The Shard of Hate will go live with Game Update #44.

I loved the Shard of Fear, so I was really looking forward to this one until I found out that it was a raid zone.

BAH.

Sure, I raid. Our guild likes to raid several times a week, and I often go along with the folks in the Crushbone Raiding Alliance as well.

But I far prefer the single group game, and was hoping that Hate would be like Shard of Fear or the Estate of Unrest, which really set the bar for single group zones for me. It is really fun to grab a few friends and run those zones, Crypt of Agony or Vault of Eternal Sleep on the spur of the moment.

Raiding is different. You have to set your graphics to GUMBY mode or risk a frozen screen just when that crucial cure needs to be cast. You are most often in a giant dogpile of "All healers and ranged here" where all you can see is the insides of the Troll Conjurer in your raid party for 20 minutes.

The raid game for 95% of us consists of watching the health and mana bars and nothing else; honestly, raiding is like playing a MUD. I don't even know what many of the tougher raid zones LOOK like, never mind how the bosses themselves appear. Step out of your dog-pile to take a peek at some fancy dragon and you'll be responsible for wiping your raid party. Sure, you can always blame a Ranger, but it still means a lot of tedious rebuffing and trudging back to the same mob with cracks in your armor.

I need another raid zone like a hole in my head; I have plenty to die in already. Come on guys, the raiders already hate you. The rest of us kinda like your work.



The Devs must have been sitting around one day, all hepped up on coffee and Mountain Dew, saying,
"HEY, we haven't been beaten down by the raiders for a few weeks now, maybe we should set up a new RAID ZONE!"
"Great! Ok, I'll take bets on how long it takes them to flame us about it."
"$20 on 'crap loot' in the first post when it goes live!"
"$50 on 'teh lamest zone ever' in that post."
"Hah, $100 on SOE @$*%#'s us over again."

Of course, half of those posts will be made by people who don't even play the game any more, hehe.

Does Shard of Hate look cool? Oh heck yes. Been there, died that getting some screenshots for you.

OSHA must be really getting powerful in MMOGs now: in spite of the lack of safety rails, I discovered that you CANNOT jump into the water, so I cannot comment on its bouquet or taste.



Here is an official video for Shard of Hate that has been linked all over. Enjoy it in case you're not in a high end raiding guild, because the mobs start at level 80 x4 and just get uglier.

;-)#
Brasse