Category: WoW Babble
The in game voice chat is decent despite the fact that it is borking servers around the nation (getting kicked off repeatedly sucks). The quality isn't nearly as good as Ventrilo, but the in game integration is nice. I don't really see this as a Vent server replacement, but it's a good option for those who do not have one and for PuGs (don't like giving vent info out to random ass people).
I respec'd my hunter Beast Mastery and started leveling my him again this weekend. What an awesome tree, I can't tell you how much fun it is leveling as BM. Pet doesn't lose aggro, less downtime, etc. Not going back to MM any time soon (though I might respec at 70 into a PvP build).
I don't know if it's because I'm a huntard noob, but I swear that it's much harder to pull aggro as BM, since my damage is split more between my ranged weapon and my pet. I tried my best to be an ass and repeatedly pull threat off of the tank this weekend in Coilfang, but no dice (it was a guild twink run I have permission >:D).
A few changes that I would like to see for tankadins (I realize that a few points here are borderline whines :P).
- It would be nice for our survivability issue to be addressed in some manner. Warriors have 1,200 more base health than paladins do, they also have a ranged slot. That is a pretty large gap. Suggested solutions: Equalizing our base HP, adding a stamina libram, or adding a talent that scales block value/raw mitigation higher.
- An ability deep into protection that increases our mana return. Thinking either by increasing our passive heal gain or doing something like returning mana on block. SA alone as it is, isn't enough.
- Better itemization for paladin specific tanking gear. Specifically: Better paladin tanking weapons on par with what is available via progression for the other tanking classes. That is: At least 200 spell damage, at least 30 stamina and some def/avoidance.
- Some way of dealing with mob spell immunity.
Oh: I bought a new mouspad yesterday. I have been using the one that came in the WoW: BC Collector's Edition box, but it is too small. My hand scoots off towards the edge frequently. Consequently, I've had to up the sensitivity on my mouse to ungodly levels which has lowered my accuracy quite a bit in other games. It's cloth, it's huge and it's niiiice! Kind of ugly though, wish it was all black.
There is (site) server maintenance scheduled for this Friday and Saturday from 11pm to 6:30am. So it was patch day last night! The instancing servers completely borked, kicking us all out. We had to cancel the run, though I guess we should have known better than to schedule a heroic on patch day. I was DPSing too, I don't get to do that too often, QQ! Voice chat hasn't gone live on my server yet. It's between Team Speak and Ventrilo quality from what I hear.
I am looking forward to testing the Seal of Vengeance changes out this weekend to see how much the 5 second extension reduces the number of times that SoV drops off. The instant damage buff is sort of piddly but at least it's a buff? Oh protip, I don't think that many people realize this one: The SoV DoT will retain any damage buffs throughout the fight as long as it doesn't drop off. Meaning that, pop Avenging Wrath and equip your spell damage weapon/shield before casting SoV. Switch back after it stacks to 5.
Keiya's need list through Gruul for future reference. I haven't really examined the SSC and TK loot tables very carefully.
- [Wrynn Dynasty Greaves]: The only item left on my Karazhan tanking gear list.
- [Belt of the Guardian]: The pattern for this drops off of any mob in the higher level 25-man dungeons (SSC, TK, etc). I will either have to wait until it and the mats drop for me or commission one.
- [Aldori Legacy Defender]: From Gruul, fairly rare drop from what I hear.
Two site related things first:
- Changed the site theme: Got tired of using the Drupal default. I really wanted to code and create a custom theme of my own, but I just don't have time to do that anymore. There are lots of great Drupal templates out there anyways.
- Added a link block to the left navigation, for my personal convenience and as a shout out to some of the WoW blogs that I enjoy reading (mostly paladin related). So, if anyone of those sites notices around a dozen hits referring from my site, that is probably me being ansty at work :P.
From the perspective of someone who is in charge of class and role balancing a raid: Let's say that the raid has a protection paladin and a protection warrior of equal gear, skill, and experience. Against a boss that is not on farm status, I will choose the warrior for the sake of raid utility, unless there is a specific reason why the paladin should MT.
It's nothing against tankadins, heck I am one! I would probably feel the same way even if both classes were dead equal in terms of tanking abilities, health pool, etc (paladin class problems would be another post all-together :P). In my opinion and experience, paladins offer more in a non-tanking role in terms of utility than a non-tanking protection warrior. Most of our performance honestly, is gear dependent. I can still heal, cleanse, take over main healing if one of the priests bites it, etc.
In all fairness, I'm probably an unusual case, in the sense that I don't enjoying DPSing all that much. It's fun, but I've raided on my hunter and as a full spec retribution critadin (30% crit fully buffed and potted pre-BC FTW), and found it boring after an extended period of time.
I enjoy tanking greatly, and will insist on tanking on many an occasion since I've invested a great deal of gold and time into chanting, gemming, and accruing proper gear. But, I will also gladly stand back and heal if appropriate. What I enjoy most about being a paladin isn't specifically tanking or specifically healing, but the flexibility the class offers in terms of game play. That's the reason why I rolled a paladin.
...ultimately, this entire post is just a nicer way of saying: "Keiya has the attention span of a flea" (true fact :P).
[Boots of the Protector]: This lovely item is crafted from a BoE pattern that drops in Serpentshrine Cavern and in The Eye. The boots though, are BoP upon craft (Blacksmithing FTW), and are fairly expensive to craft (requires 2 nethers, 12 primal waters, etc). Time to sell shit...when I have time to get on lol.
Edit: Time to farm primal waters and gold. Keiya is poor.
Meh, been busy/lazy/website apathetic lately, thus the lack of postings.
- I have been healing a little more lately, so I am (err was) thinking about doing a temporary respec to put a bare minimum amount of points into Holy. I would essentially be sacrificing 5% parry (and one of the prot talents likely) to gain 10% int and the healing bonus.
- Not convinced that would be a worthwhile return. I don't have the gear to make up for the 5% avoidance drop anyways (Crushing Blows bad).
- Been reading some interesting articles and musings on avoidance vs block. Tanks with really high levels of avoidance seem to succumb to spike damage whereas tanks with really high levels of block seem to succumb to the priests going OOM
- Even though the healing is smoother with higher mitigation (over avoidance), the tank is still receiving more overall damage. It seems to me that finding a balance between the two would be more appropriate (and possibly adjusting the avoidance/mitigation balance on a per fight basis).
- "The big announcement" from Blizzard is tonight. Starcraft 2 anyone?
There are several article updates that I will make whenever I have time and interest to write stuff.
- I forgot to link and give credit to Thoughtlover when I mentioned the Itemstats Drupal module in the previous posts. If anyone is running Drupal, they can find it here: http://drupal.org/node/138726
- If you are interested in linking to my WoW postings, I have all of the WoW related articles filtered to this address: http://www.hokage.org/wow ...not that I post anything non-WoW related, but I don't think that too many people are interested in my personal drivel :P
- Whenever I have the chance this week, I have several updates that I need to make to The Attack Outcome Table & Damage Mitigation article, mostly continuing the discussion on Crushing Blows as well as several minor changes.
- Use the Paladin Threat Table information as approximate values not as precise numbers. I am almost 100% sure that some of the calculations are wrong because I left off a few things (SoR mostly). The point though is that, our threat scales incredibly well with spell damage.
On a similar note, I worry about how effective my current spell damage will be in regards to threat generation as the DPS in the raid gears more. I say 200 to 250ish as a general guideline for Kharazan tanks, but I am wondering if I will need to up that number to around 300 in the future? (Either that or everyone else can not be aggro whores, but me generating more threat means everyone else being able to DPS more without pulling).
Also just as a general observation, it is much harder as a paladin to off-tank than it is to main tank because of the way Spiritual Attunement works. I suspect that warriors have a similar problem with rage (except for the fact my problem is with losing mana and theirs with gaining rage).
For example, I was the third Gruul tank on Saturday. Gruul uses an attack called Hurtful Strike on the next person on the threat list within melee range. The second tank is in charge of soaking those up, the third tank needs to build aggro along side just in case either tank dies. In order to stay above the rogues on threatmeter, I had to throw everything I had at Gruul...but since I wasn't receiving a signficant amount of healing, I had to pot to keep my mana pool up. It wasn't really that big of a deal I guess, but something to keep in mind?
