Blue posts, MMO Report, Comics

[Boubouille]

The weeks starts slowly because it's pretty hard to connect to the PTR these days, hopefully we will see a new PTR build very soon to fix the current issues.

Is Patch 3.3.3 going live this week?
Not a chance. The last 2 ptr builds were fairly unstable and Blizzard would never risk pushing it live this week, especially with some of the developers and lead developers attending the GDC in San Francisco this week.

Blue posts

Healing and Mana Efficiency in Cataclysm
If you use your efficient heal 100% of the time, then sometimes people will die for want of a quick or big heal. If you use your quick or big heal 100% of the time, then sometimes you will run out of mana. If you use the right heal for the job, you will be awesome and get fat purps.

[...] We want the choice that downranking provided (don't use a big heal when a small one will do) without all the problems of gaming the coefficients of the lower level spells.

[...] Prior to LK, healers wouldn't use their quick / big heal every GCD. They would even stop heals to avoid wasting mana. We're not really trying to bring back cancel macros in a big way, but we would like for the best healers to be the ones who know when to use the right spell at the right time. (Source)

Tanking Threat
I would be very curious to see those numbers. You're making a jump from "Sometimes AE pull off of me" to "AE will always pull off of me," and that's just not what we're seeing. I totally buy that a warrior may work harder to generate as much, or less, AE threat as a paladin. We've acknowledged that is a problem. But that is the comparison I would make, not the comparison between "Sometimes I have to do stuff to maintain threat" and "Under no circumstances should I ever have threat problems."

It isn't the goal that dps can never pull off of you under any situation. If that was the goal, we're wasting an awful lot of the game space on all of these +threat and -threat talents and abilities, when we could just institute a rule that mobs will never retarget off of their initial target (which would hopefully be the tank). I don't think that would make tanking more fun, though it would definitely make it easier.

The threat-related goals still remain:

1) All -- Get threat to scale better at higher dps levels.
2) Paladin -- Nerf the threat capacity of HoR and SoC.
3) Druid -- Something to do on AE packs besides Swipe.
4) DK -- More burst threat, which the Icy Touch change should accomplish.
5) Warrior -- As I've said, we're pretty happy with, minus points 1 and 2 above.
6) I'll add that if taunts retain the ability to miss at all, it should be something you can gear your way out of. It's also possible we'll just make them always hit. (Source)

The MMO Report
It's monday and the MMO Report is always a nice way to start the week!

<object classId="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="480" height="418" id="VideoPlayerLg44555"><param name="movie" value="http://g4tv.com/lv3/44555" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed src="http://g4tv.com/lv3/44555" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" name="VideoPlayer" width="480" height="382" allowScriptAccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" /></object>

Comics
Dark Legacy Comic #228 and Teh Gladiators #116 are out.

[FruityFrodo]

DL comics <'3

[Poppasan]

Hurray for DLC!

[Nighthunter]

DLC is awsome!
The one today was kinda boring tho

[Membrane]

Quite the clever business model @ DLC.

[FruityFrodo]

Yeah, that or being Kaja= goldz 4 leif!
Wish the PTR's were working properly though.

[shockedandawed]

Last time I played the PTRs for this patch Glyph of Mangle was messed up and increased mangle dmg by 6000% >.< Kittens are getting buffs lol

[eRAZOR]

Yeah, that or being Kaja= goldz 4 leif!
Wish the PTR's were working properly though.

Hmm my PTR experience actually wasn't that bad. Ok HS animation would hang sometimes.

[Whai]

DLC is awsome!
The one today was kinda boring tho

agree! but, still.. it wasn't :O

[gringo]

MMOReport = WIN!

keep it up, casey!

[SalcN]

DLC <3

and BAH .. i want patch :<

[Thoridyss]

The threat-related goals still remain:

1) All -- Get threat to scale better at higher dps levels.
2) Paladin -- Nerf the threat capacity of HoR and SoC.
3) Druid -- Something to do on AE packs besides Swipe.
4) DK -- More burst threat, which the Icy Touch change should accomplish.
5) Warrior -- As I've said, we're pretty happy with, minus points 1 and 2 above.
6) I'll add that if taunts retain the ability to miss at all, it should be something you can gear your way out of. It's also possible we'll just make them always hit.

Having one of each tank at 80 and in t9 or better (Yay free T9 I won't lie ) Honestly I feel this list is spot on. Warriors and DKs IMO remain the most fun/challenging (if you even can use that word. lol) of the 4 tanks Druids, being a one button spam fest on AoE Mobs make them very boring and Pallies are just the I really don't want to put any effort but still look good tanking class of the game. Personally I'm hoping they can make all tanks as interactive and fun as the Warrior is to play. That's just my opinion at least

As always the MMO Report amuses

[anotherhunter]

fat purps? srsly?

DLC is great as usual

[Rukh]

I have to admit that 'Teh Gladiators' is growing on me. If you read the author's comments at the end of each comic its much more interesting.

[Kagonpeak]

I really like the MMO report.

Great humor and nice things to know.

[fishz]

MMO-Report is always win.

[RuuddieBoy]

I'm so annoyed that all these good tanking discussions happen in the US and not in the EU, as I'd really love to participate in them.

I am a Palatank myself and I'm getting pretty annoyed with Warriors complaining that Paladins can keep AoE TPS up more easily. In my experiences, the tank that gets initial aggro on a pack, will usually keep most of that aggro, independant of which classes tank. So indeed, Paladins have an easier AoE spell rotation, but it's not even close to being so that as soon as the Palatank starts AoE'ing, he pulls all aggro and the other tank(s) can just stand and watch. Paladins indeed do some higher TPS but I've never experienced that I pull all the mobs away from the Warrior and leave him behind with nothing.

Another point I don't like in this discussion, is that Warriors seem to forget all the nice abilities they have that Paladins don't have. I'm talking about stuff like Charge, Intervene and Shield Bash, which I really miss on my Paladin. I have a Warrior tank as well and I'm in love with these spells. The way WoW is designed, is that some classes just are better at some things than other classes. Paladins are better at tanking trash, Warriors have more utility skills to save healers from getting hit.

But the most important thing in this discussion: Why the hell are we discussing the ability to tank TRASH?

Could anyone with a US account post this on the US forums please?

[Thoridyss]

I'm so annoyed that all these good tanking discussions happen in the US and not in the EU, as I'd really love to participate in them.

I am a Palatank myself and I'm getting pretty annoyed with Warriors complaining that Paladins can keep AoE TPS up more easily. In my experiences, the tank that gets initial aggro on a pack, will usually keep most of that aggro, independant of which classes tank. So indeed, Paladins have an easier AoE spell rotation, but it's not even close to being so that as soon as the Palatank starts AoE'ing, he pulls all aggro and the other tank(s) can just stand and watch. Paladins indeed do some higher TPS but I've never experienced that I pull all the mobs away from the Warrior and leave him behind with nothing.

Another point I don't like in this discussion, is that Warriors seem to forget all the nice abilities they have that Paladins don't have. I'm talking about stuff like Charge, Intervene and Shield Bash, which I really miss on my Paladin. I have a Warrior tank as well and I'm in love with these spells. The way WoW is designed, is that some classes just are better at some things than other classes. Paladins are better at tanking trash, Warriors have more utility skills to save healers from getting hit.

But the most important thing in this discussion: Why the hell are we discussing the ability to tank TRASH?

Could anyone with a US account post this on the US forums please?

I would but I highly Disagree with you. I've literally had mobs torn off me by Pally tanks in AoE Packs, Yeah i manage to keep like two But the Pally tears the rest off of me without even trying. Which is fine really but having an 80 Prot Pally as well, the class is to easy, Paladins don't take nearly the effort other tank classes take, and are so automatic, personally I find them a bore. Honestly everything they want to nerf needs to be nerfed. paladins need to be more than a "barely pay attention and still tank like a pro" class. as I said this is again my opinion (from experience.) Paladin is the Lazy man's Tank.

[Typhron]

I'm so annoyed that all these good tanking discussions happen in the US and not in the EU, as I'd really love to participate in them.

I am a Palatank myself and I'm getting pretty annoyed with Warriors complaining that Paladins can keep AoE TPS up more easily. In my experiences, the tank that gets initial aggro on a pack, will usually keep most of that aggro, independant of which classes tank. So indeed, Paladins have an easier AoE spell rotation, but it's not even close to being so that as soon as the Palatank starts AoE'ing, he pulls all aggro and the other tank(s) can just stand and watch. Paladins indeed do some higher TPS but I've never experienced that I pull all the mobs away from the Warrior and leave him behind with nothing.

Another point I don't like in this discussion, is that Warriors seem to forget all the nice abilities they have that Paladins don't have. I'm talking about stuff like Charge, Intervene and Shield Bash, which I really miss on my Paladin. I have a Warrior tank as well and I'm in love with these spells. The way WoW is designed, is that some classes just are better at some things than other classes. Paladins are better at tanking trash, Warriors have more utility skills to save healers from getting hit.

But the most important thing in this discussion: Why the hell are we discussing the ability to tank TRASH?

Could anyone with a US account post this on the US forums please?

Actually considering it, since there are many good points raised. I do think the last thing Blizzard wants to do is take away Paladin tank's ability to tank in the first place, though. I really do hope so.

People still do seem to miss that Paladins are "easy" because they don't have the options other tanks do. And if they were given them people would complain about Paladins being able to do X and Y at the same time.

There's, like, no real way to win here. As far as NERFING goes, anyway.

Buffing other classes? I'm pretty sure everyone would be down with that.

[Franson]

But the most important thing in this discussion: Why the hell are we discussing the ability to tank TRASH?

Because it's a part of the game, whether you like it or not. Druids, for example, have very little utility when trying to pick up multiple adds at once, especially when Challenging Roar is on cooldown. So they are trying to fix it. Sounds reasonable to me.