mmo-champion have datamined what maybe the plate Tier 9 sets. I had a feeling (and hope!) the new tier would be something along the lines of the original Grand Marshall sets. If the image is right then that feeling is somewhat proven – it’s a very old pvp’ish look and I’m pretty happy with it.
The only disappointments? Firstly that the DK and Warrior models are basically the same – only the textures differ. I could see Blizzard doing this tbh since it would reduce the total number of models they need. Given they are producing different models for each faction re-using models for each class of armour would reduce the number to something approaching the norm. Secondly the boots – I like the model used for mine better!
26.06.2009
Paladins, Raiding
My guild, Aquila have been steadily working on hard modes in both 10 and 25 man. We’re not a huge guild nor are we peeps who spend every minute of the day trying to beat the game. However we’ve been pretty successful back through TBC. Hard modes in Ulduar, heroic at least really have proven to be hard. Something like a dozen guilds worldwide have so far completed the [Heroic: Glory Of The Ulduar Raider].
This past reset we managed to do [Heroic: Orbit-uary] and [Heroic: Heartbreaker]. Thorim hard mode nearly joined them but we wiped at something like 20% – we did get [Heroic: Siffed] though.
Anyway this past night we had a shot at Steelbreaker last. We spent an evening on this last reset perfecting our strategy. Tonight we went in and BOOM one shot it! I must admit I was really shocked. From a tanking perspective it’s a real “oh shit!” fight. My job was tanking Brundir (he dies second in our approach) and taking over Steelbreaker as the third tank – we res the first tank (our warrior, Zekans) who then tanks again fourth blowing all cooldowns. Wearing my EH gear I have something like 45-46K HP buffed – even so with cooldowns there are still “oh geez” moments in the 30 seconds of tanking him. It really was smooth – so pleased for everyone.
With the announcement that the Ulduar meta rewards of the [Reins of the Rusted Proto-Drake] and [Reins of the Ironbound Proto-Drake] won’t necessarily be removed with 3.2 we’ll keep pushing away and see what happens.
23.06.2009
Guild, Raiding
So details on 3.2 have been announced along with a lot of information on Paladin and Shaman changes. The patch is pretty “meh” in my opinion. It makes me wonder if the relative lack of content since Ulduar is due to Blizzard preparing 3.3 and the expansion. The Colliseum has some nice ideas – seperate lockouts, the need for progression on “hard modes”. But the limited number of encounters, just five, is very unwhelming. The changes to badges is also a “what?” moment. A blue has actually stated it’s to reduce the frustrating gear gap some players face. I wonder if they actually understand the concept of gaming anymore …
Shield block Value
I play prot most of the time so I’ll start with those. The changes to block value (affecting warriors too of course) at first seems nice. However when you actually look at it the changes won’t make any significant difference for most players. In my normal tanking set (high health, decent avoidance) I have a whole 68 SBV … all from my [Conqueror's Aegis Handguards]. So my SBV will increase by a whole … 68, big deal. In my block gear set it’ll be more significant, a few hundred more. Even then it’s a “meh” type of “buff”. What’s more they’re reducing the damage done by [Shield of Righteousness] from 130% to 100% – although that may have more to do with the following …
Seal changes
In buffing/changing retribution they have dumped [Seal Of The Martyr] and significantly buffed [Seal of Command] and much more so [Seal of Vengeance]. Currently Vengeance (the tanking seal of choice) applies a DoT to the targt which stacks up to five times – it’s a nice source of ongoing threat. In 3.2 baring changes it’ll do that and additionally with five stacks in place will deal an additional 33% weapon damage as holy damage (thus it cannot be mitigated by armour). That’s a nice little buff.
Ardent Defender – our new cooldown
By far the biggest change is to [Ardent Defender]. Other tanking classes generally have two short cooldown “oh shit!” abilities, e.g. warriors have both [Shield Wall] and [Last Stand]. The paladins have … well … one, [Divine Protection]. The only other thing we have is [Lay on Hands], a very nice ability but not typically one that allows you to survive – it more gets you out of trouble. Ardent Defender has been viewed with both addoration and disdain! On the one hand it’s a life saver but on the other it’s all too easily overcome. A good example is where you take a hit which reduces your HP to less than 35%, Ardent Defender kicks in, you’re healed to say 40% of your HP and take another hit … *BOOM* … you’re dead, it’s been leap frogged.
The change they are making basically eliminates the leap frogging problem. Now instead of reducing damage if your HP is below 35% it’ll reduce damage whenever your HP will be reduced below 35%, no leap frogging. Additionally they’re throwing in a [Guardian Spirit] like effect. Every two minutes any hit you take which would otherwise kill you … won’t … it’ll reduce your HP to 30% (assuming three points in the talent). This is a great buff. Some peeps are complaining we need more active abilities. I understand what they are saying, make decisions is good. However ask any warrior about Last Stand and most will say they wasted it early – no such difficulties with our ability.
Overall I’m pretty happy with the protection changes thus far. Holy paladin changes I think are pretty “meh”. Blizzard say they are significant buff – allowing [Beacon of Light] to count overhealing and having [Sacred Shield] plus [Flash of Light] combos to apply a HoT. They well be a nice buff but they seem like easy solutions to me, glyph style solutions really. Where’s the additional spell?
Well the PTR’s will be up soon – I guess we’ll see what all these changes amount to!
21.06.2009
Paladins
Dual-specs have been a great boon to the game. Initially I wasn’t going to bother taking up this new ability but in the end I of course did. My second spec is holy, same as my off-spec has been since I started raiding with my paladin. It’s proved very useful to myself and I think my raid group. Generally our guild has never lacked high output dps but we have, I suspect like many guilds suffered with healer signups. It’s not so bad now but our holy paladins are not the most active of players.
Anyway I find myself now healing at fights such as Hodir and more recently Vezax. It’s actually great fun and a nice change from tanking something every encounter. I found a really nice concise site The Holy Paladin which covers everything from talent selection, glyphs, pots/elixirs right through to detailed breakdowns of how to maximise the effectiveness of your spells.
05.05.2009
Paladins
Wahoo – back, probably. Not a big one for blogs but gonna give this another shot.
So, my guild, Aquila has been in Ulduar for a couple of weeks now – well the day after patch 3.1. We’ve reached Mimiron on 25 man and Vezax on 10 man. So, what’s with all these nerfs? I want to shake the encounter designers at Blizzard.
Nothing, not one encounter so far has been impossible, not even close, not really that difficult. We wiped for raid after raid in Sunwell on each and every boss. So far we wiped a few times on Razorscale as we learnt the best way to handle landings (to maximise DPS), we gave up on Ignis pre-bug-fix (but one shot him after). Auriaya was fine when we worked out a good pulling technique.
It’s difficult to believe some of the stuff I’ve read on the forums posted by guilds having problems. Seriously how difficult it is to move when you’re debuffed with something which can kill others? How hard is to use [Hand of Protection] or [Guardian Spirit] at Auriaya. As for Kologarn, geez!
Meanwhile Blizzard are buffing the hard modes! These are modes guilds such as Ensidia have only overcome pre-buff or by using exploits which are now fixed. It’s utterly rediculous! I posted to a topic on the EU forums about this (no idea why – Blue’s in the U.S. have locked any/all such posts in recent days – clearly they aren’t interested in listening). Most people are in agreement in these topics, including the one to which I posted. A response to my post ran along the lines “well Freya and Yogg can be done in varying degrees of difficulty” … err … yes … and? You do Freya with one add on the way to overcoming all three. You don’t do one and say “that’s it, fine, we’re finished”. And if the hard modes are such that completing them is near impossible there is little reason – the odd piece of gear aside – to complete them at all.
I really do feel Blizzard are making a huge mistake here and clearly many others do to. They need to push out new content. Wrath was great from a lore, quest, graphics perspective, much better than TBC. But there are too few instances, too few raids and it’s all getting too easy too quickly.
02.05.2009
Raiding
Iron Dwarf, Medium Rare
Con-speed-atory
Knock, Knock, Knock on Wood
With Open Arms
Must Deconstruct Faster
