Tales from the Wastelands

Stats for a Warrior, Part 1

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:12:00 -0600

Today I’m going shift gears a little and instead of talking about what’s going on in the game, discuss stats for Warriors, Druids, and Paladins. I might even go farther and do a writeup of some of the other classes, but let’s not get ahead of myself.
We will discuss warriors first, specifically prot first. Prot warriors are the classic, posterboy of the tanking world. Running off of one of the most unique and asshat backwards resource system in the game, warriors were standing up to bosses since before pallies even thought of picking up a shield and imitating the rage monkey model.
More after the break. :)

Prot warriors require the following stats:

540 defense
Lots and lots of stam!!! MORE STAMM!!! MOAR!!RAWR!

If you wear the appropriate gear, you will have minimum 15% block, dodge, and parry.So lets break this down even farther.

Block rating and Block value: both of these stats are interesting to play with, but largely useless in raids, although awesome-sauce in 5 mans.
Block rating increases chance to block. More chances to block means less dmg taken. Very useful for some gimmicky fights, useless on any fight with magic dmg.
Block value (sbv) is the amount you block before you take dmg. As I said for block rating, it’s mostly useless in raids, but 5mans is where it shines. SBV also gives threat to our main threat move, and determines how hard it hits ( shield slam). SBV is attained via rating on gear and via str. There is a “cap” to SBV and how it effects shield slam. Diminishing Returns begins at 2400 BV, full cap at 2760. This will only effect Shield Slam’s damage, not the amount blocked or anything else: just shield slam.

If your not understanding why it’s useless, picture this. Patchwork hits you for 20k (making this up of course). You block, and the stars align and you block 7k (more detail later on this). Well that sounds great, right? Wrong, for the same amount of itemization points, you could have ~100 more stam, or 1100 hp before buffs. It’s not worth stacking it yet* b/c it will never be enough.

Now in 5 mans, it’s amazing. I have a set of block gear that is out of date (really need to work on that…), bit amazing fun to use. With over 40% block rating, if I don’t block it, I avoid it entirely, and that’s before I use shield block. Also, due to the high amt of sbv and str, I take almost 0 dmg from melée mobs. This type of gear setup is useful for gimmick fights such as tanking anuberack adds in togc.

Other stats:
Stamina: sell your Mum for more of this, it’s that good!
Strength: 1str=2 ap (attack power) also gives block value (Strength / 2, rounding down)
Agility: gives crit, armor, dodge but extremely small amounts of each. Don’t gem for it or gear for it, chant for it as an absolute last option.
Intellect: me a warriah!!! Me no need smarty stat. All joking aside, this is a useless stat. Avoid like the plague.
Spirit: please see intellect joke - it’s essentially the same thing: useless.
Attack power: not a useless stat, but not something we should have on our gear. We get our ap via str.

Defense: a naked lvl 80 has 400 defense. You need 540 to be uncrittable at lvl 80. Referred to as the def cap, it’s not a cap. Now repeat after me: ITS NOT A CAP! Defense rating is still useful past the “cap” b/c it adds avoidance. Still, don’t stack it like a squirrel stacks acorns for the winter, get what you need, move on. If you get more than 540, cool. Never drop below.
Resilience: Yes it reduces chance to be crit, but its the poor man’s crit reduction. If you can, avoid it. Use it only as a last resort. Like, use a blue before you use an epic. The very most, use a PVP shield, but even then…. there are better options out there.
Armor: While in small amounts, its not that great, but when piled together, it is an amazing stat, especially against a boss that does only physical damage. If you have a chance to get gear with bonus armor, get it. You might not want to use it on every fight, but there are some fights where it shines.
Parry: first, and more useless, of 2 avoidance stats*. Parry parries the attack, avoiding dmg entirely, but is useless b/c of the Amt of rating required to = 1%. It’s on your gear, you spec for it, don’t chase after it.
Dodge: the other avoidance stat. More useful than parry, but barely.
(*= Cataclysm will make parry more useful - please read post about stat changes)

But Bulliwyf, I thought avoidance was good?! Why do you keep saying it’s meh? Here is why avoidance is bad. It’s not reliable: sometimes you get lucky and avoid a bunch of hits, sometimes you never avoid the hits. The other bad part has nothing to do with you, it has to do with the healer attention span. An illustration will do nicely here.

(Take your pick of which happens)
Dodge/parry
Dodge/parry
Dodge/parry
Dodge/parry
Dodge/parry
Dodge/parry
Dodge/parry
Dodge/parry
Dodge/parry
Hit

Let’s assume that this is an avg boss attacking, so a swing speed of around 2 seconds. You just went around 18-20 seconds without taking dmg. Healers attention starts to stray half way through that time, decides to help the raid, tossing out heals on people other than you. You take a hit (remember, the boss hits for over 60% of total hp per hit), healer is in the process of healing you, but it takes 2+ heals to get you back to full.

Hit

You took another hit, and are at 30%. Of course by now, more than one healer is on you, your using your CD’s, but you get the point. Avoidance sucks b/c its unreliable.

Hit Rating: increases chance to hit, you need 8% or 263 rating for melee attacks (white and special attacks) and 17% or 446 rating to make sure your taunts don’t miss. Use a glyph if you are still having issues with taunts, don’t gem for hit unless your hard pressed for threat.
For argument’s sake: You’ll need a total of 446 Spell Hit Rating (17%) to not miss with Taunt. You can knock that down 3% to 367 Hit Rating if you’ve got a Shadow Priest/Moonkin.
Disclaimer: If your in progression raid content, you should already know how much hit you need, and the importance to you. You should also know to use “hit-heavy” tanking gear on threat sensitive fights, and different gear if threat isn’t and issue, but survival is. Don’t gem/chant, or choose gear based on your hit. It’s just not that important.
Expertise: Reduces chance for the mob to dodge or parry you, 26 expertise for dodges, 50 expertise for parry. Is also used as a threat stat for tank, as more attacks will hit (since they are not getting parried or dodged).
I’m not going to lie, this is a confusing stat because of wording, but you want to aim for 6.5% (dodge) or 26 expertise (214 expertise rating). You can always get more, but its not practical.
If you are in ICC, expertise looses alot of value as bosses do not have parry haste turned on. It is still useful, but don’t go crazy over it. Read here for more info about parry-haste and why its something you don’t need to worry about so much anymore.
Haste: Mostly useless, just decreases GCD and swing speed. Its nothing to chase after.
Critical Strike:Useful for threat, not so useful that you go out of your way for it. If you end up with more than 20% crit (buffed), your doing something wrong. Useful for sustaining the bleeds from the deep wounds build.
Armor Penetration:(arpen) Reduces the armor the mob has, very good for threat, but don’t chase after it. Sunders x5 will give around 20% arpen, you wont need any more.

So I’m pretty sure that I hit all the major stats. Obviously spell power is useless, so is mp5 (mana?? That’s the poor man’s rage LOL) and I cant think of any other stats.

Here are your most basic talent builds:

Deep Wounds: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#LA0b0fZhZmItrx0zidIzsGo:d
This spec shines in the threat department, but there are some places that talents can be moved around. I picked up improved revenge, because very soon it will become a valuable talent again, but if you just have no interest in it, then skip it and put it where you want.

Classic Spec: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#LA0oZhxZVItrx0zidIzsGo
This is what I refer to as the classic spec - this is basically the same spec warriors have used since forever. 5 points in Cruelty, not getting anything from arms other than what is NEEDED, points can be moved out of imp heroic strike for anything else you want, and there is still a free point that can also be moved around.

Main Tank Spec: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#LVZGVZVItMg0didIzsGo:drT
This is the MAIN TANK, max survival spec. You have crappy threat, and will need to get the threat boosts from Tricks of the Trade and Misdirect. But for all that threat you lost, you picked up some amazing survival talents that will make your healers love you.

Glyphs:There are many glyphs to choose from, some are threat based, others are for survival, it all depends on what you are looking for. Here is a list at Wowhead. For me, these are my top picks:
Threat: Devastate, Blocking, Cleave
Survival: Blocking, Last Stand, Shield Wall

As you can see, Blocking made both lists. Its an amazing glyph, and hasn’t changed on my warrior since glyphs went live back during 3.0. Increases threat and damage reduction from blocking value. One word for it: awesome-sauce.
Devastate is awesome, faster stacks of sunder = more threat.
Cleave hitting another target - yes please. If I have more than one target, cleave is going to be my rage dump, so a chance to make it hit more, no reason to say no.
Last Stand is awesome: 2 min cd on last stand vs 3 min cd? That means instead of using it 2 times per fight you might get 3-4 uses of it. Anything to extend your Time To Live (TTL)
Shield Wall glyph should only be used if you put 2 talent points into improved Shield Wall. Basically the same thing with this glyph as with last stand. Making it so you can use the ability more than once per fight = win.

These of course are just my opinion, but from what I hear (not interested in trying personally) pairing glyph of sunder and glyph of devastate has some promising uses in AOE situations.

So a quick list of stats and the amount of rating needed to = 1%

It takes 32.79 Melee Hit Rating to create 1% Melee Hit chance.
It takes 26.23 Spell Hit Rating to create 1% Spell Hit chance.
1 expertise = 8.1974973675 expertise rating.
50 expertise = 410 rating hard cap = 14% (reduces dodges and parries)
26 expertise = 214 rating = 6.5% (reduces dodges)
Str to SBV: (Strength / 2), rounding down

8% hit
6.5% expertise
540 Defense

More about the Offensive side of being a warrior soon.

What's your biggest regret in your WoW experience?

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:15:00 -0600

Title says it all: what is the biggest thing you regret since starting to play WoW? Rolled a different class, killed that rogue, left a guild, what was it?

I know the thing that I regret the most was not leaving for a bigger guild during TBC. At the same time, if given the opportunity, I wouldn’t change a thing. Let me elaborate.

I hit Outlands on my first Horde toon a week or two after Illidan was released. I remember because everyone was running around yelling “YOU ARE NOT PREPARED!!!!” and I want to say that Illidan himself was yelling it as well. I hit lvl 70, started gearing out for PVP (ugh S1 was fugly!) and getting gear from the 5 mans.

Fast forward several months. I’m not happy with how hard PVP as a priest is. My RMP team is difficult because I’m not the best player, and I’m playing on a low FPS laptop. I’m also disgusted that I was almost ready to get my first piece of arena gear, and points got wiped - new season. I also now have to return to the BG’s to grind out the honor for the S2 gear. My friends that I was playing with are also starting to let their attention wane - they are about to quit Wow for awhile.

Sitting in trade chat while waiting on a BG, I see another priest looking for another priest, preferably healing spec, for Kara. My friends’ account has run out, and they won’t be getting anymore game time for at least a week. I mentally shrug and decide to try it out. I have never raided, my friends always told me its stupid, others told me its fun, so lets give it a try.

I enter a mostly guild run (me and someone from my guild are in there as the 2nd and 3rd healer) of Kara. They inform us that they will explain the fights, and we will probably only get half way. I’m cool with that, not a big deal. Fast forward 4 hours - we are done for the night, and I HAD FUN!!! It was fun watching boss cd’s, my cd’s, managing mana, and not having to be a “tank” (disc priests during TBC were PVP tanks - everyone in arena’s gunned for them and the priest had to “tank” the other team while their teammates peeled or cc’d them). I wasn’t even really geared for it, and I did really well. I call up my friend, ask him what his plans are for wow, and I’m informed he won’t be returning to wow. I tell him cool, and /gquit in game, and get invited to Cruor Insurrectum, the guild that I had just pugged with. The other healer that was with us from my old guild follows me (Holygreek).

Once again, fast forward a month or so. I’m a firmly established healer in Kara. I’m mastering my mana regen, and even going so far as to lead the raids. We are also making progress on the bosses in there, and are getting farther than we were when I first joined. I find out more about my guildies, that most of them are family members, and I make friends with them (get on a real name basis with them). I log on one day to get asked to get into vent, where they ask me to become an officer. I’m knowledgeable about the fights, I’m leading half the raids, and one of the other officers is going out of country for several months. I reply sure, and I get promoted.

Lets fast forward a little while farther. One of our tanks is going to transfer off server to play with real life friends. He gives us plenty of notice, so we have time to recruit, and one of our DPS rerolls a druid in order to fill the spot. Several weeks after our new tank is geared and starting to tank on a steady basis, our main tank (our druid, Milken) gives us his notice. He’s bored of Kara, been here for over 6 months, and while it was fun, he has an invite to a higher level guild (more progressed) and hes going to go to them. We ask if he can wait 3 weeks to fill the spot, and he agrees. I promptly go climb on my lvl 10 warrior I had been working on for several weeks (kept starting and deleting them) and begin to power level. Within 3 weeks (before the experience nerfs went active) I’m almost lvl 70 on Bulliwyf. I declare that as soon as hes able to start tanking raids, he will become my main in order to help the guild, and I will only log on to Boondockst when we are really needing another healer. The guild agrees, and we do great. Milken leaves, I step in, barely geared enough, and I work my ass off to be a great tank.
And I do fine.

Fast Forward a little farther. I’m perfectly geared (within reason), the Guild Master, we have almost 2 groups running every week, and we are attempting to make the leap from 10 mans to 25 mans, but unfortunately, we are a revolving door of raiders: we gear them out, teach them how to raid, how to do good dps, and then they leap to an established raiding guild. We recruit some more, and its a viscous cycle. Another guild, one that is in 25 man raids and looking for tanks approaches me: they want to absorb my guild, but only to get me and our healer. The rest of the guild is more than welcome to follow, but there is no promise that they will be even allowed into the raids. I consult the other officers, and we decide that thats not what we want. We wanted to maintain our friendly guild, and we wanted to stick with what had built.

This is where my regret starts. Had I left CI, and joined this other guild, I would have seen new content, and I would have gotten what is easily one of the coolest mounts in the game: The Amani War Bear.

But I didn’t, and this is the reason why I wouldn’t change anything if I could go back: I was becoming close friends with one of the DPS, Aedes. In fact, we became so close that we started to date long distance.

Shortly after Wrath of the Lich King was officially announced (the release date) the guild fell apart. I hoped around the server, guild to guild to guild, looking for a good place to raid, but I never really did. I missed out on Tempest Keep, Serpent Shrine Cavern, Hyjal, Black Temple, and the timed ZA runs. I missed out on alot of great content, and while I wish I had the opportunity to run that content when it was current, I’m glad that I made the decisions I did. Had I left, I would not of gotten to know Aedes as well as I have, I would not be madly in love with her as I am now, and I would not have moved to Canada to be with her.

So what have you done in WoW that you regret?

Better late than never... Stat Changes

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:24:00 -0700

Ok, so Blizzard posted it several days ago, and I have been really busy, so here’s my 2 on the situation.

Cataclysm Stat Changes

I’m not going to go over all the classes, just the ones that matter to me: tanks and plate dps (maybe kitty dps also). Lets just dive right into this. Italics are quotes from Blizzard’s post, found here.

Strength, Agility, Hit Rating, Expertise, and Critical Strike Rating - These will all still appear on gear as well. Aside from situations mentioned elsewhere in this list, in general these will function similarly to how they do now, though the details — such as how much Hit Rating you might need to effectively combat high-level creatures (more on this below) — are likely to change.

Stamina - Because of the way we will be assigning Strength, Agility, and Intellect, non-plate wearers will end up with more Stamina than before. Health pools will be much closer between plate-wearers and other classes.

Being Removed from Items

Attack Power - This stat will no longer be present on most items as a flat value, though it will still show up on some process. Strength and Agility, which will be present on items, will grant the appropriate amount of Attack Power (generally 2 Attack Power per point of Strength or Agility) depending upon which stat a particular class favors. Agility may provide less Crit than it currently does.

Spell Power - Spell Power is another stat that you’ll no longer see present on most items. Instead, as mentioned above, Intellect will grant Spell Power. One exception is that caster weapons will still have Spell Power. This allows us to make weapons proportionately more powerful for casters in the same way they are for melee classes.

Armor Penetration - This stat will no longer be present on items. Armor Penetration will still exist in talents and abilities.

Shield Block Value - This stat will no longer be present on items, since the amount blocked is always proportional to the amount of damage done. Talents and other effects might still modify the damage-reduction percentage from 30%, however.

Most of these stats will still be around, but not like they are on live. More than likely, its going to be on trinkets and weapons, but there’s not going to be a chest piece with 10% arpen anymore.

More After the Break

Going Away Completely

MP5 - This stat will be removed from the game completely. Holy paladins and Restoration shaman will be redesigned to benefit from Spirit.

Defense - Defense is being removed from the game entirely. Tanking classes should expect to become uncrittable versus creatures just by shifting into Defensive Stance, Frost Presence, Bear Form, or by using Righteous Fury.

Spell Ranks - Spell ranks will cease to exist. All spells will have one rank and will scale appropriately with level. The levels at which you can learn certain spells are being changed in order to fill in some of the gaps, and we will be introducing some new spells to learn along the way as well.

Weapon Skill - This stat will be removed from the game completely. Classes will start with all the weapon skills they need to know and will not need to improve them.

I can not explain how excited I am about the removal of weapon skills. Of course it happens after I maxed EVERY SINGLE DAMN WEAPON SKILL IN THE GAME on my main, but it makes it so much better for alts (GG fury warriors who go 60+ lvls with a 1h weapon, and suddenly have to lvl 2h weapon skills).

The loss of spell ranks worries me. An example would be mage food: will they change the food or spell to auto-scale according to the user’s level, or will you just be screwed if you make some food on your mage and try to give it to a friend’s alt. For the most part though, this is really welcome. I’m sure that Blizz will come up with something though.

The loss of MP5 is a good-all-around change. MP5 always seemed like a clunky stat, requiring a really stupid calculation or addon to figure out when spirit>MP5, and in general confused some new players.

Defense: Ah, the signs of a good tank and a bad tank. How much Def do they have? Do they have entirely to much? Not enough? Can they balance their gear to meet the minimum? For many tanks, this stat created a small mini game when it came to getting upgrades. There were several times that I got an awesome upgrade… except it left me crittable, and I couldn’t use it until I replaced a different piece, re-gemmed, or re-chanted.
Right now is a perfect example: what can I do to be able to use the T-10 chest (warrior), Pillars of Might, and the Boots of Kingly Upheaval. All are awesome in the stam and gem department, but all lack Defense. Will I be able to get all 3, with out re-gemming to much?
I personally liked this stat, but I can remember how confusing it was when I first started to tank. It going away will make it a much missed stat to veterans, but its good for the game in general.

Block Rating - Block is being redesigned to scale better. Blocked attacks will simply hit for 30% less damage. Block rating will improve your chance to block, though overall block chances will be lower than they are today.

Well, no more gimmicky un-hittable sets of gear for Anub’arak, or fights like that. The same for REALLY trivializing 5 mans, but at least block will be VIABLE FOR RAIDS!!! OMFG YES!!!!!

Parry - Parry no longer provides 100% avoidance and no longer speeds up attacks. Instead, when you parry an attack, it and the next attack will each hit for 50% damage (assuming they hit at all). In other words, Dodge is a chance to avoid 100% of the damage from one attack, Parry is a chance to avoid 50% of the damage from two attacks, and Block is a chance to avoid 30% of the damage from one attack.

I can’t say enough times how much I like this change. Parry has always seemed like that third wheel in the tanking stats. There, but never really wanted. Its definitely going to be a wanted stat now.

Mastery - This is a new stat that will allow players to become better at whatever makes their chosen talent tree cool or unique. It’s directly tied to talents, so what you gain from improving this stat is entirely dependent upon your class and the talent specialization you choose. We’ll talk more about specific Mastery benefits in the future.

I can’t say anything about this, b/c its still a rather large mystery to me. It looks really interesting though and I look forward to more info from the Dev’s about this stat.

Armor - The way Armor mitigates damage is not changing, but the Armor stat has been rebalanced to mirror changes to the armor curve in Cataclysm. As a result, bonus Armor will go down slightly overall. We are also changing the mitigation difference among armor types so that plate doesn’t offer so much more protection than mail, leather, and cloth.

I will cover the bonus armor change later on, but I think raising the armor on the other classes of armor will result in more balance in PVP and less caster deaths in PVE (loose adds).

Changes to Existing Gear

As with previous expansions, we plan to roll out these changes and modify all existing gear shortly before Cataclysm launches, though it’s still too early to say exactly when. For the most part, the gear you have will still be good for you, though there will be exceptions, such as warriors using leather and mail armor.

If you are a tank (druids excepted), expect to see:

No more Defense on gear. Existing Defense becomes Dodge, Parry, or Block Rating.

No more Block Value on gear. Existing Block Value becomes Block Rating.

You’ll have as much Stamina as you’re used to, though you may notice your tanking plate has a bit less Stamina than a comparable piece of DPS plate, since we tend to take the gem budget out of your most attractive stat.

If you are a melee DPS class, druid tank, or hunter, expect to see:

A lot more Stamina. Bear-form Stamina scaling will be lowered as a result.

Strength if you wear plate. Agility if you wear mail or leather.

Existing Attack Power becomes Agility and Stamina.Armor Penetration becomes Haste or Crit.

No Intellect on melee gear. Hunters won’t need Intellect since they will no longer use mana. Shaman and Retribution paladins will get mana and spell damage in other ways.

Where to start here… I guess with the thing that bothers me the most!

“You’ll have as much Stamina as you’re used to, though you may notice your tanking plate has a bit less Stamina than a comparable piece of DPS plate, since we tend to take the gem budget out of your most attractive stat.”

So a DPS piece will have as much stam as my tanking gear? What is there to stop me from taking that piece? Not like I have to worry about defense, and they said the overall stam will be the same, so that makes me think talents will modify our stam on the gear to what it is now…. so yeah. What’s to stop me from needing on DPS plate with higher stam values once my avoidance/mitigation stats are good enough?
I can not emphasize how much this is worrying me.

Bonus armor going down… this makes me a lil happy and a lil sad at the same time. It wasnt until TOC that we started to see an abundance of bonus armor, and even then, it wasnt really enough to make us change our gearing practice. Fast forward to ICC, there are 4 bosses that almost anyone can get to that do pure, almost 100% physical damage (if not all of them in the first wing!!) and that makes bonus armor as sexy as stam (almost)! But its clunky b/c unless you have a lot of it, it wont make a noticeable difference.

The changes to the other stats (dps gear more stam, agi/str gives AP, and the actual stat AP disapears) is really good. No more clunky stats that complicates choosing upgrades. For lack of a better term, its consolidation, and its the best thing to happen to wow now. If you doubt me, ask a DPS warrior or druid what they had to do when they get an arpen trinket: they had to 100% regem to reach the soft cap, then make up the missing AP from the changed gems somehow. It was annoying. Really, really annoying.

The final change that I want to cover, which is really exciting to me (especially for my kitty druid) is the change to Haste:

Haste will basically remain the same for casters. It is changing for melee classes, however. Haste will also allow melee classes to recover their resources more quickly, effectively letting them hit their buttons more often.

I like this. Alot. Right now,haste is such a stupid stat for most melee (yes, I know, some rouges make a mess in their pants over this stat), and if it was there, cool. If not, then oh well. The only thing I’m a lil worried about is with warriors: last night I was DPS on Saurfang, and I was rage capped the entire time. The only time that I dropped in rage was when I screwed up and used whirlwind near a beast and had to kite it out of the rest of the group. Not a big deal, but still. So what good will Haste do for a dps warrior? Thats yet to be determined, but I have faith.

So basically, I’m a little worried about some of the changes, but I’m really excited for most of them, and I look forward to getting my Beta key (PST!!! GET ME ONE!!) so I can really see whats going on with the changes and experiment with them first hand.
What do you think? Good? Bad? Just don’t give a rat’s ass?

Writers Block

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:20:21 -0700

I’m drawing a blank on something to write right now, so stay tuned.

Blizz just announced some of the stat changes in Cataclysm, so stay tuned for my opinion on that. My first glance has raised some small worries.

Like I said, more to come.

An update on my toons

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:16:00 -0700

So just an update, since I haven’t posted lately. Last week was my “spring break”, and since I’m usually posting in class (shhhh! Don’t tell!) or during my lunch, I wasn’t posting at home.

But during the break, I made a very (and ugh!!) decision: every one (4) of my toons will be a tank or a healer… So my warrior is a tank, my priest is a healer, my druid is a healer (with kickass! DPS btw), but my pally was ret. Notice the was. B/c she (I know, I know, I’m one of those weird guys that plays a chick toon) was a Holy/Ret spec, but I couldn’t get my head around how to heal… It confused me. So Wednesday, I made the decision that the only people that should use shields are tanks, and my paladin looked good with a shield.

More after the break.

I’m not going to deny it: I’m spoiled, and I know it. Having 3 of 4 toons have less than 2 minute ques in the LFG system has left me not wanting to play a toon that I enjoyed leveling for the simple fact that I dont want to sit around for 45 minutes waiting on a group to be formed, especially when said toon has the ability to strap on a shield and either heal or tank. Well, I tried healing first, and I couldn’t get my head around the healing style.
When do I spam the little heal?
When do I spam the big heal?
When do I hit Divine Plea?
When do I use a CD to get mana back or conserve mana?
Should I party wall here, beacon the tank, and spam heals on me?

I JUST DONT KNOW!!!! :’(

And I honestly gave it a good try. I gathered up as much gear as I could (yes it was all kinds of armor, but it was at least spiritless and lots of int/crit like I should have), I read the right guides, I understood the stats and the theory, but the actual practice couldn’t be applied. So I said screw it, ran the daily maybe once a week, and spent 45 minutes farming ore (which I also stopped doing b/c I just never needed it!), and the toon sat neglected. A friend of mine who I am constantly helping with his paladin (for reasons unknown to everyone but him) has decided to level another paladin… on the same server has his current one. But this one will not be leveled as ret, but as prot… for the simple reason (so he claims) so he can go prot on his main. The theory is sound (best way to learn something is to do it while leveling while its simple) but thats alot of work, and your going to then want to gear it out, and then play it often, and…

I digress. He wants to learn prot paladin play-style, and as usual he asked me. I gave him the little bit of info I knew off the top of my head (540 def, 8% hit, 6.5% expertise, use certain glyphs, gotta use a shield and 1-hander, other tanks talk about a 969 or 696 rotation named after the CD’s) and told him after that he was going to have to ask someone else or learn alongside with me. I sat down at my computer, which was at the character selection screen, and clicked from my warrior to my paladin.

And a thought began to form.

Ya, pallies and warriors are different, but they are really the same gear wise. Both use shields (which I really like), the play style is similar in regards to gather them up and let the block do the work. How hard could it be to get started? I know where it all is… I picked up some weapons and trinkets from world events…

Ya, my pally is going prot!!!

So from Wednesday to Sunday, I farmed the living daylights out of randoms and towards the end of the week, the regular ICC 5mans and TOC 5mans. I picked up easily half of the set, got around 40+ badges, and a sudden realization that most of these regular instance tanks are crap. The fact I have a shield and Righteous Fury on means I’m doing better than some of these other tanks. Some of the tanks had less HP and TPS (threat per second) than my ret did, and I had Hand of Salvation on CD the entire time and Vigilance, and I was still pulling crazy threat, and more than once I had to swap to seal of light and OT an add, or bubble to drop threat entirely. It was rough, but I think once I can get my hands on a tanking chest, I’m going to go for it. Toss in some def/stam gems and see what happens. Worst that can happen is I get called a terrible tank, the group drops or I get kicked and I go back to farming the badges and regular drops until I get more gear.

I honestly think I can do it easy, but its more of a confidence thing. I have to get my head wrapped around this whole short cd/long cd rotation. On my prot warrior (and its similar on the druid) its get a stack up (devastate/lacerate) and maintain it, spam aoe (t-clap - shockwave/swipe) and next hit ability (cleave/maul). Rinse and repeat until its all dead. From what I can tell with the pally its not exactly the same in that I stack up a debuff and then spam aoe’s, but at the same time it is. I think the best thing I am going to be able to do is make analogies in my head between the pallie abilities and the warrior abilities.

Holy Shield = Shield Block
Shield of Righteous = Shield Slam
Hammer of the Righteous = Devastate/shockwave (minus the stun)
Consecrate = Thunderclap
Judgement = Revenge/Devastate

I’m thinking I got those right, but I know its not exact. So as of Wednesday, it will be exactly 7 days, and I’m trying to be heroic ready by then.

Wish me luck.

Ctrl+Alt+Del - Comics - Gearscore vs. Skill

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:13:00 -0700

Ctrl+Alt+Del - Comics - Gearscore vs. Skill:

A simple follow up of the post I made a little bit ago about why GS sucks and skill is important.

Getting that monkey off your back

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:26:13 -0700

No, I’m not talking about drugs, or addiction, or anything close to that. I’m talking about Gearscore, and if you realize it or not, it effects how you play. It started out as just a way for developers to help weigh stats (b/c its based on item level), and rapidly became sooo much more than that.

More after the break

What is Item Level?

So I mentioned something that you might not know about. Its called Item Level, or ilvl for short. Basically what it is is a number assigned to a piece of gear that allows the max amount of stat points added to it. Each stat has a weight on it that determines how much can be put on the item, so for an example (and these are not the exact weights) stamina = 1, str=2, arpen %=5, etc… each stat has its own weight.

This is an example of what it looks like on an item’s tooltip (although in hindsight, the BOA chest wasnt that great of an idea of an example b/c it scales while the ilvl stays the same…) All the stats on that axe (and the sockets) when their ilvl stats are added together equals 277.

What does ilvl have to do with gear score?

Gear Score (in the most basic of gearscore formulas) takes the ilvl of your gear and adds it up. It then assigns a point format for gems (example 0 for non wrath gems, 1 for greens, 2 for blues, and 3 for epics) and enchants (BIS, 2nd tier, pre-wrath) and adds them all together and gives you a number. So for an example, this is my warrior, Bulliwyf. As of this posting, I’m logged out in my best raid tanking gear. Using my example of scoring (which is VERY simple and doesn’t use the more complex ones that addons or websites use) I have a GS (gearscore) of 4,292. Not bad seeing as my sword and trinkets are from Ulduar and 10 man TOC, and my alternate trinket is one from a 5 man… >.>

So high GS=good gear, low GS=bad gear, right?

Wrong. This is the major failing of gearscore, and where many people go wrong with it. Gearscore just adds up the value of the ilvl, assuming that the higher ilvl is always better. But what if a trinket has a low ilvl, but is still considered very good? My main evidence to this fact is the Black Heart and the Greatness trinkets (mainly the strength and agility versions). All 3 trinkets listed here are AMAZING and considered very solid items, but on a gear score list, are total crap. Ilvl 200 items being used alongside ilvl 264 - what could you be thinking??? But in many cases, other trinkets just cant compare, especially as the Greatness cards are active quite often. There is also the case that some roles (tanks, healers, DPS) will require different sets of gear depending on the fight, and will utilize “inferior” gear in order to make those gear sets. Anub hardmode tanks? Your looking at a warrior (or paladin) with a full block set. Have a LONG fight on your hands? Your healers are going to stack more regen (spirit or Mp5) on their gear than normal. Inversely if you have a fight where the boss hits hard but wont last long, they will stack more spell power to get bigger heals out, and pray that the boss is dead by the time that they are OOM (out of mana).

So your examples make sense, but why does it matter?

Because when people are looking for more members for a PUG (pick up group), they will advertise like this:

Insert GS pic that I cant find… >:(
/2 LFM Ulduar 10 - must have 5k GS

Never mind that perhaps their BIS items will keep them from having 5k GS, never mind that that Yogg Saron was defeated by a group of people wearing ilvl 200 gear (blues from heroics!!), never mind that some people with the 5k GS dont have a clue on how to play their class, b/c those people setting up the group want to walk in and face roll the raid and get some quick loot and think that gear is an indication of skill. But its not, skill is an indication of skill, and GS is an indication of luck (luck that it dropped, luck that it was looted to you).

So many classes are complicated on how to gear in order to be the best: tanks gear according to the instance and dps gear according to what they have available.
Do I gem arpen, or agi/str (depending on class), will haste benefit me more than spell power? Should I use a dagger in my offhand, or an axe? Should I change my spec in order to compliment my gear or use slightly inferior weapons to stick with the same gear? Is an old enchant better than the new ones? And GS does not integrate any of that into their equation.

So GS is bad, should I not use it?

By all means, use GS, but dont forget the human element, the brain. If you see something that doesn’t make sense, ask the person. If your not sure about gemming, ask. Odd talent? Ask. Don’t let an addon do all the work for you.

I was in some heroics last night and the healer asked why I am gemmed so oddly (I am hit and expertise capped, but I filled all the sockets that I could with Bold Dragoneyes (34 str) and Sovereign Dreadstone (10str/15stam). I replied it gives more ap and SBV, so I can do more damage with my abilities, more threat, and take less damage. I then asked in return how much HP is actually needed in heroics? I will always have my commanding shout active, and with kings I’m back at 40k hp. And if I know that a boss is going to REALLY hit hard (Jedoga Shadowseeker achievement) I can always swap gear to have my 50+k HP. Do I really need more?

As much as I hate it, I DO use the gearscore addons, and I do use the gear score websites, but only so when someone kicks a friend over it, I can argue the fact or to point someone to a site that can help them determine upgrades and where to get said upgrades.

I will never use it to judge people’s gear choices or to determine someone spot in a group over it, and if I ever do, by all means call me out on it.

HP is not an excuse for ignoring strategy

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:15:47 -0700

The post says it all - just because you have 40k hp doesn’t mean you can ignore boss mechanics entirely. Since I have started to gear my druid out in the heroics, I have come across more and more lazy tanks that think that since they out gear the heroics, they can just stand in “fire” and ignore everything about the boss, and it greatly annoys me as someone who also plays a tank.

Maybe I’m just being a HUGE, GIANT ~~ass~~ stick in the mud, but I honestly think that no matter what, you should still follow the boss mechanics. When I run heroic Sethic Halls (a lvl 70 instance), the final boss of the instance does a large AOE blast that has to be line-of-sighted (LOS - I’m going to use this term alot). If you didn’t at lvl 70, it would wipe the group, and at lvl 80 it does a large chunk of damage. You want to avoid it no matter what, and guess what: I do.

More after the break.

In most of the WOTLK heroics, there is at least one boss that has a mechanic that you want to avoid. This usually involves kiting or just moving out of the bosses direct line of sight (strafe about 6 steps or run through the boss to stand behind him) yet not many tanks do that any more.
A perfect example, and the one that infuriates me the most, to the point that I wiped I group last night on purpose (oops!) in order to teach a lesson, is Pit of Saron. There are 3 bosses, and all 3 have a mechanic that you need to play around.

The first, and the simplest is Forgemaster Garfrost: he has a stacking AOE debuff that does frost damage. Get more than 6 stacks, and it gets really difficult to heal thru. You get rid of it by moving far away from him or LOS around these MASSIVE chunks of saronite he throws at the ranged. Wait roughly 1 second, the debuff is gone, the healer should be able to top you off and your good to go. That’s what you should do, what actually happens is that the tank (and usually the melee DPS) will just follow him around pew-pewing as hard as they can to the point that they get a 12+ stack. For those that don’t play a healer, 12 stacks of that debuff is bad. REALLY BAD. The other thing that happens is that when Garfrost runs off, the tank will wait behind the saronite boulder, and when the boss returns to him, he takes a few steps out and tanks him there.
Sounds good, right? Wrong. Because the boss is so close to the saronite, the debuff radiates right around it and we still get it, even when we are “LOS’ing” the boss. Then what happens is Garfrost tosses another boulder right where the ranged dps/healer is standing…. right next to the other boulder…. which is also to close to the boss to be of any use.
But Shifftty! Why not ask the tank to move the boss out from the boulders? Because dear reader, the tank is happily spamming his 9696 rotation and is ignoring everything else because his HP is maintaining above 30%… only because the unhappy tree has all his hots up on the tank and is spamming a glyphed nourish while trying to slide a heal on the other DPS, and since I’m spamming heals, I don’t have time to type readable sentences to the tank.

The next boss in this beautiful instance is Ick and Krick. Basically a Warlock riding on top of some weird-abomish/flood creature that uses abilities that makes you move alot. Cool, a movement boss, sounds good. Lets get a quick break down on the boss’s abilities:
Krick will yell out whats happening and will cast a random shadow bolt for some constant AOE damage - the shadow bolt is really, really minor.
Explosive Barrage - puts arcane mines at your feet every second or so. Run around in a slow oval/circle so you don’t take damage and don’t put damage at the feet of your party members. More of a nuisance than a serious problem.
Toxic Waste - basically tosses a puddle of poison (“fire”) on the ground that ticks pretty hard - don’t get caught in it for more than 2 ticks. Its just a slightly more powerful version of what the trash before this boss does.
Pursuit - puts a big ass purple arrow over your head, ignores all threat and chases that person, and if he catches you, hits hard enough to kill a tank.
Now the biggie - Poison Nova - its this big, long, slow cast spell (like 6 seconds) to get away. Its obvious. Painfully slow. Only a mouth-breathing, tunnel-vision, dps rotation spamming moron gets caught in it… or someone that lags for a second. A tank can eat it, but hes got squat for HP afterwards.
So those are his abilities. Its a DPS, run away, DPS, run away, DPS, run away fight. What does the lazy tank do? Tanks through the nova and the explosive barrage, only runs away from the pursuit. Its not a fun fight to heal if the tank isnt smart, its actually quite stressful. The whole point of this paragraph? Lean to run away when the boss does something other than melee you.

The last boss, Scourgelord Tyrannus, is hectic and fun at the same time. Patches of ice on the ground ala Anub’arak, times when you don’t want to DPS or heal, and times when you need to learn to RUN THE (insert favorite curse here) AWAY.
This boss honestly boils down to two (2) abilities: forceful smash and unholy power.
Basically he hits the tank for almost 53k damage before mitigation, and knocks the tank back about 30 something yards, and then casts Unholy Power, which ramps his already normal sizable melee damage up by 100% for 10 seconds. It also makes him big and red - that never a good thing on a boss.
Now this is the pro-tip here: there are random patches of ice that are cast on the ground. If you tank the boss near one, when he knocks you back, you can strafe to the left or right and stand there, the boss will ~~walk~~ crawl SLOWLY thru the ice patch and Unholy Power will be gone by the time he gets to the tank.
What does the lazy tank do? Tanks him right where he is, when he does the Forceful Smash, runs right up to him again, and when Unholy Power is active, still sits there and tanks it. I’m sure you can imagine what the healer does:

Ya, the healer (me in this case) freaks out and spams as many heals as they can, in a druids case, tries to do what they can to ramp up to the big heals (stack hots to build up the glyphed nourish).
Remember I mentioned earlier that I said I wiped my group last night in order to teach a lesson? It was this boss, for this exact reason. I got bitched out and screamed at by the group members, and I apologized to the DPS, but then informed the tank:
“HP is not an excuse for ignoring mechanics. When the boss gets big and red like the hunter’s pet (the hunter was a BM), don’t stand there like a moron, kite him thru the ice that the Dev’s nicely added in for you. Please learn the mechanics of the fight, or ask for clarification.”

Was I being an ass? Oh god yes. Did I need to be? Prolly could have gotten away with not being one, but meh, my point was made and it probably stuck. He definitely did stand there again, but will he do it right next time?

And because I know it will be pointed out: “Shifftty, you pointed out one of the hardest instance in the game, what about the old ones, the ones that have been around since Wrath launched?”
And my response is that it varies: if its a light hitting mechanic, if you need a few more seconds of DPS to finish the boss off, or its 100% unavoidable (cyclone strike) then yes, eat that mechanic, but use a trinket or a CD. The 5 man version of Anub’arak in Azjol-Nerub does an ability called smash, it stuns you, does a % of damage (like 60%) and keeps you from attacking since your stunned. No reason to eat that damage, all you have to do is move a little. Sjonnir The Ironshaper in HOS: use a CD if hes almost dead, but don’t sit there and eat the entire aoe debuff.

My point is with that last paragraph, if you insist on ignoring a mechanic, then you damn well better prepare for it (use a CD or trinket) and make sure your healer is aware of it. Use of addons or macros that announce abilities are often overlooked, but sometimes can mean the difference between a wipe or a kill.

A quick note

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 11:09:48 -0700

Hi readers (I hope someone is reading this!!) just wanted to touch bases about whats going on. At the moment, the page is VERY bland, and there is nothing I can really do about it.
The site Tumblr has the ability to customize the background, but it isnt working at the time, so I am kinda forced into using a really bland background or a really gaudy one. I chose bland (obviously).

I hope to God the developers of this site get their crap together and fix the formatting of this site or else I will be moving operations to another site.

Are Heroics Dumbing down WoW?

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:59:00 -0700

I’m going to start off with a repost from a great blogger over at worldofmatticus.com, Thespius.

Are Easier Heroics Better in the Long Run?

The patch 3.3.2 includes a few amendments to Heroic Dungeons and how they’re played. Entire packs of mobs are being deleted. Bosses abilities are being shortened or being made less frequent. Fight mechanics are being made easier. In essence, Blizzard is giving us more opportunities to blow through these dungeons with little to no effort.

I’m an educator at heart. Seeing as though my life “endgame” is to be at the front of a classroom, it’s important to me that people learn the skills necessary to go through life. How to write a proper business letter, how to analyze a novel or article, or how to put your thoughts in order and present them in a proper argument.

How does this translate into WoW? Teaching players how to follow a kill order, how to manage small and large cooldowns, or how to CC a mob. Remember some of the cardinal rules of this game that we’ve all learned?

If the ground changes, get out of it. Pretty standard stuff, except for rare circumstances
If the boss starts spinning with his huge weapon, move away from it.
If a really annoying mob is causing havoc, CC it. If possible, avoid DoT’ing it.

We learn these the hard way. And, we have to utilize and execute what we’ve learned in the current content. Ground changes? Sounds like Rotface’s ooze pools on the ground. Spinning mobs? Marrowgar. The need to CC a mob? The mind controls in Lady Deathwhisper.

More after the break.

“You are not prepared!”

With the level of difficulty amongst the endgame content, more and more groups are getting frustrated with the lack of skill within the community of 80s. I equate this to meeting people in the real world that don’t demonstrate even a sliver of mastery of their native language (slang and colloquialisms are fun choices but shouldn’t be your foundation). How do you get through school without being able to speak or write properly? How do you get to start raiding without having a knowledge of the fundementals?

Take Ahn’kahet (AKA “Old Kingdom”) for example. Jedoga Shadowseeker is the boss that floats in the air, summoning an add to sacrifice. If she succeeds, she hits a temporary enrage. I remember wiping to that when people first started doing heroics. The tank had to manage a cooldown; the healer was spamming big heals. This fight demonstrated the need for DPS to turn up the heat to down the add. Even I as a healer would Smite/Lightning Bolt the add.

Now, it seems that Madame Shadowseeker only does this once. Does this just mean everyone blows all their cooldowns (Shield Wall, Survival Instincts, Frenzied Regeneration, etc) to endure her short enrage and then they’re done? The key to earning respect as a player with me is demonstrate a finesse of your skills, not be all RAWR OMG WTFBBQ DPSPWNAGE!! You can be great player and still utilize all of your classes abilities efficiently.

“Time is of the essence!”

As these Heroics are being made easier and easier, that means people will be blowing through them faster and faster. Making the value of the gear that people are getting lower and lower. Follow this math:

Average of 4 badges (+ 2 from random) = 6 badges per run.

Clearing an instance in 15 minutes means 24 emblems an hour.

A whole set of T9 costs 210 emblems.

210 emblems / 24 emblems per hour = 8.75 hours.

Even if you play 3 hours/day, you could have full tier 9 in 3 days.

Given that, do I think it’s possible to really have a grasp of how to exist in a raid setting, possibly having an aspect of the fight rest on your shoulders? I won’t say a flat-out “no”, but I’m hesitant. I learned how to play my class through dungeons and heroics. A fight like Rotface or Blood Princes is going to confuse players that haven’t had the ability to build an understanding of their class.

Consider it a slightly less horrifying version of a person who just bought their character on eBay that day. Regardless if you’re a completely new player, or just levelling an alt, I fear that we’re starting to lose the building blocks to being a good raider to the ease of too much convenience. (Sidenote: Notice I said “too much”. I’m all for crafting the game so everyone has a shot, but there is a point when it goes too far. I don’t want to go back to the days of needing to run alts through Karazhan to begin the gearing process for Black Temple.)

It’s like the economy (I know, a touchy subject). If you start pumping more gear into the game faster, it devalues what’s already out there. I guess the good thing is that people will be less freaked out by GearScore. If everyone has a high gear score, more emphasis will need to be placed on player skill. What good is a high GearScore if everyone has it?

“Lazy Sunday!”

“…WAKE UP IN THE LATE AFTERNOON!” Sorry, a little sidetracked. I love that skit.

Anyways, with Blizzard making things easier and easier, I fear they’re going too far. ICC trash is already becoming AOE-able. People are complaining about there being too much trash (yet, people complained about Trial of the Crusader not having ANY trash and being too boring). Oculus is getting even bigger rewards.

I don’t want this game to become “just go in and blow stuff up”. I like the challenge. I like the dedication. I like the workout. I like the strategy. Do I know how to create a balance with this? Of course not. If I did, I would be working for Blizzard. I just don’t want the laziest crowd in the game to win over the hearts and minds of the game designers.

Now, I enjoy the mechanic of earlier ICC wings getting easier over time, allowing less progressed guilds to see the endgame content, but the latest epidemic of clueless raiders is troublesome to me. How do you make the game more appealing to everyone, while still teaching those fundemental rules that we’ve all learned over the years?

What do you think? Do you feel heroics are being made too easy? How do you promote an understanding of class and basic fight mechanics amongst your raiders?

This post got me to thinking - are heroics to easy, and taking that thought another leap forward, is WoW becoming to easy? I mean, sure, they got rid of the spamming one ability for an entire raid (shadow-bolt-spamming-warlocks) by making rotations more immersive (get up these 3 debuffs and get more dmg from your main spell) but at the same time they got rid of the 2+ CC per pull in order to alllow classes with less favorable CC easier access to the 5-mans. But at what cost?
Now, heroics are run in and spam your aoe’s as hard and fast as you can and pull as fast as your healer’s mana pull will allow you to. Even tanks are starting to do it.
And managing aggro is a joke - I was in a run the other day and this T-10 rogue (sporting 3 pieces of it and 2 QD) kept pulling agro. I applied vigilance, was still pulling aggro. I asked him if he was TOT’ing and he replied “no point nub - L2Tank”. We had to pause for a moment b.c the healer had to answer the phone, and I looked at my recount spell list (shows me all spells cast by people in the party and how often they are casting them) and noticed that I didnt see feint listed anywhere. I asked while we were waiting (in whispers so it didnt seem like I was calling him out in an attempt to embarass him) why he wasnt using feint, and the conversation went like this:
(me) “Can I ask a question: why arent you using feint? Your riding my threat pretty hard”
(rouge) “maybe you need to do more threat”
(me) “I’m hit capped and expertise soft capped, blizz just nerfed my gear set up and I’m not producing as much threat as I was before. I’m still producing a ton of it, and your the only one having issues. Can your please TOT or feint - increases your chance of not taking damage and lowering your repair bill ;)”
(rogue) “Dont tell me how to play my class your fucking retarded tank! L2FTANK OR GTFO YOU SCRUB!!”
(me) “no reason to use that language, I’m just trying to make the run go faster and easier.”
(rogue) “I can talk however i fucking want to you gd little baby! tank better or else!”

Now that this point I need to point out that the healer is upstairs, one of the other dps is sitting literally 3 feet away from me (GF), and that the other DPS is in vent with us. The rogue is the only one not from our small circle of friends.

(in vent) “LoL - hes trying to kick you Bull.”
(me) “Mk - w/e.”

(in party chat - rogue) WTF - your all a bunch of fail scrubs for not kicking the tank!!
(the warlock - GF BTW) Maybe your should learn to play better? Part of being a good player is learning to produce high DPS and managing your threat.
(rogue) WTF ever - lets finish this.
(I whisper the healer) When he pulls agro, toss a single renew or a shield - thats it.
(healer whispered reply) Got it boss.

Next pull, rogue totally attacks the mob that doesnt have any sunders, just a demo shout and t-clap, and was stunned by a shockwave. I’m not even sure my cleave hit it, but lets assume that it did. I’m tab targetting thru the mobs, trying to get a min 2 sunder on each mob as well as a revenge or shield slam.
Rogue pulls aggro on the mob that has no Sunders, gets a shield and a renew, and promptly dies.

(rogue) WTF!! L2tank L2heal - this this entire fucking battlegroup full of fail players?!?!?!?!
(GF) Well your here…
(healer) I gave you the same amount of heals I give the other dps.
(third dps -ret) I salve myself if I get to much aggro, the lock does soul shatter, the healer fades if he does a big heal as the tank is pulling or there is a mob out of range. Why should you be any different?
(me) run back, we will wait at the boss.
(rogue) fuck that - you all fail! I”m fucjking out of here you gd scrubs!!
(me) just one sec plz (adds to ignore list) ok, you can leave group if you want now. Just wanted to add you to my ignore list while I could
(gf informs me that there is a long string of spam and cursing and inntiates a group kick - its unanimous)

Basically what happened here was that a group of “well geared” people are running an instance and one of them (arguable the best geared person) isnt that great of a player, despite his awesome gear, for the simple fact that he spamms his damage abilities, doesnt do anything to lower his threat or help the party, and when he encounters trouble, blames everyone else for his short commings.

And what do you want to bet that if he was asked to perform a sap, he would start swearing, calling people nubs and all other sorts of names. Unfortunatly, this is the average player in WOTLK now - some max dps rotation spamming mouth breather that looks at GS and assumes that is the law of the land (more about this in a different post).

Do you remember that first time you walked into a Wrath dungeon, the expac is only a few hours old? The tanks are still getting used to thier newfound aoe abilities, and they encounter the pulls one at a time, setting kill orders, asking for CC, and you know what? The DPS were ready for it, and they did it, sometimes with out being asked to do it. After a few runs in that instance, they learn that if they take thier time, they dont need CC, just set a kill order of 1 and 2, and then aoe down the last mob or 2.

Fast forward a year: gear is easier than ever to get, people are gearing out/learning alts, and the runs are easier now than they honestly should be. I’m all for some of the changes they made (where we kill the adds so fast that a mechanic gets spammed - guardians being spawned back to back in OK), but at what cost. People are griping about heroics are to easy, but they want to skip bosses. UK is a perfect example: you can skip the first 2 bosses, move to the third (now only takes like 3 harpoons) and then the last and be done in less than 15 minutes. There has been a couple of times that I get out of the instances and I still have the LFG debuff on me, and WE KILLED ALL THE BOSSES. Thats crazy IMO!
So what I’m going to do for the next week is this: I’m going to zone into the heroics, explain that I’m doing a social experiment, and ask what people would think if I asked for a mob to be CC’d. Rooted, sheeped/hexed, sap’d, banished, repenteced, etc… and see what people would say. Would they be willing to slow down the DPS and aoe, and CC? I’m willing to bet that most wont even know how to (ever try to CC on a hunter? You gotta use a macro to get it to come to your trap, and you gotta be careful not to let your auto attacks break it as you watch to make sure it stays in the trap). What do you want to bet that when Cataclysm rolls around, CC is going to be needed (not as much as in TBC) and people are going to cry fowl. I also think that threat is going to become more of a factor of the 5 mans, DPS is going to have to dust off thier aggro reduction abilities or learn to drop threat like a warrior (Q: How does a warrior drop threat? A: Use a soulstone! bada-dum - but no really, warriors have no real threat drop, so they either pull and die, or back off for a few seconds)

So what do you think? Are they to easy? Are people loosing touch with the basics of the game?

A surprising change!!

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 11:52:00 -0700

So this is odd day where I will post more than once in a day, but I came across an astonishing revelation this weekend: I don’t want to tank on my druid.
Don’t get me wrong, I love him, but the druid method of attaining threat is annoying, and I’m really enjoying playing as a tree or a cat in PVE. I enjoyed being a tank when I was leveling, but all of sudden, I have these asses at lvl 80 that wont let me get threat b/c they are all about nuking as hard and fast as they can. I discovered that Kitty is amazingly fun, and tree isn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

Essentially, the bear tanking method in an AOE consists of swipe + glyphed maul (hits 2 targets now) and tab targeting with a muttered prayer of “Oh god please let it stick to me”. I’m used to warrior tanking where it is spam cleave or HS, tab targeting with a quick devastate or shield slam on each mob and let damage shield do the rest (that is damage shield + glyph of blocking + crit blocking + shield block) and if I want more threat, just work on hit + expertise and add more str or SBV (for now since they are nerfing both), but on a bear, you don’t really do that (change str to agi since thats the “primary dps stat on the gear”). On a bear, its get hit + expertise as close to cap as you can, then stack Arpen and haste, and crit, but NEVER agi. It baffled me: why would the dps stat on the gear no be good for the tank; why isn’t it like being a warrior or pally?

So while I still like tanking, and let me make the note that my threat on single targets is off the chart, I doubt the avg 5 man will let me only tank the boss and someone else tank the trash, so I will stick with Kitty/Tree in PVE.

More after the break.

So I got some awesome gear this past week, finally replacing almost all of the leveling gear, and my friend who just hit 80 wanted to run a few heroics with me. So we que as him as resto, and me as feral, and get in VH (Violet Hold). I look around and almost everyone is in some form of raid gear (TOTC or badge T9) and I’m sporting 5 man/crafted loot with only half of it chanted (I am such a hypocrit b/c I used to bitch people out for not putting SOME kind of chant on their loot) but I digress. I’m not expecting to do that great, and since its a pally, I’m honestly only expecting to beat the tank, and just barely since its a pally.

Start working thru the trash, I’m doing ok. I get my roar up on every pack of trash and my swipe spam is doing decent. I’m 2nd on recount. First boss is the Shadow guy (lots of aoe damage!!) so I get in there, roar, and go to town. Boss dies about 90 seconds later and my friend asks for a recount report on the healing when I notice the dps report… I was first. I quickly report the healing in gchat, and then make the comment that I just beat a raider in DPS… in lesser gear. I get the grats, and then I mark it up to a fluke. The better geared DPS didnt get procs, didnt get something that they needed to really pump it out, and thats why I got ahead. Second boss is the eye beam guy. I get in there, boss dies, I topped again. I’m excited - DPS is fun, and I’m not pulling threat! (My warrior used to go DPS, but would pull tons of agro to the point that it was no longer fun). Get to the last Boss, and I ROCKED the charts. I was over 1k more than the others, and boy was I happy!! Kitty is FUN, and I’m not even in a actual DPS spec, I’m in a hybrid cat/bear/PVP spec that is so wonky it shouldnt function. I quickly decide that kittey is more fun that bear, and go respec for a kitty/PVP build (since I want to PVP with him) and drop as many bear talents as possible. I can still OT a boss, but not for very long. I could even prolly do 5 mans still, but I dont want to.

So like I said, I’m getting all of awesome gear, which means I’m getting all of these badges that I’m spending on PVP gear… but how am I doing it you ask? I’m doing it as a tree, and doing a damn good job at it. Granted some of my success is based off of the rest of the group (and the damn pally tanks taking squat for damage and healing themselves from judge of light) but I’m still in there rocking out the heals.

My success (or the lack of total failure) has fueled my desire and decision that to keep a kitty and a resto set upt to date and just forget about tanking. Its really that much fun (I quit my priest b/c it was so boring) stacking the hots, watching the tank going down…. BAM! heal kicked in and the tank is back on top no issues. Its fun, its not spamming the same crap all the time (hello disc priest, chain heal spamming shammy, and Holy pally) or watching buffs for when its ok to heal (hello holy priest). Its about balancing hots and knowing when to blow them up or when to stack more.

So my gear goals to this point? Feral PVP gloves are next, and wont take long since they only cost a few badges (50 triumph). I’m prolly going to skip the chest since I have an awesome crafted one, but I’m not sure. I will end up getting it in the long run, but I dont know when. Soon as I am done farming badges for feral PVP, its the resto Idol! After that I will have to evaluate the gear that I have and buy the most logical gear choice for resto (T9), while I save my frost badges for…. I’m not sure. Maybe feral shoulders…? Maybe resto? I am doing 5 mans as resto, but I want to do kitty in raids (if I ever raid - thats a sticky subject for me) so I dont know. It will end up being an impulse buy in the end, so we will see what my mood dictates.

So to close I leave you with my so-so PVP set equipped druid on armory (hopefully its equipped! >.<):
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Blackwing+Lair&cn=Shifftty

Oh and this!

The Problem with Wintergrasp...

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:13:00 -0700

The problem with Wintergrasp, and any other future Zone Wide PVP settings similar to it (I think there is one in Cataclysm?), is that servers that are extremely imbalanced will never have fun with these zones. NEVER!!!
Take for instance my server, Blackwing Lair. According to Warcraft Census, BWL has a 1A:5.2H ratioat lvl 80, but that’s active. Take into account all the lvl 80 alts that the bored populace has, and it ends up being more like 17%A:83%H. What this means is that if every lvl 80 zoned into Wintergrasp, the Alliance would always have a 20 stack of tenacity. Even if 1/4 of the active Horde population showed up vs EVERY SINGLE MOUTH BREATHING ALLIANCE!!!, the Alliance would still have tenacity.
But wait! Whats this tenacity you speak of with such distaste??? Let me break it down for you:
Being outnumbered has increased your tenacity, improving your health, healing and health regen by 18% and increasing your damage dealt by 14%. (via wowhead.com)

So that is at one stack… now multiply it by 20. I will wait for you to get your calculator. Go ahead, I’m not going anywhere. Back already? Didn’t bother to do the math? Good, b/c its that depressing from the Horde side. Ya, Ret pallys with 40k hp and can one shot someone that isn’t a tank with an AUTO-ATTACK is depressing. Try Warlocks that spam a single dot that can now crit… tab, SOC, tab, SOC, tab, SOC… you get the idea.

Still experimenting

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:11:16 -0700

I'm still experimenting with this site, so bear with me if on your next visit it looks entirely different.

Teh internets = permission to be an ass

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 10:58:00 -0700

I dont know why this is a big surprise to me at this point: I mean I have been involved in the internet and communicating with other people via chats boards and mmo’s for 5+ years now, but it still shocks me at times with how much of a bunch of asses the people are in the world.

Let me set the scene: My fresh lvl 80 druid (feral/resto) has set out to farm TOC for 3 of the 4 trinkets. I ran it several times, seeing only that damn Abyssal Rune, when on my 6th run it drops. Now let me explain how excited I was: with 45 min wait in between runs, I was getting frustrated, and the group was the healer, 2 caster dps, me and the tank. I was ecstatic. I thought I had it: the Banner of Victory - no one else would roll against me b/c the only one that could possibly need it is this tank, but hes a tank! The rolls go out, the tank rolls need and beats me by 2. I little part of me died inside.

More after the break.

(me) “Why? WHY did you need on that! (link my trinkets - they are pathetic) I really needed that!”
(ninja) “Sucks for you scrub - fuck off nubs!” (tank leaves party)
(me) “/sigh I cant believe he did that…” (reenters LFG, knowing that the party will fall apart within minutes)
(healer) “Well that blows - I’m not wasting my time here.” (leaves party, causes the chain reaction of everyone leaving.)
(mage) “What did you expect: he got what he wanted, he left. Its internet anonymity at its best.” (leaves party)

So long story short, this happens again on the next run. Get in, warrior dps, tank, and me can roll on it. I casually notice that the tank and warrior are from the same guild… trinket drops, guess who rolls:
tank: 99
me:90
warrior:2
Tank wins, warrior and tank leaves party, the healer does the sigh emote and leaves. Party is basically a lost cause, so I leave also, log out and get onto a lvl 1 alt that I already have on this server in order to speak with a ninja (now that I think about it, that server has SEVERAL ninja’s - is there a way to block an entire server???) and I whisper the tank:
(me) “Why did you need on that trinket? I really needed that!”
(ninja) “I was there to help my friend. I rolled, I won the roll, I traded the trinket to him, he didnt want to stick around. Get over it you little shit.”
I am now being ignored. I know when the cause is lost…

But this isnt the first time something like this has happened, nor will it be the last. I know that, but I cant help but hold everyone up to the same morals that I have, in game and out of game. If I que as a tank, I’m not going to be needing on the DPS items unless I ask first. If I que as DPS, I’m not going to need on the caster/healer gear unless I ask first. Its just the way the world should work, but only someone as naive as me would expect it to work.

The Virgin Post

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:01:05 -0700

So I have tried to blog before, but at the time, there just wasnt enough going on in my life for me to actually right about.

So I guess a little bit about me is in order. I’m a 22 year old TV Production student at the North Alberta Institute of Technology. I’m orginally from the United States, the Deep South to be specific, but I’m here in Alberta Canada now.

Like the title of the entire blog says, I’m an avid fan of the Warcraft Universe, and I prefer to go toe-to-toe with every single demon and undead monstrosity that those geniuses at Blizzard can come up with.

My main is a warrior tank, Bulliwyf, but I also have a Retribution Paladin, Disc Priest, and a Feral/Resto Druid. Floating out there somewhere is also a mid 60’s hunter that I gave up on after spending a week being constantly camped by some lvl 70+ paladin with nothing else better to do (I mean comeon! Don’t you have some puppies to kick or something???) I liked playing a hunter, but after playing a melee, I just couldnt get back into the idea of having a pet do all the fighting for me. I also have a plethora of alts floating around, but at the moment, none are very serious (all less than lvl 25).

I was (and technically still am) in a progression guild on my pitiful server, Blackwing Lair. We had several server first kills under our belt before I had to step back due to real life issues (damn school getting in the way of my WoW!!!) So since I am not currently raiding the bleeding edge content, I have decided to try and gear out my most recent level 80, my druid, as well as work on an experiment with him.

How fast can you get “geared” to be viable in PVP and/or raids, but more on that later.

I guess thats enough for now, more will come soon!

The purest embodiment of the warrior spirit… now if only...

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:43:19 -0700

The purest embodiment of the warrior spirit… now if only he wore a shield….