During Beta:

Frost Presence is +60% armor, -5% magic damage taken.

WoW 3.0.8:

Frost Presence is +80% armor, -15% magic damage taken

WoW 3.1.0:

Frost Presence is +80% armor, -5% overall damage taken

WoW 3.1.3:

Frost Presence is +60% armor, -5% overall damage taken

Conclusion:

The change from -5% magic damage to overall damage was sufficient from beta to now. The major reason for the original changes came from a few other things:

- Launch DK needed a lot more defense to be uncrittable. In the intervening time, DK gained Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle and Sigil of the Unfaltering Knight, and no longer need massive defense socketing. This allows them to skew itemization towards massive stamina pools, which get multiplied significantly.

- Launch DK needed either the 20% bonus armor or the 5% damage mitigation. In addition, Blade Barrier changed from 10% parry to 5% all damage reduced. This combines to effectively form 'defensive stance' for DKs (like the other tanks have), but they also had the extra bonus armor that provides more armor than any shield.

--Rawr

He is very good at talking, and explains online gaming to normal people. Not gamers, normal people.

So I got into another discussion today, regarding raiding and not raiding, and comparative MMOG progression. It makes seriously me wonder.

I've heard from many players that the leveling up portion of MMORPGs is not the real game. That the end-game stuff you do (typically large raids or pvp) is the "real" game, and that the time spent leveling from 1 to 50, 60, 75, 99 or whatever is maximum is actually not the "real" game. It is only training for the real game.

This brought me to an interesting idea... what if they are correct?

And if they are... what kind of game would that be like? One game immediately springs to mind. Guild Wars has that option... completely skip the leveling up and go straight into PvP. But what about the other side? A game entirely based on PvE raids. Large groups of players and large monstrous encounters. You'd need to assemble a large force to take on the monsters, and it would require intricate timing and knowledge of your characters' abilities to win.

Would this be financially feasible? I'd say that it may not be... mostly for a single reason. One of the deep-seated desires of hard core players in any game (though MMOGs in particular) is recognition. The desire for players to show that they are superior to other players in some way. They need their badges that they can show off to others. They want to feel like whatever it is they did actually meant something, be it grind for thousands of hours or spend weeks upon weeks throwing themselves at content until it is defeated.

So I'd throw a PvP arena in there for them to assert their dominance. Periodically infuse new content into the game, and see how it goes.

I wonder if it would work?

--Rawr

So the latest tidbit of news from Blizzard is that the long-awaited expansion pack that is rumored to fix *everything* that is wrong with World of Warcraft. And believe you me, there's a lot that's wrong with it.

( Oh is there? )

What does it mean if something is accessible?

Dictionary.com lists it as:

ac·ces·si·ble Audio pronunciation of "accessible" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (k-ss-bl)
adj.

1. Easily approached or entered.
2. Easily obtained: accessible money.
3. Easy to talk to or get along with: an accessible manager.
4. Easily swayed or influenced: accessible to flattery.

The big question that many game developers must pose to themselves is one of how accessible the game content is. Let's take the example of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.

( Yes, let's. )

This was originally a forum post of mine, over at the official world of warcraft forums. I've slightly edited it, in order for it to make more sense.

Why doesn't Blizzard make more small group content, and instead keep churning out raid content after raid content?

( Why don't they? )