So I haven’t been able to join a real raiding guild lately. Even though Ciths has started Found up again, which was the guild I raided with through Tempest Keep and Black Temple. I am now teaching night classes at a local college on Monday and Wednesday evenings. But I haven’t let that stop me.
I am still running 10 and 25 man Trial of the Crusader on both my Hunter and my Death Knight. In fact I just picked up my Dexterous Brightstone Ring the other day. If all goes well, we are looking at leggings or shoulders this week, depending if I get a trophy or not.
And after those raids are done, I’ve been gearing out my Death Knight to smash Alliance face. And the occasional Horde face if the queue makes it so. Despite having mediocre PvP gear, using an axe from a heroic and no real second trinket, Freshmaker (aka Warbull) and I climbed up to 1650 last night. And I’ve learned one thing.
I hate Resto Druids. I really do. I know Blizzard has stated that they are no longer going to balance PvP around the 2s bracket at all, which is fine. But man, when we see those gates open and the DPS has Mark of the Wild we both let out a collective shudder.
BEAST CLEAVE!
And yes, I do have an opinion about the Beast Mastery change. I know Beast Mastery DPS was low. Despite any personal anecdotes, mathematically it was inferior to MM and Survival. We all knew it. Blizzard knew it (we hoped) and hoped they fixed.
But you have to wonder was this the right fix? When an entire tree falls so far behind in DPS for a pure DPS class that a flat 10% increased damage buff is what they need to do to fix it, perhaps a deeper look at the tree might be warranted.
But its no secret that this was also in direct response to Beast Cleave. And it really looks like it killed Beast Mastery in the Arena again. Levidia over at Arena Junkies said it best:
Here is where one of many problems lie however… The 10 second duration and the FACT that a BM hunter is the WORST most ineffective arena spec in the game when the hunter/pet aren’t enraged. All the specs eggs are largely in one basket and if you aren’t able to take advantage of that IE forcing that ice block or forcing that pain suppression/BOP, etc you’re going to likely lose the fight during the counter offensive that happens when you’re no longer able to keep up that oppressive offensive damage.
A Disarm/Dismantle during BWrath now will leave the hunter with a mere 5 seconds of total wrath action to try and get something accomplished. This isn’t going to fly and anyone that knows anything about how the spec operates in the arena however face roll it may be will completely die off as an arena spec.
His entire post is really well thought out and I feel is quite accurate. Sure, people may call Beast Cleave faceroll and may argue that RMP takes the skill of a concert pianist to coordinate crowd-control. But regardless of whether or not that is true, not every class has the CC capabilities of that composition. Does that mean no other team should be allowed to be competitive?
I really do enjoy PvP. While a lot of folks generally avoid it for whatever their reasons may be, I frequently take part in it on all my characters (except my Priest, screw PvP healing!). My Level 76 Warrior still has more honorable kills than my Hunter though, which I still find awesome.
And since my beloved Hunter won’t stay viable for more than 2 weeks . . . I have turned to my Death Knight to fulfill my PvP desires. Although I still love sitting in the back of AV or Isle of Conquest in PvE gear and unloading Explosive Shots into folks.
That just doesn’t get old.
Drotara (or BehemothDan) considers himself a geek on many levels. A web developer and programmer by trade, he has no shortage of geeky hobbies. Whether it's trying to stay current in World of Warcraft raiding, playing competitively in the WoW TCG, Magic: The Gathering with friends, or a night at the local shop playing DnD, it's all good to him!
100% agree. PvP’ing as SV in PvE gear is fun. I throw on a trinket and head into the fray. No skill required. Just drop a frost trap, hit target with SrS and BA, then unload with 3 ExS’s. Pain is fun! :D
I am not raiding as much as I’d like, due to some lack of interest in my current guild. I did pug most of 10 man ToC recently though, and wish the Pug scene on my server was a bit more active.
That has been the nice thing about Illidan. It’s monster population makes for finding PUGs pretty easy. I even jumped into a PUG that killed the first 2 bosses on heroic 10-man before people had to leave.
Even though I don’t do arena at all, it does seem silly to me that a class/spec that needs all the PvP help it can get is getting a nerf. =S
That said, I’m glad it is ultimately a PvE buff, although considering my pet as BM does about 40-45% of damage, getting a flat 10% buff to 55% of my overall DPS isn’t super stellar. The early napkin math is pointing to a 2%-ish DPS increase. Now to be fair– an increase is an increase– but last I checked BM will need more to catch up.
On the other hand, if Blizz holds true to their promise to make all stats scale from hunter to pet, THEN BM might become a force to reckon with again!
I find PvP very frustrating anymore on the hunter, it just seems like ever class has that “keep the hunter in check” ability that I’m just to stupid( or really not good enough) to figure out how to counter. I’ve got both an 80 pally and an 80 DK though so I’ve got plenty of other options.
And man as for pugging on my server I’d rather not talk about raid pugging, I have a hard enough time trying to find a decent group for H ToC on my DK. My server is truly awful when it comes to pugs, if it weren’t for the people in my guild I would have transferred to Mannoroth to raid with my friends a long time ago.
One of the most boring damageincrease changes I’ve seen. They really have a problem finding an imaginative way to boost up Beast Mastery – or they really saving it for Catalysm which doesn’t seem impossible either.
Good to see them react to the need for change. Could possibly keep them okay until expansion where all bets are off as the overhaul is so massive that anything can come out of the workshop.
I hope for an OP mechanic (for hunters) like DK’s which stands out greatly even through nerfs.
Blood DK’s in our raids still pretty much dictates how fast a boss goes down and i feel rather horrible on my SV hunter when comparing numbers, not to sound bitter when i say it; their idea to keep “pure damage dealing classes” a few% ahead of the hybrids didnt work that well after all. While rogues and locks wont have a problem keeping their own in a endgame raid with competent raiders, mages and hunters seem to struggle.
This said, I should probably keep in mind that I still dont have a tierpiece from t9 (saving up emblems to get atleast 2 set directly in 25 man parts).
What are your results guys? Can you keep yourself at 6.5-7k dps without too much struggle in totc 25 man on non AOE fights?
The fight were we hunters in our guild totally dominate is the “Faction bosses” in which PVP is simulated and can feel really real as a caster (experience from my mage and shadowpriest) but not so much as a Hunter when you get silenced when starting up a Steady Shot which provokes a smile on my part.
I rolled back to SV from MM arpen so gear is in a mess still.
Sorry for derailing your commentfield, Drotara, but I find the question interessting. Is my 6-6.5k too low because I dont have 2setbonus yet?
DKs….OP? Uhhh….no, they aren’t. Im always seeing people talk about how OP DKs are. I destroy them on my hunter, and on my priest. 90% of the time, i never, ever worry about the DK in anything i do, pve or pvp. They might be strong, but they’ve recieved so many nerfs, and balance checks, they aren’t the same class they were upon WotLK release. Seriously, people still think they’re OP? I guess you’re welcome to your opinion…..but still….
Who knows, maybe I’m wrong. Ive taken a couple month break from WoW. But since I’ve been back I’ve seen nothing that makes me think they’re OP. Strong, yes. But that doesn’t make them OP. IDK about PvE, but PvP side the paladin continues to remain OP as hell. Prot pally destroying 3 people at once. Add resto druids to that list. Whee. HoT HoT HoT HoT HoT HoT /laugh /dance then begin teabagging.
“Mages and hunters seem to struggle” … Really? Mages are struggling PvE Side now? Before they were among the highest dps dealing class, up there with locks.
Idk man, your info seems a bit skewed. Or maybe I’ve been gone too long.
Right now Arcane Mages are pretty crazy. I am not sure about DK PvE DPS though. Mine either tanks or PvPs so I can’t make an accurate assessment.
Same, i only play my dk for pvp or for occasional tanking. Although i heard DW DPS is pretty nice now, with ToT (?). Saw a DK on spinebreaker, had a quick convo with him, he was pretty much best in slot, gear was fantastic, DW DPS, but talking about some crazy numbers…I was a bit skeptical, when he starts talking 10-12k dps on DW PVE DK DPS….then again I’ve been gone for a while…so I’m not really sure. When i played last mages / locks were hitting 7-8k so its possible, i suppose. Can anyone clarify / verify what DK PVE DPS is like nowadays? Some actual proof would nice, not just word of mouth, but w/e works. Thx! ^.^
Well I have only puged it so far but what kind of numbers are your DKs putting out? I haven’t seen them putting up the monster numbers you are describing. But from my experience as well, its a lot about situational awareness. For example, I did VoA25 today and did 7.1k DPS because no fire was put under my feet the entire fight. I never moved and did my thing.
But most of ToC involves some type of adjustment. Infernals, Sisters, Snobolds, Icehowl charges, avoiding/grabbing colored orbs, etc. None of these fights are Patchwerk. Always factor in how well you do everything else required of you.
But that being said, I still usually beat the DKs. :)
@ Shanx:
It is a very boring increase from Blizzard, especially when they state that talent trees aren’t fun enough. What I dislike is the fact that they might just be waiting for the next expansion to “fix” the hunter class, not to mention it’s getting a huge gutting.
It would help a lot more if there was very visible interaction between Blizzard and the player community.
Well, totally agree on the gimmick part. It’s the same as in Ulduar with loads of damagemodifiers and other elements that strongly affect your damage. The DK’s that beat me are allways Blood (heartstrike just makes them skyrocket as soon as there are more than one mob in the vicinity).
On fights like Iron Council which pretty much is a orgasm for any hunter (we do it medium – small – large for the stability kill instead of the little more risky small – medium – large) I allways beat the blood though, personal highest damage on them is 7.6.
Ulduar had alot of penalties on hunters – maybe thats why i didnt like most fights. Ranging from untrackable (someone made the math on MM and untrackable with the “normal” arpen build and came out with a 7.5% penalty if you cant track your opponent with imp track), more common and spread penalties like sunder armor or eq. unable to be affecting all targets which ofc is another thing to the more devastating fights like Vezax where you end up sitting on double penalties (0 mana regen and attackspeed lowered). In short I wont miss Ulduar.
ToC looks way better so far, I can see that – maybe I just need to put on the gameface again now that T8 is finally over :)
@Kargos
I think the interaction between Blizz and the communiy is alot more present now than it was 3 years ago. Faster patches, fixes and responses atleast.
About the BM boost, I dont think they’re too proud/happy about it either. But given they’ve allready started on Catalysm and any change to any class today is going to be a waste of time come expansion, I bet they spend the devtime on “something else” rather.
It might be the harsh truth to it all as dev. time means money and reduction on time on other things and I see (as pointed out by others aswell) the BM buff as a PVE buff. Both MM and SV in PVE is “okay” so it’s like Blizzard would all the sudden make Frost mages viable in PVE again – noone really expects that to happen as there are 2 viable trees allready.
I’m going to be honest, I miss the days of months between class changes. It actually made you excited to see the list of changes to your class, and you wouldn’t have to regear or regem every 2-3 weeks.
I am of the opinion that the developers should continue with their current community information sharing …. just scale back on the number of minor patches just to try and make everything “perfect”. It never will be, someone will always be OP more than someone else. Let it play out for a couple months and then make an informed decision on how to balance everything in 1 shot.
I mean, it’s the same thing they do now, but with only like 3 weeks to see how it plays out.
I’m kinda upset about the BW nerf screwing up my previous 2′s/3′s comps, but I did some games as Marks/Feral and went from 0-1805 in one night. Just as a sort of background, my previous highest personal rating in any bracket was 1727 from when readiness/bestial wrath worked. The feral had literally 100 resil and I was about like 575ish. After being so frustrated with arenas for so long I’m actually enjoying them (barring the ever-present prot/holy).
I have more health in my PvE gear than I do PvP gear.
I’m kind of stuck with being SV or MM and hiding while I try to burn down healers in Wintergrasp or the occasional AV and IoC. I do enjoy me some 10k bursts on unprotected and unsuspecting priests though. I -don’t- however enjoy the fact that I’m generally in viper more than I am dragonhawk.