Now disc stat weights, like those of most healing specs, are not set completely in stone. Some stats are better than others, some are pretty much useless (spirit, I'm looking at you, get the gorram heck off my healing tier), but how you weigh them does depend at least somewhat on your personal style and preference.
So instead of just rewording what Elitist Jerks has to say on the subject, I figured I'd tell you a) what all the various casting stats do for you, and b) what I do . That way you can make a more informed decision.
First, stats you don't want if possible...
Spirit. This does very little for you. Seriously. It's on healing tier cause holy likes it and because Blizzard seems to like pushing it. It's like intellect's much more annoying little brother whose mom is determined to convince everyone is cute, not annoying. Or something. Not sure where I was going with that, but spirit, not worth it. What it does for you is 0.365 mp5 per point. Mp5 is shorthand for restores X mana every 5 seconds. Other stats give you much much more. Heck, straight mp5 is better imho.
To hit. To hit is for dps. Your heals will hit friendly targets, period. Sometimes good upgrades will have to hit on them because well, dps casters like the same stats we do. This may lead to headed arguments, which often include gems like "Healers like spirit, not to hit!" You don't like to hit, but heck trees don't like crit and yet they often end up with gear with crit on it. Occasionally you have to put up with a stat you don't like or don't care about to get more of the stats you do care about.
Second, stats that are awesome and shiny...
Intellect. You love this stat. Trust me. Intellect gives you 0.817 mp5 per point, ~0.0076 crit per point, and increases the size of your mana pool. Since most disc priests don't tend to run with the regen holy priests do, a large mana pool is a must. As a new 80, I'd even suggest gemming for int to begin with, and switching to other gems as you gain more intellect on your gear. Basically as you stop running out of mana, start switching over. Currently I run with roughly 30k buffed, and that is more than enough unless I'm shielding like there is no tomorrow, in a long fight, while constantly casting. How big you want your mana pool to be is a personal thing, so kinda feel it out. If you have a regen trinket like Solace, you need less int, and if you're constantly casting and dealing with high-damage fights, you need more. It really does depend on what you're doing and how you're doing it.
Spellpower. This is your favorite stat after intellect, or possibly before intellect. Spellpower makes your heals more powerful, and thus makes you more powerful. Power Word:Shield's absorption also becomes better the more spellpower you have. Best stat ever! Yes, I'm biased.
Crit. This is a nice stat, but how much of it you want does depend on what you're doing. Crit makes your spells more likely to critically hit, which means they hit with extra power. If you're raid healing with PW:S and Prayer of Mending, crits are only possible with the heal from the glyph of PW:S and Mending. But if you're tank healing, or throwing flash heals around like there's no tomorrow, well crits start looking much better. Divine Aegis depends on us critting though, so I certainly never say no to this stat. EJ recommends stacking crit once you've reached your haste cap, and while I personally don't do that (mmm, yummy spellpower), it's probably not a bad idea.
Haste. Haste makes you cast faster. It decreases your global cooldown as well, which makes even instant casts faster. Your minimum global cooldown is 1 sec, so once you hit a certain point of haste it's not doing you as much good as some of the other stats could be. Assuming the following raid buffs (Wraith of Air totem for 5% haste, and moonkin aura/Swift Retribution for another 3%) and our own talent Enlightment for 6% haste, and you really don't need much more to reach the hard haste cap for PW:S casting. Basically, if you want all your PW:S casts to be as fast as possible, you need another 154 haste (or roughly 11% haste). Haste can still speed up your longer casts even after it's no longer any good for PW:S, and the answer of when you stop wanting it is really complicated. So complicated, in fact, that if you're really interested, I suggest you go read the value of haste on EJ. I personally am quite happy with my current haste stat (451, way over cap) and would not go out of my way to increase it.
So those are the stats you're likely to see. There's a minor one you might run into, straight mp5, and I'd say take that over spirit. But otherwise, yup those are your stats. Now, the idea here is for you to read this and figure out what you think you need, but just in case you want a simple this is what you should do, I give you...
How I gear, stats and gems...
Spellpower trumps everything else. Spellpower is shiny awesomesauce as far as I am concerned.
More intellect is yummy too.
Haste and crit are nice, but I don't fret about them.
So my stat weighing looks like SP>int>haste+crit>>spirit and to hit.
I gem mostly for spellpower (runed cardinal rubies and whatever the sp dragon's eyes are called) with some other colors for meta activation. I use the 21 int+ mana regen meta, and I ignore socket bonuses unless a) I need one for my meta or b) the socket gives me more spellpower than I lose by not gemming straight spellpower. In fact, my gemming is kinda messy right now, and I should clean that up. I know why I have an int/sp gem, but why one sp/spirit and one sp/mp5 is beyond me. (looks more closely...)
Okay, the sp/mp5 was apparently for a spellpower socket bonus, and the other two are for meta activation. Nice to know there was some logic there.
Now if you want a list of gear you should get, exactly what enchants, gems, ect, well, see the first link? There's a really good place to start. Heck, they even suggest buff foods. Granted, they don't lay out exactly what gear a new priest might want, but honestly, run dungeons, run heroics, go by the stat weighings, and you'll end up decently geared. Might even want to get your hands on full tier 9. I had it for a while, before I replaced it with other stuff with better stats, but I 've still got the two piece bonus. And I'm still rocking a badge trinket (all that int is not really useful to me anymore but as much as I want a heroic Solace I'm unlikely to see one any time soon), with Nevermelting Ice Crystal in my bags for when I'm tank healing and want more crit.
And if you're still completely at sea, you can always email me to ask questions, hit the plus heal forums, or hit wowladies over on livejournal. There's a ton of resources out there, and I am really just scratching the surface of this entire subject.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
How to Disc, a Simple Guide. Part 1: the tools, speccing, and glyphs (Out of date!)
So, you're a new level 80 priest, and you've decided to go disc. Or you're building a offset for your guild's Lich King attempt. Either way, you're lost in a sea of bubbles and need some help. Well, don't fret, I'm here to explain the basics.
Healing, as we all well know, is not a rotation or a priority. It's a set of tools and successful healing depends on knowing what your tools are, when to use them, and gearing to increase these strengths. First off, what are disc's tools? When should you use them? And where the heck do all these talent points go?
Spec-wise, you've got a few choices. Wow Popular's Disc Build List is a nice place to start. The top two disc builds are a bit different. This one is what I think of as the standard disc spec, and this one makes your Renews a bit more powerful at the expense of your Greater Heal cast times.
Glyph wise, your standard majors are PW:S, Flash Heal, and Penance. If you're using Renew over Flash Heal (I know some healers do, though I'm not sure why) you might want to switch in Renew for the Flash Heal glyph. Minors are Shadowfiend, Levitate, Fading, and Shadow Protection. You've got a bit more flexibility in the minors, but I do recommend Levitate and Shadowfiend.
Your Tools!
Power Word:Shield. Bubbles. If you're raid healing, this spell is your best friend ever. If you're tank healing, this is still your best friend ever. Bubble to prevent or decrease incoming damage, to buy time to get someone back up to full, or just cause you like putting dwarves in bubbles. For tank healing, bubble to get Borrowed Time, a haste buff to get your next heal (Greater Heal perhaps?) off faster. If you're a click-caster like me, bind this to something really convenient and obvious (like left mouse click) cause you'll be using it more than any other spell.
Penance. This is the other iconic spell of the disc priest. Healing with lasers, what's not to like? This is a great spell for NEED HEALS NOW as well as for tank healing and it's also a damage spell. If there's any sort of aoe damage going on, I'd shield myself first, since this spell can be interrupted which means you won't get all three shots off.
Power Infusion. This is a great throw on a spell dps and watch their damage go up spell. I tend to use it when I hear a call for Heroism. This isn't really a healing tool persay, but you can throw it on yourself for extra oomph when needed.
Pain Suppression. This is a great tank healing tool, just keep an eye on the threat meter. Since this spell decreases threat, it's also a nice "oh crap that dps pulled aggro" button.
Prayer of Mending. Start it on a melee, and just make sure it keeps bouncing. I use a hot meter to keep track of it.
Flash Heal. This is my go-to heal. Really. It's not much good on tanks (unless the tank is undergeared) but it's great for topping off dps. My whack-a-mole style of raid healing is a combo of this and PW:S with the occasional penance.
Renew. I mostly use it for an extra tank cushion. Otherwise I don't use it at all.
Greater Heal. Use with the Borrowed Time buff for tank healing.
Prayer of Healing. Again, this is a spell I use with Borrowed Time, mostly when I'm raid healing in a ten man. I don't use it that much, but I have it on my bars.
As far as the other healing spells go (Divine Hymn, Holy Nova, Binding Heal) I just don't use those much. I have seen people use Shadowfiend in combo with Divine Hymn in heavy aoe damage situations, and I keep meaning to try it. Unfortunately, when I'm in that situation I'm generally too busy going "ACK, MUST SHIELD EVERYONE!" to think about it.
Now, it must be said that healing is not like dps, where there is generally one right way to do things for max dps. Healing is wildly situational, and given the depth and breadth of a priest's toolbox, it can be very confusing at first. But there isn't really a right way to heal, and different people have different styles. If you're doing your job, keeping the raid (or the tank) up, not running oom, and not just sitting back and watching the fight, you're doing okay.
Next time: gemming and enchanting, or what do you mean there's no right gem? And why am I fighting with the caster dps for gear without spirit?
Healing, as we all well know, is not a rotation or a priority. It's a set of tools and successful healing depends on knowing what your tools are, when to use them, and gearing to increase these strengths. First off, what are disc's tools? When should you use them? And where the heck do all these talent points go?
Spec-wise, you've got a few choices. Wow Popular's Disc Build List is a nice place to start. The top two disc builds are a bit different. This one is what I think of as the standard disc spec, and this one makes your Renews a bit more powerful at the expense of your Greater Heal cast times.
Glyph wise, your standard majors are PW:S, Flash Heal, and Penance. If you're using Renew over Flash Heal (I know some healers do, though I'm not sure why) you might want to switch in Renew for the Flash Heal glyph. Minors are Shadowfiend, Levitate, Fading, and Shadow Protection. You've got a bit more flexibility in the minors, but I do recommend Levitate and Shadowfiend.
Your Tools!
Power Word:Shield. Bubbles. If you're raid healing, this spell is your best friend ever. If you're tank healing, this is still your best friend ever. Bubble to prevent or decrease incoming damage, to buy time to get someone back up to full, or just cause you like putting dwarves in bubbles. For tank healing, bubble to get Borrowed Time, a haste buff to get your next heal (Greater Heal perhaps?) off faster. If you're a click-caster like me, bind this to something really convenient and obvious (like left mouse click) cause you'll be using it more than any other spell.
Penance. This is the other iconic spell of the disc priest. Healing with lasers, what's not to like? This is a great spell for NEED HEALS NOW as well as for tank healing and it's also a damage spell. If there's any sort of aoe damage going on, I'd shield myself first, since this spell can be interrupted which means you won't get all three shots off.
Power Infusion. This is a great throw on a spell dps and watch their damage go up spell. I tend to use it when I hear a call for Heroism. This isn't really a healing tool persay, but you can throw it on yourself for extra oomph when needed.
Pain Suppression. This is a great tank healing tool, just keep an eye on the threat meter. Since this spell decreases threat, it's also a nice "oh crap that dps pulled aggro" button.
Prayer of Mending. Start it on a melee, and just make sure it keeps bouncing. I use a hot meter to keep track of it.
Flash Heal. This is my go-to heal. Really. It's not much good on tanks (unless the tank is undergeared) but it's great for topping off dps. My whack-a-mole style of raid healing is a combo of this and PW:S with the occasional penance.
Renew. I mostly use it for an extra tank cushion. Otherwise I don't use it at all.
Greater Heal. Use with the Borrowed Time buff for tank healing.
Prayer of Healing. Again, this is a spell I use with Borrowed Time, mostly when I'm raid healing in a ten man. I don't use it that much, but I have it on my bars.
As far as the other healing spells go (Divine Hymn, Holy Nova, Binding Heal) I just don't use those much. I have seen people use Shadowfiend in combo with Divine Hymn in heavy aoe damage situations, and I keep meaning to try it. Unfortunately, when I'm in that situation I'm generally too busy going "ACK, MUST SHIELD EVERYONE!" to think about it.
Now, it must be said that healing is not like dps, where there is generally one right way to do things for max dps. Healing is wildly situational, and given the depth and breadth of a priest's toolbox, it can be very confusing at first. But there isn't really a right way to heal, and different people have different styles. If you're doing your job, keeping the raid (or the tank) up, not running oom, and not just sitting back and watching the fight, you're doing okay.
Next time: gemming and enchanting, or what do you mean there's no right gem? And why am I fighting with the caster dps for gear without spirit?
Well, that was annoying....
I got into a Black Temple pug tonight. Full clear, only one wipe, which isn't bad at all for a PUG, especially one where not everyone is 80 and geared to the nines.
I did run into a new species of druid I'd never seen. Dickus Leetus Arboretus. I ended up putting him on ignore halfway through the run, since he had decided that telling us over and over again that he was the best healer there and how leet he was, ect. That stuff gets old, especially when I look at Recount's Heals and Absorbs and well, I think the caps speak for themselves.
So if you're going to claim AWESOME ELITENESS OF HEALING, be able to back it up. Cause otherwise, well, I assume you're overcompensating, and treat you as a joke. An annoying joke, a joke with a FSKING special character in their name, but still a joke. And just as an aside, people with special characters in your names, I hate you all. I cannot type your names, and I never plan to. Having to go look up a special characters table just so you can be Legolas or Killbot or something else, well, it does not make you cool.
At the end Skull of somebody or other drops. I look, think "ooh, a nice replacement for Mark of the War Prisoner" for my shadow set. I roll, and hey 100. Yays, trinket is mine. But noes, trinket goes to dickus. Who has pretty decent gear with a lowest ilevel of 251, compared to my lowest ilevel of 200 (stupid offhand).
Just kinda annoyed me. If it had been a heroic Solace or something like that, I'd be really pissed, but the Skull, while nice, is not that important to me. Oh, and his trinkets were Purified Lunar Dust and Sliver of Pure Ice. No clue how good those are for restoration.
I got to see the content, which was important to me, but now I feel like the raid was tainted. Like if he hadn't been there it would have been better. But now I know not to go on any raids he's on, or on any raids run by that leader. And I got an achievement out of it.
I did run into a new species of druid I'd never seen. Dickus Leetus Arboretus. I ended up putting him on ignore halfway through the run, since he had decided that telling us over and over again that he was the best healer there and how leet he was, ect. That stuff gets old, especially when I look at Recount's Heals and Absorbs and well, I think the caps speak for themselves.
So if you're going to claim AWESOME ELITENESS OF HEALING, be able to back it up. Cause otherwise, well, I assume you're overcompensating, and treat you as a joke. An annoying joke, a joke with a FSKING special character in their name, but still a joke. And just as an aside, people with special characters in your names, I hate you all. I cannot type your names, and I never plan to. Having to go look up a special characters table just so you can be Legolas or Killbot or something else, well, it does not make you cool.
At the end Skull of somebody or other drops. I look, think "ooh, a nice replacement for Mark of the War Prisoner" for my shadow set. I roll, and hey 100. Yays, trinket is mine. But noes, trinket goes to dickus. Who has pretty decent gear with a lowest ilevel of 251, compared to my lowest ilevel of 200 (stupid offhand).
Just kinda annoyed me. If it had been a heroic Solace or something like that, I'd be really pissed, but the Skull, while nice, is not that important to me. Oh, and his trinkets were Purified Lunar Dust and Sliver of Pure Ice. No clue how good those are for restoration.
I got to see the content, which was important to me, but now I feel like the raid was tainted. Like if he hadn't been there it would have been better. But now I know not to go on any raids he's on, or on any raids run by that leader. And I got an achievement out of it.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Random Tuesday Thoughts
Well, it's another tuesday which means RANDOM THOUGHTS! (and yes, blogger says it is Wednesday, but in my world Tuesday isn't over till after I've gone to bed. Yes, I just ignore the midnight day change thing)
I came up with the perfect worgen caster name, so I rolled a placeholder rogue (had to delete Aidelyn to do so, sadly). I blame the datamined caster animations for female worgen. Very cool-looking.
I've also been pvping more, on all my toons. Though it is fail of a rather amusing sort when my elemental spec'd lvl 41 shaman is the top healer in Arathi, doubling the heals of any other toon. Especially since I died. A lot. Squish, squish, squish. I'm also getting slightly better at pvping on Lyllea, and just got enough honor for a mount. I'm even (shock and horror!) pondering getting actual pvp gear. The kind that doesn't come from VOA. Oh, and one of those get out of jail free trinkets. That'd be nice.
There was also a very odd toc 25. I ended up tank healing (I never do that, and while I'm not bad at it, I am VERY bad at staying alive while tank-healing. Wicked tunnel vision issues). I died on every fight I never die on (Twins, beasts, Anub) and didn't die in Faction Champs. For the first time ever. I always die in that fight. I credit my survival to my pvp gear (yay quicker cooldown on Psychic Scream).
My druid hit 70 so she could do the Northrend orphan quests, and my pally hit 325 blacksmithing. Finally over the thorium hump, thank goodness.
As far as the leaks of Cat, I did pay some attention to them (worgen models), but I am kinda trying to avoid lore and zone changes. Don't care about being spoiled for class changes, since that's so fluid anyway, and I like seeing the new character models early, but I am actively avoiding further lore/zone spoilers. I have a vague sense of what's going to happen, and that's good enough for me. Until then, I'll raid (guild has a toc scheduled tomorrow, which should be fun) and level alts and maybe gear them and pvp and generally just relax and have fun.
Ooh, and in the rumors that are hopefully true department, I hear that the Horde on Shadow Council may be tired of Wintergrasp. Or at least tired of the lack of challenge Alliance generally offers. What can I say, most allies on my server really don't care. Be nice if the Horde didn't too, so that we had it a bit more. Not that I can say much, the last time I WGed, I got stuck on a column for the entire fight. Brilliant me forgot there's no flying once the battle starts.
I came up with the perfect worgen caster name, so I rolled a placeholder rogue (had to delete Aidelyn to do so, sadly). I blame the datamined caster animations for female worgen. Very cool-looking.
I've also been pvping more, on all my toons. Though it is fail of a rather amusing sort when my elemental spec'd lvl 41 shaman is the top healer in Arathi, doubling the heals of any other toon. Especially since I died. A lot. Squish, squish, squish. I'm also getting slightly better at pvping on Lyllea, and just got enough honor for a mount. I'm even (shock and horror!) pondering getting actual pvp gear. The kind that doesn't come from VOA. Oh, and one of those get out of jail free trinkets. That'd be nice.
There was also a very odd toc 25. I ended up tank healing (I never do that, and while I'm not bad at it, I am VERY bad at staying alive while tank-healing. Wicked tunnel vision issues). I died on every fight I never die on (Twins, beasts, Anub) and didn't die in Faction Champs. For the first time ever. I always die in that fight. I credit my survival to my pvp gear (yay quicker cooldown on Psychic Scream).
My druid hit 70 so she could do the Northrend orphan quests, and my pally hit 325 blacksmithing. Finally over the thorium hump, thank goodness.
As far as the leaks of Cat, I did pay some attention to them (worgen models), but I am kinda trying to avoid lore and zone changes. Don't care about being spoiled for class changes, since that's so fluid anyway, and I like seeing the new character models early, but I am actively avoiding further lore/zone spoilers. I have a vague sense of what's going to happen, and that's good enough for me. Until then, I'll raid (guild has a toc scheduled tomorrow, which should be fun) and level alts and maybe gear them and pvp and generally just relax and have fun.
Ooh, and in the rumors that are hopefully true department, I hear that the Horde on Shadow Council may be tired of Wintergrasp. Or at least tired of the lack of challenge Alliance generally offers. What can I say, most allies on my server really don't care. Be nice if the Horde didn't too, so that we had it a bit more. Not that I can say much, the last time I WGed, I got stuck on a column for the entire fight. Brilliant me forgot there's no flying once the battle starts.
Friday, May 7, 2010
The Paladin Charger Questline...how to (alliance side)
This is one of my "Stuff to get done before Cat" walkthroughs. The paladin questline is full of nice lore, and I think it's well-worth the gold and trouble. You start with two quests, the Work of Grimand Elmore and Emphasis on Sacrifice.
So, starting with the work quest, you'll need to go get some stuff. Grab your Argent Dawn commission and clear Stratholme for holy water. Ideally grab 10 so you can also do a turn in quest at Light's Hope. Then you just need 10 Arthas Tears (herb, generally found in W and E Plaguelands), 40 pieces of runecloth, and 6 arcanite bars (made via an alchemy transmute). Running Strat should also get you to friendly with the Argent Dawn so you can get mana biscuits, head to Southshore, and get your horse food.
At this point you need to get the sacrifice questline done. Go give some gold, get your censor, and head to the northwestern corner of Eastern Plaguelands. Stand in green circles, cense them, and slaughter. Return to your questgiver and prepare for some more dungeon-running
Then here's the fun bit... Dire Maul West.
Assuming you've never set foot there, the easiest thing to do is to run into Dire Maul East, die, then run back into Dire Maul West. It saves you running East for the key.
Now, you don't have to do all of West. In fact, all you need to do is....
kill all the big patrolling tree guys in the first room. Be careful, they knock back! Then you head to the next room, down the stairs, and slaughter the boss. The horse should then show up, talk to it, and get your barding blessed. Then grab a Azerothian diamond and a pristine black diamond, and head back to Grayson.
Note: I did need to respec Adowa to prot for this, since she wasn't quite high enough level-wise to easily survive as ret.
Now you're almost done. Just need to get into Scholo, clear down to the Osstuary and do some judging. I ran into a slight hitch with needing the key to Scholo, and then getting hopelessly lost and then forgetting my satchel.
So, if you need the key here's the wowhead link to the questline
Otherwise, head in, and jump off the walkway to the right. Kill stuff. Stay close to the wall, take the door on the left, and slowly make your way through the whelps room, down the stairs, and you're where you need to be. Kill Rattlegore and all the other skelies, then make sure you have your judgements ready to go. Your order is Wisdom, Justice, Righeousness, Light.
You'll get 2-4 spirits spawning, slaughter them, and repeat till the Aspect pops. Kill him, switch judgments, and repeat. The last series spawns slower, so don't worry. Once the last Aspect dies, the death knight appears. Kill him, use the soul in your bags (make sure it's in your bags first or it's a long ride back from the bank), and then you have your very own personalized charger.
I ended up waiting till 73 because I am paranoid, and also because I got distracted. I did end up clearing Scholo by myself, and the only real problems I had were getting lost and forgetting my quest items. Luckily the dungeon didn't reset, so I was able to hearth, grab them, clean out my bags, and head back.
So, starting with the work quest, you'll need to go get some stuff. Grab your Argent Dawn commission and clear Stratholme for holy water. Ideally grab 10 so you can also do a turn in quest at Light's Hope. Then you just need 10 Arthas Tears (herb, generally found in W and E Plaguelands), 40 pieces of runecloth, and 6 arcanite bars (made via an alchemy transmute). Running Strat should also get you to friendly with the Argent Dawn so you can get mana biscuits, head to Southshore, and get your horse food.
At this point you need to get the sacrifice questline done. Go give some gold, get your censor, and head to the northwestern corner of Eastern Plaguelands. Stand in green circles, cense them, and slaughter. Return to your questgiver and prepare for some more dungeon-running
Then here's the fun bit... Dire Maul West.
Assuming you've never set foot there, the easiest thing to do is to run into Dire Maul East, die, then run back into Dire Maul West. It saves you running East for the key.
Now, you don't have to do all of West. In fact, all you need to do is....
Note: I did need to respec Adowa to prot for this, since she wasn't quite high enough level-wise to easily survive as ret.
Now you're almost done. Just need to get into Scholo, clear down to the Osstuary and do some judging. I ran into a slight hitch with needing the key to Scholo, and then getting hopelessly lost and then forgetting my satchel.
So, if you need the key here's the wowhead link to the questline
Otherwise, head in, and jump off the walkway to the right. Kill stuff. Stay close to the wall, take the door on the left, and slowly make your way through the whelps room, down the stairs, and you're where you need to be. Kill Rattlegore and all the other skelies, then make sure you have your judgements ready to go. Your order is Wisdom, Justice, Righeousness, Light.
You'll get 2-4 spirits spawning, slaughter them, and repeat till the Aspect pops. Kill him, switch judgments, and repeat. The last series spawns slower, so don't worry. Once the last Aspect dies, the death knight appears. Kill him, use the soul in your bags (make sure it's in your bags first or it's a long ride back from the bank), and then you have your very own personalized charger.
I ended up waiting till 73 because I am paranoid, and also because I got distracted. I did end up clearing Scholo by myself, and the only real problems I had were getting lost and forgetting my quest items. Luckily the dungeon didn't reset, so I was able to hearth, grab them, clean out my bags, and head back.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Children's Week: bugs are annoying
Well, while most people are talking about the alpha Cataclysm leaks, I've been trying to get my pets for Children's week on as many toons as possible. And I ran headfirst into an annoying (but not game-breaking) bug. My hunter (and first 80 and former main) did the Northrend Orphan quests when they were first made available last year. Sadly this means she CANNOT repeat them for the other faction. Heck, she can't do the quests for the faction she chose either. Now, I thought at first that this was because she's revered with the Oracles so the Frenzyheart Orphan not being available makes sense. But after picking these quests up on Lyllea and Adowa, neither of whom has ever heard of either faction, I got rather frustrated. So I went and killed Timbermaw (wtb Diplomat before Cat).
I had decided that tomorrow I was going to switch factions and try again, when lo and behold, wow.com posted on the subject complete with a couple blue posts, which I am reproducing in full...
Bashlok -- Dalaran Children's Week Quest Line Issue
Now, I understand bad bugs. I accept that my hunter will not be able to get a Frenzyheart orphan. That's okay. BUT, this could have been handled better from the beginning. If you're not meant to repeat the Northrend Orphan quests, having the questgiver say so CLEARLY would have been nice. Or, having a blue post or log in post to that effect. Instead, we get no info for several days and then get told the issue cannot be resolved before the end of the week. While I find that annoying, I'm not going to quit over it. I am annoyed though.
So, if I were in charge of Q&A (or whatever department tries to find bugs) at Blizzard, what would I have done?
Tested the Northrend Orphan quests prior to release with a toon that had done them when they were available last year. Given that the Cat Alpha is ongoing (and most of my manpower's dealing with that) and most of the rest are working with bugs on live servers, it would probably be difficult to find the time. But an hour or two spent testing before this event started would have saved a great deal of player aggravation, GM time, and bad PR now. Plus, if the bug had been found ahead of time, other measures could have been put in place and there would have been more time to fix it. If the bug is something very complicated, Children's Week could have been extended or split. You could have two Children's Weeks, one for Old World and Outlands, and one for Northrend. I'd be like Greek Orthodox Easter and regular/Protestant/Catholic Easter. Two traditions celebrating the same thing, just at slightly different times. After all, given Northrend's relative isolation until recently, there's no reason their calendar and the Old World one would sync.
Just a bit of QQ and armchair quarterbacking on my part, but I really do feel that this should have been handled differently.
I had decided that tomorrow I was going to switch factions and try again, when lo and behold, wow.com posted on the subject complete with a couple blue posts, which I am reproducing in full...
We are aware of the issue that is currently affecting the Children's Week quest line in Dalaran which does not allow players who have completed the quest line last year to take part in it again this year. We do not currently have a fix planned to address this issue at this point in time.
Bashlok -- Dalaran Children's Week Quest Line IssueTo clarify, this issue won't be able to be resolved for Children's Week this year. If you completed the quest previously you won't be able to complete it again for the other pet this year.
Now, I understand bad bugs. I accept that my hunter will not be able to get a Frenzyheart orphan. That's okay. BUT, this could have been handled better from the beginning. If you're not meant to repeat the Northrend Orphan quests, having the questgiver say so CLEARLY would have been nice. Or, having a blue post or log in post to that effect. Instead, we get no info for several days and then get told the issue cannot be resolved before the end of the week. While I find that annoying, I'm not going to quit over it. I am annoyed though.
So, if I were in charge of Q&A (or whatever department tries to find bugs) at Blizzard, what would I have done?
Tested the Northrend Orphan quests prior to release with a toon that had done them when they were available last year. Given that the Cat Alpha is ongoing (and most of my manpower's dealing with that) and most of the rest are working with bugs on live servers, it would probably be difficult to find the time. But an hour or two spent testing before this event started would have saved a great deal of player aggravation, GM time, and bad PR now. Plus, if the bug had been found ahead of time, other measures could have been put in place and there would have been more time to fix it. If the bug is something very complicated, Children's Week could have been extended or split. You could have two Children's Weeks, one for Old World and Outlands, and one for Northrend. I'd be like Greek Orthodox Easter and regular/Protestant/Catholic Easter. Two traditions celebrating the same thing, just at slightly different times. After all, given Northrend's relative isolation until recently, there's no reason their calendar and the Old World one would sync.
Just a bit of QQ and armchair quarterbacking on my part, but I really do feel that this should have been handled differently.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Random Tuesday Thoughts
The cataclysm leaks have started...cataclysm screenshot of Deathwing. Dunno if it's legit or not, but it certainly looks cool. I do promise not to spam alpha leaks, but I liked the look of this one. My current plan is to link to others who have posted it rather than post it here, so those who want to avoid spoilers can.
Children's week is underway, complete with bugs. I just want a little Wolvar to go with my little Oracle, and hopefully when I log back in I can get one.
I may have actually gotten the hang of feral kitty, but killing the ogres in Nagrand is a pita. Stupid level 80s, stealing my quest mobs.
With the 15% buff live, I need to try to get into ICC again. I'd like to get beyond Putricide. Don't really care about the gear, but I want to see the fights.
Children's week is underway, complete with bugs. I just want a little Wolvar to go with my little Oracle, and hopefully when I log back in I can get one.
I may have actually gotten the hang of feral kitty, but killing the ogres in Nagrand is a pita. Stupid level 80s, stealing my quest mobs.
With the 15% buff live, I need to try to get into ICC again. I'd like to get beyond Putricide. Don't really care about the gear, but I want to see the fights.
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