Is rage banking a concern?

I must admit that despite my prior misgivings, Protection warriors are shaping up very nicely for PvE in Mists of Pandaria. There are lots of things contributing to that (few more than the “new” Revenge, an attack I always loved, feeling a lot like the old Unrelenting Assault) but there is something that potentially concerns me because I feel it’s been overlooked. I like the idea of my warrior being strong, obviously, but I’m uncomfortable with something that could end up brokenly powerful.

I’m talking about rage banking, specifically the practice of sitting on all your rage and then dumping all of it into one burst of mitigation.

And while Shield Block might be used for this, I find Shield Barrier to be the most likely culprit. Essentially, the idea is to sit on 100 rage (120 if you pick up a certain glyph) and then dump all of it into three stacking barriers of 60, 40 and 20 rage respectively. Clearly, that looks good; surely rage banking has some utility and will add depth to the active mitigation system. But I’m a bit concerned that it’s going to be too good on certain mechanics.

What's currently going down. :)

Yeah, I've been a bit quiet these last couple of weeks given that the beta is reaching its conclusion and 5.0 is now just over a week away. There are a few reasons for this, but mainly because I'm still trying to influence how the beta goes and I'm busy constructing a Protection warrior guide for Mists of Pandaria.

Look out for that. o/

I’ve also been spending time getting involved with my new guild, and I’m having a blast. I’ve been here before (as long term readers will know) so caution is advised, but I’m really enjoying playing in A Perfect Circle and I simply enjoy logging on outside of raids, which is a very welcome development.

Lastly, I’m going to be giving the blog something of a facelift over the next week or so prior to the launch of MoP. Essentially, I really want to streamline the tags for easier searches and find a decent place for this list on the front page. I may also update the theme or background, but we’ll see.

More decent content coming soon, I promise. :3

"No girls in our guild".

No, I'm not kidding. This isn't for the faint of heart. I'm Thylacine, by the way, and you really need to read the entire thread (not just the OP).

Read this.

Ultimately, this is what reasonable people with developed social capabilities are fighting against.

Get around the community and wish everyone good luck. It's time to stamp out shit like this.

Blogging? Give it a go!

”Squee (noun): A high-pitched, vocal exclamation of surprise or delight. Frequently elongated during periods of extreme excitement.”

So, blogging eh? Who in the right mind would want to put their thoughts and ideas up, only to get shot to bits by trolls and malcontents? Well, nobody. Obviously. Yet when a few friends of mine recently asked what it would be like if they set up their own blogs, I told them to absolutely go for it or I’d be more than happy to host them here.

Because, truthfully, some of the greatest fun you can have is by putting your thoughts down, but also by being part of a cycle of people who are all just as nervous and clueless as you are. My opening definition comes from Navimie, someone who’s writing always makes me smile. In May, Bio-Break’s Sypster set up the Newbie Blogger Initiative so that people could give it a go with the support of longer-term authors. Fair dinkum, there’s a TON of people out there blogging about the games they love. My only regret is that the initial impetus seems to have tailed off for too many.

For my part, I’m not in that particular cycle of chums and cheers – most don’t come here at all due to the content, the way it’s presented, or some of my past commentary. But being a part of the MMO blogosphere is fun and inspiring when you start getting regular visitors who don’t necessarily see the world the way you do, but choose to give up their time sharing their thoughts. Money, items and other materials can be lost and regained; time cannot. Time is the most precious commodity there is. And for every thousand trolls willing to waste their own time in order to waste yours, it’s all forgotten when a single person chooses to share their time with you. Sometimes, it bothers me that my style or attitude (read “idiocy”) stops me from appreciating those who choose to come here. Because it is a choice. And if it happens to be your choice, consider this my /hug and sincerest gratitude for coming here. YOU making blogging worthwhile, every single time you stop by.

So give it a go. Put your toe in the water. Don’t let the fear of a stagnant pond stop you from enjoying the most refreshing oasis.

Blogging is epic, if you let it be.

The future of endgame raiding?

Okay, so, it's live.

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/5116962718

Feel free to get involved (assuming you're European).

It's a long 'un, tho. :o

DPS warriors in MoP - welcome to Retribution 2.0.

There are a couple of posts I have in the works, but I really need to get this one out because it’s a significant worry regarding the development of the warrior class. Essentially, both Arms and Fury have significant issues right at the moment and the vast majority of them are being utterly ignored. Yes, warriors remain a class that needs tuning in the beta but all the tuning in the world isn’t going to make them fun to play when the expansion goes live.

Say hello to the new DPS warrior or, more accurately, Retribution 2.0.

And that would be fine if Retribution was actually, you know, any fun to play. It’s not. Arms, in particular, has been robbed of a fast-paced, proc-enhanced priority queue and been granted a monotonous, cooldown-reliant rotation. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; why on earth did Blizzard choose to overhaul one of the most universally successful melee specs and turn it into something that the vast majority of players hated?

It’s incredible.

WoW down to 9.1 million subscribers.

The latest earning call for Activision-Blizzard has highlighted yet another drop in subscriptions for World of Warcraft. While Q1 of 2012 didn’t see any loss to speak of (which did surprise me, I admit), Q2 has seen a rather jarring 1.1 million people take their money, and their gaming time, elsewhere.

Naturally, the usual apologists are writing it off as an inevitable drop given the pre-expansion lull and underwhelming tier 13. Naturally, the usual aggravators are chalking it up to more damning evidence of how terrible Cataclysm was and how WoW is dying.

But outside these extremes of opinion (the type the Internet thrives on), we can pretty safely round out Cataclysm as Blizzard’s least popular expansion to date, where the game managed to govern a net loss of pretty much three million subscribers from its post-launch peak. There is a bigger question here, though:

Will they be back?

Staggered raids in MoP.

Similar to my post on the release date of Mists of Pandaria, I figured I’d make a little more news so that Wil can keep up. :’3

Essentially, Blizzard Insider #45 hinted that the raid instances might be staggered upon the launch of the game and this was a similar thought that Lore spoke about in the Weekly Marmot a few weeks ago. It appears that this has actually come to pass as the official policy, and not all of the raids will be available when the game launches. In fact, no raid will be available when the expansion launches with Blizzard wanting to give players time to level up, get dungeon-geared and then spend some time doing the other content that’s going to be inaugurated in Pandaria.

Personally, I think that’s a great plan. I do, however, worry that hardcore raiders who really have no other interest than raiding are going to end up twiddling their thumbs for a week rather than getting stuck in. That said, it’s only a week and I distinctly recall Sco (GM and main tank of the EU’s Method) commenting on just how brutal progression was during tier 11 and that a gating policy might have been appropriate.

Does this achieve that goal? Well, yeah – I think it probably does.