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[1.Local]: Dumber than a box of nails

Lisa Poisso
Updated ·9 min read

Reader comments – ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week.

When Entertainment Weekly chatted with Ryan Reynolds about his "Must List", the X-Men: Wolverine actor had nothing but scorn at the possibility of his having a favorite video game. "I don't really play videogames," he told EW. "Is there a way to waste more f-ing time?"

"He's probably just grumpy because the cover made him look dumber than a box of nails," commented WoW.com reader Gessilea. "Come on, that expression totally screams 'Which end do I put this in again?'"

We suspect Reynolds may have just finished reading the comments at WoW.com – whewww, what a fractious lot this week! Join us in picking a few nuggets out of the rubble and wrap up with a couple of latecomers to last week's epic rap battle comments war.



Did Priests need the Patch 3.2 nerfs?
Thank you, sir – may I have another? When it comes to Priest nerfs, reader Zusterke doesn't seem so sure: "I'm not in the best position to comment the PoH nerf. In the content I'm raiding (Ulduar 10 and 25 without hard modes), I doubt it will make all that much of a difference. I see many Holy Priests doing 25-man hard modes agree that it was OP. Perhaps the nerf wasn't so bad, eh?

"What I do know, quite well IMO, is the regen model. I'm not too happy about the MP5 change. On one hand, it makes MP5 interesting again, which is good. But on the other hand, I think it is ... well ... unsettling. If you check some calculations like this one, then you can see that despite the investment of 12 talents (Spiritual Guidance, Meditation, SoR, HC), it still takes a Priest up to 1,000 unbuffed Intellect just to make Spirit equal MP5, even if you take into account the SP bonus.

"That is:

  • You invest 12 talent points to up Spirit (plus a few fillers)

  • You add the synergy of two base stats

  • Add the raid-buffed SP value of Spirit

  • Add the raid-buffed regen value of Spirit

  • Add the regen value of Crit

"MP5 still beats all of that, flat out. Literally, if you drop every point of Spirit you have, drop HC/Meditation/SoR/Spiritual Guidance and instead take MP5 gear, SP gems and throughput talents ... then you will have better regen and throughput than our classic Spirit/Intellect model until you get Ulduar gear. Not that Ulduar gear beats the MP5+SP model; it scores comparably. But there is no MP5 cloth armor without Spirit.

"We are thus presented with:

  • a slightly overpowered regen stat

  • no way to base our gear on it

"Looks like we are forced into seemingly inferior gear. Well, ok -- it's not that dramatic. :-) But it will take considerable gear and talents in the first place just to get even.

"Still, although the boost to MP5 imbalances the relative value of stats for Holy Priests at first, there is hope. On the long term, as we keep gearing up, MP5 and Spirit make a more interesting balance where regen can be worked as such:

  • Int > MP5 > Spi if you have decent amount of Spirit

  • MP5 > Int > Spi if you have a low amount of Spirit

"Spi will scale sufficiently to make its SP contribution beat MP5, although MP5 remains a stronger regen stat. That's cool, IMO.

"Still, if MP5 would have been boosted by 10% or 15%, rather than the 25% they did, the same balance would have been reached -- except that it would be usable for starting Priests instead of forcing them (or penalizing them for not going) into a totally different itemization at the start, due to the most idiotic regen stat being unconditionally stronger.

"All in all, my comment here is more a critique on the balance of stats and the impact on the regen model ... and not so much to how this impacts our performance. I have no doubt that a Spirit/Intellect-stacking Priest is and will remain a viable healer. In fact, most Ulduar raiders shouldn't even be affected greatly by this change, other than MP5 becoming a more attractive regen stat. What's more, the nerf to Replenishment actually improves the balance between Spirit and Intellect, which increases your choices in gemming/gearing instead of having to favor Intellect by default."

Do you use heirlooms?
Do you use heirloom items on your alts? "Absolutely," stated reader Qot. "They make the leveling experience much more pleasant. The shoulders significantly reduce the leveling time with the XP bonus. I think the weapons may be even better: since they're blue item-level quality, it's like you ran an instance and got just the drop you needed every single level. Add to that never having to repair the heirlooms, saving you gold as you level."

Other players are less enthusiastic but still pragmatic. "I would if I had any 'toons below level 72," wrote Dere, "but right now, I kind of like the fact that each of my 'toons is forging his own path and making a name for himself. The NR gear is good enough and easy enough to get while leveling that I don't really see much of a reason for the heirlooms other then the extra XP boost -- but then, all you really need to do is let your guy get some rested XP, and you are golden. You would be hard pressed to use all your rest XP once you hit level 74 and have the full rested going on. I tried to burn all my rest XP fast with my DK, but I just ran out with the last two bubbles of level 79.

"I guess I just don't see the point in working so hard with my main just to make leveling with my alts at fraction easier. The time I spent running those heroics could have been spent leveling that alt. :P"

Still others take a more purist approach to heirloom items. "I haven't ever bought heirlooms, nor do I ever plan to," states Veliaf. "Firstly, I have better things to spend emblems on, such as the mount and things. Secondly, I enjoy leveling alts, so why rush the experience? It's being rushed for me by Blizzard increasing the XP from quests/reducing the XP needed per level, and by the upcoming mount changes. I don't want to speed it up further, or I'll barely see my character before I hit 80.

"As for the heirlooms which don't give xp bonuses, I'd get bored of having the same item for 79 or 80 levels. I enjoy seeing the different models, colours, skins, etc., of the many different items in the world. Also, repair costs prior to heroic gear are really nothing to complain about."

A console version of WoW?
Should Blizzard be interested in bringing WoW to a console gaming system? "What I'm surprised about is that there's not been an attempt to expand on the Warcraft franchise into the Xbox," wrote Cogfizzle. "There's room for a Battles of Middle Earth WoW game, the Soul Caliber beat-'em-up, a stealth-'em-up based on playing a Rogue infiltrating various dungeons, etc. ...

"The WoW franchise is very strong and very flexible, but it isn't being used in an aggressive way. We have the board game, the miniatures game, the trading card game ... Where's the Games Workshop Warhammer-style Battles of Azeroth game?

"Missed opportunities."

Rap battle in the comments: the meta comments
"Has a comment on [1.Local] ever been featured on [1.Local]?" asked mibluvr13 in last week's [1.Local]. "That'd be deliciously meta."

Feast on this deliciousness then, mibluvr13, as we wrap up with two late entries into last week's epic rap battle comments war.

Drenmar: "This one goes out to my homies on Chromaggus ...
Showin' the Mages some love...

"DPS so insane, GMs can't believe it's true,
suspended my account, and now I'm under review.
Just pop a Bloodlust, and watch me go,
I get OOM so fast, call me Barry Mana-Low.

"All the haters wanna know why I think I'm the best.
Well just check the Recount, top spot -- nothin' less.
But we all know the reason, why you gripe,
tryin' to make us forget, you're the reason that we wipe.

"You'd think the shouts in Vent would give you pause,
but you still stand in fires like you're f***in' Santa Claus.
If I were in your place, I would probably just quit,
You're a freakin' healer, and you've been stacking hit.

"This is Drenmar here, and I'm reppin' Azeroth,
you can catch me gankin' Pallies in my squishy caster cloth.
I'll drop the raid a table, and then I'll drop a rhyme,
but before you battle me, know I got a hard Enrage time."

Alex P: "LOL @ Barry Mana-Low

"I was just reading [1. Local], when you had to start a scene.
It's strange to see healers knocked by such a has-been.
You say they suck cause they stackin' hit?
But you always OOM, why yo mana pool so s**t?

"You ain't top of Recount, 'less you sort it least to most.
There's only one meter you top, and it ain't DPS -- it's boast!
Maybe you gankin' Pallies, but they all level 20,
I'm bettin' all the level 80s been ganking YOU plenty!

"Never done that before, more fun than I expected. :P"

Here's to more fun next week here on [1.Local]!

Ahhh ... the fresh meat of a juicy comment. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week. Don't just scroll away -- come join the conversation on these and other posts around the WoW.com community.