There are many stories in our world that date back many ages; many ages dated back through our world in stories many; and many storied worlds in dates with aged backs our many. If that made any sense at all, you probably don’t have any sense.

One of the oldest stories I know is an ancient tale related by an old bard named “Lordle the Lowest of the Lesser Lords of Lohem” in his epic story, the Trälead. It is a story of adventure, or intrigue, and massive amounts of Duct Tape. Yes, my beloved hearkeners, the story I am about to relate is the ancient history of that great nation that no one’s ever heard of except a few of you who have actually read this blog before… Träliá!

Charles Dickens

Once upon a time, in a wide green meadow somewhere on the beautiful peninsula of Italy (although no one knew what to call the place at that time), there was a gathering of homeless premedieval hobos living in shacks. Now, this tribe of hobos had lived in pre-Italian Italy for several hundred generations, and the neighboring Etruscan tribes pretty much left them alone. One year, however, a group of stylishly dressed people who spoke a cool language and thought very highly of themselves decided they wanted to take over Italy, and so they called themselves Romans and started conquering.Needless to say, the hobos decided it was high time to get up and go, so they all split up and ran like the dickens (although this was, of course, long before Charles Dickens was born).

Atlantian Treasure

Also Atlantian Treasure

One of these former hobos turned global traveler was a short little dude named Bfer. He also had a friend named Ihse. Bfer and Ihse traveled far and wide, trying to find a place to live. In the first month of their roamings, they were nearly killed by wild animals, drowned by a flood, starved by a famine, dehydrated by a drought, slaughtered by barbarians, and they weren’t able to get a single good night of sleep, but at long last they met a mysterious Wanderer from the ancient civilization of Atlantis. The Wanderer handed them one of the greatest treasures of Atlantis, and said in true creepy-mysterious-hooded-individual fashion: “Keep it secret – Keep it safe!”

Bfers "Amazing Roll of Silver Sticky Stuff" Shop

Unfortunately, they didn’t speak Atlantian – or English, for that matter – so Bfer and Ihse didn’t know to keep it secret or safe. They soon realized that this silvery-sticky thin band of stuff all rolled up like a wheel was really good at doing just about anything. So Bfer set up shop on a large island. He and Ihse used their silver sticky stuff to build a ring of several huge monumental stones, all set up on end and topped by horizontal stones. Bfer would stand in the middle and sell his product, which he ingeniously named the “Amazing Roll of Silvery Sticky Stuff.”

“Come and get your own Amazing Roll of Silvery Sticky Stuff!” he would yell from the center of his stone store.

“What’s it for?” a grumpy old duck farmer asked.

“It does everything!” Ihse explained. “It sticks stuff together!”

“Like tape?”

“It’s the greatest of all tape!” Bfer responded.

“It’s the greatest thing in the world!” Ihse exhorted.

“Nah, ducks are the greatest thing in the world,” the duck farmer insisted.

“Well this tape is better than ducks,” Bfer replied. “It’s Duck Tape!”

Soon, the product name morphed into “Duct Tape”, only because Ducks were apparently patented in that region by the same duck farmer who always gave them trouble. So Bfer and Ihse continued to manufacture and sell their Duct Tape, until one sad day when the native Britons decided they didn’t like Bfer and his friend anymore, so they tarred and feathered them and forced them to leave.

It was after this incident that Bfer decided to follow after the American Dream (although he didn’t know the dream was American at the time). He and Ihse decided to get married, have kids, raise a family, make a fortune, eventually buy a Ferrari Testarossa Convertible and maybe found a nation or two. With this dream in mind, they married in a newly founded church no one had ever heard of (called St. Paul’s Cathedral, or something like that) and set off for the New World; only, no one knew the New World was there at that time, so they all waved goodbye to the newly weds at the dock fully expecting them to drop off the edge of the earth or be consumed by fire breathing sea serpents or something like that.

The Ferrari Testarossa - Man's Best Friend.

After a short detour in Greenland where the couple had a less than civil meeting with the Viking Leif Ericson, the two landed in the marshy peninsula of Florida. Ihse demanded they find a nice clean stream to wash their clothes in, and unintentionally did so in a little river that the Native Americans liked to call the “Fountain of Youth”. Six hundred years later, Bfer and Ihse began to suspect that the stream they were drinking from wasn’t entirely normal.

It was about this time when European people started showing up in the New World, probably trying to figure out what was taking Bfer and Ihse so long to come home. First was Columbus, then Ponce de Leon, soon a whole gang of people aboard a boat called the Mayflower – the immigrants just wouldn’t cease. Realizing it was time they moved on, Bfer and Ihse packed their luggage and started trekking yet again, with their newly born daughter, who they named Träliá.

Map of the Nation of Träliá

After a brief sojourn of thirteen years in La-La-Land, the young family found a piece of land that no one else had claimed yet, probably because it was covered in jungles, a desert, and deep, purple acidic lakes, and infested with dragons, the terrible Van-Pie Eater, and brain-sucking moths the size of small bicycles. For Bfer and Ihse, however, it was home. They named the land Träliá, after their growing daughter, who would one day be Queen, and they named the capitol city “Bferihse”, after themselves, where they built a home and a small village out of Duct Tape. Bfer also designed the very first automotive vehicle, still dreaming of his Ferrari Testarossa Convertible; but unfortunately he sold the patent and designing rights to some German named Benz.

And so that is how that small European country in South America was originally founded, and ever since then it has adopted a culture not too unlike that of the native La-Ladians of La-La-Land. Certainly, there are many more stories that can be told of the amazingly diverse and altogether fictional country, but those will be left for another day. Lordle, the Lowest of the Lesser Lords of Lohem, apparently ran out of ink before he could write anything more. Thank you for reading this long, picture-filled, random and pointless story, known simply as the Trälead.

*Funky Theme Song Plays* And now it’s time for your favorite News Broadcasting Show: Forget the Erroneous, with X. Y. Zelonios. Let’s go straight to your host! *Funky Theme Song Fades Out*

Xavier Y. Zelonios here, reporting live from downtown Bferihse  with a breaking story. Here in Bferihse, the capitol city of Träliá, a terrible blight has raised it’s scaly green head. Or rather, make that a slimy blue head. I’m standing here now, watching in disbelief, as the poor Trälián cyborgs of Bferihse run in from monsters of untold freakishness.

Not to worry friends, I’ve been told by the highest authorities that this is not yet considered to be a Red Alert Status concern… but it is most definitely an Orange Alert at least. Possibly a Yellow, or maybe somewhere in the low Greens, like an Aquamarine or something. We haven’t had a surefire consensus on that yet.

So here’s the story, friends, I’ll feed it to you straight. It seems a team of several dozen slimy, yellow-feathered, three-toed, opera-singing amphibians, averaging the size of large minivans, have taken the city by storm. Initial reports seemed to confirm the suspicion that these creatures are mutated life-forms cultivated by some mad scientist in an intensely specific experiment to create an army capable of taking over the world. However, upon further investigation (including interviewing one or two monsters while they romped, tromped, and wreaked general havoc in the city’s streets), we’ve learned that they are actually  mutated fungus that once grew in a can of Re-fried Beans left to ruminate by Howard Brenslic. Howie himself has refused to comment.

Mister Minster McManster, the Monster Master from Munster, has just arrived on the scene, with his faithful cohort Yurie Dedmeat. I have him here for an exclusive TDTE interview:

Xavier Y. Zelonios: It’s good to have you here, sir.

Minster McManster: It’s good ta be here meself, thank ye.

XYZ: How many monsters have you encountered in your Monster Mastering occupation?

MM: Oh, I don’t like ta be callin’ them monsters. I call them Nerfs, meself. Stands fer “Nonexistant Erroneous Randomeous “, ya see. I’ve seen quite a few, too many ta count, really.

XYZ: What is your initial impression of these creatures we see here today?

MM: Well, they be very fat, fer one thing. They could benefit from a diet, says I. I’ve taken ta callin’ them Flobsters meself.

XYZ: Flobsters, eh? There you have it folks, remember where you heard it first.

MM: Where?

XYZ: Here, of course.

MM: Oh, yes, right. I forgot fer a moment.

XYZ: So, Mr. McManster, what’s your plan for dealing with these Flobsters?

MM: First of all, that maniac Silverado Stuckings has got ta be kept as far away from these sensitive creatures as possible, says I. He’s a fluff-floated nilly-noggin who can’t tell a Triple-Eyed Kneeknocker from a Greenie-Fried Fleadocker if they both were ta walk up and slap the Manunkers out of his forehead.

XYZ: I see…

MM: Farthermore, any person who thinks we should hurt these poor Flobsters is out of his clip-clop McGillaflop mind.

XYZ: Then what do you suggest? Containment?

MM: Let them roam free! *withdraws bagpipes from some unforseen location and begins playing the “Born Free” theme*

Flobster: MMMMM! Me no likey non-opera music! Me DESTROY non-opera music!

Yurie meat: AAAAH! Mr. McManster, help me! Dis creature is goink to kill me!

XYZ: Um, sir, your assistant is being shaken violently by that Flobster…

MM: No problem, the lad be used ta such abuse. Don’t interrupt me ballad! *Resumes Playing Tune*

So friends, keep an eye on the news, and watch out for these Flobsters! And never leave a can of re-fried beans in the back of your fridge for more than seven years.

Forget the Erroneous, with X. Y. Zelonios.

After a month of Live and even longer in beta, the most overpowered ability is finally getting some attention.  Cryptic never should have waited so long.  TK shield is one of the major reasons for why people were breezing through the game, soloing team content and making PvP into a massive joke.  It is one of my biggest complaints about the game and now it’s finally getting fixed!

Cryptic recently released these Test Server patch notes.  Players now need to advantage TK shield to get a lingering effect and it only protects against physical damage.  Many of the other block enhancing powers are getting a revamp as well.

Cryptic’s timing is quite horrible (for me).  I just posted my ‘farewell’ speech yesterday, complaining endlessly about how easy and stupid the game has become.  Now, they are finally fixing one of the major imbalances.  I’m curious enough to log back into the game at least a few more times once the changes reach the Live server.  I’ll probably check out the Test Server later today so I can see the changes in person.  I won’t believe it until I see it.  Cryptic has messed up before (Mindful Reinforcement…which is still bugged, by the way).

I’m especially curious to see how this impacts PvP.  Unfortunately, Cryptic is also screwing with my favorite power (Conflagration) by taking away its ability to remove travel powers (what the hell?).  Losing TK shield dramatically reduces everyone’s survivability.  People will actually die far more often, which will be a nice change.  It also means that everyone is going to use teleport even more than they do now, but overall, this patch is a big step forward towards a more balanced game.

Good morning.  Extended maintenance and 3.2.2 has dropped.  As always, we’ll keep tabs on the server stability before starting the Uld25 raid tonight.  Read on for weekly updates!

Hacktastic, by which we mean hacksuck

Just when we’d gotten everything back and Shurak had made it all pretty like in the bank, another officer was hacked. Less stuff lost (but pricey), tickets opened, player already has regained control of their account.  We are already trying to suss out what the hacked officers had in common (perhaps, for instance, an add-on).  In addition, those officers who do not have authenticators already are ordering them, and we’re taking steps to protect the gbank.

Raid raid raid raid raid

Progression continues!  We have folks gearing up by hopping in some high end pugs, but we’re also gearing up with progression.  Props to Uld10Team2 for really starting to speed up on some of those takedowns and gelling as a team.  They are now taking down FL, Decon, Razor, and Kolo regularly, and Iron Council is on notice.  Uld10Team 1 only ran last night, not Sunday and Monday, and in 2 hours clocked 5 bosses, including dropping times on Deconstructor, Kologarn, Auriaya, and Iron Council by a whopping 2 minutes apiece.  And this time, she correctly targeted the target dummy (bunny dies) instead of a hapless player.  Hurrah.

Uld 25 is TONIGHT. If you’re signed up, be on time and ready to rhumba, as we all know Shurak runs a tight ship.  If you’ve never set paw, foot, or hoof in Uld, please read up on Flame Leviathan, Razorscale, and Deconstructor (I don’t know what Shu’s plans for tonight are, but these are 3 of the first boss encounters. We have to take down Flame Leviathan before we can move on).  Stratfu is a great site for all of these, and tankspot has good videos.  And as part of being prepared:

Read the patch notes. No really.

There are some very big changes to some classes.  Be prepared for your dps to be really different, your procs to be weird, and your glyphs to not quite do what you thought they did until you sort them all out.  Some key things to note as you’re running with folks:

• Some folks may be taking more damage than you’re used to as a healer.  Prot pallies, for instance, have a lowered damage reduction effect from Ardent Defender than before- they’ll be sucking more damage under 35% than you’re used to.
• Some folks can no longer do awesome things and will be righteously pissed about it.  Spell interrupt from fan of knives for combat rogues?  Gone.  (along with a ton of dps from it)  Spellcasters will need to be messed with by someone other than a rogue now.
• Hi there spiky damage from other classes.  Arcane mages can now powerstack 4 arcane blasts instead of 3, for less mana, but have to fire those stacks off every 6 seconds instead of 10- oh and arcane missles will proc more.  Be prepared for mobs to be viewing both arcane and fire spec mages (both specs saw significant changes in how much damage will output how sharply) with sudden hungry interest.
• Do you have a cooldown?  Are you a DK?  Likely your cooldown duration has changed.  Actually, MANY cooldown durations have changed.
• DKs and Druids: check your 4 piece tier set bonuses.  They’ve changed. And not for the better. Hello rejuv initial cast nerf.
• On the good side, Scribes can now make a raid wide stam buff in case you don’t have a priest to throw fort.  And leatherworkers can make drums to make up for a lack of kings or motw.  These three new things DO NOT STACK with the existing buffs they are equivalent to.
• All relics- librams, totems, sigils, idols- will now NOT buff stack.  You cannot get 2 buffs from these items- it’s like they’re all on a cooldown together.  A cooldown of SUCK.
• Check your glyphs.  Nuff said.

Because of all these changes, you might want to consider getting on a little early tonight, if you’re signed up for Uld25, checking the patch notes, tweaking your gylphs, and going and testing out some rotations on the dummies in Ironforge or something.  Or, you know, vent your rage at the changes by ganking hordies fishing in WG.

Game will supposedly be back up at 2 Eastern.  And oh yes: this means the revamped Onyxia goes LIVE BABY. (we think. it’s unclear if that part of 3.2.2 will be fully live as of today.  Cross your fingers.  Or claws)

Wotcha everyone

Siege of Mirkwood, eh?

There’s going to be a scary amount of leakage, comment and Prophecies of Nerf and Doom about what’s coming up for Lord of the Rings with the next paid expansion, so why should we be left out, eh?

Well, apart from the Prophecies of Nerf and Doom.

I’ve really enjoyed my time in Middle Earth so far, and whilst there are things that I wouldn’t have put in the game if I were one of the almighty developers, I feel I can look back, judge them by the content so far, and be pretty sure that they’ll continue to put more fun in the game.

Besides, I have a lifetime subscription, so I’m unlikely to be going anywhere soon.

What will this new and exciting expansion mean for Minstrels, Lore-Masters, Runekeepers and *cough* Captains?

I’ve no idea, really.  But I think I’ll be following the leaks with some interest.

Cheers,

Hawley.

If you haven’t heard, Blood is getting a bit of a nerf in 3.2.2. This is the proposed change: “Heart Strike: Secondary targets of Heart Strike now take half as much damage.” (source) The reasoning, apparently, is that we shouldn’t be able to do extremely good AoE damage without somehow losing out on single-target DPS.

While I, like anyone else, dislike getting nerfed, I agree with this philosophy. One discrepancy that bothers me is the case of Ret Paladins. In their regular rotation they use two powerful AoE moves, Divine Storm and Consecration. If there are 3-4 targets around, Ret Pally AoE begins to really outshine DK DPS without even having to break from regular rotation. DKs currently still have to use Pestilence to spread diseases in order to make AoE truly effective, so the reasoning is a bit fuzzy to me.

I wonder, though, if we deserve some other way to boost DPS in place of this nerf? Blood has pretty bad AoE damage (especially with the nerf). The best suggestion I saw was something on the EJ forums: that Blood Strike should get an AoE component through a talent deep in the Blood tree. That way in order to do AoE DPS, we’d have to sacrifice some single-target damage to get more cleave.

Making a change like this allows for more choices to be made during Blood DPS, akin to the way Frost works. That’s the one thing I think Blood is really missing. Aside from cooldowns, the Blood rotation is very set in stone which makes it a bit less fun to play with.

In a recent blue post, Ghostcrawler stated that the ArPen nerf going live in 3.2.2 (on PTR now) was intentional. He claims the reason for this nerf is that people were focusing on ArPen at the expense of all other stats. So it needed to be nerfed to make sure that melee DPS and MM hunters wanted other stats.

Does anyone else see the faulty thinking involved? Ever since I hit 80, I’ve been gemming pretty much purely for Strength at the cost of socket bonuses and other stats. As it stands now, especially with the ArPen nerf, Strength eclipses Crit, Haste, and ArPen. So why are they nerfing ArPen as opposed to buffing Haste and Crit to make them valuable stats for DKs?

Instead of avoiding gear without ArPen, as GC stated was the case, I often find myself choosing gear with sockets and caring very little about the stats, be they Haste, Crit or ArPen. How is that any better? I’d prefer it if they were useful rather than simply stuff that isn’t Strength on gear. That’s what I like about my Mage – Crit and Haste are both valuable stats, which makes gearing choices a bit more interesting than simply taking whatever has the most Intellect, or whatever it might be.

The only gems that matter

Nice job on an uneventful launch, Cryptic!  It’s all too common for launch days to be horrible nightmares of poor planning, bug overload and human errors.  Champions Online launched and it’s like it was just any other day.

Unfortunately, Cryptic also decided to unload a massive series of nerfs as well.  So the official forums are flooded with complaints about the nerfs, instead of typical launch day threads.  To make it worse, they didn’t fix the absolutely ridiculous prices to respec powers, although the patch notes claim that it was fixed.

The TL;DR version of the changes is that Cryptic made the game harder.  All the passive slot powers, which were really powerful and character defining, were significantly downgraded.  Most of the damage boosts and defensive powers (heals) were nerfed.  Everyone has lower damage and/or reduced survivability.

No one likes nerfs, but in this case, Cryptic had to make these changes.  In the long run, it was the right thing to do.  CO was far too easy.  Too many people hit the level cap in just a few days.  It was easy to solo group content.  The usual quest grind could be a snorefest because there was never any danger of dying.  In PvP, defensive powers were so ridiculous that many heroes were basically unkillable.

There is a huge disparity in player feedback because it’s also very easy to create a superhero who isn’t very powerful.  The flexibility of the open skill system means that it doesn’t protect players from gimping themselves.  A lot of concept-based characters aren’t very powerful either.

My highest level superhero is level 26.  She’s a Darkness based superhero with the Shadow Form offensive passive.  I spent some time doing level 28 quests today.  It was still easy.

Forget about the nerfs!  Just go online and have fun.  I promise that you’ll soon forget about being weaker because the game is far more fun when there is a little challenge.  Easy = boring!

So, it’s Patch 3.2. You may have many friends and guildies excited about certain aspects of this patch, but you may have noticed your Holy paladin acting a little differently. They might not be as bubbly as they used to. As everyone is excited to do heroics for Emblems of Conquest, they might just be shrugging it off. Something is bothering them.

You see, with Patch 3.2, the party’s over for Holy. Since 3.0, we’ve been able to heal with nearly unlimited amounts of mana. Oh, they tried to stop us before, with a change to Divine Plea in 3.09 that reduced healing by 50% while active. This hurt a little, but we still had mana to spare if Divine Plea was used correctly. We still laughed at the idea of mana potions. It was intellect gems all around. Innervates? Save that for the priests.

Then, with 3.2, Illumination got nerfed. Again.

You see, when Holy finally got properly itemized gear in The Burning Crusade, it became immediately obvious that paladins were the best healers. In fact, the bleeding edge raiding guilds early on in BC were only using paladins due to the fact that when they crit with a heal, they got the mana cost of the spell refunded, so stacking crit gear meant unlimited mana. So patch 2.1 nerfed the talent to refund on 60% of the mana back. We cried about it (well, I did, anyway) but we moved on and settled into our proper healing role for the rest of the expansion.

Then came 3.0 and the Era of the Big Heal. Holy Light has become the key spell for paladins in Wrath, being able to get a majority of the mana back from that big casting cost spell was a large part of our close to limitless mana. Add in a libram that reduced the cost by 113 mana (but did not affect mana refunded on a crit) and the ability to still come out ahead on mana with Divine Illumination and paladins did not really have to worry about anything until the latest patch.

Five points in Illumination now only refunds 30% of the mana cost of a healing spell crit. It’s almost not worth having. In fact, I would gladly put the points elsewhere if they weren’t required for Holy Shock. I’ve already noticed a huge impact on my mana just from doing heroics and it makes me sad.

So pass the Runic Mana Potions, hook me up with some Lustrous Majestic Zircon and yeah druids, that IS a paladin asking for an Innervate. And hug your Holy paladin today, because it will make them feel a little better about finally running out of mana.

This is bound to be a hot topic in warrior circles at the moment, Ghostcrawler (WoW Lead Systems Designer) dipped his toe into the murky waters of social engineering on Tuesday with this post; it’s about halfway down the page, in blue.

– Warriors are very popular main tanks.
– This is probably because they used to be the best tank (by design) and because many MTs have stuck with the class for many levels.
– We think they are slightly under-powered in Ulduar relative to other tanks.
– If we are not careful and buff warriors too much then there are going to be more of them, which only feeds into the perception that warriors are designed to be (or should be designed to be) the best tank.
– We’ve worked very hard to make sure there are 4 viable tanks, just as we’ve worked very hard to make sure there are 5 viable healers. We want to have paladins, druids and DKs tanking Coliseum, and not giving up (or being replaced by the raid leader) because they aren’t warriors.
– We don’t balance around popularity. However we do take it into consideration. WoW is a social game and despite the excellent work by the theorycrafting community, player perception and psychology play a big role and often change very slowly.
– We don’t balance around past history. However we do take it into consideration. WoW is a game and players can form an emotional attachment to their characters. Emotion enters into it. While my team deals with cold hard numbers a lot, that is not the only part of game design.

This is very interesting, and not just because it made me feel down all day (I’ll come back to that.) Some classes in MMOs are always more popular than others, support classes are less popular than dps for example. Melee is usually more popular than ranged.

When one class shows a population spike over and above this, it’s usually because they are either overpowered or perceived to be overpowered. That’s the flavour of the month (fotm) trend, people roll or reroll classes that they think are most effective. Usually, devs will spot this and correct any actual overpowered elements and the rerollers will move on to the next fotm.

In any case, warriors are still popular. It isn’t because they are overpowered, quite the opposite in fact. From comments he’s made previously I’m also sure GC understands the various issues which the class has. Blizzard would prefer it if warriors were less popular – they take popularity into consideration. Even though they understand that people have an emotional attachment to their character (this is part of the reason that people keep playing their warriors despite being a bit behind the other tanks, the other reason is just the general barrier to change) they’d like less people to play them as tanks in order to balance out the numbers.

I’m actually not convinced that raids pick warrior tanks nowadays because they are still perceived to be the best. I  haven’t seen any guilds on my server specifically recruit for protection warriors. I’ve seen them recruit for Death Knights and Druids, but not warriors. If warriors are raid tanking these days, it’s either because the player has a history with the guild or because someone was recruited because they were a good player and they happened to pick a warrior.

And if people are going to switch out their warriors for other tanks, it means that guilds will be ignoring their guild and player history to do so. The only reason to do that is because the player either burns out or switches mains, or because one of the other tanks makes the raids much easier. Why else would you boot your main tank who has been your main tank for months?

I don’t feel that Blizzard has any case for this level of social engineering. All we ask is that they make all the classes as viable in their roles as possible. Yes, people get emotionally attached to their characters after they have played them for a few months, sunk hours into gearing them up, earning reps and achievements, and learning all the ins and outs. That’s how they designed the game. If they wanted players to be jumping class whenever they said ‘jump’ then maybe they needed to make it easier to have account based achievements, trade skills, etc.

Can you imagine the outcry if they’d said that mages were weaker than other dps in Ulduar but that they were cool with this because the class was overpopulated? Or that priests were weaker than other healers in Ulduar but that was OK because lots of people still played them in raids?

We want to have paladins, druids and DKs tanking Coliseum, and not giving up (or being replaced by the raid leader) because they aren’t warriors.

But is it OK to have warriors replaced because they aren’t paladins, druids or DKs?

So, what’s the future looking like?

I have really appreciated in Wrath that GC has been so forthcoming in sharing his views on the different classes and where Blizzard plans to take them. I think that as a player in an MMO, I need to take in-game decisions with the long term in mind so the more information I have with which to do that, the better.

But there is a downside to this. What if the longterm vision that devs have for your class is that they want to discourage people from playing it and keep it weak?

Personally I feel gypped because I wasn’t playing my warrior through any period of the game where they were overpowered. I tanked at the beginning of TBC when druids were the tank of choice. I tanked heroics in TBC when everyone wanted paladins for easy mode. And I’ve tanked in Wrath where warriors have been fine, but a bit behind the rest. I think I’m personally overdue for my overpowered few months. Sure, that’s the history of the class, but it isn’t MY history with the class. And it won’t be the history of anyone else who started their warrior more recently and wasn’t tanking the Black Temple (which is most of us, I’m sure).

I’m not planning to switch mains. I still like playing my warrior and she’s been fine for the content we’re doing. Also, I’m cool with my dps offspec so if I have to spend more time as Fury and less as Protection, I can do that. I do feel down about the game though, I never needed to be the bestest tank ever but there are only 3 spots for tanks in a 25 man raid. How far behind will they let us get? Is it always going to be the hard mode class, where we work harder than the others and still end up behind?

I’m also not looking forwards to having to listen to all the druids and paladins and DKs boast about how cool they are in the tanking channel for the foreseeable future. And I’m like … well, I have Intervene! Beat that! And it gets this really cool bonus in T9, bet you’re all jealous now!

*pat*

But what I really wonder is what Blizzard are going to do next if explicitly stating that warriors are intended to stay weaker than the other tanks doesn’t do the trick. All I’m saying to my fellow prot warriors is … if you get a knock on the door at 6am, hide.

Blizzard has made a few strange decisions regarding Wintergrasp and arena. Today I want to talk about why I don’t like the way Blizzard has gone about making these nerfs/changes/whatevers to Wintergrasp and the 2v2 arena bracket. I’ll start off with Wintergrasp (it sounds more frosty than arena, I guess?).

The problem with Wintergrasp: too damn busy (i.e. too damn laggy, but is it performance lag or network lag?)

The WG fix: make Wintergrasp battles less attractive, hopefully drawing fewer people per battle

The WG problem redux: the fix didn’t do anything

My future is uncertain!

The problem with this “fix” overall is that it really wasn’t a fix but a way to get players to stop using content. Blizzard is now changing Wintergrasp to a BG-like queue system (which you can read about here if you’re out of the loop) that will allow only 100 people from each faction to participate in the battle at the time. Will they in turn change the weeklies back to dailies? I doubt it – but since the change was (at least partially) done to disincentivize WG, it’s a possibility. But why didn’t Blizzard simply make it a queue from the start? Did they really expect people to go only once a week to do dailies? That seems preposterous. The queue system is a much better idea of a fix, though in practice I don’t think it will make a difference.

Here’s why: I had a 5-year old laptop a few weeks ago, and have since gotten a new one that can actually handle WoW. On the old one, I could barely move in Wintergrasp Fortress during a battle. Rarely were there more than 99 people of my faction in the keep with me, so that won’t change. Given 50 Horde and 50 Alliance fighting in one place, though, and my old laptop would just hide in the corner weeping and I’d get around 2-3 FPS, if that. With my new computer, not a single lag issue in WG (except for once when the whole zone experienced a few second delay, but that was the exception not the rule). Also, in a recent WG, my GM was with us and counted out how many people were in the battle: 120 Alliance. A cut to 100 won’t change the amount of performance lag, since there will still be 100 (less on my server) running around killing us and making our FPS low.

The new “fix” is more of a fix, but still not likely to change anything about Wintergrasp. Those with old computers will probably still feel the lag.

The problem with 2v2 arena: it’s not balanced, FotM (flavour of the month), it’s too fast-paced

The fix: 2v2 rating no longer allows you to buy the newest season of arena gear

The problem with the fix: it’s not a fix

So what Blizzard seems to be saying here is that they are giving up caring about 2v2 arena, a bracket that many care strongly about and others enjoy playing (I fall into thse second group, I find it to be fun and easier to setup than 3v3 or 5v5). In 3.2, where you won’t be able to get gear from 2v2, it seems like Blizzard will use this as an excuse to give up attempts at balancing it. Like the first WG “fix” this change wants you to stop playing 2v2. The message that this sends out is possibly a dire one: if something is broke, don’t fix it. There have always been broken elements of the game, like one class being overpowered either in PvE or PvP or another being underpowered, but Blizzard’s always taken the approach of fixing classes rather than saying “ummm don’t play that class anymore, okay?”

The 2v2 arena “fix” and the recent changes to WG are sort of like making Paladins unusable in PvP. Of course, that’s taking it to the extreme, but that’s what it feels like to me. If something isn’t working properly, well, fuck it and move on. But unlike Exorcism, which has been changed so much in the last few patches it’s hard to remember what it started out as, 2v2 seems to be going the way of the dodo. WG on the other hand will likely see more change or be instanced, eventually.

P.S.

You may have noticed a lack of discussion of 3.2 DK-specific changes. Every time I think about writing something about them, my thought always ends in “but we’ll have to see how it looks on the PTR.” Blizzard has been pretty vague as to the specifics of the changes, specifically how the new dual-wield talent will really work and what the buff to Blood Strike really means. So… check back when the PTR pops up and results from tests start flowing in.

As you are probably aware, the difficulty of the Yogg Saron encounter was lowered on June 9th – notice how I avoided saying “Yogg was nerfed”??? I’m leet like that.  The changes were thus:

1. the spawn rate of fuglies in phase 1 was lowered wayyyy down.
2. the fuglies no longer mind control anyone.
3. clouds no longer spawn a new fugly if someone is iceblocked and hits one.
4. the Immortal fuglies in phase 3 hit less hard.  (they might also have less HP, I don’t know)

Having the privilege of being able to say “we got Yogg pre-nerf” like all the hardcore guilds do, I can now give an opinion as to what the changes mean.

Phase 1 is ridiculously easy… from my point of view as having wiped roughly 70 times perfecting it before the changes.  It isn’t a free pass by any means, and if you have no experience with it I guarantee at least a handful of wipes, but it is definitely an easy, manageable phase now.  If nobody hits clouds, you should never have more than two fuglies up at one time, and that’s easy as pie…  easy to interrupt, easy to position, easy to keep off the raid.

Phase 2, I didn’t notice much difference.  We’re pretty good at handling both the brain room and the “upstairs” portion of the fight.  We were all the same people that were present for the first kill (replace a paladin healer with another paladin healer) and remembered our assignments.  Whether the corruptor tentacles really weren’t as bad on curses is hard to say when they weren’t really up all that much, or if they were, they were stunned.

Phase 3 was definitely easier.  The Immortal fuglies were way more under control than one our first kill.  There were way more moments where we had none of them up, and that allowed the DPS to help with Yogg much more and we were in absolutely no danger of hitting the enrage timer.  Unlike on first kill.  Where we killed him with like, no time left on the timer.

Verdict:  this was definitely a really, really big nerf to the Yogg encounter.

It sucks.  Stop dumbing the game down from every possible angle.  If I wanted to play Free Realms I would sign up there.  Right now, I understand everyone wants to experience raiding, but isn’t that what Naxx was for?  If everything that seems even remotely difficult is nerfed so that everyone can do it, where is the challenge?  If I don’t have time to play in the first month or two after a major content patch, I miss out on the original difficulty and have to face the crappy nerfed modes?  Screw you, Blizzard.

So tonight the patch notes for 3.13 dropped onto the interwebs from wherever Blizzard keeps them. Here are the two important Death Knight-related changes:

Frost Presence: Armor bonus is now 60% down from 80%.

Death Knight PvP Gauntlets: The chance to refresh a Frost Rune when casting Chains of Ice has been removed. When equipped, these gloves now generate 5 additional runic power whenever Chains of Ice is used.

I may look angry but nerfs make me cry on the inside.

The armour nerf (owie)

I’m not sure where this came from, to be honest. I also don’t know if this is aimed at PvP or PvE. The main complaint about DK tanking seemed to always be about the ability to negate burst magic damage through IBF, Bone Shield and AMS. This nerf won’t do anything to change these strengths. If the nerf is PvP-related, I can see the reasoning behind it. Being able to gain a ridiculous amount of armor with no real loss of damage dealing is very strong against Rogues, Warriors, and other melee classes. I know that’s my strategy in arenas, anyways. So much of tank-damage is magical these days that I’m not sure this will have a game-breaking effect on PvE DK tanks, but I’ll have to see if I notice a difference when the patch hits.

Onoes my PvP gloves!

I saw this coming a mile away. Granted, I didn’t expect a glove bonus that I would be incredibly meh about, but such is life as a DK. Ghostcrawler has been responding to QQ posts on the forums saying things like “What if it [the problem] is the glove bonus” (Source)? Granted, the current incarnation of the glove bonus was probably too strong, and likely a result of Blizzard not really knowing what is OP and what isn’t for DKs. For another example of this, see the original t7.5 bonus (+10 RP on Obliterate, Death Strike and Scourge Strike) which turned out to be incredibly awesome. Then look at the t8.5 4-piece, which is pretty much trash and barely even worth considering, especially as Frost.

Although I am not enamored of the new glove bonus, I am wary of it becoming powerful. The nerf means we can’t cast CoI quite as much, but we’ll also be generating more runic power, an ability which can often get out of control. See again the t7.5 bonus. I don’t think this nerf will damage a DK’s ability to kite all that much, but it might force more strategic use of Death Runes. Rather than always using them on a Scourge Strike or whatever attack your spec uses, it might be better to save the runes for casting Chains.

A happy note

Since this post has otherwise been about nerfs, here is a change that may make you happy if you are a raider.

The flight time of Rocket Strikes has been increased, and Rocket Strikes will try to prefer players at range.

The Leviathan Mk II component of the V-07-TR-0N will become stunned during Phase 4 when the VX-001 component begins to cast the P3Wx2 Laser Barrage ability.

Proximity mines now deal less damage and have a lower duration. A small arming time has also been added so proximity mines will not immediately detonate on creation.

All extremely convenient (and not uber-nerfs) to the Mimiron encounter. I hated running back to the boss only to randomly get mines tossed into my path killing me before I could move. Stupid mechano-gnome and his Voltron powersuit thing.

T’oublies or not t’oublies

Journée de la pleine lune
Au sommet de la dune
A caresser de loin ton chien

T’oublies or not t’oublies
Les ombres d’opalines
Au rendez-vous suivant, j’attends
Au fond d’une autre limousine
Qui ne vaut pas plus cher
Que ce bouquet de nerfs

A frôler la calanche
Les étendues salines
A perte de vue on s’imagine en Chine

Trompe la mort et tais-toi
Trois petits tours et puis s’en va
J’opère tes amygdales
Labyrinthiques, que dalle
Ne m’est plus rien égal
Je sais, je n’ai offert que des bouquets de nerfs

Rubis de Sade et jade, déjà je dis non
Diamant, c’est éternel
Des fleurs, des bouts du ciel immense

La liste des parfums capiteux
Capitalistes c’est bien
Mais olfacultatif
Liste en boule, au panier
Finalement j’ai offert quelques bouquets de nerfs

Agendas donnez-moi
De vos dates à damner
Tous les bouddhas du monde
Et la Guadalupe

S’il arrive qu’un Anglais
Vienne me visiter
Dans la métempsychose
Je saurai recevoir, je peux lui en faire voir de la sérénité
Et même lui laisser un certain goût de fer
Et ce bouquet de nerfs

Illustrations extraites du livre “Manipulations des nerfs crâniens”, paru en 2006 aux éditions Elsevier (tous droits réservés). Cet ouvrage est en ligne sur le site books.google.fr.