(WoW) State of the Tankadin
Warcraft related ponderings that may have limited appeal to an already limited reader base. ;)
So, as I thought, patch 4.1 has largely been a bust for me. All reasons have previously been mentioned, though it boils down to a very small amount of content that appeals/applies to right where I'm sitting.
My Cataclysm-born druid is level 30, I think? About that. Leveling with someone definitely slows the process down, as we only sync up for a couple hours a week - if that.
4.2 (recently estimated for a June 21nd release by non-official sources) promises to be a little different. The new quests in Hyjal should give me something to chew on for a while in order to unlock some items/recipes, even if it will probably get to feel grindy working on it with four characters. A new tier of equipment may give me enough incentive to get back into heroic dungeon runs a little more for the valor points, but I doubt I'll be reaching the point cap most weeks. The Firelands raid should give the guild plenty of new stuff to look forward to for a couple months, though I'm not sure we'll be diving straight in or not.
The guild pushes on in raiding. Last week, over some technical difficulties, we managed to get down the Twilight Ascendant Council. That leaves only the three raid end bosses undefeated. They are, of course, some of the most complicated fights, too. We may be tackling Cho'gall on Saturday, to see how that is. If we flounder, though, patch 4.2 is lowering the difficulty of all the current-tier raid content by roughly 20 percent, which would hopefully make it doable. While we might want to push on to newer, better stuff, the tier 11 helm/shoulder tokens will still drop from the end bosses.
We have one healer regularly complaining about burnout in his role. Which... particularly sucks. If I wanted to step out from tanking, there are a few people who can pick up the slack, even if they aren't quite as geared or practiced. We don't have much in the way of spare healers, though. Otherwise things seem to have... smoothed over in the guild, at least for the present. I do wish there was more serious discussion on the forum, especially about the incoming legendary staff. I tried to explain in a post I started, but I doubt many read it - if we want to see one completed before the year is out (or ever), it looks to me like it's going to take a deliberate group effort. The living embers alone make it such that we'd have to clear the entire place 30+ times before any one person can reasonably expect to gather enough using normal loot rolls. That ain't happening in the foreseeable future, and I think that's an earlier part of the quest chain, too.
4.2 looks to have one really notable change for protection paladins. Holy Shield, currently an auto-triggered 10% bonus to block chance that's almost always up, is becoming an activated ability that is off the global cooldown and increases the amount blocked by 20% for 10 seconds with a 30-second cooldown. Taking a hit to block chance for a new cooldown ability - I've mixed feelings on that. For one, it's only postponing the underlying problem (tankadins being able to block cap through mastery). It adds another button to the toolbars which I'd just as soon avoid, but it emphasizes skill. That's sorta good, right? More incidentally, Agility is also going from semi-useful to totally-useless. Time to get new leg armor enhancements.
The addition of Holy Shield as an active ability raises another issue. My toolbars are f-ing full. Oh, I can probably make a little room by shifting archeology out off my main screen, but that doesn't change the fact. I need to, at least, majorly reorganize what I have on my screen. At the most... Well, I'm considering a full UI overhaul. That's scary.
For a long time, I've the default UI with a few addons, as they were applicable. There's a benefit in doing so: no matter how screwy a patch makes things behind the scenes, I have a functional UI. Sometimes UI mods just don't work until updated, and that's a big drag. But then, I look at some of the screens I see in videos and think "y'know, that looks a lot cleaner." Upon reading an article about a package deal UI that's geared largely toward (paladin) tanking, I'm considering again if this might not be a good way to go. There would be a learning curve involved. I might miss some abilities while getting used to the setup. So... I'm pondering whether it's worthwhile. The new patch would probably be as good a time as any, if I wanted to make that leap.
Then again, if I do go that route, I have to find a way to keep it separate or adapted to my other characters, too. Aieeee!
So... I guess that's about it. Maybe rambling to myself at this point, but I guess journals are sometimes for that, neh?
So, as I thought, patch 4.1 has largely been a bust for me. All reasons have previously been mentioned, though it boils down to a very small amount of content that appeals/applies to right where I'm sitting.
My Cataclysm-born druid is level 30, I think? About that. Leveling with someone definitely slows the process down, as we only sync up for a couple hours a week - if that.
4.2 (recently estimated for a June 21nd release by non-official sources) promises to be a little different. The new quests in Hyjal should give me something to chew on for a while in order to unlock some items/recipes, even if it will probably get to feel grindy working on it with four characters. A new tier of equipment may give me enough incentive to get back into heroic dungeon runs a little more for the valor points, but I doubt I'll be reaching the point cap most weeks. The Firelands raid should give the guild plenty of new stuff to look forward to for a couple months, though I'm not sure we'll be diving straight in or not.
The guild pushes on in raiding. Last week, over some technical difficulties, we managed to get down the Twilight Ascendant Council. That leaves only the three raid end bosses undefeated. They are, of course, some of the most complicated fights, too. We may be tackling Cho'gall on Saturday, to see how that is. If we flounder, though, patch 4.2 is lowering the difficulty of all the current-tier raid content by roughly 20 percent, which would hopefully make it doable. While we might want to push on to newer, better stuff, the tier 11 helm/shoulder tokens will still drop from the end bosses.
We have one healer regularly complaining about burnout in his role. Which... particularly sucks. If I wanted to step out from tanking, there are a few people who can pick up the slack, even if they aren't quite as geared or practiced. We don't have much in the way of spare healers, though. Otherwise things seem to have... smoothed over in the guild, at least for the present. I do wish there was more serious discussion on the forum, especially about the incoming legendary staff. I tried to explain in a post I started, but I doubt many read it - if we want to see one completed before the year is out (or ever), it looks to me like it's going to take a deliberate group effort. The living embers alone make it such that we'd have to clear the entire place 30+ times before any one person can reasonably expect to gather enough using normal loot rolls. That ain't happening in the foreseeable future, and I think that's an earlier part of the quest chain, too.
4.2 looks to have one really notable change for protection paladins. Holy Shield, currently an auto-triggered 10% bonus to block chance that's almost always up, is becoming an activated ability that is off the global cooldown and increases the amount blocked by 20% for 10 seconds with a 30-second cooldown. Taking a hit to block chance for a new cooldown ability - I've mixed feelings on that. For one, it's only postponing the underlying problem (tankadins being able to block cap through mastery). It adds another button to the toolbars which I'd just as soon avoid, but it emphasizes skill. That's sorta good, right? More incidentally, Agility is also going from semi-useful to totally-useless. Time to get new leg armor enhancements.
The addition of Holy Shield as an active ability raises another issue. My toolbars are f-ing full. Oh, I can probably make a little room by shifting archeology out off my main screen, but that doesn't change the fact. I need to, at least, majorly reorganize what I have on my screen. At the most... Well, I'm considering a full UI overhaul. That's scary.
For a long time, I've the default UI with a few addons, as they were applicable. There's a benefit in doing so: no matter how screwy a patch makes things behind the scenes, I have a functional UI. Sometimes UI mods just don't work until updated, and that's a big drag. But then, I look at some of the screens I see in videos and think "y'know, that looks a lot cleaner." Upon reading an article about a package deal UI that's geared largely toward (paladin) tanking, I'm considering again if this might not be a good way to go. There would be a learning curve involved. I might miss some abilities while getting used to the setup. So... I'm pondering whether it's worthwhile. The new patch would probably be as good a time as any, if I wanted to make that leap.
Then again, if I do go that route, I have to find a way to keep it separate or adapted to my other characters, too. Aieeee!
So... I guess that's about it. Maybe rambling to myself at this point, but I guess journals are sometimes for that, neh?
Seriously -- they release patches to make bosses easier? Is this normal? I can see there being a problem with healer burnout (I'm glad this won't be an issue in GW2) -- I can imagine being burned out in a role in GW1 though, and wanting to try something different. I'm glad Heroes can fix that. That you actually need to upgrade your UI, and that you've so many skills on the bar... that must be a pain in the rump. :(
ReplyDelete"Normal?" Eh... it's happened before, but it doesn't always happen? So they're releasing a new tier of raiding. This will be plenty hard for raid groups staying current. And the previous tier is getting made easier, so people who haven't been able to succeed there have a better chance to do so. The line that constitutes the "hard"/"endgame" raiding moves, and what's below that gets easier to do and is made more accessible to more people. Is that good? Is that bad? I could see arguments either way.
ReplyDeleteWell. They release patches to change things. Sometimes they're small (Oh, in PvP this one class ability is acting wonky or dealing too much damage, so we tweaked it) and in this case, they're huge (All the current content is being made easier so more people can do it, while the new stuff is fresh and will remain difficult for those looking for a challenge). It's been this way with the game for years. As for the UI issue? I didn't realize there was that many buttons needed o.o; I know you can set options to have two bars in addition to the normal "1" through "+" that appear at the bottom and two more full sets on the rightmost edge of the screen. I put my stuff that I might want to cast on the fly at the bottom and my utility/fluff stuff on the right-hand bars. The UI can be scaled down to prevent this from being too cluttery as well. But yes, there are UI mods that make the bars scalable individually, or be able to be placed anywhere on your screen.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I'm a little surprised at how abilities have piled up too. - I've got the main toolbar with some of my most frequently used abilities. - I've got the two additional lower toolbars with some additional abilities, a couple mounts, and hearthstone on the left, and mostly taunts/cooldowns on the right. - I've got two more on the right side, with buffs and less-used things like the Hand spells, heals, rez, healthstone and surveying. - I keep most of my professions on an alternate toolbar that doesn't show on my usual UI unless I click down. - And, of course, I have the aura mini-toolbar. So... under my normal setup with my main character, I have 65 spell/action buttons available on-screen and only a couple unassigned. @.@
ReplyDelete