PvP Archive

Back in 2012

– January 1, 2012Posted in: Moonkin, Out of Character, PvP

After many months of inactivity, I have decided to cast a Rebirth on this blog and get back into the swing of things. What better day to start than on January 1st?

I thank so many of you for the emails and personal notes on Twitter. It is humbling to know that people actually enjoyed my little bit of writing here and I hope that I can step up to the plate this time and keep it going with fresh content, more RP and a lot of Moonkin talk.

Looking into the new year, I have some personal goals for the game. First and foremost, I want to get to at least 400,000 honorable kills before the expansion. I am not sure if they are going to add another title/achievement for honorable kills but I sure hope that they do. There has been some speculation that it will be for 500,000 but I am hoping they stick with the gap of 150,000 and move it up to 400,000 for the next one. That is well within my reach. As of today I have just under 357,000 and with my active guild and good friends (HI SNOWY), I am always in a battleground having fun!

Next, I would like to do a little more PvE. I know, I know… that is very uncharacteristic of me but I actually had some fun doing it. Just wish that I had a little more time to devote to it. With work and PvP, there just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day. Not to mention that I enjoy the social aspect of WoW tremendously and love to spend time just hanging out and RPing.

Lastly I would like to hit 2200 in RBGs or arena. I have come close but always have the team break up or some other silliness happens. My own lack of persistance hasn’t helped. Hopefully, that will change.

To all of you, I wish you a very safe, happy and prosperous new year! Please check back often, because I already have some posts ready for publishing.

Tags: 2012, Lufitoom, Moonkin, World of Warcraft

Lufitoom And Barexx Do Firelands, Conquest Vanguard Gank Style!

Lufitoom

– August 14, 2011Posted in: Ganking, Moonkin, Ner'Zhul, Pictures, PvP, Rogue, Screenshots

So after all the drama about when it is appropriate to gank in the questing area and should there be camping/no camping, I was annoyed enough just to say “fuck it” and go balls to the wall (or tits to the glass in my case) and just start spending my time making Horde lives miserable. I do not care at this point if they have 8 children and only have 5 minutes to do their dailies. I am going to do everything in my power to prevent my enemy from being successful.

I am very glad my friend Barexx (Rogue) shares my passion for WPvP. We are usually found together, although we do gank apart as well. We decided early on Saturday that we would spend the day ganking with absolutely no mercy. This was after I was privvy to some comments in Horde general chat the night before as you see below:

Broken English but yeah...

Please note the name “Icyvenom” because he makes another appearance later!

Gotta love it!

Nothing like some raging to motivate us! Anyway, we started our day early and found a Shaman named Grommie that was a glutton for punishment. After the fourth or fifth gank, he decided that messaging Barexx using a level 1 Alliance would be the way to plead his case. His anger was apparent.

Anger and tears feed us!

This was a win! Yes! To get this reaction means we’re “doinitrite”. I guess he felt that this game, on a PvP server was serious business so he followed up with this… an actual death threat! SCORE!

Pixels on a Screen is SRS folks!

After this, Grommie logged out, without reclaiming his body and was not seen again.

Now we decided to make our home “The Furnace”. It is a large hole in Firelands where you go down after a “boss” fight during a daily and then when you are done with the dailies down there, you catch a hot air vent back up to the top. The hole is always there.

The Furnace as seen after you have done the dailies.

It is quite menacing! Once you have done the dailies, if you jump in the hole (without the benefit of a parachute/levitate/slow fall etc.) you will die and take durability damage. There is a rappelling rope on the side tho that allows you to descend safely (see below).

See the rope?

Can you see where I’m going with this? Do you know the temptation that a Moonkin feels when there is a ledge or a cliff around? Not only that, but when the questers come back up from the depths of The Furnace, they are placed on the edge where a nice, refreshing Typhoon is waiting courtesy of yours truly, Lufitoom, the Bloodthirsty.

Game on! Victim after victim plummet to their deaths, not once but multiple times. Barexx was on hand for the rare times that the Typhoon did not work or was on CD. It was more satisfying than you could imagine. Please enjoy some screenshots of the fun that was had at the expense of the dirty Horde!

Tauren Mcsteve gets naked to avoid any more durability damage after the 6th fall back in the hole!

Arianna enjoys her trip back south.

But with no better results! GG!

Oh boy! Here comes another customer….

Well dressed Druid tries his luck!Still failed...

Still failed...

This continued on and off all day. Some made it out, most ended up doing what this Warrior below did… Hearth!

The only way out?

Now before anyone goes ragey on me, remember… I too have been on the receiving end of this. You have outs. Someone can summon outside the area in Hyjal, you can use many abilities to get out (Mages blink for instance). People were smart and took advantage of my 20 second cooldown on Typhoon. This is not a situation where you just can’t get out. I have been held hostage by a rival guild before (mind controlled and healed back to health and then chain cc’d for over an hour). It’s a game. Be clever and cunning and you can get out of anything!

We didn’t just stay there though. We caused murder and mayhem all over the area. While Barexx was taking his lunch break, I found my friend Icyvenom once again (remember him complaining in Horde General Chat?). I took the opportunity to teach him a lesson about whining.

So, leaving the original screenshot name so you can see the times: Poor Icyvenom gets mad!

The rage continued during the evening hours and into the morning.

I know that many of you don’t approve of ganking but this is how I view it. I am Alliance (Night Elf at that) and I hate EVERYONE. I am going to fight against those dastardly Horde and prevent them from being successful. I will utilize every tree, rock, hole, spell, ability, pie, frog or rubber band that will help me. Case closed.

At the end of our ganking day, we had gotten over 300 honorable kills by ganking in the Firelands alone. No battlegrounds. This brought my lifetime total to over 329,000. I am proudest of the screenshot below. Before we arrived, this path was clear and clean. It is now littered with the bones left behind. Oh, and HI NER’ZHUL! Barexx and Lufitoom love your moxie and thanks for all the good times and good fights tonight.

Tags: Alliance, Balance, Barexx, Cataclysm, Conquest, Dailies, Druid, Gamer, Gaming, Ganking, Honorable Kills, Horde, Lufitoom, Moonkin, Ner'Zhul, Night Elf, PvP, QQ, Rogue, Subtlety, The Furnace, Vanguard, World of Warcraft, World PvP, WPvP

Lufitoom’s Recommended Add-on’s and UI Mod

Lufitoom

– July 29, 2011Posted in: Addons, Battlegrounds, PvP, Screenshots

People often ask me if I use any addons or UI mods and the answer is most definitely yes. I am not a fan of the Blizzard stock UI and it took me a long time to find something I did like. This is my UI. I use ElvUI and I love it. It is fully configurable and it comes with some fantastic features like the actionbars, tooltips, unit frames, nameplates, chat and oh so much more. I actually love the nameplates that come with it, but I use an addon in PvP (which I will talk about later) that isn’t friendly with the ElvUI nameplates so I use Tidy Plates instead. Out of all the custom UI packages that I have tried, this one is the easiest and lightest to use. Highly recommended!

On to the addons. I use a couple that are what I call “epeen” addons. They serve no other purpose than to stroke my epeen and that makes me happy. Might as well get them out of the way before we get into the meat of PvP addons.

Honor Kill Tab This is exactly what it says. As you all know, I am obsessed with Honorable Kills, and Blizzard made it so annoying to try and check your totals. Instead of having to go to your achievements, then statistics, then kills, etc… you can simply hit H (pulling up the same panel as your battlegrounds/arenas) and there will be a tab at the bottom, just like all the other tabs. This one will show your kills for the day, total, battleground, world and more.
Female Announcer This woman will make you feel like a true stud. With every killing blow, she moans out the Unreal Tournament killing spree sayings, getting more excited up to 10 in a row where she reaches the climax with “Holy shit!”. If you don’t die, she screams “Holy shit!” over and over. Very motivating and mucho epeen stroking.

Now on to arena. I am more of a WPvP/Battleground nerd but I have been known to dabble a bit in arena.

Arena Unit Frames Most people use Gladius, but I really prefer Arena Unit Frames. It does pretty much the same thing, with one major bonus… it talks! You can set it to use sounds or speech to alert you along with text when something important is happening. I just love the fact that it will say audibly things like ”Shaman is drinking!” and “Warlock, trinket used!”. It really helps in arena when things can get very intense and where text can be missed.

For general PvP, including Rated Battleground, I like the following:

Healers Have to Die Although I usually have no problem with picking out healers from a crowd, this is an exceptional addon. This is also the one that doesn’t work with the ElvUI Nameplates as I mentioned before but it works superbly with Tidy Plates. The addon will place a cross above the nameplate of an enemy healer in red, and they seem to glow. Also, it will identify your friendly healers and announce when they are being attacked and what is attacking them. They also get crosses above their nameplates as well. Also, there are two sounds. One when you happen to mouseover an enemy healer and then another when you actually target them. This is a must-have for larger battles, not as needed in arena but it can be used and works well there too.
Battle Herald Just replaces the normal text in battlegrounds with a little more information, as well as audible alerts and announcements. Mouseover in CTF games to see the EFC. Lighter than Deadly Boss Mods in BGs.
MikScrollingBattleText Seeing those numbers of hits, heals and damage (and more!) scrolling around you is not only fun, but helpful. One of my personal favorites.
SaySapped Let the folks around you know when you have been sapped by a pesky rogue.
Stealth Alerter Just what it says. Lets you know who and what stealths near you. Very handy!
Spy This also shows when someone stealths, but it gives you a clickable list of all enemies near you. This is by far one of my favorites but I worry it is a little heavy on resources. I am still testing it now that it works well with 4.2.

Druid Specific Addons:

PowerShifter I have my forms bound but there are times I find that this right clicking of my bar gets me out of some sticky situations. Try it out… and if you are a clicker (gasp) this is a must have.

I am currently testing BGGlad which is supposed to be like a Gladius for Rated Battlegrounds. I haven’t had a chance to really give it a go but it sounds promising. I will certainly let you know when I check it out.

As a Moonkin in PvP, I need all the help I can get thanks to Blizzard and their Moonkin nerfing. These addons help a lot, and in many cases just make life a lot more fun.

Tags: addons, Advice, Battlegrounds, BG, BGs, Druid, Gamer, Gaming, Moonkin, Opinion, PvP, Rated Battlegrounds, RBG, RBGs, Screenshots, ui, World of Warcraft, World PvP, WPvP

Ganking in Firelands… Making Kids QQ Since 2011

Lufitoom

– July 26, 2011Posted in: PvP

This Moonkin got her feathers in a ruffle recently over this post over at MMO Melting Pot. Since then, they have stopped comments from being added to the post stating:

Hugh Hancock July 24, 2011 at 2:13 am

OK, I’m closing comments on this one. I think everything useful has been said.

Thanks for all your opinions. I’ve just spoken to Rebecca about this, and I can say with some confidence the Melting Pot’s stance on this issue won’t be changing.

I have contacted Dan O’Halloran and Chase Christian and asked if they wish to reply – neither of them have accepted as of this writing.

Now I return you to your regularly-scheduled FailPUGs,arty LoTRO events, nerf QQing and excited waiting for Guild Wars 2…

I read this as they were just tired of seeing the majority of the people call them out for being PvElitist crybabies and they were stomping away to pout. They repeatedly confused ganking with griefing and if they had done any research at all, none of what they were whining about this post that was posted at WoW Insider is even considered griefing by Blizzard standards.

One of the comments made by Hugh (which actually was directed at my GM who I don’t think owns anything with resilience on it) really got me thinking:

Hugh Hancock July 21, 2011 at 6:03 pm

@Matticus – I really can’t see how you can consider someone in full PvP gear tearing apart a clothie in greens with her back to you “defence”. There’s another word for that, and it’s not a nice one.

And whilst you may have the flexible schedule to simply log out and wait for a better time, many people don’t. When you gank, you might be ruining someone’s only chance to relax for the day. That’s actually fairly serious. I’ve seen people close to tears after being repeatedly ganked whilst they’re just trying to have fun. This stuff has actual effects on real people.

First, if you are in greens and doing your dailies there, you are going to be pretty much globaled by the mobs. So, GTFO. Second, if someone is close to tears after being repeatedly killed in a game where you rez moments later, then they should be spending their $15 a month not on a game but on some therapy because that is just not mentally healthy.

I know I might sound mean but I look at ganking and WPvP as an important part of the game. Although I didn’t RP much in events on my old server but I had a back story and I played (and still play) as my character. We are at war. My enemies are near. They must die.

Last night as I realized that I am approaching my 326,000th honorable kill, I sat back and thought about how much I enjoy WPvP. The randomness, the improvisation, the fact that it is always changing and always challenging. I got all reminiscent over the Sunwell Plateau days and I applaud Blizzard for bringing back an area that can be fun and frustrating from both PvP and PvE standpoints.

MMO Melting Pot kept stating that the post at WoW Insider was bad because it was part of “a community”. So, those of us who enjoy and participate in WPvP are not allowed to be part of this community? Wanting them to censor part of the community because it doesn’t go well with their playstyle? Come on now!

What they have done it just motivated me to become even more Bloodthirsty than I already am. I am now showing no mercy when the person I just ganked rezzes and I bomb them again. Sometimes, my friends, being the squeaky wheel gives you more grease than you can handle.

Tags: Dailies, Firelands, Gamer, Gaming, Lufitoom, MMO Melting Pot, Opinion, PvP, QQ, World of Warcraft, World PvP, WoW Insider, WPvP

So, You Wanna RBG….

Lufitoom

– July 20, 2011Posted in: Battlegrounds, Out of Character, PvP

Last week we had a few open spots on our RBG team due to our regular team members dealing with computer meltdowns, Harry Potter and I think even some sort of infection. This left us with the desperate move to PUG the spots. Ok, so filling them with guildies might not be “PUGging” to some people, but in my opinion it still was. I do prefer to go with guildies over the regular random scrub PUGs though so I was happy to see some new names and fresh faces helping out the team. It became quickly apparent that they had limited PvP experience (which is fine with me if they have a willingness to learn) and were unsure of their abilities outside the relative safety of a PvE instance. So, that is where the idea for this post was born. Just some helpful hints for newbs to rated battlegrounds, with an emphasis on Balance and Restoration Druids.

Come appropriately geared. Blizzard makes it stupidly easy to get decent PvP gear if you just put in the effort. Showing up to my RBG with low resil/blues/greens (yes, someone had a green on) is like me showing up to your progression raid in the same equivalent and under hit. Get the gear before you step into the battle.
Just because you are Resto in PvP, doesn’t mean that all you are supposed to do is heal. This is why Resto Druids have to get the 4% spell hit as well. Your heals are fantastic but you must be aggressive in addition to healing. Anything that can stealth should have a Fairie Fire on it. Insects should be a swarming. Cyclones and roots galore. Hunter pets… hibernate. If you see someone low, don’t be afraid to Moonfire/Wrath.
If you are not aware enough in PvP yet to be able to identify what is happening to you, get an addon that shows you the spells etc. that are affecting you or keep you combat log up. I have some PvE addons and when I am going to PvE I turn them on. When I am going to be PvPing, I turn them off. No excuses. Personally, I don’t like the idea of required add-ons. I just know that in some situations I need the extra help for the betterment of the team. You should be able to tell immediately that you are being mana burned and calling it out will help us help you.
Communication is the key. There are many things to remember during a match in regards to communication. First and foremost, don’t be shy. Although vent/mumble should be as clear as possible, silence is a bad bad thing. Don’t be shy! Call out your CC’s. Call out a low target. Call out the direction of the EFC. (Don’t use left/right. Always use directions such as North/East/West/South or landmarks like Waterworks or Graveyard side. Remember, left and right depend on your perspective. Inevitably, half your team will be facing the other direction and will run to the wrong side.) If you are Resto, call for peels. By peels I don’t just mean melee, it’s anything that is making it hard for you to heal.
The only person calling out for heals should be the flag carrier. Our healers should be aware of the damage being done and if you are dying they should know about it already. If you do die (it happens), call out how many seconds to rez and where are you rezzing.
Focus fire. Seriously. When a target is called, GET ON IT. Make it dead.
If you see a healer running around with no mana, keep it in combat but don’t make it a priority to kill it. Kill the other healers or DPS first. They are helpless/harmless and can be blown up after.
If you are low on mana, call it out. Chances are there will be a druid with our nerfed and weak innervate ready for you. It might not be much, but it’s something.
Rogues. Tricks the Moonkin at will. Thanks.
Last, have respect for your teammates. Coming into an RBG with a bad attitude and a PvE elitist demeanor will not be received well. PvE/PvP rivalry will always be there and even I joke around about it but like it or not… when you are in an RBG, you ARE a PvPer.

Oh, wait. The most important thing is…

HAVE FUN!

People forget that sometimes.

Tags: Advice, Balance, Battlegrounds, BG, BGs, Boomkin, Cataclysm, Druid, Gamer, Gaming, Moonkin, PvP, Rated Battlegrounds, RBG, RBGs, Resto, World of Warcraft

Moonkin PvP in 4.2

Lufitoom

– July 10, 2011Posted in: Battlegrounds, Moonkin, PvP

Even thought I had been dreading the changes to Balance Druids, I wanted to wait and see what actually happened in 4.2. I was accepting my fate of nerfage. Sadly, this has been one nerf after another since Cataclysm dropped. Before you start saying “but but but you have 23% moar damage in your Starfire and Wrath!!!!11!11!!!” let me say that even though that’s nice, it still is a nerf from my PvP perspective.

As a PvPer, I can’t just stand in one spot until the predictable fire/green shit/frost/etc. drops onto the same places it does every time in a PvE encounter. I have to be on the move, avoiding the blender and staying at ranged from some annoying melee classes. My moonfire/sunfire spam allowed me to do that. Now if I had some sort of defense (like the instant roots they took away) I could agree with this change. As it stands now, I cannot be offensive or defensive. I have been reduced to popping everything and hoping the other player(s) are weak enough to go down. That’s it.

I am a firm believer that Blizzard really has not had a knowledgeable person on the staff when it comes to Moonkin PvP. It’s not their fault, we are more rare than you would think in the grand scheme of things. I don’t want to be OP or faceroll (see Mage lol). I just want to be competitive.

So here are just two suggestions:

Provide Balance Druids with a serious cc/escape mechanism. Instant roots/cyclones (on a cd of course). Would give us a chance to get back at ranged, but with a good cd, it couldn’t be spammed.
Buff starsurge again for pvp. If it procs, we have an opportunity to win. Still running on RNG it wouldn’t be completely controllable and not like the current Pally and Warrior 1-click I win buttons.

Why only two? Because I am a realistic sort of gal. I am not trying to become overpowered. I just would like to be able to have the escapeability that so many (most) of the other classes have. I mean come on, Pally/DK/Warrior/Mage/Priest/Rogue/Hunter/Warlock all have the OSHIT buttons to at least give them a chance. They are instant and powerful. Shaman too, but in a lesser degree (not gonna even talk about healers really… that is as it should be).

So, how ’bout it Blizz? Can a feathered friend get just a little love? You have really broken us.

Don’t make a Moonkin cry.

Tags: Balance, Druid, Gamer, Gaming, Moonkin, Nerf, PvP, Spec, World of Warcraft

Premature Emote-ation

Lufitoom

– March 21, 2011Posted in: PvP, Screenshots

Have you ever happened upon a member of the opposite faction and just known that you were going to be able to roll them? You get the opener, things are looking fantastic and then it goes horribly, horrible wrong? That’s just what happened to Wastedbeef of Emerald Dream today. I am not sure if it was all the nifty blues he was wearing, or those sparkling greens he still had equipped, but he felt the need to spam emotes at me, confident in his ability to win this confrontation in Tol Barad.

Sadly, this was a case of “Premature Emote-ation”, a terribly malady that seems to be showing its ugly face more and more during WPvP fights.

This, my friends, is the result of his emote frenzy:

Here is the full screenshot of me riding away, keeping it a 10, and you can see the text in all its glory.

Tags: Alliance, Druid, Emerald Dream, Gamer, Gaming, Lufitoom, Moonkin, No Mercy Mafia, PvP, Screenshots, World of Warcraft, World PvP, WPvP

Garrosh Lives! (But We’ll Be Back)

Lufitoom

– March 21, 2011Posted in: Out of Character, PvP, Screenshots

Last night, No Mercy Mafia, Kingship of the East and Ashes of the Phoenix joined forces with a few other people in “The Federation” and made our way to Orgrimmar. It was relatively easy, since our guilds have the “Have Group, Will Travel” guild achievements. So, three full raids descended upon Garrosh.

The fight was going to be long, fighting the immense lag was the worst part. At about 50%, we crashed the server and Garrosh reset.

We logged back in, and started again. Adjusting a few things but again at about 50%, the server crashed once again.

Maybe three times the charm? We log back in again, and start to fight. The Horde obviously are angered at this time and had given up trying to fight us in any honorable way, so a certain guild sent five or so of their most nefarious characters to crash our vent. Then, one logged on their unguilded Alliance toon and taunted Garrosh to pull him out and reset him.

We continued to fight, my raid barely lost a soul until the very end. ~500 honorable kills later, we went back to Stormwind, unsuccessful in achieving our objective, but very content with the hurting we put on the Horde.

The Horde retaliated with a 39 man raid on the Trade District in Stormwind where they were annihilated immediately. We flew swiftly out to the the graveyard, and camped it to punish them for their tomfoolery.

For the Alliance!

Tags: Alliance, Emerald Dream, Gamer, Gaming, Garrosh, No Mercy Mafia, Orgrimmar, PvP, Screenshots, Server Crash, The Federation, World of Warcraft, World PvP, WPvP

World PvP is NOT Dead (Just On Life Support)

Lufitoom

– March 20, 2011Posted in: Out of Character, PvP, Screenshots

Recently there was a blue post about the state of World PvP at http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2228418515?page=2#32 and after many a day stewing over this, I decided I needed to put in my 2 cents. Sadly, it seems that when you disagree with “the blues” you tend to get banned for harassment or spam, and since I have no problem in getting banned for much more fun things, I figured here would be a good place to put it.

Here is Bashiok’s quote:

Hrm, I reckon it’s rewards that ruined world PvP. Everyone harkens back to TM/SS as the holy grail of world PvP, and that was before and maybe slightly after the honor system was implemented (but before real rewards existed from it). I think you can encourage world PvP all you want, and if there aren’t rewards behind it you’ll keep people interested for about as long as it takes them to realize there are other things to do that give real power increases. Why would anyone spend any amount of time just pushing back and forth for no reason when you can spend your time toward actual rewards and character improvement? Maybe there are some of you, but I guarantee it’d be short lived.I mean shoot, you have Isle of Quel’Danas or even quest hubs in Cataclysm where people are literally forced together, and there’s complaints that they just want people to stop PvPing so they can get their stuff done so they can get their rewards. That’s kind of unfair because I know many did enjoy those situations, but somehow it never meets the awesomeness of TM/SS, and I reckon it just never could again.The best I can think that you could do is create a specific world PvP zone where you don’t allow flying mounts, give some objective to tug-o-war over, and so you can justify giving some semi-meaningful rewards and keep people interested you’d need to find some way to even up the sides (because world PvP is inherently going to be unfair). I think you do all that and you probably have the best working solution for bringing back world PvP.

Seriously? Have you visited Emerald Dream-US in the past two expansions? This has to be the most pants-on-head retarded post I have seen in a while from a blue. Does Blizzard have a stash of pre-1978 vintage lead paint chips that they are offering as snacks to their employees?

Those of us who live for World PvP do it not for “rewards” but for bragging rights and for the fact that WE ARE AT FUCKING WAR WITH EACH OTHER NOT JUST NIFTY DRAGONS. We eat, sleep and breathe WPvP on Emerald Dream. If you think that people don’t keep an interest in WPvP, Bashiok, you really need to climb out of your hole and do some research.

Has flying hurt WPvP? Immensely. Sure, we can get into a city easier flying in, but then it’s more about PvE than PvP. The sad thing is now we see our enemies just mount and fly away and even I find less of a reason to attempt to stay and fight. So, yes, flying in the old world has been fun but I would gladly give it back for just the WPvP that it gives us.

When we do find some good WPvP, it is more PvE against NPCs than anything else. We don’t have a problem downing the hard-as-a-truck hitting NPCs, but the insanely quick respawn timers take the fun out of it. This is why many of us are enjoying another game (Cough. Rift. Cough). There the NPCs in towns are killed by other NPCs if you don’t defend, not to mention the opposing faction. It makes sense and promotes defending them if you want to get/turn in quests or just interact with them. Please, make a note of this Blizzard.

It’s sad that World PvP and the PvPers that love it seem to be so far down on the priority list for Blizzard. There are some really easy and fun ways that would fix this such as no-fly zones that have reasons for people to be there, guards that have reasonable HP and reasonable respawn timers, and just stopping catering to the people who want an easy game!

If players want an easy time questing, there are things out there called “PvE servers”. Go there. If you join a PvP server, don’t bitch. Your difficulties will build character and when you hit 85, you can LOL at the carebears and know that you really worked for what you have. I realize that instance and bg leveling make it less of an issue, but many people still quest a lot.

Max level WPvP is still important to many of us. We do get the rewards from arena and RBGs to gear up just for the WPvP. As for it being unfair, it’s a war, war isn’t always fair and we like it that way. Sometimes you get rolled, sometimes you roll. That’s the beauty of it

Tags: Bashiok, Blizzard, Blue Post, Cataclysm, Emerald Dream, Screenshots, World of Warcraft, World PvP, WPvP

Upcoming Nerfs and Moonkin Survivability

Lufitoom

– March 1, 2011Posted in: Moonkin, PvP, Spec

It had to happen. I have been waiting for the nerf bat to be swung mightily in my direction and aimed directly at my Starsurge for a while now. I guess the first clue might have been when I hit a Warrior in Tol Barad for 87k. So what exactly are they doing to it? The patch notes can be found here.

Ok, so a 20% reduction in my Starsurge is not going to be game breaking for me in PvP. The only thing that it might shrink other than the sexy big numbers is the size of my epeen and that still will be enormous with or without the big numbers. But seriously, I’m a Moonkin, I’ve been through nerfs before. I’ll still kick ass, take names, and make the Horde cry.

The nerfs that are going to be affecting me the most are not Balance specific. These will be affecting all Druids and I believe are meant to be pointed at other specs and for PvE oriented characters. Sadly, it will really hurt the survivability of us PvP Moonkin in a big way.

First, let’s talk about this nerf: Cyclone duration has been reduced to 5 seconds, down from 6. While that doesn’t sound like much, it’s a huge deal especially since they took out the glyph to make our roots instant, and nerfed our Thorns (due to melee classes that should have been licking the windows of short buses as opposed to PvPing). Now, the one thing I have left to try and either give me enough time to get away to ranged distance or just GTFO in general, will disappear even faster. This is will leave me extremely vulnerable.

The next nerf is supposed to be balancing things out between healers but it really affects me since most of my healing has already been nerfed to the point that I might as well not even roll a hot. Lifebloom‘s bloom effect has been reduced by 20%. In addition, it now costs 11% of base mana, up from 7%. While this might not seem like a lot, this is the only heal that was able to give me that extra survivability as I was running away like a scared little schoolgirl. The mana increase will hurt Restoration Druids more than me, and I don’t think that PvE Moonkin will worry about this much at all. It’s the bloom effect that will sting.

I know that these nerfs were needed in some capacity but Blizzard needs to look at the big picture. It seems that when they make these changes, they are tunnel visioning PvE or PvP, one spec, or one issue. They seem to forget that not everyone PvEs (or PvPs for that matter, because some nerfs have been brought on by PvP issues and completely gimped PvE focused specs.)

Qieth has an excellent post on his blog that brings to light another nerf that will most certainly affect those who are inclined to slay more dragons than I do. What he highlights will affect me but not to the extreme that it will him.

Honestly, I’m not going to get my feathers into a ruffle, because it is early in the patch testing phase and hopefully things will be adjusted or evened out before it goes live. I just hate to see that for the first time in a long time, being a PvP Moonkin was viable and now it seems that piece by piece I am being pushed back to the bad old days.

Tags: Balance, Druid, Gamer, Gaming, Lufitoom, Moonkin, Nerf, PvP, Spec, World of Warcraft

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