As an end-game raiding Shadow Mage, life is generally pretty easy... We have very little to worry us in terms of cast rotations (sprinkle liberally with shadowbolt, with just a pinch of Immolate for flavor); our mana conservation will rarely give us issues in a good raid group; we are the least squishy of all the squishies; and lastly it should be obvious to anyone that has spent even a small amount of time watching us weave our magic, we have sex appeal out the wazoo.The trade-off is our threat production - give us a nice little run of crits and there is no class that can match the raw threat production capabilities we have at our disposal. Every Shadow Mage worth their soulshards will live life continually on the edge of the threat list, constantly taking personal time out to ensure we don't pull agro.
Generally speaking, the threat rules are the same in 5 man, 10 man and 25 man groups, with one significant difference in 25 man raids (and the occasional 10 man) - if you use Soulshatter after you have pulled agro from a tank, you used it too late. There is the obvious reason that most end-game raid bosses will one shot any clothy, so a little lag or a resist (yes, Soulshatter can and will be resisted) means you just wasted a soulshard and you have a repair bill... There is the secondary reason that upsetting your tanks by challenging their virility is never smart. The main issue however deals directly with game mechanics, and the good of the raid in general.
To pull agro off your tanks you must:
- Be within melee range and do more than 110% of the tank's threat.
- Be outside of melee range and do more than 130% of the tank's threat.
Bottom line is once you are raiding 25-man content, you should no longer think of your Soulshatter as a "get out of jail free" card; by now, it is a "you may lay down smack longer" button and it should be treated as such.
9 comments:
My pref for Soul Shatter is to use it at about 95%, max 110%. Any later and its too dangerous. Also worth considering that in long fights you'll might have the opportunity to do it twice, so using bit early is not too bad.
I actually love the tone my MT uses to say "Bristinie, Watch your #@$!-@#$#$-#@$@#$@# Threat!"
The more swear words I can get him to chain together, the higher my score!
And, your word verification just gave me qwmjjgqm.
isn't that a little much?
@ typhoon - agreed, those are the points I generally have running around in my head for shatter moments as well
@ bris - its double points bonus round if the shouting becomes unintelligible mumbles. oh and i have a word verification now?? nifty
All great advice, as per usual. Soulshatter is just like Feign Death for Hunters, except er... let's be honest, it's just not as good. :-) Pre-emptively clearing threat is gold for all dps classes though, particularly for bosses that need to be tanked in precise positions.
I always wanted an addon to blast a audio warning when my Feign Death was resisted, do you have one of those for Soulshatter that I could steal?
Reading this post about raiding makes me want to share an interesting article about the general concept of raiding on a game developer blog. You might find it interesting:
http://muckbeast.today.com/2008/08/12/fed-up-raiding-sucks-as-a-sole-form-of-end-game/
The title is: Fed up! Raiding sucks as a sole form of end game content.
Here's a tinyurl if the other one didn't work:
http://tinyurl.com/5elybz
@ varshak - yeh, there's actually this nifty lil tool built right into the game interface, and just after your feign or soulshatter gets resisted you get a box pop up and ask if you would like to release.
@ muck - thanks for stopping by; i actually read your article a few days ago and i've been digesting a lot of what you say. Some of it is along lines that I agree with, some of it is not - I'm one of the many that actually likes end-game raiding, despite its inherent flaws. I'm a great believer in not pointing a problem without having a solution to back it up, and that's the main issue I have with your post - its very, very easy to find flaws, its much harder to find solutions to these flaws. Remembering in this case you not only have to find "a" solution, but a solution that is repeatable in many (literrally hundreds of) variations without becoming repetitious, while still remaining challenging, fun and consistent for the experience of potentially 12M users. To be very clear - I liked your article because it did dare to question, I have you in reader and look forward to more posts from you in future, if nothing else you definitely present food for thought; but I would like to hear some suggested solutions to the problems you point out.
I am pretty sure I have a lot of solutions posted there.
Did you catch the large section where I break down the math of 5 man instances vs. 25 man raids, the man hours of effort per epic, and all that?
Also, did you see the sections where I talk about PvP with real world effects, RP, and other forms of end game content besides raiding?
Maybe my newer anti-raiding rant will shed a little more light on it as well. :)
Raiding Provides a False, Deceptive Sense of Real Accomplishment
http://tinyurl.com/6nw8a7
But perhaps you make a good point... Perhaps I should take the time to write a blog post specifically about what a game designer can do to provide quality ALTERNATIVES to raiding, or at least to fix raiding? Or maybe both. :)
-Cambios
Blogging about Online Gaming and Virtual Worlds:
http://www.muckbeast.com
That's a Nice post.
Your blog is unique, it's nice. If you don't mind, would you like to xchge links with me?
Thank you
Sure DD. Are you the creator of this site? If so, drop me an email at:
muckbeast @
(spam block)
gmail.com
-Cambios
Blogging about Online Gaming and Virtual Worlds:
http://www.muckbeast.com
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