Forum Reaction to Post

The forum reaction to my post was interesting. Pretty hostile. Methinks I touched a nerve. :)

It's interesting that most of the comments were personal attacks instead of any sort of refutation of my comments. Bear tank AOE threat still sucks. DPS is still low. Itemization is still limited for nonraiding druids. The gear is fine if you run 25 man regularly, however, most people don't.

Most of the posters are either high end PVPers or high end Raiders. Most with complete 25 man sets. Saying they are pulling 2k dps with all that gear just makes my point . Pally tanks with only 10 man gear pull 2 to 2.5k dps. What are they pulling with 25 man gear? 3k? 3.5k?

But I can understand the reaction. Bear tanks are fun to play. If players feel threatened by other classes, then I shouldn't be surprised by negative comments. Oh well. So much for civil discourse. :)

Oh, almost forgot. There were many glowing comments about my first attempt at a Boomkin spec. lol. Quite humorous. Apparently I'm supposed to research my spec for 2 weeks before trying it, instead of spending 15 minutes picking what looks like fun. I'll take the 2nd option thanks.

A Bear Tank No More

Posted this to the Druid forums earlier today:

After years as a Bear Tank, I have decided to respec to resto/boomkin from resto/feral. It was a tough decision, after main tanking my guild through Kara and much of Naxx one becomes attached to a toon and spec. But after some guildees leveled a Paladin and a DK tank, it is apparent to me its best for me to step aside. Here are my reasons for the change.

(1) Itemization - If you are a casual player, tanking gear is pretty much non-existent. I don't think there is a single good bear tanking item, besides the trinket, in 5 man and heroic ToC. PVP gear is ridiculously gimped for Ferals (very low AP). Unless your guild regularly gets tier badges, you have very few options. Rogue gear does not cut it without significant buffs to stamina.

(2) DPS - Our DPS is too low compared to Paladin and DK tanks. When those tanks are pulling 2000 to 2500 dps in Naxx, its hard to justify bringing a tank doing 1100 dps. Heck it just speeds up the run to have the higher DPS.

(3) AOE Aggro - AOE dps has become a big part of the game. A bear tank does not have the same amount of AOE threat that a Paladin or DK does.

So I am leveling a Paladin for tanking. Got her to level 20 and I will be back in the tanking game in a month or two. But I'm gonna miss my Bear.

I'm pretty sad about it. I really really like being a Bear tank. But it just doesn't make sense given how well the other tank classes perform. And, the gear thing is a real problem. Rogue gear does not make good tanking gear. It makes good feral kitty gear, but the stam is way too low for a bear.

So I am leveling a Paladin tank first. Maybe a DK after. Who knows, maybe Blizzard will like Bear tanks again in Cataclysm? But I'm hedging my bets.

Blizzcon Coverage

Like me. Most folks are not able to make it to Blizzcon. However, there appears to be a number of options for following the event.

First off, we have a bunch of coverage from wow.com. First they have a wow.com blizzcon page for all blog posts Blizzcon. In addition, they will have multiple people tweeting at the conference. All their coverage is detailed in this post.

If you want to participate in the conversation, check out #blizzcon on twitter. The other day I stumbled across twubs.com which is a site that compiles all those hashtags into a nice easy to follow stream. Want to see what people are saying about #blizzcon? Check out the #blizzcon twitter feed here.

I spurlged on the Direct TV HD feed so my DVR will be happily recording everything. Yay!

Warcraft PVP Needs More Stuns

Posted this suggestion on the PVP forums. I'm always amazed that someone will think I'm serious. lol.

---

Lately in battlegrounds I'm finding my toons are living far too long. All this running around, casting spells and fighting makes my fingers tired and gives me a headache. Who really wants to control their toons that much?

So instead of merely whining, one needs to offer solutions. The answer to this problem? More stuns. Not only should stun durations be increased, but area of effect stuns need to be introduced into the game. Here are just a few spells to consider:

Chained Kidney Shot - When your current target is stunned, the stun jumps to the 3 closest enemies.

Hammer Storm of Justice - All enemies in a 30 yard radius are stunned for 6 seconds.

Maim Frezy - The druid goes into a "stun" frenzy jumping from enemy to enemy and stunning up to 5 of them in a 30yd radius.

These are just a few ideas that would really enhance the PVP experience.

Resto Druid Pre-Naxx Gear - Part I

Recently, I was able to purchase the dual spec option for my Feral druid. After trying Boomkin and being very disappointed with their PVP survivability, I tried a Restoration (Resto) spec and love it. So over the past few weeks the gearing up process is in full swing. Here is some of the information discovered during that process.

With the new season of arena, last season's arena gear is purchasable with honor. And given the gear's quality, there are a number of items in this list. If you are not a PVPer, I highly recommend doing the Wintergrasp weekly quests. Usually, there are so many people in there, no one will notice you aren't into PVP. Just stay near the action to complete the quests and you will have enough honor to purchase something in a few weeks.

There are are only a few good items for each slot. Not a lot of itemization for druids. If you have a weak item in a slot, check out the Overcast crafted set. It includes very solid pieces that can be used as a baseline for building your set. Many of those pieces are included in this list.

Update 6/6: Rearranged the data a little bit. Comments at top, made list more tabular.

Head
Helm of Anomalus would seem the best overall. But the PVP and vendor options are also good.

Hateful Gladiator's Kodohide Helm - PVP Honor, 49600
Helm of Anomalus - Heroic Drop, 21%, Anomalus in The Nexus.
Helm of the Majestic Stag - Vendor, Honored with the Kirin Tor
Overcast Headguard - Leatherworking, AH

Shoulders
Not a lot of options for the shoulders.

Hateful Gladiator's Kodohide Spaulders - PVP Honor, 31600
Silent Spectator Shoulderpads - Heroic Drop, 22%, Svala Sorrowgrave Utgarde Pinnacle.
Overcast Spaulders - Leatherworking, AH

Back
Really like the Deadly cloak here. But there are lots of options.

Deadly Gladiator's Cloak of Deliverance - PVP Honor, 38000
Wispcloak - Tailoring. AH. Often found on auction house for 600G.
Reanimator's Cloak - Drop, low rate, Trash in Drak'theron Keep, BOE
Shroud of Moorabi - Heroic Drop, 24%, Gundrak, Moorabi
Subterranean Waterfall Shroud - Heroic Drop, 20%, Akn'kahet: The Old Kindgom, Jedoga Shadowseeker.

Wrist
There are some good options for the wrist. Really like Culling of Strat drop here.

Deadly Gladiator's Armwraps of Salvation - PVP Honor, 31600
Plague-Infected Bracers - Heroic Drop, 11%, Chest after Mal'ganis, Culling of Strat.
Handler's Arm Strap - Heroic Drop, 21%, King Drek, Drak'tharon Keep
Wound-Binder's Wristguards - Vendor, Honored Knights of the Ebon blade
Overcast Bracers - Leatherworking

Hands
Not a lot of options here. So I have included one cloth piece I actually use as well.

Hateful Gladiator's Kodohide Gloves - PVP Honor, 31,600
Grotto Mist Gloves - Heroic Drop, 21%, Hadronox, Azjul-Nerub
Gloves of Northern Lordaeron - Normal Drop, 18%, Chest after Mal'Ganis in Culling of Strat.
Overcast Handguards - Leatherworking
Moonshroud Gloves - Tailoring

Chest
Very limited options here. The UP drop is very good. BOE item so you may be able to buy at AH.

Hateful Gladiator's Kodohide Robes - PVP Honor, 49600
Ymirjar Physician's Robe - Drop, Low rate, Trash in Utgarde Pinnacle
Overcast Chestguard - Leatherworking


Waist
Another slot with pretty limited options. The PVP belt or Hall of Lightning belts seem to be he best options here. 40 Badges for a belt seems a little ridiculous to me.

Deadly Gladiator's Belt of Salvation - PVP Honor, 49600
Vine Belt of the Woodland Dryad - Vendor, 40 Heroism Badges
Belt of Vivacity - Heroic Drop, 21%, Halls of Lightning, Volkhan
Overcast Belt - Leatherworking


Legs
The Earthgiving legguards rock. Better start saving your gold now. :)

Earthgiving Legguards - Leatherworking.
Hateful Gladiator's Kodohide Legguards - PVP Honor, 49600
Kilt of the Forgotten One - Heroic Drop, 19%, Akn'kahet: The Old Kindgom, Herald Volazj
Overcast Leggings - Leatherworking


Feet
The crafted boots look like a good option here.

Deadly Gladiator's Boots of Salvation - PVP Honor, 39600
Earthgiving Boots - Leatherworking
Boots of Transformation - Heroic Drop, 20%, Gundrak, Gal'darah
Overcast Boots - Leatherworking

Summary

Hopefully, you can get some decent gear one way or the other. In part II, I will go over weapons and accessories to complete your set.

Wow Plugins and 3.1

I wanted to make a list of the plugins I use and where to get them. Mainly so I have a future reference for the next patch. lol. But if I put them here, maybe some other folks out there can benefit from this post.

My philosophy is to use as few plugins as possible. This way, playing on another machine isn't completely alien. And also, if someone stops updating a plugin, it does not wreck my playing experience.

Auctioneer
So popular it has its own web site on Source Forge for downloading. The only way to go if you need to buy and sell stuff in wow.


Wow Interface
Capping (3.1.001, updated for 3.1) - A really, really useful PVP mod. It displays the times it will take for a graveyard or tower to cap. By control-clicking a timer the time is inserted into BG chat. Very useful in AV and AB.


CurseForge.com
Cooldowns (1.2.5, updated for 3.1) - Displays the number of seconds until a spell is available. The genius is the seconds are displayed on the WOW toolbar for the spell. So you don't have to look someplace else or clutter your screen. Very very useful.

Druid bar (Not updated yet) - Shows your mana bar when in Bear or Cat form.

Curse.com

Cartographer - (2.5.1, updated for 3.1) - Map mod for WOW. Makes the make smaller and adds coordinates. Also provides more information about who is where in BGs I think.

Gatherer (3.1.12, updated for 3.1) - Tool for mapping herbs and ore nodes.

Recount (3.1b, updated for 3.1) - The best damage and healing meter in the game.

3.1 and PVP

A quick note on Patch 3.1 and PVP. I spent some time on my Druid and my Mage last night after the Patch came out.

Damage is even burstier now than it was before. My Druid dies much easier than before and my Mage is about the same. However, my Mage Attillla seems to be putting out some crazy DPS now. So now he has some chance against Ret Pallies and Death Knights. The Ret Pallies still seem to be the most overpowered. The Death Knights seemed much more killable than before the patch.

The Demise of Clothies in PVP

Last night I saw the future of battleground PVP, and it is bleak. The toon composition of an Arathi Basin game was (11 Paladins (mostly ret),  6 Death Knights, 5 rogues, and a smattering of other classes).  My calculator tells me that makes 73% of the toons from these overpowered melee classes that currently dominate BGs.

It makes me sad. Because I can remember the days when BGs were dominated by cloth wearers. The Warlocks, so much like the American Buffalo, used to roam these plains in the millions, cursing, corrupting, and fearing their way to death and destruction. But now they have been hunted to near extinction. Sure you see the occasional stray, cowering in the corner with his FelGuard or FelHunter, hoping to get 2 or 3 dots cast before being 3 shotted. But all the kids have given them up for the really cool new classes.

I remember when a Mage used to be able kite other toons.  Throw out a Frost Nova, or a Cone of Cold, then use the old standby Monty Python maneuver. Run Away! Run Away! Get range on the enemy, and burn him down. But alas, those days are gone. If you haven't been hit with Deadly Throw (30 yd), then its Avenger's Shield (30 yd), or a Hammer of Justice, or Repentance (20 yd), or Chains of Ice (20 yd), or Death Grip (30 yd), or Hamstring. I could go on and on. There is simply no way for the glass cannon to get away anymore, especially with the number of people playing these classes.

So alas, like so many other clothies, I must bid farewell to the old BGs. Goodbye WSG. See ya AB and EOTS. Adieu AV, I would still play ya, but since Blizz has ruined you, no one queues any more. I am down to Strand and Wintergrasp where at least I can hide in a tank, on a wall, or the sheer mayhem protects me. That will have to suffice until all clothies get an invincibility bubble or magic immunity bubble or blessing of freedom or some chance to survive more than 10 seconds.  :)

Arena Complaints on Wow Insider

I want to comment on this article on WowInsider about problems with the Arena system.

The Arena system should be a bell curve the way Blizzard has designed it. That means the vast majority of teams should be right around a 1500 rating. Since Blizz has put a rating requirement on gear in season 4, I would guess a large number of players have stopped doing arena since there is no incentive to play (especially if you suck).

Consequently, a lot of teams that were 1600 or 1700 are gonna see their rating drop because without the suckage below them, they will become the sucky 1400 and 1300 teams of the future.

All Blizzards moves seem to have the goal of limiting the number of people that get Epic PVP gear. Dropping players ratings, making them angry enough to quit Arena seems to further that goal. Why they are wasting so much effort on such a small specialized segment of the player population is a mystery to me.

Hit, Expertise, Dodge

Great article on the Big Bear blog on hit, expertise and dodge.

Stats for Tanking

A reader asked about stats for druid tanks, so here is my answer.

Back in the day, your main focus was to make sure your tank was uncrittable in melee. This was achieved through either a high defense rating or a high resilience rating. With Wrath, you get the 6% crit reduction by putting 3 points in the Survival of the Fittest talent. So of course, this talent would be your first requirement.

Armor
You want to try and get gear with high armor values as this probably provides the most mitigation for a druid tank. Once again, things have changed. As of Tuesday, the armor multiplier for bear form (this is what makes tanking possible) only affects leather or cloth armor.  So high armor value rings and trinkets are no longer all that important. So focus on getting the basics, a good chest, leg, shoulder, and helm. When starting out at 80, there are two good options.  Check out the Eviscerator items made through leatherworking. They are usually reasonably priced and are good blue starter items if you have been unable to find anything better at 80. The other good options for tanks is the Savage Gladiator's Sactuary PVP set. This can be obtained through arena or battlegrounds only. Very good armor, agility, and stamina values on all this gear.

Before patch 3.0.8 my armor value was coming in around 22k to 25k depending on the gear I had on. After the patch, my armor is value in bear form is 30k.

Stamina

This stat goes hand in hand with armor. Usually high stamina gear has high armor and vice versa. High stamina protects you against bosses that use a lot of magic. Basically it gives your healers a buffer against those high damage attacks. In Wrath I'm guessing a well geared druid tank will have around 30k health with just Mark of the Wild in bear form.  Right now my health is at 27k in bear form with just Mark.

Agility

This is the next most important stat. It increases your dodge rating which of course increases your mitigation as any damage not taken is mitigated 100%. It also increases your chance to crit which increases your DPS. The more damage you can do, the better you can hold aggro against mobs. On most feral druid gear, you are gonna see high stamina and high agility values.

Dodge Rating

Sometimes instead of agility you will see dodge on gear. Since druids can't block or parry, dodging is the only way for us to avoid damage. I wouldn't say it is better than agility gear. But if an item has no agility but does have dodge, it may be very useful for a druid tank. 

Attack Power (AP)

Attack power is one of the main determining factors in DPS. Generally, if gear has the other stats mentioned, it will also have attack power.  When considering an item, AP should be secondary to damage mitigation.

Haste

Still looking into this. Probably more useful for cat druids. Will post on this as I learn more about it for druids.

 

Gear in General

The best gear for non hard core raiders can be attained by running heroics. Do your homework on what drops where and run those instances.  Remember the PVP set is another option to get you started if you like PVP. Either method should get you ready for 10 man runs and the tiered raid gear.

Bear Tanking in Wrath

Wow Insider has this great post on Bear Tanking in Wrath of the Lich King. If you are a Bear tank you must read it. Lots of good information.

I had kind of guessed that the buff to Survival of the Fittest would make us uncrittable. So there is no need to get Defense or Resilience gear any more. That will be nice.

The big change will be to leather armor. No more leather items with extra armor. When patch 3.0 comes out, this will be a retroactive change. Yep, that's right retroactive. So all the gear you have now, it get its armor value reduced. This means that rings, staffs, trinkets, necklaces, anything with extra armor on it is gonna be much more important.

So if you don't have those items get em now. You have been warned. lol.

The Real Reason Alliance Loses So Much in PVP

After much thought and play, I think I have finally figured out why the Alliance generally loses in battlegrounds other than Alerac Valley. It's the healing.

The last few days on my mage, I've noticed how rarely the alliance has any healers in a battleground while horde teams generally have 2 or 3 good ones. The combo of burst healing and burst damage is unstoppable in Arathi Basin or Eye of the Storm. Over the last week playing against the horde, I've encountered numerous talented resto druids, priests, shamans, and holy paladins. While my alliance teams may have the occasional priest or paladin. Usually no healers at all.

As to why this is the situation? I don't have answer to that.

Feature Overload

Just another quick thought after my last post. I'm beginning to think that World or Warcraft is getting way too complicated. The developers keep adding more and more spells and abilities and I think it is ruining the game. On some classes there are hardly enough button bars to hold all the spells available. Does this really help the game? Does every class need a ranged attack? Every class a root? A stun?

Why not pally bubbles for all? I joke, but we are definitely headed that way. Mages can now frost block. Rogues have cloak of shadows. Will druids get a petrified tree spell?

I think a lot of this stuff came out of the fact that Warlock dots were overpowered in PVP. It would have been easier just to nerf the the dots.

Rogues are melee right?

I should explain. I just got my Mage to level 70 and I have been PVPing to get him some gear upgrades. Now I originally did a lot of twinking on this toon at level 29 and level 39. At that level, rogue and mage fights tend to be pretty even. Even if you were to beat a rogue, usually you would have to spend all your mana and would not have a lot of health left. But it would be a straight ranged vs melee fight. They are trying to close on you. You are trying to stay away from them.

But one abilitiy added to rogues really annoys me: Deadly Throw

As a mage, to win in a duel with melee, keeping distance on them is key. Deadly throw is a ranged ability that does 2 to 3k damage (at least that typically what I get hit for) and reduces my movement speed by 50% for 6 seconds. Plus it has a freaking 30 yard range! I'm sorry this is just ridiculous. I thought rogues are supposed to be a "melee" class? What does this have to do with melee? I understand melee clases need a way to pull mobs. But should warriors be able to use a bow like a hunter?

To add balance back to the game I think mages need an ability I would like to call, "ferocious blow". This ability will be an instant cast available every minute that does the damage of all your +dmg and the damage from your most powerful damage spell.
That way we can close in for the kill!!! ;-)

Between the stuns, poisons, blinds, and sprints, rogues should have no problem closing on clothies. Why do they need some sort of completely overpowered ranged ability? Please leave the melee classes melee and the ranged classes ranged.

As soon as I get Attilla geared up, I'm gonna get on my bear tank and go do some rogue hunting. That way they can feel my pain. :)

Itemization for 20-58 Needs Updating

This is an open post to Blizzard, in case anyone out there is listening. A month or two ago I finished leveling a Mage to 70 and right now I am working on getting a Priest to 70 (he's at 52). Here is the problem, since there are so few players between 20-58 now, it is VERY difficult to get equipment. I'm talking trash greens here, not blue or purple gear.

Back in the day, if you were at 45 and you still had level 25 gloves, you could always buy something. Not anymore. I have been trying to find a green dagger for my priest for 2 weeks. Other than level 40 blue items going for 50G each, there is nothing on the AH. Nothing!!!! I'm having to use a rogue dagger that dropped for me off a mob.

The old world quests need to be more in line with the BC quests. You should always be getting a steady stream of reasonably good green items, with the occasion blue. Since you can't buy gear, this would go a long way to solving the problem.

Too much overlap in PVP?

I have begun to wonder recently if there is too much class overlap in WOW. My Mage alt recently made it to 70, and I have been PVPing in BGs a lot for fun and gear. (Side Note: I twinked on my mage at 29 and 39 for quite a while so I really haven't PVPed on him in about a year or so. Most of my PVP experience with him is pre BC.)

The first thing I noticed at 70, is that all my magical buffs are getting dispelled most of the time. Used to be that only Shamans and Priests would do that. Now you have Locks with their little fel hunters knocking stuff off. Add to that the plethora of Hunters, and it starts to get ridiculous. What's the point of having them if they are so easy to remove? This ability made sense when it was limited to a few classes and builds. But now it seems like its out of hand.

Why do rogues need a ranged attack ability? Deadly throw? Please. Melee only need the ability to pull mobs. Should a warrior have the ability to do real damage like a hunter with a bow or gun? I suppose that will be next. lol.

Why not give my mage frost "plate" armor? I should be able to have 12000 armor right?

Sylvannas Windrunner Backstory

The leader of the Undead, Sylvannas Windrunner has a very sad back story that is detailed in Warcraft III. Someone was kind enough to go back to the old game and record the story threads and post them on YouTube. If you are interested in the story, click on these links:

Sylvannas Windrunner Part I
Sylvannas Windrunner Part II
Sylvannas Windrunner Part III
Sylvannas Windrunner Part IV
Sylvannas Windrunner Part V

After the story that takes place in Warcraft III, Sylvannas was able to recover her body and can be found in the Undercity in World of Warcraft. Blizzard added a quest line to WOW where members of the Horde find a necklace that belonged to her sister. This triggers an in game event where she sings a song, Lament of the Highborne. Check out the video on the official WOW movie page: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/downloads/movies.html

WOW is Down Again

Just tried to log into the game and I can't get in. Here is the typical keystone cop scenario of a typical Blizzard outage.

1. Try to log into game and it won't authenticate me. (Got an "unable to connect" error this time.)
2. Go to the forums to see if there are issues.
   
3. Can't connect to the forums cause they are down too. (See 1 above).
4. Wait 10 or 15 minutes and log in again.
5. Now I authenticate, but I get an error saying "your prepaid time is up". That could be the case, but I think I'm paid up to the summer.
6. So I click on Manage Account to check.
7. I get a "Server Busy" error message from the account management server. Obviously I'm not the only one having this problem. lol.
8. So I try to log into the Forums to post a message about 5 - 7.
9. Can't log into the forums because they won't authenticate me.

Blizzard has to be the worst company ever when it comes to this stuff. You would think they could at least develop systems robust enough so you could contact them to let them know they have an issue. Not Blizzard. Wait until the customers crash the forum server, or account server, or whatever. Then we will take action.

So since I can't contact them through normal channels, I post here. Maybe someone somewhere will hear my plea for help. lol. I doubt it!!! :)

The Trouble with Blizzard Support - Part II

So now that we know Blizzard's customer support is really lame, what should they do? Well I have some ideas.

First off, Blizzard really needs to back up accounts. Weekly at a minimum. Daily would be better. Then when this sort of thing happens, a customer can be up and running in a couple of days instead of a couple of weeks. In addition, just think how much time and money would be saved. It can't be very effective to have game masters essentially restoring everything by hand.

Second, Blizzard needs to log usage patterns. For example, say I log in from the same IP address between 9am and 11pm server time every day. And blizzard tracks that information. Then I suddenly log in from a different IP address at 3AM and start selling all my blue and purple gear. Hmmmm. Maybe something is up? Possibly? This should be a very easy thing to implement. If suspicious things start happening, a Blizzard game master should be notified and the account should be monitored.

Third, Blizzard needs to give game masters a little more power. If four guild members from a guild think an account has been hacked, maybe it would be a good idea if they could act? If you had the usage data described above it would be easy to figure out if someone is getting hacked.

Finally, if Blizzard doesn't do any of the above, they could at least e-mail customers with the status of the investigation every couple of days. Then at least a player with a hacked account would know they are working on fixing things. Leaving people hanging for days is just plain stupid. Just think if your phone went out or your power. Would you be ok with them getting back to you sometime in the next two weeks?

Blizzard needs to address some of these issues. They are the king of the hill right now, but if you don't treat your customers right, you are not gonna build any loyalty. And if you don't do that, as soon as the next good MMORPG comes out, they will wish they had treated folks a little bit better.