Achein of Dath’Remar:

Queued for ZF purely so that once assembled, he could run into the mobs, die, and get to a graveyard in Tanaris. And then left he the group.

That is – he queued as a tank for ZF purely to die and get a shortcut to Gadgetzan.


WOW. WOW WOW WOWOWOWOWOW.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Lovely justice: Charms now dropping for healers in instances
• Healers and Killing Blows
• Dual specs + LFD + Need = drama?

Seems that during this week’s maintenance and tweaks, the “just go farm Ulduar derp derp” strategy (I use the term very loosely) has been nerfed and no longer works. You can no longer use vehicles in Ulduar, on bombing runs, or to trample Icecrown skeletons to get your charms.

In addition, healers are reporting that they are passively receiving Lovely Charms in instances, without doing any damage to the mobs. They are receiving charms for contributing to the group, but don’t have to deal any killing blows in order to be eligible. This is how it should have worked from the very start. No more Holy Nova spam for Mephitik.


Farming Ulduar wasn’t cheating – but it wasn’t right, either.

So now the healers are happy, and the Ulduar farmers are crying. Awww. It’s tragic when Big Bad Blizzard steps in and stops people from trivialising achievements. I shed a single glistening tear for all those people who can no longer “farm” charms in bulk.

(Not really.)

Cassandri over at HoTs and DoTs wrote a great article on exploits and how we define them. I don’t think the Ulduar trash farming was an exploit as such; I’m sure Blizzard would have jumped in much faster if it had been. But I do believe it went against the spirit of the event – mass farming charm bracelets in bulk and then listing them for 20g a pop on the AH.

Those bracelets are supposed to be special, people – not mass produced in some cheap dwarf sweatshop! Where’s the love?

I don’t think the developers intended people to jump into vehicles and blow up hundreds of mobs a minute to procure bagfuls of bracelets. The fact that it has been nerfed confirms this thinking – it wasn’t working as intended.

As an aside – what made me laugh was all the people whose counter to the healers was “onoez, you have to work for your achievements.. QQ”. Yet they were trivialising the achievement themselves by farming 50 bracelets in a siege engine, instead of working for them in the way it was intended….

It wasn’t against the rules. But it was a bit dirty. Call me a carebear or a goodie-two-shoes – I don’t like doing things that go against the spirit of the content, and yes, I do look down my nose at people who think it’s ok to do it. I believe that most reasonable people have an inkling that maybe something isn’t really the way it’s meant to be done. I just think that as grown-ups we can tell the difference between intended and unintended, and then make the choice not to take advantage of these temporary oversights by Blizzard. They didn’t intend us to be able to farm 500 charms in half an hour and then flood the auction house with them.

Was it cheating? No, of course not – the mechanic was there – kill high level mobs, get charms. People thought, “where can I kill as many mobs as I can, in as little time as possible?” It was pretty smart, in terms of efficiency.

It definitely wasn’t in the spirit of the event, though – and I wouldn’t participate in that, because it falls inside the boundaries of what I personally consider cheating.


Smug Keeva is oh so smug.

Obviously, some people aren’t too happy that Blizzard took away their ezmode bulk farming strat. Someone wrote in the WoW forum thread:

yeah you could have gotten 100x more charms from the ways you were told but atleast you ruined it for everyone else


Oh boy, I just couldn’t help myself… I HAD to respond:

In the spirit of the past 20 pages, there really is only one response to this.


Don’t worry, you can still get charms by grinding mobs or doing your dailies!

*smiles*


Oh man, if only they could have seen the enormous shit-eating grin that I had on my face when I posted it.


PS: The healers didn’t get the Ulduar strategy nerfed, and it’s pretty dumb to pin that on us. We were talking about a completely different issue – most didn’t even care that you could go into Ulduar. I don’t think I ever saw anyone asking for the Ulduar method to be shut down. We just wanted the imbalance in dungeons to be fixed. The healers said “we can’t get them in heroics, please change this” and the response was “go to Ulduar”. We weren’t the ones who brought it to Blizzard’s attention

Anyway – hooray for Blizzard listening to us and doing the right thing!

Possibly Related Posts:

• The evolution of loot systems across servers
• Contender for biggest LFD jerk ever
• WoW dev chat – Twitter: on making healing “more fun”

I really have to say that I am unimpressed by yet another holiday achievement demonstrating a lack of foresight on the part of the developers.

I’m referring to “Charming” which requires you to acquire Lovely Charms and turn them into a Lovely Charm Bracelet (10 charms are then made into one bracelet). You can get the charms by killing any green+ mob. So you can collect them by grinding, doing quests, or doing dungeons – anything that will have you killing green+ mobs.

BUT – you need to land the killing blow to receive the charm.

This is obviously not an issue when you’re soloing, since you’ll be dealing all the killing blows*, but it means that healers either miss out while in groups, or they have to spam AOE to try to steal kills – because we don’t do the killing in dungeons.

(*Note: since it goes off killing blows and NOT who tagged the mob, if you are grinding mobs out in the world, someone else can steal your charms by finishing off your kill before you get a chance to. This is a double blow for healers who don’t have a DPS spec, since we can’t burst mobs down like a DPSer can, leaving us vulnerable to having our kill stolen. I had people steal several of my kills yesterday.)

Of course, when someone points out the inequality here, the typical responses are things like:



• “Just go to Ulduar and use the seige engines for 1000 charms a minute!”

• “QQ, just go do some daily quests, stop whining.”
• “It’s always going to be harder for a non-DPS class to DPS mobs, durr” (wow..)
• “You have an AOE spell, try using it.”
• “Don’t you have a dual spec? Go DPS and quit crying.”
• “onoez, you have to do some WORK to get an achievement? Boohoo” (whoooooooosh, there goes the issue at hand, sailing right over the top of your head…)


Yes – there are ways for you to go out there and use vehicles for 5 billion charms a minute – that’s so awesome! I’m so happy you enjoy doing it that way! But it doesn’t change the fact that during everyday, normal play, a DPS class will receive more charms than a healing class – without even trying. Charms will simply drop into their bags while they do anything – BGs, dungeons, raids, daily quests, grinding. But the healers don’t get any from BGs, dungeons or raids (unless they are DPSing at the same time).

The imbalance is obvious.

Quoting poster Proxima from the forums, who hit the issue right on the nose:

This argument is so stupid it’s mind boggling.

DPS: Do what you always do, get lots of holiday items.

Tank: Do what you always do, get some holiday items.

Healer: Do what you always do, get jack squat. Instead find some way to game the system and listen to idiots on the forums claim this is somehow logical and balanced, not to mention “Working as intended”.

Christ, it’s not like the imbalance isn’t ludicrously obvious.

(my emphasis)

And Carmelita:

If i were a DPS by the end of the two weeks I would have all i needed by doing what I normally do, but being a healer means I have to go out of my way to do dailies that are boring to me and grind mobs that take twice as long for me to kill as compared to a DPS. It truly is the principle of the matter for me.

Spot on.

It’s not that we can’t get charms. It’s that other people will get all the charms they need (and more) without deviating a single tiny bit from their normal daily routine – while healers have to go out and farm for them, either by grinding mobs, doing dailies in overpopulated areas, or by going into Ulduar and killing Flame Leviathan trash. DPSers can do this achievement passively, but healers (and to a lesser extent, tanks) will have to go out and spend extra time farming for the items for the achievement.

Is it a big deal? Not in the grand scheme of things. Does it cripple my ability to get an achievement? No (in fact I already had the achievement, retroactively). But even if I already had the achievement, that doesn’t stop me from feeling annoyed that Blizzard can’t seem to see achievements that are skewed. I don’t like it when things are unfair.

It’s a matter of principle.

YES, I could go quest. Or grind. Or zoom around in Ulduar vehicles, blowing up dwarves for great justice. I’m not unable to get charms. I’m not unable to do this achievement through my own means.

But DPS classes are getting charms fall into their bags as they go about their daily business (dungeons). When I do the same, I get nothing – UNLESS I spend the run doing whatever I can do AOE down mobs OR I go and do vehicle quests or lolfarm the Flame Leviathan trash.

If it’s still not clear that it is unfair – then here’s another example. Your guild does their usual clear of ICC. Trash galore. Charms drop, but ONLY go to the DPS classes – none of the healers get any. How is this fair?

A DPS friend runs a heroic with me. For running the heroic, he is rewarded with 2 Emblems of Frost and 13 Lovely Charms. I did the same heroic, but only get 2 Emblems of Frost. Fair?

Let’s go even further and put it into monetary terms. Bracelets (=10 charms) are selling for about 20g. So for every 10 charms you collect, you make a 19g profit. For running that heroic, my DPS friend received 2 Emblems of Frost and (the equivalent of) ~25g. I get 2 Emblems of Frost.

See?


Once again – yes, I could go do dailies, or grind, or farm Ulduar for my charms. But that is not the issue. The issue is that DPS classes will have the charms fall in their bags during normal, everyday instances that they would have done anyway – while healers have to go out of their way to go get them. The ease of acquiring them is NOT the issue – it’s not hard to go “farm” them – the issue is that it is blatantly unfair that some people are awarded these items almost passively, while others don’t – despite having contributed equally to the kill.

I really truly do not understand how Blizzard can’t see that this is unfair and unbalanced. This is not a “wah wah, life is so unfair, why do you hate healers so much” post. It’s just a simple statement of fact – this achievement is skewed, and it is unfair to healers.

Attaching a quest item to a killing blow shows incredible lack of foresight on Blizzard’s part. And when it’s brought to their attention, frustratingly, they tell us it’s working as intended.


Big deal? No. Disappointing? Very.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Contender for biggest LFD jerk ever
• Healing Sindragosa
• Glyph of Rapid Rejuvenation and 25man raid healing

A snippet from Flash of Moonfire (read the full story here) –

I queued for normal ToC on my feral because I wanted the Black Heart, and being that I wanted in faster, I queued for both tank and dps. When I first did that I expected to go as tank to be honest, but it ended up being that about half the time I ran normal ToC I went as dps. Tanks love this place, and only one tank can go at a time.

The Black Heart dropped. I immediately rolled Need for it.

Then the party immediately said that what I’d done was not cool, that I shouldn’t have queued as dps to roll on a tanking trinket. I explained that I do both and queued as both. In retrospect I could have said something at the start of the instance like “I’m here for the Black Heart. If you don’t like it, leave and I’ll switch over to my tank spec and we’ll requeue for another dps,” but I hadn’t thought it would be a big deal.


I feel for you Hana! Something similar happened to me a couple of weeks ago.

I don’t like playing feral in instances, so I queue Drucie as a healer; both because that’s what I love doing, and because I get fast queues. I roll on both types of gear – healing mostly, so I can heal the heroics more effectively, but I’m also on the lookout for nice feral pieces for Drucie’s main set. She is a feral druid – don’t be fooled – I just don’t want to play feral in 5 mans. Call it a quirk. Besides, healing is what I’m good at, so it’s better for the group all-round.


If you heal the group, you can only roll on healing gear. Ever.

Apparently, and nobody informed me of this earlier, but APPARENTLY you’re only “allowed” to roll on gear that fits the job you are doing *right now*. That’s the rule. I don’t remember seeing this rule anywhere, but I’ve since been told that’s how it works. If you are a healer and you roll on DPS or tank gear, you’re a ninja. Likewise if you tank or DPS a run and you roll on healing gear – ninja.

Oddly, though, if you’re a tank and roll on DPS gear, or a DPS with a tank spec and you roll on tanking gear – nobody bats an eyelid. To demonstrate – here’s an example:



• I ran a normal TOC5. I queued as healer.

• The tank was a pally, and we had a rogue, mage, and DK as DPS.
• Tanking plate dropped. The pally and DK needed. The DK won. Nothing was said.
• DPS leather dropped. I rolled need. The rogue rolled need. I won. Something was said:
  

  
  Figure 1: Tell me how you really feel.


Like Hana, in retrospect, maybe I should have had a macro that blurts out “Hi, I’m here for XYZ, if that’s a problem, speak up now”. But hey, I see tanks rolling on DPS gear, DPS DKs and pallies rolling on tank gear – clearly for their dual spec – and I don’t think to say anything. Evidently, though, if you cross the line and roll on healing gear as DPS, or DPS/tank gear as healer, that’s ninja behaviour.

I’m a fair person. Oftentimes, once I have won something, I will pass on subsequent greens and shard rolls to be nice to the others in the group and give them more winnings. If two items drop from one boss and I would like both, I will take one and pass another. I don’t take +hit gear over casters, and in runs where I’m able to roll on cloth, I don’t do it if clothies need. I’m not a jerk, I’m not greedy, and I’m not a ninja.

I mean, geez, yesterday I felt bad rolling Need on an “of the Eagle” green on my lowbie priest because it was level 23 and I still had half a level before I could wear it.

But “You can only roll on gear that matches your role in the group” is the most stupid idea ever, and I won’t be sticking to it just because DPSers are greedy and don’t want to compete on rolls. Sorry, but I don’t enjoy being feral in 5 mans, so I heal groups to get feral gear. It’s my subscription, and I won’t be forced into a role that I dislike just because you feel morally outraged that I came in wearing a dress but want to roll on your “rogue loot”.

(PS – if he hadn’t been such a jerk, I would have just traded it to him if he really wanted it.)


OHAI, JUST FYI, I’M GONNA TAKE ALL UR LOOTS

I now have a macro. The macro’s icon is a giant blue sad face, to represent QQ over a dual-specced feral/resto druid rolling on DPS leather, waaah.

It says,

“Hi – I queued to heal but my main spec is Feral. I intend to roll Need on both healing and feral loot if the item is an upgrade for me. If this is a problem, please speak up now.”

Perhaps I might change it to include something like, “If there’s something specific you want though.. let me know, I won’t roll against you.”


Personally, from what I have seen, Need rolls are often made by people on behalf of their dual specs, and I don’t think I should have to have a macro to explain my intentions, purely because I am crossing that healing vs dps/tank line. But I refuse to be branded a ninja – so from now on, all groups will get a nice little canned warning note before we start, to avoid any confusion.

It’s unfortunate for some people that they only have one set of gear for both specs and so feel slighted because everyone else wants to collect twice as many items – and I’m also sorry that you have a longer wait time than I do- but the fact is, I put in equal effort, and I have equal right to roll on drops – whether it’s healing or DPS leather. If you have a problem with that, you can wait for a new group, or for a new healer.

At any rate, I’ll be “warning” groups in the future, so nobody can finger-point.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Contender for biggest LFD jerk ever
• Lovely justice: Charms now dropping for healers in instances
• Healers and Killing Blows

This is my baby priest, Mephitik.




I love her name; I chose it carefully. I think it’s fitting, for her race. I made her a while ago, because we didn’t have any priests, and because I wanted to try another healer.

I was bored and felt like picking her back up again, and thought maybe I could try some instances using the LFD tool. I LOVE healing instances. I dont mind levelling, but I’d rather be doing groups. I’ve wanted to try another healing class for a while, but worried that levelling up and then having to “learn to heal” all of a sudden at 80 would be hard, because generally it’s difficult to get groups for low level dungeons (so my group experience would be very limited).

So I’m loving this new tool. I can quest for a few minutes, then get a group. Sometimes the queue is instant. Port straight there, get almost a full level in the dungeon, and go straight back to what I was doing. I went from 14 to 22 after doing a handful of dungeons and a smattering of quests (and I get to skip all of the quests that I particularly hate – because I’m levelling so quickly that I don’t have to do them – yay!)

I’m having fun, healing groups, and I’m learning about another healing class, which can only be a good thing.


Waltzing into Stormwind

One of my first memories of the game was being run through Deadmines and the Stockade when I was a brand new Night Elf druid. My friends, being veterans of the game, took for granted that everyone knows their way around Stormwind and EVERYONE knows where the Stockade is. They zoned in while I trailed quite far behind, trying to negotiate my way around Stormwind. They disappeared off my map, and then impatiently asked why I was taking so long to get there. Indignantly (defensively), I told them I had no idea where they were. They had to zone out to show me where to go.

I think, perhaps, Blizzard has overlooked this kind of problem when implementing the new LFD (Looking for Dungeon) system for low level instances. Some people simply have no idea how to get to these dungeons – or it’s been so long, they might as well have never been there. Some dungeons are easy enough to find, but the entrance portals are hidden inside a maze of winding tunnels and passageways.

Obviously this isn’t a problem when you first join the group, you get ported right there. Hordies can do Deadmines and The Stockade without ever having to set foot in Westfall or Stormwind. We can do Gnomeregan without having to do the (still bugged) teleporter quest. Alliance players can do Ragefire Chasm, and those on PvP realms don’t have to run the Scarlet Monastery gauntlet anymore. How hot is that? I thought it was absolutely fantastic – I get to do all these old school instances, without the hassle of travelling all the way there.

But what happens when the group wipes, and we have to run back?

Big problems.


“I don’t know how to get back to the instance.”

Yesterday I joined a Wailing Caverns group. I immediately realised they were part way through the instance; their character arrows were off somewhere to the south east. Low level dungeons don’t have maps; so I had no way of working out exactly where they were. I started running to where I thought they were, and immediately encountered a patrolling mob that hadn’t been killed earlier, plus a bunch of mobs. How did they go that way if they didn’t clear any of this?

The pally was dead (somewhere) and asking if I could rez. The mage had to come and collect me, to show me where they were. Turns out they had only partly cleared some trash up the top, then dropped down into the trench. Ok, no problem.

We ran to meet up with the rest of the group, and were met with a huge stream of mobs pouring out into the open. Somehow we managed to survive, although the mage died. I was completely OOM (go go lowbie priest mana), so I sat to drink. “Rez” came the whisper from the mage. Grr.

The pally too kept asking for a rez. Problem: he had released, so we had to search for a body on the ground. I guess WC all looks the same, because nobody could remember where he died (it was before I arrived). He could have been anywhere, lying under some nondescript fern.

Pally: Rez me?
Me: Where did you die?
Pally: (shaman) should know.
Shaman: I can’t find your body.
Pally: It’s where you were arguing earlier.

(alarm bells are sounnnndiinnnng)

Pally: How do I get back to the instance?

After 10 minutes of running in circles, and the pally constantly asking how to get back in, I left. I hated doing it.. but I couldn’t afford to spend half an hour searching for one person OR trying to give directions to the portal through party chat. They hadn’t even killed a single boss yet. It didn’t bode well for the rest of the run.


Pats, corpse runs, hidden portals

Patrolling mobs, stupidly long corpse runs, portals that are difficult to find.. they are all a massive stumbling block for low level groups.

I don’t want to make the game super simple – corpse runs are a small and necessary time-sink, I understand that. But when people are brand new to a lot of these places, they will often simply drop group rather than try to find their way back to the instance portal.

My first three instances yesterday all fell short of the final boss because it was too hard to recover from a wipe or someone having to run back. In Deadmines, people running back have to find their way from Sentinel Hill, into the building in Moonbrook, then through the maze of tunnels before the instance portal. Once you’re back in, if you take a wrong turn, you’ll likely get killed by uncleared miners; but even if you go the right way, patrols spawn behind the group, so you’ll be the one to stumble on them. Plus, the instance is very, very long – some people just don’t have the patience.

In one group, we wiped literally on the pack before the final boss, and everyone dropped group because it was too hard to run all the way back. In another group, we had to boot someone for being a ninja/facepuller/bad, but then realised it was best not to invite a replacement because it would take them 10 minutes to get to us, and they would likely die to pats anyway. In a few groups, it has been easier to 4man the instance rather than bring in a replacement 5th.

Wailing Caverns probably speaks for itself – it’s hard to find your way back, and I had two groups fail and break up because it was too hard to go back and try again. The portal is pretty hard to find if you don’t know the place. Once, I ran WC, we wiped, and the group told me to run back and rez them, because they didn’t know the way!

Now, the Stockade is great – a very short instance, nice and linear, portal is easy to find – but (as a Horde character) if you die, you spawn at the Eastvale Logging Camp, on the opposite side of Elwynn. FAIL.




Consider these dungeons, and either how much of a trek it is from a graveyard, how difficult it is to find the portal if you’re not familiar with the area, or how painful it is to run back through the dungeon to where you were fighting:



• Deadmines

• Wailing Caverns
• Maraudon
• BRD
• Blackfathom Deeps
• Sunken Temple
• Gnomeregan
• Uldaman


Imagine having to run back through BRD to the group, if nobody can rez you. All you have is a vague directional marker telling you where your group is. Goodie! As much as I love that instance (I really do), it’s massive. Nobody likes running back through that.

I’m a seasoned player, I’ve been to these places many, many times – but even I cringe at the thought of having to find that stupid Maraudon portal. As for Gnomeregan – well, even I’d be tempted to drop group if we wiped on that. Trying to find my own way in would be hard enough; trying to give directions to others through party chat.. uugghhhh.

They’re all awesome dungeons and I love doing them – but recovering from a death, or bringing in a new player – it can be too much hassle for a lot of groups, and they collapse rather than pushing on. Seems it’s easier to just drop and requeue than to run back and press on.


Make it (dare I say it..) easier

Ok, so it’s already pretty darn easy on groups. You get ported right to the instance, no travelling, no PvP, no time wasted. Fantastic.

But seriously, doing all of these instances, getting almost all the way through and then having your group dissolve because people don’t know how to run back, or the instance is incredibly long, or there’s a pat that keeps killing your replacement 5th, forcing the group to run back to escort them through.. it’s so frustrating.

I don’t want Blizzard to hold our hands and lead us through instances. But I do wish it was slightly easier to get back to the instance after a death. And, if you are replacing someone who left the group, I wish there was a way for you to perhaps port to the group to join them, rather than having to negotiate pats, or have someone come back to collect you because you have no idea how to find the group.

Yesterday I started doing specific dungeons instead of randoms, because it would constantly serve me up with Wailing Caverns, and most of those runs ended in frustration.

I really want to run all of the instances – I miss them. Some of them are pretty epic places, and I think it’s great that the LFD tool gives them a new lease on life – but I’m dreading wipe recovery in places like BRD, Gnomer, and Mara, among others. Blizzard – please consider closer graveyards, or something to make it slightly easier to at least find the instance portal again.


Oh well – onward and upward, little priest!

Possibly Related Posts:

• Contender for biggest LFD jerk ever
• Lovely justice: Charms now dropping for healers in instances
• Healers and Killing Blows

I try to be a fairly patient person. Not much gets me going, really.. it takes a lot to make me mad. But the one thing that absolutely makes my blood BOIL is when stupid/bad people genuinely think that I am stupid/bad, when it’s actually them being stupid/bad.

Up until 10 minutes ago, I haven’t had any particularly negative LFG tool-generated PUG experiences. I’ve had the odd person who was a bit snooty, some hiccups in Oculus (who hasn’t), but overall, PUGs have been great. I enjoy doing them.

Until today.

Drucie is now 80 (more on that another time, though). I’m running her through groups to gear up. I got into Forge of Souls – I was a bit surprised, but the two pieces of Tier 9 that I bought probably bumped her up a bit and let her in. I was confident – I’ve done plenty of groups in her gear and had a lot of compliments on my healing, despite the scrubbiness.




FOS was a bit tough on my terrible regen, but nothing I couldn’t handle.

The problem was that on every trash pull, each of the DPS would attack a different mob. It’s a huge free-for-all. On packs of 4-5 mobs, you could guarantee that every person in the group had aggro – the tank from trying to tank, the DPS from each picking their own target, and poor me from healing those impromptu tanks.

So I speak up. I try to be nice, because you can never tell if people are just really new – and I’m not a mean or rude person, and I try not to judge people harshly. So I just said, “Can you guys stick to one target please, I can’t heal everyone at the same time.” Which is the truth – they were making it so I had to heal every person at once, which was just making it harder than it had to be.

We keep going. It happens again, and again. I see lightning bolts fly towards one mob, bullets heading for another, and the warrior off in a corner bashing on some other mob. I ask them again to stop splitting DPS; they all claim to be hitting the same target. Now, I know I’ve said lately that I may need a new glasses prescription, but I’m pretty sure I can see clearly when lightning bolts (not chain lightning, lightning bolts) are hitting one mob, and bullets are hitting another.

I’ve had enough. I tell them flat out – “If you guys don’t stop splitting DPS I’m just going to go. You’re making it hard on the tank and healer, harder than it has to be.”

In hindsight, I should have just left. Good old hindsight.


lol, take ur blues and leave, scrub

“Take your blues and leave if you want, stop bitching.” says the (unguilded) warrior – who, not five minutes ago, had fallen spectacularly and stupidly to his death by walking off a platform.



Figure 1: The Gravity Boss claims another hapless victim.


For the record, Mr Warrior, my blue gear may mean that I look terrible and that I have to drink quite frequently, but evidently your epic gear doesn’t stop you doing stupid things like wombling off great heights like an epic plate-wearing lemming.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee (…splotch.)

Protip: blues don’t make baddies, and epics don’t erase stupidity. Perhaps you might like to invest in a Skyguard’s Drape for your next trip to Forge of Souls? Best to play it safe.


On the next pull, predictably, every person has aggro, and I die to healing aggro. The tank questions me.

“How did you die? Too busy typing? :P”
“I was healing people who shouldn’t have been tanking :)”
“I had all the mobs.”
“No, I had aggro, that’s how I died.”
“No, I had aggro on everything.”


Preeettty sure I can tell when something is bashing my face in.

That’s “aggro”, right?

So I had a tank who didn’t know who in the group has aggro (and thinks he is doing a great job), and three DPSers who keep choosing different targets but swear til they’re blue in the face that they’re assisting the tank every time. Ughhhhhhhhhhhhh.

But worse – when you trying to turn things around, when you ask them to single target, they laugh at you, and you’re the bad one. That’s what drives me absolutely up the wall, I can’t stand it. Like the time I was driving, came to an intersection, and waited (correctly) for another car to turn in front of me, as she had right of way on the continuing road. She waited for me to keep going, but she was meant to, so I stayed there. Finally she threw her hands in the air and turned, and as she passed me, gave me a disgusted look (which, in WoW, would have been the equivalent of saying “l2drive noob!!1111″). She was the stupid one who didn’t know the road rules, yet she drove away thinking *I* was the baddie. I hate that – when someone else is an idiot, but they walk away thinking you’re the dumb one (and they likely didn’t learn anything from it, either). GRRR!!

So the moral of the story, kids – is that if you’re in with a group of baddies, and you ask them nicely to stop doing something that is making things painful, you will probably be dubbed a blues-wearing, bitchy noob. Honestly, 99% of my PUGs so far have been great.. but next time I get one like that, I think I’ll just leave and save myself the frustration.

Which is sad really, because I like helping new people. If nobody wants to endure the frustration of trying to teach people the fundamentals of group play (like please single target mobs down, kthx), then the truly bad players are just going to keep being bad, and they’ll just keep driving other people nuts.

I don’t leave groups on a whim because I don’t like the instance, or because I think someone in the group is a “noob”, etc. But – if I get another awful group like that – where everyone is doing the wrong thing but A) think they’re awesome and B) refuse to do things properly.. I think I’ll just save myself the headache, and drop.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Contender for biggest LFD jerk ever
• Lovely justice: Charms now dropping for healers in instances
• Healers and Killing Blows

Hello Tauren and Night Elf friends.

A quick disclaimer on this one: This post is about the lack of threat-reduction abilities for druids. Night Elves have an ability through their Racial, and boy is is nice – but Taurens do not. So this is mostly about how we moocows miss out on the ability to drop a bit of threat if we need to. Important: it’s not a complaint about Shadowmeld, or a request to have Shadowmeld. It’s about the gap that exists for Tauren druids, and whether that should be filled (without detracting from the NE racial).


Remember, I have Tauren and Night Elf druids, and I love both. I don’t want my NE friends to think I’m trying to steal their awesome racial.


—————-


Somebody started a thread on the healing forums to ask if resto druids had ever wished for a Fade-like ability. Something that allows us to drop a bit of aggro – if only for a short time. I really feel that a threat-dump is something that druids are sorely missing, and I’ve mentioned it a number of times in the past.



Aggro-reducing tools at our disposal


We have a few things to help reduce healing aggro:


Innate threat-reducing tools
– Subtlety talent (10/20/30%)
– Bracing Earthsiege Diamond
– Enchant Cloak – Subtlety


Most druids don’t max out Subtlety (the norm is 2/3 to progress to the next tier of talents) because it’s really just not needed, generally speaking. Honestly, I don’t think threat is something that is constantly an issue, enough to warrant putting that extra point in Subtlety – and certainly not enough of an issue to warrant enchanting your cloak (and losing haste, spellpower, or mana return options) or giving up your meta slot to use the reduced aggro gem.


It’s not a chronic problem; it’s not as though I spend most of my time fighting off adds – but there are absolutely times that I have thought, “if only I had Fade”. But I’ll go into those later.


It’s worth noting, too, that there are situations where druids don’t want a static and innate threat reduction, for times when we need to kite things. Some druids have had to put talents into other spots in order to deliberately drop their 2/3 Subtlety, in order to perform a kiting role – for example, for constellations on Algalon. So I don’t think that buffing Subtlety or giving us some kind of extremely strong innate threat reduction is the best idea. I’d rather it was an ability that I am able to use when I need to.


Proactive and reactive threat-reducing tools
– Cower


Yep, this is pretty much it, if you’re a Tauren. Cat form and cower.


You have to be in range of the mob to do this, and chances are that if someone has face-pulled extra mobs and they are heading your way, you’d be better off dropping to bear than trying to cat+cower, especially if you’ve pulled multiple mobs.


Last-ditch tools to survive when things go bad
– Barkskin (and Improved Barkskin)
– Nature’s Grasp
– Warstomp


Barkskin is my best friend; whenever I get aggro, my instinctive knee-jerk reaction is to hit Barkskin. Unfortunately it only reduces damage – and if you’ve aggroed a boss or a pack of mobs, Barkskin isn’t going to save you. It should buy the tank a little time to pick up, if you’ve only grabbed one stray mob, though.


Nature’s Grasp is handy for stepping away from single mobs (I like it on Faction Champs), but only lasts a few seconds, can only affect one target, and is often resisted or breaks quickly. It’s nice, but it’s not great.


Warstomp is a nice AOE stun to help buy you a few seconds, whether you’re being attacked by one or several mobs. It’s ok in PVE, but really it’s mostly used as a PVP racial. I find it helpful in some situations, but not amazing. It also only works at short-range – so if you blow it prematurely before the mobs get to you, or if the mobs are staggered, it won’t help much. They have to be right up close to you to be effective, and by that time, you may already be dead.



Is healer aggro just a tank problem?


A common theme running through the replies is “get better tanks.” If something is aggroing onto you, the tank must be awful.


Is that really the issue?


Are all our threat problems caused by bad tanks, or someone face pulling an extra pack of mobs?


I see people saying things along the lines of, “lol if u get aggro, ur tanks r bad – or ur a bad healer, L2P” and that the tank should save you faster. Their argument is basically that if a druid is aggroing something, then “something is very wrong” – usually with the tank.

Dark Legacy’s Donald:
If this is your tank, you’re in trouble.
http://www.darklegacycomics.com/87.html


Now – I can agree with this to a point. If a tank has something picked up, it’s VERY rare that I can strip it off. I have my moments (/flex) but generally speaking, my tree tanking flings are short and sweet. Once the tank has got the mob, he’s got it. If I am pulling mobs off a tank that is already being tanked, then something is probably wrong with the tank’s TPS. Usually.


But I’m not talking about situations where the tank can’t hold the mobs. Or where he won’t pick things up off the healers. I’m talking about situations where you have a second, perhaps two, to react and survive – because something went wrong. Evidently the people who have said it’s a bad tank issue have never been one-shot by a mob that was pulled by someone else but made a beeline for the healers in about 2 seconds flat.


All taunts down, 30 yards distance to close – sorry Mr or Mrs Healer, it’s dirtnap time for you. And down I go.


I just don’t buy the argument “the tank should have seen the aggro and saved you.” Sometimes it’s just not that cut and dried. It’s not always because someone did something stupid.


Consider:

• the tank is stunned, frozen, or otherwise incapacitated for a few moments

• the tank dies; another tank class needs to pick up the mobs in a hurry
• the tank has already used his aoe/ranged taunt/s, and needs a few more seconds to pick up
• the tank does not have instant snap-aggro on multiple mobs
• someone else pulls aggro and drops to full health; you NS+HT them to full, and pull off
• you have HoTs ticking from a previous phase of a fight, new mobs spawn


and so on.


I guess it’s easy to be short-sighted and simply blame things on other people, rather than considering whether our tools could be improved in some way. And in this case, I think it’s a tool that has missing from our toolbox the whole time.



DruidFade mileage in WotLK – a tally


To further demonstrate the fact that it’s not always about someone being dopey, or about your tank being Donald – here are some encounters that I think I could have used a Fade for:

• MC resist on Instructor, he runs for a priest, I save priest and get aggro, splat, bye bye Immortal.

• The eye-stalks in the gauntlet leading to Loatheb
• HoT aggro on Gothik’s summoned adds
• Gluth’s zombies (although I often helped to kite them, so it depends)
• KT’s giant bug adds – drop aggro so the tank can pick them up more easily

  


• Malygos P2 – buggy adds that aggro to you and one-shot you, yay my favourite

• Sartharion – how many times did I get destroyed by whelps? SO MANY. (Hint: sometimes AOE snap aggro isn’t so snap)

  


• Auriaya – initial heals on the pull – close your eyes and pray you don’t die

• Mimiron – P3 adds are simply a nuisance
• Vezax – the few seconds before the Animus is able to be picked up
• Yogg Saron – I absolutely cannot avoid pulling the faceless adds as they spawn
• Algalon – get the constellations out of my face, I’m trying to work here

  


• Faction Champions – speaks for itself

• Anub – avoiding the little bugs; helping the tank to pick up the big adds

  


• Not to mention the many, many times during trash pulls that someone does face-pull, or gets feared, or pulls aggro and needs a huge heal, or the tank is stunned etc, which often leads to me getting massive add-aggro, through no fault of my own.


The point is – aggro happens, and it’s not always the tank’s fault, my fault, or anyone’s fault.


“L2P” doesn’t hold up in these situations.


Consider the rogue mobs on the way to Vezax – I think of them as Shadow Lab Rogues v2.0. They come out of nowhere to test your reflexes. I love that, actually. They add a bit of excitement and chaos.


Now, the tank should be quick enough to pick them up – but wouldn’t it be good to be able to fade and help save yourself? Is it really reasonable to just use the tired old statement that the tank should L2P and save the healer faster – or should healers be able to have defensive mechanism to buy the tank a few seconds?


Do you think that is babying the tank? Or just giving healers a tool to help themselves survive?


If it’s unnecessary – why do others have aggro-dump abilities? Can’t they just learn to manage their threat – or learn to find better tanks?



Too much homogenisation?


Of course, some people have cried “grey blob”. The classes should be different, stop making them have the same abilities as each other, etc. But really – is giving us a Fade such a big deal? Would it be game-breaking? I’m not even being greedy here – I’m not asking for Shadowmeld (as much as I would love to have it back!), just a Fade, or some other similar and temporary drop in aggro.


Is it particularly unfair to everyone else, to allow us a way to drop aggro temporarily? Is it making the classes too much like each other?

If it was a healing spell that someone was asking for, or a major raid utility tool – something that would bring us closer to being a pally or a priest or a shaman and start stepping on their toes, then I would understand the opposition. And I would likely agree – I don’t want the classes to merge – I want us to maintain our niches. But in this case, it’s a trivial personal utility spell to temporarily drop aggro – which is something that (for some reason) we lack compared to everyone else. It won’t hurt any other class, nor will it detract from their unique abilities or roles.


Is there a genuine reason why druids don’t have a threat dump? Is it unreasonable to ask for one?



Perhaps a buff to Cower?


I don’t want to simply give Taurens a Shadowmeld type ability. I don’t want a combat-drop. I don’t want to detract from the NE racial, that’s not really fair on them. This isn’t about seeing that they have a cool new toy, and stamping my foot til I get exactly what they have. There has to be a unique benefit to that racial that isn’t available to the rest of us as an innate or trained ability. So I’m definitely not asking that Taurens get Shadowmeld too.


But a Fade-type tool would be extremely handy in a lot of situations.


Perhaps buffing Cower could be an option?

I don’t want Shadowmeld (well, yes I do.. but I’m not actually asking for it), I won’t even ask for anything brand new – buff Cower, I’d be happy with that. Let it work globally, not just on one target, and let it work at range, so that it is similar to a Fade ability. I would happily pop into kitty and cower for a second, and then back to tree. That even fits in with Blizzard’s philosophy of wanting druids to shift often in order to use different tools – and it would require us to weigh up the sacrifice of being unable to heal for a few seconds while we drop threat.


Give Cower the Shadowmeld treatment (although not quite as good as meld) – buff it to be useful for any spec of druid.


I’d love that, actually.


The more I think about it, the more I really like the idea of simply taking our existing ability and making it more practical and useful. There’s not really a need for a new, standalone ability – just buff Cower to make it useful for every druid, not just the kitties at close range.

—————-


As healers, we can’t simply watch Omen and stop healing if our threat gets too high. Uh oh, I’m too high on threat, I’ll just stand here and not heal for a while.


I’m sure that will go down well.


We can certainly “go easy” on initial pulls, and try to give the tanks as much time as possible to pick up adds, but there will always be times when we have to spam heal, and generate high threat. With HoTs rolling across a lot of people at once, we are often the first person to be targeted by newly spawned adds. A tank’s taunt/s may be down, or he may die and someone else has to try to pick everything up. In those few seconds, our threat can be a big problem.


I want to stress again that this is not a chronic problem – we don’t have threat problems all the time – but an ability to drop threat temporarily would be valuable in a large number of situations.


We have high armor, barkskin, a stun, a reactive root and instant heals to try to save ourselves – which may seem like a lot – but we have no way to actually drop any of our high threat in certain situations – whether it be reactive (because we pulled), or simply to drop a little because we’re about to pull. I would definitely prefer a way to proactively drop aggro before a mob gets to me, rather than have to activate all of my reactive lifeline abilities to stay alive.


Elves have an amazing option to be able to drop some aggro, not only to save themselves, but to make their raids and groups run more smoothly – it’s a tool that doesn’t just make things easier for themselves, but for their entire group.


Being able to dump aggro just before you pull, or in the second when the mob turns, makes things so much easier on your tanks and raid, and I think it’s unfair to generalise and blame aggro on bad tanking. We could have a tool that makes life a lot easier on our tanks, by managing our threat, especially in chaotic situations.


Isn’t it time druids had a proper threat dump – or, at the very least, a temporary threat reduction?

Possibly Related Posts:

• The evolution of loot systems across servers
• Contender for biggest LFD jerk ever
• WoW dev chat – Twitter: on making healing “more fun”

OK, not a huge deal I suppose – but I was pleased to notice that the Night Elf Mohawk “costume” that has been put into the game persists after you shift into a form and shift back out.

That is, you can be wearing the mask, shift into Tree form (no mask in forms, though, obviously), and when you shift out again – you still have the mask!

Why do we care? Because we never get to keep any of our other costumes! As soon as we shift, we lose the costume and the fun. But NOW – there’s a costume that doesn’t break when you shift!

Please Blizzard – make other holiday costumes and novelty items like the Iron Boot Flask, orbs, Deviate fish, Pygmy Oil etc last through our shapeshifting by making them a buff like the Mohawk. We’re not asking to be Night Elf Mohawk boomkins or anything crazy like that (as cool as that would be) – just don’t make shifting remove the buff and waste the costume.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Contender for biggest LFD jerk ever
• Q: What has 26 tails and eats headphone cords?
• He seems like a reasonable kinda guy

I’m not sure why I subscribe to Gevlon’s blog anymore. Lately it provides fewer and fewer insightful posts on making money in WoW, and instead just seems to be post after post about how he considers a lot of players to be morons for having a different definition of the word “fun”. There are actually a few blogs on my blogroll that annoy the heck out of me because I read the posts and think “wow, I can’t believe you’re so far off the mark”, but I can’t bring myself to unsubscribe. I’m going to put it down to morbid curiosity.

Gevlon has snatched hold of the $10 vanity pet concept and decided that only morons would spend tangible cash on intangible in-game rewards. He now seeks to understand why people want to own them (although I suspect he has no real desire to understand, he just wants to reiterate that it is folly.)

He refuses to accept that some people want these pets purely because they are “fun” or “cute”. To him, there is one main reason why people purchase these pets: to show off, to have a status symbol, to keep up with everyone else who buys a pet. Fun/cute is an unacceptable explanation. There must be more to it.

Do we really have to question why people enjoy things, why they consider something to be fun? Is “because I like it” not good enough? Is it really necessary to delve deeper?

I like things that make me happy. Do we really need to psychoanalyse that?

It’s his blog, of course, and if he WANTS to psychoanalyse – that’s his project. But what really annoys me is when he simply slaps labels on people because they do not conform to his idea of what is productive and what is wasteful or pointless. People are not automatically morons because they choose to do activities that they consider to be FUN.


Digital items are worth less because you can’t hold them in your hands

I think people are getting too hung up on the idea that it’s bad to use real cash for digital items. That somehow, you’re a moron if you pay good money for something that you can’t hold in your hands and “own”.

Do you ever buy songs from iTunes or similar? I do. That’s a digital download. Whatever you buy digitally, you do it because you like the product, and it brings you enjoyment. The only difference between an iTunes song and a Pandaren Monk is that we know that after a number of years, WoW will close down, and your panda will cease to exist (whereas your iTunes song should endure). So the pets are more like a rental than a purchase – one day you’ll no longer own them.

So why are these two minipets such an enormous waste of money? $10 for some giggles and fun, why not?

Have you ever bought someone a surprise gift, just to make them smile? What about a bunch of flowers? Flowers die after a few days, they serve absolutely no purpose other than to make someone smile and feel nice. Pandaren Monks have been popular pets for people in the last few days – to make people smile and laugh.

A few pots of beer or a bunch of flowers will cost you $10 and can make you feel good for a short time, then they are gone. A pandaren monk will cost you $10 and makes you feel good for a short time, then he’ll be gone (when you get sick of him, or when WoW shuts down).

$10=$10.

But a $10 bunch of flowers or a few drinks with friends is “normal”, while a digital minipet is for morons.


I don’t subscribe to the idea that pointless = moronic

I spent hours one day grinding Gelkis Centaur rep. Remember those two centaur clans in Desolace – that you have to collect their ears and whatnot to become friendly with one clan and hated with the other? I wanted exalted with one of them. Why? Something to do – something silly. So I could laugh and say “haha, I’m exalted with a pointless faction.” Hardly an achievement or anything to show off, but a bit of harmless fun. Doing something incredibly tedious and long-winded, purely to say I’d done it, and laugh.

(by the way, you can’t get exalted with them – it caps at 11999/12000 Honored – but I didn’t find that out until I actually got capped. Heartbreaking!)

By Gevlon’s standards, I’m a total moron. I spend hours of my time doing achievements, farming, grinding, fishing (for fun, not for money), and all of those other dumb things that non-goblins like to waste their lives on. But I enjoy it. Call me crazy (but not a moron, thanks), but I love doing laps of the basin, mining and herbing. I love fishing for hours and hours. I enjoy mindless grinding.

Am I a moron?

No. I “simply like” grinding.

Why is it fun? Why do I like it? Because it makes me happy. I enjoy it. Why do I enjoy it? WHO CARES, I JUST DO. You’re just gonna have to take my word for it when I say “because I like it”.

Evidently the very subjective idea of what various people find to be “fun” is just really hard for some people to grasp.

Gevlon spends his time making money for the sole purpose of making money. He never EVER buys anything that isn’t absolutely necessary – no mounts, no pets, nothing frivolous, ever. So apart from a time when he was paying for a spot in raids, he pretty much does nothing with his money except pile it up in a corner. Pointless, right?



Figure 1: Morons collect these because they are stupid sheep
and like to waste time collecting shiny things.

Figure 2: Intelligent and sensible people collect these
because they like the challenge of collecting shiny things.
(Note: This is completely different from collecting pets and other worthless pixels)



Is he a moron for collecting gold? No. He “simply likes” making money for the sake of it.

Why is it fun? Why does he like it? Because he enjoys it.**

If someone with 100 vanity pets is a moron, then Gevlon himself is just as much of a moron for collecting gold for the sake of it (it would be entirely different if he had a specific purpose for the gold – but generally he just stockpiles it).

I don’t understand how people can be so judgmental and short-sighted, labelling other people as idiots for displaying a particular behaviour, but almost duplicating it themselves without even realising that it is exactly the same kind of thing. Collecting for no particular reason. Collecting because it’s just “fun”. Something to do. A milestone to strive for. 214k gold, 100 mounts, 100 vanity pets, 40 exalted reputations – they’re all “pointless” goals. But why is the vanity pet collector a moron compared to the gold stockpiler?



Figure 3: Waste of time vs Not a waste of time.



One of us

Honestly, I feel sorry for people like Gevlon, who are so hung up on judging everyone else’s idea of fun, constantly feeling the need to label and judge. The saddest thing is that he is exactly the same as any other collector who collects something for the sake of having a collection, but either doesn’t see it, or decides to rationalise his behaviour as “better”.

I collect vanity pets, Bob collects bottletops, Gevlon collects gold. He spends his time and his subscription money on his minigame of hitting the gold cap. I spend my time and subscription seeing how many pets I can jam into my knapsack. Sorry Gevlon, but there is no difference. We’re all wasting our time here, if you think about it – everything you do in the game is “pointless” except for two main things: a certain sense of accomplishment (however warped it may be), and whatever enjoyment you get out of what you do – whether it be raiding, RPing, grinding, playing the AH, collecting pets, fishing, racking up achievement points, PvPing, or dancing on the Ironforge mailbox in a Lovely Black Dress.

As long as someone else’s idea of “fun” doesn’t interfere with my idea of “fun” then frankly they can spend their subscription any way they like, who the hell am I to dictate to them what’s fun? Who am I to tell them they’re a moron for buying a minipet, or spending weeks grinding for The Insane, or spending 5 nights a week raiding for server firsts? Where do I get off making those calls?

In the end, when they switch off the servers, we’ll each of us have nothing to show for our time – so the only thing that matters is the enjoyment that we get out of our monthly subscription (and, if you consider it worth the purchase, any add-on products that you might like to buy). That enjoyment and “value” is entirely subjective, and does not have to have any kind of in-depth analysis to discover the “truth”.

Sometimes, “I did it for fun” is exactly the explanation. It does not need to be investigated or extrapolated. There is not always a shady hidden agenda. Not everyone buys shiny things to show off on the Dalaran steps. Sometimes, useless vanity items are just fun to look at or play with – even if nobody is around. Just for fun.

Pandaren Monks are fun and they make me smile and laugh. And in my case, it not only made me happy, but it made my friend (who gifted it to me) happy as well.

All for the low, low price of a few beers, a couple of coffees, or a box of widgets.


That’s 10 bucks well-spent, right there.





**Edit: Gevlon has clarified that he in fact does NOT enjoy making money, he does it only to prove that his methods work:

“PS: I don’t know how many times I explained why did I gained goldcap but people still keep asking. I’m fully aware that anything over 10K is useless. No, it wasn’t fun at all to grind that money. I did it as a proof that my goldmaking tricks work. Imagine that I’d say “this and this would work, though I never tried it as I don’t need more gold”. Yes, by saying this I also mean that others who gained lot of gold without any plan how to use it did something irrational.”

My brain just might explode. It’s NOT ok to do pointless things that you enjoy, but it is fine to do something that you DON’T enjoy and (by your own admission) is utterly pointless – except to be able to say “and here’s how I did it.”

How can anyone scoff at another person’s 100 minipets – that they enjoyed collecting – while they themselves are mindlessly grinding for 214k gold that they neither want, nor need, and even DISLIKE doing? At least I’m enjoying my time-wasting – you don’t like what you’re doing at all. /boggle. I especially liked the last part – which I take to mean “If you copy what I did, but you don’t have a purpose for your money, then you’re an idiot.” (but remember – don’t buy vanity items – because that’s dumb.)

Yet we’re the morons…

Possibly Related Posts:

• Pets part 2
• Contender for biggest LFD jerk ever
• Q: What has 26 tails and eats headphone cords?

You guys know that I don’t dip into the math side of things, so I won’t… but I wanted to discuss my actual thoughts on the 4pc Tier10 bonus, and why I think it’s pretty crappy.



Blanketing and T10 4pc value

Blanketing was big in Ulduar, to the point where it was labelled OP and perhaps triggered the upcoming “bug fix” of removing the last tick of R15 Rejuv, and most certainly the nerf to our Tier 8 set bonus. Too much Rejuv healing.


TOC has been almost entirely the opposite; the Twins fight makes our priest cry foul at me, but other than that, the healing is a lot more bursty and rarely requires Rejuv blanketing. This is particularly true of 10 man size raids, since we are forced to do more direct healing, and there are less people to take damage and require blanketing anyway. Perhaps there’s more Rejuving going on in 25s, but in 10s TOC, not much.


So at the moment, I’m not doing much blanketing.


The 4pc Tier10 bonus pretty much requires you to blanket the raid with Rejuvs to get the most benefit from procs. Obviously, being percentage based, the fewer Rejuvs you’re throwing around, the less benefit you’re going to get. So logically, it will be most useful on 25man blanketing fights. How odd that they would encourage us to go back to this, after nerfing us.



On fights without blanketing


On 10 man fights without a blanketing requirement, the 4pc is going to be near worthless. Why would I need a Rejuv thrown on someone – if they need a Rejuv, they probably already have one already. So the bonus will either give me:


- a Rejuv on someone who doesn’t need it, or
- a Rejuv refresh on someone who already has my Rejuv on them


On fights with blanketing


As a 10 man raider, I can keep Rejuv up on the entire raid with a few seconds to spare (say, to refresh Regrowth on a tank, or throw a spot heal). If I am blanketing, what use is another Rejuv going out? I suppose it’s a free refresh.. but the problem with that is that if I am already cycling through every person to Rejuv them, a refreshed Rejuv in the middle of the raid is going to throw my rotation out.


I will then either keep going with my cycle and overwrite the free Rejuv (to keep everyone nicely in my rotation), or I will skip that person (since they already have Rejuv) for a cycle and come back to them later. The possibility then is that their freebie Rejuv drops off while I’m coming back around to them – so they miss a tick or so until I reapply. See where I’m going with this?


So, I either overwrite the free Rejuv and waste it, or I skip that person and they possibly end up with no Rejuv for a few seconds because the free one is out of sync and dropped off.


TLDR: It will mess with my SYSTEM.



Summary


4pc bonuses are meant to be relatively impressive due to the fact that you need to collect and coordinate 4 pieces of gear.


This bonus is weak at best. Without even going into the math of what it *could* contribute to your HPS and whatnot – I see it messing with my rotation at the best of times, and hardly showing up at the worst. The value drops considerably, in my mind, for 10 man raiders, who will either be covering all 10 people with ease and have little use for an extra Rejuv, or won’t need extra Rejuvs because they have things covered anyway.


Why would we strive to collect a 4pc set if it’s going to be mediocre at best, and at worst (particularly for 10 man raiders) almost useless?


Perhaps Icecrown will be full of heavy aura damage fights, and we’ll go back to blanketing. Even so, this bonus will contribute little for me. It will either throw Rejuvs when they’re not needed, or refresh them when I would prefer that they didn’t. A resounding “meh” on this set bonus.



Post script: On the possibility of “jump” actually meaning “jump”


I’m still 99% certain that Blizzard couldn’t possibly be stupid enough to create a 4pc bonus that is not just seen as perhaps a little lacking, but something that the majority of people would actually avoid picking up at all costs.


Surely.


I have to admit though, while we (as players/bloggers) all know it is the most stupid idea ever conceived.. I have to concede that maybe, just maybe, Blizzard haven’t spotted the problem. Maybe.


It’s so blatantly obvious though – surely they realise how bad it would be for our Rejuvs to randomly drop from our intended target and pop up on someone else? Particularly if you are keeping a Rejuv on your tank, for example – it would be horrible if your Rejuv randomly moved to someone else, just as you were about to Swiftmend the tank. Or to be keeping Rejuvs on the melee, and for one of those melee to suddenly drop their Rejuv, in favour of it landing on someone’s pet cat.


That’d be really, really bad.


Yes, the wording says “jump”. If we take it literally, it would jump. Off.


But they MUST realise that would be awful. You’d have to be utterly BLIND not to realise how terrible it would be.


So surely they don’t intend it to work that way. It must be yet another ambiguous tooltip.


Surely.



I don’t think I’m being overly optimistic, just reasonable. LOGICAL. Which is why I posted to say, “Everyone calm down, it can’t POSSIBLY mean what you guys are reading it as!” To me, it was a simple case of misunderstanding the tooltip and overreacting.

But – and I don’t want to bite the hand that feeds me here – it’s Blizzard, and they have been known to make some kind dumb changes… hmm.



Hat plated and at the ready, just in case..



Possibly Related Posts:

• The evolution of loot systems across servers
• Contender for biggest LFD jerk ever
• WoW dev chat – Twitter: on making healing “more fun”