Class balance changes for DKs in 4.2? Balderash!

GhostCrawler has posted some thoughts on class balance, as implemented in 4.2. It’s great that he is sharing, fantastic to see some of the thought processes, and disappointing that the processes he is sharing indicates that the game is continuing to focus away from where my focus is.

This is somewhat self serving post to give feedback into the community-ether, based upon the 4.2 changes as affecting Death Knights. Specifically to ask the question: Why in hell are PvP balancing items changing the PvE game?

Quoted from the Blue Post…

Death Knights

• We added the cast time to Hungering Cold for PvP reasons. It is one of the most powerful forms of crowd control in the game, especially in Battlegrounds, and yet was impossible to prevent.
• The nerfs to Obliterate and Howling Blast were made because Frost damage was too high in both PvP and PvE. Note that these values were hotfixed — you shouldn’t see damage drop further when 4.2 goes live.
• The Glyph of Dark Succor change was to keep Death Strike from providing so much healing in PvP.
• The Might of the Frozen Wastes change was a small tweak to help keep one-handed Frost relatively competitive with two-handed style.
• The Unholy Might buff was to help catch Unholy up to Frost in PvE. Interestingly, we didn’t nerf Unholy damage at all in 4.1, but you can still see a small drop in their DPS because so many talented DKs went Frost. I’d love to have the discussion some time about how close two similar specs need to be before players will play the one that is most fun for them and not the one that does theoretical higher damage. Is it 5%? 1%? 0%?

So you see its stated plainly from the man with the nurfbat himself; DKs are being changed in their flexibility in PvE due to a PvP imbalance.

Take aside the straight damage tweaks and consider the introduction of a cast time for Hungering Cold: this is a key ability I use in almost every raid for controlling the mobs. For example the Nefarian fight requires add control, and a DK is a key choice for this. With a 1.5 second cast time (or 2 sec, I’m not sure) I’ll be standing still getting smashed in the face while I try to kite the adds. Totally counter-productive to PvE content.

Now in 4.2 I won’t be fighting Nef any more, I’ll be in Firelands, but the utility that Hungering Cold brings to the raid can be applied in a wide variety of ways, and to take this away removes a utility from the class. I love having utility, it means I assist the raid while doing my dps role. A dps loss is trivial when you are on add-control duty, but 1.5 seconds of damage while you get hit and potentially also suffer casting time push back…is poor. By counter example – are mages having their Frost freeze ability changed to a cast time?

I can live with the other changes, as I think they are part of the see-saw of balance that will always continue. So don’t take this as a blinding rave, its not. My point is that we continue to see changes in one area of the game which impact the other. An MMO Champion poster made a comment along the same path:

That Hungering Cold nerf, just because of PVP. Yet another example of why blizz should add a PVP only talent spec so the PVE players don’t get screwed.

Why is it so hard to have different affects in PvP to PvE? We already have different cool-downs, and some abilities not active in PvP, wouldn’t it make sense to continue this separation?

I’ll go a step further and ask what the value of Hungering Cold is when it has a 1.5 second cast time? After that duration a PvP player will move away from the DK and the affect is totally wasted. In PvP the enemy is constantly moving away from the DK anyway, and HC was a way to keep them close. So by adding this the use of the ability will become less in PvP, and therefore less overall in the game. So the nurf applies a change which makes pvp control harder, and pve harder.

Lets not even start to chat about the affect of being interrupted while casting now, or what happens when you’re locked out of the spell school…

Enough of this malarky, I’m off to the pub. Happy Killing.

From Death Knight to Hunter

After a little angst and wonder at the new Cataclysm expansion, I’ve decided that playing a Death Knight with basically no crowd control has only a small role in raids. As the guild is flush with Tanks, has plenty of melee, and I prefer DPS most of the time – a change was in order.

So I’ve started mucking about in a somewhat serious way with another character. I am pleased to introduce Agmundur, a recently morphed Worgen Hunter.

He's a little bit country, but then the choices of hair were dreadful.

Now he look harmless enough, and certainly well matched with all the heirloom gear and the Ironforge kit. But don’t be fooled as his real appearance is a tad more intimidating.

I'll huff and I'll...grrrr

Somehow I think Worgen were designed to appeal to the violent, strange, and somewhat feral side of human nature.

And I think the model designers got it pretty close to perfect. In fact they nailed it.ump shots, md, traps, feign, etc are all new to me.

Silence is Golden and Restive

It has been quiet of late in the Eye of the Storm.

My primary reason for this is because I’ve been very busy in real life will all sorts of distractions, and both blog time and game time have been greatly reduced. But that is not the full story.

The deeper truth is that nothing in the recent month or so has been worth commenting on in detail. Frankly it’s been better to play far more casually when I can easily fit it in and just wait for stability and consistency in the game, than get in and try to adapt to or work around all the changes and updates. A recent patch tweaks some of the classes, but the pre-level 81 wait is entertaining but not critical.

All the balance issues, strange affects, bugs, and outright rip-off prices of items will change in time, so there is no real point stressing about it now. Stepping back for a time now was a darn good call, and I am looking forward to the new game.

In a few days we’ll have rounds of patches, mod updates, and all sorts of malarky (my new favourite word), so I plan to relax and laugh through it.

So in brief:

Cata planning

• Choice of main: I’ve all but deciuded that my Death Knight will go forward first as into the Cataclysm expansion. It was a hard choice, but the class is still the most entertaining of my current 5 level 80 characters.
• The system requirements for Cata are not altogether restrictive, and I’m darn pleased that my current system will run the game. I suspect that if you’re playing v4.0 now then Cata will run the same. Huzzah!
• I’m doing a bank clean-up now, keeping the odd stuff and quest items that might be handy later, but otherwise.
• The dragon trailer is excellent, good stuff. I liked it, glad it was created, and look forward to the game even more because of it.

Blizzcon

• Not being there I can only reflect on the information that has been posted since; and it was underwhelming. Now I’m not surprised that it was a very dull Blizzcon in terms of revelations and changes, because frankly we’ve had a huge amount of information released already, and it is so close to the release of Cataclysm.
• I think it is also OK that the event was not a Warcraft event, and that it has a focus across all the Blizzard games, rather than just their golden goose.

Patch 4.0, 4.0.3a, then patch 4.0.0.0.0.b…etc

• The Cog Wheel of Death, which freezes the pc is just plainly unacceptable. I don’t like it, and it makes the game harder to play. A bad bug which was made far worse by the Headless Horseman which was released at basically the same time. Glad they fixed it, but that was trash.
• Gear reset, was good in the end and a blip in terms of the classes I play regularly. Reforging is an excellent addition to the game, and something that I think will be copied into almost every other MMO in the future. Its game changing in a balanced and good way.
• Class reset, I guess Paladins got a good work over, and that always happens in each expansion, and Hunters have been majorly adjusted to be less like casters which feel right to me. Stay tuned for more class tuning.

Guild planning

• My guild is asking all the tough questions about what we do for Cata raiding and teams. An expansion is the perfect time to throw all the previous structures and plans to the wind and re-build. Even when the process is painful, I like that it is happening.
• If your guild is not doing this, then you might want to either ask if it needs to, or consider another guild – I say this because I think the overall affect on guilds is huge in Cataclysm.
• We’re also seeing some drama through this, but nothing that won’t be resolved soon, and a storm in a teacup in a month or so.

I’ll be posting and raving at a normal pace soon, when we have all sorts of new leveling junk to ponder.

Happy killing, have a great silly season, and I hope Deathwing kills you in glorious fire.

WoW.com wants Monks too

I want Monks in the game, as I’ve said before. And now wow.com backs me up.

Expect a long rant about this soon, and yes I know I have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting this anytime soon.

A melee healer and dps is not game breaking. It will mean a new set of dps gear needed, something like cloth with agility on it, much like the rogue and cat gear now.

For healing maybe they’d need to me mana users, but with all the new stat changes being talked about an int and spirit based healer cloth gear is not a stretch at all.

C’mon Blizzard – Monk us.

Death Knight Future?

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Thank you to Script Generator, click for full version.

Dual Specs are L40+, 1000g, all wonderful

Forever a Noob dislikes the idea of dual specs mid raid. I like it. Go read the post and my rant-ish response if you’re interested in two divergent views of dual spec.

In short: If you don’t like the idea of dual spec, don’t use it. Likewise epic flying mount, badge gear, welfare epics, ans all the other topics that players like to gripe about. I like to think of World of Warcraft as a game that I enjoy, not a system of mechanical restrictions. Anything that makes the game more accessible is good, particularly as this has little negative impact on the players that choose not to use it.

eg. If your raid leader wants a Healer and you’re spec’ed for Priest DPS, then you can’t go. He can ask you to re-spec, but you can refuse. Your choice, and if you keep to a strict “not holy priest” choice then you’re still happy. You have not lost any options. The raid leader will go find another healer anyway. But if you can switch modes, then you get to do the run too.

Why is this bad? See also Blog Azeroth shared topic.

Wrath Raid Gear Requirements by Class

Update Dec 09: With the release of WoW Patch 3.3 and the iLevel gear starting at 219 and 232 for H dungeons, I think the typical level of expected gear has increased. The old Naxx guides are gone. Basically now you’re aiming for 219 in all slots as a start, and any casual with time should be able to get to 232 in almost every location.

That is a huge change from the iLevel 200 items that you got 1 per end boss at the start of Wrath at level 80. Tis a good thing too.

Raiding requirements are popular searches, I know as the raid requirement posts are still some of the most popular in this blog. And to my somewhat shame most of the information I post is a hash of other sources (Alt Doctor, EJ, wiki, etc).

And the Alt Doctor has done it again, posting his Raiding Requirements for Wrath.

If you’re wondering if you are read to run with the big monsters, this set of stats will tell you. Later I’ll review, but for now just read and make sure you know what you need.

If you’re short on some of the stats then check out Wow-loot, WoW Heroes, and BeImba for advice. All are good sources of item/gear advice.

Which Class to 80?

As I’ve said before, I’m trying to figure out what class will be best to level first. Usually this blog is a little like I rant, and some (delightful, intelligent, and sexy) people make comments.

Hey, I know the anthem, “Play what you enjoy”.

But its about more than that, its about playing what will add value, be highly affective, be sought after, and then be fun.

There can be only one, and while I think I’ll enjoy almost any of the choices, I’d love to see a representation of what the community thinks.

Off topic: My intent is also to test out the new WordPress/Polldaddy tool. Polldaddy is a funky poll tool that WordPress has just enabled in the default interface. Kudos WP, this aint too bad at all.

Character Dilemma

I have a new, exciting, and vey frustrating dilemma: Which character to level first to 80 in Wrath.

Damn its hard, 4 toons, 1 well geared, 1 reasonable, and 2 new 70s. The expansion offers the opportunity to level without there being a gear unbalance, and change my selection of “main”.

Currently I’d say Warlock is my main, if only because he has the best gear of the four. But then I’ve been spending serious hours on my Paladin as Tank and its really starting to show. But then I got distracted by Druid and Priest, and found that things in those new classes were advantageous and interesting. The dilemma is made worse because the two new classes might be interesting only because they are new.

Hunter just need Healing

Reading the upcomming changes, it seems all classes are getting adjusted. As you’d expect. However there is one class that seems to be getting a heck of a lot of love, and very little in the way of downward adjustment. Hunters.

Dps when solo, dps in arena, dps in raids, battlegrounds, etc. Crowd control in many ways, and one of the best aggro dumps in the game, which doubles as a free “oh shit” button when a wipe is occuring. Mana return, so minimal down time, stuns, the list goes on.