So, Dhargaul has now hit the lofty level of 77 and has purchased his Cold Weather flying. Now that the regular flying mounts fly even faster since patch 3.2 has landed this week, this means he'll have a much better time accessing a lot of quests as well as more flexibility in getting around to do his quests. Now all I need to do is to raise the 1k in gold so he can dual spec. I also like the buffed stamina that shaman have gotten from the patch, though Dhargual is still a long way away from the 16k in Health that Zuluki has. Gear wise these two toons are looking for similiar gear so you would think that they would very similiar health stats, and when Dhargaul get to level 80 I hope this is true. I'm also beginning to really like to new totem bar addition for shaman. I'm still playing with it so it's not as refined as I would like, but I really like hitting one button and seeing my favorite 4 totems landing on the ground. This will make the harder fights go much smoother since I won't be missing cooldowns due to refreshing all my totems or having to drop them individually. Since I don't macro my totems or put them on my action bars, that means I'm using the mouse to drop them and clicking them one at a time alwasy slows down what I'm doing.
On another note, Zuluki is sitting very pretty at level 79 and only 4 bubbles away from 80. I fully plan on finishing her run on this by the end of next week. She's beginning her rep grinds now too for gear, as well as getting prepared to craft out her beginning epics. I am really excited about being this close to 80 with her and I have to admit she's my favorite toon right now.
Mohg, and Yrkoon are also getting some attention but not as much as my two main characters. Though it may not be the most optimal build, I'm really ready to get Mohg back to Combat Daggers as that seems to be the funnest build and playstyle for me, all I need to do now is to find 2 new daggers for his and he'll be set for a while. Yrkoon is in the same position as Dhar in that I'm now just waiting to have the funds so that he can dual spec Ret/Holy. I'm really eager to get dual specced before he hits Outlands so that I can begin building decent sets of gear for him.
All in all, I feel good about my characters and the state of the game right now. So hopefully his trend will conitnue. :D
Happy hunter all
Dhargaul.
Showing posts with label General. Show all posts
Showing posts with label General. Show all posts
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Guilds and Guild Mgmt Part 2
Player retention is a double edged sword that does not allow for a win-win situation. Guilds of all sorts have this problem and the biggest reason why is the player himself. Players will not stay where they feel unwanted, unchallenged, and unrewarded if they feel the guild will not help them to achieve their own personal goals. For these reasons and many more, this means that GM's will never resolve this issue. Even the most dedicated and tightly knit raiding guilds have difficulties with this issue. Here the most common mistake GM's make is trying to keep everyone happy.
I remember reading some time back that the GM for Nihilum (the world's #1 raiding guild who are now operating under a different name) said that his job was to insure he had the right person for the job in each of his raiding slots. Given that the guild only had 50 members, this is still a daunting task. While he considered gear important, he considered experience and the ability to fully play a class even more so. He knew that if every player was an expert at playing their class he could take them through any raid instance successfully regardless of how the guild was geared (for the most part.). Yet, like any other guild, players came and went, though with less frequency. He stated on the official EU forums once that he made no bones about keeping people happy, he just didn't do that. Success was his driving goal and everyone had to be on board with that goal or they couldn't be in the guild.
While this is easy to accomplish within a raid guild since your focus can be more narrowed, accomplishing this in a casual guild is much harder. The vast majority of casual players will only stick to a guild if they have friends there; otherwise they jump from guild to guild a lot looking for a good match. Then you have the players that could care less about the guild and only care about what they can get from the guild. Other players look for certain kinds of guild while leveling and a different kind of guild when they hit the cap. In all of this, the GM really has not say or influence over what will happen, he can only hope players will like his guild and stay.
The key here, I believe for any GM, is to let the players come and go but to try and get to know every person that comes through the guild. This way you can learn who is most compatible to your guild and the guilds goals. This way it will be easier to encourage these players to stick around and more of the will likely do this. While this process takes longer, it does slowly grow a solid core of players to work with as more and more of them hit the level cap. The thing to remember is that casual guilds will either grow slowly with a good measure of quality in the guild or you can go on a recruit ‘anyone’ binges to build your numbers quickly and then deal with the fallout later.
One last thought about player retention. Some players need to be doing things to feel a part of the guild, other’s need to see active players on the ‘who’ list and in chat, while others just need the title above their head. Whether or not guild activities are a presence in the guild seems irrelevant. I’ve been in large casual guilds that maintained a high number of players from all levels mainly due to the fact that the leadership was constantly planning guild events and such. This is a lot of fun and does build a significant community. I’ve also seen guilds who only scheduled dungeon runs and instances only that were successful as well. The key for the GM and officers is to have a presence, regardless of how that presence is carried out. And all of these people need to be actively looking for more likeminded individuals at all times.
I remember reading some time back that the GM for Nihilum (the world's #1 raiding guild who are now operating under a different name) said that his job was to insure he had the right person for the job in each of his raiding slots. Given that the guild only had 50 members, this is still a daunting task. While he considered gear important, he considered experience and the ability to fully play a class even more so. He knew that if every player was an expert at playing their class he could take them through any raid instance successfully regardless of how the guild was geared (for the most part.). Yet, like any other guild, players came and went, though with less frequency. He stated on the official EU forums once that he made no bones about keeping people happy, he just didn't do that. Success was his driving goal and everyone had to be on board with that goal or they couldn't be in the guild.
While this is easy to accomplish within a raid guild since your focus can be more narrowed, accomplishing this in a casual guild is much harder. The vast majority of casual players will only stick to a guild if they have friends there; otherwise they jump from guild to guild a lot looking for a good match. Then you have the players that could care less about the guild and only care about what they can get from the guild. Other players look for certain kinds of guild while leveling and a different kind of guild when they hit the cap. In all of this, the GM really has not say or influence over what will happen, he can only hope players will like his guild and stay.
The key here, I believe for any GM, is to let the players come and go but to try and get to know every person that comes through the guild. This way you can learn who is most compatible to your guild and the guilds goals. This way it will be easier to encourage these players to stick around and more of the will likely do this. While this process takes longer, it does slowly grow a solid core of players to work with as more and more of them hit the level cap. The thing to remember is that casual guilds will either grow slowly with a good measure of quality in the guild or you can go on a recruit ‘anyone’ binges to build your numbers quickly and then deal with the fallout later.
One last thought about player retention. Some players need to be doing things to feel a part of the guild, other’s need to see active players on the ‘who’ list and in chat, while others just need the title above their head. Whether or not guild activities are a presence in the guild seems irrelevant. I’ve been in large casual guilds that maintained a high number of players from all levels mainly due to the fact that the leadership was constantly planning guild events and such. This is a lot of fun and does build a significant community. I’ve also seen guilds who only scheduled dungeon runs and instances only that were successful as well. The key for the GM and officers is to have a presence, regardless of how that presence is carried out. And all of these people need to be actively looking for more likeminded individuals at all times.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Musing's on Balance
So Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra are where Mohg is plying this stealthy trade. As I've been getting back into the swing of playing him again, I've been pouring through the internet looking for rescources on playing rogues, gear, talent builds and general insight. Unfortunately most of the best sights I used to visit are no longer active. This seems to be epidemic in the Twisted Nether of blog land. All the people that used to maintain really solid, active blogs have stopped blogging and some have even stopped playing.
There is a good and a sad side to a lot of this. A lot of these players seemed to have set aside their families and real lives to play and share their experiences with us. They have slowed way down or stopped to go back to RL and their families. Who can blame them? It's never a good thing when a game replaces real life and real people.
The part of this experience that I got somewhat involved in last year, especially on my other WoW related blog Zuluparadise, is the communication about the experimentation that was happening then. People would actually discuss fairly fully the cause and effect process that was happening and the results were pretty interesting. The blogging community, I believe at the time was actually coming to a point where I would prefer to get the specifics for the classes I play there, rather than heading over to Elitist Jerks and having to deal with their arrogance. The information gained this was was also good because you would hear a lot more than "that's just the best way to do it."
So now, I have ideas about specific things that I cannot bounce off others who may have already been there so I have to rely on my own testing and watching other players on my server go, "your an idiot, newb." Ah well, things will work out fine, I just have to get there to really start playing the way I want to.
There is a good and a sad side to a lot of this. A lot of these players seemed to have set aside their families and real lives to play and share their experiences with us. They have slowed way down or stopped to go back to RL and their families. Who can blame them? It's never a good thing when a game replaces real life and real people.
The part of this experience that I got somewhat involved in last year, especially on my other WoW related blog Zuluparadise, is the communication about the experimentation that was happening then. People would actually discuss fairly fully the cause and effect process that was happening and the results were pretty interesting. The blogging community, I believe at the time was actually coming to a point where I would prefer to get the specifics for the classes I play there, rather than heading over to Elitist Jerks and having to deal with their arrogance. The information gained this was was also good because you would hear a lot more than "that's just the best way to do it."
So now, I have ideas about specific things that I cannot bounce off others who may have already been there so I have to rely on my own testing and watching other players on my server go, "your an idiot, newb." Ah well, things will work out fine, I just have to get there to really start playing the way I want to.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Coming Back
Hey all, I"ve been gone for a long time. I'm still around slowly leveling, though I do have to admit that I've been leveling other toons more often then I've been playing here on my shaman. So without much further ado, I'll break into what has been happening in the last 6 months here in the next few days. :D
Dhargaul
Dhargaul
Monday, December 8, 2008
Basic Numbers for Restoration
So what are the most sought after Stats for Resto Shaman?
That's debatable and being hammered out in many places. Personally I have 4 stats that are of importance to me at this point while leveling. Spellpower, INT, Crit Chance and MP5. So lets cover a little about them.
Spellpower - At least while I am leveling this is going to be my most important focus. The biggest reason is the return. Yes it definitely adds to your overall healing numbers but it also goes a long way in determining how hard your offensive abilities hit. This is important now that I am Resto and don't have the raw offensive power of Enhancement. While I will never hit as hard as an Elemental shammy, I still want to hit as hard as possible.
INT - This is also very valuable as it also adds to spellpower as well as your overall mana pool. The more mana, the longer you can cast. Simple as that. It also adds to your spell crit chances which is also highly beneficial.
Crit Chance - Given the wide number of Resto abilities that only get better when you crit leads me to want to have a high rating here as well. I list this in the number 3 spot because crit is not a constant, therefore I want to always be looking to increase this, it isn't as important as SP and INT.
MP5 - This stat is valuable as it determines how fast you regenerate your mana. Outside of the obvious, this is a stat that I believe is possibly more valuable than crit. Time will tell on this as I level higher and I am able to experiment and learn more about how all of these numbers interact and determine what's happening when. Absolutely the higher this value the better cause this can have a huge impact on the course of a longer fight and your ability to keep up with your responsibilities in it.
Currently my numbers are definitley not even close to where I want in them in this regard, but at level 71 it isn't something I am beginning to sweat yet. As I get closer to level 80 then I will begin to take a closer look at what numbers I should be looking at. I am hoping that by then a lot of the theorycrafting sites have been able to come up with reliable numbers as minimums for the varying difficutlies of Raids and Dungeons. Thus far, all the theorycrafting for Resto isn't willing to give anything definitive yet. As more info becomes available and I get more experience in this spec, I'll do my best to keep everyone informed.
Dhar
That's debatable and being hammered out in many places. Personally I have 4 stats that are of importance to me at this point while leveling. Spellpower, INT, Crit Chance and MP5. So lets cover a little about them.
Spellpower - At least while I am leveling this is going to be my most important focus. The biggest reason is the return. Yes it definitely adds to your overall healing numbers but it also goes a long way in determining how hard your offensive abilities hit. This is important now that I am Resto and don't have the raw offensive power of Enhancement. While I will never hit as hard as an Elemental shammy, I still want to hit as hard as possible.
INT - This is also very valuable as it also adds to spellpower as well as your overall mana pool. The more mana, the longer you can cast. Simple as that. It also adds to your spell crit chances which is also highly beneficial.
Crit Chance - Given the wide number of Resto abilities that only get better when you crit leads me to want to have a high rating here as well. I list this in the number 3 spot because crit is not a constant, therefore I want to always be looking to increase this, it isn't as important as SP and INT.
MP5 - This stat is valuable as it determines how fast you regenerate your mana. Outside of the obvious, this is a stat that I believe is possibly more valuable than crit. Time will tell on this as I level higher and I am able to experiment and learn more about how all of these numbers interact and determine what's happening when. Absolutely the higher this value the better cause this can have a huge impact on the course of a longer fight and your ability to keep up with your responsibilities in it.
Currently my numbers are definitley not even close to where I want in them in this regard, but at level 71 it isn't something I am beginning to sweat yet. As I get closer to level 80 then I will begin to take a closer look at what numbers I should be looking at. I am hoping that by then a lot of the theorycrafting sites have been able to come up with reliable numbers as minimums for the varying difficutlies of Raids and Dungeons. Thus far, all the theorycrafting for Resto isn't willing to give anything definitive yet. As more info becomes available and I get more experience in this spec, I'll do my best to keep everyone informed.
Dhar
Monday, November 24, 2008
Northrend and the Changes
Well, since I've last posted here many things have happened. Patch 3.0.2 came out with a free respec and then Wrath of the Lich King released. I specced back into Enhance to a full 61 pts and I headed off into Northrend to begin to level. This place is really impressive and I think Blizzard has done an incredible job creating this place. I've attained 71st level and I am making my way through the quests and hoping that I can keep a fairly consistent pace to level to 80. I really want to be level 80 before the middle of winter, but I am also not going to rush things.
I've found that since the changes for how the stats work what abilities are key for Shaman, that I beginning to not like enhancement as much as I used to. While I do have a huge array of offensive capabilities, I am finding it lack luster in actual practice. My spell rotations have changed some and with the added lava burst and spirit wolves, I find that I am really wanting to narrow my rotation tremendously. I've been toying around a lot with my spells and placement on my action bars, and I still have not found a comfortable way to do this. This has gotten me to thinking it may be time to try a different build to see what I think. Elemental really doesn't appeal to me a lot, but I'll look into it while resto does look better to me. A lot of me interest in trying Resto again is in how they have refigured the spell bonuses and such. With everything being consolidated into spellpower now, I feel that Resto is very viable way to go now given they should have more offensive firepower. Who knows, I'm researching it sitll.
Dhar
I've found that since the changes for how the stats work what abilities are key for Shaman, that I beginning to not like enhancement as much as I used to. While I do have a huge array of offensive capabilities, I am finding it lack luster in actual practice. My spell rotations have changed some and with the added lava burst and spirit wolves, I find that I am really wanting to narrow my rotation tremendously. I've been toying around a lot with my spells and placement on my action bars, and I still have not found a comfortable way to do this. This has gotten me to thinking it may be time to try a different build to see what I think. Elemental really doesn't appeal to me a lot, but I'll look into it while resto does look better to me. A lot of me interest in trying Resto again is in how they have refigured the spell bonuses and such. With everything being consolidated into spellpower now, I feel that Resto is very viable way to go now given they should have more offensive firepower. Who knows, I'm researching it sitll.
Dhar
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