vengeance
Latest
Warlords of Draenor: Tank changes
Technical Game Designer Chadd Nervig, aka Celestalon, has been answering some inquiries on Twitter lately, and hinted at a few of the changes we can look forward to with tanking. It seems all tanks are up for tweaks, in some fairly overarching ways. .@abcart311 All tanks. Current plans: Tweak the design of Resolve. Lower tank health. Lower tank mitigation. Lower boss damage. - Celestalon (@Celestalon) August 29, 2014 If you're not familiar with Resolve, it's essentially what Vengeance has become in Warlords of Draenor, albeit with some changes. Currently, Resolve improves self-healing and absorbs done by the tank to the tank and partially converts mastery to attack power. How it will be further tweaked in Warlords remains to be seen, but the overall change itself should help tanks be tanks without overshadowing the DPS. The rest of the tweet is much more intriguing, but does fit with the overall theme of scaling down we're seeing in Warlords. Lowering tank health and mitigation seems risky, but if boss damage is also reduced, then it shouldn't be a problem. For a long time, Blizzard has made noises about how they wanted to slow down the pace of boss fights, especially in the final tiers of an expansion. Damage that's less devastating, healing that is slower pace and choices that are more meaningful. To me, these changes read as being in line with that philosophy. I will be interested to see them implemented, and how they affect gameplay in the beta.
Warlords of Draenor: Vengeance is now Resolve
This is one of the bigger changes (and one closest to my heart now that I'm tanking again) - Vengeance is gone in Warlords of Draenor, replaced with Resolve. Resolve is basically Vengeance minus the stacking buff to attack power, because of the way Vengeance interacted on certain fights. To put it into perspective, last night was my first night seriously tanking, and I was number four on total DPS - it would have been far higher had I not forgotten I was tanking for the first fight. At present, with Vengeance and tank AoE for purposes of picking up threat (plus, I admit, some fairly beefy Shield Slams once Vengeance stacks all the way up) you can see some ridiculous tank DPS, easily surpassing dedicated DPS players. The solution being implemented here is to overall increase tank DPS without an unreliable mechanic like Vengeance adding different attack power depending on how much damage the tank takes. This also removes the temptation for tanks to deliberately take more damage in order to get Vengeance stacked up faster. So Vengeance is gone, and Resolve is implemented. How does it work? Resolve improves self-healing and absorbs done by the tank to the tank (so no, it won't buff priest bubbles) based on the damage taken (ignoring avoidance and mitigation, same as Vengeance now) within the last 10 seconds, and your Stamina. This means stuff like Death Strike, Shield Barrier, things of that nature. If you cast a heal on someone else, Resolve won't buff it. Each tank class' tanking mastery will now add 12% attack power, and the amount of attack power will scale with mastery as well. This is in addition to current affects, not replacing it - your tanking mastery will do what you're used to it doing, it'll just also do more. Brewmaster monks will no longer deal less damage. That 15% damage penalty? Gone. The goal here is for tanking damage to remain meaningful without overshadowing dedicated DPS players, something I feel is profoundly fair. Whether or not it works out for all classes we'll see when we get a chance to test it out, but the basic principle is sound - with tanks now using crit and haste (and the new stats Readiness and Multistrike as well - see Blood Craze here for just one potential use of Multistrike for tanks) we're in a situation where tanking DPS will likely go up just because they're wearing the exact same gear as DPS players. The age of Vengeance's unpredictable scaling probably needed to end. The section of the patch notes detailing the change is, as always, behind the jump.
The Light and How to Swing It: BlizzCon recap for tankadins
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense. BlizzCon this year was a magical time to be a tank, learning what we did about all the changes coming down the pike in Warlords of Draenor. It seems that Christmas is coming early this year, with Blue Claus having decided that (for once) we're getting just about everything on our lists. Whereas Mists was in many ways an experiment in how tanking could work going forward -- with DPS stats galore -- Warlords is going to officially set those changes in stone and even expand on them! I can't remember the last time I was as stoked as I was then, sitting in those seats and reading the word "GONE" next to dodge/parry. It was like something out of a dream. You always dreamed it would happen and then finally it does... There's just no way to prepare yourself for that kind of elation. And, believe me, the other changes they announced are just as good.
Patch 5.4 Vengeance changes explained
If you remember from last week, Vengeance is being changed in patch 5.4. If like me you've been curious about how it will specifically be changing, Lore over on the official forums has our first explanation of the changes and how they'll shake out. Here's the breakdown. Lore - 5.4 Vengeance Mechanics - Info Request Here's some details on exactly how the multi-target diminishing returns are set to work in 5.4. Warning: here there be maths. The basic, concise explanation is as follows: The Nth strongest (based on pre-mitigation average auto attack DPS) mob that has hit you in the last 5 seconds grants 1/Nth of full vengeance with their attacks. N is recalculated on every hit taken. So here's an example. Say you're tanking 3 mobs – we'll say it's a boss and two adds. The boss has pre-mitigation average auto attack DPS of 1500k, one add does 400k, and the other add does 300k. The game will form a list of those mobs from 1-3, like so: 1. Boss: 1500k DPS, 1/1 (100%) of normal vengeance is granted 2. First add: 400k DPS, 1/2 (50%) of normal vengeance is granted 3. Second add: 300k DPS, 1/3 (33.333%, repeating of course) of normal vengeance is granted This would of course continue as more mobs are being tanked (granting 1/4, 1/5, 1/6, and so on). Also, if the second add were to land a hit at any point when the first add hasn't attacked you in the last 5sec (such as if it swings first), that attack would grant 1/2 Vengeance instead of 1/3. Hope that clears things up for the theorycrafters. source So if tanking a small group or adds that accompany a boss mob, this change will have little effect - it's when tanking huge packs that the vengeance decay will be most noticeable. The calculation based on most damage seems interesting to me - hopefully the calculations won't be such that vengeance fails to stack properly.
Patch 5.4 PTR: Vengeance changes
If you're a tank in World of Warcraft you know what Vengeance is. Originally intended to allow tanks to keep up with increased DPS from improved gear with DPS stats on it while accumulating tanking gear that generally lacked those stats, it's turned into a means for tanking players to do chart topping DPS on some pulls (especially AoE ones with multiple tanked mobs). There's been a lot of discussion about what might happen with Vengeance in patch 5.4, and now we have our first look at what Blizzard is contemplating for the tanking specialization. Rygarius - 5.4 PTR Patch Notes - August 2 Vengeance has received several changes. Vengeance now grants Attack Power equal to 1.5% of the damage taken, down from 1.8% (The tooltip said 2% but it was actually 1.8%). Tanks no longer receive Vengeance from many persistent area damage effects (standing in the fire) or from missed attacks (dodging and parrying an attack will continue to work as it has before). There are now diminishing returns on Vengeance gains while tanking multiple targets. Each additional target grants progressively less Vengeance. source These changes are almost certainly aimed at reducing the very high DPS that we can see on trash pulls and boss fights with a great many streaming adds (such as Tortos' bats or the packs before Iron Qon) especially as we head into the final tier of gear for Mists of Pandaria, which would inflate these numbers even more. Raids that use tanks with the highest DPS tanks will probably feel these changes the most. As always, this is the PTR, so if you have an opinion on these changes getting on the test servers and testing them out is useful so you can give proper feedback.
PSA: Black Ops 2 'Vengeance' DLC on PS3 and PC today
The Vengeance DLC for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is now available on PS3 and PC via Steam. Vengeance adds four multiplayer maps in Cove, Detour, Rush and Uplink. It also includes a new zombie map known as Buried, which has players traverse through a "long-forgotten subterranean Old West mining town infested with swarms of flesh-eating undead." Vengeance will set players back $14.99, though the DLC is free for Season Pass holders. %Gallery-193520%
Black Ops 2 gets Vengeance on PC and PS3 August 1
Black Ops 2 players on PC and PS3 will receive the latest DLC pack, Vengeance, on August 1. Vengeance adds four maps in multiplayer along with a new Zombies variant called "Buried," and it has been available on Xbox Live since July 2. Vengeance is the third DLC pack for Black Ops 2, following Revolution and Uprising. Revolution added the requisite multiplayer maps and the ability to play as a zombie in "Turned" mode, while Uprising introduced Mob of the Dead – a Zombies map set within Alcatraz prison during the Prohibition era, starring Michael Madsen, Joe Pantoliano, Ray Liotta and Chazz Palminteri.%Gallery-193520%
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 enacts Vengeance on Xbox Live
The latest DLC for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, dubbed Vengeance, is available for download on Xbox Live today. This 1,200 MS Points ($15) DLC includes four multiplayer maps in Rush, Detour, Cove and Uplink, the latter a remake of Summit from the original Black Ops, and one new Zombies mode variant called Buried. The final piece included in this DLC is the Ray Gun Mark 2, a new sidearm for use in Zombies mode.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 gets 'Vengeance' DLC map pack July 2
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is ready to fire off its next DLC salvo on July 2 on Xbox Live, with PS3 and PC versions to follow. The Vengeance map pack includes new multiplayer maps Rush, Detour, Cove and Uplink, which a remake of Summit from the original Black Ops. Buried, a new Zombies mode variant, is included with Vengeance along with the Ray Gun Mark 2 weapon, available exclusively in Zombies mode. No pricing is announced in the video above, though the two previous DLC offerings – Revolution and Uprising – were both priced at 1,200 MS Points ($15) each.
The Light and How to Swing It: The problem with tanks
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense. Last Thursday, Ghostcrawler tweeted something which caused a bit of a stir within the tanking community. In it he revealed that the devs were looking at some strict caps for Vengeance levels (30% of health for 10s, 50% for 25s) that would prevent tanks from using Vengeance to pursue unintended things like solo tanking a two-tank raid boss or standing in fire to stack really obscene amounts of attack power. Now, this isn't another column about the virtues or not of Vengeance. That's a pretty mutilated horse at this point, and from the looks of it, the mechanic is not going anywhere any time soon. However, the brief rekindling of the Vengeance debate did once again shine some light on what is a continuing problem in WoW: what should tanks be allowed to do (in terms of damage output) and what can be done to keep players from parlaying excessive survivability into unintended advantages? What do you do when one third (arguably two-thirds, a lot of this can apply to healers as well) of your players' roles revolves around the mitigation and prevention of damage, and the primary means you have of creating barriers or challenges for players is the threat of character death?
Patch 5.3 and more with Ghostcrawler
In case you hadn't heard the news, patch 5.3 is set to hit live servers tomorrow. While 5.3 doesn't include a new raid, there are a host of different new activities, including four new scenarios, heroic scenarios, a ton of pet battle changes, and of course the advancement of Mists of Pandaria's storyline as the heat ramps up between Alliance, Horde, and an outlier faction of Horde rebels. It's back to the Barrens again -- and this time, Crossroads isn't the area of contention. But on top of all of the new content comes a ton of different class and content changes as well. We sat down to chat with Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street about patch 5.3's changes, as well as some upcoming changes for patch 5.4, response to subscription losses, Vengeance changes, that big unannounced feature we've all been dying to hear more about, and much more.
Ghostcrawler on Vengeance and patch 5.4
Yes, patch 5.3 isn't even out yet, and we're already looking towards patch 5.4. Thanks to Ghostcrawler, we have this to think about for the future, namely that Vengeance is getting capped at a significantly lower threshold in raids in the future. If you remember back at August of last year, Vengeance saw some significant changes that increased how fast it could ramp up in raids and also gave it a far larger maximum potential. It's been adjusted over time, but in general what GC said back last August has held true -- tank DPS in raiding really did go up. To the point where on some pulls it's not unusual to see tanks leading the DPS, sometimes by extremely large numbers. Since this is a big change that will drastically lower tank damage output (25-man tanks with their 600,000 or more health buffed will lose roughly 300,000 AP on fights where Vengeance was capping at 100% of their health) I'm not surprise it won't be coming in 5.3 -- I am a little surprised it's happening at all, because we all knew Vengeance and tank damage would do exactly what it has done when it was changed. Still, I wait to observe if it has much practical difference since aside from AoE tanking where a multitude of hits can roll in a short window of time (that 20 second ramp up period) and the tanks can make effective use of all that AP I'm not sure it will matter. 5-mans and scenarios were not mentioned, so for now I'm assuming this is only for the raids mentioned.
Corsair unveils $130 Vengeance K70 gaming keyboard with backlit keys
Just a few months after Corsair revealed its high-end K95 mechanical gaming keyboard, the company has unveiled a slightly lower-end K70 for those who want to save a bit of money. Essentially an upgrade to the K60, the K70 still has those Cherry MX Red mechanical switches, but each key is now individually backlit -- the backlighting can be adjusted to four levels of intensity and can be independently enabled or disabled. Other features include 20-key rollover, a 1000Hz reporting rate, contoured keycaps for WASD keys, dedicated multimedia controls, a detachable wrist rest and an extra USB connector. The K70 will be available in April for $130 in two different color schemes; silver aluminium with blue backlight and anodized black with deep red backlight.
Blood Pact: A pewpewer's notes from tanking and healing
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology, and destruction warlocks. This week, Megan O'Neill muses about tanking, healing, and why she really does play a DPS. I have a confession: I was once a tank. Technically I could have been half a tank, because I think I healed just as often, but once upon a time I rolled a druid with the intent of getting a melee DPS perspective. One night in Wrath of the Lich King, my first guild had some trouble with kiting the adds on Gluth. So we upped the tank count to 3: the paladin tank moved to the back for holy tag with the undead while the former-bear warrior walked me through my feral spellbook as I sat in bear form on that pipe. I think it was the extra Mauls that hooked me. I became a bear tank with a branch-waving offspec. I have fond memories of alt or PUG raids where I had cooldown-busting health pools and hero-bear resurrections between Gormok's death and the arena entrance of Acidmaw and Dreadscale. But as my guild tore apart in the beginnings of Icecrown Citadel, I've been back to pewpewing from the back as a warlock. My bear is merely an alt. But my bear has made my warlock a little stronger.
StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm trailer shows Sarah's vengeful side
StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm takes Sarah Kerrigan down a dark path of vengeance, mass murder and blowing up entire cities. But it's OK – she's "not even human anymore," according to the latest trailer. Check it out above. The video premiered during Blizzard's livestream and Q&A session today.StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm drops on March 12, and the public beta ends in just a few days, on March 1.
Level 80 paladin solos some Mogu'shan Vaults bosses, gets Vengeance hotfixed
A great video is making the rounds right now of an exceptional player using some unintended consequences to solo multiple bosses in Mogu'shan Vaults -- and as a protection-specced paladin no less! He apparently downed Stone Guard, Feng, and Elegon before Blizzard caught wind of the escapade. You can see a video of the Elegon kill above. How he pulled this off was by taking advantage of a series of design choices that Blizzard made, combining them all into a hilarious example of the law of unintended consequences in action. To reach a decent item level, the paladin equipped various bind on equip rares that drop in Mists zones which all had a required character level of only 80. And because he was only level 80, he was avoiding the combat ratings drop-offs for levels 81 and 86 that a normal character wearing those pieces would be subjected too. This would allow him to get an insane amount of secondary stats like haste (I've seen that he had 95%!) and mastery (88%, apparently).
Vengeance hotfixes explained
If you've never played a tank and are unaware of Vengeance, it's a tanking-specific ability that causes you to gain attack power equal to 2% of the damage taken from an enemy. Vengeance, therefore, makes a tank's attacks more powerful based on what's hitting them. This helps with threat generation, and gives tanks a way to keep aggro when faced with big-hitting DPS trying (intentionally or otherwise) to pull mobs off them. Vengeance has caused some discussion, granting tanks with huge chunks of attack power whenever people hit them in PvP, which was fixed a while back during Cataclysm. There have been a few changes to Vengeance lately, which have been causing a little confusion, so Blizzard Blue Daxxarri has stepped in to alleviate players' concerns.
Vengeance, threat stats, and the future of tanking
Personally, I love Vengeance, even with all of its ups and downs and redesigns. But a recent discussion of Vengeance by math guy Theck over at Sacred Duty has hit the forums, and Ghostcrawler responded with the following. Ghostcrawler - Why make vengeance so complicated .. really. We don't want tanks to do awesome damage just for being tanks. We want tanks to do awesome damage when they are actually tanking. That remains the governing philosophy behind the design. Remember, Vengeance doesn't exist to give tanks something fun to do. It exists solely to make sure tank threat stays high when DPS characters are gearing for higher DPS while the tanks gear primarily for survival. Tanks only need to generate high threat when they are tanking, and typically threat is the most important on the most dangerous opponents, which also tend to be those who hit the hardest. As an aside, if I was able to design WoW solely for me, threat would still be an important stat to gear for. Raiders would scoff at tanks who stacked only Stamina as being bad tanks because they couldn't hold aggro. It was fun for me back in BWL to try to generate higher threat than the warlocks. I don't think it was that fun for the warlocks though. I don't think it was that fun for the rest of the raid when I screwed up e.g. my Heroic Strike use and caused us to wipe without them feeling like they could do anything to resolve the situation except stop DPS. Fortunately, I recognize that WoW would have far fewer players if I got to design it totally around what I find fun. :) source Here's the thing: I used to gear for threat. As recently as early Cataclysm, before the 500% threat increase, I was arguing for hit and expertise gear on tanks. Threat stats and threat generation were important parts of gearing a tank. A good tank didn't just ignore those stats. Granted, I've always tanked on a warrior, and that's been the lowest damage (and thus, lowest threat) tanking class since The Burning Crusade. But I was always motivated to put out as much threat as I could feasibly arrange and stay alive. So now I'm forced to consider: Is this a case where Ghostcrawler should be designing for himself? Yes, I understand the argument that it's not fun for DPS players to have to throttle themselves. But are our only options Vengeance and massive threat or throttling?
Vengeance no longer capped for tanks
As the Mists of Pandaria beta has progressed, the developers have actively attempted to balance the new active mitigation model for tanks. One of the significant problems that they've run into is how to handle defensive abilities that scale with attack power/Vengeance, since the amount of damage taken (and Vengeance gained) by tanks at different levels of content can vary widely. Happily, the developers have arrived at what seems to be a fairly elegant solution. They've removed the Vengeance cap entirely and significantly toned down Vengeance decay. Now, your Vengeance will simply be computed as a rolling value, based on the damage you've taken over the last 20 seconds. This should allow for 10-man and 25-man tanks to be much better balanced and fix the annoying side effect of leveling tanks also topping damage meters. Overall, I'm a big fan of this change. Here's the full post from Ghostcrawler, after the break.
IRL: Kiboko 22L+ backpack, Corsair Vengeance K90 keyboard and the Galaxy Nexus HSPA+ with Jelly Bean
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. After some camera-heavy IRLs lately, this week's edition is more of a mixed bag. Darren tests out a camera backpack big enough to carry his D3S and D3200, Sean buys a Corsair K90 keyboard for his homemade gaming rig and Edgar makes the jump from iPhone owner to proud Jelly Bean user.
