togc 10 help
3 hours ago
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Explanations, and a New Main
I've been absent from Shadow Priest blogging for a while not because I got bored, or quit WoW (although I've come close a few times, I think). I just switched my main to my mage, located back on Zul'jin where my wife and I were playing last year before transferring to KT in the final months of BC.
Posting about mage theorycrafting doesn't seem to fit in a blog titled "A Shadow Priest," hence the lack of activity. I appreciate that some of my older posts are still getting comments -- I like seeing that I wasn't just talking to thin air (but I wouldn't necessarily care if that was the case, either!).
In the past couple months, I've been dedicated to my mage and finally got back into 25-mans about mid-August. He's about as geared out as one can get without dipping into Heroic 25-mans, pretty much. I also transferred my priest back to ZJ as well. I suppose I should update my bio on the right sometime.
I'm starting to get bored as getting gear is way too easy when you clear 10 and 25 man ToC and 10 and 25 Onyxia every week. Hell, it was easy before I was doing that. After a couple weeks I finally got enough people to get interested in going back to Ulduar, and finally saw Thorim, Vezax, and Yogg for the first time -- sadly enough. We're wiping on Yogg's second phase, but that encounter is everything I was hoping it would be. It beats ToC hands down.
I especially like and enjoy encounters designed not to be brute-forced through gear. They show thought and effort on the part of the design team, and other than Ulduar, that sort of effort isn't really apparent in the raids so far implemented in this expansion. 80s are perfectly capable of wiping even in BWL these days. I've been in quite a few pugs myself who didn't bother listening to warning to avoid standing in front of Ebonroc, for instance, or to avoid Nef's shadowflame.
We're not likely to ever do much in H-ToC25, due to too much dead weight on the roster, but H-ToC10 is still a possibility. This is an unfortunate truth, but given the direction raiding has been going since WoTLK launched, and Blizzard's stance towards universal content delivery, it's kind of to be expected, although I'm not a fan of it. Lackluster performance and minimal drive to succeed are simply a natural consequence of the level of (gear) quality being so high these days, compared to what's actually required for the current content. Improving skills and performance in order to push progression content is simply not necessary when your gear is already compensating for so much in the regular runs, but not enough to bridge the gap to the hardmodes/Heroic modes. Many people in the guild who might be interested in Heroic modes for the rewards in doing so aren't interested in putting up with the weaker links that we would have to bring in in order to make those attempts.
Blizzard really, really fucked up with ToC, in so many ways. It's a mistake in every way.
This is turning into a much larger post, so I'll cut it here. Hope to write more in the future. May be mage-related more than priest-related, so fair warning.
Posting about mage theorycrafting doesn't seem to fit in a blog titled "A Shadow Priest," hence the lack of activity. I appreciate that some of my older posts are still getting comments -- I like seeing that I wasn't just talking to thin air (but I wouldn't necessarily care if that was the case, either!).
In the past couple months, I've been dedicated to my mage and finally got back into 25-mans about mid-August. He's about as geared out as one can get without dipping into Heroic 25-mans, pretty much. I also transferred my priest back to ZJ as well. I suppose I should update my bio on the right sometime.
I'm starting to get bored as getting gear is way too easy when you clear 10 and 25 man ToC and 10 and 25 Onyxia every week. Hell, it was easy before I was doing that. After a couple weeks I finally got enough people to get interested in going back to Ulduar, and finally saw Thorim, Vezax, and Yogg for the first time -- sadly enough. We're wiping on Yogg's second phase, but that encounter is everything I was hoping it would be. It beats ToC hands down.
I especially like and enjoy encounters designed not to be brute-forced through gear. They show thought and effort on the part of the design team, and other than Ulduar, that sort of effort isn't really apparent in the raids so far implemented in this expansion. 80s are perfectly capable of wiping even in BWL these days. I've been in quite a few pugs myself who didn't bother listening to warning to avoid standing in front of Ebonroc, for instance, or to avoid Nef's shadowflame.
We're not likely to ever do much in H-ToC25, due to too much dead weight on the roster, but H-ToC10 is still a possibility. This is an unfortunate truth, but given the direction raiding has been going since WoTLK launched, and Blizzard's stance towards universal content delivery, it's kind of to be expected, although I'm not a fan of it. Lackluster performance and minimal drive to succeed are simply a natural consequence of the level of (gear) quality being so high these days, compared to what's actually required for the current content. Improving skills and performance in order to push progression content is simply not necessary when your gear is already compensating for so much in the regular runs, but not enough to bridge the gap to the hardmodes/Heroic modes. Many people in the guild who might be interested in Heroic modes for the rewards in doing so aren't interested in putting up with the weaker links that we would have to bring in in order to make those attempts.
Blizzard really, really fucked up with ToC, in so many ways. It's a mistake in every way.
This is turning into a much larger post, so I'll cut it here. Hope to write more in the future. May be mage-related more than priest-related, so fair warning.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Blizzcon 2009
Watching the live feed on the net right now.
DirectTV's feed is terrible, but I'm loving this coverage.
The CEO definitely said we could look forward to some "cataclysmic" news this weekend. (ooooOOOOOoooo) :)
edit: It was all true. All of it. Boubouille is the f***ing man.
edit2: Worgen have the sickest looking zone I've seen in WoW yet. Very Ravenloft-esque!
DirectTV's feed is terrible, but I'm loving this coverage.
The CEO definitely said we could look forward to some "cataclysmic" news this weekend. (ooooOOOOOoooo) :)
edit: It was all true. All of it. Boubouille is the f***ing man.
edit2: Worgen have the sickest looking zone I've seen in WoW yet. Very Ravenloft-esque!
Monday, August 10, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Alts and Naxx loot runs
I have a story I'd like to share that, while it doesn't make me proud to do so, I feel like I should comment on nonetheless.
Last night, I was helping out, along with one other well-geared guildie, in a 10-man Naxx run organized by another guildie solely for the purpose of gearing up his alt that had recently hit 80. This particular run was well organized, speedy, and had a relative minimum of time-wasting. We eventually made it to, and downed, Kel'thuzad within about three and a half hours, which is next to unheard of for a pug. It was an excellent run, even by the standards of most guilds. In my opinion, my guildie handled the job of raid leader with professionalism and competence while maintaining an air of fun and relaxation.
Our guildie managed to put together a fantastic raid that ran Naxx with ease, somehow convincing well-geared players to come out of boredom, badges, or the one item they still wanted. Our tanks were geared out, wearing 25-man Naxx gear as well as Ulduar gear. Part of our success was also attributable to our healers - both druids, one who was in full 10-man hardmode and 25-man Ulduar gear, the other had just dinged 80 the same day and was being escorted through by his more seasoned friend. Both were competent healers and got us through the majority of the instance without a scratch. We wiped once on Kel'thuzad due to an unfortunate Frost Tomb targeting the MT, but otherwise the run went smooth as butter.
The newly-minted 80 druid was also in here trying to gear up, and as a result, he and my guildie were the only ones to roll on most of the gear. And, aside from spellplate that nobody needed (as the only plate-wearers were Warriors), the majority of the gear that dropped was healing gear in some fashion with no competition for the pugged druid. We also had five pieces of tier gear drop, one of which nobody could use, but the others were rolled on by both the druid and my guildie. The druid won all four rolls.
Now, this irked me a bit, as the pugger was basically benefitting off of my guildie's willingness to let him come, despite being undergeared (very undergeared, in fact) and being in direct competition with him for the majority of the caster loot. One of the tier pieces, the chestpiece that dropped from Four Horsemen, the pugger very kindly gifted to my guildie after my guildie (rightly, I think) complained about losing the last two rolls for it and currently wearing a mid-70s chestpiece, compared to the pugger's level 80 gear. The next two tier pieces, both rolled, and my guildie lost those two rolls as well.
As the run went on, the pugger recieved at least two helms, a mainhand/offhand combo, boots, a neckpiece (possibly) and several other pieces of gear that immediately replaced the items he walked in wearing. My guildie received one piece of gear in all besides the chestpiece the pugger passed to him, in a run he organized, put together, and coordinated for that expressed purpose. The rest of the raid, all puggers except for three guildies including myself and the raid leader, were beginning to rumble a bit at the loot-whorishness of the pugger, but the guildie leading the raid quite correctly and fairly gave him all the gear he rolled on and won with little comment, whether my guildie needed it or not. By the end of the run, the pugged druid was in more than half epics, if you counted the tier pieces he recieved but had not turned in.
Fast forward to Kel'thuzad -- we down him on the second try with little trouble and the tier 7 headpiece drops for both our undergeared players along with the other loot. The pugger rolled on one of those pieces of loot (I think it was a cape) and recieved that, and then both rolled on the headpiece token. The pugger won that roll as well.
However my guildie had apparently had it by that point. He masterlooted the helm token to himself, explained that he couldn't let the pug druid take that piece of loot along with all of the other gear the druid had also won, pointed out that he had recieved two pieces of gear in all (and really, it was technically only one) compared to the pugger's 10 or so, and the rest of the raid voiced their agreement. The well-geared friend of the pugger in question said simply "wtf." and left the raid, followed by his friend.
Was this the right thing for my guildie to do?
Now, while some, including myself, would argue that my guildie was justified in looting that helm to himself, no one, not even my guildie could say it wasn't techinically "ninja-looting." Ninja-looting or not, after recieving at least two other helms and most of the other tier gear that had dropped, I think that pugger should really have passed on that last bit of loot. Most people, I think, would have at least considered passing on it, if not done so. Most people would also argue that the pug druid was a loot-whore through and through. But does that make what my guildie did right?
My take on it is that it might have been ninja-looting, but it was quite defensible ninja-looting, if there is such a thing. I wouldn't say it was the right thing to do by any stretch, but I understand my guildie's frustration and justification for doing so. The pugger was obviously taking advantage of the run my guildie had set up, having both phenomenal luck with drops and rolls, and phenomenal opportunity in having a geared-out raid run them thru Naxx immediately after hitting 80, not to mention having a raid leader that would actually accept them. I think many people, whether they have geared friends or not, would be extremely lucky to have that same opportunity, and in my opinion my guildie was gracious enough in letting him come, to say nothing of freely giving him all of the gear he rolled against him for and lost. While my guildie took advantage of the pugger at the end, in my opinion, the pugger was just as guilty of doing the same as my guildie was, and perhaps on a greater scale when you think about it.
Of course, most people don't care about the specifics of the gear involved--I mean, Naxx10 gear isn't even as important as the VoA mammoth to most people, and you hear of that mammoth getting ninja'ed all the time. So let's turn this incident into an ethical and moral dilemma:
In this situation, what would you have done?
Last night, I was helping out, along with one other well-geared guildie, in a 10-man Naxx run organized by another guildie solely for the purpose of gearing up his alt that had recently hit 80. This particular run was well organized, speedy, and had a relative minimum of time-wasting. We eventually made it to, and downed, Kel'thuzad within about three and a half hours, which is next to unheard of for a pug. It was an excellent run, even by the standards of most guilds. In my opinion, my guildie handled the job of raid leader with professionalism and competence while maintaining an air of fun and relaxation.
Our guildie managed to put together a fantastic raid that ran Naxx with ease, somehow convincing well-geared players to come out of boredom, badges, or the one item they still wanted. Our tanks were geared out, wearing 25-man Naxx gear as well as Ulduar gear. Part of our success was also attributable to our healers - both druids, one who was in full 10-man hardmode and 25-man Ulduar gear, the other had just dinged 80 the same day and was being escorted through by his more seasoned friend. Both were competent healers and got us through the majority of the instance without a scratch. We wiped once on Kel'thuzad due to an unfortunate Frost Tomb targeting the MT, but otherwise the run went smooth as butter.
The newly-minted 80 druid was also in here trying to gear up, and as a result, he and my guildie were the only ones to roll on most of the gear. And, aside from spellplate that nobody needed (as the only plate-wearers were Warriors), the majority of the gear that dropped was healing gear in some fashion with no competition for the pugged druid. We also had five pieces of tier gear drop, one of which nobody could use, but the others were rolled on by both the druid and my guildie. The druid won all four rolls.
Now, this irked me a bit, as the pugger was basically benefitting off of my guildie's willingness to let him come, despite being undergeared (very undergeared, in fact) and being in direct competition with him for the majority of the caster loot. One of the tier pieces, the chestpiece that dropped from Four Horsemen, the pugger very kindly gifted to my guildie after my guildie (rightly, I think) complained about losing the last two rolls for it and currently wearing a mid-70s chestpiece, compared to the pugger's level 80 gear. The next two tier pieces, both rolled, and my guildie lost those two rolls as well.
As the run went on, the pugger recieved at least two helms, a mainhand/offhand combo, boots, a neckpiece (possibly) and several other pieces of gear that immediately replaced the items he walked in wearing. My guildie received one piece of gear in all besides the chestpiece the pugger passed to him, in a run he organized, put together, and coordinated for that expressed purpose. The rest of the raid, all puggers except for three guildies including myself and the raid leader, were beginning to rumble a bit at the loot-whorishness of the pugger, but the guildie leading the raid quite correctly and fairly gave him all the gear he rolled on and won with little comment, whether my guildie needed it or not. By the end of the run, the pugged druid was in more than half epics, if you counted the tier pieces he recieved but had not turned in.
Fast forward to Kel'thuzad -- we down him on the second try with little trouble and the tier 7 headpiece drops for both our undergeared players along with the other loot. The pugger rolled on one of those pieces of loot (I think it was a cape) and recieved that, and then both rolled on the headpiece token. The pugger won that roll as well.
However my guildie had apparently had it by that point. He masterlooted the helm token to himself, explained that he couldn't let the pug druid take that piece of loot along with all of the other gear the druid had also won, pointed out that he had recieved two pieces of gear in all (and really, it was technically only one) compared to the pugger's 10 or so, and the rest of the raid voiced their agreement. The well-geared friend of the pugger in question said simply "wtf." and left the raid, followed by his friend.
Was this the right thing for my guildie to do?
Now, while some, including myself, would argue that my guildie was justified in looting that helm to himself, no one, not even my guildie could say it wasn't techinically "ninja-looting." Ninja-looting or not, after recieving at least two other helms and most of the other tier gear that had dropped, I think that pugger should really have passed on that last bit of loot. Most people, I think, would have at least considered passing on it, if not done so. Most people would also argue that the pug druid was a loot-whore through and through. But does that make what my guildie did right?
My take on it is that it might have been ninja-looting, but it was quite defensible ninja-looting, if there is such a thing. I wouldn't say it was the right thing to do by any stretch, but I understand my guildie's frustration and justification for doing so. The pugger was obviously taking advantage of the run my guildie had set up, having both phenomenal luck with drops and rolls, and phenomenal opportunity in having a geared-out raid run them thru Naxx immediately after hitting 80, not to mention having a raid leader that would actually accept them. I think many people, whether they have geared friends or not, would be extremely lucky to have that same opportunity, and in my opinion my guildie was gracious enough in letting him come, to say nothing of freely giving him all of the gear he rolled against him for and lost. While my guildie took advantage of the pugger at the end, in my opinion, the pugger was just as guilty of doing the same as my guildie was, and perhaps on a greater scale when you think about it.
Of course, most people don't care about the specifics of the gear involved--I mean, Naxx10 gear isn't even as important as the VoA mammoth to most people, and you hear of that mammoth getting ninja'ed all the time. So let's turn this incident into an ethical and moral dilemma:
In this situation, what would you have done?
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Jumping on the bandwagon
All right, I'll say it: Shadow Priests are being ignored. Ghostcrawler knows it, Shadow Priests know it, everyone knows it.
I don't think that we're competitive dps, either. I wish I had a recent WWS parse to prove it, but I don't. Either you take it on my say-so, or you call me a liar--I'm okay with either of those options. However, the top DPS slots in our 10-mans (which weren't even great for me in the first place), I'm lucky to place top 4 in a non-aoe situation, or above any similarly-geared melee class. Although I'm not the best-geared priest, my rotation is solid and doesn't vary much, and the fights I am thinking of as examples don't require me to move a whole lot (Razorscale, minus aoe-ing the adds; XT when I don't have the aoe slot; Kologarn; Ignis etc.).
So what, then, is the problem? A lot of people would say scaling is a huge issue--Shadow Priests are one of the worst scaling classes/specs in the game right now, second only perhaps to ... actually, I can't think of any. I'm going to go ahead and say we're the worst off in terms of scaling. Our gear gap is growing, and it's not getting any better.
I have heard all sorts of reasons for this gap:
I have two major suggestions aimed at improving the scaling issues in particular. One, improve the spell damage coefficient on Mind Flay and drop the snare, or buff the range and drop the snare. Or (dare I say it) do both on the current glyph to simply make it into even more of a must-have PVE glyph, which is fine for me, and I think most Shadow Priests would also agree given the options available at the moment. The alternative is the make the baseline spell a no-snare, extended range, better spell damage coefficient version, and change the glyph so that it will return Mind Flay to the original version. Either way works for us.
And secondly, depending on which direction Blizzard wants to take design-wise for the class, either redesign our tree to not be so reliant on applying/maintaining our dots for optimal damage and give us a spammable nuke, or improve our dots to more directly scale with gear. Wowinsider floated the idea I've heard before of having haste give some kind of a benefit to our dots. As it stands, it does nothing for the dot component of our dps, and with us being so reliant on dots to do damage, effectively makes haste half as helpful as it should be.
I'd rather not sacrifice our reliance on dots--that'd effectively make Shadow Priests into a diet mage or warlock, an accusation levelled at us in the past.
But for the love of god, FIX MIND FLAY!
I don't think that we're competitive dps, either. I wish I had a recent WWS parse to prove it, but I don't. Either you take it on my say-so, or you call me a liar--I'm okay with either of those options. However, the top DPS slots in our 10-mans (which weren't even great for me in the first place), I'm lucky to place top 4 in a non-aoe situation, or above any similarly-geared melee class. Although I'm not the best-geared priest, my rotation is solid and doesn't vary much, and the fights I am thinking of as examples don't require me to move a whole lot (Razorscale, minus aoe-ing the adds; XT when I don't have the aoe slot; Kologarn; Ignis etc.).
So what, then, is the problem? A lot of people would say scaling is a huge issue--Shadow Priests are one of the worst scaling classes/specs in the game right now, second only perhaps to ... actually, I can't think of any. I'm going to go ahead and say we're the worst off in terms of scaling. Our gear gap is growing, and it's not getting any better.
I have heard all sorts of reasons for this gap:
- Needing to use Glyph of Mind Flay to even get close to the range of other caster dps classes. Range issues in general.
- Mind Flay sucks. A crappy spell damage coefficient due to snare component + glyph (effectively) removing snare component = bad spell.
- Haste simply sucks. It doesn't scale, it's too dependent on latency, and its usefulness as a stat hasn't kept pace with the buffs to other mechanics that tremendously increase the usefulness of crit rating.
- No "big nuke" on a cooldown for burn phases. Inner Focus does not a dps cooldown make. Some Shadow Priests I know don't even take that talent, for so long considered mandatory, with no appreciable impact on their capabilities.
- Various bugs the community has been aware of for ages that haven't gotten fixed; i.e. Shadow Weaving stacking (if anything nerfed, due to the "fixing" of the bug with Mind Flay that made it easy to build stacks), goofy mechanics with Shadow Word: Pain, etc.
- A long "ramp-up" time that prevents us from front-loading damage in any way, shape, or form. Ten seconds after mages are happily throwing Frostfire Bolts, we're still applying dots and haven't started the meat of our rotation.
- Sort of related: no spammable nuke.
- Cooldown on Devouring Plague (though to be fair, this is being fixed). As it stands, if we don't want to burn the cooldown, for example, on trash--it's 20% dps gone off the top.
- Dispersion has almost no PVE utility at all.
I have two major suggestions aimed at improving the scaling issues in particular. One, improve the spell damage coefficient on Mind Flay and drop the snare, or buff the range and drop the snare. Or (dare I say it) do both on the current glyph to simply make it into even more of a must-have PVE glyph, which is fine for me, and I think most Shadow Priests would also agree given the options available at the moment. The alternative is the make the baseline spell a no-snare, extended range, better spell damage coefficient version, and change the glyph so that it will return Mind Flay to the original version. Either way works for us.
And secondly, depending on which direction Blizzard wants to take design-wise for the class, either redesign our tree to not be so reliant on applying/maintaining our dots for optimal damage and give us a spammable nuke, or improve our dots to more directly scale with gear. Wowinsider floated the idea I've heard before of having haste give some kind of a benefit to our dots. As it stands, it does nothing for the dot component of our dps, and with us being so reliant on dots to do damage, effectively makes haste half as helpful as it should be.
I'd rather not sacrifice our reliance on dots--that'd effectively make Shadow Priests into a diet mage or warlock, an accusation levelled at us in the past.
But for the love of god, FIX MIND FLAY!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Expansion speculation
So, since I seem to be on a roll today...
I'm very interested in all of the expansion speculation. I like the idea of two new species and (I hope) a new hero class, as well as an underwater, naga-land landscape (the Maelstorm). I would totally reroll as a Worgen, if that ends up being one of the new species, and I bet my wife would too. The biggest doubt in my mind that Goblins and Worgen will be the new expansion's species is lore considerations: it seems like even more of a shoehorn job than blood elves and the Horde was.
In my opinion, although Lich King brought a huge number of improvements to gameplay, lore, and questing, the endgame content has been something of a bust. Say what you will of brutal, back-breaking encounters in TBC, but they sure gave guilds bragging rights after beating them. Although I never had a chance to see them, you still hear people talking about Kael'thas, Vashj, and Illidan, and even some of the minor bosses, in a kind of awe-inspired tone. Hell, even Magtheridon, Nightbane, and Gruul get some mentions. Naxx was really a poor way to open up raid content, and definitely spoiled veterans and newbies alike, in a very bad way. Nobody cares or is impressed by Gothik (who used to be a guild-breaker), Razuvious, Four Horsemen, or even Kel'thuzad.
Ulduar was neat in concept, but it's getting phased out too quickly. Now the cutting-edge raid will be gladitorial-style combat? Seriously? Where's the epic-ness in that? I mean, the only big lore connection I have heard of is Anub'arak's return as an actual boss, instead of the panty-waisted excuse for a schoolgirl his 5-man incarnation is.
I really hope Blizzard comes out with the new expansion inside of a year. We need to move out of Northrend. I, for one, am sick of it already.
I'm very interested in all of the expansion speculation. I like the idea of two new species and (I hope) a new hero class, as well as an underwater, naga-land landscape (the Maelstorm). I would totally reroll as a Worgen, if that ends up being one of the new species, and I bet my wife would too. The biggest doubt in my mind that Goblins and Worgen will be the new expansion's species is lore considerations: it seems like even more of a shoehorn job than blood elves and the Horde was.
In my opinion, although Lich King brought a huge number of improvements to gameplay, lore, and questing, the endgame content has been something of a bust. Say what you will of brutal, back-breaking encounters in TBC, but they sure gave guilds bragging rights after beating them. Although I never had a chance to see them, you still hear people talking about Kael'thas, Vashj, and Illidan, and even some of the minor bosses, in a kind of awe-inspired tone. Hell, even Magtheridon, Nightbane, and Gruul get some mentions. Naxx was really a poor way to open up raid content, and definitely spoiled veterans and newbies alike, in a very bad way. Nobody cares or is impressed by Gothik (who used to be a guild-breaker), Razuvious, Four Horsemen, or even Kel'thuzad.
Ulduar was neat in concept, but it's getting phased out too quickly. Now the cutting-edge raid will be gladitorial-style combat? Seriously? Where's the epic-ness in that? I mean, the only big lore connection I have heard of is Anub'arak's return as an actual boss, instead of the panty-waisted excuse for a schoolgirl his 5-man incarnation is.
I really hope Blizzard comes out with the new expansion inside of a year. We need to move out of Northrend. I, for one, am sick of it already.
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