Friday 11 April 2008

Battleground changes

Well since the 2.4 patch changes, a lot has changed in Battlegrounds. Some for better, some for worts. I wouldnt wanna appear like the average "nerf yeller", but the AV changes appear rather odd... I know Blizzard wanted to balance things out, but I would hardly call changing everything in favour of the Alliance a balanced solution.

The starting location move was well thought out, and I think it was fair. The rest of the changes could have been ok, but all of them combined just doesnt even out. Still, I would be a happy camper if they just provided Horde with an alternative route into Alliance base, then everything would be dandy.

On the other hand... even with all these changes, in my Battlegroup Horde still wins majority of the matches, but now it takes twice as long. This really comes down to Alliance doing some pretty idiotic stunts all the time. As long as Horde avoids capping SH graveyard, we can push through their defense and win eventually.

Sidenote: according to my test run this morning, it appear AV weekend bonus is broken? I did not notice any additional honor gained?

On good news, however, I really like the way "For great honor" repeatable has activated other Battlegrounds than just AV and EotS. Even WSG now gets some serious players besides just the premades. And since I had nice stack of other marks, running WSG was a really good way to score 1,5k honor per hour until I ran out of AB marks... and now I have to farm them, so that I can buy my belt. Oh well, live and learns, and greedy bastards always suffes, I s'pose!

Im getting close to full epic now, just neck and waist missing. Well I still dont have a PvP mainhand either, but Im saving up for Season 4. Since our Arena teams have started getting some ratings lately (albeit slowly), I might even get a chance to buy S4 mainhand as soon as the season changes. We'll see..

Wednesday 19 March 2008

Nostalgia Crew


Nostalgia Crew
Originally uploaded by swiftmend
Just a quick note that I did a nostalgia run to Blackrock Spire with some friends of mine. Was damn cool to 4man it all the way, first getting the key from Lower BRS and then going all the way in UBRS.

There's just something magical about the old instances!

Thursday 6 March 2008

Arena notes


Arena Preparation
Originally uploaded by swiftmend
I cannot really call myself an Arena veteran yet, as I have only play a few dozen matches. But there are some general issues that I've noticed.

One thing is stealth. When ever both teams are involved in stealth, it is quite usual for the first team that looses that advantage to also end up loosing the round. Maybe your healer (that's me!) has to pop out of Prowl to lay down some healing love, or maybe your opponent fins where your Rogue is lurking... the result seems to be chaos and mayhem all alike.

Silences are also of vital importance. Cycloning a target at the right time can have just as devastating effects as myself getting Silenced. When done at the right time... especially when playing with a Warrior that loves to Execute... it can really turn the tide.

I have to say, after coming across another Druid/Warrior combo, that I can understand why people fuss about it being overpowered. We were at a major gear disadvantage in the fight, and thus did not really stand much of a chance, but it was a great motivator to see how immensly powerful the combination can be once properly geared.

Tuesday 4 March 2008

Guild Issues

Lately I've been thinking about how Guilds work, again. I have joined a fresh Guild, who are busy doing Heroics, some battlegrounds and trying to get started with raiding. And it's just as hard as always.

The first issue is that people have different levels of experience and expectations. Some are experienced and know that things take their time. Others think they are experienced because they have been boosted through a lot of content, and are not equipped to handle wipes. And some are just altogether clueless about anything... but then again, if they are willing to listen and learn, it's not a problem.

Team performance requires team work, which requires time to form. Easy as that. There's really no way around it. Even if the fresh crew is so overgeared that they fly through the first instance or two, the reality will catch up eventually. And if they are only at the lower level of acceptable gear, the truth will hit the in the face straight from the start.

Another issue is the Guild management as a whole. It's a tricky business to balance the activities of a Guild and its members' interests. Some people want to raid all the time, some want to do it when they feel llike it, and some want to have the schedule up two weeks up front so that they can adjust their own schedule around it. There's really no way to keep everyone equally happy, without stepping on some toes. But as I've said somewhere, officers need to make decisions and then be prepared to take the heat from the displeased.

I'm just happy that I am not that officer, this time :D

But anyways... most of this is not a really big concearn of mine. I'll be happy to heal in raids if needed, but right now I am not motivated to re-spec or really even gear for it. Battlegrounds and Arena are my playgrounds, and that's where my aims are. If I get booted for that, then so be it. Resto Druids dont really need to find new Guilds... the Guilds find us ;)


Coffee break is up. That honor wont farm itself!

Saturday 1 March 2008

Instance-o-Rama

Today I decided it was time to get my Karazhan attunement done, due to a bit of pressure from the Guild. I had done the soloable parts earlier, so I just had some instances to do. But I wouldn't have thought I would have the energy to do them all in one day!

I started up in Shadow Labs, and I was easily motivated for that as I had some quests going that way anyways. So that was the first fragment. I tried to find groups for anything, but couldn't find a group. After a while of futile attempts to build a suitable group, I ended up healing some friends of mine through Slave Pens and Underbog.

After that I was lucky to bump into a group that was doing the same line, and did Arcatraz without problems. We then headed to Steamvaults, and then back to Arza, as one member of the group had changed, and he needed the Fragment from there, too.

Then it was time to go back in time! We went to Caverns of Time (btw. I hate that introduction quest, takes ages!), and did Old Hillsbrad, which was a lot of fun with three Druids and two Warlocks. One of the other Druids had to leave after Durholde, and we found a Prot Warrior to tank Black Morass. Some of the guys had never done it, so we were struggling a bit with the adds in the first minutes, but after people got the gist of it, it went fine.

So eight instances in one day. Not too shabby!

Tuesday 26 February 2008

First week of lvl 70

Ok I have been level 70 for a week now. I just purchased my third Gladiator's Kodohide item, and I have purchased the Sergeant's Heavy Cape. So altogether, I have been able to get my hands on one new epic item, roughly every second day since I dinged.

Well of course this speed of things will not be able to continue for ever. I will run out of "cheap" items soon enough, and then the pace of gearing will go down to about 2 items per week, according to my calculations. Of course Arena points will add to that, but it will take some time for them to accumulate.

I need to start doing a little bit of instances, though, too... I just purchased the Season 1 helm, and I need the enchant for it. And that means I need to get my Thrallmar rep up to revered. Oh well, I guess Im forced to do *some* PvE as well...

Thursday 21 February 2008

First taste of Arena

Another friend of mine decided to jump on the bandwagon, and transferred to my realm, and not many minutes went by before we had a Arena 2vs2 Team up and running. He is also a MS Warrior, with decent gear, including Deep Thunder, so everything was in order. Well, except my gear.

The first three or so rounds went by so fast I could hardly understand what was going on around me. New surroundings, new playstyle, new things to learn. LoSing the opponents seemed pretty confusing at first, and I got us killed by LoSin my Warrior instead of the opponents, and thus denying him of any heals.

After those first few, pathetic attempts, I started to slowly come to terms with the Arena. A few more rounds and we had scored our first victory (3rd round against the same Druid/Lock team), and eventually we finished with a 7-6 score for our first day in Arena. We even ended up some 7 points higher than we started!

I have a bit of a headache now, but I'll try to write something more constructive later on. But I gotta say: this seems like a LOT of fun!


<3>

PvP Gearing for a Resto Druid

I've been doing some calculations regarding the Honor-bought gear available, and enchants for them. The reason why I started doing that was a discussion I had with the GM of one of the realms leading PvP Guilds, and the gear requirements imposed on me to reach Trial there. To make a long story short: I want to get max resil in shortest amount of time.

I did some evaluations on how much Resilience I could get into each slot, divided by 1k of Honor. I use this value as a guideline when choosing what to buy next. And this is what I came up with.

The best Resilience per 1000 Honor (Rp1kH, neat shorthand, eh?) value is received from Sergeant's Heavy Cape. It gives 2,12 Rp1kH, and with a price tag of just 7,548 honor and a few dozen AB marks, it's a nice buy. Of course it gives just 16 Resilience, but the whole idea is to compare that to the price, not go for the largest upgrade. I will upgrade it with the Stealth enchant, which sets me back a reasonable 70 Gold or so.

The next items on the list is the Gloves from Season 1, with a Rp1kH value of 2,10. Again, the price is also quite low, just 10,500, and I actually already have them. Add Major Healing enchant for a price of 200 Gold for mats, and my hands are pretty nice and effective.

The third item on the list is Season 1 Legguards, with a Rp1kH value of 2,00, and a tag of 14,500 honor. A bit steep price, I'd say, but the numbers speak for themselves. The Golden Spellthread needed to finalize them is not cheap either, and should set me back some 300 Gold.

Here's the full chart of the Rp1kH values, for a Restoration Druid. Not quite sure about the weapons at this point, and Wrists, Waist and Feet are missing, and I'll calculate them later.

Sergeant's Heavy Cape 2,119767
Gladiator's Kodohide Gloves 2,095238
Gladiator's Kodohide Legguards 2
Gladiator's Kodohide Helm 1,931034
Veteran's Band of Salvation 1,843472
Gladiator's Kodohide Tunic 1,793103
Gladiator's Kodohide Spaulders 1,777778
Gladiator's Reprieve 1,666667
Talisman of the Horde 1,481481
Vindicator's Band of Salvation 1,437908
Medallion of the Horde 1,177648
Vindicator's Pendant of Salvation 1,176471
Gladiator's Salvation 0,714286
Gladiator's Idol of Tenacity 0,125


Well, I hope this will be of some use to someone else as well. I actually have a more inventive comparison of the Gear, which involves a balanced comparison value including price, +Healing and +Mp5 values, but as I said, I need my Resilience up a.s.a.p.

Tuesday 19 February 2008

Seven-O

After a rather taxing session, including every quest I had left in Terokkar Forest, and every non-group quest in Nagrand, plus a few quests in Blade's Edge, I finally dinged 70, got my last skills (a whopping 100g for training, I might add) and bought my first Season One epic item.

I need some sleep.

Monday 18 February 2008

Just one more to go

The first phase of the project is almost at its end. I grinded and quested some 1.3 levels yesterday, which took me from fresh lvl 58 to 59+, and I have about 500k of exp to burn before I ding 70. I think I'll take my time, though, since I need to farm a whole lot of honor anyway, and my mates are still at levels 65 and 63.

But yesterday was nice. We started off with the three of us (Druid, Mage, Warrior) gathering pretty much every quest we could think of in Terokkar Forest, and then just trying to complete as many of them in one day as we could. We got bogged down playing hide&gank with fully epic geared level 70 Hunter though, for almost an hour. But after that we finally started steamrolling the quests. After some five hours the Warrior had to split, as he had a raid waiting for his main, but we kept on going with the Mage for another... ummm... 9 hours or so!

A Druid and a Mage is a pretty damn decent pair for questing. Of course we were both high level for Terokkar to begin with, but we managed to duo every one of the lvl 65 elite Group-quests in Terokkar (well except one on which we stumbled upon another group, and joined forces). Basically the plan was always the same: I start up in Dire Bear and take initial aggro, and tank the mob a while with Frenzied Regen, and after it burns out, the Mage out-aggroes me, takes on the mob with every cooldown he has, and then Ice Blocks, while I shred the mob in Cat form. Rinse & Repeat. After a while it started getting a bit annoying really, since there was not much challenge in the fights. But of course, having so many extra levels on us really helped pave the way.

Now I just cant decide if I should stay on level 69 and just do a lot of AB and WSG (I need a lot of tokens from there, and of course Honor)... or boost straight to Seven-O and then start the grind, with the aid from the good people at Honor Gear Ltd.

Friday 15 February 2008

Finally in the Air


Finally in the Air
Originally uploaded by swiftmend
My Druid is now 68, finally. It felt damn good to be able to walk straight down from the Scryer's ledge, and pop into a hawk seconds before hitting the ground.

PvE Nerf Police!

Again I've been wasting my time reading various forums, including my old realm's independent discussion forums. As a new patch is under way, and nerfs on old content are more than probable, some people have started crying wolf again. The common whine is that as the previous content is nerfed, and new welfare epics are introduced, some endgame players seem to think Blizzard is stealing the epics from their pockets. Atleast that's how it seems when you read their rants.

It makes sense to me that Blizzard re-adjusts the difficulty level of older instances as new material is published. This gives more people a chance to see the fruit of their devs' hard work, and also to enjoy some of the best instance designs in the game. They are simply opening up, or atleast giving out the keys to some doors that would otherwise be closed to majority of the people, once the hard-working, hardcore people move on up to new challenges. And I fail to see how this hurts anyone?

Usually the person writing those posts is someone who is on their first lap around the endgame block, and probably have not been in a really good Guild all that long. Perhaps they have, for the first time in their WoW career, just reached a spot where they have killed "everything" in the game, and are a bit too cocky about it. They claim that other people getting epics and getting to kill easier bosses robs them of their honor as champions of PvE, and takes away the glory. But they are barking up the wrong tree.

The people who do the endgame pre-nerfed know who's done what and when. They know the difference between earlier and later versions of bosses, and pay their respects accordingly. Maybe for the very casual players a kill is a kill, but they wouldnt know how to respect your achievements any way. So why care?

When Ahn'Quiraj opened up I had finished Blackwing Lair some weeks earlier with my (then) Guild. A lot of new gear became available through AQ20 and of course AQ40's first boss, even to Guilds with very little prior success. This made it easier for them to go back to BWL, and get further down the road. But I can honestly say I never, ever thought it in any way hampered my satisfaction of knowing I had cleared the instance when it was still the hardest challenge in the game. Quite the contrary: I was even happier, as now even more people knew what sort of challenges we had been facing, and could only imagine how much more effort it took without the new gear and boss nerfs.

But I guess almost everyone goes through these stages at some point. At every new major patch there's always someone new who thinks they're being kicked in the teeth by Blizzard. Come the next patch, they're older and wiser, and know that they still cherish the memore of beating that one boss back then when it was breaking news all across the realm.

Blizzard can nerf a lot of things. But they cant nerf your memories. Viva la Emmies, back in 2006, BWL.

Wednesday 13 February 2008

Skill in WoW?

I happened to read a few threads on the official forums again, mostly flame wars about this or that. There was one recurring theme, however, and it is between casuals and the hardcore. Or, to be more precise, the assumptions regarding these groups. Very few people seemed to really think they belong to either. I am not going to be trying to analyze that, however, but another underlying issue, which came across in post after post: does WoW involve skill?

A lot of people, especially those coming from the FPS genre, state that WoW only requires time, and there is no skill involved. I beg to differ, even though I come from that genre as well (having roots in Rainbow Six, Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat, to name a few). I agree that a player does not benefit from fast hand-eye co-ordination as much in WoW as in, say, Counter-Strike. But is that really the only merit of skill in a computer game? There are other issues to consider. I'll divide my opinions into two categories, PvE and PvP, as I think they are somewhat different.

Skills in PvP

PvP style of gameplay in WoW does not require the same sort of accuracy as your average FPS does. You dont need to pinpoint your pointer, nor do you need to position yourself with a single pixel accuracy. The movement is still there, requiring some fast reflexes to be able to make use of your surroundings, and even though WoW gives substantially more room for error in terms of range and positioning, it still requires both the knowledge of what to do, as well as the nerves, reflexes and over all ability to actually do so. And to compensate for the lack of requirements in accuracy, WoW players are faced with the necessity of keeping track of multiple counters, timers and the general Paper-Rock-Scissors theme of the various skills.

I think it is quite evident this requires both skill and understanding. The skills related are not necessarily directly comparable to those required in a first person shooter, but there are too many similarities not to notice them. In terms of raw mouse accuracy and subletly of movement, the skill requirement is lower, but on the other hand WoW requires the player to keep track of more things than in the average shooter. And I believe this requirement only grows stronger as you move up from 1vs1 fights. Compare a 5vs5 Arena match and a 5vs5 Counter-Strike matchs, and you can see how much more complicated it becomes, as you need to keep track of your own skills and cooldowns, the abilities of your 4 team mates, and of course those of the 5 opponents. At the same time you need to move fast and react to everyone else's movements as well. It's not as fast paced as in a shooter, but it's not even supposed to be.

Perhaps the biggest difference is that the personal skill level of any single player is not as easy to spot, or even to define, as in a first person shooter. The skills of the group are more blended together, and no one man stands that much taller than the rest.

Skills in PvE

PvE does involve some of the same ingredients as described above; you need to position yourself, react to changes in your environment and the movement of both your teammates as well as the mobs. You need to keep track of your skills, the mob's skills, and also some of your friends'. Of course the mobs are not nearly as unpredictable as a human being, so it could be said that this part of the game is more about memorizing the tactics, and carrying them out, than any reaction based skills that are required in a shooter - even in a tactical shooter. But again I ask if the skills need to be exactly the same as in the FPS to be considered skills?

Another major issue in PvE, especially endgame, is the huge social skills that are required to build up a Guild, and keep it going. Of course for the majority of the people, even within the Guild, this may seem like something that's automatic, but it is not. And I dare to say that most "casuals" do not even begin to understand how hard a jigsaw puzzle it is to get 25 people to work together for months, to keep the schedules and to forge a team out of a bunch of people. Is this not a skill? Is there no skills required to be able to effectively communicate with people from different nationalities, cultures, timezones and age groups? How easy do you think it is to fit a schedule evenly between a 34 year old Swedish single mother and a 16 year old Italian teenager?

Gamer on Gamer Hate

It seems odd to me that so many players have the urge to bash other gamers. Again and again I read idiotic posts about how someone "apparently has no girlfriend and never got laid", or "is so idiot n00b that they shouldnt be allowed in the game". Why is this? The game offers a ton of options for everyone, so why the need to put ourselves up there on the high horse, and kick everyone else in the face? Why is it that we have to urge to defend our own gaming habits as the "one and only" way of doing it, and claim all the rest to be just random morons who should quit playing, learn to play, play more, play less... or at the very least, learn to enjoy the game in the exact same way that we do?


This cow thinks we should all focus more on learning to play our own game better, and less on telling other people how to play.

Saturday 9 February 2008

Arena Recipe: add one Warrior

Yesterday one of my RL mates (who has also played the game since 2005) transferred his lvl 54 Warrior to the same Realm where my Druid is, and he is coming over so that we can boost his toon proper. The aim is that by this time tomorrow, he will be level 60+

The big idea here, of course, is that Warrior is just about the most ideal companion for me, and he will suit the 3vs3 team with our Mage as well. But I have to say, the thing I am most looking forward to is getting to do some 2vs2 fights with him, basically just outlasting pretty much anything the opponents can throw at us. Well, after we've got our act together, that is.

A lot of work to be done, still. But atleast now the foundation should be well in order, and we can start laying down the bricks and mortar to build up our team.

Wednesday 6 February 2008

Rep planning

In order to make sure I focus my limited time wisely, I've come up with a reputation plan. Basically I went through all of the reputations, and considered if any level was needed for a resto Druid, and also if there were easy enough upgrades for Feral as secondary objective.

The list is not perfect, and I have not cross-checked it with my plan of what PvP items to get, and in which order. There are bound to be some overlapping items on the lists, and I'll have to sort that out later. But here is a rough list of my opinions on the Horde reps on Outlands.

Cenarion Expedition

Although I plan on going for Restoration Druid, the ability to do some Feral damage from time to time will also be important. If for no other reason, then simply for the ability to grind and quest solo more efficiently. There are two nice upgrades here,[Glyph of Ferocity] at Revered for the for the attack power and hit rating, and of course [Earthwarden] at Exalted, pretty nifty twohander with a whopping 712 boost to attack power. As a bonus there is also one ring available, but Im not quite sure if it will be up to par. The stamina is nice, though. Of course I will get it if I go for Earthwarden anyway.

Consortium

This will not be a priority for me, although for the Flight Form quests I will need to get some rep here, too. The reputations dont really give anything special, there's [Haramad's Bargain] at Exalted for Feral, and before that there are [Nomad's Leggings] at Revered, also for Feral. But as neither of them are spectacular, nor all that crucial upgrades for me, I think I'll stick to Honored for the Heroic Key.

Mag'har

Well this is an easy skip. The only things here are [Talbuk Hide Spaulders] at Revered, and [Ceremonial Cover] at Exalted, and neither are that interesting.

Thrallmar

Another easy decision. I will be aiming for Revered, since [Glyph of Renewal] is by far the best head enchant for a healer.

Ogri'la

Well Im not quite sure about this, but I suppose I might aim for Revered, to get the [Apexis Cloak]. It's not spectacular by any means, but I suppose it would be doable with relatively little stress while doing a bunch of quests anyway for exp. There are also [Shard-bound Bracers] at Exalted, but they are for Feral, so not worth the trouble for me.

Lower City

Lower City rep is quite rewarding. At Revered there is the [Lower City Prayerbook] which, depending on the weapon of choice, may be a must-have, and as a potential temporary upgrade the [Leggings of the Skettis Exile], even though they are cloth. At Exalted there is the [Gavel of Unearthed Secrets] which would go nicely hand-in-hand with the Prayerbook.

Scryers

The quick ones have figured out now that I've chosen Scryers over Aldor here.

There's quite a few upgrades available from the Scryers. [Scryer's Bloodgem] is a damn interesting trinket and [Seer's Cane] is a nice Staff, especially for a blue item. Both available at Revered. At Exalted there is the [Seer's Signet], which is a very potent ring.

Sha'tar

A big collection of rep rewards here, but actually just three that are of interest to me. At Revered there is the [Xi'ri's Gift], which would be a nice pair for the Scryers trinket, and at Exalted there is [A'dal's Command], a nice ring but not awesome, and of course [Gavel of Pure Light], which is awesome.

Sha'tari Skyguard

I'm not really sure what to think of this rep. I dont really need the epic flying mount as a druid, but then again at Exalted there is also [Airman's Ribbon of Gallantry], which might be a nice trinket to have. And yes, I know I get over-exited about trinkets. One of those "if I have the time for it", I guess.

Tuesday 5 February 2008

UI 2/2008


UI 2/2008
Originally uploaded by swiftmend
As a curiosity, here is my UI at the moment. It is quite heavily modified to suit my purposes, but still quite not finished. The most important AddOns and modifications used are:

Ace2
ag_UnitFrames
Aperture
Autobar
Bartender3
cyCircled
DaHud
elkBuffBars
Grid

The whole idea has been to focus all of the controls and combat related data into the center, the chat in bottom left, combat log in bottom right, and then use Autobar to save up space on the action bars.

New Beginnings

I am starting this blog to keep track of my project in World of Warcraft: to become competent in PvP. I am by no means a newbie by now, having played the game since the European launch in early 2005, but I have never participated in PvP, bar some random outdoors battles and a few battleground runs every now and then. As of writing this, I have never set my virtual hoof in Arenas, nor have I ever visited Eye of the Storm, either.

My faction is Horde, the race Tauren, and class of choice is Druid. Having played a Druid earlier in PvE, back before the Burning Crusade, the class feels good and I particularly enjoy healing. It is a versatile class, and at the moment it is very potent class in PvP, as far as I've understood. Some even say it is the best PvP healer right now.

I started this project in early December on a new toon, on a new realm. I am currently at level 65, with crappy gear, a mixed resto/feral build, and a whole lot of ambition. My mate is at level 62 with his Mage, and we both have some 10k honor and a bunch of BG tokens stashed away, waiting for us to ding the big seven-o. By that time I hope to have close to 100k available for immediate re-gearing, to get us started with our Arena project.

By now our aim should be clear to everyone. We intend to level up and build up some Honor on the way. Then we are going to get some basic, entry level epics for PvP. Hook up a 2vs2 for starters, and start learning. While the main objective of this blog is to keep a few of my mates informed with our progress, I will occasionally rant about other issues as well.

I like to rant.

So Moo! to you, too. And I hope to see you again.