Phew so as an ex student I have to say adapting to my lazy schedule to getting up at 6am everyday for work is not easy! I've got into the schedule of getting home, cooking then only having a couple of hours to kill before I need to sleep. However I think i've finally got this sorted by becoming addicted to coffee and thus needing less sleep so hopefully I can get more updates going.
I was planning to do a series of posts on sorting out my paladin UI but that's become a moot point now anyway (see below) so here's the news:
News!
Well there's been quite alot of things going on in my WoW life since I last updated so i'll dive right in:
1) Discombobulated downed Ragnaros on our very last raid night before 4.3 ended up hitting! This was especially fortunate since almost everyone (bar me) was convinced we had another week.
Now it may only be Ragnaros normal mode but for our casual raiding guild that was founded at the start of Cataclysm by 6 people who had never raided before and had no idea if they even wanted too it's quite an achievement
A big gratz to everyone who was there for that awesome kill and a big thanks to everyone who helped us get there!
2) With Ragnaros dead Discombobulated was heading straight into new raid content on week 1 for the first time ever! Being almost Christmas time we have been hit by the attendance boss but we persevered, grabbed some spare non raider guildies and jumped in anyway.
So far we are 4/8 in Dragon soul. We got Ultraxion down to 8% a couple of times on Friday. While our temporary DPS did an awesome job with limited gear our regulars were sorely missed, and we would have downed him for sure if they had been around. The healers did a fantastic job keeping us up right until the damage became pretty much impossible to heal through. Next week Ultraxion, next week.
3) Paladin
As I mentioned previously my discontent with DK tanking led me to level and gear a paladin replacement, however one of our ranged DPS (something we've always been short on as we have a lot of melee players and 2 of our ranged switched to healing) has gone AWOL so I'm stepping into that role and no longer tanking. So the Paladin is shelved for now (though it was pretty much done) and I am instead raiding on:
4) My Warlock!
My warlock Arrym had a special place in my heart as my first character she experienced the vast brunt of my newbishness before I knew any better! She became an alt in Cataclysm after I switched to healing and then tanking but I always kept her geared in case she was needed (and because pew pew is fun) and now it's her time to shine!
So I did some research, specced Demonology, sorted out my UI, learnt the rotation, reforged all my gear and she was ready to roll in week 1 of Dragon Soul! Have to say i'm having a blast DPS'ing.
So expect the blog to be a bit more warlockie!
The Blogged Exploits of a casual raider who can't settle on a main
Monday 19 December 2011
Wednesday 9 November 2011
Mini post: level 85
So my Paladin replacement for the Death Knight has finally reached level 85 (that last level was horrible)! Unfortunatly the levelling was the easy part, now I have to grind professions, learn how to tank with my entire toolbox and gear up ASAP. My aim is to get myself ready to jump into our Fireland raids so i'm ready for the Dragon soul raid on week 1 of the patch.
Professions
I have chosen Jewelcrafting and Blacksmithing, they are both decent professions for a tank, I have a miner already and I don't have either of them leveled yet. All quite sensible logical thinking.
Oh god the grind! It's horrible!
Jewelcrafting wasn't a problem with the cash I made while levelling but Blacksmithing is horrendous. That amount of matts you need as you go is insane! My plan for blacksmithing is to do it bit by bit with part buying matts and part farming. it's the only way I can imagine doing it without going insane and/or broke.
Gearing up
Gearing up really isn't a problem these days, my i-level was easily up to getting into heroics on the day I dinged 85 and I just hit the zandalari requirements last night. That being said my gear is a pile of crap so i'm trying to drag guild healers along as much as possible until i'm more comfortable, this shouldn't be long though with justice points making it quick to get into almost full 359's.
Learning the class
This is the hardest part of the process. Levelling in prot for almost the entire time (I did play around with ret at 80-85 and really enjoyed it) I know the basics, but there's a big difference between leveling and learning about your cooldown useage in a heroic then raid enviroment.
My main priority here is going to be configuring my cooldowns, macros and UI to make the most out of all my abilities and my next few posts are going to be based around that process.
Professions
I have chosen Jewelcrafting and Blacksmithing, they are both decent professions for a tank, I have a miner already and I don't have either of them leveled yet. All quite sensible logical thinking.
Oh god the grind! It's horrible!
Jewelcrafting wasn't a problem with the cash I made while levelling but Blacksmithing is horrendous. That amount of matts you need as you go is insane! My plan for blacksmithing is to do it bit by bit with part buying matts and part farming. it's the only way I can imagine doing it without going insane and/or broke.
Gearing up
Gearing up really isn't a problem these days, my i-level was easily up to getting into heroics on the day I dinged 85 and I just hit the zandalari requirements last night. That being said my gear is a pile of crap so i'm trying to drag guild healers along as much as possible until i'm more comfortable, this shouldn't be long though with justice points making it quick to get into almost full 359's.
Learning the class
This is the hardest part of the process. Levelling in prot for almost the entire time (I did play around with ret at 80-85 and really enjoyed it) I know the basics, but there's a big difference between leveling and learning about your cooldown useage in a heroic then raid enviroment.
My main priority here is going to be configuring my cooldowns, macros and UI to make the most out of all my abilities and my next few posts are going to be based around that process.
Thursday 3 November 2011
Blog change over and why I hate Runic Empowerment
So previously my blog was over at DK diaries and anyone reading may have realised that I never update ever! There were a few reasons for this the major one being spare time being a bit of a luxury thanks to my failure to adapt to full time work (sorted now). The second reason is that since 4.3 was announced whenever I did sit down to post I was overcome with despair about my topic: Death Knight tanking.
Quite simply I find it boring.
Don't get me wrong I LOVE my Death Knight; I love the darker aspect of them, I love the abilities, I love the toolbox, I love the lore. If I could get into melee DPS I would probably really enjoy it as a Death Knight. But the tanking is just dull at the moment, and it's only getting worse in 4.3. To clarify I do NOT think that Death Knight tanks are in a bad place competitively (though there are issues) just a boring place for me personally.
So what are the problems that's making my blood DK boring? These points are all based on raiding where the majority of your time is spent on a single target.
1) Deathstrike, Deathstike and MOAR Deathstrike.
Everything that a blood DK is about is wrapped into this one ability; The self healing, mastery and our damage are all tied to it. When your rotation is basically one ability with cooldowns and Rune Strike thrown in occasionally (like it will be in 4.3) it gets old pretty fast. Having most of our damage and almost all of our survivability tied to one ability is VERY irritating: on the one hand you want to save your runes to death strike after a big hit for maximum healing and a big blood shield but you ALSO have to use it to deal damage or your just sitting there doing nothing for periods of time. Doing nothing is not fun.
2) Blood runes are the least important runes for BLOOD death knights.
At the moment clever use of blood runes is required in order for us to keep our damage reduction from blade barrier up (and with the spike damage we take even that 6% is essential). In 4.3 that's going away as blade barrier becomes a passive ability. With the way runic empowerment works (see point 3) this means that essentially the only use of blood runes is to hit rune tap every 30 seconds for some healing and hit blood tap to get an extra death rune when you need it. The rest of the time you can just stare at the active blood runes on your rune interface.
3) Runic Empowerment is a shit mechanic..
In point 2 I said 'clever' use of your blood runes was required to keep blade barrier up, what I actually meant was minimal use, all because of runic empowerment. Runic empowerment gives you a 45% chance to activate a currently depleted rune every time you hit with rune strike (or any of the other runic power dumps but that's irrelevant for blood DK's). Because we have such a large focus on Death Strike you want those runes that are reactivating to be Frost or Unholy runes as much as possible. Ideally every time you hit rune strike both your Blood runes will be active (this is impossible to actually achieve every time so your often risking activating a useless blood rune) so the proc won't be wasted on them, it's all about MOAR death strikes.
This leads to what's known as rune Tetris in DK circles. Your trying to keep blade barrier up, use rune strike as little as possible when your blood runes are recharging without letting runic power go to waste, get as many death strikes through as possible AND have death strike ready for big hits.
It's a lot to take in especially when your trying to not stand in the fire. I'm not saying other tanks don't have to be aware of a lot of things too but none of them spend the amount of time staring at their resource bars as we do.
Rune Tetris is not fun IMO.
And yet I'm complaining that Blizzard are making it less of a nightmare in 4.3 by making blade barrier passive. Rune Tetris is not fun but neither is pressing a single button over and over again for a 6 minute fight. I have been levelling a paladin tank as a potential replacement for 4.3 and I am having a blast! I get to press so many buttons you've got avengers shield for pure dps, you have CHOICES about how to use your holy power (do I heal or dps? Unlike deathstikre you have options in both these catagories not tied to holy power), crusader strike for basic damage and building up holy power, your judging to keep your mana up. It's a lot to rotate through but it's INTERESTING and that's not even taking into account all the utility you have available.
THAT'S the reason for the blog change. I started a DK blog because it was what I was playing at the time but that was only the case because my guild needed a tank. I'm not someone massively attached to a single character, I don't hunt achievements, mounts or pets. I play what my guild needs and I have come to the realisation that THAT is one of my big strengths as a player. I've been a gamer all my life and it's made me quick to learn and highly adaptable, my blog should represent the fact that I can and do chop and change what I'm playing.
Thus I went from DK diaries to Should've Rolled Horde.
But why is the blog called 'Should've rolled Horde"? It's simple: I want to play a damn Blood Elf (yes I know the Internet has made it cool to hate Belfs but meh)! In any fantasy setting I've always liked elves but the hippie Night Elves just don't do it for me, now the ruined society of magic addicted elves? THAT'S some interesting stuff right there. Unfortunately when I started playing I joined 2 friends who had already rolled Night Elves so I was alliance destined. My revenge has been throwing the 10% quicker rep from all the humans I've rolled in their faces for 2 years.
Welcome to "Should've Rolled Horde" and thanks for stopping by (More updates this time around, I promise).
Quite simply I find it boring.
Don't get me wrong I LOVE my Death Knight; I love the darker aspect of them, I love the abilities, I love the toolbox, I love the lore. If I could get into melee DPS I would probably really enjoy it as a Death Knight. But the tanking is just dull at the moment, and it's only getting worse in 4.3. To clarify I do NOT think that Death Knight tanks are in a bad place competitively (though there are issues) just a boring place for me personally.
So what are the problems that's making my blood DK boring? These points are all based on raiding where the majority of your time is spent on a single target.
1) Deathstrike, Deathstike and MOAR Deathstrike.
Everything that a blood DK is about is wrapped into this one ability; The self healing, mastery and our damage are all tied to it. When your rotation is basically one ability with cooldowns and Rune Strike thrown in occasionally (like it will be in 4.3) it gets old pretty fast. Having most of our damage and almost all of our survivability tied to one ability is VERY irritating: on the one hand you want to save your runes to death strike after a big hit for maximum healing and a big blood shield but you ALSO have to use it to deal damage or your just sitting there doing nothing for periods of time. Doing nothing is not fun.
2) Blood runes are the least important runes for BLOOD death knights.
At the moment clever use of blood runes is required in order for us to keep our damage reduction from blade barrier up (and with the spike damage we take even that 6% is essential). In 4.3 that's going away as blade barrier becomes a passive ability. With the way runic empowerment works (see point 3) this means that essentially the only use of blood runes is to hit rune tap every 30 seconds for some healing and hit blood tap to get an extra death rune when you need it. The rest of the time you can just stare at the active blood runes on your rune interface.
3) Runic Empowerment is a shit mechanic..
In point 2 I said 'clever' use of your blood runes was required to keep blade barrier up, what I actually meant was minimal use, all because of runic empowerment. Runic empowerment gives you a 45% chance to activate a currently depleted rune every time you hit with rune strike (or any of the other runic power dumps but that's irrelevant for blood DK's). Because we have such a large focus on Death Strike you want those runes that are reactivating to be Frost or Unholy runes as much as possible. Ideally every time you hit rune strike both your Blood runes will be active (this is impossible to actually achieve every time so your often risking activating a useless blood rune) so the proc won't be wasted on them, it's all about MOAR death strikes.
This leads to what's known as rune Tetris in DK circles. Your trying to keep blade barrier up, use rune strike as little as possible when your blood runes are recharging without letting runic power go to waste, get as many death strikes through as possible AND have death strike ready for big hits.
It's a lot to take in especially when your trying to not stand in the fire. I'm not saying other tanks don't have to be aware of a lot of things too but none of them spend the amount of time staring at their resource bars as we do.
Rune Tetris is not fun IMO.
And yet I'm complaining that Blizzard are making it less of a nightmare in 4.3 by making blade barrier passive. Rune Tetris is not fun but neither is pressing a single button over and over again for a 6 minute fight. I have been levelling a paladin tank as a potential replacement for 4.3 and I am having a blast! I get to press so many buttons you've got avengers shield for pure dps, you have CHOICES about how to use your holy power (do I heal or dps? Unlike deathstikre you have options in both these catagories not tied to holy power), crusader strike for basic damage and building up holy power, your judging to keep your mana up. It's a lot to rotate through but it's INTERESTING and that's not even taking into account all the utility you have available.
THAT'S the reason for the blog change. I started a DK blog because it was what I was playing at the time but that was only the case because my guild needed a tank. I'm not someone massively attached to a single character, I don't hunt achievements, mounts or pets. I play what my guild needs and I have come to the realisation that THAT is one of my big strengths as a player. I've been a gamer all my life and it's made me quick to learn and highly adaptable, my blog should represent the fact that I can and do chop and change what I'm playing.
Thus I went from DK diaries to Should've Rolled Horde.
But why is the blog called 'Should've rolled Horde"? It's simple: I want to play a damn Blood Elf (yes I know the Internet has made it cool to hate Belfs but meh)! In any fantasy setting I've always liked elves but the hippie Night Elves just don't do it for me, now the ruined society of magic addicted elves? THAT'S some interesting stuff right there. Unfortunately when I started playing I joined 2 friends who had already rolled Night Elves so I was alliance destined. My revenge has been throwing the 10% quicker rep from all the humans I've rolled in their faces for 2 years.
Welcome to "Should've Rolled Horde" and thanks for stopping by (More updates this time around, I promise).
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