The solution to the PVP gear problem

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5.3 will introduce big changes to the PVP gear : players will no longer need PVP gear to have enough resilience to survive, and there will be an ilvl limitation in BGs. These changes aim to make stepping into PVP easier for new or PVE players, while also inciting players to prefer PVP gear instead of higher ilvl PVE gear for BGs, like you can read on the last MMO-Champion news.

But I don’t think this is enough. The solution would be to remove PVP gear from the game altogether.

No more PVE vs PVP gear : welcome “good for everything” gear.

Each piece of available gear should have all the stats needed for each activities. PVP power and resilience could become primary stats, or they could be removed from the gear and build in a PVP zone buff. With one single type of gear, it’d be easier than ever to go from one activity to another. Mainly PVE player ? You can do your Saturday night horde slaying in your hard-earned PVE gear. Mainly PVP player ? You can get your PVE achievement with your PVP gear. No more gear grinding for an activity you only want to do once in a while. But as it becomes easier to step in and out of each activity, you may want to alternate more often too! You could also choose to do both at a time. Like taking part in world PVP while doing dailies, and being equally efficient for both. No longer need to choose between being one-shotted by the first PVPer passing by or killing monsters quickly.

Choose the activity, not the reward !

Imagine that you can do BGs to farm your valor points instead of dailies and heroics… Don’t know you, but I would certainly like it. Welcome a new game where there only is one type of currencies, that you can get from any activity you’d like to practice in-game. When winning a PVP game, you could get a chance at some loot, be it using the LFR loot system for normal BGs, or with a looting system that allow for master loot in rated PVP.

For example, after winning a Warsong match Alliance side, you could be ported to an instanced Darnassus to get your reward directly from Tyrande Whisperwind, as a thank you for taking part in the victory.

Each BG or arena could have its own loot table, like PVE bosses. It’d be quite simple to balance the rhythm of loot acquisition between PVE or PVP activities by tweaking drop rates or amount of currencies you can get for each activity. And in case it weren’t quite balanced, don’t panic, it won’t affect your open world pvp activities :

PVP should be about skill…

… Not about who have the bigger sword. All the gear should be leveled out in BGs and arenas, like it is in challenge modes. The reference ilvl could increase at each patch though, so that you get bigger number when you advance in the expansion. Getting new gear would allow you to optimize your secondary stat distributions, or to show off your new set, and of course you’d do better in PVE and open world PVP.

The equalization could also help balance healing vs damage vs avoidance, by increasing some stat more than other. For example, you could have spell power at 100% of the reference, while healing power is only at 80%.

And many more benefits

One of the other benefit I can preview, is that Blizzard wouldn’t need to design so many different gear sets at each patch. Ok having different-looking gear is nice, but with 8 year of transmogable gear available, do you really need 2 different set at each patch? One a these you probably won’t obtain until the next patch… if you ever get it. Not that you did choose the one you’d get first because of look.

Of course, there are cons to this method. PVPers might not feel compelled to grind BG if the gear doesn’t matter. But they might also discover that because of not needing to grind gear, they can enjoy other activities too. And grinding random BGs shouldn’t become the new catch up mechanism (which would happen if you could drop gear equivalent to current LFR tier in normal BGs)

This system may also induce some inconveniences which would need to be addressed. For example, it would be nice to be able to preview what your stats will be like in PVP without being in there to be able to choose your gear and reforge accordingly. Also, it would be harder to design set bonus that are balanced and equally desirable for PVE and PVP. But I’m pretty confident Blizzard could come up with an elegant solution for that. For example, you could get a set with a pvp bonus from PVP activities, and a set with a PVE bonus from raids. Or the bonuses could be equally valuable for each activity.

PS : the way honor is gained during BG should also change, but that is another story. You shouldn’t get points for being around when an enemy is killed. You should get Honor points by taking part in the battle for victory. If you can’t imagine another way to attribute honor points for contribution, just look at SWTOR system here. You can earn the equivalent of honor points by completing a variety of objectives, called medals.

 

Healer design retrospective

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Back in BC, Holy paladins were stuck into casting 2 different single target heals for every needs, including when they needed to heal many different targets. Blizzard decided it wasn’t a great design choice and added diversity to the paladin healing rotation : they now use a variety of single and multi  target spells, and are encouraged to alternate between holy power generating spells and holy power consuming spells.

Back in WotLK, Disc Priest tended to use a single single-target spell to blanket the whole raid with shields. Blizzard decided it wasn’t a great design choice and improved the disc priest toolbox. They now have many efficient multi-targets spells, each with different goals, being effectively healing the raid or creating preventive shields on many characters.

Back in WotlK, Resto Druids spammed a single-target hot to heal the whole raid. Blizzard decided it wasn’t a great design choice, so they forced the druids using a variety of spells to benefit from their mastery, while providing them new spells to deal with different damage patterns.

Back in BC, Resto Shamans used 2 to 3 different ranks of the same spell (needing different buttons on their action bars) to heal different damage patterns on the tank or stacked people. Shaman were also the only class capable of efficiently healing aoe damage, and thus surpassed all other classes for this purpose. Blizzard decided it wasn’t a great design choice and made Chain Heal less efficient to bring Shaman in the other healers range. They also gave shaman new tools to respond to their single target and stacked healing needs. Today, shaman are stuck using an inefficient single target spell (Healing Surge, mostly) to heal raid wide damage when the raid isn’t stacked (that is, at least one on two fights).

Note : This post is based from my current knowledge and remembrance of other healing classes. I didn’t make research just for it. So it may not be exactly accurate. However, its aim is to be an overview of the situation. Also, I didn’t talk about Holy priests because back in Vanilla/BC they were the most versatile healer, even if they’re not in as a good shape today (again, compared to other healers).

The morale of the story

Overall, Blizzard did a great job at designing healers over time. I remember a day when if you wanted to do timed Shattered Halls (needed for Tempest Keep raid attunement) as a resto shaman, your best chance was to go there with a paladin tank. Now you can do about any content with any spec.

But I’m pretty sure everyone out there is afraid of shaman becoming OP again as they were in Sunwell, and are afraid of making them better than other healers, even in their niche : stacked aoe healing. Since then, shaman were more in range of the other healers, occasionally dipping way below when the fights required a lot of spreading (mainly Ulduar, Firelands and Throne of Thunder).

In MoP, up until today, our emblematic spell, Chain Heal, was our worse spell. It healed for just as much as Greater Healing Wave, for about the same mana cost, had a longer cast time (as CH doesn’t benefit from Tidal Waves), and ran a high risk of only hitting a single target, reducing healing done by the spell by 60% (a lot of bosses hit boxes are so big that a Chain Heal doesn’t jump from the tank to the melees)

Today shamans’ main aoe healing spells were improved. This improvement may make shamans extremely good at healing a stacked raid (the 20% Healing Rain buff is pretty huge on an already strong spell, it may all be Sunwell again : shaman very powerfull in their niche but stuck in there). I understand why these improvements were chosen right now instead of more complex changes. But these don’t solve the true problem : shamans doesn’t have any suited spell for spread raid healing. They are forced burning their mana using an inefficient single target spell (Healing Surge) to aoe heal, or helplessly watching the other healers do the job. This isn’t fun. Healing should be about using the right spell for the right job. For a shaman healing a spread raid, our only right spell is a 3 minutes CD talent (Healing Tide Totem). We need something to fill this hole, be it via a new spell, a glyph or a revamped talent (Elemental Blast, I’m looking at you !). I just hope it comes in 5.3…

Improve your (poor) DPS using Weak Aura dynamic groups

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I’m a healer. That is, I love healing, and I’m relatively good at it (well, I though I was until I had to heal Heart of Fear in my 10 man raid team, and then I felt like the worst healer of all time).

But you can’t always make your way through the game while just healing. Sometimes you have to actually KILL things, be it for dailies, prove your worth in the Brawler’s Guild, or simply because that boss only requires 2 healers.

My guild’s got 5 available healers. And sometimes it’s my turn to try to do a bit of damage. The problem is, I’m not good at dpssing. But fortunately, I have a secret!

This isn’t something that’ll make you become that awesome damage dealer who tops the chart on each and every fight while also taking no damage and doing his part on the CC and kitting jobs. It’s more a “DPS for the noobs” thing.

The trick is to use Weak Aura as a reminder for your entire rotation.

It’s very helpful when you don’t master your dps spec enough to be able to play it blindfolded and with your toes. At each second it’ll show you what you should cast next, so that you can focus on the environment and other jobs without getting lost with your rotation.

So, how do you do it ?

  1. Go to some resource site like Elitist Jerks, or MMO Melting Pot, or whatever your favorite class site is and pick your ideal rotation or priority list.
  2. Download Weak Aura
  3. Create a new dynamic group
  4. For each spell on your priority list, create a new icon, put it in the dynamic group you just created, and translate the conditions in which you should use the ability into as many triggers as you need.
  5. Make sure the icons appear in your priority order within your dynamic group.

And voilà !

For example, I found this priority list for my Elemental Shaman on Totemspot:

  1. Cast Flame Shock IF the DoT has expired or has 1 tick remaining.
  2. IF you have the L90 talent Unleashed Fury, cast Unleash Elements
  3. Cast Lava Burst IF it is off cooldown AND Flame Shock is on the target
  4. IF you have the L90 talent Elemental Blast, cast Elemental Blast
  5. Cast Earth Shock IF Lightning Shield is at 6-7 charges. Note: It is possible to pre-cast this with 3 or more charges if you need to recast Flame Shock shortly (ie: the dot has more than 5 seconds remaining). For more information on Earth Shock use, see the advanced section.
  6. Use Fire Elemental Totem IF the cooldown has expired
  7. Drop Searing Totem IF you have no active fire totem AND Fire Elemental Totem cooldown has more than 15 seconds remaining
  8. Cast Lightning Bolt

As Elemental is my second spec, I chose to simplify the rotation as much as possible and didn’t pick Unleashed Fury nor Elemental Blast, so I don’t care about points 2 and 4. I didn’t choose to pre-cast Earth Shock either as it adds complexity for a minor dps gain, so step 5 is simple. And as I’m the kind of people who forgot to use his cooldowns, I added them to the rotation, so that I clearly see when they’re available.

So here is the final result in Weak Auras :

My Elemental priority list on Weak Aura

My Elemental priority list on Weak Aura

  1. Flame Shock, static icon. Show when Action usable (trigger 1) and the dot has less than 4 seconds remaining on the target (trigger 2)
  2. Flame Shock, spinning icon. Show when Action usable (trigger 1) and the dot isn’t on the target.
  3. Lava Burst, static icon. Show when Action usable (trigger 1) and Flame Shock has more than 1.3 seconds remaining on the target (trigger 2), and I don’t have the Lava Surge buff (trigger 3).
  4. Lava Burst, spinning icon. Idem #3 but with Lava Surge buff.
  5. Earth Shock, static icon. Show when action usable (trigger 2) and Lighting Shield is at 6 stacks (trigger 1).
  6. Earth Shock, spinning icon. Idem #5 but with 7 stacks.
  7. Fire Elemental Totem. Show when action usable
  8. Searing Totem. Show when no active fire totem (trigger 1) and Fire Elemental Totem cooldown has more than 15 seconds remaining (trigger 2)
  9. Ascendance. Show when action usable. (So that I don’t forget to cast it in fights when I don’t always use it in conjunction with Fire Elemental Totem)

 

Note : depending on your triggers, you may want to force the displayed icon (in my case I had to do that for Searing Totem, as none of the trigger is about Searing Totem, and to be able to show Lighting Shield stacks on Earth Shock icon). You can choose that in the display menu. Uncheck “Automatic icon”, and search for the spell you want to use the icon.

During a fight, only actions that you should use soon are shown. In my case, I have to cast Lighting Bolt when there’s no icons. Here’s a random combat screenshot :

Combat screenshot

Cast Lava Burst NOW !

Here is the Weak Aura import for my Elemental priority list :
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And in case you’d want to make a dynamic group for your own priority list, I’d be happy to help. Just ask in a comment below or send me an e-mail : zahia at one more alt dot com.

Is Wrathion questline Legendary enough ?

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Tzufit recently wrote a post about the Wrathion legendary questline. In this post he complained that Legendaries have become too easy to acquire thanks to the Black Prince, making them no longer legendary. This seems like a valid concern. As he said, when everyone’s Legendary, no one will be!

Well, this depends of what are your expectations concerning Legendaries. If your main definition of Legendary is rare, then effectively, the Wrathion quest is hardly legendary as anyone can complete it.

Although, if you look at the quest reward, these become scarcer. Of course, it’s easy to get your Sha-touched gem. But then ? Not really useful if you don’t have the associated weapon. So yeah, I suppose a lot of players have actually equipped the gem in the most advanced guilds, but if you’re hoping to get your Sha-touched weapon in LFR, it suddenly gets a legendary touch !

But Legendary isn’t just “rare” for me. It’s also epic, fabulous. And what would you call a gigantic questline that’ll keep you involved during a whole expansion ? In this quest you’ll have to do raids (all of them, as it seems), daily quests, battlegrounds, and maybe heroics, challenge modes or scenarios to get your 6000 valor points.

Of course, this can’t replace the legendary items for top-notch guilds (and I hope Blizzard will continue to introduce legendary weapon in future patches). But for the others ? For all the players out there who know in advance that they won’t be able to get the new legendary weapon because they aren’t part of a hardcore raiding guild ? Well, for all these players, the Wrathion questline really have a legendary fell in my opinion.

Nice 5.2 Patch Note Lines You May have Missed

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While reading the 5.2 patch note today I discovered an information I had missed until now :

  • Level capped players will now have a chance to earn Lesser Charms of Good Fortune after winning a pet battle versus a pet within 5 levels of the highest level pet on their team. Higher-level pets will offer a better chance to earn a charm.
  • Winning a pet battle versus a team within 5 levels of the player’s highest-level pet will now award player experience.

This nice little addition will certainly make pet battles more appealing for a lot of us. When I encounter high level pets I sometimes wish I could engage them in a battle. But  unfortunately my battle pets have been sitting at level 7 for a few months. Leveling your battle pets can feel like a long grind, and getting nothing out of it doesn’t help. Now you can get experience or Charms of Good Fortune out of it. Nice change for when you get bored or when you’re in a raid group waiting for LFR or for your guild raid to begin.

You will come back…

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A few weeks ago I started missing blogging a lot. It’s a difficult job for me to keep blogging here on a regular basis, because I’m not that kind of people who always think about a lot of funny or interesting things to speak about. Plus, I’m more of the procrastinating kind. And I’m pretty sure it doesn’t help that I’m not writing in my native language. I’m not saying that I’d prefer to write in French (I had good reasons to write in English in the first place). But I have doubt sometimes. I often wonder if what I write is good enough for English readers, or if you’d rather go blind than continue reading such crap writing. Or if you can understand my thoughts and my desperate attempts at joking.

So sometimes, when I am short on ideas, I just let the blog sink in the internet limbo. But then I remember when I was a child and I played journalist with my sister. We tried writing a magazine but we generally only manage to write half an issue. Writing as always been a dream for me, but I never dedicate myself to it.

Anyway, hope this post will not be another vain attempt to come back and keep the blog alive. Today I’m well motivated to keep this blog going. Because it’s so much harder to write in English when I don’t blog regularly, because I never know how to start when I didn’t blog for a while, because it’s nice to have this place to express myself, and because this blog is some kind of achievement to me.

Anyway, I digress. What I wanted to talk about in this post is my come back to wow. About a year ago, I quit wow for Swtor. During this year I also played Diablo, Skyrim and Guild Wars 2. And now, I’m back to Wow. I didn’t intend to buy Pandaria in the first time and wasn’t particularly excited by this extension. But I ended buying it anyway. And I’m not the only one in this case. Each time there’s a new MMO going out, many players leave wow for the new game. I’ve seen people leave for Age of Conan, for Rift, for Swtor… And a few months ago, most of them came back to wow.

Why do everyone come back ? I played Rift, Swtor and Guild Wars 2 and these games were fine. They all had some things working better than wow. All of them could have been serious concurrent for WOW.But in the end, everyone come back to wow.

What does have WOW that other game can’t have? What is it that make wow a better MMO, no matter how other game’s mechanisms are interesting or compelling ?

WoW has a community. A large and old community. When you leave wow for another game, a few friends might follow you, but most of them will keep playing wow. After a few month, you start missing some friends, or just your whole community. The fact that your friend list is full of people you can talk to or play with.

A feature I’d love to see in the future of MMOs, is some simple inter-games communication system. Like Battle.net, but working with all games. Something that’ll let you see who is online on which game, and let’s you talk to your friends from other games. Imagine the scenario. You log in wow on a Saturday night but the guild chat is empty. You say hello the inter-game chat you created with your friend. Someone invites you to a World vs World session on Guild Wars 2. You just transformed a dull farming or solo-LFR night into a kill fest with friends.

This is possible. Rift tried to do that by integrating Twitter directly into the game chat. But unfortunately, as long as WoW is the uncontested leader of the genre, Blizzard has no interest whatsoever to implement something better than their Battle.net chat.

So, that’s what I missed when playing other games, and that’s what made me come back. That and the farm! What is WoW biggest advantage to you? What are you missing the most when you play other games?

Wanna play SWTOR ?

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I was looking at my dashboard today when I noticed someone came to my blog after searching “make me wanna play SWTOR”. So, for the one of my three readers who don’t know if it’s worth it to play SWTOR or not, here are my top 10 reasons why you should give it a go :

  1. Class story. If there was one thing every MMO to come should have, it’s that. Your character have a story. In Swtor you won’t be going from planet to planet because you want to be level 50 as fast as possible, but because “what happens now ??” As a Bounty Hunter, each planet has a feel of “Finally, I killed the Lich King!” in Wrath, except on a shorter time-line.
  2. Quest cinematics are just great. No more dubious reading, and yet you know why you’re killing ten rats. And is a perfect complement to the class story to make the leveling experience compelling.
  3. You can have BSOCK with your companions, or, even better, with complete strangers !
  4. You can have your companions do the farming for you
  5. Light Side / Dark Side choices. This system allow you to give your character a real personality.
  6. You have a droid which says “It’s a pleasure to work for you mistress” each time it sees you.
  7. You can have a slave and torture her as you wish (or you can make her free if that’s your thing, but, seriously, who would do that ???)
  8. Your character will look badass.
  9. You have a ship of your own, and you can do space combat with it
  10. And last but not least : you can try SWTOR for free !