Congratulations to Saffron and Thelandira, you are both the winners of the spontaneous “Come up with Epic Calss Abilities” contest!

The idea was, come up with your own ideas of epic level class abilities that could compete in awesomeness with the proposed possible maybe kinda hopefully hunter Stampede.

Here are the ideas the two winners came up with;

From Thelandira; 
My suggestions for an “OP”, or “Special”, ability for all classes:

General rules across all classes
* None of the following abilities can be used during Heroism, Bloodlust, etc or in conjunction with other cooldowns.
* All abilities are active for 15 seconds with a 10 minute cooldown.
* Player takes no damage, or suffers no pushback, for duration of ability.

Hunter – All Specs – Stampede
• Calls out all 5 pets at once
• Pets limited to basic attack (smack, bite, claw) and one special (toss, lockjaw, rabid, etc.)
• This is a channeled ability and pets do 200% of Hunter’s AP in damage (200% damage is combined and not for each pet)

Warlock – All Specs – Demonic Force
• Calls out all demons to targeted area, except Infernal and Doomguard
• Demons limited to basic attack and one special
• This is a channeled ability and demons do 200% of Warlock’s SP in damage (200% damage is combined and not for each demon)

Mage – All Specs – Mirrored Mirage
• Calls forth 6 images of Mage to targeted area
• Images mimick Mage’s attacks/spells but Mage’s SP is reduced by 50%, while images receive no reduction…Or
• This is a channeled ability and images do 200% of Mage’s SP in damage for their normal attack/spell (200% damage is combined and not for each image)

Shaman – All Specs – Mother Nature’s Fury
• Drop a totem that is immune to all types of damage that calls forth a Wind, Water, Fire and Earth Elemental
• Elementals do damage based on 200% of Shaman’s AP/SP
• Shaman’s AP/SP reduced by 50% while totem is active, but Elementals receive no reduction
• For Resto Shamans this totem could just increase the Shaman’s SP by 200% for duration since Restos don’t necessarily need Elementals to do damage. Or, it could still summon one of each of the above Elementals that would provide 200% resistance for raid/party dependant on type of Elemental (Fire Ele for Fire resist, Wind for Shadow resist, Water for Frost resist and Earth for Nature resist).

Druid – All Specs – Forestation
• Calls forth 6 Treants to fight along side Druid with a special attack based on Druid’s current spec
• Feral = Whipping Limbs – Treants lash out with branches doing damage based on 200% of Druid’s AP (200% damage is combined and not for each treant)
• Balance = Burning Branches – Treants cast Wrath and damage is based on 200% of Druid’s SP (200% damage is combined and not for each treant)
• Restoration = Falling Leaves – Treants shower raid/party, within 35 yards, with “falling leaves” healing them based on 200% of Druid’s SP (200% is combined and not for each treant)
• Druid is still able to attack/heal during duration at a 50% reduction in AP/SP, but treants receive no reduction…Or,
• This is a channeled ability and treants do 200% of Druid’s AP/SP in damage/healing (200% damage is combined and not for each treant)

Death Knight – All Specs – Legion of Death
• Calls forth a “Legion of Death” (similar to Army of the Dead) but they only attack the target that the DK is attacking/targeting.
• Legion mimicks the DK’s attacks and they do 200% of DK’s AP in damage
• DK’s AP is reduced by 50%, but Legion receives no reduction

Paladin – All Specs – Hand of God (or replace “God” with whatever name of a WoW God fits best with Paladins…I’m not familiar with WoW lore)
• Paladin casts an improved version of Consecration that does 200% of Paladin’s AP/SP in damage/healing
• Paladin can move while ability is active and Consecration follows Paladin
• Damage/Healing affects all targets within 20 yards of Paladin

From Saffron;

For Druids,

Strength of the Ancients
Guardian: Tortolla
Balance: Aviana
Feral: Goldrinn
Restoration: Aessina

The long-lost strength and fury of the Ancients of old is summoned to your side, enhancing your shapeshift forms. Guardians change into a massive turtle, massively reducing damage done to them (70%? 80%) for however many seconds. Balance turn into ancient stormcrows, causing lightning to strike the ground around them. Feral changes into wolves and summon a pack of wolves to swarm their target. Restoration causes the earth around them to explode with life (something like that vanity item from the Molten Front) doing some sort of healingy thingy!

As stated a few times before, while these ideas were awesome, actual winners were picked based on very, very scientific principles. Very. No, really. There was, like, maths and stuff involved. Charts. Math and charts.

Congratulations to both our winners, and thank you to everyone that came up with cool, awesome and fun ideas. I enjoyed reading them all, and I hope you had fun coming up with them.

The contest is now closed, all comments are under consideration. Careful consideration. Scientific methods will be used.

Someone may even be wearing a big reflective disc on a band around their head, or have a strange machine that focuses on an eye and magnifies it for display.

“Reaction time is a factor in this, so please pay attention. You are reading comments for a contest and the writer did not mention Druids. Describe in simple words how you feel about… the writer?”

“The writer? You want to know how I feel about the writer??”

*bang!* *bang-bang!*

But seriously folks, all of your comments were fun and enjoyable, including the ones that weren’t suggestions but were made for fun in the conversation, like wanting Druids to be able to fish in forms. It’s going to be hard to pick just two to offer stuff from the store, and when I do announce the names, please don’t take it as my not liking your idea, it’ll just be that I have to make a choice, and the comments that will be at the top are those that in all ways follow as closely as possible what I asked for.

Then those names will go in a hat, and Alex will pick two. 

That’s right! Blame the boy!

Oh, and if you didn’t know there even WAS a contest… well, guess you shoulda read the whole bearwall, huh? He he he.

Here at BBB Worldwide Amalgamated (or is that Wordwise Propagated?) we have a tradition of initially ignoring most BlizzCon buzz, then following up later with a call for calmness.

This time I was sure I could break the chain. I hate being predictable.

For the most part I eschew discussing the meatier news that comes out of a ‘con, because I know that by the time an actual PTR hits the potential delicious entree of awesome will turn into a bland tidbit of taste, if it doesn’t evaporate entirely like dry ice first.

This time I knew that people wouldn’t rise to the usual bait of BlizzCons past, getting frenzied from speculation and building castles made of sand from the cool-sounding ideas that were tossed out off the cuff.

I had faith in the cynicism of my peers in WoWland. Wiser heads shall prevail.

Time to throw that caber by the wayside, because they just keep pushing and pushing this one potential piece of kickass thought out in Blue posts, and I’m seeing excitement ramping up fast. Cool your jets.

From this Blue post by Kaivax;

Here is a Ghostcrawler quote for you –

“One of the potential ideas we’re considering for a new hunter ability is one where they send all 5 of their current pets to attack, for a short period of time, on a long cooldown. No guarantees that we’ll go with it, but we’re at least considering something like that.”

Um, what? Okay, am I awake? Or did I dream reading that just now? They don’t honestly expect me to believe they would really do that, right?

Further comments from Kaivax keep appearing, fanning the idea as though this were really under consideration.

We’re talking about something that is completely hypothetical, so anything is possible.

I personally would want the ability to call the five pets that I actually have on hand at the time, since that would give me control over what everyone sees when I send out the stampede.

Furthermore, it makes a lot of sense for the spell effects to not vary much from hunter to hunter, so special abilities would be right out, *but* I wouldn’t mind seeing the pets going through their best motions.

Okay, Hunters? All of you but most especially Beastmasters that are following this and saying “Oh please oh please oh please?!?”

Take a deep breath.

Is it an idea worthy of excitement? Yes, of course it is, because it fires the imagination. If you dwell on the potential of Stampede as described and as hoped by Kaivax, if you start thinking about what pets you’d want in your stable to be called out by the spell, say a pack of five wolves, or a pride of powerful pussycats, or a who’s who of various T-rexes, or even one of every kind of spirit beast, why you can just go on like this for days.

That is exactly what makes a spell like Stampede the msot dangerous in terms of unwonted enthusiasm. The base idea allows for us to take it and run with it, getting all excited as we mentally explore the possibilities for us to make it our own within their framework.

Let me remind you of another BlizzCon, and another concept tossed out that fired our imagination.

Titan’s Grip.

They just tossed out this idea, Warriors could dual wield TWO HANDED WEAPONS as their max class talent. Isn’t that awesome? And now moving on to other boring things as though we never said that…

Credit to Blizzard, in the end they went through with Titan’s Grip. We can dual wield two handers. And yes, I did originally level my Warrior as Fury simply because of my enthusiasm inspired by that idea.

But what really happened?

When it was first implemented, it was just as incredibly OP as we all expected. It was amazing. And if you’re badass enough to dual wield two-handed weapons while Whirlwinding, shouldn’t you expect it to be?

But what happened next?

Balancing.

Which meant, after unleashing the full might of Titan’s Grip on the PTR, came the inevitable reigning it in and bringing it in line so as not to be too OP in overall DPS compared to other classes, who didn’t all get the same level of awesome.

They built in a big miss percentage, then brought it back down. Then they just nerfed overall damage output by 10%, then brought that back up.

The point to carry away from Titan’s Grip from first mention to final iteration, is that YES, we did get Titan’s Grip, BUT don’t go into it imagining that the pony or moose you thought you were promised will be what you actually get at the end of the 5.0 PTR cycle.

There is the first awesome idea, but there WILL come the inevitable balancing. Especially if the other classes don’t get something comparable.

Think of Titan’s Grip, and Stampede, and then think of the challenge that Blizzard faces with Mists of Pandaria.

It’s a challenge of bringing the awesome. They have to do it equally for all God’s children.

Blizzard is mommy and daddy, and the players are the kids. Mists of Pandaria is Christmas (or your festive gift-giving season of choice).

Blizzard CANNOT give one kid an Xbox 360, and give the rest slipper socks. Well, they could, with the sure and certain knowledge that the rest of the kids will cry and cry and cry.

Whatever brilliant idea for a class ability that Blizzard may have, they know going in that if they don’t bring equal levels of awesome to ALL the other classes, they WILL hear about it later in the forums, at BlizzCon Q&As, on blogs, wherever.

So even putting aside the issue of class balance and having a button that sics FIVE Hunter pets on a target to nom nom nom them, by bringing out Stampede, Blizzard would be committing to coming up with at least one new class-specific ability for every other class that would be just as freaking awesome. And then balancing ALL of them.

PLUS a new Race and Class thrown in!

Now, between you and me, I feel that setting the goal of coming up with awesome new kickass OMIGOD stuff should be at the top of the brainstorming board.

You shouldn’t set yourself the goal of ‘meeting expectations with more of the same’. Not when you are bringing the next expansion to your product. It should be, dare I say it, expansive? You should be challenging yourself to push the limits, to make your customers say, “Holy shit, that is going to ROCK!!”

Stampede, on the Hunter front, is one of those things that, as a Hunter, you would say, “Holy shit, that would totally ROCK!”

I truly hope that Blizzard really is keeping silent on core class abilities because they are trying to dream up that one special class ability for each class that all specs can share, available at max level, that is a Stampede-level holy shit “that is so going to ROCK!” moment.

That is what I hope.

But these are hopes and dreams and wishes and wingéd goldfish. They are the stuff of candyfloss and hot summer days you wish would last forever.

Don’t build it up too much in your mind. Any dreaming done now, any plans and speculation made based on BlizzCon statements or Blue posts is not just premature but counter-productive. 

Whatever Blizzard creates will have to be balanced so it is not OP for burst damage in PvP, and so it does not bring that class higher in average overall DPS in comparison to other classes. So go ahead and dream of useful and fun and neat abilities, but keep your expectations in check.

Mists of Pandaria seems very ambitious in scope, so I think they are committed to building and improving WoW for at least the next few years, new MMO or no new MMO on the horizon. They might do a Stampede and a whole lot more for all classes.

But please, just relax for now. Get interested, but don’t get all crazy. We’ve been here before, we’ve seen the attempts to build early buzz in the month RIGHT before a massive new competitor MMO gets released.

Don’t buy into it until you see the five pets rush out on the screen and eat the entrails of your enemies like so much colored licorice.

I guess, what I’m trying to say here, is;

Don’t believe the hype!

I wonder, wouldn’t it be fun to have a thread requesting players to come up with their own wild ideas for new, outrageous class abilities in keeping with the spirit of Stampede? I mean, the hardest part is coming up with the creative idea, the implementation is, as John Ringo might say, ‘fiddly bits’.

Do you think you can do as good or better for your class? Do you think you can come up with that ‘holy shit that would ROCK!’ ability for your class to be on the same plane as Hunters with Stampede?

Tell you what. Contest right now say what?

Post your own imaginative idea for a new outrageous (but possible, damnit make it possible!) class ability in the comments down below, one that could hold it’s own in awesome with Stampede, and I will pick a couple of my favorites to give Big Bear Butt cafepress t-shirts to. I might use some real scientific and fair method of picking the winners, such as random number generators, or reading them all aloud to my 8 year old boy and letting him pick the ones he likes best, so you’re warned.

You want in? You’ve got until next Friday, November 18th, to make your comment on this post. Go for it!

And no, this totally is not a test to see who read all the way to the end of the Bearwall. Would I do that?

It’s been one week since the drawing was announced on the blog, and Maxim and the crew over at Enjin.com have picked a winner in true video gamer form; they used a random number generator.

Personally, I’d have used some dice, but then again… I’ve got a lot of dice. Hmmm. Actually, remembering some of the gamers I’ve known, I don’t have a lot of dice. I only have one large tackle box full. I’ve known gamers with far more than that. Perhaps I should simply say that I have a wide variety of potential high rollers to choose from and leave it at that.

However they did it, your comments were counted, the names were entered, and the winner has been chosen.

Congratulations goes to the lucky winner, Ken R!

Ken R left the following winning comment on the original post;

Ken, I’m emailing you as we speak to get you all set up with Maxim.

For those of you that had commented on the post to enter the drawing, Maxim would like to offer you a a special two (2) MONTHS of free premium hosting on Enjin’ Advanced plan, which comes with a 10 man mumble server.

To take advantage of that offer, all you need to do is create a website on Enjin.com, and then send Maxim an email at info@enjin.com with the Subject “Big Bear butt commenter – your commenter name”.

In the body of your email, let Maxim know the details of the guild website account you created, and he’s told me that he’ll take it from there.

With that, I’m calling this drawing completed, and hopefully a success.

Good luck to everyone that entered, and especially a great good fortune to Ken, who I hope will enjoy the website and server with his friends for the entire year to come.

Good night!

Surprise!

Yes, my friends, I am still the Bear. Don’t let the concept of a prize giveaway scare you. I haven’t changed anything, still no paid ads, nothing like that.

What has happened is that Maxim of Enjin.com contacted me, and let me know he’d be willing to giveaway a prize pack of the services they offer to one of my readers… no strings attached. Gratis. Just, hey, check out these cool folks and see what they do, and somebody gets a hellaciously sweet prize of guild website design and hosting, and a 25 person Mumble voice server for a year… free.

Pretty sweet offer, right?

Now, we’re all fellow travellers on what the ancients still persist in calling the information superhighway.

I personally like to call it “this new thing of ours”, and I say it in a suitably Machiavellian, Godfather type of voice. I think it deserves that level of implied menace, considering the all-pervading evil that is spam that spreads wherever the internet reaches.

Back on point, we’re all experienced purveyors of internet culture here. We know the drill. Person has popular website and craves pagehits, company has product they’d like to get in front of desired demographic reader eyeballs, so company offers prize giveaway. Website is giving away free loots, people are drawn to website through word of mouth, company gets eyeballs on datas, website gets pagehits, somebody gets loots, everybody wins.

Right?

That plan kinda falls apart when I consider that I don’t really want more strange people reading the blog. I like YOU folks who read now, you’re all really cool. Yes, even you. Your comments are fun and make me think or teach me new things, or point out new music, books or movies for me to check out. Heck, without you, I never would have developed my obsession for Top Gear. And some of your emails of encouragement, you know, it really gets to me sometimes. I certainly feel I get a lot more out of our relationship than you do.

But these giveaway things… you offer free stuffs, and next thing you know you start attracting strangers into the mix, it all becomes serious business, and people start expecting you to, like, perform or something.

For the record, if you’re a new reader, we don’t play that silly ‘content’ game around these parts. Way i see it, if you want some actual content worth reading, hey… that’s what the other bloggers are for. I’m just here for… you know, why am I here? I never stopped to think about that before… hmm. You know, now that I think about it, I have no idea what I’m doing here.

Oh wait… to give Cassie documented evidence for any future court procedings.

Like I said, Maxim offered a really sweet prize pack for one of my readers, out of the blue.

I thought that was really damn nice of him, I may not want stuff myself, but I’m ALL for giving stuff to readers.

So, I told him to fire up a solid, professional, “all in” presentation explaining the services they offer. The way I figure it, if he’s going to give someone a nice prize package, the least I can do is give him a strong opportunity to say everything that he’d like to say to potential new customers.

So here’s Maxim, to tell you all about Enjin.com and the services they can provide for your guild website and Mumble voice server needs.

At the end, Maxim will explain what you have to do in order to be entered and eligible to win the prize. Don’t fret none; all it really consists of is leaving an appropriate comment to this post, explaining why you think your guild should win the prize. That’s not all that hard to do, right?

Having once set up a guild website and voice server before, I certainly know how expensive it can be, but how critical it is to fostering that feeling of teamwork and togetherness you want in a strong, happy guild that raids. So, thank you very much to Maxim for his generosity, and good luck to all readers that leave comments to enter!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey everyone!

My name is Maxim, I’m the lead designer and co-founder of www.enjin.com. Firstly I’d like to say a big thanks to John for letting me talk about Enjin. At the end of this post we are giving away a prize of 1 year hosting on our Ultimate plan + a 25 slot voice Mumble server.

So what is Enjin? Enjin was built with one goal in mind, to be the most flexible and feature rich guild hosting platform on the web, especially for World of Warcraft.

What makes Enjin better than the other services, or rolling your own site? We are obsessed about quality, that’s why we have spent years perfecting the ultimate guild platform with high-end tools and continual integration with the latest WoW features. We do our best to give guild masters the power to create the most unique community website possible with absolute ease. Here are some of our feature highlights:

Total creative control. Customize everything.
Get the deepest level of control over any pages on your website.
Drag-and-Drop any content you want anywhere on your pages with our easy-to-use page editor.

Blazing Fast & Full Featured Forums
Your community will love it. Top-of-the-line, feature rich, robust and fast. It’s
fully integrated with your website for easy management and customization.

Stunning Customizable Themes
Select from a huge variety of stunning World of Warcraft themes.
Create your own WoW themes with our in-depth easy to use Theme Editor.

DKP & Raid Management
Top-of-the-line Raid & Loot management system. Includes support for EPGP, Zero Sum, Loot-council, Simple DKP, Suicide Kings, Head Count. Including XML imports and WoW item support.

Raid & Event manager
Featuring the most advanced raid planner online. Sync directly with the WoW armory calendar.

WoW specific Widgets
Track your Boss Progressions, display your guild level and wow progress rankings and much more.

Advanced Gallery
Create albums, quickly add captions, order albums and images with drag and drop controls. Tag images with your game characters and much more.

Mumble voice hosting with premium plans
Crystal clear voice hosting + automatic integration with your site users.

Here’s a few featured guilds on Enjin already:

Winds of Creation (http://windsofcreation.enjin.com)
Escendia (http://www.escendia.com)
Imperium Guild (http://www.imperiumhq.com)

And now for the prize details;

We are giving away an Ultimate Plan + 25 man mumble voice server for 1 year (valued at $350).

It’s easy to win! All you need to do is leave a comment to this post giving your reason why your guild should win the prize. 

At the end of one week from when this post goes live, we will randomly select a winner.

If you miss out on the prize, no worries, just email us at info at enjin.com and mention Big Bear Butt and I’d be happy to give anyone 1 free month of premium hosting.

Hope to see you on www.enjin.com soon!