Runy returns to WOW.
Just a heads up to all you Druids to check out Runyarusco and her blog. You can find the link in my Blogroll of to the right. I really liked her most recent post about the new Dungeon Journal. Although the Journal will be trumped by most progression raiding guilds in favor of watching videos and reading other online resources I really like the fact that some of the more diehard RP players can get their information from within the game that will lead to success.
I don’t know about everyone else but I still see constant chat traffic in game asking questions that are easily answered by going to Wowhead or any other of the informational sites available. These people are either lazy, are HEAVY into the social aspect of the game, RP people HEAVY into the Fantasy aspect, or unaware of the Wow community on the WWW. I remember when i started playing Wow all the needless running around I did looking for NPC’s, items, mobs, dungeons, etc. My God, I remember when part of the length of leveling was just trying to figure out cryptic quest directions to people, resources, monsters, or places. Then a RL buddy turned me on to Thottbot… thank goodness.
The new Journal extends the solutions Blizzard has offered in aiding people in game with knowing what they need to know. I can see my progression 10 man raid team using it quite a bit since we like to do a lot of fights “Our Style” which is sometimes very different than the standard way people do fights, usually tweaked because of our lack of range DPS. It will also be a good and fast resource when trying to determine why people died. How many times in a raid do you hear “What killed you?” and then “What is that?” LOL. Less tabbing out of the game to look something up is always a good thing (for those of you with single monitor setups). I think pugs will also benefit as it is a place people can learn a little about what they are getting into as a party forms.
Hey Blizz, go a step further now and create a resources journal of where to find ore, herbs, fish, leather, etc… mats… a mats dictionary… and give me a 3rd spec already.
Incentives to Tank?
Just a quick shout out to the Blizzard folks that may or may not read my blog.
As everyone knows by now when using the LFG tool for 5 mans, if you are a tank you get a chance at getting some extra loot for filling a role of need.
It sucks that it takes something like this to get more Tanks in the Q. Also, it seems that the newness of the perk has already worn off as I am back to 45 minute wait times as a DPS.
So why do we have the issue in the first place?
- It’s harder to lead. Tanks are expected to lead and few really want that responsibility with strangers.
- It’s less fun than DPS and healing. I would agree at the possibility it is less fun than DPS but no more so than healing and finding healers seems fine which takes us back to point 1.
- Having to change or tweak/Change specs constantly.
To fix #1, add a NPC guide that leads the instance. They mark and call for CC on the mobs that need it and give a packaged description of each boss. The NPC can be dismissed from the run by the tank and leader.
It’s hard to fix #2. They have constantly been working on making Tanking fun. I believe the only thing left they could do is add a kiting component to tanking somehow. Personally I have fun tanking. I would almost say it is just as engaging as DPS and the largest difference is #1, the responsibility. Yes, I know we already have some kiting… I meant more of a permanent mechanic that allows kiting in order to minimize damage when you have a healer or DPS that are inexperienced. CD’s are great for that “Oh Crap” moment but doesn’t allow the skill of the individual player to really shine in minimizing damage for the duration of combat.
#3. Give classes that can tank a 3rd Spec. I tell you right now I would tank a 5 man every night If I had a tanking spec. Right now I have a Feral DPS spec and a Balance DPS spec. Some people have a spec specifically for raiding encounters and have to change it a little to run 5 mans. My feral Spec is Hybrid and has tanking in mind because I tank adds on Nef and Mal. I have a boom spec specifically for Cho. I am not going to respec every few days I order to run 5 mans. I would rather watch TV and sit in the Q… and I consider myself a pet and mount collector… and I still won’t tank because it’s a hassle (see 1 and 3).
Solve #3 and I am willing to lead. Stop sucking the fun out of the game Blizzard and give us Hybrid classes another Spec already.
Amazing what a 3rd night can do Part 2.
So we extended our raid week once again to include a third night and we downed Nef.
Things that contributed to our success…
- We stopped kiting Nef in phase 3. We held her in place along the east wall and everyone (except the adds tank and healer) stood between her and the wall.
- We pushed a pre phase 2 crackle. Not easy but needed to reduce fire in phase 3.
- We did not push a phase 2 crackle. With only 2 ranged it’s not the easiest thing to do anyway.
- We didn’t fail at interrupts in phase 2.
- We staggered cooldowns very well after phase 3 crackles.
The fight had been nerfed in 10′s as phase 2 damage is greatly reduced but ultimately since we didn’t push a crackle in phase 2 it really didn’t help us much.
Our guild is now 2nd in 10′s progression on server and a big Congo Rats goes out to Team Synergy for their Heroic progression this last week. Team Heraldz hopes to get some catching up done but alias we have a main healer out for the month of May so not sure how that is going to go… ugh.
4.1 has made swipe downright silly. I will be surprised if it doesn’t get nerfed soon but we can always hope it stays. Multiple 20K+ crits from swipe is pretty funny though. I pulled 72K DPS on the Sindragosa trash as we ran into ICC to knock out the LK Heroic achieve we still needed for the guild. This was using swipe and berserk.
I am liking the new 5 man encounters released this patch. It is a great way to gear up for an alternate spec and the gear level prereq’s make for less failed runs. ZA is WAY too easy IMHO if you ran it back in the BC days. The fights are the same but have been watered down for 5 mans. I was lucky and got a couple boom upgrades right away. (Helm and Shoulders, raiding has been cruel for casting leather). ZG is harder but fun.
Now that I have personally cleared all T11 normal content I can safely say the only fight where ranged vs melee balance can be an issue is on Cho. I still switch to Balance for that fight. As far as Heroics go we will see. In Heroic Hal I am a tank for drakes for the first half of the fight and we do fine with only 2 ranged. As we push forward now in BWD Heroics I will report back our success with only 2 ranged and myself as kitty and whether or not I have to run balance for us to have success.
It’s too cold… and other nerfage.
It’s so cold in my office (we have no heat… it’s Florida… long story) that my Overclock on my E6600 is running 10 degrees cooler on each core than normal and my GPU is running 10 degrees cooler as well.
I can’t feel my feet.
I am looking forward to tonight. We downed Magmaw, ODS, and Halfus Tue night and were able to get Valiona & Theralion to I think 20%ish? They will fall tonight and my guess is we will then take a look at Throne of the Four Winds.
Tuesday night Malevolence dropped but I passed to our hunter… (long story). It made me start thinking though about that age old (Ok, only since Wrath) question: Hunter gear or Kitty gear? My thoughts is that with FAP no longer being present on weapons and our damage being tied to weapon damage it should be Kitty first then Hunter. I mean for a hunter it is a stat stick, and they have single handed options (Blizz, be fair and let druids dual wield swords, axes, and the like…. ok, jk… or not, I mean how does a hunter duel wield axes while shooting a bow… seriously.) where for us one of the biggest upsides to the upgrade is the weapon damage itself. Good news, I am sure we will be killing these easy bosses every week at least until we have no upgrades left from them and we start looking at saves… so it’s not like I won’t pick this up sometime soon.
By now most people have most likely heard about the incoming feral/druid PvP nerfs… and PvE nerf… that we can no long shift out of movement impairing effects… and of course all the new cast times, durations, and limits. Honestly I am sick of PvP changes impacting my PvE enjoyment. Not having instant roots with the glyph sucks as I was really enjoying that aspect of feral in 5 man’s and raids. Not being able to shift out of Static Cling fighting Asaad just flat out sucks.
As far as these changes to feral and PvP and the changes to all the classes… it looks to me that Blizzard is trying to shorten the time investment of arena… which is hard to complain about, but I think we just got regulated to CC and bear duty as a feral. We will just get destroyed as a kitty IMHO. Well at least we had some time as viable PvP in feral form, I guess all druids will go back to resto/boom for PvP. Honestly, a good feral in arena (not that I ever was one) had gotten to be quite a bother so not surprised at all of the changes.
Heroic Strategy – Shadowfang Keep (Bear Edition)
So last night I did this Dungeon finally… and I tanked it. A couple of notes…
- SFK is long and has a metric crap ton of trash. Great for rep using a tabard, bad for getting some sleep.
- Bear tanking is a lot of fun. I have to say blizzard did a good job with bears. I am still on the fence if I like our new Hybrid feral tree. I call it that because IMHO Predatory Strikes and Stampede are crap and we end up dumping points into survivability talents which as a good kitty I didn’t need. That being said it does look like a PvP spec is now more viable than ever.
- Pretty much a tank and spank. The key to the fight is interrupting his abilities.
- Make sure you have Skull Bash ready on the bar. I used it during his Mend Rotten Flesh while the DPSers interrupted Pain and Suffering and Stay of Execution (after the first tick of healing)
- Be prepared to pop your defensive CD’s at the end when he uses Calamity and gets Dark Archangel Form. Might want to save Berserk for this as well.
- Drops Boots of the Predator – but he didn’t for me.
- Tank and Spank with adds.
- Make sure to grab agro on the adds as they spawn. Have your party burn the adds then back to boss.
- Use barkskin during Cursed Veil
- This fight is tough unless you use a feral trick. Stand outside the door and FFF him and turn and sprint to your waiting party in the courtyard.
- Make sure to face him away from the party at all times.
- Tank him and the 2 adds. Have DPS burn the adds pronto.
- His new adds will spawn but it takes them forever to join the fight if at all if your DPS is high enough. Be prepared to use AoE taunt or single target taunt if needed. If more adds do show up burn them down again.
- He drops Thieving Spaulders – but didn’t for me.
- This boss is really fun.
- His main ability is Conjure Poisonous Mixture
- If he conjures a red mixture DO NOT MOVE. If he conjures a green mixture, KEEP MOVING and DON’T STOP. It’s red light, green light children. You can tell the color by the light and mixture over his head.
- Drops Double Dealing Bracers – but they didn’t drop for me… /sigh
- Tank this boss on the lower level facing away from the raid on the hay in the corner.
- Have all ranged stand on the little half wall right as you enter the room.
- Use defensive CD’s when he does Pistol Barrage in your face.
- Skull Bash Cursed Bullets when possible. If he gets it off it will need to be dispelled/cured.
- Kill adds when they show up.
- He is pretty easy.
- Drops Relic of Arathor – AND HE DID DROP IT FOR ME… WOOT
All in all the run was entertaining though I don’t think I would want to do it again.
