Anyway I have two points on the trade chat people with gear requirements. As GL I organize runs/PUGs all the time, and I know my guild intimately. So it usually goes like this. “Who wants to do hTOC”. Healer (me), my friend bear, random dps A and B. At that point when the healer and tank are covered, i’ll try to pug it with one outsider. At this point I think, well this is a challenging instance for us because its naxx25 level, and we are in heroics/naxx10 gear. So we need more dps to offset our weakness. So We need at least 2.5k dps hopefully more. So the call goes out “LF1M dps hTOC pls have 2.5k dps”. And I get like 5 ppl within seconds.

The other thing about designing runs is that you need a balance of people. Melee dps is just a dime a dozen. Now are the days when if you are ranged dps you can actually get into groups because people like you. For example on horde side i tried to get a naxx25 going. I ended up with no less than 10 DKs. We never even started, because with that many DKs it just shows that the PUG was a bunch of idiots. (I have a DK myself, but its safe to say that most people who have DKs are alts and don’t understand the class, and do terrible DPS). On alliance side, things are better, more ppl want to do Naxx10. I organized a run last night with only 2 ranged dps, because I purposely excluded the melee dps from joining in. We had 3 DKs 2 palys, a rogue, a bear if I recall. And me, yeah i was solo-healing for most of the night until archanid where you just NEED to have two healers if you want to zerg the second boss. And some other bosses. Turns out naxx10 is about half solo-healable.

Anyway challenges. We’re all bored at this point, nobody does ulduar because that’s too scarey. Okay, fine. ACHIEVEMENTS! Yes, run the heroics with achievements in mind. Don’t wipe a zillion times to get it, but see if you can do it. It makes the run alot more fun when you get that achievemnt done. Same with naxx10, bunch of achievments there.

@BBB- Ulduar 10 is tuned for Ilvl 200 gear. If you are sporting that gear then you and your group should be able to head into Ulduar. H ToC gear is designed more to bring players up to par with ToC 10 not Ulduar. You will need higher gear though if the skill of the raid is below the min that is required.

I run weekly with a semi pug. We have a core group of players but usually pick a few pugs up here and there. I’ve seen full tier 8 mages dps less then tank. I’ve seen players in Heroic/naxx 10 gear out perform some of our regulars. We do gear checks… but nothing insane like some of the other commenters have seen. You mainly need to be gemmed and enchanted appropriately for your spec and you will get an invite. If you perform poorly… you won’t be invited the following week.
.-= What’s my main again?´s last blog ..I cursed myself… =-.

This ^

Maybe I can’t kill murlocks better or tank Naxx better, but I can see how far I can go in an instance solo. The new badge (emblem) gear really helps with this.

Perhaps a better statement would be “When it comes to providing challenging instanced PvE content to experienced and well-geared players at the max level, Blizzard only caters to the raiding audience.”

“Something is very wrong with a game when you’ve reached a point where none of its accessible content offers any challenge anymore”

I think the problem here is that the content exists – but, because of your scheduling issues, it’s not accessible to you.

So, try changing your definition of accessible. Many servers have the kind of general populace that can support PuG raids – if you have an hour or two, hang out in /2 and hop into a raid. From experience I’ll say that most groups, if told “go watch the TankSpot video and then come back for assignments”, can handle Flame Leviathan in Ulduar. Even if you have to leave early, at least you got to experience something new!

Or, try widening your focus :) How about PvP? (There are SIX battlegrounds now! \boggle) Gathering pets or mounts? Doing the just-for-fun achievements (loving critters and whatnot)? Working on professions?

I also regret that the 5-man instanced endgame is lacking. But you have to keep in mind that it’s just one narrow facet of the World of Warcraft :)

Does anyone remember the thrill of BRD with its large highway of mobs-patrol with both healers & dps mobs? Or how about the fun in UBRS/LBRS where you could actually get knocked out of UBRS and fall down into LBRS. Karazahn also comes to mind when talking about a fun instance.
The new instances are so lineair and boring compared to the classic instances like BRD where you actually had different paths/routes and which was so big you could actually get lost. I so miss the old instances, the new ones just don’t cut it anymore they are to simple and dumbed down.

WotLK heroics is a total joke, last week i’ve been doing them all (with the exception of Oculus… try to get a pug for that :( … ) each day… for the Conquest Emblems. At the end when you actually do have some nice & better gear, I am asking myself: “Why on earth did I go to the effort to get all this better gear? .. when I already have all 5-man heroic content on farm-mode”. Something is very wrong with a game when you’ve reached a point where none of its accessible content offers any challenge anymore…

The new 5-man instance (Trial of the champion) is a good example of how simple & boring the game has become.
1 Arena-like room ( just to annoy all the oldtime players who hate the Arena-pvp concept I guess… ) where 3 scripted bosses spawn that are easy
to beat ( yes also on heroic very simple to win ) and without any crowd-control or changing boss-abilities.
The least they could have done is make the instance a bit bigger (more rooms) and add some patrols.

God I do miss the old-style 5-man instances, where you actually had to think & perform as a team. In those instances you still had a challenge as a healer when things went awry. Nowadays my healer-toon has so much mana-regen that I never have run oom or had to drink in any of the 5-man heroic instances!?
Sorry for this rant, but I had to get this off my chest.
I love ( or loved ) this game. It gave me so much pleasure in the past. But lately I just doesn’t offer any challenge anymore.

P.S. I love you blog BBB !
I enjoy reading your story-times, they are so entertaining :)

I haven’t ever tanked before, I have no idea what the actual mark is for a heroic tank, it just seems a little off that before even going into heroics you would be required to have all the gear from them. At this rate if I finally do by badge gear for tanking through healing heroics I’ll still suck cause I never gotten to practice.