New Design

So what if I have nothing to blog about anymore. It doesn't stop me from re-designing my Layout;)
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Truly Epic Class Quests

One part of Wow I have always enjoyed are the Epic Class Quests. I have been involved in nearly every one so far.

Lok(Rohk)'delar, Hunter Quest
This was quite the achievement for any hunter. You needed drops from MC, Ony and a rare drop from Winterspring (or from Azurgos) and you had to defeat 4 demons without aid. Then there are Greifers/Noobs that will assist you and de-spawn the Demon. I helped out on this quest 3 or 4 times, mainly with Buffs and Clearing the path.

Benediction Quest
Requires an MC Drop and a rare(expensive) World Drop BOE. Quite a good quest but not in the league of the Hunter one. I helped when you could use the Trinket to see the spirits.

Warlock Epic mount Quest.
This one was quite expensive and included a DM run that was not that popular. Though the boss did drop a good Tank Gun so it was easy to find a tank for this. I have only assisted with a bit of this but I think it was well designed.

Paladin Epic Mount Quest
This quest included a Scholo run where you needed to properly use judgements to kill the Wraiths. Was a great deal of fun. Beld came up with a Stealth type run so we didn’t need to clear trash. It involved Invis Pots and DI'ing the Rezzer after running for your life. Good quest design from what I saw of it.

Epic Flight Form Quest
I think this quest had one of the best theories but lacked the Implementation. The idea is you had to kill bosses that had weaknesses based on the 3 specs. So by using a specific spec/tree you would find it easier. I have completed this one 3 times. I think the idea was dead on but I found it a bit easy.

What’s Next?
What I would like to see is a truly epic version of these quests designed for every class. A quest that requires a great deal of skill and knowledge of all three talent tree's/roles of your class. It should be hard and be a real achievement. The reward should be unique but not loot. A title for instance or a Unique class mount.

How would it work?
The quest chain should test you in each role that you could fulfil in PVE and can also include any other skills or abilities that suit. Lets look at an example, you guessed it, with Druids.

Starting Quests
Travel Forms Part 1
Race across a course that includes Water, Lava and Underground areas forcing the best use of Cheetah, Swim, Cat and Flight Forms. There can be sections where you get shot down for Flying. There should also be sections that require you to go from one form to another. i.e. Flight Form to Cat Form (to survive a fall) then Sprint and go Cheetah when Sprint runs out. Should change forms enough to require innervate.

Travel Forms Part 2
Air Tag. There would be a very large "roofed" stadium/area where you can fly. There is a Bird Seeking Ball that travels a little faster than your Flight Form. Shifting to caster causes the ball to continue in a straight line. You need to keep away from the ball for X time limit without hitting the ground (Ground would kill you). There could also be obstacles to slow the ball down. De-buffing the ball may also slow it down.

Pre-Requisites: Travel Forms Part 1

Feral Part 1
Successfully Rawr Bomb five targets.

Pre-Requisites: Travel Forms Part 1

Feral Part 2
With an NPC Tank and Healer, The Tank holds a Boss. You DPS. Ad’s randomly spawn, you need to switch to bear, grab the add and drag it to the tank, then continue to DPS the boss. There should be a chance to Battle Rez at some point as well.

Pre-Requisites: Feral Part 1

Bear Form Part 1
Hold Agro on a Boss while being healed by an NPC. Other NPC's will be doing high DPS and Threat. This would scale based on the Druids Gear. There should be occasions when you need to use your "Oh Shit" abilities.

Pre-Requisites: Feral Part 1

Bear Form Part 2
Hold Agro on 10 mobs. You also have 10 Healers with very low health (One hit to kill). You need 8 healers to keep you alive. If you lose 3 healers you will probably wipe.

Pre-Requisites: Travel Forms Part 2, Bear Form Part 1

Cat Form Part 1
Stealth through a group of mobs without being seen.

Pre-Requisites: Feral Part 1

Cat Form Part 2
With an NPC Tank and Healer, uphold a certain level of DPS. Threat control would also be required. Would Scale with Gear.

Pre-Requisites: Travel Forms Part 2, Cat Form Part 1

Caster Part 1
With an NPC Tank and a Healer, DPS and assist Healing the tank while maintaining De-buffs. Should be a 50/50 split. Should require a Hybrid Resto/Balance Spec.

Pre-Requisites: Travel Forms Part 1

Balance Part 1
With a NPC Tank and Healer, Uphold a certain amount of DPS while maintaining De-buffs and controlling threat. Full (and swift) use of Eclipse Procs would also be required. Monitor Healers Mana for innervate. Battle Rez would be required.

Pre-Requisites: Caster Part 1

Balance Part 2
Kite and Crowd Control two mobs for a certain time. Would require Entangling Roots, Hurricane and Sleep etc. Would require timing to get around diminished returns.

Pre-Requisites: Balance Part 1, Travel Forms Part 2

Restoration Part 1
Heal an NPC Tank in a Boss Encounter.

Pre-Requisites: Caster Part 1

Restoration Part 2
With NPC Tank and DPS's, Heal the Tank and DPS's in an AOE style boss encounter. Would require De-buffing (Curses and/or Poisons). Curses or Poisons should either Mind Control or Damage after x seconds.

Pre-Requisites: Restoration Part 1, Travel Forms Part 2

Other Pre-Requisites
You would need Heroic level gear for all specs to be able to complete the quests. All encounters would scale up with Heroic Level Gear used as a base line. All Quests would be Solo only.

The Reward?
The rewards could start by completing Individual Tree's or Segments of the Quest-line, Like Feral, Resto, Balance or Travel, so you can complete the Feral Component (inc Bear and Cat) to get a Title like "Beast Master". Completing the Travel Form line could grant a title of "Path Finder". Completing all the Quests would give a title like "Arch-Druid" and a new Flight Form, the Phoenix with a 310% speed.

Summary
The idea here is to have a quest line that feels truly epic. It should not be easier for End Game raiders or for more casual players. Regardless of the content you are seeing, the quest line should be a real achievement.

Let me know what you think?
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I Like a Challenge

When I was playing Warcraft, I had the most fun when I was challenged.

History
Back in the Vanilla days, I three-manned Strat Dead Side with two friends. Shortly after that I two manned Scholo on a Stealth run with another Druid. Then in BC I three-manned Heroic Durnholde with a couple of guildies. It was great fun. There is a certain satisfaction that comes with accomplishing something a little out of the box. Sure, I doubt I was the first to do any of these things, in-fact it was a Pair of Mages completing Scholo that gave me the idea to try it with another Druid.

What If?
This got me thinking. If I was still playing today, what sort of challenges would I like to try?

Deadmines...
Yep, you heard me right. Deadmines. I am not talking about some post Cataclysm type Heroic revisited but the Original Deadmines. However I want to do it with a deference.

Raiding Deadmines...
Well this just sounds easier. But wait, there is more. The level requirement for entry into Deadmines is Level 10. Yet the recommended level is 15-20. I want to raid Deadmines with 10 level 10 toons. IMHO this would require proper playing and not just Zerging, but I could be wrong.

But Wait, There’s More!
If that wasn’t enough of a challenge, lets take it a step further. I would want to Multi-box the whole thing. That’s Right. 10 Players. 1-2 Tanks, 2 Healers and 6-7 DPSers. Its like raiding Hogger but with Less Chaos!

Possible?
Who knows, and unfortunately unless its been done already, we wont find out. Blizzard capped most 5man instances to 5 a year or so ago. Oh well, I’m not playing wow anyway so I’m not missing out.


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Customer Service Conclusion

Well it looks like I finally got lucky. After my last post I posted an extremely specific email asking to unlock Account 3.

The Magic Email
Subject: Account3
Hi Account Admin Team,
When my Account was hacked, my Account3 account was BANNED/LOCKED or SUSPENDED.
Can you please UNBAN, UNLOCK or UNSUSPEND that account?
Please do not recent the password. The account was hacked Months ago and it has already been reset.
Please do not restore any characters. They are fine and have been restored already.
Thanks in Advance,
Shane Chandler

Finally Done?
We yes, even if they did reset my password AGAIN.....

Razorbax
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Time for a Change

Much like Andrew before me, I have decided to diversify my Blogging topics. Though I no longer have the time to play Warcraft, I find I still really enjoy blogging.

New Blog?
Nope, for some strange reason, no doubt due to years of playing Warcraft and Druids, I still have an affinity for www.ThreeDruidNoob.com and Razorbax so I have decided to stick with them.

New Layout
I have decided to go for a new template, again. Mainly to help signal a change but also because the old template was getting slow to load. If you are reading from RSS, why not pop in and have a look? There are a few empty spots here and there that I will gradually fill in. Just Bear with me until then....(I could not resist)

Subjects?
Well I do still read a lot about Warcraft, so there will be some content now and then. I will basically write what ever springs to mind and that I want to share or think others may find interesting. You might hear about my Post Grad University Studies, Work stuff, Home life or anything really. I will not however be one of those bloggers who shares everything and anything, like the reality TV of Blogs. That's just not me.

That will do for now.

Cheers,
Razorbax
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The Right Way

I don't like to be the complainer that is completely negative. I always try to acknowledge the issue and if I can suggest a solution.

Constructive Complaining
If someone says "I do not like your Blog", you cannot do anything about it. There is no feedback for you to validate what that person is telling you. If however thy tell you "Your Java Preview Panel loads really slowly", you can easily validate it and decide if you want to change.

A couple of years ago, I saw a link back where a blogger from UAE (I think) could not see my blog correctly because the government had blocked the member files for my ISP, so non of my java, images or CSS was loading. I decided to move to Google Sites to store these files and I easily remedied the problem.

Put your Money where your mouth is...
Well since I just posted a couple of critical posts about blizzard support, I thought I should at least look at the issues they face and how things might work better.

The Problem
You can't have a Solution without a Problem. Defining the problem is an issue many business' face. In my instance I think the problem is "My Account was hacked.".

The Scope
What is the effect of having my account hacked?
1. Loss of Control
2. Banned Account(s)
3. Deleted Character(s)
4. Deleted/Lost Items/Gold
5. Guild Bank Items/Gold Stolen
6. Payment Information

The Solution?
Lets look at having a single process that covers all the possibilities. Having one process simplifies the work that needs to be done and will improve the end result.

Workflows.
Lets have a go at a Workflow for the Account Admin team to improve the customer service after an Account has been hacked.

1. Email the Customer with information relating to security and privacy. Reset the customers password. This is already done well by Blizzard.
2. Explain the restoration process they are about to go through.
3. Check the account(s) to see if they have been banned. If they have, send to specialist to investigate.
4. Check if Characters in those account(s) have deleted characters. Restore them.
5. Check if the characters have lost Money/Items. If they have, send to Character Restoration Specialist with a List of Characters to have items  Restored for each account. Also include Guild items that were stolen.
6. Check for modified Account Information. If this info has been changed, Send to billing to fix payment/customer information.
7. When all these actions are completed, an email should advise the customer everything has been done and allow them to verify before closing the case.

Assumptions
I have made a few of those based on my interactions with Blizzard. I think in some cases this may take more time but in the long run there would be time savings for resolving issues on the first try.

Shortcuts
There are points in the workflow where you could produce a quick fix, I believe blizzard has something like this, and have the option of doing a full restore if the customer wants.

Cost Savings?
Sometimes you may not see cost saving right off the bat, but I would guarantee the resulting improvements of Customer Satisfaction would be worth their weight in Gold.

Razorbax
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