tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34349547565980172302024-02-20T15:51:05.926+00:00Misery - a shadow priest blogHow to thrive in World of Warcraft as a shadow priest (or die trying).Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.comBlogger300125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-88312459074213961812010-10-04T14:26:00.000+01:002010-10-04T14:26:51.866+01:00Into the night<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Ry9pjiMPVoI/TKnVq8lOiRI/AAAAAAAAANk/Z7znFBs-NpY/s1600/darkness.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" px="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Ry9pjiMPVoI/TKnVq8lOiRI/AAAAAAAAANk/Z7znFBs-NpY/s400/darkness.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>There are usually five or six emails in my inbox at work that I am actively ignoring at any one time. The worst of the present bunch dates back to April. It isn't even a particularly horrible email. It's from an old colleague who'd like to meet up for a drink. I like this old colleague, the prospect of drinks with her is not unpleasant, but I cannot bring myself to reply. <br />
I'm not one to keep to-do lists, but if I were, you can bet it would follow this same pattern, with my blog somewhere up there in the bunch of top (or bottom) tasks ripe for ignoring.<br />
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There's clearly something wrong with me.<br />
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Psychologists call it procrastination, defined as a "counterproductive" deferment of actions to a later time. It's supposed to be "a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision", which is ironic considering the effects of procrastinating can include "stress, a sense of guilt and crisis, severe loss of personal productivity" and "social disapproval". <br />
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Ironically, by turning to Wikipedia for a diagnosis of my condition, I managed to put off writing this blog for a whole other day.<br />
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What happened is I got sucked into World of Warcraft, the cyber equivalent of a crack den, and have spent the last three years of my life spiralling into sleep-deprived oblivion. I have managed to keep my head above water at work, and have done enough to keep my relationship together, but that's about it. My friends, my career, even my self-esteem, have suffered.<br />
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My work is so pressured right now that I'm not even getting home in time to raid. And I clearly haven't been finding the time to stay on top of this blog. So it keeps getting pushed to the bottom of my virtual list, where it lurks and seethes and gangs up with emails from long-suffering ex-colleagues to make me feel guilty and ashamed.<br />
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It's cathartic just to even put that down in writing. My neglected blog has been bullying me. <br />
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I'd love to say right now, having reached my epiphany, that I will no longer procrastinate. I will complete all tasks that come to me in a timely and professional manner. But it's not going to happen. I am both incredibly busy and incredibly lazy. Something has got to give.<br />
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So for now, it's got to be this blog.<br />
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I think it's safe to say that if I am not blogging about the most monumental patch to ever hit this game a week before it's due to land, I'm never going to. And that's a huge shame because this is exactly the kind of thing I set out to write about, and the kind of thing I love doing, time willing.<br />
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I had a good run, I think. This blog, and all of you who read and contributed to it, made me a better player. And I think I got a lot more out of my subscription by investing time here, in the WoW community, with you. Thank you very much for sticking with me this long.<br />
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I'll not be quitting WoW any time soon, and I'm not going to rule out another blog at some point in the future, but until I can sort out my priorities and learn to balance my time a little better, it's time to let the shadow fall on Misery. Happy face melting :)Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-76034792982099243022010-08-05T14:34:00.001+01:002010-08-05T14:36:07.223+01:00Can we have wings?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Ry9pjiMPVoI/TFq0QDTQNuI/AAAAAAAAANY/bIGgfuAoaj0/s1600/kd-legion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" height="298" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Ry9pjiMPVoI/TFq0QDTQNuI/AAAAAAAAANY/bIGgfuAoaj0/s400/kd-legion.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Finally something worth blogging about. A new beta build is out and it includes some very interesting new talents in early discipline to get our shadowy juices flowing. (Don't linger on that metaphor too long.)<br />
<blockquote><b>Evangelism revamped — </b>you have a 100% chance when you Smite and a 40% chance when you Mind Flay to gain Evangelism. Stacks up to 5 times. Lasts for 15 sec. Evangelism (Smite ) — increasing the damage done by your Smite, Holy Fire, and Penance spells by 2/4% and reduces the mana cost of those spells by 3/6%. Dark Evangelism (Mind Flay) — increases the damage done by your periodic shadow spells by 1/2%.<br />
<b>Archangel revamped —</b> consumes your Evangelism effects, causing an effect depending what form you are in. Archangel (Caster) — instantly restores 3% of your total mana and increases your healing done by 3% for each stack. Dark Archangel (Shadowform) - instantly restores 3% of your total mana and increases your shadow damage done by 3% for each stack.<br />
</blockquote>This is seriously cool shit. This is what makes me want to play a shadow priest. I know it's just words on the screen right now, but these are powerful, evocative words. This is crack for roleplayers. I don't care about the numbers, I just want WINGS.<br />
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And paladins, don't give me none of that avenging wrath snowflake crap. I'll swap you the wings for prayer of mending (it's basically a healing boomerang, you were totally robbed to start with). <br />
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Oh, and weirdly, mind flay is now five seconds long. I have no clue what that is all about. I might get around to thinking about it. Then again, I might not. Who cares, I am a DARK ARCHANGEL.<br />
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Hmm, maybe they could try saying that out loud a while and clip it to DARK ANGEL.<br />
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I AM A DARK ANGEL. <br />
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Oh god, it's like a drug.Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-8642171373793309282010-07-15T10:35:00.000+01:002010-07-15T10:35:53.764+01:00300 miserable posts988 days ago I had a genius idea to start a blog. I had just finished levelling a shadow priest through Outland and <a href="http://misery-blog.blogspot.com/2007/10/ultimate-quest.html">had no idea what to do next</a>; it seemed like a good idea at the time.<br />
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I called the blog Misery after a key talent in the shadow tree, but also because I’m a glass half-empty kind of guy. If you’ve had reason to pop by on occasion you probably know that.<br />
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300 posts later, and I’m still… well, you could hardly call it going strong, more limping along.<br />
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That amounts to an average of one post every three or four days, which is not exactly prolific — though I do still remember the dizzy feeling of posting twice in one day. Good times.<br />
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I average about 300 hits a day, which even in the rather specialised realm of gaming fanblogs I recognise as a modest splash in the pond. And I can’t even promise that all of those visitors find what they need; I am inherently lazy and don’t do nearly as much housekeeping as I should.<br />
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But every now and then, I catch a glimpse of the big time, thanks to the generosity of those rock-star bloggers at wow.com. The most hits I’ve ever received in one day was 2770 on 13 January 2010 for a <a href="http://misery-blog.blogspot.com/2010/01/third-glyph.html">post about shadow priest glyphs</a> which Alex Ziebart very kindly promoted. <br />
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My most read post of all time is also about glyphs, which is a bit of a common theme on Misery. This time it’s the one about <a href="http://misery-blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/glyphs-for-levelling.html">glyphs for levelling </a>(hideously out of date). I’m sure anyone who ever hits that page bounces right back to Google in disgust. I promise to update it for Cataclysm, ok?<br />
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My top referrer is clearly Google, but I owe a good chunk of my visits to referrals from other blogs — top of the list are <a href="http://blessingofkings.blogspot.com">Blessing of Kings</a>, <a href="http://www.wow.com">wow.com</a>, the (sadly retired) <a href="http://egotisticalpriest.com">Egotistical Priest</a>, and <a href="http://penancepriest.blogspot.com/">Penance Priest</a>. Thank you very much guys, and thank you to all the bloggers who link to me that I have shamefully omitted here. Drop me a line if I don’t return the favour, I need a kick to update my blog roll as it is.<br />
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The most comments I’ve ever received on one post is a modest 19 for my musings about <a href="http://misery-blog.blogspot.com/2009/08/going-holy.html">going holy</a>. I clearly need to do more if I want the buzzing discussions of the big hitters like Matticus and BBB. Share your ideas in the comments please :)<br />
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Wrath of the Lick King has been a mixed bag for Merlot. He has seen shadow priests go from a hopelessly broken marginal support class to a dps contender, but he has had to sit out much of the end game while an upstart Tauren shaman monopolised my time. For casual players like me, this has been an incredible expansion, but it has come at a cost. I think most hybrid classes will recognise the pressure to offspec for healing or tanking, and many will understand the pitfalls of succumbing to that pressure for convenience. Once you accept that it’s easier to heal or tank than fight for a dps spot, you are lost.<br />
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So I have done more raiding this expansion than ever before, but I wasn’t melting faces. And now it’s too late to catch up. The advent of achievements and gear score have pretty much seen to that — but that’s another post.<br />
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With Cataclysm already in beta, I’ll be able to get my teeth into priestly class developments again, which is something I love. And I will soon have to make a decision about my Cataclysm strategy. Do I take the easy route and stay healing, or do I go back to shadow and bench the facehealer?<br />
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Either way, you don’t get rid of me that easily. I’ll still keep banging on about how priests need moar luv and how glyphs are broken and how I am totally going to redesign this blog like tomorrow. Yea, mañana baby.Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-31278375979099824262010-07-14T10:49:00.001+01:002010-07-14T18:10:07.939+01:00New talent trees: awfully familiarMMO Champion is reporting that new talent tree system has been released on the Cataclysm beta realm. This is the one where you lock yourself into a single talent tree at level 10 and work your way up to the 31-point talent before unlocking supporting trees. The number of points you get to spend has been halved.<br />
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The interface screens show that, for opting to go shadow, you are rewarded with mind flay instantly, plus threat reduction and pushback protection on shadow spells. Some of the other classes have a bit more meat on their UIs (shaman for example), so I'm hoping there may be more bonuses for shadow in a later build.<br />
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I'm unable while at work to fully check MMO's talent calculators, but from the priest class page I can say the new talents look... awfully familiar. If I was confident that these were accurate and thought-out by Blizzard, I would be disappointed to say the least. In a world where talent points had been halved to allow more interesting and dynamic talents, I would not expect to have to spend two of them on improved shadow word: pain, for example, which was never much of an improvement to start with. And I am rather alarmed to see that our crit bonus looks like it's been slashed to 40 per cent. <br />
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But I'm not going to panic. I'll just assume that these are placeholder talents while the Blizzard boffins crack their heads together and come up with something inspiring. Please. Pretty please.<br />
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Edit: home now. <a href="http://www.wowtal.com/#k=a5bdp-0k.9mn.priest">Here's the build Leigh talks about in the comment below.</a> Everyone seems to be in agreement that they haven't 'done' shadow yet, so I'm just gonna chill...Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-36291446978646712472010-07-09T19:56:00.000+01:002010-07-09T19:56:14.657+01:00Blizzard backs down on forumsNethaera has posted to say that the forum developments planned by Blizzard will <a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/1856-Real-Names-on-Official-Forums-cancelled">no longer include the use of real names</a>. <br />
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Second good job by Blizz in two days, I'm impressed.<br />
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I'm really pleased to see that they are willing to respond so quickly and so generously on an issue that is clearly of huge important to their many customers. As Neth said: "We strongly believe that Every Voice Matters," which doesn't explain why shadow priest glyphs are so shit but then I doubt Neth's ever read my blog :P<br />
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Crisis over, now back to the game.Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-84174042641832902402010-07-08T12:49:00.001+01:002010-07-08T12:51:02.328+01:00Forget Forumgate, we haz talent newzYesterday, Blizzard was left bloody and mauled over its <a href="http://misery-blog.blogspot.com/2010/07/i-wouldnt-put-my-name-to-this-but.html">plans for using real names on the forums</a> and the disaster was about to go nuclear. But today… who cares? We have a <a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/1853">COMPLETE TALANT OVERHAUL</a> to coo over. Coincidental timing? Unlikely. This is a very smart move by Blizzard to take back control of the agenda. Very smart. They might have been planning to share this in a few weeks, with some of the details fleshed out. Never write off a PR machine, they are the cockroaches of the corporate world.<br />
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This blogger is no Glamour-reading, celebrity-whoring pushover. I do not forget so easily. Real ID is a total screw up and I’ll be back to crow and gloat just as soon as it comes back to explode in Blizzard’s face. And it will.<br />
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But I am forced to reluctantly admit that the aforementioned COMPLETE TALENT OVERHAUL is far too compelling to ignore. It is no less than a single brilliant solution to all the problems the talent system has ever encountered. Or nearly.<br />
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You remember recently when we were shown the new priest trees for Cataclysm? Despite all of their ambitions for removing passive talents and making talent trees more dynamic, little had changed. Recognising this, Blizzard has come back with a fresh approach.<br />
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The number of points available to spend will be halved, relieving Blizzard of the need to pad out trees with volumes of passive bonuses. And classes will be locked into a single specialisation up to level 70, leaving Blizzard free to position talents in a more logical order, free of the worry that players of other talent specialisations will be able to nab the juicy ones for themselves. Some of the class-defining core talents will be given not through talents but as rewards for choosing the relevant specialisation, excluding them completely from the reaches of everyone else. Potentially, we’ll be able to get our mitts on these spells and abilities at more convenient times, and raiders will be less at the mercy of PVP-balancing compromises. Win-win.<br />
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The dull business of boosting a character’s power in their chose role, by increasing damage, crit, defences and the like, will be intrinsically linked to a character’s chosen specialisation. <br />
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The mastery bonuses we have read about will also change as a result of this overhaul but I expect shadow priests will retain their shadowy orbs in one form or another.<br />
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You will be unable to spec into secondary trees before spending 31 talent points in one tree, but I don’t think this will be much of a hardship for most. I only ever recall going into a support tree early on once, as a demonology warlock for suppression, and we know they are reworking hit talents anyway.<br />
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I know it must be quite un-nerving to see me in a positive, optimistic mood, but these changes really do feel instinctively… right — and I haven’t been able to say that about much for a long time. What do you think?Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-58854772526219639692010-07-07T11:55:00.000+01:002010-07-07T11:56:01.490+01:00Stand by for mobile updates<p>Sorry for the test post, just trying this out.</p> Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-22113710030121875072010-07-06T19:55:00.001+01:002010-07-06T20:55:34.536+01:00I wouldn't put my name to this but...Nethaera has just unveiled an upcoming change to the forums, and it's a belter. In the not-too-distant future, <a href="http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25712374700&sid=1">you will be forced to post under your real, full name</a>.<br />
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This change, along with some other stuff I don't really care about (read the thread if you're interested), is designed: "to help improve the quality of conversations and make the forums an even more enjoyable place for players to visit." In other words, it's a troll hunt:<br />
<blockquote>"The official forums have always been a great place to discuss the latest info on our games, offer ideas and suggestions, and share experiences with other players -- however, the forums have also earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild. Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven’t been connected before."</blockquote>I can see how Blizzard has been backed into this decision. Unfortunately, it's a terrible one, and real-world experience tells me it is destined to failure.<br />
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Ask yourself two questions: how will this affect the behaviour of those it is targeted at, and how will it affect the rest of us?<br />
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Firstly, can this really improve the quality of discussion on the forums? Does the kind of person who posts unwanted comments care that their real name is against them? I'm sure some do — but not nearly all of them. These are already people who show an unwillingness to consider the consequences of their actions, or else lack the social skills to appreciate the impact of their words. And this is the internet, a medium which by its very nature imparts a (sometimes false) sense of anonymity — whatever they say on the forums, you can bet it's tame compared to their Facebook wall. I once moderated an internal staff forum for a FTSE 100 company. Even with their full names visible, and in front of their colleagues and managers, people were willing to write things that they would be shocked to hear spoken in person. Forums do that to some people. So even with the best will in the world, I fear this is not going to solve the problem.<br />
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It will, however, do irreparable damage to the forums by discouraging genuine users from participating in the discussion, because fear of being branded a troll is nowhere near the most important consequence of this move. The people you most want on your forums — the thoughtful, intelligent, considerate ones — are going to be discouraged because of privacy concerns. I, for one, have taken great care to avoid all possible connection between my real name and my gaming activities because I fear it will harm my chances with some career opportunities. Recruiters can, and do, Google candidates, and some would invariably disapprove of online gaming as a pastime. But more significantly, exposure on forums would give identity thieves an extremely powerful vector of attack, not just for WoW accounts, but in the broader world too. How many of you have passwords with WoW-related terms? For some, privacy concerns go much further, whether it is out of a general wish to remain anonymous, or a need to keep your name a secret from others.<br />
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I appreciate that these concerns probably don't bother all players — younger players, particularly, who don‘t need to think about jobs or data protection — so they may go on happily chatting away without fear. But it will turn many more into lurkers at best, or drive them onto other forums altogether at worst.<br />
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The only effective way to clean up a forum is to moderate it thoroughly and consistently against well-defined guidelines and to enforce a strong set of punitive measures for offenders. The Elitist Jerks forums remain such a valuable and highly-respected resource in strong part to their moderation policy. Some find it a little... heavy-handed... but it works for them. Sites are free to carve their own identity.<br />
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The trouble with this approach for Blizzard is the resource needed to moderate the vast quantity of forums they host. The cost would be unjustifiable. And, as I found out to my expense in my FTSE 100 company, official moderators run the constant risk of accusations of censorship and propaganda. What starts out as a neutral space can rapidly devolve into a war zone. That's not a position I would ever wish on Blizzard.<br />
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Instead, they could have turned to the community for moderation support, but if they considered this, they may have discounted it for all the complications that it would have entailed. How do you recruit them? How do you manage them, and ensure the effectiveness and consistency of their work? It works for fansites, sure, but a corporation would have to take a more professional approach, with all the legal and ethical ramifications that implies. <br />
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So at the end of the day, I completely understand why Blizzard felt they needed to take action, and why they eventually plumped for this plan. But I don't have much hope for its success, <strike>and I for one will be deleting my historic posts</strike> and giving the forums a wide birth when the changes go live. (The change will only apply to new forums created near the Cataclysm launch.)<br />
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It's a sad day for the community; maybe the trolls win after all.Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-69008478041409283532010-07-06T13:44:00.000+01:002010-07-06T13:44:08.443+01:00Ad nauseumOur raid leader described the new Wyrmrest Temple raid, Ruby Sanctum, as “Naxxramas difficulty with Icecrown heroic loot”. We all cheered and ran in. Then we spent the next two hours wiping.<br />
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The problems started in phase two. We’d consistently lose two or three dps to the cutter beams. Our dps must have the lowest IQ of all raiders because I don’t understand how you can fail to stay in the right place when the tank is rotating the boss for you. Hunters were the worst. And like true hunters, they always had an excuse ready.<br />
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At the phase three transition, someone always got smacked before the tank turned up. They only had one job, and they were constantly late for it.<br />
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And that was the point where it usually went tits up. The debuffs became a huge pain. Dps stopped watching them and didn’t move, and healers got sloppy with dispels (myself included, on shaman duty). With a good chunk of dps dead already, the remaining dps was invariably imbalanced. And again, this goes back to the their IQs, but really how hard is it to watch a big number at the top of your screen and stop casting for a bit if it goes the wrong way?<br />
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One thing of practical value I have to share from this catastrophe is that grid doesn’t seem to like the phase three debuffs. It displayed the phase one and two debuffs just fine, but then got sloppy. I didn’t even realise I wasn’t seeing them to start with. It was only after a few wipes when I and the other healers started swapping notes that we realised something was amiss. So we had to add the debuffs manually. That seemed to do the trick — not that it spurred the dps into moving any quicker when they got them.<br />
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Two hours of dying to a pink dragon is pretty demoralising. But then we disbanded and I got drafted into a 10-man heroic Saurfang attempt where I proceeded to get my ass handed to me for another two hours. We usually cocked up around the 40 per cent mark during an add phase — either a dps would die to the adds, or someone would die to a mark while we were busy trying to keep the dps alive. There’s just no coming back from a death in that fight.<br />
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I usually like fights like this: with two piece tier 10, all you have to do is riptide, faceheal x3 and keep earth shield up. It’s the bomb. But Saurfang is shaman kryptonite, especially on 10-man where you can’t even rely on a decent-sized melee group to soak up the chains. Ancestral awakening comes into its own, but it’s really no substitute for my face-shaped “I Win” chain heal button. <br />
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Four hours of dying and nothing to show for it except a huge hole in my bank balance. Sometimes, I really wonder if this game is a productive use of my time, you know?Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-43053670915062756622010-06-25T10:48:00.001+01:002010-06-25T10:54:30.945+01:00In need of some directionPath of the Titans has gone the way of the... er... Titans. Instead, we'll be getting another layer of glyphs. Warning: old-style Misery rant ahead.<br />
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<i><b>TLDR: if you’re going to add more glyphs to the game, you’d better make sure you know exactly what they are for, and are clearly differentiated from all the other aspects of class enhancements and customisation. Right now, I just don’t see that they are.</b></i><br />
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I never had Path of the Titans, so I won’t miss it. I never understood it either, so I’m not going to mourn its passing. But it did at least have the feel of something interesting and unique.<br />
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With its passing, we are going to get... medium glyphs instead.<br />
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/cast doubletake<br />
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What was that? More glyphs? Glyphs that aren’t major or minor but are... <i>medium</i>? Seriously? Somebody kick the copywriter and see if he’s dead.<br />
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Glyphs already lack a clear purpose, do we really need to go around making it worse? <a href="http://blessingofkings.blogspot.com/2010/06/paladin-medium-glyphs.html">Rohan of Blessing of Kings said it best</a> when he pointed out how many glyphs are virtually indistinguishable from talents, or even enchantments and gems.<br />
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Glyph of shadow, for example, is not an interesting glyph. It provides a small, passive boost to damage. It requires no thought whatsoever. There aren’t even any viable alternatives. It is basically just a quick and dirty way to boost shadow dps.<br />
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The glyph selections for all classes are padded out largely with glyphs that function in exactly the same way, either boosting the numbers of a specific spell or talent for an overall improvement in performance. In other words, as Rohan said, they are talents.<br />
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Inscription was not always supposed to work this way. Once upon a time, it was conceived as a profession which enabled players to change the way their spells worked. Glyph of mind flay worked like this, extending the range of the spell at the expense of its snare. That was just stupid and I’m not advocating a return to the days of our borked range, but you get the point: you had to make a decision, and it had far-reaching implications for how you played your class.<br />
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We’ve got some serious differentiation problem between major glyphs, talents, and enchants. (Oh and look, set bonuses do exactly the same thing.) And then we’ve got these annoyingly dull minor glyphs which at best save you a bit of gold on regents but mostly seem to just save you mana when buffing. Woot. Now we’re getting a whole bunch more that do... what exactly? Well, apparently medium glyphs are supposed to introduce the “fun factor” to abilities.<br />
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STOP RIGHT THERE.<br />
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Here’s a truism about life in general. If you need to tell people something is fun, chances are it probably isn’t. <br />
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I am now more certain than ever that Blizzard does not understand the purpose of its own profession. If it is, indeed, to enable players to customise their own spellbooks then they have to get much, MUCH smarter at designing glyphs. Shadow has only six viable end-game raiding glyphs and none have any impact on how we play. Even allowing for the fact that we are a hybrid class with other purposes, you can see how a good chunk of priest glyphs were thought up on a Friday afternoon by the work experience kid (see glyph of shackle, fade, inner fire etc).<br />
<br />
I agree with Rohan that the original concept for glyphs was much stronger than it is now, so let’s go back to that. Let’s have glyphs that really do present us with some tough choices. If I want my shadow word: pain to hit harder, what am I willing to give up for that? Will the glyph double its mana cost, so I can’t tab spam? Will it reduce the spell’s dispel resistance, so I can’t take it in pvp? I’m clearly not a game designer, but I bet Blizzard’s combined talent could come up with the goods if they put their minds to it. <br />
<br />
If we manage to get to even that point, where there are more interesting glyphs than there are slots (a huge leap from today for some classes), glyphs can’t just be about boosting dps, or healing, or reducing damage, because then you’re just adding talents. And another layer of glyphs is not going to alleviate the best-in-slot problem, it’s just going to aggravate it. Instead of three mandatory glyphs, we’ll just have six. Or eight, or however many new slots we get.<br />
<br />
And I really don’t want to see on-use glyphs either. They’d just become ghetto trinkets.<br />
<br />
I’m not saying it’s easy to design a system like this – theorycrafters will always attempt to assign relative values for raiding. You’ll always end up with one glyph that’s supposed to do more dps than another. And I think this was Blizzard’s problem from the start.<br />
<br />
But you know how not to fix it? Add yet more of the bloody things.<br />
<br />
If you can't create something with a clear, unique purpose, what exactly is the point of it? If you switched off glyphs tomorrow, would anyone care? Would anyone even notice?Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-58072479748460665712010-06-13T15:35:00.000+01:002010-06-13T15:35:46.174+01:00Cataclysm: priest talent previewI'm sure you've <a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/1711-Priest-Cataclysm-Talent-Preview">seen these already</a>; I'm a little late to the party. I'm moving jobs this weekend, from one department to another, which may give me some more time to blog again. It's been hell, so I can pray for a breather:)<br />
<br />
We're told: "These talent trees aren't done. They're just far enough along that we're seeking feedback." Which is good. I'm not sure though, looking at the priest, what exactly they want feedback <i>on</i>. <br />
<br />
This is not revolution; it's not even evolution, so much as it resembles tinkering. And that's fine if you think the priest is solid. If pressed, I'd say they're in a pretty good shape. I like shiny new things though, and this certainly doesn't deliver on that count.<br />
<br />
We have, so far, a shadow tree that very closely resembles live. A few talents are missing (we knew about those already) and a few have filled the gaps, notably:<br />
<ul><li>Spirit tap now returns 15 per cent of total mana when you deal the killing blow, in addition to increasing mana regeneration by 100 per cent for 15 seconds. So much improved for the levelling priest, but without improved spirit tap, it's back to near-useless for the raider.</li>
<li>Dark thoughts, a new tier one talent, now reduces spell pushback by 70 per cent at max rank. We used to get this from improved shadow form (more on that in a sec) but this position will make be handier for smite spam at low levels and could save burning through mana on shields.</li>
<li>Empowered shadow orbs, a new talent on tier four, boosts the effectiveness of our mastery bonus.</li>
<li>Mind melt has undergone a bit of a transformation. It now increases shadow word: death damage by 30 per cent on targets under 25 per cent health, and it empowers our new nuke, mind spike, to reduce the cast time of mind blast by 50 per cent, stacking twice for an instant mind blast. As mind blast sits on the global cooldown anyway, this is clearly aimed at pvp. I'm not sure if we'll even be casting mind spikes in a raid, but if we do, it will only be a small help on highly mobile fights.</li>
<li>Shadowform has lost its innate threat reduction. I'm not surprised, either. It was silly to have two talents in the same tree that both reduced threat; nobody bothered picking up shadow affinity. Now we'll need to again.</li>
<li>Instead of reducing pushback, improved shadow form now includes a five per cent crit aura, like a shaman's elemental oath and moonkin form. Improved moonkin form still increases haste of course, which we were once lined up to get instead of crit. I'm sure Blizzard's raid buff strategy will all become clear with time; right now, I'm lost.</li>
<li>Our new talent, shadowy apparition, makes an appearance at tier eight. Shadow word: pain ticks have a six per cent chance to summony a shadowy version of ourself that moves slowly to the target and deals 15 per cent of our mind blast's damage when it arrives. So far so forgettable. 15 per cent of mind blast damage is fairly lame. But the chance to increase a shadowy form jumps by 60 per cent when moving. Expect to see a lot of twitchy shades at the target dummies while they figure out if this is worth trying to force in a fight. My guess: probably not.</li>
<li>Pain and suffering has not changed. I bet it's still buggy as hell too.</li>
<li>Twisted faith now increased spell hit by 20 per cent of our spirit. Apparently it's a crutch for offspec healers who go dps in their holy togs but it's also going to make healing gear more attractive to shadow priests under the hit cap.</li>
</ul><br />
So there we have it. For now. As others noted instantly, there is a dearth of supporting talents in the discipline tree (holy, we have been told, will never be an option for a secondary tree). <a href="http://www.wowtal.com/#k=Q_NPKjb1111.9dw.priest">So the current build</a> would enable you to pick up every single point in the shadow tree and still have one point left over at 85. I suppose you could go for inner focus instead, and <a href="http://www.wowtal.com/#k=Q_NBbiOlfL11.9dw.priest">have something like this</a>. Still more points than we need. <br />
<br />
So that's where Blizz needs to concentrate. Either discipline must be more useful to shadow at lower levels or they need to throw in a few more shadow talents somewhere.Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-17719697956601779112010-06-02T14:22:00.000+01:002010-06-02T14:22:24.193+01:00PS. Haste buff?Did I dream that shadow priests are getting a haste aura? Work is rather stressful at the moment; much of life passes like a halucination, so I won't be surprised if I made it up. But a haste aura... sounds neat. I wonder which class we're screwing over to get it?Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-17814547329169082232010-06-02T13:16:00.000+01:002010-06-02T13:16:23.130+01:00On pug etiquetteThe debate around random groups seems to hinge on the quality of the players you get: either they are rubbish, or they are not rubbish. Observers can be found at both ends of the spectrum, strenuously arguing their corner.<br />
<br />
Honestly, I don't care about the quality of players available, except in the extreme. You can succeed in most situations with bad dps, and even bad tanks or healers do not automatically mean failure if other players in the group are skilled enough to compensate. Only the perfect storm of five idiots is guaranteed to fail, but this is a very rare occurrence. (And no smart arse ask me when I've ever been in one, thank you very much...)<br />
<br />
In my experience, pugs rise and fall not on the skills of the players but their emotional maturity, their manners, and consideration.<br />
<br />
I do not vote to kick bad players. They are there to get better gear, and to learn to play more effectively. I am more patient of the bad player who says 'please bear with me as I'm new to this spec' than the tier 10 jerk who zones in and goes AFK so you can earn his badges while he watches TV. This has happened to me. Many times. I vote to kick for a 10-minute DC, for wiping the group unnecessarily, for harassment of other players, and for general asshattery.<br />
<br />
And if I had the power to summon back every tank or healer that has quit for no reason and with no warning and vote to kick them myself, I would.<br />
<br />
But if a player can barely muster 1k dps while we are otherwise making good progress, I don't care. Clearly the bar for acceptability lies a little higher for tanks and healers, but the principle is the same.<br />
<br />
If I think my fellow players are basically all brain damaged, I will choose a break in combat to politely take my leave and suffer the consequences.<br />
<br />
The <a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/news-2/ruby-sanctum-availability-tcg-loot-giveaway-3-3-5-vote-kick/">upcoming changes to the 'vote to kick' feature</a> are therefore a mixed blessing to me.<br />
<br />
While they assume that frequent vote kickers are all elitist bullies out to destroy the confidence of new players, we have no evidence of this. What if they, like me, are on a mission to cleanse the game of twats?Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-46054435580415121232010-05-24T10:21:00.000+01:002010-05-24T10:21:31.926+01:00/cast MisdirectA post that somehow manages to induce coffee-spluttering guffaws while revealing absolutely nothing about its subject? It can only mean <a href="http://www.bigredkitty.net/2010/05/17/alpha-cata-notes-without-busting-the-nda/">BRK is back!</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Why are you still reading? You were supposed to follow the link. BRK haz new content. <a href="http://www.bigredkitty.net/2010/05/17/alpha-cata-notes-without-busting-the-nda/">CLICK ON THE LINK</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
>>Your misdirect was resisted.>><br />
<br />
Damn. I haz nothing.Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-3509514436047363782010-04-20T10:04:00.001+01:002010-04-20T11:53:41.816+01:00Need more information<b><i>Edit: Bugger. A blue post completely invalidated the point of my post. I'm still going to make you read it. Flick through to the bottom for the answer.<br />
</i></b><br />
Has anyone figured out how Blizzard is going to implement haste scaling for hots and dots in Cataclysm?<br />
<br />
The fact that haste will no longer shorten the duration of ticking spells is awesome sauce. But the new design, where haste adds ticks while the duration remains the same, is hurting my brain.<br />
<br />
Right now, haste scales smoothly — that is, every additional point you get of haste does something. It might not do a lot, but it all counts towards whatever effect haste provides to your character.<br />
<br />
But I just can't wrap my head around how that's going to work when it adds ticks. Unless the ticks are really small. Or oddly spaced.<br />
<br />
Take vampiric touch. It ticks once every three seconds for a duration of 15 seconds. Five ticks in total. If haste scales smoothly, the first item of gear you get with haste has to add at least one more tick. Just one tick, of equal power, is a 20 per cent boost to the spell. Clearly that can't happen, otherwise hots and dots will scale astronomically.<br />
<br />
It could add a percentage of a tick to the end of the spell, shuffling all other ticks back a bit to squeeze it in. So lets say every point of haste adds 0.05 per cent of a tick. One point of haste would instantly push your three-second ticks to 2.14 seconds, and your seventh tick, at 15 seconds, would tickle like a girl for a couple of spell damage. But that's just weird.<br />
<br />
I suppose they could calculate what would be the combined final total damage of the dots, and even it out, but that would be rather odd too — because then, at certain levels of haste, your dots individually would tick for much less even though they were still ticking for more in total. Would that make dispelling in pvp unfairly effective?<br />
<br />
The worst possible solution would be if haste didn't scale smoothly at all, but incrementally. Imagine if all haste did was shorten the period between ticks. Let's say it took 20 haste to shorten the interval by 0.1 second. You would need 500 haste to add a tick to the spell's 15-second duration. 499 haste? Dead weight. 999? No better than 500. These numbers are arbitrary, but under this system they must necessarily be large to prevent a spell rapidly growing overpowered. So gearing your character to take advantage of haste would become nightmarish. <br />
<br />
All these ideas are very unsatisfactory. Would like more information please. Can someone in the US please ask a forum post — where, you know, Blizzard actually reads them?<br />
<br />
And here's the answer, apparently. Thanks mmo champion.<br />
<blockquote>It's probably more accurate to say that haste will lower the duration until you earn a whole additional tick, at which point the duration will go back up again (but with more damage/healing because of that extra tick). Getting more haste will never be a bad thing, but there will be break points where haste is more valuable than others. You should also never want to cancel the spell early. <br />
<br />
This is definitely one of those cases where we'll have to see how it feels, but it is more intuitive when you're actually casting spells in the game than it might sound on paper.</blockquote>We'll just have to take their word for it :PMerlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-34222834017323484702010-04-12T11:16:00.000+01:002010-04-12T11:16:38.387+01:00The utility paradoxWhy bring a shadow priest? I play in mid-range casual guilds and have never had to justify my spot beyond personal, competent performance (or lack of). But if you're a top-end raider, this question matters.<br />
<br />
that's why the recent Cataclysm news is a cause for anxiety. Shadow priests (and boomkins) are losing a key debuff (misery), and replenishment is being toned down, but the hybrid tax, which keeps theoretical peak hybrid dps a short way below that of the 'pure' classes, is still very much a reality.<br />
<br />
The fewer reasons you have to pick a specific class, the more you are going to pick purely on dps potential. So what happens if shadow priests have nothing unique or significant to add, but do five per cent less damage than a mage? <br />
<br />
Blizzard's raid philosophy of 'bring the player, not the class' rightly demands that no one class or spec should be invaluable to a raid. This is both a pragmatic decision (10-man raids just can't fill every hole) and an idealistic one (it shouldn't matter what classes you and your mates rolled when you go raiding).<br />
<br />
So here then is the paradox: in attempting to ensure hybrids are not special snowflakes that raids can't do without, Blizzard is in danger of ensuring raids only take pure dps.<br />
<br />
You could argue five per cent isn't a lot. Perhaps you could even make that up in skill and gear at some levels of raiding, but then the same is also true in reverse. And to be sure, the tax on hybrid dps is lower now than at any time in WoW's history — but so too is the range of tools and buffs that hybrids bring. As Euripedes eloquently observes, <a href="http://criticalqq.wordpress.com/2010/04/11/mage-cataclysm-squee/">utility is no longer the sole preserve of hybrids</a>.<br />
<br />
The only remaining argument for maintaining a hybrid tax is the base flexibility of the classes to switch between dps and healing or tanking, but this is a misleading argument. I think to suggest that raids take hybrids over pure dps for their ability to rescue raids at a clutch is rather far from the norm. Even then, if the damage playing field was completely even, I would argue that most raids would chose the utility that pure classes bring over the theoretical flexibility of a hybrid.<br />
<br />
The more I look at it, the more the hybrid tax seems counterintuitive to, even incompatible with, the 'bring the player not the class' philosophy. Is it time the tax was finally dropped?Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-81298379806664045982010-04-09T09:04:00.000+01:002010-04-09T09:04:53.611+01:00Is dps easy mode?I normally read the Greedy Goblin in the way that lawyers and doctors watch Gerry Springer on their days off — largely for the shock value and the schadenfreude, but with a smug belief that none of it really applies to me.<br />
<br />
And then <a href="http://greedygoblin.blogspot.com/2010/04/blizzards-cataclysm-role-philosophy.html">I read this post</a>, in which Gevlon accuses Blizzard of placing all the responsibility for a raid's success on the shoulders of tanks and healers, effectively giving dps a free ride. As you know, I've been chain-healing my ample Tauren butt off lately and this analysis hit a slight nerve. <br />
<br />
To be fair, I think Blizzard has come up with lots of devices and strategies to test the dps this expansion — not just enrage timers. Fires, and debuffs, and weird-old buffy things and caster tanking and a zillion phases and target switches. And dps tactics are a lot more complex and interactive than they used to be (unless you're a frost mage). I think the days of facerolling your way through fights that you don't outgear are long gone. It feels like tanks 'n' spanks are very much the exceptional bosses now, instead of the norm.<br />
<br />
But I'll admit Gevlon's view feeds a little pocket of righteous anger that bubbles away inside of me every time I wipe to one of Blizzard's Machiavellian encounters. Because every time Blizzard tries to shake up the dps a bit, they invariably take a collateral swipe at the healers — it's either things that healers have to look out for too, or else things that healers have to cope with incidentally if the dps aren't on their toes. (It goes without saying that tanks have it hard too, in my eyes.)<br />
<br />
In Cataclysm, healers are going to have to manage their mana pools far more carefully than they do now. They will have a larger array of healing spells to pick from, and casting the wrong one at the wrong time could have far-reaching consequences. The enrage point will be when healers oom, not when bosses get bored and one-shot the tank.<br />
<br />
So yes, I find myself in the unfamiliar position of agreeing with Gevlon, and grumbling uncharitably about the injustice of this stupid game.<br />
<br />
But a small part of me feels a little soiled, like I've just caught myself enjoying Fox news. Somebody put me straight, please.Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-70671453751166937192010-04-08T10:07:00.001+01:002010-04-08T18:09:09.861+01:00Merlot feels whelmed<i>Chastity: I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?<br />
Bianca: I think you can in Europe.<br />
</i><br />
<div style="text-align: right;"><i>— 10 Things I Hate About You</i></div><i></i><br />
<br />
Good job I went to bed instead of waiting up for the priest preview: it turns out there wasn't much to wait up for after all.<br />
<br />
Brief shadowy summary (and <a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/news-2/cataclysm-class-preview-priest/">the full thing</a> for those who haven't see it yet — thanks, as always, to mmo champion):<br />
<ul><li>New spell: mind spike, learned at level 81, which deals 'shadowfrost' damage and debuffs the target to increase the damage of the next mind spike. Short cast, spammable, and will not be locked out with other shadow spells.</li>
<li>As per the warlock preview, confirmation that all hots and dots will benefit from crit and haste innately, and that haste will not reduce the duration of the spells but increase the number of ticks. Unlike the warlock preview, though, no hint that we'll be able to stop worrying about clipping.</li>
<li>Devs are determined to give shadow word: death a place in the shadow arsenal as an execute spell (good luck to that).</li>
<li>Shadow should be better equipped for short fights and less susceptible to school lock out.</li>
<li>Shadow talents are in for a bit of an overhaul to strip out all the passive boosters.</li>
<li>The misery hit debuff will go.</li>
<li>The shadow mastery bonuses will provide spell power, crit and a chance to create 'shadow orbs' — which boost spell power and may interact through talents with other spells.</li>
<li>Lots of noise about healing, power word: barrier's back on the table, but you're all going to be ooming every five minutes.</li>
</ul>These few statements of intent are fair enough — and the noises about burst and spell lock out should be cautiously welcomed particularly by pvp priests, I think.<br />
<br />
I'm struggling to see at this stage how dots can scale smoothly with haste if their length doesn't vary, but no doubt this will all become clear over time. And I wish the developers had a consistent view of how dots will behave for shadow priests and warlocks — if locks can't clip their dots, surely priests shouldn't be able to either. But it could be an omission, or indeed a very sensible distinction. No need for nerd rage yet. <i>Edit: an enlightening, if not emphatic, clarification came from Ghostcrawler later, to the effect that they'd like to prevent dot clipping in general.</i><br />
<br />
Mind spike doesn't interest me. No doubt it will have its uses, but it just doesn't grab my imagination. The shadow orbs, however, could be very cool, if only visually. I hope they resemble the old troll priest racial, like our very own purple water shield.<br />
<br />
Of course, it's just a very early preview. We don't have enough information to speculate about shadow performance or talent builds or any of the things we're itching to hear about. The fact that we are loosing the misery debuff might worry priests who rely on their utility to secure raid spots. But I say it's too early to panic.<br />
<br />
In fact, this preview exercise leaves many questions unanswered — and raises a few more than it answers. I got pretty excited about the shaman preview, so why do I feel so underwhelmed by this?Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-67932548915039259722010-04-07T23:05:00.000+01:002010-04-07T23:05:34.748+01:00Tomorrow, definitely tomorrowDamn those tricksy US developers, it's my bed time already and no sign of the priest preview. But on the bright side, tomorrow I shall have something to do at work that is fun.<br />
<br />
And this little gem from the warlock preview will send me to sleep feeling all warm inside. Wouldn't life be great if priests got the same treatment? <br />
<br />
<blockquote>All warlock damage-over-time (DoT) spells will benefit from crit and haste innately. Haste will no longer act to reduce the DoT's duration, but rather to add additional ticks. When reapplying a DoT, you can no longer "clip" the final tick. Instead, this will just add duration to the spell, similar to how Everlasting Affliction currently works.</blockquote><br />
Night night campers :)Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-46911883398530440712010-04-07T11:12:00.000+01:002010-04-07T11:12:03.294+01:00Spring clean in progressJust wanted to give the six of you that actually visit my blog warning that the design may go a bit awol for a few <strike>days</strike> weeks. Blogger in draft has recently introduced <a href="http://bloggerindraft.blogspot.com/2010/01/pages-come-to-blogger-in-draft.html">some sparkly</a> <a href="http://bloggerindraft.blogspot.com/2010/03/blogger-template-designer.html">new features</a> that I'm itching to play with. If I break the blog, I'm very sorry.Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-20352896793211746382010-04-06T11:41:00.001+01:002010-04-06T11:45:41.714+01:00Forget everything: class preview incomingOur first fleshy taste of what Cataclysm will mean for priests is due tomorrow (Wednesday, 7 April), as Blizzard prepare to release a full range of class previews.<br />
<br />
In the words of Bashiok:<br />
<blockquote>"The type of information you can expect from these posts are a list of the news spells from 80-85, the new passive mastery bonuses for all talent trees, a brief outline of some of the talent changes we're currently planning, and in some cases new low level spells for select classes."</blockquote>It's only a day away, but I can't help speculating a little about what we're going to see for shadow priests. Plus, it's a Tuesday morning, and fantasising about WoW is infinitely more pleasurable than the pile of work haunting my inbox.<br />
<br />
Wrath has been a bit of a rollercoaster for shadow priests, but I think our current situation is solid. Our mechanics allow skill to shine over gear, and our array of spells enables us to do competitive damage, scale well, and adapt adequately to most circumstances. I think the basic design philosophy of 'keep dots up and use filler spells to their maximum' is unlikely to change. What we can expect is a more varied array of 'active' talents and a stronger focus on managing our own resources in long fights.<br />
<br />
<b>Mana management</b><br />
We've already been warned that spirit will not be a dps stat in Cataclysm, so I am braced to say farewell to spirit tap. It's not the great talent it used to be, but for all of its shortcomings, it remains the only way a priest has of regaining mana beyond drinking until they hit Outland and eventually pick up dispersion and shadowfiend. So I hope that in the shakeup of talents and spell acquisition, we see changes designed to address mana issues early in a priest's life.<br />
<br />
And I hope to finally see the death of replenishment in raids. If developers are serious about balancing mana regeneration around a class's own talents, and making a clear distinction between healers and dps, then they really ought to drop this elephant in the room once and for all. I could live with it as a self-only effect, as long as they drop the silly, druidy name and give it a title more becoming of a master of dark powers.<br />
<br />
Better still, if we must have it, please unlink it from it's clumsy mind blast trigger. Vampiric touch was once conceived as a leech effect, it would be nice to see a return to that evocative design.<br />
<br />
<b>Dee pee ess</b><br />
As I said, I think raid damage is in a fairly good place right now, but levelling priests could do with a boost to early damage. Damage before mind flay is shameful. It takes a glyph and holy fire at level 20 before our key nuke, smite, can even match a lowly wand. Other classes have it much easier, particularly melee.<br />
<br />
They could fix the situation easily by increasing shadow word: pain's base damage — the spell is massively underpowered, particularly at low levels, let along in end game. Inner fire could also provide spell power from the start instead of only at higher ranks.<br />
<br />
Developers have also hinted in the past that we may get an entirely new, spammable nuke in Cataclysm — something I currently struggle to see the need for in raiding but which might be a perfect fit for early levelling (more on this below).<br />
<br />
<b>New talents and spells?</b><br />
New spell ranks are going — or rather, won't be learned but will increase automatically as we level. I'm curious to see what this will mean for our regular visits to the trainer. Currently, new spells are learned very unevenly: there's a huge glut of them early on, and large gaps without any between the round levels (20, 30, 40 etc). Could we learn spells less frequently, will the present higher-level spells be learned earlier on, or will there be a mass of new spells to fill the gaps?<br />
<br />
We'll almost certainly get new spells as a reward for levelling to 85. My biggest hope is finally to get the dark prayer I have been pleading for for so long. A channelled spell that boosts damage (and possibly healing) temporarily would be a dream. Please Blizzard, I would only write nice things about you from now on :)<br />
<br />
As I mentioned above, there was talk a while back of a possible new, spammable nuke, and while I can see this having some application early on, I'm not sure how it could work in end game. Two possibilities that I can see so far: one, it replaces something from our active range of spells (what, I'm not sure), two it becomes an addition to our active range of spells. The first option doesn't appeal to me, the second frightens me. I'm a simple shadow priest, I don't want to have to manage another variable. But it's too early to worry, we don't even know if a spell is incoming.<br />
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Finally, we've been promised more active talents and fewer passive 'improves x by y' talents. I don't think we'll see the full talent trees tomorrow, and even if we did it would be way too early to speculate about builds. But we're likely to get a feel for the way the new talents will go. It would be nice to see some possibility for hybrid builds, or even just more variety in build options.<br />
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Roll on Wednesday!Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-71381975360645685922010-03-25T21:25:00.002+00:002010-03-25T21:25:53.885+00:00I brokes-ded it...<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Ry9pjiMPVoI/S6vUwTH3JyI/AAAAAAAAAM8/lkkeaxpeSlI/s1600-h/smashed-computer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="310" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Ry9pjiMPVoI/S6vUwTH3JyI/AAAAAAAAAM8/lkkeaxpeSlI/s400/smashed-computer.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fuck you Rotface.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-4538476533346281642010-03-18T14:26:00.000+00:002010-03-18T14:26:58.823+00:00The Zalazane ret conApparently I missed <a href="http://trollshaman.blogspot.com/2010/03/announcing-whiny-post-day.html">official blog rant day</a>, but I've never let lack of official endorsement stop me before. Cataclysm spoilers ahead. Reader beware...<br />
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We learned today that the Darkspear Trolls chief Vol'jin is about to launch a <a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/news-2/an-assault-on-two-fronts-patch-3-9/">final offensive on the Echo Isles</a>, in an effort to retake his people's lost refuge from the traitor Zalazane. Which is odd, because I explicitly remember killing him. Repeatedly. Get this:<br />
<blockquote>Over the years, members of the Horde looking to test their worth have braved the Echo Isles to confront Zalazane, and many of them have even returned victorious with his severed head. These victories, however, proved to be nothing more than an illusion created by the twisted witch doctor's dark magic. Days after these trophies were taken to Sen'jin Village, they reverted to their true forms: painted rocks and coconuts adorned with wooden tusks, or even the heads of Zalazane's enslaved trolls.</blockquote>ORLY? Do you know how many times I died killing that piece of shit? Have you any concept of the time I lost on that agonising corpse run? Many before we got that ghost speed boost. That is one miserable corpse run. Those bastard trolls heal, and they run away at the slightest scratch, like a SPLINTER. Gadrin <i>told </i>me he was dead. He did not say I might have killed a <i>coconut </i>by mistake. Not once, not even after four years of failed adventurers bringing him creepy painted stones did he think to warn me the guys was a bit tricky. Thanks a BUNCH Blizzard.<br />
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No wonder those idiot trolls lost their island. It's not even a very <i>big </i>island.<br />
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Don't even get me started on Thermaplugg, the big dumb FAKE boss.Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-57591736865930901232010-03-03T10:50:00.000+00:002010-03-03T10:50:27.528+00:00Cataclysm: new world orderWe've been given the first concrete information about <a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/news-2/cataclysm-stat-system-changes/">how the new gear stats will work</a> in the expansion, Cataclysm. As you'd expect from something with such a name, it's going to be a bit of a shakeup.<br />
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The plan is for these changes to come into effect before the expansion is released, probably alongside wholesale talent revamps, so we have the joy of logging in one day in the not-too-distant future to see our gear reworked and our talents completely overhauled :)<br />
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It's much too early to worry about what this might mean for shadow priests. At this stage, in fact, very little would appear to be changing. Spellpower will vanish from our gear, while intellect and stamina will increase. Intellect will provide spellpower indirectly, so that we won't miss the lack of spellpower numbers on the gear. Hit, crit and haste will stay the same, and continue to function in the way you're used to. And spirit will probably vanish from most of our items.<br />
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The changes to spirit may be a cause for intrigue. This stat will no longer provide any benefit to caster dps. So we can expect talents such as twisted faith to disappear, as well as our mainstay glyph of shadow. We are promised mana regeneration in other ways — perhaps through buffs to dispersion and shadowfiend (although how shades are expected to level to the point where they can get them is another matter; this, we are told, will change too).<br />
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Divine spirit will go too, I assume, as we are told there will be no raid buffs for spirit in the new world order. To be honest, divine spirit was never the best buff in the world, but I like it. I like the shiny-blue-man icon, I like the connection it gives priests to spirit (their most idiosyncratic stat), and I like the fact that it's something melee don't want (I'm so sick of those DK buffs clogging my screen and making my hands glow). So I will mourn divine spirit and remember it fondly.<br />
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The spirit changes could actually cause many dual-specced priests a problem: we might be left with some big holes in our off-spec gear if we're not careful. It really depends on how Blizzard decides what gear currently constitutes "dps", how they convert that gear, and how they rework mana regeneration for healers. There is a chance discipline priests will need spirit as much as holy priests, so all those months of stocking dps cloth could leave us with a bit of a headache. We'll have to wait and see how this one plays out.<br />
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In the longer term, this change to spirit might go someway to restoring the once-rigid dividing line between healing and dps gear, and reduce the competition on healing priests for gear.<br />
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The introduction of a new "mastery" stat on items should also dissuade leather, mail and plate-wearing casters from rolling on cloth, because the intention is for this stat (function still a little vague at this time) to only apply to that item's primary class types (e.g. druids for leather, shaman for mail etc).<br />
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Things are starting to look interesting again. I can't wait for the bun-fight on talents to begin.Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3434954756598017230.post-8658105511039575122010-02-23T13:44:00.002+00:002010-02-23T17:55:31.282+00:00Call me Mr DarksunI have a new weapon in the battle with my company to me skive productively while at work: Google Buzz.<br />
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Most forms of social networking are now blocked at work, including my own blog. Google Reader and Google Mail have, up till now, been my last links to WoW content during office hours. I've been able to read other blogs (although posts with breaks are deeply irritating) and post new content on my own, but commenting has been impossible. Until now.<br />
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With Gmail now providing access to Buzz profiles, I can follow and comment on Blogspot blogs again. There's also some kind of tweeting functionality.<br />
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I had to make up a surname before I could push my profile live, so I am now known as Merlot Darksun. It's a bit obvious, I know, but I was utterly without inspiration.<br />
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Anyway, there's a chance I'll make a bit more use of Buzz than I did Twitter, as long as it remains open at work. So if you're a Google user please feel free to pop on by and follow me.<br />
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And if you happen to run a Blogspot blog of your own, make sure you've got a profile set up and drop me a line so I can follow you too.<br />
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Edit: here's a <a href="http://www.google.com/profiles/misery.blog">link to my Google Buzz profile</a>, which is a bit easier than having to search for me (although this page might be blocked by social media filters). I've listed Silvermoon as my home and love the fact that Google has tried to find it on a map :)Merlothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12268596977879215079noreply@blogger.com2