Mastery, mastery, mastery.
Since the launch of Cataclysm, we tanks have been pretty lucky. While the value of mastery has fluctuated drastically for our Fury and Arms brethren, those strapping a shield to their backs have lived by pretty much one maxim - get as much as you can. The more mastery you find, the more you remove those horrid spikes when you continually get hit full in the face; and it's preferable to avoidance stacking, as it remains unaffected by diminishing returns.
The idea for T11 was to hit 73.4% combined dodge, parry and block in order to shove unmitigated (except by armour, of course) blows off the hit table when Shield Block goes up. Assuming you were gemming, reforging and enchanting correctly, while picking up gear pieces with mastery on them, this was easily achievable in full 359 gear, and without setting foot in heroic raids.
As my guild mate Felham likes to say, ezpz.
With T12 landing and all manner of new options opening up for gear, we're presented with more avoidance stats than are otherwise available and, obviously, plenty more mastery. This means that magic number of 73.4% becomes even easier to land on, while even factoring in threat stats like hit or expertise. Happy days, I hear you say - gearing remains easy for us tanks. But then you see this little puppy appear, and my synapses start firing:
Spidersilk Spindle.
I love my Mirror of Broken Images; it's a shiny mastery trinket, with an on-use that gives warriors the magical damage cooldown they've traditionally lacked. This offering from Beth'tilac is almost as good, as there's more mastery on it, but it lacks the on-use magical cooldown that I've grown to love. This made me think that it possibly remained weaker than our Tol Barad favourite, particularly in the Firelands where there is an awful lot of otherwise unavoidable magic damage flying around. But another look at the proc makes it actually pretty sweet, when you think about it. After all, the absorb is almost of the same value as the on-use from the Mirror, but applied passively for you when you need it. As a result, it's actually a pretty clear upgrade for our erstwhile mastery trinket so you should definitely be equipping it when you get the chance.
Marry it up with the Scales of Life and, lo and behold, your trinkets are updated for the tier. Awesome. Having a quick look around some of the other top warriors we know, this is quite common practice. I'm also quite happy with the way I've enhanced my gear, because I want a strong health pool that can cover me through the rest of the magical damage that is applied throughout the raid.
Right now, you're wondering why you've read something that's relatively obvious.
Well, take a look at Grafarion.
He's chosen not to replace his Mirror of Broken Images with the Spidersilk Spindle; he's combined the damn things. And in case constant tanking has numbed you to large and obvious blows to the face, the result is pretty staggering when you total it up.
He's about 3.5% away from the hard cap.
Not only does this mean that he's hardly ever taking an unmitigated blow, his critical block chance will be far higher than average and his Shield Block is essentially now a Holy Shield on steroids. He's reached that stage of being a mitigation powerhouse practically a full tier earlier than (your humble author) expected. The downside for me was always going to be the hammering his stamina has taken, especially considering the amount of unavoidable damage flying around. But in Grafarion, we're talking about a tank who's pushing cutting-edge content with a top class guild, something that surely implies that all this extra stamina I'm carrying around isn't necessary. It's worth bearing in mind that he's also playing with some of the best healers, but in normal content we're probably looking at a reasonable correlation between us working the normal Firelands bosses and Grafarion up there at the coalface.
Of course, let's not forget our overlooked friend the Eternal Shadowspirit Diamond. With the hard cap approaching, and warriors never being hit, this meta gem suddenly starts to look a whole lot more appealing. The tank in question hasn't gone for it himself, but it's hard to say if he's just waiting on actually hitting the hard cap prior to switching, or if the Austere version still beats it out.
This is not me telling all Protection warriors to go out there and bust a gut to hit the mastery hard cap in the Firelands. That would be silly. But it's well worth taking note that we're almost at the holy grail where warriors are never being struck, and that changes the game for us significantly.
We go from being the most fragile tank to the most durable, practically in the space of a trinket drop. The "stamina iz king lol" model appears busted beyond recognition.
May it rest in peace.
Running wild through Azeroth from the perspective of a Protection warrior.
Search the Ramblings
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Protection warrior self-healing (or lack thereof).
There is one thing that marks the role of a tank more than any other - the ability to grab, maintain and survive aggro. As a warrior, we have no shortage of tools with which to make ourselves take less damage. Thunderclap slows attack speed, Demoralizing Shout weakens blows landing on you, Disarm guts the physical output of an enemy and Spell Reflect is great for returning a blazing fireball from whence it came. When you toss in the fact that warriors are one of only two tank classes that can dodge, parry AND block, then you should be looking at a class that is very difficult to kill off.
Funnily enough, that's generally true; if a new warrior complains that he's taking too much damage, you'll invariably find that he's forgetting to use half of the arsenal available to him and merely assuming that all he has to do is turn up with plate armour and a shield. He's probably also omitting his mitigation cooldown Shield Block, or his major cooldowns of Shield Wall and Last Stand.
The problem, of course, is that warriors are now comparatively weak when our mitigation is compared to our shield-toting brother, the Protection paladin. Their attack speed and power debuffs are applied passively, saving precious GCD's, while our "flavour" abilities Disarm and Spell Reflect rarely work when it matters. Add this to weaker major cooldowns and one less mitigation cooldown, we're already at a disadvantage.
Our biggest problem, however, is our complete inability to heal ourselves outside of Enraged Regeneration.
Before moving on, I have to be careful. Warrior self-healing should never be equivalent to the death knight, or even the paladin when you consider his ability to hard cast. It's also worth being mindful of how horrendously unwieldy Word of Glory really is before calling for something roughly equivalent (just remove Holy Power, Blizzard... Seriously). The druid, on the other hand, has Frenzied Regeneration which is a direct equivalent, but gets significantly more healing from Improved Leader of the Pack than warriors will ever get from Blood Craze; and that's not mentioning the hefty investment of three talent points.
The good news, however, is that Blizzard have an open net with regards to a fix.
The talent Impending Victory can be reworked to provide more widely available access to Victory Rush. The talent, as it stands, is one I stood up for at the launch of Cataclysm - in a game that had started to lack "feel", the idea of a warrior becoming harder to kill as victory beckoned was something I could relate to. As for the utility of the talent itself, I thoroughly supported the idea of two points that could help the healers when they were running on fumes during the hardest part of most encounters.
Alas, that's just not how it turned out. The talent has been widely ignored because healers have other tools to avoid running out of mana, not least powerful raid cooldowns that have almost become mandatory for execute phases. As a result, Impending Victory has pretty much bitten the dust as two talent points that can be better spent elsewhere.
Essentially, there are two directions the talent could be taken:
a) It buffs Blood Craze by 7/15% (or something similar).
b) It causes Victory Rush to be available outside of the execute phase.
Buffing Blood Craze is something that would make that particular talent more enticing for tanks, while ensuring it's out of reach for DPS warriors. It would be easy to balance. The most significant problem with it, however, is that five points is a MASSIVE investment just for some passive self-healing, which is hardly compelling gameplay anyway.
Making Victory Rush more available is something I'd love to see, though. As it does less damage and threat than Devastate, it becomes something of a trade off if hit and due to no blood shield mechanic, decision making becomes a part of its successful use - hitting it when it lights up is rarely going to be the best strategic use. On the other hand, saving procs for when you're getting lower or the healer is otherwise tied up, marks a far more interesting gameplay dynamic that addresses a major weakness with Protection warrior survival as it currently stands. This is how I'd like to see it lining up in a talent tree of the future:
"Enduring Victory
Using Devastate or Revenge on a target has a 2/5% chance to allow the use of Victory Rush, but that Victory Rush only heals for 5% of your health."
There's no real reason why they couldn't buff Blood Craze via the talent too, because going for as many survival orientated talents as you want would be fun. I would just like to see something that a warrior can make a serious consideration out of with regard to talents, playstyle and glyph choice (there are two that have an effect on Victory Rush).
Warriors struggle with self healing at the moment which contributes to their perception of fragility, something that could relatively easily be addressed through talents at no wider cost to balance. At the moment, Impending Victory is treated with neglect by the vast majority of warriors and Blood Craze is simply too weak for a three point investment. In a set of talents that are otherwise pretty damn sweet, these are the only two red-herrings for tanks.
Funnily enough, that's generally true; if a new warrior complains that he's taking too much damage, you'll invariably find that he's forgetting to use half of the arsenal available to him and merely assuming that all he has to do is turn up with plate armour and a shield. He's probably also omitting his mitigation cooldown Shield Block, or his major cooldowns of Shield Wall and Last Stand.
The problem, of course, is that warriors are now comparatively weak when our mitigation is compared to our shield-toting brother, the Protection paladin. Their attack speed and power debuffs are applied passively, saving precious GCD's, while our "flavour" abilities Disarm and Spell Reflect rarely work when it matters. Add this to weaker major cooldowns and one less mitigation cooldown, we're already at a disadvantage.
Our biggest problem, however, is our complete inability to heal ourselves outside of Enraged Regeneration.
Before moving on, I have to be careful. Warrior self-healing should never be equivalent to the death knight, or even the paladin when you consider his ability to hard cast. It's also worth being mindful of how horrendously unwieldy Word of Glory really is before calling for something roughly equivalent (just remove Holy Power, Blizzard... Seriously). The druid, on the other hand, has Frenzied Regeneration which is a direct equivalent, but gets significantly more healing from Improved Leader of the Pack than warriors will ever get from Blood Craze; and that's not mentioning the hefty investment of three talent points.
The good news, however, is that Blizzard have an open net with regards to a fix.
The talent Impending Victory can be reworked to provide more widely available access to Victory Rush. The talent, as it stands, is one I stood up for at the launch of Cataclysm - in a game that had started to lack "feel", the idea of a warrior becoming harder to kill as victory beckoned was something I could relate to. As for the utility of the talent itself, I thoroughly supported the idea of two points that could help the healers when they were running on fumes during the hardest part of most encounters.
Alas, that's just not how it turned out. The talent has been widely ignored because healers have other tools to avoid running out of mana, not least powerful raid cooldowns that have almost become mandatory for execute phases. As a result, Impending Victory has pretty much bitten the dust as two talent points that can be better spent elsewhere.
Essentially, there are two directions the talent could be taken:
a) It buffs Blood Craze by 7/15% (or something similar).
b) It causes Victory Rush to be available outside of the execute phase.
Buffing Blood Craze is something that would make that particular talent more enticing for tanks, while ensuring it's out of reach for DPS warriors. It would be easy to balance. The most significant problem with it, however, is that five points is a MASSIVE investment just for some passive self-healing, which is hardly compelling gameplay anyway.
Making Victory Rush more available is something I'd love to see, though. As it does less damage and threat than Devastate, it becomes something of a trade off if hit and due to no blood shield mechanic, decision making becomes a part of its successful use - hitting it when it lights up is rarely going to be the best strategic use. On the other hand, saving procs for when you're getting lower or the healer is otherwise tied up, marks a far more interesting gameplay dynamic that addresses a major weakness with Protection warrior survival as it currently stands. This is how I'd like to see it lining up in a talent tree of the future:
"Enduring Victory
Using Devastate or Revenge on a target has a 2/5% chance to allow the use of Victory Rush, but that Victory Rush only heals for 5% of your health."
There's no real reason why they couldn't buff Blood Craze via the talent too, because going for as many survival orientated talents as you want would be fun. I would just like to see something that a warrior can make a serious consideration out of with regard to talents, playstyle and glyph choice (there are two that have an effect on Victory Rush).
Warriors struggle with self healing at the moment which contributes to their perception of fragility, something that could relatively easily be addressed through talents at no wider cost to balance. At the moment, Impending Victory is treated with neglect by the vast majority of warriors and Blood Craze is simply too weak for a three point investment. In a set of talents that are otherwise pretty damn sweet, these are the only two red-herrings for tanks.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
"Casual" Vs "Hardcore" and instance design.
Following on from last week's somewhat lacklustre effort (I had intended it to be far bigger, but I ended up editing a lot of it out because it didn't add anything), it's time to post what I've been thinking about for a long time. Essentially, there are many terms that the average MMO gamer has to come to terms with and it's to two of those terms that I turn today. Because game, encounter and class design are all facets of a consumer product that has to consider "the consumer", said consumer base will be comprised of a great many people that the company wishes to keep happy. And with something as big as WoW, we're looking at a heck of a lot of people that have diverse wishes regarding what they want from a game.
But for me, distilling these two types of player into casual and hardcore is horrendously misleading.
I know, I know - why would you bother reading yet another diatribe about who falls into what category? But I'm working from the knowledge that the same could be applied to EVERYTHING I write, so I'll continue safe in the knowledge this piece is no better or worse than my usual offerings. :)
The problem here, of course, is that Cataclysm has blurred the lines to quite a significant degree. Previously, a "casual raider" was someone that didn't put a lot of time and effort into the raiding game (particularly with outside sources), yet still managed to be relatively successful in low-pressure content. At this stage, the word "casual" has become synonymous with "bad" and this is an unfortunate development when even community patriarchs such as Lore are failing to make the distinction. Funnily enough, the assumption that being a good player makes you hardcore isn't quite so widely held.
The problem here is that there is a huge difference between people who are casual with their time, or merely casual with the amount of effort they're willing to put in. There are players who spend ten hours a day on WoW, but do little more than level alts, farm dailies, play the AH or do a few dungeons and random battlegrounds. On the other hand, there are people who play four hours per day every second night but all of that time is spent in guild-sponsored rated battlegrounds or heroic raids. When you then consider the fact that skill and time investment are entirely separate considerations when judging a player, the terms become practically meaningless outside of the two extremes:
1) The top 100 raid guilds who raid upwards of 50 hours a week when progressing and are committed to being the best player they can be. We can safely call them hardcore.
2) The player who has a subscription, but logs in every few nights to do a bit of questing, dungeoneering or levelling, and not much else. We can safely call them casual.
The reason this is important in the wake of 4.2 is because it ties directly into what type of player certain content is aimed at.
With only seven available bosses, it's fair to say the Firelands is... Short. Yet, PuG groups are only willing to clear trash and not willing to actually have a go at any of the bosses. It's fairly obvious that this will change as the patch moves on, but seven bosses is a very short demand on time when guilds such as my own managed four out of the seven in one imperfect reset. Of course, difficulty is subjective - those not used to raiding to any standard will find the bosses extremely tough, while those who notched 13/13 for tier 11 will have gotten through all seven bosses in no time.
If we follow some of the commentary from the top guilds regarding tier 11, the common theme is that the time demands to remain competitive were absolutely brutal. Sco from the EU's Method was shocked to see people raiding over Yuletide and would have appreciated a gated system that allowed for some time off. Paragon and Premonition agreed. When the lifeless few willing to put the most time into WoW complain that it's taking too much of it, it's worth paying attention and we can only assume that the developers did so.
In saying that, this has an impact on everyone. If we say (tinfoil hat) that the Firelands was deliberately small so that hardcore raiders weren't at it for months, while more casual players can consider one boss a week to be progressive, then where does that leave the guilds like my own who will likely clear it next week and who aren't necessarily bothered about heroic modes? Yet again, we're shoved into the heroic "obligation" because there simply isn't enough content for us. What purpose do the heroic modes serve this time around, anyway? Are they the separators for the best guilds in the world such as many were in tier 11, or are they the "real" content just as Trial of the Grand Crusader was back in the days of yore?
To be blunt, decent guilds clearing the Firelands in a single reset implies the latter - is that the direction we want the game to go? Considering the fact Trial of the Crusader ended up reviled before long, I find it hard to believe that's the direction Blizzard want to go. I'm an educated man, but I honestly cannot say what type of player T12 encounters are aimed at and I've yet to read a lucid explanation from anyone else. The problem is finding a way to keep progression competitive, while keeping the content accessible and interesting for a larger percentage of the player base, for longer. More and more, I'm coming around to an idea that I strongly disliked when it was previously implemented:
Gated raids are the way to go.
The problem, of course, is that people will cite the examples of Trial of the Crusader and Icecrown Citadel as cases in point where gating didn't work. However, both of those models were imperfect and also very different from one another. I totally agree, Trial of the Crusader was ridiculous - one boss a week was a ludicrous way to gate progression but, like everything else to do with that raid, Blizzard had to "try" it and I don't think they'll go there again. Icecrown Citadel actually did it largely correct in my opinion, with the only exception being that each gate was potentially closed for too long before opening. In saying that, did it successfully elongate the content to the point where players were truly ready for the next gate to open (rather than rushing into content you're undergeared for and exploiting it instead)?
Absolutely.
Of course, there is another aspect to gating that should be considered - it has the potential to make the content more readily available to EVERYONE. I shuddered at the recent blue post insinuation that "casual" players are expected to be a tier behind more organised raiders. Frankly, I think that type of thinking contributes to a lot of the ill feeling that is around these days and a lot of cancelled subscriptions. By gating instances, as was the case in Icecrown, less organised raid groups are given some time to gear up a bit before hitting the first few bosses, hopefully clearing them, and then grabbing more gear before the next gate opens. Of course, they could easily do that without gates implemented and it would be silly to suggest otherwise. But there is more excitement when you can consider yourself geared for that next set of bosses to arrive and you can get right in there and have a go. Frankly, I fail to see what would excite a more casual raider about getting into content that was binned by others months ago.
But then we have the hardcore raiders, don't we? Those that race one another to claim world first kills and will spend inordinate amounts of time raiding if they have to. What about the challenges they want to come up against in order to prove themselves against one another? Well, why not release the heroic modes for each gate prior to the opening of the others? Sticking with the Icecrown example, the initial killing of Deathbringer Saurfang could have unlocked the heroic modes for Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, the Gunship Battle and Saurfang himself. This would have been easily enough content for the hardcore progression guilds, while also allowing them breaks between each burst and a chance to catch up should they have fallen behind. This would potentially make the esport fans more interested in what's going on, as one guild falling behind wouldn't bedevil their efforts for the rest of the race.
Lastly, you could use gating to make gear more exciting. The most sought after pieces of gear are typically weapons and trinkets, as they're the biggest contributors to whatever it is you happen to be doing. You could use the gate system to stagger gear so that weapons won't drop from the early bosses, while being more common from end bosses. This could ease the frustration of big loot tables not dropping what you want, while also implying the act of "earning" your most identifiable purples. Heck, when you think about it, this could even make class scaling issues easier to balance for the developers. Let me paint it like this, with a three gate system for tier 11:
Gate One
Halfus Wyrmbreaker, Valiona & Theralion, the Conclave of Wind, Magmaw and the Omnotron Defence System. All major armour types, no weapons or trinkets.
Gate Two
The Elementium Monstrosity, Chimaeron, Atramedes and Maloriak. Very small chance of weapon or trinket, potential random tier (as in, Baradin Hold).
Gate Three
Cho'gall (Sinestra), Al'Akir and Nefarian. Small to medium chance of weapon or trinket, tier token guaranteed.
In this example, I've slotted in random chance of random tier gear and am assuming that weapons and trinkets for most specs will be available from end bosses.
In any event, I've waxed enough lyrical to last a lifetime on this topic. We all want content that is compelling, accessible, challenging and durable - we also want enough content to last us so that we're not bored stupid with it after a month (which is where Firelands is heading). The two main options, as I see it, is for Blizzard to continually release new content more quickly, which they've proven incapable of doing, or making current content last longer without frustrating everyone. I've come around to thinking that gating would be the best way of doing this, while keeping content relevant for longer as people chase down the gear they really want for challenging heroic modes.
What do you guys think?
But for me, distilling these two types of player into casual and hardcore is horrendously misleading.
I know, I know - why would you bother reading yet another diatribe about who falls into what category? But I'm working from the knowledge that the same could be applied to EVERYTHING I write, so I'll continue safe in the knowledge this piece is no better or worse than my usual offerings. :)
The problem here, of course, is that Cataclysm has blurred the lines to quite a significant degree. Previously, a "casual raider" was someone that didn't put a lot of time and effort into the raiding game (particularly with outside sources), yet still managed to be relatively successful in low-pressure content. At this stage, the word "casual" has become synonymous with "bad" and this is an unfortunate development when even community patriarchs such as Lore are failing to make the distinction. Funnily enough, the assumption that being a good player makes you hardcore isn't quite so widely held.
The problem here is that there is a huge difference between people who are casual with their time, or merely casual with the amount of effort they're willing to put in. There are players who spend ten hours a day on WoW, but do little more than level alts, farm dailies, play the AH or do a few dungeons and random battlegrounds. On the other hand, there are people who play four hours per day every second night but all of that time is spent in guild-sponsored rated battlegrounds or heroic raids. When you then consider the fact that skill and time investment are entirely separate considerations when judging a player, the terms become practically meaningless outside of the two extremes:
1) The top 100 raid guilds who raid upwards of 50 hours a week when progressing and are committed to being the best player they can be. We can safely call them hardcore.
2) The player who has a subscription, but logs in every few nights to do a bit of questing, dungeoneering or levelling, and not much else. We can safely call them casual.
The reason this is important in the wake of 4.2 is because it ties directly into what type of player certain content is aimed at.
With only seven available bosses, it's fair to say the Firelands is... Short. Yet, PuG groups are only willing to clear trash and not willing to actually have a go at any of the bosses. It's fairly obvious that this will change as the patch moves on, but seven bosses is a very short demand on time when guilds such as my own managed four out of the seven in one imperfect reset. Of course, difficulty is subjective - those not used to raiding to any standard will find the bosses extremely tough, while those who notched 13/13 for tier 11 will have gotten through all seven bosses in no time.
If we follow some of the commentary from the top guilds regarding tier 11, the common theme is that the time demands to remain competitive were absolutely brutal. Sco from the EU's Method was shocked to see people raiding over Yuletide and would have appreciated a gated system that allowed for some time off. Paragon and Premonition agreed. When the lifeless few willing to put the most time into WoW complain that it's taking too much of it, it's worth paying attention and we can only assume that the developers did so.
In saying that, this has an impact on everyone. If we say (tinfoil hat) that the Firelands was deliberately small so that hardcore raiders weren't at it for months, while more casual players can consider one boss a week to be progressive, then where does that leave the guilds like my own who will likely clear it next week and who aren't necessarily bothered about heroic modes? Yet again, we're shoved into the heroic "obligation" because there simply isn't enough content for us. What purpose do the heroic modes serve this time around, anyway? Are they the separators for the best guilds in the world such as many were in tier 11, or are they the "real" content just as Trial of the Grand Crusader was back in the days of yore?
To be blunt, decent guilds clearing the Firelands in a single reset implies the latter - is that the direction we want the game to go? Considering the fact Trial of the Crusader ended up reviled before long, I find it hard to believe that's the direction Blizzard want to go. I'm an educated man, but I honestly cannot say what type of player T12 encounters are aimed at and I've yet to read a lucid explanation from anyone else. The problem is finding a way to keep progression competitive, while keeping the content accessible and interesting for a larger percentage of the player base, for longer. More and more, I'm coming around to an idea that I strongly disliked when it was previously implemented:
Gated raids are the way to go.
The problem, of course, is that people will cite the examples of Trial of the Crusader and Icecrown Citadel as cases in point where gating didn't work. However, both of those models were imperfect and also very different from one another. I totally agree, Trial of the Crusader was ridiculous - one boss a week was a ludicrous way to gate progression but, like everything else to do with that raid, Blizzard had to "try" it and I don't think they'll go there again. Icecrown Citadel actually did it largely correct in my opinion, with the only exception being that each gate was potentially closed for too long before opening. In saying that, did it successfully elongate the content to the point where players were truly ready for the next gate to open (rather than rushing into content you're undergeared for and exploiting it instead)?
Absolutely.
Of course, there is another aspect to gating that should be considered - it has the potential to make the content more readily available to EVERYONE. I shuddered at the recent blue post insinuation that "casual" players are expected to be a tier behind more organised raiders. Frankly, I think that type of thinking contributes to a lot of the ill feeling that is around these days and a lot of cancelled subscriptions. By gating instances, as was the case in Icecrown, less organised raid groups are given some time to gear up a bit before hitting the first few bosses, hopefully clearing them, and then grabbing more gear before the next gate opens. Of course, they could easily do that without gates implemented and it would be silly to suggest otherwise. But there is more excitement when you can consider yourself geared for that next set of bosses to arrive and you can get right in there and have a go. Frankly, I fail to see what would excite a more casual raider about getting into content that was binned by others months ago.
But then we have the hardcore raiders, don't we? Those that race one another to claim world first kills and will spend inordinate amounts of time raiding if they have to. What about the challenges they want to come up against in order to prove themselves against one another? Well, why not release the heroic modes for each gate prior to the opening of the others? Sticking with the Icecrown example, the initial killing of Deathbringer Saurfang could have unlocked the heroic modes for Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, the Gunship Battle and Saurfang himself. This would have been easily enough content for the hardcore progression guilds, while also allowing them breaks between each burst and a chance to catch up should they have fallen behind. This would potentially make the esport fans more interested in what's going on, as one guild falling behind wouldn't bedevil their efforts for the rest of the race.
Lastly, you could use gating to make gear more exciting. The most sought after pieces of gear are typically weapons and trinkets, as they're the biggest contributors to whatever it is you happen to be doing. You could use the gate system to stagger gear so that weapons won't drop from the early bosses, while being more common from end bosses. This could ease the frustration of big loot tables not dropping what you want, while also implying the act of "earning" your most identifiable purples. Heck, when you think about it, this could even make class scaling issues easier to balance for the developers. Let me paint it like this, with a three gate system for tier 11:
Gate One
Halfus Wyrmbreaker, Valiona & Theralion, the Conclave of Wind, Magmaw and the Omnotron Defence System. All major armour types, no weapons or trinkets.
Gate Two
The Elementium Monstrosity, Chimaeron, Atramedes and Maloriak. Very small chance of weapon or trinket, potential random tier (as in, Baradin Hold).
Gate Three
Cho'gall (Sinestra), Al'Akir and Nefarian. Small to medium chance of weapon or trinket, tier token guaranteed.
In this example, I've slotted in random chance of random tier gear and am assuming that weapons and trinkets for most specs will be available from end bosses.
In any event, I've waxed enough lyrical to last a lifetime on this topic. We all want content that is compelling, accessible, challenging and durable - we also want enough content to last us so that we're not bored stupid with it after a month (which is where Firelands is heading). The two main options, as I see it, is for Blizzard to continually release new content more quickly, which they've proven incapable of doing, or making current content last longer without frustrating everyone. I've come around to thinking that gating would be the best way of doing this, while keeping content relevant for longer as people chase down the gear they really want for challenging heroic modes.
What do you guys think?
Monday, July 11, 2011
The "top 100" and race for world firsts.
[From the WoW Europe forums.]
It's very sad to see what the raiding game has devolved into, and what it takes to be the most successful at it; stacking more powerful classes, and giving up the rest of your life. We have absolutely no idea who the best players in the world are, all we know is that certain guilds will lock themselves in the basement for 15 hours a day and aren't above bugging/exploiting encounters just so that they can be first. The frankly laughable excuse that none of them raided with their "Fraps man" for heroic Atramedes testifies to this. Let's be honest, it wasn't exactly hard to do it properly.
My girlfriend made a toon on Lightning's Blade to see what were doing and they had nine druids, with seven paladins - 64% of their raid made up from two classes, with three classes (warrior, rogue and mage) missing completely. If that doesn't tell Blizzard what a hash they've made of PvE class balance, nothing will. Baseline spells like Tranquility and Holy Radiance are simply too powerful cross-spec and other classes have nothing like them, excepting maybe Divine Hymn but priests are behind druids on raid healing.
Go on. Tell me to cry more and point out how bad I am, thus invalidating my opinion. Remind me that I'm not on heroic Ragnaros, therefore, I shouldn't care. But these no-life trend setters prompt others to follow in their wake, eventually causing classes that are not overpowered in and of themselves to get nerfed thanks to "intelligent exploitation" of game mechanics, while weaker classes just get left behind because they don't bring certain utility that:
a) Trumps everything else.
b) Encounter designers assume everyone has.
Unfortunately, the problem is exasperated when we're dealing with developers who think Innervate and Divine Guardian are roughly equivalent (see the tanking Q&A for this particular gem) as utility, who think it's perfectly fine for a Protection paladin to be better than a Protection warrior in just about every meaningful way, and believe that a one-button spec (Arcane) should be competitive in damage with far more complicated specs.
Don't be naive; this has an impact on everyone down the road. The haemorrhage of subscribers is going to continue whilst developers turn a blind eye to behaviour that they claim "has no impact on 99% of the playing population".
News flash.
It does.
Mind how you go.
It's very sad to see what the raiding game has devolved into, and what it takes to be the most successful at it; stacking more powerful classes, and giving up the rest of your life. We have absolutely no idea who the best players in the world are, all we know is that certain guilds will lock themselves in the basement for 15 hours a day and aren't above bugging/exploiting encounters just so that they can be first. The frankly laughable excuse that none of them raided with their "Fraps man" for heroic Atramedes testifies to this. Let's be honest, it wasn't exactly hard to do it properly.
My girlfriend made a toon on Lightning's Blade to see what
Go on. Tell me to cry more and point out how bad I am, thus invalidating my opinion. Remind me that I'm not on heroic Ragnaros, therefore, I shouldn't care. But these no-life trend setters prompt others to follow in their wake, eventually causing classes that are not overpowered in and of themselves to get nerfed thanks to "intelligent exploitation" of game mechanics, while weaker classes just get left behind because they don't bring certain utility that:
a) Trumps everything else.
b) Encounter designers assume everyone has.
Unfortunately, the problem is exasperated when we're dealing with developers who think Innervate and Divine Guardian are roughly equivalent (see the tanking Q&A for this particular gem) as utility, who think it's perfectly fine for a Protection paladin to be better than a Protection warrior in just about every meaningful way, and believe that a one-button spec (Arcane) should be competitive in damage with far more complicated specs.
Don't be naive; this has an impact on everyone down the road. The haemorrhage of subscribers is going to continue whilst developers turn a blind eye to behaviour that they claim "has no impact on 99% of the playing population".
News flash.
It does.
Mind how you go.
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Quickly reviewing Tier 11.
So, THAT was tier 11?
Okay, cool. Despite it taking over six months to get seven (/sigh) new bosses, it's still fairly easy to comment about how I felt tier 11 went and how much I enjoyed it. All told? It was good fun. Personally, I still abhor heroic modes because I can't figure out who they're actually aimed at beyond the top 1%. Alas, 4.2 has muddied the waters on this further which is a shame.
However, it's no exaggeration to say that tier 11 did a very good job of introducing post-Northrend raid content and providing compelling and innovative ways to conduct raid encounters. Yes, some of the heroic encounters were horribly punishing on 10 man groups in particular when a certain spec was unavailable, but most of this was fixed throughout the tier and didn't hold people up too long.
So, let's break it down via instance and start with the Bastion of Twilight.
Halfus Wyrmbreaker was an interesting start, but deeply frustrating depending on the set up of drakes you got. Some compositions were really very easy, whereas others complicated the encounter hugely. All told though, it was essentially a gear check with little to actually master.
Moving on to Valiona and Theralion shifted the perspective, though. This wasn't a gear check and, in fact, was very much an "idiot check". The mechanics were simple enough, but hugely unforgiving when they were done incorrectly. It also introduced importance to positioning, thus forming part of the learning cycle.
The Ascendent Council is one of those fights that are designed to annoy people. Agonising 2% wipes are no fun for anyone, meaning that DPS really had to be on the ball in the final burn phase. In addition to this, control became a large factor for our damage dealers, making them directly responsible for success.
Finally, the last boss in the Bastion, was Cho'gall. Probably the simplest of the end bosses, this didn't mean he was a pushover. High tank damage was good to see, as tanks could concentrate more on mitigation. But the corruption mechanic also taught that spatial awareness was very important to avoid early mistakes costing you late on.
All told, I thought the Bastion of Twilight was a damn fine raid. My only real complaint about it was the trash; some of it was frankly pointless. You could easily have removed one of the patrols from the first room, and binned four of the elementals prior to pulling the Ascendent Council.
Next up was the Throne of the Four Winds.
The Conclave of Wind was generally a very forgiving fight which required strong raid coordination and was actually a lot of fun. Raiders like spending time running around, and this encounter demands a lot of exactly that. Not only that, unforgiving mechanics meant general awareness was very important for the vast majority of people.
Alas, most of the people I've raided with hate Al'Akir. Phase one, though short, can see an otherwise drilled raid group wipe to crap RNG. Again, though, DPS control is the key to phase 2 and this is a welcome shift in responsibility. I'm not honestly sure what to make of phase three, but I suppose it rounded out the encounter nicely enough.
Giving the Throne marks out of five would give it probably a two. No trash, random loot and the gap in difficulty between the Conclave and Al'Akir was a bit ridiculous. Still, as a stand alone instance, it did its job.
Blackwing Descent house a familiar foe in the shape of Nefarian, but some otherwise fun bosses to play around with.
Magmaw was the gear check for this raid, with on-demand burst DPS, constant need for lots of heals and a good level of tank control all being asked for here. A bit of general awareness is also required along with target switching which is never a bad thing, but Magmaw wasn't a bad start to the content at all.
If Magmaw was the gear check, the Omnotron Defence System provided the idiot check. As the order of the combatants was random, it was a fight that forced raiders to think on the fly and react accordingly. Nothing too dangerous assuming people had their eyes open, but you had to keep them open.
Moving on to the never-ending failure of Maloriak brought an encounter that really introduced nothing we haven't seen before. Round up adds, kill them off, spank the boss and deal with a few debuffs. All told, this encounter was pretty disappointing despite some of the best loot falling from his corpse.
Atramedes was fun, though. The sound mechanic, similar to Cho'gall's corruption, adds an extra dimension to the fight, but it's unfortunately ruined by the encounter just not feeling "quiet", if you know what I mean. Still an interesting enough fight, even if he'll go down in history as the heroic encounter every top guild exploited.
Our penultimate fight was against the abomination named Chimaeron, and this fight was hugely imaginative. The different aspect to healing made this a fight you couldn't do conventionally, bringing something new to the table in a way the Faction Champions failed to. Inevitable deaths in phase 2 weren't cool, but the fight itself was very well thought out.
For most people, the last fight of the tier was Nefarian and with good reason. With three distinct phases, high demands of control, damage and healing, it was well tuned. The only problem? It was Nefarian (and Onyxia) again, and it brought nothing new to the table from a mechanic point of view.
Overall, the instance was very enjoyable. It had that nefarious "feel" about it, clearly marked progression and a decent number of bosses. Personally, though, I feel the trash was much too sparse. One pull per boss? Bit too slight for me.
And that was tier 11 from my point of view. I haven't spoken about the heroic modes as many didn't change all that much, but the major difference between Cataclysm raids and WotLK was the change in emphasis. The margin for error attached to major fight mechanics was drastically reduced, while DPS became a VERY important job in a great many encounters. The more strategic slant on healing has also made for a more interesting playstyle for most healers if they're honest.
A good start to the expansion, and a good first step for progression.
Okay, cool. Despite it taking over six months to get seven (/sigh) new bosses, it's still fairly easy to comment about how I felt tier 11 went and how much I enjoyed it. All told? It was good fun. Personally, I still abhor heroic modes because I can't figure out who they're actually aimed at beyond the top 1%. Alas, 4.2 has muddied the waters on this further which is a shame.
However, it's no exaggeration to say that tier 11 did a very good job of introducing post-Northrend raid content and providing compelling and innovative ways to conduct raid encounters. Yes, some of the heroic encounters were horribly punishing on 10 man groups in particular when a certain spec was unavailable, but most of this was fixed throughout the tier and didn't hold people up too long.
So, let's break it down via instance and start with the Bastion of Twilight.
Halfus Wyrmbreaker was an interesting start, but deeply frustrating depending on the set up of drakes you got. Some compositions were really very easy, whereas others complicated the encounter hugely. All told though, it was essentially a gear check with little to actually master.
Moving on to Valiona and Theralion shifted the perspective, though. This wasn't a gear check and, in fact, was very much an "idiot check". The mechanics were simple enough, but hugely unforgiving when they were done incorrectly. It also introduced importance to positioning, thus forming part of the learning cycle.
The Ascendent Council is one of those fights that are designed to annoy people. Agonising 2% wipes are no fun for anyone, meaning that DPS really had to be on the ball in the final burn phase. In addition to this, control became a large factor for our damage dealers, making them directly responsible for success.
Finally, the last boss in the Bastion, was Cho'gall. Probably the simplest of the end bosses, this didn't mean he was a pushover. High tank damage was good to see, as tanks could concentrate more on mitigation. But the corruption mechanic also taught that spatial awareness was very important to avoid early mistakes costing you late on.
All told, I thought the Bastion of Twilight was a damn fine raid. My only real complaint about it was the trash; some of it was frankly pointless. You could easily have removed one of the patrols from the first room, and binned four of the elementals prior to pulling the Ascendent Council.
Next up was the Throne of the Four Winds.
The Conclave of Wind was generally a very forgiving fight which required strong raid coordination and was actually a lot of fun. Raiders like spending time running around, and this encounter demands a lot of exactly that. Not only that, unforgiving mechanics meant general awareness was very important for the vast majority of people.
Alas, most of the people I've raided with hate Al'Akir. Phase one, though short, can see an otherwise drilled raid group wipe to crap RNG. Again, though, DPS control is the key to phase 2 and this is a welcome shift in responsibility. I'm not honestly sure what to make of phase three, but I suppose it rounded out the encounter nicely enough.
Giving the Throne marks out of five would give it probably a two. No trash, random loot and the gap in difficulty between the Conclave and Al'Akir was a bit ridiculous. Still, as a stand alone instance, it did its job.
Blackwing Descent house a familiar foe in the shape of Nefarian, but some otherwise fun bosses to play around with.
Magmaw was the gear check for this raid, with on-demand burst DPS, constant need for lots of heals and a good level of tank control all being asked for here. A bit of general awareness is also required along with target switching which is never a bad thing, but Magmaw wasn't a bad start to the content at all.
If Magmaw was the gear check, the Omnotron Defence System provided the idiot check. As the order of the combatants was random, it was a fight that forced raiders to think on the fly and react accordingly. Nothing too dangerous assuming people had their eyes open, but you had to keep them open.
Moving on to the never-ending failure of Maloriak brought an encounter that really introduced nothing we haven't seen before. Round up adds, kill them off, spank the boss and deal with a few debuffs. All told, this encounter was pretty disappointing despite some of the best loot falling from his corpse.
Atramedes was fun, though. The sound mechanic, similar to Cho'gall's corruption, adds an extra dimension to the fight, but it's unfortunately ruined by the encounter just not feeling "quiet", if you know what I mean. Still an interesting enough fight, even if he'll go down in history as the heroic encounter every top guild exploited.
Our penultimate fight was against the abomination named Chimaeron, and this fight was hugely imaginative. The different aspect to healing made this a fight you couldn't do conventionally, bringing something new to the table in a way the Faction Champions failed to. Inevitable deaths in phase 2 weren't cool, but the fight itself was very well thought out.
For most people, the last fight of the tier was Nefarian and with good reason. With three distinct phases, high demands of control, damage and healing, it was well tuned. The only problem? It was Nefarian (and Onyxia) again, and it brought nothing new to the table from a mechanic point of view.
Overall, the instance was very enjoyable. It had that nefarious "feel" about it, clearly marked progression and a decent number of bosses. Personally, though, I feel the trash was much too sparse. One pull per boss? Bit too slight for me.
And that was tier 11 from my point of view. I haven't spoken about the heroic modes as many didn't change all that much, but the major difference between Cataclysm raids and WotLK was the change in emphasis. The margin for error attached to major fight mechanics was drastically reduced, while DPS became a VERY important job in a great many encounters. The more strategic slant on healing has also made for a more interesting playstyle for most healers if they're honest.
A good start to the expansion, and a good first step for progression.
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