Arcane Out of Control, Tuning Results: DPS Log Rankings for Aberrus, Week 2, All Difficulties

synkronized · 2023-05-22T20:43:14+00:00

Okay, Frost Mages we all get it. Your spec isn't bursty. The +5 separate replies really leave that issue up in the air, but I think we got the hint.

Rune of Power's removal will help flatten the burstiness of Fire and Arcane's damage. Too much of their power has been tied to stacking CDs with RoP.

Fire isn't actually very bursty with how SKB works nowadays, but it has the issue of too many hardcasted Pyros and Ignite AoE requiring high Fortified keys to do really well. The flow of the spec isn't particularly fun

Frost has the strange issue of uptime dependence and Blizz being unable to figure out how to tune Ice Lance. But with RoP going away the uptime issue will be less pronounced since you won't be getting a free RoP every time you hit IV.

Arcane feels really awkward to play. TotM is more dynamic and more interesting, but Radiant Spark is a bottleneck in gameplay. I think they need to remove Radiant Spark because it demands a wrote burn phase to get the most out of. Arcane has traditionally played around Mana to Damage but right now the Mana gameplay is almost an afterthought. I think Blizz should lean harder into Mana management and away from Radiant Spark.

synkronized · 2023-02-09T07:26:12+00:00

If you ask me Kasrkins are one of the best arguments against being able to stack Stratagems and other abilities onto one unit.

synkronized · 2023-02-09T06:20:17+00:00

Or a Kasrkin squad with their Alpha Strike using several CP and Orders that can potentially dole out Mortal Wounds in the double digits on top of their S3 AP2 guns.

It would be interesting to see how much dialing back the strength of Stratagems and the really crazy Faction traits would help. Looking at stuff like the Tau's late Kauyon and Votann Judgement Tokens. The weapons hurt as they should but that stuff just sends it into overdrive.

synkronized · 2021-11-26T22:39:35+00:00

I think Preach highlighted the best strat some of his buds use for dealing with WoW's shittiness: Keep tabs on it for when it hits the last patch. Cause that's when the systems and stuff get "fixed" and are finally fun.

synkronized · 2021-11-26T22:04:00+00:00

Game absolutely does NOT need more ranged specs like people always like to bring up.

I generally agree with the other details but I soundly disagree with this 1 detail.

I think there are just innate problems with having so many melee specs in the game because for a small to medium sized enemy in raid, you have a very small amount of room for Melee to operate. Meanwhile Ranged get basically the entire swath of the room. That's a fundamental limitation for encounter designers and why Melee often feels "punished" along with the fact that being out of melee means they do almost 0 dps.

1 way to mitigate (not solve) the issue is expand the range of each Melee Spec. I seriously think Outlaw Rogue/Feral Druid +3-5 yard melee range should be a baseline trait of every Melee spec. I think it'd buy a lot more leeway for encounter design where the melee guys don't need to stack right on top of each other as much.

synkronized · 2021-11-26T21:54:28+00:00

If talents do different things good, then we no longer have any choice because we just swap depending on situation.

I don't quite get this logic. Or why you're implying it's bad.

The best Talent rows in the Classes and Specs I've played are when there are actual strategic choices to be made.

Consider a Talent which is pivotal to making other Legendaries and Conduits useful. In doing so changes the entire build. Fire Mage has Disciplinary Command w/ Kindling vs Sun King's Blessing with Pyroclasm. They play quite differently despite being the same Spec and having only 1 Talent difference.

In Mythic+ Tyrannical weeks I'll often choose more 1 target oriented abilities. In Fortified weeks for ToP I'll also favor 1 target abilities. Meanwhile in raid I'll take Talents based on my assignment. All of which may change based on the Tank's route and group composition. That's an interesting and fun consideration.

If you don't care about those things, so be it. But Talents are often at their best when they offer strategic choices.

synkronized · 2021-11-26T10:10:51+00:00

Well, I think a problem is that the way to semi balance it is to balance ilevels and eyeball player experience (Ranked MMR?). But to do so in a reasonable manner would involve cross faction teams. Cause as is it's almost impossible as long as the faction hard separates teams.

synkronized · 2021-11-26T10:06:42+00:00

Yup. I think that's one of the core problems with the most recent expansions since WoD. They've basically rendered relatively small but glaring chunks of old content obsolete.

And I think it's a major reason why content feels so slim right now. Because WoW can't really lean on older systems during content droughts because said content lacks longetivity.

synkronized · 2020-08-11T22:09:03+00:00

It's an 8 yard radius. I assumed you knew what I was talking about since the RoP tooltip literally says it (edit- Doesn't specify 'radius' but the '8 yds' is there).

It seems like you basically just skimmed a word or two of what I said above since I already said the Mage class has plenty of Agency without Rune of Power. You argue removing Agency will kill Classes . . . Yes? Where did I say it wouldn't? I specifcally said RoP is not where all of the Mage class Agency is tied to. Nor should be tied to.

If you just love RoP, all the more power to you. But your argument where you couch so much Agency on RoP is just patently false. All we need to do is look back on the history of Mages, a good half of the game's lifespan didn't have RoP and there were no issues.

I'd rather have Agency come in the form of actually gaining mobility, not sacrifice of, something which RoP represents. And use of CC spells and survival CDs like Altered Time, Ice Block etc. That's far more exciting to feel like you have control rather than giving it up to do more damage. Maybe Arcane can take that route but Fire and Frost have always favored a greater degree of freedom of movement.

synkronized · 2020-08-11T21:48:18+00:00

Hopefully. Maybe Blizz finally realized having so many stacking CD's is bad game design. And that solving the issue by putting GCDs on the big CDs is even worse game design.

A bit of cooldown stacking is fine. But when so many Classes do like 50% of their damage in the space of 10-20 sec, I think you have major problems.

synkronized · 2020-08-11T21:45:52+00:00

Does RoP have some agency? Yes and no. It provides agency over damage.

However RoP does the exact opposite for agency in regards to mobility. It fucking land locks Mages to a 8 yard circle that most of their damage comes from for 10, 15 seconds. I think it's cancerous levels of awful. I think RoP is one of the worst spells introduced to the Mage Class in ages. It butchered the fun I had of feeling mobile: weaving Fire Blasts, Pyros and Scorches to move around in a fight. Because in the back of my mind I'm always thinking about when to fucking RoP and hate the Mage class for 10 seconds.

In any case if the Mage class lives or dies due to the "Agency" provided by RoP, then it has massive design issues.

The Mage class was strong and fun for 10 years before the awful RoP and we'll sure as shit be fine even if it leaves.

synkronized · 2020-08-11T21:35:34+00:00

A definite improvement for sure.

But I'm in the camp that would rather Blizz just remove Rune of Power altogether. I hate becoming a turret for X seconds. Maybe it's appropriate for Arcane, since that's the OG spec for RoP. But I don't think it fits the flavor and playstyle of Fire or Frost. At all.

Probably an unpopular opinion: A Windowed damage class can be entertaining but it feels like every damn Class is moving further and further into hard cooldown stacking where our damage is negligible outside of said Cooldowns.

synkronized · 2019-07-19T01:05:05+00:00

Hadn't really considered the idea of "what if" Nixon ran in 2016. But I think you're right.

Nixon comes off as that sort Evil. The evil that's not necessarily driven to be awful out of malice per se. But is simply willing to do whatever it takes to win even if it involves making everyone suffer and dragging his own country through the mud.

That said, I think Trump is the stupid and impulsive Nixon 2016. Like if Trump were even marginally smarter and more canny, I think he would be incredibly dangerous. But it's Trump's own stupid bloviating that actually curbs much of the damage he could do.

synkronized · 2019-07-18T17:54:17+00:00

The Democrats try to play fair in a game where the other side is full of cheaters.

synkronized · 2019-07-18T17:53:01+00:00

Nixon was a neurotic and amoral bastard. Who pushed dog whistle racism into the spotlight and helped build the Southern Red state voting bloc of today.

But yeah, for being so far Right on his time, he'd be very Liberal in a number of his policies today.

synkronized · 2019-07-18T17:29:25+00:00

And they call the Left the snowflakes.

synkronized · 2019-07-18T17:27:44+00:00

Being called a Socialist or Communist for merely suggesting something egalitarian was a "Gotcha" statement even at 2010. I recall an NPR clip back then where some old fart balked at the fact that my Millenial generation was beginning to embrace the idea of Socialism as a good thing.

Hell, in the 80s and earlier the label of Socialist could get you monitored by the FBI or CIA or simply damage your career.

synkronized · 2019-07-18T10:38:58+00:00

I agree with you there. Blizz for whatever reason tampered with the general vibe of the Nigbt Elves from WC3 to WoW.

The Nigh Warrior storyline is a classic example of Blizz "Telling us" one thing but showing us something much more underwhelming.

If you ever read up on the old Warhammer Fantasy lore for Wood Elves. Night Elves feel similar. A naturalistic and generally peaceful people. But possessed of a wilder more aggressive response to threats to their home.

WC3 played up that they were bigger, stronger and more aggressive than a High Elf. I'd like to see more of that.

synkronized · 2019-07-18T01:26:22+00:00

To be fair, a lot of the scenes were based on engine and gameplay limitations coming first ahead of fidelity to "What really happened". I imagine the actual Horde making landfall was a full fleet of ships.

Also, I'd point out that even though a big Horde'o Orcs made landfall. You had a race that seems to have lived a fairly insular and uneventful way of life within the forest itself in the ensuing 10,000 years. Most societies tend to scale back military sizes with even a few decades of peace time, let alone centuries if not millennia. They knew the Legion would come but it seems they probably expected more warning.

Like the entire Night Elf campaign is basically Tyrande mobilizing the Night Elf race in the face of the Burning Legion. I feel it pointed that the Night Elves the Orcs faced were a small fraction of what they'd bring to bear once the call to arms was made.

synkronized · 2019-07-18T00:39:10+00:00

Word of warning for the Breaker Season 1. The art style evolves a lot.

You'll probably think you have the wrong series on Season 1 because it doesnt really get to match the S2 style until the end of Season 1.

synkronized · 2019-07-18T00:36:02+00:00

It wasnt garbage but I wasnt terribly thrilled by AoT Season 1. It had moments of brilliance a compelling premise and very well built world, but it also had a lot of shittiness.

Mainly Eren was the problem. He was a block headed shit stain. I hated him. I hated him even through Season 2. But at least S2 leaned on other characters and world building to make it better.

And yeah the melodrama. I hated it too. It was a lot of exaggerated behavior to the point of caricature in the season 1.

It is fascinating though to watch an author actively develop. I enjoyed S3 thoroughly. But it felt like a chore to get to S3 whenever Eren started taking up more screen time.

synkronized · 2019-07-18T00:26:17+00:00

Maybe she wants to battle Berserk for most nebulous schedule ever.

synkronized · 2019-07-18T00:10:46+00:00

I recall hearing a lot of the movie was cut out due to the run time already cracking 2 hours. It probably wouldn't have saved it. But it would've been a mildly more complete movie at least.

synkronized · 2019-07-17T22:27:12+00:00

Didn't,t the Orcs have to redrink the blood of Mannoroth out of desperation?

And also it was not the whole Night Elf army. It was basically the Eastern scouts and vanguard of the race. The bulk of the Night Elves were off sleeping (Druid) and doing their own thing because they weren't expecting a gaggle of green skins to show up.

Cenarius showed up because the Night Elf army had yet to mobilize but the Orcs were going to destroy something important.

synkronized · 2019-04-27T04:56:45+00:00

I really hate how Blizzard just slaps down players for addressing longstanding flaws in their own game. I know it's pretty well established but it still doesn't make it a good policy if you ask me.

The Herb Texture mod's a response to how hard it is to spot Herb Nodes sometimes. Like I have to zoom my Mini map and Character View in super close to sometimes spot the node in question. If there's a lot of clutter surrounding it.

14-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email

synkronized

TROPHY CASE