Setting the Dead Horse Straight

I was really trying to avoid this post. The Cataclysm raid change post. However, after catching up on some podcasts I heard a lot of opinions that weren’t taking all of the changes into consideration. So, here we go:

First a link to the blue post over at MMO-Champion; I’ll wait while you refresh your memory…
Now, you can’t take any of these points as separate issues, as they play off of each other (something a lot of people have failed to recognize).  What I’m going to try to do is follow Blizzard’s thought process on the changes.

Let’s start with the loot and raid difficulty. By combining loot tables Blizzard eliminates the flaw that the current system has: 10 mans are a lot easier because they have to make it realistic for strictly 10 man players to complete the raid with only 10 man gear. The 10 mans (while still easier than 25s) are not a face roll if you only have 10 man gear from the previous raid. The reason why so many people view 10 mans as being a lot easier is because they are going into them with the superior 25 man gear. They can now balance 10s and 25s around the same quality of gear, thus making each raid relatively close in difficulty. This is where I believe the Dev team started the changing process at. They wanted to make 10s and 25s a lot closer in difficulty, and by having both share the same loot table, they will be able to do just that.

Professor Putricide Says PvP is Good for Your Raid

PvP some people love it, others hate it.  Some raiders don’t care one way or another but, feel that it isn’t worth doing because it in no way will help them with their next boss.  To put it simply, those PvE heroes (I am a serious raider so I use that term in an affectionate way) are wrong.

There are many skills that PvP will help keep a lot sharper than Wrath’s raiding content will. And unless you work at it, those skills will be rusty on the occasions where they are called upon in an encounter.  Let’s take a look at a few:

• Situational Awareness – This is likely the biggest one.  If you want to be successful in PvP you have to know where your enemies are and what they are doing.  Many people find it overwhelming to try to keep track of so much (how many are near you, how many friends are there, what class is everyone, who is moving towards an objective and, who are just there for killing, etc.)  But, if you can start to keep track of all of that information in a  battleground, a fight like Mimiron or Rotface will be a piece of cake.

• Adaptation – Things rarely go as planed in any PvP encounter. You have to think on the fly and constantly adjust what you are doing depending on what cool downs you have and what ones they have. What spec they are and how they are playing it.  Not to mention terrain and other players joining the fight at any given time.  If you are used to thinking on your toes then it won’t be such a shock if you have to do something out of the ordinary in a fight. (say kiting blood beasts or, taking over someone’s role if they die mid fight)

• Knowing your class – PvP requires you to know all of what your class is capable of and how to best use every ability in your spell book. There are very few combat abilities that do not have a use in PvP. In contrast there are several abilities that most think (think being the key word) aren’t useful in PvE. And to be fair, for the most part they are right.  However, Blizzard knows you have them and may require you to use them in a fight. So you had best know how to.

• Key Binding – PvP will teach you the importance of keybinding all of your important abilities.  Both often used and, emergency. And nothing will teach you to mouse turn like fighting a sprinting rogue that is constantly circling you.  Learning how to effectively mouse turn and being familiar with all of your key binds will greatly improve your play in all aspects of the game.  You may think your doing ok, driving with you keyboard and clicking abilities but, you are a lot slower than someone intimately familiar with their key bound abilities and using the mouse to steer.

Those are only a few but, important reasons to try your hand at PvP. Even if you hate PvP I’m sure you know someone who enjoys it and can show you the ropes.  Do it for yourself.  Do it for your raid.