Perhaps The Pendulum Swung Too Far

Over the last week or so Cynwise has posted a very in depth analysis of the complexities of the Warlock class in Cataclysm. If you havent read them, please do yourself a favor and do so.

I’ll be here when you get back.

Ok, here is a bit of an observation from my corner. I have kind of touched on it already in other posts, but Cynwise really made it coalesce in my mind.

WoW became less fun right around the time that an added layer of complexity was put onto all the classes (Warlocks more than most, by the numbers). The problem was not just that, although it played large into my decision to severely cut back my playing time.

The content was made harder, as I discussed yesterday.

At the same time, the characters were made more complex, but not more powerful.

In essence, as a player, I had to work harder to achieve the same results as I was able in Wrath. At the same time, the more difficult content requires me to perform better than I did in Wrath.

Toss all that together with the fact that the 36 year old Dech that rolled a Hunter in Vanilla WoW is long gone. In his place is a 42 year old with slower reaction times and a budding case of arthritis in his hands.

For just a moment, I am not going to bother looking at Dps rotations, or healer cooldown management, or tank scaling issues. None of that for a moment.

Lets take a brief look at gear.

You know, all that stuff we carry about and/or use that is not our actual character.

Lets look at the Hunter for example, since I have played one in every version of WoW so far.

In Vanilla I would collect gear with agility, preferably mail, but leather was ok in a pinch. Then I would get it enchanted with armor kits or enchants depending on the slot, perhaps even shoulder enchants if I was raiding ZG. Oh, and toss a scope on the ranged weapon too.

I would stock up on buff food, healing and mana potions, food for my pet, and ammo. Lots and lots of ammo. I would normally stock a 16 slot bag as well as my quiver, which I think was 16 as well.

Then along came The Burning Crusade.

Agility gear, with appropriate enchants and / or armor kits. Shoulder enchants without raiding, that was nice. Gems were introduced, For the most part, one would simply use enchants, gear, and gems to reach the hit cap, and then agility every where else.

Toss flasks, potions, food, and still tons of ammo into the mix.

I think this tier was the first time I sat down with a calculator and a sheet of paper and planned out what enchants, gems, and such I would need to hit cap without going over.

Along comes Wrath of the Litch King, and with it the introduction of even more secondary stats to deal with.

Basicly take everything that TBC had going on and add in many more gem cuts of the split variety (Agi and Hit vs. Agi and Crit for example). add many more types of buff food than had been available previously.

Keep right on carrying all those potions and such, and toss glyphs into the mix as well, as they are a consumable that buffs ones character. On the plus side, no more ammo in my bags, and no more pet food to carry.

Most recently there is Cataclysm.

Take everything that’s already present and add reforging to the mix.

I was no longer even able to sit down and plot out the best balance of enchants and such for my character, I had to resort to third party sites like Ask Mr Robot to tell me what to do.

When the complexity of the gearing system got to the point I could no longer even math it out for myself I simply resigned myself to doing whatever Mr. Robot told me to.

What was intended to give variety and provide “interesting choices” actually just frustrated the hell out of me and in the end I simply did what I was told. I actually make fewer choices now than I did previously.

As for spell rotations, well, lets just say that if Blizzard makes my class “More Interesting” one more time i’ll be playing something else.

Once upon a time my Hunter had a relatively simple gear set and a one button Dps macro.

Now he has 27 abilities hotkeyed, not counting pet abilities.

I think perhaps the pendulum has swung a bit too far.

Hey Blizz, how about finding a happy place in the middle?

Single Point of Blame

There have been a number of interesting posts of late that had to do with the difficulty of healing high level content. They kind of got my mind wandering about the different roles in WoW, and how they interact.

Bear with me, i’m out of coffee. This might wander and ramble and change topics three times before I conclude with something odd, like Warrior tanking is harder ever since they took away permanent tree form from Druids.

Trust me, a decaffeinated Dech is a rather bizarre thing to see.

Anywho.

Big Bear Butt had a really interesting post yesterday where he noted just how much more difficult healing is in a pug setting, particularly in the LFR. I have noticed that as well, and that level of derp is one of the reasons I quit running in the LFR.

Matticus has a post up as well, asking How complex should healing be? Oddly enough, in my opinion at least, it’s already as complex as it needs to be.

Maybe even a bit too complex, but thats a post for another day.

It’s often noted that there tends to be a shortage of tanks and healers. This is not any surprise to me. The shortage exists not because there are not enough players in those specs, but because many of the players that are choose not to run randoms.

Simply put when running as a tank or healer in a pick up group, you are in a single point of failure role. If anything goes wrong, it tends to get blamed on one of those two.

There is an old saying (well, old for MMO’s) that goes something like this:

If the tank dies, it’s the healers fault.

If the healer dies, it’s the tanks fault.

If a Dps’er dies, it’s their own damn fault.

Once upon a time that might have been the case, and likely still is if you are running with friends. It’s not the case in a random.

One person, in any of the three roles, is more than capable of screwing everything up.

I digress though. I was going to chat about the single point of failure roles.

By simply being a single point of failure, the tanking and healing positions are actually much harder to play in a setting with unfamiliar players. As a healer I know I am much more at ease once I have run at least a few instances with the group I’m playing with. I know what to expect of the other players.

The same largely holds true for me as a tank as well. Particularly familiarity with my healer. Knowing how many I can pull at once where they can keep up lets me know the pace I can set.

Don’t get me wrong, familiarity with the Dps’ers in the group goes a long way as well. Especially if there will be crowd control in use.

When I am in a Dps role, I only really need to focus on doing my job. When I am in either of the other two roles I have to focus on everyone.

When I was done reading the two linked posts, particularly when Matticus pointed out the level of complexity in healing as it sharply increased towards end game, I noticed a pattern.

Not a pattern in their writing, but a pattern in my own game play.

I have found that I really enjoy running instances, particularly I love Pally tanking. The higher I level the more fun it gets, right up until I finish Wrath content and start moving into Cataclysm instances.

The instances get progressively harder as you level, not just in the sense that the monsters are tougher, but as technical challenges.

More bad not to stand in.

More “interesting game mechanics”

More repositioning of mobs as the tank.

More difficulty with healing thruput and mana conservation as a healer.

More cooldowns for everyone, and a higher penalty if they aren’t used properly.

A greater need for crowd control, which has always been harder to coordinate in Pugs.

I think honestly, that the technical aspect of the instances is why many people find it too difficult or simply too frustrating to run in randoms. At least in one of the single point of failure roles.

Actually, I could better call them single point of blame.

Right or wrong, if blame is tossed about it nearly always falls on one of those two, whether they were at fault or not.

I know that’s why I only run level 80 or better randoms as a Dps, even though I level up to that point instancing as a tank or healer.

As always, just my two copper. Take it how you wish.

A reboot of sorts

Those that are guilded with me, or friends on realid, have seen how little I have been on WoW lately. Those that aren’t, trust me, I’m like a small town on the interstate. Blink and you’ll miss me.

I still enjoy the game, particularly the leveling portion of it. I’m just finding that once I reach max level I can only kill Deathwing so many times before it’s just not fun any more. (Yes, I’m one of those LFR folks who doesn’t raid normals)

With that in mind I decided to cancel my subscription until the expansion comes out.

That was two weeks ago.

Not long after my daughter offered me some room on her account. A few character slots on Kael’Thas, where she has no characters, but I have friends.

So here I find myself in an interesting situation. An empty character roster, and the whole of Azeroth open before me.

In a few days the door will close on the account I have had active since Vanillia. The account with 8 level 85′s on it, and tens of thousands of gold. The account with nearly every profession maxed on one character or another. The one with the Glyph business running on both sides of the faction divide.

One would think I am giving up everything and starting over. Thats really not the case.

I’ll still have my banker on each side. It will be a different character, but I’ll still have the storage available.

I’ll still have my stock of heirlooms, since I share a Battlenet with my daughter, I’ll just mail them over.

I’ll still have whatever cash is on hand when the lights go out, sitting in a pair of guild vaults.

What I won’t have is the sense of “I’m done” that I get every time I log in and see nothing but max level characters sprinkled with the occasional banker.

Horde side I rolled a shiny new Pally, Alliance side a brand new Hunter.

For the first time in quite a while I’m really looking forward to exploring the world. I really haven’t done that since the Cata reboot.  

I can’t wait.

I’m not the customer, I’m the content

So as you know I have been taking a bit of a break from WoW of late. I logged in a time or two to post a few auctions and collect mail, mostly to financially support the daughter who still plays daily, but other than that I have been offline. This is actually a WoW post though, bear with me.

Actually I have not been totally offline, I have been playing World of Tanks.

Before I go any further about my thoughts on World of Tanks, let me just say this. The business model is excellent. Just remember, if you aren’t one of the paying customers, you are the content. I at least understand that I’m there to be farmed.

As they say, Knowing is half the battle.

Briefly, WoT is a real-time MMO shooter wherein you fight as part of a team of 15 tanks against an approximately equally strong force. In theory, you should win about 50% of the time, as that’s the way the matchmaking engine is designed.

There are ten tiers of tanks, each progressively more powerful than the last. There are also many ways to customise your tank (different guns, tracks, better engine, etc).

When starting out in the lowest tier of tanks, and the lowest tier of battles, I found myself getting my ass handed to me pretty regularly. This improved a bit as I equipped my low-level tanks with the best each could have, and as my crews gained experience.

A big part of me going from cannon fodder in the first minutes of the game to often surviving until the end was the guy behind the keyboard gaining experience. I learned how to aim, and where to hit them. I learned what routes to take and where I could expect to find cover. I learned which inviting looking routes really were deathtraps.

One thing I did not do however was to purchase an advantage.

You see, in WoT you can purchase several things for real money. The biggest three of these are good quality advanced tanks, “gold” ammo that hits like a truck, and accelerated crew advancement.

The temptation to join in and purchase a midrange tank with an already experienced crew is pretty strong when despite better tactics and superior positioning on the battlefield I only win one on one about half the time against equal level item shop tanks. It’s worse if I don’t already have a tactical advantage when the fight starts.

*Random quote from my Dad as I was getting ready to head overseas for the first time in the service. “Remember, if you ever find yourself in a fair fight, somebody effed up.”*

Based on what I am seeing, I can expect to be at a similar disadvantage all the way to the point that I have earned enough credits and experience in the game to have a fully kitted max tier heavy tank in my stable, then it will mostly balance out.

This, of course, assumes that I intend to progress to that level.

I don’t.

I took a look at the “end game” and decided on a role that I will be able to fulfill with inferior equipment, but still benefit my team. I’ll be playing as a scout. My current choices for that task are the German panzer III and panzer IV, though that might change as I level up a bit further.

I plan to use their speed and maneuverability as their best defense, going in and spotting targets for the artillery and other heavy guns.

Anyhow, How does this relate to World of Warcraft?

Well, for the longest time I have been very much in favor of letting people buy their way up the advancement tree. Not all the way to the level cap, but perhaps to the previous cap.

Kind of like the scroll of resurrection does now, where you get a free character boost to 80.

I thought this was a great idea, and in some ways still do.

Now though I have some serious reservations about it.

As I played my way towards the mid-tiered tanks in WoT I noticed that the person behind the keyboard was getting much more comfortable driving that avatar around.

Just like I would have been a detriment to my team had I simply bought a mid-tier tank and tried to learn how to play on it, so I would have been a detriment to my team as I learned my class on a freshly bought item shop character in Warcraft.

Actually it would have been much worse. WoT only has a few buttons that actually do anything. WoW is a far more complex game than WoT. Most of my max level WoW characters have dozens of keybinds and macros just to make them playable.

Do I think “pay to advance” is coming?

Yes.

Do I think it’s a great idea?

I’m really not so sure anymore.

Will I use it if Blizzard chooses to put it into the game?

Probably.

Hello again, not to change the subject, but…

hello there folks, I have a brief announcement.

I made it back from the schooling I was sent to, managed to successfully pass, and managed to discover a few things about my gaming habits along the way.

The biggest thing I discovered is that with World of Warcraft the magic is just no longer there. I had a good run, playing since vanilla without taking any extended breaks. To put that in perspective a child born the day I bought the game and rolled the first of my many characters would be of school age now.

The game is still engaging, but I am just burned out on playing it. I’m taking a break, perhaps a permanent one. We shall see.

I may still make an occasional appearance to my guildies, as I am going to roll a chatting alt on my daughters account before my time runs out here in a few weeks. Might even ship over a stack of heirlooms to that character so she can use them. For the most part though, I’m done.

What does this mean for the blog?

Honestly I don’t know.

I still have the odd real life misadventure I can write about, and I have not stopped gaming completely. Far from it actually, I’m just not playing WoW at the moment.

My current game of choice is World of Tanks. I do plan on making a few posts about that in the coming days.

For any other WoT players out there on the US servers, you can find me as Dechion. (Go figure)

I’ll now return you to your regularly scheduled LoL cat browsing.

I thought I was too old for school?

Those that follow me on Twitter and/or Facebook already know this, but I took a bit of a trip yesterday.

I flew halfway across the country to attend a class for work, which should be fun. Challanging, since it’s a maintenance course for a machine I don’t actually have at my plant yet, but fun.

Just a heads up that it may get really lively here if I have a lot of time to write, and might go completely dark for the next three weeks if i’m buried in classwork.

Time will tell.

 

Sixth of the Sixth

Well, looks like I managed to get myself tagged in yet another meme, this time by Kae over at Shades of Kae.

The gist of it is you take your sixth screenshot folder and post the sixth screenshot. Well, I only have one folder, so I went six columns over and six rows down to dig up this beauty for you.

Something tells me it was either really late, or I had downed a few rum and somethings. Possibly both. I think the picture speaks for itself.

Generally that’s when random poetry happens.

It really is interesting mapping all this out, you can see the tree in all it’s branchy glory at Martha.net. It’s like the 6 degrees of blogger seperation.