I'm still alive it seems. I haven't posted because I've had nothing to post about or rant about. ^_^
....omg they made it so you can disarm Bladestorm!
I can just imagine the fun against an RMP team. Bad enough you're probably a sheep or sitting in a nova 80% of the match, now when you're free your one spell that you kind of count on for kills will be disarmed. Sheep->Nova->BLADEST-Disarmed->Bladestorm ends->Back into your sheep state.
Maybe your bladestorm will hit more then twice next match eh? eh? No? Nah I didn't think so either. If only my damn healer would dispell this shit.
*Glances over and sees the Rogue/Mage pushing his shit in* oh right, that would do it.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Angry Video Game Girl Part 1/3
So umm, when was my last update? October 13th? So 3+ Months ago, what few people that actually read this site probably won't even see this post, but again I made this blog specifically to rant and rave about things that piss me off, and I suppose you could say I've reached a boiling point. Before continuing you should go ahead and check out my previous entry, at the very end I said: "If you like to World PvP/Battle Ground, don't attempt to do so Solo, you will cry and weep yourself to bed that night at the damage other classes inflict upon you. If you like to Arena...GL with that." I think that perhaps I should have listened to my own advise, or NOT listened to my friends who tried to assure me that things would be ok with Warriors(Some of which have since rerolled from Warrior since then). I myself have a level 80 Death Knight, and we'll get to that later, but first let me start off this grant rant by saying this:
Warrior PvP at the moment is by far the most miserable thing I have experienced in this game in the past 4 years I have played this game.
I'm not a hardcore PvPer, I'm not an expert PvP player, I don't pretend to be, I have never conqoured the #1 rank in all 3 arena brackets, I don't make videos, I very rarely give PvP advise to anyone outside of the basics(Stay within 10 yards of your heal bot), but I like to at least PRETEND after 4 years that I have a grasp of how to play my class in a Player vs Player environment. I cannot comprehend how the fuck this class has hit the state it has hit in PvP, it's like all the little quirks that have been issues with us but ignored because of our arena representation have crept up and stabbed us dead in the ass all at once. Rage on shield mechanics, Zerker Stance penalty, survivability, function, it seems that all of these issues are far worse then they have ever been.
It's worth mentioning that we really didn't get shit for Wrath of the Lich King to help us in the PvP department. If you think Enraged Regeneration or Heroic Throw are anything beyond novelty abilities, stop reading now, because I'm here to tell you to get your fucking head examined, and you'll probably start to take offense if you haven't already.
Heroic Throw is the most uninspired piece of shit ability to be introduced in the new expansion, there is nothing that even begins to compare to the bullshit that is Heroic Throw. You cannot begin to tell me that throwing my weapon, on a 1 minute cooldown, for 50% of my Attack Power is in any way shape or form awesome. It is the opposite of awesome, it is shitfuck. It's like Blizzard attempted to fool us all into accepting this ability, because your tank can pull with it, and it comes attached with....THREAT, yes threat, because we all know how much all the fucking tanks are struggling to maintain threat over us, and how much that extra 1k on the pull is going to make the difference between pulling aggro and not. Let's not even begin to talk about how the one thing that would actually make this ability...oh I dunno, USEFUL is buried in the fucking Protection tree(Gag Order). So while all the Protection Warriors enjoy their love affair with Heroic Throw, it's extra threat, and ranged silence, the Arms and Fury Warriors are left with fucking bullshit. I cannot tell you how much I fucking hate Heroic Throw, I am filled with anger rage and hate towards this ability, lord forbid they give Warriors a natural ranged attack on a moderate cooldown, or give us the ability WITH the silence built in, no they have to be fucking stupid and give it to us half ass. Thanks Blizzard. The next time a Mage has me stuck in a Frost Nova and is about to nuke me for half of my health, I'll be glad I can throw my weapon at them beforehand and watch all of the damage get absorbed by their shields.
Let's move on to Enraged Regeneration, oh ok, Blizzard gave us a heal, I hear there are Warriors out there that really really like Enraged Regenration. Dear Warriors that like this ability, fuck you. Enraged Regeneration is fucking whoreshit, not horse shit, whoreshit, like a fucking whore taking a shit. I cannot fathom how any Warrior that has actually gone out and USED this ability in a PvP environment can defend it. The only thing this ability does is delay the inevitable, and it doesn't even do a good job of that. First of all, let's talk about the cooldown, 3 minutes...yeah 3 minutes, wow....that's...that's just awesome. I get to heal myself for 30% of my health over 10 seconds every 3 minutes, not even an instant heal mind you, but a HoT, which means over those 10 seconds whoever is pummeling my face in has a small window to kill me before it even finishes healing, and this happens, alllll the time. But it's not enough to just give Warriors a heal right? No no no, Blizzard always needs to give Warriors one ability, and say fuck you in the same sentence, so what else does this ability do? It eats your enrage abilities, and not only does it eat them, it blocks them from being reapplied for the duration. This means that everytime you use Enraged Regenation you can't Enrage/Rampage/Bloodrage/Berserker Rage/Wrecking Crew for the duration, that's fucking bullshit. I mean, is that even neccisary to attach to the ability? Who the fuck comes up with these abilities, it's not enough that as a Warrior you don't have any fucking on demand heals at it is, but for the duration I can't break fear? I can't apply my own 5% crit aura? I can't apply my own 10% damage aura(WC)? Seriously, wtf were they thinking, for the sake of fuck, WHY do Warriors have to put up with bullshit downsides to EVERY goddamn new ability.
I used to think all Warrior abilities had these glaring downsides because rage was an infinite resource unlike mana, but Rogues and Death Knights have all sorts of utility and damage boasting abilities with fairly flexable resource systems, and they don't have to deal with this shit. I don't understand, what goes through the minds of the developers when they come up with these abilities? "Ok, here's A ability, it'll give the Warrior Y benefit, looks good." "Hey now, hold on a second, this ability doesn't have a downside to plow them in the ass with, can't have that, let's add B downside." So you end up with A*B = Y, with Y being a middle finger at the Warrior class.
Now before I get overly negative, it's not all bad, there are some nice talents near the top of the trees for PvP, I'm talking of course about Sudden Death, Blade Storm, and Heroic Fury. Heroic Fury especially is my BFF, it's like the beautiful rose in a pile of shit, an immoblize break and intercept refresh with no downside, how freshing. Sudden Death as of this post has been nerfed on the PTR and given a rage cap, I actually recommended giving Sudden Death a Rage cap on execute in beta, BUT I ALSO SAID INCREASE THE FUCKING PROC RATE WHEN YOU DO THAT. So Arms Warriors just took a nice PvP and PvE hit to one of their primary damage dealing talents and didn't get shit in return, now you have a 9% chance to proc a 30 rage execute. *Sigh* Bladestorm is "nice" as well, but it falls victim to it's own success, you're totally immune to CC, but if you start getting nuked while you have this baby up and running you're fucked unless you have to use a cancel aura macro to stop spinning and throw up that spell reflection. On top of that you're just a spinning little top, which means that abilities that knock-back or pull send you flying all over the place, Boomkin can push you back, Shaman can do that little AE knock-back and push you back, Death Knights can grip you from your target, you know for an ability that says "You cannot be stopped" there are certainly alot of fuckin ways to stop it from being effective.
I've bitched on and on for a long time here, and I still have more to bitch about and plan to update this further. Mainly to talk about my Death Knight, and what I've actually experienced in Battlegrounds/Arena. Stay tunned.
Warrior PvP at the moment is by far the most miserable thing I have experienced in this game in the past 4 years I have played this game.
I'm not a hardcore PvPer, I'm not an expert PvP player, I don't pretend to be, I have never conqoured the #1 rank in all 3 arena brackets, I don't make videos, I very rarely give PvP advise to anyone outside of the basics(Stay within 10 yards of your heal bot), but I like to at least PRETEND after 4 years that I have a grasp of how to play my class in a Player vs Player environment. I cannot comprehend how the fuck this class has hit the state it has hit in PvP, it's like all the little quirks that have been issues with us but ignored because of our arena representation have crept up and stabbed us dead in the ass all at once. Rage on shield mechanics, Zerker Stance penalty, survivability, function, it seems that all of these issues are far worse then they have ever been.
It's worth mentioning that we really didn't get shit for Wrath of the Lich King to help us in the PvP department. If you think Enraged Regeneration or Heroic Throw are anything beyond novelty abilities, stop reading now, because I'm here to tell you to get your fucking head examined, and you'll probably start to take offense if you haven't already.
Heroic Throw is the most uninspired piece of shit ability to be introduced in the new expansion, there is nothing that even begins to compare to the bullshit that is Heroic Throw. You cannot begin to tell me that throwing my weapon, on a 1 minute cooldown, for 50% of my Attack Power is in any way shape or form awesome. It is the opposite of awesome, it is shitfuck. It's like Blizzard attempted to fool us all into accepting this ability, because your tank can pull with it, and it comes attached with....THREAT, yes threat, because we all know how much all the fucking tanks are struggling to maintain threat over us, and how much that extra 1k on the pull is going to make the difference between pulling aggro and not. Let's not even begin to talk about how the one thing that would actually make this ability...oh I dunno, USEFUL is buried in the fucking Protection tree(Gag Order). So while all the Protection Warriors enjoy their love affair with Heroic Throw, it's extra threat, and ranged silence, the Arms and Fury Warriors are left with fucking bullshit. I cannot tell you how much I fucking hate Heroic Throw, I am filled with anger rage and hate towards this ability, lord forbid they give Warriors a natural ranged attack on a moderate cooldown, or give us the ability WITH the silence built in, no they have to be fucking stupid and give it to us half ass. Thanks Blizzard. The next time a Mage has me stuck in a Frost Nova and is about to nuke me for half of my health, I'll be glad I can throw my weapon at them beforehand and watch all of the damage get absorbed by their shields.
Let's move on to Enraged Regeneration, oh ok, Blizzard gave us a heal, I hear there are Warriors out there that really really like Enraged Regenration. Dear Warriors that like this ability, fuck you. Enraged Regeneration is fucking whoreshit, not horse shit, whoreshit, like a fucking whore taking a shit. I cannot fathom how any Warrior that has actually gone out and USED this ability in a PvP environment can defend it. The only thing this ability does is delay the inevitable, and it doesn't even do a good job of that. First of all, let's talk about the cooldown, 3 minutes...yeah 3 minutes, wow....that's...that's just awesome. I get to heal myself for 30% of my health over 10 seconds every 3 minutes, not even an instant heal mind you, but a HoT, which means over those 10 seconds whoever is pummeling my face in has a small window to kill me before it even finishes healing, and this happens, alllll the time. But it's not enough to just give Warriors a heal right? No no no, Blizzard always needs to give Warriors one ability, and say fuck you in the same sentence, so what else does this ability do? It eats your enrage abilities, and not only does it eat them, it blocks them from being reapplied for the duration. This means that everytime you use Enraged Regenation you can't Enrage/Rampage/Bloodrage/Berserker Rage/Wrecking Crew for the duration, that's fucking bullshit. I mean, is that even neccisary to attach to the ability? Who the fuck comes up with these abilities, it's not enough that as a Warrior you don't have any fucking on demand heals at it is, but for the duration I can't break fear? I can't apply my own 5% crit aura? I can't apply my own 10% damage aura(WC)? Seriously, wtf were they thinking, for the sake of fuck, WHY do Warriors have to put up with bullshit downsides to EVERY goddamn new ability.
I used to think all Warrior abilities had these glaring downsides because rage was an infinite resource unlike mana, but Rogues and Death Knights have all sorts of utility and damage boasting abilities with fairly flexable resource systems, and they don't have to deal with this shit. I don't understand, what goes through the minds of the developers when they come up with these abilities? "Ok, here's A ability, it'll give the Warrior Y benefit, looks good." "Hey now, hold on a second, this ability doesn't have a downside to plow them in the ass with, can't have that, let's add B downside." So you end up with A*B = Y, with Y being a middle finger at the Warrior class.
Now before I get overly negative, it's not all bad, there are some nice talents near the top of the trees for PvP, I'm talking of course about Sudden Death, Blade Storm, and Heroic Fury. Heroic Fury especially is my BFF, it's like the beautiful rose in a pile of shit, an immoblize break and intercept refresh with no downside, how freshing. Sudden Death as of this post has been nerfed on the PTR and given a rage cap, I actually recommended giving Sudden Death a Rage cap on execute in beta, BUT I ALSO SAID INCREASE THE FUCKING PROC RATE WHEN YOU DO THAT. So Arms Warriors just took a nice PvP and PvE hit to one of their primary damage dealing talents and didn't get shit in return, now you have a 9% chance to proc a 30 rage execute. *Sigh* Bladestorm is "nice" as well, but it falls victim to it's own success, you're totally immune to CC, but if you start getting nuked while you have this baby up and running you're fucked unless you have to use a cancel aura macro to stop spinning and throw up that spell reflection. On top of that you're just a spinning little top, which means that abilities that knock-back or pull send you flying all over the place, Boomkin can push you back, Shaman can do that little AE knock-back and push you back, Death Knights can grip you from your target, you know for an ability that says "You cannot be stopped" there are certainly alot of fuckin ways to stop it from being effective.
I've bitched on and on for a long time here, and I still have more to bitch about and plan to update this further. Mainly to talk about my Death Knight, and what I've actually experienced in Battlegrounds/Arena. Stay tunned.
Monday, October 13, 2008
3.0.2 Live tomorrow, Arms/Fury Builds.
I've had a few people bugging me about 3.0.2 Arms/Fury builds, personally I'm going to go with an 0/53/8 build, I think Arms might be very strong, but I'm interested in how TG will perform, and I have the gear to support it fully hit-capped, assuming that the change to TG to be 12% miss penalty makes it to live. The style between BC Fury->WotLK Fury hasn't changed much at all, except now we don't have to keep Rampage up and there's an occasional Insta Slam(Which makes up 1-5% of your damage, buff please. -_-). If you were Dual Wield Fury before the patch, you need to make the transition over to TG, or stick to Arms, Dual Wielding your 1-handers will not net you the same result as it does on live, unless you're rocking Warglaives. :)
If you're going with an Arms build, you should know that the learning curve is much steeper then on Live atm with the Slam after Auto-attack. Slam no longer resets your swing timer, and just delays your swing, it's one of those abilities you can use when you have nothing better to do now. Keeping Rend up is important, might want to get yourself a mod to monitor that if you don't have one already. MS takes priority, Bladestorm on CD, Overpower when you can(pay close attention to when rend procs one), Slam when nothing else is up. If my order is off here, let me know. I've had limited Arms experience in beta outside of PvP(Which has been a nightmare).
Builds:
Titan's Grip 0/53(?)/8 raiding
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?warrior=000000000000000000000000000000203300000000000000000000000305200005500312053120501351
This build has a free floating point in Fury, do with it what you want. You can also drop Blood Surge and pick up Furious attacks/Imp Zerker's Rage if you want for whatever reason. You shouldn't need more then 2 points in Imp Demo, unless your guild missed the memo that Faerie Fire > Curse of Recklessness. Everything else is fairly obvious for what you'd want in the build.
Arms 53/8/0 raiding
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?warrior=052030212333510000201223131251000000000000000000000000000305000000000000000000000000
This is straight forward as well, pure PvE build, I hope you have an Axe ready given the state of Mace/Sword, nice 180 from Blizzard eh? More then 1 point is worthless in Unrelenting Assault. You may have noticed I passed on Tactical Mastery, you will NOT be stance dancing with this build. Sit in Arms, Rend, Overpower, etc, it is a headache to switch to Zerker just to WW, you will lose extra damage on your extra rage sudden death executes, it's not worth it. There is theorycraft on a Zerker Stance build where you just MS/WW/Slam/Slam, and this might be easier on some of you.
Patch Cliff Notes:
Berserker's Rage is available in all stances, adjust your binds accordingly.
You're getting a free 3% crit on top of whatever your crit is now, don't ask why, just smile/nod.
Arms Warriors, Blizzard has forced you to invite Battle Stance to your birthday party, be nice.
Fury Warriors, Blizzard has forced you to invite Hit to your birthday party, be nice.
If you like to World PvP/Battle Ground, don't attempt to do so Solo, you will cry and weep yourself to bed that night at the damage other classes inflict upon you.
If you like to Arena...GL with that.
If you're going with an Arms build, you should know that the learning curve is much steeper then on Live atm with the Slam after Auto-attack. Slam no longer resets your swing timer, and just delays your swing, it's one of those abilities you can use when you have nothing better to do now. Keeping Rend up is important, might want to get yourself a mod to monitor that if you don't have one already. MS takes priority, Bladestorm on CD, Overpower when you can(pay close attention to when rend procs one), Slam when nothing else is up. If my order is off here, let me know. I've had limited Arms experience in beta outside of PvP(Which has been a nightmare).
Builds:
Titan's Grip 0/53(?)/8 raiding
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?warrior=000000000000000000000000000000203300000000000000000000000305200005500312053120501351
This build has a free floating point in Fury, do with it what you want. You can also drop Blood Surge and pick up Furious attacks/Imp Zerker's Rage if you want for whatever reason. You shouldn't need more then 2 points in Imp Demo, unless your guild missed the memo that Faerie Fire > Curse of Recklessness. Everything else is fairly obvious for what you'd want in the build.
Arms 53/8/0 raiding
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?warrior=052030212333510000201223131251000000000000000000000000000305000000000000000000000000
This is straight forward as well, pure PvE build, I hope you have an Axe ready given the state of Mace/Sword, nice 180 from Blizzard eh? More then 1 point is worthless in Unrelenting Assault. You may have noticed I passed on Tactical Mastery, you will NOT be stance dancing with this build. Sit in Arms, Rend, Overpower, etc, it is a headache to switch to Zerker just to WW, you will lose extra damage on your extra rage sudden death executes, it's not worth it. There is theorycraft on a Zerker Stance build where you just MS/WW/Slam/Slam, and this might be easier on some of you.
Patch Cliff Notes:
Berserker's Rage is available in all stances, adjust your binds accordingly.
You're getting a free 3% crit on top of whatever your crit is now, don't ask why, just smile/nod.
Arms Warriors, Blizzard has forced you to invite Battle Stance to your birthday party, be nice.
Fury Warriors, Blizzard has forced you to invite Hit to your birthday party, be nice.
If you like to World PvP/Battle Ground, don't attempt to do so Solo, you will cry and weep yourself to bed that night at the damage other classes inflict upon you.
If you like to Arena...GL with that.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Warrior PvP: The return.
Many of you have been bugging me and asking me to do a new post on my blog! Well I can't just turn around and do a new post about nothing. When I post, it's to QQ dammit! Whine with a some flair that might make you smile, but also, and more importantly makes actual sense so you when you walk away from reading my rant, you might actually agree with me!
So what's the topic this time? WotLK Warrior PvP. First off, on beta I won't even lie about this, I've probably PvPed on a Death Knight far far more then my beloved Warrior class. Their survivability just makes for a far easier and fun experience when you're solo and without a pocket healer. It's like this: I run into a group of 5 people of the opposite faction, pop Icebound Fort to reduce all their damage by 50%. Then when that's over, pop Anti-Magic Shell, for runic power/spell damage reduction/cc immunity. Then before that's over throw down a Death & Decay, periodically fearing everyone who's beating on me(Rogues hate this especially), and right when they think they're about to kill me....I rune tap back for 20% of my health! Then they're like "omg that's down, now she'll die." No, wrong, now I'm gonna pop Vampiric Blood, and Death Strike one of them for 3k, which will then heal me for another 9k. Or maybe I had a Bone Shield up somewhere in that mess of slaughter, or maybe I popped Hungering Cold and froze half of them. Somewhere along the way a healer may show up and save me, but even if that doesn't happen I have the satisfaction of knowing I wasted a good minute+ of their time attempting to kill me(And I probably killed one of them too!). :P
You try to run into...a group of 5 people as a Warrior?...it's the wrong kind of enjoyment. I get stun locked, and one of those fucking mages sees me and starts drooling, so even though I'm already stunned by the Pally or Rogue, the damn mage uses Nova on me anyway, then the nuking comes, and I'm taking 10% more damage the whole time because you're stunned and you can't change stances, and by the time I'm free, I'm not free(Matrix reference), because SOMEBODY in that cluster-fuck of enemies threw a snare on me, and by this time they see I'm free and they're all running away from me while I'm snared, I sadly attempt to intercept and hit somebody before I die horribly, but at least I can take solace in the fact I wasted a good...10 seconds of their time, ahhh the Warrior class, how I love our dependence on a healer to function. At least I have the awesome that is Enraged Regeneration though!
One of the first things you notice in PvP in Wrath as a Warrior, and I mean first things is Hamstring has lost some of it's flare, I'm not going to say EVERY class has a snare reduction talent, but it certainly freakin feels like it. If a Death Knight specs for PvP it's almost a 100% certainty they'll have it, it's the first tier of their Frost tree. Other classes have to go deeper, Warriors have it Tier 3 Protection(Face-palm), Shaman have it Tier 4 Enhancement, Rogues have it Tier 5 Assassination(If you can ever hit one to begin with), etc. Your original anti-snare nemesis the Druid/Paladin have their snare removals. You spend an awful large amount of time keeping Hamstring up.
The hamstring problem kind of leap-frogs over to the Taste for Blood problem. Keeping Rend up in PvP is about as much fun as keeping hamstring up in PvP, which is to say it's not really fun to keep up in PvP, it's downright annoying, and the proc isn't as obvious in the heat of PvP as when a target dodges, so it takes some getting used to before you can master the art of Taste for Blood Overpower procs. I think more advanced Warriors who have faster reaction times and the pro gamer crowd would enjoy this talent better then Joe Average Warrior, who will become frustrated every time they realize it proc'd and they missed their window of opportunity for whatever reason.
I do like that they're at least trying to make Battle Stance more viable so I can sit in it instead of Zerker(At least when I'm Arms). By adding Berserker's rage to all stances I don't have to worry about fear as much as before, if they made pummel available in Battle would also be awesome as well, but then you start running into reasons why you ever want to pvp in Berserker save the occasional intercept. I still feel I should never be discourged from switching to one stance from another because I fear the downsides of going into said stance, the only thing that should be going through my mind is "I'll miss taking 10% less damage but.., I'll miss having 3% more crit but...I'll miss rend/overpower spam procage but..." It's sad that if Battle Stance becomes the cat's meow PvP stance it'll only be because it allows the Warrior to do damage and take the same amount of damage as the 9 other classes in the game.
You can choose Axe or Mace or Sword Specilization!.....or just Axe. Sword specilzation is just in a sad state, 6 second cooldown, can't proc off hamstring, it saddens me, I was a career Sword Spec Warrior since WoW Classic...ok I was a tank in WoW Classic, but when I went Arms I was sword! I was sword at the start of BC, yes I admit it, I crafted a bloody Lionheart Champion, I loved swords. I cannot justify using a sword over an Axe at the moment. Axe has far too much consistency and Sword Spec's random sword procs are limited by it's cooldown. Yes, back to back sword procs are rare in BC, but they COULD still happen, now that's an impossibility, and your biggest sword-spec procer in Hamstring is gone. Mace is a bit more consistent, but it's obviously weaker against anything lower then cloth/leather, and arguably equal or greater to the mail->plate crowd(and cuddly bear tanks). It's rather hard to test at the moment because Mace is a bit bugged at the moment and allows me to hit for a cool million+ damage on occasion, but I'm sure there's some math on the subject somewhere out there where at what point Mace or Axe is better, but again Axe is consistent against all 4 armor types, Mace may only be better against 2, so once again Axe is wins out. -_-
This rant actually is alot bigger then I had anticipated, so I'll stop here, and touch up on Bladestorm/Fury in another post soon. :)
So what's the topic this time? WotLK Warrior PvP. First off, on beta I won't even lie about this, I've probably PvPed on a Death Knight far far more then my beloved Warrior class. Their survivability just makes for a far easier and fun experience when you're solo and without a pocket healer. It's like this: I run into a group of 5 people of the opposite faction, pop Icebound Fort to reduce all their damage by 50%. Then when that's over, pop Anti-Magic Shell, for runic power/spell damage reduction/cc immunity. Then before that's over throw down a Death & Decay, periodically fearing everyone who's beating on me(Rogues hate this especially), and right when they think they're about to kill me....I rune tap back for 20% of my health! Then they're like "omg that's down, now she'll die." No, wrong, now I'm gonna pop Vampiric Blood, and Death Strike one of them for 3k, which will then heal me for another 9k. Or maybe I had a Bone Shield up somewhere in that mess of slaughter, or maybe I popped Hungering Cold and froze half of them. Somewhere along the way a healer may show up and save me, but even if that doesn't happen I have the satisfaction of knowing I wasted a good minute+ of their time attempting to kill me(And I probably killed one of them too!). :P
You try to run into...a group of 5 people as a Warrior?...it's the wrong kind of enjoyment. I get stun locked, and one of those fucking mages sees me and starts drooling, so even though I'm already stunned by the Pally or Rogue, the damn mage uses Nova on me anyway, then the nuking comes, and I'm taking 10% more damage the whole time because you're stunned and you can't change stances, and by the time I'm free, I'm not free(Matrix reference), because SOMEBODY in that cluster-fuck of enemies threw a snare on me, and by this time they see I'm free and they're all running away from me while I'm snared, I sadly attempt to intercept and hit somebody before I die horribly, but at least I can take solace in the fact I wasted a good...10 seconds of their time, ahhh the Warrior class, how I love our dependence on a healer to function. At least I have the awesome that is Enraged Regeneration though!
One of the first things you notice in PvP in Wrath as a Warrior, and I mean first things is Hamstring has lost some of it's flare, I'm not going to say EVERY class has a snare reduction talent, but it certainly freakin feels like it. If a Death Knight specs for PvP it's almost a 100% certainty they'll have it, it's the first tier of their Frost tree. Other classes have to go deeper, Warriors have it Tier 3 Protection(Face-palm), Shaman have it Tier 4 Enhancement, Rogues have it Tier 5 Assassination(If you can ever hit one to begin with), etc. Your original anti-snare nemesis the Druid/Paladin have their snare removals. You spend an awful large amount of time keeping Hamstring up.
The hamstring problem kind of leap-frogs over to the Taste for Blood problem. Keeping Rend up in PvP is about as much fun as keeping hamstring up in PvP, which is to say it's not really fun to keep up in PvP, it's downright annoying, and the proc isn't as obvious in the heat of PvP as when a target dodges, so it takes some getting used to before you can master the art of Taste for Blood Overpower procs. I think more advanced Warriors who have faster reaction times and the pro gamer crowd would enjoy this talent better then Joe Average Warrior, who will become frustrated every time they realize it proc'd and they missed their window of opportunity for whatever reason.
I do like that they're at least trying to make Battle Stance more viable so I can sit in it instead of Zerker(At least when I'm Arms). By adding Berserker's rage to all stances I don't have to worry about fear as much as before, if they made pummel available in Battle would also be awesome as well, but then you start running into reasons why you ever want to pvp in Berserker save the occasional intercept. I still feel I should never be discourged from switching to one stance from another because I fear the downsides of going into said stance, the only thing that should be going through my mind is "I'll miss taking 10% less damage but.., I'll miss having 3% more crit but...I'll miss rend/overpower spam procage but..." It's sad that if Battle Stance becomes the cat's meow PvP stance it'll only be because it allows the Warrior to do damage and take the same amount of damage as the 9 other classes in the game.
You can choose Axe or Mace or Sword Specilization!.....or just Axe. Sword specilzation is just in a sad state, 6 second cooldown, can't proc off hamstring, it saddens me, I was a career Sword Spec Warrior since WoW Classic...ok I was a tank in WoW Classic, but when I went Arms I was sword! I was sword at the start of BC, yes I admit it, I crafted a bloody Lionheart Champion, I loved swords. I cannot justify using a sword over an Axe at the moment. Axe has far too much consistency and Sword Spec's random sword procs are limited by it's cooldown. Yes, back to back sword procs are rare in BC, but they COULD still happen, now that's an impossibility, and your biggest sword-spec procer in Hamstring is gone. Mace is a bit more consistent, but it's obviously weaker against anything lower then cloth/leather, and arguably equal or greater to the mail->plate crowd(and cuddly bear tanks). It's rather hard to test at the moment because Mace is a bit bugged at the moment and allows me to hit for a cool million+ damage on occasion, but I'm sure there's some math on the subject somewhere out there where at what point Mace or Axe is better, but again Axe is consistent against all 4 armor types, Mace may only be better against 2, so once again Axe is wins out. -_-
This rant actually is alot bigger then I had anticipated, so I'll stop here, and touch up on Bladestorm/Fury in another post soon. :)
Monday, September 22, 2008
Death Knight Envy.
So Jayde started a little thread over in the Death Knight forums about Death Knight survivability here. His argument was basically along the lines of him being able to live for absurd amounts of time with no healer, on the strength of his abilities alone as a survival spec. Oh Death Knights, how I envy you and your "problems". I don't think Warrior and survivability should even be mentioned in the same sentence together, unless you have a healer attached at the hip, but then that's not OUR survivability now is it? For a Warrior, it's not really "How long can I survive?" it's "How long until this person horribly kills me?"
I don't really feel like getting into one giant song and dance about Death Knights vs Warriors because I already did that before here. I also don't have my pocket healer or pocket Druid on beta to get that full "Warrior" experience that makes the class such a "joy" to play. So who's to say how my Warrrior will perform on live right? Now if you'll excuse me I have an arena match to get into vs Warlock/Shadow Priest, that should be fun, survivability don't fail me now!
I don't really feel like getting into one giant song and dance about Death Knights vs Warriors because I already did that before here. I also don't have my pocket healer or pocket Druid on beta to get that full "Warrior" experience that makes the class such a "joy" to play. So who's to say how my Warrrior will perform on live right? Now if you'll excuse me I have an arena match to get into vs Warlock/Shadow Priest, that should be fun, survivability don't fail me now!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Build 8962 - Warrior changes.
I could do the typical WoW Forums post here, list off each little change in the build, make a small comment about it, and move on to the next ability. That's boring. If you've actually bothered to come to this blog you deserve something a bit more. So let's look at the bigger picture of what the 8962 changes mean for the Warrior.
First of all, they tried to address the Plate vs Leather Itemization issue by giving Fury a Tier 1 Talent that converts 400 Armor to 1/2/3 str. This is a noob trap for the most part, and only strengthens the argument of the few failure Warriors who don't think we should wear leather to begin with. You've seen the types, "Ugh, I'd never wear leather." Yeah, well you're bad, I wouldn't expect you to wear leather.
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/september/naxxramas_25_150.jpg
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/september/naxxramas_25_85.jpg
The difference between these 2 pieces of armor is roughly 13(14-15 with Kings) Str(26-30AP) vs 1.25% Critical Strike. Leather itemization is still far and away better for most Warriors. What will Blizzard end up doing about this? Either 1 of 2 things, ignore it, content that their solution with this new talent will keep (Bad)Warriors from taking leather, or nerf the agility to critical strike conversion Warriors get. Time will tell which wins out.
This talent isn't all bad mind you, Protection Warriors who drop the 3 points into it will get a cool 150 Strength(This is just assuming 20000 Armor) or so off of it, not much more to say there.
Issue 2) Arms vs Fury Part Deux...Trux? I've lost count.
Fury lost Heroic Leap in this build, believe me when I say we're better off. For those of you not in beta, it was a horribly buggy talent that just never worked correctly, it had very limited applications, and it's replacement in Heroic Fury is much, much better. However when I saw Fury get this new talent, it was as if I heard thousands of Arms Warriors cry out foul....and I chuckled. I won't lie about this, I have a small portion of hatred for the Arms tree, it has treated me right at times, specifically talking PvP, but I was asked/forced to spec Blood Frenzy just one too many times, so whenever I see them miss out on something I chuckle. However karma is a bitch, I must learn to embrace this tree for it is a part of my class, it wasn't the Arms tree's fault I was a Blood Frenzy bitch....in a farm status instance....for a few months. *Shakes fist in air* Ahem...moving on. >_>
In the latest build, Blood Frenzy got a nice little boast in the form of 3/6% haste in addition to providing 2% physical damage for the raid/Warrior. In response to this, Fury Warriors cried foul, which caused me to chuckle, yes I'm evil, everyone gets it, back on topic though. To start off with, let's face facts, Rampage in a raiding environment will be pointless, those cuddly bear tanks(Druids for those of you new to my term for them) have the same ability, there is almost ALWAYS one in a raid nowadays, and it has a 100% uptime, it's superior to Rampage in every way, and Rampage can no longer be consumed for that Enraged Assault, since it was removed a few patches back. Ghostcrawler posted in the same thread talking about the latest Warrior changes that Blood Frenzy was a selfless talent, while Rampage isn't something Warriors would pass on because they like 5% crit, I hope Ghostcrawler reconsiders this stance, because I'm content with spending my 1 point elsewhere and allowing my cuddly bear counterparts to keep it up for me in a raid environment. Outside of a raid environment, she's right, I'd take that point, it's well worth it, and I'd never spend additional gold just to respec out of it weekly(The beauty shop is going to consume all my gold as is.), but that doesn't make it right that Rampage doesn't get some sort of pat on the head for...umm..buffing the raid? Or not buffing the raid when the Druid is alive...ok you see my problem with Rampage?
More as it comes to me.
First of all, they tried to address the Plate vs Leather Itemization issue by giving Fury a Tier 1 Talent that converts 400 Armor to 1/2/3 str. This is a noob trap for the most part, and only strengthens the argument of the few failure Warriors who don't think we should wear leather to begin with. You've seen the types, "Ugh, I'd never wear leather." Yeah, well you're bad, I wouldn't expect you to wear leather.
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/september/naxxramas_25_150.jpg
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/september/naxxramas_25_85.jpg
The difference between these 2 pieces of armor is roughly 13(14-15 with Kings) Str(26-30AP) vs 1.25% Critical Strike. Leather itemization is still far and away better for most Warriors. What will Blizzard end up doing about this? Either 1 of 2 things, ignore it, content that their solution with this new talent will keep (Bad)Warriors from taking leather, or nerf the agility to critical strike conversion Warriors get. Time will tell which wins out.
This talent isn't all bad mind you, Protection Warriors who drop the 3 points into it will get a cool 150 Strength(This is just assuming 20000 Armor) or so off of it, not much more to say there.
Issue 2) Arms vs Fury Part Deux...Trux? I've lost count.
Fury lost Heroic Leap in this build, believe me when I say we're better off. For those of you not in beta, it was a horribly buggy talent that just never worked correctly, it had very limited applications, and it's replacement in Heroic Fury is much, much better. However when I saw Fury get this new talent, it was as if I heard thousands of Arms Warriors cry out foul....and I chuckled. I won't lie about this, I have a small portion of hatred for the Arms tree, it has treated me right at times, specifically talking PvP, but I was asked/forced to spec Blood Frenzy just one too many times, so whenever I see them miss out on something I chuckle. However karma is a bitch, I must learn to embrace this tree for it is a part of my class, it wasn't the Arms tree's fault I was a Blood Frenzy bitch....in a farm status instance....for a few months. *Shakes fist in air* Ahem...moving on. >_>
In the latest build, Blood Frenzy got a nice little boast in the form of 3/6% haste in addition to providing 2% physical damage for the raid/Warrior. In response to this, Fury Warriors cried foul, which caused me to chuckle, yes I'm evil, everyone gets it, back on topic though. To start off with, let's face facts, Rampage in a raiding environment will be pointless, those cuddly bear tanks(Druids for those of you new to my term for them) have the same ability, there is almost ALWAYS one in a raid nowadays, and it has a 100% uptime, it's superior to Rampage in every way, and Rampage can no longer be consumed for that Enraged Assault, since it was removed a few patches back. Ghostcrawler posted in the same thread talking about the latest Warrior changes that Blood Frenzy was a selfless talent, while Rampage isn't something Warriors would pass on because they like 5% crit, I hope Ghostcrawler reconsiders this stance, because I'm content with spending my 1 point elsewhere and allowing my cuddly bear counterparts to keep it up for me in a raid environment. Outside of a raid environment, she's right, I'd take that point, it's well worth it, and I'd never spend additional gold just to respec out of it weekly(The beauty shop is going to consume all my gold as is.), but that doesn't make it right that Rampage doesn't get some sort of pat on the head for...umm..buffing the raid? Or not buffing the raid when the Druid is alive...ok you see my problem with Rampage?
More as it comes to me.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Warrior Stance Penalties
So I started this thread over on the beta forums about how Warrior Stances are this ridiculous outdated concept(And they are in light of the Death Knights). I don't think it's out of the question to request a change to at the very least the penalties that Defensive Stance and Berserker Stance have. However when I see that there has been no response from the developers on the issue it irritates me. The thread in question is one of the longest on the forums, and also one of the most active ones, I made it well over a month ago.
My main complaint about the stances when I made this thread were the penalties.
I even like having different abilities usable in each stance(Though if they're pushing Battle Stance as THE stance for Arms, they need to make some drastic changes).
The fact that our stance buffs look pathetic when compared to Death Knight's presence buffs is an entirely different issue all together, which is also why it's understandable that you have all these Warriors in that thread and on those boards requesting buffs to each stance in addition to the removal of the penalties. I'm sure on some level Blizzard knew this would be the case when they released Presences for Death Knights.
I like to think I have a fairly good understanding of why Blizzard at times just completely ignore certain topics, my thoughts on why they won't respond to this particular complaint are along the lines of:
"They have no intention of changing it and they would like to look at other avenues to adjust(Not buff/nerf) Warriors, so there's no point in telling Warriors this, as it would only create additional anger on their boards."
There's no real polite way to say "We want you doing 10% less damage in this stance, taking 10% more damage in this stance, and this stance to doing nothing." It's different from for example, the Divine Spirit thread on the Priest forums where they can say "We won't make Divine Spirit trainable, because we want a Disc Priest to be invited to raids." There's actual sense behind a statement like that, and it's simple to explain. Stance Penalties probably have a lot deeper and or/more complex reasons, or at least I hope they do, because I thought I understood them when they were introduced 3(4?) years ago. Apparently this isn't the case.
My main complaint about the stances when I made this thread were the penalties.
I even like having different abilities usable in each stance(Though if they're pushing Battle Stance as THE stance for Arms, they need to make some drastic changes).
The fact that our stance buffs look pathetic when compared to Death Knight's presence buffs is an entirely different issue all together, which is also why it's understandable that you have all these Warriors in that thread and on those boards requesting buffs to each stance in addition to the removal of the penalties. I'm sure on some level Blizzard knew this would be the case when they released Presences for Death Knights.
I like to think I have a fairly good understanding of why Blizzard at times just completely ignore certain topics, my thoughts on why they won't respond to this particular complaint are along the lines of:
"They have no intention of changing it and they would like to look at other avenues to adjust(Not buff/nerf) Warriors, so there's no point in telling Warriors this, as it would only create additional anger on their boards."
There's no real polite way to say "We want you doing 10% less damage in this stance, taking 10% more damage in this stance, and this stance to doing nothing." It's different from for example, the Divine Spirit thread on the Priest forums where they can say "We won't make Divine Spirit trainable, because we want a Disc Priest to be invited to raids." There's actual sense behind a statement like that, and it's simple to explain. Stance Penalties probably have a lot deeper and or/more complex reasons, or at least I hope they do, because I thought I understood them when they were introduced 3(4?) years ago. Apparently this isn't the case.
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