The Daily Blues
by Adam Holisky 
Dec 21st 2010 at 9:00AM
Today's pro tip: not everything is a tax, and certainly hit is not a fun tax. Unless your name is Dan or Liz, and then you fun tax Adam every time he wants to make the fanbois angry or make some kitten mittens.
Daxxarri -- Hit and balancing stats is a fun tax?I think this post is right on the money. I understand that hitting big numbers is fun, and gathering stats that contribute to hitting big numbers is also fun. On the other hand, without the need to make some kind of choice, gearing quickly becomes a mindless exercise, and I believe that's when the fun leaks out of it.
Fun is pretty subjective. For me (and I have a feeling many others too) a large part of the fun is tinkering, tuning and optimizing my characters for maximum effectiveness for whatever role they might occupy, be it tanking, healing or dps. The choices involved in this process are part of what makes the path to power compelling for me. The reward I reap from my research, effort and time spent pursuing the right pieces of gear is heightened effectiveness in my in-game endeavors.
I like talking about these choices and game theory with my friends and figuring out the best approach to yield the maximum gains. That's fun for me too, and those discussions wouldn't happen if there weren't choices to make. In the case of hit, I think because it has an identifiable 'cap', it's easy to mis-perceive it as a chore to acquire. In reality, it might be easier to think of hit as the skeleton upon which your dps is based. With a strong skeleton, your "muscle" lets you hit harder. How you achieve that strong base, before you move on to optimizing and balancing the stats you might find more fun, involves choices of its own.
Fun is pretty subjective. For me (and I have a feeling many others too) a large part of the fun is tinkering, tuning and optimizing my characters for maximum effectiveness for whatever role they might occupy, be it tanking, healing or dps. The choices involved in this process are part of what makes the path to power compelling for me. The reward I reap from my research, effort and time spent pursuing the right pieces of gear is heightened effectiveness in my in-game endeavors.
I like talking about these choices and game theory with my friends and figuring out the best approach to yield the maximum gains. That's fun for me too, and those discussions wouldn't happen if there weren't choices to make. In the case of hit, I think because it has an identifiable 'cap', it's easy to mis-perceive it as a chore to acquire. In reality, it might be easier to think of hit as the skeleton upon which your dps is based. With a strong skeleton, your "muscle" lets you hit harder. How you achieve that strong base, before you move on to optimizing and balancing the stats you might find more fun, involves choices of its own.
Lylirra -- Heroic tipsIn many cases, in order for a Heroic dungeons group to be successful, everyone will need to work together. So, my best piece of advice to any player -- and one that I always try to follow myself -- is to consistently bring your A-game. "A-game" is really just a catchy buzzword that means "pull your own weight when and wherever possible" and, to a smaller degree, "always have fun!" Even if you're just looking for one item, entering dungeons with the right attitude and outlook can make a huge difference.
Here are just a few thoughts you may want to consider:
This is just the tip of iceberg, of course, but hopefully it can provide some inspiration for how to keep the ball rolling.
Here are just a few thoughts you may want to consider:
- If you're having trouble adapting to a fight's mechanics, ask for help: talk to a guild mate who's more familiar with the fight or refer to online material. We all process information differently and you may find that you're able to understand your role in a boss fight better by reading, or by having a discussion with a friend.
- Try to do all that you can to optimize your gear. Even if you don't have a lot of time to play, you're still very empowered and can do a lot to increase your character's potency. For example, you might consider enchanting and gemming your Superior gear, reforging, or purchasing 333 - 359 iLevel items from reputation quartermasters. While quest greens and PvP gear may be functional, if you can replace those slots with PvE blues or purples that are tailored to your role, you'll probably be in a better position overall.
- Don't write off normal dungeons completely. Even if you're eligible for Heroic dungeons, getting practice on tamer versions of various bosses can be invaluable. It can help increase your comfort level with the encounter, as well as your knowledge of the mechanics.
This is just the tip of iceberg, of course, but hopefully it can provide some inspiration for how to keep the ball rolling.
Vaneras -- Player modelsWe recognize the issue with old models wearing shiny new gear and questing in brand new or updated zones, and even though we have mentioned this before, it can do no harm to repeat that this is definitely on the list of things we would like to do. Bringing the original models up to par with the newer models is something that we are giving some thought.
Nothing has been set in stone yet, but even though it is fairly safe to say that we won't see any changes done to the proportions of the original models, it is a possibility that the detail levels will be improved with additional polygons and such over time... perhaps we may even see some new and updated skins and textures as well :-)
Nothing has been set in stone yet, but even though it is fairly safe to say that we won't see any changes done to the proportions of the original models, it is a possibility that the detail levels will be improved with additional polygons and such over time... perhaps we may even see some new and updated skins and textures as well :-)
Filed under: The Daily Blues
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
wheatbee Dec 21st 2010 9:06AM
Yeah new models would be nice, the male human faces are pretty stupid looking all the way around and if you don't put hair on them you can see a nice line on the the back of their heads, which makes you think that you could split them open and there would be those "V" aliens inside them.
Ant Adam Dec 21st 2010 9:16AM
Pez dispensers! Why do you think we horde like killing you so much, its because of the Pez!
Drakkenfyre Dec 21st 2010 9:34AM
Higher resolution textures would go a long way to improving their look. Even without adding polygons, it would make them look so much better.
They will never change the overall shape of the models. Get over that now (this isn't directed at you, but anyone that thinks that.) People are attached to their character, and even tho there are some people who complain about them, there are some who like the look of their models. They have admitted as such, they would never change the models completely for this reason. Also, changing the models would require them to redo all of the armor in the game. They might add some detail here and there, increasing polygon counts in areas that need it, like the mouth for example, but they will never go overboard and replace your model with a 10,000 polygon model (they have also said this, increasing small amounts of polygons.)
Josin Dec 21st 2010 10:24AM
I remember midway through BC, when they actually took some polygons AWAY from the human female face. I'd be happy just to get those back.
Noyou Dec 21st 2010 10:26AM
V is coming back in January!
Drakkenfyre Dec 21st 2010 10:32AM
They optimized the Human female model, they said. They also did optimizations on female Draenei, but that didn't result in a visible change.
With the Human female, their eyes suddenly looked weird, out of place. I think they changed that quickly, but they left the model with fewer polygons, like you said.
Josin Dec 21st 2010 10:49AM
Yeah. Human females lost their cheekbones and the slight curvature of their lower face.
(cutaia) Dec 21st 2010 11:22AM
I'm crossing my fingers that whatever new textures they put in, my current male human skin will remain available and untouched.
Aaron Dec 21st 2010 12:48PM
Human males are so damned ugly! Ill never make one until better skins come out.
Avan Dec 21st 2010 2:02PM
I just want them to fix the spine on undead characters. If you where a cloak, you'll see that parts of it overlap the spine in a way that doesn't make sense and looks really bad.
Xantenise Dec 22nd 2010 12:04AM
@Drakken I have to agree. Human male models used to annoy the hell out of me because of how outdated they look, but now I love them and I'd hate to see them gone!
Even male nelves, the worst model in the game EVER, have grown on me.
Aerynn Dec 21st 2010 9:25AM
I always thought of hit as what, in practice, it (usually) is--the secondary stat which contributes 1% of dps for the least amount of rating compared to all other secondary stats. The fact that rogues and fury warriors have such a high hit cap (at least for white damage) just means they can get more cheap 1% damage increases. If hit didn't have a cap and 1% of hit was a 1% damage increase all the way through, then everybody would stack it above all other stats. Sure, classes that have a higher hit cap are usually balanced around it, such that everybody does similar damage when hit capped and in the same level of gear, but hit makes it so easy to improve your DPS while you're gearing up.
Also, if nobody ever had to stack hit rating or expertise rating, then the same problem of having only one or two reasonable stats besides them that people complain about would be even worse, because (to take Combat Rogues as an example) then they'd only ever need to stack agility (on all of our gear) and haste (on all of our gear without hit), and there'd be almost zero decision making involved in gearing up.
Noyou Dec 21st 2010 10:30AM
I think of Hit and Expertise much of like wheels on a car. You need wheels to drive right? If your wheels are bogus you might not drive straight. Sure you might arrive at your destination but you also might swerve off the road ya?
Angus Dec 22nd 2010 12:11AM
except hit doesn't increase your percent of DPS by 1% for each 1%.
In some cases it is not anywhere near that.
Enhance shaman need the full spell cap.
For 3% that hit contributes to EVERY single bit of DPS.
After that, until spell cap, it is still the highest DPS stat.
After spell cap all it helps with is white damage. Which is now less than 50% of their damage.
SO it is 1%, .8% and then .45% more damage per % of hit.
Rogues and fury warriors have similar percentages except it is worse for them.
Rogues can get precision, which means 3% and then all it helps is white damage. Poisons and specials cap fast for them.
Fury need 6% and then it drops to just white damage. For them it is still nicer than other things because it will increase rage.
Both rogues and fury can get away with not having to hit cap, because the number is so high anyway, there is not much of a point to try.
For casters it is 1% per point. For melee it varies.
Now making you need more and more hit is just annoying.
Aerynn Dec 22nd 2010 12:29AM
Except rogues rely a lot on white damage just because that's how they work, not to mention combat potency. Also, hit on white damage is the best stat available for fury warriors to generate rage, since haste is of dubious usefulness before that.
Jarviswabi Dec 21st 2010 9:28AM
As somebody who is both notoriously impatient yet also very appreciative of the complexity and depth of WoW's statistical mechanics, I have to agree with the first blue post even while I suffer a deep, piercing pain in my chest every time I see one of my shots fly wide of my target thanks to my profound lack of hit rating at the moment.
On the whole, I appreciated the changes made over the course of Wrath that helped gearing characters for at least entry-level raiding (the multiple tiers of badge gear, the ease of accumulating badgers through random LFD, etc). It allowed me to finally have a few alts that had at least satisfactory gear even though I can't afford the time to raid full-time on all of them.
But I do think that the negative side, and it's becoming larger and larger now, is that it fed the immediate-gratification monster that lurks in so many of our fellow players. And now that Cataclysm has put a few actual obstacles in the way of those who expect to basically login and immediately be fully geared and pulling top DPS, we're hearing an overwhelming amount of QQ about it.
I know there are certainly some legitimate complaints out there about certain elements of the expansion. But the other thing that strikes me is the incredible impatience--the expansion has been live for TWO FUCKING WEEKS, and people are already panicking about the fact that they're not raid-ready or whatever they thought they should be. Whenever I start to feel frustrated about the pace of profession or rep leveling (which feel painful at the moment), I just remind myself how bored I was around the mid-point of Wrath and think about the fact that someday I'll miss having to work on these things. Try to accept the journey for what it is and enjoy it. If playing the game actually causes you stress and worry over your hit rating, you really need a new hobby.
Eyhk Dec 21st 2010 12:09PM
Agreed. Gotta love the QQers though, who say things have been broken FOREVER and they DEMAND a fix RIGHT NOW when Cata has only been out two weeks, bless their souls. Me thinks they are the same QQers who demand the economy be fixed RIGHT NOW, along with a balanced budget, AND lower taxes.
Spark Dec 21st 2010 1:58PM
I find myself disagreeing with the notion that we've become a people that demand instant gratification. Instant gratification takes too long. The moment we realize we're unhappy, someone has failed to do their job. We demand constant gratification.
Scooter Dec 21st 2010 2:03PM
Funny thing is a little humility goes a long way to extending the amount of enjoyable time you get in the game. People have this notion that their expectations will be met immediately and they tend to dwell over the fact as opposed to finding other ways of enjoying themselves. Don't like something right now? Well then don't do it.
For all those people who log onto WoW just to do the one thing they are complaining about. Just stop playing it for a while. It's not hard. Odds are you got 10-20 other games you'll have a great time playing.
Ganglati Dec 21st 2010 3:50PM
I'm not sure instant gratification is the only problem right now. I personally think it's the lack of hit, combined with the new huge amounts of rating we need to cap, on the entry-level reg dungeon gear. On my arms warrior, which only needs 7% hit to cap for heroics, I've had to reforge hit onto every piece of gear that didn't have it to reach that cap. Which left no room to try and get expertise, which is well below the cap now as well. The salt in the wound is that I was excited for reforging, to help sub-optimal gear become more optimal, switching haste into crit or mastery, etc., at least for Arms. Instead I used this fun new tool, reforging, to get hit... I know that'll all (hopefuly) change as we get better and better gear, but it was such a letdown to hit 85, acquire sweet new blues, and then have to go so far out of my way just to reach the hit cap.