Handicapped mode

During Icecrown Citadel, the top guild on my realm ran pugs of ICC25 with their alts.  Because some of their players didn't have raid ready alts or weren't interested, they pugged a few spots each week.  Usually the "pugs" were regulars in the group, alts from one or two of the other top 5 guilds on the realm and some mains from the two top 10man guilds on the realm (one of which was us yay!).

The raids were pretty good - we usually managed to do three to five bosses on heroic (our best was 8/12 heroic) and we even managed to build a Shadowmourne.

Sometimes, however, the regulars weren't able to make it.  And then we had to have actual pugs (sinister music).  Normally, we did Blood-Queen Lana'thel on heroic mode, but one such week we had decided that we had too many pugs to take her on hardmode as usual, so we would do it on normal mode because it didn't look like we had the dps.  And we wiped.  And wiped.  Blood-Queen is a fairly simple fight and the regulars all looked on in horror as our pugs bit the tanks ("thret is 4 n00bs lol"), the healers or just didn't bother to bite anyone at all.  After our first try when we wiped due to 4 people being mind-controlled, our raid leader explained the strats slowly and carefully and in a tone of shock with, I think, a little bit of awe at the realisation of how incredibly stupid people can be.

After about ten wipes, the raid leader said "I think I'm going to switch to normal mode.  Oh damn, I forgot, we're already on normal."  The Man, who had decided not to come that week, happened to be walking through the lounge where I play at the time and heard this on my speakers and said "Tell him to check if there's a handicapped mode."  I relayed this on vent to thunderous laughter from the regulars and general upset from the pugs, incidentally sparking an argument that led to two people being kicked from the raid and another quitting and attempting to wipe us (he ran forward and pulled the boss while all of us were outside her circle and died, causing her to despawn).  Ten minutes after that, when we had all stopped laughing enough to play, we killed her flawlessly with 22 people.

Cut forward one year and it would seem that The Man really is psychic.  Blizzard announced today in an interview on The Escapist the following:

"...there is going to be another difficulty level and this raid difficulty - the random raid finder difficulty level - we haven't figured out exactly what it's going to be called but there will be a difficulty level easier than normal mode."

Handicapped mode is here!  I'm sure that the many guilds who were unable to kill normal mode bosses before they were nerfed will greet this with enthusiasm.  My own reaction to this has been spates of giggles that lasted the whole morning so far and a determination to make the term "Handicapped mode" the go-to phrase to describe it.

Raid Finder

Raid finder.  What a dreadful idea (/dramatic sob).  Our last little bit of community, our last place to find people worth recruiting is being stripped away.  Well it's going through, so let's talk about some of the things that I think should be implemented and/or changed.

Need before Greed system

At the moment, items are marked in three ways (Caster, Tank, Melee) and can be rolled on by everyone who can have any of those specs.  There is, of course, the armour type as well, but this really isn't good enough to stop people from rolling on items that just aren't good enough for them.  As I type this, there are (at least) half a dozen groups in a heavy argument with a rogue regarding a strength ring/neck/back/trinket, telling him that he can't use it and he should give it to the warrior/death knight/paladin and being met with a stolid "Blizz wudn let me role on it if i cudn use it!", twice as many groups trying to explain to a mage/warlock that spirit has been useless for them for eight months now and trying to get him to hand the item to the healer/shadow priest and getting back half formed arguments about crit/life tap and ending with the same "Blizz wudn let me role on it if i cudn use it!" and, quite frankly, the number of groups currently arguing with a dps/healing druid who took a parry trinket or any non-tank group member who took a tank item that the tank needed for his offspec scares the hell out of me.  I won't even think about all the people who hit need on an item just for the vendor price.  Eventually, all of these people will be kicked from their groups with the reason "ninja" or similar.

And this is ninjaing, whatever Blizzard says in defense of their awful loot system.  Taking an item offspec and refusing to give it to someone for their mainspec is ninjaing.  If you want to tank, join the group as a tank or suffer with gathering up the leftovers that the real tank doesn't want.  Same if you want to heal.  When all else fails, if 4 people are yelling at you that you messed up, there's a pretty good chance you've messed up.

The Fix:

There needs to be more categories for items.  Healer, Spell Spirit, Spell Hit, Spell DPS, Spell, Tank (Parry/Strength), Tank, Agility, Strength.  And more rolling options than just "Need" or "Greed".  I'd suggest Mainspec, Offspec, Temporary and Greed.  Then the role check that Blizzard put into the raid makeup can get put to work!  Only mainspec healers can roll Mainspec on Healer items (I'm thinking of items that are specifically for healers here, like Jaws of Defeat or Eye of Blazing Power), the Fury warrior can only roll on tank items as Offspec and the mage and warlock can only roll on spirit/healer items as Temporary.  To be honest, Blizzard could have some fun with that rolling option - I personally would call it "I know it's really bad for me but it really is an upgrade - sad isn't it :'(".

Here's a brief breakdown of what I think the availability should look like:

Healer:  Mainspec to healers, Offspec to spirit users, Temporary to mages and warlocks.

Spell Spirit:  Mainspec to healers and spirit users, Temporary to mages and warlocks.

Spell Hit: Mainspec to mages and warlocks, Offspec to spirit-using dpsers, Temporary to healers.

Spell DPS: Mainspec to all caster dps, Offspec to all caster-dps capable classes, Temporary to paladins.  (Trinkets again mostly, eg Necromantic Focus)

Spell (items without hit or spirit):  Mainspec to all mainspec casters, Offspec to all caster-able melee/tanks.

Tank (Parry/Strength): Mainspec to death knight, paladin and warrior tanks and Offspec to death knight, paladin and warrior dps.

Tank:  Mainspec to all tanks, Offspec to all tank-capable dps/healers (Trinkets again mostly, eg Symbiotic Worm)

Agility:  Mainspec to hunters, feral druids, enhance shamans and rogues, Offspec to restoration and balance druids and elemental and restoration shamans, Temporary to strength-users.

Strength:  Mainspec to death knight, paladin and warrior dps, Offspec to death knight, paladin and warrior tanks, Temporary to agility-users.

Possibly an item-level check could be used to ensure that people don't hit need on items they don't need just for the vendor cost, but then this can be dodgy, especially for casters.

Raid entry

Luckily, I live in an obscure corner of Africa, so anybody who reads this and gets their pitchforks and burning torches out will have a hard time finding me.

There should be a basic test done on each raid instance before you are allowed to queue for it.  When I say "basic", I mean something really simple like a multiple-choice questionnaire that anyone who can find the Dungeon Journal and isn't completely illiterate can pass.  One question per phase of each boss can be given, depending on the complexity of the fight.

Raid leading

Every raid needs a raid leader.  Even raids which are generally a community effort need someone to assign people to adds and other things (flying on Alys, who goes up on top of the web in Beth'tilac's phase one, Molten Traps on Ragnaros).  In order to sign up as a raid leader, a more difficult test should be given.  I'm thinking questions like:  "Which classes are better suited to flying in Phase One of Alysrazor?" and then giving a list of answers that almost look correct but include pet classes in most of them, or "How many people need to be assigned to interrupts on Maloriak?".

Removing someone from the group

Well, this is a tricky one.  I believe that a 2/3 majority should be implemented for this, largely because a simple majority can mean that everyone else thinks that the 5 people from one guild are full of [censored].  I also believe that a list of options should be given by each person who votes regarding the reason that they're voting to remove the person (eg, DPS below [minimum required raid dps to defeat boss divided by the number of dpsers in the raid] (dps only), Unhealable (tank), Low healing (healer), Unpleasant personality, Dies too much, Refuses to follow instructions).

I also think that this should be recorded and after a certain amount of votes from separate accounts for one of those items that person should be disallowed from queuing for that instance (possibly as that role specifically) for a set period of time (2 weeks?) and after a larger amount should be disallowed from queuing for raids entirely for a longer period of time (a month?).  A letter of explanation should be sent as soon as the numbers have been reached and the prevention has been put in place.

Dear [name]

You will not be able to queue for [instance] for two weeks / one month as you have received 100/1000 votes that your damage/healing/tanking is insufficient for this instance / you have been unpleasant to group with / you are incapable of staying out of dangerous effects / you refuse to follow the raid leader's instructions to the detriment of the group.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused and suggest that you take steps to improve your performance in this area to avoid harsher penalties in future.

Or something similar.

Rating people in the raid

This one is even trickier than the last.  In compliment with the vote kick system above, at the end of the raid an option can be provided inquiring if you wish to compliment someone.  Humans being humans, it's unlikely that anyone who doesn't stand out and show themselves as truly exceptional will inspire anyone to take the time to say "Yes actually that one guy is incredible I really need to make sure that this is known." so I think each compliment received by someone who isn't in your guild should apply as a negative amount of vote-kicks, say 20, and an in-game mail should be sent on receipt of the 10th compliment in each area (good healer/dps/tank/raid leader, nice person, etc) congratulating the person and encouraging them to keep up the good behaviour.

Dear [name]

You have now received 10 compliments regarding your [healing / dps / tanking / personality / raid leading].  Keep up the good work!

Perhaps with extra rewards like a companion pet or something for 100 and 1000 compliments to encourage people to look up their classes and be nice to others.

I realise this is a lot of work, but introducing a raid finder that's exactly like the dungeon finder but with more people is a good way to completely destroy what little there is left of the WoW community.

Random, unconnected things I felt I should share:  There is a company that I pass everyday taking my youngest daughter to school called that has a sign that says "LFW" with "Lifestyle Flooring World" underneath in small letters.  It took me a while to realise that "LFW" was their company logo, rather than an advertisement (Mom:  Looking For Work.  People use it in trade when they're advertising their crafting professions).