Over the Hills and Far Away: Back to the blog

Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need…roads. — Dr. Emmett Brown

10 August 2010 – The last blog entry I posted

12 Jul 2010 – The last official raid I attended

It’s been interesting sitting back and reading the exploits of fellow bloggers and tweeps as they finish off the last stretch of this expansion. While some are continuing through the 4.0.1 patch, it is the signal for the bell lap on Wrath of the Lich King. This is part expansion recap and part words of encouragement for all raid leaders starting out in Cataclysm.

Blogs of Reflection

A short twenty-three months ago,this is where I stood. Looking out over Naxxaramas from above the alliance fortress nearby, I wondered what my first full expansion as raid leader would bring. Everyone was on even footing. It was like a new sports season. Everyone made their offseason moves and made adjustments that they think made them stand out this time around.

Our goal was to lead alliance progression and at the same time pick off a server first or two. I’m happy that we managed to do that through 90% of the expansion and held our ground as upstart guilds such as Imperative made their mark on both the server and US raiding scene. I would be fibbing if I said I wasn’t upset to be passed and finished out of first place, but all the credit goes to those guys. They stepped up and played their asses off to score a server first Heroic Lich King and high ranking US kill.

What advice can I give to raid leaders at the starting gate?

Set an expectation for when you want to start raiding. For us it was two weeks after release for WotLK. It will likely be similar for Cataclysm though this expansion is releasing late in the year and will butt up against the Christmas/New Years holiday nicely. We were able to complete Tier 7 content just before Christmas with a little over a month to do so. When setting the date, be sure to communicate what that date means.

Does it mean a loss of rank? How are players that pace their leveling and want to take in more of the content viewed against those that hammer out those 5 levels and get to max level in two days? The more you communicate these expectations/terms, the more fair it is to everyone involved. My terms have always been:

• We’re starting on dd/mm
• You won’t lose your rank, but we’re starting on that date. If I need to recruit to fill spots, I will.
• Be ready! (Proper hit/exp caps, etc).

TL;DR: Communicate!

Census Taker

As a raid leader, it’s good to take a quick census of who is coming back for the expansion. No matter what you do, players will quit, players will move on, and some will just like to go full-casual and not raid. Ask for sure responses, and (here’s that word again) communicate that it’s ok if they don’t want to continue. An expansion transition is the easiest time for players to step away (and also the best). Rally those that return, and thank those that move on for the

Account-Wide Achievements: Rewards For Multi-Classing

One of the greatest and simplest tools for learning more and growing is doing more — Washington Irving

Last night I read a great post by Larisa at the Pink Pigtail Inn concerning achievements at an account level instead of a character level. It goes against the grain which I always like to see. It’s what blogs are for, right? She summed up her post with the following quote:

In the end I think the danger of account-wide achievements doesn’t lie in the fraud that it actually is; the problem is that they would detach us from our characters. In combination with the increased use of our real life names as opposed to character names (brought to us by Real ID), it will bring us even further away from the RPG origins than we already are.

We’re [no] longer playing our characters; we’re John Smith, who has done this, this and this feature in WoW.

For me, that’s what it’s always been about. Our guild has a lot of players that function as virtual Swiss-Army Knives, switching up their main class or leveling an alt to assist on a certain fight. We’ve been doing it forever, so it feels like second nature or something that everyone is doing. In essence, we play our accounts, and our characters are just tools.

Though I go by Borsk (or Sov, as a reference to my former long-time main), all of my characters are ‘its’. As a carpenter opens his tool box and sees a hammer, a saw, and a drill, I see my Shaman, Rogue, and Warrior. At the end of a job, one doesn’t appraise the individual accomplishments of each tool (nails hammered, walls painted), but that the house was completed and looks fan-damn-tastic.

The same applies to guild achievements and those group screenshots you take after a first kill. There’s no DPS or healing meter shown (most of the time), it’s just 10/25 happy avatars looking out over the trophy they’ve just earned.

The case against account wide achievements is a solid one and hard to argue against. I took pride in completing Glory of the Raider (10 player) on both my Shaman and Warrior. It was a neat personal achievement to say that  I both healed and tanked it on separate toons. Riding the Plagued Proto-Drake on my warrior always reminds of it, even if nobody else cares (and I’m sure they don’t).

I think we can do better.

Tree Pruning: Restoration, Gristle-Free

If I have to tell you again to back off, you an’ me are gonna go round and round. — Mr. White

Revolutionary Beta Restoration Build

One of the buzzwords that floats around our office after every meeting and training seminar is “The Delta.” Basically, what’s the difference between what we know or do now and what we used to know/do. The delta just refers to anything that’s changed or is different. I thought I would do a typical nerd thing and apply that to the new 31pt talent trees that broke last night.

There’s been an expected avalanche of bitchingcommentary on this newly released info, but let’s give Blizzard the benefit of the doubt and take our time to break it down.

Restoration

Losses

• Improved Healing Wave
• Improved Reincarnation
• Healing Grace
• Tidal Force
• Healing Focus (Moved to mastery)
• Tidal Mastery
• Healing Way
• Focused Mind
• Purification (Moved to mastery)
• Earth Shield/Improved Earth Shield (Primary Tree Ability, Level 10)

Gains

• Ancestral Resolve – Tier 1 – Reduces damage taken while casting spells by 5/10%.
• Spark of Life – Tier 1 – Increased your healing done by 2/4/6% and your healing received by 5/10/15%.
• Focused Insight – Tier 2 – After casting any shock spell, your next heal’s mana cost is reduced by 25/50/75% of the cost of the Shock spell, and its healing effectiveness is increased by 10/20/30%.
• Nature’s Blessing – Tier5 – Increases the effectiveness of your direct heals on Earth Shielded targets by 5/10/15%.
• Telluric Currents – Tier 6 – Your attunement to natural energies causes your Lightning Bolt spell to restore mana equal to 20% of damage dealt.

Enhancement Sub-Spec

• Ancestral Swiftness – Moved up to tier 2 making it accessible to restoration shamans. Improved Ghost Wolf is also rolled into this talent:

Reduces the cast time of your Ghost Wolf spell by 1/2 sec and increases movement speed by 7/15%. This does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.

The enhancement sub-spec is the same as it was in Wrath of the Lich King, it’s just less talent points.

Elemental Sub-Spec

There still isn’t one for PvE Restoration.

We’re knights of the round table…

Our show are formidable, But many times, we’re given rhymes, That are quite unsingable.–Monty Python

After a weekend of early morning, late night, and mid-afternoon (depending on your time zone) recording, the Raidwarning.net, Shaman Round-Table (aka Totem Recall) is available for download.

I would like to thank Brian and Seven over at Raidwarning for inviting me and hosting this event. It was an awesome time and went by way faster than I thought it would. You guys should have recorded the post-show banter, it was even more fun sharing stories and talking about anything and everything.

Quick shout-out to Vixsin, Pewter, Lodur, and Jhamen for making the (resto) panel pro++.

Hope you all enjoy the show!

Last chance for round table questions!

Be sure to submit your questions to be answered on Totem Recall. We’re recording tomorrow!