Hunter Question and Answer For Wow

The Hunter Q&A was like the other Class Q&As, a mixed bag of frustration, tease, and interesting concepts. It shouldn't be a surprise that we didn't get the details we wanted. Nor should it be a complete shock to you that some Hunters would feel disconnected between what players want versus what the Developers are concentrating on. Given all that, I still felt that this Q&A was overall pretty decent.

There is so much to review and discuss I've decided to break the Q&A out into 2 parts. Here's a quick highlight of the main things discussed in Part 1:


Developers feel Survival Hunter spec is currently performing within normal operating parameters.
Crowd Control still needs work. PvP has a big influence on PvE Class Balance Ammo remains a consumable because of technical difficulties.
Ammo is a focus point on Hunter damage progression. Blizzard is hoping to cut the cost of Ammo to address the cost burden for Hunters. The Hunter "No Fire" zone will remain in effect. Development considers enhancing Hunter melee attacks. All that is just in Part 1! So let's see what Ghostcrawler had to say.

The Community Team hit the ground running, getting right to the point. Over on the official Hunter forums, the question, "What does Blizzard think the Hunter role should be?" has been asked repeatedly over the years. Not to disappoint, this was the first question chosen by the Community Team. Because I feel this is so important I included the entire quote below.

"Community Team: We'd like start this Q&A off by asking a question that players of all classes often ask in regard to the very purpose of their class. In this case, we're looking specifically at the hunter.

Q: Where do hunters fit into the larger scope of things currently and where do we see them going from this point forward?

A: We solved a lot of perennial hunter problems in Wrath of the Lich King, from the shot clipping problems of Steady Shot, to bringing Survival back to life, and making pet choice and training a lot more meaningful and hopefully enjoyable. Going forward we have several objectives we still want to accomplish. We want to make sure hunters in PvP are as good in Arenas as they are in Battlegrounds. We think their damage is sufficient, so we want to focus on their survival and crowd control. We want to make sure their PvE utility is as good as their dps (especially making traps live up to their potential for crowd control). We want to resolve what a hunter is supposed to do in melee (Raptor Strike? Disengage?). We want to clean up some of the clunkiness that still exists around pet control (both the UI itself and what the pet does on the battlefield). We think hunters have a good niche as the only real ranged damage-dealer that focuses on (mostly) physical damage based on a weapon rather than cast-time based spells. We just want to make sure they live up to that niche."
In other words, Ghostcrawler feels the development team has done a good job in making Survival an interesting and popular spec to play again.

Another interesting point was when Ghostcrawler talked about how he feels about Hunters needing a boost to traps and crowd control. Of course this isn't the first time we've heard this. On a positive note, we can see with the current Patch 3.2 trap changes the developers seem to be heading in that direction.

Also, I got a sense that the changes are based first on their impact to the PvP game and then PvE. This was not specifically said, but it just seems that way. Ghostcrawler did mention they want to improve PvE Hunter utility and crowd control, but did you notice the emphasis on PvP?

When Ghostcrawler says, "We want to make sure hunters in PvP are as good in Arenas as they are in Battlegrounds. We think their damage is sufficient, so we want to focus on their survival and crowd control.", then follows up with, "We want to resolve what a hunter is supposed to do in melee (Raptor Strike? Disengage?)," I felt PvP is where the development team is keeping their primary focus is at the moment. Of course, maybe I'm reading too much into it.

Now that we know what our role is we can get into some of the other issues affecting Hunters. For example, what ever happened to our promised ammo change? Remember back when Patch 3.1 was announced? Ammo was suppose to change from being a consumable to a durable.

It appears to me that in this Q&A Ghostcrawler is setting our expectation to not expect a change to ammo any time soon. (Blizzard time or otherwise.) I understand the whole "Ammo is stored everywhere issue". If you think about it, we have ammo in our bags, our banks, and maybe specialized Mammoth Cuttters in our guild bank. Based on this alone, I can see how it would be a very tricky change.

Something I found exciting was the possibility of introducing new capabilities with our ammo. I really hope that Ghostcrawler isn't just teasing us when he says, "We're not sure if this would be as simple as getting the 125 dps arrows to upgrade your 120 dps arrows, or if you would do things like swap between your fire and poison arrows... but that kind of thing is definitely on the table." I know many Hunters including myself that would love this ability.

With durable ammo on hold, Ghostcrawler addressed the issue of Hunters having an extra cost burden by having to purchase ammo for everything we do. Not only are we required to purchase ammo, but our damage progression is tied directly to it also. So, it was nice hearing that the development team understands we're going to do whatever it takes to get the best ammo we can.

It was also impressive to hear they're going to lower the market cost for the ammo as well as continue looking into other ways to provide proper balance with scaling and progression. If not for GC stating that they are still working on durable ammo, I would think that durable ammo was going to be one of those permanent wish list items.

Ghostcrawler tackled the ever popular "dead zone" or "no fire zone" topic stating that there needs to be some changes. The biggest issue related to the "no fire zone" hinges on Hunters being ranged fighters and having to get back into range to unleash their more powerful attacks.

Ghostcrawler admits that they don't want Hunters to have the capability of unleashing both melee and range attacks all at once. Ghostcrawler says, "The way we want the hunter to work is that when you get into min range with the hunter, then the hunter needs to switch to melee, or more likely escape back to ranged distance again."

With traps being on a separate cool down in the 3.2 Patch, we'll have the capability to lay down Frost and Snake traps to help slow down our target, with an Explosive Trap helping to proc Lock and Load as we Disengage. This is good, but not great. I guess we can't say Ghostcrawler isn't keeping it interesting.

At least this isn't a done deal and Ghostcrawler asked for more feedback from the community. If you PvP and have some ideas on how this might work, maybe you can let Ghostcrawler know over on the Damage Dealing Forums.

That brings us to the end of Part 1 of the Hunter Q&A. Looking back, there are several interesting points. Blizzard admitting how big of a role PvP plays in PvE Class Balancing. Not to mention the possible idea of durable ammo with special abilities. Add to that a focus of bringing crowd control and traps back into the game and this part of the Q&A was pretty packed with information after all. I can't wait to tackle Part 2 next.


We continue to review Ghostcrawler's response to the Hunter Q&A. In the Hunter Q&A Part 1 we reviewed what role the developers think Hunters should play. We also discussed how PvP influences class balancing. There was also some interesting discussion on Hunter Ammo changes.

In the Hunter Q&A Part 2 we review the following discussions:

Ghostcrawler says no to removing the movement penalty from Auto Shot. Developers open to new Hunter resource system to replace mana. Min/max and best in slot play frustrates developers. Hunters are too cooldown dependent. Developers considering how to keep AoE Damage from affecting Hunter pets. No changes on the horizon to Cunning pets Petbar UI changes on the drawing board Pets and stable slots

Hunters have often complained about Auto Shot requiring Hunters to remain still before firing. Ghostcrawler's response was pretty succinct, "Moving should feel like a penalty. We don't want ranged attackers constantly circle strafing FPS-style because it confers a defensive advantage without giving up an offensive one." I have to agree with Ghostcrawler on this one. I've played my share of Halo and other FPS style games. Though I can see how the Arena lends itself to this style of play, I personally think it would only further remove players from being able to immerse themselves in the richness that is a MMORPG.

Ghostcrawler went on to discuss the Hunter PvP in Arena by saying, "What I mean by that is we think we've possibly already gone too far towards balancing the Arena around instant attacks that can't be countered before they go off." This sounds ominous. I read this as an impending nerf heading our way soon. I hope not, but this sure sounds like it is a possibility.

The next question is one that Hunters have debated back and forth on the official Hunter forums for years. Every so often, someone will bring up how Hunters shouldn't use mana, and suggests an alternative resource. Usually focus is the most popular suggestion. Unfortunately, in stead of addressing it in the Q&A Ghostcrawler decided to push this one off until BlizzCon. Personally? I'd love to see us switch to something like an ammo based system. (A Hunter can dream right?) However, I'm afraid we might have to stick with being a mana class for a while yet.

While leaving us hanging on the new resource question, we went into the talk about using haste. An interesting topic since Hunters don't typically stack haste as a primary stat unless it is to get 1.5 second Steady Shot cooldown. What made it was interesting to me was learning that Ghostcrawler and the team would like us to use more of the secondary stats like haste but haven't really found a solid way to make it happen. Ghostcrawler even let a bit of his frustration show by saying, "Remember, if it improves your dps, it is an upgrade, even if another item would improve it more. That sounds so obvious, but I think there is a tendency for some players to stop thinking that way."

One of the more important issues Ghostcrawler addressed was about how limited Hunters are by cooldowns. The community asked Ghostcrawler about stings and the possibility of removing them from the global cooldown. Ghostcrawler's response really wasn't too surprising. "We aren't likely to remove any damage-dealing ability from the GCD and we've even taken a second look at whether we have removed too many defensive abilities from the GCD. It is there for a reason, particularly in a client-server based game with inherent Internet lag." Though this might not be the answer we are all hoping for, what was nice, was hearing that this is going to be discussed in more detail at BlizzCon.

Ghostcrawler went on to address the current current changes in Patch 3.2 to Catlike Reflexes and Wild Hunt. In an effort to explain why the the buffs were to the pet but not Hunter abilities, Ghostcrawler said, "We don't necessarily like buffing Beast Mastery through the pet all the time. However, Beast Mastery also doesn't have a signature attack like Chimera or Explosive Shot." It seems that now they realize they might have over corrected a bit in Patch 3.0.8 and now the only question is how to fix it.

For Beast Mastery Hunters, the Developers seem to view the Hunter's pet as the most viable option. If I'm not mistaken, this seems to be a reversal from the reasoning behind nerfing the BM pets in 3.0.8. Ghostcrawler defends this decision by stating, "Ultimately the tree is supposed to be about pets, so we would rather make the pet easier to control and give the hunter ways to get the pet out of trouble so that they don't face the profound dps loss of pet death." If they implement this correctly, this could be very good news for BM Hunters.

In the next question, Ghostcrawler went on to discuss more about pets and the need for a better system that can distinguish when certain PvE attacks shouldn't affect pets. If the developers can find a way to keep pets alive, this would mean less healing and rezzing time for BM Hunters. This could in turn raise the viability of the spec. It is nice to see Ghostcrawler and the team looking at something as core as the AI instead of just delivering a patch to improve pet healing.

Ghostcrawler did add a caveat saying, "To be clear, this is a hypothetical different model than I've been talking about in the rest of this Q&A. I don't want to confuse anyone by saying pets should both be hard to kill and hard to rez, and easy to kill and easy to rez."

So if our pets can stay alive longer and we don't need to heal our pets as much, does that mean we'll be stuck with a pet rez that seems to take forever? No, not forever, but we will have to live with it in the short term. The good news is Ghostcrawler seems to have a plan, first address the highest priority pet issue, pet survivability, then look at how to improve resurrecting pets should they end up dying to a focused attack.

The next topic tackled by Ghostcrawler happened to be one that we talked about in the last Scattered Shots column about Cunning pets. It seems that even Blizzard is not entirely sure how the Cunning tree fits into the overall scheme for Hunters. Mainly this is because they're noticing how Hunters tend to remain in a vertical during their playstyle. Due to the many theorycrafting and other Hunter related sites and tools, it seems Hunters tend to min/max for either PvE or PvP. As of now this isn't a real priority for Blizzard. Although I agree there are more pressing issues than what to do with the Cunning tree, it would be nice to see some tangible benefits and buffs to this tree. I look forward to more discussion on this topic at BlizzCon

The next question focused on the UI. I'm not really sure how big an issue UI is for Hunters. Now, don't go and start saying how disconnected I am from my class because I don't see it as a big deal. It is just that once you get to a certain point, most of the Hunters I know start using different add-ons to create a personal UI.

What I do see as a huge issue for Hunters are the number of keybinds we have to use. Because we rely so heavily on the Global Cooldown we tend to bind almost every attack to a key. Add to that macro combinations for pet management, special attacks, misdirects, etc... and we have more keybinds than visible slots. Personally, I think this would be a bigger issue to address. If we can reduce our number of keybinds then we might actually see less need for custom UIs with multiple small action bars shown.

After talking about the Hunter castbars, it was nice to see Ghostcrawler talk about the Pet action bars. I'm sure many of you are like me and have become increasingly frustrated with the autocast bug automatically setting your pet on Cower or Prowl. It seems that Blizzard knows it is there, but not really on the short list of items to be fixed. However, I think when they do address the Autocast bug or when the address the Hunter's toolbars, we'll see changes in the Pet cast bar as well.

If you could name one shot that has made Hunters everywhere scratch their head, I think it would have to be Tranquilizing Shot. Yes, it is nice that we can use it, but only in very limiting situations. It almost seems like a wasted shot. Well, until you are fighting a boss like Magmadar anyways. If it was up to me, I would like to see Tranquilizing Shot turn into it is namesake. If the target is enraged it removes the buff, if not then put the target to sleep. Now I know what you are gonna say, what about Wyvern Sting? Well, why not just leave Wyvern Sting alone or combine the two? That's just my personal opinion, but I see Tranquilizing Shot as a great idea that's not used near enough.

For the last question, Ghostcrawler addresses the question about stable slots and pet variety. Though this doesn't address the recent Worgen controversy, it does give us some insights on where the development team stands with pets and where they may be taking them.

I did have an issue with a couple of points that Ghostcrawler made. First, Ghostcrawler states that Blizzard wants Hunters to be required to make a decision regarding their pet choices and that they don't want us to fall into the "Pokemon" syndrome of catching them all.

This just kinda rubs me the wrong way. Most Hunters actually love the idea of finding unique, rare pets to keep in their stables. It is one of the benefits and fun things we get for being a Hunter. Yes, sometimes it is frustrating when lines form for the next Spirit Beast or rare find. But ask any Hunter about their story of trying to find a Horde to help tame Echeyakee? And I'm not evening mentioning those other two pets that people figured out how to tame and were removed from the game. It seems to me, if people go to such lengths to find and tame a really cool and unique pet, why not let us do that? Personally, I think the days of of needing stable slots should be behind us. That's just me I guess.

That wraps up our 2 part analysis of the Hunter Q&A. It was a long one and ultimately touched many different issues. We covered everything from stable slots to obscure attacks and even the possibility of a new Hunter resource system.

Now that we have had a week to think about Ghostcrawler's responses. Has your initial impressions changed? Are there any burning questions you are hoping will get addressed at BlizzCon? What resource system would you like to see them implement? So many seem to be left unanswered. I'd like to hear what you have to say about the Hunter Q&A.

WoW 6 essential Mage add-ons for PvE

I have a buddy who doesn't use wow addons. -- WoW 6 essential Mage add-ons for PvE

I know, I know. And before you ask: yes, he is a moron. It's a flaw I've learned to overlook during the years we've known each other. His rationale for not using addons seems to be a combination of mistrust for anything that isn't part of the game right out of the box and a misguided belief that addons somehow equate to a form of cheating.

Now, I'll never convince him he's wrong--even though he clearly is--but I chalk that up to the fact that he is a moron. We both know and accept the fact of his moronitude, acknowledge that after 20 years of friendship, he probably isn't going to become any less infuriating, and move on to other topics.

You see, addons are awesome. I frequently assert to anyone who cares to listen (earning me more than a few strange looks, believe you me) that believing addons are cheats simply because Blizzard didn't program them into the default UI is pretty much the same thing as considering indoor plumbing a cheat because God didn't program it into the Earth when he originally created it. Addons are the community's way of grafting functionality into the game that Blizzard should have included from the start, and that's simply how it is. And yes, I am indirectly rebuking deity for not providing mankind with toilets from the beginning. I mean, how does it make sense that we had to go thousands of years without the option of peeing indoors? That's just poor design. I fully expect to be struck down at any moment as an example to smart-asses everywhere.

Disclaimer: I am in no way asserting that not using addons makes you a moron. I'm certain there are a great many of you out there who prefer not to use addons, and I'm sure you're by and large wonderful, fully functioning human beings. All I'm saying is that my buddy isn't one of those people. Also addons are awesome. That's all I'm saying.

Ahem.

The last time we discussed Mage addons, we focused on the PvP side of things. This week: PvE.

As with the last addon column, I'll add the caveat here that these are by no means the only useful PvE addons out there. These are simply those that I consider most essential. Raiding as a Mage without them is possible, but I'd compare it to performing surgery with your eyes closed: the results will be messy, and somebody is probably going to end up dead.

Omen

Yes, Blizzard has recently integrated a rudimentary threat warning system into the default interface. Omen is so much better that it's insulting to even compare the two. Every class should absolutely never raid without it (and indeed, a lot of guilds require it), and it's especially important for we Mages. As you may be aware, when you deliver a consistent stream of giant crits to a boss's face, as Mages tend to do, that boss tends to take more notice of you. Omen lets you know how close you're getting to having said boss forget all about the tank and wander over to eat you. If you don't have Omen or some other threat-meter alternative, get it. If you have it, pay attention to it. Make sure your Mage's name is never at the top of the list it provides. Your tank will thank you, your healers will love you, and maybe the boss will end up eating the Warlock instead.

Scorchio2/Power Auras Classic

These two mods are absolutely wonderful, and which one you use is really just a matter of personal preference. Both do essentially the same things, and they do them well. Scorchio is more tailored specifically to Mages, but Power Auras is incredibly customizable. Both mods keep track of buffs, debuffs, CCs, and every proc known to man.

In my opinion, these are the best options out there for tracking things like the Improved Scorch debuff, Hot Streak, Missile Barrage procs, and everything else Mages absolutely must be aware of.

MiksScrollingBattleText

Aside from being the single greatest run-on word in the English language, MiksScrollingBattleText is also my favorite combat text mod. I extolled its virtues in the PvP addons column, but It's just as awesome in PvE. It provides a wealth of combat information in an easy-to-follow presentation, and is so ridiculously configurable, you can probably figure out a way to get it to complete your math homework, tell you a bedtime story, and then sing you softly to sleep. This mod will allow you to know far more about any fight as it's going on than you have any right to know, and is indispensable when it comes to figuring out how you screwed up the Yogg fight yet again. There are other good options out there, but this is the combat text mod I like the best.

Quartz

Another mod I already mentioned for PvP purposes, this cast-bar addon is also essential for PvE. It takes latency into account, letting you know exactly when you can begin your next cast, improving spell rotation efficiency. Also, I just like the Quartz bar (which you can tailor to meet your needs) a whole lot more than the tiny default one.

Hit Assist for Casters

I only recently discovered this mod, but it has already become my new favorite addon. What it does is very simple, but now that I've discovered it, I have no idea how I got along this far into the game without it. With this mod, when you mouse over a target, your tooltip will tell you what percentage chance you have to miss it, and if that chance is zero, right below that, it tells you how much hit rating you can stand to lose before you stop being capped against that mob. If you already have this mod, you're nodding your head right now, going "yep, this mod is awesome." If you don't, your eyes are widening as you realize how helpful that would be. Or they should be. It's difficult to describe how infinitely nice this mod is to have around. Go get it now. I'll wait.

Decursive

I think as Mages, a lot of us forget that we have a little spell called Remove Curse. It's in our spellbooks, under the Arcane tab, wedged in between some croissants and a mana gem or something. I don't know. It's in there somewhere. Trust me.

You should be using this spell. A lot. It's one of our most valuable abilities, and I think we sometimes get so caught up in keeping our names on top of whatever damage meter mod we're running that we forget we can often keep the raid from dying by removing a few curses.

This little beauty of an addon makes doing so an almost unspeakably simpler task. I firmly believe no Mage should ever enter a raid without it. In a nutshell, what this mod does is keep track of all debuffs on every member of the raid, and provide you with an audio or visual cue whenever a teammate is afflicted with a curse you can remove. It's simple and elegant, usable right out the box without the need for any configuration, and has enough options to please even the most hard of the hardcore. Hardest of the hardcore? Most hardcorest? Eh, whatever. Get this addon.

For fun, I'm going to list a few other excellent quality-of-life addons you might also consider:

Ratings Buster

This converts combat ratings into percentages, so you can more easily tell how an item will benefit you.

Livedamage

Excellent little mod that tells you your current spellpower as it fluctuates during combat.

Opie

Gives you a little circular actionbar for portals and Mage armors such and looks like the menus in Secret of Mana, which makes it awesome.

Pitbull4

The most ubiquitous of unit frame mods, Pitbull can do almost anything if you configure it hard enough. Seriously, I'm pretty sure my Pitbull mod is about three more log-ins away from becoming self-aware and ending humanity in a nuclear hellstorm.

So if you use addons, you're probably nodding your head right now, thinking how similar our tastes are, or else you're furiously typing about some incredible mod I forgot to mention. If you don't use addons, at least now you know what you're missing. Or you read the column title and stopped reading. Either way, at least I tried.

WoW China hit with more censorship upon relaunch

World of Warcraft is finally getting back up on its feet in China, but it seems that it didn't do so without making some concessions to China's censorship. We know that when The9 was still in charge, they had to make multiple graphical edits to the game to avoid showing off exposed bones, such as altering the Forsaken models and turning player corpses into gravestones, rather than a skeleton heap.

Now that NetEase is in charge, they've had to make some changes to the game as well, though perhaps not as substantial. Potentially funnier, though. According to this Chinese website, severed heads and skulls have been covered up. Literally. Item icons that would show heads or skulls in other regions of the world are now bags, chests and crates in China. This includes things like Van Cleef's Head, and even spell icons like the ones used by Ruin and Improved Corruption have been replaced by bags.

It makes me curious if these edits include just the icons, or if they tried to justify them in the game world. Are you still looting VanCleef's Head (but placing it in a bag), or are you looting some of his personal effects of proof of the deed? It also makes me wish I had a Chinese account just to see what's all been changed this time around. Is it just spell icons? What's Icecrown going to look like? Did they need to make changes to any instances or raid zones?

It's always unfortunate when this sort of censorship happens, it's really not something you ever like to see, but I really can't help but be intrigued by the idea of the game world I'm playing in being so different for those in other parts of the world. If you happen to be reading us from China (or play on Chinese servers from elsewhere), we'd love to see any other screenshots you might have of what Azeroth looks like from your end.

Blizzard to focus on battlegrounds more

Ghostcrawler has posted a little paragraph on the forums, reaffirming something we've already heard from Blizzard: that in the past, they've spent more time on Arenas to the detriment of battlegrounds, and that battlegrounds are going to be gaining a little more focus in the future. They've already started, actually, with the Isle of Conquest in 3.2, but GC says there's even more on the table, and that future plans will be revealed at BlizzCon.

He also brings up another good point, however: in terms of class balance, Arenas are a much more striking example of imbalances than battlegrounds are. Battlegrounds have all sorts of things going on, and so you don't get as good a picture of just how the different classes work with and against each other as you do in Arenas. And so, if you're a dev trying to figure out class balances, of course you'll spend more time looking at the Arena gameplay than the BGs. GC also says that the majority of issues in BGs tend to be map-based rather than class imbalances, which is really a whole other science. Not that BGs aren't relevant to how the classes work, just that there are many more variables in there than the relative vacuum chamber of Arenas.

All good points. I'm a fan of battlegrounds much more than Arenas, but I don't particularly feel that Blizzard has ignored them necessarily. The real problem, to my mind, with BGs is simply how faction imbalanced they are: it seems like on every realm in every given BG, one side always seems to have the upper hand, for whatever reason. Sometimes it's a population problem, sometimes it's a map issue. But GC is right: those problems are more pressing than class balance in the BGs.

A bag for Cooking

Profession bags are a godsend for almost anyone leveling up a profession -- while the loss of bag space in favor of specialty slots can be a problem sometimes at the lower levels, almost all high level characters can definitely make use of at least one profession bag, to hold all of the extra ore, or gems, or leather, or whatever else you're hauling around all the time. But Natalia over on WoW LJ makes an excellent point: just where is our cooking bag? And how about a fishing bag? You might argue that only the gathering professions are meant to have bags (the Blacksmithing bag is actually a Mining bag, so even Engineers can make use of it), but that's not quite true: Engineering does have its own bags, as does Inscription. Cooking and/or Fishing, you'd think, should both have their own profession bags.

Of course, they are both secondary professions, so maybe Blizzard believes that because they're more or less optional, you should be able to carry around all of your food and spices and lures in your regular bags. But cooking especially has gotten pretty complicated lately (there are a few foods that you've got to have in your bags regularly to do the daily quests, especially Chilled Meat), and so a lot of players would definitely find a use for a dedicated bag. First Aid, probably not, but Cooking and Fishing? Definitely.

And if you want to really dream, maybe food could actually get a bonus from being kept in a special "refridgerated" bag -- nothing big, just maybe a few extra points of the bonus stat or a little longer duration when you actually take care of your food rather than just tossing it in with all of the Kobold eyeballs and oily swords and cloth that you're also carrying around. But that would be extra -- for now, just a bigger bag meant for cooking and fishing utensils would be fine, thanks.

Rage as a liability

Rage is a problematic mechanic, and has been since its implementation. It can be a lot of fun, but it can also be frustrating, and it contributes to Warriors' gear dependance. Blizzard is probably working on a way to redo rage entirely, but in the mean time, I'd like to highlight this suggestion for a rage revamp from Alveredus, a commenter on a recent post of mine.

Here's a quick rundown of Alveredus's proposal:

Rage increases over time by itself. The more rage you have, the lower your attack speed, but the higher your crit chance. When your rage is at maximum, you start losing resilience. Your abilities vent rage instead of costing rage - same thing really, but a different way of looking at it. I'm not certain about the specifics of it, but I like the general idea of rage being something you want to get rid of instead of something you want to spend. It makes sense: being in combat makes you angry; when angry, you may be less accurate, more vulnerable, or generally imbalanced.

On the other hand, a system like this runs the risk of feeling like Rogue energy with a penalty. Rogues get their resource back at a constant rate and use it on abilities, but nothing bad happens to them when they cap their energy (aside from losing out on some potential DPS). The comparison could feel unfair for Warriors, who already have their share of penalties for core abilities. But rage definitely could use some work, and I'd like it to stay an interesting mechanic.

WoW Are there bad talents?

Tree Bark Jacket, a resto-druid-themed blog that was new to me, has an interesting post up about whether there is such a thing as an entirely bad talent. The author's argument is that no, there is not, the reason being that even talents that are regularly dismissed are still useful sometimes; they're just situational.

For instance, Improved Tranquility, while certainly sub-par in 25-man raids, shines in heroics, and Living Seed is nice for healing tanks through chunky damage.

On a broader scope, Keeva makes the important point that you can't make all your talent decisions based on Recount or on people's advice from Elitist Jerks (etc.). Everyone's playstyle and raid makeup is different, and every raid encounter is different.

Here's a personal example: It may be hard to convince your DPS to use Lightwell in 90% of fights, but your tanks will love you for it during a Maexxna web wrap. Does this mean you should take it? That's for you to decide. I kept it while Naxx was still progression content for us, and ditched it in Ulduar where I couldn't find much use for it.

In the end I mostly agree with Keeva. The majority of talents in our talent trees are useful in some situation or other, whether it's raid healing vs. tank healing, 5-mans vs. raids, PvP vs. PvE, or what have you. There are a few that are or were simply bad - the old version of Throwing Specialization springs to mind - but nowadays, those are pretty rare.

If a talent looks useless to you, you probably just aren't thinking of the situations where it'll be useful. But that's OK, you should skip the talents that won't help you in your game. That's the great thing about talents: everybody makes their own choices.

Tags: lightwell, min-maxing, resto, resto-druid, talent-specs, talents, tree-bark-jacket

Argent Tournament dailies: Get Kraken!

The Patch 3.2 daily quests are all rather straightforward, but since the QuestHelper-esque features that were intended to be in the patch were pulled, we figured we would go over them all anyway. The first one that we'll be tackling is Get Kraken! This quest can only be seen once you've acquired the Crusader title, and it's the return of a Burning Crusade staple: On-rails bombing quests. Watch the video above, and that's pretty much the whole thing. The goal is to chuck 8 Flaming Spears at the kraken that's harassing the Silver Covenant and Sunreaver ships, and use the spear to take out 6 Kvaldir Deepcallers on the way. It's on rails, so there's no search element involved at all. You kill as many as you need while in-flight, or you don't. If you don't, you grab another flight.

I somewhat suspect that when the patch first launches, you're going to be taking the extra flight more often than not. When there are only a few people flying around, there are more than enough Deepcallers to go around. Even though they respawn nearly instantaneously, targeting and hitting them will be a pain when there are dozens and dozens of people doing the quest. The kraken isn't an issue, though. The thing can take a beating, and it's by far the easiest of the two targets. If you don't scare all of your necessary hits on it in one go, chances are you just forgot to do it.

Another thing you might notice in the video above is that the Deepcallers can actually be pretty hard to spot. You need to be a quick-clicker or you'll miss them. You fly so high that they don't really 'pop in' until you're right on top of them, so you'll be swiveling your camera behind you fairly often. You'll be throwing back over your shoulder, rather than straight ahead. Still, it's really not that bad, and I actually find these on-rails quests pretty fun. This is one thing I'm very glad to see again, personally. It brings some sorely needed diversity to the Argent Tournament's daily quests.

Completing the quest at the level cap will net you 13 gold, 23 silver, and a Champion's Seal. No reputation gain, since you need to be Exalted with pretty much everybody involved before you can even get the quest.

WoW Moviewatch: Alliance vs. Horde - Episode 2

BroncoTV has really been doing a great job providing interesting videos for the World of Warcraft community. They've just released the new episode in their Alliance vs. Horde series, in which they examine the differences between Azeroth's factions to great comedic effect.

Alliance vs. Horde - Episode 2 focuses on one of the fundamental aspects of WoW game play -- how we group. The Alliance dwarf is eager to go plumb the depths of an instance, while the Horde character is more interested in personal, individual achievement.

Michael Davis and Michael Schroeder are working hard to keep their series "balanced," to avoid out-of-character bias for or against one faction or another. I definitely appreciate the effort, especially since they seem to do a good job keeping their protagonist "true to form." They don't seem to need to adjust the characters' behavior just to suit the joke; instead, both characters seem consistent across the two episodes. I think there's a lot of art that goes into that balancing act, and I tip my hat to BroncoTV for pulling it off.