Rastlin

Here is my rundown and feedback to improve the game:

-It actually took 6 hours and 50 minutes for the purists out there.

-I took a break for some lunch and two breaks for some donuts plus some bathroom breaks. Total break time was about one hour over the course of the day. So I guess this means it took 6 hours or so of actual play time. (But one does need to eat and take breaks so I think 7 hours is fair.)

Feedback:

1. It is good that you decreased various requirements on quests, as I suggested including decreasing the number of runes for the rune match game and cutting down on the numbers of elite mobs for quests and reducing to one the rare mob quest. But more nerfs are needed.

2. It is good you marked areas for some additional quests as I suggested but again more clarity is needed.

3. The jumping quest remains crazy hard. Please nerf this quest.

4. In getting the five elite Naga for the quest, there was an area (something overlook) where the mobs stayed dead. This must be some kind of bug!?!

5. The mobs follow us to far! This is a major problem. I can pull a mob for an amazing distance. And then…it just disappears (sometimes). I am often running for my life and you need to make the run distance reasonable.

6. We Need a Rustbolt Emissary! This reputation is lagging for many players.
   edit: despite working 8 hour days on reputation, my rustbolt is 2800 honored while my unshackled is 6200 honored

7. We demand increasing reputation for the quests. I killed Naga, collected some kind of buds and pulled seaweed. It took over an hour easy and I got 50 rep each!
   edit: It took me forever to figure out you had to pull the dratted seaweed! Please add that to the quest description!

8. Thank you for the (stealth) nerfs on some mobs health as I suggested but more are needed. The mobs still hit to hard and die to slow.

9. We need reputation missions added in on the mission board!!

Please continue to implement my suggestions because the fact it takes seven hours to finish the dailies is not acceptable.

Thank you for listening to me to a degree and please continue to work on these and other fixes I have suggested.

Greetings everyone:

In order to improve the forums both in terms of quantity and quality of discussion, I put forth the following four proposals which, when implemented, will greatly improve our forum.

First Proposal: Nameplate Changes.

When you click on the picture with your name, now you are linked to the armory. Instead of this, I propose you are given a list of all toons held in the account.

Discussion: There are times when "trolling" does occur on this forum. Often, but not always, it is done behind level one or other alts. Indeed, while some have even claimed that I am not serious in my postings, which could not be farther from the truth, what no one can claim is that I hide behind an alt. This toon is the only one I play. While I do respect privacy, (and I did struggle with this first point due to privacy) I put forth that when you choose to post in the G.D. you are going public and all linked toons should be there to see. I believe this will reduce (but not eliminate) actual trolling.

Edit: Based on the excellent discussion and points raised on privacy I modify my proposal:

Instead of showing all toons, a player would have to pick one and only one toon to use for posting. This could be any toon. And the player could change this toon but all posting history would switch to this toon.
This modification allows privacy but prevents level 1 alt trolling-or at least makes it more difficult!

Second Proposal: M.V.P. Requirements. "It's not easy being green".

All M.V.P.'s will be required to make a certain number of topics, in a certain time period, to retain their "Green" status.

Discussion: I have great respect for our M.V.P. crew. But there is one thing I have noticed. While I do see our M.V.P.'s post in threads, I rarely see them start threads such as this. Note: I am not saying they do not start threads. I am just saying it doesn't seem like they do this a lot. While I am not specifying the number of topics an M.V.P. should start (1/month, etc.) I propose some sort of requirement be imposed. The quality of their work could then be judged and Blizzard decide who should retain this status.

Third Proposal: Flag threads you have posted in.

Discussion: This is pretty self explanatory. Each poster should be able to see, via some sort of marking, threads they have posted in. I lose track of which threads I post in all the time. It would be nice if threads I posted in were flagged especially when I do my morning housekeeping on the forums after a long sleep during which many of the threads I posted in the prior night wandered off.

Fourth Proposal: "Hot Topics":

Either a community service manager or (perhaps) and M.V.P. would be allowed to flag a thread as a "hot topic" that prevents said thread from falling down the pages for a period of time, such as 24 hours.

Discussion: Our community service managers already pin very important threads. The hot topic concept is a lesser version thereof. Our community service managers (or perhaps an M.V.P.) could, at their discretion, flag a hot topic. This would tip off the community that this is a thread of interest to the leadership. This alone would draw in more discussion as would the topic/thread staying on the first page.

Conclusion: These modest proposals, when implemented, should greatly improve the quality and quantity of speech on this forum.

Thank you for your kind consideration of these proposals. Have a terrific Sunday!

TLDR: Improve the forums with:
-Nameplate changes: Show all toons linked to a character's account (Edit: Pick one toon to post.)
-Require M.V.P.'s to make new posts/topics to retain status
-Mark threads in some fashion that you have posted in.
-Make hot topics that stay on the first page for 24 hours.

Best Regards,
Rastlin

Today I speak of raiding, specifically as it pertains to guild groups. Some of the points I make would apply to PUG groups too, I suppose and certain things might pertain to LFR. But it is really raiding, with the same team, that I consider.

Maybe you are someone who has been raiding for years. Maybe you are someone who is thinking about raiding. In either case, before the next expansion, ask yourself these questions.

1) You have to follow someone else's time schedule. Maybe it is Monday-Tuesday-Thursday from 8-11. Maybe it is some other schedule. But there is a schedule.

And you are expected to be there regularly.

Are you sure that is how you want your free time locked down?

Will your friends, family or work have issues with that?

2) You will have a new boss. He/She is called the raid leader. That might be the guild master. That might be the main tank. Or it could be someone else. Maybe they are kind, gentle and understanding. Or maybe they are an Onyxia screamer. (Moar Dots!) A lot of your happiness is going to be linked to this person.

Do you really want to have a new boss?

Do you really have any idea what this person is like?

3) Hours of preparation time. In the old days, maybe you would make some pots or food pre raid. That was about it. Today, you still have to do that but you also have to study. It is like preparing for an exam. You will probably have to print out fight descriptions. You will also, certainly, have to watch fight videos (Fatboss). And if you have not, you can be sure, the boss mentioned in number 2 above is going to turn into that Onyxia screamer.

Do you really want to study and work to have fun?

4) Add ons, Add ons, and more add ons. There will be the mandatory voice server, these days discord rules the roost. But different sites seem to come in and out of fashion over the years. And there will be the mandatory add ons required by your guild (DMB) and a variety of others depending on the whims of the raid leader. You will need to install them, understand them and of course use them. If you are a healer, how you heal and decurse are generally determined by your add ons. Before you know it, your interface is going to make the controls for a fighter jet look simple.

Do you really want to have to deal with all these add ons?

5) Get ready to be judged. If you fail a mechanic, tattle-tail add ons used by the raid leader and others will call you out. If your dps or healing is not "top 10%" and certainly if it is sub 50% you are going to be singled out. Maybe they will give you "remediation" of some sort. Maybe they will just take away your raid spot. And of course maybe they will call you names or mock you-all this information is public these days.

Do you really want to be judged by people you don't even really know?

6) And all of this time and effort, pain and suffering, studying and working and being judged is for loot. And with the exceptions of pets, titals and mounts all of that fine loot will be vendored, if not after the next tier comes out then after the next expansion.

Do you really want to do all of this for the reward you are given?

Unless you answer yes to all of these questions you might want to consider doing other things in game other than raiding.

TLDR: Time schedule, new boss, hours of preparation, add ons and constantly being judged and graded all for some loot you will soon vendor. Sounds like fun! Think before you decide to start raiding with a guild or regular group.

Greetings:

I have put a lot of thought into this an hours crafting this excellent new rule that I very much hope Blizzard will implement if not now then in the next expansion.

It is the 50% rule. Here it is:

After one month of release, any and all content shall be completed by at least 50% of the players. In the event this is not the case, the content in question will be re-tuned so that 50% of the player base has achieved success in said content.

Why have the 50% rule:

This rule is basically a check on content to guarantee that the majority of players who are paying customers for this game are getting through the various content in this game. It is my premise that if players are not completing the content, there is something wrong with the content.

Does the 50% rule mean nerfs?

No. Let me say that again. No. The rule does not mean there has to be nerfs. There could be other problems with the content. Maybe the reward is to low. Maybe the structure of the content is somehow off and people just don't want to do it. (Here's looking at you Kiren Tor magic of flight quests.) While nerfs certainly might be a particular solution to a particular problem, that is not always going to be the solution.

Is this just for raids?

No. This is for any and all content. It is for world quests, for pet battles, for pvp, for any aspect or facet of the game. The general rule is that half of the players must be successful clearing the content.

Minor points and clarifications.

-It would be based on accounts not on toons. So yes if a player cleared a raid on one toon but not his/her 10 alts that would count towards the 50%. It is customer based.

-What if a customer just doesn't like something, like pvp or pet battles and will never do the content? That is why it is at 50%. And if some aspect of the game is being ignored by the customers then one of two things needs to happen. They need to up the rewards, change the tuning or just get rid of it. (i.e. first aid.) You need to either fix it or clip the dead wood.

-What if something is well over 50%. Then it is fine. If it is not broke do not fix it.

-What about raids? How does that count with all the tiers: The fact that we have to many difficulty settings (4) makes things complex. But clearly 50% should complete the highest setting which in this case is mythic.

-OK, what about World firsts? This is the one exception to the one month timer. In this case, the one month for 50% of the player base to achieve success would start after the world first. This gives proper incentive to those who work hard to achieve the high end world first achievements while still allowing the majority to get all the goodies in a reasonable time.

This rule will save this game. And in gaming time a month is a very long time. The "hard core" gamers get their due in this system. And everyone or at least half of everyone gets to succeed in all facets of this game.

TLDR: Make a rule that content is cleared by 50% of the player base in one month from release. If this is not the case, adjust the content so that this threshold is reached.