Warlocks
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Netherstorm summoning restriction to be removed
To accompany the information about patch 2.4 regarding the ability to summon into instances, Tigole popped into the Elitist Jerks forums with another handy detail.The restriction on summoning in Netherstorm is going to be removed entirely! Hooray! While this change won't vastly alter gameplay, it's another nice little convenience thing. Those are usually the most enjoyable changes, I think. This far into the game, there really isn't much need to keep Tempest Keep restricted to those with flying mounts. Plus, as all of the level 68 Druids with their Flight Form have displayed, you don't need to be top level to do some damage in most of Tempest Keep either.This seems like it might be another change with the intent of opening the game up to more players and speeding up the content to prepare for Wrath of the Lich King, but most people I know never liked the summoning restriction anyway. I, for one, am glad to see it go.
The Soloist: I've Got a Hench
Here's something I never missed before in WoW, but now I wish it could be implemented. I was leafing through the manual for my newly-purchased Guild Wars box (at $5 it was a steal! Thank you, random sidewalk sale!) and it mentioned the ability to purchase henchmen, or mercenaries, to travel with you on your adventures.Now, WoW has its similarities -- Hunters get pets, as do Warlocks -- and of course you have your guilds or PUGs. But here's the thing: leveling up a pet and outfitting it with new abilities is a pain. It's not how I want to spend my in-world time. And even though it's an MMO, I'm a lone wolf -- I don't want to group with people to play. In fact, this is the inaugural post of a recurring feature I'm calling The Soloist -- posts about playing MMOs alone.So, why can't I buy or rent mercs in WoW? Just think of all the times you weren't able to enjoy a quick raid because none of your friends or guildies were available. Or perhaps you have a random playing schedule and just can't coordinate even so much as a PUG. Maybe you just don't like the social aspect of MMOs in general. Whatever the reason, developers ignore the solo player at their peril! The funny thing is, Blizzard made mercenaries available in Diablo II, and that's kinda MMO, innit? C'mon, guys, help a lone agent out. Give us henchmen!
Warlocks in patch 2.3: nerfed or fixed?
At BlizzCon, every time someone mentioned Warlocks during the panels, the crowd would boo. On the forums, the cries of "Nerf Warlocks!" were loud and frequent. Now, in patch 2.3, some Warlocks are saying that Blizzard has listened and nerfed them.Danakha posted a breakdown on the forums of the Warlock changes and his analysis of them, stating that Blizzard listened to all the complaints and acted on them. His main problem with 2.3 is this change:Drain Life and Siphon Life now reduce the amount healed when the warlock is affected by healing reducing effects (e.g. Mortal Strike, Wounding Poison).Blue poster Eyonix responded with:I'm sorry to say that though this may feel like a "nerf" it is in-fact a fix.
The draw of DPS classes
Keen and Graev have a good post up about why (according to them) players prefer playing DPS roles. Statistically, it appears to be more or less true-- according to Warcraft Realms, four of the five highest class percentages are traditionally DPS classes: Mage, Rogue, Warlock, and Hunter. Warriors also have a higher population, but it could be argued that only 1/3 of the Warrior specs (Prot, as opposed to Arms or Fury) out there are actually meant for anything other than DPS.So why do players seemingly prefer to play DPS? K&G give three main reasons. They cite something they call "Big Number Syndrome," which is the idea that unless you're dealing big damage, your class is worthless. They say that doing DPS requires less responsibility-- tanks and healers have to pay attention to everything, but DPSers choose a target and kill it. And they say that DPS classes level faster, which seems anecdotally (at least) to be true-- more damage means a faster kill, which means XP more often.In general (very generally, in fact), I tend to agree. For these reasons, some people are definitely drawn to the DPS lifestyle. But I don't think that these reasons are why people chose these classes in the first place. Hunters, for example, have pets, and I think that's a much bigger draw to the class than "big number syndrome" ever was. And let's not forget that these are more or less the most archetypal classes in the game-- someone who's never played the game probably would immediately know what a "Mage" or "Rogue" could do, whereas a Shaman (the lowest class population, according to the census) is a little harder to explain.So I think K&G are putting the chicken before the egg-- these things may be true about DPS looking back (and they may in fact be reasons people choose DPSers as alts). But when people first choose a class to call their own, I think it's a little simpler than that.[ via Hardcore Casual ]
WoW Moviewatch: Just so OP
Nyhm is a blood elf warlock who is just so Over-Powered that he wants to sing about it. In the spirit of Weird Al (you might recognize the tune) he brings us his declaration of just how OP he is. The thing I like about this is how he pronounces "OP" as if it were "oappie" or "oh, pee." It's a good song to bring a smile to your face.
Those evil, evil Warlocks
I'm not quite sure if I buy this assessment from Mystic Worlds: She says that Warlocks are the new villians of WoW. Just like everyone used to hate Paladins (wait, we stopped hating Paladins?), Warlocks are the new class people love to hate and consider extremely OP.She says, insightfully, that the reason for this is that Warlocks have just tons of annoying abilities. Fear is probably foremost among them-- with a skilled Warlock, your character spends half the fight out of your control. Soul Link and Felguards are just plain evil (it's like having a Warrior tank for you), and with all those DoTs, a lock is hellfire on wheels (and ten locks in WSG are even worse). Not to mention that since locks love to load up on Stamina, they're tough to kill, too.It's just MW's timing that I don't agree with-- people have hated Warlocks for a long time now, and I'd say in general that so many classes have been buffed lately that people have moved on. Personally, Hunters are the class that drives me nuts in PvP now-- they still have that very exploitable dead zone, but in a big melee, one Hunter can lay down DoTs and CC and turn the tide of battle. Plus, those NE Hunters in Tier armor just look so smug! A Warlock is still trouble, but my shadow Priest can fear and DoT, too, and no one's bothered by him. It's Hunters that really bug me.
WoW Moviewatch: Fantastico News
If there were a standard Azerothian newscast format -- this wouldn't be it. (At least I don't think news anchors are supposed to be quite so existential.) Also bear in mind that this is an older video, made back when felheart was the ultimate achievement of any Warlock and long before the world had weather effects.Previously on Moviewatch...
Blood Pact: Changing resilience to weaken DoTs
Perhaps you've heard about the planned change to modify the resilience stat to effect DoTs? When I first read about it, I can't say I understood it. Resilience is an anti-crit stat, which reduces the chance that you'll take a critical strike and reduces the damage done by a critical strike if you take it. Specifically, each point of resilience (and at level 70, it takes 39.4 resilience rating to equal one point of resilience) reduces your chance to be crit by 1% and reduces crit damage by 2%.But the main downside to using DoTs as a damage source is that they're incapable of critting. So what in the world do DoTs have to do with resilience? Eyonix explains it for us:As it currently stands, each new tier of equipment adds to the amount of damage DoT abilities have, yet that damage is not mitigated through combat ratings found on typical equipment. This change will help ensure that DoT effects do not scale too well compared to other damage mechanics. The amount of damage reduced will be equal to the critical chance reduction effect that resilience grants.If you're as confused as I was about why this was being done, not to mention how it was going to work, read on.
Blood Pact: What is a Warlock?, part 2
Every week Elizabeth Harper contributes Blood Pact, where she tries to share the joy of the Warlock class with her fellow players, Warlock or not.Warlocks are an unusual class -- difficult to define by any measure. When I first started playing, I sometimes had trouble getting into instance groups. The conversation would go something like this:Me: Hey, I saw you were looking for more for Scarlet Monastery. Can I join?Party leader: Well, we really wanted DPS...Me: I'm a Warlock -- I can DPS!Party leader: NM, we just found a Hunter.Me: But...!Now, I don't think I ran into this problem because the party leaders were always idiots. It's just that many players didn't have a clear idea of what a Warlock was or what they could do. Last week, I talked about the two of the most powerful tools in the Warlok's arsenal: DoTs and Fear. This week, I'm going to continue trying to define what a Warlock is by talking about the many things they bring to a group, starting with pets. Yes! You may not realize it, but Warlock pets aren't just for soloing -- they have stellar group utility.
Blood Pact: What is a Warlock?, part 1
Every week Elizabeth Harper contributes Blood Pact, where she tries to share the joy of the Warlock class with her fellow players, Warlock or not. When I first started playing World of Warcraft, I rolled the ubiquitous Night Elf Hunter. The pet angle appealed to me, and in all the games I'd played previously, I preferred to stay away from close combat and pelt my victims with spells or arrows from a safe distance. However, with so many classes available to me, I couldn't stick with just one -- my second character was a Mage. I spent my first weeks in Azeroth cheerfully hopping between these two characters, but I must admit that neither of the characters made it past level 20. Why? I found out that a friend of mine played on another realm, so I rerolled to join them -- this time as a Warlock.I didn't know what I was getting in to at the time, I only knew that Warlocks had pets like Hunters and cast spells like Mages. But I've got to tell you, despite the first-glance similarities between the classes, they're not at all alike -- which I learned while leveling mine to 60. (And before you ask -- I played this Warlock prior to the class changes that turned them into tiny gods. Yes, I was a Warlock back when Warlocks were the underdogs.) Perhaps you're not quite sure what to expect from Warlocks -- whether you play with them, are trying to kill them, or are thinking about rolling one yourself. If so, read on as I attempt to explain the essence of the Warlock class.
Breakfast topic: Knee-slappers
I really wanted to share this with you guys, but I couldn't think of a good place to put it. So instead, we'll turn it into a Breakfast Topic, and you guys can share some of your favorite WoW jokes.I love this, from the EU Forums:Q: What do a noob and a rogue have in common?A: They both pick locks!HA! A while back I posted another warlock joke that still makes me laugh (I guess everyone wants to pick on warlocks), but if you've got any other WoW jokes (or jokes that have been adapted to fit the WoW setting), let us hear them, the cornier the better.Ok, one more:Q: What do Undead Tauren say?A: Boo.HA! Ok, one more:Q: How many CMs does it take to change a lightbulb?A: None, it's working as intended.HAHAHAHA!
A look at Blizzard's stats, post-Burning Crusade
Last November, Blizzard finally made public a page full of stats for what's happening to all of us in game-- the most dangerous creatures, most gathered items, most completed quests, and so on. Ever since, I always find it fascinating to stop over there and see what's new, but today I realized that I haven't really seen it since Burning Crusade dropped. So let's take a look at what players are up to since the Dark Portal opened, shall we?Netherweave has jumped right to the top of listings in the Auction House, while Arcade Dust makes a nice showing at 7th. Of the Primal elements, only Earth is on the first page (most likely because it's the most farmed from all those Earth Elementals in Nagrand). It also comes from Mining, so it makes a good showing on the Most Gathered Items as well-- Copper leads that category by double everything else, though, most likely because of all the jewelcrafting going on. In fact, while Soul Shards are still number one, Copper Bars are the second Most Created Items in the realms, too. Interesting that you have to go to page 3 before you see a jewelcrafting item, though-- two sets of battleground tokens (Arathi Basin and WSG) are being made more than any Delicate Copper Wire.Warlock pets remain on the top of the Most Dangerous NPC list, but King Bangalash and those nasty Defias Pillagers have company-- apparently people are back playing their mains, and raid bosses like Shade of Aran, Gruul, Nightbane, and the Maiden are killing players by the thousands. The Most Complete Quests screen has interesting info, too-- almost all of the quests are newbie Blood Elf quests (there is at least one Draenei newbie quest mixed in, but BEs have the clear majority). You'd think people would be completing quests in Outland to level, but three months after BC release, maybe that's not the case anymore. According to the stats, it seems like the large majority of players has gotten their mains to 70, are raiding Kara and Gruul, and leveling up their Blood Elf mains.
Number breakdown on classes in 5v5 arenas
Our good friends at Paladin Sucks point to this very interesting breakdown of classes in all the 5v5 area teams over 2000 arena rating. Can you guess which classes are winning the Arena PvP game?The answer surprised me: it's warriors. For all of their bellyaching, warriors are cutting through the opposition in the arena-- they make up almost 20% of all the players with teams above 2000 arena rating. And next on the list, surprisingly enough, is paladins-- with 33, they're 18% of the winning players. And maybe most surprising, Druids and Warlocks, the two teams who seem to dominate in PvP, are bringing up the rear in terms of players, with a measly 4% and 3% respectively.Now, this makes no distinction about what these players are actually doing in these teams-- when I go into the arena with my Shaman, it seems that all I'm doing mostly is trying to stay alive, and warriors with a healer behind them are very, very good at that. I believe the numbers came from the Armory (where you can sort by rating, but only by battlegroup), but whoever wrote it up didn't say where the numbers came from. I've reprinted the full list of classes with the number of players in teams with an arena rating of over 2000 after the jump, for the benefit of those of you at work.
Warlock Spells: Ritual of Souls
The last in the "Warlock Spells" mini-series, Ritual of Souls is a spell everyone can love. Why? Healthstones! And who doesn't love a nice, refreshing healthstone every now and then? The fact that it's a reduced shard cost for the warlock just makes the warlock happy.This spell is only usable out of combat. The warlock starts the spell and a small altar drops out of the sky. Two people in the party/raid assist, and the altar disappears, to be replaced by a red crystal. One shard is consumed, and up to 10 healthstones can be pulled out of the crystal for the next 5 minutes. The healthstones will be just like getting one from the warlock made one-at-a-time, benefiting from the Improved Healthstone talent. As an added bonus, the red crystal that spawns will dispense healthstones for a full 5 minutes, whether you are in combat or not. So before a long fight, warlocks can drop one of these, give out healthstones, and if someone uses their healthstone during combat they can pick up another one and use it after the 2 minute cool down on healthstones has expired.
Warlock spells: Seed of Corruption
The next spell that warlocks receive is a level 70 spell called Seed of Corruption. This is an incredibly nasty spell, I'm having a lot of fun with it.Basically it's a different version of the warlock spell Corruption, it does a certain amount of damage over time. What's different about this spell is that it has its own, built in finishing move. When the target has sustained 1044 total damage, whether it's from Seed of Corruption, other spells you cast, or spells other players do, the seed "goes off" and inflicts all hostile targets within 15 yards with a one-time shadow damage spell. This spell will kind of chain react with other seeds, so if you cast it on, say, 4 targets, the first one exploding will contribute to the other targets exploding. Finally, I can't throw this and Corruption on the same target. Which is sort of a bummer, really.This spell is incredibly useful in a few different situations. The spell does, at a minimum, about the same damage/mana as Corruption on a single target. When there are multiple close-packed targets, the efficiency really starts to shine. For the downsides, read on.
Warlock DPS calculator
Ybrith, of Rajaxx (Eu), has put together a lovely piece of theorycrafting apparatus. This warlock DPS calculator takes your stats and talent information, the length of the fights you're interested in, and a few strategy parameters, and comes up with your DPS over the length of the fight, as well as how fast you would be losing life. It seems to be geared towards the end-game, as it's based on level 70 spells and also not suited for calculating things like mana efficiency, which is important in leveling.Still, for a number-head like me this thing is amazing. I've learned that with the default stats (since I have no clue what a warlock's gear is like at 70), my current leveling build (41/20/0) would do 1035 DPS, whereas sample Destro builds I threw together get 1190 (0/21/40) or 1174 (21/0/40) DPS. It's interesting to me that Aff and Destro are so close; I don't think this would have been the case pre-BC.So, Warlocks in the crowd: what do you think? Does this thing look relatively accurate? And how do you stack up?
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Adventures in Beta: Fun with Seed of Corruption
The final entrant in our series of easily abused Burning Crusade spells is the warlock's Seed of Corruption. According to Blizzard, this level 70 spell "imbeds a demon seed in the enemy target, causing 1044 Shadow damage over 18 sec. When the target takes 1044 total damage, the seed will inflict 1110 to 1290 Shadow damage to all enemies within 15 yards of the target." Beta testers have found that the "bomb" will also go off if the target dies with Seed of Corruption on them. Aside from killing Xzin and making jokes about "planting a demon seed," what can Seed of Corruption be used for? Its obvious use is for killing large groups of low-level mobs, but how can it work beyond that? Murderella (what a great name for a female gnome warlock!) and other warlocks have come up with a few on the beta forums:
