Wednesday 14 January 2009

The Growl and the PussyCat

3 comments
I've had some stick in the past for leaving my pets 'Growl' turned on when in a party.

Let's get something straight. I cause more aggro than my DPS pet. Much More.
My pets growl is fine, for me, while I'm solo'ing. Because anything I'm trying to kill is usually dead by the time I over-aggro it.
But if I solo an elite, it usually comes running after me just before it dies.

When I'm in a group, the tanks these days generate much much much more aggro than me. So why shouldn't I leave growl turned on.

The chances of the mob focusing on my pet are minimal as long as the tank is up and running.
The chance of my pet over-aggroing are almost Sweet-FA, and I can always use 'Cower' if I notice it getting too high.
But let's say the tank misses a mob, or is stunned, the next one in the threat list is gonna get a fistful of DMG shoved down their throat pretty quickly.
Who would you rather got that DMG?

There's 4 options:

1 - Me - Who's probably 2nd on the Threat Meter, but I have 10k Armour, upto 20kHP can feign, shadowmeld, misdirect, trap etc etc.
2 - Others - Who may / may not survive.
3 - My Pet - Who has upto 20k HP, 12k Armour, an instant rez button, and who isn't usually too far down the threat list, but hopefully higher up than...
4 - The Healer(s) - Alot of them wear paper armour, and most have the survival chances of a chocolate tea-pot in a microwave. They might last a few seconds, but then they're just a stain.

I don't send my pet in to attack until I start attacking, and I always allow a few seconds for tanks to build aggro, as it's pretty easy for me to overaggro at the beginning of fights. Just good practice, and well worth the cost of a few seconds of DPS.

Pet always attacks in 'Defence' mode, but if it goes off the rails it can be switched to 'Passive' and recalled with one click of button 5 on the mouse.

Edit: There are always exceptions to the rule, for example, I switch the pet to agressive when fighting Jodega Shadowweaver in Old Kingdom, simply because my pet starts attacking whichever mob she sacrifices as soon as it's released. And identifies it to the group.

So can anyone give me a good reason not to leave "Growl" on?

Hero-Class Heroics

0 comments
Last night I did a heroic. "So What?" you're about to say, but unusually the team was made up of 3 Death Knights (Raq, Lurni & Stealths) My Hunter and Rolfi's Priest.

Now, don't get me wrong, we absolutely owned the 2 heroics we did (Utgarde Keep and Old Kingdom) and we should have done. The 3 DK's were wearing quite a few epics each, and had lots of other nice gear.
Rolfi and I have run quite a few heroics together now, and we're both more than capable. He's a great healer.

Note: Ignore all the facts and figures below if you're not into that sort of thing, but I'll try and keep it short.


But I noticed something that concerned me a little. I know my own DPS capabilities quite well. I can easily do 1500 DPS while solo'ing, and much more when I pop my CoolDowns / Trinkets etc..
Usually, when in a party, that increases massively, particularly when there's a Pally tank like Bolle and I don't have to watch my Aggro, I've reached upto 2.8k+ at some points, but often average around 2k - 2.2k across a full run. Last night I managed 1600.

I can imagine some people thinking "WTF is he complaining about... ONLY 1600!" but the fact is, with a different group, I could have pulled off much much more. The +100 DPS is probably mostly down to the buffs from Rolfi.

My pet buffs the whole party for +% DMG when it crits (which it does alot) but even so, I realise the only bonuses I bring to a party are that buff (one part of which is being nerfed in the next patch!) and my CC'ing.
The DK's were all UnHoly specced, and all brought exactly the same buff to the party a +15% Movement speed increase. WOW!

Raq tanked the runs, and the other two DPS'd. Yet every oen of their, and my overall DMG at the end of the runs, was within about 10-20k of each other, and everyones average DPS was around 1600. Why?

Note: You can start reading again at this point if you skipped it.


My theory is this:

Well played DK's are great at doing exactly what they're supposed to do, and very little else. Yes, They're sort of a 'jack-of-all-trades', but a they're 'Master' of none.
Their talents and abilities suit them, and them alone, and they bring very little else to a party. I could have been replaced by a 4th DK or a Rogue, or an Arms Warrior and it would have made no difference.
And I bet the average solo DPS for those guys is around 1500 too. They didn't seem to be sharing anything between themselves that even buffed other DK's.

Imagine that same party, but with one of the DK's replaced with something like a Shaman, or even better a Pally. Their buffs would increase the stats of the entire party, and the average DPS would have shot up dramatically.

I'm pretty sure that a team of 4 DK's + Healer could easily handle any of the heroics I've so far seen. And I wouldn't hold back from teaming with them again, they were more than capable players, there's just something about it that I don't like.

I once ran some level 70 heroics with a full team of Pallies, and it was an awesome scene. But even then, buffs were shared, blessings passed around, and team-work was promoted, as it could make a big difference to the entire team.
With DK's it doesn't seem to matter. Once those guys are fully epic'd I'm sure their DPS will go up a bit more, but then what?

If you were a raid leader who had the choice between bringing a fully epic DK, or a mostly Epic Pally who would you pick?

I'd choose the Pally every time, 1x Blessing of Kings on an entire 10-man raid raid and you get a huge DPS buff.
Or a Shammy using totems which he can change at will depending on the situation.

All the other DPS focused classes have a reliable form of CC / Aggro Dropping / Party Buffs too.
Hunters - Traps, Stings, Kiting, Pet Tanking, Feign, Misdirect, TrueShot Aura
Rogues - Sap, Stealth, Vanish
Mages - Polymorph, IceBlock, Buffs
Warlocks - SoulStones, Summons, Buffs
(Note: The hunter list is probably only longer, because I know more about them)

Raq assures me that +15% movement speed also = more DPS but I just don't see it myself. I can see some situations where it would come in handy, but they're few and far between.
If the DK's had all been different specs, it would have helped with the different auras, but still not as much as other classes would have.

So would you really take a straight DPS'ing DK instead of one of them?
I'm sure the Munquis won't discriminate against the DK's when it comes to raids, but overall I feel that they just lack that special something that makes them a welcome addition to any team.

So, go on, tell me I'm wrong.