The Future is in the Maelstrom...

Exciting times for the Elemental Shaman!

For the full preview, click here.

For so long it has been one of the simplest specs to play, the only complexity coming from the shared shock cooldown and the occasional talent or glyph selection.

But no more!

We have a Resource!!!

We've always had mana but it's never actually mattered to us. 
In fact, the last time I remember mana being an issue was when I got carried away healing the blobs on Immerseus back in SoO.

Now we have a real resource... Focus!  Er, I mean... Maelstrom!

It will work much like Focus currently works for Hunters or Rage for Warriors, some spells generate Maelstrom while some consume it.

The generators will be Lightning Bolt, Lava Burst and Chain Lightning which makes perfect sense to me. 
They form the core of our rotation and it seems that won't change.
We will still cast LvB on cooldown, still cast Earth shock to prevent x from capping, still fill with LB.

The really interesting part so far is how much Maelstrom those spells are going to generate. 
The class preview, which obviously might change in the many moons between now and launch, has them generating 15 Maelstrom each plus any Mastery procs.

(Ooh... Mastery! 
In WoD, they took away our Mastery and gave it to everyone in the form of Multistrike. 
Now they are removing Multistrike and giving it back to us!)

The Mastery proc takes it up to 26.25 per cast so we will be generating, and therefore spending, our Maelstrom at an incredible rate!

Assuming a cap of 100 Maelstrom, we will want to Earth Shock at 75+ to avoid capping if our next spell procs Mastery.

That equates to a maximum of 5 casts between Earth Shocks so the whole cycle of building then dumping Maelstrom will take a maximum of 10 seconds!

In reality, there will likely be a Mastery proc or two along the way or some other generator in play such as the Maelstrom Totem, and that cycle will be reduced to 6 -8 seconds.

Although the rotation will look similar to the current one, the speed of that cycle will increase the relative number of instant cast spells and the playstyle will be feel much more dynamic.

This relative increase in instant casts is accentuated even further by Flame Shock ticking every two seconds instead of every three which should lead to more Lava Surge procs.

More instant casts and the long-awaited removal of the shock cooldown, will also make a huge difference to our movement...

Spiritwalker's Grace has always handled the planned, extended movement in fights but it's the short bursts of movement that normally leave us struggling, often with nothing to cast at all.

These frequently come in the guise of random-target abilities or ground effects and a succession of them, such as Kilrogg's Death Throes, would be especially difficult for us to handle outside of SWG.

Now we will always have Earth Shock available so we can cast it with any movement and that, or a stutter-step approach of LB, ES, LB, ES and so on, can take care of most circumstances.

If all else fails, Flame Shock can be cast at zero Maelstrom so is spammable in extreme situations, or even if you just need to cast two instants back to back.

It won't do astounding dps but means we always have a spell available and, more importantly, decisions to make!

This is how to improve gameplay without fundamentally changing a class, well done Blizzard!

Hunters are Changing...?

Much is changing for the hunters yet not really changing at the same time.

In a 'bold' move to allow each spec to have it's own identity, Blizzard have looked at three Hunter archetypes and moulded the specs to match.

Survival...
Has the biggest changes by far as they are essentially removing the spec completely and replacing it with a melee spec.

The new spec takes on the mantle of the old-fashioned tracker/trapper, using their woodcraft skills to trap their targets before going in for the kill at close combat.

A perfect fit for the Survival spec and maybe something they should have done long ago.

Beast Mastery...
This is the closest to the original WoW hunter concept and is undergoing the least amount of change.
 
Closely attuned to the beasts of the land, with them fighting for you while you protect them and pick off enemies from afar.

Having one spec working so closely with the pets should allow Blizzard to really explore and add depth to the relationship, with them truly working together to take down their enemies.

Marksmanship...
So clearly being directed towards the Legolas fantasy archer and that old elf didn't have a pet so now, neither does MM.

This spec is the combination sniper and all-action super elf of Tolkein's design.  Able to target weak spots in an enemy's armour with precision shots or unleash hell around them with a hail of arrows.

All three specs sound fantastic and really live up to the fantasy archetypes.
The focus (no pun intended) and direction that each spec has should allow more depth into that playstyle which will only further increase the differentiation between the specs

What's the problem?
Well... the main problem is that the Hunter class already exists.
 
If this was a new class, we would be lauding it's design and the variety between the specs of a pure damage dealer, living up to different hunter 'fantasies' we all know and love.

But it's not a new spec. 
It is the most popular spec in the game.
Which puts Blizzard in a very difficult position.

Everyone will admit that hunters needed some differentiation between the specs but Blizzard need to implement it in a way that doesn't alienate the huge Hunter population that already loves the class as it is.

The MM rapid-fire style is likely to be accentuated and have more depth which old MMers, who have chosen the spec for that reason, will love.

But what about those MMers that also loved their pet?
Or the BMers that loved their pets but also like the rapid-fire style?

Will enough of it be incorporated into BM to meet the expectations of those players?
Will enough of SV be preserved in MM talents (as they say it will be) to allow that old playstyle?

It's these crossover cases that Blizzard need to think about, not just the people who are completely behind one aspect of their spec.

While the changes truly bring in definitive identities they do so at the cost of the subtle nuances that already differentiated the specs to long-time hunters.

Can Blizzard balance the playstyles well enough for people to overcome that loss?

If not, players will really have to think about which aspect of being a Hunter is most important to them, because they will certainly have to make the decision.

Legion is coming... eventually

Let's get the moaning off our chests and out of the way to clear up some space for hype and excitement.

So... September 2016.

That's a long wait for some new content.

Some people are desperately clinging to the 'on or before' section of the announcement but I'm not sure why.  Past evidence suggests the 'or before' will be weeks rather than months and that just brings it forward to August 2016.

August 2016...

That's still a long wait for some new content.

I just feel an over-riding sense of being let down by Blizzard here.
All those comments about how they understood that 5.4 was unacceptably long and they wouldn't allow it to happen again just feel like hollow platitudes.

What happened Blizzard?
Either you didn't mean it and intended to deceive your players?
Or you are inept and unable to fulfil your promises?
Which is it?

All of my excitement for Blizzcon drained away almost instantly with that date.
After all, nothing announced at Blizzcon is even relevant to me and will likely have undergone massive changes by the time it finally reaches us.

Confusion, betrayal, anger, dismay... I feel like a dog that's just been kicked by it's owner.
The hype and excitement will have to wait.

Top 5 Raid Bosses in WoD...

The approaching Blizzcon should give us plenty to look forward to so I think now is an excellent opportunity to look back for a moment.

One aspect that most people agree Blizzard got right in WoD is the raiding so here is a list of my favourite bosses of the expansion.

Disclaimer:  This list is completely subjective based on my own opinions of the design and how much fun I had killing them on Heroic difficulty. 

Number 5 - Shadow-Lord Iskar

I loved the whole 'Eye of Anzu' concept and I think it was built it into the fight perfectly.  The winds were hilarious at times and the other abilities kept the healers and tanks busy.

When they come up with ideas like this it makes me wish Fatboss and the like didn't exist. 

Can you imagine how great it would have been to experience this fight without knowing the mechanics in advance? 

How much fun it would be to work out the uses of the Eye?

The amount of knowledge available to us, and the way it affects our play, is a discussion for another day though... on to the other parts of the fight!

 

The Fel Incineration was what I consider personal responsibility done right, with mistakes or slow reactions making the fight harder rather than instant death/wipe... who am I kidding, it's all about the eye.

The only disappointment in the fight is the ending, the final 20% just feels easy once the last set of adds dies.  Maybe there should have been an enrage or something.

Number 4 - Imperator Mar'gok

This fight was incredible!

An amazing test of awareness, skill, positioning, solo- and group-movement, prioritising targets and concentration... pretty much every aspect of raiding was tested in this one fight.

Add in a near-perfect difficulty curve as the fight progressed and this is up there as one of the best designed bosses of all time, truly fitting of an end of raid boss.

Two drawbacks prevent this boss being higher on the list...

First, it was so bloody long. 

Each time we wiped, it seemed to take forever to get back to that position in the fight to hopefully progress and learn a bit more.

I think our first kill on Heroic was at around the 13 minute mark.

Second, who the hell is Imperator Mar'gok?

For the last boss of a raid, we knew virtually nothing about him.

Number 3 - Oregorger

It's a giant rolling Goren, what's not to love?

We had a lot of fun with George, particularly in his rolling phase.  Some of our team just couldn't work it out, or would lose sight of him at crucial times, and be crushed over and over as he rolled around.

One night we even made all the ones who repeatedly failed the rolling phase just follow me around to stay safe.  Of course, I then started making mistakes and killed even more people. 

This boss was just plain good fun.

 

Number 2 - Socrethar the Eternal

I may have moaned once or twice about this guy but it's not the boss that's at fault, it's usually the people trying to kill him.

I think the fight is beautifully designed with the Construct and it's abilities synergising perfectly with the rest of the fight. 

And considering the fight revolves so much around that Construct, they did an amazing job of making the rest of the raid just as relevant.

I often get frustrated by people's lack of awareness or poor positioning but, even when everyone is on the same page, this fight is still quite challenging and a lot of fun.

 Number 1 - Twin Ogron

 

Probably in a minority here but I loved this fight! 

 

The blending of the abilities was great, particularly with the separation mechanic challenging you to tank them as close together as you dared.

 

Personal responsibility was high but, again, there was some forgiveness there.  Failing mechanics once didn't outright kill you, it just made it harder.

 

A stack or two from the fire, one or two people not making it into the Enfeebling Roar etc. made the fight more difficult but you could recover.  And I think the line drawn before it became too hard was judged perfectly, particularly for a fight with so much happening at any one time.

 

The fight also allowed opportunities to shine with excellent play, the best example being our rogue who used a combination of OP rogue abilities and his own skill to maintain 100% uptime on the bosses while other people just tried to stay alive. 

 

All in all, a fantastic test of positioning, awareness, movement and coordination, and I loved every minute of it.

 

Incidentally, one of very few fights I have completed in all 4 roles.

 

(The fight was easier if you tanked the bosses near the door but we never used that tactic.  We were also at the right gear level to make that 'forgiveness line' absolutely perfect.  If either gear or tactics made the fight easier, my opinion would probably be different.)

 

Honourable Mentions...

Hans & Franz and Thogar were both lots of fun but I found the 'gimmick' for each fight to be too... well, gimmicky I suppose.

 

Blackhand and Archimonde are both 'final bosses' and should be judged to a different standard as far as I am concerned.  Archimonde doesn't meet that standard for me but Blackhand was very close to making the list.  

We didn't kill it though, and it also spelled the end of my time with that guild, so it's more personal reasons than design ones.

 

I hope you like the list... let me know if you agree or disagree. 

 

What were your top 5 bosses in Warlords of Draenor?

 







Mythic Hellfire Assault...

We have had 2 nights of progress (spread over 3 or 4 weeks) on this "boss"... it is causing us a few problems for something that is, for most Mythic guilds, just glorified trash.

But we wipe more to trash than the bosses anyway so it shouldn't be too much of a surprise.

Our first night was very painful... I don't think the right preparation had been done by anyone really, almost as if they expected to walk all over it like the Heroic version.
This might not be the most difficult of Mythic fights but it is huge step up from the AoE-fest of Heroic on farm.

So many attempts have ended with one of our tanks dying, closely followed by the rest of the team on that side of the fight... but the underlying causes were quite varied.

The most disappointing ones were people dying to bombs.  It's failing these basics that always frustrates me, and the lack of responsibility as people blame the tanks for not moving the boss away from them.
Yes, the tank should move the boss/adds away from the bombs.
No, you can't blame the tank if you don't move.

Stupid 'stood in the fire' deaths aside and the fight is really interesting for our team.
We obviously don't have the skill level to just blast through it like 'real' Mythic raid teams so we have to be creative.

The whole fight rests on balancing single target damage on the priority target with AoE or cleave to bring down the other targets. 
Easy in principle but the difficulty comes in with the Felcallers.

If we push one of them below 50% while the Berserker is still alive, the combination of damage is easily enough to kill the tank.  Or we focus the Felcaller down and the tank takes too many stacks and dies from the Berserker anyway.

So we have a window between Berserkers to push the Felcallers below 50% and kill them, but we also need to kill the Siege Engine in this window.

I'm sure better guilds than us can do just that... Kill the Berserker, kill the siege engine, kill the felcallers... before the next Berserker spawns but we just can't bring that much dps.

So we have to cleave.

And this is the challenge (and the fun) of the fight.

Single target enough so that the Berserker dies before it kills the tank.
Cleave enough so that we can kill off the Felcallers and Siege Engine in the window between Berserkers
Don't cleave so much that Felcallers are pushed outside of the window.
AoE enough to take care of the other adds.

I know we have the overall dps to kill the boss, after all, I've killed it before
and our dps is better than those early days, even with the difference in skill level.
So it is just about getting that dps in the right places at the right times.

I think much of the responsibility for this lies with the tanks.

Some classes, mainly the DoT classes, can dps all things equally regardless of where they are stood.  The rest of us rely on proximity for our cleave.

Earthquake may be one of the best Cleave/AoE spells in the game but, if the mobs are not stood in it, it does nothing at all.  The same applies to almost all melee classes, Blade Flurry being a prime example.

I can choose to place my EQ so that it only covers some mobs, the rogue can position himself so that only some mobs are hit by the Blade Flurry, but the mobs have to be close for us to make that decision.

So I think the tanks are the only ones who can have true control over the cleave. 
Their movement and positioning is what will determine whether cleaving is an option, then it's up to us dps to decide when it's the right option and how much of it to do. 

And I think this was a major drawback for us in our attempts, we weren't always given the option to cleave and ended up trying to complete a series of single target burn phases back to back.
We weren't capable of doing that so we either got overwhelmed by smaller adds or a priority target lived too long and killed people, usually a Berserker killing a tank.

To be fair to our tanks, I don't think they trusted our dps to hold back on cleave at the right times and they probably have a point. 
I think it would have been easier to sort that issue out over the night though, rather than continue to pursue an approach that was beyond our ability and hope for miraculously different outcomes.

We did make some progress but it was painfully slow and we rarely made it to the halfway point, when the big adds and the transporter come in, in good shape.

One side is much more difficult than the other side, with an extra pair of Felcallers to deal with, and that side struggled every time.

The easier side was running very smoothly by the end of the night and the last attempt was as close to perfect as you can get, killing the final siege engine just before the transporter arrived.

The hard side though, never really came to terms with that balancing act (which is far more important with the extra Felcallers) so we never got close to the kill.

I think we will do better next time but, with the current roster issues, I have no idea when that next time will be.

If anyone has any tips for this fight, or 5 spare Mythic raiders lying around, please feel free to comment.

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,

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!