Method Jdotb Q&A #10 - Weekly Affix Advice, MDI, Esports Organizations

Live Опубликовано 08.05.2018 в 15:40 Squishei

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World Firsts

Congrats on making it to the Global Finals for MDI. Do you expect Blizzard to make changes to the format, specifically the Arcane Mage hack?

I do expect that Blizzard will address the spellsteal issue in Black Rook Hold. For the uninitiated, there is a mob (Risen Arcanist) that casts a buff (Чародейская бомбардировка) that increases damage dealt by 50%. This buff also stacks. So a mage (typically an arcane mage in the MDI) will Чарокрад this buff multiple times (I believe it stacks to 10) allowing the mage to deal ridiculous amounts of damage. The Arcanist is undead, meaning a Death Knight can control it, and every team in the MDI runs a blood DK. The “hack” then is to have the DK control the Arcanist until the mage needs the buff, then the DK will release the Arcanist long enough for the mage to stack the buff up after which the DK will control the Arcanist again. Done right, this allows the mage to have incredible single target burst damage on Illysanna, Smashspite and Kur’Talos (upwards of 20M DPS) and shaving at least a minute off each of these boss fights.

The problem with this strategy is two-fold: first, it’s obviously incredibly imbalanced. Any team with a mage is nearly guaranteed to win BRH against a team without a mage. Having the buff not only makes the dungeon go faster, but it also makes the dungeon much safer because you spend less time exposed to boss mechanics. It was not uncommon for mage teams to only spend about a minute killing Illysanna. A boss doesn’t get an opportunity to do much in a minute.

Second, the strat is incredibly boring to watch. The mage has to stand around spellstealing a buff over and over, and since Чарокрад costs quite a bit of mana, the mage also has to be given an opportunity to sit down and drink back up to full at least once during the process. So what you end up seeing is a team huddling in front of a boss spellstealing for a long time, then a super short boss fight where nothing happens because the mage basically solos the boss. The setup required for the spellstealing isn’t interesting to watch, and it makes boss fights less interesting, so on the whole the strat just makes BRH less entertaining.

I think the only reason the spellstealing has survived this long in the MDI is because its effectiveness caught Blizzard off guard. It was first seen in the tournament during the China regionals, and once one region had been allowed to use it, my guess is that Blizzard felt it was only fair to allow all regions to use it. Now that regionals have concluded, I’m guessing that Blizzard will feel they can make changes.

Do you have any advice on the pluses and minuses of joining an organization if you want to play professionally? A lot of people have success on their own, is it really required?

I’m still relatively new to the world of esports, but my time with Method has given me a few insights to the value of an esport organization. Sponsorship obviously isn’t required to have success in esports, especially in a scene like WoW where there isn’t a lot of money on the table. But an organization does have several ways it can add value.

There will be dedicated support staff. Their roles and your access to them will vary depending on the organization, but you can expect them to do things to make your life easier and help grow your brand. It’s in the best interest of the organization for you to be well-known, so the organization is going to do what it can to help promote you. As an example, Method set our team up with an opportunity to stream at Dreamhack Austin this summer. That’s the kind of thing that can be hard to do on your own, either because you aren’t even aware that opportunities like that exist or you don’t have the contacts to make it happen. I’ve also gotten help with some of my Twitch emotes and logos, and Method provides (and, in fairness, requires you to use) professional looking headers for your Twitter and YouTube accounts.

Organizations also have their own social media following that can boost your profile. Method did a lot of promotional graphics for our MDI run on Twitter, and several of our top dungeon runs have been published on Method’s YouTube account. Could you do those things for yourself? Sure, but you’d have to be both talented and spend a lot of time to create that type of content independently.

Are there drawbacks? Sure. We signed a contract with Method that places some restrictions on us and imposes some obligations. You can try to negotiate those, but the reality is that unless you’re a rockstar, the organization probably has the leverage. By joining Method, we essentially agreed to become part of the Method team, and that means doing things to help the team even if they don’t necessarily help you personally. In return, you can expect the team to help you. Obviously we thought the tradeoff was worth it, but I could certainly understand some people feeling differently. Some people like that dynamic, some don’t.

What is your personal opinion is on conforming to the meta, and could one be successful without following it?

A lot of that depends on your definition of success. Could you get world firsts without closely following the meta? No, probably not. There is a reason the meta exists. Skill can only take you so far in a game. There are a lot of really good players in the M+ community, and the skill gap is usually pretty small, so things like class selection can start separating those teams more than skill does.

But if your idea of success is, “I want to be the best M+ holy priest in the world”, then you can still have attainable goals. If you acknowledge and accept that playing off-meta classes will limit you, you can still have fun with it. The Method NA team has dealt with this somewhat on live servers. Shakib and I play classes (Vengeance DH and Resto Druid) that are both considered good but not best -- you’d ideally want a Blood DK and Holy Paladin. But we enjoy our classes so we stick with them. Could we have timed some keys that we missed if we’d stuck to the meta? Probably. But it was worth it to us, and our classes were still competitive enough for our liking.

You just need to figure out what you’re trying to accomplish in WoW and what will make you happy.

How important is a good computer for the outcome of your M+? What sort of graphics card and processor are you using?

I’m running an Intel 8700K CPU and an Nvidia 1070 GPU. But those are total overkill for a game like WoW. Most of that horsepower is for my streaming performance and other AAA games in my library, not WoW.

WoW has its share of visually interesting things, but the reality is that most people aren’t playing WoW for amazing graphics. If performance is important to you, you can crank the visual settings way down on WoW and play it with some very cheap hardware. Frame rate isn’t nearly as important in WoW as it is in other games (like first person shooters), so even if your computer struggles with WoW it probably won’t affect you too much. Keep in mind that this game has been around for nearly 15 years, and while the engine has been updated, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

There are a few instances where your computer will limit you, though. Big pulls ( I’m talking like 20+ mobs) can cause your computer to chug if spells like Живая бомба go off on all the mobs at the same time. If you’re a tank that needed to use a defensive right at that moment, you’re probably dead. Load screens can also be an issue. If you hearthed out of an instance to change your spec and are trying to zone back in, you can lose a few seconds if your rig is slow. But these are relatively rare and minor annoyances, not things that will deplete your key routinely.

WoW is definitely one of the most accessible games out there as far as hardware requirements go.

How important do you think the top tier mythic+ players’s involvement in the community has on the future of mythic+ as an esport and which aspect would you like other high scored players to take part in? Guides? Streams?

Having the top M+ players involved in the community is important, but perhaps more important is getting buy-in from top players in other aspects of the game as well. For instance, in the MDI NA regionals this weekend there was a team from Limit (the top NA raiding guild) competing.

While all the guys on that team are top of the line raiders, most of them were fairly new to M+. It was great to see some of the world’s best raiders dip their toe into the M+ pool, and it really helps legitimize the M+ scene. I hope to see more involvement from the big raiding guilds (and maybe even some PvPers) in future MDI events.

One of the things that has helped M+ grow tremendously is how willing the top players are to stream their runs. Another is how accessible it is. M+ is simpler than mythic raiding, both because the mechanics are less complex and because the groups are five people instead of 20. Because of this, someone watching M+ can piece together what’s happening in an encounter much quicker and more easily than watching a raid.

This allows less experienced players to see what the experts are doing and (more importantly) take those strats back to their own groups. People like to see cool skips and big pulls and creative talent choices, but more than that they like to be able to use those things the next time they jump into a dungeon. I think it’s much easier to emulate your favorite M+ groups than it is your favorite raiding guild. And that’s good for M+.

Weekly Affix AdviceDungeons Most Affected by Bolstering:

Black Rook Hold: Several trash packs in Blackrook Hold have mobs with varying amounts of health which makes Bolstering especially annoying because it’s almost guaranteed that one or more of the mobs is going to end up Bolstered with lots of health remaining. Doing this dungeon pack by pack rather than with big pulls slows it down substantially.

Eye of Azshara: The signature pulls in Eye of Azshara are the crabs and goblins which involve a dozen or more mobs at a time. If the mobs don’t get grouped tightly it’s very easy to end up with a crab at 40% health and 15 Bolster stacks.

Halls of Valor: Halls of Valor is notable for its dangerous spellcasters -- particularly the Thundercallers -- and those spellcasters also happen to have more health than the mobs around them. It’s easy to accidentally Bolster a Thundercaller who proceeds to start one-shotting your party with Thunderous Bolt and Thunderstrike.

The Arcway: Who hasn’t tried to pull the entire spider room and ended up with a Manafang Devourer with more health than Nal’tira? A Bolstered Withered Fiend can easily start handing out naps with Arcanic Bane, and high health Withered Manawraiths are often grouped with those Fiends making it hard not to Bolsters the Manawraiths. Rats and Mana Wyrms round out the reasons this dungeon can quickly get out of hand with Bolstering.

Seat of the Triumvirate: There aren’t necessarily any packs that are notably dangerous for Bolstering in this dungeon, rather it’s the layout of the dungeon itself that makes Bolstering an issue. It’s far too easy to pull trash in Seat by accidentally wandering into a mob’s aggro radius, and you can end up in combat with three packs at once in the blink of an eye.

Lower Karazhan: Lower Karazhan has too many big pull opportunities in it for Bolstering not to rear its ugly head a few time. The timer in Lower Karazhan is very forgiving so you can take it slow on Bolstering and pull smaller, but it makes the dungeon very tedious, and Lower Kara punishes you with the length of the run back if you wipe.

Dungeons Most Affected by Explosive:

Black Rook Hold: Aggressive pulls in the hallway after Illysana and on the stairs up to Smashspite and Kur’Talos will now be rewarded with a bonanza of explosive orbs.

Neltharion’s Lair: Kiting is a popular strategy to deal with Rockbound Pelters, but you’ll likely run into orbs spawning at range that can be tough to keep pace with.

Arcway: Ever been halfway through pulling all the spiders in Nal’tira’s room when the first fel explosive spawns and reminds you it’s Explosive week?

Seat of the Triumvirate: The cramped nature of Seat’s trash mobs makes it relatively easy to accidentally pull extra packs which can quickly overwhelm you with orbs that spawn at range. Also L’ura’s first phase can be particularly difficult if orbs spawn in the shadow patches and prevent melee from helping.

Eye of Azshara: The mega pulls with crabs and gilgoblins are a lot more difficult with Explosive, and pulling one pack at a time in Eye makes the dungeon go very slowly. There aren’t a lot of good opportunities to line of sight the orbs in Eye either due to the wide open layout.

Dungeons Most Affected by Tyrannical:

Halls of Valor: Hymdall’s Horn of Valor will get dangerous, and Fenryr will start taking long enough that Ravenous Leap DoTs will have a chance to stack up and cause problems. But the real showstopper is Hyrja whose Expel Light and Arcing Bolt will start one-shotting people. Add in Eye of the Storm for good measure and you’ve got a fight that will likely require multiple battle resses at a minimum.

Darkheart Thicket: Dresaron’s Down Draft and Earthshaking Roar combo will be difficult to keep up with, and the fight will now last long enough that you’re going to run out of healing cooldowns at some point. Xavius will start one-shotting people with Nightmare Bolt, and Feed on the Weak will be scary. Apocalyptic Nightmare might kill some people, and the extra Tyrannical health on Xavius means the second half of the fight will last long enough that he will eventually get some empowerment stacks and do even more damage.

Seat of the Triumvirate: Viceroy Nezhar and L’ura both become fights that will likely last four or five minutes on higher keys. Viceroy’s random heavy single target damage will tax your healer’s mana. L’ura’s Growing Darkness becomes very dangerous with the extra Tyrannical health -- everyone in the group will be taking significant damage by the end of the fight.

Court of Stars: Talixae Flamewreath’s Burning Intensity will deal heavy damage as the fight progresses, and her adds will become more and more difficult to keep CC’d. The Slicing Maelstrom from Advisor Melandrus will require a lot of healing in a very short window, and classes without good defensive abilities will struggle not to die every time it’s cast.

Dungeons Least Affected by This Week’s Affixes:

Vault of the Wardens: The trash at the front of Vault should be manageable with Explosive, and you won’t have to worry about it after that. Same deal with Bolstering -- just don’t pull Glayvianna with other trash mobs. Tirathon is the only boss that gets noticeably harder on Tyrannical. The other four are still pushovers.

Upper Karazhan: There isn’t much trash in this dungeon, so neither Bolstering nor Explosive will cause much of an issue. Curator and Medivh can be troublesome on Tyrannical, but most dungeons are going to be worse this week.

Cathedral of the Eternal Night: Explosive and Bolstering can cause trouble on the imps in Thrashbite’s room, and you have to take care not to Bolster Nal’asha. Mephistroph is noticeably more difficult on Tyrannical but the rest of the bosses aren’t particularly scary.

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