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World of Warcraft |OT4| "Why do we keep playing? It is simply in our nature."

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Diseased Yak

Gold Member
Man, had a great day for drops and such. First of all, I got exalted with Klaxxi and got my Amber Scorpion (I've been slowly going through the MoP factions, just focusing on one at a time, doing their dailies each day). Then I did the first 3 legs of ToT (LFR cause my guild sucks) and got the Ji-Kun Feather, 502 hands, 522 wrist with valor, and I got another 502 Worldbreaker's Stormscythe, having already gotten one last week, so I went dual-wield on my Frost DK since it was an upgrade over the 483 2-hander I was previously using. I'm typically doing around 75-90k dps on single target now, which usually puts me in the top 10 of LFR.

Starting to reach the end of what I can do with LFR and Shado-Pan Assault faction upgrades, so I'm excited for the merged raiding stuff coming. It's either that, or try and find a better guild on my shitty server.
 
Alrighty. I have some add ons and having some fun with my Panda Rogue (fun contrast). What sort of time frame would I be looking at to hit 90? Provided I at least play a couple of hours a day (more on days off)? Quicker to level through dungeon finder or area questing?

Dungeon finder/battlegrounds are much faster than questing at all levels, even without heirlooms you end up turning every quest in your level-appropriate zone grey after 3 dungeon runs. Just be ready for the bad side, when dungeon groups take forever to do simple things or when low level battlegrounds become a game of hide and seek between twinks bristling with enchants and heirlooms and lowbies looking to grind out exp. When this starts happening a lot just look up your nearest level-appropriate questing zone and resume that. It's been a while since I took a character through the 80-85 grind so I don't know if that's 'slow' anymore.
 

Enosh

Member
On Sha of Fear the main thing the tanks have to worry about (other than being in the circle and booting anyone else who isn't a tank out of it) is Thrash. If you remember the old Windfury procs - that's essentially what he does. Every fourth attack he does 3 attacks at once. Not too many tanks know how to watch swing timers and keep active mitigation up at the right time on LFR.
the easiest way to know when it is coming is to look at the buff
he gets a kinda blue immolate style icon buff, that means the next melee swing will be trash

of course, from my experience people rarely have their UIs set up in such a way they can easily see when the boss gains a buff or they a debuff :p
 

Jedi2016

Member
I can certainly see why they want to item squish, but they are aware of how fond people have gotten of doing the levels of DPS we're able to do now, and that even if the end result is the same in how quickly it takes to kill a x-level mob, but you're only hitting for 500 instead of 50K, it's going to feel like a ridiculous nerf.

People love their Recount numbers.
 

cdyhybrid

Member
I can certainly see why they want to item squish, but they are aware of how fond people have gotten of doing the levels of DPS we're able to do now, and that even if the end result is the same in how quickly it takes to kill a x-level mob, but you're only hitting for 500 instead of 50K, it's going to feel like a ridiculous nerf.

People love their Recount numbers.

The only number I care about is #1 :p
 

strafer

member
The only number I care about is #1 :p

0389_oz618.gif
 

Jedi2016

Member
I can certainly see why they want to item squish, but they are aware of how fond people have gotten of doing the levels of DPS we're able to do now, and that even if the end result is the same in how quickly it takes to kill a x-level mob, but you're only hitting for 500 instead of 50K, it's going to feel like a ridiculous nerf.

People love their Recount numbers.
Speaking of amazing DPS, I just ran my first Scenario (Blood in the Snow, for the quest). The best I can say about my performance is that I survived. Barely. And probably only because of the others who would throw occasional heals my way. Methinks I either need to gear up a little more, or figure out more of my mitigation cooldowns that I never use when I'm soloing stuff. Off to the dungeons, I guess.
 

Fjordson

Member
Is there any way to make the game keep PvP toggled on at all times? Whenever I remember to check it by right clicking my portrait in the top left it's toggled back off.
 
Speaking of amazing DPS, I just ran my first Scenario (Blood in the Snow, for the quest). The best I can say about my performance is that I survived. Barely. And probably only because of the others who would throw occasional heals my way. Methinks I either need to gear up a little more, or figure out more of my mitigation cooldowns that I never use when I'm soloing stuff. Off to the dungeons, I guess.

It's rough even on normal mode if you're not in at least a few purples. Lots of mobs, abilities that stun/root/snare you everywhere and some big pulls for a 3-man scenario adds up to some surprising death if you're 'appropriately' geared.

Is there any way to make the game keep PvP toggled on at all times? Whenever I remember to check it by right clicking my portrait in the top left it's toggled back off.

Probably not the best solution possible but you could bind /pvp to a macro you use all the time, like buffs, your mount or whatever spell you cast first at the beginning of every battle (rogues with cheap shot, for example). Should keep you flagged most of the time unless you go afk a lot.
 

cdyhybrid

Member
Starting to really push for 90 on my Warlock. Are there certain gear level breakpoints as far as which spec I should play? Like, play X until Y ilvl, then switch to Z?
 

Jedi2016

Member
It's rough even on normal mode if you're not in at least a few purples. Lots of mobs, abilities that stun/root/snare you everywhere and some big pulls for a 3-man scenario adds up to some surprising death if you're 'appropriately' geared.
Okay, I don't feel so bad, then.. I'm still in 420-ish quest greens for the most part.. lol.

How's Dark Heart of Pandaria? That's the next one I've got to do in the questline, and it's another one of the new ones for 5.3.
 
Okay, I don't feel so bad, then.. I'm still in 420-ish quest greens for the most part.. lol.

How's Dark Heart of Pandaria? That's the next one I've got to do in the questline, and it's another one of the new ones for 5.3.

I don't remember my first run through it well. Stick together through the slime tunnel, use the orbs liberally on the final boss, win. Tough part is handling the slimes since killing them efficiently requires the group glue together and focus fire as best you can while all that damage is going out. Save big survival CDs for the giant slime, interrupt fear, stun like crazy, etc. The orbs are there for a reason, don't ignore them.
 

sqwarlock

Member
Okay, I don't feel so bad, then.. I'm still in 420-ish quest greens for the most part.. lol.

How's Dark Heart of Pandaria? That's the next one I've got to do in the questline, and it's another one of the new ones for 5.3.

I've died more in Dark Heart than any other scenario. Like was said above, the orbs are key to winning the final fight. If nobody uses the orbs, you'll most likely wipe.
 

Draxal

Member
Is this really true though? Looking at the mechanics of 40 man raids, the complexity seems to be mostly just herding cats.

Vanilla was fighting the game system instead of raid encounters ... taunt resists; half the classes/specs being horrible; horrible loot system; farming resist gear etc...
 

Ultratech

Member
Only 1 Runestone again this week. 6/12 done now.

On the plus side, I got into the Beta for the new Battle.net launcher which is kinda neat.
 

Draxal

Member
But, but... what about all those people asking for vanilla and BC servers?

Yeah, I think it's funny, and I love how Blizz is probably going to throw away dodge/parry and take a serious look at reforging in the next xp and people are moaning about that as well.

Reforging/gemming/Enchanting just makes getting new gear such a hassle right now, and getting rid of dodge/parry just makes sense.

edited. to reference dodge/parry instead of hit/expertise which is what GC stated.
 

Jedi2016

Member
But, but... what about all those people asking for vanilla and BC servers?
I'm pretty sure those people are stupid. What they themselves don't realize is that they only want some of Vanilla and BC back, but they'd be mighty disappointed to get all of it, methinks.
 

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
Speaking of throw back wow.. horde has always been a bit behind on AV wins in my bg, but when we do the normal 2 tower rush it works enough. But this AV I just played this guy some how convinced everyone to do the good old galv choke and d up the towers. It was seriously just a brawl in the field of strife for 30 mins like the old (well, wrath) days. So weird.
 

Fjordson

Member
But, but... what about all those people asking for vanilla and BC servers?
Yeah :lol people don't understand all of what that would entail.

For me, I enjoyed vanilla the most because everything was new and had a sense of discovery to it and I had a great group of people I played with. I miss that experience, not the little oddities or specific mechanics.

None of that going away is the fault of the actual game. People I knew grew out of the game, got too busy, etc. and I don't think there's any developer on the planet who can keep up that sense of discovery for a decade straight. That going away is inevitable for any game.
 

Ceebs

Member
Same model, just the non set recolor.

I have almost all of the T5 set now too except the helm and boots. Lurker just refuses to drop boots, but I just can't do Vashj solo as elemental. Everything having long cast times is murder for that fight. I just get overrun with elementals and striders while I am trying to get to the corrupted ones.

The Vashj and Kael fights from that tier are amazing though. Kael especially. 5 very different phases and lots of neat mechanics that would probably endlessly wipe a LFR group in the modern game.
 

Kintaro

Worships the porcelain goddess
Dungeon finder/battlegrounds are much faster than questing at all levels, even without heirlooms you end up turning every quest in your level-appropriate zone grey after 3 dungeon runs. Just be ready for the bad side, when dungeon groups take forever to do simple things or when low level battlegrounds become a game of hide and seek between twinks bristling with enchants and heirlooms and lowbies looking to grind out exp. When this starts happening a lot just look up your nearest level-appropriate questing zone and resume that. It's been a while since I took a character through the 80-85 grind so I don't know if that's 'slow' anymore.

Progress report. I'm level 21 now through dungeon finder. I dig it. Pretty cool. Problem is I'm out leveling my professions. =/ Especially skinning and the like.
 

sqwarlock

Member
Progress report. I'm level 21 now through dungeon finder. I dig it. Pretty cool. Problem is I'm out leveling my professions. =/ Especially skinning and the like.

I look at professions as something to do at max level, rather than waste time trying to keep up while leveling. Gather what you can as you go, stockpile mats, and then hit 90 and powerlevel that shit.
 

Fjordson

Member
I look at professions as something to do at max level, rather than waste time trying to keep up while leveling. Gather what you can as you go, stockpile mats, and then hit 90 and powerlevel that shit.
Yeah, that's how I've done it the last few expansions.

I want to level my Jewelcrafting up, but it seems so daunting right now. Haven't touched it since Wrath. Only professions I have maxed out right now are Skinning, First Aid, and Archaeology :lol
 

potam

Banned
So I'm leveling up my BM Monk right now, just chain-LFD tanking, and I seem to suck.

When I leveled my Paladin, I remember barely needing a healer in LFD except on megapulls and really difficult bosses. With the Monk, however, it just feels like I'm being eaten alive. The only difference is that my pally had full heirlooms (minus ring + new shield) and my Monk is missing an heirloom weapon.

Do Monks just suck leveling or am I doing something really wrong?
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
I got mine while i was tanking heroic UK back during WOTLK. One of the party member was offline, so i only had to fight against 3 players for the roll. Lucky me.
 

FLEABttn

Banned
Yeah, I think it's funny, and I love how Blizz is probably going to throw away dodge/parry and take a serious look at reforging in the next xp and people are moaning about that as well.

Reforging/gemming/Enchanting just makes getting new gear such a hassle right now, and getting rid of dodge/parry just makes sense.

I wasn't a fan of reforging. I found it to be solving a non-existent problem or a self inflicted problem, depending on how you looked at it (either earlier gear is suboptimal to encourage getting new gear so having reforging negates this, or having suboptimal gear isn't really intended and Blizzard put the onus of fixing that on the player themselves). That you either need a mod or a website to tell you how to reforge every time you get a new piece of gear (unless you want to go in blind and guess how to reallocate stats) I think also speaks to how poorly thought out the system was. That said, I'm not implying that a better thought out reforging system would be ideal, I'd excise it entirely and stick in the closet of other failed game designs.

I think gemming was a wholly redundant system to enchanting and also somewhat poorly thought out (which skipping gemming bonuses for proper stats is indicative of), but I also appear to be the minority in not liking gemming and that's not something that's ever going to be rid of.
 

Tarazet

Member
I looked up the dungeon journal today and saw that was what was hitting me so hard. And it just seemed like it was timed up to always be after a Breath of Fear so that's when I aimed to pop heals and damage mitigation to stay alive. I gave big thanks to the healer as well since they had a real challenge keeping me up. I think we're just lucky I was never pulled away to the second platform while I tanked. The druid tank did try to take aggro from me but was mostly unsuccessful, even when I stopped attacking. Somehow I was still going over him on aggro and kept taking the attention. Could be that they weren't always properly in the circle of light, which I believe holds precedence in terms of aggro tables over someone standing outside it. But now we know it's possible to single shaman tank Sha of Fear, heh.

The Sha fixates on one person who is on the platform, and taunting has no effect. It's easy to see because they grow bigger. The only way to tank-swap is to step completely off and melee from behind the platform.
 

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
I remember the days when a class only had to worry about two stats and you had to get your weapon skill up!

People saying the game is better now over vanilla..aight..but it's also more convoluted. I'll take my fire res set any day over gemming, reforging, and having to worry about bunch of ratings that are independent of the base stats.
 

Tarazet

Member
What? EJ and Icy Veins haven't suggested capping hit/exp in a while. Hell, the default AskMrRobot template doesn't even use hit/exp.

Here's what AskMrRobot's priority for stats is: Mastery > Stam > Str > Parry=Dodge > Exp/Hit. it's suggesting I reforge *all* my hit/exp into Mastery whenever available, and otherwise it's going into Parry or Dodge.

EJ had a huge thing about it last year too, with the verdict being that Hit/Exp are pretty much completely useless. Right now their guide lists both venues are viable, but their stat priority is the exact same.

The only site which clearly says "hit/exp cap" is Wow-Heroes, and I'm not sure I trust them that much.

I mean I can give it a shot, but I highly doubt it'll be worthwhile. Just going through it, to cap hit/exp, I have to lose 7% avoidance. I don't think it's worth it, honestly (especially with the buff we'll have in 5.4 with Riposte).

In theory, the Mastery/Stam stacking build is the best one for survivability. In the real world, a geared Druid or Monk will be able to over-aggro you even without Vengeance. At the minimum you should go to Hit cap and 7.5% Expertise just so you can hold threat.
 
I wasn't a fan of reforging. I found it to be solving a non-existent problem or a self inflicted problem, depending on how you looked at it (either earlier gear is suboptimal to encourage getting new gear so having reforging negates this, or having suboptimal gear isn't really intended and Blizzard put the onus of fixing that on the player themselves). That you either need a mod or a website to tell you how to reforge every time you get a new piece of gear (unless you want to go in blind and guess how to reallocate stats) I think also speaks to how poorly thought out the system was. That said, I'm not implying that a better thought out reforging system would be ideal, I'd excise it entirely and stick in the closet of other failed game designs.

I think gemming was a wholly redundant system to enchanting and also somewhat poorly thought out (which skipping gemming bonuses for proper stats is indicative of), but I also appear to be the minority in not liking gemming and that's not something that's ever going to be rid of.

I have zero issues with reforging and like it while gearing up because it helps hit particular stats without having the proper gear for it, typically hit/expertise. And then it lets you allocate those stats to something more useful once you've hit the caps so you're not "wasting" stats. I suppose conversely people would try to get the perfect piece of gear once they've capped so that the belt they have that gives +hit that they don't need is replaced by one without that stat? But which is better? A system like reforging or someone feeling compelled to run something over-and-over until they get that one perfect piece of gear with the correct stats on it until they then have to replace that piece of gear because they swapped something else and now need a different stat combination to hit the best stat values for them.

The one thing I'd like to see handled differently with gemming is that the gem bonus should matter more or maybe be more interesting because there's not always a good reason to worry about putting the correct color gem in and that's part of what makes it interesting to me.

Honestly I'm surprised they didn't find a way to make reforging a profession thing somehow since the other gear improvement things (gem, enchant, belt buckle, etc.) are all tied to them.
 

FLEABttn

Banned
But which is better?

My preference would be the system prior to reforging where you had to worry about caps for a couple or a few months and then you never had to worry about it again. Let's put the onus back on Blizzard for making appropriate gear and balancing the game around the notion that there will always be some stat waste. And that's okay.

I have to rejigger most or all of my gear every time I get a new piece of gear. Past Naxx in WotLK, I never had to worry about that, ever.
 

Berordn

Member
Honestly I'm surprised they didn't find a way to make reforging a profession thing somehow since the other gear improvement things (gem, enchant, belt buckle, etc.) are all tied to them.

I don't think they really intended for reforging to be such a big deal... but in the face of the higher raid difficulty in Cata and the overwhelming lack of incentive to run heroics it suddenly became the most important way to hit caps and min/max, and everything just ballooned from there.

I don't like how much work goes into getting a new piece of gear now, but I also don't want to live in a world where I just *can't* use a weapon as a tank because it has crit on it. There's probably a happy medium that mostly involves removing a lot of the enchants that go on gear, but I can see that having a pretty big backlash.
 
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