cooldowns
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AddOn Spotlight: SexyCooldown
AddOn Spotlight focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience -- the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your AddOns folder will never be the same! This week, we get real sexy. Timers for spells is an imperative addon for many classes that rely on steady rotations of DoT management and keeping debuffs up on enemies. DPS can be greatly altered by the careful balance of spell effects lasting for certain periods of time on enemies. There are a lot of good timers out there for spells and abilities, but today I want to introduce you to my favorite. If this addon is old news to you, and you already know how powerful it can be, help out the less fortunate! If you're new to his wonderful piece of code, stay a while and listen, as I sing a love song to SexyCooldown.
Lichborne: Rune cooldowns, tank mastery, and Cataclysm
The devs have been speaking a little a bit about the new mastery system coming with Cataclysm, and while they've kept most of the specific numbers vague, there's been a surprising amount of information one can read between the lines about death knights. Of course, it started with the frost death knight stats. The stats were solidly DPS oriented, providing damage, haste, and runic power generation. This lead to two major concerns: What would frost tanks do for mastery? And for that matter, even DPS don't need runic power generation that much, considering we can only use so many frost strikes (or death coils for other specs) before we need to spend our runes anyway. The Blues actually gave answers to these questions, answers that managed to both answer the question and provide a whole new level of speculation and questioning. On the question of the new runic power bonus, Ghostcrawler and Eyonix revealed that death knights would find their rotation less constrained by the global cool down and rune cool downs, and that changes such as that would make the runic power generation more desirable. On the tank front, they're actually being deliberately coy about what they have planned for death knight tanks, but they at least seem to know the issue's on the table. This week, I figure it might fun to take a look at these statements and mull over some possible ways they might implement them.
Spiritual Guidance: Macros for priests
Every Sunday (and the occasional weekday) Spiritual Guidance offers holy and discipline priests advice on how to wield the holy light and groove to the disco night. Your hostess Dawn Moore will provide the music. /target reader /wave /use The Mischief Maker There. I love a captive audience. This week I'll be writing about macros for priests. I will touch on why and how to use them, then provide a few useful ones that readers sent in during the past week. This article will not be an introductory guide for the use of macros because... WoW.com already had one of those. Hit the jump for the link.
Patch 3.3 PTR: WoW moves towards shorter cooldowns
If you checked the most recent Patch 3.3 PTR patch notes, a comparison of spells would show that Blizzard has reduced a lot of spells' cooldowns by a notable amount. This makes a significant impact on the playing environment on numerous levels, as most of these spells on long cooldowns were long considered to be powerful abilities whose use were once thought situational. These shorter cooldowns will see more abilities in play, figuring more into dungeons, questing, or world PvP. Most of these abilities still won't see action in Arenas, where the allowable spells have been limited to abilities with cooldowns below ten minutes (down from fifteen). The change appears to be a direct result of many spell cooldowns being reduced. This continues a trend in shortened cooldowns, reflecting what Ghostcrawler said in one thread about how Blizzard "in general (has) been moving away from long cooldowns, anyway." Players saw this when the iconic long-cooldown ability Lay on Hands -- an inevitable Patch 3.3 candidate for a nerf -- became usable every 20 minutes from a formerly mind-numbing one hour. More abilities are now being adjusted to be usable more often and, when necessary, balanced accordingly. Check out the full list after the jump.
Ready Check: Cooldown Management
Ready Check is a twice-a-week column focusing on successful raiding for the serious raider. Hardcore or casual, Vault of Archavon or Ulduar, everyone can get in on the action and down some bosses. Today, we're going to look at a specific tactic for speeding your success through each encounter -- cooldown management.The proper use of a raid's cooldowns is pretty key to maximizing your damage output. (Cooldown is one word. Yes. it. is.) One moment, you are a meager Retribution Paladin. You struggle to maintain your place on the DPS chart. Your weak blows are the stuff of ridicule and angsty blog posts. The Death Knight next to you merely smirks at your DPS, his condescending unibrow peering at you from within his dark, dark helmet of angst. Try as you might, you can barely generate a cooling wind as you struggle to perform for your raid leader.And then you blow wings. Suddenly, your damage is the stuff of legend! With those golden heralds of power and magnificence unfurling from your broad, manly shoulders, there is no enemy who can stand before you! You speak in all exclamation points! Women and men in Leia-costumes hurl themselves at your feet, while you swat away weaksauce Rogues and OP Warlocks with the barest of effort! Ghostcrawler is forced to resign, offering you the ultimate power in World of Warcraft design! You are fantastic!And then it's over, so very, very much too soon. You are left to wait until your next cooldown is up to once again recapture that former glory, and remember what it was like to be the quarterback.Okay, I exaggerate. But the idea that cooldown use increase your performance should be obvious. They don't put a spell in your Spellbook because they don't want you to use it. (Well, they rarely do so, anyway.) But cooldown management is a challenge for every raider. While a lot of folks have their cooldown management well under hand, there's still plenty of folks out there who could use some handy tips.
Raid Rx: 10 clutch healing and tanking abilities
Raid Rx has returned from retirement! Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a new WoW blog for all things UI, macro, and addon related. This week, we examine the relationship between tank and healer. More importantly, we look at the raid saving cooldowns that can mean the difference between a boss kill and a wipe. I read a post last week on the Orly Factor. It was about communicating with healers. Now if you visit the blog, the first thing you'll discover is that it's a Warrior tanking blog! But Matt! Why on earth are you reading a tanking blog? Have you forsaken us? No, I have not. I've always been first and foremost a healer. However, this does not mean I do not pay attention to tanks. The relationship between tank and healer is a harmonious one. A tank places their lives in the arms of their healers. Healers have to pray to Elune (or whichever deity you happen to follow) that their tanks are exceptional at pissing off mobs. Two way communication between tank and healer is a must. If not cultivated or exercised properly, your team will face difficulties down the road. There is one particular topic I want to zero in on.
Warlocks in the Arena
There were a few interesting notes coming out of those early Arena rankings we saw the other day, but probably most interesting is that Warlocks have appeared to come back with a bit of a vengeance. They're not on super solid ground yet (the Death Knight seems to be the overwhelming force, and as long as you throw a Pally and a DPS in the same group with them, you can do alright), but they're definitely higher in those rankings than we've seen them before. And just in time for that little surge comes this great series from Yet Another Warlock Nerf about how to take your Warlock into the Wrath Arenas.He's got some excellent tips on talents and gear -- when you're a Warlock in the Arenas, most of your game is basically keeping DoTs up as much as possible, while also trying to protect yourself from a stealthed Rogue or angry Priest. As with most Arena battles, it's a game of timing -- you want your cooldowns to be up and ready at the exact second when the other team is at their weakest. If you can Spell Lock or Fear a healer at the exact moment when their partner is vulnerable to your own offensive cooldowns, then you'll rack up another win.Interesting stuff. There's lots more to learn, and especially if you're an Arena veteran, there's probably lots more you already know. But things have changed quite a bit from the old BC Arenas, and especially if you're a Warlock, a guide like this is a good place to pick them up again.
Lichborne: Dual Wielding and Tanking on the 3.1 PTR
Welcome to Lichborne, where Daniel Whitcomb is ready to help you roll with the punches (and Death Knight changes) coming from the PTR.We had a new build hit the PTR this week, and with a week gone by, now's a good time to take a deep, focused look at the changes and see how they're shaking down. They're mostly pretty solid nerfs, and a lot of Death Knights aren't too happy about them. Still, beyond people concern about the fact that they are nerfs, the question remains: Were they merited, and where do they leave us? Let's discuss.
Shifting Perspectives: Tanks, "Wrath," and crushing blows
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting Druids and those who group with them. This week, we examine the roots of the uproar over the proposed Heart of the Wild nerf, and also ask ourselves if it wouldn't just be easier to reroll a Death Knight and have done with it."Why would you title the column this way?" you ask, as you reach for your "Please fire _______ from WoW Insider" form letter. "Crushing blows are out of the game, dipwad." Well, yes. The crushing blow is technically out of the game, but another and worse mechanic has taken its place. In this article I'm going to try to explain the source of "shield tank" frustration over health pools -- and why they are correct to see it as a problem -- and the Druid tank's unhappiness over the nerfing of Heart of the Wild -- and why Druids are also correct to see it as a problem.Why the crushing blow was importantOne of the biggest differences between pre-Wrath and Wrath tanking is the absence of the crushing blow. If you're unfamiliar with the term, then as a very simple explanation: any given raid boss had a 15% chance per melee hit to perform a 150% damage attack, which was also known as the crushing blow. It was typically a big damage spike and could lead to a wipe on progression content, with healers struggling to compensate in the small window of time before the boss' next attack landed. Burst damage is very unwelcome as it's often the greatest contributing factor to tank death. This is why reaching crit immunity is still so important to all tanks, and why the ability to avoid or absorb crushing blows was a fundamental part of pre-Wrath tanking mechanics.
Lichborne: Howling Blast and other patch 3.0.8 follies
Welcome to Lichborne, WoW Insider's weekly Death Knight column.Yeah, I definitely have to put out a mea culpa here. Alas, Lichborne is a little bit late again. I have a valid excuse, I swear. It involved a flaming plum pudding, a flailing geist, and a sudden snowstorm at the Shadow Vault over in Icecrown. But after an emergency eye transplant by a Forsaken Death Knight who used to be a member of the RAS, I'm back in the saddle and this week's column is only a few days late. Anyhow, this week I thought I'd take a look at the deeper implications and meanings behind some of the Death Knight changes coming our way in 3.0.8. Our newest Mike has summarized and analysed quite a few of them, but I have just a few more things I want to say, especially about a new change that was added in a recent PTR update.
Freezing Arrow and you
Aspect of the Hare has a great post up about "Freezing Arrow for non-Hunters" -- of all of the new Wrath abilities, Freezing Arrow seems right up there with Death Grip as a game changer during instance pulls. But as great as it is (a Hunter can now trap a mob at a distance, which means trapping casters is much, much easier), there are drawbacks that you other group members need to know about, hence AotH's post.First and foremost, chain trapping is out. On a normal trap, a Hunter can lay down a trap early, and get past the extra 10 second cooldown on getting the trap up again, which means they can have another trap pick up the same mob when the first one finishes its duration. But pulling with Freezing Arrow means you can't lay down the trap early, which means that the 10 second cooldown will always be in effect: there will be ten seconds after the trap comes up before the Hunter can Freezing Arrow again.There are loopholes, as AotH says: Resourcefulness can help Survival Hunters with the cooldown a bit, and Readiness means a Hunter can throw out two Arrows in a row (but no more than that). And of course positioning helps a lot -- if a Hunter can lay down a Freezing Arrow early and then kite a mob into it, chain trapping is theoretically possible (though with casters, it's going to be really tough, just because you have to move so much to get them to move after you). But non-Hunters beware: Freezing Arrow is good for trapping a mob for about 20 seconds. After that, you're on your own.
Matticus' powerleveling tips for shooting to 80
Our good friend Matticus is one of the WoW Insider bloggers who's already gotten up to level 80 (we've got three or four of them floating around), and over on his own site, he's shared a few powerleveling tips for those of you who'd really rather just get right on back to the endgame again.A lot of it is common sense, but it's mostly "go fast, and go big." Get as many quests as you can, and do them all at once. Pop all your cooldowns whenever they come up, and even while you're looting something, be looking for the next quest target or the next thing to kill. Professions are out the window, of course, and reading quest text will just slow you down, so just click accept, and read what you're supposed to find while you're running out to find it.In case you're wondering, no, I don't recommend playing the game like this (it's fine to be a slow leveler), and even Matt admits that you'll miss out on pretty much everything pre-80, including all of the lore and story Blizzard's baked into the game this time around. But if getting to 80 is your only goal, his tips will help.
LotRO Lorebook now includes item effects
Turbine have updated the Lord of the Rings Online Lorebook again, and this time it's something awesome: the Lorebook now features full item effects.Hurrah! This is a great step to making the Lorebook really useful, rather than just for... well, lore. Further updates are planned -- according to Aylwyne, item set pages have been implemented, and will be going into the Lorebook shortly after the holidays. One minor problem with the item effects currently, though: if an item has a use effect, the cooldown is listed properly but not what the use effect actually does. You'll have to look elsewhere for that.
Cooldowns are meant to be hot!
Super-power gamers probably know this one already, but for my part I know this is something I always struggle with. If I have an ability or item with a cooldown of more than one minute, I find myself always hesitating to actually use it; I keep wanting to save it for that emergency moment when I'm really going to need it. The problem is that those situations don't come once every minute, or even every 5 or 10 minutes. They come unexpectedly, and often that one cooldown you've been saving for that situation isn't really enough to save you.So, as Matticus says, "Use them. Please." It makes a lot more sense to use the cooldowns on a regular basis (like, roughly every time the cooldown is up) than it does to hardly use them at all, or only in situations where it's too late. Now, if you're like me and you think about this for a while, and reluctantly agree that yes it does make sense, then you come up with another problem that you want to use these cooldowns only at moments when it'll be most effective. On my hunter, for example, I hate to use "Bestial Wrath" (and "Beast Within") unless I believe there's at least 18 seconds left in the fight, because I hate seeing myself and my pet all Big and Red with nothing to kill!But the plain and simple fact is, people like me need to be less stingy with cooldowns. I don't mean we should blow them at moments that don't matter, of course, rather we would do better if we used them much more often, especially when they're not absolutely necessary to succeed. They can help the various sorts of grinding, farming, and trash-mob fighting go by a bit faster, and sometimes in long boss fights you can use them more than once!Can you think of any cooldowns that you think should be saved for that somewhat rare panic-button moment (such as a rogue's "Vanish," perhaps)? Can you think of cooldowns that you see people often forgetting or hesitating to use?
Upcoming Potion Changes?
Well, maybe. In response to a posted complaint about health and mana potions sharing a delay, Eyonix tells us that the mechanics of consumable items are currently being re-evaluated. According to this explanation, he goal seems to be to categorize items based on their effects and then have cooldowns based on category. This is an interesting change which would have repercussions on both PvP and PvE content - but we'll have to wait to see how these suggested changes show up in finalized form.
