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Officers' Quarters: Be kind to your tanks and healers
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available now from No Starch Press. If you've queued as a DPS for the dungeon finder lately, you've probably marveled at the estimated time and wondered what happened to all the tanks and healers. Maybe fewer players want to tank when crowd control is necessary; maybe fewer players want to heal when mana must be managed. Maybe it's the fact that gear is more critical at this point in an expansion, so people are shy about signing up for those roles. Or maybe all the tanks and healers are skipping the unpredictable dungeon finder crowd altogether and looking for guilds to join. Whatever the cause, dungeon finder queues for DPS are absolutely brutal at the moment. If you don't want to wait 30-plus minutes for every run, you're going to need tanks and healers in your guild who are willing to run heroics. You may wonder, why wouldn't they be willing to run heroics? After all, the content is fresh, the upgrades are flowing, and most people still need justice and/or valor points. The question isn't so much whether they want to run heroics; the question is whether they want to run heroics with you, right now. This week, I'm going to focus on what players and officers can do to avoid stressing out your tanks and healers and help them to enjoy the game along with everyone else.
Lichborne: Cataclysm pre-raid gear for death knight DPS
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. Join World of Warcraft's first hero class as we head into a new expansion and shed the new kid on the block label. Now that you've had a couple weeks to run heroic dungeons and grind reputations, chances are you're raring to start tackling raids. Whether you already have a raid group or whether you're trying to find one, one of the easiest things you can do to give yourself an edge is to make sure your gear is up to snuff. This week, we'll be looking at the best DPS gear options for death knights looking to break into Cataclysm raiding. Since gearing requirements for most raids are a bit more stringent, this list is going to be a bit shorter and more focused than the pre-heroic gear list. I've tried to make it clear what gear is best for what spec in the list, but we should probably go over it in general here, just to be clear. Unholy death knights' main focus should always be strength. They'll want to go for 8% hit, of course, but even that's not quite as potent to as stacking more strength. After strength and hit rating, haste and critical strike rating are their main secondary stats. 2H frost death knights are going to want to hit the 8% hit requirement and the 26 expertise dodge soft cap. Their main focus should then be strength, with haste and mastery as their main secondary stats Dual wield frost death knights also want to hit the hit and expertise soft caps, and strength is supreme for them as well. However, their main secondary stats are mastery and critical strike rating. As you can tell, each spec's gearing requirements are just different enough to make things complicated. I've tried to simplify it as much as possible with this list, but in some cases, you may want to take the "secondary" choice for your spec in order to hit the hit and expertise soft caps. Remember that you can also regem and reforge to hit those caps if needed, or to shed extra hit or expertise rating above those caps. Also, be aware if your race provides extra expertise for wielding a certain type of weapon, as it can often inform your exact gearing choices. Finally, keep in mind that this gear list may not be completely comprehensive. I have focused primarily on gear of item level 346 and above. Some gear that feels sub-optimal (such as gear with low strength) or seems like too much of a hassle or expense to get for what it offers (mostly blue crafted gear) has been left out deliberately. This is the raid game, so you should be making an extra effort to get properly geared. With that said, let's dive in!
Ghostcrawler reveals upcoming class changes in Cataclysm
Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street has posted the blog post I think most of us have been waiting for ever since Cataclysm went live. It features a summary of where the dev team sees the PvE and PvP games at this point, including some analysis of various classes and specs, and some planned changes for those specs that are underperforming and overperforming. In PvE, Ghostcrawler mentions that Blizzard is mostly happy with the tank classes and notes that while healers do have it a bit hard, this is intentional. Heroics are meant to be a challenge. As for DPS, he offered that some classes, such as arcane mages and marksman and beast mastery hunters, are too low in their damage, while others, such as shadow priests and fire and frost mages, are being watched closely before final judgment is made on their numbers. In PvP, Ghostcrawler says Blizzard is satisfied with the decreased emphasis on healing prevention and burst damage. Crowd control and dispel mechanics, especially offensive dispels, may see some PvP nerfs, and priests will specifically be getting some PvP buffs. Stats also got some mention. A lot of stats are being neglected by some classes, and the dev team wants to fix this. Mastery will be either buffed or completely revamped for many specs, such as unholy death knights and retribution paladins. Haste may be made to scale with more attacks, such as Lacerate, Slam, and Steady Shot, in order to make the stat more desirable to certain specs. Check after the break for the complete text of Ghostcrawler's post, including a list of specifically planned (but not finalized) class changes for future patches.
Addon Spotlight: DrDamage
Each week, WoW Insider brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which 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, the doctor is in. Welcome to the first Addon Spotlight post-Cataclysm edition! With the release of Cataclysm and the subsequent changing of environments, instances, raid and dungeon progress, and everything in between, certain addons that we've come to rely on continue to thrive or slowly die out as the world's needs change. Little forgotten addons, we salute you and hope that you find a way back into our hearts. This week, your HMO better cover out-of-system doctors, because we're going to the best. Occasionally called "Doctor TMI" among my friends, DrDamage is a beefy little addon that adds a completely new level of understanding and information to your damage and healing abilities. Sometimes you learn a little too much about your skills. Nonetheless, DrDamage is a unique addon that can help you feel your way through Cataclysm's new skills and abilities, making you a heroic king again in no time.
Champions Online unveils the eight free-to-play archetypes for launch
It's an interesting road ahead for Champions Online as it prepares to go free-to-play. To facilitate the change and give subscribers a reason to keep paying regularly, the game is rolling out rigidly enforced archetypes that take away power selection but still allow for some personal customization. We've seen the initial description of how the archetypes will work, and the team at Cryptic Studios has just unveiled the eight archetypes that will be available to both free players and paying players when the conversion goes live. Each archetype has a strictly defined role, along with several powers meant to enforce that role. Tanking, DPS, and healing are all represented by the available choices, meaning that even players who haven't spent anything will be able to take on whatever role best suits them in the game. Players should take a look at the official listing to see exactly what powers will be available and at the lore description for an idea of where each archetypical concept fits within the Champions Online framework.
Ghostcrawler on the evolution of rotation complexity
Yet again, a forum discussion of a singular topic (blood DK tanks and their diseaseless rotation, as discussed by our own Daniel Whitcomb last week) has led to some really fascinating perspectives on how the game is designed, how "intended" rotations were and will be discovered, and how much room there is to allow or discourage variant builds and rotations. Poster Deathsaint opened the discussion with the subject of relearning rotations, something we discussed last week in terms of DPS spec design. Things got interesting fast. Ghostcrawler - Re: GC: Blood Tanking Instructions? You are missing the point of that quote. It is not "players shouldn't have choices," as many of you are inferring. It's that "there should be more thought on the part of the designers for how various abilities are supposed to be used and those roles should be more apparent to players." There has never really been a time in the game when you could just do whatever you wanted with your class and be equally effective. Then, as now, smart players doing a lot of homework would figure out the most optimized way to play. You can choose to follow their recommendations, try to find an even more optimized way to play, or just do your own thing because that's more enjoyable for you, knowing that you may pay the price of being less optimized. source What's interesting here is the change in emphasis.
Reader UI of the Week: Sewell's UI
Each week, WoW Insider brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, spotlighting the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots, along with info on what mods you're using, to readerui@wow.com. The end is nigh! The world will break! Flee, cowards, for his fiery reign of death will be upon us soon! The only way to combat this most heinous evil is to gaze upon some pretty neat, reader-submitted user interfaces. Deathwing will have no chance against our smooth bottom panels and the lack of clutter on our screens. This week, Reader UI of the Week takes a look at Sewell's user interface, which uses some awesome art to give his UI a familiar but more productive look. Reminiscent of the original art or even Warcraft 3 taken in a cool, different direction, Sewell's UI is crisp, clean and full of flavor. If you like art panels, today is for you.
Totem Talk: Post-patch enhancement shaman still waiting for buffs
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement, and restoration shamans. Rich Maloy lives and breathes enhancement: his main spec is enhance, his off-spec is enhance. He blogs about the life and times of enhance and leads the guild Big Crits (Season 2 Ep 06 now out!) as the enhancement shaman Stoneybaby. We're now two full weeks into patch 4.0.1 with our new and improved enhancement spec. Improved? Actually, no. Our DPS is only marginally improved over the previous incarnation, while our fellow melee brethren were buffed to the teeth. My rough analysis shows the difference between us and top melee DPS, usually warrior and death knight, has widened significantly since the patch. I'm going to preface all of this analysis by saying that I am not the top enhancement shaman, by far. I play well, I study my class, I optimize my spec, gems, forging, gear and rotations. I don't die to stupid stuff -- well, at least not often! In other words, I try to push my damage without sacrificing myself. Be forewarned that some of these numbers I'm embarrassed to post in such a public manner, and while I'm hardly the benchmark for DPS, I can at least provide a baseline of what your average progression raider's numbers look like. On average across eight of 12 hard-mode fights in ICC (excluding the gimmick fights Gunship, VDW and BQL, and excluding H-LK because we're just now working on him), the top melee DPS was doing 50 percent more damage than me pre-patch and 64 percent more post-patch. I could narrow that gap down to about 15 percent on a standstill fight such as Deathbringer Saurfang, but on high-movement fights such as Sindy, the top melee would do as much as 80 percent more damage than me overall. As much as it pains me to say this, as a raid leader I have to ask the question: Am I dead weight in raids right now? Will level 85 with Unleash Elements bring better output?
Wasteland Diaries: Weapons
Those that say "violence never solves anything" have never been thrust into a post-apocalyptic future. Violence solves just about everything in Fallen Earth. And the cornerstone of violence, since man threw the first stone or hit his surly neighbor with a stick, has been weapons. Killing and incapacitating others is a lot of hard work, so leave it to mankind to devise a more efficient method. In Fallen Earth, weapons range from everyday household items and tools, all the way up to military-grade engines of destruction. One of the tough decisions you will need to make in Fallen Earth will not be whether or not to use weapons. It will be to decide which weapons you will use. Weapons in Fallen Earth are divided into three main categories, those being melee, pistols and rifles. While it is possible to specialize in all three types of weapons, it is ill-advised. You would be better served to specialize in one type of weapon and use any additional AP to boost other skills and mutation lines. After the cut, I will discuss the ins-and-outs of each weapon style for PvP and PvE to ease your decision-making process.
Forsaken World unveils new Bard class
Ready for another Forsaken World class spotlight? If not, well, too bad! Perfect World Entertainment has just released a new blog entry highlighting the Bard, which the developer describes as one of the more complex archetypes for its upcoming free-to-play fantasy MMORPG. With phase one of the game's closed beta coming next week, you've got just enough time to wrap your head around the Bard's eccentricities before testing them out for yourself. The class looks to be a hybrid DPS/buffer spec, as, according to the blog, Bards "have the ability to both increase everyone's combat and defensive abilities as well as drop massive twisting cyclones of music notes that shred enemy targets." Sound interesting? Head on over to the official website for more details, and don't forget to sign up for the beta while you're there.
Ol' Grumpy's guide to Cataclysm instance protocols
If, like me, you've been tanking for a while, Cataclysm will be a return to a slower, more deliberate form of instancing. There are pros and cons to this, of course. The positives are: After a few weeks, those jerks who constantly say "go go go" in runs will have died a lot and will either have stopped playing or learned to stop doing that. Same for people who feel the need to pull while the tank/rest of the group is regaining mana and so on. Abilities that haven't seen much use in Wrath of the Lich King will probably make a comeback. You're going to need to learn to Polymorph, Sap, Trap, Hex and use other forms of CC. For the first few months of Cataclysm, at least, there will have to be more of a focus on skill and execution than numbers. Switching targets properly, not breaking CC before it's called for, and using your abilities at the right time will be rewarded. You're going to get whole new dungeons you haven't seen hundreds of times already, with all-new mechanics. Glory in once again having no idea what this pull does. The downsides, however, are also worth mentioning.
Vindictus' Evie offers a-mage-ing moves
Evie is not content to summon a wicked-looking golem to fight for her side, no! Details are coming to light that Evie, the recently introduced mage character in Nexon's free-to-play hack-and-slasher, Vindictus, will be bringing even more pain through additional magical means. Equipped with a staff at earlier stages, she will change to rather wicked-looking battle-scythes later in the game. Furthermore, one of her most insane attacks at low level is the Firebolt attack, which will not only grant high damage, but will add a knockback effect, if it remains true to the original version. To add to this wee, juicy tidbit of information, we understand that the key to Evie's survival is a five-layer shield, which gives her the ability to resist most attacks without major loss of hitpoints or mana. Considering the majority of MMO mages tend to be high-DPS glass cannons, Evie's ability to shield without major mana or health drain is likely welcome news for those who prefer crazy-damage casters but hate spending time studying floor textures while waiting for a rez. In all, the game is still in beta, so these details may well change before launch -- but it sounds pretty awesome to us so far.
Totem Talk: Elemental shaman changes for patch 4.0.1
Get some Fulmination with your Lightning Bolts! Sort the shocks from the flames with Totem Talk: Elemental, brought to you by Sarah Nichol, otherwise known as Pewter. She can also be seen pottering around TotemSpot, trailing a pet dalek behind her. My name is Sarah, and I have a problem. The diagnosis is farsightedness, a result of focusing on Cataclysm to the exclusion of all else. The quests, the new casting priorities, the shiny surroundings, and the fact that I get to be a dwarf instead of a draenei ... So much to think over, so much to explore! There is nothing cuter that a dwarf shaman, except maybe those new armadillos. Where was I, again? Now, patch 4.0.1 is on the PTR, dragging in new talent trees and new hit numbers to consider and the removal of Sentry Totem. Time to start paying attention. We must not let the sacrifice of Sentry Totem be in vain! There should be no expectations of balance at this point, as all these new level 80 shiny things are developed with level 85 in mind. There are still questions pending on some of the details, so whether our flames are bright or storm clouds are on the horizon for elemental is up for debate. From hit caps to casting priorities, we've got a bit to get through in my inaugural Totem Talk, so sit tight, make sure you know where your towel is and everything will be just fine. I hope. Now, where to start? Oh, yes. Hit.
Wasteland Diaries: PvP for dummies
PvP in Fallen Earth is different. It's not much like an MMORPG, and it's not much like an FPS (first-person shooter, for the uninitiated). It's a hybrid, and it can take some getting used to. But isn't that what PvE is for? To train us to PvP? I would like to think that, but many players of MMOs refuse to ever fight their fellow players. Considering I get most of my combat joy out of fighting other players, I find this online conscientious objector mentality beyond my ability to understand. But there are also those who will always PvP, and then there are the undecided. If you're wondering whether or not to try out some Fallen Earth PvP action, this article is for you. I have never understood why, in a game that has such paltry death penalties, so few engage in PvP. The fine folks at Fallen Earth, LLC have even been nice enough to put kid gloves on us when we PvP in Blood Sports. There is literally no penalty whatsoever for dying in a Blood Sports match. You respawn fully buffed and ready to get some. My goal in this article is to convince some of the players who are undecided on PvP to try it out. I'll give you the low-down on what to expect, and at the end I'll give you some tips from the pros. So, without any further ado, let's move on.
Guest Post: Confessions of a noob death knight
This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. Here's the thing: I've been a mage from day one, when I first started playing WoW a good two years ago. I always liked being a mage in Dungeons & Dragons, so I figured I would like being a mage in WoW. I was right. In fact, I love being a glass cannon. (OK, I don't love the glass part so much, but I really dig the cannon part.) I'm not a great mage; age and fingers that were broken by judo or baseball have slowed me some. Still, I am a good mage. I hold my own, doing anywhere from 7-12k DPS depending on buffs and what I am watching on TV. The thing is, as much as I love being a mage, making my own food and teleporting all around, I hate taking forever to queue. I also started thinking, "Hey, there must be more to simulated life than just standing back and blasting things." I decided to try a new character. Not having the patience to level a character from 1 to 80, I figured I'd go the death knight route. After all, DKs are mage-killers; they are the anti-mage. So after two years of being nothing but a ranged DPS machine, I rolled a DK.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: The replacements
Hey, guys, did you know that Going Rogue is launching in less than a week? That's crazy. It feels especially strange to me, since this was an expansion that had barely been announced when I started here, and has since become pretty personally important. But we're not here to talk about my vague feelings about the impending launch, we're here to talk about its larger implications for City of Heroes -- namely, the obvious systemic changes that might well be coming when the expansion goes live. Now, some of you are doubtlessly going to point out that we're not even getting our first Incarnate slot, the expansion isn't changing any part of the system, and so forth and so on. But you forget that there is an interesting change to the system coming that we all know about: the fact that archetypes will no longer be allegiance-locked. That's right -- whether you're in City of Heroes or City of Villains, you'll no longer be limited to five different archetypes. And considering the fact that the archetypes are roughly analogous on both sides now, this might have just a bit of an impact.
Waging WAR: A healer's advice for melee-DPS
Waging WAR starts the month of August with a look at archetypes in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and the way they work together in RvR and scenarios. Although Greg's rules apply to pretty much any class-based, group-based, PvP-centric game, he prefers to think of them as particular to WAR, since there's a bunch of game-specific slang in there that he's too lazy to change. Having a role to play is integral to the massively multiplayer online experience, but when the term "roleplay" comes up, it usually means something very specific and closely related to dramatic acting. Taken in a broader sense, it means that we choose our roles when we project the most imaginative aspect of our psychic selves and ask the question "who (or what) do I want to be?" Thus, our vicarious adventures begin. For the purposes of social gaming, it should come as no surprise that those classes usually fit another staple in the MMO universe -- the role trinity of tanker, healer, and damager. While the bond between the healer and tanker is obvious, the unspoken pact between healer and damager is just as sacred and yet all too easily forgotten. For those who were unaware such a promise existed, it goes something like, "I, the healer, promise to keep you alive so you can kill stuff in the face (better)." However, in many cases, the damaging character is delegated an expendable role, compared to the tank's priority or the healer's own survival. These are exceptions that the melee-damager is usually aware of and even comfortable with. But today I'm not here to challenge those roles like I normally would when talking about damage-healer hybrids. As a specialized healer, I've defined a few, easy-to-remember rules that I believe every melee-damage player should follow in group situations (PUG or premade – there is little difference when it comes to these rules). Solo play is an entirely different realm and beyond the scope of this column; I want to focus on the special synergy between healer and melee-damager, and to dispense advice to those brave, wayward souls in their never-ending quest to face blades as they bring their own to bear. I'll bestow these tidbits of wisdom after the break.
Addons 101: The other essentials
Addons 101 is a four-part series for beginners dedicated to understanding what an addon is, how they enhance the gameplay experience of World of Warcraft, some popular addons in certain categories, and popular venues in which to research, download and find addons. Addons 101 has covered a lot of ground for new players looking to get into addons for the first time. We have discussed what addons are and why you would want them, and we have gone over some of the basic elements of the World of Warcraft user interface and how they can be improved upon. I hope that some people have gained some knowledge into addons and have had their fears alleviated somewhat -- addons won't hurt you, I promise! This week, Addons 101 looks at what I call the other essentials. These are interface elements that have become important over the lifetime of WoW but are not intrinsically understandable just by looking at the user interface the game presents you with. Before I start, let me say that Blizzard has taken steps in the right direction on many of these items, but addons still do the job better, for the most part. We will discuss terms, recommend certain addons and hopefully give some good explanations for any questions that might be had. As always, if you're an interface and addon newbie, I'm more than happy to field questions at mat@wow.com (remember the one "t").
Totem Talk: Enhance DPS on the move
Rich Maloy, master of the turn-around-Frost-Shock, nerd-rager of the Big Crits (week 7 coming next week), and blogger of the enhancement variety prides himself on keeping the pressure on the boss at all times. He encourages you to work on your turn-around jump shot this week. I love being melee. I love being up in the middle of the fray right on the boss' heel, breathing in the fumes of battle and mashing my abilities as fast as global cooldowns will allow. But the cost of being in the heart of the action are cleaves. And whirlwinds. And tail swipes, dragon breaths, shock vortexes, running around the room chasing ads, and oh yeah, dodging cleaves. Did I mention whirlwinds yet? Granted, there's not as much hate on melee in Wrath as there was in The Burning Crusade, but our DPS is still limited by time on target. We are after all, melee. Yet the great thing about enhance is when we're not in melee range, we can still lob some spells and drop some fire bombs all while running around dodging those whirlwinds. It was Sindragosa's Permeating Chill that first got me thinking about maximizing my damage output while I'm not doing melee attacks. Also, her Blistering Cold got me wondering about ways to keep damage on boss even while running in the complete opposite direction. What follows are some of my simple strategies for maximizing time on target and keeping the damage pumping even while running around.
Totem Talk: Cooldown management in the Lower Spire
Axes, maces, lightning, fire, frost, wolves, and best of all, Windfury. It can mean only one thing: enhancement. Rich Maloy lives it and loves it. His main spec is enhance. His off-spec is enhance. He blogs about the life and times of enhance at Big Hit Box, pens the enhance side of Totem Talk, and leads the guild/reality-show Big Crits as the enhancement shaman Stoneybaby. (pic: grats Saltycracker on Big Crits' first Shadowmourne!) This article originally started as an enhancement shaman's guide to cooldown usage in ICC but given that cooldown management is universal to all damage dealers I've expanded the scope of the article. Actually, "expanded the scope" is a bit grandiose; it's more accurate to say I just changed the wording from enhance-specific spells to using the generic 3-min, 2-min and 1-min cooldowns. In some cases I kept the enhancement abilities because they bring other abilities in addition to just straight damage. Here's a quick rundown of our major cooldowns for the unenhanced: 10 min – Bloodlust/Heroism – you know it and love it 10 min – Fire Ele (5 min with glyph) – yeah he's dumb but what do you expect, his brains are on fire 3 min – Berserk & Bloodfury – Troll & Orc racials, respectively 3 min – Feral Spirit – two wolves who do damage and heal you simultaneously. Rad. 2 min – on-use Trinkets – Currently my trinkets are not on-use but I take them into account in case yours are 1 min – Shamanistic Rage with t10 2pc – normally this is a mana-regeneration and damage-reduction spell but with 2pc t10 it increases damage. I still talk about using Bloodlust/Heroism, Fire Ele, and Shammy Rage because they have their own unique aspects to deal with in raid. Namely, BL/Hero helps everyone, the Fire Ele is dumb as hell, and Shammy Rage mitigates damage.
