MoP Beta: Prot Warrior's Are Getting Angrier (And Less Squishy!)

"I Shall Call Him Squishy And He Shall Be Mine"

Since 5.0.4 hit Prot Warriors have been getting a really bad rep. Gone are the days where we can reach the CTC (Combat Table Cap) due to the new rolling system with Block being on a separate roll to Dodge and Parry and this has left us somewhat squishy.

My guild's current raid setup has 2 warrior tanks (one dedicated and one standing in due to the lull before Mists drops) and it was noted how much damage we were both taking. No amount of active mitigation helped the overall problem.

There Be Changes Coming

The one and only Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street has posted on the official wow forums to talk about changes being made to "rage tanks" in the MoP Beta:

 Ghostcrawler - Beta Class Balance Analysis

Tank Time
I mentioned previously (though it very well could have been in another thread) that we have been looking a lot at tank balance. We think tanks surviving short windows of spike damage has been fairly balanced in beta for some time, and indeed we are seeing all tank classes used effectively in beta Challenge Modes and Heroic raid testing.

We have made a few changes to longer-term tank healing required, which will show up both on beta and live very soon. I mentioned that we were initially going to nerf monk and DK, but we now think they and paladins are fine. Instead, the rage tanks required too much healing, so we are causing them to take less damage and have more rage for active mitigation.

Druid
-- Auto attack rage generation increased by 75%.
-- Thick Hide now provides 12% physical damage reduction.

Warrior
-- Rage generation from Revenge increased from 10 to 15.
-- Rage generation from Shield Slam increased from 15 to 20. (Sword and Board continues to give 5 extra, so 25 now).
-- Reduced internal cooldown on Critical Block from Enrage from 5 sec to 3 sec.
-- Increased damage reduction from Defensive Stance from 15% to 25%.
-- Increased armor from Unwavering Sentinel from 10% to 25%.

source

To be honest at our current level these changes are needed! The increased rage generation from Revenge and Shield Slam will help us reach out Active Mitigation abilities a lot quicker making us a little less squishy. The flat damage reduction from Defensive Stance and Unwavering Sentinel speaks for itself as to how Blizzard current sees the Prot Warrior class standing in comparison to other classes. What they are essentially saying in this post is that Prot Warriors are weaker than the other classes currently by over 10% and we are going to buff you up.

I have to say it's nice to see a buff as opposed to a general nerf for the other classes (Pally, DK and Monks).

Patch 5.0.4 and MoP Currency Conversion (Valor and Conquest Points)

Oh Where, Oh Where Did My Valor Points Go?

Blizzard has just released it's plans for the Valor and Conquest Points Conversion for:

- Patch 5.0.4

- Mists of Pandaria

- Patch 5.1

Check out the text below for more information. It appears the Valor points will be converted over to Justice points however there is no mention of what happens to your existing Justice points. This might be a great time to start buying your Heirloom gear ahead of the new Expansion so you can hit the ground running with your new Panda Monk 

The currency conversion coming with Mists of Pandaria is going to happen in three stages, and this is how we plan for it to progress:

With Patch 5.0.4 on August 28

• Valor points will be converted to Justice points, and Conquest points will be converted to Honor points.
  • Neither of the resultant currencies (Justice and Honor) will have an enforced hard-cap at this time.
• The current Arena season will end.
• Players will no longer be able to earn Valor or Conquest points (bosses will drop Justice, Arenas will be closed).
• Items formerly purchasable for Valor/Conquest will be available for Justice/Honor.

With Mists of Pandaria on September 25

• Valor can be earned again.
  • Characters can earn up to 1000 Valor per week, and carry a maximum of 3000 Valor.
  • Daily quests, random Scenarios, random Heroic dungeons, and all levels of raiding will reward Valor.
  • Valor will be used to purchase ilvl 489 gear in Mists of Pandaria.
    • The Klaxxi, Golden Lotus, Shado-Pan, and August Celestials factions will sell this gear.
    • Revered reputation with each faction will be required.
• Conquest will become earnable.
  • There is a cap of 4000 Conquest points.
  • Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds reward Conquest.
  • It will be used to purchase ilvl 483 gear from Pandaren battlemasters on the Great Wall.

With Mists of Pandaria, Patch 5.1

• We currently plan to upgrade the Valor system as Ghostcrawler described in Mists of Pandaria Looting Explained in the 5.1 patch, allowing you to upgrade your gear using Valor points. We’ll have additional information once Mists of Pandaria launches and we get closer to the 5.1 patch release.

MoP Expansion On 2 x DVD-ROM's?

Things Just Got Bigger

I was mindlessly surfing the internet this morning and checking out everything that is WoW related and decided to check out the Mists of Pandaria Collectors edition on play.com. Something was strange about the above image and I couldn't work out what it was. Looking further at it I could see 5 discs - 1 for the soundtrack, 1 Bluray, 1 DVD and then a game DVD-ROM. Those only accounted for 4 discs though.

Zoom, Zoom, ZOOM!

Looking closer at the discs on the right hand side I could just about make out what it said on the first disc "Game DVD Disc 1" and then you can just make out "Disc 2" in the one behind this. Judging by the additional content of the Collectors Edition only really being a pet and a mount this leads me to believe that MoP will come as standard in both the Std Version and the Collectors edition on 2 DVD-ROM's - It's time to upgrade the hard discs people!

MoP & Patch 5.0.4 Talents for Prot Warriors

Mists of Pandaria Talent Tree Analysis for Protection Warriors

With Patch 5.0.4 surging its way down your internet connection to your beloved PC/Mac it's time to start thinking about what talents to take when Blizzard finally press the shiny "GO LIVE" button.

What In The Name of 'Shield Slam' Has Happened to My Talent Tree?

On Patch day your talents will be reset and you will be left with a rather strange looking talent tree (see picture above). You can pick one out of the 3 talents every 15 levels - so when 5.0.4 goes live you will have access to all but the last row of talents.

Level 15 Talents (Tier 1)

The 1st Tier of talents can be accessed at Level 15 and basically effects the way that your Charge Ability works:

Juggernaut: This talent reduces the cooldown of your Charge ability by 8 seconds, meaning you can charge every 12 seconds. 

Double Time: Allows you to Charge 2 times before the 20 second cooldown however you can only generate rage from this once every 12 seconds.

Warbringer: Your charge knocks the target to the ground and stuns it for 3 seconds.

Analysis: These are all very situational Talents and I can see uses for all of them. This will be personal preference however I do find the Warbringer talent to be of very limited use for raiding unless adds spawn that need to be stunned (ie. The Ragnaros fight in Firelands). 

A flat reduction of cooldown with the Juggernaut talent keeps the Charge ability predicable in terms of Rage generation as opposed to Double Time, however being able to charge from pack to pack, back to back really does appeal to me. The way I am reading the tool tip for Double Time it seems that you now have 2 Charge's on 2 separate cooldowns, kind of like the way we can use Charge and Intercept back to back at the moment. One of the cool parts about playing a Warrior Tank is we are the most mobile tank in the game, for that reason I will be taking Double Time as my level 15 talent.

Level 30 Talents (Tier 2)

The second tier of talents is our "Self Healing" tier

Enraged Regeneration: This is an instant 10% heal with an additional HoT of another 10% over 5 seconds and it has a 1 minute cooldown at a cost of 60 rage.

Second Wind: This is a "no need to remember to press the button" talent. A 3% HoT heal every second while you are below 35% health.

Impending Victory: I think the tool tip is wrong on here at the moment. It displays a 20% heal every 30 seconds at a cost of 10 rage and a 20% heal on your next use if you kill something that yields Honour of XP.

Analysis: Looking around the various internet sources it appears that Second Wind is a more PvP focused talent. With that in mind it leaves us with Enraged Regeneration and Impending Victory. As an average both talents will provide 1% health restoration every 3 seconds if used off cooldown however there is a potential with Enraged Regeneration to overheal yourself in a Raid situation. Assuming your healers are keeping you topped up (ish!) and you use it at an appropriate moment then the additional 10% over 5 seconds might be wasted by a healer healing you up to full health. Impending Victory is a very interesting one. A 30 second cooldown at 10 rage cost is quite attractive. Not only that but if you kill something that yields honour or XP then you are going to get a 20% heal instead at no extra cost. For these reasons I will be taking Impending Victory however I can see merits in Enraged Regeneration and even Second Wind if you are wiping on a boss because of tank health going too low.

Level 45 Talents (Tier 3)

The third tier of talents are aimed at crowd control (ish!).

Staggering Shout: Causes all enemies to be rooted in place within 20 yards (this does not stop them attacking you!) at a cost of no rage with a 40 seconds cooldown.

Piercing Howl: Reduces the movement speed of enemies within 15 yards at a cost of 10 rage with no visible cooldown.

Disrupting Shout: Interrupts ALL casting within 10 yards and prevents any casting from that school for 4 seconds at a cost of no rage on a 40 second cooldown

Analysis: Ok lets face it there's nothing too cool here right? Right? Many sites have pointed at Tier 3 as totally useless for the Protection Warrior and to be honest they are NEARLY right! I'm not going to give a huge breakdown of these other than to say Staggering Shout and Piercing Howl are pretty useless in a raid/dungeon environment unless you have to slow down mobs (ie. the Raggy fight in Firelands). Disrupting Shout however is NICE!! Very Nice!! So nice I'm left wondering why we haven't had this until now! The use for this talent is simple: Charge into a pack with casters and melee targets and use Disrupting Shout when the casters get casting. They will run to you to attack you in melee range and you have a nice neat pull ready to Thunderclap and Shockwave/[Insert Tier 4 Talent Here!]. For that reason my default choice will be Disrupting Shout unless the fight needs something to slow down a pack.


Level 60 Talents (Tier 4)

The fourth tier of talents mark the return of some current final tier talents along with one new one.

Bladestorm: Nothing really new here - 90 second cooldown

Shockwave: Again nothing really new here - 20 second cooldown

Dragon Roar: An AoE knockdown/stun with damage - 1 minute cooldown

Analysis: When I saw this talent tree all I could think was "I can use Bladestorm as a Prot Warrior!! OMG!!" - I must admit I felt like a teenage girl who was asked out on a date for the 1st time and the reason why you are smiling at this right now is cause you were thinking the exact same thing! I'm going to be honest here if you want pure unadulterated DPS then Dragon Roar is what you want. Bladestorm's novelty will wear off pretty quickly but will be a great talent to take in situations where you might lose control of your Warrior - ie. if a Boss fears everyone or something you can pop this as he's casting and you won't get feared/hit in the back! Shockwave however will be my choice unless I need either of the above. A 20 seconds cooldown with a stun attached to it is too much to resist. I know it's not new and shiny but it gets the job done!


Level 75 Talents (Tier 5)

The fifth tier of talents are technically semi protection warrior core abilities of old with a few twists thrown in.

Mass Spell Reflection: Does exactly what it says on the tin! 1 minute cooldown.

Safeguard: This is a buff/replacement for the Intervene ability. 30 second cooldown.

Vigilance: This is a total rework of the old Vigilance talent. Works the same way as the old one but only lasts for 12 seconds as opposed to constant. 2 minute cooldown.

Analysis: On the face of it Mass Spell Reflection sounds AMAZING. But how many boss fights are we going to get to see where we will be able to Reflect their spells? With that in mind we are left with Safeguard and Vigilance. Safeguard will get rid of any movement impairing effects on you when used and Vigilance will allow you to Taunt spam for 12 seconds. All of these are purely situational Talents and so I'm not going to make a recommendation. In all honesty I'm going to try out Mass Spell Reflection to begin with to see how it plays out in Mists of Pandaria.


Level 90 Talents (Tier 6)

The sixth and final tier of talents are our "cool" new abilities. They mainly effect DPS and I can see situational uses for all of them.

Avatar: A 20 second buff to your DPS and rage generation on a 3 minute cooldown.

Bloodbath: A 12 second buff to your DPS in the form of a bleed effect on a 1 minute cooldown.

Stormbolt: A potential 300% weapon damage ability (see below for explaination!) or 100% damage and a stun. 30 second cooldown

Analysis: For me there is only one way to go with this..... And that is Stormbolt. Lets be honest here how often are you going to use this as a raider on something you can stun? Raid bosses can't be stunned and therefore this is a 300% weapon damage on a 30 second cooldown that can be worked into your rotation. Avatar and Bloodbath are kind of cool as well but the cooldown on them is too long to have a reliable impact. For example you are most likely to pop Avatar during Heroism which is all well and good but how does that help you maintain rage in a tank swap fight for example - especially the fights where the agro table is a nightmare (I'm looking at you Mr Ragnaros!). Bloodbath might be cool for certain AoE fights however it only works off Melee special attacks and therefore you'll need to hit a few mobs to have an impact on them. Go with Stormbolt for boss fights - you won't be disappointed.


That wraps us up. If you have any questions please feel free to comment below or email me: snipple@raidprotection.com

10 Things to Do On the 28th of August (Patch Day 5.0.4)

It would be an understatement to say that in under 2 weeks time the way we play our Warriors will change forever. Patch 5.0.4 will launch on the 28th of August giving us around about a one month window to get to know our class/spec before a wealth of new content is thrust up on us. Here is 10 things you should aim to do on patch day:


10 Things I Love About You:


1. Log into the game: "Well duhhhhhhh" I hear you cry! Seems stupid but you'd be surprised at the amount of times where a raid has been held up by one patch or another dropping and someone has forgotten to download and install until 5 minutes before raid time. Even if you are on a break from the game just load it up and install the patch before you forget!

2. Look at Talent Options: I will be posting an analysis of Warrior Talents for the Protection Warrior later on today (stay tuned!) to guide you around and try to give you the pro's and con's for each talent in every tier. But you have a brain, engage it! Read the tool tips and see what YOU like about things.

3. Make a Talent Selection: You will only be able to spec down to the 5th tier (level 75) on patch day, even so - select your talents, go into your spell book and move them to your action bars

4. Have Another Look In Your Spellbook: Have a look to see if you have everything at your disposal out and in your action bars. Check out the tool tips and have a think about rage costs and things like that!

5. Goto a Training Dummy: Seems silly to do this when you're not measuring your DPS huh? Well everything has changed about your Class - the way you generate rage, the way you spend it and what you spend it on! Spend 10 minutes getting used to it all!

6. Leave Your Gear As It Is: Don't be tempted to go reforging everything at huge expense right out of the gate! Leave it for a day or so or at least until you have done point 7 a few times before you go reforging crazy!

7. Run a Heroic Dungeon: Seems obvious right? Again you'd be surprised how many people don't do this out of fear of looking stupid. Just because your class has taken a beating and you don't recognise it any more doesn't mean you can't play it - you just need to re-learn a few things. When you get in explain what has happened or even create a macro with something like: "Hi guys/girls. Still getting used to the new Warrior changes so please be patient with me :)"..... This will let people know where they stand and also ease a little pressure from your plate wearing shoulders.

8. Run the LFR: Again seems obvious but again you'd be surprised how many people don't do this out of fear of 24 other players yelling at them! In this case I wouldn't recommend letting people know anything about still getting used to the changes - just make sure you've run enough Heroic Dungeons so you can feel semi comfortable in what you're doing.

9. Sell, Sell, Sell: As of the 28th you have 1 month till MoP drops and you will still have some Cata mats in your bank. Obviously you will have your own strategy on what you want to keep and dump onto the AH on the Expansion Launch Day but chances are Cata Mats will bottom out fairly quickly when MoP drops so sell it while you can to maximise your profits

10. Raid: Use the heroic dungeons and LFR as a learning curve and when you feel 100% happy you know what you are doing again then go have fun with your guild in a raid - these people are your friends so let them know about the changes and apologise in advance for any wipes you cause.

Most importantly have some fun and don't forget to check out the in game MoP launch event :)

Is The Pandaren Racial OP?

Eats, Shoots and Leaves

I must firstly apologise for the bold above. I honestly love that Panda Joke!! I must admit when the Pandaren race was announced I didn't really give it another thought. I mean they look cool, the girl Panda's really do have something about them (!) but more than anything I didn't really look into the racial traits.

I was mindlessly consuming the internet this morning over my usual cup of coffee and I navigated my way across to the official Blizzard Mists of Pandaria Site. More specifically across to the Pandaren page where you can read up on all that is Black and White. There was nothing really of interest and I was on the bottom of the page, scrolling up and on the right I noticed the Racials so I thought I'd have a look.

"Ummmmm Ling Ling, We Have a Problem!"

The racial that caught my eye was Epicurean. At this point I urge you to hold your mouse over that link to get the wowhead tool-tip...... stop...... rub your eyes...... stop again..... re-read it...... and we shall continue.

A double food buff! Yes a DOUBLE FOOD BUFF!

The Argument That This Isn't Over Powered?

Since the creation of our beloved game Blizzard has had racials that certain classes would be stupid to ignore. Alliance rogues for example would to totally stupid not to roll a Worgan for their 1% Crit bonus. Some will argue that Blizzard will have this 1% figure in mind so if a rogue eats Agility food this will balance out - ie. it will equate for 1% crit after eating the food.

The Argument That What I have Just Written is Like Saying "Hunters in low level PvP are totally balanced!"

Unfortunately what I wrote above is a little nutty. I had to at least try to provide a balanced argument or I could be accused of QQing because my current race is Draenei. In the above example of the 1% Crit we are forgetting a few important things. Firstly yes the double agility food buff would provide Crit to that sneaky little rogue but it would also provide attack power as well thereby increasing baseline DPS and Crit in one full-tummy'd swoop.

At the moment there is no race in the game that would give a dynamic racial. What I mean by that is standard racials are stat X increased by 1% and these tend to be a haste buff, or an avoidance buff etc etc, they have never been a core stat (Strength, Agility, Intellect, Spirit and not to mention Stamina as well!) and you've never been able to pick which one you get.

What I Get a Strength Double Buff AND a Stamina Double Buff?

If the tool-tip provided is true then yes! Assuming food stays as it has been: "Eat for 10 seconds and provides 90 Strength and 90 Stamina for 60 minutes" - then you will get a double double!

So What Does This Mean?

For the average: "log in, run a dungeon, run an LFR, fish for 20 minutes, auction and log off" type player this means nothing at all. In fact I'd go as far to say as it means less than nothing! For the progression raider however this means so much that you might be spending more money than you though in Mists of Pandaria.

I firmly predict that this racial will cause a lot of players to level their toon to 90 and then race change to Pandaren - forcing them to part with another hard earned £15.00. Either that or we will see an OVER OVER populated starting zone for Panda's on Launch day due to people abandoning their mains in favor of same-class-but-more-cuddly alts.

For Protection Warriors however it will depend on our core stats and if our current racials provide us with either more avoidance, hit or stamina depending on what we will end up stacking. I will keep you informed of what Races it's best to switch from in due course.

World Of Warcraft Mists of Pandaria Cinematic Trailer Released

It's Here!

The World of Warcraft Mist of Pandaria Cinematic Trailer has finally been uploaded for our viewing pleasure.

Thoughts?

I've goto say I really enjoyed this Trailer. Whilst I wouldn't consider it as epic as the Vanilla trailer, it scored high marks in the "making me smile" box and also the "wow factor" box.

Spoilers

The cinematic opens very "Pirates of the Caribbean"-esque. I couldn't shake the feeling of "Oh god, first Pandas and now Jack Sparrow is going to mince into our game?" Thankfully though this wasn't the case. An Orc and a Human get stranded on this mystery island and start going at it. It would have been nice to see something class specific here, maybe a Warrior (!!) and Paladin as it is basically just a mythical bar fight that erupts but pasts of the setting gets destroyed as the two slug it out. Out of nowhere something splits them up at a great speed, coming between them. The Pandaren (presuming) Monk basically starts kicking both the Orc and the Human's asses till a rather humorous pause where the Orc and the human team up against the Panda.

Obviously the Pandaren Monk beats the two foreigners and we are then treated to a few "wow" glory shots of Pandaria.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.