Random Question Thread

[Plow]

Or the people who aren't running the ideal/cookie cutter comp and therefore have a lower winning% versus those teams even if they are rated above them.

No, it doesn't have any effect on that whatsoever. That's a game balance issue, and has absolutely nothing to do with how the rating system works.

You'd just lose 20 points when you lose against those teams and 10 when you win in the old system, and simply reach your appropriate rating sooner. Else, play teams the same rating you currently are, and have a losing record and go down that way.

Also I'm glad the system "thinks" people are higher or lower than they "should" be (based on what?)

Based on your performance in the arena. What it does is, it takes who you've played, beaten, and lost to, and then attempts to predict how you will do in future matches against other teams of certain ratings. It does this EXTREMELY accurately.

but why are we constantly playing teams that are 200+ rating points away from us

Quite simply, because now it can. You can get matched up against low rated teams without it charging you 29 points for losses and giving you 1 point for wins, or vice versa. It speeds up matchmaking considerably when it can give somewhat mismatched opponents without punishing one side so harshly in the event of flukes.

(it thinks we are lower, yeah you already said that, but for what reason? getting the rating we were at was just a lie, we actually only got half of that?)?

If you're holding a winning record and going down, it's safe to assume said rating is sub 1500. Based on who you've won and lost to, and how they've done against other people of various ratings, it has calculated that you will even out at a lower rating than your current one.

The system should work if things were balanced, I understand that and the mechanics of how it works. But from the way we are being matched up and how class/team balance is terrible right now, it really doesn't seem that way.

Nope, the system is working damn near perfectly, the balance and the system have no relation whatsoever. It doesn't see that you're not a dk and automatically assume you're crap.

[Dezzimal]

If you throw too many games to teams lower than you your MMR will plummet, but if you've played enough at the rating you're at you won't get matched against teams too far outside of your real rating.

(based on what?) but why are we constantly playing teams that are 200+ rating points away from us

Because when the system matched you against the teams that are 200 rating below you, you lost a few games to them. There is a bit of statistics involved, confidence intervals and so forth that the game uses to determine if it needs to match you against better teams or worse teams.

[Dezzimal]

Nope, the system is working damn near perfectly, the balance and the system have no relation whatsoever. It doesn't see that you're not a dk and automatically assume you're crap.

Actually even though it is blind to what class you're playing there is a statistical DK/Pally/Hunter bubble at the highest ratings. Aparently the team density in the 2200-2300 range is sparse, a sort of black hole if you will that gets sucked to either side depending on what class you're playing. Since many of the top non-dk/hunter/pally teams absolutely cannot take a game from those teams above 2300 they rest below 2200.

[Ishido]

No, it doesn't have any effect on that whatsoever. That's a game balance issue, and has absolutely nothing to do with how the rating system works.

You'd just lose 20 points when you lose against those teams and 10 when you win in the old system, and simply reach your appropriate rating sooner. Else, play teams the same rating you currently are, and have a losing record and go down that way.

Balance affects the system when any DK/Hunter/Pally team with decent gear and some skill can win a game against a much higher rated team with a different comp.

Based on your performance in the arena. What it does is, it takes who you've played, beaten, and lost to, and then attempts to predict how you will do in future matches against other teams of certain ratings. It does this EXTREMELY accurately.




Quite simply, because now it can. You can get matched up against low rated teams without it charging you 29 points for losses and giving you 1 point for wins, or vice versa. It speeds up matchmaking considerably when it can give somewhat mismatched opponents without punishing one side so harshly in the event of flukes.

Now you lose 17-20 and win 3, so even one fluke can still hurt you pretty badly.

If you're holding a winning record and going down, it's safe to assume said rating is sub 1500. Based on who you've won and lost to, and how they've done against other people of various ratings, it has calculated that you will even out at a lower rating than your current one.

We were over 1900, and have held a winning record since then and are now barely over 1800.

Nope, the system is working damn near perfectly, the balance and the system have no relation whatsoever. It doesn't see that you're not a dk and automatically assume you're crap.

It doesn't care your comp, but when so many teams are running DKs and Hunters, chances of winning go down drastically so essentially the system is working against those weaker comps. You're wrong about the system and balance not being related at all, but in the end the problem with the whole thing is the balance, and that just makes the system seem like shit.

[Plow]

Balance affects the system when any DK/Hunter/Pally team with decent gear and some skill can win a game against a much higher rated team with a different comp.

That has nothing to do with the new hidden ratings that make the system function like a proper ELO system, and it would have the exact same, if not more extreme, effect on the old system.

At least this one prevents them from making new teams constantly to sell points on and stealing tons of rating from lower rated teams despite being 1550 and 3-0 on a new team.

Now you lose 17-20 and win 3, so even one fluke can still hurt you pretty badly.

Only until you've played enough games to equal out your team rating with your MMR. After that, you see the only *real* downside to this system-- it becomes somewhat of a grind to raise your rating, as you both are risking/winning only a few points per game, and it becomes less and less gained as you move up until your mmr catches up.

We were over 1900, and have held a winning record since then and are now barely over 1800.

In that case, what has happened is basically one of 2 things:

You either got to 1900 with some luck, beating teams that aren't actually that rating (this is most likely, the system has been in for quite a while now and I'm not sure when you're talking about having been 1900+).

Or, the teams you have beaten have simply proven throughout the season that they are not, in fact, 1900 teams, and the sinking of their MMRs has caused the system to predict your success rate lower as a result.

It doesn't care your comp, but when so many teams are running DKs and Hunters, chances of winning go down drastically so essentially the system is working against those weaker comps. You're wrong about the system and balance not being related at all, but in the end the problem with the whole thing is the balance, and that just makes the system seem like shit.

Uh, no, overly powerful comps raise to the top and hold everyone back regardless of the system.

See: the RMP teams that dominated the round robin phases and created a 4x rmp semifinal in the most recent major 3v3 tournament, which had absolutely nothing to do with any kind of ratigns at all.

[Guitarman]

Bought my bracers from a friend that does 25 mans. (i dont, yet. Just 5 and 10 mans).

The World of Warcraft Armory

Am I missing anything substantial in my gear? I'm doing sons of hodir rep now for my shoulder enchants, but i feel like i'm at a wall until i get into 25 mans.

Edit: The damage is wrong, my actual numbers on my screen are 16xx - 19xx (game is down for maint atm, can't check).

[Ramor]

Bought my bracers from a friend that does 25 mans. (i dont, yet. Just 5 and 10 mans).

The World of Warcraft Armory

Am I missing anything substantial in my gear? I'm doing sons of hodir rep now for my shoulder enchants, but i feel like i'm at a wall until i get into 25 mans.

Edit: The damage is wrong, my actual numbers on my screen are 16xx - 19xx (game is down for maint atm, can't check).

until Sons of hodir you can get some WG shoulder enchants (resil instead of crit strike) for like 24 SKS or something cheap

aside from that I'd just say +16 STR gems all around (aside from the one or two other color gems you'd need for meta bonus), don't really *need* the gem bonuses (pretty shitty anyway usually)

aside from that just pug some 25mans, they usually don't get real far but if you happen to get into one that does you're golden.

edit: oh hah, you're on azuremyst too, after i get back from spring break give me your vent and we'll go do some duels or something

[Guitarman]

Sure thing. sucks were on opposite sides. I'd love the chance to play with a bg member.

[Ramor]

yeah, to be honest I really wanted to be a horde but all of my friends (and i mean every single one of them) is an alliance player, even the ones that didn't know each other.

[Lordwafik]

Ok finally 80 and all that jazz, a few question about Heroic druid healing -I've not stepped into a heroic 80 dungeon yet, and I would like to gear myself to be nax ready eventually. My guild doesn't do nax in house because we don't have enough people for it and we aren't focused on raiding, but a lot of people in my LS in FFXI have converted to WoW also , so in a month or three we'll be seeing it and then ulduar.

-----

First off, how much MP is considerered "Decent" when healing for heroics as a druid? Right now I sit on 14.5k after Mark of the Wild, 2 purps and a few blues here and there. From my understanding it's not as necessary as other healers since we have a few MP management tools and hots.

What should I be looking for in an order of priority? Currently my priority is Spellpower>int/spirit>mp/5>nothing else as I don't know what I should be looking for.

How much mp/5 is considered decent for going up to heroics?

So far I feel confident enough in most normal dungeons, I heal fine unless it's something a little tricky like Skadi in U.P. Today I just healed through the supernova from the boss in HoL reg and it wasn't taxing on me at all, I'm just not all that confident in joining a heroic pug as I have no idea how hard/insane it is compared to normal.

Here's my current spell stats

• Bonus Damage:1138
• Bonus Healing: 1138
• Hit Rating: 102
• Crit Chance: 6.1%
• Haste Rating: 135
• Mana Regen: 388

Here's my current gear/talents.

The World of Warcraft Armory

I have a few in balance for when I solo, feel free to critizise, I won't be upset If you're going to reccomend me gear though I'd rather you suggest anything from a reg dungeon instead of AH/Crafted/Heroic because I'm still saving up for epic flying and I have not entered a heroic!

If you feel I've made a bad talent choice, please explain why it is bad. On the topic of talents - I am thinking of redoing them (obviously) and want to include the one that gives me a spirit boost as I find my spirit abysmal, however I hear I shouldn't be doing anything regarding spirit as they're changing how it works as mp/5 soon? Please explain :D

[Shuemue]

Wafik I hate you for not rolling alliance on K'T with me, Aurik and Vistani btw

but grats on 80, you beat me to it =/

[Lordwafik]

Wafik I hate you for not rolling alliance on K'T with me, Aurik and Vistani btw

but grats on 80, you beat me to it =/

Thanks.

Tsk tsk for tricking burg like that, although considering it took him about 5 days to realise I'm not actually on your server was funny.

[Cephius]

Your talents need a little reworking IMHO, you should drop Naturalist and put all your points into Master Shapeshifter (you're a healer, not a DD!) Get Nature's Focus so you have a bit more survivability from aggro, and again drop Improved Tranquility because it's really not needed.

Run the easier heroes if your group is undergeared also, but by all means go for the harder ones if you have good DPS and a tank who can carry you. VH, UK, Nexus are 3 good ones to start with. Once you run enough heroes to get your epic neck and maybe a heroes dreamwalker piece, you should be ready to start going on Naxx runs.

[Plow]

Ok finally 80 and all that jazz, a few question about Heroic druid healing -I've not stepped into a heroic 80 dungeon yet, and I would like to gear myself to be nax ready eventually. My guild doesn't do nax in house because we don't have enough people for it and we aren't focused on raiding, but a lot of people in my LS in FFXI have converted to WoW also , so in a month or three we'll be seeing it and then ulduar.

-----

First off, how much MP is considerered "Decent" when healing for heroics as a druid? Right now I sit on 14.5k after Mark of the Wild, 2 purps and a few blues here and there. From my understanding it's not as necessary as other healers since we have a few MP management tools and hots.

What should I be looking for in an order of priority? Currently my priority is Spellpower>int/spirit>mp/5>nothing else as I don't know what I should be looking for.

How much mp/5 is considered decent for going up to heroics?

So far I feel confident enough in most normal dungeons, I heal fine unless it's something a little tricky like Skadi in U.P. Today I just healed through the supernova from the boss in HoL reg and it wasn't taxing on me at all, I'm just not all that confident in joining a heroic pug as I have no idea how hard/insane it is compared to normal.

Here's my current spell stats

Here's my current gear/talents.

The World of Warcraft Armory

I have a few in balance for when I solo, feel free to critizise, I won't be upset If you're going to reccomend me gear though I'd rather you suggest anything from a reg dungeon instead of AH/Crafted/Heroic because I'm still saving up for epic flying and I have not entered a heroic!

If you feel I've made a bad talent choice, please explain why it is bad. On the topic of talents - I am thinking of redoing them (obviously) and want to include the one that gives me a spirit boost as I find my spirit abysmal, however I hear I shouldn't be doing anything regarding spirit as they're changing how it works as mp/5 soon? Please explain :D

Your mana is fine, you just need a lot more spellpower. Not sure about the future of spirit, but for the moment it's probably the 2nd best druid stat behind spellpower. You don't need any hit for healing either btw.

As far as gear, just go here: Wrath of the Lich King - Factions - World of Warcraft and find stuff you need, and peruse/search for stuff from normal instances, there's tons of filters and whatnot for browsing.

Right now I think the best thing to focus on for you would probably be Wyrmrest Accord revered for this nice little guy: Gavel of the Brewing Storm - Item - World of Warcraft and find an offhand. Given same "quality" of items, 1h+oh blows staff out of the water for casters, we'll see if the ideas for addressing that actually pan out.

[Slott]

Heroics aren't *that* much harder than normal instances, if you're with competant players. That being said, the step up from Utgarde keep to heroic utgarde keep is a bigger step up than Utgarde pinnacle (a lvl 78 dungeon?) to heroic VH/UK/Nexus. Run as many heroics as you can wafik - you get emblems of heroism for them which prove to be very useful (You can purchase tier 7 10 man items with them and some trinkets). Also when you get a large quantity you dont need, you can use 10 emblems for purchasing gems such as scarlet rubies, frozen orbs and such (which sell for 50-80g a pop on my server)

It also helps you to gain reputation with factions. Focus on factions for the healer head enchant and other gear that may help you. Try to run heroics daily (I think nexus especially for you since it has a good healer mace)

Avoid hard instances like Occulus or Halls of Lightning until better geared. Even trash in HoL isn't forgiving in the area prior to loken.

Start saving greens and such you get from trash you kill to be disenchanted. Enchanting your gear can offer massive upgrades, however since you're still wearing greens and blues, and will most likely change out of that soon, you probably won't need to. For the purple legs and boots you could however, put some sort of cheap enchant on them just to help out a bit more.

[Shuemue]

Thanks.

Tsk tsk for tricking burg like that, although considering it took him about 5 days to realise I'm not actually on your server was funny.

lol silly Burgs, I told him you'd rolled on a different server. I'll roll a DK on your server and say hi at some point :D

[Rama]

Spoiler: show

Ok finally 80 and all that jazz, a few question about Heroic druid healing -I've not stepped into a heroic 80 dungeon yet, and I would like to gear myself to be nax ready eventually. My guild doesn't do nax in house because we don't have enough people for it and we aren't focused on raiding, but a lot of people in my LS in FFXI have converted to WoW also , so in a month or three we'll be seeing it and then ulduar.

-----

First off, how much MP is considerered "Decent" when healing for heroics as a druid? Right now I sit on 14.5k after Mark of the Wild, 2 purps and a few blues here and there. From my understanding it's not as necessary as other healers since we have a few MP management tools and hots.

What should I be looking for in an order of priority? Currently my priority is Spellpower>int/spirit>mp/5>nothing else as I don't know what I should be looking for.

How much mp/5 is considered decent for going up to heroics?

So far I feel confident enough in most normal dungeons, I heal fine unless it's something a little tricky like Skadi in U.P. Today I just healed through the supernova from the boss in HoL reg and it wasn't taxing on me at all, I'm just not all that confident in joining a heroic pug as I have no idea how hard/insane it is compared to normal.

Here's my current spell stats

Here's my current gear/talents.

The World of Warcraft Armory

I have a few in balance for when I solo, feel free to critizise, I won't be upset If you're going to reccomend me gear though I'd rather you suggest anything from a reg dungeon instead of AH/Crafted/Heroic because I'm still saving up for epic flying and I have not entered a heroic!

If you feel I've made a bad talent choice, please explain why it is bad. On the topic of talents - I am thinking of redoing them (obviously) and want to include the one that gives me a spirit boost as I find my spirit abysmal, however I hear I shouldn't be doing anything regarding spirit as they're changing how it works as mp/5 soon? Please explain :D

Firstly, I'm not a druid, and not a healer, but a mage. So I'll leave those specific questions alone for a real healer.

I don't think you should hold off on heroics unless you feel you're not ready for whatever reason. Run the normal versions until you're comfortable if that's what it takes. If you have any friends who are good tanks (defense capped, etc) maybe enlist them to help break you in a bit. The sooner you start in on heroics, the sooner you start collecting Emblems of Heroism and the goodies you can purchase with them (This guide has an emblem budget of up to 295 emblems.)

Tagging your 'ok' items with 'cheap' enchantments can really help too. I'm sure you've got 70+ Stone keeper's shards just from running dungeons or participating in Wintergrasp, so head there and grab head and shoulder enchantments for 52 spell power at the cost of 70 Stone keeper's shards. Eventually you'll want Kirin Tor head enchantment and Sons of Hodir shoulder enchantment (I'd save those for epics or better).

Lastly, I wouldn't hold out for the patch before respeccing if it's a worthwhile change. Just map out your spec before putting it in so you don't hit any stray talents.

[Norellicus]

I'm rusty on tree since I haven't done it actively in a while, but I try to keep up with the principles since I do enjoy healing; just take what I say with a grain of salt

They're changing mana restoration so that you can't sit outside the FSR between Lifeblooms and get tons of mana back; Spirit will still be useful though as it boosts your spellpower in ToL and Intensity (which they're going to buff with the mana regen change) is still based upon your Spirit regen.

Mana, I get by with 12k in normals in a non resto build, and see most healers running around with 15~18k in my heroics, if memory serves. The thing to keep in mind is that when it comes to mana regeneration in a raid, Intellect will be your strongest stat on account of Replenishment; without it you'll have to find a balance between Spirit and mp5 (Rating Buster helps with this quite a bit).

There's a few ways you could redo your talents, I would personally do it like so (I'm using the ptr calculator since 3.1 is probably going to hit sooner than later):
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?drui...0&version=9684

As a ToL you're not likely to be using HT often if ever, most trees agree that between Regrowth, WG, and Nourish, you have enough direct heals to keep people from dying. Even with the reduced cast time from Naturalist HT just takes too long. So I axed those talents, and you still get to keep your Imp Moonfire (the other Balance talents should be taken by any good Resto druid anyway) :D

You could swap the Regrowth and Innervate glyphs if you wanted, that Nourish glyph might be pretty good with the buffs they're giving Nourish but I haven't heard any feedback on it yet. WG glyph would be convenient for raid damage but I haven't played resto at 80 to get a feel for WG's utility, so can't appreciate how big a difference it'd make. Rejuv glyph would be hot once you get 4pT8. Swiftmend is mandatory for obvious reasons, and while Lifebloom glyph would have been mandatory once upon a time I think with the 3.1 changes trees will find themselves letting the stack roll and bloom for the mana refund, so I don't think an extra tick is really all that great.

Trees don't really need hit on their gear, so you could right off replace your staff and wrists. There's a good healing staff from CoS and another from Oculus (both reg), and some 1h you can get from quests that you can combine with a few choice offhand frills; not too many non-heroic options for wrists, but an Ebon Blade rep set at Revered, or a crafted set that is kinda meh cause it wastes some budget on resil. Check out http://elitistjerks.com/f73/t37554-resto_pre_raid_gear/ for some places to upgrade your stuff. Rawr is a great tool for gear optimization for most classes and specs that are incorporated into it as well; it has a tree module but I don't know how reliable it is. Worth a look maybe.



Loken's nova (among other gimmicks) is still healable on heroic if your group has enough health to not get gibbed by it, but if your dps sucks you'll find your mana depleted very quickly, so it's kind of dependent on a lot of things at once. All in all heroics really aren't terribly drastically different than their normal counterparts as long as everyone is geared effectively and not a bunch of mouth-breathers.

Also, as a rule of thumb I try to enchant any piece that is R187 or better unless a guaranteed upgrade from badges or rep is on the horizon.

[Shuemue]

Firstly, I'm [snip] a mage.

I'll ask you this then; here's my shitty mage: The World of Warcraft Armory

I just got FFB and it seems my fireball is more damage, and I kill mobs without needing the slow generally. Will FFB become more worthwhile as I level, or is it best largely ignored until 80 and I spec for group stuff?

Oh and yeah I know my talents are a mess and I could be much more efficient, but I'm just dicking around while I level.

[Rama]

I'll ask you this then; here's my shitty mage: The World of Warcraft Armory

I just got FFB and it seems my fireball is more damage, and I kill mobs without needing the slow generally. Will FFB become more worthwhile as I level, or is it best largely ignored until 80 and I spec for group stuff?

Oh and yeah I know my talents are a mess and I could be much more efficient, but I'm just dicking around while I level.

lol, well to you, I say I've only been an 80 mage for a week. I was just sharing some general 'new 80' shit that I distilled down from my recent experience.

The power of FFB is that it can take advantage from fire and frost tree damage bonuses for huge damage on criticals. From elitist jerks' "The Frostfire Bolt Thread":Frostfire bolt with ignite + burnout + ice shards + CSD: Critical damage bonus 330.75%
CSD is the Chaotic Skyflare Diamond

I levelled entirely as a frost mage til 80, with Torment the Week from arcane after a mid-70s respec (looked about like this at 75.) I loved my multiple layers of security blankets (elemental, ice barrier, rediculous snares). If Fireball is working well for your playstyle now, probably stick with it. Supposedly Fireball/arcane is one of the top DPS specs anyway, just very mana hungry.

edit: I have switched to a pretty typical FFB spec now for more raid/instance damage. It plays quite a bit different than my frost spec did. Here's my armory