Breakfast Topic: Skill mastery, or lack thereof
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Aug 18th 2009 at 8:00AM
Yeah, I know most of you reading are pretty elite dudes. You have your hotkeys mapped, your DPS rotations memorized, your addons loaded, and you never miss a cooldown and never let a buff drop for more than a second. But for most people, I can't help but think that we all have that one ability that just sort of gets forgotten all the time. There's just so many buttons to press and configure and it's not exactly core to basic gameplay, so you shuffle it off to a corner in your brain or the UI and forget about it.When I play my Death Knight, Strangulate gets this honor. In PvE, I may come up against a pack of annoying spell casters, but for some reason, it never occurs to me reach out a choke a witch. It'd get them rounded up easier and increase my chances of survival, but I'm so busy keeping up my rotation I forget to fit it in. Of course, in PvP, I'm expecting to do a lot of spell interrupting, so I remember it then, which makes my blind spot in PvE all the more silly.
On my Warlock, I keep forgetting that I could avoid a lot more corpse runs while soloing if I used my Soul Stone on myself and kept a Health Stone summoned. Sure, In theory I might get a group at any moment and then have to deal with my stone being on cool down, but honestly, I'm a DPS Warlock, they're a dime a dozen, and the chance of me getting a group when I'm not actively look for it are probably slim. So there's not really an excuse not to self-soulstone. But then I forget and I curse myself as I run through the Fjords.
I'm curious to know if I'm the only one. Do you have a minor skill that you keep forgetting to use? Did you overcome skill forgetfulness? If so, how? Was it a mimetic? An addon? Pure stubbornness?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
cj Aug 18th 2009 8:07AM
my main is a hunter... i never forget to use steady shot... LOL!
elstor Aug 18th 2009 8:45AM
I never flare, deterrence, or any other PvP related abilites when I PvP. I do suggest using SS whenever all other shots are on cooldown though
ZakuraX Aug 18th 2009 8:51AM
I always remember flare, but detterence is worse.
SunwellVialist Aug 18th 2009 8:55AM
@Zakura
The same happens to me all the time :/
I flare like heck, but I never Deterrence :/
Boydboyd Aug 18th 2009 8:59AM
Hmm, when I PvP, I pull out all the stops.
Flare
Deterrence
Bestial Wrath
Intimidation
Frost Trap
Immolation Trap
Serpent Sting on those effin' Rogues
Feign Death
You've gotta be livin' to make your opponent dead.
Netheral Aug 18th 2009 9:31AM
*Cough*Master's call*cough*
Boydboyd Aug 18th 2009 9:45AM
Darn! And yes, I use Master's Call to a ridiculous extent. (PvP and PvE both)
Brunesgoth Aug 18th 2009 10:54AM
Masters call is F2, FD is G, Deterrence is T (yay berserking hodir save!)
F for PVE is volley, PVP its Wyvern, shift-F is freezy-arrow! and i have the reply as shift-R because i hate replying to someone while trying to killshot and saying "55551wwweesddddaa"
Syme Aug 18th 2009 2:31PM
I recently started PvPing on my hunter again. I haven't done that since before WotLK was released.
I forget to use Disengage, since it didn't work in PvP before.
I use Deterrence often; unfortunately, I forget that it's not good right now. The worst thing is it procs Counterattack, but I can't use it until Deterrence wears off. Brilliant.
Nick S Aug 18th 2009 2:34PM
In PvP I pretty much use my entire spell book on both my Paladin and my Hunter. It's actually a bit annoying; I'm forced to use bizarre keybinds to fit them all. 1-5, F1-F5, Sh1-Sh5, Q, E, G, V, Z, ~, plus Grid/Clique/Gladius with 3 clicks, 3 shift-clicks, and 3 ctrl-clicks.
I'd much prefer a system with some more streamlining, but have no idea how that might actually be possible with the current game. :-/
The one thing I regularly DO forget to use is Warlock Healthstones - I just started playing 2s with an Aff Lock, and I have to force myself to remember to Healthstone when I get low and silenced.
Draelan Aug 18th 2009 2:53PM
Flare? Honestly, it's a waste of space on my action bars. The only time I actually use it is when explaining fights or tactics because I can use it to say "When the fight starts, you stand here" and not have to worry about accidentally pulling early, while being quite clear at the same time. I never use the spell for what it's actually intended... But that might be more because I do not PvP. (To show how much I hate PvP, it's FAR easier to convince myself to grind mobs for hours on end working towards the Insane title than it is to grind BGs for hours on end working towards the PvP mounts.)
Deterrence, however, is a great skill, even in PvP. I have deterrence-tanked adds when they got loose (so tank could pick it up without it killing a healer first) and even tanked bosses that way before. (Enraged Thorim with both tanks down. I was next on the aggro list, and bought enough time to finish him off.) It is, indeed, a great ability.
Other abilities I can't be bothered to use: Aspect of the Beast, Track Hidden, and Healthstones... That last one is more because I'm not used to having a warlock in the group, so it's kind of weird when we actually have healthstones. o.O
Banthis Aug 18th 2009 3:02PM
For a long time on my hunter, Deterrence and Disengage were two of those (PvP abilities in PvE? Bah!). Long story short, during a particular fight in 25 man one of the other hunters decided to test Deterrence for a boss the tank tended to die on. After that test, all the hunters bound it somewhere convenient.
Disengage has become one of my favorite PvE utilities. Fast and easy way to get distance on a boss that has to be moved so you can keep shooting it. What's not to love?
jonnathantroublesome Aug 18th 2009 8:07AM
Your not talking to the people at elitest jerks, they use the sites you constantly "borrow" from.. like mmo champion.
The majority of your readers are the people that need to be reminded on a site like this that there is some form of Tuesday maintenance.
jonnathantroublesome Aug 18th 2009 8:12AM
On topic however i used to do what your describing, i mad 3 stacked rows of bartender bars, a little bigger then the base ui ones.
top row is 1 2 3 and then costumes potions quest items or whatever, that i click.
middle row is shift+q shift+e shift+f shift+r shift+c shift+x shift+z
and the bottom row is q e f r c x z
this helps me remember to use any ability my charecter has that fits the situation.
or maybe what did it was the hours of pvp?
Jimba Aug 18th 2009 8:16AM
what the hell are you talking about? If you are at all attempting to insult anyone, at least make your comment make sense. I'd much rather your comment be a FURST!!!!!!eleven1
mize_samuel Aug 18th 2009 8:11AM
i never remember purge on my shaman until it's to late
souvlaki Aug 18th 2009 8:14AM
On my warrior tank i remember to put up vigilance after the first boss has been downed (unless some dps over-aggroes and dies before).
Cyrus Aug 18th 2009 9:07AM
Sounds smart to me. The person who dies is the one who needs Vigilance cast on them; everyone else has their aggro under control. :)
Ishnai Aug 18th 2009 8:16AM
Yea, I can understand that problem. I do the same when I'm tanking with my DK, but usually I just "grip" them over to me. I often forget that I even have strangulate until I come against a boss that is a magic user (I'll even go so far as to admit that I usually just go for the brain freeze instead, since I have that one on my rotation bar and usually the poor bugger is dealing from the cold fever anyways).
P.S. Before anyone says anything about me being a bad tank, please note that I hardly ever tank because usually I play my restro druid. Heck, my DK is my only tanking character so far.
micgillam Aug 18th 2009 10:18AM
That's one of the tricks I actually picked up pretty quick when I started tanking BC 5-mans on my DK. For pulling trash packs of 4-5; 2 casters, 2-3 melees (something that happens pretty regularly in the Hellfire Citadel dungeons), I drop Death/Decay where I'm standing, Strangulate caster #1 and 'Grip caster #2. Works like a charm.
Add something extra by popping Deathchill and dropping Howling Blast as soon they're all in the radius.
And I was worried when I went from warrior tanking to DK tanking that I wouldn't be able to hold multi-mob aggro.