Thursday 29 October 2015

Just Filling Time...

With Archimonde Heroic lying dead at our feet, my GM set her sights firmly on Mythic progression and we pushed on to Mythic Hellfire Assault.

That was the plan anyway.

We had already had one night of wipes on here a couple of weeks earlier.  Very little progress was made but at least everyone got a decent idea of what was needed to succeed.

Optimism was fairly high for our second night of Mythic raiding, especially after killing Heroic Archi, but it was unfounded and progress was extremely slow.

At the end of the night, a number of people then spoke up and said they had never been interested in raiding Mythic content anyway and just wanted to stick to Heroic.

So our Mythic raiding died there and then.

The GM is still in bullish mood though, doing her best to recruit Mythic-ready (and willing) raiders to re-fill the roster.
The main disappointment being that half of the officers were the ones to step out of the team, surely this has come up in Officer chat at some point before now?

Meanwhile, I am just plodding along with the alts.

DK made it to 100 over the weekend to make it 10/11.

I still haven't worked out how to play it though. 
I've read Icy Veins and follow their 'rotation' but I seem to spend a lot of my time not doing anything, just waiting for procs. 

Is that the way it is supposed to be?

I'm only doing the basics at the moment - Diseases, Howling Blast, Obliterate and Frost Strike - so maybe it becomes more fluid when I add in the other abilities?

I'll add them in when my fingers can work out which key to hit for Killing Machine procs without me looking at my action bars.

I'm intrigued by the Frost spec though, and want to see how it pans out with more practice and gear.

Rogue, Mage and Paladin are all ready for raiding and just waiting for an opportunity but still have to bring the Priest up to speed.

And there is always the lowly Warrior who has made his way to 65 and old Nagrand... he could be there a while yet,

Wednesday 21 October 2015

9 and counting...

As a welcome diversion from wiping on Mythic Hellfire Assault (expect a post from me moaning about that... soon), I have been slowly moving my army of alts up to 100.

There is no rush as I still think the expansion is around 6 months away, but nothing is grabbing my interest outside of raiding at the moment so the alts are getting some love.

The lazy mage has been doing some normal raiding, twice reaching 12/13 normal on the guild's 'drunken alt run'. 
It's been a lot of fun despite having some terrible luck with loot.

The Shaman feels amazingly powerful when there is a call for stacked AoE... Iskar add phases, Xhul'horac imps, Socrethar ghosts... but has troughs to match those peaks... Iron Reaver bombs, Kil'rogg and Gorefiend adds.

The Frost Mage is much more of an all-rounder.  It will never reach the highs of those AoE phases but, by the same token, I haven't found any weaknesses in the toolkit at all.

Blink, Icy Floes and the many instant cast spells combine to make it an incredibly mobile spec and it handles the fights in HFC brilliantly.

And while it can't match the big numbers on sustained AoE, it's burst AoE is excellent and is backed up by really solid single target damage.

Where the Frost Mage really does excel though is where the Shaman has problems, rapid target switches.  The mage doesn't miss a beat as it moves from target to target, instantly slowing them and hitting them with the full dps from the outset.

Other classes may be even better than the Frost Mage in this area but I have never had such an easy time on Kil'rogg and Gorefiend.

It all comes together to build what feels like an incredibly dynamic playstyle and it is so much fun to play!

The mage is not the only one to get some love though, my rogue has been having a little runout too. 

I go back to the rogue so many times during an expansion as I still love to play him but after so long as ranged and healer, I struggle when I go into melee range.

I need to be able to actually see my character, strange I know :P, to play it properly.  When things get messy, as they do in melee range, I stray out of range or in front of the boss and lose a lot of dps.

I think I would probably get used to it again if I played as melee all the time but I prefer the freedom of ranged play.

Anyway, only a couple of pugs for my rogue with little success but it was nice to get him moving along and collecting some Tomes. 

My Priest made it to 100 and dived straight into Tanaan Jungle.

As I pretty much skipped all of Nagrand, going from 98 to 100 just by collecting treasures, I was a bit lacking in gear so had to be extremely cautious in the jungle.

It added a sense of danger that had been missing on all my other chars, and the experience was a lot more thrilling.  I imagine it would have been quite intense playing this way prior to flying and I feel like I have missed out on truly experiencing the content as it was designed.

It's also strange to think that Tanaan Jungle, where most of our play is currently, will be completely bypassed once Legion is released.  It will be harder content with (maybe) lesser rewards than the first questing zones of the Broken Isles, and will soon be forgotten like Timeless Isle and others before that. 
Who goes to Quel'danas at level now?
Or Molten Front?
Or Isle of Thunder?
So much forgotten content.

Priest decided to go Disc (FoTM yeah yeah whatever) - I rarely heal on my Shaman these days and have lost a bit of the knack for it, far too reactive with my heals.

Wanting a main-spec healer and knowing that Disc priests need to be very proactive with their heals and shields, it was an easy choice.
Just like the Mage, great plans of raiding on my priest were optimistic to say the least and a couple of trips into LFR destroyed any motivation I had.

The new plan is to deck him out in Empowered Baleful gear then a trip through LFR to get used to keybinds and on to the Alt run or pugs... time permitting of course ;-)

I even logged into my Prot Paladin this week, sorted through the gear he had amassed from various follower/boat missions until I had a workable tank spec.
I queued for Hellbreach LFR as tank, cancelled the queue almost immediately and logged off... just couldn't put myself through lfr as tank, maybe next week (probably not).

The Monk made his way, mostly via collecting treasures, to 100.  It's remarkable how much XP those treasures give...
I had been questing merrily along to 96 and opened up Spires of Arak as soon as it was available (No rested XP at this point)
Open up the Brewery for the 20% XP gain
Complete Captain Taylor quests
Complete Salvage Yard quests
Then I just collected treasures. ALL the treasures!
All of the treasures in Spires and Nagrand left me 2 bars short of level 100!
Roughly 5 quests later...

DING! 
Number 9!

Only DK and Warrior to go!

Thursday 15 October 2015

Normal Mode Nerfs Could Save LFR...

Blizzard have decided that a better way of making content easier is to remove mechanics rather than dilute them, and I agree wholeheartedly!

I don't agree that it should be done mid-tier when everyone has already learned the original fights but for future raids, I definitely think this is the way to go.

When the reasons for the changes were explained, one word rang out to me... Clarity!

Almost all of the issues with the design of LFR can be drawn down to this one word and the latest nerfs could be showing that Blizzard agree.

Prior to the nerfs...
Blizzard start at Heroic mode, add mechanics and numbers for Mythic, reduce numbers for Normal then reduce them further for LFR.

This led to LFR being exactly the same fight as Heroic with exactly the same mechanics, but those mechanics could often just be completely ignored.

Iron Reaver is a prime example... On Heroic, Artillery will one-shot any player that is too close.  On LFR, it is completely ignored.  Same could be said for Barrage and Blitz.  Important in Heroic, ignored in LFR.

What's wrong with that?  LFR is supposed to be more forgiving, right?
Indeed it is. 

The issue is one of Clarity...
LFR teaches people that mechanics can be ignored but, if the majority of mechanics can be ignored, what happens when there is a mechanic which needs dealing with properly?
People ignore it.

"It's only LFR!" is the stock response to anyone even trying to suggest tactics.

LFR doesn't fail because people can't follow simple mechanics, it fails because people think they don't need to!

But the issue of clarity continues into Normal mode and is possibly even worse...
While LFR teaches people that mechanics don't matter,  Normal teaches people that some matter and some don't.

Heroic then finally teaches you that all these mechanics that you have been ignoring are important now.

This is why so many people are finding it hard to make the step up to the next difficulty, and it has nothing to do with numbers, DPS or HPS.

Breaking old habits is always harder than creating new ones!

A Bright New World...
By removing the mechanics that don't matter, only the important ones are left and everyone will know that they have to deal with them.

By necessity, the mechanics kept in LFR would have to be the simplest to handle.
It is designed for a random group of strangers with little or no coordination and a low skill floor.  Participative rather than challenging.

But every player at level-cap can deal with one or two simple mechanics, this is a fact!
The levelling experience in WoD, particularly the rares and 'bosses' of the quest storylines, was fantastic at introducing simple mechanics and we all dealt with them.

The perception of LFR would change.  Yes, people would still think it was easy but the number of people thinking it is so easy that they don't even need to be present would drastically reduce.

Word gets around fast... the new LFR is easy but you have to do it right.

Soon, people start queueing for LFR expecting mechanics and accepting that they need to deal with them to succeed, but also knowing that they can.

Normal mode (for those that want it) then builds on the foundations learned in LFR rather than trying to tear them down and rebuild them differently.
Have you done this in LFR?
Excellent!  It's the same but we have to do this extra thing too.

The same applies when moving from Normal to Heroic.
Everything you did in Normal still applies... but you also need to do this and this.

LFR becomes a learning tool for those that want it and the difficulty curve from LFR through normal, heroic and on to mythic is much smoother.

Blizzard... your timing is terrible but I think you have started something here that could be fantastic for the future of LFR and raiding as a whole. 
Please follow it through.

p.s. stay tuned next week for a post on another topic that everyone else on the internet has done to death.

Monday 12 October 2015

Ahead of the Curve...

I love it when a raid night works out.

We had a goal, to kill Archimonde Heroic.

It started well, despite our new squishy warrior tank learning the fight and dying to everything possible on the first few pulls ;-)  
We just ressed him and carried on, pushing into phase 3 virtually every time. 

There was a sense in the air that this would definitely be the night!

Almost every pull resulted in us reaching phase 3 in a better position than the last as we tightened up our execution of the other phases.
And each P3 was cleaner than the last until we wiped at around 7% over and over.

Once everyone has fully learned the fight and executes it as well as possible, it seems to boil down to one moment.
Around the time the second group returns from the Nether, there is a combination of mechanics:
Chains that need to be broken.
Demonic Feedback that we need to spread for and survive.
Pushing the boss to 25% to trigger Rain of Chaos and the Infernals.

We held off dps so that we didn't push the boss until the whole group was there meaning all of these abilities needed to be dealt with at pretty much the same time.

Most of our 7% wipes were down to losing people in this 'moment'.  It was always worth continuing though to make us absolutely familiar with what was to come in the final few percent of the fight.

Survive this moment, in good shape, and we knew we would be close to the kill.

The first time we got through, it looked great.  Everyone was alive and we were pushing onwards.  We called for a 'suicide' group and our DK tank, Balance druid and Feral druid went in.

Our Feral druid is known for screaming for heals whenever he isn't on full HP but he had been told to shut up earlier in the night.  Of course this time he died before he could get into the Nether Banish, the boss healed and we wiped.

"You see?  This is what happens when I don't call for heals!"  he called, much to our amusement.

The second successful time through the 'moment', we had the second set of infernals spawn while a group was still in the Nether.  Our Warlock thought it would be really helpful to Banish one of them to buy us some time.
Oh dear... if you Banish the infernal, it still gains energy and casts the massive raid AoE.  Wipe.

The third time was the charm. 
We were through the tricky moment with everyone alive and a res in hand.
Archimonde's health was dropping fast but we started to lose people.
First, our Boomkin and our 'Void' hunter died to a breaking chain.
Another hunter succumbed to an infernal he was kiting which, with it's dying breath, also took out yours truly as I returned from the third Nether.

The infernals were dead though, we were on the final stretch!
I ankhed and we ressed the first hunter.  He had been doing an amazing job, virtually soloing the Living Shadows, and we needed him for the final push.

Suicide group for the last Nether... Kitty made it in this time!
6%
5%
Rain of Chaos started... Ignore it!  Blow everything you have and stay on the boss!
4%
3%
2%
1%
The cheers began!
We had him and we knew it!
0%
Woohoo!


An awesome night progressing towards then finally getting the kill!
This is what raiding is all about!

To add the cherry on top, I also won the Heroic trinket (with socket) and our Monk healers both passed to let me have my BiS weapon, the Mace.  Thanks guys!  :-)

Thursday 1 October 2015

Terrifying Devil-Bears...

I was questing through Duskwood the other day on my lowbie warrior.

Full heirlooms and music playing in the background (The Raconteurs if you are interested... Jack White is a legend!) so not really paying much attention as people do these days on their umpteenth alt. 

I had done enough quests to move on to the next zone but decided to fully complete this one and see the end of the storylines.
 
I often do this with alts, fully complete a zone I haven't done for a while then skip that zone completely on the next alt... and this is probably why my alts often stop for a time in the expansions, they just don't have the options of levelling routes.

Anyway, back in Duskwood, I opened up the Raven Hill cemetery quests and was asked to go kill some bears. 
(I've never heard of people eating bear meat outside of Azeroth but it seems to be somewhat of a delicacy, maybe I'll ask for it in my local Waitrose.)

I was hit by a sudden recollection from my Warcraft past!  These bloody bears!
Back in the day, before I found the joys of Shamanism, my first ever char was a (not so) sneaky Rogue. 

He was questing merrily through Westfall, minding his own business, when he stumbled across all these bears with skulls on their portraits.  Not knowing what this meant, and feeling quite powerful having just got a new dagger, he charged in!
And died.  Fast.

Hmmm... release, run back, try again.  Dead.

Ok, I think I'll leave these bears alone.

Release, run back, get attacked by a bear. Dead.
Release, run back, run two yards, get attacked by a bear. Dead.
Release, run back, run two yards, get attacked by a bear. Dead.

Uh-oh.

It took me forty minutes to make it out of those woods then swim across the river before those bears left me alone.  I was astounded!
What were these devil-bears?  How was anyone supposed to kill them?

I couldn't wait to tell my friend about them when he logged on (my only friend in WoW at that time), these terrifying bears that killed you with one swipe of their massive paws. 
He was at level cap, I wanted to see if he could kill one.

As it happens, I forgot about it for a couple of days and just carried on levelling. 
My rogue was level 40 when I remembered about the terrifying devil-bears and I dragged my friend (through Westfall and over the river) to see them.

They weren't there! 
There were just some normal bears milling around (which had a proper level number instead of a skull on their portrait!) and I could kill them easily.

But they were right here, I insisted. 
Ah well, they've gone now.

It was quite some time before I worked out what had actually happened that day, where they came from, and why they disappeared, but I'll never forgot those terrifying devil-bears.

My Warrior killed a few extra just in case some other poor soul had wandered off the path.

Moral of the story:  You don't know what you don't know until you know it.