Hotfix 4.0.6 14th Feb

We managed to defeat Nefarian in Blackwing Descent (25 man) two days ago. It wasn’t until the following morning that a hotfix for the ‘gambler’s potion’ arrived – though luckily it paid off for me as it shows on our kill try:

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/157148/patch-406-hotfixes-february-15

Notes from talent changes and gear changes:

This is an update from the previous post I had made. The main concern for me was the drop in haste being detrimental to my healing performance in raids and 5 mans  - remembering that usually in 5 mans you don’t have access to the necessary buffs. Anyway I am comfortable with the fact I actually dropped haste in favour of mastery, and at the present time do not feel a need to head for the 2000+ haste many others are trying to get – I just think our present gear doesn’t allow us to do that without having to sacrifice something else like throughput. Maybe when item level 283-or-so hits the high street.

Mainframe

Druid Changes 4.0.6

So most of you will have tinkered with the various class changes from the latest patch, but for me I am not 100% confident I know where I’m going with my resto druid.

I think the problem is that Blizzard have changed the direction for restos so many times recently that I am somewhat confused.

Symbiosis (Mastery) benefit from mastery increased by approximately 16%.

Ok so for the first time since the Ulduar days, I have done some research on my class – something I try to delay because I’m a firm believer in being able to experience mechanics first-hand (by trial and error) and by doing so does that put into perspective what you should be doing.

I also don’t have as much time to conduct that sort of research on a regular basis.

That’s how it’s supposed to go anyway.

In fact I have decided not to write about what I was originally going to write about, but will instead provide the various links for you to check out.

Here is TreeCalc which can be found over at Elitistjerks: Treecalcs

Here is the resto druid HOT breakpoints table for your perusal: HOT Breakpoints Table

Just a quick note though. I have decided to leave the mastery that’s already present on my gear as it is whilst keeping above the 1222 haste (1 point above the needed 1221 for 12 LB ticks from 5% raid buff alone – see chart above). Haste will only improve once we have access to even higher level gear, but at the moment I don’t feel that stacking or even gemming for haste (which means you spend more on mana anyway) is the correct route for me. It does of course depend on your role within the raid group.

I do usually have Dark Intent, but on the last raid I also noticed Dark Intent was stacked twice on me. I do not know it the haste buff stacked, but definitely saw two of them on me at one time. Presuming I had just the one Dark Intent buff, I could theoretically afford to go down to around 813 haste if I so wanted more mastery.

I’ve maintained the 8/2/31 talent build though have instead taken some points out of Efflorescence and put it back into Blessing of the Grove for an increase in Rejuv healing.

You should bear in mind also that Efflorescence is usually on average 4-8% (for me at least 6.7%) of overall healing and whilst that may not be very much, it does benefit from mastery (even if it is not counted as a hot in itself). To put it simply: if your targets have hots on them already before you cast efflorescence, the amount healed by efflorescence will be increased.

Having said that however, I recently decided to go for mastery instead even if it’s not as effective within the 25man raid environment.

Mainframe

New troll flight form - you so ugly!

 

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Credit given to the relevant author(s) of the above links.

iLevel and gear obsession

I had a break from the game just after ICC was opened up to World of Warcraft players. When I came back just before Cataclysm hit I was somewhat puzzled by the words ‘gear’ and ‘score’ cropping up every other sentence.

I mean don’t get me wrong, wow has always been about gear, but I noticed that people were now expected to have a certain gear level as some sort of prerequisite for any dungeon or raid.  At first I laughed when I saw the following on trade chat:

“LFM for ICC. Must have at least blah blah gear score/rating. I’m at the bank so that I can inspect you. Please link your achieves. Don’t be sh*t!”.

After a while I realised that the people making these comments were being serious! My initial laughs turned to one of greater puzzlement because not only was I was now severely undergeared in mostly 245/258 gear, the strange thing is it didn’t bother me one bit.

Blizz themselves have reinforced this by having items show their ‘item levels’, and this was seen by some as an indication of skill alone.

In the midst of everyone shouting out their gearscores, why was it that I didn’t care about mine so much? I hope to explain the reasons why.

The following is an extract from a recent blue post where a player was having trouble healing even though they had made the item level requirement for Cataclysm heroics: Link

 

All I can say is ‘Don’t give up‘. As Daxxarri points out, fun is a very subjective thing; meaning that it’s different for each person. We get out of it what we put in. I for one have always enjoyed a challenge and for me the challenge is not so much about gear progression per se, rather it is about what you are capable of doing with what’s already at your disposal.

Let me give an example.

Oh before I go on you will  notice that I seem very nostalgic about my ‘vanilla’ wow days, simply because it is from this that I feel Blizzard drew a lot of the ideas and inspiration when making their latest expansion: Cataclysm. This together with all the knowledge they have acquired since those early days, is a good thing in my eyes.

Anyway I used to be a pvper first and foremost – I didn’t give a rat’s ass about dungeons or raiding because pvp was so accessible. My brother (Balak) on the other hand was both a pvper and a raider, and so I was luckily enough to experience both sides of the coin when playing his horde character.

Now I just need a pink bow...

I used to be an alliance would you believe

Back in those days there was no such thing as resilience (something that was first introduced with The Burning Crusade expansion), and so players who acquired gear by any means other than through pvp was at a huge advantage. While pvp gear was obtained once you had acquired the relevant pvp rank, these were extremely poor against the latest and regularly updated raiding gear from Molten Core, AQ40, Zul Gurub, Blackwing Lair and of course Naxxramas. Pvp gear on the other hand (and to my knowledge) only had one major update which occurred before TBC was released.

You often found that people with raiding gear could easily terminate players in battlegrounds, requiring little to no skill whatsoever on their part. As a side note, my brother was insanely well pve geared and I remember entering one battleground (just when they had introduced cross-realm pvping), where some warrior whispered me saying “your gear is just SICK!! WTF”. I then went on to obliterate a poor (though very determined) alliance warrior in a few seconds using the then amazing Lok’amir il Romathis *sigh*.

There were many of us who entered battlegrounds on a regular basis who felt ‘threatened’ by this. It’s almost like a Zen – Koan – where one is presented with an impossible choice and needs to deal with it. In a similar sense we had no choice but to deal with these players by any (though legal ofc ) means possible.

It was during this time that I can honestly say I really had the most fun – as the underdog. There was nothing better than taking out an army of pvers and slowly dismantling them one by one. The gear situation had in fact made us more defiant and it is because of this fact I think I and many others developed more as players than we otherwise would have done, because we tried to get the most out of what little we had – with that impossible choice of giving-in or to find a way of winning.

The Burning Crusade and its many changes brought my pvping days to a close because everyone was on a level playing field though for me, I had more enjoyment when the odds were stacked against me. Even to this day I maintain that I perform better whilst undergeared in blues and even greens than in any epics.

Epics used to carry a huge burden on players because you were always ‘expected’ to live up to certain expectation. With any lesser item you have no fear of that and because of this, your creative juices start to really flow – how can I beat that BWL-geared rogue? There has got to be a way!

To prove to yourself that you can compete with others who already have an advantage is a huge motivation for anyone, even as a raider. It’s thanks to those days of pvp that I continue to push myself to the limits of my capabilities, even if I may not be very good – you are still pushing yourself and can only get better. It is something that I hope some players in Cataclysm will try to adopt and to not be dissuaded to play a particular class because of gear alone.

It’s about perspective I suppose, but it’s a handy one to adopt because come time when you are fully geared in epics, you already have a huge advantage and a better understanding of the intricacies of your class than you otherwise would have had. The increase in gear will mean you can do all the things you were able to do brilliantly in greens, but even better – the hard part will already be out of the way.

It’s because of this that I think Blizzard have really succeeded in Cataclysm. It’s a good mentality to adopt and it works by pushing players.

For me though I am never ever happy with what I do, though as I mentioned earlier I am constantly on the lookout for ways to improve myself, though funnily enough this has very little to do with theory-crafting and sites such as ElitistJerks. I like to find my own way through things, and I hope those who started playing wow much later will develop this too as part of their Cataclysm experience.

So, stick with it and persevere!

Laters o/

Mainframe

Healing and tanking difficulties compared to dps – misconception perhaps?

The answer of course depends on the both the fight and the overall team, though many dps seem terribly ignorant of the fact that it can be much more difficult for both healers and tanks.

Let’s look at an example shall we?

Here we have a screen-shot of phase 2 of the Ascendant Council from the POV of a hunter. You can clearly see here that the health bars of the rest of the raid group are to the left-hand side of their screen – after all what’s the use of looking at other members’ health bars if you’re a non-healing dps right (or in many cases if you’re a dps full stop)?

The only thing dps need to worry about from here on in are the Tornados/Earthquakes, Lightning Rods, Ground Rupture, and where the 2 bosses are.

From a healing perspective, well, you have a host of other things to look out for. Apart from making sure each tank has enough heals, (in phase 2) you have to keep tabs on the people within the raid who are in range – this is because people are dashing all over the place, and you may only have a very brief moment to lay a heal on the target before either one of you have to move out somewhere else.

Now on top of that healers don’t have the luxury of having the centre of the screen to constantly stare at, and neither do they have the privilege of being able to look ahead of them 100% of the time.

In an ideal situation with regards to UI, having the health bars of the entire raid smack bang in the middle of your screen would be brilliant. However you wouldn’t be able to see where the hell you’re going, and you wouldn’t be able to move accurately enough to avoid certain things due to the obstruction.

Healers have to make do with trying to have the health bars somewhere ‘near’ the middle – or as close as they can possibly get away with so as to reduce the amount of ‘travel time’ their eyes have to do from what’s happening around them, the buffs/debuffs and the raid health bars.

Now let’s look at this screen-shot again but from a healing perspective. Let us imagine that this is a screen from a healer…

So in phase 2 not only are we not looking in front of us 100% of the time but wherever the raid health bars are situated (and I stress 100%), the debuffs on the top right of the screen (Blizz UI default) and the rest of it from the Lightning Rods to the Earthquakes (which can be a pain to spot). We also may have healing assignments (if any – afterall you’re in charge of a group and very often your group in this phase can be all over the place).

Tanks have their own issues which are just as, if not more difficult than it is for healers.

But of course when as a dps your vision is entirely focused on the centre of the screen anyway, it’s a lot easier to notice this huge yellow arrow on your head. Healers require a much larger peripheral vision, but sometimes (such as after 10 or more wipes and 2 other bosses down before that) even healers might find it difficult to maintain that concentration for any length of time – especially if it was someone else that was causing the initial wipes in the first place.

I remember reading a similar situation at the worldofmatticus (a healer blog) where Matt described how difficult it was as a healer because his eyes were constantly dashing around the screen partially looking at other peoples’ health, partially on what was happening in front of him. It affected him so much he had headaches or something of the sort.

So for the ignorant out there, cut the healers some slack and give them a hand. Stop being so ignorant of the fact that playing as a dps is the easiest role to play 90% of the time. Yes you may have to interrupt or what have you every so often, but even if you have another enemy as target you are still only contending with the one factor; a factor that you can easily create a macro for.

If you think keeping track of 2 bosses in one phase is difficult, then try and keep track of 23 bosses by comparison (which healers have to to do on a regular basis when healing the raid group), at the same time as trying to avoid all the obstacles you would normally have to avoid as a dps.

Another way to make dps understand how healing works would be to have a kind of QTE (Quick Time Events) for their dps which would force them to have to look at their bars at certain times throughout the fight to maximise dps. They would basically have to press certain keys on cue as and when they appear on their bars. That way they could comprehend what it’s like to be a healer.

Not standing in the fire as ranged dps isn’t very hard. Some fights are tough on melee, but at the end of the day all you “have” to do is beat the enrage and OoM timer (making it harder for healers). If you’re good at dps it isn’t really hard at all, its just a challenge to push your dps but the priority/rotation is second nature to you.

Tanking isn’t very hard now since threat is trivial but in the future tiers of content we might actually have to choose between things like threat and mitigation. Raid tanking has never really been all that tough but 5mans offer a bit of challenge, especially if the group is light on CC or undergeared/bad. Most of the difficulty from tanking comes from learning your class and the fights. Tanks do a lot of their work before hand in planning and gearing. Its not harder so much as its sink or swim. Groups won’t carry a bad tank where as bad dps get carried every day.

Healing can be the hardest as you are expected to make up for everyone else failing. It can also be the easiest in 5man with lots of CC. With mana management coming into play now there is more thought that has to go into healing and you really have to know a lot about your class to make quick decisions on the fly. If you want to compare it to DPS you can always heal better in terms of making the most correct decisions concerning efficiency. All they really “have” to do is keep everyone up though, which is harder IMO on average than putting out enough dps to beat the enrage timer.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/827783-If-you-think-DPS-is-easier-than-Tanking-or-Healing…

Mainframe

Starcaller Sakaru Inc.!

This gallery contains 1 photo.

Hello from Sakaru! As Mainframe says, healing in 25man is becoming quite a different experience (as to be expected!) compared to Wrath of the Lich King, which is when I began healing as a Resto Shaman. As we’ve been progressing … Continue reading →

Druid Heals: Why we shouldn’t always expect the best

I just wrote the following comment on another person’s blog, and thought to myself “hell, why not make my own blog about World of Warcraft?” Here it is.

In fact I tell a lie. I did happen to briefly discuss creating a guild-themed blog with one of my guildies, Sakura, and I saw this as a good opportunity to get the project underway.

I like to write about all sorts of stuff, though you will have to forgive me if I ramble on too much.

Anyway here is the comment that I made on the Restokin blog which mainly talked about how bad efflorescence is and the various other changes that will e taking place in patch 4.0.6:

I just have to point out that while priest’s Prayer of Healing is outperforming our Wild Growth, I feel it’s unfair to nerf theirs but then buff ours. I am a resto druid (Mainframe EU Kul Tiras) and have been monitoring healing for 25-mans. As stated Prayer of Healing makes up a huge proportion of priest heals (depending ofc on the fight), and their second-place spell is quite some distance behind.

For me WG/Rejuv/LB/HT account for roughly the same for me on meters – I don’t use Nourish as I don’t see the point in it other than to refresh LB (and I can afford to use HT as I have 2 321 intell trinkets and JC Intell gems with constant 400 spirit from Darkmoon). We don’t need a buff to WG, it’s pure and simple.
It’s basically making an already fairly powerful healing class (in the right hands for I can’t understand how some resto druids are complaining so much tbh) even more powerful, especially when you consider how bad resto shamans are atm, especially in fights such as the Ascendant Council. I really do feel sorry for shamans as I’ve been healing with some of the best shammy healers I have ever met, and their healing now compared to priests/holy paladins and resto druids is truly awful.

We must not become complacent and let us simply spam WG – as many used to do. I think this is an unnecessary buff especially considering the nerf to PoH which should in theory bring it in line with WG as it presently stands.

I see this as a huge problem for druids at the minute. You see, for the greater part of TBC and even WotLK, resto druids have had an easy ride. Yes that ride has steadily become more and more difficult to control as the class has been brought in line with the other classes;  what many would prefer to term the homogenization of the various dps, tanking and healing classes within the game, but still nevertheless a powerful healing class.

We would often moan at the slightest changes and any nerfs we encountered (Lifebloom causing the biggest issues over the years) were often followed by threats from angry druids who looked at healing meters as some sort of indication of how great and important they were as a class.  It kind of reached the stage where they simply expected to always be top of those meters, and it didn’t matter to them how other healing classes felt about this because Blizzard (it seemed) simply reinforced that mentality by lavishing us with imba spells that I have always said were no-brainers to execute.

They are doing it again.

I mentioned in the earlier comment that resto shamans have a particularly difficult time in raids at the minute – and I hope to bring some of my guildies onto here to give their POVs, however from where I stand I cannot possibly accept what is obviously an unnecessary buff to druids that should obviously go to towards making resto shamans as good at healing in raids.

I think my comment says everything that needed to be said about how I feel.

Though just to finish I would just like to state that it is because of such buffs to druids that players do become terribly complacent. We shouldn’t be given such things on a platter as it will only cause issues in future when they are inevitably nerfed once more.

Ok that’s it for today. As I said I will try and get those other peeps onboard! Happy raiding!

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Just a quick note, the main author for Bigwigs Bossmods plays on our server, and I will try and get some sort of interview with him to see what he thinks about current content.

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I play Mainframe, a druid on Kul Tiras (EU). I’ve been playing various classes since vanilla wow all those years ago >_>