AT World of Warcraft Thread (Cataclysm, Where do you play, General BS and all that)

[Dominato3r]

Man that's some major league BS. They already get the instant queues and in some cases gold for doing heroics...

 

[Pantlegz]

Man that's some major league BS. They already get the instant queues and in some cases gold for doing heroics...

Then roll a tank?

 

[Garou24]

All that is going to do is make the terrible tanks start queueing.

True. I mainly DPS on my Shaman and while I hate the longer queues, I only heal when i am in a guild group. Healing in Cata is harder, but its really bad when you have bad tanks. My main was a priest and I only play my priest now in PVP due to the bad tanks making healing brutal. Now more tanks will queue for not only the instant queue, but more gold, flasks and mounts. Which means healers will drop more and meanwhile I have to wait just as long for less reward.

 

[Cookie]

True. I mainly DPS on my Shaman and while I hate the longer queues, I only heal when i am in a guild group. Healing in Cata is harder, but its really bad when you have bad tanks. My main was a priest and I only play my priest now in PVP due to the bad tanks making healing brutal. Now more tanks will queue for not only the instant queue, but more gold, flasks and mounts. Which means healers will drop more and meanwhile I have to wait just as long for less reward.

Maybe I am missing your logic... but the reward goes to the role who is currently required the most. If tanks start queuing up more, and healers less, suddenly healers get the extra rewards not tanks. If everyone starts queuing as healers or tanks to get the reward and dps are the most rare (haha, ya right), then dps will get the reward.

 

[jhbball]

haha. I tanked another heroic last night in full vicious + some dps off pieces. As usual, all of the pugs crying about how the run would be a "disaster". Of course, we cleared the instance in record time (Grim Batol), and I did 15k dps avg for the instance with a prot pvp spec.

 

[Garou24]

Maybe I am missing your logic... but the reward goes to the role who is currently required the most. If tanks start queuing up more, and healers less, suddenly healers get the extra rewards not tanks. If everyone starts queuing as healers or tanks to get the reward and dps are the most rare (haha, ya right), then dps will get the reward.

True, but the added bonus means any random tank that can squeeze a high enough ilvl score will queue for the bonus rewards. Last night I had a random heroic DK tank with 117k HP. I was healing on my priest who had 120k HP to help a guild member. How this tank was able to queue for a heroic is beyond me. But this will just frustrate healers and cause them to queue less. While they will get a call to arms, I don't think the bonus is worth the money lost to repair bills, the time lost (took us 2 hours to wipe our way through Heroic Stonecore last night). Then there is the added frustration.

While there is the bonus to the role needed the most. I think this will just cause a greater influx of sub par tanks or healers etc. and just cause more trouble. Then you are back to longer queues because people will not queue up, call of arms or not. Then you will be back to square 1 again.

 

[rivan]

My idea for a tank bonus was 'if you tank a heroic, you get an account buff for 24 hours that gives 1 alt heroic queue priority'.

 

[polarmystery]

My main spec is protection. Blizzard giving me free stuff for queuing which I already do? I'll take it...

Since I don't get a chance to raid due to time conflicts with my guild, I'm pretty much maxed out on all the possible items I can get as a tank (exalted with all of the Cataclysm factions as well). The only thing lacking is the valor tanking ring.

 

[TheFamilyMan]

Anyone have any insight or helpful hints for a protection paladin tank? I switched my ret/holy build over to a ret/prot build spec a few weeks ago but haven't yet ventured out deep into the waters of full-bore tanking yet. He is heroic-geared with 4 epic pieces...2 crafted, 1 rep, 1 drop (necklace) and I'm working on the shield as a craft now too so gear isn't an issue. I think my main issue will be rotation and insuring I'm popping proper cooldowns.

I'm going to hit a couple of the normal places for theory-crafting and paladin threads (elitistjerks and mmo-champion) but anyone have any hints or tips as I start this voyage? I'm planning on going the route of starter-tanking regulars then moving into heroics...

Thanks in advance for input, hints, tips, and insight.

 

[cronos]

I just want to add MainTankadin (http://maintankadin.failsafedesign.com/) as the place you might want to check out for paladin tanking stuff.

 

[Aikouka]

Anyone have any insight or helpful hints for a protection paladin tank? I switched my ret/holy build over to a ret/prot build spec a few weeks ago but haven't yet ventured out deep into the waters of full-bore tanking yet. He is heroic-geared with 4 epic pieces...2 crafted, 1 rep, 1 drop (necklace) and I'm working on the shield as a craft now too so gear isn't an issue. I think my main issue will be rotation and insuring I'm popping proper cooldowns.

I'm going to hit a couple of the normal places for theory-crafting and paladin threads (elitistjerks and mmo-champion) but anyone have any hints or tips as I start this voyage? I'm planning on going the route of starter-tanking regulars then moving into heroics...

Thanks in advance for input, hints, tips, and insight.

Hmm hardest part is where to start!

Some tips on gearing and gemming:

• Try and keep dodge and parry as close in value (&#37 as you can. There is no more difference between their decay, so they have an equal value (ignoring any class-specific talents involving them, which paladins don't have any to worry about).
• Mastery is the go-to stat right now for survival. You will want to focus on gemming it in each slot if possible. So try and use the following gems: Mastery (yellow), Mastery+Stamina (green), Mastery+Parry (orange), Mastery+Dodge (orange). I usually match my set bonuses, although depending on what it is, it might be slightly better not to.
• Stamina isn't as necessary anymore because of such large health pools.
• Reforge to Mastery if you can. On Dodge+Parry pieces, take whichever stat you have the most of (percentage-wise) and reforge that one to mastery.
• Don't worry so much about threat stats. I will admit that lacking in threat stats can make threat initially harder in heroics and raids, but usually if Vengeance picks up, it becomes a bit easier. I'll elaborate a bit more on how this affects pulling and such later.

That should be all for general tips on gearing and gemming.

In my opinion, the hardest part about tanking is that you have to have a good understanding of what you're tanking. There is a factor of this involved in DPS as well (understanding AoEs, etc), so that can give you a leg up in tanking. Although, understanding what you're tanking also affects things such as pulls.

When you pull mobs, you'll typically do so with Avenger's Shield (which should ignore CC -- I've had it break some before though) and try and ensure that you hit casters with this over melee mobs that will come to you anyway. You usually cannot control the bounce easily, so you may miss a caster because of this. Make sure to mark any CC targets and possibly a skull, and consider announcing which CC is associated with whatever mark (even if you're following "the standard").

One thing I look at in heroics when I queue with an unknown healer is how much mana my healer has. Mana is usually a good judge of how geared the person is, and if they have enough mana, chances are I can CC less and pull fasters. While a reduction in CC may seem odd, you have to remember that with strong DPS, vengeance is basically necessary to keep threat as it isn't uncommon to miss a Shield of the Righteous (which will waste your 100% crit buff by the way) or other moves. If I'm only tanking say... 1 mob at a time, I may reach a 3k stack of vengeance on my Paladin; however, if I'm tanking them all, I may reach a 10k stack, which gives me much higher threat. It's something to consider when tanking a heroic... especially if you run into DPS like my Shaman that pull large numbers and consequently, also tend to pull aggro!

In a raid, you shouldn't have as much of a problem as the bosses hit a lot harder and you may have a misdirect or tricks of the trade to help grant initial threat.

As for a rotation, when you're tanking larger trash packs, have more than one target on you and are focus-firing, consider using 2-3 HotRs in the beginning to get a decent amount of aggro on the non-primary target. Your extraneous abilities such as Avenger's Shield and Holy Wrath can help keep your threat above healing threat. If you're just AoEing the trash, just keep with HotR the entire time.

Acronyms:

• ShoR = Shield of the Righteous: This is your hardest hitting ability and uses Holy Power. This hits 2x as powerful for each charge, so don't waste it early!
• HP = Holy Power: Think of these as "divine combo points". You gain them at a 100% chance from any Crusader Strike or Hammer of the Righteous that hits the target (you used to get them from misses, parries, etc).
• CS = Crusader Strike: This is your single target threat move
• HotR = Hammer of the Righteous: This is your AoE threat move.
• SD = Sacred Duty: This talent is granted on judgment and will make your ShoR have a 100% chance to crit. SD is the most powerful threat talent that we have.
• AS = Avenger's Shield: Bounces to three targets and silences them all. You can remove the bounce or add in a daze effect via major glyphs if desired.
• GC = Grand Crusader: This buff is granted on chance when you hit with CS or HotR.

There are two huge changes coming in 4.1:

1. Avenger's Shield will also have a 50% chance to grant Sacred Duty, but SD's duration will be reduced to 10 seconds. The reduced duration shouldn't be a big deal, because we should be able to generate HP faster with the next change.
2. Avenger's Shield will grant 1 Holy Power if used while the Grand Crusader buff is up (6 second duration). This ought to grant a modest boost in HP generation and also provide more chances to grant SD (given change #1).

The priority should be something like...

1. ShoR+3HP
2. CS or HotR
3. AS
4. Judgment
5. Holy Wrath
6. Consecration

This priority will most likely change in 4.1 since Avenger's Shield, when you proc Grand Crusader (off CS/HotR), will grant 1 HP if you use AS while the Grand Crusader buff is up. I'd imagine that "AS+GC" will go above CS/HotR. I believe AS hits slightly weaker than CS, but the fact that CS procs GC means that you'll want to use the GC buff before possibly procing another. Right now, I've overwritten quite a few GC buffs simply because AS has a lower priority.

I do sometimes adjust my priority depending on what I'm fighting. If I'm in a heroic and tanking a group of mostly casters, I will usually prioritize AS over almost everything. It sounds kind of odd, but since AS interrupts on hit, it can really reduce your incoming damage.

Hmm that seems like most of what I can recall off the top of my head.

 

[Bryf50]

While there is the bonus to the role needed the most. I think this will just cause a greater influx of sub par tanks or healers etc. and just cause more trouble. Then you are back to longer queues because people will not queue up, call of arms or not. Then you will be back to square 1 again.

Yea but your missing the point that they only get the reward on completion of the Heroic. If they suck ass you can always kick them and they'll never get a thing. Eventually they'll realized that trying to tank without the gear just for the rewards is futile and they'll give up.

One thing I've noticed is that a good player can really make up for their lack of gear. I had a DK tank that was awesome, easy to heal and fast to react, but only had a few tanking pieces mixed in. At the same time I've had many people in full so-so tanking gear suck horribly. So don't be so quick to denounce people due to lack of gear. I think someone who can properly use of abilities and cooldowns is better then someone with better gear.

 

[lupi]

hell, with this buff I may even try to get my pally tanking.

 

[polarmystery]

Yea but your missing the point that they only get the reward on completion of the Heroic. If they suck ass you can always kick them and they'll never get a thing. Eventually they'll realized that trying to tank without the gear just for the rewards is futile and they'll give up.

One thing I've noticed is that a good player can really make up for their lack of gear. I had a DK tank that was awesome, easy to heal and fast to react, but only had a few tanking pieces mixed in. At the same time I've had many people in full so-so tanking gear suck horribly. So don't be so quick to denounce people due to lack of gear. I think someone who can properly use of abilities and cooldowns is better then someone with better gear.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. When I tank and if someone isn't pulling as high DPS as the rest, some of the other DPS'ers get upset. This sticks out largely in Baradin Hold. I always invite players based on what we need, not their damn item level. And I've yet to see a group fail because of someone in greens/a few blues. We mostly die because people stop paying attention to what they are doing.

 

[lupi]

Blizz says that the new lfg reward gooddie bag will be BOA.

 

[Lamont Burns]

I suck at tanking but have 2 classes that can tank. I will be one of the terribles learning on the fly, wooooo!

 

[Aikouka]

Blizz says that the new lfg reward gooddie bag will be BOA.

So, it's pretty much "look but don't touch" since the rarer items should bind when you take them out . Maybe I'll do it to save me time on getting the Raven mount (for my Shaman), although it's probably easier to just run Sethekk Halls since you don't need a Druid anymore. I already have Deathcharger's Reins and the White Chocobo.

One thing I wonder... will this be split up between the normal heroics and troll heroics or is it only for one or maybe it's not split at all.

 

[Azraele]

although it's probably easier to just run Sethekk Halls since you don't need a Druid anymore.

I've been running it daily since October and no mount yet.

 

[lupi]

Hmm, if I had known about the no druid change I probably would have been running it myself already.

 

[Aikouka]

I've been running it daily since October and no mount yet.

I think I had it drop on my third try, but I was nice and gave it to the druid (whom I knew).

Although, I've been told a few times that being nice with loot in WoW is a really bad idea, but I don't seem to ever learn :\. Kind of like the other day, my guild went and did BoT. I'm kind of just a benchwarmer, but I was in last week's BoT where I let someone else have the T11 shoulder piece. Now, I'm the last person that needs the Shaman/Hunter/Warrior shoulder token for main spec, but such consideration was not given when it came time to face Cho'gall. I certainly don't expect it since it wasn't promised, but I would appreciate the gesture, and it kinda feels crummy when such kindness is not returned. I was actually planning on letting the Hunter have the bracers if they ever drop off Chimaeron (as that's all he needs), but I'm not so sure I should be considerate.

But anyway! I've usually had some oddly good mount luck. I ran H-MgT back in Wrath and saw 3 chocobo drops in 5 runs (only one phoenix pet though), and I think I got Rivendare's mount (which is what my Shaman uses) after about... 5-8 tries.

The one interesting thing is that you can also get Horde pets, which I assume would include the Argent Tournament ones? I just hope they don't be lame and include faction-specific pets that are purchased from vendors. I mean, who can't make a DK real quick just to buy stuff .

 

[Schadenfroh]

Enabled DirectX 11 last night, do not see any difference. Do they plan on enabling DX11 by default (on supported hardware) anytime in the near future?

Also, why is there a "Hardware Sound" button? I thought they removed EAX support in WoW a long time ago. I know EAX does not work with DirectSound without Alchemy in Vista and above, but I thought it was completely removed from WoW when they redid the sound engine.

 

[lupi]

Liking the latest additions to the 4.1 patch. Looks like the devs are acknowledging a certain lack of fun factor with some of the cata stuff and moving to fix those.

 

[s1njin]

Hey Gang,

Been a long time since I've WoW'd. Had a level 45 Warlock w/ BC many many years ago. Since than I've changed email address, credit cards, and home address so I've pretty much accepted that I'm going to start over should I jump back in.

Any AT folks running newbies in the starter zones?

Also, assuming I just get the digital download of the original WoW game, will I see all the graphical improvements that have transpired since my last time in Azeroth?

Thanks !

 

[Aikouka]

Also, assuming I just get the digital download of the original WoW game, will I see all the graphical improvements that have transpired since my last time in Azeroth?

Yes, you use the same client as Cataclysm users. Although, you won't be able to access newer areas (Outland, Northrend, Azuremyst Isle, Ghostlands + Eversong Woods, Vashj'ir, Uldum, Twilight Highlands, etc). The redone 0-60 experience uses the same phasing technology and such that was used in Cataclysm-only zones.

 

[s1njin]

Yes, you use the same client as Cataclysm users. Although, you won't be able to access newer areas (Outland, Northrend, Azuremyst Isle, Ghostlands + Eversong Woods, Vashj'ir, Uldum, Twilight Highlands, etc). The redone 0-60 experience uses the same phasing technology and such that was used in Cataclysm-only zones.

What's this about the phasing technology? I'm at work so many websites are blocked, however I've tried every Google query I can think of to get me something along the lines of 'How has leveling changed since Cataclysm'?

What am I likely to see upon restarting?

I just loaded basic WoW onto my PC overnight. I thought I was golden after my PC brought down the basic installer packages (3.5GB). Wasn't too bad (I have FIOS, 25mb down). Then it mashed my HD for 10 mins or so, started up a new patcher, repatched the patcher, than sent me on a 8.x GB download. At which point I let it run overnight and hit the sack.