In Regards to the Holy Paladin Mastery

I've been working my way through a massive backlog of posts in my feedreader recently and I came across a post entitled Illuminated Healing: An Examination of the Holy Paladin Mastery from Kurn's Corner. In it Kurn talks about the problems with the current Holy Paladin mastery and why the proposed changes in patch 4.1 will do little to make it a more desirable stat for Paladins. She also compares how aptly the Illuminated Healing mastery fits with WoW's Holy Paladin and proposes several alternate masteries she feels would fit the class/spec better.

Kurn's post got me thinking: if I had the opportunity to make it happen, how would I change Illuminated Healing to not only make it more appealing to Paladins as a whole, but also make it feel like a better fit with the class. Here's what I came up with:

Essentially, there are two parts of the current Holy Paladin that still feel a bit off to me. The first part is the new Paladin mechanic, Holy Power. Personally, I think the mechanic should be further ingrained into the Holy spec by tying it in some fashion to the mastery system. The easiest way to do this would be to have mastery either influence its generation or trigger an effect on its expenditure.

Some possible ideas in this regard are to change Illuminated Healing so that it instead:

• allows Holy Light a (mastery-based %) chance to generate a charge of Holy Power when cast; or
• increases the healing done by Word of Glory or Light of Dawn (by a mastery-based %); or
• gives a (mastery-based %) chance for Word of Glory and Light of Dawn to proc a significantly large absorption shield (say anywhere from 50-100% of the amount healed); or
• causes Word of Glory and Light of Dawn to trigger a buff that increases the healing of the next healing spell cast (by a mastery-based % modified by how many Holy Power charges were consumed); or
• has an Elemental Overload/Wild Quiver effect, i.e., a (mastery-based %) chance for Word of Glory or Light of Dawn to trigger an extra healing effect on a nearby injured target. Or, alternately, a set % chance to trigger the effect with the mastery stat determining the size of the effect.

The second thing about the current Holy Paladin that I feel is somewhat off is the lack of synergy with the crit stat. Previously, Holy Paladins were very reliant on crit because we had a talent called Illumination that refunded mana upon critical heals. Sadly, Blizzard removed Illumination from Paladins and instead gave it to Shamans in the form of Improved Water Shield, and now crit is regarded as roughly tied with mastery for being the worst relevant Holy Paladin stat. As such, it would be nice if Blizzard brought Illumination back in one form or another to replace Illuminated Healing. Even if a resurrected Illumination were not directly tied to crit it would still be a welcome nod towards the class' history.

Several possible incarnations of a revived Illumination might be for it to:

• once again restore (a mastery-based % of) mana on critical heals; or
• allow critical heals to reduce the mana cost of the next non-Holy Power healing spell cast (by a mastery-based % of mana); or
• cause critical heals to trigger a buff that restores (a mastery-based % of) mana over x seconds which can roll so that multiple crits in a row do not waste the buff.

Now, some of you are undoubtedly thinking, 'Wait a minute! Paladins don't need any more mana regeneration! Giving them more would be overpowered!' Generally speaking, that's true. Holy Paladins don't really need more mana regeneration. However, currently Holy Paladins value two secondary stats very highly (namely Spirit and haste) and consider the other two secondary stats (crit and mastery) to be mostly worthless. By linking crit and mastery together as well as making mastery a mana regenerating stat, what you get is the emergence of a secondary style of Holy Paladin that substitutes mastery and crit for Spirit and haste. Since Spirit is one of the primary means of Paladin mana regeneration, this substitution means that very few Paladins would actually get more regeneration, since they would effectively have to pick either Spirit or mastery. If they instead tried to keep both Spirit and mastery at the expense of haste and crit, the result would be that their heals would lack throughput and the mana regeneration from mastery would be extremely sporadic and unreliable since it relies on crit (which the Paladin would be avoiding) to trigger.

Happy New Year!

May 2011 be as productive for you as 2010 wasn't for this blog. =P

Happy Birthday The Lion Guard!

Happy 2nd birthday, you neglected blog you.

It's the End of the Raid as We Know It

So this past Friday marked the final official TRI raid of this expansion. We wrapped up with one last Lich King kill. It's a fitting finale, I guess. To say I'm sad about TRI no longer officially raiding 25s is a bit of an understatement. I think the worst part about this at the moment is not knowing what TRI is going to do in Cataclysm. Will we stay together as a 25-man raid, or will we break up into a group of 10-mans? As it stands right now, the future is more than a little uncertain, at least to us non-officers—I have no idea about whether the officers have discussed things or started planning or if they're just waiting for Cataclysm to drop before figuring things out.

Officers have talked about how there will likely be unofficial 10s and 25s continuing to run raids up until the next expansion (or at least patch 4.0) drops, but to be totally and completely honest, I doubt anything much is going to happen. I'm not saying that to disrespect the officers or anything—I'm just being realistic. Between burnout, summer plans, and StarCraft II, people just don't seem to have the time to put things together anymore. For example, the Icecrown Citadel 10-man group I ran with ended up disbanding. It was supposed to combine with another 10-man group to keep going, but I haven't heard a thing about it running or not running for months now. Another 10-man specializing in achievements and hardmodes was under construction, but that either fizzled out or went underground. I'd pick up the mantle and try to put something together myself, but I can almost never get a full raid rostered unless it's an ad-hoc weekly raid quest run, and I simply can't justify either the time investment or the inevitable frustration I will be left with if I try to put together anything else. =(

On top of that, the forums that were the essential out-of-game hub for TRI folks to plan things have pretty much died out. Part of it is due the fact that raid signups were moved to an EQdkp site, and part of it is the result of the snowball effect in reverse (in other words, the forums just couldn't maintain the critical mass necessary to remain active). This makes it exponentially more difficult to actually generate interest in any event that requires some degree of forethought and planning. Events such as raiding. =\

Honestly, I just don't know what to do now. Raiding is one of the major factors that keeps me playing WoW. On weeks when I don't raid (either because there is no raid or because I know I won't be able to attend), I find myself logging on less often. Additionally, when I do log on during such weeks, I end up aimlessly wasting time just logged in and running around Dalaran wondering what to do. Comparatively, weeks when I know I'm raiding are far more fulfilling: I log in with clear-set goals, I waste less time running laps through Dalaran, and I'm better able to focus on the tasks I set for myself (such as hunting achievements or getting recent upgrades gemmed and enchanted).

I guess I'll just mess around with PvP for a while. Battles in Lake Wintergrasp are usually a good time, though Arenas and Battlegrounds are far less fun for me. In hopes of making the lattermost a bit less stressful, I've invested some Badges of Triumph and Honor Points into a pseudo-set of PvP gear to get me to 799 resilience (which is 799 more than I used to have =P ), though the loss of nearly 15,000 mana is very noticeable. I'm still horrible at PvP, and the chance of me heading into Arenas is hovering roughly between fat and none whatsoever, but a quick trial run by random queue has shown me that Eye of the Storm is at least tolerable with some PvP gear.

Perhaps it's time to try my hand at leveling an alt again. All previous attempts have been futile, but it's worth a shot, I guess...

New RSS Logo!

So, I've been working on some updates to this place to hopefully make it a bit nicer to visit. The first update? A new RSS icon for the side menu. For those of you who already subscribe via RSS, take a gander:

Whaddaya think?

Last Stop: Victory!

I nabbed the above this past Saturday while doing Wintergrasp with some friends. It just so happened to also net me the below, too. =)

Now I shall never have to do Wintergrasp again! By which I, of course, mean I will continue to do Wintergrasp at every reasonable opportunity. =P

I'm really looking forward to see how Blizzard plans on making Tol Barad more awesome than Wintergrasp, though I'm somewhat apprehensive about the upcoming queuing changes that will make it more difficult for Alliance on Feathermoon to be able to participate.

I Think I Can

...I think I can.

Just gotta keep on chuggin'. /train

I'm Not Dead!

...I'm just dealing with an avalanche of stuff in real life. I'm going to try to return to a more regular posting schedule, but it's quite possible that things are going to get hectic again in a hurry and cause things to get worse before they get better.

I'll let you all three of you readers know if I ever decide to close up shop. =P

Cataclysm's Shared 10/25 Raid Lockouts

This is a copy/paste of a post I made in the World of WarCraft Cataclysm forums.  It's my argument against the shared raid lockout system Blizzard is planning on implementing in Cataclysm.  Feel free to head on over and post in that thread, or post your thoughts here as comments.

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I realize that in Wrath, raiding became a bit too much and caused people to feel forced to run both formats of current tier content (10 and 25) in order to feel competetive.  However, while I can certainly appreciate the other changes made to promote more balanced play habits, I don't think that shared lockouts for 10s and 25s is the proper solution.  Here are some of the reasons why I think shared lockouts are unfair, and why I think alternative proposals should be considered:

• The conversion of the badge/emblem system into a points system that caps the higher tier of points means that players will no longer be so compelled to run every current-tier raid possible to maximize emblem gain.  Since there's no guarantee that any given raid will cause players to reach the maximum weekly point cap, the shared lockout system unfairly prevents people who would rather raid for their points by forcing them to run random heroics.  Why not allow people to cap their points via 10s + 25s in addition to the 10s + random heroics, 25s + random heroics, and 100% random heroics methods that Cataclysm will offer?

• PvPers are not locked out of one version of content because they participate in another, so why should PvEers be forced to choose only one avenue of progression?  Since regular BGs and rated BGs are the same content that players might get sick of, shouldn't doing one lock players out of the other so they don't burn out?  Or since arenas and rated BGs both offer the same rewards, shouldn't players be forced to pick their poison and only be allowed to progress via one format in any given week?  No, of course not.  So why should raiders be unfairly limited so?  There are alternative options, such as preventing raiders from double-dipping on drops by limiting them to only be able to receive loot from the first incarnation of any given boss they see that week, whether it be the 10-man version or the 25-man version.  Reputation can be similarly limited, and point gain is already capped as mentioned above.

• Shared lockouts unfairly punish players who like raiding both formats but dislike playing alts.  How is the argument of "if you want to run both formats, run one with an alt" acceptable to Blizzard when changes have been consistantly made to make other similar arguments invalid?  Arguments such as:

• "if you want to tank, roll a Warrior tank alt"; or
• "if you want to DPS, roll a pure DPS class alt because hybrids are only for healing"; or
• "if you don't like your character, reroll a new character"; or
• "if you don't like your server, reroll on a different server"; or
• "if you don't like your faction, reroll on the opposite faction"; or
• "your complaints about your class are all irrelevant because you have the option to roll a new character of a different class", etc.

Alts have not been arbitrarily used to deny characters access to the content their players enjoy before, nor have they been used as an excuse to dismiss players' complaints before (at least not by Blizzard), so why is "just roll an alt" an acceptable response now?  Dual specs, character recustomization, server transfer, and faction change are all geared at breathing new life into players' characters so that no one feels forced to reroll or create an alt if they don't want to, so why should raiding formats be an exception?

Equalizing loot across both formats, capping point gain, and instituting a "no double-dipping on boss drops" mechanic more than adequately fixes the problem of players feeling forced to run both raid formats without unfairly punishing players who enjoy raiding both formats on a single character.  Please reconsider the shared lockout decision.

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BlizzCon 2010 Goodie Bag Product Ideas

For those of you who haven't heard yet, Blizzard has finally announced their plans for BlizzCon 2010.  I'm not going to bother with delving into any of the details since there are plenty of other sites that are doing just that, including the official BlizzCon site.  What I am going to do is make some suggestions for what kind of things Blizzard should put into the highly sought-after BlizzCon Goodie Bag for 2010.

Anyone who's been to BlizzCon has surely reveled in the sights and sounds Blizzard and its affiliates and partners present for our amusement.  One decidedly less entertaining aspect however, is the smells.  Lets face it, jamming thousands of gamers into a giant convention hall built in a place known for hot weather isn't necessarily going to smell like a bouquet of roses.  Additionally, some gamers don't necessarily have a great handle on the concept of "personal hygiene"—I should know...I'm one of them.  =P

With this in mind, Blizzard has an amazing opportunity to satisfy the olfactory elite and fanboys alike by launching their own line of hygiene products—and what better place to test it out than giving it away as free swag at BlizzCon?  Here are some potential candidates:

Diablo III Deodorant: For those who want to look like Patrick Stewart but smell like Sean Connery!

Barbarian Breath Mints: Shout fresh!

Pumice Stone of Jordan: The new gold standard of foot care!

King Leoric's Lotion: For royally soft skin—brought to you by the Skeleton King.

StarCraft II Soap and Shampoo Shower Set: Hell, it's about rubber ducky time!

Baneling Bubble Bath: Now with 30% more Baneling bile!

'Tossian Toothpase: Smile like a Protoss!

Jim Raynor's Razor: A gift from the Queen.

World of WarCraft Wet Wipes: You are prepared! / For the MMOer on the go...er?

Eau d'Eck: Smell ferocious! / A fragrance for ferocious femme fatales.

Gnomish Gnail Cutter 5700: For Toe-meragon! | Requires 4 DD batteries (not included).

Holy Light Hand Sanitizer: Cleanliness is next to Pwnliness!