Interview: Woody, a WoW Raider
June 2, 2009 – 11:34 pmPosted by: soulreaper
Many gamers are bewildered at the notion of having to pay to play. On the other hand, millions of others – 11 million to be exact – have found the subscription fees well worth it in order to play Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, arguably the most successful MMO ever.
So here’s a venture into the mindset of a WoW raider.
Background information
Character – Woody, Dwarf Paladin, Alliance
Server – Eonar, US
Guild – Second Attempt
Raid history – Began playing 4 years ago with launch of Vanilla WoW. Has raided and completed Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, Ahn’Qiraj, Naxxramas (original), Karazhan, Serpentshrine Cavern, Tempest Keep, Black Temple, Hyjal (pre-nerf), Sunwell Plateau, Naxxramas 10/25 (WotLK), Malygos 10/25, Sartharion 3d 10/25, and Ulduar up to Yogg’Saron. In addition, he has both normal and heroic version of the “Glory of the Raider” achievements.
Guild history – Was in the famed Deus Vox guild for Vanilla WoW. Participated in some of the earliest world boss kills, including a world first on Loatheb in the original Naxxramas.
During Burning Crusade was in the guild Gummi Bears. The guild cleared everything up to Sunwell where they scored the 7th U.S. kills of Kalcegos, Brutallus, and Felmyst. After hitting a stall on Mu’ru, the guild eventually killed him only to have many members leave to help form Exodus, a top Horde guild which is currently on the Ysondre server.
For WotLK, he eased up on the hardcore raiding to join Second Attempt, a more “casual” guild on Eonar that is concentrated on end-game progression. Although the guild and server are not world renown, Second Attempt has been the top guild on the server for the majority of WotLK and BC.
Interview
How would you describe your own personal play style?
First and foremost, I am an attentive and wary player. I like to keep aware of everything around me, and make sure I’m always prepared for any upcoming ability that the boss can possibly do. I always watch timers and make sure I’m not taking any excessive damage that I could prevent.
As of right now, I run a dual spec for Protection and Retribution, so I can bring two viable specs to a run just in case.
So as someone who has raided in Vanilla WoW, BC, and WotLK how have things changed, improved, or even gotten worse?
The changes in content were generally made to accommodate players of all raiding levels – from casual to hardcore. The overall content, in comparison to previous dungeons in Vanilla WoW, has gotten easier so that everyone may experience it.
However, with the introduction of hard modes, Blizzard has found a way to please both hardcore raiders seeking a challenge as well as casuals who are unable to regularly raid.
In addition, Blizzard introduced a multitude of class changes throughout the game that made it less stressful or unnecessary to stack raids.
Many people have complained that the game has gotten too easy. Would you agree with this statement? What are your thoughts on Blizzard’s policy change that caters more towards casuals?
At this point, I’m neutral about the situation. There are several consequences of Blizzard’s actions. Some are good, some are not so good. The overall easiness of the content does make it so that some guilds survive longer, but at the same time it prevents many guilds from acquiring many good players because progression has become so easy and many guilds are able to maintain their best players.
Overall though, I actually feel that Blizzard has not entirely alienated the raiding player base. I feel that with achievements, guilds are able to pursue and push difficult content that most guilds will be unable to achieve.
This is especially present in Ulduar, which in my opinion, Blizzard has done an amazing job with.
You’ve been a hardcore raider for a long time and you have recently switched to a more “casual” guild. What do you believe separates a casual guild from a hardcore guild?
The harder the leadership, the harder players push through difficult times. Players generally perform better if there is some form of goal behind it. With many casual players, failing and wiping at a boss will be heavily demoralizing. In more hardcore guilds though, players generally take wipes as extra motivation to improve on mistakes in order to finally defeat a boss.
When you’re in a guild that is regularly competing for world and US firsts, players become extra competitive and bring their best to every raid. Performance is highly scrutinized and guild mates, although they may be friendly, can become highly critical of careless mistakes.
In your observations, how has the average WoW encounter evolved from Vanilla to current Ulduar content, the latter of which has been praised by Blizzard as their most innovative instance yet?
Throughout the content there were a lot of fights that forced you to adapt to a lot of AOE damage and a lot of movement. Some fights were still your average tank and spanks, but there were increasingly higher amounts of fights where players had certain jobs to do that also required a full raid focus in order to succeed.
For example, Lady Vashj in SSC or Kael’thas in TK.
In regards to Ulduar, I believe that it’s one of the most impressive dungeons that Blizzard has come up with since the original Naxxaramas. It has a entirely new fight – Flame Leviathan – that never has been introduced in this game and is just one of many amazing encounters in the instance.
As far as Hard Modes come, the fights are extremely difficult, and as stated before, Ulduar does a great job of satisfying the tastes of both hardcore and casual raiders.
As an MMO, WoW pits you in a server with thousands of other players at the same time. How much of an impact does the actual community and the amount of human interaction have on your enjoyment of WoW?
In regards to the community, I feel that players take advantage of it and are generally not serious. To many players the community is a big joke. Interaction is great, but many people abuse it to make silly conversations in trade chat.
On a much smaller scale though, within guilds I believe interaction allows people to form great friendships. There are many friendships that I have formed online that I would consider great friendships in real life.
In addition, I like the idea of competition with other guilds, and I enjoy raiding with other players, unless they are complete jerks. It’s not just about the action though-I like the lore behind all the dungeons and encounters and I believe it exponentially enhances the game play and the experience of WoW.
As WoW draws to a close with WotLK presumably being the last expansion, what do you hope Blizzard changes or improves on before the final showdown with Arthas?
For one, they need to make sure that Arthas can be experienced by all players to some extent. It’s a very anticipated encounter that everyone wants to experience. I hope they make him match the lore as best as possible and not just throw in something random.
As far as game play goes, I think they’re doing a great job. I’m more PvE oriented and not really focused on PvP, so I can’t say all that much about that aspect of the game, but PvE has been excellent so far.
What do you feel are the biggest pitfalls and the best aspects of the game in terms of raiding?
I feel that what they did at the start of WotLK was probably the biggest pitfall because raids were extremely easy. The “end-game” content was farmed for many months before anything new came out and many players quickly grew bored of it.
The best has to be Ulduar. Not only was this Blizzard’s redemption from early WotLK content, but this is arguably the richest dungeon they have implemented so far. The dungeon will continue to challenge many guilds and it will keep them busy and entertained much longer than Naxxramas, Sartharion, or Malygos have.
Furthermore, the lore associated with the content is unlike any other instance.
So, if you had to choose between Vanilla Wow, BC, and WotLK, which one would you fuck, marry, or kill?
His real life UI
I Would fuck Vanilla, marry WoTLK, and kill BC.
I enjoyed vanilla the most as the raids were harder and took much more dedication, but outside of raids there really wasn’t much to the game.
I love WotLK and the way Blizzard has developed the lore and introduced new innovative content.
BC was just a horrible phase I would like to forget. As the first expansion, Blizzard experimented on many things that just did not work.
What would you consider to be the top five WoW encounters ever?
I have a bias towards difficult fights, so with that said here’s how I would rank my favorites.
Four Horsemen (vanilla), C’thun, Mu’ru, 3 Drakes Sartharion (both 10 / 25), and Kael’thas (before it’s nerf).
From: http://news.gotgame.com/interview-woody-a-wow-raider/32844/
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