Post-Mortem: Cataclysm

Well, here we are, on the eve of another expansion launch for WoW. The transition from one expansion to another is rather odd. It just hits. New levels, zones, quests et al. open for us to explore while old content is almost always forgotten. Guilds get re-energized as they prepare for another raid tier where everyone starts from scratch. Players have new content to take up their time. So there can be mixed emotions going into another expansion. You get to experience new content while wondering what could have been.

The last two years have had their positives and negatives. Blizzard executed some of their designs really well and executed others really poorly. I'm sure most of this won't come as a surprise but I think now is a good time for one last look at Cataclysm and see what lessons, players, we can take from it.

Cataclysm, as an expansion, certainly wasn't one without its ups or its downs. There were times when I wished it would end. There were times when I wondered if it could get any better. I do think, despite what the average player says, Cataclysm did move the ball forward for WoW as a game. It did lay the ground work for future designs and content that will be utilized in Mists of Pandaria and beyond. We didn't like how they did it but they did make some good design decisions with Cataclysm.

But at the same time, there are several decisions you have to question. They are pure head scratches. When you have a player base as large as this game, that's very vulnerable to the echo chamber, the players will only remember the negatives.

So I thought I would review what Blizzard did well and what Blizzard did poorly with Cataclysm. First lets start with the bad:

Lack of max level content.

This one is the most obvious and the most important one by far. The fact is, that Cataclysm had less max level content than Wrath or Burning Crusade. This is why they were bleeding subscriptions, people didn't have enough to do. They didn't want to level 1-60 or do alts, achievements or old content. As a result, people left in droves. People burned out at a faster rate.

The Rate of change.

This is one that I think that a lot of the min/maxing types take issue with. People were able to prove with evidence that game mechanics were broken, unbalanced or simply not working and they were brushed aside statements that the change was too large for a patch. 

Its fine to say that players didn't enjoy the amount of change from patch to patch in Wrath. And that's feedback I understand but shouldn't there be a middle ground? There has to be a point where changing the combat table mechanics has to be mandatory because of lack of foresight in beta to recognize combat table manipulation.

I also think its ignorant to argue that the rate of change in Wrath was too high. They introduced a very unbalanced class that required a lot of iteration after release. Death Knights took the brunt of the changes in Wrath. So to apply the same logic to Cataclysm is a bit flawed.

Rehashed content

This could be considered a nit-pick but I don't think its good for the game to release two patches in twelve months which is nothing but rehashed content. 

Nobody thought ZG or ZA were fun enough to rehash for level 85. They had no relation to Cataclysm or Deathwing. They were an unrelated work that didn't need to be done. They didn't serve any real purpose other than to eat up a patch that could have been new content.

Then there's Dragon Soul. I won't mince any words here. Dragon Soul is the worst raid they have ever done. Ragnaros might have been a redone boss but they did a whole new fight with six new bosses in front of him. But for the first five bosses of Dragon Soul, they didn't use one new modal. Every boss modal or environment was already existing in the game before Dragon Soul. It appears they spent most of their time on Spine of Deathwing which turned out to be one giant trash pull. And Blizzard admits they won't do an encounter like it again because the burst requirements.

Now let's talk about the positives.

Looking For Raid

People might think its a push over or its just for bads to get gear. But Raid Finder is good for the game. It gives people chances to gear their alts, as well get gear on their mains.

People talk a lot of about the difficulties in recruiting, especially for 25 mans. But with Raid Finder, that should be easier. People will already be geared for Normal Modes and with a few boss kills, they'll be geared for Hardmodes.

Finally, it brings back the option to clear a raid zone multiple times on a single character. Many people speak very highly of the days of Wrath where you could do multiple Icecrown runs in a week. Raid Finder gives people a chance to get some of that enjoyment they used to have.

1-60 Leveling

Level from 1-60 was not very fun. As someone who did it multiple times, it was painful. Some zones were empty (Azshara), some we're a mess (The Barrens) and some were really good (Ungoro). The delta between the zones was too large. And comparing the old 1-60 to Outland or Northrend was like night and day. So I think its smart for them to have redesigned the largest chunk of the leveling process.

So on balance, I think Cataclysm laid some good ground work for Mists of Pandaria. Designs like Looking For Raid are keepers while rehashed content should only be used in a limited number of cases.

That's all we can really say at this point as we prepare to fight for Pandaria.

2012 NFL Picks

Well, here we are. We are on the brink of another NFL season. The NFL is America's passion where on every given day, one team can beat another. We analyze every game like its the only game.

There are a lot of great story lines for this years season. Here are some of the stories that I'll be watching this season:

NFC:

1. Can the Giants repeat? They have a very good team with a solid core on offensive and defense. Can they make another run to the playoffs and the Super Bowl?
2. Can the Packers recover? From 1-53, they have the best team on paper. But last year's loss to the Giants very difficult.
3. How good are the 49ers? They had a great year last season. Alex Smith played up to the draft hype and they had the best defense in the league. But can they repeat that success?
4. What are the Saints? The bounty scandal has taken its toll on the Saints. They don't have key players and coaches for most, if not all of the season. What will they do? Can Brees carry them or will they have a down year?
5. Can teams like the Lions and Falcons breakthrough and win some playoff games? I picked the Lions last year as my sleeper and I think people are waiting on Matt Ryan to step up as a top QB.

AFC:

1. What does Peyton Manning have left?
2. What does Tim Tebow mean for the Jets? Are they going to use him as a wild cat player or are they going to use him at QB?
3. What do the Ravens have left on defense? They aren't getting any younger.
4. Can the Raiders finally turn the corner and make the playoffs?

With that in mind, I think some teams are going to be clearly better. For example, Carolina will be much better as Newton matures.

I also think some teams will be worse. The Jets have no speed on offense and confusion at the QB position that will lead to a dysfunctional year.

So here we go; These are my picks for the 2012 NFL Season!

NFC:

East: Giants

North: Packers

South: Falcons

West: 49ers

Wild Card #1: Bears

Wild Card #2: Lions

AFC:

East: Patriots

North: Steelers

South: Texans

West: Chargers

Wild Card #1: Broncos

Wild Card #2: Ravens

NFC Champion: Chicago Bears

AFC Champion: San Diego Chargers

Super Bowl Winner: Chicago Bears

There you have it. I do have other thoughts and maybe I'll write them before they play on Sunday. But if you want my thoughts during the season, read my twitter.

Why the MoP Death Knight is unacceptable.

I think one that is pretty clear over the last several weeks; the MoP version of the Death Knight is turning out to be unacceptable to many long time Death Knights. The changes being made aren't what we talked about for months during Cataclysm.

Many very smart Death Knights provided lots of good feedback for Blizzard on the class. Most of these were backed with sims, math and logic to justify the argument used and in most cases were correct predictions or feedback, even if Blizzard didn't use it at the time.

But where does that leave us for MoP? Its easy to talk about the past and rail against that. But we need to focus on the future. That is still something that we could have a glimmer of hope influencing.

While I'm mostly speculating here, I don't think many people would stay Death Knight if it went live today. I know, I won't. This is very something difficult for me to say because I like the class a lot. I have a lot of fun playing my Death Knight on a daily basis. I'm sure there are many other Death Knights out there who feel the same way.

While Death Knights were cool and new once, and got special treatment, they aren't anymore. They are just another class and must be treated as such.

So why won't I be playing a Death Knight?

Resource Design:


This is an issue that I've been talking about for a while. Our resource system is too complicated and unfun. Everytime they make a change or give us something to manage, they add layers of complexity that ruin the original appeal of the system..

I plan on talking more about the resource design problems as time goes on.

Presence Design:

The current design for Presences is less than appealing.

Blizzard has attempted to use them as band-aids to solve our mechanical problems but they haven't even done that correctly. The way 2H Frost and Unholy currently play, the 1 second global cooldown is required for each spec. This is based on resource generation, stat weights and individual spec mechanics.

For these two specs, the higher the stat weight is for Haste; the more important the reduction gets. Given our  current resources mechanics, Haste serves as a multiplier on the whole system and we need those extra global cooldowns to spend our resources.

DW Frost is in the same boat for the most part. It started out in Frost Presence in Cataclysm but eventually went to Unholy Presence as the spec required more global cooldowns.

The problem with Presences as they are on the MoP beta is that DW Frost is required to be in Frost Presence.

1. It doesn't generate enough resources outside of Frost Presence. 
2. The damage buff passive for Frost Strike could encourage heavy Frost Strike usage/priority (and therefore higher Mastery stat weighting).

But DW Frost in Frost Presence plays slow, clunky and downright boring.

Frost is supposed to be the opposite of this. Its supposed to feel faster, more frenetic, and on your toes and react to your procs and how your current rotation and flow.. You can't be on your toes if the spec is slow.

Rotation Design:


There isn't a lot to say here. But....


Currently the only rotation that actually works is 2H Frost.

Unholy: Death Coil changing to 35 RP did nothing to fix the rotational problems is has. It will still struggle to stack Shadow Infusion. This will lead to poor ramp up time and ultimately less DPS because Unholy's DPS is so strongly related to the DPS added by the ghoul.

DW Frost: This is sort of related to the Presence problem. I won't go on and on anymore.


Where's the sexy?

Finally, where's the sexy? We don't have anything that's really cool coming for Death Knights. We get talent tiers dedicated to resource generation and rehashed abilities from other classes while they are getting some really cool stuff.

I look at our talents and think "meh." I look at Paladin or Druid talents and I think "awesome."

I haven't seen one ability that Death Knights are getting that scream, "You have to try me." Are there nice talents and abilities? Yes. But nothing really that hot.

This is only the tip of the iceberg and there are a bunch of other things that make the class unappealing as far as I'm concerned.

What do you think? Will you play the class if it stays as is? Respond in the comments or on Twitter. (@PennyRush).

What's Wrong With MoP Shaman Talents?

Like I've written in the past, I know some of you are waiting for some serious and well thought out comments on Death Knights.  We all know Death Knights multiple issues across the board but I wanted to do a blog on Shamans because I think they are much worse off than other classes.  Death Knights in the grand scheme aren't really that bad off because their problems are mostly because of the conversion from Catacylsm talents to MoP talents and overall they still match how the class is designed. The Shaman MoP talent design doesn't even match the class design.

When I study the Shaman talents, I look at them specifically from a Restoration point of view. I've been raiding on a Restoration Shaman since mid June of last year.  I've done most of the heroic modes during Catacylsm and I have experienced why Ragnaros or Baleroc are considered the bane of Restoration Shamans while a fight like Chimeron is the shining moment.

This expansion was rather weird for Restoration.  During Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, Shamans shined as Chain Heal provided many advantages on several encounters.

With the addition of Healing Rain, Shamans became even more dependent on positional healing.  Shamans are great healing targets that are relatively close together. But most boss mechanics discourage players from clumping up. This can force Shamans into what I have called "Paladin-mode."  We try to heal like Paladins without any of the bonuses and benefits of being a Paladin, such as Beacon of Light.

I have also spent time playing as Elemental on many heroic modes. I'm not the best Elemental Shaman but I think I can speak from that point of view as well.

With this in mind, lets take a look at Shaman talents and we can start by discussing the "must have" talents.

On Tier 45, 75, and 90, there are easy to pick must have talents. Here is a break down of each tier and why.

On Tier 45, Shamans will by default take Call of the Elements:

Totemic Restoration/Totemic Projection - These would be useful for only for group of players: bad, if they could be considered useful at all.  Given the long cooldowns on totems, its much harder to waste a totem. You would have to be pretty bad if you were to drop a Mana Tide Totem then to suddenly drop Healing Stream

Now that totems are more strategic, the talents that supplement them, need to also play into that strategic design. These two talents play on the convenience design where they were fire and forget. These talents are a relic of the Catacylsm Shaman.

On Tier 75, Shamans will take Healing Tide Totem.

Ancestral Guidance is an ineffective cooldown. It turns your abilities into smart heals for ten seconds every two minutes. It only works on direct heals (or damage) so you would only be able to get three to six heals out during the duration of the cooldown. In a six minute encounter, with three uses and optimal rotation, you'll get ~18 smart heals. During that encounter, those 18 smart heals will not really make the difference between success and failure. They'll also be hard to notice with all heals from being cast during the encounter. They will really be no different than Ancestral Awakening is today.

Conductivity is also flawed but for  two reasons. First, Elemental and Enhancement aren't going to stop DPS just to cast Healing Rain. Its to much of a DPS loss. For Restoration, it continues to build on the proximity healing that Shamans have in Catacylsm, which has proven to be mostly ineffective with boss and encounter design.

On Tier 90, Restoration Shamans will take Unleashing Fury but this tier is really garbage.

Unleashing Fury is the only talent that affects healing and the other talents aren't really that appealing for DPS. Narrow talents that add to the Elemental Totems or a damage abiltiy that gives a minimal secondary stats should not be level 90 talents.

Now lets get to the tiers with more difficult choices.

Tier 15: Nature's Guardian is a PvP Talent; Its value in PvE will be what it is today: none. Stone Bulwark and Astral Shift will be based on situation and math of individual encounters. The later part is problematic because that shouldn't be a factor in picking talents.

Tier 30: All PvP. Nothing of value for PvE. If they go live as is, I'll just randomly pick one because odds are it wouldn't make a difference.

Tier: 60: This is a math problem tier. People are already parsing out Echo of Elements to a 7% proc rate, while the other two tiers provide 5% haste.That will be put in context of all three specs and one will be picked as optimal.

Now what does this all mean? In my view it adds up to Shamans having pretty bad talents. Unlike other classes, (like Death Knights) these talents don't even have potential to be good. I would just start over with them because they are really bad, don't match the MoP design changes or are math problems.

2012 MLB Predictions

With the 2012 Major League Baseball season beginning in earnest on Thursday, I wanted to post my playoff picks for the season. I know you all aren't into sports but I am so meh! :P

American League:

East: Yankees
Central: Tigers
West: Angels
Wild Cards: Tampa and Texas

Besides the fact that I am a Yankees fan, I think they are the best all around team in the American League East. Their pitching isn't as good as Tampa but their lineup and bullpen are significantly better. Over the course of a long season, these two elements will be a factor for Tampa. You can't win every game 2-1 or expect your bullpen to hold 2-1 games. Boston is at best a 3rd place team right now. A lot of the scouts like the Blue Jays; I'm not sure if they are ready this year. They have a ton of great young players and will make great strides but I'm not sure if its enough.


The Tigers are the best team in the Central, hands down. The other teams aren't even close.

The Angels and Texas is an interesting match up. In terms of pure talent, they are pretty even. So I think it boils down to whose proven. And the pitching on the Angels is more proven than Texas. Darvish and Feliz have to make adjustments to pitching every fifth day in the American League. So while they are a toss up on talent, I think experience will win out.

National League:


East: Phillies
Central: Cardinals
West: Diamond Backs
Wild Cards: Marlins and Dodgers

For the three division winners, its pretty hands down. They are the most experienced and talented teams in their division. They aren't perfect but they are the best of an imperfect bunch.

For example: The Phillies have a ton of injuries but the back end of their bullpen is better and they still have 3 top pitchers in their rotation. I could make similar points about the Cards and D-Backs.

The Wild Cards is the most interesting part of the NL this year. There are several teams in the mix for this spot. The Nationals, Brewers, Reds, Giants, Dodgers, and Marlins are all in the mix. I think the Marlins and Dodgers pull it out to play the one game playoff.

Playoff Predictions:

ALCS: Yankees vs Angels

NLCS: Phillies vs Marlins

The Yankees or the Angels will win the World Series. And being biased, I'm going with the Yankees.

Protection Paladins and Sacred Shield

I know this doesn't have to do with Death Knights and I will post some general thoughts on the new expansion and Death Knights soon but I wanted to start with Protection Paladins and Sacred Shield.


For those who don't play a Paladin, here is what it does: 

Protects the target with a shield of Holy Light for 30 sec, which increases the critical chance of your Word of Glory on the target by 30%.  The shield also absorbs (1 + 0.366 * holy spell power) damage when the target takes damage, but no more than once every 6 sec.

Can be active only on one target at a time.

Based on the current talent configuration for Protection Paladins, Sacred Shield has to change if Blizzard wants to introduce meaningful choices for this particular spec.

I've only tanked a couple Temple of the Jade Serpent runs so far but I feel this for the following reasons.

1) I feel like I have to take it. It costs very little mana, its increases the effectiveness of WoG (which is pretty weak now without the overheal shield) and it adds some damage absorb. Compared to Selfless Healer or Eternal Flame, both of which are very nice and useful in their own rights, I don't feel they are that useful for Prot. Take Eternal Flame for example; I won't spend 1 Holy Power on that over Shield, and I definitely won't use it over WoG (front loaded heal vs hot.)

(I could see myself taking Selfless Healer in 2 Tank situations but I think those individual cases will be rare.)

2) Then because I feel like I have to pick it, I feel like I have to keep it up 100% of the time, simply because I can. It feels very maintenancey. Tanks are already asked to do a lot, I don't think they should be asked to maintain this type of ability, like you could ask a DPS to do.

They would have to do one of two things for me not to take Sacred Shield in 95% of cases:

1) Change Sacred Shield.

-or-

2) Buff Eternal Flame/Selfless Healer so they are just as appealing.

Since buffing the Eternal and Selfless could cause balance problems for the other specs, I suspect they'll change Sacred Shield and be done with it.

They can add a cooldown, add a meaningful resource cost or add an absorb cap. They have to do something before it effectively becomes a Protection Paladin staple.

The purpose of this blog!

Some of you might have ended up here and wonder, why am I here? Why do I do care?

Well chances are that you found this blog from a friend or from my twitter. However you got here, thank you for reading.

So what is the purpose of my blog?

Its simple; to state clearly and plainly my opinion on a wide range of topics.

You might disagree with what I write and I'm ok with that. Everyone has a right to what they believe and should stand up for it.

I hope that you find my rants on politics or gaming or sports or technology interesting and worth your time.I generally will stick to those topics as those are what I know best and I have several passions about. If they don't interest you then I'm not sure this is a blog you want to read.

If you disagree with me on any ideas, posts, etc, let me know on twitter or in the comments. I won't heavily moderate comments (if I even can) unless they are so far off the topic that they are irrelevant to reasonable discussion.

So what might I blog about first? Since I just got into the beta for the next World of Warcraft expansion, I might use that for my first blog post. I have a bunch topics that I want to touch on. For now, I plan on playing it by ear.

Feel free to post suggestions to me on Twitter (@PennyRush) or in the comments of what topics I should write about.

P.S. I know the layout and design of the blog kind of suck. I'm working on it.