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.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Greatly Concerned With Mage Armor
Reposting from here http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=10971908989&sid=2000
First of all I completely agree that Mages needed a leg up against Warlocks. Master Demonologist: Felhunter, and just the Felhunter in general has given you guys quite the rough time against us. You needed some love and you got it.
That being said I can't help but just stare at the screen with a blank look on my face as one class-wide, undispellable ability essentially invalidates most of my entire talent tree, Affliction, by simply causing our DoTs to not be worth casting at all. UA isn't even worth casting- it ticks only twice (down from 5). Corruption ticks 3 times. Haunt lasts a mere 6 seconds...maybe boosting the damage of 2 ticks. Drain Life ticks only twice (down from 5) Immolate ticks only twice. Fear lasts half duration (I don't have a problem here, really, that's more than fair) Siphon Life is really the only one worth using. Shadowpriests, likewise see the same effect. The only thing is this doesn't have nearly the impact on other classes/specs.
I guess what I'm trying to say is it essentially removes the whole "DoTer/debuffer" playstyle when we're in the arena or battleground against a Mage. Please don't misconstrue my complaint as losing to a Mage- I get steamrolled over by Rogues, Warriors, Ret Paladins, Deathknights all the time- but that doesn't bother me even a fraction as much as fighting a Mage and not even being able to use the abilities that define my character, essentially turning into a Destrolock with zero points in Destruction who has zero interest in playing a nuker. I've stuck with Affliction through thick and thin, even raiding BT/Sunwell with it when Destruction is clearly god mode and Affliction even wimpier than Mages =P
Anyway, just putting in my $0.02 in hopes that this ability will be reworked to still bring Mages out of their funk, but without acting as a complete playstyle killer to Affliction and Shadow.
First of all I completely agree that Mages needed a leg up against Warlocks. Master Demonologist: Felhunter, and just the Felhunter in general has given you guys quite the rough time against us. You needed some love and you got it.
That being said I can't help but just stare at the screen with a blank look on my face as one class-wide, undispellable ability essentially invalidates most of my entire talent tree, Affliction, by simply causing our DoTs to not be worth casting at all. UA isn't even worth casting- it ticks only twice (down from 5). Corruption ticks 3 times. Haunt lasts a mere 6 seconds...maybe boosting the damage of 2 ticks. Drain Life ticks only twice (down from 5) Immolate ticks only twice. Fear lasts half duration (I don't have a problem here, really, that's more than fair) Siphon Life is really the only one worth using. Shadowpriests, likewise see the same effect. The only thing is this doesn't have nearly the impact on other classes/specs.
I guess what I'm trying to say is it essentially removes the whole "DoTer/debuffer" playstyle when we're in the arena or battleground against a Mage. Please don't misconstrue my complaint as losing to a Mage- I get steamrolled over by Rogues, Warriors, Ret Paladins, Deathknights all the time- but that doesn't bother me even a fraction as much as fighting a Mage and not even being able to use the abilities that define my character, essentially turning into a Destrolock with zero points in Destruction who has zero interest in playing a nuker. I've stuck with Affliction through thick and thin, even raiding BT/Sunwell with it when Destruction is clearly god mode and Affliction even wimpier than Mages =P
Anyway, just putting in my $0.02 in hopes that this ability will be reworked to still bring Mages out of their funk, but without acting as a complete playstyle killer to Affliction and Shadow.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Latest Lock Beta Thoughts
I can't say a whole bunch has changed lately. Seems kinda like all three of the cloth classes are getting a lack of blue attention...maybe they're saving us for last? /shrug Here's my most pressing 5 issues:
Dark Pact
This ability simply doesn't offer enough to warrant being a 31-point talent. We briefly had the opportunity to test it at 200% and while that may or may not have been too strong I can safely say that 100% is most certainly not enough. Maybe 150% is a more appropriate amount, but I can tell you from experience that in PvE, and *especially* in PvP that we either use Dark Pact and get some mana or our pet gets to use its abilities- not both.
150%. Do it.
Everlasting Afflictions
Good talent but one minor gripe...Corruption often falls off due to not being able to even get a Shadowbolt in simply due to rotational variances that makes a bunch of DoTs needing refreshed in sequence- it can get pretty bad even just when I'm wailing on a dummy, I won't even get into how terrible it can be in an actual encounter with movement requirements... Could we see an ever so slight buff to this talent by letting Haunt refresh Corruption as well?
Haunt
Overall pretty good, but could we get a slight increase in the spread between the cooldown and the duration of the effect? A lot of the time, again due to rotational variances, we can't even begin casting Haunt until after it has already expired. Give us a few more seconds in the spread by either lowering the cooldown or increasing the duration of the debuff- preferably increase the debuff duration from 12 to 15 seconds. Or Maybe give us a Glyph for Haunt to increase the duration by 3 seconds?
Demonic Circle
Good idea but it doesn't work quite so well in practice. It suffers from the "I'm not psychic" problem where we don't necessarily even know where we're going to be fighting. Often enough when doing Strand of the Ancients I'll get jumped not but a few yards away from the circle because I had no idea the enemy was even coming.
IMO...
-Increase the range from 40 to 50 yards so we can stray a little father and recast the circle less.
-Don't let our enemies see the circle.
Fairly minor tweaks but they would help quite a bit.
Shadowflame
Incredibly weak. I just don't know what to say here. We've been harping on it for quite some time. What's up with this ability? Weak damage. No interesting secondary effect. Nothing. Needs a stun/knockback/knockdown/disarm/something!
Alternately bring back Atrocity in place of Shadowflame but make work on curses instead. "Your next curse also effects enemies within 20 yards of your target" 3 minute cooldown.
Dark Pact
This ability simply doesn't offer enough to warrant being a 31-point talent. We briefly had the opportunity to test it at 200% and while that may or may not have been too strong I can safely say that 100% is most certainly not enough. Maybe 150% is a more appropriate amount, but I can tell you from experience that in PvE, and *especially* in PvP that we either use Dark Pact and get some mana or our pet gets to use its abilities- not both.
150%. Do it.
Everlasting Afflictions
Good talent but one minor gripe...Corruption often falls off due to not being able to even get a Shadowbolt in simply due to rotational variances that makes a bunch of DoTs needing refreshed in sequence- it can get pretty bad even just when I'm wailing on a dummy, I won't even get into how terrible it can be in an actual encounter with movement requirements... Could we see an ever so slight buff to this talent by letting Haunt refresh Corruption as well?
Haunt
Overall pretty good, but could we get a slight increase in the spread between the cooldown and the duration of the effect? A lot of the time, again due to rotational variances, we can't even begin casting Haunt until after it has already expired. Give us a few more seconds in the spread by either lowering the cooldown or increasing the duration of the debuff- preferably increase the debuff duration from 12 to 15 seconds. Or Maybe give us a Glyph for Haunt to increase the duration by 3 seconds?
Demonic Circle
Good idea but it doesn't work quite so well in practice. It suffers from the "I'm not psychic" problem where we don't necessarily even know where we're going to be fighting. Often enough when doing Strand of the Ancients I'll get jumped not but a few yards away from the circle because I had no idea the enemy was even coming.
IMO...
-Increase the range from 40 to 50 yards so we can stray a little father and recast the circle less.
-Don't let our enemies see the circle.
Fairly minor tweaks but they would help quite a bit.
Shadowflame
Incredibly weak. I just don't know what to say here. We've been harping on it for quite some time. What's up with this ability? Weak damage. No interesting secondary effect. Nothing. Needs a stun/knockback/knockdown/disarm/something!
Alternately bring back Atrocity in place of Shadowflame but make work on curses instead. "Your next curse also effects enemies within 20 yards of your target" 3 minute cooldown.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Prot Warrior = OMG
So I randomly decided earlier today to try and spec my (level 65 in greens) Warrior to Prot just to test it out with the beta changes. All I can say is- amazing! It's not the fastest killing thing in the world, but it's so very interactive and I really enjoy it quite a bit. I feel like I'm back in Vanguard playing my Monk with all of the reactive abilities and cooldowns and whatnot. The new Shockwave talent combined with Concussive Blow and the improved Revenge talent give you a lot of stuns. Sword & Board procs are a lot of fun as well, adding further to the reactive element.
In a way it's a lot like Affliction in PvE- kills slowly but has some survivability as well. It's refreshing after getting mowed over on the premade server on a Warlock. (Warlocks are all kinds of squishy on the beta)
Anyway, I would go so far as to state that I enjoy Prot more than I do my Deathknight. Deathknights kill in PvE way too quickly (although Leiah has been saying they're pretty low DPS in the arena) Even specced Unholy the burst is pretty high, though no more than any other standard DPS class, which I really don't enjoy. I suppose I enjoy the thrill of combat more than I do the thrill of the kill- which is why I never really cared all that much for Rogues/Mages/Destruction etc.
If you have a Warrior make sure to copy em over to the PTR server and give prot a spin!
In a way it's a lot like Affliction in PvE- kills slowly but has some survivability as well. It's refreshing after getting mowed over on the premade server on a Warlock. (Warlocks are all kinds of squishy on the beta)
Anyway, I would go so far as to state that I enjoy Prot more than I do my Deathknight. Deathknights kill in PvE way too quickly (although Leiah has been saying they're pretty low DPS in the arena) Even specced Unholy the burst is pretty high, though no more than any other standard DPS class, which I really don't enjoy. I suppose I enjoy the thrill of combat more than I do the thrill of the kill- which is why I never really cared all that much for Rogues/Mages/Destruction etc.
If you have a Warrior make sure to copy em over to the PTR server and give prot a spin!
Monday, September 22, 2008
Affliction Damage Dissected
I was curious to see how much less important Shadowbolt would become with UA having to be recast every 15 seconds, CoA working into our rotation, and Haunt having to be cast every 10-12 seconds. That being said I did two different tests on a dummy in Stormwind. Each were around 6-7 minutes in duration, the results of both came out very close to one another so I'll simply post one.
To be fair I'm just pounding on a dummy, I'm not in endgame gear, and I don't have any mana support (thus causing me to have to Lifetap a lot more which cuts into Shadowbolting thus lowering its % of overall DPS) so my Shadowbolt numbers should be lower because of those factors.
On the other hand Pandemic doesn't work on dummies, and there was zero movement required so I think everything comes out pretty neutral.
Anyway, here ya go. I think 20% looks pretty reasonable, we might see it being 25% of our total DPS in better gear, but comparing that to 40-50% like we see now it really diminishes the value of Destructive Reach, Ruin, etc. I'd love to be able to test it in a raid but I've been pretty busy lately with school so haven't had much time.
Anyway, after looking at the data and running a real sustained test I've come to a few conclusions.
1) Ruin and Destructive Reach are very overrated by the general beta Warlock community. Yes, my tests were done without Ruin, but even I had Ruin and had, say, 20% crit it would only boost the overall damage of Shadowbolt from 20% to 24%, although even then the extra crit would proc ISB and buff the DoTs more as well... Not so huge a deal for 5 talent points. Compare that to some of your alternatives in Affliction that might give you more bang for your buck.
2) Haunt needs to refresh Corruption in the Everlasting Afflictions tooltip. A few times Corruption fell off due to a string of needing to recast all the DoTs in one timeframe as well as haunt, and dark pact/lifetap. Haunt being added would smooth things out a good bit.
3) Dark Pact really needs to go back to 200%, 150% at an absolute minimum...blech.
4) The Affliction rotation is most certainly is fine. I've seen people gripe on the forums about it being too complex, but even just fighting a dummy I've found Affliction to be even more fun than before.
To be fair I'm just pounding on a dummy, I'm not in endgame gear, and I don't have any mana support (thus causing me to have to Lifetap a lot more which cuts into Shadowbolting thus lowering its % of overall DPS) so my Shadowbolt numbers should be lower because of those factors.
On the other hand Pandemic doesn't work on dummies, and there was zero movement required so I think everything comes out pretty neutral.
Anyway, here ya go. I think 20% looks pretty reasonable, we might see it being 25% of our total DPS in better gear, but comparing that to 40-50% like we see now it really diminishes the value of Destructive Reach, Ruin, etc. I'd love to be able to test it in a raid but I've been pretty busy lately with school so haven't had much time.
Anyway, after looking at the data and running a real sustained test I've come to a few conclusions.
1) Ruin and Destructive Reach are very overrated by the general beta Warlock community. Yes, my tests were done without Ruin, but even I had Ruin and had, say, 20% crit it would only boost the overall damage of Shadowbolt from 20% to 24%, although even then the extra crit would proc ISB and buff the DoTs more as well... Not so huge a deal for 5 talent points. Compare that to some of your alternatives in Affliction that might give you more bang for your buck.
2) Haunt needs to refresh Corruption in the Everlasting Afflictions tooltip. A few times Corruption fell off due to a string of needing to recast all the DoTs in one timeframe as well as haunt, and dark pact/lifetap. Haunt being added would smooth things out a good bit.
3) Dark Pact really needs to go back to 200%, 150% at an absolute minimum...blech.
4) The Affliction rotation is most certainly is fine. I've seen people gripe on the forums about it being too complex, but even just fighting a dummy I've found Affliction to be even more fun than before.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Things are looking better, but...
A bunch of nice changes have come around lately. Pandemic, Malediction buffed, Death's Embrace buffed, Fel Concentration condensed, etc. There are, however, a handful of changes I'd still like to see that would really streamline everything.
1) Contagion condensed to 3 ranks or removed as a requirement for UA. I don't like to use the word "bloat" but that's a major bloat-point in the tree. It's fine for PvP but for raiding that's a nasty 5 points to have to drop, especially after you've already likely unloaded 14 talent points in the previous two tiers alone.
2) Haunt: The damage/healing portion of the ability are really quite lackluster right now. I'd like to see the ability become more focused- Specifically? Remove the healing portion and make it instant-cast (IE a weak nuke + DoT boost)
3) Dark Pact: 200% may have been over the top a few weeks ago, but with the way Lifetap works now in conjunction with Spirit it's far superior to DP. That being said it's a little too weak now and especially in PvP I feel it's not really usable what with you using up all your pets mana so it can't even use its abilities. I'd love the chance to test Dark Pact at 150%- a nice middle ground between the current lackluster 100% and the maybe over-the-top 200%.
4) Improved Fear: Maybe this talent isn't intended for deep Affliction, because I can achieve the same effect with CoEx, but I don't like the current implementation of it. (Causes your Fear spell to inflict a Nightmare on the target when the fear effect ends. The Nightmare effect reduces the target's movement speed by 15/30% for 5 sec.) It would be nice to see the Warlock and Priest versions swapped, with the Warlock version reducing damage by 30% and the Priest one reducing movement speed. I don't know how favorably the Priest would see this, however. but I think they might like it since they lack slow effects.
5) Reach Talents: I'm agreeing with Bibdy in his post, particuarly in regard to the reach talents. In short, Grim Reach and Destructive Reach should be swapped with Soul Siphon and Aftermath respectively. Getting the reach talents on the second tier would smooth things out nicely, because as Bibdy put it: "All of these talents only affect the spells in their assigned Tree (with the exception of Elemental Precision!), but Warlocks do not use just ONE tree for PvE DPS. No matter which Tree we pick, we rely on both of the others for DPS. " And he's quite right. Frost Mages use Frost spells. Fire Mages uses Fire spells. Arcane uses other somewhat (not sure about them in Wrath) but ALL Warlock specs use Destruction spells, and to a lesser extent, Affliction spells. The reach talents really need to be within reach (pun intended) without having to lay 17 points in another talent tree.
6) Shadowflame: With the latest damage reduction on it I don't see why anyone would even put it on their action bars. It was mediocre before- only really useful for soloing and acting as a Conflag-primer. But now it's even worse! After thinking about it I believe Shadowflame should be re-tooled to be our PvP defense since it surely won't get any use raiding due to the short range, but that short range can be used to address our excessive melee weaknesses.
Shadowflame (Rank 2)
25% of base mana
Instant cast
30 second cooldown
Targets in a cone in front of the caster are bathed in dark flame, causing their weapons to become extremely hot to the touch, disarming them for 5 sec, and taking an additional 212 Fire damage over 8 sec.
(IE cooldown doubled, DD removed, disarm effect added)
7) Paired with the Shadowflame change I would alter Demonic Circle to act as more of a DPS timer skill. Specifically, remove the whole teleport aspect of the spell and make it something similar to the concept of the M'uru trinkets.
Demonic Circle (Rank 1)
15% of base mana
0.5 sec cast
3 minute cooldown
You summon a Demonic Circle at your feet. While standing in this circle you gain 400 additional spellpower. Lasts 30 seconds.
1) Contagion condensed to 3 ranks or removed as a requirement for UA. I don't like to use the word "bloat" but that's a major bloat-point in the tree. It's fine for PvP but for raiding that's a nasty 5 points to have to drop, especially after you've already likely unloaded 14 talent points in the previous two tiers alone.
2) Haunt: The damage/healing portion of the ability are really quite lackluster right now. I'd like to see the ability become more focused- Specifically? Remove the healing portion and make it instant-cast (IE a weak nuke + DoT boost)
3) Dark Pact: 200% may have been over the top a few weeks ago, but with the way Lifetap works now in conjunction with Spirit it's far superior to DP. That being said it's a little too weak now and especially in PvP I feel it's not really usable what with you using up all your pets mana so it can't even use its abilities. I'd love the chance to test Dark Pact at 150%- a nice middle ground between the current lackluster 100% and the maybe over-the-top 200%.
4) Improved Fear: Maybe this talent isn't intended for deep Affliction, because I can achieve the same effect with CoEx, but I don't like the current implementation of it. (Causes your Fear spell to inflict a Nightmare on the target when the fear effect ends. The Nightmare effect reduces the target's movement speed by 15/30% for 5 sec.) It would be nice to see the Warlock and Priest versions swapped, with the Warlock version reducing damage by 30% and the Priest one reducing movement speed. I don't know how favorably the Priest would see this, however. but I think they might like it since they lack slow effects.
5) Reach Talents: I'm agreeing with Bibdy in his post, particuarly in regard to the reach talents. In short, Grim Reach and Destructive Reach should be swapped with Soul Siphon and Aftermath respectively. Getting the reach talents on the second tier would smooth things out nicely, because as Bibdy put it: "All of these talents only affect the spells in their assigned Tree (with the exception of Elemental Precision!), but Warlocks do not use just ONE tree for PvE DPS. No matter which Tree we pick, we rely on both of the others for DPS. " And he's quite right. Frost Mages use Frost spells. Fire Mages uses Fire spells. Arcane uses other somewhat (not sure about them in Wrath) but ALL Warlock specs use Destruction spells, and to a lesser extent, Affliction spells. The reach talents really need to be within reach (pun intended) without having to lay 17 points in another talent tree.
6) Shadowflame: With the latest damage reduction on it I don't see why anyone would even put it on their action bars. It was mediocre before- only really useful for soloing and acting as a Conflag-primer. But now it's even worse! After thinking about it I believe Shadowflame should be re-tooled to be our PvP defense since it surely won't get any use raiding due to the short range, but that short range can be used to address our excessive melee weaknesses.
Shadowflame (Rank 2)
25% of base mana
Instant cast
30 second cooldown
Targets in a cone in front of the caster are bathed in dark flame, causing their weapons to become extremely hot to the touch, disarming them for 5 sec, and taking an additional 212 Fire damage over 8 sec.
(IE cooldown doubled, DD removed, disarm effect added)
7) Paired with the Shadowflame change I would alter Demonic Circle to act as more of a DPS timer skill. Specifically, remove the whole teleport aspect of the spell and make it something similar to the concept of the M'uru trinkets.
Demonic Circle (Rank 1)
15% of base mana
0.5 sec cast
3 minute cooldown
You summon a Demonic Circle at your feet. While standing in this circle you gain 400 additional spellpower. Lasts 30 seconds.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Shadowflame Feedback
To be blunt: Shadowflame really doesn't add a whole lot to the class. I don't think I'm the only one who feels this way. Sure, it's a nice spell for soloing but it doesn't have any real use in serious PvP or raiding. It's good for a quick Immolate primer for Conflag, but even that's only for deeper Destruction. It just seems to lack an overall usability.
What about attaching a stun/daze/knockback effect and increasing the cooldown as necessary? I don't think this spell can be retooled to be useful in raiding, but it would be nice if it were at least more useful for more than one spec in PvP. Even if it had a 1minute cooldown with a knockback that would be better than 15 seconds when you may not even be able to use it every 15 seconds due to LoS, range, etc. It needs some added utility or otherwise it will just take up one of two new ability slots...
What about attaching a stun/daze/knockback effect and increasing the cooldown as necessary? I don't think this spell can be retooled to be useful in raiding, but it would be nice if it were at least more useful for more than one spec in PvP. Even if it had a 1minute cooldown with a knockback that would be better than 15 seconds when you may not even be able to use it every 15 seconds due to LoS, range, etc. It needs some added utility or otherwise it will just take up one of two new ability slots...
A Couple of Arena Gripes (IE Nerf The Fucked Up Metagame)
Can we please look into removing some of the aspects of the arena that create a sort of twisted metagame that we experience particuarly in 2v2? I'm not talking about specific class balance here. Everyone knows the general gripes about every class but I'm talkin' bout some of the general tactics which I feel are at least somewhat against the spirit of the game.
For example:
-Healers running away non stop with nothing more in mind than getting OOC to drink. As a pet class I have a much easier job of being able to keep them in combat than most (I feel bad for non pet teams in 2s) - But even then it doesn't feel like we're even fighting one another. It's a screwed up minigame as far as I'm concerned. If healers need buffs to mana regeneration then by all means give them their buffs. It seems like solely due to being able to use water in the arena it twists the entire strategy around this one facet. Not something I feel is in the spirit on the game. You may of course disagree...
-Similarly, the "kill the pet" strategy and the "run the pet across the arena and intentionally cause it to despawn" strategies. It's fairly screwy that teams can get rid of pets so easily and yet remove such a large portion of your ability to play your character. Once the pet is dead if you can't resummon the match is pretty well over. The coin has two sides, however- If pets are deemed so powerful that they need to be focused then by all means nerf the pets. I'm lobbying neither for buffs or nerfs, but rather a removal of the twisted metagame they create.
I have other gripes of course, but I'll stick to those two. It's not a matter of winning or losing in either case- it's how certain strategies that are available ruin the sense of fun and cohesion that the arena system would otherwise possess- things that can leave me seething at the end of a match- even matches we're victorious in.
For example:
-Healers running away non stop with nothing more in mind than getting OOC to drink. As a pet class I have a much easier job of being able to keep them in combat than most (I feel bad for non pet teams in 2s) - But even then it doesn't feel like we're even fighting one another. It's a screwed up minigame as far as I'm concerned. If healers need buffs to mana regeneration then by all means give them their buffs. It seems like solely due to being able to use water in the arena it twists the entire strategy around this one facet. Not something I feel is in the spirit on the game. You may of course disagree...
-Similarly, the "kill the pet" strategy and the "run the pet across the arena and intentionally cause it to despawn" strategies. It's fairly screwy that teams can get rid of pets so easily and yet remove such a large portion of your ability to play your character. Once the pet is dead if you can't resummon the match is pretty well over. The coin has two sides, however- If pets are deemed so powerful that they need to be focused then by all means nerf the pets. I'm lobbying neither for buffs or nerfs, but rather a removal of the twisted metagame they create.
I have other gripes of course, but I'll stick to those two. It's not a matter of winning or losing in either case- it's how certain strategies that are available ruin the sense of fun and cohesion that the arena system would otherwise possess- things that can leave me seething at the end of a match- even matches we're victorious in.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Funny Observation
You may not totally get this if you don't frequent the Warlock forum, but it seems like everyone who "should have" gotten a beta key due to high amounts of great feedback on the live forums- has gotten one. Bibdy, Skellum, Devorick, Socio, Themorrigan, Kyth (the list goes on) have all gotten in. Either they all lucked out or managed to get in contact with someone who had a key, etc. I'm sure some slipped through the cracks. Maso is one in particular that isn't in yet- but by and large somehow things have worked out like they should have and I'm glad to see the system work.
Or maybe they all got in touch with Leiah when he had extra keys like I did >_>
Or maybe they all got in touch with Leiah when he had extra keys like I did >_>
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Scaling Is In!
Pandemic: Each time you deal damage with Corruption or Unstable Affliction, you have a chance equal to your spell critical strike chance to deal 33/66/100% additional damage.
Not quite what I was expecting but it gets the job done!
Also, I put up a post earlier about some of the changes as well as some of the existing issues that have yet to been addressed. The list is shrinking, however, which is great.
Not quite what I was expecting but it gets the job done!
Also, I put up a post earlier about some of the changes as well as some of the existing issues that have yet to been addressed. The list is shrinking, however, which is great.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Storm Peaks = Awesome
I only got a brief chance to look around the zone several days back when they first opened it up. The next day when I logged back in the zone was closed again (due to some leveling exploit I believe) Now it's open again and I'm totally in love with this zone. It's like Winterspring and Dun Morogh on crack. The mountain peaks are high, the mobs are awesome, and the quests are great as well. It has a very Nordic theme. In fact (spoiler alert!) a good bit of it revolves around the relationship between two giants:Thorim (Thor) and Loken (Loki) who are brothers and are locked in a war with one another. You even go undercover at one point and do quests for otherwise hostile Brunnhildar clan- a bunch of frost skinned all female Vrykul and help them deal with their enemies, the Sons of Hodir (male vs female thing) and the Valyries (former allies who have sold out to the Lich King) I won't spoil any more for you but this zone is just GREAT.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Democratic National Convention
Not a politics blog but I thought I'd chime in on this since it's fresh in the news and all.
I just got done watching several clips from the Democratic National Convention and it struck me as so odd just how touchy feely the whole thing was. The audience was enthralled as if taking part in a hardcore baptist revival- hooting and hollering and screaming and even some tears here and there. And listening to the speakers just sickened me. They play fully on the emotions of the viewer- Not on arguments or hard facts, but rather acting as a stimulus to induce an emotional reaction among those who are too blind to see it for what it is. Even Obama himself, a guy that seems pretty sharp IMO, has in the past said things that just make me scratch my head in wonder. Paraphrasing here, but when asked a question about taxes and how a certain policy of his regarding the taxing of upper income brackets actually hurt those in lower brackets he replied with "Well, it's just not fair." He didn't dispute the studies, or qualify how the poor would actually be better off with said policy, or say anything that even resembled a logical response to a perfectly legitimate question. No, just vague reply resembling an emotional comment I would expect to hear from a small child, not a man running for president. I was surprised I didn't see someone handing out Kleenexes and antidepressants at the DNC...because that's who it seemed they were pandering to.
Now, don't get me wrong. The Republicans certainly are no saints. They have their own list of issues to deal with... That being said I'll take a heartless, out of touch old businessman who won't change a thing running my country before I'll take a crybaby, head in the clouds upstart who would rather play to your emotions and make you feel good regardless of the factual reality of the situation.
Disclaimer: Draele is affiliated neither with the Democratic nor the Republicans party and is in fact a Libertarian, which has stances on issues shared and opposed by both parties.
I just got done watching several clips from the Democratic National Convention and it struck me as so odd just how touchy feely the whole thing was. The audience was enthralled as if taking part in a hardcore baptist revival- hooting and hollering and screaming and even some tears here and there. And listening to the speakers just sickened me. They play fully on the emotions of the viewer- Not on arguments or hard facts, but rather acting as a stimulus to induce an emotional reaction among those who are too blind to see it for what it is. Even Obama himself, a guy that seems pretty sharp IMO, has in the past said things that just make me scratch my head in wonder. Paraphrasing here, but when asked a question about taxes and how a certain policy of his regarding the taxing of upper income brackets actually hurt those in lower brackets he replied with "Well, it's just not fair." He didn't dispute the studies, or qualify how the poor would actually be better off with said policy, or say anything that even resembled a logical response to a perfectly legitimate question. No, just vague reply resembling an emotional comment I would expect to hear from a small child, not a man running for president. I was surprised I didn't see someone handing out Kleenexes and antidepressants at the DNC...because that's who it seemed they were pandering to.
Now, don't get me wrong. The Republicans certainly are no saints. They have their own list of issues to deal with... That being said I'll take a heartless, out of touch old businessman who won't change a thing running my country before I'll take a crybaby, head in the clouds upstart who would rather play to your emotions and make you feel good regardless of the factual reality of the situation.
Disclaimer: Draele is affiliated neither with the Democratic nor the Republicans party and is in fact a Libertarian, which has stances on issues shared and opposed by both parties.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
What's With WoW Insider?
I'm not sure how many of you read WoW Insider but lately I've been getting kinda irked by some of the articles I've read on there. Don't get me wrong, I'm not really trying to bash them or anything, hell, I have them linked on the sidebar, but the problem is so many of the articles are full of fallacies, generalities and overall give me a sense that they haven't done their homework on whatever they're writing about. IE maybe an article written by some guy in beta that makes you think "Is this guy *really* in beta?"
I seem to get a sort of vibe that many of them are journalists with a passing interest in WoW rather than WoW players who like to write about WoW. And you know what? There's nothing wrong with that, but as a very detail oriented guy it tends to grate on my nerves a little from time to time. I like to think everything I post on here is totally accurate and any opinion I venture has sound reasoning, but I do have it a lot easier since my subject matter is so very narrowly focused on one class. They have to write about several subjects so perfect accuracy perhaps isn't a luxury they can afford.
Just my thoughts for the day.
I seem to get a sort of vibe that many of them are journalists with a passing interest in WoW rather than WoW players who like to write about WoW. And you know what? There's nothing wrong with that, but as a very detail oriented guy it tends to grate on my nerves a little from time to time. I like to think everything I post on here is totally accurate and any opinion I venture has sound reasoning, but I do have it a lot easier since my subject matter is so very narrowly focused on one class. They have to write about several subjects so perfect accuracy perhaps isn't a luxury they can afford.
Just my thoughts for the day.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
A Couple Of Graphs For A Forum Post...
Ignore this. Just uploading these to make a point on the beta forums.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Affliction & Demonology Videos
Affliction The Haunt graphic kinda sucks right now...hopefully they'll do something else to it.
Demonology Demon form is fun. Health funnel is crazy OP right now @ 700+ ticks per second.
Demonology Demon form is fun. Health funnel is crazy OP right now @ 700+ ticks per second.
Unholy/Frost Deathknight Video
I tried to show off a few things about the class, or my spec at least. Your standard ability rotation, kiting, unloading a full runic power bar into them before they even touch you, and using Death Chill's 100% crit frost crit chance a couple times in there. Ultimately the focus of it is more on spell damage, especially in building runic power up through basic abilities, having Chill of the Grave and Dirge increase the amount of runic power you get, and Runic Power Mastery making all RP abilities cheaper. Overall it's really fun.
My Spec
A few things...
1) Server was a bit laggy so things are a bit off at points.
2) Quality of the video is pretty bad, make sure to use fullscreen so you can see the tooltips.
3) Sometimes the runic power might seem off, but there's currently a bug that doesn't show runic power decay out of combat.
Video
My Spec
A few things...
1) Server was a bit laggy so things are a bit off at points.
2) Quality of the video is pretty bad, make sure to use fullscreen so you can see the tooltips.
3) Sometimes the runic power might seem off, but there's currently a bug that doesn't show runic power decay out of combat.
Video
More To Come!
I realize I've been a little scarce here lately. Between finals, catching up on sleep after finals and beta I've been pretty busy the past week. Some time in the next couple of days I'll put up some video of my Deathknight as well as a Demonology video. I made an Affliction video but scrapped it since it's pretty much the same as TBC just with bigger numbers. I'll make another Affliction grinding video once I get Shadowflame next level- which should be a little more interesting.
Also, it might be a little later in the week but I'll throw up some info about Venture Bay/Blue Sky Logging Camp, a couple of really fun PvP areas in western Grizzly Hills. Expect to see some pretty maps!
Also, it might be a little later in the week but I'll throw up some info about Venture Bay/Blue Sky Logging Camp, a couple of really fun PvP areas in western Grizzly Hills. Expect to see some pretty maps!
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