I am not sure if it would help me get out of my funk of boredom with the game but it is an option.
Since Cataclysm has come out I have made many new characters, most ended up deleted, some I still have.
The problem I have is with the (new) old world. The questing changes have completely ruined the total experience of the game. I hate it with such a passion that I can't bring myself to do it.
I only wish that Blizzard would allow us to start a new character at 60 if we already have one of the same class at 85 so I could skip the whole (new) old world.
The only thing that is keeping me from rerolling is the fact I know I would have to deal with that horrible questing again. I don't do dungeons when leveling because I think that only takes more away from the experience but what experience is is now anyway? Maybe I should consider it.
I would reroll and start completely over on a new server if it where not for the fact I have to actually level through the hell known as the old world. If it were the old old world I would do it in a heartbeat. I loved leveling before. A true altaholic. You do not end up with so many maxed characters without leveling through the old world. I liked it so I did it often. I don't like it now.
I wonder if Blizzard will ever offer an option like a head start. If you have a class at 85 already you can pay 20 bucks or something and start a new character at 60 on a new server. I would do that.
I love BC and Wrath questing. It still goes by way to fast if you ask me but I like it.
I would probably have all 50 slots filled if they had a head start program.
I would love to reroll but I just can't handle doing the old world quests any more.
Maybe I will have to find something else to deal with the boredom. I doubt Blizzard is going to scrap this whole new old world design so quickly which basically means I am stuck with what I have and will never be able to level another character unless I force myself to deal with the hell that is questing now.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Two Changes I Would Like To See
Its been over a week since I logged on for any reason other then a scheduled raid. I no longer log on to do dungeons, not worth the effort. I do not care about gearing other characters, not worth the effort. I don't log on looking for pugs, not worth the effort. I do not feel the desire to do dailies, not worth the effort.
There are two simple changes that could be made to the game that would give me something to do again. Make me want to log in again. Make me actually feel like I enjoy this game again.
You might agree, you might disagree, but I would love to see both done and done now. Not when 4.3 comes. Now.
10 & 25 Man Lockouts:
Give us back two lockouts but with the way it is now where we can have people do two bosses in one raid and still join us for the third even if they did not down the two with us. It would just be for 10s and for 25s instead of one for everything. Plain and simple.
It can't be that hard to implement. We had it before. I think one of the biggest reasons for the lack of pugs on my server is not the fact that the raids are a little more challenging it is the fact that everyone is saving their lockouts for their guild and being you only have one that means you can't pug.
If you are in a 10 man guild you will pug 25s. If you are in a 25 man guild you will pug 10s. This means that for ever person that likes to raid there is a chance for them to pug. Take my three main characters at the moment. My Hunter, my Shaman and my Warrior. A damage dealer, a healer and a tank. All three are tied up to guild raids because I never know which one I will need to go on. This means no pugging for me unless I know we are not doing that raid this week. If there were different lockouts I could pug on all three without worry about if they are needed for the raids that week.
Want to bring pugging back to the game in a big way? Bring back separate lock outs. Not really a hard fix if you ask me.
Group All Heroics:
What got me to the point of burn out where the trolls. I got so sick of them I just can not do it any more. They did not only turn me off of heroics, they turned me off of the whole game, to the point where I actually thought of letting my sub expire until the next patch and I probably would have if not for the fact I feel I would be letting down my guild if I did and I would feel guilty about it. That is why I only log on for raids. If not for that I would not log on at all.
Make all heroics part of the same group. Make them all offer 140. Just do not throw people in the troll ones if they are not geared enough for it. If they are then they will be part of a much larger group to be randomed with. Lets face it, there is nothing random about getting ZG after ZA because you will always get ZG after ZA.
I could add some more things that I think would help but these are the two things that really need to get done. I am sure I am not the only one that would love to see both these things changed but I know that I am talking about them from my own selfish perspective. I want them for me.
There are two simple changes that could be made to the game that would give me something to do again. Make me want to log in again. Make me actually feel like I enjoy this game again.
You might agree, you might disagree, but I would love to see both done and done now. Not when 4.3 comes. Now.
10 & 25 Man Lockouts:
Give us back two lockouts but with the way it is now where we can have people do two bosses in one raid and still join us for the third even if they did not down the two with us. It would just be for 10s and for 25s instead of one for everything. Plain and simple.
It can't be that hard to implement. We had it before. I think one of the biggest reasons for the lack of pugs on my server is not the fact that the raids are a little more challenging it is the fact that everyone is saving their lockouts for their guild and being you only have one that means you can't pug.
If you are in a 10 man guild you will pug 25s. If you are in a 25 man guild you will pug 10s. This means that for ever person that likes to raid there is a chance for them to pug. Take my three main characters at the moment. My Hunter, my Shaman and my Warrior. A damage dealer, a healer and a tank. All three are tied up to guild raids because I never know which one I will need to go on. This means no pugging for me unless I know we are not doing that raid this week. If there were different lockouts I could pug on all three without worry about if they are needed for the raids that week.
Want to bring pugging back to the game in a big way? Bring back separate lock outs. Not really a hard fix if you ask me.
Group All Heroics:
What got me to the point of burn out where the trolls. I got so sick of them I just can not do it any more. They did not only turn me off of heroics, they turned me off of the whole game, to the point where I actually thought of letting my sub expire until the next patch and I probably would have if not for the fact I feel I would be letting down my guild if I did and I would feel guilty about it. That is why I only log on for raids. If not for that I would not log on at all.
Make all heroics part of the same group. Make them all offer 140. Just do not throw people in the troll ones if they are not geared enough for it. If they are then they will be part of a much larger group to be randomed with. Lets face it, there is nothing random about getting ZG after ZA because you will always get ZG after ZA.
I could add some more things that I think would help but these are the two things that really need to get done. I am sure I am not the only one that would love to see both these things changed but I know that I am talking about them from my own selfish perspective. I want them for me.
Friday, September 2, 2011
Raiding Is Still Fun
While lately I've been at a loss of things to do there is one thing that does hold true. Raiding is still fun.
As I mentioned before, the difficultly level is a bit much for most of the player base. Even the nerfed 20% difficultly level of T11 normals is still too much for the average raiding community. That is the reason why lower progressed servers like mine can still not pug that "old" content.
So even if I do enjoy raiding I don't see things getting better over all because there are no pugs going around.
To get people back into the swing of things we started off with TotFWs. It took roughly 15 minutes and one shot to down it. WoW, what a difference some time makes.
It was only that quick and easy because everyone there knew the fight except one person and that one person had seen it so it was more of a quick once over and then at it. Just because we did it in 15 minutes does not mean that it can be pugged. A pug would never make it past the first boss (3 bosses?) so the last would be impossible when you ask pug people to move from the wind and even more of a dream to think you will do it in one shot.
It was kind of funny that it took us longer to assemble the raid then it actually took us to do the raid. Hence the reason I hate these short raids. I also hate the whole air phase thing but it is what it is. Sad part is that this raid is perfect for helping people gear up being it is quick so we are going to be stuck doing it once in a while, like it or not. Even if it was that simple, I still think it needs to be nerfed, a lot more. I don't care about difficultly. It is annoying. Annoying does not equal fun. Someone should explain that to blizzard. Find a way to add "difficultly" without making me go into the air and I will be a happy camper.
Being we finished it quickly we went over to BWD and figured we could knock that one out quickly as well. A few people had never been to that one however so it took some explaining time. We had a few people come and go, the bane of a casual guild, it is rare we do a whole raid night with the same people the whole time.
Either way, we ended up wiping a few times on Nef by the time we called it a night. Once was because I missed an interrupt. Got stuck on the freaking platform. That ever happen to you? Makes me feel so bad when stuff like that happens and I know it was all my fault. Another time, one of the other interrupters got stuck under the platform and it was an instant wipe. One time. God knows, we wiped spectacularly. I think it was all of 20 seconds of a fight. Not sure what happened there. That time the rouge that had never been there vanished after the wipe and said he would wait down there for us. I told him it won't work. It didn't. I waited outside until I saw he died.
We all had some fun laughs and all had a good time even if we wiped a few times on nef and did not get it down. At least a few new people now know the fight including a brand new boomkin that really has no gear but seems to be dedicated enough that they might become a good player in the near future. 10K with no real gear on a fight they never even heard of before shows that they have potential.
We could have downed that one too and it could have been a really fast run just like TotFWs was but those one shot mechanics ended the dream of 2 end bosses in one 2 hour raid night. Even outgearing the content can't help against one shot mechanics.
This is also why this is not puggable. I have a member in my guild that has been doing it whenever he sees a pug come up. He laughed when I told him we always seem to have someone miss the interrupt because of something stupid and that is the whole fight right there. He said, what interrupt. I said, the one in the second phase. He said, Oh, I've never made it that far.
He has been in at least 20 different pugs that where on Nef and has never seen phase two. I was not even sure that was possible.
I like raiding. I like getting stuff down quick and easy like we did with TotFWs. I don't mind not getting things finished like we didn't in BWD. Either way, when you are with people that are willing to learn and show they are adapting, raiding is fun. Lots of fun.
Too bad I can't do it again on my healer tonight or my mage the day after and then maybe my druid tank on sunday.
Back when raids where puggable, back when fun was more important, I would have been able to pug on 5 different characters the current top tier raid. Now I can not even pug a raid that is the last tier that has been nerfed and is mostly outdated unless you need a choice piece here or there.
Raiding is still fun. I still love it.
It just is not what could be considered fun content any more.
Unless you are in a raid group or on a well progressed server that might pug once in a while you will never see the inside of a raid.
I guess the next time I log in will be Monday for the next raid (or Saturday for an old time raid for achievements) maybe finish off Nef and knock out Shannonx on Monday.
Until then, no reason for me to log in. It is not like there will be someone pugging raids so my other characters have something to do.
Raiding is still fun.
I just wish I could do it more.
As I mentioned before, the difficultly level is a bit much for most of the player base. Even the nerfed 20% difficultly level of T11 normals is still too much for the average raiding community. That is the reason why lower progressed servers like mine can still not pug that "old" content.
So even if I do enjoy raiding I don't see things getting better over all because there are no pugs going around.
To get people back into the swing of things we started off with TotFWs. It took roughly 15 minutes and one shot to down it. WoW, what a difference some time makes.
It was only that quick and easy because everyone there knew the fight except one person and that one person had seen it so it was more of a quick once over and then at it. Just because we did it in 15 minutes does not mean that it can be pugged. A pug would never make it past the first boss (3 bosses?) so the last would be impossible when you ask pug people to move from the wind and even more of a dream to think you will do it in one shot.
It was kind of funny that it took us longer to assemble the raid then it actually took us to do the raid. Hence the reason I hate these short raids. I also hate the whole air phase thing but it is what it is. Sad part is that this raid is perfect for helping people gear up being it is quick so we are going to be stuck doing it once in a while, like it or not. Even if it was that simple, I still think it needs to be nerfed, a lot more. I don't care about difficultly. It is annoying. Annoying does not equal fun. Someone should explain that to blizzard. Find a way to add "difficultly" without making me go into the air and I will be a happy camper.
Being we finished it quickly we went over to BWD and figured we could knock that one out quickly as well. A few people had never been to that one however so it took some explaining time. We had a few people come and go, the bane of a casual guild, it is rare we do a whole raid night with the same people the whole time.
Either way, we ended up wiping a few times on Nef by the time we called it a night. Once was because I missed an interrupt. Got stuck on the freaking platform. That ever happen to you? Makes me feel so bad when stuff like that happens and I know it was all my fault. Another time, one of the other interrupters got stuck under the platform and it was an instant wipe. One time. God knows, we wiped spectacularly. I think it was all of 20 seconds of a fight. Not sure what happened there. That time the rouge that had never been there vanished after the wipe and said he would wait down there for us. I told him it won't work. It didn't. I waited outside until I saw he died.
We all had some fun laughs and all had a good time even if we wiped a few times on nef and did not get it down. At least a few new people now know the fight including a brand new boomkin that really has no gear but seems to be dedicated enough that they might become a good player in the near future. 10K with no real gear on a fight they never even heard of before shows that they have potential.
We could have downed that one too and it could have been a really fast run just like TotFWs was but those one shot mechanics ended the dream of 2 end bosses in one 2 hour raid night. Even outgearing the content can't help against one shot mechanics.
This is also why this is not puggable. I have a member in my guild that has been doing it whenever he sees a pug come up. He laughed when I told him we always seem to have someone miss the interrupt because of something stupid and that is the whole fight right there. He said, what interrupt. I said, the one in the second phase. He said, Oh, I've never made it that far.
He has been in at least 20 different pugs that where on Nef and has never seen phase two. I was not even sure that was possible.
I like raiding. I like getting stuff down quick and easy like we did with TotFWs. I don't mind not getting things finished like we didn't in BWD. Either way, when you are with people that are willing to learn and show they are adapting, raiding is fun. Lots of fun.
Too bad I can't do it again on my healer tonight or my mage the day after and then maybe my druid tank on sunday.
Back when raids where puggable, back when fun was more important, I would have been able to pug on 5 different characters the current top tier raid. Now I can not even pug a raid that is the last tier that has been nerfed and is mostly outdated unless you need a choice piece here or there.
Raiding is still fun. I still love it.
It just is not what could be considered fun content any more.
Unless you are in a raid group or on a well progressed server that might pug once in a while you will never see the inside of a raid.
I guess the next time I log in will be Monday for the next raid (or Saturday for an old time raid for achievements) maybe finish off Nef and knock out Shannonx on Monday.
Until then, no reason for me to log in. It is not like there will be someone pugging raids so my other characters have something to do.
Raiding is still fun.
I just wish I could do it more.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
I Want More Solo Play
After a second day not playing and not even wanting to play it got me to thinking why do I normally sign in every day.
What always drove me to log in all the time was grinding. I had to do dailies. I had to do mount runs. I had to farm for rare drops. I had to get materials for raid supplies. I had so many things to do that I always felt like missing a day set me so far behind.
Why has that changed for me? I can still do dailies, run for mounts, look for rare drops, gather materials, etc.
What changed for me was raiding. Simple as that. Raiding has ruined my solo game play.
How does a group thing ruin solo play? In wrath there was a crap load more raiding going on.
Because raiding was easier it meant there were pugs going 24/7 whenever you logged on. There were two lock outs as well. Which meant I could raid twice on my main, a hunter and was usually dragged into other raids to help fill out a healing spot or a tanking spot or even another DPS spot with one of my other characters. All in all it could mean I was in upwards of 8 different ICC lock outs per week.
Because there was also so much going on as far as raiding goes my time to do those solo things was limited, some times so much that I would actually fall behind on having the food and flasks I needed because I had no time to play the gathering and producing part of the game, which is big for solo players.
Because I was always raiding I could not squeeze in mount runs every day or sometimes not even every week. My solo content lasted longer because I had so many other things to do, like raid 10 and 25 man on at least three different characters.
This made my solo content last a lot longer. It made my solo content more enjoyable when I was capable of squeezing it in.
Now enter cataclysm. One lock out, no pugs because of harder raids or rare ones that sometimes break up on the trash before they even get to the boss.
No big deal. I'll just catch up on doing the solo things I never had time to do in wrath because wrath was always so busy with everything going on all the time.
After a few months of just doing the solo content I am burnt out on it. Solo content is fun when you are trying to squeeze it in to get it all done. It is not fun when that is all there is to the game.
So instead of running a 10 man group and a 25 man group (which you could bring the same character too) and many alts runs or pugs for everything under the sun all I have left to do is wait for that one or two nights a week we do raid and hope enough people show up to do it.
There is no use logging on hoping to find a pug in trade for something to do because there never are any. The last few pugs I managed to get into ended badly, all of them. One BoT broke up on the first trash pack. Not kidding. Another BoT broke up after the first boss. One BWD saw me doing 39% of the damage, in a 25 man, which can explain why I gave up on it after 1 boss attempt. Every firelands ends with people saying, I only wanted rep I did not want to down anything.
Being raiding is not all time consuming any more because of its difficulty level and the fact that no one even bothers to do them any more they need to add more solo content.
I used to log on for the solo content. Now I don't log on because I am sick of the solo content being all I can do. I want more. I want anything. I would be glad if they where still pugging 80 content for achievements. I would jump in on those if they where being pugged just for something to do, something different. But they don't pug those either, nothing gets pugged this expansion.
You can not just run randoms either for fun because they are not fun. There are no raid pugs. The dailies are the cause of major burnout for many people because that is all they have to do.
The reason I have felt no need to log in lately is because there is nothing to do. I have no solo content I want to do. Running for mounts is fun when you squeeze it in when you can. It is annoying when that is all you have to do.
I'll log in tonight because it is raid night. Going to start with going back to T11 stuff, ( maybe finally finish TotFW) to get the dust off for those people that are just coming back and then we can jump over to firelands. Tonight I will log on because there is something to do.
After that, it is back to forgetting about the game because there is no reason to log in.
They need to create more solo content or they need to make raids puggable and with two separate lock outs again. The solo content is not that different from what it was in wrath. The raid content is the difference.
In wrath the raid content kept me so busy that I had little time for the solo content so I enjoyed it and it was more then enough to keep me happy. Now, with nothing to do but the solo content, it feels lacking. It is not that there is less of it to do, it is just that when it is all you have to do it seems to get tiring.
PS: Reputation grinding will be a nice change to bring back too. Let me earn my rep with dailies and turns in and kills and then get my tabard as a reward for becoming exalted. Stop with this giving me a tabard at friendly so I can build rep doing dungeon I was going to do anyway BS. Rep grinding is something you can do solo and is fantastic for solo play. Bring back the BC style of reputation.
What always drove me to log in all the time was grinding. I had to do dailies. I had to do mount runs. I had to farm for rare drops. I had to get materials for raid supplies. I had so many things to do that I always felt like missing a day set me so far behind.
Why has that changed for me? I can still do dailies, run for mounts, look for rare drops, gather materials, etc.
What changed for me was raiding. Simple as that. Raiding has ruined my solo game play.
How does a group thing ruin solo play? In wrath there was a crap load more raiding going on.
Because raiding was easier it meant there were pugs going 24/7 whenever you logged on. There were two lock outs as well. Which meant I could raid twice on my main, a hunter and was usually dragged into other raids to help fill out a healing spot or a tanking spot or even another DPS spot with one of my other characters. All in all it could mean I was in upwards of 8 different ICC lock outs per week.
Because there was also so much going on as far as raiding goes my time to do those solo things was limited, some times so much that I would actually fall behind on having the food and flasks I needed because I had no time to play the gathering and producing part of the game, which is big for solo players.
Because I was always raiding I could not squeeze in mount runs every day or sometimes not even every week. My solo content lasted longer because I had so many other things to do, like raid 10 and 25 man on at least three different characters.
This made my solo content last a lot longer. It made my solo content more enjoyable when I was capable of squeezing it in.
Now enter cataclysm. One lock out, no pugs because of harder raids or rare ones that sometimes break up on the trash before they even get to the boss.
No big deal. I'll just catch up on doing the solo things I never had time to do in wrath because wrath was always so busy with everything going on all the time.
After a few months of just doing the solo content I am burnt out on it. Solo content is fun when you are trying to squeeze it in to get it all done. It is not fun when that is all there is to the game.
So instead of running a 10 man group and a 25 man group (which you could bring the same character too) and many alts runs or pugs for everything under the sun all I have left to do is wait for that one or two nights a week we do raid and hope enough people show up to do it.
There is no use logging on hoping to find a pug in trade for something to do because there never are any. The last few pugs I managed to get into ended badly, all of them. One BoT broke up on the first trash pack. Not kidding. Another BoT broke up after the first boss. One BWD saw me doing 39% of the damage, in a 25 man, which can explain why I gave up on it after 1 boss attempt. Every firelands ends with people saying, I only wanted rep I did not want to down anything.
Being raiding is not all time consuming any more because of its difficulty level and the fact that no one even bothers to do them any more they need to add more solo content.
I used to log on for the solo content. Now I don't log on because I am sick of the solo content being all I can do. I want more. I want anything. I would be glad if they where still pugging 80 content for achievements. I would jump in on those if they where being pugged just for something to do, something different. But they don't pug those either, nothing gets pugged this expansion.
You can not just run randoms either for fun because they are not fun. There are no raid pugs. The dailies are the cause of major burnout for many people because that is all they have to do.
The reason I have felt no need to log in lately is because there is nothing to do. I have no solo content I want to do. Running for mounts is fun when you squeeze it in when you can. It is annoying when that is all you have to do.
I'll log in tonight because it is raid night. Going to start with going back to T11 stuff, ( maybe finally finish TotFW) to get the dust off for those people that are just coming back and then we can jump over to firelands. Tonight I will log on because there is something to do.
After that, it is back to forgetting about the game because there is no reason to log in.
They need to create more solo content or they need to make raids puggable and with two separate lock outs again. The solo content is not that different from what it was in wrath. The raid content is the difference.
In wrath the raid content kept me so busy that I had little time for the solo content so I enjoyed it and it was more then enough to keep me happy. Now, with nothing to do but the solo content, it feels lacking. It is not that there is less of it to do, it is just that when it is all you have to do it seems to get tiring.
PS: Reputation grinding will be a nice change to bring back too. Let me earn my rep with dailies and turns in and kills and then get my tabard as a reward for becoming exalted. Stop with this giving me a tabard at friendly so I can build rep doing dungeon I was going to do anyway BS. Rep grinding is something you can do solo and is fantastic for solo play. Bring back the BC style of reputation.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Trolls Made Me Do It
For a long time now I've had a Tuesday tradition for the game. I log in and try to cram in as many heroics as I can on my hunter that first day.
The reason I do that is because it seems like all the best players do their randoms that first day. I get good groups that all know what they are doing for the most part and I am not the only person in the group that can do over 20K. It makes for mostly event less runs that are fast and for the most part stress free.
I did not do that yesterday. I could not bring myself to do it yesterday. I am sick of trolls. If I never see a troll again it will be too soon. I have not even logged into any of my 5 troll characters in the past month. I've been learning to hate trolls which is sad because trolls are (were) pretty darn awesome.
Some might say that I could just do some normal heroics to mix things up but over all it is a waste of time. Most of the time the dungeons are roughly the same length (if you have a good zul group) and you get half the valor points and no crystals either. I have a saying I am quite found of. If you are going to do something, do it right. Doing it right is getting the most out of your time investment. That means doing zuls, like it or not.
I am so sick of the zuls and in turn it is making me hate the game in the same way it is making me hate the trolls. Not only did I not do my dungeons yesterday I did not even log in at all. I did not even log in to do my jewelcrafting dailies. I did not even consider logging in. I actually enjoyed not seeing any trolls this Tuesday.
For the first time since I started playing I actively did not want to log in. Even when boredom hit me I always logged in. I always did at least my dailies and then moved along. I would log in and see if anyone needed some help, a low level run through, a tank for a random, a healer for a random, to do some dailies on a different character that I do not do them on often.
There was always something I could do to at least pass an hour of my free time I like to spend playing WoW. The trolls have beaten me down to the point that not only do I not want to log in to do the zuls I don't want to log in to do anything at all.
I will most likely jump back into the troll mix and do them later this week because I feel as if I have no choice as that is the only thing (non raiding) in the game to do where I can get my valor.
I am forced into doing it if I want valor. Like it or not. That is probably another reason I am beginning to hate the trolls. When you do things because you want to do them you enjoy it. When you start doing things because you feel you have to do it you start to hate it.
The difference between what you want to do and what you have to do is huge.
I started to feel like I had to do the zuls. The trolls where calling me. They where telling me that no matter what I was stuck with them and I would run the dungeon again 20 times this week, or more. They where mocking me with their jamaican laugh, mon. Telling me that I had no control of my game time any more. I could not enjoy myself. I had to do what I had to do, like it or not. The trolls thought they ruled me.
I showed them. I did not even log on last night. I did not do dailies. I did not run any zuls. I did not see any trolls.
No trolls laughing at me this time telling me I was stuck with them this time.
I quit, for a day at least, and the trolls made me do it.
Wednesday nights we usually do whatever the weekly raid is, for fun. We will knock out the whole raid, whatever it is, for achievements or just for fun. We will sometimes do an EoE 25 or a OS 3D for mount runs too. Wednesday nights are for relaxing, for fun.
I am thinking I do not even want to log in for that tonight because I know if I do the zuls will be waiting for me. The trolls will be whispering me, come play with us. They will continue to beat me down from doing the same two dungeons over and over.
My guild can down old content without me. You do not need a raid leader for that. Hell, they can knock out current content without me. I am not needed. No person is indispensable. Everyone is replaceable. Even the raid leader.
I am just beaten down by the trolls. They mock me and I can not take it any more.
It might only turn into me taking one day off, maybe two. I will be back by Thursday however being we plan to finally start raiding again then. That might make me feel like I have something to do even if I rarely ever get to do it on my hunter which is my main and that is the reason I am stuck running zuls with him for valor.
I can usually always find something to do but it has gotten to the point that the trolls have chased me away.
I wonder how many people have quit the game already because of what I am talking about now. Those people are a lot smarter then I am. They know when to give up. I don't.
I keep hoping that the game will be enjoyable again. I keep hoping that there will be something to do besides see trolls nearly every second I play the game. I have the knowledge that it will pass and I am trying to hold on until it does. The day of trolls 24/7 will go away. I just have to wait for it.
I do really wonder how many people quit the game and when blizzard sent them the questionnaire asking them why they simply replied... the trolls made me do it.
The reason I do that is because it seems like all the best players do their randoms that first day. I get good groups that all know what they are doing for the most part and I am not the only person in the group that can do over 20K. It makes for mostly event less runs that are fast and for the most part stress free.
I did not do that yesterday. I could not bring myself to do it yesterday. I am sick of trolls. If I never see a troll again it will be too soon. I have not even logged into any of my 5 troll characters in the past month. I've been learning to hate trolls which is sad because trolls are (were) pretty darn awesome.
Some might say that I could just do some normal heroics to mix things up but over all it is a waste of time. Most of the time the dungeons are roughly the same length (if you have a good zul group) and you get half the valor points and no crystals either. I have a saying I am quite found of. If you are going to do something, do it right. Doing it right is getting the most out of your time investment. That means doing zuls, like it or not.
I am so sick of the zuls and in turn it is making me hate the game in the same way it is making me hate the trolls. Not only did I not do my dungeons yesterday I did not even log in at all. I did not even log in to do my jewelcrafting dailies. I did not even consider logging in. I actually enjoyed not seeing any trolls this Tuesday.
For the first time since I started playing I actively did not want to log in. Even when boredom hit me I always logged in. I always did at least my dailies and then moved along. I would log in and see if anyone needed some help, a low level run through, a tank for a random, a healer for a random, to do some dailies on a different character that I do not do them on often.
There was always something I could do to at least pass an hour of my free time I like to spend playing WoW. The trolls have beaten me down to the point that not only do I not want to log in to do the zuls I don't want to log in to do anything at all.
I will most likely jump back into the troll mix and do them later this week because I feel as if I have no choice as that is the only thing (non raiding) in the game to do where I can get my valor.
I am forced into doing it if I want valor. Like it or not. That is probably another reason I am beginning to hate the trolls. When you do things because you want to do them you enjoy it. When you start doing things because you feel you have to do it you start to hate it.
The difference between what you want to do and what you have to do is huge.
I started to feel like I had to do the zuls. The trolls where calling me. They where telling me that no matter what I was stuck with them and I would run the dungeon again 20 times this week, or more. They where mocking me with their jamaican laugh, mon. Telling me that I had no control of my game time any more. I could not enjoy myself. I had to do what I had to do, like it or not. The trolls thought they ruled me.
I showed them. I did not even log on last night. I did not do dailies. I did not run any zuls. I did not see any trolls.
No trolls laughing at me this time telling me I was stuck with them this time.
I quit, for a day at least, and the trolls made me do it.
Wednesday nights we usually do whatever the weekly raid is, for fun. We will knock out the whole raid, whatever it is, for achievements or just for fun. We will sometimes do an EoE 25 or a OS 3D for mount runs too. Wednesday nights are for relaxing, for fun.
I am thinking I do not even want to log in for that tonight because I know if I do the zuls will be waiting for me. The trolls will be whispering me, come play with us. They will continue to beat me down from doing the same two dungeons over and over.
My guild can down old content without me. You do not need a raid leader for that. Hell, they can knock out current content without me. I am not needed. No person is indispensable. Everyone is replaceable. Even the raid leader.
I am just beaten down by the trolls. They mock me and I can not take it any more.
It might only turn into me taking one day off, maybe two. I will be back by Thursday however being we plan to finally start raiding again then. That might make me feel like I have something to do even if I rarely ever get to do it on my hunter which is my main and that is the reason I am stuck running zuls with him for valor.
I can usually always find something to do but it has gotten to the point that the trolls have chased me away.
I wonder how many people have quit the game already because of what I am talking about now. Those people are a lot smarter then I am. They know when to give up. I don't.
I keep hoping that the game will be enjoyable again. I keep hoping that there will be something to do besides see trolls nearly every second I play the game. I have the knowledge that it will pass and I am trying to hold on until it does. The day of trolls 24/7 will go away. I just have to wait for it.
I do really wonder how many people quit the game and when blizzard sent them the questionnaire asking them why they simply replied... the trolls made me do it.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Support Class?
People often talk about getting away from the holy trinity of tank, healer and damage dealer. Usually what pops up is the theory of a support class. The one major problem is that a support class is something that can be easily removed in most cases even if they added one.
Lets just say for arguments sake that a new battle comes out and a support class around, as is often described, is needed to give temporary buffs, debuffs or whatever. When first learning the battle it might be important to have a support class, perhaps it is even impossible to finish the battle without a support class. Once you start getting more gear and start to over gear the content the support class would be the first expendable class for the battle.
Support classes, based on current game design, are not really needed.
Lets take any raid with lots of AoE damage going out and a support class that can buff people with a buff that absorbs 50% of magical damage.
When my raid team currently starts working on a new fight like that we will usually use the three healer set up to help us deal with it while learning the fight. Once the fight is learned well enough one of the healers will switch to a DPS spec and we will go at it with two healers and down it faster with more DPS.
That third healer is basically taking the place of what the support class would do. When learning a new fight it would be awesome to have someone limit the amount of damage people are taking as well as debuff the boss so it takes additional magical and melee damage. However, once you have the fight learned it would be better to have the extra DPS instead of the support class.
The best case scenario of a support class would be when learning a fight they are useful and once you know it they are useless. Kind of like the third healer.
So the support class can have an offspec of DPS right? If that is the case why not just grab another healer that has an offspec of DPS. Another healer would actually heal whereas a support class will only buff or debuff.
A support class will put a debuff on the mob that increases physical damage taken. We already have that.
A support class will put a debuff on the mob that increases magical damage taken. We already have that.
A support class will put a debuff on that slows the mobs cast times. We already have that.
A support class will out on a resistance for particular fights that need it. We already have that.
A support class will put a buff on people that limits physical damage taken. We already have that.
A support class will out a buff on people that limits magical damage taken. We already have that.
Basically, a support class basically can do what everyone else is doing already. Lets say you do not have anyone to put on a physical damage debuff on the mob you would be left with the option of taking a support class to do it or a DPS class to do it.
I am not sure about you but I would rather have another DPS doing it while dealing damage then to have a support class doing it and basically wasting time otherwise.
The way the game is currently designed is that a support class would be completely and totally useless. You would almost always be better off taking a healer to heal the extra damage or a damage dealer to do the debuffing while also dealing damage.
Without changing anything with how the game is designed and works it is impossible to ever add a support class in the game and actually make them viable.
Or is there?
I can think of a way that would make a support class useful. However it is not something I would really like to see. You would need to make them, for lack of a better description, OP (over powered). So much so that the advantage of taking another DPS or healer seems to at least be a coin toss.
For a support class to be viable there needs to be more for them to do. They need to have something to do other then just buffing or debuffing. If all buffs are covered except for a rend then basically all they are there to do it rend every once in a while. How boring is that?
Their buffs would have to stack, be able to proc, and there be some sort of dynamic that would make good support stand out the same way good DPS would. Good DPS stands out because they are hitting evertthing right and at the right time so they will do more DPS.
A good support class would have to be similar in their buffs. The ability to bounce around without letting buffs drops so the healers always have the healing increase, melee always have the melee buff and casters always have the casting buff. All while mixing in a raid wide haste buff and never letting any of them drop off while making sure to stack them for increased buffs.
Okay, I can see how that can work. If the support class is good and keeps me buffed and keeps increasing my agility by 5% every 30 seconds to the point where I am getting 40% extra agility or more then basically having another DPS in their place would give then they become worth it. They would be giving me and 4 other DPS a 40% boost, even more as the fight goes on if they are good. Not to mention they will be giving the healers a 40% or more healing boost too and a raid haste buff.
Now they are worth more as a buffer then they are as an extra healer or an extra damage dealer. If the fight is going on for a while they could effectively make the other 9 characters all do what they are doing 50% better. That is a combined 450% increase. More then the 100% of whatever they would have been, 100% healer or 100% damage dealer.
Now that looks like a fantastic raid use for a support class. Can we make the support class useful in five mans as well?
For a support class to be useful in a five man they need to be the actual definition of control. They should be able to CC every single type of mob in the game with a various array of CCs. They should have at least three ranged interrupts all with a low cooldown. One for direct interrupts. One for AoE silences. One for shield bar interrupts (the only class that can directly interrupt casts that are shielded but not all of them just as mages can not spell steal all buffs but only select ones). They would also need dampening fields for each class of spell. They should also have a dazzling array of stuns, slows and roots.
That would be awesome for five mans. Although I can still see how that could be useless in a five man once anyone has any gear or some skill. You really do not need to deflect damage, CC, interrupt, or anything else control like in a five man once you know the dungeon.
So we need to add some sort of damage or healing component to make them have a little additional use. They would have a power bar with five bars in it. Each time they cast a successful support spell the bar would get a charge. At any point they would have a small selection of damage dealing and healing abilities they could use and use up that power. So they could add additional DPS or healing as needed.
Could you imagine them CCing the same mob 5 times in a row while you are trying to attacking it and then whipping out a 100K hit on it or a 100K heal on someone because they have 5 bars. Their over all DPS would never compete with a damage dealer and their healing would never be a substitue for a healer but it surely does fit the concept of support. They can support by doing a little extra damage and a little extra healing all while increasing the damage the group does, decreases the damage the group takes and holding an array of abilities that could control a pack of 5 mobs all by themselves if they where good at their class.
Okay, I think I have finally made the support class fit into the five man even if I still think having an actually DPS or healer would be better, having a support would not be horrible.
Not to mention, now support has a way to quest in that spec if they wanted to. CC, CC, CC, CC, CC, damage, slow, stun, CC, damage. Blah blah blah. It will not be the most exciting class to quest with but with their control and buffs, debuffs, etc, they would most likely be super powerful when it comes to soloing certain things.
Okay, I think we just designed a serviceable support class. Lets flesh it out for fun shall we?
Gearing: - I am thinking that we have to go plate for this new class. Someone to compete with paladins on the casting gear because they are hogging it all for themselves. Spirit for them would translate into hit rating which they will need for all their offensive abilities.
Class: - Not sure of what I would think of with a class name but I am thinking the three specs they would have would be support, healing and DPS. The healing and DPS classes will work similar to the support class's power bar part of doing damage and healing. I will only detail the support end of it however being that is the all new aspect. For the healing spec the spirit would work as it does for other healers and for the DPS end of it the spirit would work as hit, just as it will for the support end.
Discipline Bar - Like a stance bar, aura, bar, aspect bar, etc. It is off the global cooldown so it can be tied into other abilities but all will have a one minute cooldown before being switched back to again and for maximum usage the support player would need to keep switching their disciplines.
Meditation Discipline:
- All mana regeneration continues as if not in battle for all mana users in the party or raid. The first 20 seconds after switching to Meditation Discipline doubles the regeneration.
Cheetah Discipline:
- The haste of all party or raid members is increased by 15%. The first 20 seconds after switching into Cheetah Discipline doubles the haste buff.
Barrier Discipline:
- Decreases all damage from all sources to all party and raid members by 10%. The first 20 seconds after switching to Barrier Discipline will cause a bubble to surround the caster and all people within that bubble will have the damage reduction doubled.
Guardian Discipline:
- When Guardian Discipline is active all party or raid members gain 1% of their total health every 10 seconds. For the first 20 seconds after Guardian Discipline becomes active the first person that dies will be instantly revived with full health and resources but they will be unable to move or take any actions until what is left on the 20 second duration has expired.
Reversal Discipline:
- All abilities of all party or raid members are now instant and their previous channel time is now added to their cooldown instead. The first 20 seconds that Reversal Discipline is active the previous channel time that is now the cooldown is cut in half.
Dream Discipline:
- All party or raid members have their movement speed increased by 10%. For the first 20 seconds that Dream Discipline is active all enemy movement is also reduced by 10%.
Boost Buffs: - These are 45 second buffs. When a person is buffed with them they can not have them reapplied until 30 seconds have past. If they are reapplied between 31 and 45 seconds they add up (5%, 10%, 15%, etc) and refresh to 45 seconds. If the buff falls off without being refreshed the player can not be rebuffed with a boost buff for 15 additional seconds after the boost ended.
Agility Boost: - Add 5% to the total agility of target player.
Strength Boost: - Add 5% to the total strength of target player.
Intellect Boost: - Add 5% of the total intellect of target player.
Enemy Debuffs: - Works just like boost buffs, but on the enemy or course.
Physical Weakness: - Increase all physical damage received on the target by 5%.
Magical Weakness: - Increase all magical damage received on target by 5%.
Crowd Control: - The best in the game for CC is a support character.
Stone: - Turn any living creature to stone for 1 minute.
Solidify: - Freeze all the oils in a mechanical unit for 1 minute.
Strip: - Remove all the elemental abilities of an elemental causing it to tremble in fear for 1 minute.
Mirror Image: - Create a mirror image of a demon or undead. The mob will only attack its mirror image with single target attacks until the mirror image is dead. The mirror image does not fight back.
Crystallize: - Turn target mob into a crystal for 1 minute. Only works on humanoids, undead, beasts and dragonkin.
Charm: - Charm a target enemy into doing your bidding for 1 minute. Only works on humanoids. You can not control the charmed target.
Slows: The best class in the game for slows is also your friendly neighborhood support class.
Void Zone: - Create a void zone on the ground that lasts for 20 seconds. Any mobs that enter the void zone will have their max life cut in half and be slowed 50% while crossing through it.
Stagger: - Reduce the movement of target humanoid, beast or dragonkin by 20% for 10 seconds.
Nightmare: - Reduce the moment of all mobs within 20 yards of you by 30% for 5 seconds. If dream discipline is active when this is cast the movement reduction is doubled for this spell.
Bound: - Reduce the movement of target enemy by 90%. Lasts until target takes damage.
Leadfooted: - Target enemies movement speed is reduced by 50% for 8 seconds. 10 second cooldown.
Interrupts and Silences: - Also a specialty of the support class.
Power Surge: - Interrupt the target spell and gain the mana used to cast it. 5 second cooldown.
Power Sink: - Interrupt the target spell increasing the cost of the next spell they cast by three times. 5 second cooldown.
Power Lock: - Interrupt the target spell and lock the caster out of that spell school for 8 seconds. 20 second cooldown.
Power Circle: - Interrupt all casting within the circle. Circle lasts for 10 seconds. 2 minute cooldown.
Power Spark: - Cast power spark on a friendly player. The next spell that targets that player will be instantly interrupted. Power spark lasts for 3 minutes. If no spell is cast that could be interrupted on the target player the spark falls off and can not be reapplied on that target for an additional 1 minute. 3 minute cooldown.
Power Drain: - Drain mana and health from target until they cast a spell. 12 second channeled. When they cast a spell it will be interrupt as well as interrupting your power drain. If your power drain channeling is completed without being interrupted the cooldown is reset instantly, otherwise, 1 minute cooldown.
Power Spike: - Interrupt the things others can not. Certain uninterruptable spells can be spiked. 20 second cooldown.
Power Bar: - Every time the support player casts any spell that is not a direct damage or healing spell the power bar gains one charge. Charges can be used to do damage or heal. While the support classes damage dealing and healing options are few and far between, they do hit like a truck when they are at a full stack of 5.
Physic Blast: - Does damage equal to your intellect / 1.5 x 2 at one bar. x 4 at 2 bars. x 8 at 3 bars. x 16 at 4 bars and x 32 at 5 bars.
Psychic Bond: - Heals both you and the target player for an amount equal to (same formula as above)
Physic Surge: - Does AoE damage based on the same numbers as above divided among the number of mobs. x 3 if there are 5 or more mobs or some sort of formula that makes more sense then that.
Okay, so the idea still need some work but over all I could see myself playing that character. I can really see myself having some fun soloing old content with that character. Support classes, as most think of them, can not fit into the game the way it is but making something like this, almost over powered when it comes to buffing and controlling, makes having one of these classes almost worth it. Heck, in some cases I think I would rather a good support player in place of another DPS for some raids. One support player can turn 5 20K DPSers into 5 30K DPSers over a long battle. That is 50K extra DPS. More then having another DPS would be. And the healing would also be putting out more heals too. Yeap, I think a good support class will surely take one of the DPS spots away for sure.
The big issue is this is all about adding a new class. That does not help anything really. It would end up taking spaces from DPS which is already a problem with so many of them. Perhaps they need to find a way to make the 4 pure DPS classes have support options. The one I described I can see being a mage class for sure. Absolutely. It fits a mage quite well if you ask me.
WoW will need to make some changes to design if they ever want to add a support class and I do not see that happening but it is nice to think of a class like this. Perhaps some other classes can use some of those abilities.
I cant tell you one thing, I wish the interrupt that restores mana when used was a mage spell. I am sure a lot of mages would be looking for things to interrupt. Boss casting something that can be interrupted.
Mage 1: I got it, I am on empty.
Mage 2: Okay.
~ Interrupt. ~
Mage 1: Okay, I am full again, thank god bosses have such huge mana pools, you get the next one, I am going to spam my 2 button again and watch the numbers fly.
Mage 2: 20 seconds until he casts it again, I'm going to try to burn my whole mana bar by then.
I sometimes yell when on my warrior. Hit me, I need rage. I could see mages yelling, cast something, I need mana.
That would be a fun ability.
Lets just say for arguments sake that a new battle comes out and a support class around, as is often described, is needed to give temporary buffs, debuffs or whatever. When first learning the battle it might be important to have a support class, perhaps it is even impossible to finish the battle without a support class. Once you start getting more gear and start to over gear the content the support class would be the first expendable class for the battle.
Support classes, based on current game design, are not really needed.
Lets take any raid with lots of AoE damage going out and a support class that can buff people with a buff that absorbs 50% of magical damage.
When my raid team currently starts working on a new fight like that we will usually use the three healer set up to help us deal with it while learning the fight. Once the fight is learned well enough one of the healers will switch to a DPS spec and we will go at it with two healers and down it faster with more DPS.
That third healer is basically taking the place of what the support class would do. When learning a new fight it would be awesome to have someone limit the amount of damage people are taking as well as debuff the boss so it takes additional magical and melee damage. However, once you have the fight learned it would be better to have the extra DPS instead of the support class.
The best case scenario of a support class would be when learning a fight they are useful and once you know it they are useless. Kind of like the third healer.
So the support class can have an offspec of DPS right? If that is the case why not just grab another healer that has an offspec of DPS. Another healer would actually heal whereas a support class will only buff or debuff.
A support class will put a debuff on the mob that increases physical damage taken. We already have that.
A support class will put a debuff on the mob that increases magical damage taken. We already have that.
A support class will put a debuff on that slows the mobs cast times. We already have that.
A support class will out on a resistance for particular fights that need it. We already have that.
A support class will put a buff on people that limits physical damage taken. We already have that.
A support class will out a buff on people that limits magical damage taken. We already have that.
Basically, a support class basically can do what everyone else is doing already. Lets say you do not have anyone to put on a physical damage debuff on the mob you would be left with the option of taking a support class to do it or a DPS class to do it.
I am not sure about you but I would rather have another DPS doing it while dealing damage then to have a support class doing it and basically wasting time otherwise.
The way the game is currently designed is that a support class would be completely and totally useless. You would almost always be better off taking a healer to heal the extra damage or a damage dealer to do the debuffing while also dealing damage.
Without changing anything with how the game is designed and works it is impossible to ever add a support class in the game and actually make them viable.
Or is there?
I can think of a way that would make a support class useful. However it is not something I would really like to see. You would need to make them, for lack of a better description, OP (over powered). So much so that the advantage of taking another DPS or healer seems to at least be a coin toss.
For a support class to be viable there needs to be more for them to do. They need to have something to do other then just buffing or debuffing. If all buffs are covered except for a rend then basically all they are there to do it rend every once in a while. How boring is that?
Their buffs would have to stack, be able to proc, and there be some sort of dynamic that would make good support stand out the same way good DPS would. Good DPS stands out because they are hitting evertthing right and at the right time so they will do more DPS.
A good support class would have to be similar in their buffs. The ability to bounce around without letting buffs drops so the healers always have the healing increase, melee always have the melee buff and casters always have the casting buff. All while mixing in a raid wide haste buff and never letting any of them drop off while making sure to stack them for increased buffs.
Okay, I can see how that can work. If the support class is good and keeps me buffed and keeps increasing my agility by 5% every 30 seconds to the point where I am getting 40% extra agility or more then basically having another DPS in their place would give then they become worth it. They would be giving me and 4 other DPS a 40% boost, even more as the fight goes on if they are good. Not to mention they will be giving the healers a 40% or more healing boost too and a raid haste buff.
Now they are worth more as a buffer then they are as an extra healer or an extra damage dealer. If the fight is going on for a while they could effectively make the other 9 characters all do what they are doing 50% better. That is a combined 450% increase. More then the 100% of whatever they would have been, 100% healer or 100% damage dealer.
Now that looks like a fantastic raid use for a support class. Can we make the support class useful in five mans as well?
For a support class to be useful in a five man they need to be the actual definition of control. They should be able to CC every single type of mob in the game with a various array of CCs. They should have at least three ranged interrupts all with a low cooldown. One for direct interrupts. One for AoE silences. One for shield bar interrupts (the only class that can directly interrupt casts that are shielded but not all of them just as mages can not spell steal all buffs but only select ones). They would also need dampening fields for each class of spell. They should also have a dazzling array of stuns, slows and roots.
That would be awesome for five mans. Although I can still see how that could be useless in a five man once anyone has any gear or some skill. You really do not need to deflect damage, CC, interrupt, or anything else control like in a five man once you know the dungeon.
So we need to add some sort of damage or healing component to make them have a little additional use. They would have a power bar with five bars in it. Each time they cast a successful support spell the bar would get a charge. At any point they would have a small selection of damage dealing and healing abilities they could use and use up that power. So they could add additional DPS or healing as needed.
Could you imagine them CCing the same mob 5 times in a row while you are trying to attacking it and then whipping out a 100K hit on it or a 100K heal on someone because they have 5 bars. Their over all DPS would never compete with a damage dealer and their healing would never be a substitue for a healer but it surely does fit the concept of support. They can support by doing a little extra damage and a little extra healing all while increasing the damage the group does, decreases the damage the group takes and holding an array of abilities that could control a pack of 5 mobs all by themselves if they where good at their class.
Okay, I think I have finally made the support class fit into the five man even if I still think having an actually DPS or healer would be better, having a support would not be horrible.
Not to mention, now support has a way to quest in that spec if they wanted to. CC, CC, CC, CC, CC, damage, slow, stun, CC, damage. Blah blah blah. It will not be the most exciting class to quest with but with their control and buffs, debuffs, etc, they would most likely be super powerful when it comes to soloing certain things.
Okay, I think we just designed a serviceable support class. Lets flesh it out for fun shall we?
Gearing: - I am thinking that we have to go plate for this new class. Someone to compete with paladins on the casting gear because they are hogging it all for themselves. Spirit for them would translate into hit rating which they will need for all their offensive abilities.
Class: - Not sure of what I would think of with a class name but I am thinking the three specs they would have would be support, healing and DPS. The healing and DPS classes will work similar to the support class's power bar part of doing damage and healing. I will only detail the support end of it however being that is the all new aspect. For the healing spec the spirit would work as it does for other healers and for the DPS end of it the spirit would work as hit, just as it will for the support end.
Discipline Bar - Like a stance bar, aura, bar, aspect bar, etc. It is off the global cooldown so it can be tied into other abilities but all will have a one minute cooldown before being switched back to again and for maximum usage the support player would need to keep switching their disciplines.
Meditation Discipline:
- All mana regeneration continues as if not in battle for all mana users in the party or raid. The first 20 seconds after switching to Meditation Discipline doubles the regeneration.
Cheetah Discipline:
- The haste of all party or raid members is increased by 15%. The first 20 seconds after switching into Cheetah Discipline doubles the haste buff.
Barrier Discipline:
- Decreases all damage from all sources to all party and raid members by 10%. The first 20 seconds after switching to Barrier Discipline will cause a bubble to surround the caster and all people within that bubble will have the damage reduction doubled.
Guardian Discipline:
- When Guardian Discipline is active all party or raid members gain 1% of their total health every 10 seconds. For the first 20 seconds after Guardian Discipline becomes active the first person that dies will be instantly revived with full health and resources but they will be unable to move or take any actions until what is left on the 20 second duration has expired.
Reversal Discipline:
- All abilities of all party or raid members are now instant and their previous channel time is now added to their cooldown instead. The first 20 seconds that Reversal Discipline is active the previous channel time that is now the cooldown is cut in half.
Dream Discipline:
- All party or raid members have their movement speed increased by 10%. For the first 20 seconds that Dream Discipline is active all enemy movement is also reduced by 10%.
Boost Buffs: - These are 45 second buffs. When a person is buffed with them they can not have them reapplied until 30 seconds have past. If they are reapplied between 31 and 45 seconds they add up (5%, 10%, 15%, etc) and refresh to 45 seconds. If the buff falls off without being refreshed the player can not be rebuffed with a boost buff for 15 additional seconds after the boost ended.
Agility Boost: - Add 5% to the total agility of target player.
Strength Boost: - Add 5% to the total strength of target player.
Intellect Boost: - Add 5% of the total intellect of target player.
Enemy Debuffs: - Works just like boost buffs, but on the enemy or course.
Physical Weakness: - Increase all physical damage received on the target by 5%.
Magical Weakness: - Increase all magical damage received on target by 5%.
Crowd Control: - The best in the game for CC is a support character.
Stone: - Turn any living creature to stone for 1 minute.
Solidify: - Freeze all the oils in a mechanical unit for 1 minute.
Strip: - Remove all the elemental abilities of an elemental causing it to tremble in fear for 1 minute.
Mirror Image: - Create a mirror image of a demon or undead. The mob will only attack its mirror image with single target attacks until the mirror image is dead. The mirror image does not fight back.
Crystallize: - Turn target mob into a crystal for 1 minute. Only works on humanoids, undead, beasts and dragonkin.
Charm: - Charm a target enemy into doing your bidding for 1 minute. Only works on humanoids. You can not control the charmed target.
Slows: The best class in the game for slows is also your friendly neighborhood support class.
Void Zone: - Create a void zone on the ground that lasts for 20 seconds. Any mobs that enter the void zone will have their max life cut in half and be slowed 50% while crossing through it.
Stagger: - Reduce the movement of target humanoid, beast or dragonkin by 20% for 10 seconds.
Nightmare: - Reduce the moment of all mobs within 20 yards of you by 30% for 5 seconds. If dream discipline is active when this is cast the movement reduction is doubled for this spell.
Bound: - Reduce the movement of target enemy by 90%. Lasts until target takes damage.
Leadfooted: - Target enemies movement speed is reduced by 50% for 8 seconds. 10 second cooldown.
Interrupts and Silences: - Also a specialty of the support class.
Power Surge: - Interrupt the target spell and gain the mana used to cast it. 5 second cooldown.
Power Sink: - Interrupt the target spell increasing the cost of the next spell they cast by three times. 5 second cooldown.
Power Lock: - Interrupt the target spell and lock the caster out of that spell school for 8 seconds. 20 second cooldown.
Power Circle: - Interrupt all casting within the circle. Circle lasts for 10 seconds. 2 minute cooldown.
Power Spark: - Cast power spark on a friendly player. The next spell that targets that player will be instantly interrupted. Power spark lasts for 3 minutes. If no spell is cast that could be interrupted on the target player the spark falls off and can not be reapplied on that target for an additional 1 minute. 3 minute cooldown.
Power Drain: - Drain mana and health from target until they cast a spell. 12 second channeled. When they cast a spell it will be interrupt as well as interrupting your power drain. If your power drain channeling is completed without being interrupted the cooldown is reset instantly, otherwise, 1 minute cooldown.
Power Spike: - Interrupt the things others can not. Certain uninterruptable spells can be spiked. 20 second cooldown.
Power Bar: - Every time the support player casts any spell that is not a direct damage or healing spell the power bar gains one charge. Charges can be used to do damage or heal. While the support classes damage dealing and healing options are few and far between, they do hit like a truck when they are at a full stack of 5.
Physic Blast: - Does damage equal to your intellect / 1.5 x 2 at one bar. x 4 at 2 bars. x 8 at 3 bars. x 16 at 4 bars and x 32 at 5 bars.
Psychic Bond: - Heals both you and the target player for an amount equal to (same formula as above)
Physic Surge: - Does AoE damage based on the same numbers as above divided among the number of mobs. x 3 if there are 5 or more mobs or some sort of formula that makes more sense then that.
Okay, so the idea still need some work but over all I could see myself playing that character. I can really see myself having some fun soloing old content with that character. Support classes, as most think of them, can not fit into the game the way it is but making something like this, almost over powered when it comes to buffing and controlling, makes having one of these classes almost worth it. Heck, in some cases I think I would rather a good support player in place of another DPS for some raids. One support player can turn 5 20K DPSers into 5 30K DPSers over a long battle. That is 50K extra DPS. More then having another DPS would be. And the healing would also be putting out more heals too. Yeap, I think a good support class will surely take one of the DPS spots away for sure.
The big issue is this is all about adding a new class. That does not help anything really. It would end up taking spaces from DPS which is already a problem with so many of them. Perhaps they need to find a way to make the 4 pure DPS classes have support options. The one I described I can see being a mage class for sure. Absolutely. It fits a mage quite well if you ask me.
WoW will need to make some changes to design if they ever want to add a support class and I do not see that happening but it is nice to think of a class like this. Perhaps some other classes can use some of those abilities.
I cant tell you one thing, I wish the interrupt that restores mana when used was a mage spell. I am sure a lot of mages would be looking for things to interrupt. Boss casting something that can be interrupted.
Mage 1: I got it, I am on empty.
Mage 2: Okay.
~ Interrupt. ~
Mage 1: Okay, I am full again, thank god bosses have such huge mana pools, you get the next one, I am going to spam my 2 button again and watch the numbers fly.
Mage 2: 20 seconds until he casts it again, I'm going to try to burn my whole mana bar by then.
I sometimes yell when on my warrior. Hit me, I need rage. I could see mages yelling, cast something, I need mana.
That would be a fun ability.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Monday Random Thoughts
- I am looking forward to this coming patch more then some of the content patches.
- Finally, to have a crossbow that does not sound like a gun any more.
- It really takes blizzard, what?, 10 weeks to fix a sound file.
- Hopefully the stats will be correct on it too now.
- And I'll finally be able to reforge it now.
- Nah, that would be asking too much.
- Can't have it sound right, display the right stats, and be capable of reforging it.
- I'll probably have to wait another 10 weeks for them to fix the other stuff too.
- God forbid another class had an item meant for them with a bug it would be fixed instantly.
- If they can not fix a sound file in 10 weeks it makes me laugh when people complain about balancing PvP.
- Balancing PvP has to at least be a 10 year problem if a sound file is 10 week problem.
- Someone challenged my Shaman to a duel the other day while I was just hanging out in my healing gear.
- I owned him as a healer. I did not even have my PvP gear on. He did.
- Prot pally, even used his lay on hands, never got me below 90%.
- Got me the achievement. I had never dueled on my shaman before.
- I think he was looking for an easy kill.
- Want an easy kill? Duel a paladin.
- Oh wait, he was a paladin. Guess that ruins that idea.
- If you are any class but a paladin you can duel a hunter for an easy win.
- Don't know if it is just my luck but I have yet to see one paladin that can PvP.
- Well, with exception of holy paladins.
- That goes to show you it is a balance thing and not a player thing.
- If the majority of people can not do well with a class the class needs help.
- After my win I decided to do some battlegrounds for the first time on my Shaman.
- Lost 4 out of 5. Woohoo, go alliance.
- I marked myself a healer too, figured that would help. Not a chance.
- Alliance go into an area and there are 4 horde, 1 being a healer. The 3 others protect the healer with everything they can.
- Wish it worked both ways.
- When I went in to heal, even if there where 5 others there, the second I cast a heal, all the horde are on me and not one of the 5 alliance players even try to help me.
- And the good alliance players wonder why healers on the ally side are so few and far between.
- It is because no one wants to heal knowing that no one is going to protect them and let them do their job.
- It is not rocket science. Protect the healer and live.
- One time in five battlegrounds I found a group of people that were willing to protect me.
- Three people and me defended against wave after wave of the horde trying to get to the flag.
- They kept me alive, I kept them alive.
- That is how it is supposed to work.
- People are starting to come back from the summer and we can start raiding again soon. I am so happy.
- Firelands here I come.
- Too bad everyone else is done or almost done with it before I even start it.
- We are losing one of our healers due to his job giving him a new schedule but otherwise we have picked up a lot of people coming back to play.
- Including a holy paladin that was a main healer in wrath.
- He leveled a brand new paladin because he did not feel comfortable relearning how to play.
- He said he wanted to level holy to relearn playing it.
- He did well and geared up fast and is back to being a super healer, just like he used to be.
- We did an attempt on Shannox after a trash run last night just for the fun of it.
- I figured it would give me chance to explain the fight to everyone so when we do it this week we can jump right into it.
- Got both dogs down and shannox down to 17% before we wiped to the timer.
- Not bad at all being we did not have three of our top DPS and a holy paladin that is only 342 item level.
- I told you, my crew might be way behind when it comes progression but they are not bad overall.
- Three of the people in the group had never even stepped into firelands before. Not even for trash.
- We actually would have downed it if riplimb did not bug out.
- Riplimb was at 40 percent and started to evade.
- When he stopped evading he was at full health.
- If not for that we would have downed it.
- We wasted so much time on him when he was evading and then having to down him again, a second time.
- I must say I was quite impressed with the group that was there. To do so well with no experience in it and in most cases no new gear because they had not been around to get any yet was a huge plus.
- I'd be willing to bet we knock him out this week with a group that goes in with the intention to do it.
- Hope I do not have to tank it again.
- My value as a hunter is leaps and bounds over my value as a tank.
- Hitting the timer on the boss proves my DPS is needed more then my tanking. We had 3 people around 12K. While we would have done it if not for riplimb bugging we would have been in a better position with more DPS and my hunter does a lot more DPS.
- Either way, quite impressive for our first real solid attempt.
- Now if only we can get the holy paladin some gear.
- If he can heal that in 340ish gear imagine what he can do in 360ish gear.
- I love having a holy paladin in the mix finally.
- We had 4 shaman, 2 druids, 5 priests and 0 paladins.
- I remember when the expansion started and we had no healers and so many tanks.
- How a few months change things.
- I wonder if everyone else is experiencing the same.
- The start of the expansion healers where rare, very rare.
- I think it is because blizzard decided they wanted to make healing fun that chased all healers away.
- Perhaps they did not realize the way they designed it made healing... not fun.
- Spam your biggest heal over and over and over on the tank and hope and pray that they DPS can down the mob before you run out of mana. Or hope and pray none of the DPS take any avoidable damage because if you are forced to heal them even once it could cause a wipe.
- Blizzard thought that was fun.
- I want whatever blizzard is smoking.
- Such mind altering perceptions can really be interesting.
- At least they thought it was.
- While their healing system has still not changed. Spam the tank and pray the DPS do not take too much damage. Gear has made it more bearable.
- If they want to make healing more fun they should make it like they said it would be.
- Playing patch up on people with extra attention to the tank.
- The choosing between biggest heal or fastest heal for every situation and hoping you do not run out of mana is not fun at all.
- Seems like a lot of people got over it. We have a lot of healers now.
- Now tanks are the issue.
- Not sure how that can be any more "fun". You stand there and get beat on while moving once in a while and popping a cooldown at predictable moments.
- No really, I have no clue how to make tanking fun. It just isn't fun. Never had been, never will be.
- In the long and short of it I think having more people around and starting to raid again might be just want this grumpy elf needed.
- The game has reached critical mass when it comes to levels of boredom.
- I needed something new.
- Sure I have other alts I could gear up for fun but the idea of running the same two dungeons on even more characters is something I can not and will not do.
- Two dungeons is not exactly random is it?
- If you are going to make us do a mind numbing repetitive run of the same two dungeons at least take any challenge out of it what so ever.
- Even one bad group in 10 is way to much.
- At least a bad group when it is actually a random dungeon is one thing. A bad group when you know that you are only going to get the same dungeon again if you drop makes it unbearable.
- Of all the things I've been grumpy about this expansion, nothing beats this one.
- Two random dungeons over and over.
- If anyone ever wanted to peg a reason for quitting on anything, this is it.
- Let hope blizzard noticed the error of their ways and never makes it like that again.
- 4.3 we will get three dungeons.
- Woohoo, the randomness of three now instead of two.
- I'd say they are learning, but this proves they are not.
- Finally they are recycling something in game that actually can use it. The faire.
- Now that needed a facelift and I am glad it is getting it.
- Turning in a few rogue decks every time it comes around is taking me forever to get my rep up.
- See blizzard, upgrade what is already there. That is a good way to recycle.
- Don't relabel the mobs with a higher level and a new ability in dungeons and call it a new dungeon. That is a bad way to recycle.
- Finally, to have a crossbow that does not sound like a gun any more.
- It really takes blizzard, what?, 10 weeks to fix a sound file.
- Hopefully the stats will be correct on it too now.
- And I'll finally be able to reforge it now.
- Nah, that would be asking too much.
- Can't have it sound right, display the right stats, and be capable of reforging it.
- I'll probably have to wait another 10 weeks for them to fix the other stuff too.
- God forbid another class had an item meant for them with a bug it would be fixed instantly.
- If they can not fix a sound file in 10 weeks it makes me laugh when people complain about balancing PvP.
- Balancing PvP has to at least be a 10 year problem if a sound file is 10 week problem.
- Someone challenged my Shaman to a duel the other day while I was just hanging out in my healing gear.
- I owned him as a healer. I did not even have my PvP gear on. He did.
- Prot pally, even used his lay on hands, never got me below 90%.
- Got me the achievement. I had never dueled on my shaman before.
- I think he was looking for an easy kill.
- Want an easy kill? Duel a paladin.
- Oh wait, he was a paladin. Guess that ruins that idea.
- If you are any class but a paladin you can duel a hunter for an easy win.
- Don't know if it is just my luck but I have yet to see one paladin that can PvP.
- Well, with exception of holy paladins.
- That goes to show you it is a balance thing and not a player thing.
- If the majority of people can not do well with a class the class needs help.
- After my win I decided to do some battlegrounds for the first time on my Shaman.
- Lost 4 out of 5. Woohoo, go alliance.
- I marked myself a healer too, figured that would help. Not a chance.
- Alliance go into an area and there are 4 horde, 1 being a healer. The 3 others protect the healer with everything they can.
- Wish it worked both ways.
- When I went in to heal, even if there where 5 others there, the second I cast a heal, all the horde are on me and not one of the 5 alliance players even try to help me.
- And the good alliance players wonder why healers on the ally side are so few and far between.
- It is because no one wants to heal knowing that no one is going to protect them and let them do their job.
- It is not rocket science. Protect the healer and live.
- One time in five battlegrounds I found a group of people that were willing to protect me.
- Three people and me defended against wave after wave of the horde trying to get to the flag.
- They kept me alive, I kept them alive.
- That is how it is supposed to work.
- People are starting to come back from the summer and we can start raiding again soon. I am so happy.
- Firelands here I come.
- Too bad everyone else is done or almost done with it before I even start it.
- We are losing one of our healers due to his job giving him a new schedule but otherwise we have picked up a lot of people coming back to play.
- Including a holy paladin that was a main healer in wrath.
- He leveled a brand new paladin because he did not feel comfortable relearning how to play.
- He said he wanted to level holy to relearn playing it.
- He did well and geared up fast and is back to being a super healer, just like he used to be.
- We did an attempt on Shannox after a trash run last night just for the fun of it.
- I figured it would give me chance to explain the fight to everyone so when we do it this week we can jump right into it.
- Got both dogs down and shannox down to 17% before we wiped to the timer.
- Not bad at all being we did not have three of our top DPS and a holy paladin that is only 342 item level.
- I told you, my crew might be way behind when it comes progression but they are not bad overall.
- Three of the people in the group had never even stepped into firelands before. Not even for trash.
- We actually would have downed it if riplimb did not bug out.
- Riplimb was at 40 percent and started to evade.
- When he stopped evading he was at full health.
- If not for that we would have downed it.
- We wasted so much time on him when he was evading and then having to down him again, a second time.
- I must say I was quite impressed with the group that was there. To do so well with no experience in it and in most cases no new gear because they had not been around to get any yet was a huge plus.
- I'd be willing to bet we knock him out this week with a group that goes in with the intention to do it.
- Hope I do not have to tank it again.
- My value as a hunter is leaps and bounds over my value as a tank.
- Hitting the timer on the boss proves my DPS is needed more then my tanking. We had 3 people around 12K. While we would have done it if not for riplimb bugging we would have been in a better position with more DPS and my hunter does a lot more DPS.
- Either way, quite impressive for our first real solid attempt.
- Now if only we can get the holy paladin some gear.
- If he can heal that in 340ish gear imagine what he can do in 360ish gear.
- I love having a holy paladin in the mix finally.
- We had 4 shaman, 2 druids, 5 priests and 0 paladins.
- I remember when the expansion started and we had no healers and so many tanks.
- How a few months change things.
- I wonder if everyone else is experiencing the same.
- The start of the expansion healers where rare, very rare.
- I think it is because blizzard decided they wanted to make healing fun that chased all healers away.
- Perhaps they did not realize the way they designed it made healing... not fun.
- Spam your biggest heal over and over and over on the tank and hope and pray that they DPS can down the mob before you run out of mana. Or hope and pray none of the DPS take any avoidable damage because if you are forced to heal them even once it could cause a wipe.
- Blizzard thought that was fun.
- I want whatever blizzard is smoking.
- Such mind altering perceptions can really be interesting.
- At least they thought it was.
- While their healing system has still not changed. Spam the tank and pray the DPS do not take too much damage. Gear has made it more bearable.
- If they want to make healing more fun they should make it like they said it would be.
- Playing patch up on people with extra attention to the tank.
- The choosing between biggest heal or fastest heal for every situation and hoping you do not run out of mana is not fun at all.
- Seems like a lot of people got over it. We have a lot of healers now.
- Now tanks are the issue.
- Not sure how that can be any more "fun". You stand there and get beat on while moving once in a while and popping a cooldown at predictable moments.
- No really, I have no clue how to make tanking fun. It just isn't fun. Never had been, never will be.
- In the long and short of it I think having more people around and starting to raid again might be just want this grumpy elf needed.
- The game has reached critical mass when it comes to levels of boredom.
- I needed something new.
- Sure I have other alts I could gear up for fun but the idea of running the same two dungeons on even more characters is something I can not and will not do.
- Two dungeons is not exactly random is it?
- If you are going to make us do a mind numbing repetitive run of the same two dungeons at least take any challenge out of it what so ever.
- Even one bad group in 10 is way to much.
- At least a bad group when it is actually a random dungeon is one thing. A bad group when you know that you are only going to get the same dungeon again if you drop makes it unbearable.
- Of all the things I've been grumpy about this expansion, nothing beats this one.
- Two random dungeons over and over.
- If anyone ever wanted to peg a reason for quitting on anything, this is it.
- Let hope blizzard noticed the error of their ways and never makes it like that again.
- 4.3 we will get three dungeons.
- Woohoo, the randomness of three now instead of two.
- I'd say they are learning, but this proves they are not.
- Finally they are recycling something in game that actually can use it. The faire.
- Now that needed a facelift and I am glad it is getting it.
- Turning in a few rogue decks every time it comes around is taking me forever to get my rep up.
- See blizzard, upgrade what is already there. That is a good way to recycle.
- Don't relabel the mobs with a higher level and a new ability in dungeons and call it a new dungeon. That is a bad way to recycle.
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