If you have done the Death Knight starting zone questline or have interacted with the Knights of the Ebon Blade, you have likely heard one of those reanimated warriors say "suffer well" after you finish talking with them. This always seemed a bit odd to me, but I just chalked it up to their deathly nature. However, a chapter from Arthur Schopenhauer's Studies in Pessimism entitled "On the Sufferings of the World" gave me a new perspective on this salutation, perspective I would like to share here.
Before I talk about that, let me summarize the relevant portions of On the Sufferings of the World. (You can read the whole thing here if you are interested. If you are familiar with it, skip this paragraph and the next two.) On the Sufferings of the World begins by acknowledging that everyone, by virtue of their existence, suffers. Our friends and family die, time is slowly wearing away on us, and tragedy enjoys visiting us on a regular basis. Schopenhauer also contends that happiness is really the absence of suffering, for happiness only serves to distract us from the miseries of the world. Thus the default mode of our life is suffering, so life is suffering. As such, suffering must have a purpose, for if suffering has no purpose, than life has no purpose. After all, if there is no point to suffering, then why go on living if we are doomed to suffer?
Schopenhauer discovers a few purposes for suffering in this chapter. One is that it gives our lives meaning--purpose, if you will. Most of what we do is motivated by the desire to avoid suffering. We work so we can make money so we can eat so we don't feel hungry. We socialize so we can have friends so we don't feel alone. We play World of Warcraft so we don't feel bored. "..if all wishes were fulfilled as soon as they arose, how would men occupy their lives? what would they do with their time? If the world were a paradise of luxury and ease, a land flowing with milk and honey, where every Jack obtained his Jill at once and without any difficulty, men would either die of boredom or hang themselves..." In other words, eliminate suffering, and our lives have no purpose, causing us to become depressed from the lack of things to do. That may sound absurd to you, but it turns out that suicide rates increase as you move up social brackets, so Schopenhauer is right when he says that, if there were no suffering, we would die of boredom or hang ourselves.
Schopenhauer then goes on to talk about how our powers of reflection and and expectation cause us to suffer even more, but let me skip to the important part, the part you'll want to pay attention to. Towards the end of On the Sufferings of the World, Schopenhauer says that the best perspective to see this world from is to see it as a prison of pain, a penitentiary of misery, a jailhouse of suffering. Why, you may wonder? Because then we can adjust our view of the world accordingly and brace ourselves for the suffering we will inevitably face. If we see life as full of misery, then when tragedy does strike our lives, it will not come as some great surprise, and it shouldn't, for we all know that bad things happen. More importantly, when we recognize that we are suffering, and that other people are suffering, it's much easier to be empathetic towards others. After all, when our we perceive our lives as good, it's difficult to be empathetic towards others because we don't want to get bogged down in their misery. And, of course, if others' lives seem good, we have no reason to be empathetic towards them, for they don't need our empathy. However, if we see our lives as bad and others' lives as bad, "...it reminds us of that which is after all the most necessary thing in life—the tolerance, patience, regard, and love of neighbor, of which everyone stands in need, and which, therefore, every man owes to his fellow."
So, what does that have to do with Death Knights? By saying "Suffer well" to people who talk to them, Death Knights (from here on in, I am referring to Death Knight NPCs, not Death Knight players) acknowledge that suffering is a part of life; they don't try to sugar coat it. This is especially true in WoW, where your character gets attacked by wild beasts, monsters, and agents of the scourge on a daily basis, or even other players if you PvP. Suffering is an intrinsic part of your character's life; in fact, it probably defines your character's life. Death Knights' saying "suffer well" acknowledges that suffering and the fact that without it, your character's life would likely be meaningless. "Suffer well" is simply a more appropriate greeting than something like "Have a good day," for such a greeting ignores the suffering that is a necessary part of life.
What can we take away from these former agents of the Lich King and their Schopenhauer-inspired salutation? For starters, we can realize that everyone around us is fighting their own personal battles, that everyone around us suffers, and thus when we suffer, we won't feel so alone. We can recognize that suffering motivates most of what we do and thus have some appreciation for it; we can see it as the unfortunate necessity that it is, rather than proof that this is a cold, uncaring universe (although that is a completely different topic). When suffering seems pointless, like when someone is slowly dying of a terminal disease or when you lose a family member, we can recognize that suffering is a vector for empathy, an experiences that motivates us to connect with others. And so, I say to you, my readers, suffer well.
If you found this post depressing, let me leave you with one more quote from On the Sufferings of the World: "I shall be told, I suppose, that my philosophy is comfortless—because I speak the truth; and people prefer to be assured that everything the Lord has made is good. Go to the priests, then, and leave philosophers in peace! At any rate, do not ask us to accommodate our doctrines to the lessons you have been taught. That is what those rascals of sham philosophers will do for you. Ask them for any doctrine you please, and you will get it."
Friday, February 26, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tips on leveling a priest
A while ago, I went over some general things I have learned by leveling a shadow priest. That priest is now level 47, and though I still have a ways to go before hitting the level cap, there are some things I have learned by leveling him that I would like to share with anyone out there considering leveling a priest.
1. Be prepared to be bored.
Priests are definitely near the top of the list of most boring classes to play at early levels, along with paladins and druids. You'll spend a lot of time spamming Smite, since that will be your only worthwhile offensive spell until level 10, when you get Mind Blast. Shadow Word: Pain? Only worth using if your enemy will be alive for a while, which, at low levels, they won't be. Things get much better at level 20, when you get Holy Fire, Holy Nova, Devouring Plague, and if you spec'ed shadow, Mind Flay. Yep, your offensive arsenal more than doubles in size when you reach level 20.
2. Take advantage of Mind Flay's speed debuff.
I like to start every battle with either Mind Blast or Holy Fire. Obviously, once you get Shadow Form, Holy Fire isn't an option, but before then, it's usually more mana-efficient and causes more damage. Anyways, start your battles at maximum range, then use whichever ability you plan on starting out with. Immediately when your cast finishes, use Mind Flay. That will slow your enemy and damage them, and if you used Holy Fire, it gives some time for the DoT to do its work. I can usually use Mind Flay twice before the enemy reaches me if I start at maximum range. Doing this also applies five stacks of Shadow Weaving if you have three points in that, allowing you to start the battle out strong. Also, if your enemy runs away from you, use Mind Flay to finish them off and slow them down at the same time, reducing the risk of them bring back more of their buddies. In fact, I often find that when I use Mind Flay to slow down a runner, he tends to run in the opposite direction when I use it, meaning back to me and away from his friends, but he is still technically fleeing, so he won't attack me.
3. Use this macro.
#showtooltip Mind Flay
/cast [nochanneling:Mind Flay] Mind Flay
This macro allows you to cast Mind Flay, but only if you are not channeling it already. Thus you can spam it and start using Mind Flay again immediately after you finish casting it, which is useful for the above-mentioned method, without clipping it and losing out on damage.
4. Don't use your DoTs unless your target will take a while to kill and the DoTs will run their full duration.
Your damage-over-time spells are some of your most mana-intensive spells. They aren't worth using unless you are using them to their full potential, meaning you won't get the most out of them unless your enemy takes a long time to die. Now, granted, I have been known to drop Devouring Plague and Shadow Word: Pain on an enemy that attacks me while I am attacking someone else so that they don't have as much health once I get to them, but aside from doing that and when facing elite enemies or targets a few levels above you, DoTs aren't worth using. When facing a target a few levels above you, it's generally better to use one of your DoTs, rather than both, otherwise you'll burn right through your mana. Use whichever one is more mana-efficient. Once you get Improved Devouring Plague, that will generally be Devouring Plague, but until then, it's usually which ever one you last bought an upgrade for.
5. Keep Inner Fire up at all times.
With Inner Fire active, you'll have a similar armor-count to what a leather user has, which definitely makes it amazing. Trouble is, you lose one charge everyone time you are hit, so after 20 hits, you're right back down to your crappy cloth armor-count. This means you'll need to refresh it at the end of every two or three battles, or even in the middle of battle if you are facing multiple enemies or an elite (yes, you can solo-kill elites on a shadow priest if you know what you are doing; I solo-ed Big Game Hunter while it was still yellow in my quest log). Like a shaman's shields, it's easy to forget to reapply it in the middle of battle, but be sure you do so.
6. Take advantage of Spirit Tap to buff yourself while regenerating mana.
Speaking of buffs.... Spirit Tap is an amazing talent that doubles your spirit after you kill something and allows most of your spirit-based mana regeneration to take place, even if you are casting. That means you should use it as an opportunity to reapply the multitude of buffs you'll need to keep active on yourself so that you don't gimp yourself out of mana by buffing yourself when it will activate the five second rule.
7. Get Glyph of Shadow.
Spirit Tap alone is a good reason to stack spirit on a Shadow Priest, but this glyph makes it an even more lucrative stat. I don't know why, but this glyph was particularly hard to find on my realm's Auction House. If the same is true on your realm, then as you start approaching level 40, you should look on the auction house to see if someone put it up. Anyways, this glyph gives you a spellpower boost based on your spirit when you crit with Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Sear, or the instant damage of Improved Devouring Plague, and considering that you'll probably use the first two pretty frequently, you are bound to learn personally just how sweat this glyph is, especially when that Mind Blast you start the battle with critically hits.
Since this post probably qualifies, I will be submitting it as part of Tree Burglar's Elder Blogging Event. You can read about it here on his blog or here on Blog Azeroth.
1. Be prepared to be bored.
Priests are definitely near the top of the list of most boring classes to play at early levels, along with paladins and druids. You'll spend a lot of time spamming Smite, since that will be your only worthwhile offensive spell until level 10, when you get Mind Blast. Shadow Word: Pain? Only worth using if your enemy will be alive for a while, which, at low levels, they won't be. Things get much better at level 20, when you get Holy Fire, Holy Nova, Devouring Plague, and if you spec'ed shadow, Mind Flay. Yep, your offensive arsenal more than doubles in size when you reach level 20.
2. Take advantage of Mind Flay's speed debuff.
I like to start every battle with either Mind Blast or Holy Fire. Obviously, once you get Shadow Form, Holy Fire isn't an option, but before then, it's usually more mana-efficient and causes more damage. Anyways, start your battles at maximum range, then use whichever ability you plan on starting out with. Immediately when your cast finishes, use Mind Flay. That will slow your enemy and damage them, and if you used Holy Fire, it gives some time for the DoT to do its work. I can usually use Mind Flay twice before the enemy reaches me if I start at maximum range. Doing this also applies five stacks of Shadow Weaving if you have three points in that, allowing you to start the battle out strong. Also, if your enemy runs away from you, use Mind Flay to finish them off and slow them down at the same time, reducing the risk of them bring back more of their buddies. In fact, I often find that when I use Mind Flay to slow down a runner, he tends to run in the opposite direction when I use it, meaning back to me and away from his friends, but he is still technically fleeing, so he won't attack me.
3. Use this macro.
#showtooltip Mind Flay
/cast [nochanneling:Mind Flay] Mind Flay
This macro allows you to cast Mind Flay, but only if you are not channeling it already. Thus you can spam it and start using Mind Flay again immediately after you finish casting it, which is useful for the above-mentioned method, without clipping it and losing out on damage.
4. Don't use your DoTs unless your target will take a while to kill and the DoTs will run their full duration.
Your damage-over-time spells are some of your most mana-intensive spells. They aren't worth using unless you are using them to their full potential, meaning you won't get the most out of them unless your enemy takes a long time to die. Now, granted, I have been known to drop Devouring Plague and Shadow Word: Pain on an enemy that attacks me while I am attacking someone else so that they don't have as much health once I get to them, but aside from doing that and when facing elite enemies or targets a few levels above you, DoTs aren't worth using. When facing a target a few levels above you, it's generally better to use one of your DoTs, rather than both, otherwise you'll burn right through your mana. Use whichever one is more mana-efficient. Once you get Improved Devouring Plague, that will generally be Devouring Plague, but until then, it's usually which ever one you last bought an upgrade for.
5. Keep Inner Fire up at all times.
With Inner Fire active, you'll have a similar armor-count to what a leather user has, which definitely makes it amazing. Trouble is, you lose one charge everyone time you are hit, so after 20 hits, you're right back down to your crappy cloth armor-count. This means you'll need to refresh it at the end of every two or three battles, or even in the middle of battle if you are facing multiple enemies or an elite (yes, you can solo-kill elites on a shadow priest if you know what you are doing; I solo-ed Big Game Hunter while it was still yellow in my quest log). Like a shaman's shields, it's easy to forget to reapply it in the middle of battle, but be sure you do so.
6. Take advantage of Spirit Tap to buff yourself while regenerating mana.
Speaking of buffs.... Spirit Tap is an amazing talent that doubles your spirit after you kill something and allows most of your spirit-based mana regeneration to take place, even if you are casting. That means you should use it as an opportunity to reapply the multitude of buffs you'll need to keep active on yourself so that you don't gimp yourself out of mana by buffing yourself when it will activate the five second rule.
7. Get Glyph of Shadow.
Spirit Tap alone is a good reason to stack spirit on a Shadow Priest, but this glyph makes it an even more lucrative stat. I don't know why, but this glyph was particularly hard to find on my realm's Auction House. If the same is true on your realm, then as you start approaching level 40, you should look on the auction house to see if someone put it up. Anyways, this glyph gives you a spellpower boost based on your spirit when you crit with Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Sear, or the instant damage of Improved Devouring Plague, and considering that you'll probably use the first two pretty frequently, you are bound to learn personally just how sweat this glyph is, especially when that Mind Blast you start the battle with critically hits.
Since this post probably qualifies, I will be submitting it as part of Tree Burglar's Elder Blogging Event. You can read about it here on his blog or here on Blog Azeroth.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Does the difficulty of What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been justify the reward?
Oh Violet Proto-Drake. The debates I have seen you inspire in the WoW.com comments section have been nothing short of remarkable. And yet to think, had Blizzard simply made you just another 280%-speed mount, we would not have these disagreements. As I come to the end of my long, strange trip, I can't help but wonder, have I really deserved that 310%-speed mount? Of course, being philosophical by nature, I have no choice to but to ponder this question, so here we go.
Let's establish the basics: there are many rewards for your various exploits and adventures in World of Warcraft, but they all fall into two categories: practical and aesthetic. Aethetic rewards include mounts, pets, titles, and other such things that don't actually make gameplay easier or more enjoyable (other than by looking at them.) Practical rewards somehow enhance your gaming experience. Practical rewards are things like gear, which allows you access new content, and certain mounts, like the Traveler's Tundra Mammoth, the usefulness of which I can definitely vouch for. I bring this up because, in the end, practical rewards are the only ones worth getting worked up over. Yes, aesthetic rewards can represent certain achievements (like the title of "the Insane" representing your uncommon dedication to the game), but in the end, assuming the criteria for their acquisition doesn't change significantly, they aren't worth getting worked up over.
So, which category do 310%-speed mounts fall into? Though the difference of speed may seem negligible, the fact is that it is a difference, making them a practical reward for anyone who already has a regular epic flying mount. In fact, that difference of speed isn't as negligible as it seems. Let's say there is a trip that takes you five minutes to make on a 280% speed mount. That same trip will take you a bit over four and a half minutes on a 310% speed mount. What that means is that using a 310%-speed mount instead of a 280%-speed mount makes you around 10% faster, i.e. a significant amount. What all that math means is that 310%-speed mounts are very practical rewards, and definitely worth considering seriously.
So, now that we know it's worth it to consider whether completing What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been justifies owning a 310% speed mount, it's time to ask that question. Let's get one thing straight before we start: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is not as difficult to get as it used to be. I won't go over all of the changes that have been made to the holiday achievements in the interest of saving time, but I'll sum it up by saying that a lot less is based on chance these days, with most of the achievements being based on whether you have enough time to do them, and they don't really take that long to do, either. If other holidays go the way of Love Is in the Air, we won't be able to use the difficulty of the holiday achievements to justify What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been rewarding a 310%-speed mount.
But then again, it never was about the difficulty, was is? Considering that the only other way to get a 310%-speed mount is to be really good at raiding, really good at arena, or really lucky with raid drops, the Violet Proto-Drake was meant to be a way for people who can't raid really well or fight in the arena really well to get a 310% speed mount. So how did Blizzard justify giving such a reward for something that isn't that hard compared to all of the other sources? Dedication. What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is possibly the only thing in WoW that is guaranteed to take about year to earn; there's just no way to get around that. That's why such a great reward can be rewarded for such simple actions.
But is dedication enough? After all, considering how little time the holidays take to complete these days, the only real dedication required is simply participating in the holidays when they come around. One can't deny that School of Hard Knocks is pretty difficult, and Sinister Calling takes quite a bit of luck, but Blizzard could up and change those on us the next time those holidays come around. I suppose the only objective way to determine whether the Violet Proto-Drake is a fair reward is to look at the other ways 310%-speed mounts can be obtained. The raiding mounts require you to fight boss battles in ways that make the battles exceedingly difficult, meaning you need to be really good at raiding and be part of a raid with good coordination. The arena drakes require you to be part of a really good arena team, meaning you need to be good at PvP and your teammates need to be good team players. The Onyxia drake requires you to get really really lucky with your loot and your roll and have the basic skills needed to down Onyxia (.2% drop chance divided by 25 players equal you'll never get it, i.e. .008% chance of getting the drake on any given kill). So, to get a 310%-speed mount, you need to be either really good at the game or really lucky. I suppose the solo-equivalent would be being really dedicated to WoW, so does working on holidays on and off for a year qualify as really dedicated?
Here's the thing about 310%-speed mounts: some people may not see them as a necessity, but they are without a doubt the next step up in mounts. They are as much of a non-necessity as epic flying mounts are a non-necessity: sure, you could get by without them, but your playing experience wouldn't be as enjoyable if you had to. That said, as the fastest mounts in the game, they should without a doubt be difficult to get, just as epic flying used to be difficult to get when 5,000 gold was big money. Still, you could grind a bit each day and get that 5,000 gold without spending too much time each day in game. It would take you a long time, but you'd get it eventually. The Violet Proto-Drake is the same way, except the real-world time you need to spend grinding for it is forcibly stretched out to almost a year. The only difference between how a casual player would go through the holidays and how a dedicated player would go through the holidays is that the dedicated player would get all of the achievements really quickly, while a casual player may need the whole duration of the holiday to earn them. Hell, the only reason I got Fool For Love in only two days was because my schedule was such that I really had nothing else to do, so I spent almost all of my waking hours working on the meta, and I found a really good spot for grinding Lovely Charms. I bring that up because the reason this is even an issue is that dedicated players go through the holidays really quickly and end up feeling cheated, as if Blizzard has made What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been easier just to cater to the casuals.
But here's the thing: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is supposed to cater to the casuals. As I have said, 310% speed mounts are the logical stepping-point after regular epic mounts, and the purpose of What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is to allow casual players to get those mounts. The people who complain that the holidays are too easy are the ones that the raid and arena mounts are intended for. The Violet Proto-Drake is the 310%-speed mount for people who can't spend a lot of time in-game each day, which is why many of the changes that made dedicated players angry were made to the holiday achievements. Making someone spend a whole year on holidays, only to make them wait longer once they have done everything they need to do is decidedly non-casual friendly. Forcing people to run a boss every day in hopes of getting a mount to drop when they could very well be screwed over by RNG is decidedly non-casual friendly. Forcing players to log in every hour because the RNG keeps giving them the same candies is decidedly non-casual friendly.
Point is, the Violet Proto-Drake is supposed to be easy to acquire, which is why it takes so long to do so in real-world time. The various holidays should only take a dedicated player a few days to complete, because that means they would take a casual player longer. If you think about the amount of dedication someone who can only play for an hour a day or so would need to complete these holidays, it's probably similar to the amount of dedication needed to get the raiding drakes. Holidays are just a different game, one that is designed for the casual player; players who blast through the achievements and then complain the holiday is too easy are, to borrow terms from Halo, heroic or legendary players playing on normal mode.
Let's establish the basics: there are many rewards for your various exploits and adventures in World of Warcraft, but they all fall into two categories: practical and aesthetic. Aethetic rewards include mounts, pets, titles, and other such things that don't actually make gameplay easier or more enjoyable (other than by looking at them.) Practical rewards somehow enhance your gaming experience. Practical rewards are things like gear, which allows you access new content, and certain mounts, like the Traveler's Tundra Mammoth, the usefulness of which I can definitely vouch for. I bring this up because, in the end, practical rewards are the only ones worth getting worked up over. Yes, aesthetic rewards can represent certain achievements (like the title of "the Insane" representing your uncommon dedication to the game), but in the end, assuming the criteria for their acquisition doesn't change significantly, they aren't worth getting worked up over.
So, which category do 310%-speed mounts fall into? Though the difference of speed may seem negligible, the fact is that it is a difference, making them a practical reward for anyone who already has a regular epic flying mount. In fact, that difference of speed isn't as negligible as it seems. Let's say there is a trip that takes you five minutes to make on a 280% speed mount. That same trip will take you a bit over four and a half minutes on a 310% speed mount. What that means is that using a 310%-speed mount instead of a 280%-speed mount makes you around 10% faster, i.e. a significant amount. What all that math means is that 310%-speed mounts are very practical rewards, and definitely worth considering seriously.
So, now that we know it's worth it to consider whether completing What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been justifies owning a 310% speed mount, it's time to ask that question. Let's get one thing straight before we start: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is not as difficult to get as it used to be. I won't go over all of the changes that have been made to the holiday achievements in the interest of saving time, but I'll sum it up by saying that a lot less is based on chance these days, with most of the achievements being based on whether you have enough time to do them, and they don't really take that long to do, either. If other holidays go the way of Love Is in the Air, we won't be able to use the difficulty of the holiday achievements to justify What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been rewarding a 310%-speed mount.
But then again, it never was about the difficulty, was is? Considering that the only other way to get a 310%-speed mount is to be really good at raiding, really good at arena, or really lucky with raid drops, the Violet Proto-Drake was meant to be a way for people who can't raid really well or fight in the arena really well to get a 310% speed mount. So how did Blizzard justify giving such a reward for something that isn't that hard compared to all of the other sources? Dedication. What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is possibly the only thing in WoW that is guaranteed to take about year to earn; there's just no way to get around that. That's why such a great reward can be rewarded for such simple actions.
But is dedication enough? After all, considering how little time the holidays take to complete these days, the only real dedication required is simply participating in the holidays when they come around. One can't deny that School of Hard Knocks is pretty difficult, and Sinister Calling takes quite a bit of luck, but Blizzard could up and change those on us the next time those holidays come around. I suppose the only objective way to determine whether the Violet Proto-Drake is a fair reward is to look at the other ways 310%-speed mounts can be obtained. The raiding mounts require you to fight boss battles in ways that make the battles exceedingly difficult, meaning you need to be really good at raiding and be part of a raid with good coordination. The arena drakes require you to be part of a really good arena team, meaning you need to be good at PvP and your teammates need to be good team players. The Onyxia drake requires you to get really really lucky with your loot and your roll and have the basic skills needed to down Onyxia (.2% drop chance divided by 25 players equal you'll never get it, i.e. .008% chance of getting the drake on any given kill). So, to get a 310%-speed mount, you need to be either really good at the game or really lucky. I suppose the solo-equivalent would be being really dedicated to WoW, so does working on holidays on and off for a year qualify as really dedicated?
Here's the thing about 310%-speed mounts: some people may not see them as a necessity, but they are without a doubt the next step up in mounts. They are as much of a non-necessity as epic flying mounts are a non-necessity: sure, you could get by without them, but your playing experience wouldn't be as enjoyable if you had to. That said, as the fastest mounts in the game, they should without a doubt be difficult to get, just as epic flying used to be difficult to get when 5,000 gold was big money. Still, you could grind a bit each day and get that 5,000 gold without spending too much time each day in game. It would take you a long time, but you'd get it eventually. The Violet Proto-Drake is the same way, except the real-world time you need to spend grinding for it is forcibly stretched out to almost a year. The only difference between how a casual player would go through the holidays and how a dedicated player would go through the holidays is that the dedicated player would get all of the achievements really quickly, while a casual player may need the whole duration of the holiday to earn them. Hell, the only reason I got Fool For Love in only two days was because my schedule was such that I really had nothing else to do, so I spent almost all of my waking hours working on the meta, and I found a really good spot for grinding Lovely Charms. I bring that up because the reason this is even an issue is that dedicated players go through the holidays really quickly and end up feeling cheated, as if Blizzard has made What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been easier just to cater to the casuals.
But here's the thing: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is supposed to cater to the casuals. As I have said, 310% speed mounts are the logical stepping-point after regular epic mounts, and the purpose of What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is to allow casual players to get those mounts. The people who complain that the holidays are too easy are the ones that the raid and arena mounts are intended for. The Violet Proto-Drake is the 310%-speed mount for people who can't spend a lot of time in-game each day, which is why many of the changes that made dedicated players angry were made to the holiday achievements. Making someone spend a whole year on holidays, only to make them wait longer once they have done everything they need to do is decidedly non-casual friendly. Forcing people to run a boss every day in hopes of getting a mount to drop when they could very well be screwed over by RNG is decidedly non-casual friendly. Forcing players to log in every hour because the RNG keeps giving them the same candies is decidedly non-casual friendly.
Point is, the Violet Proto-Drake is supposed to be easy to acquire, which is why it takes so long to do so in real-world time. The various holidays should only take a dedicated player a few days to complete, because that means they would take a casual player longer. If you think about the amount of dedication someone who can only play for an hour a day or so would need to complete these holidays, it's probably similar to the amount of dedication needed to get the raiding drakes. Holidays are just a different game, one that is designed for the casual player; players who blast through the achievements and then complain the holiday is too easy are, to borrow terms from Halo, heroic or legendary players playing on normal mode.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Tips on leveling a shaman
As I mentioned in my Discovery Channel tribute, I have a shaman alt that I have been leveling since early in the Burning Crusade era. Because of my less-than-consistent dedication to him, he is still languishing in early Burning Crusade content; he's just the character I go back to when I need a break from end-game, so I play him pretty infrequently. Still, in leveling him, I have learned quite a bit about leveling a shaman that I thought I would share here for anyone else who is doing the same.
1. Spec Enhancement
Of course, this piece of advice comes with the universal leveling-spec-advice caveat: you should level as whatever spec you like the most. No matter what you want to do with your alt, you'll likely do it better as a spec you like than as an "efficient" spec. Are you leveling for fun? Well, it's a no brainer there. Trying to get your alt to 8o quickly? You'll want to play it more if you enjoy your spec, so you'll likely get your alt to 80 faster with a spec you enjoy than with the "best" leveling spec. With that said, Enhancement is both a good leveling spec and a fun spec to play. The mix of melee and casting (especially with the inclusion of Maelstrom Weapon late in the talent tree) makes the enhancement shaman one of the only specs (probably the only, in fact) that feels like a true hybrid class. Enhancement also has good mana efficiency, especially as you level, to the point where by the time you reach 50, you'll rarely need to buy water again.
2. Weapon choices
If you level as Enhancement, the type of weapon you use will be an important decision to make. Of course, once you hit level 40 (or 41 if you took Stormstrike first), you should take the talent Dual Wield and equip the two slowest one-handed weapons you can find for your level. There's no reason to do anything else. Before then, you'll need to decide whether to use a two-handed weapon or a one-handed weapon and a shield. If you use a two-handed weapon, battles will be over faster, since you'll be taking more damage (without the shield) and causing more damage to your foes. You'll also need to get two replacement weapons once you hit level 40 (or 41). If you use a one-handed weapon and a shield, you battles will be more drawn out, giving you more time to react and making the battles less hectic. You'll also only need to get one new weapon when you get Dual Wield. Ultimately, my advice is this: if you want to rush your shaman to the level cap, use a two-hander; if you want to play him to relax, use a one-hander and a shield. Either way, it all evens out at 40: you get to wear mail, so that will make up for the loss of the shield, and dual wielding will likely increase your damage either way.
As an extra note, if you use a shield, then defense rating becomes surprisingly useful between levels 30 and 40, assuming you took Spirit Weapons. The combination of being able to parry and block means you'll be able to take advantage of all of the aspects of defense rating, so if you see a ring with it that is an upgrade for you, think about taking it.
3. Totems are mana-intensive.
Although totems can bring many benefits to your shaman in battle, they cost a lot of mana to drop. Until you get Shamanistic Rage at 50 (assuming you spec'ed enhance) you have no quick way of getting that mana back, so totems are only worth using if you'll be able to benefit from them for a while. As such, you should only drop them in a spot close to a few enemies that you are going to kill. If you are running around for a quest, never staying in one place for more than one kill, dropping totems is not a good idea; you'll burn through mana faster than classic-era balance druid. If you want to get the most out of your totems, try using Lightning Bolt to pull an enemy from afar, then run toward your totems and fight him by them. Use shocks to keep him interested in you if you have to. With all that said, if you are going to fight more than one enemy in one spot, at least drop Mana Spring Totem. The others are only worth using if you are going to be killing at least four or five enemies by the spot where you drop them, but Mana Spring Totem, when used at every opportunity, really adds up. Try to use it right before battle so that you gimp your spirit-based mana regen as little as possible.
4. Use your elemental shields intelligently
At level 8, you get a spell called Lightning Shield that causes extra damage to enemies that attack you. At level 20, you get Water Shield, which restores mana when you are attacked and also constantly restores mana. There are a few important points to remember when using these spells in order to use them well.
-Use Lightning Shield if you are finishing battles with less health than mana (percentage-wise). Use Water Shield if you are finishing battles with less mana than health.
-If you are using Water Shield, make sure you always have at least one orb left so you can benefit from the passive mana regeneration as well as the orb effect. Because Lightning Shield is on an internal cooldown, you don't need to activate it immediately after it runs out, but don't delay too long or you'll miss out on that free extra damage.
-In the heat of battle, it's easy to forget to refresh your shields when they run out. Make it a habit to refresh whatever shield you are using whenever you aren't casting anything else and won't case anything else in the next second and a half.
-If you are just riding somewhere and have no intention of fighting anything, don't leave up Lightning Shield. Water Shield is fine, but Lightning Shield will cause threat to enemies that attack you, making them chase your farther than they usually would.
1. Spec Enhancement
Of course, this piece of advice comes with the universal leveling-spec-advice caveat: you should level as whatever spec you like the most. No matter what you want to do with your alt, you'll likely do it better as a spec you like than as an "efficient" spec. Are you leveling for fun? Well, it's a no brainer there. Trying to get your alt to 8o quickly? You'll want to play it more if you enjoy your spec, so you'll likely get your alt to 80 faster with a spec you enjoy than with the "best" leveling spec. With that said, Enhancement is both a good leveling spec and a fun spec to play. The mix of melee and casting (especially with the inclusion of Maelstrom Weapon late in the talent tree) makes the enhancement shaman one of the only specs (probably the only, in fact) that feels like a true hybrid class. Enhancement also has good mana efficiency, especially as you level, to the point where by the time you reach 50, you'll rarely need to buy water again.
2. Weapon choices
If you level as Enhancement, the type of weapon you use will be an important decision to make. Of course, once you hit level 40 (or 41 if you took Stormstrike first), you should take the talent Dual Wield and equip the two slowest one-handed weapons you can find for your level. There's no reason to do anything else. Before then, you'll need to decide whether to use a two-handed weapon or a one-handed weapon and a shield. If you use a two-handed weapon, battles will be over faster, since you'll be taking more damage (without the shield) and causing more damage to your foes. You'll also need to get two replacement weapons once you hit level 40 (or 41). If you use a one-handed weapon and a shield, you battles will be more drawn out, giving you more time to react and making the battles less hectic. You'll also only need to get one new weapon when you get Dual Wield. Ultimately, my advice is this: if you want to rush your shaman to the level cap, use a two-hander; if you want to play him to relax, use a one-hander and a shield. Either way, it all evens out at 40: you get to wear mail, so that will make up for the loss of the shield, and dual wielding will likely increase your damage either way.
As an extra note, if you use a shield, then defense rating becomes surprisingly useful between levels 30 and 40, assuming you took Spirit Weapons. The combination of being able to parry and block means you'll be able to take advantage of all of the aspects of defense rating, so if you see a ring with it that is an upgrade for you, think about taking it.
3. Totems are mana-intensive.
Although totems can bring many benefits to your shaman in battle, they cost a lot of mana to drop. Until you get Shamanistic Rage at 50 (assuming you spec'ed enhance) you have no quick way of getting that mana back, so totems are only worth using if you'll be able to benefit from them for a while. As such, you should only drop them in a spot close to a few enemies that you are going to kill. If you are running around for a quest, never staying in one place for more than one kill, dropping totems is not a good idea; you'll burn through mana faster than classic-era balance druid. If you want to get the most out of your totems, try using Lightning Bolt to pull an enemy from afar, then run toward your totems and fight him by them. Use shocks to keep him interested in you if you have to. With all that said, if you are going to fight more than one enemy in one spot, at least drop Mana Spring Totem. The others are only worth using if you are going to be killing at least four or five enemies by the spot where you drop them, but Mana Spring Totem, when used at every opportunity, really adds up. Try to use it right before battle so that you gimp your spirit-based mana regen as little as possible.
4. Use your elemental shields intelligently
At level 8, you get a spell called Lightning Shield that causes extra damage to enemies that attack you. At level 20, you get Water Shield, which restores mana when you are attacked and also constantly restores mana. There are a few important points to remember when using these spells in order to use them well.
-Use Lightning Shield if you are finishing battles with less health than mana (percentage-wise). Use Water Shield if you are finishing battles with less mana than health.
-If you are using Water Shield, make sure you always have at least one orb left so you can benefit from the passive mana regeneration as well as the orb effect. Because Lightning Shield is on an internal cooldown, you don't need to activate it immediately after it runs out, but don't delay too long or you'll miss out on that free extra damage.
-In the heat of battle, it's easy to forget to refresh your shields when they run out. Make it a habit to refresh whatever shield you are using whenever you aren't casting anything else and won't case anything else in the next second and a half.
-If you are just riding somewhere and have no intention of fighting anything, don't leave up Lightning Shield. Water Shield is fine, but Lightning Shield will cause threat to enemies that attack you, making them chase your farther than they usually would.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Reflections on the soon-to-come end of my long, strange trip
It's almost here. With Fool For Love under my belt, I am about to reach the end of my long, strange trip. Once I earn To Honor Ones Elders, that will be it; the Violet Proto-Drake will be mine, and my year of work (ok, it will likely be a bit under eleven months, but who's counting?) will have finally paid off. I will finally have access to that long coveted 310% speed mount, and my Swift Flight Form will be updated to go that much faster as well. I'm not going to lie; I am absolutely giddy with anticipation.
How I got started on this long, strange trip is it's own story, because for the longest time, I refused to participate in the holidays. Though I didn't reach level 80 until early January back in 2009, I could have certainly started working on the holidays as soon as Hallow's End came after the achievements were first implemented, but I didn't. Why? Because I was afraid to fail. I know that's a silly fear to have about what is essentially solo content, but I didn't want to start the holidays if I knew there was a chance I may not be able to finish them. I also didn't want to divert my focus from leveling my main, so those two factors prevented me form working on Hallow's End and Winter Veil. Even after I hit 80, I didn't want to start on the achievements: the Lunar Festive seemed like too much work, and considering how much of Fool For Love was based on luck back in 2009, I didn't want to risk it knowing that I could be screwed out of the meta with just a bit of bad luck.
What finally got me into the holiday spirit, if you will, was Noblegarden. By the time Noblegarden came around, I was an avid reader of WoW.com (then wowinsider.com), and they came out with a post detailing what one needed to do to complete the Noblegarden achievements. I read through it and thought to myself, "Say, that doesn't seem so difficult." A few days later, I received my first meta. It was then that I realized that my fears about the holiday achievements were unfounded, and I did a complete 180° and resolved to earn the Violet Proto-Drake. That was almost a year ago, and I have formed quite a few memories in the process of attaining that goal.
Children's Week came next, and like many of you, I was worried about not being able to complete School of Hard Knocks. I went into the battlegrounds immediately to get that part of the meta over with quickly, and I fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of a collection of small miracles. I started in Arathi Basin, where I was able to capture the Blacksmith flag without too much effort. I then moved on to Eye of the Storm, where the Alliance and Horde took turns taking the flag from the center without trying to stop each other. Though I had to wait a bit, I was able to complete that criterion during my first battle. I then moved into Alterac Valley, where I fell behind the other people there on my way to the tower. I followed them anyways, hoping some kind-hearted hordie would risk life and limb to helps us get the achievement. So there we were, ten of us in one tower, and one person had already taken the flag. We waited a bit, and then we saw him: a Tauren Warrior with his orphan out. He stood in the doorway for a while to gauge our intentions, and when no one attacked him, he walked in and took the tower for the Horde. Then one of us took it for the Alliance. Then he took it back. Then another one of us took it back. It was a beautiful sight (at least to my care bear eyes; I'm sure dedicated PvP'ers are still horrified that the battlegrounds became a place of cooperation between the two factions that week.), and we all /thanked the warrior before /afk'ing out. I then queued for Warsong Gulch, which I knew would likely be the hardest part of School of Hard Knocks. Indeed, that round would have turned into a round of turtling if that band of hordies hadn't run in to take our flag. We let them pass and then nuked the flag bearer down, and wouldn't you know it, it landed right in front of me. I right clicked it, /afk'ed out, and thanked God it was over. I then completed the rest of the achievements without issue.
The Fire Festival meta didn't take me too long, since I had already interacted with all of the fires the year before. All I needed to do was kill Ahune (I had bad luck with groups the year before, but Blizzard's decision to not update him to level 80 made the process easy for me) and do the other two easy achievements. Brewfest was also pretty easy, and though I had to juggle starting college and doing those dailies every day, I managed the meta without much issue, and even got a Great Brewfest Kodo out of the holiday, as well as some direly needed trinkets for my tank set and healing set. The one difficult thing about the holiday was seeing Violet Proto-Drakes popping up around me and trying to not feel discouraged.
Hallow's End gave me more trouble than I thought it would. That tooth pick stubbornly refused to drop until the last few days of the holiday, so That Sparkling Smile stood incomplete in my achievement panel for quite some time. Sinister Calling also gave me quite a bit of trouble, for the Headless Horsemen didn't seem to want to drop the helm or the pet, but by running the boss every day, I got them both. Winter Veil wasn't too difficult, with the exception of With a Little Helper from My Friends. As a druid, if I shifted into any of my forms, I lost the little helper costume, meaning I couldn't really contribute meaningfully to the fight. After unsuccessfully trying to get honorable kills in Strand of the Ancients, I tried playing defense in Isle of Conquest by killing players with the turrets. That got me about ten kills a battle, and once I finally got fifty, I finally said a tearless goodbye to PvP.
As you can guess by the fact that it only took me two days to get Fool For Love, I didn't find those achievements particularly difficult. Fistful of Love was less than pleasant to do, but at least I confirmed that Troll Rogues and Undead Warriors do indeed exist on my server. What was a bit ironic were that the combos I had the most trouble finding (the previous two, as well as a Night Elf Priest and Orc Shaman) were all characters I either currently have or had in the past. My first character was an Undeed Warrior, my second one was a Troll Rogue, I rolled an Orc Shaman at some point in the past, any one of my current alts is a Night Elf Priest.
So it comes down to this. The Lunar Festival is the last event I will need to participate in in order to get my Violet Proto-Drake, and with the long weekend I have this week, I'll be able to take care of a good chunk of it early on. Still, as giddy as I am that I am finally going to complete this trip, this journey, this long-term goal, I can't help but wonder what will happen now. Will I still participate in the holidays? The reason I participated in them for the last year was the Violet Proto-Drake; once I have that, will I even bother anymore? Will the lure of cool vanity items alone be enough to draw me in? Or will I become like those curmudgeons who comment on WoW.com posts about the holidays by saying that if it doesn't offer gear or emblems, then they aren't interested, and are then immediately voted down? I hope not; even before the achievement system, the holidays were some of my favorite parts of the game. They gave a whimsical diversion form the usual rat race of gold and gear. If they keep evolving as they have in the past to fit the current game design, I'm sure they'll still interest me. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. One can't know the future while still living in the present.
Of course, all of this is assuming that some time in the next three weeks, the Alliance will be able to take Wintergrasp on my realm so that I can talk to Elder Bluewolf, a pretty big assumption to make. If I loose out on this one last meta because of that, I just may ragequit.
How I got started on this long, strange trip is it's own story, because for the longest time, I refused to participate in the holidays. Though I didn't reach level 80 until early January back in 2009, I could have certainly started working on the holidays as soon as Hallow's End came after the achievements were first implemented, but I didn't. Why? Because I was afraid to fail. I know that's a silly fear to have about what is essentially solo content, but I didn't want to start the holidays if I knew there was a chance I may not be able to finish them. I also didn't want to divert my focus from leveling my main, so those two factors prevented me form working on Hallow's End and Winter Veil. Even after I hit 80, I didn't want to start on the achievements: the Lunar Festive seemed like too much work, and considering how much of Fool For Love was based on luck back in 2009, I didn't want to risk it knowing that I could be screwed out of the meta with just a bit of bad luck.
What finally got me into the holiday spirit, if you will, was Noblegarden. By the time Noblegarden came around, I was an avid reader of WoW.com (then wowinsider.com), and they came out with a post detailing what one needed to do to complete the Noblegarden achievements. I read through it and thought to myself, "Say, that doesn't seem so difficult." A few days later, I received my first meta. It was then that I realized that my fears about the holiday achievements were unfounded, and I did a complete 180° and resolved to earn the Violet Proto-Drake. That was almost a year ago, and I have formed quite a few memories in the process of attaining that goal.
Children's Week came next, and like many of you, I was worried about not being able to complete School of Hard Knocks. I went into the battlegrounds immediately to get that part of the meta over with quickly, and I fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of a collection of small miracles. I started in Arathi Basin, where I was able to capture the Blacksmith flag without too much effort. I then moved on to Eye of the Storm, where the Alliance and Horde took turns taking the flag from the center without trying to stop each other. Though I had to wait a bit, I was able to complete that criterion during my first battle. I then moved into Alterac Valley, where I fell behind the other people there on my way to the tower. I followed them anyways, hoping some kind-hearted hordie would risk life and limb to helps us get the achievement. So there we were, ten of us in one tower, and one person had already taken the flag. We waited a bit, and then we saw him: a Tauren Warrior with his orphan out. He stood in the doorway for a while to gauge our intentions, and when no one attacked him, he walked in and took the tower for the Horde. Then one of us took it for the Alliance. Then he took it back. Then another one of us took it back. It was a beautiful sight (at least to my care bear eyes; I'm sure dedicated PvP'ers are still horrified that the battlegrounds became a place of cooperation between the two factions that week.), and we all /thanked the warrior before /afk'ing out. I then queued for Warsong Gulch, which I knew would likely be the hardest part of School of Hard Knocks. Indeed, that round would have turned into a round of turtling if that band of hordies hadn't run in to take our flag. We let them pass and then nuked the flag bearer down, and wouldn't you know it, it landed right in front of me. I right clicked it, /afk'ed out, and thanked God it was over. I then completed the rest of the achievements without issue.
The Fire Festival meta didn't take me too long, since I had already interacted with all of the fires the year before. All I needed to do was kill Ahune (I had bad luck with groups the year before, but Blizzard's decision to not update him to level 80 made the process easy for me) and do the other two easy achievements. Brewfest was also pretty easy, and though I had to juggle starting college and doing those dailies every day, I managed the meta without much issue, and even got a Great Brewfest Kodo out of the holiday, as well as some direly needed trinkets for my tank set and healing set. The one difficult thing about the holiday was seeing Violet Proto-Drakes popping up around me and trying to not feel discouraged.
Hallow's End gave me more trouble than I thought it would. That tooth pick stubbornly refused to drop until the last few days of the holiday, so That Sparkling Smile stood incomplete in my achievement panel for quite some time. Sinister Calling also gave me quite a bit of trouble, for the Headless Horsemen didn't seem to want to drop the helm or the pet, but by running the boss every day, I got them both. Winter Veil wasn't too difficult, with the exception of With a Little Helper from My Friends. As a druid, if I shifted into any of my forms, I lost the little helper costume, meaning I couldn't really contribute meaningfully to the fight. After unsuccessfully trying to get honorable kills in Strand of the Ancients, I tried playing defense in Isle of Conquest by killing players with the turrets. That got me about ten kills a battle, and once I finally got fifty, I finally said a tearless goodbye to PvP.
As you can guess by the fact that it only took me two days to get Fool For Love, I didn't find those achievements particularly difficult. Fistful of Love was less than pleasant to do, but at least I confirmed that Troll Rogues and Undead Warriors do indeed exist on my server. What was a bit ironic were that the combos I had the most trouble finding (the previous two, as well as a Night Elf Priest and Orc Shaman) were all characters I either currently have or had in the past. My first character was an Undeed Warrior, my second one was a Troll Rogue, I rolled an Orc Shaman at some point in the past, any one of my current alts is a Night Elf Priest.
So it comes down to this. The Lunar Festival is the last event I will need to participate in in order to get my Violet Proto-Drake, and with the long weekend I have this week, I'll be able to take care of a good chunk of it early on. Still, as giddy as I am that I am finally going to complete this trip, this journey, this long-term goal, I can't help but wonder what will happen now. Will I still participate in the holidays? The reason I participated in them for the last year was the Violet Proto-Drake; once I have that, will I even bother anymore? Will the lure of cool vanity items alone be enough to draw me in? Or will I become like those curmudgeons who comment on WoW.com posts about the holidays by saying that if it doesn't offer gear or emblems, then they aren't interested, and are then immediately voted down? I hope not; even before the achievement system, the holidays were some of my favorite parts of the game. They gave a whimsical diversion form the usual rat race of gold and gear. If they keep evolving as they have in the past to fit the current game design, I'm sure they'll still interest me. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. One can't know the future while still living in the present.
Of course, all of this is assuming that some time in the next three weeks, the Alliance will be able to take Wintergrasp on my realm so that I can talk to Elder Bluewolf, a pretty big assumption to make. If I loose out on this one last meta because of that, I just may ragequit.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Shoot raid loot still be based on random drops?
Anyone doing the Love is in the Air event this year knows that much less of your ability to successfully complete the meta is based on chance than it was last year. This year, you can get all of the items you need by handing in Love Tokens, which are rewarded by the new dailies and given when you give the holiday vendors a Lovely Charm Bracelet, which are made from Lovely Charms, which can be farmed off of any enemy in the game that gives you experience. In short, getting all of the achievements for Love is in the Air is simply a matter of investing enough time in the holiday, to the extent that, with some dedicated play, I got all of the achievements for the meta in two days.
Why do I bring this up? Because the larger trend in World of Warcraft seems to be a general moving away from RNG. In general, chance is playing less of a roll in everything we do. Tier gear is now bought with emblems, not tokens that randomly drop off of certain bosses, which was still less random than the tier pieces themselves dropping off of raid bosses. We now focus more on gear that can be obtained from emblems and less on gear that drops from bosses than we ever have (though we still think about the latter, obviously). The chance for quest items in Northrend to drop increases with each kill, meaning you don't get those situations where you kill dozens of enemies for that last ear you need for your quest. However, drops from raid bosses are still a very random element of the game, much to the irritation of people who want a specific drop. Is it better that loot remain this way, or are random drops a relic of a more primitive time in WoW's history?
I have said in the past that gear serves two purposes: giving you access to new content and representing your achievements. An RNG-based loot system isn't the best way to accomplish these purposes, but it isn't a horrible way. Basing a person's ability to see content on how lucky they can get with gear drops may not be the best way to go about regulating the rate at which people see the content, but in the long run, streaks of good and back luck when it comes to loot drops tend to even themselves out. Sure, raiders may feel frustrated when a certain piece continually refuses to drop, but raid drops will rarely screw over a person so consistently that he won't be able to gear up for the next raid. As for representing one's achievements, though skill is required to successfully complete raids, getting gear from those raids is more of a matter of luck and dedication than skill. In that sense, gear can be a display of one's dedication to the game, and though one may get lucky with one or two drops in his first raid, many raid runs are usually required to fully deck out one's character, so good gear does a pretty good job of representing one's achievements. That said, the loot system as it is is less than perfect. The amount of gear that gets disenchanted into Abyss Crystals can attest to that, and the random nature of random loot drops necessitates guild loot systems so that everything can be fair.
Still, I think the way loot works is fine as it is, because any feasible alternatives (meaning alternatives that don't change the loot system into some completely new system) would resemble the way loot drops now, but wouldn't be as interesting. Emblems are an example of one such alternative; a different loot system could involve bosses dropping only emblems and all of our gear coming from emblems. However, in the long run, farming emblems for all of your gear would have the same effect on your character as simply running multiple raids for loot drops: both result in your character getting better gear, and though the latter is a bit less consistent, it is more exciting. I think the system we have now, where bosses drop both random items so people can get instant upgrades, and emblems so they can work towards other upgrades, has the best of both worlds: emblems allow people with bad loot luck to still gear up, while random loot drops still allow people to feel the excitement of getting a new piece of gear and the immediate satisfaction that comes with it. Barring a total overhaul of the system by which raid loot is acquired, I think it is fine the way it is.
Why do I bring this up? Because the larger trend in World of Warcraft seems to be a general moving away from RNG. In general, chance is playing less of a roll in everything we do. Tier gear is now bought with emblems, not tokens that randomly drop off of certain bosses, which was still less random than the tier pieces themselves dropping off of raid bosses. We now focus more on gear that can be obtained from emblems and less on gear that drops from bosses than we ever have (though we still think about the latter, obviously). The chance for quest items in Northrend to drop increases with each kill, meaning you don't get those situations where you kill dozens of enemies for that last ear you need for your quest. However, drops from raid bosses are still a very random element of the game, much to the irritation of people who want a specific drop. Is it better that loot remain this way, or are random drops a relic of a more primitive time in WoW's history?
I have said in the past that gear serves two purposes: giving you access to new content and representing your achievements. An RNG-based loot system isn't the best way to accomplish these purposes, but it isn't a horrible way. Basing a person's ability to see content on how lucky they can get with gear drops may not be the best way to go about regulating the rate at which people see the content, but in the long run, streaks of good and back luck when it comes to loot drops tend to even themselves out. Sure, raiders may feel frustrated when a certain piece continually refuses to drop, but raid drops will rarely screw over a person so consistently that he won't be able to gear up for the next raid. As for representing one's achievements, though skill is required to successfully complete raids, getting gear from those raids is more of a matter of luck and dedication than skill. In that sense, gear can be a display of one's dedication to the game, and though one may get lucky with one or two drops in his first raid, many raid runs are usually required to fully deck out one's character, so good gear does a pretty good job of representing one's achievements. That said, the loot system as it is is less than perfect. The amount of gear that gets disenchanted into Abyss Crystals can attest to that, and the random nature of random loot drops necessitates guild loot systems so that everything can be fair.
Still, I think the way loot works is fine as it is, because any feasible alternatives (meaning alternatives that don't change the loot system into some completely new system) would resemble the way loot drops now, but wouldn't be as interesting. Emblems are an example of one such alternative; a different loot system could involve bosses dropping only emblems and all of our gear coming from emblems. However, in the long run, farming emblems for all of your gear would have the same effect on your character as simply running multiple raids for loot drops: both result in your character getting better gear, and though the latter is a bit less consistent, it is more exciting. I think the system we have now, where bosses drop both random items so people can get instant upgrades, and emblems so they can work towards other upgrades, has the best of both worlds: emblems allow people with bad loot luck to still gear up, while random loot drops still allow people to feel the excitement of getting a new piece of gear and the immediate satisfaction that comes with it. Barring a total overhaul of the system by which raid loot is acquired, I think it is fine the way it is.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Heroic achievements you should go for now that everyone outgears heroics, Part II
This post is a continuation of my last advice post. Without any further ado, let's get right to it.
Halls of Stone
Brann Spankin' New
You'll get this one if none of the enemies during the Tribunal of Ages encounter ever attack Brann. This one was pretty easy before the new emblem system, so it's easy-sauce now. Just have you tank stand on the stairs so he can catch any enemies before they go for Brann.
Good Grief
The Maiden of Grief needs to die very quickly for you to get this one. This one is easy if your DPS are geared enough; otherwise, you probably won't get it. If you could faceroll your way through the trash as a group, then you should be able to get this one.
The Culling of Stratholme
The Culling of Time
In the olden days, it was a challenge to get to the end of the instance fast enough to kill the Infinite Corrupter in time. Since Patch 3.3 came out, I have yet to be a part of a group that hasn't killed him. I always have about three or five minutes to spare with this one, so it's quite easy. Just don't get lost and make sure you tell Arthas to continue as soon as you are able.
The Oculus
Make It Count
I'll admit, you'll need to be fast to make this one happen, but as long as you have run Oculus before and know what you are doing, you can do it. The trouble is getting grouped with four people who know what they are doing, since needing to explain the dungeon and guide lost group members is the one thing that will add more time to the time it takes you to complete this dungeon than anything else.
The Violet Hold
A Void Dance
Zuramat is a difficult boss, and your successfully completing this achievement hinges on two things: your healer being able to heal through the extra damage you will receive by not killing his void sentries, and your DPS being good enough to burn him down such that the damage caused by the sentries doesn't overwhelm your healer. When he summons sentries, only one person will be able to see each one and kill him, so your entire group will need to be on board for this. Kill him without attacking the sentries and this achievement will be yours.
Defenseless
There are switches around the room that activate beams that will damage your enemies. The only time you should need to use them is while fighting Ichoron, so just don't use them unless you get her as a boss and you'll satisfy that part of the achievement. As for not letting the trash hit the shield, as long as your tank knows what he is doing, that shouldn't be a problem. If you are the tank, know that the adds that spawn from the north-west portal will go in two directions, so be sure to get to the portal before they run off so you can pick them up easily.
Dehydration
It's hard to get this one while going for Defenseless, so don't try to get them both at the same time. If the adds during Ichoron's fight reach her, you won't get this achievement. Luckily for you, you can use the switches around the room to kill them before they reach her. Make sure someone is on the ball with that (ideally a DPS) and you'll be golden.
Lockdown!
For this one, you simply need to kill all six bosses that can spawn in Violet Hold. It will take multiple runs, but just keep at it and you'll get it eventually. (Granted, this one has nothing to do with gear, but I thought I'd mention it anyways, just for completion's sake.)
Utgarde Keep
On the Rocks
For this one, you need to let your group-mates remain frozen when Prince Keleseth uses Frost Tomb, meaning they will be out of commission for 20 seconds. This is a pretty difficult one if your healer isn't a druid (their HoTs allow the tank to survive a bit longer while the healer is frozen), and with people in the kind of gear they are now, someone may inadvertently break a Frost Tomb without realizing it by using an ability that just happens to hit multiple targets. However, a way to do this that involves a bit of luck is to have a shaman use Frost Resistance Totem or a paladin use Frost Resistance Aura. It is possible to resist Frost Tomb, and if your group resists it every time it is cast, you will get this achievement. You'll need to kill him quickly for that to happen, buy I've seen it done.
Utgarde Pinnacle
King's Bane
King Ymiron is an example of a fight where killing him fast enough prevents him from even using an ability that makes the fight difficult. Kill him fast enough and he'll never be able to use Bane. Simple enough.
So there you go. Sadly, most groups probably won't want to go for the more complex achievements, so if you were hoping to try to get Glory of the Hero, you better hope your guild-mates are down for helping you with that.
Halls of Stone
Brann Spankin' New
You'll get this one if none of the enemies during the Tribunal of Ages encounter ever attack Brann. This one was pretty easy before the new emblem system, so it's easy-sauce now. Just have you tank stand on the stairs so he can catch any enemies before they go for Brann.
Good Grief
The Maiden of Grief needs to die very quickly for you to get this one. This one is easy if your DPS are geared enough; otherwise, you probably won't get it. If you could faceroll your way through the trash as a group, then you should be able to get this one.
The Culling of Stratholme
The Culling of Time
In the olden days, it was a challenge to get to the end of the instance fast enough to kill the Infinite Corrupter in time. Since Patch 3.3 came out, I have yet to be a part of a group that hasn't killed him. I always have about three or five minutes to spare with this one, so it's quite easy. Just don't get lost and make sure you tell Arthas to continue as soon as you are able.
The Oculus
Make It Count
I'll admit, you'll need to be fast to make this one happen, but as long as you have run Oculus before and know what you are doing, you can do it. The trouble is getting grouped with four people who know what they are doing, since needing to explain the dungeon and guide lost group members is the one thing that will add more time to the time it takes you to complete this dungeon than anything else.
The Violet Hold
A Void Dance
Zuramat is a difficult boss, and your successfully completing this achievement hinges on two things: your healer being able to heal through the extra damage you will receive by not killing his void sentries, and your DPS being good enough to burn him down such that the damage caused by the sentries doesn't overwhelm your healer. When he summons sentries, only one person will be able to see each one and kill him, so your entire group will need to be on board for this. Kill him without attacking the sentries and this achievement will be yours.
Defenseless
There are switches around the room that activate beams that will damage your enemies. The only time you should need to use them is while fighting Ichoron, so just don't use them unless you get her as a boss and you'll satisfy that part of the achievement. As for not letting the trash hit the shield, as long as your tank knows what he is doing, that shouldn't be a problem. If you are the tank, know that the adds that spawn from the north-west portal will go in two directions, so be sure to get to the portal before they run off so you can pick them up easily.
Dehydration
It's hard to get this one while going for Defenseless, so don't try to get them both at the same time. If the adds during Ichoron's fight reach her, you won't get this achievement. Luckily for you, you can use the switches around the room to kill them before they reach her. Make sure someone is on the ball with that (ideally a DPS) and you'll be golden.
Lockdown!
For this one, you simply need to kill all six bosses that can spawn in Violet Hold. It will take multiple runs, but just keep at it and you'll get it eventually. (Granted, this one has nothing to do with gear, but I thought I'd mention it anyways, just for completion's sake.)
Utgarde Keep
On the Rocks
For this one, you need to let your group-mates remain frozen when Prince Keleseth uses Frost Tomb, meaning they will be out of commission for 20 seconds. This is a pretty difficult one if your healer isn't a druid (their HoTs allow the tank to survive a bit longer while the healer is frozen), and with people in the kind of gear they are now, someone may inadvertently break a Frost Tomb without realizing it by using an ability that just happens to hit multiple targets. However, a way to do this that involves a bit of luck is to have a shaman use Frost Resistance Totem or a paladin use Frost Resistance Aura. It is possible to resist Frost Tomb, and if your group resists it every time it is cast, you will get this achievement. You'll need to kill him quickly for that to happen, buy I've seen it done.
Utgarde Pinnacle
King's Bane
King Ymiron is an example of a fight where killing him fast enough prevents him from even using an ability that makes the fight difficult. Kill him fast enough and he'll never be able to use Bane. Simple enough.
So there you go. Sadly, most groups probably won't want to go for the more complex achievements, so if you were hoping to try to get Glory of the Hero, you better hope your guild-mates are down for helping you with that.
Monday, February 8, 2010
An alternative to reforging and the stat losses it would incur
This post on Restokin about how reforging may not be the über amazing thing we are expecting it to be got me thinking about what could be done if Blizzard doesn't want to allow reforging to completely change the nature of gear. As it stands, it seems that reforging will get rid of one stat on gear and only add an equivalent half of the stat you reforge for. That means that niche classes (both current ones and future ones--I'll explain bellow) will not be able to use reforging as a good means of getting gear in lieu of hoping for usable gear drops. However, people need their gear, and as it is now, people can't get all the gear they need because there are too many classes to itemize for and not enough bosses to drop all that gear. What can be done instead?
Whatever the solution is, it needs to increase the number of classes that will role on a piece of armor and eliminate niche gear (holy paladin gear, resto druid gear, etc.) i.e. gear that only one class/spec will use. Let's discuss niches a bit more. Cataclysm will bring many changes to gear, one being that spirit will be the mana-regen stat for all healers (even shamans and paladins) and DPS will have no use for it. Also, some sort of device will be put in place to motivate people to only wear their top tier of gear, meaning druids won't want to wear cloth, hunters won't want to wear leather, paladins won't want to wear mail, etc. These changes are important, because they mean that even more niches will be created that will make gear less universal than it is now. Think about it: mages, warlocks, and shadow priests won't use spirit, so healing priests will become their own niche. Elemental shamans and restoration shamans will use completely different gear (the latter will use spirit and the former won't), meaning they won't be able to share gear like they (reluctantly) do now. Whatever system Blizzard puts in place needs to address these inevitabilities.
Some inspiration for such a system could be found in the gear exchange system used with Sunwell Plataue armor. With Sunwell Plataue, Blizzard came up with a rather ingenious method for increasing the number of classes that could roll on armor: armor of one type could be exchanged for armor of another type through a vendor. Rogue leather could be exchanged for feral druid leather (remember those days?), healing cloth could be exchanged for DPS cloth, etc. These exchanges worked both ways, in that Sunwell Plataea dropped all types of armor. This meant that rogues had to exchange druid gear for their gear just as we had to exchange their gear for our gear. Could a similar system be implemented for Cataclsym? Let's first look at the various categories of itemization that will exist once Cataclysm hits and the number of class/spec combination that will use them (that latter point is important in deciding which categories should be exchangeable):
DPS cloth (all mages, all warlocks, shadow priests; 7)
healing cloth (discipline/holy priests; 2)
melee leather (all rogues, feral druids; 4)
spell DPS leather (balance druids, 1)
healing leather (restoration druids, 1)
melee mail (all hunters, enhancement shamans; 4)
spell DPS mail (elemental shamans, 1)
healing mail (restoration shamans, 1)
tank plate (protection warriors, protection paladins, frost death knights; 3)
DPS plate (arms/fury warriors, retribution paladins, blood/unholy death knights; 5)
healing plate (holy paladins, 1)
Since there are an odd number of categories, an odd number of them would need to be excluded for the system to work. In keeping with the Sunwell tradition of only exchanging cloth for cloth, mail for mail, etc, a system like this could be used:
DPS cloth <--> healing cloth
spell DPS leather <--> healing leather
spell DPS mail <-- > healing mail
tank plate <--> healing plate
Melee DPS leather, mail, and plate were left out because their demand is high enough that they don't need to be involved in a system like this. With those changes, lets see what the distribution for these new categories is.
DPS cloth/healing cloth (9)
melee leather (4)
spell DPS/healing leather (2)
melee mail (4)
spell DPS/healing mail (2)
DPS plate (5)
tank/healing plate (4)
It's certainly a start: no one class/spec combo gets its own itemization category. Still, cloth seems over-represented, while spell mail and leather are under-represented. Changing tank plate for healing plate could also be problematic. Both tanking and healing are vital and under-represented roles in raiding, and if some tanks and healers shared gear itemization, it could lead to messy situations when a tank-piece drops and the healing paladin wants it. It's also hard to justify, from a lore perspective, changing a piece of tank gear into healing gear magically, since that completely changes the nature of the gear, while the other transformations seem more natural. This system also means that many classes will be exchanging their gear at some point as they raid, making the system an inconvenience for many people.
However, there is an alternative: what if, by adding some leather, scales, or metal to gear, armor could be moved up a tier in armor type? Let's see what categories could be made in such a system. Because people won't want to use a lower class of armor, two-way exchanges would not be necessary in this system, though that means the latter category in each pair would not drop from raids.
healing cloth --> healing leather
spell DPS leather --> spell DPS mail
healing mail --> healing plate
(DPS cloth and tanking plate were left out of this exchange, the former, because it is the most used category, and the latter, because of the issues with the first system and the fact that more classes use it than use the above categories)
So, let's see what the new distribution would be under this system.
DPS cloth (7)
healing cloth/leather (3)
melee leather (4)
spell DPS leather/mail (2)
melee mail (4)
healing mail/plate (2)
DPS plate (5)
tank plate (3)
That seems more balanced to me, but I'd rather have some hard numbers to back up that assumption than simply rely on intuition. Perhaps the standard deviation (a measure of the "spread" of a set of numbers, i.e. the average variation of the numbers from the average of the set) of the systems can give us insight into whether my intuition is right or not.
Standard deviation of the distribution of the first system: 2.36
Standard deviation of the distribution of the second system: 1.67
Looks like my intuition was right; the second system results in a more balanced distribution of gear among the various class/spec combinations. It is also superior to the Sunwell-style gear-exchange system in that fewer class/spec combination are inconvenienced by it; only resto druids, elemental shamans, and holy paladins would need to make any exchanges to change the gear they get in raids, while 17 class/spec combinations would be involved in the previous system. This one is also simpler from a lore perspective, in that the magical essence of the armor piece isn't being changed; only the medium is.
This latter system would also feel more natural than the Sunwell-inspired system; resto druids, elemental shamans, and holy paladins already roll on cloth, leather, and mail armor pieces (respectively) that have the stats they need, so getting them to do so in a raid and then upgrade it later wouldn't be difficult at all. It would also mean that resto druids, elemental shaman, and holy paladins would be able to equip the armor piece as soon as they get it and only be lacking in armor, a stat that shouldn't matter too much, considering their roles. In contrast, getting a holy pally to role on plate gear with promises that he can change it later could be difficult, and the Sunwell-inspired system leaves raiders with gear they can't really use until they upgrade it (in the case of plate tank and healing gear, it leaves them with gear they can't use at all until they upgrade it).
In summary, I propose that the following system be implemented for all armor that drops from Cataclysm's raids (and possibly heroics, if it were feasible): The raids will not drop healing leather armor, spell-DPS mail armor, or healing plate armor. Instead, resto druids will roll on healing cloth, elemental shamans will roll on spell-DPS leather, and holy paladins will roll on healing mail. They will then be able to upgrade those armor pieces to their own armor tier: if the armor is a healing cloth piece, it can be turned into a healing leather piece. If it is a spell-DPS leather piece, it can be turned into a spell-DPS mail piece. If it is a healing mail piece, it can be turned into a healing plate piece. This could be accomplished either through NPCs or perhaps through the various crafting professions. (To keep things fair, tailoring would handle the cloth-to-leather transitions, leatherworking would handle the leather-to-mail transitions, and blacksmithing would handle the mail-to-plate transitions.) The system would involve the player turning in the armor piece and some leather, scales, or metal and receiving the piece exactly as it was before, but with twice as much armor and as a leather, mail, or plate piece, rather than a cloth, leather, or mail pieces, respectively. Those mats could either be a stack of typical mats or one Cataclysm-equivalent to Wrath's Titansteel Bar of Arctic Fur. (Though considering the nature of the process, a stack of typical mats seems more appropriate.) To keep things simple, the stats could remain exactly the same, with only the amount of armor and type of armor changing. To signify this change, the new piece could have its armor type in the tooltip turn green, meaning Blizzard wouldn't need to rename the piece or even come up with a new model. It would be a simple, effective, elegant solution that wouldn't impose the stat loss of Reforging on niche-classes and would allow the armor pieces that drop in raids to be used by more classes.
Whatever the solution is, it needs to increase the number of classes that will role on a piece of armor and eliminate niche gear (holy paladin gear, resto druid gear, etc.) i.e. gear that only one class/spec will use. Let's discuss niches a bit more. Cataclysm will bring many changes to gear, one being that spirit will be the mana-regen stat for all healers (even shamans and paladins) and DPS will have no use for it. Also, some sort of device will be put in place to motivate people to only wear their top tier of gear, meaning druids won't want to wear cloth, hunters won't want to wear leather, paladins won't want to wear mail, etc. These changes are important, because they mean that even more niches will be created that will make gear less universal than it is now. Think about it: mages, warlocks, and shadow priests won't use spirit, so healing priests will become their own niche. Elemental shamans and restoration shamans will use completely different gear (the latter will use spirit and the former won't), meaning they won't be able to share gear like they (reluctantly) do now. Whatever system Blizzard puts in place needs to address these inevitabilities.
Some inspiration for such a system could be found in the gear exchange system used with Sunwell Plataue armor. With Sunwell Plataue, Blizzard came up with a rather ingenious method for increasing the number of classes that could roll on armor: armor of one type could be exchanged for armor of another type through a vendor. Rogue leather could be exchanged for feral druid leather (remember those days?), healing cloth could be exchanged for DPS cloth, etc. These exchanges worked both ways, in that Sunwell Plataea dropped all types of armor. This meant that rogues had to exchange druid gear for their gear just as we had to exchange their gear for our gear. Could a similar system be implemented for Cataclsym? Let's first look at the various categories of itemization that will exist once Cataclysm hits and the number of class/spec combination that will use them (that latter point is important in deciding which categories should be exchangeable):
DPS cloth (all mages, all warlocks, shadow priests; 7)
healing cloth (discipline/holy priests; 2)
melee leather (all rogues, feral druids; 4)
spell DPS leather (balance druids, 1)
healing leather (restoration druids, 1)
melee mail (all hunters, enhancement shamans; 4)
spell DPS mail (elemental shamans, 1)
healing mail (restoration shamans, 1)
tank plate (protection warriors, protection paladins, frost death knights; 3)
DPS plate (arms/fury warriors, retribution paladins, blood/unholy death knights; 5)
healing plate (holy paladins, 1)
Since there are an odd number of categories, an odd number of them would need to be excluded for the system to work. In keeping with the Sunwell tradition of only exchanging cloth for cloth, mail for mail, etc, a system like this could be used:
DPS cloth <--> healing cloth
spell DPS leather <--> healing leather
spell DPS mail <-- > healing mail
tank plate <--> healing plate
Melee DPS leather, mail, and plate were left out because their demand is high enough that they don't need to be involved in a system like this. With those changes, lets see what the distribution for these new categories is.
DPS cloth/healing cloth (9)
melee leather (4)
spell DPS/healing leather (2)
melee mail (4)
spell DPS/healing mail (2)
DPS plate (5)
tank/healing plate (4)
It's certainly a start: no one class/spec combo gets its own itemization category. Still, cloth seems over-represented, while spell mail and leather are under-represented. Changing tank plate for healing plate could also be problematic. Both tanking and healing are vital and under-represented roles in raiding, and if some tanks and healers shared gear itemization, it could lead to messy situations when a tank-piece drops and the healing paladin wants it. It's also hard to justify, from a lore perspective, changing a piece of tank gear into healing gear magically, since that completely changes the nature of the gear, while the other transformations seem more natural. This system also means that many classes will be exchanging their gear at some point as they raid, making the system an inconvenience for many people.
However, there is an alternative: what if, by adding some leather, scales, or metal to gear, armor could be moved up a tier in armor type? Let's see what categories could be made in such a system. Because people won't want to use a lower class of armor, two-way exchanges would not be necessary in this system, though that means the latter category in each pair would not drop from raids.
healing cloth --> healing leather
spell DPS leather --> spell DPS mail
healing mail --> healing plate
(DPS cloth and tanking plate were left out of this exchange, the former, because it is the most used category, and the latter, because of the issues with the first system and the fact that more classes use it than use the above categories)
So, let's see what the new distribution would be under this system.
DPS cloth (7)
healing cloth/leather (3)
melee leather (4)
spell DPS leather/mail (2)
melee mail (4)
healing mail/plate (2)
DPS plate (5)
tank plate (3)
That seems more balanced to me, but I'd rather have some hard numbers to back up that assumption than simply rely on intuition. Perhaps the standard deviation (a measure of the "spread" of a set of numbers, i.e. the average variation of the numbers from the average of the set) of the systems can give us insight into whether my intuition is right or not.
Standard deviation of the distribution of the first system: 2.36
Standard deviation of the distribution of the second system: 1.67
Looks like my intuition was right; the second system results in a more balanced distribution of gear among the various class/spec combinations. It is also superior to the Sunwell-style gear-exchange system in that fewer class/spec combination are inconvenienced by it; only resto druids, elemental shamans, and holy paladins would need to make any exchanges to change the gear they get in raids, while 17 class/spec combinations would be involved in the previous system. This one is also simpler from a lore perspective, in that the magical essence of the armor piece isn't being changed; only the medium is.
This latter system would also feel more natural than the Sunwell-inspired system; resto druids, elemental shamans, and holy paladins already roll on cloth, leather, and mail armor pieces (respectively) that have the stats they need, so getting them to do so in a raid and then upgrade it later wouldn't be difficult at all. It would also mean that resto druids, elemental shaman, and holy paladins would be able to equip the armor piece as soon as they get it and only be lacking in armor, a stat that shouldn't matter too much, considering their roles. In contrast, getting a holy pally to role on plate gear with promises that he can change it later could be difficult, and the Sunwell-inspired system leaves raiders with gear they can't really use until they upgrade it (in the case of plate tank and healing gear, it leaves them with gear they can't use at all until they upgrade it).
In summary, I propose that the following system be implemented for all armor that drops from Cataclysm's raids (and possibly heroics, if it were feasible): The raids will not drop healing leather armor, spell-DPS mail armor, or healing plate armor. Instead, resto druids will roll on healing cloth, elemental shamans will roll on spell-DPS leather, and holy paladins will roll on healing mail. They will then be able to upgrade those armor pieces to their own armor tier: if the armor is a healing cloth piece, it can be turned into a healing leather piece. If it is a spell-DPS leather piece, it can be turned into a spell-DPS mail piece. If it is a healing mail piece, it can be turned into a healing plate piece. This could be accomplished either through NPCs or perhaps through the various crafting professions. (To keep things fair, tailoring would handle the cloth-to-leather transitions, leatherworking would handle the leather-to-mail transitions, and blacksmithing would handle the mail-to-plate transitions.) The system would involve the player turning in the armor piece and some leather, scales, or metal and receiving the piece exactly as it was before, but with twice as much armor and as a leather, mail, or plate piece, rather than a cloth, leather, or mail pieces, respectively. Those mats could either be a stack of typical mats or one Cataclysm-equivalent to Wrath's Titansteel Bar of Arctic Fur. (Though considering the nature of the process, a stack of typical mats seems more appropriate.) To keep things simple, the stats could remain exactly the same, with only the amount of armor and type of armor changing. To signify this change, the new piece could have its armor type in the tooltip turn green, meaning Blizzard wouldn't need to rename the piece or even come up with a new model. It would be a simple, effective, elegant solution that wouldn't impose the stat loss of Reforging on niche-classes and would allow the armor pieces that drop in raids to be used by more classes.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Why I won't run heroics in blues
In my last philosophy post, I went over how I find heroics boring now that I am in high-level epics thanks to the new emblem system. Someone in the comment suggested that I try running heroics in blues (or in low-level gear, generally) so that I can get the challenge I want and no one would need to suffer through the admittedly inadequate solution I proposed at the end of that post. There are several reasons I won't do this, and though I went over one briefly in a comment on that post, I feel the subject warrants more discussion. (After all, that was the post that seems to have increased my readership exponentially thanks to it being linked on WoW.com.)
My first reason is a rather simple one. I usually tank; sometimes I heal when I need a break from tanking or a change of pace, but 90-95% of the time I spend in heroics, I tank. (What can I say? Instant groups are addictive.) This alone makes running heroics in "sub-par" gear problematic. If I tank in blues, I won't be able to cause as much threat as I can in epics, so either the DPS will need to hold back and not cause nearly as much damage as they would be able to otherwise, or they will grab aggro and die. In the former case, the dungeon run will go more slowly than most people like because the DPS won't be able to cause as much damage, meaning I will be imposing my views on how heroics should be onto them, something a commenter said this method would avoid. Considering the mentality most DPS seem to have these days, however, the more likely scenario is that they would ignore my low threat and go all out, pulling aggro on every enemy and likely making the healer's life hell. Even if the healer can heal them through the damage, letting that happen would mean I would not be doing my job as a tank, and it would all be because of my gear.
But what if I could get past that problem by finding a group of like-minded people who also long for the days when heroics were challenging and satisfying? Even in that case, I still wouldn't run heroics in blues, because then there would be no sense of progress. The reason I ran heroics in the first place was because getting those epics through the new emblem system was satisfying. It was like progression, even though I wasn't seeing any new content; I still got the satisfaction of making my character progressively better. That's why I got caught up in the gear race to such an extent that I don't find heroics fun anymore.
Now, some people equate running heroics in blues to freezing one's experience bar at 60 or 70 and running old raids. Unfortunately, that metaphor doesn't work, because retro raiders still get to experience content in a progression-based way and get that kind of satisfaction. They can get better gear that allows them to go to new raids. Unfortunately, an artificial gear freeze like the one described above takes that element of satisfaction out of heroics, so I would only be running heroics for their own sake. There would be no progress, only repetition. That may have been enough for me back when heroics were still new, but like most people, I am tired of them by now, and I simply can't run them for their own sake. In fact, putting on blues and running heroics would be the exact opposite of progression. Doing so means making content artificially harder by undoing the progress I have made.
So that is why I won't run heroics in blues, despite the fact that it would make them challenging again. Now, I know someone is going to ask, "If you don't like heroics as they are, and won't make them harder for yourself, why run them?" Short answer: I'm not. The reason my priest alt is doing so well probably has something to do with the fact that I'm not running heroics anymore.
My first reason is a rather simple one. I usually tank; sometimes I heal when I need a break from tanking or a change of pace, but 90-95% of the time I spend in heroics, I tank. (What can I say? Instant groups are addictive.) This alone makes running heroics in "sub-par" gear problematic. If I tank in blues, I won't be able to cause as much threat as I can in epics, so either the DPS will need to hold back and not cause nearly as much damage as they would be able to otherwise, or they will grab aggro and die. In the former case, the dungeon run will go more slowly than most people like because the DPS won't be able to cause as much damage, meaning I will be imposing my views on how heroics should be onto them, something a commenter said this method would avoid. Considering the mentality most DPS seem to have these days, however, the more likely scenario is that they would ignore my low threat and go all out, pulling aggro on every enemy and likely making the healer's life hell. Even if the healer can heal them through the damage, letting that happen would mean I would not be doing my job as a tank, and it would all be because of my gear.
But what if I could get past that problem by finding a group of like-minded people who also long for the days when heroics were challenging and satisfying? Even in that case, I still wouldn't run heroics in blues, because then there would be no sense of progress. The reason I ran heroics in the first place was because getting those epics through the new emblem system was satisfying. It was like progression, even though I wasn't seeing any new content; I still got the satisfaction of making my character progressively better. That's why I got caught up in the gear race to such an extent that I don't find heroics fun anymore.
Now, some people equate running heroics in blues to freezing one's experience bar at 60 or 70 and running old raids. Unfortunately, that metaphor doesn't work, because retro raiders still get to experience content in a progression-based way and get that kind of satisfaction. They can get better gear that allows them to go to new raids. Unfortunately, an artificial gear freeze like the one described above takes that element of satisfaction out of heroics, so I would only be running heroics for their own sake. There would be no progress, only repetition. That may have been enough for me back when heroics were still new, but like most people, I am tired of them by now, and I simply can't run them for their own sake. In fact, putting on blues and running heroics would be the exact opposite of progression. Doing so means making content artificially harder by undoing the progress I have made.
So that is why I won't run heroics in blues, despite the fact that it would make them challenging again. Now, I know someone is going to ask, "If you don't like heroics as they are, and won't make them harder for yourself, why run them?" Short answer: I'm not. The reason my priest alt is doing so well probably has something to do with the fact that I'm not running heroics anymore.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Heroic achievements you should go for now that everyone outgears heroics, Part I
Thanks to the new emblem system, everyone and their mother is running around it high-level epics. This means that many heroic-dungeon achievements that were once very difficult have now become easy by virtue of the sheer amount of damage and healing everyone can put out. As such, when you get the following heroics as your daily random, consider going after these achievements. It won't take you much effort, and it will break up the repetition. In fact, I got many of them without even going for the directly, and the rest required little change in their respective boss's general strategy.
Note: I will only be including achievements that are made easier by out-gearing the instance and that don't require a very different strategy from running the boss as usual. As such, the various Void achievements and their ilk won't be included here.
Volunteer Work
Now that Jedoga Shadowseeker only calls on one twilight volunteer, this is ever easier than it was before. Simply let the volunteer walk to her and heal through the extra damage she does. Melee DPS should run out of range when she uses her Cyclone Strike, since that 200% damage boost means it will likely kill them. If the tank has good gear, he can likely eat that damage and shouldn't need to run out. Aside from that, easy ten achievement points.
Volazj's Quick Demise
Given a well-geared group, this one will come without difficulty. Just make sure everyone knows what they are doing and brings down the insanity adds quickly. I personally find that focusing on one at a time is faster than trying to AoE them down.
Azjol-Nerub
Hadronox Denied
For this one, you need to kill Hadronox before he can prevent more adds from spawning by placing a web over the entrance they spawn from. This means you'll be dealing with the adds and the boss itself. If you out-gear the instance, it's a simple matter of killing the trash before him as quickly as you can and engaging him, keeping the adds off of your healer, for unless the tank can't handle the damage caused by the adds, the DPS should be focusing on the boss only.
Gotta Go!
With enough DPS, this one will come easily. Make sure your DPS use their cooldowns as soon as the fight starts, since he'll likely take damage from the DoTs while he is underground, and thus the other stages of the fight won't last as long as the 100%-75% stage.
Drak'Tharon Keep
Oh Novos!
I got this one back before everyone out-geared heroics, so it's not that difficult. Just don't let the adds reach the floor. As someone who doesn't DPS, I don't really know what the logistics of preventing them from reaching the floor are, but if someone could enlighten me in the comments, I will add that part of the strategy here and give that person credit.
Better Off Dred
There are a total of seven raptors, so you can kill one before engaging the boss to make this a bit easier. Let Dred walk over to you so you don't need to kill any raptors to get to him. Have your tank pick him up, then have your tank run through and pick up some raptors to kill too. Make sure your DPS doesn't focus on the boss until you have killed six raptors. Dred's fear could make this difficult, but your healer can out-range it (its range is 35 yards), so he can heal you through it.
Gundrak
Snakes. Why'd It Have To Be Snakes?
Kill Slad'ran fast enough and you won't get snake wrapped. I have never been able to find a reliable pattern as to who the snakes snake-wrap and why, but have found that if you kill Slad'ran fast enough and ignore the snakes, it won't matter.
What the Eck?
While fighting Eck the Ferocious, you'll need to stand in front of him so he can hit you with his Eck Spit, which will leave an hour-long debuff on you. The debuff doesn't actually do anything, but you need it active when you defeat Gal'darah if you want the achievement. Note that dying, Divine Shield, Ice Block, and Cloak of Shadows will remove the debuff. Also note that you may resist the spit if you have any nature resistance, so remove natural resistance buffs before you engage Eck. Eck Spit causes quite a bit of avoidable damage (well, it was quite a bit back in the day), so a good tank will position Eck so that he faces away from the group. As such, you'll likely need to be proactive and move to stand next to or behind the tank if you want this achievement.
Halls of Lightning
Lightning Struck
You need to clear the trash before Bjarngrim before you can engage him and get this achievement. Make sure that he has the temporary electric charge and don't pick up any extra trash, and with good enough gear, you should manage this one.
Shatter Resistant
Volkhan can't shatter the adds if they are still alive, so if you just burn him down and trust the tank to hold the adds, this one is pretty easy. With enough DPS, this one becomes trivial with this strategy (though I suppose that is true for most of these achievements). If that doesn't work for you, you can kite the boss around the room so the adds never reach him, but that defeats the purpose of including this achievement in this article in the first place.
Timely Death
If you stand next to Loken during the whole battle and don't move out of his Lightning Nova, this one is a breeze, assuming your healer can heal the damage from Lightning Nova. This is another one I got back in the day before everyone out-geared heroics, so it's not so hard. Just stand right next to him and don't let up your DPS.
If you have good enough gear, you can probably get most of these without even consciously going for them. Still, they provide a nice little diversion when the only thing that stands between you and your emblems is a boss who can't really kill you. I'll discuss the other pre-3.2 heroics next week.
Finally, though it is not relevant to this post, I would just like to say that I am honored that WoW.com considered one of my posts significant enough to post a stand-alone post in response to it. Thanks for the mention, guys!*
*I just thought I should mention that I am from New England, where "guys" can be used to refer collectively to men and women. I know this isn't the case everywhere, so I just thought I'd clarify that to avoid being misunderstood.
Note: I will only be including achievements that are made easier by out-gearing the instance and that don't require a very different strategy from running the boss as usual. As such, the various Void achievements and their ilk won't be included here.
Volunteer Work
Now that Jedoga Shadowseeker only calls on one twilight volunteer, this is ever easier than it was before. Simply let the volunteer walk to her and heal through the extra damage she does. Melee DPS should run out of range when she uses her Cyclone Strike, since that 200% damage boost means it will likely kill them. If the tank has good gear, he can likely eat that damage and shouldn't need to run out. Aside from that, easy ten achievement points.
Volazj's Quick Demise
Given a well-geared group, this one will come without difficulty. Just make sure everyone knows what they are doing and brings down the insanity adds quickly. I personally find that focusing on one at a time is faster than trying to AoE them down.
Azjol-Nerub
Hadronox Denied
For this one, you need to kill Hadronox before he can prevent more adds from spawning by placing a web over the entrance they spawn from. This means you'll be dealing with the adds and the boss itself. If you out-gear the instance, it's a simple matter of killing the trash before him as quickly as you can and engaging him, keeping the adds off of your healer, for unless the tank can't handle the damage caused by the adds, the DPS should be focusing on the boss only.
Gotta Go!
With enough DPS, this one will come easily. Make sure your DPS use their cooldowns as soon as the fight starts, since he'll likely take damage from the DoTs while he is underground, and thus the other stages of the fight won't last as long as the 100%-75% stage.
Drak'Tharon Keep
Oh Novos!
I got this one back before everyone out-geared heroics, so it's not that difficult. Just don't let the adds reach the floor. As someone who doesn't DPS, I don't really know what the logistics of preventing them from reaching the floor are, but if someone could enlighten me in the comments, I will add that part of the strategy here and give that person credit.
Better Off Dred
There are a total of seven raptors, so you can kill one before engaging the boss to make this a bit easier. Let Dred walk over to you so you don't need to kill any raptors to get to him. Have your tank pick him up, then have your tank run through and pick up some raptors to kill too. Make sure your DPS doesn't focus on the boss until you have killed six raptors. Dred's fear could make this difficult, but your healer can out-range it (its range is 35 yards), so he can heal you through it.
Gundrak
Snakes. Why'd It Have To Be Snakes?
Kill Slad'ran fast enough and you won't get snake wrapped. I have never been able to find a reliable pattern as to who the snakes snake-wrap and why, but have found that if you kill Slad'ran fast enough and ignore the snakes, it won't matter.
What the Eck?
While fighting Eck the Ferocious, you'll need to stand in front of him so he can hit you with his Eck Spit, which will leave an hour-long debuff on you. The debuff doesn't actually do anything, but you need it active when you defeat Gal'darah if you want the achievement. Note that dying, Divine Shield, Ice Block, and Cloak of Shadows will remove the debuff. Also note that you may resist the spit if you have any nature resistance, so remove natural resistance buffs before you engage Eck. Eck Spit causes quite a bit of avoidable damage (well, it was quite a bit back in the day), so a good tank will position Eck so that he faces away from the group. As such, you'll likely need to be proactive and move to stand next to or behind the tank if you want this achievement.
Halls of Lightning
Lightning Struck
You need to clear the trash before Bjarngrim before you can engage him and get this achievement. Make sure that he has the temporary electric charge and don't pick up any extra trash, and with good enough gear, you should manage this one.
Shatter Resistant
Volkhan can't shatter the adds if they are still alive, so if you just burn him down and trust the tank to hold the adds, this one is pretty easy. With enough DPS, this one becomes trivial with this strategy (though I suppose that is true for most of these achievements). If that doesn't work for you, you can kite the boss around the room so the adds never reach him, but that defeats the purpose of including this achievement in this article in the first place.
Timely Death
If you stand next to Loken during the whole battle and don't move out of his Lightning Nova, this one is a breeze, assuming your healer can heal the damage from Lightning Nova. This is another one I got back in the day before everyone out-geared heroics, so it's not so hard. Just stand right next to him and don't let up your DPS.
If you have good enough gear, you can probably get most of these without even consciously going for them. Still, they provide a nice little diversion when the only thing that stands between you and your emblems is a boss who can't really kill you. I'll discuss the other pre-3.2 heroics next week.
Finally, though it is not relevant to this post, I would just like to say that I am honored that WoW.com considered one of my posts significant enough to post a stand-alone post in response to it. Thanks for the mention, guys!*
*I just thought I should mention that I am from New England, where "guys" can be used to refer collectively to men and women. I know this isn't the case everywhere, so I just thought I'd clarify that to avoid being misunderstood.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Reflections on leveling a shadow priest
Having grown bored with all that end-game has to offer my druid and having temporarily lost interest in my long-suffering shaman alt (I'll find him interesting again at some point; my interest in him ebbs and wains) I have turned to the dark side, rolled a priest, and spec'ed him shadow for leveling (get it?). I rolled him simply because I was getting bored with healing as a tree and I wanted to try a new healing style. Neither the shaman nor the paladin healing style particularly appealed to me, so the priest was the logical decision. In leveling my priest, I have learned a few things that I thought I would share with you.
Leveling an alt is easier when you have goals for that alt and they are reasonable.
What surprised me the most was how dedicated I was to this alt. Most of my alts never get past level 25 (my shaman being the notable exception, currently at 62), but my priest is currently level 30 and still going strong. In fact, he is the first character I have leveled mostly without any rested state. What made him different? Probably my goals with him. I rolled my shaman mostly with the intent to have fun, which is why I have stuck with him. I rolled all of my other alts out of class envy and leveled them with the intent of using them in group-play in the back of my mind. However, that was such a far off goal I never stuck with those alts. With my priest, my goal was to get him to 40, buy dual specs, make his other spec holy, and start healing dungeons. A much more reasonable goal, aye? Since my end-goal for my priest isn't as far off as my goals for my other alts were, I was more motivated to level him. The larger lesson is that if you role an alt for fun, focusing on how you will use him at end-game will make you less motivated to play it.
Leveling an alt is more fun when you take two gathering professions.
My priest has skinning and herbalism, but if he actually reaches a higher level, I'll drop skinning and power-level alchemy. Why herbalism and not mining? For Lifeblood, of course; that ability has saved me quite a few times. Why not level alchemy now and save myself the hassle? A few reasons.
1. Selling all those herbs and all that leather on the auction house makes my alt filthy rich and able to stand on his own without injections of money from my main.
2. Leveling alchemy would just be another thing to do and would distract me from questings and leveling in general.
3. Leveling a profession now so I don't need to do it later causes me to think about the future too much, and though having reasonable goals for an alt makes him easier to level (as I said before), the easiest way to stick with an alt is to focus on the here-and-now and not think about the future.
Shadow is not a very attractive leveling tree.
Now, when I say that shadow isn't attractive for leveling, I don't mean that it isn't viable or fun; it is both of those things. However, when a priest first starts out, he can cause more damage with Smite and Holy Fire than he can with Mind Flay and Mind Blast. Throw in the DoTs for added damage and leveling holy seems like a good idea. Thing is, Mind Flay and Mind Blast have many talents that improve their damage and mana-efficiency, but Smite and Holy Fire don't have as many, and priests that spec holy won't take talents that improve those abilities. Smite and Holy Fire are supposed to allow healing priests to be able to fend for themselves, so they need to have high damage to be viable. However, that means that at low levels, shadow doesn't do as much damage as holy, which is just not right. Perhaps increasing the damage of low ranks of Mind Flay and Mind Blast (and increasing the damage they cause at lower levels once ranks are removed) could solve this problem. Speaking of which...
Ability ranks need to go, now.
Ability ranks are going away with Cataclysm, but they need to go out the door right now. As it stands, all ranks of spells cost the same amount of mana. This means that as you level, each spell gets less and less mana efficient until you can purchase the next rank. On my priest, this resulted in Mind Flay, which is supposed to be the pinnacle of mana efficiency, being my least mana-efficient ability during the few levels before its upgrade. It also caused the least amount of damage, so I had no reason to use it at all. Having all ranks of spells cost the same while still requiring that their damage be upgraded every few levels simply doesn't work; it needs to end now, before Cataclysm comes out. It can't be that difficult to implement, so why delay such a necessary fix?
Have you learned any other interesting lessons by leveling alts?
Leveling an alt is easier when you have goals for that alt and they are reasonable.
What surprised me the most was how dedicated I was to this alt. Most of my alts never get past level 25 (my shaman being the notable exception, currently at 62), but my priest is currently level 30 and still going strong. In fact, he is the first character I have leveled mostly without any rested state. What made him different? Probably my goals with him. I rolled my shaman mostly with the intent to have fun, which is why I have stuck with him. I rolled all of my other alts out of class envy and leveled them with the intent of using them in group-play in the back of my mind. However, that was such a far off goal I never stuck with those alts. With my priest, my goal was to get him to 40, buy dual specs, make his other spec holy, and start healing dungeons. A much more reasonable goal, aye? Since my end-goal for my priest isn't as far off as my goals for my other alts were, I was more motivated to level him. The larger lesson is that if you role an alt for fun, focusing on how you will use him at end-game will make you less motivated to play it.
Leveling an alt is more fun when you take two gathering professions.
My priest has skinning and herbalism, but if he actually reaches a higher level, I'll drop skinning and power-level alchemy. Why herbalism and not mining? For Lifeblood, of course; that ability has saved me quite a few times. Why not level alchemy now and save myself the hassle? A few reasons.
1. Selling all those herbs and all that leather on the auction house makes my alt filthy rich and able to stand on his own without injections of money from my main.
2. Leveling alchemy would just be another thing to do and would distract me from questings and leveling in general.
3. Leveling a profession now so I don't need to do it later causes me to think about the future too much, and though having reasonable goals for an alt makes him easier to level (as I said before), the easiest way to stick with an alt is to focus on the here-and-now and not think about the future.
Shadow is not a very attractive leveling tree.
Now, when I say that shadow isn't attractive for leveling, I don't mean that it isn't viable or fun; it is both of those things. However, when a priest first starts out, he can cause more damage with Smite and Holy Fire than he can with Mind Flay and Mind Blast. Throw in the DoTs for added damage and leveling holy seems like a good idea. Thing is, Mind Flay and Mind Blast have many talents that improve their damage and mana-efficiency, but Smite and Holy Fire don't have as many, and priests that spec holy won't take talents that improve those abilities. Smite and Holy Fire are supposed to allow healing priests to be able to fend for themselves, so they need to have high damage to be viable. However, that means that at low levels, shadow doesn't do as much damage as holy, which is just not right. Perhaps increasing the damage of low ranks of Mind Flay and Mind Blast (and increasing the damage they cause at lower levels once ranks are removed) could solve this problem. Speaking of which...
Ability ranks need to go, now.
Ability ranks are going away with Cataclysm, but they need to go out the door right now. As it stands, all ranks of spells cost the same amount of mana. This means that as you level, each spell gets less and less mana efficient until you can purchase the next rank. On my priest, this resulted in Mind Flay, which is supposed to be the pinnacle of mana efficiency, being my least mana-efficient ability during the few levels before its upgrade. It also caused the least amount of damage, so I had no reason to use it at all. Having all ranks of spells cost the same while still requiring that their damage be upgraded every few levels simply doesn't work; it needs to end now, before Cataclysm comes out. It can't be that difficult to implement, so why delay such a necessary fix?
Have you learned any other interesting lessons by leveling alts?
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