One more and I’ll stop……….

I am torn between feelings of admiration and hatred for the person/s who thought up the idea for achievements. Hatred because of my inability to let the little boxes stay incomplete and thus why I am forced to address the Brood of Nozdomo bar being in the hated section. After killing 30000 bugs for the AQ40 opening chain I was hoping to never again see the ugly things, let alone be faced with killing them. Of course I could also hate the idiot who put paladins on the horde side and thus essentially reset all my reputations. Admiration because of their understanding that the most pointless task becomes compelling if you award points for it! The points get you absolutely nothing. But you still need them.

Achievements have given us some wonderful sites - the only draenai priest (well since we were forced to make an alt called ‘Snowflake’ there are now two) on the server showered in snowflakes with every step she took, 20 people running round trying to gather up enough turkey minions while the stupid things cluck about and cause havoc - max level, epic geared characters madly chasing round mice trying to vanquish them, questing in the Valley of Trials, and people hurling firecrackers, rockets and all sorts as fast as they can in the hope of gaining an achievement.

Of course not all achievements give this level of amusement, some demonstrate a level of play you should aspire to. Many of the dungeon achievements were well tuned and forced people to thing up different tactics to just tank’n’spank. Learning to kite, learning to use ae damage to break cc, trying unusual class balances and abilities - all these were brought to the fore and breathed new life into the heroics. Pre-nerf there were a few very challenging ones.

The raid ones (both 10 man and 25 man) allowed those who had breezed through content (which was most of the pre-Wotlk ‘raid’ guilds) to find some new challenges in the game, to strive not just to beat the encounter but to annihilate it. Sartharion alone is no fun and not a challenge, with 3 adds he is fun. Killing Thaddius is easy (and you can carry several directionally confused people and the normal ‘MSN beeped’ fools) - killing Thaddius without a single charge hitting anybody needs every member of the raid to focus. That is what the raiding achievements are all about. If you have truly mastered the encounters most of them just require everyone to show that. Killing Maexy within 20 minutes of Nub is not hard, but it does need everyone to be awake and trash-surfing to cease.

The true prizes amongst the raiding achievements belong to ‘The Undying’, ‘The Immortal’, ‘Of the Nightfall’, ‘Twilight Vanquisher’ and the Malygos burn ones. These are prizes worth striving for. The loot might not be better but they are a demonstration of commitment, focus and pride.

Sadly ‘The Undying’ and ‘The Immortal’ can be wrecked by a single dc (although thankfully the lagspikes are gone) which means you need a little luck as well as good play. However it gives an easy instance a new challenge.

Of all the encounters currently in game 10 man Sarth+3 has presented the greatest challenge. It is both beautifully and badly balanced. With the right raid it is so tight as to only give a few seconds leeway - the choices between burn and control, regarding healer and tank numbers, what to do with adds - all this makes it a worthwhile experience. Sadly it requires a stacked raid (although luckily you can stack melee or ranged, just not both) which was one of the things Blizzard were determined to avoid.

The Malygcos achievement is another example of how to force people to improve their gameplay. The enrage is remarkably tight with the added bonus that if you overshoot by a few seconds the fat dragon dies to the ticking stacks meaning it is hard to repeat (6mins 1.3 secs is not a fun way to fail). Again it highlights the need to take a raid full of people who want to succeed, who can take personal responsibility for their action and are prepared to step forwards and deliver a worthy performance.

For a guild leaders point of view the achievements offer both a good tool with which to motivate people and a powerful tool to see who is actually pulling their weight not only in terms of attendance but in terms of individual performance. When killing bosses routinely it is easy to overlook player A doing bad damage or dying on certain fights. When you are racing a tight enrage and miss it those players are highlighted.

The 10 man achievements completed now the focus comes down to completing the 25 man ones.

Recruitment remains open in limited classes. Currently we are very keen on a tanking warrior (due to the importance of this role the successful applicant would need not only MTing experience but also high attendance) and are also looking to supplement the following dps classes;

Warlock (1 slot)
Hunter (1 slot)
Elemental Shaman (1 slot)

There are also possibilities for an oomkin druid, a retribution paladin and a shadow priest.

The Immortal…….. and then perhaps I will stop.