DrainingSouls.net

I was at my desk working pretty early this morning, and I started the day the way that I start most work days: by checking out all of the WoW news. So it was not long after my day started that I get the news that Pallies had been nerfed. This time around it was an unannounced change to Exorcism, so that it can no longer be used on other players.

Some part of me saw this (or a similar change) coming. Blizz has been saying for a while now that Pallies have too much burst in PvP, but not enough sustained damage in PvE, so giving us a new instant cast nuke was clearly not going to help the PvP situation even though it might help in PvE. So here we have Blizzard’s none-too-delicate solution to the problem (which they agree is not too good, and is hopefully temporary).

So how did I take the news this morning? Umm… not well. I felt threatened and bummed, and for a second, I gave into the Blizz-is-gonna-nerf-us-to-the-ground-the-sky-is-falling-OH-NOES!! mindset. And the funny thing is that the nerf doesn’t really even affect me that much. I don’t do much PvP at all, and the original change to Exorcism (allowing us to use it on the non-undead) had only been live for two days.

Isn’t it funny how we can react so irrationally to news like that? Fortunately, there’s help. There is a psychological concept called the Grief Cycle, which explains the mind’s reaction to hearing bad news. The bad news being heard can be pretty much anything - it’s commonly used in the discussion of death, terminal illness, and things of that sort, but I think it applies equally well to to having your class nerfed in WoW. Allow me to walk you through it as I explain what I was thinking this morning.

Shock - Anger - Denial - Mourning - Acceptance

The first emotion experienced after hearing bad news is that of Shock. What?? We got nerfed again?? Two days after the patch?!?! Really??

Anger comes next. May be heavily laced with sarcasm. Well, that’s just so typical. Blizzard hates Pallies. I don’t know why I even play one anymore. All Blizzard does to them is nerf, nerf, nerf. Sometimes they’ll buff us just to raise our hopes so they can crush them again. I hate Blizzard, I hate this stupid game! Why do I even play it?? Gah!

Followed by Denial. No, this can’t be true. So soon after the patch? With no warning? Surely there’s been a mistake. Maybe I can find the original notice from Blizzard. Surely it was taken out of context. Maybe the whole thing is a big misunderstanding.

Mourning. I found the notice. No misunderstanding. The change is real. Pallies are dead.

Last comes Acceptance. Maybe it’s not so bad. I mean, I don’t really even PvP that much so I probably won’t even notice it. Maybe I don’t hate Blizzard. Maybe I should take down that paper-mache red crab I made this morning with plans to burn it later. Maybe the sky isn’t falling. Hmm, I should probably log in and do some dailies. OK, Blizzard, I love you again.

So there you have it. A normal, healthy Grief Cycle. These are the steps the mind has to take in order to deal with bad news. The problem that a lot of WoW players have with this is that they allow (or make, depending on your point of view) themselves to wallow in the Anger stage. This is when 85% of all WoW forum posts are written.

So what can you do when your class is nerfed? First off, remove yourself from the QQers. By this I mean don’t read, listen, or talk to someone who is determined to wallow in Shock or Anger. It will only cause you to stay in this stage and increase the trauma. If you want to read about WoW stuff, read some of the good bloggers who handle this sort of stuff in a mature fashion (like Rohan did this morning). Otherwise, steer clear of WoW stuff altogether until you’ve moved on from the issue.

Secondly, know the stages that your mind is going to go through, and don’t do anything you’ll regret in the early stages. This includes making one of those 85% of WoW forums posts. Just stay away until you can discuss the issue rationally.

That said, Blizzard sucks and if they nerf me again I swear I’ll quit.

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Some random thoughts I’ve had while playing WoW lately:

Do you think Blizz underestimated the amount of work left to do on 3.1 when they decided to put it on the PTR? People always clamor for more content regardless of how quickly Blizz puts out new stuff, but just about everyone is ready for 3.1 to come along now. I can’t imagine that Blizz wouldn’t like to have it ready and out by now, despite their reputation for hanging on to projects until they are totally and completely ready.

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Shaman totems. What an absolute pain in the bohonkus. I can’t think of a more limited and frustrating class mechanic than totems (well, maybe soulshards, but I think totems are still worse). “You can get some more strength or spellpower… so long as you don’t leave this 20 yard circle.” Can you imagine Fortitude or Intellect working like that?

Two things Blizz needs to do to make totems workable: 1) Make totems center on the shaman instead of a particular spot on the ground. This would make the totems portable and help with having to recast so frequently. 2) Increase their duration. Making the totems portable would be a great help, but if they only last 30 or 60 seconds it would still be a frustrating system. Make them last 5 or 10 minutes - long enough to survive boss fights, but not so long that Shamans don’t ever have to think about them.

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Speaking of soulshards, I was perplexed by the recent changes Blizz made to them. The problems with shards are that they take up a large amount of inventory room (or an entire bag slot), are tiresome to acquire, and are absolutely essential for any raiding warlock. Blizz changed things so that shards are easier to acquire, but put a limit on the number locks can have, thereby increasing the need to acquire them. I’m not sure what the point of all of that was.

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Speaking of inventory (did you like that segue again there?), I have noticed lately that there are a few characters that I’m avoiding playing because I haven’t cleaned out their bags and bank lately. I know that I’ll need to clean out their bags before I can go quest, but the thought of doing that chore is keeping me from playing them. Am I the only one who does this? My warrior, particularly, is one of these. He still has the items from his last Kara run in his bags and I shudder to think of the clean up job I’m going to have to do when I finally play him again.

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I’ve been in the Outlands a good deal lately working on my Chef title. I had to do the old cooking dailies to get a couple of recipe drops for the Outland Gourmet, and I’ve also been doing the fishing daily to get the Captain Rumsey’s Lager recipe. It’s sorta strange being back in Shattrath now. It’s not quite as barren as IF and Org were right after the BC release, but it’s close. Thankfully, Blizz was nice and gave us a portal to Shat from Dalaran, so getting out there is super easy.

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The Horde needs a flight path at the Bulwark, already!

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I think the worst leveling stretch in the game now is 50 to 58. It seems to take as long from 50 to 58 as it does to go from 35 to 50. Is this just me again? There just don’t seem to be enough quests out there. And what really gets me is that we used to do it all the time before the quest XP was increased in 2.3, and it somehow seemed easier then. I guess the difference is that we used to run more dungeons to supplement the questing XP, but I don’t remember running that many??

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There sadly hasn’t been much time for blogging lately (or even playing WoW). I haven’t been able to raid in a couple of weeks and I’m not sure how much of 3.1 and Ulduar I’ll be able to see. There really sounds like some great stuff is coming though, so I hope I’ll be able to play more once 3.1 is out.

On to the links:

Wowhead has their usual version of the PTR patch notes up here. It’s pretty much the same as the official WoW.com version, but this one has all of the links already entered so it’s easier to look into stuff a bit more deeply.

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Blizzard posted a new policy on UI addons for WoW that I found interesting. In particular,

1) Add-ons must be free of charge.
All add-ons must be distributed free of charge. Developers may not create “premium” versions of add-ons with additional for-pay features, charge money to download an add-on, charge for services related to the add-on, or otherwise require some form of monetary compensation to download or access an add-on.
…
4) Add-ons may not include advertisements.
Add-ons may not be used to advertise any goods or services.
…
5) Add-ons may not solicit donations.
Add-ons may not include requests for donations. We recognize the immense amount of effort and resources that go into developing an add-on; however, such requests should be limited to the add-on website or distribution site and should not appear in the game.

Number One was obviously done in response to Carbonite’s release of the pay version of their addon. I haven’t heard of any addons with ads in them, to necessitate number Four, but you know it was only a matter of time before someone decided to put some in. And QuestHelper will definitely be affected by number Five, as it asks for donations in-game currently.

I’m interested to see how this affects these addons going forward. There’s obviously a ton of work required to keep some of the more popular addons going and up to date and I’m curious to see if their authors will keep doing all of that work if their income from it gets cut sharply.

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Rohan, from BoK, started a raiding wiki not too long ago called Raider 101. As the name suggests, it’s geared towards people who are newer to raiding and who are just looking for a basic intro to how to play their class in a raid setting. It’s got some great info up already, and a few of the sections still need some help getting filled out. Go check it out and, if you can, lend a hand filling out the last few articles.

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