tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81682193142048384932024-03-14T07:21:26.093-07:00Kaziel's thoughts on my (mis?)adventures in MMOsKazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.comBlogger119125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-34162364802553122532010-02-05T10:26:00.000-08:002010-02-05T11:50:38.443-08:00Posts already sparse are going to become even more soSo I haven't posted in a while. It's a combination of my work firewall blocking my main Blogspot page (can still get into the dashboard) and moving up in the world. Moving up how? Well, about 3 or 4 months ago I decided that I really wanted to see everything that endgame had to offer me and that I just wasn't getting that in my guild.<br /><br />I knew my other much more progression driven friend wouuld come with me if I jumped ship (he was already really chafeing at the lack of progress in our guild), but I was concerned if my girlfriend would come with us. This concern was pretty much a non-issue since she was feeling it too and playing like it, logging in just for our raids and not otherwise due to a lack of anything to do.<br /><br />After talking it over with the guild leader and his wife (an officer) and our good mutual friends, we explained and while he was sad to see us go, he understood our reasoning.<br /><br />It was a long search to find a guild that matched our requirements. First off, my girlfriend and I live in California and I work, so I needed a guild that started raiding no earlier than 6:30 PST. Next, our friend lives in Texas, so we couldn't end too late at night either. Now, these two things alone wouldn't be enough to make it hard to find a guild, but every Tuesday night my girlfriend and I play D&D, which put one of the most common raiding nights out entirely.<br /><br />After a long period of searching, we found Recognition of the Suramar server. They have two 25-man raiding groups, one that runs Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays (I think), the other Thursdays and Sundays, starting at 6:30 PST. It was a perfect match and what's more they needed all three of our class/spec combos. We applied and transfered servers when we were given a trial run in ToC the following Thursday. Even the worst of the three of us did well enough to be invited to the following ICC-25.<br /><br />We were made official members, able to bid on stuff the following Sunday, and have settled in to our roles, quickly gearing up (over the course of the last two nights my girlfriend managed to upgrade both of her weapons, and I recently bought my T10 shoulders, and our friend who's a hunter got his BiS bow short of ICC-25 heroic) and overall enjoying our time there.<br /><br />Well this Wednesday I got an offer to run with the other team's ICC-10 man group. I was feeling pretty ego-tastic after that because they were originally aiming for Tuesdays (which is, obviously not free) then they were asking me what night I was free. So I was like "Wow, I'm such an awesome tank that the other team wants me to go with them and are willing to see what days I can join them." I declined then because I was already running ICC-10 with other people from my own ICC-25 group. When I was talking to the GM about it, he said something along the lines of "We wanted to get you trained up on the fights in ICC."<br /><br />Now, what does that have to do with anything? Well the normal raid leader has been absent due to RL stuff for a while, and the back up had RL stuff that night to attend to, so they got a backup RL on an alt and then the train hit me. "And Alixander will also be the Raid Leader and will explain the fights." I nearly got whiplash from snapping my head to look at the monitor. "Wait... WHAT?" I asked outloud, but not into vent. At the time I figured it was just a case of "He's a tank, he's good at raid leading." But then throughout the night the other guy brought in on an alt as the "raid leader" kept trying to help me out towards being more of a leader of our group.<br /><br />About halfway through the night, when I got a tell from this guy telling me more tips on what to do as the RL, everything fell into place (had I not been tanking, it probably would have hit sooner). The other group, which counts for a lot of officers, wanted me to join them, were willing to change their schedules for me. They wanted to "train me up". All this, combined with being almost pushed towards raid leading it just clicked: The officers were grooming me to lead my 25-man team since the previous leader had been absent for two weeks (not clear on the details, but she had some serious RL stuff going on it seemed) and would be gone for the foreseeable future.<br /><br />Note: I am probably going to jump over to the other ICC-10 group to get better trained up on the fights and quickly gear up my DK to tank for my current ICC-10 group so they aren't lacking a good tank.<br /><br />I don't have any problems with being the raid leader, mind you. Someone has to do it, and while it is almost entirely a thankless task I've done it before and (it seems) will do it again. It just blindsided me a good bit since I've been in the guild less than a month. Seriously. As of the writing of my last post on this blog, I was still in my old guild. Anyways, what little time I have, for now, is going to be focused on making sure I'm as prepared to run my group through ICC-25 as humanly possible. I know some folks can balance a blog and raid leading, but I'm not one of them. I'll post occasionally, but not nearly as frequently as I have been. Once we've gotten everything locked down, I'll try to post more. Anyways, happy hunting all!Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-84272220288634068182010-01-06T16:04:00.000-08:002010-01-06T16:07:40.180-08:00My thoughts on ICC-10As I mentioned in my last post, I got into a PUG ICC-10 run which was successful and I managed to down all 4 bosses in one run (but didn't one-shot them).<br /><br />My opinion on the fights, all from the perspective of a tank:<br /><br /><strong>Lord Marrowgar:</strong> The coldfire during the BONESTOOOOOOORM! phase makes it very hectic. I would imagine that it's just as hectic in 10-man as 25-man but for different reasons. In 10-man there are few healers which means you have to be careful of the fire and being too far from a healer, lest you nom on too much of the chilly burns. I would imagine that in 25-man, since (as I understand it) he moves from person to person, if you stack up, you or others will die, while if you spread out you get burnt.<br /><br />But it's a fun fight, overall. Some movement, spacial awareness, plus the tanks need to move in tandem which gives an additional challenge.<br /><br /><strong>Lady Deathwhisper:</strong> Phase one is a mad house. Both myself and Thornir would be on the same side wiping out the adds, then run over to the other side. We had little time to rest. When we finally got to phase two we made a few mistakes with early threat generation, but we got her down in one try (mostly because we didn't want to do phase one again).<br /><br />Deathwhisper has an interesting twist on the semi-standard "tank until you get X amount of debuffs, then other tank taunts off you until the debuff wears off, back and forth" during Phase two. Thinking about the fights where this concept shows up, in most cases it takes the form of a DoT, so if the other tank doesn't taunt the target off you, you'll take too much damage and the healers can't keep you alive. Instead, this one either decreases your total threat by a set percent as long as the debuff is on you, or decreases the threat you create by a set percent. Either way, if you let the debuff get too big, the DPS will overtake you in terms of threat generation and they'll start dying. A very innovative way of using this concept, also meaning that this fight will always require a second tank since you can't overgear it and just heal your way through it.<br /><br /><strong>The Gunship fight:</strong> Even without being the one that goes over to the other ship, this is a fantastically fun fight. There's a semi-frequent stream of mobs that portal over to your ship and you need to gather them up while tanking them all and avoiding the hail of rockets randomly hitting your ship. And you can't just keep rounding them up and letting them be, or they will become too powerful and squish you flat.<br /><br />If you are the one who goes over to the other ship it's even better. You learn to be cognizant of the sound of your opponent calling for a mage to freeze the turrets, then you need to quickly hop over to the other side ahead of your DPS (and healers... at the time wasn't aware of the strat of pulling the leader to the edge of the boat so you can be healed from yours), hold threat on a boss that hits harder and harder, then get away before you become dead meat! Then get in a little extra DPS on the adds that the first tank is keeping before jumping back over! Wow! This is a technically challenging fight that I really really want to do again. Just thinking about it brings a smile to my face.<br /><br /><strong>Deathbringer Saurfang:</strong> This is a technically challenging fight, but it's very different. It felt, very much, like I was almost completely divorced from most of the fight. I just had to keep Saurfang on myself and my co-tank, swapping back and forth between as one of us got a the debuff. The challenging part was being aware of when the beasts would spawn then making sure not to use any sort of AOEs. This made it hard as I needed to not fall into the pattern of the 969 rotation, and to cut out HotR and Consecration at key times (in fact I found myself rarely using Consecration, just to be safe).<br /><br />I'm sure a bunch of stuff was happening over to my right, but it was off screen and there was little I could do to impact it beyond maybe cheering people on. I couldn't afford to do anything to the beasts lest I get aggro, so I just focused on the boss. Next time I'll rotate the boss so that my back is to the door he enters so I can see what's going on (plus it will make it so that the Blood Beasts don't run through me, decreasing the chance for an AOE to hit them).<br /><br />========<br /><br />Final assessment: Other than the Gunship fight, the encounters in ICC10 are fairly reactionary. You move out of the cold fire/death and decay, taunt off the other tank when you're supposed to, DPS these adds, don't DPS those adds, etc. OTOH, the Gunship fight is thrilling! High mobility, thinking on your feet, reacting to a situation as needed. Whew! Fantastic! Yet, despite my complaints about the other encounters in ICC, I still find the fights fun... I just think that the Gunship fight stands out in my mind so much that the others seem to pale in comparison.<br /><br />And now with the next wing open, next time I go back to ICC, I'll go even further!Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-33991507818299191772009-12-28T13:12:00.000-08:002009-12-28T13:15:31.446-08:00I was also a jerk pug tankOne of my recent finds on the Blogosphere is <a href="http://rhida.ch/">Righteous Defense</a>, obviously a tanking blog.<br /><br />His most recent post was titled "<a href="http://rhida.ch/2009/12/28/i-was-a-jerk-pug-tank/">I was a jerk pug tank</a>", which tickled my funny bone as I had done something similar this past weekend.<br /><br />I think it was Friday and I was doing the random heroic which dropped me into hHoL. Don't remember the party other than there was a rogue in it. I'm known for having a bad memory, so sticking out in my mind is either a tribute to your skill or a tribute to your utter lack thereof. As one might guess from the title of this post, it is the latter...<br /><br />The rogue managed to pull hate off me on every pull up to the first boss. I'd mark targets, and then I'd lose on of the secondary targets. I dunno, maybe they were going after secondary targets b/c they'd live longer so they'd lose less combo points since of course the tank would taunt it off them. By losing less combo points (possibly also using Rupture), they'd get more DEEPS(!) on the meter, which is (of course) all that really matters.<br /><br />We went right at the first intersection and cleared to the far right corner. General Bjarngrim was coming down the ramp, the lightning debuff gone. By this point, I had already noticed that the Rogue was being stupid, so I resolved not to taunt targets off them anymore unless it was the main target in the first few seconds (I put out enough TPS to hold threat off of anything but decently geared Hunters and Warlocks, both of whom have an aggro dump anyway...). I mark the two adds as the priority targets, then pull.<br /><br />So we start killing, nothing special, and the first add goes down. Then by halfway through the second add, I see that Bjarngrim is at half health. Hmmm... Well, not hard to see what happened. After the first add went down, the Rogue decided to prioritize his position on the damage meter over doing the instance as a team. So about the same time as i notice this, I notice that the color around the Rogue's life bar has turned yellow, indicating they are getting close to pulling aggro.<br /><br />I'd be lying if I said I didn't crack a small smile as I knew what was coming and decided to stick to my guns in letting him die.<br /><br />So the yellow glow turned to red, and Bjarngrim turned on his new friend. There was a good two or three seconds which was more than enough for me to react (as I had shown earlier in the instance) as Bjarngrim tore the Rogue to little pieces. Meanwhile, the rest of the party finished off the second add and then moved on to the boss, easily defeating him.<br /><br />Afterwards, nothing was said, I quickly rezzed the Rogue and we went on our way. Not surprisingly, the rest of the run was smooth, and the Rogue either spammed FoK or stuck to my target like glue.<br /><br />Maybe I could have dealt with the situation in a more diplomatic manner, but I like to imagine that this really hit home the point that each person is responsible for their own survival on some level and it's not the tank's job to make up for their lack of control or desire to max out their DPS over being a part of the team.Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-28322862711305135502009-12-28T12:26:00.000-08:002009-12-28T13:18:09.131-08:003.3 UpdateSo been too busy running around like a chicken with my head cut off to do much in the way of posting. Time for a bit of a stream of consciousness.<br /><br />My guess about how long it would take me to get my shield that I posted about in my previous post turned out to be sadly too accurate. Running regular <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">HoR</span> at least once a day (often more than that) every day since 3.3 went live and I only just got the <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=49835">Splintered Door of the Citadel</a>. I went from just barely having gotten the gloves and shoulders of T9 to 5/5 T9, the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">iLVL</span> 245 shoulders, having both 245 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">librams</span>, and being only about 20 emblems short of having the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">iLVL</span> 245 helm before I finally saw the shield drop. Prior to getting it, it was one of my three remaining <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">iLVL</span> 200 pieces I still had. Despite the dour mood running <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">HoR</span> constantly left me in, at least it gave Emblems of Triumph, which allowed me get something from all those "wasted" runs.<br /><br />After getting my shield, I was too pumped to sleep (despite the late hour) so I ran a number of random heroics to get the last badges I needed to replace my helm. This had a number of benefits including getting me back over the Expertise soft-cap.<br /><br />Additionally I scraped and saved my Emblems of Frost enough to get the Corroded Skeleton Key yesterday afternoon. Between doing two of the weekly random raids and a PUG ICC-10 (with a good amount of help from fellow <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Maintankadin</span> poster <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Thornir</span> and my lovely girlfriend), we cleared the entire instance and managed to get the achievement "I've gone and made a mess.", I got all the emblems I needed a good week or so earlier than I might have otherwise.<br /><br />In other news, my <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">DK</span> has been brought out of retirement. Not to make him my main again by any means, but mixing gearing him up with making money. "Making money?" you might ask. Well, as everyone who's paying attention to the various game news reporting sites knows the new Legendary, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Shadowmourne</span>, will require twenty-five Primordial <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Saronite</span>, plus the new crafting recipes for ICC also cost one (or more?) of the same. Primordial <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Saronite</span> is the new "orb" for this patch, and costs 23 Emblems of Frost along with having a chance to drop inside ICC (I believe...). On top of that, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Primordial</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Saronite</span> is not <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">BoP</span> and is able to be put up on the AH. So after realizing this (I knew it, but kinda had a brain fart about it), I started running my <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">DK</span> through one random heroic a night along with trying for the weekly random raid. And last night I got the emblems I needed for my first Primordial <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Saronite</span>. Sold it for 2.4k, which is probably cheaper than some servers, but whatever. I'm gearing up my alt, and getting paid (albeit in an indirect manner) a lot of money to do so. I approve of this.<br /><br />I realize in retrospect that my assessment that queue times for random heroics is not quite as fast as I guessed. For we tanks it's blindingly fast even at off-times. Queue times of over a minute are rare and I've only been waiting for two minutes once. For healers it is close to this, from what I understand, with the average being a minute. Meanwhile, the glut of DPS leaves them with a long queue time, the shortest listed average I've seen while playing on my <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">DK</span>, who I've changed as a primary role to being a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">DW</span> Frost DPS, is 8 minutes and some as high as 15 to 20 minutes. Sheesh!<br /><br />As for why I changed Kazalix to primarily being a DPS, while I love tanking, as I've mentioned elsewhere, tanking on a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">DK</span> is a bit more than I can do effectively, so instead I hit things and have fun doing so. Though I am kinda considering going back to using a 2H. As a DPS, using fast weapons is less of a big deal to me, plus I'm now a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">Draenei</span> and the male <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">Draenei</span> 2H animation is less ridiculous than the male Human 2H animation (as shallow as that is, it was a deciding factor for me...). Maybe when I get my second Battered Hilt (first one will go to my girlfriend for her Enhancement Shaman), I'll see about either a Blood or Unholy DPS spec with the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">STR</span> 2H <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">Quel'Delar</span>.Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-90548089762289519792009-12-09T10:16:00.000-08:002009-12-09T13:25:50.051-08:003.3 WOOOOO!!!As anyone who logs in regularly (that is, those who aren't stuck in College-finals-hell) would know 3.3 went live yesterday. Beyond the standard "Servers are a bit unstable" for the first few hours, things went okay.<br /><br />I got to try the new random dungeon thing for the new LFG tool. First off, not surprisingly, the LFG tool is BLINDINGLY fast. I got into a Heroic Gundrak run which went smoothly other than me getting knocked into the pool between the 2nd and 3rd boss (turned the targets around then got hit by a knockback off the ledge. Go me).<br /><br />Next I queued up for the new 5-mans on normal mode. I had done ZERO research into the instance (mostly to avoid lore spoilers) so I figured doing it on normal mode would be a good learning experience. It definitely was, plus this time I got to see the Disenchant option in action (though I understood it's mechanics before). Managed to take down the first two instances before I had to go off to my weekly nerdfest (D&D!).<br /><br />Afterwards before bed, I queued up for the final five-man (Halls of Reflection), got into one that had cleared the first two bosses and all that remained was the final gauntlet run. Did that really fast and completed it and then at the end of the instance you can get onto your airship (The Skybreaker for the Alliance and Orgrim's Hammer for the Horde). Not sure about the Horde, but it seems that a number of those who do it on the Alliance side get logged out when they try to get onto the Skybreaker.<br /><br />Then I queued up again to do the instance, this time getting into one that hadn't been done before. Sadly I had a fail Elemental Shaman who insisted on running up and using Thunder (the knockback), sending all of my targets flying. RAGE!RAGE!RAGE! This was even worse as the first 10 pulls are a mix of casters and DPS. This morning I found out abou the LoS trick, which will be immensely helpful as the mobs are annoying if you're trying to pull them all together. After that went up to the gauntlet again (this time noticed the room beyond is made to look like the Throneroom of Lordaeron... NICE!) and completed it again, and as before got disconnected when I tried to get onto the Skybreaker.<br /><br />I have two gripes about the new instance and the LFG tool, one minor and one major. The minor gripe was that I couldn't get onto the Skybreaker in either of my attempts. I figure this is due to the lag on the system as God and everybody does the three new instances. And I've heard rumors that it was a problem specific to cross server groups made by the LFG tool. Hopefully they will get this ironed out tonight so I can do it when I get home.<br /><br />The Major gripe I have is that the first HoR pickup I joined was it was mostly completed (I really wanted the 2nd boss for his shield). It's not that I missed out on the shield that bothers me, but the LFG tool will replace someone who goes away. Not a real problem for a regular 5-man, but what about a heroic? If someone is lost, those players are locked into that heroic partially completed. The person brought in has no warning that he's being brought into a partially completed instance so he may be stuck in a bad situation, or the rest of the party is. Just have to pray for not being in a group with a failure.<br /><br />Despite those gripes, I really love the new LFG system. It's much faster and easier than before. No putting up a list of heroics I want to do, then going off and questing for a while, maybe getting interrupted half way there or while I'm in the middle of a quest. My plan for now is to do one random heroic daily for the day to get my 2 Emblems of Frost (saving up for my super STA trinket! I should get it in a month or so...) then doing each of the ICC heroics for the day (I liek purplez), then doing HoR over and over and over and over until I get the shield and replace my stupid iLVL 200 sheild. -_- It's one of 3 iLVL 200 items I still have, and outside of a raid, this is the only upgrade available to me. There isn't even a heroic option other than the one I'm using now.<br /><br />Finally, one personal bit of bitching... I was one quest away from getting the achievement Proof of Demise (which is now a Feat of Strength which I have on my DK). RAGE! Though at least I'm not <a href="http://maintankadin.failsafedesign.com/forum/index.php?p=519146&rb_v=viewtopic#p519146">Njall</a>. The last quest he needed appeared Tuesday morning and he did the run and was moving like a bat out of hell to get the credit only for WoW to crash on him (as the servers probably went down) and he couldn't get back in. Now the quest is gone from his log but he still has the quest item. Ouch! I'm sorry Njall.Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-84781952718528538002009-11-02T10:16:00.000-08:002009-11-02T13:31:45.207-08:00Alix is ready for Ulduar!First off, this weekend was a light one for raiding. On Friday I got in a ToC25 alt run with one of the better raiding guild as Kazalix (along with a number of other guildies). Was there as a DPS and Kazalix's DPS isn't too terrible, though he could definitely do better. Saturday was a non-raiding day for me (Halloween!).<br /><br />Then on Sunday the guild put together an Ulduar run that turned into FL + Naxx. It originally had ten people, but after two no-shows (again), and one saved to Naxx and not wanting to get saved to Ulduar for one fight (on Sunday night? What?), which left us with seven folks (and a horribly undergeared and badly played eighth). Anyway, we chose to do Naxx to assist Alix in gearing up more quickly and it was definitely a score. Only did two wings (Spider and Plague), but netted me upgrades for my bracers and gloves and a good sidegrade of a ring.<br /><br />All-in-all, I feel that Alixander is finally ready to join my guild in Ulduar10. He's sporting 28k Health unbuffed which puts him only 2k short of Kazalix unbuffed. While he still sporting a few iLVL 200 blues (cape chest and boots), he also has a number of iLVL 219 or higher items gotten from various sources. He's definitely not main-tank material yet, but he's definitely on his way.Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-3550857824942916862009-10-23T12:34:00.000-07:002009-10-23T12:37:35.534-07:00Dual Wield Tanking in 3.3! And...So in the patch notes for 3.3 PTR were just put out on World of Raids (no link since I only saw the post on RSS feeder as I'm at work), but one of the changes was:<br /><br /><br /><blockquote>Death Knights:<br />Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle: There is now a 1-handed version of this rune in addition to the current 2-handed rune.</blockquote>I was like "WHA?" but then I thought about it for a second and it makes sense. I posted about it in my post "<a href="http://kazielmmo.blogspot.com/2009/08/back-from-limbo.html">Back from Limbo</a>" but even with the 3.2.2 addition of Rune Strike to ToT, the current implementation of DW Tanking is pretty much non existent. The crux of the problem is that DWing DKs (whether tanking, DPSing or PvPing) need a Slow/Slow setup and almost all the tanking weapons (which is the only effective way to reach the Defense Cap when not using a 2H and RotSG) are 1.7 speed weapons or faster. Completely ineffective as DK tanking weapons.<br /><br />So Blizzard realized this and is having DW DK tanks take the same approach as 2H DK tanks: Use DPS weapons and have them give a Defense boost through the enchant instead the weapon. The 1H version to give 13 defense points per hand (IIRC) and a passive 1% health bonus.<br /><br />Now, I should be thrilled for this. Honestly I am a bit. But not ecstatic. Why? Well, I've been feeling this way more and more lately: I (personally as in me, not everyone) am not as effective a tank as a DK as I was as a Paladin. It's a number of things that have contributed to this feeling:<br /><br /><ol><br /><li><strong>I have grown less pleased the rune system for tanking as time has passed.</strong> Sure, it has endless power and you need never fear running out of rage/mana, but at the same time it creates the problem that if you need a specific rune for something and you just accidentally used it, you're now up the creek no paddle. This is primarily an issue for talented tanking powers (Unbreakable Armor, Bone Armor and Vampiric Blood), which call for a rune of the type matching it's talent tree... This isn't much of a problem for Blood DKs, but Unholy and Frost are regularly using their Frost or Unholy runes on IT, PS and Oblit/SS and Blood Tap does not play well with Unbreakable Armor (I can't speak for BA, but I would imagine it's the same) so you can't one-button macro it if the matching natural rune is on cooldown. As a result of this Unbreakable Armor, despite being one of the best cooldowns I have, I almost never use unless I'm on a cooldown specific fight.</li><br /><li><strong>The introduction of the Dual Spec.</strong> One of my major gripes in tBC was that my healing wasn't needed and my DPS blew (as it would with a Prot Spec and my only DD attack being Judgement). Even without dual specs, Prot Paladins now have 3 DD abilities at their beck and call, boosting their non-reactionary damage a lot. But now that I can spec to Ret if we only need a single tank, I feel I'll be able to contribute a lot if we only need a single tank.</li><br /><li><strong>Less complexity.</strong> This one is really the biggest of the "personal" reasons, as in it only applies to me. As a Paladin in tBC I needed to keep track of a number of things, such as my active ability cooldowns (Holy Shield, Judgement, etc.), long cooldowns (which were primarily trinkets then) the placement of my enemies (and if they are running away from me) and the status of my allies. As a DK I need to keep track of all of those things in addition to tracking each type of rune (need to track them separately since there no overlap on them) and also my Runic Power. While I realize that Paladins have also increased in complexity with the 96969 rotation (assuming you don't use a macro) and the introduction of altered cooldowns like LoHs becoming a 20 or 15 minute cooldown and Divine Protection becoming a Shield Wall like ability, but even then they have about as much to track as DKs not counting runes and RP.</li></ol>So in response to this, I finished getting the champion's tokens I needed to get the last of the BoA plate pieces, picked up the 2H Axe and tossed them over to Alix along with 1k and change for a dual spec (Ret!) and a copy of the Tome of Cold Weather Flight. Basically I was tooling him up for the 71-80 rush.<br /><br />I hit 80 about two weeks ago and have been running a lot of instances both PUGged and guild runs and this past weekend I broke past the 540 defense barrier. While I know I was fine past 535 for non-raids, and I'm definitely not geared well enough for raids, it's still a major point to get past.<br /><br />Now I'll just keep pushing on the non-raids, specifically ToC to soak up the purples I don't have yet from it, maybe even getting my guild to do a Naxx run (both for achievement's sake and for possibly more loot). So I'm back on the light side of things and pretty pleased as such.Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-1465063780471986922009-09-15T16:50:00.000-07:002009-09-15T16:59:26.206-07:00New Races and their Racials<strong>Worgen:</strong> So we finally get more info on this interesting race. Maybe possibly having them tied into the future or past of Azeroth is an interesting thing (was implied that the Worgen aren't from a "Where" but a "When").<br /><br />I'm interested in seeing how they introduce Druidism to the Worgen. It doesn't look like they are taking the "Worgen can change shape, so of course they are Druids" approach... They showed the Night Elves so maybe they will learn Druidism from them. Though I seem to recall mention about "old allies" or something? Maybe they plan on trying to connect the Worgen in Ashenvale to the ones in Gilneas (wait... what?).<br /><br />Interesting side note: Go take a look at the Cataclysm teaser video again. Go ahead, I'll be here when you get back. ... Back? Okay, you saw that cool scene where the human starts turning into a Worgen? First one arm becomes wolf-ish, then the other and he stares at it, then he fully Wolfs out!<br /><br />Looks kinda cool, right? Some of you probably think that it's just there for the teaser, but you'd be wrong. In the demo I got to play at BlizzCon, if you went through an out-of-combat transformation, then you'd got through that exact animation. Sweet, eh?<br /><br />Anyway, for those who don't know, when you aren't fighting you can choose between staying in your normal human form or staying in your full Worgen form, or swap back and forth as you see fit (maybe you think you look awesome with a certain helm looking a certain way depending on form). Though no matter what, when you engage an enemy, you'll change into your Worgen form, though the transformation is instantaneous instead of a couple second animation (thank god on that regard...)<br /><br /><strong>Goblins:</strong> While I'm still a bit bothered by this, Blizzard is good at crafting a solid story, so I wouldn't be surprised if they gave a decent reason (though I question if it will stand up to the test of time being that Goblins are quite mercenary and very rarely tugged by their heartstrings...) for them joining the Horde.<br /><br />As far as the range of classes go, I'm pretty happy with them. The closest thing that comes to something that I'd have issue with is the Goblin Shaman, but at the same time I could totally see them making deals with the Elementals, thus binding them to their will. There's no give and take here in Goblin Land.<br /><br /><strong>Racials:</strong> First I'll list the new racials available to the Goblins and Worgen:<br /><br /><em>Goblins:</em><br /><ul><li>Rocket Jump: This sorta works like a reverse Disengage, jumping you forward. Could be handy in PvP for quickly closing the distance to a target or running the hell away, or for charging into melee if you're not a Warrior (could definitely see the value for Goblin DK tanks). Shares a two minute cool down with Rocket Barrage (see below).</li><li>Rocket Barrage: Launches a volley of rockets at your current target, dealing fire damage that should scale (with level? AP or SP? Not really sure). Shares a two minute cool down with Rocket Jump</li><li>Time is Money: Goblins are always on the go. Time wasted is money not gotten, so of course goblins would always want to go a little faster than everyone else. This manifests itself in a passive 1% haste boost to their attack speed and cast times.</li><li>Better living through chemistry: Goblins are the iconic alchemists and this takes the form of a 15 skill bonus if the Goblin is trained in Alchemy. Additionally they will also gain a bonus (unknown amount) to any healing and mana potions they use.</li><li>Pack Hobgoblin: Introducing a new "race" in Cataclysm, your goblin will be able to summon, every 30 minutes, a "Pack Hobgoblin" which will give you access to your bank. While the time limitation are strong, you're essentially doubling or tripling your inventory space. This is going to be great for going out and farming for extended periods of time. No more need to throw away all those grays and whites to make room for the stuff you'll make a profit with. Now you can stuff them in your bank and sell them later. Forget to grab a quest item or piece of resist gear out of the bank for that boss fight? No problem! Definitely an awesome racial.</li><li>Best Deals Anywhere - Best possible gold discount, regardless of reputation. This one is just HOT! Still want to do some of the rep grinds for the rewards, but imagine how much money you'll save!</li></ul><br />Worgen:<br /><ul><li>Shapeshift: Doesn't give any racial bonuses or anything. Purely cosmetic, changes you from a Human into a Worgen and back again.</li><li>Aberration: Reduce duration of Curses and Diseases by 15%. Certainly handy, especially in PvP against Warlocks and Death Knights.</li><li>Flayer: Skinning skill +15, skin targets faster and you use your claws (don't need a knife). Much like the Goblin alchemy bonus, this takes the normal skill bonus and adds a little extra to make it worthwhile.</li><li>Viciousness - Increase damage by 1%. Kinda like a counterpart to the 1% haste bonus the Goblins have, the Worgen get a straight up 1% damage bonus. In high endgame, this will be quite powerful (as of right now, it'd be worth 30-50 DPS in most cases, which is awesome).</li><li>Darkflight - Activate your true form, increasing movement speed by 70% for 6 sec, 3 minute cooldown. Sorta like a shortened, more powerful dash or sprint. Will be handy for getting around in the 1-19 range, plus fantastic for BGs like EotS and WSG.</li></ul>So there they are. The first thing that stands out to me is how ridiculously overpowered they are compared to the racials of the currently available races. So they'll be brought in line, right? Well, kinda... as long as you define the "they" in this case as "all the other races". Yes, Blizzard has stated that they intend on boosting all existing racials up to similar levels as exhibited by the two new races.<br /><br />A couple things that are likely to be added, using these two races as templates:<br /><ol><li>1% passive combat bonuses. These won't all be simple stuff like "1% bonus to damage". I'm sure Blizzard will figure out clever ways to alter this, but still have it be a 1% bonus that makes the race fun and unique. Additionally, don't expect all of them to actually be damage bonuses. Consider the Goblin bonus is 1% bonus to haste, which includes spell haste. This makes Goblins better healers than Worgen since the Worgen bonus is only to damage. Additionally, there's nothing saying that it has to be a damage bonus... I could totally see them giving peace-loving, tree-hugging hippy races like the Draenei, Tauren or Night Elves a 1% passive bonus to all heals cast (this would definitely work well for the Tauren as after Cataclysm goes live they will be the only race in the game that has access to all four healing classes).</li><li>Crafting skill bonuses will be given a passive minor bonus. Keeping in line with the bonus given to Worgen on skinning, I could see Tauren being able to pick flowers faster or maybe an increased chance to get an additional herb (like the Lotuses or Swiftthistle). Other race's bonuses will be minor as well, but still helpful. I could imagine a Gnome being given a passive bonus that lowers the chance of a critical failure when using their engineering devices. Draenei maybe are given a 1% bonus if they make their socket bonus or something. Blood Elves could be given a chance to get an additional enchanting material when they disenchant items or maybe they can just disenchant more quickly. Nothing too powerful, but a nice bonus if you are playing that race.</li><li>I'd also expect an overhaul of other outdated racials. Endless Breath? It's nice and all, but now that you can hold your breath for 3 minutes, it's value is much diminished (but still handy, just not as handy...). Things like that I expect will be given the once or twice over to see if they can't be improved or replaced (Wisp Form and Cannibalism also spring to mind...). Heck, maybe they'll even replace the racials based on specific weapons (i.e. the ones for Humans, Dwarves, Orcs and Trolls) and give them ones which are always active!</li></ol><p>And for those wondering about it, I'll give my thoughts on the new race/class combos in a different post.</p>Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-30805924009996061692009-09-15T16:43:00.000-07:002009-09-15T16:48:50.994-07:00BlizzCon Post becomes BlizzCon PostsAs usual I was biting off more than I could chew when I began this post. So instead I'm going to post each portion I've made so far in a mass posting spree (sorry if anyone's tracking my blog with an RSS feed), and continue posting my thoughts in individual bits.<br /><br />Anyway, I'll start this off with the quotation of my introduction:<br /><blockquote><p>Much belated (which I blame on a combination of work, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Final Fantasy Dissidia, and another thing I'll post about later), here's my post on BlizzCon, or at least the bits which really stand out in my head: </p><p>Opening Ceremonies was dominated, for me at least, by the announcement of Cataclysm. I'll openly admit that I was almost completely wrong on my predictions about the expansion. I knew it would be called Cataclysm (the name was trademarked here in the States months ago), and I was kinda right about the revamp of the Old World (since I figured with the potential addition of new races and new race/class combos they would want genuinely new content for old players who are leveling anew). I was kinda right about the new race/class combos following a logical path I got from <a href="http://clearcasting.wordpress.com/">Arioch</a>.</p><p>Though at the end of the day, my core thoughts were all that it was a sham and I was wrong. I'll now give Boubouille's leaks more credibility.<br /></p></blockquote>Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-69035896349344090502009-08-28T12:50:00.000-07:002009-08-28T12:55:47.652-07:00Before I jump into my posts concerning BlizzCon...There's something I want to talk about that wasn't really mentioned at BlizzCon: The unnamed MMO.<br /><br />While there are probably people who are interested in hearing my thoughts on said event, I wanted to get this post out there before I forgot my thoughts about it.<br /><br />First off, let's go over the very little we do know:<br /><br /><ul><li>Blizzard is releasing another MMO.</li><li>It's a new Intellectual Property (IP).</li></ul>That's it! That's all we really know.<br /><br /><br />So with so little to know, what is there that I could speak about? Is it that it's a new MMO? No. There are a ton of new MMOs, and really with the announcement of Cataclysm, Blizzard has shown that it has no intent of dropping its flagship moneymaker (WoW) the moment this MMO goes live.<br /><br /><br />But the development of new IP is big news. Not just because it's Blizzard, though that would be enough for me. I'm a huge fan of Blizzard's previous games, having beaten almost every one multiple times. Warcraft. Diablo. Starcraft. All amazing games and/or series.<br /><br /><br />But this brings up a question... Blizzard has both the Diablo settings and the Starcraft settings that they could expand into for the MMO market. Who here can honestly say they wouldn't sign up immediately for Worlds of Starcraft? So why make an entirely new IP?<br /><br /><br />Now, time out for a sec. I don't remember where, a while back I saw a blog post about the perceived "death" of new IPs for MMOs (if anyone recognizes the blog post I'm referring to, could you direct me to it?). The basic assertion of the post was that why should a company spend time and money developing a brand new IP for an MMO when there are, literally, hundreds of different settings which could all easily be used for MMOs?<br /><br /><br />Now back to the new MMO. If the above blog post is true, why is Blizzard... the leader of the MMO genre and one of the biggest names in the gaming field, doing something that makes so little sense? Or... does it make a lot of sense?<br /><br /><br />Blizzard has, since the release of tBC, increasingly prioritized Game Balance over The Lore. And while I'm a little sad, it's overall made my gaming experience that much more fun, which more than makes up for it. Prior to tBC, vanilla WoW was, almost blow for blow, a match to the lore of WC3 and the novels along with previous sources. If anything, it just expanded on what we already knew, fleshing everything out.<br /><br /><br />But they found that being too adamant about sticking to The Lore would cause serious, serious issues. The imbalance between one side having Paladins and the other side having Shaman is a stellar example of this. I'm sure there are other changes I could think of, but none spring to mind... but you get the idea.<br /><br /><br />So they chose flexibility over rigidity for the pre-existing storyline to make the game play experience that much better. While a part of me despairs of the changes to the story and moving away from what it was between the end of WC3 and the start of tBC, I realize that Blizzard is a business and will do what's best for the company. And honestly, as a game (but not a consistent storytelling device), WoW is a stellar success.<br /><br /><br />Now, let's take a step back from WoW and look over other MMOs based on existing IPs. I'm going to discount FFXI since each one is based on it's own world (even though I feel that it was a financial success, but that's separate).<br /><br /><br />I would say that the only other MMO based on an major existing non-MMO IP that has succeeded was UO, but that game was released back when there weren't many other real MMO options. UO, EQ, Meridian 59, The Realm Online and Asheron's Call were really it in those days.<br /><br /><br />Games like SWG, DDO, WAR, AoC, MxO, The Sims Online, and LotRO are all generally considered pretty spectacular failures.<br /><br /><br />I feel that part of the problem (though not the entire problem) is either you go into the game wanting it to match the source it came from and it does not, or it does match said source, but does so closely that it's no fun.<br /><br /><br />Early versions of SWG illustrated sticking to the source too well, making the game quite un-fun to play. SOE made SWG take place during the <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Galactic_Civil_War">Galactic Civil War</a>. As most already know, by then almost all the Jedi were wiped out. So as a result, when SOE was designing Galaxies, they made the Jedi class so hard to unlock that initially no one could figure out how to do it. Four months after the game's release no one had figured it out, and in retrospect it's <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars_Galaxies#The_Jedi_in_Star_Wars_Galaxies">pretty obvious why</a>. I mean, in a Star Wars game there are those who will inevitably want to play Jedi. In fact a lot will. Sticking to the lore and being like "only a few and they have these limitations" pretty much hurt SWG from the get go...<br /><br />Then later on SOE changed SWG to a system less skill tree based and more <strong>class</strong>ical (ha ha, see what I did there?). In this case, when you started you picked your class of which one was Jedi. This created the other side of the problem. Sure, anyone could be a Jedi but it had to be balanced compared to the other classes. Unfortunately, they didn't rebalance other classes to bring them up to Jedi's power levels, they beat Jedi with the nerf stick until they were a shadow of their former selves. Thus while the game was balanced, it bore so little resemblance Jedi presented in the movies that it was an insult. With the game originally balanced around "normal" people, with the force sensitives being hard to unlock and having limited lives (no joke on that on...), it was okay. But bring the Jedi down to an equal level with everyone else just made them underwhelming.<br /><br />In a very round about way, I'm saying that having an existing IP is actually showing itself to be a liability and not a strength. Sure... you don't have to spend as much money developing it, but balancing between being true to the lore and not alienating the fan and making a fun game is tricky at best and impossible at worst.<br /><br />Even WoW suffers from this. As I mentioned, I quit the game entirely for a number of months because of the changes they made to the back story when tBC was introduced. I'm sure I'm not the only one (at that point Blizzard had around 5-6 million subscribers... no way I was the only one). And I came back, but who knows how many didn't? And as things went on, the lore was again and again changed for the benefit of the game which probably had a similar effect.<br /><br />By making an entirely new setting, Blizzard is freeing themselves from any existing lore limitations! They can build the entire setting with how to make the best MMO they can think of in mind. Honestly, I'm even more excited about the prospects of this new MMO now than I was before (and honestly I was pretty excited...). If Blizzard can reproduce their success in the MMO department that they had with WoW in this new MMO with a lore that is completely without need for a retcon, I will love it SO MUCH!<br /><br /><br />P.S. Sorry for taking so long with this post. It ended up going through four iterations of this post before I felt it was a smooth read.Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-89680621479639521222009-08-27T10:27:00.000-07:002009-08-27T10:29:43.790-07:00Not dead, but darned close!I've not given up on WoW or anything in light of Cataclysm (not that even if WoW went belly up I'd stop posting here since this is an MMO blog and not a WoW blog). I've just been bedridden since I got back from BlizzCon. I managed to pick up a particularly vicious bout of ConPlague while I was down in Anaheim.<br /><br />For those of you unaware of "ConPlague", it's what happened when you get a few thousand people from all over together in tight confines, have them run themselves ragged so their immune systems are weakened and then BAM! Down you go.<br /><br />I'm at work today for the first time since I left for BlizzCon on Friday morn, and even now I'm not 100%. Nose is still a bit stuffed up, throat a bit sore, but I think I've got the actual serious aspects of the sickness defeated. Even then, I can't really afford to just slack off more if I can help it.<br /><br />So now back to your regularly scheduled blogging.Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-87362536510985317392009-08-21T03:29:00.000-07:002009-08-21T03:29:18.511-07:00I'm with him...<div>So this weekend, Tobold made a post about MMO-Champion's "leaks" concerning the next WoW Expansion. Link <a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=92919.0">here</a>.<br /><br />Tobold posted about them in an article titled <a href="http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2009/08/not-believing-everything.html">Not Believing Everything</a> (Also, thanks for pointing me at RSS feeds allowing me to read your full posts Tobold), and I have to admit that while I disagree on some of the details, I think his overall assessment is correct and that this is just someone pulling a hoodwink over others eyes for their own jollies.<br /><br />First I'll touch on what Tobold pointed out:<br /><blockquote><em>"The level cap in the next expansion will be slightly lower than expected this time around; 85. This suggests Blizzard wants more room for expansions before hitting the level 100 cap."</em> Already highly suspicious. There is no such thing as a level 100 cap. There is no reason at all for Blizzard not to add 10 or more levels per expansion and arrive at level 200 or more one day.</blockquote></div><div>This one's spot on. Level 100 cap? I think this is just your standard placing of additional meaning on BIG ROUND NUMBERS! I mean, the how many people were predicting doom and gloom for the year 2000 (and not because of the Y2K bug). Eeeee! A big round number?! This obviously means something important! *facepalm*</div><br /><div>Additionally, the change to adding 5 levels would call for a dramatic shift in talent design. Up until now, while there's an occasional X6 single point talent power, most of the talents which added a new power were X1 talent, like the 11 point talents. These were particularly iconic for the max level talents (31 point, 41 point and 51 point talents). For those who have leveled up as an Arms Warrior (especially pre-tBC Arms Warriors), remember when you got to level 40 and then suddenly... MORTAL STRIKE!</div><br /><div>This is a huge shift in talent design because (assuming they add a new single-point max tier talent), there's no talent tier between the 51st and 56th talent (obviously, but follow me here). Now, we have much less wiggle room if we want to spend 20 points outside our given tree of choice.</div><br /><div>Also, they usually add a lot of new talents and time is spent figuring out what are good choices and what are bad choices, but at least we have 10 new talent points to spend on them... now we'll get close to the same amount of talents, but only half as many talent points to figure out what to spend them on...</div><br /><div>Next portion:<br /><blockquote><em>"Troll Druid"</em> In the list of new race / class combinations there is just one new race allowed to play druid. Which would give the Horde two druid-enabled races vs. the Alliance's only one. Never going to happen.</blockquote></div><div>This implies that there were only two races who could roll as Druids for balance reasons. I might buy this if it weren't for the fact that for every class that has an equal balance in races which can access it on either side (Druids, Mages, and Rogues), there are two that there are an unequal balance between (Hunters, Paladin, Priests, Shaman, Warlocks, and Warriors).</div><br /><div>I do agree with Tobold this sounds wrong, just for different reasons. Class/race combos are based upon the lore. In fact, one could argue that it's one of the few areas where the lore still stands strong, and at least as of right now, there's no lore justifying Trolls as Druids (or a lot of the other class/race combos that MMO-Champion is listing). While I've seen it pointed out that the Trolls in raid instances change shape, that's hardly justification for Troll Druidism... first off, we know mobs, and especially bosses, do things we can't. Second off, if changing forms is a sign of being a Druid then that means every shaman that has ever existed... IS REALLY A DRUID! OMG! But seriously... Trolls have, since they were introduced in WC2, been practitioners of Animal Shamanism. This is where they get their shape changing powers. From their Shaman ANIMAL TOTEMS.</div><br /><div>Before I go to Tobold's last point I'll give my thoughts on the other class/race combos:</div><br /><div><strong>THE ALLIANCE:</strong></div><br /><div><strong>Dreanei ???:</strong> First flaw in this theory. Assuming this is the full list, all the rest of the races get one or two "new" classes. Draenei? They get diddly squat. Nada. Hmmmm...</div><br /><div><strong>Dwarf Mages:</strong> Being a Mage is merely learning magic. There's nothing stopping the Dwarves (and in fact, in Alpha and possibly Beta for Vanilla WoW there <em>were</em> Dwarven Mages).</div><br /><div><strong>Dwarf Shaman:</strong> Uh... what? I mean... it's been hinted that some of the <em>WILDHAMMER </em>Dwarves (as in the ones in the Hinterlands, who <em>aren't</em> the same Dwarves as the Bronzebeard Dwarves which are who the "Dwarven" players play as). So... either you're a Wildhammer Dwarf or the Wildhammers taught Shamanism to the Bronzebeards. >.>a I... guess? Seems like a bit of a stretch to me...</div><br /><div><strong>Gnome Priests:</strong> Again... uh... what? About the only thing that the Gnomes worship is Technology. I mean, unless Mimiron came and granted them powers or something.</div><br /><div><strong>Human Hunters:</strong> Hey, if Nathanos Marris (aka Nathanos Blightcaller) can do (before he became an undead monster), so can the rest of us.</div><br /><div><strong>Night Elf Mages:</strong> This one both works and fails at the same time! Exciting huh? Okay, so this one ties into a quest that's being datamined in 3.2.2, where there's a Highborne (not High Elves, but Night Elves who practiced Arcane Magic but hadn't started looking like Legolas) who comes out of hiding (there is a precedence for this with the Highborne in Dire Maul) and asks to rejoin "his people" (or something like that... haven't really looked into it seriously). So... Night Elf Mages, right?</div><br /><div>Well, this works up until you have the whole "They caused the Great Sundering thing, then after seeing what they had wrought, they still thought Arcane Magic was cool, so to show what they could do, despite it being outlawed in Night Elf society, they attempted to help and caused another disaster (though on a much smaller scale)." <strong>Why in the Nine Hells would the Night Elf leadership let these guys back in?</strong> This fricken' baffles me. *froths at the mouth some more before continuing*</div><br /><div><strong>THE HORDE:</strong></div><br /><div><strong>Blood Elf Warriors:</strong> Totally seeable. I've been of the opinion that the primary reason that there were no Blood Elf Warriors previously was to balance out the amount of classes being added with the Draenei. They would have needed to slip another class into them in order keep the total amount of class/race combos equal. But if they are adding a bunch of new classes to both sides, this gives them the chance to correct what they had to leave out before.</div><br /><div><strong>Orc Mage:</strong> No precedence for it, but far from being impossible. What happens to a Warlock if he decides to break his pact with his demon. Could take up Elemental or Restoration Shamanism, but becoming a Mage is a much closer step.</div><br /><div><strong>Tauren Paladin</strong> and <strong>Tauren Priest:</strong> Putting these two together because they both suffer from the same core problem, but the former much more than the latter. Tauren weren't even originally Druids in early development of WoW. Druids were limited to (as they had been in WC3) Night Elves, but this created a rather large gulf between the two factions, with the Alliance getting two unique classes, and the Horde only having one. So they worked it in that in the peace filled aftermath of the Third War, the Druids of the Cenarion Circle found information that there had once been Tauren Druids or that they had been on their way to becoming Druids, only they didn't finish their training or something. Anyway, it balanced the two factions with 7 classes that they shared and one class that was unique to that faction.</div><br /><div>But I digress. Anyway, the problem with both Paladins and Priests is they are organized religion with all the Holy and Shadow stuff. While the Tauren are a religious people, their religion is very nature-based.</div><br /><div>Now, I'll bite... I could maybe see Tauren Priests. There's the Earth Mother stuff, and this is kinda similar to how the Night Elves worship Elune and also are Druids. Maybe instead of nature worship through Shamanism, it's directly worshiping the incarnation of the Earth Mother herself. I've also heard rumors of worshiping the sun (as a sorta contrast to how the Night Elves worship the Moon through Elune).</div><br /><div>But Paladins? Yeah, sure... Taurens are noble. Heck, they are, IMO, the most noble of the player races in the game, including the Draenei. Even the Draenei hate the Orcs for the mass genocide they committed on them while they were under demonic influence. The closest the Tauren come to hating anyone are the centaur, because they attack the Tauren, and anyone who defiles the earth. I mean, given a chance I'm pretty sure the Tauren would just chill out in Mulgore and take advantage of their <a href="http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/wallpapers/wow_herbalist_1280.jpg">Herbalism skill bonus</a>... But being a Paladin is more than just being noble. It's also requires you to channel the powers of The Holy Light through you. Again the Sun comes up, but there's a very very big difference between sun light and The Holy Light. It's a very specific energy source that is either drawn through faith or taken by will (or was it ever taken by will by the Blood Elves? I know Mu'ru let himself be captured... did he fake letting them take the energy and gave it willingly, knowing his fate? I need to read up on this...), but either way it was The Holy Light... a source of energy and a religion that the Tauren have no history of associating with up to now.</div><br /><div><strong>Undead Hunter:</strong> See the Human Hunter entry. Even more-so for them since they have/had an active ex-Ranger General on their side.</div><br /><div>Two more thoughts before I go onto the last part of Tobold's post: Arioch posted a <a href="http://clearcasting.wordpress.com/2009/08/18/cataclysm-new-class-combinations/">detailed view</a> on the new classes and amongst her thoughts, she included this very insightful train of thought:</div><div><blockquote>My gut reaction is it is to facilitate the faction transfer process. How many Alliance paladins are out there that want to make the switch to the Horde but don’t want to be a blood elf? (To those of you in that camp – you don’t know what you’re missing /flex).<br /><br />How many Horde shaman want to turn traitor but don’t want to be a space goat?<br /><br />What if they don’t have The Burning Crusade expansion? “Ah, yes. I’m a human paladin and I want to switch to the Horde… but I never upgraded my account so can’t quite be a blood elf… so, what are you going to do with me? Upgrade me for free?” Yeah right. Now you can be a cow. Like it.</blockquote></div><div>This is a really insightful, even if last point is a bit of a stretch (really... who hasn't upgraded?). At the end of the day, having choices will always trump being railroaded into a single option. Let's say you're a Night Elf Druid and your friends are all on the Horde side, so you transfer. As of right now, your only option is changing into a giant, hulking, cow monster... but after Cataclysm goes live you could change into either a giant, hulking, cow monster or a lanky, tusked, cannibalistic monster! Awesome! Okay, all jokes aside, more options are never bad, so with this in mind, I think the addition of more classes is... okay? I'm not thrilled about certain race/class combos, but this makes it seem a lot more sensible than they just got out two dartboards and started throwing one at each until they got the new pairings.</div><br /><div>Oh right, and for those thinking "But there are only 3 Druid races. What if I'm a Horde Druid and I want to go over to the Alliance? I don't want to be a dorky Night Elf". Well if Arioch is right on why they are adding these new race/class combos, then it's far too likely that the Worgen will also have Druids as one of their classes (this starts an entirely different rant that I'll go into later).</div><br /><div>The second point is that of the four I really have issue with (Dwarf Shaman, Night Elf Mage, Tauren Paladin and Troll Druid) three of those are the currently "single-race" classes on one of the sides, or both. Thus the driving reason for this addition makes me want to kick a puppy. I realize they have to stretch to figure out a way to slide these classes into races that don't quite fit them because if they were a fit, Blizzard would have already added them back at the start or during an earlier expansion (like tBC). While I can accept that these changes are there for The Game Balance over The Lore (note the capitals), they still really bother me. I have no intention of stopping playing because of this. As I mentioned in my previous post based on a Tobold blog post, I love WoW. It's the best MMO I've played to date and I've played a lot of them. This is mostly just me griping.</div><br /><div>Anyway, the final part of Tobold's post:<br /><blockquote><em>"Part of the redesign of the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor is the introduction of flying to the two continents"</em> There is already software available that allows you a virtual flight through Azeroth, basically a viewer of the World of Warcraft. And when you use it in the old world, you notice that large parts are just <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village" target="_blank" closure_hashcode_1lwbrf="2561">Potemkin villages</a>, places of which only the facade exists. Enabling flying in the old world would mean completely redoing every single bit of that world, so people don't fly up and see behind the empty facades. Given the huge amount of work that would be, and the speed at which Blizzard traditionally works, this is rather unlikely.</blockquote></div><div>This actually matches what Blizzard has said all along. Pretty much since the introduction of flying back when tBC went live, players have been requesting access to flying in the "old world". And all along Blizzard has stated that while it is technically possible, it's not an effective use of development time.</div><br /><div>This is because (as Tobold pointed out) there are large swaths of the world that are not developed, or if they are developed, created just to add graphical flavor when flying over, and are not meant to be accessed by the player base. <a href="http://www.wowwiki.com/Shatterspear_Village">Shatterspear Village</a> (aka The Happy Dancing Troll Village) between Darkshore and Moonglade is a perfect example of the latter.</div><br /><div>So basically to do this, Blizzard will, literally, have to redesign a majority of the old world. This will be a very, very time consuming project, considering that they plan on also redoing much of the old world itself. Totally revamping, amongst other places, Barrens, Azshara, and major changes (if not total overhauls) to zones like Thousand Needles, Durotar, Gnomeregan, Wailing Caverns, and Blackrock Mountain.</div><br /><div>So instead of developing new content for the majority of the playerbase who's already max level, they will spend time redesigning the world mostly for leveling players (Barrens split in two, but still for the 10-30 range) and Azshara being changed to a 10-20 leveling range (possibly to be the second zone for Goblins)? Maybe it's just me but this seems like a really bad use of development time.</div><br /><div>Though I will give a counter viewpoint of my previous thoughts:</div><br /><div>First off, back when Blizzard added tBC, the game was already a little over two years old. Those who rerolled as Blood Elves and Draenei were fine for the first 20ish levels in the new zones, when all of a sudden they were stuck back in the middle of everything with all the content everyone had run a million times over. Sure, they slipped a few new quests in here and there with the two new races spreading across Azeroth with their allies, but for the most part these were single quests or maybe a full quest chain. I know there's a mostly Draenei quest hub in eastern Ashenvale, not sure if the same goes for Blood Elves in a different location, but the point still stands.<br /></div><div> </div><br /><div>It has now been over two years since the release of tBC, and with the exception of the revamp of Duskwallow Marsh in 2.3, there haven't been any quests added to the 1-60 level range. At this point, anyone who's leveled a non-DK alt has done most if not all the quests available in the 1-60 run.<br /><br />With the potential addition of two new races, suddenly the dearth of new content in the 1-60 run rears it's hideous head once more. Sure Blizzard could do what they did in 2.0 and spread a spattering new quests across the zones with Worgen and Goblins popping up at the various quest hubs (wait... there are already Goblins at the various Horde quest hubs...), but it doesn't make the portions where you're stuck without new quests any faster.<br /><br />Some people would just request that they remove the 1-60 (or even 1-70 or 80) grind. Have characters start at 55 like DKs, or even 60 to get past it all. While this has it's merits, what about those who want to do the newbie zones? Should there be a one-way trip to 60 or 70 the moment you finish it? Would it only be available to the new races or good for anyone?<br /><br />Instead, doing a massive overhaul to the design of the old world, they will give players who start one of the new races or one of the old races a whole new set of quests to go through. And if all the new quests are not counted by the old quests' completion tracker, then if you don't want to start a new character, you can just run back to the old world on your level 80 and stomp through every quest for the thrill/lore of it.<br /><br />Additionally, since the release of WoW, back when the core of the old world was designed, WoW has undergone massive changes. And I'm not just referring to in The Lore (though that alone could be enough), but also the technology of the game.<br /><br />First off, the technological changes: Even if we look past the graphical upgrades, relatively minor as they are, there are additions such as Daily Quests and <a href="http://www.wowwiki.com/Phasing">Phasing Quests</a>. These two additions, especially the latter, would create a much different and more lasting situation in the world.<br /><br />Imagine, first off the quests focusing on the Gnolls are removed from Lakeshire, so all the quests are focusing on the threatening Blackrock Orcs who control <a href="http://www.wowwiki.com/Stonewatch_Keep">Stonewatch Keep</a>. After defeating them, said keep is then filled with Alliance guards and others working to rebuild it. It could then become a quest hub to deal with the remnants of the Blackrock Orcs in and around Stonewatch along with the growing threat from the Gnolls.<br /><br />And that's just one quick example I can think of. If pressed I could probably think of alterations for <span style="font-style: italic;">every zone currently in the game.</span> Ways to give them a more concrete feeling. Additionally, these post-phase zones could be used to give a dynamic feeling to the growing conflict between the Horde and the Alliance.<br /><br />What if, once you got to a certain zone, there were reports coming in that the other faction was moving in to take some strategic location, if they hadn't already taken it. So you, the loyal hero of your faction is tasked to attack an equally vital position in the hands of (whoever is the NPC enemy group of this zone), and take it in the name of the King/Warchief! So you go to this location, fighting your way through the zone and defeating the boss. You then report back to the quest giver, who thanks you for your work and tells you to report back to the location you just secured. Now it's a Daily PvP quest hub, all thanks to you!<br /><br />So technologically speaking WoW's undergone major changes and the same can be said for the setting itself. Since WoW's release Blizzard has pushed the overall story forward, either via the game itself, or via companion products such as novels and the WoW comic book. While Blizzard as do minor things like adding and removing characters (for example, the removal of Katana Prestor and the "return" of Varian Wrynn), it's always been "fixable" with a quick change.<br /><br />But if WotLK ends the way it's looking like it will end (with the death of the Lich King! O_O), this will be the most major change to The Lore yet. What difference will it make? Well, for starters, all the Scourge locations will be in disarray, their leader dead. The current implementation of places like the Plaguelands just make no sense with the Lich King dead. By redoing them, maybe focusing on other powers in the Scourge who have taken control of groups of its remnants (much like the Cerebrates did in Starcraft after the death of the Overmind).<br /><br />Also, with the cold war between the Horde and the Alliance growing hotter with every patch, this will allow Blizzard to redesign many of the quests and zones to place a greater emphasis on it. This could very much be used as a replacement for the Scourge in certain zones such as Tirisfal Glades, the Plaguelands, and Silverpine Pine. If the Horde is depicted as defending itself against Alliance incursions in Silverpine and Tirisfal Glades, you still have a wide variety of quests, but they could show early the struggle between the two factions.<br /><br />Other zones could also be used to emphasize the greater importance of the battle between the two factions, such as Ashenvale. Instead of having a few quests where you fought the enemy faction, we could have out-and-out war!<br /><br />So while it would be time consuming, and a part of me wants more max-level content, I can understand the benefit that would come from redoing old content.<br /><br />Anyway, all of this is just speculation. We'll have answers quite soon. In fact, I'm due to leave for BlizzCon in about and hour (and thus I cut down this post a bit...). Well, if you're interested in my thoughts and don't want to wait until after BlizzCon, check out my post below concerning my BlizzCon Twitter account!<br /><br />See y'all later!<br /></div>Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-23406356787731934052009-08-20T16:25:00.000-07:002009-08-20T16:33:08.642-07:00Twittering from BlizzCon!I'm in the process of putting together a huge post on my thoughts on the Cataclysm leaks, but it's taking much longer than anticipated (What? Me be long winded? Lies and slander!). Anyway, either way I'll be going to BlizzCon tomorrow morning and I've made a <a href="http://www.twitter.com/Kaziel_BlizzCon">twitter account</a> just for my posts from said awesome event. I'll try to have my thoughts on the Cata leaks up before I leave, since one way or another we'll have answers after this weekend.<br /><br />Anyway, if you're interested in reading my thoughts on it, you can follow me there and I'll post as frequently as I can (though I'm afraid I'm going to prioritize listening to the panels to tweeting).Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-89701527737338653682009-08-11T16:38:00.000-07:002009-08-11T16:49:02.359-07:00Oh... right... 3.2!I just realized that everyone else is posting their thoughts on 3.2 and I haven't! Shame on me! (Though I was out of town this week so my experiences in 3.2 are somewhat limited...)<br /><br />Let's see...<br /><br /><strong>Trial of the Champions (that's the 5-man):</strong> Fun!<br /><ul><li>The transfer from being mounted to fighting the three champions on foot is really clunky. Your still using your lance, everyone's everywhere, and God only knows who has threat with whom. My core group that I normally run heroics with has done it twice so far. We have nothing but iLVL 200+ gear, and many slots are 213 or higher. Yet on both of our runs we have wiped. I'm sure we'll get better, but I think this could have been more smoothly designed. Maybe not give us a chance to engage them on our terms, but give us a moment to at least get out of weapons, please...</li><li>The second fights are cute, especially when Argent Confessor Paleteress (BTW, great reference!) summons an illusion of a fight of the past, but not particularly challenging. Got The Faceroller (hee hee!) achievement last night when we killed Eadric the Pure.</li><li>The Black Knight (oh noes! I spoiled it! D:) is an interesting fight. The first time I fought him I missed out that there was a phase three... so when he died the second time I was thinking "Well there we go." only to have him get up again. It was like "Why won't you die!?" But after that we were fine.</li><li>One thing I like that they did with this is that all the loot is on-par or better than Naxx loot, which means if you are like my guild and not deeply into Ulduar there are some decent upgrades. Heck, there are even good upgrades from normal TotC5. I plan on doing some PUG runs in the coming weeks.</li></ul><p>Really beyond that I don't have a lot of comments. The lack of options for 1H tanking weapons makes DW tanking a non-option to me, so the major change to the Frost tree (my preferencial tree for DKs) doesn't matter.</p><p>Changes to other classes are interesting but not overly prevelant to me. About the biggest change is the addition of the Shaman Totem Bar, but that's because my girlfriend plays a shaman and we commonly instance/raid together.</p><p>I'm working on getting the Crusader Title and Exalted with the Silver Covenant so I can start doing the new dailies for the island north Icecrown and gain access to the new stuff that you can get for Crusader Tokens (or do you buy them with Emblems?). But I can't do them yet, so it's just more of the same. Woo.</p><p>And I haven't touched any of the PvP stuff added. Neither the new BG nor the revamped WG. I'm not really sure what to make of the revamped WG. Preface: My server is very badly imbalanced on the Alliance side of things. Prior to 3.2, when Horde was on defence they were almost assured to lose. One time I looked in the book outside of Arch's instance and the numbers were something like this:</p><ul><li>Alliance Successful Offensives: 328</li><li>Horde Successful Offensives: 314</li><li>Alliance Successful Defenses: 316</li><li>Horde Successful Defenses: 39</li></ul><p>No, I did not forget to add a number to that last bit. Seriously... they would only win when they were on the defense 10% of the time. As for why this happens, obviously because the Alliance can field way more players than the Horde can, even with the bonus granted for being outnumbered, they just get overwhelmed. Now with the sides being evenly capped at 120 per, I'm hoping it's more balanced. I'm just basing my statement on one of my friends saying a few unclear things. Honestly I hope it doesn't become an inverse where we were before, with the Horde winning all the time and the Alliance only able to occasionally take it from them only to have it stolen the next go around. Really, I want a nice balance between who has it and who doesn't.</p><p>About the only major change I've made recently has nothing to do with the patch and that was dropping Blacksmithing and Mining and taking Alchemy and Inscription on my main. My guild lacks high a raider who has either, so I decided to take both on my main.</p>Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-65310625038076936222009-08-11T12:05:00.000-07:002009-08-11T12:12:04.401-07:00Sadly, this is not something new...<span>Tobold (which is a blog blocked by my work firewall and that makes me a very sad, sad panda) recently posted a post (which I saw via my cell phone's internet) titled "<a href="http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2009/08/game-design-beats-lore-in-cataclysm.html">Game design beats lore in Cataclysm</a>". In it he details how <a href="http://www.wow.com/">http://www.wow.com/</a> is posting a lot about the theoretical new expansion (which, if true, will be announced at BlizzCon).<br /><br />Tobold goes on to comment about how the Worgen are speculated to be the new race for the Alliance and then quotes the basic info from the WoWWiki article on Worgen which describes them as horrible, bloodthirsty monsters. His next point is that the pretense of the Alliance being the "good guys" and the Horde being the "bad guys" is gone.<br /><br />Aside: Technically if you do all the quests like I have, you realize the Alliance is no more "good guys" than the Horde are "bad guys". There are very good and very bad people in both factions, but in the end, mostly it's just shades of gray. But that's not the point of this post...<br /><br />Then he postulates that this is another attempt to balance the factions, giving the Alliance a "monstrous" race while the Horde will get the Goblins, which gives them a cutesy race, broadening their appeal.<br /><br />Whether this is an attempt to add appeal to the Horde or if it's just an attempt to give some cool new races, the statement that game design is more important than the lore is definitely not something new.<br /><br />While it didn't show up in RTS games since they could tailor the races to work with where they wanted the story to go, the same doesn't work for an MMO, and especially one like WoW><br /><br />First off, even ignoring the potential issue created when they decided to make it Horde vs. Alliance (a design change they made, since some of the original concept art have, for example, Humans, Orcs and Tauren working together), just having to balance the classes against each other made things hard. This DPS and that DPS need to not be too different from each other. One race needs to not be better than another in a given role.<br /><br />Then mix in the initial issues of Paladins and Shaman on differing sides of the faction divide, not to mention other issues such as the Alliance getting Fear Ward and the Horde not, and it's more than just balancing around the lore. Other issues also popped up, such as the overall faction population imbalance.<br /><br />Because of this, Blizzard decided to do a retcon. This wasn't the first time they decided to do this... they'd done it before with the storyline for going from WC2 to WC3, but that was done to create a more interesting story, while this was done for more practical reasons.<br /><br />Draenei were changed from all of them being creepy shaman humanoid... things (See <a href="http://www.wowwiki.com/Broken">The Broken</a>) to Light worshipping noble relatives of the evil Eredar. This was something that blindsided almost all the lore fans that I knew. There was nothing to back this up. And I remember hearing from a BlizzCon panel that one of the reasons Blood Elves were chosen was to give the Horde a visually appealing race.<br /><br />Some consider the decision to make Paladins and Shaman playable on both sides the biggest lore travesty, though I viewed it as pretty common sense and less of a big deal. Opening up access to a class makes a lot more sense than changing something's entire history (Draenei). And both races had a precedent for their given "new" class. Elves have always been very magical and the High Elves had priests in WC3, so becoming Paladins is not a huge step. And as I mentioned above, the old Draenei were Shaman to begin with, so... that's fine.<br /><br />Now, when I found out about Draenei I was livid. I completely quit the game (this was, obviously, prior to me starting this Blog). Eventually I returned, but I returned to play the game, not enjoy the lore as I had before.<br /><br />Sure, I still did and do all the quests in the game and find them fun, but I'm now far less concerned with the impact of the story since I feel WoW is a game that a story is built around, not a story that a game is built around. And honestly, I'm fine with that. I think it makes for a better game that way, and I'm generally unable to enjoy either half in a vacuum.</span>Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-53296574243976706402009-08-04T15:57:00.000-07:002009-08-04T16:03:31.086-07:00Name change!Oh yeah, forgot to mention it (though some of you more astute might have noticed the change in the link to the right), but I changed the name of my DK. Despite being a new character, everyone still called me Kaziel, Kaz, Alixander or Alix. This, combined with the fact that another of my guild name had a shortened version that sounded like my shortened name for my DK (Saiyarik's was shortened into Sai, and the other member was Sylaurin, pronounced Sigh-Lauren, shortened into Sy) I decided to change my DK's name and I did so choosing to combine my two known names into one:<br /><br />Kazalix (pronoucned Kaz-Alex)<br /><br />Before I decided on doing it, I had jokingly said I'd change my name to that. Then when I did it, I logged in and one of my friends commented "YOU DID NOT!" to which I repled "I DID!" and that alone made the price of the name change worth it.Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-55676987647481636712009-08-03T12:35:00.000-07:002009-08-03T12:44:24.912-07:00Back from LimboSo the day of the DWing DK is nearing.<br /><br />With 3.2 on the horizon, Blizzard is finally implementing something they mentioned in planning weeks ago: Making a talent in the Frost Tree which makes the abilities a Frost specced DK gets (including Death Strike) hit with both weapons if Dual Wielding.<br /><br />For those not keeping up with MMO-Champion or the patch notes, the talent is:<br /><blockquote>Threat of Thassarian: New 3-point talent. When dual-wielding, your Death<br />Strikes, Obliterates, Plague Strikes, Blood Strikes and Frost Strikes have a<br />30/60/100% chance to also deal damage with your off-hand weapon. Off-hand<br />strikes are roughly one half the effect of the original strike.</blockquote>Additionally the talent is deep enough in the Frost tree that only those going Frost can get it (or at least you can't get enough talents in another tree that you can reach a major talent in another tree).<br /><br />Now, as a tank, I'm not immediately viewing this as the best thing ever. First and foremost, it's not made with DW Tanking in mind, since it doesn't effect Rune Strike. Mechanically Rune Strike is next to impossible to make hit with both weapons. This is, obviously, because it is based on the next hit, so having the off-hand attack as well would be a bit unbalanced (especially with 1H weapons having a much faster swing speed than 2Hs, so they could theoretically get off more Rune Strikes). Having MH + ½ OH damage every swing, plus additionally the normal ½ OH damage would be crazy damage, thus completely imbalanced.<br /><br />Instead, a possible fix to making Rune Strike valid while DWing, would be a modification to it's threat generation. Currently Rune Strike does 150% damage plus a variable number based on AP, with a 150% threat modifier. If Rune Strike was changed to do the damage it normally does, only with (this is a random number and not truly reflective of the number needed to balance out the loss of damage) 200% threat modifier, our TPS would remain where it was with a 2H, while our damage wouldn't skyrocket. Now, from there, let's look at the pros and cons of DW vs. using a 2H.<br /><br /><strong>Higher TPS:</strong> Two Hander<br /><br />Straight numbers here. A DW attack, even if it uses two slow weapons, will still do less damage than a two-hander. It's just the facts. Assuming Blizzard does not do something for Rune Strike, there's the loss of TPS there too. While it's true that white DPS while DWing comes out ahead of a 2H (again, pure numbers), Death Knights' reliance on using weapon-based Strikes makes 2H a stronger TPS tool.<br /><br />Side note: Remember that other classes that can use 2H and DW don't rely as heavily on weapon-based attacks as DKs do. Warriors only valid "strike" build is Arms, which only takes it's damage from it's main hand. Shaman only have Storm Strike (Lava Lash only does OH damage), plus the damage from weapon enchants. Basically, no other class is like a DK, so comparing it to other classes that can DW and pointing out how them DWing is better is a moot point.<br /><br /><strong>Higher Overall-Survivability:</strong> DWing<br /><br />As of right now, the most efficient enchant to use for a DK is the Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle. Granting 25 Defense (non-diminishing) and a 2% health boost, this generally makes up for a DK not having access to a tanking specific weapon and a shield. While it's possible to take something other than SSG, you have to give up a lot in other areas because you're losing out on Defense.<br /><br />Thus I constantly see people say that losing SSG makes you lose 25 defense, which amounts to 3% avoidance, not to mention that gear needs to be regemmed/re-enchanted for more Defense. These people are forgetting one very, very important thing about being a DW tank, and that is that you can... dual wield tanking weapons. Considering that Broken Promise is the best 1H tanking weapon currently available to a DK (will go over this later), and it gives 8.75 points (not rating) of Defense , if you were to DW two of them, you'd be sitting pretty at 17.5 Defense, thus meaning the loss of SSG actually only equates to a loss of 7.5 Defense points, and lose a grand total of 0.9% avoidance (and the 2% health bonus).<br /><br />What I trade for those losses it the gain of 4% undiminishing Parry, along with a 50% reduction in disarm duration, and that's not counting any additional avoidance that one gets from Parry, Dodge, or Defense Rating on the two tanking weapons you choose to use. So in the end it's a decent gain in the avoidance department.<br /><br />======<br /><br />So! Great stuff, right? Well... not really. The catch on all this: Blizzard isn't changing how the damage is based. All the attacks that are modified by ToT still do a % of weapon damage, which means you still want the weapons with the broadest damage ranges that you can get. Basically, fast weapons are bad, slow weapons are good.<br /><br />No problem, right? Well... not really. Go run over to Wowhead, go to the PTR side of things, do a quick search of one hand, main hand and off-hand weapons useable by DKs, are iLVL 200 or higher, and have defense rating on them, but are slower than 2.0 speed. Go on, I'll be here when you get back...<br /><br />What did you find? Unless they added anything new since last night when I checked for new stuff all you found were the <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=37179">Infantry Assault Blade</a>, a blue iLVL 200 sword from Heroic Utgarde Keep and <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40345">Broken Promise</a>, which drops from Heroic Naxxramas. That's it folks. Two weapons, and even the best clocks in at only iLVL 213.<br /><br />So by the time you're poking around hard modes in Ulduar or even normal mode on new instance when it comes out either tomorrow or the week after you'll start trailing behind in terms of available stamina. I mean, the amount of stamina that two Broken Promises gives you is about equal to what any other 2H will give you. By the time you start picking up even 10-man ulduar drops you're trailing, and you just keep falling further and further behind. While additional avoidance is good, falling behind in terms of EH is actually worse IMO. I've always been of the opinion that as long as you aren't neglecting either, EH > Avoidance. And yes I know it's only a little difference... but it will add up, of that I have no doubt. "Only 500 health" turns into "only 1,000 health" and keeps going.<br /><br />It just doesn't justify itself in the end using two BPs when you have a perfectly good, up-to-date 2H.<br /><br />Now, it's not a complete no-go. We don't have the full drop table from the new 5-man and the new raids, so it's possible that we just haven't seen some new slow 1H tanking weapon, but with Blizzard's track record, I wouldn't go holding your breath. Consider... one slow 1H tanking weapon in all the heroics (and only a blue, not an epic), one slow 1H tanking weapon in all of Naxx (both 10-man and 25-man), and absolutely no slow 1H tanking weapons in Ulduar, despite having something like over 800 pieces of loot between the 10-man normal and heroics and 25-man normal and heroics. If Blizz does add a slow 1H tanking weapon in this patch or in Icecrown, I'll do a respec, but for now it looks like I'll continue to use a 2H.<br /><br />=======<br /><br />Addendum: I'm really thinking about how I'm going to respec for my frost tanking build. One of the other changes in 3.2 was dropping Blood of the North from 5 points to 3. Previously I had just enough points get what I needed for a 15/51/5 build but now with my two floater points, I'm not sure where to put them... it'd be one thing to slip them over to Unholy to get something like increased disease duration, but they need to stay in the Frost tree so I can get Howling Blast.<br /><br />I'm considering pulling more points out some of the handy but not necessary talents to go for Icy Talons and Improved Icy Talons again. I had it before, but dropped it because we almost always have my girlfriend who plays an enhancement shaman. But with these damned floaters I might as well go for it and have her throw out the spell haste totem. It'll decrease my TPS a bit, but should boost overall raid DPS and I think that's probably the best for the guild. I mean, it's not like anyone can touch my TPS except the hunters when they are being stupid and not FDing... *glares at hunters*Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-44481040968811146092009-02-10T11:23:00.000-08:002009-02-10T12:39:00.573-08:00WoW Journal 2/10<span style="color:#000000;">Hey all,</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;"></span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">I'd like to clarify that a lack of new posts has less to do with falling back out of posting and more a general lack of things to post, though I'll give a general update.</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;"></span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">Two weeks ago my guild began poking Naxx10 with a stick. Naxx10 poked back, but we poked harder. First time in (even though we had an experienced Naxx raider and some good geared folks) we downed the full Spider Wing with a few wipes and then went to the Plague Wing[1]. We got Noth the Plaguebringer on first time in. It was pushing on midnight server time when we reached Heigan and gave him a few attempts... *hums the Safety Dance* but were not able to learn the dance properly.</span><br /><span style="color:#000000;"></span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">Then this past weekend we made our way in again, easily knocking over the Spiderwing with no setbacks at all and again finding our self at Heigan. Three tries of death, and we were ready to give up and try another wing but chose to gave him one last try. Managed to net us a win with three men standing. Warrior tank, Holy Priest and Retribution Paladin. Was a long fight but we danced right (and according to the people who did survive, their arms felt like jello afterward). </span><br /><span style="color:#000000;"></span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">Also, if you're already dead, watching the Heigan fight while either Canned Heat (the song from Napoleon Dynamite that male Blood Elves dance to) or Yakety Sax (the Benny Hill Theme Song) </span><span style="color:#000000;">makes it about a billion times better.</span><br /><br />After downing Heigan, we continued on our way and took down Loatheb on our second attempt at it (first time the tank got hit with two seeds early on and people needed to slow up on DPS and we weren't able to down him in time...).<br /><br />Other non-raidy news includes the acquisition of my first piece of Tier 7 gear: The Death Knight 10-man tanking chest. This is non-raidy news because I bought it with Emblems of Heroism. I chose the chest piece instead of the cheaper T7(10) Gloves for two reasons.<br /><br />First off it drops from the Four Horsemen, and it's likely to be a while before we see those. As of right now my guild is only raiding one night a week (this is killing me!), so getting down Maxxena and then making our way to Loatheb took most of our night. Even if we were able to one-shot everything, that would leave us little time to poke the Construct Wing, let alone the Military Wing (I realize that we can do any wing we want, but that's beside the point).<br /><br />Second off, on our first night in Naxx I got the tanking gauntlets from Grand Widow Faerlina, but I was still running around in the blue chest from Revered with Wyrmrest Accord, so it was a much larger upgrade. Yay for another piece replaced with a iLVL 200 epic!<br /><br />Hmmm... what else... Almost done with the Elder achievement (just in time to boot!). All I'm missing are the Old World Dungeon Elders (can do those in a fricken snap!), though my friends are missing the Azjol-Nerub Elder, so on Wednesday we're gonna do a Heroic Azjol-Nerub run (would do it tonight, but tonight's D&D night! Woooo! I'm a nerd!).<br /><br />Also managed to net myself the achievements for Exalted with Kalu'ak (Let us trade... for our prosperity.), Wyrmrest Accord and Knights of the Ebon Blade. Got Exalted with Alliance Expedition, though because I got Exalted with the Alliance Vanguard, I was given the achivement the moment 3.0.8 went live (whoops bug).<br /><br />That about covers it for recent stuff. With me closing in on finishing up the rep grinds in Northrend (Revered with both Sons of Hodir and Frenzyheart, along with Argent Crusade and Kirin Tor) pretty soon I'm going to start poking the around Outland for the achievements up there. Rep grinds galor to spend my time doing while waiting for people to do other stuff. Honestly, it'll be a long time before I level up Alixander (if I ever bother to...)<br /><br />======<br /><br />[1]Some people say the Construct Wing is easier than the Plague Wing. Others say the opposite. Not looking for opinions on what order we should do this in.Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-78454469667892442052009-01-22T10:33:00.000-08:002009-01-22T13:20:33.291-08:00Thoughts on DK tanking gemsSo I was poking around the other blogs this morning really quickly before work when I saw Honorshammer's latest post: <a href="http://honorscode.blogspot.com/2009/01/patch-308-and-helms.html">Patch 3.0.8 and Helms</a> and one sentence stuck out to me:<br /><blockquote>In most of my analysis you will see disregard 'threat' stats like Strength, Hit<br />and Expertise. This is done with the belief that threat is a minor issue right<br />now. Gear decisions should be based on Survival stats alone. You'll get 'enough'<br />threat stats that come along for the ride.</blockquote><br />From everything I've read about DKs, there's an interesting contrast. In most cases, DKs are fine for survival, but have some issues with threat generation. According to the EJ thread on DK tanking, most DK tanks once they get some gear on them are fine for taking damage (large health pools and armor levels for their gear quality make them easy tanks to heal, plus a lot of low cooldown "Oh Shit!" buttons).<br /><br />Since I already am well over 540 Defense (was there before the patch, now I'm even more firmly above thanks to the <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40714">Sigil of the Unfaltering Knight</a> and the <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?forums&topic=68060">Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle</a>), I can consider other gear and gems than stacking defense. There are a number of options available to me.<br /><br />As a general priniciple I'm going to completely ignore Red, Orange and Yellow gems since they don't have Stamina on them. Stamina is a "Blue" gem stat, so only Green, Blue and Purple gems have it on them.<br /><br /><span style="color:#33cc00;">Greens</span>:<br /><strong>Enduring</strong>: +Defense Rating and Stamina: While I'm already at the Defense minimum, these gems are still valid since they will allow for either freeing up Defense elsewhere if you would prefer gear that has little or no defense on them (Some good rings are heavy with Dodge Rating, for example). Also a very good option after you hit the cap for spell hit.<br /><strong>Vivid</strong>: +Hit Rating and Stamina: Since a Death Knight relies on both magical and physical damage, hit is a very important stat. By increasing hit, you'll have less misses on all of your attacks. Also, a miss means a thrown off rotation, which can be really bad for a Death Knight since they should be active almost 100% of the time.<br /><br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">Blues</span>:<br /><strong>Solid</strong>: +Stamina: Obviously this is a high value gem, since tons of stamina will help out against all situations.<br /><br /><span style="color:#cc33cc;">Purples</span>:<br /><strong>Guardian's</strong>: +Expertise Rating and Stamina: Much like the Vivid gem, the Expertise lowers the chance of a Parry or a Dodge, which means that there will be less thrown off rotations. Plus Expertise will remove our minimal chance to get hit by parry-gib, increasing our survivability. It's wonderful to have double-duty stats.<br /><strong>Soverign</strong>: +Strength and Stamina: With threat being an issue, having more Strength helps to fix this issue, plus Death Knights have an ability called Forceful Deflection which gives 1 Parry Rating for every 4 Strength a DK gets, making Strenght another double-duty stat.<br /><strong>Regal</strong>: +Dodge Rating and Stamina: If you find yourself dying, but not having issues with threat, this is your best option for additional survivability.<br /><strong>Defender's</strong>: +Parry Rating and Stamina: The most undesireable of the various purple gems available to a DK. First off, due to just having a lot of Strength (my DK in a mix of blues and purples has around 800 STR) they will have a lot of Parry Rating. Since defensive rating stats (Block, Parry and Dodge) all suffer from Diminishing Returns now (implented, I believe, because of the Rogue who tanked Gruul and other bosses), so since a DK tank will already have a lot of Parry from Strength, getting more will do less than getting a Regal gem in general.<br /><br />There is the option of choosing a AGI and STA gem, but that's a really bad choice in my opinion, since it gives so little crit, armor and dodge that it's almost painful, plus there's zero crit on tanking gear. Since crit is a stat that you get more for having more, since you're at an absolute minimum while in tanking gear, getting a little more is barely worth it.<br /><br />Anyway, for now I'm gearing myself up with Vivids, Solids and Guardians'. I'm almost at the dodge cap for Expertise (have 21 expertise right now and need 23 or 24). I'm not sure whether I should concern myself with getting the additional 10% to completely remove parry chance. That's a lot of Expertise rating. Also working on getting my Hit capped for spells since I use Howling Blast and Icy Touch a lot as a Frost DK.Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-28614561552079687122009-01-13T13:15:00.000-08:002009-01-13T13:39:25.749-08:00100th post, but not what I promised...So I haven't posted in a while. I had this grand plan of a huge WAR post, but it became larger than I originally planned, then Mythic added the two missing tanking classes (Blackguard and Knight of the Blazing Sun), and they just kept adding stuff (not a downside) that it became this Albatross around my neck. I finally decided to just say screw it, and go on without it. I still have the partially completed post and if anyone really wants to see it, I'll post it in it's broken form.<br /><br />Anyway, what have I been up to? Well, work keeps me busy, which has been another thing prohibiting me from working on my blog (prefer to post while I'm at work during downtime... rather play games when I'm at home).<br /><br />Still playing and enjoying WAR, though my guild formed of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">WoW</span> friends kinda sputtered and died (coinciding with the release of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">WotLK</span>... who would have thought!), so I joined Casualties of WAR (such a clever name), a guild formed of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">bloggers</span> (but not only <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">bloggers</span>), and I play a couple of days a week with them.<br /><br />Also playing <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">WoW</span>. As predicted, I've changed my main from <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Alixander</span> to my new Death Knight. Was hoping to rename him <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Kaziel</span>, but was made aware that a name is locked down for 3 months after a name change, so my options were either to transfer <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Kaziel</span> (my <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">mage</span>) to a different server (didn't want to), delete him (no!), or rename him and then rename my <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">DK</span> to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Kaziel</span> later on (too much work). So I picked a new name for him (random name generator came up with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Saiyarik</span>) and threw myself into leveling with gusto!<br /><br />I'm currently level 80, with a Frost tanking build and have completed, literally, every quest in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Northrend</span>, many of the group quests being soloed. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">DKs</span> soloing capability is pretty crazy. Once I start gearing myself up with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Naxx</span> epics I'll start spending time soloing my way through old vanilla <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">WoW</span> raid content for rep (must... get... achievements!).<br /><br />Also got myself to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">uncrittable</span> by getting the Seal of the Pantheon a week or two ago. This is really hard as a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">DK</span> before 3.0.8 since most gear's defense ratings are balanced around a tank having a tanking weapon and a shield, of which a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">DK</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">deosn't</span> do so well with.<br /><br />Yeah, I know about the theories on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">EJ</span> of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">DW</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">DK</span> tanking. I'm posting in that thread. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">AFAIC</span>, with the forthcoming change to Killing Machine (the sole point of strength for a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">DW</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">DK</span> tank), <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">DWing</span> is mostly dead. I can see using <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">DW</span> tanking for certain spell heavy encounters (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">Kel'Thuzad</span> for example) since you'll be able to maintain <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">uncrittability</span> without the new Rune of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">Stonesking</span> Gargoyle, plus can pick up double <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31">Spellbreaking</span> runes on your tanking weapons for even less magical damage.<br /><br />I've always been quite enchanted by Howling Blast, and my <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32">HBs</span> seem to hit significantly harder than my <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_33">Oblits</span> anyway (averages around 400 more damage per attack, plus it's not parry, dodge or <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34">blockable</span>) I'll probably put together a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_35">HB</span>-centric build, picking up the new Killing Machine. Thankfully they are fixing it so that also the KB charge doesn't get used up if you have <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_36">Deathchill</span> active... or maybe it's the other way around. Either way, it's a win for those of us who like <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_37">Deathchill</span> for some awesome snap aggro, but also like KM. I'll generally use a powerful 2H like the <span><a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=37653"><span style="color:#3333ff;">Sword of Justice</span></a></span> (despite being only blue, it's ridiculously slow speed and high stamina make it better than most <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_38">pre</span>-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_39">Naxx</span> epics, like <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41257"><span style="color:#cc33cc;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_40">Titansteel</span> Destroyer</span></a> or <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=37852"><span style="color:#cc33cc;">Colossal Skull-Clad Cleaver</span></a>) or <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=39417"><span style="color:#cc33cc;">Death's Bite</span></a> and have a pair of 1H tanking swords ready to use for more magic-centric fights.<br /><br />Anyway, my overall assessment on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_41">WotLK</span>: Best <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_42">MMO</span> expansion, EVER. Not just best <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_43">WoW</span> expansion, but best <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_44">MMO</span> expansion. This includes City of Villains, which had previously held this title. While <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_45">CoH</span>/V may not have been my cup of tea, adding not only an entire new area, but adding an entirely new faction and making faction-based <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_46">PvP</span> valid, plus adding 5 new classes (with multiple new powers), it was no small feat.<br /><br />While <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_47">WotLK</span> was missing quite a few things, even for an <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_48">MMO</span> expansion (looking at you 10-point Protection Paladin talent), what they did do was fantastic. Obviously there's the to-be-expected fantastic instances and bosses and new loot, new types of quest (oh all the mounts and machines and stuff that have their own spell bars!). But the one thing that really stood out for me amongst all the things done right was this: Mini-instances. I'm not sure what term Blizzard uses for them but it's when portion of an existing zone changes, either temporarily while you are doing a certain event, or permanently.<br /><br />The first portion where this showed up was around the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_49">Wrathgate</span>. Before, the place is flooded with Alliance and Horde fighting together to try to push back the Scourge menace and push into <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_50">Icecrown</span> Glacier. Then after the event everything changes (don't want to spoil it) and every time you go in there, you see the after effects of and don't see the undead everywhere in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_51">Wrathgate</span> (addendum: remembering this awesome <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_52">questline</span> makes me want 3.0.8 even more so I can level up a Horde <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_53">DK</span> and see it from the Horde's perspective).<br /><br />When you roll into <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_54">Zul'drak</span> you see it here and there (specifically when you go into the "Realm of the Dead" and when the Jaguar moves from one place to another). And then Blizzard just went hog wild, using it all over the place in Storm Peaks and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_55">Icecrown</span> Glacier. I really can't wait to see the next expansion, because I expect Blizzard to be using this technique everywhere, and it will really feel like the entire world is evolving! Bravo Blizzard! Bravo!<br /><br />Now, as I mentioned, Wrath is far from perfect. I felt, and still feel that Blizzard pushed it out a little earlier than they should have. Sometimes the changes to classes feel like things that should have been ironed out in beta, but at the same time I know Blizzard is always making these types of changes so it's hard to tell. But the lack of an 11-point talent for Protection is really a sign that Blizzard was rushing <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_56">WotLK</span> out the door. There are tons of other things that just don't mesh well, though none stick out in my head as prominently as the lacking of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_57">Prot</span> Paladin talent. Why was Blizzard in such a rush to release <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_58">WotLK</span>?<br /><br />Well I think it was to compete with WAR. About the same time WAR hit the shelves, Blizzard did a massive Closed Beta invite (of which I was included). The Closed Beta servers slowed to a crawl. Maybe it was a stress test, but if so, it was never advertised as such. By timing this when they did, it gave those who wanted new content and were looking at WAR to sate their appetite an alternative.<br /><br />Could I be wrong about <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_59">WotLK</span> being rushed? Completely. But by pushing out so close to the release date of WAR, they've sucked away a lot of players from WAR back to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_60">WoW</span> (at a new high of 11.5 million players worldwide!). In the end they've hurt a potential threat to their dominance of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_61">MMO</span> genre, while reaching new highs. Even if WAR doesn't flounder and recovers from this (can't say how they are doing, where they were right after release or how much they lost since the normal sources of this info are about 6 months out of date), it took a good hit early on, which will hurt them.<br /><br />If I was Blizzard I probably would have done the same thing. From a business perspective, it was a brilliant move. As a gamer who was going to play <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_62">WoW</span> anyway, it annoys me.<br /><br />Anyway, not making any promises, but I'll try to get back into updating my blog. Hope everyone is enjoying whatever <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_63">MMO</span> is striking their fancy these days and having a Happy New Year!Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-83972581306701830432008-08-13T12:59:00.002-07:002008-08-14T14:49:22.776-07:00So the Collector's Edition WAR beta test has begun!And, obviously, I'm a part of it. I can't say much since the NDA is still in effect, but I can say that I will be testing tiers 1 to 3. I don't know where, but that was posted by one of the Mythic folks. Anyway, so far the game is awesome. I will be making my next post when the NDA is lifted (also, that will be my 100th post). Anyway, see you all then.Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-46764796249813704032008-08-09T22:57:00.001-07:002008-12-11T22:48:00.990-08:00A thought on current DW vs 2H mechanics for Death KnightsI realize this is still beta, and everything is likely to change, but really I just want to vent. I spend a fair amount of time at the <a href="http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=7572246&sid=2000">Official Death Knight Beta forums</a>, lurking and reading. Now, one of the longest standing problems has been the lack of good DWing support.<br /><br />Death Knights rely largely on their "Strikes" for their yellow damage, due to cooldowns of other abilities. Strikes are exactly what one would expect: A weapon damage based attack with possibly some bonus damage or an extra effect (or both). For example, Blood Strike is one of the first of these abilities you get. It is an instant attack that does 60% weapon damage, plus X damage per disease on the target (X varies depending on the rank) for one Blood Rune.<br /><br />Now, anyone who's ever played an Level 40+ Arms Warrior will quite assuredly tell you that attacks of this nature are best off used by a high damage 2H (like <span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?item=34247">Apolyon, the Soul-Render</a>). The reason for this is because the majority of the damage is done by the weapon itself, and the bonus damage can only account for so much (even with abilities that scale, a good two hander will account for around half to two-thirds of the damage). Also, since instant attacks are outside of swing speed (and will most likely be normalized based upon what Blue posts have shown), what will matter is not weapon speed, but damage range (which again, benefits 2Hs).<br /><br /></span>I went through and figured out which abilities had a low enough cooldown to be put into a normal rune/RP rotation (i.e. every 10-12 seconds depending on if you want to include a two or three rune ability, and 1 or 2 RP abilities), and this is what I came up with (note these are for the next build, not the current one):<br /><br />Key:<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Red: Blood Rune</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Blue: Frost Rune</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Green: Unholy Rune</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">Purple: Runic Power</span><br />Black: No cost<br /><br />Abilities with too long a cooldown:<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Strangulate: 30 seconds</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Rune Tap: 1 minute</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Vampiric Blood: 2 minutes</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Death and</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"> Decay: 3</span>0 seconds</span></span></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Army of t</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">he Dead: </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">1 minute</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Mark of Bloo</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">d: 3 minutes</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Hysteria:</span> <span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">2 minutes</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Chains of Ice: 15 seconds</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);"><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Unbreakable Armor: 2 minutes<br /></span></span><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Howling Blas</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">t: 30 seconds<br /></span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Anti-Magic Shell: 15 seconds<br /></span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"></span></span></span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Anti-Magic Zone: 2 minutes</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Bone Shield:</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"> </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">30 seconds<br /></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">Icebound Fortitude: 1 minute</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);"><br /></span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 204, 204);"><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">Dancing Rune Weapon: 1 minute</span><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">Hungering Cold: 1 minute</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">Summon Gargoyle: 5 minutes</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">Unholy Blight: 1 minute</span><br />Raise Dead: 5 minutes<br />Lichebourne: 5 minutes<span style="color: rgb(0, 204, 204);"><br /></span>Death Chill: 2 minutes<br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);"></span><br />Abilities with short enough cooldowns:<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Blood Strike: GCD</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Pestilence: GCD</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Heart Strike: GCD</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Icy Touch: 6 seconds</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Mind Freeze: 10 seconds</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);"><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Death Str</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">i</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">ke: GCD(?)</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Oblitera</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">te: GCD</span><br /></span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Plague Strike: GCD</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Corpse Explosion: GCD</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Scourge Strike: GCD</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">Death Coil: GCD</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);">Frost Strike: GCD</span><br /><br />Now, if you look over those abilities that have a low enough cooldown to be used in every rotation, you'll see a distinct lack of non-Strikes (despite it's name, Obliterate is also a Strike). Arguably, one could shun Strikes and rely exclusively on Icy Touch, Corpse Explosion, and Death Coil since those abilities either scale with AP instead of Weapon Damage (Mind Freeze should be saved for silencing and does less damage than Icy Touch anyway). There are problems with this idea of course too. First off, what do you do with the Blood Runes. <a href="http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?spell=51429">Pestilence</a> doesn't scale at all, according to what I'm reading, and generates additional threat, meaning it's crappy if you want to DPS. Corpse Explosion requires a corpse, and once you're out of them, it's value quickly is diminished.<br /><br />Another idea I had while typing this is using various abilities over the course of a few cycles, meaning a real cycle for you lasts 20 or 30 seconds instead of 10 seconds. Obviously the longer a cycle lasts, the more abilities are added to the mix, so it would require a re-evaluation, but even at that point one can't rely on non-strikes, which means a great hindrance to a DK's DPS or TPS.<br /><br />Looking at some of the stuff uploaded on Wowhead from the beta, at 77, the highest damage 1H weapon can hit is 353, or if you are using Blood Strike and have two diseases up, that will hit for, at maximum, around 650 damage. On the other hand, if you have the best 2H, it can do a maximum damage of 536, or with Blood Strike, around 850 damage. That's a difference of around 200 damage. Those numbers are assuming approximately 1,700 Attack Power, which is totally reachable as shown by <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3yNRLjHFT2yM2rBfTX1tZOtl8KQoc4v01RqhuzHkojJIXL1J9Ng9-qbyDBDPd9LbMS9mS3OEYm0QR9_JMQukqfu90fUJRvyiThX6zr7SbKIRkkbFhqcaLBApTljymlO9OVFnMpLoT9Jlb/s1600-h/stats.JPG">this screenshot</a> from beta.<br /><br />After doing this math, I came up with a question: While 200 damage may seem like a lot, maybe as time goes on the difference is getting smaller. I ran the numbers, and thanks to <a href="http://www.wowwiki.com/Normalization">normalization </a>coefficients the difference in AP benefits will always be approximately 72.7% between 1Hs and 2Hs. Next numbers I checked were the difference between maximum damage ranges. This is even less in 1Hs favor, with the difference spreading a small amount from the highest quality blues pre-expansion and the best available blues, post-tBC (from 56% difference to 59% difference). If the trend I'm seeing continues (and I see no reason for it not too), 1H weapons doing Instant Attacks that use weapon damage as a modifier will never be comparable to doing them with 2Hs. There are exceptions, such as <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=34413">Mutilate</a> which use both weapons, but that is an exception, and not the rule. Most Instant Attacks (and all the ones currently for DKs) are based on the main weapon.<br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><br />Now I'm going to go over the individual talents and abilities which specifically be beneficial to each given weapon type. Now this is based on three assumption: Both setups assume equal AP (thus talents which give AP and are based on AP get equal benefit), DW has more white DPS, while 2H has stronger individual attacks (i.e. Weapon abilities like the Strikes).<br /></span><h1 style="font-weight: normal;"></h1>Key:<br />Black: Core Abilities<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Red: Blood Talents</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Blue: Frost Talents</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Green: Unholy Talents</span><br /><br />2H:<br />Blood Strike<br />Death Strike<br />Plague Strike<br />Obliterate<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Subversion<br /></span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Two-Handed Weapon Specialization<br /></span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Heart Strike<br /></span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Might of Mograine<br /></span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Dancing Rune Weapon<br /></span><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Glacier Rot<br /></span><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Annihilation<br /></span><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Runic Power Mastery<br /></span><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Deathchill<br /></span><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Merciless Combat<br /></span><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Frost Strike<br /></span><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Guile of Gorefiend<br /></span><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Tundra Stalker<br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Vicious Strikes<br />Outbreak<br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Scourge Strike<br /></span><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 153);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Rage of Rivendare</span><br /><br /></span>DW:<br />Unholy Presence<br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Bloody Vengeance</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Blood Rune Mastery</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Will of the Necropolis</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Nerves of Cold Steel</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Icy Talons</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Killing Machine</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Necrosis<br />Blood-Caked Blade<br />Unholy Rune Mastery</span><br /><br />Now, it may seem obvious to some that the quick-fix would be to make all Strikes work with either the 2H or both weapons, but this would be a very, very bad fix. Almost every talent that benefits a 2H more than DWing does so because it benefits a Strike ability. The only two exceptions are Two-Handed Weapon Specialization and Dancing Rune Weapon. The reason for this is because the combined damage of both weapons would almost always be greater than a 2H. Thing about instant attacks when DWing is the trade-off of a greatly decreased hit chance doesn't apply to yellow damage, so attacks which use both weapons work at a 9% decreased hit chance instead of 19+%. Basically we'd go from one extreme of 2Hing reigning supreme to DWing reigning supreme. Not what I want. I want, like so much else, for those who want to DW (like me) and those who want to use 2Hs to be equally valid or at least close enough so that there's a reasonable choice instead of the lopsided situation that we have right now.<br /><br />Now for a somewhat offtopic point that will go back to my major point later: My biggest complaint about the above listed talents is that there are more talents in the Frost Tree that boost 2Hs than any of the other trees. Frost, which has Nerves of Cold Steel, <span style="font-style: italic;">the</span> DWing talent. Now, I understand the talents like Annihilation, Deathchill, Merciless Combat, and Guile of Gorefiend, which boost Obliterate. But with ones like Glacier Rot and Runic Power Mastery, which boost Frost Strike, a core ability in the Frost Tree, which also is preferential to 2H over DWing, I think there's just something wrong.<br /><br />The funny thing about Frost Strike is it used to be perfectly suited to 1Hs. Originally it was on a next-attack timer instead of instant (think <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=30324">Heroic Strike</a>) and cost one Frost Rune. This was before the implementation of Blood of the North. At this point Blizzard announced that they had decided to scrap the idea of changing your rune setups, which meant you would only ever have 2 runes of each type, and never more or less. This change was done to ease balancing Death Knights because one would need to consider each setup of runes for each ability or talent, meaning way too much work for Blizzard. But this change also meant the planned Frost Tree, was far too Frost Rune costly, with only 2 Frost Runes.<br /><br />With this in mind many players clamored for a change of both the availability of Frost Runes (in the form of Death Runes) and the current mechanics of Frost Strike, which was now doing far too little damage for a single Frost Rune since they were so scarce (since it was on next-strike, only the bonus damage actually was an increase in damage). For the latter problem, instead of doing one or the other, Blizzard did both. They changed it to an instant, meaning it was better to use a 2H, and made it cost Runic Power. Now, this coincided with the addition of Blood of the North which fixed the former problem, which was no longer a real problem since Frost Strike now cost RP, and there were far less abilities which called for Frost or Unholy runes instead of Blood.<br /><br />Now I'm going to get back to my point, which is that for a deep Frost Death Knight, having abilities that mesh well with DWing and using a 1H for your attacks would be wonderful. First problem would be what to do with all the Blood Runes, but this one has already been solved: Blood of the North. Yeah, you need to spam Blood Strike every other cycle (except for the one you're using D&D on), but that's fine if it opens up more damage elsewhere.<br /><br />Frost could use a Frost-Rune spammable ability that doesn't rely on AP... the funny thing is the best option about this is, IMO, going right back to where we were before, which is having Frost Strike be on next strike and cost one Frost Rune. At max it would allow for 10 or so Frost Strikes over the course of a 1 minute period, in addition to all the damage from the other abilities, plus it wouldn't cost a global cooldown. While one could counter by saying Frost Strike would do more damage as an instant than as a Next-Attack (and one would be right) the same problem occurs again and again: There's no reason to DW with Instants, while DWing while using Next-Attacks works best.<br /><br />In lieu of making Frost Strike a spammable ability that relies on Frost Runes, the addition of a non-strike based attack would be wonderful. Something simple like a short range, single target instant that does mediocre damage. Doesn't need to be a lot, but enough for it to be worth the rune without needing to rely on the crappy weapon damage of a DWing Death Knight.<br /><br />For Runic Power, DKs of all specs are fine: Death Coil works great as it stands, and currently Frost Strike is also a good option for deep Frost Death Knights.<br /><br />The final area of issue Unholy Runes, but the utility that Plague Strike brings (Blood Plague), it's a useful ability, even if it's not perfectly suited to DWing. Not everything can be in favor of DWing, and this is an area I'd be willing to leave alone.<br /><br />In the end, the lack of viable spammable Frost Rune based ability that does damage based on AP or is next attack (and not instant attack weapon damage) is my biggest gripe. If that was fixed, I'd have no real complaints about DWing because I think it would be in a similar setup to a 2H Death Knight as long as a proper spec was used.Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-67938102311153791702008-07-20T12:57:00.004-07:002008-07-21T15:17:08.187-07:00WHOA NELLY!You know, every time it seems like I plan on doing a normal post, Blizzard goes off and reveals something that just blows my mind away. Well the most recent bout God and everybody has already talked about... but I'm going to too.<br /><br />A while back Blizzard announced that the reason that Paladins were one of the last ones to get their updates because they were doing a major overhaul to how the class works. They weren't kidding. Most of the changes are coming in the form of the talent trees, but there has also been a humongous change to a core mechanic of the Paladins. In fact the changes are so big, I expect many people to be like "tl;dr lol" and this to be one of my most under-commented posts.<br /><br />======<br /><br />First the huge change:<br /><br />The Blessing system has gone through a major change, separating and streamlining a lot of it. First and foremost, the actual blessings (the 10 minute and 30 minute greater forms) have been cut down to 4 core blessings, two of them talented. Blessing of Might, Blessing of Wisdom, Blessing of Kings and Blessing of Sanctuary are all unchanged from their pre-WotLK forms.<br /><br />Now, the first thought running through the Holy Paladins minds is: "Blessing of Light! Where's Blessing of Light!" Well, you'll be glad to know that Blessing of Light's bonus to healing has been rolled into the core spells, meaning it's no longer needed. Much the way they rolled the bonuses from the old Improved Seal of the Crusader talent into the base spell (addendum: Seal of the Crusader has been removed entirely from the game. Good riddance I say). So Blizzard managed to free up one slot of Blessings from the Paladins. Yay!<br /><br />The other major thought I'm sure everyone is having is "BLESSING OF SALVATION! WTF KAZ? WTF!?!?!" I did not miss it, they have removed Blessing of Salvation as we know it. But before you start screaming that the world is ending, let me explain. This will also lead me to what happened to the other three Blessings (Sacrifice, Protection, and Freedom). All four of those Blessings have become what will become known as Hands. Hands are short duration spells with cooldowns of 25 seconds or more.<br /><br />First I will touch on the three "lesser" Hands: Protection, Sacrifice and Freedom. The primary purpose of changing these Blessings into Hands is to put them on a separate "spell list" from the Blessings. Far too often a Paladin would drop a Blessing of Protection on a DPS or a Healer to save him or her when they pulled aggro on a boss mob. This would save them, but then the Paladin would need to waste time and mana recasting their old blessing on the target to help them. Now if they do this, it won't erase the valuable Blessing.<br /><br />Now, I will touch on Hand of Salvation. Unlike the previous three which have remained mostly the same, if not completely unchanged, Hand of Salvation is a completely different beast. Previously it reduced the threat generated by a person by 30%. Now it's a 10 second buff on a 2 minute cooldown that removes 2% of a person's total threat. Instead of reducing the amount of threat generated per attack, works like a threat dump, for 20% of your total threat. This is both better and worse than Blessing of Salvation. Now classes that have no threat dumps, like Warriors, Paladins, Shamans, and Death Knights can have some of their threat dumped off them without needing to disengage or slow down their DPS. On the other hand each player needs to be more cognizant of their own threat generation than ever before. While it appears Blizzard is intending to increase the threat generation of all tanks, the fact is that each person will be doing more threat overall and there's nothing that can be done about it (Tranquil Air Totem has also been removed).<br /><br />Addendum: See <a href="http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?spells=7.2&filter=na=hand+of#0+2+1" target="_blank">here</a> for the Hand spells.<br /><br />Okay, now onto each individual talent tree I will quote the talent and give my own thoughts in <i>italics</i>:<br /><br />First up is Retribution. I chose retribution first because it goes through the smallest change in my book.<br /><br />But before I go into Retribution I have some bad news and I have some good news. First the bad news: As Blizzard stated multiple times, the Alliance is not getting Seal of Blood. I've checked it out and it's the real deal. We're not getting it. But the good news is we <span style="text-decoration: underline;">are</span> getting Seal of the Martyr. Which has the exact same mechanics as Seal of Blood. dot dot dot. So there we go. The Alliance is getting Seal of <del>Blood</del> the Martyr. Alliance PvE Ret Paladins every can rejoice (minor note: Horde Paladins are getting a counterpart to Seal of Vengeance called Seal of Corruption).<br /><br />Tier 1:<br />Unchanged.<br /><br />Tier 2:<br /><b>Heart of the Crusader</b>: In addition to the normal effect, your Judgement spells will also increase the critical strike chance of all attacks made against that target by an additional 1/2/3%.<br /><br /><i>With the removal of the spell Seal of the Crusader (note: All holy damage abilities had their damage boosted to make up for the loss of Judgement of the Crusader), they couldn't have a talent that relied on it, so the just rolled the Improved Seal of the Crusader talent into the remaining debuff seals. Now, there's some talk about whether or not each application of a given seal gives this bonus, but I consider it unlikely since this was not doable before WotLK, and would be very powerful, being able to have +9% crit chance on a single target if you bring properly built Paladins.</i><br /><br />Tier 3:<br /><b>Conviction</b>: Increases your chance to get a critical strike with all spells and attacks by 1/2/3/4/5%.<br /><br /><i>Previously Conviction only increased crit chance with physical attacks. With it also affecting spells, Ret Paladins can get more mileage out of their non-melee attacks (has some synergy with later talents and the Illumination talent in the Holy tree). In addition this talent is low enough on the Retribution tree that a Holy Paladin could pick it up for even more spell crit.</i><br /><br /><b>Seal of Command</b>: 14% of base mana - Instant cast - Gives the Paladin a chance to deal additional Holy damage equal to 70% of normal weapon damage. Only one Seal can be active on the Paladin at any one time. Lasts 30 sec. Unleashing this Seal's energy will judge an enemy, instantly causing Holy damage, double if the target is stunned or incapacitated.<br /><br /><i>Seal of Command... the mainstay of Alliance Retribution Paladins for so long. Does it have any value now that we have Seal of <del>Blood</del> the Martyr? I don't know. The wording of it is different than the wording of the talent on the old talent trees, so it very well may be different. Until we get some more clarification by someone in Beta, I can only guess, but if I were to guess here's my take: Seal of Command will remain the premier PvP Ret seal. With it's huge damage bursts, it can far outstrip what Seal of Blood or Seal of the Martyr can do per hit. But in a PvE situation, unless they have vastly increased Seal of Command's Proc per Minute ratio, Seal of Blood or Seal of the Martyr will come out ahead since it is guaranteed to proc every swing, plus they do a small amount of damage to the wielder, which means they get a little extra healing and a little extra mana from Spiritual Attunement.</i><br /><br />Tier 4:<br />Unchanged.<br /><br />Tier 5:<br /><b>Sanctified Retribution</b>: Damage caused by targets affected by Retribution Aura is increased by 2%.<br /><br /><i>Now for some devastating news to the majority of Ret Paladins: Sanctity Aura is gone, removed from the game entirely. It would be even more of a hit to Retribution utility if they took away the Improved Sanctity Aura effect, so they turned it into a one point talent and applied it to the Retribution Aura, a sorely underused aura as it was, which will find new life in WotLK with this and a completely new talent I will mention later. Also, remember, Aura's are now raid wide, so this will apply to all members it hits.</i><br /><br /><b>Sheath of Light</b>: Increases your spell power by an amount equal to 10/20/30% of your attack power and your critical healing spells heal the target for 20/40/60% of the healed amount over 12 seconds.<br /><br /><i>Any loss of damage and utility from the loss of Sanctity Aura is more than made up for right here. First and foremost is the AP to ppell power conversion which is something which should have been added at the same time a similar talent was added to the Enhancement Shaman talent tree. Anyway, it may not have been there then, but it is there now and it's worth it! Currently, fully raid buffed, Horgrimm has anywhere from 2.3k to 2.7k AP. If he had Sheath of Light, that would translate to over 700 spell damage, in some cases over 800. This would allow him to properly utilize many spells that are reliant on spell damage and not STR or AP which is the main stat for Retribution Paladins currently.<br /><br />In addition to giving Retribution Paladins access to Spell Power (the new name for Spell Damage) through AP, it also gives them a handy utility boost in terms of healing. Every time a a Ret Paladin would crit, it would cause a HoT for a percent of the amount healed. This is actually a lot more powerful than it looks. First off, Blizzard is consolidating Crit and Spell Crit into one stat, so as one builds up crit, their spell crit also goes up. Using Horgrimm again, in his current Ret gear, raid buffed, he would have around 25% crit rating if he started tossing off heals. That's as much as many entry-level raiding Holy Paladins have. So he could put that part of the talent to full use despite wearing DPS gear.<br /><br />In addition, while wearing his Ret gear, the boost he got from his AP would apply to his healing spells as well. Now, 700-800 spell damage doesn't seem like much until you realize that in WotLK they are doing away with +healing and +damage and everything is being rolled into one stat called Spell Power (as I mentioned above). For offensive spells, Spell Power will work like +damage did. For healing spells, Spell Power will give a much stronger boost, equaling the same boost +healing would give despite the lower number. Basically, wearing his Retribution gear, Horgrimm will be able to be a full DPSer, or in a pinch step back and start healing and be quite effective at it.</i><br /><br />Tier 6:<br /><b>Judgements of the Wise</b>: Your Judgement spells restore mana to up to 3 group or raid members totalling 20/40/60% of the damage caused.<br /><br /><i>Prior to the addition of Sheath of Light, this talent would have been of little value. Judgements' damage are based on Spell Power, and it was a stat that Retribution Paladins were sorely lacking. But now with Sheath of Light it's a strong utility talent and alone would justify the position of at least one Retribution Paladin in every raid. While this does replace the old talent Sanctified Judgement, I think it will end up being stronger since it scales with Spell Power, while Sanctified Judgement didn't.</i><br /><br />Tier 7:<br /><b>Repentance</b>: 9% of base mana - 20 yd range - Instant cast - 1 min cooldown - Puts the enemy target in a state of meditation, incapacitating them for up to 1 min. Any damage caused will awaken the target. Usable against Demons, Dragonkin, Giants, Humanoids and Undead.<br /><br /><i>Ret Paladins have CC? Say what? Repentance used to be primarily a form of PvP interrupt, with minor PvE utility. In WotLK it underwent a major overhaul. The downside is it's mana cost jumped up a lot and will scale with level. The upside is that it's duration and availalble targets were hugely expanded. Previously it was only usable against Humanoids, but with it's new list of targets, there are few things that cannot be CCed. As for it's duration, it used to last 6 seconds, now it lasts 1 minute (assuming no damage is done to it) to match it's cooldown. Congratulations, Ret Paladins!</i><br /><br /><b>Divine Purpose</b>: Reduces your chance to be hit by spells and ranged attacks by 1/2/3% and reduces the duration of movement slowing effects by 10/20/30%.<br /><br /><i>A PvP talent to be sure, and it was that way before the changes. Previously, it lowered the chance to be critically hit by melee and ranged attacks by 4/7/10%, which was quite useful prior to tBC. But with the wide spread availability of Resilience in level 70 PvP, such a talent loses a lot of it's luster. Instead what was crippling Retribution Paladins was any CC that slowed them and allowed their prey to get away. With this talent they can quickly shed such things and catch up and continue the beat down, not to mention giving them a small avoidance boost against ranged enemies.</i><br /><br />Tier 8:<br /><b>Fanaticism</b>: Increases the critical strike chance of all Judgements capable of a critical hit by 5/10/15/20/25% and reduces threat caused by all actions by 6/12/18/24/30% except when under the effects of Righteous Fury.<br /><br /><i>This talent is almost identical to it's tBC counterpart, with the only difference being the chance to crit on a Judgement being increased from 3/6/9/12/15% to it's current form. A straight buff right there.</i><br /><br /><b>Sanctified Wrath</b>: Increases the critical strike chance of Hammer of Wrath by 25/50%, reduces the cooldown of Avenging Wrath by 30/60 secs and while affected by Avenging Wrath 25/50% of all damage caused bypasses damage reduction effects.<br /><br /><i>The first new Retribution talent, it's quite a doozy. Increased crit chance on Hammer of Wrath (which will be stronger than ever now thanks to Sheath of Light) will make it quite the potent ability, while the buffs to Avenging Wrath will turn many Retribution Paladins into lean, mean fighting machines.</i><br /><br />Tier 9:<br /><b>Swift Retribution</b>: Your Retribution Aura also increases casting, ranged and melee attack speeds by 1/2/3%.<br /><br /><i>Another new talent, again, buffing Retribution Aura, making it <span style="text-decoration: underline;">the</span> aura to use for a Retribution Paladin.</i><br /><br /><b>The Art of War</b>: Your damaging Crusader Strikes have a 5/10/15% chance to cause your next Judgement spell to cause double damage.<br /><br /><i>This talent requires you to have picked up Crusader Strike before you can get it. Again, Sheath of Light shows it's value. With the new amounts of damage a Judgement can put out, double damage along with the potential to crit is a very large boost to a Retribution Paladin's damage.</i><br /><br />Tier 10:<br /><b>Righteous Vengeance</b>: Increases critical damage bonus of all attacks by 3/6/9/12/15%.<br /><br /><i>With all the crits going on all over the place as a Ret Paladin, this talent is just amazingly strong. What else is there to say?</i><br /><br />Tier 11:<br />Divine Storm: 12% of base mana - 5 yd range - Instant cast - 10 sec cooldown - Requires Melee Weapon - An instant weapon attack that causes Holy damage to up to 4 enemies within 8 yards. The Divine Storm heals up to 3 party or raid members totalling 20% of the damage caused.<br /><br /><i>The crowning achievement of the new Retribution tree. Whatever utility Retribution Paladins previously lacked, it will be gone with this ability, IMO. Much like Shadow Priests with their talented abilities, now Retribution Paladins can DPS and heal and restore mana all at the same time. While it will not be in the same values as a Shadow Priest can put out, what they lack in numbers they make up for in targets. A Shadow Priest is limited to his party, while the Ret Paladin can cover the entire raid. A major boost to Retribution Paladins everywhere.<br /><br /></i>Next up is the Holy tree.<br /><br />Tier 1:<br /><b>Spiritual Focus</b>: Gives your Flash of Light and Holy Light spells a 14/28/42/56/70% chance to not lose casting time when you take damage.<br /><br /><i>This talent has undergone no textual changes, but instead has changed locations. Previously the spot it inhabited was held by Divine Strength, but that talent has moved over to the Protection tree, and this talent has moved up from Tier 2 to Tier 1 to replace it.</i><br /><br /><b>Seals of the Pure</b>: Increases the damage done by your Seal of Righteousness, Seal of Vengeance and Seal of Corruption and their Judgement effects by 3/6/9/12/15%.<br /><br /><i>This talent used to be Improved Seal of Righteousness, but was changed to include Seal of Vengeance and Seal of Corruption (the Horde equivalent of SoV). In addition it was moved from Tier 2 to Tier 1, swapping places with Divine Intellect. For tanks and Paladins leveling as Holy, this talent is a nice choice since either of the options it boosts for the given Paladin are strongly reliant on Spell Power and will get a decent boost from this talent and the talents innate in the tree of the player's choice.</i><br /><br />Tier 2:<br /><b>Healing Light</b>: Increases the amount healed by your Holy Light, Flash of Light and the effectiveness of Holy Shock spells by 4/8/12%.<br /><br /><i>Much like the talents on the previous tier, this talent moved up one, going from Tier 3 to Tier 2. This will make it available sooner for leveling Holy Paladins, increasing their utility in early instances. In addition, it has been expanded to also boost the power of Holy Shock. I'm not 100% certain if that only applies to it's healing efficiency or it's damage output as well. If the latter, this is a very valuable tool to Shockadins.</i><br /><br /><b>Divine Intellect</b>: Increases your total Intellect by 3/6/9/12/15%.<br /><br /><i>As I mentioned previously, this talent moved from Tier 1 to Tier 2. In addition, it's previous percentile modifier was increased from 2/4/6/8/10% to it's current value, giving Holy Paladins a nice buff, both to their mana pools and their crit chance.</i><br /><br /><b>Unyielding Faith</b>: Reduces the duration of all Fear and Disorient effects by 15/30%.<br /><br /><i>First the more obvious change on this talent. Previously it increased the chance to resist Fear and Disorient effect by 5/10%, now it decreases the duration of these effects by a lot more. Quite a nice change, since it's always works as opposed to chance to resist which is only percentile. Plus lowered duration means it's faster until you become immune to the CC effect.<br /><br />Also, much like the other talents I've mentioned this one got moved from Tier 3 to Tier 2. I'm now going to go into detail on why I think certain talents were moved to where they were. By having the Spiritual Focus, Healing Light, and Unyielding Faith talents all available in the first two tiers, it gives a level 19 Holy Paladin decent healing and access to vital PvP talents.</i><br /><br />Tier 3:<br /><b>Illumination</b>: After getting a critical effect from your Flash of Light, Holy Light, or Holy Shock heal spell, gives you a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to gain mana equal to 60% of the base cost of the spell.<br /><br /><i>Talent remains unchanged from it's pre-WotLK counterpart, but it's moved up one tier from 4 to 3. The only reason I can figure for this is because with all the other talents moved around, Tier 3 was left with too few talents for a single tier and this was an easy move.</i><br /><br /><b>Improved Lay on Hands</b>: Gives the target of your Lay on Hands spell a 25/50% bonus to their armor value from items for 15 sec. In addition, the cooldown for your Lay on Hands spell is reduced by 2/4 min.<br /><br /><i>First off an overview of the changes. The old bonus was a 15/30% bonus for 2 minutes, and the cooldown reduction was 10/20 minutes. Now, to truly appreciate how amazing this talent has become, one must understand how awesome the core spell has become. The new Lay on Hands no longer costs all of a Paladin's mana, and has a cooldown of 20 minutes as a base effect. While it still restores 100% of the Paladins health and some mana (max rank is currently 1950 mana). Now being able to give an armor boost along with not draining all of the mana and having a cooldown makes this spell a real "Oh Crap" button for a Protection Paladin and an amazing fast, powerful heal for a Holy Paladin.</i><br /><br />Tier 4:<br /><b>Improved Concentration Aura</b>: Increases the effect of your Concentration Aura by an additional 5/10/15% and reduces the duration of any Silence or Interrupt effect used against an affected group member by 10/20/30%. The duration reduction does not stack with any other effects.<br /><br /><i>This talent used to be in the 4th tier of the Protection tree, but normally the only people who would pick it up were Holy Paladins. Instead of putting it up high in another tree, Blizzard listened to the player base and moved it where those who needed it could access it easily.</i><br /><br />Tier 5:<br /><b>Pure of Heart</b>: Reduces the duration of Curse and Disease effects by 25/50%.<br /><br /><i>Similar to Unyielding Faith, but this one applies to Curses and Diseases. Used to increase chance to resist both. Major PvP talent. Due to both of those effects not having diminishing returns on many of them, and because this talent is deeper in the Holy Tree I believe it was made stronger. In it's old incarnation, it was next to useless because diseases were next to non-existent in PvP and a Warlock could easily recast a resisted curse. Lowering their duration is very powerful and it gives a Holy Paladin much more survivability against both, since diseases can be stacked (thus hard for a Paladin to cleanse) and they can't remove curses at all, other than with Divine Shield.</i><br /><br /><b>Sanctified Light</b>: Increases the critical effect chance of your Holy Light and Holy Shock spells by 2/4/6%.<br /><br /><i>This talent was increased to also include Holy Shock in addition to Holy Light. This makes both Sanctified Light and Holy Power potent offensive and restorative talents. A welcome change to Shockadins everywhere.</i><br /><br /><b>Blessed Hands</b>: Reduces the mana cost and increases the resistance to Dispel effects of all Hand spells by 15/30%.<br /><br /><i>The first new talent for Holy Paladins, this is primarily a PvP talent, where being able to dispel or purge Hand of Freedom or Hand of Protection in arena is a killer. Honestly, none of them have overly large mana costs, so that's not a major selling point in PvE, but it is still helpful (especially since Holy Paladins will commonly be tasked with hitting the person who's highest on threat with Hand of Salvation).</i><br /><br />Tier 6:<br />Unchanged.<br /><br />Tier 7:<br /><b>Holy Shock</b>: Rank 7 - 650 Mana - 20 yd range - Instant cast - 6 sec cooldown - Blasts the target with Holy energy, causing 1296 to 1402 Holy damage to an enemy, or 1431 to 1549 healing to an ally.<br /><br /><i>First, and most obvious change, is that it's had it's cooldown lowered from 15 seconds to 6 seconds. This alone doesn't make Holy Shock worth it, but it was one of the longstanding problems with it as a reliable healing spell. But when you combine it with the fact that the healing effect has had it's ranged extended (to 40 yards even though it's unlisted as an effect) and the amount healed has been strongly buffed, it makes Holy Shock a very viable tool for healing.</i><br /><br />Tier 8:<br /><b>Infusion of Light</b>: Your Holy Shock critical hits reduce the cast time of your next Holy Light spell by 1.25/2.5 secs.<br /><br /><i>This is what really legitimizes Holy Shock as not just a gimmicked Holy Paladin spell, but a real useful tool. Every time the cooldown is up, I expect a Holy Paladin will throw a Holy Shock until this effect procs. And without a listed duration, this effect is probably permanent until you cast Holy Light, making it a strong power to be used.</i><br /><br />Tier 9:<br /><b>Sacred Cleansing</b>: Your Cleanse spell has a 10/20/30% chance to increase the target's resistance to Disease, Magic and Poison by 30% for 10 sec.<br /><br /><i>I'm not really sure what was the intent of this one. I mean, it has utility in both PvE (if you're cleansing an effect, it will probably be cast again soon) and PvP (if you cleanse an effect, the person who put it up will probably reapply it). I'm just not sure of it's value. I'll leave it up to an actual healer to let me know the real value of this talent.</i><br /><br /><b>Enlightened Judgements</b>: Increases the range of your Judgement spells by 10/20 yards.<br /><br /><i>This is half of the major change of Holy Paladin mechanics. One of the major complaints of Holy Paladins is they just stand there and heal. They have next to no ranged damage abilities, and really getting into melee range to melee while healing is far too dangerous. This gives a Holy Paladin the ability to stand back and do a small burst of damage every 8-10 seconds, allowing them to contribute more than just some healing. Also the range matches perfectly with the range of Holy Shock, and along with the new cooldown of Holy Shock, I'm sure it makes Shockadins quite happy in their pants.</i><br /><br />Tier 10:<br /><b>Judgements of the Pure</b>: Your Judgement spells increase your casting and melee haste by 2/4/6/8/10% for 30 sec.<br /><br /><i>Here's the other half of the major change. Not only can a Holy Paladin contribute to DPS... they <span style="text-decoration: underline;">should</span> contribute to DPS in order to make them better healers. If they aren't actively going out and casting a Judgement every 25 seconds or so, their healing potential will actually drop. It's an interesting change of pace for the Holy Paladin, and I'm sure quite welcome.</i><br /><br />Tier 11:<br /><b>Beacon of Light</b>: Rank 5 - 2330 Mana - 40 yd range - 1.5 sec cast - The target becomes a Beacon of Light, healing all party or raid members within 10 yards for 2000 over 15 sec.<br /><br /><i>With a fast cast time, long range, no cooldown, ability to heal the entire raid, and the fact that there's no waiting to put a circle in it's place, Beacon of Light could easily find itself as one of the more powerful AOE healing spells in the game. A welcome breather to the monotony of Flash of Light spam (though it's not the only new healing spell Paladins are getting, though the details on the other one isn't fully clarified other than it will be a single charge version of Prayer of Mending).</i><br /><br />Finally, we come to the Protection tree. Unlike the two previous trees there is not a lot of increased hybridization. Prot Paladins still will have a lot of life, very little mana, and their heals won't be fantastic. But the big change comes in the form of their gear and it undergoing a massive change. But I'm getting ahead of myself. All will become clear in time.<br /><br />Tier 1:<br /><b>Divine Strength</b>: Increases your total Strength by 3/6/9/12/15%.<br /><br /><i>Moved from the Holy Tree (why was it there in the first place?) to the Protection tree. First impulse upon seeing this: Why is it there? But after looking over the rest of the tree, I've realized Blizzard's intent, and it's perfectly placed, but again, I'm getting ahead of myself. Also it's been buffed from 2/4/6/8/10% to it's current form.</i><br /><br /><b>Anticipation</b>: Increases your chance to dodge by 1/2/3/4/5%.<br /><br /><i>Moved from Tier 3 to Tier 1, this talent has gone through a major change. Previously it boosted Defense by 4/8/12/16/20 points, it now increases your chance to dodge. While this version gives more total avoidance (5% as opposed to 2.4% avoidance and 0.8% chance to block) Defense gave a faster way to reach uncrittable, and gave some addition chance to be missed, which is always active even if you were knocked down.</i><br /><br />Tier 2:<br /><b>Stoicism</b>: Reduces the duration of all Stun effects by an additional 10/20/30% and reduces the chance your spells will be dispelled by an additional 10/20/30%.<br /><br /><i>Moved from Tier 4 to Tier 2, replacing Precision (not sure if it was rolled into the class or just completely removed), making Stoicism more accessible to players who want to stack more points in their primary tree, or for people who want to pick up both Stoicism and Unyielding Faith. Obviously primarily a PvP talent, this one has been changed from 2 ranks to 3, and had it's previous chance to be stunned changed to lower stun duration. A very good investment for any PvPing Paladin.</i><br /><br /><b>Redoubt</b>: Requires Shields - Damaging melee and ranged attacks against you have a 10% chance to increase your chance to block by 6/12/18/24/30%. Lasts 10 sec or 5 blocks.<br /><br /><i>This talent remains unchanged from it's pre-WotLK form, save that it was moved up from Tier 1 to Tier 2. This is a welcome change because previously you had to either pick Improved Devo Aura (worthless talent) or Redoubt (worthless save for it opening up Shield Specialization). Now this wasn't a huge deal for most Prot Paladins, because they were going to get Shield Spec anyway, but for Ret and Holy Paladins it was just filler points to get to the good stuff after. By making Tier 1 and Tier 2 have other viable options, it's not as bad to get there.<br /><br />Addendum: Every Prot Paladin worth his salt really will want this talent now, if for no other reason than to open up Shield Spec. One of the new spells added to Paladins in WotLK is <a href="http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?spell=53600" target="_blank">Shield of Righteousness</a>, which is basically a Holy damage version of Shield Slam, including it's damage being based upon Shield Block Value. This is not a talented spell, which means it will be available to all talent builds, making it an amazing spell for MTs and OTs alike. A great addition to the class in general, and not just Prot Paladins.</i><br /><br />Tier 3:<br /><b>Improved Righteous Fury</b>: While Righteous Fury is active, all damage taken is reduced by 2/4/6%.<br /><br /><i>Previously this talent boosted your threat generated when RF was active from 60% to 90%, and gave the above listed effect. With WotLK, they rolled the bonus threat into the baseline spell, making it always generate 90% additional threat from Holy damage, and this talent is only really needed by the Raiding Main Tanks, and not anyone who wants to tank decently at all. This is a welcome change, IMO because it allows Ret (and in some cases Holy) Paladins the ability to either be a MT for a 5-man, or quickly pop up RF and throw themselves at a mob if the MT goes down, potentially saving the run.</i><br /><br /><b>Toughness</b>: Increases your armor value from items by 2/4/6/8/10%.<br /><br /><i>Moved up from Tier 2 to Tier 3, this talent remains unchanged. If I had to guess why they moved it was to fill out this tier for the PvP who wanted stuff from the fourth tier, but didn't want any of the other PvE centric talents.</i><br /><br />Tier 4:<br /><b>Divine Guardian</b>: While Divine Shield is active 15/30% of all damage taken by party or raid members within 30 yards is redirected to the Paladin.<br /><br /><i>The first new Protection talent, it is a very interesting talent, this has amazing potential for a Holy Paladin, any PvP Paladin, and an OTing Raiding Prot Paladin. This one truly epitomizes the idea of the Paladin sacrificing himself or herself for the good of their allies.</i><br /><br /><b>Improved Hammer of Justice</b>: Decreases the cooldown of your Hammer of Justice spell by 10/20/30 sec.<br /><br /><i>This talent received a hefty boost in WotLK, doubling the cooldown reduction from 5/10/15 sec to it's above listed form. Hammer of Justice currently maintains it's 60 second cooldown without this talent, so with it one will be able to stun every 30 seconds. A marked improvement in ability. PvP Paladins everywhere rejoice.</i><br /><br /><b>Improved Devotion Aura</b>: Increases the armor bonus of your Devotion Aura by 17/34/50% and increases the amount healed on any target affected by Devotion Aura by 1/2/3%.<br /><br /><i>Improved Devotion Aura moved up from Tier 1 to Tier 4, replacing Improved Concentration Aura. It also went through a major overhaul, going from 5 ranks to 3, having the armor bonus boosted from 40% to 50%, which still is very little, but is a much more reasonable boost considering it is only 3 talent points now. Those changes alone might not have been enough to justify it's acquisition, but it also received the interesting effect of boosting the healing of any target effected by it by up to 3%. With Paladin Auras now affecting an entire raid, this makes Improved Devotion Aura a must-have for every Protection Paladin.</i><br /><br />Tier 5:<br />Unchanged.<br /><br />Tier 6:<br />Unchanged.<br /><br />Tier 7:<br /><b>Holy Shield</b>: Rank 6 - 280 Mana - Instant cast - 8 sec cooldown - Requires Shields - Increases chance to block by 30% for 10 sec and deals 211 Holy damage for each attack blocked while active. Damage caused by Holy Shield causes 35% additional threat. Each block expends a charge. 4 charges.<br /><br /><i>Now, beyond the obvious change of increasing Holy Shield's damage to make up for the loss of Judgement of the Crusader, Holy Shield had it's cooldown lowered from 10 seconds to 8. I'm not complaining about this because against large amounts of monsters it means more HS uptime, and it means HS will never be down against raid bosses. But it does kinda sting that they are putting this in the game only after Protection Paladins no longer need it. Holy Shield was the means for a Protection Paladin to reach uncrushable status, but in WotLK, raid bosses will not crush at all. So the ability to keep HS up full time is no longer needed. It's not bad, just wish they had done it sooner.</i><br /><br />Tier 8:<br />Unchanged.<br /><br />Tier 9:<br /><b>Touched by the Light</b>: Increases your spell power by an amount equal to 10/20/30% of your Stamina and increases the amount healed by your critical heals by 10/20/30%.<br /><br /><i>The counterpart to the Retribution talent Sheath of Light, this talent is actually the real cornerstone of the changes to the Protection tree. One of the longstanding problems with Protection Paladins is there are a lot of tanking pieces with a lot of stamina and few pieces with spell damage. In tBC this wasn't such a huge issue because Blizzard needed to make separate tanking gear for each of the three tanking classes. But with Death Knights coming in WotLK and them sharing tanking gear with Warriors, it seems silly to make an entire set of gear for just one role when you could shift their abilities and stats to be more in line with the other two classes.<br /><br />Now, when I thought about this, I went to Warcrafter.net and did the math. Fully raid buffed, Alixander has around 1551 Stamina, and 30% of that is 465 spell damage. To make clear, right now I have 446 spell damage. Pretty much, if this talent was already in the game, I wouldn't need a spell damage weapon, or a spell damage shield or any gear with any spell damage on it at all. I could focus on Stamina, avoidance, Block Value, +hit and expertise just like Warriors do.<br /><br />Now, another way of seeing things is with this talent one could stack even more spell damage than before and be a veritable beast of threat generation, but there's more to this change than meets the eye. I can't detail it yet, but once I get to the final talent, all will be made clear. Simply put, this changes the entire setup of Protection Paladins everywhere, meaning a start over from the ground up and I'm behind it 100%.<br /><br />Oh yeah, and so I don't forget it, the bonus to crit heals is a wonderful addition to hybridization of Protection Paladins, allowing them to easily assist with healing if needed. Plus the bonus Spell Power when a Prot Paladin is wearing Spell Power plate to heal with will be simply fantastic.</i><br /><br /><b>Avenger's Shield</b>: Rank 5 - 1745 Mana - 30 yd range - 0.5 sec cast - 30 sec cooldown - Requires Shields - Hurls a holy shield at the enemy, dealing 705 to 861 Holy damage, Dazing them and then jumping to additional nearby enemies. Affects 3 total targets. Lasts 10 sec.<br /><br /><i>Again, like Holy Shield, Avenger's Shield had it's damage range improved to make up for the loss of JotC. In addition AS had it's daze duration expanded from 6 seconds to 10, and it's casting time lowered from 1 second to .5 seconds meaning it could more easily be used in PvP, to snare runners, or to recast mid-combat for a quick threat boost. All around good changes here, IMO.</i><br /><br /><b>Guarded by the Light</b>: Whenever you parry or dodge an attack you have a 10/20% chance to reduce the mana cost of your next Consecration, Holy Wrath or Avenger's Shield spell by 25/50%.<br /><br /><i>A wonderful talent for Prot Paladins tasked to tank multiple mobs at one time. With more and more mobs it means a greater chance to parry or dodge. This translates to having Guarded by the Light proc very frequently. Considering how often a AOE tanking Paladin will be dropping Consecration, and how costly the ability is, this is simply amazing! A must-have for any raiding Prot Paladin.</i><br /><br />Tier 10:<br /><b>Shield of the Templar</b>: Increases the damage and reduces the mana cost of your Holy Shield, Avenger's Shield and Shield of Righteousness spells by 5/10/15%.<br /><br /><i>Quite a helpful talent, improving single target and group threat generation along with allowing better mana efficiency, which is quite a problem once you overgear an encounter. While this talent isn't a must-have, it's certainly well worth the investment.</i><br /><br /><b>Judgements of the Just</b>: Your Judgement spells also reduce the melee attack speed of the target by 10/20%.<br /><br /><i>Another of the longstanding problems for Prot Paladins is that it's not an illusion... we do take more damage normally, than warriors. At first many said it was the difference between Defensive Stance and Improved RF (10% damage reduction vs. 6%), but that wouldn't account for the numbers we would see.<br /><br />Eventually one of our own put it together: Thunder Clap and Improved Thunder Clap. It would give a slowing effect of 20% to all white attacks from raid bosses. This would account for around 10-15% less damage a Warrior would see than a Paladin who didn't have a Warrior dropping TC on their bosses. And it was a problem for DPSing Warriors, because TC is not available in Berserker stance, meaning a Warrior would need to hop over to Battle, and do TC every 30 seconds, then hop back. Or even worse, do the entire battle in Battle Stance, which meant more threat and less damage. Of course, not to mention that TC would generate additional threat, which Warriors do not have a way to dump.<br /><br />Well now those days are over. With Judgements of the Just, a Paladin can get the same slowing effects that a Warrior has without forcing a Warrior to be in Battle Stance. While Thunder Clap is still the better option when slowing down large groups of players, this talent allows us to do it on our own. Another use is if a Protection Paladin is DPSing and a Warrior is tanking, the Warrior won't have to waste rage on TC, if the Protection Paladin is keeping a Judgement up.</i><br /><br />Tier 11:<br /><b>Hammer of the Righteous</b>: 6% of base mana - 5 yd range - Instant cast - 6 sec cooldown - Requires One-Handed Melee Weapon - Hammer the current target and up to 2 additional nearby targets, causing 100% of weapon damage as Holy damage. This ability causes high threat.<br /><br /><i>This is the final piece of the puzzle we need to show exactly the extent of the changes Blizzard is intending for Protection Paladins in WotLK. The first piece was really Guarded by the Light, which showed a method for Protection Paladins to still use Consecration, Exorcism, Holy Wrath, Holy Shield, and Avenger's Shield effectively without a lot of Spell Power.<br /><br />The second piece was Seal of the Martyr being made available to the Alliance, meaning both factions would have a Seal that procced on every swing and dealt Holy Damage based off weapon damage. This means both sides can get away with using high damage weapons and STR instead of needing to use Spell Power weapons.<br /><br />Thirdly was Divine Strength being put in the Protection tree and not the Retribution tree. When I first saw this, it made little sense, but once I put the pieces together, I very much understood Blizzard's goal.<br /><br />The final piece was this ability. A Protection-only Holy Damage ability which used white damage and not Spell Power as a base. To properly get maximum mileage out of this talent, one needs to have a lot of STR, and a high damage weapon.<br /><br />One of my only real issues with being a Protection Paladin was that while I was a front-liner, swinging my weapon to help my allies, the actual swinging of my weapon always felt hollow. I was only using a sword or a hammer because it allowed my spells to do more damage. Now that's no longer true. In WotLK, Protection Paladins will use high DPS tanking swords and swing them to do damage, not just to have their seals proc.<br /><br />In the end, I believe Blizzard's goal is for Protection Paladins to move away from Spell Power weapons and plate, and to embrace high STA weapons and armor that also have +hit, +expertise, avoidance stats, and <span style="text-decoration: underline;">STR</span> on them. This is looking like what they also intend for Warrior and Death Knight tanks. Simply put, there will only be one setup for a plate wearing tank, instead of having one set for each class. Maybe there will be some Spell Power on the tiered set, but that will be all. Other than the Paladin Tiered set (and maybe not even there), expect Prot Paladins to stack STR and STA as their two core stats.<br /><br />Personal note: With all this explained, I can also say that one of the reasons I was looking forward to DK tanking was it was a tank that used it's weapon for damage and not just for spell casting. With these changes in Protection Paladin tanking, I'm not sure if I will swap my DK to my main anymore. I'll still try it out, but in the end I'm just not sure. Instead I'll try both and see how it comes out. I'm very excited by these changes and can't wait to see them in-game.<br /><br /></i>The next part I'm going to touch on either new abilities I haven't mentioned before, or changes to existing abilities that I didn't mention in my review of the talents.<br /><br /><b>Avenging Wrath</b>: 8% of base mana - Instant cast - 3 min cooldown - Increases all damage and healing caused by 20% for 20 sec.<br /><br /><i>First thing almost every Paladin will notice is that Avenging Wrath no longer causes Forbearance. This is not a typo, Blizzard did change this. As a counterbalance to that, they also lowered the percent bonus from 30% to 20%. While this is a bummer, it's well worth it to me, because it means that we can use it every time it's up and not worry about when we use Divine Shield. Also, Avenging Wrath has been changed to also increase healing as well as damage by 20% when it's used. Holy Paladins now have a reason to have this on their quick bar. Finally, with AW not causing Forbearance, a PvP Paladin can pop wings, then bubble themselves and not have to worry about it being stolen or purged. This is a great day for Paladins of every spec.</i><br /><br /><b>Sacred Shield</b>: 35 Mana - 40 yd range - Instant cast - Each time the target takes damage they gain a Sacred Shield, absorbing 500 damage. They cannot gain this effect more than once every 6 seconds.<br /><br /><i>A level 80 Holy Paladin spell (non-talented), the details on this are really sketchy. Duration? Can it be cast on multiple targets? Does it scale with Spell Power? Can it be cast on self (for Protection Paladins)? All of these are unknown. But it looks interesting, eh?</i><br /><br /><b>Hammer of Wrath</b>: - Rank 6 - 615 Mana - 30 yd range - 0.5 sec cast - 6 sec cooldown - Hurls a hammer that strikes an enemy for 1140 to 1260 Holy damage. Only usable on enemies that have 35% or less health.<br /><br /><i>Interesting to note that the health range that Hammer of Wrath can be used upon has been expanded from 20% to 35%. What is even more interesting is that the same treatment has <span style="text-decoration: underline;">not</span> been given to Execute or any other talents or abilities which target "weakened" enemies.</i><br /><br /><b>Turn Evil</b>: 9% of base mana - 20 yd range - 1.5 sec cast - The targeted undead or demon enemy will be compelled to flee for up to 20 sec. Damage caused may interrupt the effect. Only one target can be turned at a time.<br /><br /><i>Interesting not because it's changed (other than the mana cost), but because it's available at 24, when you get the original version of Turn Undead, which only works for 10 seconds. Maybe they will add more ranks later, but right now there's only a single rank that works on Demons and Undead and causesthem to flee for 20 seconds.<br /><br />Worthwhile addendum: If you use Judgement of Justice then Turn Evil on a demon or undead they will just stand there, unable to flee, but unable to fight. Enjoy.</i><br /><br /><b>Seal of Wisdom</b>: 14% of base mana - Instant cast - Fills the Paladin with divine wisdom for 30 sec, giving each melee attack a chance to restore some of the Paladin's mana. Only one Seal can be active on the Paladin at any one time.<br /><br />Unleashing this Seal's energy will judge an enemy for 20 sec, granting attacks and spells used against the judged enemy a chance to restore mana to the attacker. Your melee strikes will refresh the spell's duration. Only one Judgement per Paladin can be active at any one time.<br /><br /><b>Seal of Light</b>: 14% of base mana - Instant cast - Fills the Paladin with divine light for 30 sec, giving each melee attack a chance to heal the Paladin. Only one Seal can be active on the Paladin at any one time.<br /><br />Unleashing this Seal's energy will damage an enemy and grant melee attacks made against the judged enemy a chance of healing the attacker. Your melee strikes will refresh the spell's duration. Only one Judgement per Paladin can be active at any one time.<br /><br /><i>Seals of Light and Wisdom are both no longer given multiple ranks, and are being reduced to percent of base mana costs. While is true for every other Seal, Seals of Light and Wisdom get special notice because this could signify a change in how they work. It's a probable guess that their base mana and health recovered will scale with level, but they could also possibly scale with the caster's Spell Power, meaning that as the caster becomes more powerful, so will the Seals and Judgements. A nice possibility.<br /><br />Also worth touching on is that all of the damaging seals are also getting this treatment. Seals and Judgements of Righteousness, Command, Blood, Vengeance, the Martyr, and Corruption all appear to now scale with level and Spell Power or Weapon Damage. It will be nice to always have a Seal be as powerful as it can be with every level. This will make leveling a Paladin much easier.</i><br /><br /><b>Righteous Defense</b>: 40 yd range - Instant - 15 sec cooldown - Come to the defense of a friendly target, commanding up to 3 enemies attacking the target to attack the Paladin instead.<br /><br /><i>None of the actual mechanics of the spell have changed, but Blizzard was nice enough to realize that this is our only taunt, and despite it being multi-target, having it cost mana is just stupid, considering that Bears and Warriors don't need to pay rage for Taunt or Growl. Thank you Blizzard for not making Paladins have to pay for what should have been a free ability from the get go.</i><br /><br />======<br /><br />The last portion will be for some prospective talent builds that could be used in WotLK once we're all 80.<br /><br /><b>Holy:</b><br />Raiding Holy/Ret: 56/0/15: <a href="http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sxA0gGzGVuMxRtZE00x" target="_blank">http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sxA0gGzGVuMxRtZE00x</a><br />With the usual gamut of talents in the Holy tree, but picking up the awesome tag-team combo of Enlightened Judgements and Judgements of the Pure means that Benediction is a must-have. And with Conviction now giving a crit bonus to spells and melee, it's a welcome addition, boosting a Holy Paladin's crit up an additional 5%. While one could pick up Improved Judgements, since the primary reason to get Judgements of the Pure is for the haste buff, which lasts 30 seconds.<br /><br />Raiding Holy/Prot: 54/17/0: <a href="http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sxA0gGzhVuMxRtVGz0T" target="_blank">http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sxA0gGzhVuMxRtVGz0T</a><br />This talent gives up some of the additional offensive and critting options of the Holy/Ret build to have increased survivability and more raid-wide utility through Divine Guardian and Blessing of Kings. Optionally one can drop three points from somewhere to pick up Improved Devotion Aura for those in the back row, since otherwise it will mostly be gotten by Protection Paladins and if you're either lacking one or too far away, it would be a nice boost to healing.<br /><br />PvP Holy: 51/20/0: <a href="http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sxGbghdGVzMxRxVGz0Th" target="_blank">http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sxGbghdGVzMxRxVGz0Th</a><br />Beacon of Light is an amazing PvE spell, but is much more lacking in PvP where it could be easily dispelled, wasting mana and cast time. Instead by focusing more on survivability and offense, PvP Holy Paladins can support their allies and defend themselves as needed. The addition of Enlightened Judgements to the Holy tree gives Holy Paladins a effective new offensive option at their disposal.<br /><br />Shockadin: 53/0/18: <a href="http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sVAbg0dGizMxRxZVf0xh" target="_blank">http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sVAbg0dGizMxRxZVf0xh</a><br />Many of the changes to the Holy tree have turned it from a gimmicky PvP DPSer into the real deal. The obvious addition of Enlightened Judgements combined with Holy Shock's damage version range means a Shockadin no longer needs to approach their target to do maximum damage. Judgement of Righteousness plus Holy Shock, with enough Spell Power will be a potent combo at a 20 yard range.<br /><br /><b>Protection:</b><br />Main Tank Prot/Ret: 0/59/12: <a href="http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sZx0tIxckMgqeRGoVbx" target="_blank">http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sZx0tIxckMgqeRGoVbx</a><br />This build focuses on survivability and threat generation. While there are some other talents I could pick up, like Anticipation or Pursuit of Justice, I chose to aim for where I did since I believe it's the most effective use of my available talents. It also keeps it's options broad in that it can effectively AOE tank and Single-Target tank.<br /><br />Main Tank Prot/Holy: 17/54/0: <a href="http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sxG0gZV0tcgcdMgoeRGo" target="_blank">http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sxG0gZV0tcgcdMgoeRGo</a><br />This one sacrifices survival and threat generation to have greater healing potential when they aren't needed to tank bosses. By picking up Healing Light, Illumination, and Improved Lay on Hands, a Paladin can vastly improve his healing potential without crippling his survival and threat generation (the loss of the 5% parry in tBC was really hard to make up for when being uncrushable was a concern).<br /><br />Off-Tank Prot: 0/59/12: <a href="http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sZE0tcgcdMgoeRGoVbx" target="_blank">http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sZE0tcgcdMgoeRGoVbx</a><br />Despite the same numbers in each talent tree as Main Tank Prot/Ret, this build is fairly different. With the addition of more single-target non-reactive threat generating abilities Prot Paladins can more easily fill the role of Off-tank without relying on Mana Pots. This build sacrifices some of the major single-target damage reduction talents to pick up more avoidance (to work with Guarded by the Light) for when they are tasked to off-tank multiple adds (a common setup in bigger raids). It doesn't sacrifice anything in threat generation, so it will be able to keep up in that regard.<br /><br />AOE grinding Prot/Ret: 0/54/17: <a href="http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sZE0xcx0zggoeRhoVfx00b" target="_blank">http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sZE0xcx0zggoeRhoVfx00b</a><br />This spec is for a 5-man tank that has great potential for AOE grinding. Reckoning is amazing when you have low avoidance (i.e. prior to starting to raid) and Guarded by the Light will make it easier than ever to take on large amounts of enemies for easy money.<br /><br />PvP Prot: 20/51/0: <a href="http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sxhbghZxGtcghzMxoeoho" target="_blank">http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sxhbghZxGtcghzMxoeoho</a><br />PvP Prot? What? Well, between vastly expanding Prot's DD options and making it more healer friendly with Touched by the Light, Prot has had the potential of being a PvP spec added to it. Avenger's Shield has always been a powerful option in PvP, made moreso by it's lowered cast time and increased daze duration. Hammer of the Righteous will be a powerful tool since it's damage is based weapon damage, but it's damage is Holy thus not mitigated by armor. Shield of Righteousness will be no slacker either with it being Holy Damage as well. While maybe not as powerful as Ret, it will make up for it with a high amount of survivability.<br /><br /><b>Retribution:</b><br />Deep Ret Raiding: 0/7/64: <a href="http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sZxMZEf0x0fuAIoguAo" target="_blank">http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sZxMZEf0x0fuAIoguAo</a><br />Picking up almost every worthwhile talent in the Ret tree, this build can put out some amazing damage with a some nice extra utility. It may lack some utility that other Ret builds will have from the other trees, but it's damage is second to none for Paladins. Also, this applies to all Raiding Ret trees: I don't take Seal of Command because Seal of Blood/the Martyr will probably be better.<br /><br />Raiding Ret/Prot OT: 0/19/52: <a href="http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sZx0tcxZVf0x0fuAhoxuqo" target="_blank">http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sZx0tcxZVf0x0fuAhoxuqo</a><br />What this talent build lacks in damage and utility, it makes up by being able to easily switch roles and provide Blessing of Kings. By taking Shield Specialization, a Ret Paladin will be able to strongly boost the power of Shield of Righteousness, and picking up Toughness will allow them to maximize their survivability when tanking.<br /><br />Raiding Ret/Holy: 20/0/51: <a href="http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sxA0gZZVf0x0fuAhoxuVo" target="_blank">http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sxA0gZZVf0x0fuAhoxuVo</a><br />Moving the previously stated talent points from Prot to Holy deprives a Ret of the nice STR boost of 15%, but opens up a lot more healing possibilities. Illumination is the cornerstone of any Paladin's healing arsenal, giving unmatched longevity. Divine Intellect will boost the mana pool of the Retribution Paladin, making him able to last longer in some of the more lengthy fights.<br /><br />PvP Ret: 10/10/51: <a href="http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sxhbZxGZVfcth0hAcsMzNo" target="_blank">http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sxhbZxGZVfcth0hAcsMzNo</a><br />Picking up key PvP talents up through the Ret tree, it goes deep enough into both the Holy and Prot tree to get some nice talents there. From the Holy tree it grabs Spiritual Focus and Healing Light for some quick healing when needed, and Unyielding Faith to decrease the power of enemy Fears. From the Prot tree, Divine Strength's acquisition was obvious, and Stoicism and Guardian's Favor bring strong benefits to any Arena or Battleground.<br /><br />PvP Ret/Prot: 0/20/51: <a href="http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sZxG00ghZVfcth0hAcsMzNo" target="_blank">http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=sZxG00ghZVfcth0hAcsMzNo</a><br />Dropping the talents in the Holy tree, this build dives deeper into the Prot tree to get Improved Hammer of Justice and Divine Guardian. Imp HoJ is very standard fare for a PvP Paladin, doubling (or more depending on the set bonuses from the PvP sets) the amount of times per minute that they can use HoJ. Divine Guardian has great potential in PvP since it can allow a lightly clothed player to survive a barrage by one group as the Ret Paladin runs through the enemy front-line unopposed behind his or her bubble.<br /><br />====<br /><br />Of course the talent builds I listed aren't the only options, nor are any of the changes I've talked about final. But this should give you an idea of some of the changes in store for Paladins of all shapes and sizes. I know I'm excited about them.<br /><br />=====<br /><br />Oh yeah, and a minor note that doesn't deserve it's own post: According to Wowhead, Death and Decay has been made an instant cast. I'm pleased as Punch.Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-27339444444560812902008-07-08T19:42:00.001-07:002008-07-08T22:45:00.647-07:00What the bloody hell...?<div style="text-align: justify;">Okay, I'm sure right about now everyone's wondering what in seven hells happened to me. "Kaziel!" you might say, "You said you'd be back to making regular posts now that you had a new job. It's been two *honk*ing months, and you've only posted three things, and nothing in the last month!" You would be right, and for this I am somewhat apologetic. I'm sorry because I've had a bunch of ideas popping around in my mind, but I've been too busy with other stuff to work on my Blog. While I'm not going to say I'm back, I am going to try to post a little more frequently. You see, my previous job kinda fell through (rather not talk about it) so since I had little reason to stay in Washington DC and a ton of reasons to leave and go to California, I did. For approximately the last month I've been prepping and moving from there to here, and here I finally am, happy and content if not a little (read: A LOT) hot.<br /><br />Side note: If you're wondering why I titled my post like I was born in England, I have not, in fact, lost my mind. Instead have been watching too much <a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation">Zero Punctuation</a>, a brilliant and scathing review show by an Englishman living in Australia. While it rarely touches MMOs (or as he calls them "<span id="intelliTXT">Mumorpugers" which seems like an ideal way to describe MMOs if you hate them), everything else is amazingly funny, in some cases making me laugh so hard I simultaneously cried and snorted (yes, snorted). If you are unfamiliar with a given show, give it a gander over at the Wikipedia then dive right in.</span><br /><span id="intelliTXT"></span><br /><span id="intelliTXT">Anyway, as for the huge Death Knight post I was planning on writing, to hell with that. While there is a ton of useful information out there about Death Knights, all of it's changing so often, I might as well try to describe the crashing of the waves onto a beach for you.</span><br /><span id="intelliTXT"></span><br /><span id="intelliTXT">There are only really three things worth posting about for Death Knights.</span><br /><span id="intelliTXT"></span><br /><span id="intelliTXT">First is Death Grip, which has a forty-five second cooldown. My initial response to reading this was "Good god, Blizzard, you want Death Knights to suck at tanking, don't you?" This was until I learned of Blood Boil, an AOE taunt on a 15 second cooldown (reduceable to 11 seconds with talents) with no rune costs. All it requires is the target to have a disease on them (which of course is actually a lot harder than that sounds, since almost all diseases costs runes). Anyway, so we have, really, two taunts, it just has a small requirement (make sure you have an unholy rune), and it's great. Huzzah!</span><br /><span id="intelliTXT"></span><br /><span id="intelliTXT">Second is how utterly and completely useless Death and Decay will be for almost anything other than occasionally doing AOE DPS. First off, whoever translated that bit on it having a fear effect needs to find a tall building, weigh themselves down and then throw themselves off of said building into rush-hour traffic. It does not have a fear effect, it has a stun effect as it has a (and I quote) "...c</span>hance to cause any affected to cower in fear." ... Cower. Not be feared, but cower in fear. I can only assume that the person who translated this to be reported to all the sites that reported the previous information has never actually played WoW. This is the only possible way such a horrible mistranslation could have gotten through<br /><br />Now, this was great news when I found it out. It's like thinking you are getting piss in a cup, and finding out you are actually getting finely aged, couple-hundred dollar red wine. Unfortunately the other shoe must drop. What appeared to be a Grade-A Prime Rib steak to go with your piss-in-a-cup actually turns out to be moldy, rotted slice of roast beef to go with your amazing cup of red wine.<br /><br />So, the other shoe that dropped. Death and Decay is <span id="intelliTXT">on a 30 second cooldown with a 10 second duration. So 2 times a minute you can do some nifty-ish AOE damage to some things, but not very often, and it's ridiculously costly (one rune of each type currently). Now all of this would have just made it an "ehh" ability, but quite useful in PvP or tanking. But no, Blizzard can't allow that to happen. Instead we get a 30 second cooldown, 10 second duration <span style="font-style: italic;">and</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;">a 1.5 second cast time</span>. I want to scream bloody murder. Cast times are almost universally a no-no in PvP, and a smart and/or lucky player will interrupt your Death and Decay, not only making you lose the spell, but cripping half or more of your repertoire. And cast times are even worse when tanking since it will mean you are getting a face full of "OH GOD IT HURTS!"</span><br /><span id="intelliTXT"></span><br /><span id="intelliTXT">I mean, if Blizzard was really against Death and Decay not being able to be used on the move (which I don't get at all, but that's neither here nor there), give it a 0.5 second cast time. No on-the-move uses, but it's hard to interrupt and usable for AOE tanking, which is vitally necessary in todays age of Paladin Consecration tanks, which mean all 5-mans must have 50 hojillion trash mobs. As of currently, Death Knights are quite lacking in the AOE department (an intentional design, I believe, but with the game's current state of affairs, caused by the almost juggernaut-like abilities Paladins bring to trash mobs, it's a painful situation for most non-Paladin tanks.</span><br /><span id="intelliTXT"></span><br /><span id="intelliTXT">The third point, on the other hand, is a gleeful jaunt down Awesome Avenue, making a stop a the train station, to ride the Amazing Train to Wonderful-ville. I've seen Death Knight tanking trees, and that leak, or whatever it was that I edited into my previous Death Knight post has been changed. It was correct then, but Blizzard said "Nah, let's do something else!" and something else is fantastic! <span style="font-weight: bold;">There is no tanking tree. </span>Now, I'm sure this is the point where everyone looks at me and thinks I've gone off my rocker, but I haven't. It doesn't mean that Death Knights aren't tanks. They are still as tanky as all the rest of the classes, but the various tanking talents are spread out to each tree. The Blood Tree is still the "Hit things hard" tree, the Unholy tree is still the disease/summon tree, but now the Frost tree is the "Crowd Control" tree (more like the Mage's Frost tree, which will probably make it more of the cookie-cutter PvP spec than the Unholy tree...). An example is a talent-ability requiring 25 points in the Unholy tree:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bone Armor</span>: Instant cast, 30 second cooldown. The caster is surrounded by 4 swirling bones. Each bone reduces the damage from the next spell or melee attack by 40% but is then consumed. Lasts 5 min.<br /><br />While this obviously has PvP and soloing potential, the biggest potential I see for it is to a tank. In equal measure is the talent "Will of the Necropolis" which is basically a three rankArdent Defender, with 6 Expertise at max rank. Now, before anyone starts bitching that it's unfair that they get this talent when we have to buy that effect in two talents, it's much deeper in the Blood tree (yes this one's in the Blood tree) than either of the two talents which give a similar effect to Paladins.<br /><br />In the simplest way to phrase it, you are not pigeonholed into a particular playstyle, if you want to tank. You can be a Blood tank, an Unholy Tank, or a Frost tank, and all three of them have unique and valuable talents which help in that goal. I've seen some complain about not having all the talents consolidated into one place where they can just min-max them all to hell and back, but screw them. I like it this way. Something new, different and AWESOME! Gimme variety. Screw cookie-cutter one-design tanking builds. Hooray individuality!<br /><br />=======<br /><br /><span id="intelliTXT">Also a vital note mostly unrelated to Death Knights, but entirely related to WotLK and tanking, is that Blizzard does appear to be removing Crushing Blows from the raiding, with some interesting changes on the horizon for Warriors. Shield block goes from what it was to this:</span><br /><br /><b>Shield Block</b>: Increases your chance to block and the amount blocked by 100% for 5 sec, but will only block 1 attack. 30 sec cooldown.<br /><br />With Improved Shield Block only decreasing the cooldown by 5/10 seconds, and NOT increasing the amount of charges Shield Block has. Simply put there will be no way to reach uncrushable for early endgame, which clearly means they are intending on removing crushing blows from level 80+ raiding (CBs may still exist for previous raids, but the additional levels and gear quality should make those hits feel like we're being tickled.) This explains the lack of an Anti-CB ability for Death Knights, and makes me much more relived about the potential imbalance I was seeing.<br />This, of course, creates another imbalance in the form of Dire Bear form with it's billions of health and armor, and no crushing blows to equalize the difference. As of right now, Bears still have those ridiculous modifiers and, unless Blizzard gets on the ball before release, will reign supreme come raid-time (or even in 5-mans) in WotLK. Good job Blizzard.<br /><br />There are some complaints about this, beyond the obvious one of how they are going to balance Druids. This one boggled my damned mine when I heard it, but according to an endgame raiding Holy Priest, Crushing Blows create a sense of challenge and randomness to encounters that would otherwise be lacking from a healing perspective. ... I'm not kidding here folks. I had this conversation on my guild's Vent channel one night while we were doing Ahune. I was almost positive that my ears were failing me, but they were not. Ignoring the fact that Crushing Blows create a ridiculous obstacle for entry-level Paladins to overcome to just stand on equal footing with Warriors and Bears (can you tell I'm still bitter about that?), but once they get on equal footing, the other two classes are left behind by Paladins 8 charges every 10 seconds of uncrushability, making them less desirable in many fights. Oh and of course if you have a connection speed that is less than perfect, kiss your dreams of being a raiding MT goodbye, because you're now on a one-way ride to crushable-town.<br /><br />Oh and here's a petty personal prediction: Now that Holy Shield will not be needed to even survive in raids, I predict that it will be made a baseline ability. Blow me, Blizzard.<br /></div>Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8168219314204838493.post-33910253304412043552008-06-04T13:30:00.001-07:002008-06-04T13:30:18.426-07:00Quick updateWorking on another long Death Knight post, but in the mean time, two weekends ago (on the 24th) my guild did our first real foray into Zul'Aman (unlike our <a href="http://kazielmmo.blogspot.com/2007/11/zulaman-shiny-new-helm.html">previous attempt</a>) . We had a few issues with the learning attempts on both bosses (DON'T RUN FROM THE EAGLE UNTIL AFTER THE STORM IS OVER!), and apparently there are some issues with me taunting the Bear boss off of our other tank, but we still managed to walk away with the first two ZA bosses down! Woot! Got the Off-Hand fist weapon from Nalorakk and the healing neck from Akil'zon.<br /><br />And last weekend I was traveling, and wasn't getting back until almost midnight Sunday, so my guild had to make due without me. It was a bit slower, and they only cleared the mandatory bosses in Kara up to Chess, but still it's good considering that I'm definitely the best geared tank. Plus this allowed others to practice MT roles which is something I usually end up doing for speed's sake.<br /><br />Been a while since I updated what was going on in my guild so I figured I would.Kazielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05283511341760188489noreply@blogger.com0