Mystic Chicanery

In case you’re not a Paladin (or have been living under a rock), the forums are all a-broil with foaming and gnashing over the changes currently on the PTR.

Paladin changes detailed here: Paladin PTR Notes for 2.1

AFAICT, there is an agreed-upon-by-all MMORPG trinity of “required” classes for instances (or even just big fights).
Healers, DPSers, Tanks.

In the purest form,
Healers can’t tank or dps, (Priest)
DPSers can’t heal or Tank, (Rogue, Mage, Warlock, Hunter)
Tanks can’t heal or DPS. (Warrior)

Interesting that there are more pure DPS classes and only one of each of the other trinity.

More interesting still, so-called “pure classes” can hybrid spec to somewhat do a job they aren’t designed to do (Shadow Priest, Fury Warrior). So it looks like the only truely pure classes are Rogue, Hunter, Mage, Warlock, the DPS classes. I believe this stems from the fact that solo play features profoundly in Wow and if you can’t DPS you can’t effectively solo… so everyone needs a little bit of DPS. BUT, in order to do their “pure” job they need to change their spec. (Interesitng idea.. when setting up a group, would a shadow-priest be able to replace the spot of a rogue as dps? If so, then even more interesting that when “pure” classes off-spec they’re still viable.. but when “hybrid classes” specialize they’re still not viable)

Enter the Hybrids. Hybrids are classes of characers that can do two or more of the trinity with moderate success.
Paladin (heal, tank)
Shaman (heal, dps)
Druid (heal, dps, tank)

The rub comes when a “hybrid class” tries to replace the function of a “pure class”.
Continue reading Busting up the Holy Trinity (AKA: What a Paladin isn’t)

Grimr, who reads this blog but doesn’t comment on it (the lazy slacker), mentioned last night on Vent that the “orange tiger mount” was a rare drop from a level 60 instance.

Dropped by High Priest Thekal in Zul’Gurub (NE Stranglethorn Vale, Eastern Kingdoms)
[Swift Zulian Tiger]

With a 0.50% drop rate.. and 20 people in the instance.. it [...]

I studied Management. In fact I have a degree in it (shhh, don’t tell my boss. I’m pretending to be a simple Software Engineer. If my manager finds out I have a double degree in Computer Science and Management he’ll start trying to make me into a manager or something). I did the [...]

So last night I hopped a bird from Stormwind to Southshore.. about half way there I realized that I had a quest to turn in (and another one to pickup) in Ironforge. I kicked myself since I was going to be flying right over Ironforge.. and now I’d have to pay to come back. [...]

A while back I spotted this link on Peter’s Blog AGGRO MANAGEMENT – TEAMWORK, ASSISTS, HEALING, AND TANKING

Somehow when you get into an instance everyone expect you already know this stuff. I suppose it’s because there’s a higher number of people running the instance for the 100th time than people running it for the first [...]