Thursday, February 21, 2008

Kara foh Kicks


So what do you do with a group of 10-12 players, mostly epicced out but with a slightly wonky(yes I said wonky....shoot me) class balance. As in disc priest, balance druid, no mage(by "no", I don't mean it as a spec, but simply the absence of one), and way too many hunters than can be good...well for most of us in Village Idiots it means we raid Kara....yay.


For most guilds in 25-man content, Kara is and should be on farm status, and easily 10-mannable with the added advantage of being a staging ground for quickly gearing up scrubs and alts alike, as well as badges. Sure 25-man loot is good, but badges, now they in enough numbers are looking as good as tiered loot. Infact I have for some time been looking at turning in my Heavy Clefthoof Leggings for something with more bang for the buck. I have the T4 leggings but the astounding loss in stamina definitely has been an unconvincing argument for me to make the switch. On the other hand the nearest replacement is miles away as well. But behold, patch 2.4 promises one of the best leggings available in the form of Tameless Breeches which not only augment my stamina but also add an equally considerable amount of agility (translate: Dodge and crit), and some more strength. Not only that there is a brilliant staff Staff of the Forest Lord , Ring Ring of the Stalwart Protector and gloves Handwraps of the Aggressor. Theres also the Embrace of Everlasting Prowess, but personally I prefer the Vengeful Gladiator's Dragonhide Tunic instead(and I recommend PvP simply for that alone, I think its better than T4 from Mag). All this for a measly 100-150 badges(ok not so measly), but still, giving access to such gear for something that can be done by even the majority of casuals makes the end-game more accessable.


Sure there are lots of folks far into the 25-man content, likely kicking Archie in the groin to make him both reel in pain and also to make him drop the huge satchel where hes hiding his goodies, who disagree. Why should the casual get such good gear for so tiny an effort? Why should their effort be marginalized due to casuals with similar gear? To them I say this(in the words of my GM)....sod off ya buggers. This game is dominated by the casual players, by casual I mean players with limited to no access to the end-game. Most of them are casual not as a result of lack of desire/knowledge/elitist views of most raiding guilds, but mostly because they lack the time and/or dedication to subject themselves to a regimented raiding schedule.


As a result even if they are part of a raiding guild, they will slowly get left behind in terms of gear and begin to feel even more and more left out. With this change Blizzard is basically welcoming them back, they can now have access to some of the end game level gear, but that doesn't take away from the raiders the fact that they have seen Kael at his strongest and kicked his whiny butt, creating such a big crater that it take a huge honking piece of crystal to close up the hole, and told him to inform Illidan that contrary to popular belief, they are prepared.


For now with casual effort one can atleast begin to see raiding content, and for raiders having trouble in SSC/TK, there are upgrades to be had to help them along without depending on the all-so-trusty drop chances. This may mean that there will be loads of scrubs with some of the best gear in the game, but does that change the fact that they still need another 24 idiots to down Gruul...nope. Raiders, These rewards can help plug in those holes in your gear that let you down, these rewards help gear friends up faster, to be able to raid with you more often, and these rewards make even the casuals happy. So go to Kara and farm the heck outta that place till Prince screams at your very mention, cause those badges are going to go a long way in your raiding progression.


So lets all just get along, else I have some crackers to stuff you guys with, I hear it goes well with your whine.

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