As seen in this thread.
I thought I'd bring this subject up under favorable terms for discussion rather than wait for the potential nerf cries later.
Essentially, we've got two talents: Everlasting Afflictions (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=47205) and Pain & Suffering (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=47582) that auto-refresh our primary "big DoT" - Corruption and Shadow Word: Pain, respectively. The kicker here isn't the saved global cooldowns, which while nice pales in comparison to being able to keep a very large tick "rolling" similar to the Lifeblooms and Ignites of yore. IE right now I pop Hex Shrunken Head, cast Corruption, and for as long as I can cast Drain Life or Haunt every 18 seconds to keep it refreshed I keep that big tick.
Right now it's only worth around 100 DPS or so- not so large a sum. I'm not too worried about it because it doesn't have nearly the potential that rolling ignites did (rolling ignites kept getting bigger and bigger each proc for near infinite potential only limited by aggro) but Corr/SWP don't ramp up at all- they merely sustains a tick at the highest Spellpower value you could muster when you cast it. Nor does it have the impact of rolling Lifeblooms as it isn't an integral part of keeping a tank alive, just a slight DPS boost. That being said there is potential for this to get much larger in a "if the stars aligned" situation where you have a few procs active at the same time as well as activate a trinket. This would be fairly rare to get everything to fall together perfectly.
My point here is I think this is a very interesting mechanic to watch procs for, save trinkets/potions/etc for to try and get a large tick sustained through fights where keeping the debuff going is feasible. It really adds another level of fun/metagaming which makes thing much more engaging. Also, if this were "fixed" the only way I could see it working would be to have it take the spellpower at time of reapplication into account, which while feasible on paper would practically neuter DPS because not only would the Corr/SWP ticks not be able to "roll" any longer, but they would immediately lose any "natural" spellpower boost obtained from a trinket that would otherwise be maintained over 18 second duration of the DoT as soon as Haunt/Mindflay deals damage. IE a Corruption cast midway through a trinket doesn't even get a full 18 seconds worth of bonus spellpower as it would have before EA/P&S were implemented.
So in conclusion I'd like to say this is a very interesting and enjoyable mechanic and I'm asking now while Warlock/Spriest DPS is low relative to other classes to please take these talents into account as-is when balancing/buffing us in the future. "Fixing" this (assuming it's not intended to begin with) would hurt just as much as it would help in addition to ruining any fun factor and reward for exceptional DPS management. Balance us around having said perpetual Corruption/SWP ticks (on fights that support it) while also keeping in mind that this won't actually be sustainable on many/most fights simply due to general required encounter interactions/stuns/silences/debuff wipes/etc that won't even allow to keep said DoTs rolling.
Looking forward to further discussion on this matter!
Friday, November 28, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
450 Tailoring!
So...17k gold later I'm 450 Tailoring! Server first feat of strength no less! While that's a hefty price tag I also got a nifty Flying Carpet mount as well as a pair of Ebonweave Gloves. Will post screenshot later.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Tailoring...Ugh
So I'm trying for the server first 450 Tailor feat of Strength...and oh boy am I spending the gold. So far I'm at 430 and have gone from 26,000 gold down to 19,400. This is so expensive I'm weeping. But what's the point in having a stack of gold if you aren't going to put it to use? Right?
Right now I'm skilling up on Frostsavage Boots and Frostsavage Gloves which are fairly expensive to make but I'm hoping I can resell them to earn back at least a portion of what I've spent... I'm dreading 440, however, at which point these go green. There really isn't anything even remotely reasonable to skill up on from 440 to 450- all of it requires mass eternals + Frozen Orbs, or lots of Ebonweave/Spellweave/Moonshroud. At this point skilling up on the previous green items looks like the best option...
I'm tempted to halt all production and wait for prices to come down, but that will take weeks and I've already dropped so much gold into this it would be quite painful to stop now and not get the server first...but oh so painful to go on as well!
Right now I'm skilling up on Frostsavage Boots and Frostsavage Gloves which are fairly expensive to make but I'm hoping I can resell them to earn back at least a portion of what I've spent... I'm dreading 440, however, at which point these go green. There really isn't anything even remotely reasonable to skill up on from 440 to 450- all of it requires mass eternals + Frozen Orbs, or lots of Ebonweave/Spellweave/Moonshroud. At this point skilling up on the previous green items looks like the best option...
I'm tempted to halt all production and wait for prices to come down, but that will take weeks and I've already dropped so much gold into this it would be quite painful to stop now and not get the server first...but oh so painful to go on as well!
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Making Affliction Less Stressful...
...but without dumbing it down!
There has been much discussion of Affliction being too difficult for many players, and I can certainly see how that would be so especially in complex boss encounters. That being said there are many players who are drawn to this spec for that very reason, complexity. I don't want to rain on anyone's parade but most classes/specs in a raid setting are quite simplistic and uninspiring. Affliction offers something requiring a little more attention and requires you be a little more engaged than your average raider. I, for one, don't know what I'd do if Affliction were dumbed down as there's really nothing else both as interesting and engaging as Affliction. Lets just say it will be a sad day for many if Affliction is dumbed down to the level of other classes/specs.
I'm all for making Affliction flow better, however, as long as it doesn't come at the cost of dumbing it down. It can remain just as complex but play more intuitively and less stressfully.
A few things that I'd support changing to reach this goal:
-Increase the duration of Shadow Embrace from 12s to 15s. Give us a little more time to refresh the debuff before it falls off. Some fight have a lot of movement or require changing targets so that reapplication may not always occur every 12 seconds.
-Make UA instant. This would allow for quicker reapplication should you be doing something else when it falls off as well as letting you reapply it while moving.
-Add Shadowbolt back into Everlasting Afflictions. More frequent reapplications lead to less chance of it falling off at an odd moment in a fight and the worrying that occurs of trying to keep it up.
-Change the base UI to better display debuff timers as to accomodate people without mods such as DoTimer. Have it display your debuffs all together on the first line, sorted by time remaining so the very first debuffs are the ones with the shortest duration left.
All of these things would allow Affliction to play more intuitively, and be less stressful making one worry about one or more of the more passive debuffs from falling off while still maintaining the management of the more active debuffs (UA, Immolate, Siphon, CoA, Haunt) while not dumbing it down by making all of the DoT share the same duration (as GC volunteered), removing DoTs from our rotation, etc.
There can be a solid middle ground between stressfully convoluted and pleasantly complex.
There has been much discussion of Affliction being too difficult for many players, and I can certainly see how that would be so especially in complex boss encounters. That being said there are many players who are drawn to this spec for that very reason, complexity. I don't want to rain on anyone's parade but most classes/specs in a raid setting are quite simplistic and uninspiring. Affliction offers something requiring a little more attention and requires you be a little more engaged than your average raider. I, for one, don't know what I'd do if Affliction were dumbed down as there's really nothing else both as interesting and engaging as Affliction. Lets just say it will be a sad day for many if Affliction is dumbed down to the level of other classes/specs.
I'm all for making Affliction flow better, however, as long as it doesn't come at the cost of dumbing it down. It can remain just as complex but play more intuitively and less stressfully.
A few things that I'd support changing to reach this goal:
-Increase the duration of Shadow Embrace from 12s to 15s. Give us a little more time to refresh the debuff before it falls off. Some fight have a lot of movement or require changing targets so that reapplication may not always occur every 12 seconds.
-Make UA instant. This would allow for quicker reapplication should you be doing something else when it falls off as well as letting you reapply it while moving.
-Add Shadowbolt back into Everlasting Afflictions. More frequent reapplications lead to less chance of it falling off at an odd moment in a fight and the worrying that occurs of trying to keep it up.
-Change the base UI to better display debuff timers as to accomodate people without mods such as DoTimer. Have it display your debuffs all together on the first line, sorted by time remaining so the very first debuffs are the ones with the shortest duration left.
All of these things would allow Affliction to play more intuitively, and be less stressful making one worry about one or more of the more passive debuffs from falling off while still maintaining the management of the more active debuffs (UA, Immolate, Siphon, CoA, Haunt) while not dumbing it down by making all of the DoT share the same duration (as GC volunteered), removing DoTs from our rotation, etc.
There can be a solid middle ground between stressfully convoluted and pleasantly complex.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Leave Affliction Be
In case you haven't been following the forums lately there is a big push by many, many players to make Affliction more...well...easy. Ghostcrawler has even expressed thoughts of maybe making the spec easier by making more of the DoTs have the same duration, IE watering it down. If you haven't guessed by now I'm 100% against this and the following is my response...
I've tiptoed in several other threads regarding this but I figured it deserves it's own. That being said I'll get right to it.
There are plenty of other, easier options for you to respec/reroll to if the difficulty of Affliction is such an issue. I understand that those of us that like Affliction how it is, or would even like to see it become more involved, are by far in the minority. Most players like to keep things simple, pewpew the boss, get loot, have a cheer, good day! There's nothing wrong with that per se, but in your attempts at convincing Blizzard to make Affliction more manageable by dumbing it down for the average joe you're completely ruining the game for a very dedicated minority who revel in the complexity of the spec. What's left for those of us who like ultra involved gameplay? Nothing.
Boss encounters? The glorified synchronized herding of cats. I'm big into raiding due to the challenge of maximizing DPS. Optimal DPS rotations, especially on multiple targets is an incredibly fun game within itself. But most of demands of the encounters themselves are either RNG in nature, or simply waiting for one of the 3 morons in your raid (Seems like there's always 3...) to not screw up this time.
Arena? If the match isn't decided the moment the doors opens due to class imbalances or countercomps then it's decided, again by RNG factors. Even if it were more skill based one can only stomach so much "you cannot do that while stunned/silenced/assist trained" before getting fed up with it and logging out.
The only real issue at hand is simply that of the game lacking a proper base UI to support multiple DoTs with varying durations. It's quite enjoyable if you have DoTimer, and if you still don't enjoy it or can't handle it then maybe Affliction isn't for you? Affliction is a bastion of sorts for ultra attentive/involved players. There's really nowhere else to go for us but to another game, and even those that claim to cater to "hardcore" gamers cater only to hardcore in the "if you have no life..." meaning: camping world boss spawns, massive level grinds, etc. Not the hardcore in the skill intensive "you have to actually be good" meaning. There's really not a whole lot left outside of Affliction as most other specs in the game are nearly every bit as mindless as 0/21/40 was, are only moderately more engaging than such, or are only challenging in a solo environment. Affliction is all that's left. Please, please don't push this. Don't ruin it because you can't handle it. I'm sorry to say that, it is somewhat rude, but it's the truth. There's other specs, other classes where you can have your fill of easy rotations. Every class should truly have such a complex and attention demanding spec where good players can thrive and have a good time doing it.
Please, leave Affliction be.
I've tiptoed in several other threads regarding this but I figured it deserves it's own. That being said I'll get right to it.
There are plenty of other, easier options for you to respec/reroll to if the difficulty of Affliction is such an issue. I understand that those of us that like Affliction how it is, or would even like to see it become more involved, are by far in the minority. Most players like to keep things simple, pewpew the boss, get loot, have a cheer, good day! There's nothing wrong with that per se, but in your attempts at convincing Blizzard to make Affliction more manageable by dumbing it down for the average joe you're completely ruining the game for a very dedicated minority who revel in the complexity of the spec. What's left for those of us who like ultra involved gameplay? Nothing.
Boss encounters? The glorified synchronized herding of cats. I'm big into raiding due to the challenge of maximizing DPS. Optimal DPS rotations, especially on multiple targets is an incredibly fun game within itself. But most of demands of the encounters themselves are either RNG in nature, or simply waiting for one of the 3 morons in your raid (Seems like there's always 3...) to not screw up this time.
Arena? If the match isn't decided the moment the doors opens due to class imbalances or countercomps then it's decided, again by RNG factors. Even if it were more skill based one can only stomach so much "you cannot do that while stunned/silenced/assist trained" before getting fed up with it and logging out.
The only real issue at hand is simply that of the game lacking a proper base UI to support multiple DoTs with varying durations. It's quite enjoyable if you have DoTimer, and if you still don't enjoy it or can't handle it then maybe Affliction isn't for you? Affliction is a bastion of sorts for ultra attentive/involved players. There's really nowhere else to go for us but to another game, and even those that claim to cater to "hardcore" gamers cater only to hardcore in the "if you have no life..." meaning: camping world boss spawns, massive level grinds, etc. Not the hardcore in the skill intensive "you have to actually be good" meaning. There's really not a whole lot left outside of Affliction as most other specs in the game are nearly every bit as mindless as 0/21/40 was, are only moderately more engaging than such, or are only challenging in a solo environment. Affliction is all that's left. Please, please don't push this. Don't ruin it because you can't handle it. I'm sorry to say that, it is somewhat rude, but it's the truth. There's other specs, other classes where you can have your fill of easy rotations. Every class should truly have such a complex and attention demanding spec where good players can thrive and have a good time doing it.
Please, leave Affliction be.
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