The_Sith

My friend is making a Draenei mage and even though he is quite far from Outland/Shattrath, do mages go Aldor or Scryer normally? My first instinct was to say "SCRYER!" but I'm not sure. I did read wowwiki's guide - the equipment from the Scryer's seems like it would be less likely to be replaced sooner... But +dmg versus +crit may be better for PvE from aldor. And then there's the small boost you get to Aldor from being Draenei.. ? EDIT: Oh, and he's a tailor.

I knew someone would pounce on that General comment. ;) I've posted a thread up for other staff discussion - mods know where to find it.

While it is a pet peeve, I didn't intend my comments about "wannabe mods" to be entirely negative. The staff appreciates people's enthusiasm for keeping the boards clean but at the same time, like you mentioned, Devoted, people who spend their time JUST making such comments aren't helping matters at all. I'll try to check in with this thread tomorrow. I personally am for the removal of subforums on a variety of our boards (along with the merging of boards, for example Gen and Gen P2P - its current state is very ambiguous) but not without proper discussion by users and staff.

Actually, the dodge is low - I've seen 100-105% a few times (no joke). What I was more surprised by was the Skyguard rep - EXALTED. See trinkets ...

I agree about encouraging people to use more descriptive titles. I also think that since the board would be moving faster, people won't bother to respond to threads that are completely devoid of any information about the question, leading thread authors to create more descriptive threads/titles. As far as stickies go, some would be alright.. unless there is an alternative. I just want to avoid things like, "Post all your questions about X here!" "Post all your questions about Y here!" etc. until the board is inundated with stickies. For this reason, I think stickies where people ask for help or post repeated questions eventually get ignored and become somewhat useless. When people post their own thread, they're getting their own personalized answers and are not trying to communicate with someone through a swarm of other people's posts. Instead, I think a sticky regarding proper posting procedure would be fine (if you want help regarding making money, post your stats (for example)). The idea of having a fast paced board is also to have less moderation in the end. The last thing I would want to see happen would be a bunch of locks just because a question was answered some time ago. Communities I've participated in have it quite the opposite - some questions get answered over and over again (and some people do link them to other threads about the same subject). It may be a bit annoying at first but using the money making question as an example, the answer varies per person. We could compile a sticky with answers to common questions, sure, but that would require quite a bit of effort. Keeping it up to date would also be a problem, which is why a precise money making guide has never been published: money making methods in RuneScape are constantly changing. In the end, I'd like to see the mindset of the help board user change. RuneScape is changing frequently enough that people wishing to be helpful will never be bored. And people wishing to get an answer to their question will receive one promptly, almost like a chat room. If such a (re)merge were to take place, I (again) would like to see little moderation take place. If you want an answer, you'll have to post in the proper manner or else you'll be stuck without any information. Your post won't get locked - worse, it will go to page two and no one will ever see it again. :)

http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/chara ... irtybishop That's pretty insane.

I agree with dark regarding the best way to organize things - I've seen that done before and think it may help. I think the main problem I have with the Help forum is its use of subforums. My views on forum organization have changed a lot over the past four years due to my participation in other community forums. I have to say that the ones I liked the most (and the ones that seemed to be the most popular) were the forums that had fewer subcategories/subforums. I'm all for organization but I think people get way too involved in it at times--especially in their desire to weed out the posts they don't like and only leave what they do like to read (if that makes sense). Many people suggest making a subforum for this, a new board for that.. when the goal isn't really to make things more organized but to put the threads that particular user finds interesting in a separate place. What I would like to see be done with the forums overall is the actual removal of some of the subforums. This is crazy, you say! Not really. In my experiences, extremely active communities actually have less boards than we have here--and the quality of the threads seem to be a bit better than ours as well. Some of you probably know that I have posted this on previous suggestion threads but I feel it needs mentioning again once and awhile. The fewer the boards, the better in my opinion. Instead of having three boards serving one general topic, that board is left by itself with threads constantly moving and changing positions on the first (and second, third) pages. It is up to the user(s) to keep the threads alive; in the end, the most popular and the most interesting threads are on page one while the stupid/noob threads are on the later pages, constantly being pushed back. Going back to the original point of this suggestion, I think the help board's current state is confusing. I think subforums are confusing and/or unnecessary. Combine the help board once more and make it more fast paced. Not only will the author's question be answered faster but it will allow for more "loose" moderation, as people don't post stupid responses saying that "this thread belongs in board X." That's another downfall of splitting up boards - the constant posts by wannabe-moderators stating that a thread is in the wrong place. Pet peeve of mine. :) Very well thought out post, Devoted. Good read.

I just noticed an armory upgrade - it now shows where your armor/weapons come from.. and if it is an instance, how often it drops. How neat!

I think the biggest mistake people make when deciding to go play WoW is that you will be grinding endlessly like in RuneScape, with very little to no reward besides levels. This isn't the case in WoW - you quest to gain levels; not grind. Mind you, some of the quests do involve killing X amount of mobs - but it is worth it. You get a great amount of XP for completing the quest, some armor/weapons, money, and reputation. If you walk into WoW thinking you should just kill things over and over and never quest, you're missing out on the game - should have just stuck to RuneScape. I think Wow's solo content is amazing - I can go 1-70 without ever getting into a group 99.9% of the time. Unlike CoH which requires you to group for nearly everything after a certain point. I would join one of the more popular realms that say HIGH or FULL on population - such as Blackrock, the one I am currently playing on. People have the tendency to roll on new realms that have just been released but history has shown that those realms tend to die quickly - the ones that 'survive' are the ones that were first released.

Nice, biox. Are you a raider or just heroics/Kara? I'm working on my mage.. looking to work on it more during endgame than any other character. Hopefully get an epic flying and all that. How cool are those netherdrakes!

Fire until 50 then frost, IMO. Water elemental helps tons with the group quests in Outlands and finishing up Azeroth. There's no beating fire 1-50 though. I just did it the past month and I have to say, it was very fast. And speaking of soloing elites... I soloed Tethis, bagthera, Bangalash, the giant for the captain's chest, the elite 40 demon for The Corrupter series in Desolace, etc. etc. I actually found that it was easier to solo elites with just pure up-front damage rather than kiting with frost - but I see how frost can be useful later on for elites that have more health in Outland.

@Nad: Mage. No healers! I love alts and have leveled many to a respectable level and I have to say... I always have high hopes for healing classes, but I always end up shelving them. I'd go with the Mage for being wanted in groups for good CC/dps (I always see LFM mage sl/etc.).

How are they terrible? :? Usually I get a group of people that I know (I dont go on general and say LFG or LFM). Sometimes a higher level guild member will help out and it's fun. What are the lower instances for horde? MY horde (BB undead) character is only 11 (alliance is 22 :^o Dont shoot Nadril). Also, do SW and IF and places like that Undercity as well ever get ganked? The instances are fairly similar with the exception that SFK may get run more often - and BFD too, I think. Ragefire Chasm (RFC) is level 14-18 or so but I never bother with that one. Then there's Wailing Caverns, the equivalent to the Deadmines for Horde - both sides can run either one, btw. UC gets raided but never to Sylvanas - I've only heard of one killing of her ever? Because Varimathras, another boss, is not five feet away. It's probably pretty hard to manage both at one time. But then again, there's one next to Thrall too, isn't there?

I dumped my 60 BE pally and am now working on a BE mage (56!). I totally agree about the low level pugs being terrible. Was in a Sunken Temple group yesterday with a well-geared warrior (4.5k HP, two blue BoE axes, etc.) but it was obvious he was ebayed. He had no clue how to do anything, didn't know what "DPS" was, needed on a cloak with +12 spirit... it was terrible. Is anyone else irritated when people go AFK without saying anything? I've become friends with someone on my server and we're usually always in a group so it is easier to talk. However, he constantly goes AFK when we are questing together (I fly all the way to SG for example (not a small feat for Horde)). I guess that isn't so bad except I'm spending my time helping him with stuff yet he doesn't have the courtesy to let me know he's gone for ten minutes. :P It's worse with groups, however - the last few groups I was in, people were making food, talking on the phone, doing everything BUT completing the instance properly. You know... waste time when you aren't wasting other people's. The instance should only take one hour - set aside that amount of time, stop doing other crap and making other people's gameplay miserable. I've had more problems with people disappearing than actual bad players.

The sound those hidden spiders make in BEM is terrible. I turn my sound off the entire time I'm in that area. They aren't exactly nice looking either.

Refresh ... Refresh ... *hops on flight path* Refresh ...

All set and done. The rules do not necessarily reflect moderator policy but rather what to do/not do, so I didn't update them. The moderator team, however, is aware of the new changes in procedure. :D Thanks for the suggestion, Viktor.

A new MMO would be nice but I'd also like them to perfect WoW a bit more, if possible. I still think it has a large future ahead of it - and there are still lots of zones to add in Azeroth. :P Starcraft 2 RTS would be my first choice/guess.

I'll talk to the other staff real quick and adjust the rules as appropriate. =]

Technically, threads are not supposed to be locked if they are bumped with a good reason - if they are bumped just for spam, then they are locked. I think a good idea/replacement would be to just split the reply that was spam and let the thread go back down to where it was. That way, nothing is ever locked. Good idea??

I think it is time for this discussion to be put to rest. no_username, you simply do not understand the biggest point I was trying to make - we can't spare the staff to monitor "your" board 24/7 and ensure that your precise wants/needs are met. There is simply no way I will allow such a board to be created where moderators are to remove ANY sign of being off-topic or comitting some offense. We are stretched thin as it is; the ideas you are discussing would require an entire staff of 20-25 to monitor. I love the idea of a serious forum (and think we have one in the making with the Debate Forum) but creating an oppressive, highly-moderated board is not the answer! As a user, I would not want to participate in this ideal board you have created - a forum is supposed to be fun, not a place where you can pick and choose people with whom you come into contact. And yes, Errdoth, I am back. :) Thank you for the post. no_username, you say you wouldn't mind such "off-topic" replies in the General forum... but go on to say that there is no place where it should be allowed? Another reason this thread should not continue: perhaps you should gather your thoughts first before posting such vehement responses to people who are providing critical analysis to your ideas. no_username, you need to seriously rethink what it is you are asking for here. Creating an elitist board where only certain people can respond is silly; that's not the idea of a community. Even though this thread is locked, I will pursue ideas with the other staff about how to improve discussion over the boards - whether or not that means adding or merging boards, I don't know. But I am almost certain that it will entail removing/loosening rules rather than enforcing more stringent ones.

no_username, I think your thoughts on this board are a bit too idealistic. I understand your reasoning and your desires for such a board but I just don't see it happening. One of the things I would like to see as a Tip.it staff member is the loosening up of certain forum rules, so things are less restrictive. Your ideal board sounds very oppressive, limiting people so they can't even agree "in a row" with other people unless they do so in a very specific manner. And there is still the fact that Tip.it staff have to moderate the board. You say that imposing very strict rules would limit the amount of stupidity - but again, the moderators here have to clean that stuff up. Adding more rules to a forum would only make their job harder in the end, as there is more cleaning up to do and more thinking involved when looking at that board. Who decides what the definition of "intense idiocy" is anyways? To build on what I mentioned just a few lines above, I would like to see quite a few Tip.it rules be removed so the posting environment feels less strict and more enjoyable. While there will always be goofballs on the forums, it is easier for people in a more relaxed environment to create and participate in serious threads rather than forcing rules down their throat. Many people, like the author of this post, have a problem with the extremes on internet communities: intelligent, mature posts versus less thought out, more "post as much as possible" replies. Thinking this way isn't necessarily a bad thing but I don't think the answer is to create a secluded board where people are banned for forgetting to dot their "i's" and cross their "t's." Instead of adding all sorts of new boards, each with separate rules and regulations, I would like to see some of the forums we have currently merged together, so there is less ambiguity. A lot of the popular forums that center around gaming have specialized boards but also general discussion areas where threads move quite fast. Instead of staff members monitoring and locking down all "stupid" threads, the users decide what threads to keep alive through bumps and replies. That would be my ideal forum, to be honest - less moderation, stronger "flow" of topics, and in the end, more mature discussion.

You don't need to be a potty mouth to express your opinions (negative or positive) about an online game. You should have enough advice to go on from the above responses... if not, you may repost your question without the inappropriate language. Thanks.

Moved... as this is more of a question.

I appreciate these types of suggestions from an organizational standpoint but I don't think it would work, hellbellz. The reason being is that previous experiences have proven that touching an active board and splitting it up into separate ones for the sole purpose of organization, causes both boards to eventually die. Unless the board absolutely needs it, it shouldn't be touched, IMO. In the case of Off-topic, I don't think real life troubles dominate the board right now. Take away the 6-7 locks currently on the front page from a spammer and you'll see that the board's topics cover just about two days. Unless threads are getting pushed off onto page two on the same day they are posted, I would try to avoid recommending an active board such as OT being split up. :)