Expansion Balancing + Stat Squish = Increased Difficulty?

I originally posted this in another thread but felt it was too off topic, so I started another thread.

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Originally Posted by nobodyz

is the stat squish completed? seems quite tough running instance for my new team of pally, 3 mage + priest.. on the classic dungeons when fighting bosses (appropriate level), i had to constantly heal my pally.. compared to pre-6.0, never had pally hp drop less than half.. :(

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Originally Posted by MiRai

IT'S TIME TO MAN UP!

(or, depending on who you are, woman up)

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To actually add to this... I was finally able to get my RaF started last night (only 3 weeks late!) and there were numerous times where I was getting hit hard and the healer was barely able to keep up regardless of the fact that all of my characters were in a full set of heirlooms. My Priest's bubble saved my ass on more than one occasion and not just because I was being dumb, and it felt like I was throwing a lot of WoG/EF on myself as a Paladin to help the Priest during some pulls -- I even remember stopping all DPS so I could start throwing FoL on myself as well as have the Shaman back us both up (only on a fight or two).

During the end of the eight dungeons it took to get me to 61, I was actually a bit cautious when going into rooms where a lot of mobs were piled up because I didn't want to pull them all. Places like Stratholme (live), BRD, and LBRS were actually pretty rough for being as "geared" as I was.

To be honest I kinda liked the way it felt, but I have no idea how it would have played out if I wasn't wearing those heirlooms.

The Fine Print: Yes, I realize everything at a lower level is not perfectly balanced by any means, but this caught me off guard and I just wanted to throw this out there for new players or people starting a new team.

you really got wad i always had in mind when i played.. after 6.0, dungeon runs were never the same as before.. i only had headgear which is heirlooms.. others were juz dungeon blues or normal greens.. i cant try any dungeon which were orange in color for me.. yellow, i could barely handle it.. if i have more than 3 elites or if i am not constantly healing my pally, my team would wipe.. if this dont get balanced.. i guess it's pretty hard to run dungeons anymore.. they should squish the mob stat first before lol...

Honestly, the problem still seems to be healing at this point. They toned it down so that it wasn't completely OP (e.g. 1 heal fills your entire bar), but it's now at the opposite end of the spectrum and it takes my Holy Priest something like 10 Flash Heals to top off my tank from almost dead. I realize that Flash Heal was meant to be a small and expensive heal, but it feels like there isn't any time to cast a bigger spell. /shrug

I do wish I could pull a bit faster in full heirlooms and not have to worry about being dead so quickly -- I find myself tunneling on my party frames to keep people alive more than I'd like and it's affecting how fast I can kill things. I'm also using Lay on Hands much more frequently on trash to keep myself from wiping. This is really good practice and it's keeping me on my toes, but I wonder if this is intended and how the community as a whole is going to react to it.

Healing always seems to be a problem early off. Cata healing was friggin' brutal even though I still used CC on every pack I came across - there was a whole lot of {Pull} "Uh-oh, one of my CCs failed, here's hoping I can still kill one before the wipe so the next pull doesn't suck as much." MoP had a lot of frenzied healing where it felt like all I could get off was instants because of movement and it was never enough. Wrath and BC had their issues too, as I recall, but it's not really fair to say that was all on WoW since I was new to boxing in BC and new to HotKeyNet in Wrath, so a lot of that could have been learning curve.

But, that's why my tank was BS/JC and my healer was Alch/Ench, gave my tank and healer a little extra oomph to get over that survivability hump while gearing up.

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I was actually a bit cautious when going into rooms where a lot of mobs were piled up because I didn't want to pull them all.

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That really makes me happy. There's a huge sense of satisfaction in tanking an entire room and bringing about the apocalypse to 40 mobs at a time, but man, there's just as much a thrill in getting a body pull right or getting a pack down before something pats back and adds. I cried when they gutted the Highway in BRD.

I might just have to roll a newbie team and redo the ol' dungeon crawls. Might just get my heartrate up enough to qualify as cardio, lol.

Oddly enough after I leveled last night and was thrown into both Ahk'Kahet and Halls of Stone this morning, things seem a bit more forgiving. Healing is still fairly low, but it only took 74 levels to get to the point where I can pull more than one pack of mobs at a time without feeling like I've been thrown into the danger zone. ;)

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Originally Posted by MiRai

feeling like I've been thrown into the danger zone. ;)

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I thought that was gonna be Archer. /dissappointed

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Originally Posted by Khatovar

I thought that was gonna be Archer. /dissappointed

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Archer is quoting kenny loggins though.

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Originally Posted by MiRai

Honestly, the problem still seems to be healing at this point. They toned it down so that it wasn't completely OP (e.g. 1 heal fills your entire bar), but it's now at the opposite end of the spectrum and it takes my Holy Priest something like 10 Flash Heals to top off my tank from almost dead.

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Try Disc with shield and Holy Nova spam (Holy Nova gives Divine Aegis)..and you get a bit more dps.

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Originally Posted by JohnGabriel

Archer is quoting kenny loggins though.

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I know, but Archer is funny. Kenny Loggins only reminds me of the 80s, which makes me feel old and awkwardly uncomfortable. I still have nightmares about crimped hair and shoulder pads.

on my 40ish mostly dungeon blues the most i could take on was 4 elite pack.. and that's if i constantly use flash heal.. i tried to switch to heal thinking maybe the tone down flash heal.. since i jus need flash heal previously.. makes the other heals useless.. but hey.. heal seems the same as flash heal to me.. with extended cast time and more mana -_-

on my 80ish team running dungeon.. i still feel the same :( healing is too hard.. and im quite sad that so much has been done to shaman that now.. i dont even know what im looking at expect for the lightning and chain lit spell -_-

I'm with MiRai ("really good practice and its keeping me on my toes") the changes were actually quite fun, having to concentrate and plan pulls again . I get to feel like its end game dungeons while I level up.

If you're trying to level quickly its a pain. Then again exp needed to level may have been reduced, since I seem to level very fast.

the completion xp is a decent compromise for the increased difficulty.
Side note: levelling with RAF is now ridiculously fast as the completion bonus is also tripled, early dungeons give 3-4 levels per run!

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Originally Posted by JohnGabriel

If you're trying to level quickly its a pain. Then again exp needed to level may have been reduced, since I seem to level very fast.

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I don't remember how many dungeons it used to take me, but I only did nine dungeons from levels 15 to 61, three and a half for levels 61-69, and then something like four or five to reach 79 which is where I stopped yesterday.

yeah.. the completion bonus is quite a good thing.. i used my 84 mage to boost a pally and priest, on level appropriate dungeons (orange to yellow), the completion gave me almost one level once.. but the pain is having to physically go to the dungeon and run in / out.. compared to dungeon finder.. it's a breeze porting in/out.. :p for nw.. i juz wan to get the pally n priest to 84 so i can run with my 2x shammy and mage :p