I'm sure you all know that recently a new boss has been added to the Vault of Archavon instance going by the name of Emalon the Storm Watcher. He's a tier higher than Archavon, meaning he drops Tier 8 in 10 man, and 8.5 in 25 man. He also drops whatever the new PvP gear is, but I don't PvP often enough to know what that's called :X

Now Vault of Archavon in general I've always had an issue with. The main problem was simply this: It doesn't make sense. A ton of issues arise when you actually think about VoA.

Let's talk about Archavon specifically for a second. As long as you control Wintergrasp you can fight him once a week, and your faction WILL control Wintergrasp at least once a week. Now, Archavon is an incredibly easy boss. I know it, you know it, we all know it. An incredibly easy boss that drops great loot. Tier 7 and 7.5 and whatever that PvP gear is. Blizzard said that if you had trouble getting a piece or 2 of your tier gear that they would allow you to buy it with badges, so that kicks that excuse out of the running as to why his loot is so great.

Now let's focus on Emalon, the tier 8 boss. He's harder than Archavon. What I want to emphasize there is hardER. He is not Hard, he's in fact VERY easy if both sides of your brain are working, and Blizzard thinks that he should have the same level of loot that Ulduar has? Ulduar IS Hard, it's finely tuned, sure there are some nerfs here and there but all in all it's challenging. It just absolutely does not make sense for players to be able to recieve loot because they can't clear the harder content that drops it.

Basically Blizzard is awarding players for being bad at the game. I'm sorry, but it's true. What they're saying is "Oh you can't clear this 14 boss dungeon that's great in design and tuned correectly? Oh well here ya go then, you can have the loot anyway."

All this applies to PvP gear as well. I never PvP, and honestly I'm bad at it, but I could easily walk into VoA and grab some gear that I really don't deserve. I'm sure all that gear has rating requirements that I wouldn't dream of meeting. That's what it boils down to, Emalon and Archavon are Blizzards way of giving players gear that they don't deserve.

In the end, I hope Blizzard gets their head together before Icecrown. They say they want everyone to be able to see the content they release, yet they release content and then give away all the reasons for seeing it anyway. Heres a thought: Make real raids (such as Ulduar) on a higher tier level than VoA. That way players can still be content because they get purples, but players that have actually cleared the hard content will have their own, better set of gear. You could say they've done this with 10 and 25 mans, but they haven't. 25 mans aren't harder they just require more people. You could also say they've done this with Hard modes, and that's a closer step toward it, but it isn't a higher tier of armor, it's just some extra epics. Tier gear should be the end all be all of armor in this game and it's being handed out like free samples at Walmart.

My final thoughts: Sunwell was a real achievement, and I hope to God that in the end of Wrath Blizzard won't be handing out gear from Arthas like they do with their current content.

Sorry for the lack of a post today, me and my family were moving to a new house so I didn't have any time to do anything but tweet every now and then, tomorrow shouldn't be as busy so look forward to a nice shiny new post!

Yes, at 2:33 AM I am finally finished. There may be a few tweaks I need to work out here and there but for the most part I'm really glad with it!

Tomorrow I'll be entirely overhauling the look of Unholy Hands so if you see the page one way and come back later to a different look don't worry, it's just me messing things up! :)

So let's get to know you a bit first, how long have you been playing WoW?

I've been playing WoW since January of 2008

Was Rogue your first choice or did you mess around with other classes then finally decide to land where you are now?

Rogue was absolutely my first choice (and is any just about any game I play), I've played around with other classes since then but never seriously

What's the name of your guild?
Axiom

So how far has your guild gotten into Ulduar in both 10 and 25 man?

We've gotten to Mimiron on 10 man and Thorim on 25

Do you like or dislike using vehicles at all in a raid instance?

  I'm not really a fan of the vehicle use in Malygos but I think that has more to do with the mechanics of that phase than the fact that we're using vehicles, clumping up and spinning in a circle just doesn't do it for me.  Now Flame Leviathan, that fight is the most fun I've had in a long time.  It's easy but I love it.

Have you completed any Hard modes yet?

As of yet, no.  Gotta give the instance a few clears before we try that.  I'm thinking (hoping) we'll have it cleared next week.

What boss has been the most challenging so far?

I believe that Razerscale gave us the most trouble at first but I think that had more to do with us getting back in the swing of raiding content that's brand new and hasn't been on farm for what feels like forever.  Also, once we realized that the devouring flames target the closest person it was cake.  Delicious chocolate cake.

How would you rate compare the difficulty level of Ulduar to Naxxramas?

On a scale of one to ten.  With Sunwell being a 10 and killing critters being a 1, I would say Naxx is a 3 with Ulduar being an 8, probably peaking towards 9 on the hard modes.

Do you agree with the nerfing of regular modes Blizzard is introducing?

Some of them needed nerfing (Ignis was a terror but that was probably had more to do with bugs) but I definately think they over did it.  XT is a completely joke now.  Adding another minute to the enrage timer seems ok but I felt like trantrum was at the right level of difficulty already.

How about the buffing of Hard modes?

  I'm all for this, I love an encounter than can kick my butt.
Does being able to dual spec benefit your raid greatly or is it something you find yourself and guild mates rarely using in Ulduar?
(and if being used often) does it effect the way your guild distributes items?

Does being able to dual spec benefit your raid greatly or is it something you find yourself and guild mates rarely using in Ulduar?Does it effect the way your guild distributes items?

I haven't seen anyone use their dual spec for a raid yet.  It's not a requirement in our guild, most of us are using it for PvP.  I know that no one would have a problem switching for a fight if we needed them to.  As for loot, we use a very awesome loot list system and dual spec hasn't (and can't really) effect that

Have any Shards of Val'anyr dropped yet?

  Yes, I believe we have 4 or 5

How is your guild distributing them?

  I wasn't involved in the decision, that was something the officers and the healers worked out (despite how good I am with bandages I wasn't invited).  I believe they had a roll off

How do you feel about only being able to fight Algalon one hour per week?

I think it's a cool idea.  Help shape up those guilds with terrible wipe recovery (like us)

On a scale of 1 to 10 how well do you think Blizzard is tuning raid content in Wrath?

  If I had only seen Naxx, I'd say 5 but now, having seen Ulduar I get exactly what they're going for (a nice steady progression) so I'd say 7.5

Is your guild still doing Naxx or is it strictly Ulduar right now as far as time consuming instances?

Nope, it's Ulduar and Ulduar only now.

Do you have any tips for any raiders out there?

Wake up.  No seriously, I had to turn my A game back on for Ulduar.  But for an actual legitimate tip, I'd say work on your UI.  I'm a strong proponent of organizing your UI in order to keep the most relevant information in the middle of the screen for easy access while keeping your situational awareness high.

Thanks for taking the time to talk with me!

Anytime

Be sure to check out Zaltu’s Blog, One Rogues Journey!

That's right, folks! Ensidia just killed Mimiron hard mode, which makes them to first guild to reach Algalon on 25-man. Let's see how long it'll take to get him down ~_^

Grats to Ensidia!

Yay! Children's week is finally here! We can all run those little brats around the entire World of Warcraft for some achievements and a title. Fun right? Well, The past few years it may have been, but this year I'm just not 'feeling it'.

As far as I can tell there are no Children's Week quests in Northrend. This saddens me greatly. I was looking forward to having to run a Tuskaar kid all around Northrend and maybe get a baby seal to club as a reward! Instead, it's going back to Stormwind and Shattrath, going to the same places. I feel cheated in a sense, I thought Blizzard would make a tradition about adding new Children's Week quests every expansion.

This is the first time Children's Week has had achievements, and everyones likely to be going crazy over them because you'll need to complete them all to continue your quest toward the 310% Violet Proto-Drake. I was determined to get this when achievements came out, but sadly with the loss of my account I was knocked out of the running of having it any time within the first year, so I pretty much just gave up. I can live without it, heck I don't even know if I'll get my epic flyer on my Paladin.

Speaking of my Paladin! He's well on his way to level 76 now and I suspect he'll be 80 in no time.

That's all I got for today, good luck to you all! (And your orphans too)