The Armory has now been updated. It's got some new cool features -- including animated characters.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
The Binary Healer
GhostCrawler: "Health pools will be much larger in Cataclysm and healing will be lower. That should help address some of the overly binary feel of PvP and PvE encounters."
There is a huge issue with healing in WotLK as it stands now... and first impressions of Ice Crown Citadel don't change that much. The problem is "binary healing." What this means is that durring a successful encounter (I.E. we win), a tank's health bar is either 100% full, or slightly over 0% full. There is rarely any inbetween. The tank is either alive, or almost dead.
So, how is that a bad thing? As it stands now, this is how a raid encounter unfolds for the tank and its healer:
Start encounter -- Health: 100%
Boss hits tank -- Health: 10%
Spam largest heal -- Health: 100%
Boss hits tank -- Health: 10%
Spam largest heal -- Health: 100%
Boss hits tank -- Health: 10%
Spam largest heal -- Health: 100%
Boss hits tank -- Health: 10%
... ... ...
Fun, right? You can quickly get the idea of what is meant by binary healing. If the healer doesn't get the big heal off quick enough, the tank is dead, and we start all over again. Additionally, as a tank healer, there's little purpose to having anything on your action bar, much less other spells, than your one large tank heal.
Coming down the road, the things we should start seeing are:
1) Larger health pools for tanks
2) Bosses landing hits on tanks more often
3) Boss hits landing on the tank do less damage
4) Smaller heals being used
5) Faster heals being used
Currently, a resto shaman dedicated to tank healing is (or should be) stacking Spell Power, Crit, and Intellect. Meanwhile, a raid healer is (or should be) stacking Haste, Spell Power, and Intellect. This discontinuity in stats for the same class and spec is something that few others have to deal with. Gearing for tank healing will hurt your raid healing, while gearing for raid healing will hurt your tank healing. The changes mentioned above are going to help bring the two closer together. Shamans on tank duty should be able to move away from the slow, large heals, to a better mixture of the heals we've got at our disposal.
3.3 is here!
I downloaded the final bits of 3.3 this morning, and servers are getting mucked around with as we speak. So what do we resto shamans have to look forward to? LOOT! These links come from the PTR (Patch Test Realm) so they'll likely die soon.
I'll finally be able to replace my crappy Naxx-25 ring with a ring from reputation (yay! Don't have to roll for that one!). The Ashen Band of Wisdom comes from the new Ashen Verdict faction. And guess what?! It appears to have haste!! The ring is also upgradeable as you gain reputation. At exalted, it is suggested that you will get an additional "chance" on the ring to increase spell power by 285 for 10 seconds. Guess it's back to the rep grind for me!
We'll also have access to some new leatherworking patterns with the Ashen Verdict reputation. First, Earthsoul Boots with two yellow sockets (woot!), and second, Lightning-Infused Leggings -- both of which are +haste items.
There will be three trinkets we'll have to choose from. The two I'm eyeballing are Althor's Abacus (quite similar to the Forethought Talisman) and the Purified Lunar Dust. Fortunately, one is a healer trinket, so that will limit my competition when it drops, and the other is purchased with emblems, so no competition at all.
This is what has been "data mined" from the PTR up to release. Now that 3.3 is here, we'll have to see what else we will have access to.
I'll finally be able to replace my crappy Naxx-25 ring with a ring from reputation (yay! Don't have to roll for that one!). The Ashen Band of Wisdom comes from the new Ashen Verdict faction. And guess what?! It appears to have haste!! The ring is also upgradeable as you gain reputation. At exalted, it is suggested that you will get an additional "chance" on the ring to increase spell power by 285 for 10 seconds. Guess it's back to the rep grind for me!
We'll also have access to some new leatherworking patterns with the Ashen Verdict reputation. First, Earthsoul Boots with two yellow sockets (woot!), and second, Lightning-Infused Leggings -- both of which are +haste items.
There will be three trinkets we'll have to choose from. The two I'm eyeballing are Althor's Abacus (quite similar to the Forethought Talisman) and the Purified Lunar Dust. Fortunately, one is a healer trinket, so that will limit my competition when it drops, and the other is purchased with emblems, so no competition at all.
This is what has been "data mined" from the PTR up to release. Now that 3.3 is here, we'll have to see what else we will have access to.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Tier 10 Animation
There's something cool and unique about the Shaman Tier 10 shoulders -- Equip: Periodically calls forth the spirits of the Shoveltusk to bolster the bearer's spirits in battle.
Well, turns out it doesn't provide any in-game buffs. But it does give us a nice visual. Fortunately, the shoulders have haste. I'm sure the shoulders will be the first T10 piece I pick up.
Well, turns out it doesn't provide any in-game buffs. But it does give us a nice visual. Fortunately, the shoulders have haste. I'm sure the shoulders will be the first T10 piece I pick up.
Monday, November 23, 2009
It's Tier-10 Time
Patch 3.3 is coming, and along with it, Tier-10. I posted a preveiw image of the set here. Now for the items and stats...
What we're looking at is the Frost Witch's Garb.
What's most interesting are the shoulders. Looking at those, we find Call of the Shoveltusk -- Periodically calls forth the spirits of the Shoveltusk to bolster the bearer's spirits in battle. What that does, nobody seems to know. At this point, I'd guess it's just visual. But that's just speculation.
Our bonuses look like this:
2-Piece -- Your Riptide spell grants 20% spell haste for your next spellcast within 10 sec.
At first, you see haste, and you get optimistic. But then you ask yourself, "Self, when will I ever use it?" Unfortunately, this isn't something you can change your "rotation" over (as the designers have said they intended). It is only incidental. You can't use it to set up another heal, or you'll just be adding a cooldown to an already pre-hasted cast. So, it's nothing to get too excited about.
4-Piece -- Your Chain Heal critical strikes cause the target to heal for 25% of the healed amount over 9 sec.
This appears to add a Heal over Time (HoT) effect to the target of your critical Chain Heal. It's a free heal, so I won't complain. Nothing earth-shattering, though.
What we're looking at is the Frost Witch's Garb.
What's most interesting are the shoulders. Looking at those, we find Call of the Shoveltusk -- Periodically calls forth the spirits of the Shoveltusk to bolster the bearer's spirits in battle. What that does, nobody seems to know. At this point, I'd guess it's just visual. But that's just speculation.
Our bonuses look like this:
2-Piece -- Your Riptide spell grants 20% spell haste for your next spellcast within 10 sec.
At first, you see haste, and you get optimistic. But then you ask yourself, "Self, when will I ever use it?" Unfortunately, this isn't something you can change your "rotation" over (as the designers have said they intended). It is only incidental. You can't use it to set up another heal, or you'll just be adding a cooldown to an already pre-hasted cast. So, it's nothing to get too excited about.
4-Piece -- Your Chain Heal critical strikes cause the target to heal for 25% of the healed amount over 9 sec.
This appears to add a Heal over Time (HoT) effect to the target of your critical Chain Heal. It's a free heal, so I won't complain. Nothing earth-shattering, though.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Item Links
Trying out MMO-Champion's item link script... pretty easy to use...
I picked up the Belt of the Ice Burrower this weekend. The bad thing about it is it's lack of haste. After gemming it up, I'm going to lose about 50 haste. After doing quite a bit of thinking, I'm going to be regemming all my gear to make up for the lack of haste. Because of the additional Mp5 on the new belt, I will instead play with flasks\food. The Spell Power I lose by regemming, I could make up with flask or food, rather than using the Mp5 flask and food. I anticipate that it will take some time to get the balance right again.
I picked up the Belt of the Ice Burrower this weekend. The bad thing about it is it's lack of haste. After gemming it up, I'm going to lose about 50 haste. After doing quite a bit of thinking, I'm going to be regemming all my gear to make up for the lack of haste. Because of the additional Mp5 on the new belt, I will instead play with flasks\food. The Spell Power I lose by regemming, I could make up with flask or food, rather than using the Mp5 flask and food. I anticipate that it will take some time to get the balance right again.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
The (Real) Tier10 Preview
It's here! I must say, it's not too bad looking. The helm is a little awkward, but it can always be hidden :)
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