Raid Warning: A World of Warcraft Podcast

Intro Song:
DJ Cutman

http://www.djcutman.com/
Bit Generation 7
Link Chops 2
Run to Japan

Punch in the Faceout 

Beer:
2XIPA from Southern Tier Brewing Company
http://www.southertierbrewing.com
ABV: 8.2%
Beer Advocate: A-

Triskaidekaphobia 13th Anniversary Tripel Ale by Snoqualmie Falls Brewing

http://www.fallsbrew.com

ABV: 8.6%
Beer Advocate: B+
Seven:

Wolaver’s Oatmeal Stout
Otter Creek Brewing / Wolaver’s in vermont.
ABV: 5.90%
Beer Advocate B+
Joe: A, smooth solid taste with just a hint of a medium malt. Has a sweet kick in the middle and a very minimal bitterness on the finish. Best served in chilled glass.

NEWS:
Ghostcrawler on Raid Progress
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/2452061#blog

New Valor Point Awards

• Right now, you receive 70 VP for the first random Cataclysm Heroic dungeon you complete each day.
• In 4.1, you’ll receive 70 VP for the first seven random Cataclysm Heroic dungeons you complete each week.
• You’ll receive 140 VP for the first seven random Rise of the Zandalari Heroic dungeons (the new Zul’Aman and Zul’Gurub instances) you complete in the week, too.
• Collectively, you’ll be able to earn up to 980 VP exclusively from Heroic dungeons, which in turn will count towards your weekly 1250 VP cap.
• 7 total heroics, not 7 heroic and 7 ZG/ZA

RSA Vulnerability and Blizzard Authenticators
The Blizzard Authenticators are based off modified Vasco tokens. I’m sorry to hear about RSA’s troubles, but it will not affect the Blizzard Authenticator. (Source)

People blocking mailboxes with flying mounts
You may have noticed that a number of mailboxes were added to the capital cities so that, if you happen to find one blocked, it should be relatively easy to walk a few steps and find another one that remains unobstructed. Most vendors are located inside buildings where mounts aren’t allowed too.

Having the option to use one’s flying mounts within the capital cities is ultimately more convenient than removing them to ensure access to services which should be reasonably accessible to begin with. (Source)

Target position on Minimap in Patch 4.1
Patch 4.1 adds a very useful feature to the game, anything you target will now have its position displayed on the minimap! It’s obviously very useful when you’re looking for a NPC after using the /target command and I’m sure it will make a couple of rare elite hunters happy

Optional Bosses/Heroic Halls of Origination
We’ll need to weigh the value of optional dungeon and raid bosses further before we make any changes. There’s good arguments on both sides. On the one hand, optional bosses can be great for keeping dungeons and raids from feeling too linear or formulaic — and, when done right, they can also give groups a meaningful choice between getting extra loot and completing a run faster. On the other, optional bosses can sometimes create social tension, especially in Dungeon Finder groups, if players disagree whether they should invest the time to fight them.

Winged Lion Mount
http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2211-Winged-Lion-Mount-Patch-4.1-PTR-Notes-March-15-Update-Blue-Posts

Blizzard vs The Bots
We’re in the process of stepping up our detection and tracking to log and action players that are botting, or habitually AFKing in the Battlegrounds. We’ll be taking aggressive action and removing earned items, Honor Points, and ultimately suspending or even banning accounts of those that are found to be botting or habitually AFKing. It’s a sophisticated level of monitoring we’re undertaking. No one actively playing in the Battlegrounds normally should be concerned that they’ll be actioned.

Dev Q&A: Thoughts?
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/163596/ask-the-devs-qa-1-answers

25 World of Warcraft Tattoos
http://www.holytaco.com/25-world-of-warcraft-tattoos/

Reviews:
5 Star iTunes by: Alt420
The last show at PAX East by far your best show ever, keep up the good work

5 Start itunes by: Ridinius
The show is great. It’s nice to have a laid back podcast to listen to rather than all the others that are so serious all the time. Everyone on there is hilarious and I’ve added a lot of great beer to my collection thanks to the drinkers at Raid Warning.
Keep up the great work.
Wafflebolt!

Great use of your time
I have recently started listening to podcasts and this one is one of the main ones that I wish was released even faster. I get a good laugh and hear good information. Information that I even relay to others. Well worth your time.

Emails:
Shoutout to The Beefy Scotsman for creating some sort of weird endgame raid scenario where I dual wield IPAs and Thespius manscapes those in melee range.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Guild Wars Insider:
Writers?

Daily Grind?

Typefrag “PAX2011” $5 or “Raidwarning” for 25% off

Christina’s Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/ZerinaX

RANT LINE
707-602-RANT (7268)

BEER AND BANDWIDTH FUND

VISIT US DAILY:
www.raidwarning.net
www.twitter.com/raidwarning
Facebook Fan Page

CHECK US OUT EACH WEEK:
iTunes
zune marketplace
www.mininova.org/user/raidwarning
www.thepiratebay.org

COMMENTS / SUGGESTIONS / MMO Dating Tips
raidwarningpodcast@gmail.com

Intro Song:
Chase & Status – No Problem

Beer:
“Double Rainbow” by Iron Horse Brewery

http://www.ironhorsebrewery.com

ABV: 7%
Beer Advocate: NA
Seven:

NEWS:
Dungeon Finder Hotfix Changes
Patch 4.0.6 February 18 Hotfixes, Blue Posts
Dungeon Finder

• If a party member remains outside of a dungeon for more than 3 minutes, they become eligible for removal, regardless of other Vote Kick restrictions.
• When players queue as a group with a tank or a healer, and the tank or healer drops group (or is kicked) within the first 5 minutes, all of the other players who queued with them are removed from the group as well.
• If there is a group of 3 or more friends and someone in that group initiates a Vote Kick of a random party member, it now requires 4 votes to kick the player, instead of the standard 3 votes.
• The penalty for using the Vote Kick feature too often is not issued to a player who kicks someone with whom they queued for a dungeon (i.e. the party member being selected for removal is not a player randomly selected via the Dungeon Finder).
• The penalty for using the Vote Kick feature too often will be issued much more quickly to players who join as a party of 4 and kick the randomly selected 5th player.
• The penalty for using the Vote Kick feature too often will now not allow the player to initiate a Vote Kick for 2 hours, up from 45 minutes.
• These changes will require realm restarts to take effect. More information can be found here.

Dungeons & Raids

• When switching a normal raid dungeon over to Heroic difficulty, players were instantly becoming saved without warning. There is now a warning dialog box which will appear before the difficulty is changed.

Blue Post: Bashiok on Hotfixes
We actually spent a bit of time talking to the designers about this very topic, and it’s something they’re well aware of and realize isn’t always ideal. A few really great points came out of that meeting, though:

• Some changes in 4.0.6 and/or 4.0.6a were just wrong. For a myriad of reasons the changes made in 4.0.6/4.0.6a either did not pan out as expected, or were simply mis-calculations/interpretations. Which is the reason for a number of the quick reversions and changes in hotfixes shortly after the patch.

• While there was feedback from the PTR on what is broken, overpowered, underpowered, etc. there simply wasn’t enough data and real world proof for us to make changes. Forum posts always make a lot of noise. It’s difficult to separate the seed from the chaff. Yes, it turned out a number of reports proved to be accurate once the 4.0.6′s hit the masses and we were able to get a sample size that showed us what needed adjusting.

• The third point discussed was that we have an obligation to deploy hotfixes when we feel we’re making quality of life-improvements, fixing errors, or simply making good balance changes. Good balance is very much debatable among who you ask, of course.

• Fourth point really struck home with all of the designers, and that’s that they also have an obligation to not use the live realms as a balancing laboratory. That while the changes being made have seemed very quick and sporadic at times, that there is thought and planning going in to them, and they are consciously avoiding throwing out changes and seeing what happens. While some changes have been implemented and then reverted, it’s not because a lot of thought and effort didn’t go into them, but that simply they didn’t work as intended.

I know a lot of us remember the old days where classes would sit without changes for months, in some cases years for specific mechanics. A class would dominate for 6 months, and that’s just how the game was. There’s an agreement that 4.0.6 and 4.0.6a have been pretty chaotic with hotfixes, and that’s due to a number of issues that we don’t consider to be ‘usual’. We fully expect them to slow down substantially from this point, and we really appreciate everyone who stays on top of the hotfix blog, and relates the changes as they’re made to their guildies and friends.

Twitter Topic: Should WoW have a Vanilla Realm?
furiey

No. I don’t see the point in wasting server space like that – move forward, don’t get stuck in the past.

Samodean
I’m all about moving forward, not looking back. A lot of people who call for a return to the “old days” seem to forget how broken much of the gameplay/balance/itemization was.

Achloryn
I don’t think so, no. Old world things are still pretty damn trivialized by the way things are scaled nowadays. Besides, it would get old really quick for those who think they want it, imo.

Velidra
Everyone rerolls to the vanilla realm, rose tinted glasses would get shattered… and then it would be a ghost town. It would be like ToC, everyone thinks they want a trashless raid, then when we get it… yeaaah

Leaders of the Horde and Alliance Part 3. Gallywix: Trade Secrets of a Trade Prince:
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/game/lore/leader-story/gallywix/1

NPC Equalization Incoming: Bashiok
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/159047/we-need-more-than-one-major-city-please
We’re doing a full NPC equalization in the next major patch to ensure each capital city has the same tradeskill, trainer, and supply resources. Hopefully to ensure that any city can be visited for the majority of uses.

We don’t have any plans though to extend the dailies and portals in Stormwind and Orgrimmar to the other cities. They were specifically chosen as the main capital hubs for Cataclysm, and as such a lot of work went into updating and improving them knowing they would be the primary hubs, including new and redesigned areas for the dailies and portal hub.

In the same way that Dalaran or Shattrath were the main cities for their expansions, and housed unique quests and services, Stormwind and Orgrimmar are the main cities for Cataclysm.

Bashiok: Epilepsy and elementals flashing death effect
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/158478/dear-blizepileptics-vs-elementals
We’ve actually seen a number of forum posts, and received a few letters on the elemental death effects. We have a task set to remove the flashes from the death effect, although as the work hasn’t begun I couldn’t accurately state when the change might make it in.

In any case, we agree and we’re going to be changing them.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Typefrage Presents: Raid Warning LIVE!

PAX East: Sunday March, 13th @ 12:30 in the Manticore room
Jeff Cannata (Totally Rad Show, Weekend Confirmed)
Dustin Blackwell (MMOMFG.com)
Josh Whitaker (MMOFringe.com)
Drew Walker (R&D, Game Design for Cryptozoic/WoW TCG)

Typefrag “PAX2011” $5 or “Raidwarning” for 25% off

RANT LINE
707-602-RANT (7268)

BEER AND BANDWIDTH FUND

VISIT US DAILY:
www.raidwarning.net
www.twitter.com/raidwarning
Facebook Fan Page

CHECK US OUT EACH WEEK:
iTunes
zune marketplace
www.mininova.org/user/raidwarning
www.thepiratebay.org

COMMENTS / SUGGESTIONS / MMO Dating Tips
raidwarningpodcast@gmail.com

“Hoptimum” by Sierra Nevada Brewing Co
http://www.sierranevada.com/
ABV: 10.4%
Beer Advocate: A-
Seven: A
Piney and vicious

Joe: River Horse Brewer’s Reserve Otameal-Milk Stout
Belgian Style beer, mass production available november 15th. (good to know a guy who knows a guy)

NEWS:
Love is in the air kicks off this week
http://www.wowhead.com/guide=love-is-in-the-air

Patch 4.0.6 To Go Live This Week
http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2172-Patch-4.0.6-on-live-realms-this-week

Luck of the Draw Buff, Buffed
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/156326/luck-of-the-draw-buff
In case you aren’t already aware, Luck of the Draw is the name of the buff you get for grouping with random people using Dungeon Finder. It currently provides a 5% buff to damage, healing, and health if you have at least one random player in your group. With patch 4.0.6, we are increasing this buff to 5% damage, healing, and health per random player, up to a maximum of 15%.

In the process of working on this change we actually discovered that the Luck of the Draw buff has not been working in Cataclysm at all, save for a few specific dungeons. This means that the difficulty in almost all normal and Heroic dungeons for those using the Dungeon Finder tool was higher than expected. Still, with that issue corrected in 4.0.6, we feel the bump up to 15% for three or more random players found through the Dungeon Finder is a necessary change.

Rated Battleground Weeks Now 10v10
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/156327/all-rated-battleground-weeks-now-10v10
We’re in the process of developing a hotfix to push before next Tuesday that will change all 15vs15 rated battleground weeks into 10vs10 weeks.

Looking at participation, the 10vs10 rated battleground weeks have been far and away more popular than the 15vs15 weeks. The difference in organizational requirements as well as battleground map popularity have been a couple big factors that have led to the 10vs10 weeks seeing a great deal more action. By making this change and supporting the popular option we hope to encourage even more players and teams to participate, as they won’t have to wait out every other week, or struggle to beef up to 15 players to match the requirement.

We also have plans to adapt additional battleground maps in the future to work in the 10 player bracket to increase the variety of maps available.

Bashiok Beat Down
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/156251/real-life-threats
Real life threats are real

Twitter Topic: Is Cataclysm Questing Too Linear?
Deadpool: Linear yes, I find it a good thing though for streamlined quest progression. My most important desire is interesting and engaging stories with rich visually appealing zones, which they provided
Ozoneic: The worst part about Cata’s quest linearity is when a quest was bugged. Basically stuck until it was hotfixed
Velidra: some zones, maybe? tbqh I think hyjal isn’t linear enough, is far to easy to miss one quest hub and to get stuck
Ohnoforresst: Are you kidding me? Suure let’s go back to the game style where we wander around lost for 80 levels with a shopping list. Yay.
Tartdarling:  I think it serves the story better to guide you through the quests so you don’t miss huge chunks of story.
eharvester: Ipersonally like the fact that it’s easy to tell where to go next, additionally it has a real story to it and that makes it more fun for me.

LFD Queue Times Too Long
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/156078/looking-for-dungeon-queues
We’re still going to keep pushing to do better, to make things as balanced as possible, and to provide an epic and entertaining gaming experience. We just won’t be able to do it overnight.

The Looking For Dungeon queue times are understood to be of issue for some people. If/when we find a better way to get you in to a dungeon quicker, we’ll let you know.

Nefarian US First Kill by Blood Legion
Blood Legion (US-Illidan) was the first guild in the US to defeat Nefarian in 25-Man Heroic Mode! Congratulations to them for the kill!

World of Warcraft Helps You Do Your Homework
http://www.gamersmint.com/world-of-warcraft-helps-you-do-your-homework/

Jinx WoW Tshirt design contest going on
http://www.jinx.com/contest/warcraft

Malgayne Leaves Wowhead
http://www.wowhead.com/blog=181775/a-fond-farewell

Reviews:
5 Star iTunes review by Igthorn- <Final Final>
Keeps me coming back for a refill
I used to listen to almost every wow podcast i could get my ears on, but have since trimmed the fat and narrowed it down to a few favorites. Raid Warning is the delicious bacon fat you cling to til your arteries clog up and you slump over in a meaty coma.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

TypeFrag Presents: Raid Warning Live!

PAX East: Sunday March, 13th @ 12:30 in the Manticore room
Jeff Cannata (Totally Rad Show, Weekend Confirmed)
Dustin Blackwell (MMOMFG.com)

Typefrag “PAX2011” $5 or “Raidwarning” for 25% off


RANT LINE
707-602-RANT (7268)

BEER AND BANDWIDTH FUND

VISIT US DAILY:
www.raidwarning.net
www.twitter.com/raidwarning
Facebook Fan Page

CHECK US OUT EACH WEEK:
iTunes
zune marketplace
www.mininova.org/user/raidwarning
www.thepiratebay.org

COMMENTS / SUGGESTIONS / MMO Dating Tips
raidwarningpodcast@gmail.com