Warcraft Cataclysm

[Micharus]

Well, it's like re-installing the game really. I install games from Blizz by Downloading them from them, doesn't really take much time.

WotLK pugs are easy at 85. ilvl is for pansies, real players still have a decent ilvl even if they just play the game and have skill, that is enough to get you some good gear eventually. It's so easy to gear up a 85lvl character it pains me. The biggest problem I see is that on the top tier gear all classes have pretty much the same HP level. Tanks used to have highest, but after DEF rating got revoked they simply left things with stamina not being the big issue for tanks

Have you played recently?

The HP on my war is just over 105k, a little over 113k with buffs.
I've heard that it's possible for Tanks to clear 200k HP with buffs if they are geared right.

I haven't looked at the HP of other toons, but I get the feeling that people laugh a bit when I tell them my HP.

I *still* have a number of items that are under 350, so obviously I'm not anywhere near the 'peak' HP for a War.

Then there is this new (to me) thing of 'reforging', where you can 'reforge' an item and change the stats on it a bit.
I've played around with that on a couple of items and added 55 extra points to the stamina gain on my chest piece for a total of +457 stamina.

The thing is, I've been finding little things around the place and I'm being told about stuff that is all new to me and having been out of the game for a while, it's keeping me interested, which isn't a bad thing.

[Havoc10K]

I haven't played in a year and my Shaman's Elemental HP is over 140k HP while in Melee she's over 155k HP (my melee gear is higher level and has better stats) but at the gear level on the same level, all classes HP is pretty much the same, which is simply stupid, compare leather, cloth, mail and plate chest gear of the same I'lvl, same Stamina stats. which means only plate users natural stamina which is higher by around 50 points improves their HP just by that much.

[Tatsujin]

Well, it's like re-installing the game really. I install games from Blizz by Downloading them from them, doesn't really take much time.

WotLK pugs are easy at 85. ilvl is for pansies, real players still have a decent ilvl even if they just play the game and have skill, that is enough to get you some good gear eventually. It's so easy to gear up a 85lvl character it pains me. The biggest problem I see is that on the top tier gear all classes have pretty much the same HP level. Tanks used to have highest, but after DEF rating got revoked they simply left things with stamina not being the big issue for tanks

Have you played recently?

The HP on my war is just over 105k, a little over 113k with buffs.
I've heard that it's possible for Tanks to clear 200k HP with buffs if they are geared right.

I haven't looked at the HP of other toons, but I get the feeling that people laugh a bit when I tell them my HP.

I *still* have a number of items that are under 350, so obviously I'm not anywhere near the 'peak' HP for a War.

Then there is this new (to me) thing of 'reforging', where you can 'reforge' an item and change the stats on it a bit.
I've played around with that on a couple of items and added 55 extra points to the stamina gain on my chest piece for a total of +457 stamina.

The thing is, I've been finding little things around the place and I'm being told about stuff that is all new to me and having been out of the game for a while, it's keeping me interested, which isn't a bad thing.

Our Tanks, raid buffed with balanced set up is about 205-220K HP. Maximum health should be about 220k+ HP. Warriors, in general, are more restricted on Mastery since they're the best tanking class in the game for this expansion. I have about 25-26 mastery, that's about 58%+ block chance besides the critical block rating and bonuses for damage reduction I get. The other warrior tank has a much better tanking gear set up since he acts as the MT/OT between him and the Paladin tank (both are primary tanks in the guild), he has about 60%+ block chance without the heroic belt from Shannox (has about 340+ mastery).

It's doable to do that much health, we're about 1/4th heroic geared as well (some of us are about 1/2 heroic geared).

[Slysoft]

I haven't played in a year and my Shaman's Elemental HP is over 140k HP while in Melee she's over 155k HP (my melee gear is higher level and has better stats) but at the gear level on the same level, all classes HP is pretty much the same, which is simply stupid, compare leather, cloth, mail and plate chest gear of the same I'lvl, same Stamina stats. which means only plate users natural stamina which is higher by around 50 points improves their HP just by that much.

I dont know how you could have over 140k hp on a shaman at all, let alone if you haven't played in a year.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/tichondrius/K%C3%A1nojo/advanced

My shaman has almost full ruthless gear and is under 130k (pvp gear has more stamina than pve gear also)

[Havoc10K]

7 days free playing lol

[Micharus]

7 days free playing lol

That's how I got started.....

7 days just wasn't enough and with all the new dungeons and and raids, not to mention the fact that you get take part in taking down DEATHWING in one of the latest raids, plus a whole bunch of other stuff, you might find yourself actually hanging around.

On another note, my warrior now has 140k hp.... unbuffed.

[Havoc10K]

I don't plan on buying tim at all, I already cleared the new heroics, all of them, Blizzard isn't even trying to make them hard.

[Tatsujin]

Will cut this short - you won't see amazing players coming together as a Guild (25 skilled players) across any MMO you want to name, except in WoW. The top skill-capped players face off each other to do a full clear in Dragon Soul raid, set on Hardmode difficulty with no handicap:

Method vs. vodka.

Next Dragon Soul HM will bet set this Sunday at 4 PM GMT in the link above, featuring a lot of famous companies and supported by Blizzard themselves - these HM Challenges also support Charities for Save the Children raised by Athene and donators. This Sunday's Hardmode Challenge are going to be done by four teams from different regions including Blood Legion (USA) vs. Exorsus (Russia) vs. Paragon (Europe) vs. Stars (China) - all in real-time.

I never heard of Stars but from research it seems like they are one of the top guilds in WoW. I'm cheering for Blood Legion and Paragon.

[Havoc10K]

There is one annoyance I sometimes had when I still played Cataclysm.

Server crash when you are fighting off a raid boss
I wonder if it still happens

[Tatsujin]

There is one annoyance I sometimes had when I still played Cataclysm.

Server crash when you are fighting off a raid boss
I wonder if it still happens

Wow, can you imagine that shit happening to one of those raiders?! ... Lmao.

[Havoc10K]

It probably does happen to them on occasion, I know for one that it happened several times on my raids as well. Sometimes even several times in a single night. If it still happens it only shows that WoW map servers aren't maintained properly. Something like this shouldn't happen at all, and the current problem with this issue is that you can't enter a new raid since you have a history of bosses being defeated already. Looking For Raid does help the issue however. But not much.

The amount of those errors will increase again after Diablo 3 Launch though, and for a short time, raiding will be a pain in the ass.

[zherok]

Haven't really had server issues any time recently, personally. I honestly couldn't tell you the last time I've been unable to raid due to server instability. Though it's not to say it never happens.

As for being saved to raids, Cataclysm changed how raiding worked from the previous expansion (and by extension most of the earlier game.) It previously saved you to a specific raid ID, and anyone within the group that was with you during any part of that raid could continue and finish that run. With or without anyone else present. However, if they did so, you're basically screwed out of a raid, since anyone who continues the progress of that raid advances the entire ID. I recall once a guild member /gquitting partway through a raid week, and attempting to use the ID he'd been saved to to farm Elementium ore by trash farming.

But what Cata does is basically save your furthest boss progress. You can continue on from that point until the raid resets (or you can extend it from there and continue onward.)

So essentially even if the server crashes, you should just be able to continue from whatever point you left off from. You'll have to probably reclear any trash that was attached to any boss you couldn't get down, but essentially you can't really get locked out of anything you didn't clear unless you join someone else's raid, which has to be at or further than your own progress for the week.

[Meandola]

The last time I've had any issues at all was back when Ulduar was just released... Yeah it's been a while.

[Havoc10K]

I did all raids in the early cataclysm, I wish they would stop wasting space in those dungeons and started working really hard on making the battles extremely challenging and not only because the boss has 900 mil hp and deals 5-15k damage.

The hardest raid in my opinion is still the Sunwell. At lvl 70, you are fucked if you have no gear for it. At lvl 80, you will survive most battles with half the raid (5 peeps) and at 95, standard party gets to clear everything without needing too much on healing.

That's how stupid this game is, the HP and damage difference between 70 and 95 is just sick, instead of adding more hp and stuff, they could have very well make the battles much more fun and challenging. but noo, they had to go OH I AM GOD!.

It still pisses me off, Vanile >TBC, the lvl 60 gear in TBC was NOT overpowered compared to lvl 60 end game gear for vanila. TBC end game gear > Lich King lvl 70 greens, just buy some gear from AH for lvl 70 and go finish the end game raids in TBC, epic win. Seriously, aside from being playable and easy to move around (player is not treated like a complete idiot and doesn't have to do quests to learn how to move and attack) everything else in that game have become depressingly easy. Wasted real potential, but we all know this and lets just carry on.


Also, I hope there will be no more expansions for this game.

[zherok]

Gear isn't really any less essential, it's just dramatically easier to obtain.

You've got tokens, which eliminated Classic era "watch a newly joined druid/warlock get full tier 2 before you finish your own set, because drop rates are retarded."

TBC added vendor gear too, although it was mostly terrible up until Sunwell (and horrendously expensive. Quite a few people ended up farming Karazhan throughout the entire expansion, since it was the most lucrative source of vendor currency.)

WotLK improved on the currency stuff, and moved tier gear almost entirely onto vendors (with upgrades dropping in raids.

Cata had that for awhile but then moved it back onto the bosses, and currently has offset gear in it's place, although with certain slots simply not dropping at all (amulets, capes) so the loot lists are tighter. Combine that with LFR, and gearing up just happens faster.

You're still not going to get away with doing heroic Dragon Soul naked, but the point of the matter is you're getting set bonuses faster since all three sets (LFR, normal, and heroic) work together, more chances to obtain it, and generally shorter trash than the hours of clearing older raids had.

And to be honest, I don't really miss the Classic era gear checks. The difficulty should be based on the encounter, not how long I've been farming the previous bosses.

[Havoc10K]

No, Raids now are all about tanking which requires good gear, healing that requires focus and a devoted healer, and not someone who can off heal by switching to spec, and how much DPS everyone does.

Gear stats are terrible in Cata, you can actually go and solo Ragnaros in the lvl 60 raid. And even as a healer, it won't take THAT long.

[zherok]

No, Raids now are all about tanking which requires good gear, healing that requires focus and a devoted healer, and not someone who can off heal by switching to spec, and how much DPS everyone does.

A well geared tank has always mattered, but having tanked all of the current content, I can't say it matters more than in previous iterations.

And in ten mans I've had quite a few players alternate between DPS and healing as needed. A lot of fights you want the extra DPS or don't need the healing, so you go with two healers instead of three. As for DPS... Yeah it definitely matters. I'm not really sure what you're comparing that to though. If you take too long the boss enrages and you wipe.

Gear stats are terrible in Cata, you can actually go and solo Ragnaros in the lvl 60 raid. And even as a healer, it won't take THAT long.

Well, he's a level 60 raid boss. If 5-6 years after he was relevant content you'd barely crept past the encounter gear-wise, I doubt anyone would enjoy the game. He's only got like a million health. Keeping him relevant at 85 (outside of creating a new encounter for him like they did) would mean the entire game would be on a glacial curve where you barely improved at all.

[Havoc10K]

That's the point, the boss needs to enrage to make a difference ?
It's not a solution to difficulty, it's a cheap exit.

The bosses in raids need to be near impossible to defeat, unless the entire raiding party knows exactly what they are supposed to be doing, Sadly, in Cata, there are probably only 2-3 boss fights where a single mistake costs the entire raid a wipe.

[zherok]

It's been a working solution since they started adding them in mid classic, since it requires DPS be relevant. Prior to enrage timers you had encounters where healers and tanks carried the majority of the raid, because all they ever did was speed things up. More often than not you don't wipe to enrage timers anyway, mechanics still kill you. Enrage timers just prohibit you from trying tactics that involve playing it ridiculously safe.

Diablo 3 is actually doing this too, at least for bosses. The only example we have so far though is a soft enrage, the Skeleton King will start spawning 3x as many adds after you go over the timer. WoW usually has long timers set for hard enrages, and soft enrages or just frequently deadly mechanics you have to deal with sooner.

As for "perfection or you wipe," no thank you. They just make for bullshit encounters. It's a boss fight, not a precision drill team. Dying is often enough of a setback to force the wipe anyway, you don't need to turn it into Ikaruga.

I don't know how far you got this expansion, but there are certainly hard encounters despite whatever you think they're lacking.