20130508: character developments

20130508, mercredi

The rule of six: why WoW looks like it's being sent into the sunset as a product.


Here are some examples to get us started.

A. Mistweaver monk.  The six skills are

1. Renewing Mist.
2. Uplift.
3. Soothing Mist.
4. Gift of the Serpent.
5. Revival.
6. Surging Mist.

When I run an LFR, I often have the WoW add-on tinyDPS active during the entire proceedings to catch statistics about the effects of my healing efforts.  My top six most productive skills are usually the six above.  Sometimes the order (first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth most heals delivered) changes, but it's almost always the six above.

Before the disaster called 5.2 came out, I used Enveloping Mist instead of Uplift.  Now mana costs are too high, and I switched to skills based more on chi.   Occasionally, Spinning Crane Kick weasels its way onto the list when there are many, many multi-mob trash enemies to defeat.  Still, 99% of all my heals are done with six spells.

B. Restoration Druid.  The six skills are

1. Wild Growth.
2. Swiftmend.
3. Rejuvenation.
4. Lifebloom.
5. Tranquility.
6. Wild Mushroom: Bloom.

The order may vary from LFR to LFR, but it's always these six. When I switch off to other skills to any extent, I have always seen a drop in HPS.

C. Affliction Warlock.  The six skills are

1. Corruption.
2. Agony.
3. Unstable Affliction.
4. Curse of the Elements.
5. Malefic Grasp.
6. Drain Soul.

As before, the order may change, but it's always these six.  When I deviate from these six, my DPS drops.

D.  Discipline Priest.  This is slightly more complicated.

1. Penance.
2. Cascade.
3. Smite.
4. Power Word: Solace.
5. Mind Sear.
6. Power Word: Pain.

When time is not tight, I join LFRs as DPS since I cast spells on enemies for the most part.  On a good day, I'll rank around #15 in DPS, but #7 to as high as #3 in healing even though I try to cast few if any direct healing spells.

Discipline Priests proc Atonement (often 66% of my healing total) and Divine Aegis (another 20% or so of my healing) when they cast the first 4 skills listed above.  That is, there is no skill called Atonement, but when Penance is cast, it damages the enemy, and heals the Priest's allies.  This healing is attributed to Atonement.

When I get my spell power considerably higher, I intend to keep to this strict model.  I've seen Discipline Priests come in #1 in healing with only Atonement and Divine Aegis...so they've cast zero healing spells the entire LFR.  That's my goal for Kronospriest...as well as to be in the top ten consistently in overall damage done.

In the mean time, I use

1. Power Word: Shield
2. Power Word: Barrier
3. Desperate Prayer
4. Hymn of Hope
5. Shadowfiend

as stop gap measures to keep my character alive and to restore mana.  However, the more I use these, the more my productivity drops.

E. Fire Mage.  This is very direct.

1. Fireball.
2. Living Bomb.
3. Inferno Blast.
4. Pyroblast.
5. Molten Armor.
6. Combustion.

One should keep Molten Armor on all the time, and cast Fireball repeatedly.  Pepper enemies with Living Bomb.  Wait for Inferno Blast to light up, then invoke it.  (One sees 'heating up' on the screen.)  This usually makes Pyroblast an instant invocation rather than a slow one.  Use Pyroblast as often as possible.  Hit Combustion now and then, and you've got some great DPS.  Blizzard messes with this rat's nest of spells now and then, but those are most of the basics.

Repeat.

There are many other Fire Mage skills, but using other ones means a drop in productivity; that is, drop in DPS.

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In MoP, these small skill sets are made strongly attractive.  That is, once you've found them (either by yourself, or on the internet, or from your friends) it's hard to move away from them to anything else because your DPS or HPS will drop.  Since the pattern repeats itself across classes, this seems to be by design. So what's the goal behind the design?

Since one can accomplish almost everything by using just 6 spells, why not simplify the WoW action bars?  I usually have 48 spots in my deployed action bars.  Clearly I don't need this.  One could drop the GUI down to say 12 spots total...so that WoW could look like a more fully featured version of Guild Wars.  I would guess this will start being bandied about sometime this calendar year.

When your company starts driving the product into being an imitation of an inferior rival, it usually means that the product is slated for the dust bin.  WoW has had a good run, but the direction the product is taking is not one that I find encouraging.

Anyway, have a good think about your characters...

1. Blizzard has decided which spells are your best choices.
2. Blizzard reduced the glyph system from 9 to 3 (the minor glyphs are meaningless).
3. Blizzard reduced the talent system from one talent point per level (before Cataclysm) to one talent point per two levels (Cataclysm) to one talent choice per 15 levels (the disaster of MoP). Often 4 or 5 of the six talent choices are useless or detrimental to the character...why choose any?

I suppose if one is 8 or so years old, these are 'good' changes, just like placing a copy of Pokemon inside WoW is a 'good' addition.  It's all easy to learn and fun to do...just six buttons to push, and little of that pesky configuration to do.