Timbal's Finally Dropped!

So after much frustration and seeing far too many Vials of the Sunwell destroy my hopes and dreams- Timbal's Focusing Crystal finally dropped for me last night. I haven't gotten a chance to test it in a raid setting yet, but I'm looking forward to it Tuesday.

...So my assortment of trinkets is now:

Hex Shrunken Head The best by far. I'll always have it equipped.

Darkmoon Card: Crusade Definitely a little bit better than Timbal's but only on fights where continual casting with no interruptions is guaranteed. I'll keep using this guy on Shade of Akama, Teron Gorefiend, and other similar fights.

Timbal's Focusing Crystal Just a notch under Crusade but without the effective "must not stop casting" restriction. A great passive general use boss fight trinket and one less thing to worry about on some of the more intricate boss fights. (Worrying about the Crusade buff dropping off is a minigame in itself!)

Icon of the Silver Crescent Not for boss fights, but better than Timbal's and Crusade for soloing, trash, 5-mans, etc. If you're going to have significant breaks in the action the cooldown on this trinket effectively shrinks. Plus this is just great fun on large trash pulls. Activate Hex, DoT everything, activate Icon, DoT some more. That's a lot of added damage when you have 40 seconds of ~+200 damage applied to all your DoTs on several targets.

Fetish of the Sand Reaver Gotta love how this trinket still kicks ass at level 70. It's my best buddy for AoE pulls, especially in Hyjal!

A nice little collection if I do say so myself. Now I can drop my prejudices and start running Magister's Terrace with Shadowpriests to help them get theirs. Yes, I was an evil bastard and wouldn't run Terrace with a Shadowpriest...but hey I'm more than willing to help them now that I have mine. =D

Yet Another Longwinded Post...

So yeah. I've made yet another TLDR worthy thread on the Warlock forums. All in interest of Affliction and a little procrastinating studying for a test (well...mostly procrastination.../cry I really do my best writing while I'm putting off something else...)

Here it is. Just go read it on the forums. I don't like posting short novels on here, it really clutters the place up!

An Interesting Theory...

So today I stumbled upon this thread, and I tend to see similar discussions of that sort every so often. Essentially, WoW addiction becoming a problem with one ignoring real life responsibilities, time with a significant other, etc. I see these threads, I see players in guild sometimes get "wife aggro" etc, and combined with my own experiences and I can't help but feel that the problem, or at least the majority of it is *not* the neglect of any sort of responsibility, or spending less time with your significant other, but rather *why* you aren't, and in many cases, even when you do "take care of your shit" it's a problem.

Imagine some random guy who is labeled by his significant other as a "WoW addict" were to drop WoW and go join a local bowling league, or and spend the same *exact* amount of time away from their responsibilities. I guarantee 90% of the time hey'd get less flak about it. The issue isn't necessarily that responsibilities are being shirked, or that they're not spending time with their significant others, but rather that they're spending time with a "silly game"

It seems like the label of "addiction" is being thrown around a little too liberally by people who just lack a fundamental respect for certain hobbies, IE gaming, simply because they either don't understand it or reject it as it's not socially sanctioned as a "proper" hobby.

Personally? I'm single. Rather happily. But even I get crap from friends for "wasting my time" with WoW when all they're doing is playing some X-box game or going to get drunk and play poker. Now don't get me wrong- addiction is a very real problem- but it just seems like like much of the anger/frustration surrounding PC gaming "addiction" labeling stems not from neglecting ones life, but rather the ignorance of the accuser. PC gaming does tend to be a little more complex and difficult to "get" at a glance like many console games, or even a sport or other hobby, so it's quite easy to develop angst towards these games that one might not understand.

Is ignorance the driving force that makes people in your life take issue with your gaming hobbies? I think so.


(As an aside I fully admit being addicted to the computer. Not to any specific game, chat program, forum, email, or anything really, but I am addicted to the sum of the parts of the experience of being on the computer. Being able to communicate, play games, do school work, listen to music, shop, learn, etc. I am very much addicted to that but I think most of us are and just aren't willing to admit it...Plus what with the advent of AIM/myspace/etc being on the computer so much is quickly becoming, or already is, an acceptable addiction of sorts)

Rogues, Spies, & Assassins

So I type this after playing a few games of TF2 today...I dare say that I truly hate Rogues, Spies, and Assassins- that whole archetype across all gaming genres. Not because they're too strong, or too weak, or their playstyle is/isn't fun, or anything like that. Why? Because they always go after people behind the lines of combat. "What's wrong with that? That's what they're for." you say? Well, that's perfectly fine and all except when you consider that it completely nullifies the entire purpose of playing conservatively. Consider the reason I'm not on the front lines in the middle of the frag fest. It's because I don't want to die. I'm totally fine with getting less kills if it also means getting killed less myself. The monkey wrench in this whole risk/reward scenario is that these classes by default are going for the folks way behind the lines and making them pay either way.

I felt compelled to make a chart since I've been staring at portfolio mix scatter plots with risk/return all week. (Damnit, why can't I diversify my risk away with negatively correlated highly risky stocks in WoW & TF2) Anyway...



*inserts Ben Stein voice* As you can see, chart number one represents the standard risk/reward(kills vs deaths) function. Chart number two, however, interjects said "sneaky" classes into the equation, thus drastically reducing the lifespan of said conservative player.

All joking aside, it's just really fucking annoying. I'm not going to point at any game and say it's a problem, so much as a major annoyance as I do tend to play pretty conservatively. Most of the time I don't die too much for playing cautiously(Affliction Lock & Demoman FTW) but occasionally there will be a good Rogue or Spy that will literally make me want to just leave the server or quit the BG. Props to them, I respect their skill for sure and they earn their kills, but at the same time it ruins the whole concept of playing conservatively for the purpose of avoiding deaths.

/shrug If they piss me off enough I just go Pyro and make their playstyle pointless as they have mine.

Lifetap Changed on PTR

So apparently on the PTR there has been a change to Lifetap, and not for the better. Instead of converting a base amount of HP into a base amount of mana and it scaling with spelldmg, it will now simply convert 16% of your health into 16% of your mana.

What does this mean? It means Int is going to be a much more attractive stat, and gaining more Stamina is actually going to increase the amount of health you sacrifice with Lifetap without actually increasing the mana you get back. This I find to be quite counterintuitive. Shouldn't getting better gear be a good thing?

Either way, this nerf was aimed at the arenas for sure where SL/SL Warlocks stack large amounts of Stam and very little int, so they'll be converting a *lot* of health into minimal mana = major nerf. The impact won't be quite so severe in raiding as HP/mana ratios are much closer to 1:1, but it will still be a nerf. Even less of a nerf for Affliction as Dark Pact is unaffected by this change.

What I *am* concerned with, however, is that this change combined with the Emberstorm buff is that Destruction Warlocks will be moving over to Incinerate as it will be casting faster and already was a better damage-per-mana spell(thus decreasing their mana consumption). That will mean Improved Shadowbolt won't be up any more and Affliction & Shadowpriests will suffer(Not that I'm surprised...)

On the optimistic side we may see some buffs come from this. Perhaps some PvP survivability changes against melee? Maybe increased DoT coefficients? I know for certain now that the devs knows the PvP issues Affliction/Destruction have and the raiding issues of Affliction. Who knows what's to come but I'm putting my money on some positive changes before we see 2.4 go live.

Brief Descriptions of Sunwell Isle "World Event"

1-Flightmaster: You initially land here after flying from Ironforge (flight path automatically unlocked) This is also where you take off when doing bombing run daily quests.

2-Shattered Sun Boat: This boat has the NPCs that you trade in tokens for tier loot and they also convert Sunwell drops into other drops. This is a new mechanic. You can pick up, say, a pair of cloth healing gloves and turn it in with 1 Sunmote(Heart of Darkness style drop) and can get a pair of cloth DPS gloves. Every item has its own matching piece.

3-Shattered Sun Staging Area: This is where all the initial daily quests are. Most are involved with achieving some goal linked to taking Sun's Reach Sanctum(4)

4-Sun's Reach Sanctum: Initially held by Kael's blood elves. After so many people do daily quests linked to taking this area are completed(it will likely take 2-3 days to take, maybe more) we officially take control of it. Shattered Sun NPCs move in, new quests associated with taking Sun's Reach Armory(5) open up inlcuding one in Outland associated with creating a portal from Shatt to Sunwell Isle. Some quests at Shattered Sun Staging Area disappear, while some remain.



5-Sun's Reach Armory: Just like Sun's Reach Sanctum once this area is taken Shattered Sun NPCs move in, new quests open up linked to taking Sun's Reach Harbor(6). Vendors for t4 tokens -> season 1, and t5 tokens for season2 gear are inside the armory initially. Just outside an armory is a Blacksmith who has a daily quest to gather ore from Naga at Greengill Coast to complete her anvil. Once enough of these are completed the new badge vendors open up(~28% currently on the PTR with a LOT of people doing it. I will probably take a week to do this on live.)

6-Sun's Reach Harbor: Currently no info on this as we're still trying to take it. Unknown what taking control of this unlocks and whether it's the last area to control or not...

7-Magister's Terrace: The new 5-man.

8-Sunwell Plateau Entrance: The new 25-man.

Overall it's a really fun thing Blizzard has set up here. It's a lot like the AQ gate opening but not requiring lame material collections, but instead rather fun daily quests including bombing runs on demons, Kael's boats, kill quests, etc.

Very fun!

Flash Games

Sure, not WoW related, but here's a few very very fun flash games you guys might enjoy. Antbusters is quite silly if you have the volume on :D

Antbuster
Grid16
Vector Tower Defense

Items of Interest

Interesting list of items here...

Gloves of Tyri's Power
Sunfire Robe
Leggings of Calamity
Wand of the Demonsoul
Bracers of the Malefic
Belt of the Malefic
Boots of Incantations
Sunwell Badge Loot - Caster Ring
Loop of Forged Power
Timbal's Focusing Crystal (15 second internal cooldown puts the proc at 20-25 DPS)

Did They Fix It?

So yeah. I was kind of off on the Haste changes. The global cooldown addition is actually pretty nice. It still leaves Affliction behind in scaling but at least Haste can function as a nice secondary stat to gear for. +DMG will continue to be king, but Haste will represent a viable secondary stat to see on gear and hopefully muscle crit around a little bit.

So ultimately this change will get Affliction *close enough* but only with perfect itemization. I'm still rooting for 1 tier set for each talent tree in WotLK so each spec can get what they need. Appropriate set bonuses for the tree. etc.

IE-

-Afflicted Gloves of the Malefic: Pale Green/Blue "Deathmist Raiment" colored, with Affliction stats(high dmg, some haste, some hit)

-Demonic Gloves of the Malefic: Purple/Dark Green "Nemesis Raiment" colored with Demonology stats(moderate dmg, pet AP, some hit)

-Destructive Gloves of the Malefic: Red/Black "Corruptor's Raiment" colored with Destruction stats(little bit of everything, really)

We'll see! I the meantime I created a thread here to further discuss allowing Haste to effect tick speed.

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!

Random Thoughts

1- Iron Maiden is freakin' awesome. To think I *disliked* them up until a few weeks ago.

2- Got me some Sangria for tonight :D It's not some fancy expensive wine, but I like it, very warm going down.

3- WTB patch 2.4/WotLK info. FUUUCK I wish Blizzard wasn't so damn "ivory tower" all the time with their communications. That's it, I'm gonna invent some world changing thing, make a shitload of money and buy up Vivendi just so I can change policy at Blizzard and get, oh, about +2000% more dev posts on the forums.

4- Back to raiding this week. I enjoyed the time off the past week as a nice WoW break (though I'm a little burnt on TF2 now...) Will be nice to get back on the horse in TK...though I hope nobody is rusty what with it being two weeks since we last fought Kael.

5- It's nearly 9:00 AM and still not sleepy.

Atlas Shrugged

So yesterday I started reading "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand at request of my grandmother. I'm only ~40 pages in but it's great so far. It depicts a world that is degrading into uselessness through excessive "left-leaning" thoughts, not just from politicians, but businessmen and the common folk. Drive is frowned upon, new ideas discouraged and the successful scorned. It portrays a few brilliant minds of business who are constantly being put down for their successes and...well that's all that's really going on so far but who knows what might happen?

(Okay, so I peeked a little at Wikipedia)

The main conflict of the book occurs as the "individuals of the mind" go on strike, refusing to contribute their inventions, art, business leadership, scientific research, or new ideas of any kind to the rest of the world. Society, they believe, hampers them by interfering with their work and underpays them by confiscating the profits and dignity they have rightfully earned. The peaceful cohesiveness of the world requires those individuals whose productive work comes from mental effort. But feeling they have no alternative, they eventually start disappearing from the communities of "looters" and "moochers" who bleed them dry. The strikers believe that they are crucial to a society that exploits them, and the near-total collapse of civilization triggered by their strike shows them to be correct.

Apparently it's one of the top self-pride/motivation, free thought, free market, etc novels. A HUGE book, probably the largest I've read- I won't be putting this one down for some time.

(Oh, and FWIW one of the main characters in this book is a woman by the name of Dagny- When I first read her name I immediately thought "female dwarf". That name does sound awfully Dwarven, doesn't it?)

Kael Down!

A slightly belated post, but Sunday we got our first Kael kill! To be completely honest I wasn't (nor do I think many others were) expecting to get him that night... apparantly phase 5 was more of a cakewalk than we expected. Anyway, it was quite a rush to see him drop. Give us a couple more weeks, get some people their Kael and Vashj vials and we'll be in Hyjal/BT mostly full time! It will be nice to get into some new content and finally for (Arv and I) get some genuine upgrades. Nethervoid Cloak especially- yum.

As an aside, I hope I can go a stretch without having to play Mr. Caster Tank. Leotheras, Vashj, Kael, I'm either kiting or tanking a good portion of them. Not that I mind doing it- I like knowing the job will get done (No sign of disrespect to my guildies. I just follow the motto- "If you want something done right, do it yourself") Here's to seeing some DPS-race gear check fights in the future?

PS- Rumoer has it boss #1 of Sunwell, the pitlord Brutalicus, is a Patchwerk style gear check encounter. Patchwerk was such a fun fight(even at level 70) it will be great to a fight like it at it's inteded level.

PPS- Jack and Dr. Pepper, not quite as good as Jack and Coke.

By Request...

As required by Fusoya.

* List your primary talent tree(s), i.e. Holy/Disc.

43/7/11 Afflict/Demo/Destro


* List the content you're primarily pursuing or most enjoy, i.e. Raiding, PvP, Solo, etc...

I pretty much do everything, but I'd say raiding is most important to me.


* Provide a brief description of the areas you feel are most in need of improvement (you may list a maximum of three issues and each issue should be described in one or two sentences).

*** DoT scaling/itemization: These spells gain little/no benefit from crit/haste which appear on the vast majority of endgame items, making Affliction comparatively weaker and weaker. It would be great to see both of these stats impact DoT damage in some way, or perhaps see one raid set per talent tree so this isn't a problem. (This is my biggest issue with the game. It is a huge problem as a raiding Affliction Warlock)

-PvP escape mechanisms: Honestly, we're sitting ducks to melee in PvP. Fear is unreliable and often not possible to cast, and while melee is supposed to be our weak point I believe we're currently *too* weak vs melee and we could use some better defense against them.

-Lack of *active* debuffing: It would be great to see some more debuffing power, especially active debuffing that isn't a 5 minute curse you cast once per fight. For example having the Affliction 51 point talent be a debuff that reduces damage a target does by X% for Y seconds with 1 minute cooldown.


* List up to five specific spells/abilities/talents you feel most need change, redesign or improvement in the order you feel each is most in need of attention. (MOST to LESS)

-Bane: I feel this talent is *too* necessary as a raiding Warlock. It would be nice to see it moved to tier 1 Destruction so we don't have to spend as many points to reach it.

-Death Coil: This ability, once considered quite overpowered could use a reduction in cooldown in the current game environment. 45 seconds - 1minute seems reasonable.

-Contagion: For where this talent sits in the tree it's too weak. I'd like to see it's +5% damage effect Siphon Life and UA as well.

-Siphon Life/Soul Link: I feel this talent spec in particular is entirely too powerful compared to anything else in the arena and due to it's power is keeping the class as a whole from receiving changes that it needs.

-Seed of Corruption: I feel this ability is too strong. Warlocks should be viable for AoE but this ability takes us beyond viable into the "as good as Mages" category which I feel we shouldn't quite be at.

As a side note, I'm very happy with the posts of all the other Warlocks made. Many of the same issues are brought up, which gives our feedback a sense of cohesion so maybe the devs will take it seriously! It seems like DoT scaling/pet scaling came up in every other post. Tough stuff to ignore when everyone has something to say about it!

AR/Hemo Rogues

/yawn