Its been about 12 hours since the servers came back on line after the ridiculous 3.1 installation maintenance window.
Lets reflect....
1) I.T. Slop - In my professional life, I'm involved with massive global software projects, so I understand all too well how complex the actual Go Time of installation is. I really do, and if you've never been exposed to it, its an experience worthy of a couple dozen red bulls, a whole box of Tums, and a pillow in your cubicle.
However, knowing how hard it is, but also knowing how important it is, I'm somewhat intolerant of slop. Most of Blizzard's big installations are full of slop. In my line of business, if we insisted on taking 7 extra hours, nearly doubling the originally advertised down time, we'd have serious problems. Sure, if it happens once, customers are forgiving, but if it is a routine occurrence for major upgrades, we'd have customers voting with their feet (and wallets).
Get it right!
2) Too Early - The patch came too early, damn it! I need 2 more cooking awards for my chef's hat :-( And the servers are still down this morning for a 2-hour follow-up maintenance, so I can't post the screen shot that I wanted to post first :-( :-(
3) Nuff QQ - No more complaints (wrong, there's more), because I'm actually a fan of the patch.
4) Got my Dual On - Through pure coincidence, I was logged out in Stormwind. Convenient to trot on over to the trainer and pick up dual-spec. One will be cookie cutter max DPS raid spec, the other will either be Mana Battery raid spec, or Indestructible Tank Pet spec for soloing stuff.
5) Black Arrow - If I understand it correctly, instead of trap dancing to trigger Lock n Load (which I never did in the first place), we just fire BA whenever the cooldown is up? Ok, another DoT and cooldown to juggle. No biggie.
6) Flame Leviathan - This one rocks! Very cool fight. Yes its a vehicle event, so it was chock full of UI issues, bugs, cludgey aiming mechanisms, and general slop (see #1). All that aside, the fight is friggin cool! I was sitting on the back of a Siege Engine, operating a gun turret. Just mowing stuff down and blasting stuff out of the sky. Lots of fun, and it'll only get better as bugs get fixed and addon authors tweak their code.
7) Its not a race - BUT, and its a big but, if it were a race, we got the server second kill of FL by a scant 5 minutes. Pretty cool stuff, especially because if you didn't kill him very quickly, the lag of all the other raids starting up destroyed your chances.
8) More with the slop - Ignis. A pretty standard choice for guilds to go after as the second boss. He randomly selects a raid member and puts them in a fire cauldron. If you survive, the raid moves on and you get an achievement with a great name, Heroic Hot Pocket. However, if the boss bugs out and does a melee attack on the cauldron'ed player for between 43k-73k damage, its pretty much undoable. Lots of other guilds reported the same problem. Get the damn early fights bug-free, Blazzard! If the final boss is buggy, it'll be weeks before we find out, but the early ones? That's the stuff that gets visited on the first night, so get it right.
9) So we change plans - So we switched to Razor-something. Very cool boss split between "nuke the adds" phase and "massive drake-thingie on the ground" phase. Sweet visuals of the drake or dorgon or whatever the hell the lore experts are calling this guy being hauled down to the ground.
10) And the lag bit us - A few attempts on Razor-something and we had to leave Ulduar, the lag was unbearable and made it pretty tough to interrupt the nasty raid-wiping chain lightnings.
11) Vault of [New Guy] - Alliance held Wintergrasp, so we fly on over to try out the new guy. Pretty neat fight, took 3 or 4 tries. Basic idea is that its one main boss with 4 adds. Periodically he'll select one of the adds and charge it up. When he charges it, you have a very short time span to focus fire and kill that add before it blows up the raid. Nice for a quick and easy pickup of some T8 gear.
12) Fishing daily - There were 24 other fishermen in that tiny lake in Sholazar when I was out there doing the quest. Silly, I tell you.
13) I can haz bag space - Hunter ammo goes in your regular bag now, no quivers needed. With my normal load of stuff that I carry around all the time, I can haz 47 empty bag slots now. Dual Gathering FTW!
Ok, time to check the servers to see if they're back up so I can get my Chef's Hat, and maybe try out the Argent Jousting thingie.
Showing posts with label patches. Show all posts
Showing posts with label patches. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Flask Changes
The following post is the result of a slow day of reading material to fill up a lunch break and a desire to see how many times I can fit the word "flask-hours" into a blog post.
So WoW Insider reports that Flasks change in patch 3.1.
Old: Recipe crafts 1 flask. Flask lasts 2 hours. Flask-Hours / Materials = 2
New: Recipe crafts 2 flasks. Each flask lasts 1 hour. Flask-Hours / Materials = 2
In both the old and the new, the number of hours I can be under the influence of a flask is 2 for the same material cost.
So why predict a change in the market price of flasks?
Some anecdotal evidence to start off...
Reflecting on my own situation only, I will be wasting less flask-hours.
My raids are three hours in length. To be continuously under the influence of a flask, I need to drink two of them. However, one full flask-hour is totally wasted (well, technically it benefits me while questing or farming or doing BGs after the raid, but that is time I would not actively choose to have flask buff for).
Lets say I raid Ulduar 4 nights per week, 3 hours per night.
In the old configuration, I would drink two flasks (4 flask-hours) each night, and a total of 8 flasks (16 flask-hours) each week.
In the new configuration, I will drink three flasks (3 flask-hours) each night, and a total of 12 flasks (12 flask-hours) each week.
I'm going to guess that the average raid has a duration that is close to an exact multiple of 1 hour.
A much smaller set of raids have a duration close to an exact multiple of 2 hours.
Blizzard makes this change, and the result is much fewer wasted flask-hours. For my raid, 25% of my current flask consumption is pure waste. Given how easy things are, you might argue that 100% of my consumption is waste, but go do OS+3D with a progression group a couple times and then we have a chat.
In the current setup, demand is artificially boosted. I'm forced to consume 4 flask-hours when I only want to consume 3 flask-hours.
Its like bread companies selling buns in packs of six, and wiener companies selling hotdogs in packs of 8. They're artificially forcing you to purchase 2 extra items which often go to waste (unless I plan on having 24 hotdogs, or if I like eating peanut-butter-on-a-hotdog-bun sandwiches the day after I eat hotdogs. did i get that right? maybe its sliced up bunless hotdogs mixed in mac n cheese. i always forget which one comes extra since I always eat 24 at a time anyways).
Now that we can purchase in more efficient quantities, we will be consuming fewer (wasted) flask-hours.
So demand drops. If supply of flask-hours remains the same (same materials input will produce the same number of flask-hours output), price per flask-hour should drop.
But that's not all folks
Next they tell us that gathering a node will yield more herbs than in the past.
So the expected impact is that supply for mats for flasks will increase. If you look at this in a vacuum, and keep demand for flask-hours constant, that should reduce the price of a flask-hour.
But we're not in a vacuum. We just said above that the demand for flask-hours will drop.
Hmmmm.
Lower demand for flask hours, this reduces the price for flask-hours. But then reduce the cost to produce a flask-hour. If they get it right, the profit per flask-hour, or cost/income ratio, might remain stable.
The question is...just how good are they?
If they have some existing data regarding how many wasted flask-hours there are on a server (perhaps measuring how much time players are under the influence of a flask but NOT in a raid instance. not perfect, but perhaps indicative of trends), and they have existing data on the herb gathering rates on the server (easy to gather since blizz controls the spawns and the parameters that control how much herbs show up in the loot window), they just might be able to tweak the herb drop rate to keep price per flask-hour stable.
They need to address the Elixir Spec procs as well. The current procs provide between 2-10 extra flask-hours (or is it 2-8? whatever). If the new procs provide the same number of flasks, they'll be providing half the number of bonus flask-hours for the alchemist, in effect increasing the cost to produce a flask-hour.
Of course, it'll need some time to settle since the first week after the patch hits, all sorts of craziness will happen as people dump stockpiles of herbs or flasks (bad idea, craft them after the patch or else your existing flasks will change from 2 hour to 1 hour overnight), or other people try to jack with the market.
Also, we've got another, less easy to predict factor. Is Ulduar hard enough to drive demand for flask-hours up? That might totally skew the entire market. I'm thinking that demand will increase quite a bit, but that's pure speculation.
Or a new limiting reagent appears like Frost Lotus. So all the other herbs are plentiful, but Frost Lotus doesn't change. That then becomes the price driver for the flask market.
Since I farm my own herbs, have stockpiles galore, and I brew my own flasks, I'm excited by the change since my three hour raids will be less wasteful, but it will be interesting to watch what happens to the market.
My only hope is that Ulduar is hard enough. Or rather, that the hard modes are rewarding enough to encourage ongoing participation beyond the single achievement kill. Default Mode Ulduar will be only slightly more difficult than Naxx, which is good to allow access to wide audience and also to allow rich folks to buy farming spots months after the progression experience is gone.
If hard-mode Ulduar is both hard and rewarding, there's going to be lots of demand for flask-hours, which will benefit me if I choose to sell my raw herbs or my refined flasks.
Plus, flask-hour economics aside, its hard-mode content that I'm actually here for.
So WoW Insider reports that Flasks change in patch 3.1.
Old: Recipe crafts 1 flask. Flask lasts 2 hours. Flask-Hours / Materials = 2
New: Recipe crafts 2 flasks. Each flask lasts 1 hour. Flask-Hours / Materials = 2
In both the old and the new, the number of hours I can be under the influence of a flask is 2 for the same material cost.
So why predict a change in the market price of flasks?
Some anecdotal evidence to start off...
Reflecting on my own situation only, I will be wasting less flask-hours.
My raids are three hours in length. To be continuously under the influence of a flask, I need to drink two of them. However, one full flask-hour is totally wasted (well, technically it benefits me while questing or farming or doing BGs after the raid, but that is time I would not actively choose to have flask buff for).
Lets say I raid Ulduar 4 nights per week, 3 hours per night.
In the old configuration, I would drink two flasks (4 flask-hours) each night, and a total of 8 flasks (16 flask-hours) each week.
In the new configuration, I will drink three flasks (3 flask-hours) each night, and a total of 12 flasks (12 flask-hours) each week.
Time for some conjecture here
I'm going to guess that the average raid has a duration that is close to an exact multiple of 1 hour.
A much smaller set of raids have a duration close to an exact multiple of 2 hours.
Blizzard makes this change, and the result is much fewer wasted flask-hours. For my raid, 25% of my current flask consumption is pure waste. Given how easy things are, you might argue that 100% of my consumption is waste, but go do OS+3D with a progression group a couple times and then we have a chat.
Impact
In the current setup, demand is artificially boosted. I'm forced to consume 4 flask-hours when I only want to consume 3 flask-hours.
Its like bread companies selling buns in packs of six, and wiener companies selling hotdogs in packs of 8. They're artificially forcing you to purchase 2 extra items which often go to waste (unless I plan on having 24 hotdogs, or if I like eating peanut-butter-on-a-hotdog-bun sandwiches the day after I eat hotdogs. did i get that right? maybe its sliced up bunless hotdogs mixed in mac n cheese. i always forget which one comes extra since I always eat 24 at a time anyways).
Now that we can purchase in more efficient quantities, we will be consuming fewer (wasted) flask-hours.
So demand drops. If supply of flask-hours remains the same (same materials input will produce the same number of flask-hours output), price per flask-hour should drop.
But that's not all folks
Next they tell us that gathering a node will yield more herbs than in the past.
So the expected impact is that supply for mats for flasks will increase. If you look at this in a vacuum, and keep demand for flask-hours constant, that should reduce the price of a flask-hour.
But we're not in a vacuum. We just said above that the demand for flask-hours will drop.
Hmmmm.
Lower demand for flask hours, this reduces the price for flask-hours. But then reduce the cost to produce a flask-hour. If they get it right, the profit per flask-hour, or cost/income ratio, might remain stable.
Just how good are the economists at Blizzard?
The question is...just how good are they?
If they have some existing data regarding how many wasted flask-hours there are on a server (perhaps measuring how much time players are under the influence of a flask but NOT in a raid instance. not perfect, but perhaps indicative of trends), and they have existing data on the herb gathering rates on the server (easy to gather since blizz controls the spawns and the parameters that control how much herbs show up in the loot window), they just might be able to tweak the herb drop rate to keep price per flask-hour stable.
They need to address the Elixir Spec procs as well. The current procs provide between 2-10 extra flask-hours (or is it 2-8? whatever). If the new procs provide the same number of flasks, they'll be providing half the number of bonus flask-hours for the alchemist, in effect increasing the cost to produce a flask-hour.
Of course, it'll need some time to settle since the first week after the patch hits, all sorts of craziness will happen as people dump stockpiles of herbs or flasks (bad idea, craft them after the patch or else your existing flasks will change from 2 hour to 1 hour overnight), or other people try to jack with the market.
Also, we've got another, less easy to predict factor. Is Ulduar hard enough to drive demand for flask-hours up? That might totally skew the entire market. I'm thinking that demand will increase quite a bit, but that's pure speculation.
Or a new limiting reagent appears like Frost Lotus. So all the other herbs are plentiful, but Frost Lotus doesn't change. That then becomes the price driver for the flask market.
Its enough to make you go crosseyed
Since I farm my own herbs, have stockpiles galore, and I brew my own flasks, I'm excited by the change since my three hour raids will be less wasteful, but it will be interesting to watch what happens to the market.
My only hope is that Ulduar is hard enough. Or rather, that the hard modes are rewarding enough to encourage ongoing participation beyond the single achievement kill. Default Mode Ulduar will be only slightly more difficult than Naxx, which is good to allow access to wide audience and also to allow rich folks to buy farming spots months after the progression experience is gone.
If hard-mode Ulduar is both hard and rewarding, there's going to be lots of demand for flask-hours, which will benefit me if I choose to sell my raw herbs or my refined flasks.
Plus, flask-hour economics aside, its hard-mode content that I'm actually here for.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Who Moved My Cheese?
So, how yall doin with the patch 3.1 stuff comin out?
Some people absolutely thrive on getting access to new stuff as soon as humanly possible. There's new armor and weapon art to look at. New dungeon and boss encounters. Changes to talent specs, spells, abilities, stats, whatnot. A tournament world event thing, involving championing the city of your choice. Profession changes. Changes to hunter pets, ammo, quivers. Changes to glyphs glyphs glyphs. Dual Specs.
All sorts of changes.
And if you follow WoW Insider or more than one or two blogs, the hype surrounding each and every change is out of control.
Really? Breaking???
A large passenger jet recently crashed into a residential neighborhood near where I live, causing a .5 mile fireball, killing everyone on board and injuring/killing people on the ground and destroying houses. Complete tragedy for the family and friends of those involved, heroic effort by fire fighters to limit the extent of the damages to the surrounding area, and caused a big impact on the whole community.
I'm gonna say that that initial news report warranted the label "BREAKING".
Video game patch? Not so much.
But I do understand that many of us take the game seriously, so we'll let it slide.
I've mentioned that many of my guildies are hitting the PTR to see Ulduar. Given the hours we raid (max 12 weekly), we don't try to compete for server firsts or anything, but we do like to push ourselves to get the most out of the time we do have. So we'll hopefully see a few encounters on the PTR to help the early days of live server action.
Having never done that before, I'm a little excited to try it out. Sure, like one of the readers here pointed out, that might lead to experiencing doldrums or boredom more quickly after patch 3.1 is released, but I'm willing to give it a whirl.
We're already seeing posts cropping up about business opportunities. Such and such item is changing, which means so and so material will drop/rise in value so TAKE ACTION NOW!!!!! And the climate will only get more and more urgent as the business folk discover more and more impacts on the economy.
Sure, if you are able to anticipate changes, you can make or save a pretty penny.
Your average player? Probably not that concerned, other than maybe learning about some new daily quests that'll come out to grind out a minimum wage.
The rich will get richer, the folks who only care about having enough dough to enchant and repair won't really give a hoot. I think I count as middle class maybe, somewhere in between the true rich and the i-cant-respec-back-to-my-raid-job-because-i'm-broke ppl, having enough money for frivolity, but earned via gathering and questing rather than buy low/sell high or whatever. I doubt the middle class cares too much about the patches.
This post was actually inspired by one of the dozens and dozens of "3.1 PTR" posts at WoW Insider. This one.
Seems like they might change Fool For Love title to require only 6 out of 8 candies, which means that when I log into the live patch 3.1, I'll instantly be a fool for love, since I've got 7/8 candies at the moment.
And I think that annoys me.
Not game changing in any way shape or form. Nobody's house blew up or any airplanes crashing.
The seasonal event came and went, for better or worse, you either got it or didnt. Sure, I, like many others, felt the seasonal event was soured by the short duration and total dependence on the random number who-haa.
But its over. And it was soured. It gets no less sour by granting me the title after the fact by altering the requirements.
Its like competing in the olympics, not getting gold medal, then 6 months later, video review of the race shows that the gold medal winner stepped his foot out of bounds so he's disqualified and you win gold....6 months later.
Yes, you carry the achievement with you forever, and you hang the gold medal in your trophy room or wear the title around azeroth.
But the moment came and went, and you missed out on it. I highly doubt you'll get a Wheaties box picture 6 months later.
Getting the Lover title months after the event ended will just be stupid and anticlimactic.
I might feel differently if I was trying to get the reward for all the seasonal stuff (special mount, maybe????), but I'm not in the brew of the month club, so that'll be waiting at least until September 2010 I think, and who knows if I'll even be playing WoW at that point?
I seem to always get annoyed by all the hype when big patches first hit the PTR.
This patch is the first big content patch where I'm part of a guild that's cleared everything up to this point and ready to jump in head first, and I think that actually has me even more annoyed by the hype, which seems counter intuitive.
But I suppose that's me....counter-intuitive and fearing of change.
After I finished this post, I read another at WoW Insider, which has now been removed from my feed reader for the next week. No Soup for Insider! One Week!
Luckily, enough regular bloggers write about incoming changes, so I likely won't miss out on any breaking news ;-)
Normal mounts won't dismount when landing in water. Cool.
New aquatic mount added to game. Also cool.
Inferring that this means the next expansion pack will be about some Maelstrom or whatever? Are you $#@#$ing kidding me?
Whether true or not...its just ludicrous!
LK has been out for ~3 months. And they're already leaping to conclusions and making half-assed extrapolations about the next one.
And I though it was only jack@ss bloggers who did shoddy research and then made outrageous incorrect claims.
Some people absolutely thrive on getting access to new stuff as soon as humanly possible. There's new armor and weapon art to look at. New dungeon and boss encounters. Changes to talent specs, spells, abilities, stats, whatnot. A tournament world event thing, involving championing the city of your choice. Profession changes. Changes to hunter pets, ammo, quivers. Changes to glyphs glyphs glyphs. Dual Specs.
All sorts of changes.
And if you follow WoW Insider or more than one or two blogs, the hype surrounding each and every change is out of control.
BREAKING NEWS
Really? Breaking???
A large passenger jet recently crashed into a residential neighborhood near where I live, causing a .5 mile fireball, killing everyone on board and injuring/killing people on the ground and destroying houses. Complete tragedy for the family and friends of those involved, heroic effort by fire fighters to limit the extent of the damages to the surrounding area, and caused a big impact on the whole community.
I'm gonna say that that initial news report warranted the label "BREAKING".
Video game patch? Not so much.
But I do understand that many of us take the game seriously, so we'll let it slide.
Anything good in there?
I've mentioned that many of my guildies are hitting the PTR to see Ulduar. Given the hours we raid (max 12 weekly), we don't try to compete for server firsts or anything, but we do like to push ourselves to get the most out of the time we do have. So we'll hopefully see a few encounters on the PTR to help the early days of live server action.
Having never done that before, I'm a little excited to try it out. Sure, like one of the readers here pointed out, that might lead to experiencing doldrums or boredom more quickly after patch 3.1 is released, but I'm willing to give it a whirl.
What about the business opportunity?
We're already seeing posts cropping up about business opportunities. Such and such item is changing, which means so and so material will drop/rise in value so TAKE ACTION NOW!!!!! And the climate will only get more and more urgent as the business folk discover more and more impacts on the economy.
Sure, if you are able to anticipate changes, you can make or save a pretty penny.
Your average player? Probably not that concerned, other than maybe learning about some new daily quests that'll come out to grind out a minimum wage.
The rich will get richer, the folks who only care about having enough dough to enchant and repair won't really give a hoot. I think I count as middle class maybe, somewhere in between the true rich and the i-cant-respec-back-to-my-raid-job-because-i'm-broke ppl, having enough money for frivolity, but earned via gathering and questing rather than buy low/sell high or whatever. I doubt the middle class cares too much about the patches.
The only one I actually care about
This post was actually inspired by one of the dozens and dozens of "3.1 PTR" posts at WoW Insider. This one.
Seems like they might change Fool For Love title to require only 6 out of 8 candies, which means that when I log into the live patch 3.1, I'll instantly be a fool for love, since I've got 7/8 candies at the moment.
And I think that annoys me.
Not game changing in any way shape or form. Nobody's house blew up or any airplanes crashing.
The seasonal event came and went, for better or worse, you either got it or didnt. Sure, I, like many others, felt the seasonal event was soured by the short duration and total dependence on the random number who-haa.
But its over. And it was soured. It gets no less sour by granting me the title after the fact by altering the requirements.
Its like competing in the olympics, not getting gold medal, then 6 months later, video review of the race shows that the gold medal winner stepped his foot out of bounds so he's disqualified and you win gold....6 months later.
Yes, you carry the achievement with you forever, and you hang the gold medal in your trophy room or wear the title around azeroth.
But the moment came and went, and you missed out on it. I highly doubt you'll get a Wheaties box picture 6 months later.
Getting the Lover title months after the event ended will just be stupid and anticlimactic.
I might feel differently if I was trying to get the reward for all the seasonal stuff (special mount, maybe????), but I'm not in the brew of the month club, so that'll be waiting at least until September 2010 I think, and who knows if I'll even be playing WoW at that point?
Who Moved My Cheese?
I seem to always get annoyed by all the hype when big patches first hit the PTR.
This patch is the first big content patch where I'm part of a guild that's cleared everything up to this point and ready to jump in head first, and I think that actually has me even more annoyed by the hype, which seems counter intuitive.
But I suppose that's me....counter-intuitive and fearing of change.
MUST. STOP. READING.
After I finished this post, I read another at WoW Insider, which has now been removed from my feed reader for the next week. No Soup for Insider! One Week!
Luckily, enough regular bloggers write about incoming changes, so I likely won't miss out on any breaking news ;-)
Normal mounts won't dismount when landing in water. Cool.
New aquatic mount added to game. Also cool.
Inferring that this means the next expansion pack will be about some Maelstrom or whatever? Are you $#@#$ing kidding me?
Whether true or not...its just ludicrous!
LK has been out for ~3 months. And they're already leaping to conclusions and making half-assed extrapolations about the next one.
And I though it was only jack@ss bloggers who did shoddy research and then made outrageous incorrect claims.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
3.1 - I suppose I'll have to chime in
Ok, patch notes. 3.1? or is it 3.0.9? Who can tell lately with all the change?
1) Ammo (pouch-b-gone) - Sweet. Getting another 22 bag slots (my sack is, indeed, gigantique) will be very cool. Especially as I grind out a full set of PvP gear that I generally want to have with me at all times incase Horde wants to Waltz Matilda by my Titanium node.
2) Sniper Training - Excuse me? Did I just hear you say "stand still for six seconds before this ability even kicks in?" So for a benchmark fight like Patchwerk, if you kill the boss in 2:53, then you'll be benefiting for 2:47, which is nice. For any other fight, do you ever stand still for 6 consecutive seconds? Maybe here and there. But 6 is only the beginning of the benefit. Do you ever stand still for 10 consecutive seconds, during which you'll actually get a return on your talent points for 4 seconds? This talent goes from "fun dance to try to remain at max distance which really feels like a mile away when you've got Hawk Eye" to "prolly not gonna take it".
3) Ammo (not consumable) - Still sweet. If you're not an engineer. I just might have to flip my favorite engineer a sweet tip when the patch hits, just to soften the blow of the dried up revenue stream.
4) Beast Master Buffs - BM looks like it'll get better. But predictions are that SV will remain on top DPS-wise. Assuming they keep Explosive Shot reasonable.
5) Hunting Party - This depends greatly upon your raid needs. My raid leader said it'd be best if I did NOT invest points here, since we reliably have two other mana batteries in our raid. The patch notes say it'll also grant a passive bonus to the Hunter. Will this passive bonus be mana-regen related? Unless Ulduar changes things drastically (yes, please!) mana is a non-issue. Aspect of the Viper gets used between trash pulls, and that's about it lately. When beginning Naxx, I'd use it from time to time. In fights where we lose 50% of the DPS and the raid leader doesn't call for a wipe, mana is an issue. So meh on this one.
I think that's it. If I find anything else of note, I'll complain about/cheer for it in a future post.
1) Ammo (pouch-b-gone) - Sweet. Getting another 22 bag slots (my sack is, indeed, gigantique) will be very cool. Especially as I grind out a full set of PvP gear that I generally want to have with me at all times incase Horde wants to Waltz Matilda by my Titanium node.
2) Sniper Training - Excuse me? Did I just hear you say "stand still for six seconds before this ability even kicks in?" So for a benchmark fight like Patchwerk, if you kill the boss in 2:53, then you'll be benefiting for 2:47, which is nice. For any other fight, do you ever stand still for 6 consecutive seconds? Maybe here and there. But 6 is only the beginning of the benefit. Do you ever stand still for 10 consecutive seconds, during which you'll actually get a return on your talent points for 4 seconds? This talent goes from "fun dance to try to remain at max distance which really feels like a mile away when you've got Hawk Eye" to "prolly not gonna take it".
3) Ammo (not consumable) - Still sweet. If you're not an engineer. I just might have to flip my favorite engineer a sweet tip when the patch hits, just to soften the blow of the dried up revenue stream.
4) Beast Master Buffs - BM looks like it'll get better. But predictions are that SV will remain on top DPS-wise. Assuming they keep Explosive Shot reasonable.
5) Hunting Party - This depends greatly upon your raid needs. My raid leader said it'd be best if I did NOT invest points here, since we reliably have two other mana batteries in our raid. The patch notes say it'll also grant a passive bonus to the Hunter. Will this passive bonus be mana-regen related? Unless Ulduar changes things drastically (yes, please!) mana is a non-issue. Aspect of the Viper gets used between trash pulls, and that's about it lately. When beginning Naxx, I'd use it from time to time. In fights where we lose 50% of the DPS and the raid leader doesn't call for a wipe, mana is an issue. So meh on this one.
I think that's it. If I find anything else of note, I'll complain about/cheer for it in a future post.
Monday, January 26, 2009
The abuse of a phrase
Throughout the WoW community, you cant escape hearing the phrase "min/max".
Since patch 3.0.8 came out, the phrase is appearing more and more frequently, specifically with regards to Hunter DPS output.
When I first started playing WoW, I never heard the term before, but over time, you infer from context that it means something along the lines of pursuing things that provide maximum results while avoiding just about everything else, and the connotation that came along with it is that a person trying to min/max is a d0uche bag who would slit their own mother's throat for a .3% crit increase.
Hearing the term so much lately, I actually looked it up, and hopefully I found the right entry because it has some really interesting background in games theory (if you're really interested in that sort of thing), although I bet most of the people throwing the term around have little to no exposure to the formal maths.
So, Hunters.
A class that primarily brings DPS to the table. Also some CC ability, some frenzy dispel, misdirection, yadda yadda yadda. But the chief reason we are in the raid is to provide DPS.
If bosses are not dying, raid leaders will investigate why.
If the analysis shows that the boss dies due to lack of damage output (enrage timer reached, too many of Sarth's i-kill-you-now effects occur cuz you dont kill shadron fast enough, etc), then the performance of the DPS players will be called into question.
Damage meters, web stats reports, and whatever other tools, will illustrate trends.
If you are a DPS player, with a primary goal of providing enough damage to kill the boss, and with no other roles you can spec or gear into, what trend would you like the analysis tools to illustrate?
The general consensus is that DPS players would like to be at or near the top of the damage production spectrum.
Meter-topping ego-stroking epeen is one thing.
Happily sitting below the top, but within a tight pack of well-performing DPS players is another.
Competing with the tanks for last place is yet a third.
Situation A: you are consistently second on the damage meter for your raid, and the #1 guy is consistently 100 DPS above you. You love your professions so you keep them where they are (tailoring hunter, ftw), you adore your spec as it fits your personality/style and the RP story of your toon, and you refuse to equip a gun because the noise is annoying.
Situation B: you are consistently second on the damage meter for your raid, and the #1 guy is consistently 100 DPS above you. So you drop Herbalism, a profession you really enjoy, and take up Leatherworking, which you find to be boring as hell, because LW gives you a fur lining to your bracers that increases your damage output by 10 or 20 DPS.
Situation C: you were consistently producing >5K DPS on Patchwerk, and at or near the top of a very strong DPS team that's knocking on the doorstep of the Quickwerk achievement (3 more seconds is all we need to shave). Blizzard rho-sham-bows you square in the bean bag and you find your old spec and techniques to be producing 40% less, making it tough to distinguish your damage meter line from that of a resto druid with no offensive spells on her action bars, just using thorns and pulling healer aggro. So you drop your preferred and comfortable spec and techniques, adopt a new routine, and write a new chapter in the RP story of your toon's life to justify the change, because said changes bring your output back to nearly the same level it was before the crotch kick.
Questions:
Are any of those players min/maxing?
Are any of those players a slacker?
Are any of those players a wh0re?
Answers:
Yes.
No.
and, No, but if player C could get paid for it, I...er...i mean...he/she...most certainly would.
I'm hugely amused at the conversation in BRK's comment threads reflecting on the 3.0.8 changes. So many die-hards of a given spec call people who migrate to another spec a "minmaxer" and use the phrase as an almost derogatory term.
If the difference between SV and BM was even vaguely close, I'd be willing to stipulate that the immigrants are min/maxing.
But its not even close.
Both the theorycrafters (who min/max, and I love them for it) and practical experience agree.
Its not even close.
Since patch 3.0.8 came out, the phrase is appearing more and more frequently, specifically with regards to Hunter DPS output.
When I first started playing WoW, I never heard the term before, but over time, you infer from context that it means something along the lines of pursuing things that provide maximum results while avoiding just about everything else, and the connotation that came along with it is that a person trying to min/max is a d0uche bag who would slit their own mother's throat for a .3% crit increase.
Hearing the term so much lately, I actually looked it up, and hopefully I found the right entry because it has some really interesting background in games theory (if you're really interested in that sort of thing), although I bet most of the people throwing the term around have little to no exposure to the formal maths.
So, Hunters.
A class that primarily brings DPS to the table. Also some CC ability, some frenzy dispel, misdirection, yadda yadda yadda. But the chief reason we are in the raid is to provide DPS.
Long-Term Raid Invites Are Contingent Upon Performance
If bosses are not dying, raid leaders will investigate why.
If the analysis shows that the boss dies due to lack of damage output (enrage timer reached, too many of Sarth's i-kill-you-now effects occur cuz you dont kill shadron fast enough, etc), then the performance of the DPS players will be called into question.
Damage meters, web stats reports, and whatever other tools, will illustrate trends.
If you are a DPS player, with a primary goal of providing enough damage to kill the boss, and with no other roles you can spec or gear into, what trend would you like the analysis tools to illustrate?
The general consensus is that DPS players would like to be at or near the top of the damage production spectrum.
Meter-topping ego-stroking epeen is one thing.
Happily sitting below the top, but within a tight pack of well-performing DPS players is another.
Competing with the tanks for last place is yet a third.
Making choices that influence DPS by 20-40% shall not be dubbed "minmaxing"
Situation A: you are consistently second on the damage meter for your raid, and the #1 guy is consistently 100 DPS above you. You love your professions so you keep them where they are (tailoring hunter, ftw), you adore your spec as it fits your personality/style and the RP story of your toon, and you refuse to equip a gun because the noise is annoying.
Situation B: you are consistently second on the damage meter for your raid, and the #1 guy is consistently 100 DPS above you. So you drop Herbalism, a profession you really enjoy, and take up Leatherworking, which you find to be boring as hell, because LW gives you a fur lining to your bracers that increases your damage output by 10 or 20 DPS.
Situation C: you were consistently producing >5K DPS on Patchwerk, and at or near the top of a very strong DPS team that's knocking on the doorstep of the Quickwerk achievement (3 more seconds is all we need to shave). Blizzard rho-sham-bows you square in the bean bag and you find your old spec and techniques to be producing 40% less, making it tough to distinguish your damage meter line from that of a resto druid with no offensive spells on her action bars, just using thorns and pulling healer aggro. So you drop your preferred and comfortable spec and techniques, adopt a new routine, and write a new chapter in the RP story of your toon's life to justify the change, because said changes bring your output back to nearly the same level it was before the crotch kick.
Questions:
Are any of those players min/maxing?
Are any of those players a slacker?
Are any of those players a wh0re?
Answers:
Yes.
No.
and, No, but if player C could get paid for it, I...er...i mean...he/she...most certainly would.
Its not even close
I'm hugely amused at the conversation in BRK's comment threads reflecting on the 3.0.8 changes. So many die-hards of a given spec call people who migrate to another spec a "minmaxer" and use the phrase as an almost derogatory term.
If the difference between SV and BM was even vaguely close, I'd be willing to stipulate that the immigrants are min/maxing.
But its not even close.
Both the theorycrafters (who min/max, and I love them for it) and practical experience agree.
Its not even close.
Friday, January 23, 2009
It keeps getting sillier and sillier
Yeah, yet another day of writing a post, having things totally change between time of writing and time of posting, and then just deciding to wing it and brain dump here.
1) MM spec lasted about 4 minutes into the raid. When Brass and I came up with the plan for him to go SV and me to go MM, we pretty quickly saw the theorycrafters touting that SV is about 1k dps higher than MM. But we wanted to try it out anyways.
2) No dice. Half way through the trash in OS25+3, I asked for a portal to Ironforge. Welcome to the world of SV.
3) Worked for 2 hours on Sartharion plus three Drakes. This fight remains the coolest in the game so far.
4) However it is not cool when a patch alters what setting of spell detail video configuration is required to see the fissures (fire on ground, bad to die in). While I wasn't the only one to die due to the issue, I was the first, which when combined with a shaky start and a respec, is nerve wracking.
5) Set spell detail to a mid setting. Death and Decay is nearly impossible to discern from fissure, so just pretend DnD is fire also and run out of it.
6) We're consistently around 20 seconds away from having the three drakes fight under out belts. Make it past that next 20 seconds and the complexity and awful debuffs reduce considerably. We're gonna do it. Soon.
7) SV performed outstanding. Sarth plus drakes remains terrible for Hunters, so Iwon't really comment there. Archavon after the raid. Brass posted 5.2K DPS which f'ing rules. I put up a healthy 4.2K, which I am very happy for, considering I am completely unfamiliar with the spec and rotation and such.
8) More to come about my progress as a Survival Hunter!
1) MM spec lasted about 4 minutes into the raid. When Brass and I came up with the plan for him to go SV and me to go MM, we pretty quickly saw the theorycrafters touting that SV is about 1k dps higher than MM. But we wanted to try it out anyways.
2) No dice. Half way through the trash in OS25+3, I asked for a portal to Ironforge. Welcome to the world of SV.
3) Worked for 2 hours on Sartharion plus three Drakes. This fight remains the coolest in the game so far.
4) However it is not cool when a patch alters what setting of spell detail video configuration is required to see the fissures (fire on ground, bad to die in). While I wasn't the only one to die due to the issue, I was the first, which when combined with a shaky start and a respec, is nerve wracking.
5) Set spell detail to a mid setting. Death and Decay is nearly impossible to discern from fissure, so just pretend DnD is fire also and run out of it.
6) We're consistently around 20 seconds away from having the three drakes fight under out belts. Make it past that next 20 seconds and the complexity and awful debuffs reduce considerably. We're gonna do it. Soon.
7) SV performed outstanding. Sarth plus drakes remains terrible for Hunters, so Iwon't really comment there. Archavon after the raid. Brass posted 5.2K DPS which f'ing rules. I put up a healthy 4.2K, which I am very happy for, considering I am completely unfamiliar with the spec and rotation and such.
8) More to come about my progress as a Survival Hunter!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Keep moving your feet
Lacking inspiration to write a real post, but not wanting to let my annoyance at having to learn a new spec the day before a 3 Drakes progression run completely stop me in my tracks, here ya go:
1) The plan: I go MM, Brass goes SV. If one spec dominates, we both go there, if they're equal'ish, we probably stay split for different utility. SV seems to be DPS King according to the theorycrafters, by a big margin, but we'll still work this plan until that King is clear to us.
2) So far, MM is strange and awkward. Part of that is just getting acclimated to the new spec, part of that is because its strange and awkward. First observations: (A) Burst is fantastic. I've got 3 instants (Chimera, Arcane, and Aimed) for big bang. (B) Mana is gone instantly. Kill three trash mobs and OOM using the recommended rotation. (C) It doesnt matter, because if I take on three mobs, my pet is dead before the second mob dies.
Will reserve judgment until I see it in action in a raid setting.
3) Cooking. In a happy moment, today's daily rewarded a base of 2xDalaran, plus my spice bag had 1xDalaran, thus accelerating the Chef title by two days. Unless there's another happy ending to friday's daily, I'll be Chef Amava on saturday.
4) That's all I got. Still grumpy and pouty, but trying to learn from sites like Stabilized Effort Scope and ElitistJerks on how to be a Marksman.
1) The plan: I go MM, Brass goes SV. If one spec dominates, we both go there, if they're equal'ish, we probably stay split for different utility. SV seems to be DPS King according to the theorycrafters, by a big margin, but we'll still work this plan until that King is clear to us.
2) So far, MM is strange and awkward. Part of that is just getting acclimated to the new spec, part of that is because its strange and awkward. First observations: (A) Burst is fantastic. I've got 3 instants (Chimera, Arcane, and Aimed) for big bang. (B) Mana is gone instantly. Kill three trash mobs and OOM using the recommended rotation. (C) It doesnt matter, because if I take on three mobs, my pet is dead before the second mob dies.
Will reserve judgment until I see it in action in a raid setting.
3) Cooking. In a happy moment, today's daily rewarded a base of 2xDalaran, plus my spice bag had 1xDalaran, thus accelerating the Chef title by two days. Unless there's another happy ending to friday's daily, I'll be Chef Amava on saturday.
4) That's all I got. Still grumpy and pouty, but trying to learn from sites like Stabilized Effort Scope and ElitistJerks on how to be a Marksman.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
R.I.P. Beast Mastery
I predicted a roughly 15% DPS decrease due to the 3.0.8 nerf.
Tonight's Patchwerk kill would indicate that I was wrong.
Last week: 5.3K DPS
This week: 3.3K DPS
Decrease: 2.0K (38% decrease)
It was not a pretty sight at Amava's house :-(
Tonight's Patchwerk kill would indicate that I was wrong.
Last week: 5.3K DPS
This week: 3.3K DPS
Decrease: 2.0K (38% decrease)
It was not a pretty sight at Amava's house :-(
Monday, December 29, 2008
Bug Fixes Bring Smiles
Ok, its no secret that I get into the game a little too deeply. Hey, we don't judge around here, so you don't either :-)
Valdesta at WoWGrrl posts her usual copy of the patch notes for 3.0.8, which is immensely helpful to those of us who do our reading from behind a corporate firewall. Thank you!
The inner nerd comes out more than usual when reading over patch notes, specifically when I come across a change or bugfix that I've personally encountered. I have no idea why its as amusing as it is, but so be it.
Rock on. I know, its a small tiny change. And its hardly directed at me, my alchemist is still sitting on my old server :-(
But how annoying was it to scrape together your mats for a flask shortly before a raid, only to discover that your alchemist friend is already at the summoning stone with hearth on cooldown?
For items like flasks, that're needed right then and there for a raid, removing the need for a lab is a good idea.
Stuff like special cloths that need a loom, I suppose I'm still ok with needing to travel to the loom since these items are generally made over time while trying to craft a piece of gear, or just make cloth for profit. They're not so much a "i need this right now and 24 other people are waiting on me" kind of thing.
You can now open them while shadomelded (lol) or flying or mounted (yay).
How annoying to be twiddling your thumbs during a flight on a hippogryph, scan through your bags, find some clams that you can't do anything with.
Sure, this doesn't make or break the game, but this post is about nerdy giddiness at reading patch notes pertaining to personal annoyances. /applaud
Fixed a bug with a Wild Mustard plant that was under the ground in Dalaran.
Love it. That one stupid plant has pissed me off every time they've put up this daily. Now it's lootable, and I can haz joy.
Every time we pass through the frogger boss (slow moving, very predictable slime balls that one shot you if you touch them. invariably we lose one or two players to the frogger boss every week) in the Plague Wing of Naxxramas, somebody will drop a comment on how the next few mobs are all wacked out and don't have Heroic values for how hard they hit or health or whatever.
Well, now it'll be fixed. So we've got that going for us. Which is nice.
The daily quest, "Shoo[s]t 'Em Up" now only requires 15 Jotunheim Proto-Drakes to be shot down, down from 20. As well, the harpoon now only costs 5 energy to shoot, down from10.
Ahhh, so very nice. This quest pisses me of on so many levels.
Firstly, I gotta log out, disable addons, and then come back in.
Secondly, the left-right range of the guns is always f'ed up, as in, you can train totally to the right, way way far, but left-wise, you can only go a smidge past center. Awful.
Thirdly, the stupid harpoons shoot behind and below the aiming point. So you're trying to lead your target like a good Quarterback or Gunner, only to have the harpoons shoot directly at where your target is at the moment of trigger-pull. Stupid.
Fourthly, that hateful voice telling me I don't have enough energy. Ok, ok, I get it. I'm spamming #3 endlessly and there's no bullets. Ok, STFU!!!
Fifthly, I gotta log out, re-enable addons after I'm done.
So changing the energy per shot and number of kills is pure win in my book. Now just make the vehicle interface easier for addon authors to comply with, and I'm all yours.
Ok, no giddiness here.
Laid out all in a nice and neat Blizzard press release, it hurts to look at.
Forget my earlier theorycrafting the predicts a 15.6% decrease in my DPS. It was probably all wrong anyways, plus my gear has changed so much since then, it'll be impossible to actually verify.
But seeing the patch notes makes it feel like too much is being done all at once. Mayhaps they should make just a small change, assess the results, and then continue if necessary. Oh well, life goes on.
So anybody else get gigglywhen "working" the day after xmas in a totally empty office when seeing personally appropriate items in the patch notes?
Valdesta at WoWGrrl posts her usual copy of the patch notes for 3.0.8, which is immensely helpful to those of us who do our reading from behind a corporate firewall. Thank you!
The inner nerd comes out more than usual when reading over patch notes, specifically when I come across a change or bugfix that I've personally encountered. I have no idea why its as amusing as it is, but so be it.
No Alchemy Lab Needed for Flasks
Rock on. I know, its a small tiny change. And its hardly directed at me, my alchemist is still sitting on my old server :-(
But how annoying was it to scrape together your mats for a flask shortly before a raid, only to discover that your alchemist friend is already at the summoning stone with hearth on cooldown?
For items like flasks, that're needed right then and there for a raid, removing the need for a lab is a good idea.
Stuff like special cloths that need a loom, I suppose I'm still ok with needing to travel to the loom since these items are generally made over time while trying to craft a piece of gear, or just make cloth for profit. They're not so much a "i need this right now and 24 other people are waiting on me" kind of thing.
Clams
You can now open them while shadomelded (lol) or flying or mounted (yay).
How annoying to be twiddling your thumbs during a flight on a hippogryph, scan through your bags, find some clams that you can't do anything with.
Sure, this doesn't make or break the game, but this post is about nerdy giddiness at reading patch notes pertaining to personal annoyances. /applaud
Unlootable Wild Mustard Plant
Fixed a bug with a Wild Mustard plant that was under the ground in Dalaran.
Love it. That one stupid plant has pissed me off every time they've put up this daily. Now it's lootable, and I can haz joy.
Naxx mobs with no Heroic values
Every time we pass through the frogger boss (slow moving, very predictable slime balls that one shot you if you touch them. invariably we lose one or two players to the frogger boss every week) in the Plague Wing of Naxxramas, somebody will drop a comment on how the next few mobs are all wacked out and don't have Heroic values for how hard they hit or health or whatever.
Well, now it'll be fixed. So we've got that going for us. Which is nice.
Shoost Em Up, now with more Shoosting
The daily quest, "Shoo[s]t 'Em Up" now only requires 15 Jotunheim Proto-Drakes to be shot down, down from 20. As well, the harpoon now only costs 5 energy to shoot, down from10.
Ahhh, so very nice. This quest pisses me of on so many levels.
Firstly, I gotta log out, disable addons, and then come back in.
Secondly, the left-right range of the guns is always f'ed up, as in, you can train totally to the right, way way far, but left-wise, you can only go a smidge past center. Awful.
Thirdly, the stupid harpoons shoot behind and below the aiming point. So you're trying to lead your target like a good Quarterback or Gunner, only to have the harpoons shoot directly at where your target is at the moment of trigger-pull. Stupid.
Fourthly, that hateful voice telling me I don't have enough energy. Ok, ok, I get it. I'm spamming #3 endlessly and there's no bullets. Ok, STFU!!!
Fifthly, I gotta log out, re-enable addons after I'm done.
So changing the energy per shot and number of kills is pure win in my book. Now just make the vehicle interface easier for addon authors to comply with, and I'm all yours.
Hunter Changes
Ok, no giddiness here.
Laid out all in a nice and neat Blizzard press release, it hurts to look at.
Forget my earlier theorycrafting the predicts a 15.6% decrease in my DPS. It was probably all wrong anyways, plus my gear has changed so much since then, it'll be impossible to actually verify.
But seeing the patch notes makes it feel like too much is being done all at once. Mayhaps they should make just a small change, assess the results, and then continue if necessary. Oh well, life goes on.
Nerds, Unite!
So anybody else get giggly
Thursday, December 11, 2008
A closer look at the Hunter Nerf
Alternate title: Is when I get mathematical
Ok, so a post at Chain Trap containing the mechanics of Steady Shot's calculation got me to thinking...
Steady Shot Damage = Unmodified Weapon Damage + Ammo + (Ranged Attack Power * %multiplier) + 252
I haven't verified if the formula is correct, but I'm trusting Chain Trap on this one, he's normally very reliable. And if the formula is wrong, its not the only place that this post is built on shaky ground.
The spreadsheet screenshot below contains some hard data such as my Ranged Weapon and Ammo, and some estimates such as my raid buffed Ranged Attack Power and the % contribution that Steady Shot makes to my overall damage output.
Steady's contribution varies wildly as encounter mobility requirements change, but 30% is a reasonable estimate based off of some recent WWS reports of OS and Naxx runs.
The estimate for Ranged Attack Power was taken from a snapshot I took on Tuesday's Naxx-25 raid while "at rest", that is to say that none of the Attack Power enhancers that're either on-use or that crop up as other players or pets to stuff during combat are in effect. Naturally this will vary wildly as the raid composition changes and as I use trinkets and other synergistic capabilities activate.
10.3%
Ouch. 10% is a lot.
And when you also factor in the changes to Pets and Cats in particular?
Much less scientific than my little spreadsheet, but off the cuff....
Kindred Spirits will reduce my kitty by 5%. Estimate that she's 30% of my damage, that's 1.5% reduction to overall.
Rake reduced, Kill Shot buffed - lets just call this a wash of +1% and -1% so its a net 0%.
Serpent's Swiftness will be 10% less attack speed bonus. I don't have access to any real theorycrafting reference right now, so lets just throw a dart at the wall and come up with.....this equates to 3% reduction in pet dps, equating to roughly 1% overall reduction.
And Bestial Wrath not linked to Readiness. BW gives 50% more damage output for 18 seconds. Readiness allows me to get an extra BW every 3 minutes...according to my calculations, that will reduce my DPS by 4.8% (again, I'm sure the theorycrafters have proven this more rigorously than I have, but I'm trying here, people). That does not take into any consideration how BW conserves mana, thus leading to additional long-term DPS due to less time in Viper. That kind of math is just too hard for me today.
And lastly, Improved Tracking. A flat out 3% dps increase I am willing to claim, however I'll have to find the points to move there, which for lack of any better estimation and I don't even know what 3 points it'll be yet, lets just say that moving those three costs me 1% dps, resulting in a net 2% increase. Fair?
Overall Impact
Steady Shot: -10.3%
Kindred Spirits: -1.5%
Serpent's Swiftness: -1%
BW / Readiness: -4.8%
Improved Tracking: +2%
TOTAL: -15.6%
Yuck
(A) That's too much. Despite my recent epeen post, I am consistently out-damaged by two of our Shadow Priests, Retribution Paladin, Fury Warrior, Rogue, and other BM Hunter (lol). Sure, our gear levels vary greatly, and the fights that we each excel at favor our class/spec in different ways, but 15.6% reduction is too much IMO.
(B) Its all good. Just gonna have to keep progressing that Improvement Plan, I suppose.
Ok, so a post at Chain Trap containing the mechanics of Steady Shot's calculation got me to thinking...
Steady Shot Damage = Unmodified Weapon Damage + Ammo + (Ranged Attack Power * %multiplier) + 252
I haven't verified if the formula is correct, but I'm trusting Chain Trap on this one, he's normally very reliable. And if the formula is wrong, its not the only place that this post is built on shaky ground.
The spreadsheet screenshot below contains some hard data such as my Ranged Weapon and Ammo, and some estimates such as my raid buffed Ranged Attack Power and the % contribution that Steady Shot makes to my overall damage output.
Steady's contribution varies wildly as encounter mobility requirements change, but 30% is a reasonable estimate based off of some recent WWS reports of OS and Naxx runs.
The estimate for Ranged Attack Power was taken from a snapshot I took on Tuesday's Naxx-25 raid while "at rest", that is to say that none of the Attack Power enhancers that're either on-use or that crop up as other players or pets to stuff during combat are in effect. Naturally this will vary wildly as the raid composition changes and as I use trinkets and other synergistic capabilities activate.
10.3%
Ouch. 10% is a lot.
And when you also factor in the changes to Pets and Cats in particular?
Much less scientific than my little spreadsheet, but off the cuff....
Kindred Spirits will reduce my kitty by 5%. Estimate that she's 30% of my damage, that's 1.5% reduction to overall.
Rake reduced, Kill Shot buffed - lets just call this a wash of +1% and -1% so its a net 0%.
Serpent's Swiftness will be 10% less attack speed bonus. I don't have access to any real theorycrafting reference right now, so lets just throw a dart at the wall and come up with.....this equates to 3% reduction in pet dps, equating to roughly 1% overall reduction.
And Bestial Wrath not linked to Readiness. BW gives 50% more damage output for 18 seconds. Readiness allows me to get an extra BW every 3 minutes...according to my calculations, that will reduce my DPS by 4.8% (again, I'm sure the theorycrafters have proven this more rigorously than I have, but I'm trying here, people). That does not take into any consideration how BW conserves mana, thus leading to additional long-term DPS due to less time in Viper. That kind of math is just too hard for me today.
And lastly, Improved Tracking. A flat out 3% dps increase I am willing to claim, however I'll have to find the points to move there, which for lack of any better estimation and I don't even know what 3 points it'll be yet, lets just say that moving those three costs me 1% dps, resulting in a net 2% increase. Fair?
Overall Impact
Steady Shot: -10.3%
Kindred Spirits: -1.5%
Serpent's Swiftness: -1%
BW / Readiness: -4.8%
Improved Tracking: +2%
TOTAL: -15.6%
Yuck
(A) That's too much. Despite my recent epeen post, I am consistently out-damaged by two of our Shadow Priests, Retribution Paladin, Fury Warrior, Rogue, and other BM Hunter (lol). Sure, our gear levels vary greatly, and the fights that we each excel at favor our class/spec in different ways, but 15.6% reduction is too much IMO.
(B) Its all good. Just gonna have to keep progressing that Improvement Plan, I suppose.
Settle Down, Beavis!
Alternate Title: Oh, noes, not Volley!
The Big Hunter Nerf of 2008 gets announced. Some general concepts, nothing "certain" till it hits the PTR, or better yet, till it hits live.
So you get the normal "oh sht, that sux" reaction when you first hear about it.
And if you've been actively working on an Improvement Plan for your toon to help enhance your contribution to your team, also a bit of a kick in the nuts with a golf shoe.
But is it really that bad?
Or could you start more sentences with a conjunction in your blog post?
Of course, crying about it and pouting istotally normal, and what i plan to do all night long over a nice pint of whiskey really not going to change anything, so lets grab our ankles and see some of what's potentially in store for our favorite class:
Steady Shot: Used to get a 20% of your attack power bonus, will get 10%. Ok, Steady is a big part of our game, reducing its power is undesirable, but fine. Its still a mana efficient way to go. However, I'm interested to see what the theorycrafters say about this one, not whether its a nerf/non-nerf, but rather how it impacts our overall gearing strategy. At level 80, each point of agility provides less +crit than it did at 70. So word on the street has been that 2 points of AP is better than 1 point of AGI at level 80, versus level 70 where I'd gladly take 1 AGI over 2 AP as a BM. Will this change alter that new equation?
Something about pet damage getting reduced: I'm not a big fan of them making my kitty less powerful, but I'm not surprised. Princess Vespa was pulling aggro during aggro switches left and right during tuesday's Naxx-25 run. Yes, growl was turned off, and, yes, cower was turned on. However cower wasn't firing, but that's neither here nor there, I tend to agree that pets are a bit over the top in PvE right now, so this doesn't surprise me at all.
Call of the Wild: Temporary AP buff. Used to be for everybody, now just for me and my pet. I fail to see how this will cause my BM Hunter to be less OP? If anything, it'll make me MORE op than the rogue and fury warrior that my pet was previously buffing. /scratches head.
Kill Shot: Cooldown reduced from 35 secs to 15 secs, making it much more likely that I'll get 2 or 3 Kill Shots in per Boss fight. Funny thing, fighting Noth in Naxx. The way he disappears so you can fight his adds, only to return, then disappear again, causes WWS to report the fight as three separate attempts. Before the second disappearance, we had him down to less than 1%. But he disappeared. When he returned, I nailed a Kill Shot crit for 8.5k. The fight lasted for less than a second, and my DPS was reported by WWS as 12k for the attempt :-) Again, I fail to see how this makes us less OP.
Bestial Wrath and Readiness: This change can eat a fat one. One of the sole reasons I spec for Readiness is wall-to-wall Bestial Wrath. Not sure if I'll keep Readiness, or put the point somewhere else. Now, where might I put it.....
Improved Tracking: The old version of IT required that you swap your tracking mode every time you swap your target mob type. The new version will only require that you track something like Humanoids, and not Herbs, and you'll get the IT bonus regardless of what type of mob you're attacking. This feels pretty good right about now. I can easily throw the Readiness point in here, but I'm not sure where I'll find the other two points to go 3/3 IT, but I think I really will want it. Essentially a flat out 3% damage increase, without the penalty of micromanaging tracking. More OP-ness.
Growl, now with more Growl in every spoonfull: Doesn't alter raiding at all, but for solo, more threat is nice. If they added more threat to Thunderstomp at the same time, even better, but I suppose with next item in my list, that might not be an isue.
And now for the big one that everybody's up in arms over....
Not my precious Volley: Volley gets nerfed for 30% . Good. I f#@kin hate AoE. 90% of the time it so stupid, and just REEKS of people trying to top the meters. If a pull consists of 15 non-elite spiders, AoE good. If a pull consists of 5 elites, but everybody just AoE's because we overpower the dungeon and our tanks over-threat everything, AoE stupid. This type of behavior is developing into a very bad habit that is going to hurt us when new raids are released and actual CC and Main Assisting and planning pulls is required. I despise using Volley on what should be a normal pull. This won't impact my numbers on most boss fights, and for trash, like I give a sht. However, I am a fan of them keeping the "no cooldown" part of Volley, because despite my nay saying, I do like being able to chain it in the scenarios that AoE is actually a reasonable solution.
Nerf? Really?
I think I missed a couple of the changes, but like I said, the game's not over till its over (and hits live).
So the BW/Readiness and Steady Shot and Cat DPS will be reductions. The Kill Shot will be an increase, although pretty minor in the overall picture. Improved Tracking will likely be a flat 3% increase that I had avoided in the past due to annoying micromanagement. Call of the Wild keeps me the same, but stops buffing those around me, thus making it a relative increase. And volley can suck my....oops...did I really say that out loud?
Nerf? Meh.
The Big Hunter Nerf of 2008 gets announced. Some general concepts, nothing "certain" till it hits the PTR, or better yet, till it hits live.
So you get the normal "oh sht, that sux" reaction when you first hear about it.
And if you've been actively working on an Improvement Plan for your toon to help enhance your contribution to your team, also a bit of a kick in the nuts with a golf shoe.
But is it really that bad?
Or could you start more sentences with a conjunction in your blog post?
Of course, crying about it and pouting is
Steady Shot: Used to get a 20% of your attack power bonus, will get 10%. Ok, Steady is a big part of our game, reducing its power is undesirable, but fine. Its still a mana efficient way to go. However, I'm interested to see what the theorycrafters say about this one, not whether its a nerf/non-nerf, but rather how it impacts our overall gearing strategy. At level 80, each point of agility provides less +crit than it did at 70. So word on the street has been that 2 points of AP is better than 1 point of AGI at level 80, versus level 70 where I'd gladly take 1 AGI over 2 AP as a BM. Will this change alter that new equation?
Something about pet damage getting reduced: I'm not a big fan of them making my kitty less powerful, but I'm not surprised. Princess Vespa was pulling aggro during aggro switches left and right during tuesday's Naxx-25 run. Yes, growl was turned off, and, yes, cower was turned on. However cower wasn't firing, but that's neither here nor there, I tend to agree that pets are a bit over the top in PvE right now, so this doesn't surprise me at all.
Call of the Wild: Temporary AP buff. Used to be for everybody, now just for me and my pet. I fail to see how this will cause my BM Hunter to be less OP? If anything, it'll make me MORE op than the rogue and fury warrior that my pet was previously buffing. /scratches head.
Kill Shot: Cooldown reduced from 35 secs to 15 secs, making it much more likely that I'll get 2 or 3 Kill Shots in per Boss fight. Funny thing, fighting Noth in Naxx. The way he disappears so you can fight his adds, only to return, then disappear again, causes WWS to report the fight as three separate attempts. Before the second disappearance, we had him down to less than 1%. But he disappeared. When he returned, I nailed a Kill Shot crit for 8.5k. The fight lasted for less than a second, and my DPS was reported by WWS as 12k for the attempt :-) Again, I fail to see how this makes us less OP.
Bestial Wrath and Readiness: This change can eat a fat one. One of the sole reasons I spec for Readiness is wall-to-wall Bestial Wrath. Not sure if I'll keep Readiness, or put the point somewhere else. Now, where might I put it.....
Improved Tracking: The old version of IT required that you swap your tracking mode every time you swap your target mob type. The new version will only require that you track something like Humanoids, and not Herbs, and you'll get the IT bonus regardless of what type of mob you're attacking. This feels pretty good right about now. I can easily throw the Readiness point in here, but I'm not sure where I'll find the other two points to go 3/3 IT, but I think I really will want it. Essentially a flat out 3% damage increase, without the penalty of micromanaging tracking. More OP-ness.
Growl, now with more Growl in every spoonfull: Doesn't alter raiding at all, but for solo, more threat is nice. If they added more threat to Thunderstomp at the same time, even better, but I suppose with next item in my list, that might not be an isue.
And now for the big one that everybody's up in arms over....
Not my precious Volley: Volley gets nerfed for 30% . Good. I f#@kin hate AoE. 90% of the time it so stupid, and just REEKS of people trying to top the meters. If a pull consists of 15 non-elite spiders, AoE good. If a pull consists of 5 elites, but everybody just AoE's because we overpower the dungeon and our tanks over-threat everything, AoE stupid. This type of behavior is developing into a very bad habit that is going to hurt us when new raids are released and actual CC and Main Assisting and planning pulls is required. I despise using Volley on what should be a normal pull. This won't impact my numbers on most boss fights, and for trash, like I give a sht. However, I am a fan of them keeping the "no cooldown" part of Volley, because despite my nay saying, I do like being able to chain it in the scenarios that AoE is actually a reasonable solution.
Nerf? Really?
I think I missed a couple of the changes, but like I said, the game's not over till its over (and hits live).
So the BW/Readiness and Steady Shot and Cat DPS will be reductions. The Kill Shot will be an increase, although pretty minor in the overall picture. Improved Tracking will likely be a flat 3% increase that I had avoided in the past due to annoying micromanagement. Call of the Wild keeps me the same, but stops buffing those around me, thus making it a relative increase. And volley can suck my....oops...did I really say that out loud?
Nerf? Meh.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Ferocious Inspiration Stackable?
I am Beast Master, hear me roar.
And revel in the fact that I've spec'ed and geared appropriately to have my pet criting all the f'ing time, thus giving you all a 3% DPS bonus.
Patch 3.0.3 notes, which I don't think is live yet but rather coming soon (linked via WoW Grrl) indicate, all the way at the bottom, that Ferocious Inspiration will now be Raid-Wide.
Verah Nice!
The question, though. Does it stack?
It used to when it was limited to your party only.
If it stacks raid-wide, that is Verah Nice indeed.
But that might piss off the other specs because then you'd want to pack the house with Beast Masters. Bring one MM for raid-wide Trueshot Aura, bring one Survival for mana battery purposes. Yeah, the mana batteries sorta stack so you can take extra Surv's, but since ret pallies and shadow priests stack in the same fashion, twould be tough to pass on an extra stackable 3% damage increase raid-wide.
I am Beast Master, hear me roar.
And revel in the fact that I've spec'ed and geared appropriately to have my pet criting all the f'ing time, thus giving you all a 3% DPS bonus.
Patch 3.0.3 notes, which I don't think is live yet but rather coming soon (linked via WoW Grrl) indicate, all the way at the bottom, that Ferocious Inspiration will now be Raid-Wide.
Verah Nice!
The question, though. Does it stack?
It used to when it was limited to your party only.
If it stacks raid-wide, that is Verah Nice indeed.
But that might piss off the other specs because then you'd want to pack the house with Beast Masters. Bring one MM for raid-wide Trueshot Aura, bring one Survival for mana battery purposes. Yeah, the mana batteries sorta stack so you can take extra Surv's, but since ret pallies and shadow priests stack in the same fashion, twould be tough to pass on an extra stackable 3% damage increase raid-wide.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Achievements and You
Or maybe Achievements and Me would be better title.
Oft discussed on this blog, primarily regarding an anxiety of what achievements would mean to me prior to the actual delivery of the patch.
And so far, I gotta say...pure win.
Watching 5 Jenkins ding at the same time, w00t
Following a pair of explorers as they move down the east coast of Kalimdor dinging exploration along the way, w00t
Seeing players get a hair cut or loot some gold off a dead boss and reach the 100g mark, w00t
So far, its just been fun. I've felt no "unreasonable" stress to complete achievements, I havent seen any guildies or friends comparing their achievement scores and thusly turning it into yet another unproductive-yet-time-consuming competition.
When passing through a zone, I take a quick look to see how close I am to exploring the area. If there's one or two left, why not go ding them? Takes 2 extra minutes while traveling, but its fun to get it done.
I was running a baby alt through some low level Warrior quest in a bar in Stormwind City. Why not talk to the beer wench and drink a couple of her beverages for the happy hour quest?
/love'in critters as you run around? What's not to like about that?
Two of my favorite daily quests are the Skettis Egg bombing one and the BEM Cannon Ball bombing one. Since I'm doing them regularly anyway, why not try to get them done faster? 2:15 is not a whole hell of a lot of time for those.
I dinged the skettis one yesterday, while riding a broomstick and wearing a pumpkin head dressed as a ghost, no less :-)
The BEM one seems just a drop harder, so I'll have to keep crackin at that one.
Being a person who likes to agonize about things to come, I'm still a little apprehensive of something like the Halloween one.
There's clearly no way I'll accomplish the whole kit and kaboodle in the next week.
I killed the horseman, put out the fires, ate some candy, barfed all over the place. I wore a few of the costumes, visited a handful of inns to trick or treat at. That's more or less where it'll stay, unless I happen to stumble upon another costume or a new inn.
And when the event closes, there will be this little pile of uncompleted tasks.
Just sitting there. For a year. With nothing you can do about it at all. Until next year. Assuming they don't change things up next year, like they did with the changes from 2007 to 2008 in the Brewfest.
That part, the totally unachievable achievements, those still have potential to piss me off.
But for now, I'll cool the aggro off and keep on enjoying them!
Oft discussed on this blog, primarily regarding an anxiety of what achievements would mean to me prior to the actual delivery of the patch.
And so far, I gotta say...pure win.
Watching 5 Jenkins ding at the same time, w00t
Following a pair of explorers as they move down the east coast of Kalimdor dinging exploration along the way, w00t
Seeing players get a hair cut or loot some gold off a dead boss and reach the 100g mark, w00t
So far, its just been fun. I've felt no "unreasonable" stress to complete achievements, I havent seen any guildies or friends comparing their achievement scores and thusly turning it into yet another unproductive-yet-time-consuming competition.
When passing through a zone, I take a quick look to see how close I am to exploring the area. If there's one or two left, why not go ding them? Takes 2 extra minutes while traveling, but its fun to get it done.
I was running a baby alt through some low level Warrior quest in a bar in Stormwind City. Why not talk to the beer wench and drink a couple of her beverages for the happy hour quest?
/love'in critters as you run around? What's not to like about that?
Two of my favorite daily quests are the Skettis Egg bombing one and the BEM Cannon Ball bombing one. Since I'm doing them regularly anyway, why not try to get them done faster? 2:15 is not a whole hell of a lot of time for those.
I dinged the skettis one yesterday, while riding a broomstick and wearing a pumpkin head dressed as a ghost, no less :-)
The BEM one seems just a drop harder, so I'll have to keep crackin at that one.
Being a person who likes to agonize about things to come, I'm still a little apprehensive of something like the Halloween one.
There's clearly no way I'll accomplish the whole kit and kaboodle in the next week.
I killed the horseman, put out the fires, ate some candy, barfed all over the place. I wore a few of the costumes, visited a handful of inns to trick or treat at. That's more or less where it'll stay, unless I happen to stumble upon another costume or a new inn.
And when the event closes, there will be this little pile of uncompleted tasks.
Just sitting there. For a year. With nothing you can do about it at all. Until next year. Assuming they don't change things up next year, like they did with the changes from 2007 to 2008 in the Brewfest.
That part, the totally unachievable achievements, those still have potential to piss me off.
But for now, I'll cool the aggro off and keep on enjoying them!
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Eerie
Setting up the raid was just too easy. It felt eerie.
Started falling into my old routine of organizing the parties. Stop it! Fire scatter shot at the raid groups, wherever ppl land is where they stay. You're still all set.
Buffs. Looks kinda cool to have your camera zoomed all the way out and see 25 Arcane Intellects hit the full raid at the same time.
Soul Well, used to have to juggle them because they only have 10 stones, no longer, everybody gets a turn at the trough.
At one point, I asked the raid "has anybody's job gotten harder?"
Nobody piped up, and one of the Officers said "yep, they're makin it accessible to the casual gamer".
And that seems to be the truth. Many of the details that formerly needed to be managed have become moot.
After the raid, just for giggles, I entered our composition into MMO-Champions RaidComp. We had every single buff except for one. Granted, we only had one mana battery, so I'd like to go deeper into some of the buffs, but generally covered.
I found myself wondering what the future of level 80 raiding will be like?
With so many of the details and thought process changed, where will the effort go?
Sure, in SSC we are now totally over powered, so there was very little attention to detail during trash, LEEEEROOOOOOYYYY!
The boss's health is nerfed and our tanks output so much damage, no problem there.
So when we get to Nax at 80, the boss health level will be tuned for that additional tank damage and our DPS's dps. Their damage output will be tuned for our healing Spell Power.
But with so many of the other details gone, what will it be like?
Accessible to the Casual Gamer, indeed :-)
Started falling into my old routine of organizing the parties. Stop it! Fire scatter shot at the raid groups, wherever ppl land is where they stay. You're still all set.
Buffs. Looks kinda cool to have your camera zoomed all the way out and see 25 Arcane Intellects hit the full raid at the same time.
Soul Well, used to have to juggle them because they only have 10 stones, no longer, everybody gets a turn at the trough.
At one point, I asked the raid "has anybody's job gotten harder?"
Nobody piped up, and one of the Officers said "yep, they're makin it accessible to the casual gamer".
And that seems to be the truth. Many of the details that formerly needed to be managed have become moot.
After the raid, just for giggles, I entered our composition into MMO-Champions RaidComp. We had every single buff except for one. Granted, we only had one mana battery, so I'd like to go deeper into some of the buffs, but generally covered.
I found myself wondering what the future of level 80 raiding will be like?
With so many of the details and thought process changed, where will the effort go?
Sure, in SSC we are now totally over powered, so there was very little attention to detail during trash, LEEEEROOOOOOYYYY!
The boss's health is nerfed and our tanks output so much damage, no problem there.
So when we get to Nax at 80, the boss health level will be tuned for that additional tank damage and our DPS's dps. Their damage output will be tuned for our healing Spell Power.
But with so many of the other details gone, what will it be like?
Accessible to the Casual Gamer, indeed :-)
Monday, October 20, 2008
Learning the Art of the AoE
Breaking News: the International Coalition of Clefthooves, Talbuks and Buzzards (ICoCTB) has filed an official protest to have the use of the combination of Hunter Volley and Gorilla pet classified as a war crime.
I've been spending more time with Bubbles the Gorilla, trying to learn the finer points of the AoE.
It is just such a new concept with Volley no longer on a cooldown, and actually packing some firepower.
When I think of AoE grinding or farming, I have two main visions. One is a Mage, using frost nova to lock a pile of mobs into place and then using some AoE damage spells (arcane explosion?? blizzard??) to nuke the masses. The other is a paladin rounding up every mob in sight and slowly chipping away at them since they're so damn survivable (consecration, holy shield, retribution aura ??).
Well, now Hunters have a much improved Volley spell. More power, no cooldown, time for some fun.
The only hicup is that unlike a Mage, we have no reliable way to lock the mobs safely into place, and if we allow masses of mobs into melee range like a pally, we're toast.
BUT, we do have our favorite way to keep mobs at range, our pet. And since we're talking about masses of mobs, the new and improved Gorilla pet and its beautiful wonderful Thunderstomp capablity.
When I first started fiddling with multiple mob Gorilla tanking, I was still very much locked into the way of thinking from the past.
Old Way
Send pet in, cast Misdirection, fire a Multishot to solidify aggro on three mobs. If there were more than three mobs involved in the pull, make sure that any non-misdirected mobs are dead before you cast Mend Pet. Keep pet on defensive and just continuously assist your pet and focus fire on your pet's target.
Using this general method over the past year or so, I've farmed thousands of Clefthooves in Nagrand, Buzzards in Hellfire, Naga in Zangarmarsh, Flayers in Netherwing Mine, Blood Elves on the Isle of Quel'Grindy.
I can't think of any serious time where I employed Volley in any of these situations.
New Way
Send pet in, cast Misdirection, fire a Multishot to solidify aggro on three mobs. It might be unnecessary to do that, but old habits are hard to break, and it really doesn't hurt anything. With 30-second cooldown on MD, silly not to.
The moment you see the first Thunderstomp, you can start with the Mend Pet. Pretty safe to do that, unless you've got a caster or a shooter mob standing at range. In that case, as soon as the Thunderstomp has the attention of all the melee folks, you can then send the Gorilla to attack the caster, and she'll bring the melee pack with her and all future Thunderstomps will nail all the mobs.
Once the GCD from the Mend Pet is up, Volley. And then Volley. And then Volley. You can just keep chain-Volley'ing till your out of mana if you like.
When we get down to 2 mobs, I look at their health. Maybe a Multi-shot will finish them off, or maybe some more Volley. When its only one mob left, switch to Aspect of the Viper, and auto shot to recover some of the mana.
Addendum to New Way
Using this technique to run my babies through Dire Maul East, I began to run into an issue. In the Conservatory wing of DM:E, there's packs of 15 non-elite shrubs. Send Bubbles in, and she's not even casting Thunderstomp, even though 15 mobs are wailing on her. WTF? Turns out they're immune to Thunderstomp, so the AI is smart enough to not cast it, saving the focus for other aggro and damage dealing abilities.
So, add a brand new first step. Drop Explosive Trap. Send pet in. When positioning the Volley target, I'd ensure that I put it as physically close to myself as I could while still hitting the furthest mob. Start Volley, most mobs come running for me. Since I position the target like that, they ahve to run through the full window of the Volley, taking damage the whole way.
Some might die on the way in, some might survive. Any survivors run right into my waiting Explosive trap, and burn, baby, burn.
Appendix to New Way
If you're fortunate enough to have a baby (or full-grown) Druid following you around, go ahead and set up and easy peasy macro to cast Thorns on your pet. It'll buy you a second or two of extra time that the mobs will spend in the Volley.
I was worried that the Thorns would pop Bubbles, but as it would turn out, she's much more sturdy than the Strawberry fragrance Dora the Explorer bubble bath that I'm accustomed to.
Edit to Appendix and Addendum
I just read a response to a BRK message that suggests turning off Smack to save focus for Growl and Thunderstomp. Sounds reasonable, I shall try this out.
Good to see that BRK indicated that he'll be having a How-to AoE with a Gorilla post or series coming up, so we'll see what additional tricks he's got up his sleeve.
I've been spending more time with Bubbles the Gorilla, trying to learn the finer points of the AoE.
It is just such a new concept with Volley no longer on a cooldown, and actually packing some firepower.
When I think of AoE grinding or farming, I have two main visions. One is a Mage, using frost nova to lock a pile of mobs into place and then using some AoE damage spells (arcane explosion?? blizzard??) to nuke the masses. The other is a paladin rounding up every mob in sight and slowly chipping away at them since they're so damn survivable (consecration, holy shield, retribution aura ??).
Well, now Hunters have a much improved Volley spell. More power, no cooldown, time for some fun.
The only hicup is that unlike a Mage, we have no reliable way to lock the mobs safely into place, and if we allow masses of mobs into melee range like a pally, we're toast.
BUT, we do have our favorite way to keep mobs at range, our pet. And since we're talking about masses of mobs, the new and improved Gorilla pet and its beautiful wonderful Thunderstomp capablity.
When I first started fiddling with multiple mob Gorilla tanking, I was still very much locked into the way of thinking from the past.
Old Way
Send pet in, cast Misdirection, fire a Multishot to solidify aggro on three mobs. If there were more than three mobs involved in the pull, make sure that any non-misdirected mobs are dead before you cast Mend Pet. Keep pet on defensive and just continuously assist your pet and focus fire on your pet's target.
Using this general method over the past year or so, I've farmed thousands of Clefthooves in Nagrand, Buzzards in Hellfire, Naga in Zangarmarsh, Flayers in Netherwing Mine, Blood Elves on the Isle of Quel'Grindy.
I can't think of any serious time where I employed Volley in any of these situations.
New Way
Send pet in, cast Misdirection, fire a Multishot to solidify aggro on three mobs. It might be unnecessary to do that, but old habits are hard to break, and it really doesn't hurt anything. With 30-second cooldown on MD, silly not to.
The moment you see the first Thunderstomp, you can start with the Mend Pet. Pretty safe to do that, unless you've got a caster or a shooter mob standing at range. In that case, as soon as the Thunderstomp has the attention of all the melee folks, you can then send the Gorilla to attack the caster, and she'll bring the melee pack with her and all future Thunderstomps will nail all the mobs.
Once the GCD from the Mend Pet is up, Volley. And then Volley. And then Volley. You can just keep chain-Volley'ing till your out of mana if you like.
When we get down to 2 mobs, I look at their health. Maybe a Multi-shot will finish them off, or maybe some more Volley. When its only one mob left, switch to Aspect of the Viper, and auto shot to recover some of the mana.
Addendum to New Way
Using this technique to run my babies through Dire Maul East, I began to run into an issue. In the Conservatory wing of DM:E, there's packs of 15 non-elite shrubs. Send Bubbles in, and she's not even casting Thunderstomp, even though 15 mobs are wailing on her. WTF? Turns out they're immune to Thunderstomp, so the AI is smart enough to not cast it, saving the focus for other aggro and damage dealing abilities.
So, add a brand new first step. Drop Explosive Trap. Send pet in. When positioning the Volley target, I'd ensure that I put it as physically close to myself as I could while still hitting the furthest mob. Start Volley, most mobs come running for me. Since I position the target like that, they ahve to run through the full window of the Volley, taking damage the whole way.
Some might die on the way in, some might survive. Any survivors run right into my waiting Explosive trap, and burn, baby, burn.
Appendix to New Way
If you're fortunate enough to have a baby (or full-grown) Druid following you around, go ahead and set up and easy peasy macro to cast Thorns on your pet. It'll buy you a second or two of extra time that the mobs will spend in the Volley.
I was worried that the Thorns would pop Bubbles, but as it would turn out, she's much more sturdy than the Strawberry fragrance Dora the Explorer bubble bath that I'm accustomed to.
Edit to Appendix and Addendum
I just read a response to a BRK message that suggests turning off Smack to save focus for Growl and Thunderstomp. Sounds reasonable, I shall try this out.
Good to see that BRK indicated that he'll be having a How-to AoE with a Gorilla post or series coming up, so we'll see what additional tricks he's got up his sleeve.
Yet Another Round of Patch Quickies
1) Theres an achievement for /love'ing all the critters in the game. This one amuses me. I was trotting around Dire Maul East & West. There's a handfull of critters in those dungeons. Handy macro for the babies...
2) I like the sound of Amava Jenkins so much more than Amava, Champion of the Na'aru, so I switched the title that should display. For now.
3) Will raid leaders allow exotic stomping pets into raids? I'm seriously considering disallowing them simply because its going to be so brutal with 4 stomping pets disrupting everybody's screen. Rumor has it that they're going to remove this shaking effect once the pet is tamed, but I haven't seen it yet. Pretty please, Blizzard, implement the nerf with a 15-minute restart prior to my raid on Sunday.
4) I still don't fully understand the right way to use Kill Command. Sure, I can read and understand the tooltip. But I cannot really figure out what's the best time/situation to trigger it. What I DO know...when I trigger KC now, things die. Its a pretty massive damage output for Bubbles or Skittle.
/assist Amava
/love
2) I like the sound of Amava Jenkins so much more than Amava, Champion of the Na'aru, so I switched the title that should display. For now.
3) Will raid leaders allow exotic stomping pets into raids? I'm seriously considering disallowing them simply because its going to be so brutal with 4 stomping pets disrupting everybody's screen. Rumor has it that they're going to remove this shaking effect once the pet is tamed, but I haven't seen it yet. Pretty please, Blizzard, implement the nerf with a 15-minute restart prior to my raid on Sunday.
4) I still don't fully understand the right way to use Kill Command. Sure, I can read and understand the tooltip. But I cannot really figure out what's the best time/situation to trigger it. What I DO know...when I trigger KC now, things die. Its a pretty massive damage output for Bubbles or Skittle.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Patch Quickies
1) Gorilla auto-casts Thunderstomp ONLY when being attacked by more than one mob. If solo, this is cool. If escorting babies through a dungeon, this is not cool. If I wander too close to a pack of mobs and send Bubbles in to engage them, sometimes she gets to the one she's targeting and begins to attack, but the other mobs aggro onto the lowbies cuz we're too close. In this case, we have 2 mobs beating on my babies and one mob beating on a non-thunderstomping gorilla. Suppose I should put Thunderstomp onto the action bar so I can manually trigger in these circumstances.
1.5) Multi-Shot FTW! BRD with Bubbles is a treat. Farming Clefthooves with Bubbles is a treat.
1.75) Mana management is so very different. I think I'm going to need some addon that puts a massive Aspect indicator in the middle of my screen since dancing between Hawk (or the newly announced Aspect of the Dragonhawk that's lvl 75 me thinks) and Viper will be much more frequent than in the past.
2) Defensive attitude for the pet is definitely different. Pet on defensive. Fire pullshot with intent of repositioning the mob. Pre-3.0.2 your pet would stay at your side until you were struck. Post-3.0.2 your pet runs in as soon as you fire the shot. I'm gonna call this a bug.
3) Omen - since its using Blizzards threat API, it has knowledge of threat levels of all other players, even those not in your party, those who don't have a threat meter installed, anybody. I have not noticed whether it'll measure cross-faction, since the one time I tried to get over to a mob that was engaged in combat with a Hordie, the mob was dead before I could get into combat.
4) Exotic pets that make the ground shake will serve to further deepen the hatred that the WoW community has for Hunters. Standing near any hub of activity (ie: mailbox) is somewhat annoying now because of all the stomping pets.
5) Kinda fun to see what Accomplishments different guildies are going for. You see some players dinging all kinds of BG things, some with fishing, some exploring, some stomping old world dungeons, some hitting heroics. Over time it'll wind down a drop, but for now, still amusing.
6) BRD is a massive maze. I can clear half of it, I cant seem to even find the way to get to the other half. I found some tip about jumping into lava near Incendius. It was late, Amava survived but the babies didnt. Twice. So I took rez sickness, hearthed, and went to bed. Is there a better way to access the other half of BRD?
6.5) RAF bonus rules. In a single half-clear of BRD, the babies went from 49 (albeit already deep into 49) to 52 (albeit just a few bubbles into 52).
7) Did the humanoid NPC reaction to flee at low health become exaggerated with the patch? Seems that mobs in BRD were running like CRAZY when at low health, more so than the other day.
8) Tamed a wasp. A purple one from Zangarmarsh. Why is the name Skittles reserved? I revised to Skittle, but it just isnt the same, although I do suppose that she's a singular, not a plural. The 610 armor penetration effect from Sting is pretty cool.
1.5) Multi-Shot FTW! BRD with Bubbles is a treat. Farming Clefthooves with Bubbles is a treat.
1.75) Mana management is so very different. I think I'm going to need some addon that puts a massive Aspect indicator in the middle of my screen since dancing between Hawk (or the newly announced Aspect of the Dragonhawk that's lvl 75 me thinks) and Viper will be much more frequent than in the past.
2) Defensive attitude for the pet is definitely different. Pet on defensive. Fire pullshot with intent of repositioning the mob. Pre-3.0.2 your pet would stay at your side until you were struck. Post-3.0.2 your pet runs in as soon as you fire the shot. I'm gonna call this a bug.
3) Omen - since its using Blizzards threat API, it has knowledge of threat levels of all other players, even those not in your party, those who don't have a threat meter installed, anybody. I have not noticed whether it'll measure cross-faction, since the one time I tried to get over to a mob that was engaged in combat with a Hordie, the mob was dead before I could get into combat.
4) Exotic pets that make the ground shake will serve to further deepen the hatred that the WoW community has for Hunters. Standing near any hub of activity (ie: mailbox) is somewhat annoying now because of all the stomping pets.
5) Kinda fun to see what Accomplishments different guildies are going for. You see some players dinging all kinds of BG things, some with fishing, some exploring, some stomping old world dungeons, some hitting heroics. Over time it'll wind down a drop, but for now, still amusing.
6) BRD is a massive maze. I can clear half of it, I cant seem to even find the way to get to the other half. I found some tip about jumping into lava near Incendius. It was late, Amava survived but the babies didnt. Twice. So I took rez sickness, hearthed, and went to bed. Is there a better way to access the other half of BRD?
6.5) RAF bonus rules. In a single half-clear of BRD, the babies went from 49 (albeit already deep into 49) to 52 (albeit just a few bubbles into 52).
7) Did the humanoid NPC reaction to flee at low health become exaggerated with the patch? Seems that mobs in BRD were running like CRAZY when at low health, more so than the other day.
8) Tamed a wasp. A purple one from Zangarmarsh. Why is the name Skittles reserved? I revised to Skittle, but it just isnt the same, although I do suppose that she's a singular, not a plural. The 610 armor penetration effect from Sting is pretty cool.
Did anybody else get surprised?
When the patch finished downloading, and then the updater did its thing. Then the next 301-302 downloaded and went.
Then you load WoW
And a cinematic started playing.
Did anybody else get all excited, only to quickly discover that it was just the Burning Crusade cinematic?
Did anybody else even get a cinematic?
Then you load WoW
And a cinematic started playing.
Did anybody else get all excited, only to quickly discover that it was just the Burning Crusade cinematic?
Did anybody else even get a cinematic?
Thursday, October 16, 2008
My First Achievement
One of the very first things I did upon logging in was to explore the Achievements interface.
Confusing to navigate at first, but generally its a nice thing. Note to blizzard: Let me move the achievements window. Where it sits now, it blocks my chat window so I can't peruse my achievements and also monitor guild chat/whispers at the same time. On second thought, it blocks the uterly awful /general and /trade chat that's going on, so maybe dont fix this until a couple weeks pass.
I think I'm liking it overall.
Watching 5 guildies all get a heroic completion spit out into gchat at the same time, kinda fun.
Watching as ppl go fishing or daily questing or mounting or petting, all fun.
Watching people get announced as they log in with "XYZ has achieved the Champion of the Naaru" is fun-ish.
Its actually a little bit much right now, but that'll settle down once everybody's mounted up, done a couple battlegrounds, shaved, and gotten the basics out of the way.
Over time it'll be much less frequent, and actually be a fun thing to see when a guildie dings something.
And when a big group clears a big raid instance for the first time, it'll be a wall of dings, which I think will be lots of fun. Another note, Blizzard, since you're still reading me for your exclusive channel of new changes, maybe make it aggregate the list of names if several guildies complete an accomplishment simultaneously. That might help build a stronger sense of team unity.
So, faced with all this stuff, what's the first thing I went for?
I suppose the Champion one was my first accomplishment, but that's by default.
Then mounting, but I'm not sure if that was an achievement for my 7 mounts, or do you not get one till 10?
Then getting my pets out of my bag was an achievement.
But all those were sort of defaults, not really things I did.
Nope, for me, I found out I'm an Explorer.
Looking through the exploration accomplishments, I see Outlands.
Every single discoverable node in Outlands had been discovered...EXCEPT for one.
One single little chunk of map, this little floating island in northwest Netherstorm.
I couldn't resist!!!
Flew up there, discovered the island.
Dinged Netherstorm!
Dinged Outlands!
Completely frivolous, without any value what-so-ever, but made me smile, and I'll call that my $15 for the month.
Confusing to navigate at first, but generally its a nice thing. Note to blizzard: Let me move the achievements window. Where it sits now, it blocks my chat window so I can't peruse my achievements and also monitor guild chat/whispers at the same time. On second thought, it blocks the uterly awful /general and /trade chat that's going on, so maybe dont fix this until a couple weeks pass.
I think I'm liking it overall.
Watching 5 guildies all get a heroic completion spit out into gchat at the same time, kinda fun.
Watching as ppl go fishing or daily questing or mounting or petting, all fun.
Watching people get announced as they log in with "XYZ has achieved the Champion of the Naaru" is fun-ish.
Its actually a little bit much right now, but that'll settle down once everybody's mounted up, done a couple battlegrounds, shaved, and gotten the basics out of the way.
Over time it'll be much less frequent, and actually be a fun thing to see when a guildie dings something.
And when a big group clears a big raid instance for the first time, it'll be a wall of dings, which I think will be lots of fun. Another note, Blizzard, since you're still reading me for your exclusive channel of new changes, maybe make it aggregate the list of names if several guildies complete an accomplishment simultaneously. That might help build a stronger sense of team unity.
So, faced with all this stuff, what's the first thing I went for?
I suppose the Champion one was my first accomplishment, but that's by default.
Then mounting, but I'm not sure if that was an achievement for my 7 mounts, or do you not get one till 10?
Then getting my pets out of my bag was an achievement.
But all those were sort of defaults, not really things I did.
Nope, for me, I found out I'm an Explorer.
Looking through the exploration accomplishments, I see Outlands.
Every single discoverable node in Outlands had been discovered...EXCEPT for one.
One single little chunk of map, this little floating island in northwest Netherstorm.
I couldn't resist!!!
Flew up there, discovered the island.
Dinged Netherstorm!
Dinged Outlands!
Completely frivolous, without any value what-so-ever, but made me smile, and I'll call that my $15 for the month.
Downranking?
Any me love you long-time reader of BRK probably knows about the downranking pull shot that uses a Rank 1 Arcane Shot.
This little spit ball of a shot is perfect for a pack of mobs that're close together, but not automatically linked to eachother.
When you hit a mob, there's a sphere of aggro who's radius is proportional to the damage caused by the shot. Any mobs within that radius also aggro.
Using the Rank 1 Arcane Shot, I think I hit for like 75 or so, maybe crit for 150. Tiny aggro sphere, nicely pull a single mob away from his friends.
They say that downranking is out the window, and healers are up in arms over this, since downranking is a way of life for them.
Will the Rank 1 pull shot still be usable?
I actually think yes, its just that downranked heals actually cost more mana than the highest rank heals, and as such, are still available for use, but are just silly to actually use in a raid.
Will need to test this one out. Only situationally useful, not ground breaking if its broken, but part of my toolbox nonetheless.
This little spit ball of a shot is perfect for a pack of mobs that're close together, but not automatically linked to eachother.
When you hit a mob, there's a sphere of aggro who's radius is proportional to the damage caused by the shot. Any mobs within that radius also aggro.
Using the Rank 1 Arcane Shot, I think I hit for like 75 or so, maybe crit for 150. Tiny aggro sphere, nicely pull a single mob away from his friends.
They say that downranking is out the window, and healers are up in arms over this, since downranking is a way of life for them.
Will the Rank 1 pull shot still be usable?
I actually think yes, its just that downranked heals actually cost more mana than the highest rank heals, and as such, are still available for use, but are just silly to actually use in a raid.
Will need to test this one out. Only situationally useful, not ground breaking if its broken, but part of my toolbox nonetheless.
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