Hey everybody from WoW.com. Welcome to my little corner of the internet. There's no new content post for today, but I did respond to everyone who commented on my previous post. Feel free to hop over there and continue the conversation(s), if you'd like. ;D
Despite the fact that I'm currently vacationing away from home, I'll do my best to write up some fresh new content for you folks for later this week, or perhaps early next week (Tuesday at the latest). If you like what you see, feel free to stop by again when you get the chance. =)
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Holy Paladin Healing Needs More Interactivity
I think I'm beginning to get a bit of Shaman envy. Some friends were discussing Shaman Totems (the relics, not the spells) in-game, and the conversation slowly evolved into pointing out the differences between Shaman and Paladin healing. If you look at the tools both classes have, they're surprisingly similar at first glance—to the point where you can list off the various heals each class uses and find an analogous spell for the other class.
However, despite the similarities on the surface, the deeper mechanisms of the classes are two completely different beasts. The Shaman's entire healing system seems to be based off of creating intuitive rhythms and flows, and adapting to the situation at hand—it works extremely well with the water theme of the Shamans' Restoration tree. The Paladin healing system, on the other hand, is an extremely forward min/maxing system. All of the "interesting" parts are designed to maximize the strengths of each individual spell while mostly ignoring the weaknesses. Take Infusion of Light for example—it currently makes our fast heal, Flash of Light, even faster, and our big heal, Holy Light, even bigger. In Patch 3.3, it will also make our damage stabilization spell, Sacred Shield, provide more stability via Flash of Light HoT (technically, the base spell is being nerfed and Infusion of Light is being updated to un-nerf it for Holy, but that's besides the point).
There's very little in the Paladin Holy tree that encourages making use of the entire toolkit. Sure, Holy Shock (with Infusion of Light) encourages using Flash of Light or Holy Light, but that's not really much of a choice due to Holy Shock's cooldown. Flash of Light does nothing to encourage use of Holy Light, and vice versa, which has resulted in the current Paladin strategy of just picking one spell between the two primary heals, gearing to maximize it's potency, and then spamming it as long as possible. Holy Light builds are generally built around the idea of being able to cast as many Holy Lights as possible—the occasional Flash of Lights mixed in is simply a necessary evil required to not empty one's mana reserves too quickly. Flash of Light builds are designed to make Flash of Lights hit as hard as Paladinly possible, and the occasional Holy Lights are simply a necessary evil when Flash of Light simply does not have sufficient throughput (which is pretty much all the time nowadays). Beacon of Light and Sacred Shield add very little to the equation (in terms of interactivity/fun)—in practice they're just abilities that require maintenance every 30-90 seconds, depending on talent specs and glyphs.
What I'd really like to see in Cataclysm is a series of changes to the Paladin Holy tree that is designed to make Paladin heals synergize with each other rather than compete with each other (hopefully in amusing off-the-wall ways). The Flash of Light portion of Infusion of Light is definitely good in this respect, but so much more can be done to encourage the Paladin to use the entire healing arsenal available. For example:
Ultimately, the goal would be to create a dynamic system that has a great deal of complexity, but is relatively simple to just jump into and play around and experiment with. In other words, the idea is to make healing on a World of Warcraft Paladin akin to fighting on a Diablo 3 Monk.
Thoughts?
However, despite the similarities on the surface, the deeper mechanisms of the classes are two completely different beasts. The Shaman's entire healing system seems to be based off of creating intuitive rhythms and flows, and adapting to the situation at hand—it works extremely well with the water theme of the Shamans' Restoration tree. The Paladin healing system, on the other hand, is an extremely forward min/maxing system. All of the "interesting" parts are designed to maximize the strengths of each individual spell while mostly ignoring the weaknesses. Take Infusion of Light for example—it currently makes our fast heal, Flash of Light, even faster, and our big heal, Holy Light, even bigger. In Patch 3.3, it will also make our damage stabilization spell, Sacred Shield, provide more stability via Flash of Light HoT (technically, the base spell is being nerfed and Infusion of Light is being updated to un-nerf it for Holy, but that's besides the point).
There's very little in the Paladin Holy tree that encourages making use of the entire toolkit. Sure, Holy Shock (with Infusion of Light) encourages using Flash of Light or Holy Light, but that's not really much of a choice due to Holy Shock's cooldown. Flash of Light does nothing to encourage use of Holy Light, and vice versa, which has resulted in the current Paladin strategy of just picking one spell between the two primary heals, gearing to maximize it's potency, and then spamming it as long as possible. Holy Light builds are generally built around the idea of being able to cast as many Holy Lights as possible—the occasional Flash of Lights mixed in is simply a necessary evil required to not empty one's mana reserves too quickly. Flash of Light builds are designed to make Flash of Lights hit as hard as Paladinly possible, and the occasional Holy Lights are simply a necessary evil when Flash of Light simply does not have sufficient throughput (which is pretty much all the time nowadays). Beacon of Light and Sacred Shield add very little to the equation (in terms of interactivity/fun)—in practice they're just abilities that require maintenance every 30-90 seconds, depending on talent specs and glyphs.
What I'd really like to see in Cataclysm is a series of changes to the Paladin Holy tree that is designed to make Paladin heals synergize with each other rather than compete with each other (hopefully in amusing off-the-wall ways). The Flash of Light portion of Infusion of Light is definitely good in this respect, but so much more can be done to encourage the Paladin to use the entire healing arsenal available. For example:
- Update the Holy Light portion of Infusion of Light into something more fun. While crits are usually fun, a slightly higher chance to crit is completely lackluster—how can you tell if even helped you on any individual cast? Instead, make it something that's not only useful, but also noticiable. Perhaps a chance for your next Holy Light cast to trigger a bonus Illumination effect. Heck, even an uninspired and boring "makes your next Holy Light spell heal for 5% more" has a tangible impact on healing, as compared to the current effect.
- Make Flash of Light do something beneficial for Holy Shock and/or Holy Light. Perhaps give it a chance to trigger a buff that adds a HoT/shield/increased heal effect to the next Holy Shock or Holy Light cast. Maybe the buff could be stackable and the number of stacks determines the strength of the effect (say, for sake of example 3/6/10% of a Holy Light or 10/20/30% of a Holy Shock).
- Give Sacred Shield some interaction with Holy Light. One idea would be to allow a Holy Light crit on a target with Sacred Shield splash mini-bubbles on nearby targets, thereby encouraging the Paladin to Flash of Light those targets to leave behind lots of HoTs. Another idea would be to give a Holy Light cast on a target that has Sacred Shield to energize the next bubble, allowing it to absorb more damage than it would be able to normally.
- Similarly, allow Sacred Shield and Holy Shock to interact. For example, allow Holy Shock to "pop the bubble" causing the current or next Sacred Shield proc to instantly heal the target for its absorption amount, rather than (or in addition to) its normal effect. Or maybe let it bounce a copy of a Sacred Shield bubble onto the lowest health party or raid member within 40 yards.
- Finally, allow Holy Light to help out Holy Shock and/or Flash of Light. One possibility would be to let a Holy Light crit finish the current (or prevent the next) Holy Shock cooldown, and/or to increase the spell power coefficient of the next Flash of Light cast but with a corresponding increase in mana cost.
Ultimately, the goal would be to create a dynamic system that has a great deal of complexity, but is relatively simple to just jump into and play around and experiment with. In other words, the idea is to make healing on a World of Warcraft Paladin akin to fighting on a Diablo 3 Monk.
Thoughts?
Monday, November 30, 2009
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Holy is Where the (Gryphon)Heart Is
Yes, I know that's a terrible title, but too bad! It's my blog and I'm going with it. =P
Recently, Bell of 4 Haelz and Big Bear Butt of, well, Big Bear Butt posted their experiences of playing Retribution Paladins who have effectively been forced to go Holy or Protection in order to get groups (see: Bell's Locked Into Healing post & BBB's Tales from the LFG Tavern post). While this post is only tangentially related to theirs', their posts in addition to a PuG experience a few nights ago did inspire me to write this one.
Now, Gryph has been a Holy Paladin for as long as I can remember. Even before the 3 Paladin talent trees were first announced, I knew I wanted Gryph to be a more spiritually-, and less physically-, centric Paladin. In my mind he's always been an individual defined more by his strength of will rather than his physical prowess, and when the Paladin talent trees were announced, Holy fit the bill quite perfectly. For the first 4 or so years after WoW's launch, Gryph has been Holy, through and through (minus brief periods of time after the talent resets when he was unspecced). In fact, I've never even spent so much as a copper to respec Gryph.
When dual specs came out, I finally took the plunge and grabbed him a tanking spec for pretty much the same reason that Bell and BBB probably picked up their second specs: easier group finding. On Feathermoon Alliance, it turned out, it's significantly easier to find a group as a tank than a healer. (Plus, I just like helping people, and being able to fill the two most desired roles in a group felt like it would be immensely helpful.) Big mistake. I don't think I've healed a PuG 5-man since. =\ I'm pretty sure I've tanked more WotLK 5-mans than I've healed by now, both with PuGs and with all-friend groups. Perhaps in Cataclysm I'll try Retribution as my second spec instead.
Anyway, as it turns out, I don't really think I enjoy tanking that much. I say this because every time I'm tanking and someone does something silly (like not watch their own aggro), I go into a frothy-mouthed rage. On the other hand, I'm much more calm when healing, and usually enjoy the same shenanigans that piss me off when I'm tanking. Maybe Holy is just more fun because I have a lot more experience with it, or perhaps I'm just feeling inadequate as a tank because I'm not used to fitting emergency buttons into my tanking rotation (whereas emergency buttons feel much easier to integrate into my healing playstyle because they keep people alive—which is the primary purpose of healing). One thing I do know, though: I'm never going to tank a 25-man raid in WotLK. This is partly because I'm just not good enough of a tank, and partly because half the people in TRI have Protection Paladins (and the other half have some other tank). =P
Recently, Bell of 4 Haelz and Big Bear Butt of, well, Big Bear Butt posted their experiences of playing Retribution Paladins who have effectively been forced to go Holy or Protection in order to get groups (see: Bell's Locked Into Healing post & BBB's Tales from the LFG Tavern post). While this post is only tangentially related to theirs', their posts in addition to a PuG experience a few nights ago did inspire me to write this one.
Now, Gryph has been a Holy Paladin for as long as I can remember. Even before the 3 Paladin talent trees were first announced, I knew I wanted Gryph to be a more spiritually-, and less physically-, centric Paladin. In my mind he's always been an individual defined more by his strength of will rather than his physical prowess, and when the Paladin talent trees were announced, Holy fit the bill quite perfectly. For the first 4 or so years after WoW's launch, Gryph has been Holy, through and through (minus brief periods of time after the talent resets when he was unspecced). In fact, I've never even spent so much as a copper to respec Gryph.
When dual specs came out, I finally took the plunge and grabbed him a tanking spec for pretty much the same reason that Bell and BBB probably picked up their second specs: easier group finding. On Feathermoon Alliance, it turned out, it's significantly easier to find a group as a tank than a healer. (Plus, I just like helping people, and being able to fill the two most desired roles in a group felt like it would be immensely helpful.) Big mistake. I don't think I've healed a PuG 5-man since. =\ I'm pretty sure I've tanked more WotLK 5-mans than I've healed by now, both with PuGs and with all-friend groups. Perhaps in Cataclysm I'll try Retribution as my second spec instead.
Anyway, as it turns out, I don't really think I enjoy tanking that much. I say this because every time I'm tanking and someone does something silly (like not watch their own aggro), I go into a frothy-mouthed rage. On the other hand, I'm much more calm when healing, and usually enjoy the same shenanigans that piss me off when I'm tanking. Maybe Holy is just more fun because I have a lot more experience with it, or perhaps I'm just feeling inadequate as a tank because I'm not used to fitting emergency buttons into my tanking rotation (whereas emergency buttons feel much easier to integrate into my healing playstyle because they keep people alive—which is the primary purpose of healing). One thing I do know, though: I'm never going to tank a 25-man raid in WotLK. This is partly because I'm just not good enough of a tank, and partly because half the people in TRI have Protection Paladins (and the other half have some other tank). =P
Monday, November 23, 2009
Happy 15th Birthday WarCraft!
Happy 15th Birthday WarCraft! "15th?!" you might be asking, "But World of Warcraft only came out 5 years ago!"
It's true. The World (of WarCraft) that we all know and love only premiered 5 years ago. However, gentle readers, there was indeed a world before the World of Warcraft, and 10 years prior to the MMO's launch Blizzard Entertainment was celebrating another birth: the launch of their first real-time strategy game—WarCraft: Orcs & Humans. Back then, I'm sure none of the people working on the humble little competitor to the Dune games imagined what would become of Azeroth, but I'm sure we can all appreciate how the franchise has grown in the 15 years since it's premiere.
So, happy 5th birthday World of Warcraft, and happy 15th birthday WarCraft. Here's to many, many more! =)
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
1 Year Anniversary!
Happy birthday, The Lion Guard! This blog is now 1 year old!
Let's look back on the goals I set for myself and see what I've actually managed to accomplish.
Let's see what I can manage to accomplish for year 2. ;D
Let's look back on the goals I set for myself and see what I've actually managed to accomplish.
My Goals for The Lion Guard:Wow...I didn't get anywhere close. =\ Oh well, if at first you don't succeed...
- 5 posts per week, on average, with at least 1 "meaty" post per week.
- Provide myself an inspiring means to exercise and develop my writing skills.
- Practice public expression. I tend to be one of those quiet, shy people in public. Perhaps this blog will help me become a more confident individual.
- Express myself. Most of the people I interact with regularly in real life are uninterested in WarCraft. I hope that here I can create a place to freely converse with folks who are genuinely interested in at least some of what I have to say.
Let's see what I can manage to accomplish for year 2. ;D
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Glory of the Hero, part 2
Last night, my Glory of the Hero group was on what can only be described as an epic roll. Six achievements knocked completely out of the park! Collectively, we nabbed:
- Make It Count
- Split Personality
- Snakes. Why'd It Have To Be Snakes?
- Less-rabi
- Share The Love
- A Void Dance
Of all the above, Make It Count and A Void Dance had to have been the most frustrating. Every prior Make It Count run would be spoiled by some relatively minor difficulty, such as dismounting too early, accidentally aggroing an extra dragon, forgetting to take Evasive Maneuvers...(yeah, that last one was all me >.>). As for A Void Dance, well, that was just a complete RNG crapshoot. The Azure invaders seem to hate that voidwalker almost as much as I do now...they were quite contented to let him rot in his cell for ages.As for Less-rabi, believe me, it's not nearly as hard as various sources try to make it seem. The best strategy seems to be to just beat him down as fast as possible while having a few interrupts on hand. In our case, we used a 1 tank 4 DPS strategy and managed to down him before he even attempted to transform a 3rd time. And all of this without a Rogue of Shaman with 5/5 Reverberation to act as a dedicated interrupter. I've spent more time worrying about this achievement than any other, and we managed it in one shot in less than a minute. o.O
And, of course, a screenshot of the drake:
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
And They Just Keep Rolling In
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