables.
I personally think that this would cause all sorts of guild drama and debate in which boss you were going after.
Realistically a shorter 10 man would be nice - but the fact that its long should not put one off
Given guilds are clearing Kara in 4 hours, if they do 12 bosses this means they are spending on average 20 minutes per boss which includes the travelling and trash clearing in between but of course this is at the top end. At the learning end, 2 hour windows per boss per day is ample for learning a single encounter. In fact, it would be the way I recommend one do it. 2 hours including trash clear and several attempts but not so much that you become disillusioned. This was the way I was learning before transferring to frostwolf so I can recommend less is more. Shorter concentrated sessions would be better than long drawn out demoralising attempts. I hope you do give it a go. Kara is not your pre-BC raid - be you new raider or not.
I could continue to argue about how Kara is not the raid that you guys think it is, but basically the issue is you are missing the whole point of the post.
I am arguing that casual players are excluded from the current raids, including Kara, by the time block required to succeed in the instance. I quoted Tobold saying that a winged instance with 20 minutes of trash between bosses would be optimal, basically allowing progress in 1 hour blocks. Arguing that Kara is this raid is just silly. The trash between bosses takes up to an hour in Kara for reasonably geared players. The only people clearing it in 4 hours are in full kara gear and some gear from the 25 man raids. Kara could possibly be turned into the raid we are discribing by removing alot of the trash in the instance, but thats not the point of the post. So anyone have any comments on the questions I had about that idea?
"What time blocks do you have available to you? Would you enjoy a raid designed like this? What dangers would it offer to the game balance?"
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