In defense of AVR
I was crushed yesterday (150% damage!) when I saw the first of forty people to tweet a link to the announcement by Blizz that they were intentionally breaking the AVR mod in the next patch. That sucks.
I was an early and fervent convert to the Church of AVR, and perhaps one of their more vocal evangelists. I forced every raider in my guild to pick it up and quickly spread the contagion to the entirety of the guild, hooking all of them in AVR’s warm, understanding embrace.
That said, I completely understand why they’re breaking the addon. I always felt a bit dirty about using it on fights like Rotface, because it was ultimately a step too far. You didn’t have to think or strategize about stacking on one leg and then shifting to another, you’d just step out of the circle.
Hell, just about every fight in Icecrown Citadel has some major element of “don’t stand in this,” and when there’s an addon that rapidly converts all of those moments into an easy-to-process red circle under your feet, it removes a lot of the challenge of the encounter.
That’s nothing to speak of the fact that the “challenge” of an encounter can be so easily boiled down by a red circle. Perhaps, Blizzard, it’s time for some more innovative encounter designs beyond “stand here… and now… here.”
In the end the only thing I’m truly going to miss about AVR was the ability to mark things on the floor to direct my raiders. I could care less about the encounter-cheesing red circles, it was the god-like powers the mod afforded me to share information directly to the interfaces of others in the run that was amazing. We were able to rapidly learn Sindragosa thanks to being able to have persistent marks on the floor for folks to stand on during air phases.
We could have done the same thing with smoke flares and post-it notes on everyones’ monitors, but AVR streamlined that significantly. It’s going to be a pain to do the fight without my precious marks. But not impossible, of course.
Blizzard already designs encounters with an assumption that people are using Deadly Bossmods, or DXE, or any similar addon. They probably were daunted at the concept of having to design encounters in the future with the assumption that everyone was going to have such spatial concepts instantly presented to them, and found it an easier course of action just to break the mod than have to live in a brave new world where the old saw of standing in stuff wasn’t as potent as it used to be.
At the very least, in the future they should consider giving raid leaders some more control over the screens of their raiders with something similar to the toolset of AVR (be it marking spots on the ground, or drawing arrows and lines). Raid icons, flares, and pings can only go so far.
I feel like, now that AVR is soon to be snatched away from me, I’ve peeked through a crack in the doors to Eden and seen what could be. Blizzard is now slamming them shut, forever keeping those possibilities out of reach. It’s a shame.
Armory Feed
It is somewhat sad that they are going to totally break it. I am hoping that they talk a little more about what they are breaking. Someone made the comment that their fix will be to break determining peoples location with a mod, which in theory may still allow people to draw on out things, though a lot of it appears to be speculation. My guild is currently working on LK, and being able to draw out positioning is quite the handy thing. I guess the only way we’ll find out now is after the release it to see what functionality is gone if anything at all.
So hopefully it’s see ya AVR-E and yaay for my lovely AVR? /hopes
I completely agree with this sentiment. I just recently posted on my blog basically saying the same thing – I honestly think that AVR Encounters ruined the fun and usefulness that was the normal AVR mod. It mutated a fun, notepad replacing, and intuitive idea into an intrusive “cheat” (as blizzard seems to think due to the fact that this is one of like what, 3 times? 5? that they have ever targeted and broke a specific mod).
jolteon234′s last blog ..AVR down, need aid
@HanaMoonfire
21 May 2010 at 1:37 pm #
I haven’t used AVR, but I agree with you on how helpful it is for a raid leader to be able to doodle where people should stand for a particualr encounter. It’s what we currently do with marking people to follow, or with diagrams we post on our guild forums. It’s just being able to do it in game is be easier.
Perhaps the best thing would be if they allowed the functionality to stay in and then “broke” the mod during combat so it wouldn’t be a question of stepping out of the red circle. The visual aids disappear during the fight itself, but everyone knows where to stand from when the aids were available.
Hana’s last blog ..Abandoned By LFD
@Rhidach
21 May 2010 at 1:49 pm #
Agreed! That’d be the easiest and least painful correction. Rather than inviting a whole host of unintended consequences, they could just nip the bud of the problem–having these tools active during a boss fight.
Some of these tools I could see being allowed, if not in combat or only on a special view port (eh, the minimap)
@Orthien
21 May 2010 at 5:36 pm #
I agree while I completly get why they are breaking it, it was a really handy addon for teaching people where to move.
I never made the guild get it because outside of Sind I think they can learn the rest easy enough but it will still be missed.
Also just to tack it on I joined the bandwagon from you Rhid not MMO, way to lead the way.
I’m just guessing, but I’d say the big problem they have with AVR is the AoE effects as seen in most of the Encounters. A “Telestrator” capability that is usable in or out of combat seems like much less of a problem than automatic red circles on Rotface that trivialize a major part of the fight.
@iamapaladin
22 May 2010 at 3:44 pm #
My raid only uses this on Sindragosa and Blood Queen but I think this will only hurt us for Sindragosa.
I can respect why Blizzard decided to break this add on. Makes me wonder if they can maybe introduce more permanent flares?
I disagree. My officers and I collectively refused to download this mod after reading the descriptions and reviews.
I can’t imagine a more severely disruptive game element that having multicolored circles and dots appearing. It is way over the top – completely tinkering with the environment that Blizzard painstakingly created.
I can understand why someone would like it. It’s a crutch, though. The game is better off without it.