New gameplay form Boomk's... not again....

Now, to be honest, in th time I played Moonkin, the gameplay didn't change that much. Of course there where some spells lost (like Insect Swarm) and some spells added, but the gameplay didn't change much. You had this eclipse bar which moved left/right when casting either Starfire or Wrath. And now Blizzard seems to be changing that.

On other characters I already know how that feels. Going from TBC to WotLK, the complete gameplay of tankadins was changed. Most notably going from Spellpower to Strength gear. There where also a gazillion spellchanges. Going into Cataclysm they added Holy Power, which was one of the main reasons I actually stopped playing Paladin for a while.

I also had a lot of problems with hunters after they lost mana, and gained focus. You get so used to a certain gameplay, that heavy changes really hurt your joy when playing a character. I still have troubles using all the bigger cooldowns on my hunters, they have a lot of them.

Last week, Blizzard released the new Alpha patch notes, with lots of changes for the Moonkin. If you want to read them, go Google it, or visit the patchnotes somehwere. I am not going into a lengthy rant about them. What I did have was a gut-feeling that I don't like them. There is something amiss it seems, and it took me 5 days to actually find what I didn't like.

The problem is two-fold. The first one is that all DoT's will become 'fluid'. At this moment DoT's are 'snapshotting' the stats when being cast, and keep that for their whole duration. In WoD, the DoT's will look at your stats everytime they tick..... except the Moonkins eclipse-bonus, that is still a snapshot. Which means you still want to cast Moonfire/Sunfire at the highest amount of eclipse possible.

The other factor is the new eclipse-bar. At this moment it is moved by casting spells, in WoD it will move automatically on a 30 second interval. That means you no longer have control over the eclipsebar, it just keeps moving while you are in combat. And there is the problem, your spells have the biggest oomph when eclipse is high, same as now, so what's the problem? Well let's look at the start of (almost) every fight I do (It starts around 1 sec before pull);

Pot-Starfall-Wrath (to hit lunar)-Sunfire-Treant-Moonfire-4 time Starfire-Starfall-Starfire-Celestial Alignment-Moonfire-Starfirex3-Starfall-Treants in between, and always Starsurging and...  now the problem is movement here. If I have to move in that first 45 seconds of the fight, it will be a huge dps-loss.

 Luckily most fight have a fairly static beginning, but now imagine having a big cool down every 15 seconds...that activates automatically, and you have only a 4.5 second window to cast the big spells. That's how I see the new eclipse-system. If for whatever reason you have to move during that top-eclipse-phase, you will loose a lot of dps.

Now, we don't know what kind off fights we will have in WoD, they may be more static then now, but the fact that RNG can heavily influence boomkin-dps seems silly. And that's I see the system....  which may not be implemented. Maybe it will actually work..  but we need to wait for that.

Interface and Addons (Blog Azeroth)

This dualweeks shared topic on Blog Azeroth is Interface and addons. Now I do have alot of addons, and they are all downloadable from Curse. But which addons do I use?  Well, first up, here's a screenshot of Lorinthe in an LFR.

A lot of things look different here then in a normal UI, but one of the most profound things to notice is the bottom-centre. There are 12 buttons larger, comparing to the rest. This is because I actually do not use the keyboard for raiding, but a Belkin N52TE gamepad. And because of the layout, and how my owns hands work, I use 11 hot keys, and the joystick on the side for movement.

I know it has a lot more functions, but I normally don't seem to need them. Because I use this, all my alts have the same basic layout, using Bartender, I also made 2 12-blocks both side of the centreblock for cooldowns, buffs, and other frequently used spells, while the big strings that go to both corners are mostly for mounts/professions and other stuff.

Now looking at a Mardah-screenshot, you immediately see the similarities, but because Mardah is my main raiding character, there are some things better positioned, and some more addons. Still the centre-block, with all the mainspells stays the same.

List of addons I see during raids.

• Skada (Top left)
• Damage meter, but also more important a where-did-I-die-from-section.
•  Deadly Boss Mobs (Middle left and center)
• Boss timers and cooldowns, sometimes the only thing I see.....
• Bartender (Lower-screen)
• More shuffling around with bars then the original one.
• X-perl (raidframes and character-info-blocs)
• Mainly because I like it more that my own info is closer to the center, and under my feet.
• Affdot-Druid (above char-bloc)
• Reminder to recast Moon/Sunfire if there's a huge difference in power (like here for Moonfire)
• Weakauras (above char-bloc)
• Various cooldowntimers that are important, so i don't have to find them in the mess near the map. Some are not shown at the moment, because they are Buff-Duration-timers.
• Balance Power Tracker (under character-bloc)
• Replacement of the default, this one is set to the new eclipse state the moment I play a spell.

Now if you look closely, all the important information for me is centered, and a little bit under my feet (depends on zoom-factor). This way I can both see my own health, which button to push, boss-cooldowns, and whatever is happening under my feet.

The other info, like Skada, rest of raid,chat and debuffs on me are more away from the centre. I do look at them, but more like every 10 seconds. It's information I don't need to know all the time.  Important buffs I can extrapolate from the Affdot timers, and boss-stuff is always warned in DBM. The big Gap under the boss-info-bloc is used by my petclasses. Their targets and toolbars are there. It's also the place for my ExtraActionButton1

I also like the fact that both left and right is rather free of stuff, so I can see what's coming from that side.

As you can see above, my Gwaednerth-raid-UI has a lot less info, but there's another thing. If you look closely around the map, you see more buttons then normal. There are also the Addons I dont use during Bossfights, so here is that list;

• Althoholic
• Well..  it's very easy to loose stuff with all those alts I Have.
• Atlasloot
• Besides the handy what-does-the-boss-drop-list, it has many more lists.
• NPC-scan
• Most of the time turned off. I do sometimes go on a rare-hunt.
• Auctioneer
• Easier use of the Auction House, but I don't use all the options.
• Decursive
• In case I go healing
• Enchantrix
• Because I always forget which dust/ink is going to appear.
• Healbot
• See decursive, fun part, this actually puts a second raidlist on my screen (Right-lower)
• Postal
• Easier use of the postboxes (open all)

The main-layout of my UI hasn't been changed much since I got the Belkin, and was tanking Malygos, way back when that was current content. That's about five years ago??  So this UI really works for me. Some little changes will be made when Warlords of Draenor comes around, I'll probably loose the Dot-timer (Dot's will become fluid), and I may try the default raidframes. But as long as I have the belkin, the general layout will not change much.

And for fun, my layout during 2008. Gwaednerth (then Gowron) tanking Leotheras the Blind;

Raiding on the other side

Yes, so far my vacation, and other things. And a lot of things have happened last month. More news from alpha, and more news from alpha, and more news...wait.. ALPHA, where is the freaking Beta??

But, for myself, the most important news is that Argent Dawn is now completely Alliance for me. Somehwere last month my last two Horde Characters left Single Abstract Noun, and went to the Sha'Tar. SAN has been dead for a while, and with the absence of Rasout, I really lost any reason to log in there. So, I transferred both Gowron and Luaran of to that Sha'Tar guild I joined a few months ago.

Beyond Redemption Friday-Flex team

Luaran was Lucky enough to keep her name, Gowron had to be changed. A part of me was sad about that. The name was with me for more than 7 years, but no longer for this paladin character. His new name is Gwaednerth, wich is Welsh for blood-strength. Don't ask me how to pronounce it though, and in beyond redemption the name G-man has already been opted.

Why is the pronounciation important?  Well, I have joined Beyond Redemptions Friday-Flex. Actually, they just started that, but I couldn't attend the first run. The next two I did join, and it is fun. Do mind, that most characters are undergeared, or at flex-gear. And we even have some people raiding for the first time...and there's a mumble-account.

The Mumble is strange. In Innovation we don't use something like that, all things are discussed in /raid or /instance... or one of the other dedicated channels. One of the reasons is that everyone is in raidchannel, as with the 2 flexruns, not everyone was in Mumble... but at least I experience the laughter when people try to pronounce Gwaednerth.

This Horde-expedition does not interfere with my Alliance raiding. But I do wish that new 20 man-raids would be introduced tomorrow. Especially with the late release of Warlords of Draenor, now estimated after Blizzcon, people stop playing, and go on a break. I think we have 15 people on a break now....

Oh, yeah, I mentioned AD being completely Alliance now. So, the two new faces to my army of alts are Doiral, Draenai Monk  (different one then the one I played for Alt:Appreciation) and Jinnowhaen, Dwarf Death Knight, to finish off all the classes. One of these two will be boosted, and at the moment I am betting it will be the Death Knight. Doiral is running up the levels at the moment.

Strange encounters of the Third Cloak.

The character that reached level 90 as tenth, somewhere last december, has finished her quest. The long waits on all the random drops is finally over. Her battle with the Black Prince was quickly over (one-shot). The only problem was a saturday-evening hunt on four different Celestials, I think it took me three hours, but after that it was of to Cho and the little dragon;

Fiery Lorinthe hovering.

So, I now have cloaks, and since this weekend, also 11 level 90's. Although I was expecting my mage to be there next, last two weekends, I went full with an old Death Knight of me. I did all the Jade Forest and Kun-Lai quests, and reached level 89.6, so some quick Klaxxi-quest later, this traveler on Sha'Tar/Moonglade joined my other level 90's

I am actually in the same guild on that server, as an old friend of mine, by pure coincidence. I did noticed that he was playing around a little on The Sha'Tar, which probably, unconsiously let me made a priest there. Ynyr was happy leveling, and I had me normal share of random guild-invites. Then I got a guild-invite from a guild with a name which didn't put me off right away, so I did a /who, saw 15 online and thought, why not.

 A few days later, I was playing him again, or rather learning some professions, when the next thing happened;

So, after a big laugh, I gathered myself together, it seems we always end up in each others guilds.

...and Time, is ticking away.

I gotta do something that's what they say, because time is ticking away

           - Heideroosjes - Time is Ticking away

I recently joined  Blog Azeroth. I have known about them for ages, but somehow never joined. Now one of the things they have is a bi-weekly common topic for your blog. This weeks topic, which you can find here, is about what you actually do on the Timeless Isle.

The timeless isle is now live for 7 months, let that sink in...we have been there for SEVEN months, and still each week, people go there to do stuff. It seems a little bit more quiet now...but only a little bit. And I am one of those still going.

Lorinthe against Ordos, just before she wins her new Helmet.

It is simple, every week, at least two of my alts are heading towards the Timeless Isle to kill some World Bosses. That lootpinata called Ordos drops nice warforged gear, and my alts really want some of that. The Celestials where actually lower on my list, considering that most of my alts have two tier-pieces, but with the Ilvl-550 PvP gear, they again are a target of opportunity.

Verulani standing in green stuff.

All my alts have been there, getting their timeless gear, and their burdens (mostly used on feet). But Mardah never goes there anymore. Their is nothing their for her. At the start, I was running her there every day, for gear, for coins, for valor and for leather. But there is nothing left for her there, although maybe I could go for some reputation, but not now.

I do go hunting rares with other alts though, sometimes for the quick charms to get the seals later, but sometimes just to spend some time whacking things, while still getting stuff I could use. But wait, doesn't Mardah needs those charms?  Not really, those first few weeks gave a lot. One thing though, you can now send BoA-stuff all over your account, so, I have this lvl1 warlock on The Sha'tar server.... with enough timeless gear for 8 new level 90's.

Gagh, and his timeless bank.

Luckily I am on a PVE-server. The few times I was transported to a PvP-realm was...well.. I didn't liked it. Imagine materializing between a pack of Horde...  yeah.. that didn't went well.

I do think the timeless isle was fun. It was a quick way to get you characters up to date at the end of an expansion. The mobs that you have to kill have interesting abilities. And stuff dropped everywhere. But, it has been seven months now, I would not mind doing something else now, like leveling a death knight to 90 or something like that.

Changes are coming...as always.

Overall, I am not unhappy with the Alpha-patch notes. Most of it was already known. The garrisons, the healing, stat-squishing, to name a few. The notes released today did give us a first list of abilities that will be lost, and something called Draenor perks...right.

Most of the removing of abilities, is not actually removing, it's more like assigning them to one specialization. Arcane Blast for example, is now usuable by all mage-specs, and abused at lower levels.. but it seems it will be a arcane-only spell coming Warlords of Draenor.

Especially with the 'pure' DPS-classes, a lot of abilies have been put into the array of only one spec.  I think that will work, making different specs feel different is easier this way. Sometimes it does raise an eyebrow though; "Devotion Aura is no longer available to Tankadins" is one. During TBC, the fact that you had Devo-aura actually meant that you where Protection, and not Retri or Holy.

And some abilities are completely gone. There will no longer be enormous Hunter marks on Void Reavers. Shamans loose their tanking-abilities. Warrior's Cleave is being removed, and the Druids Headache-spell Symbiosis will be gone, to name a few.

But, we will get new stuff, probably to make things interesting while levelling, every level gained between 91 and 99 will give you a random new (passive) ability. Most of these are just simple 'more-damage'-abilities, some however seem more complicated.

Of the 9 abilities Moonkins get, 4 are plain damage-increase one gives more armor, one a chance on instant, two do strange things to energy, and one is a mushroomgrowfarm, basically turning your mushrooms into shrooms of doom for sustained AoE.

I amnot happy with one of the 'perks'; Enhanced Storms. This one will give you 10 energy/sec while you are channeling Hurricane/Astral Storm. The current idea of those two spells is to actually not leave the current solar/lunar state.

But.. as with all pre-release patches we will have to wait till the real launch. Blizzard has shown us their thinking though; less spells, less cooldowns, more diversity between specs.

A word for reforging

So, there you are, a new piece of loot. You quickly equip it, and then you find out that you are below hit-cap. You think it over, and try to remember if you have another piece of gear in the bank to raise your hit cap again. But for now, you leave it unequipped. And a lot of times that new piece of loot stayed in our bank until we found another piece, to offset the hit-loss.

That's how we used to raid, before Cataclysm. But Cata introduced Reforging, and there was much rejoice. No longer would we need to leave new gear in the bank, because we needed that 'lesser' gear for a cap.  I don't remember hearing one voice that said; "Mmm, wait a minute..."

Now I must admit, that after the ICC-summer, my own theory crafting was low. I was not raiding, just playing around for fun. And I really liked the mantra; "..to change unwanted stats in wanted stats..". No more useless hit over the cap, no more useless crit as Boomkin (how things can change). 

Little did I foresee the snake that hissed below.

This snake actually wouldn't be much of a problem during Cata, maybe at the end. The stat-numbers where a lot lower, then now in Mists of Pandaria. In my memory, I did reforge, but not in excess. It would take a website called Ask Mr. Robot and the stat-increase from Mists to really rear its ugly head.

Up to this point there where some complaints about stupid reforging and using add-ons, and such, but the stat-numbers weren't that high to actually make much of a difference. But after a few bosses in Mogushan Vaults, when people where getting more purples, the complaints where rising, an they all where the same;

What happened was simple, you equipped your new piece of gear, checked MrRobot (or any other add-on), and you found out that you had to reforge at least 10 pieces of gear (not to mention gems/enchants), and all the rejoice was gone.  Reforging now became something to be afraid of. Every time I hit that optimise button, and only had to reforge 5 pieces of gear, a sigh of relieve escaped me.

So, when the news came that reforging would be gone, I didn't wept a tear about it, hurray no more endless hitting buttons to get you your caps/breakpoints. But in the past few months since that news, more news cam out, and I am starting to think that maybe axing reforge is actually not that needed.

Now why would I think that? Well, as mentioned before, it was introduced to change a 'lesser' stat for a 'better' stat. I think they even used the example back then about you really don't needing Crit, so why would you go for a Crit-piece, but now, you could change some crit to say, Haste, and it would not be absolutely bad. So more gear would be used. the problems where the caps/breakpoints.

As far as I know, there are no caps on Mastery, Spirit or Critical Strike. There maybe some caps on Dodge and Parry, but who cares, most Tanks don't actually go for those anymore, or the caps are out of reach (102.4% dodge anyone???). But Hit/Expertise (hard caps) and Haste (Breakpoints), now there is the problem... combine those three with the higher stat-ratings from Mists, and you have your problem.

The fun part is, that with Warlords of Draenor, all those caps and breakpoints will cease to exist. Dodge, Parry, Hit and Expertise will be gone as stats on gear, and the Damage-over-Time and Healing-over-Time effects will be changed such that the main Idea of Haste breakpoints (getting one more tick in) will be gone. Even the stat-increase will be lower because of the squishing of stats.

So why would you still need to remove Reforging, if all the things that actually made it bad, are removed? Couldn't we just keep it in, to actually do what it should have been doing, changing some of that unwanted mastery into crit? Now, it seems Blizzard is in this making-all-things-simpler-mode, less enchant/gems, so having an option open to change all your hear seems a little strange, but still, having an option to change a little bit of your gear seems to nice to throw away.

And then I am not even talking about spirit...  and I may be completely wrong about this, considering we have not yet much clue about how healing will be in Warlords, but in the past, all the first months of a new expansion were hard on healers. Not much regen of mana, so they were having mana-issues. With keeping Reforge in for spirit, healers could reforge to more spirit at the start of an expansion, and to less later...

And for that matter, Tanks could reforge more into their less-squishy-stat at the start of expansions, and dps into, well..dps maybe lucky then..  still, as a Boomkin I'd rather have crit then mastery, so even for dps it could mean a little.

I know this opens up a whole new aspect of reforging, to actually compensate for the lack of useable stats, because all stats are low. But wasn't this maybe one of the ideas why we all liked Reforge at the start of Cataclysm???

Maybe we should not throw away Reforge that easy, and with the announced changes, you actually only would need to change that One piece of gear that just dropped, and then only to make it better than it now is, so you could equip it right there, at the spot, without reforging, and reforge it later when you have time, to make yourself a little better. Which is what we all want?  Isn't it....?