I posted my thoughts up yesterday on the new call to arms feature that Blizzard have decided to drop on the WoW community, and generally my thoughts on it were positive, but, after having read a number of other views and opinions on it - it is clear that this feeling is not shard across the community, and I can understand why. Some see it as "tank-bribing" - which in a way it is, since tanks are normally the class that is lacking - and DPS will never see this tick for them.
I have an alternative though... The rewards seem to be seen by those that would be bribed as defunct, and a bit crap - and by those that will never benefit as wildly unfair. They already see the tanks getting "insta-proc" runs as benefit enough -which, whilst it will be - is not enough to draw most of them in...
My alternative proposal is this: Extra gear points, 1 run per day when call to arms is active.
This will mean that a lot of tanks will aim to go for that run each day. They may not do any others, but if they were not going to go at all - that is one cluster of dps that get their run. The same goes for healers when they are called - it is basically a bit of extra incentive to push for an extra run each day to make things flow a little smoother. The small and limited bonus will not also result in a mass of instant career-changes, bringing in an influx of tanks or healers that have never tanked or healed before - just because they want to be the one to see all the benefits.
Naturally the downfall of this is that highly geared tanks are still not given any additional incentive to go on these runs because a) they are not running with anyone they know, and b) they don't see any tangible reward, save being able to get heirloom gear - if they are not already maxxed out. The additional items that are up for rewards just now could instead be put on a vendor and bought with the additional points... Then everyone has access - should they chose to spend their rewards on them.
Ok, its not a perfect system, but this is all about compromise. Give the called role a little incentive to get the queue times a little lower for the others, whilst not detracting from the gameplay of the others, and denying them the things the called roles can get - the called roles can just get things a little bit quicker - which in the way of things, is not a bad thing as it solidifies them in their role by increasing their potential effectiveness. (Watch the wording on that one ;) - gear doesn't make the player - but it helps!)
To be fair - the biggest + I see with the call to arms, is that it actually informs the players of who is needed most - this in itself is information being handed out to those in the appropriate role, whom will clearly see that they can get an instant run, and may feel like they can do a service to other players. It may not have a huge effect, but it WILL have an effect. I know that at least I would go on a few more runs when playing if this information was provided easily and visibly, and on occasion would be inclined to go on an extra run just for the fun of it and to help out some anonymous players (charity work? :p ) - anyway, the point is every little helps. Making it clear that certain roles need filled at any point in time will itself encourage a number of extra runs. How many? couldn't say. Statistically however, it will - and is a good thing to have.
Just my 2c :)
-V
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