I respecced to 20/41/0 today. Not a full tanking build, but something that should allow me to heal decently and act as an off-tank if we need an extra tank.
Well, it turned out that we only had one warrior in the raid tonight, so I got to off-tank! It was a lot of fun. I off-tanked trash until we got to the Maiden, where I swapped into healing gear and healed that fight.
Next we went to Moroes. Moroes is an interesting fight. One of the things about Moroes is that he will gouge the tank and go after the person with the second-highest threat. So we have two tanks building threat on Moroes.
Because a lot of paladin threat is based on Holy Shield, we decided to make me the main tank for this fight, and the warrior would build secondary threat and offtank the adds.
So I got to main-tank Moroes!
I did pretty well, I think, especially considering my gear level (go, go 467 defense!). I held Moroes, and lasted until he Enraged, at which point he promptly killed me. But the warrior held him for the rest of the fight, and the raid killed him.
It was a really good raid. I healed, melee'd, off-tanked trash, and even main-tanked a boss. Hopefully I wasn't too much of a stress for the healers.
As well, this was probably the first time one of our guild paladins has really tanked anything, and I think the warrior officer was happy with how I did. Hopefully, I'll be used as an off-tank in future fights. Either way, it's one more option for our raid, and more options are always good.
Now I just have to figure out how to get to 490 defense. I'm actually collecting 3 sets of gear at this point, and it gets quite difficult when you are presented with a choice of one really good tanking item, or one really good healing item.
I also need to get better at watching my health and using trinkets and consumables appropriately.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Back to Raiding
I finally finished my Karazhan key and joined my guild for a Kara run last night.
About the keying processing, I really like Black Morass. It's an inventive and fun instance. It is not, however, an instance that you can really do with a random pick-up group. It's ideal for a group of five friends to just go and practice, to fine-tune their strategy until they are successful. But when you are doing Black Morass in a pickup group, people leave your group after one try, new people join, it's just a big pain.
Anyways, back to Kara. It was good being back in a raid. I've really missed hitting mobs, and was actually very tired of healbotting. I think my Holy spec is a little extreme though, and I'm switching to a Holy/Protection mixture.
I'm seriously considering a Retribution spec, but my warriors love Kings, and I haven't really been able to make a Retribution build that incorporates Kings and enough healing to satisfy me. Given that I'm often the only paladin in a 10-man, having Kings is a necessity. I may go Retribution when we start trying the 25-mans, though.
Karazhan itself is a pretty nice instance, so far. I haven't seen very much of it. We killed Attumen the Huntsmen, and then wiped a lot on Moroes. Good times. The instance itself is an interesting place, less like a dungeon, and more like an actual house (albeit a very big house).
About the keying processing, I really like Black Morass. It's an inventive and fun instance. It is not, however, an instance that you can really do with a random pick-up group. It's ideal for a group of five friends to just go and practice, to fine-tune their strategy until they are successful. But when you are doing Black Morass in a pickup group, people leave your group after one try, new people join, it's just a big pain.
Anyways, back to Kara. It was good being back in a raid. I've really missed hitting mobs, and was actually very tired of healbotting. I think my Holy spec is a little extreme though, and I'm switching to a Holy/Protection mixture.
I'm seriously considering a Retribution spec, but my warriors love Kings, and I haven't really been able to make a Retribution build that incorporates Kings and enough healing to satisfy me. Given that I'm often the only paladin in a 10-man, having Kings is a necessity. I may go Retribution when we start trying the 25-mans, though.
Karazhan itself is a pretty nice instance, so far. I haven't seen very much of it. We killed Attumen the Huntsmen, and then wiped a lot on Moroes. Good times. The instance itself is an interesting place, less like a dungeon, and more like an actual house (albeit a very big house).
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Retribution Talent Idea
Actually, the post below gave me an idea for a Retribution talent:
The truth of a paladin is that whenever you cast a healing spell, your damage-per-second goes down. And whenever you swing your weapon, your healing-per-second decreases. And it is this trade-off that causes most of the problems for paladins who want to melee.
This talent offsets that loss. Healing feeds damage, and damage feeds healing, which is how it should be for a paladin.
You could tweak the numbers, or even make them dependant on each other. The amount of extra healing could be determined by the amount of damage done by the last melee attack, and vice versa (though you'd have to be careful about getting into a positive feedback loop). But I think this might be a decent way of getting to the Vampiric Embrace ideal, without directly copying VE.
Edit: Clarified the dependancy idea. Also changed it to a five point talent and reduced the duration slightly.
Spirit and Steel (5 points)
Requires 20 points in Retribution Talents
Gives you a 4/8/12/16/20% bonus to Physical and Holy damage you deal for 8 sec after you cast Holy Light or Flash of Light.
Gives you a 4/8/12/16/20% bonus to the amount healed by your Holy Light or Flash of Light for 8 sec after you deal a damaging melee attack.
The truth of a paladin is that whenever you cast a healing spell, your damage-per-second goes down. And whenever you swing your weapon, your healing-per-second decreases. And it is this trade-off that causes most of the problems for paladins who want to melee.
This talent offsets that loss. Healing feeds damage, and damage feeds healing, which is how it should be for a paladin.
You could tweak the numbers, or even make them dependant on each other. The amount of extra healing could be determined by the amount of damage done by the last melee attack, and vice versa (though you'd have to be careful about getting into a positive feedback loop). But I think this might be a decent way of getting to the Vampiric Embrace ideal, without directly copying VE.
Edit: Clarified the dependancy idea. Also changed it to a five point talent and reduced the duration slightly.
Friday, March 09, 2007
Vampiric Embrace
I think I found where all the priests and druids went. I joined a group for Tempest Keep - Arcatraz. We had one priest and two druids. Guess who ended up main-healing?
It was still a good and successful run. And I got to play with a Shadow priest for the first time in TBC. Shadow priests really complement Holy Paladins, to an almost rediculous degree. All that extra mana fueled my larger heals, and the group healing through Vampiric Embrace took care of all the splash damage that makes paladin healing hard.
In many ways, Shadow priests are the one hybrid that Blizzard really got right. Unlike a paladin, a Shadow priest does not choose between healing and doing damage. They heal by doing damage. Vampiric Embrace is the critical talent that makes the Shadow priest work. And the amount healed is linked to the amount of damage done, which gives large incentive to maximize damage capabilities.
What a lot of paladins really want is our own Vampiric Embrace. (Angelic Embrace, maybe. Though Blizzard would probably call it something silly like Embrace of the Naaru.) Imagine a Retribution talent where you healed your party for a certain percentage of the damage that you do. That is the precise solution that would make many Retribution paladins happy, because it gives the extra, obvious purpose to their meleeing. We are a melee hybrid, and so we should support by meleeing.
Judgement of Light does not work as well as Vampiric Embrace because JoL is independent of the paladin. There is no support incentive for the Retribution paladin to maximize his damage in the same manner as the Shadow priest.
This solution to the paladin role is fairly obvious, and I think that is the reason that Blizzard has been resisting this. It's really too close to Vampiric Embrace, and I think that Blizzard does not want to just copy themselves. But I think all their other attempts have not truely restored the paladin class to the melee zone for the large majority of players.
But so long as casting a heal reduces your dps (which it does, as time spent casting takes away from time spent meleeing), I think paladins will always have this tension between being allowed on the front lines or being forced to healbot.
It was still a good and successful run. And I got to play with a Shadow priest for the first time in TBC. Shadow priests really complement Holy Paladins, to an almost rediculous degree. All that extra mana fueled my larger heals, and the group healing through Vampiric Embrace took care of all the splash damage that makes paladin healing hard.
In many ways, Shadow priests are the one hybrid that Blizzard really got right. Unlike a paladin, a Shadow priest does not choose between healing and doing damage. They heal by doing damage. Vampiric Embrace is the critical talent that makes the Shadow priest work. And the amount healed is linked to the amount of damage done, which gives large incentive to maximize damage capabilities.
What a lot of paladins really want is our own Vampiric Embrace. (Angelic Embrace, maybe. Though Blizzard would probably call it something silly like Embrace of the Naaru.) Imagine a Retribution talent where you healed your party for a certain percentage of the damage that you do. That is the precise solution that would make many Retribution paladins happy, because it gives the extra, obvious purpose to their meleeing. We are a melee hybrid, and so we should support by meleeing.
Judgement of Light does not work as well as Vampiric Embrace because JoL is independent of the paladin. There is no support incentive for the Retribution paladin to maximize his damage in the same manner as the Shadow priest.
This solution to the paladin role is fairly obvious, and I think that is the reason that Blizzard has been resisting this. It's really too close to Vampiric Embrace, and I think that Blizzard does not want to just copy themselves. But I think all their other attempts have not truely restored the paladin class to the melee zone for the large majority of players.
But so long as casting a heal reduces your dps (which it does, as time spent casting takes away from time spent meleeing), I think paladins will always have this tension between being allowed on the front lines or being forced to healbot.
Thoughts on Holy
I bit the bullet and went Holy. 47/14/0, to be precise. It started off as 41/14/0, and then I couldn't figure out where to put the remaining points, so I decided to try out Blessed Life. Not sure if Blessed Life is really helping, but it seems good enough. The build is pretty good for healing, I find.
Since then I've main-healed Sethekk Halls, Durnholde, and Shadow Labyrinth. I think this was a good decision, if only because I haven't seen a priest or druid yet. As far as healing difficulty goes, I think the increased health available in TBC has really helped the paladin healer. You seem to have a lot more time to react, to cast Holy Light. Before TBC, I almost never cast Holy Light, as the target would usually die before the cast finished. But now, thanks to the 2 second Holy Light talent and the increased health, it's actually a useful spell again.
Speaking of talents, the 41-point Holy talent, Divine Illumination, is very strong. It's not a stylish 41-pointer, like Crusader Strike or Avenger's Shield, but it is incredibly useful. I try to pop it often, at around the 70% mana mark, and then go to town with Holy Light. Indeed, I think that builds that only put 40 points into Holy are shortchanging themselves if they want to be healers.
Of course, paladin healing is very group dependent. I had an awesome group for Shadow Labyrinth, probably the best pick-up group I've been in, and that made it much easier to heal. With a worse group, I could easily see Shadow Labyrinth being hard to heal.
The other advantage of being the only healer is that you get all the healing loot that drops. I've picked up four or so blues for my healing set. Sadly, I'm wearing a bit of cloth, leather, and mail, but hopefully I will replace them eventually.
(As an aside, you gotta love tells that begin, "Are you happy with your current guild?" Heh, I guess they liked my healing in Shadow Labyrinth. If I did take them up on the offer, it would probably be a big shock for them when I started meleeing in the raids. ;) )
Since then I've main-healed Sethekk Halls, Durnholde, and Shadow Labyrinth. I think this was a good decision, if only because I haven't seen a priest or druid yet. As far as healing difficulty goes, I think the increased health available in TBC has really helped the paladin healer. You seem to have a lot more time to react, to cast Holy Light. Before TBC, I almost never cast Holy Light, as the target would usually die before the cast finished. But now, thanks to the 2 second Holy Light talent and the increased health, it's actually a useful spell again.
Speaking of talents, the 41-point Holy talent, Divine Illumination, is very strong. It's not a stylish 41-pointer, like Crusader Strike or Avenger's Shield, but it is incredibly useful. I try to pop it often, at around the 70% mana mark, and then go to town with Holy Light. Indeed, I think that builds that only put 40 points into Holy are shortchanging themselves if they want to be healers.
Of course, paladin healing is very group dependent. I had an awesome group for Shadow Labyrinth, probably the best pick-up group I've been in, and that made it much easier to heal. With a worse group, I could easily see Shadow Labyrinth being hard to heal.
The other advantage of being the only healer is that you get all the healing loot that drops. I've picked up four or so blues for my healing set. Sadly, I'm wearing a bit of cloth, leather, and mail, but hopefully I will replace them eventually.
(As an aside, you gotta love tells that begin, "Are you happy with your current guild?" Heh, I guess they liked my healing in Shadow Labyrinth. If I did take them up on the offer, it would probably be a big shock for them when I started meleeing in the raids. ;) )
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Debating going Holy
For some reason, I am having a terrible time getting groups for instances lately. In particular, it is really hard to find a primary healer. I'm not sure what's going on with them, but I'm considering switching to Holy, so I can at least try to be the primary healer in a 5-man.
I don't really like primary healing as a paladin, though. I love it as my priest, because I feel in control of the situation. I usually have time to pick and choose my healing spells, and it's like I always have the right tool for the right job as a priest.
I never have that same feeling of control when I'm main-healing on my paladin. I'm just praying that my Flash of Light/Holy Light spam is greater than the incoming damage. Either it is, and we survive the fight, or it isn't, and we don't. It's very nerve-racking, personally.
It's a bit annoying, because I think that the paladin is better suited to a 5th-man role, than as the primary healer. But what can one do? If there are no primary healers, I'll have to become one, or I'll never get an instance group off the ground.
To any Holy Paladins, what are your experiences main-healing the level 70 5-man instances, without a secondary healer? Is it doable, does it require significant gear, or are there some instances where you simply cannot primary-heal?
It's actually kind of frustrating. I haven't even been able to complete Mana Tombs yet, let alone any of the higher instances.
I don't really like primary healing as a paladin, though. I love it as my priest, because I feel in control of the situation. I usually have time to pick and choose my healing spells, and it's like I always have the right tool for the right job as a priest.
I never have that same feeling of control when I'm main-healing on my paladin. I'm just praying that my Flash of Light/Holy Light spam is greater than the incoming damage. Either it is, and we survive the fight, or it isn't, and we don't. It's very nerve-racking, personally.
It's a bit annoying, because I think that the paladin is better suited to a 5th-man role, than as the primary healer. But what can one do? If there are no primary healers, I'll have to become one, or I'll never get an instance group off the ground.
To any Holy Paladins, what are your experiences main-healing the level 70 5-man instances, without a secondary healer? Is it doable, does it require significant gear, or are there some instances where you simply cannot primary-heal?
It's actually kind of frustrating. I haven't even been able to complete Mana Tombs yet, let alone any of the higher instances.
Monday, March 05, 2007
Thoughts on the Forbearance Nerf
For the upcoming patch, Blizzard was planning on making the Forbearance debuff (gained when you use Divine Shield, Avenging Wrath, or Blessing of Protection) give a -15% penalty to damage. They withdrew the nerf in the face of the large outcry.
I'm not too thrilled with the nerf, as it does hit paladins hard, but I do see the problem. Using BoP on a mage, who gets 12s to freely nuke a melee class, is insanely powerful, especially in Arenas where it is to the first death. So that could stand to be nerfed. But by hitting Forbearance, you hurt paladins--who already have the lowest DPS--even more. Especially when you consider that the debuff lasts 3 to 5 times longer than the ability you used. It's really over-kill, and I think that a more targetted nerf would be more appropriate.
Here's what I would suggest:
1. Blessing of Protection grants the Forbearance debuff, which gives -20% to all damage and healing spells.
2. Avenging Wrath and Divine Shield do NOT grant Forbearance.
3. Avenging Wrath and Diving Shield share the same cooldown. You can't use both of them back to back, or at the same time.
I think this restores some balance to the situation. It returns Blessing of Protection to an emergency cast, and does not allow multiple paladins to chain BoP. A paladin can now chain BoP and Divine Shield, but her healing and damage will be significantly reduced for a full minute. A heavy price, in my opinion.
I'm not too thrilled with the nerf, as it does hit paladins hard, but I do see the problem. Using BoP on a mage, who gets 12s to freely nuke a melee class, is insanely powerful, especially in Arenas where it is to the first death. So that could stand to be nerfed. But by hitting Forbearance, you hurt paladins--who already have the lowest DPS--even more. Especially when you consider that the debuff lasts 3 to 5 times longer than the ability you used. It's really over-kill, and I think that a more targetted nerf would be more appropriate.
Here's what I would suggest:
1. Blessing of Protection grants the Forbearance debuff, which gives -20% to all damage and healing spells.
2. Avenging Wrath and Divine Shield do NOT grant Forbearance.
3. Avenging Wrath and Diving Shield share the same cooldown. You can't use both of them back to back, or at the same time.
I think this restores some balance to the situation. It returns Blessing of Protection to an emergency cast, and does not allow multiple paladins to chain BoP. A paladin can now chain BoP and Divine Shield, but her healing and damage will be significantly reduced for a full minute. A heavy price, in my opinion.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Paladin Burst Damage Philosophy
One of the Blizzard CMs recently posted something about how Blizzard was looking at toning down paladin burst damage. And of course, the paladin boards erupted in outrage.
Now, I don't know if paladin burst damage needs to be toned down. It may be excessive, or it may be fine. But I think there is a deeper problem at the heart of this issue. One that will not be solved by the devs nerfing a specific skill.
For some reason, whenever paladins get abilities, they almost always get powerful abilities with long cooldowns. It's like that is Blizzard's first instinct when it comes to paladins. The problem with this design, is that you can line up all your cooldown skills and use them in a row to a huge effect. The paladin sees the 90% of the time they are without these skills, and considers them underpowered. The person who was on the receiving end the other 10% of the time is unhappy, and considers paladins overpowered.
Take the Crusader Strike nerf. CS used to have a 6s cooldown. That was deemed overpowered. Rather than reduce the damage, Blizzard chose to increase the cooldown to 10s. Thus the problem with burst damage remains.
Almost all of the paladin abilities are like that. Very powerful, but with long cooldowns. If anything, the paladin needs less powerful abilities, but usable more often. It would tone down our burst damage potential, and would also make playing a paladin a bit more interactive.
Now, I don't know if paladin burst damage needs to be toned down. It may be excessive, or it may be fine. But I think there is a deeper problem at the heart of this issue. One that will not be solved by the devs nerfing a specific skill.
For some reason, whenever paladins get abilities, they almost always get powerful abilities with long cooldowns. It's like that is Blizzard's first instinct when it comes to paladins. The problem with this design, is that you can line up all your cooldown skills and use them in a row to a huge effect. The paladin sees the 90% of the time they are without these skills, and considers them underpowered. The person who was on the receiving end the other 10% of the time is unhappy, and considers paladins overpowered.
Take the Crusader Strike nerf. CS used to have a 6s cooldown. That was deemed overpowered. Rather than reduce the damage, Blizzard chose to increase the cooldown to 10s. Thus the problem with burst damage remains.
Almost all of the paladin abilities are like that. Very powerful, but with long cooldowns. If anything, the paladin needs less powerful abilities, but usable more often. It would tone down our burst damage potential, and would also make playing a paladin a bit more interactive.
Pickup Group Weirdness
I was trying to do Mana Tombs yesterday. I finally got a halfway decent group consisting of a hunter, a priest, a druid, and a paladin (me). The group leader goes to look for a fifth. This is what I see in General chat:
[Group Leader]: LF1M Healer
Apparently, I was Protection, the priest was Shadow, and the druid Feral. And 3 of us wasn't good enough for the leader. Honestly, that's just crazy.
[Group Leader]: LF1M Healer
Apparently, I was Protection, the priest was Shadow, and the druid Feral. And 3 of us wasn't good enough for the leader. Honestly, that's just crazy.
70!
Finally hit 70 today in Blade's Edge Mountains. I ended up doing the entire run using rested XP. I haven't seen most of Blade's Edge, Netherstorm, or Shadowmoon yet.
I did run down to Shadowmoon and picked up my white gryphon. Pretty cool, even if I have almost no gold yet.
Now, I just have to get keyed for Kazarahan.
I did run down to Shadowmoon and picked up my white gryphon. Pretty cool, even if I have almost no gold yet.
Now, I just have to get keyed for Kazarahan.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Burning Crusade Instances
I've done a few of the Burning Crusade instances (Hellfire Citadel, Coilfang Reservoir, one wing of Achindoun, and one wing of Caverns of Time) now, and I have to say that I really like the new style of instances. They are short and sweet, with only 3 or 4 bosses, and very doable in 2 hours or less.
I especially like that most of them have shortcuts back to the beginning after the final boss. That was a very nice touch.
About the only complaint I have is that there doesn't seem like a lot of loot. Usually you get one blue per boss, and given that it's only 5-man, you can usually count on at least one blue going to waste. A couple more blues would not go amiss, I think. I know that I personally only have one dungeon blue so far (though it is a nice one - [Amani Venom-Axe]).
But then again, the instances are short enough that you could easily do several in a week, or even a couple back to back.
The boss fights themselves are fairly creative, especially given the limitations of 5-man content. I especially like the hunter boss who tamed a druid in Coilfang Reservoir. Hilarious! I usually get the job of kiting the bear, which is pretty amusing. Paladin kiting for the win!
I also tried the Caverns of Time instance of Old Hillsbrad. This was very neat, and quite different from most other instances. Thrall needs to learn to slow down, however. He's crazy, Leeroy Jenkins crazy. Also, being so heavily scripted, the instance does seem a bit vulnerable to glitches. During the final fight, Thrall died during the wave of dragonkin, but we survived the wave. He didn't respawn and we couldn't pull the boss, so we were just stuck.
Ah well, so far I really like the instances, and am looking forward to doing a more of them. I can't wait to see what the raid instances are like.
I especially like that most of them have shortcuts back to the beginning after the final boss. That was a very nice touch.
About the only complaint I have is that there doesn't seem like a lot of loot. Usually you get one blue per boss, and given that it's only 5-man, you can usually count on at least one blue going to waste. A couple more blues would not go amiss, I think. I know that I personally only have one dungeon blue so far (though it is a nice one - [Amani Venom-Axe]).
But then again, the instances are short enough that you could easily do several in a week, or even a couple back to back.
The boss fights themselves are fairly creative, especially given the limitations of 5-man content. I especially like the hunter boss who tamed a druid in Coilfang Reservoir. Hilarious! I usually get the job of kiting the bear, which is pretty amusing. Paladin kiting for the win!
I also tried the Caverns of Time instance of Old Hillsbrad. This was very neat, and quite different from most other instances. Thrall needs to learn to slow down, however. He's crazy, Leeroy Jenkins crazy. Also, being so heavily scripted, the instance does seem a bit vulnerable to glitches. During the final fight, Thrall died during the wave of dragonkin, but we survived the wave. He didn't respawn and we couldn't pull the boss, so we were just stuck.
Ah well, so far I really like the instances, and am looking forward to doing a more of them. I can't wait to see what the raid instances are like.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Guild Governance
Tobold recently wrote a post on Guild Governance. In it, he talks about democracies vs dictatorships vs communists and how different forms of guild leadership fits into these things. It's an interesting post, and worth reading.
But one thing struck me, and I've noticed it in previous discussions about this topic. Why do we keep comparing guilds to nation-states?
If you think about it, other than being an organization of people, nations and guilds really have nothing in common. Nations are orders of magnitude larger than guilds. Moving between guilds is far easier than moving between nations, and there's no real defensive purpose to guilds. (Well, in most games. I'm sure Eve Online might be different.)
Perhaps it's because civics and politics generate so much noise and attention, and thought and study, that we automatically start to view all groups of people in terms of politics and political ideas.
However, political systems are not the only systems for organizing human groups, and I think there are other real world systems that would be a better match. For example, take small businesses.
In a small business, you have a few founders, and the employees. Everyone works together and earns profit together, but few would argue that the founders are somehow dictatorial for giving orders. It's generally understood that they are the ones who put in the capital and lots of time and effort. They lead because they started the business, and the employee chooses to be employed by them.
In many ways, guilds are very much closer to the small business model than natrion-states. You have a group of founders, the officers. They don't put monetary capital into the guild, but they put in the MMO equivalent, which is time. Your group does activities together and earns profit (epixxx!), which is distributed in rough proportion to the amount of effort put in by all parties.
Like small business employees, regular raiders can and do quit and join other companies. New raiders apply and can be "hired". It's not so naked as I am discribing, but there are a lot of similarities. In my opinion, far more similarities than to democracies or communist societies.
Looking at it this way implies that if you want to make a better guild, rather than trying to apply different political theories, you should look at ideas dedicated to improving small businesses. And I am sure that there are tons of such books and discussions out there. It's just not as sexy as politics and doesn't get as much ink.
There are other models that may apply as well. A guild could be modelled after a small military company, and the dynamic could be examined in that light. However, the guild as nation-state idea is really misleading, and is not really that helpful when trying to improve a guild.
But one thing struck me, and I've noticed it in previous discussions about this topic. Why do we keep comparing guilds to nation-states?
If you think about it, other than being an organization of people, nations and guilds really have nothing in common. Nations are orders of magnitude larger than guilds. Moving between guilds is far easier than moving between nations, and there's no real defensive purpose to guilds. (Well, in most games. I'm sure Eve Online might be different.)
Perhaps it's because civics and politics generate so much noise and attention, and thought and study, that we automatically start to view all groups of people in terms of politics and political ideas.
However, political systems are not the only systems for organizing human groups, and I think there are other real world systems that would be a better match. For example, take small businesses.
In a small business, you have a few founders, and the employees. Everyone works together and earns profit together, but few would argue that the founders are somehow dictatorial for giving orders. It's generally understood that they are the ones who put in the capital and lots of time and effort. They lead because they started the business, and the employee chooses to be employed by them.
In many ways, guilds are very much closer to the small business model than natrion-states. You have a group of founders, the officers. They don't put monetary capital into the guild, but they put in the MMO equivalent, which is time. Your group does activities together and earns profit (epixxx!), which is distributed in rough proportion to the amount of effort put in by all parties.
Like small business employees, regular raiders can and do quit and join other companies. New raiders apply and can be "hired". It's not so naked as I am discribing, but there are a lot of similarities. In my opinion, far more similarities than to democracies or communist societies.
Looking at it this way implies that if you want to make a better guild, rather than trying to apply different political theories, you should look at ideas dedicated to improving small businesses. And I am sure that there are tons of such books and discussions out there. It's just not as sexy as politics and doesn't get as much ink.
There are other models that may apply as well. A guild could be modelled after a small military company, and the dynamic could be examined in that light. However, the guild as nation-state idea is really misleading, and is not really that helpful when trying to improve a guild.
Monday, February 19, 2007
I Blame the Burning Legion
I'm level 66. I have exactly 6666 health.
I need a stamina enchant. Or an exorcism.
I need a stamina enchant. Or an exorcism.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Left Behind
I haven't had a lot of time to play over the last month. I'm in a relatively hardcore guild. As a result, I'm way behind everyone else. Pretty much everyone else in the guild has gotten to 70. In fact, I think that I have the lowest level main character in the guild.
This experience has made me really understand the desire to power-level characters. I really want to play with my guild, to see new content with them. I like levelling, and I don't really want to skip content, but I do want to play with my friends.
Levels and progression are both boon and bane to this genre. The idea of slowly improving your character is a major attraction, and just the process of levelling up is fun. But when levels are out of sync, they are annoying because they are preventing you from playing with your friends.
I have a couple of real life friends on the server as well. One just started a month ago, so all of our levels are out of whack. To be honest, there's probably no real way we are all going to be able to play together until we all hit 70. When levels no longer matter.
In many ways, this is the central paradox of the MMO genre. Levels are the carrot, the reason for playing. They represent effort and achievement. But levels also prevent you from playing with your friends. This Penny Arcade comic sums up the dilemma perfectly.
I know different games handle it differently. WoW has the level caps and the slow-down in level speed, as well as rested experience. EvE Online has skills based on real-time, rather than in-game time. I believe that City of Heroes has a 'side-kick' system to temporarily boost a lower level character up. But I don't think any of these solutions truely solve the problem.
I have no idea what the perfect solution is. It may well be that there isn't one, that this is just a total paradox, and the best you can do is make a reasonable trade-off.
This experience has made me really understand the desire to power-level characters. I really want to play with my guild, to see new content with them. I like levelling, and I don't really want to skip content, but I do want to play with my friends.
Levels and progression are both boon and bane to this genre. The idea of slowly improving your character is a major attraction, and just the process of levelling up is fun. But when levels are out of sync, they are annoying because they are preventing you from playing with your friends.
I have a couple of real life friends on the server as well. One just started a month ago, so all of our levels are out of whack. To be honest, there's probably no real way we are all going to be able to play together until we all hit 70. When levels no longer matter.
In many ways, this is the central paradox of the MMO genre. Levels are the carrot, the reason for playing. They represent effort and achievement. But levels also prevent you from playing with your friends. This Penny Arcade comic sums up the dilemma perfectly.
I know different games handle it differently. WoW has the level caps and the slow-down in level speed, as well as rested experience. EvE Online has skills based on real-time, rather than in-game time. I believe that City of Heroes has a 'side-kick' system to temporarily boost a lower level character up. But I don't think any of these solutions truely solve the problem.
I have no idea what the perfect solution is. It may well be that there isn't one, that this is just a total paradox, and the best you can do is make a reasonable trade-off.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Main Tank Today
I hit 65 and main-tanked an instance for the first time. It was just Slave Pens in Coilfang Reservoir, nothing special, but it was a pretty interesting experience. I got to put a lot of theorycrafting to the test.
The group was me (65 paladin), 2 warlocks (a 67 and a 62), a 64 mage and a 64 priest. Decent group, everyone knew their stuff and played well.
Keep in mind that I am fully Protection spec, and that's how I'm looking at this run.
First off, holding aggro was not a problem at all. Between Avenger's Shield, Holy Shield, Consecration and Seal of Vengeance, I easily held the attention of all the mobs in a groups. The only time I had issues is cases where a mob bypassed me entirely and ran after someone. Even then taunting with Righteous Defence took care of most problems. As well, Avenger's Shield is very good. Pulling with AS and having the mage sheep a dazed mob is so much easier and cleaner than the mage pulling by casting sheep. And when the sheep is broken, the mob comes straight for me.
Where the problem lies is damage mitigation. I think I was much squishier than a warrior would have been, and my health level seemed to be much more unstable than normal for the main tank, especially in the last two boss fights. Of course, we didn't have a secondary healer, and every group I've been in other than this one has had at least one secondary healer--me--to smooth out the healing.
In fact, during the last two boss fights, I was casting heals on myself half the time. It seemed to be necessary to keep myself up.
We completed the entire instance, with only one wipe at the final boss. I didn't get any loot, but I haven't gotten loot in a TBC instance yet.
My conclusion for paladin tanking so far is that I need to concentrate less on threat generation and more on damage mitigation. One thing that I have noticed is that quests which have warrior tanking gear as rewards rarely have paladin gear as well. It would probably be worthwhile to save up some of those warrior pieces for the next time I have to tank.
The group was me (65 paladin), 2 warlocks (a 67 and a 62), a 64 mage and a 64 priest. Decent group, everyone knew their stuff and played well.
Keep in mind that I am fully Protection spec, and that's how I'm looking at this run.
First off, holding aggro was not a problem at all. Between Avenger's Shield, Holy Shield, Consecration and Seal of Vengeance, I easily held the attention of all the mobs in a groups. The only time I had issues is cases where a mob bypassed me entirely and ran after someone. Even then taunting with Righteous Defence took care of most problems. As well, Avenger's Shield is very good. Pulling with AS and having the mage sheep a dazed mob is so much easier and cleaner than the mage pulling by casting sheep. And when the sheep is broken, the mob comes straight for me.
Where the problem lies is damage mitigation. I think I was much squishier than a warrior would have been, and my health level seemed to be much more unstable than normal for the main tank, especially in the last two boss fights. Of course, we didn't have a secondary healer, and every group I've been in other than this one has had at least one secondary healer--me--to smooth out the healing.
In fact, during the last two boss fights, I was casting heals on myself half the time. It seemed to be necessary to keep myself up.
We completed the entire instance, with only one wipe at the final boss. I didn't get any loot, but I haven't gotten loot in a TBC instance yet.
My conclusion for paladin tanking so far is that I need to concentrate less on threat generation and more on damage mitigation. One thing that I have noticed is that quests which have warrior tanking gear as rewards rarely have paladin gear as well. It would probably be worthwhile to save up some of those warrior pieces for the next time I have to tank.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Small touch, Seal of Vengeance
Another small touch I noticed is that the Captain at Allerian Stronghold will refer to you using your PvP title. It's a neat touch, bringing the PvP game into the PvE game a little bit. It's sort of like the NPCs recognize your title, and that is a bit amusing. In some ways it makes PvP a bit more "real", part of the main game, rather than just a sub-game within the game.
I also hit 64 today. I was feeling unhappy with my spec (mostly because Vindication is completely useless--elite world quest mobs are now immune to it as well), so I respecced to Retribution. I also picked up Seal of Vengeance as well. When I got back to questing, I realized that SoV was amazingly suited to my previous 1H/Shield build, as it does not depend on weapon damage at all. So I went back to Stormwind, and respecced again, this time to 10/45/0.
It's a pretty nice build so far. JotC -> SoV -> Holy Shield -> JoV when fully stacked (usually around 10-12 seconds) -> Holy Shield and/or SoR if the mob is still alive.
I quite like SoV at the moment. Apparently it doesn't scale as well as Seal of Righteousness, but for the moment it does the job quite well.
I also hit 64 today. I was feeling unhappy with my spec (mostly because Vindication is completely useless--elite world quest mobs are now immune to it as well), so I respecced to Retribution. I also picked up Seal of Vengeance as well. When I got back to questing, I realized that SoV was amazingly suited to my previous 1H/Shield build, as it does not depend on weapon damage at all. So I went back to Stormwind, and respecced again, this time to 10/45/0.
It's a pretty nice build so far. JotC -> SoV -> Holy Shield -> JoV when fully stacked (usually around 10-12 seconds) -> Holy Shield and/or SoR if the mob is still alive.
I quite like SoV at the moment. Apparently it doesn't scale as well as Seal of Righteousness, but for the moment it does the job quite well.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Killing Slaves
In the Outlands so far, there's been a persistent slavery sub-theme. The demons and the naga often have Broken slaves and they will force the slaves to attack you when you fight them.
Maybe it's just because I play a paladin, but I've always felt a little uncomfortable killing the slaves in places like Blackrock Mountain. I tend to go out of my way to avoid aggro'ing them.
So when I got to Outlands, and saw the linked overmasters and slaves, I had a sinking feeling that I was going to have to kill some of them to complete my quests. But I was pleasantly surprised to see that the slaves run away after you kill the overmaster, allowing you to complete the quests without killing the slaves. It even adds a bit more challenge to the affair, as you can't use reactive damage (Holy Shield, Ret Aura, etc.) safely.
It's a small touch, but it made me happy. In many ways, Blizzard excels at these small effects, and its a major reason I love their games.
Maybe it's just because I play a paladin, but I've always felt a little uncomfortable killing the slaves in places like Blackrock Mountain. I tend to go out of my way to avoid aggro'ing them.
So when I got to Outlands, and saw the linked overmasters and slaves, I had a sinking feeling that I was going to have to kill some of them to complete my quests. But I was pleasantly surprised to see that the slaves run away after you kill the overmaster, allowing you to complete the quests without killing the slaves. It even adds a bit more challenge to the affair, as you can't use reactive damage (Holy Shield, Ret Aura, etc.) safely.
It's a small touch, but it made me happy. In many ways, Blizzard excels at these small effects, and its a major reason I love their games.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Aldor versus Scryer
I haven't had a lot of time to play (still only level 63), but I've made it to Shattrath City and seen the whole Aldor/Scryer faction debate.
It's a pretty neat idea, acutually, having two opposing factions, and having your choice be meaningful. However, the execution of making that choice could have been improved.
As far as I could see, you go to Shattrath City, take the tour, and then are presented with the choice of which faction to join almost immediately. I found that I simply didn't have enough information to make a choice that I was happy with. All I knew was that Aldor = draenei and Scryer = blood elves. So I went with Aldor. I didn't really see any other place you could find out more.
I'm sure that you could have looked up the rewards online, and picked a faction that way, but that seems very clinical to me.
What Blizzard should have done is have a couple quests where the two factions are actively trying to woo you to their side. I'd go with two quests for each side (four total). One quest shows the good side of the faction, and the other quest shows the dark side of the faction. Rep changes would be fairly minimal to allow people to "taste" each faction.
Then, after doing these initial quests, you could make a meaningful, and more permanent, choice.
It's a pretty neat idea, acutually, having two opposing factions, and having your choice be meaningful. However, the execution of making that choice could have been improved.
As far as I could see, you go to Shattrath City, take the tour, and then are presented with the choice of which faction to join almost immediately. I found that I simply didn't have enough information to make a choice that I was happy with. All I knew was that Aldor = draenei and Scryer = blood elves. So I went with Aldor. I didn't really see any other place you could find out more.
I'm sure that you could have looked up the rewards online, and picked a faction that way, but that seems very clinical to me.
What Blizzard should have done is have a couple quests where the two factions are actively trying to woo you to their side. I'd go with two quests for each side (four total). One quest shows the good side of the faction, and the other quest shows the dark side of the faction. Rep changes would be fairly minimal to allow people to "taste" each faction.
Then, after doing these initial quests, you could make a meaningful, and more permanent, choice.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Quick Musings
1. I love Crusader Aura! Greatest paladin ability ever! (Heh, I seem to be saying that a lot lately.)
2. I saw a pure white gryphon, and thought it was the epic flying mount. I asked in guild chat, and was informed that the real epic flying mount was brown and had armor. I don't know, seems kind of wasteful. Just putting armor on something does not an epic make. I think that--in general--we associate the starker colors as rarer. A pure white horse is rarer than a piebald. If I recall correctly, Blizzard made the same mistake with night elf cats.
I think it is one of the few mistakes Blizzard makes with art. Almost all the time, they denote power with complexity. Sometimes the opposite is true, and high end armor becomes overly ornate when it should tend to stark and simple.
The other mistake is that high end plate shows far too much skin. Seriously, the sexiest (and all-around best) piece of armour that Blizzard has ever made was Judgement, and it covered everything. Plate is supposed to protect the wearer, and skin-revealing plate armor is just an oxymoron.
Heh, not really sure why it bothers me. It just seems that my character seems less than compentent by choosing armor that doesn't do its basic job, and incompetence is unattractive.
2. I saw a pure white gryphon, and thought it was the epic flying mount. I asked in guild chat, and was informed that the real epic flying mount was brown and had armor. I don't know, seems kind of wasteful. Just putting armor on something does not an epic make. I think that--in general--we associate the starker colors as rarer. A pure white horse is rarer than a piebald. If I recall correctly, Blizzard made the same mistake with night elf cats.
I think it is one of the few mistakes Blizzard makes with art. Almost all the time, they denote power with complexity. Sometimes the opposite is true, and high end armor becomes overly ornate when it should tend to stark and simple.
The other mistake is that high end plate shows far too much skin. Seriously, the sexiest (and all-around best) piece of armour that Blizzard has ever made was Judgement, and it covered everything. Plate is supposed to protect the wearer, and skin-revealing plate armor is just an oxymoron.
Heh, not really sure why it bothers me. It just seems that my character seems less than compentent by choosing armor that doesn't do its basic job, and incompetence is unattractive.
Vindication
I decided to spec Coriel as Protection/Retribution, to see if Improved Retribution Aura did anything. On my way to Imp Ret Aura, I picked up Vindication. I knew it wouldn't work on raid bosses, but I figured it might be a handy talent for 5-man instance tanking, and that I could always respec at 70.
This was a mistake.
Vindication does not work on raid bosses, 5-man bosses, or random instance trash mobs. Heck, at this point, I'm surprised if it does work on a mob.
Honestly, why even have this talent if it's not going to work on anything? If it's overpowered, scale it down, or remove it and replace it with something useful. Right now it's just a complete waste of talent points.
The worst part is that you can't even guess what Vindication will affect. It seems almost random.
This was a mistake.
Vindication does not work on raid bosses, 5-man bosses, or random instance trash mobs. Heck, at this point, I'm surprised if it does work on a mob.
Honestly, why even have this talent if it's not going to work on anything? If it's overpowered, scale it down, or remove it and replace it with something useful. Right now it's just a complete waste of talent points.
The worst part is that you can't even guess what Vindication will affect. It seems almost random.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)