Burning Crusade Exposed (WoWCast/World of PodCast show) part 2 of 2
Part 2 of 2? Where's part one? Head on over to WoWCast for part one.
Alachia and I discuss a whole mess of topics, then go drool over the new Arena PvP sets and weapons before discussing some more topics.
This is a long episode, so it starts right up. No intro music or anything, the damn thing is almost 2 hours already, you don't need any extra time before the meat of the cast.
We both apologize for the slight technical difficulties that happened on the recording of these shows. We recorded on a single computer through Skype, and there were network problems that messed up our recording. Unfortunately, it seemed to happen at the most inopportune times, like at the punch line of jokes. Next time we'll bite the bullet and just record separate audio files, even though it takes a lot longer to edit.
Listen Now
Run Time: 1:53:50
File Size: 54.6 MB
Alachia and I discuss a whole mess of topics, then go drool over the new Arena PvP sets and weapons before discussing some more topics.
This is a long episode, so it starts right up. No intro music or anything, the damn thing is almost 2 hours already, you don't need any extra time before the meat of the cast.
We both apologize for the slight technical difficulties that happened on the recording of these shows. We recorded on a single computer through Skype, and there were network problems that messed up our recording. Unfortunately, it seemed to happen at the most inopportune times, like at the punch line of jokes. Next time we'll bite the bullet and just record separate audio files, even though it takes a lot longer to edit.
Listen Now
Run Time: 1:53:50
File Size: 54.6 MB
posted by Unknown at 11:42 PM
7 Comments:
Oh gosh, if you've listened to a lot of the Wow podcasts out there, your slight technical glitches were barely noticeable. I will listen to part 2 tomorrow but part 1 was really great. I would love to hear more, more, more. Your strategy discussions are second to none while Alachia is superb at the social analysis. Yeah this is kinda fangirl but the podcasts make the game more fun and are a wonderful diversion during a long workday. I have listened to each one of your podcasts at least twice now. Thanks for doing the new ones.
While I enjoy the podcast as a whole I will say that you guys are being slightly stingy on the whole +healing debate. I know it might seem like a big deal that one can no longer... push one buttton to heal, but if that is all you going to go over than it is a slight letdown. I tend to look at the +healing as a fix to a system that really dumbed down the game.
Now I know what I'm saying when I say this because I have played a Paladin for a long time, and also have both a druid, and Priest. The fact is that downranking only allows one thing... spamming. Blizzard is hoping to end spamming and bring some skill back to the game. Think about it Druids will be the masters of HoTs, Priest will surgically strike, Shamans will also do less frequent Surgical strikes, and Paladins won't change a bit.
Yeah no Paladin is affect in the least if they know how to play their class, I'm in a AQ40 guild and I've never really bothered with Downranking, it is especially stupid for a paladin. I usually never run out of mana because I get so much back through crits anyways. So we will be the consistent Melee healers come expansion
Priest, won't have the option to spam heals, which is a good thing since it influences skill. You guys may have made your own formulas to get the most form your heals as +healing was entered in, but the numbers are easy enough to find online. There are also billions of mods, so Downranking is no skill at all. The skill wll now be on knowing the timing of a bosses attacks and managing your heals as something to land after the attack but not entirely top them off.
Shamans are fairly the same, only difference being that Renew is a back up for a Priest to keep some solid heals on.
Druids are going to be masters of the HoT... which means... that their spirit will come into great effect. They function like a magical Bandage now, only applying stacks of HoTs to keep tanks and whoever alive. Then let their spirit give them a little bit of mana back.
Oh... and one thing, the new +healing sliding scale doesn't take effect until after the 2nd or 3rd Highest rank, so you can down rank slightly. With the changes made Blizzard is hoping to add a more strategic eye to the way you look at health bars and maybe watch the fight to see "why" players are loosing life.
Spam healing is something that needs to go as it adds ot the grind that healing members can be and while you may not enjoy the idea of healing, I do, and I would like them to improve the mechanics then to leave a draw back as it helps those who rely on the crutch.
Anyways this is just a constructive critque on your thoughts on how the system should function. Also, the forums don't speak for the majority and I've found them to be fairly disconcerting and usually I'm against them on a whole. Still saying that this is just my opinion on how things are working and how I hope they will work in the future but we will see.
Thank you for your time,
Burgdorn out.
Actually, the fact is, downranking is the only way I can maintain enough mana throughout a fight, because unlike pallies, I don't get mana back per crit heal (if the pally is spec'd holy).
Before I stacked +healing gear, I was regulated to rank 9 and 10 healing touch, mainly, because with the long ass cast time (3 seconds as resto, but I was balance, so 3.5 seconds) I needed to make sure that I was healing enough. 400-500 on R4 HT didn't cut it back then. Or, I was forced to use Regrowth much more than I wanted to, because at least it had a fast cast time-- even though it is the most mana inefficient heal in the entire game (mostly because the HoT portion is often wasted).
Back then, my Innervate (when I switched to resto)was for me, because I needed it to keep healing during fights.
Now, with the downranking I can do, I can heal at a much more mana efficient pace, cross heal much more effectively (I constantly heal 3 tanks during the fights where we need that many), and often have time to regen mana, and I can innervate a priest. There are very few fights I do anymore where my mana bar goes below half... does that sound like spam healing to you?
The only class that can afford to spam heal is paladins. And only holy paladins at that. But, that's because the more they crit, the less mana they spend. And, ironically, paladin gear has more mana regen on it than druid gear, so the more they crit, even less mana spent.
I have to do things differently. I have to be ready to switch targets at a moment's notice. I have to be able to throw out a decent sized heal in a decent amount of time, and 3 seconds for rank 5 and above HT isn't fast enough. I also have to make sure that my heal is not wasted to overhealing or having a HoT component (Regrowth) wasted. I have to watch my HoTs on the tanks so I know when I can switftmend if they take a massive spike in damage, or the real kicker of NS+R10HT.
I have the current ability to heal well, even over multiple targets, and maintain a higher degree of mana efficiency than others. I can throw out 800+ non-crit heals in 2.5 seconds (and, yes, you'd be surprised how much of a difference that half a second can make), at a very mana bar friendly cost. Hell, on most trash, my mana bar seems to never move because I am able to regen the mana so fast.
I don't aim to be the top healer in a group or raid. I don't have to. Because when the rest of the healers are down and out of mana, I'm still able to keep the tanks up with my ability to heal them because I was smart in how I managed my mana throughout the fight. When I'm forced to spending around 1/6 my mana bar per cast of a direct heal to get my full +healing benefit, I'm not going to be able to do what I do. I'll end up higher on the healing charts... but I'm also going to overheal like a flash of light spamming paladin.
And, frankly, that's not the way I want to heal.
I play a rogue and a agree about how bad the healing nerf on a PVE point of view.
Great show!!
Well, about the healing part.
Placing me in a more HoT kind-of-way seems very dissapointing to me.
My healing style as a druid considers all fassets, from Healing Touching to HoT's.
I just can't imagin playin my druid without being as efficient as possible without being pushed into a HoT kind of role.. (ex., fair enough, a 3.0 sec heal can't be that timed precisely)
Like you and Alachia already said, Druid's versality is a big win!
Most bosses today it takes downranking to outlasts in fight.
Downranking in general isnt a skill, but Downranking with insight in future damage taken, is. (ex. Using a NS+HT, using a larger Healing Touch for a period of time, getting a Rejuve up, etc.)
Your theory about Priest doing the surge heals, well I still believe priest do an excellent job at Flashhealing, but not with filling them with full of health.
Im pretty new to the new scale of healing that comes up with the new patch.. but it's a fact that Druid healing Touches can't be missed, and still can't get my head around it will be when next expansion comes!
If Blizzard is pushing me in a HoT position.. HELLO MOONKIN =)
This post wasn't to flame anybody, just to encourage the WorldofPodcasts shows and posting my vision on the healing (mostly Druid side).
Pikori (Healing Touching & HoT'ing ~ Druid ~ +620 healing)
Hey Pikori and Sam,
Just wanted to continue the conversation that the system is going to be slightly different in the future. Overall I see that you guys have gotten use the previous functionality but remember first off your not the only ones have same big changes, and that secondly the game is getting a face lift for the sake of balance. That being said the changes we have discussed seem to leave out the massive Spirit that Druids and Priest gear will be getting in end game instances.
To say the least of all the lvl 70 Druids that I've listened to that post constructively about the changes, there has been little issues with mana consumption. Matter of fact the worst I've heard about mana is the fact that druids can't change forms more than 5 or 6 times. That of course is a laughable excuse since a good Druid would no better than to exhaust themselves by Shapeshifting like mad.
I mean the amount of good things coming to the rejuvenation tree is beyond sick. It is now time to go into stats talents.
First on the list would be Omen of Clarity.
The ability is one of the new things that Druids have gained to keep them interesting when trying to conserve mana while healing. This means that you will have to figure out how to stay in melee range for the most part to keep the happy heals up for this argument. This is not such a simple issue when considering the Tree of Life's slower movement speed. I like to consider things like this more challenging and hence more fun.
Now there are some interesting abilities that should reconized here.. Imp Tranquility... 100% agro reduction = Safest HoT in the game, understandably a drain but hey no agro can be good if your trying to help manage the war zone after a devastating AoE.
Then with Empowered Touch coupled with Gift of Nature AND Tranquil Spirit you gaining a lot of bang for the buck. Admitted that you should probably not put a point into Tree of Life, but that is a choice hence the point of the Talent tree. Weigh the options and see what works best.
Living Spirit deals with problems you already have in enhancing the value of spirit, and to help you stay in striking distance they offer the damage mitigation of Natural Perfection.
Now though lets get to the real focus of the restoration tree in 2.0 TREE OF LIFE...
Tree of Life requires that you increases the bonuses given to your HoTs by 20% to even get this ability. Tree of Life than can only offer 25% MORE HEALING based on the spirit for you and all of the party members in your group. To add to this you can only cast Swiftmend and HoTs, but their mana is then reduced by 20%.
What you have from Tree of Life is a tatical master of healing. He applies the bandaids to all of his members and then looks for critical attacks within 15 seconds to stop incoming damage. I think that sounds pretty cool. Plus the fact that you can hold yourself in melee range to keep the opertunity of getting clearcasting up and running for this much needed Rejuvantions and the like.
So overall I see some massive buffs here but nothing to look down on. It is true that it might not be to everyone's liking to go all the way up this tree if you are just a healing touch fan but there is more room to spread out and get more diverse abilities. Just saying that it isn't all doom and gloom over the Downranking, they have ways around it over all.
I actually found Tree of LOL pretty useless on the test realms, but I may spec into it when it goes live to do some real tests. Part of the problem with shade giving form was that the other "healers" in the group were pretty much idiots (2 shadow priests in shadow form the whole time FTL). I simply couldn't afford to just HoT anyone because the other healers just sucked.
Add in that we had 2 "tanks" in full Wrath who, and I quote, "weren't tanks" (obvious by their 2h weapon tanking, IMHO), and the PuG I was in was a recipie for disaster. Hell, the priests didn't even come out of shadow form to help rez leaving a lone pally to do it the whole time.
Tree of Life COULD be interesting and useful, but I will need a competent raid group to see (IE my guild raids).
The other big problem with Tree of Life is the fact that we don't learn Lifebloom until 62 or 64 (I forget which), so there's one of the major HoTs you can cast completely not able to be used until the expansion. Without that extra HoT, we're stuck with Rejuv and Regrowth... and gods help me if I am resorted to spamming Regrowth.
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