Is his shadow AoE un-resistable or somthing? As you say that Aura Mastery is useless here, or is there another reason for it?

Thanks!

As a previous poster, everything is in one way or another dying. As humans, all games and all things move from one state to another, inevitably ending.

Is WoW dead? I don’t think so. First off, everyone for some reason keeps saying “With MoP atleast a year away…” – why are you saying that? Blizzard has iterated time and time again that they are doing their best to speed up release cycles, obviously hinting that MoP is absolutely not a year away. Maybe 6 months, maybe less. A year away and no more content in between – even the thought is absurd, much more so the reality of it.

Secondly, all things also fluctuate. Player bases go up and down according to PR, hype, counter-hype, and all the little things in between. SW:ToR is the new kid on the block, people move over there to see what’s going on. Some come back, some stay, some go elsewhere. Getting all worked up over subscription numbers going down is futile at best. I feel like I see more people on Tyrael’s Chargers than any other mount. Do you still enjoy the game? If yes, keep playing and worry about the gruesome end when it comes knocking on your door. If you don’t enjoy playing the game anymore, move on. Competition is good, and it’s probably a big factor in Blizzard’s new and improved release cycle.

Third, to the DS “nerfs”. First though, let’s examine who in any given base of players, are the vocal ones? It’s usually the fairly good players. You do not find blogs from bad warriors, mediocre priests, or terrible druids. The ones who are vocal on any given subject, are the ones who master it fairly well, and take pride in their mastery/understanding/interest in and of the subject. What does that mean? For a game as large as WoW, it means that the vocal masses make up at BEST 1% of the player base. The numbers are conjecture, but I hope my meaning comes across.

So, for this one instance, the vocal player has started working on the 3rd heroic boss out of 8. That means that the guild is fairly good at playing the game, but not extraordinary. Good players, interested in trying as well as they can to finish the content. They feel that the nerf is coming in too early, they have the potential to atleast go 2 or 3 more bosses on heroic mode, given enough time to work on it. Fair enough, I’m sure Blizzard atleast tries to listen to all its players.

Now, who among the player base are the invisible masses, the not so vocal ones that do not cry out in outrage when things are nerfed or buffed? It’s the mediocre to bad players, with lots of good players thrown in the mix too. These people do not know that their primary attack just got a 3% damage nerf or buff. They don’t even know that their class can now combat res. They are playing the game, enjoying it, even though the do not know all the ins and outs and can not master their class completely. They don’t know the precise wording on all their talents, but non the less they enjoy playing the game. These people number in the millions. These people can not get past Ultraxion normal with their guild, because atleast 2 of the 6 dps are pulling numbers that good players could produce at level 80. Their second healer doesn’t know what healing addons or mouseover macros are. Their tank didn’t understand the last defender of azeroth buff, and tried to conserve his cooldowns as much as possible, for that One Big Hit that was going to sink the ship. These players don’t research encounters, don’t bring the right type of flask (because, what’s another 300 intellect really in the huge pool of intellect?), or listen to advice given by their peers. When they realize that the bosses in DS now get easier, they might cheer because perhaps they’ll go on to try Warhorn or even save their little guild from stopping raiding or even disbanding.

Things are more complex than the vocal masses make them out to be. Blizzard has to try to balance a game for millions of different players, and there’s no law saying that only the skilled to very skilled people have the right to go into a raid and be fairly successful.

End rant I used to be a fairly hardcore player, with a server second Lich King heroic kill and some good rankings in Ulduar under my belt. Now I’m a casual player, a father of 2 young girls, playing in a tiny guild with other parents, struggling to kill Ultraxion on normal mode. People just can not push the button. I can push the button. I can probably kill Ultraxion with my eyes closed, provided the other 9 players in my raid group know what they’re doing. But yet, as a small guild with very mixed players in, we can not get past 4/8 on normal. To us the buff will simply be a way to continue having nice evenings on Mumble together, raiding a little, talking a little, laughing about our holy paladin pulling wife aggro when the raid goes on too long.

I urge the vocal masses to remember who they are, and that there are many others out there who are not as skilled and great as they are. There are heroic modes for you, and to be honest, if you haven’t gone more than 2/8 heroic by now, perhaps the nerf will be a way for you to eventually go 8/8? Try to look at the bright side, don’t always scream bloody murder when some little insignificant thing happens.

Much love, nice blog!

Oh and power!

Imagine how interesting wow would be if there would be only white (no stats) stuff?

My guild has certainly not hit a wall. We are 1/8 HC, and are making progress. In a couple of weeks time I expect us to be 2/8 HC. We don’t need a nerf to help us progress right now, thanks very much.

If they want people to progress faster, the way to do it would be to have bosses drop more loot. If everyone has BiS and can’t progress, then I can see the need to apply boss nerfs, otherwise, at least let people try to succeed before deploying the nerf bat.