Method Jdotb Q&A #9 - Weekly Affix Advice, Catweaving, Trinkets

Live Pubblicato 01/05/2018 alle 16:07 da Squishei

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World Firsts

their TwitterDo you think the Garothi healing trinket surpasses Highfathers at any ilvl?

Condotto di Retroazione dei Garothi and Macchinazione del Sommo Padre are both good trinkets for M+, and the choice between them is less about ilvl and more about situation. In general you're probably going to want to stick with Highfather's, and certainly if you have a 970 version of one trinket vs. a 930 version of another you're going to want to stick with the 970. But let's look at what these two trinkets do.

Macchinazione del Sommo Padre has static mastery (a good healing stat) and applies a stacking buff to your target that will heal the target if the target drops below 50% health. This is a great effect for mechanics that deal burst damage that is difficult to keep up with because you can sort of pre-heal your target with Highfather's. It's also good for fights where random damage comes out that you can't necessarily predict.

Condotto di Retroazione dei Garothi has static intellect (a decent healing stat) and a stacking haste buff that procs when you heal people. The proc will happen more frequently on targets with less health. This makes it an ideal trinket for fights where people will be routinely hovering below full health (e.g. Moroes or Mephistroph). It's also a great trinket for fights where you don't think healing will be a big issue because it doubles fairly well as a DPS trinket. The int and haste buffs both contribute a good bit to your damage whereas Highfather's does nothing for your DPS with mastery and a heal proc.

In general you'll probably want to stick with Highfather's for M+ healing, but Garothi has its uses. It's also worth mentioning Emettitore del Vilscudo di Ishkar here -- where Highfather's is good for bursty damage and Garothi is good for fights where people are below full health, Emitter is great for fights with one-shot mechanics that will kill people from full health. If you have each of these three trinkets, you'll be equipped to handle most healing challenges in M+.

How do you deal with the pressure and responsibility of being the only healer in the group? Do you blame yourself when people die?

Truthfully my favorite part of healing M+ is being the only healer. One of the things I've always disliked about raid healing is that you have to do it with three or four other healers. Typically that means you've got some cooldown rotation that's been handed out before the fight begins, and your job is to do some ho-hum healing until it's your turn to press your big buttons. Some fights are more hectic and require you to go off script for the healing, and I cherish those fights, but they are few and far between in Mythic raiding.

I love being the only healer because it means I'm responsible for everything. I know that my healing will be the only healing being done so I can plan accordingly -- if someone is low health, I know that no one else is queuing up a fat Folgore Sacra or Guarigione Immediata to top them off. I don't have to worry about someone else using Palingenesi in the middle of my Tranquillità. It's just me and the health bars. Healing with other people feels less like teamwork and more like trying not to step on each other's toes.

One of the great parts of M+ healing is that meters don't matter. You often hear people trot out some variation of the old chestnut, “If no one died, you did your job,” and a few people genuinely feel that way, but most “good” healers in a raid care a lot about how they stack up on the meters. No one wants to be on the bottom, everyone wants to be on the top. This often leads to heal sniping and suboptimal cooldown usage in an effort to pad the meters. It's hard to blame healers for this; what other metric exists to prove your worth? When there are four or five of you healing, who was really responsible for keeping people alive? In a raid group, it's impossible to know.

But in a M+ group, if the boss was shredding people and we miraculously pull through, I know it was all me. And if someone dies to an unavoidable mechanic, I know it was my fault they died. It makes it much easier to judge your performance as a healer. If someone dies in a raid, it's easy as a healer to assume it was someone else not pulling their weight. In a dungeon, I have to accept that I came up short and need to improve. And I like having to confront my limitations because that's how you push yourself to get better.

I can definitely understand how being the lone healer could be intimidating and unappealing to some, but it's my favorite way to play WoW.

Do you feel BfA dungeons are designed more towards M+? Seems like less RP, fewer elevators, etc.

It's hard to tell at this point. One of the big talking points coming out of the EU regional rounds this past weekend was the role of RNG in certain dungeons. Corte delle Stelle for instance has Enforcers that spawn randomly around the map. If you aren't super familiar with CoS, it's hard to appreciate why mobs without a fixed spawn location can have a big impact on a M+ run. Until we get some more time to run these dungeons, it will be hard to tell how well-adapted they are for M+. I haven't yet run any M+ on the BFA beta -- the item levels for M+ loot are currently much lower than in base mythic dungeons so M+ seems pointless when you're trying to gear up -- but there are certainly some things that stick out from the mythic dungeons I've run.

Several instances have little mini games. Depending on how you feel about those mini games, you might think they're either a novel way to test player skill or a total waste of time. Temple of Sethraliss, for example, has various spots with lightning orbs that you have to maneuver through. It's tough to say at this point whether RNG will have much effect on those lightning orbs, but it's easy to see how it might. There is an event in Freehold's Ring of Booty encounter where a pig gets tossed into an arena. You have to click on the pig five times as it runs around in random patterns. Is it funny? Sure. Is it the kind of thing that will absolutely infuriate teams if it ends up in M+ dungeons? You bet. There is also a trash mob in Freehold that puts a debuff on you that stuns you if you jump. I haven't been able to see a reason for that debuff other than to be incredibly annoying. It's just…why?

Waycrest Manor has multiple paths through the dungeon that change each day. Arcway has a similar mechanic where you randomly get the left or right path when you start the dungeon, and it's incredibly frustrating flipping a coin hoping you get a particular side. I'm not sure how Waycrest will handle the multiple routes in M+ but my guess is they will simply be random.

I'd like to think that Blizzard has a better idea how to design for M+ now that it's been around for an expansion, but that's probably a pipe dream. The reality is that the teams designing the encounters are probably not well-versed in M+ balance, and the desire to make memorable dungeons will trump the desire to make those dungeons “fair”. I think the more realistic hope for BfA is that there is timely tuning at the start of the expansion. These dungeons aren't going to be perfect, but maybe Blizzard will listen to player feedback early on and adjust the things that are clearly not suited for M+.

What are the pluses and minuses of catweaving?

The obvious benefit of catweaving (i.e., using Feral Affinity to deal damage as a resto druid) is that you can put out substantially more damage than you can with either Affinità del Guardiano Ferino or Affinità dell'Equilibrio. If a fight doesn't require much healing or your group is very good at avoiding damage, you can spend your time adding meaningful DPS to a fight instead of sitting on your thumb.

There are sacrifices to be made, however. The first is that you have to take Affinità dell'Aggressore Ferino over Affinità del Guardiano Ferino (Affinità dell'Equilibrio is mostly worthless for M+). Affinità del Guardiano Ferino gives you a 6% reduction in damage taken and Rigenerazione Furiosa which is a great tool for healing damage done to you. There are certain dungeons where I feel Affinità del Guardiano Ferino is required like Boschetto Cuortetro (Shade of Xavius) or Sale del Valore (Hyrja). Giving up Affinità del Guardiano Ferino can be very scary, and a lot of healers won't want to give up that security blanket. There's nothing wrong with that approach, either. If you don't feel like you'd survive without Affinità del Guardiano Ferino, I certainly wouldn't recommend giving it up.

Another sacrifice is your gearing choices. In order to unlock your full DPS potential as a healer, you'll have to wear damage-oriented legendaries. While catweaving, I'm typically wearing Anello con Sigillo a Occhio di Gatto (Feral legendary) and Dama Bianca e Figlia Blu (Balance legendary). Neither of these will contribute a lick to my healing, and LatC will take up a tier slot so that I can't run my usual 4pc t21 and 2pc t19 that I like to heal with. I also run double DPS trinkets like Radice Contorta di Cuorquercia or Dislocatore di Segnalazione di Terminus. Trinkets are a powerful source of healing, so giving up those slots for more damage will impact your healing throughput noticeably.

Your stats are also an issue. The best resto druid healing secondaries are haste and mastery, but the best DPS secondaries are crit and versatility. When I'm going all-out on DPS, I try to wear as close to zero mastery as possible. This stat allocation lets me deal a lot of damage but also guarantees that if unexpected damage comes out mid-fight I will have a rough time handling it.

Gearing for catweaving is a spectrum of sorts -- you can keep some healing legendaries or trinkets, or keep your secondaries balanced instead of going full crit/vers. So you can choose how much you want to focus on DPS. But if you're really trying to impact a fight with your catweaving, you will be very weak as a healer.

When facing Tyrannical Hyrja, some groups use reverse pull (Santificazione at the lightning buff side, and Occhio del Ciclone at the holy buff side) to make the fight easier for healer. Lower buff stacks could be achieved if timed correctly. But from recent MDI semi-finals, the 23 Tyrannical Hyrja always started with standard pull (Occhio del Ciclone at the lightning buff side). What keeps them from using reverse pull?

I haven't talked to other teams about this, so this is mostly conjecture on my part, but I'd guess Hyrja gets pulled normally for a couple reasons: 1) Blizzard would likely disqualify any team trying this strategy, and 2) a blood DK makes Occhio del Ciclone dramatically less difficult (and every team in the MDI runs a blood DK).

To the first reason: there are a lot of inventive strategies in M+ at the moment, many of which are right on that border between “clever use of game mechanics” and “exploit”. After you've seen enough of these tactics and seen which ones get fixed by Blizzard, you start to develop a gut feeling for whether the tactic would be frowned upon by Blizzard. De-syncing Hyrja's abilities definitely seems like the kind of thing that Blizzard wouldn't allow as it clearly breaks the central mechanic in the fight. Teams will still use it on live servers so long as they're not punished for it, but I highly doubt Blizzard would let it slide in the MDI.

The second reason is that blood DKs have a 100% pick rate in the MDI, and Consumption (the party leech ability) has a 45s cooldown while Eye of the Storm only happens once a minute. Thus you'll have Consunzione up for each Eye, and the healing done by Consunzione makes that mechanic much less difficult to heal through.

Lastly, bugging Hyrja's stacks isn't 100% guaranteed, and if you screw the pull up trying to de-synchronize her mechanics it can make the fight even harder. If you know you can heal the fight normally (and groups in the MDI should be able to consistently), why bother?

Weekly Affix AdviceDungeons Most Affected by Sanguine:

Blackrook Hold: Sanguine makes the hallway after Illysanna Crinocorvo a nightmare. The Wyrmtongue Tricksters will die quickly leaving Sanguine pools, and the Saprofago Drachilinguas will stand still casting Indigestione. Risen Archers will also stand still casting Shoot and Raffica di Frecce.

Neltharion's Lair: Tarspitter Lurkers show up in trash packs with lots of low health mobs (Strisciatore Scheggiaviles and Lumacone Sputapeces). If the Lurker Submerges into a Sanguine pool it's going to be a long fight. Plasmatore Scheggiamorbos and Bombardiere Rocciosos are also casters that are liable to stand in Sanguine indefinitely.

Vault of the Wardens: Vault has a few big pulls that can be annoying with Sanguine but the big threat is Spirits of Vengeance. If Sanguine drops under a Spirit, good luck getting it moved out.

Dungeons Most Affected by Grievous:

Cathedral of Eternal Night: Agronox and Mephistroph are both fights that feature continuous group damage. Your party members will be triggering Grievous throughout the duration of both boss fights which will be an enormous drain on your mana and probably force some healing cooldowns earlier than you'd like to use them.

Lower Karazhan: Moroes might be the boss most affected by Grievous in all of M+. Nervi Sopiti will constantly proc Grievous, and if Grievous reaches five stacks it can be nearly impossible when combined with Garrote to heal off of someone without cooldowns. Healers will need mana trinkets for this marathon.

Seat of the Triumvirate: Zuraal gets a surprise twist on Grievous because whoever gets Sfasamento Ombroso will not only have to deal with the usual damage from that stage but also have to heal themselves through Grievous without any healer support. Good luck. L'ura is already a taxing fight on healer mana pools because of its length; adding Grievous into the mix is almost unfair.

Eye of Azshara: Ira di Azshara's Sabbie Ondeggianti guarantee Grievous will be activating all fight long. Everyone will need to be topped off for Profondità Schiaccianti if you're trying to soak it legitimately, and Grievous can make this a real pain. Immunities are especially valuable for Wrath of Azshara on Grievous weeks.

Dungeons Most Affected by Fortified:

Halls of Valor: Evocatuoni Valarjars and Runecarvers start to get lethal on higher keys, and the Draco della Tempesta's Soffio di Fulmini has a chance to wreck the tank. Make sure to dodge the Worg Cupartiglio leaps. The four kings will all hurt, and tanking multiple of them will be iffy.

Maw of Souls: Custode delle Anime Maledetto's Esplosione Salmastra will start needing personal cooldowns. Marinaio dei Guardiani della Notte should be skipped as the damage is likely unlivable on higher keys. Mastino Fantasmas will kill someone if they leap to the same target. Skjal's Nessuna Tregua will be deadly.

Neltharion's Lair: Rockbound Pelters and Blightshard Shapers will shred the party with their respective casts. Rockbound Breaker's Avalanche will be lethal. Signore delle Larve Unghiadura's Frantumazione Pietra will probably kill anyone standing near the tank. Dominatore Scorzambratas do tons of damage to the three furthest players from them, so be prepared to pop cooldowns.

The Arcway: Veggente della Stirpe del Terrores will start killing people Profezie della Rovina. Ferita Rovente from Guardia dell'Ira Vilspadas will require significant healing and can quickly overwhelm the healer if it goes out on multiple targets. If one person takes multiple casts of Esilio Arcano from Avvizzito Demoniacos it will kill them, and the Avvizzito del Mana Spettrales will start doing real damage to the tank. The Plagued Rat packs are very dangerous for melee.

Dungeons Least Affected by This Week's Affixes:

Upper Karazhan: The packs of Divoratore di Manas can be a little tricky with Sanguine, but there is very little trash in the dungeon to worry about. Curator's adds can cause issues with Grievous so make sure to keep them under control.

Court of Stars: Be careful with the Dragone di Manas at the start of the dungeon, and watch out for Grievous on Talixae. The rest of the dungeon should be fairly straightforward with these affixes.

Darkheart Thicket: Other than the Hatespawn Slimes, there aren't many opportunities to create dangerous Sanguine pools. Dresaron isn't a great fight for Grievous but you should have plenty of time to top people up after Ruggito Sismico.

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