As most of you know, I do tend to spend some time over at WoW Insider and I often find that some of the subjects brought up really do pique my interest. As encounter design is a particularly huge interest of mine, Allison Robert's Overachiever column resonated with me on almost as many levels as it annoyed me. I totally agree with some of the things she implies, totally disagree with others and am forlornly confused with the ability of some posters to utterly miss the point.
Essentially, what she's saying is that the raid model since Trial of the Crusader has been broken by the introduction of heroic modes and achievements - she further implies that it isn't good for the game as a whole because it creates an endless stream of content that you're never truly "done" with. The achievement/heroic mode system was never better than it was in Ulduar, and each iteration since has been the wrong iteration.
Many other conclusions Allison chooses to draw are flawed, but the above point is beyond my dispute; nothing in this game has ever been better than Ulduar (though, I'll still always adore Karazhan beyond compare). She also makes the point, however, that the raiding game is now worse than it was in The Burning Crusade because killing a boss just isn't the same achievement when you have two more versions to go through - having to do the same thing more than once dilutes the excitement of killing bosses.
On this point, she's inexplicably and utterly wrong. What makes a boss kill meaningful is the amount of collective effort that went into it, not which "mode" it was. And because this effort varies wildly from raid group to raid group, arguing that the excitement is somehow less than it once was is not only incorrect, it's very insulting to the vast majority of the playerbase.
With that out the way, though, her point stands and remains firm - the delta between normal modes, achievements and heroic modes is muddled and frustrating. It's impossible to determine exactly what role each is supposed to fulfil when there is so much crossover. The goal, of course, is to provide as much "available" content as possible, while satisfying the largest majority of people. Marginalising anyone is politically unpalatable and, as painful as it is, we're probably stuck with the current model.
We have three things to consider, here:
1) Normal mode kills.
2) Meta-achievements for mounts.
3) Heroic mode kills.
The best method of doing this, as Allison pointed out, was used in Ulduar; the hard modes were intrinsically linked with the meta-achievement, meaning that you completed both at once where applicable. Any other meta-achievements that were needed and didn't have an associated hard mode (such as Kologarn or Auriaya) were simply ways of making a hard mode when one didn't necessarily exist. Even tier seven was sophisticated in this application, as the meta-achievement there involved the "hard mode" of Sartharion, but added difficulty to Naxxramas by having the meta-achievements.
When we move to Icecrown Citadel, however, the meta-achievements and encounter modes became mutually exclusive. Absolutely nobody did "Full House" while fighting Lady Deathwhisper on heroic - it was suicide. So the decision came from having to do one or the other, grabbing heroic gear or taking another step toward your drake. What compounded this was the fact that you had to do BOTH in order to complete the meta-achievement. In one step, the drake meta-achievement became the realm of heroic raiders only and I think this is where the mistake was made.
It's important to note that this was also the case in Ulduar - the drakes bore only the top raiders of the tier due to having to complete achievements such as "One Light in the Darkness" or "Firefighter". What made it easier to digest was that you could, at least, do both at the same time. The problem, therefore, is that the achievements themselves do not serve a useful function at all. At best, they're an afterthought for raiders who, after completing the heroic achievements, decide to go back and round out whatever they're missing. At worst, they're a frustrating block on getting a new mount that are based more on RNG and bad luck than actual skill or execution.
At the moment, we're looking at raid content that isn't well aimed or streamlined and that's causing frustration. We currently have normal modes that are too tightly tuned for casual raiders, heroic modes that are either mechanically too lenient or compositionally too rough on 10 man raids, and meta-achievements that serve as an afterthought for the best of the best.
Amazingly, there is a solution that's almost TOO obvious.
a. Tune down normal modes so that casual raiders can see and enjoy content.
b. Tune up certain heroic modes so they provide the right challenge for world and server first guilds.
c. Remove the need to kill heroic bosses from drake meta-achievements.
Out of nowhere, we have content that far more people can enjoy, have built-in "hard modes" for competent guilds that want to be good at content, and heroic modes for those who want to devote serious amounts of their life to the game. Rather than needlessly excluding most players from content, you open up levels of achievement depending on what people are looking for from their raiding experience.
Running wild through Azeroth from the perspective of a Protection warrior.
Search the Ramblings
Friday, August 26, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Active mitigation for Protection warriors.
Okay, it would be fair to say I've had long enough to think about the mooted changes to tanking from Ghostcrawler's latest post. And let's make no mistake about this, the potential changes here could be absolutely massive for all tanks, not just for warriors. Boiled down, in case you haven't read the blog, threat is being designed to no longer matter, while tanking is all about actively mitigating damage that's coming in. The buttons you push will no longer be designed purely to build threat, they'll do that passively - no, the buttons you push will be to give your healers an easier time of it.
I'll start out by stating that I wholeheartedly endorse this direction. There are many reasons why, but I personally believe that threat being the defining factor between a good tank and a bad one is never going to work with such big discrepancies between a class's ability to generate it. Secondly, I think the fact that tanks essentially play like DPS these days is one of the things that contributes to less tanks all round; constructing a rotation is more fun as DPS, with far less responsibility to the group as a whole.
No, tanks should play differently and have different priorities. This change is positive.
But many are asking what this actually means, beyond Ghostcrawler's allusions. What exactly is this "active mitigation" caper that we're about to be subjected to? At time of writing, our chum the death knight is the only class really running anything like active mitigation and it's important to understand what that entails beyond the obvious "powerful self healing". At the end of the day, too many people don't actually understand how the DK model works beyond watching their health pool shoot up when you thought they were about to die. Just ask any healer the difference between a good and bad DK and they'll be able to tell you - one is strangely easy to keep up, the other is an absolute nightmare. And it's this fact that makes me firmly believe that the active mitigation model is going to work.
Let's look quickly at the DK toolkit for active mitigation.
First up, we have Death Strike. This attack essentially heals up a percentage of damage the DK has recently taken. Then we have Rune Tap, another heal on a 30 second cooldown (that heals the raid when glyphed). Outside of the major cooldowns Icebound Fortitude and Vampiric Blood, many people think this is about all there is to it. Not even close. Using all of your Blood runes creates a short duration Blade Barrier, reducing damage taken further. At the cost of an Unholy rune, you can pop up a Bone Shield that, again, reduces damage taken over a short duration. I already mentioned Vampiric Blood, but didn't mention that it actually increases the amount of self-healing you do, making it much more viable (again, depending on glyphs). Moving on to major debuffs, and DK's share the warrior duo of physical damage and attack speed reduction through Frost Fever and Blood Plague application. Lastly, there is the close-to-mandatory option to take the Lichborne talent and be able to Death Coil yourself.
So, here's the list in all its glory (ignoring mastery for the moment, as it's essentially passive):
Death Strike and Rune Tap are for general mitigative self healing.
Frost Fever and Blood Plague should see 100% uptime on the target.
Blade Barrier and Bone Shield should see as high uptime as possible.
Vampiric Blood has a short enough cooldown to be used very often.
Now clearly, there is a lot of self healing in there. But effective rune management (as well as runic power) accompanied by choice over which ability to use, means that our DK is pretty damn active and comfortably the most involved in his own survival. Moving on from that, then, where exactly does the warrior stand with regard to active mitigation following this basic premise?
Well first of all, what abilities do warriors have that play a part in mitigating damage? The list is long, and illustrious:
Demoralizing Shout, Intimidating Shout, Thunderclap, Shockwave, Concussion Blow, Spell Reflect, Disarm, Shield Block, Victory Rush and Pummel.
Now of course, things like Spell Reflect or Disarm are extremely situational, while Victory Rush is limited to a talent (and still limited). I also won't talk much about Pummel, as many classes have an equivalent. But all told, outside of major cooldowns, we have an array of stuns, silences, heals and debuffs to throw around, all of which play a part in making healers love us. This means that there's almost a free slate with which to work amongst abilities we already have on our bars and bound to our keys, something which is important to bear in mind - after all, there's very little chance that sweeping changes will be made prior to 5.0 and I'd imagine we'll be using abilities we already have.
I said I won't talk about Pummel, while our stuns will pretty much continue to do what they say on the tin. They'll stun things. Fortunately, Victory Rush isn't far from viable and only needs a tweak to the Impending Victory talent, something I've already discussed. Demoralizing Shout and Thunderclap are also unlikely to change much, as all tanks have an equivalent and are just as adept at applying these debuffs. As far as I'm concerned, the biggest stand outs for change are Disarm, Spell Reflect and Shield Block. The former need more common use so are prime candidates for a change, while the latter is the ideal choice to make our mastery (blocking with a shield... Who knew?) more active. I also consider the implications that any sweeping changes would have on PvP, so I'd imagine that deep Protection talents would be the place where these changes are implemented. Meanwhile, a flat nerf to the damage reduction of Defensive Stance would ensure that tanks pick up these talents, vice ignoring them and letting their healers take the strain.
So, Disarm then. To me, this is a good choice for the warrior version of Blade Barrier, reducing physical damage done and making it the default buff of choice for most encounters where physical damage predominates. A 12 second duration with a 10 second cooldown would probably be the way ahead (again, similar to the DK example), but keeping in mind when these changes are mooted to come in, the cooldown maybe wouldn't change and the duration would simply be longer to compensate. If Disarm is our physical damage reduction tool, it won't take too big a leap to figure out where Spell Reflect would fit in; as our magical mitigation. Once again, instead of reflecting spells, the ability would provide magical damage reduction for a period of time at a reasonable cooldown. If we assume that Disarm and Spell Reflect share a cooldown, there is a choice between which one of the two is better depending on what you're fighting. The reason I think the cooldowns would have to shorten, is because warriors would simply stick with physical damage reduction for the vast majority of the time as changing to reflection wouldn't be worth it for one shot of dragon breath that is continually preceded and succeeded by heavy melee hits (trinkets or major cooldowns would be used instead). Of course, the fact that most Firelands bosses end with increasing fire damage means that there is definitely a place for this model.
Shield Block, however, is hard to predict. For me, one way to make mastery a more active stat would be to revert Shield Block to the model of The Burning Crusade and have mastery only affect it while it's up. So, something like a ten second cooldown for three guaranteed blocks, with mastery increasing the chance of a critical block is what I'm thinking. Not only would this make Shield Block a more active ability, it would break the mastery monopoly that dominates warrior itemization and give the development team a block model that isn't hard to balance because full passive CTC wouldn't be possible.
If you're looking for a TL, DR, you know it's not my style by now. But for me, a threat rotation of Shield Slam, Devastate, Heroic Strike and Revenge being complimented by a mitigation rotation of Disarm, Spell Reflect, Victory Rush and Shield Block matches up to Ghostcrawler's "four ability" mantra, and gives warriors meaningful choices with regard to both abilities and gearing. The further reaching implications of class balance and encounter design are perhaps the bigger fish being fried, but they're beyond the scope of this entry. For now, I'm just getting the creative juices flowing regarding what warriors could possibly see in the active mitigation model, both for the remainder of Cataclysm and the larger changes (particularly to talent trees... That's another Wall 'o' Text) for future expansions.
What do you guys think?
I'll start out by stating that I wholeheartedly endorse this direction. There are many reasons why, but I personally believe that threat being the defining factor between a good tank and a bad one is never going to work with such big discrepancies between a class's ability to generate it. Secondly, I think the fact that tanks essentially play like DPS these days is one of the things that contributes to less tanks all round; constructing a rotation is more fun as DPS, with far less responsibility to the group as a whole.
No, tanks should play differently and have different priorities. This change is positive.
But many are asking what this actually means, beyond Ghostcrawler's allusions. What exactly is this "active mitigation" caper that we're about to be subjected to? At time of writing, our chum the death knight is the only class really running anything like active mitigation and it's important to understand what that entails beyond the obvious "powerful self healing". At the end of the day, too many people don't actually understand how the DK model works beyond watching their health pool shoot up when you thought they were about to die. Just ask any healer the difference between a good and bad DK and they'll be able to tell you - one is strangely easy to keep up, the other is an absolute nightmare. And it's this fact that makes me firmly believe that the active mitigation model is going to work.
Let's look quickly at the DK toolkit for active mitigation.
First up, we have Death Strike. This attack essentially heals up a percentage of damage the DK has recently taken. Then we have Rune Tap, another heal on a 30 second cooldown (that heals the raid when glyphed). Outside of the major cooldowns Icebound Fortitude and Vampiric Blood, many people think this is about all there is to it. Not even close. Using all of your Blood runes creates a short duration Blade Barrier, reducing damage taken further. At the cost of an Unholy rune, you can pop up a Bone Shield that, again, reduces damage taken over a short duration. I already mentioned Vampiric Blood, but didn't mention that it actually increases the amount of self-healing you do, making it much more viable (again, depending on glyphs). Moving on to major debuffs, and DK's share the warrior duo of physical damage and attack speed reduction through Frost Fever and Blood Plague application. Lastly, there is the close-to-mandatory option to take the Lichborne talent and be able to Death Coil yourself.
So, here's the list in all its glory (ignoring mastery for the moment, as it's essentially passive):
Death Strike and Rune Tap are for general mitigative self healing.
Frost Fever and Blood Plague should see 100% uptime on the target.
Blade Barrier and Bone Shield should see as high uptime as possible.
Vampiric Blood has a short enough cooldown to be used very often.
Now clearly, there is a lot of self healing in there. But effective rune management (as well as runic power) accompanied by choice over which ability to use, means that our DK is pretty damn active and comfortably the most involved in his own survival. Moving on from that, then, where exactly does the warrior stand with regard to active mitigation following this basic premise?
Well first of all, what abilities do warriors have that play a part in mitigating damage? The list is long, and illustrious:
Demoralizing Shout, Intimidating Shout, Thunderclap, Shockwave, Concussion Blow, Spell Reflect, Disarm, Shield Block, Victory Rush and Pummel.
Now of course, things like Spell Reflect or Disarm are extremely situational, while Victory Rush is limited to a talent (and still limited). I also won't talk much about Pummel, as many classes have an equivalent. But all told, outside of major cooldowns, we have an array of stuns, silences, heals and debuffs to throw around, all of which play a part in making healers love us. This means that there's almost a free slate with which to work amongst abilities we already have on our bars and bound to our keys, something which is important to bear in mind - after all, there's very little chance that sweeping changes will be made prior to 5.0 and I'd imagine we'll be using abilities we already have.
I said I won't talk about Pummel, while our stuns will pretty much continue to do what they say on the tin. They'll stun things. Fortunately, Victory Rush isn't far from viable and only needs a tweak to the Impending Victory talent, something I've already discussed. Demoralizing Shout and Thunderclap are also unlikely to change much, as all tanks have an equivalent and are just as adept at applying these debuffs. As far as I'm concerned, the biggest stand outs for change are Disarm, Spell Reflect and Shield Block. The former need more common use so are prime candidates for a change, while the latter is the ideal choice to make our mastery (blocking with a shield... Who knew?) more active. I also consider the implications that any sweeping changes would have on PvP, so I'd imagine that deep Protection talents would be the place where these changes are implemented. Meanwhile, a flat nerf to the damage reduction of Defensive Stance would ensure that tanks pick up these talents, vice ignoring them and letting their healers take the strain.
So, Disarm then. To me, this is a good choice for the warrior version of Blade Barrier, reducing physical damage done and making it the default buff of choice for most encounters where physical damage predominates. A 12 second duration with a 10 second cooldown would probably be the way ahead (again, similar to the DK example), but keeping in mind when these changes are mooted to come in, the cooldown maybe wouldn't change and the duration would simply be longer to compensate. If Disarm is our physical damage reduction tool, it won't take too big a leap to figure out where Spell Reflect would fit in; as our magical mitigation. Once again, instead of reflecting spells, the ability would provide magical damage reduction for a period of time at a reasonable cooldown. If we assume that Disarm and Spell Reflect share a cooldown, there is a choice between which one of the two is better depending on what you're fighting. The reason I think the cooldowns would have to shorten, is because warriors would simply stick with physical damage reduction for the vast majority of the time as changing to reflection wouldn't be worth it for one shot of dragon breath that is continually preceded and succeeded by heavy melee hits (trinkets or major cooldowns would be used instead). Of course, the fact that most Firelands bosses end with increasing fire damage means that there is definitely a place for this model.
Shield Block, however, is hard to predict. For me, one way to make mastery a more active stat would be to revert Shield Block to the model of The Burning Crusade and have mastery only affect it while it's up. So, something like a ten second cooldown for three guaranteed blocks, with mastery increasing the chance of a critical block is what I'm thinking. Not only would this make Shield Block a more active ability, it would break the mastery monopoly that dominates warrior itemization and give the development team a block model that isn't hard to balance because full passive CTC wouldn't be possible.
If you're looking for a TL, DR, you know it's not my style by now. But for me, a threat rotation of Shield Slam, Devastate, Heroic Strike and Revenge being complimented by a mitigation rotation of Disarm, Spell Reflect, Victory Rush and Shield Block matches up to Ghostcrawler's "four ability" mantra, and gives warriors meaningful choices with regard to both abilities and gearing. The further reaching implications of class balance and encounter design are perhaps the bigger fish being fried, but they're beyond the scope of this entry. For now, I'm just getting the creative juices flowing regarding what warriors could possibly see in the active mitigation model, both for the remainder of Cataclysm and the larger changes (particularly to talent trees... That's another Wall 'o' Text) for future expansions.
What do you guys think?
Wednesday, August 03, 2011
"Mists of Pandaria" - WoW's 4th expansion?
It's been brought up on MMO-Champion, it's been chatted about on the forums, and even the official WoW forums are now abuzz with the latest news. Amid all the humdrum, it'd be negligent of me not to talk about it as well, so here we go; today's blog is about the...
Mists of Pandaria.
Boubouille brought it up on MMO-Champion after one of his community members found that Blizzard had registered trademarks on the name. The dates on the trademarks, as well as the timing, wording and style of them, make it appear increasingly likely that this will be the next expansion for World of Warcraft. I do not believe that this is a patch as they're not patented in this way, and I find it unlikely that it would be Warcraft IV because I doubt Blizzard would tie such a game into a geographical niche like this.
No; for me, once we're done with Deathwing, we're off to the southern islands (of which Pandaria is one) and taking the fight down there because the Pandarens need help of some kind.
After getting over the initial mental cry of "wtf, PANDAS?!", I have to admit that I'm very intrigued by how this is going to develop. There is no reason to believe that the entire expansion will relate merely to the pandarens themselves, despite it being obvious that they would play a big part. Additionally, many commentators are forgetting that Pandaria itself could merely be the scene for the conflict itself and not necessarily the wheel which all spokes are attached to.
So, the pandarens need help from both the Horde and the Alliance. Easy enough to decipher. But why? From what enemy do this mysterious race run from, to the point they'll approach the other races for some muscle?
For me, this has got Azshara, the Naga and the southern Old God written all over it - and if that turns out to be true, you can sign me up for another expansion. For those with their tinfoil hat already donned, here's what I'm thinking:
1) Azshara is too big a character to shoe-horned into 4.3, and easily big enough to form an expansion around. Considering some of the pre-Cataclysm hype surrounded her, it's clear Blizzard want to deal with her at some point and the southern islands is the perfect place to set her centre stage.
2) The naga have played a bigger part in Cataclysm than expected, and not just in Vash'jir. When you also consider the overwhelming popularity of the Battle Maiden quests, it wouldn't be a surprise if Blizzard chose to develop them further in another expansion with more room.
3) We've been killing Old Gods since Vanilla, so there's nothing new here - especially if we consider that the "threat" would have to be substantial in order to force pandarens to seek aid. This Old God is also the most likely to be responsible for the Highborne mutation in the first place.
4) The links to the Burning Legion have yet to be tied up, and this could be one route. Sargeras himself spent time with Azshara, so a demonic presence in the southern islands is possible and could set the scene for a later expansion dominated by Sargeras (the ultimate end of WoW).
5) The southern islands themselves are utterly unexplored. If we go down there, Blizzard have almost got an entirely clean slate with which to create whatever they want, outside of the bounds they worked under during the development of Cataclysm. The only limit is their imagination.
If we remember back to the product slate, there were another three expansions after Cataclysm, so it's reasonable to assume that we won't be approaching level 100 anytime soon. As hinted above, I think that honour will be reserved for the fallen Titan himself. It's more likely that we'll see a set of entirely new zones, a new level cap of 90, a break from typically Azerothian adventuring, and some work to bring something new to the mix while tying up a few loose ends before that climactic push to 100. We know that Argus is already touted for future work so that will see the logical continuation from The Burning Crusade (remember, Kil'jaeden was merely banished), while the oft-mentioned Emerald Dream has been a recurring theme since Vanilla; it's likely we'll have to visit there to sort out a few nightmares.
Of course, this brings us roundly to the sticky topic of the playable pandaren.
Again, purely personal opinion, I think the expansion will release a new class. If we logically follow what's happened in the past, we've gotten an alternating release of race, then class, then race, then... Class? The pandarens are unlikely to pick Horde or Alliance wholesale, and while I like the idea of completing their opening zone before choosing a personal Alliance, I'm just not sure that's a very engaging choice.
But, Zell! Blizzard have said they won't release a new class without a good reason or a compelling role to fill! If we were to pick up "Brewmaster" or something similar, the possibility of a melee DPS/ranged DPS/healing class has already been very well mulled over. Sure, it would work but it would break the maxim mentioned above - nothing here is "new" or "compelling", so why would Blizzard go for it?
They wouldn't. Naturally.
So, say hello to World of Warcraft's first Support class.
Sounds a bit pie in the sky? Sure it does.
But if you think about it, it makes all the sense in the world. Blizzard as a company will not have ignored some of the innovation that Trion have brought about in Rift, and one of the major sticking points of Cataclysm is the lack of individuality amongst the classes. You either tank, heal or deal damage and while that model is tried and tested, a lot of the personality of raiding has gone by the wayside. A support class, let's say a Pandaren Monk (come on, you were waiting on me coming out with it), could have three specs that enhance either tanking, healing or DPS, while the player himself contributes whatever the raid requires at any given time. If adds come streaming in, he can pick a few up until the tanks can get them. If there's loads of raid damage, he can toss heals or damage reductions on the tank while the healers concentrate on the raid. And while there's nothing else really going on, they'll contribute a bit of damage and help out where best they can.
/doff triple-strength-double-sided-megatinfoil hat.
Let's round out this post of wild speculation by simply saying that very little, if anything, will be confirmed before Blizzcon. It wouldn't make fiscal sense to do so before then. But the very idea of an expansion such as this gets the creative juices flowing once you get over the initial revulsion of cartoon pandas running around, nastily accompanied by crap impressions of Jack Black.
For me, though, I have to admit... The gloom that has wrapped around me with Cataclysm has lifted, just a little, since thinking about what "Mists of Pandaria" could imply.
And don't lie.
We're ALL curious as to just how beautiful Azshara's model is going to be.
Mists of Pandaria.
Boubouille brought it up on MMO-Champion after one of his community members found that Blizzard had registered trademarks on the name. The dates on the trademarks, as well as the timing, wording and style of them, make it appear increasingly likely that this will be the next expansion for World of Warcraft. I do not believe that this is a patch as they're not patented in this way, and I find it unlikely that it would be Warcraft IV because I doubt Blizzard would tie such a game into a geographical niche like this.
No; for me, once we're done with Deathwing, we're off to the southern islands (of which Pandaria is one) and taking the fight down there because the Pandarens need help of some kind.
After getting over the initial mental cry of "wtf, PANDAS?!", I have to admit that I'm very intrigued by how this is going to develop. There is no reason to believe that the entire expansion will relate merely to the pandarens themselves, despite it being obvious that they would play a big part. Additionally, many commentators are forgetting that Pandaria itself could merely be the scene for the conflict itself and not necessarily the wheel which all spokes are attached to.
So, the pandarens need help from both the Horde and the Alliance. Easy enough to decipher. But why? From what enemy do this mysterious race run from, to the point they'll approach the other races for some muscle?
For me, this has got Azshara, the Naga and the southern Old God written all over it - and if that turns out to be true, you can sign me up for another expansion. For those with their tinfoil hat already donned, here's what I'm thinking:
1) Azshara is too big a character to shoe-horned into 4.3, and easily big enough to form an expansion around. Considering some of the pre-Cataclysm hype surrounded her, it's clear Blizzard want to deal with her at some point and the southern islands is the perfect place to set her centre stage.
2) The naga have played a bigger part in Cataclysm than expected, and not just in Vash'jir. When you also consider the overwhelming popularity of the Battle Maiden quests, it wouldn't be a surprise if Blizzard chose to develop them further in another expansion with more room.
3) We've been killing Old Gods since Vanilla, so there's nothing new here - especially if we consider that the "threat" would have to be substantial in order to force pandarens to seek aid. This Old God is also the most likely to be responsible for the Highborne mutation in the first place.
4) The links to the Burning Legion have yet to be tied up, and this could be one route. Sargeras himself spent time with Azshara, so a demonic presence in the southern islands is possible and could set the scene for a later expansion dominated by Sargeras (the ultimate end of WoW).
5) The southern islands themselves are utterly unexplored. If we go down there, Blizzard have almost got an entirely clean slate with which to create whatever they want, outside of the bounds they worked under during the development of Cataclysm. The only limit is their imagination.
If we remember back to the product slate, there were another three expansions after Cataclysm, so it's reasonable to assume that we won't be approaching level 100 anytime soon. As hinted above, I think that honour will be reserved for the fallen Titan himself. It's more likely that we'll see a set of entirely new zones, a new level cap of 90, a break from typically Azerothian adventuring, and some work to bring something new to the mix while tying up a few loose ends before that climactic push to 100. We know that Argus is already touted for future work so that will see the logical continuation from The Burning Crusade (remember, Kil'jaeden was merely banished), while the oft-mentioned Emerald Dream has been a recurring theme since Vanilla; it's likely we'll have to visit there to sort out a few nightmares.
Of course, this brings us roundly to the sticky topic of the playable pandaren.
Again, purely personal opinion, I think the expansion will release a new class. If we logically follow what's happened in the past, we've gotten an alternating release of race, then class, then race, then... Class? The pandarens are unlikely to pick Horde or Alliance wholesale, and while I like the idea of completing their opening zone before choosing a personal Alliance, I'm just not sure that's a very engaging choice.
But, Zell! Blizzard have said they won't release a new class without a good reason or a compelling role to fill! If we were to pick up "Brewmaster" or something similar, the possibility of a melee DPS/ranged DPS/healing class has already been very well mulled over. Sure, it would work but it would break the maxim mentioned above - nothing here is "new" or "compelling", so why would Blizzard go for it?
They wouldn't. Naturally.
So, say hello to World of Warcraft's first Support class.
Sounds a bit pie in the sky? Sure it does.
But if you think about it, it makes all the sense in the world. Blizzard as a company will not have ignored some of the innovation that Trion have brought about in Rift, and one of the major sticking points of Cataclysm is the lack of individuality amongst the classes. You either tank, heal or deal damage and while that model is tried and tested, a lot of the personality of raiding has gone by the wayside. A support class, let's say a Pandaren Monk (come on, you were waiting on me coming out with it), could have three specs that enhance either tanking, healing or DPS, while the player himself contributes whatever the raid requires at any given time. If adds come streaming in, he can pick a few up until the tanks can get them. If there's loads of raid damage, he can toss heals or damage reductions on the tank while the healers concentrate on the raid. And while there's nothing else really going on, they'll contribute a bit of damage and help out where best they can.
/doff triple-strength-double-sided-megatinfoil hat.
Let's round out this post of wild speculation by simply saying that very little, if anything, will be confirmed before Blizzcon. It wouldn't make fiscal sense to do so before then. But the very idea of an expansion such as this gets the creative juices flowing once you get over the initial revulsion of cartoon pandas running around, nastily accompanied by crap impressions of Jack Black.
For me, though, I have to admit... The gloom that has wrapped around me with Cataclysm has lifted, just a little, since thinking about what "Mists of Pandaria" could imply.
And don't lie.
We're ALL curious as to just how beautiful Azshara's model is going to be.
Monday, August 01, 2011
Desperately seeking Kadomi.
Dates can be exciting, depending on who you are. The first time something happened, the date of a discovery, the date of a scientific breakthrough or a date with a girlie you like. In fact, the only dates that aren't that exciting are those of the dried fruit variety. I suppose even that depends. There are currently two dates that really make me sad, though. These dates are the month of April 2011, and the 28th of May 2011. The first was the last post to Tank Like A Girl, and the second was the last time Kadomi's character feed was updated.
It appears Kadomi has left World of Warcraft, as well as blogging about it, far behind her. Now of course, I could totally be wrong - it's possible she's just too busy (Live Like a Nerd hasn't been updated in a while) or a real life problem has taken over. But if Kadomi is indeed the latest in an ever increasing list of WoW absentees, then it really is a crying shame. I don't read many blogs, I really don't. They're either dry, badly written, dull or just simply regurgitated cuds where the original point was misunderstood. Not unlike mine, really.
But in Kadomi, we had a blogger that was good ol' fashioned fun to follow. As much of the fun surrounding WoW is eked away in favour of bland efficiency (I will NEVER forgive Blizzard for taking away my Master Swordsmithing), perhaps it's no surprise she's moved on from a world that doesn't welcome her style as much as it once did. As individuality is watered down, it's perhaps fitting Kadomi would take that sunset stroll with it.
Nay, I say. Nay.
If you've never read Kadomi's blog, you've missed out. It's not littered with maths, facts and figures and it's not from a tank that plays bleeding edge content in a top 1% guild. But it's a charming, witty, engaging and friendly piece of the blogosphere that always made you want to talk about tanking and WoW in general. This discourse would take place with a great many people who were all there for the same reasons you were, hosted by Kadomi herself; one of the most engaging personalities I've come across in my time blogging. Of course, it's easy to overlook some of her better posts that really did help out Protection warriors who needed it, via provision of concise and easy to follow discussions. It's a blog where you're part of the learning process, not just being spoken at like the world's biggest baddie.
I loved Kadomi's blog, and I never missed an update. If she has chosen to give up WoW I wouldn't blame her, but I really will miss her. And once more, if you've never come across her work, here's the link to Tank Like A Girl again so you can go and read some of it. Her later offerings unfortunately reflect a more bleak outlook, but skim back through the archive and I challenge you all to resist its charm.
I guarantee you won't.
It appears Kadomi has left World of Warcraft, as well as blogging about it, far behind her. Now of course, I could totally be wrong - it's possible she's just too busy (Live Like a Nerd hasn't been updated in a while) or a real life problem has taken over. But if Kadomi is indeed the latest in an ever increasing list of WoW absentees, then it really is a crying shame. I don't read many blogs, I really don't. They're either dry, badly written, dull or just simply regurgitated cuds where the original point was misunderstood. Not unlike mine, really.
But in Kadomi, we had a blogger that was good ol' fashioned fun to follow. As much of the fun surrounding WoW is eked away in favour of bland efficiency (I will NEVER forgive Blizzard for taking away my Master Swordsmithing), perhaps it's no surprise she's moved on from a world that doesn't welcome her style as much as it once did. As individuality is watered down, it's perhaps fitting Kadomi would take that sunset stroll with it.
Nay, I say. Nay.
If you've never read Kadomi's blog, you've missed out. It's not littered with maths, facts and figures and it's not from a tank that plays bleeding edge content in a top 1% guild. But it's a charming, witty, engaging and friendly piece of the blogosphere that always made you want to talk about tanking and WoW in general. This discourse would take place with a great many people who were all there for the same reasons you were, hosted by Kadomi herself; one of the most engaging personalities I've come across in my time blogging. Of course, it's easy to overlook some of her better posts that really did help out Protection warriors who needed it, via provision of concise and easy to follow discussions. It's a blog where you're part of the learning process, not just being spoken at like the world's biggest baddie.
I loved Kadomi's blog, and I never missed an update. If she has chosen to give up WoW I wouldn't blame her, but I really will miss her. And once more, if you've never come across her work, here's the link to Tank Like A Girl again so you can go and read some of it. Her later offerings unfortunately reflect a more bleak outlook, but skim back through the archive and I challenge you all to resist its charm.
I guarantee you won't.
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