Unbearably HoT

As I started writing this article, Wintersdark responded to yesterday’s piece with the following:

I’d like to see other classes able to get great dps when handled as masterfully as a cat putting out consistently astounding numbers.

Exactly! Part of the fun in Feral DPS is the challenge the rotation affords—and I’d hate to see it go. While it’s possible to tune down our damage while simultaneously simplifying our cycles, why not step up everyone’s game and put them to the test? Sorry, I’m dreaming again. Blizzard’s reality is that a happy player-base keeps them in business, and the vast majority of their player base wants the game to be simple, accessible, and enjoyable. Is that so bad? We can discuss that debate another day.

Regardless, it’s important to critically dissect both sides of any argument to reach the most logical conclusion. Yesterday I highlighted a few key elements that I believe “justify” our top-end DPS, but today I’d like to constructively address what “adjustments” could be made to tone down damage without leaving less-skilled players in the dust. First, we need to identify the biggest difficulties in our rotation and the abilities that produce the most damage. By creating a sort of mental Venn Diagram, one can figure out where “difficult” overlaps with “damage” and start tweaking from there.

During a “normal” encounter, Shred occupies the largest piece of my damage pie-graph. There’s nothing particularly difficult about hitting a Shred button, but as I outlined yesterday, the positional requirement of that ability can render it slightly difficult to execute in a busy, mobile encounter. To make it easier for the less-skilled individuals, Blizzard could remove the positional requirement on Shred, and simultaneously balance damage by adjusting Shred’s damage multiplier—let’s say from 225% to 200%. By doing that, Shred is still superior to the now-obsolete Backstab and gains the same hit-it-where-you-want benefit of Mutilate.* Not enough? Shred damage is also multiplied by Bleed enhancers such as Mangle or Trauma. Remove that component from the spell, and you’ve knocked it down again.

What about our actual rotation? To sustain considerable damage, the following buffs and DoTs need to remain active:

• Mangle (applied by you, another Druid, or a DPS Warrior)
• Rip
• Rake
• Savage Roar

Beyond maintaining those abilities, Shred functions as your main combo point generator. Whenever you have five combo points and don’t need to refresh Rip or Roar, you weave in Ferocious Bite. If you’re really trying to go balls-out, you’re monitoring your Clearcast procs and utilizing your highest Energy consuming ability, Shred, when it pops. Man, what a pain. The answer to simplifying while tuning down, then, is not achieved by shortening durations. If you recall, we already have various set bonuses (two-piece T7 and four-piece T8) and glyphs (Glyph of Rip, Glyph of Shred, Glyph of Mangle) that extend the duration of many of these abilities—but we still need combo points to keep them active. If you’re gemming for AGI or you have some higher-end gear, you should have no problem reaching 50% crit unbuffed, which is essential for generating enough combo points to keep a rotation alive. If, however, you don’t have access to the gear (or the Crit while raid buffed), you’ll find yourself CP starved and your buffs and debuffs will gradually fall-off.

Why not take the Mutilate approach? If you’re not in the know, Mutilate generates two combo points (largely because it’s using two weapons at once).** By building in two-combo points to the already muted Shred (i.e. <225% multiplier damage with zero Mangle bonuses), confused and/or harried individuals only need to refresh their buffs and debuffs once in awhile—and don’t need to worry about scrambling for points to do it.

Unfortunately, this presents another problem. While an excess of combo points makes life a lot easier for those straining under the DoT rotation, it provides a field-day of opportunities for someone (like me) gleefully looking for extras. As I mentioned earlier, when you have five combo points and nothing to do with them, you Bite. Addressing this potential damage influx can be addressed in one of two ways:

1. Through Rend and Tear (reduce critical strike chance of FB on bleeding targets to 15%, down from 25%).
2. Through Feral Aggression (reducing FB damage done to 10%, down from 15%).
3. Both.

So I suppose there are three. In an ideal world, Blizzard would fiddle around with Feral Aggression, drop the FB damage boost on it to something highly undesirable, and then there wouldn’t ever be a question of whether or not you pick up Feral Instinct. Feral Instinct, in turn, boosts Swipe damage. I end up using Ferocious Bite far more than Swipe, and I chose to invest my points into strictly single target boss-damaging talents. Extra Swipe damage, however, remains incredibly useful for trash and during certain encounters—like Thorim’s arena. Although my rotation currently demands that I pick up that extra 15% damage for FB, losing Feral Instinct wasn’t a choice I made lightly.

Modifying Rend and Tear, however, makes the talent even more of a groaner. It’s suddenly non-useful from an FB perspective, and you still need to waste five points in it to pick up the extra Shred damage. Making changes to Feral Aggression allow us to invest those points somewhere else—such as in Feral Instinct or Survival Instincts (both of which I don’t have in my current build).

But why not make this whole thing easy and nerf Savage Roar? It’d be a straight-up damage loss across the boards, no matter how you play. That’s just it: “no matter how you play.” Ghostcrawler wants to approach this from a perspective that low-skill individuals deserve a chance to do decent damage while still blowing their (admitted complex) rotation. Nerfing Savage Roar does nothing to uncomplicated the rotation, and really only makes those players suffer more.

What are your ideas?

*Please note that if you’re regularly standing in front of a boss (or any mob) to DPS, you’re doing it wrong and you’re destroying your damage with Parries anyway. Removing the positional requirement on Shred only allows you to keep up your rotation and do some damage when a mob is moving around a lot.

**Mortality also insists that I mention that Mutilate actually can generate three combo points thanks to Seal Fate.

A note before reading: apparently any sort of discussion that in any way discusses nerfs now classifies as “nerd-raging.” This is not an angry rant whatsoever; do yourself a favor and don’t read it as such.

A recent blue post addressed the topic of Feral DPS, suggesting that it is, perhaps, a little “too high.” While that immediately elicited a response from me that probably sounded a little like “Go fuck yourself,” Mr. Ghostcrawler quickly followed that statement with:

I may be mistaken, but this seems to be the first time that someone involved with Blizzard recognized the inherent complexity of a successful kitty DPS rotation. Are we talking Ikaruga hard? No, but as compared to a few other classes that focus mostly on pushing buttons as they come up and/or rely on only one or two primary spells (rather than monitoring buffs, debuffs, Clearcast procs, etc.), we’re up there. This is fantastic. While our rotation has always been something of a pain, it’s incredibly satisfying to finally see that the effort we put into maintaining said rotation (while being mobile and, you know, not dying) entering a directly proportional relationship with our damage output. Remember powershifting? This is how it should be: you play well, you see ridiculous numbers.

Despite the fantastic numbers we’re seeing from some of the best players out there, we still have limitations that other melee DPS classes don’t have (that, perhaps, work to keep our DPS in check). Like what?

• Multiple DoTs. Death Knights aside, Feral Druids arguably suffer the largest overall DPS loss when we’re placed on targets that die quickly. Yogg-Saron’s Immortal Guardians are a prime example. Depending on your rate of combo point generation (read: how much Crit Rating you have), a full-fledged damage rotation generally cannot be accomplished in the time it takes for one of these Guardians to die. The damage loss from Rake and Rip downtime can be mitigated slightly by adopting a different playstyle—if you’ve gone the way of heavy AGI and the Idol of Worship, that is. Equip the Idol of the Ravenous Beast, throw on your ArP gear (if you’re not already stacking it), and make sure Savage Roar never drops. At that point, you can simply Shred and Ferocious Bite to your heart’s content. It is pertinent to mention, however, that even by gemming for ArP and using a cycle that prioritizes Shred and FB, Rip and Rake generally constitute ~20% and ~10% of my total damage, respectively.
• Combo points. Rogues are included in this category as well. If a situation (or a poor raid assignment) requires we switch targets, each switch wipes our combo points and necessitates a rotation restart. The four-piece T8/8.5 bonus helps mitigate the stack of buffs and debuffs we need to reapply (by considerably extending Savage Roar uptime), but if you’re unable to plan how you’ll wipe your points before starting over, you’re wasting your energy. Literally.
• Positional requirements. Unless you’re using Backstab as a Rogue (and if you are, you’re an idiot), no other melee DPS suffer from positional requirements. Shred, our largest damage dealing attack, can only be executed behind a target. Encounters with mobile mobs (or overexcited tanks) make it difficult to score a direct hit from behind. If you’re dancing around the mob just trying to pull off a Shred, your rotation is essentially hiccupping. Other bosses, such as Kologarn, don’t even let you behind the boss (or his arms) at all, resulting in huge DPS losses. Blizzard has already removed the positional requirement from Mutilate, and I’m wondering if Shred won’t be far behind. Despite the frustration the positional requirement causes, I do believe that it functions as a DPS equalizer. If Feral Druids had the ability to run around like a moron and do the exact same DPS as when they stood still, it would be wildly unfair.

Beyond that, we’re still melee. While certain fights are geared toward showcasing our awesome, other encounters are still tuned to keep us running in and out, sidestepping chain lightning, and dodging explosions. Many people cite XT-002 as the example of why Feral Druids are overpowered—and if every fight were designed to mimic that encounter, we certainly would be. XT-002 represents an ideal scenario in which we (melee) don’t need to move very much, if at all, and if you blow your cooldown load during each heart phase (where damage is doubled), you can destroy your guildmates’ minds.

XT-002 is insanely enjoyable, but it is the exception to the rule. While my damage remains consistently high, it fluctuates based on what each encounter requires of me and generally hovers between 5k-7k DPS. Please see the DPS limitations listed above. I succeed, Mr. Ghostcrawler, because I am intensely situationally aware, I don’t die to silly things, I equip the right pieces of gear, and I spend an inordinate amount of time monitoring my rotation. I may be a little biased, but let us cats have our day.

If, when you make a movie, TV show, or video game your only end-goal is to sell a product to the end-user, you’re doing it wrong. To really cash in and make your media-event legendary, you need a moderately unique idea that has broad-spectrum appeal and a vocal fan-base. Why? Anyone can roll out a product that a few people will buy (ala Vanguard: Saga of Heroes), but if you’re a real market-savvy motherfucker, you know that you want consumers buying your lunchboxes, t-shirts, comic books, pins, plushies, card games, convention tickets, bed sheets—you get the idea. You want an Empire so vast that your fans will quietly grumble, gloss over the inadequacies, and chide the non-believers with a simple “I find your lack of faith disturbing” when you follow your original work with mediocre sequels. Please see the Matrix Reloaded, Star Wars Episodes I-III and Halo Wars.

More than anything else, you want to keep people talking. You need to skim over the hordes of blogs, speculative research, terrible fanfiction, and fanmade monstrosities because they represent Your People. Your People aren’t interested in the money, but rather the product and the direction it will take in the future—they are your glorified cash cows, and it would do you well to keep them well-groomed and fat. Don’t get me wrong; following that formula isn’t necessarily the path one takes to create a “perfect product”—just a well-marketed one. Keeping the masses happy, however, doesn’t always require pandering—just a healthy dose of watchful minding and respect.

We can argue all day whether Blizzard has been feeding casual-cows and destroying the challenge of the game in direct proportion to a rise in profits, but they do a more-than-acceptable job in reaching out to the community. They read our blogs. They regularly publicize fanart and recently championed a creative writing contest. There are a number of in-game tributes to helpful players (see: Phaelia’s Vestments of the Sprouting Seed and quest-reward items named after DK beta testers), memorials (think: Ezra Chatterton), geek-culture references, regular responses to fan-questions and demands via forums, GM visits, Blizzcon—really, we WoW players are a pretty lucky (and simultaneously gullible) bunch.

Why risk invoking the ire of the Internet community that so celebrates the machine by threatening creative fans with legal action? I’ve been pondering that very question since I heard that Shakes & Fidget, makers of an e-famous WoW comic, were hit with a Cease & Desist order. I cannot pretend to know the fine-details, even with the ability to read German, but I fail to see the problem with what’s essentially a “free” comic that popularizes Blizzard’s universe. “But they’re making money from merchandise and advertising!” the finger-wagglers wail, “Blizzard has every right to stop them!” This is correct, if indeed S&F are making money from the comic. I am not totally convinced.

Blizzard has the right to make sure that no one else makes money off of their copyrighted material—but the real question is whether folks like Shakes & Fidget are in any way, shape, or form cutting into the deck of Blizzard’s profits. Are they feasting off a glut of Euros, or are they funding hosting costs for their WoW-tribute comic? Is it even enough revenue to be taxed? Are they selling merchandise that directly competes with a 2nd party vendor like J!NX? I could be wrong. Maybe Blizzard isn’t worried (and shouldn’t be, for that matter) about the monetary aspect, but rather find that comics such as S&F’s “defame” their image. Straight from Blizzard’s legalese:

“…Also, we reserve the right to revoke this limited use license at any time, for any reason, and at the sole discretion of Blizzard Entertainment®. You may not use our materials on sites that feature defamatory, pornographic, or inflammatory content, including, but not limited to, hacks and cheats for any of our games or any other content that Blizzard Entertainment® find objectionable or unlawful.”

Judging from the general content of said comic, we can rule out “defamatory,” “pornographic,” and “inflammatory.” I also haven’t stumbled across any private servers at S&F’s website, nor have I found any roll-hacking mods. Blizzard—or shall I say ActivisionBlizzard—has seemingly invoked the “for any reason” clause. To what purpose? The new add-on policy (although arguably harmless) coupled with these first-tier Cease & Desist orders seem to represent an ever-darkening cloud on the horizon, and I’m admittedly a little worried. S&F wasn’t the first (as the creators of the WoW iPhone applications can attest to), and they won’t be the last. Who’s next? Penny Arcade? LFG? Astrylian, the creator of Rawr? Me? For once, I’m glad I’m not nearly that popular.

You, as a reader and as a consumer, should be upset about this. ActivisionBlizzard is more than willing to lap up the monthly subscription fees, transfer and name change dollars, Arena Tournament entry costs, Blizzcon ticket sales, and extensive merchandising opportunities, but may be increasingly tight-fisted when it comes to “sharing” their World. Blizzard’s content is not only enriched by new hardware and a slick design team, but also by the tremendous support and ancillary creativity of the players who populate it.

Noblegarden is spectacular—a true vision of Azeroth at its finest. I only had to snag my first egg from the cotton-tailed clutches of a Hunter-turned-rabbit to receive a stream of grammatically incorrect vitriol. I love this. First of all, I’m terribly sorry that you can’t click as quickly as I can. Second, I’m disappointed that your retorts are neither clever nor funny. Third, you have only inspired me to poach as many eggs from you as I possibly can while simultaneously reporting and throwing you on ignore.

That’s beside the point. This newly-revamped in-game holiday is awesome for ERPers and fans of collecting scandalous and/or useless costumes. For all of you over-achievers who have no compunctions about sitting and doing completely mundane and occasionally frustrating things for hours on end, this is the shit for you. Fortunately, even if you’re completely unlucky, you can complete all the achievements for the meta (i.e. the mini-achievements that will get you the Noble title) using the Noblegarden Chocolates you find in the Brightly Colored Eggs. Unfortunately, that can take some time. Here’s a quick look of what you need if you want only the meta:

• Spring Rabbit’s Foot: 100 chocolates
• Spring Flowers: 50 chocolates
• Noblegarden Egg: 5 chocolates
• White Tuxedo Shirt: 25 chocolates
• Black Tuxedo Pants: 25 chocolates
• Spring Robes: 50 chocolates
• 110 extra chocolates: this fulfills your initial quest to get your Easter Basket and also nets you a stomachache and the Chocoholic achievement.

That’s a total of 365 eggs. What about the Spring Circlet and Elegant Robes? Technically, you don’t need those. The ears are totally just for fun (and for the record, you can use your Spring Flowers to put the ears on yourself) and you only need to find another person wearing the dress to get your Blushing Bride achievement done. So how the fuck do you get all those eggs? The best thing you can do is find a decent spot to camp out and stand around like a champ until they do. Here’s my suggestion: Dolanaar. I pick this not because I’m a Night Elf, but mostly because it has potential to be “less crowded,” and also because I found really awesome spawn points there. 

When you get to the Inn, go around to the left side near the Stable Master. 

One egg spawns on top of the wooden doodad, one egg spawns behind the wooden doodad, and another spawns in the bushes. You can position yourself in such a fashion (all up ons the Stable Master) that you can grab each of these eggs in rapid succession when they spawn. It’s not fun. You do this because you want the stupid title and potentially a proto in your future, and you must understand that it’s more boring than fishing. The rest of the achievements end up being very self-explanatory.

While I’m at it, let it be known that I updated the Ulduar DPS Loot List, and let me direct you all to a new Priest blog called “Maintaining Discipline.” Laney is a Holy/Disc Priest, one of ECR’s raid leaders, and just so happened to find some inspiration lately to start a blog. Go offer some words of encouragement! 

And sadly, just as we welcome another blogger to the ever-expanding sphere, another leaves. Megan, from Out of Mana, is stepping down and pursuing other worthwhile life experiences. I recommend pole-dancing and makeouts. Drop her a line, wish her good-luck, and parse through her old entries full of advice, biting wit, and “slick” graphics. Take care, yo.