Slain by Elf

'You're back at the inn, what would you like to do?'

'Acquire tremorsense!'

'...realistically.'

'Try to acquire tremorsense?'

'<sigh>'

The new World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, has been announced, and like The Burning Crusade the level cap will be increased another ten levels. This means that tradeskills will be increased, because no one will want to craft level 70 items at level 80. I imagine that this will also mean that there will be the same problem with tradeskills, specifically the crafting skills, as there was when BC was released, and remains to this day: crafting to the skill cap is expensive and difficult. This may not be a problem in and of itself, as a good argument can be made that crafting to the skill cap should be expensive and difficult in order to access the best craftable items, the problem comes specifically with the introduction of an expansion that increases the level of the skill cap.

Note that this article will be written from the point of view of the blacksmithing skill, as it is the one I am most familiar with. I imagine the situation is the same for other crafting skills, but if it isn't feel free to file a lawsuit.

Before The Burning Crusade, the maximum skill level was 300, and crafting items to get to 300 takes many expensive and hard-to-get resources. With the introduction of BC the tradeskills were extended, and the new maximum skill level became 375. Crafting items to get to 375 takes even more expensive and hard-to-get resources. But before you can start getting up to 375 you need to get to 300, and the work required to get to 300 remains as gruelling as it did before the expansion was released, even though the items crafted are surpassed when skill level 301 is reached and the first, mundane, vendor-trash items are crafted with the new, expansion-only resources. In effect, there is a 'skill bump', an artificial complication that remains only as an artefact of a previous era and now serving no purpose.

The announcement of the new expansion fills me with dread that the same situation will carry over from Burning Crusade to Wrath of the Lich King. The 375 skill cap will require acquiring and spending vast amounts of resources to create items that serve no other purpose than allowing a player to get to skill 376 and start making more vendor trash on the way to the new skill cap. Obviously, this presents no problem for players who reach the skill cap ahead of time, but for the more casual gamer, or the altaholic, reaching the skill cap can be too much of a pointless grind. Unfortunately, in order to craft anything from the expansion it becomes a necessary grind, even after all the current patterns become surpassed by the first green drop you get in the new area. There are solutions.

Solution 1: make the previously hard-to-get resource bountiful in the new zones, and keep the first batch of new patterns based on this resource.

To get to skill 300 in blacksmithing requires thorium, and lots of it. Thorium ore is hard to find in anything but small amounts, making skilling up a frustrating process. The first new ore in Burning Crusade was fel iron, and it was sprinkled around Hellfire Peninsula like demon poo, making the first new patterns easy to make. Instead, it would have made good sense to have Hellfire Peninsula covered in thorium veins, so that anyone not at skill 300 could have skilled up more quickly and without having to spend valuable time in Azeroth instead of Outlands. This also would have prevented people from stockpiling thorium to sell at inflated prices in the auction houses once most people stopped adventuring in Azeroth and thus stopped mining it.

Even so, the patterns require so much ore that each vein would have to give ten or more ores for this to be feasible, and the same is true of adamantite even if the first new zone turns out to have plentiful supplies of that. Of course, it would be nice if one act of mining extracted all the ore from the vein in the same way that all herbs are plucked at once, or all leather is skinned at once, but that's a different issue. This would reduce the artificial scarcity of the resource, but it would still require a grind.

Solution 2: make patterns available in the expansion that use the new resources at lower skill levels than the current skill cap.

For example, when Burning Crusade was released it would have been possible to have patterns available to learn at skill level 250 or 275 that used fel iron. The craftable items could still have a level requirement of 60, so that the items would not be overpowered on the character, and would be trainable only in an Outlands zone, so that the expansion would be required to craft them and thus gain skill points in their crafting. This would mean that players could adventure and progress their characters in the new zones, gaining new resources, and still progress their crafting skill. All of the old, scarce-resource-hungry items, designed only to make skilling to the cap difficult, would not need to be made, which would not be a problem because more powerful items are dropped regularly by mobs in the new zones anyway. The skill bump would be negated.

Solution 3: overhaul the crafting system to allow for a two-tier system, letting players create 'solo' or 'team' items at all skill levels.

Craftable items can be made that are equivalent to world drops for 'solo' items, or equivalent to boss drops in instances for 'team' items. The solo items would require fewer resources, and those attainable from solo questing in world zones, but they would be primarily green items. They would offer upgrades from world drops in the sense that world drops are random and the craftable items could be identified as useful before being made, which would give some purpose above skilling up. Team items would require more resources, and resources only available from instances, nominally like spirit shards where every eligible player can loot the item and the item is bind-on-pickup. The resultant crafted items would be higher-quality items that are more equivalent to instance loot than world drops. The idea is that players who enjoy solo content and those who prefer to run instances would both be able to craft equipment that is suitable for their playing style, whilst the solo path simultaneously allows for quicker skill levelling that would be beneficial on the release of an expansion when the craftable items are surpassed by new world drops.

The problem of fast skill levelling with this solution, where players could reach level caps quickly and start crafting the best items, could be solved by making the best items more resource hungry than they are now, thus requiring a larger committment to the craft to allow for the items' high quality. This solution would need an overhaul to the skill system, so is more difficult to implement.

Personally, I would like to see solution 2 implemented in Wrath of the Lich King. Without it, it will be a tedious and expensive slog to get to a point where I can once again start making vendor trash, which shows the skill system as obviously broken across expansion transitions. Players should be given the option of skipping past crafting the horribly difficult to make items once an expansion is released that to a large extent nullifies their worth, and players should be encouraged to explore and adventure in the new zones instead of scurrying around the old ones in search of mineral deposits. Without a workable solution to the skill bump the initial time in the new zones will be marred as it was, and is, in BC by being forced to spend a disproportionate amount of time getting those last 10 to 15 skill points needed before progress can be made in the expansion.

I picked up playing my now-neglected warlock, if only for a change of pace. I ran around completing some familiar quests in Hellfire Peninsula, for he is only level 61, not having been played much since the release of The Burning Crusade. When I was playing my warrior a few weeks back I remember seeing a level 70 warlock take down a level 71 elite patrolling mob, which was a striking display of power to my damage absorbing but otherwise unspectacular tank of a warrior. With this in mind, and having a quest in my log to kill an elite mob suggesting two players to complete it, I decided to see what I was made of.

Now, I played my warlock extensively pre-BC, getting all the way through Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, to phase 2 of C'Thun in Ahn'Qiraj, and taking down two bosses in Naxxramas. With help, I should add, but still, it got me a lot of purple loot. That made me feel overpowered when I first entered Hellfire Peninsula, but even after a level's adventuring I had found several pieces of equipment that were comparable to, and even one or two that surpassed, my epic gear, so my equipment is powerful but not extreme.

I headed down to find the elite mob for the quest, and saw that he'd just been killed. I would have to wait for a bit, but that was okay, as it let me clear the local area of mobs. I was finishing killing one random orc when another two spawned and took exception to my being so close to them. One of these two spawns was the elite that I was after, and the other was a friend he'd brought to the party. Bear in mind that I was just about finished killing another mob, so I and my demon were on about half health and mana. I set my demon, the fluffy blue voidwalker, on the elite's friend to get him occupied with someone who wasn't me, and then put my main weapon on the elite mob: fear.

The elite was a-feared and running all over the place, which was why I was initially clearing the area, and I threw a few quick damage-over-time spells on him to take his health down a bit and boost my own. I then paid full attention to the normal mob my cloud-like companion was dealing with, and took him down fairly quickly. Back to the elite mob, and another fear kept him running, and more DoTs kept his health falling and mine rising. And that was it. A Death Coil was kept for an emergency stop-gap fear, but fear and DoTs did the trick. I completed the two-player quest without a problem, after starting on sub-optimal resources and having the elite spawn as an add.

Damn, it feels good to be a warlock.

After gaining some respect and trust with the locals, we delve more thoroughly in to the everyday life of the shanty town, allowing us to investigate various areas that we have been briefed are the likely places where sedition against the city is being instigated. After the traumatic trials of the baby rescue, Tal seems a little distant. It is almost as if he is not entirely with us, and being controlled not by his own actions but pulled along by the concensus of what the rest of the party decides. Yes, his player wasn't able to turn up to this session, and that's rarely good news for the character.

The shanty town is open to us and free to be explored. We are warned that we are in the roughest part of the city, that beggars and brutes lurk around every corner waiting to make opportunistic gains with no fear of reprisal from the law, and that strangers are more likely to be singled out as victims. As we start to head off on our way, the last bit of advice is given: 'You'll be okay, just don't get separated.'

'... Hey, where's Tal gone?'

Tal looks as uncomfortable holding a baby as he does negotiating peaceful tactics, so he hands it to Ann-See. 'Do you know how to take care of these things?', he asks her.

'Of course. I have ranks in Handle Animal', she replies.

As part of an exercise in subterfuge to find those responsible for seditious behaviour, our party finds itself in the shanty town of the city, removed from the luxuries we have become accustomed to and creating a deception that we would rather be with the indigent elements of society. This isn't straightforward, as we are well-armoured and equipped, and have a little notoriety, but we are hoping to draw some attention to ourselves so it's not a real problem.

Shortly after we arrive in the shanty town, we hear cries of distress from a mother calling out that her baby had been stolen by the ghouls. We had learnt previously that there was a large, open grave, and that some ghastly undead stalked the area, and it seems that they were currently active. Despite trying to keep a low profile, some of us considered rescuing the baby to be a good act we couldn't avoid, so we head off to the pit.

A little investigation found the ghouls' lair, and after a few encounters with various monsters we find the leader of the ghouls, with the baby of the woman sitting in a cage near him and his coven. The leader threatens us, tells us the baby is his now and that we should leave or face the consequences. Not about to be told by a barely living creature where I stood, I use my skills in intimidating to put him back in his place, forcefully telling him that the baby was coming back with us, and that if he or his cohorts even dared to lay a hand upon us then he wouldn't live to regret it.

The intimidation seemed to do the trick, and the monsters were cowed. So that we didn't put ourselves immediately in to a compromising situation Tal walked in to the small cavern the ghouls were in to retrieve the baby. He trod confidently up to the cage, whilst keeping in mind the constant threat the ghouls presented, but he was not molested or attacked in any way. Just before he reaches to get the baby, he has a change of heart. His two-handed weapon swings around and strikes down the leader in a single blow, and punches through his soft skin with such force that it continues around in to one of his coven, sending her to the floor too.

The other two ghoulish creatures flee to a corner and Tal decides not to kill them, rescuing the baby instead, as he remembers what we are supposed to be doing. 'I will leave the others alone', he says nobly, forgetting that he just cut down two of them in cold blood after we had negotiated the release of the kidnapped victim peacefully.

'So why did you kill two of them when they were letting you get the baby?'

'It was just too tempting to be so close to them without them attacking. It is rare to get opportunities like that.'

'But why two in a single swing? Couldn't you have just killed the leader?'

'I learnt Cleave recently, and that was my first chance to use it.'

At least he had a good reason, and we did get the baby back.

The expedition to the ancient, underwater towers yielded some fine loot, and made us moderately wealthy and notable. Our prowess as capable adventurers is preceding us, and we are called upon to perform a covert operation to quell potential sedition. This involves us heading in to the seedy and dangerous quarter of the city, rampant with poverty and health problems, and outside of the law. We may well be able to take care of ourselves against fair odds, but when we are surrounded by a city's worth of beggars and street fighters the situation may be a little beyond our means to control. We need to keep on our toes.

'We're going in to a hostile area, trying to decieve the locals in to believing we are there for reasons that are not strictly true. There is a good chance that we will be uncovered at some point, and then everything could go really badly for us. Do we want a prearranged signal, or safe word or phrase, that we can use to indicate that we may be starting to get in to trouble, so that we can better alert each other?'

'How about, "roll for initiative"?'

'You come around the corner to see a dead-end. There's a door.'

As a side-quest, our slightly smaller than usual group is hired to stop the attacks on a local people, caused by a tribe of savages who live in a cave system. There is no overall reward to speak of, but we are offered a bounty for each ear of the enemy's we bring back. Our first question, 'Do the enemy actually have ears?', was answered positively, so off we trotted on our merry way to commit yet another act of minor genocide.

On getting to the cave system and taking the ears from the lone guard outside, which he initially quarrelled about, we headed in and soon found the leader of the small tribe. Coming up with the cunning plan of talking to the leader, instead of rushing in to fight, we find out that his tribe is not responsible for the crimes they have supposedly committed, and in fact it seems like a third party is involved in pitting both sides against each other.

Killing off this tribe no longer seems like the right thing to do, and the hostilities won't stop if this third faction keeps on aggravating issues behind the scenes. We volunteer to disprupt the other faction and bring a truce to both of the fighting peoples, with the hopes that some better reward would be forthcoming from both sides than if we just completed our normal mission. Of course, if we hadn't tried using diplomacy we wouldn't have created all this extra work. We could have just killed of a few tribesman and been on our way. There's a lesson here somewhere.

Before we head off to start our new mission to bring peace to the two tribes, the head of this tribe shows his gratitude for both sparing their lives and helping to end hostilities. 'We are but a poor tribe', he starts, 'but I can offer you a true treasure, one that will bring you more happiness than you could get from gold or other trinkets. I offer you my daughter's hand'.

A shared look reveals that we're all thinking the same thing, 'That's great, but we'd rather have her ears'. Realising that wouldn't be the best diplomatic start to the new truce, we made excuses about being adventurers, always on the road, and don't want to be tied down, and head out to save the day once more.

Among all the reputation-gaining with the Netherwing faction that I did over the weekend, I also ended up joining a group to run through Setthek Halls. I'm pretty sure it was mostly, if not completely, the same group with whom I ran through Auchenai Crypts last week, so I may have made it on to someone's friends list, which is pretty good. Of course, he could have just seen me in Ironforge, as he was standing next to me when I got the invitational whisper. It also meant that the group was slightly better than a pick-up group in a way, which means a more coherent unit and less bickering overall.

The run through Setthek Halls was successful, with only a couple of wipes. The first was when I was a-feared in to a new bunch of mobs, and the second was on the final boss. The wipe on the boss wasn't terribly surprising, given his special abilities, but it was also not that surprising because of a different element, that of the damage meter. The mage in the group was running a damage meter and was keen to out-damage the rogue. That's fair enough, as a bit of competition can be healthy, but it was taken a little to the extreme, to the point where I, as the tank, was not allowed to gain good aggro on a mob before it was thoroughly attacked by the other members of the group.

This is where my theory of aggro management as the tank comes in. It is my duty to hold aggro wherever necessary, and I will do my utmost to perform this duty. I have several abilities that create large amounts of threat, and I use them wherever possible. I even have a 'taunt' ability that will force a mob to concentrate on me if it isn't doing so. All this lets me ensure that the mobs hit me, with my large damage reduction from armour and large pool of hit points, and not the squishy cloth wearers, particularly the healer. And that's an important point to note: I don't want the healer to get squished. If the healer dies, so do I and the rest of the group. Other members of the group, however, are more expendable. Thus my theory of aggro management.

I will do my best to get and hold a mob's aggro, and multiple mobs if required. I will make sure that if I lose a mob's aggro I will get it back before it does undue damage, taunting it if necessary. I will even try to get aggro back if it is stolen from me, but in this case I will rarely taunt the target. There are two reasons for this.

First, the taunt ability is on a cool-down timer. I have trained the talents required to reduce this cool-down period, but it is still long enough for me to need it available as much as possible for emergencies. I don't want to have to pull a mob off the mage only to see another mob pull loose and start hitting the healer. That's bad news.

Second, a mob's aggro generally only gets stolen from me, not lost, when a player is too eager or naive to let me gain aggro in the first place. When I am aiming a shot from my gun at a mob to gain initial aggro and I see the mage standing next to me already casting fireball there is only one result. My shot will do low three-digit damage, whereas a fireball with do four-digit damage. The mage will get the aggro.

I will do my best to pull the mob off the mage in this case, but I won't do everything possible. This may seem arrogant, but the fact is that I don't want my duty to be made harder than it needs to be. If given just a couple of seconds on a mob, I can hold aggro well enough until it dies, without having to worry about taunting it on every cool-down, or chasing it back to the mage or hunter occasionally. It also lets the damage dealers maximise their output, as long as I'm given that initial time to build up some threat.

There are ways to enlighten players about giving the tank time to gain aggro. One is to tell them through group chat that I would like a few seconds to get a couple of good hits before they start firing. Another is to let them see first-hand what happens when they nuke the mob before allowing me this time, and having the mob beat them almost to death, if not until they die. If they get killed I find it the ideal time to repeat my request for a few initial hits, in a friendly manner. They tend to get the point.

It also helps me relax a bit. I'll take responsibility gladly for holding aggro and losing it, but it's great to just relax and let stolen aggro take its course. The Setthek Hall run was perhaps not the smoothest, but it was good that the mage understood that his pursuit of being top of the damage meter had consequences, and he was happy to take them. I didn't get tense about it, everyone had fun, and we completed the instance. The mage and priest even got their class-trousers, which was good.

The only downside to my approach to aggro management is that unless the healer thinks the same way he will end up healing some squishy party members on occasion too. This healing will need to be more aggressive owing to the significantly lower armour, and this leads to the healer gaining more aggro. With the taunt ability kept in reserve for such emergencies as the healer taking damage I don't see this as too much of a problem. If the healer starts to gain aggro regularly I shall review my aggro management stance, but until then I am happy with the way I tank.