2 Healing vs 3 Healing: How Do You Decide?

While I have no actual facts to back up this statement I do believe that most casual guilds like mine like to run with a three healer set up.  There are actually many advantages of having such a set up but I find that this raid tier was the first one I recall that pushed us to two heal.

It made me wonder if my healers have been over healing stuff or if we really needed three healers to begin with.  It made me wonder if the damage dealers started to develop bad habits of moving slow sometimes because they knew that there was an extra healer to keep them up.  It made me wonder if the tanks have fallen a little lax on using cooldowns because they did not always have to for every little thing.  It made me wonder if three healing things has made the players in my group worse players, not better ones.

I usually like to use three healers to learn the fights.  But once you learn it, when is the right moment to downsize.  It is even right to downsize?  If you can down stuff with three healers no problem and don't really need to move down to two, why have someone sits that helped you during the learning process?

When we first got to garrosh back in november was when I first started to think seriously about this.  Should we start 2 healing all the bosses so the healers can get some practice two healing things? We went in with our standard 2 tank, 3 healers and 5 damage dealer set up and we wiped over and over that first night.  Now, because I had read a lot about the fight by that point being it has been out for a while I knew this fight was better as a two healer fight but my guild has always had a strength in the damage department so I figured I would give it a try.  Not to mention, I was not about to switch out the group for an optimal set up in the middle of a raid basically.  I figured we would keep what we had and work on learning the mechanics.

See, that is why I like the three healer approach.  It gives more time to work on mechanics, it allows your group to stay up longer so they see more mechanics and even if it extends the fight it is that extension that gives everyone the chance to work on those mechanics a little more.  It never felt like we needed to change that because we never even came close to an enrage timer.  Heck, I would be hard pressed to tell you what the enrage timer on most fights was because we never came close to most of them.  So it always made me feel as if it was okay to three heal things because it was not like we needed another damage dealer for anything.  That is until garrosh.

I question blizzards design here quite honestly.  Like I said, I believe many casual groups three heal things and if we can make it all the way there three healing it, it felt a little off that we were basically forced to two heal it or to wipe 100 times while we figured out a way to make it work with three healers, and I am sure we would have made it work if we attempt it.  But why should we be forced into that position?

We suffered a fail deal of wipes when we moved down to two healing it because our healers were not used to that.  It was added pressure on them and these are not top tier healers, they are not heroic healers, they are casual healers with casual ability.  Good at what they do but not exceptional and more importantly not used to two healing things, nevertheless two healing the hardest boss in there.

It makes me wonder what we could have done differently to speed up that process, save us 30 or so wipes while the healers were learning how to two heal something because they were not used to doing so.  Should I have started two healing things sooner being I knew what was coming?

And that is the question really, how do you decide to two heal or three heal?

It makes the problem even larger when none of the bosses really had any serious DPS requirements so we were never put into a position where we needed to question the use of three healers.

Two healing and three healing each have their strengths and their weaknesses.  I guess it comes down to weighing which are more important to your group.

For me, and my experience, I think I am going to try and lean toward two healing things more often next expansion.  Not because I want to, not because we need to because we need another damage dealer, but because blizzard apparently can not make up its mind how it wants to deign things and make a balanced raid.  If the raid was balanced than the last boss should have been able to be done with the same group that got up to him with no problems and that means a group with three healers.

Could we have managed it with three healers?  Sure, in time we would have finally managed it, I am sure of that.  We could do that now if we really wanted to.  But we should not have needed to change things up at that last moment for just one fight.  That is something heroic guilds should have to worry about, that is not something a casual guild should ever need to worry about.

From a healers stand point I both like and dislike two healing things.  Thok scares the crap out of me as a healer and I have never two healed that one, just can't do it.  Maybe I can but I am afraid to try it.  I am just not that good of a healer.  I like two healing because it feels more active, it feels as if my decisions matter more but in the same I dislike two healing because any time someone dies, even if I did everything in my power to save them and their death was their own fault and completely avoidable, I always feel as if I did something wrong.

It is easy to talk about two healing vs three healing as a raid leader because they are just cogs in the machine that get it done.  They are roles to be filled, not people.  You are looking at statistics of what will work and only after you make your decisions for what works do you have to deal with the human factor of telling someone that has raided with you for years they either need to get their off spec up to par with the rest of the damage dealers or they are going to be sat and rotated in and out on occasion because their cog is just not needed to build this win.

But what about everyone else?  Deciding to two heal over three heal effects everyone in your group.  Can your damage dealers be faster on the move, do they know how to use their personal cooldowns, if they are a hybrid are they comfortable helping out with a healing cooldown here or there, do they even have it key bound, or on their bars at the worst.  Are the tanks really actually good being they never seem to die or take serious damage or was it the fact they always had three healers that was making them look good.

There is an old joke in the healing community that is so true, healers are the only role that the better they get at doing it means someone ends up unemployed.

Moving down from three healers to two healers feels like that.  When you are able to make that move it does not feel, at least to me, that you are improving your group going down to two healers, it feels like you are kicking someone to the curb that helped you get to where you are.  Great job healing, now go sit on the bench until we reach a boss we need a third healer for.  Sucks to be that third healer.

Lets say a guild is just starting SoO right now and recruiting people that have never been in it and do not over gear it.  What would you suggest for them, 2 healing or 3 healing?  I would suggest 2 healing and get a hybrid with a solid healing off spec.

Why?  Because it is better to do it that way and let that person be in on all your kills than to tell them, sorry, we need to two heal this fight so we need to sit you.

Perhaps that is the key, people with two quality specs.  And that is the problem with a casual guild like mine.  Most of these people barely keep their main spec up to par, nevertheless an off spec.  Hey, at least one of my healers as a damage dealer of another class he does not mind switching to.  So problem solved, for me.  But for everyone else out there the two vs three healer question still lingers.  How do you decide?

Monday Random Thoughts

- Another week with no LFR.

- Woohoo!

- It seems I start every MRT post with that lately.

- Not exactly no LFR, but only did ToT wing 3 on three characters.

- Still trying to get that darn pet.

- I did not try getting the PvP wins on my lock this weekend.

- The last 2 weekends really ripped me apart and have me hating that aspect of the quest line again.

- I have to be over 30 losses in each of them right now, most likely more.

- I stopped counting after 20 losses in each.

- It was going to make me cry.

- My druid is now up to that part as well after finishing its valor part.

- Took a long time when I have not been playing it much.

- I have not even attempted the battlegrounds on it yet.

- New PvP season is coming tomorrow it seems.

- Now we can get PvP gear that is, in some slots, better than flex gear.

- PvP gear that is given away freely should not be better for entry level PvE than entry level PvE gear.

- Seriously, not only is it better than LFR gear by a country mile but some pieces are better than flex.

- If blizzard is going to make hand out freely PvP gear almost as good as PvE normal mode gear they need to offer something extra for the PvEer.

- It feels like this mini patch is a complete fuck you to anyone that raids.

- Bad move blizzard, bad move.

- If the new PvP gear was 530 it would be okay, slightly better than LFR but LFR stuff can be upgraded and the set pieces would have set bonuses on them.

- If the new PvP gear was even 540 it would, maybe, be okay because it would be on par with flex, the entry level for raiding non random content but it could not be upgraded.

- But 550 item level with nothing new added for PvE?

- Go screw yourself blizzard, that is just wrong.

- It you were not going to update PvE by giving us something new don't update PvP.

- You could have just reset the season, no need to give new gear at this stage in the game.

- Just do what you did and switch colors so each side can get the other sides colors.

- There was no need to add new gear that high and give the PvEer nothing but running SoO with no new things to aim for.

- Seriously, WTF were you thinking?

- However, on the other end, my characters that I am currently not raiding on and only doing world bosses with thank you.

- More higher level gear to kill stuff given out for free.

- How much do you want to bet we see flex runs asking for 570 for flex 1 now because PvP gear is inflating the item level of people?

- They already ask for 550 for flex 1 sometimes and that is because the 522 PvP gear is given out like candy and they need to ask for that to weed those people out if they want for a quick and easy run.

- In theory, high item level does not mean skilled.

- So with 550 gear being given out like candy now what do you expect the people to ask for to try and weed out people.

- Sure, I can link my normal kill, but what about the poor sap that just came back to the game.

- What about the person that just started the game.

- What about someone that wants to try raiding for the first time.

- That is why I dislike it.

- But I do like it because my paladin and my warrior now have something to get from the celestial bosses again.

- Being they never raid, not even at the LFR level, this gear will be HUGE for them.

- And huge for them just feels... wrong.

- If they do not raid and they do not PvP they should not have an easy route like that to 550.

- Getting the 2 553 pieces and the chance at a few 559 ones from ordos was more than ample, they do not need 550 PvP gear to be handed to them for not even PvPing.

- I know, do not look a gift horse in the mouth, but it just feels wrong even if I do like the power it can give them for their every day questing.

- That is if I ever quested with them.

- For them there is nothing to do really.

- At least this gives me an excuse to log on to them more.

- And a reason to use a coin on celestials again.

- Once I got the PvE pieces I did not use coins even if the PvP 522 gear might upgrade some slots.

- If I get it I get it, if I don't I don't.

- That is how I felt about it.

- I do not play them often so I do not have many lesser charms meaning I do not have many coins.

- So I use my coins for the rare occasion that I get in on an ordos kill with them.

- Actually, my paladin has still not killed ordos.

- I will not join a group with him because I do not feel right being ungemmed and unenchanted, more so as a tank.

- I know for some people they just do not care, but I care.

- Sure the people I see there even if they say something about it I will never see them again.

- But I am not being prepared for them, I am being prepared for me.

- I would not feel right.

- And in the end, how I feel is all that matters to me.

- So I wait up there for an ordos pull and try to get a hit in.

- But on my server, which is now classified as a high pop server, if you do not get in on one of the tree or four ordos pulls on reset day, you do not do ordos.

- After reset day the only way to get into one is through OQ, OR or the in game thing and that always puts me on another server.

- So my poor paladin logs in every day and just looks at ordos standing there and logs back off because no one is killing him.

- There is an easy fix.

- Gem and enchant him and join in a group otherwise.

- I tank ordos no problem, even have some fun with it.

- Love solo tanking him and getting that massive vengeance.

- It is one of the few things I will currently do as a tank.

- I refuse to even do the holiday boss on my tanks any more.

- I went in the other day and when my screen loaded the healer was already pulling the boss.

- I did not say anything, but I am the tank, I pull the boss.

- I do not care if anyone half way decent can solo it.

- I am the tank, I pull the boss.

- At the absolute least, wait for me to load in before you make your attempt to win the award for asshole of the week.

- And shit like that is why I do not tank randoms.

- When I do dungeons on my hunter I wait for the tank, even if the tank is moving slowly.

- Do I need to do that?

- Absolutely not.

- I have soloed every dungeon on heroic already, did it for fun to see if I could do it months back.

- If I could do it 40 item levels lower than I am now and some before I even had the legendary cloak I feel pretty safe in saying I can solo them now.

- I am not really going out on a limb there saying that.

- So I do not need the tank at all.

- But I still wait for the tank to pull.

- I DPS at a rate where he can keep aggro.

- I use all the abilities I have to help in that aspect like MD and FD.

- Why do I do that even if I can solo them?

- Because I am not the fucking tank and it is not my job to pull when in grouped content.

- How hard is that for people to understand.

- There are rules when you are in a group.

- Follow them.

- I was leveling a character this weekend that I just started.

- Panda shaman.

- Someone said, seeing I was level 40 in one day, how do you level so fast.

- I quest.

- They did not believe me, they said there has to be some trick to it.

- I said, no trick, just quest, it is the fastest way to level and anyone that tells you otherwise has never tried it or never done it right.

- Being 40 in one day (actually 2) kind of proves how effective it is.

- And being it was a panda means no heirlooms or guild bonus for a fair portion of that.

- And I did not spend the entire day leveling either.

- I did the holiday boss on 14 characters.

- I joined a group that got up to blackfuse on normal with my healer.

- So it is not like I was leveling for 12 or 15 straight hours.

- I got it out of the starting area on saturday, I made it to 40 on sunday.

- A nice chuck on time spent on it yes, but not massive amounts of time.

- They said they hate leveling, I said I loved it.

- They asked me why and of course I was glad to explain.

- With leveling I feel a constant sense of progression, I am always moving forward, I feel as if I am making personal progression.

- I am watching my experience bar fill and getting levels = progression.

- I am building my skills and watching those skill points go up = progression.

- I even level fishing and cooking as I level because they go up to = progression.

- I get new gear as I level = progression.

- I get new skills as I level = progression.

- I get new abilities like mounts as I level = progression.

- I am forever moving forward, being rewarded, seeing a return for my efforts = progression.

- End game offers me none of that.

- Killing the same boss for 10 or 20 weeks for that one piece you need never to see it drop is not personal progression, it is frustration.

- My hunter still has a heroic ToT piece because despite me using a coin the piece I need has never dropped and I have never coined it.

- At least with questing I know there is a reward at the end, be it a new level, a new piece of gear, faster mount speed, there is something I am going to get.

- Not something I might get, not something I have a chance of getting, not something I will have to do over and over and over again and hope to get it.

- When I do something I am rewarded for doing it.

- That is just a much more rewarding game to play in my opinion.

- That is why I love leveling.

- They then asked, if you do not like end game why do you raid, you are good at it, that usually says you like it.

- I do like it, I actually love raiding.

- I raid for fun because I enjoy doing it.

- I do not raid for a sense of progression, that will come in time as you down bosses and being I am left up to the abilities of 9 or 24 other people I never have any control over my personal progression.

- Boss kills should be group progression, loot should be personal progression.

- So while I like raiding, I hate the gearing model.

- Luck based anything is bad and the personal progression model in warcraft is horrible.

- That is why end game sucks, but I still like raiding.

- It is not for the gear, it is for the people.

- Although some gear would be nice of course.

- And that is why I like leveling more than end game.

- If I want to feel I am accomplishing something I can go from level 28 to 29.

- That feels like I accomplished something no matter how small.

- Killing garrosh for the 1st, 5th, 10th or 20th time and still not seeing an heirloom drop does not feel like I am accomplishing something, it just feels like I am wasting my time.

- I wish warcraft would move to the effort = reward system for loot.

- It would make end game so much more enjoyable for me.

- I would rather a system that says "kill this boss 20 times to choose an heirloom of your liking" then to kill it 20 times and wait for luck.

- Luck does not feel rewarding, but seeing that kill counter go up each week after a kill as you get closer to that 20 kill mark is like leveling watching the experience bar move up to make it to the next level.

- Killing a boss over and over for a rare chance I will get loot does not inspire me to kill him over and over.

- Seeing that counter move up would absolutely inspire me to kill him because I know that with each kill I move closer to getting what I want.

- When it gets there to that 20 kill mark you get rewarded.

- Effort = reward.

- Now that is good loot design that feels rewarding, in my opinion at least.

- I know most do not agree, but we all have our opinions and are entitled to them.

- Only 2 character slots left for me on my account.

- And I am not, will not, active my other account.

- Blizzard screwed me once, I will not give them the satisfaction of restarting with without significant compensation.

- I resubed that account just a couple of days before they SoR thing was added.

- So if I had waited 2 days I would have gotten a mount for doing it.

- I put in a ticket asking if I could get the mount saying that if I had know they were doing this I would have waited a couple of days before reactivating it.

- They responded, sucks to be you asshole, go fuck yourself, you'll get nothing and like it.

- Well, they did not say that exactly, but that is what it sounded like.

- So my account has been inactive ever since then.

- So they lost almost 2 full years of subscription time because they would not give me a digital item because I resubed 2 days too soon?

- And you wonder why this game is losing people.

- In part it is because their customer service sucks and they treat their customers like crap.

- They could have just as easily given me the mount and been done with it and I would have had that account active.

- At least some of the time.

- It would have made me a happy customer.

- Can't have that can we?

- But to them it is more important to say go fuck yourself to their player base than to credit a digital item that it would have cost them nothing to give me.

- I thought the idea of companies was to keep their customers happy.

- I often say that I should have quit the game back then when they did that to me.

- I sometimes wonder if I made a mistake not doing so.

- Hey, I still get a rush out of leveling and as long as I am still getting some enjoyment out of it I might as well keep playing.

- But I will not ever trust blizzard to do the right thing by its customers because I've already seen they don't.

- Time and time again they have shown to have little or no respect for the people that play the game.

- So why do I always make the mistake of expecting them to get better?

- Hope, hope that one day they will learn.

- Think I should put in a ticket again just for shits and giggles to see what they say?

- It has been a while, maybe they are feeling nicer now that the promotion is ending.

- To do that to me over 2 days for a digital item that is already made and costs nothing to credit to my account because its code is already in game, it was just wrong.

- That was the day I lost complete faith in the game.

- Or at least least complete faith in the customer service part of it.

- Blizzard, now hiring customer support people, only requirements are you must have absolutely no common sense, an IQ less than 50 and the ability to be a complete and total jackass at all times.

- Being you can read this and understand the words must mean you are not qualified to work for blizzard.

- Sorry, maybe take some stupid pills for a few years, then you can apply.

- Have a great day.

I Support Removing Challenge Modes

Seeing that blizzard is going to be removing challenge modes really upsets me.  I have not done them yet for a few reasons, one of course being that I have yet to find a group to do them with and the other being I always thought I could do them whenever because they would always be there.  It was scaled technology and no matter what we were wearing we would be scaled to it.  So it would be there forever.  I could do them now, in the last months of the expansion, in warlords, or even some time in the future when we face the legion again 2 or 4 expansions from now.

But no.  Blizzard is removing them and now I have a ticking clock if I ever want to do them to get the title, mount and transmogs sets.  So yes, I am upset they are removing them.  Something I waited to do because I did not figure there would ever be a rush to need to get it done because I did not think it was added with an expiration date is now going away and I am pretty upset about that.  I guess I have my work cut out for me in the coming weeks.

So if I am upset about it why exactly do I support blizzard removing them?

Good question and one I believe is best explained by something I like to call "looking at the big picture" and the big picture right now is that they need to be removed.

Challenge modes were designed with the concept of the game we have now.  The game we have now is changing incredibly next expansion.  Not just a minor change in abilities or what they do but huge sweeping changes and all those changes will effect challenge mode balancing.

Challenge modes where made with the following in mind, all things that are changing, and were scaled back to 463.

Hit and Expertise:

With the removal of hit and expertise come warlords those stats will be changed into some other secondary stats be it mastery, critical strike or haste.  Now every even half way decent player is sitting at their appropriate caps for hit and expertise and that is a hell of a lot of stat points going into those.  That stat allotment will mean that we will have that much more of some other secondary stat when hit and expertise removed.  The scaling tech is not designed to scale down appropriately in a world without hit and expertise.

Fewer Gem Slots:

We have been told that fewer pieces of gear will have gem slots on them.  While you might not think it matters but it does.  Challenge modes were built with a self nerfing system involved and anyone that has ever considered doing them knows exactly what I am talking about.  When gem slots are added to a piece some of the base stats are removed to afford the slot in the stat budget.  So the smart players will not go in there with a pair of 463 gloves with no slots because a pair of gloves with 1 slot would be better.  The 160 of a main stat or 320 of a secondary stat you gain from the lost base stats is much more than the pittance taken away by the scaling down to 463.  Two gems slots are even better.  Challenge modes where designed knowing this and with fewer gem slots they need to be rebalanced to correctly allow for some changes when you do get gear with gem slots.  Remember, gem slots in warlords will not take away from the base stats on the item, it is a true bonus.  So not only do they need to readjust for fewer gem slots but they need to readjust for more powerful gem slots.

Fewer Enchanted Items:

While there have been no specifics told about what will be able to be enchanted and what will not we have been told that we will have fewer items that will be capable of being enchanted.  You might not believe this but the challenge modes were designed around us being enchanted.  Yes, they expected everyone that was doing it to have every slot that could be enchanted enchanted.  With the removal of some things being able to be enchanted there needs to be some adjustments made to scaling to adjust for that.

Tertiary Stats are Being Added:

The challenge modes were not designed with the concept that some people might have tertiary stats or that someone might even go through the trouble of building a specific set with those stats to use for them.  Sure the chances of items with tertiary stats dropping is low but being challenge modes are scaled down people have basically forever to start building pure sets filled with as much of those stats are they can get. 

Full life stealing sets, full speed sets, full cleave sets, you name it.  When warlords starts going deep people can run the starter raids just for drops with the tertiary stats they need to complete full sets with as much of the stat as they want.  Being they will be from old raids they will be easier for people clear each week, even multiple ones, increasing the chances they get them.  The fact they are old gear would mean nothing to the person doing the challenge mode being it will be scaled down, so having a piece with tertiary stats from the first tier in warlords would be just as valuable as having one from the second or third tier. 

So while that could be considered as someone going above and beyond to make a set just for the challenge modes with all speed on it or all life stealing on it, which undoubtedly would help with challenge modes, they were not designed to interact with them so there is no saying what bugs or unexpected things could happen being they are on the gear, even in small amounts, and this would need to be tested for balance purposes first.  Don't put it past people to build specific sets for running old scaled content either.  I know I would make a set if I knew it would be best for me and I am not even hard core about it.

Reforging Being Removed:

Don't think that challenge modes where designed with reforging in mind, think again.  They were designed thinking that people would reforge their gear to whatever is the best stat for the scaled technology.  They knew that their player base would take every advantage they could in trying to get them done and they were designed to meet the challenge for those people that were smart enough to do so.  With no reforging people will not be able to handle pick which stats they want just for challenge modes.  Sure they can farm gear with the stats they want but that will take longer and they can not switch to their challenge mode reforges just for them.  There will be some rebalancing needed to work with reforging no longer being in game.

No More Snapshots:

A good player with abilities that snapshot what they do will use that to their advantage and get the best possible DoT on a mob when they have the appropriate temporary buffs.  It might not seem like a lot but trust me, good timing of your abilities that take a snap shot of their damage can be large.  With no more snapshots in warlords the balance needs to change, not much, but just a little bit and they will need to take that into account for challenge modes.

No More Breakpoints:

As mentioned in reforging, one of the things people would reforge to were haste break points.  With no more reforging and no more break points, just like with snapshots, there might need to be a little bit of adjustments that need to be made.  It might not be a huge thing all on its own but with all the other changes this too will need to be taken into account and balanced around.

Stat Squish:

We are getting our stats squished down which I figured everyone knows by now unless they were living under a rock or they got hit in the head by some stray debris from something a gnome blew up, presumably accidentally.  Being everything in the game needs to be adjusted to work with the new stat squish it would not seem like a stretch to say that challenge modes would need to be adjusted as well.  And as something that is scaled to one specific level of gear and not intended to be over geared, it has a set difficulty level involved and the balancing needs to be a hell of a lot more precise than the redesigning of the older raids which they might not care if we over gear to work in the squished world.

Profession Bonuses Being Redone:

Okay you can call me out on this one because blizzard has not specifically said they are doing this but listen to me first before you say that I am talking out of my ass on this one.  They will be removing or changing many if not all profession bonuses.  How can I be so sure about that?  Logic of course. 

With fewer gem slots in the game having your character be a blacksmith that can add two gem slots becomes insanely over powered as a profession.  Every character that is serious about doing their maximum potential will become a blacksmith just for those two extra gem slots.  The addition of them would be incredibly insane in warlords where few pieces even have a chance of having a gem slot on them. 

Lets not even start on jewel crafting where those two stronger gems would mean so much more than they do now.  If you only have two gem slots having two better gems in them is a huge increase over what we have now when you have 14 slots or so and only two of them have better gems in it.  The effect of those better gems means so much more when you only have two slots than it does when you have 14. 

And what about leatherworkers with better bracer enchants, will we even still have those?  Or scribes with better shoulder enchants, will we even still have those?  Or, well, you get the idea.  With the removal of enchants and gems being so abundant and on everything professions need to be changed to adjust for it.  Challenge modes are designed with today's profession bonuses as they expect that everyone that is doing a challenge mode is someone that wanted the challenge and people that usually want a challenge take advantage of their professions.  There would need to be some rebalancing here as well.

Talent Changes:

Every expansion some talents change and this one will be no different.  While we are not getting a completely new talent tree for the first time in, well, ever, there are going to be some changes to talents, or so we have been told.  Some talents might be removed, others will be reworked, and there will be added level 100 talents.  With everything else changing around it as mentioned in the previous points, how these work can very well be unexpected.  Time will be needed to tell if these changes do not turn mages into challenge mode gods where they can solo gold.  Sure it is not likely at all, but who knows how things will work out.  And being this is a wild card along with the other things it would be best to adjust the challenge modes to better work with the new talents.

Removed Abilities:

We might not know what is being removed or how much is being removed but we know for a fact some things are being removed.  Control things like CCs and the such.  For anyone that has ever done challenge modes, even myself with extremely little experience, we know that control can sometimes be huge in making the timer.  The challenge modes are designed for people to use all their tools.  Sure there is some cushion there where you can still get gold with a very talented team and no control at all, but control makes it easier sometimes and it was originally designed with that in mind.  So with various abilities being removed it is quite possible that some adjustments will need to be made to the challenge modes.  Whereas they expected every group to have something to deal with a certain pack or abilities the pack did, with some things being removed, that might not always be the case and that is why they will need to adjust the challenge modes to deal with fewer CC options.

Timing:

Just a complete guess here but I believe that, in blizzards mind, they will think people have other things on their mind at the time they remove the challenge modes so much so that people might not actually miss them.  I am going to guess they will be removed at, or near, the 6.0 patch, the prepatch for warlords.  Which means people will be doing whatever prepatch event they give us to do then we will all be working on leveling to 100 and running new dungeons and gearing up for new raids and testing new abilities and building up our new garrisons and catching new pets and exploring new areas and doing new things that we won't actually be caring about running old content.  So, like I said, while it is only a guess, they are removing it to work on them when people would be least likely to be doing them anyway.  That is of course assuming they ever add them back which is no slam dunk mind you.

End Note:

So while I am really upset that I never got a chance to do them all because I thought I had all the time in the world or might not even get a chance before they remove them I do support them removing them.  The reason for that support comes from the fact that so much is changing that to fix challenge modes to work as intended they would basically need to completely redesign them from the ground up to deal with no hit and expertise, fewer gem slots, fewer enchants, tertiary stats, the stat squish, profession bonuses, talent changes and skills removed.

I just think they are better off spending the time it would take to fix them making warlords better, more clean and finished, when it comes out.  I am glad to see they are setting their priorities straight and taking care of the new and not the challenge modes.

Sure, challenge modes are something that have no time table, you can do them any time and they are meant to always be the same experience.  As scaled content you can do it whenever and it will always be just as difficult, or easy, as it was when you did it 6 months or 2 years ago.  But that is the thing, they can fix it any time they want, it will always be there.  It will always be scaled content.  It will always be just as challenging as it was intended to be, even if we do it three expansions from now.

So I support them not wasting their resources on fixing them currently.  I do hope I can get them done before they are removed of course but if I don't and if they do come back, who cares if I did them now or if I do them a year from now.  They will still be the same exact challenge they were intended to be.

Now, with all that said, I do support blizzard in removing them, but if they never adjust them and never bring them back and I never get to do them, I might be a bit more upset.  Over all blizzard is doing the right thing removing them now and being it is so rare they do the right thing, we might as well enjoy that for this moment, they are doing the right think and thinking about us for once.

Would You Welcome Real Life Weather Events in Game?

With the amount of snow that has been falling in my area the past few weeks it made me think, not only how annoying it could be, but what would the game be like if there were weather events in game.  Sometimes like earthquakes, snow storms, torrential downpours, floods, and the like.

Of course some areas would be prime for some weather events that others could never have.  Like we are not about to see a snowstorm in Uldum because it would not fit but a sand storm where you could not even see 2 feet in front of yourself would be fitting wouldn't it?  No walking around mobs when you can not see them.  Also, no flying during extreme weather like this events because apparently our mounts are smarter than we are.  You might think it is okay to fly but when you go to mount your mount says, hell no.

One day you log in and the streets of org are filled with water up to your knees, or up to your chin if you happen to be a goblin.  It would slow down your walking if you are one of those under level 60 and still using ground transport but it would allow fishing anywhere you manage to be.  That is if you can find a piece of land where you could stand to cast your pole.

At the same time someone else logs into stormwind and it really starts to fit its name with hurricane type winds blowing through the city.  Better hope you are walking with the wind, so you can get the massive speed buff it offers because walking against it would mean moving at 10% movement speed and it will take you forever to get where you are going.  And do not even think about mounting because a hurricane in an area is one of those conditions where you will not be allowed to mount a flying mount.  A ground mount, sure, but not a flying one.

Then over in thunder bluff there is a lightning storm, fittingly enough, where not only do you see your tauren friends running around trying not to get hit by a stray bolt but you also learn to dodge lightning strikes coming from the sky that will hit you for 50% of your health.  You might be passing through and think flying would be the best option but remember at the very last moment that lightning will take the first target it sees which means the highest target which means you.  But do not worry about fall damage after the lightning hits you because if you get hit by lightning while on a flying mount you die instantly and get to watch your already dead body fall from the sky and land with a huge splat.

While over in ironforge you are fine until you step outside and see what a real snow storm should be like in warcraft.  Varied degrees from the general annoyance of movement speed in the zone reduced 25% on all forms of travel to a 50% movement deduction where you can not even use a flying mount.  However, if you have the right mount for snow, like a ram, you can move at maximum normal travel speed, but only on a ram.  Oh, and in case you want to just go AFK, think again, for every 30 seconds you stand still you get a 5 minute debuff called freezing that stacks, if you get 10 stacks, you are actually frozen.  And the last thing you want to be in frozen and waiting for that 5 minute debuff to wear off because as soon as that 5 minute debuff wears off, you die of frostbite.

There are so many little weather events that can be added to the game and even achievements and special events that can be tied to them like get hit by 3 lightning strikes in 10 seconds without dying or walk against the win in a hurricane for 2 minutes without stopping.  Stupid silly little things that achievement hunters like me would love.  Ones for your own faction such as visit stormwind during a hurricane and ones for the opposing faction like visit org during a flood.  Even ones that inspire PvP.  Kill 5 invaders in stormwind during a hurricane or kill 5 invaders in org during a flood.  Then one for defense, kill 5 people in stormwind while they are invading it during a hurricane or kill 5 people in org while they are invading it during a flood.

How about special events like there are holiday events.  Fish up missing documents washed away during a flood during the world flood event.  Have quests and dailies that give you items you can collect and trade in for special flood gear like fishing waders or a bright yellow rain coat and a cool yellow floppy hat and even a pet fish made just for the event.  How about a new water mount for moving around at full speed during a flood?  It floats on the water.

And don't make every event about just doing dailies, how about something a little different for a sandstorm where we can not see 2 feet in front of us.  Have sand dunes all over the place that you have to accidentally walk over and uncover. When you do walk over one you a random mob appears, based on your level and tagged for you only to see, once you beat it it will drop the items you need to collect for this events turn ins. 

This would mean for a very active zone with level appropriate battles for people of all levels as every one is farming for sand covered artifacts they can collect to trade in for a dune buggy mount, made by goblin technology, so be careful as they are known to blow up.  And actually have them blow up from time to time dismounting you and sending you flying 50 feet in one random direction or another at the speed of light.  It could make for very quick travel and very dangerous travel at the same time.  Other fun items could be a vanity item that creates a mini sand storm at your feet while you walk or a flare gun, because we might have to try anything we can to get others to help find us so we do not get lost.

Weather events that mirror some major real life weather events could be a lot of fun and treated like holiday events they could be even better.  One thing I would say is that they do not come at predictable times like holiday events where we only get one sand storm a year and we know when it is coming.  We could get one or two or even four, whenever blizzard feels like activating it, just for fun.  It would be something great for them to active one weather event or another during those down times between patches and events when they know people are looking for something to do.  And being they can be at any time any where it would inspire people to log in every day to see if one of the events are going on.  I could really dig something like this, I could dig it a lot.

Would you welcome real life weather events in game?

A Case for Hunters Controlling Dragonkins and Humanoids and ...

When the expansion first began and I hit 90 that first day I had my friend, who got realm first engineering, make me a ghost iron dragonling trinket with a few cogs for a nice little second you hit 90 boost.

When the trinket proced I had not noticed it proced but I did see a dragon whelp fighting and thought to myself, and said to everyone on vent, "oh my god my dire beast just called a dragon whelp, this is so cool".  Seriously, I thought that is what had happened.  Noob moment much?  Oh come on, I bet someone else out there did the same thing the first time they saw that.

The excitement that dire beast could call a dragon whelp was quickly squashed when I realized it was the trinket the second time it happened but I did think it was so cool and for a few moments at least I considered that it would be really cool to be able to tame a dragon whelp.

Since then, as a hunter, I've had many conversations about what types of pets I would like to tame.

Recently my fellow hunters and I have been talking about things we would like to see tamable in warlords.  Being we do not really know if there will be any new beasts we would just come up with random ideas based on what we know from BC.  It made me wonder, if there is no zanger marsh will there be no sporebats?  Because if there are sporebats we need spirit sporebats or at the least some different color sporebats because we all know that sporebats are the best hunter pet, right?

Outside of thinking what if for something that has not even come out yet I've always wanted a killer rabbit as far back as I could remember.  When I first made a hunter I thought it would be cool to have a rabbit and I was so upset when I found out that I could not have my very own killer rabbit.

When they added one to the darkmoon fair that was not a level 1 critter but something we could fight, thus maybe could be tamed, the first thing that came into my head was that I must tame him.  I have to tame him.  It is a moral imperative that I tame him.  He will be my favorite pet forever and I would go everywhere with my killer rabbit and have him rip out the throats of my enemies and watch blood spurt from their dead bodies.  How cool is that going to be?  But sadly, no darkmoon rabbit pet for me.

Well, not exactly, I do have a darkmoon rabbit pet.  He is just not exactly what I had in mind when I first started the game and said I wanted to get a rabbit as a pet.  Don't get me wrong, I went and got myself a snowshoe rabbit from the dwarven zone when I started my pet collecting many years ago, way before battle pets.  Hey, I like rabbits, what can I say.

But if I can have a darkmoon rabbit as a battle pet why can't I have a darkmoon rabbit as a companion pet?

Some could argue, and would have a fair point, that when a hunter tames a pet they are basically becoming one with it, connecting with it, making the pet come with you willingly.  Anyone that plays a hunter and has ever tamed a pet know that when a pet joins you it is by choice, it is because they decided to join you, because they like you, love you even, and want to travel with you.  However battle pets are trapped, caged, and forced to battle against their will.

Kind of sad when you think about battle pets that way, but that is exactly the way they are portrayed in the game.  Battle pets do not come with you willingly.  You have to cage them and put them in your battle pet stable and if you ever wanted to let them out you have to place them in a cage to do so.  Battle pets are not willing companions like hunter pets are.

So that argument holds some water.  Just because I have a darkmoon rabbit as a battle pet it does not mean I can have one as a companion pet because the one I do have does not actually want to be with me whereas a companion pet would need to want to be with me.

But as a hunter part of what we are and what we do is to make a connection with pets so they become life long companions that are willing to travel at our side and fight with us.  If that is one of my abilties as a hunter don't you think that even if I did get that darkmoon rabbit against his will that I could not sooner or later use my hunterly charms on it to convince it to fight by my side instead of fighting to the death against his will as a caged beast?

That could make for a very good case that anything a hunter should be able to tame as it is or something that could be considered appropriate for a hunter to have as a companion pet to begin with, a hunter should be able to take out of the pet cage and bring into the world.  So all those different spiders, even the elemental ones, should be able to be used as both a battle pet and a companion pet because hunters can tame spiders.

So saying that I should be able to use my darkmoon rabbit as a hunter pet instead of a battle pet is not very far fetched at all is it?  It might not be a beast, but neither are the elemental spiders and those would make sense to be useable right?  It is an animal and hunters tame animals.  So you would not really be stretching it to any meaningful degree to say that I should be able to use my darkmoon rabbit as a hunter pet too.

But if we wanted to stretch it some we could.  What about having a dragon whelp as a hunter pet?  How about a wolvar as a hunter pet?  Maybe have a cloud serpent as a hunter pet? If we can have them as a battle pets why can we not have them as hunter pets?

In the end the results are the same, or if anything, from the pets standpoint, being a hunters pet would be at least marginally better off than being a battle pet.  Battle pets fight for us and hunter pets fight with us.   Don't you think a hunter, who is well trained in the art of getting pets to travel with us and fall in love with us, should be able to convince battle pets to step out of the stable and into the world with us?

While it might seem weird to see a wolvar pet or a dragonkin pet or could you even imagine having a pandaren monk as a pet it would be perfectly believable for hunters.  If these versions have all been captured to begin with and are already fighting to begin with a skilled hunter should have little or no issue with getting them to fight willingly with them in the world instead of doing so as some sort of slave in battles to the death.

I believe that hunters should be able to use any battle pet as a hunter pet.  Call it out to be by their side and fight with it while they face the forces of evil through this and any other world we might visit.

Can you just imagine the look on the face of someone in a battle ground when they see a giant red singing sunflower tearing them to shreds while singing "there are zombies on my lawn".  If there were ever a reason to support hunters being able to use all battle pets as hunter pets that would make for a very convincing one.  More convincing than the fact I want to use my darkmoon rabbit as a pet I guess.

Do you think hunters should be able to use battle pets as companion pets?
Or maybe just beast versions?
If they could which battle pets would you love to see as companion pets?

Does Convenience Hurt the Game?

I'll gladly be the first to admit I enjoy not having to hunt down arrows all the time.  Not having to find an engineer and farm the materials and have them craft it for me, or level an engineer so I can make them myself.  Or not having the wade through 200 stacks of 1 arrow that some jackass listed at the same price someone else listed a stack of 100 for because he wanted to try and see if he could catch someone making a mistake.  I am glad we hunters no longer have an added expense and wasted bag space that no other class ever even came close to having to deal with.  So I am most definitely not complaining about convenience, I like it, in some cases.

I did not believe that making sure I had arrows was compelling game play.  I did not believe that wasting all that bag space on arrows, and bullets in case I got an upgrade that happened to be a gun during that raid, was compelling game play.  I do not believe farming mats to make arrows and have to deal with an expense no other classes did was compelling game play.

But then again at least I did not need to make my own poisons, I did not have to go around finding mobs to farm for soul shards, I did not need to have stacks of regents to buff every person in the game one at a time.  All classes had those generally annoying things that brought nothing to the table, so to speak, in terms of enjoyment.

So with that said, I think convenience is a good thing.  But when does it become something else, when does it go to far.  I was thinking about that when talking about the free level 90, and later the purchasable ones.

All those level 90s do it offer convenience, the convenience of not having to level those 90 levels again on another character.  But does this go too far?  I think that is what it really comes down to.  As it is now all leveling has become is a general annoyance, no more so than me having to fill my valuable bag slots with arrows would be.  But is it?

When does convenience take away from game?

I've often said I fell in love with the game leveling and I am sure there are a lot of people out there that would say the same thing.  If you had not fallen for the game you would have never made it to max level.  It is the leveling that got you hooked on the game.  That rush to explore, to learn, to level, to make it to the promise land of 60, or 70, or 80, or so on.  It is part of what made you love the game and the class you were playing, that leveling experience was a very integral part of why we are all still playing, even for those that hate to do it.

Now don't get me wrong.  Leveling today is absolutely nothing like leveling before the cataclysm revamp was done.  Even after the leveling experience was dropped in wrath the leveling world was different than it is now.  Leveling post cataclysm seems more like an inconvenience than a vital part of the game, it does not feel important any longer, even more so for those people that have already done it multiple times.

This is why I support the buying of 90s.  I can see why most would want to skip it, because there is really nothing to see while leveling any more.  You are pushed through content at a break neck speed that even as a new player with no heirlooms and no guild boost you are leaving a zone before you were even in it long enough to learn the name of the zone you were questing in.

But that is why I do not support the buying of level 90s.  Yes, I take both sides.  It is only a convenience but it is one that I believe pushes it too far.  Why do I believe that?  Because of what I said just earlier.  I fell in love with the game and my class while leveling and I believe that every person should be given that opportunity, even with the new world of faster leveling, of falling in love with their class while leveling it instead of just pressing a buy now button on the flavor of the month class.

That is how I came about my opinion that I believe you should only be allowed to purchases a level 90 of a class you already have a level 90 of.  If you have already done it and you have already fallen in love with the class, have at it, pass the general annoyance of the leveling process a second time.  Buy as many of those that you want, you have done it already, you have fallen in love with that class, why not just jump past leveling and have another hunter, I know I will.  I see absolutely nothing wrong with that but having the ability to skip the entire introductory part of the game for a class, the leveling part, just seems like too much convenience to me.

There is nothing hard about leveling, it just eats up some time and the amount of time it takes has never been shorter, in the name of convenience.  Take the chance and play a class, level it, get to know it, get the feel of it, see if this is your class, see if you fall in love it with.  It is not like it is hard, there are no elite quests any longer.  It is not like it will take long, 4 days to 90 as opposed to 40 days to 60.  Just give a new class a chance, get it to 90, and if you fall in love with it, then you can buy as many other 90s of that class as you want.

That is the perfect example of what I believe is convenience that works and convenience that goes too far.  Buying a copy of something you already have is convenience that works, so you do not have to do the same thing you have already done all over again.  Buying something you have never done and do not have, is convenience that does not work.  My opinion only of course and I am sure many if not all will disagree.

Back to what I said earlier in reference to leveling and falling in love with the game, and my class, while originally doing so.  I believe that is a vital part of the game.  I believe even if it is faster than it has ever been before it is something that people should experience.  I believe that offering the convenience of skipping it completely is just a little too much.

Sometimes changes are made in the name of convenience that are good for the game like the changes to hunters ammo, or having to level a pet.  But sometimes some changes are made in the name of convenience that end up being bad for the game.  Instant 90s of a class you do not have is one example.

Some say that the convenience of flying ruined a part of the game, most specifically world PvP.  Now I was not around when world PvP was the big thing because basically that was all there was to do if you did not raid and very few raided, so I can not speak for them, but I can see how that is possible.  It could be argued, and I have heard it done by many, that flying really hurt the game in the name of convenience.

Blizzard seems to have realized that is actually true, or at least they are testing that.  With the patches this expansion with various zones we can not fly in and news that we will not get flying in the next expansion until the first major patch blizzard decided that taking away some convenience might be good for the game.  I agree with them.

Would I rather fly around the timeless island to better my attempts at rare hunting to getting all the rare items for my achievement?  Absolutely.  Flying would be an amazing convenience.  Do I believe it would add something to the game to add flying there?  No.  It would remove something, it would remove everything.  If I could just fly around and land on the rare and then take off and move to the next the convenience removes something from the game even if I would like to have it.

Sometimes convenience is bad for the game, at least as I see it.  There are good things, like hour long buffs that buff the entire group instead of 5 minute or even 30 minute buffs you needed to apply one at a time.  That was a good change, a great one even.  But not all changes made in the name of convenience are good changes even if we like them.

We, as players, need to realize that there is a difference between things we like and things that are good for the game.  Flying on the timeless island would be something I like, but it would not be good for the game.

There are many places I could argue for added convenience but there are other times where I believe that convenience takes away from the game even if it is convenience that I like.  Sometimes convenience can hurt the game.

I mentioned one, flying, that has in some ways hurt the game, can you think of any?

110% Guarantee Soloing Some Old Raid Bosses Might Be Harder Post Squish

Reading a post over at WoW-Insider titled 110% guarantee soloing old raids will not be harder post squish made me happy as someone that likes to solo old content.  Check it out here.  Then I started to think, which is often what I do and it gets me into trouble, and it made me think that the Celestalon just misspoke in his tweet.

For the records this is what he said:

The item squish *will not* make soloing older raids harder.  We promise, and 110% guarantee it.

This is what I believe he really meant to say.

Our intention is so that the item squish *will not* make soloing older raids harder.  We promise, and 110% guarantee that we will make every effort to ensure that.

But what happened was twitter only allows so many letters and he had to lose some and what was basically a truthful (my version) post became something that will end up being an incorrect statement (his post).

I do believe that blizzard will do everything in the power to make sure that we can still enjoy the same small successes and minor victories over stuff we solo super easy already.  But those things on the cusp, the ones we are close to soloing or one the ones we can barely solo, they are bound to take some hits in one direction or another.  Either becoming so much easier or becoming completely impossible.  No matter what, it *will not* be the same, not at all.

It will not be because blizzard is not trying, not at all.  I do believe they have absolutely every intention to not take anything away from us.  If we can solo LK 25 heroic now at 90 if the squish happened right this very second they would want us to still be able to do it. That I believe to be 110% true.

They want us to do the things we like to do and if what we like to do is go kill old raid bosses solo in an effort to get some trasnmog gear, or a chance at a rare mount, or for some gold, or just for shits and giggles, they want us to keep doing that.  It would not be good business practice for them to take that away from us.  You can not take something like that away without substantial back lash.

The issues is not with their intentions, it is with their design.  Not even saying their design is a bad thing, quite the opposite, it is because it is such a good thing that I can say with absolutely certainty that we will not be able to solo old raids we might have become used to soloing.  They will of course patch some things as they are bought up, or I hope they would, but there is no way that they can do this complete and total item squish and not break one hundred and one things in the process.

Just think if all the simple little things they added to the game over the years.  I remember when they added the three new five mans in wrath at the end and I was on an alt questing in netherstorm and got an error saying "this item can only be used in the forge of souls."  Excuse me, how is a level 67 supposed to go to a level 80 dungeon to complete a quest that was made before wrath even came out?

The game is so expansive that whenever they add something they break something else.  It is because the game is just so freaking huge that mistakes like that happen. 

For the people that know nothing about coding I will put it in simple terms.  They had to give a label to the item being used in that BC quest, lets say they called it fos010.  Using that short cut allowed the system to use that item.  Well, when forge of souls came out they probably added some label in there for something to be used there as fos010 because no one noticed that it was already used somewhere else in the code.  Then when I went to do that quest it called up that fos010 item and noticed it was something from forge of souls and noticed I was not in forge of souls and gave me an error in using it.  Some coder probably went in later and relabeled it fos010a or something and tada it worked again.  But that just goes to show you that anything can happen when you start playing with things in the background.  Who would have thought that adding a 5 man dungeon in wrath would break a quest from BC?  Surely not many of those in their player base, but it happened.

I am sure if you think about it you have experienced something like that, every single person that has ever played this game has run across something that was old and did not work or at least did not work as intended, and it is probably because of something they added after it.

That is why sometimes when they make one change to one ability from one class they need to go and change a while slew of other classes abilities.  It is because of how those abilities interact with the one they changed.  It is not so clear cut and easy as some people think it is.  Changing one small thing could cause a chain effect that leads you down the road to changing 600 other things just to get that one thing you changed to work as you intended it to.  Yes, it really is that complex, I am not playing parlor tricks on you and trying to pull the wool over your eyes.

The item squish all seems simple in theory.  Just reduce everything to 10% of what it does now and everything should work just the same, just with a few less zeros at the end.  Basically doing everything on a smaller scale.  Absolutely, that works, in theory.

With the thousands of mobs, the hundreds of bosses, the thousands of boss abilities, the hundreds of thousands of possible outcomes from abilities reacting to each other in combination, the over 30 specs, the over 200 different talent set ups those specs can have, the thousands of abilities they have and the hundreds of thousands of different ways those abilities can work in combination of each other there are bound to be some errors, possibly many errors that were not intended and they can not all be tested for and adjusted for on the fly because each time you adjust one thing you need to adjust dozens of others that interact with that one.

This is why I say even if it is their intention to 110% guarantee that we will be able to solo the same things we do now post squish it is not going to happen.  There will be issues, that is not an opinion, that is a fact.  I am sure if you were to ask celestalon if there could be issues even he would agree there could be.  Sure it would mean his 110% guarantee was a lie basically, but like I said, I do not believe he had the intention to lie, he just did not have enough space to post it the way he really wanted to thanks to a limited character count allowed in a tweet.

Then there is the little fact of numbers men vs action men.  No matter how well someone plays with numbers they can never actually see or feel how things work in action.  They can balance a boss to absolute perfection, numbers wise, and be extremely confident that anyone that could have soloed it before will be able to solo it now.  By the numbers the numbers man sees that.  But the action man, the one that actually does the soloing knows that there are some things he can solo only because those huge stats have unexpected results some times and when you squish the numbers the effects change and thus your ability to solo will change with it.  An action man will notice this because he sees how the fights are soloed because he is doing the soloing.  That is something the numbers man will never understand.  And that is reason too why I can say with certainty that you will not be able to solo (some) old raid bosses as easy post squish.  Some bosses will get broken.  That will happen, no doubt, because men of numbers are not men of action, and mistakes will be made.

So I will repeat, for those that might have forgotten already, this is what celestalon actually meant to say.

 Our intention is so that the item squish *will not* make soloing older raids harder.  We promise, and 110% guarantee that we will make every effort to ensure that.

And while something might get broken in the process, do not give blizzard crap over it (as long as they fix it in a timely manner) because you do not know how much is going into this and all the working parts there are to contend with.  Things will get broken and some bosses will be easier than before and some bosses will be harder than before.  It is just the way it is and if you wanted to put a positive spin on it if you are not capable of soloing that old boss you used to be able to solo think of this.  It is only because the game is so expansive, so successful, so information rich on the data end, that something of this magnitude could actually break something.  It just goes to show you, they offer us so much.  If they didn't offer us so much it would be nice and smooth because there would be nothing to screw up on.  This is the one case where screwing up is a good thing.  Well, as long as they fix it after is is reported that is, right?