Ailis in Hunterland

I wanted to take a moment and expand on a subject I touched upon briefly in my previous post outlining the new changes coming next year with Cataclysm.  I realize we have, at minimum, a year to wait for the new expansion and there’s a couple of raids in between now and then; however, I wanted to attempt to get a discussion going because I’m honestly curious to hear your thoughts on the matter.

There was a blue post a few days ago that caught my attention regarding the stat changes and the accusation that it was over-simplifying everything:

I find many of these arguments to be elitist. This is not a “catering to the casuals” issue. This is an issue that even some of our most educated and math-savy players could not make gear decisions without the help of external tools. We’re much less concerned about more casual players because the specific choice of upgrade will mean less for them (skill outweighs the contribution of stats for all but the absolute best players) and they often choose pieces based on things like art over stats.

I’m talking about very hardcore raiders who no longer could eyeball a piece of gear with any degree of authority. I might believe that some very few of you are so proficient with the math as to be able to eyeball the stats, but I think you are vastly overestimating the number of players who can or do. Remember, the formula to convert armor penetration into damage was so complicated that we had to take the unusual step of actually spelling out how it was calculated.

With this change will you still have to make hard choices about upgrading? Absolutely. Will there still be quasi-religious debates about which neck is best in slot for a given spec? Of course. Will you still need to understand the mechanics to make the best choice for your character? We think so. One of our overall design philosophies for WoW (and Blizzard) is to be simple but have a lot of depth. Some people mistake needless complexity for depth.

Meanwhile, we think there is a lot of benefit of getting rid of problematic stats like defense and accomplishing things like letting casters improve by focusing on throughput over mana pool.

Here’s the breakdown.

After Cataclysm, there will be multiple things that will effect your output as a tank/dps/healer:

1. Gear (and, with that, Gems, Reforging and Enchants)
2. Build (with Glyphs)
3. Professions
4. Mastery
5. Path of the Titan

Right now, you can go to any number of popular websites and find THE build and gear setup for your particular class that will make you the best you can be.  If you follow X template, you are the best.  Period.

I think this has led to the issue that the Blue mentions above when they say that players are getting to the point where they memorize a list of BiS and go for those items to the exclusion of everything else because someone told them it was the best.  It’s taken the thought out of gearing and balancing.  I realize a lot of this had to do with the vast number of stats we have to balance to achieve and optimal level of performance, thus the “over-simplification” of stats in the upcoming xpac.

Does this mean cookie cutter specs and BiS lists will go away with Cataclysm?  I don’t think so but my hope is we’ll have a couple of lists instead of one list.  Something like:

“If you went with X Path of the Titan and Y Mastery, then here’s a BiS gear list for you, but this is purely dependent on your reforging and profession buffs.”

And so on.  This means a helluvalot more theorycrafting coming from the think-tanks, which is all well and good and, yes, I will still read it all.  But here’s my hope.

I hope that, with the vast number of combinations of Paths, Mastery, Builds, Reforging, Gear combinations, Gems, Enchants, Profession Buffs and more, people will start to make their own choices.  The simplification of stats allows for this and even encourages it.  There is a whole new glyph system with your chosen Path; a whole set of Mastery tools for your build; possibly new Profession buffs to correlate with the stat changes; and more.  What I’m hoping is that, instead of Cookie Cutter Spec A being used by every Enhancement Shaman in a progressive raiding guild, you’ll have something more akin to the “Top Ten Enhancement Shaman Systems.”

But I want to know your thoughts on it.  Do you think we’ll still have set in stone cookie cutter specs for everyone or do you think a significant change is coming?  Is this good or bad?

The whole “cataclysmic this” and “cataclysmic that” won’t get old for at least another week so I’m using it until then.

I wanted to take a moment and talk about guilds.  Guilds are getting a tremendous facelift in the upcoming expansion, something that is, in my opinion, long overdue.

Scott Andrews at Wow.com put it best when he said:

I’ve said before, guilds are the backbone of any MMO. They facilitate all the group content that developers spend millions to produce — the content that keeps people interested in the game and separates an MMO from your average single-player experience…Without officers who sacrifice time and energy to organize and lead their guilds, no MMO can succeed.

He is, in a lot of ways, right.  WoW is a highly social game – friendships are formed, enemies are made, bonds are created and oftentimes unraveled with as much frequency as any family unit or social structure.  Guilds contribute to and facilitate those bonds and, on the flip side, can aid in breaking them as well.  Whether you’re a raider, a PvPer or a causal solo player, we all have experiences with guilds both good and bad.  Without guilds, the world we know now would be vastly different.

Which is why I’m somewhat amused that it’s taken this long for Blizzard to revamp them or reward them in any way.  Up until the expansion, all rewards and achievements are for the individual player and they can take those rewards, tabards, and pets to as many different guilds as they want to with no penalty.  The only advantage, at the moment, to being in a guild is regular raiding times and raid achievements (if your guild goes for those) and raiding guilds are somewhat dependent on their core raiders staying so they strive to keep them happy.

With Cataclysm, a number of things are being implemented to reward guilds as a whole and to make their jobs a little bit easier.  There’s a new “Looking for Guild” interface (which needs more work, in my opinion, but it’s a start) and, combining that with cross-server instances, recruiting may be a bit easier than the myriad of Trade Chat and Guild Recruiting spam most people resort to.

Another big change, one we don’t know a ton about yet, is the Guild Heirloom system and the Guild-only recipes/loot/etc. system.  There is a lot of debate over these as people are afraid of large portions of what they own being bound to the guild.  In some cases, this could work – recipes, heirlooms perhaps.  However, any raid loot?  I, for one, hope this isn’t the case but we shall see as more information is revealed.

The biggest change coming for guilds is the Guild Talent system.  Through this system, the top 20 performers in a guild (or all members if your guild is less than 20) will earn achievement points for the guild through activities such as PvP, raiding, questing, titles, individual achievements, profession leveling, the sky is the limit.  At each level, the GM will be able to put a talent point into the Guild Talent tree and earn the guild rewards such as mass resurrection on a raid wipe, no reagents for mass buffs, lower repair costs, less durability damage, etc.

On the surface, this seems like a fantastic idea and I think it could be a lot of fun.  It promotes unity and teamwork – “We’re all working towards X talent because it will benefit everyone.”  This is wonderful.

However, and many have raised this point, will it be the end of smaller guilds?  Yes, there are a myriad of tiny guilds on every realm that really have no business being formed and would probably be much better off condensing into one big one or joining an already well-established guild.  There are, though, other small guilds – the mom and pop stores of our burgeoning economy – that are small but firmly grounded, filled with skilled people and are progressing slowly but fine.  Should they roll into the big corporations for the perks?  Will they be penalized for not having the volume to compete with the bigger guilds?  Will we see the death of small guilds through this system and the rise of mega guilds?

The other concern is for the individual player.  People come and go all the time.  Sometimes someone gquits in the heat of the moment, sometimes it’s a well-thought out leaving due to real life, a change in schedule or the simple desire to play with friends elsewhere be it another realm or another guild.  Should the individual be penalized for leaving the guild and joining a new one?  Should the guild be penalized for losing that member who contributed to the achievements?

In my opinion, you should only ever be in a guild because you want to be there – because you enjoy the people there and they add to your gameplay in a positive way.  If you are staying in your guild because you feel obligated to – “my 10-man would fail without me” or, with this system, because you are getting perks – “If I leave then my repair costs will go up again” then that guild isn’t right for you.  Period.

The concern with this system is that the achievements will make it harder to leave a guild, even if it’s for all the right reasons.  Will people just stay in their guild even though they hate it to get perks?  Maybe.  Lord knows that happens now in progression guilds with folks staying for the killing and the loot.

The changes coming for the guilds are massive and will, hopefully, cause a lot of guilds to reexamine their goals, overall structure and member base.  I also hope it causes people to take a good look at their guild and decide if this is the right place to invest their time and their contribution to the guild talent tree.  We may see a lot of pre-Cataclysm guild shuffling as people form up with folks they enjoy playing with, or, on a darker side, guilds they feel will earn and spend talent points the quickest.

Whatever the motivation, to the individual player I say this: Yes, WoW is more than a game in a lot of ways.  It’s a social avenue, a place to escape, a place to be someone or something you are not, or just a place to hang out with friends.  Whatever it is for you, make sure everything that is part of that experience, especially your guild, is something that is positive in every factor.  Make sure that you are with people you enjoy, a leadership you trust, and a style of play that suits you and your interests.  When you lose that, WoW becomes more about obligation, irritation and general mediocrity than the initial awe-inspiring game you first began playing months or even years ago.

Never lose that.

I was waiting for the official announcement before making a post and it’s happened, so here we go.

Unless you’ve been without internet or under a rock or in the desert, you’ve undoubtedly heard the bombshells coming from Blizzcon regarding the next expansion, Cataclysm.  New races, new race/class combos, Azeroth being completely remapped, a complete revamp of the stat system, new Path of the Titans, Mastery, Guild Leveling, and bears oh my!

Okay, maybe not bears.  But who knows?

If you have been missing it, head over to WoW.com or MMO-Champion or even the Cataclysm website and get caught up.

Since this blog deals with Shamans, let’s talk about the initial sweeping changes that will influence Shamans – specifically, the stat changes.

Here’s the basic breakdown of the ones that influence us directly:

• Attack Power on gear is gone. Instead, some classes will get 2 AP from each point of Agi (Rogues, Hunters, Shamans, Druids), and other classes (presumably Warriors, Paladins, and Death Knights) will get 2 AP per point of Strength. Side effect: no more plate wearers stealing your gear
• Spell Power is gone. It comes from Int now.
• MP5 is gone. Spirit is the mana regen stat, and all classes that need it will get some form of Meditation.
• Haste now increases your rate of resource regeneration (energy, rage, runes, focus).
• Stamina is going to be more equal across different armor types – no more “plate HP envy.”
• Enhancement Shamans do not use INT anymore and will be given talents to not need it just like Retribution Paladins.

Digest that for a moment.

For the Enhancement Shaman, this makes our stat itemization vastly simpler – once your hit and expertise are capped, gem and enchant to kingdom come for Agility.  That’s it.  Just Agility.  (For now, until we get more information)

This is a really nice change and one I’m seriously in favor of mostly for the fact that Plate wearers will no longer be rolling on my gear (just Hunters) because it will, frankly, be shitte for them.

The other major addition to the game that will help with gear itemization will be the new skill of Reforging.  Little is known about it other than this will enable you to move stats around on your gear and potentially add new ones (presumably with restrictions and at a price).  I see this coming into play during gear transition periods when it’s a PITA to keep your hit and expertise properly capped without sacrificing other stats.

For Elemental and even Resto Shamans, your itemization got not only turned on its head but easier as well.  Welcome back to Spirit!  You will be stacking Spirit and Int now.  Maybe Haste – information keeps getting changed on that one.  This actually makes sense seeing is how our largest base stat is Spirit and yet, currently, we shun it like some transmitted disease.

Add to this the new Path of the Titans and the Mastery system (more on that as it’s revealed) and you have an overall rebalancing change that could make huge strides towards getting rid of “cookie cutter specs” and clones running around Dalaran.  No more “have X spec, Y and Z professions and these glyphs and you’re top DPS” – there is the actual potential of many paths being just as viable as the other and purely dependent on playstyle.

I, for one, as a raider and enormously excited about this change as I’m tired of having to fit Ailis into a mold that she sometimes doesn’t like or having to adopt a particular style of play just for the sake of higher DPS.  The game should be about what you enjoy to play and how you have fun and your DPS/Healing/Tanking output shouldn’t suffer because you have fun doing things slightly different from the norm.

This gets a huge thumbs up from me.

Old World Makeover

On the other end of things, the changes that affect everyone is the actual world event behind the Cataclysm itself.  Azeroth is about to get a major makeover and, I have to say, this was a brilliant move on Blizzard’s part.

The Old World is definitely showing its age when stood next to the sweeping zones of Northrend and is more of a nostalgia area, a place to go to complete achievments, or something to race through as quickly as possible on alts.  Completely redoing the old world zones essentially makes World of Warcraft a new game for new and old players alike.  The old world zones will be vastly different, with different quest chains, different paths to take, the ability to fly, and new NPCs and races to play and meet.

TBC and WotLK were made for the end-game player and rightly so as that’s what everyone loves.  But, in the hurry to reach the end game, we forgot about where we came from.  Powerleveling and heirloom items just made it even more blurry.

When it came time for a new expansion, Blizzard could have just as easily tacked on another ten levels, another continent and more end-game frivolity.  Instead, they returned to level one and decided to actually progress the whole story, the whole world, and push it back to the forefront where it should be.

Brilliant.

I can’t wait to level an alt from level 1 to 85 and experience a brand new World of Warcraft and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in this sentiment.  Yes, Ailis will always be my girl and she will be the first to get to 85 and dive into the massive new raids and new heroics.

But then…

Worgen Druid, here I come.