Up through the end of BC my only healing experience was on my Druid, which included raid healing through BT and MT Hyjal, and of course the obligatory 5-man healing. At the time I couldn't envision healing on any other class because I truly loved the total mobility that the Druid class gave me as a healer. Rejuv and Lifeblooms rolling on the tank and judicious use of Rejuv and Lifeblooms on everyone else can do marvelous things. And all done on the move. If you ever needed to do big chunks of healing you always had the option to blow swiftmend, or in the worst cases Natures Grace and then instant Healing Touch. Those of course have cool downs, so if you needed to do additional healing you would of course have to stand still a few seconds to get off Regrowth.
Then WotLK launched and everything was turned on its ear. I of course switched "mains" after playing my Druid as my main for four years, and Blizzard retooled most spells and abilities, including many of the healing classes mechanics. Mid-way through last year I decided I wanted to have a healing option again, but instead of just leveling my Druid I asked a friend what he thought I should do and he recommended the Paladin. I leveled that to 80 and found out I wasn't all that taken with Paladin healing and parked him for a while before coming back to him. I say "not taken" with it, but what I was really suffering from was "differentitus". Paladins, like every other healing class except the Druid, are a stationary healer. Outside of one instant cast healing spell Paladins have to remain stationary to cast their spells and that really bothered me. Particularly in PVP which was what was driving my desire to heal again in the first place. It had been my observation that if you stand still in PVP you were usually dead.
However I'm very glad I decided to give the Paladin another look a couple months later. Since then I've officially switched to my Paladin as my main, and I raid and pvp heal on him regularly. Once you get over the mobility issue the other advantages of the Paladin healer become very striking. The first thing I noted was the extreme mana efficiency of the class. Particularly if the player uses Flash of Light as their primary healing ability. Spamming FoL, with it's short cast time enables the player to heal multiple characters in quick order and Beacon of Light, which heals whoever its is placed on for the same amount of the heal, essentially doubles HPS. Of course it can double your over healing too. On those occasions where you actually need to regen mana, divine plea with it's one minute cooldown, is almost always up. Divine Plea regenerates 25% of your mana, but reduces your healing by 50%. Sounds horrible, but it's really not because it can be used in conjunction with Avenging Wrath which increases healing effect by 20% and Divine Illumination which reduces the cost of healing spells by 50%. You don't absolutely need to use the three in conjunction with one another, however you will see a great amount of regen if you do. Even while continuing to heal at a reduced rate because of Divine Plea. I've die, been battle-rezzed and been able to buff myself and get right back into healing through these abilities, ending the fight with close to 50% mana. In addition Paladins gain back mana through critting, so critical rating is of utmost importance, followed closely by haste.
A typical 5-man healing endeavor would entail me putting a beacon and Sacred Shield on the tank and hitting him with Holy Shock as required. I don't typically have to use anything other than FoL for healing, and if I have to heal any other group member because of random damage the Beacon on the tank takes care of him while I take care of the rest of the group. Unlike other healing classes the Paladin doesn't have a true area heal ability, so in those fights where a lot of group damage is present your only means of handling that is by spamming FoL in a rolling fashion from one member to another. It shouldn't take more than 4-5 seconds to heal everyone in succession, excluding the tank of course.
For those occasions where you find you have to heal someone for a great deal or they will die, there are a couple of ways of handling it. If it's the tank you have your big heal Holy Light, and depending on your gear can heal for 14-15k or higher. You also have Lay on Hands, which is your real emergency button and should only be used in true emergencies as it has a fairly lengthy cool down. For those group members that are in trouble you have Hand of Protection that will protect them from melee damage, and you can always blow Lay on Hands if you think you won't need it for the tank any time soon.
Just as important as a classes healing ability is it's tools for self-preservation. And no other class has better self-preservation than the Holy Paladin. When faced with a situation where survivability is questionable a Paladin always has the option to place their beacon on themselves, which of course continuously heals them as they go about continuing to heal others. That alone will save the Paladin more often than not, but in those cases where massive damage is being taken there simply is not better emergency button than Divine Shield, which absorbs all damage for 12 seconds. 12 seconds of complete freedom to heal in total safety while others regain threat.
Lately though I have been wanting to heal on my Druid again. Honestly I've had the desire to do just about everything you can do with my two hybrid characters, and through two mods I've been doing just that. Of course I have a full healing and Ret set on my Paladin, but I've also got a nearly complete 245 ilevel tanking set too. On my Druid I took him back up over the Summer leveling as Feral where I DPS'd and Tanked, but have since respecced and raid as Balance. A week ago I dropped my remaining Feral spec and switched to Resto, and have been having fun healing Heroics and in PVP with him again.
As I mentioned at the outset the biggest difference in my view is the mobility, but the primary Druid healing style is also completely different. Unlike Paladins, who have fast direct, and big bomb heals, the Druid class is mostly about healing over time. For someone coming from a direct healing class like a priest or Shaman that might take some getting used to, but really only until you realize the freedom that gives you. Direct healing classes are often very reactive, meaning you often won't start healing until someone gains agro, or has already take damage. But as a Druid healer you most likely already have HOTs running on a tank, so he is already being healed as he takes damage. As a Paladin, if I find myself in a situation where my group (or raid) is taking area damage I have to heal them one at a time, although in quick succession. But as a Druid I have something in addition to my primary HOTS that my Paladin does not -- a true AOE heal. I can easily put Rejuv on everyone in the party and just use Wild Growth every six seconds to keep AOE healing up. With HOTs rolling on the party I don't have to be a reactionary healer, but instead transform in a proactive healer, anticipating damage and dealing with it before it happens.
As I get back into the swing of things with my Resto spec, the only thing that I think I still need to rest is my mana efficiency. Whereas I had been quite spoiled with the mobility of the Resto Druid, I've become quite spoiled with the mana efficiency of the Holy Paladin. As I've only done Heroic healing as Resto, I need to see first hand what my mana efficiency is like in a raiding environment and I should see that Saturday night in ICC-10. More to come on this subject.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
China and MMO's
China is a topic I haven't posted about in a while, so after reading Scott Jennings post up on MMORPG.COM this morning I knew I just had to add my own two cents to the matter. I've mentioned previously I've worked in the IT field for over 20 years. First as and IT in the Navy for 10 years (I was an Intelligence analyst in the Navy prior to that), then as a IT consultant for a Fortune 500 firm here in the States. Through my extensive experience I know first hand how prolific the IT attacks are from China. I see hundreds of them daily against Defense Department networks, and I also see the reports of the attempts at industrial intelligence gathering China does against corporations in the United States. As I said, they are prolific. They're also, we believe, government sponsored.
For those that do not know much about China, they have been a Communist nation since the 1940's, and have throughout their history been a nation that has often been out of control of it's own destiny. That fact, more than anything else, is what drives China's culture today. China has a deep seated desire to be in control of itself, and in today's age that more often than not, means being in control of others. That and Communist rule make China a place with few rights and where the rule of law often means little. These "relationships" Scott talks about facilitate business deals the likes of which would get you thrown in jail in the states as they often demand "greasing the rails". "Bribes" are an accepted and expected form in business and government relationships there and I'm convinced the battle between China's GATT and Ministry of Culture over WoW has more to do with power, the growing MMO market, and of course money.
Companies like Blizzard that seek to do business there should think long and hard before doing so. And they should not let the allure of the size of China's market dazzle them as China is not a westernized civilization that is deeply rooted in the rule of law. Laws and regulations can literally change over night, and for no other reason than retaliation against a company or person. China's market is quicksand and no one will make a great deal of money there any time soon. At this point in time China needs western companies more than western companies need China.
For those that do not know much about China, they have been a Communist nation since the 1940's, and have throughout their history been a nation that has often been out of control of it's own destiny. That fact, more than anything else, is what drives China's culture today. China has a deep seated desire to be in control of itself, and in today's age that more often than not, means being in control of others. That and Communist rule make China a place with few rights and where the rule of law often means little. These "relationships" Scott talks about facilitate business deals the likes of which would get you thrown in jail in the states as they often demand "greasing the rails". "Bribes" are an accepted and expected form in business and government relationships there and I'm convinced the battle between China's GATT and Ministry of Culture over WoW has more to do with power, the growing MMO market, and of course money.
Companies like Blizzard that seek to do business there should think long and hard before doing so. And they should not let the allure of the size of China's market dazzle them as China is not a westernized civilization that is deeply rooted in the rule of law. Laws and regulations can literally change over night, and for no other reason than retaliation against a company or person. China's market is quicksand and no one will make a great deal of money there any time soon. At this point in time China needs western companies more than western companies need China.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Entitlement now means you aren't to be subjectively judged
After listening to last weeks WoW Insider Show I was considering writing a lengthy blog post in response to the portion where two of the three hosts argue against "gear score", but decided that I've said enough over the past few months here and on the official forums in it's favor. However, after reading Tobold's blog post this morning I've decided to go ahead of detail my reasoning for gear score, and how I believe a sense of entitlement is behind objections to it.
Merriam Webster defines entitlement as a belief that one is deserving of certain privileges.
I'm all for people having an opportunity to see content, but I believe that what Blizzard is doing is not helping, but rather harming the game. WoW is about progression, be it gear, abilities, or skill. Tuning content down so that players that are incapable of playing well enough to experience content as it was intended to be experienced actually curtails Blizzard's ability to create new and vibrant content later on. Why? Because the players that had to be catered to in the way Blizzard is catering to them don't progress as a player. If content is difficulty is reduced to the point that nearly anyone can finish it without much thought or skill, then they didn't obtain anything useful. They don't grow. And I've seen this over and over again. Less skillful players get carried by the more skillful and remain a yoke around the entire raid in perpetuity. On a larger scale that is the problem Blizzard has created for themselves and the sense of entitlement they have allowed to grow in the community stops them from changing course.
I believe that everyone should have an opportunity to experience all content, but I also believe there is an emphasis on the individual to progress to the point where they can. I believe that Blizzard can create content that remains as originally intended, but also does not have to be tuned down in difficulty repeatedly so that everyone can complete it. That doesn't mean I pine for the days of Naax-40, but rather a belief that development can be done in such a way content offers sufficient difficulty and progression and still cater to a majority of players.
How all this ties in with gear score is that like the "controversy" surrounding the new Looking for Group system, and the group problems easier access to dungeons brings with it, I believe it basically boils down to this sense of entitlement. People have come by a belief that regardless of their preparation, level of skill, or level of gear that they should have the same level of access to a given piece of content as anyone else. The concept of gear score is relatively new, but it represents a clear delineation from how someone would decide previously if someone else was ready for that raid dungeon. Before you would simply look at their gear and make a snap judgment about the person. Through much of the last year achievements were added to that mix, and now we have gear score. At every turn individuals would decry the "meanness" of it all; how they despised being judged and how they were being boiled down to xyz. In short, they wanted no one looking at them, and wanted no one making judgments about their suitability for the content. They wanted to go, and they felt they had as much right to go as the person next to them. Never a thought was given to whether they should go and never a thought that perhaps they should simply start their own group with slightly lower requirements.
Along comes gear score and voila, fresh controversy yet gear score gives you something very distinct from the subjective standards used previously. Gear score gives you a definitive numerical score that can be tied to tiers of content. If it is a surprise that raid leaders putting together pugs want only highly geared members, then please watch trade chat for those low level characters asking for level 80's to run them through Dead Mines. What's the difference I ask you? Nothing, of course. It's human nature. People are not the least interested in wiping repeatedly through a night in an ICC-25 pug. Instead they want to complete the content in something approaching relative ease and only a certain level of gear will give you that. Or, more accurately, has a chance of giving you that because clearly gear score is not the end all and be all that I think a lot of people make it out to be. Gear score makes no distinction between a Ret Paladin wearing all cloth healing gear and the same Ret Paladin wearing proper plate dps gear for instance. It can't tell you how skillfully the player will play his class, or whether that individual will afk though most of the instance, or whether that player will cause deaths in the raid through careless mistakes. But no means of subjective decision making prior to a raid can tell you those things. Gear score only tells you whether an individual is geared in such a way that they can be a productive member of a raid, or whether they probably could not be.
It's a sad truth that our society is growing less and less prepared for real life. If you think WoW is only a game, then I have a bridge I'd like to sell you along with some beach front property in Arizona. WoW is an extension of the real world as it relies on the interactions between real people. And guess what? People are often arrogant pricks. Life is often unfair, and guess what? So are the demands of people putting together PUGs. If you get hung up on the fact that others judge you then perhaps you should hide in your closet and never venture outside because I'd venture to say that you are being judged by people in your real lives every day, whether its a friend, a colleague, or your employer. And there are many consequences of those judgments in your real life as there are in WoW.
The old Axiom that God helps those that help themselves holds as much truth in WoW as it should in your real life. If you think a raid leader is being unrealistic in his or her expectations then help yourself and start your own raid. If there is a question in your mind regarding whether you are prepared for a level of content or not, then don't access it. Put the time in to prepare yourself so that you can be a real partner in a team effort and not someone simply being a burden on others. And most of all, do not go forward with a sense of entitlement, but rather understand there will always be achievers and non-achievers. Decide which on you want to be and make it so.
Merriam Webster defines entitlement as a belief that one is deserving of certain privileges.
Main Entry: en·ti·tle·mentSomething I have witnessed more often in WoW recently than in any other MMO, or in truth, even in WoW previously. The feeling is permeating WoW to the extent that it's taken on a life of it's own and is the primary reason, I believe, behind the guiding philosophy that Blizzard has been employing for raid tunements in WotLK, as well as the totality of dungeon "tunements" -- cough nerfs -- including those recently announced regarding the Occulus. Enough people have demanded that all content become homogenized and "accessible" that Blizzard has made it so, or will given enough time. Look to the raid tunements for example. Blizzard has been fairly upfront that they watch raid progression. Once the hard core raiding guilds clear content Blizzard has been fairly consistent with going back in and nerfing the content until a majority of players can then clear it. And given more time goes back in so that even more players can clear it. They didn't really need to do that in Naax, which was already constructed and balanced for level 80 characters in ilevel 200 gear. But we saw the practice in Ulduar and TOC, and we've begin to see it in ICC. Unlike Ulduar or TOC, Blizzard is tuning on a wing by wing basis in ICC and despite claims to the contrary everyone knows they will tune down Festergut and Rotgut too.
Pronunciation: \-ˈtī-təl-mənt\
Function: noun
Date: 1942
1 a : the state or condition of being entitled : right b : a right to benefits specified especially by law or contract
2 : a government program providing benefits to members of a specified group; also : funds supporting or distributed by such a program
3 : belief that one is deserving of or entitled to certain privileges
I'm all for people having an opportunity to see content, but I believe that what Blizzard is doing is not helping, but rather harming the game. WoW is about progression, be it gear, abilities, or skill. Tuning content down so that players that are incapable of playing well enough to experience content as it was intended to be experienced actually curtails Blizzard's ability to create new and vibrant content later on. Why? Because the players that had to be catered to in the way Blizzard is catering to them don't progress as a player. If content is difficulty is reduced to the point that nearly anyone can finish it without much thought or skill, then they didn't obtain anything useful. They don't grow. And I've seen this over and over again. Less skillful players get carried by the more skillful and remain a yoke around the entire raid in perpetuity. On a larger scale that is the problem Blizzard has created for themselves and the sense of entitlement they have allowed to grow in the community stops them from changing course.
I believe that everyone should have an opportunity to experience all content, but I also believe there is an emphasis on the individual to progress to the point where they can. I believe that Blizzard can create content that remains as originally intended, but also does not have to be tuned down in difficulty repeatedly so that everyone can complete it. That doesn't mean I pine for the days of Naax-40, but rather a belief that development can be done in such a way content offers sufficient difficulty and progression and still cater to a majority of players.
How all this ties in with gear score is that like the "controversy" surrounding the new Looking for Group system, and the group problems easier access to dungeons brings with it, I believe it basically boils down to this sense of entitlement. People have come by a belief that regardless of their preparation, level of skill, or level of gear that they should have the same level of access to a given piece of content as anyone else. The concept of gear score is relatively new, but it represents a clear delineation from how someone would decide previously if someone else was ready for that raid dungeon. Before you would simply look at their gear and make a snap judgment about the person. Through much of the last year achievements were added to that mix, and now we have gear score. At every turn individuals would decry the "meanness" of it all; how they despised being judged and how they were being boiled down to xyz. In short, they wanted no one looking at them, and wanted no one making judgments about their suitability for the content. They wanted to go, and they felt they had as much right to go as the person next to them. Never a thought was given to whether they should go and never a thought that perhaps they should simply start their own group with slightly lower requirements.
Along comes gear score and voila, fresh controversy yet gear score gives you something very distinct from the subjective standards used previously. Gear score gives you a definitive numerical score that can be tied to tiers of content. If it is a surprise that raid leaders putting together pugs want only highly geared members, then please watch trade chat for those low level characters asking for level 80's to run them through Dead Mines. What's the difference I ask you? Nothing, of course. It's human nature. People are not the least interested in wiping repeatedly through a night in an ICC-25 pug. Instead they want to complete the content in something approaching relative ease and only a certain level of gear will give you that. Or, more accurately, has a chance of giving you that because clearly gear score is not the end all and be all that I think a lot of people make it out to be. Gear score makes no distinction between a Ret Paladin wearing all cloth healing gear and the same Ret Paladin wearing proper plate dps gear for instance. It can't tell you how skillfully the player will play his class, or whether that individual will afk though most of the instance, or whether that player will cause deaths in the raid through careless mistakes. But no means of subjective decision making prior to a raid can tell you those things. Gear score only tells you whether an individual is geared in such a way that they can be a productive member of a raid, or whether they probably could not be.
It's a sad truth that our society is growing less and less prepared for real life. If you think WoW is only a game, then I have a bridge I'd like to sell you along with some beach front property in Arizona. WoW is an extension of the real world as it relies on the interactions between real people. And guess what? People are often arrogant pricks. Life is often unfair, and guess what? So are the demands of people putting together PUGs. If you get hung up on the fact that others judge you then perhaps you should hide in your closet and never venture outside because I'd venture to say that you are being judged by people in your real lives every day, whether its a friend, a colleague, or your employer. And there are many consequences of those judgments in your real life as there are in WoW.
The old Axiom that God helps those that help themselves holds as much truth in WoW as it should in your real life. If you think a raid leader is being unrealistic in his or her expectations then help yourself and start your own raid. If there is a question in your mind regarding whether you are prepared for a level of content or not, then don't access it. Put the time in to prepare yourself so that you can be a real partner in a team effort and not someone simply being a burden on others. And most of all, do not go forward with a sense of entitlement, but rather understand there will always be achievers and non-achievers. Decide which on you want to be and make it so.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
ICC-10 and Festergut
My Friday night 10-man group that I run with my Paladin killed Festergut last night after 4 attempts, and then went on to get Rotface down to 40% on two attempts before we had to call it an evening. While the bosses are definitely "easier" in 10-mans, the fights are still largely the same with the exception of mechanics like the blood beasts in Saurfang being only two, instead of 5 as they are in 25-man and the adds in the Deathwhisper encounter only coming from one side at a time instead of three. The Festergut fight is identical as far as I can tell, though tuned down for 10 players. The fight requires about the same level of coordination that you would give to the Deathwhisper encounter, and while healing is stressful to the healers, is manageable with good group placement and pre-planning responses. The raid leader needs to plan for several eventualities, like what everyone is to do if both spores end up in Melee, or both end up in ranged. What happens if one of the healers gets the Vile Gas? Who will cover the tanks and who will temporarily pick up healing of the ranged and the melee, while also healing the indisposed healer?
And that is really why it took us the four attempts last night to finally down him, because we hadn't put in enough thought and coordination that the fight demands. Ultimately we had one healer out with the ranged, and two healers with the Melee, one of which was dedicated to the tanks, and the other covering for the ranged healer should she get the vile gas. And we decided that the ranged healer would always remain where she was, that all ranged would always converge on her regardless of who got the Spore. And we decided that if two ranged ended up getting the spore the right most ranged would always run into the melee, unless it was the healer who would remain where she was. The melee did the same. And once we worked out all the kinks, including figuring out exactly when the tanks needed to taunt off each other, and that we ended up needing to bubble one of the tanks to help with the buff they got, things went off superbly.
I think I was simply in shock the other night when I was watching the amount of damage that everyone was taking in 25-man on this fight, but now I realize it was simply a product of everyone being completely unprepared. We hadn't spaced people properly, people weren't getting the inoculations, or all of them, and we hadn't properly coordinated the healing assignments. With three groups doing these fights in 10-man every week it should give us a leg up on the 25-man side of things, as the fight is the same, just a bit harder. And I think I might need to retract the opinion I expressed saying the difficulty of this encounter was much higher than it should have been, coming from the Saurfang encounter. The key to this fight is clearly coordination, and ensuring the tanks use cool downs appropriately, and perhaps supplementing those with cool downs from the rest of the raid to assist them. I'm actually somewhat glad we didn't get in there Thursday night to attempt this, as it gave the three 10-man teams an opportunity to look it over on a slightly easier mode. Whether we can get in there on Monday or not remains to be seen. With the next wing coming out on the 19th I certainly hope so.
And that is really why it took us the four attempts last night to finally down him, because we hadn't put in enough thought and coordination that the fight demands. Ultimately we had one healer out with the ranged, and two healers with the Melee, one of which was dedicated to the tanks, and the other covering for the ranged healer should she get the vile gas. And we decided that the ranged healer would always remain where she was, that all ranged would always converge on her regardless of who got the Spore. And we decided that if two ranged ended up getting the spore the right most ranged would always run into the melee, unless it was the healer who would remain where she was. The melee did the same. And once we worked out all the kinks, including figuring out exactly when the tanks needed to taunt off each other, and that we ended up needing to bubble one of the tanks to help with the buff they got, things went off superbly.
I think I was simply in shock the other night when I was watching the amount of damage that everyone was taking in 25-man on this fight, but now I realize it was simply a product of everyone being completely unprepared. We hadn't spaced people properly, people weren't getting the inoculations, or all of them, and we hadn't properly coordinated the healing assignments. With three groups doing these fights in 10-man every week it should give us a leg up on the 25-man side of things, as the fight is the same, just a bit harder. And I think I might need to retract the opinion I expressed saying the difficulty of this encounter was much higher than it should have been, coming from the Saurfang encounter. The key to this fight is clearly coordination, and ensuring the tanks use cool downs appropriately, and perhaps supplementing those with cool downs from the rest of the raid to assist them. I'm actually somewhat glad we didn't get in there Thursday night to attempt this, as it gave the three 10-man teams an opportunity to look it over on a slightly easier mode. Whether we can get in there on Monday or not remains to be seen. With the next wing coming out on the 19th I certainly hope so.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
WoW - the new cougar prowling grounds?
Color me silly, but middle-aged women who used to pretend they were still in their 20's and were cruising for casual sex would simply head to local watering holes where there were plenty of available young men seeking nothing more than as much casual sex as they could get. That apparently is not the preferred method for these cougars now. Now, the virtual world of World of Warcraft is the preferred hunting grounds for these sex-hungry middle aged women. Just last week we heard of the latest cougar who flew from her home in Houston Texas to meet with a 16-year old boy in Canada. The Canadian authorities refused to charge her as the age of consent there is 16. But today we find that Lauri Ann Price has been arrested by Houston authorities for her alledge plot to seduce the young boy, starting the long running process when he was only 15.
But Lauri Price, the 42-year old mother of four, is not the first middle aged woman who has used the MMO to track down and have sex with under-aged children. In February 2009 Lynn Walls had pursued an under-aged boy in WoW was sentenced to 12 months in jail, and ordered to remain as a registered sex offender for ten years.
Like-wise, Tamara Broome ended up taking a plea agreement and spend 29-days in jail for her attempted relationship with an under-aged North Carolina boy she had flown to see from Australlia. Jacquelynn Fielding was sentenced to six months.
And there are many more such examples. Just look to Google. And they are hardly alone in making the World of Warcraft fertile ground for their predations. Men are equally using it to pursue under-age girls for exactly the same reasons and it's disgusting. This folks is why you do not let your under-aged kids play this, or any other online game without ample supervision.
But Lauri Price, the 42-year old mother of four, is not the first middle aged woman who has used the MMO to track down and have sex with under-aged children. In February 2009 Lynn Walls had pursued an under-aged boy in WoW was sentenced to 12 months in jail, and ordered to remain as a registered sex offender for ten years.
Like-wise, Tamara Broome ended up taking a plea agreement and spend 29-days in jail for her attempted relationship with an under-aged North Carolina boy she had flown to see from Australlia. Jacquelynn Fielding was sentenced to six months.
And there are many more such examples. Just look to Google. And they are hardly alone in making the World of Warcraft fertile ground for their predations. Men are equally using it to pursue under-age girls for exactly the same reasons and it's disgusting. This folks is why you do not let your under-aged kids play this, or any other online game without ample supervision.
Thoughts of ICC-25
As the Plague wing in ICC was released Tuesday I thought I would take a few moments to jot down some thoughts on it all. We’ve been running ICC for a month now, and thus far I’m extremely happy with it. TOC was a nice respite, but it’s back to the norm in ICC with several bosses with varied mechanics and interesting twist, trash aplenty, and something we haven’t seen since WotLK was released – Rep Grinds. Long time players will find the rep grind aspect familiar as it was a normal part of raiding in Vanilla and BC but had been completely absent up to this point. Unfortunately the only reward for the rep grind is a ring (no strength ring Blizz? Seriously?) or access to crafting patterns at honored. No special items of gear, jewel crafting or inscription patterns, or consumables as had been the norm in BC and Vanilla.
The trash in the initial wing seems like a lot at the outset, but really isn’t as bad as it might look at first glance. It takes only 20-30 minutes to clear to Marrowgar, after which there is a single room of four trash pulls to clear, and then three trash pulls between the second and third bosses. There is no trash to clear between the third and final boss – Saurfang. That is much less than what we would normally expect in a traditional raid instance, and for the most part that level of trash is carried forward into the Plague wing as well. The trash is numerically less in the Plague wing, though individually they are much harder and typically require more group healing than is experienced from the trash in the initial wing. Unlike the four skeletal “mini-bosses” that can be fought (or not) in the initial wing, you must engage the two mini-bosses in the Plague wing. Stinky, and Precious are nothing short of a surprise if you don’t already know what to expect from them. Precious and Stinky carry forward the decimate effect used by Gluth in Naaxramus, however with a twist from Stinky. Precious is probably the easier of the two and should be brought down the stair case a little when engaging him so as not to agro Stinky if you end up fighting in the doorway.
Precious is a typical tank and spank until his decimate, which requires massive AOE healing. During his decimates he summoned a number of zombies, which we simply ignored until after we had killed him. Stinky on the other hand is the harder of the two. He doesn’t call forth zombies, but he does feature an aoe damage tick (his stinky cloud) that can cause a number of deaths if you are low on health from the decimate he also does. I ended up judging light the entire fight to help my group with healing, and we needed it. I can not emphasize enough how much group healing is required from this one encounter, more than any other in the entire wing. The other trash mobs that are present in the wing are more powerful than anything in the initial wing, but they are easily manageable with some forethought.
I noted with some levity yesterday when I read the “patch” notes before the servers came back online, seeing the Lady Deathwhisper encounter had been nerfed. Not only was her mana shield reduced by about 2.5 million points, but the health on the adds was also reduced, and the casters were further nerfed so they didn’t cast quite as often. There were many comments in Vent during the fight regarding how much easier it was, though we were just fine with it as it was. That fight, more than any other up to Saurfang required good coordination and carry-through. Blizzard mentioned simply on the forum that the nerfs were in-line in order to assist more casual guilds and PUGs to be able to complete the content. Saurfang remains the wings only boss in the wing now that presents much of a challenge, and that only if you do not have a group that has good coordination and capable of successfully kiting. The ship battle is much akin to the chess event in Karazhan and not really worthy of being called a boss event in the raid.
But the bosses in the Plague wing are something all together different. Actually I can only say that of Festergut, who we cleared to and got two attempts on before having to call it quits last night. Those two attempts were quite the eye opener and told me we probably have a great amount of work ahead of us before we move much further in the wing. I understood the fight before stepping into his room, but seeing the fight in someone else’s video and experiencing it first hand are something entirely different. I was utterly unprepared for the massive damage we would all take and the utter unpreparedness with which our healers were to deal with it. Our first attempt it was over at 90%. Our second attempt it was over at 86%, and I simply see no way a PUG is going to carry that fight off any time soon. You need lots of AOE healing, which of course means you have to stack your healers with a couple tank healers, and the rest all capable of group/AOE healing. In the thread Blizzard commented in yesterday regarding the nerf to the Lady Deathwhisper encounter, they agreed with the postulation that they are seeking to fine tune the instance so that the encounters become progressively more difficult. That is the case, I believe, in the initial wing save for the Ship fight. But Festergut is so much more difficult than Saurfang as to make that statement completely ludicrous. I’ve read the strats for Rotgut and Festergut, and I believe Rotgut is actually somewhat easier, but our raid leader insisted Festergut was the easier of the two. I, of course, won’t be able to opine on that until I witness it personally. But unless it is much easier than Festergut I still would say the ramp up in difficulty from Saurfang to either of those two would be far too great.
Thursday night should be fairly interesting as we’ll have a full night of attempts in the Plague wing, so I’ll report more about it Friday or Saturday.
The trash in the initial wing seems like a lot at the outset, but really isn’t as bad as it might look at first glance. It takes only 20-30 minutes to clear to Marrowgar, after which there is a single room of four trash pulls to clear, and then three trash pulls between the second and third bosses. There is no trash to clear between the third and final boss – Saurfang. That is much less than what we would normally expect in a traditional raid instance, and for the most part that level of trash is carried forward into the Plague wing as well. The trash is numerically less in the Plague wing, though individually they are much harder and typically require more group healing than is experienced from the trash in the initial wing. Unlike the four skeletal “mini-bosses” that can be fought (or not) in the initial wing, you must engage the two mini-bosses in the Plague wing. Stinky, and Precious are nothing short of a surprise if you don’t already know what to expect from them. Precious and Stinky carry forward the decimate effect used by Gluth in Naaxramus, however with a twist from Stinky. Precious is probably the easier of the two and should be brought down the stair case a little when engaging him so as not to agro Stinky if you end up fighting in the doorway.
Precious is a typical tank and spank until his decimate, which requires massive AOE healing. During his decimates he summoned a number of zombies, which we simply ignored until after we had killed him. Stinky on the other hand is the harder of the two. He doesn’t call forth zombies, but he does feature an aoe damage tick (his stinky cloud) that can cause a number of deaths if you are low on health from the decimate he also does. I ended up judging light the entire fight to help my group with healing, and we needed it. I can not emphasize enough how much group healing is required from this one encounter, more than any other in the entire wing. The other trash mobs that are present in the wing are more powerful than anything in the initial wing, but they are easily manageable with some forethought.
I noted with some levity yesterday when I read the “patch” notes before the servers came back online, seeing the Lady Deathwhisper encounter had been nerfed. Not only was her mana shield reduced by about 2.5 million points, but the health on the adds was also reduced, and the casters were further nerfed so they didn’t cast quite as often. There were many comments in Vent during the fight regarding how much easier it was, though we were just fine with it as it was. That fight, more than any other up to Saurfang required good coordination and carry-through. Blizzard mentioned simply on the forum that the nerfs were in-line in order to assist more casual guilds and PUGs to be able to complete the content. Saurfang remains the wings only boss in the wing now that presents much of a challenge, and that only if you do not have a group that has good coordination and capable of successfully kiting. The ship battle is much akin to the chess event in Karazhan and not really worthy of being called a boss event in the raid.
But the bosses in the Plague wing are something all together different. Actually I can only say that of Festergut, who we cleared to and got two attempts on before having to call it quits last night. Those two attempts were quite the eye opener and told me we probably have a great amount of work ahead of us before we move much further in the wing. I understood the fight before stepping into his room, but seeing the fight in someone else’s video and experiencing it first hand are something entirely different. I was utterly unprepared for the massive damage we would all take and the utter unpreparedness with which our healers were to deal with it. Our first attempt it was over at 90%. Our second attempt it was over at 86%, and I simply see no way a PUG is going to carry that fight off any time soon. You need lots of AOE healing, which of course means you have to stack your healers with a couple tank healers, and the rest all capable of group/AOE healing. In the thread Blizzard commented in yesterday regarding the nerf to the Lady Deathwhisper encounter, they agreed with the postulation that they are seeking to fine tune the instance so that the encounters become progressively more difficult. That is the case, I believe, in the initial wing save for the Ship fight. But Festergut is so much more difficult than Saurfang as to make that statement completely ludicrous. I’ve read the strats for Rotgut and Festergut, and I believe Rotgut is actually somewhat easier, but our raid leader insisted Festergut was the easier of the two. I, of course, won’t be able to opine on that until I witness it personally. But unless it is much easier than Festergut I still would say the ramp up in difficulty from Saurfang to either of those two would be far too great.
Thursday night should be fairly interesting as we’ll have a full night of attempts in the Plague wing, so I’ll report more about it Friday or Saturday.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
More on that Paladin T10 2-piece bonus
This will be my last blog post about this for a while, but I just had to share my experience in ICC-25 last night. To put this in context, we had all our heavy hitters last night, so I came in at number 22 out of 25 gear score wise, whereas I was 19 out of 25 Monday night in TOC-25. I understand that gear score is not everything, but it is an indicator of pure power and really serves as the only comparative means of association between two or more individuals. That being said, I was definitely near the bottom of the list in as far as being the best geared in the group. The top of the list was 500 points higher than me, yet at the end of the night I was number one on the overall damage list and came in number one on total trash, and number one on Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, and Saurfang. I came in second on the ship battle. The only individuals that were even close to me in trash were the two Warlocks who did nothing but spam Seeds. And only one DK came close to me on the boss attempts. His acquisition of Death’s Verdict on Monday night greatly improved his game, so to speak. It was so comical last night during the trash clearing that the raid leader sent me a whisper that my DPS was just stupid. It truly was. Those Warlocks were doing 12-13k by spamming seeds and I was right in-between them on the pulls that I didn’t come in number one myself.
I now have only three pieces of 226 gear left as I got the Blood Soaked Sabotons last night. I would have really liked that Deaths Verdict the DK won over me Monday night to replace my Corren’s Coaster I’m still using along with my Nobles Card of Greatness, but I’m apparently making due. As one of the hunters remarked last night (himself one of the former top DPS’ers in TOC), I need no help. Clearly I will be getting little sympathy from the raid as I try to finagle my way into more upgrades. Tis lonely at the top!
I now have only three pieces of 226 gear left as I got the Blood Soaked Sabotons last night. I would have really liked that Deaths Verdict the DK won over me Monday night to replace my Corren’s Coaster I’m still using along with my Nobles Card of Greatness, but I’m apparently making due. As one of the hunters remarked last night (himself one of the former top DPS’ers in TOC), I need no help. Clearly I will be getting little sympathy from the raid as I try to finagle my way into more upgrades. Tis lonely at the top!
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Dumbing down has reached a new level
I woke this morning to a new lesson in dumbing down in WoW. In as much as I would love to get my hands on that Blue Drake (I've never killed Malygoes on any of my toons), the new announced changes to "encourage" players to stay and finish Occulus are completely unnecessary.
Listen folks, Occulus is easy. Even more now than it ever was. It just takes a little thought--I know, I know, that's a lot to ask from people--after all, this dungeon is partly fought in 3D, rather than the 2D you are used to every where else. It's that 3D experience that makes this "hard". So let me make this easy for you and explain exactly how to run Occulus. First and foremost, get out of the habit of spreading out. Stick to the tank like glue. Not only does this afford you a little more protection but it also has the benefit of reducing the groups agro radius. You have an individual radius, but taken together the group can do a lot more harm that you probably can by yourself. If everyone is spread out and agroing lots of dragons that is when the group starts to see trouble. Reduce that by staying in a more compact group and flying from one objective to the others directly.
As you kill the first mini-boss and gain your drakes, you need to fly low and directly to the first level inner ring and clear out those mobs. Then as you pass the other platforms fly out to them directly, staying low and only killing the drakes that are directly in your path. You shouldn't have to kill more than 2-3 getting to any of the platforms. After killing the constructs on the second platform, head directly back to the inner ring that you have already cleared and fly through that to the last platform where you can kill the second mini-boss. From there look up and you should see a floating outer ring, where you will have to agro the Mage Lord three times. Kill his adds that spawn, then fly directly into the upper inner ring to actually kill Uram. From there you can either fly out and then up to Ergos, or you can kill all the little drakelings and then fly up to Ergos. It's more expedient if you avoid the drakelings and simply fly directly out from Uram, then up and around the drakelings to the platforms around Ergos.
Ergos is the second of issues that give groups problems, yet he's just as easy to surmount as the drakes that everyone agros when they're clearing the platforms were. If you want to survive Ergos then do two things. First, stay together. Do not under any circumstances spread out. And second, when he phases out, becoming immune to damage and summoning the three glowing balls of doom, fly as a group either clockwise or counter-clockwise around his platform staying clear of those balls that will be following you. When you see the message that the phase shift if ending you can fly back to Ergos as a group and continue to DPS. Throughout the azure drakes need to be putting their rifts up on him and allowing their dot to stack to 10, then firing a shot to detonate that dot. Rinse and repeat throughout the fight. The Green drake needs to keep a 3 stack of poison up on Ergos at all times, and using their own detonate ability for added damage. I forget what it's called, but it's their number 2 button. The loss of health will regenerate from the poison dot they place on Ergos. And of course the red drake needs to simply do tank. Tank better by using the ability to absorb damage from the group either during his enrages (if azure drakes aren't using time stop on those) or when Ergos casts his AOE damage ability.
If you do these two things in Occulus you will finish, and finish without trouble. No need for additional encouragement or bonus loot from Blizzard.
To encourage players not to shy away from the many invigorating adventures to be had in The Oculus, we have applied a change to enhance the rewards players are provided when selected for this dungeon via the Random Heroic option in the Dungeon Finder. Once Ley-Guardian Eregos is defeated, one loot bag per character will be provided in his chest in addition to the current rewards. Each loot bag will offer players rare gems, two additional Emblems of Triumph, and a chance of being rewarded the Reins of the Blue Drake. These fine treasures could be yours should you honor your fellow party members by besting the challenges contained within The Oculus! Keep in mind, however, that these extra loot bags will only be awarded to each party member if Oculus is selected by the Dungeon Finder when players choose the Random Heroic option.People have been complaining bitterly about the Occulus almost since WotLK was released. Complained so bitterly, for so long in fact that Blizzard has nerfed this instance at least three times that I can recall. And yet apparently they're still seeing people who load into it through the random tuck tail and load out immediately.
In light of this change, the Reins of the Azure Drake will now have a chance of dropping in both 10- and 25-player versions of The Eye of Eternity.
Listen folks, Occulus is easy. Even more now than it ever was. It just takes a little thought--I know, I know, that's a lot to ask from people--after all, this dungeon is partly fought in 3D, rather than the 2D you are used to every where else. It's that 3D experience that makes this "hard". So let me make this easy for you and explain exactly how to run Occulus. First and foremost, get out of the habit of spreading out. Stick to the tank like glue. Not only does this afford you a little more protection but it also has the benefit of reducing the groups agro radius. You have an individual radius, but taken together the group can do a lot more harm that you probably can by yourself. If everyone is spread out and agroing lots of dragons that is when the group starts to see trouble. Reduce that by staying in a more compact group and flying from one objective to the others directly.
As you kill the first mini-boss and gain your drakes, you need to fly low and directly to the first level inner ring and clear out those mobs. Then as you pass the other platforms fly out to them directly, staying low and only killing the drakes that are directly in your path. You shouldn't have to kill more than 2-3 getting to any of the platforms. After killing the constructs on the second platform, head directly back to the inner ring that you have already cleared and fly through that to the last platform where you can kill the second mini-boss. From there look up and you should see a floating outer ring, where you will have to agro the Mage Lord three times. Kill his adds that spawn, then fly directly into the upper inner ring to actually kill Uram. From there you can either fly out and then up to Ergos, or you can kill all the little drakelings and then fly up to Ergos. It's more expedient if you avoid the drakelings and simply fly directly out from Uram, then up and around the drakelings to the platforms around Ergos.
Ergos is the second of issues that give groups problems, yet he's just as easy to surmount as the drakes that everyone agros when they're clearing the platforms were. If you want to survive Ergos then do two things. First, stay together. Do not under any circumstances spread out. And second, when he phases out, becoming immune to damage and summoning the three glowing balls of doom, fly as a group either clockwise or counter-clockwise around his platform staying clear of those balls that will be following you. When you see the message that the phase shift if ending you can fly back to Ergos as a group and continue to DPS. Throughout the azure drakes need to be putting their rifts up on him and allowing their dot to stack to 10, then firing a shot to detonate that dot. Rinse and repeat throughout the fight. The Green drake needs to keep a 3 stack of poison up on Ergos at all times, and using their own detonate ability for added damage. I forget what it's called, but it's their number 2 button. The loss of health will regenerate from the poison dot they place on Ergos. And of course the red drake needs to simply do tank. Tank better by using the ability to absorb damage from the group either during his enrages (if azure drakes aren't using time stop on those) or when Ergos casts his AOE damage ability.
If you do these two things in Occulus you will finish, and finish without trouble. No need for additional encouragement or bonus loot from Blizzard.
Paladin T10 2-piece Bonus
I speculated that the Paladin T10 2-piece bonus was too good, but had only anecdotal evidence from heroic dungeon runs to back that opinion up at the time. Pulling 9-11k in heroics is not exactly the best evidence, but last night I ran my first raid (TOC-25) as Ret and can unequivocally say that yes, that 2-piece set bonus is OP. Despite the fact my gear score puts me at 19 out of 25 in the raid, I came in first on the damage meters on all fights except for the faction champs where I came in at number four. Two DK's, who were spreading their diseases like mad, and a hunter came in ahead of me on that fight.
Yet I would have expected these same players to have beat me on all fights, as they had done for weeks in TOC. After all, they all out gear me by as much as 400-500 points and are very good players. The fact that I rank as number 19 out of 25 in gear says quite a lot. I've had Bryntroll for two weeks and still wasn't topping the meters, though I had gone up considerably on the charts. The only difference in the past week is that I picked up my second piece of T10, which gave me the bonus. I did pick up the 7th Legion boots off Anub, but wasn't wearing them during the raid, so the only answer to the question of how all that happened last night is the set bonus. There are others in the raid who have their 2-piece set bonus as well, but perhaps not new ICC weapons so I will watch individual progress with great interest in the next 2-3 weeks to see how it levels out. As I should be wearing Shadow's Edge shortly myself, I'd expect my personal numbers to edge up a bit though.
I'm wondering just how much internal testing Blizzard did on the bonuses before releasing them to live. When Paladins that are still wearing 4 pieces of 226 gear, and a good weapon can pull off 9k-11k in heroic dungeons while the rest of the group is doing 2-4k that can not but serve as an example that others can't miss. And when a Paladin wearing the same gear can out DPS everyone, regardless of how well geared they are that simply screams for balance. In as much as I love being the god on the block right now that set bonus probably needs to be adjusted down to 30% proc rate if not perhaps a bit lower. As the "problem" really comes to light most notably in multi-target fights, I might even go so far as to say Blizzard needs to redesign the 2-piece bonus and change it to something that would be more even in single-target and multi-target fights.
Can you imagine what the set bonus will mean to the Paladin that does eventually gain Shadowmourne? The combination of that set bonus and Shadowmourne's proc will be utterly devastating in raids. Add in the 4-piece Paladin T10 set bonus to that.
Yet I would have expected these same players to have beat me on all fights, as they had done for weeks in TOC. After all, they all out gear me by as much as 400-500 points and are very good players. The fact that I rank as number 19 out of 25 in gear says quite a lot. I've had Bryntroll for two weeks and still wasn't topping the meters, though I had gone up considerably on the charts. The only difference in the past week is that I picked up my second piece of T10, which gave me the bonus. I did pick up the 7th Legion boots off Anub, but wasn't wearing them during the raid, so the only answer to the question of how all that happened last night is the set bonus. There are others in the raid who have their 2-piece set bonus as well, but perhaps not new ICC weapons so I will watch individual progress with great interest in the next 2-3 weeks to see how it levels out. As I should be wearing Shadow's Edge shortly myself, I'd expect my personal numbers to edge up a bit though.
I'm wondering just how much internal testing Blizzard did on the bonuses before releasing them to live. When Paladins that are still wearing 4 pieces of 226 gear, and a good weapon can pull off 9k-11k in heroic dungeons while the rest of the group is doing 2-4k that can not but serve as an example that others can't miss. And when a Paladin wearing the same gear can out DPS everyone, regardless of how well geared they are that simply screams for balance. In as much as I love being the god on the block right now that set bonus probably needs to be adjusted down to 30% proc rate if not perhaps a bit lower. As the "problem" really comes to light most notably in multi-target fights, I might even go so far as to say Blizzard needs to redesign the 2-piece bonus and change it to something that would be more even in single-target and multi-target fights.
Can you imagine what the set bonus will mean to the Paladin that does eventually gain Shadowmourne? The combination of that set bonus and Shadowmourne's proc will be utterly devastating in raids. Add in the 4-piece Paladin T10 set bonus to that.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
One prediction for WoW in 2010
I got my second piece of T10 Friday and had an opportunity to run as Ret in several dungeons all day yesterday. It took me all of about 3 seconds to say to myself "now there is a set bonus that will be getting nerfed". While I'm completely happy to be on the receiving end of almost unrelenting Divine Storms right now, I'm having a hard time believing that won't be nerfed at some point.
The Death Knight set bonus is definitely up there in the clouds. I'm not sure the buff to Scourgestrike quite makes up for the nerfing Scourgestrike just took last patch, but the 7% buff to Blood Strike is certainly very nice. On fights like Anub or Twins in TOC and Deathwhisper in ICC that will be a very, very nice uptick. Even on single target mobs a 7% increase with hysteria and rune weapon out will be huge. Compared to the Paladin set bonus I'd probably say this is about equal.
I'm ambivalent about the Druid set bonuses. The dmg increase during clear casting certainly doesn't make up for what I'm seeing from the Paladin and DK bonuses and I raid as Boomkin. I would have thought something buffing Eclipse slightly would have been in the cards, or at the very least increasing the damage bonus from 6 seconds to something like 10 or 15 seconds. And the reduction of Rip by 10 energy is so so as well. Not impressed with that what so ever. All in all I'd have to say I'm seeing nothing here that reaches the lofty levels of DK or Paladin set bonuses yet.
The Hunter bonus on the other hand is a very nice buff. Hunters already have extremely high DPS and a significant portion of their DPS comes from auto-shot. Looking at our very well geared Hunters in our raid, I see auto-shot accounts for fully 24.1% of the dps for one, and 28.3% for the other. And both are in the 6-7k range on non-gimmick fights, and upwards of 9-11k on gimmick fights. According to RAWR, updating to two pieces of T10 (which he does not yet have) would be about a 150 dps increase alone, though it doesn't speculate on how much increase one could see from the 2-piece proc. 5% of his typical auto-shots on bosses would be 95. His average hit is 2551 and his crits average 4551.6 dmg, so we can assume that of 330 to 862 additional dmg for 15 seconds. That's a pretty healthy buff in my mind. All in all I think this set bonus ranks up there at the top.
The mage set bonus strikes me as middling. I understand that haste could add quite a bit to a Mages DPS, however I'm curious how much this additional haste would lead to mana issues. Its something I'm going to have to ask the Mages in my raid about before I can speculate on it, so consider this one a bye for now.
Priest bonus granting an additional 5% crit chance is interesting but looking at the last log for our lone Shadow Priest, it doesn't look like a 5% additional crit chance would actually be all that much. As she is fairly well geared I'm inclined to believe this is more of a mediocre bonus than anything else.
As I have been playing my Rogue quite a bit recently, this set bonus is very intriguing. Granting 15 energy after every ToTT usage is a very nice burst of energy, while at the same time increasing DPS from ToTT itself. I'm inclined to say this is actually a fairly nice buff, though perhaps not top of the heap nice. Lets call this one a B+.
In as far as Shaman set bonuses go, Enhancement definitely got the better end of the stick as far as I can tell. A 12% increase to damage for 15 seconds every time you use Shamanistic Rage, which is on a 1-min cool down, meaning this can be up fully a quarter of the time. If that isn't a terrific buff to DPS I don't know what is. On the other hand the Elemental set bonus knocks a whopping two seconds off a three minute cool down. WHOA, knock me over with a burst of air there, why don't ya Blizzard? Solid D- for Elemental, but solid A for Enhance.
Warlock set bonus giving an extra 5% crit chance to certain destruction and corruption spells? What Warlock wouldn't like that? Especially raiding Destruction Locks that are all the cookie cutter Incinerate build. That 5% crit chance bonus is icing on an already good looking cake so I'd consider this set bonus to be at the tier two level of set bonuses we've discusses thus far.
And last, but certainly not least, are the Warriors who really are getting a set bonus that could become very, very, over powered. Deep wounds is inflicted after every crit, dealing damage over time to the target. The 2-piece bonus gives the Warrior a 3% chance after every tick to increase their AP by 16% for 10 seconds. As PVE Warriors are crit happy to begin with, Deep Wounds is usually up on the target most of the time. While a 3% chance seems fairly low on the outset, the sheer number of dot ticks means this is going to be going off at least 1-3 times a minute. As it scales with your attack power, the bonus they see will only get better as the Warrior works through ICC.
I have my own opinions on which set bonuses are better than others, but I'll leave it to you to decide for yourself which you think are the best. As far as I can tell, Paladin and Hunter set bonuses are the top of the heap, with the others staggering below those. But only one set bonus will lead to tremendously huge damage totals in instances, and that is the Paladin bonus. The sure number of mob pack pulls before bosses will drive the Ret Paladins to the top of the charts if they aren't there already and that is simply going to get the QQ training moving on another nerf. Expect it now, so that when it happens you won't be taken completely by surprise.
Your melee attacks have a 40% chance to reset the cool down on your Divine Storm ability.Doesn't seem like much does it? It's only a 40% chance. Except it procs off Divine Storm, and can lead to 3-4 Divine Storms in a row. I was already doing 10-11k on packs of mobs in ICC-25 with 4 pieces of 226 gear still equipped, so I am anxious to see just how much more this new unfettered Divine Storm will give me on Tuesday night. I did however do 9k on the first boss in H-HoL. Heroic you say? Well considering I normally do 6k on that boss I'd say that is some pretty convincing anecdotal evidence right there. And it wasn't the only boss I saw a 2k or more uptick in my DPS either. I'll also throw out my testing on the test Dummy.
10 mins: 4315 dps w/4-piece T9 bonusIt's difficult to model the differences considering I'm using 2-piece T9 and 2-piece T10 on the second 10-min run, and I also wasn't using Consecration on the second run, whereas I was on the first run because I can quickly run myself out of mana with all the proc'ed Divine Storms. So lets just say there is a 400-500 dps difference on single targets from my 4-piece T9 set to my 2-piece T10 set. By any calculation that is a pretty nice uptick on a boss, but those boss fights that also include adds like the twins in TOC, or Lady Deathwhisper in ICC, that uptick is multiplicative and gives Paladins a huge advantage over several other classes. Lets compare the other DPS classes set bonuses.
10 mins: 4750 dps w/2-piece T10
Death Knight: Your Obliterate and Scourge Strike abilities deal 10% increased damage, and your Heart Strike ability deals 7% increased damage.
Druid (Balance): When you gain Clearcasting from your Omen of Clarity talent, you deal 15% additional Nature and Arcane damage for 6 sec.
Druid (Feral): Your Swipe (Bear) and Lacerate abilities deal 20% additional damage and the cost of your Rip ability is reduced by 10 energy.
Hunter: Your Auto Shots have a 5% chance to cause you and your pet to deal 15% additional damage for 10 sec.
Mage: Your Hot Streak, Missile Barrage, and Brain Freeze talents also grant you 12% haste for 5 sec when the effect of the talent is consumed.
Priest: The critical strike chance of your Shadow Word: Pain, Devouring Plague, and Vampiric Touch spells is increased by 5%.
Rogue: Your Tricks of the Trade ability now grants you 15 energy instead of costing energy.
Shaman (Ehance): When you activate your Shamanistic Rage ability you also deal 12% additional damage for 15 sec.
Shaman (Elemental): Your Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning spells reduce the remaining cooldown on your Elemental Mastery talent by 2 sec.
Warlock: The critical strike chance of your Shadowbolt, Incinerate, Soulfire, and Corruption spells is increased by 5%.
Warrior: When your Deep Wounds ability deals damage you have a 3% chance to gain 16% attack power for 10 sec.
The Death Knight set bonus is definitely up there in the clouds. I'm not sure the buff to Scourgestrike quite makes up for the nerfing Scourgestrike just took last patch, but the 7% buff to Blood Strike is certainly very nice. On fights like Anub or Twins in TOC and Deathwhisper in ICC that will be a very, very nice uptick. Even on single target mobs a 7% increase with hysteria and rune weapon out will be huge. Compared to the Paladin set bonus I'd probably say this is about equal.
I'm ambivalent about the Druid set bonuses. The dmg increase during clear casting certainly doesn't make up for what I'm seeing from the Paladin and DK bonuses and I raid as Boomkin. I would have thought something buffing Eclipse slightly would have been in the cards, or at the very least increasing the damage bonus from 6 seconds to something like 10 or 15 seconds. And the reduction of Rip by 10 energy is so so as well. Not impressed with that what so ever. All in all I'd have to say I'm seeing nothing here that reaches the lofty levels of DK or Paladin set bonuses yet.
The Hunter bonus on the other hand is a very nice buff. Hunters already have extremely high DPS and a significant portion of their DPS comes from auto-shot. Looking at our very well geared Hunters in our raid, I see auto-shot accounts for fully 24.1% of the dps for one, and 28.3% for the other. And both are in the 6-7k range on non-gimmick fights, and upwards of 9-11k on gimmick fights. According to RAWR, updating to two pieces of T10 (which he does not yet have) would be about a 150 dps increase alone, though it doesn't speculate on how much increase one could see from the 2-piece proc. 5% of his typical auto-shots on bosses would be 95. His average hit is 2551 and his crits average 4551.6 dmg, so we can assume that of 330 to 862 additional dmg for 15 seconds. That's a pretty healthy buff in my mind. All in all I think this set bonus ranks up there at the top.
The mage set bonus strikes me as middling. I understand that haste could add quite a bit to a Mages DPS, however I'm curious how much this additional haste would lead to mana issues. Its something I'm going to have to ask the Mages in my raid about before I can speculate on it, so consider this one a bye for now.
Priest bonus granting an additional 5% crit chance is interesting but looking at the last log for our lone Shadow Priest, it doesn't look like a 5% additional crit chance would actually be all that much. As she is fairly well geared I'm inclined to believe this is more of a mediocre bonus than anything else.
As I have been playing my Rogue quite a bit recently, this set bonus is very intriguing. Granting 15 energy after every ToTT usage is a very nice burst of energy, while at the same time increasing DPS from ToTT itself. I'm inclined to say this is actually a fairly nice buff, though perhaps not top of the heap nice. Lets call this one a B+.
In as far as Shaman set bonuses go, Enhancement definitely got the better end of the stick as far as I can tell. A 12% increase to damage for 15 seconds every time you use Shamanistic Rage, which is on a 1-min cool down, meaning this can be up fully a quarter of the time. If that isn't a terrific buff to DPS I don't know what is. On the other hand the Elemental set bonus knocks a whopping two seconds off a three minute cool down. WHOA, knock me over with a burst of air there, why don't ya Blizzard? Solid D- for Elemental, but solid A for Enhance.
Warlock set bonus giving an extra 5% crit chance to certain destruction and corruption spells? What Warlock wouldn't like that? Especially raiding Destruction Locks that are all the cookie cutter Incinerate build. That 5% crit chance bonus is icing on an already good looking cake so I'd consider this set bonus to be at the tier two level of set bonuses we've discusses thus far.
And last, but certainly not least, are the Warriors who really are getting a set bonus that could become very, very, over powered. Deep wounds is inflicted after every crit, dealing damage over time to the target. The 2-piece bonus gives the Warrior a 3% chance after every tick to increase their AP by 16% for 10 seconds. As PVE Warriors are crit happy to begin with, Deep Wounds is usually up on the target most of the time. While a 3% chance seems fairly low on the outset, the sheer number of dot ticks means this is going to be going off at least 1-3 times a minute. As it scales with your attack power, the bonus they see will only get better as the Warrior works through ICC.
I have my own opinions on which set bonuses are better than others, but I'll leave it to you to decide for yourself which you think are the best. As far as I can tell, Paladin and Hunter set bonuses are the top of the heap, with the others staggering below those. But only one set bonus will lead to tremendously huge damage totals in instances, and that is the Paladin bonus. The sure number of mob pack pulls before bosses will drive the Ret Paladins to the top of the charts if they aren't there already and that is simply going to get the QQ training moving on another nerf. Expect it now, so that when it happens you won't be taken completely by surprise.
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