I played defensively on the SM just to show it can be done and be somewhat effective. I'm not a big fan of most modern music, so I set this to the 1812 Overture performed by the New York Philharmonic. I'm by no means perfect, but this is what I mean by basic tanking skills. Enjoy!
The video looks best in 1080p since it was recorded in it.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Thursday, November 25, 2010
The Rise of the Single Healer Groups
1.4.0 brought dramatic increases to personal survivability. While playing the Eternal Citadel, I found that most players could survive a 4 player spike for 10 seconds without a healer. However, most players could not survive a 5 player spike for 10 seconds. So my group started playing with only one healer, and it worked exceptionally well. Having 2 healers in party with one being a dps healer is much safer since the dps healer can rez without costing the group healing, but using only one healer worked out ok for us. I expect to see a lot more DPS Shamans and Archmages in groups.
Also I found that I could not get away with my typical glass cannon spec as a SM in EC after a few scenarios. A lot of players seem to have learned how to focus fire squishy tanks. I ended up switching my renown to Cleansing Wind 3, Reflexes 4 and Futile Strikes 3 and moving to 5 Defensive/4 Offensive Sovereign gear. I will play around with Trivial Blows 3 with a Liniment of Immutable Defiance and see how that works too. Glass cannon tanks will likely be viable in warband play only.
Mythic wanted to tone down the DPS tank. I think they did so with the scenario matchmaking system and the renown revamp. I just get wrecked way too fast to be useful to my group glass cannon in scenarios now. I still have my 2h and my Khaine spec since Nature's Blade is just awesome. Going from glass cannon to survivable cut my damage by one third. It does allow me to now take focus fire and Guard damage at the same time, which I just couldn't survive even with 2 healers on me glass cannon.
Also I found that I could not get away with my typical glass cannon spec as a SM in EC after a few scenarios. A lot of players seem to have learned how to focus fire squishy tanks. I ended up switching my renown to Cleansing Wind 3, Reflexes 4 and Futile Strikes 3 and moving to 5 Defensive/4 Offensive Sovereign gear. I will play around with Trivial Blows 3 with a Liniment of Immutable Defiance and see how that works too. Glass cannon tanks will likely be viable in warband play only.
Mythic wanted to tone down the DPS tank. I think they did so with the scenario matchmaking system and the renown revamp. I just get wrecked way too fast to be useful to my group glass cannon in scenarios now. I still have my 2h and my Khaine spec since Nature's Blade is just awesome. Going from glass cannon to survivable cut my damage by one third. It does allow me to now take focus fire and Guard damage at the same time, which I just couldn't survive even with 2 healers on me glass cannon.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Spike Damage - Recognizing and Countering
So you notice the enemy is attempting to spike to one of your group members. You have 5 to 10 seconds to react before the enemy kills your teammates. Here's how to counter a spike attempt.
1. If you can detaunt your attacker, do so. You might be knocked down or silenced and unable to do so. Call it out in vent ASAP if you get hard CC'd. Do not attack until you can get a Guard. If you are Guarded, detaunt is not needed.
2. If you are a tank, get a Guard on the spiked target if you can get in range, even if that's another tank.
3. If you see backloaded DoTs like Burn Away Lies or Word of Pain, cleanse them if possible. Cleansing Wind is big help, especially if you have it maxed.
4. If you are a healer, get heals on the spiked target. Absorb -> HoTs -> Hard healing.
5. If you have a melee train on you, either an AoE stagger or knockback can handle the train.
6. Use your potions and morales if needed. You can fire absorb + crafted heal + RvR heal potions all at once.
7. Kite if you notice before it starts. Try to kite towards your DPS if you are not already with them.
This game is about spike and counter spike. Master managing incoming and outgoing spike damage and you will be nearly unstoppable.
1. If you can detaunt your attacker, do so. You might be knocked down or silenced and unable to do so. Call it out in vent ASAP if you get hard CC'd. Do not attack until you can get a Guard. If you are Guarded, detaunt is not needed.
2. If you are a tank, get a Guard on the spiked target if you can get in range, even if that's another tank.
3. If you see backloaded DoTs like Burn Away Lies or Word of Pain, cleanse them if possible. Cleansing Wind is big help, especially if you have it maxed.
4. If you are a healer, get heals on the spiked target. Absorb -> HoTs -> Hard healing.
5. If you have a melee train on you, either an AoE stagger or knockback can handle the train.
6. Use your potions and morales if needed. You can fire absorb + crafted heal + RvR heal potions all at once.
7. Kite if you notice before it starts. Try to kite towards your DPS if you are not already with them.
This game is about spike and counter spike. Master managing incoming and outgoing spike damage and you will be nearly unstoppable.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Patch 1.4.0 - Raising the Bar, Busting Excuses
And I'm not talking about the renown rank cap increase.
You won't be able to just zerg it up in Open RvR and expect to win quickly. You won't be able to jump in your elite premade and just roll the uncoordinated in scenarios all day long. You won't be able to complain that you got rolled by an elite premade when you just entered Tier 4.
1.4.0 is officially called "The Verminous Horde." I call it "The Excuse Buster."
A lot of the excuses players make about why they lose in scenarios suddenly disappear when you put players of equal skill/gear/organization together. No, the only reason you lose when you are against opponents roughly equal to you is you got outplayed.
For Open RvR, every once in awhile, the RR65+ disappear into the Skaven dungeon leaving the lower ranked players to duke it out up above. You might get outnumbered. So what? Just means you get to milk the sweet, sweet, Against All Odds buff for extra renown. Heck, you might even win if you outplay your opponents. So what if you end up losing the campaign? You get a chance at the new gear by defending your city. Since the city is considered a scenario, you end up with players similar in skill to you there too (unconfirmed and pure speculation, but would be awesome.)
WAR is going to be better than ever I think. So what's your excuse for not playing?
You won't be able to just zerg it up in Open RvR and expect to win quickly. You won't be able to jump in your elite premade and just roll the uncoordinated in scenarios all day long. You won't be able to complain that you got rolled by an elite premade when you just entered Tier 4.
1.4.0 is officially called "The Verminous Horde." I call it "The Excuse Buster."
A lot of the excuses players make about why they lose in scenarios suddenly disappear when you put players of equal skill/gear/organization together. No, the only reason you lose when you are against opponents roughly equal to you is you got outplayed.
For Open RvR, every once in awhile, the RR65+ disappear into the Skaven dungeon leaving the lower ranked players to duke it out up above. You might get outnumbered. So what? Just means you get to milk the sweet, sweet, Against All Odds buff for extra renown. Heck, you might even win if you outplay your opponents. So what if you end up losing the campaign? You get a chance at the new gear by defending your city. Since the city is considered a scenario, you end up with players similar in skill to you there too (unconfirmed and pure speculation, but would be awesome.)
WAR is going to be better than ever I think. So what's your excuse for not playing?
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