First Aggro + 15

[Dumesh Uhl'Belk]

The next 3 posts outline the reasoning behind my 3 suggestions to the dev team and an explanation of how they address the main goals of this raid rule. I think it would be useful now to explain what I interpreted those goals to be before continuing.

Goals for the Raid Rule
1. Ensure that raid mobs can span in any time zone
2. Limit the need for developer involvement "babysitting"
3. Promote competition based on skill related to game-play
4. Be compatible with the entrance of new players on the raiding scene
5. Be compatible with the addition of new raid targets to the game

Spawn Variance

The original reason for spawn variance was to make sure that a mob does not exclusively appear in the prime time of one time zone. It is intended to help distribute the mobs around the clock so that all time zones have a chance at getting the mob during their prime time. I think that this is the best usage of the spawn variance. However, the spawn variance that we are using is way too big. We tried to use it to make camping the mobs more difficult. However, as we can all see, this did not work... at all. So now, we have mob spawns that, combined with the raid rules agreed upon by the majority of the raiding guilds encourage 4 day rotating afk camps of the raid mobs. Camping is better discouraged by other means. So, that is why I propose eliminating the spawn variance and simply adding a flat 6 hours to the spawn time of raid bosses. This accomplished several things.

1. It guarantees that the mobs will progress around the clock within a few spawns giving the euros, aussies, and usa players all equal shots at the mobs during their own prime time.

2. It enhances the value of intelligence (knowledge of the mobs last time of death). Knowing the time of death is more important for not missing the next spawn with your tracker or raid force.

3. It keeps the number of raid spawns very close to their actual original spawn rate, which was the original intent for how fast raid level items were supposed to enter the game.

[Dumesh Uhl'Belk]

Mob Aggro Messages

Each raid target mob should have a message that they deliver in /say or /shout when they are aggro'd from the state of having a clear aggro list. It should be something along the lines of Lord Nagafen shouts, "How dare you presume to enter my lair, Dumesh! Ah, but I was getting hungry for some Troll anyway, do come in."

I'll admit this is a non-classic proposal, although I feel that it is in line with the classic philosophy. There are already a multitude of mobs that will /say something or emote something in response to being aggro'd from the state of having a clear aggro list. Death touching mobs will also specifically call out a players name. I imagine (hope) it would not be too difficult to add or modify these existing behaviors to have the /say incorporate the name of the player pulling aggro. It is certainly some work for the devs, but once the method is perfected, I believe that it wouldn't take very long to add it to each raid mob as Sky, Kunark, and Velious are added. I'm also sure the devs would have all the help they could want from the community for coming up with witty or clever lines for each mob as well.

This suggestion is directly related to goal #2. The devs won't have to spend much time sifting through logs, nor will the players have any ambiguity about who got aggro first.