TankSpot - Blogs - Satrina http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/satrina/ en Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:19:35 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.tankspot.com/forums/images/misc/rss.jpg TankSpot - Blogs - Satrina http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/satrina/ Apparently http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/satrina/2718-apparently.html Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:32:13 GMT I am not a power user of my own addon!

Quote:
Thx for your fantastic SBF and I just want to konw can it be able to support more than 50 frames?I failed to creat the 51th frame just now what can I do.
The 50 frame limit is arbitrary, I set it to that because I figured nobody would ever make that many. I'll increase it in the next release just for this guy.

haha! ]]> Satrina http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/satrina/2718-apparently.html You know what I want? http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/satrina/2061-you-know-what-i-want.html Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:17:17 GMT A way to upgrade my trusty gryphon mount to 310% speed.

I don't collect mounts, and never have. My mounts tab has a swift white steed and a swift blue gryphon in it. It seems ridiculous to me to have a bag full of mounts. I don't care about the mount achievements. I really dislike the idea of having to get an ugly as hell proto-drake if I want the faster mount speed.

I'd really love it if instead of a new mount for every reward, we had a few options to choose from. A way to increase my gryphpn's speed would be a very welcome one.

Probably never happen, I suppose. ]]> Satrina http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/satrina/2061-you-know-what-i-want.html Just A Game http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/satrina/1209-just-game.html Sun, 31 Aug 2008 19:35:34 GMT (So as to not derail an already derailed thread even more)

Quote:
Relax, people. This is a game.
Don't take this as an attack, because it is not meant as one by any means.

It's clear from many posts by many people that that they treat it as a game to blow off steam and just have fun. That's fine and well, and nobody is arguing against how anyone cares to play and enjoy the game. As long as you're having fun, that's the whole goal.

By the same token, many of us here enjoy the maths and number crunching, and yes, take it much more seriously than "just a game". It's in the realm of a hobby for many of us. Just as I don't ask people to take it more seriously, please don't tell me not to.

That's the beauty of it all - we all can play how we want to. ]]> Satrina http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/satrina/1209-just-game.html What Is Fun? http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/satrina/1155-what-fun.html Sun, 17 Aug 2008 00:03:49 GMT I’ll post this as a blog entry, since it definitely does not follow the spirit of the WotLK: What Is Fun? post. Instead, I’m going to suggest that tanking is not, in fact, fun. You’re probably wondering about my sanity at this point, since I am actually the MT of a raiding guild and all of that. I can see where you’re coming from, but bear with me a moment while I explain why I don't find tanking fun.

The very fact that you can break down tanking to an opimisation problem pushes it out of the realm of fun. “1233 with heroic strike thrown in at 45+ rage” is a formula for success. There’s no skill element, no thinking on the fly. Train your muscle memory to parrot the rotation and you can make the best threat*.

Everyone wearing more or less the same gear as everyone else is nice - for an army. Worse, though, is being at the mercies of the random number generator and being stuck with gear a few tiers back. I am one of the biggest proponents of different gear for different fights you will find. The reality is that tanks can and do succeed on a one size fits all mindset every day, though. The profit for specifically gearing for a given fight ultimately is some lesser amount of time needed to beat a fight for the first time. There are no real consequences for choosing the “wrong” gear, unless you do something drastically wrong.

The number of tanks needed for trash and for bosses varies. How much fun is it to come in as a tank, tank some trash mobs, and then get told to get into DPS gear or heal gear for the boss? Yeah. Not as much of a problem with tanking per se, but it is a problem with being a tank that is just not fun.

Okay, so if I hate tanking so much, why do I do it?

Because while it’s not fun, it is definitely satisfying.

Standing over the fallen foe, knowing that your team held together to get the job done – that’s fun. Knowing you did your job and allowed everyone else to do theirs – satisfying, and it led to the fun.

If Blizzard can find a way to actually make tanking fun to go with that, that’s a winning combination. And it might actually entice people like me to log in outside of raid times.

* Yes, the talent that refreshes your shield slam cooldown is definitely a step in the right direction. Now do more like that! ]]> Satrina http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/satrina/1155-what-fun.html Evolve or Die http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/satrina/724-evolve-die.html Tue, 06 May 2008 19:01:32 GMT This was a response in a thread that sounded like a decent blog entry.

There are still a lot of people who cling to Effective Health as the be all, end all answer to everything. Better watch out, because the meteor has already hit and the fallout is coming. Effective Health is and always has been a theory for bleeding edge content that bases itself on the assumption that as you progress, you find yourself undergeared for the new content and maxing out to make sure you meet the minimum EH requirements of these new fights gives you the best chance to survive and let your raid succeed. This is still true; the basic principle of EH stands as it always has. However, the rules of the game are changing in terms of gear availability. This means that the likelihood that you are in the zone where full-on EH makes sense for you is less likely.

As it stands, once you're in T6 gear and can make 20k raid buffed pretty much no matter what you wear, it doesn't matter really how you gem stuff because you're hitting the EH minimums for almost every fight to start with. Today, anyone can get badge gear that is T6 quality and epic gems for 15 badges a pop which means anyone can hit that same point with enough badges and some ZA gear, or at least with minimal gear from 25 man instances. Tanks can step from Karazhan into Gruul's lair effectively overgeared for it now. The game has changed and our analysis of what is "good" and "right" has to change with it or we become the guy yelling at kids to get off his lawn while listening to Elvis on the 8-track.

The simple fact is that the game evolves on and we have to evolve with it, and we're hitting the end of the cycle right now with WotLK on the horizon. Whether you see this all as a good thing or as a symptom of the general dumbing down of the game is opinion, but it still leaves room for great tanks who want to optimise to the last detail and those who just grab gear and go. Meeting EH minimums is easier than ever, and tanks that cling to the EH at all costs philosophy are not doing themselves any favours. (Well, they weren't to begin with but that's another discussion.)

We're seeing new articles and analysis showing the benefits of avoidance, which is good. Educating people with solid numbers and analysis is always preferable to I feel that.... None of this is new, though. And a lot of the tanks who are now singing the praises of avoidance are tanks who not so long ago had Solid Stars in every socket just like everybody else. Evolve or die.

Looking ahead, WotLK will bring level 80 and a new cycle of level up - gear up - plateau all over again. We'll have to see how they play out the availability of quality gear through badges and raiding vs. the requirements of encounters. I think Blizzard has learned a lot over the life of TBC, so we may see a very different philosophy in itemisation. Needless to say, we'll have to adjust our thinking as tanks to work with the new realities that present themselves then. ]]> Satrina http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/satrina/724-evolve-die.html OMG Content http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/satrina/551-omg-content.html Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:38:21 GMT The irony of my blog complaining about content is not lost on me. I posted this in our guild forums, then thought it'd make a reasonable blog entry.

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In my eyes the number one problem in WoW is content.

Mount Hyjal is flat out a piece of shit, with no redeeming qualities. I can't think of any point in time where I thought "this is fun!" in there. Black Temple is somewhat better, at least you don't want to gouge your eyes out to make it stop.

Magister's Terrace is. That's about all I can say about it. I tanked it once, DPS'd it once and really don't have any desire to go back. Replay value: none at all. We'll see about the raid zone, but from what I hear it's just a new round of gimmick fights. The upside is we're on track to finish Sunwell by the time WotLK releases, so the raid content will last perfectly for us.

Content is the biggest problem in this game, and after years of experience they still have not learned how to tune an encounter with any sort of speed (the fact that encounters need to be tuned is a whole other rant of mine, but that's for another day.) Content comes out at a glacial pace and people just get sick of it. We cry about recycled textures but I'd gladly see more content with the same graphic look instead of here's a new zone, enjoy it for the next five months!

That ties in with [one of our members] comment about the seasonal thing. Spring is coming and given the choice of going out and doing something or logging in and repeating the same old junk again, more and more people are going to go out. It's the same cycle every year that ends in August where you may as well cancel raids for the whole month because people are on vacation and/or getting ready to go back to school.

Our best bet is probably to recruit some bodies to fill raids. It's a bandaid, and one that will set us back a few steps as the new people are integrated and geared up. It will keep us moving though. It's the best we can do given that the real solution is out of our hands.

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I know we're not the only ones having this problem. Every endgame raid guild on Stormrage is recruiting right now. I doubt that the reason for this is different than for us in anyone's case.

WTB new content. ]]> Satrina http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/satrina/551-omg-content.html Raiding: A love-hate relationship http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/satrina/462-raiding-love-hate-relationship.html Mon, 10 Mar 2008 23:04:51 GMT Seems to be the in vogue topic these days, so here we go. As with Caulle, I ended up thinking this would make a better blog post. I love raiding...and I hate it.

I love raiding because I hate TV. I'll watch the hockey game and House (or record them and watch later) and that's all that's worth my time that is being broadcast right now. WoW gives me something marginally more productive to do in the time I would spend communing with the tube. At least here I am interacting with people. Being currently without a SO means I can play and write addons all I like and as long as work doesn't fire me it's all good!

But more than that, I like beating the game. Going in and executing your part of the the strategy perfectly while corraling 24 other people into doing the same thing and seeing the bad guy fall at your feet is just plain fun. I mean, who doesn't like winning?

But at the same time, I hate raiding. As others have noted, the content lends itself to throwing yourself at it over and over again until you win - whether it was a fluke or not. There's no price of failure besides a few gold in repairs and consumables. There's nothing stopping you from repeatedly trying except the oh so arbitrary "pacing mechanic" of trash that, at best, makes you stop for the night because it'll be too late by the time you re-clear the trash.

Mount Hyjal is the exemplar of both success and failure here.
- Talk to Jaina and 8 waves of trash obediently throw themselves at you, followed by Rage Winterchill, all at your command. (failure)
- Normally I'd roll my eyes at the always consistent makeup in number and type of critters in the trash waves, but the Caverns of Time mechanic making it a "historical recreation" makes it work (success)
- You can beat Rage Winterchill with more than half your raid dead to Death and Decay if you're on your toes, unlike many encounters where more than a couple dead means you have no chance unless you vastly outgear the encounter (success)
- If you do die to Rage Winterchill, well, you do deserve the ridicule you may earn. But more than that, even though he goes and kills Jaina - you get to try again, as often as you want (Definite failure)
- When you are trying again, the trash miraculously is available again. At least normal instance trash has the good grace to stay dead for two hours (failure)
- If you win, Anatheron is similarly at your beck and call, then Kaz'Rogal and Azgalor - all at your leisure, whenever you're ready guv'nor.

Mount Hyjal could have been the greatest raid instance to date. So much potential in encounter mechanics, strategy, and even lore! Replace the triggers with 3 minute timers, and make the later the boss encounters somewhat more forgiving - because if you fail, you are done for the week. End of story. This sort of thing has been tried in WoW before and has inevitably had the restriction removed for a simple reason: what else are we supposed to do?

That brings me to what I consider the biggest failure of WoW - in terms of everything including raids, heroics, pvp, and even the random mob walking around Hellfire - and the thing I hate the most: It is static. Nothing ever changes. The fact that sites like Bosskillers can exist should be a huge warning signal that something is wrong!

I blame this on the fact that the combat system is not internally consistent. "Elite" mobs indicate a problem, and the problem is that your system cannot stand on its own without being mucked about in. People killed Illidan 9+ months ago and are starving for something to do. (But hey, here's some badge loot you can get after running heroics that you vastly outgear a few hundred times - have fun!) Sunwell is coming, but for some it's too little, too late. Why does it take 9 months to get new content out? Because it needs to be tuned. I hit Teron for 280, Teron hits me for 6800. I have 21000 health, the boss has 4 million. Makes sense, yes? No. No internal consistency, so you need to make these uber-badguys that you wouldn't last 5 seconds against alone. This is the wrong model!

How about this: Rage Winterchill, level 100 Lich (hero class!) He's got maybe 20,000 health because he's a cloth caster but is 30 levels higher than we are. Sounds grim for poor old Rage, until his 30-40 friends (who are level 70) come over the hill before he does. You don't win till everyone dies, and you can bet his minions will be working to keep you from getting to him while he wreaks havoc from behind the line (player-NPC collision? no way!).

But the basic thing here is this: Rage is generated using the template for his class. Give him some loot (that he, gasp, uses against you!) and generate a random number and type of undead to go with him. Took maybe a second to set up the encounter, and for encounters that are not "historic recreation", every instance of that encounter would be different - bye bye Bosskillers.

I know, I know - Impossible to balance such a system! Not really, no. Pen and paper RPGs have been doing it and refining the art for years. It's not easy, but it is definitely doable.

(And while we're on it, what is up with gigantic mobs? Realism is a stretch in any fantasy game, sure, but damned if Supremus shouldn't just step on me and laugh as he adds whatever bits of my loot that weren't crushed to uselessness to his hoard. Come on!)

So yeah, there are a lot of things I hate about WoW's raiding model. The arbitrariness and static-ness of PVP bores me to tears, and I've run the same heroics 138902 times already so no thanks to that. That leaves raiding, which, for all its problems is the thing I enjoy the most in the game. I just hope that a deep examination of the system will be made and some sort of relief may come. I'm not optimistic because the most significant flaws are fundamental. At least writing addons is fun =) ]]> Satrina http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/satrina/462-raiding-love-hate-relationship.html Dagger is not necessarily a dirty word http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/satrina/427-dagger-not-necessarily-dirty-word.html Sat, 01 Mar 2008 21:19:14 GMT I see this all the time. Someone using [item]Crystalline Kopesh[/item] or [item]Grom'tor's Charge[/item] grabs up [item]Blade of the Unrequited[/item] and is wondering if they should use it. Inevitably, you get this:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Some random retard on the WoW Warrior Forums
Daggers are bad tanking weapons because your special attacks are normalized at 1.7 instead of 2.4 which is big reduction in damage and therefore is a big reduction in threat.
Let's have a look at Devastates with Grom'tor's Charge vs. Blade of the Unrequited, shall we?

Say you have 700AP buffed up, that works out to +50DPS
Say the boss has 7700 armour, which becomes 5100 after 5 Sunders, or 32.57% mitigation (67.42% taken)

Grom'tor's Charge
75-140 damage (average 107), speed 1.6. Your 50DPS turns into +120 damage per hit normalised to 2.4 on Devastate. Your Devastate will land for 1/2 weapon damage + 175, which is (120+107)/2 + 175 = 288. That 288 gets mitigated to 288 x 0.6742 = 195 damage average.

So, your threat per devastate is 195 + 176 = 371. With defensive stance and defiance, that's 555 threat.

Blade of the Unrequited
112-168 damage (average 140), speed 1.6. Your 50DPS turns into 51.28DPS because the blade has 18AP, and that translates to +87 damage per hit normalised to 1.7 on Devastate. Your Devastate will land for 1/2 weapon damage + 175, which is (140+87)/2 + 175 = 288. That 288 gets mitigated to 288 x 0.6742 = 195 damage average.

So, your threat per devastate is 195 + 176 = 371. With defensive stance and defiance, that's 555 threat.

Neat, huh? Now consider that [item]Blade of the Unrequited[/item] is TWENTY DPS better than [item]Grom'tor's Charge[/item], and that you can socket 36 stamina into it. There is no reason not to use this.

That said, [item]King's Defender[/item] is the natural upgrade to this since you do get higher normalised Devastates at the same base DPS. [item]The Sun Eater[/item] and [item]Fireguard[/item] will often be considered upgrades because of the combination of "better tanking stats" and better Devastate threat through normalisation (that's an argument for another day)

Yes, daggers are generally suboptimal tanking weapons - when comparing against other weapons of the same general item level. When comparing against lower item levels or even the quality below (green vs. blue, blue vs. purple), dagger isn't necessarily a dirty word for tanks. ]]> Satrina http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/satrina/427-dagger-not-necessarily-dirty-word.html CombatMonitor2 http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/satrina/96-combatmonitor2.html Wed, 09 Jan 2008 13:31:30 GMT As advertised, I am one of the world's worst bloggers. That goes back to my vast preference to sit down with people over something tasty to eat or drink and actually just talk face to face but that's neither here nor there in the world of the Internets. My theory work has been set to the side in favour of addons in the past several months. Getting the new StatusWindow and Satrina Buff Frame releases out the door, and updating our guild's DKP and attendance tracking addons to reflect changes in guild policy have taken a lot of time. All that has meant that I have nothing profound to say here so there you go, radio silence.

Anyway! I have things to say about CombatMonitor 2 which I know a bunch of people are waiting for news of, so I figure that's a good blog post. I've been putting some good hours in on CM2 over the holidays, and even more lately.

One of the most fundamental things is that the Ace3 framework is now in late beta and quite stable. It's a lot lighter weight than Ace2 and brings several features I can use, I took the time to convert CM2 to use it. This means that once I get CM2 to a release state, I will put it in the Ace code repository and it will be available through the various Ace updaters. That should please a lot of people.

About two weeks ago, I had one of those falling asleep epiphanies about data presentation for CM2. It's not cutting-edge stuff that nobody's ever done before but I think it will make it easier for the user to see and digest the data. It will also make CM2 pretty nifty visually - which I wouldn't have thought anyone would give a rat's ass about, but I would have through wrong apparently, based on feedback to the initial beta! Once I get it in a decent state, I'll get some screenshots up for feedback.

There's still a lot of work to be done. I plan to release beta 2 once I've got the core functionality of beta 1 up to date with Ace3 and the new display plan. From there will be beta releases fixing bugs and introducing features from the list here: http://www.theoryspot.com/forums/use...html#post50715.

Satrina Buff Frame 2.8 and StatusWindow 2.0 are in late beta and I'm doing almost entirely bug fixes on them at this point, so 95% of my current available coding time is dedicated to CM2. I am resisting the urge to start coding another addon whose inspiration made me go ooo shiny! a couple of days ago, so that I keep my focus in one place. I'll keep you all up to date as it goes and I'll use this blog to do it probably, so that I don't look like a deadbeat compared to everyone else! ]]> Satrina http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/satrina/96-combatmonitor2.html