T12

All posts tagged T12

Bye, Cataclysm

Posted by Peter (Devee) on September 24, 2012
Posted in: Game Mechanics, Mists of Pandaria, PVP, Raiding, World of Warcraft. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Today is the last day of Cataclysm. I thought it’d be a good time to look back over the expansion a bit. I hit my first level cap during Wrath of the Lich King, giving Dalaran and Northrend a sort of homie and familiar feel. Cataclysm was the first expansion to be released while I was actively part of the endgame, so it was a new experience for me.

As Cataclysm was released, I left Carpe Flux Capacitor to make a guild with friends, Playground Brigade. It was fun to play with them, and I’ll happily remember working with my friend Elizabeth on the Conclave of Wind. And by working, I mean joking around in whispers when we screwed up. I really like that memory!

We didn’t complete any of the three T12 raids, and the guild began to fall apart. I rejoined Carpe Flux Capacitor in, I think, 4.1. Unfortunately, my computer went down, and I didn’t get it back up until the end of 4.2. I managed to catch up on the troll heroics and jump into Firelands, killing Ragnaros before killing any other boss. I don’t regret my time with Playground Brigade, but I really regret leaving Carpe Flux Capacitor. That seems contradictory, but I still feel bad for leaving.

Love you, Carpe!

I enjoyed the zones for the most part, and the linearity didn’t bother me. Of course, I don’t have alts either. Vashj’ir was really fun in my opinion. I loved the story and the feeling of loneliness in the zone. I wish the story had continued! Hyjal was pretty cool, but I know I forgot a lot of the plot points as they were happening. Deepholm was fun, but I wish Therazane the Stone Mother would have showed up against Deathwing. Uldum was interesting, but the cutscenes screwed up on my computer all the time and would just show me the ground. I might have liked it more if it worked! Twilight Highlands was fun, and I enjoyed it while I did it. Most of it wasn’t memorable, but I enjoyed surfing on the drakes, exploring, and noticing the fun names of areas and NPCs.

The Zandalari patch was very fun. I’d like to see Blizzard use the option of a content patch without raids in the future. It’s not that I don’t enjoy raids, but Blizzard shouldn’t feel obligated. The raid finder sort of killed Carpe’s drive to raid, but I still think it’s a great tool. I’m thankful that in the future, I’ll always get to see all the content even if I can’t devote all the time.

Cataclysm also brought about void storage, reforging, and transmogrification. I filled my void storage on the first night, and would love to see more. Reforging is actually a bit annoying to me. It just adds an extra puzzle that I don’t enjoy. (Well, I just use Ask Mr. Robot.) Transmogrification, on the other hand, is one of the best features Blizzard has added in a long time. I already collected cool gear that I could only wear in town. Now I can be seen in it!

I love PVP, but I didn’t enjoy the two new Battlegrounds very much. Twin Peaks is just Warsong Gulch 2, and Warsong Gulch is much better. The Battle for Gilneas is decent, but I enjoy Arathi Basin a bit better. I’ll still play and enjoy Battle for Glineas as well, but I don’t know what it is about Twin Peaks that I dislike so much.

It’s been too long since Tier 12 for me to do an analysis really without revisiting. I enjoyed them for the most part though. As a healer, Chimaeron was an interesting fight. Atramedes the blind dragon was also very cool, although his sonar pulse didn’t show up right on my screen! I’m not really qualified to talk about most of the Firelands bosses either since I came late. The zone design was great though, and the Molten Front ties were fantastic. I’d love to see more of that. Ragnaros felt pretty epic. Honestly, it felt more epic than the Madness of Deathwing!

Dragon Soul was enjoyable but flawed. Morchok was a nice introduction to the raid. War’sahj the Unsleeping and Warlord Zon’ozz had interesting mechanics, but I feel like only one of them should have been in the raid. Hagara seemed a little odd, but it really did fit with the story, and I like visiting old locations (and using old artifacts). Ultraxion was cool and fit well, and Deathwing running for it after he saw us defeat his creation was great. Warmaster Blackhorn felt like a step backwards. The fight was odd and anti-climatic, and it seemed to go against the rising tension. Fought a bunch of minions, fought a powerful dragon, went after Deathwing, fought a tauren, and then jumped on Deathwing himself! Which one of those seems out of place? The Spine of Deathwing was very cool. It was so different than other fights, and we’ve never fought a boss while standing on him previously! The Madness of Deathwing sounded good in theory, but it was flawed as well. First, it didn’t look like we were fighting Deathwing. The camera doesn’t go back far enough (without some tinkering) to get a good look. It was also, as far as I know, never really explained why he was full of tentacles. And then there are the Aspects. They’re mortal now? What powers did they lose? Ah, whatever.

Soon it will be time for Mists of Pandaria. I’m already loving account-wide achievements, pets, and mounts. The new continent looks fun, pandaren seem interesting, and monks look pretty cool. I’m actually very excited about pet battles and farming! The character development should be excellent as well. It looks like Blizzard is developing Varian to be more heroic. This is very cool even as a Horde player. This will be a nice juxtaposition to Garrosh’s corruption. I’m looking forward to taking him down at the end of Mists of Pandaria!

 

Ragnaros Attempts

Posted by Peter (Devee) on October 14, 2011
Posted in: Devee, Journal, Raiding. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Last night held another evening of Ragnaros attempts. The Firelord almost defeated me before I even entered the Firelands: my computer didn’t want to boot, and I have expected it to bursts into flames! It wouldn’t even POST. It’s a problem I’ve been having between my video card and motherboard, but I’m too cheap to figure out what’s wrong with it.

An hour late, I make it to the raid. We were missing a few regulars, but we had Traykal, the alt rogue (not alt that happened to be a rogue – the player’s second rogue) of former CFC member, Kaytral. It was cool to see him again. My healing still isn’t anywhere near Syravia’s, but I was holding my own. I don’t think healing was ever an issue. Unfortunately, we still couldn’t down him.

We’re having a lot of trouble with mechanics. Besides little dumb mistakes or general flukes, adds weren’t dying, we weren’t collapsing right, and seeds were placed everywhere. Harley, our guild leader, reprimanded us a little at the end of the night a bit, and I think she was spot on. It’s a delicate thing – make people realize how you’re feeling and how they’re doing without making them feel pissed or stupid. It just made me want to play better next week.

We had some fun attempts though! I like that fight. There are things to do! Still, I don’t think it’s a very complicated fight honestly compared to some previous final bosses. I’m sure we’ll get him down soon.

Priest Set Bonuses in Cataclysm

Posted by Peter (Devee) on September 29, 2011
Posted in: Priest, Raiding. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Set bonuses were just updated a couple minutes ago! I’ve been sitting on this draft, but I’ll go ahead and post it before it gets more dated!

As with all tier gear, the priest tiers this expansion have both good and not-so-good set bonuses. With the T13 bonuses revealed recently, I thought I’d take a chance to offer my opinions. However, keep in mind I haven’t actually acquired 4-piece  of either T11 or T12.

Tier 11

(2 Set): Increases the critical strike chance of your Heal spell by 5%.

Considering where they intended priest healing to be when Cataclysm was being planned, the two-piece made sense. However, Heal just doesn’t work as a spell. It heals a sliver of health on tanks. It’s true that I do use it if the person needing healing isn’t taking much damage, but quite often other heals work better. If someone’s in immediate danger and likely to receive more damage, he’ll get a Power Word: Shield and Flash Heal. If the tank is taking prolonged heavy damage, he’ll get Greater Heals. If a DPS takes damage but isn’t standing in fire or doing something else stupid, a Renew and possibly Power Word: Shield will take care of him. Heal’s just not a good spell right now.

(4 Set): When your Penance spell heals a target you gain 540 Spirit for 10 sec, and being in a Chakra state grants you 540 Spirit for the duration of the Chakra.

The four-piece is nice, but it’s always up for Holy priests and usually up for Discipline priests. Seems unfair.

Tier 12

(2 Set): Casting your Flash Heal, Heal, Greater Heal, and Prayer of Mending spells cause you to regenerate 2% of your base mana every 5 sec for 15 sec.

Pretty much every spell I cast causes me to regenerate mana? Yes please!

(4 Set): You have a chance when you cast a helpful spell to summon a Cauterizing Flame at the target’s location. Each sec the Cauterizing Flame will heal an injured party member within 20 yards for 9250 to 10750. Lasts 5 sec.

As I don’t have four pieces of T12 yet, I don’t know just how smart this smart heal is. It sounds good though!

Tier 13

(2 Set): After using Power Infusion or Lightwell, the mana cost of your healing spells is reduced by 25% for [10|15] sec. (10 sec for Discipline, 15 for non-Discipline.)

This seems disappointing to me even though I know other bloggers have praised it. As Discipline, I use Power Infusion in two situations – whenever it’s up for the mana or during “oh shit” situations. This new two-piece set bonus works for both of those I believe. However, as Holy, I put down Lightwell whenever it’s off cooldown. Okay, that works. Except for the initial cast. Lightwell lasts for the same amount of time that it’s on CD. Because of this, I always cast it before the pull. This way we can use as many of its charges as we need (all of them if the need be) in a shorter amount of time, and then I can recast it. I don’t really need cheap heals before we pull, but the earlier I put it down the better in my opinion. Ten seconds before the pull doesn’t help that much, but a minute and a half before the pull means a minute and a half into the fight I can put down a new one.

(2 Set): After using Power Infusion or Divine Hymn, the mana cost of your healing spells is reduced by 25% for [10|23] sec. (10 sec for Discipline, 23 for non-Discipline.)

You did it! Thanks, Blizzard! Now it’ll do what you intended it to do. I like it.

(4 Set): Your Power Word: Shield has a 10% chance to absorb 100% additional damage, and the cooldown of your Holy Word abilities is reduced by 20%.

(4 Set): Your Power Word: Shield has a 10% chance to absorb 100% additional damage and increase the mana granted by Rapture by 100%, and the duration of your Holy Word abilities is increased by 20%.

This seems really awesome for both healing specs. Power Word: Shield is a fantastic spells for Discipline priests, and I’m sure they’ll get a ton of use out of it. As for Holy, both Holy Word heals are great. I’ve heard the single-target heal referred to as the tank heal and the ground-based AOE one a raid heal, but I don’t think it’s neccessarily like that. I’ve learned to switch Chakras depending on the mobility of the fight at that time (some fights lend themselves to one or the other, and some require me to switch). In any case, a shortned cooldown on these abilities is a welcome addition!

In all, I’m excited about the T13 set bonuses. The two-piece is underwhelming to be sure, but it is a two-piece after all. And after that terrible set “bonus” that was two-piece T11, this is quite welcome! Now we’ll have to wait and see if they get changed before 4.3 goes live.

Great Week

Posted by Peter (Devee) on September 25, 2011
Posted in: Devee, Journal. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

In place of writing some of the actual content that I’ve been outlining and brainstorming, I’d like to mention what an awesome week this has been. Boss kills, loot, and new mounts!

Wednesday Mooglegem and I were needed for our guild run. Unfortunately, we’ve only been needed on the progression nights, so we got to try Ragnaros (after trying and not killing Alysrazor the previous week). It was a fun fight, and I love Ragnaros’ model, but we were unable to down him. It seemed like we’d get him soon, and I still had fun. Still, how can we gear if we haven’t been able to get in the farm night and PUGs won’t take us?

After the Ragnaros attempts, we did a Baradin Hold run. While I didn’t win any PVE gear, I did manage to get a new cloak for PVP! Later I saved enough Valor Points to buy by T12 chest piece, which is BiS non-heroic. That same day I found a trash run and spent a couple hours clearing Firelands trash. I made it to friendly with the Avengers of Hyjal and purchased my BiS cloak. So far, so good – for me anyways. Another small thing we managed to get done was something that’s almost embarrassing. We finally won Tol Barad. Alliance are definitely in control of that damn prison more than the Horde on our server!

Mooglegem hadn’t been so lucky this week. We also missed our Coren Direbrew run one day, which definitely made me angry. However, the next morning Mooglegem won the Brewfest Ram! We were both pretty excited. I managed to snag a new mount as well – the Amani Battle Bear! I can tell you, I’m pretty thrilled to finally get it. At first I didn’t like it as much as the classic Zul’Aman bear, but it really grew on me.

There was one other bit of awesomeness this week: I killed Ragnaros! A guildie asked me I wanted in on a Ragnaros kill because his PUG was looking for someone with experience downing him. Of course, I didn’t have that, and I was honest. I explained that I had done attempts, but I hadn’t killed any Firelands boss nor the final bosses of any T11 raid. He talked with the raid, and they let me in anyways. After four attempts, he went down. And I won the T12 headpiece! Stupidly, I forgot to take a screenshot, but trust me, it happened. Now I have two-piece T12 and two-piece T11!

Here’s hoping next week is as satisfying.