And that’s all the explanation you’re going to get.
|—|
So patch triple three came and went with no posts at all from me, and frankly I don’t have much to say because I haven’t played any WoW since the tuesday it dropped. Am I done with WoW? Unsure, probably not. I’ve taken breaks before, though previously it was because I went on vacation somewhere.
Gaming is an integral part of me, I’ve been gaming since I was but a little bitty human being, starting with the SNES and working my way upwards. I believe I started gaming around… somewhere around age seven, give or take a year, and I haven’t seen the sun since. Nine to twelve hour gaming binges were normal for me by the fourth grade.
Anyway. So WoW. Yes.
I didn’t get to toy around much with patch triple three, but what little I did see left me with a distinct feeling of bitter sweetness.
The newer, significantly faster Culling of Stratholme is quite the relief though I, personally, never had much of an issue with the lengthy introduction. Tanks need to tone it down a little bit though. At the very least wait for the healer to zone in before pulling, especially if they have to, you know, put buffs up.
Or not. Whatever really. We outgear these old heroics by such a huge margin it’s difficult to care anymore. To illustrate my point:
Halls of Stone, the escort event. The group is myself, as a ret paladin in a PvP spec and PvP gear, a blood tank, unholy DPS, a holy priest, and a hunter. This entire event, the priest healed with PW: S only, both DKs basically threw down D&D and got off a couple autoattacks, and the hunter dropped traps and set his pet to aggressive. That’s all the group did because that’s all they needed to do, because I, as the ret paladin, was doing everything else. I was roaring along at 7k DPS while everyone else stuttered along at 500.
Nobody else could get DPS any higher because everything died in a couple globals. I tanked everything, DPSd everything, and the self heals from divine storm alone was enough to heal up all the damage I was taking. The only time anyone else got to do anything was when the elite golem things spawned, and even then that was four globals, tops.
Point is, I find it difficult to actually care about heroics or what happens within them. The content is so far beneath me at this point that I simply do not care what antics people decide to get up to. It is content that is utterly inconsequential. I suspect these are the same reasons that people decide to be complete asshats within heroics, but I have taken the path of apathy.
Far more briefly exciting was the addition of the random BG and the banishment of battleground marks.
I found that the queues were suitably uniform, the new queue times for choosing a random BG being about equal to the fastest BG queues before the patch. Which is still easily a ten minute wait before any BG pops.
It was inevitable, I suppose, but I had hoped to be proven wrong.
My suspicion was that by introducing a random BG feature, battlegrounds would be inundated with a veritable flood of people who have not done many, if any, BGs in the past, and thus would be clueless. There would also be a sizable group of those who have only ever played Alterac Valley, and thus have never been exposed to actual PvP.
My fear was that the average quality of a player in any given random BG would dip significantly with the patch.
I should not need to tell you that I was right, and brutally so.
It was… it was like witnessing high school all over again. Here I am, minding my own business, doing the same things I always do, and whenever I deign to look around at what others are doing, I find myself surrounded by failure. It does not matter which battleground I am (except AV), anywhere I go, anywhere I look, the majority of players are acting as if they have never seen this particular battleground before.
I wish I could be mad. I really do.
Instead, I am merely saddened.
So raiding then. Uhum, haven’t done any of that either. But I still have a brilliant, flawless mind that never makes any mistakes about anything ever, so I’ll throw around my two pounds.
Frost is better, true, but it’s still behind. The gap is the closest it has been this entire expansion, theorycrafted to the extreme a deep frost build would only lag about 15% behind arcane. Arcane, of course, remaining the top DPS spec even with the death of Incanter’s Absorption.
If you want to play frost, chances are pretty good you already are. If you aren’t and want to, well… why aren’t you? At the very least dual spec for it and bust it out in heroics or any fight where you can make a solid argument for it, or any fight that’s mildly inconsequential.
Gunboat? Frost. Deathbringer? Frost. All the trash in any quarter? Frost frost frost! Dreamwalker? Bring your Improved Blizzard snares, equip the Oracle Talisman, and snare the entire goddamn room for fun (don’t forget frost warding!). Heck, you can even make an argument for Sindragosa, what with being able to chain cast as long as you want, then just Ice Block to clear the debuff. Then do it again and Cold Snap.
And if it’s something you’ve always wanted to know, the 5% boost to frostbolt is merely negating the coefficient penalty the spell has always carried due to its possession of a snare. Frostbolt’s coefficient is simply up to 85.7% (the standard 3/3.5 equation used for any spell with a base cast time of 3 seconds).
Point is, frost has never been this good, so… what are you waiting for?
As to fire… well, adding Pyroblast to things like Empowered Fire and TtW did help, not enough to overtake arcane though. Pyroblast hits harder, definitely, and conveniently is a little buff to fire PvP too. Still nowhere near viable in that arena, however. Pun intended? Maybe it was!
If all you want is a clear, concise answer, then this is it: arcane is still the best, with fire then frost trailing behind, though the gap is closer in all regards.
If all you want is true min/max, sorry, you’re still arcane. Though if all you do is raid, I highly, highly recommend carrying around two completely different specs for different things.
If you have, say, one standard arcane build and one Incanter’s Absorption build, go ahead and drop the IA build in favour of something else. If you want to try frost, go for it, though I’d also recommend giving fire a shot if that’s how you want to roll.
Fire for trash is fun, at the very least you should be able to consistently break 20k DPS using living bomb and flamestrike on most trash pulls. And again, you can make arguments to bring fire builds, even frostfire builds, to certain fights in an effort to sneakily play what you want.
Especially if you have Nibelung.
Consider again the Valithria Dreamwalker fight. Grab Blastwave, Dragon’s Breath, and yes, even Firestarter for the instant Flamestrikes, with Nibelung equipped. Then go to town, unloading as many spells as fast as you can. The idea is rather simple. The more spells you cast, the more chances Nibelung has to proc.
The Deathbringer fight is another excellent opportunity to put fire to some incredibly good use. I wouldn’t really recommend it for any other fights (except Lich King, spawning Val’kyr’s there would cause at least ten raid wide aneurysms), but definitely bust out Nibelung for trash. Good times had by all.
Oh yes, and don’t forget if you’re specced frost, you can control your spawned Val’kyrs. Any orders sent to your elemental will also be sent to them, so you can focus their fire onto whatever target you wish. And, if you have Nibelung and are specced frost, consider picking up Frostbite. The root effect from Frostbite counts as a spell cast, meaning that Frostbite itself can proc the Val’kyr effect.
Bored with Bgs?
Tired of static raids?
Enter the Arena. By far the most challenging part of the game.
Heh, I’ve done plenty of arenas this expansion, though not recently as a mage.
I’ve done hundreds of games as a ret paladin, and recently been playing as a hunter. I was a little embarrassed to be trashing other teams with the BtA bow, but eh.
Arena as a mage carries a very serious feeling of “been there, done that” for me, as I gladiatored extensively in TBC. To the point where even relatively exciting stuff like arcmage/rogue in 2s feels very deja vu and bland.
I now must absolutely, without question, get my hands on that staff.
You have been missed, Q. Even though I know you aren’t posting as much anymore, yours is still the first website I check every single morning. And then two or three more times a day.
Breaks are quite understandble. I happen to be on one at the moment. Whenever you do come back though, I would great appreciate your wonderful pvp/arena advice.
And rants. More rants.
My rants are much beloved, no matter how hostile, belligerent, illogical and acidic they get. Which is moderately confusing, but apparently little is as entertaining as a screaming deranged monkey hurling insults at everything.
“apparently little is as entertaining as a screaming deranged monkey hurling insults at everything”
That should totally be your sig somewhere.
“And that’s all the explanation you’re going to get”
I’m gonna assume 30 days in county then. Glad to see you out and about.
“Come on, officer. You never tried to stab someone for correcting your grammar?”
It’s the end of the expansion, I see more and more people burning out and quitting. If you’re done, you’re done. Although personally I would wait for Blizz’s cataclysm mage info coming out soon before deciding 🙂
The beauty of MMOs is the change. A game like, say, Dragon Age, is static. If you leave it for five years and then return, it will be exactly the way you left it.
Leave WoW for even a single year, and what you come back to is nearly unrecognizable to the old game.
I’ve even experienced that effect just by switching to alts.
I picked up my hunter, for example, about a month ago and leveled it to 80. Last I had seriously played it was right around the WotLK launch, and this new hunter felt like a completely different class from what it used to be.
Methinks you should buy the new DA expansion anyways.
Go. Enjoy the break. Save your $15 per month for the more important things in life.
I dare say you will stay in tune with what is coming and make a choice on whether to join the pre-cata events or wait until the patch day nightmares decline.
Whatever you choose, you will be in my feedreader forever. In 30 years time when you regal us with the story of what your kids encountered on the bus, I’ll be ready to read.
BGs haven’t excited me that much. Your analysis of the knowledge & skill level is mirrored with my experiences, though my queue times are practically instant.
Instant queue times for consistent losses are much joy. High honor rewards with nothing to spend them on beyond AH mats isn’t much joy.
The only reason I play more than one BG a day now is to get a win… Pre-3.3.3 I would spend 3-4 hours rebelling it it.
One thing is true… Fire has never been so much fun… It allows me to laugh through the tears of random BG failure.
Losing battlegrounds doesn’t bother me anymore. It may sound strange, but I’ve evolved into only caring about my own performance in a BG, rather than everyone else.
For example, sure, the alliance may have taken all but one node in AB due to my team’s incompetence, but me and two friends have successfully defended lumber mill against all comers. Even that one time nine players attacked us at once, we still prevailed.
Yeah, I lost, but so what? I went 3v9 and won, and alliance never managed to take LM.
I’ve been trying to maintain an attitude that personal best is good enough… but after 4 days of not winning a BG (admittedly I gave up after 3 BGs one day.. but the others were 3+ hour loosing streaks) I have pretty much had enough.
the worst part being it was the one part of the game that still grabbed my attention.
Unfortunately now it is like raid progression nights, where the whole raid swaps out after each wipe, and the raid members are randomly generated pugs.
Step one: get a fire pve spec
Step two: go to 25 man gunships
Step three: toss living bomb on everything
Wait for it…
Step four: spam your 5 to 10 instant pyroblasts in a row without mercy.
Repeat until your lungs collapse from laughing about how sorry you feel for that poor alliance marine.
this is what i do, except i’m laughing at the poor hordie marine. : P
Heh, I did that in Ulduar, complete with the tier gear that let Pyroblast occasionally not consume Hot Streak.
It was glorious fun, right up until I inevitably pulled threat and died.
It got so bad the healers would watch my bar like a hawk, and immediately start dumping heals into me.
I don’t know why they bothered, but it swiftly became a game to see if I could take enough damage and die before they could save me.
I rarely managed to die, no matter how hard I tried.
I started with the SNES too. I put a lot of hours into Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, and it will always have a place in my top video games of all time. As for WoW, I haven’t even tried 3.3.3, but I have finally got around to CoH to try out the Mission Architect system. Still haven’t actually tried the architect, but the character creator and starting area seems decent enough. A lot more customization options for character appearance and classes too.
My first preference is playing my fire mage in BGs. When I see bots in BGs (either faction), or players completely disregarding BG objectives, I go gear up my druid through badges obtained via random dungeon runs.
I don’t know your precise reasons for losing interest in WoW. But I know once my druid is geared up, and experience the same drudgery as the mage in BGs. Then I will have nothing enjoyable to do in WoW.
On my battlegroup, the random dungeon queues are significantly faster than the BG queues. Though usually I just sign up for BGs anyway and truck around doing dailies or player hunting in wintergrasp.
You were missed of course, true honesty about this game is weird to find.
And yeah, BGs now are basically to see who is less bad. Just typing simple instructions on every match earns the victory (Alliance suck in PvP in my BG). Except in WSG, the place to farm honor in the middle. WSG is always fail.
AV do not fail because is simply the art of rushing to the keep watching a tank put his ICC 25 tank gear and tank all the mobs in the Vann room while the rest of the raid kill him. Really, is not PvP, is a DPS race vs. the other raid.
BTW, try checking the previews for Cata this week. Maybe something will spark your interest.
BGs were always about which side was less bad. Maybe one in every thirty or forty BGs actually had a majority of reasonably skilled players on each side.
Man.
I love those BGs.
Anyway, AV really needs to have the zerg strategy permanently removed.
Welcome back sir! Your ranting has been sorely missed!
Speaking of frost… one of our hunters was unavailable for our ICC 25 raid t’other day at VDW so one port to SW and summon later (complete with water ele glyph- i named mine baldrick by the way) I ended up kiting the zombie adds. Whilst i normally play as fire the 25K + crits from Deep Freeze did make me a bit giddy with excitement!
Enjoy your wow break 🙂
I have to agree with Delerius–your blog I check daily along with Clearcasting. You consistently entertain with your candid observations about WoW and life. I too catch most things that happen near me, and have come to believe that being observant can be a curse. Whoever quoted that ignorance is bliss was a fucking genius. Keep it up Rip, and I will keep reading. 🙂
Welcome, back, friend. Thought that as a result of your last rant a massive coronary ensued and your hands fell onto your keyboard to stroke the following to the end of time “fufufufufufufufufufufufufufufufufufufu”.
In all seriousness, again, welcome back. Just good to know nothing happened to you on the other side of the pond.
Spiritus
Hope you have a good break euri, come back though. I’ve been reading critical qq for a really long time and its made me want to play a mage more than anything and now I have one that’s halfway through seventy nine. (I also almost started a blog because of bloggers like you) I’ve been having more fun than I have in a long time leveling and doing bg’s and look forward to raiding and arena. So again, have fun and good luck. Come back soon.
Good to see you back, on track, from your secret life