The Sneetches, WoW style!

With the news of incoming faction changes, the only thing that I could think of was Dr. Seuss.

One of the earliest stories I remember reading is that of the Sneetches. The gist, for those of you that don’t know, is there are 2 kinds of Sneetches, those with stars on their stomachs and those without. The ones with stars look down on the ones without to create a separatist culture. A machine that adds stars becomes available and the story takes off from there. If you have never read or seen it, please take the time to do so. Seuss was a genius and much of his work will live forever.

I am still in awe at how Dr. Seuss was able to hit on timeless social issues and do so without children knowing they are being subjected to commentary.

At the end of the story, the Sneetches are all confused as to whether they started with stars of not, and learn a valuable lesson about judging those that are not like you.

Anyone else think that after changing factions, learning you may have liked your old faction more, then changing back, the only thing we will be left with is an empty wallet from the charge of faction changing and maybe the knowledge that there are elitist pigs that play for the Alliance, and some immature jack asses that play for the Horde?

Seriously, how different can the factions possibly at this stage in the game?

-Rhab

Bernie Madoff, Exodus, and their respective Fjucked up Justice Systems

First off, Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison, and all I can say is who the hell cares. It is hardly a fitting punishment for a guy that stole billions of dollars. If I had my way, and I was forced to recognize the eighth amendment, I would have happily sentenced him to spending the rest of his days in nursing home with his less affluent peers and working as a door greeter at Wal-Mart. Even that right wing GW pawn whack job John Roberts would have little say on the punishment. It would be tough to convince anyone that such a sentence could be cruel or unusual when we subject many of our seniors to such a lifestyle everyday. Instead, Madoff will serve a 150 year sentence like he’s going to live as long as Abraham in the Old Testament, and his wife is working on keeping enough money to maintain her current lifestyle.

Oh ya, this is definitely justice.

In WoW related news, Exodus has been given a 72 hour ban for what Blizzard has deemed a cheat. Exodus has released an official statement on their site. Now, there have been several reports that Exodus remained silent about the bug, but the official statement say that a ticket was in fact submitted. If Exodus is to be believed, and there is little evidence to suggest otherwise, then the accusations of “bad form” are completely unfounded. Let’s assume for a second that they bug report never happened, then yes, Exodus is indeed guilty of bad form. The problem is that bad form doesn’t violate the ToS. If it did, every jack ass in trade spamming Obamanation, hitting people with their STFU truck, or begging for runs through DM would receive 72 hour bans.

So what did Exodus do wrong? Well they exploited an in game bug. To some people, like the Ensidia fanboys, this is different than exploiting a game mechanic. Freya trash for Hodir is ok because, well, that was a coding error that allowed mages to spellsteal a buff and pump out nasty DPS that wasn’t intended to happen. Using an evade mechanic, well that’s not ok because it wasn’t intended to happen. HUH? It becomes even more confusing if you believe that Exodus did in fact report the bug to Blizzard.

Though I have yet to see how Ensidia knew about the bug and was able to call out Exodus on it when Exodus had not released any information about the kill, one of the most basic conspiracies is that someone at Blizzard tipped off Ensidia. This, of course, then reinforces the idea that Exodus has the integrity to report the bug. I know, I know, they had the integrity after they “exploited” the bug, but that is not uncommon in the World of Warcraft firsts, so get off my ass because that is as much integrity that is ever expected from the world’s top guilds. Can anyone else hear Ice-T? “Don’t hate the playa, hate the game.”

Ensidia has become my little sister. She constantly annoys you, and does things you know that you know if you were caught doing, you would have the shit knocked outta you, but you don’t go whining to mom and dad because snitches are even more annoying. When you finally do something of a similar nature, she goes running to mom and dad and you get in trouble. I, for one, am completely elated that Blizzard has decided to treat Ensidia like a 7 y/o little girl who gets upset and cries and whines. They have, essentially, knocked the shit out of Exodus, then turned around, put on their happy face and patted Ensidia on the head and said, “there, there, you will get the world firsts, don’t you worry.” I can only imagine how they plan to handle Ensidia when they are old enough to start menstruating. Let’s hope Blizzard knows what PMS on an overly spoiled 14 y/o is like, and if they don’t, well all the better.

Oh ya, this definitely justice too.

I can’t wait until daddies little girl Ensidia breaks papa Blizzards heart when she decides to start dating boys. Anyone else think she has her eye on a certain maturing Old Republic?

-Rhab

Petition for Strength Improvements Part 2; Tanks

Does anyone remember the old BoS? It used to provide a flat damage reduction of x every time you were hit (this includes blocked hits). There were several ranks and each added more damage reduction. Though as I describe it now, it sounds somewhat like a cool talent, you can see just how useless it actually was if you don’t remember.

Back in WotLK beta, it was changed, and subsequently went live with 3.0 to what we know and love today. The 3.2 patch notes have it getting a major buff so that it will also increase stamina by 10% but the stamina buff will not stack with BoK.

The major change is it reduced all damage taken by a flat 3%. On trash this could or could not have been a nerf, but on bosses it was all out buff. Now every block would reduce damage taken by 3% for a pally that was block capped. All other attacks would either miss, be dodged, or parried. It would also reduce all incoming damage to others who were blessed, but we aren’t really worried about them at the moment.

The sanctuary change was a move in the right direction, and it if implemented correctly is the change block needs.

Currently BV is a raw number, but instead of making it a value make and calling it block value, turn it into a rating system and call it BVR, or block value rating. Paladins (and warriors too I guess) will still have block rating, but they could use BVR instead of block value.

BVR could work off strength the way BV does, but it could provide a percentage damage reduction based on the rating. The rating could also be added to the block on shields and as an additional stat on gear. It doesn’t change the itemization we have now; it only allows block to be more valuable. Health pool could remain unique. Any pally tank who has been around can tell you they have had at one time or another had to defend their HP pool. That won’t happen anymore and in the process you could allow a break from all tanks having to look the same. The great druid health nerf could have been avoided, the incoming DK health nerf could have been avoided, and all you had to do was change block to do what it was supposed to do.

Imagine a pally tank with 5k less health than a DK, but who is going to take 5-25% less damage based on his BVR. Warriors would still need to remain higher than paladins because they can’t reach the block cap anymore (or I have not seen one anyway). Druids and DKs would still have to fight it out over who gets the most health, and I am sure that savage defense would have to see some changes, but taking less damage should be the purpose of block.

While we are changing block, can we all admit that block can reduce magic damage? If a mage sends a frost bolt headed my way and I throw up my shield and the bolt hits my shield and not my head, then my arm is going to probably be really fucking cold from the transfer of cold from the bolt, to the shield (probably made of metal and has a low specific heat), to my arm (that is holding the shield), but it is going to reduce the damage that I would take. If I am standing and get caught in a cone of shadow damage and it moves around my shield and into my personal space, I will have taken much less damage than had I not used the shield to, well, shield me. What fantasy world is Azeroth in that shields cannot block magic? I don’t expect shields to block the kind of magical damage that they do for physical attacks, but I do expect it to block some of it, and I expect it to do it when I need it most, when some big billy bad ass in end game wants to put me on my back and send me home in a body bag.

Think this is such a ridiculous claim? Why in the world is a warrior in his 4 piece T8 set allowed to eat some of the magic damage? Hello, because shields can eat some of the magic damage!

If GC and company do have plans for changing block, my only hope is they do so while still allowing paladins to reach the block cap.

-Rhab

Petition for Strength Improvements Part 1; DPS

As always, this weeks Care and Feeding of Warriors always has me wishing I actually enjoyed playing a warrior. Rossi hit on a few things, but mostly his comments about making strength a more valued are what hit home.

I know he probably wouldn’t be completely excited that a paladin is screaming the same thing, but the reality is that str needs some work. Most mail has multiple stats on it. Agility, intel, stam for main stats and some combination of hit, crit, attack power, and armor pen for secondary stats. Why in the world do plate wearers get screwed on stats? On top of agility doing double duty by providing AP and crit for mail wearers, I don’t know a single enhance shammie or hunter that doesn’t have int perform double duty and offer more resource as well as talent to allow it to bump AP.

Str needs buffed and it can do so in ways that it will bump some secondary stat while not making it OP. See the glory of talents is they can be tuned to correctly provide Blizzard’s intended benefit. Too high and the talent can be tuned down, too low and it gets turned up, just right and Goldilocks falls asleep in your bed (if you know what I mean).

In today’s DK Q&A, GC stated that the devs liked variety in plate gear and it was ok for one spec to value things like armor pen, haste, and crit over other specs, so why not fold the stats they want you to have into something you already stack? And what do plate wearers stack? Well DPS plate wearers are stacking STR. You could probably find a warrior, 6 dk, and 3 pallies in the dark corners of Ironforge performing certain favors for shady jewel crafter willing to make them Bold Scarlet Rubies if you look hard enough.

I AM NOT ADVOCATIONG MORE PLATE DROPS! There is enough shit in the loot tables that cause enough people to raise and eye brow and say, “WTF” already. Last night after downing Auriaya the Archaedas' Lost Legplates dropped and no one really knew who they were intended for. They have some pretty nice tanking stats but I don’t know many tanks that can afford some legplates with NO defense on them. They are lacking any of the real DPS stats for the other plate wearers and so everyone was trying to figure out why no one else wanted them. What I am advocating is allowing talents to boost the secondary stats that each spec wants.

Make deep tree talents that look like “increases armor pen by x/y/z of your strength.” It can be done effectively with all the DPS trees and though they run the risk of all looking alike, who the hell cares. They would be raw stat boosting talents, and you could either attach them to more class specific talents so things don’t get watered down, though there is little evidence to show that Blizzard isn’t already watering down the classes. To those who will ask how someone who complains about the homogenization of classes advocate more of it, I will answer, “if you can’t beat’em, join’em, and hope they do it right.” This will help with cluttered loot tables and holding DKP until you get the one drop that’s really worth its dps boost for you. Leave the 6 stat gear to the mail wearers, but let the plate wearers get more stats for their iLvl buck.

-Rhab

Lumberjack Rogues Huh?

After reading Chase Christian’s Encrypted Text column, I have to say there are far larger ramifications for one handed melee classes.

Look, I think axes are great, but as a pally dorf chick, they just seem a little sleek for me. I have always been disappointed in the lack of tanking maces, and in my opinion, tanks should have a good mace. They are head bashing and brutal, none of this slice and dice shit like rogues do. They unforgiving and face smashing, and what better way to return the favor of getting your faced smashed in than with a little quid pro quo?

Axes look good on shaman, they look good on deathknights, they look good on hunters and as far as rogues using an ax, well, I tend to agree with GC when he says they are likely to “pick up anything in a fight.” They are sneaky resourceful bastards who would shank you in the big house if you didn’t let them call you Sally and dress you pretty.

So now axes are a pretty inarguable DPS weapon. This leaves swords and maces as the other 1 handers of choice. Maces and swords will remain healing and dps weapons respectively, but they are also the tanking weapons. Paladins feel more true to lore when swinging a mighty mace and slamming their holy shield into the face of foes. Swords are great, and I have no doubt there will continue to be tanking swords at every corner, but I am hoping that the fallout from the ax change leaves more maces with tanking stats for all the paladins out there.

-Rhab

On Epic Phailure and Being a Kid Again

So I took the plunge and changed guilds. I only did so with Rhab because there is little opportunity to gear up 10 toons with raid gear. You have to focus on one, and the paladin has been my favorite since she was about level 40 and I got holy shield and could AoE grind my way to victory.

So last night I was trying to get into Blackwing Lair after soloing Onyxia because I decided that I really want my T2 set. It’s the most bad ass pally set in the game, and really sets you apart from the other classes. On my way to Blackrock Mountain, I got a tell from Devine asking my tanking stats and if I wanted to OT Ulduar.

I let him know my stats but that I had never been in there, and that I wasn’t really prepared for any raiding. I need a new headset; I needed to read up on Ulduar fights, hell I didn’t have any flasks. I had signed up to raid Naxx Thursday, and really was going to spend tonight getting all my shit together because last night I was dragging the better half to a midnight opening of Transformers.

All I can is that I should have declined. There is nothing quite so humbling as wiping on a boss 3 times in a row and knowing it is because of you. It became even worse when it is your first time with a new guild and you know they are probably evaluating you. I never come unprepared, even when I suck it up, and I am pretty sure that those all those fucking adds needed on Ignis was a taunt macro. EPIC PHAIL was the only word I can use to describe last night and I was pissed and disappointed that I didn’t have a better first time showing. As much as Ulduar could have ruined my night (though I’m still pretty disappointed in myself), there was little any amount of failure could take away from my excitement for the opening of Transformers.

Growing up, nothing compared to my Transformers. Friends of mine had GI Joe and He-Man toys and they would often be seen shooting them with their BB guns. I was always horrified at this. My Transformers weren’t even really played with. They sat on a shelf, would come down to be transformed, and then I would spend the next 2 hours setting up a diorama of the battle scene in my head. That would usually be seen on my shelf for about 2 weeks and then I would do it again. No one was allowed to touch them, my little brother is 7 years younger than me and the minute he graduated from the crib in my parent's room to my room that we shared until I left for A&M, he was given a quick lesson in how bubba would kick his ass if he touched the Transformers.

I remember the original animated Transformers movie being the first real movie that I wanted to go see in the theater, and like would be expected, I remember tearing up when Prime died. All of those feelings came back again last night. I was a little kid in the theater watching Transformers like it was the first movie I had ever seen. I won’t ruin anything for anyone who plans on seeing it, but Michael Bay spared no expense and it shows. It is a live action two and a half hour epic that could be any episode of the original series. Decepticons are after energy, the Autobots have to stop them, and conflict ensues. I have not seen an epic battle scene like the one in Revenge of the Fallen since Braveheart.

After my night in Ulduar, it felt good to be a kid again.

-Rhab

Judgement Day Cometh

HELL YEAHS! A list of preliminary changes for paladins is out for 3.2 and I am extremely excited. Please remember that the one pally spec I do not play is holy, and it looks like they are getting hit pretty hard based on some comments I read, but even some of those changes look to be a bit more advantageous in some situations. I won’t pretend I know jack shit about pally healing and will leave those thoughts to a more qualified individual.

Currently, we think paladin tanks are almost there and that they just need slightly better cooldowns to handle some of the tougher boss fights. Rather than add a new ability that felt like a clone of another class’s ability, we decided to buff an existing talent that was no longer cutting it. Ardent Defender has two important changes. The first is that the damage can no longer “skip over” the 35% health level – it will always be reduced. Secondly, it has a new effect that if a blow would kill you, it instead sets you to 30% health. This portion of the ability cannot occur more than once every 2 minutes. Think of it as a Last Stand that you don’t have to push.

I am reminded of Psalms 75:10 “will cut off all the horns of the wicked, but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up,” and I hope these change will bring paladin tanks more in line with the others with regard to “oh shit” situations. The best thing about ardent defender is you could save your divine protection until after the proc and use them at the same time. I will be interested to see how exactly it alters paladin tanking, but it looks exceptionally sexy. The auto proc is pretty interesting as well, and I am sure there will be plenty of comments about how paladin tanking is ZOMFG EZ MODE tanking already, but any command that doesn’t have to be sent has both advantages and disadvantages and I will not complain because a perk is a perk.

A second change to Protection is we want to make sure Blessing of Sanctuary is always the tanking blessing of choice. A likely change here is to have it boost stamina as well.

This is a welcome change as well. I know that the general rule has been to run with kings when you are on correct level content and to use sanctuary when outgear the content, but since the beta of WotLK, it was pretty apparent that Blizzard intended for sanctuary to be the tanking blessing, and that it just wasn’t sexy enough with all the perks that kings carried with it.

And now to pat myself on the back a little bit…

If you will note, I previously posted on the forums about potential ret changes and said. “As far as the ret tree goes, isn’t part of the problem compliments provided by a rotation? You specifically pointed to using ice lance after a freeze, or an earth shock (maybe instacast lightning) with Stormstrike. Where are the teases to get ret paladins to work with in what become perk parameters like the previous examples? Maelstrom weapon is a beautiful ability. For numerous reasons, but one of the ones that sticks out is because it allows a hybrid to choose what they will do with their stack. Art of War doesn’t do that. It gives you a free ability that you have to heal with. Shaman get to choose what they are going to do with that stack, and that makes it exponentially more fun. “

LO AND BEHOLD, the incoming change to exorcism…

First, Exorcism has a cast time of 1.5 seconds but can be used on players again. This will let paladins use it in PvP, but not while moving towards a target. Second, we are changing The Art of War to make not only Flash of Light instant, but also Exorcism. Choose healing or damage. Paladins will have to watch for this proc and use Exorcism when it happens. The spell itself is still ranged, but the proc will only occur when the paladin is already in melee.

Looks like some of the fellas at Blizzard understand that combos are fun and that Maelstrom weapon is extremely fun for a hybrid because it allows them to choose which part of being a hybrid is most important in any given situation.

3.2 is looking to be one hell of a patch, and I can’t with until it hits the PTR.

-Rhab

“as if you had consumed an orb”…

Those are the words of every WoW player's favorite marine biologist, and they will change the lives of resto shaman everywhere.

Along with the Nethaera’s news about totem changes, GC released some comments on resto shaman changes headed our way in the next major content patch. One of them revolves around the IWS, and they are alleviating the concern that I expressed in an earlier post about the proc. It will no longer use your water shield orbs, and instead will only proc and act “as if you had consumed the orb.”

No more wasting time with reapplying your water shield, and as long as you don’t burn those charges with incoming damage, you won’t have to worry about keeping it up anymore!

Maybe it’s time to level the shaman to 80, but I have recently fallen in love with DK tanking and have been actively working on my night elf DK to serve as the Arnold Schwarzenegger twin to my Danny Devito paladin.

-Rhab

ALLLLLLLLLLL ABBBOOAAARRRRDDDDD!!!

When 3.2 hits, there is going to be one really nice present for all the lowbies, and it’s a revamped mount system reducing costs and levels required to saddle up and travel around!

I have a secret, and it’s that I’m an alt whore. There is the druid and pally that both started as alts but have transitioned to my mains. There is the 76 lock, the 76 hunter, the 75 shaman, the 69 mage, the 67 (as of this morning) DK, the 66 rogue, and the 55 priest. The other part of that secret is that I just can’t play a warrior. I try and never really can get into it. My warrior is level 20, she’s a dorf chick like Rhab, but there is little chance that I will really actively level her. I don’t know why, but they just don’t seem that fun. Maybe that will change one day, but as it stands, it’s a class I just can’t appreciate playing.

Flying mounts will, undoubtedly, help in Outland, but because TBC was released as a much more refined product, it is really just a perk. If anyone has ever leveled an alliance player in Ashenvale, they can tell you that the quests are quirky and neurotic. Go to one side of the map then back to the town, then to the other side of the map, then travel all the way north along until you hit the cave then travel all the way back to a FP so you can hop back to the middle of the map. IT SUCKS ASS!

The flying around Outland is cool, but it’s not necessary. Anyone with half a brain can quest in Outland and do anywhere from 3 to 9 quests at a time. I had 8 this morning in Zangar that I turned in for the DK between the Cenarion Refuge and Telredor. The zones are set up perfectly and transitioning from one quest hub to the next feels seamless. Blizzard did even better in Northrend than they did in OL, as many of the quests that send you from one hub to the other often do so via a flightmaster. Kudos to Blizz, as I often rip them for being a team of fart smellers and hardly give them credit for the good job they do on a game I thoroughly enjoy.

Earlier ground mounts in the old world is GAME CHANGING. Gone will be the days where a player spends an hour walking from the Barrens to Tanaris for the first time. Best case scenario before you had your first mount, but now when you ding 40 you can fly down there on a speedy ground mount and start questing. No more walking for the alliance player who wishes to get a charity run through SFK all the way from IF through the Wetlands past Southshore and to the keep. The level 52-58 lull that I still seem to get caught in will be much easier as you ride up and down Felwood turning in the quests, collecting meat to level cooking, and ridding the world of corrupted Furbolg while snatching their feathers for rep with the hold.

Azeroth will be a better place for this change and Blizzard should be thanked a million times over.

/thank you

-Rhab

So the Fat Dorf Girls Says to the Spacegoat…

“You complete me”

So the shaman Q&A is out and it has some pretty interesting discussion points in it, but one that really stuck out to me was the shaman paladin dichotomy.

As envisioned from the start, shamans were also the “offensive” hybrid. Things have inevitably blurred a bit since then, but they are still a counterpart and complement to paladins – paladins have cleanse, shamans have purge; paladins will let an ally move freely to escape or catch an opponent, shamans will snare an enemy to let their ally escape or catch him or her; paladins will make sure their allies’ casts aren’t interrupted, shamans will interrupt enemy casts; and so forth.

We all know that paladins and shaman where faction specific classes back in vanilla, but to still maintain the counterpart and complement strategy (C&C), would lead many to believe one of the best 2v2 teams should be a paladin/shaman. C&C would imply that each brings the tools the other needs to really shine. Think Hand of Freedom paired with Earthbind Totem. If Blizzard insists on balancing brackets, they really should start here. With 10 classes, the 2v2 SHOULD work on pairing system. We all know that certain groups dominate arena performance, so instead of pretending like that’s not the case, why not just take the classes and pair them up and work on encouraging players to work with other classes. Team philosophies could extend out to specs, and instead of Blizzard pretending that all classes should have a fighting chance in the arena game that they insist on promoting, they could then center the arenas around class makeups. If you are too stupid to pair up with your correct compliment, then you deserve to die at the hands of an equally skilled team that insured they had the correct makeup.

The “bring the player not the class” can then reach across the aisle from PVE to embrace PVP. All teams need w, x, y, and z. If your pair has all of those, then balance is more obtainable. The biggest complaint about paladins in PVP is what they don’t have. Instead of focusing on what they don’t have for QQ, they should focus on what they are missing to find the best arena partner. Certain teams will always do better against other teams because like basketball, it’s all about matchups. Where things start to get ugly is when some classes have no classes that have no complements.

Once the 2v2 system is fixed, the same design will apply to 3v3 and upto 5v5. Each team needs x and when they stack x at the cost of y and z, they will suffer at the hands of a more balanced team. Each class needs at least one of the recognized tools for arena, whether it’s a gap closer, cc, etc.

Here’s to looking forward to the day that my spacegoat in shining armor rides up on his war elekk.

/raise glass

-Rhab

Resto Shaman Changes on the Way?

According to GC, bundle of changes to resto shaman in 3.2 are headed to the live servers.

I have no idea what this means, and I know the original thread apparently turned venomous against the developers, but I am curious about the incoming changes.

The only thing I hate about shaman healing (and keep in mind my shaman is ele/resto and only level 75 right now) is the mana regen. That may change in end game, but after having a dedicated resto druid, I go absolutely crazy at managing my mana on the shaman.

I don’t think I mastered the art of chain heal yet, but it is one hell of a spell, and fun to use. I love earth shield, and as a druid healer riptide is an awesome spell. I have never really been a fan of the totem mechanic of drop, recall, move, rinse, and repeat, but it’s a class mechanic that brings some kick ass buffs so it something that manageable. VH has to be my favorite place to heal with the shaman if only because I can drop the totems and refresh them every 5 minutes.

Earthshield and riptide give shaman healing a druid feel, and the tree is absolutely amazing! Ancestral awakening has to be the best healing talent in any tree. I love when it procs because it can change entire healing priorities. Nothing, in my opinion, alters a healers life like an ancestral proc because it can mean the difference between losing someone because you don’t have enough GCD’s to save them and buying you all the time you need to take a drink of seagrams and wipe the sweat from your brow.

Improved water shield feels a lot like illumination, but with more management (illumination doesn’t eat the paladins mana regen ability that eventually will have to be recast) and a lesser payoff (illumination works on every flash heal where IWS only procs on 60% of lesser healing wave crits).

I am sure that the developers have balanced IWS with illumination and the shamans “oh shit, I’m outta mana” ability Mana Tide Totem, with things like Innervate and Divine Plea but when healing it just doesn’t seem to compare to a druid.

Overall, the tree is fun to play, but I am curios to the incoming changes and hope they make managing mana just a little easier.

-Rhab

Hardly Vindication for the Vindication Change

The incoming vindication hotfix that is on it’s way to live servers is obviously getting mixed responses from the community, and all I can say is WHAT THE FUCK!

I don’t mean it because the talent was so great in a PVE setting, or because Blizzard has arrived at the conclusion that it creates and inherent imbalance in their quest to balance PVP (which will never be balanced), but because paladins are still left with little direction that the other classes seem to be at least somewhat impervious.

First there was the exorcism nerf in PVP and not PVE, and now there is this. Add that Blizzard understands that their model to make paladins the smooth damage eating tanks and robbed us of some of our ability to keep up with all the magic damage in WotLK. The philosophy is that we should ideally be able to eat more damage because we can become block capped, and thus avoid/mitigate more damage so we don’t receive the kind of HP pools that DKs and druids have. In an interview this week on the rawrcast, some members of Exodus, one of the top raiding guilds in the world said they preferred DK and druid tanks because of those health pools alone. Couple that with the admitted failed block mechanic and the fact that paladin tanks need another cooldown and it is evident that Blizzard sure as hell doesn’t mind nerfing ret paladins in PVP, but insists on overanalyzing prot paladins in PVE before they are really willing to help them. In that same rawrcast, members of Exodus also said that DK’s could chain their cooldowns for hard mode encounters.

So, we have one of the top guilds in the world admitting that DK’s are superior tanks, and we have Blizzard admitting that paladins need some love, and in response, rets get nerfed in PVP?

That’s one hell of a class balancing agenda if I do say so myself.

-Rhab

Emblems Schmeblems

After reading up on Shamantics impression of the new badge system, I must admit that I think Blizzard missed the boat.

There is an entire contingency of players who will say, “ZOMG, STFU and L2Play noob instead of hoarding 5 man badges,” but that obviously isn’t the real reason Blizzard has implemented the new system.

They say that they don’t want guilds skipping tiers of content and grinding heroics for a month to get into the current tier, but that is BULL SHIT! If it were true, Blizzard would not have made some Ulduar recipes with if not BiS, then amazingly good in slot, craftable BoE items. Basically, they are willing to let Runed Orbs hit the AH for ridiculous amounts of gold, and let a player get some high end gear. I know this doesn’t mean that tiers can be skipped, but it can help with getting to the next tier a little faster. Not exactly the same, but the gear helps to serve the same purpose. Less time in tier x of content to get to tier y.

I would also ask why this is such a terrible situation anyway. With server transfers, rerolls, alts, and real life interruptions, would it be so terrible to help guilds get to the current tier of content? Good guilds can skip a tier and survive, not because they farmed heroics, but because at their core, they are good guilds. If all those heroic runs result in a guild skipping Naxx for Ulduar, the strength is in the guild, not in what is seen as the exploitation of the badge system. If you combine a ragtag group of 5 manners and put them in the proper gear, there is no proof that they are going to become a good progression guild. That distinction is still reserved for guilds that have great players, good leadership, and the knowledge and ability to execute encounters.

The most glaring mistake in multi-tier badges, is that in their attempt to push content and allow more players to see Naxx, Ulduar, 3.2, and Icecrown, they are also killing content much faster. If the entire expansion had one badge system, like TBC, then the 5 man heroics would be more than rep grinds and charity runs. So much of what Blizzard does is awesome; I have no idea why they insist on killing content at every turn. TBC killed progression in vanilla wow, and Lich killed progression in TBC…this is understandable to a degree, but why have your major content patches kill content for the last one? Why make it even harder for newly minted 80’s to hop on the progression wagon by reducing the reward available to guildies or friends to do a few heroics with them a week? Having 2 toons who have absolutely nothing to gain from running a heroic 5 man, I will admit that a chance at a frozen orb and the love of 5 mans is all I have left to gain.

-Rhab

The Unitarian Universalist Healers

After a comment left by Skraps about where shaman fit into my religious examples for druid and paladin healers, I started to try and put together some ideas.

I have always thought that both druids and shaman were more like eastern religions. The balance in druids has always led me to think of them as Buddhists, and I had never really considered where shaman fit in. He suggested that shamans are Unitarian Universalist’s. If you Wikipedia Unitarian Universalist you will find the phrase “free and responsible search for truth and meaning.” Having only played an Alliance shaman, this is probably a pretty accurate description. I think the lore that is set up for Draenei shaman is great. Former followers of the light who feel that the light has somewhat abandon them searching to discover the answers to their confusion. Velen’s gift of prophecy and openness to accept what he saw as Nobundo fullfilling the prophecy of a broken who would rise to power, illustrates that it is not only the shaman who are in constant pursuit of enlightening. A leader for thousands of years could have scoffed at the idea of an education that relied on the elements instead of the light, but his acceptance would fuel Draenei shaman who would study under Nobundo.

Draenei shaman all carry with them the Gift of the Naaru, a reminder that even in their quest to learn to harness the power of the elements, the light itself still accompanies them. Draenei shaman are the epitome of openness who only use that to perpetuate their knowledge. As a druid, I have always felt a closer connection to the shaman than the priest or paladin healers, but where a druid uses his connection with earth to cultivate a healing philosophy, shaman seem to jump straight to the source, water.

Water is fierce and unforgiving. It can annihilate an entire city with one tsunami and yet in all that destruction bring opportunity for new life as well. Druids use patience to heal their allies, but shaman would prefer to hit them with a wave.

Beyond the powers themselves lie the philosophy. Thrall is a shaman who is a fierce fighter, and I have as much respect for Thrall as I do not have for Varian because he is, like all shaman should be, a healer. He has united the races under the horde, and in two of those four races that have joined his orcs, he found other shaman. He knows no matter how someone learns to commune with the elements, that each are linked in the ability. What he lacks in abilities to prophesize, Thrall makes up for it with vision. Even when the races that joined the horde didn’t share his shamanistic views, he does know that what everyone seeks is inner peace. Sylvanas and the Forsaken may only find it when the Lich King falls. The Blood Elves, like many addicts, may never really find peace but they will search for the strength to fight their urges for greater magic pulsing through them. They search for a peace like the orcs and trolls who have been driven from their homes, or the Tauren who were forced to retreat to Thunderbluff. It is Thrall’s vision and understanding, or his “free and responsible search for truth and meaning,” that has united the Horde.

I hope that one day that little orphan girl you escort around for children’s week will study under Nobundo like her letter tells us, and she like her Broken teacher and Thrall will someday become a great healer. Maybe it is in her that the Draenei and the Orcs will look past the wounds that each has caused the other and find peace together.

-Rhab