After the dawn…
So 4.0.1 has dropped, and we've had 3 days or so to get used to things. So how are things stacking up atm?
Well....
Tanking has become a metric fuckton more difficult, because DPS at the moment isn't tuned now for level 80, as Blizzard have stated that it's now tuned for level 85 content. Sorry, but what sort of company fucks over their paying customers for 2 to 3 months until the majority of the raiding player-base hits 85? Taking into consideration that we won't be able to level past 80 at all for 2 months until Cataclysm is released.
What about the levelling process if everything is tuned towards level 85 mechanics?
Gawd.
Anyway, I'm sticking with it, despite all this, because whilst it's a lot more difficult to hold threat against DPS who are suddenly pulling gigantic DPS figures from out of their nethers (30k isn't unheard of against Festergut for instance for some classes - and yes, that is the DPS figure for ONE player, not the raid as a whole!) it will work itself out over the medium to long term. I have faith!
However running 5 man content from Wrath, which was famously all about the AoE-fests is a trifle more difficult as we're already lumbered with the Cataclysm mechanics where AoE tank threat has been nerfed and has become exponentially harder to hold threat on a pack of anything more than 2 mobs. Seriously. Stuff we'd faceroll hold threat on has suddenly become a huge challenge. Not least because DPS tend not to give you time to crank up threat. Previously this wasn't such a huge issue, as you could generate some snap aggro pretty quickly on the pull, but that's gone to the wall now, as have most of the DPS classes threat-reduction talents with the re-designed 31 point talent trees.
So tanks need to relearn how to play the current content, and DPS need to learn to hold the fuck off on AoE'ing everything in sight. The one grace about the stupidly high DPS output now is that with everyone's health pools being larger (my tank gained 7,000 health overnight, whilst the mage gained a lollerific 12k health and 10k mana!) overnight, most heroic dungeon mobs are dead before they can start wading into the dps to kill everything.
So trash is fine, but boss tanking is going to be very ping-pong for a couple of months until we can start getting lots of Cataclysm level gear to up our threat levels to those that are already being put out by DPS.
Speaking of gear, and despite the 5 man horribleness, I intend to run enough dungeons this weekend to get myself kitted out in full T10 gear, as running dungeons now gives Justice Points, which have replaced both Emblems of Triumph (the old dungeon badges) and Emblems of Frost (the old raid badges). So hopefully the jump in gear will help with coping with the new threat management and play-style that that entails, that all tanks have suddenly have thrust upon them, as it's not just me, nor paladin tanks that are seeing these same threat problems; it's all tanks of all classes.
Dr Who is now immortal?
Odd one this. As every genned up Dr Who fan knows, the Dr and other Time Lords have 12 regeneration cycles before they kark it forever. It now appears that this has been quietly done away with according to the Sarah Jane Adventures in an episode featuring the Doctor.
When asked how many times he can regenerate he replies that "There's no limit".
Hmmmm. It was an interesting premise, with Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor, and the character being so close to the final regeneration. Of course the BBC weren't going to let him die after his 12th incarnation, but I would have thought a bit more effort and smarter writing would have gone into the explanation for his being able to surpass the 12th regeneration.
Lazy writing and a distinct whiff of Deus Ex Machina about it, but I'll keep watching, regardless, as I really enjoy the series as a whole, classic and new. Just a bit disappointing that such a milestone and looming death sentence has been swept under the carpet in such a nonchalant manner.
Of course that now makes him immortal and leaves the BBC free to put as many actors into the role as often as they like, as unlikely as that will be however.
4.01 – The Dawn of a new Era
4.0.1 will be released this Wednesday, and with it comes a whole lotta changes, not just for tanks & mages, but for every single class in the game...
I'll not go into the changes in any detail, as other tanking blogs have been there and done that in detail aplenty. I will however say that I am looking forward to 4.01 a lot, even if it does change (slightly) the way in which a Paladin Tank plays. In essence Blizzard's lead designer, Ghostcrawler, wanted Paladin tanks to be a bit less faceroll in their gameplay.
A laudable ideal, and for the longer term tanks (which I'm not) a bit of a blessing in that his stated ideal was to have us play a lot more dynamically and not 969 it all the time. So the rotation has gone from hitting a 9 second ability then a 6 second one, back to a 9 second ability to....
Hitting a 3 second ability (always Crusader Strike) then a 9 second ability, back to a 3 second ability etc etc. I have thus dubbed this the CSx rotation. CS followed by x where x equals Judgement (just the one now!), Avenger's Shield, Exorcism, Consecrate (now on a 30 second cool-down) etc.
So even more face-rollingly undynamic. GG Ghostcrawler!
Mind you when it was beta'd that we'd have an FCFS-like priority system similar to Ret Paladins the amount of crying and wailing and gnashing of teeth from the usual place (the official WoW forums, where else?) was loud enough to be heard from space. And yes, I know sound doesn't travel in a vacuum. It was THAT LOUD.
There have also been problems with tanks in general and their ability to hold threat, so there's been a helluva lot of tweakin' goin' on before 4.01 hits this Wednesday.
One major change/tweak is Righteous Fury. It now affects all damage done by the Paladin, and boosts its threat a whopping 200%, waaay up from the 80% boost to holy damage only as is currently on live in 3.3.5.
Of course the one huge massive change I haven't mentioned yet: Holy Power.
This is something akin to a rogue's combo points in that you have a maximum of 3 at any time, and you can use it in conjunction with several abilities in order to boost their effectiveness. The major ability for Tankadins that will benefit is Shield of the Righteous, which will see its threat and damage output boosted a hell of a lot with a stack of 3 Holy Power behind it.
Crusader Strike is of course now a baseline ability for all Paladin specs, having been formerly the domain of Ret Paladins only. This is infact our baseline ability for not only threat generation, but for generating Holy Power as well, as each time we use CS we will generate 1 charge of HP. So every 5 global cooldowns we'll be firing off a SotR with 3HP behind it.
Mind you with Cataclysm's apparent emphasis and return to vanilla Wow's tanking ethos of "Tank one mob and CC everything else" AoE tanking will be a sparsely used "skill", but we'll still have Hammer of the Righteous to replace CS in a trash-tanking capacity.
And the other bonus with the patch is that Tier 10 gear will be purchasable with the rewards from running heroic dungeons. All emblems and badges will be converted into points of various flavours so we'll all be able to get full T10 gear inside a week or two of the patch! Yay!