Rest in peace you multi-headed beast of frost, bile, and flame. We downed her, er..it last night and we've been getting lots of Thunderforged gear. I won two pieces of Thunderforged in a single run. Unbelievable right?
We're taking a break this week but will promptly start attempts at kicking Ji-Kun's feathery ass. This should be made a bit easier with the VP upgrades coming back this week.
On the LFR side, I have been having horrible "luck", but then again I think I've filled almost every slot from doing regular raiding. Well I'll be damned.
I also found that one thing I haven't been talking much about is what spurred this blog to begin with: raiding as a warlock.
Over the past couple of years a lot of great resource sites with beautiful graphics and layouts and accurate info popped up and I just didn't feel the need to talk about encounters or mechanics as they pretty much lay everything out. What I can still do is humanize the experience as I have been attempting to do with my LFR guides. What you will see and what to expect.
I am by no means a "good" player, as only those in the top 10 guilds in the world qualify for this prestige. Most of us are just "average".
On Demonology
Ah my once favourite and exclusive spec. I went Demo for one of our Megaera pulls and I actually managed to pull the same numbers as if I were destro. I find this amusing since the last time I was Demo seriously was waaaay back in early Cata.
There's just a few points about the spec that just doesn't "feel" right.
I know I have mentioned this many many times before but I found that I enjoy seeing a small amount of large numbers, rather than a large amount of small numbers. It makes internal mental calculations that much easier. For example, I know my Shadowburn hits on average for 250k and crits anywhere from 400k to 650k. If I havoc this, I can then forecast the amount of damage I will do, or can do. It's easy, two numbers.
Now with Demo or even Affliction, how am I supposed to calculate all my potential dot ticks/crits and also my demon damage? It's not efficient, and in turn it becomes not fun (I'm weird right?)
With Demo, rather than bursting high numbers, it's a steady stream of medium numbers.
Then there's the "Demon" aspect. Metamorphosis is great with the new mechanic, depending on how many fury resources you have generating, you may be able to stay in demon form for a very long time. The only thing is...Touch of Chaos doesn't look very interesting.
I've always been compelled at becoming very adept at the demonic fury dancing and juggling, managing my dots while juggling Meta uptime while my Dark Soul is on cooldown, but Touch of Chaos, while being an instant cast spell is just...boring.
What am I doing? Throwing a shadowy yo-yo at the enemy? How about changing the animation to a black/green shadowy chain lightning type animation. Something more malefic. Something with more oomph.
Visual feedback is a very important component to game design and where some spells lack any effect (think lightning bolt for shamans, which looks like a weak limp ribbon), some are pretty awesome (think chain lightning, where each crackle and impact is felt, or chaos bolt).
This has actually been bugging me since Beta and deserves a separate section that I just must get out of my system once and for all.
What's Wrong with Touch of Chaos
Ok, so the current animation for Touch of Chaos...it is like a purple beam that lashes from you to the opponent. Well, it kind of bounces. Well, it just sort of returns to you. Where's the impact? What am I touching? (Their no-no parts obviously)
Am I draining something from them? It doesn't look very drain-y. Why does it come back? Is it a lash? A whip? Whips crack, with great impact and I don't see a crack (except in their no-no parts). Why is there no sound? This is my great cooldown, and within this cooldown we are....spamming this weird purple yo-yo?
What I expect is something along the lines of the elemental shaman. I actually have a secret level 90 elemental shaman I never talk about. He is only whispered about.
Anyways, think of an elemental shaman's "Ascendance" cooldown. You turn into an elemental and you get to spam Lava Burst. Ok so what? Well, Lava Burst has a really awesome visual. It's a giant surge of lava that always crits, and with its clever animation, it looks like it slowly (for a fraction of a second) surges out of you then propels forward at great speed.
Now let's look at Touch of Chaos. You just spam it until your fury bar disappears and you are left feeling empty, disappointed. You are subconsciously discouraged from even wanting to enter Meta, since you know your core ability is kind of boring. (This also applies to the shaman's new lightning bolt, you know...the limp ribbon).
There could be many ways to improve this simple skill. Perhaps give it a demonic slash animation that tears at the enemy with a glowing purple cross, with a simple slashing sound, or maybe a fel whip, or perhaps a dark pulse of demonic energy. Something impactful.
I've travelled the entirety of Azeroth, and solicited many groups for "Felguard Transmog" to equip my Blagroon with beautiful 2-hander weapons, but perhaps this visual enhancement has been eclipse by a far greater one; of how Touch of Chaos looks sucky.
So there you go. How would you redesign Touch of Chaos?
And Peace Out!
Truny the Touching No No Bits
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