One unpublished change to the user interface was to the quest log window.  Instead of a single window split in half, the quest log now shows the list of quests on the left, and the quest text on the right, reducing the need for scrolling.  There is also a button to track quests, eliminating the need to shift-click the quest title.  This should make it easier for one-handed gamers and mobility-impaired gamers to track their quests.

The Argent Tournament

The Argent Tournament has expanded in the new patch.  The coliseum has been finished, which eliminates the goblin quests at the tournament grounds, but there are new daily quests for players who have attained the rank of crusader, and those who are exalted with the Silver Covenant (Alliance) or Sunreavers (Horde).  There is also an extension of the Black Knight quest chain.  None of the new quests requires jousting, so physically challenged gamers who found jousting difficult, can justify ignoring the champion jousting quests.

The new instances

Trial of the Champion is a new five-player instance.  All the events occur within the coliseum, so gamers with cognitive impairments do not have to worry about getting lost.

The first event starts with jousting against three champions from your opposing faction.  This may present a challenge for the mobility-impaired gamer, but having four other players makes it easier.  If a player is dismounted, he can remount in combat.  One trick is to maneuver to a new mount and right-click on it before your health gets too low.  This will jump you to the new mount and give you an entire health bar to work with.

In addition, once all the faction champions have been defeated in the jousting portion, they will not remount.  The next two events are typical boss encounters from a gaming mechanics standpoint.

The new raid instance is called the Trial of the Crusade.  It features 10 and 25 player normal and heroic modes.  At press time, only four of the five events have been released in normal mode.  Currently, players must complete normal mode before entering heroic mode.  Even though the incidence is not fully complete, it does add excitement and fresh content, which can be completed for incredible items.  Again, all of the events take place in the coliseum, so it impossible to get lost.

The first two events in the raid are straightforward.  One involves killing a series of Northrend beasts, and the next involves killing an Eredar demon who summons adds.  Note that I said straightforward, not easy.

These events all involve a bit of coordination and involve precise movements that must be coordinated.  The third event involves a massive player vs. player battle with champions of the opposing faction.  Players with reaction time or visual impairments will likely find this battle a challenge.

I haven't had a chance to see the fourth event yet, but I spent a couple of minutes chatting with a player who had defeated it on 10-man, and he said that it is pretty straightforward and just involves clicking a light or dark portal, and absorbing or avoiding light or dark orbs.

Overall, Call of the Crusade is a very rich content patch that includes improvements for disabled gamers.  Blizzard continues to succeed in bring out content to challenge elite players while keeping the game mostly accessible to all.

Comments (2)

Boomy

September 05, 2009

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Well put Carol. Keep up the good work

Mike Bourgeois

September 05, 2009

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I've been very lucky to be in one of the top end game guilds on my server (sisters of Elune, the guild is Forthright) and have seen all the new content up to and including 25 man heroic beasts. Beasts was easy, as well as Lord Jaxx. Your assessment of the factions fight was accurate, it is difficult for mobility impaired players, but by targeting off of a raid mate, the difficulty is significantly lowered and it just becomes an avoidance dance, and a pretty easy one a that. The Twin encounter is easy peasy, just have to keep an eye out for what color you have to be and avoid bubbles of the opposite colors.
When we got to Anub'arak though, things got very difficult, not just for me though. a bit of prep should be done before the encounter begins. (When we did this there were no guides other than what was seen in the PTR, and the little info that was available was wrong, but you find these things out when your not only going for server first, but world first. We ended up with world 6th!) First, make sure EVERYONE is repaired and supplied, especially if you have no engineer with a repair bot. Once your in the encounter, the only way to repair/supply is by hearthing out, and that wastes huge amount of time. After that though, it's an add management/position fight. There are frozen orbs floating around that have to be shot down and then the raid stands on these. 1 tank holds the boss, the other the adds. When the boss tunnels, everyone must get on the frozen ground to avoid damage from spikes the boss is throwing out and while this is happening the dps is taking out the adds. the boss comes back, and rinse and repeat until the boss is at 30% health. Then the only diff is the boss doesn't burrow any more and it becomes a dps race to the end. There are a few more details, but that's the jist of it.
The heroic version though is insane and it looks like we're going to be farming regular for a couple of weeks before we're geared enough to finish it. The first encounter is pretty much the same except:
1. the beast hit A LOT HARDER! 150% of weapon damage to be exact.
2. Damage done by snobolds increases by 15% every time a new snoblod is tossed, so they have to be killed asap.
3. each beast enters on a timer now instead of on the defeat of the previous. What this means is if Gormok and some snobolds are still up after 3 minutes , the worms come in regardless, and same with Icehowl. OW!
4. The worms have to die now within 12 seconds of each other, or they revive and repair.
5. Icehowl doesn't give a speed buff anymore, so you have to be extra vigilant when he charges.
6. The adds Jaxx summons have to be killed asap AS WELL AS THEIR SUMMONING PORTALS!
7. Incinerate flesh has to be healed fast, or it turns into a raid wiping fire.

All in all though, the new encounters are fun, challenging and most important, doable by mobility impaired persons like me! The main issue I had was targeting, and I solved that by first assisting other raid members and then once I knew what each encounter had, making simple targeting macros, such as:
/target mistress of pain
With simple target macros, I've become a "if you can't find _ target, assist Quad" player
I know it's a long reply, but gosh darn it, I love this game!
Quadilious

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