Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
I don't get it.
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=34120#comments
A steady shot that causes base weapon damage plus [RAP * 0.2 + 150]. Causes an additional 175 against Dazed targets.
I don't get it. Concussive costs a GCD, and more mana than another steady shot. (About the same as an arcane shot, which is instant, does damage, and dispels).
You don't open up a damage sequence on a target with concussive first, so arguing that doing concussive > steady is a moot point for extra "burst", if you call it that. The damage bonus is negligible at best as it is. I'd be better off just using another steady or multi or arcane between steady and auto shots.
You save concussive for targets running away, or to slow down chasers, which means you are typically moving away or toward them. Since steady shot requires you to be stationary, this "synergy" just seems broken.
The only real use I could see out of this would be if you were in a raid and other classes were dazing the mobs that actually aren't immune to daze (which seemed rare when I had aftermath procced), and you were BM spec doing your standard steady/auto 1:1 shot rotation.
In PvP, I find this extra feature far, far, FAR too situational to ever use or take advantage of. I really think there could have been a better bonus system for this new shot. I just find it far too counter-productive to try and take advantage of the daze damage bonus. (Giving up other potential shot damage to work in a tiny damage bonus on my steady shot).
Am I missing something here?
Also,
The 1s off the multishot cooldown is OK. I find it odd, though, that our best DPS/burst ability is also the most prone to breaking CC. I can't really see myself taking advantage of using multishot every 9s (especially with its pretty high mana cost) in the same way that a warrior can always take advantage of 5s off his 20s intercept cooldown (a 25% increase, mind you). Yeah I know intercept is 30s base, but let's be realistic. Any PvP warrior is going to have 20s intercept via talents, just as any pvp warlock is going to have instacast corruption. You just have to take that into consideration.
I understand you can't add a reduction to aimed shot cast time, since I've never seen a armor bonus that was talent specific on pvp gear. I'm assuming there's some sort of policy against talent-specific set bonuses on pvp gear so that you guys won't get flamed for ignoring the 2% of warriors who pvp as fury or prot (lol) for example.
Still, a 1s off arcane and 1s off of multi would be better. At least then we'd be able to at least benefit from the 4pc bonus 100% of the time, vs 50% of the time as of currently.
A steady shot that causes base weapon damage plus [RAP * 0.2 + 150]. Causes an additional 175 against Dazed targets.
I don't get it. Concussive costs a GCD, and more mana than another steady shot. (About the same as an arcane shot, which is instant, does damage, and dispels).
You don't open up a damage sequence on a target with concussive first, so arguing that doing concussive > steady is a moot point for extra "burst", if you call it that. The damage bonus is negligible at best as it is. I'd be better off just using another steady or multi or arcane between steady and auto shots.
You save concussive for targets running away, or to slow down chasers, which means you are typically moving away or toward them. Since steady shot requires you to be stationary, this "synergy" just seems broken.
The only real use I could see out of this would be if you were in a raid and other classes were dazing the mobs that actually aren't immune to daze (which seemed rare when I had aftermath procced), and you were BM spec doing your standard steady/auto 1:1 shot rotation.
In PvP, I find this extra feature far, far, FAR too situational to ever use or take advantage of. I really think there could have been a better bonus system for this new shot. I just find it far too counter-productive to try and take advantage of the daze damage bonus. (Giving up other potential shot damage to work in a tiny damage bonus on my steady shot).
Am I missing something here?
Also,
The 1s off the multishot cooldown is OK. I find it odd, though, that our best DPS/burst ability is also the most prone to breaking CC. I can't really see myself taking advantage of using multishot every 9s (especially with its pretty high mana cost) in the same way that a warrior can always take advantage of 5s off his 20s intercept cooldown (a 25% increase, mind you). Yeah I know intercept is 30s base, but let's be realistic. Any PvP warrior is going to have 20s intercept via talents, just as any pvp warlock is going to have instacast corruption. You just have to take that into consideration.
I understand you can't add a reduction to aimed shot cast time, since I've never seen a armor bonus that was talent specific on pvp gear. I'm assuming there's some sort of policy against talent-specific set bonuses on pvp gear so that you guys won't get flamed for ignoring the 2% of warriors who pvp as fury or prot (lol) for example.
Still, a 1s off arcane and 1s off of multi would be better. At least then we'd be able to at least benefit from the 4pc bonus 100% of the time, vs 50% of the time as of currently.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Hunter Pet Problems Continued (And other issues)
Current bugs:
I'd say a good 20% of the time I send a /pet attack command to my pet, it will make the "attack" feedback noise that pets do when you issue the command, and he'll face the target, but he won't actually go. He'll just sit there and not attack anything.
I think it might have something to do with telling pets to attack targets that are standing near objects. Pillars, houses, logs of wood, mining nodes, trees, etc. It seems a lot of environment objects are causing all sorts of pet pathing issues now.
It might be because it sees no way to get behind the target maybe, since pets try to do that all the time now. I'm not sure what exactly is causing it, but it's beyond annoying.
Also, my pet and its target are constantly re-ranging each other in melee combat. I think it has a lot to do with hit box size as well as the pet trying to get behind the target. My pet will move closer to the target, and the target will back up, and my pet will readjust to the targets new position, and the target will readjust to that, over and over and over. It happens every single fight now.
Pet leveling system:
Pet leveling, as bad as it was before, is just horrible now. I'm out-leveling my pet as is with the recent XP changes to the player level grind. It's my understanding that pet level requirements have dropped 15% as well, but i'm also collecting a retarded amount of quest EXP since 2.3. My pet just can't keep up.
Please, please, please, just do away with the role-playing crap of going out and finding a companion that you train and level. Just make the pets match your level when you train them, as long as they are at or below your level, and allow them to ding when you do. Also, going back and leveling a new pet type (boar for grinding, scorpid for arena, ravager for raiding, turtles for off-tanking, etc) is not only incredibly frustrating, but horribly time consuming. For what? Lore and RP reasons? Is it really necessary? It's already frustrating enough to have to go to a stable master and pull the right pet out for whatever you will be doing. Hunters don't have the ability to switch pets on the fly as warlocks do. Why punish them further by forcing upon them yet another leveling treadmill so that they can better fill their required role? It just seems silly.
Pet Agro Issues:
My pet can't hold agro off me for #!!@ as is, unless I limit myself to autoshot spam and maybe a serpent sting. Having my pet be constantly 4 levels below me doesn't help anything either. Growl threat needs to scale more than it does. I'm specced BM and used a cat for most of my leveling. I end up dumping a bunch of mana on feign death, or blow an intimidation (1min cooldown, but I need it basically every mob), or I'll try to use disengage (bad ability btw. I'll get to that)*.
Also, if I get agro while mounting along somewhere, and FD, they all go for my pet that appears as I dismount instead of deagroing. I don't remember them doing this. I thought as long as my pet stayed out of combat, mobs that agroed me would not go for the pet when I drop combat. This is no longer the case. Now I just get to sit there and watch my pet get slaughtered, get up, res it, feed it, heal it, drink up, and go.
Pet Feeding Issues:
Speaking of feeding the pet, why can I not do this in combat? I know many hunters are complaining about this issue during raids (especially BM spec) as they have to res their pets sometimes multiple times throughout the fight. The happiness system sucks. My pet is basically penalized for being in combat for long periods of time. His damage goes down over a long period of time (as he loses happiness), whereas my felguard goes up after a short period of time. And to top it off, I can't even feed him mid-combat to solve the situation. I don't like this mechanic at all. It's not fun, and rather frustrating.
*Disengage:
As far as this ability is concerned, I hate it. Feign death, for the most part, is great at deagroing in combat. Disengage sucks. What's the point of this ability? Assuming my melee weapon skill is maxed (and it never is while leveling, but I'll leave that argument out since I have a problem with the core design of this ability by itself), this is not something you will use preemptively such as rogue feint as it's a melee ability. That being said, you generally only use this after you have pulled agro, and only while feign death is down. Why use feign death? Because disengage can be parried/blocked/dodged or just plain miss. Not only that, but the tiny amount of threat reduction that disengage provides is even more of an excuse to use feign over this bad ability, especially considering its mana cost vs feign death (205 vs 80). It also does absolutely nothing in PvP, which I guess is fair since feint does nothing, but when disengage misses (and it does, a LOT) and I'm still snared (and feign is down), I'm still boned.
So to recap on disengage:
A) It's melee and should never be something to be used preemptively because of that.
B) Its mana cost is too high vs feign death
C) It's only needed when a melee char is ON the hunter, meaning it's going to be dodged/blocked/parried or just plain miss
D) Feign death is better in every situation. Total agro wipe vs small agro wipe for less than half the mana cost and can be used preemptively at range
E) Does nothing in PvP
I'd say a good 20% of the time I send a /pet attack command to my pet, it will make the "attack" feedback noise that pets do when you issue the command, and he'll face the target, but he won't actually go. He'll just sit there and not attack anything.
I think it might have something to do with telling pets to attack targets that are standing near objects. Pillars, houses, logs of wood, mining nodes, trees, etc. It seems a lot of environment objects are causing all sorts of pet pathing issues now.
It might be because it sees no way to get behind the target maybe, since pets try to do that all the time now. I'm not sure what exactly is causing it, but it's beyond annoying.
Also, my pet and its target are constantly re-ranging each other in melee combat. I think it has a lot to do with hit box size as well as the pet trying to get behind the target. My pet will move closer to the target, and the target will back up, and my pet will readjust to the targets new position, and the target will readjust to that, over and over and over. It happens every single fight now.
Pet leveling system:
Pet leveling, as bad as it was before, is just horrible now. I'm out-leveling my pet as is with the recent XP changes to the player level grind. It's my understanding that pet level requirements have dropped 15% as well, but i'm also collecting a retarded amount of quest EXP since 2.3. My pet just can't keep up.
Please, please, please, just do away with the role-playing crap of going out and finding a companion that you train and level. Just make the pets match your level when you train them, as long as they are at or below your level, and allow them to ding when you do. Also, going back and leveling a new pet type (boar for grinding, scorpid for arena, ravager for raiding, turtles for off-tanking, etc) is not only incredibly frustrating, but horribly time consuming. For what? Lore and RP reasons? Is it really necessary? It's already frustrating enough to have to go to a stable master and pull the right pet out for whatever you will be doing. Hunters don't have the ability to switch pets on the fly as warlocks do. Why punish them further by forcing upon them yet another leveling treadmill so that they can better fill their required role? It just seems silly.
Pet Agro Issues:
My pet can't hold agro off me for #!!@ as is, unless I limit myself to autoshot spam and maybe a serpent sting. Having my pet be constantly 4 levels below me doesn't help anything either. Growl threat needs to scale more than it does. I'm specced BM and used a cat for most of my leveling. I end up dumping a bunch of mana on feign death, or blow an intimidation (1min cooldown, but I need it basically every mob), or I'll try to use disengage (bad ability btw. I'll get to that)*.
Also, if I get agro while mounting along somewhere, and FD, they all go for my pet that appears as I dismount instead of deagroing. I don't remember them doing this. I thought as long as my pet stayed out of combat, mobs that agroed me would not go for the pet when I drop combat. This is no longer the case. Now I just get to sit there and watch my pet get slaughtered, get up, res it, feed it, heal it, drink up, and go.
Pet Feeding Issues:
Speaking of feeding the pet, why can I not do this in combat? I know many hunters are complaining about this issue during raids (especially BM spec) as they have to res their pets sometimes multiple times throughout the fight. The happiness system sucks. My pet is basically penalized for being in combat for long periods of time. His damage goes down over a long period of time (as he loses happiness), whereas my felguard goes up after a short period of time. And to top it off, I can't even feed him mid-combat to solve the situation. I don't like this mechanic at all. It's not fun, and rather frustrating.
*Disengage:
As far as this ability is concerned, I hate it. Feign death, for the most part, is great at deagroing in combat. Disengage sucks. What's the point of this ability? Assuming my melee weapon skill is maxed (and it never is while leveling, but I'll leave that argument out since I have a problem with the core design of this ability by itself), this is not something you will use preemptively such as rogue feint as it's a melee ability. That being said, you generally only use this after you have pulled agro, and only while feign death is down. Why use feign death? Because disengage can be parried/blocked/dodged or just plain miss. Not only that, but the tiny amount of threat reduction that disengage provides is even more of an excuse to use feign over this bad ability, especially considering its mana cost vs feign death (205 vs 80). It also does absolutely nothing in PvP, which I guess is fair since feint does nothing, but when disengage misses (and it does, a LOT) and I'm still snared (and feign is down), I'm still boned.
So to recap on disengage:
A) It's melee and should never be something to be used preemptively because of that.
B) Its mana cost is too high vs feign death
C) It's only needed when a melee char is ON the hunter, meaning it's going to be dodged/blocked/parried or just plain miss
D) Feign death is better in every situation. Total agro wipe vs small agro wipe for less than half the mana cost and can be used preemptively at range
E) Does nothing in PvP
No more feign + drink? Probably for the best. Why?
In all honesty this is probably a good thing; better than you probably realize right now. The truth is, sometimes things have to get worse before they get better.
The Problem:
The fact of the matter is, on many long encounters, hunters have lots of mana and OOM problems. This is mostly because aspect of the viper is terrible as it doesn't provide enough mana regen, and you have to give up hawk to use it. This problem is compounded by the fact that hawk is the by far the best raid aspect to use since the best raid DPS build relies on the imp hawk talent.
This doesn't do BM hunters any good if they're forced into Viper aspect just to have mediocre mana regen (which is still far short of where it needs to be to stay competitively DPSing with a mana-intensive shot rotation).
The Old Fix:
The way around this before was to FD/Drink back up to full, and resume using a mana-intensive shot rotation. This way hunters could at least stay somewhat competitive in raid DPS.
Now that the unintentional band-aid of FD/Drink to regen mana during boss fights (which is just a bad mechanic as is anyways) has been lifted and the underlying problem revealed, it will probably become readily apparent to Blizzard in the near-future as to:
A) How much hunters were relying on this poor mans mechanic of mana regen (in addition to mana pots)
B) The fact that hunters in general need better ways of mana conservation and/or regeneration.
This also hurts marks builds more than BM, since marks shot rotations are much more mana-intensive than BM shot rotations, which consist mostly of steady-auto.
The Solution:
This is really up to Blizzard. There have already been countless threads and great discussions on the mana issues that hunters have. Part of the problem lies in aspects, another part of the problem is in the talents, and this even extends into bad itemization, unfortunately. Hunters have to pay a higher ilvl tax than rogues do, even though rogues have near the exact same stat point distribution on items.
Hunters have to sacrifice other stats on their gear for INT, yet for only a few points of INT. In addition, INT does not help hunters as much as it should, with as much as they rely on it, in addition to how little INT they receive due to itemization. This ties directly into talent problems, as INT needs to be scaled more into AP or some other statistical equivalent so that it holds more weight when stat point distribution comes into play.
In addition, Aspect of the Viper still does not provide enough of a mana regeneration component to warrant use of it over hawk (again, especially for BM raid builds which are again, the highest Raid DPS spec). This also ties back directly into itemization, as AotV depends heavily on how much INT you have.
The Problem:
The fact of the matter is, on many long encounters, hunters have lots of mana and OOM problems. This is mostly because aspect of the viper is terrible as it doesn't provide enough mana regen, and you have to give up hawk to use it. This problem is compounded by the fact that hawk is the by far the best raid aspect to use since the best raid DPS build relies on the imp hawk talent.
This doesn't do BM hunters any good if they're forced into Viper aspect just to have mediocre mana regen (which is still far short of where it needs to be to stay competitively DPSing with a mana-intensive shot rotation).
The Old Fix:
The way around this before was to FD/Drink back up to full, and resume using a mana-intensive shot rotation. This way hunters could at least stay somewhat competitive in raid DPS.
Now that the unintentional band-aid of FD/Drink to regen mana during boss fights (which is just a bad mechanic as is anyways) has been lifted and the underlying problem revealed, it will probably become readily apparent to Blizzard in the near-future as to:
A) How much hunters were relying on this poor mans mechanic of mana regen (in addition to mana pots)
B) The fact that hunters in general need better ways of mana conservation and/or regeneration.
This also hurts marks builds more than BM, since marks shot rotations are much more mana-intensive than BM shot rotations, which consist mostly of steady-auto.
The Solution:
This is really up to Blizzard. There have already been countless threads and great discussions on the mana issues that hunters have. Part of the problem lies in aspects, another part of the problem is in the talents, and this even extends into bad itemization, unfortunately. Hunters have to pay a higher ilvl tax than rogues do, even though rogues have near the exact same stat point distribution on items.
Hunters have to sacrifice other stats on their gear for INT, yet for only a few points of INT. In addition, INT does not help hunters as much as it should, with as much as they rely on it, in addition to how little INT they receive due to itemization. This ties directly into talent problems, as INT needs to be scaled more into AP or some other statistical equivalent so that it holds more weight when stat point distribution comes into play.
In addition, Aspect of the Viper still does not provide enough of a mana regeneration component to warrant use of it over hawk (again, especially for BM raid builds which are again, the highest Raid DPS spec). This also ties back directly into itemization, as AotV depends heavily on how much INT you have.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Hunter Pets Suck.
So I was thinking about the hunter pet issue more, and I've come to realize something: Hunter pets aren't very fleshed out at all.
Warlock pets have clearly defined roles. They all serve their purpose wonderfully, and have fantastic unique abilities that are always useful.
Hunter pets... for the most part, are typically the same, save for a few stat point differences in the armor here, HP there, and damage here.
Here is a basic outline of my opinions:
Yes, they get some different abilities, but in the grand scheme of things, most of them are pretty worthless. Let's look a little closer:
Can't more be done to help make these pets, I don't know, a little more fun? Or unique? Or Ultmately useful?
All things said, it feels like warlocks are the true pet class of WoW, as when a warlock pet dies, it's really felt. It MEANS something to lose a warlock pet. No more soul link if specced for it. No more paranoia. No more MD buffs. No more devour magic, or spell lock, or intercept, or extra CC with seduce, or blood pact for your party, or sacrifice shield, etc etc.
Hunter pet dies? You lose some dps (which you also lose with the lock), albeit not that much unless BM specced, and maybe some caster pushback or viper protection. That's about it.
There could be some really cool abilities that would make these pets more unique and, I don't know, desirable to keep around.
You get the idea..
Warlock pets have clearly defined roles. They all serve their purpose wonderfully, and have fantastic unique abilities that are always useful.
Hunter pets... for the most part, are typically the same, save for a few stat point differences in the armor here, HP there, and damage here.
Here is a basic outline of my opinions:
Yes, they get some different abilities, but in the grand scheme of things, most of them are pretty worthless. Let's look a little closer:
- Scorpid: Obviously at the top of my list for PvP concerns. Scorpid poison + viper sting = great poison protection. Enough said. This is currently the only real viable PvP pet.
- Ravager/Boar: Anything with gore = good for raid/PVE dps. Why not cats? Because gore is like claw, but better.
- Cats: Claw used to be handy for extra spell push back vs casters. Now the only real pvp that matters is Arena, and in the arena you bring a hunter for viper sting, which means you bring a scorpid to protect that ability. Cats = phased out.
- Turtles: Extra armor for PVE off-tanking in non-heroic 5mans? (prime example of why I would never spend a week leveling a turtle up for this purpose)
- Bears: Rawr?
- Wind serpents: Good PVP Dps pet against heavy armor targets as their lightning breath ignores armor. End-game usefulness in arena/raids = low
- Warpstalkers: Their warp ability is not even on gimmick status anymore (boar charge was better due to the 1s immobilization). Now hunter pets automatically get behind the target anyways, removing half of the already mediocre usefulness of their only cool ability.
- Bats: Like Wind Serpents, but worse.
Can't more be done to help make these pets, I don't know, a little more fun? Or unique? Or Ultmately useful?
All things said, it feels like warlocks are the true pet class of WoW, as when a warlock pet dies, it's really felt. It MEANS something to lose a warlock pet. No more soul link if specced for it. No more paranoia. No more MD buffs. No more devour magic, or spell lock, or intercept, or extra CC with seduce, or blood pact for your party, or sacrifice shield, etc etc.
Hunter pet dies? You lose some dps (which you also lose with the lock), albeit not that much unless BM specced, and maybe some caster pushback or viper protection. That's about it.
There could be some really cool abilities that would make these pets more unique and, I don't know, desirable to keep around.
- If vampire bats had a mana leech ability that gave a small % of damage done back to hunter/party as mana.
- Or if turtles had an ability that would reduce damage taken by a significant amount, similar to shield wall for a short duration.
- Or if cats had a bleed ability that they could stick on rogues to prevent them from using CloS + Vanish, or even if the bleed effect made all physical dpsers attacking that target do 1% more damage. Something!
- Or if Wind Serpents had a small AOE/single target silence on a cooldown.
- If Bears had a roar that decreased enemies' crit chance/damage for a duration.
- If the wolves' furious howl ability actually scaled, and made party members do a %increase more damage for a duration on their next attacks, instead of a small, fixed amount. Or perhaps a % increase in crit chance for a short duration. You know, something actually useful.
You get the idea..
Monday, November 12, 2007
Working for Assholes
We all do it from time to time. Working at a crappy job that you're only doing because you need the money, or because you couldn't get the one you really wanted so you're stuck working for some douche that you could give two shits about.
I don't need to explain to any of you just how incredibly frustrating it can be to work for someone who never appreciates the hard work you do or the overtime you selflessly put in. You can save the company hundreds of thousands of dollars by doing everything right 99% of the time, but fuck up just once.... Or if you forget one small trivial task because you were, oh I don't know, keeping the servers that host millions of dollars worth of business from going down, then you still get yelled at. Yep. Working for assholes seems to be a very common problem with the common man these days. On the other hand, I also don't need to explain just how incredibly satisfying it is when your boss fucks up, big time, right in front of everyone.
So before I get into today's fine example of such fuck ups, let me give you a little background on the situation.
I work as an IT contractor (not full time with them) at a payday loan company. This company, and others like it, exist solely to suck whatever life it can out of your low-income individuals who desperately need money to make it through the week for whatever reason. It's a very profitable industry, but many don't agree with it for obvious reasons. I'll let me own opinions slide for now, as they don't really matter either way.
I work on an IT team with 3 other individuals. I won't name their real names for privacy reasons, but let's just call them Bob, Stacey, and Josh. Josh is our helpdesk guy. He's your typical nerdy and quirky individual who's a very hard worker but can often be annoying, due to his over eccentric personality. Stacey is our programmer, and she's quite the normal character and happens to be going on vacation tomorrow. Bob is our boss, and he's a difficult man to work for (read: asshole).
Stacey as I said is going out of town, so she set up a rule in outlook that will auto-forward anything that has to do with her programming system to the IT team containing certain specific text in the subject line.
Josh, who is not familiar with outlook rules, inquired in a reply to all as to how exactly the rules were setup and wanted to know if everything that was going to Stacey was getting forwarded to us all or not.
Bob, who isn't a very likable individual, decided to forward his reply about Josh's ignorance in general (because he's an asshole) to Stacey as sort of a private "haha" joke. Well as it turns out, Bob sent an email to Stacey containing the very same key words in the subject line that triggered Stacey's auto-forward rule (since, afterall, this is a continuous email chain), his snide little email just so happened to make its way to the whole IT group before he could realize what happened. And happen it did.
Here's his exact words: "Did his mom drop him on his head when he was young (or not so young) or what?"
Yeah. "Ha ha" Good buddy. The joke's on you. Maybe next time before you talk down someones ignorance of a certain functionality of an office product, you should actually do it in a way that A) Doesn't make you look like a moron for not understanding the very system that you're gloating to be so much better at using, and B) Won't advertise it to the entire department.
Kind of makes me wonder if he's ever said anything about myself, or others like that to his other joke-buddy employees.
What an ass.
I don't need to explain to any of you just how incredibly frustrating it can be to work for someone who never appreciates the hard work you do or the overtime you selflessly put in. You can save the company hundreds of thousands of dollars by doing everything right 99% of the time, but fuck up just once.... Or if you forget one small trivial task because you were, oh I don't know, keeping the servers that host millions of dollars worth of business from going down, then you still get yelled at. Yep. Working for assholes seems to be a very common problem with the common man these days. On the other hand, I also don't need to explain just how incredibly satisfying it is when your boss fucks up, big time, right in front of everyone.
So before I get into today's fine example of such fuck ups, let me give you a little background on the situation.
I work as an IT contractor (not full time with them) at a payday loan company. This company, and others like it, exist solely to suck whatever life it can out of your low-income individuals who desperately need money to make it through the week for whatever reason. It's a very profitable industry, but many don't agree with it for obvious reasons. I'll let me own opinions slide for now, as they don't really matter either way.
I work on an IT team with 3 other individuals. I won't name their real names for privacy reasons, but let's just call them Bob, Stacey, and Josh. Josh is our helpdesk guy. He's your typical nerdy and quirky individual who's a very hard worker but can often be annoying, due to his over eccentric personality. Stacey is our programmer, and she's quite the normal character and happens to be going on vacation tomorrow. Bob is our boss, and he's a difficult man to work for (read: asshole).
Stacey as I said is going out of town, so she set up a rule in outlook that will auto-forward anything that has to do with her programming system to the IT team containing certain specific text in the subject line.
Josh, who is not familiar with outlook rules, inquired in a reply to all as to how exactly the rules were setup and wanted to know if everything that was going to Stacey was getting forwarded to us all or not.
Bob, who isn't a very likable individual, decided to forward his reply about Josh's ignorance in general (because he's an asshole) to Stacey as sort of a private "haha" joke. Well as it turns out, Bob sent an email to Stacey containing the very same key words in the subject line that triggered Stacey's auto-forward rule (since, afterall, this is a continuous email chain), his snide little email just so happened to make its way to the whole IT group before he could realize what happened. And happen it did.
Here's his exact words: "Did his mom drop him on his head when he was young (or not so young) or what?"
Yeah. "Ha ha" Good buddy. The joke's on you. Maybe next time before you talk down someones ignorance of a certain functionality of an office product, you should actually do it in a way that A) Doesn't make you look like a moron for not understanding the very system that you're gloating to be so much better at using, and B) Won't advertise it to the entire department.
Kind of makes me wonder if he's ever said anything about myself, or others like that to his other joke-buddy employees.
What an ass.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Hunters Suck (to play)
http://vhairi.blogspot.com/
This is from the EU armory, but I'm assuming the results are quite similar to a scan of the US armory. Pretty much explains why I grin every time I see a hunter team as my opposition on my warlock in the arena.
From a warlocks perspective, hunters are an absolute joke. They are very easy to los, very susceptible to CC, extremely easy to mana drain (Small mana pool, takes very little time, and they're pretty much worthless without mana), and the pet is very very easy to kill. If they have no priest or paladin, then they are ridiculously easy to just dot and hide around the corner while they rot.
I can do 8000+ damage to them with instacasts, and they have to just take it, or hope for dispels, while I run back behind a pillar.. They can't really chase me around the corner, because close range fighting is not their forté. And if they stay at range, they are ridiculously easy to LoS. You can't send the pet in, because he'll just get killed behind the pillar.
Combining those factors, hunter usefulness is extremely limited, especially in 2v2/3v3.
In addition, the shots and abilities hunters have carry a rather hefty mana cost considering their relatively small mana pool. They also have basically no period where they are getting the 5s rule of mana regen, either. Flares, traps, aspects, hunter marks, shots, stings, melee abilities. They all require mana. If you aren't shooting someone in ranged combat, you're kiting them and changing aspects/wingclipping/trapping, and if you aren't kiting, you're doing a shot rotation. In fact, the only time you REALLY get time to regen mana outside the 5s rule is during a stand-still shot rotation, which is also when you want to be doing the most damage possible, so it's not an option there either.
This holds true in pvp and I've noticed it while leveling as well. I really only get time to regen mana during a fight while standing and shooting a mob. If you're doing damage on the move, you're using something that costs mana, whether its changing aspects, wingclipping, concussive shot, etc.
I know I've played a warlock for quite a well, but I've also played a lot of other classes in this game. And I'm telling you this: Hunter mana issues are SEVERE. Their mana consumption is bad, and is rivaled only by their horrid mana regeneration.
They are the absolute worst in efficiency in the game IMO. Aspect of the viper is not enough. They need a lot of their skills revisited with mana costs. Some skills need to have mana cost just flat out removed. Feign death, aspects, hunters mark, flare (reagent cost instead IMO) possibly even traps.
It needs help. It really, really does.
Also, the aspects and how they work are a pretty big problem.
Aspect of the cheetah is pretty risky to use. Right now it's really only great for chasing down runners when you can't afford to mount, and you're sure you won't be hit. To be honest, it's times when I'm kiting without fear of being caught, or chasing someone down that I wish my mana regen was going up. However, just switching to cheetah costs me mana, and mana regen. Also, stance-dancing as needed on a hunter isn't a lot of fun for several reasons. A) It hurts my mana/regen B) It costs a GCD, which means I might not get that critical shot/ability in in time. Stance-dancing on the hunter sucks, but it's very fun and useful on a warrior. My mana bar is basically penalized for me reacting to the situation and instantly picking the right aspect to be in. It was a great feeling on the warrior when I learned how to bind my stances to keys and react instantly depending on the context of the fight. You know exactly what I mean on this. Hunters trying to accomplish this same play style just don't feel right. It feels sloppy and and unnatural. The mana cost and GCD need to be removed.
Another idea that I was actually tossing around with cham a year ago on this issue was requiring certain shots to be used in certain aspects. You'd have to be in hawk for aimed shot, stings would require viper, etc. But then we thought that would require way too much reworking of a lot of spells/levels, so we figured a bonus would be better instead of requirement, or just a changing of aspects all together.
I.e. Hawk = 10% increased ranged damage, but 5% increase damage taken.
Viper = Double mana regeneration, stings cost no mana.
Monkey = Increased dodge/parry, reduced ranged damage
Beast = Decrease damage taken, pet does additional damage, increase melee damage done. (For when you can't escape melee)
Cheetah = Reduce movement speed bonus to 20%, and remove daze effect when struck. Increase mana regeneration (including in combat).
Keep in mind, these aspects would cost no mana and no GCD to "shift" into. This gives the hunter much more flexibility to the situation.
Flexibility is the key issue here. Warriors have it. Warlocks have it. Priests have it. That's why those classes do so well. It's not necessarily damage done, or amount of shadow bolt damage. It's the bevy of class options that allows them to react to a multitude of situations.
I honestly think something that drastic is needed to save this class, especially in smaller formats. A lot of the basic mechanics that are currently existing for this class are too limiting and don't allow for enough adaptive options for the player to take advantage of that other classes have. Their flexibility isn't very good. It's basically kite until you can spam shots on a snared/immobile target until you're OOM, and until something pretty big changes, that's the way it's going to be, MS shot or not (which would only really help in 5v5, not 3v3/2v2, assuming that the shots current limitations stay as is).
This is from the EU armory, but I'm assuming the results are quite similar to a scan of the US armory. Pretty much explains why I grin every time I see a hunter team as my opposition on my warlock in the arena.
From a warlocks perspective, hunters are an absolute joke. They are very easy to los, very susceptible to CC, extremely easy to mana drain (Small mana pool, takes very little time, and they're pretty much worthless without mana), and the pet is very very easy to kill. If they have no priest or paladin, then they are ridiculously easy to just dot and hide around the corner while they rot.
I can do 8000+ damage to them with instacasts, and they have to just take it, or hope for dispels, while I run back behind a pillar.. They can't really chase me around the corner, because close range fighting is not their forté. And if they stay at range, they are ridiculously easy to LoS. You can't send the pet in, because he'll just get killed behind the pillar.
Combining those factors, hunter usefulness is extremely limited, especially in 2v2/3v3.
In addition, the shots and abilities hunters have carry a rather hefty mana cost considering their relatively small mana pool. They also have basically no period where they are getting the 5s rule of mana regen, either. Flares, traps, aspects, hunter marks, shots, stings, melee abilities. They all require mana. If you aren't shooting someone in ranged combat, you're kiting them and changing aspects/wingclipping/trapping, and if you aren't kiting, you're doing a shot rotation. In fact, the only time you REALLY get time to regen mana outside the 5s rule is during a stand-still shot rotation, which is also when you want to be doing the most damage possible, so it's not an option there either.
This holds true in pvp and I've noticed it while leveling as well. I really only get time to regen mana during a fight while standing and shooting a mob. If you're doing damage on the move, you're using something that costs mana, whether its changing aspects, wingclipping, concussive shot, etc.
I know I've played a warlock for quite a well, but I've also played a lot of other classes in this game. And I'm telling you this: Hunter mana issues are SEVERE. Their mana consumption is bad, and is rivaled only by their horrid mana regeneration.
They are the absolute worst in efficiency in the game IMO. Aspect of the viper is not enough. They need a lot of their skills revisited with mana costs. Some skills need to have mana cost just flat out removed. Feign death, aspects, hunters mark, flare (reagent cost instead IMO) possibly even traps.
It needs help. It really, really does.
Also, the aspects and how they work are a pretty big problem.
Aspect of the cheetah is pretty risky to use. Right now it's really only great for chasing down runners when you can't afford to mount, and you're sure you won't be hit. To be honest, it's times when I'm kiting without fear of being caught, or chasing someone down that I wish my mana regen was going up. However, just switching to cheetah costs me mana, and mana regen. Also, stance-dancing as needed on a hunter isn't a lot of fun for several reasons. A) It hurts my mana/regen B) It costs a GCD, which means I might not get that critical shot/ability in in time. Stance-dancing on the hunter sucks, but it's very fun and useful on a warrior. My mana bar is basically penalized for me reacting to the situation and instantly picking the right aspect to be in. It was a great feeling on the warrior when I learned how to bind my stances to keys and react instantly depending on the context of the fight. You know exactly what I mean on this. Hunters trying to accomplish this same play style just don't feel right. It feels sloppy and and unnatural. The mana cost and GCD need to be removed.
Another idea that I was actually tossing around with cham a year ago on this issue was requiring certain shots to be used in certain aspects. You'd have to be in hawk for aimed shot, stings would require viper, etc. But then we thought that would require way too much reworking of a lot of spells/levels, so we figured a bonus would be better instead of requirement, or just a changing of aspects all together.
I.e. Hawk = 10% increased ranged damage, but 5% increase damage taken.
Viper = Double mana regeneration, stings cost no mana.
Monkey = Increased dodge/parry, reduced ranged damage
Beast = Decrease damage taken, pet does additional damage, increase melee damage done. (For when you can't escape melee)
Cheetah = Reduce movement speed bonus to 20%, and remove daze effect when struck. Increase mana regeneration (including in combat).
Keep in mind, these aspects would cost no mana and no GCD to "shift" into. This gives the hunter much more flexibility to the situation.
Flexibility is the key issue here. Warriors have it. Warlocks have it. Priests have it. That's why those classes do so well. It's not necessarily damage done, or amount of shadow bolt damage. It's the bevy of class options that allows them to react to a multitude of situations.
I honestly think something that drastic is needed to save this class, especially in smaller formats. A lot of the basic mechanics that are currently existing for this class are too limiting and don't allow for enough adaptive options for the player to take advantage of that other classes have. Their flexibility isn't very good. It's basically kite until you can spam shots on a snared/immobile target until you're OOM, and until something pretty big changes, that's the way it's going to be, MS shot or not (which would only really help in 5v5, not 3v3/2v2, assuming that the shots current limitations stay as is).
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