We Need More World-Events

In my line of work I often meet people (mostly teenagers) who share my love and enthusiasm for video games and we often end up both playing and talking a lot about them. The other day I got to hang out with a guy who was playing Runescape (among other things) and he told me a bit about it. It seems like a cool game in general although extremely grindy (apparently quests of the sort "kill 100 of these" are standard. Yes 100, that's no exaggeration) but one thing in particular stuck in my mind. He told me of an event that, if I understood correctly, happened pretty recently in-game as part of an update/expansion to the game. Players were asked to hand in buckets of sand (and possibly other things the kid didn't mention) and in the end an island (or possibly beach) emerged in the game that hadn't been there before - complete with new places to skill up different professions or techniques. Now if you happen to play Runescape and know I got that all wrong, what matters is that it got me thinking about inclusion in video games and that it is the one thing that really sets MMO's apart from your every day singleplayer game.

And they say WoW graphics are outdated (Runescape in 2007) - forums.zybez.net

It might sound weird to talk about inclusion when talking about video games, because in essence video games are all about inclusion. Their interactive nature naturally invites the player to feel included and feel like they affect what happen around them (more or less). But MMO's can provide inclusion on a different scale, one in which the individual (that is you) gets to truly feel like they are part of something bigger and like they made a difference in the world around them.

Looking at a game like World of Warcraft, Blizzard have always known the power of this and allowed players to feel included in every expansion they released. Instead of just telling players there was a new expansion coming, they allowed us to experience it and take part of it through special events in game. One of my favorites was the massive event that preluded the opening of Ahn'Qiraj. Back then I had just started playing and was far from a raider, so I had little understanding of what was going on other than that everyone, from a low level casual scrub like me to the hardcore raiders, regardless of faction, united to achieve a common goal. There was something to get for everyone, you didn't have to be part of a big guild or know a lot of people who played - you just needed to take part in the event. It just felt magical to be part of something as massive as that undertaking. The event included gathering a vast variety of items and hand them in, but everyone could chip in and that was the important part.

You had to be there - imagekb.com

And the events that lead up to Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King were similar huge folk festivals where everyone seemed to stop what they were doing and come together to achieve the same goal regardless of whether you were a pvp:er, raider or quester. My rose tinted goggles will allow me to ignore the fact that Blizzard obviously cleverly designed the events to entice these different groups to come together, but that is exacly what good game design should do.

I think this is different from multiplayer games in general, where you obviously also see a bunch of people work together (hopefully) for a common cause. Most importantly because these MMO events offer change - they allow the player to take place in changing the world that they live in rather than just repeating an action (like any multiplayer shooter for instance where the same goal is achieved or failed over and over without permanent change, similar to the seasonal events or pvp done in WoW.)

Party with the dead - wow-one.com

Could you implement something similar in a singleplayer game? Would we even want that? I am thinking both yes and no. On the one hand I always think it's interesting to see how you could develop new gaming experiences, on the other hand I feel like singleplayer and multiplayer games deliver very different gaming experiences and that's ok. Naturally there are things in multiplayer you can't do in singleplayer and vice versa and I doubt you could conjure the same feeling of scale in a singleplayer game as you could in a multiplayer, unless you somehow managed to hook up singleplayers making it a sort of inbetween like Dark Souls. Could you make multiplayer games other than MMOs adopt this idea? Could a game like Team Fortress 2 or CoD include this kind of gameplay? I am sure they could, in fact I would love to see it be done more often. Instead of just giving players a new map/arena/whatever, you could have an in-game event regarding it. Whether it would go down well or people prefer things to be as static and predictable as possible in these kind of settings I don't know - personally I would love a bit of gameplay diversity (which might be why I don't play those kind of games much).

And what kind of content should have these kind of world-events? Anything? Free stuff or pay for stuff? It worked in WoW to have everyone engage in a world-event that essentially preceded something that you still had to pay for to experience but I am not sure that works in any kind of game. But I am probably getting way ahead of myself here.

I haven't played enough other MMO's to know to which extent they incorporate this kind of gameplay, I can't recall anything like it in the few months I played Warhammer though. I do realize it is probably a huge undertaking for a game developer to try to achieve but the reward must surely be worth it. I can only speak for myself but all of the world-events I took part in in WoW, which was pretty much all of them from Vanilla to early MoP, became some of my fondest and best memories of the game.

My personal opinion is that the experience got watered down as WoW progressed, but it might also just be that every new world-event became less and less of a big thing for me. It was just another expansion with another world-event. I like to think that is not the case and I'm not that jaded, but rather that Blizzard included the players less and less. If I compare the level of player commitment required for the Ahn'Qiraj event with that of the Mists of Pandaria event... wait, did MoP even have an event? I can't remember it if it did. But Ahn'Qiraj wasn't even for an expansion, just another (or technically two) new raids. In Burning Crusade we got to work together to unlock the Sunwell Isle. I would've loved to see more events like that, that changed parts of the game, big or small. To me nothing else ever came close to making the world feel as alive, real and worthwhile as those all-player-including world-events ever did.

Zinn's Photo Album

I was cleaning out some space on my computer the other day to fit more transformers porn really important things that absolutely aren't porn, when I stumbled across a folder with really old screenshots. I thought I had lost all of those when my old computer fried! But then I remembered only the mother board fried and the hard drive was transferred over to Loves computer where I had completely forgotten about all the things I had on there. And then somehow those things ended up back on my computer... Long story short, I found pictures. Looking at them really is a trip down memory lane. The guilds I've been in, the people I've played with. The bosses I've killed (surprisingly many with the entire raid dead) and the Ui's I've used! Come huddle around, this could be just as interesting as when your uncle showed you the pictures from that trip to Mallorca (and a perfect way for me to save my favorites to the eternal internets).

BURNING CRUSADE

Feb 7th 2008 - Gruul's Lair on my lock. Really liked those fights, especially as a lock.

Feb 20th 2008 - Getting ready for Prince Malchezaar with some naked dancing.

Feb 24th 2008 - When heroics were still heroic. Or maybe we were just bad.

April 10th 2008 - SSC, look at that beautiful UI!

April 8th 2008 - Hex Lord Malacrass is still among my favorite boss fights. Can you see me behind the fat tauren?

April 29th 2008 - We rarely got to Zul'jin because Malacrass was such a pain in the ass.

May 6th 2008 - Mage last one standing on a Leotheras kill. Toight like a toiger.

May 24th 2008 - I loved the buff you got in Karazhan that spawned an army of women that followed you around. Does that make me sad?

May 26th 2008 - We mostly ended up killing trash in Mount Hyjal, but occasionally also a boss.

Sep 4th 2008 - The one time I killed Magtheridon.

WRATH OF THE LICH KING

Jan 27th 2009 - Spider cow watches over the city.

March 2nd 2009 - I am proud of that Lightwell placement. Just trying to give people a challenge.

April 1st 2009 - Less Rabi still haunts my dreams.

April 27th 2009 - Still using Xperl. I really liked Ulduar.

May 9th 2009 - Everyone including boss dead on Razorscale. Hate when that happens.

May 18th 2009 - I definitely had a hate-love relationship with Mimiron. Mostly hate.

June 16th 2009 - Wish they'd make another fight like General Vezax.

July 8th 2009 - I cried when I lost the tier token, but Yogg-Saron is still one of my all time favorites.

August 4th 2009 - Kel'Thuzad, yet another epic fight.

Sep 4th 2009 - Wotlk talent tree! Looks the same tbh.

Sep 7th 2009 - After ENDLESS 1% wipes, finally Sarth 3D.

Jan 19th 2010 - Balls big enough for two faces.

April 5th 2010 - The first kill of a boss is always nice, but killing LK the first time was truly epic. Miss you Mayhem.

Oct 23rd 2010 - Everyone plus boss dead, on BQL hc.

CATACLYSM

20th of March 2011 - Astralis, server only to take Al'akir hc in current content. Unfortunately I wasn't there.

10 vs 25 man raiding in Cataclysm

One of the best things about following loads of WoW-blogs is that you sometimes come across something that really gives you a kick in the ass to finish that post you've been brooding on the last couple of weeks. This is what happened when I stumbled upon a post by Graylo over at Gray Matter. In it he discusses how 10 man and 25 man raiding has changed, both compared to Wrath and to what he had anticipated. This is something I have been thinking a lot about myself lately, especially when seeing the dwindling amount of 25 man guilds around. I was pulling my hair on this one really, thinking "what is it that make everyone go from 25 man to 10 man? What are the major differences?". I had a general idea, but no good way to put it down in words. Now, Graylos post has given me the final kick I needed. Be warned, this post could be ranty.

I had written what I thought would happen already before Cataclysm went out. Let's just say I won't be famous for my prophetic skills. Back then I concluded that 25 man raiding wouldn't be gone with Cataclysm because there ultimately were people who enjoyed the different types of raids, regardless of gear and difficulty. I argued that the differences between 25 man and 10 man were already not very big, so what would change for Cataclysm anyway?

"(...) all the troubles we have in our 25man guild, we had back in my 10man guild. People who stop raiding, people who don't share the views of seriousness, raids having trouble getting filled and having to replace with non-regular raiders. People who come and go."

I basically wrapped it up with;

"Do all the people playing in 25man raid guilds do it just for the better loot? I just won't think that is the case."

Poor, naïve little me. I had of course completely forgotten about one of the biggest differences between 25 man and 10 man raids - that of having to administer 15 more people in the bigger setup. As Graylo puts it;

"Organizing 10 to 15 people is easier then organizing 25 to 35. There are a lot of tasks involved in running a guild/raid that just get harder with the addition of more people. It's more people you have to evaluate, it's more people you have manage, it's more whispers and PMs you have to respond to. The question was, why would a GM stick with the 25man format when they can get the same rewards from the 10man format with less work and few problems."

A very good question indeed, and probably a big reason to the general decline of 25 man raids. Love himself left my current guild (25 man) to form his own 10 man guild for this very reason. I can only give my current GM a standing ovation for the fact that he's willing to bust his ass off to keep my guild together (although I know he has help from some crafty officers). Since I've never been a real part of the administrative business behind a guild, I had completely forgotten about it. Silly me.

So personally I think this is a big reason to why 25 man raids have become less and less common. But it seems that the tables have turned on 10 man and 25 man raiding, for matters I will get to in a little while. But there is still the other question - what are the differences between 25 man and 10 man raiding setting aside the adminitrative business?

Interestingly enough, right now it seems like most 10 man fights are actually a lot more difficult than their 25 man counter part. Overall only Al'akir heroic is seen as significantly more difficult in 25 man than 10 man, in most other cases it's the other way around. So why is this?

There is one big difference between 10 man and 25 man - the one has less and the other has more people. Before you go "well duh", this is actually really important, because it affects the raiding part as much as the administrative part. It means that 10 man fights are easier whenever spreading out is favored, and 25 man fights are easier whenever you need to fulfill a certain role to complete a game mechanic. What does current raid content seem to mostly be about? Well this is what I think anyway;

Although Blizzard have long stated that they want us to bring the "player, not the class", I would argue that they've never failed as much with this as they have in Cataclysm (not counting Vanilla, since that was the idea back then). Never before have raid bosses required so specific setups to be completed in a satisfactory manner. Before you tell me that "yes, you might prefer class X there, but you can do it with Y and Z too" that's really beside the point. What you can do and what you want to do because it makes the fight 100 times easier are two different things. Let me give you some examples;

• On Halfus Heroic you want someone to be able to break the stun - this must either be a mage or several paladins (or an orc with a stun reduction meta gem, but yeah....).
• On Valiona & Theralion heroic you want someone to be able to go into the realm, who can also remove his debuffs - this has to be either a rogue, mage or paladin (mage and paladin have long cd though)
• On Conclave Heroic you need someone who can stay on Rohash who can remove their own debuffs - this is nearly always a rogue.
• On Nefarian Heroic you need someone to slow portal users, and an offtank to deal with adds in first phase - this means a hunter or a shaman, and a hero bear.
• On Magmaw Heroic you need someone to kite the adds - A hunter can do it, but it's dead easy for a frost DK.
• On Al'Akir heroic is is a lot easier to have a warrior tank than any other tank (perhaps a dk because they can soak a lot of magic damage).

6 out of 13 fights (I don't know about any special requirements on Sinestra actually) that are a lot easier when you have the proper class to handle it (and I've probably forgotten some). Please again, don't give me any comments about how this and that isn't needed to complete the fight. I am aware that with enough skill you can pull off pretty much anything. That still doesn't change the fact that the fight is significantly easier when you bring some certain classes.

To a 25 man group this nearly never becomes an issue, because most 25 man groups has at least one of any class. I remember how Love gave me an evil stare when I told him that we had four tanks on Nefarian heroic, one for Nef, one for Ony and one for adds in first phase. And then one just in case. I mean why not? We can afford it so let's be on the safe side. His 10 man group on the other hand have to bust their healing asses off with a dps warrior who smacks on a shield for the adds in the first phase. Because they don't have room for a third leisure tank unless they can find a hero bear somewhere.

Back in Wrath, the fights were more about nuking down some certain mob or not stand in shit. This could make 25 man more difficult because even if the mobs had more hp designed around more people dpsing them, it is always trickier to distribute your raid properly around more targets (again with the administrative thing), and having 25 people run around avoiding shit is a lot trickier than just having 10. No fight illustrated this better than LK. In 10 man you had 1 Valkyr picking up people, which meant everyone could focus on that. On 25 man you had 3, which is percentually more than in 10 man, but it also meant a lot more tactic regarding who was going to slow and dps which add and so on. Standing in Defile more than three seconds usually resulted in a wipe. In 25 man it was a lot easier to accidentally have someone stand in it for too long than in 10 man.

Looking at current fights, there are no real differences regarding the amount of targets between 10 man and 25 mans. In almost all heroic fights you have to deal with basically the same amount of targets, which has removed that extra piece of difficulty from 25 mans. Fights like Magmaw, Omnotron, Chimaeron, Maloriak, Atramedes, Halfus, Ascendant Council, Conclave and Al'akir are basically designed exactly the same in 10 man and 25 man. On Nefarian, Cho'gall and V&T you have significantly more adds on 25 man, but only on V&T do those adds require some sort of coordination from the dpsers. One fight!

The other matter then - move or you wipe the raid kind of mechanics. Oh let's see... Al'akir? Maybe Omnotron. The only fights considered more difficult on 25 man than 10 man are basically the only fights with that kind of mechanic (not taking into account that a tank or healer that doesn't move from crap can wipe the raid, that is the case in any fight). I do see a connection here.

Graylo notes that eventhough 25 man raid groups have basically disappeared compared to Wrath (I think we have two 25 man guilds on my server, compared to 10 ish in Wrath), 25 man raiding still seems to be where the progression is at.

"Progression raiding still seems to favor the 25man format, while 10man seems to be favored by casual raiding. Looking at numbers from WoWProgress this division is clear. Of the top 100 guilds in the world only five are 10man guilds and of those only one is in the top fifty. The 25man format also has a much higher participation rate in the heroic modes then the 10man format. This is probably an indication that many of the historically successful progression guilds have stuck with the 25man format."

I haven't checked Graylos facts on this, I'll just assume he's right (so correct me if I'm wrong). He says that one reason 25 man guilds are ahead in raiding could be that old 25 man progression guilds stuck it through, the good are still good so to speak. I can see two other plausible explanations. First of all, 10 man raids are where all the casuals have gone to. That was probably always the case, so that hasn't changed much since Wrath. But given the above reasons to why most people would prefer a 10 man over a 25 man, many more casual 25 man raids have broken up into 10 mans instead. In a sense that is what Graylo is already saying - progression was in 25 man back in Wrath, and that is where it has stayed. But the other explanation could be what I've described above - in their attempt to even out 25 man and 10 man difficulties, Blizzard actually made 10 man fights a lot more difficult, which is another big contributor to why so many 10 man guilds have fallen behind their 25 man counter parts. I know people don't agree on this issue, but as one who currently raid in both 10 man and 25 man content (both heroic and normal) I can tell you - it is generally a lot easier on 25 man than 10 man, because this isn't a perfect world and most heroic fights require you to have the perfect 10 man team. A 25 man group is a lot more flexible, and you can bring some bad people to the group and still get the job done (just don't put them in important positions). Trust me! I've seen it happen. We can sacrifice 1-5 people in my 25 man group without it being a catastrophe where even one dying in a 10 man group is a pretty sure wipe (in heroic modes).

When Cataclysm was launched, most 25 man guilds didn't stand the strain and broke up. This didn't necessarily happen over night, in fact this progress went on for several months after Cataclysm launch. I can only imagine the disappointment from all those 10 man guilds looking forward to having some relaxed and fun raiding, not having to deal with the hassle of all the 25 man administrative business, when they hit a brick wall with heroic modes. Most normals are fairly easy to go through with any setup, but as soon as the 10 man group wanted to step it up to heroic raiding, they found they probably had to shuffle around their regular 10 man group, needing people they probably didn't even have. Suddenly all the hassle came back, ten fold.

Having to cancel raids because the right class didn't show up really puts a strain on the guild and raid group, which in turn only makes it even more troublesome to get raids together and going when people start getting bored and don't sign anymore. Even worse if your raid group happens to not even have the particular class you're after and have to go through the rather fierce fight for recruits that is on at the moment. To have some good progress in a 10 man guild, you'll probably have to bust your ass off to find and keep good people around you. While a 25 man guild seems to generate new recruits just by existing. Since 25 man guilds are harder to come by, they automatically draw the interest from anyone who wants to get into 25 man raiding, while a 10 man guild has to fight all the other trillion billion 10 man guilds out there. It's ironic really, but it seems like it's the 10 man raid that has become all the hassle over the 25 man raids. The new question now is of course - how long will the 10 man guilds stand it? Will Firelands be their savior? We can only hope.

Power Leveling to 85

A friend of mine is currently preparing to power-level his char to level 85. That's not my game, I enjoy experiencing new content to the fullest and often take the time to read quest texts or just wander around aimlessly to watch the beautiful surroundings. My friend is not alone however, in fact he's already managed to gather a couple of guildies to form a group that will power-level together. Actually he was recruited into the group by another guildie who also was interested in power-leveling, and my guild now currently has formed two instance power-leveling groups that are discussing tactics and most importantly - which will be the best, aka fastest, way to get to 85?

It seems they've both settled for instancing. The one group will also turn in a full set of dailies first thing when Cataclysm is launched, while the other intends on getting started with the instances as soon as possible. My friend plays a DK and intends to be server first dk, at least (he's aiming at server first 85 of course). The other group also has a dk, so there is alot at stake here. Honor! Epeen! So these people have some 24ish hours of power-gaming to look forward to, before they'll even begin to discuss a nap-break. And when discussing with my friend I found out that preparing is no simple business.

First of all we have the game related issues. Turning in dailies or not is one of them, and I am intrigued that the groups have chosen different paths since it will give a great opportunity to compare. On the one hand we're looking at some 500k exp in a matter of minutes. On the other hand we've got instance mobs in Cataclysm that by themselves give some 1/3 of a Northrend daily. So which will be better? Getting started with the instancing asap or boost your start with some turn-ins? Personally I believe the turn-ins are better. Earlier experiences tell me that the beginning of each expansion is erratic and unstable, at best. There might be unforseen factors to attend to before you can start instancing. Talent point reset? Addons that need to be fixed? Probably, and alot other as well. All this can be done while turning in dailies, while a group that is ready to go fighting at once would have to pause and fix this. Also, we're talking some really easy exp. I did some easy maths and you'd have to kill instance-mob at a pretty high rate to come close, even when counting travel times. Considering what we've heard so far about Cataclysm instances being considerably more difficult, I wouldn't count on anyone getting up to such a high rate first thing. Nonetheless, Blizzard have taken steps to ensure a smooth crossover from Wrath to Cataclysm so we might see the first expansion without much downtimes and other issues. And maybe the rumors about instances being alot tougher proves to be somewhat exaggerated, especially when we're talking about players dished out in 25man ICC hc gear. So there is definitely no easy way to tell which will turn out better, and this makes it all the more interesting of course.

Each group has also started one forum thread discussing these issues. There they have listed the participants and requirements to be able to join. Basically they intend to come prepared for each instance like if it had been a progress raid, which means fully flasked, buffed and with the proper food. Nothing is left to chance.
Everyone has of course decided to buy the downloadable version of Cataclysm. It is without a doubt the most secure way to get your copy in due time for the launch, and it's fast and easy with the installation compared to the other choices (buying online and buying in a store).

Other preparations include;

• Coming with empty bags and fully repaired
• Be aware of all and any changes that might come to your class when cataclysm is launched
• Discover the entrance to BRC (apparently this is necessary to be able to join the queue for it)
• Optimizing the character for instancing, not raiding
• Bringing enchants and gems ready to set on new gear that one might acquire in the instances
• Make sure no one will bother you irl. Tell friends, family, better half that you'll be unavailable for a couple of days.

There is a careful schedule planned from the exact moment the launch is off. One group will as mentioned spend the first 10 minutes turning in dailies, and at exactly 00.10 they'll start queueing for instances. There must also be time to learn Flightmaster's License and to buy JP gear within those 10 minutes, so you'll obviously have to know exactly what to buy beforehand.

My friend also discussed food. What will keep him awake and fit for fight the longest without it turning into torture towards the end (aka the nap)? Apparently he didn't want to drink energy drinks, and he also intended to avoid snacks of any kind since he had read somewhere that sugar and fat will make one drowsy faster. Instead he was going to buy caffeine pills and drink water. And the food? He was pondering between carbon hydrates and protein. I told him that the body usually needed alot of energy and time to digest meat like steaks. If he wanted something that wouldn't make him sleepy he should probably go for something vegetarian. My friend isn't too fond of green food (afaik) so we'll see where he ends up in this decision.

It's interesting to see how he, and the others as well I am assuming, are preparing for this like it was a trecking trip to the far reaches of the Himalayas. In a way it will be. They intend to push their bodies to the limit, all the while having to keep their minds active and agile. Imo this isn't any less cool than if they really were taking a trecking hike to the Himalays (ok, that would be a little tougher. No toilet!). It will take careful planning, dedication and hard work to reach that goal. This is definitely no small commitment they're making. I just hope they'll have time for some fun too.

Interesting game-play changes in Cataclysm

Although I have been keeping track of different class changes in Cataclysm, especially priest changes of course, I have avoided any information about gameplay changes in Cataclysm. I've tried to avoid any lore regarding Cataclysm even more. It's difficult, but most people on the internets tell you if there is a spoiler incoming. Friends talking about their experiences on the beta-servers rarely think about this however. The other day I was talking to a friend of mine who's only playing on the Beta-servers at the moment. And he told me about some of the gameplay changes he liked. Fortunately nothing that will ruin the gaming experience for me once I get there myself or I would've had to throw old eggs at him ;) And there were some really interesting things that I am looking forward to! If you're trying to avoid any information about Cataclysm, this is a spoiler of course, so read no further! And if you're already playing the Betas, this will come as nothing new to you.

---------------------------Spoiler Break--------------------------------

My plans for Cataclysm

Cataclysm is soon upon us (I feel like I've said that a couple of times now) and it is time to start planning for how we want to play the game when it does. What class should I main? Should I change my professions? Should I switch race? So many things to think about. And then comes all the alts! These are my thoughts on the matter so far;

Priest
I will continue to main priest, no doubt. I have only ocassionaly strayed from the true path of priest healing, but always redempted myself and returned. I will probably play Zinn the way I've always done, level her as smite-priest, which for once will not mean holy spec but disc spec, and then keep her as my raiding char. There are some things I wish to change however.

Zinn has been undead since the start. I like undeads, especially the females. But now I feel like it might be time to go another way. For example I've always wanted a female troll priest. I just like the way they look when casting (so imagine my happiness when I got the troll-transform thingy from the Echo Isles event). Also troll racials are better for healing than undead racials. Although I actually use Will of the Forsaken fairly often in raids, I'd use Berserking even more often. So Zinn might turn into a troll.

She might also turn into a goblin however, since I read that goblin racials are pretty neat for healing. 1% haste straight off and those jumping rockets could really become handy. I have no idea how a healing goblin "feels", since I haven't checked any videos or played the beta, and the "feel" is rather important. I don't want my character to feel like a misplaced fridge trying to figure out what to do, like female tauren casters or female troll melee look like. I want every cast to feel like something is really happening, the more the character puts into it the more I like it generally. Another question is if 1% haste at all times will be better than 20% haste when I need it. Will 20% haste just overcap me? Or be the savior of the day? Hard to say, so this is one thing I have to figure out before Cataclysm. That Zinn will seize being an undead is pretty certain however, unless Blizzard revamp undead racials into something awesome.

Druid
My druid is probably going to undergo the biggest change when Cataclysm comes. She happens to be a female tauren and if you read what I said about them above you might've figured by now that I really dislike playing them. My shaman used to be female too, but I sex-changed him to male. It's funny because I never played him and as soon as I had changed his sex he became one of my favorite chars. Although all of his skills were exactly the same, the gear the same, everything the same (except the name, which I also changed), it felt like a completely new char. I've written about this before, the feeling of the character really makes a huge impact on playing, at least to me.

It didn't bother me as much that my druid was female tauren, since I rarely had to see her anyway. She was always in some shapeshift or another. But now that they've removed Tree of Life I would have to look at her stupid face (or back actually) everytime I want to heal. I could just not be resto. But no, I want to race change her too. Into a troll! But instead of paying for yet another race change I'll just delete her and start another druid. I love leveling so that won't be a problem at all. She doesn't have any cool achievements or items so deleting her won't be a loss. And I'll probably main her as feral. I'll give it a try at least.

Hunter
I haven't really settled into all the changes made to hunters yet. Focus? Trap launcher? Rotation? Eventhough I always say that hunters are so easy (and they used to be!) they still had what probably is the biggest arsenal of skills which you had to keep handy at all times, eventhough you ended up using them rarely. All the shots, stings and traps for instance. Now I have to sort out all of my skills and figure out this whole focus business. I've tried it some and it seems fun actually.

Also now that all the specs seem about equally viable for endgame (finally) I'll probably make Beast Mastery my main spec. I never liked Marksman and I played Survival all of Wrath so it's time for something fresh. Also I feel like the pet is what being a hunter is all about really, so making it an important part of my playstyle seems like the right way to go. You know, in the same way some rogues feel like daggers is the right way to play a rogue.

Shaman
I'm not happy about resto shaman healing. That might change once we get Healing Rains and all the other fun stuff I was looking forward to in 4.0, but turned out not to show up until Cata. My shaman is put on the shelf for now. Healing is exactly the same as it was pre-patch, only not as good. Or it doesn't feel as good anyway. When Cataclysm comes I'll probably continue to play him the way I have in Wrath however, resto and enhancement. Maybe make enhancement the main spec instead, but what I've read about enhancement so far doesn't make me eager to make any choices about it right now. Apparently enhancement has suffered as resto, it's all in all the same only not as good.

Warlock
I've mained warlock, twice. I used to really like the class! But I didn't like the way the developed in Wrath at all. It felt like warlocks were just like a version of mages. None of their huge arsenal of cool utility skills were ever put to any good use. Banish? Nope, never had to use that. Succubus? Nope, never needed to seduce anything. Warlocks were only needed for their soulstones and healthstones, which are out of combat stuff. I never got to show of my neat warlock skills, and that made the class boring (ok, I don't have any neat warlock skills, but anyway!). The changes made to Soul Shard have made me interested however. Here we have a really nice tool that forces us to make interesting choices for our dpsing. Will I use this shard to instantly summon my pet that just died in a fire? Or save it for that Drain Life I will need later on in this fight?

Warlocks are looking up, and I really feel like giving them a fresh chance. In wrath I initially played as Destro, then I switched to Affli, but didn't enjoy it so I switched to Demo. I like both Demo and Destro, but I'll probably go Destro, at least as a start.

Paladin
Paladins have become loads of fun. There was a time when I played Protadin rather extensively, but then when I tried out warrior tanking I felt like prot paladins came out short. Suddenly the whole rotation playstyle seemed stiff and like it hindered any improvisation. My protadin couldn't pull off the cool stunts I could with my warrior. I still feel like warrior tanking wins out on protadins, but I am happy about the changes they've made so far. At least now we have some procs and buffs to keep track of to optimize our tanking, and that furthers good planning and execution to pull off some nice tanking tricks.

Also her offspec, holydin, which I rarely played because it really bored me (not as much as retridin though, more about that shortly) has become alot more fun. The implemention of some more heals, removing Beacon of Light as the IWINHEALS-skill and having to keep track of Holy Power are all things I've really enjoyed about my holydin. I might make holy my new main spec on my paladin.

I played retri initially in Wrath, but quickly abandoned it because it was just too boring. It felt like no matter how I pressed my buttons I did fairly well on the meters, and where is the fun in that? It felt more like the char played me than I played it. "Press this button now", "Now press this button", like paint-by-numbers, whatever came off cooldown first I used and that seemed to work well enough. I haven't tried retri at all since the patch. The retris in my guild are sad however. Not only has the damage been nerfed, the spec is just as boring to play as it always has been. I should give it a try before I dismiss it I suppose, so maybe I'll level as retri in Cata.

Warrior
My warrior will probably change the least. He'll just continue to be prot! I might switch him from tauren male to orc female, because I've always felt like a brick (or was it prick?) when tanking as a tauren male and I want the feeling of flexibility that the meleeing orc female has.

Mage
I've always liked fire the most when playing my mage. I've always tried to main it but had to abandon it because it just wasn't good enough. I tried leveling her like it, but it seriously sucked as compared to frost. Then I tried it again once I had dinged 80 but it just wasn't as good as arcane. As soon as I heard rumors about fire doing ok in raids I switched her back again, and that is what I am currently playing. I still love it, but I might try out frost for Cataclysm. Frost is interesting too because it has alot of procs and buffs to keep track off, and that seems to be intact with 4.0. I haven't tried it yet but as it seems to be a viable raid spec I might just do that.

Death Knight
I leveled my death knight as tank, and played her mainly at 80 as a tank. I was never very good at it though, and as with protadins I missed the flexibility of warrior tanking. I liked the class, but I didn't like how the runes forced me to play my death knight in a way I didn't want to. I had to pull and handle each group of mobs the exact same way or everything would just screw up. Any suprise pull was a problem, because most of my runes would probably be on cooldown. The longer a warrior is in a fight, the easier he can handle any unplanned situation since he'll be high on rage. But the longer a death knight is in a fight, the less chance he'll be able to handle an unplanned situation because all the runes will be on cooldown. I don't enjoy playing a class that is at top when out of combat! I don't want a class that is at their max potential from start, and then dwindles down as the fight continues. I know that's not exactly how death knights (and to some extent paladins with all their cooldown based skills) work, but they sure feel like it when you compare them to classes like warriors.

Rogue
My last char to level and as such I haven't had much, barely any, chance to test it at endgame. I have been keeping an eye on rogue changes in 4.0 and what rogues think about them. As I've mentioned before it seems like my favorite spec Subtlety just doesn't cut it at endgame and I am therefore thinking about going Mutilate instead (I never liked Combat, which just feels like a weird version of fury warrior). My rogue is still sporting the BoA gear and weapons and I am divided between making a serious rush before Cata and gather some real gear  or just leave it since I'll switch anything I can get once I start leveling again anyway. I'm leaning towards the second option though.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Right now I'm not entirely sure in which order I'll level my chars. Usually that depends on what I feel like playing the moment. Since I'm still maining my priest, I'll level her first no doubt. Paladin and warrior are surely coming next, since I enjoy tanking with those classes. And then, anything can happen!

Tier 11 - Aquarium Edition

So we've got to see what the new tiers will look like. Over the years I've been pretty happy with the designs for priest tiers. There is probably not a single tier I really disliked, not even the rather plain looking tier 0,5, which might not even count as a real tier in the first place. But that tier will always have a special place in my heart since that was the first really cool gear I managed to get on my priest (except Anathema/Benediction) and my first taste of the end-game tier-collecting madness that was to come.

Looking back on it I think Blizzard have had a good idea about how to design the priest tiers overall. Most of them are pretty slick, with nothing fancy, but there are some odd-balls. But even when Blizzard went a little crazy on our tiers, it still seemed to make sense. Let's recap.

• Tier 1, Vestments of Prophecy, made us look like some sort of high-priest of the Scarlet Crusade, but I like the combination of blood-red and white. Unfortunately I never got my hands on any of these because the few MC runs I ever got around to doing always had 10 priests ahead of me in DKP. It's also a shame that Blizzard haven't decided to re-use this nice color-combination.
• Tier 2, Vestments of Transcendence, started the light-blue fad of priest tiers that became rather commonplace later on. I've only been to BWL once and that was on level 80 and not even on my priest, so I didn't even smell this tier.
• Tier 3, Vestments of Faith, was rather similar to Tier 2 with the white-blue theme. This is one of the tiers I like the most with the delicate wings on the shoulders. Nothing too extravagant, but just enough to show everyone what they're looking at - a priest. This tier has a spartan design, and I like it. I was really glad to see it return with the WOTLK version of Naxx, because it would really have been a shame to see this gone by basically unnoticed otherwise.

• Tier 4, Incarnate Raiment/Regalia, was the first tier to be sold as tokens instead of dropped from some boss. The tokens were dropped from bosses instead and several classes could use each token, which meant there was less chance that a drop would be useless to the raid. It was also the first tier that had different names of the sets for healing and dpsing priests. This means of course this was the first time Blizzard actuallt designed a tier for dpsing priests at all. Shadow priests had no business in raids in Vanilla, but come BC Blizzard had changed their minds. This too is a good-looking set that I wore for a long time. Tier 4 marks the first tier I ever collected fully, since BC and Karazhan was the first time I started raiding seriously. Purple is a color that suited my rotting, undead priest perfectly.
• Tier 5, Avatar Raiment/Regalia, was among the more ellaborate looking priest tiers. Yet again it gives us wings, this time a little more odd looking however, a hood and a halo (which first had been seen in tier 4). Nonetheless I think the complete set is really cool looking. It definitely shows that it is a special collection of gear, and is set apart from all the other gear pieces you'd get at that time. Being in a 10-man guild as I was then, I never got many prieces of t5, I think only the gloves from Leotheras actually. If I ever wanted to collect one tier for rp, this'd be it.
• Tier 6, Vestments of Absolution/Absolution Regalia, was a step back from the pronounced design of tier 5. Instead we got a tier that made us look like Blackbrother Monks from the middle ages. Nothing wrong with that, one doesn't always want to run around looking like the Christmas Tree of Heaven (tier 5). The contrast between these two sets is huge and maybe also set the point that the ones with the really cool gear doesn't have to brag about it with wings and halos everywhere. I was never even close to getting any of this gear for the same reason I never got close to tier 5.

• Tier 7, Heroes' Regalia/Garb of Faith, re-used the design of the tier 3 that dropped in the original Naxxramas instance, Vestments of Faith. Since Blizzard had made it so that all raids could be raided with a 10-man guild this turned out to be the second tier ever that I fully collected.
• Tier 8, Valorous Sanctification Regalia/Garb, Going back to the purple theme used by tier 4, and what was probably among the coolest looking priest tier head piece ever. I mean who doesn't want to look like a ninja while healing?
• Tier 9, Velen's/Zabra's Regalia/Raiment, was the first (and so far only) tier to be named differently not only between specs but between factions. It was also the first tier to be upgradable through heroic mode tokens. On the various pictures on this blog (when writing this anyway) I am mostly wearing tier 9. It had a head piece much like the one in tier 8, and a rather unusual set of earth-colors, more common among the shaman and druids sets. We had now ventured far from the designs of the first tiers.
• Tier 10, Crimson's Acolyte's Regalia/Raiment, removed the different names from different factions again. Maybe Blizzard thought it was a little too much to keep track of after all. This is the tier most of us are wearing when I'm writing this. I never collected much of this set since I think the set bonused are rather lame. In fact the 2 set bonus has become even less good now that we use Flash Heal even less often. They should have changed it to affect Heal instead, but that's a side-note. Tier 10 continues the dark design from tier 9 and looks more magey or lockey than priesty really. Also I find the inverted pot we're supposed to wear on our heads looks completely ridiculous and I'd probably refuse to use it even if it was half-decent. Or hide it for sure.

And now we've got a look at what we're supposed to wear for our next tier. Am I happy or sad? Let me just say I am amazed that there is anyone out there who thinks this is a good looking tier. I like the color-choices, but that is about the only good thing I can say about it. It is clear we're designed around the fact that alot of endgame Cataclysm takes place under water. Did they have to make us look like aquariums though? The head looks like some bad copy of some underwater suit and the shoulders... well where should I begin. Who ever thought running around with bird-baths on your shoulders would be a good idea should be sentenced to play the game eternally dazed.

Picture from MMO-Champion, in case you couldn't tell ;)

They usually only give druids and hunters (and occasionally paladins) the really weird/odd/bad tier design choices. The ones that are far out there and that never really should have left the drawing table. The tiers that eventually turn into legends, not because they were so good or the instances that dropped them so much fun but because you looked like a nutter wearing them. Like the Paladin Lawbringer tier (banana shoulders), Druid Stormrage tier (hello there Mr Moose) and Rogue Shadowblade Battlegear tier (can you breath in that mask?). Well there are plenty of examples actually, maybe every class has to get their freak out gear. I just thought priests had it over and done with considering what tier 5 looked like. But that at least kept us on the priest theme. Tier 11 looks like we're trying to dress up as a swimming pool for Halloween. In fact every other tier is cooler than ours.

Death Knight
Although I might question the color choices (green?) for the Death Knight tiers, these are really true to the Death Knight design. Death Knights have always infringed on the warrior tier design trademark, but there are generally a little more skulls here. This is no exception. Where Warriors are supposed to look like moving mountains, Death Knights are supposed to look like armored skeletons. In any case it's working and it looks damn cool.

Druid
This is what the priest tier could've looked like! Except maybe for the dead bird on the head. The color scheme, especially the blue one, and the wings are totally stolen from a priest design. Love claims that since the wings have feathers and aren't all light-wooshy they really have nothing to do with priests. In any case these tiers look way more like a priest-tier than the priest tier does. And except for the dead bird on the head it looks ok.

Hunter
Hunters have always had a special treatment by Blizzard. It seems like Blizzard always try to outdo themselves in weird tier-design when they're doing the hunter tier. I don't think anyone thought they'd be able to outdo the Dragonstalker set (seriously just thinking about it makes me laugh), and no tier 11 isn't worse than that. But wearing a dead Murloc comes pretty close. Even though it's hilarious it's still cool! And maybe also a little sad. Think about all those poor murlocs.

Mage
I might be wrong, but I've got the feeling mages never get cool looking tiers. So eventhough I am slightly envious at this tier, which makes them look like The Reaper who fell into a painting by Monet (which is good!), they probably deserve it.

Paladin
Considering how hideously, horribly, awful Blizzard can design paladin tiers when they set their mind to it (tier 1, tier 7, hoo that makes me shudder) we probably should be very happy about tier 11. It's actually half decent. A little boring perhaps! But it could've been so much worse.

Rogue
Totally in line with the design choices they've had for rogues lately, this kinda makes them look like one of them Consortium guys from BC. I know alot of people hoped that the Consortium would turn out to be a playable class eventually just because they look so cool. And now I suppose rogues get to try ut out. I think it looks great.

Shaman
If I had to pick two tiers for Blizzard to redesign (out of the tier 11 ones) I'd first and foremost pick the priest one. And secondly the shaman one. There is nothing wrong about the shaman tier per se. But there really isn't anything about the shaman tier. It looks so plain. Like someone flung a robe over the shaman and couldn't bother to do anything else about it. The color choices are great though! I suppose you only get one or the other.

Warlock
Some people don't like the warlock sets. That is probably because they play human warlocks and don't realize that they're doomed to look really silly in any gear they put on. I think tier 11 will look totally cool on my warlock anyway (eventhough she is a belf). The unsymmetrical horns is the "dot over i" as we say in sweden. That little thing that really makes it all perfect. And yet again the colors are great.

Warrior
Did I say walking mountain? That's pretty much it. And I love it! It works perfectly for a warrior and you'll probably feel like the juggernaut you are once you've collected the whole set. I'm a little uncertain about the turquoise set though, but hopefully I won't have to wear that.

This is what Zinn would look like. No wai. (from wowhead)

All in all I think Blizzard have designed some pretty good tiers for tier 11. My guess would be shamans came last and Blizzard just couldn't be arsed to come up with anything cool for them. And the die probably fell on "priest" for when they were deciding who was going to get the ugliest set this time around. I'm just hoping the off-pieces will be good enough for me to wear those instead... What do you think about tier 11?

Pre-Cataclysm Treadmill

What am I doing here again?

I have a confession to make. I am no less affected by the Cataclysm blues than the rest of you. Oh I am still raiding and leveling my alts, and I still enjoy it. But I more and more often find myself sitting in front of my computer, desperately sifting through my blog roll for something interesting to read just because I don't feel like playing WoW.

This isn't all different from how I've always played WoW. I won't deny that I occasionally spend many, many hours in a go playing, but not as often as you might think. Quite often I do some leveling on an alt for an hour or so (that's probably what I do most in WoW) and then I go do something else. Read a book probably. I raid alot too, but eventhough I think it's much it's still "just" some hours per week. I think my problem right now is that pre-Cataclysm coincides with me having more free time than ever (that will probably change just in time for the new patch, just my luck). So I find myself writing posts like these instead. I could level my 6th shaman, but in a way it also makes me feel silly. Do I really want to roll this shaman? Really really? Or do I do it just to fill my time? I would really dread the day I do something in WoW I don't really want to do, just to have something to do. You know what I mean.

Because WoW can be a little too accessible sometimes. Like it's always there and everytime you find yourself with nothing to do you could always just like... log on... run around... and stuff. Maybe just post some auctions. Maybe just check if you sold some auctions. Maybe just farm some herbs. You know the drill. You're not really doing anything in WoW either then but it still feels more like doing something than staring into the computer screen. On the other hand WoW is also the only way for me to hang with some of my friends who live far away on a daily basis. I bet we've all just logged and chatted with someone while standing around in Dalaran for a while. Nothing wrong with using WoW as an advanced chat program, in fact I find that to be one of WoW greatest strengths and probably a good reason to why the game is so popular - the social aspect.

Sometimes when I sit and read my mind wanders and I start to think about all the levels I could've gained by now if only I had played instead! Yes, I seriously feel like reading books or watching movies are a waste of time (sometimes)! I shake the feeling just as soon as it enter my head of course. I wouldn't play just for the money I could gain or the levels I could get, and never have so far. It has to be fun. And until now I've had no trouble finding fun stuff to do in WoW, but I'm starting to run short of them.

So rerolling yet another alt seems silly. But I still do it of course (my latest project being a feral cat druid, haven't played that since BC after all!). I look at all my other alts and figure I could give them some attention too. And I do. I raid with some of them or do the occasional achievement, just for funs. I spend some time reading up on them. Right now I've just acquired bunch-loads of new gear for my shamans enhancement spec through our weekly gdkp runs. So I try to learn more about how enhancement shamans work. I haven't found a really good source on this (where are all the enhancement shaman bloggers?!) but I think I've got the general idea. Cap hit and expertise, then go for haste/ap. Use two slow weapons with Windfury. But everytime I socket a new gem I think "is it really worth it? I will replace it all in a couple of months anyway...". So is spending all those thousands of gold (because that is what it has come to) really worth it? I don't know, but I do it anyway. Can't always play for what's coming, for in a sense nothing ever lasts in WoW anyway. Gear will come and go, only experiences will last forever!

So I do things I've never done before, or things I've haven't done for a long time, like exploring EPL & WPL that I wrote about yesterday. That is loads of fun actually. But only for so long.

All the while I am longing for Cata, I am seriously thinking about trying out other things to do. Only problem is that one of the things I still really enjoy is raiding with my main. And I just joined this guild and they totally wouldn't like it if I ditched them now to go play something else (as many guildies already have, damn you Star Craft 2!). If I could afford it I'd totally go play another game whilst keeping my WoW-account active. I wanna try another mmorpg see, so that would mean paying two monthly fees. Something I can't really say I can fit into my budget at the moment. Because I don't just want to try any mmorpg, I really wanna try Warhammer Online.

I already told you what I thought about it when I tried the 10- day trial, and I really think it would be fun to play some Warhammer while I wait for Cataclysm. But I don't want to give up raiding. So.. no Warhammer. *sigh* Dilemmas of someone who has no real problems I suppose :P

At least I can see 4.0 on the horizon now, and I think I will have plenty to do then. Not only will I have to wrap my mind around raid healing again, although I heard the differences for healing priests aren't as big as they are for some other healing classes, I've got 9 alts I have to learn all over (with my luck I'll prolly have to scrap all those epic gems I just did for my enhancement shaman)!

How are you handling the blues?

25man raiding will not be gone with Cataclysm

Alot of concern has been thrown around since we got to know about the changes to 25/10 man raiding that will come in Cataclysm. Apparently 25man and 10man raids will be about equally difficult and most importantly, give the same loot. This has never before been the case, where the best loot only was obtainable from doing the bigger raids (or some serious pvp, but in wrath pvp loot got less good pve stats). This is yet another step Blizzard is taking towards the more casual players, as it is arguably easier to find 9 friends to raid with than 24. No matter if people think it's a good idea or not people seem to think this is the death to 25man raiding. Why would you go to the lengths of gathering 25 people for something, when 10 people will give you the same loot? I'm not sure it's that easy though.

The bloggosphere is being coincidental on me again. Vidyala over at Pugging Pally happened to write about this topic some days ago. In a way I love it, it gives me the chance to see someone elses thoughts on the matter before posting my own and also the chance to link over there in case you'd like to read another post on it.

I've spent most of my raiding career in a 10 man strict guild, and I enjoyed it overall. It does create a rather tight bond to raid with the same 10 people all the time. Or at least that's what you'd think. About 2 months ago I joined a bigger guild to be able to try some 25man raiding, something I'd only ever done in pugs before that (not counting the occasional 25mans we manage to scrape together back in BC in my old guild). The simple reason was that I wanted to try something new (and my old guild had lost alot of its core raiders anyway, so I thought now might be as good a time as any). And it made me realize that the differences between the two raid types aren't that big, at least not in my experience. Up to date I've done plenty of 10man and 25man raiding in ICC so this is where I can compare stuff, and considering ICC is our latest (albeit running rather old by now) raiding dungeon, maybe that is the best place to start anyhow.

Firstly, and maybe alot of you people won't agree with me here - the difficulty level difference isn't that big. People say that managing 25 people around is way tougher than 10 people, I don't agree. As I have mentioned before it is also easier to have someone die in 25man than in 10 man, overall my experience tells me that these two factors take eachother out when it comes to difficulty. The difficulty difference in game mechanics have so far not been noticeable, overall they're about as punishing to either setup. And as far as game mechanics go we can only hope Blizzard manage to make them as fair as possible considering they intend the encounters to be equally difficult. In ICC they still intend 10man to be easier than 25man, but as I said even then I don't think there is a big difference.

But even if it was easier to find a good 10man group than a good 25man group, people seem to be missing the most important point - what do people enjoy the most? Even if 10mans have been around for a long time, 10man strict guilds aren't a common thing. Do all the people playing in 25man raid guilds do it just for the better loot? I just won't think that is the case.

And all the troubles we have in our 25man guild, we had back in my 10man guild. People who stop raiding, people who don't share the views of seriousness, raids having trouble getting filled and having to replace with non-regular raiders. People who come and go. Since I started out raiding I haven't really been part of a core group for very long. There were some people who've been there since the beginning, but most people actually quit playing (which is one of the biggest reasons I changed guild at all, as mentioned). And if we had some people who stayed all the way, they didn't sign for every raid. And the same thing goes for my 25man guild. Eventhough there are some people who have near 100% attendance, a big chunk of the raid group always seems to consist of those occasional raiders, them who have time to raid about once a week instead of perhaps three times a week.

One week we have 30+ signs for our raids, and we're thinking "boy maybe we're a little too many now" and the next week we have 20 ish signs thinking "hmm, better start recruiting again". It's like a yo-yo, up and down. Right before a new expansion might be the worst of times in terms of guild stability, but honestly I don't think things stay constant for very long mid expansion either. Maybe during the time when everyone levels up to 85, and maybe even through the clearing of the whole first raid, but then people quickly seem to find other things to do and the whole "recruit?/not recruit?" mess starts all over again. Even if the same people stay they suddenly decide they want to play another class alltogether and the most important healer turns into yet another hunter. I won't force anyone to play anything they don't like, the point is that guilds change all the time no matter if you're in a big or small one.

It is what happens when you're dealing with people, and this won't change. And this doesn't differ whether you're in a 25man or 10man guild, because in either case you're trying to keep a working amount of people interested in raiding towards your guilds goals.

Blizzard have even said the amount of drops in 25man will be proportianately bigger than in 10man, which means in a way it'll still be the "better" choice to do 25mans, if it's gear you're after. But personally, I've really enjoyed doing 25mans, and I really wouldn't mind continouing doing so at all, even if there was no "benefit" of it in ways of better or more loot. Even if 25mans won't be more difficult, it does add another dimension, another way of playing, that I really enjoy. Coordinating 25 people doesn't have to be more difficult, and I don't think it is, but it is different. So everyone has to find out whether they enjoy the 10man setup more or the 25man setup. I think 25man raiding is far from dead. I'm just glad 10man raiding will be just a good a choice for those days when you don't have enough people for a 25man. Or simply enjoy doing raids with 9 friends instead of 24.

Holy Priest 4.0 Talent Build

This post is outdated! For latest updates, check here. Comments can still be left here.

Continuing from my post on how to spec your disc priest in 4.0/Cataclysm, let's take a look at what talents could be interesting for the holy priest. My first impression overall is that disc has changed more than holy, but I am more positive about the fun healing as holy might be in Cataclysm than I initially were. At one point I even considered not speccing holy at all for Cataclysm, because it just seemed like the same old thing, except maybe for Chakra. Alot has happened since then however, and I am sure alot more will happen before we have holy healing set in stone for Cataclysm. Don't forget to bear that in mind for this post by the way, things really do change from one day to the next now and this is therefore more of a general map of thoughts than the definite answer on how to spec your holy priest.


TL;DR - Suggestion on a build at the bottom.

As with the disc talents I won't discuss the obvious choices in the main tree, that's for another post. Instead I'd like to highlight the questionmarks, the talents that might need some testing before we can say which way it should be. Something I didn't mention in my other post however and that could be good to keep in mind is that these talents aren't optimized for Wrath, after all they're Cataclysm talents. That means healing might seem off at first, we won't know for sure how we're supposed to do things until the real things hits us.

The big difference between discipline and holy (except the same old one, disc being about shields and holy being about aoe-heals) seems to be that holy is way less about smiting than disc. As a disc you'll probably want to use smite as part of your standard healing arsenal, see my post on disc talents for more info about that. But as a holy you won't be able to spec Atonement, the talent that turns Smite into a heal, which makes me think we won't want to smite as often as holy. If at all. Also unlike discipline, holy wouldn't want to spend as many points in the off trees, leaving plenty of points for the main tree. Nearly all of them in fact, so even though I'm not entirely sure of the usefulness of all the talents, we'll have to spend points in them anyway since there's really nothing else to take. So let's take a look shall we.

The main tree (holy) - talents not mentioned here are the ones you probably should talent.

Divine Fury - Although holy healing still is alot about using instants, Heal will be one our most important healing spells in Cataclysm. Therefore this will be one of the most important talents to keep up with the haste drop (and at all times), and besides, there's not much else better to take anyway!
Desperate Prayer - Desperate Prayer is a very small heal, and not a great talent. But because Surge of Light is an even worse talent we still have to pick this to get further down the tree. It could be a nice saver when you need it, since it is free of mana and instant.
Surge of Light - This used to be one of the best talents in the holy tree, until they revamped to proc 6% from all Heals and Smites instead of half of your crits. It might've been too good before, although I don't think so, but it definitely sucks now. Even when raiding, where you'll throw shitloads of Heals, this just won't proc often enough to make any difference whatsoever. The mana efficiency is marginal at best, and I really feel they need to buff this alot before it's worth those 2 tp.

Lightwell - This poor spell seems to finally get the attention and overhaul it needs. With an increased range, no requirement of targetting and even bigger healing output, I'm seriously starting to think this might become a really good talent. I've always talented this spell (and generally get the response "Oh look, a lightwell!" from surprised people on TS) but that has been more out of sentimental reasons than the skill actually being good. Now it seems Lightwell might be as awesome as it always deserved to be.
Serendipity - You won't use this often, but when you do you'll be glad you have it. Haste will go down significantly from 80 to 85, and this will be our "oh shit" talent. When the tank is dangerously low on hp you throw two flash heals followed by a Greater Heal so save the situation.

Spirit of Redemption - The main reason people ever specced into this was for the extra 5% spirit and/or to get down to Lightwell. SoR doesn't provide any of those anymore, and eventhough it can occasionally be useful, I don't like to talent in a way that expects me to die.
Tome of Light - Only useful if we also spec Chakra and Revelations, but since Chakra is what being holy is all about in Cataclysm that won't be a problem. I am somewhat uncertain as to how useful this talent actually will be, but we have to talent basically everything to get all the way down into the tree anyway.
Blessed Resilience - The changes to this talent (and the corresponding in the discipline tree, Focused Will) have made them less of pvp-talents, and actually possibly very useful for pve. But maybe still not useful enough to warrant it taking talent points from something else.

The offspec trees

Mental Agility - I do believe Renew will still be a big part of our healing, although maybe less so than it is right now. Still this talent also improves CoH and PoM, two other very important spells in the holy arsenal. I also think mana might be more of an issue for holy than for disc (just as now) seeing as disc has more talents to improve mana efficiency than holy does.
Twin Disciplines - Since it increases both healing and damage done by 6% it is clear disc priests are the ones who will benefit the most from this talent. That doesn't mean it's worthless for everyone else. Like mentioned I don't think holy priests will be smiting very much, so they'll probably "just" be using the extra healing. 6% extra healing straight off is fairly good, and if you don't feel like you're having any issues with mana you could easily take this talent instead of Veiled Shadows or Mental Agility. It all depends on how much mana will be an issue in Cataclysm. Since I am gemmed for disc I have tons of spellpower but low mana regen and could use Mental Agility more than Twin Disciplines. Even in Wrath holies have been among the healers (together with resto shamans) who yell for innervates, but only you know if you're that priest or not! ^^
Evangelism (and Archangel) - Although it is possible to spec into Evangelism and Archangel even as holy, I don't think it would be something we want to do. Without Atonement we won't have the time to Smite anyway.
Darkness - Holy has no talent to improve haste. Haste is as important as it was in Wrath so this is a great talent.
Veiled Shadows - A decent way to improve mana efficiency for holy, but Mental Agility is at least twice as good.

So my first try out for a 4.0 holy spec would look something like this.
UPDATE 13/12: Here is the spec I'd go with for level 85.

That means we will try to keep renews up by using Heals, all the while trying to manage to keep the proper Chakra active and using our different corresponding Holy Words as fillers. Managing our Chakra states will be what will separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to holy healing, so practice, practice, practice on evaluating the situation and choosing the right chakra stance, it will make a big difference. As it is now I personally feel that Chakra: Heal (Serenity) is almost always more efficient than Chakra: PoM (Sanctuary).

Discipline Priest 4.0 Talent Build

This post is outdated! For latest updates, check here. Comments can still be left here.

4.0 is "soon" upon us, and with it the possibility to spec into our new and fancy talent trees with all the goodness of new skills and changes to our class that will mean. I have given the different talent trees some thought and realized that the big questionmarks doesn't seem to lie in where you'll want to put your talents in your main tree, but where you'll want to put your remaining talents in the off trees.

TL;DR - suggestion for a disc spec at the bottom.

My first thoughts on the new talent trees were based on two misconceptions. First of all I thought we'd keep the system with getting one tp per level. That would mean a whole lot of tp's for what has become rather small talent trees. Our talent trees haven't been this short since Vanilla, and I was wondering if Blizzard had meant us to be two specs at once? Of course not, Blizzard have fixed this by giving us one tp every second level instead, which mean at level 85 we'll have 41 talent points to spend (compare that to the 71 we have today).

I also thought you'd be free to spend your points anywhere you like, just as today. But to prevent people from doing what I thought people would do, namely spec into several trees at once becoming some sort of freak hybrids, Blizzard have made it so that you have to spec all the way down into one tree before you can spec into another tree (unless the talent calculator on mmochamp simply is bugged somehow and I am completely wrong about this). That means you have to spend 31 tp in one tree before you can start speccing in another, and that also means we only have 10 tp to play around with. On the bright side, it really seems like Blizzard have manage to make these last tps "play around with"-able. They've always said they wanted to move away from cookie cutter specs (aka one best spec) and give us some tp to work with for more individual solutions.

It probably varies between trees, but every tree consists of more tps than 41, which means you could place all your talent points into one tree. Unlike now, that probably wouldn't even be a totally bad idea, but there are undoubtebly good talents in the off trees of every class to look at as well. I have looked at priest talents, and here are my thoughts on what you might want to talent as a disc priest.

In fact, because you have to spend so many talents in your "main tree", it's easier to discuss which talents that shouldn't be picked and which talents in the off trees that might be the most interesting. Note that I haven't had access to the beta servers, but I have been reading up some on the current status of healing overall and what it might turn out to be in Cataclysm.

Here are the talents I am thoughtful about;

The main tree (disc) - the talents not mentioned here are then ones you probably should talent.

• Mental Agility vs Veiled Shadows - Even though many reports go on about mana being a big issue for healers on the betas, I'm still not sure Mental Agility will be important enough to spend 3 tps on. 3 tps is alot in the betas (and in Cataclysm), and I feel these could be better spend on a talent like Veiled Shadows (in the shadow tree) which reduces the cooldown on Shadowfiend. If the Shadowfiend is as good as it is today, it's difficult to say which of them would be more mana returning. But I think we'll cast way less instant heals as disc than we do today (see Strength of Soul too), and this talent is probably much better for renew spamming holy priests. (EDIT: Since the tp cost of Atonement and Borrowed Time has been reduced, it is now possible to fully spec into both Rapture, Veiled Shadows and Mental Agility)
• Inner Sanctum - Yet again a full 3 tps for improving two skills I'm not entirely sure will benefit enough from it. I am sure Inner Fire/Will be much used, as I see we'll switch between them constantly when fighting for optimal healing (I think they removed the mana cost from these two spells for this sake as well). Nevertheless, will 6% reduced spell damage and 6% increased movement speed be enough of a difference to warrant 3 tp? I'm not entirely sure.
• Inner Focus - My argument for ever taking this talent has always been "well it's just one talent point". But tp's have never been as valuable as they are now and eventhough they've reduced the cooldown on Inner Focus significantly, and it can be reduced further with the Talent Train of Thought, I'm just not sure it will be worth it. It's still just one free heal. On the other hand if you macrod it into being used together with the mentioned heals, you could see it as working as a "passive" mana cost reducing talent (together with Train of Thought that is).
• Rapture - One of the best talents in Wrath, and yet again since mana seems to be a big issue in Cataclysm this could turn out to be completely crucial. But as I've already mentioned (and will get to again), since we'll be throwing less shields and Rapture only procs every 12 seconds, I think our main mana gain will come from either Inner Focus + Train of Thought combo, or Evangelism + Archangel combo, or maybe using both. I'm choosing between Mental Strength and Rapture here, because it feels like at least one of them might be good, they're basically buffing the same skill, but taking both seems overkill. With enough intellect and in fights where you can expect your shields to be constantly absorbed, Rapture might be the better choice. Otherwise it feels like Mental strength is slightly better since it also works for heals like PoM. This seems like something I have to test properly before deciding. (EDIT: Since the tp cost of Atonement and Borrowed Time has been reduced, it is now possible to fully spec into both Rapture and Mental Agility).
• Soul Warding - If we'll be shielding less, maybe we won't even need this talent! That seems a little to big a step for me to take right away though, so that's something I'll have to find out before I go that far as to remove it ^^
• Reflective Shield - I can't see how this talent will become more important for healing disc priests in Cataclysm than it is today. A good leveling talent nonetheless.
• Strength of Soul - Reducing the cooldown on Weakened Soul sounds like a good thing, but I don't even today feel like the 15 seconds duration on Weakened Soul is a huge problem, so unless they've extended it in Beta I don't really feel like this kind of talent is necessary. Especially not since it's actually kinda counteracting the prerequisite talent Renewed Hope. We don't use Heal much when healing and I don't think this talent will be very useful in the end. I'm not going to use this.
• Grace - Seems about as useless for the raid healing disc priest as it is today. In 10man, disc priests are often used as tank healers, in 25man seldom so. It might be that paladins, even shamans, will be less good tank healers in Cata and that way we disc priests are supposed to step into the role even more. I've only glanced on holy paladin/resto shaman changes, and eventhough resto shamans actually seem to have been changed quite alot from the chain heal spamming ways, holydins still seem to be the tankhealers of choice. In the end it depends on your raid setup probably - if you're the tank healer this is a great talent. If you're not, this is a bad way to spend 2 tp's. UPDATE 25/11: The most recent changes made to Grace is making it too powerful to ignore. Blizzard has finally realized that for us to want to take it, it must really make a difference. Fully stacked Grace will increase healing on one target by 24%. This is no small sum and I'd now recommend any disc priest - tank or raid healer alike, to take this.

The offspec trees - remember we can only place 10 tp into holy and shadow

• Divine Fury - Scorned by healing priests alike since Wrath came out, it seems to make a grand re-entrance as a really great healing-talent. For disc this will be a great talent if you intend to be one of those smite-healing priests (as I do) and have specced into Atonement.
• Empowered Healing - increasing the healing done on several of your main heals seems like a good thing to do, plain and simple.
• Improved Renew - Seeing as disc priests probably will have their hands full anyway, smiting, healing and shielding, I don't think renew will be anymore part of our standard healing arsenal in Cataclysm than it is today.
• Desperate Prayer - It took me a while to notice, but Desperate Prayer now apparently requires shadowform. So nothing for us then. UPDATE 12/10: Seems like that typo finally is gone, and now Desperate Prayer is free for us to talent, if we want to. This is the big issue here. It is a great talent, but only if you use it. It has saved me alot of times, but I could also just practice more on Binding Heal (as disc you have a nice "instant"-heal with shields too already), especially since there are so many other nice talents that we'd want as well.
• Surge of Light - Might not be a bad idea for a disc priest since we'll probably smite a whole lot. Or so I think anyway, I might be completely wrong! Hope not, I really want to be a pewpew priest.
• Inspiration - This has always been one of priests (and shamans that have an equivalent talent) strongest talents. I'd like to think it still will be in Cataclysm and therefore good for a disc priest to have as well as a holy priest. Good enough to pick over other talents though? Not so sure.
• Darkness - 3% haste could be awesome, or not so awesome. Borrowed Time gives 15% haste for one spell already, which means (just as today) that it won't give 15% spell haste straight off, but disc priests will be fairly satisfied with their amount of haste. On the other hand we've lost Enlightenment (6% haste), but it's also difficult to say if haste will be as an important stat in Cataclysm as it is today. I think not. UPDATE 11/10: Disc priests will want 25% haste (all in all). That probably means we won't need much more than what we get from gear and Borrowed Time.
• Veiled Shadows - Already mentioned above.

This build is somewhat outdated, look further down for an up to date suggestion on build.

With all this in mind, my first talent spec try out for 4.0 disc healing would probably look something like the above;
Note that this is for a level 85 char however, and that 5 tp would have to be subtracted for patch 4.0. This is from the 13066 build and can (and probably will) change before patch release. UPDATE 1/10: Most recent change has significantly nerfed Atonement (healing 80% of Smite damage instead of 120%) possibly making this talent not worth taking anymore. UPDATE 3/10: Yet another change to Atonement, now heals 100% of Smite damage. I'll just say we don't know how good this talent will be, and alot is still changing as we can see.
UPDATE 25/11: With the buff to Grace, I'd go with this spec for level 80.

Healing would then be combining Inner Focus heals with Greater Heals, Shields, Smite-heals and SoL procs.
This means we'll Smite for Evangelism and SoL, use up our Archangel, start shielding and healing, and then go back to smiting. Something like that.