This is a new and upcoming series I’ll be trying to pump out every Friday. I’m also looking for other players of every class to use the contact form and send me their thoughts on their own class. A Spoon’s Eye View is basically a completely innocent, raw, and simple observation and interpretation of a class as played by the average gamer. You will not find excessive spreadsheets or tables, loot lists, long complex rotations, or end game raiding tactics here. This is pretty much where you will see a description of how the class feels and plays from a veteran. Please submit any articles you’d like the length doesn’t matter much. PLEASE include a screenshot unedited of your character doing whatever it is you’re writing about. Don’t worry about the resolution of the image I will work with it myself to make it fit into the post.
If this takes off I might hold a vote/contest to award the best article prizes like trading card game loot cards, shirts, or other goodies.
The idea for this came form a contact I received from one of my newer readers, Jason. For this first installment, we’re going to look at my Alliance Warrior, the original Spooner 1.0 whom I have begun to miss dearly. So on to the Beta! People will level, PVP, and instance before they raid; so here’s what you can expect to see:
Solo Play
Blizzard got it right this time. If you’ve ever seen the movie 300, that’s what the new protection warrior fells like. My gear currently, is crap. It really is. Two or three Kara level epics, my T4 helm, some assorted badge rewards, and some blues from 5-man dungeons, and my Quel’Serrar Blade because I’m crazy like that and it actually only falls short a few measly points versus early Lv. 70 tanking epics.
I am not invincible, but much harder to kill than originally since there are tons of new tricks I can utilize for escape or turning the tables on ym enemy. I’m on the PVP server for the Beta because it’s the only one that can stay online for more than a few seconds and there isn’t insane levels of UI lag; so needless to say there’s a target rich environment. I didn’t copy over with any gear to test out Fury or Arms but I’ve always loved Prot, just hated that I couldn’t do anything outside of a raid as a prot warrior.
Questing against mobs, is wonderful. Being able to charge in any stance and in combat is fucking incredible. Devestate isn’t a massive hitting move but still gets the job done as well as procs Sword & Board which gives me a free instantly available Shield Slam that has been critting for about 1500-2000. I block a lot, and blocking is great because for every block I generate I instantly deal back a % of my block to the target. I had an enhancement shaman kill himself on my shield the other night. He was in Sunwell Epics and some Black Temple loot, and I mopped the FLOOR with him.
That’s another thing, stuns. I’ve got 4. Conc. Blow nows works off attack power as well as stunning so that usually hits for 700-ish and can crit for about 1500. Shockwave is a little hard to master but easy to pickup. If you’ve ever had a mage you’ll love it and will know your cone range instinctively. Revenge is great now, hitting for 400, critting for 700, stunning often; and with the glyph of revenge, every time I tap revenge I get a free heroic strike with no rage cost. Heroic strike is now BEAST! The damn thing is critting like mad. I forgot to mention I am in defensive stance the entire time (still getting back to the feel of stance dancing) and it crits for upwards of 1500.
You can easily take on about 4-5 same level mobs as well. I pulled about 5 Vykrul invaders along the beaches in Borean Tundra, tapped 1 thunderclap (that’s hitting for about 300 per mob and crits for about 500) and then started devastating and revenging the 1st target, whenever the cooldown was up, I’d use shockwave and lock all of them down in a chunk in front. Shockwave also does some pretty ok damage (not much but it’s an AOE stun so I don’t expect it to do a lot of damage) and the followed up with another thunderclap is just gravy. I got worked on by the same shaman while I was doing this, broke the guy in two.
PVP
PVP is doable now. I’m not going to become a Hateful Gladiator master of all PVP as protection, but I can survive encounters in world PVP and ganking without having to be geared to all hell. Like I mentioned above, there are a lot of stuns and interupts available now, with the additon of charging and intercept being usable in combat as deep prot, you have A LOT of mobility as well.
Versus melee: Swapping around defnesive stance and battle stance is key as always but it’s a little more forgiving now. You can start a fight in either stance and be ok. I would normally be minding my own business when PVP came my way, about the only class I have yet to beat was a ret paladin (those guys are fucking crazy now, just outlandish levels of bust). I fought a few rogues and I have enough HP to survive most stunlocks enough so that by the time it’s over I can really lay into them. Around the vanish/2nd atempt to stunlock I’ll just trinket out and have my freedom. Disarming is key and if you decide to put points into imp. disarm then you’ll deal much more damage to the target while he’s unable to really use most specials on you. Damage Shiels (the one I mentioned that deals dmg back when I block) is fucking beautiful. It can crit; and added to a shield spike can do some really amazing things to a class that has many fast attacks. Revenge stuns and forces a trinekt pop, so does conc. blow, so does shockwave, so doesn intercept, you get where I’m going with this? Using shield block as well when things were getting dicey was great. It has a long cooldown so it can’t be spammed but it does take a lot of stress off my shoulders when I saw a big hit coming my way blocked for a typical 705 absorb. Best tactic I implied the other night was running away and then charging back for enough rage to slap conc. blow then jumping into berserker and readying intercept for another stun while auto attacking and rend did their thing. I always ended the fights with at least 25% HP or more versus melee. Hybrids too like that shaman I wrecked get an extra pitfall because of spell reflect. More on that in a second.
Versus casters: My four best friends. Stuns, Charge, new Shield Bash (gag order talent makes it silence which is so freaking nice), and spell reflect. There is nothing more rewarding than spell reflecting haunt and unstable affliction back on to a warlock. I fought a very well geared shadow priest. Shield slam usually took away his shield and left him wide open. Constantly slapping devastate (to wreck what little armor he had), shield slam, charging to keep up the pace, trinket out of fear, shield bash for a complete silence, and then int. shout if I need to bandage for a sec or force his own trinket was glorious. Like all 3 of my caster fights recently, it was a 50/50 battle. He tried to gank me, I killed him. He came back and killed me while I was fighting mobs. There’s nothnig wrong in that, it’s how things would normally go on live. It was just nice to be able to charge up whenever I was out of range and after that charge HAVE RAGE to use one of the many stuns or silences I had at my disposal to lay into him with.
Same versus the mage and warlock. Knowing when to reflect and when to charge instead of just running up into melee was crucial. Though the warlock did make one fatal mistake when he sent his felhunter after me. That pet barely scratched me but charged up revenge for me to use on the lock for that extra stun. The damage back from blocking his pet also sapped on his soul link a little and added to the damage I was already focussin on him. I cannot stress enough how wonderful silence is. If you make them panic and start to melee then it’s all over because you will almost 100% block or parry the weak melee of a caster and that’ll charge up revenge or deal damage right out if you block.
Versus hybrids: I’ll keep this short because it hasn’t changed much. Ret paladin will own your ass if you’re not careful. Block RIGHT AWAY tap whatever you can because they all have premature explosions of their burst. They;ve been made viable and bffed to a useful state so every single one I met (friendly and enemy) is just DYING to dump all their cooldowns and specials right at the start of the fight. If you get jumped, god help you. Disarming is pro, spell reflecting is tricky because you MIGHT reflect their hammer of justice or you might do nothing and waste rage. Best you can do is whittle them down, use last stand, try your best to survive the initial burst and then run them ragged until they have to heal or bubble. Then, RUNAWAY. You can always charge back faster than they can run and melee you.
Shaman, are tricky but easier. Elemental shaman should be treated as a straight up caster, that thunder knockback sucks but if you’re timed right you can charge or intercept from the air back down to them. Keeping hamstring up has become a pain in the ass.
Druids. Good fucking luck. They can still come out of nowhere, theyc an still ruin your shit if you’re not paying attention, and just when you think that they’re spent and you’re about to close the deal; travel form and heal. Charging has chnged that a little but druids are adapting very quickly and just using their new berserk to become like beast hunters.
Versus hunters: Lay down and die or have help with you.
Group Play
Finally, being in a group. There isn’t much to say. You can tank very well for now. You can AOE somewhat but not 100% easy mode like a paladin with consecrate. Get a really good main hand weapon and go to town. There’s no reason you can’t be rocking 13-15k HP (18k with buffs and 22k with last stand) at level 70. Enjoy being able to tank and quest at the same time.
I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did reading it. Feel free to comment and pick apart the article 
No flaming and no trolling please.
Great idea! Is this intended for those in Beta or for anyone? I always like to read about how others play their classes and what their gripes are, what moves they like to use, and how they feel in groups. It helps me understand what the other classes are thinking and dealing with in instances–which is important for healers.
This is open for anybody. Like for example. I’ve never played a priest before, ever. So if I had a priest who could write up all his or her complaints and issues as well as things they’re are proud of, feel are good and strong etc in a totally unbiased way. That’d be awesome. Unbiased in that there is no agenda. I’m not trying to cause people to rally behind “buff this!” or “nerf this!” I don’t want this to be an exercise in trying to explain why you think class A is broken or B is OP.
It’s pretty much for what you said; getting an idea of how other players feel about their class and how they play. What goes on in their heads? There are people who have never played a warrior before, not once, so why not give them an idea if not a little taste of what it is like to be a warrior? or Hunter? or mage?
Good times, this is exactly what I thought you were going for. I like to think that I’ve never been one of those crying “nerf!” on another class, because all the classes and specs are different and have different roles, I should never expect to two shot with smite like a mage does with fireball.
I also try not to compare myself to other healer classes because we all have different roles and strengths, healing meters are all in good “fun” but you can’t use those to determine who your best healers are, just like how you can’t judge a healer simply on their bonus heal value.
If I have time, I might write something up for you, I’ve played 4 different classes to level 70 now and have a fifth one at level 68. Each and everyone of them is different and has strengths and weaknesses, you have to learn do work with those to be successful in this game.
exactly what i had in mind BTW im getting a spooncraft tattoo this weekend (j/k)
Great post and great work
EXACTLY! The goal of this is to talk about your class without comparing it to another. If you’re a mage, then talk about being a mage and what mages do and what mages are strong at what they’re weak at etc. Their roles, their professions, whatever. Not how they’re not as strong as X caster class.
Hey Spooner
I just sent a huge email similar to your post, but on the Priest, feel free to post, alter or do what ever you like with it
Check your email, I sent in a seperate Post cause this is on the Warrior
I look forward to the post on the priest, since I play one myself. I tried to type something up, but I felt like it ended up more being a “How To Priest” guide, which is not what I wanted. Maybe after the patch I’ll write up on switching from Holy to Disc for healing. I’m still curious how that will all pan out!