The Raid Observer: Week 2, Day 2 Update and A Special Interview!


Today's update is a bit different, as I've decided my fingers are tired from so much typing and I thought you might like to listen to me giving an update. And guess what? I've also got two very special guests who agreed to be interviewed!

 


 

Heroics Continue!

So I thought I'd do today's update in audio format, but as listening to me for 20 minutes might put you all into a comatose state, I asked two members of Paragon along to check in about how things are going, what they think about the recent LFR-related events, and how they feel the race is unfolding at this very early stage. So a special thanks to Synti and xenophics who bravely agreed to talk to me! We explore the 10-man and 25-man races, the fact that the ship is not such a "loot ship" after all, and what they feel about the whole "exploit" issue.

 

Before I get to that, however, please do go and vote in my latest poll on my research blog, where I'm asking you to weigh in on the LFR exploit ban, http://www.raidingresearch.co.uk.

 

Anyway, enjoy the interview! If you like this, I'll see if I can corner more members of Paragon and other guilds for you. :)

 

InterviewParagonSyntixenophicsDec8 by ladanc


Comments

Very nice interview. I like the openness of the Paragon members and it is good to hear that the mood within the guild appears to be relaxed and calm. Finnish monks ;)

Indeed a good interview from both parts. Always good to know they can still laugh a bit from time to time. :)

Pretty nice interview overall.

1 Thing I'm abite "confused" by is where Synti & Xenophics go on about being on par with gear with the other 10 man guilds. I've seen the members in your 10 man and you got atleast 5 legendaries in that run and some very important mains still (especially healers).

I know you don't really care about 10man and 25man is where it's at, but with the current people you are doing 10man you are way ahead gearwise then the other strict 10man guilds.

Nice interview :).

Blood Legion deserves the WF if they get it but without barely any competition I can't take this WF race really serious.

I hope you guys can get back in the race after the ban and make it a little exciting to follow. And let's hope we can get fair races in the future.

Legendary doesn't make for lost haste breakpoints etc. After the patch it's not good enough to alone make character good gear wise. Also healer gear has rarely been a limiting factor.

And are we really way a head with other "strict 10man guilds" i know few semi serious 10man guilds that already got 4 legendaries with just doing 10mans. So really, thats kinda weak argument, which is more based on your own belief then actual facts

Glad to see the interview was well received. I'll do more! I've got my eye on some others to corner and interrogate. Wait, did I write that? Was supposed to be interview.

I have to say I do think this interview style actually worked quite well. I think it would be quite good to actually do this more often.

I think it was good to show the 'remorse' of Paragon in their voices. I hope that those who didn't believe Paragon really were sorry can trust that they genuinely are. That's just a burden of being on the top though, when Paragon does something everyone reacts so badly, however if another guild did the exact same thing the reaction wouldn't be half as bad.

Keep up the good work Ladan, and I'd be interested to see if more interviews come about soon.

Good Interview,
Kyy I'm pretty sure your wrong with your calculations on the legendarys, we're about 5 weeks off our 2nd admittedly we were not clearing all the HC's as fast as the top guilds and we did have a 2 week break mid tier for summer holidays, but in a single 10 man team without recruiting people with the legendary or alt raiding I'm pretty confident it's impossible to have 4 or 5 of them by now.

PS, best of luck next week we're all watching this race with the hope that the EU still gets the first clear =D

Why would a _SERIOUS_ 10man guild do just one clear a week? When 25mans do 4-5? Whats the logic in that? If you are serious 10man you have alts, just like 25man guild and you do more then 1 clear, just like 25man guilds.

Nice interview Ladan! Very well done!

Just listening to what you said regarding the amount of 10 mans that killed one boss and then failed to progress to a second compared to the % of 25 man guilds that killed Morchok and then did progress onto a 2nd boss.

Id like to give you an example of whats happened this week in our guild. We are a 25 man 3 day guild and we spent all of this wednesday attempting Morchok (31 attempts). We failed to kill it due to the normal process of learning, bugs (Resonating Crystals disappear) and some fail. On thursday night our 10 man alt group went in to DS and two shotted it. Since our 10 man alt team is only 1-2 nights a week we didnt bother attempting a second boss since we wish to clear. Hopefully our mains will catch up with the alts on the next 25 raid.

Reason I posted this is because I sincerely believe that 10 man is undertuned in comparsion to 25 but also that the reason the 10 man kills are inflated is because it is so easy (Morchok) and that many 25 man guilds might have killed Morchok on alts like us.

A good point Khayal. We are also very interested in seeing the 25-10 balance ourselves, and on Wednesday we will.

From the gut feeling we have, the balance still isn't near perfect (that's no surprise to anyone), but there are some improvements from Firelands. But time will tell.

My latest news article has a very sexy graph showing a comparison of kills, which could suggest something about 10 and 25 guilds.

Unfortunately it will always, be a bigger deal because the bleeding edge does things. I recently switched to WoW in early May from Everquest and had raided bleeding edge content for roughly 10 years, much like you do here at Paragon. The same exploitation to get that edge on your competition goes on in that game as well. If a lower end guild were to do it, you're absolutely right the magnitude of the crime likely would not have been quite as huge. However, because the guilds who are in the spotlight happen to do something that may be construed as an exploit, it blows up into an astronomical matter compared to a lower end guild doing something like this.

While I do not condone exploitation, in any form, I've always been one to win without the exploitation, I can definitely see and can't blame you for feeling the heat of your competition taking that advantage to gain a leg up, and I personally readily can't say if I would go against your decision to do so. There is definitely a double standard though in gaming. Those who are in the spot light will always be scrutinized far beyond the usual gamers personal comprehension.

Anyway, I do wish you all well, and I can say the viewpoint and the ability to willing own up to what has happened is very admirable by yourselves and your guild members. It sets a great example for the player base to be willing to take your punishment and to do so humbly.