Rolling The Dice...

So last night I picked up Waistwrap of Infinity. "Why? It isn't very good." you ask? Well it isn't very good right now but A) It was going to rot anyway and B) I hear from Leiah(who at this very moment is facing down an Elemental Shaman firing squad...) that there will be some sort of change to Haste regarding instant cast spells.

Ultimately I'm taking a chance here, rolling the dice on a piece of loot that hinges on information I don't really even have knowledge of. I do, however, have a few ideas how such a change might go down:

1) Haste will lower the duration of the global cooldown for instants and perhaps allow cast time spells drop below the GCD. If Blizzard thinks they'd be giving us anything with this then they're sorely mistaken. Maybe Mages might appreciate it for Scorch, it might help Resto Druids a little, but if this is their idea of making Haste more appealing I'd change my opinion of Blizzard from "slow to react" to "out of touch with their game." I'm banking on this not being the answer, however as I do have more confidence in Blizzard than that.

2) Haste will increase the damage/healing of instant cast spells. IE 1% Haste would increase the damage or healing of Curse of Agony, Rejuvenation, Ice Lance, etc by 1%. This seems much more reasonable and is what I'm thinking Blizzard will do, however will simply result in my making a big fuss on the PTR forums to try to get #3...

3) Haste will increase the damage/healing of instant cast spells as well as the damage-over-time portions of cast-time spells. Haste as it would be in #2 would not effectively increase the DPS of Unstable Affliction, Immolate, and maybe Corruption(depending on how they code it...) Spells that are not chained back to back simply don't reap any real benefit from Haste. If you're going to re-apply a cast-time DoT you will simply cast it so it is applied right after it expires (regardless of cast time) for no Haste driven DPS gain. The goal, IMO is to have 1% haste increase the damage of all spells by 1%(minus an obvious increase in mana consumption) This includes increasing the cast speed of Nukes, the damage of all instant spells, *and* the damage of cast-time DoTs.

If #3 does indeed happen it will totally change how Shadowpriests, Affliction Locks, and Resto Druids gear for raids. It will make currently trashy epics like the aforementioned Waistwrap of Infinity, Nimble Thought craftable bracers/shoulders as well a some of the Resto Druid gear with all but wasted haste already on it. According to Leulier's Spreadsheet (with some tweaks) 1 Haste Rating would = 1 spell damage at ~1200 spell damage, though with haste costing more itemization points it would result in a much better itemization environment for raid DoTers and HoTers. We'd have options!

Here's hoping!

EDIT: 2 Threads discussing the incoming changes on Haste. AKA me bitching that it's not effecting DoTs in any significant manner and does nothing to aid Shadowpriest and Affliction Lock endgame raid itemization dilemma.

#1

#2

Where Is WoW's "Meta" Class? (And a bunch of other random shit)

So, I created a thread here questioning if a Mesmer /Psionicist (check links if you're unfamiliar) "meta" style class could fit into the WoW world as maybe a hero class? After playing Guild Wars some lately I've come to realize that these classes which are so unfortunately absent from WoW are a large reason why I'm so often drawn to other, ultimately inferior games.

They are truly interesting to play and really have a high learning curve and "scale with skill" quite well. Would a class like this fit in all that well in WoW's ultimately dumbed down MMO model? I'm not sure. I feel bad saying that because it is such a great game, by far the best on the market, but I can't help but feel that the developers cater to the least common denominator(AKA below average "casual" morons who don't even understand the game) too much. No doubt a large reason why it's so popular, but hey, I like complicated things!

It really is a shame that a hardcore yet high quality MMO hasn't surfaced yet. I don't mean hardcore in the grindfest/raid 7 days a week/suck the life out of you type of game, but just a game with very complex gameplay systems, LOTS of classes, choices, customizations, etc. Sure, it would be a tough thing to balance for sure, but my geeky interest in the genre always seems to focus more on the underlying system of the game than even playing the game itself. Does it surprise you that I always spent more time creating Dungeon and Dragons characters than actually playing the game? There's just something about the mechanical side of RPG games that's always caught my interest. It truly is a shame that the jobs of men like Tom Chilton and Brad Mcquaid aren't the types of positions you "apply" for...Who knows, maybe I'll end up working for some game company in their financial department and eventually work my way into a "game systems developer" title :P Maybe, the gaming and MMO markets are both quickly growing!


(One hell of a rant, eh? I think I managed to string together 3-4 separate ideas into something I had initially intended to be about WoW getting a new type of class)

Yeah, I Went There...

So I'm not one to trash talk the other team in the arena, but I went there tonight. They got cussed out, their tactics scrutinized and generally got bombarded with phrases I generally don't utter. What was it that set me off so? Warrior(Gnome, Mace spec no less), Resto Druid, Holy Paladin.

We faced them three times- Lost two and won one. Every single game the Warrior would beeline it right onto my Felhunter essentially instagibbing it(Leiah, if you're reading this I don't even think 50% Resilience on the pet would do the trick here...), the *resto* Druid stayed in Bear form all fight not really even doing anything, occasionally shifting out and throwing a HoT on the other two, and the Paladin must have had a concrete fetish because his dick was shoved in the pillars god knows how long.

As always I wasn't peeved about losing. We lost nearly as many as we won today and I didn't utter a peep on any of the other losses. Honestly more often than not I uttered silent congratulations to the other team for a job well done for their well timed CC, good focus, good cooldown management, etc...but not in this case. Cheese tactics are cheese tactics and if you use them you lose my respect(Not that you care). I don't know how to put it any more bluntly.

Kargath Sure Is In A Giving Mood!

(Before you ask- The loot add on is X-loot, a *very* spiffy loot mod)

Gear Wishlist

A horde buddy of mine was curious(Heya Stagnant!) so I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone and put it up here for your viewing pleasure.

Back
Nethervoid Cloak
Chest
Robes of Rhonin
Feet
Frozen Shadoweave Boots
Finger1

Band of Eternity (Revered)

Finger2
Ring of Ancient Knowledge
Hands
Gloves of the Malefic
Head
Hood of Hexing
Offhand
Orb of the Soul Eater
Legs
Leggings of Devastation
Mainhand
Vengeful Gladiator's Spellblade
Neck
Ritssyn's Lost Pendant
Shoulder
Mantle of the Malefic
Trinket1
Hex Shrunken Head
Trinket2
Icon of the Silver Crescent
Waist
Anetheron's Noose
Wrist
Focused Mana Bindings
Wand
Wand of Prismatic Focus


End results with enchants, blue gems and no buffs are:

489 Stam
297 Int
201 hit
1340 Shadow
2pc tier 6 bonus
2 activated +DMG trinkets

Not bad!

2.4 Info This Week?

Supposidely new info about 2.4 will be out this week. I hear some of the changes are supposed to be "interesting" so here's hoping to some fun tweaks!