After reading the first few pages of this thread, the raid leader in me came out and got a new perspective on the upcoming Emblem of Conquest changes in patch 3.2 “Call of the Crusade”.

This post in particular has really struck the nail on the head. One of the problems I’ve run into recently (now that Naxx25 has officially been dropped), is roster change and the inevitable issue with gearing up new raiders. With the changes to Emblems, new raiders can effectively “catch up” to (current tier)-1, so in essence they are ready to start the content. The only issue I have with this kind of gearing is that weapons are not available (outside of raid drops) past iLvl 200. This means physical dps classes are going to trail behind a bit with this system, as they are more dependent on their actual weapons than casters, healers, and tanks.

Hopefully this will be a positive change, and hopefully won’t reduce guilds to their “weekly farm of Naxx25″ being the highlight of the week.

Today the patch notes for the upcoming 3.2 patch, The Call of the Crusade, were released. These are the first round of notes, and will likely change a fair bit before this goes live. I’ll be going over a few highlights from the list here, particularly things that pertain to raiding, and raid tanking, as those are my primary focus.

Emblem System Changes:

• Both the 10 and 25 player instances of the Crusaders’ Coliseum drop a new Emblem of Triumph.
• Any dungeons that previously dropped Emblems of Heroism or Valor, such as Naxxramas or Heroic Halls of Stone, will now drop Emblems of Conquest instead. Emblems of Conquest can still be converted to Valor or Heroism.
• The Heroic dungeon daily quest will now reward 2 Emblems of Triumph and the normal daily dungeon quest will reward 1 Emblem of Triumph.
• The existing achievements to collect 1, 25, 50, etc. Emblems of Heroism, Valor, and Conquest have been converted to Feats of Strength since Heroism and Valor Emblems are no longer attainable.

I hate that this is first on the list of discussion, but I don’t really feel like rearranging it. This is by far my biggest issue with this patch. Blizzard’s whole implementation of the tiered Emblem system was to prevent players from falling back into The Burning Crusade’s issue of getting high-tier end-game quality gear, from farming tokens out of low-tier dungeons. Extending on my earlier post, this is just going to turn some guilds into farm guilds that gear people up for the next tier, but aren’t actually running that tier of content. Now while there isn’t a TON of gear to be had from EoC, you can still purchase T8 pieces from the vendor, and in my opinion getting T8 from heroics is a poor move on Blizzard’s part. Additionally the Emblem of Triumph rewards from the two daily dungeon quests is a further watering down of the system. You’ll be able to purchase Tier NINE gear from a Tier SEVEN level instance.

Mana Regen Changes:

• Mana Regeneration: All items that provide “X mana per five seconds” have had the amount of mana they regenerate increased by approximately 25%.
• Replenishment: This buff now grants 1% of the target’s maximum mana over 5 seconds instead of 0.25% per second. This applies to all 5 sources of Replenishment (Vampiric Touch, Judgements of the Wise, Hunting Party, Enduring Winter Frostbolts and Soul Leech).

I agree with this, in the current state, Intellect is a very nice stat for a healer (particularly Paladins), this coupled with the Divine Intellect nerf (15% to 10%) and Illumination (60% to 30%) should make paladins appreciate the mp5 a little more, and not be Holy Light spam bots.

DK Tanking Changes:

• Frost Presence: 10% bonus health reduced to 6% bonus stamina.
• Icebound Fortitude: Cooldown increased to 2 minutes.
• Veteran of the Third War: Stamina bonus reduced to 1/2/3%.
• Toughness: This talent now grants 2/4/6/8/10% armor instead of 3/6/9/12/15%, placing it in line with similar abilities of other classes.
• Unholy Blight: This talent has been redesigned. It no longer deals damage to nearby targets. Instead, when you deal damage with Death Coil, the target will take periodic damage for 10 seconds equal to 30% of the damage done by Death Coil. This damage accumulates in the same way as Ignite and Deep Wounds.

About time, DK’s are so completely overpowered at the moment. Stamina nerfs and armor nerfs are well deserved. Although I feel the nerf to IBF isnt enough, combined with AMS and AMZ (if specced) a DK still pulls WAY ahead on magic bosses (things like Mimiron’s Plasma Blast).

Now for the good stuff :)

Paladin Tanking Changes:

• Blessing of Sanctuary: This blessing now also increases stamina by 10%. This effect is not cumulative with Blessing of Kings.
• Exorcism: Now has a 1.5 second cast time, but can once again be used on players.
• Judgement of Light: Now heals for 2% of the attacker’s maximum health instead of a variable amount based on the spell power and attack power of the judging paladin.
• Righteous Fury: No longer has a duration or mana cost, remaining until canceled or death. Also canceled when a Paladin activates a different talent specialization.
• Ardent Defender: Redesigned. Currently, any damage taken by the paladin while at 35% health or below is reduced. Instead, any attack that would reduce the paladin to 35% health or below has its damage reduced. In addition, once every 2 minutes an attack that would have killed the paladin will fail to kill, and instead set the paladin’s health to 10/20/30% of maximum.

Now I know I’m a little biased here, but I love these changes. Threat being where it is, I feel the Exorcism change is a great one (to keep me in my 9696 rotation against undead). Changing BoSanc into a Improved Blessing of Kings is a great way to consolidate the blessings and make Protection Paladins not feel so turn between the two when running overgeared content. Judgement of Light, finally, no more arguing with our holy/ret Paladins who gets to judge what. I’ll never be caught letting my RF run out in the midddle of a boss fight again either. Saving the best for last, An AD that cannot be leapfrogged and also a mini Divine Gaurdian. Awesome, just awesome.

All healer mechanics that increased the targets armor by a percentage have been modified to give a 10% damage reduction. Good mechanic change, I’m guessing eventually this would have pushed Feral’s to the armor cap, and also helps non-DK’s out a little on magic damage bosses.

All in all, I like the changes to the patch, but I’m still very disappointed in Blizzard for not keeping with the tiered emblem system. I hated having to farm kara week after week to get certain badge items. I wanted to be pushed to new content and rewarded for going above and beyond the first tier of raids. Hopefully this is something that will change in the time between PTR and live.

Stemming from this post on World of Matticus, I decided to lay down my viewpoint on the relationship between a raider and his raid.

When we raid, we get loot. This is obvious. That loot is an electronic manifestation of our effort that we’ve spent that night, meaning that the time, gold, and energy we spent to get to that boss and successfully kill him is represented by the items he drops.

An effective loot system should be in place to reward the players that deserve those items. What are the criteria for “deserving” a piece of loot? Seniority, performance, and attendance are the three categories that I go by in Fury Untold. Don’t let me trick you, I do not use a “loot council”, as I think that 90% of loot councils are twisted systems often renamed “favorites council”. We utilize EPGP, however I do prioritize raid invites based on those three factors, so as long as you 1) show up 2) pull your weight and 3) aren’t a new guy (which is honestly prioritized really low), you’re golden for a raid spot, therefore getting you in the pipes for “rewards”.

The reason I call this an investment, is because more and more often, I see guild’s stuck in the progression curve* that are simply used as jumping off points for other guilds. Their primary player base is geared, so any items that drop go to the “new guy” and once he’s full purple and gets bored, he moves on to a guild that can offer him the next tier of content (like the previous guild should have). The previous guild’s time and effort have gone to waste, those items are gone, and you’re in essence feeding the fire for another guild’s raiding.

* stuck in the progression curve – Farming the previous tier of content without any real viability at advancement, due to a lack of motivation, leadership, guild population, or any other factor.

A question that flies around a lot is if people are capable of learning HOW to be leaders. Obviously some people are more comfortable leading than others. For the not-so-natural leaders, teaching yourself how and when to use these new skills can be a difficult task as well.

First let us go over some of the skills that make an effective leader (not all, I’m tired and I’m sure I will forget some).

Confidence is the first thing that comes to my mind. This is a different kind of confidence than just believing in your own ability. You need to be able to trust people to do their job, and not feel the need to micro-manage all your raiders (this becoming extremely important in heroic raiding). Knowing that when you ask someone to do something they will be able to do it is a great tool in any raid leaders bag of tricks.

Respect for your team is another must. If you aren’t respecting the people that are under you, why will they respect you as a leader. This is going to help your overall raid atmosphere, and also bond the raid.

Dedication is required from you. It takes a good chunk of extra effort to have everything taken care of before raid time. Taking 15 minutes to sort out a raid roster 30 minutes before raid time will save you plenty of headaches and prevent drama when you rush it and make a mistake as your scrambling to put the raid together.

Time management is knowing if what you are focused on is worth your effort and if that energy can be utilized elsewhere with more effectiveness. Banging your head against a wall isn’t worth your tune unless you honestly believe you have a chance at bring it down before you go unconscious.

Preparedness is the last thing on my list (for now). This overlaps with dedication a bit, but knowing your raiders and their abilities and preparing for situations gone wrong is an asset that can save a wipe and kill a boss. When a healer dies during the last 30% of a boss fight, you need to know which tanks have which healer on them, and which one can likely spare a little attention so the slack can be picked up enough to kill the boss.

Now most of these skills should be able to be learned with the right amount of effort. However most people can learn what to do fairly easily, but when it comes to execution things can fall apart.

Learning the fine line between being not “present” enough and being a over controlling asshat can be difficult (this may sound extreme but it can happen). Learning when you’ve crossed the line between simple healing assignment and micro-managing your heal team is something I won’t be able to teach you. You know your raiders (at least you should) and know how much coaching you need to give them. Don’t assume, ask questions, get information. Ask your tanks if they know the fight and what they expect. It all comes down to the level of preparation you have come to expect your raiders to maintain, and also their ability to adapt with your direction.

As I said in my last post, I love to review my site’s incoming search terms. One that has been coming up lately is TPS rotations for Paladins.

With WotLK, Paladins received a fairly large overhaul, mechanics-wise. We have a few more buttons to push, and combined with relatively short cooldowns on our core abilities, we have a set rotation, and occupies every global cooldown (GCD).

We have 5 abilities that occupy our rotation. These spells are split into 2 categories, dependent on the length of their cooldowns, 6 seconds and 9 seconds **.

9 seconds:

• Holy Shield
• Judgement
• Consecration

6 seconds:

• Shield of Righteousness
• Hammer of the Righteous

Now, the math behind this all revolves around the GCD being 1.5 seconds. Fortunately enough, 6 and 9 are both evenly divisible by the GCD. I’ll make a quick list of the CD’s here, so you can see the flow.

1. 0.0s Holy Shield (9)
2. 1.5s Shield of Righteousness (6)
3. 3.0s Judgement (9)
4. 4.5s Hammer of of the Righteous (6)
5. 6.0s Consecrate (9)
6. 7.5s Shield of Righteousness (6)
7. 9.0s Holy Shield (9)
8. 10.5s Hammer of of the Righteous (6)
9. 12.0s Judgement (9)
10. 13.5s Shield of Righteousness (6)
11. 15.0s Consecrate (9)
12. 16.5s Hammer of of the Righteous (6)

Now I know this seems a little complicated, however, its really not. I’ve included a handy little video that will show you exactly how to do this. Please try to follow this order for these spells, as this is most effective for 1) getting Holy Shield up ASAP, and 2) best for immediate TPS generation.

Source for good stuffs!

** Ok, Holy Shield, and Consecrate aren’t really 9 sec CD’s, but you can treat them as such, Holy Shield has a 10 second duration, with a 8 second CD, so you’re not sacrificing any mitigation.

Any time I write “expect a post” or “I’ll write more about this later” I seem to always slack off.

I think I perform my best when there are absolutely no expectations of me. Sad huh?

*complete subject change*

One of the things I love to do is browse the search terms people use to get to this site. I use a Wordpress plugin called Statpress, which is truly amazing. I love the completely random ones that end up here. I also take the search terms coming in and try to pick the good ones and use them as inspiration for new posts.

Well, enough of my rambling, I’m going get back to installing Ubuntu on this new computer I have. I’ll try to make a post later…. >.>

A few little updates…

Yes, I am still alive.

No, I haven’t stopped playing.

The guild is great, about to start 25 man raiding.

I do plan on finishing that list of promised posts.

If I didn’t post get the urge to post so late at night I’d probably have more here. I post from my phone about 95% of the time so it makes posts with slot of cross refernces and/links kind of difficult.

I’ve been busy working on a few side projects recently.

Expect a post tomorrow.

I’m going to try to edit a few blue posts into this when I’m not posting from my phone. =P

Recently Bluzzard has posted about Ulduar, specifically 10 man server first achievements. The essence of what was said is that it is not Blizzard’s intentions for guilds to raid 10 and 25 man raid concurrently. Seperate progression paths is what is intended.

I agree with this in theory, however I feel it’s implementation is extremely difficult. As the leader of a new guild, I am busy recruiting, trying to keep my guild happy, and give us something to do. By that, I mean that we’ve completely smashe most of the current raid content out there. Most every raider has all the gear they can obtain from our raids, so they look for where the next upgrade comes from: 25 man raids.

This leaves me with a problem. I’ve got a bunch of bored raiders on my hands, itching to get into raids we just don’t have the numbers to fill. Way to go Blizzard, this definately seems like a seperate progression path.

I blame this partially on the ease of content at the moment. Guilds have blown through the content so fast that it’s been farmed to death. Hopefully Ulduar will bring a new challenge, and maybe a few more recruits.

Although I still think that Blizzard’s idea that heroic raids are somehow harder to complete (maybe on the raid leader), and deserve better loot is a complete failure (at least with Naxxaramas). The two fights where this is true are Thaddius and Kel’thuzad, and this is only the case because they are proximity/coordination fights. Most of the fights, and achievements are vastly easier with 25 man. Sarth+drakes and Four Horsemen are examples of this.

In my opinion Blizzard shouldn’t award better loot, just more of it, to fit the raid size. This will keep them truely seperate progression paths, as there is no benefit to either path.

I’ve migrated to a new server. Sorry if anyone experienced outages over the last day or so. You should see great increases to the site’s speed and perfomance. :D

In WotLK, Blizzard changed their design philosophy regarding gear progression. Items dripping in 5 man heroics, are of equal “quality” as items dropped from ten man raids.

Now granted I see the design conflicts with the way they have set up the Emblems. If heroics and 10 man raids (referred to simply as raids further in this post) dropped differbt quality gear but the same Emblems, one would devaule the other. Either heroics would yield “over budget” Emblems, able to obtain raid quality gear at heroic level of effort, or raids your drop undervalued tokens that would be a waste of time.

However making them both drop equal gear and equal Emblems has it’s own issues. With heroic reset timers being 1 day and raid timers being 7 days, you can start to get a picture of what a new 80 is going to be doing more. Once the heroic gear is obtained, and (under the BC mantra) they are now “raid ready”, they are quickly let down that the raid gear is either a small upgrade at all or simply a side-grade (if at all). This leads to player boredom (I’ll touch on that subject in my already foreshadowed post regarding raid motivations). Once the bosses are killed once or twice the content stagnates and tension arises. Raid live off of progression (mostly).

My solutions to the problem are either:

1) increasing EoH item costs, and additionally rewarding better loot in raids/EoH, while also increasing the number of EoH dropped from raid bosses.

2) implementing a seperate Emblem for heroic content. This option would be more time consuming and isn’t really worth the effort.

To explore option 1 some more. Blizzard is introducing a new Emblem for new tiers of content. This will mostly settle the issue of 10 man raid rewards not competing with existing player gear. While I do think this is a good idea, I do not like having to live through 6 months of a single tier of content with people as frustrated and bored as they are.