The Care and Feeding of Warriors: 2012 ends, 2013 begins

Above you're looking at the consolation prize the game finally handed me for not getting a 1h weapon for testing out Single-Minded Fury. As consolation prizes go, it's a fairly nice one. I enjoy hitting things with it.

While looking over the patch 5.2 notes we saw last week, I got to thinking about the warrior changes, most of which seem aimed either at reducing protection warriors' AP scaling (which I assume must be 10% too good, based on these nerfs, despite my not noticing warriors tearing up the universe as tanks) and several changes rooted entirely in PvP. The Shockwave change will leave it basically unchanged for tanking warriors while making PvP warriors less likely to use it as an every 20 second stun (potentially making Dragon Roar and Bladestorm slightly more competitive in PvP again) and the Taste for Blood change was expected ever since they nerfed the ability to only stack once in PvP.

So I'm not surprised by any of it, save the Slam buff (moving Slam up to 220% weapon damage means to me that there's an expectation that arms DPS is going to drop significantly with the new TfB) but I am contemplative of it all. See, to my mind, the warrior class exists in a state of AC (After Cataclysm) and it will be patch 5.2 that makes the first really significant changes to warriors in the Mists of Pandaria world. So let's take a look at these notes, and see what they tell us.
Patch 5.2 notes
Warrior Shockwave now has a 40 second cooldown (was 20 seconds), striking 3 or more targets will reduce its cooldown by 20 seconds.Second Wind now causes a Warrior that has been reduced to 35% health or lower to regenerate 2% of their health per second (was 3%), and now generates 15 Rage over 10 seconds (was 20 Rage).Warbringer now reduces the target's movement by 50% for 15 seconds (8 seconds in PvP) in addition to its other effects.Shield Barrier now scales approximately 10% less efficiently with attack power.Storm Bolt now deals 125% weapon damage (was 100%).Enraged Regeneration now costs 30 Rage (was 60).Glyph of Death from Above no longer increases the damage dealt by Heroic Leap.Arms Taste for Blood has been redesigned. It now causes the Warrior to gain 2 stacks of Overpower (maximum of 5 stacks) when Mortal Strike deals damage or the target dodges, and no longer interacts with Heroic Strike. It now requires level 20 (was level 50).Slam now deals 220% weapon damage (was 190%).Protection The base damage of Shield Slam and Revenge has been increased by 150%, but these abilities now scale approximately 10% less efficiently with attack power.
Well, first off I should probably admit that the Second Wind change makes me sad. Second Wind simply isn't that good in any current content - it can easily be burned through by anyone in PvP who is even half awake and it won't save you on any current raid encounter. Shaving a third off of its healing really puts a crimp in warrior soloing. But cumulative with the other changes, this one is clearly aimed at addressing complaints about warriors in PvP, and potentially is aimed at making Second Wind less attractive so that Enraged Regeneration and Impending Victory will be more attractive by comparison. (I personally prefer ER for tanking, as it becomes basically another mini-cooldown to be used when needed.) Seeing ER get its rage cost reduced confirms my suspicion that Second Wind has basically just been too attractive, and that ER and IV have been suffering in comparison.

The change to the Glyph of Death from Above is pretty easily understandable - it was one of the few glyphs that offered a cut and dried DPS increase. In the current glyph landscape, this glyph is simply too powerful. I don't like the change, but I do understand it. The Warbringer and Storm Bolt changes both seem clear enough to me - these are talents people aren't taking. Both Juggernaut and Double Time are very attractive talents for both PvP and PvE, it's not surprising that people are taking a reduced charge time or an on-demand second charge over a fairly limited version of the excellent old Throwdown ability appended onto a charge. Baking a snare into the ability might at least give it parity in PvP. As for Storm Bolt, increasing the damage may make me pick it back up for my PvE DPS spec, if it ends up competitive with Bloodbath. I already use it for tanking.

The changes to Shield Barrier, Revenge and Shield Slam seem aimed at warriors stacking strength for the combination of its parry and attack power benefit, which increased Shield Barrier's absorbs as well as the threat/damage of Shield Slam and Revenge. I don't know how much of a problem this actually was (I certainly wasn't stacking str in my tank set) but that's the best explanation I can think of. None of these changes thrill me, but they're not insurmountable either. The changes mean that Shield Block just got even better by comparison.

What really interests me out of all these changes is the redesign to Taste for Blood, a tacit admission that this ability just plain doesn't work. At present, while a five stack TfB can be crazy awesome, it's extremely annoying to hit Overpower and not see it stack the TfB buff, and to watch it fall off entirely time and again. With Slam getting a damage buff, and HS no longer getting TfB's bonus, arms warriors are now going to even more heavily rely on Overpower and Slam as their fillers between Colossus Smash and Mortal Strike. Since it will be Mortal Strike that stacks the buff, and based on the way the notes are worded it sounds like every MS or target dodge will stack the buff. I'm not entirely sure what this will mean - will you hit Mortal Strike and follow that up with two Overpowers back to back? Are you ever going to want to sit on your Overpower and then hammer four or five off at a time? We'll have to see how this affects arms DPS.

What's really interesting to me is how none of these changes are a direct nerf to fury. We know that right now fury is the more dominant DPS spec for warriors in PvE, and unless the new TfB works out to a DPS increase for arms the 5.2 changes we have so far will only put fury out ahead of arms in PvE. Since fury in turn is really only dominant once it hits heroics, we could be looking at an outlier based on limited representation - fury looks good because those few fury warriors in heroic raiding are skewing the results. At any rate, fury warriors will have to check their talents, but no baseline mechanics like Wild Strike are seeing any changes as of these notes.

Of course, these are very preliminary. There could be more changes coming, and we'll have to pat attention. Next week, I'm going to talk about how Titan's Grip is doing since the universe won't give me an offhand for SMF.

At the center of the fury of battle stand the warriors: protection, arms and fury. Check out more strategies and tips especially for warriors, from hot issues for today's warriors to Cataclysm 101 for DPS warriors and our guide to reputation gear for warriors. Tags: featured, guide-to-warriors, patch-5.2, warrior-guide, warrior-info, warrior-talents, wow-warrior, wow-warrior-info, wow-warriors

Filed under: Warrior, News items, (Warrior) The Care and Feeding of Warriors, Mists of Pandaria

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Know Your Lore: Top 10 lore developments of 2012, part 2

The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

In part one of our look back at 2012's best lore developments, we looked at the various aspects introduced to better introduce lore to those that had only a passing interest in it. While the Lorewalkers, print media and instance developments were also tremendously appealing to those that already have a handle on Warcraft lore, they also served as a method of getting the lore out to those that weren't really interested in the minutiae of mogu and mantid.

And that's honestly pretty important. There are plenty of players that play the game simply to play it, not paying attention to why they are playing at all. By implementing subtle elements that introduce the lore in an unobtrusive fashion, the developers have quietly found a way to make sure that regardless of how or why you play the game, you still have some sort of basic understanding of what is going on. Cataclysm had a story, but it was so complex that it was difficult even for those with a strong grasp of lore to puzzle out exactly what was going on and why we were doing what we were doing.

But the fun doesn't stop there -- and today's picks are those that are slightly less unobtrusive in regards to lore and story.

7. Cinematics

The good We touched on cinematics in last year's review of lore development, and talked about the introduction of what I called "mini-cinematics," scenes in which the gameplay is interrupted and you temporarily lose control of your character as the camera highlights what your character is doing. In small doses, this mechanic worked fairly well -- but in zones like Uldum, these mini-cinematics rapidly went from engaging to incredibly annoying.

We've seen more of these mini-cinematic situations in Mists of Pandaria, including some really effective out-of-body experiences in the Jade Forest, as you explore what happened to a scouting party. Players encounter the same mechanic again when they take over and play Chen Stormstout in the Valley of the Four Winds. It's a similar mechanic to The Day that Deathwing Came, a wildly popular quest from Cataclysm located in the Badlands. And it's exactly the right direction for these mini-cinematics to take.

Rather than telling a tale and asking the player to read it, players are instead shown the tale in its entirety. Players don't necessarily enjoy reading miles of quest text. Turning that exposition into actual gameplay is not only a great way to skirt around that hurdle of presenting story without words, it also makes for compelling storylines that players tend to enjoy.

In addition, there are some of the usual in game cinematics -- the end of the Jade Forest has a spectacular one, the pandaren starting zone has a couple that are equally exciting, and most of the zones in Pandaria culminate in some sort of cinematic event. Cinematics seem to be evolving into something that is used to highlight a particularly important part of a storyline, or simply streamlining the story into something that can be played rather than explained.

The not-so-good I mentioned Uldum in last year's review as an example of mini-cinematics gone wrong. The fact that you spent nearly half your time leveling in the zone watching your character walk across a sand dune rather than playing your character was a mistake that only grew more irritating with every alt that a player wanted to level. This has been remedied in Mists, and there is no Uldum in Pandaria. But it almost feels at times as though the controls have been dialed a little too far back.

Kun Lai Summit is a massive zone, but there's only a couple of these cinematic events to be found. Dread Wastes is a fascinating zone, but again, it's lacking in that cinematic content. The same applies to Townlong Steppes. It's as if the team finished up Jade Forest and Valley of the Four Winds, and then decided the in-depth treatment that those two zones received was enough, and it didn't need to be carried to any additional zones.

How things can improve The dial needs to be turned in the other direction -- not a lot, but just a little. Cinematics are a great tool, and they're best used at the height of a story. It almost feels like these cinematics should be used not just as a tool for gameplay, but also as an indication that there is something really important going on -- something that the player should just sit back and pay attention to.

But cinematics also offer something more than just a little story -- they offer a break in play. Quests are fun, and an important part of gameplay and the leveling experience, but simply doing quests for hours can get a little repetitive. Jade Forest and Valley of the Four Winds did an excellent job of breaking up the quests with just enough cinematic events to keep things engaging in a non-repetitive way, it would be nice to see future zones or events follow suit.

6. Scenarios

The good Scenarios were introduced to the game as something that wasn't quite a solo quest, and wasn't quite a dungeon, either. They're a solution to Cataclysm's removal of any kind of group quests, and they work surprisingly well in that aspect. It's group content with decent rewards and a low wait time. And in some cases, these scenarios are also being used to introduce story along the way.

It wasn't until patch 5.1's scenarios that the possibilities of this new feature really began to show. Patch 5.1 introduced a handful of new scenarios, including four that were specifically designed for each faction -- two for Alliance, and two for Horde. These scenarios tied in directly to patch 5.1's storyline and helped propel that story forward.

The use of group quests in World of Warcraft has evolved over time from simple kill quests to the chains of group quests seen in Icecrown during Wrath, all of which advanced the overall story of the zone. Scenarios take that concept and run with it, while neatly avoiding any of the many phasing issues that plagued Icecrown in Wrath. There's no danger of eventually running out of leveling players to complete group quests -- the scenario tool finds people for you. And there's no danger of being phased out of certain areas, because the scenario itself acts as an instance would.

In between the mechanical delights is a tool that is ideal for presenting story to players in small, easily-digestible chunks that offer a reward at the end. Scenarios lead players through the content by offering a handy to-do list of what must be completed to move on. And while players complete those to-do lists, the story plays out seamlessly around them, immersing them in a lore experience that they'll notice, even if they don't particularly care about lore.

The not-so-good There's one major issue with scenarios, and it lies in the way that they are currently implemented in the game. We saw this in stark relief when the Theramore scenario was introduced to players at level 85 as a preview of the feature. Although scenarios present chunks of story, with Theramore there was no lead-in to that story at all. It simply existed as a thing in a list of things to queue for, without any kind of exposition whatsoever.

There are quite a few of the Mists scenarios that work in the same fashion -- there is no lead-in to completing these scenarios. They simply exist. Some scenarios have a lead-in quest that can be discovered by wandering around the world, but if you haven't really been paying attention, it's easy to miss these lead-in quests. There's nothing that really roots these scenarios in the game itself. The Temple of the Jade Serpent and Stormstout Brewery dungeons are far more rooted in the game world than the scenarios are.

How things can improve That issue has already been at least partially addressed with the introduction of the scenarios in patch 5.1. In the case of the Dominance Offensive, part of the lead-in quests for the event involve the sudden appearance of Vol'jin, who is then told to head where the scenario Dagger in the Dark begins. We see this as players, and when we are asked to assist Vol'jin, the scenario seems like a natural inclusion in the storyline.

More importantly, the events that occur in Dagger in the Dark are later reflected in the overall storyline for the Dominance Offensive. What you do in that scenario, and what you witness while you are in there, has a direct effect on everything that comes after. Because of this, the scenario has weight and substance within the game world, and it feels like there is a definitive point, a reason for completing it.

It's that kind of treatment that should be applied to scenarios from here on out. They aren't just a replacement for group quests. They've evolved beyond that, and they have the potential of being a really strong vehicle for delivering story in a significant way. It's just a matter of figuring out how to weight them in the world, and I think patch 5.1 shows that Blizzard is on the right track.

5. Daily quests

The good Cataclysm saw a marked reduction in daily quests. While some factions like Therazane had chains of daily quests that could be completed every day, others like Ramkahen relied solely on a tabard and endless dungeon runs to gain reputation. For some this was fine, for others, it felt like a marked reduction in available endgame content. Mists marked the return of daily quests in spectacular fashion, offering a dizzying array of new reputations and new daily quests to complete.

More importantly, it offered a story and a point to all of those daily quests. The Tillers, the Order of the Cloud Serpent, the Shado-pan, the Golden Lotus, the Klaxxi -- all of these factions had reasons for you to be doing quests for them. As you did the quests, stories played out in different ways. Each faction felt like it had its own unique purpose, with a unique way of grinding out all of that reputation. And each had its own story with its own unique ending, once exalted reputation was reached.

It's a far cry from the days of Therazane, where one simply did errands and didn't really get any significant story out of the bargain. Now players are doing errands and performing tasks for these factions for a reason, one that is explained and culminates in a unique climax that ends up with something good for the player, to boot. It's taken daily quests to a new space where they feel a little better than a chore that one must complete every day.

The not-so-good You'll notice some factions are missing from the list above. It's because while Mists did a wonderful job of offering more daily quests, not all of these factions were presented in a way that worked. While some seemed effortless and fun, others didn't really offer the same experience. I did a series of reviews of each reputation grind that highlights what worked and didn't work for each, so I won't go further into that here -- but I would suggest that you take a look at those articles if you're interested in individual factions.

However, there was one other glaring error to the daily quests system that made a lot of players incredibly upset. Valor point rewards were placed behind a reputation wall. If players wanted to spend their valor points on rewards, they were pretty much required to complete the daily quests in order to unlock those vendors. While the gear wasn't necessarily needed to progress, it still felt like a brick wall placed between the valor earned, and the items they could spend those points on.

This had the unfortunate side effect of placing that stigma of "dailies as a chore" back upon the daily quest system. Because of this, it overshadowed any and all story information that was contained within that daily grind. If a player feels like they are being forced to do something, they won't pay attention to any of the good that may be presented along the way -- all they are doing is focusing on the fact that they don't want to be doing it. There's no enjoyment in that.

How things can improve Dailies need a purpose. They stand as something that can work hand-in-hand with scenarios and story, if that's the direction Blizzard wants to take them. Or they can stand as a gating method for reputation and gear, if that's the direction Blizzard wants to take them. But blurring them into a space that is somewhere in the middle of a story-vehicle, a reputation grind, and a gearing mechanism does not do them the justice that they deserve.

It's clear when you look at the opening selection of faction and daily quests that Blizzard was experimenting with different systems. Likely it was just to gauge which methods were wildly successful, and which didn't work. The daily quests in patch 5.1 seem to reflect this, because they have taken everything that was good out of that original selection and squished it all together into a story-driven vehicle that was, quite frankly, utterly brilliant.

Operation Shieldwall and the Dominance Offensive proved that daily quests can be an enjoyable experience, if they're given the attention that they deserve. And I really think that daily quests work far better as a story vehicle than they do as a method for obtaining gear and items. We've got dungeons, scenarios, and raids to provide gear for players -- what we don't have is a tool that is designed specifically to deliver story. Daily quests have the potential to do that, if they're given the correct treatment.

Next week, we'll wrap up the top 10 with a look at the final four developments that have rocketed lore to new levels of fun in 2012.

For more information on related subjects, please look at these other Know Your Lore entries:

While you don't need to have played the previous Warcraft games to enjoy World of Warcraft, a little history goes a long way toward making the game a lot more fun. Dig into even more of the lore and history behind the World of Warcraft in WoW Insider's Guide to Warcraft Lore. Tags: cinematics, cutscenes, daily-quests, featured, guide, guide-to-lore, lore, lore-development, lore-guide, mists-of-pandaria, patch-5.1, role-play, role-playing-guide, rp-guide, scenarios, story-development, world-of-warcraft-lore, wow-guide, wow-lore, wow-role-playing, wow-role-playing-guide, wow-rp, wow-rp-guide, wow-rping

Filed under: Lore, Know your Lore

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The Queue: Just one more thing

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mike Sacco will be your host today.

I've been watching all of Columbo on Netflix and it's really, truly wonderful. If you've never seen any Columbo episodes before, you really must. And if you have, well, you can watch them again now.

darkpanda asked:

Should we give up hope that Blizzard will ever allow flying in Silvermoon? I've seen videos of the exploit that allows you to see the unfinished parts of the city and it's not pretty. Would it take that much work to fix it and open up flying?

Yeah, I'd give up hope on it. Silvermoon and Exodar are actually part of the Outland map, not their respective Azerothian continent maps. If you zoom out far enough using camera tricks you can actually see Hellfire Peninsula from Silvermoon. It's vanishingly unlikely that Blizzard will take the time to lift up Silvermoon from where it is and put it into the Eastern Kingdoms just so you can fly in it.

grpcaro asked:

can the mogu turn flesh into stone and viceversa??, i mean, there is an item in archeology that says it

Dave Kosak said on Twitter the other day that the mogu had reverse-engineered the Curse of Flesh in their research.

dearth asked:

Now then, the last Arcane Brilliance article was posted on November 17, 2012. I wonder if we'll get a new article anytime before February 2013.

I believe we've stated before that Christian Belt is no longer with us, but here it is again in case you missed it. We're looking into a replacement.

Hstein3 asked:

So, apparently an attunement is still required to enter BWL. How do I figure out where I am in the attunement path? I'd like to go farm some pets!

Attunement isn't required to get into BWL -- you can still get in by taking the long way through UBRS -- but if you plan on going into BWL multiple times, it'd be much easier to get attuned. You have to kill the Scarshield Quartermaster outside of UBRS/LBRS, use the quest item he drops, then run UBRS and kill General Drakkisath. Once you kill him, click the orb behind him and you're all attuned to BWL.

Bromacusii asked:

Umm, so do we know if the sha are male or female? Are there any shaess, or are they simply asexual? And therefore have no sexual difference?

Safe to assume the goo that leaked from the corpse of an Old God doesn't have or need a gender.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column. Leave your questions in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer 'em! Tags: featured, guide, qa, question-and-answer, wow-answers, wow-daily-answers, wow-daily-questions, wow-guide, wow-player-questions, wow-q-and-a, wow-questions

Filed under: The Queue

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Breakfast Topic: What's your WoW resolution?

1920x1080. What's yours? No, no, I jest. I'm actually talking about that thing which people inevitably do at this time of year, namely, make resolutions to change their ways in the year going forwards. Over in WRUP, the WoW Insider team spoke about their resolutions, largely outside the game, but that's not our focus in this breakfast topic today.

What I'm wondering is, as the title suggests, what you're resolving to do differently in 2013. Have you been playing or leveling or gearing in a way that you think you ought to change? Are you determined to finally get your hands on a cloud serpent? Or do you want to get ready to buy the farm from that hopeless Yoon fellow, and be rid of him once and for all?

For me, I think I will resolve to be less distracted. Since Mists hit, I've got three characters to 90, one of which is very well geared, one of which is less so, and one of which is really not that sorted. But, instead of gearing up the latter two, I've allowed myself to be distracted by alts. I'm struggling a bit with the gearing model of Mists, it's hard for someone who doesn't really go in for questing, but I'm going to resolve to do better.

How about you? What are your WoW resolutions for 2013?

Tags: featured, game-discussion, gamer-discussion, world-of-warcraft-discussion, world-of-warcraft-topics, wow-discussion, wow-hot-topics, wow-issues, wow-topics

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The New Year Arrives With a Whiz-Bang!

Happy New Year! Join the celebrations starting at 6:00 a.m. realm time, December 31, and check out the fireworks in the skies above the cities every hour on the hour. Sample the exotic brews and libations carted in from around the world of Azeroth, and /dance your way into the new year as a part of the celebration.  For those looking to avoid trouble—or get into it—you may want to steer clear of—or head toward—Booty Bay as the guards there appear to be spending more time enjoying themselves than enforcing town rules (at least into the morning hours).

Spamming Illegal Not Specified Other Real Life Threats Advertising Harassment Bad Link Trolling

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Breakfast Topic: How are you finishing up the year?

In just a day or so, we'll be kissing 2012 goodbye and stepping into 2013. While I'm sure most of us will be resolving to lose weight, make more money, finish that novel, quit smoking, cut back on carbs, and finally actually read Lord of the Rings... let's talk about in game.

Without quite picking the interminable fight about dailies, how will you be finishing up 2012? I'm thinking I'd like a Monk at max level. I don't have one yet and it's irking me. I'm also kind of keen on some mount collecting, but I don't have any real benchmarks that I can achieve by the end of Monday.

What about you? What WoW goals are you finishing up for the year? Tags: featured, game-discussion, gamer-discussion, world-of-warcraft-discussion, world-of-warcraft-topics, wow-discussion, wow-hot-topics, wow-issues, wow-topics

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Around Azeroth: Alone on the top of the world

"My night elf decided that her occasional episodes of death made her complexion far too pale," writes submitter Darlenas of Llane (US-A). "So she donned her favorite armorkini and headed to the top of Mount Neverest where she hoped to be above all the clouds and get a good tan. Unfortunately, there was a snowstorm underway. On the bright side, at least being dead meant she wouldn't get cold."
Want to see your own screenshot here? Send it to aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com. We strongly prefer full-sized pictures with no UI or names showing. Include "Azeroth" in the subject line to ensure your submission dodges email spam filters; if you'd like to be credited, also include your name, guild and realm. Tags: around azeroth, around-azeroth, AroundAzeroth, featured, screen-shots, screenshots, world-of-warcraft-pictures, world-of-warcraft-screenshots, wow-screen-shots, wow-screenshot, wow-screenshots, wow-ss

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