At
their base element all video games are purely numbers, and
nowhere is it more evident than in MMO games.
style="">
style="">World of Warcraft
by nature of
its broad appeal coupled with its fast paced combat system has spawned
a whole
subset of gamers, the theorycrafters. In earlier games such as
EverQuest,
combat was generally slower and tuned for large group encounters. Early
raiders
were generally concerned with only one or two stats per class. Addons
and
combat parses weren’t a necessity as they are now and your
decision as to who
would be your main tank came down to only a couple variables of raw hit
points,
hate generation and player skill. While mitigation, avoidance and block
eventually took footing in EQ, it was WoW who opened up
Pandora’s Box of
statistics and number crunching that drives today’s
theorycrafting and
statistical e-peen contests.
style=""> No
class or archetype
is immune from being viewed under the theorycraft microscope as healers
seek to
improve their raw healing, minimize the overhealing and manage their
mana
pools. DPS looks to improve their rotations to squeeze out every last
bit of
damage and tanks seek to become the ultimate meat shield with threat
generation
and damage reduction.
While other hybrid
classes can claim to do two or three of the four archetypes in WoW
(heal, tank,
ranged DPS and melee DPS) only the druid can do all four. This
versatility
makes us the best class in the game, but also forces us to become the
most
educated players in the game if we truly want to excel in all areas. In
the
next few weeks I will seek to distill, compile and demystify the core
values
that the theorycraft has uncovered for all four flavors of Druids. I
leave you
this week a glossary of many of the terms we will be delving into along
with
some other general
acronyms of WoW that
relate to the Druid. Until next week, have fun and stay safe in Azeroth!
style="">Terms-
style="">AC:
Armor Class –
An old D&D term that WoW simply calls Armor. You may still
encounters
players who use the term AC for armor.
style="">AEP:
Agility
Equivalence Points - A method used to convert the value of item
attributes to
compare them in terms of Agility points.
style="">AP or ATK:
Attack
Power – a secondary stat WoW uses to calculate how much
damage a player deals.
style="">AoE:
Area of Effect
- Spells and abilities that hit multiple targets. Most WoW AoE spells
are of
the point blank or ground targeted radius variety.
style="">CRIT: Critical
Strike- The game mechanic that determines your ability to gain a
critical
strike on your opponent.
Critical Strike
damage is double your normal damage.
style="">DR: Damage
Reduction – The effect your armor has on reducing the amount
of damage you take
from mobs normal melee attacks.
style="">DPS:
Damage Per
Second – The average amount of damage that a player produces.
This is often an
overvalued statistic for some classes but a very important indicator of
how
consistent and capable a damage dealer is.
style="">EXP:
style=""> Expertise
Rating – A game mechanic that
reduces a mob or an opponent’s ability to dodge or parry your
attack.
style="">FSR:
style=""> The
Five Second Rule or out of five second
rule – The game mechanic that states no spirit based mana
will be regenerated
for five seconds after casting a spell. MP5 items are not subject to
this rule.
style="">HIT:
style=""> Hit
Rating – All mobs in the game have a base
chance to dodge your attacks. Hit rating reduces that chance.
style="">MP5: Mana
per
Five – A statistic gained from items that replenish x amount
of mana per five
seconds (one tick)
style="">OH:
Overhealing –
Amount of a healers spell that was wasted due to the target being at
full
health.
[protip]Using a combat log tracker such as Recount or WWS can help you locate the source of your overhealing and make you a more effecient healer[/protip]
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