No more LFR

Sometimes, someone remembers something you said. My Guildleader reminded me last week of something I said before Dragon Soul came out. It was something like: "The moment the raiders stop using LFR, LFR will be horrible"...  and behold...

Now I don't have much experience with LFR in 5.4...  I lasted 10 minutes last night on my shaman (including one wipe) before I left in disgust. I play this game for fun, not to see a lot of cursing and flaming being tossed around. And may Mardah didn't even do ONE LFR since SoO came out...which maybe says it all.

Now the last three tiers, I went LFR-ing with Mardah, it was a decent source for the oh-so handy valour points, and you could get tier-gear to complement your set, or get gear for your offset (which I don't really have). But 5.4 brought us something new, called Flex.

Also the last three tiers, Innovation had a LFR-run on Wednesday, which means a group of around 15 would go together into LFR, making it very do-able, now the wednesday-run is for Flex. And I have no idea how many of my guildmates do LFR on their mains, although I suspect not that many.

Now if what happens with me, also happens with other people, you can see that the amount of people running LFR, will become less. Even worse, the people no longer doing LFR now are the people who are normal raiders. Now I suspect Heroic toons didn't do much LFR after the first week, but the normal raiders still did, but now...

The gear is not the incentive for normal raiders, it is only a low Ilvl-increase, and also, would you really want to see the same bosses a third time this week? So, I, as a normal raider, do not want to to LFR on my main, so I bring my alts, which do less damage...  but at least I go LFR...  maybe.

In normal weeks, I never did that many LFR's, time is limited, and as mentioned before, seeing the same bosses to often is not that fun. So I am not running LFR's every week, and if I do, it is alone, not with a group of 15 guildies. And it seems that is happening more..

The more experienced players do not take their geared mains into LFR anymore using guild groups.

That sentence just said it all.. LFR is becoming less and less appealing for normal raiders due to that fact.

But how to fix that? Well, it seems the direct reason is Flex it seems, but is it?  I think the problem does not lie with flex itself, but with the fact that there are now 3 different raid-lockouts  (Normal and Heroic use the same), and that added with the gear difference is getting to high. Is completing your tier-set with a LFR-item really better, then keeping your normal WF-helm?

I don't really have a solution and luckily I do not have to make those  :), and there seems to be only two options, either remove LFR...or remove Heroic Raids.....wait...what did I just typed???

Actually, why do we have Heroic Raids again?

What I remember from Innovation's Dragon Soul, Heroic was mostly just more damage dealt, added with a few new mechanics. There is a part of me that just thinks, why?  Why not just scrap Heroics, make the normals a little harder, and just have LFR,Flex and Normal.....  and sometimes and activated ability to make the fight harder and get some better loot, don't hit the big red button please....

LFR wiping and learning, Durumu

Eyes shut...finally. It took about 7 tries.

It's not that hard a fight in theory. run around with beams, drop purple stuff on outside, kill some adds...  but then the disintegration beam goes of, and the dark floor is covered with a darkish purply stuff which paths in it that are safe...a maze...

Now if the maze would have been clear...like green on grey with paths in it, no problem, but the current color-combination makes it really hard to see where to go. So instead of doing a relaxing LFR, you get a frustrating experience where you stare so hard at the screen that your eyes go sore....  and of course, one mis-step is certain doom.

No, I am not looking forward to doing this boss  to many times....

On the bright side...  elite Protectors went down without a glitch..well..not counting the 22 dead people, and we saved Tsulong...where I did more healing on the boss then damage....tonight Horridon is again on the menu...or we hope, because until now, we were on his menu.

MOP: rolling the slot-machine?

So, they want to introduce a new roll system to the LFR, and maybe to other boss-drops. My first thoughts after slimming the different explanations, and there where a few, is...really? This is your solution to the current need-all-LFR's?

But, first, let's look at the info I gathered, and still remember (and most is of a blue post on the us-forums).

Bosses will not drop loot. OK! Let's get that clear. Currently bosses drop loot. In 25 there are 5 items that drop of their so-called lootlist. Why Morchok has two necklaces, I don't know, but that's how it works. Boss dead, system rolls 5 times on the loot-table, and you can loot 5 thingies from him.

With the new system, bosses don't actually drop loot. What happens is that every player makes a 'hidden' roll. For simplicity, let's make it a 1-100 roll. On a high enough roll (say 90+), the system is gonna check if there is an item on the lootlist you can use.

If yes, and there is only one, you get it. If there are two (or more) the system gives you one randomly. If there is nothing on the lootlist that you can use, you get some gold.

So, everyone will be rolling for himself, like using a slot-machine. And that determines if you get a reward for killing the boss. Now.... that seems nice and all, no more people ninja-ing something from you, but....  there are some things I am questioning... both positive and negative I think.

First of, the phrase 'you can use'. They, as in Blizzard, stated that it means something your current spec can use. Current spec is the catchphrase here. Also, no more trading LFR-stuff in Raid. So say goodbye to getting offspec stuff in LFR. Which is exactly what was said. If you want off-spec dps-gear as a tank, que as dps.

what?..What?.. WHAT!

I don't know, but, euhm, Mardah hasn't seen LFR in weeks. Her boomkin-set doesn't need anything from there anymore, and I think I have only one 384-item left. Now, my guild is blooming with trees, so after winning two extra tier-pieces, I think I have enough tree-gear, to heal on the one occasion I maybe asked in 3 months..... Most of my guildies are running LFR for off-spec gear, which is what I do on my multitude of alts. That's the reason my shammy is Elemental atm, instead of Enhancement.

With this system, I'll see Raiders quitting LFR after two weeks, and trust me, LFR is full of people who hit random buttons, so there will be much more wipes if the slightly better geared, much better players don't show up anymore.

And no, I am not going into an M&S discussion, but if I, as a good player with barely-372 gear, ends up 4th on the damage-meter....  well....

Where was I, oh yeah, Second, there was some news about farming up a thingie to make your roll be an always win. ????  Why don't they just give us the loot then? Farm up thingie, use thingie, get loot. especially usefull if you know there's only one thing on the loot-table for you. I see some abuse here.

Third, and this is a fun fact. It is now possible that everyone in the raids get an item....  or no one at all  :p

And last (I think). They say they might implement this in other raids/dungeons. Dungeons is the same discussion above I think. But... in raids?

I don't know.... but that's for the far future I hope.