Diminished returns

Synopsis
Reason why posts aren't as frequent as usual.

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Nope. sorry, not a post about my calculations on diminished returns.
Most of you noticed me not posting as frequent as what you are used of me. Couple of reasons; Easter, new job and I have said all things I wanted to say before starting this blog. One of the other reasons is that there is little news. PTR is pretty quiet, the game has nothing much to offer at this point. Will be back with reports on Ulduar either PTR or Live.

One tip; If you can craft stuff, check out this site: http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?page=856
It shows all changes and new recipes there are for you.

Rotation study (Blogsourcing)

Synopsis
Since I had so much trouble with the 12 second mangle rotation I tried some more and this is what I found.

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I started out dpssing, again on a lvl 80 dummy, and not berserking ever. Berserk will screw up whatever you are able to call a "rotation".

This is the DPS is did over a LONG time (calculated form white damage hits it is 45 minutes).


At the start I was at 3450, that then got to 3650. It went a bit down after some screwups in rotation, but it is a good average. 3.1 PTR servers are in America. Meaning that I did suffer a bit from latency. Renewing Rip and Rake had to be calculated. Do it at 0.5 seconds left, not too soon or the last tick won't get through, not too late or there is a too long period without Rake/Rip.

Below I will tell you what rules I tried to dps by which resulted in this. I ask you the same, if you are possible and willing. Tell me what you found on ptr (not using Mangle glyph). Don't Berserk and upload a screenshot (or post it on you own blog) and link it in as a comment. Judging from white hit damage there is a good comparison to what your total dps to mine would be. If yours is higher i'll try to find out why.

The rules I tried to live by:
Ability strategy:

• SR always up. If it is down and have no CP get 1 CP SR up at least. Then depending on Rip uptime do a 4/5 CP SR.
• Mangle over Rake. Rake does nice damage but Rip does a lot more. Mangle increases that with 30%. Mangle doesn't always have to drop before renewing.
• FB is overrated. It doesn't always crit. Rather keep the 5 CP to keep up SR and Rip then to let one of those drp.
• SR > Rip > Mangle > Rake
  

Energy strategy:

• WAIT! If SR, Rip, Mangle and Rake are up you have all the time of the world. Stock up on energy. Don't let it get too high because OoC procs a lot now. You should spend as little time as possible at 100 energy. (I'd like to be rogue and have 110 or 120 energy to have more time.)
• Don't get to 5 CP asap. Wait to see what happens. If Mangle and Rake need a refresh soon, stop at 2/3/4 CP, get engery refresh en and then wait for SR or Rip to drop to renew it.
  

CP Strategy:

• Try to go for 3CP SR. It is about the same time Rip takes. That is a way to go for a normalisation in Rotation. It will not always hold up and you are seldom able to do it, but it if the choise it is available do that. You will have max time to be ready to renew Rip (where a 2CP SR could have the SR needing refreshing before Rip. Als a 3CP SR gives you that little extra time to build a new 3CP SR after you have renewed Rip.
• The 3 ways to spend CP are SR, Rip and FB. FB should be avoided as much as possible. Saving up on energy and Mangle + Rake to get to 5CP might leave you with a lot of energy (having OoC).
• When to FB? Only when you have plenty of time left on Rip and SR. I find that to be about 12-14 seconds. It will not ensure having SR and Rip up 100% of the time, but the alternatives are worse. (As you see in 45 minutes I only did FB 33 times vs the 4 per 3 minutes I did before, not counting the extra FB I did after a Berserk).
  
• When not to FB: 1: Less then 12-14 seconds on SR only. Wait till the last moment (is having 100 energy) and refresh SR. If Mangle and Rake both drop, do it earlier. so Mangle and Rake are not of or at least not a long time. It is worth it to wait for 70 energy to be able to SR + Mangle + Rake immediately as a combo.
• When not to FB: 2: Less then 12-14 seconds on Rip only. The same as above. Try to avoid this situation. With high time left on Rip (10 sec) you should get the last of the 5 CP's from Mangle and Rake so you dont have them down or are forced to do an early Rip to refresh Mangle + Rake
• When not to FB: 3: Less then 12-14 seconds left on both, Rip to expire before SR. Wait till rip is expired and refresh. 1CP SR (or more if possible) right after.
• When not to FB: 4: Less then 12-14 seconds left on both, SR Expires before Rip. Depends on how long the difference is. If the difference is up 3 seconds you can refresh Rip just before SR drops. (Then 1CPSR after). If the difference is higher, refresh SR immediately (overwriting 10 seconds or so) and use the remaining seconds to get 5CP Rip asap.

This is kinda it. Would love to hear your input and see your tests.
PS, this is not a strategy I did when testing on live (3.0.8) servers. So applying this strategy on live servers can not be compared to my previously posted live dps test.

The fairer sex

Synopsis
It occured to me theat though male WoW players play almost every class there is in WoW equally, I find that females are more drawn to certain types of classes.

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[edit]
This is a entry that is in no way to be considered a serious one.
[/edit]

So to start off, lets be a male and thus blunt, generalize as much as possible here. If you are a woman and playing WoW you are most likely playing a Priest, Paladin or Hunter. Am I right guys? Am I? Oh yes I am!!! High five!

Well let me calm myself down and be a bit less of a drunken bar macho. Doesn't change the fact that this is true though. From the female players I have met in wow I have yet to see one that does like melee dps, though, of the classes mentioned, one can be melee dps. I myself know 2 female tankadins. But seriously, they have been hanging around with guys too much.

I have yet to encounter my first female rogue, warrior or DK. And by that I mean a level 80. Because who hasn't tried making a DK yet?

Of all classes a woman can play I would rate it like this:

• 23% Priest
  
• 18% Hunter
• 18%Paladin
• 12% Druid
• 11% Warlock
• 8% Shaman
• 7% Mage
• 1% Deathknight
• 1% Rogue
• 1% Warrior

Now to be totally stereotypical... this is why:

• Women like to heal and nurture (healer classes)
  
• Women want to multitask and need an overview of the fight to get themselves distracted (ranged).
• Woman want to see all the pretty artwork while nuking a boss to hell (ranged)
  
• Women like to have a pet cause they are so cute and absolutely adoring (hunter).
• Woman playing wow are dark and broody types (preferring warlock over a dull mage)

Now you all let your girlfriends who play wow react and tell me I am an asshole.
Then after you can react and tell me that I am telling the truth. Because... come on. It is so obvious!

PS I have a girlfriend myself... Morituri te salutant.

DPS test

Synopsis
This is a little dps test with about the same gear on 3.0.8 and 3.1. Lvl 80 dummy.

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I promised this a while back and now did it finally. A dps test. Now I am not the best dpsser there is. I lack experience. Though I did ok I think. I dpssed on a lvl 80 dummy (not 83 boss) because they were mostly occupied.
Both test were done over about 6 minutes (2 berserks).

So first in 3.0.8:
Glyphs:

• Glyph of Mangle
• Glyph of Rip
• Glyph of Rake (though this does nothing dps wise)
  

All cycles ended a few seconds after berserk was of the 2nd cooldown. So this dps is the dps I did over that period. It was easy keeping the cycles up and didn't let any buff/debuff go off for too long. So it is pretty accurate and ok dps I think.
I did Ferocious bite 6 times. That is every time I berserk and 2-ce in the rest of the 3 minutes, done when Tigers fury gave me energy and Rip and SR had a long uptime already.

Now for 3.1.0 (PTR):
Glyphs:

• Glyph of Savage roar (3% extra damage when SR is up)
• Glyph of Shred (2 seconds extra Rip time, maximum iof 6)
• Glyph of Rip

The glyph of Savage Roar is available on PTR. It can not be discovered in traditional way though (Northrend Inscription Research). I did those all and there are none left. They will be thought by drops from bosses. A book that when read will give inscribers a random glyph they don't know yet. Glyphs on PTR can be bought from vendors (in Dalaran) for a few silver.

Since I had no Glyph of Mangle this was a hard test. After a few tries I got the hang of the cycle. The DPS meter shows 3884, but should be more like 3950 cause after the 6 minutes rip ticked on a bit. The real dps should have been higher too because I did a misclick and hit SR when it was up at 25 seconds left and Rip was off. Having no SR for extra energy then and unlucky crits made rip not tick for about 10 seconds.
It was easy keeping Faerie Fire up though. 5 minute cooldown is nice. Though it is bugged on TellMeWhen (and maybe all timers) since it didn't show uptime left.
The DPS is not as high as it promised to be a while ago, even though I have Glyph of Savage Roar now. One reason for it is that FB doesn't always crit now. (Only 25% extra from Rend and Tear).

Now the comparison:

• White damage: is about the same. 373k damage vs 372k damage. That did not change much, or at all.
• Ferocious bite: in 3.1.0 I had the opportunity to do a LOT more FB then in 3.0.8. One FB every Berserk and 4 in between Rips. Main reason for this is the 26 seconds Rip takes. When having 5 CP and more then 10 seconds left on both SR and Rip you are "forced" to do FB. Also, not all FB were crits anymore. Total FB is up but average damage is down.
  
• Rake and Rip: In 3.1 I had trouble with the rotation, though they did a lot more damage. Rip did 84 % more damage per tick though Rake did only 10% more per tick.
• Mangle and Shred: I did more mangle (only 12 seconds debuff vs 18 seconds), though the total number of shreds and Manlge is up. The reason is that you get more energy to spend on those hits because Rip takes less damage. It was a bit hard to always get 3 shreds in before rip was down though.

Cionclusion; The main damage increase comes from Rip. So it looks like I might should be doing less FB and more Rip, waste some energy and with 15 seconds left on Rip and 10 on SR I should be doing SR in that case and be ready to hold Rip up.
You can see I had trouble with the cycles. Rip and Rake ticked a lot more in 3.0.8 then in 3.1.0. Though they did a lot more damage (due to Crits). Main reason for this was Rip being up longer. I was also able to get more total mangle + shred. The main reason for this was that Rip was up a lot longer.
To be continued...

Some more blue posts

Synopsis
Some blue post and my comment on it.

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Blue post: Feral DPS
The main issue we are running into here is that the PvE dps, when pulled off properly, can be pretty high and that is what has caused some of the nerfs in 3.1. We recognize that maximizing PvE dps can require a fairly complex rotation which doesn't translate very well to PvP dps and we are considering some changes to improve that in the future.
One example would be to make Rend and Tear include mangle in its damage bonuses or add a glyph of some kind that affects more PvP centric abilities. We are just trying to be very careful to not be so focused on one aspect of the game (PvE or PvP) that we over do it in the other one.

Maybe it would be good to simplify the rotation a bit then? I don't want to be compared to a warlock that spams shadowbolt this way. Melee is not as simple as ranged DPS as it is. When you can't stand still and dps, your rotation will be screwed up. Don't give us the potential to be OP, remove that potential and make us as good as any other class.
And mangle is only a PvP thing. It has been established that mangle is a necessary evil for dps, but shred is not a real thing to use in pvp.

Blue post: New Druid form models
Druid forms are not coming in 3.1, but (big but) we are working on them. I have to say that when these do go live, it will have been worth the wait.
Finally! I myself am thinking more like an option: Form of the beast, where you can target any cat and assume it's form for catform. Would be nice and confusing though when people are assuming we are pets rather then druids.

Blue post: Feral tanking in 3.1
Bears used to have the highest armor and highest health which is no longer the case (obviously), but we added the shield ability and improve their cooldowns to try and bring them more in-line with other classes. We are keeping an eye on them and will make improvements if they turn out to be a clearly inferior tank.
The word: "clearly inferior" is unsettling. So what if we are an inferior tank, but it is not as clear. We'll be clearly not used as tanks. I recommend my guild to clearly not use any druid as MT. Only because we are not clearly inferior, but only slightly inferior. Why would a progress raiding guild ever use a druid? Why test how good a druid is as tank and wipe an extra 4 hours to find out you better use a warrior to tank?

Get your flasks while you can

Synopsis
The crafting materials of flask of endless rage is changed. So craft em before 3.1 if you have the mats lying around.

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New PTR changes:

• Flask of Stoneblood now increases the player's maximum health by 1300. (Up from 750)
• Flask of Endless Rage - Now requires 3xGoldclover instead of 3xFire Leaf

So Flask of Stoneblood is a bit better for tanking. Like that one.

Blue post on the flask of stoneblood changes:
We felt the current amount of health from the stoneblood was just ridiculous at how low it was, especially considering the damage from bosses in Ulduar so we buffed it a bit. Just keep in mind that we don't really like the idea of every new flask/upgrade being something with the same stats and just higher numbers every time. As an example it's possible the next tanking flask would have the same or lower health but extra mitigation stats like armor or defense on it.

I sure as hell don't hope it will be defense. Talking about making all tanks the same this will be a nerf to us druids since we can't use the parry rating it gives. The stamina one there is now might be better then still and blizzard pushes us druids back towards stamina again. If anything they would want druids to 100% always go for the flask that has less stamina.

As to the Flask of Endless Rage; all Flasks are getting changed. There won't be 2 hour flasks anymore, they will last 1 hour. But with the same materials alchemists can now craft 2 flasks. Conclusion, general flask usage is down from this. If you raid for 3 hours you will only consume 3 1h flasks vs 2 2h flasks now. This results in you saving 1 1h flask for an other time.
Other good thing about it, they now stack up to 20! I wish they did that for potions too.

If you have 2h flasks at the time patch 3.1 hits you would be able to trade them. Not knowing what this meant I did not craft the flasks yet. Last time I was on PTR I saw my 2h flasks had been transformed into an item that was usable. Using it created 2 1h flasks. Pretty easy. Knowing this it is safe to let the flasks be crafted now. But with the reagent change to Flask of Endless Rage it is important that you let em be crafted now, if, like me, you saved up and got mats lying around.

Back to the fact that defense on a flask would suck and would nerf that flask for druids. If you think about it, the Flask of endless rage already is nerfed for us druids. Hunters and rogues out there go around with 4k AP (something like that?) Where I myself have 6.7k AP. A flask that gives 180 AP is not as much an improvement for druids then it is for other classes (which in my opinion is one of the reasons that druids can't keep up in dps with other classes compared to the dps they did when everybody was badly geared).

The art of trashtanking

Synopsis
Tanking trash needs dps to understand game mechanics. You can't tank decent with stupid dps.

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Last night I was one of 3 tanks in Naxx 25. The trash tanking in Deathknight Wing can be hard. We did it over and over again after resetting the instance several times when we were failing on Razuvious trying for immortal. (Only to find someone dying on the boss right after that.)

Anyway the packs in there are pretty hard and consist of 5 or more and you often get 2 groups. The raidleader said our tanking sucked. And yes indeed the trash was all over the place. Though I really don't think it was because of bad tanking. It was because of bad dps.

Some examples.

• A dps gets agro. He starts running away. RUN TO THE TANK!? What are these people who don't know to stay in range of the tanks?
• Tanks start out on a group. Charge in and swipe. There are 3 tanks so we all 3 want to get those trash together so all our aoe hits all targets, and others can aoe all at once. We are often not given time to do this and while moving there is already hard aoe and dps on mobs. You loose agro and you have to chase them.
• A rogue wanted to have some fun and gets agro on a mob. You taunt it and want to drag it into the pack. Instead the rogue stuns it... dps on the mob still continues, meaning you have to go back to the mob, do dps and hope you got to do enough threat when the mob gets out of the stun.

All the examples above are there because people have lost respect for trash. Understandable, but I think my raidleader should understand that and not say that 3, good, extremely well geared, tanks are sucking so hastily.

Anyway... the next and last example is in my opinion something hard to forgive. The arrogance is so huge and it shows a total lack of knowledge of the game mechanics. Again we are tanking trash. There is aoe damage. Normally swipe can do more threat then any aoe dps can so that is no problem. The only preblem is there when someone does single target dps. In this case a hunter. There are 3 tanks, and 6 mobs. Not all mobs are targetted by the tanks. Sure the tanks can switch between them, but it is really hard to do it correctly (not without marks anyway). So for tanks (at least for) tanking trash is having 1 main target you mangle and maul and the rest you swipe. Call them main target and off-target. next to that I constantly watch for some mob to break out of the pack so I can taunt it.

To continue on the example. The hunter had chosen a target that was an off-target for all 3 tanks and was not being tanked by anyone directly. This mob then ran towards him and I taunted it. It turned, came back to me, but when he was close the taunt had stopped working and the mob ran back towards the hunter. The thing was, all this time the hunter had targeted this mob and had not stopped dps. If this player had been decent he would have done any of the following (decreasing in most appropriate thing to do, nr 1 being the best imo):

1. before gaining initial agro, he would have seen himself high on the threatlist and switched to a different target. /target tank /assist. Very simple;
2. before gaining initial agro, seen himself high on the threatlist and he could have done Feign Death;
3. when the mob was running towards him he could have done a Feign Death;
4. when the mob was taunted by me he could have changed his target.

No. None of the above. Instead he kept on shooting this target so it ran straight back to him after the taunt was over. I talked to him and he said: "It is the job of the tanks to get them off me". So I really hope he doesn't understand game mechanics rather then be very arrogant, but then again, what is someone like him doing in a hard core raiding guild? Naxx has been to easy on bad players to perform well.

Anyway, to finish my story, if you have dps that doesn't allow you to tank you have to switch your target to the mob running away. You get that mob but that means you can't get threat on other mobs. So they break loose and you have to taunt those, with taunt being on cooldown. It is a cascading effect, that makes it seem you are sucking at tanking. Instead the dps that overagros should wake up and realise they might be doing something wrong...