Alright, I've been a little strapped for WoW time lately, but I have managed to make some progress here and there. For one, I finally got my epic flier! Let me tell you what, the 280% increased travel speed is STUPID. I've never managed to do anything so freaking quick in my gaming life, it's changed the way I think about any task in the game. The bombing run missions are trivial, and I'm usually forced to float around waiting for the bomb cool-down to wrap up. The Ogri'la quest took me just about two minutes, maybe a little over if you count accepting and turning in the quest. TWO MINUTES.
But enough ranting on the super mount (that I shall leave for a later post!), I'm here to talk about a quick little search that can yield some cool results. Just how imba is your character? Be ready to find out.
First, head over to be.imba.hu; if you're on a US server, be aware that the site has had problems accessing the US armory, but those issues seem to have been resolved. Enter your realm and your toon's name, and hit that search key. What you end up with is something like this:
Feren, who is just-sort-of-imba.
What happens is that your character is assessed based on their gear and major stats as to where in the end game PVE you might best fit in. It even ranks you based on your efficiency in regard to grinding, PVP, PVE. Keep in mind, it is just assessing your current armory profile, so if you happen to log out wearing a pretty purple dress, no matter how OP your warrior/priest/rogue/brewmaster is, it will still think you're geared primarily in a frilly dress.
Not that there's anything wrong with that, if that's what gets your rage flowing.
Just sayin'.
Anyway, take my assessment for instance. I happened to be logged out in my grinding gear, or what I take as my grinding gear. All my spell-hit gear is sitting happily in my bags. So when they check my stats, they are seeing a relative deficiency in spell hit, and a focus on my spell damage; perfect grinding setup.
Even then, it's telling me I'm more or less geared to start Zul'aman. That's refreshing, and I'd be excited to try it...if they're right.
You have to take all this with a grain of salt. This in no way checks for the talents of the PLAYER. Skill cannot be tracked, except perhaps by gear, assuming that you earned all of it and didn't just ride on the coat-tails of an established guild. Ultimately the deciding factor will be the skills of yourself and your group.
I say group because I think this would be an interesting way to gauge potential raid members. Most guilds, if not all guilds, check armory profiles as part of the recruitment process. This kind of does some of that work for you, albeit in a very superficial manner. Good GMs and raid leaders should still take the time to parse this info out for themselves, as they are the real experts on what their particular group needs and how certain players might fit.
Still, it's kind of an ego boost (or humbling experience!) to see how you fit into the end-game. So, readers, just how imba are you?
Continue reading 'Entry 10 - Who imba? U imba!'
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
Entry 9 - blah blah blah formatting stuff
Just a short post today. To spare my readers from my propensity to hurl walls of text around like they were Insta-Corruptions in a BG, I've applied some of the awesome principles from Blog Azeroth. All of my posts should now be divided into nice little introductory text blocks and the handy link to the full article. Now you cannot complain that I a forcing you to read endlessly; you choose your own personal hell!
On a WoW note, I finally broke down and bought my Gladiator's Spellblade. My spell damage in shadow now exceeds 1000 with Fel Armor. Mages beware. Continue reading 'Entry 9 - blah blah blah formatting stuff'
On a WoW note, I finally broke down and bought my Gladiator's Spellblade. My spell damage in shadow now exceeds 1000 with Fel Armor. Mages beware. Continue reading 'Entry 9 - blah blah blah formatting stuff'
Friday, March 7, 2008
Entry 8: Sketches of the Afflicted
Here's a quick sample of a pic I'm working on for the site. This is the straight pencil sketch, freshly scanned and shrunk for your viewing pleasure. Next step will be to throw it into Painter and do some inking, then to play around with the paints. Still trying to decide if I'll use watercolors or oils, or go for a more anime approach with some cel coloration.
We'll see, I guess. Yes, in case you're wondering, that's supposed to be the Frozen Shadoweave Shoulders and Mana-Etched Crown he's wearing. Continue reading 'Entry 8: Sketches of the Afflicted'
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Entry 7: A Tale of Two Warcrafts
It wasn't so long ago that the idea of gearing yourself through PVP was at best a fool's errand, and at worst a massive time sink that led not a few High Warlords to outright quit as soon as they reached the top. The changes to the honor system and the introduction of Battlegroups made group PVP - gasp - fun again. This post isn't about the BGs, though. It's about the relatively sudden shift I've felt in the way the game is being managed, most notably, by the seeming reversal on the way the developers seem to be handling class balancing issues.
All of this, of course, stems from the introduction of the Arena system.
For those of you who have never attempted it, the Arena system allows players to organize themselves into teams of 2, 3, or 5 and engage in gladiatorial matches against other such teams. Players earn arena points, rank, and require both to purchase the Seasonal gear (or S1 for Arena Season 1, S2 for Season 2, etc). The Arena gear is a PVP mirror of equivalent Tiers in the PVE gear sets. S3 is roughly equivalent to T6, for example. Blizzard has tried to time the releases of new Seasons to coincide with new PVE sets becoming more frequently distributed throughout the game population, and in this way maintain a balance in itemization between PVE and PVP. They are trying, it seems, to avoid the problem that was so prevalent during classic WoW PVP where guilds who had the end-game instances on farm could, at a whim, enter into the battlegrounds and obliterate the opposing side. Now that the PVPers have gear on-par with the Raiders, that doesn't happen quite as often.
Let me go on-record saying that, as a player, I have no problem with the gear that people can get through PVP. I think it's a great way to let players earn their equipment on their own terms. There is enough of a difference in both the way PVP is played versus PVE, and in the critical stat values specific to the two sides. Eveyrone in PVP needs a healthy amount of damage mitigation, for instance, while in PVE the non-tanks (barring the odd resistance-skewed fight) don't have to worry about it as much. In some cases there is an overlap in gearing objectives, such as with PVE tanks using Resilience to help improve their survivability against raid bosses, but for the most part they are separate animals. A fully-geared PVP-er will not do as well as a fully geared PVE-er in PVE, and vice versa. Fair enough.
The problem seems to run much deeper than that. Up until just recently, Blizzard has maintained that it does not try to balance classes against each other, but rather against the game as a whole. That's why we have the rock-paper-warlock, er, scissors, relationship between the different classes. A warlock has an advantage against a mage who has an advantage against a warrior, and on and on. As a warlock, I recognize that some classes will just beat me into the ground more often than not (*cough*Rogues*cough*), and try to work with that limitation.
Now take a look at what Kalgan just posted on the official forums, in regards to the revoked Life Tap changes. Take your time, I'll continue when you're done.
Did you see the switch?
The developers are using the relative representation of the classes in the top tiers of the Arena ladder to determine class balancing issues. Any class that is 'over performing' might be due for a nerf, and one that is grossly under-represented due for a buff.
That is what sparked the whole Life Tap incident, it seems. They were starting to see too many Warlocks in the top tiers. Apparently though this data was more of a flux than they originally thought, because new numbers indicate that the Warlock Trend was receding. No problem = no nerf...at least for now.
Anyone else find this really disturbing? They were ready to implement a class-sweeping change over what ended up being a spike in PVP numbers, and it certainly doesn't seem like anything the community brought up swayed their opinions at all. That, in my opinion, is the whole problem with using the PVP world to manage how classes interact with one another: the information is too volatile to support any concrete conclusions on class imbalance.
PVP, more so than most other aspects of Warcraft, is the aspect of the game that is most intensely affected by human performance. Sure, the skill of raiders is instrumental in the completion of a new encounter, but bosses are predictable (to an extent). They can be learned, tested, mastered. It's not like Attumen has three talent trees that he can play around with to "surprise" raiders the next time they come a'calling.
Players discover new interactions, new synergies, all the time. Some of these synergies provide them with tactical advantages over other teams. These synergies are not limited to in-class interactions (let's face it, talent trees have been analyzed to death), but more importantly to cross-class interactions. The SL/SL spec would not nearly be so effective if the pairing was sub-optimal, say (forgive me if I offend), with a prot-spec warrior. Of all the talents and abilities of all the classes, it does not surprise me that some combinations prove to be more effective than others. But these trends, at best, should be transitory. Players learn and adapt, they ferret out the weaknesses of the reigning strategy and depose it. Engaging a sweeping change because of a spike in a particular strategy is poor game management because it's so short-sighted. If Blizz keeps this up, they'll be playing whack-a-class forever.
If the new Tournament Server is any indication, Blizzard seems very determined to springboard the Arena game into the spotlight of competitive, legitimate sport gaming. Excuse me, but Warcraft will never be Halo, or Unreal Tournament. The key to any digital sport is the emphasis that it's player skill, not class design, that determines victory. Every character in Halo is the same, with the same access to weapons and defenses that everyone else has. It's a level field. Warcraft, by the admission of the developers themselves, is NOT a level field when it comes to PVP. Forcing the game to be such not only flies in the face of its basic premise and design (that of a cooperative environment where every class has a distinct role to play), but seeks conform the majority of game play to suit a perceived discrepancy in a comparatively minor field.
To be fair, we are likely only seeing the tip of the iceberg that is the reasoning of the developers when it comes to class balancing issues, but let me reiterate: it's a pretty ugly tip. How do you resolve the problem of having a class be perfectly suited to PVE, yet grossly unrepresented in PVP? Do you buff it to the point where you break the PVE game? Do you leave alone the class that is doing well in PVP, yet has horrible representation in the end-game of raiding? How is one metric more important than the other?
There now seem to be two Worlds of Warcraft, one firmly entrenched in PVE, and the other fighting it out in PVP. The abilities critical to successful PVE are deemed overpowered and un-fun for PVP, and the specs necessary to survive in PVP are sub-optimal for PVE. Just how much further is this schism going to grow before Blizzard bites the bullet and either implements totally different mechanics for problem abilities, or just makes a whole new game entirely?
Postlude
It just occurred to me. Perhaps this is all just a smokescreen? Perhaps Kalgan made that comment about class representation in the top tier as some elaborate distraction. Perhaps, in reality, the developers are just trying to avoid coming outright and saying that, yes, they really screwed up and were very sorry for the whole misunderstanding.
...how compelling. I loves me a good conspiracy theory. Continue reading 'Entry 7: A Tale of Two Warcrafts'
All of this, of course, stems from the introduction of the Arena system.
For those of you who have never attempted it, the Arena system allows players to organize themselves into teams of 2, 3, or 5 and engage in gladiatorial matches against other such teams. Players earn arena points, rank, and require both to purchase the Seasonal gear (or S1 for Arena Season 1, S2 for Season 2, etc). The Arena gear is a PVP mirror of equivalent Tiers in the PVE gear sets. S3 is roughly equivalent to T6, for example. Blizzard has tried to time the releases of new Seasons to coincide with new PVE sets becoming more frequently distributed throughout the game population, and in this way maintain a balance in itemization between PVE and PVP. They are trying, it seems, to avoid the problem that was so prevalent during classic WoW PVP where guilds who had the end-game instances on farm could, at a whim, enter into the battlegrounds and obliterate the opposing side. Now that the PVPers have gear on-par with the Raiders, that doesn't happen quite as often.
Let me go on-record saying that, as a player, I have no problem with the gear that people can get through PVP. I think it's a great way to let players earn their equipment on their own terms. There is enough of a difference in both the way PVP is played versus PVE, and in the critical stat values specific to the two sides. Eveyrone in PVP needs a healthy amount of damage mitigation, for instance, while in PVE the non-tanks (barring the odd resistance-skewed fight) don't have to worry about it as much. In some cases there is an overlap in gearing objectives, such as with PVE tanks using Resilience to help improve their survivability against raid bosses, but for the most part they are separate animals. A fully-geared PVP-er will not do as well as a fully geared PVE-er in PVE, and vice versa. Fair enough.
The problem seems to run much deeper than that. Up until just recently, Blizzard has maintained that it does not try to balance classes against each other, but rather against the game as a whole. That's why we have the rock-paper-warlock, er, scissors, relationship between the different classes. A warlock has an advantage against a mage who has an advantage against a warrior, and on and on. As a warlock, I recognize that some classes will just beat me into the ground more often than not (*cough*Rogues*cough*), and try to work with that limitation.
Now take a look at what Kalgan just posted on the official forums, in regards to the revoked Life Tap changes. Take your time, I'll continue when you're done.
Did you see the switch?
The developers are using the relative representation of the classes in the top tiers of the Arena ladder to determine class balancing issues. Any class that is 'over performing' might be due for a nerf, and one that is grossly under-represented due for a buff.
That is what sparked the whole Life Tap incident, it seems. They were starting to see too many Warlocks in the top tiers. Apparently though this data was more of a flux than they originally thought, because new numbers indicate that the Warlock Trend was receding. No problem = no nerf...at least for now.
Anyone else find this really disturbing? They were ready to implement a class-sweeping change over what ended up being a spike in PVP numbers, and it certainly doesn't seem like anything the community brought up swayed their opinions at all. That, in my opinion, is the whole problem with using the PVP world to manage how classes interact with one another: the information is too volatile to support any concrete conclusions on class imbalance.
PVP, more so than most other aspects of Warcraft, is the aspect of the game that is most intensely affected by human performance. Sure, the skill of raiders is instrumental in the completion of a new encounter, but bosses are predictable (to an extent). They can be learned, tested, mastered. It's not like Attumen has three talent trees that he can play around with to "surprise" raiders the next time they come a'calling.
Players discover new interactions, new synergies, all the time. Some of these synergies provide them with tactical advantages over other teams. These synergies are not limited to in-class interactions (let's face it, talent trees have been analyzed to death), but more importantly to cross-class interactions. The SL/SL spec would not nearly be so effective if the pairing was sub-optimal, say (forgive me if I offend), with a prot-spec warrior. Of all the talents and abilities of all the classes, it does not surprise me that some combinations prove to be more effective than others. But these trends, at best, should be transitory. Players learn and adapt, they ferret out the weaknesses of the reigning strategy and depose it. Engaging a sweeping change because of a spike in a particular strategy is poor game management because it's so short-sighted. If Blizz keeps this up, they'll be playing whack-a-class forever.
If the new Tournament Server is any indication, Blizzard seems very determined to springboard the Arena game into the spotlight of competitive, legitimate sport gaming. Excuse me, but Warcraft will never be Halo, or Unreal Tournament. The key to any digital sport is the emphasis that it's player skill, not class design, that determines victory. Every character in Halo is the same, with the same access to weapons and defenses that everyone else has. It's a level field. Warcraft, by the admission of the developers themselves, is NOT a level field when it comes to PVP. Forcing the game to be such not only flies in the face of its basic premise and design (that of a cooperative environment where every class has a distinct role to play), but seeks conform the majority of game play to suit a perceived discrepancy in a comparatively minor field.
To be fair, we are likely only seeing the tip of the iceberg that is the reasoning of the developers when it comes to class balancing issues, but let me reiterate: it's a pretty ugly tip. How do you resolve the problem of having a class be perfectly suited to PVE, yet grossly unrepresented in PVP? Do you buff it to the point where you break the PVE game? Do you leave alone the class that is doing well in PVP, yet has horrible representation in the end-game of raiding? How is one metric more important than the other?
There now seem to be two Worlds of Warcraft, one firmly entrenched in PVE, and the other fighting it out in PVP. The abilities critical to successful PVE are deemed overpowered and un-fun for PVP, and the specs necessary to survive in PVP are sub-optimal for PVE. Just how much further is this schism going to grow before Blizzard bites the bullet and either implements totally different mechanics for problem abilities, or just makes a whole new game entirely?
Postlude
It just occurred to me. Perhaps this is all just a smokescreen? Perhaps Kalgan made that comment about class representation in the top tier as some elaborate distraction. Perhaps, in reality, the developers are just trying to avoid coming outright and saying that, yes, they really screwed up and were very sorry for the whole misunderstanding.
...how compelling. I loves me a good conspiracy theory. Continue reading 'Entry 7: A Tale of Two Warcrafts'
Monday, March 3, 2008
Entry 6 - Planning for the Future
As of this writing, humble visitor, your host is sitting on the largest pile of Gold he's ever had in his entire gaming career. 4420 gold, to be precise, within spitting distance of that coveted 5000 that will finally get me my epic flyer. Having long-since earned my exalted rank with the Sha'tari Skyguard, once I finally clock in those last hundred gold I will likely be cruising around on one of those slick Nether rays.
At least, that had been my plan. Then the PTR went and threw a very shiny fly into the ointment.
There are two new tailoring recipes that drop from the Sunwell Plateau raid instance, and neither of them are BoP. That means, conceivably -I-, your humble host, could get his hands on one through the AH, and soon afterwards be utterly decked out in some of the sickest robes I've ever seen. My Frozen Shadoweave Robes are already shuddering at the thought of being donated to Goodwill (read: Disenchanted), but hey, one day you're in, and the next it's some-german-word-for-goodbye.
Here they are. Try not to drool on your keyboard.
Sunfire Robe
Sunfire Handwraps
Between the ludicrous stats and gem slots, I could have that thing rocking like nobody's business in no time, and I'd look snazzy to boot. I wholly expect that, should the item even end up on the AH (more on that later), it will clock in easily at at LEAST 3000 G, just for the pattern. Add another 1K gold for the mats, and you'll see why I'm sweating. If I waited, I could watch the AH manically until the pattern went for sale, and snatch it up as soon as it did, but then I'd be broke. Almost totally and utterly broke.
But I'd look great.
This is a common problem often mirrored in real life too. You have a stash of money you've been saving for something important, like the down payment for a new car or house, or for the renovation of something like your kitchen. These are what we like to call 'long term investments' (well, except for your car, which is basically a four-wheeled black hole of depreciation). The epic flyer is a long term investment, while the robe is most definitely a perfect example of instant gratification.
Unlike the flyer, the robe would convey a sense of instant power. They are on par with T6 and would definitely contribute to the whole "power overwhelming" thing we warlocks apparently enjoy. The problem is that they are so terribly transient. With Wrath probably just a few months away, it's almost certain that these robes would get replaced by whatever junk drops in the starting areas of Northrend, as Blizz has already confirmed it will once again reset all equipment so that everyone is on-par.
The lifespan of that item is at best about a year long.
The epic flyer on the other hand, while in no way contributing directly to my power level, is an investment I can be comfortable making because I know I'm not just blowing my money. Even if Northrend ends up disallowing flyers until we're closer to the level cap again (kind of like how Shadowmoon Valley and Netherstorm), I will nearly double my travel speed in Outland and in any other areas flying becomes permissible. A faster flyer means swifter completion of any task I could conceive of performing, be it gathering or otherwise.
With absolutely no idea what WotLK will hold, I hate to speculate on what Blizz is or is not working on, but I'd like to think that we'll see continued growth in the realm of mounts. The natural progression, in my mind, is mounted combat, limited to specific abilities like bombing or jousting. I don't know about you, but I'd love to be able to get on my dreadsteed and drive headlong into a mob, maybe knocking them back and stunning them for a second, and dealing a nice chunk of damage. Will siege weapons require a specific riding skill to use? No idea, but it makes investing in 375 riding seem like a pretty good bet.
The real question, of course, is whether I'd be better off buying the skill and then starting on the Netherwing Ledge reputation grind to 'earn' my epic mount rather than just shelling out the 180g for the Nether ray I can get through the Skyguard. Honestly, at this point I'm pretty burned out on rep grinds, so it looks as though the Nether ray will be it for me. Well, at least until the aesthetics of the situation become unbearable and I simply HAVE to have a dragon mount.
After all, Warlocks + Dragon Mount = ALMOST Nazgul, and Nazgul are teh shiz. Continue reading 'Entry 6 - Planning for the Future'
At least, that had been my plan. Then the PTR went and threw a very shiny fly into the ointment.
There are two new tailoring recipes that drop from the Sunwell Plateau raid instance, and neither of them are BoP. That means, conceivably -I-, your humble host, could get his hands on one through the AH, and soon afterwards be utterly decked out in some of the sickest robes I've ever seen. My Frozen Shadoweave Robes are already shuddering at the thought of being donated to Goodwill (read: Disenchanted), but hey, one day you're in, and the next it's some-german-word-for-goodbye.
Here they are. Try not to drool on your keyboard.
Sunfire Robe
Sunfire Handwraps
Between the ludicrous stats and gem slots, I could have that thing rocking like nobody's business in no time, and I'd look snazzy to boot. I wholly expect that, should the item even end up on the AH (more on that later), it will clock in easily at at LEAST 3000 G, just for the pattern. Add another 1K gold for the mats, and you'll see why I'm sweating. If I waited, I could watch the AH manically until the pattern went for sale, and snatch it up as soon as it did, but then I'd be broke. Almost totally and utterly broke.
But I'd look great.
This is a common problem often mirrored in real life too. You have a stash of money you've been saving for something important, like the down payment for a new car or house, or for the renovation of something like your kitchen. These are what we like to call 'long term investments' (well, except for your car, which is basically a four-wheeled black hole of depreciation). The epic flyer is a long term investment, while the robe is most definitely a perfect example of instant gratification.
Unlike the flyer, the robe would convey a sense of instant power. They are on par with T6 and would definitely contribute to the whole "power overwhelming" thing we warlocks apparently enjoy. The problem is that they are so terribly transient. With Wrath probably just a few months away, it's almost certain that these robes would get replaced by whatever junk drops in the starting areas of Northrend, as Blizz has already confirmed it will once again reset all equipment so that everyone is on-par.
The lifespan of that item is at best about a year long.
The epic flyer on the other hand, while in no way contributing directly to my power level, is an investment I can be comfortable making because I know I'm not just blowing my money. Even if Northrend ends up disallowing flyers until we're closer to the level cap again (kind of like how Shadowmoon Valley and Netherstorm), I will nearly double my travel speed in Outland and in any other areas flying becomes permissible. A faster flyer means swifter completion of any task I could conceive of performing, be it gathering or otherwise.
With absolutely no idea what WotLK will hold, I hate to speculate on what Blizz is or is not working on, but I'd like to think that we'll see continued growth in the realm of mounts. The natural progression, in my mind, is mounted combat, limited to specific abilities like bombing or jousting. I don't know about you, but I'd love to be able to get on my dreadsteed and drive headlong into a mob, maybe knocking them back and stunning them for a second, and dealing a nice chunk of damage. Will siege weapons require a specific riding skill to use? No idea, but it makes investing in 375 riding seem like a pretty good bet.
The real question, of course, is whether I'd be better off buying the skill and then starting on the Netherwing Ledge reputation grind to 'earn' my epic mount rather than just shelling out the 180g for the Nether ray I can get through the Skyguard. Honestly, at this point I'm pretty burned out on rep grinds, so it looks as though the Nether ray will be it for me. Well, at least until the aesthetics of the situation become unbearable and I simply HAVE to have a dragon mount.
After all, Warlocks + Dragon Mount = ALMOST Nazgul, and Nazgul are teh shiz. Continue reading 'Entry 6 - Planning for the Future'
Entry 5 - Regarding Lifetap
((Copied from a post I made on another blog forum. The blogger was asking for an explanation as to why warlocks were freaking out over the proposed change to lifetap on the PTR.))
Greetings. As one of the angry mob, let me do my best to provide a concise and meaningful response to the changes proposed in patch 2.4.
The problem with the new lifetap is that it no longer fits into the design of the class as a whole. As many other players have pointed out, this change was designed to negate the bonus stacking stamina provided to warlocks, both in pvp and in pve. On Live, stamina falls into place as the third most critical stat for warlocks to focus on in PVE (Spell Hit > Spell Damage > Stamina), whereas in PVP it falls closer to second place, right behind Resilience.
Everything about the warlock focuses on stamina. We have two talents that provide a passive boost to stamina (Demonic Embrace and Fel Stamina), and one of our pets, the Imp, is designed as an unkillable party buff to stamina (Blood Pact). Much of the item budgets for warlock-centeric gear tends to stack stamina much more than it does intellect.
The change to Lifetap on the PTR flies in the face of all of that.
The class as a whole has a very precarious position as a caster; we lack the myriad defense and escape mechanisms of mages, and thus must rely almost solely on our often large stamina pools to allow us to survive under focus fire. The entire concept of "drain tanking" in pve requires a good chunk of stamina and spell damage, so that we can effectively take hits and still survive long enough to drain the life back.
We cannot Blink, Iceblock, Frost Nova, or use our mana as a damage buffer. We must spec for pvp survivability (Soul Link), and for our supplementary vampiric spell (Siphon Life). The only other method of effective mana regen available to warlocks is Dark Pact, and that is a 31 point talent in Affliction. There is no Evocate. We have little to no Spirit to speak of. For the majority of warlocks, Lifetap is an indispensable tool both in solo play and in group functions because it helps provide the class with the longevity necessary for our DoTs to be truly effective.
Put it simply, warlocks seem to be designed for the long haul, both in how we deal damage and how we recycle life into mana into life. This change seems very heavy handed, and goes against the grain of the entire class by making incremental gains in one of our primary stats WORSE the more we get.
The suggestions for adaptation have been maddening at best. Eyonix's own suggestion of stacking Int to somehow "exploit" the change seems to ignore that on all of our class-specific gear, Stamina grossly outweighs Intelligence. Our T6, for instance, supplies somewhere along the lines of 248 stamina and 145 intellect, nearly twice as much. Compared to our stamina buffs, we have one talent that increases intellect passively. How, then, are we supposed to "stack int"? Roll on mage gear? Have you ever met a warlock whose mana pool exceeded his health?
Other players have suggested removing party buffs like Fortitude. We would be the only class doing so. The fact of the matter is that warlocks with higher HP become a drain on the raid over time, as healers are forced to heal back a proportionate amount of HP. It just doesn't make sense.
Blizzard is implementing this to change the dynamic is Arena PVP. Fine. Clearly there is something wrong with the set up, as they're hitting Lifebloom pretty hard too. It may not seem like the biggest nerf ever, but the repercussions are many and far reaching. I only hope that Blizzard either takes the time to re-evaluate how they itemize for us, to reduce the gear focus on stamina and make it easier to keep the two bars level, or shelves the idea in favor of something a little less counter-intuitive.
Will it be back-breaking? Probably not; these things always tend to get blown out of proportion, and dedicated warlocks will find ways of adapting. Will it make me gnash my teeth at the profound dearth of consistency and logic for the sake of nerfing one PVP strategy (Siphon Life - Soul Link)? Absolutely.
I hope I didn't rant too much. Did that help frame the discussion at all? Continue reading 'Entry 5 - Regarding Lifetap'
Greetings. As one of the angry mob, let me do my best to provide a concise and meaningful response to the changes proposed in patch 2.4.
The problem with the new lifetap is that it no longer fits into the design of the class as a whole. As many other players have pointed out, this change was designed to negate the bonus stacking stamina provided to warlocks, both in pvp and in pve. On Live, stamina falls into place as the third most critical stat for warlocks to focus on in PVE (Spell Hit > Spell Damage > Stamina), whereas in PVP it falls closer to second place, right behind Resilience.
Everything about the warlock focuses on stamina. We have two talents that provide a passive boost to stamina (Demonic Embrace and Fel Stamina), and one of our pets, the Imp, is designed as an unkillable party buff to stamina (Blood Pact). Much of the item budgets for warlock-centeric gear tends to stack stamina much more than it does intellect.
The change to Lifetap on the PTR flies in the face of all of that.
The class as a whole has a very precarious position as a caster; we lack the myriad defense and escape mechanisms of mages, and thus must rely almost solely on our often large stamina pools to allow us to survive under focus fire. The entire concept of "drain tanking" in pve requires a good chunk of stamina and spell damage, so that we can effectively take hits and still survive long enough to drain the life back.
We cannot Blink, Iceblock, Frost Nova, or use our mana as a damage buffer. We must spec for pvp survivability (Soul Link), and for our supplementary vampiric spell (Siphon Life). The only other method of effective mana regen available to warlocks is Dark Pact, and that is a 31 point talent in Affliction. There is no Evocate. We have little to no Spirit to speak of. For the majority of warlocks, Lifetap is an indispensable tool both in solo play and in group functions because it helps provide the class with the longevity necessary for our DoTs to be truly effective.
Put it simply, warlocks seem to be designed for the long haul, both in how we deal damage and how we recycle life into mana into life. This change seems very heavy handed, and goes against the grain of the entire class by making incremental gains in one of our primary stats WORSE the more we get.
The suggestions for adaptation have been maddening at best. Eyonix's own suggestion of stacking Int to somehow "exploit" the change seems to ignore that on all of our class-specific gear, Stamina grossly outweighs Intelligence. Our T6, for instance, supplies somewhere along the lines of 248 stamina and 145 intellect, nearly twice as much. Compared to our stamina buffs, we have one talent that increases intellect passively. How, then, are we supposed to "stack int"? Roll on mage gear? Have you ever met a warlock whose mana pool exceeded his health?
Other players have suggested removing party buffs like Fortitude. We would be the only class doing so. The fact of the matter is that warlocks with higher HP become a drain on the raid over time, as healers are forced to heal back a proportionate amount of HP. It just doesn't make sense.
Blizzard is implementing this to change the dynamic is Arena PVP. Fine. Clearly there is something wrong with the set up, as they're hitting Lifebloom pretty hard too. It may not seem like the biggest nerf ever, but the repercussions are many and far reaching. I only hope that Blizzard either takes the time to re-evaluate how they itemize for us, to reduce the gear focus on stamina and make it easier to keep the two bars level, or shelves the idea in favor of something a little less counter-intuitive.
Will it be back-breaking? Probably not; these things always tend to get blown out of proportion, and dedicated warlocks will find ways of adapting. Will it make me gnash my teeth at the profound dearth of consistency and logic for the sake of nerfing one PVP strategy (Siphon Life - Soul Link)? Absolutely.
I hope I didn't rant too much. Did that help frame the discussion at all? Continue reading 'Entry 5 - Regarding Lifetap'
Entry 4 - Tap That Trinket!
If you played anytime towards the end of Classic WoW but right before the Burning Crusade was released, I'm sure you remember all the whining that went on about mages using spelldamage trinkets to Pyroblast people into oblivion. It seemed you couldn't get ten posts down the official forums without someone else complaining that some mage (or enterprising warlock) had one or two shotted them in their last BG session. Granted, this was at a time when players with access to these trinkets usually also had access to significantly better gear too, meaning the divide between the one-shotter and the one-shotee was fairly large. At a time when over +400 spell damage was almost unheard of, and resilience had yet to rear its anti-crit head, using a trinket to boost your spell damage up over the threshhold of normalcy led to some fairly big numbers.
Then Hellfire Penninsula opened up, and all of a sudden almost every spell caster in the game had access to a powerful, easy to acquire trinket that did almost the same thing as the long-coveted Talisman of Ephemereal Power: Ancient Crystal Talisman. This lovely green item, obtained early in the 60-70 grind, stayed with me until I finally found a better trinket in Icon of the Silver Crescent. It's been only recently, however, that I've been getting real mileage out of my Use trinkets.
Oh sure, I knew how to pop a trinket before applying my DoTs in an instance to maximize my damage on bosses. I'd even made a nifty little button on my cast bar that set off my shiny bauble (applaud me, I am so brilliant). But when it came to the solo grind, however, I was woefully remiss in consistently maximizing my potential.
See, the problem with the trinkets is that they require you to keep track of the 2 minute cooldown, something that can get seriously annoying while grinding. What's the solution? It's not very elegant, but here is mine:
#showtooltip Unstable Affliction
/Use 14
/Cast Unstable Affliction
That's it. A two-line macro that a trained monkey could have strung together. Replace 14 with 13 if you happen to have your on-use spell damage trinket in the first instead of second slot, and replace Unstable Affliction with whatever spell you like to open with while soloing. I've tried it with Curse of Agony, and that works fine too. What the macro does is to simply activate your trinket every time you cast the spell in question. Most of the time it will be on cooldown, and your toon will often shout that he "can't do that", but it will guarantee that you will have the proc up as much as possible while grinding, at no extra effort to you.
There are a few issues with the macro that you'd have to do some digging to resolve. First of all, it does not go "red" when your target is out of range of the spell you have it set to. This is annoying more than anything, as you can usually glance at one of your similar spells to see if you're in range (most affliction spells, for instance, have the same spell range), but it's something you need to keep in mind. Also, you're going to see the gray spin timer over the icon when your trinket is on cooldown, which gives the misleading impression that the spell ITSELF is uncastable. This is not the case. You could sit there spamming the button and it would cast every chance it got, whether the trinket is on CD or not. It's just visually confusing.
The upside though is, as long as you are grinding, you will be maximizing the use of your trinket. In most cases, this means that, every two minutes, you will be rocking out with over 100 more spell damage than normal. I've found that it's changed the way I tackle grind sessions, as I'm constantly watching the little gray spin timer to see how much longer I have till my next kick, and saving a pack of mobs for just such occasions. Another option is just mapping the trinket activation to a handy key and spamming it periodically, but I'm one of those lazy players who would probably forget. This takes the guesswork out through sheer repetition.
Couple it with a cool conditional trinket (such as the drool-inducing DoT amplifier out of the 5-man Sunwell Dungeon) or the Exalted Shata'ri Skyguard one for some seriously ridiculous grinding. May every elemental you kill yield 2 motes, and every Blood Elf an Arcane Tome. Happy hunting. Continue reading 'Entry 4 - Tap That Trinket!'
Then Hellfire Penninsula opened up, and all of a sudden almost every spell caster in the game had access to a powerful, easy to acquire trinket that did almost the same thing as the long-coveted Talisman of Ephemereal Power: Ancient Crystal Talisman. This lovely green item, obtained early in the 60-70 grind, stayed with me until I finally found a better trinket in Icon of the Silver Crescent. It's been only recently, however, that I've been getting real mileage out of my Use trinkets.
Oh sure, I knew how to pop a trinket before applying my DoTs in an instance to maximize my damage on bosses. I'd even made a nifty little button on my cast bar that set off my shiny bauble (applaud me, I am so brilliant). But when it came to the solo grind, however, I was woefully remiss in consistently maximizing my potential.
See, the problem with the trinkets is that they require you to keep track of the 2 minute cooldown, something that can get seriously annoying while grinding. What's the solution? It's not very elegant, but here is mine:
#showtooltip Unstable Affliction
/Use 14
/Cast Unstable Affliction
That's it. A two-line macro that a trained monkey could have strung together. Replace 14 with 13 if you happen to have your on-use spell damage trinket in the first instead of second slot, and replace Unstable Affliction with whatever spell you like to open with while soloing. I've tried it with Curse of Agony, and that works fine too. What the macro does is to simply activate your trinket every time you cast the spell in question. Most of the time it will be on cooldown, and your toon will often shout that he "can't do that", but it will guarantee that you will have the proc up as much as possible while grinding, at no extra effort to you.
There are a few issues with the macro that you'd have to do some digging to resolve. First of all, it does not go "red" when your target is out of range of the spell you have it set to. This is annoying more than anything, as you can usually glance at one of your similar spells to see if you're in range (most affliction spells, for instance, have the same spell range), but it's something you need to keep in mind. Also, you're going to see the gray spin timer over the icon when your trinket is on cooldown, which gives the misleading impression that the spell ITSELF is uncastable. This is not the case. You could sit there spamming the button and it would cast every chance it got, whether the trinket is on CD or not. It's just visually confusing.
The upside though is, as long as you are grinding, you will be maximizing the use of your trinket. In most cases, this means that, every two minutes, you will be rocking out with over 100 more spell damage than normal. I've found that it's changed the way I tackle grind sessions, as I'm constantly watching the little gray spin timer to see how much longer I have till my next kick, and saving a pack of mobs for just such occasions. Another option is just mapping the trinket activation to a handy key and spamming it periodically, but I'm one of those lazy players who would probably forget. This takes the guesswork out through sheer repetition.
Couple it with a cool conditional trinket (such as the drool-inducing DoT amplifier out of the 5-man Sunwell Dungeon) or the Exalted Shata'ri Skyguard one for some seriously ridiculous grinding. May every elemental you kill yield 2 motes, and every Blood Elf an Arcane Tome. Happy hunting. Continue reading 'Entry 4 - Tap That Trinket!'
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