Polymorph
50 seconds, targets beasts, humanoids and critters, breaks on damage
Seduce (Succubus)
15 seconds, targets humanoids, breaks on damage
Banish
30 seconds, targets demons and elementals, target is invulnerable but can gain threat (dots continue to tick as well, but don’t do damage)
Freezing Trap
20 seconds, no type restrictions (some creatures are immune), breaks on damage. Can be talented into chain trapping (Survival)
Entangling roots
27 seconds, no type restrictions (some creatures are immune), chance to break on damage, chance to break randomly. Has a dot that causes threat to caster.
Hibernate
40 sec, targets beasts and dragonkin, break on damage, chance to break randomly
Repentance
60 sec, targets demons and dragonkin giant humanoid undead, break on damage
Hex
30 sec, targets humanoids and beasts, may break on damage
Shackle Undead
50 sec, targets undead, breaks on damage
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Instance Running 101 Explored Part 10
Raid Icons.
Also known as magic tokens, cookies, lucky charms, 'those icon things' and so on.
Their purpose is to identify, without confusion, what needs to happen to which mob in a pull. The standards change from group to group and server to server, so it's always a good idea to decide at the beginning of the group who will be assigning the tokens (it has to be the group leader) and what each token means.
The UNM standard is as follows:
Skull - This is the target to be taken down first. All DPS hit this.
X - This used to mean 'don't touch', now it either means 'Kill second' or 'Offtank', to be decided at the pull.
Moon - Sheep/Banish/Stun. The first crowd control icon.
Orange circle/Square/pink diamond etc - More crowd control icons, if available. These can be assigned to the respective controller at the beginning.
This is, however, just the 'standard' and can be changed on the fly, of course. It's the assigner's duty to communicate icon assignments clearly, and the rest of the party's duty to check understanding.
That brings to an end the little delve into the basics of casual instance running. Stay tuned for our 102 classes, where we will cover things like loot rules, gearing progression, and when vanity pets are actually useful.
Also known as magic tokens, cookies, lucky charms, 'those icon things' and so on.
Their purpose is to identify, without confusion, what needs to happen to which mob in a pull. The standards change from group to group and server to server, so it's always a good idea to decide at the beginning of the group who will be assigning the tokens (it has to be the group leader) and what each token means.
The UNM standard is as follows:
Skull - This is the target to be taken down first. All DPS hit this.
X - This used to mean 'don't touch', now it either means 'Kill second' or 'Offtank', to be decided at the pull.
Moon - Sheep/Banish/Stun. The first crowd control icon.
Orange circle/Square/pink diamond etc - More crowd control icons, if available. These can be assigned to the respective controller at the beginning.
This is, however, just the 'standard' and can be changed on the fly, of course. It's the assigner's duty to communicate icon assignments clearly, and the rest of the party's duty to check understanding.
That brings to an end the little delve into the basics of casual instance running. Stay tuned for our 102 classes, where we will cover things like loot rules, gearing progression, and when vanity pets are actually useful.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Instance Running 101 Explored Part 9
Crowd control skills.
This is a skill that needs a little practice. The leader needs to identify the target with a raid icon (more on those in the next post), the cc'er needs to control the target, and the rest of the group need to not break the cc!
Example of 'crowd control':
Mages have a polymorph spell. This means that the target gets turned into a sheep, and wanders around randomly. Breaks on any damage. The target also heals as fast as if it were out of combat, so it's not a good idea to sheep an almost-dead target. The spell only works on beasts, humanoids and critters.
Druids have a cyclone spell. This only lasts for 8 seconds, but doesn't break on damage. The target can't be damaged at all while under the effect. Very few mobs are immune to it.
Warlocks have a banish spell. This only works on Elementals and Demons. (including a Druid in 'Tree of Life' form). Can't be broken by damage, and the target can't be damaged.
And so on. As shown, the various crowd control spells have varying durations, allowable targets, and side effects. The short-term ones (cyclone, rogue stuns, etc) are more often used as emergency buttons for a bad situation (stopping a mob on the way to the healer, for example), while the long-terms spells (polymorph, a rogue's 'Sap', banish, etc) are normally used at the beginning of a fight for dealing with a particular target.
The goal behind 'cc' is to make a particular mob in a pull become a non-entity for the duration of the fight. A classic example is the following:
There is a pull with three mobs: Two mobs that heal, and one melee mob that hits hard. The kill order is the two healers first, and then the melee mob... however, the healers will keep each other alive while the melee mob does a lot of damage to the tank.
The leader marks one healer to be killed first, and then the melee mob to be killed second. The third is marked with the agreed 'cc' mark. When everyone is ready, the tank pulls and then the cc'er (lets say a mage, for the sake of the example) 'sheeps' the marked healer. The tank Line-of-sights the other two around the corner and then rest of the party focuses on killing the healer, and then killing the melee mob. The mage alternates between blasting the current target, and keeping the second healer sheeped. Once the other two mobs are down, the party can focus on the sheeped mob and 'burn it down', ie kill it as fast as possible.
A successful pull, due to the powers of cc! ;)
This is a skill that needs a little practice. The leader needs to identify the target with a raid icon (more on those in the next post), the cc'er needs to control the target, and the rest of the group need to not break the cc!
Example of 'crowd control':
Mages have a polymorph spell. This means that the target gets turned into a sheep, and wanders around randomly. Breaks on any damage. The target also heals as fast as if it were out of combat, so it's not a good idea to sheep an almost-dead target. The spell only works on beasts, humanoids and critters.
Druids have a cyclone spell. This only lasts for 8 seconds, but doesn't break on damage. The target can't be damaged at all while under the effect. Very few mobs are immune to it.
Warlocks have a banish spell. This only works on Elementals and Demons. (including a Druid in 'Tree of Life' form). Can't be broken by damage, and the target can't be damaged.
And so on. As shown, the various crowd control spells have varying durations, allowable targets, and side effects. The short-term ones (cyclone, rogue stuns, etc) are more often used as emergency buttons for a bad situation (stopping a mob on the way to the healer, for example), while the long-terms spells (polymorph, a rogue's 'Sap', banish, etc) are normally used at the beginning of a fight for dealing with a particular target.
The goal behind 'cc' is to make a particular mob in a pull become a non-entity for the duration of the fight. A classic example is the following:
There is a pull with three mobs: Two mobs that heal, and one melee mob that hits hard. The kill order is the two healers first, and then the melee mob... however, the healers will keep each other alive while the melee mob does a lot of damage to the tank.
The leader marks one healer to be killed first, and then the melee mob to be killed second. The third is marked with the agreed 'cc' mark. When everyone is ready, the tank pulls and then the cc'er (lets say a mage, for the sake of the example) 'sheeps' the marked healer. The tank Line-of-sights the other two around the corner and then rest of the party focuses on killing the healer, and then killing the melee mob. The mage alternates between blasting the current target, and keeping the second healer sheeped. Once the other two mobs are down, the party can focus on the sheeped mob and 'burn it down', ie kill it as fast as possible.
A successful pull, due to the powers of cc! ;)
Friday, December 12, 2008
Instance Running 101 Explored Part 8
The healer keeps the tank alive. The tank keeps the healer alive. The dps look after themselves.
We've covered this one before, in the earlier posts on healing and threat and mitigation, but it's worth restating.
The logic is again simple. The tank has the most mitigation, therefore needing the least healing. The tank also has a maximum amount of threat that he can generate, which the rest of the party can easily exceed.
So, the healer has to keep the tank alive, as he's the one who's supposed to get beaten on.
The tank needs to keep the healer alive, as the healer is constrained by having to generate as much threat as it takes to keep the tank alive.
The DPS on the other hand, just have to do damage (and crowd controls etc, but most of those end up very easy with a bit of practice). Their sole constraint is generating less threat than the tank can generate. If they mess up and get aggro, then the healer keeping them alive risks running out of mana and wiping the whole attempt. It's better just to let him/her die and rely on the remaining DPS to be sufficient.
Till next time...
We've covered this one before, in the earlier posts on healing and threat and mitigation, but it's worth restating.
The logic is again simple. The tank has the most mitigation, therefore needing the least healing. The tank also has a maximum amount of threat that he can generate, which the rest of the party can easily exceed.
So, the healer has to keep the tank alive, as he's the one who's supposed to get beaten on.
The tank needs to keep the healer alive, as the healer is constrained by having to generate as much threat as it takes to keep the tank alive.
The DPS on the other hand, just have to do damage (and crowd controls etc, but most of those end up very easy with a bit of practice). Their sole constraint is generating less threat than the tank can generate. If they mess up and get aggro, then the healer keeping them alive risks running out of mana and wiping the whole attempt. It's better just to let him/her die and rely on the remaining DPS to be sufficient.
Till next time...
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Instance Running 101 Explored Part 7
Line-of-sight.
This is, on the face of it, a simple one. It's amazing that people get it wrong as much as they do.
Casters need to see you to cast at you. If you annoy them and then run around the corner so they can't see you, then they will run forward to the corner to try get a look at you.
This makes it easy for the tank to get them all in a big group with the melee mobs so he can cleave/swipe/consecrate them all and build threat, so the casters then don't start beating on the healer when a heal ticks.
Unfortunately, while it's a simple idea, it's also simple to break. It's not just what the tank needs to do, it's what the others need to do or not do.
1) The mobs are going to be around the corner. Perhaps everyone else should stand around the corner where they're going to be.
2) Until the tank has started bashing on things, Don't Touch Them. He's probably pulled with a Faerie Fire or single arrow shot or something, and will have little to no threat on most of them. Hitting one will definately switch it to you, messing up the whole pull.
3) Don't heal/buff/drop new totems/etc until the tank has proper threat generated. All of these things applied during the weak part of the pull can get you aggro you don't want.
4) Don't stand near the mobs as they run over. At low aggro levels, untaunted mobs seem to be able to switch to closer targets.
5) If you're the tank, warn people that you're LoSing. That way, they know what to expect. Make a complete warning... don't just say 'LoS', rather say 'I'm going to pull them around the corner here, don't touch till I've hit the caster a few times.'
I think just those quick rules will make LoS pulls a lot more reliable.
Until next time...
This is, on the face of it, a simple one. It's amazing that people get it wrong as much as they do.
Casters need to see you to cast at you. If you annoy them and then run around the corner so they can't see you, then they will run forward to the corner to try get a look at you.
This makes it easy for the tank to get them all in a big group with the melee mobs so he can cleave/swipe/consecrate them all and build threat, so the casters then don't start beating on the healer when a heal ticks.
Unfortunately, while it's a simple idea, it's also simple to break. It's not just what the tank needs to do, it's what the others need to do or not do.
1) The mobs are going to be around the corner. Perhaps everyone else should stand around the corner where they're going to be.
2) Until the tank has started bashing on things, Don't Touch Them. He's probably pulled with a Faerie Fire or single arrow shot or something, and will have little to no threat on most of them. Hitting one will definately switch it to you, messing up the whole pull.
3) Don't heal/buff/drop new totems/etc until the tank has proper threat generated. All of these things applied during the weak part of the pull can get you aggro you don't want.
4) Don't stand near the mobs as they run over. At low aggro levels, untaunted mobs seem to be able to switch to closer targets.
5) If you're the tank, warn people that you're LoSing. That way, they know what to expect. Make a complete warning... don't just say 'LoS', rather say 'I'm going to pull them around the corner here, don't touch till I've hit the caster a few times.'
I think just those quick rules will make LoS pulls a lot more reliable.
Until next time...
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
A Steamvault PUG.
Hunters are famous for being Huntards. Night Elf Hunters especially.
I grouped up for an "easy" Steamvaults run last night. It should have been easy. My Druid is, in theory, geared for Heroics. Everyone else in the PUG was, in theory, an old hand at this content.
So much for theory.
What happened in practice was that we wiped 2 or 3 times.
What happened in practice was the tank mismanaged the pulls, and didnt use raid icons to mark CC targets for the mage and hunter.
What happened in pratice was the Hunter *insisted* on coming right to the front while the Tank was pulling. On at least two occasions, initiating combat *before* the Tank pulled. And not with a misdirection either.
This made it terribly difficult to pull the mobs right back, and LOS the casters to keep them bunched (and in range of a swipe). So we ended up fighting mobs that can cast fear in the middle of crowded rooms, with untagged casters eventually aggroing on the healer. At least two wipes were caused by overwhelming adds resulting from a 'fear' into nearby mobs.
To cap it all off, the Mage kept randomly going AFK to deal with "His Mother".
The only people doing their job was the Resto Druid, Feral Druid (DPS).
Oh. I was the tank. Sorry guys for wiping out multiple times on trivial content.
Instance Running 101 Explored Part 6
Pulling means mobs come to you.
This is a good opportunity to discuss aggro mechanics.
Firstly, a list of terms:
Mob - a non-player-character enemy. A kobold, or hellboar, or instance boss and so on.
Aggro - When a player has aggro, it means he is the primary target of the Mob, ie is the target that the mob will be attacking.
Threat - Described in more detail below, but basically the numerical value on the threat table.
Each mob has a little list (Referred to as the aggro table, normally) assigned to them. The list is filled with potential targets... the moment someone damages the mob, or heals/buffs someone already on the table, they get added to the table. The person at the top of the list is the person that the mob attacks.
Your position on the table is dependent on the amount of threat you have with that mob. Each point of damage you do to a mob is equal to one point of threat. Each point of healing you do to someone on the table is equal to half a point of threat. Buffs (that are applied during combat) have their own threat value, and so on.
Now, the system is tweaked slightly by giving the main target a bit of a buffer. If the tank has aggro, and one of the DPS's threat value climbs just above that of the tank, there won't be an aggro switch. If the DPS is at melee rage to the mob, he will need 10% more threat than the tank to be switched to as the main target (so, if the tank has 100 threat, the DPS will need 110 threat to get aggro). If the DPS (or healer) is at range, he will need 30% more.
Abilities like the priests 'Fade' temporarily remove you from the table. The threat value is still there, and any actions (eg healing) done during the time are still added to your total, the mob just simply won't attack you. Leaving the faded state will put you back in the relative position on the table, including right at the top if nobody has managed to surpass your threat value in that time. Shadowmeld works the same way.
Aggro dumps like Cower and Feint reduce the total amoutn of threat. Misdirection means that the threat the hunter generates for three shots is assigned to the target's total (hopefully the tank) instead.
Adding to the complexity are mobs (usually bosses) that have some kind of aggro switch or dump ability. Sometimes they will stun the person at the top of the list and then switch to the next person down, or go into a new phase of combat that completely clears the aggro table and starts again.
A classic example is the fight at the end of Ramparts. Once one kills the dragon rider, the dragon joins the battle... while it's the same fight, the dragon enters with a completely clean aggro table, automatically pre-aggroed on the tank (in other words, even though no damage has happened, the mechanics of the fight means that the dragon is aware of the tank, and has the tank on the aggro table). If, at that point, a heal over time ticks on the tank, the healer jumps to the top of the table, since the tank will have very little aggro.
Another quirk, already mentioned but worth mentioning again, is the mechanic behind the 'Taunt' ability ('Growl', for druid tanks). This ability increases the Tank's threat value to equal that of the person at the top of the table, and switches the mob's main target to the tank. If the tank is already at the top, it has no effect.
Whew, a long post today. Till next time...
This is a good opportunity to discuss aggro mechanics.
Firstly, a list of terms:
Mob - a non-player-character enemy. A kobold, or hellboar, or instance boss and so on.
Aggro - When a player has aggro, it means he is the primary target of the Mob, ie is the target that the mob will be attacking.
Threat - Described in more detail below, but basically the numerical value on the threat table.
Each mob has a little list (Referred to as the aggro table, normally) assigned to them. The list is filled with potential targets... the moment someone damages the mob, or heals/buffs someone already on the table, they get added to the table. The person at the top of the list is the person that the mob attacks.
Your position on the table is dependent on the amount of threat you have with that mob. Each point of damage you do to a mob is equal to one point of threat. Each point of healing you do to someone on the table is equal to half a point of threat. Buffs (that are applied during combat) have their own threat value, and so on.
Now, the system is tweaked slightly by giving the main target a bit of a buffer. If the tank has aggro, and one of the DPS's threat value climbs just above that of the tank, there won't be an aggro switch. If the DPS is at melee rage to the mob, he will need 10% more threat than the tank to be switched to as the main target (so, if the tank has 100 threat, the DPS will need 110 threat to get aggro). If the DPS (or healer) is at range, he will need 30% more.
Abilities like the priests 'Fade' temporarily remove you from the table. The threat value is still there, and any actions (eg healing) done during the time are still added to your total, the mob just simply won't attack you. Leaving the faded state will put you back in the relative position on the table, including right at the top if nobody has managed to surpass your threat value in that time. Shadowmeld works the same way.
Aggro dumps like Cower and Feint reduce the total amoutn of threat. Misdirection means that the threat the hunter generates for three shots is assigned to the target's total (hopefully the tank) instead.
Adding to the complexity are mobs (usually bosses) that have some kind of aggro switch or dump ability. Sometimes they will stun the person at the top of the list and then switch to the next person down, or go into a new phase of combat that completely clears the aggro table and starts again.
A classic example is the fight at the end of Ramparts. Once one kills the dragon rider, the dragon joins the battle... while it's the same fight, the dragon enters with a completely clean aggro table, automatically pre-aggroed on the tank (in other words, even though no damage has happened, the mechanics of the fight means that the dragon is aware of the tank, and has the tank on the aggro table). If, at that point, a heal over time ticks on the tank, the healer jumps to the top of the table, since the tank will have very little aggro.
Another quirk, already mentioned but worth mentioning again, is the mechanic behind the 'Taunt' ability ('Growl', for druid tanks). This ability increases the Tank's threat value to equal that of the person at the top of the table, and switches the mob's main target to the tank. If the tank is already at the top, it has no effect.
Whew, a long post today. Till next time...
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